Imus inter Pares...

Late word comes to us that Don Imus the groaning gasping scourge of AM Talk Radio up and died down in Texas.
No loss really, he was a drunk, more than a little racist, abusive to those beneath him, a shameless truckler to those above, his comedy was execrable, his novel allegedly ghostwritten and lets face it, there is nothing worse than a drug addicted reactionary unless its a drug addicted reactionary with a nationally syndicated drive time radio show.
I recall with the simplest nostalgia the I-Man's nauseating war whooping in the lead up to the Second Gulf War, Him, the Late Tim Russert or Chris Matthew all shrieking like Middle School Magpies at the prospect of Iraq's Easy Conquest.
Of course by 2008, he'd walk all that back, but he wouldn't have been the I-Man if he hadn't believe me.
That having been said, he was virtually the only drive time radio yakker who put national democrats on the air, John Kerry, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joe Lieberman (yes, I know...) among others. It ain't much but it was one of the few places where I could hear what was on the minds of the party's alleged elite.

Keep in mind, this is back in 2002, when Howard Stern was a reliably belligerent mark for the GOP, as opposed to the Buttigeig democrat The King of All Media is Today.

Anyhow, that nasty old man is dead now, his accomplishment add up to almost nothing, I'd say good riddance but I'd happily have him back if I could have Harold Ford Jr. as President.
Shit at this point I'd settle for Jerry Ford.

I got to hand it to Nancy Pelosi

she may actually be a better Speaker of the US House than my Landsman, Tip O'Neill.  A scant year ago the likes of Seth Moulton were indifferently scheming at her overthrow, and now today look at her, US Rep Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House Constitutional Democracy's Last Best Hope to Endure!
Much is made of the fact that she gathered no republican supporters when the Impeachment Articles came to a vote, less commented upon is that she had exactly three defections from the democratic ranks, Tip O'Neill could but dream of party discipline so tightly cinched!  Moreover I think all along, Pelosi knew she'd wouldn't get a single GOP vote when push came to shove, she took one look at the House Republican Caucus and saw it instantly for a cowardly rabble given to groveling before Shakespeare's False God "Commodity."
Maybe Humble Elias is Shocked that no-one from the GOP voted in favor of Impeachment (not even the republican House Members who are retiring, who understand clearly that Trump is Guilty) but Speaker Pelosi clearly wasn't.
She made her move, when history told her to move, GOP support or no GOP support, I like that about her, she is tough, smarter than Trump in every way and she knows Mitch McConnell is a grim cheap hoodlum, why else would she dangle the Articles of Impeachment over their heads like the Mythic Sword of Damocles?
My guess is, forget the taunts and the tweets, Pelosi knows Trump is a sick impulsive man, the longer she drags out the suspense the better the chances Trump will do something stupid like make ludicrous concessions in the name of a quick Senate Trial.
Churchill said it best when discussing President Lincoln's many critics "They did not know leadership when they saw it".

Boris Johnson's Landslide Logic...

Apparently Great Britain MUST leave the EU, but Scotland and Northern Ireland MUST remain within the U.K. no matter what the majorities in those countries may want or say.  All I know is there is a clear majority in Scotland that wants to remain in the EU and Pro-Nationalists have a Majority in Belfast's Legislature. Johnson will get his Brexit but centrifugal forces are building up in British Politics, Union with the Irish Republic is openly discussed sans homicide in North, and Scotland clearly believes its best long term economic interests lie in the European Union.  England may well be a Kingdom but it won't be a United Kingdom ere long methinks.
Ya know what?
I'm fine with it.
F*ck em'.
I am done Talking England Off Yet Another Ledge, if the British People Wanna Jump into the Abyss, Let Them.  Boris Johnson with all his shifty populist rubbish may well be the best way to get peaceful & lawful Irish Unity in the span of my life time. If the breakup of the UK is the price that has to be paid to unify Ireland, so be it, they were warned.
Just a quick pro-note to Boris Johnson, my advise is, if Brexit goes off and England slides into depression you will literally get better terms from almost any lender of choice than Donald Trump, that guy is a consistent mortal danger to those who work closest with him, just ask any of his current or former attorney's...Pay Heed Boris.

With Friends Like Saudi Arabia...

who the f**k needs enemies??

I mean how can we not just luv dese guys?  The chop up journalists and lie about it, they keep trying to get us to destroy Iran for them, their second biggest export seems to be nascent terrorists and they are so special and dear to us that their military trainees can buy firearms in the USA Free & Clear.
Sounds Like a Bargain to Me, What could go wrong??
Central America has the gall to send us starvelings willing to work sh*t jobs for short money, Saudi Arabia though sends us trained motivated killers, are they a great ally or what??

