Related: That Dog Dershowitz
Just dropping a few names of my own.
"Sex allegations against Dershowitz called ‘mistake’" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff April 09, 2016
Two plaintiffs’ lawyers admitted Friday that they made “a mistake” when they accused famed attorney Alan Dershowitz of having sex with their client when she was a minor.
The admission came in a joint statement released by the lawyers, Paul G. Cassell and Bradley J. Edwards, and Dershowitz to settle defamation suits the two sides filed against one another in state court in Florida.
“Edwards and Cassell acknowledge that it was a mistake to have filed sexual misconduct accusations against Dershowitz,” the statement said. “[A]nd the sexual misconduct accusations made in all public filings ... are hereby withdrawn. Dershowitz also withdraws his accusations that Edwards and Cassell acted unethically.”
Dershowitz, 77, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School, welcomed the resolution of the case.
“It’s as if I’ve been waterboarded for 15 months,” Dershowitz said. “This has taken a terrible toll on my family, on my friends. . . . I never met this woman, I didn’t know her.”
(Blog editor shakes his head at the misplaced metaphor and analogy. The hyperbolic arrogance and self-supremacism is shocking)
The defamation suits stemmed from a motion that Cassell and Edwards filed in December 2014 in a separate, federal lawsuit in Florida that involved one of Dershowitz’s former clients, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit challenged the propriety of a 2008 agreement by prosecutors that permitted Epstein to plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and serve about a year in prison.
He paid his fine now leave him alone!
In the December 2014 motion, Cassell and Edwards asked a judge to allow the addition of two plaintiffs to the suit. One of them had said Dershowitz was among the men Epstein forced her to have sex with many years earlier, in New York, New Mexico, Florida, on a Caribbean island owned by Epstein, and on Epstein’s private planes. The woman included Dershowitz in a list of several “prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders” she was allegedly forced to have sex with, court records show.
Yeah, that all needs to be covered up lest we learn what scum are our honorable and noble leaders.
A judge denied Cassell and Edwards’ motion in April 2015 and struck the allegations from the case, calling them “immaterial and impertinent.” But Dershowitz pressed on with his defamation suit.
Friday’s joint statement said the defamation case “was about Dershowitz’s public claims that Edwards and Cassell . . . failed to perform the necessary due diligence before filing the allegations of their client, not whether the acts of alleged misconduct in fact occurred.”
Dershowitz produced travel documents and other records showing he could not have been present at specific locations and times when the woman claimed the sexual misconduct occurred, and that he produced additional evidence to “refute the credibility of the allegations,” the statement said.
Separate issue, but that doesn't seem to affect all the war-pushing lies I read page after page.
On Friday night, Dershowitz also provided correspondence from former FBI director Louis J. Freeh indicating Dershowitz’s accuser also alleged she and President Clinton were on Epstein’s island at the same time at some point between Jan. 1, 2001 and Jan. 1, 2003.
Oh, that convinces me. Some FBI director and cover-up specialist (think Ken Feinberg, folks; didn't Freeh "investigate" Sandusky and Penn State?) vouched for him.
However, Freeh wrote, there is no record of the former president’s Secret Service detail traveling with him to the island then, leading Freeh to conclude Clinton was not there.
So who got rid of the records, or did he give the SS the slip like he used to in the White house?
Through their attorney, Cassell and Edwards said in a court filing Friday that the “allegations against Defendant Dershowitz became a major distraction from the merits of the well-founded . . . case by causing delay and, as a consequence, turned out to have been a tactical mistake. For that reason, Edwards and Cassell have chosen to withdraw the referenced filing as a condition of settlement.”
My mistake is reading this slop.
--more--"
I suspect documents were forged after the fact and the accusers were sufficiently intimidated to back down.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Slow Saturday Special: Note From Natixis
Found it on the bed in the hotel room:
"Natixis CEO urges counsel to keep protesting Calif. hotel workers at bay" by Beth Healy Globe Staff April 08, 2016
It’s a long way from cleaning hotel rooms in southern California to occupying a corner office in Paris.
But apparently not far enough for Pierre Servant, chief executive of Natixis Global Asset Management. When union organizers for 150 workers at the Westin hotel in Long Beach, Calif., asked for a meeting at the $870 billion investment group’s Paris headquarters, Servant’s answer was a definite non merci, internal e-mails show.
“We need to get those guys off the back of Natixis,’’ Servant wrote to an underling. “Who knows what will happen if they come to Paris?”
The union is pursuing Natixis, with US operations in Boston, because it manages the hotel through a subsidiary.
For more than a year, cleaners, banquet servers, and front desk staff at the Westin have complained that they are denied overtime pay and meal breaks. Some cleaning staff are required to show up ahead of their shifts without pay, they say, to prepare supplies on their carts.
A large Los Angeles union local is trying to organize the workers, who have been holding protests in front of the hotel, steps from the Pacific Ocean. Negotiations have failed so far, union officials say.
The workers have had to navigate a complex chain of players, from the pension fund that owns the hotel to an investment adviser owned by Natixis, with top executives in Paris and Boston.
“People are outraged,’’ said Lorena Lopez-Masoumi, an organizer for Unite Here, Local 11. “A French bank now coming to smaller communities, breaking the law and should not get away with it.”
Fine them and let's move on.
The hotel is majority-owned by the Utah Retirement Systems, which manage $27 billion for more than 200,000 public employees.
???????????????????????
The Utah system relies on an outside adviser, AEW Capital Management — a unit of Natixis — to handle its hotel investment, pension spokesman Brian Holland said.
“But we have been clear that we respect the employees’ right to a fair and legal process to decide whether to unionize,” Holland said in a statement.
That message may not be getting through. Yet another company manages the hotel day-to-day for AEW, Noble-Interstate Management Group. Noble was named in the lawsuit.
In March, Unite Here started writing to Natixis in Paris to request a meeting. Jim Kane, a research coordinator for the labor group, first contacted shareholder relations. When he didn’t hear back, he took it up a notch. In an e-mail to Paris executives Monday, Kane suggested that a union representative and a Long Beach hotel worker could travel to France for a meeting.
That request made it to the radar of the chief executive. In an e-mail exchange this week, copies of which were reviewed by the Globe, Servant wrote to Natixis’s general counsel, Jeffrey Plunkett, asking, “Jeff, What do we do?”
Plunkett responded that this sort of thing has happened in the past. “We have talked with AEW and I believe we have ignored the request from the union,’’ he wrote.
Because the union has sued the hotel, Plunkett said, “all the more reason to stay out of the discussion.”
That’s when Servant urged him to make the problem go away, expressing concern over what might happen if the workers arrived in Paris.
In response to an inquiry about the e-mail exchange, a Boston spokesman for Natixis, Ted Meyer, said, “We take inquiries from our stakeholders very seriously, and each is reviewed by the personnel best equipped to address the issue.”
Natixis executives in France referred the matter to US attorneys....
--more--"
See: Nasty Natixis
They f*** more than just unions.
Related:
"More firms adding student loan repayment as benefit" by Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff December 08, 2015
"Natixis CEO urges counsel to keep protesting Calif. hotel workers at bay" by Beth Healy Globe Staff April 08, 2016
It’s a long way from cleaning hotel rooms in southern California to occupying a corner office in Paris.
But apparently not far enough for Pierre Servant, chief executive of Natixis Global Asset Management. When union organizers for 150 workers at the Westin hotel in Long Beach, Calif., asked for a meeting at the $870 billion investment group’s Paris headquarters, Servant’s answer was a definite non merci, internal e-mails show.
“We need to get those guys off the back of Natixis,’’ Servant wrote to an underling. “Who knows what will happen if they come to Paris?”
The union is pursuing Natixis, with US operations in Boston, because it manages the hotel through a subsidiary.
For more than a year, cleaners, banquet servers, and front desk staff at the Westin have complained that they are denied overtime pay and meal breaks. Some cleaning staff are required to show up ahead of their shifts without pay, they say, to prepare supplies on their carts.
A large Los Angeles union local is trying to organize the workers, who have been holding protests in front of the hotel, steps from the Pacific Ocean. Negotiations have failed so far, union officials say.
The workers have had to navigate a complex chain of players, from the pension fund that owns the hotel to an investment adviser owned by Natixis, with top executives in Paris and Boston.
“People are outraged,’’ said Lorena Lopez-Masoumi, an organizer for Unite Here, Local 11. “A French bank now coming to smaller communities, breaking the law and should not get away with it.”
Fine them and let's move on.
The hotel is majority-owned by the Utah Retirement Systems, which manage $27 billion for more than 200,000 public employees.
???????????????????????
The Utah system relies on an outside adviser, AEW Capital Management — a unit of Natixis — to handle its hotel investment, pension spokesman Brian Holland said.
“But we have been clear that we respect the employees’ right to a fair and legal process to decide whether to unionize,” Holland said in a statement.
That message may not be getting through. Yet another company manages the hotel day-to-day for AEW, Noble-Interstate Management Group. Noble was named in the lawsuit.
In March, Unite Here started writing to Natixis in Paris to request a meeting. Jim Kane, a research coordinator for the labor group, first contacted shareholder relations. When he didn’t hear back, he took it up a notch. In an e-mail to Paris executives Monday, Kane suggested that a union representative and a Long Beach hotel worker could travel to France for a meeting.
That request made it to the radar of the chief executive. In an e-mail exchange this week, copies of which were reviewed by the Globe, Servant wrote to Natixis’s general counsel, Jeffrey Plunkett, asking, “Jeff, What do we do?”
Plunkett responded that this sort of thing has happened in the past. “We have talked with AEW and I believe we have ignored the request from the union,’’ he wrote.
Because the union has sued the hotel, Plunkett said, “all the more reason to stay out of the discussion.”
That’s when Servant urged him to make the problem go away, expressing concern over what might happen if the workers arrived in Paris.
In response to an inquiry about the e-mail exchange, a Boston spokesman for Natixis, Ted Meyer, said, “We take inquiries from our stakeholders very seriously, and each is reviewed by the personnel best equipped to address the issue.”
Natixis executives in France referred the matter to US attorneys....
--more--"
See: Nasty Natixis
They f*** more than just unions.
Related:
"More firms adding student loan repayment as benefit" by Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff December 08, 2015
Company benefits used to be pretty standard fare — life insurance, retirement, maybe some paid parental leave. Now, companies desperate to hire the best and the brightest young workers are starting to offer a new perk: help paying off college loans.
It’s a powerful lure for a generation of graduates struggling to pay off college debt as they set out on their own. The number of companies offering loan help is small, but on the rise.
Natixis Global Asset Management S.A., a Boston-based unit of the French financial firm Natixis, announced Tuesday that it will contribute up to $10,000 to pay federal student loans of employees who have worked there at least five years.
