While undergoing renovation and restoration, the roof of Notre-Dame caught fire on the evening of 15 April 2019.

"It is believed that before the arrival of Christianity in France, a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter stood on the site of Notre-Dame. Evidence for this is the Pillar of the Boatmen, discovered in 1710."

"The Pillar of the Boatmen (French: Pilier des nautes) is a monumental Roman column erected in Lutetia (modern Paris) in honour of Jupiter by the guild of boatmen in the 1st century AD.

 It is the oldest monument in Paris and is one of the earliest pieces of representational Gallo-Roman art to carry a written inscription"

"The guild was for relatively wealthy shipowners or traders. An indication of the power of the guild is shown by one of the sculptures of the pillar where they parade in arms with shields and spears, a privilege granted by the Romans, which is exceptional in less than half a century after the conquest of Gaul.

 The guild was also the first known society of Paris."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_of_the_Boatmen

_________________



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Paris



"forest" of wooden latticework inside Notre Dame Cathedral fueled the fire that consumed the iconic church.

The medieval roof structure "has been lost," according to Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, the rector of the cathedral.

The cathedral's wooden frame, which primarily consisted of oak, contains beams that date as far back as the first frame built for the cathedral. That frame featured trees cut down between 1160 and 1170, forming one of the oldest parts of the structure."


https://www.cnn.com/style/article/nortre-dame-fire-oak-wood-trnd/index.html


To kick off the project, workers cleared 21 hectares of oak. Each beam of the intricate wooden cross-work was drawn from a different tree: estimated at 13,000 trees in total.

 To reach the heights the carpenters needed to build the structure, those trees would likely have been 300 or 400 years old, meaning they would have sprouted out of the ground in the eighth or ninth centuries.

The wood frame structure supported a roof, made of lead, that weighed 210 tons. 

The lead frame had the advantage of being fire-resistant, according to the National Library of France. But the wood that supported that lead roof is what burned."


_______


"Officials in other historic European capitals such as Rome and London, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization also have no such outdoor lead-dust hazard guidelines."

"Some media outlets reported that registered levels of lead contamination in locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral ranged between 500 and 800 times the official safe levels.

But health officials told the AP that Paris still does not have any official regulatory threshold.


The World Health Organization said it also has no outdoor safety guidelines for lead dust and has no “immediate” intention to create any."

Despite the lead fallout from the fire, experts say tourists should not alter travel plans to one of the most visited cities in the world."

***

(Sound familiar? Damn the public health. Open the sacred economy.)

The Coraniaid Hearing Aid

"The Coraniaid [kɔˈranjaid] are a race of beings from Welsh mythology.

They appear in the Middle Welsh prose tale Lludd and Llefelys, which survives in the Mabinogion and inserted into several texts of the Brut y Brenhinedd, a Welsh adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

The Coraniaid figure in the tale as one of three plagues that affect Britain during the reign of King Lludd.

They are characterized by a sense of hearing so acute that they can hear any word the wind touches, making action against them impossible."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraniaid

"The name Coraniaid appears to be related to the Welsh word corrach (plural corachod), translated as "dwarf" and its adjective form corachaidd, translated as "stunted" or "dwarfish". Middle Welsh orthographical variants include Coranyeit and Coranneit.

In the tale, the Coraniaid cannot be injured because their hearing is so sharp that they can hear any sound that the wind carries, and can thus avoid danger.

 With the help of a long horn that muffles their conversation, Lludd asks his brother Llefelys, king of France, for advice on the problem. Llefelys tells him that a certain insect crushed up and mixed with water is deadly to the Coraniaid, but harmless to the Britons.

 Lludd crushes up the insects and calls a meeting of all his people and all the Coraniaid, then throws the concoction over the whole crowd, thereby killing the Coraniaid without harming his people. He saves some of the insects for breeding in case the plague ever returns to Britain."

"he Coraniaid also appear in the Welsh Triads. Triad 36, which clearly refers back to Lludd and Llefelys, refers to them as one of the "Three Oppressions" that arrived in Britain and stayed there, and adds that they "came from Asia".

__________


"The plagues of Lludd’s reign"


"The first plague was that of the Coranians a race of dwarfs 'from Asia' who may represent the Romans

***


The second was that of the white and red dragons. One of the dragons represented the Brythons, while the other represented the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain.

 On the eve of May Day, the two dragons would begin to fight."

The White Dragon would strive to overcome the Red Dragon, making the Red cry out a fearful shriek which was heard over every Brythonic hearth. This shriek went through people’s hearts, scaring them so much that the men lost their hue and their strength, women lost their children, young men and the maidens lost their senses, and all the animals and trees and the earth and the waters, were left barren.

 The plague was finally eradicated by catching the dragons and burying both of them in a rock pit at Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia, north Wales, the securest place in Britain at that time.

 The dragons were caught by digging out a pit under the exact point where the dragons would fall down exhausted after fighting. This place was at Oxford, which Lludd found to be the exact centre of the island when he measured the island of Britain.

 The pit had a satin covering over it and a cauldron of mead in it at the bottom. First, the dragons fought by the pit in the form of terrific animals. Then they began to fight in the air over the pit in the form of dragons. Then exhausted with the fighting, they fell down on the pit in the form of pigs and sank into the pit drawing the satin covering under them into the cauldron at the bottom of the pit whereupon they drank the mead and fell asleep.

The dragons were then wrapped up in the satin covering and placed in the pit to be buried at Dinas Emrys."

***

The third plague was the plunder committed by a giant who wore strong, heavy armour and carried a hamper. His nocturnal entrance was heralded by soporific illusions and musical sounds which lulled the members of Lludd’s Court to sleep. 

