Because at the end of the day I'm cynical about the US Congress

Most especially the US House I firmly believe that particular institution's malevolent paralysis will grown progressively worse as long as The Majority depends on a network of undemocratic rotten boroughs down in Dixie. Until someone tracks back to that corrupt set of circumstances we the people will be largely bystanders in a seemingly endless cycle of gridlock-shutdown-short term solution. Changing The Speaker (and from all accounts Rep McCarthy the current frontrunner sounds like a belligerent shit in every way) will not solve or even address the problem, which is to put it simply that the US House of Representatives doesn't truly Represent the Electorate, these congressmen have been self selecting their constituencies so relentlessly & corruptly that they've sidelined whole majorities of voters.... This can't be sustained over the intermediate term but that in no sense means it will end well for any of us.

Boehner Outski...

John Boehner with a sob and sigh, is resigning from congress next month even as he declares his intention to get the budget thru before he goes.... Well I tell yuh, Live By The Tea Partei, Die By The Tea Partei (metaphorically speaking of course.) But not fuh nuthin' but back in 2010 it was Rep John Boehner who discovered the Tea Partei, saw the electoral potential therein and whistlestopped Dixie promoting every Birther Sumbitch Candidate in every Rotten Borough from the Missouri to The Gulf of Mexico. And now the selfsame are making his job a living nightmare so of course he is quitting all to clear the way for someone even worse to become speaker. And that mah frenz is a simple stark reminder of how busted politics is in DC, because IF the best case scenario involves succession by some anarchist wingnut then YES you John Boehner have helped ruin the US Congress...period end of story. And that is John Boehner's legacy he empowered, enabled and was ultimately engulfed by Wingnut Anarchism and he leaves US to clean up His Mess... Thanks John, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

BTW....

Jeb Bush does want to live in a "multicultural society" so I read on da internet. Well...gee whiz Governor maybe you could Set The Example by not caving in and changing your religion all to mollify your spouse herself most definitely...an immigrant. Cuz otherwise, Jeb Bush is himself the very picture definition of multiculturalism in action, I mean....he speaks Spanish after all the mother tongue of all those Mexicans right??

On The Other Hand....

I can suddenly understand why a sacerdotal silence stole over all of Mattapan as Baby Bella was beaten to death by her mother's boyfriend....didn't that selfsame silence envelop all of Boston when James "Whitey" Bulger ran amok like a Sociopathic young He-Ape? And if so, aren't we ever gonna discuss this entirely undiscussed problem hmmmmm??

Scott Walker bails out of the GOP Presidential Sweeps

with a private prayer to the GOP God of thunder and fundraising that a southerner gets the nomination, one that forgets that Walker came off as a tedious zombie on the stump. Ah but its getting real over there yo, Walker bailed with a plea that others withdraw as well in order to stop Donald Trump. Still and all that, its a bleak end for someone who was a Certified Man of Destiny Two Months Ago..... So this means in turn that the music is getting getting up tempo and the fight to stop Trump comes dow to who bails and endorses versus who has the stamina and $$ to stay in...it's a variant on the fabled Game of Chicken. At this point though its the worst sort of zero sum game, too many slippery variables versus too little reliable intell. Fiorina collected lots of plaudits off the last debate but the she doesn't have the scratch to capitalize on her buzz moreover the punditariat was visibly desperate to anoint someone anyone as the AntiTrump. Carly got off a good line and caught that wave but it doesn't seem like it'll take her far. Early word is that Marco Rubio is polling third or fourth in Iowa and came in for some good reviews off last week's debate but that again could be sheer desperation on the part of the GOP Leadership, no one else is catching fire and fellow Floridian Jeb Bush is staggering around NH campaigning like a stroke victim. Trump's numbers seem to have finally plateau'd but that still puts him out front with no credible opposition in sight. And right now it's all about Stopping Trump, main force hasn't worked so the coalition has to be assembled bit and bit and via negotiation...I'm wondering if that rumored Romney phone poll in NH was less about getting Mitt in than in pushing some candidates towards the exits. I've got to get up to NH sooner rather than later, my revised priorities, Trump, Rubio and ...Jeb. Will advise....

Tomorrow...

the whole of Boston & Beyond will howl for blood dynamite and The Death Penalty, all thanks to this needless tragedy. It has all the elements, dogged cops, DCF snafus, dope addicts, petty criminals, lunacy and a neighborhood full of passive aggressive mutes. But if The Marathon Bombing was the Glory of the Commonwealth, then Baby Bella's murder is Rock Goddamn Bottom for us all. So before we all go off baying like hounds some shame is very much in order I think...

