Venezuelan Abortion

It smells like a regime change effort:

"Venezuelan women lose access to contraception, and control of their lives" by Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera New York Times, February 20, 2021

SAN DIEGO DE LOS ALTOS, Venezuela — The moment Johanna Guzmán, 25, discovered she was going to have her sixth child, she began to sob, crushed by the idea of bringing another life into a nation in such decay.

For years, as Venezuela spiraled deeper into an economic crisis, she and her husband had scoured clinics and pharmacies for any kind of birth control, usually in vain. They had a third child. A fourth. A fifth, and now another child?

Ever hear of abstinence?

As Venezuela enters its eighth year of economic crisis, a deeply personal drama is playing out inside the home: Millions of women are no longer able to find or afford birth control, pushing many into unplanned pregnancies at a time when they can barely feed the children they already have.

Around Caracas, the capital, a pack of three condoms costs $4.40 — three times Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage of $1.50.

Birth control pills cost more than twice as much, roughly $11 a month, while an IUD, or intrauterine device, can cost more than $40 — more than 25 times the minimum wage. And that does not include a doctor’s fee to have the device put in.

With the cost of contraception so far out of reach, women are increasingly resorting to abortions, which are illegal and, in the worst cases, can cost them their lives.

The situation is a major departure from what Venezuela’s government once promised its women and girls. Hugo Chávez, the father of the country’s socialist-inspired revolution, declared that his government would grant women what others had not: full and equal participation in society.

Chávez brought women into the halls of power and enshrined in the Constitution the right to “decide freely” how many children a couple wished to have. In a region where abortion is largely banned, he stopped short of legalizing the procedure. But birth control was subsidized and widely available.

Chávez and his successor, President Nicolás Maduro, publicly declared themselves to be feminists, but as Maduro’s grip on the country has hardened into authoritarian rule, Venezuela’s economy has collapsed under the weight of corruption, mismanagement and U.S. sanctions.

The nation that was once Latin America’s wealthiest is mired in a crisis economists have called the world’s worst in decades, outside of war, with its population suffering from runaway inflation and widespread hunger, and Venezuelans now face a health system so broken that it can no longer reliably provide basic contraception. Today, amid the collapse of the country’s public health system, birth control is nearly absent from government clinics and available at private pharmacies only at prohibitive prices.

The result has been life-changing for women, who shoulder the vast majority of child care responsibilities, just as the crisis has greatly expanded the challenge of being a parent.

Many women who grew up believing that Chávez’s political movement, known as Chavismo, would springboard them out of poverty, offering them education and career opportunities, now face the task of raising four, six or 10 children at a time when the basics of family care — food, soap, diapers — arrive intermittently or not at all.

Anitza Freitez, a demographer with the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, said this dynamic could shape the country for decades, creating “a vicious circle of poverty.”

As Venezuela’s maternity wards fell apart, maternal deaths surged 65% between 2015 and 2016, according to the country’s health ministry, and then the government stopped releasing data.

When Chávez was elected president in 1998, he inherited a system in which birth control was already widely available.

As Venezuela’s economy — long buoyed by its vast oil reserves — began to tumble in 2014, the result of plummeting crude oil prices and poor financial management, the government’s purchasing power dove.

By 2015, contraceptives, once free at government hospitals and broadly affordable at private pharmacies, began to disappear, and women who could once plan their futures — thanks to contraception — began to lose control.

By 2018, oral contraceptives, implants and patches were nearly impossible to find in several major cities, according to a study by the reproductive rights coalition Equivalencies in Action.

Some couples began to ration or abstain from sex. Others tried to plan around a woman’s menstrual cycle, but it did not always work, and not everyone has a choice.

As the crisis has sharpened, many women say that abuse has, too, making it difficult for them to say no to a partner or to leave a relationship.

As raising children in Venezuela has become increasingly difficult, the number of women seeking abortions has surged, according to interviews with health professionals and community workers across the country.

Before the economic crisis, some doctors would perform abortions illegally in safer facilities, but about half the country’s physicians, some 30,000 people, have left in recent years, according to the Venezuelan Medical Federation, driving women to makeshift clinics.

In the shadows, some women, and a few men, have become part of an expanding group of underground abortion counselors, mostly trying to educate women in how to find and use misoprostol, a drug used legally in other countries to induce abortion, but even with guidance, the experience can be excruciating, often involving a frantic search for the $150 it costs to buy the pills, followed by a hunt for a safe place to hide away to bleed for a few hours.

One night in late 2019, Jessika, 21, a university student, had an abortion in an auto parts warehouse, accompanied by two friends.

Jessika had never been able to afford birth control. She said she got pregnant after an assault by her boyfriend and knew she could not support a child.

“In the country we live in,” she said, “a woman is not afforded the luxury of one more mouth to feed.”

Through her contacts, she reached one of the counselors, who gave her instructions and wished her luck.

Seven weeks pregnant, she bought misoprostol online from a man who called himself “José Vende Todo,” or “José Who Sells Everything.”

She knew her mother would not approve, and that she could not have the abortion at home. So she went to the warehouse, on loan from a friend, holing herself up in a white-walled office with a couch and a single window, keeping it closed so no one would hear her scream.

She took the first two pills at 7 p.m. and the second dose two hours later. Soon, she doubled over in pain and began to bleed profusely. Her legs shook, she cried out, and then she fainted.

When Jessika came to, her friends urged her to go to the hospital.

“Don’t take me anywhere,” she said.

She was terrified of the police.....

With good reason, for she could end up in a Russian penal colony (at least they give you a book to read).

link 

What is left unmentioned in the article above is the effect of U.S. sanctions and covert warfare in Venezuela.

Related:

Venezuela judge convicts 6 American oil execs, orders prison

A bargaining chip so treasure washes up on shore?

Also see:

Brazil’s Bolsonaro suffers wave of defeats in mayoral races 

I view the big losses in just-completed municipal elections as rigged because the hero of Brazil has challenged the CV narrative and won't take the shot nor let his nation be looted -- although maybe you should cry for Argentina.

"In Bolivia, bodies are piling up at homes and on the streets again, echoing the horrific images of last year, when a deadly surge in coronavirus infections overwhelmed the country’s fragile medical system. The Bolivian police say that in January they recovered 170 bodies of people thought to have died from Covid-19, and health officials say intensive-care units are full. “When 10 or 20 patients die, their beds are full again in a few hours,” said Carlos Hurtado, a public health epidemiologist in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city. The resurgence of the virus in Bolivia is part of a larger second wave throughout Latin America, where some of the world’s strictest quarantine measures are giving way to pandemic fatigue and concerns about the economy. While the number of new cases is falling, deaths remain at near-record highs in many parts of the region, just as some governments begin vaccination efforts. Brazil and Mexico have each been averaging over 1,000 daily Covid-19 deaths for weeks; their total pandemic death toll is now surpassed only by that of the United States. Deaths in Brazil have matched their midyear peak, while in Mexico they are far higher than any earlier peak, though they have begun falling in recent days. In Bolivia in the middle of last year, mortality figures reviewed by The New York Times suggested that the country’s real death toll was nearly five times the official tally, indicating that Bolivia had suffered one of the world’s worst epidemics. About 20,000 more people died from June through August than in past years, according to a Times analysis — a vast number in a country of about 11 million people. Bolivia is now reporting an average of 60 coronavirus deaths per day, approaching the numbers from last year’s peak....."

$ociali$m literally $tinks.

Divided Ecuador heads to presidential runoff ballot in April

April’s winner will succeed President Lenín Moreno as trade talks continue, and it is time to get out of South America.

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Hot wind blowing in Honduras:

"After two hurricanes, Honduras braces for long recovery" by Delphine Schrank The Washington Post, November 27, 2020

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Category 4 Hurricane Eta and Category 5 Hurricane Iota cut similar paths across Central America this month, a one-two punch that killed scores of people and displaced hundreds of thousands. More than a week after the second storm, vast areas of Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala remain flooded. Some areas are accessible only by boat. Remote communities are relying on food dropped by Honduran and U.S. military helicopters.

Now a region that had already been hammered by the coronavirus and a deep economic contraction is facing a recovery that could take years.

"Honduras is facing probably the greatest catastrophe of its history," said Carlos Madero, secretary of the Ministry of General Coordination of the Government, charged with managing the response. "We never thought and never imagined that we would have three emergencies of this magnitude in one year."

The government has begun to sketch out a plan in three phases, Madero said. The most pressing is emergency and humanitarian relief, to help the tens of thousands of evacuees who still need shelter, food, water and other basic necessities.

Phase 2 would involve rapid rehabilitation and repair of homes, roads and bridges. The storms destroyed or damaged more than 850 square miles of farmland, threatening one of the few economic activities that had remained relatively dependable during the pandemic. A third phase would address "sustainable reconstruction" amid what Madero described as "a change in the climate that will have a direct impact on us poor countries. ... Honduras is the photographic example."

Geoengineering in favor of the Great Re$et?

It's unclear how much the recovery will cost. Madero said the government is talking with the United Nations, individual countries and multilateral banks: "Once we have a sustainable reconstruction plan, it will be presented to the international community for support."

The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates the recovery of damaged areas across Central America will take at least two years.

No country has been hit harder than Honduras, where at least 3.7 million people, or more than a third of the population, have been affected, and no region of Honduras has suffered more than the flood-prone valley surrounding San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city and industrial center, where the storms caused the Chamelecón and Ulúa rivers to breach their banks, sending surges crashing into densely populated working-class neighborhoods.

"This has overwhelmed the city's capacities," Mayor Armando Calidonio said. "It's difficult to confront this alone."

Communities have been flayed and flipped inside out, houses burst open, their contents dumped in the middle of the road, leaving muddy piles of ruptured sofas, smashed televisions, broken fridges.

"We lost everything. Absolutely everything," said Charlie Rodríguez, a vegetable vendor, one of 368,000 Hondurans who evacuated their homes for higher ground, according to the government. Many remain indefinitely crammed into schools or churches, around gasoline stations, under highway bridges or in trucks partitioned with sheeting to fit three families. The overcrowding has negated months of government warnings to stay physically distant during the pandemic.

The combined death toll for Honduras from the two storms stands at 91, but rescue workers expect the number to rise as communication networks are restored, the waters recede and bodies are discovered. On Monday, about 289,000 people remained incommunicado.

--more--"

Time to cross the border.

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Mexico adopts measure restricting foreign agents in rebuke to US

Oscar Lopez of the New York Times says lawmakers in Mexico approved legislation that could sharply limit cooperation with American narcotics agents, delivering a stinging rebuke to the United States after its short-lived arrest of a former Mexican official brought tensions to a boil.

US drops case against ex-Mexican general after pressure

Everybody pushes us around now.

Mexico approves emergency use of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

They did it amid a virus surge and the deaths rose after the shots were administered.

Of course, Mexicans were mainly worried that their leader wouldn't take COVID-19 seriously because for nearly a year, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had minimized the pandemic, claiming that religious amulets protected him, refusing to wear masks, and even drinking from the same clay pot as supporters so it was only a matter of time until he tested positive for COVID-19, some Mexicans said, and this was the real rub:

"Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador returned to his daily morning news conferences Monday following a two-week absence after catching coronavirus, but vowed not to wear a mask or require Mexicans to use them. “There is no authoritarianism in Mexico ... everything is voluntary, liberty is the most important thing,” López Obrador said. “It is each person’s own decision.” López Obrador revealed he received experimental treatments, which he described only as an “antiviral” medication and an anti-inflammatory drug. The president also revealed that he twice tested negative in late January in rapid tests that are widely used in Mexico, before a more thorough test — apparently PCR — came back positive the same day....."

Really had to work at it to find a positive, huh?

UPDATE:

Mexican president’s spokesman tests positive for coronavirus

Sunday Globe City of the Future

They are building the foundations as I type:

"Cities in the age of coronavirus, and after" by Tim Logan Globe Staff, April 11, 2020

Cities thrive on human connections, on bustling sidewalks, on coming together for a concert or a baseball game, on the everyday interactions that can spark new relationships, or birth big ideas. They’re built on the premise that in many ways, we’re better off living in relatively close quarters, that we thrive in proximity, but so does a pandemic and that has a lot of people wondering what the coronavirus outbreak, whose deadly toll rises daily, could mean for the future of dense and vibrant cities such as Boston. Will it amount to a blip in the decades-long rebound of urban life, or mark the end of an era and the start of a gradual turn to social distancing as a way of life?

It’s a question with profound implications for the future of Boston. The packed stadiums, lively campuses, and vibrant neighborhoods that supply much of the compact city’s energy and charm depend on people being willing to gather. Our economy, too, is powered by proximity. Just ask the scores of companies from around the globe that have squeezed into a few square miles of downtown and Cambridge, betting the brainpower they can tap here is worth paying astronomical rents.

“That’s how you build a knowledge economy,” said Dan Dain, an attorney and restaurant owner who’s writing a book about the urban history of Boston. “Proximity, and serendipitous interaction, drive innovation."

Today, those features of urban life feel like a threat. Office towers are empty. Restaurants and stadiums sit dark. Our effervescent city has turned into a ghost town.

For now, that’s OK, said Sara Jensen Carr, a Northeastern University architecture professor who teaches about health and cities. When the coronavirus curve is flattened into submission, she believes, people will return. Far denser cities than Boston — Seoul and Singapore, for instance — have managed their outbreaks, and locked-down cities in China are slowly returning to normalcy, but even after the health crisis ends, and a vaccine is available to prevent its recurrence, the scars of this episode won’t soon fade.

There they go again, pushing the agenda that is pure evil.

“We all have short memories, but I think the severity of this is going to weigh heavily on people,” Carr said. “People are going to ask about density. People are going to reconsider what this means for housing, for architecture, for how we work,” and that could have big implications for the ways a city such as Boston might grow from here.

Yeah, this was a massive Trauma-based Mind Control Psychological Operation that makes 9/11, as horrible as that was, look like a campfire cookout. That was the appetizer, inconveniences only. This COVID-19 scam has taken away the freedom the government was allegedly trying to preserve fighting the terrorists who allegedly did that.

The headlong rush toward prosperity that has characterized Boston in recent years may be coming to a close, and maybe, he said, that won’t be so bad. That prosperity has priced so many people out of Boston, and squeezed the small businesses, corner bars, and arts venues that give a city its character.

Oh, for $ome this is going to work out wonderfully; for the vast majority, it's too late.

“In a more affordable city, there’s space for more of the things that make a city great,” said Max Grinnell, an urban studies professor at the Massachusetts College of Art. “Maybe this is an opportunity for that.”

Right, this will make everything more affordable even if you are out a job out a job, buddy. The college will not be reopening.

--more--" 

So what is in Bo$ton's future? 

The Globe sees little traffic with a section of sick immigrants, but not everything is awful. Sure, people are dying and the funerals aren't the same, but the Easter Bunny still comes to visit!

