Saturday, January 23, 2021

A Fresh Start With the Boston Globe

More like stale ending:


The basic gist is that people can apply to have archive stories about them reviewed, similar to “right to forget” programs that have cropped up across the country, and the undertaking is meant to address the lasting impact that stories about past embarrassments, mistakes, or minor crimes, forever online, can have on a person’s life.

My jaw nearly hit the floor realizing the Globe intends to cooperate with censorship and basically erase its own history. I'm flabbergasted by it. They will became a mouthpiece of the Party more than they are now. I then wondered whether such a thing would put me at risk of having to take blogs down since I have long mirrored and mimicked the Globe in the interest of a public service. 

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Taking it from the top:


Fishing groups are not happy as Biden removes food from our plates.

"Biden unveils a national pandemic response that Trump resisted" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg New York Times, January 21, 2021

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is using his first full day in office on Thursday to begin taking charge of the campaign against the coronavirus, promising to use the kind of centralized authority that the Trump administration had shied away from. 

Yeah, we are all going to miss Trump and his hands off style.

In a 200-page “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness,” previewed in a 21-page summary on Wednesday evening by Biden’s advisers, the new administration outlines the kind of federal response that Democrats have long demanded. To carry it out, Biden will sign a dozen executive orders or actions in an afternoon White House ceremony, but the Biden plan is in some respects overly optimistic and, in others, not as aggressive at it appears. His promise to inject 100 million vaccines in his first hundred days is aiming low, since those 100 days should see twice that number of doses available. Because the currently approved coronavirus vaccines require two doses, Biden is promising only to vaccinate 50 million Americans.

Just hours after taking office, the Biden team pointed fingers at their predecessors.

UNITY!

The release of the national strategy, coming one day after Biden was inaugurated at a ceremony full of pomp and ritual but robbed by the pandemic of the usual crowds, is an effort by the new president to signal to the public that his approach will be far more assertive on a range of fronts — from ordering federal agencies to invoke the Defense Production Act to boost the manufacture of necessary supplies, to requiring mask-wearing “in airports, on certain modes of public transportation, including many trains, airplanes, maritime vessels, and intercity buses,” according to a fact sheet issued by the Biden administration.

I didn't see any of the inauguration of his illegitimate regime, sorry.

With its nominees for top health positions not yet confirmed by Congress, the Biden team said it has asked Trump’s surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, to stay on as an adviser and to help with the transition, but in a sign of the tensions between the Trump and Biden administrations, Adams said on Twitter no such offer had been made, and that in fact he was instructed to tender his resignation. He did so Wednesday, in a Facebook post saying it had been “the honor of my life” to serve in the position.....

The rewritten and reedited pos took out Biden bristling at a reporter and shooting back a "come on, give me a break, man," while telling me the “federal government should be the source of truth for the public to make clear, accessible and scientifically accurate information about COVID-19,” adding that the new administration would be “honest, transparent and straightforward with the American people to rebuild that trust, and on the asymptomatic screening side, we’re woefully undercapacity, so we need the money in order to really ramp up testing, which is so important to reopening schools and businesses.”

Testing with a pos PCR test that detects nothing and turns up false positives, and they gave you a break for over a year, you ungrateful bastard.

Time to REMIND the MEDIA that it was the OBAMA REGIME that JAILED REPORTERS, not Trump.


Oddly enough, they are allegedly opening up around here:

"Baker announces stay-at-home advisory, early closure order will end on Monday" by Christina Prignano, Travis Andersen and Kara Baskin Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, January 21, 2021

Governor Charlie Baker is giving some breathing room to pandemic-pressed businesses, lifting an early closure order and a related overnight stay-at-home advisory as the number of new COVID cases and hospitalizations trends downward steadily; however, Baker extended other measures imposed last year when a new surge of infections hit Massachusetts, requiring many businesses to maintain 25 percent capacity limits through Feb. 8. Restrictions on residents gathering in numbers will also remain in place, at 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, and include private homes as well as public spaces.

“People took to heart our messaging around [staying home during] Christmas and New Years,” Baker said. “Here we are, it’s three weeks later, and over that period of time, we saw a 30 percent drop in case positivity, a 30 percent drop in new cases, and a 10 percent drop in hospitalizations. First time we’ve seen any drop in those numbers for quite a while.” 

What changed after that?

A week before Biden takes over and all of a sudden, New York must open, Chicago must open, the WHO says the PCR tests is flawed, and now this!

Also on Thursday, the state reported 4,821 new COVID cases and 75 additional deaths attributed to the coronavirus. That drove the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 462,910, and fatalities to 13,622, according to the Department of Public Health.

