The Commonwealth's Byzantine Liquor Laws. My main initial takeaway seems to be the commission will be recommending revisions to the fee structure in a way that'll bring in some extra state revenue from liquor sales. If implemented, the fee increase would quietly skirt the wholesale repeal of the liquor tax accomplished by ballot initiative a few years ago, but then again, thats how the legislature rolls in Massachusetts.
My other big takeway is that there seems some impetus to simplying the liquor laws in Massachusetts but then that is a fraught word here in the Commonwealth..."simplify" I mean.
Fee increases aside I could get behind all this mishaugas if it allows smaller independent outfits like the Somerville Theatre access to a "full bar" as part of their concession offerings. Currently said venue gets by with beer and wine while phat corporate venues like the Superlux Theater has a full bar on offer. Movie theaters live and die on the profit margin provided by concessions so anything that expands options for the independent operator is fine by me.
But remember this is all conjecture, the legislature hasn't acted on any of the commission recommendations yet...but it requires watching to be sure.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Jeff Jacoby has finally found His Big Crush in the Trump Admin
and predictably he has found it in US Ambassador Nikki Haley who has wholeheartedly embraced the whole "Jerusalem as Israel's Eternal Capitol" jazz. Christmas is the season of grievances & hardcore American Zionist Wingnuts like Jeff have always nursed a grudge against the U.N. For its real & imagined anti Israeli Bias.
I'm sure Jeff has Presidential Fantasies about Haley but for the moment those can be tabled, allegedly she is on the short list to succeed Rex Tillerson at the State Department next year, if she is smart (and she strikes me as very smart) she'll steer clear of Foggy Bottom. In New York she has virtual free reign, but proximity to Trump's White House automatically imposes costs and potential legal exposure.
Why risk it? She can ride out all the storms incurred by the President's pathological tweetage and the Special Counsel's Investigation in Manhattan sans worry or woe and still be a mere ninety minutes from New Hampshire via plane.
Besides, sooner or later we are likely gonna stumble into a succession crisis and when we do, Haley is gonna want some distance from Mike Pence as well.
I'm sure Jeff has Presidential Fantasies about Haley but for the moment those can be tabled, allegedly she is on the short list to succeed Rex Tillerson at the State Department next year, if she is smart (and she strikes me as very smart) she'll steer clear of Foggy Bottom. In New York she has virtual free reign, but proximity to Trump's White House automatically imposes costs and potential legal exposure.
Why risk it? She can ride out all the storms incurred by the President's pathological tweetage and the Special Counsel's Investigation in Manhattan sans worry or woe and still be a mere ninety minutes from New Hampshire via plane.
Besides, sooner or later we are likely gonna stumble into a succession crisis and when we do, Haley is gonna want some distance from Mike Pence as well.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Nikki Haley Kicks Ass and Takes Names at the UN
threatening vague retaliation for the UN's refusal to endorse the USA's unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's "Eternal Capitol".
I'm gonna posit something, when Donald Trump's patently empty threats are amplified by one of his appointees, said threats gain nothing in credence. Nikki Haley looks like a Mafia Princess trying to stare down the MilkMan and the UN spins out of control to the merriment and benefit of Moscow and Peking and Pyongyang etc etc.
And of course, today, having threaten and insulted the UN Ambassador Haley has to somehow put togther a coalition to increase sanctions of North Korea.
Good Luck with That, Nikki is all I can tell ya.
This cringeworthy incident full of vague ominious and never realized promises of retaliation are the Trump Admin's idea of "success" and may well put Nikki Haley on the short list for Secretary of State once the blundering jobbers that surround the President figure out how to heave Tillerson over the side on the first go, a simple trick that these numbskulls have yet to master.
But if and when it goes down, I wish Ms Haley the sweet christian joy of her new job...if she gets it, if she retains it.
I'm gonna posit something, when Donald Trump's patently empty threats are amplified by one of his appointees, said threats gain nothing in credence. Nikki Haley looks like a Mafia Princess trying to stare down the MilkMan and the UN spins out of control to the merriment and benefit of Moscow and Peking and Pyongyang etc etc.
And of course, today, having threaten and insulted the UN Ambassador Haley has to somehow put togther a coalition to increase sanctions of North Korea.
Good Luck with That, Nikki is all I can tell ya.
This cringeworthy incident full of vague ominious and never realized promises of retaliation are the Trump Admin's idea of "success" and may well put Nikki Haley on the short list for Secretary of State once the blundering jobbers that surround the President figure out how to heave Tillerson over the side on the first go, a simple trick that these numbskulls have yet to master.
But if and when it goes down, I wish Ms Haley the sweet christian joy of her new job...if she gets it, if she retains it.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Bernard Law once Cardinal Archbishop of Boston
Up and died, seemingly alone and friendless in Rome. He was compelled to flee his flock at the full flood of the local Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal and lived out his days the rector of a Basilica in Rome an exile and a prisoner in all but name.
Catholics are taught that God Forgiveness is freely granted to those that sincerely seek it, regardless of the magnitude of their crimes, so who knows maybe Law repented his complicity in an awful series of molestation cases perpetrated by local Catholic Clergy...who knows?
But let the record show Law never betrayed any real public contrition over what he did wrong, the most he ever copped to, and that was under pressure, was that he regretted the pain wrought by his "mistakes".
THAT is all the mercy & justice he ever offered the victims.
And then having cost the Dioceses of Boston 80 million large in damages & at last forced the closure of dozens of sub marginal parishes...he jetted off to the safety of Rome.
The irony is, the local big money Catholics, the "Parish Council Types" forced his ouster they refused to continue to fundraise for an outright Patron of Pederasts, and when you've lost that lot, its over for you mah friend.
Cardinal Law was lucky he had clerical protectors above him just he he protected the priestly pederasts, otherwise a Prince of the Church would've heard the crash of iron for sure.
And likely he should have...
The Vatican is going the Full Dress Route for Law's Funeral, but from their perspective, they've buried bigger scoundrels with far more pomp & circumstance.
Catholics are taught that God Forgiveness is freely granted to those that sincerely seek it, regardless of the magnitude of their crimes, so who knows maybe Law repented his complicity in an awful series of molestation cases perpetrated by local Catholic Clergy...who knows?
But let the record show Law never betrayed any real public contrition over what he did wrong, the most he ever copped to, and that was under pressure, was that he regretted the pain wrought by his "mistakes".
THAT is all the mercy & justice he ever offered the victims.
And then having cost the Dioceses of Boston 80 million large in damages & at last forced the closure of dozens of sub marginal parishes...he jetted off to the safety of Rome.
The irony is, the local big money Catholics, the "Parish Council Types" forced his ouster they refused to continue to fundraise for an outright Patron of Pederasts, and when you've lost that lot, its over for you mah friend.
Cardinal Law was lucky he had clerical protectors above him just he he protected the priestly pederasts, otherwise a Prince of the Church would've heard the crash of iron for sure.
And likely he should have...
The Vatican is going the Full Dress Route for Law's Funeral, but from their perspective, they've buried bigger scoundrels with far more pomp & circumstance.
Monday, December 18, 2017
On Sovereignty...
Sovereignty is Destiny.
It is also at once, intangible and ineffable and vitally necessary to the success of the American Experiment.
"I am born in freedom therefore I intend to remain free."
Sovereignty therefore is our innate will to self governance, we govern no one but ourselves either as individuals or as citizens in the aggregate.
Sovereignty is expressed constitutionally, legally and with full knowledge of all obligations & rights as citizens.
We have chosen to express sovereignty via a somewhat convoluted but sturdy matrix of representative government, federalism, deeded to said institutions via frequent elections, carefully administered to ensure complete legitimacy of outcomes.