I never want to set foot in their stinking city ever again, but if we all pray, there will be a magical rebirth:

"Social distancing is working, but when will things return to normal, and what will that look like?" by David Abel and Naomi Martin Globe Staff, April 11, 2020

With daffodils and magnolia trees in full bloom, the rites of spring have been clouded by a hard truth: No one really knows when life might return to something close to normal, when it might be safe to go back to work or get a drink at a bar, but epidemiologists are drawing up plans for a glide path out of the purgatory, which they say could start as early as sometime in May.

Their vision of a reopening, however, is unlikely to include crowds at Fenway Park or Symphony Hall anytime soon. Even July 4 on the Esplanade remains in doubt, as do carefree weekends on crowded beaches.

That's because “if you watch the replays of the 2011 games on NESN, you notice and remember the atmosphere at TD Garden, and how much inadvertent expectoration there is, and how much saliva and beer there is everywhere, you realize how much of a bomb that could be. It’s going to be a long time before we can get people together like that again,” and you can forget access to the locker room.

It is, however, conceivable restaurants could seat diners again and stores welcome back customers, albeit with a range of new requirements before anyone enters.

The Globe gets to the bottom of the future in Bo$ton's re$taurants.

The key to returning to some semblance of normal, they say: testing. More and more testing.

F**K OFF!

“The more we know about the prevalence of the virus, the closer we’ll get to being able to reopen,” said Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who serves on a state task force dealing with the coronavirus.

In the coming days, Massachusetts and several other states will begin drawing blood from hundreds of residents around the state to get a clearer understanding of how many have already been infected and now carry antibodies to the virus. That testing — combined with a broader federal effort — should start producing results by the end of April or early May.

Related: "The National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project is a related effort that began several weeks ago as a clearinghouse for information and a way to match willing plasma donors with hospitals and doctors authorized to perform infusions....."

Patient Zero in New Jersey?

Now the sick evil f**ks literally want blood when Vitamin C and whole bunch of other things will help cure you. 

Meanwhile beneath the blood was an ad for the Overlook Retirement Home with the catch phrase "social distancing at its best," and I kid you not, but the second half of the A section was all obituaries, something I said they would be doing a month ago.

If the virus has infected far more people than the 525,000 Americans who have already tested positive, as Mina and others suspect, that would suggest far more people have immunity to the disease, and that it sickens and kills fewer people than feared.

You damn bastards and your damn models!

If that proves true, and rigorous social distancing continues, Massachusetts could begin to see the number of newly reported cases dwindle from around 2,000 a day now to about a dozen or fewer a day by the latter half of May, Mina said. “Once we get it under control, we can start reopening in a safe way,” he said.

It will be too late for so many. Livelihoods have been destroyed, but that's okay. $ome are looking forward to greater market share and profits!

Scientists say the pandemic will persist until the virus’s spread is hobbled by “herd immunity,” estimated to occur when at least 80 percent of people are immune, either through a vaccine or infection. It’s unclear how long post-infection immunity lasts.

That's the only way this ends, which is why the "experts" are demanding these totalitarian measures! They want to keep this thing alive perpetually, to test, and test, and test, until the entire world is vaccinated and tracked. They are psychopathic control freaks the likes of which the world has never seen. EVIL!

When asked this week when the state might begin easing the shutdown, Governor Charlie Baker said he would rely on public health officials to make such decisions.

We are sunk then. Those sick bastards finally have power.

In an interview, Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston cautioned residents not to become focused on an early end to social distancing. “When’s it going to end, none of us know,” he said, “and what it’s going to be like when it ends, no one knows.”

Dr. Larry Madoff, a senior infectious disease director at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said state officials are still considering options, which will include a community surveillance program to help identify and quarantine anyone who has been exposed to someone infected.

Based on bogus tests that don't identify for COVID and which are used to check everyone off as positive, and what is Madoff (remember that name?) really saying? What was suggested on Tucker and Rachel Maddow? Kicking the door in and taking you away to a COVID concentration camp, never to be seen again? 

Related: Meet The Companies Poised To Build The Kushner-Backed “Coronavirus Surveillance System” 

Oh, that explains the actions of the president. He is simply taking orders from the master race, and this whole thing is starting to reek of the Soviet Union and the Bolsheviks, folks.

But it couldn't happen here, right?

In Washington, the Trump administration is also considering its options.

While public health experts have advised President Trump to allow social distancing measures to continue, he said he would make a decision soon about whether to press for more states to restart their economies.

“I’m going to have to make a decision, and I only hope to God that it’s the right decision,” Trump said on Friday during his daily news briefing.

Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor of health policy at the Harvard Global Health Institute, said his best estimate for when businesses might start reopening would be early summer.

That would be after June 21st then.

Larger gatherings — such as fans going to Fenway Park or moviegoers taking in a feature at the Coolidge Corner Theater — should take place only if a thorough testing and quarantine regime were in place and effective, he said.

“We know there’s a high chance that there could be another recurrence,” he said. “We need to be very careful about how we proceed, and dial up our responses as they’re needed.”

Restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and concert halls will likely need to reduce their capacities to keep people spaced at least 6 feet apart, said Helen Jenkins, a Boston University biostatistics professor, but events with large crowds, from music festivals to busy beaches, would likely be unsafe, she said. “The problem with large gatherings is that they can be super-spreading events where large numbers of people can get infected quite quickly,” Jenkins said.

That would help with the only way to end this, the herd immunity thing, right?

That means the social-distancing measures these sick experts are pushing are keeping the virus alive!

Lookm you need not have worried about me. I've gone to my last ball game and seen my last movie some time ago. I'm simply no longer interested in that $hit and filth (yeah, Hollywood love scenes are no more. Must be why Thrones wrapped up early and who is going to want to watch unrealistic reruns the rest of their lives?).

Under the right conditions — with new infections near zero and testing widespread — restaurants could conceivably reopen, but patrons would likely be required to wash their hands before entering, said David Hamer, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Medical Center.

Who wants a meal cooked for them where you can't see what the cook is doing, and what is this going to do vis-a-vis the shortage of good water? 

I mean, if one looks at it from the situation of a drastically reduced population, it's all good, right? 

You know, the kind of people for whom the Globe is written of and for by those who wannabe.

The state could also begin encouraging more people to use public transportation, if everyone wears masks and surfaces are cleaned frequently, he said.

No.

For Mina, the hope is that the virus has already infected tens of millions of Americans, without most of them knowing it.

He hopes that, huh?

“If that’s the case, the risks of becoming ill are very low,” he said. “That would mean I would feel a lot more comfortable taking my family to a restaurant.”

I will never eat at a restaurant again. and maybe somebody could spit in his meal!

--more--"

The risk is that we emerge from today’s pandemic without enacting substantive change in basic services that have been underinvested in for decades.

If I can't eat out:


A shopper had his temperature scanned as he waited to enter a supermarket in Milan, Italy, on Saturday. (audio Furlan/LaPresse via AP/LaPresse via AP).

I'm going to starve.

"After coronavirus, survivors’ symptoms include relief — and guilt" by Amy Harmon New York Times, April 11, 2020

It had been a week and a half since any of them had experienced symptoms, past the point when COVID-19 patients are thought to be contagious, and, assuming conventional virology wisdom applies, they were not at risk of immediate re-infection. Christy Karras had been told she was probably “one of the safest people in the country” by a researcher she asked. She and her husband, Bill Harper, who had each endured a weeklong headache as well as the disease’s hallmark fever and dry cough, longed for social interaction.

So it was that the two Seattle couples entered a phase of pandemic life that most of America can still only dream of. As recently as mid-March, fewer than 5,000 people in the United States had tested positive for the new coronavirus. Some are still coughing or tethered to oxygen tanks. Many have died, but the first large wave of COVID-19 survivors, likely to be endowed with a power known to infectious disease specialists as adaptive immunity, is emerging. They linger in grocery store aisles and touch doorknobs without flinching. They undertake not entirely essential travel. They have friends over. They hug.

With most Americans still desperate to avoid contracting the virus, and the number of known cases nearing half a million, several dozen spoke to The New York Times about what it was like to recover.

They are giddy; they are grateful. They are sometimes guilt-ridden, about possibly having spread the disease before its existence was widely known, and about recovering when others did not.....

Or that they are playing this role in the drill, and don't worry; the lower half of the page was an advertisement for Wild Arbor Liqueur where they tell you to "indulge with a clear conscience."

--more--"

Now for the rest of the country and the world:

"20,000: US death toll overtakes Italy’s as Midwest braces" by Kathleen Foody, Amy Forliti and Geir Moulson Associated Press, April 11, 2020

CHICAGO — The US death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s for the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt.

With the New York area still deep in crisis, fear mounted over the spread of the scourge into the nation’s heartland.

Trump won't be pressuring anybody to open $hit; in fact, more states will be locking it down so he might as well declare a national quarantine, right?

Twenty-four residents of an Indiana nursing home hit by COVID-19 have died, while a nursing home in Iowa saw 14 deaths. Chicago’s Cook County has set up a temporary morgue that can take more than 2,000 bodies, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been going around telling groups of people to “break it up.”

I'm surprised she didn't receive gunfire in return, and don't you get sick of these on-their-high-horse hypocrites moralizing and lecturing to you?

In Europe, countries used roadblocks, drones, helicopters, mounted patrols, and the threat of fines to keep people from traveling over Easter weekend, and with infections and deaths slowing in Italy, Spain, and other places on the continent, governments took tentative steps toward loosening the weeks-long shutdowns.

That's free Europe, and Italy and Spain will pay dearly! Unless the drill is almost over.

Glorious weather across Europe posed an extra test of people’s discipline.

“Don’t do silly things,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the virus emergency. “Don’t go out, continue to behave responsibly as you have done until today, use your head and your sense of responsibility.”

Stay buried in your hole.

The outbreak’s center of gravity has long since shifted from China to Europe and the United States, which now has by far the largest number of confirmed cases — over a half-million — and a death toll higher than Italy’s count of nearly 19,500, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

That's the same Johns Hopkins that was involved with the Event201 simulation and got $1.8 billion from Bloomberg.

The death rate — that is, the number of dead relative to the population — is still far higher in Italy than in United States, which has more than five times as many people, and worldwide, the true numbers of dead and infected are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, different counting practices, and concealment by some governments.

Actually, they are much lower. Government fudging of the numbers is what is driving the tolls already reported. Every death is by COVID now.

About half the deaths in the United States are in the New York metropolitan area, where hospitalizations are nevertheless slowing and other indicators suggest lockdowns and social distancing are “flattening the curve” of infections and staving off the doomsday scenarios of just a week or two ago.

All those "scenarios" where based on garbage models that have since been overwhelmingly revised downward, and yet still this spew comes from the pre$$.

New York state on Saturday reported 783 more deaths, for a total over 8,600. Governor Andrew Cuomo said the daily number of deaths is stabilizing “but stabilizing at a horrific rate.”

“What do we do now? We stay the course,’’ said Cuomo, who like other leaders has warned that relaxing restrictions too soon could enable the virus to come back with a vengeance.

Could not.

With authorities warning that the crisis in New York is far from over, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s 1.1 million-student school system will remain closed for the rest of the academic year, but Cuomo said the decision is up to him, and no such determination has been made.

Yeah, it has to stretch into late June!

In the Midwest, pockets of contagion have alarmed state and city leaders and led to stricter enforcement.

Nearly 300 inmates at the Cook County Jail have tested positive for the virus, and two have died. In Wisconsin, health officials expect to see an increase in coronavirus cases after thousands of people went to the polls during Wisconsin’s presidential primary Tuesday.

OMFG! 

The vote put them in peril! 

Or is it simply a ruse to totally surrender the electoral process and let everybody vote by mail?

The machines are bad enough, but if that is the $olution then you might as well mail it in regarding this Republic that has stood for over 200 years.

Michigan’s governor extended her state’s stay-at-home order with new provisions: People with multiple homes may no longer travel between them, and in Kansas, the state Supreme Court heard arguments in a dispute Saturday between Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and Republican lawmakers who overturned her executive order banning religious services and funerals with more than 10 people.

So the Michigan governor (Democrat) just abrogated the Constitution for wealthy people by restricting freedom of movement, and what will that do to parental custody cases?

The Internal Revenue Service said the first economic support payments from a $2.2 trillion rescue package have been deposited in taxpayers’ bank accounts, but it didn’t say how many people received them or how much money has been disbursed so far.

That didn't make print, and reminds me that there was no discussion whatsoever in the Globe's pages today regarding the bailouts. It's all this kind of $uperficial and $hallow agenda-pu$hing $hit. No why would that be?

Elsewhere around the world, Italian authorities set up roadblocks around Milan to discourage people from going on Easter weekend trips. British police kept a close watch on gatherings in parks and at the seaside on one of the hottest days of the year, and France deployed some 160,000 police, including officers on horseback who patrolled beaches and parks.

With religious leaders around the globe urging people to observe Easter safely at home, the archbishop of Turin, Italy, allowed a video-streaming display of the Shroud of Turin, believed by the faithful to be the burial cloth of Jesus, so that they can pray in front of it during the epidemic.

Pope Francis celebrated an Easter vigil Mass in an empty St. Peter’s Basilica, where the footsteps of the pontiff and his small entourage on the marble floor could be heard clearly as they walked in slow procession toward the altar. Francis likened coronavirus fears to anxiety felt by Jesus’ followers after his crucifixion.

“For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour,’’ he said, encouraging people to “sow seeds of hope, with small gestures of care.”

He must be demented.

Meanwhile, Austria aims to reopen small shops on Tuesday. Spain, with more than 16,300 dead, plans to allow workers in some nonessential industries to return to factories and construction sites Monday. Spanish authorities said they will distribute 10 million face masks at major train and subway stations.

“We think that with these measures we will prevent a jump in infections,” Health Minister Salvador Illa said.

Italy continued to include all nonessential manufacturing in an extension of its national lockdown until May 3, but Premier Giuseppe Conte held out hope that some industry could reopen earlier if conditions permit.

Arcuri said that the exit from the lockdown will include increased virus testing, the deployment of a voluntary contact-tracing app, and mandatory blood tests as Italy seeks to set up a system of “immunity passports.”

Your NEW WORLD ORDER, brought to you by Bill Gates and the Pharmaceutical companies, and if you have no certificate of immunity?

India extended its lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people by two more weeks, but Iran, the site of the worst outbreak in the Middle East, reopened government offices and businesses outside Tehran.

In Indonesia, inmates set fire to a prison on Sulawesi island during a riot, apparently angry over restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. There were no reports of riot-related deaths.

They need to be let out like here.

Britain on Saturday reported 917 more deaths from the coronavirus, down from the peak of 980 recorded a day earlier. The country’s overall death toll neared 10,000. At the same time, data suggest that the number of hospital admissions in Britain is leveling off.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson continued to recover at a London hospital, his office said.

