Thursday, February 27, 2020
is that our hallucination
in the heart of the art of the expose
________
fucktoad fascists
appear less normal under national light
when not sheltered
under the ash of stepped in propaganda,
wonder smashes
in stoops, cold no food nights
never known by most, right? is that
our hallucination, that America
can do no better?
flb
22-27-20
Bloomberg Fracks Oklahoma, Causes Cushing Earthquakes
https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2010/04/20/bloombergs-offshore-millions/
"White Star Petroleum was founded by the late Aubrey McClendon, a controversial billionaire known as the “Fracking King” for his role in pioneering the drilling method.
McClendon died in a car crash in 2016.
The company has been accused of producing air pollution, including leaking plumes of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Residents in Oklahoma have also accused the firm of contributing to a wave of fracking-fueled earthquakes near Cushing."
__________
" 2010, journalist Aram Roston found that Bloomberg’s foundation invested in a series of international funds, including hedge funds based in offshore tax havens and Geotech Oil Services, a Cyprus-based oil services company controlled by Russian oligarch Nikolai Levitsky.
When asked about the offshore investments, Bloomberg dismissed the story. The funds, he noted in 2010, were “fully disclosed and they’re appropriate to maximize the assets which I’m giving away to charities.”
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/24/mike-bloomberg-investment-portfolio/
_____________
How many Fracking Kings are there? Perhaps the first ones are grand poobah?
George Phydias Mitchell (May 21, 1919 – July 26, 2013) was an American businessman, real estate developer and philanthropist from Texas credited with pioneering the economic extraction of shale gas.
__________
"The suit alleges that White Star operates wastewater disposal wells responsible for about 82 percent of the wastewater disposal injections within six miles of the Nov. 7 earthquake. The other four companies contribute the remaining percentage of wastewater, it states.
“By disposing of fracking wastewater deep into the earth, Defendants introduced contaminants into the natural environment that caused an adverse change to it in the form of unnatural seismic activity,” the suit states.
“In other words, due to Defendants’ pollution of the environment, they caused the man-made earthquakes at issue in this case.”
https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/cushing-earthquake-suit/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Rattner
"White Star Petroleum was founded by the late Aubrey McClendon, a controversial billionaire known as the “Fracking King” for his role in pioneering the drilling method.
McClendon died in a car crash in 2016.
The company has been accused of producing air pollution, including leaking plumes of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Residents in Oklahoma have also accused the firm of contributing to a wave of fracking-fueled earthquakes near Cushing."
__________
" 2010, journalist Aram Roston found that Bloomberg’s foundation invested in a series of international funds, including hedge funds based in offshore tax havens and Geotech Oil Services, a Cyprus-based oil services company controlled by Russian oligarch Nikolai Levitsky.
When asked about the offshore investments, Bloomberg dismissed the story. The funds, he noted in 2010, were “fully disclosed and they’re appropriate to maximize the assets which I’m giving away to charities.”
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/24/mike-bloomberg-investment-portfolio/
_____________
How many Fracking Kings are there? Perhaps the first ones are grand poobah?
George Phydias Mitchell (May 21, 1919 – July 26, 2013) was an American businessman, real estate developer and philanthropist from Texas credited with pioneering the economic extraction of shale gas.
__________
"The suit alleges that White Star operates wastewater disposal wells responsible for about 82 percent of the wastewater disposal injections within six miles of the Nov. 7 earthquake. The other four companies contribute the remaining percentage of wastewater, it states.
“By disposing of fracking wastewater deep into the earth, Defendants introduced contaminants into the natural environment that caused an adverse change to it in the form of unnatural seismic activity,” the suit states.
“In other words, due to Defendants’ pollution of the environment, they caused the man-made earthquakes at issue in this case.”
https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/cushing-earthquake-suit/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Rattner
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Amazon, Lev Parnas, Jeff Bezos the Washington Post, Brian Ballard
"Amazon has been a top client of Ballard’s for years. In 2018, Amazon paid the firm $280,000 for lobbying services that went beyond trade issues, including business deregulation and infrastructure funding, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Amazon tapped a lobbying firm run by an ally of President Donald Trump to push for government action against vendors selling counterfeit goods – an issue that has come under greater scrutiny during the U.S. trade battle with China.
From July 2018 until March 2019, Amazon has been paying Ballard Partners up to $70,000 each quarter for, in part, lobbying on issues related to “trade and tariff policy,” according to three disclosure reports. However, people familiar with the matter said that the disclosure reports only tell part of the story.
Brian Ballard, a leading fundraiser in Florida for Trump during the 2016 presidential election, has been lobbying members of Trump’s administration and Congress on Amazon’s behalf to fight back against third party vendors who are selling fake products to their customers"
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/amazon-paid-a-trump-fundraiser-to-lobby-against-counterfeit-sellers.html
____________
"A prominent Florida lobbying firm, a GOP fundraiser in Tallahassee and a donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were subpoenaed in recent weeks by federal prosecutors in New York investigating two South Florida businessmen whose work for President Donald Trump’s personal attorney has placed them near the center of a congressional impeachment inquiry.
