Zappa.com

Is it just me or are more nuts rolling out of the basket every day...

And what, might you ask, is a TREND MONGER? Well, a TREND MONGER is a person who dreams up a TREND (like 'The Twist'—or 'Flower Power' or 'Mass Shootings'), and spreads it throughout the land, using all the frightening little skills that Science has made available!

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Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

Saudi Coalition Kills Scores at a Yemeni Wedding Party

Daniel Larison Posted on April 23, 2018

The latest Saudi coalition atrocity against Yemeni civilians was another attack on a wedding party, killing 20 people including the bride and wounding dozens more:

At least 20 people including the bride were killed when an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, health officials have said.

The dead were mostly women and children gathered in a tent set up for the wedding in the Bani Qayis district, according to Khaled al-Nadhri, the leading health official in the north-western Hajjah province.

Hospital chief Mohammed al-Sawmali said the groom and 45 other wounded people were brought to the local al-Jomhouri hospital.

Thirty of those injured were reported to be children, with some in critical condition having suffered severed limbs and shrapnel wounds.

...The Saudis and their allies know they can act with complete impunity because the U.S. keeps providing military assistance and diplomatic cover no matter what they do to Yemeni civilians. Our State Department won’t even report on the war crimes that they commit. Instead of being treated as the war criminal that he is during his visit to the U.S., Mohammed bin Salman was feted and embraced by our government, given mostly fawning media coverage, and welcomed by the biggest names in entertainment and business. The murders of these Yemeni women and children and thousands more like them are his doing, and the U.S. is responsible for enabling him and his allies to do it.

The idea that U.S. support is reducing the number of civilian casualties is impossible to take seriously when it seems undeniable that many of the coalition’s attacks on civilians are done on purpose. After three years of bombing and starving Yemen, the coalition is no closer to any of its stated goals, but it has succeeded in raining death and destruction on numerous weddings, funerals, medical clinics, markets, treatment plants, farms, schools, and homes. This is what happens when at least 30% of all coalition strikes hit civilian targets. Providing arms and refueling to the Saudi coalition guarantees that more Yemeni civilians will be killed in this way. For their sake, it is imperative that the U.S. halt its support for this war at once.

Update: The death toll is now reportedly 33 people:

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Lesser-evilism is war.

The hits keep coming

Tomorrow is ANZAC day in Australia and New Zealand, we get the day off to commemorate all the military personnel who have died in the service of our countries.

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

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hey Punk, where you goin' with that button on your shirt?

And, every day, the paperboy brings more.

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You're probably wondering why I'm here
(not that it makes a heck of a lot of a difference to ya)

"Grandpa, what's a paperboy?"
"A job from the 20th century."

And, every day, the Twitter feed brings more.

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you're not wrong.....

Five community newspapers to close
SUSAN EDMUNDS
Last updated 15:12, April 24 2018

Five more community newspapers will close because buyers could not be found for them.

The titles are part of a group of 28 owned by Stuff which the company announced in February would be closed or sold.

On Tuesday, chief executive Sinead Boucher confirmed the Wairarapa News, The Tribune, Waiheke Marketplace, Rotorua Review and Ruapehu Press would be closed after buyers could not be found for them.

That decision followed news last month that the Christchurch Mail, Napier Mail, Hastings Mail, North Waikato News and Discovery magazine would close by April 28, as part of Stuff's rationalisation of its newspaper portfolio.

Boucher said consultation had begun with the 17 staff affected by the latest decision, and 14 roles would be disestablished, spread across commercial and editorial.

"We are working with impacted people to make sure they have the support they need, and that we have closely considered what this will mean for our remaining staff. It's important we all understand that even though some of our smaller community titles are closing we will still cover, both editorially and commercially, these areas. Over coming weeks we will be communicating these changes to our readers and advertisers, starting from today.," she said.

"As we make changes to our portfolio, we are very focused on driving our customers and audience onto the Neighbourly platform, as our home of local journalism. We have implemented a significant communications plan to support this and it's been heartening to see the success in recent weeks. With over 555,000 members, Neighbourly is cementing its place as the third largest social network in the country."

Boucher said work was still under way on the remaining 18 titles the company was exiting from. Stuff was working through expressions of interest and conducting negotiations where appropriate.

"We will know by the third week of May what is happening with the remaining titles and will provide another update then. Please keep in mind that we are committed to our plan to sell or close the original list of 28 mastheads by the end of the financial year as in the February announcement."

- Stuff

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103355 ... s-to-close

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hey Punk, where you goin' with that button on your shirt?

JPD be careful talking about the paperboys nuts will get you 5 to 10...

Cosby found guilty.

http://www.startribune.com/jury-focuses ... 480895781/

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I'm petulant, and I'm having a frenzy...

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^^^^

That's because NK now has nukes and missiles that can reach USA shores. They now have a bargaining chip. I doubts that this meeting, or any will significantly change NK's dictatorship.

Just a few short months ago, NK successfully tested a nuke capable ICBM, and nukes, as well as returning a US prisoner who was half dead and severely brain damaged.

NK is also cozy with Russia........

I don't buy it.

Abba has reunited to record two new songs. In additon to that they will return on stage as hologram-abbatars.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/27/abba-return-35-years-two-new-songs/

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Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On

MOSCOW — The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election.