Once the court was asleep, he would put all the food and provisions of meat and drink of Lludd’s Court into his commodious hamper and take it away with him.

This recurring theft constituted the third plague of Lludd’s reign. Lludd was only able to stop the recurring theft by confronting the intruder.

 He was able to avoid falling asleep to the soporific illusions and musical sounds by frequently dipping his head in a vessel of cold water by his side.

 Upon confronting the magician, a fierce encounter ensued in which glittering fire flew out from their arms until Lludd overcame the magician. Thereupon, Lludd granted him mercy and made him his loyal vassal."

_______

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludgate


"Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Square.

Despite the claim by the Norman-Welsh Geoffry of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae that Ludgate was so-called having been built by the ancient British king called Lud—a manifestation of the god Nodens—the name is believed by later writers to be derived from "flood gate" or "Fleet gate" from "ludgeat", meaning "back gate" or "postern", or from the Old English term "hlid-geat" a common Old English compound meaning "postern" or "swing gate"

The Romans built a road along the north bank of the River Thames westwards through the gate later called Lud Gate as part of the fortifications of London.

Ludgate is mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. According to the pseudohistorical work the name comes from the Welsh King Lud son of Heli whom he claims also gave his name to London."

______

"London" is an ancient name, already attested in the first century AD, usually in the Latinised form Londinium;for example, handwritten Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio ("in London").

Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations. The earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136.

 This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London


 Peter Schrijver has specifically suggested, on these grounds, that the name originally meant 'place that floods (periodically, tidally)"
____________

"Lud (Welsh: Lludd map Beli Mawr), according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary History of the Kings of Britain and related medieval texts, was a king of Britain in pre-Roman times who founded London and was buried at Ludgate. He was the eldest son of Geoffrey's King Heli, and succeeded his father to the throne

"Lud's name was claimed by Geoffrey of Monmouth to be the origin of Ludgate (named Porth Llydd in the Brut y Brenhinedd), a major gateway into the City of London, as well as of the name of London itself  

(the true etymology of Ludgate is from the Old English term "hlid-geat"a common Old English compound meaning "postern" or "swing gate"



lud (lʌd)
n

(Law) lord (in the phrase my lud, m'lud): used when addressing a judge in court
interj

archaic an exclamation of dismay or surprise

***

"The Welsh Nudd is also cognate, and it is likely that another Welsh figure, Lludd Llaw Eraint (Lludd of the Silver Hand), derives from Nudd Llaw Eraint by alliterative assimilation.

 The legendary British king Lud may therefore ultimately be derived from Nodens, traditionally associated with the city of London / Londinium (see Ludgate). The Fisher King of Arthurian legend is therefore proposed as a survival of this deity."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodens


"In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King, also known as the Wounded King or Maimed King, is the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of the original story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of standing.

 All he is able to do is fish in a small boat on the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for some noble who might be able to heal him by asking a certain question"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_King


"The Fisher King's next development occurred around the end of the 13th century in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie, the first work to connect the Grail with Jesus. Here, the "Rich Fisher" is called Bron, a name similar enough to Bran to suggest a relationship, and he is said to be the brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea, who had used the Grail to catch Christ's blood before laying him in the tomb.

 Joseph founds a religious community that travels eventually to Britain and entrusts the Grail to Bron (who is called the "Rich Fisher" because he catches a fish eaten at the Grail table). Bron founds the line of Grail keepers that eventually includes Perceval."

_______

"Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder

 (or Ludher, later Luther) and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, then part of the Holy Roman Empire."


https://www.geni.com/people/Johann-Luther/6000000002544997113

"The Luthers, who were disappointed that their son had not become a middle-class lawyer, both witnessed his transformation into one of the most famous and infamous figures of the medieval world"

.

it stood opposite with dutch-styled doors

“Old Bloodgood house in Flushing N.Y., built 1642—now destroyed.”



________


(1659, on Sesame Street)


Visit St George's by the light of the moon,

if you dare, there in olde Flushing

now surrounded by banks, the Chamber of

Insolence, and varied trees

with the fingerprints of Vikings and feudal serfs.

bring a metal detector

for the silver coffin in which

the blot

god sleeps, a blanket of seeds

up to the eyelids that never close,

watching how slavery on the streets above

has meanly molted, shed one outer skin,

and feasts on all makes and models

without the trappings of prejudice

in this dense hamlet of millions,

most diverse melting pot since

the dragon's breath turned all the Old World

to a cauldron of refugees,

pilgrims, migrants, swimming a stew

of gold, wrapped in beaver skinned leggings,

better bowling alleys, more

gruesome ghosts in hollow cold chain,

the burghers good on unleavened bread.

Visit St George's by the dark of the Sun,

there in New Vlissingen, if

you care, and wear the royal blue

once verboten, or the purple and green

of plants bearing our names,

once Latin, once guttural or gestured,

to show how time blooms,

covering the trails past wampum bay

over to the corner of a lot not

desecrated under a cement lid,

pry up the moss and dust off the tardigrade

guards dancing their 8 legged jig

on the silver box,

locked from within with his Captain's

fingernails grown through the inner 

hardware, moisture free from 360 years

of held ancient breath, and the 

speech Olde Bloetgoet took within his boob,

down to rummage the thousand years

prior, eyes open and a peck of

squash seeds ticking the inner ear,

as the Steeple of St George

heaved to the street, with the usual 

superstitions acquainted with phenomena,

there on the corner of Main and 39th,

the top hats all now gone

the tall sails sallied off

the hoop skirts and whalebone dentures done,

seeds still saw

their way out of the garret as

forms of sacrifice, the blot 

hanging from the trees riddled with ravens,

the bay fog warm

as it washes inland over stone joke hi-rises

mini-marts and cultural outposts,

championed by the unknown as religious

tolerance, doing unto others

as one would like done to ourselves, 

in their tidy life boxes and worthless plots,

the headstones long crumbled

the peg and awl termite known

the keel under repair in a barn half built,

clocks half maintained for the public good

and hourglasses filled

half, in open sesame seed



____________________





Portland 3-2-18


"The September 16, 2010 microburst across Brooklyn and Queens destroyed the church's 45-foot wooden steeple which crashed down on top of two New York City buses parked on Main Street.