Ballard Partners, a powerhouse firm founded in Tallahassee by Republican lobbyist and Trump confidant Brian Ballard, was subpoenaed recently by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York investigating Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, naturalized citizens accused of funneling illegal foreign money into U.S. campaigns.
Subpoenas also went to South Florida businessman Paul Okoloko and, according to CNN, professional fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke."
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article237629109.html
instrument (2017)
instrument
a body of poplar and nerves silver bright,
long cracked and nyet-played, artwork tonight:
diadem glass bauble: ocean glass smooth,
gleaming hot fuchsia lozenges: glued:
her guitar persona and curvy appeal
from trash heap i rescued for honor annealed
a day on the workbench a few bowls of weed
what once made music, woden child's steed
instrument then, mind relic now,
how similar the human and all time allows:
re-purposed, our instincts to mechanical sloth
shackled in process, normality's cloth
tree liked his wood, once it were his own
guitar had a chance, now art has his loan
Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”
— Malcolm X
“We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.”
— Malcolm X
“My alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
— Malcolm X
“Stumbling is not falling.”
— Malcolm X
“They put your mind right in a bag, and take it wherever they want.”
— Malcolm X
“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.”
— Malcolm X
“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
— Malcolm X
“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”
— Malcolm X
“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”
— Malcolm X
“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.”
— Malcolm X
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”
— Malcolm X
“Dr. King wants the same thing I want. Freedom.”
— Malcolm X
“I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.”
— Malcolm X
_______________________________________
https://www.malcolmx.com/quotes/
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
antifa, Democratic Party of Oregon, unsolved homicide
October 12-15 2019
What Investigation? It has been 4 months.
"At around 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Portland police responded to reports of gunfire in the area of Northeast 8th Avenue and Davis Street.
Officers found an SUV crashed into the side of a commercial building. There was evidence that gunshots were fired at the vehicle, police said. No one was around when officers arrived.
A short time later, police learned an injured person, identified as Kealiher, was dropped off at a local hospital. He died at the hospital.
In a press release Saturday afternoon, police said Kealiher suffered critical injuries after the crash. Police have not released more information about the crash, or the events leading up to it.
Kealiher was a self-proclaimed anarchist who was involved in protests after the 2016 election.
On Sunday people left candles and flowers outside the building where Kealiher was hit at Northeast 9th Avenue and Everett Street.
It's the building that houses the Democratic Party of Oregon.
The executive director doesn't know any link between the Democratic Party and Kealiher's death."
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/shooting-crash-northeast-portland-building/283-bdb8caca-fb11-4675-96df-3a17a8842a84
___________________________
"The mother of slain antifascist activist Sean Kealiher read a statement today on the sidewalk where her son died early Saturday morning.
Kealiher, 23, was run over by an SUV near the antifascist nightspot Cider Riot, and died from blunt force trauma."
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2019/10/15/mother-of-slain-antifascist-sean-kealiher-asks-that-no-one-speak-with-media/
"The driver of the SUV crashed into the DPO building after hitting Kealiher.
Someone fired gunshots into the SUV, police said, and the driver fled the scene.
No arrests have been made."
What Investigation? It has been 4 months.
"At around 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Portland police responded to reports of gunfire in the area of Northeast 8th Avenue and Davis Street.
Officers found an SUV crashed into the side of a commercial building. There was evidence that gunshots were fired at the vehicle, police said. No one was around when officers arrived.
A short time later, police learned an injured person, identified as Kealiher, was dropped off at a local hospital. He died at the hospital.
In a press release Saturday afternoon, police said Kealiher suffered critical injuries after the crash. Police have not released more information about the crash, or the events leading up to it.
Kealiher was a self-proclaimed anarchist who was involved in protests after the 2016 election.
On Sunday people left candles and flowers outside the building where Kealiher was hit at Northeast 9th Avenue and Everett Street.
It's the building that houses the Democratic Party of Oregon.
The executive director doesn't know any link between the Democratic Party and Kealiher's death."
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/shooting-crash-northeast-portland-building/283-bdb8caca-fb11-4675-96df-3a17a8842a84
___________________________
"The mother of slain antifascist activist Sean Kealiher read a statement today on the sidewalk where her son died early Saturday morning.
Kealiher, 23, was run over by an SUV near the antifascist nightspot Cider Riot, and died from blunt force trauma."
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2019/10/15/mother-of-slain-antifascist-sean-kealiher-asks-that-no-one-speak-with-media/
"The driver of the SUV crashed into the DPO building after hitting Kealiher.
Someone fired gunshots into the SUV, police said, and the driver fled the scene.
No arrests have been made."
Human Rights Campaign spokeswoman uses Kompromat to raise money
Human Rights Campaign spokeswoman uses Kompromat to raise money
"At first, it had nothing to do with politics. Charlotte Clymer, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, had mentioned Sunday on Twitter to her 277,000 followers that the finale of a popular television show a few years ago had been terrible and that it still made her mad. She wouldn’t say which show, for fear of hurting the show writers’ feelings.
But her followers wanted to know! So she offered this: If they could raise $10,000 in an hour, she’d reveal the name of the show. Seven hundred people donated $27,000. (It was HBO’s “Girls.”)
