NAFTA RAILROAD

Canadian Pacific clinches $27-billion Kansas City Southern deal as rival bows out

(Reuters) -Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd inked a $27.2 billion cash-and-stock deal to buy Kansas City Southern on Wednesday after Canadian National Railway Co conceded it could not save its own $29.6-billion deal for the U.S. railway.

FILE PHOTO: A Canadian National Railway train travels westward on a track in Montreal

The combination will create the first direct railway linking Canada, the United States and Mexico, with a network spanning 20,000 miles and approximately $8.7 billion of annual revenue. It marks the end of a high-stakes bidding war.

The $300 per share cash-and-stock deal that Canadian Pacific clinched is higher than the $275 per share cash-and-stock deal that it had secured in March to buy Kansas City Southern. That deal was scrapped when Canadian National wooed Kansas City Southern in May with a $325 per share cash-and-stock offer.

Kansas City Southern shares were little changed at $281.55 in Wednesday trading in New York.

Canadian National suffered a blow when the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) rejected a temporary “voting trust” structure last month that would have allowed Kansas City Southern shareholders to receive the deal’s consideration without having to wait for full regulatory approval.

Canadian Pacific has had its proposed voting trust cleared by the STB and so Kansas City Southern shareholders will receive the $300 per share in cash and stock even if the regulator shoots down the deal. The regulatory certainty this provided convinced Kansas City Southern’s board to switch to a deal with Canadian Pacific, even though its offer was lower than Canadian National’s.

Canadian National had also faced pressure from some of its investors, including hedge fund TCI Management Ltd, to abandon its pursuit of Kansas City Southern. Canadian National shares jumped 3.7% on Wednesday to C$150.97, as its investors expressed relief the attempted deal was abandoned.

This is because a new offer would need to compensate Kansas City Southern for the regulatory risk of sticking with the Canadian National deal. This would have likely required a significantly higher price, as well a regulatory break-up fee that would be much higher than the $1 billion Canadian National offered previously.

The STB said last month that even though the overlap of Canadian National’s and Kansas City Southern’s networks was confined to 70 miles (113 km) between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the two railways operated parallel lines in the central portion of the United States and could be under less pressure to compete if the voting trust for that deal was approved.

“There have been significant changes to the U.S. regulatory landscape since Canadian National launched its initial proposal which have made completing any Class I merger much less certain, including an executive order focused on competition issued by President Biden in July,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

There is a silver lining for Canadian National. It is now entitled to a $700 million break-up fee from Kansas City Southern, in addition to the $700 million it paid the latter to pass on to Canadian Pacific as a break-up fee for terminating their March deal. Canadian Pacific had said it will cover both payments.

CANADIAN PACIFIC NOT IN THE CLEAR YET

There are still potential pitfalls for Canadian Pacific. While no major Canadian Pacific shareholder has come out against the Kansas City Southern deal, as happened with Canadian National, Canadian Pacific still needs a majority of its investors to vote for the new agreement.

It is also possible that the STB shoots down Canadian Pacific’s deal for Kansas City Southern, even though it approved the voting trust for it. More likely, however, would be for the STB to require some concessions from Canadian Pacific, such as limited divestments or commitments on how much its charges customers, to clear the deal, people familiar with the matter said. It is possible that some of the concessions could erode Canadian Pacific’s profitability.

The STB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If the STB rejects the deal, Canadian Pacific’s voting trust would have to divest Kansas City Southern. Canadian National could then attempt to buy it, though the U.S. railroad has also attracted acquisition interest in the past from private equity firms.

Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New YorkAdditional reporting by Aishwarya Nair, Aakriti Bhalla and Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Arun Koyyur and Bernadette Baum

REMEMBER ; TRUMP DEFEATED ISIS

17 Pro-Iran Militants Killed, Injured in ISIS Attack in Central Syria

Wednesday, 15 September, 2021

Members of the Liwa Fatemiyoun during training in eastern Syria.

 (Euphrates Post file photo)
Idlib, Qamishli, Damascus – Firas Karam, Kamal Sheikho and Asharq Al-Awsat

Seventeen members of the pro-Iran Liwa Fatemiyoun militia were killed and wounded in an attack carried out by the ISIS terrorist group in the Homs countryside in central Syria.

A source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the militants, who are affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, were killed in an ISIS ambush on Monday night.

The ambush targeted a Liwa Fatemiyoun military position in the Doubayat gas field area that is a stronghold of the militia.

Eight members of the militia were killed in the attack. Nine others were wounded and they were taken to a field hospital in Palmyra for treatment.

Groups affiliated with the IRGC in Palmyra attempted to dispatch military reinforcements to the site of the attack, but it was targeted by another ISIS ambush along the road connecting Plamyra to al-Sukhna region.

This forced Russian jets to intervene. They carried out over 20 strikes against ISIS in the area.