The restaurant industry reacted to Baker’s moves with a mixture of relief and some frustration. For many, ending the 9:30 p.m. closure is both an immediate reprieve and a hopeful sign that further relaxation of the lockdown and additional help are coming soon. Indeed, also Thursday, the Biden administration announced a broad new front to combat the disease, including better coordination of vaccine distribution after a rocky start.

Matt Casey, director of operations at Back Bay Social, Lucky’s, and Sonsie, said the dropping of the early closure and stay-at-home advisory will give people in the restaurant industry an emotional boost.

“We’re very excited that the curfew may be being lifted. Any additional revenue is a huge help. Any step in a positive direction towards going back to normal will lift the spirits of all of us in the restaurant industry,” he said.

We are never going back to "normal," and this stinks of more false hope before the hammer is brought down.

Others expressed frustration at having to continue to abide by the capacity limits, saying they have far more impact on their business.

“Personally, the 9:30 p.m. curfew has had no effect on my business. I’ve never had a reservation past 8 o’clock,” said Jen Royle, who runs the restaurant Table in the North End. “At 25 percent, my capacity has been 12 people for the past two months, so I haven’t even bothered to open. . . . It’s terrible. No curfew lift can change that.” 

You mean it was an empty gesture by the state?

Beyond restaurants and bars, businesses affected by the 9:30 closure include liquor stores and marijuana retailers, gyms, museums, and movie theaters, as well as “close contact personal services” such as hair and nail salons, said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito.

Individual cities and towns can continue to enforce more stringent, local ordinances that could mean tighter restrictions on businesses.

Dr. Joshua Barocas, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center, said allowing restaurants to stay open later probably won’t lead to a big rise in cases because eateries are unlikely to see a large number of patrons late at night, but that doesn’t mean dining out is safe.

Especially if you go to brunch.

Keeping people out of stores past 9:30 p.m. and at home overnight is of limited effectiveness because relatively few people would have been out at those times anyway, Barocas suggested. “I think that it was a way that we could show we’re trying to limit activities, but at the end of the day, I’m not actually sure it did too much to limit those activities,” he said.

On Thursday, Baker promised that if the “very positive numbers” on COVID-19 cases continue to improve, he would revisit remaining restrictions. Also on Thursday, the governor expressed hope the state would receive larger quantities of the vaccine, estimating that the Biden administration’s plan would increase the number of doses by 25 percent.

Among the initiatives announced by President Biden later Thursday was an increase in the production of vaccines, ending the policy of holding back large numbers of doses, and encouraging states to expand access to front-line essential workers and people over age 65. The federal government also promised many more vaccination sites, from sports arenas to doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and retail stores.....

The mass vaccination campaign continues despite the adverse side effects and deaths occurring across the planet.

It can be described as nothing short of evil.


Speak of the devils:

Governor Charlie Baker toured the mass vaccination site at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough Thursday, where he was joined by Robert Kraft. Fenway Park is slated to be the next site.
Governor Charlie Baker toured the mass vaccination site at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough Thursday, where he was joined by Robert Kraft. Fenway Park is slated to be the next site (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Related:


They are destroying that city as the equity divide yawns wide, and think it is the right thing to do. :(

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You are in the minority, Mitch, and not in control of that so WTF?

Why was that my World/Nation lead?

Start again:

"Biden administration to seek five-year extension on key nuclear arms treaty in first foray with Russia" by John Hudson The Washington Post, January 21, 2021

President Biden is seeking a five-year extension with Russia on the only remaining treaty limiting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals just days before it expires, said two senior US officials.

At the same time, the officials said Biden is ruling out a “reset” in bilateral relations with Moscow as many new US presidents have done since the end of the Cold War.

The decision to seek a five-year treaty extension, which Russia supports but the Biden administration hadn't settled on until now, reflects the rapidly approaching deadline for Washington to renew the New START pact Feb. 5, the officials said.

Letting the treaty expire would allow Moscow and Washington to deploy an unlimited number of nuclear-armed submarines, bombers, and missiles in what many experts fear could spark a nuclear arms race and further exacerbate US-Russia relations.

“New START is manifestly in the national security interest of the United States and makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial,” the senior US official said.

As the Biden administration informs Moscow of its terms for an extension, the president will order Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence, to provide him a full intelligence assessment of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2020 election, use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, officials said. 

How could they have? 

You won, right? 

As for the bounties, that was proven to be complete fiction from the New York Times to make Trump look bad.

Biden is also asking Haines for an assessment of the massive cyberattack on federal agencies and departments related to the SolarWinds software breach, which many analysts and government officials have blamed on Russia. The request for the intelligence assessments will go out this week, said the officials.

"We will use these assessments to inform our response to Russian aggression in the coming weeks," another senior official said.

How quickly that hack was forgotten and dispatched down the memory hole; however, it has laid the groundwork for planned power outages to be blamed on the Russians and not the globalists who predicted it.

