Tuesday, March 23, 2021

The Bo$ton Globe Has Spring Fever

Gee, this was the first advertisement I was offered before even clicking on an article, but we will get to that later.


The Globe says it’s a mess, what with the clocks moved forward an hour and daylight stretching past 12 hours.

The only problem is, like the entire paper, the phenomenon they are describing is totally manufactured. Moving the arms of a clock around means nothing when it comes to the actual world outside. 

Did the birds make note of the time change do you think, or did it just throw off the dolphins?

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Here i$ the cau$e of your $pring cold:

"AstraZeneca vaccine could boost US supply next month, but heighten skepticism; Formula showed strong protection against COVID-19 in US clinical study" by Robert Weisman Globe Staff, March 22, 2021

Surprisingly strong US clinical trial results reported by AstraZeneca on Monday raised the prospect of a fourth COVID-19 vaccine in the United States soon — and a potential supply surplus just as the general public becomes eligible for shots in Massachusetts and most other states next month.

“This could have a huge impact,” said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “When it comes to COVID vaccines, you can’t have too many of them,” but there was also caution around AstraZeneca’s vaccine. About a dozen countries temporarily paused using it last week due to safety concerns, though the concerns were later dismissed by European regulators and didn’t surface in the US study. Even so, some worried the pause could heighten the broader vaccine skepticism that public health authorities have been fighting.

AstraZeneca said Monday that its two-shot vaccine candidate, already authorized in scores of countries, showed a 79 percent efficacy rate in stopping symptomatic COVID-19 across all adult age groups in the large-scale US study. More crucially, it showed a 100 percent rate in preventing severe illness and hospitalization.

All for a virus that has a 99.97% survival rate, one so deadly you didn't even know you had it and needed a fraudulent te$ting proce$$ to tell you.

This reprehensible, folks, the way they keep pushing Big Pharma's bull$hit.

“This vaccine can play an important role in protecting millions of people worldwide against this lethal virus,” said Mene Pangalos, an AstraZeneca executive vice president for biopharma research and development. He said the company is preparing to submit its findings to American regulators and seek emergency use authorization.

He is already preparing or has timed the announcement to help his $tock $ales, but that's the price to pay for the hope of humanity.

The announcement, released overnight from AstraZeneca’s headquarters in the United Kingdom, injected a wild card into the US vaccination drive. Adding a fourth vaccine to the mix could be a windfall, but federal officials were circumspect, noting the Food and Drug Administration staff and a group of independent medical advisers will have to study the full data from the AstraZeneca study, which have yet to be published, before the FDA green-lights the vaccine.

The "journali$tic $tyle" is enough to make one sick, and a a piece of "unexpected good fortune" that typically one that involves receiving a large amount of money for who?

The vaccine, developed by Oxford University researchers, uses a harmless cold virus to prime the immune system to fend off the coronavirus. It was initially considered a global leader in the race to field a vaccine against COVID-19, but the company stumbled in sorting out the appropriate vaccine dose and the interval between doses in European trials, which delayed its US clinical study and allowed rival vaccines to take the lead.


Even so, AstraZeneca’s vaccine had become a backbone of Europe’s vaccine program until last week, when France, Germany, Italy, and other countries suspended its use, against the advice of regulators, after reports that it was linked to blood clots.

The vaccine was returned to use in those countries later in the week after European Medicines Agency investigators concluded the vaccine carried no increased risk of blood clotting.

Medical experts said the AstraZeneca vaccine appears safe.

Appears safe?

Well, APPEARANCES can be DECEIVING!

So WHAT is with the WEASEL WORDING, doc (with all due respect and profuse apologies to weasels who would never push this genocide)?

“There was no evidence of a cause-and-effect relation, and no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of Boston College’s global public health program. “So we’re in a happy position to have a fourth vaccine in a matter of weeks. It’s clearly a very good, very effective vaccine,” but with vaccine skepticism already a problem on both sides of the Atlantic, as health officials struggle to subdue the virus and a growing number of variants, doctors worry that the blood clot scare could add to a toxic mix of anti-vaccination fear and misinformation.

“There is certainly concern that anything that even temporarily casts some doubt about the safety of the vaccine can fuel hesitancy,” said Kuritzkes, at Brigham and Women’s. “It’s concerning to those of us in public health if people are hesitant, because it’s not justified.”

This has really reached the point of criminality regarding the "doctors" that appear in the pre$$, and the $olution is obvious, right?

Of course, it now turns out the AZ was using outdated information and that could mean the company provided an incomplete view of efficacy data in what $ure $mells like FRAUD to me!


So where is the $tock price anyway?

In the White House briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s chief medical adviser, said the US study found the virus effective for all of the groups studied, including people over 65 and those with chronic health conditions. He emphasized there were “no specific safety concerns related to the vaccine,” including no evidence of blood clotting.

