Sally Yates in 2020!

Can someone find the ex acting AG a nice safe seat in the US Congress?? She only needs to warm it for one term (hey good enough for Abe Lincoln yo) before she starts a-tramping the snows of NH...
I liked this Dame She Has Moxie! She questioned the constitutionality of Trump's freaky immigrant ban and got fired hours later, in these perilous thats a Badge of Honor and. Key Qualification for High Office!
Remember you heard it here firstest!!

With respect to everything that happened this weekend

And ALOT happened this weekend, try to fix in your heads that no matter how loud and truculent, "Crazy Never Lasts". It can sustain itself to toxic and genocidal degrees but it cannot survive over the intermediate term.'
In other words it cannot be "The New Normal" because sooner or later rationality comes in and lays out all comers.  We are in some ways compromised by popular culture which inculcates us with the notion that madness is a sort of unbeatable super power, but in fact pathology is a disability, sooner or later that fact will win out.
It may be a painful victory or a painless one, but it will happen.

Apparently

Scientists at Harvard have managed to create a metallic version of hydrogen (lightest and most common of the elements) which if viable at ambient temps holds out the promise of a real revolution in semiconductor technology.
I know I make terrible fun of Harvard (and of BU & BC by way of full disclosure) but this is freakin' amazing news across the board and proof positive that scientific progress is our only way forward in respect of solving any one of a number of current problems.
So given all the benign applications I am just sitting here waiting for the Trump Regime to figure out some way to Put A Stop On All This Nonsense....

Current estimates are

That Trump's Wall of Shame that is supposed to secure the southern border of the USA from Martians, Jesuits and SqueeGeeMen...will cost the US TaxPayer 25 billion dollars. Shit it cost less to put Neil & Buzz on the Goddamn Moon!

Ah but this is money and sometimes you can't put a dollar cost on sheer malevolent delusion.

***
Meanwhile I'm guessing the ACA will be gone by July 4th of this year, irregardless of the maundering qualms of the John McCains in the US Senate.  So given that, what is next?
What Is To Be Done"
Me?
If ACA goes down then screw it I'm coming out banging the pots for a British Style Single Payer Healthcare System its the only fair and sustainable solution. I mean we tried letting the free market run healthcare and it was ab abject 200 year long failure, we tried the public-private option...I say we Go For the Gold.
I think a temp with 100k in school debt and a degree in accounting deserves at least a healthcare system as good as what keeps Mitch McConnell's Black Little Heart Beating.

And while we are on the subject of the loss of buying power among the US Working CLass lets admit if all those "tombstone" factories are gonna reopen at Trump's fiat they'll assuredly be monuments to automation, non unionized and "administered" by a staff of technicians.  The living way wrought out of an assembly line is as gone as the Spectre of Big Labor or Military Dirigibles. One thing we can do is scrap the entire welfare and unemployment system and replace it with a simple minimum basic

Someone needs to send a Doctor up to the Corner Office

Of the State House, based on last night's State of the State Speech, Charlie Baker has a bad case of Aphasia.

He cannot for the life of him pronounce the Proper Noun "Trump" to say nothing of the phrases "Charter Schools" or "Legalized Marijuana", all words & phrases that symbolize significant setbacks for "Governor Fifty Nine Percent".

So maybe we should send a good psychiatrist...

That speech was otherwise hilarious in that Baker tried suddenly to pose as the best pal ever of public schools having spent millions last Fall in phunny money to trying sell off the classrooms of the state to McDonalds.

For that fact, is Charlie ever gonna follow up on his promise to enact campaign finance reform in this state? Likely not since it would give the Lege an opening (if they were so inclined and that be an iffy thing) to close off the wellsprings of that out of state phunny money...so in sum More Aphasia from the Governor.

BTW I read the speech I didn't see it broadcast It must've been gangbusters live because as text its the dreariest collection of bullet points punctuated by robotic shout outs to various special guests in the aud. An AI audio program could've read it.....

Let the record show that when the Women's March

Hit Boston Common Saturday, Our Illustrious Governor metaphorically hid under his desk by decamping to the Mass Municipal Association's Comfab in South Boston an obligation whose importance rivals cutting a ribbon at the Boat Show.

So far as I can tell (feel free to contradict) His Excellency declined to send any official representation to said March at all.  

The problem here is one of leadership, its no longer adequate for a Governor of Massachusetts to demonstrate he or she can "ride herd" on the Legislature, its a question of Who is Gonna Stand Up to Donald Trump?

It sure as shit isn't Charlie Baker who has engaged three shifts of contractors to rebuild the bridges he loudly burned to Team Trump back in July.