It is unknown whether the destruction was caused by the 100+ mph winds or a reported lightning strike. It was rebuilt in 2013"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George%27s_Church_(Queens)


"The first house built on the street was probably the Bloodgood House, which ... Later on, it was known as the Garretson House.

For many years, it stood opposite St. George's Episcopal Church until it was torn down in the early 20th century."

https://books.google.com/books?id=KHCVPpUnkJUC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=bloodgood+garretson+st+george%27s+episcopal+church&source=bl&ots=x9WO8foVpX&sig=ACfU3U0cXww9LttMpf53kLNdy7CCQMEfmw&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV3u6hqeHoAhXzOX0KHYBYD48Q6AEwA3oECAwQNQ#v=onepage&q=bloodgood%20garretson%20st%20george's%20episcopal%20church&f=false


"A vanished colonial New York landmarkRare and remarkable original albumen photo of the Bloodgood – Garretson House, Flushing, Queens, Long Island, New York, circa 1870s - 1880s, the image measuring 8 x 5.25 in. on a 10 x 8 mount, scattered light soiling and foxing (the foxing light and mostly unobtrusive), losses to two corners of mount (well away from image), very good overall. The reverse of the photo bears the handwritten ink caption 

“Old Bloodgood house in Flushing N.Y., built 1642—now destroyed.” 

In his 2005 book Flushing: 1880 – 1935, James Driscoll briefly outlines the history of the house: 

“Most small towns in American have a Main Street, and Flushing was no different…. The first house built on the street was probably the Bloodgood House, which may have been older than the 1661 Bowne House.

 Later on, it was known as Garretson House. For many years, it stood opposite St. George’s Episcopal Church until it was torn down in the early 20th century….” The sad demise of the historic building was documented more fully in a New York Times article of October 24, 1909, headlined “FLUSHING LANDMARK GOING: Garretson House and Its Quaint Surroundings Now in New Hands.”

 In part: “Old landmarks have lost their sacredness in the real estate development of Queens, and the latest relic of bygone days to pass from the control of its ancient holders is the Garretson homestead in Flushing, which has stood on its present site, facing Main Street, since its erection in 1642. 

The old house, together with the tract upon which it stands, was sold last week to H. L. Crandell of Freeport, L.I., Vice President of the Bank of Long Island.

 “The tract has a frontage of 180 feet on the Main Street, 225 feet on Locust Street, and about 250 feet on Lincoln Street, comprising in all about twenty city lots. “Said to be the oldest house in Flushing, the Garretson homestead has for more than a century been one of the landmarks and points of interest to residents and visitors to the North Shore of Long Island. The building, with its quaint, low roof and shingled sides, stands in the heart of the Flushing business section and presents a quaint contrast to the modern flat houses and business blocks surrounding it.

 A rosebush said to have been brought from China more than seventy years ago clambers over one of the gable ends of the ancient structure, and adds to the picturesqueness of the old house. Old flower beds, filled with homely plants of years ago, but carefully tended, complete the picture which many old residents of Flushing now fear may pass forever out of existence. Among the fruit trees are the famous Bloodgood pear tree, planted by a Garretson more than a hundred years ago, and the original amber cherry tree. Many relics are also kept in the house, including an old-fashioned printing press. 

The building was former owned by Charles H. Garretson, who died two years ago, and has since been occupied by his sister, Miss Garretson.” Among the many details visible in the photo are the street itself, w a streetcar track is visible; a stone and mortar wall running the length of the property, broken by a set of steps and topped by a neat hedge; and the house itself.

 The door appears to be of the Dutch type, with the upper and lower halves opening independently; the jamb is topped by a four-light transom. 

The portions of the building at far left appear to be later additions. Among the more curious details is an odd multi-paneled cornice that runs the length of the roof, just above the gutters, almost like a flower box in appearance. 

Strung horizontally across the columns on the front porch are several wires, over which grow an enormous tangled vine—perhaps the “clambering” rosebush referred to in the Times article. Though the hedge is full, the vine and the visible trees appear to be mostly bare, suggesting that the image was captured sometime between late autumn and late winter."

https://books.google.com/books?id=_DbB9BPWr1EC&pg=PT23&lpg=PT23&dq=bloodgood+garretson+st+george%27s+episcopal+church&source=bl&ots=pQRPdIc9mc&sig=ACfU3U3UgA-_HjDBxKfvXK_cjXvaLfNeSA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV3u6hqeHoAhXzOX0KHYBYD48Q6AEwAHoECAwQKQ#v=onepage&q=bloodgood%20garretson%20st%20george's%20episcopal%20church&f=false

dracula in recess (11-3-19)

"Don't Need a Weatherman to Know
 Which Way the Wind blowz"----




We do everything.

while you enjoy the pompous pleasure

 of wonderment, befuddled



over which veto to employ,

we register to bleed. oh, positive

is good for everyone, no doubt.



blue skies mean sunburn.

my back is wet from sweat,

not a river's swift boat to el dorado.



give back my back.

relish your own dog,

i'm on break: broken.