“There are very many countries in Europe and throughout the world who have already authorized this,” Fauci said. “So the fact that a US-run study has confirmed the efficacy and the safety of this vaccine I think is an important contribution to global health in general.”

He's endorsing a device that results in criminal mass murder now at worst, and at best he is seen as having a flippant attitude to each and every one of those lives that have been lost in the last year by whatever cause. 

What a MONSTER is HE!

The FEVER is a BLOODLU$T with some people.

Although President Biden has said that there should be enough vaccines nationally to inoculate every adult who wants them by the end of May, Governor Charlie Baker has said that supply continues to be tight in Massachusetts. He said that a dramatic ramping up of the federal vaccine supply will be critical on April 19, when all state residents over 16 become eligible for a shot.

What if you DON'T WANT THEM, Joe, what then?

About 800,000 more Massachusetts residents qualified for shots Monday, including people ages 60 to 64 and some categories of essential workers. Baker last week said his goal is to vaccinate more than 4 million adults by July 4. The number of state residents fully vaccinated topped 1 million Friday.....

That would be the ENTIRE ADULT POPULATION says the new Stalin!


The Globe tells you what you need to know about AstraZeneca’s vaccine in this order:

What is the latest news?
What are this vaccine’s advantages?
Will the shot be available to Americans soon?
Could this create a surplus of shots?
Why has the vaccine gotten some bad press?
What about reports of blood clotting?

OMG, poor AZ has gotten bad pre$$ because of the blood-clot killings!

No offense, but it looks to me like the New York Times is putting on weight.

Related:

"Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, again warned Americans on Monday about the spread of the coronavirus, saying that with increased travel, looser pandemic restrictions and worrisome variants bearing down on the United States, another surge could erupt if Americans did not take protection efforts seriously “for just a little bit longer.” Virus variants are making up a bigger share of cases, she said at a White House briefing. A variant first discovered in California that now accounts for over half of the state’s cases is spreading in Nevada and Arizona. A fast-spreading variant first detected in Britain is now responsible for 9 percent of cases in New Jersey and 8 percent of cases in Florida, she said. The C.D.C.’s efforts to track down the variants have substantially improved in recent weeks and will continue to grow, in large part because of $1.75 billion in funds for genomic sequencing in the stimulus package that Biden signed into law this month. Walensky told lawmakers last week that between 10,000 and 14,000 test samples were being sequenced each week to locate variants, and that the C.D.C. was aiming for about 25,000. By contrast, Britain began a highly touted sequencing program last year. On Monday, Walensky also cautioned that the Northeast and upper part of the Midwest were again seeing a troublesome rise in cases. If states continue to relax their pandemic restrictions while cases are still high, she said, progress could be halted....."

Are you sick of being led around by the nose by these monsters, because I am.

She also added that we are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take. We must act now, and I am worried that if we don’t take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge, just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination. We’re reaching out to individual states, trying to encourage them. We are having weekly governors’ calls. We’re doing outreach with states, territories to encourage them to look at their case data, to look at what’s happening with the variants, and to do as much outreach as we can to try and — to slow down the relaxation,” while saying that air travel also threatened to increase cases around the country, and that Americans should avoid it because “we’re worried not just for what happens when you are on the airplane itself, but what happens when people travel. We just don’t want to be at this rapid uptick of cases again, and that is very possible that that could happen. We’ve seen that. We’re behind the eight ball when that starts to happen, and that results in uptick of cases, hospitalizations and then death.”


"More than 1.5 million people streamed through US airport security checkpoints on Sunday, the largest number since the pandemic tightened its grip on the United States more than a year ago. It marked the 11th straight day that the Transportation Security Administration screened more than 1 million people, likely from a combination of spring break travel and more people becoming vaccinated against COVID-19. Airline executives say they have seen an increase in bookings during the last few weeks; however, passenger traffic remains far below 2019 levels. The TSA said Monday that it screened about 1.54 million people on Sunday, which appeared to be the largest number since March 13, 2020. It was more than triple the 454,516 people that TSA reported screening on the comparable Sunday a year ago, and the seven-day rolling average of screenings has doubled since Feb. 1. Still, the number of people passing through airport checkpoints Sunday was about one-fourth below the number on the closest Sunday in 2019."

Also see:

"Two Chicago hospital executives have been reprimanded for COVID-19 vaccine events that improperly gave shots to people far from the West Side facility, including one held for workers at Trump Tower. Loretto Hospital's Board of Directors released a statement Friday saying they had “taken appropriate actions of reprimand” against Loretto’s president and CEO, George Miller, and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Anosh Ahmed. A hospital spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email Monday requesting comment from Miller and Anosh in reaction to the board's decision. City health officials said last week they would withhold first doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the hospital as authorities investigate the events. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that the hospital needs better controls and data to guide and track vaccine administration, adding that she doesn't expect the hospital “to be coming back online anytime soon." “They’ve got work to do, I think, to rebuild trust in their own community,” she said. The backlash followed local media reporting on several vaccination events held outside the hospital, which primarily serves Black and Latino residents in West Side neighborhoods. The hospital was chosen last year to administer Chicago’s ceremonial first COVID-19 vaccination as part of the city’s efforts to encourage people to get the shot....." 

