TheFrontPageCover~ Featuring ~
Kearsarge
by Tom McLaughlin
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Fed cuts interest rate target by half a percentage point in response to coronavirus fears
by Joseph Lawler & Jay Heflin
{ washingtonexaminer.com } ~ The Federal Reserve issued an emergency reduction in its interest rate target of half a percentage point in response to the coronavirus outbreak... "The coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity," the central bank said in a statement Tuesday. The Fed also said that the “fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong" despite the current economic situation. The monetary policy committee voted unanimously to cut the rate. The U.S. markets responded positively to the Fed’s actions and moved into positive territory after opening flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.69%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite were also up by 0.83% and 0.071%, respectively. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/fed-cuts-interest-rates-in-response-to-coronavirus-fears?utm_source=breaking_push&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=push_notification&utm_source=WEX_Breaking%20News%20Alert_03/03/2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Breaking%20News&rid=5261 .
Coast Guard Key to Coronavirus U.S.
Response; Marines, Navy Increasing
Measures to Ward Off Disease Spread
By Sam LaGrone
{ news.usni.org } ~ The U.S. sea services have yet to feel a major effect from the coronavirus but are keeping a wary eye on its spread, the service chiefs said on Monday... Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger outlined how each service was handling the growing outbreaks of the virus that originated in Wuhan, China, during a keynote at the WEST 2020 event cohosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA. So far there hasn’t been a sailor, Marine or Coast Guard member who’s been diagnosed with the spreading coronavirus, the trio said. Out of the three, the Coast Guard is the closest to the ongoing U.S. government response to the disease, as part of its role nested inside of the Department of Homeland Security, Schultz said. “We’re intimately involved. About 4,000 ships a month call on the United States. About 750 in the Pacific. We’re screening every one of those ships,” he said. “Passenger vessels that have less than 14 days at sea during that incubation period are being detained at sea. Cargo operations, we’re working with shippers. If there’s a crew member that’s identified as being infected, we’re working with CDC, we’re working health officials to make sure we’re on top of it.” For the service itself, the Coast Guard is developing processes for how it would distribute protective equipment and is formulating policy for the event of a wider outbreak of the disease. “We’re starting to get into the realm here as it’s becoming an increasingly evolving domestic situation,” Schultz said. The Navy and Marine Corps are taking preventative measures with their troops and continuing to weigh the virus effects on training and exercises globally. “The coronavirus manifests itself in different ways depending upon the location,” Gilday said. “What we’re seeing across the combatant commands is a variety of steps that they’re taking. Some more pronounced than others depending upon the location of concentration of the virus.”... https://news.usni.org/2020/03/02/coast-guard-key-to-coronavirus-u-s-response-marines-navy-increasing-measures-to-ward-off-disease-spread?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=11b7a409ad-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-11b7a409ad-231491269&mc_cid=11b7a409ad&mc_eid=3999f18767 .
Nashville tornado leaves several dead
as severe weather strikes Tennessee
By Travis Fedschun & David Aaro
{ foxnews.com } ~ A powerful storm system produced at least two tornadoes that struck central Tennessee early on Tuesday morning... including one that caused significant damage near downtown Nashville and killed at least 19 people as crews spent hours pulling survivors and bodies from wrecked buildings. The tornado near downtown Nashville lit up the night sky with flashes of light as transformers blew and the storm reportedly stayed on the ground into Hermitage, about 10 miles east of the city. "They need your prayers in Nashville, Tennessee," Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said on "Fox & Friends." "This was an overnight, rain-wrapped tornado while people were sleeping and now they are waking up to extreme destruction, devastation and deaths in the Nashville area." A spokeswoman from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency told the Associated Press that at least 19 people had been killed in the storms. In an earlier press briefing, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told reporters the deaths were centered in four different counties and there are a "number of people that are missing" in addition to "many" that are injured and being transported to area hospitals. "We have had loss of life all across the state," Lee said, adding "It's a very difficult situation." The Metro Nashville Police Department said at least two people were killed in East Nashville, while the Putnam County Sheriff's Department reported three people in the county dead after a tornado touched down between the city limits of Cookeville and Baxter. Officials in Benton County told FOX17 a sixth person was also killed in the storms there....
Who Is Preventing Palestinians From Voting?
by Khaled Abu Toameh
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Yesterday, March 2, Israeli voters headed to the ballot boxes for the tenth time since the signing of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians in 1993... The Palestinians, by contrast, have since had only four elections -- two for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency and two for the Palestinian parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). The last Palestinian election took place in 2006, when Palestinians voted for the PLC. Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip, won 44.4% of the vote (74 seats), while PA President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah faction won 41.4% of the vote (45 seats). The PLC has 132 seats. One year after the PLC election, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after overthrowing Abbas's PA regime. The Hamas coup led to a split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has effectively paralyzed the Palestinian parliament ever since. The Palestinians are the only people in the Middle East who do not have a functioning parliament. In 2018, Abbas decided to dissolve the PLC and said he would hold elections within six months. Abbas's move drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians, who accused him of seeking to tighten his grip on the PA and its institutions. The 84-year-old Abbas has not fulfilled his promise to hold a parliamentary election "within six months." Who needs a parliament when you have a president who recently entered the 16th year of his four-year-term in office? Who needs pesky parliament members who may pester their president and government by asking uncomfortable questions or -- even worse -- criticizing the performance of the Palestinian leadership? The absence of parliamentary life for the Palestinians has, in fact, been highly convenient for Abbas, who continues to demonstrate zero tolerance towards his political rivals and critics... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15671/palestinians-voting .
