The Boston Herald Rides Off into the Sunset...

as the Boston Daily files for Bankruptcy and is summarily sold to Gatehouse Media for a mere 4.5 million dollars.
Shee-it I coulda raised that kind of money had I but known.
But lets face it, newspapers are all but dead and buried...the nurses won't perform CPR the next time they "code" believe me.  If the Herald does manage to stay in business once they run the gamut of lawsuits on the union contracts & pension obligations they are officially disowning, I doubt it'll be little more than a louder version of the Boston Metro.  Thin with nothing but sports comics and Howie Carr...and I doubt even that can be viable in today's market.
I've made vicious fun of the Herald and it's "wingnut fan fiction" editorial mandate but this story does make me sad, for a long time the Hub was a "two newspaper town" with ideologically opposed daily's as well, its something that pretty much ceased to exist all over the USA decades but Boston contrarian to the bitter end, kept it up for decades past the expiration date.
And as someone who has been laid off several times and will be again one of these days, I feel very bad that the Herald will unload another fifty plus employees by next February....journalists are clogging up the unemployment offices that is a bad thing of itself...the End is Truly Nigh.
In other words,  We've never been poorer in the midst of plenty.

Kudos to Former Governor Patrick

He is apparently going down to Alabama to campaign for Doug Jones this weekend, rallies and get out the vote type events so I read. This is exactly the right thing to do, in a campaign like Jones v. The Political Pederast the last weekend before the Big Show has to be given over to high energy GOTV efforts, turning out African Americans is the key to any conceivable victory.
So win or lose its the right thing for Patrick to be doing...I just hope he doesn't have any "Big Plans" down the road but the fact that he is electioneering in Alabama is a source of disquiet in that regards.
On the other hand, if Ed Markey were to retire (the word on the street is thats an unlikely eventuality) I'd be bangin' the pots 24-7 for "Deval for the US Senate" race.
Anyhow Good Luck Governor ...

If Jerusalem is now official by US Presidential Fiat

Israel's "Eternal Capital" then when does Dublin become the "Eternal Capital of a United Ireland" 26+6=1 or...thirty two or some damn thing.
We all know the answer to that, some Eternal Capitals are More Equal Than Others and for the exactly nothing in return Trump gave away an important concession in Israel, Putin and Netanyahu must be laughing their asses off at our Amateur Manchild President.
The only real short term cost will be in the lives of outraged Muslims in the Region but thats of little account to us these days, until some fellow citizen in endangered or killed.  This is otherwise a dumb fan service sort of a move from Trump it restricts our options in a region where we've never had a greater presence and less influence.
But it makes the Jeff Jacoby's of this world happy but thats all who are happy with it believe me.

Alleged Pederast Roy Moore

Candidate for Senate and not sadly, maximum security, is currently Up in the Polls in Alabama's Special Senate Race.
That is to be expected sad to say, the myth of grievance is pretty strong down there right now, Alabama will apparently vote for any loudmouth sonovabitch who promises a few asses to kick.
Doug Jones is running the best campaign he can, not sure what the right move is right now, my original advice was to "Give Em' Heaven" but now I'm wondering if his campaign slogan should be "Doug Jones for Senate: One Less Predatory Freak in Washington".
Meanwhile Steve Bannon is ranting and raving like a real life "Fred Van Ackerman" so all in all, I'd advise Senator McConnell to quietly keep the female interns and pages a nice safe distance from Roy Moore, if necessary get a restraining order.
But then this is Mitch McConnell we are taking about, courage is not his strong suit...

Of course the new tax bill is economic cannibalism on a national scale

you don't need me to tell you that...it was largely written by libertarian onanists who've been fantasizing about satiating their dark grievances since the empire days of Friedrich Hayek now at last they have a window of opportunity to destroy that pesky link to reality and force us all to live inside their cozy dream world.
What is means in reality is that the upper class will feast upon the middle class and the working class indeed all below them on the economic ladder...and when that food source is exhausted they'll starve or else start roasting one another over charcoal pits.
Now before you succumb to despair, delusion is not a super power, it is a illness and a burden and sooner or later our opponents will start making pathology driven errors that we must be organized and prepared to exploit.
As always we must stand by the constitution and the facts of the world the rest of us live in.

Stan Rosenberg steps down as Ma State Senate President

amidst sexual harassment allegations centering on his spouse Byron Hefner.  I hate to say this but, thats pretty much the minimum that good judgement and the needs of justice would require.  The optics in this situation are perfectly toxic, to say nothing of the looming legalities, I speak from some small experience no one ever emerges vindicated in the eyes of the public in an entirely avoidable situation like this.  Whether or not Rosenberg stays in the State Senate, to be fair, ought to wait on the promised independent investigation, but no matter the outocome the Senate President seems fatally compromised which would imply that the upper house ought to start looking for new long term leadership.
It kills me to write this, I knew Stan Rosenberg years ago when he was a freshman state rep and I a graduate student at UMass Amherst. He was nothing but a decent upstanding reliable individual in every way that he has come to this pretty pass is appalling to watch even from the distant remove of many years.
There is no way this doesn't end badly, at times like this as democrats, liberals or even fellow citizens we should orient ourselves towards only the lawful & transparent execution of justice.
No More, No Less & No Excuses.

It is thanks to my Gray Haired Old Irish Mother

and My Late Father, who were both exposed to the matchless Oratory of the late James Michael Curley, that I in turn can use the word "orotund" in a sentence with confidence. In the early 1940's the Former Mayor of Boston, Governor of Massachusetts & Incumbent Congressman was yet prowling Cambridge ceaselessly plotting his return to Boston City Hall...so they say him speak and speak...and speak.