You are not supposed to give them the placebo!

So they close the hospital(?) over it?

Won't that make the death rate soar?

"A top World Health Organization expert on the coronavirus pandemic said Monday the weekly global count of deaths from COVID-19 is rising again, a “worrying sign” after about six weeks of declines. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 at the U.N. health agency, said the growth followed a fifth straight week of confirmed cases increasing worldwide. She said the number of reported cases went up up in four of the WHO’s six regions....."

Interestingly, COVID is now spiking in states with high vaccination rates as the SCRIPT is on schedule so enjoy the FINAL DAYS of LIMITED FREEDOM:

"Massachusetts has moved to Phase 4, Step 1 of its reopening plan. Those entering Massachusetts are no longer required to quarantine for 10 days upon arrival if they have been out of the state for longer than 24 hours but are encouraged to do so. As of Monday, indoor and outdoor stadiums — including Gillette Stadium, TD Garden, and Fenway Park— can run at 12 percent capacity after submitting a plan to the Department of Public Health. Public gatherings are now limited to 100 people indoors and 150 people outside, while private gatherings will remain limited to 10 indoors and 25 outside. City officials in Boston are taking a more cautious approach. Public gatherings in the city can increase to 60 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. Outdoor dining also began in Boston Monday, except in the North End, where restaurants will be allowed to serve diners outdoors starting on April 1. More than 1 million people in the state have been fully vaccinated....." 


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Of course, it is a new day in Bo$ton as they say goodbye to old friends with a toast and welcome (just joking) a new one even as $ome things never change so live long and prosper, Mr Walsh.

"Attorney for ride-hailing service driver charged with Allston kidnapping claims language barrier led to confrontation" by Charlie McKenna Globe Correspondent, March 22, 2021

A ride-hailing service driver from Acton pleaded not guilty Monday to an allegation that he kidnapped a woman who was riding in his vehicle in Allston Thursday, an incident his defense lawyer attributed to a “miscommunication.”

Kamal Essalak, 47, was arraigned in Brighton Municipal Court on a single count of kidnapping after the passenger reported Essalak triggered the child locks on his car, preventing her from leaving the car.

I hailed this ride down on page B3 for whatever it is worth.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Margaret Hegarty said in court that the passenger told police she felt something was “off right away” when she got into the vehicle. Prosecutors allege Essalak turned around and began staring at the passenger after she entered the 2017 Toyota Corolla he drove for Uber.

Essalak allegedly told the passenger, “This is going to be an hourlong ride” even though they were only going to a destination a few minutes away and Essalak repeatedly referred to her as “babe” and said “it will be fine,” according to Hegarty.

At one point during the ride, Hegarty said, Essalak turned on the vehicle’s light, put his hand on the passenger seat, turned around, looked the passenger up and down and started laughing. As Hegarty recited the allegations, Essalak could be seen shaking his head in disagreement.

The passenger asked to be released as Essalak was driving along Commonwealth Avenue, Hegarty said, but Essalak refused.

“It’s just a joke. Come on, we are going to have fun,” Essalak responded, according to Hegarty.

The passenger then began pounding on the windows after discovering the vehicle’s child safety locks were on, according to Hegarty. Essalak allegedly veered to the side of the road and double-parked at 509 Cambridge St., then began touching her after climbing over the car’s center console into the backseat.

The passenger later told police she “was not groped or anything like that,” according to Hegarty.

The passenger said she then dodged him, climbed into the front seat, and let herself out of the vehicle. Essalak allegedly took out his phone and began recording her and laughing as she ran away toward her apartment.

The passenger told police she was “really afraid” because Essalak was outside her apartment.

Hegarty asked the court to institute a no-contact, no-abuse, and stay-away order from the victim.

What this also does is make the case for driverless transportation. 

Thanks, sex-offending asshole who should be forgiven(?).

Essalak, a father of two, works long hours to support his family, his defense attorney, Thomas J. Chirokas said. He grew up in Morocco and earned a high school degree there before spending 10 years working as a technician for Airbus, then coming to the US. Essalak became a US citizen in 2019, Chirokas said.

Oh, now I understand the B3 placement. Don't want to make those migrants or administration look bad.

In court, Chirokas said of the allegations that “objectively some of this does not make sense.” He attributed the incident to a language barrier between Essalak and the victim.

Essalak has operated as an Uber driver for four and a half years totaling 7,800 rides and had a driver’s rating of 4.97 stars out of 5 prior to the incident, the attorney said.

Essalak has no violations or sanctions on his driving record, according to records obtained by the Globe.

“There was some miscommunication along the way, or else we wouldn’t be here today,” Chirokas told reporters following the hearing. He declined further comment.

I'm sorry, but WHAT HAPPENED to I BELIEVE the WOMAN?