Worldwide, confirmed infections rose to about 1.8 million, with over 108,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 400,000 have recovered.

--more--"

At least Irish eyes are smilin':

"How a pandemic rescued the political image of Ireland’s leader" by Mark Landler New York Times, April 11, 2020

LONDON — Just two months ago, Ireland’s leader, Leo Varadkar, was a spent force in Irish politics: A trailblazing prime minister whose failure to solve Ireland’s housing crisis frustrated voters and whose aloof style left them cold. In a three-way Parliamentary race in February, his party finished last.

Last month, Varadkar, still in office as a caretaker, reactivated his registration as a medical doctor and said he would spend half a day each week fielding calls from people who believe they have contracted the coronavirus. What many Irish might have once dismissed as a shameless publicity stunt was instead greeted with broad support — a retired doctor doing his bit to help a great national effort.

To the list of politicians whose fortunes have been rescued by the pandemic, add Leo Varadkar’s name.

Hated leaders who are now beloved, wow.

Ireland has not escaped the scourge of the coronavirus, with 263 deaths, 6,574 confirmed cases, and the expectation is that both numbers will spike in the coming weeks. Its death rate is somewhat lower than Britain’s, while its rate of infection is slightly higher.

It's a scourge, it's a plague, according to the pre$$ -- the same as the ruling cla$$ they front for.

Yet Varadkar, 41, is winning praise for his energetic handling of the crisis. He canceled St. Patrick’s Day festivities, oversaw an aggressive early testing program, closed pubs and schools earlier than other European leaders, and has spoken to the public about the contagion in honest, humane terms — like the general practitioner he once was.

I no longer trust doctors. Mine or anyones.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advisers debated how aggressively to curb the spread of the virus, allowing testing to lag. He was reluctant to order pubs and cafes to close, and his relaxed approach to social distancing came back to haunt him when he contracted the virus himself, ending up in an intensive care unit.

Yeah, funny how people who resist or doubt the hoax crisis suddenly come down with it soon after.

Varadkar’s performance has not completely escaped criticism. Some people clucked over his decision to keep his annual St. Patrick’s Day date with President Trump in Washington during the early days of the outbreak. While there, he called a dramatic news conference at Blair House, opposite the White House, to announce he was closing Irish schools and banning large gatherings.

Later, the prime minister, or Taoiseach, as he is known in Ireland, was criticized for saying that people might prefer to lose their jobs because they would qualify for a weekly pandemic unemployment payment of 350 euros. That played into a familiar critique that Varadkar, the son of an Indian-born doctor and an Irish nurse, has little empathy for those in hardship, but he compensated for those stumbles with an address on St. Patrick’s Day that was viewed by commentators as one of the most memorable ever delivered by an Irish leader.

“We need to halt the spread of the virus, but we also need to halt the spread of fear,” Varadkar declared. “Fear is a virus in itself.”

OMG!

I better quite reading the Globe then!

As in Britain, there is now a long backlog of people waiting for tests. Still, Ireland has tested at more than double the rate of Britain.

Ireland also moved swiftly to impose social distancing, working off an influenza pandemic plan developed 13 years ago, said Dr. Samuel J. McConkey, an infectious disease specialist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

This crap is just in your face!

“We’ve all rolled in behind these measures,” McConkey said. “Even though we’ve had a legacy of shooting at each other over decades, we’re actually quite a socially cohesive society.”

OMFG!

Yeah, we are all one now!

--more--"

"Murder rates were staggering. The virus has brought some quiet, for now" by Kirk Semple and Azam Ahmed New York Times, April 11, 2020

MEXICO CITY — In El Salvador, the number of murders plunged by nearly half between February and March. Neighboring Honduras has also seen a falloff in killings in recent weeks, as has Colombia.

As nations around the world contend with a growing number of fatalities caused by the coronavirus, some are simultaneously experiencing an unanticipated — and welcome — decline in a different form of death: murder.

Domestic violence calls are surging, but that doesn't merit the same focus.

Governments around the world have imposed travel restrictions, curfews, and quarantines to help control the spread of the virus, and by doing so they have inadvertently lowered criminality and violence — for the moment, at least.

Is it inadvertent?

The trend has been particularly notable in Latin America, the region with the highest homicide rates in the world outside of war.

“It’s taking people off the streets,” Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City, said of the pandemic and governments’ efforts to combat it. “The rule of thumb is: The stricter the lockdown, the bigger the effect on crimes committed against strangers on the street.”

In addition, analysts say, not only have the lockdowns led to fewer opportunities for crime — like extortion, muggings, and even murder — but the virus has even taken some criminals out of action as they, too, hunker down in their homes, wary of infection. In several places, criminal gangs have even led efforts to impose curfews in neighborhoods and regions where they hold sway.

Look at that New York Times filth. The criminal gangs are now working for the largest organized crime outfit in existence, governments. Yup, the virus has taken the criminals out of action all right!

El Salvador began its coronavirus lockdown before almost any of its neighbors, closing its borders in mid-March, and shutting down schools and many businesses. On March 22, the government ordered all Salvadorans to remain quarantined in their homes; people caught in the street without the proper permissions were sent to quarantine centers.

The repression is worldwide.

The measures have helped lead to drops in homicides in recent weeks. There were 65 homicides in March, or an average of about two a day, down from 114, or nearly four a day, in February. On four days in March as well as on Monday, there were zero recorded murders.

“We are in a pandemic and our priority is to fight against it, but today many lives were saved,” the president, Nayib Bukele, said on Twitter, hailing the achievement.

Yeah, the loss of freedom is worth it.

The government has mostly attributed the recent decrease to its security strategies, which it started to implement in June when Bukele took office, but experts say the stringent measures intended to compel people to stay home to curb the outbreak has helped to push the numbers far lower.

If he implemented them in June when he came into office, he knew it was coming!

In Honduras, where the government has severely restricted movement and imposed a curfew, stores are now shuttered, streets are empty, and the police are arresting people caught driving or hanging around outside in violation of the lockdown. Between March 30 and April 3, more than 2,000 people were detained for violating government orders to remain inside, the police said.

Honduras is a US client state that underwent a regime change years ago. They chased a leftist populist out so he could be replaced by the traditional military dictatorship most Hondurans are used to. Even stole a vote to validate it.

Since mid-March, when Argentines were asked to stay at home, robberies have fallen by nearly 90 percent in the capital, dropping from an average of 225 per day to 30.

Renato Sérgio de Lima, the director of the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, an organization that studies public safety trends, said that muggings and other forms of routine crime have dropped in several states in the country.

In Colombia, reports of many types of crimes plummeted following the president’s decision to declare a nationwide quarantine beginning the week of March 20. The country had 91 reported homicides between March 20 and 25, compared with 206 during the same period the year before. Assaults fell to 283, from 2,046 the year before, and robberies dropped to 486, from 5,045.

The drugs are still flowing though.

The statistics, however, do not mean that violence in the country has ceased. In the countryside, war continues. Colombia is home to a swirl of armed groups, many of which are involved in drug production and trafficking. Some of them see the shuttering of businesses and borders as a threat to their revenue streams.

Local leaders who speak out against these armed groups have come under attack, and killings of social leaders have gone on even as the virus spreads and families struggle to deal with lost jobs and increasingly limited food supplies.

The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, has called on armed groups to declare a cease-fire amid the health crisis, with limited success.

As long as they enforce the curfew, why bother them?

--more--"

Noticeably lacking in that article: Venezuela.

"China delays mask and ventilator exports after quality complaints" by Keith Bradsher New York Times, April 11, 2020

BEIJING — Chinese officials have begun inspecting every shipment of N95 respirators, ventilators, and other medical supplies for quality issues before export, a policy likely to delay the arrival of critical gear at hospitals around the world that are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

Damn Chinese! 

It's a conspiracy to hurt America!

The policy, announced by the General Administration of Customs on Friday, produced immediate delays Saturday as manufacturers, freight agents, and traders tried to understand how to comply. Depending on the city, they said, the delays could range from a few hours to a few days or longer as government officials rush to comply.

That looks more like American red tape.

The new customs policy comes after a series of complaints from Europe that medical supplies from China had quality problems. Chinese officials have countered that many of these complaints involved industrial respirators that were purchased for medical use but were not designed to meet those standards.

It did say "Made in China," right?

So what did you expect?

The new delays come as countries have complained that a global free-for-all for personal protective equipment has left acute shortages for doctors and nurses. These countries include the United States, Spain, and most recently, Russia.

China is the world’s dominant producer of a wide range of medical supplies. Its manufacturing lead has widened in many sectors as it has engaged in a nationwide mobilization of medical supplies production since late January, when Beijing ordered a lockdown in the city of Wuhan to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus there.

How did that happen?

The new rules cover China’s exports in 11 categories: medical respirators and surgical masks, medical protective clothing, infrared thermometers, ventilators, surgical caps, medical goggles, medical gloves, medical shoe covers, patient monitors, medical disinfection towels and medical disinfectants.

Wen Guicheng, vice general manager of the Hubei V-Medical Products Co., a manufacturer of caps, masks, and gloves based in the southwestern suburbs of Wuhan in central China, said that his company was trying to avoid delays by speaking with customs officials before exporting more goods.

Noah Blake, a respirator trader in Shanghai, said that one of his shipments had already been delayed by the new rule but added that the new regulation would help make sure that public health agencies and consumers could count on medical supplies imported from China.

This after the crisis there is over and we are two months into this one.

The new rules might also help some factories export what they make.

Beijing’s initial response two weeks ago to quality complaints was to require that factories producing medical supplies be certified by the government before they could export their goods. That policy caused export delays at many factories that previously manufactured everything from winches to cranes but suddenly switched to making medical equipment after the lockdown of Wuhan on Jan. 23.

Like what we do here regarding Iran and all the other countries we have under sanction.

Those factories typically do not have medical certification from Beijing, which can take months to obtain.

If these factories are now allowed to export medical supplies that pass quality inspections, then that could allow many more companies in China to export products needed to fight the pandemic.

As China appears to have brought the virus mostly under control within its borders, it has ramped up exports of safety gear for medical workers fighting the outbreak, and China has mounted a humanitarian aid blitz to allay international criticism that it was slow to alert the world to the dangers of the pandemic.

The New York Times couldn't resist the projection, 'eh?

In the United States, the debate over the quality of Chinese medical supplies has centered on respirators that are manufactured to meet China’s KN95 technical standard, which is slightly different from the N95 standard commonly used in North America. The Food and Drug Administration announced April 3 that it had approved the emergency use of KN95 respirators in medical settings in the United States.....

They were fine for Kushner.

--more--"

If you don't like theirs, you can get them from Indonesia or locally (if you can afford the rents).

The power is still out in Maine, not that you are missing anything. Gives you a chance to get outside and scout some turkeys. Can't shoot them, of course, but you can call them out into the open.

"A 15-year-old Springfield boy died in a single-vehicle crash Friday night in Northampton, according to State Police. At 10:36 p.m. troopers responded to reports of a crash on Route 91, where they found that a 2007 Toyota Camry had left the roadway, State Police said in a statement. The 15-year-old driver was pronounced dead at the scene, State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said in an e-mail. The teen was the only person in the vehicle, according to the statement. Preliminary investigation indicates that the Toyota was traveling south on Route 91 when the car left the road for reasons unknown, went through the guardrail and down an embankment, according to the statement. The crash remains under investigation."

He had the radio turned up too loud.

As for this day in history, it was the day that Boston feminists took over the Globe, the same way they did over five years ago when John Henry bought the the paper and put his wife in charge. They are now running the paper with mostly female reporters and screaming racism as often as possible!

Fourth of July Fallout

The main event:

"Trump defends plans for July Fourth extravaganza as criticism mounts" by Michael D. Shear and Thomas Gibbons-Neff New York Times, July 3, 2019

WASHINGTON — Two Bradley armored fighting vehicles rumbled into place on Wednesday in front of the Lincoln Memorial, to be joined later by two Abrams tanks parked nearby. Cranes were putting into place the scaffolding for Jumbotron screens, and workers raced to finish a red, white, and blue stage where President Trump will preside over one of the most unusual Fourth of July celebrations the capital has known.

The audience for Trump’s speech will include thousands of troops assembled by the White House to create a made-for-television moment in which the nation’s commander in chief is surrounded by the forces that he leads.

Weather permitting, the traditional songs for each branch of the military will be played while their officers stand by the president’s side and a procession of aircraft, including Air Force One and the Blue Angels, roars through the skies overhead. Hundreds of guests, many of them hand-picked by the Republican National Committee, will watch from bleachers in a VIP section erected close to the podium.

“It will be the show of a lifetime!” the president posted Wednesday morning on Twitter, but Trump’s decision to turn Washington’s annual Fourth of July celebration into a kind of Trump-branded rally for America has drawn criticism from Democrats, top representatives of the city government, and many military officials who believe the president is using the troops and their gear as political props.

“Put troops out there so we can thank them — leave tanks for Red Square,” said General Anthony C. Zinni, a retired four-star Marine general and former head of US Central Command, who until this year served in the Trump administration as a special envoy to help resolve disputes in the Persian Gulf.

Well, he failed miserably then.

The Fourth of July in Washington is usually celebrated without participation from the occupant of the Oval Office or any political overtones: with a parade down Constitution Avenue, a concert in front of the Capitol, and fireworks over the National Mall, accompanied by the National Symphony. Those separate events will continue as planned, but this year, those traditions ran headfirst into Trump’s desire to replicate the spectacle of grand military parades in other nations, a vision that he has pursued since 2017, when he watched thousands of soldiers marching down the Champs-Élysées alongside scores of tanks during a Bastille Day celebration in Paris.

The president, who declared the French event to be one of the “greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” originally wanted a similar show of military might in Washington on Veterans Day, but it was derailed last August after objections by the city’s officials, concerns from the Pentagon, and a price tag of more than $90 million.

Instead, Trump has ordered the last-minute transformation of the traditional activities of Independence Day into what he calls “a celebration of America” and that critics call a celebration of Donald Trump.

The White House’s plans — including the over-the-top demonstration of the country’s military prowess — have put the Pentagon in a bind, forcing officials to snap to the orders from their commander in chief while also trying to sidestep the inevitable accusation that they are willingly joining Trump in politicizing the troops as well as a national holiday.

Loren DeJonge Schulman, a senior Defense Department official during the Obama administration, said Trump — with the elaborately stage-managed display of military equipment — has inaccurately implied that Pentagon leaders support the parade and its showmanship.

It used to be former Bush officials, and before that former Clinton officials.

“They owe it to the American people to correct the record,” said Schulman, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “The parade is clearly about glorifying the president.”

Yeah, ‘‘we’ve never seen anything like this,’’ and I have seen enough.

