Headlines

Trump falsely accuses Biden of being fed reporters’ questions

June private payrolls rose 2.37 million and there was a big positive revision for May, ADP says

DHS to deploy unit to protect monuments over July 4 weekend

DOD: No corroborating evidence Russians offered bribes for U.S. troops in Afghanistan

Seattle mayor orders ‘occupied’ area cleared, police arrive

US already at 100,000 coronavirus cases a day, it just isn’t testing enough

Citing coronavirus, Biden says he won’t hold campaign rallies

Anthony Fauci warns: Pig-bound virus in China could cause pandemic

Mexico says Lopez Obrador will visit Washington to celebrate new trade pact

Coronavirus expected to tank U.S. auto sales in the second quarter

First arrests made in Hong Kong under new China security law

Boston to remove statue of slave kneeling before Lincoln

Headlines

Trump has a point about the polls

New Jersey could soon be the home of a major offshore wind port

U.K.’s Boris Johnson involved in car accident outside of Parliament

Report: Google financially blacklists ZeroHedge, threatens The Federalists over comment sections

DOJ to crack down on tech industry’s legal shield

Homebuyer mortgage demand spikes to 11-year high, as rates hit another record low

Minneapolis releases map showing extent of damage from riots — 700 buildings damaged or destroyed

Outrage after Democrats wear Kente cloth during moment of silence

California to remove Columbus statue from state Capitol after 137 years

Coronavirus updates: Target makes $15 minimum wage permanent, Google offers nonprofits aid grants

Battleground state voters back pause in immigration 2:1

Boston mayor backs removal of Lincoln; opposes renaming Faneuil Hall

reddit Pic

Boston photo, 2020 (could be a Hopper painting).

Highest Temperature Records

Since the press focuses on individual temperatures to agitate for global warming, I thought that a listing through time of highest temperature at various US cities might give one a feeling for whether we really are getting hotter. Please click on these links, scan the record high temperatures at these American cities and then make up your own mind if Al Gore is a charlatan:


Boston: 1893 to present

New York City: 1870 to present

 Chicago: 1942 to present

 St. Louis: 1893 to present

Dallas: 1914 to present

Los Angeles: 1914 to present


Are you now still a Chicken Little?

Headlines

Republicans threaten revolt, may block Trump’s Mexico tariffs

The Fed is ‘indicating that a rate cut is coming,’ says former central banker

ISIS terror in Ebola zone ...

Joe Biden lied in 1987 with claim he marched in civil rights movement

Manafort will get no special treatment at Rikers Island, de Blasio says

Trade tensions have had a significant impact on China, IMF says

‘Straight Pride’ parade in Boston?

Border agency buying 2.2 million diapers to help migrants

Former Parkland school deputy arrested on 11 charges tied to school shooting

Japan’s Abe may walk a tightrope between Trump and Tehran

Homelessness jumps 16% in LA; officials stunned ... 59,000 live on streets ...

At least four dead in Darwin, Australia, mass shooting

Snow White

When I was a child in Western Pennsylvania if it snowed, the next day there would be a layer of black soot covering what had fallen. Three days ago here in Boston we had six inches of global warming fall. And today I noticed with pleasure that it was still crystal white as snow.

Granted we no longer have coal furnaces and coke ovens here in Massachusetts. But it is clear that our air, even in Pittsburgh, is a lot cleaner than it once was. And, if we could pipe natural gas into the Bay State, we might be even cleaner. Even if we are still “polluting” our air with carbon dioxide ... the basis of all life ... things are much better than in Beijing.

Headlines

Congress should stop meeting with Rod Rosenstein

Amazon is charging more for sellers to promote big discounts on Prime Day

Syrian state media says air defenses hit Israeli plane, thwart missile strike ...

Jimmy Carter: Jesus would 'approve' of gay marriage, abortions

Trump's trade war was decades in the making

With 36 governships up for grabs in midterms, Republicans have the most to lose

Paper: China's currency [yuan] depreciation should set off alarm bells ...

Mexico border life: Cartel gunmen attack 5 bars, kill 12

[PM] Theresa May appoints new Brexit Secretary

U.S. opposition to breastfeeding reportedly stuns world health officials

Boston weighs giving non-US citizens voting rights ...