That's only to be arbitrarily used against those who stand in the way of the agenda and are not members of the Party, huh?

Friends and family of Essalak stood outside the courthouse as the arraignment proceeded. Chirokas described Essalak as an “upstanding member of his community.”

Judge Myong Joun ordered Essalak released on personal recognizance and barred him from having contact with the passenger in the case.

That must make the victim feel all safe and secure!


Not only is a potential rapist driving around Bo$ton, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins has decided to drop the charges.

The guy is lucky he isn't dead:

"A Brookline woman has been charged with manslaughter in the death last year of her former husband, a well-known environmental consultant and a Democratic aide to former governor Michael S. Dukakis. Penelope McGee, 54, pleaded not guilty Friday in Norfolk Superior Court to a charge that she caused the January 2020 death of Andrew Savitz, who also lived in Brookline. Savitz, who was 66 at the time of his death, was a longtime political operative in Massachusetts, and helped run Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign before turning his focus to the environment and sustainability. Officials say that Savitz’ death resulted from a domestic dispute that turned physical and was witnessed by one of the couple’s children....."


Also see:


Then a Boulder came along and eclipsed it:


The New York Times tells you what you need to know and I will tell you what I saw. 

I saw them leading away a shirtless guy in handcuffs bleeding from the shoulder and knee with what I presumed were gunshots and HE WAS WALKING!

I no sooner had noted the lack of the gun-seizing, mass-casualty events under Trump and Biden is not in office two months even and we have two inside a week! 

THE STENCH of skullduggery is overwhelming!


It's not easy being blue, and it looks like it is going to be a long, hot summer so stay away from the Post Offices or there will be hell to pay.

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There is also a war fever in the air:

"Saudi Arabia offers cease-fire in Yemen and lifting of blockade" by Rick Gladstone and Shuaib Almosawa New York Times, March 22, 2021

Saudi Arabia proposed what it described as a new peace offering Monday to end the kingdom’s nearly six-year-old war on the insurgency in neighboring Yemen, pledging to lift an air-and-sea blockade if the Houthi rebels agree to a cease-fire.

From AmeriKa's lead war paper?

Don't make me laugh.

The offering, announced by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, came as pressure has escalated on the country to help break a stalemate in the Yemen conflict, which the United Nations has called the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster.

Millions of Yemenis, including children, are verging on famine partly because of the blockade, which has choked the delivery of food and fuel to the country, the Arab world’s poorest.

There is also a cholera epidemic, and if you scan my Yemen label you will see the pre$$ has mostly ignored this the last five years or so and I'm sure this is a one-day blip.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan was quoted by Arab news media as saying at a news conference that if the Houthis agreed to a cease-fire monitored by the United Nations, his country would allow the reopening of the airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, and would permit fuel and food imports through Hodeida, a major Yemeni seaport. Both are controlled by the Houthis.

The Houthis appeared to reject the Saudi proposal. A spokesman for the group, Muhammad Abdussalam, said on al-Masirah, a Houthi-affiliated television channel in Yemen, that the Houthis would not agree to discuss a cease-fire until Saudi Arabia first lifted its blockade. The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, he said, was “trying to have the Yemeni people buckle under tightening the blockade in an attempt to pressure us to accept demands they were unable to achieve militarily and politically.”

Yeah, they rejected the po$ offer so they are the ones responsible for the famine and conditions, not the war-criminal aggressors offering the "peace deal."

If I'm not mistaken, the Saudis just completed a months worth of bombing runs to soften them up for peace.

See: 


Oh, that was YESTERDAY! 

So they OFFER PEACE then BOMB?

I'm sure the NYT will mention it.

Many prior attempts aimed at halting the conflict have failed.

Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, said the global body welcomed the Saudi announcement, but he declined to specify if it had been made as part of a coordinated move with Martin Griffiths, a special UN envoy. Griffiths has been seeking to restart negotiations, with a formula that also includes a monitored cease-fire and lifting of the blockade.

“There is no doubt that every effort must be made to end the conflict in Yemen and address the suffering of the Yemeni people, and the United Nations looks forward to continuing its work with the parties to achieve this goal,” Haq told reporters in New York.

Asked about the apparent Houthi rejection, he said Griffiths would “be in touch with the Houthis, as with all parties, to see whether we can go further on this.”

Saudi Arabia began an intense bombing campaign six years ago this week aimed at routing the Houthis, who had forced the Saudi-backed government to flee and still control a vast swath of Yemen. The Houthis are backed by Iran, which Saudi Arabia regards as its regional adversary, and they have frequently responded to Saudi aerial assaults by sending missiles across the border into Saudi territory.

Saudi-led bombings and Houthi attacks have devastated Yemen’s fragile economy and led to widespread civilian casualties, and 80 percent of the country’s roughly 30 million people require humanitarian help. By some estimates nearly a quarter million Yemenis have been killed in the conflict, and millions face acute hunger or starvation.

