Wednesday, November 30, 2016

full year into Charlie Baker's Management Revolution at the MBTA

and a mere two days of rain turn the Red Line into a torpid mess highlighted by "switching problems", endless stoppages, idiotically crashing doors and slooooow trips when moving at all.
And thats just rain....just wait til the snow hits.
"Mister Seventy Percent"had better hope for another dry cold winter he can blame Deval Patrick but once for the MBTA's poor weather performance but the Next Time Its On His Bony Ass Fer Shurs.
I'll be his political team get hourly weather updates...."winter is coming" indeed.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Castro is Dead....

color me unmoved.

The thing I always thought fascinating about Castro is that he was at the end of the day Marxism-Leninism's closest approximation of a "Hipster Revolutionary". Fidel had a rep and a elan' entirely at odds with the usual Soviet Mendicants from the Cold War, the Ulbrichts the Gomulkas etc.  Castro like all true hipsters knew the deadliest sin was being boring and or predictable...and lets face it, in the USA he had the nigh perfect opponent, something he could endlessly harp on to burnish his "David v Goliath" marxist mythology.
All of that beautifully obscured Cuba's status as a Soviet Client a veritable Carribean "Ruble Pit". Billions in Soviet Investment was flushed away on the entirely debatable notion that an island economy with a limited industrial base and a finite agricultural sector could somehow transform painlessly into a modern social economy.
That and the fact that Castro deftly weaponized "refugee expulsions" back in 1980 via the infamous Mariel Boat Lift (sp) remain his two greatest contributions to world politics.

If I was Cuba though, I'd double down on the "Single Payer Health" plan and market it in the USA as a form of "Medevac Tourism". Once Trump is inaugurated we are likely gonna have all sorts of health care problems in the USA (assuming we aren't all blown sky high)...Cuba could make a lot of money filling in those entirely avoidable gaps.

Friday, November 25, 2016

I realize that

"Hitler got in" on a plurality, bluff & street violence, as did Mussolini before him. I dismiss no tyrannical bluster from Donald Trump believe me...nonetheless there is something utterly shameful about having the cheap and vulgar likes of The Donald as a U.S. Despot.  Its like being ruled by the cast of "Up With People" or Joe E. Ross at his most prurient.....

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Since Donald Trump apparently thinks

He can run the Executive Department of the Federal Government sans contact with the working press....I guess that means he won't be bedeviling the networks with press conferences. So the White House beat is about to become a weird backwater....but there is work for those people all the same believe me.
Since First Lady (or third who is counting?) Melania is staying in Manhattan, I'd advise the White House Press Corps to keep a sharp eye on who goes in and out of the Executive Mansion. Trump is a notorious tomcat with few inhibitions when his current wife isn't around so sharp eyed reporters can potentially build up a reasonable dossier of Presidential Mistresses pretty quickly.
Anyway it'll be a change from reporting on those dumbass pidgin english tweets of his, which is at this point Trump's whole media plan for his Admin.


Monday, November 21, 2016

Melania Stays Behind....

Apparently Nominal First Lady Elect Melania Trump (AKA "Threezacharm") is staying behind with her son Barron in NYC while Donald acts as President come January.
Allegedly this is to prevent any disruption in the ten year old Barron Trump's school year, fair enough on that part I guess, other Presidents though thought nothing of replanting their kinder in DC's numerous toney private schuls.
The reasons for this decision seem simple enough to me, Donald Trump is the first US President whose wealth and lack of taste are in such close allignment that the White House literally holds no "Snob Appeal" to him and his family (or families to be precise).
He'd clearly prefer to run the country from that ghastly gilt gold monstrocity "The Trump Tower" in upper Manhattan.  Hell I suspect he may well attempt to be a "Commuting President" a distraction & affectation that likely has Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell & Chuck Schumer salivating in unison.
BTW who the hell names their youngest child "Barron Trump" anyway? Its a plain invitation to utter ruin later in life, the kid's monicker sounds like one of Frederick The Great's less competent courtiers.