Representative government is never direct government by the electorate over the electorate, at best its a hazy rhetorical compromise that The Elected will in some fashion reflect the Electorate's Interests once they pass into the public sphere.
That can lead to all kinds of confusion, a condition better known as "politics".
There is therefore, a natural, ongoing and expected "gap" between that deed of sovereignty and the act of representation. But, due to its inalienable nature, the act of "deeding" sovereignty does not compromise sovereignty in any way. It goes its merry way regardless of the malevolence and or hackwork of it's representatives, said deed is entirely temporary and is subject to revocation of a constitutional type when necessary.
But, if the inherent disconnect becomes too vast or becomes tinged with gruesome intentions or outright corruption, if the deed of sovereignty is repudiated or rankly manipulated by The Elected, then the Sovereign Electorate has recourse to correction & stern measures.
The most obvious recourse is at the ballot box, nothing so humbles the mighty as the sudden deprivation of office, the light that plays about the great and the mighty is snuffed out completely.
There are also the courts, plotters and cabalists all hate the courtroom, the current administration in Washington exhibits all the symptoms of an ongoing judicial-phobia, the reasons for that fear is simple courtrooms are great humblers of the proud and the pathologically proud have but one goal to stoke their pride to an everlasting expansion.
These are relatively slow moving options by our digital age, they have the virtues of legitimacy and irresistible "weight" when they hit, they hit hard.
But that measured pace is alas, a drawback, the proud, the criminal and the elected have the advantage of speed and surprise when they seek to undermine or abolish our rights & our sovereignty.
Even so, The Electorate has Recourse, pressure can be brought to bear in a number of ways, some of it quite rough, sufficiently ignored the wrath of the citizenry can be a terrible thing indeed. Frankly only a fool or a gambler in the full flood of their mania would ever risk it.
We are in the USA at one of those critical moments when the gap between the Elected and the Electorate is wide and getting wider, with many self evident indications of criminality being perpetuated in the name of that "deed of sovereignty".
Steps may have to be taken over the short term. We are "in between" the standard "accountability moments" better known as elections, the issues at hand from retention of our rights, the despoliation of certain classes of citizen, the prospect of a foreign despot's intervention in our sacred electoral process...are all distressing to contemplate.
We must resist the emotion that tells us our options are shrinking, we are losing advantages and are overmatched, that is panic, panic helps the enemy. Refrain from panic and you deny him an important weapon.
At the moment we must move on two fronts, where action is moving forward, encourage further action, support & engage where the activity is felicitous. Where inactivity reigns or worse action is retrograde, thats where all due legal transparency with protest and pressure must be brought to bear.
The Sovereign Electorate has the advantage of "size and weight" in all these matters, If We Lean, the Elected Must Bend, but the pressure must be inexorable...only that weight, will make them panic - when the time comes.
If certain malevolent personalities on the other side of this lamentable gap, seek to aggrandize themselves and make a play for tyranny then matters must escalate and escalate swiftly. Sovereignty can, will and must reclaim its legacy & centrality in this republic. The power to act in this regard is entirely inalienable in all citizens of these United States, such is self governance, such is sovereignty.
It is also at once, intangible and ineffable and vitally necessary to the success of the American Experiment.
"I am born in freedom therefore I intend to remain free."
Sovereignty therefore is our innate will to self governance, we govern no one but ourselves either as individuals or as citizens in the aggregate.
Sovereignty is expressed constitutionally, legally and with full knowledge of all obligations & rights as citizens.
We have chosen to express sovereignty via a somewhat convoluted but sturdy matrix of representative government, federalism, deeded to said institutions via frequent elections, carefully administered to ensure complete legitimacy of outcomes.
Representative government is never direct government by the electorate over the electorate, at best its a hazy rhetorical compromise that The Elected will in some fashion reflect the Electorate's Interests once they pass into the public sphere.
That can lead to all kinds of confusion, a condition better known as "politics".
There is therefore, a natural, ongoing and expected "gap" between that deed of sovereignty and the act of representation. But, due to its inalienable nature, the act of "deeding" sovereignty does not compromise sovereignty in any way. It goes its merry way regardless of the malevolence and or hackwork of it's representatives, said deed is entirely temporary and is subject to revocation of a constitutional type when necessary.
But, if the inherent disconnect becomes too vast or becomes tinged with gruesome intentions or outright corruption, if the deed of sovereignty is repudiated or rankly manipulated by The Elected, then the Sovereign Electorate has recourse to correction & stern measures.
The most obvious recourse is at the ballot box, nothing so humbles the mighty as the sudden deprivation of office, the light that plays about the great and the mighty is snuffed out completely.
There are also the courts, plotters and cabalists all hate the courtroom, the current administration in Washington exhibits all the symptoms of an ongoing judicial-phobia, the reasons for that fear is simple courtrooms are great humblers of the proud and the pathologically proud have but one goal to stoke their pride to an everlasting expansion.
These are relatively slow moving options by our digital age, they have the virtues of legitimacy and irresistible "weight" when they hit, they hit hard.
But that measured pace is alas, a drawback, the proud, the criminal and the elected have the advantage of speed and surprise when they seek to undermine or abolish our rights & our sovereignty.
Even so, The Electorate has Recourse, pressure can be brought to bear in a number of ways, some of it quite rough, sufficiently ignored the wrath of the citizenry can be a terrible thing indeed. Frankly only a fool or a gambler in the full flood of their mania would ever risk it.
We are in the USA at one of those critical moments when the gap between the Elected and the Electorate is wide and getting wider, with many self evident indications of criminality being perpetuated in the name of that "deed of sovereignty".
Steps may have to be taken over the short term. We are "in between" the standard "accountability moments" better known as elections, the issues at hand from retention of our rights, the despoliation of certain classes of citizen, the prospect of a foreign despot's intervention in our sacred electoral process...are all distressing to contemplate.
We must resist the emotion that tells us our options are shrinking, we are losing advantages and are overmatched, that is panic, panic helps the enemy. Refrain from panic and you deny him an important weapon.
At the moment we must move on two fronts, where action is moving forward, encourage further action, support & engage where the activity is felicitous. Where inactivity reigns or worse action is retrograde, thats where all due legal transparency with protest and pressure must be brought to bear.
The Sovereign Electorate has the advantage of "size and weight" in all these matters, If We Lean, the Elected Must Bend, but the pressure must be inexorable...only that weight, will make them panic - when the time comes.
If certain malevolent personalities on the other side of this lamentable gap, seek to aggrandize themselves and make a play for tyranny then matters must escalate and escalate swiftly. Sovereignty can, will and must reclaim its legacy & centrality in this republic. The power to act in this regard is entirely inalienable in all citizens of these United States, such is self governance, such is sovereignty.
Mary Anne Stewart....
Former Chair of the Lexington School Committee, has apparently pulled papers to challenge State Representative Jay Kaufman in next year's primary. Stewart was last seen impressing exactly no one in the fourth middlesex special state senate primary last year. Why she has opted for a very long shot primary challenge to Jay Kaufman remains a mystery to me, I do know some very disgruntled democrats in Arlington all backers of Sean Garballey's failed state senate last year are all "hell yeah" with it.
So that makes me wonder, as best I can I'll try and keep an eye on this one. I don't even know if Stewart has started gathering the necessary signatures or what her fundraising profile looks like (it costs oughly 50,000.00 vigorish to make a credible state rep's race in Massachusetts, more likely if you are a primary challenger) but I'll look into it all the same.
The ironic thing is, Mary Anne Stewart was a problematic candidate for state senate last year, but given the primary dynamics in the state democratic party she could easily be running high wide and handsome for the Lieutenant Governor's nomination.