But it didn’t stop there. The next night, Clymer said she’d met a U.S. senator, still in office, at an event years ago with whom she had “a terrible interaction because they were awful.”
If her supporters could raise $100,000 for Warren by midnight Tuesday, she said, she’d disclose who it was. The money started coming in so fast that she upped the number to $200,000. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the pledged amount stood at $74,000.
Now Warren supporters are promoting the hashtag #SpilltheTeaforWarren and urging others with big followings on social media to reveal a secret in exchange for donations to the Democratic candidate’s campaign."
By Colby Itkowitz
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/25/democratic-debate/
"At first, it had nothing to do with politics. Charlotte Clymer, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, had mentioned Sunday on Twitter to her 277,000 followers that the finale of a popular television show a few years ago had been terrible and that it still made her mad. She wouldn’t say which show, for fear of hurting the show writers’ feelings.
But her followers wanted to know! So she offered this: If they could raise $10,000 in an hour, she’d reveal the name of the show. Seven hundred people donated $27,000. (It was HBO’s “Girls.”)
But it didn’t stop there. The next night, Clymer said she’d met a U.S. senator, still in office, at an event years ago with whom she had “a terrible interaction because they were awful.”
If her supporters could raise $100,000 for Warren by midnight Tuesday, she said, she’d disclose who it was. The money started coming in so fast that she upped the number to $200,000. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the pledged amount stood at $74,000.
Now Warren supporters are promoting the hashtag #SpilltheTeaforWarren and urging others with big followings on social media to reveal a secret in exchange for donations to the Democratic candidate’s campaign."
By Colby Itkowitz
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/25/democratic-debate/
chimera sempiternal
druthers impetus rocker
bring-to-light
daydream tomtom
nowadays chimera sempiternal
gnash
besotted presentiment torment
frown tomorrow
dimple hop psychotherapy
trackless
*automatic
dada poem
2-22-20
Saturday, February 22, 2020
No Ethics/No Work Oracle protest
"About 300 Oracle employees walked off the job on Thursday to protest founder and Executive Chairman Larry Ellison's decision to hold a fundraiser for President Donald Trump the previous evening, Bloomberg reports.
It was a rare sign of dissent for a company known for its stodgy corporate culture. But the circumstances of the small-scale protest also suggest that Ellison has less reason to worry about future employee revolts than some of his fellow tech moguls.
"The protest, called No Ethics/No Work, involved about 300 employees walking out of their offices or stopping work at remote locations at noon local time and devoting the rest of the day to volunteering or civic engagement," Bloomberg reports. Bloomberg's source asked not to be named for fear of retaliation."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/report-300-oracle-employees-walk-out-over-ceos-trump-fundraiser/
"Oracle also competes with rivals for valuable government cloud-computing contracts. Earlier this month, a federal court granted Amazon's request to stop the Trump administration from moving forward with a massive $10 billion defense cloud-computing contract. Microsoft won the contract, but Amazon alleges that Trump personally and improperly lobbied for runner-up Amazon not to get it.
Trump and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have a testy relationship in part because Bezos owns The Washington Post, which frequently criticizes the president and breaks unflattering stories about him."
__________
Trashgate
In 2000, Oracle attracted attention from the computer industry and the press after hiring private investigators to dig through the trash of organizations involved in an antitrust trial involving Microsoft.
The Chairman of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, staunchly defended his company's hiring of an East Coast detective agency to investigate groups that supported rival Microsoft Corporation during its antitrust trial, calling the snooping a "public service".
The investigation reportedly included a $1,200 offer to janitors at the Association for Competitive Technology to look through Microsoft's trash.
_________
In 2004, then-United States Attorney General John Ashcroft sued Oracle Corporation to prevent it from acquiring a multibillion-dollar intelligence contract. After Ashcroft's resignation from government, he founded a lobbying firm,
The Ashcroft Group, which Oracle hired in 2005. With the group's help, Oracle went on to acquire the contract
__________
"Oracle Corporation was awarded a contract by the State of Oregon's Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to develop Cover Oregon, the state's healthcare exchange website, as part of the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
. When the site tried to go live on October 1, 2013, it failed, and registrations had to be taken using paper applications until the site could be fixed.
In August 2014, Oracle Corporation sued Cover Oregon for breach of contract, and then later that month the state of Oregon sued Oracle Corporation, in a civil complaint for breach of contract, fraud, filing false claims and "racketeering".
In September 2016, the two sides reached a settlement valued at over $100 million to the state, and a six-year agreement for Oracle to continue modernizing state software and IT"
_______
"On August 31, 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for paying bribes to government officials in order to win business in Africa, in contravention of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)."
________
Trump Considering Changing Law That Makes Foreign Bribes Illegal
“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump is quoted as saying in the new book “A Very Stable Genius.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-illegal-bribe-law-changes_n_5e23ced3c5b673621f773637
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
Mahala
"The word Mahala or Mahalla is used in many languages and countries meaning neighborhood or location originated in Arabic Ù…Øلة(maḥalla), from the root meaning ‘to settle’, ‘to occupy’ derived from the verb halla (to untie), as in untying a pack horse or camel to make a camp.