An opposition activist in the city of Salamiyah said ISIS has increased its activity in the Syrian desert in Hama, Homs and central parts of the country in recent weeks. It has staged surprise attacks against IRGC positions and regime convoys in the desert (Badia).

Vehicles transporting pro-Iran militants, of various nationalities, cross Salamiyah on a daily basis headed towards the Hama desert to reinforce positions there, he revealed.

Several pro-Iran militants have been killed in ISIS attacks in recent days in regions in eastern Hama. Convoys transporting regime fighters, including officers, have also been targeted by the extremists. Thirteen regime forces were killed and five others were captured in one attack.

The regime and pro-Iran militias, backed by Russian air cover, have launched a large-scale operation to crackdown on ISIS remnants in the Syrian Badia in Hama and Homs, extending to the southern and eastern parts of the Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces in the east.

Despite these efforts, the operation has not curbed ISIS’ renewed activity. The group has resorted to ambushes and surprise attacks. Over 115 regime loyalists, including Iranians and Afghan mercenaries, have been killed in ISIS attacks in recent months.

A FIERCENESS OF SPIRIT

Stunning TV figures for US Open finals confirm appeal of Emma Raducanu

• Kevin Palmer
• September 15, 2021

The TV viewing figures are in for this year’s US Open and they confirm that more tuned in to watch the women’s final between Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez and for Novak Djokovic’s shot at a history-making calendar Grand Slam.

The story written by teenagers Raducanu and Fernandez at the US Open captured the attention of the sporting world, as tennis reached out beyond its traditional fan base to attract huge publicity as the Brit beat her Canadian rival.

ESPN figures confirm 3.4 million tuned in to watch the women’s US Open, with 2.7 million watching the men’s final the next day between Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev.

Even though Djokovic was attempting to claim a calendar Grand Slam of titles, the lure of seeing two new stars aiming to claim their first major title proved to be irresistible for TV audiences, in what could be a key moment for the women’s game.

The superstar status of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic has given the men’s game a golden era that has ensured their viewing figures have been ahead of the women’s matches.

Yet that could all be about to change with interest in Raducanu and Fernandez certain to be high when they play their next match.

The US viewing figures for the US Open were small compared to the UK, where the Raducanu story drew an audience of 9.2million for the final on Channel 4, after rights holders Amazon Prime Sport agreed to share coverage on a network channel given the significance of the match.

“We’re delighted that Channel 4, in partnership with Amazon Prime Video, could enable more than nine million people to enjoy one of the most thrilling and historic nights of British sport in a generation,” said Ian Katz, Chief Content Officer, Channel 4.

Amazon pledged to reinvest its revenue into the UK women’s tennis scene and are now set for a big boost as they have UK rights for the ATP and WTA Tour, where both Raducanu and Fernandez will be huge attractions when they return to action.

UH OH

Ebola virus in survivors can trigger outbreaks years after infection

Guinea began a new round of Ebola vaccinations this year after an outbreak of the virus that research found stemmed from a survivor 

CAROL VALADE AFP/File

Issued on: 15/09/2021 -

Tokyo (AFP)

Ebola survivors can relapse and trigger outbreaks at least five years after infection, and long-term follow-up of former patients is needed to prevent devastating flare-ups, according to new research.

Scientists already knew Ebola could lie dormant in survivors, who test negative because the virus is in tissue rather than circulating in the blood.

But analysis of an outbreak this year in Guinea, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found these "virus reservoirs" can awaken and cause new infections and transmission years on.

To trace the source of the Guinea outbreak, which involved 16 confirmed cases, 12 of whom died, researchers analysed the genomes of samples from several patients.

Ebola outbreaks are usually thought to result from the virus "spilling" from an animal host to a human.

But the analysis showed the Guinea strain was virtually identical to that from a 2013-16 wave.

If the virus had been circulating actively in the community since then, it would have accumulated a certain number of mutations as it spread.

Instead, the 2021 virus had just 12 changes, "far fewer than would be expected... during six years of sustained human-to-human transmission".

That strongly suggests the source was reactivated virus that had lain dormant in a survivor, said Alpha Keita, a researcher at the University of Montpellier who led the study.

"This is the longest known time between the declared end of an epidemic and a viral resurgence," he told AFP.

"It's a new paradigm: the possibility that transmission from an individual infected during a previous epidemic could be the source of a new outbreak."

How and why dormant Ebola virus suddenly awakens and sickens a person remains something of a mystery, though there are some tantalising clues.

Sometimes a spike in Ebola antibodies can be detected in survivors at a given time -- a possible sign that the body is responding to a resurgent virus.

Around two-thirds of Ebola survivors have high antibody levels even five years after infection, but "the question to pose is what happens if there's a resurgence in the people whose immunity has dropped", said Keita.

- Fears of stigma -

The study's findings have "considerable implications for public health and care of survivors of Ebola", said Robert F. Garry of Tulane University's School of Medicine.