The Saudi announcement came just a few weeks after President Biden, breaking with the previous administration of Donald Trump, announced an end to US logistical and intelligence support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen.

So Biden is FORCING THEM to OFFER "PEACE."

UN humanitarian officials have been pleading for eased access to vulnerable Yemenis isolated by the war, warning that famine already is beginning to take hold. After a visit to Yemen in early March, David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, the UN’s antihunger agency, said “the famine is on a worsening trajectory.”

Six years of war, Beasley said, had “completely devastated the people, in every respect.”


The White House is looking to move up a weight cla$$:

"The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada each announced sanctions against China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, a coordinated effort aimed at holding Beijing accountable for a years-long campaign against Uyghurs and other minority groups in the northwestern Chinese region. The diplomatic push, announced Monday, comes after a tense meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials and amid growing calls for democracies to work together to take on an increasingly authoritarian and assertive Beijing. The European Union was first to move. China quickly responded, leveling similar measures against a long list of its European critics....."

Once again, it looks like western aggression -- which is where help for the Chinese will come from:

"The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Washington has rejected President Vladimir Putin’s offer to arrange a quick public call with U.S. President Joe Biden to help defuse tensions raised by Biden’s recent remark that the Russian leader was a killer. Asked by reporters Friday if he’ll take Putin up on his offer to have a call, Biden said, “I’m sure we’ll talk at some point.” Russia initially responded to Biden’s comment by recalling its ambassador in Washington for consultations. During a public event on Thursday, Putin gave an “it-takes-one-to-know-one” response, pointing at the U.S. history of slavery, slaughtering Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II....."

All for guys like this:

"Israelis vote Tuesday in their fourth parliamentary election in just two years. Once again, the race boils down to a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister for the past 12 years, hopes voters will reward him for leading the country’s successful coronavirus vaccine rollout and his diplomatic outreach to the Arab world. His challengers have highlighted his earlier missteps in combatting the virus, his ongoing corruption trial, and his reliance on divisive religious and ultra-nationalist allies. Over the years, Netanyahu has developed a reputation as a political magician and master manipulator capable of surviving any crisis. With witnesses set to take the stand against him next month, Netanyahu is hoping for another miracle that could deliver a friendlier parliament willing to grant him immunity or freeze his trial. Opponents portray him as a serial liar who has caused two years of political paralysis by putting his political survival and legal troubles ahead of the country’s interests. Opinion polls forecast an extremely tight race, raising the possibility of continued deadlock and even an unprecedented fifth consecutive election. Netanyahu appears to hold a slight advantage because of the intricacies of Israel’s political system....."

What "intricacies" of the only "democracy" in the Middle East?

You mean the rampant election rigging that is worldwide?

Sure getting a whiff of something from the past over there but I can't quite place it:


There it is, and not even the evil Nazis cancelled Easter.

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Of cour$e, like all wars, there is MONEY to be MADE!!!

"The Kimpton Nine Zero Hotel, a high-end property in downtown Boston, has terminated the majority of its staff, at least the fourth hotel in the city to cut furloughed workers as the industry struggles to recover from devastating financial losses brought on by the pandemic. The mass termination at the union hotel comes a year after workers were initially laid off and within days of a contract provision running out that guaranteed the right for workers to return with full seniority for up to a year after being laid off for economic reasons. “This is an act of war,” said Carlos Aramayo, president of Local 26....."

It sure is, and keep reading because that became a frightening theme in my bu$ine$$ $ection.

Btw, word is Big Joe is going to put migrants up in them and you won't be able to linger on the $treet and $trike, either:



My initial reaction?

WTF and WHY? 

It's OUTSIDE AND EVERYTHING!

This comes as a pittance of fans will be allowed back in; however, it is clear that the overall agenda is to put the street vendors out of business so you can by Aramak crap inside!

Look, I don't like $ports anymore, I'm not watching $ports anymore, but taking away something that is quintessential Boston is unforgivable and they should be a$hamed of them$elves.

Maybe you can find a new $pot:

"Stores that defined American malls eye a freestanding future" by Jordyn Holman and Lauren Coleman-Lochner Bloomberg News, March 22, 2021

(Bloomberg) — Quintessential mall stores from Macy’s to Kay Jewelers to Gap are plotting out a post-Covid future — and traditional shopping centers won’t play as much of a role in it.

Signet Jewelers Ltd., which owns chains such as Kay and Zales, said this past week it will expand in off-mall locations while continuing to pull back from the old-school gallerias where it has long had a major presence. The company also plans to add more kiosks in underserved markets.

The move brings “an opportunity for a better economic model,” Joan Hilson, Signet’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.

Leaving like a thief in the night and CUI BONO?

Retailers are abandoning enclosed malls in growing numbers as the rise of online shopping transforms the industry — a trend that has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost a third of retail CFOs are planning to scale back their mall presence, according to a recent survey from consulting firm BDO USA.

