Monday, April 30, 2018

Amidst the annual furor over the White House Correspondents Dinner

came the news that the state GOP Convention put a primary challenger on the ballot against their supposedly unbeatlably popular incumbent Charlie Baker.

Yup Scott Lively a vicious homophobic pastor from Springfield Ma was worth 27% of the vote in a legit GOP convocation, scary huh?
Well its scary for Baker I think.
The GOP base is putting their famously shifty Governor that they won't tolerate too much moderation from Baker and they certainly don't want him decisively breaking with President Trump.
So of course, Baker called Lively every name in the book and started yapping away about his pro death penalty bona fides (be ready he'll be talking about that panacea from now til election night)...hardly a profile in courage in action believe me.
Meanwhile if Lively really wanted to Tear It Up, he ought to try for either Trump's endorsement or even get him to do a joint appearance together, that would be, instructive indeed.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Am I to understand that

the Commonweath MIGHT be liable for unpaid Federal Taxes on the $kimming indulged by State Police Troop F out at Logan Airport?
Back taxes, PLUS fines for not paying on the excessive per diems???
SERIOUSLY??
At what point is ANYONE out there gonna start second guess Governor Baker's alleged managerial acumen? For the moment Baker is still bulletproof thanks to that 70% approval rating and the general reluctance to criticize "law enforcement" in a political debate, but this is the public PAYING for the chiseling of sworn Officers of the Law that dangerously compromises the state police and their reputation for honesty & integrity.
I speak bluntly, this shit has to stop, people need to lose their jobs, safeguards must be created & enforced...rules applied.  I'm sorry its the state police, I'd say much the same if it was the school teachers, librarians or the ditch diggers.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Setti Warren Bails...

on the governor's race, the man had been out on the road for almost a year, and had less than 21K in the till as of yesterday.   Unhappy news, but the handwriting was on the wall back on caucus day, in Menotomy at least the man garnered little support, I wonder if his campaign was on track even to gain the 15% at the convention to allow access to the primary ballot?
Well there is always certain politicians in Massachusetts who seemingly have potential and presence and they never go anywhere due to a lack of funding, the timing is off or they can't connect the dots on the "right race" in this, A Commonwealth of Safe Seats...Frank Bellotti, Augie Grace, Shannon O'Brien its a long varied list to be sure, and Setti Warren just climbed onto it.
I always maintained that Warren should've run for Lieutenant Governor, the opposition was strictly "Up From Pawtucket" and he couldn't leveraged his appeal to the base and municipal experience more readily.
Okay its Gonzalez versus Massie for the Whole Enchilada, a chance to take on Baker Saturday Night in the Thunderdome, health to one and all, and lets not let this degenerate into a rerun of 1994....

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

French President Macron

Has come out for renegotiating the Iran Nuclear Deal.  On the face of it, that is bad news since it validates Trump's phantom "Iran is ripping us off" meme which is creating needless instability in the Persian Gulf.
However, I think of it as "Macron is making the best of a bad situation", I think he is hoping for long difficult frustrating deadlocked talks to put the issue into stasis until and IF there are different constitutional officers in the USA.
I would also point out that the French President is working virtually alone in Europe, Angela Merkel & Theresa May are virtually governing with no electoral mandates whatsoever, Macron and Justin Trudeau in Canada are the only two leaders with a claim to the support of a majority of their respective citzenry.
But mark my words "Iran is all about North Korea", the relative health of the Nuclear Deal with Tehran will dictate whether or not any worthwhile nonproliferation agreement can be achieved with Pyongyang. Trust me on this, Komrade Kim will diplomatically link the two with Anchor Chains and reap the political windfall when and if Trump bungles that summit (assuming it ever really goes off). He'll turn to the world and its enervating sanctions and say "I tried to negotiation, but how can I trust a super-power that is dealing so callously and hypocritically with Tehran?"
That may well be the trap Trump is walking into, Friend Macron is at least trying to preserve some diplomatic room to manuever for the USA and the alliance we lead...health to his efforts.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Gas Prices are Up

Which means our vaulted gains from Trump's Verfluchter Tax Cut is simply being pumped into our fuel tansk once a week. That and the USA's perpetual devotion to keeping the working & middle classes living on a wage plateu and that put The Rest of Us, right back where we started pay check wise.
"From Shirtsleeves back to Shirtsleeves in Only Three Months", My Ghod Trump does work fast don't he??

