In Memoriam, G.H.W.B.

"This talk of sincerity, I confess, fatigues me. If the fellow was sincere, then so was P. T. Barnum."
H.L. Mencken, 1925

Let the record show, that if my youth was ruined by Ronald Reagan, then my adulthood was brought low by his successor, George Herbert Walker Bush, who died last night at the age of ninety four.
I have a curious flaw, like many of my tribe, I cannot forget a grudge, and if there was a politician against whom I've held a grudge for a long time, it is the First President Bush.
In that respect, he made a good target, patrician-seeming, incoherent on his best days, prone to bouts of indecision, given to hiring men who deserved solitary confinement to run his campaigns, he was indeed a mixture of irritating and unpleasant contradictions.
I will say this though, politics in the USA is sodden with lackeys, fawning obsequious persons who truckle on the mighty that they might trample on all below them (expl: Jared Kushner), the irony is, they rarely achieve power.  Bush Senior, blithely defied this conventional wisdom, blowing past the accumulated corruptions of the Reagan admin (including the vast impeachable offense that was, Iran-Contra), crushing Mike Dukakis in the general election and winning the White House in 1988.
No small achievement given the Republic's ongoing skepticism about Vice Presidents.
Bush must've felt wonderful when he first sat down in the Oval Office, entitled in extremis after years of political jobbery, ass kissing and borderline criminal acts on behalf of Richard Nixon, Jerry Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Indeed if Bush was "A Giant of a Man" its only by comparison to our current roster of pathetic wowsers.
Am I the only one who remember all those scare stories that eructated from the CIA when Bush was Director back in the mid seventies to the effect that the Soviets were running out of oil and were on the brink of blitzkrieging the Middle East?
His career in public service is littered with similar malign zaniness.
The man knew the ineffable zen of running distasteful errands for his bosses sans any questions whatsoever. If you were ever wondering how the hell a brainless jobber like Dan Quayle could become VP, just look to that value structure.
To read the lavish obituary in the Globe today, a veritable Moderate Republican Solon had passed from the scene, but let me ask you, from Clarence Thomas to his broken promises about taxes, exactly what did George Bush ever moderate??
"Win Ugly, Govern Ugly" was a dictum that I put forth back in 2000 when his son seized power, I can credit Junior with far more sincerity on this point. His father thought he could "win ugly" and do as he pleased even posing as a "kinder gentler" conservative (a formulation ever bit as big a joke as Dukakis' infamous tank ride...).
And then of course it all fell apart didn't it? The economy blew up in his face, the electorate forgot about Willy Horton and shoved Bill Clinton into the White House with an audible disaffected grunt.
But...peace to his ashes.
I do feel for his family, they must endure what passes for humane condolences from Donald Trump, no one great or obscure should suffer like that....

When Coups Fail...

normally, in other barbarous lands, people are stood up against a wall and shot.  Not here in the USA though, look at U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, his bid to unseat presumed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has seemingly failed ignominiously, and all he does is try to open some fruitless negotiations with the leadership while looking around for his next big political adventure.
This is hardly "Operation Valkyrie" mah frenz.
Well all I can say is that Seth Mouton's motto seems to be: "Only by Challenge, Shall I Rise", it is by challenge he unseated Tierney, it was by challenge he tried to overthrow Pelosi and whatever happens next it'll likely be a primary challenge here in the Commonwealth.
The question is, does he want to wait four years and take a flyer in the gubernatorial primary (assuming Charlie Baker is not on the ballot)?
Or Maybe he wants to run for President in 2020, that could be murky going since there are literally three other Massachusetts based candidates in play, I am assuming that like most politicians Moulton likes to avoid crowds, if he can.
Lastly and most dangerously he might bid on a primary challenge to Ed Markey in 2020, and this is where the nightmare scenario kicks in because Moulton might rough Ed up enough to make the Junior Senator easy pickings for a candidate like Charlie Baker (whose huge numbers two weeks ago might tempt him into a race where he can guarantee the advantage of incumbency to "Acting Governor Polito").  Either that, or Moulton displaces Markey for the senatorial nomination and thus ends up running against a tanned re$ted & ready Charlie Baker...a match up Moulton himself pointedly declined this year.
Seth, all I'm saying is, think about it, you could end up prolonging Charlie Baker's already morbidly repetitive political career....

John Kasich (remember him??)

is making forlorn noises about "challenging Trump" in 2020.  In his own way, he is just as deluded as the President, Kasich really thinks there is a Anti-Trump constituency within the GOP that can be activated during the presidential primaries.
I don't see it at all, pretty much the entire GOP has made a very bad Faustian Bargain with Donald Trump and only perhaps a truly botched international crisis or another recession will break it, and I doubt even then....
Its difficult to flank Trump on the right, because he's done such a good job of co-opting extremists, the argument has to be made on constitutional principles and our international commitments, none too popular planks come the South Carolina Primary.
I doubt Kasich will do it, for lack of courage, I strongly suspect he cannot raise the money and most of all, he is the sort of prissy politician that Trump eats for breakfast. In other words the President is good at beating up lame weaklings, and that is John Kasich in a nutshell.