"Humans can now be added to the list of intermediate hosts that can serve as long-term Ebola virus 'reservoirs' and trigger new outbreaks," he wrote in a review commissioned by Nature.

He sees the need to prioritise healthcare workers for vaccination and monitor Ebola survivors for signs of a flare-up.

And Keita wants a rethink of the term "Ebola survivor" to include not only those who battled through symptoms but also those who may have been infected without becoming ill.

Even asymptomatic individuals "could be the starting point" for an outbreak, he warned.

"We need a real, long-term follow-up protocol for former Ebola patients and their contacts so we can catch resurgence in previously infected people in time."

He cautions though that follow-up must be done cautiously to avoid ostracisation of survivors, a point echoed by Trudie Lang, director of Oxford University's Global Health Network.

"These people are considered heroes by some for surviving," she said.

"Yet (they) could also be stigmatised and excluded if there is a fear of these individuals presenting a risk."

Lang, who was not involved in the study, called it "important new evidence," and a reminder of the need to support research on threats other than Covid-19.

Keita said the research paves the way for various additional study, including on what causes viral resurgence and the possibility of eradicating Ebola reservoirs in survivors.

© 2021 AFP

Ebola: Profile of a dreaded killer

Detection by mutation John SAEKI AFP


Issued on: 15/09/2021 - 17:24

Paris (AFP)

Ebola, which could reappear years later in survivors according to a study published by the journal Nature on Wednesday, has killed more than 15,000 people since 1976.

Here is a factfile on the widely feared disease:

- Origins -

Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever that was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire.

Five of the virus species are known to cause disease in humans -- Zaire, Sudan, Bundibugyo, Reston and Tai Forest.

The first three have resulted in serious outbreaks in Africa.

- Transmission -

The virus' natural reservoir animal is suspected to be a species of fruit bat, which does not itself fall ill but can pass the disease on to primates, including humans. Humans become exposed to the virus if they kill or butcher infected bats for food.

Among humans, the virus is passed on by contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected or recently deceased person. This can include touching a sick or dead person, and likely also sexual intercourse.

Those infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear. They become more and more contagious until just after their death, which poses great risks during funerals.

Death rates are high, at around 50 percent on average of those infected, and up to 90 percent for some epidemics, World Health Organization (WHO) data show.

According to the study published Wednesday, it is possible that Ebola remains dormant in survivors before reappearing several years later and potentially causing a new outbreak.

- Symptoms -

Following an incubation period of between two and 21 days, Ebola develops into a high fever, weakness, intense muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat.

The initial symptoms are often followed by vomiting and diarrhoea, skin eruptions, kidney and liver failure, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

- Treatment -

A vaccine developed by the US group Merck Sharp and Dohme was found to be very effective in a major study carried out in Guinea in 2015.

It was pre-qualified by the WHO and more than 300,000 doses have been used during a vaccination programme in the DR Congo.

A second experimental vaccine developed by the US group Johnson & Johnson was introduced preventively in October 2019 in areas that had not been affected by the virus, and more than 20,000 people were inoculated.

- Worst epidemic (2013-2016) -

The worst-ever Ebola outbreak began in December 2013 in southern Guinea before spreading to two neighbouring West African countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

That outbreak killed more than 11,300 people out of nearly 29,000 registered cases, according to WHO estimates.

- 10th and 11th DR Congo epidemics -

The 10th epidemic began in August 2018 in the North Kivu province of DR Congo. The WHO declared it a global health threat in July 2019.

DR Congo authorities declared it over in June the following year after around 2,280 people had died, making it Africa's second-worst Ebola outbreak.

That month in the Equateur province, an 11th Ebola epidemic began and it was declared over in November, with 55 deaths.

- DR Congo, Guinea -

The DR Congo said in February 2021 that a resurgence of the virus had been identified in an eastern part of the country.

Vaccines were rolled out and the 12th epidemic was declared over in May, at a cost of six lives.

Guinea also reported an "epidemic situation" in its southeast in February. After the rapid use of vaccines, the official end of the second epidemic was declared in June after 12 deaths.

- Ivory Coast: False alarm -

On August 14, Ivory Coast announced its first known case of the disease since 1994, in an 18-year-old Guinean woman recently arrived in Abidjan.

But after new studies by the Institut Pasteur in France, the WHO announced at the end of August that the patient had not had the disease and there was "no evidence" of Ebola in the country.

© 2021 AFP

CAPITALI$T PHILANTHROPY

Mercers discovered giving $20 million to a front group that then funded efforts to overturn the 2020 election

Sarah K. Burris
September 15, 2021

Far-right Republican mega-donors Robert and Rebekah Mercer (Screen capture)

The rich donors Robert and Rebekah Mercer reportedly used a front group called the Donors Trust to funnel nearly $20 million to a shadow group.