I wonder where that money is coming from.
Off the backs of hotel workers?
I wonder where that money is coming from.
Off the backs of hotel workers?
Fidelity Investments said it will launch a student loan assistance program early next year, also offering $10,000, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global auditing and consulting firm with 3,000 employees in Greater Boston, will roll out a plan on July 1. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Bright Horizons Family Solutions LLC, the Watertown early childhood education provider, said they are considering their own programs.
“We think this is going to be a strong benefit,” said John Hailer, president of Natixis in the Americas and Asia. “I’m hoping that it’s going to be like the retirement account.”
They going to make those go away, too?
"The retirement landscape has changed over the last decades, with company pensions disappearing and more people responsible for building their own retirement savings."
They going to make those go away, too?
"The retirement landscape has changed over the last decades, with company pensions disappearing and more people responsible for building their own retirement savings."
What do you mean they were serving themselves before you?
Student loan help as a workplace perk was pioneered by the federal government, which offers debt forgiveness to attract people to lower-paying public service jobs such as teaching. Private firms are now following suit, underscoring how big an issue student debt has become as college costs balloon and more people seek degrees to compete in the knowledge economy.
Student loan help as a workplace perk was pioneered by the federal government, which offers debt forgiveness to attract people to lower-paying public service jobs such as teaching. Private firms are now following suit, underscoring how big an issue student debt has become as college costs balloon and more people seek degrees to compete in the knowledge economy.
What a load of CRAP!
Economists say that outstanding college debt — which has more than doubled to $1.2 trillion since 2007 — is hindering young adults and forcing them to delay starting families, buying homes, and saving for retirement.
That's under your "friend" Obama, kids.
Thankfully, he is finally acting on it in the last year of his administration.
Companies, however, aren’t tackling the student loan problem just to boost the finances and morale of their workers, analysts said.
I didn't think that was it anyway.
That's under your "friend" Obama, kids.
Thankfully, he is finally acting on it in the last year of his administration.
Companies, however, aren’t tackling the student loan problem just to boost the finances and morale of their workers, analysts said.
I didn't think that was it anyway.
Millennials — adults in their 20s and early 30s — are now 83 million strong and outnumber baby boomers. As the economy improves and the labor force tightens, employers are seeking ways to attract young workers and retain them, said Bruce Elliott, a manager for compensation and benefits at the Society for Human Resource Management, a Virginia-based trade group.
“Employers don’t do this to be nice,” he said. “It’s absolutely an investment.”
Such benefits promise to be popular. Fidelity is still cementing details of its program, aimed at employees at the lower end of the pay scale, but the initial reaction has been more than enthusiastic, said Jennifer Hanson, the senior vice president of human resources at the Boston-based fund giant.
“You don’t usually get high fives in the hallway,” she said.
Or backslaps from yourself.
Or backslaps from yourself.
Only 3 percent of companies offer student debt repayment, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, but the trade group expects it to become widespread in the next five years. Supporters of repayment programs are lobbying Congress for legislation to make these employer contributions tax exempt for workers. Such contributions are now considered taxable income.
Oh, the "good will" is so they can receive more tax breaks!
Oh, the "good will" is so they can receive more tax breaks!
Meanwhile, technology companies that provide the software to manage student loan repayment benefits for companies are flourishing. The Boston startup Gradifi Inc., which is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers, expects to double its workforce to 32 in the next nine months, said Tim DeMello, the company’s chief executive.
In November, MassMutual led a group of investors that put $5 million into Tuition.io Inc., a California student loan management company that specializes in company-sponsored repayment programs. MassMutual, which sells life insurance and manages 401(k) plans, backed Tuition.io because it is hard to persuade young adults to save for retirement and set aside money for life insurance when they are burdened by college loans, said Mark Goodman, managing director of MassMutual Ventures, an investing arm of the company.
Student loan repayment benefits are “going to be a big market,” Goodman said. “It’s hard to save for the future when you’re worried about student debt.”
And after you have been kicked in the balls!
And after you have been kicked in the balls!
But whether these workplace debt repayment programs will make a dent in the student loan problem is unclear.
What's this in the fine print after more than 3/4 of the article?
Companies rolling out these programs are likely ones that already compensate their employees well, making these workers less at risk of defaulting on student loans, said Lauren Asher, president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a California nonprofit that advocates for more affordable education.
What's this in the fine print after more than 3/4 of the article?
Companies rolling out these programs are likely ones that already compensate their employees well, making these workers less at risk of defaulting on student loans, said Lauren Asher, president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a California nonprofit that advocates for more affordable education.
And they don’t address the underlying problem of skyrocketing college costs, she said. Average student debt has climbed 60 percent to about $29,000 from about $18,000 in 2007, according to the US Department of Education.
“It’s not solving the larger issue,” Asher said of corporate loan repayment benefits. “It doesn’t address what’s driving the need to borrow in the first place.”
But it will get those financial firms and good old tax cut!
But it will get those financial firms and good old tax cut!
Some workers say they would prefer higher pay to student loan contributions. Lauren Pespisa, a 27-year-old Web developer in Somerville, said she can see the benefit helping those with big college debt. But Pespisa’s credit card balance is currently larger than her $8,000 in student loans.
“So it’s a nice perk, but not a huge draw for me, much like free dry cleaning and maternity benefits also aren’t,” Pespisa said. “I’ll take a higher paycheck or more equity [in the company] instead any day.”
Oh, that's also what it is: a way to lower wages!!!
Oh, that's also what it is: a way to lower wages!!!
--more--"
Maybe you would be better off going out of state:
"UMaine cuts cost for out-of-state students" by Jennifer Fenn Lefferts Globe Correspondent December 14, 2015
The University of Maine, in a first for a New England flagship campus, will be slashing tuition for students from Massachusetts and other Northeastern states as it tries to combat dwindling revenue and enrollment.
Qualifying students from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will pay the same tuition and fees at UMaine in Orono as they would at their home state’s flagship institution. That means some students can cut tuition costs in half....
--more--"
Related: Holiday Bowl Game
“Deceptive marketing practices with respect to student loans will not be tolerated,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard said in the central bank’s statement."
As they tolerate them from the banks they front for and just about any other institution in this country.
The whole thing is built on deceptive marketing these days, from the lowest looting schemes to the wars based on lies.
Note was longer than you thought, wasn't it?
And with that, I will be signing off for the day.
Maybe you would be better off going out of state:
"UMaine cuts cost for out-of-state students" by Jennifer Fenn Lefferts Globe Correspondent December 14, 2015
The University of Maine, in a first for a New England flagship campus, will be slashing tuition for students from Massachusetts and other Northeastern states as it tries to combat dwindling revenue and enrollment.
Qualifying students from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will pay the same tuition and fees at UMaine in Orono as they would at their home state’s flagship institution. That means some students can cut tuition costs in half....
--more--"
Related: Holiday Bowl Game
“Deceptive marketing practices with respect to student loans will not be tolerated,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard said in the central bank’s statement."
As they tolerate them from the banks they front for and just about any other institution in this country.
The whole thing is built on deceptive marketing these days, from the lowest looting schemes to the wars based on lies.
Note was longer than you thought, wasn't it?
And with that, I will be signing off for the day.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Slow Saturday Reconciliation
That's what the Boston Globe is preaching right off the top this mourning:
Pope offers ray of hope to divorced Catholics
Somehow the ‘Joy of Love’ message gives me the creeps.
As Pennsylvania confronts clergy sex abuse, victims and lawmakers act
"A federal prosecutor may file a racketeering lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese where a state grand jury found two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 clergy over a 40-year period."
I just can't see my way past that which undermines any moral or other claim by the Church.
Sorry.
It's the cross I must bear, I guess.
Swastika drawn on window at off-campus home of Brandeis students
Arlington church’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner damaged for fifth time
It's likely the same group of people behind the self-inflicted false flags, and these psyop props are getting old.
"Activists disrupt Newton forum on prejudice" by Ellen Ishkanian Globe Correspondent April 08, 2016
NEWTON — It was a night Mayor Setti Warren planned to talk about prejudice in his community and how to move forward in the wake of incidents of anti-Semitism and racism in the city’s schools over the past several months.
He spoke of understanding each other’s differences, and of moving forward as a community to set the stage for a future where people with different backgrounds can feel comfortable.
But some in the audience had other ideas, wanting only to talk about anti-Semitism.
At points, it devolved into a forum where Jewish activists heckled an African-American woman who spoke of her son being called a vulgar racist slur at school, where the superintendent of schools was booed and needed a police escort to his car, and where a woman held a sign reading: “It’s not prejudice, it’s anti-Semitism.”
Ah, finally, the thuggery of organized Jewish Supremacism comes to fore!
Or were they just protesting the looting of the state treasury?
The problem has gotten worse over the last 8 years, huh?
People who did not identify themselves got up to say they were put off by the speakers who talked about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and marriage equality.
“This was not supposed to be about equal values; it was supposed to be about anti-Semitism,” one man said, as police officers in the War Memorial at City Hall stood and moved into the crowd of more than 150 who packed the auditorium.
The group of activists was led by Newton resident Charles Jacobs, who has had a longtime grievance with the city’s schools about what he says are pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic text books.
At one point many in the audience chanted, “Charles, Charles, Charles.”
Warren tried to take control, walking into the crowd and explaining his reaction when he got an anonymous note last month about the first two incidents at Day Middle School when “Burn the Jews” was found scrawled in a bathroom in October, and a swastika was trampled into the snow just off school property in January.
“It was despicable, it was horrible, and it was anti-Semitic,” he said.
But after digging into the incidents, he said he found that there were not just those incidents, but also an incident in which racist questions were e-mailed to a black student group at Newton North High School.
“I was chilled, and just as angry as when I heard about the anti-Semitism,” he said.
Warren asked the crowd to show respect, and try to understand their neighbor’s perspective.
But it was the students who stood and took control of the dialogue.
Rebecca Wishnie, a senior at Newton North, said she has seen anti-Semitism in the hallways of the high school, but she has also seen racism and homophobia.
“It does not diminish me as a Jew to say anti-Semitism is not the only issue,” she said.
Josh Sims Speyer, a junior at North, also got up to speak. Sims Speyer said he was the one who found the graffiti in the bathroom at North, and as a Jew, he was horrified by what he found.
“But when we say one type of hate speech is worse than another, we build walls in our community,” he said.
As opposed to land-stealing walls of apartheid?
The students said it was time to try and work together to tear down the walls, not pit one form of prejudice against another, trying to top each others’ hatred.
That's the purpose of my agenda-pushing jew$paper.
The evening began with a number of speakers, including Dr. Michael Jellinek, a psychiatrist, who tried to answer the question of why some people are able to take action while others stand silently by when hateful incidents occur.