Biden's plans for potential punitive actions toward Russia at the outset of the administration is unique among his recent predecessors, all of whom attempted to turn a new page with the Kremlin in the hopes of encouraging a more productive relationship.

Not all of Biden's aides have supported the idea of a five-year extension for the treaty.

Victoria Nuland, a longtime Russia hawk whom Biden will nominate to be the No. 3 official at the State Department, wrote in Foreign Affairs over the summer that the United States should only seek a one- or two-year renewal in the hopes of retaining leverage over the Kremlin.

She is the one who said fuck the EU during the Ukraine coup.

They want to “move us closer to a world without nuclear weapons,” but what does that mean?

US officials said they hoped a quick renewal of New START could provide a foundation for new arms control arrangements, potentially including China. “We believe it’s absolutely urgent for China to take on greater responsibility, transparency, and restraint for its nuclear weapons arsenal,” said a senior US official. The Biden administration is not interested in holding an extension of New START hostage to China, however, the US official said, especially given that Moscow’s arsenal “is at least 10 times the size of China’s.”

We all know Biden is soft on China.


Speaking of those devils:

"China fires parting sanctions at Trump officials; seeks ‘better angels’ in Biden team" by Gerry Shih The Washington Post, January 21, 2021

TAIPEI — China on Thursday fired a parting shot at the Trump administration by announcing unprecedented sanctions against outgoing Cabinet officials and advisers, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, as it extended a rhetorical olive branch to newly installed President Biden, but whether — or how — Biden would respond and seek to repair relations between the world’s two leading powers remains a key unknown in Beijing, where commentators and state media greeted the new US presidency with tepid optimism and some concern.

Referring to Biden's inauguration as a "new day" for America, Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, called on the Democratic administration to turn a page from the "particularly difficult" past four years and renounce the all-fronts pressure campaign that defined Trump's China policy.

“The Trump government, particularly Pompeo, buried too many mines that need to be removed, burned too many bridges that need to be rebuilt,” Chunying said in lengthy remarks on Thursday as she appealed for a reset. “With joint hard work from both sides, the better angels of US-China relations can defeat evil forces.”

Minutes after Biden became president, the Foreign Ministry announced sanctions against Pompeo, former national security aides Robert O’Brien and Matthew Pottinger, and 25 other Americans and their families who would be prohibited from traveling to China.

"Imposing these sanctions on Inauguration Day is seemingly an attempt to play to partisan divides," Emily Horne, Biden's National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement Wednesday. "Americans of both parties should criticize this unproductive and cynical move."

The tough response follows high-level appointments and statements in recent days that have raised concerns in Beijing about whether the Biden team would in fact reverse course on China policy, as some have hoped.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization and an adviser to China's State Council, said “The contradictions will continue to exist, and they will not disappear, but the Biden administration will not be as crazy and irrationally play cards like Trump,” he said. “If the Biden administration sends more goodwill, then China would also respond more actively.”

Bull Piano, an online column associated with the official Xinhua News Agency, said the sanctions were meant to send a signal to future US politicians who might have business dealings in China. "Don't think about playing the China card while in power if you want to eat Chinese food after you step down," the columnist wrote. "If you mess around, there will be payback."

Looks like a threat, does it not?


Also see:


"Two million residents of Beijing were being tested for the coronavirus on Friday as the city rushed to stem mainland China’s worst outbreak since the virus was first detected. Health officials set up temporary testing facilities in two major districts of Beijing, China’s capital, after three locally transmitted cases were confirmed there on Thursday. The authorities in Shanghai, China’s business capital and biggest city, were also testing hospital employees after two health care workers tested positive on Thursday. Shanghai recorded six new locally transmitted cases on Friday. New infections were also reported on Friday in four northern provinces — Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Shanxi — and in the eastern province of Shandong. That brings the total number of new cases across China this week to at least 500. While the active case count is still far lower than that of the United States and other countries, the outbreak threatens to undermine the government’s success in stamping out the virus and bringing life in China back to normal. More than 28 million people have been placed under some kind of lockdown across China in recent weeks, mostly in northern areas. Officials fear that new infections could lead to another major outbreak during the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of people travel across the country to celebrate with their families....."

Yeah, it is no time to party.