CNBC reported that a new 990 form filing revealed that the wealthy family funneled the hefty donation to their foundation that hasn't spent any money since Trump's first election.

"The Donors Trust takes the money it receives and funnels it to groups of their donors' choosing. It does not legally have to publicly disclose who is giving to their group or where specific financiers targeted their donations," said CNBC.

So, the Mercers gave the $20 million to Donors Trust and the Donors Trust can give funds to anyone without it being directly tied to the family.

Among the recent money given from Donors Trust include groups that pushed the "big lie" and false claims of election fraud after President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020. The group also gave 2019 donations to the VDARE Foundation, which the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled a hate group. Donors Trust is a 501(c)(3) organization that doesn't have to pay taxes to operate. Specifics about who Donors Trust gave the money to won't be uncovered until later this year.

"Last year, outside of the donation to Donors Trust, the new 990 form shows that the only other contribution the foundation made was $9,000 to the American Association for Aerosol Research, a nonprofit that touts sponsors such as NASA and 3M," the report also explained.

The Mercers were funders behind the new social media site Parler, which welcomes those who have been removed by leading social media sites for violating the terms of service. It's a gathering place for white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other extremist groups.

"Robert Mercer, and his three daughters, Rebekah, Jennifer and Heather, are all directors of their family foundation. In the buildup to the election, CNBC reported that the Mercers had opted to distance themselves from Trump and Republican leadership after they were scrutinized for helping to bankroll the New York real estate magnate and reality TV star's successful run for president in 2016," the report recalled.

Trump has been shouting about voter fraud since 2016 when he claimed that he actually won the national popular vote because 3 million immigrants voted illegally in California. But when Trump appointed Kris Kobach to "find" the fraud, even he couldn't uncover any false votes, much less 3 million.

When 2020 came, Trump started spreading rumors of election fraud before the election even started. After losing to Biden, Trump pressed election officials in Arizona and Georgia demanding that they overturn the election. Trump allies in Arizona made the biggest effort to do so by hiring the Cyber Ninjas firm to have an "audit" where they investigated ballots for conspiracy theories pushed on social media.

Even former Trump Attorney General William Barr made it clear that there was no voter fraud, despite Trump's claims.

Democrats have pressed universal voting protections Republicans are passing in red states to make it even harder to cast a ballot in future elections. Typically moderate Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced that they refused to support the legislation.

Collins said specifically that she didn't see why the federal government should have a role in determining a state's election laws. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, advocated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, was a federal law aimed at helping protect the right for all American to vote without burdensome barriers.

Brazil's Bolsonaro 'threatening' democracy: rights group

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (R) has launched fiery attacks on the Supreme Court and the country's election system, prompting Human Rights Watch to warn that he is "threatening democratic rule" 

EVARISTO SA AFP

Issued on: 15/09/2021 - 

Brasília (AFP)

President Jair Bolsonaro is "threatening democratic rule" with his attacks on Brazil's Supreme Court and electoral system, the non-governmental group Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Wednesday.

At an Independence Day rally last week the far-right leader fired off a warning at the Supreme Court, which has ordered an investigation of him, saying it would "suffer the consequences" unless it backed off.

He also renewed his attack on the country's electronic voting system ahead of elections in 2022.

"President Jair Bolsonaro is threatening democratic rule in Brazil," the rights body said in a statement released on September 15, which is observed as the International Day of Democracy.

"He is pursuing campaigns to intimidate the Supreme Court, signaling that he may attempt to cancel the 2022 election or otherwise deny Brazilians the right to elect their leaders, and violating critics' freedom of expression."

Bolsonaro's recent speeches were part of a "pattern of actions and statements that appear designed to undermine fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law in Brazil," HRW added.

Two days after his vehement criticism of Brazil's federal institutions in front of thousands of supporters in Sao Paulo, the president sought to back off, insisting his jabs had been made "in the heat of the moment."

Yet, "he did not backtrack from his unproven claim that Brazil's electoral system is unreliable," HRW pointed out.

Bolsonaro, whose popularity is at an all-time low, is seeking to fire up his base in the face of a flagging economy, soaring unemployment and inflation, and a series of investigations targeting him and his inner circle.

The president is also under fire for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed more than 587,000 lives in Brazil.

Bolsonaro, who backed Donald Trump's claim of fraud in last year's US presidential election, warned in January that the chaos that rocked Washington as Trump refused to concede could repeat in Brazil or "even worse," as he sought once again to cast doubt on Brazil's voting system.

© 2021 AFP

PRIMAL SCREAM THERAPY REDUX

Finnish ex-con opens 'rage room' to repay society

Issued on: 15/09/2021 -

Janne Raninen became embroiled in gangs while growing up in a disadvantaged suburb in Sweden Olivier MORIN AFP

Helsinki (AFP)

A Finnish man who spent two decades behind bars for murder is trying to repay his debt to society by founding a "rage room" -- letting clients vent their anger on household objects with a baseball bat.

