Monday, November 30, 2015

It may be in the weary wicked end

that all of Donald Trump's nativist rhetoric will do...is force the famously equivocal Senator Marco Rubio to pick a side in the immigration debate. So far he has been a no show and a straddler but getting past Trump at the voting booth may require a real gut check....either go full blown "sane nativist" or else start putting distance between the Junior Senator from Florida and the "ship em' back" cohort. That is of course assuming that Rubio is the GOP Insider's preferred alternative to Trump/Carson....and Rubio could still end up jacked by Jeb Bush in some final childish Kamikaze Scene.

Friday, November 27, 2015

According to the New Yorker

Senator Marco Rubio has odd religious habits, in that he worships on Saturday at a Protestant Evangelical Church and then executes his liturgical obligation to the Roman Catholic Church of his birth on Sundays. This is a practice that was once common in Louisiana back in the 1930's where the Catholic - Protestant Divide runs north to south as in Ireland, but these days what with instant media and all, you'd think it'd be an odd slightly hypocritical affectation. Not so to Rubio I guess.... Of course...as a Catholic, Marco Rubio ought to realize that the the RCC does not approve of "Open Communion", non Catholics may not partake of communion nor can Catholics receive the eucharist in non Catholic Churches. Of course Rubio has a first amendment right to sit in any church he likes...but if he is celebrating the eucharist in a Non Catholic Church YOU WOULD THINK his Local Bishop might just take him in hand for a refresher regarding doctrine.... After all John Kerry got stung in public for "preaching" in certain African American Churches by the US Bishops, this practice of Rubio's if true is deserving of a similar rebuke at the very least. But I won't hold my breath on that one, these are the US Bishops we are talking about.....

Thursday, November 26, 2015

World War 2.5.1

I don't worry about US and Russian fighter jet getting into accidental conflict escalating dogfights over Iraq & or Syria. Even though that very scenario was at the core of a lot of political thrillers back in the day, conflict avoidance seems pretty much deeply woven in the diplomatic-military DNA. No I do worry about dumbass Russian Pilots flying their rattletrap jets over Turkish territory (and thus giving Erdogan an excuse to do even less about ISIS) or else straying into the Israel Air Defense Zone. THAT has escalation potential everyone should be concerned about....especially when Putin's policy goals are so utterly vague and amount to nothing more than propping up a useless regional client and asserting great power status. Poor reasons to endanger the lives of Russian troops...but then that's Putin in a nutshell, pay a dirty shopworn dollar to get a shiny new quarter.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Kudos to Congressman Moulton

for pushing back on Governor Baker's surly passive aggressive resistance to housing any Syrian Refugees in the Commonwealth. It may not be a popular stance for the freshman Congressman but it is principled and at least...definite. More than I can say about some other big name democrats in this State. The problem with democrats in Massachusetts is that we make easy terms with just about any GOP Governor who is not a demonstrably twitchy falangist....and everyone decamps to their districts to moan and groan about budget cuts when they aren't doubling the carbon footprint in their local Elk Clubs bloviating about the "Republican War on the Poor". Nothing gets done but then everyone has an excuse for inaction and maximal rhetorical bombast. As democrats we need to get out of the complacency zone all the way down to the precinct level, delineate our differences with Baker forcefully and make it clear what our stance is when He is Wrong. So far though, I'm not hearing much of that, the Election was a Full Year Ago Folks it's already a different world....get crackin'!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Ghod the Boston Globe just loves Mitt Romney...

Doesn't it? They've got an entirely meaningless poll out today indicating if Mitt Romney ran for President he'd be the Front Runner. The Globe is never more sad and pathetic than when that scary thousand yard stare falls over it and the venerable news daily starts into it's "Mitt Romney is a Moderate" trance. Its a moot point now since the deadline to register for the NH Primary has passed, but the poor doddering Globe goes on fantasizing. Romney wouldn't last two weeks against this crowd he can't take a right hook he succeeded last time because he had unimpressive underfunded competition, two weeks of Donald Trump calling him a cross dresser and a sellout and Romney will run home to Belmont crying....

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Piyush We Hardly Knew Ye...

Amidst all the other things happening this week came the thin piping word that Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, Governor of Louisiana is dropping out of the GOP Presidential Race. Allegedly he has taken that browbeaten, bewildered & baffled mug of his down to the Greyhound Station on Canal Street in Manchester NH where he is piteously begging for bus fare back to Baton Rouge. But that is all part of the hazing ritual we call "The New Hampshire Primary", Texas John Connolly allegedly went thru the same thing back in 1980....