He told the audience if “you want to be driven to action, you need to let yourself feel the horror.”
There are people who will help with that.
School Superintendent David Fleishman and students and teachers from both high schools also spoke, as did Police Chief David MacDonald.
MacDonald said an agent from the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been in town to investigate the incidents of anti-Semitism at Day and North, and determined that they “don’t rise to the level of federal involvement at this time.”
They know what we know. False flag fakes, thus no need to really investigate.
Heck, FBI might have even been behind it all.
Newton resident Janet Yassen said it was her first time attending this type of community meeting, and she came because she was interested in hearing what Warren had to say.
But what she saw from some members of the crowd “disgusted” her, she said.
“It was embarrassing, it was awful,” she said.
After hearing the students, who at the end of the evening mingled with some of the most vocal in the crowd, Yassen said she was heartened.
“The young people were phenomenal,” she said. “For them to confront the disrespect shown by some of the adults was really courageous.”
--more--"
"In Newton, a ‘difficult, but essential’ meeting" by Ellen Ishkanian Globe Correspondent April 08, 2016
Newton Mayor Setti Warren on Friday praised high school students who spoke out at a community meeting he called “difficult, but essential,” and outlined a series of steps being taken to maintain the city’s “tradition as a welcoming, inclusive community.”
In a letter to the community, Warren said he is proud that Newton “did not shy away from a difficult conversation.”
The meeting Thursday night was called after two incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti were discovered at the Day Middle School but was not conceived as a forum to discuss only those incidents. Instead, it was billed as a “community discussion on Newton as a welcoming community for all.”
A group of Jewish activists tried to take over to the meeting, saying it should have focused solely on anti-Semitism, but were quieted by students who stood and spoke about the need to fight against all intolerance.
“They represent hope for the future.”
Warren said he has hired civil rights attorney Richard Cole to work with the school department to train faculty and administration to strengthen protocols for reporting hateful incidents, and on how to address these incidents with students.
Charles Jacobs, a leader of the activists who attended Thursday’s forum, said community members who wanted to hear what city officials had to say about anti-Semitism were instead “forced for an hour to hear nonsense” from a panel of speakers.
I love it when Jewish intolerance and self-centered victimization and pity is one full display.
“Love your enemies? Let’s all be nice? We are all potential victims of human hatred? This is just silly, contentless psychobabble. It was a filibuster so we had less time to talk,” Jacobs, founder of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, wrote in an e-mail responding to questions from the Globe.
Nice-sounding name for a hate group, huh?
In a telephone interview Friday, Jacobs said that because the meeting was called just days after the anti-Semitic graffiti incidents at Day were made public, it was not unreasonable to assume a night would be dedicated to discussing that issue alone.
You didn't know they were special?
Jacobs also said many in the crowd were frustrated over a longtime grievance with the city’s schools about what he says are pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic textbooks, a charge the school administration denies.
At one point during the meeting, the activists dismissed discussion of homophobia and other types of prejudice and discrimination, and an African-American mother who described her son’s experiences with racism in the Newton schools was heckled.
“I’m sure every Jewish person in the room would stand side by side with them,” Jacobs said of the mother and her son. But, he said, “we needed to hear answers last night to the serious death threats made against the Jewish community.”
Robert Trestan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement Friday it was unfortunate that “the student voices were drowned out by a vocal group whose concerns about the curriculum overshadowed a dialogue about all forms of bias.”
I know exactly what you mean:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Trestan said, “It is not a competition to determine which type of hatred is the worst. The goal is to eliminate all forms of hate and bigotry from Newton schools.”
Says the Jewish hate group.
What this is looking like is some form of good Zionist, bad Zionist for mind manipulating and public perception purposes.
--more--"
Well, I tried to reconcile, readers, but sometimes you just can't put up with some people.
Have a good evening. Time for me to go golfing.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Former Kentucky priest who viewed child porn going to prison" Associated Press March 30, 2016
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Catholic priest accused of snapping hundreds of inappropriate pictures of students at his parish school is heading to federal prison for nearly three years.
Stephen Pohl wasn’t charged with any crime for taking the photos, since the children in his pictures were clothed. But he was found guilty of a charge of looking at child pornography on his computer.
Police seized Pohl’s computer during an investigation that started after a 10-year-old student told his parents he felt ‘‘weird’’ about some photos that Pohl had taken....
--more--"
"Canadian priest accused of gambling away $380,000 meant for refugees" Washington Post March 30, 2016
According to reports in the Canadian media, an Ontario-based Catholic priest is under investigation on suspicion of gambling away funds that had been set aside to provide for refugees newly settled in Canada.
Father Amer Saka, a priest at the St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in London, Ontario, is suspected to have lost roughly half a million Canadian dollars (equivalent to $380,000 U.S.) that had been entrusted to him by local families keen on sponsoring new arrivals from the Middle East.
Saka phoned the church’s bishop, Emanuel Shaleta, last month to confess that the funds were lost.
‘‘He called me on the phone and . . . said he lost all the money. I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘Gambling,’’’ Shaleta told the Toronto Star this weekend. He has since checked the priest into an addiction center. Investigators are examining the situation, though no formal charges have been filed.
‘‘We believe that Father Saka has a serious gambling problem and that these funds may have been used for that purpose. Since there is an investigation going on, we cannot confirm what he’s saying,’’ Shaleta added.
I was thinking I'm so glad casinos are coming here as the print piece ended.
In a separate interview with the London Free Press, Shaleta lamented the plight of the seven to eight families that had given their donations to Saka. ‘‘They trusted him. They did not give it as a gift. They were trusting the priest. They didn’t ask for receipts,’’ he said.
Canada’s government-led program to give sanctuary to tens of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees involves the combined efforts of the state as well as private donations to sponsor refugee arrivals. Saka was in charge of funds raised by the Hamilton Diocese to sponsor 20 Iraqi refugees.
It’s not clear from reports whether these refugees would be from Saka’s own Chaldean community - which is one of the world’s oldest Christian populations and still has its base in Baghdad.
Since being unveiled late last year by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the government scheme to house refugees has proceeded fitfully. The hiccups that have been reported are usually ascribed to the public-sector side of the program - private and ecclesiastical sponsorships appear to have been better resourced.
The past decade has been grim for Iraq’s Christian community. The ravages of the Islamic State over the past two years emptied the ancient city of Mosul of its long-standing Christian population; in total, about 125,000 Iraqi Christians of various sects were forced to flee their homes.
In 2014, Patriarch Louis Sako, the top figure in the Chaldean Catholic Church, which both Saka and Shaleta serve, likened the perils faced by his flock to the apocalyptic days of the Mongol invasion more than eight centuries prior. He also held the 2003 U.S.-led invasion in Iraq ‘‘indirectly responsible’’ for the political instability and sectarian strife that has prompted Iraq’s exodus of Christians.
Even John Kerry criticized it:
‘‘This is the time for Iran to genuinely seek better relations with its neighbors and stop interferences with the domestic affairs of regional states for the benefit of regional peace and prosperity.’’
What an asshole!
Before the invasion, more than a million Christians lived in Iraq. A decade later, that number is less than 400,000 and dropping.
I'm seeing an anti-Christ there, and it's not Saddam.
--more--"
Related:
"The Vatican said it will ensure that its supply chains don’t use forced labor after a forum of some of the world’s biggest supermarket chains and food manufacturers announced new efforts to slave-proof their own supply chains. Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s top finance official, unveiled the policy at a gathering Sunday of the Global Foundation, an Australia-based organization that seeks to encourage dialogue about global governance, sustainability, and other issues. Pope Francis has sought to shine a spotlight on the scourge of human trafficking and has enlisted Christian, Muslim, and other faith leaders to do the same. The Vatican is a tiny city-state of a few hundred residents and a few thousand employees. But it does have a sought-after tax-free supermarket and department store."
What a bunch of frauds!
Also see: Vatican defrocks archbishop on child sex abuse charges
Maybe you can reconcile those.
UPDATE: Catholic legislators feel church’s ire over abuse bill votes
Pope offers ray of hope to divorced Catholics
Somehow the ‘Joy of Love’ message gives me the creeps.
As Pennsylvania confronts clergy sex abuse, victims and lawmakers act
"A federal prosecutor may file a racketeering lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese where a state grand jury found two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 clergy over a 40-year period."
I just can't see my way past that which undermines any moral or other claim by the Church.
Sorry.
It's the cross I must bear, I guess.
Swastika drawn on window at off-campus home of Brandeis students
Arlington church’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner damaged for fifth time
It's likely the same group of people behind the self-inflicted false flags, and these psyop props are getting old.
"Activists disrupt Newton forum on prejudice" by Ellen Ishkanian Globe Correspondent April 08, 2016
NEWTON — It was a night Mayor Setti Warren planned to talk about prejudice in his community and how to move forward in the wake of incidents of anti-Semitism and racism in the city’s schools over the past several months.
He spoke of understanding each other’s differences, and of moving forward as a community to set the stage for a future where people with different backgrounds can feel comfortable.
But some in the audience had other ideas, wanting only to talk about anti-Semitism.
At points, it devolved into a forum where Jewish activists heckled an African-American woman who spoke of her son being called a vulgar racist slur at school, where the superintendent of schools was booed and needed a police escort to his car, and where a woman held a sign reading: “It’s not prejudice, it’s anti-Semitism.”
Ah, finally, the thuggery of organized Jewish Supremacism comes to fore!
Or were they just protesting the looting of the state treasury?
The problem has gotten worse over the last 8 years, huh?
People who did not identify themselves got up to say they were put off by the speakers who talked about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and marriage equality.
“This was not supposed to be about equal values; it was supposed to be about anti-Semitism,” one man said, as police officers in the War Memorial at City Hall stood and moved into the crowd of more than 150 who packed the auditorium.
The group of activists was led by Newton resident Charles Jacobs, who has had a longtime grievance with the city’s schools about what he says are pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic text books.
At one point many in the audience chanted, “Charles, Charles, Charles.”
Warren tried to take control, walking into the crowd and explaining his reaction when he got an anonymous note last month about the first two incidents at Day Middle School when “Burn the Jews” was found scrawled in a bathroom in October, and a swastika was trampled into the snow just off school property in January.
“It was despicable, it was horrible, and it was anti-Semitic,” he said.
But after digging into the incidents, he said he found that there were not just those incidents, but also an incident in which racist questions were e-mailed to a black student group at Newton North High School.
“I was chilled, and just as angry as when I heard about the anti-Semitism,” he said.
Warren asked the crowd to show respect, and try to understand their neighbor’s perspective.
But it was the students who stood and took control of the dialogue.
Rebecca Wishnie, a senior at Newton North, said she has seen anti-Semitism in the hallways of the high school, but she has also seen racism and homophobia.