"Syrian state media said Israeli warplanes fired several missiles toward central Syria early on Friday, killing a family of four — including two children — and wounding four other people. Syria’s state-news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying the missile attack took place shortly before dawn when Israeli warplanes flew over neighboring Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the reports Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war, said the strikes targeted five posts for Iran-backed fighters based within Syrian army positions. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the claimSeparately, the Israeli military said it downed a drone that had crossed into Israel from Lebanon. It did not say how the aircraft was brought down. There was no immediate word from the Lebanese side but the militant Hezbollah group has sent drones into Israel’s airspace in the past. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. The Syrian military official said the attack was aimed at several targets in and near the central province of Hama. It added that Syrian air defense units shot down most of the missiles. The official said the strike killed a family of four, including the parents and two children. The strike also wounded four others, including two children, and destroyed three homes on the western edge of the provincial capital of Hama, SANA quoted the official as saying. State TV said the family that was killed had been displaced by Syria’s nearly 10-year conflict. It said the posts were destroyed, adding that parts of one of the air defense missiles fell on a residential area, causing the casualties among civilians. It was Israel’s first strike on Syria since President Joe Biden took officeLast week, Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes in eastern Syria, apparently targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces. At least 57 fighters were killed and dozens were wounded, according to monitors. Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Hezbollah. The latest strikes also come amid intensifying low-altitude Israeli warplane missions in Lebanese skies that have caused jitters among residents....."

Just Israel letting Biden know who is boss.

"The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a rare suicide attack that rocked central Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding dozens. The bombing targeted “apostate Shiites,” the group said in a statement on an IS-affiliated website late Thursday. At least 32 people were killed and over 100 people wounded in the blasts on Thursday. Some were in severe condition. According to officials, the first suicide bomber cried out loudly that he was ill in the middle of the bustling market, prompting a crowd to gather around him — and that’s when he detonated his explosive belt. The second detonated shortly after. The U.S.-led coalition recently ceased combat activities and is gradually drawing down its troop presence in Iraq, sparking fears of an IS resurgence. The group has rarely been able to penetrate the capital since being dislodged by Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition in 2017. The attack was the first in nearly three years to hit the capital. Elsewhere, in northern Iraq and the western desert, attacks continue and almost exclusively target Iraqi security forces. An increase in attacks was seen last summer as militants took advantage of the government’s focus on tackling the coronavirus pandemic and exploited security gaps across disputed territory in northern Iraq.

Just as we were leavin'!

"Twitter said Friday it has permanently banned an account that some in Iran believe is linked to the office of the country’s supreme leader after a posting that seemed to threaten former President Donald Trump. In the image posted by the suspect account late Thursday, Trump is shown playing golf in the shadow of a giant drone, with the caption “Revenge is certain” written in Farsi. In response to a request for comment from The Associated Press, a Twitter spokesman said the account was fake and violated the company’s “manipulation and spam policy,” without elaborating how it came to that conclusion....."

Biden's first war?

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Welcome to my Parler said the spider to the fly:

"House Oversight Committee chair requests FBI probe of Parler, including its role in Capitol siege" by Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg Washington Post, January 21, 2021

WASHINGTON— The chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday asked the FBI to conduct a “robust examination” of the alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege of Parler, the now-disabled social media site that bristled with violent chatter before and after rioters stormed the Capitol in a rampage that left five people dead.

Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, the chairwoman, said the request is a step toward opening a formal committee investigation into sites that may encourage violence, including Parler. It became prominent last year as a freewheeling alternative to Twitter, gaining popularity in particular among conservatives.

No more wars based on lies then, right?

She said the committee will begin its own formal investigation of Parler and similar sites, and that it was a “top priority” for her to learn answers to a range of questions about Parler, including its alleged ties to Russia, as documented in news reports. Her letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Thursday singled out Parler’s use of a Russian-owned web services company, DDoS-Guard, that also has Russian government clients and may leave Parler vulnerable to data requests by Russian agencies.

Related

"President Biden plans to keep Christopher Wray as FBI director, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said after her remarks on Inauguration Day generated confusion about the future of the agency’s leader. It’s a sign of Biden’s confidence in the Donald Trump appointee, and a return to pre-Trump presidential tradition -- that the new president will keep the FBI director, who still has six years left in his term. Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is under federal investigation primarily for his dealings with Chinese businesses, officials said in December. The new president has pledged not to meddle in the investigation. Keeping Wray in place is one way to show he’s letting the probe progress unfettered. During the 2020 campaign, Wray refused to support unsubstantiated claims by Trump and his Republican allies that the widespread use of mail-in ballots would lead to massive voter fraud. He also refused to go along with Trump and Republicans who sought to portray left-wing groups as the biggest threat to domestic security, saying publicly that right-wing extremists were the most dangerous. Wray also angered Trump and Republicans by saying publicly that Russia was interfering once again in last year’s election in hopes of preventing Biden from defeating Trump. Currently, the FBI is providing support for the investigations into Hunter Biden. The probes have included one led by the US attorney’s office in Delaware into whether the president’s son violated tax laws related to his business dealings in China, and another by the US attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania into his activities in Ukraine and potential money laundering, a person familiar with the inquiries said....." 