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Scot Lehigh went on Safari in NH...

and discovered with breathless excitement that Ohio Governor John Kasich is really a Moderate Republican. I mean read the column Lehigh virtually coos with happiness he can just see the Charter Schools sprouting up magically on every street corner. And then the next day Kasich wrecks the whole vibe by proposing the creation of a US Agency to "promote our Judeo Christian Heritage"abroad...Bill of Rights be Damned! Ghod I think I'm gonna need Harvard Stadium in which to laff..... But let me say this, moderate republicanism is dead, it may come back though I doubt it but it will NEVER come back as long as credulous columnistas like Scot Lehigh simply project their need for a moderate republican messiah onto some cynical conservative. All that does is corrupt the brand and ensure moderate republicanism is nothing but a pose not a principled stance.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Baker sez no for now...

to any Syrian Refugees being domiciled in the Bay State....not exactly a Profile in Courage eh? Ah but when you've got a 65% approval rating yer kinda stuck with the whole "keep those numbers high" meme....which leads to more short money high fructose decision making. Which is the irony high public approval, it turns you into an @sshole with limited options.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Apparently Governor Baker

invested some time talent and treasure during the last budget season in trying to exempt his Revenue Commissioner from the state detailed and explicit restrictions on collecting outside renumeration from private entities & boards. Thankfully the State Senate put a stop to the notion, though quietly. Can you imagine the squeals of indignation that would've issued from the Boston Globe's op ed page if Deval Patrick had tried such a stunt?? I can practically envision the sheer outrage that would've poured from the laptops of Joan Vennochi & Scot Lehigh.... But as of today, dead silence on said op-ed page....but the matter will require some vigilance admittedly. All this tells me that being a "moderate republican" is a bit of a sucker's game as far as the Globe is concerned...something they fall for every damn time.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Vive La France....

It is a gut thing. If I had to choose between The French and the Russians I'm with the French every time. If I have to choose between the French and the Germans, it's France, No Contest. If I had to choose between the French and the English....okay that one is tough...but to any gathering the French will always bring the best hootch lets not forget that. No....The French Have Their Vices, but I'd rather put up with those vices than the alleged virtues of almost any other nation on Earth. Confusion doubt and woe unto that Republic's Enemies....and in us they will always have a Good & Faithful Ally.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Governor Baker....

on the basis of a freebie play from Draft Kings.com doesn't think On Line Fantasy Football is gambling per se, but with an abundance of caution he is deferring final judgement to the AG. Sigh....I just wish sometimes pols would just shut the hell up yo..."I don't think" fantasy football is gambling is just enough of an opinion to bite the Guv in the keester down the road. Besides I take the absolutist view that a bet determines gambling, not whether it's a game of chance or skill...and a bet needs to be regulated to ensure its on the up and up and taxed, since we are now in the gambling business we can look forward to a lot of problems in this area down the road. Health to the AG's deliberations, the ball has been very carelessly kicked into her court....

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Jeff Jacoby wants to disband the TSA

and make security once again the bailiwick of the airlines. Ah yes....the airlines those stern incorruptible institutions that are looking to stack us up like cordwood in those meshugginah jets. I'm not gonna go too deeply into this, Jeff would privatize the oxygen supply if he could no I'll just note that airline security was securely in private hands on the morning of September 11th 2001. Not a single solitary Al Queda hijacker was prevented from boarding their targeted airliners by ruggedly individualistic profit motivated private sector security force. Given the alternate with a demonstrated record of 100% failure in a clinch...I think I'll stick with the TSA for now.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Is it me or is

Jeb Bush's current advert buy in NH plain awful? A bunch of toxically privileged toadies croaking Jeb's praises as the toughest thing on two feet since the Death of Bruce Lee.... And meanwhile Jeb "I Eat Nails for Breakfast" Bush is being beaten in the polls like a Red Headed Stepchild by a giddy sawbones whose dyslexia causes him to consistently misidentify a Pyramid for a Grain Silo. Da Facts are falling far short of the hype I think. Now the rumors are that Jeb's campaign are about to get rough with former protege Marco Rubio....which might be a gut check time for the mainstream GOP, if Jeb beats down Marco then around whom can the insiders coalesce if Trump starts gulp....winning primaries?? So I'm guessing Jeb might be getting some unwelcome push back on what amounts to a desperate plan to take Rubio down with him. Which in turn is a good test of just how narcissistic Jeb and all of La Famiglia Arbusto is when push cometh to shove.

