Merry Curmudgemas.....

and let me just say without fear or favor that Frank Sinatra sounds all the world like he is making a hostage tape with a loaded pistol aimed at his head whenever he sings traditional christmas carols. Its like an uncommonly truthful person being compelled to read from the Symbionese Liberation Army's List of Demands. The reasons for that are simple Sinatra was an honest man when he sang there were limits to love in his estimation just as life was far from a utopian stroll....a good chunk of Christmas is at times given over to faking jollity in hope that some real succor will somehow manifest, and that sort of falsity Sinatra could never ever simulate when singing. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, A Happy Hannukah and a Solemn Kwanzaa may be a tolerable season of peace for all.

The MBTA is in one of those Bad-News-Cycles

the local media just cannot get enough of....from cost overruns on the proposed Green Line Extension to Union Square to an unmanned Red Line Training careening into North Quincy Station. Granted that out of control train was allegedly a consequence of operator error, but lets try to recall (because the Globe & the Herald and the rest of them all too willfully forget) that the rolling stock on the Red Line is only two years younger than me....the fact that any of it rolls at all manned or unmanned is a stone miracle. Be that as it may, operator error this time, massive equipment failure due operational old age next time...the actuarial tables sort of favor it. Fair enough no one wants to discuss the age of the equipment...least of all the Governor I guarantee you he has already seen a perfectly configured spreadsheet that confirms the price tag on new rolling stock. So yeah "Thank Ghod for Operator Error" thinks the Governor, the Lege and that meshugginah Fiscal Board at the MBTA......

Napoleon III spent a good chunk of

the 1850s & 1860's inconstantly supporting "National Self Determination & Unity" in Italty (as long as he wasn't seen as beating up The Pope). Of course the one nation in Europe who took the whole message of "National Self Determination & Unity" to Heart was The Germans who happily submitted to Prussian Political Domination and shortly beat Napoleon III on battlefield like a Red Headed Stepchild. So every time I see a new ISIL outrage on the TV news or some ghastly massacre in Iraq/Syria I try to recall that the US Army once swarmed in to Iraq intent on fostering that same "National Self Determination & Unity" and a good chunk of democracy as well. So far we have about as much to show for it as Louis Napoleon did in Italy.....

While her boss

Governor Charlie Baker has denounced Donald Trump's Muslim Exclusionism in no uncertain terms no one seems to have heard a whisper of an "Amen" from Lt. Governor Polito. Granted she doesn't quite command the same media attention, and even Baker's denunciation was front page on the Globe's Metro Section....bit still we shoulda heard something shouldn't we? Hey if I'm wrong feel free to furnish proof in the Comments Section....

I will grant that

Governor Baker is likely sincere when he reject's Donald Trump's plan to bare Muslims from entering the USA under almost all circumstances. I mean it's crazy UnAmerican and unworkable and also a deeply desired narcotic to the GOP Base. We can't expect detailed policy pronouncements from Donald Trump he is a bit of a political drug pusher after all, one that the rest of those jobbers in the GOP sweeps can't seem to stop. But it's easy for Baker to reject Trump's plan for Muslim ethnic cleansing....Charlie is after a moderate republican from a blue state. Moreover such resolute public rejection does nicely obscure the Governor's own ambivalence about taking in Syrian Refugees or at least that seems to be how the ever worshipful Boston Globe is playing it in today's metro section. Blogger gold though Trump is, I'm resistant to the urge to turn this into a 24-7 Donald Trump blogathon. That doesn't mean I don't wanna see whatever passes for his stump speech in NH though. BTW by all accounts Trump has a plurality up there and a double digit lead on whatever wanker is in second place this week and all by doing as little personal retail campaigning in the Granite State as possible. I find that part interesting...and instructive as to the "nationalization" of the New Hampshire Primary. My question is, what IF, Trump places in Iowa, wins New Hampshire and sweeps South Carolina....? At that point the RNC would have to get absolutely frantic about stopping Trump, but would the leadership countenance serious all out "Florida Recount" skullduggery in a bid to thwart Donald Trump?

Its important to remember

that the Federal Union temporarily went to smash in 1861 because the Presidency was in the hands of a Party and a Statesman who insisted that Congress did indeed have the authority to restrict the growth of slavery within US Territories and any incoming states into the Union. Thats it...on that notion alone sired a whole bloody civil war. Now today, there are statesmen and even politicians out there who insist the Federal Government may regulate the saturation of firearms in Civil Society. And just as there are others in contemporary public life who insist they need as many firearms as possible to thwart any attempt to regulate said firearm saturation. Anyone else out there see any vague historic parallels?

I'm not gonna wax wrathful about the massacre in California...

Save only to note that I've exhausted my rhetoric talking about the perils of "gun saturation" in the USA...and our elected representatives have largely sat thru a dozen prior provocations in complete silence....You'd think they'd speak up but no....this is Congress After All. It is burdensome to be governed by such cowards....