Chris Matthews Quits MSNBC
Effective Immediately
by sundance
{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ At the beginning of his broadcast show tonight Chris Matthews announced he is retiring from NBC effective immediately. Tonight was the final broadcast of Hardball With Chris Matthews…Veteran MSNBC host Chris Matthews said he’s retiring from his show “Hardball,” citing his inappropriate comments about women. Matthews opened his program with the announcement he was ending his run on the political hour that he started in 1997. He said compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, himself included, thought were OK “were never OK.” He remained proud of the work he ’s done on the show, he said. In a first-person story for GQ published Feb. 28, freelance journalist Laura Bassett said Matthews behaved inappropriately toward her when she was guest on his show... https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/03/02/chris-matthews-quits-msnbc-effective-immediately-video/.
Adviser to Iran's Supreme leader dies
from coronavirus, as other top officials infected
By David Aaro
{ foxnews.com } ~ An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died from the new coronavirus, as other top officials in the country are confirmed to be infected... according to multiple reports on Monday. The Iranian Health Ministry recorded 523 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's known total to 1,501. They mark a 53 percent increase since the day before. Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, was an Expediency Council member who advised Khamenei and settled disputes between him and parliament. COVID-19 has already infected Iran's vice president and deputy health minister. His death comes after the government on Monday rejected help from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who announced last week the U.S. was concerned Iran may have covered up details on the spread of the virus. "We neither count on such help nor are we ready to accept verbal help," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said during a briefing on Monday. He added the country has always been "suspicious" over American intentions, and that the U.S. government was trying to weaken Iranians' spirits over the outbreak. Iran's mortality rate from the virus is roughly 5.5 percent, compared to an overall fatality rate of about 2 percent in China. The difference in rates has led people to suggest the number of infections in Iran is higher than what the country has officially reported. The country's first case was reported less than two weeks ago. The virus has killed at least 66 people in Iran, the highest death toll outside of China. The majority of 1,150 cases throughout the Middle East are linked back to the country. Iran was preparing the possibility of testing "tens of thousands" of people following a spike of cases on Saturday. The country has closed schools and universities due to COVID-19, but religious Shiite shrines have remained open. Last week, Iranians were captured licking some of the shrines in defiance of the coronavirus... https://www.foxnews.com/health/advisor-irans-supreme-leader-dies-from-coronavirus-1150-cases-middle-east-linked-to-country .
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Kearsarge
by Tom McLaughlin
{ tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ I call it “Kearsarge” and it dominates the view westward through our picture window from my recliner where I’d been spending a lot of time recovering from leg surgery. It wasn’t always called that, however. An old woman who owned a property I managed way back in the 20th century called it “Pequawket Mountain,” and that was the official name for it until 1957, the year it officially became “Kearsarge North.”
Last October, Kearsarge seemed to bend light at sunset
In early March, the sun sets right behind Kearsarge. I mark seasonal progress by how far north of it the sun descends each evening. By the summer solstice, sunsets will have proceeded northward past Mount Washington to the Baldfaces before turning back southward again until the winter solstice. Often I see stunning displays of light, clouds, colors, and mists too beautiful to describe. Afternoon thunderstorms come in over those mountains too, and my favorite sunsets occur when they break up just as the sun is nearing the horizon. Its rays poke through the mists just before it drops behind again.
Rain squall one evening last summer
Never do I tire of watching all this, and it’s not just the sunsets. Our house is perched on the side of Christian Hill in Lovell which rises to our east. I don’t see rays of sun until after they have first lit up the eastern slopes of Kearsarge and the other mountains. It’s quite stunning after a winter storm during which snow or ice coats every branch of every tree on every mountain. The rising sun lights up each slope — first the very top and then proceeding downward to the base. On such mornings it seems our Creator is in a good mood and wants to show off.
Mount Washington one morning last year
After our house was built on what was then a fully-treed lot, it took me about ten years to open up the view. Each summer I’d cut enough for eight cords to keep the family warm over winter, then I’d twitch each tree up to the landing with an old Ford 8N farm tractor. It was a lot of work, but I saved money on oil, and there was the added benefit of seeing more mountains each succeeding year. I felt like a sculptor, and the more I did, the more our new house felt like home.
Kearsarge from North Fryeburg corn field last month
When my wife started hinting at downsizing after the kids moved out, I knew I would have a hard time ever selling this place. I’d prefer to die here.
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