So that makes me wonder, as best I can I'll try and keep an eye on this one. I don't even know if Stewart has started gathering the necessary signatures or what her fundraising profile looks like (it costs oughly 50,000.00 vigorish to make a credible state rep's race in Massachusetts, more likely if you are a primary challenger) but I'll look into it all the same.
The ironic thing is, Mary Anne Stewart was a problematic candidate for state senate last year, but given the primary dynamics in the state democratic party she could easily be running high wide and handsome for the Lieutenant Governor's nomination.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Matthew S. Petersen...
A Trump nominee for a Federal Judgeship, apparently does not understand basis jurisprudence of a type one could easily learn from binge watching "Perry Mason" on Decades TV.
I swear to Ghod, Don Junior had to troll Homeless Shelters to Find this Poor Slob, he has the addled beaten look of a man who can hardly remember his favorite panhandling spot. Look at this guy, he is positively...seedy.
The Fall of Omarosa....
Who knows what happened...it all waits on TMZ I am sure.
Black Conservatives (yes that is a thing) are all disquieted because one of the few non white voices in the White House has been heaved over the side....but that just illustrates black conservatism's thin bench. Let's face it, Omarosa is an ideological eunuch, she started out working for then Vice President Al Gore after all, she segued into reality television via "The Apprentice" and her drift into conservative politics is pretty much a precise function of Trump's journey into wingnuttery over the last decade. Trump demands complete ideological fealty from his employees and Omarosa is very much a paid member of the President's personal pool of "celebrities".
Her sudden fall from grace cuts her off from a 180K public salary and likely leaves her wa-ay off the GOP Reservation, no doubt she'll trudge off to the left and peddle her personal staff of administration gossip to the highest bidder...again we wait on TMZ one and all.
I just think its hilarious is a very reality show sort of way, we all want Donald Trump out of office and instead we get his token black lackey tossed into the street.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
The Damn Tax Bill Edges Closer to Passage
dropping the corporate tax rate to 21% sans any reciprocal obligations only incentivizes US Corporates to accelerate exporting US Jobs to low wage offshore providers. A generation ago, the process began under Ronald Reagan with the wholesale decimation of the manufacturing sector (in part to destroy "the tyranny of the closed shop") now that same "ship em' out" ethos is denuding the financial sector of thousands of mid level jobs. A 21% corporate tax rate is nothing but a bright clear blood red signal for one last apocalyptic impoverishment of the working & middle classes in the USA and once the dust settles pull up the ladders lock the doors and shoot anyone who dares cross the moat without a signed pass.
A Cheeful Little Earful, Happy Holidays to All.
A Cheeful Little Earful, Happy Holidays to All.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Congrats to Senator Elect Doug Jones of Alabama!
A pro-choice democrat elected to the US Senate last night over an alleged pervy wingnut...oh how Justice Grinds Slow But Pure.
Frankly I had my doubts which I freely shared with all seven of you out there, so this is as good a christmas gift as one could have hoped for since Trump's election.
Social media is of course awhirl with malign revisionism asserting Jones won simply because Roy Moore's alleged perversity was too much for the famously conservative Alabama electorate. That is likely the primary factor behind the win, it will be conceded, BUT you don't pull off upset wins like with without a massive GOTV campaign, party unity, a positive message and candidate prepared to fight to the last ballot and the last voter.
THAT is Doug Jones in a nutshell he made a magnificent fight and reaped the benefit. And while we are at it, kudos to Former Governor Patrick, Former President Obama, Charles Barkley (a sonorous baritone seemingly made for public life) & Senator Booker all of them made time resource or their very selves available and can rightly share in the victory.
I don't know how long Jones can stay in the US Senate, he was elected to serve out Jeff Sessions term which I believe runs out ioon 2020, there is likely already a daunting fundraising challenge for Jones should he opt for reelection. Moreover the local GOP seems pretty well schooled in the pitfalls of nominating an alleged pederast for a High Public Trust....but all that in God's Good Time.
Hoepefully Jones can use his new venue to press for fair voting laws and easier ballot access initiatives, there is no point in not staying in their faces, he has nothing to lose believe me.
But let us take a moment, to fall to our knees and humbly raise our eyes to a Just and Almighty God & Gloat.....
Frankly I had my doubts which I freely shared with all seven of you out there, so this is as good a christmas gift as one could have hoped for since Trump's election.
Social media is of course awhirl with malign revisionism asserting Jones won simply because Roy Moore's alleged perversity was too much for the famously conservative Alabama electorate. That is likely the primary factor behind the win, it will be conceded, BUT you don't pull off upset wins like with without a massive GOTV campaign, party unity, a positive message and candidate prepared to fight to the last ballot and the last voter.
THAT is Doug Jones in a nutshell he made a magnificent fight and reaped the benefit. And while we are at it, kudos to Former Governor Patrick, Former President Obama, Charles Barkley (a sonorous baritone seemingly made for public life) & Senator Booker all of them made time resource or their very selves available and can rightly share in the victory.
I don't know how long Jones can stay in the US Senate, he was elected to serve out Jeff Sessions term which I believe runs out ioon 2020, there is likely already a daunting fundraising challenge for Jones should he opt for reelection. Moreover the local GOP seems pretty well schooled in the pitfalls of nominating an alleged pederast for a High Public Trust....but all that in God's Good Time.
Hoepefully Jones can use his new venue to press for fair voting laws and easier ballot access initiatives, there is no point in not staying in their faces, he has nothing to lose believe me.
But let us take a moment, to fall to our knees and humbly raise our eyes to a Just and Almighty God & Gloat.....
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Good Luck to Doug Jones today
Down in Alabama, I still think he faces long odds, but he has made a brave and honorable fight of it right down to the Last Ballot and in the very best democratic tradition.
Whatever happens tonight or tomorrow let us all remember that sometimes morality and human rights intersect and when they do, we must not compromise or permit retreat.
And as always, "We Must Be Equal to Our Times".
Whatever happens tonight or tomorrow let us all remember that sometimes morality and human rights intersect and when they do, we must not compromise or permit retreat.
And as always, "We Must Be Equal to Our Times".
Monday, December 11, 2017
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.
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.
Friday, December 08, 2017
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 ...
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 ...
Thursday, December 07, 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 06, 2017
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...
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...
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
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.
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.
Monday, December 04, 2017
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 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.
Saturday, December 02, 2017
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.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Rex Tillerson Out at Foggy Bottom...?
The latest rumor is that the White House wants Tillerson Outski before the end of the year. That is a blow because the current Secretary of State was my own personal "Presidential Designate" my own personal "Legitimist Constitutional Coup" scenario. :)
He is at least, A Brother Eagle Scout and seems oriented towards making decisions based on facts and expected outcomes not fantasies & grievance. Oh well, the guy was always on short time since that "F**King Moron" remark....
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
These Days
the news moves in a stately continuum from North Korean missile tests, horrific mass shootings in the USA to the seemingly daily raids upon our sacred rights. One one happens its just a signal for the next week we could set our watches by it all, if any of use still wore watches.
So in this season of Peace & Joy I remind everyone that Rights are Inalienable, Sovereign States can seek peace without dishonorable and a bullet can drill thru us all, the great and the obscure.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Allegedly...
Charlie Baker is on his way to acculmulating thirty million dollars to grease the skids on his way to re-election next year. That has to be record breaking pile of funny money, "dark contributions", ransom from the Republican Governor's Conference and sundry malevolent cash providers.
Meanwhile a trio of democratic gubernatorial aspirants go door to door rattling their tin cup and eating canned pasta for dinner.