Yes, the fake viru$ has been a cover for many things that globali$t $cum want to advance.

That’s throwing into question the future of hundreds of traditional malls, already financially struggling before the pandemic, as they grapple with expensive real estate and fewer tenants who want to be there.

Yes, WHAT will be DONE with THEM?

I have some ideas of what I think will happen, as the photo below here would show.

“Even the ones that haven’t been distressed are being hurt by the lack of foot traffic in the mall,” said David Berliner, head of the restructuring and turnaround practice at BDO. Some are talking about relocating stores from malls to nearby centers anchored by merchants like Walmart “because they’re going to get more foot traffic than they’re getting at the mall now.”

Signet exemplifies that kind of shift. 

For retailers, there are many advantages to leaving the old-school shopping centers. Rent can be “substantially” lower elsewhere, the hours of operation are more flexible, customer parking is easier, and building costs are lower, said Ivan Friedman, chief executive officer of RCS Real Estate Advisors.

The pandemic has accelerated what some see as a long overdue culling of locations.

I said there would be a theme, right?

Enclosed malls have already seen a pullback in specialty shops like record and card stores, making them overly concentrated in apparel. That feeling of sameness is driving shoppers instead to a newer generation of open-air centers that include housing or office space, BDO’s Berliner said.

“A lot of these mixed-use centers now are trying to recapture that town hall feel,” he said. “That’s where people want to go again, instead of just these rectangular indoor boxes, where everything is the same.”


Sorry, but I will never go to a mall or shopping center ever again unless I'm dragged there by totalitarian goons, although I hope to be long dead before then.

Time to take the bull by the horns:

"Stock market’s historic run began year ago" by Stan Choe Associated Press, March 22, 2021

NEW YORK — It was one year ago that the terrifying free fall for the stock market suddenly ended, ushering in one of its greatest runs.

That evokes memories of a fateful September morning, and how could those three towers defy the immutable laws of physics by turning into dust and dropping into their own footprints?

On March 23, 2020, the S&P 500 fell 2.9 percent. In all, the index dropped nearly 34 percent in about a month, wiping out three years’ worth of gains for the market.

That turned out to be the bottom, even though the coronavirus pandemic worsened in the ensuing months and the economy sank deeper into recession. Massive amounts of support for the economy from the Federal Reserve and Congress limited how far stocks would fall. The market recovered all its losses by August.

Maybe you can find a T-shirt at the mall that says Wall Street was propped up and all I got was a lousy $1400 chump change check.

As time passed, the quick development of coronavirus vaccines helped stocks shoot even higher. So did growing legions of first-time investors, who suddenly had plenty of time to get into the market using free trading apps on their phones.

Wait, wait, what?

Those guys were troublemakers a mere two months ago!

It all led to a roughly 75 percent surge for the S&P 500 over the last 12 months and a shocking return to record heights. Consider that over the last 50 calendar years, the median gain for the index has been 12.4 percent.

All the furious movement has also raised worries that stock prices may have gone too far, too fast.

Here’s a look at five trends that helped shape the market over the last year:

Two bull markets in one: Wall Street’s big rally actually had two distinct stages. Early on, Big Tech stocks and winners of the suddenly stay-at-home economy pulled the market higher. Amazon benefited as people shopped more online, Apple hoovered up sales as more people worked from home, and Zoom Video Communications surged as students and adults started meeting online. Tech stocks as a group are the market’s biggest by value, so their gains helped make up for weakness across other sectors as the economy continued to struggle.

Since last autumn, though, excitement for an economic liftoff has caused a more widespread upturn. Banks, energy producers, and smaller companies whose profits would be the biggest beneficiaries of a stronger economy have led the way, as coronavirus vaccines roll out and Washington delivers even more financial aid. Those gains are also picking up the slack for technology stocks, which have lost momentum as interest rates rise on worries about higher inflation.

I didn't see me, you, or the rest of the 99% in there did you?

Of course, it's all AP bull$hit anyway.

First time investors join in: Stuck at home with little to do, people looked for ways to use some dollars that might have otherwise been spent on a movie, restaurant meal, or vacation. Many turned to the stock market via their phones, as trading apps made it easy to buy and sell shares with a few taps, commission free.

Clients under the age of 40 accounted for 35 percent of trading last month at Charles Schwab, nearly double the rate of two years earlier. Accounts less than a year old are doing more trading in total at Charles Schwab than accounts that have been around more than 10 years.

Many of those traders have been using money they got as stimulus payments from the US government. The Robinhood trading app popular with many novice investors saw an increase in the percentage of deposits of exactly $1,200 or $2,400 after the government sent out checks for those amounts last spring, just after the stock market hit bottom, for example. A new round of government payments — $1,400 to individuals — is underway.