In ancient cultures hospitality involved welcoming the stranger at the host location and offering him food, shelter, and safety. This meaning of hospitality centers on the belief that strangers should be assisted and protected while traveling.
Mahala is also a Balkan word for "neighbourhood" or "quarter", a section of a rural or urban settlement, dating to the times of the Ottoman Empire. It was brought to the area through Ottoman Turkish mahalle, but it originates in Arabic Ù…Øلة (mähallä), from the root meaning "to settle", "to occupy".
It is rendered as follows in the languages of the region: Bulgarian: махала (makhala); Serbo-Croatian: mahala/ махала; Romanian: mahala; Albanian: mahallë or mahalla, or mëhallë or mëhalla; Greek: μαχαλάς (mahalas); Macedonian: маало (maalo) or маала (maala); Romani: mahala; Aromanian: mãhãlã.
A mahala was a relatively independent quarter of a larger village or a town, with its own school, religious building or buildings, mayor's representative, etc. Mahalas are often named after the first settler or, when ethnically separate, according to the dominant ethnicity.
n Bulgaria, mahalas were administratively considered a separate type of settlement on some occasions; today, settlements are only divided into towns or villages, and the official division of towns is into quarters. In rural mountainous areas, villages were often scattered and consisted of relatively separate mahalas with badly developed infrastructure.
In Romanian, the word mahala has come to have the strictly negative or pejorative connotations of a slum or ghetto that are not present or at least not as strongly implied in other languages.
In the Bengali language, mahalla (pronounced mo-hol-la) also means an urban neighbourhood. In Iran, mahalla is widely used in the same ways as mentioned above for urban neighborhoods.
In South Africa, Mahala is commonly used as a replacement for the word FREE."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahala
___________________
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34586956/lucinda-mahala-miller
a paradigm of big whoop
they say it is president's day big whoop
i'm less than enthralled
going back to my elementary school notions
of who are founding vaders were
and who has filled that office since.
my namesake ancestor
assisted Colve, the governor of New Orange
in handing over the colony
now NY City
back to the british and there were no presidents
only a king overseas
and a slavery system and indebted servitude
and a flushing remonstrance that
enshrined religious freedom in america before
we had a name, there on the hills
above wampum bay and killcreek and split rock
they say presidents need to be celebrated
today, so the essential services
to the populace shut down and kids pledge
allegiance or get spanked
like robert morris, who gave his home to
george washington and if you follow
history's trail of tears and crumbs will discover
the finacier of the american revolution
in the poor house
as a political prisoner who turned down the Presidency
and could have been a witness
about emoluments were such things en vogue
as his son and time eventually married
the daughter of a shoemaker and she like
old mother hubbard ended up in albany
on the arm of a brawling son of a dutch oligarch
like an ornament on the family tree
the pinnacle on old greensleeves as the pagan
queens and kings faded and our names
morphed, apt as they be in exchange
for the millions with no name but rather
branded by their profession as miller, butler,
smith, potter and the like
with farm tools to fight the bloody british and
their mercenary inscripted hordes
there in manhattan only a stonefruit throw
up to the nation's first plant and tree nurseries
ben franklin and general washington
in their white riding gloves and deerskin aprons
pointing toward what they want
loaded in their wagons back to estates stretching
an arc of history with a present
crown on the head of all that is wrong and without
virtue, as critical human errors
long sealed in the foundation now topple imbalanced
and stars do what they like
as cinders pop
from the forge with no lincoln or other burnished
set of principles to hold form in a tophat or wig
and no reason to tweet self congratulations
in midst of treason's dire remedy
to keep men immune to the wrath of those they decimate
like gravel under monuments to
false paradigms
2-17-20
portland or
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Standard Oil Co. (by Pablo Neruda, Canto General, 1940)
When the drill bored down toward the stony fissures
and plunged its implacable intestine
into the subterranean estates,
and dead years, eyes of the ages,
imprisoned plants’ roots
and scaly systems
became strata of water,
fire shot up through the tubes
transformed into cold liquid,
in the customs house of the heights,
issuing from its world of sinister depth,
it encountered a pale engineer
and a title deed.
However entangled the petroleum’s arteries may be,
however the layers may change their silent site
and move their sovereignty amid the earth’s bowels,
when the fountain gushes its paraffin foliage,
Standard Oil arrived beforehand
with its checks and it guns,
with its governments and its prisoners.
Their obese emperors from New York
are suave smiling assassins
who buy silk, nylon, cigars
petty tyrants and dictators.
They buy countries, people, seas, police, county councils,
distant regions where the poor hoard their corn
like misers their gold:
Standard Oil awakens them,
clothes them in uniforms, designates
which brother is the enemy.
the Paraguayan fights its war,
and the Bolivian wastes away
in the jungle with its machine gun.
A President assassinated for a drop of petroleum,
a million-acre mortgage,
a swift execution on a morning mortal with light, petrified,
a new prison camp for subversives,
in Patagonia, a betrayal, scattered shots
beneath a petroliferous moon,
a subtle change of ministers
in the capital, a whisper
like an oil tide,
and zap, you’ll see
how Standard Oil’s letters shine above the clouds,
above the seas, in your home,
illuminating their dominions.