Craven....Utterly Craven.

Oh and there is poll out there indicating that Baker's popularity is still higher than Elizabeth Warren's but there is a streak of false consciousness there in that Baker's overall score has dropped to fifty nine percent from a stratsospheric score of seventy percent. And trust me, he is not taking a header into the 2018 Senatorial Race he'd have to start over fundraising with no obvious successor to slot into the Governor's contest...besides those desks in the US Senate are TINY a big feckless galoot like Charlie Baker would never fit under one of them.

Meanwhile in Moscow

Donal Trump's real constituents are in the process of decriminalizing wife beating & child abuse. Apparently Putin wants to make it legal okey dokey to beat one's wife with fists and or inflict a prolonged spanking on a helpless child.
As Orwell has pointed out authoritarians are always truly hypocritical when it comes to moral issues, they are almost always perverts or some type or another with a pronounced preference for reinforcing ugly patriarchical mores.
Pretty shameless I know but keep in mind, you can't "shame the shameless" you have to beat them in open political combat. They have a kind of "moral autism" that prevents them from feeling any guilt about their own unpleasant opinions and actions....they cannot be taught they must be overcome.
Such is the case in Moscow and on the Potomac....

When You Have No Sense of Irony....

Married to a Childish Degree of Entitlement...THIS is what you wear to a US Presidential Inauguration....

A Real Howler in the Globe Today

For the First Time Ever, Joanie Vennochi has nothing but nice things to say about Hillary Clinton because the Former Secretary of State has decided to "be a good sport" and attend Trump's inaugural tomorrow. Ms Clinton likely thought it was a Wake She Could Not Skip....regardless of the petty humiliations Team Trump has waiting for her no doubt.
Joanie goes on to snark at Rep's Capuano & Clark who have declined that selfsame attendance...I myself hold no one here to to any fixed standard that is what the enemy expects me to do so thats out First Thing.
No...the rules have been shredded and everyone is gonna have to find new rules to both live and fight by, and I have a feeling that "Being a Good Sport" is as Dead as Free Silver as of Noon Tomorrow no matter how much Joanie Vennochi longs for the antique political mores of Saint Ronald Reagan.

If ACA get repealed

and its likely in the last seventy two hours of it's life, then those who about to lose coverage have a right and responsibility to shut down via direct nonviolent action the physical constituency affairs office your local congressperson, especially any beneficiaries of Dixie's current network of Rotten Boroughs.
Why limit action of the specific constituents of specific congresspersons? Invade someone else's damn district, the thieving bastards have imposed their own bitter agenda on the whole nation why shouldn't persons outside the district protest?
We have to stop playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, doesn't mean we are to dishonest or dishonorable but we must force a decision of grounds favorable to us...and thats a whole process and a half when you control NOTHING in DC.
I mean pester these people unmercifully...they wanted this cram it down their miserable throats!
****

So now Trump claims NATO is obsolete

or whatever the tweeted pejorative was, this doesn't surprise me though I've been waiting for the NATO combat boot to drop since election night.  Words fail me as to what a bad idea this is, and how much undeserved leverage this grants Vladimir Putin even before Trump is sworn in.
I dunno if Trump is a Russian Asset or pursuing a Weird Utopian "Nativist Power Bloc" Agenda, I am however pretty clear that without NATO strong & united the peace of the world is very much imperilled.
It means over the short term that the Baltic States & Poland are being offered up to Moscow (we are appeasing a third tier economy whose GDP 's rivals....Italy and yes that rankles) which puts Germany in an exposed position militarily and otherwise.
What people forget is the NATO (and its now defunct foe the Warsaw Pact) were defacto non-proliferation guarantors....both alliances were backed up by the nuclear umbrella of their bipolar sponsor, thus paradoxically allowing most of the member states to be non-nuclear actors.
If NATO goes for the terminal dirt nap how long before Berlin withdraws from the NPT and deploys its own nuclear detterent? Indeed sans NATO protection what choice would they have other than going Hat in Hand to Moscow?
And if this is the plan for whatever reason we have to be very very certain that their are irremedial political consequences for anyone who backs such a dangerous shameful plan here at home.

Its a Rough Week and Likely to Get Rougher

and we are bereft of the counsel of some of our very very best on this Cold Clear Martin Luther King Day....

But even in the darkest days of 1968 Doctor King could still crack a Preacher's Sort of a Joke....

So do not be downhearted....