Social media has only amplified the trend, as traders talk on Reddit, Twitter, and elsewhere about what stocks to buy. They’ve been helping to push up the stock market broadly, but their influence is most evident in what have come to be known as “meme stocks.” GameStop surged 1,625 percent in January, for example, even though the video game retailer has struggled financially. The gains for GameStop, AMC Entertainment, and other meme stocks defied gravity — and, in the opinion of nearly every professional investor on Wall Street, common sense.

As if Wall Street had any common sense!

SPACs raise concerns: All the mania around stocks has raised worries along Wall Street that prices may have shot too high. Much of the criticism is focused on how much faster stock prices climbed than corporate profits.

Another potential signal of too much greed and not enough fear: Investors are so hungry for the next big thing that they’re pouring billions of dollars into investments, before they even know what the money could go toward. These investments are called special-purpose acquisition companies, though they’re better known by their acronym, SPACs. Armed with cash raised from investors, SPACs look for privately held companies to buy so that the company can easily list its stock on an exchange.

Last year, SPACs raised $83.4 billion, more than six times the prior year. They’ve already surpassed that level in less than three months this year.

All of a $udden the blank checks that are a gift from heaven are worthle$$?

WTF?

A global recovery: The coronavirus really knows no geographic boundaries. As it devastated populations and economies around the world, global financial markets sustained sharp losses.

The recovery has also been worldwide. Stocks from China, South Korea, and other emerging markets as a group are up almost the exact same percentage as the S&P 500 since March 23, 2020. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index is also up a similar amount.

European markets have been lagging, although their performance is much better when seen in dollar terms instead of euros. Worsening infection rates are raising worries of a “third wave” on the continent and are forcing governments to bring back some restrictions on daily life, but the hope is that the continued rollout of vaccines will get economies and trade back to normal across the world.

Then why are we all locked in the house as the Globe continues to peddle false hope and as traders are betting that growth will swell corporate profits as vaccines work to curb the global pandemic despite warnings from Powell.

Who’s getting left behind? Even with so many first-time investors joining the market stocks, not everyone is benefiting from rising stocks. Only a little more than half of all US households owned stocks in 2019, whether by day-trading stocks or holding an S&P 500 index fund in a 401(k) account.

How ironic that the rest of us are an afterthought in the pre$$.


The truth is, they couldn't be more $elf-$erving:

"Bill to help news publishers take on Google, Facebook rises again as Congress eyes antitrust laws" by Tali Arbel Associated Press, March 22, 2021

A congressional effort to bolster US news organizations in negotiations with Big Tech has supporters hoping that the third time’s the charm.

The bill, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, was introduced in March for the third time since 2018. Its odds of passage may have improved in a Democrat-run Congress that’s working on overhauling antitrust laws.

Australia and other countries have started pushing mechanisms to support news publishers against Facebook and Google, which dominate online advertising. Publishers argue that Big Tech squeezes news organizations out of digital ad revenue and exerts undue control over who can see their journalism.

Oddly enough, Google is who the Globe apparently contracts to run the racy clothing ads(?) on their website so.... ????

The bill would offer a four-year antitrust exemption to publishers so they can negotiate as a group with “dominant online platforms.” Facebook and Google get the majority of online ad dollars in the United States. The measure aims to give publishers better leverage with the tech companies, while only allowing coordination that benefits the news industry as a whole, amid a long-running decline in local news.

How odd that they want to break their own unions.

Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, said in prepared remarks for a hearing earlier this month that the legislation would provide news publishers an “even playing field” to negotiate deals with major tech platforms. The news industry is struggling with falling revenue, shrinking newsrooms, and failing publications — which Cicilline and others call a threat to democracy — while Google and Facebook rack up billions in profits.

They have KEPT OTHERS OFF the "playing field" while calling us "conspiracy theorists," so f**k them!

That doesn't mean I'm for Google or Facef**k; I'm just tired of pre$$ liars whining.

“This bill is a life-support measure, not the answer for ensuring the long-term health of the news industry,” the congressman said.

If it looks like it, feels like it, and $mells like it, then it probably is $TATE MEDIA!

While the bill has Republican cosponsors in both the House and Senate, some Republicans in the same hearing expressed reservations. Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said he worried about giving more power to large media companies that would suppress conservatives’ opinions. Republicans often assert without evidence that tech companies censor conservatives and right-wing media.

If that isn't the pot hollering kettle I don't know what is, and don;'t take that as support for Jordan because he still takes the tech loot.

The News Guild, a union that represents journalists, says the bill would work best with additional provisions to support jobs. It has long objected to media consolidation and criticizes many publishers for impeding unionization and slashing newsroom jobs, particularly at chains owned by hedge funds and private equity firms.

You know who owns and publi$hes the Globe and how he got his money, right?

News Guild president Jon Schleuss would like the legislation to require publishers to spend 60 percent of the revenue won from bargaining to hire more journalists and support small papers and fund start-ups in “news deserts,” areas where papers have folded. He is worried that instead it might be spent on things like dividends, stock buybacks, and squeezing out higher profit margins.

Microsoft, whose president testified during the hearing, supports the bill. Google and Facebook on Friday declined to comment.

