Last Night's Debate...

is at first glance, bad news for Joe Biden. He needed a very serious "Hilary Meltdown" to justify entering the democratic presidential primaries as the "Savior of the Party". The Former Secretary of State, declined to give the Incumbent Veep his opportunity, she was serious, modest, well informed and on-message. That having been said, Bernie Sanders hasn't yet burst out of his liberal's liberal enclave, he took some hits on gun control that won't do him much damage over the short term. O'Malley, Chaffee & Webb all acquitted themselves well no one broke out though in any substantive way, the best that can be said is that Governor Martin O'Malley projected a comfortable vice presidential gravitas....but he he is a Northeastern Governor in a race dominated by Northeasterners and if Bernie or Hilary can't carry Maryland then they are too dumb for help. Overall everyone exuded a shocking amount of well informed sanity....which is a sharp contrast from the snarkfests that characterize the GOP Debates to date.

Cultural Note:

At All Costs Short of the Penitentiary or Our Immortal Souls the Colonial Theater MUST be saved from conversion into another Joyless Undergraduate Barracks. Emerson College has shuddered the famed venue and is "considering it's options" with regard to the property. I say it must stay a living breathing function theater! Boston is already a town vastly complacent about it's commitment to the arts and prone to useless lip service, meanwhile vital venues casually close for good with nothing on the horizon to replace them. Don't believe for a moment that just because the Hub is lousy with college students and nice tweed jacket liberal professors that the atmosphere is welcoming with respect to the Lively Arts, largely it is not. Mayor WaLSH is officially invited to Speak Up Soonest on this issue and if everyone wants to see a working model about how to turn a venue in an obscure spot into a thriving home for concerts, plays and films then you can do worse than to speak with Leland Stein who has kept the Regent Theater in Arlington up and running Against All The Odds. Someone has to stand athwart this insidious process of "De-Souling the City" and Howl HALT!!

The Fight to Succeed John Boehner has literally

come down to an ugly brutal brawl between doomsday preppers and snake handlers....as a democrat and a liberal it's fine family entertainment in every way....save the outcome, thats gonna be cringeworthy no joke. What I love is, the plaintive cries that are going up all over the Republic that House Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan (also Romney's torpid veep candidate) HAS to step forward and run for House Speaker....to ahhh "Save moderate republicanism". HAR! Paul Ryan a moderate?? Thats a laugh, a better more devoted corporate looter cannot be found anyway in the District of Columbia...his moderate bona fides are entirely incidental and negative in scope he neither stockpiles K-Rations and ammunition and has never expressed his Love of Ghod by juggling rattlesnakes. But, the GOP is both desperate and entirely in delicious disarray I'm not sure in the end they'll be able to unite around anyone at all. Boehner may have to stay on for the next two years simply because his caucus cannot govern themselves let alone govern the nation. HAH!

What is it about Bill Weld?

That so mesmerizes the Boston Globe? Even twenty five years later?? The Capitol Section of the paper this week contains an open letter from Frank Phillips to Governor Baker detailing all the ways the incumbent can hold on to his current popularity. Fine fair enough, but the conclusion advised Baker to drive down to Canton Ma and inquire after the soul of Former Governor (wait for it...) William Weld Surpriiiise!!! Seriously, Weld has this weird power over Boomer Journalists, one and all they think they got high with Weld in College or something. Its a very bar-set-low credulous vibe....but Weld has always benefited from it, he got whipped by John Kerry, quit the Governorship cuz he was bored, fled to NYC, flirted with running for Governor of New York, got divorced, downed a LOT of Jack Daniels and then wandered back to Massachusetts. A record of triviality, whimsy, eccentricity & self indulgence but when it's Bill Weld the Boston Globe cannot get enough. I don't give a rat's ass about Charlie Baker and his sacred spreadsheets but if he really wants to be a good governor he can start by asking the simple question just what the hell has Bill Weld done for anyone else since leaving office?

Putin in Syria

I wish him the sweet unfettered joy of trying to set up a sustainable Alawite Syrian Enclave for his Pal President Assad, Russia clearly wants a big buy in back into Middle East Politics but believe me it won't come cheap if it comes at all. We will see how long Putin can hang in there once his troops start getting beheaded on Youtube and ISIS starts shifting it's sphere of action to Russia Proper.

Alex Beam does a bang up job

in his current Boston Globe column of concealing from his readership that the famed columnist hasn't mastered his cable remote and the TV is permanently stuck in "Cambodian Mode".... Insert "Three's Company" Gag Here for Pop Kultur Bumpage....

That having been said...

Working Class Xenophobia in this country does come from A Real Place at the end of the day. The USA has deunionized, deindustrialized, become casually atomized and now outsourcing to Manila is all the rage....is there any question that very real economic concerns are in play here? Granted a lot of that xenophobia comes thru a nationalist blustery filter, which of course is a cue for Good Liberals to Disdain It All which I think we do at our peril. Hate to indulge a cliche' but a little smidge of compromise is the only answer, liberals have to concede certain xenophobic streams have legitimacy, white working class inflictees have to concede prioritization economic concerns and therefore the need to enter a de facto coalition with almost anyone else than Donald Trump. Because while we are finally exiting the recession we are still hobbled by an unequal economy that will literally do anything and everything to forestall the practical redistribution of income.