In short we are well on our way to a dismal replay of 1994, except this time not word one will be heard about the State's Third Rate Bond Status or all the useless giddy libertarian fanatics Charlie has foisted on the Department of Education or current wave of scandal at the State Police.
Nope...everything is great and the democrats will raise taxes unless you reelect Blockhead Charlie to keep an eye on them...
Yup thats what we are faced with, UNLESS and UNTIL the democratic base gets angry and gets organized....Charlie is the worst sort of passive aggressive trimmer, he has no vision & no discernable leadership in a GOP dominated by a political tumor called Donald Trump.
If things get serious in this country and they might...all Baker is gonna do is make polite noises and hide under his desk.
I don't care about his seventy percent approval rating, all the more reason to fight him to the finish, its seventy percent in face of passive aggressive libertarian shenanigans, dark money and a charmless managerial ineptitude, that can't last!
Meanwhile a trio of democratic gubernatorial aspirants go door to door rattling their tin cup and eating canned pasta for dinner.
In short we are well on our way to a dismal replay of 1994, except this time not word one will be heard about the State's Third Rate Bond Status or all the useless giddy libertarian fanatics Charlie has foisted on the Department of Education or current wave of scandal at the State Police.
Nope...everything is great and the democrats will raise taxes unless you reelect Blockhead Charlie to keep an eye on them...
Yup thats what we are faced with, UNLESS and UNTIL the democratic base gets angry and gets organized....Charlie is the worst sort of passive aggressive trimmer, he has no vision & no discernable leadership in a GOP dominated by a political tumor called Donald Trump.
If things get serious in this country and they might...all Baker is gonna do is make polite noises and hide under his desk.
I don't care about his seventy percent approval rating, all the more reason to fight him to the finish, its seventy percent in face of passive aggressive libertarian shenanigans, dark money and a charmless managerial ineptitude, that can't last!
Monday, November 27, 2017
Dunno if I repeat myself but...
Standards & Poor did DOWNGRADE the Commonwealth's bond rating to third tier AA status on grounds of a lack of rainy day fundage. This was back in June, an event greeted with sacerdotal silence by both the Budget Nerds at the Boston Globe and our Charmless Blockheaded Governor Charlie Baker. Yup the same Charlie Baker, y'know that supermanager numbers cruncher who had a long internship at the Pioneer Institute before being Groomed for Greatness by Saint Bill Weld.
Well what of it? Quite literally, never has Charlie Baker had higher approval ratings and fewer accomplishments, and yes a bond rating downgrade has to rank as an "accomplishment" from this Governor.
Well what of it? Quite literally, never has Charlie Baker had higher approval ratings and fewer accomplishments, and yes a bond rating downgrade has to rank as an "accomplishment" from this Governor.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
"The Old Army Game"
Its the oldest trick in the coup plotter's handbook...assuming you aren't intention on outright assassination, you isolate the regime and it's aging uncertain Leader, and permit crowds of demonstrators to make the Leader's lack of popularity clear. Lacking mass support & without military backing the Leader is compelled to resign and seek asylum in some foreign country.
This is more or less how Achmed Sukarno was deposed in Indonesia back in 1966, its the basic model for ridding the Philippines of Ferdinand Marcos and its likely going down just like that right now in Zimbabwe. It tends to be the model for dealing with aging mentally uncertain leaders who've overstayed their welcome and need a little shove to move them along to a nice quiet exile in Riyadh or Peking or wherever.
Per BBC.com, Robert Mugabe is indignantly insisting he will remain in power despite a noon Monday deadline for his resignation, he may be negotiating to secure just much of his loot he'll be allowed to take with him in exile, or the damn fool might be stubborn enough to fight on. If I was him, I'd be looking at a suite in that Trump Hotel allegedly built with drug money in Panama...
This is more or less how Achmed Sukarno was deposed in Indonesia back in 1966, its the basic model for ridding the Philippines of Ferdinand Marcos and its likely going down just like that right now in Zimbabwe. It tends to be the model for dealing with aging mentally uncertain leaders who've overstayed their welcome and need a little shove to move them along to a nice quiet exile in Riyadh or Peking or wherever.
Per BBC.com, Robert Mugabe is indignantly insisting he will remain in power despite a noon Monday deadline for his resignation, he may be negotiating to secure just much of his loot he'll be allowed to take with him in exile, or the damn fool might be stubborn enough to fight on. If I was him, I'd be looking at a suite in that Trump Hotel allegedly built with drug money in Panama...
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
If you wake up one sunny morning...
brush your teeth, flip on the TV and there you find The Army Chief of Staff, flag bedecked, in full Field Marshal Drag calming monologuing as to his Hopes, Dreams and Feelings for The Nation, then I can assure, there has been a coup d'etat and a new regime is at hand.
Such is the case this morning in Zimbabwe, the armed forces have risen and placed aging ailing Robert Mugabe under house arrest. Like Sukarno in Indonesia they'll likely let him flee into decorous exile once the dust settles in The Capital. After all what can the Field Marshals, Generals & Sundry Colonels fear from an 93 year old man and his yappy ambitious wife?
Good suburban white liberal that I am, I see this as no solution for scandal and massacre plagued Zimbabwe, the Boys in the Back Room just didn't want a old old man founding a Dynasty in Sub Saharan Africa thats all, the bad stuff that has dessicated that nation will likely go on.
And it's sad because there is much intellectual & economic potential in Zimbabwe, the literacy rate is a bracing 90% but as is so often the case the wrong people with bad intentions as well are in charge and will be for the foreseeable future.
Such is the case this morning in Zimbabwe, the armed forces have risen and placed aging ailing Robert Mugabe under house arrest. Like Sukarno in Indonesia they'll likely let him flee into decorous exile once the dust settles in The Capital. After all what can the Field Marshals, Generals & Sundry Colonels fear from an 93 year old man and his yappy ambitious wife?
Good suburban white liberal that I am, I see this as no solution for scandal and massacre plagued Zimbabwe, the Boys in the Back Room just didn't want a old old man founding a Dynasty in Sub Saharan Africa thats all, the bad stuff that has dessicated that nation will likely go on.
And it's sad because there is much intellectual & economic potential in Zimbabwe, the literacy rate is a bracing 90% but as is so often the case the wrong people with bad intentions as well are in charge and will be for the foreseeable future.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Make no mistake about it
I firmly believe that despite being outed as a pederast and an abusive freak of the first rank, it is still Roy Moore's race to lose in Alabama next month. The reasons for this are complex but a good summary would note that "The Myth of Grievance" is currently ascendent in Movement Conservatism. If we conceptualize movement conservatism as a system of pseudo religious thought designed to impede the internalization of facts, then we are led to the conclusion that it is essentially mythological in content.
As I've said on and off for years, movement conservatism is anti factual and built around four study mutually reinforcing myths "The Myth of Small Government", "The Myth of Rugged Individualism", The Myth of Christian Politics" & lastly "The Myth of Grievance".
Right now, down in Alabama "The Myth of Grievance" is so very powerful in that electorate that it will happily and insolently countenance the election of a child molester to the US Senate as a seemingly last desperate rebuke against the elite phantoms that seemingly plague them.
To delve any deeper into this issue requires far more "social psychology" than I can muster but following that idea to it's logical conclusion is that the problem in Alabama isn't with the elites (they all seem horrified by Moore as well they should be) it's the voters that are literally engaging in a self destructive "failure of followership".
There are people out there, who are demanding the use of nuclear weapons to destroy their straw men...literally.
On the other hand, Jones may well win next month, if so we can at least rest assured that for the moment a bottom floor to US Politics has temporarily been established.
