Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Don't Inhale Liz...(part two)

I see Senator Warren made a Big Splash on the Campaign Trail with Citizeness Clinton, the usual suspects promptly starting stoking Vice Presidential Rumors.
All I can say is, DON'T DO IT LIZ!! We need yuh here!
Besides its a dead end job, even a jobber like Scot Lehigh knows it...

But strangely, Senator Warren remains silent on the prospect, the positive spin would imply she is using her current popularity to leverage the platform, a darker interpretation would assert she does indeed covet the Vice Presidential Nomination.

Whatever the reason, SENATOR DON'T DO IT!!

I don't wanna fight that fight for a vacant senate seat.....not now at least.

And the Commonwealth deserves her full and undivided attention as well...

PLEASE LIZ!!! C'MON I THREW DOWN FOR YOU IN 2012!!!

Monday, June 27, 2016

Now Scotland wants another go at Independence

and there was wild talk in Belfast about a union with the Irish Republic all to keep themselves safely inside the E.U.
That is of course assuming the European Union even survives the current crisis...and it may not.
And if it does not, then let that be a global lesson in political science 101, that no exclusive economic combination long survives without thorough political arrangements.  Literally the E.U. was a huge economic bureaucracy answerable to no executive or true legislative authority....seen in that light it seems bound for failure since constituents will bail or make better more advantageous arrangements as soon they no longer extract benefit from said economic combination.
In short politics will always supercede economics, "Brexit" is the perfect case study on that topic.
And in a larger sense, twenty eight sovereign nations (many of which are democracies) do not willingly submit to an outside executive save by right of conquest....and the EU ain't conquering nothing.
The EU might survive it'll have to scale back it's scope and make some hard decisions on the refugee issue and kill England with kindness without granting them any undeserved perks....but all that will require some wise heads at the top and of that I am not so sure.

Friday, June 24, 2016

I take it back...

I once favorably compared British Prime Minister David Cameron to Richard Nixon, clearly this was a slur on the acumen of the Late Trickster as Cameron has proved the Dumbest PM of the UK since Neville Chamberlain (and yeah that is saying a lot!).
Cuz as of last night England is exiting the EU, mostly because Dumbass David Cameron got backed into promising a referendum on the same in the last election cycle....trust me if this was Richard Nixon he'd a found a way to weasel out of the commitment, Cameron should have done the same.
It's simple elemental politics...
YOU NEVER expose your coalition to a referendum if you can avoid it, Cameron must've thought on the basis of Scottish Independence that he knew the magic secret to outwitting these situations, clearly HE WAS WRONG.
YOU NEVER test the xenophobia of the British Electorate outside a parliamentary election where there are always mitigating cross currents....
Of course there was a conceptual issue at the core, Cameron was forced to defend a flawed monolithic institution while the "leave" faction was free to deal equally in fear and utopian promises....
And there was David Cameron blithely leading a fundamentally unnatural coalition right off a cliff he's lost his job, bungled a referendum, world financial markets are imploding, politically Europe is dialing back to 1946 oh and Donald Fricking Trump is in Scotland, braying like this is his own personal Reichstag Fire.
SHEER GENIUS DAVID!
That having been said I pity whoever follows Cameron into #10 Downing Street, the diplomatic caseload alone occasioned by the "Brexit" would tax the talents of a Prince Metternich...and the economic consequences simply can't yet be summarized or understood.
In sum, let this whole catastrophic episode stand as mute testimony to the Power of the Franchise Freely Expressed, Britain Voted for Chaos, America had best pay heed...

Thursday, June 23, 2016

If Bob Kraft wants to build a soccer stadium somewhere close to Boston

Then by all means let him do so.....just as long as we the taxpayers are not stuck with the bill!

Ah but that is not the way it works under the defacto system of reactionary socialism we got in this country, costs are paid by the public, profits go to the private entity, this is been going on in the USA since the Empire Days of Collis P. Huntington and the South Pacific Railroad.
So forget bond issues and sweet heard deals on the property tax etc....maybe we can afford a few sweeteners to get ground broken but nothing should be agreed to that is not publicly known and understood.
I can't stop guys like Bob Kraft from boodling their way to glory but at the least lets make it as difficult a process by making it a transparent process.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Sheriff Peter Koutoujian in Menotomy....