But newly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.

Ms. Veselnitskaya also appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government ties. During an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but a source of information for a top Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.

“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”

The previously undisclosed details about Ms. Veselnitskaya rekindle questions about who she was representing when she met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan during the campaign. The meeting, one focus of the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference, was organized after an intermediary promised that Ms. Veselnitskaya would deliver documents that would incriminate Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. Veselnitskaya had long insisted that she met the president’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman in a private capacity, not as a representative of the Russian government.

“I operate independently of any governmental bodies,” she wrote in a November statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika, his representatives and his institutions other than those related to my professional functions as a lawyer.”

But that claim had already been undercut last fall by revelations that her talking points for the Trump Tower meeting — detailing tax and financial fraud accusations against two Democratic Party donors tied to a Kremlin opponent — matched those in a confidential memorandum circulated by Mr. Chaika’s office.

And a sheaf of Ms. Veselnitskaya’s email correspondence released Friday appeared to show that her relationship with Mr. Chaika’s office is far closer than she has described.

The emails were obtained by Dossier, an organization set up by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, a former tycoon who was stripped of his oil holdings, imprisoned and then exiled from his native Russia. He has emerged as a leading opponent of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Shown copies of the emails by Richard Engel of NBC News, Ms. Veselnitskaya acknowledged that “many things included here are from my documents, my personal documents.” She told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday that her email accounts were hacked this year by people determined to discredit her, and that she would report the hack to Russian authorities.

The Russian prosecutor general’s office did not respond to requests for comment. In an email, Ms. Veselnitskaya said she would respond in two weeks.

The exchanges document Mr. Chaika’s response to a Justice Department request in 2014 for help with its civil fraud case against a real estate firm, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., and its owner, Denis P. Katsyv, a well-connected Russian businessman.

Federal prosecutors say Ms. Veselnitskaya was the driving force on Mr. Katsyv’s defense team, a description she has echoed in court filings. In a declaration to the court, she identified herself as a lawyer in private practice, representing Mr. Katsyv and his firm.


That makes the meeting at Cheeto Tower a conspiracy to collude with a foreign power to influence an American election which is not only "collusion" but also a federal crime...well there it is...

^^^That's what real news looks like.^^^

I also posted something about this in the Trump thread. Guilty.As.Fuck.

Trump Tower on fire in Azerbaijan's capital Baku weeks after prominent art dealer died in New York apartment blaze
Natalie Evans

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc
Firefighters are tackling a blaze at Trump Tower in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

Footage taken from the scene shows smoke billowing from the building.

The fire comes weeks after a prominent art dealer who was pals with Andy Warhol died in a blaze at Donald Trump's iconic skyscraper in New York.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: Facebook
Todd Brassner, 67, was found unconscious in his 50th floor apartment after the inferno erupted at Trump Tower in Manhattan, police said.

Mr Brassner was pronounced dead in hospital - while the US President took to Twitter to describe his building as "well-built" and the blaze as "very confined".

Six firefighters suffered minor injuries in the horrific apartment fire, which sent flames shooting out of windows before it was extinguished.

Dramatic footage showed plumes of black smoke billowing into the air, as bits of debris from the tower plummeted to the ground below.

President Trump, who has an office and a private residence in the midtown Manhattan structure, was not in the building at the time.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: REUTERS
A short time later, he tweeted: "Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!."

He has so far made no mention of Todd on his profile.

The art dealer, who was unresponsive when he was discovered in his $2.5million apartment, was reportedly friends with late artist Warhol.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: REUTERS
His name is mentioned multiple times in Warhol's autobiography, “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” according to the New York Daily News .

The work was published in 1989, two years after the famed artist's death.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: REUTERS
In 2007, Todd, also an art collector, is said to have sold a number of Warhol prints - including a self-portrait that went for a staggering $601,000.

But eight years later, in 2015, he apparently filed for bankruptcy.

He was declared dead at Mount Sinai-West Hospital after yesterday's blaze.

Nearly 200 firefighters responded to the tragedy at the 58-storey building.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: Getty Images North America
FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro said at a press conference that the "entire" apartment was ablaze, adding: “The fire was a difficult fire.

"The apartment was quite large and 50 stories up."

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: REUTERS
He also said that while the building "sure stood up quite well", its upper floors, which are residential, do not have sprinklers.

About 200 fire personnel and more than 44 units responded to the incident, which the department said was a four-alarm fire. Fire officials said no member of the Trump family was in the building at the time.

In January, three people were injured in an early-morning fire at the top of Trump Tower. One firefighter was hospitalized while two people received minor injuries that were treated at the scene, fire officials said.

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Plc Credits: REUTERS
In addition to the president's 66th-floor penthouse, Trump Tower houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization.

It is also home to other residences, offices and stores.

Trump's son, Eric, praised firefighters for their efforts after yesterday's blaze, tweeting: "Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @ TrumpTower."

He added: "The @ FDNY and @ NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!"

http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/tru ... ocid=ientp

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hey Punk, where you goin' with that button on your shirt?

^^If only they'd'a stayed in Kalamazoo

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that's what happens when you don't read you loose your link to higher thinking

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hey Punk, where you goin' with that button on your shirt?

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hey Punk, where you goin' with that button on your shirt?

. . . meanwhile . . .