Janne Raninen, a 44-year-old convicted of two gang-related murders, opened Helsinki's "Raivoomo" ("rage centre") two months ago using money borrowed from friends, and says he has been "fully booked" ever since.

"I was in prison until six months ago and I thought this kind of room could have also been good for me when I was younger," says Raninen, who became embroiled in gangs while growing up in a disadvantaged suburb in Sweden.

"I thought, when I come out I'm going to start this room and let people let out their anger here instead of doing the stupid things that I did in my youth," he tells AFP.

Raninen also gives regular talks to young people, trying to steer them away from gangs.

The pandemic is by far the main cause of anger but a divorce-themed smash-up room also proves popular 

Olivier MORIN AFP

"It's one of my ways to try and pay back society," he says, adding that the rage room is another -- not only through the taxes he pays but also through the wellbeing it can bring people.

- Smash hit with women -

Rage rooms are fairly common, particularly in the US, and Raninen's new venture has proven a particular smash hit with women letting out post-pandemic frustration.

"I feel fantastic, you just get swept along with it," says Sanna Sulin, who has come to celebrate her 50th birthday, letting rip on old printers, a vacuum cleaner and crockery, to a soundtrack of her favourite music.

I feel fantastic, you just get swept along with it,' says Sanna Sulin

 Olivier MORIN AFP

"My friend brought me here to try it and at first I refused, I'm more into repairing things," she tells AFP standing among fragments of metal, plastic and glass.

"We women are used to having to behave properly, having to control ourselves," she says.

Eighty percent of the customers are women aged 25 to 45, owner Raninen noted.

Despite Finland's reputation as a bastion of gender equality, Raninen agrees that "women's aggression is taboo, they're not allowed to let off steam".

The pandemic is by far the main cause of anger but a divorce-themed smash-up room -- painted pink with a suit and wedding dress hanging on the wall -- also proves popular.

'This is the best place for letting out steam and all the anxiety,' says Janne Raninen 

Olivier MORIN AFP

"In the long term it's always better to go and talk to a therapist and work with the issues inside you," he says.

But in the short run, "this is the best place for letting out steam and all the anxiety".

© 2021 AFP

THE PRIMAL SCREAM - Primal Institute

https://www.primalinstitute.com/the-primal-scream.html

Primal Therapy is based on the assumption that we are born nothing but ourselves. We are not born neurotic or psychotic. We're just born. Primal Therapy involves the …

How Primal Scream Therapy Has Survived Five Decades of ...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/9bgppa/primal-therapy-arthur-janov

2016-02-22 · How Primal Scream Therapy Has Survived Five Decades of Strangeness and Controversy. Arthur Janov's primal therapy 

Boston mayoral race narrows to Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George, two women of color, for the city's top job

By Gregory Krieg, Veronica Stracqualursi and Ethan Cohen, CNN
Updated Wed September 15, 2021


(CNN)Boston mayoral candidates Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George, both Democratic city councilors, will advance to the November general election, CNN projects, setting up a historic contest that will for the first time in the city's history end with a person of color voted into its highest office.

For two centuries, Boston has elected only White men as mayor. That will change in this fall. Wu took a clear lead once the reporting of the votes in Tuesday's nonpartisan preliminary election sped up overnight. She is Asian American and Essaibi George, who emerged to claim the second slot, is a first-generation American whose father emigrated from Tunisia and whose mother was born in Germany to Polish parents.

Despite their breakthroughs, there will be disappointment among supporters of Acting Mayor Kim Janey and City Councilor Andrea Campbell, who saw in this campaign an opportunity for Boston to elect its first-ever Black mayor. Janey took over the role on a temporary basis after former Mayor Marty Walsh left office earlier this year to join President Joe Biden's administration, but, like Campbell, has been shut out of the general election.

As of Wednesday morning, Wu has a strong lead with more than 33% of the vote, while George follows with about 22%. The winner in November will serve a full, four-year term.

The only man in the upper tier, John Barros, the city's chief of economic development under Walsh, was considered a heavy underdog. He trails well behind the other major candidates.

"It's been an honor to be part of this historic field," Wu told reporters early Wednesday morning. "For the last year, we have seen an incredible conversation all across every neighborhood, across every community, so I am humbled to be part of this moment in Boston and so excited to make sure we keep up the work, keep up the energy of getting out to every single voter, knocking on doors and having the conversations about what's possible in this city."

On Tuesday night, Essaibi George -- before the race had been called but with results shaping up in her favor -- projected confidence as she addressed supporters.
"Bostonians deserve results, real change and real progress," she said, after praising the "sisters in service" who became her campaign rivals. "I will be the teacher and the mother and the mayor to get it done."