the floor is wet with red tears

because you dream to ask not.

if things get done, why can't we share

a lion taco? i'll eat the clause.



sense is never made of such constructs

 that's why art is better

in a heap of plasma, milk,

reflected moorings, and de-heaping tweezers.



tweezers made by us.

we do everything, and in our time.

we make time in which



our autograph is a shadow on the spittle

reserved for shining things

up. making things


butter. making things toast.

making mouths

water





written& published
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2019

dracula in recess

_______________________________


"we do everything"---WORKERS
"which veto to employ"-----POLiTICS
"positive is good for everyone"------double-entendre
"swift boat to el dorado"----AMAZON worker fired, city of gold
"on break broken"---Fulfillment centers
"red tears"----WORKER solidarity
"share a lion taco"-----america binge watches Tiger King
"plasma, milk"-----plasma treatments a possible cure for COVID,
                               MILK dumped down overproduction drains
"moorings"-----CRUISE SHIPS MOORED
"de-heaping tweezers"----CRISIS management
"shadow on spittle"------need I spell it out totally?
"our autograph....shines things up"-----The Experts SPIN
"making mouths water"----desperate for ANSWERS

_________


Colbert trolls bloggod, again

"flaming idiot" says Colbert
"blazing idiot" said bloggod. RIP CITY!!!!

sixty-seven used a modified Hippocratic Oath,

"The Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. 

The oath is the earliest expression of medical ethics in the Western world, establishing several principles of medical ethics which remain of paramount significance today. 

These include the principles of medical confidentiality and non-maleficence."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath


"Its general ethical principles are also found in other works of the Corpus: the Physician mentions the obligation to keep the 'holy things' of medicine within the medical community (i.e. not to divulge secrets); it also mentions the special position of the doctor with regard to his patients, especially women and girls."
_____________

The oldest partial fragments of the oath date to circa AD 275


"I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the physician’s oath, but to nobody else.

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me."
_________


"In a 1989 survey of 126 US medical schools, only three reported use of the original oath, while thirty-three used the Declaration of Geneva, sixty-seven used a modified Hippocratic Oath, four used the Oath of Maimonides, one used a covenant, eight used another oath, one used an unknown oath, and two did not use any kind of oath. Seven medical schools did not reply to the survey."

__________


the ant materializes
strutting across the top of the laptop.
it doesn't jump eagerly
to an offered finger for a ferry,
it views the  warm pink mountain 
an obstacle foe.

it takes two fingers
to save an ant.



4-11-20
Portland

Willamutt Sic Week "City of Portland's Tells" Type O Suckers

"A novel idea to raise money for publicly financed Portland City Council campaigns and simultaneously benefit local nonprofits has been shot down by Susan Mottet, director of the city's new Open and Accountable Elections program, after WW raised questions."

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2020/04/10/the-city-of-portlands-tells-publicly-financed-candidates-to-quit-offering-donors-money-to-non-profits/

____________


"The City of Portland's Tells"

"(especially in poker) an unconscious action that is thought to betray an attempted deception."

________

i.e. "giving it away"----A Tell.

________

": to cheat or deceive (someone) especially by doing something that is different from what you said you would do. double-cross. verb. dou·​ble-cross | \ ˌdə-bəl-ˈkrȯs \ double-crossed; double-crossing."

***

"Both Hurst and Eudaly said they had consulted the city's Open and Accountable Elections office before publicizing their pitches.

But Dan Meek, a lawyer active in election issues, pointed out to WW that city code prohibited using campaign donations as the candidates proposed.

Open and Accountable Elections director Mottet and Commissioner Amanda Fritz agreed with Meek and acknowledged that Mottet had made a mistake in OK'ing the campaign pitches.

In an April 7 email to candidates, Mottet gave new guidance.

"I had specifically advised certified candidates that they may collect matchable contributions from donors, donate the contribution to a nonprofit, and use the 6-to-1 match for campaign expenses. That was incorrect. It is a blanket prohibition, with an exception only for purchasing tickets for an event that the campaign attends," Mottet wrote.

"I regret that campaigns that relied on my advice got called out in the press for doing so."

__________


"Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum Returns Campaign Contributions to Terry Bean, Who Was Re-Indicted on Sex Crime Charges Today"

"Bean is a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates, including the state's top law enforcement official."

"At 2:06 pm today, the Committee to Elect Ellen Rosenblum Attorney General made a filing in the state's campaign finance database disclosing that the committee was returning a series of contributions from Bean dating back to 2012 and totaling $2,150.

 (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to Richard Meeker, the co-owner of WW's parent company.)

Today's refund marks the second time Rosenblum has given money back to Bean. 

In 2016, when Rosenblum last ran for re-election, she refunded $1,300 in contributions she'd previously accepted."
_________


"When former Portland Mayor Sam Adams announced Jan. 15 he'd challenge City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly in the May 2020 primary election, nobody was more surprised than the incumbent herself.

"I just don't think it's a good look," she told The Oregonian. "It doesn't make sense."

With an unprecedented four of five seats on the Portland City Council up for grabs, Adams had choices—and the path of least resistance appeared to be the vacancy created by the Jan. 2 death of Commissioner Nick Fish."

"Adams' calculation broke with Portland's historical queasiness around challenging incumbents but was hardly without precedent. Eudaly won her seat in 2016 by upsetting incumbent Commisioner Steve Novick.

 But the pushback still makes sense: Adams' bid threatens years of gains by outsiders who have placed women in the majority at City Hall. Adams, who spent 20 years in City Hall ending in 2013, is the ultimate insider—and could wrest power back from people who just got it.