Friday, November 18, 2016

Late Word Is....

Now Mitt Romney is being floated as Trump's Secretary of State. Granted Romney has stature in the GOP but his foreign policy ideas are at best hackneyed rubbish, of course compared to Trump (who apparently thinks NATO is somehow "rigged" against us) Mitt is veritable Metternich.
Its just a sad and predictable indictment of Romney's too flexible character that he is entertaining this idea and thus consigning himself to the indignity of taking order from Eric, Donald Jr or likely Ivanka Trump or else desperately trying to talk Their Father out of starting World War Three on some    Grim pretext in a bunker somewhere.
Hey Mitt.....just let the offer pass, its a bad job for a bad man and that never ends well. For once I'm trying to talk you out of it for your family's sake and maybe the sake of your own soul.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Mister Seventy Percent

aka Governor Charlie Baker had a really really bad year this year, not enough to blunt his drive for reelection by any means but by any objective standards things did not go well at all.
Pot got legalized, charter schools stayed capped, all his attempts to Duck Trump availed him nothing when Trump won the election. Now Baker is in the worst of places, a GOP President with no inclination to do Massachusetts any favors.
And in the face of all this all Charlie can do is bleat ineffectually about judging Trump not on the apoetheosis of Falangists like Steve Bannon but on "The Totality of His Appointments".
Sounds like Le Marshal Petain throwing in the towel to meeeee....

And yet, Charlie's reelection prospects couldn't be better the local economy keeps chugging along (at least until Trump does something stupid which won't be long believe me) and most democrats seem wearily resigned to him if not in his corner outright.
I myself know a few democrats of some profile are pretty fulsome with praise for Baker, they can be counted on to sit on their hands oh so quietly come 2018.
Baker might get "primaried" by Trump's local legionaries but I doubt it, to date the Tea Partei has been All Hat and No Cattle in the Commonwealth....no I am thinking just possibly a lot of Baker's prospects going forward may depends on what sort of wary accomodation he can make with the Trump Admin....that situation requires close observation to be sure.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Its as much a question of

"How long Trump Lasts" as it is "How long will We Last"?

Because boy howdy the man doesn't have much good to say about our alliances and too much goodwill for some of our competitors...that may not be a formula for success on the foreign policy front.


Monday, November 14, 2016

Riot & Chaos & Unrest.....Oh My!

Demonstrations against President-Elect Trump have broken out all over the nation. But thats to be expected, he gamed the electoral college and lost the popular vote on top of a record amount of ominous devisive rhetoric in campaign 2016.
Its a wonder quite frankly MORE people are not protesting quite frankly, Trump has (in the words of the late Lenny Bruce) "A real Talent for Making Himself Hated".
Be that as it may I'm skeptical about the utility of protests even on a mass level they tend to be inefficient enterprises as a rule and the eternal last recourse of people who feel dealt out by the system.
And I'm certainly not in accord with any violence sporadic or otherwise attendent on said protests no matter how violent Trump's rhetoric has been or may be. Once people start breaking the law then it becomes a public safety issue ALWAYS the grievance is completely forgotten instantly.
That having been said, at the end of the day said demonstrators owe The President Elect all the Loyalty and Regard that the Tea Partei gave Barack Obama back in the spring of 2009.
I recall with the simplest nostalgia when the Tea Partei Road Show set down on Boston Common, gruesome sentiments all around....no they weren't violent but they were dellegitimizers and illegitimists to a fault. The fact that they didn't burn down the State House does not qualify any of them for a Good Conduct Medal in My Books.
"Win Ugly Govern Ugly" is the new byword and if people want to protest this diresome turn of events I won't stop them. Just stay lawful...if not be prepared for some hard knocks indeed.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Thought for the Day:

If Donald Trump can win a US Election then so can Oprah Winfrey....
Or Garrison Keillor
Or Al Franken for Ghod's Sake....