Interesting rumor from an unreliable source in NH

to the effect that someone is allegedly conducting a phone poll to see how well Mitt Romney stacks up against Donald Trump. Details are murky and this whole thing may be a crock...but I doubt anyone would be interested in that data say either Mitt Romney (whose messiah complex borders the pathological) or else someone in the GOP eager to tempt Romney in the 2016 Presidential race with a favorable poll thus to play "Christy Mihos" in this election cycle. Call me cynical but I just don't see Mitt Romney as the Answer to the GOP's prayers...its just that the Leadership is in deep denial about Donald Trump and his particular appeal to the republican base. Until then, should Romney run in full savior mode he'll fall afoul of the same political dynamics, namely a base that is addicted to paranoid narratives and fantasies of belligerent revenge....narratives and fantasies they've been force fed for over a decade now. They will never switch to trimmer like Romney which would be like paying for Earl Grey tea when they can get free black tar heroin.... But this is Willard we are talking about he could screw up a two car funeral and like will ere long.

Frankie Da Pope....

has come out banging the pots for The President's Nuclear Non Proliferation Agreement with Iran. Which is darn nice of him I suppose on the eve of a Big State Visit to the USA and all... *** Buuuuu-ut....the GOP Presidential Debate is a'goin' down tonight, now the Big Meme at the moment is someone up on that stage has to try to land a haymaker on Donald Trump or risk have him run amok unobstructed in the upcoming primaries. A lot of people (big money donors among them) are fairly desperate for Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and or Carly Fiorina (sp) et al to get their damage on regarding The Donald. Me....I have more modest dreams. I'd luuuuuv it if the mods would ask Jeb (professional catholic and a convert) what he thinks of the Pope's unabashed endorsement of the nuclear agreement with Iran? I mean forget the American Bishop's dogging Jeb about the Death Penalty they way they haunted Kerry about abortion in 2004...I just wanna see Bush try and frame an answer that at the least doesn't have recourse to reaffirming the separation of church and state. So that might be worth watching for, in order to stay Wingnut on Iran Jeb might be compelled to a Constitutional Principle Anathema to the GOP's Base.... Oh well A feller can dream can't he?

Frankie Da Pope is a comin' ta Town....

I suspect The Holy Father and President Obama might get on well, they seem somewhat simpatico' so to speak. *** The RCC has just enough of my money socked away that I feel as a Fitful Catholic I ought to speak up with respect to The Pope's fitful program of reform within and without The One True Apostolic Church. And if I could lobby the Throne of Saint Peter...I'd push for restoring full communion rights to divorced Catholics. These days divorced Catholics are supposed to decline the Eucharist since the secular dissolution of their marriage is somehow an affront to God Almighty. And yet....to my knowledge not a convicted priestly pedophile from out the late scandal was ever once denied Holy Communion regardless of the scope and viciousness of their crimes. So...whats the worse sin? Secular divorce or....pedophilia? Me? I'm going with pedophilia but you out there (all seven of you) will have determine that for your own selves. So IF Frankie wanted to make a free fair and dare I say it "Christ Like" reform to RCC practice he ought to drop the odious rule denying The Eucharist to Divorcees. The retention of this rule creates a de facto caste system out among the laity and also forces the Clergy into the rule of "Eucharistic Police Minister", trust me, Jesus Christ broke bread with worse characters on a regular basis with worse characters than mere divorcees. Restore the Eucharist Frankie, you kin do it....

The Globe is trying to gin up a fight

between Donald Trump and Mitt Romney...the former Governor is of course as usual cast as the Moderate Man of Destiny on Horseback sent from Heaven Above to save us all from the predations of a TV Pitchman. There is a sad predictability to who the Globe thinks can save the GOP from it's own clearest unfiltered reactionary tendencies...the cure is Mitt Romney every time. Seriously does Mitt have pictures of some unnatural act...? I don't get it. I just don't... I mean Mitt can't take the slightest pressure from the right he demonstrated as much in 2008 & 2012...the equivocating staggering candidate who dreamt up "self deportation" is supposed to take down Donald Trump? Ridiculous. I think Trump makes the overclass nervous especially since so far his main competition have proven themselves little more than the walking whining dead. Look Romney's high command is scattered among six different candidates, Mitt is a two time loser as well and lets face it, Romney could screw up a two car funeral. If Donald Trump reads the Boston Globe (And I doubt he does) I'm sure he is laughing at the prospect, Mitt Romney is exactly the sort of whiny passive aggressive jobber he has been smacking around like a jobber for the past six weeks. The Globe and the GOP is gonna have to find another hero...good luck with that one.

John Kasich's current NH ad-buy

is utterly disingenuous...in that, he harkens back to 1969 as the last good year where a balanced budget was passed by congress. Well...John THAT BUDGET was submitted by democrat, Lyndon Baines Johnson who used up the last of his once huge political clout to get a series of tax increases thru congress that along with some budget cuts and Texas style financial gimmicks allowed The President to compose a balanced budget. I promise you, "President Kasich" would never have the courage to go the same route to a balanced budget....