But Adams' decision also has its logic: Eudaly has made enemies among neighborhood associations, business groups and landlords. "

https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/01/22/sam-adams-chose-a-cage-match-with-chloe-eudaly-that-surprising-choice-will-have-fallout/

________




"Attorney Dan Meek, who authored the Portland and Multnomah County initiatives, said the bill would allow a wealthy individual to still route as much as $400,000 to a single candidate by funneling small amounts through numerous intermediate state political committees."

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2019/05/campaign-finance-bill-clears-hurdle-with-loopholes-intact.html

"An Oregon House committee on Thursday advanced a bill to limit political campaign donations, pushing aside withering criticism from advocates who said the legislation contained loopholes that could render it nearly useless.

House Bill 2714 would cap contributions to House and Senate candidates at $1,000 and $1,500, and statewide candidates at $2,800. (For general election candidates the limits would effectively be twice as high, with a donor able to give once in the primary and again in the general election.) Today, Oregon is one of just five states with no limits at all."

"The legislation also allows donors to route money through the campaigns of Oregon candidates for federal office, who would be allowed to give unlimited amounts to Oregon party committees."

_______

Anyone seen Gordon Sondland lately? How about Phil "Sweatshop" Knight?

Amazon's Potter's Field of Blood, Profits, and Essential Dildos

"Images have emerged of coffins being buried in a mass grave in New York City, as the death toll from the coronavirus continues to rise.

Workers in hazmat outfits were seen stacking wooden coffins in deep trenches in Hart Island.

Officials say burials are being ramped up at site, which has long been used for people with no next-of-kin or families who cannot afford a funeral."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52241221

___________


"A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning field of blood in Aramaic), stated to have been purchased, with the coins that had been paid to Judas Iscariot for his identification of Jesus, after Judas' suicide, by the high priests of Jerusalem.

The priests are stated to have acquired it for the burial of strangers, criminals, and the poor, the coins paid to Judas being considered blood money.

 Prior to Akeldama's use as a burial ground, it had been a site where potters collected high-quality, deeply red clay for the production of ceramics, thus the name potters' field."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter%27s_field


"Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park and Bryant Park in New York City originated as potter's fields.

The city's current potter's field, and one of the largest cemeteries in the United States, with at least 800,000 burials, is on Hart Island"

_________


"Christian tradition connects the place with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. There are two accounts of his death.

The Gospel of Matthew describes how Judas returned the money to the Temple authorities before hanging himself. Deeming it as blood money, and therefore illegal to put into their treasury, they used it instead to buy a field as a burial ground for foreigners: thus the place gained the name "the Field of Blood" (Matthew 27:7, and possibly with allusions to Zechariah 11:12–13 and Jeremiah 18:2–3 and Jeremiah 32:6–15).

According to the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:18–19) Judas "acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, and falling headfirst he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

 This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that in their own language they called that field Hakeldama, that is, 'Field of Blood.'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeldama

_________


"T-Bone Slim, the labor activist, songwriter, and Wobbly, was buried on Hart Island after his body was found floating in the Hudson River"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island_(Bronx)


"Following his death, T-Bone Slim became a source of inspiration for the emerging American surrealist movement, and during the 1960s there was renewed interest in his songs when they were sung by activists during the Civil Rights Movement.

 In an interview Noam Chomsky cited T-Bone Slim as one of his favorite Wobbly singers.

A number of T-Bone Slim's songs can be found in the Little Red Songbook. Among the best known are The Popular Wobbly, Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life, and The Lumberjack's Prayer.

First published by the IWW in 1909, the songbook has never gone out of print. The IWW brought out the 38th edition in 2010  and the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company has other works by T-Bone Slim in its catalog."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Bone_Slim

QUOTES:

"Wherever you find injustice, the proper form of politeness is attack." 

***

""Always keep yourself fit to serve mankind. 

Watch yourself, do not watch the boss. Never exhaust yourself — there is nothing more disgusting than a man staggering home from work 'dog-tired', helplessly falling into a chair to have his child remove his shoes; then grabbing a hasty feverish supper; saying good-night to his family and rolling into bed half-washed, to repeat the same thing three hundred and twelve times per year, or until sickness puts a stop to his mad career." 

***

"Tear Gas: the most effective agent used by employers to persuade their employees that the interests of capital and labor are identical."

(“It’s an atmosphere of fear — huge fear right now,” Luismi Ruiz, who has worked for an Amazon facility in Spain since November 2012, told the Washington Post. He said that the company was spraying disinfectant in the warehouse and staggering breaks to keep people away from each other, but it’s not enough."

https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-amazon-workers-say-theyre-not-protected-from-covid-19-20200317-m54ykiiskra2dfcnbmppatwzum-story.html


***

"Only the poor break laws—the rich evade them"

__________


"several Amazon workers who work at various facilities across the nation say they're putting their lives at risk to fulfill orders that are far from "essential."

"We're creating more disaster than we're helping.

There's nothing on our truck that is essential," Kathy Knight, a driver lead for Amazon in Pennsylvania, told Business Insider.

 "I mean, my life is essential — but there's nothing else on that truck that is."

"Amazon continues to ship out various non-essential items, including nipple clamps, dollhouses, and home hand spas"

"In one day, I had a home hand spa, glittery girl dolls, a dollhouse, Xbox games, and racecar tracks," the 47-year-old told Business Insider,"


https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-sends-sex-toys-dolls-despite-pledge-ship-essential-goods-2020-4

obedient to nature

the peaceful obedient neighborhoods 
fresh air silent
and gnomes crouched here and there are real,
sitting with pruners and tea.

kids socially distant front porch birthday
today he gave a glum Hi as i walked past
people more likely to wave,
smile. in general. and a few anarchists
here in there, youngsters sporting it around
in gaggles giggling group croup troop.

such the pleasant breeze, at seventy six degrees
confetti blossom chads, dangling,
electing travel.

old broken bottle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_hCDPIjT6k&list=PLcX8U1aufGEPfr-Cex3zfe50_Ms0h6g0c&index=7


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/music/john-prine-dead.html

John Prine, Who Chronicled the Human Condition in Song, Dies at 73

"Ain't it funny how an old broken bottle
looks just like a diamond ring?