I'm not holding my breath, I would also advise Senator McConnell to discontinue the Capital Page Program and replace those kids with volunteer retirees, preferable ex-police officers.
As I've said on and off for years, movement conservatism is anti factual and built around four study mutually reinforcing myths "The Myth of Small Government", "The Myth of Rugged Individualism", The Myth of Christian Politics" & lastly "The Myth of Grievance".
Right now, down in Alabama "The Myth of Grievance" is so very powerful in that electorate that it will happily and insolently countenance the election of a child molester to the US Senate as a seemingly last desperate rebuke against the elite phantoms that seemingly plague them.
To delve any deeper into this issue requires far more "social psychology" than I can muster but following that idea to it's logical conclusion is that the problem in Alabama isn't with the elites (they all seem horrified by Moore as well they should be) it's the voters that are literally engaging in a self destructive "failure of followership".
There are people out there, who are demanding the use of nuclear weapons to destroy their straw men...literally.
On the other hand, Jones may well win next month, if so we can at least rest assured that for the moment a bottom floor to US Politics has temporarily been established.
I'm not holding my breath, I would also advise Senator McConnell to discontinue the Capital Page Program and replace those kids with volunteer retirees, preferable ex-police officers.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Cardinal O'Malley
Has apparently changed his mind and will now permit the gathering of anti-abortion ballot initiative signatures on Church Property.
Nice to see that the His Eminence feels the pederasty scandal & the closures are far enough back in the rear view mirror to warrant a return to the diocese's perpetual war on women's rights.
On the other hand I wonder if the law of unintended consequences might be in play here? In other words does O'Malley really want to find out how ambivalent his flock may well be about the issue of abortion? I can envision a lot of arguments in the vestibule, "envelopes witheld" hard looks out in the pews.
Just sayin'...the days of silent complicity seem like they are over in the R.C.C...
Nice to see that the His Eminence feels the pederasty scandal & the closures are far enough back in the rear view mirror to warrant a return to the diocese's perpetual war on women's rights.
On the other hand I wonder if the law of unintended consequences might be in play here? In other words does O'Malley really want to find out how ambivalent his flock may well be about the issue of abortion? I can envision a lot of arguments in the vestibule, "envelopes witheld" hard looks out in the pews.
Just sayin'...the days of silent complicity seem like they are over in the R.C.C...
Friday, November 10, 2017
Mitt Romney sez that
Alabama GOP Senate Candidate, Judge Roy Moore is "unfit for office" in the wake of serious allegations that Moore had a sick perverted thing for young girls.
"Unfit for office" huh.....I'll bet Judge Moore is quakin' in cowboy boots now.
Poor Mitt he is such a misguided earnest Straw Man, he probably thinks maybe he can get the Alabama Senate Nomination....with enough lawyers he can claim Alabama residence since before the Asteroid Snuffed the Dinosaurs.
But I grow lyrical, there is something ineffectual and pathetic about Mitt these days, he knows the GOP has pretty much left him behind he keep pretending all the same he is some sort of Partei Elder.
Sad....
As for the rest of them, the Ryans & McConnells are all a-quiver with outrage, but thats just conservative cognitive dissonance at work, par for the course in an election. The reality is, Mitch McConnell and his misbegotten crew can very easily work with Roy Moore should he win, hell "Freak Management" is basically the GOP Brand these days.
This is why I advise the teenaged girls of the District of Columbia to arm themselves with mace or brass knuckles or something..Uncle Roy is indeed On The Loose!
"Unfit for office" huh.....I'll bet Judge Moore is quakin' in cowboy boots now.
Poor Mitt he is such a misguided earnest Straw Man, he probably thinks maybe he can get the Alabama Senate Nomination....with enough lawyers he can claim Alabama residence since before the Asteroid Snuffed the Dinosaurs.
But I grow lyrical, there is something ineffectual and pathetic about Mitt these days, he knows the GOP has pretty much left him behind he keep pretending all the same he is some sort of Partei Elder.
Sad....
As for the rest of them, the Ryans & McConnells are all a-quiver with outrage, but thats just conservative cognitive dissonance at work, par for the course in an election. The reality is, Mitch McConnell and his misbegotten crew can very easily work with Roy Moore should he win, hell "Freak Management" is basically the GOP Brand these days.
This is why I advise the teenaged girls of the District of Columbia to arm themselves with mace or brass knuckles or something..Uncle Roy is indeed On The Loose!
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Wow the democrats ran the board last night in Virginia and elsewhere...
Ralph Northam wone by 200K and a nine point margin carrying a shit ton of local races as well, including a Trans Woman getting herself neatly elect to the Lege in the bargain. Trump wants to throw em' out of the army, The Olde Dominion sends the same to the House of Delegates, delicious irony.
Well Ed Gillespie (who ran a nasty Trumpish campaing full Confederate Worship and insinuations of pederasty no less) just found out that "Only Donald Trump can Go Crazy and Survive" its not a good option for down ticket GOP aspirants.
And I'm not even sure "crazy" is still workable approach for President Trump he made the usual robocalls & tweets, sent in the usual surrogates and got beat like a gong.
Of course, this being Trump he churlishly suggested that Ed. Gillespie "didn't embrace him hard enough"....a pathetic demonstration of a sad self worshipping walled off little mind at work.
Well I would say, we have bottomed out and perhaps may be on the rebound at last...
Well Ed Gillespie (who ran a nasty Trumpish campaing full Confederate Worship and insinuations of pederasty no less) just found out that "Only Donald Trump can Go Crazy and Survive" its not a good option for down ticket GOP aspirants.
And I'm not even sure "crazy" is still workable approach for President Trump he made the usual robocalls & tweets, sent in the usual surrogates and got beat like a gong.
Of course, this being Trump he churlishly suggested that Ed. Gillespie "didn't embrace him hard enough"....a pathetic demonstration of a sad self worshipping walled off little mind at work.
Well I would say, we have bottomed out and perhaps may be on the rebound at last...
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Quentin Palfrey in Menotomy....
Quentin Palfrey, Democratic Candidate for the Lieutenant Governor's nomination, came to town last night, young, energetic & long winded.
Seriously, Quentin Palfrey is proof positive that you can be passionate about a range of issues (poverty and diresome warnings about Donald Trump being his top two apparently) and still be a crashing bore.
No joke, this guy spoke for ten minutes before an enthusiastic bouncy audience of democrats and turned the whole affair into a Synod of the Walking Dead in record time...the light of reason flickered out in seemingly dozens of eyes.....
Alas Quentin is yet another ambitious mediocrity/activist who might with some seasoning over the course of a decade make a credible candidate for State Rep somewhere out where the McMansions Grow. But this is Massachusetts, Land of the Safe Seat so like so many others Quentin has taken his obscurity in hand and parachuted into the democratic primary for Lt Governor.
Jimmy Tingle will massacre this guy, assuming the comedian is serious about running for the nomination, and if Tingle is not serious about running for Lieutenant Governor then I must urge the State Democratic Convention to entertain motions for a draft because Quentin Palfrey can no more get elected statewide than the USS Wasp can pass thru the eye of a needle.
Some of his politics are agreeable but the man exudes a charmless ineffectuality, exactly the sort of clueless liberal noob who the GOP will beat like a red headed stepchild next fall.
Quite frankly the man makes Evelyn Murphy look like Aretha Frenklin....
I am though, as a registered democratic heartily sick and tired of ambitious & obscure activists parachuting in the Lt Governor's race promising the progressive eschaton & "a grass roots campaign"....most of these elite jobbers wouldn't know a real grass roots campaign if it took a ten pound chunk out of their bony behinds.