--more--"

Related:

Officials on alert as activists plan two days of Washington protests

The Globe will read you the Declaration of Independence while telling you why free speech matters, and I would have someone taste the food before filling your mouth with burgers and beer (don't talk with your mouth full) while awaiting the big show or you may end up a ghost.

Now that you have gotten yourself a front-row seat, put the book down for the speech, speech!

Tanks and planes assemble for Fourth of July ‘Salute to America’

The Globe veered from the text:

"It was a setting tailor-made for President Donald Trump to launch into a partisan address, with a VIP crowd in front of him that included Republican donors and a display of military armor and aircraft he had personally ordered for a "Salute to America" on the National Mall, but during the Fourth of July extravaganza, the president diverged from his typical self-aggrandizing speaking style and instead turned his praise toward the military and ordinary Americans who have contributed to the country's advancement.

The event was clouded in controversy in part because of the fear that the president was inserting himself into a typically nonpolitical event, but Trump largely steered clear of rank partisanship and instead spoke of the history of America's founding while reveling in the displays of military might from the U.S. armed forces.

The president's reference to Betsy Ross was the closest he came to offering political red meat to his base. Ross, who created the first American flag, became the subject of controversy this week after Nike halted the sale and production of sneakers sporting the Betsy Ross flag. 

Nice marketing gimmick.

Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, said the president's fascination with the show is reflective of a presidency more concerned with style than substance. "This is a president who came to the office primarily because he's a showman, and he loves this stuff," he said. "There's almost a childlike joy at being able to move the tanks and the airplanes around on the board."

Just like John the Revelator!

Democrats have accused the president of using the Fourth of July celebration for political purposes, and some have publicly decried the display of military might as a reflection of Trump's authoritarian impulses.

He also said something about planting a flag on Mars if you believe in that kind of thing, and the demonstrations against his appearance were set up by the controlled opposition activist group Code Pink as heavy rain drenched much of Washington, leaving many attendees on the National Mall soaked or scrambling to find shelter (must be some sort of cosmic justice at work), but the Globes says people were in tears at the eloquence of the president, even comparing him to the Father of Our Country:

"San Francisco will spend up to $600,000 to paint over historical artwork at a public school depicting the life of George Washington, a mural once seen as educational and innovative but now criticized as racist and degrading for its depiction of black and Native American people. The ‘‘Life of Washington’’ was painted by Victor Arnautoff, one of the foremost muralists in the San Francisco area during the Depression. The San Francisco School Board’s decision to paint over the 83-year-old mural is prompting some to worry that other artwork from the so-called New Deal era could face a similar fate because of changing sensitivities. In addition to depicting Washington as a soldier, surveyor, statesman, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural at George Washington High School contains images of white pioneers standing over the body of a Native American and slaves working at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. The board’s decision last week comes at a time when the legacies of Washington and other historical figures who owned slaves are being reexamined....."

Polite way of saying they are scrubbing history with censorship being called a ‘‘fresh start,’’ even though it was among many New Deal works of art considered radical when created.

Maybe they should clean up the poop in the streets first, or if not, resign.

Now let loose the fireworks and then plant a tree:

"The most effective way to fight global warming is to plant lots of trees, a study says. A trillion of them, maybe more. ‘‘This is by far — by thousands of times — the cheapest climate change solution’’ and the most effective, said study coauthor Thomas Crowther, a climate change ecologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Six nations with the most room for new trees are Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and China. Before his research, Crowther figured that there were other more effective ways to fight climate change besides cutting emissions, such as people switching from meat-eating to vegetarianism, but, he said, tree planting is far more effective because trees take so much carbon dioxide out of the air. Thomas Lovejoy, a George Mason University conservation biologist who wasn’t part of the study, called it ‘‘a good news story’’ because planting trees would also help stem the loss of biodiversity. Planting trees is not a substitute for weaning the world off burning oil, coal, and gas, the chief cause of global warming, Crowther emphasized. ‘‘None of this works without emissions cuts,’’ he said....."

I am so, so tired of their ga$eou$, agenda-pu$hing $pew.

Related:

Governor during Flint, Mich., water crisis won’t take Harvard fellowship following backlash

They then toasted themselves for their political activi$m.

Allston apartment complex evacuated after resident working on sink causes major water leak

Endangered piping plovers hatch in Boston for the first time in decades

NOAA presses Canada for better right whale protections

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country:

Powerful quake and waves of aftershocks rattle Southern California

The most powerful tremor to shake that region in two decades struck shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time, and geological research along the southern portion of the San Andreas suggests the fault is due for a major rupture. The last big earthquake on the southern San Andreas was 162 years ago.

Could the big one be on the way?

[below the fold]

"What can residents of Massachusetts do about the border crisis?" by Zoe Greenberg Globe Staff, July 3, 2019

The plight of migrants on the southern border has left many in left-leaning Massachusetts struggling to find ways to alleviate the suffering more than 2,300 miles away from home.

Residents have responded viscerally to reports of squalid and inhumane conditions in camps detaining migrants, turning out in droves to two major protests and scrambling to plan more ways to voice their outrage and help migrants in need, from massive vigils to civil disobedience to “solidarity” scooter rides for children.

More agenda-pu$hing $pew.

“Everybody feels compelled to do what’s within their grasp,” said Sarah Kianovsky, a volunteer with Beyond Bond & Legal Defense Fund, a Boston-based organization that raises bond money and provides support for people in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody locally.

That's why I am here nearly every damn day now.

In recent days the city has seen a walkout by hundreds of Wayfair employees to protest the company selling furniture to operators of camps that detain migrant children, and a demonstration by roughly 1,000 Jewish activists and others to protest border camps. That protest blocked traffic and resulted in 18 arrests outside of the Suffolk County House of Correction, where people in ICE custody are detained, and there is more to come. Next week a vigil to end detention camps, called “Boston Lights for Liberty,” will take place on the State House steps. Wee the People, an organization that teaches kids and educators about social justice, is hosting a “Solidarity Scoot” for kids to “ride in solidarity with children who are being abused and caged indefinitely in immigration detention camps.” The ride was inspired by the Wayfair walkout, where a few children arrived on scooters with protest signs.....

That was smart!

--more--"

Nice to see them thaw out the Wayfair event, even if the helicopter ride was worthless.

"Castro’s campaign tries to rise with immigration focus" by Jazmine Ulloa Globe Staff, July 3, 2019

SAN ANTONIO — The presidential debates last week altered his campaign’s trajectory. A breakout performance among the 10 contenders on the first night had Julián Castro effectively setting the Democratic agenda on immigration.

Now the Trump administration faces growing outrage over the deaths of a migrant father and his daughter at the Mexican border along with mounting evidence of abusive conditions at immigrant detention facilities, and the renewed focus on immigration is fueling Castro’s rise.

Man, the whiff of agenda-pu$hing mind manipulation and advocacy journali$m pa$$ing it$elf off as news!

Castro still has a long way to go, but there are signs he is gaining in the presidential race . An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Wednesday showed Castro’s support up to 4 percent, tying him with South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg for fifth in the crowded Democratic field after being mired at 1 percent or less for months. Other polls show he came out of the debate with high favorability, particularly among young voters, and that he doubled his support among Latinos to 18 percent, second only to California Senator Kamala Harris.

Castro, 44, has qualified for the next debate at the end of the month, but he will need to capitalize on the momentum to meet the new higher thresholds for the third debate in September: garnering either 2 percent in three national polls or 130,000 donors.

Castro told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow Tuesday night that he was up to 116,000 donors and had collected about $1 million in campaign contributions in the days after the debate. The interview was the latest in a string of national TV appearances he made as he barnstormed his way through Texas.

Although more known for his work on universal prekindergarten and affordable housing, Castro has been a consistent voice on immigration. Castro’s approach to immigration over the years earned him a reputation as calm and measured — and in the eyes of some immigrant-rights activists, too restrained, but his mother, Rosie Castro, a Chicana civil rights activist, said her sons — the candidate’s twin, Joaquin, is a US representative from San Antonio — approach the issue with the intellect and strategic timing of public servants.....

--more--"

You mind filling this out?

"Justice Department Reverses Course on Citizenship Question on Census, Citing Trump’s Orders" by Alan Rappeport, Maggie Haberman and Michael Wines New York Times, July 3, 2019

WASHINGTON — A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, Justice Department officials reversed course Wednesday and said they were hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump.

The contentious issue of whether next year’s all-important head count would include a citizenship question appeared to be settled — until the president began vowing on Twitter on Wednesday that the administration was “absolutely moving forward” with plans, despite logistical and legal barriers.

Trump’s comments prompted a chaotic chain of events, with senior census planners closeted in emergency meetings and the Justice Department summoned to a phone conference with a federal judge in Maryland to explain itself.

On Wednesday afternoon, Justice Department officials told the judge that their plan had changed in the span of 24 hours: They now believed there could be “a legally available path” to restore the question to the census, and they planned to ask the Supreme Court to help speed the resolution of lawsuits that are blocking their way.

The reversal sends the future of the census — which is used to determine the distribution of congressional seats and federal dollars — back into uncertain territory.

The Supreme Court last week rejected the administration’s stated reason for adding the citizenship question as contrived, but Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, left open the chance the administration could offer an adequate rationale.

An army of critics, from cities and states to ethnic and civil-rights advocates, have argued that the question is an ill-disguised effort to skew the census results to the benefit of the Republican Party.....

Oh, it's all about political power and how much vote fraud you can get away with, huh?

--more--"

To the right and above the fold were a couple of funeral photos the web version must have left in the rubble as experts are worried about the security of the 2020 Census because of the threat of online disinformation campaigns reminiscent of the 2016 presidential cycle. The heated political discourse about the citizenship question has supplied ample fuel, and researchers say they are already beginning to see coordinated online efforts to undermine public trust in the census and to sow chaos and confusion -- as opposed to having certain chosen women and children waved at us in the pre$$.

"Central American officials silent on immigration" by Christopher Sherman Associated Press, July 3, 2019

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala (AP) — The countries of the so-called Northern Triangle, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, rely heavily on the money their citizens send home from abroad, but last month, Mexican Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero indicated where she thought the blame should fall. ‘‘The issue is the humanitarian crisis in Honduras’’ and the rest of Central America.

Ten years after the Clinton coup!

Guatemala has been making its own attempt to smooth tensions with Washington.

In late May, while acting US Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan was visiting the region, Guatemala announced that it had broken up a human-smuggling ring that made some $10 million taking people to the US. The US is also sending immigration agents to work as advisers to their Guatemalan counterparts.

We were told no such things existed, that it was only poor and desperate souls driven to the edge of extinction that made them start walking.

‘‘The policy or attitude of the Central American governments toward the topic of immigration has been of total disinterest for practically the past two decades,’’ said Fernando Neira Orjuela, of the Research Center for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

‘‘That the migrants leave, for some of these governments, is like shedding problems — fewer jobs to worry about, fewer social issues to attend to,’’ Neira said. ‘‘On the contrary, they’ve taken it as a benefit to the extent that for Central America the flow of remittances has a big impact on gross domestic product.’’

The Northern Triangle has not completely escaped Trump’s gaze.

Last month the Trump administration said it would restore $432 million of the $615 million in assistance it ordered cut in March for previously approved projects in the Northern Triangle, but it added that no new funding would be forthcoming until their governments decreased the number of their citizens arriving at the US border.....

For anyone other than the U.S. government (or Israel), such a thing is extortion.

--more--"

Related:

"The 31-year-old woman who died after being stabbed at a Worcester restaurant was allegedly attacked by the same man during a home invasion two months ago, officials said Thursday. The suspect, who has been identified as Carlos Asencio, 28, of Derry, N.H., was arrested Wednesday night after he entered the restaurant, found the woman, and stabbed her, Worcester police said in a statement. After the home invasion, Asencio reportedly fled to Canada, then boarded a flight to Mexico. The fatal attack occurred Wednesday evening at O’Connor’s Restaurant & Bar, according to police....." 

So he flees to Canada(?), is somehow able to board a flight for Mexico, and then somehow gets back inside the United States? 

Now he has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

"Airstrike kills 44 migrants in Libyan detention center" Associated Press, July 3, 2019

BENGHAZI, Libya — An airstrike hit a detention center for migrants near the Libyan capital of Tripoli early Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding dozens of others in an attack that the United Nations human rights chief said could amount to a war crime.

That could set a bad precedent for the EUSraeli Empire.

Oh, right, the U.N. is their tool. No worry then.

The Tripoli-based government blamed the attack on forces associated with General Khalifa Hifter, whose Libyan National Army has been waging an offensive against rival militias in the capital of the war-torn North African country since April. 

The situation in Libya is reminiscent of Spain in the 1930s, and how nostalgically must Libyans now view the Ghaddafi era.

It refocused attention and raised questions about the European Union’s policy of cooperating with the militias that hold migrants in crowded and squalid detention centers to prevent them from crossing the Mediterranean to seek better lives in Europe. Most of them were apprehended by the Libyan coast guard, which is funded and trained by the EU to stem the flow of migrants.

Once again, the "news" is nothing more than political agenda-pushing and an exercise in public mind manipulation by the advocacy journali$m of corporate liberali$m.

At the UN, the Security Council held a closed emergency session on the airstrike in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighborhood, and Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation.

Hifter’s forces said they were targeting a nearby military site, not the detention center. There also were suspicions of involvement by foreign countries allied with his forces.

Countries assisting Hifter include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia.....

He's a U.S. GUY, much like Chalabi, and he is now considered a headache!

--more--"

"Deadly land, deadly sea: Libya migrants face brutal choice" by Maggie Michael and Lori Hinnant Associated Press, July 4, 2019

CAIRO — A boat from Libya carrying 86 migrants sank in the Mediterranean and left only three survivors, authorities said Thursday, after an airstrike on a detention center near the Libyan capital killed dozens of others.

The twin tragedies illustrate the almost unthinkable choice facing those who have reached the North Africa coast while seeking a better life in Europe: Risk a hazardous sea voyage in a flimsy, rubber-sided boat, or face being crammed into a detention center, where some of the migrants say they have been forced to assemble weapons for someone else’s war.

‘‘I fled from the war, to come to this hell of Libya,’’ said one teenager from sub-Saharan Africa who suffered minor injuries in Tuesday night’s airstrike near Tripoli. ‘‘My days are dark here.’’

Thanks, Obama.

The International Organization for Migration said the boat sank late Wednesday off the Tunisian city of Zarzis and 82 of the migrants who had been on board were missing. The boat, which had sailed from the Libyan port of Zuwara, was carrying twice as many people as should have been aboard, said Chamseddine Merzoug, a Tunisian Red Crescent volunteer in an interview via Skype.