Standard Oil Co. (by Pablo Neruda, Canto General, 1940)
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Unfit Bloomberg
Garrison complaint
89. On April 11, 1995 at approximately 11:20 a.m., Bloomberg was having a photograph taken with two female Company salespeople and a group of N.Y.U. Business School students, in the company snack area. When Bloomberg noticed Garrison standing nearby, he asked, “Why didn’t they ask you to be in the picture? I guess they saw your face.”
Continuing his penchant for ridiculing recently married women in his employ, Bloomberg asked plaintiff, “How’s married life? You married?” Plaintiff responded that her marriage was great and was going to get better in a few months: that she was pregnant, and the baby was due the following September.
He responded to her “Kill it!” Plaintiff asked Bloomberg to repeat himself, and again he said, “Kill it!” and muttered, “Great! Number 16!” suggesting to plaintiff his unhappiness that sixteen women in the Company had maternity-related status. Then he walked away.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women/?itid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bloomberg-9a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/the-portable-bloomberg-the-wit-wisdom-of-michael-bloomberg/ba5281b4-886d-42dc-a28d-e67eceb60719/
__________
“I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg said.
“It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.
You could learn that.
Then we had 300 years of the industrial society.
You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow and you can have a job.
“Now comes the information economy [which is] fundamentally different because it’s built around replacing people with technology and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different.
You have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter.”
He continued that it “wasn’t clear” if “students can learn,” even with subsidized housing and education."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/17/michael-bloomberg-more-past-controversial-remarks
____________
Bloomberg Wit and Wisdom, decades of misogyny
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women/?itid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bloomberg-9a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
Mike Bloomberg for years has battled women’s
allegations of profane, sexist comments
__________
"A good salesperson is like a man who tries to pick up women at a bar by saying, “Do you want to f---? He gets turned down a lot — but he gets f----- a lot, too!” Bloomberg was quoted in the booklet as saying. Bloomberg also allegedly said that his company’s financial information computers “will do everything, including give you [oral sex]. I guess that puts a lot of you girls out of business.”
At the time, some Bloomberg staffers said, they laughed off the comments in the 32-page booklet, “The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg,” as a macho side of one of the nerdiest men on Wall Street."
"The most high-profile case was from a former saleswoman. She sued Bloomberg personally as well as his company, alleging workplace discrimination.
She alleged Bloomberg told her to “kill it” when he learned she was pregnant.""
Friday, February 14, 2020
steam of conscience nest
books and words and stories save
my elemental drive,
my tabula rasa approach
the steamshovel
going down deeper and deeper builds
a ramp to escape
the little house survives
as banks and insurance giants surround
the tree is reduced
to a stump for the old butt to park awhile
the tugboat must
brave the waves to rescue
his family name
all the blank paper in the world was
once a tree or similar chaff
with a spirit,
it has elemental drive.
microcosms of forest
sleeping in my arms, my children
once
held me highest
going down the slide together
holding hands not just to cross the street
starng
endlessly into one
another's eyes. every night
i told each daughter
a new story as they grew
and their hair shined.
boxes cannot contain their art,
the world is too small.
our microcosm
remains, as a water bear,
in glacial retreat
toward the starry ocean.
my heart has no crass excuse
other than to
pump the sun into a nice warm ball
which we roll, roll,
roll and laughing chase.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
the greatest folk album of the rock era
"Life in a garret
Is great if ya dare it
cherie"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Moicy!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Moicy!
This collaboration with the Unholy Modal Rounders, Michael Hurley, and Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones, was named "the greatest folk album of the rock era" by The Village Voice's Robert Christgau.
__________
http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/browse/bloodgood-garretson-househttp://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/browse/bloodgood-garretson-house
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Frans Jansen Bloodgood, Secretary to the Colonies on the Delaware, New Amsterdam
"Bloodgood was made secretary to the Colonies on the Delaware River in 1659. They moved to Flushing, and Bloodgood was appointed Schepen of Flushing in 1673.
Bloodgood had acquired land, sheep and cattle by the time of his death.
Frans Bloetgoet and his wife both belonged to the New York Dutch Church, and all but two of their children were baptized there.
On 24 May 1674 he was made chief officer of the Dutch militia of the settlements of Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica and Newtown. "
Saturday, February 08, 2020
"in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest"
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882
___________________
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,--
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.
Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition, still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.
Part the First Canto I
In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward,
Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.
Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.
Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock,
Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries.
Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting
Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.
There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset
Lighted the village street and gilded the vanes on the chimneys,
Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles
Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden
Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors
Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens,
Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and the children
Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless them.
Reverend walked he among them; and up rose matrons and maidens,
Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome.
Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the sun sank
Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from the belfry
Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village
Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending,
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and contentment.
Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian farmers,—
Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
*** Only a segment of the beautiful poem!
Find it here or elsewhere in your local bookstore.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance
https://poets.org/poem/evangeline-tale-acadie
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882
___________________
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,--
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.
Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition, still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.
Part the First Canto I
In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward,
Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.
Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows.
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village.
Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock,
Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries.
Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows; and gables projecting
Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.
There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly the sunset
Lighted the village street and gilded the vanes on the chimneys,
Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles
Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden
Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within doors
Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and the songs of the maidens,
Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and the children
Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless them.
