There is no linkage...

 between the Governor's sudden decision to ease up on public venue restrictions and the fact that His Excellency was grilled good and proper by the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee....no, no linkage whatsoever...

IN A PIG'S ARSE!!

Of course there is linkage, all Baker said before the Oversight Committee was that vaccine scarcity was driving our program, he had no explanation as to why the state's vaccination website keeps operating at a crawl when it isn't prompting outright tears of frustration.  So hell to the yeah, Baker suddenly starting easing up on restrictions, he needed to seize control of the news cycle. Regardless of his preposterous approval ratings, Baker must still contend with the possibility of a primary challenge.  Gubernatorial primary challenges are no joke, most end in failure, but then again tell that to Ed King.

On Sunday The Globe's Jeff Jacoby had this to say...

 regarding our strategically ambiguous policy towards Taiwan:

"When the Carter Administration established full diplomatic ties with China,  it was in the hope that the Regime in Beijing would gradually liberalize, democratize and adhere to the norms of international cooperation. That Hope has proved delusional."

Ahem, we extended full diplomatic recognition to the P.R.C. in 1978 because Washington D.C. and Beijing had a mutual enemy, The U.S.S.R.  In fact at the time China was holding down 200 Soviet Divisions along their mutual border. These were divisions that would otherwise be used to back up the Warsaw Pact in the West.  At the time, for containment to work, the USA needed the PRC to worry & vex Moscow. If poor Taiwan could hold down 200 division's we'd a never have ditched them...President Carter's decision at the time, was very much justified since Taiwan at the time was ruled by an authoritarian Junta that provided no strategic asset.  These days though it is admittedly a different story,  don't blame the current situation in the Taiwan Straits on Carter, he needed a ally who could deliver and that is what he got.  Poor Jimmy, even his realpolitik is misunderstood....

It would appear...

 that in the space of a mere seventy two hours, thanks to an epic snowstorm and arctic temperatures, the dreams, delusions, chicken wire and duct tape that held Texas Together have been blown to Hell and the Lone Star State is now officially a Third World Country.

14 million people still experiencing water shortages, ruptured pipes from the Rio Grande to Oklahoma, people freezing to death every day,  power blackouts...the list goes on, enough to make Senator Ted Cruz take off to Cancun' in search of a better life.

But this is no time for snark, the plain people (to quote Abraham Lincoln) however winged, they may be, did not sign on to become a frozen & powerless collection of atomized victims.  I urge donations to the American Red Cross I also applaud the quick actions of Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez & Beto O'Rourke to gather & distribute much needed supplies and or fundraise on behalf of the blizzard's countless victims.

That having been said, conscience impels me to note that Texas has had, for twenty uninterrupted years of unrestricted GOP Rule.  The whole state as a vast sketchy laboratory for Wingnut Social Engineering, and we see the results; mass misery on a cosmic scale, a  janky state power grid hardened against nothing and largely set up with shareholder value in mind. I'm not sure it's even legal in Texas to put the phrase "climate change" onto any official documents. All that can and must change, but right now the average Texan is literally an endangered species in his or her own state, that is our immediate challenge.

Mitch McConnell

 didn't become Mitch McConnell by being some sort of zealous and conservative preserver of Constitutional Norms, he is a schemer and a manipulator and exploiter of loopholes on behave of his sponsors and contributors. He also didn't become a power in the US Senate by doing the American People any damn favors, as far as he is concerned, we are the problem...a bunch a damn freeloaders he needs to keep at bay.

So of course, having coming within an inch not even a month ago of being lynch by Donald Trump's mob of Deplorables, it makes perfect sense that Senator McConnell would vote to acquit the Ex-President of any wrongdoing at Yesterday's impeachment trial, given the way he views public life, it was inevitable.

Granted he made a mealy-mouthed speech afterwards asserting Trump's responsibility for the violence in no uncertain terms.  Nonetheless voting to convict meant expending political capital that McConnell needs for other projects, so he essentially wished the problem onto the lower courts in hopes they'll purge Trump from public live for him.

It is pretty craven, but McConnell is a craven man, he is insolent when he has power and an insufferable Uriah Heep when power is denied him.  That he has done incalculable damage to the rule of law and the US Constitution is beside the point, he preserved his own miserable jobbery and thats all that is important.

Managerial Acumen in a Time of Pandemic.

 Much is made of Governor Baker's Managerial Genius. It is true, that unlike other members of his party, insofar as Covid19 is concerned, he is at least following the science. But it is also true that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with all its medical institutions, doctors, research institutes et al, is being lapped in the vaccine distribution category by Connecticut & West Virginia.

West Virginia!! They haven't distributed anything at all since the demise of rotgut moonshine after prohibition! But the facts don't lie (not in Joe Biden's America Anyway) West Virginia leads the nation and even boasts if they could get the dosages they could immunize the entire 65+ population in under sixty days. We have got biotech on every street corner and we can't beat that record?? I think Charlie Baker has missed a step here, he needs to drive his ass down to Charlestown and figure out what they are doing right down there. Because right now everyone seems to be standing in line in Massachusetts, scratching their heads. I'm fifty eight right now and I suspect the Baker Admin's vaccine default is to wait for me to turn seventy five before issuing a vaccine.