I'm shocked to discover

(per today's Globe) that Harvard's Hasty Pudding STILL excludes women from on stage roles in favor of male undergraduates....in drag. Yipes. Health to the efforts of any young woman trying to bust open that entirely inane tradition, break a leg at auditions kids, I at least am in your corner. Seriously I swear The Hasty Pudding is literally naturally selected itself as being a exclusive attractive nuisance for every guy at Harvard that thinks "straight white guys in drag" is comedy gold. Cuz the rest of us think it's about as funny as a Middle School Pistol Whipping....

Consider the case of Senator Marco Rubio

a mere two years ago, he was the GOP's "Hero in Waiting", a whole outreach program to Latino voters of himself and a Senator supposedly sodden with charisma and brains. Senator Rubio's sheer "centrality"made him an enviable politician and so it was natural for President Obama to reach out to him seeking a negotiating partner in the US as illegal immigration legislation was under discussion. And then... Rubio walked away from the table, partly in fear of the madness-maddened reaches of the GOP Base mostly though out of the base motivation of Presidential Ambition. Left with no negotiating partner Obama was compelled to try and move the ball forward via Presidential Directive which of course induced the usual cynical wingnut seizures cries of "dictatorship" etc. In short, Rubio could have been a hero here, taken immigration off the table and been a stand up guy....instead he decided to Run for President. Now look at him, he is spinning plates with the rest of the cheap acts while Donald Trump storms up and down the country armed with the very issue Marco Rubio handed to him. A lot of words come to mind about Marco Rubio right now, but the foremost one is "CHUMP!" Frankly if I was him, I'd bail and hope for a Hail Mary Pass on the Vice Presidency at this point his integrity and brains are so thoroughly compromised it's about the best Rubio can do given the circumstances. He has no one to blame but himself, Marco Rubio handed Trump that sword and practically held the bridle for the billionaire. CHUMP!

Down in Millis....

(as rustic a setting you can imagine short of Town Day in Peru Ma), a police officer shot up his own police cruiser set it on fire and claimed it was a random drive by shooting perpetrated by miscreants in a red pick up truck. This in term touched off a day long manhunt in Millis by the State Police etc and a complete community wide lock down....so much for an Armed Society is a Peaceful Society eh? But what I wanna know is just how the hell a Dispatcher in the Millis PD ended up armed and on the street with a badge allegedly not having graduated the Police Academy? Maybe the Globe got that part wrong or maybe Millis Ma is cutting back in strange and counter productive ways, either way I think just possibly the State might need to investigate how this dingbat came by his badge and his firearm......

Denali Denial....

President Obama renamed "Mount McKinley" in Alaska changing back to it's Amerind original "Mount Denali" so predictably every soup slurping GOP Jobber in Ohio is indignant. Denali was originally named for Mark Hanna's portly vapid sock puppet of a US President William B. McKinley who gave us the Spanish American War (and even in that he had to be pushed into it by Henry Cabot Lodge, Teddy Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst) and little else of consequence. McKinley had a ill fortune to be assassinated in 1901, and the outpouring of grief washed up in Alaska where the Fed's named a mountain after him. Not for nothing but I am sure Ohio (McKinley's home state, eight US President's all of them jobbers and or corruptards) is dotted with Middle & Elementary Schools named for the Late President....Does he really rate a Mountain in Alaska after all these years? I mean Ohio is well within it's rights to memorialize McKinley any way it chooses....but Alaska has to rights within it's own borders as well. Frankly if the Feds wanted to be entirely honest in this transaction they should have named the mountain for Mark Hanna back in 1901...cut out The Middleman.

Per the Boston Globe today....

And the MBTA's minimum basic maintenance needs have ballooned to about seven billion dollars up from an estimated five or so two years ago. The Baker Admin which has pretty much got control of the MBTA's Management has responded with....a sonorous rustling of...spreadsheets. Transport Secretary Pollock must be quietly regretting that burst of bipartisan good sistership that impelled her to take that on that thankless task. If I were her, I'd start polishing my resume, so far merely mentioning the term "public transportation revenues" causes the Admin to stiffen in sheer Victorian Horror. Moreover based on last winter's performance, Baker's go-to seems to be "declare defeat and get out", that goes for necessary expansions in MBTA service and soon enough it'll applied to the agency's critical maintenance needs. This is regardless of whatever fare increases Humble Elias will have to pay or any decline in service he will have to endure....frankly I should feel lucky if the Red Line doesn't cave in one crisp Monday Morning. Meanwhile...those spreadsheets rustle on....sweet music huh?