In the final stretch of the campaign, Wu, the first woman of color to lead the city council when she took over as its president in 2016, emerged as the clear favorite to finish atop the pack. Campbell, Janey and Essaibi George were bunched together, separated by only a few percentage points, according to a recent Suffolk University and Boston Globe poll.

"The race for second place will not only be determined by undecided voters and the respective get-out-the-vote efforts by the candidates, but also by soft Wu voters who may opt to vote for their second choice instead in order to control the selection of both finalists," Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos wrote with the poll's release.

That survey was conducted before back-to-back debate nights last week, two mostly tame affairs following weeks of intensifying clashes, most notably between Campbell and Janey. Ultimately, though, it appears that Essaibi George benefited most, as she successfully staked out the moderate lane with a more police-friendly platform. Others, like Wu and Campbell, are pushing for deeper structural changes to the department. Essaibi George, meanwhile, won the support of former Boston police commissioner William Gross, the first Black person to hold that job.

Janey, who as a young child took part in the city's school busing program, an initiative designed to integrate Boston schools that was met with fierce backlash in some predominantly White neighborhoods, assumed office in March following Walsh's confirmation to Biden's Cabinet as labor secretary. In April, she announced she would run for a full term.

"To think that we would have a Black mayor in my lifetime, even though we've had a Black president, still kind of felt out of reach," Janey told CNN in April. "That we have one and that it's actually me is kind of mind-blowing."

Turnout tends to be low in preliminary elections, which lent further uncertainty to the race as it entered its final days. Some operatives believed the state's new no-excuse, vote-by-mail option could lead to a slight uptick in the numbers, but early indications from Tuesday night suggest the swell never materialized.

Though Walsh did not endorse in the preliminary, the state's highest-profile Democratic elected official, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is backing Wu, one of her former students at Harvard Law School. Wu volunteered for Warren's Senate run in 2012 and was first elected to the city council a year later.

"Michelle has always been a fighter -- as one of my students, as a Boston city councilor, and now as a candidate for Mayor," Warren said in a statement announcing her endorsement in January. "She is a tireless advocate for families and communities who feel unseen and unheard."

The Sunrise Movement in Boston is also backing Wu, along with other leading environmental groups and unions, including Teamsters Local 25 and the United Auto Workers Region 9A. But the race for labor support has been largely split. AFSCME Council 93, along with the firefighters union and IBEW Local 2222, all supported Essaibi George, while SEIU Local 888 and 32BJ SEIU endorsed Janey.

Campbell was the choice of the Boston Globe's Editorial Board, which made her case earlier this month.

"She radiates a sense of urgency, a palpable hunger to confront Boston's hardest, most politically fraught challenges -- its uneven schools and a law enforcement system that has lost the trust of too many residents," the board wrote. "That drive, paired with her nuanced thinking about what can make the city more vibrant and equitable, is what distinguishes her from her opponents in this year's mayoral election."

In a close race, Somerville chooses two progressive candidates for mayor

Current City Councilors Will Mbah and Katjana Ballantyne will be on the ballot in November.S

omerville City Councilor at-Large Will Mbah (L) and Ward 7 Somerville City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne (R) will be competing for mayor in Somerville's November election. Handout, Marfione Studio


By Julia Taliesin

September 14, 2021

Like Boston, Somerville also voted in a hotly contested, historically diverse mayor’s race on Tuesday. According to unofficial results, current City Councilors Will Mbah and Katjana Ballantyne will be on the ballot in November.

Somerville had four candidates on the ballot Tuesday: Mbah, Ballantyne, Mary Cassesso, and William “Billy” Tauro. It was a close race between the three progressive, Democratic candidates — Mbah, Ballantyne, and Cassesso — with Tauro lagging behind.

Mbah, an at-large councilor and state environmental analyst, took first place with 30% of the vote. In a statement to Boston.com, he thanked the voters and volunteers, and Ballantyne and Cassesso for running honorable campaigns.

“Only in Somerville, could an immigrant from Cameroon be elected City Councilor and now have the opportunity to make this city a place for all those who dream of a better life,” Mbah said. “I’m incredibly proud of the grassroots campaign we ran, all without taking a dime of developer money. I look forward to using the coming weeks to speak with voters about my progressive vision for Somerville, which will include dramatically expanding our affordable housing, a Green New Deal for Somerville, a commitment to make developers pay their fair share, and making public transit accessible, efficient, and free for everyone.”

Ballantyne thanked Somerville voters in a statement.

“They’ve showed that they want the next mayor to share our progressive values, be an inclusive leader, and have the skills and experience to lead our dynamic city on day one,” she said. “I’m looking forward to earning the support of Somerville voters across the city in November.”

Mbah received 4,498 votes and Ballantyne received 4,162 votes — putting them in the lead and on the November ballot — but Cassesso was not far behind, with 4,083 votes. Tauro received 2,215 votes.