Uh-huh. 

Barr sat on the laptop for two years, and now it has disappeared!

Beyond that, the Russia lies are being trotted out ad nauseam again as the "right wing" is demonized and leftist thuggery excused.

“I am going to get to the bottom of who owns and funds social media platforms like Parler that condone and create violence,” Maloney said in an interview with The Washington Post.

In response to Maloney’s letter, Parler Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Wernick said in a statement to The Post, “Like other social-media platforms, we have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with law-enforcement efforts to identify and prosecute those individuals responsible for organizing and carrying out the shameless Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”

Parler previously has described its ownership and leadership as based in the United States. It hired DDoS-Guard to protect it from cyberattacks after Amazon Web Services suspended Parler for having inadequate moderation policies, citing in a legal filing what it said was the site’s “unwillingness and inability” to remove content “inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens.”

The move knocked Parler offline, further clouding its future after Apple and Google also had removed it from their app stores for similar policy violations. It has struggled to get back online, but its officers have vowed to do so.

Parler’s legal fight to force Amazon to restore its service suffered a setback on Thursday when a federal district judge in Seattle denied Parler’s request for a preliminary injunction.

“Our return is inevitable due to hard work, and persistence against all odds. Despite the threats and harassment not one Parler employee has quit. We are becoming closer and stronger as a team,” chief executive John Matze wrote in a post Monday.

Conservative commentators Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, along with Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, have posted words of support, but the site overall remained inoperative Thursday morning.

The FBI did not have an immediate comment on the request.

DDoS-Guard did not respond immediately to a request for comment Thursday, but officials with the company said in a statement Tuesday, “At this time, Parler.com does not violate either our Acceptable Use Policy or the current US law to the best of our knowledge.”

Congress has wide-ranging authority to inquire about private companies, but Parler and other social media sites also enjoy broad legal immunity for what others post on their platforms through Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Parler refused to remove accounts affiliated with Russian influence operations documented in October by research firm Graphika, saying that no government authority had asked it do so.

Maloney wrote in her letter: “Concerns about the company’s connections to Russia have grown since the company re-emerged on a Russian hosting service, DDoS-Guard.”

She wrote the Russian company “has ties to the Russian government and hosts the websites of other far-right extremist groups, as well as the terrorist group Hamas.”

Another Zioni$t servant as she drags Hamas(?) into this.


The reason Parler had to go to a Russia service is because they were locked out of the Big Tech oligarchies that control what is to be thought in AmeriKa.

Related:

"President Joe Biden has directed law enforcement and intelligence officials in his administration to study the threat of domestic violent extremism in the United States, an undertaking being launched weeks after a mob of insurgents loyal to Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. The announcement Friday by White House press secretary Jen Psaki is a stark acknowledgment of the national security threat that officials see as posed by American extremists motivated to violence by radical ideology. The involvement of the national intelligence office, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with a goal of thwarting international terrorism, suggests U.S. authorities are examining how to pivot to a more concerted focus on violence from extremists at home....."

Also see:

"Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.7 million over two years to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 rally that led to rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The payments, which span Trump’s re-election campaign, show an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation. They were all made through Nov. 23, the most recent date covered by Federal Election Commission filings, which is before the rally was publicly announced....."

Now they can vote to convict.

Biden is also cracking down on the "left," who have conveniently provided him with ammunition for his upcoming "domestic terror" bill. 

Nice job!

"Hours after Biden Inauguration, federal agents use tear gas in Portland" by Mike Baker and Hallie Golden New York Times, January 21, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. — Protesters in the Pacific Northwest smashed windows at a Democratic Party headquarters, marched through the streets, and burned an American flag Wednesday in a strident challenge by racial-justice protesters to the new administration of President Biden, whose promised reforms, they declared, “won’t save us.”

In Portland, lines of federal agents in camouflage — now working under the Biden administration — blanketed streets with tear gas and unleashed volleys of welt-inducing pepper balls as they confronted a crowd that gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building near downtown. Some in the crowd later burned a Biden-for-President flag in the street.

Another tense protest in Seattle saw dozens of people push their way through the streets, with some breaking windows, spray-painting anarchist insignia, and chanting not only about ICE but about the many other issues that roiled America’s streets last year under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

“No Cops, Prisons, Borders, Presidents,” said one banner, while another proclaimed that the conflict over racial justice, policing, immigration, and corporate influence in the country was “not over” merely because a new president had been inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

“A Democratic administration is not a victory for oppressed people,” said a flyer handed out during the demonstrations, during which protesters also smashed windows at a shop often described as the original Starbucks in downtown Seattle. The communiqués used expletives to condemn Biden and “his stupid” crime bill, passed in 1994 and blamed for mass incarcerations in the years since. 

Where were you guys during the election? 

WTF?