No, reluctantly I am forced to the conclusion that only a serious well funded third party bid can deny Trump the votes and thwart him in the General Election. From the GOP, we can expect nothing.  Said 3rd Party Challenge will require a lot of money and credible persuasive candidate, perhaps someone can leverage the Libertarians since they already on the ballot, but that will also require a certain amount of ruthlessness...to the point of making de facto common cause with the democrats. I doubt there are any credible candidates out there, willing to assume this amount of risk in a deliberately doomed campaign.
As at the moment the only Libertarian making Presidential noises is, Bill Weld, God Help Us.

W'all Ah Swan...

reading Joan Vennochi's column in today's Globe is a wonder indeed, apparently she is on both Seth Moulton and Nancy Pelosi's side in their coming struggle for the speakership of the US House.  Somehow the argument goes that having finally battled thru to a strong majority, Nancy Pelosi must now slay two more dragons before claiming her title...and that somehow is good for the democratic party.

Division is never good at a time like this, especially when the opposition is more or else united and dominated by an ambitious authoritarian spirit.

What the hell does a woman, especially an older woman, have to do to claim power in this meshugginah country??  Never has success been punished so relentlessly, but then again this is the USA old and female is always a target in the private sector, I've seen it happen a dozen times.

Frankly I think Moulton is out of line here, he has seemingly nationalized his perpetual fight against party insiders and various unelected elites.  Fine Seth, I get it, you primaried Tierney you beat the odds you think you don't own anyone, anything.  Thats not a license to make a transparent and cringeworthy bid to overturn the US House Leadership via ageism and sexism...cuz thats what is in play here.  I think congressperson Moulton was hoping that the democrats would lose the House this year and thus clear the way for his coup, now however he faces an opponent with resources to redistribute and the wind at her back.

I hope it's enough...

This is just too good to be true....

Donald Trump is supposedly questioning the loyalty of his sycophantic toadying VP, Mike Pence, per the New York Times of Course.
This is just hilarious to contemplate on a number of levels, as well as being proof positive that Trump himself regards the recent midterms as a setback for him and the GOP he has completely suborned.
Just remember when Trump's back is to the wall, he lashes out at anyone anywhere as long as they are incapable of retaliation, and that is the very definition of the U.S. Vice Presidency.
If someone was ruthless, cunning & subtle, they'd stoke Trump's suspicions of Mike Pence and perhaps ignite one of his cringeworthy twitter tirades akin to the ones he unleashed that other canine-like Trump loyalist, Jeff Sessions.
Who knows? Maybe Pence can be intimidated into resigning...if the timing on that is just right, that puts Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives directly astride the confirmation process.  Assuming of course Pelosi is the next Speaker of the House...and if she is, the House can easily withhold confirmation of the VP nominee and make a female democrat Trump's lawful successor for the rest of his term.
Sure its a crazy scenario, but we are living with a far crazier and more dangerous scenario every day...it certainly can't divide the nation any more than it is fractured at the moment, don't kid yourself.

Lumpy & Nothingness

The Boston Globe is predictably excited as the Governor has all but promised that his second term in office will basically be "more of the same".
What this means is, that the Globe will continue to give CPR to the bleached skeletal remains of "moderate republicanism", while Lumpy watches, quietly.
So if it is indeed, "more of the same", we can look forward to an MBTA that is still hobbling on crutches, while the buildings continue to degrade,  and the State Police's leadership continue to get indicted one by one...no one fired not one word from the Corner Office.
And trust me, Baker hasn't given up on his one true utopian notion, to privatize the public schools, make everyone pay more even as he touts tax cuts as the veritable cure for cancer.
This is what happens when you set the bar low for a republican they exploit it, and right now the bar is set so low for Lumpy a crippled ant could leap over it...

Notes from an UnNationalist...

""By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people...Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality." 

George Orwell

A few weeks and many many stupid statements ago, The President of the USA explicitly decloseted himself as a "nationalist" in front of one of his adoring rally crowds.  And today at the Centennial for the World War One Armistice, French President Macron very bravely denounced nationalism as the author of all Europe's travails.
y'know...he is right.
It was Germany's thirst to dominate Europe and push the Slavs behind the Ural Mountains that brought World War One down on us all.  All ignited by the nationalist notion that Germany was being "denied" something or else was menaced by semi-barbarous hordes.  The irony is, that only thing that "nationalist exercise"definitely accomplished was helping the Bolsheviks take over All The Russias.
Twenty years later it was the ultra-nationalist Adolf Hitler's turn to wage a war of extermination right to the gates of Moscow, only to have the Russians wage likewise and same all the way to the banks to the Elbe River.  One spasm of nationalism gave Russian to Marxism Leninism, the Second brought Communism at the point of a bayonet from "Stettin on the Baltic, to Triest on the Adriatic" in the neat phrase of Winston Churchill.
My point being, that Euro-Nationalism only ends up "Holding the Bridle" for some other equally bad Political Cult...the last time it was Marxism...this time, I can't say, with our luck Putin's Brand of degraded Ayn Randism maybe.