Reverend walked he among them; and up rose matrons and maidens,
Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome.
Then came the laborers home from the field, and serenely the sun sank
Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from the belfry
Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village
Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending,
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and contentment.
Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian farmers,—
Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics.
*** Only a segment of the beautiful poem!
Find it here or elsewhere in your local bookstore.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance
https://poets.org/poem/evangeline-tale-acadie
extortion, protection payments, Derek Harvey and the Three Amigos
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/28/792065458/gold-star-families-sue-defense-contractors-alleging-they-funded-the-taliban
BLACK & VEATCH SPECIAL PROJECTS
CORPORATION, CENTERRA GROUP, LLC,
DAI GLOBAL LLC, ENVIRONMENTAL
CHEMICAL CORPORATION, G4S HOLDINGS
INTERNATIONAL (AG) LIMITED, G4S RISK
MANAGEMENT LIMITED, JANUS GLOBAL
OPERATIONS LLC, LOUIS BERGER GROUP,
INC., LOUIS BERGER INTERNATIONAL, INC.,
LOUIS BERGER GROUP, INC. / BLACK &
VEATCH SPECIAL PROJECTS CORPORATION
JOINT VENTURE, MTN GROUP LIMITED,
MTN (DUBAI) LIMITED, MTN
AFGHANISTAN,
NPR reported on these so-called "extortion rackets" in 2010.
"Resupply convoys navigating the hazardous Afghan highway system frequently have to hire security firms to protect them, and as often, these security firms pay off militias that control key stretches of road," international correspondent Peter Kenyon wrote.
More than 100 Gold Star families are suing several major defense contractors, alleging they made illegal "protection payments" to the Taliban — thereby funding the Taliban's insurgency efforts that killed or wounded thousands of Americans in Afghanistan.
It's illegal under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act to provide material support to the Taliban. The U.S. has warned defense contractors that protection payments are against the law, but according to the lawsuit, the practice has proliferated because defense contractors feel it's a cost of doing business.
"Defendants supported the Taliban for a simple reason: Defendants were all large Western companies with lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests," the complaint says. "Those protection payments aided and abetted terrorism by directly funding an al-Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans."
According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Taliban in 2005 began systematically approaching international businesses operating in Afghanistan, and offered them a choice: pay up, or else. "Defendants paid the Taliban to leave them alone," the suit alleges. "The payments saved Defendants money: it was cheaper to buy off the Taliban than it would have been to invest in the security necessary to mitigate the terrorists' threats."
________________
"According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. is paying about $16 million dollars a month to members of the Sons of Iraq. Petraeus emphasized during his testimony that the "savings in vehicles not lost because of reduced violence — not to mention the priceless lives saved — have far outweighed the cost of their monthly contracts."
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/08/us-government-paying-former-insurgents/
Roberts: The real purpose of the "surge" was to hide another deception.
The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack US forces.
… Allegedly, the Sons of Iraq are now at work fighting al Qaeda. … This is a much cheaper way to fight a war. We can only wonder why Bush didn’t figure it out sooner."
_______________
"Harvey, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst with long experience in the Middle East, had been brought in by Flynn, who was fired as national security advisor a month after Trump took office. He is also close to Gen. David Petraeus, who is said to be advising the Trump administration from the sidelines."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/mcmaster-removes-flynn-pick-derek-harvey-national-security-council-n787146
It has also been reported that Harvey grew close to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
"I treasure having had the opportunity to support committed and visionary leaders such as Mrs. K.T. McFarland, Mr. Jared Kushner, and Mr. Steve Bannon, and consummate professionals like Mr. Jason Greenblatt and Ms. Dina Powell," Harvey said in his statement"
_____________
Friday, February 07, 2020
Thursday, February 06, 2020
The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest
With the dew and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberations
As of thunder in the mountains?
I should answer, I should tell you,
"From the forests and the prairies,
From the great lakes of the Northland,
From the land of the Ojibways,
From the land of the Dacotahs,
From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,
Feeds among the reeds and rushes.
I repeat them as I heard them
From the lips of Nawadaha,
The musician, the sweet singer."
Should you ask where Nawadaha
Found these songs so wild and wayward,
Found these legends and traditions,
I should answer, I should tell you,
"In the bird's-nests of the forest,
In the lodges of the beaver,
In the hoof-prints of the bison,
In the eyry of the eagle!
"All the wild-fowl sang them to him,
In the moorlands and the fen-lands,
In the melancholy marshes;
Chetowaik, the plover, sang them,
Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa,
The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,
And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!"
If still further you should ask me,
Saying, "Who was Nawadaha?
Tell us of this Nawadaha,"
I should answer your inquiries
Straightway in such words as follow.
"In the vale of Tawasentha,
In the green and silent valley,
By the pleasant water-courses,
Dwelt the singer Nawadaha.
Round about the Indian village
Spread the meadows and the corn-fields,
And beyond them stood the forest,
Stood the groves of singing pine-trees,
Green in Summer, white in Winter,
Ever sighing, ever singing.