“It does not diminish me as a Jew to say anti-Semitism is not the only issue,” she said.
Josh Sims Speyer, a junior at North, also got up to speak. Sims Speyer said he was the one who found the graffiti in the bathroom at North, and as a Jew, he was horrified by what he found.
“But when we say one type of hate speech is worse than another, we build walls in our community,” he said.
As opposed to land-stealing walls of apartheid?
The students said it was time to try and work together to tear down the walls, not pit one form of prejudice against another, trying to top each others’ hatred.
That's the purpose of my agenda-pushing jew$paper.
The evening began with a number of speakers, including Dr. Michael Jellinek, a psychiatrist, who tried to answer the question of why some people are able to take action while others stand silently by when hateful incidents occur.
He told the audience if “you want to be driven to action, you need to let yourself feel the horror.”
There are people who will help with that.
School Superintendent David Fleishman and students and teachers from both high schools also spoke, as did Police Chief David MacDonald.
MacDonald said an agent from the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been in town to investigate the incidents of anti-Semitism at Day and North, and determined that they “don’t rise to the level of federal involvement at this time.”
They know what we know. False flag fakes, thus no need to really investigate.
Heck, FBI might have even been behind it all.
Newton resident Janet Yassen said it was her first time attending this type of community meeting, and she came because she was interested in hearing what Warren had to say.
But what she saw from some members of the crowd “disgusted” her, she said.
“It was embarrassing, it was awful,” she said.
After hearing the students, who at the end of the evening mingled with some of the most vocal in the crowd, Yassen said she was heartened.
“The young people were phenomenal,” she said. “For them to confront the disrespect shown by some of the adults was really courageous.”
--more--"
"In Newton, a ‘difficult, but essential’ meeting" by Ellen Ishkanian Globe Correspondent April 08, 2016
Newton Mayor Setti Warren on Friday praised high school students who spoke out at a community meeting he called “difficult, but essential,” and outlined a series of steps being taken to maintain the city’s “tradition as a welcoming, inclusive community.”
In a letter to the community, Warren said he is proud that Newton “did not shy away from a difficult conversation.”
The meeting Thursday night was called after two incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti were discovered at the Day Middle School but was not conceived as a forum to discuss only those incidents. Instead, it was billed as a “community discussion on Newton as a welcoming community for all.”
A group of Jewish activists tried to take over to the meeting, saying it should have focused solely on anti-Semitism, but were quieted by students who stood and spoke about the need to fight against all intolerance.
“They represent hope for the future.”
Warren said he has hired civil rights attorney Richard Cole to work with the school department to train faculty and administration to strengthen protocols for reporting hateful incidents, and on how to address these incidents with students.
Charles Jacobs, a leader of the activists who attended Thursday’s forum, said community members who wanted to hear what city officials had to say about anti-Semitism were instead “forced for an hour to hear nonsense” from a panel of speakers.
I love it when Jewish intolerance and self-centered victimization and pity is one full display.
“Love your enemies? Let’s all be nice? We are all potential victims of human hatred? This is just silly, contentless psychobabble. It was a filibuster so we had less time to talk,” Jacobs, founder of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, wrote in an e-mail responding to questions from the Globe.
Nice-sounding name for a hate group, huh?
In a telephone interview Friday, Jacobs said that because the meeting was called just days after the anti-Semitic graffiti incidents at Day were made public, it was not unreasonable to assume a night would be dedicated to discussing that issue alone.
You didn't know they were special?
Jacobs also said many in the crowd were frustrated over a longtime grievance with the city’s schools about what he says are pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic textbooks, a charge the school administration denies.
At one point during the meeting, the activists dismissed discussion of homophobia and other types of prejudice and discrimination, and an African-American mother who described her son’s experiences with racism in the Newton schools was heckled.
“I’m sure every Jewish person in the room would stand side by side with them,” Jacobs said of the mother and her son. But, he said, “we needed to hear answers last night to the serious death threats made against the Jewish community.”
Robert Trestan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement Friday it was unfortunate that “the student voices were drowned out by a vocal group whose concerns about the curriculum overshadowed a dialogue about all forms of bias.”
I know exactly what you mean:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Do you think they are mocking us?
Trestan said, “It is not a competition to determine which type of hatred is the worst. The goal is to eliminate all forms of hate and bigotry from Newton schools.”
Says the Jewish hate group.
What this is looking like is some form of good Zionist, bad Zionist for mind manipulating and public perception purposes.
--more--"
Well, I tried to reconcile, readers, but sometimes you just can't put up with some people.
Have a good evening. Time for me to go golfing.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Former Kentucky priest who viewed child porn going to prison" Associated Press March 30, 2016
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Catholic priest accused of snapping hundreds of inappropriate pictures of students at his parish school is heading to federal prison for nearly three years.
Stephen Pohl wasn’t charged with any crime for taking the photos, since the children in his pictures were clothed. But he was found guilty of a charge of looking at child pornography on his computer.
Police seized Pohl’s computer during an investigation that started after a 10-year-old student told his parents he felt ‘‘weird’’ about some photos that Pohl had taken....
--more--"
"Canadian priest accused of gambling away $380,000 meant for refugees" Washington Post March 30, 2016
According to reports in the Canadian media, an Ontario-based Catholic priest is under investigation on suspicion of gambling away funds that had been set aside to provide for refugees newly settled in Canada.
Father Amer Saka, a priest at the St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in London, Ontario, is suspected to have lost roughly half a million Canadian dollars (equivalent to $380,000 U.S.) that had been entrusted to him by local families keen on sponsoring new arrivals from the Middle East.
Saka phoned the church’s bishop, Emanuel Shaleta, last month to confess that the funds were lost.
‘‘He called me on the phone and . . . said he lost all the money. I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘Gambling,’’’ Shaleta told the Toronto Star this weekend. He has since checked the priest into an addiction center. Investigators are examining the situation, though no formal charges have been filed.
‘‘We believe that Father Saka has a serious gambling problem and that these funds may have been used for that purpose. Since there is an investigation going on, we cannot confirm what he’s saying,’’ Shaleta added.
I was thinking I'm so glad casinos are coming here as the print piece ended.
In a separate interview with the London Free Press, Shaleta lamented the plight of the seven to eight families that had given their donations to Saka. ‘‘They trusted him. They did not give it as a gift. They were trusting the priest. They didn’t ask for receipts,’’ he said.
Canada’s government-led program to give sanctuary to tens of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees involves the combined efforts of the state as well as private donations to sponsor refugee arrivals. Saka was in charge of funds raised by the Hamilton Diocese to sponsor 20 Iraqi refugees.
It’s not clear from reports whether these refugees would be from Saka’s own Chaldean community - which is one of the world’s oldest Christian populations and still has its base in Baghdad.
Since being unveiled late last year by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the government scheme to house refugees has proceeded fitfully. The hiccups that have been reported are usually ascribed to the public-sector side of the program - private and ecclesiastical sponsorships appear to have been better resourced.
The past decade has been grim for Iraq’s Christian community. The ravages of the Islamic State over the past two years emptied the ancient city of Mosul of its long-standing Christian population; in total, about 125,000 Iraqi Christians of various sects were forced to flee their homes.
In 2014, Patriarch Louis Sako, the top figure in the Chaldean Catholic Church, which both Saka and Shaleta serve, likened the perils faced by his flock to the apocalyptic days of the Mongol invasion more than eight centuries prior. He also held the 2003 U.S.-led invasion in Iraq ‘‘indirectly responsible’’ for the political instability and sectarian strife that has prompted Iraq’s exodus of Christians.
Even John Kerry criticized it:
‘‘This is the time for Iran to genuinely seek better relations with its neighbors and stop interferences with the domestic affairs of regional states for the benefit of regional peace and prosperity.’’
What an asshole!
Before the invasion, more than a million Christians lived in Iraq. A decade later, that number is less than 400,000 and dropping.
I'm seeing an anti-Christ there, and it's not Saddam.
--more--"
Related:
"The Vatican said it will ensure that its supply chains don’t use forced labor after a forum of some of the world’s biggest supermarket chains and food manufacturers announced new efforts to slave-proof their own supply chains. Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s top finance official, unveiled the policy at a gathering Sunday of the Global Foundation, an Australia-based organization that seeks to encourage dialogue about global governance, sustainability, and other issues. Pope Francis has sought to shine a spotlight on the scourge of human trafficking and has enlisted Christian, Muslim, and other faith leaders to do the same. The Vatican is a tiny city-state of a few hundred residents and a few thousand employees. But it does have a sought-after tax-free supermarket and department store."
What a bunch of frauds!
Also see: Vatican defrocks archbishop on child sex abuse charges
Maybe you can reconcile those.
UPDATE: Catholic legislators feel church’s ire over abuse bill votes
Friday, April 8, 2016
I Never Miss a Masters
I will be away from the blog until Monday because I've been watching the big golf tournament since before I was born. I always thought golf was a game of exclusion and supremacism, but not according to the ma$$ media. It's a game filled with honorable and noble legends that is now everyman's game. After all, didn't Tiger dispel the past and prove its a game of equality and the embodiment of the American Dream?
Have a good weekend, folks. Great golf weather out there.
NDU: Missed putt.
It's the weakest part of my game.
Have a good weekend, folks. Great golf weather out there.
NDU: Missed putt.
It's the weakest part of my game.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Opening Pandora's Brief
You should be grateful for the peek, readers:
Pandora Media Inc. has been working with Morgan Stanley to assess strategic options, including a potential sale
Then I slammed the Doerr shut for the day!
Pandora Media Inc. has been working with Morgan Stanley to assess strategic options, including a potential sale
Then I slammed the Doerr shut for the day!
Checking the Mailbox at Bates
"Today, the mailboxes sit largely untouched, and the post office is little more than a hushed hallway...."
Much like this blog.
I guess the Globe didn't get an invitation.
Much like this blog.
I guess the Globe didn't get an invitation.
Breaking News: Massacre in Cambridge
Tighter gun control bill has already been filed.
"In what Cambridge police described as an act of workplace violence, a former employee stood in a parking lot on Charles Street Thursday morning firing a gun into the building where he once worked before turning the weapon on himself....
This breaking news story will be updated."
Really makes one feel safe regarding the upcoming Marathon, 'eh?
UPDATE: ‘Boston Strong’ message unveiled above Marathon route
"In what Cambridge police described as an act of workplace violence, a former employee stood in a parking lot on Charles Street Thursday morning firing a gun into the building where he once worked before turning the weapon on himself....
This breaking news story will be updated."
Really makes one feel safe regarding the upcoming Marathon, 'eh?
UPDATE: ‘Boston Strong’ message unveiled above Marathon route
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Sunday Globe Special: Bringing a Tear to the Oculus
It's likely my only post of the day.
