Funny

 we don't have a national contact tracing program re. covid19 because the testing regime is veers from chaotic ineptitude to "barely holding on" from state to state. We don't even have a federal masking mandate, basically our national strategy consists of factual epigrams from Dr. Fauci followed by berserk incoherent rages from Our President.

So really we got nothing, and we are on track to lose a quarter million of our fellow citizens by year's end.

Nonetheless The President does have a clear transparent and effective national strategy to disrupt the US Postal Service and prevent effective voting by mail. So you see, national strategies

do work...

The Inadequacy that is Shame...

 On the day his younger brother Robert died, President Trump apparently went on a high speed Police Boat Ride in NYC. He then accepted the endorsement of the NYPD for reelection and today, the day after his brother died, Trump went golfing.

And the rest of us are so battered by events, we now accept all this as somehow normal.  I wonder if Donald checked Robert's teeth for any gold fillings? Pliers in hand of course....

Oh Thank Ghod....

 Joe Biden in a burst of common sense, chose Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate today.  Hopefully she will give him the Party Unity needed to bring the Fight to Donald Trump come this fall. And believe me, that is gonna be a fight.

And Besides, Biden has proven himself to be a big hearted guy who holdeth no grudges, he rose from the floor from all those haymakers Harris landed in the debates back last fall.  Rest assured Biden was knocked down the most, and he got up again the most...to paraphrase the late Floyd Patterson.

Now maybe Harris up a few of those haymakers on that doddering stammering stumblebum, Mike Pence.

"Show No Mercy Kamala" is all I can advise.

And perhaps best of all, Joe Biden has spared the Commonwealth another Special Senate Election by NOT tendering the nomination to Senior Senator Warren...having been there in 2010 and seeing our Main Chance Slip Away, I for one, Am Grateful.

Now Where can I get a bumper sticker, I need one badly...

As for the Pending Democratic Senate Primary

I offer my heartiest endorsement to Senator Ed Markey, for renomination and reelection. In a sea of Massachusetts' Politicians who all burn with the Fever Dream of Avenging 11/22/1963 and proudly Marching to the Banks of the Potomac...Markey is an anomaly, a progressive workhorse.  We've got Men of Destiny, Women of Destiny, Eloquent Seraphs, Prophets, Sorceresses...But only Ed Markey seems to realize that an Expansive Free and Democratic Vision of the Future, requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice.
Change comes of the unnatural marriage of zeal and perseverance, those are both "Brand Markey" to the core.
Kennedy is a good man, I guess...He hasn't really wrung up a very long record in congress, he is definitely the vanguard of the Commonwealth's deathless "March to the Potomac" brigade, other than that, I hardly know the man, his commercials make him look awfully young like he should be assistant managing a Dairy Queen or Something.
But I digress, it was different with Kennedy's Father, I'd a walked thru fire for that guy, The Spartan's of Arlington loved him.  But times change, but the change agent here, is Markey not Kennedy, he's put the time in, if the democrats carry both Houses of Congress this Fall, Markey will at last be in a position to put paid to his Agenda.
I wanna see that happen, I don't wanna start over with some new guy, especially some new guy who'll  be raising funds to run for President by Thanksgiving should he be nominated.
Lets keep our Heads Here, and Lets Keep Ed Markey.

On the other hand,

I wouldn't mind one bit if every statue and memorial in the USA erected to the deathless memory of the likes of Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis were melted down to make durable commodes in public housing projects.  Those men reneged on a solemn oath taken to defend the US Constitution that they subsequently defied and sought to destroy.
That having been said, the removal of such lascivious and unpleasant memorials is more on the "symbolic politics" spectrum, it's nice but it doesn't change anything.
So If, your goal is, a demilitarized police force, drawn from a diverse citizenry & trained to function honorably in a democratic society, then I don't think dropping Christopher Columbus' statue into the Harbor gets you there.
Just saying, the politics of distraction have an honored history in the USA they are designed to thwart progress either by slowing down the critical time frame or else dissipating the unity of progressive forces.
As I said, just sayin'.

President Andrew Johnson isn't remembered well these days...

and there are legit reasons for that, let us be honest. The man was a "piece of work" on racial issues to be sure. But let us also recall that when his home state of Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, Johnson loudly denounced all secession & rebellion, he chose His Country over His State.  He was the only southern US Senator to choose the Federal Union over the Confederacy, the only one.
Robert E. Lee, faced with the exact same choice, bound by oath to the US Constitution, begged by Abe Lincoln to command his armies and put down the rebellion, made the opposite decision.
Robert E. Lee chose "State before Country", and yet somehow today we are finally getting to debating what is to be done with all these statues of the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.  Frankly if all those statues of Marse Robert were melted down to make bronze commodes in Public Housing Projects, no one would be happier than I.  Remember that when the debate starts about the statue of Andrew Johnson in the State Capitol in Nashville Tennessee, as bad and misguided as Johnson was, he choice the Union and the US Constitution, that matters.

If I had to guess

I think both the Player's Association & the Owners both mentally walked away from the table weeks ago in respect of restarting Professional Baseball in the USA. The players want all the money they contracted for in March, they also don't want to set any precedents that'll impede their freedom of action at next year's contract talks. The owners, are owners, they wanna spend as little as possible in a fraught and fluid pathogenic situation.
The issue of how many games will be played,is a mere sideshow, the players and the owners are both waiting for Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred to order the teams to play ball on a truncated fifty game schedule, one that allows players to collect 100% of their pro-rated salaries and which also imposes the least financial burden on the allegedly cash strapped owners. Everyone can simply blame Manfred for imposing a restart via fiat, everyone gets to keep their money and their freedom of action...and if anything goes wrong, its Manfred's fault because he forced everyone to play.
I don't often have anything sensible to say about professional sports, today's commentary is derived from reading the Boston Globe's sport page to My Mother over the phone while she sits out her own lockdown in a Nursing Home.  I cannot analyze the sport from any experienced perspective, but I do have a background in politics and can assess things on a political basis.
No one has an incentive to negotiate since they know they'll be compelled to play under that are circumstances the least disadvantageous to everyone.