The United Nations and aid groups blame the deaths in part on the European Union’s policy of partnering with militias in war-torn Libya to prevent migrants from trying to cross the sea, saying the policy leaves migrants at the mercy of brutal traffickers or confined in detention facilities near front lines, often without adequate food and water. 

I see. We have an agenda-push here for a reflooding of migrants into Europe, another wave if you will.

Migrants who survived the airstrike said they were conscripted by a militia to work in a weapons workshop at the Tajoura detention center, which had been the focus of a UN warning in May after an earlier airstrike hit 100 yards away.

Not only that, all the Libyan arms were moved onto the market and supplied, among others, the U.S.,-sponsored Syrian insurgents and terrorists. Under Gaddafi, that stuff was safely under lock and key.

The wounded teenager said he fled war in his homeland at the age of 14, seeking to join fellow nationals who made it to Europe in rickety boats, but his journey was riddled with torture and abuse. By the time he reached the coast, Europe was no longer so welcoming and he was caught by the EU-funded Libyan coast guard and spent 20 months in the detention center.

What happened, he end up in Gitmo?

For the last eight months, he labored without pay in the workshop adjacent to a hangar housing dozens of migrants, cleaning the militia’s weapons, from rifles to antiaircraft guns, said the youth, who refused to give his name or nationality for fear of reprisal from the militias. When the UN or other aid agencies visit, migrants said, the militia hid the weapons.

I'm starting to not even believe this BS.

The decision to store weapons at the facility in Tajoura, east of Tripoli, may have made it a target for the self-styled Libyan National Army, which is at war with an array of militias allied with a weak, UN-recognized government in the capital.

It's the U.S. playing both sides.

The Tripoli government has blamed the LNA and its foreign backers for the airstrike, which killed at least 44 and wounded more than 130.

The LNA, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, says it targeted a nearby militia position and denies striking the hangar where the migrants were being held. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the attack might amount to a war crime.

Hifter, whose forces control much of eastern and southern Libya, has received support from Egypt, France, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

Many of those who died in the attack were crushed under debris as they slept. Pictures shared by the migrants show the hangar reduced to rubble littered with body parts. More than 48 hours afterward, relief workers were still removing bodies while the wounded lay on bloody mattresses in a courtyard, receiving medical aid.

The teen was sleeping when the munitions fell, obliterating the workshop and knocking him unconscious.‘‘When I woke up, I found myself inside the hospital,’’ he said, but the injuries to his back and leg were relatively minor and on Thursday he was back at Tajoura, along with hundreds of others who survived the airstrike. There are no plans as yet to evacuate them.

In the aftermath of the airstrike, several of the detainees told visiting aid workers that guards fired on them as they tried to escape. Nearly at the same time as the bombs hit, a man speaking English made a call for help from off the coast of the Libyan city of Zawiya. He was with at least 60 people, a third of them women and children, and their boat was taking on water quickly, according to the call log from Alarm Phone, an aid group that takes emergency phone calls from the Mediterranean.

He said the passengers are afraid of dying, and the boat is sinking quickly, but he could see the lights of the town still twinkling in the distance. The responder said their best hope was the Libyan coast guard but he needed to give a GPS location. ‘‘I only have a little phone,’’ he replied.

The coast guard never went out that night.

On Thursday, the UN migration agency confirmed a boat sank off the Tunisian coast, maybe 60 miles away, with 86 people on board. Only three survivors were found. It was not immediately clear if that boat was the source of the phone call, or if Thursday had brought yet another tragedy from Libya.

Salah Marghani, former Libyan justice minister and a human rights lawyer, said any European condemnation of the airstrike is hypocrisy. Led by Italy, the EU has trained and funded the Libyan coast guard despite its record of abuses, and also relied upon militia-run detention centers to lock up migrants indefinitely, fueling instability.

Like the guys who will never leave Gitmo despite not being charged with a crime.

The EU has said repeatedly, including after the airstrike, that migrants should be evacuated to safe places, but has offered no specifics — or a haven for more than a handful from Libya.

‘‘This policy intentionally turned Libya into a firewall to refugees who escaped war and famine in Africa,’’ said Marghani. ‘‘This firewall gives the refugees two choices: either to drown while trying to escape Europe, or being arrested in the high sea to be sent back to Libya.’’

That has to change, right?

--more--"

Otherwise, the body bags will keep stacking up (snack stand employees found the bones around 8 a.m. Monday when they arrived for work, while the person who left the bag was found and is not suspected in any crimes).

Related:

"Venezuela’s government registered nearly 5,300 killings during security operations last year that were linked to cases of ‘‘resistance to authority,’’ the UN human rights chief reported Thursday, denouncing a ‘‘shockingly high’’ number of extrajudicial killings. Michelle Bachelet’s report focusing on the last 18 months follows her trip to the troubled South American country last month and draws upon over 550 interviews conducted by her office with rights defenders, victims, witnesses of rights violations, and other sources. She and her teams held nearly 160 meetings with state and other stakeholders. Bachelet, a former Socialist president of Chile, met with President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela last month. Authorities in Maduro’s government tallied 5,287 killings during security operations that were classified as cases of ‘‘resistance to authority,’’ plus another 1,569 this year through May 19, the report said. ‘‘The incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces, particularly the special forces (FAES), in the context of security operations has been shockingly high,’’ Bachelet’s office said. Bachelet was set to present her report Friday to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where Venezuela will have the right to reply....."

Like it would do any good, and I see no other recourse but a U.S. invasion to set things right.

"The International Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday filed a request with judges to open a formal investigation of crimes against humanity allegedly committed against Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she wants to investigate crimes of deportation, inhumane acts, and persecution allegedly committed as Rohingya were driven from Myanmar, which is not a member of the global court, into Bangladesh, an ICC member. The announcement marked a significant step in efforts to deliver justice to victims of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises of recent years. Bensouda said that a preliminary probe established ‘‘a reasonable basis to believe that at least 700,000 Rohingya people were deported from Myanmar to Bangladesh through a range of coercive acts, and that great suffering or serious injury has been inflicted on the Rohingya through violating their right to return to their state of origin.’’ Her written request said that the coercive acts allegedly committed by Myanmar’s armed forces, border guards, and police included ‘‘killings; rapes, and other forms of sexual violence; acts of physical and psychological violence intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health; and the destruction of property including homes, livestock and entire villages.’’

Everything they accuse Myanmar of has been done by Israel to Palestinians for decades, so as far as I'm concerned, the U.N. can fuck off until they bring indictments against Israel and the Saudis for what they are doing in Yemen, which I was told was currently the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

At least there are protests from the Egyptian government.

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

Back to the campaign trail:

"When candidates collide? Democrats are running into each other on the campaign trail" by Victoria McGrane Globe Staff, July 3, 2019

This Independence Day, President Trump will have his tanks, fighter jet flyovers, and red carpet at the Lincoln Memorial. The Democrats vying to unseat him will, in several cases, be having barbecue.

Many of the two dozen Democrats running for president plan to celebrate the birth of American democracy with some good old-fashioned retail politics, pressing flesh along small-town parade routes, and pitching themselves at cookouts and ice cream socials. Multiple babies will probably be kissed.

That seems as crass as what Trump is doing, and the equating of independence with presidential campaigns is downright sickening.

It’s a sign of how much candidates believe these events matter still — at least those events in the early Iowa and New Hampshire contests — even as cable news, Facebook ads, and small-dollar digital donations gain influence in the process of picking a nominee.

Those at the head of the chock-full field of candidates will be in Iowa — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Kamala Harris of California included, but not Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who rocketed to the top of one Iowa poll this week: Her campaign says she’ll spend most of the day on an airplane, traveling from Nevada to a multicandidate forum Friday hosted by the National Education Association in Houston.

The truth is, she and Sanders are the two biggest draws with grass roots support, and does Harris’s busing stance really differ from Biden’s?

Biden, bruised from a lackluster first debate performance, and Beto O’Rourke, the former representative from Texas whose star has slumped since a buzzy entrance, are going for peak Americana: marching in the Independence Day parade in — where else? — Independence, Iowa. They’ll both also pop in to an Iowa Cubs minor league baseball game that night in Des Moines.

O’Rourke plans to double down with an appearance at a town reading of the Declaration of Independence in — wait — Independence, before the ball game.

For Sanders, the name of the holiday is endurance. The 77-year-old has four parades in central Iowa on his schedule, plus an ice cream social sandwiched in between.

Harris, who has drawn fresh attention after battering Biden in the debates, and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who is raising scads of money but losing ground in post-debate polls, are both attending barbecues hosted in separate Iowa outposts.

Related:

"Former vice president Joe Biden’s haul for the second quarter of the year cements his status as one of the financial heavyweights among the two dozen Democratic presidential contenders, but Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., raised $24.8 million in the quarter, his campaign said this week. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont collected $18 million. Sanders’ campaign, which is not holding high-dollar fund-raisers, collected less money but received a much larger number of donations — nearly 1 million....." 

In the year 2019 and the age of $ocial media, $$$'s do = votes, and it looks like Sanders is going to get screwed again.

New Hampshire, meanwhile, should be on alert for a lower-tier candidate pileup hours before Trump basks in the jet fumes from the Navy’s Blue Angels and F-22 fighter jets. 

Let's all hope he takes a deep breath, huh?

Several 2020 hopefuls knocked the multimillion-dollar extravaganza planned for the National Mall, which has drawn criticism for its expected cost and politicization of what is typically a president-free celebration.

When Bill Clinton politicized it, that was okay and then dispatched down the memory hole.

“This is what authoritarians do,” Sanders tweeted, linking to a Washington Post story detailing how the administration would cover just part of the expected price tag for the Trumpified event. The president “is taking $2.5 million away from our National Park Service to glorify himself with a spectacle of military tanks rolling through Washington.”

“It’s unAmerican. It reminds me of the Soviet Union or China or North Korea with these military displays,” Representative Seth Moulton, a veteran and Salem Democrat, said in Nevada, where he’ll be attending several July 4 festivities.

Trump, of course, doesn’t see it that way.....

--more--"

"In New Hampshire, 5 presidential candidates take to the parade route to meet voters" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, July 4, 2019

AMHERST, N.H. — Standing along Boston Post Road, Brad Hutchinson, a 61-year-old Amherst Republican, said he’s actually leaning toward voting Democrat this year. President Trump — who did not appear to have any presence at the Amherst parade — is “in my opinion, toxic,” he said, and to be able to meet the Democratic candidates face to face just days after they appeared on national television is “kind of cool.”

“I can go either way,” he said, several campaign stickers in hand and two — for Sanders and Warren — still stuck to his shirt.

“For those who are actually here, it’s not going to swing the vote,” he said, but he appreciates them showing up. “Fourth of July, Amherst — it’s pure Americana, seeing a couple candidates sweating bricks.”

OMG!

Their presence is also expected. Lauren Buchanan, another Amherst resident, said seeing nearly a half-dozen candidates in the span of 10 minutes is no novelty.

“Not for New Hampshire,” she said, a vintage “Buchanan for President” sign resting against her chair on the parade route. The Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-unenrolled-voter said she keeps the sign not because of a particular affinity for Pat Buchanan’s presidential bids in the 1990s, but simply because it bears her name.

The Bushes stole New Hampshire from him after he won Iowa, and I give Pat credit for running when he did. He is one of the few candidates in the last quarter-century or so that actually cared about America.

This year, she said, she’s leaning toward Gabbard. As the Hawaii congresswoman worked the crowd along Main Street just before noon, Buchanan took her hand and told her that of all the candidates she saw in the debate, what Gabbard said “made the most sense to me.”

That is a backhanded way of saying support for Gabbard is crazy.

“I tell my friends,” Buchanan told a reporter afterward, “if you want to meet [the candidates], come here.”


Former representative John Delaney walked along the route ahead of supporters of Bernie Sanders during the parade.(Mary Schwalm/Associated Press)

Wow, look at all the signs!

--more--"

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

Get you a front seat:

"She’s the master of explaining transportation disaster. And so far, Stephanie Pollack is not going anywhere" by Matt Stout and Joshua Miller Globe Staff, July 3, 2019

She is the master of explaining transportation disaster, yet, suddenly Stephanie Pollack, Governor Charlie Baker’s longtime transportation secretary, finds herself in an unusually harsh spotlight, even by the standards of one of the most public jobs in the administration.

The combination of a chaotic June subway derailment and the RMV’s disastrous backroom lapses, each playing out below her, has thrust the former transit advocate into an intense debate over accountability and failure inside the Baker administration.

The governor this week reiterated his faith in Pollack, who herself has batted away questions about whether she intends to resign, and those close to the administration say there’s little reason to believe her job is in jeopardy, but even for one of Baker’s longest-serving Cabinet members, the public pressure now is unlike anything she’s stared down — no small thing for a bureaucrat.

If the derailment of a Red Line train last month added to a simmering pot of frustration, the failures at the RMV set it to a full boil. Officials admitted last month they should have terminated a West Springfield truck driver’s commercial license before he struck a group of motorcyclists, killing seven, in New Hampshire.

He's Public Enemy #1 and this is worthle$$ journali$m.

See you Saturday!

The agency’s registrar, Erin Deveney, quickly resigned amid the disclosure, and after days of questions, the Baker administration hastily called a press conference Monday. There, it was Pollack — not Baker — who first took to the podium to disclose that Registry officials had ignored tens of thousands of alerts that Massachusetts-licensed motorists had broken driving laws in other states for more than 15 months.

Almost immediately, Pollack was asked by reporters if she would follow Deveney out the door.

“The governor asked me to fix this and I’m going to fix it,” she said then.

Pressure, however, has not followed from the Democratic-controlled Legislature or the advocacy circles where Pollack — a former leader at the Conservation Law Foundation — operated for decades.

Within the Baker administration, Pollack is still held in high regard. Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito said this week she has faith in Pollack and praised her “creativity” in the job.

“I know that she enjoys the governor’s fullest confidence,” added Jay Ash, who served as Baker’s housing and economic development secretary until last year. “The governor really values smarts and an ability to put smarts into action,” qualities that Ash said Pollack has.

I wonder what agenda he is pushing now.

Steve Kadish, who served as a Baker chief of staff during his first term, described Pollack as a person of integrity and a creative, dogged manager who is able to make difficult choices.

“She’s been one of the best secretaries in the Baker administration. She’s been one of the best secretaries of transportation,” he said.

Pollack, whom aides did not make available for an interview, graduated from MIT with bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and public policy in 1982 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1985. At the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, she was an advocate for urban livability and against lead paint, and she battled for more investments in public transit.

The 59-year-old later served as associate director for research at Northeastern University’s Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and worked as a public policy consultant before Baker, in a surprise pick, made her the state’s transportation chief.

“She’s one of the most talented, thoughtful, and honorable people that we’ve got in public service,” said Douglas Foy, the former Conservation Law Foundation president, who hired Pollack as a science intern at the nonprofit when she was in college and worked with her for more than 20 years.