Just remember lowering the bar lowers it for everyone yo...

Friday, November 11, 2016

Congrats to Governor Maggie Hassan

for pulling out a squeaker win in the senatorial race in NH and unseating the GOP's "girl of destiny" on Tuesday.
My Ghod that was what passed for a brutal fight in NH those commercials....awful. Oh well, at least I won't have to listen to Kelly Ayotte's nasty insinuating little voice anymore there is solace in that at least.
Close elections are a hallmark in NH which really is a picture definition of swing state, hell Gerald Ford prevailed in the 1976 NH Primary by what...1300 votes after a recount?
They cut em' close in da Granite State.
This means the entire congressional delegation is female in NH so that glass ceiling is busted up good as well, solace there as well.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

On The Other Hand....

Question Two went down to resounding defeat with an audible ka-boom! It seems that Charlie Baker's supposedly unbeatable seventy percent approval rating proved no match for a determined ground game from committed cohorts. Hell the damn thing gat no heat even in Brockton and Lowell....
This is a sobering outcome for Team Baker 2016 hasn't been a good year for them at all, Donald Trump now rules their party (and his famously vindictive management style), they couldn't put over Q2 despite putting Charlie's face right on it and pot got legalized.
That mah frenz is a hat trick of setback.
As liberals and democrats of all stripes we ought to look at those ballot question returns and perhaps we can dimly perceive a way forward in 2018. Mind you I guarantee Baker is looking over those numbers digit searching for strengths and weaknesses, its how Patrick beat him after all in 2010.
Obviously 2018 depends on finding a candidate (we might need one that can self finance just sayin'), ginnin' up some issues and staying united even as we forge a coalition.
What we don't want is a repeat of 1994 (Weld v Roosevelt( where we half hearted drifted into a race divided and detached....Baker Must Be Challenged Every Step of the Way, Win or Lose!
That is my mantra going forward.


Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Well...that could have gone better....

Clearly there is a hidden "swing vote" in what hertofore were rock solid industrial midwestern democratic bastions. From what I can read, Trump simply extracted more votes from precincts that Romney took comfortably in 2012.
And likely, certainly cohorts underperformed for the democrats, that much seems certain.
There were also "atmospheric problems", I think the Comey letter took the campaign off its stride for a couple of vital days last week and may have critically obscured emerging problems in Wisconsin, Michigan & Pennsylvania.
I won't rule out a heavy whiff of electoral sexism as well.
The polling seems to be the critical failure this year, smartphone tech saturating the culture I wonder if the traditional models are now irremedially compromised and if they are, then what will replace them?
Maybe they cannot be replaced.
I've mentioned before four critical myths that buttress movement conservatism (The Myth of Christian Politics, The Myth of Rugged Individualism, The Myth of Small Government and the Myth of Grievance)....this was definitely a "Myth of Grievance" election wherein a lot of aging white people opted for Revenge at All Costs.
And they got it, and I wish them all the Joy of It.
Given that its a divided nation with little hope of "unity" over the short term or the sort of unity that Christ Matthews or Andy Hiller constantly preach.
The punchline is, Clinton won the popular vote by a 200K margin....this is the second time this has happened in sixteen years and it isn't a good basis for establishing legitimacy at all.
As for Trump he led a divided party to power by a thin margin....The GOP's looming chaos would be amusing to watch but alas they've won and their troubles will soon be All of Ours.



Tuesday, November 08, 2016

Election Day....

and we are faced with a far too stark a choice between falangism and sanity.  Whatever else happens today I know I will spend a considerable amount of time going forward studying this particular race in detail....it has been a singular and largely disturbing phenomenon.

Thats assuming that Trump loses and I don't end up in a labor camp sited in the Northeast Kingdom.
We've come to an election where our lives depend on the outcome...All I can do is place myself in the Ranks of the Immortal Spartans (those Indominable Democrats of Menotomy) and Do My Duty Unto the Last.