Of course, the pre$$ doesn't label this as an insurrection and has no problem with police state tactics now that Trump is gone, nor are any politicians supporting the thugs.

Hours after Biden’s inauguration, federal agents in Portland used tear gas and other crowd-control munitions to disperse demonstrators who had gathered to protest the harsh arrest and detention practices wielded by federal immigration authorities under the Trump administration.

Biden has signaled that immigration is going to be a key issue of his presidency, using some of his first executive orders Wednesday to end construction of the border wall and bolster the program that provides deportation protections for immigrants who were brought into the country without authorization as children.

He is taking on a long-deferred overhaul of immigration with legislation that would make sweeping and urgently needed changes.

The conflict in Portland capped a day of demonstrations in the liberal city, where different groups of protesters either decried Biden or called for activism to pressure the new president to take forceful action on immigration, climate change, health care, racial justice, and income inequality.

No worry about super spreader events, either!

Earlier in the day, about 200 people — a mix of racial justice, anti-fascist, and anarchist activists — marched to the local Democratic Party headquarters, where some of them smashed windows and tipped over garbage containers, lighting the contents of one on fire. “We don’t want Biden — we want revenge,” said one sign, referring to killings committed by police officers.

It's worse than what happened in D.C.

In a city that has seen months of demonstrations over racial injustice, economic inequality, federal law enforcement, and corporate power — and some of the harshest law enforcement responses to such protests — protesters have vowed to continue their actions no matter who is president. “We are ungovernable,” one sign in the crowd said.

In Seattle, about 150 people marched through the streets. Some spray-painted buildings with an anarchist symbol and broke windows, including at a federal courthouse. They chanted both anti-Trump and anti-Biden slogans.

One member of the group handed out flyers to people on the street that said, “Biden won! And so did corporate elites!” The flyers explained that a “Democratic administration is not a victory for oppressed people” and that “Biden will not save us.”

“I came out here because no matter what happens, Biden and Kamala aren’t enough,” said one of the protesters, Alejandro Quezada Brom, 28, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. He said the new president needs to know that “the pressure’s not off” for progress on immigration and policing reforms.

Seattle police officers followed the group and began to surround it as night fell. At least two protesters appeared to be arrested.

At yet another demonstration in Portland, people gathered to hear speakers who celebrated Trump’s departure but also called for continued pressure on the new government.

“The fight has just begun,” said Ray Austin, 25. He said that the damage done by Trump could not be undone by the likes of Biden and that the nation needed a groundswell of people demanding more.

These people don't even know what the f**k they are doing.

Speakers at the event called for a Green New Deal to fight climate change, a “Medicare for All”-style health insurance system, overhauls of police departments to address racial disparities, and other fundamental changes, but that event was more subdued than others around the city.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last May, protesters in Portland mobilized on the streets nightly, much of their ire targeted at the mayor and the police force that repeatedly used tear gas to subdue them. The crowds swelled during the summer after Trump issued an executive order to protect federal property, and agents wearing camouflage brought a crackdown to the city.

Those conflicts have since subsided, but protesters in Portland have continued to mobilize.



Related:

"While the federal government continues to pause the collection of defaulted student loans during the coronavirus pandemic, private companies that initially followed suit are back in court. Private education lenders and creditors have resumed filing new lawsuits and continuing existing cases to recover past-due debts, according to court records. Many companies had vowed to halt collections litigation as Americans faced layoffs and wage reductions in the beginning of the health crisis, but despite tens of thousands of people still losing their jobs, student loan companies are again seeking payment....."

Time to send in the troops:

"Army falsely denied Michael Flynn’s brother was involved in key part of military response to Capitol riot" by Dan Lamothe, Paul Sonne, Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis Washington Post, January 21, 2021

WASHINGTON — The Army falsely denied for days that Lieutenant General Charles Flynn, the brother of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in a key meeting during its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the US Capitol.

Flynn hasn't been disgraced, he has been vindicated.

Charles Flynn confirmed in a statement issued to The Washington Post on Wednesday that he was in the room for a tense Jan. 6 phone call during which the Capitol Police and District of Columbia officials pleaded with the Pentagon to dispatch the National Guard urgently, but top Army officials expressed concern about having the Guard at the Capitol.

Flynn left the room before the meeting was over, anticipating that then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who was in another meeting, would soon take action to deploy more guard members, he said.

The general’s presence during the call — which has not previously been reported — came weeks after his brother publicly suggested that then-President Trump declare martial law and have the US military oversee a redo of the election. There is no indication that Charles Flynn shares his brother’s extreme views or discharged his duties at the Pentagon on Jan. 6 in any manner that was influenced by his brother. 

Too late now, although the psyop patriots say he did and the military is now in charge.