Nissan admits rigging emission tests at Japanese plants

Irishophobia

President Trump's Chief of Staff, General Kelly, is a racist according to Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC. This, according to O'Donnell,  is not only because he called red cowboy-hatted Representative Frederica Wilson an "empty barrel" (makes a lot of noise) but also because Kelly grew up around Boston, is Irish and a Catholic ... see: "The Five" Video.

Interestingly, O'Donnell is also an Irish Catholic who grew up in Boston ... as were JFK, RFK, all that generation of Kennedys, Ray Flynn, Conan O'Brien, John Kerry (once a year on St. Patrick's Day), Kevin White, Marty Walsh, Cardinal Cushing, Ben Affleck, Whitey and Billy Bulger, James Curley, Senator Ed Markey, John L. Sullivan, Tip O'Neill, Mary McGrory, and so on and on. They all must be or have been racists and should be shunned or have their histories expunged.

No? Can't be? Then it must be that Lawrence O'Donnell made a prejudicial comment and is another self-loathing sufferer of Irishophobia.

Headlines

All ftom Internet news sites. Guess which from Politico?

Trump takes on Bannon in Alabama Senate showdown

Weaponizing sound: Could sonic devices have injured [U.S.] diplomats in Cuba?

Iran claims to have 'Father of all Bombs' ....

Hungary builds wall, cuts illegal immigration by over 99%

The Left warns Pelosi, Schumer: Don't get too close to Trump

Pittsburgh's self-driving car boom means $200,000 pay packages for robotics grads

Montana snow 60 days early ...

Bill Maher: None of Trump's properties were damaged by Irma -- 'There is no God'

Cassidy says he is close to having the votes for passing Obamacare repeal

Suffolk Downs, Flower Exchange viewed as possible Amazon [Boston] HQ site

WSJ: Trump will NOT withdraw from Paris climate deal

Report: Former Wasserman Schultz staffer allegedly uploaded DNC data to private dropbox

Wha?

Listening to our AG, Maura Healey (famous for once saying, "It's not illegal to be illegal here in Massachusetts.") on WGBH here in Boston this PM, she was taking listeners' calls. One asked why would the mayor of Boston have turned off the sound system at the Free Speech Rally in Boston this past weekend? And, in typical liberal newspeak, she said, "Just because people have the right to speak, doesn't mean others need to be able to listen."

Wha?

Afterward: For you who are confused: Boston Rally Facts.

Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones from Politico?

More GOP lawmakers buck their party on climate change

Suspected Florida cop killer claimed to be a member of black extremist group

NKorea threatens 'merciless strike' ahead of US-SKoreaa drills ...

Report: Powerful GOP donor Sheldon Adelson supports campaign to oust McMaster

Tech firms' fight against hate could haunt them

Barcelona terror cell claims to have bombed church, may have accidently blown-up Imam instead

Google working with liberal groups to snuff out conservative websites

Trump praises anti-hate protesters in Boston ...

Mnuchin facing call for his resignation, defends Trump

Bannon: Trump presidency I fought for is over

Queen will not stand down for Prince Charles ...

Report: 27 [Boston rally] protesters arrested, bottles of urine thrown at pqolice ...

Astroturf

Based in Los Angeles, the Astroturf (fake grass-roots) recruiter, Crowds on Demand, is offering $25 an hour to demonstrate or counter-demonstrate at rallies around the country. Peruse their website at: Crowds on Demand.

It is speculated that many of the provocateurs that were at Charlottesville and who are expected at the Free Speech rally on Saturday in Boston have or will come through this organization  ... see: Zero Hedge Story. If I were younger, I might even be tempted ... (just kidding)

I realize that many of you on the left will have a brain cramp at this news ... so here is some push-back from your comfort pony: Snopes Analysis. Snopes conclusion is "Unproven" which, for this bevy of boo-birds, is as good as a "True" endorsement.

Headlines

All these headlines are from Internet news sites. Guess which ones come from Politico?