Monday, April 23, 2018

I want to thank Governor Baker

his rattle trap underfunded Red Line, managed to restrict my tardiness this morning to a mere twenty minutes...but I'm numb to the consequences now. The millions of hours the ridership has lost from stalled trains, stopped buses and ever lower expectations have purged us of all legitimate outrage.
We don't even hold Governor Baker accountable, hell he has a rock solid seventy percent approval rating, I've seen the polling he swamps the opposition in all the hypothetical match ups However, for the record that seventy percent is composed of a hefty chunk of torpidity, and sooner or later mere torpidity ends.
When I couldn't tell you, but end it will...

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Okay...

So now...outright embezzlement is alleged at the State Police...money seems to rain down from the heavens onto Troop F at Logan Airport. Meanwhile our Governor Charlie Baker (a doubtful Profile in Courage on his best day) is largely relegated to the sidelines where he looks baffled and emits vaguely disgruntled noises.
You'd think with a spreadsheet worshipping supermanager as governor, revenue leaks like this would induce a more aggressive response....but so far nada.
Sadly this is not "all on him", I think the State Auditor's Office needs to decisively intervene and audit the State Police Top to Bottom, the results should be published and anything actionable needs to be remanded to the office of the Commonwealth's Attorney General.
Because believe me, this situation is toxic, it is eroding the State Police's reputation for public probity, the Governor at best will cope with the crisis, what is needed is leadership.
Democrats hate taking on law enforcement out of respect for public sector unions, the GOP is loath to do likewise out of a religious veneration for peace officers, fair enough, but someone has to cut this Gordian Knot and Fast!
Suzanne!
Maura!
Whaddya say??

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Barbara Bush, RIP

Y'know its worth remember on this solemn & sad occasion that Richard Nixon supposed opined back in the 1970's, that the future First Lady, "Knew How to Hate".
Indeed by all accounts she was a stern steely character who kept long mental lists of persons who'd antagonized her Family over the years, her on camera persona as American's Grandmother notwithstanding.
Indeed never has such a strong inflexible character labored so long and so hard to elect a mediocrity and then his son, the dangerous mediocrity President.
Ah but let me be charitable, the woman had challenges, the alleged fidelity of her husband has long been questioned & doubted by others down thru the years. Her decision to stick out the marriage despite all challenges marks Barbara Bush down as at least as loyal & courageous as...Hilary Clinton.

Peace to the Former First Lady's Ashes, Succor unto Her Loved Ones.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

All Cruise Missile Cannonades Follow the Same Pattern

outrage, followed by a desire to send a message via military means sans the use of US Troops, a target list selected very carefully and then the inevitable "Surprise attack" by night.
Its an option favored by the last four Presidents of the USA and will likely hold onto it's popularity for a good long time to come.
It evades the suspicion of Super Power Impotence, Its Loud Messaging directed to a Rogue Regime  & it establishes obliquely a de facto platform for potential escalation down the road.
In Trump's case its his own erratic policy that likely brokered those poison gas attacks in Syria, so he had no choice but to launch those missiles, but as has been said before we've got this whole thing down to a science, even warning the Russians on the ground to take cover while we upbraid Assad via airstrike.
I'm cynical, I think you all get that, I suspect at best the only message that we've sent Assad is that he'll have to "electorally cleanse" the majority that hates him "The Old Fashioned Way" via artillery, machine guns and landmines...but mustard gas that we cannot abide.
Its a cynical view but likely true.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Josh Zakim in Menotomy...