It makes sense that Flynn, as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training, would have been involved in the Pentagon response. The District Guard answers to the president, but the president delegates control over the force to the defense secretary and the Army secretary, essentially leaving it to top Army officials to make critical decisions regarding the District’s military force. Flynn, however, is not in the chain of command.

The Army’s initial denial of Flynn’s participation in the critical Jan. 6 meeting, despite multiple inquiries on the matter, comes as lawmakers demand transparency from the Defense Department in the aftermath of one of Washington’s gravest national security failures.

Bull. 

They were told to stand down and security was left lacking, and look who benefited?

The episode highlights the challenge for the Army in having an influential senior officer whose brother has become a central figure in QAnon, the extreme ideology that alleges Trump was waging a battle with Satan-worshiping Democrats who traffic children. Michael Flynn, who previously ran the Defense Intelligence Agency and left the Army as a three-star general, has espoused QAnon messages, and QAnon adherents are among those who have been charged in connection with the attempted insurrection. In November, Trump announced he had pardoned Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. The night before the Capitol siege, Michael Flynn addressed a crowd of Trump supporters at Freedom Plaza near the White House.

Flynn would have been in a position to know, which is why he was unmasked.

The sex trafficking of children (Epstein) and the devil worship is real, even if Q is not.

McCarthy, who left office as the Trump administration concluded Wednesday, said in a Jan. 12 interview with The Post that he was not on the call, implying he could not address whether Flynn was, but he defended Flynn’s character, saying he has known him for years.

“Charlie Flynn is an officer of an incredibly high integrity,” McCarthy said. “Multiple combat tours. He has buried a lot of people. This guy has given a lot to this country. It is incredibly awkward for this officer every day for what is going on with him and his brother, but he puts his head down in, and he is locked in to serve the Constitution.”

Army officials, before and after that interview, denied that Flynn appeared during the call.

After being approached with the accounts of multiple officials on the call, the Army sent a statement confirming Flynn participated.

The teleconference, organized by District officials after authorities already had declared a riot at the Capitol, focused on what actions the military could take in response to the violence, with the Capitol Police chief pleading for help and the acting District police chief growing incredulous at the Army’s reluctance to engage. The call included senior Army officials at the urging of Major General William Walker, the commanding general of the District National Guard, according to one person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Five officials who were on the call shared similar stories in which Army officials on the line said they were concerned about the visuals of sending National Guard members to the Capitol.

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has since resigned in the wake of the security failure, and acting District police chief Robert Contee III were flabbergasted by the Army’s reaction, according to four people on the call. Sund had stressed that the Capitol had been breached by protesters and told those on the call that he had reports of shots being fired on the scene.....


Related:

"David Flynn, the head football coach at Dedham High, has been fired after he “expressed significant philosophical differences with the direction, goals, and values of the school district,” school officials said in a letter to players and their families Wednesday. Superintendent Michael J. Welch, principal Jim Forrest, and athletic director Steve Traister did not specify the beliefs Flynn holds that don’t accord with district values. Flynn did not respond to requests for comment. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is also a special education teacher at Braintree High School. Welch said in a statement Thursday that the district tries “to encourage our staff and students to give constructive voice to their opinions, but must also ensure we stay true to our overarching mission and vision for the district — in the classroom, on the field, and in our community.” The letter from Welch, Forrest, and Traister said they “felt it best to seek different leadership for the program” after they met with Flynn Wednesday to discuss the difference in views. Due to the pandemic, the MIAA has moved football season to run from Feb. 22 to April 25, the officials said. That gives them about one month to replace Flynn. They will move quickly to “fill this opening in the next few weeks” and will seek input from players and families in the hiring process, the officials said."

Meet the new sheriff in town:



"The Biden administration on Wednesday put Michael Ellis, a Trump loyalist who was sworn in on Tuesday as the top lawyer for the National Security Agency, on administrative leave, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. Ellis’s last-minute appointment was ordered over the weekend by Christopher C. Miller, then the acting defense secretary, prompting Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call for an inspector general investigation of his selection and request that the Pentagon stop his swearing-in. The Trump administration ignored Pelosi, and Ellis began work on Tuesday but his work at the National Security Agency lasted less than two full days. He will remain on administrative leave while his hiring is investigated by the Pentagon’s inspector general. Ellis was an early member of the Trump administration. He was involved in several high-profile matters, including putting the reconstructed transcript of President Donald J. Trump’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart in a highly classified computer system. In November, the Pentagon selected Ellis, then an official on the National Security Agency’s staff, to become its general counsel, a Civil Service job that does not end with the administration. Myriad federal rules are in place to try to prevent political appointees from taking permanent Civil Service roles, a practice derisively referred to as “burrowing.” 

Like a mole?

Must have been a whole colony when Trump was in office.