Then we are in big, big trouble.

Foy, who served as a top official in the gubernatorial administration of Mitt Romney, said Pollack was exactly the right person to tackle endemic transportation problems such as the T, ones that go “back decades and through numerous governors.”

“I don’t think it’s fair to hold Stephanie any more responsible than anyone else who preceded her over a generation of leaders,” he said.

Of course, he would say that given his history.

Barry Bluestone, the founder and former director of the Dukakis Center, argued the responsibility lies with those in the present, too — namely Baker and the Legislature, whom he said have collectively failed to create a vision for state transportation.

“If she was on her own, she would be on the front lines arguing for more funding for transportation. She would be on the front lines arguing for an expansion of service,” he said. “Unfortunately, she’s trying to keep a broken system going with at least one hand, if not both hands, tied behind her back.”

That dichotomy — Pollack, once a gas tax advocate, working under Baker, an equally fierce opponent of it — has been apparent since the governor first named her secretary in January 2015, but today, she is one of just three of the original members still serving in the governor’s Cabinet. Baker’s predecessor, Deval Patrick, once had four transportation secretaries in less than three years.....

When is this train going to get moving?

--more--"

Related:

Man dies after being struck by commuter rail train in Newton

He was a man in his 20s, and foul play is not suspected.

MBTA has video of Red Line train derailment on June 11

Top T officials have not mentioned its existence despite multiple public appearances since the June 11 incident. The Globe has asked for the past two days whether the transportation agency was in possession of any video recording of the derailment.

9-month-old twins found near railroad tracks in Worcester

Shorter lines at the RMV shouldn’t come at the expense of safety

Why doesn't she just park it and run for mayor? 

Look who is on the front lines:

"Though strike continues, Martha’s Vineyard buses running close to normal on Fourth of July" by Kellen Browning Globe Correspondent, July 4, 2019

The Fourth of July marked the seventh day of a strike for union bus drivers on Martha’s Vineyard, who remain embroiled in a contract dispute with their employer.

For visitors arriving to celebrate the holiday weekend, bus service is running close to normal, as the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority has enlisted non-union workers to replace the union drivers.

The transit authority’s Facebook page announced Thursday afternoon that with the exception of a route servicing Chilmark, “all routes are running scheduled service today.”

That is what is known as an ineffective strike, and it is why the union drivers immediately offered concessions!

Nancy Gardella, the executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday she hasn’t heard of any issues with holiday weekend visitors getting around the island, nor has she fielded complaints from stores worried about how the strike might affect Fourth of July business. The VTA is a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

“The visitor experience is fairly seamless,” Gardella said, noting that many tourists are using alternative modes of transportation, such as bikes, taxis, and ride-sharing services. Some are getting on the VTA’s buses, she said.

She said picketers are prevalent at bus stops and ferry terminals across the island, so visitors are well aware of what’s going on. Most businesses she’s talked to, Gardella said, are sympathetic to the striking drivers.

Richard Townes, a driver for 23 years, said the union has received “tremendous” support from the community.

“Texts and things are just coming in left and right, and everything’s positive,” he said by telephone Thursday.

Gardella said a “safe, affordable, reliable clean public bus system” is essential to the visitor’s experience on the resort island.

“We’d really love to see this resolved as quickly as possible,” she said.

We want our jobs back, and we are sorry we went on strike!

The union and authority are negotiating with help from a federal mediator.

Health care benefits and other issues have been resolved, but wages remain the biggest sticking point, said Steve MacDougall, an international representative for the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents the 45 to 50 drivers.

The ATU on Tuesday submitted a new proposal to Transit Connection Inc., the Florida-based contractor for the VTA.

The two sides have agreed on a new starting wage of $19.50 per hour, up $3 from the current wage, he said, but have not yet agreed on an increase for the top rate age, which is $23.50 for workers with 14 years or more of service.

Why not fire them and keep the scabs?

The union has proposed a top rate of $26.50 per hour, for workers with eight or more years of service. The rate would eventually increase to $27.50 per hour, and workers would be eligible to receive it after 6 years of service, according to MacDougall

“We just want a liveable wage,” he said.

Looks more than livable to me! 

They look greedy!

Angela Grant, the VTA’s administrator, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, but she blasted the union for a “misinformation campaign” in a statement released earlier this week.

They must be working with the Russians, meaning unions are communist hotbeds!!

The ATU has “an agenda that has shown little regard for our community and the riders of our transit system,” she said in a press release Monday. “The VTA remains committed to delivering safe and professional transit service and will continue to provide as much transit service as possible to our neighbors and riders.”

I can see why the printed Globe cut those last four paragraphs. 

The drivers SHOULD BE FIRED!

--more--"

Now if they were airline pilots, that would be a different story:

"Venture capitalists oppose plan to bar discrimination in investments" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff, July 4, 2019

Boston’s venture capital industry, long dominated by white men, has repeatedly pledged to fund a more diverse group of startup founders, but now it’s resisting a state legislative proposal that would prohibit investors from discriminating against women and minorities when deciding which companies to back.

The bill aims to close what its supporters see as a loophole in the state’s civil rights laws. Prohibitions against discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace generally don’t apply to investors in a company. It also targets a huge imbalance in a crucial industry for the region: Only a tiny share of the billions invested each year go to women and minority businesses, but the New England Venture Capital Association has told lawmakers it’s wary about extending antidiscrimination laws to what are often informal discussions over the prospect of funding. Investors might turn down meetings with long-shot prospects for fear of getting sued for not funding them, they said, which could actually make it harder for women and minorities to get a foot in the door.

Legal experts said it would be difficult to prove discrimination by venture capitalists, who reject investment opportunities all the time, but it’s not impossible to imagine what a case might look like: A woman founder gets positive feedback from a fund, but then, at a decisive meeting, the fund’s president expresses skepticism the mother of three children would have the bandwidth to lead the company.

The venture industry’s opposition to the measure came as a surprise to its backers. The association had previously expressed general support for the proposal.

“It makes me think they’re not serious,” said Jules Pieri, cofounder and chief executive of The Grommet, a Somerville-based digital marketplace for innovative consumer products. “You have to accept accountability if you want to correct an issue.”

Unless you work in government. Then there is none.

Women remain hugely underrepresented in the venture capital industry, both here and at a national level.

Venture capitalists put $2.3 billion last year into Massachusetts firms with at least one female founder, according to the data firm PitchBook . Though that was an increase over previous years, it represented less than a fifth of the $11.7 billion in venture capital invested here overall. The amount of investment in firms founded only by women were even more dismal: $141 million, or 1.2 percent.

They should self-indentify as Jewi$h (if they aren't already) and then stand back and watch the whirling dervish of action!

The situation for many minority founders is also grim. One national survey released this year found that 1 percent of venture-supported founders were black, while 1.8 percent were Latino.

The power imbalance between entrepreneurs and the early-stage investors who fund their companies has been cast in harsh light in recent years. In a number of cases, high-profile male venture capitalists lost their jobs after being accused of unwelcome advances against women pitching their companies.

As you can $ee, the agenda-pu$hing is con$tant and never-ending!

In this case, it's lets $pread out the $poils to buy off diver$e groups so we can change the face of the inve$tor cla$$.

Following those revelations, the industry has faced something of a reckoning. Industry leaders have expressed concern over the lack of diversity in their sector, acknowledging that the monolithic makeup of many startups limits the range of ideas that make it to market and weakens the pipeline for talent. It also cuts against research showing diverse teams produce better financial returns.

They’ve taken some steps to nurture minority talent, but the association says the bill pending on Beacon Hill could backfire. Maia Heymann, cofounder of the venture firm Converge, told lawmakers at a hearing last month that, as one of the few women leading venture firms in the Boston area, she listens to many pitches from women starting businesses.

Though many of the businesses do not interest her as investments, she said, she wants to offer advice and encouragement to female entrepreneurs. She said, however, if she faced the prospect of lawsuits from those she didn’t fund, she might not be as keen to take those meetings.

“There would be too much downside risk for simply trying to be helpful,” said Heymann, who is a member of the venture association’s board.

State Senator Cindy F. Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, said she had heard little from the venture association until last week, at a legislative hearing on the measure she proposed several months ago. She said she has since scheduled a meeting with the venture group.

Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat and cochairman of the committee considering the bill, said he was unconvinced by the argument laid out by the industry.

“That somehow suggests that a female entrepreneur looking to get into the venture capital industry, that they’re inclined to file false charges if they don’t receive an investment,” Eldridge said. “That’s a very hurtful suggestion.”

Hey, this is bu$ine$$. Can't let your feelings get involved!

Jody Rose, president of the New England Venture Capital Association, declined to be interviewed.

Heymann did not respond to requests for comment.

Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge who is a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, said she is doubtful that such an antidiscrimination law, if passed, would result in many rejected entrepreneurs winning judgments.

They’d have to prove that they were rejected because of their membership in a protected class, and not for some reason related to the quality of the investment opportunity they presented.

“The difficulty of proof over time will be a disincentive for people to bring these cases,” Gertner said. Nonetheless, she said such a legislative move could make a difference: “Maybe the presence of the law will change the culture.”

Now sign this NDA!

That’s the hope of the bill’s supporters, which include some venture capitalists. Adrian Mendoza of Boston-based Mendoza Ventures said he hopes the legislative action “starts a conversation on the investment side.”

Amy Spurling, chief executive of Compt, a Boston-based human resources software startup, said she thinks support is quietly building.

“Something has to change, and it’s not changing on its own, so legislation has to move the needle, which will be better for all of us,” Spurling said.....

OMG!

--more--"

There she is, the one helping to put together a state budget, and maybe the vulture capitali$ts should try opening a consignment and thrift clothing store in White River Junction.

Related:

As search for UMass Boston head begins, interim leader makes her mark

Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter dies at 62

He was a high-visibility leader who worked to stem the opioid crisis in his community and beyond, and he died suddenly and no foul play is suspected, but the state medical examiner’s office will conduct an autopsy. 

I wonder how quickly they will get that one done.

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

"A Las Vegas police officer has been fired for remaining one floor below the gunman who fired into a crowd of concertgoers from a high-rise hotel room and killed 58 people in 2017, the police union president said Wednesday. Officer Cordell Hendrex was terminated by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in March for his inaction at the Mandalay Bay hotel during the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, said Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association. Body camera footage released by the department shows Hendrex, accompanied by another officer and armed security guards, walking and standing in the hallway of the 31st floor as the gunman fired on people below at a concert venue. On the recording, the officers and guards can be heard reporting that the gunman is one level above them, but for several minutes they stay on the floor below. Hendrex later wrote in a report on the shooting that he had frozen, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last year. “I know I hesitated and I remember being terrified with fear,” Hendrex wrote."

He should have shot someone. Then he would absolved.

Related:

On fifth anniversary of murder, Cambridge police seek public’s help

What happens in Cambridge....?

2 men arrested on gun charges while headed to Encore casino ‘to win some money’

Had they not been speeding, they never would have been caught.

Florida agency encourages killing iguanas

It's a reptile invasion, and they don't say how to exterminate them. 

I would say use a gun, but....

Florida woman who took husband’s guns faces misdemeanor

The case is more about a messy divorce and marital discord.

Judge blocks Ohio abortion law, clinics to remain open

Manslaughter charge against woman shot while pregnant is dropped

That is what former Globe reporter Farah Stockman has been reduced to covering?

Reports of unwanted sexual contact up at Coast Guard Academy

They are going to conduct extra patrols to curb the behavior.

Navy SEAL acquitted of murder, convicted for posing with victim

He came away from it with a demotion and a couple of black eyes.

Younger generation falls in love with typewriters

It helps them learn morse code and keep them safe.

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

President Rouhani says Iran will begin enriching uranium at higher level in days

Taken alone, that step does little to bring Iran closer to the potential development of a nuclear weapon, and the stockpile could easily be reduced to compliance by shipping the excess abroad, but the violation of the 2015 agreement nonetheless served as a warning that the pact itself was in imminent danger. In response, top diplomats from the European Union, Britain, France, and Germany released a statement Tuesday warning that they were “extremely concerned” and that “our commitment to the nuclear deal depends on full compliance with Iran.”

PFFT!

The Europeans can't even set up a trading mechanism with them, and yet is insisting that Iran adhere to the agreement! What a bunch of servile vassal states!

"Gibraltar intercepts Syria-bound tanker thought to be carrying Iranian oil" New York Times July 4, 2019

LONDON — Port authorities in Gibraltar on Thursday detained a supertanker they said was carrying crude oil to Syria, a violation of European Union sanctions against Syria.

Spain said the vessel had been detained at the request of the United States, and Iran summoned Britain’s ambassador over what a Foreign Ministry spokesman called an illegal seizure. US and British officials had no immediate response on Thursday.

It's an act of war, and the provocations continue and continue.

Shipping experts said the tanker, the Grace 1, appeared to be carrying Iranian cargo, in an apparent attempt to circumvent US sanctions imposed by President Trump to choke off Iran’s exports of oil and petrochemical products.

Companies that monitor shipping say the vessel turned off its electronic tracking devices as it sailed into Iranian waters, then turned them on after leaving — a tactic often used to evade the sanctions, though ships can still be followed through satellite photography.

Not like they would ever lie about anything like that.

The government of Gibraltar, a British territory contested by Spain, declined to comment on the cargo’s origin, but addressed its destination.

They “have reason to believe it's oil to Syria.”

Spain’s acting foreign minister, Josep Borrell, who is set to take over as the EU’s foreign policy chief, told Spanish news media that the Spanish government had been kept informed about the seizure and would study whether it violated its territorial waters claims. Spain does not recognize Britain’s sovereignty over Gibraltar, which dates to a 1713 treaty.

I doubt the Spaniards will stand up for Iran, and they never helped anyone win a war anyway.

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Sayed Abbas Mousavi, said on Twitter that Britain’s ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire, had been summoned to the Iranian Embassy over the seizure of the vessel.

Must be why Iran deported Joss Stone.

Samir Madani, a cofounder of TankerTrackers.com, which follows maritime traffic using satellite data, said the ship was anchored near the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island in mid-April. Later, he said, it sat deep in the water, indicating it was carrying oil from Iran.....

--more--"

This is where the next shipment is headed:

"Hong Kong protesters take stock after arrests and China’s condemnation" by Mike Ives and Tiffany May New York Times, July 3, 2019

Hong Kong’s protesters were working Wednesday to maintain a united front and take stock of the movement’s gains and losses, as police said they had arrested eight people for disclosing police officers’ personal data online without their consent.

On Tuesday, a core group of younger demonstrators drew condemnation from Beijing and the local government for storming the city’s legislature a day earlier.

That's odd, for they were portrayed as heroes here!