"And the pleasant water-courses,
You could trace them through the valley,
By the rushing in the Spring-time,
By the alders in the Summer,
By the white fog in the Autumn,
By the black line in the Winter;
And beside them dwelt the singer,
In the vale of Tawasentha,
In the green and silent valley.
"There he sang of Hiawatha,
Sang the Song of Hiawatha,
Sang his wondrous birth and being,
How he prayed and how be fasted,
How he lived, and toiled, and suffered,
That the tribes of men might prosper,
That he might advance his people!"
Ye who love the haunts of Nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;--
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
Ye who love a nation's legends,
Love the ballads of a people,
That like voices from afar off
Call to us to pause and listen,
Speak in tones so plain and childlike,
Scarcely can the ear distinguish
Whether they are sung or spoken;--
Listen to this Indian Legend,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe that in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings
For the good they comprehend not,
That the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened;--
Listen to this simple story,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
Ye, who sometimes, in your rambles
Through the green lanes of the country,
Where the tangled barberry-bushes
Hang their tufts of crimson berries
Over stone walls gray with mosses,
Pause by some neglected graveyard,
For a while to muse, and ponder
On a half-effaced inscription,
Written with little skill of song-craft,
Homely phrases, but each letter
Full of hope and yet of heart-break,
Full of all the tender pathos
Of the Here and the Hereafter;--
Stay and read this rude inscription,
Read this Song of Hiawatha!
https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=62
*surreal reminded me to read it again
Wednesday, February 05, 2020
Bloodgood Nurseries, 1790
Sara Delano Roosevelt died on September 7, 1941 with the President at her side, two weeks before her 87th birthday.
"Minutes after her death, the largest oak tree at Hyde Park toppled to the ground.
It was a clear windless day."
____________
the staves of Fortune
pitch and pine,
under waves no man
should test
Grandma Soule Spirit lake, Iowa
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/179003615/hannah-priscilla-flatt
Hannah Priscilla Soule
Birthdate: November 01, 1843
Birthplace: Waterville, ME, United States
Death: August 19, 1911 (67)
Pomona, CA, United States
"The Dakota Sioux originated the name of "Spirit Lake" referring to it as "The Lake of The Spirit."
In 1856, three brothers-in-law created the town of Spirit Lake after a visit to the Lakes area piqued their interest. The three brothers-in-law, O.C. Howe, B.F. Parmenter, and R.U. Wheelock, were soon joined by various other settlers, making homes along the lakes' shores.
These settlers however, did not get along peacefully with the natives, and on March 13, 1857 Chief Inkpaduta of the Sioux led a revolt against the non-native settlers, killing all but four women."
_____________
Micah Soule
Birthdate: April 12, 1711
Birthplace: Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States
Death: November 04, 1778 (67)
Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States
Place of Burial: Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States
Immediate Family:
Son of Josiah Soule and Lydia Soule (Delano)
"Delano made a large fortune trading opium in Canton (now Guangzhou), China. He first went to China at age 24 to work for Russell & Company, which had pioneered trading with China. John Perkins Cushing – also a Russell & Company partner – had preceded Delano and initiated a close relationship with a Chinese official called Howqua. The two men had established an offshore base – an anchored floating warehouse – where Russell & Company ships would offload their opium contraband before continuing up the Pearl River Delta to Canton with their legal cargo.
By early 1843, Delano had spent a momentous decade in the China trade. He had achieved his financial competence and risen to become the head partner of the biggest American firm dealing with China. He had witnessed the destruction of the hated Canton system, the humiliation of the Chinese government, and the creation of New China.
In the 1850s, Delano, along with his brother Franklin and Asa Packer (the builder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and founder of Lehigh University), headed a land company that purchased several thousand acres and established the town of Delano, Pennsylvania.
Delano lost much of his fortune in the Panic of 1857. In 1960, he returned to China, except this time he went to Hong Kong where he rebuilt his fortune. During the U.S. Civil War, Delano shipped opium to the Medical Bureau of the U.S. War Department."
"A descendant of Philip Delano (a Pilgrim who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621)"
_________
George Soule, "Mayflower Passenger"
Dutch: Joris Sol, "Mayflower Passenger"
Also Known As: "Signed (35th signer) the Mayflower Compact. He was a close fried and neighbor to John Alden.", "Mayflower Passenger", "mayflower passenger", "*****Mayflower Passenger**** Double 8th Gr-GF", "George Soule", ""Mayflower" Passenger", "* George Soule (MAYFLOWER PASSE..."
Birthdate: circa 1601
Birthplace: of, Haarlem, Haarlem, NH, Netherlands
Death: between September 20, 1677 and January 22, 1679 (71-82)
Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States of America
Place of Burial: Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States of America
Immediate Family:
Son of Jan Sol and Mayken Labis
Boycott Trump Sponsors (Boeing Firtash Bribery)
"Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from giving money to the inauguration, and there have been indications that foreigners have used straw men, or in this case Americans donating on behalf of foreigners, to circumvent these laws."
___________
"Businesses that donated at the $1 million level included Bank of America, Boeing, Dow Chemical, Pfizer and Qualcomm.