Somerville Elections Commissioner Nicholas Salerno told Boston.com his office counted 12,124 ballots Tuesday, only about 10% of which were early or mail-in ballots. Official results, which include provisional, overseas, and military ballots, as well as a standard recount, will be posted in six to ten days. Salerno said a close race would be considered within 10 votes or less, and the machines are pretty accurate, so he doesn’t expect the results to change much.

Cassesso’s campaign told Boston.com she had not released a statement on the results, but will soon.

Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone told Boston.com he was not surprised by Tuesday’s results, and believes Somerville chose candidates that represent its community values. He noted that Cassesso was a first-time candidate, and praised her for running an excellent campaign.

“There were three highly ethical, progressive, hard working candidates, and I’m not surprised Somerville had a choice among those three well-qualified candidates,” he said. “They should all be commended on a job well done. …I’m proud of the city, there’s no pulling one over the voters of this city, people will come out and vote based on our values, and they voted for those three candidates.”

Will Bunch: 10 years ago, a ragtag army called Occupy Wall Street changed America, for good

2021/9/15
©The Philadelphia Inquirer

Day 13 of Occupy Wall Street begins with a march through the streets of lower Manhattan, at around the time the bell rings on Wall Street on September 29, 2011. - Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS

First, they ignored Occupy Wall Street. On the late-summer morning of Sept. 17, 2011, there were no major news organizations present — not even the hometown New York Times — when a ragtag army of a couple hundred protesters fed up with America’s gross inequality tried to set up camp in the heart of Manhattan’s Financial District and were pushed back by a massive police response to an unknown spot called Zuccotti Park.

Then, they ridiculed it. As the crowds of campers in the park re-dubbed “Freedom Plaza” swelled and protests spread to scores of other U.S. cities and then around the world, the usual suspects in right-wing media rediscovered the canard about “dirty, smelly hippies” to whip up resentment — rather than address the issues that marchers were raising, such as (then) three decades of soaring income inequality, massive student debt, and U.S. military spending.

Then, they fought it. Big-city mayors like New York’s Michael Bloomberg or Philadelphia’s Michael Nutter stopped pretending to respect the free-speech rights of demonstrators and called in militarized police who squirted pepper spray and swung nightsticks to clear out the tent cities, or to kettle and arrest the Occupiers on trumped-up charges.

Today, on the cusp of its 10th anniversary, Occupy Wall Street is winning.

Scores of cities, several states, and even some large corporations have adopted the $15 minimum living wage that had seemed a pipe dream on that September Saturday in 2011 when NYPD officers ringed the “Raging Bull” statue in Lower Manhattan. The student loan crisis — which no one in power was talking about a decade ago, even as the debt load skyrocketed toward its current $1.7 trillion — is finally on the political front burner in Washington. A new president, who was still a cautious, centrist Democrat back when the Occupy protests erupted, has since adopted a progressive agenda — already cutting child poverty in half, as Congress debates a slew of ambitious social programs and funding them by taxes on “the 1 Percent,” a term launched by the 2011 protests.

It’s ironic, because conventional wisdom hardened within the mainstream media by the end of 2011 that Occupy Wall Street and its satellite protests were a briefly electrifying failure — lacking a central mission, riven by disagreements, its protest camps subsumed by the unhoused and others on the margins of a cruel society. Those pundits didn’t see the smoldering embers — the causes discovered and the relationships formed during that brief supernova — that would reignite in a Bernie Sanders presidential campaign that would move Democrats to the left, and in diverse movements like the Fight for 15 or eliminating student debt.

The fascinating thing about the Occupy protests is that no one — including the established stalwarts of the political left — saw them coming. Few people had heard of Adbusters, the radical magazine that announced the protest that summer with an illustration of a ballerina atop the “Raging Bull” statue and the question, “What is our one demand?,” or knew about secret planning meetings that New York activists like the late David Graeber were taking part in.

But timing is everything. Around the world, 2011 was a year of revolutionary upheaval, beginning with the so-called Arab Spring and the massive Tahrir Square uprising that toppled the Egyptian government and became something of a template for Zuccotti Park. Here at home, young people had initially channeled their angst over the Iraq War fiasco and the 2008 financial crisis into the “HOPE”-emblazoned presidential campaign of Barack Obama. But hope was fading two-plus years into his gridlocked presidency.

New Yorker Winnie Wong came out that first morning after seeing a Twitter hashtag for the protest. “We were fresh off the crash and in 2011 we were really starting to see the effects, and it became very clear the divide between middle class families — working people and the rich — was growing wider,” she recalled. “I saw this as a different type of call, because it didn’t specify a single issue.”

Before the summer of 2011, Joanne Stocker-Kelly — from Exton in Philadelphia’s western suburbs, then a 24-year-old student at Cabrini College — had never done anything more political than registering a few of her high school friends to vote. But the shocks of the 2008 crash — learning one day that the Dow had dropped 500 points as she sat through a class — and her mounting student debt, which was even worse for classmates who’d eventually owe as much as $100,000, shook her from the bubble of her suburban upbringing.