The forcible occupation of the legislature sent shock waves through this slick financial hub, known for its efficiency and orderliness. The question now is whether the largely leaderless protest movement can maintain enough unity — and public support — to push its demands, or whether Monday’s vandalism will irreparably splinter the movement or damage its credibility.

Such mixed me$$ages when it comes to covert U.S. government destabilization efforts!

The arrests appeared to deal a blow to the protesters’ efforts to retain the moral high ground in their dispute with authorities.

PFFFT!

A police spokesman, Mohammed Swalikh of the police force’s Technology Crime Division, told reporters Wednesday evening that members of the police force had reported more than 800 incidents of harassment of themselves or family members following the release of their data, a practice known as “doxxing.”

His announcement came a few weeks after critics of police conduct began creating open-source databases in which users shared officers’ phone numbers and the names of their spouses and high schools, among other details, with some lists referring to the police as dogs.

Absolutely reeks of the U.S. government, but at least they have left the Chinese power grids alone!

The protest movement is divided to some degree over how best to push its demands as some have started engaging in more militant action. Many in the movement agree on what those demands should be, but differ on whether destructive acts would help or hurt the cause.

I guess sometimes violence is okay, huh?

The protests on Monday started out with a march that was intended to disrupt the Hong Kong government’s celebration of the anniversary of the territory’s return to China from Britain, but police beat back those protesters and doused them with pepper spray, and a core group of demonstrators later turned to target the Legislative Council. Police later said that during the confrontations, some protesters threw a toxic substance at officers that could cause itchiness and difficulty breathing, and that 13 officers sought medical treatment.

They gotta be nuts!

As the protesters bashed their way into the legislature, hundreds of thousands of other demonstrators joined a peaceful afternoon march. Several protesters said they did not take part in storming the legislature but defended it as an act of desperation by demonstrators who felt that peaceful tactics had failed to persuade the government to meet the demands of the broader movement.

Don't give Americans any ideas, 'eh?

The demonstrators were also saddened and outraged by the recent deaths of three people in what they described as protest suicides, and have held them up as martyrs in the face of repression, but as the protesters debated their next steps on social media, some raised concerns that a destructive approach — in contrast with demonstrators who had earlier been praised for cleaning up trash after huge rallies — would alienate the public.  

PFFT!

That was when the printed Globe killed it.

Some were increasingly worried that there would be more deaths, and people began sharing their concerns and suicide hotline numbers on message groups. A few dozen people on Wednesday morning went out looking for people who had posted despairing messages on social media accounts.

Billy Li, head of the Progressive Lawyers Group, an association of prodemocracy lawyers and students, said that while the use of unlawful force against property could legally be considered violence, the government’s emphasis on the protesters’ vandalism was politically motivated.

Then China is no different from us!

“They are using the protesters’ violence to shift the public’s attention away from their demands,” Li said. “The government’s indifference is an even greater violence. Three young people have already given their lives in protest.”

The Civil Human Rights Front, a prodemocracy group that organized several well-attended marches and rallies against the extradition bill, expressed qualified support for the siege.

“Although we hope certain actions that were aroused by tyranny would not need to take place, we fully understand that it was the protesters’ decisions,” the group said in the statement. “Some chose to escalate their actions without calculating their own personal costs. In fact, these protesters have taken a step that none of us were brave enough to take.”

Isn't that incitement?

Reporters invited by public officials to tour the scene of destruction Wednesday saw brightly lit rooms strewn with snacks, trailing wires, defaced portraits, and graffitied walls. A few binders of confidential documents spilled from shelves.

“I think that this type of action will gradually drain the momentum built by 2 million protesters, because it clearly creates a riot-like impact,” said Candice Lee, 38, a social worker who had participated in previous marches against the extradition bill with her children. She said she believed Monday’s occupation would “cause peaceful protesters who have always been supporting them to part ways with them in disappointment.”

Meaning they never really had as much support as I have been led to believe by my pos pre$$.

--more--"

Related: Hong Kong police announce first arrest in storming of legislature

As protesters gird themselves for the possibility of more detentions and what they fear will be a citywide dragnet.

Time to go on the Lam, then.

"Amsterdam is proposing ‘‘fundamental’’ changes to its famed red light district to ensure the rights of sex workers, prevent crime, and reduce nuisance for local residents and businesses. The city said in a statement that Mayor Femke Halsema will discuss with sex workers and residents four options for the neighborhood’s future. The proposals range from closing the curtains of windows so that prostitutes are not on public display, closing down brothels with display windows altogether, and moving prostitution somewhere else in the city. The announcement Wednesday of a public consultation on the future of the neighborhood marks the latest attempt by Amsterdam officials to clean up a part of the city’s historic center that has in recent years become a noisy, overcrowded tourist magnet."

The moral degeneracy that wafts from that place stinks almost as much as the pot.

French priest defrocked for abusing Scouts in landmark case

The priest is guilty of sexually abusing as many as 85 Boy Scouts over several years during the 1970s and 1980s.

Cardinal O’Malley to stay on after formally offering resignation to pope

He never came up in the movie, either.

Former Spotlight reporter hits the big time: The New York Times crossword puzzle

That's the "big time," huh?

French Michael Jackson fans sue ‘Leaving Neverland’ accusers

They are stepping on the man's grave when it would have been better to have left it in the dark.

"The nuclear reactor on one of the Russian navy’s research submersibles was not damaged in a fire that killed 14 seamen, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday, adding that the vessel would be put back into service after repairs. The Defense Ministry said the 14 seamen were killed by toxic fumes from Monday’s blaze, the navy’s worst accident in more than a decade. It said some others survived the blaze, but there was no information on how many crew members have been rescued. The ministry didn’t name the vessel, and the Kremlin refused to divulge any details about it, saying the information is highly classified. Replying to questions from President Vladimir Putin about the nuclear reactor’s condition, Shoigu praised crew members for ‘‘heroic’’ actions, saying those who died sacrificed their lives to rescue a civilian expert and to save the ship."

Some are saying there is more to the "accident" than is being reported.

May God help them:

"A clash of worldviews as Pope Francis and Putin meet again" by Jason Horowitz New York Times, July 4, 2019

ROME — Whenever President Vladimir Putin of Russia meets Pope Francis, he keeps him waiting. Thursday’s visit to the Vatican was no different.

That is the New York Times' complaint? 

Weak!

Officials in Italy had locked down the capital, closed public parks, and diverted traffic, preparations befitting a state visit by the Russian leader. He met Italian leaders and his old friend Silvio Berlusconi, but his most closely watched appointment was with the pope, amid tensions over Ukraine.

Francis is viewed by many European liberals as the greatest moral voice against the resurgence in populism and the demonization of migrants, but for many European nationalists and anti-migration politicians, the Russian leader is their alternate pope — the spiritual strongman of their movement.

Honestly, I am really, really sick of the Jewi$h War $lop.

The tête-à-tête between the standard-bearers of two competing views of Christianity on the Continent, their third, took place in a private Vatican library and came as an ideological polarization between nationalists and liberals cleaves the West.

“Putin represents a medieval, pre-enlightenment Christianity or at least pre-Vatican II view of Christianity,” said Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist of religions, referring to the Second Vatican Council that brought modern reforms into the church.

Consider the source of the statement!

Introvigne said Putin had made it clear that he believed Western values, such as a belief in human rights and religious liberty, were not universal rights and did not necessarily apply in Russia. On the other hand, Introvigne said, “Pope Francis represented a more progressive and modern view of Christianity that accepted and promulgated the Western conception of human rights.”

That is coming from an institution that has engaged in pedophilia for centuries. 

I mean, if they really cared about human rights, they wouldn't have covered it up for so long!

AmeriKan journali$m has become such crap!

For Putin, the meeting was a way to burnish his reputation as a global leader and show that he is willing to meet with a presumed spiritual adversary, and Francis believes that Putin’s cooperation is essential for the protection of Christians in the Middle East, where Russia is active. The pope is also pursuing unity, or at least better relations, with the Russian Orthodox Church.

He doesn't need to burnish anything. He is respected across the world as a thoughtful and measured leader defending human decency against the predations of the Zionist ogre class.

In typical fashion, Putin was an hour late.

Yeah, rip him anyway you can. I'm sure if Biden shows up late for a rally, it will be because of Russian interference.

The meeting in the Vatican comes as Putin has taken to directly addressing Europe’s Catholics, many of whom are attracted to nationalist politicians. In a recent interview with The Financial Times, in which Putin declared the end of Western liberalism, he was asked whether religion would then play a greater role in national culture and cohesion.

“This is exactly why I will now say a few words about Catholics,” he said, embarking on what seemed like a defense of the traditions of the Catholic Church. “Sometimes I get the feeling that these liberal circles are beginning to use certain elements and problems of the Catholic Church as a tool for destroying the church itself,” Putin said.

He has a point, and the purpose is clear: if you can create division amongst the goyim and destroy their institutions, it will be that much harder for said group to unite against you, be they Catholics, whites, or Muslims -- however, that doesn't preclude the fact that the church has basically destroyed itself by its centuries worth of actions (and that is coming from a long ago, self-excommunicated Catholic).

This was music to the ears of traditionalists and hard-right nationalists, who are convinced that Francis — who has spoken inclusively of gay people and Muslim migrants — is that destructive element.

Putin has many fans in Italy, including the country’s de facto leader, anti-migration interior minister Matteo Salvini, who has publicly professed admiration for the Russian leader.....

He has traveled to Putin’s political party events in Russia and once wore a shirt with Putin’s face on it at the Kremlin.

--more--"

NEXT DAY UPDATES

The top story on this slow Saturday and long weekend:

"State officials say hundreds more licenses have been suspended in RMV probe" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, July 5, 2019

Nearly 900 drivers accused of vehicular homicide, drinking while driving, and other serious offenses had been allowed to keep their licenses because the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles ignored thousands of alerts from other states, officials said Friday.

The latest disclosure marks a significant jump from the 546 drivers whose licenses officials had previously suspended as part of their review of the Registry. Stephanie Pollack, the state’s transportation secretary, said officials suspended 330 more licenses this week, bringing the total to 876.

More suspensions may still be coming as officials dig through archived notifications going back to 2011, she said.

That's eight years ago now.

For the first time Friday, the Registry also revealed the breadth of charges those drivers faced in other states, a stunning list of more than 70 offenses that include leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and fatal hit-and-run.

State officials have not released the drivers’ names or where the violations occurred.

The new details deepen the fallout within the department. The Baker administration has also had to reckon with its admission that the Registry should have terminated the commercial license of a 23-year-old West Springfield truck driver before he allegedly plowed into a group of motorcycle riders, killing seven, last month in Randolph, N.H.

The RMV registrar, Erin Deveney, resigned last week in the wake of the case against Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who now faces negligent homicide charges in connection to the New Hampshire crash. Massachusetts officials said they failed to act on a notification from Connecticut officials after Zhukovskyy was arrested there on suspicion of operating under the influence six weeks before the New Hampshire crash.

That was when he became the Globe's Public Enemy #1.

A memorial motorcycle ride for the seven people killed is expected to draw thousands Saturday to New Hampshire.

I predict a Globe article in tomorrow's Sunday Globe.

Governor Charlie Baker, who made remaking the Registry into an efficient hub of bureaucracy a key campaign plank, acknowledged the agency has struggled to balance a focus on customer service and its public safety responsibilities at a Friday news conference.

One wonders if a Democrat, or anyone, can fix the bureaucracies in this state.

It was in reviewing Zhukovskyy’s case that officials uncovered the more sweeping, systemic problems, but even with the disclosures, several questions remain. As part of its review, state officials said Friday they’ve hired the accounting firm Grant Thornton to conduct an “end-to-end” forensic audit.

This is reminiscent of the State Police scandal, and how many records will be accidentally destroyed during the forensic audit?

Officials are also creating a deputy registrar position focused on public safety, and in an unprecedented move, state officials are planning to cross-reference all 5.2 million of its license holders at one time with a federal database of motor vehicle infractions. The process is expected to start July 15. 

Laying on another layer of bureaucracy is not the answer, but they do it every time. More patronage; however, the alarming thing is running all our licenses into the Fed database to advance the centralized police state. So much for guarding our privacy in the age of Trump!

The crisis at the Registry has put the Baker administration on the defensive, including Pollack, who earlier this week brushed aside questions of whether she planned to step aside. Baker on Friday reaffirmed his support for his longtime secretary, saying he has “full confidence that she’ll fix” the issues within the Registry.

That's one of the articles above, and I'm so glad they pocketed this further bad news for the Saturday of the long Fourth of July weekend.

The agency’s problems have also opened the Baker administration to potential state and federal scrutiny.....

Uh-oh. I'll bet that will hurt his poll numbers.

--more--"

They are out for blood, Chuck:

Blood samples reveal valuable data — and life-changing surprises for donors

“It's very scary” when you find out you are not who you thought you were.

[flip to below fold]

The ‘72 class of Melrose High celebrated their eligibility for Medicare.

“It’s mind-boggling, it’s frightening, it’s scary, it’s wonderful.”

Government lawyers step up effort to get a citizenship question on 2020 Census, court filing shows

I'm not going to pursue the fine print that was wiped away, sorry.

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

Tales from inside City Hall

The shallow, superficial, self-adulating, self-aggrandizing, self promotion being passed of as news has become offensive.

"Victim identified in fatal Worcester restaurant stabbing" by Jeremy C. Fox and Diamond Naga Siu Globe Correspondents, July 5, 2019

WORCESTER — As she lay bleeding on the floor of O’Connor’s Restaurant & Bar Wednesday, Amanda Dabrowski questioned how the man who had been charged with attacking her in April had been able to return to attack her again.

As did I.

“Oh my God, how did you get back into the country?” Dabrowski asked the man who had just stabbed her, according to Brendan O’Connor, the owner of the restaurant.

Authorities say that Carlos R. Asencio, 28, of Derry, N.H., stabbed Dabrowski 15 to 20 times, and that he had been charged with attacking Dabrowski in her home in Ayer in April. He has now also been charged with murder.

Asencio appeared in Worcester District Court Friday, where he was ordered to Bridgewater State Hospital for evaluation. According to court clinician Stephanie Hansen, Asencio has been having auditory hallucinations over the past two years and has a history of suicide attempts, as well as neurological issues and untreated depression.

Poor fella.

Not-guilty pleas were entered on Asencio’s behalf; he is scheduled to return to court on July 25.


Carlos Asencio, 28, of Derry, N.H. was arraigned at Worcester District Court Friday.(Nic Antaya/The Boston Globe)

Yeah, he doesn't look like he would hurt anyone.

Asencio’s lawyer, Boston criminal defense attorney Robert M. Griffin, said Friday that he didn’t know how his client located 31-year-old Dabrowski at the restaurant. According to authorities, Asencio fled the country after the April incident.