That's because Gates' Microsoft has its own MSN news site, which I will not link.

In February, however, Facebook took the extraordinary step of banning Australian news from its platform to protest a law that would have required it to negotiate with publishers to compensate them for its use of news content. Facebook lifted the ban once the government agreed to modify the law. Microsoft, meanwhile, has teamed up with European publishers to support measures similar to the Australian law in Europe.

Over the past few years, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple have all come under increasing scrutiny from Congress and regulators. The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general are suing the Internet giants, alleging a variety of antitrust violations, some of which are related to the woes of publishers.

Oh, the poor propagandists, 'er publi$hers as they PUSH LIES!



"Microsoft will begin bringing workers back to its suburban Seattle global headquarters on March 29 as the tech giant starts to reopen more facilities it largely shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic. In a post Monday on the company’s corporate blog, executive vice president Kurt DelBene said Microsoft has been monitoring local health data and decided it can bring more employees back to its Redmond, Wash., campus. DelBene said workers will have the choice to return to headquarters, continue working remotely, or do a combination of both. More than 50,000 people work at the company’s headquarters campus in Redmond, 15 miles east of Seattle."

They hope you didn’t get too attached to remote work and it will be good to get back to the office, but getting coffee will never be the same:

"Nestle wants to get in on the back-to-office push with new Nespresso machines for COVID-protected workplaces, without turning its back on coffee drinkers who’ve grown attached to their home devices during months of lockdowns. The maker of Nespresso and Nescafe is set to reassure virus-wary office workers with a new generation of touchless coffee machines, while a rollout of new products seeks to win over those looking to spice up their at-home coffee consumption. The contactless machines can be controlled via smartphone and are being distributed globally, with introductions in Russia and China in coming weeks, David Rennie, head of Nestle’s coffee brands, said in an interview."

"Starbucks set targets to cut emissions and conserve water in the production of coffee it buys from farmers as it seeks to achieve its goal to store more carbon than it emits. The Seattle-based company will take steps including distributing climate-resistant trees, working with growers to cut fertilizer use, and restoring at-risk forests in key coffee areas. It may also buy carbon offsets to bridge the gap in areas where it can’t reduce emissions, ensuring supplies of unroasted coffee are carbon neutral by 2030. It also plans to conserve 50 percent of water in coffee production by then."

Will there be food on the table still, and did you know there would be a new dre$$ code, too?

"Ralph Lauren Corp. seeks to drastically reduce water waste by changing the way it dyes clothes. The retailer plans to start the new method that will reach 80 percent of its solid cotton products by 2025 — a major undertaking for a company that sells millions of polo shirts, T-shirts, and blue jeans each year. The first phase, which cuts water use by 40 percent, involves a textile treatment developed by Dow. The process lets the material absorb color more easily with the company’s existing equipment, lessening water and energy use."

You can try this French negligee on for size:

"Ikea’s French subsidiary and several of its former executives went on trial Monday over accusations that they illegally spied on employees and customers. Trade unions reported the furniture and home goods company to French authorities in 2012, accusing it of collecting personal data by fraudulent means and the illicit disclosure of personal information. The unions specifically alleged that Ikea France had paid to gain access to police files that had information about targeted individuals. Ikea France denied spying on anyone, but Sweden-based Ikea fired four executives in France after French prosecutors opened a criminal probe in 2012. One accusation alleged that Ikea France used unauthorized data to try to catch an employee who had claimed unemployment benefits but drove a Porsche. Another says the subsidiary investigated an employee’s criminal record to determine how the employee was able to own a BMW on a low income." 

"Leon Black, the Wall Street billionaire who appeared to be a main client of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, is stepping down as chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management Inc. months ahead of schedule. Black’s departure from that role had been announced in January, though the firm said at the time that he would leave by July 1. A statement Monday confirmed his immediate exit from the position as well as the chairmanship he’d been expected to keep. It’s an abrupt turn for Black, 69, a Wall Street legend who built Apollo into one of the most fearsome — and profitable — names in American finance. He cited unspecified health issues for himself and his wife in announcing his exit. Black and Apollo have been dealing with the fallout from his extensive links with convicted sex offender Epstein, which brought unprecedented scrutiny and unsettled clients and shareholders."

Weak!

I'll bet he goes on a cruise:

"Carnival Cruise Line extended its COVID-19 shutdown through May 31, while the company works to resume operations. A restart date hasn’t been determined, the company said Wednesday. As it has done throughout the shutdown, Carnival is providing guests on canceled trips the choice of a future cruise credit plus an onboard credit package, or a full refund. The industry has essentially been on hold since it paused operations in mid-March, almost a year ago, after a series of dramatic and deadly outbreaks at sea, but the companies themselves don’t have the ultimate say in when they sail again." 

Who does then? 

Tyrannical governments?

Banks?

Time to GET OUTSIDE and ENJOY GOD'S GIFT myself!