“It was this idea that democracy was supposed to be beholden to us, to the people,” Stocker-Kelly told me this week in a phone interview from Ireland, where she lives today. Instead, she only saw “corporate control of the country.” Drawn that September to New York for an event around getting big money out of elections, she ended up joining the Occupy Wall Street protest and camping out in Zuccotti Park for a couple weeks.

Like many of the Occupy participants, Stocker-Kelly was somewhat put off by the cacophonous and contentious daily general assemblies in the park, but found new energy and passion in the working groups around an array of issues that ranged from feminism to limiting campaign contributions to legalizing marijuana. While the Occupy movement was national news through the fall of 2011, the combo of internal dissension and a well-coordinated, heavy-handed police crackdown — here in Philadelphia, more than 50 people busted by cops were acquitted and settled an unlawful arrest lawsuit with the city for $200,000 — mostly ended the protests by that Thanksgiving.

Critics who called Occupy a failure — noting it never agreed on that “one demand” as called for in the Adbusters meme — missed the offshoots and alliances that continued working to re-energize a once moribund progressive movement in the U.S. For example, a then-31-year-old progressive filmmaker from Manhattan named Astra Taylor, who also joined the Occupy Wall Street protest that first September Saturday, was drawn to the working group around debt, which organized a nationwide protest that fall as outstanding student loans passed the $1 trillion mark. From that sprung the Debt Collective, an ongoing campaign that has helped everyday folks retire $2 billion in debt and is leading the fight for college loan forgiveness.

Other Occupy Wall Street veterans looked to target electoral politics. At the 2016 president election neared, former Occupiers like Wong and Charles Lenchner, who’d been the technical guru at Zuccotti Park in 2011, launched Ready for Warren hoping to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a withering critic of Wall Street. When Warren didn’t enter the race, the group quickly morphed into the People for Bernie Sanders, and used its social-media savvy to play a key role in convincing young people to rally behind a septuagenarian democratic socialist senator from Vermont.

“I don’t think Bernie would have become a mainstream candidate if Occupy hadn’t happened,” Wong told me. It’s hard to argue with that. She recalled a moment in the 2020 campaign when Sanders told a large rally crowd to look at the person next to them and say, “I’m willing to fight for somebody I don’t know” — the essence, she argued, of both his campaign and the 2011 protests.

In what was becoming a familiar pattern, Sanders didn’t win his spirited battles for the Democratic nomination in 2016 and 2020. Yet the Vermont senator and a reconstructed American left were winning the war of ideas, pushing the Democratic Party in a much more progressive direction than seemed possible amid the stifling centrism of the Clinton era. Today, Sanders is one of the most powerful voices in Washington as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, and both he and Warren have played pivotal roles in working with President Biden on his roughly $6 trillion agenda which — while much of it dangles in the air this fraught autumn — would would transform America on the scale of the New Deal or the Great Society.

In other words, Occupy Wall Street was the spark behind arguably the most important U.S. political movement of the 21st century — so why is that so hard to see?

For one thing, it’s had to compete for oxygen with the other, more arresting political movement of our time — the right-wing authoritarian populism led by Donald Trump. What’s more, there were times in the 2010s when the class critique of the Occupy movement felt at odds with the decade’s other major protest movement, the Black Lives Matter crusade forged in 2014 in Ferguson — although those differences melted a bit when veterans of both movements protested George Floyd’s 2020 killing. On the far left, the lack of progress on issues like single-payer health care and the long way to go on matters like college debt feels like the glass is more than half-empty, still.

But the legacy of the Occupy movement is everywhere — in the words and phrases like “income inequality,” “living wage,” and “we are the 99 Percent” that barely existed on September 16, 2011, in calling attention to the brutal militarization of the American police who pepper-sprayed them, in the progressive prosecutors like Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner who’ve been elected since, and in the serious attention paid to ideas like free public universities that felt unreachable on this date just 10 years ago.

But the greater impact from the brushfires of Zuccotti Park is arguably the way it changed the people who participated — people like Wong, who helped organize the 2017 Women’s March and was a senior adviser to Sanders’ 2020 campaign, and Stocker-Kelly, whose interests in women’s issues, conflict, and the Middle East propelled her into a career in journalism, writing about places like northern Iraq for publications such as The Guardian. She embarked on her journey without earning her degree from Cabrini — something she recalls ever month when she signs her $300 student-loan check.

“I don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing” if not for the Occupy protest, said Stocker-Kelly, who said the uprising taught her how to cover contentious social movements and to listen to voices of everyday people.

It’s one more way the momentum forged one decade ago, which once echoed down the concrete canyons of Lower Manhattan, can still be heard today.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer