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ificandream

ificandream's Journal
ificandream's Journal
December 3, 2023

Alaska Airlines Plans to Buy Hawaiian Airlines

Source: The New York Times

By Niraj Chokshi and Ivan Penn
Dec. 3, 2023, 2:59 p.m. ET

Alaska Airlines on Sunday announced plans to acquire Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal.

The combined airline will maintain the Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines brands but with a single operating platform, Alaska Airlines said in a news release. The company would provide service to 138 destinations, including nonstop flights to airports in the Americas, Asia, Australia and the South Pacific.

For residents in Hawaii, the company would offer three times the current number of destinations from the state to destinations throughout North America, either nonstop or with one connection.

“In Alaska Airlines, we are joining an airline that has long served Hawaii, and has a complementary network and a shared culture of service,” Peter Ingram, president and chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines, was quoted as saying in the news release.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/business/alaska-airlines-hawaiian-airlines-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DE0.FVXO.3h0bkGmF-Mcd&hpgrp=ar-abar&smid=url-share

December 2, 2023

Santos threatens former colleagues with ethics complaints in late night rant

Source: The Hill

BY NICK ROBERTSON - 12/02/23 10:20 AM ET

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in late night posts on social media pledged to file ethics complaints against several of his House colleagues after he was expelled from office Friday.

His threats were levied against Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) over campaign finance violations and other ethics claims. The embattled former lawmaker said he will file official complaints on Monday.

New York Republicans led the GOP push to oust Santos, who was himself accused of campaign finance violations, lying to donors and fraud. He faces 23 criminal charges for his alleged conduct, including wire fraud, identity theft and theft of public funds, but has not been tried.

(snip)

“Let’s talk about hypocrisy. Can someone ask Nicole MalioStockTips when did she become a savant in stock trading?” Santos posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, late Friday.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4338930-santos-threatens-former-colleagues-with-ethics-complaints/



He certainly graduated from the Donald Trump school of Idiocy.
December 2, 2023

Opinion: Trump is threatening to use the government to "come down hard" on the free press. Believe him. (Media Matters)

Full link: https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/trump-threatening-use-government-come-down-hard-free-press-believe-him

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WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 11/30/23 4:12 PM EST

Donald Trump is running for president on a stated mission of deploying the powers of government to exact “retribution” against his enemies. He is openly threatening to turn the Justice Department’s investigatory and prosecutorial powers on his political opponents and to purge the federal bureaucracy of officials who are not personally loyal to him.

But over the past eight years, no perceived Trump foe has faced more sustained vitriol from the former president than the U.S. press. His denouncements of journalists who produced critical reporting on his presidency were so overheated that critics warned he was encouraging dictators to repress troublesome news outlets in their own countries. Harsh words alone will not suffice if Trump is returned to the White House in 2024. On Tuesday, he suggested that he plans to use federal power to punish news outlets that provide unfavorable coverage.

In a post to his Truth Social platform, he claimed that MSNBC’s critical coverage of himself and the Republican Party constituted “the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country,” and thrust the blame for that coverage on Brian Roberts, the CEO and president of MSNBC parent company Comcast. He concluded: “Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!”

Trump’s attempt to reframe reporting about himself that he dislikes as “illegal political activity” should be anathema to anyone who cherishes the First Amendment’s protections of free speech. But his threat to use the government to “come down hard” on MSNBC and “make them pay” is in line with his attempts to leverage government authority in order to bend media outlets to his will, and foreshadows a second-term effort targeting not just MSNBC, but the wide array of newspapers, digital outlets, and cable and broadcast networks he’s denounced for years.

Read more: https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/trump-threatening-use-government-come-down-hard-free-press-believe-him
December 2, 2023

Poll: Who do you think will be TIME's Person of the Year for 2023?

I took the nominees from the list on SportsGeek.com, which lists the current odds of who'll win. I left off one name on their list - Lionel Messi - because I think his chances are practically nil, even though the odds for some names are longer than his. Zelenskyy won last year.

TIME will reveal its choice on Dec. 10

December 2, 2023

George San Toast

December 2, 2023

Stock market news today: S&P 500 hits new 2023 closing high as stocks rise for 5th straight week

Source: Yahoo Finance (via MSN)

Story by Hamza Shaban,Karen Friar •
3h

US stocks rose Friday afternoon, building on a stellar November, even as investors digested a warning from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that it would be "premature" to conclude that Fed rate hikes are over or "speculate" when cuts could begin.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) increased about 0.6% to a new 2023 closing high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose roughly 0.8% or nearly 300 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) advanced 0.5%. All three indexes closed positive for a fifth straight week.

Stocks soared in November to post their best monthly performance since 2022 as conviction that the Fed was done with rate hikes morphed into growing hopes for rate cuts before the summer.
"It's one of the best months we've seen in the last decade," eToro US investment analyst Callie Cox told Yahoo Finance Live. "And I think it shows us how a lot of investors were caught off guard by the Fed's flexible stance after the Nov. 1 meeting."

Powell spoke Friday after October data showed inflation cooled to its lowest levels since 2021. Despite his pushback against talk of rate cuts, markets moved higher from earlier losses as he hinted the central bank could be done with rate hikes.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/stock-market-news-today-s-p-500-hits-new-2023-closing-high-as-stocks-rise-for-5th-straight-week/ar-AA1kRB6t



When youre Repughlican friends keep saying the economy sucks under Biden, show them this.
November 30, 2023

This date in history: Nov. 30, 1993 - The Brady Bill becomes law



The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Pub.L. 103–159, 107 Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993), often referred to as the Brady Act or the Brady Bill, is an Act of the United States Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States, and imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was implemented in 199812. The act was appended to the end of Section 922 of title 18, United States Code. The intention of the act was to prevent persons with previous serious convictions from purchasing firearms1. Various iterations of the Brady Bill were discussed and rejected by Congress between 1987 and 1993, when it finally became law1.
November 30, 2023

MSNBC Shakes Up Weekend Schedule, Launching Panel Show, Bumping Medhi Hasan (Variety)

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By Brian Steinberg

MSNBC is shaking up its weekend schedule as CNN’s Saturday and Sunday offerings continue to provide competition.

The NBCUniversal cable-news outlet plans to a launch a new panel show, “The Weekend,” co-moderated by Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Michael Steele that will air Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. That move will consolidate anchors who had been active on the weekend schedule in their own time slots, and leave room for change.

(snip)

Alex Witt, one of the longest-serving news anchors on MSNBC, gets new hours to fill, with an expanded 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. slot on both Saturday and Sunday. Yasmin Vossoughian, who had been doing news in the afternoons, will focus solely on working as a national reporter for MSNBC. Both Jonathan Capehart and Katie Phang will see their programs move — Phang to noon on Saturdays and Capehart to 6 p.m. on both weekend evenings.

Ayman Mohyeldin will takeover Mehdi Hasan’s one-hour program on Sundays, expanding to four hours on both Saturday and Sundays. Hasan, one of MSNBC’s most outspoken commentators, will remain at the network as a political analyst and fill-in host.

Read more: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/msnbc-shakes-up-weekend-schedule-panel-show-symone-sanders-1235814463/


---------------------

I'm not happy with some of these changes. Mehdi Hasan should be getting more hours, not less. Katie Phang, whose weekend show is very informative, is getting moved to a better time slot for West Coast viewers like me, but only one day now. Yasmin Vossoughian, someone else I really think does a great job, won't have a defined slot anymore, either.
November 30, 2023

The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York- R.I.P. Shane MacGowan

One of my favorite Christmas songs.

November 30, 2023

Shane MacGowan, The Pogues 'Fairytale of New York' singer, dies at 65

Source: USA Today

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Irish musician Shane MacGowan, who formed the influential punk band The Pogues, best known for '80s hit "Fairytale of New York," has died. He was 65.

MacGowan died in the early hours of Thursday with his family by his side, The Pogues' official Instagram page announced in a joint statement from his wife Victoria Mary Clarke, sister Siobhan and father Maurice.

"Prayers and the last rites were rites were read which gave comfort to his family," the statement added. "Further details will be announced shortly but the family ask for privacy at this very sad time."

(snip)

MacGowan's wife also shared a tribute to her husband on Instagram Thursday, writing, "Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love ❤️ of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/11/30/shane-macgowan-dead-the-pogues-singer/71751428007/



One of my very favorite Christmas songs.

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About ificandream

Writer, journalist with over 35 years working at a daily newspaper, author.

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