Monday, November 09, 2015

The Globe has made a half hearted attempt to tempt

Congressperson Katherine Clark into the 2018 gubernatorial election, both she and Maura Healey have both wisely given a pass to the project. Katherine Clark represents one of the safest seats in the history of the US House of Representatives and while this makes her a good leadership prospect within the caucus it doesn't do much to project electoral power into swing precincts in Worcester & Plymouth Counties. Just sayin' thass all. Some of that article on the front page is a bid to excite the ambitions of the still thwarted PUMA wing of the state democratic partei....I urge all and sundry NOT to inhale any heady vapors exuded by the Boston Globe. Morrissey Blvd may be a liberal paper still, but when it comes to ginning up a good fight for 2018 idealogy takes a back seat to filling up a good card. Keep in mind the Globe's editorial pages luuuuv writing obits for liberals and liberalism a nice landslide for Baker fills up that need quite nicely. Besides Senator Markey is not a young man....and has remained silent so far as I can tell about his plans in 2020.... Which brings me to my main point, right now Charlie Spreadsheets is riding high in the polls, as democrats we are waiting on the issues and inscrutable fate to give us a good starting position in 2018, right now we don't have that Katherine Clark or no Katherine Clark. If I had to speculate we might need someone who can self finance the next time around, it might be a more favorable circumstance for the likes of Steve Pagliucca or the like.

Friday, November 06, 2015

Unemployment has hit 5%

the US Economy added 271,000 jobs last month. Wow. Can someone drive up to New Hampshire and tell Jeb Bush he can crawl home to Florida with his dignity intact because "Obama Already Fixed It". :)

UMass Amherst joins a lengthening list of

colleges and universities that are no longing making SAT score a core requirement for admission. I for one, could not be happier. Standardized testing was the bastardized offspring of the "Sputnik Scare" of 1957 wherein the likes of Henry Luce were in a bowel loosening panic that the US might be falling behind in the technology race with the USSR. We needed more scientists and engineers so education had to get away from mere "enlightenment" and start supporting the Nation's Cold War Priorities. Which meant standardization and more testing and tracking. Soon enough the score and metrics inspired the state legislatures (those bastions of employment for 3rd rate lawyers, befuddled ex cops and undertakers) to transform themselves into Boards of Pedagogy and viola! INSTANT MEDIOCRITY! I stand athwart all this and cry "STOP" an end to feckless testing that canalizes the student and limits the teaching options of the teacher....and lets get the Legislatures OUT of the business of literally defining the concept of education itself. I'd sooner entrust that debate to Synod of Orangutangs. So yes...Kudos to UMass this is important and a positive step.

Thursday, November 05, 2015

Geez Guess I was wrong

looks like ISIS brought down that Russian Airbus in the Sinai after all. Although....there is still a chance it was not sabotage, US Intell is flagging a bomb pretty bluntly so the chances of an Act of God being the cause seems awfully slim. Nevertheless this is the last and only Wake Up Call Putin is gonna get in the region, after this, ISIS will start polishing up asides inside continental Russia. This is a big step up for ISIS in general they are moving outside the Middle East which is inevitable given their horizontal leaderless organization style. My Gut is, Putin doesn't have the resources or the diplomatic will to hang tough in Syria, I may be wrong about that as well my record so far on this is indifferent I suspect his best hope is to restore some of Russia's region credibility by brokering partition as he cannot guarantee outright victory. On the other hand it's likely too late to reconsider intervention, this week's homicidal incident means Russia is in the cross hairs Assad or no Assad. We are about to see just how well Vladimir Putin performs in a situation where he does not have the element of surprise on his side.....

Sunday, November 01, 2015

If Vladimir Putin is smart

(and the jury is still out on The Little Father on that score) he'll take this plane crash in the Sinai as a good indicator of how badly ISIS wants to mess with Russia. Granted initial reports indicate that the plane crashed due to technical issues and was not brought down by ISIS, but boy howdy sure do want to do that and so much more don't they? We'll see how long Putin sticks it out in Syria when his beloved Spetnatz are getting beheaded on Youtube. But that is the folly of intervention in the region, the major powers think the calculus of power politics is somehow sovereign in the Middle East and it never is, theocide and ecstatic self destruction trump ye olde balance of power every time. This is after all a region where Arab howl about apartheid in Israel while they are slaughtering their own from Aleppo to Anbar Province....