"Water leaks spring up in N.Y.’s new train stations" by Michael Balsamo Associated Press March 26, 2016
NEW YORK — New Yorkers paid $2.5 billion for a new subway station built deep into Manhattan’s bedrock near the edge of the Hudson River, but Mother Nature is putting a damper on the depot’s inaugural year.
Just six months removed from its grand opening, the station on the No. 7 subway line is suffering from water leaks that have discolored ceiling tiles and sent rivulets spilling down upon commuters as they ride escalator banks. During the winter, the drops hardened into long icicles.
Meanwhile, a few miles downtown, more vexing water leaks have contributed to delays in the opening of an underground shopping mall built within a $3.9 billion commuter train terminal beneath the World Trade Center complex.
Civil engineers say the problems at the two sites illustrate the challenges of keeping water out of subterranean projects built below the water table.
‘‘Water is always going to seep and water is always going to seek the lowest level and it’s always going to find its own path,’’ said Robert Paaswell, distinguished professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. ‘‘If there’s a tiny crack anyplace, water is going to find it.’’
That's where I started to rise with indignation before being brought back down to earth!
Still, the fact that water found a way into two of the most expensive train stations in city history has drawn lots of eye rolls from passengers and frustrated officials in charge of the projects.
‘‘It shouldn’t be trial-and-error for $2 billion,’’ said Jonathan Ballan, a member of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway system and oversees the new Hudson Yards station on the No. 7 line.
Look, shoddy workmanship and endemic corruption are part of the AmeriKan $y$tem now. It's all about money. Everything in my Globe sure as hell is.
Officials have blamed the leaks on work performed by a subcontractor, Yonkers Contracting Company, which said it was working with the MTA to resolve the issues.
Don't want to hear any more excuses!
Michael Horodniceanu, the president of the MTA’s Capital Construction division, said at a recent meeting that contractors will now try a new method to keep the water out.
The MTA said Yonkers will cover the cost of repairs, estimated at $3 million.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, had blamed the water leaks at the new transit hub there partly on water continuously sprayed by contractors to control dust related to construction. Officials have said the leaks were significantly reduced last fall.
WTC dust, huh?
The station’s architectural crown, a soaring hall called the Oculus, opened earlier this month, but the shops and restaurants will not open until at least this summer.
Eyepiece for sight?
Built on where the event known as 9/11 happened?
Is that some sort of inside job joke and sly laugh-in-their face mind f*** or what?
Dan Stapleton, a principal and senior vice president at GZA, an engineering and construction consulting firm, explained the challenge of keeping water out of underground chambers. It is harder, he said, than protecting the roof of a building above ground.
‘‘It’s a function of the pressure the water is exerting,’’ he said. ‘‘The deeper you go below the water table, those pressures get higher and higher,’’ he said.
One begins to wonder about the feasibility of building such things at all.
Leaking water has also been a challenge in Boston’s Big Dig project....
Exhibit A!
The bill for that pos overran to $15 billion and taxpayers will be paying off $8 billion in interest payments for years, even more of the defaults swap or they try and enter out of the contracts.
Oh, yeah, and someone got killed a few years back.
--more--"
"World Trade Center transit hub opens under cloud of $4 billion cost" by Karen Matthews Associated Press February 27, 2016
NEW YORK — The soaring, white transportation hub opening next week at the World Trade Center was designed to evoke a bird in flight, but it is hatching under a cloud.
There will be no ribbon-cutting celebration when the train station’s grand hall, called the Oculus, opens this coming week because the head of the bistate agency that controls the hub has blasted it as a ‘‘symbol of excess,’’ with runaway costs approaching $4 billion.
(Blog editor whines "Why?" and begins to whimper)
That’s roughly the same price as the nation’s tallest skyscraper, next door — the 104-story One World Trade Center.
The hub, which includes a commuter rail station, retail shops and connections to several subway lines, appears destined to take its place among the city’s most talked-about landmarks.
Intended to serve partly as a monument to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, the hub was designed by Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava to convey the feeling of a bird released into the air, with steel wings poised for takeoff. Some critics have compared it to a dinosaur skeleton or an armadillo.
Adjacent skyscrapers can be seen through the bird’s curved white ribs, which enclose a vaulted, cathedral-like space.
Yes, one can never question the official story that is damn near religion in this militaristic avatar of an empire. War to be worshipped over the altar of the false flag.
Steve Plate, the chief of major capital projects for the Port Authority, called the hub ‘‘the eighth wonder of the world’’ and described how the building ‘‘is aligned precisely to allow the sun to come in exactly in that opening on Sept. 11 at 10:28, when the last tower fell, to capture that light and remember that moment.’’
Yup, ‘‘mission accomplished!’’
--more--"
Also see: ‘Self-supporting’ N.Y. Thruway could get billions in subsidies
Is it $afe?
"Water leaks spring up in N.Y.’s new train stations" by Michael Balsamo Associated Press March 26, 2016
NEW YORK — New Yorkers paid $2.5 billion for a new subway station built deep into Manhattan’s bedrock near the edge of the Hudson River, but Mother Nature is putting a damper on the depot’s inaugural year.
Just six months removed from its grand opening, the station on the No. 7 subway line is suffering from water leaks that have discolored ceiling tiles and sent rivulets spilling down upon commuters as they ride escalator banks. During the winter, the drops hardened into long icicles.
Meanwhile, a few miles downtown, more vexing water leaks have contributed to delays in the opening of an underground shopping mall built within a $3.9 billion commuter train terminal beneath the World Trade Center complex.
Civil engineers say the problems at the two sites illustrate the challenges of keeping water out of subterranean projects built below the water table.
‘‘Water is always going to seep and water is always going to seek the lowest level and it’s always going to find its own path,’’ said Robert Paaswell, distinguished professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. ‘‘If there’s a tiny crack anyplace, water is going to find it.’’
That's where I started to rise with indignation before being brought back down to earth!
Still, the fact that water found a way into two of the most expensive train stations in city history has drawn lots of eye rolls from passengers and frustrated officials in charge of the projects.
‘‘It shouldn’t be trial-and-error for $2 billion,’’ said Jonathan Ballan, a member of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway system and oversees the new Hudson Yards station on the No. 7 line.
Look, shoddy workmanship and endemic corruption are part of the AmeriKan $y$tem now. It's all about money. Everything in my Globe sure as hell is.
Officials have blamed the leaks on work performed by a subcontractor, Yonkers Contracting Company, which said it was working with the MTA to resolve the issues.
Don't want to hear any more excuses!
Michael Horodniceanu, the president of the MTA’s Capital Construction division, said at a recent meeting that contractors will now try a new method to keep the water out.
The MTA said Yonkers will cover the cost of repairs, estimated at $3 million.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, had blamed the water leaks at the new transit hub there partly on water continuously sprayed by contractors to control dust related to construction. Officials have said the leaks were significantly reduced last fall.
WTC dust, huh?
The station’s architectural crown, a soaring hall called the Oculus, opened earlier this month, but the shops and restaurants will not open until at least this summer.
Eyepiece for sight?
Built on where the event known as 9/11 happened?
Is that some sort of inside job joke and sly laugh-in-their face mind f*** or what?
Dan Stapleton, a principal and senior vice president at GZA, an engineering and construction consulting firm, explained the challenge of keeping water out of underground chambers. It is harder, he said, than protecting the roof of a building above ground.
‘‘It’s a function of the pressure the water is exerting,’’ he said. ‘‘The deeper you go below the water table, those pressures get higher and higher,’’ he said.
One begins to wonder about the feasibility of building such things at all.
Leaking water has also been a challenge in Boston’s Big Dig project....
Exhibit A!
The bill for that pos overran to $15 billion and taxpayers will be paying off $8 billion in interest payments for years, even more of the defaults swap or they try and enter out of the contracts.
Oh, yeah, and someone got killed a few years back.
--more--"
"World Trade Center transit hub opens under cloud of $4 billion cost" by Karen Matthews Associated Press February 27, 2016
NEW YORK — The soaring, white transportation hub opening next week at the World Trade Center was designed to evoke a bird in flight, but it is hatching under a cloud.
There will be no ribbon-cutting celebration when the train station’s grand hall, called the Oculus, opens this coming week because the head of the bistate agency that controls the hub has blasted it as a ‘‘symbol of excess,’’ with runaway costs approaching $4 billion.
(Blog editor whines "Why?" and begins to whimper)
That’s roughly the same price as the nation’s tallest skyscraper, next door — the 104-story One World Trade Center.
The hub, which includes a commuter rail station, retail shops and connections to several subway lines, appears destined to take its place among the city’s most talked-about landmarks.
Intended to serve partly as a monument to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, the hub was designed by Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava to convey the feeling of a bird released into the air, with steel wings poised for takeoff. Some critics have compared it to a dinosaur skeleton or an armadillo.
Adjacent skyscrapers can be seen through the bird’s curved white ribs, which enclose a vaulted, cathedral-like space.
Yes, one can never question the official story that is damn near religion in this militaristic avatar of an empire. War to be worshipped over the altar of the false flag.
Steve Plate, the chief of major capital projects for the Port Authority, called the hub ‘‘the eighth wonder of the world’’ and described how the building ‘‘is aligned precisely to allow the sun to come in exactly in that opening on Sept. 11 at 10:28, when the last tower fell, to capture that light and remember that moment.’’
Yup, ‘‘mission accomplished!’’
--more--"
Also see: ‘Self-supporting’ N.Y. Thruway could get billions in subsidies
Is it $afe?
Monday, April 4, 2016
Sunday Globe Special: Hitting Bottom
That would put me in the basement, and speaking of such means time to close it out.
Good thing they aren't opening at home:
"Up to 4 inches of snow expected in Boston area by Monday" by Nicole Fleming and Astead W. Herndon Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff April 03, 2016. Another spring storm will hit Massachusetts during Monday's ... Though the team will avoid the Boston weather with an away game in Cleveland, the forecast there is not much cheerier for the afternoon: Highs in the 30s and a chance of flurries."
If you take a look at the replay you can see the strike zone change on the call as the storm came from the outside, dropped down, then up, before blowing through here.
It must be real because “I saw it on TV,” even if they are $crewing you so many ways (going to hook you right up to the data dragnet even as you starve).
And it isn't just the endless lies regarding the weather or the wars, either:
"Plainridge’s recent revenue surge may be a mirage" by Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff April 04, 2016
After a strong opening last summer, Plainridge Park Casino saw its revenue drop for five consecutive months, a downward spiral that raised questions about its competitive viability. But business at the Plainville slot parlor surged in January and February, stirring hopes for a spring rebound.
The Sox are also gamble at best, and not one of their reporters picked them to win the division.