_____

That perfect first Album,
John Prine.

A treasure beyond compare.

meaningless digits imply.

i've read and written more words than
99.999 out of you guessed it.

i ate mushrooms when i t'were three
in front yard availability

my stomach got pumped, i recall 
so unwell.

I've eaten and birthed more worlds
than meaningless digits imply.

dumb ass maxim

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi


Genius is in writing,
in stories that become written,
told or otherwise
loved.

Do No Harm

from what i hear out this leaky ear
my cuz got the stuff
he stuffed in a home box
getting delivery and sure bert from sesame street
from what i taste there a taste
fer revolution

coming around to
that principle

do no
harm

things above

throngs emerge to see the bloodmoon
their cars coagulate our street
on mount tabor, the extinct volcano hill
that rises a view to distant glory.

i came up on the belmont fifteen,
as it reached my number
cars were doing scatterbrained ad litems
and the bus clipped a parked car,

another whale beached by minnows
waves and real things.
what seems a crowd is a hemorrhage
in a literary romantic way,

as our telescopes are tampons we carry for bulletwounds
or great mileage scars are worn on our sleeves
turning breath to a frame for sky
or the thing shaped meanly many

there for the show
there on a hill
feeling blood in a moon mostly tainted
by men and the things above.




Sunday, September 27, 2015
things above

Portland Or

baleen out

wide we sign
 in turnip blood

whale did we get it or what



4-5-20

Grand Olde Party in the Cilantro Row

(An Oldie-Goodee:)


don't stare, it's not p.light
gotta go ya gotta go
did you get disfranchised? enchanted,
i'm sure. that's remorseful.
saw a movie high fallutin on a real air plane
found a wing on a beach
downed swizzle stick it's not b.light
wide you keep looking?
got yer numb ah in my olde skool rolodex
smelly fellers from dallas
sloe gin in a boot cup with nipples from amarillo
it ok to star
in showtown on the oily way
fizzle poll and fish synapse i mean snacks
feeders leave yer cellstems at the door
wide we sign in turnip blood
whale did we get it or what
napkin hat map to success i can rite it off as hazing
my preturpitude has claws and loophos from reno baby
take that geiger down for dune scans
next on the agender: enpoachment
&percentile acumentation index, calibrated
octopi chutney, feces kissed cilantro,
the p.light think to do




Sunday, August 02, 2015
grand old party in the cilantro row

Fix fix fix

unmansionables get it

the world may seem upside down
for those used to
being top hog,
getting first slops.
the pecking order now cheeps cheeps
inside the egg, that
perfect egg.

i say nothing to the man
on the contagion bus
as he picks his nose,
flicks a booger
he looks cross-eyed at,
eating what won't fly off.

i do however remark
to the stranger
in the entryway to the grocery store,
bent over forwards
as their jeans have crumpled down
past their knees, mooning
me and the worker spraying down the carts,
"hey dude pull up
your pants" is my only advice,
moving past toward
the perishables.

dignity in such situations
is highly suspect. better to be
the better part of human.

_________


kids don't get it
they can't. kids, used to hiding
playing peek a boo

hiding hiding as mom and dad
call out where are you?

parents don't get it,
hiding in their retirement
with a pantry full of 
whiskey and other staple goods,
watching the pond scum
reflect the clouds clouds clud.

government doesn't get it,
in their secure locations
with drones dropping off bonbons
and coveted life sustaining products.
where are you? we call into the attic,
down the pipes in submarines.
AWOL and busy walling off
so that the public
doesn't get
it.



4-5-20
portland 

Wyden and Schumer Bailout for Uber, Airbnb, Oracle and Trump Shadows

“I pushed a button, and a car showed up, and now I’m a pimp,” Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick said four years ago.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-23/this-is-how-uber-takes-over-a-city
_____________

News from the Guardian this morning:

"Chinese billionaires and the state of Oregon facilitated ventilator donations to New York to treat patients with Covid-19, as the pandemic accelerates toward a peak."

"In addition to the 1,000 ventilators obtained from China, Cuomo said Oregon loaned New York 140 ventilators."
_____________

"It often pays to check who Trump is retweeting. John Solomon, it should be noted, is a columnist whose work for The Hill was used in attempts to smear opponents of the president during the Ukraine affair which led to Trump’s impeachment.

Trump has obviously been scrolling down Solomon’s profile page this morning:"

______________

"I don't think he's the devil — I support him and want him to do well," Ellison said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-oracle-trump-support-2020-4

"Oracle is working with the US government to help find a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The cloud-computing giant set up a global crowdsourcing tool that will allow doctors and patients to record their responses after testing treatments."
_________

Oregon settles bitter legal fight with Oracle for $100 million

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2016/09/post_183.html

"Oregon took on Oracle Corp. and accused the company of fraud, filing false claims and racketeering. Four months before a trial was to get underway, Gov. Kate Brown settled the case Thursday"

"The settlement, valued at $100 million, includes cash payments to Oregon as well as a six-year license agreement for products and services that Brown said can be used to "significantly modernize state government's IT systems."

"Oracle's $100 million consists largely of technology. Only $25 million will come in the form of cash. And all of that will go to pay the state's legal fees and other costs."

