I certainly hope...

that Governor Baker's Boston Globe Delivery isn't delayed by the doomsday cold tomorrow, otherwise he won't be "current" on the latest round of indictments at the State Police Indictments resultant from the ever unfolding overtime scandal.
I'm past the point of snark, I don't think the Governor will ever fire anyone at the State Police at this point, the silence that grips all of Beacon Hill in respect of this sordid matter is nigh deafening.  We are literally relying on Donald Trump's Federal Government to clean the Augean Stables for us.
At the very least, the Governor is well within his rights to create a commission with subpoena power to at least investigate and make recommendations...But no, this is Massachusetts, land where no one criticizes the police or the public sector unions...

Joanie Vennochi...

has finally found a democrat with whom she can openly bond, US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.  Apparently Joanie likes it when Nancy goes "The Full Thatcher" on Donald Trump. Normally  Joanie simply calls democrats who resist bullies and democrats who submit wimps...but I guess "there is something  about Nancy".
Meanwhile the Red Sox have put off their Championship visit to the White House until the next time they are within a fifty mile radius of DC, which will be...In May.
My own personal theory is that the Red Sox are hoping against hope that Pelosi will be President by then...
A Faint Hope, but stranger things have happened.

Charlie Baker is

never more paradoxically a conservative, than when he is eagerly expanding the state's power to reward and punish...public education.
Case in point, Lumpy has filed legislation that increases the Education Commissioners power and authority to withhold funds from districts that don't meet the entirely state mandated expectations.
What defines both "Expectations" and "Underperformance"?
Classroom Metrics mah frenz, aka "standardized testing", something that was once sold to us years ago as the legislatures "price" for making a bigger inve$tment in public education.
Now, here is the tricky part, normally conservatives decry expansions in the State's Sanctioning Power, but if at the end of the process they end up with a stronger case for more charter schools (movement conservatism's prized utopian delusion to privatize all education the USA) then they'll keep it on the down low.
And that...is what I think, our famously sneaky passive-aggressive Governor is after here, repositioning the charter school argument.
Frankly if it was left up to me, I'd argue we've "maxed out" all the benefit we can extract from classroom metrics and ought to start concentrating on teacher retention, turnover in public school settings is incredibly high.  Most teachers last about five years and then move on into the private sector.  We'd extract a vast cost and experience windfall just by concentrating on holding onto experienced cadres as well as improving the training of incoming teachers.  But of course, this is the age of metrics and legislatures that empower themselves as boards of pedagogy & Governor's that serve a malign utopian belief system, by comparison my poor notion is mere common sense and thus...a non starter.

On this "Martin Luther King Jr. Day"

let me note, that over the weekend, Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby announced "The End of Racism" in the USA.  This is an observation, worthy of a Nobel Prize or it would be if Committee gave such honors for achievements in the field of Obtuseness.
I myself was prone to this notion once, for about five minutes a decade ago, but by the time I'd gotten ten minutes into the TV news the idea was obliterated, sadly.
No, racism abides, it adapts to it's environment in a Darwinian fashion and just goes on oozing away regardless of good or bad times.
I'll believe in it's disappearance not when the Police stop shooting young black men in the back but rather when the cops start shooting unarmed white conservative pundits...
Oh I know,
That was harsh.
Let me turn the page over to Dr. King for a healing dose of sanity:
 "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Brexit, stage right...

My prediction is, Theresa May's Brexit Plan will not get the approval of parliament today, either it'll be voted down or withdrawn in the face of defeat. Perhaps the Tories will make one more attempt for an up down vote, but I think, this will end in an uncontrolled "Hard Brexit" next month.  I don't think thats the end of Theresa May's Government at least for the short term, the PM has a Netanyahu-like talent for stitching together a tattered coalition by which to cling to power.  What she has to fear, is a vote of no confidence and another general election, May had thin margins last time and complete uncontrolled diplomatic & economic chaos is hardly a bouncy upbeat message for the British Electorate.
Under the above scenario, a lot depends on what the Labor Opposition defines as "the opportune moment" to call for a vote of no confidence, in the lead up to a "Hard Brexit" or take a chance on complete chaos presumably attending on the aftermath?
I'd never discount Theresa May's capacity to survive certain electoral destruction, but the odds are getting longer every day and she has fewer and fewer carrots and sticks to apply to the problem.

EVEN IF...

I thought some endless "Wall" or "Steel Fence" down on the border of Mexico was the alleged answer to the problem of illegal immigration....and it is not, Donald J. Trump is the last person on Earth I'd pick to bring such a useless boondoggle to fruition.  The Man is a Hopelessly Compromised F**k Up of epic proportions, if he ever actually builds the goddamn thing, it'll fall to pieces inside of two weeks, count on it.  Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer are well within their rights to dig in their feels and take a hard line against President Trump's shut down, its economic hostage taking and a bones-hunting on a grand scale...the public knows it, the polls are all against this stupid scheme.

Spiking the Homeless...

The Ma Department of Transport put a series of spikes in a Route 2 underpass favored as shelter by the Homeless in Fresh Pond, the Town of Arlington is to say the least nonplussed...even chagrined by this decision.
Frankly that whole area is an ongoing hotel-zone so to speak for The Indigent, if you walk up the path that parallels the Little River towards Belmont, count on it you'll find a tent pitched or some other homeless encampment.
A holistic approach is called for, in my humble opinion, however for the moment perhaps Lumpy AKA Governor Charlie Baker can take time out of his busy schedule of raising funny money and running a Victory Lap around the State and maybe I dunno...look into the problem?
Maybe he could get the spikes taken down, its a barbaric measure to say the least...

If I was the RNC I wouldn't be worried about

"Senator"Mitt Romney's critical Op-ed piece about Trump, The Freshman from Utah hasn't got the fortitude Ghod Gave a Dunkin Donuts Cruller, he'll walk it back before the weekend I promise you.
To stand up to Trump within the GOP, would require something Mitt doesn't have, that is to say, courage, he's never displayed an iota of it before and he won't start now.
Besides its hardly a Jeremiad that Romney composed, The President...“has not risen to the mantle of the office.”this ain't Cromwell's dismissal of the Rump Parliament believe me.
Like his stance on Abortion, Romney has been pro Trump Twice, and against two more times that is if you include his fitful negotiations to be Trump's Secretary of State as an embrace of the current President.
I will be blunt, I doubt that Mitt Romney has the money, the courage or the even the ability to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination in 2020...he is at best mildly criticizing Trump without committing any resources or incurring any risks.
In short, "Vintage Romney".