One could also say the same about the newspaper biz.
That turnaround, however, might have been something of a mirage. A close look at the casino’s monthly revenue reports shows the increase was fueled by a hefty dose of promotional giveaways, millions of dollars in “free play” credits handed out to entice gamblers.
Where they get 'em, online?
In February, the casino spent $2.4 million in free credits, an 85 percent increase from December. In an advertising campaign splashed on television and highway billboards, the casino invites patrons to “Play up to $500 on us” if they sign up for a rewards card.
The marketing push lifted the casino’s free play spending to 20 percent of revenue, almost twice the level of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, their much larger Connecticut competitors.
While the aggressive strategy has clearly produced short-term gains, some marketing specialists say it carries a tinge of desperation and is unlikely to prove sustainable.
Casinos haven't even come here yet and they are already failing.
Massachusetts waited way too long to get in, and eight years of Depression hasn't helped.
And yet they are still a savior in the state!
“Heavy spending on free play can only do so much,” said Stephen M. Simon, a slot operations specialist from Albuquerque with more than 35 years’ experience in the casino industry. “Pretty quickly the impact of free play diminishes. And then they’ll need a new strategy.”
Free play is designed to drum up business by bankrolling gamblers for a while, giving them extra motivation to play. Some players will quit when they’ve run through their free allotment, but in many cases, the casino will quickly recoup its investment and then some.
That was the case in January, when Plainridge’s revenue jumped an impressive 11 percent. While many factors were at play, that meant the casino brought in $2 in new revenue for every $1 in giveaways.
But in February, the campaign was far less effective. Every new $1 spent on free play brought in just 30 cents in extra revenue, according to a Globe analysis.
“That’s the law of diminishing returns,” Simon said. “Plainridge is trying to buy business, and that’s not likely to work in the long run.”
That is what is happening at this blog.
Penn National, the company that owns Plainridge and 16 other casinos, said the increase in revenue so far this year “indicates that our strategy is working.”
“These are common industry practices that are imperative in a competitive market,” the company said in a statement.
Gamblers in denial. What a $ickening sight.
The company said it had planned to ramp up marketing efforts as more patrons enrolled in its loyalty program and that its strategy was helping stop the “decades-long flow of dollars being spent at out-of-state casinos.”
“Just as a typical retail outlet offers coupons to attract new and repeat business, we utilize promotional credits to compete with gaming facilities in Rhode Island and Connecticut that are years ahead of us in developing patron loyalty,” the company said.
Free play is nearly universal in the casino industry, where competition for market share is fierce. At Plainridge, the current promotion reimburses gamblers who lose between $50 and $500 at the slot machines over two return trips to the casino. The initial free credits can’t be redeemed for cash, but any winnings belong to the gambler.
I folded long ago.
Such promotions seem like safe bets, but too much free play can be costly, specialists say.
Is there ever such a thing as a safe bet (setting aside tax loot given to going concerns)?
Many players spend about the same amount of time at the machines whether they have free credits or not and might get their fill without dipping into their own pocket.
“Too much free play risks customers playing without taking out cash of his own,” said Steven M. Gallaway, a partner in Global Marketing Advisors, based in Las Vegas.
They used to call it playing with house money.
Players also quickly get used to playing for free and might lose interest when the offer expires, Gallaway said.
Like me in this issue and just about whatever swill the Globe is spewing on a daily basis these days?
The state’s first foray into the world of Las Vegas-style gambling, Plainridge opened in late June to promising results. But business fell sharply after that.
The state Gaming Commission, in its monthly release of the casino’s financial data, had listed the amount Plainridge spent on free play until last month, when it omitted the figure at Plainridge’s request. The casino argued the disclosure placed it at a strategic disadvantage.
We all knew the Gaming Commission was working for them.
The Globe was able to calculate how much the casino spent on free play by using other financial information, and the Gaming Commission confirmed its accuracy.
Twin River Casino, only 11 miles away from Plainridge in Lincoln, R.I., also keeps its free play information confidential. Under state law, however, the casino can spend no more than 10 percent of the previous year’s revenue, plus $750,000. That means that Plainridge’s current level of free play, 19 percent of revenue, is almost twice as high as its chief rival.
Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, two tribal casinos in Connecticut, are mandated under state law to release their amounts of free play. Connecticut taxes any amount of free play that exceeds 11 percent of revenue....
--more--"
Great journalism, except the Globe was out there cheering for them the whole time.
I mean, how much more proof do you need that government serves only itself these days as we are told funding cuts and neglect are responsible for so many social service ills?
As this blog crashes down and I bypass so many things I no longer have the heart for, I look back on the good times with silence and nothing but bald anger.
I had intended to do more blogging today, but it is now looking like I will have to get out the snow shovel after having put it away for the season. It's nearly a white-out out there right now and its accumulating so it looks like I'm going to be busy removing snow this afternoon before settling in for the Sox game and then heading over to play hoop this evening.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay $4 million to settle allegations that it mislead investors
In deciding what to spit out to you today I didn't even bother tasting some of the stuff. Each morning I Steele myself when I begin my reading regarding the front page and try to whale through page after page while watching where I'm stepping. It's tough for me to read peace talk in a war paper, and I think I'll just bike past the parade.
Now I'm going to have to rush out of here to do some personal things I couldn't and didn't do yesterday thanks to the weather and I'm not Scher I'll be back before settling in for the 1 p.m. start.
Btw, the coup attempt in Brazil has been confirmed; that's why he avoided the place (or places, as the case may be).
Related: 1 in 3 Americans think you can catch Zika from a sneeze
That is not going to clear up the facts for you, sorry.
Feel like I'm fishing off the wrong pier; that's why I'm not taking that close a look.
"The festive ceremony marked a breakthrough for the $1 billion resort casino, which tribe leaders say will be one of the flashiest in the world. The tribe plans to open a gambling hall, which will feature thousands of slot machines and table games like roulette, blackjack, and craps."
The government could call Steve Wynn to the stand
Here is what he had to say:
‘Nobody likes being around poor people,’ Wynn reportedly says
And it's all funny, HA-HA-HA-HA!
Good thing they aren't opening at home:
"Up to 4 inches of snow expected in Boston area by Monday" by Nicole Fleming and Astead W. Herndon Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff April 03, 2016. Another spring storm will hit Massachusetts during Monday's ... Though the team will avoid the Boston weather with an away game in Cleveland, the forecast there is not much cheerier for the afternoon: Highs in the 30s and a chance of flurries."
If you take a look at the replay you can see the strike zone change on the call as the storm came from the outside, dropped down, then up, before blowing through here.
It must be real because “I saw it on TV,” even if they are $crewing you so many ways (going to hook you right up to the data dragnet even as you starve).
And it isn't just the endless lies regarding the weather or the wars, either:
"Plainridge’s recent revenue surge may be a mirage" by Sean P. Murphy Globe Staff April 04, 2016
After a strong opening last summer, Plainridge Park Casino saw its revenue drop for five consecutive months, a downward spiral that raised questions about its competitive viability. But business at the Plainville slot parlor surged in January and February, stirring hopes for a spring rebound.
The Sox are also gamble at best, and not one of their reporters picked them to win the division.
One could also say the same about the newspaper biz.
That turnaround, however, might have been something of a mirage. A close look at the casino’s monthly revenue reports shows the increase was fueled by a hefty dose of promotional giveaways, millions of dollars in “free play” credits handed out to entice gamblers.
Where they get 'em, online?
In February, the casino spent $2.4 million in free credits, an 85 percent increase from December. In an advertising campaign splashed on television and highway billboards, the casino invites patrons to “Play up to $500 on us” if they sign up for a rewards card.
The marketing push lifted the casino’s free play spending to 20 percent of revenue, almost twice the level of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, their much larger Connecticut competitors.
While the aggressive strategy has clearly produced short-term gains, some marketing specialists say it carries a tinge of desperation and is unlikely to prove sustainable.
Casinos haven't even come here yet and they are already failing.
Massachusetts waited way too long to get in, and eight years of Depression hasn't helped.
And yet they are still a savior in the state!
“Heavy spending on free play can only do so much,” said Stephen M. Simon, a slot operations specialist from Albuquerque with more than 35 years’ experience in the casino industry. “Pretty quickly the impact of free play diminishes. And then they’ll need a new strategy.”
Free play is designed to drum up business by bankrolling gamblers for a while, giving them extra motivation to play. Some players will quit when they’ve run through their free allotment, but in many cases, the casino will quickly recoup its investment and then some.
That was the case in January, when Plainridge’s revenue jumped an impressive 11 percent. While many factors were at play, that meant the casino brought in $2 in new revenue for every $1 in giveaways.
But in February, the campaign was far less effective. Every new $1 spent on free play brought in just 30 cents in extra revenue, according to a Globe analysis.
“That’s the law of diminishing returns,” Simon said. “Plainridge is trying to buy business, and that’s not likely to work in the long run.”
That is what is happening at this blog.
Penn National, the company that owns Plainridge and 16 other casinos, said the increase in revenue so far this year “indicates that our strategy is working.”
“These are common industry practices that are imperative in a competitive market,” the company said in a statement.
Gamblers in denial. What a $ickening sight.
The company said it had planned to ramp up marketing efforts as more patrons enrolled in its loyalty program and that its strategy was helping stop the “decades-long flow of dollars being spent at out-of-state casinos.”
“Just as a typical retail outlet offers coupons to attract new and repeat business, we utilize promotional credits to compete with gaming facilities in Rhode Island and Connecticut that are years ahead of us in developing patron loyalty,” the company said.
Free play is nearly universal in the casino industry, where competition for market share is fierce. At Plainridge, the current promotion reimburses gamblers who lose between $50 and $500 at the slot machines over two return trips to the casino. The initial free credits can’t be redeemed for cash, but any winnings belong to the gambler.
I folded long ago.
Such promotions seem like safe bets, but too much free play can be costly, specialists say.
Is there ever such a thing as a safe bet (setting aside tax loot given to going concerns)?
Many players spend about the same amount of time at the machines whether they have free credits or not and might get their fill without dipping into their own pocket.
“Too much free play risks customers playing without taking out cash of his own,” said Steven M. Gallaway, a partner in Global Marketing Advisors, based in Las Vegas.
They used to call it playing with house money.
Players also quickly get used to playing for free and might lose interest when the offer expires, Gallaway said.
Like me in this issue and just about whatever swill the Globe is spewing on a daily basis these days?
The state’s first foray into the world of Las Vegas-style gambling, Plainridge opened in late June to promising results. But business fell sharply after that.
The state Gaming Commission, in its monthly release of the casino’s financial data, had listed the amount Plainridge spent on free play until last month, when it omitted the figure at Plainridge’s request. The casino argued the disclosure placed it at a strategic disadvantage.