Companies also gave huge in-kind contributions of goods and services, including $2.1 million from AT&T for mobile equipment and software, nearly $500,000 in “vehicle expenses” from General Motors and $500,000 in equipment from Microsoft."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-were-the-top-donors-to-trumps-inauguration/
____________
boycott those who work with foreign oligarchs to own America and our government.
__________
The Washington Post pulls down the curtain
*comments closed*
moments after this gets posted. Oh, plus "Boeing Firtash"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-trial-live-updates/2020/02/05/a7a79daa-4807-11ea-ab15-b5df3261b710_story.html?itid=hp_hp-bignews3_impeachment-ticker-1020am%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo#comments-wrapper
________________
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-inaugural-committee-subpoenaed-crimes-people-being-investigated-1318329
Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from giving money to the inauguration, and there have been indications that foreigners have used straw men, or in this case Americans donating on behalf of foreigners, to circumvent these laws.
Andrew Intrater, the American cousin of Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, developed a close relationship with Cohen in order to gain access to the GOP, including through the inauguration, notes Olga Lautman, an investigative reporter who tracks Trump's ties to Russia.
"They spoke for months, which led to Intrater and Cohen sitting together at Trump's inauguration dinner with Vekselberg, who is close to Putin," Lautman told Newsweek. "Eleven days before Trump's inauguration, oligarch Vekselberg met with Michael Cohen at Trump Tower. Vekselberg came to discuss Russia relations with Cohen, attended the inauguration, and then flew to see Putin on Jan 26th."
Federal Election Commission records demonstrate that Vekselberg's cousin Intrater donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration committee in January 2017.
Donations from Leonard Blavatnik, an American businessman and GOP donor with financial ties to Russia, are also expected to be a subject of interest. Blavatnik's company Access Industries donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.
The committee also accepted a $1 million donation from a Russian-American millionaire named Alexander Shustorovich, who has hinted at his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in previous interviews.
Mueller's team is reportedly looking into whether donors from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates gave illegal donations to the committee.
__________
___________
"Businesses that donated at the $1 million level included Bank of America, Boeing, Dow Chemical, Pfizer and Qualcomm.
Companies also gave huge in-kind contributions of goods and services, including $2.1 million from AT&T for mobile equipment and software, nearly $500,000 in “vehicle expenses” from General Motors and $500,000 in equipment from Microsoft."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-were-the-top-donors-to-trumps-inauguration/
____________
boycott those who work with foreign oligarchs to own America and our government.
__________
The Washington Post pulls down the curtain
*comments closed*
moments after this gets posted. Oh, plus "Boeing Firtash"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-trial-live-updates/2020/02/05/a7a79daa-4807-11ea-ab15-b5df3261b710_story.html?itid=hp_hp-bignews3_impeachment-ticker-1020am%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo#comments-wrapper
________________
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-inaugural-committee-subpoenaed-crimes-people-being-investigated-1318329
Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from giving money to the inauguration, and there have been indications that foreigners have used straw men, or in this case Americans donating on behalf of foreigners, to circumvent these laws.
Andrew Intrater, the American cousin of Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, developed a close relationship with Cohen in order to gain access to the GOP, including through the inauguration, notes Olga Lautman, an investigative reporter who tracks Trump's ties to Russia.
"They spoke for months, which led to Intrater and Cohen sitting together at Trump's inauguration dinner with Vekselberg, who is close to Putin," Lautman told Newsweek. "Eleven days before Trump's inauguration, oligarch Vekselberg met with Michael Cohen at Trump Tower. Vekselberg came to discuss Russia relations with Cohen, attended the inauguration, and then flew to see Putin on Jan 26th."
Federal Election Commission records demonstrate that Vekselberg's cousin Intrater donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration committee in January 2017.
Donations from Leonard Blavatnik, an American businessman and GOP donor with financial ties to Russia, are also expected to be a subject of interest. Blavatnik's company Access Industries donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.
The committee also accepted a $1 million donation from a Russian-American millionaire named Alexander Shustorovich, who has hinted at his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in previous interviews.
Mueller's team is reportedly looking into whether donors from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates gave illegal donations to the committee.
__________
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Monday, February 03, 2020
Staffers Say Sexism Runs Deep At The Washington Post
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/women-washington-post-sexism-culture_n_5e34b8a3c5b611ac94d4aa89
"The Washington Post doesn’t value women and men in the same way, these people said. This appears literally true when it comes to pay: Women in the newsroom are paid less than men, according to a report published last year by the union that represents employees.
The disparity courses through the culture and is borne out in the paper’s coverage, where stories of sexual harassment have sometimes been held to a higher standard than other coverage, some staffers said.
Crucially, the gender imbalance is clear in the masthead. Three of the four top editors at the Post are men. Only four of 17 department heads are women.
Pay isn’t just a contractor problem. Women in the Post newsroom are collectively paid less than men, according to the union’s report, which examined salaries among about 500 members in the newsroom. The salaried men in the newsroom earn a median of $116,065 a year.
The median for women is $95,595. The gap is widest for staffers under 40: Young men earn $95,890 compared to $84,030 for women. The report used age as a proxy for experience, which it did not expressly track.
Men also receive a higher percentage of merit-based pay raises. The union found a racial pay gap as well: The median pay for women of color is $30,000 less than it is for white men. "