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian was talking with the local Spartans last night and made a very very favorable impression.
He came off as knowledgeable on a variety of criminal justice issues, decisive and yet sublimely realistic about the limits of his current office. He is furthermore seemingly happily married, tall, presentable, with a diverse resume and makes a good impression behind the podium.
I say He Is A Man To Watch....at the moment state politics is in a torpid state but that can change in an instant and I want good honest people with growth potential on our bench.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Brexit....

Call me crazy, but I think Britain is about to bail on the E.U.

Mostly my thesis is anecdotal in nature, the British Lower Classes are profoundly xenophobic even today, Cameron leads an "unnatural coalition" and his own personal charisma (Nixonian though it is) is insufficient to force a yes vote.
I suspect this whole thing is psychologically playing out as de facto "vote of confidence" in the current Admin...so its almost a way to beat up Cameron without actually deposing him.
This is a temptation when the electorate is divided yet unwilling to embrace alternates...its a sort of blight that settles over democracies for short periods...it doesn't last but it might be enough to scuttle the EU.
The results though for an EU no vote could be pretty big though, it dials The UK back to pre-common market days in terms of trade, finance and European Diplomacy....all sorts of things will have to be laboriously renegotiated likely on a bilateral basis as well. And if Britain bails whats to stop the Greeks or whoever from doing likewise?
But then...I've been wrong before....

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Brown For Veep

Trump's sudden nose-drive in the polls, coupled with his "no internal governor" speechmaking style seems to have severely restricted his Vice Presidential Prospects...or so it seems to me.
And then there is his famous narcissism and ego...can The Donald really tolerate having anyone of status or worth on his ticket?
Likely No.
There are a few twitchy bums out there he could dredge up Dr. Ben Carson or even Herman Cain...the likeliest self-loathing specimen Marco Rubio is pondering reelection this year a sure sign he thinks Trump is bound for disaster and than he should wait for the Wheel of Destiny to stop spinning from a comfy perch in the US Senate.
So I'm thinking, Trump might be looking at someone like NH's Most Famous Carpetbagger, Scott Brown as his Veep.
Brown's chief qualification he is stupid enough to run for Vice President on a ticket headed by Donald Trump.....
Considering the GOP seems on the verge of going up in flaming chunks this is no small consideration.
Brown is also from a swing state and an "empty suit" of such vacuity as to suggest one of the pale grinning semi teachables that used to compete on "The Apprentice" before that show went all Hollywood.
Of course Brown likely doesn't have a dime to his name, and his fundraising potential has to be classed as minimal and the spectacle of a twice defeated senatorial candidate for Veep has to be a sad commentary on the Decline of Movement Conservatism in the USA....but what the hell Scott Brown beats nominating Gary Bauer or Wally George or Penn Gillette....but not by much he don't...

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Someone out there

is robocalling State Senator Ken Donnelly's district breathlessly carrying about the Incumbent Democrats alleged opposition to Charlie Baker's current budget.
The interesting thing is, the calls are directed to Democrats....
Now Baker does have high approval ratings, and officially Donnelly does have general election competition this fall...so does this mean that Charlie intends to parachute into some local races since he won't have jack shit to do at the RNC this summer?
I have to question the Governor's judgement IF this is the case, Donnelly's district has to be one of the safest in the continental United States, for the Democrats at least.  Maybe the Governor wants to find out how much trouble an expenditure of funny money can stir up....

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Let the Record Show

That Donald Trump was at Saint Anselm College (my alma mater) yesterday when he went full sociopath and implied heavy handedly that Barack Obama was in cahoots with terrorists.

All I can say to my former teachers in the Benedictine Monastery is that they do not abrogate Citizen Trump's first amendment rights one whit if they decline to permit him the use of the campus for speechmaking and direct him instead to the top of a milkcrate on the Amoskeag Bridge....the press will show up all the same believe me.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Another Domestic Terrorism Incident

Fifty Dead in Orlando Florida, at a gay club by some jobber who thought ISIS had it right.
Yipes....It still amazes me how the Taliban and ISIS are able to colonize and motivate self annihilatory killers purely thru the internet. The Alleged Perp was a native born US Citizen, colonized seemingly remotely.
The other aspect is that clearly this guy brought his homophobia to church so to speak, and the two simply mutually reinforced one another. If I had to hazard a guess I'm thinking "targeted microviolence" like this is likely the wave of the future as ISIS is slowly being ground down in Syria/Iraq they are are opting to activate cadres with limited homicidal objectives overseas utilizing the advantage of sheer surprise.
I can't speak to the "policy implications"....but it does point to the futility of "building a wall" or "Throwing them all out" a'la Donald Trump, these guys are expert recruiters of sleeper agents....