I urge you to vote, and I bluntly urge you to vote for Hillary Clinton for President, Our Rights, Fortunes and Sacred Honor depend on her clearing the board tonight!

Monday, November 07, 2016

I am A No Vote on Question Two

Why we need numberless new charter schools over which the localities have no control is a mystery to me. The Commonwealth already ranks near the top of the USA in overall student performance, granted there are shortfalls in various communities but the answer isn't something advantageous to only 5% of the captioned students.
If the Legislature is hell bent on creating a unaccountable two track European Style education system let them do it in full view of the electorate and let them finance this boondoggle out of general revenues and not create yet another unfunded educational mandate to burden the municipalities.
Even if all this was no so, I'd still oppose Question Two the damn thing reeks of educational utopianism a classic one size fits all supersolution thats bound to have nasty unintended consequences down the road.
I say....Vote No on Question Two.

Hrummpp!

Sunday, November 06, 2016

Colin Van Ostern

probably looks too young to be NH's Next Governor, nonetheless he has some intriguing ideals as we head into election day
Foremost among them a Manchester to Boston rail link this is a won-der-ful idea in all respects, The Queen City is down to two main industries the New Hampshire Primary and waiting for the New Hampshire Primary...a rail link would spur some development and arrest the municipality's population outflow.
I'm not saying this is an across the board answer, new jobs new industries and some hardheaded reinvention are in order, Manchester has yet to escape it's rep as a perpetually dying Mill Town, but its a practical first step in every way.
The other thing I like about Colin Van Ostern, is that while he was a Boy Scout, he clearly did not make Eagle, nonetheless he still runs pictures of himself in uniform and seems content with whatever benefit he extracted from the experience.
Normally with politicians you only hear about it if they were a scoutmaster or if they cracked Eagle....this indicates a becoming modesty on Van Ostern's part.

Those two factors alone recommend him to me even if he wasn't a yoghurt company executive in his day job....(I'm fifty four I eat a lot of yoghurt so Sue Me!)

:)

Friday, November 04, 2016

Soon Enough There Will Be Nothing Left But Duty....

Duty is easy and a boastful thing when we have the Wind At Our Backs though....it is a frightening and disheartening burden when matters are in doubt.
I need not repair to any site or blog on the internet to know our cause is sore beset, my instinct tells me this most clearly.
Future generations though are counting on us, not to recriminate or lose faith or break ranks they depend on us even as they do not even know it yet.
It is at the end of the day glorious and fit to even Have A Duty to Execute in Trying Circumstances, the world is full of people who wish long after the fact that they'd done more when great issues were in play.
My Spirits are Light, Let the Sonsabitches Come!
And so, at a time like this let us warm our spirits with a dose of "medicine" from Winston Churchill,
" But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Time For All of You To Find Your Finest Hour.

Thursday, November 03, 2016

Well lets be frank...

The Polls are Tight.

But the antidote to that is simple if somewhat hard to take, boost GOTV and stay calm....the campaigns themselves will be fully engaged and loud past endurance right up to next Tuesday over that we have No Control.
But....turnout that is something we can all commit too that is "the key deliverable" as they say in business and if turnout wasn't key, why are Trump and the GOP so relentlessly committed to suppressing it?
One of the things that should not have surprised me (but it did all the same) is the willingness of highly marginalized GOP cohorts to "come home" to the GOP despite their sheer revulsion for their own nominee.
The bitter proxy fight over turnout has two axes for th GOP its definitely via it's deafening cacophony to remind the base that Hillary is the Dark One even as it supposedly drives down democratic turnout.  So as such we must stay focussed on running our numbers up....that is best guarantor in a volatile close fought election. Everyone to the polls!

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Thought for the Day

The United States Constitution is not a toy subject to an excess of manhandling. It can however be broken with enough effort, and if it is, then I assure you there is no Daddy around to fix it or a Mommy who'll take pity and buy you A New One.
Think about that as we segue towards election day.....