Related:


The fracas over now-former general counsel Peter Robb’s tenure unfolded just hours into Joe Biden’s presidency, as Biden reportedly told Robb he should step down by 5 p.m. or he would be fired. 

Also see:






He has unleashed Fauci upon us, and he is clearly enjoying being unshackled.

{@@##$$%%^^&&}

Speaking of things being unleashed

"One year ago Thursday, health officials told Americans about a traveler who had just come home from Wuhan, China, and sought treatment at an urgent-care clinic north of Seattle after falling ill — setting off alarm bells. He had the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the United States. Officials struck a tone at once reassuring and worrisome. They said they believed the risk to the public was low, but they cautioned that more cases were likely. In the first five weeks, American officials reported about 45 cases and no known deaths, but in the past five weeks, the country recorded over 7.4 million cases and close to 100,000 deaths. Wednesday alone, officials recorded at least 184,237 new cases and at least 4,357 deaths. In terms of deaths, it was the second-worst day of the pandemic. On Thursday, President Biden went on the offensive, with a 200-page strategy that includes the use of executive authority to protect workers, advance racial equity, and ramp up the manufacturing of test kits, vaccines, and supplies. President Trump had let state governments take the lead. The Biden advisers said they were stunned by the vaccination plan — or the lack of one — that they inherited, and said the Trump team failed to share crucial information about supplies and vaccine availability. Though the Seattle area became the epicenter of an early outbreak at the end of February, researchers are not sure if the man who returned to the Seattle area set it off. Genomic sequencing suggested that the man, now 36, was part of a virus branch that spread across the region, but researchers looking at timing and genetic variations believe the outbreak may have begun with another, unknown person....." 

I'm told Washington state has fared far better than the nation as a whole, and if the above is true the lockdown policies are utter failures. Eight-five percent of the public, if not more, is masked up and skittish about distance from what I see. It isn't noncompliance that is the cause, that's for sure.

Beyond that, the revisionist history of last year is sickening. Fauci said nothing to worry about at first and has been a waffler ever since.

What is in that Amazon truck anyway?

"Amazon is offering its colossal operations network and advanced technologies to assist President Biden in his vow to get 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations to Americans in his first 100 days in office. “We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” wrote the CEO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer division, Dave Clark. “Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.” Amazon said it has arranged a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to vaccinate its employees when vaccines become available. Amazon has more than 800,000 US employees, Clark wrote, most of whom are essential workers who cannot work from home and should be vaccinated as soon as possible."

Before no one wants the things.

"The largest US business lobbying group is supporting President Biden’s early moves to confront the pandemic. The US Chamber of Commerce’s chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said Biden is correct in his assessment that controlling the coronavirus is the key to fully reopening the economy. “America must return to health before we can restore economic growth and get the 10 million Americans who lost their jobs in the last year back to work,” Bradley said. “We support the new administration’s focus on removing roadblocks to vaccinations and reopening schools, both of which are important steps to accelerating a broad-based economic recovery for all Americans.” The chamber is particularly influential with Republican lawmakers, who hold sway over Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus package....." 

So vote for it or they will take the campaign cash and lobbying loot away.

Here's sanitizer in your eye!

"Health researchers say young children need to be careful with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially dispensers at eye level. The researchers say they’re seeing more cases of children who get the substance in their eyes. Studies published Thursday in JAMA Ophthalmology detail cases in France and India, some resulting in eye pain and cornea ulcers that ultimately healed, but a few youngsters required eye surgery; researchers say the risks include blindness. Many cases involved dispensers in public places. US poison control centers also have had an increase in calls about kids exposed to hand sanitizers. While most resulted in little or no harm, the American Academy of Pediatrics notes the products should be kept out of young children’s reach. If sanitizer gets in the eyes, doctors advise to wash the eyes with warm water and then have the youngster get an eye exam."

Can you see me now?

Stuff also gives you cancer.

"Governor Kay Ivey is extending a statewide order requiring face masks in public to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. That means the rule will remain in place through March 5. Medical officials had urged Ivey to extend the order amid the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, which have been hindered by a limited national supply. The state, with nearly 5 million people, has had 446,000 vaccine doses delivered and 184,000 administered. There’s been about 430,000 confirmed cases and more than 62,000 deaths from the coronavirus in Alabama."

So much for the rebellious South.

That's why the Globe is tipping one back and tossing it in Trump's face.

I think I'm going to scrap the rest of the rage from under the bridge

Not trying to be gruff, it's just the two tiers of ju$tu$ that is constantly on display in the elite rag that is the Boston Globe.

It's not that I am unsympathetic, but there is a $ilver lining to everything, right?

Time to shut up and reflect on the NFL season and look forward to high school basketball season (why the mask for the lowest at-risk group?).