Last point, and its a labored on, Mateen got all his guns legally....how come we have a "no fly list" but do not have a "no buy list"?

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Congrats to the Former Secretary of State

she fought Bernie Sanders to a stand still like she went down to the wire against Barack Obama, except this time she won.
The Lady is Perseverant to say the least.
Well Now Ms Clinton, having shattered one glass ceiling has to shatter a bigger thicker one....but this is the candidate this is the Fight and this time The Survival of the American Experiment is Truly On The Line.
Courage.

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Liz Don't Inhale....

Lotsa smoke is being blown in Senior Senator Warren's face these days over the Vice Presidential Slot with Hillary Clinton....I urge caution and introspection here.
We don't need another kamikaze candidacy from Massachusetts is all I am saying, we've endured five of them so far in the span of my lifetime none of them finished in the money.
And besides, two women on the ticket...it seems risky to me, and I'll stand for any snark about sexism and paternalism inherent in that notion.
Warren must either be polling like a Mofo (the core attribute of all Vice Presidential Nominees these days) or else the split with Sanders must be even more toxic than we realize....either way, Warren should definitely remove herself from consideration.
Besides, we don't wanna fight another senatorial special election in this state prior to 2018, it'll dry up fundraising and said election will only be to the advantage to the currently poll-bouyant Governor Baker.
Don't do it Liz, ultimately its up to Bernie and Hillary to patch up their differences and Save the Republic....no Vice Presidential Nominee can do that at the end of the day.

Monday, June 06, 2016

David French is Out....

Bill Kristol's Big Bad Anti Trump Doomsday Candidate bailed before he could announce....and yes the best Kristol could do really was an obscure scribbler for the National Review.
If that ain't rock bottom for the GOP Anti-Trumps then truly what is?
The dirty secret of Movement Conservatism in the USA is that is a degraded and decadent phenom, a lot of pampered political sissies like Mitt Romney have been lazing around the "conservative echo chamber" for decades now just waiting for their next appearance on Fox News.  Against a brutal competitor like Donald Trump they are helpless, they don't have the real courage they constantly invoke against the democrats to make a real stand....they don't wanna get ejected from that oh so comfortable conservative echo chamber with all it's financial benefits.
So it's easy to see why the GOP is rallying around Trump...win or lose they don't wanna lose that soft touch....its become too easy to be a conservative in the USA and that makes them prey for a demagogue a'la The Donald.
My question is, did Bill Kristol call up Former Seantor James Webb? Remember him he was running as a democrat with Lincoln Chaffee and the other cheap acts some eight months ago until sheer futility and penury drove him out of the race. Webb made some third party noises for about two weeks thereafter and then...silence.
Did Kristol contact Webb?
Cuz I'd take a dissident conservative democrat over a nonentity like David French any day of the week....or is a conservative democrat simply too moderate a specimen for today's decadent conservative movement?
Sheer speculation on my part I know....I doubt Kristol ever recalled Webb's departure from the race to begin with....oh irony...oh obscurity.

Friday, June 03, 2016

The US Economy Only Created 38,000 Jobs Last Month

Missing targeted projections by 160,000 or so jobs and still the unemployment rate FELL to 4.7%....a number that iself any member of The Bush Family would regard as Grounds for a Roman Triumph down the streets of DC.
Donald Trump regards it as "Terrible News" among many other ugly superlatives...but the projection is soooo off I honestly wonder if someone at the Labor Department pulled the wrong spreadsheet or something. How can the job's report be so bad and yet still the unemployment rate still registered a 3/10's of one percent drop?
Considering it was all in double digits a mere six years ago, we should all stop and take a deep breath methinks.

Thursday, June 02, 2016

Governor Baker is apparently signing

the transgender civil rights bill passed by the legislature, this is a net gain for Us All and on that basis he is to be thanked regardless of his maddening pussyfooting on this issue.
However...lets not forget that this is the same Charlie Baker who denounced the exact same measure as a gruesome "bathroom bill" back in campaign 2010.
Yes I know he claimed to have "evolved" since then, but lets recall that there eternally a thin line between evolution and cynicism.