The Boston City Councilor is running for the democratic nomination for Secretary of State, "primarying" the longservinf incombent Billy Galvin.
Zakim is young (and appears much younger as well), reasonably personable, reasonably articulate, his spiel wisely centers on the voting rights a topic guaranteed to fire up the liberals in the state democratic party (voting by mail, early voting, election security being his big applause lines), on most other issues as best he can, Zakim is positioning himself to the left of Galvin.
The vibe I get here, is that Zakim much like Jimmy Tingle intuits that 2018 isn't gonna be a year where he can run the board so he may be making the race chiefly to build up useful contacts and beef up his fundraising against a future run for some other glittering electoral bauble.
All that may be worth incurring Galvin's wrath to someone with a twenty year time horizon in state politics.
Galvin would be wise to take this Zakim seriously, The City Councilor is not some twitchy ambitious weirdo trying to bootstrap themselves out of Acton Town Meeting.  And indeed Galvin has been making the rounds of the city & town committees reintroducing himself and his touting his various accomplishments.
I've always been ambivalent about Billy Galvin, I don't accord with all his views, but he has a faction of some weight behind him within the party so I tend to see him as a sacrifice I must make on the altar of party unity.  If he falls short of our ideals, well then so do we all, sooner or later.
All the same, I'm gonna try and keep an eye on this race as best I can....

Friday, April 13, 2018

Ghastly News out of Marston Mills

Where a Police Officer in the canine unit was shot and killed while serving a warrant.  Peace to the Officer's Ashes, Succor unto His Loved Ones.
***
IF I had to guess we are gonna find out that drugs were at the bottom of all this, Cape Cod has a huge under the radar drug problem that admittedly tracks perfectly the scope of the challenge state wide.
All we can hope at least politically, is that somehow this gets folded into the election debate in a positive way as we struggle to overcome the opioid problem by the light of Justice.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

You know

at Waterloo, Field Marshal Grouchy declined to "ride to the sound of the guns" while his Boss, The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was jacked by the Prussians and the English.
And that is Paul Ryan in a nutshell,  he is good for forty four million dollars in fundraising, his speakership's only real challenge til the advent of Trump was keeping the lid on the rotten borough, but when the shit gets real, the Man is a Ghost.
Well...if Ryan longs for the Big White House, this might be a smart move, the swamp in DC is overflowing, raising money for submarginal seats is no quick way to acculmulate political IOU's & a little distance from the fray may pay off down the line.
On the other hand he may need to get out now and enjoy his ill gotten gains before the missiles fly or the Trump ADmin implodes or the public wakes up to the fact that Paul Ryan is a rigid hateful ideologue 24-7.
But as I said yesterday, "Wayward Sister Go in Peace" the GOP Caucus in the House has been primed for a nuclear detonation for several years now (too many crazies in safe seats is the core issue) and now at last I think the rubble will truly bounce....it'll be a hilarious show I am sure.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

A lot in the olde inbox today...

Paul Ryan is leaving congress having done his damndest to destroy civil society and democratic governance itself..."wayward sister go in peace" sez I. Time will test all of Ryan's Rigid Little Ideological Fantasies and find them all wanting.

President Trump is threatening to Fire Special Counsel Mueller, being egged on by Fox News and no doubt incensed by the raid conducted on his personal attorney's office.  I still suspect that Trump makes a lot of scary noises on and off stage,  but I still think that he hasn't got the guts to fire Mueller...but then like most mentally ill people he is prone to impulse.

Oh and the Russians are formally threatening to fire back on our missile sites if we opt to punish the Assad Regime for it's latest poison gas attack that was likely induced by Trump's own inconstant policies in the region (expl Syria, are we in or out???). So we are a year into Trump's term and we've stumbled into a confrontation with Moscow, so much for the "reset with Putin" huh? I suspect Trump will make some bloodcurdling noises and back down....Putin has to have some very scary evidence regarding The President on File. Putin may not have the missiles but he sure has dedicated hackers, remember that over the short term.

Monday, April 09, 2018

The Sunday Globe Quintupled Down

On their eternal bid to entice SOMEONE from Massachusetts to run for President in the upcoming election cycle. Their reasoning is simple stark and cynical, a local politician going for the Big White House sells papers, never mind that an epic five candidates from The Commonwealth,  nominees and aspirants have all entered the lists none of them have made it.
But the Globe is undeterred and was ginning up an epic five candidates yesterday...and they were:

John Kerry, The Former Senator & Secretary of State would likely love another shot at it, but I am assuming the money just isn't there for him, nor the necessary campaign professions, losing a presidential election, even by a narrow margin carries a stigma these days.

Elizabeth Warren: She keeps saying no to it, and the Globe simply parses and parses her statements until they get to some feeble contruction that convinces them she really leaving the door open a crack. I don't think Warren will run, the Globe would just love to symbolically punish her for her confidence and ambition by writing a "tsk tsk tsk" political Obit when she loses.