We all knew the Gaming Commission was working for them.
The Globe was able to calculate how much the casino spent on free play by using other financial information, and the Gaming Commission confirmed its accuracy.
Twin River Casino, only 11 miles away from Plainridge in Lincoln, R.I., also keeps its free play information confidential. Under state law, however, the casino can spend no more than 10 percent of the previous year’s revenue, plus $750,000. That means that Plainridge’s current level of free play, 19 percent of revenue, is almost twice as high as its chief rival.
Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, two tribal casinos in Connecticut, are mandated under state law to release their amounts of free play. Connecticut taxes any amount of free play that exceeds 11 percent of revenue....
--more--"
Great journalism, except the Globe was out there cheering for them the whole time.
I mean, how much more proof do you need that government serves only itself these days as we are told funding cuts and neglect are responsible for so many social service ills?
As this blog crashes down and I bypass so many things I no longer have the heart for, I look back on the good times with silence and nothing but bald anger.
I had intended to do more blogging today, but it is now looking like I will have to get out the snow shovel after having put it away for the season. It's nearly a white-out out there right now and its accumulating so it looks like I'm going to be busy removing snow this afternoon before settling in for the Sox game and then heading over to play hoop this evening.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay $4 million to settle allegations that it mislead investors
In deciding what to spit out to you today I didn't even bother tasting some of the stuff. Each morning I Steele myself when I begin my reading regarding the front page and try to whale through page after page while watching where I'm stepping. It's tough for me to read peace talk in a war paper, and I think I'll just bike past the parade.
Now I'm going to have to rush out of here to do some personal things I couldn't and didn't do yesterday thanks to the weather and I'm not Scher I'll be back before settling in for the 1 p.m. start.
Btw, the coup attempt in Brazil has been confirmed; that's why he avoided the place (or places, as the case may be).
Related: 1 in 3 Americans think you can catch Zika from a sneeze
That is not going to clear up the facts for you, sorry.
Feel like I'm fishing off the wrong pier; that's why I'm not taking that close a look.
"The festive ceremony marked a breakthrough for the $1 billion resort casino, which tribe leaders say will be one of the flashiest in the world. The tribe plans to open a gambling hall, which will feature thousands of slot machines and table games like roulette, blackjack, and craps."
The government could call Steve Wynn to the stand
Here is what he had to say:
‘Nobody likes being around poor people,’ Wynn reportedly says
And it's all funny, HA-HA-HA-HA!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Saturday No Longer So Special
I still paid for it (it's my disease, joke is on me) but I was not joking when I said I was calling it quits especially when it is no longer even that.
Their was one brief spark of interest this morning when I saw the right-corner lead:
GE’s property tax bill could reach tens of millions
Yes, the public tax loot giveaways will still be making the city money, and so much for the concern regarding the rising sea levels and all.
Never mind the tooth-and-nail fight over taxes despite the fact that "GE’s effective federal tax rate between 2008 and 2013, when its profit was about $34 billion, was negative 9 percent, and this company, so adept at avoiding taxes, has also benefited from immense government subsidies — a whopping $550 million from state and local coffers since 1992, and almost a billion in federal tax credits since 2000," according to certain people.
Or their record on the environment and what they left behind in Connecticut -- and the free rent they will be getting for the new headquarters as GE is cutting jobs while tossing back crumbs as they transition to some sort of sleight of hand that will serve only corporations while passing off other assets to a bank in Bo$ton. All while they are slashing school budgets in the city.
Globe tried to sweeten things up with what is going on in Congress and the statehouse, but that tastes bitter to me as more and more myths fall by the wayside.
Flipping below the fold was the final straw in benching today's reading (is that how they honor hometown heroes?).
You would think I would be singing their praises on page A2, but I didn't scan the shore to see how much radioactive seawater is still be sprayed and leaked into the Pacific (maybe that is what is causing the bleaching?).
No wonder I'm already feeling sick by page A3 and another sex scandal at an elite private school isn't helping settle my stomach, nor is the dead body found at the recycling plant in Hopkinton, so I hopped on the bus to page A4 where I couldn't find a car and had to squawk for a taxi to page A5.
Where I found that Catholics may soon be squawking about more than vandalism -- or at least a different type of it -- before wandering off and coming across the most heinous monster on page A6 (Clinton must have been changing; that's why the Globe edited it out while the print edition kept quiet about Obama's admission of war crimes).
Thus I struck out for page A7, where a Kansas court decided an adoption case regarding mothers in Tennessee, before heading north then south again for another summit (this is what your government looks like on drugs).
I slickly migrated away from that but the road collapsed in India and the wreckage of the ancient ruins left me sick.
I mean, who knows what they are putting into you these days.
I suppose it is no surprise that the Globe forgot this story that appeared in print (as did this), and the bitter irony of it all (given the economic situation in the state and everything).
Something about a prank phone call over at Google wrapped up the bu$ine$$ section, and the authorities are giving great scrutiny regarding the location of the call.
I see the image makeover must have took, but you would never have known it looking at the website.
Opinion | Michael Hansen Consumers deserve to know what’s in their food
Not in print I don't because that would promote fear and misinformation -- and possibly hurt the corporate profits of large food conglomerates.
Maybe the death of this relationship is a good thing after all.
So long.
Their was one brief spark of interest this morning when I saw the right-corner lead:
GE’s property tax bill could reach tens of millions
Yes, the public tax loot giveaways will still be making the city money, and so much for the concern regarding the rising sea levels and all.
Never mind the tooth-and-nail fight over taxes despite the fact that "GE’s effective federal tax rate between 2008 and 2013, when its profit was about $34 billion, was negative 9 percent, and this company, so adept at avoiding taxes, has also benefited from immense government subsidies — a whopping $550 million from state and local coffers since 1992, and almost a billion in federal tax credits since 2000," according to certain people.
Or their record on the environment and what they left behind in Connecticut -- and the free rent they will be getting for the new headquarters as GE is cutting jobs while tossing back crumbs as they transition to some sort of sleight of hand that will serve only corporations while passing off other assets to a bank in Bo$ton. All while they are slashing school budgets in the city.
Globe tried to sweeten things up with what is going on in Congress and the statehouse, but that tastes bitter to me as more and more myths fall by the wayside.
Flipping below the fold was the final straw in benching today's reading (is that how they honor hometown heroes?).
You would think I would be singing their praises on page A2, but I didn't scan the shore to see how much radioactive seawater is still be sprayed and leaked into the Pacific (maybe that is what is causing the bleaching?).
No wonder I'm already feeling sick by page A3 and another sex scandal at an elite private school isn't helping settle my stomach, nor is the dead body found at the recycling plant in Hopkinton, so I hopped on the bus to page A4 where I couldn't find a car and had to squawk for a taxi to page A5.
Where I found that Catholics may soon be squawking about more than vandalism -- or at least a different type of it -- before wandering off and coming across the most heinous monster on page A6 (Clinton must have been changing; that's why the Globe edited it out while the print edition kept quiet about Obama's admission of war crimes).
Thus I struck out for page A7, where a Kansas court decided an adoption case regarding mothers in Tennessee, before heading north then south again for another summit (this is what your government looks like on drugs).
I slickly migrated away from that but the road collapsed in India and the wreckage of the ancient ruins left me sick.
I mean, who knows what they are putting into you these days.
I suppose it is no surprise that the Globe forgot this story that appeared in print (as did this), and the bitter irony of it all (given the economic situation in the state and everything).
Something about a prank phone call over at Google wrapped up the bu$ine$$ section, and the authorities are giving great scrutiny regarding the location of the call.
I see the image makeover must have took, but you would never have known it looking at the website.
Opinion | Michael Hansen Consumers deserve to know what’s in their food
Not in print I don't because that would promote fear and misinformation -- and possibly hurt the corporate profits of large food conglomerates.
Maybe the death of this relationship is a good thing after all.
So long.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Calling It Quits
“What’s happened to mainstream journalism?” is the question being asked by millions of thinking people, and more than ever before. Could a real clue be found in what may be termed “sound bite” reporting rather than investigative journalism dug up by investigative journalists? They, like the extinct Dodo bird, are becoming a vestige of the past, especially since most media are owned, controlled, and manipulated by five corporations: Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom.
In former years, each issue of Time Magazine used to be voluminous, not the scrawny few pages it is today. Currently, newspapers are anemic renditions of their glorious past, i.e., scaled down from pages packed full of good reporting and reading into a sanitized propaganda versions of the news that spews forth what could be considered “crowd control” for the mind.
An apparent storm of arousal to misrepresentative information from what some call the “lame stream press,” the alternative (alt) media and press have left mainstream news media in their dust....
--MORE--"
Related:
"Nobody likes a liar. Had the corporate media been telling the people the truth all along, the independent media would have never gained a readership ( I wouldn't have bothered starting this site 22 years ago) and the newspapers would still be doing a healthy business. They did it to themselves and I have no sympathy for them."
“The United States is one gentile culture where the Zionist narrative dominates. Key is control of language, controlling thought (…) The more Americans are able to see realities of the occupation with their own eyes, to see routine daily violence, to see repression and humiliation that never make it into mainstream news, the more they will question the image of Israel (…) When that starts to become the dominant perception here in the US, all bets are off. It all comes down to American popular perception.”
Must be why I'm so sour on the insulting elitism and self-centered supremacism.
"Readership is declining. The business model is failing. Frantic tweeting by clever wordsmiths isn’t changing the reality, but no one in the media should expect an outpouring of sympathy."
Good, because you won't be getting any here.
I don't know how you explain it to kids other than blame Trump.
"It’s time to turn off your T.V. and do your own research if you are curious about what is happening on our planet....
--MORE--"
That's the only alternative.
Now off TV yet always on:
Garry Shandling, 66; comedian starred in groundbreaking sitcoms
Blazed the trail for Seinfeld.
A show I love:
"Earl Hamner Jr., 92; creator of ‘Waltons’ TV show" by John C. Rogers Associated Press March 26, 2016
LOS ANGELES — Earl Hamner Jr., the versatile and prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television’s most beloved family shows, ‘‘The Waltons,’’ has died. He was 92.
Although best remembered for ‘‘The Waltons,’’ which aired for nine seasons and won more than a dozen Emmys, that show barely scratched the surface of Mr. Hamner’s literary accomplishments.
He was a best-selling novelist (“Spencer’s Mountain”), the author of eight episodes of the classic 1960s TV show ‘‘The Twilight Zone,’’ and, as a screenwriter, adapted the popular children’s tale ‘‘Charlotte’s Web’’ into a hit 2006 film. He also created the popular, long-running TV drama ‘‘Falcon Crest’’ and wrote for other TV shows such as ‘‘Wagon Train,’’ “Gentle Ben,’’ and ‘‘The Wild Thornberrys.’’