Governor Charlie Baker is the Dullest Politician from Massachusetts

since the Empire Days of Calvin Coolidge.  He was reading tonight's winter storm advisory like it was a slightly baffling & unexpected invoice.  His voice modulates up and down with slight sing song  variance, and he a profoundly uncomfortable presence on the television.  And then when is done droning away, he summons Lieutenant Polito to the podium, her first line is "Thanks, Guv!"...I mean this is a lightweight in a lightweight's job.  The rest of the team (Secretary of Transportation, MBTA Chair) are all just as enervating to watch. Frankly the most charismatic and animated public servant serving in the current Executive Department of the Commonwealth, is Charlie Baker's sign language interpreter.

The Story So Far...

After last week's democratic debate on MSNBC, I can only come to the conclusion that Senators Kamala Harris & Cory Booker are hanging in there to burnish their Vice Presidential Prospects. Both are passionate, articulate, can swing a mean soundbite and even so they are both dead in the water, in the patois of Frank Dell, "They aren't mo-oving bay-bee!" Right now their last best hope of Overthrowing Destiny Lies in a Joe Biden Nomination for President. Harris would make a formidable  Veep for Biden, classy yet tough, Pence wouldn't last long in debate with her believe me.  Booker on the other hand is a Veep for Mystic Symmetry, Biden made it to Veep with an African American Heading the Ticket, now he returns the favor by nominated another poised articulate passionate African American Man as his Veep.
Meanwhile Buttigeig is moving up in the polls out in Iowa, but then all polished articulate outsiders with a Kennedy-esque ability to project a comforting establishment glow have their Day in the Sun in the democratic presidential sweeps. And lets face it, Buttigeig has an Obama-like capacity to incarnate himself as the very  prospect of change, it obscures his essentially centrist pragmatic outlook nicely.  At the moment though, the polling indicates he is pulling support pretty much from Biden which does sent up an interesting confrontation down the line...maybe.
Biden meanwhile lumbers along, abandoned seemingly by everyone save the voters who consistently seem to regard him as the preferred grizzled gunslinger hired to clean out the high binders & bandits currently infesting the Republic.

These are pretty much the front runners at this point, Bloomberg seems poised to spend 37 million dollars of his own money on TV adverts in Iowa and NH, but then this is stark necessity, time has gotten so short its impossible to shake enough hands or eat enough spaghetti to make a fast surge up in the polls.
As for the other late entry, our own Deval Patrick, who apparently if the Boston Globe is to be believed thinks he can turn the South Carolina Primary into a Game Changer...I just don't see it happening, the era of the late coup in the democratic primaries is long over. Its a sort of narcotic myth indulged by the punditariat, like brokered conventions and sudden third party bids.  No right now the field with the inside track seems to be Sanders, Warren, Biden & at the moment, Buttigeig...that fourth outlier spot could change, who knows Yang might catch fire but time is getting short for everyone front runner and dark horse.
But, if I was to speculate, if its Biden it'll have to be someone who excites the base as well as someone younger, that superficially favors either Harris or Booker. I also think Biden may himself feel constrained to choose a woman as a gesture toward the forces of change in the democratic party.
On the other hand, he seems to get along famously with Warren...regardless of their health care policy differences.
Sanders is more of an interesting poser, he is so very self contained politically, I'm not sure what would be his idea of a Veep that would promote party unity? Certainly I think he'd be under some similar constraints to pick someone younger. Who knows, maybe Beto O'Rourke?
Elizabeth Warren likely needs someone that speaks "foreign policy gravitas", A General Perhaps...is Wesley Clark still listening to pitches?
And lastly Buttigeig the change agent incarnate, he faces the longest odds and who knows if his bounce will still be there next week, but with him, the Veepstakes are simple, he needs an African American, Harris or Booker again, even Patrick would do nicely in a pinch.
Granted the race is in flux, but recall please not too much flux, sooner or later someone racks up a plurality that looks pretty formidable, then we are off to the races.

Apparently, according to Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe Today...

we are All guilty of impeachable offenses, we permitted congress to let go of its war making powers and so somehow we are all implicated in literally millions of war crimes.
That is literally his argument today, and you know what, I applaud him, at least he followed all of his ideas thru to their logical conclusion and then tied them all together in an unfathomable granny knot.
Of course none of it has any practical value, if everyone is guilty, then no one is, because there is no real or metaphoric possibility of Justice.  How can criminals act as judges, juries, prosecutors or defense counsel?
Now me? I say justice is the redress of wrongdoing and the punishment of wrongdoers.  A free people  who live by the rule of law are best able to honor and uphold justice.  Kinzer has a theory of injustice its vast and well thought out, but it'll never redress any wrongdoing nor penalize any wrong doer.
I think he knows that, which is why I suspect Stephen secretly wishes Trump every success, since it'll destroy the USA's skein of overseas alliances and what...bring about a new eschaton of grievance where This Republic will stand Indicted For All Its Crimes At Long Last...or else a sweet wind will blow down from the mountains and make all right again...some damn thing.