Congressman Kennedy: The Globe just loves ginning up Kennedy's for the Big Job its an autonomic relfex for them by now. In reality Kennedy is a freshman congressman with a long career before him that running for President would ruin. He knows it, the Globe refuses to accept it.

Deval Patrick: Sadly the former Governor might just pile, I suspect his decision will turn on prosaic staffing & fundraising considerations. I wish he'd give this a pass, but there are louder contrary voices than me in this discussion...

Congressman Moulton: For sheer impulse and ambition's sake, Seth MIGHT pile in, pretty much his whole career has been a monument to his reliable political "gut", but then at the end of the day he is a congressman like Kennedy who is still new to the game. The prospect of being in the majority next year may well temper both Kennedy & Moulton's alleged presidential prospects, but given his fabled orneriness, I can see Moulton making a race, please someone, talk him out of it!

And then there is the bottom of the bill headlined by:
Mitt Romney! Forget it, he has disengaged from Massachusetts and is running for a Safe Senate Seat in Utah this demonstrates to me that Mitt is the same old trimmer he has always been and lacks the courage to primary Donald Trump.

Well thats the field so far folks...hopefully everyone will take stock and decline to run, because I don't see any tectonic shift in US Politics that would allow a candidate from Massachusetts to run AND win....hate to be a cynic, but there I am.


Friday, April 06, 2018

Just remember

if EPA Admin Scott Pruitt does indeed lose his job (it is alleged the embattled politician can hear a nickel drop a mile away), Laura Ingraham would probably love to score for a soft touch federal gig.  And if Trump is indeed controlled by what he sees on Fox News, it'll likely happen....

Thursday, April 05, 2018

The Roof of the Silver Line is...

Is spewing chunks of concrete, The Mass State Police Force is allegedly dotted with guys collecting 150K in unworked overtime, the MBTA overall performance is in steady decline and the administriation greets with sacerdotal silence the criminal justice bill just passed by the Lege. Meanwhile Charlie Baker, Our Alleged Governor, limits his public appearances to frothy charity events that land in the soft news segments on the local TV news.
ALL THIS and still Charlie Baker rates a 70% approval rating, he's ducked and ignored a good half a dozen issues of critical concern with studied aplomb the man is a deft evader of responsibility I will give him that, but none of it constitutes, "Leadership".
Whoever the democrats nominate for Governor I recommend that his debate "opener" should consist at least in part a thorough recitation of all the MBTA's delays and problems, incurred, that very day. It's a simple stark way to illustrate just how far Charlie Baker falls short as a leader.

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

There is a voice on the Boston Globe's Op Ed Page today

half hearted making the argument that Laura Ingraham is somehow the victim of the eternal double standard between men and women on the job. Apparently smirking and calling David Hogg a dummy (among many other things) is somehow nowhere near as bad a corporate culture build around gender exploitation commonly associated with a whorehouse.
In truth there is no object way to assess either situation they are both deplorable in the exact sense of the term.
As for Laura Ingraham, she is no victim of the double standard indeed she is the very embodiment of the double standard she has been a snitch and troll on behalf of diminished rights for women all her adult life and she'll never break with that agenda even now, Holy Week or No Holy Week. The fact that the she can somehow pass for a journalist and thus claim all sorts of protections under the First Amendment is a monument to said institutions robust strength in the face of Ingraham's true status as a feminine shaped rhetorical hand grenade designed to destroy the rights of others.

Monday, April 02, 2018

On his way to celebrate Christ's Resurrection from the Dead

On Easter Sunday the President took time out of his otherwise flaccid & empty schedule to angrily withdraw from further DACA negotiations with congress and thus virtually assure those poor bastards of a humiliating & dangerous mass deportation.
Allegedly, the President was induced to this rash action by a "news" segment he watched on Fox News before leaving Mar El Largo.
Which if true, pretty much validates my notion that Trump is the First US President controlled by television, he sees things on Fox News that enrage him he tweets out his anger and lets the same "news" network dictate his decisionmaking for him.
Similarly personal decisions seem dictated by whatever Fox Talking Head irritates Trump opponents the most....some of you out there may scoff at this thesis, but don't say I didn't warn you when Laura Ingraham replacesd Pruitt at the EPA.