Asencio was a co-worker at pharmaceutical maker Bristol-Myers Squibb in Devens whom Dabrowski had dated for about three months before ending the relationship, according to a police report.

He was working at the pharmaceutical plant, huh? 

Anybody surreptitiously feeding him drugs, or was it like the state drug lab where they were stealing for their own use?

On Easter morning, Dabrowski awoke shortly after 4 a.m. to noises in her home and went downstairs, according to the report. She found a window open and a “dark bag with rope straps” on her floor, as well as handcuffs, the report says. A masked man in black stepped out of her bathroom and used a stun gun to subdue her, and she fought back using a vape pen and a bottle of alcohol, according to the report.

The man choked her, but she bit his fingers, according to the report. She made it into her kitchen, pulled a paring knife from a drawer and stabbed at the man, then grabbed a larger knife and again lashed out, according to the report. The intruder pulled out a handgun and gestured for Dabrowski to get on her knees, according to the report.

The two struggled and Dabrowski was able to push the man outside through a window, according to the report.

When Dabrowski went to call 911, her cellphone was missing, so she took a knife and her dog and drove to the police station, according to the report.

Asked how Asencio was able to reenter the United States without being arrested, despite the outstanding warrant, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection told the Globe he could not comment.

“Due to privacy laws, I’m unable to discuss an individual traveler’s specific case – especially when it involves a US citizen,” the spokesman, Michael S. McCarthy, said in an e-mail.

That's a cover-your-ass e-mail, and they care more about the killer's privacy than yours!

Dabrowski graduated with honors from Northeastern University in 2011, with a major in biology and a minor in criminal justice, according to a university spokeswoman.

In her free time, Dabrowski ran a wine blog called The Glorious Grape, which she described as a “place for all types of enthusiasts to explore their passion for wine through education — without overwhelm, judgement, or pretension.”

She was a great sommelier!

She had gone to O’Connor’s on Wednesday to attend a book club meeting. Asencio allegedly entered the pub while Dabrowski was in the restroom and walked back and forth looking for her, according to a police report.

Asencio was subdued by bystanders before the police arrived.....

Good thing they weren't up in a plane; otherwise, they would have just sat there as planes were rammed into buildings.

--more--"

Also see:

Illegal fireworks blamed in 4-alarm fire in Dorchester

Witness describes sounds of gunfire and panic in Dorchester park during 4th of July celebration

"Trump revives mystery of Pence’s N.H. trip cancellation" by Martin Finucane Globe Staff, July 5, 2019

When Vice President Mike Pence canceled a trip to New Hampshire this week, his office didn’t offer much of an explanation but insisted there was no cause for alarm.

Now I'm feeling there is a cause for alarm, and maybe there is something to the alternative theories out there. More than likely true, in fact.

Now the mystery is back. Asked Friday about Pence’s cancellation, President Trump said there was a “problem up there.”

“You’ll know in about two weeks. There was a very — a very interesting problem that they had in New Hampshire. And I can’t tell you about it. It was a very — but it had nothing to do with White House,” Trump said. “There was a problem up there,” he said. “And I won’t go into what the problem was, but you’ll see in about a week or two.”

That's how long they need to come up with some concocted and contrived cover story, probably an assassination attempt warning, right?

Trump commented Friday morning at the White House before he headed to his golf club in Bedminister, N.J.....

--more--"

Related:

Trump Fed pick Judy Shelton says central bank should support markets

That is exactly what they are doing even if the milestone week ended on a down note.

Trump plans drug pricing executive order aimed at ensuring U.S. pays less than other nations

So at the last minute he, what, doesn't sign it? 

Those are dangerous waters, sir. That lobby is one of the handful of most powerful lobbies, and I am awed at their influence.

"Hundreds gather for Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s fund-raiser and town hall in Provincetown" by Aidan Ryan Globe Correspondent, July 6, 2019

PROVINCETOWN — Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg — a Rhodes Scholar and former intelligence officer for the Navy Reserves — was fourth behind former vice president Joe Biden, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a recent Iowa poll, and fifth in a national poll of Democrats released by Quinnipiac this week.

The South Bend mayor out-raised Biden in the second quarter with a $24.8 million haul and even edged out prolific fund-raiser Sanders, who has raised $18 million.

Asked by the Globe about a CNN poll that found Buttigieg polling at zero percent among black voters nationally, Buttigieg touted his Douglass Plan.

Jill Hollenbach, a resident of Centerville, said she has been excited about Buttigieg since he launched his run for president, even prior to learning that he was gay — though when she did, she was “more proud.”

Bob Inderbitzen, who was on vacation from Glastonbury, Conn., and attended the rally with his husband, said he is excited about the “incredible diversity” of the Democratic field.

“That’s very exciting. Women, people of color, our LGBTQ candidate Mayor Pete. So that’s exciting that the Democratic Party has attracted such wide diversity,” he said.

Inderbitzen said he hadn’t committed to a candidate yet, but Buttigieg is “right up there.”

The problem is such a strategy concedes a large swath of the country and electoral college to Trump.

Buttigieg was slated to appear at a series of fund-raisers in the area this weekend, according to a campaign spokeswoman.....

Even though he is dropping in the polls.

--more--"

Today is also the birthday of the war criminal and former President George W. Bush, and the  dementia gains him no sympathy here.

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

"Biden says Harris caught him off guard in debate" by Matt Stevens New York Times, July 5, 2019

Asked about whether he needed to select a woman as his running mate should he win the Democratic nomination in an interview broadcast Friday morning on CNN, former vice president Joe Biden said, “I think it’d be great to have a female vice president, and if I don’t win, it’d be great to have a female president.”

Whatever he has to do or say to secure that nomination.

Biden’s latest remarks come as his support has slipped in several post-debate polls that have also shown Senator Kamala Harris on the rise.

In the CNN interview on Friday, Biden labeled himself as “center-left” and said he believed that “the vast majority of Democrats are where I am on the issues.” He sought to draw a contrast with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the leading liberal voices in the House, whom he called “brilliant” and “bright, but she won a primary,” Biden said, referring to the 2018 midterm election. “In the general election fight, who won? Mainstream Democrats.”

Biden also offered the clearest articulation yet of his stance on decriminalizing illegal border crossings. He said he did not support plans to do so, like the one proposed by the former housing secretary Julián Castro, who is also running for president.

“I think people should have to get in line, but if people are coming because they’re actually seeking asylum, they should have a chance to make their case,” he said, and Biden again signaled that he was trying to stay above the fray [when] asked by the CNN anchor Chris Cuomo why he had not more fiercely defended himself during the debate.....

What else can he do? 

To get in the fray could mean foot in mouth.

--more--"

Also see:

Aftershocks follow Southern California earthquake

Thursday’s 6.4 magnitude quake struck in a sparsely populated region near the town of Ridgecrest and a sprawling Navy installation.

UPDATE: Southern California reels from magnitude 7.1 quake

I would be quaking a little if I lived out there.

Maybe move east a little:

"The body of a slain college student has been recovered in a Utah canyon about 85 miles away from a backyard in Salt Lake City where other remains were found last week, police said Friday. The disclosure came in the case involving 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. The canyon is near Utah State University, where 31-year-old suspect Ayoola A. Ajayi sporadically attended classes for several years without earning a degree. Lueck disappeared June 17, after she returned from a trip to her hometown of El Segundo, Calif., for her grandmother’s funeral and took a Lyft from the airport to a park where she met someone....."

The pre$$ here is covering up that she was an online prostutute, an American beauty with great lashes and an Instagram account who was simply enjoying the Good Life.

"Lueck has been remembered as a bubbly, nurturing person. She was a member of a sorority and a part-time senior at the University of Utah studying kinesiology and pre-nursing. Ajayi is an information technology worker who had stints with high-profile companies and was briefly in the Army National Guard. He has no criminal history but was investigated in a 2014 rape allegation and was arrested in a stolen iPad case at Utah State in 2012. The arrest and the expiration of his student visa got him banned from the campus for about three years. A native of Nigeria, Ajayi is now a US citizen, records show. His ex-wife has told reporters she was afraid of him, and police have investigated a report that he asked a contractor to build a secretive and soundproof room in his home....."

With hooks on the walls and a flashing red light, something my pre$$ reports omitted.

"The legal maneuver that raises questions about the viability of the criminal case, and Marc Breakstone, a veteran Boston lawyer whose practice focuses on civil litigation, said that dropping the case “with prejudice” is extremely significant. “This will never be refiled,” Breakstone said. “This claim is now extinguished for all time.” Breakstone said the withdrawal of the suit could indicate that Kevin Spacey has reached a settlement of some type with the accuser, who is the son of former Boston television anchor Heather Unruh, but if there is a settlement, he added, there likely is a confidentiality requirement that will keep details private. Breakstone said the filing could also indicate the criminal case could be in jeopardy....."

Then he can get back into acting and we can all enjoy his movies again, right?!

"Coal tycoon Chris Cline, who worked his way out of West Virginia’s underground mines to amass a fortune and become a major Republican donor, has died in a helicopter crash near a string of islands he owned in the Bahamas. Cline and his 22-year-old daughter, Kameron, were on board the aircraft with five others when it went down Thursday, a spokesman for his attorney said Friday. The death of the 60-year-old magnate led to eulogies from industry leaders, government officials and academics, who described Cline as a visionary....."

Hmmmm.

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

"Mothers rally as Hong Kong’s divide shows no sign of closing" by Ken Moritsugu Associated Press, July 5, 2019

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s societal divide showed no sign of closing Friday as students rebuffed an offer from city leader Carrie Lam to meet and a few thousand mothers rallied in support of young protesters who left a trail of destruction in the Legislature’s building at the start of the week.

‘‘Don’t feel lonely, dad and mum will support you’’ read one of many handwritten messages held aloft at a ‘‘Hong Kong Mothers’’ rally.

MUM?

So I guess the British want to recolonize the place, huh?

One speaker, university professor Sealing Cheng, asked who was responsible for the destruction of the Legislature, implying that an arrogant government had driven the protesters to break into the building and rampage through it.

‘‘Our hearts ache for the young protesters and our society torn apart,’’ she said in a speech to the crowd of mostly women.

That's probably not something that you should tell the American people, 

The mainland’s economic influence loomed large at the rally, held in a square under the towering offices of the Bank of China and other Chinese banks. Many young people feel left out of the China-driven economy, struggling to make ends meet and stuck in tiny apartments because of soaring real estate prices. They think a democratically elected government would be more responsive to their needs than one chosen by pro-Beijing elites who benefit from the economic ties to the mainland.

Well, they certainly took the chum on democracy, huh?

If I didn't know better, I would say we are looking at an Occupy AmeriKa movement from long ago -- except you aren't stuck in a micro-apartment.

The Monday night assault on the Legislature — in which glass walls were shattered, slogans spray-painted over the walls, and the electronic voting system destroyed — seems to have hardened positions on both sides.

The pro-Beijing establishment condemned the violence, as did the Chinese government. On the other side, a large swath of Hong Kong’s population expressed sympathy for the students, seeing them as having sacrificed for a shared cause, that of preventing an erosion of freedoms and increased Chinese influence over the semi-autonomous territory.

That's at total odds with what was printed above two days ago!!

Lam, who disappeared from public view for two weeks as protests mounted, pledged to do a better job of listening to the voices of young people in a morning speech on Monday, a holiday that marked the 22nd anniversary of the return of Hong Kong from British rule to China, but her invitation later in the week to meet behind closed doors was rebuffed by student unions at two Hong Kong universities as insincere and a publicity gimmick.

Yeah, they won't hear you with the bullhorn of western intelligence in their ears.

Student leaders said at a news conference Friday that any meeting should be public and include a wider representation than just themselves. They also demanded that protesters, dozens of whom have been arrested, not be prosecuted.

‘‘A closed-door meeting does not have any witnesses to prove what was discussed; the public does not know what the dialogue was about,’’ said Jordan Pang from the University of Hong Kong Students’ Union. ‘‘The public has the right to know.’’

Not in Ma$$achu$etts!

--more--"

They called for their mommies because they can't fight own battles?

I meant mums, sorry:

"They lived in desperate straits in Poland, often homeless and suffering from addictions. So when the call came to get free housing and well-paid jobs in Britain, hundreds decided to make the move, but instead of a better life, British authorities said Friday, the immigrants found themselves in the clutches of a human trafficking ring that lured workers to England, starved them, crowded them into squalid housing, forced them to work long hours at menial jobs, stole their wages and paid them as little as 10 pounds, or about $12, a week. Eight of the group’s members, all of them Polish, have been found guilty in a Birmingham court of trafficking and forced labor, in the “largest ever modern slavery prosecution” in Britain, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. The ring may have victimized as many as 400 people over several years, prosecutors said. Forced labor is a persistent problem around the world, but the scale of the practice shocked many after a government-commissioned report in 2017 said that tens of thousands of people across the country, many of them British citizens, were ensnared in what it called “modern slavery” in nail salons, carwashes, farms, and other low-wage businesses....."

Who will deliver the packages?

Related: NGO ship carrying rescued migrants barred from docking in Italy

It's another standoff with Italy’s populist government as the Libyan crisis is sunken and submerged after a few days of flogging.

While they are trying to get Hong Kong back, maybe they can get Iran, too:

"Iran should consider seizing a British oil tanker in response to authorities detaining an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar, a former leader of the Islamic Republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Friday. The striking comment by Mohsen Rezaei came amid heightened tensions over Iran’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord from which the United States withdrew last year. In recent days, Iran has broken through the limit the nuclear deal imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium and plans on Sunday to boost its enrichment. Authorities in Gibraltar intercepted the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday, saying they believed it to be violating European Union sanctions by carrying a shipment of Iranian crude oil to Syria. Spanish authorities said the seizure came at the request of the United States. A spokesman for the government of Gibraltar, who wasn’t authorized to be identified in media reports, said all 28 crew members remain on the vessel while being interviewed as witnesses. The crew is comprised of mainly Indian, Pakistani, and Ukrainian nationals, he said....."

That article begins so disingenuously, as if Iran unraveled the deal and has "broke out" its enrichment that is still nowhere near bomb grade, but then does proceed to tell you from where the EU gets its orders. 

"Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, brought up the drone incident during Friday prayers. He said the reason that the United States did not attack Iran after was because Trump fears Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile. ‘‘When Iranian missiles are able to hit a stealth drone thousands of feet in the air, how easy would it be to hit an aircraft carrier in the sea?’’ he asked. The United States said its ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Jackie Wolcott, had requested a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss its ‘‘latest, concerning report on the Iran regime’s nuclear program.’’

John Bolton tweeted that the ship’s seizure was ‘‘excellent news’’ in what has become a preventable tragedy that haunts this summer (they are in over their heads and can't swim).

Hard to believe that Globe readers blasted the “Salute to America” given what was reported above -- as they turn a blind eye to gerrymandering because it looked like a penis!