‘‘The Twilight Zone’’ episodes Mr. Hamner did finish included several of the best the classic TV series aired. Among them were ‘‘The Hunt,’’ in which a recently deceased backwoodsman is saved by his beloved hunting dog from accidentally wandering into Hell. Another, ‘‘Ring-a-Ding Girl,’’ tells the story of a young Hollywood movie star who returns to her hometown hours before her death and tricks family and friends into staying away from the site where her plane will crash.
Make that two shows.
Mr. Hamner and the show’s creator, Rod Serling, had been friends since their college days, and when Serling launched the show in 1959 he invited Mr. Hamner to submit scripts. The American folklore element was something he would draw on repeatedly in television’s ‘‘The Walton’s.’’
Like John Boy (played by Richard Thomas), the show’s character he modeled on himself, Mr. Hamner was born in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, on July 10, 1923. Also like John Boy, he was the eldest of eight children and named after his father.
It was there that Earl Henry Hamner Jr. grew up in such modest circumstances that his family owned few books other than the Bible and had no telephone. It wasn’t until a high school field trip to the World’s Fair in New York City in 1939, Mr. Hamner once said, that he actually learned how to use a phone. Until that trip, he said, he had never been more than 40 miles from home.
He had decided to become a writer at age 6, however, after getting a poem published on the children’s page of a Richmond, Va., newspaper.
After graduating from Schuyler High School at the top of his class, Mr. Hamner attended the University of Richmond on a scholarship until being drafted into the Army during World War II.
It was in the military, he said, that a fellow soldier named Paul Nusnick exposed him to serious writing, introducing him to the works of Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others.
After leaving the Army, he enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a degree in broadcasting while working at a local radio station.
‘‘The Waltons’’ aired for more than 200 episodes, with Mr. Hamner providing brief voice-over narration in each one, telling his audience about his family’s years in the Blue Ridge Mountains and how it had shaped him....
--more--"
Now a legend.
"Jim Harrison, 78; authored ‘Legends of the Fall’" by Hillel Italie Associated Press March 28, 2016
NEW YORK — Jim Harrison, the fiction writer, poet, outdoorsman, and reveler who wrote with gruff affection for the country’s landscape and rural life and enjoyed mainstream success in middle age with his historical saga ‘‘Legends of the Fall,’’ died Saturday. He was 78.
Published in 1979, ‘‘Legends of the Fall’’ was a collection of three novellas that featured the title story about Montana rancher Colonel William Ludlow and his three sons of sharply contrasting personalities and values, the narrative extending from before World War I to the mid-20th century, from San Francisco to Singapore.
The book was a bestseller, and Mr. Harrison worked on the script for an Oscar-nominated 1994 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn....
--more--"
Also see:
Joe Santos, 84, ‘Rockford Files’ actor
The show, set in and around Los Angeles, starred James Garner as a resourceful if not financially stable private detective who lived in a battered trailer in a beach parking lot and had a somewhat rocky relationship with the local police.
It also had a great car and theme song for an opening.
Joe Garagiola, ex-ballplayer’s charm caught on in booth
Doctor was just IN TIME!
Patty Duke, at 69; attained fame as young Oscar winner
Ken Howard, 71, TV star, president of screen union
In the acclaimed CBS series ‘‘The White Shadow,’’ which aired from 1978-81, he starred as a white coach to an urban high school basketball team. On Broadway, Mr. Howard played Thomas Jefferson in ‘‘1776,’’ a role he reprised in the 1972 film.
And at the end of the road?
"A decade ago he started a blog and kept it going. Now, he’s ending it. “It is simply time to move on to other pursuits,” he wrote in his final post."
I have nothing more to add other than isn't 25,700 posts enough?
In former years, each issue of Time Magazine used to be voluminous, not the scrawny few pages it is today. Currently, newspapers are anemic renditions of their glorious past, i.e., scaled down from pages packed full of good reporting and reading into a sanitized propaganda versions of the news that spews forth what could be considered “crowd control” for the mind.
An apparent storm of arousal to misrepresentative information from what some call the “lame stream press,” the alternative (alt) media and press have left mainstream news media in their dust....
--MORE--"
Related:
"Nobody likes a liar. Had the corporate media been telling the people the truth all along, the independent media would have never gained a readership ( I wouldn't have bothered starting this site 22 years ago) and the newspapers would still be doing a healthy business. They did it to themselves and I have no sympathy for them."
“The United States is one gentile culture where the Zionist narrative dominates. Key is control of language, controlling thought (…) The more Americans are able to see realities of the occupation with their own eyes, to see routine daily violence, to see repression and humiliation that never make it into mainstream news, the more they will question the image of Israel (…) When that starts to become the dominant perception here in the US, all bets are off. It all comes down to American popular perception.”
Must be why I'm so sour on the insulting elitism and self-centered supremacism.
"Readership is declining. The business model is failing. Frantic tweeting by clever wordsmiths isn’t changing the reality, but no one in the media should expect an outpouring of sympathy."
Good, because you won't be getting any here.
I don't know how you explain it to kids other than blame Trump.
"It’s time to turn off your T.V. and do your own research if you are curious about what is happening on our planet....
--MORE--"
That's the only alternative.
Now off TV yet always on:
Garry Shandling, 66; comedian starred in groundbreaking sitcoms
Blazed the trail for Seinfeld.
A show I love:
"Earl Hamner Jr., 92; creator of ‘Waltons’ TV show" by John C. Rogers Associated Press March 26, 2016
LOS ANGELES — Earl Hamner Jr., the versatile and prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television’s most beloved family shows, ‘‘The Waltons,’’ has died. He was 92.
Although best remembered for ‘‘The Waltons,’’ which aired for nine seasons and won more than a dozen Emmys, that show barely scratched the surface of Mr. Hamner’s literary accomplishments.
He was a best-selling novelist (“Spencer’s Mountain”), the author of eight episodes of the classic 1960s TV show ‘‘The Twilight Zone,’’ and, as a screenwriter, adapted the popular children’s tale ‘‘Charlotte’s Web’’ into a hit 2006 film. He also created the popular, long-running TV drama ‘‘Falcon Crest’’ and wrote for other TV shows such as ‘‘Wagon Train,’’ “Gentle Ben,’’ and ‘‘The Wild Thornberrys.’’
‘‘The Twilight Zone’’ episodes Mr. Hamner did finish included several of the best the classic TV series aired. Among them were ‘‘The Hunt,’’ in which a recently deceased backwoodsman is saved by his beloved hunting dog from accidentally wandering into Hell. Another, ‘‘Ring-a-Ding Girl,’’ tells the story of a young Hollywood movie star who returns to her hometown hours before her death and tricks family and friends into staying away from the site where her plane will crash.
Make that two shows.
Mr. Hamner and the show’s creator, Rod Serling, had been friends since their college days, and when Serling launched the show in 1959 he invited Mr. Hamner to submit scripts. The American folklore element was something he would draw on repeatedly in television’s ‘‘The Walton’s.’’
Like John Boy (played by Richard Thomas), the show’s character he modeled on himself, Mr. Hamner was born in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, on July 10, 1923. Also like John Boy, he was the eldest of eight children and named after his father.
It was there that Earl Henry Hamner Jr. grew up in such modest circumstances that his family owned few books other than the Bible and had no telephone. It wasn’t until a high school field trip to the World’s Fair in New York City in 1939, Mr. Hamner once said, that he actually learned how to use a phone. Until that trip, he said, he had never been more than 40 miles from home.
He had decided to become a writer at age 6, however, after getting a poem published on the children’s page of a Richmond, Va., newspaper.
After graduating from Schuyler High School at the top of his class, Mr. Hamner attended the University of Richmond on a scholarship until being drafted into the Army during World War II.
It was in the military, he said, that a fellow soldier named Paul Nusnick exposed him to serious writing, introducing him to the works of Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others.
After leaving the Army, he enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a degree in broadcasting while working at a local radio station.
‘‘The Waltons’’ aired for more than 200 episodes, with Mr. Hamner providing brief voice-over narration in each one, telling his audience about his family’s years in the Blue Ridge Mountains and how it had shaped him....
--more--"
Now a legend.
"Jim Harrison, 78; authored ‘Legends of the Fall’" by Hillel Italie Associated Press March 28, 2016
NEW YORK — Jim Harrison, the fiction writer, poet, outdoorsman, and reveler who wrote with gruff affection for the country’s landscape and rural life and enjoyed mainstream success in middle age with his historical saga ‘‘Legends of the Fall,’’ died Saturday. He was 78.
Published in 1979, ‘‘Legends of the Fall’’ was a collection of three novellas that featured the title story about Montana rancher Colonel William Ludlow and his three sons of sharply contrasting personalities and values, the narrative extending from before World War I to the mid-20th century, from San Francisco to Singapore.
The book was a bestseller, and Mr. Harrison worked on the script for an Oscar-nominated 1994 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn....
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Also see:
Joe Santos, 84, ‘Rockford Files’ actor
The show, set in and around Los Angeles, starred James Garner as a resourceful if not financially stable private detective who lived in a battered trailer in a beach parking lot and had a somewhat rocky relationship with the local police.
It also had a great car and theme song for an opening.
Joe Garagiola, ex-ballplayer’s charm caught on in booth
Doctor was just IN TIME!
Patty Duke, at 69; attained fame as young Oscar winner
Ken Howard, 71, TV star, president of screen union
In the acclaimed CBS series ‘‘The White Shadow,’’ which aired from 1978-81, he starred as a white coach to an urban high school basketball team. On Broadway, Mr. Howard played Thomas Jefferson in ‘‘1776,’’ a role he reprised in the 1972 film.
All history now.
"In 2011, Miami’s LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh accomplished something that hadn’t been done in more than 50 years: Each had 30-10 nights — James with 33 points and 10 rebounds, Bosh with 31 points and 12 rebounds, and Wade with 30 points and 11 boards — as the Heat beat the Houston Rockets 125-119."
I didn't know it was in 1912 that first lady Helen Herron Taft and the wife of Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Viscountess Chinda, planted the first two of 3,000 cherry trees given as a gift by the mayor of Tokyo in Washington D.C.
And for that we nuked 'em.
Twice.
Ah, those were the days of Bush, Hitler (also helped by AP?), and Owens (that's why Jesse was snubbed by the civil rights movement).
And for that we nuked 'em.
Twice.
Ah, those were the days of Bush, Hitler (also helped by AP?), and Owens (that's why Jesse was snubbed by the civil rights movement).
And at the end of the road?
"A decade ago he started a blog and kept it going. Now, he’s ending it. “It is simply time to move on to other pursuits,” he wrote in his final post."
I have nothing more to add other than isn't 25,700 posts enough?
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