"All in all, it's a far cry from the $240 million the state paid to Oracle for the failed Cover Oregon project. The company's army of IT experts worked for years on the exchange, repeatedly missed deadlines and never produced a functional exchange"

********

"One of the lasting ironies of the settlement is that it could increase Oregon's reliance on the software company that was the chief author of the Cover Oregon disaster. "

******

"In March, the California software giant filed a $33-million lawsuit citing press reports that the Kitzhaber campaign played a major role in managing the state's decision to shelve the $300 million Cover Oregon health insurance exchange project and use the federal website instead."

" Multnomah Circuit Court Judge Henry Kantor announced he'd decided to toss Oracle's case, agreeing with defendants' motion that their advice to Kitzhaber was protected by free speech. He did not lay out his reasoning in full, but said a detailed written opinion would follow.

In their motion, the Kitzhaber advisers cited Oregon's anti-SLAPP law, passed to protect against litigation intended only to silence critics, or a "strategic lawsuit against public participation."

The defendants, including McCaig and Kevin Looper, Scott Nelson, Tim Raphael and Mark Wiener, issued a statement Friday hailing the decision and calling the lawsuit "misguided and baseless."

__________


https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/27/airbnb-uber-lyft-unemployment/

"Uber drivers, Airbnb hosts could soon receive unemployment checks. Some call it a ‘bailout’ for big tech."

"“The unemployment insurance system, created during the Great Depression, is strikingly out-of-date and completely unequipped to deal with our current crisis,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who helped craft the legislation, said before its passage."

“Companies are essentially getting a bailout because they won’t be paying unemployment insurance as a result,” said Veena Dubal, an associate professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law who is an advocate for gig workers’ labor rights."

*******


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-23/this-is-how-uber-takes-over-a-city


 “I pushed a button, and a car showed up, and now I’m a pimp,” Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick said four years ago.

"Charlie Hales, the mayor of Portland, Ore., was running a zoning hearing last December when he missed a call on his cell from David Plouffe, the campaign mastermind behind Barack Obama’s ascent.

 Although Hales had never met him, Plouffe left a voice mail that had an air of charming familiarity, reminiscing about the 2008 rally when 75,000 Obama supporters thronged Portland’s waterfront. “Sure love your city,” Plouffe gushed. “I’m now working for Uber and would love to talk.”

" Plouffe may be a big name, but Hales didn’t immediately call him back."

"The next day, City Hall heard from a local reporter that Uber cars would hit the streets that very evening. 

The company’s unauthorized kickoff put Hales in a bit of an artisanal pickle. Portland had just become the first city to explicitly allow short-term rentals through Airbnb and other sites"

"Over the past year, Uber built one of the largest and most successful lobbying forces in the country, with a presence in almost every statehouse.

 It has 250 lobbyists and 29 lobbying firms registered in capitols around the nation, at least a third more than Wal-Mart Stores. That doesn’t count municipal lobbyists. In Portland, the 28th-largest city in the U.S., 10 people would ultimately register to lobby on Uber’s behalf. "

"After a weekend of scrambling, the city sued Uber on Monday. Although Uber’s fines would eventually total $67,750, the city’s enforcement efforts evoked the Keystone Cops."

"Uber hired a new team of local lobbyists headed by Dan Bates, who used to work as Portland’s own lobbyist in the state capitol. Across the country, Uber’s lobbyists have similarly intimate connections.

 In Kansas, it hired Governor Sam Brownback’s former campaign manager and another lobbyist who also works for Koch Industries. In Connecticut, it contracted with a former House speaker’s firm, and in Illinois it brought on the former governor’s chief of staff."

"
Soon, Alpert’s phone rang. It was Mark Wiener, whom one local alt-weekly dubbed “The Man in the Shadows” and the “most powerful political consultant” in Portland. 

Wiener helped both Hales and Novick get elected and is known to work only with clients he thinks will win. Wiener said Uber wanted to know if Hales and Novick would consider a détente. Would they be open to a “conversation about a conversation?”

On a Saturday in mid-December, the two sides met at Wiener’s house. The mayor started by saying the conversation would go nowhere unless Uber stopped breaking the law. “He said it probably five times,” Alpert says.

 Uber’s Steger and Caitlin O’Neill, an in-house lobbyist who used to work as an organizer for criminal justice reform at the American Civil Liberties Union, apologized. “That was a huge point for the mayor and commissioner to hear,” Alpert says.

"To show drivers make livable wages, it introduced data from Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who served with Plouffe in the Obama administration, that found uberX drivers made more than $16 an hour (PDF)."

"The taxi industry and its supporters cried foul. One driver compared Uber to Enron because it “doesn’t play by the rules.”

"Records show the company had 19 in-person meetings with city officials in the first three months of the year, including one at the end of March, when Uber brought back the big gun, Wiener, to meet with Saltzman, the likely swing vote.

 Wiener had consulted on Saltzman’s past campaigns. All the meetings, combined with phone calls, meant Uber spoke with City Hall on average almost every other workday."

" Now on stage, Plouffe and Hales were all smiles. Hales teasingly tossed a copy of the negotiating bible Getting to Yes to Plouffe, a nod to Novick’s “we’ll throw the book at you!” threat."

Plouffe told the audience that playing nice in Portland isn’t necessarily a model elsewhere. 

“Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t,” he said."


June 23, 2015, 3:06 PM PDT
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-23/this-is-how-uber-takes-over-a-city

___________


"Wyden is married to senior United States Senator for Oregon, Ron Wyden."

"After receiving her MBA from the University of Wisconsin and working briefly for Exxon, Nancy returned to New York City to work for her father at The Strand"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Bass_Wyden

New York, NY.