Grassley, Graham want the FBI's Russian surveillance warrants

Sen. Durbin's office won't release emails with GOP baseball shooter

Susan Rice suggests 'sexism', 'racism' in unmasking probe

CNN has 17 million fake Twitter followers

Trump accepts invitation for Bastille Day visit to France

Undercover video reveals CNN's Van Jones calling Russian story a 'nothing burger'

CA's Sierra region rattled by more than a dozen earthquakes ...

Report: Google generates as much ad revenue as the rest of the world print ad revenue

Trump on healthcare: Schumer doesn't seem like a 'serious person'

Bob Woodward chides NYT, mainstream media 'fair mindedness is important'

Boston streets overrun with bunnies ...

Joy Behar feels 'sorry' that Melania had to sleep with Donald

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Gun manufacturers: Why pay for advertisements when Hollywood pushes our guns for free?

Tanker slides off icy bridge on I-95, explodes ...

Boston breaks 133 year-old [cold] record ...

Black feminist Sanders supporter: 'I need a job more than I need a woman in the White House'

Report: 820,000 criminal illegals in US ...

China agrees to return US drone illegally seized in South China Sea

Obama on alleged Russian hacking: 'We need to take action -- and we will'

Hillary holiday party 'like a wake' ...

FBI [now] backs CIA's findings that Russia tried to help Trump get elected

Snopes, Facebook's new fact checker, employ leftists almost totally

L.A. County considers $1 million taxpayer funds to help illegals fight deportation

Women make up majority of law students for first time ...

On Slurs

Listening to National Public Radio today, I realized that there are a set of hate words that are bad and then, there are those that are worse. On a radio program here in Bosto, our Attorney General, Maura Healey, went through the litany of Hellary Clinton's favorite slurs on her opponents -- sexists, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, Islamophobes ... in the same order as those she included in her proverbial "basket of deplorables." These were the often epithets used to try to slime the winning side in the recent presidential election.

Apparently, since these words were ineffective at the polls, the über left is having a mega-meltdown ... and now have reached into their grab bag of slights to up the ante. Now Trump's selections for his administration were then labeled by Healey as white supremacists and alt-rights. Other media poobahs have called them KKKers, anti-Semites, Nazis and hateful bigots. AG Healey then said on this program that she had set up an 800 hot-line for people to call to rat out those who were exhibiting Hellary's suppose deplorable traits.

Surprise, surprise! Before lunch was over, this hot-line had been maxed out with calls from listeners who mostly pointed out that Healey herself was the biggest offender with her on-air labeling of  Trump voters with these newer slurs.

Now AG Healey's face must be as red as her politics ...

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Chomsky: 'Republican Party most dangerous organization in world history' ...

Report: Hillary screaming obscenities, throwing items in election night meltdown

Godfather: Chicago will always be sanctuary ...

New Orleans won't abandon sanctuary city policy

Boston: Will not cooperate with immigration officials ...

Los Angeles Police Chief: LAPD will not aid in deporting illegal aliens

Fast-food fan Trump set to remake healthy school lunch program

Parents, teachers who scared kids about Trump now trying to console them

Chinese media praise Trump's 'experience and ideology' ...

Zuckerberg among Facebook users mistakenly declared'dead'

Keith Ellison: Direct cash reparations need to be studied

Colin Kaepernick has NEVER voted in any election

Durgin Park

The Boston Globe has had a contest to describe a uniquely Boston experience in 50 words. Two of my talented friends have had their submissions accepted. But mine, I think, sits on the cutting room floor ... possibly because of my un-PC reference to Indian pudding. Therefore, I have decided to reproduce this 58 year-old Boston memory here and the Globe be damned:

Very long ago a bunch of us Dartmouths road-tripped to Boston for Wheaton dates. But first we dined at Durgin Park ... with its surly waitresses and thick prime rib. Starving and poor, I could only afford the halibut, called "poor-man's lobster." I ended with Indian pudding. Delicious! Wheaton was diminished.

I just checked Durgin Park's menu on-line. It no longer offers Indian pudding.

Bottled Water

Two chemical engineering graduates and five others (five men and two women), some from UMass Amherst, were caught after midnight yesterday near the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts.  (The temperature then was a chilly 38 degrees.)  This reservoir supplies Boston with its drinking water and is thus considered a critical strategic asset.  Now, this revelation in and of itself was suspicious, but the fact that these students were Muslims from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Singapore is distressing … see: Boston Herald Story and WWLP Story.