I'd sooner vote for the first mook thru the door who promised "mendacity via social media & free hootch" because Ghod knows the Lt Governor's race is NOT attracting much in the way of experienced talent! Stop and think the job has a ceremonial aspect but it also a conduit from the municipalities to State Government it has also been a source of outreach to the Feds, so it has potential but right now its largely desired by people candidates trying to bootstrap themselves out of Town Meeting. Where are the Mayor's here? Brockton, Lowell, Springfield, Pittsfield, ANY of those people are better qualified than Quentin Palfrey. Native Ability seems hell bent on sitting out this particular race, we are gonna have trouble enough next year ejecting Charlie Baker with a seeming trainee mediocrity as our nominee for Lt Governor.
Seriously, Quentin Palfrey is proof positive that you can be passionate about a range of issues (poverty and diresome warnings about Donald Trump being his top two apparently) and still be a crashing bore.
No joke, this guy spoke for ten minutes before an enthusiastic bouncy audience of democrats and turned the whole affair into a Synod of the Walking Dead in record time...the light of reason flickered out in seemingly dozens of eyes.....
Alas Quentin is yet another ambitious mediocrity/activist who might with some seasoning over the course of a decade make a credible candidate for State Rep somewhere out where the McMansions Grow. But this is Massachusetts, Land of the Safe Seat so like so many others Quentin has taken his obscurity in hand and parachuted into the democratic primary for Lt Governor.
Jimmy Tingle will massacre this guy, assuming the comedian is serious about running for the nomination, and if Tingle is not serious about running for Lieutenant Governor then I must urge the State Democratic Convention to entertain motions for a draft because Quentin Palfrey can no more get elected statewide than the USS Wasp can pass thru the eye of a needle.
Some of his politics are agreeable but the man exudes a charmless ineffectuality, exactly the sort of clueless liberal noob who the GOP will beat like a red headed stepchild next fall.
Quite frankly the man makes Evelyn Murphy look like Aretha Frenklin....
I am though, as a registered democratic heartily sick and tired of ambitious & obscure activists parachuting in the Lt Governor's race promising the progressive eschaton & "a grass roots campaign"....most of these elite jobbers wouldn't know a real grass roots campaign if it took a ten pound chunk out of their bony behinds.
I'd sooner vote for the first mook thru the door who promised "mendacity via social media & free hootch" because Ghod knows the Lt Governor's race is NOT attracting much in the way of experienced talent! Stop and think the job has a ceremonial aspect but it also a conduit from the municipalities to State Government it has also been a source of outreach to the Feds, so it has potential but right now its largely desired by people candidates trying to bootstrap themselves out of Town Meeting. Where are the Mayor's here? Brockton, Lowell, Springfield, Pittsfield, ANY of those people are better qualified than Quentin Palfrey. Native Ability seems hell bent on sitting out this particular race, we are gonna have trouble enough next year ejecting Charlie Baker with a seeming trainee mediocrity as our nominee for Lt Governor.
Monday, November 06, 2017
Notes to This Week's Massacre
we cannot any longer assert that "its too soon after a mass shooting" to discuss gun control, indeed this heinous shootings are occuring on a weekly basis these days. The flowers from last weeks wakes & funerals have hardly begun to wither before fresh blood is shed. The whole situation vaguely suggests the early 1970's weekly round of domestic airliner hijackings, the Feds dithered and the airlines refused to enact sensible security measures prior to embarkation for years while air piracy became a very regular & normal occurrence. So too are we dithering about practical gun control measures (at least stop the private sales of the damn AR-15!)...and we'll dither as long as we are willing to put with the current wave of gun violence, or until the NRA runs out of money.
That however is the positive aspect of this horrific situation, maybe its the weather in Boston today, because I begin to wonder if we aren't witnessing the American Dream's final death spiral in barbarism...but then, the weather is pretty gloomy out there.
That however is the positive aspect of this horrific situation, maybe its the weather in Boston today, because I begin to wonder if we aren't witnessing the American Dream's final death spiral in barbarism...but then, the weather is pretty gloomy out there.
Somwhere out there in the USA
someone is flooding the obscure Malden Ward Three School Committee race with a shit ton of charter school funny money. Allegedly about 11K in "out of state funny money" the very currency seemingly prized by our allegedly honest and transparent Governor Charlie "Potatoes" Baker.
Clearly the loud voice of the Commonwealth in last years referendum affirming the current cap on Charter Schools doesn't mean shit to some of these sneaky educational privatizers out beyond the Berkshires.
Those election results will require close observation tomorrow night, dark out of state money is Charlie Baker's particular electoral innovation and a bad one it is as well. The current campaign finance system resemblances a sort of anarcho-capitialist austistic fantasy, no much can be done for the moment about it nationally, but here in Massachusetts we can at least demand "time urgent transparency' when it comes to the afforementioned dark money. The Lege should stop looking the other way and start looking into closing off this diresome loophole.
Clearly the loud voice of the Commonwealth in last years referendum affirming the current cap on Charter Schools doesn't mean shit to some of these sneaky educational privatizers out beyond the Berkshires.
Those election results will require close observation tomorrow night, dark out of state money is Charlie Baker's particular electoral innovation and a bad one it is as well. The current campaign finance system resemblances a sort of anarcho-capitialist austistic fantasy, no much can be done for the moment about it nationally, but here in Massachusetts we can at least demand "time urgent transparency' when it comes to the afforementioned dark money. The Lege should stop looking the other way and start looking into closing off this diresome loophole.
Friday, November 03, 2017
The Current Tax Bill being written
By the US House is nothing but a redistribution of the wealth of so called "Blue States" to "Red States". It will also fall hardest on Colleges, Universities and certain middle class cohorts as well, it is a veritable "bill of attainder".
And so far, this unexcusable whole theft excites no reaction at all from our Sphix Like Governor, Charle "Silence is Golden-Golden GOLDEN!" Baker. You'd think the prospect of certain middle class cohorts being forced to pay for the utopian fantasies of Speaker Ryan & The President...might prod Charlie to some criticism...to say nothing of playing a leadership role.
But No...
Nothing....if this is the soothing syrup of Moderate Republicanism of the Saintly Bill Weld type then please gimme the Power Politics of James Michael Curley. Massachusetts is about to be robbed blind so I do hope someone somewhere starts tagging the Governor with these very real & practical issues. Theft should be resisted, you'd a "moderate republican" would get that....
And so far, this unexcusable whole theft excites no reaction at all from our Sphix Like Governor, Charle "Silence is Golden-Golden GOLDEN!" Baker. You'd think the prospect of certain middle class cohorts being forced to pay for the utopian fantasies of Speaker Ryan & The President...might prod Charlie to some criticism...to say nothing of playing a leadership role.
But No...
Nothing....if this is the soothing syrup of Moderate Republicanism of the Saintly Bill Weld type then please gimme the Power Politics of James Michael Curley. Massachusetts is about to be robbed blind so I do hope someone somewhere starts tagging the Governor with these very real & practical issues. Theft should be resisted, you'd a "moderate republican" would get that....
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
If I was a young graduate student in political science today,
(and at age 55, I am not) I might not be necessarily pitching my advisor "coercive persuasion" as a thesis topic, but I'd sure as shit being reading up on said subject. I'd at least want a sense of what it isn't and a path to maybe a definition that'd fit the strictures of poli sci.
Apropos to yesterday's attack in NYC it continually fascinates me that outfits like ISIS have got some kind of profiling model (however crude) that hooks in recruits and allows a terrorist organization to program and train a homicidal asset entirely remotely. Maybe there is something I'm not getting here, but that seems pretty unprecedented and flies in the face of Jacques Ellul's fairly rigid definitions of propaganda and thought control. Somehow ISIS doesn't need to control the state apparatus or the flow of information to a recruit in order to create a zealous soldier....