_______


"MARK WIENER IS A TOTAL ASSFUCKER," says a political insider, who has worked with Oregon's most powerful political consultant in the past.

"Unless the person who said that had his or her tongue firmly implanted in his or her cheek," Wiener responds, "I would say that's a great misapprehension of my role."

Wiener coached former legislative intern Beau Breedlove in early 2008, as allegations were first surfacing about his affair with Mayor Sam Adams. At this point, Adams was lying to Wiener and others about having had sex with Breedlove, and says his relationship with Wiener suffered when the scandal broke.

"Mark was mad," says Adams. "And he had a right to be, and to him went one of my first apologies."

Indeed, Wiener told Time magazine he had called Adams a "fucking moron" after the lies had been revealed, and that he was "pissed and saddened by it."

***

"Wiener was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated in theater from Portland's Reed College in 1978, and went back to New York where he worked as an actor and cab driver.

 He worked six years for Assemblyman Chuck Schumer, who is now a US senator, before returning to Portland. Initially, Wiener worked for Kevin Mannix, back when Mannix was a Democrat. Eventually he landed a job working for then County Commissioner Dan Saltzman in 1993."

AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the American Federation of Teachers say CLOSE AMAZON WAREHOUSES

"two days later, leaders of the some of the nation’s largest labor organizations including AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the American Federation of Teachers —

which count tens of millions of members combined —

called on the company for the reinstatement of Smalls and the temporary closure of all U.S. warehouses as well as full compensation for workers until it addresses their health concerns."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/closure-of-all-amazon-warehouses-disastrous-205343415.html

Biden, Jay Carney, Amazon and Bezos

"Amazon executives denigrated a fired warehouse worker as “not smart or articulate” in a meeting with Jeff Bezos, according to a leaked memo obtained by Vice News.

Chris Smalls, who had worked for Amazon for five years, was fired shortly after he helped organize a work stoppage at the company’s warehouse on Staten Island, New York, in protest over a lack of protective gear and hazard pay for employees. Amazon claims it fired Smalls for “violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk”.

Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky, in notes from a meeting of top executives obtained by Vice, wrote:

 “He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers.”

The meeting is held daily to brief Bezos, the chief executive, on issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

 Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice-president of corporate affairs, described it on CNN as a “brainstorming” meeting"
_______________________


"James "Jay" Carney (born May 22, 1965) is the former White House press secretary to President Barack Obama.

 He served as press secretary from January 2011 through June 2014. For the first two years of Obama’s presidency, Carney was director of communications for Vice President Joe Biden. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Carney


"Carney has been the senior vice president of global corporate affairs at Amazon since March 2, 2015. He oversees public policy and public relations for all of Amazon’s businesses around the world and reports to CEO and founder Jeff Bezos."

_________


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/02/dear-jeff-bezos-amazon-instead-of-firing-me-protect-your-workers-from-coronavirus

"Dear Jeff Bezos, instead of firing me, protect your workers from coronavirus"

Chris Smalls

gravedigger delight

"nature trims the hedge,
hedge funds feel

more human
than grandpa.

paid sick stay
                    staid pick nose

more essential than thou,
i dig a mean grave."


3-31-20

Paid Sick Leave and Medicare for All: Rolling General Strike

"Tuesday's sickout at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, would be the latest in a wave of worker activism amid the pandemic.

Cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, have been reported at Whole Foods locations in Chicago, New York City and Huntington Beach, Calif."

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/490196-whole-foods-workers-to-strike-tuesday


"Already, as many as 150,000 workers for grocery delivery service Instacart planned a nationwide strike for Monday. 

Also on Monday, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, plan to walk out during lunch."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/whole-foods-amazon-instacart-workers-to-strike-over-safety-concerns/ar-BB11VwT1


"Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, has reportedly had coronavirus spread to at least 17 warehouses in the U.S., according to Reuters. 

The online retailer has 175 fulfillment centers globally and more than 150 fulfillment centers, sortation centers in the U.S., according to Amazon's web site"

__________

"By limiting paid sick leave only to those who have been definitely diagnosed with COVID-19 or who have been placed into quarantine, Whole Foods and Amazon are placing their employees, customers, and the public at large in significant risk of exposure," wrote the AGs from states including California, New York and Washington. 


Those organizing the Whole Foods sick out said the grocery chain, which Amazon acquired in June 2017 for $13.7 billion, has temporarily relaxed its strict attendance policy, "which means that team members can participate in this act of protest without reprisal," said the event's promotional flier."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/whole-foods-amazon-instacart-workers-to-strike-over-safety-concerns/ar-BB11VwT1

unnamed state-owned company

“Sechin gets Rosneft shares and Putin gets the chance to trade with Trump,” said Konstantin Simonov, head of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/kremlin-fights-u-s-sanctions-backs-maduro-in-rosneft-deal


"The administration of President Donald Trump has already reached out to Saudi leaders to reconsider their strategy, which has battered producers in the U.S. with low prices. 

Trump said Monday he plans to speak by phone with Putin later in the day to talk about the oil market and may discuss sanctions and Venezuela.

Rosneft late Saturday announced it’s turning over its Venezuelan projects to an unnamed state-owned company in what it called an effort to protect its shareholders’ interests."

_________

"Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiyev told Reuters the decision to terminate operations in Venezuela was meant to protect the company’s shareholders.


“We defended the interests of our shareholders and did it in an effective way,” Leontiyev said. 

“And to whom the risks go is not an issue for us. The main thing is that the risks are leaving us.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-venezuela/rosneft-sells-venezuelan-assets-to-russia-after-u-s-sanctions-ramp-up-idUSKBN21F0W2