These suspects were questioned and released, but will be required to appear later to answer trespassing charges.  Their names were not released.  If they then fail to appear in court, I strongly suggest that Boston residents start drinking bottled water.

Joe for Oil

Joe Kennedy II, one son of Robert Kennedy, has been running ads on local television touting his and the recently departed Hugo Chavez’s generosity in providing heating oil for the poor people in Boston.  (As it turns out, this generosity is limited to 100 gallons of free oil per household … if you can get his company on the phone … and then you need to buy the rest of your oil-tank fill-up at normal rates.  See: Breitbart Story).

He has given himself the puffery title “Joe for Oil” and is seen on his TV ads dragging the oil filler hose with some impoverished child … preparing to provide (some) oil to the family of this urchin.  To see part of one of these self-aggrandizing ads go to: YouTube Video

Long ago, I wrote about this Kennedy charlatan (it seems to run in the family) … see: Sow's Ear, but Howie Carr has better scoured “Joe for Oil” in a recent column in the Boston Herald newspaper.  Joe Kennedy takes a salary of almost a million dollars from what he touts as a non-profit company, “Citizens Oil," and his wife pulls down well over $300,000 (for doing what it is not clear).  Basically, Joe Kennedy is running an ancillary for-profit oil trading operation (like Enron) and had gotten cozy with “our friend in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez” I’m reasonably sure to get a good price for the oil he then mostly resells at a nice profit … all the while giving the impression that he is a super do-gooder.  This is despicable behavior and I hope against hope that his unfair price leverage in now diminished as a result of Hugo Chavez’s demise.

Instead of “Joe for Oil,” I think that this Kennedy poppinjay might better be called “Oily Joe.”

Silence!

Has anyone but myself noticed the recent decline of talk radio?  Last week in Boston, the FM talk station, WTKK, went to an (atrocious) all-music format.  It had been almost exclusively talk and mostly right-leaning talk ... except for Margery Eagan and Jim Braude in the morning hours.  They had had a conservative Michael Graham filling up the drive-time slot and that occasional righty, Mike Smerconish in between … see: Gaulitics.com.  Even that power-mouth Rush Limbaugh, after a little over a twelve month move to AM’s WXKS Talk 1200 from the feeble-AM-signaled WRKO 680, recently was forced to move back … just a little humbled (see: Boston Radio Watch ).  WXKS then went to a silly all-comedy format.

Over the last year here in Boston we have seen quite a parcel of other silenced right-wing voices … Lara Ingraham disappeared (and, in her last months, pleading for more advertisers) as well as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Jeff Katz, Jay Severin, and Michael Savage. And, as of now, the only oral oasis for us crypto-Nazis here in Boston is WRKO (whose signal fades fast after sundown … very annoying in the winter time) which carries just the few voices of right-reason remaining -- Jeff Kuhner, Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.  (Of course there is still FM-radio’s NPR here in Boston (WGBH 89.7) … on which one can hear how to make Nina Tottenberg’s cranberry sauce, listen to Terry Gross castigate conservatives and learn about All [Liberal] Things Considered.)

But the real reason for this blog entry is that I sense that this shrinkage is not happening by accident.  I strongly suspect that there is an invisible hand at work behind the scenes that is somehow convincing advertisers (and station managers) that it would be better if they were not abetting this brand of right-wing political talk radio.  And when Rush Limbaugh offered up a derogatory name for Sandra Fluke after she “testified” to Congress about her need for free contraceptives, even this ratings giant lost significant advertisers.  President Obama has not minced words about his disgust over conservative talk radio and the messages that it conveys (see: American Thinker).  And as Joe Biden says, President Obama carries a big stick and, as we have seen, he is not afraid to use it.

And so, at least in Boston, the pond for conservative talk radio is rapidly drying up.  This was one of the few alternatives to the mostly-liberal Main Stream Media ... but has drawn the ire of both it and the party currently in power. As long as they are going after the Second Amendment to the Constitution, why not scuttle the First Amendment also?