What am I not getting here?
Apropos to yesterday's attack in NYC it continually fascinates me that outfits like ISIS have got some kind of profiling model (however crude) that hooks in recruits and allows a terrorist organization to program and train a homicidal asset entirely remotely. Maybe there is something I'm not getting here, but that seems pretty unprecedented and flies in the face of Jacques Ellul's fairly rigid definitions of propaganda and thought control. Somehow ISIS doesn't need to control the state apparatus or the flow of information to a recruit in order to create a zealous soldier....
What am I not getting here?
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
John Kelly thinks that "compromise" might have averted the Civil War...
deep in a false consciousness of moral equivalence, the President's Chief of Staff claims that fire eaters on all sides would not bargain honestly to keep the Union Together.
That....is post secesh bullshit that die hard rebels used to tell themselves to passives aggressively put the blame on the Yankees for the whole thing.
Let the record show, that Abraham Lincoln repeated offered compromise to the South, read the "Peoria Speech" & his "Cooper's Union Address" for all the details. In brief Lincoln told the south no attempt would be made to interfere with slavery in states where said practice was established, he then went on to affirm that congress had the right to prohibit the spread of slavery in the unincorporated territories and that it was of that expecation that slavery would then be on "the high road to extinction".
Nothing more...and the mere public assertion of this notion was enough to sunder the Union with Southerners utterly bereft of compromise who were intent of conquering all or else leaving the union entirely.
Kelly made no friends with this assertion but it's par for the course for the Trump Regime at this point....
That....is post secesh bullshit that die hard rebels used to tell themselves to passives aggressively put the blame on the Yankees for the whole thing.
Let the record show, that Abraham Lincoln repeated offered compromise to the South, read the "Peoria Speech" & his "Cooper's Union Address" for all the details. In brief Lincoln told the south no attempt would be made to interfere with slavery in states where said practice was established, he then went on to affirm that congress had the right to prohibit the spread of slavery in the unincorporated territories and that it was of that expecation that slavery would then be on "the high road to extinction".
Nothing more...and the mere public assertion of this notion was enough to sunder the Union with Southerners utterly bereft of compromise who were intent of conquering all or else leaving the union entirely.
Kelly made no friends with this assertion but it's par for the course for the Trump Regime at this point....
Monday, October 30, 2017
Geez Mueller isn't wasting time is he?
Paul Manafort & Partner both indicted on 12 counts of conspiring against the USA. You can tell Trump is scared because fear makes him eructate Hillary Clinton's name repeatedly...that and the usual empty threats.
Personally I think the whole thing will come to a head when and if Donald Jr gets indicted, I strongly doubt Donnie has the intestinal fortitude to withstand a thorough interrogation he'll sing like a canary at the first sign on trouble. Remember these people are all bullies of one type or another, they can't take the heat when push comes to shove.
Personally I think the whole thing will come to a head when and if Donald Jr gets indicted, I strongly doubt Donnie has the intestinal fortitude to withstand a thorough interrogation he'll sing like a canary at the first sign on trouble. Remember these people are all bullies of one type or another, they can't take the heat when push comes to shove.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
"Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man"
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."
Abraham Lincoln, 1860
Abraham Lincoln, 1860
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Part of the problem in this town is
we are suffused with a sense of provincial inferiority along with a pervasive declinist vibe that emanates from most of our local opinion-makers. And when those emotions are in play its no wonder everyone marks out hard for a shiny noisy solution to all our problems in the form of becoming "Amazon's Second Headquarters"...somehow that is supposed to strengthen us all in some ineffable way such that we can bust our backwater shackles like Hercules.
Never mind the whole Amazon thing is blatant invitation to gentrification, housing shortages and a toxic widening of the income gap....nope it'll make a lot of columnists feel better thats all thats needed....
We have a lot of problems in this state, I'll admit it, but self administering a placebo like Amazon is not gonna cure anything and will likely make all the issues described above ten times worse.
We need to create "transmission belt jobs" from out the working class into the middle class and beyond, if we want a bigger tax base we have to stop robbing the poor, working class & middle class cohorts and grow all those sectors simultaneously.We've got to innovate up and down and laterally as well from the resources we have at hand...just sayin'.
Never mind the whole Amazon thing is blatant invitation to gentrification, housing shortages and a toxic widening of the income gap....nope it'll make a lot of columnists feel better thats all thats needed....
We have a lot of problems in this state, I'll admit it, but self administering a placebo like Amazon is not gonna cure anything and will likely make all the issues described above ten times worse.
We need to create "transmission belt jobs" from out the working class into the middle class and beyond, if we want a bigger tax base we have to stop robbing the poor, working class & middle class cohorts and grow all those sectors simultaneously.We've got to innovate up and down and laterally as well from the resources we have at hand...just sayin'.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
"Panning for Gold in the Charles River"...
The current fandango about luring "Amazon's Second Headquarters" to Boston, pretty much leaves me cold. I mean, isn't Amazon at the end of the day a company dedicated to transferring the industrial output of the People's Republic of China to waiting customers in an an ever more rapid fashion? The jobs such a "get" would create would be the usual cubicle gigs with little positive wage pressure being created on the working-class end of the scale to say nothing of redressing the widening income gap in the USA.
It will bless Boston with a pretty skycraper with a nice big sign, the sort of display politicians love along with a giant ass ribbon to cut that'll all come at an as yet untotalled cost in tax breaks and public giveaways.
But thanks to provincial self hatred and irrational declinism, we fall for this nonsense every time, or almost every time, "for every 2024 Summer Olympics there is a GE" I guess is the best and most delicate way to put it.
There are a lot of things wrong with the Commonwealth but acquiring "Amazon's Second Headquarters" will solve almost none of them, other than giving certain columnists and politicians a false sense of elation there is little else on offer here.
It will bless Boston with a pretty skycraper with a nice big sign, the sort of display politicians love along with a giant ass ribbon to cut that'll all come at an as yet untotalled cost in tax breaks and public giveaways.
But thanks to provincial self hatred and irrational declinism, we fall for this nonsense every time, or almost every time, "for every 2024 Summer Olympics there is a GE" I guess is the best and most delicate way to put it.
There are a lot of things wrong with the Commonwealth but acquiring "Amazon's Second Headquarters" will solve almost none of them, other than giving certain columnists and politicians a false sense of elation there is little else on offer here.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Senator Warren endorses Mayor Walsh in
In the Hub's Mayoral race, down at "democrat ground zero in Boston" ergo "Doyle's Pub"...which is only natural Walsh's Spartans got out a big vote for Warren back in 2012. This is a mere quid pro quo and likely cements useful political alliance as well. It tells me that Warren is being sane and sensible about her reelection race next year, taking nothing for granted even if the GOP is rocking what will likely be a loud disorderly four way primary.
AG Jeff Sessions....
(normally the "Transphobe in chief") is apparently sending a DOJ Lawyer to Iowa to try and make a hate crimes case out of a transgender person's murder.
Now...Occam's Razor suggests this is mere grandstanding from someone who viscerally hates gay people and bad publicity...on the other hand he might be doing all this simply to get himself fired by President Trump.
Now...Occam's Razor suggests this is mere grandstanding from someone who viscerally hates gay people and bad publicity...on the other hand he might be doing all this simply to get himself fired by President Trump.
Friday, October 13, 2017
Somewhere down on the South Shore
A craft brewery named a beer after Governor Charlie Baker...which an innovatve way to respond to our ongoing "opioid crisis" to say the least. Bottoms Up Governor....you've got narcotics addiction on the run....