Captive Nations Day Ver 2.0

Rex Tillerson didn't disperse many doubts yesterday during his confirmation hearings, he came off as clueless and a little overwhelmed. Despite some very polite truculent noises abour the Russians he ended up getting schooled well and thoroughly by Marco Rubio the biggest Jobber in the US Senate.
I'll grant Tillerson means well, I doubt he is a utopian of any type if anything he seems like a likely realist (but then there are few true idealists at Foggy Bottom the Last One to Serve as Secretary of State would be William Jennings Bryan)....but he seems inhibited and underqualified. I took grim amusement in Tillerson's fastidious refusal to identify Putin as a War Criminal, it reminded me of all those shrieking posts on Facebook about Hillary Clinton eschewing the term "Islamic Terrorism".
I want to believe the best from Rex Tillerson he did after all take the BSA in hand and lead it into the 21st century on gender issues, but I think he radically underestimating just what we are letting Putin get away with, indeed the very topic seems toxic in extremis for Team Trump...which only inflames suspicions in turn.
And what kills me, these jobbers are giving the store away to Vladimir Putin who pretty much presides of a GDP the size of Italy whose main exports are ammunition, oil & mischief.
THAT is simply embarrassing....
At the end of the day, it comes down to this, either Trump et al are simply childishly naive about Putin and his intentions and will shortly be painfully shorn of those idealistic notions or else they are one and all STUPID enough to believe they may achieve power in the USA with the active backing of a foreign tyrant sans consequence.

Hi Dad Ya Proud of Me?

Dylann Roof is sentenced to death for shooting up a church with racist intent....I know people are squeamish about the Death Penalty but does anyone want this little mook strutting around behind bars posing as a "Race Martyr" and composing some Goddamned "Manifesto"?
No...better to bite the bullet ride out the appeals and let the executioner take his course....I know some of you are horrified by those sentiments I try to real with you, because its all getting very real out there.

Am I to Understand that the

"Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooter, one Esteban Santiago was able to ship his 9mm pistol in a locked case in his checked luggage sans ANY demure from the TSA?
Susbsequently as you all know, he simply adjourned to a rest room loaded his pistol and began a short but murderous shooting spree.
Seriously WE LET THIS HAPPEN!!!
Legally and fully compliant with the goddamn rules!!!
I think we seriously need to think about disbanding the TSA and declaring a state of "functional anarchy" in the air....everyone is encouraged to crade their M-1 Garand Carbines and Cherished Flamethrowers in Business Class!
We are the victims of a social engineering conundrum, "An Armed Society" was supposed to protect us all from these sorts of tragedies...instead said Armed Society has ENABLED random violence!
 Shit it is this very "Armed Society" from which we all need protection!!!
Seriously the next step is outright insurrection, we've armed ourselves so thoroughly that recourse to it, for whatever reason has become logical and....easy.

Sheriff Hodgson down in Bristol County

Has helpfully offered his entire prison population to the National Government to act as a work force when Trump's wall goes up on the Mexican Border.
This is the same wall, that Trump still insists is gonna be paid for by Mexico and apparently built by every deadbeat dad, speeding ticket evader, drunk driver, meth head and junkie in Bristol County.
Well there is a precedent for this idiotic idea, but you have to go back to the Old Testament and Hebrew Slaves building the Pyramids to find it....
Labor Camps are a Vile Foreign Innovation, but Never Forget Stupid Ideas Loudly Promulgated Are As American As Apple Pie, and if I was a Deadbeat Dad in Bristol County I'd get paid up quick, because dumber policies than this have been read into law Believe Me.

If I don't approve of Charlie Baker's

Servile attendance of Trump's inaugural, I like still less Hillary & Bill Clinton's appearance therein....But let me be clear the burden of "being a good loser" always unfairly weighed towards democrats. We are always being tasked to play by rules our opponent contemptuously break at the slightest provocation.
So if Hilary is being "A Good Loser" (perhaps the last one we'll see at a presidential inaugural in our lifetime) then Charlie Baker needs to be a "Better Belligerent" because he will get exactly nothing from this crew no matter how much he fawns.

Charlie Baker is going to the Trump Inaugural

Hat in Hand to Get the Best Deal He Can for the People of Massachusetts.
Appalling.
This is the same Donald Trump that Baker claimed was temperamentally unfit to be President back in August....
But then Baker is far too much of a trimmer and a jobber to lead any sort of a fight against a authoritarian populist gimp like Donald Trump....Charlie calculates too much and is passionate about far too little.

Hope Baker enjoys the comedy stylings of Scott Baio....but I doubt that will be the only humiliation he'll endure down there, Trump and his Family are famously vengeful, Charlie probably thinks he can  somehow grin and bear it.
Well that did not work for Mitt Romney and it sure as shit won't work for Charlie Baker.