Thursday, October 12, 2017
My Big Takeway from
President Trump's farcical and empty threat to "revoke NBC's broadcasting license" is the sheer idiocy of getting into any sort of business partnership with developer Donald J. Trump....NBC put Trump on the map via "The Apprentice" after a disastrous series of bankruptcies and other business fiascos. Hell 90% of his name recognition comes off of that show....and yet here he is, turning on the very corportate entertainment empire that virtually put him in the White House. Ya just can't do honest business wif dat guy....
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
I don't know what the Future Holds in Store for
Harvey Weinstein, one hopes that a courtroom can dispence justice with respect to the mounting accusations of grotesque sexual battery against the famed Hollywood Producer. I just think it's grimly hilarious to note that Donald Trump has a sexual rapsheet that goes on & on to say nothing of taking money & assistance from Vladimir Putin. Weinstein is headed for a courtroom, Trump is in the White House...anyone else sense some irony here?
Monday, October 09, 2017
Personally
I give Doug Jones long odds down in Alabama with respect to stopping Roy Moore's election to the US Senate. That doesn't mean we shouldn't support Doug Jones and make resources available to him as Abraham Lincoln put it back in the day "Those not skinning may hold a leg" so to speak.
But if I was me, running I'd "give em' heaven", "Government as good as all of us" to paraphrase Jimmy Carter...because its for damn sure Jones will never "Out-Hell-n-Damnation" Roy Moore. Jones can't let the narrative degenerate into "strong and wrong" versus "weak and right" thats the downfall of democrats every time. No...Jones has to transform the race into "crazy and inept" versus "sane and able", he has to make "crazy" (which is "Brand Moore" in a nutshell) into an electoral liability, promise hard work on behalf of all Alabamans (whether they vote for him or not) and fervently assert the desire to remain sane in challenging times. Don't play the apocalypse card at all, it doesn't work down there, affirm always we face our common difficulties but they are no more vexing than the problems we have overcome in the past.
DON'T Get drawn into a debate about Roy Moore's many many imaginary enemies...affirm, assert and remain optimistic about our ability to overcome....and Good Luck Doug Jones!
Common Sense
Common Decency
for the
Common Good
Jones for the U.S. Senate!
But if I was me, running I'd "give em' heaven", "Government as good as all of us" to paraphrase Jimmy Carter...because its for damn sure Jones will never "Out-Hell-n-Damnation" Roy Moore. Jones can't let the narrative degenerate into "strong and wrong" versus "weak and right" thats the downfall of democrats every time. No...Jones has to transform the race into "crazy and inept" versus "sane and able", he has to make "crazy" (which is "Brand Moore" in a nutshell) into an electoral liability, promise hard work on behalf of all Alabamans (whether they vote for him or not) and fervently assert the desire to remain sane in challenging times. Don't play the apocalypse card at all, it doesn't work down there, affirm always we face our common difficulties but they are no more vexing than the problems we have overcome in the past.
DON'T Get drawn into a debate about Roy Moore's many many imaginary enemies...affirm, assert and remain optimistic about our ability to overcome....and Good Luck Doug Jones!
Common Sense
Common Decency
for the
Common Good
Jones for the U.S. Senate!
Thursday, October 05, 2017
I'm still wrapping my mind around
The fact that some mysterious "millionaire" in Nevada can sneak 27 firearms into a Las Vegas Hotel room WITH a comparable supply of ammunition without anyone the wiser...
So much for the airtight security in Las Vegas.
And as usual its being credited as a"lone wolf attack" which is somewhat questionable as we've clearly become a society that actively and passively enables this kinds of mass-annihilation attacks, given all that enabling its a wonder I'm alive to post this blog entry quite frankly.
This is otherwise natural selection at work at least as a metaphor, its a target rich environment, one that enables the acculmulation of annihilatory firepower, that and the element of surprise is all you need to kill dozens upon dozens. "Lone Wolves" don't need to conspire or ingather others into their plans they've already perfectly adapted to an environment that favors them to an extraordinary degree.
But this is society we are talking about, an artificial creation in every way, we can change that environment and thus the rules any time we like...but why go on? "I grow lyrical" to quote the Late Mencken.
So much for the airtight security in Las Vegas.
And as usual its being credited as a"lone wolf attack" which is somewhat questionable as we've clearly become a society that actively and passively enables this kinds of mass-annihilation attacks, given all that enabling its a wonder I'm alive to post this blog entry quite frankly.
This is otherwise natural selection at work at least as a metaphor, its a target rich environment, one that enables the acculmulation of annihilatory firepower, that and the element of surprise is all you need to kill dozens upon dozens. "Lone Wolves" don't need to conspire or ingather others into their plans they've already perfectly adapted to an environment that favors them to an extraordinary degree.
But this is society we are talking about, an artificial creation in every way, we can change that environment and thus the rules any time we like...but why go on? "I grow lyrical" to quote the Late Mencken.
Friday, September 29, 2017
A Manifesto at Lunchtime
(I'll likely revisit and revise this one ere' I am done with it...)
Only democracies can regenerate themselves.
Tyranny has a terrible width and depth, it may last too long for anyone oppressed by it, but the historic phenomenon of tyrannical governance is always on the wrong side of history and as such is on the thin edge of decline at any single moment.
Democracies self regenerate because the people govern themselves, they can do this because they act upon their inalienable rights as catalogued by Thomas Jefferson. In this country, the preferred form by which we live and act on those rights is our current imperiled constitutional order. We have thus "self sovereignty" a literal bequest from generations that have gone before fighting within and without this nation on behalf of those rights.
It is self evident that those rights and that constitutional order is imperilled by certain rampant personalities within the US Government. They have "nothing to declare but their bad intentions", a full catalogue of the dangers they embrace will have to bide awhile.
Suffice to say for the moment that in the last eight months the USA has acculumulated a vast reserve of frightening challenges, and yet one of our most important initial tasks is to decline fearfulness & embrace "being equal to our times".
The goal of this manifesto is a frank appeal to the citizenry and the people of the United States on behalf of those rights and that precious constitution, a statement of what we want to do and more importantly why we want to do it.
Because if we wish to regenerate, then we can only do it as a free people aware of their inalienable rights and in the name and spirit of our constitutional order. We seek unity, order, freedom, honesty transparency, the rule of law & equality before that law.
We ask for nothing more, we will accept nothing less.
The crisis is acute and the challenges complicated, I ask the American People But One Thing did they truly believe that their alloted portion of American History would pass thru their lives without incident or crisis or fearsomeness?
If you answer that yes, read no further and depart in peace, the rest of us have work to do under the harsh light of a sobering realization, that democracy and our right are imperiled and only we ourselves may correct these problems.
25% of the electorate may not rule the other 75% unless that majority says and does nothing whatsoever...and if docility becomes a habit then the outrages will increase in scope and frequency.
Our opponents the malovent and misguided love to threaten violence, we should take pains to separate the mere threat from the actuality, we will as much as is possible pursue a constitutional and lawful line of resistance but it should be stated plainly that our antagonists will not be allowed to allocate violence sans recourse.
We will permit no delays or cancellations of elections under any circumstances whatsoever.
We will not allow the voting lists to be "examined, reviewed or purged", the fear of voting fraud is nothing but an attempt to subvert democracy in the name of a despotic minority.
We will resist any attempt legal or otherwise to abrogate our constitutional rights.
Organized violence will be met with mass resistance, we will not be ruled by fear in any way.
We will make our decisions based on facts and the paramount need to protect our democratic inheritance and pass it along unsullied to our progeny.
The power of wealth to "vote" in elections will be ended, either thru legislation, constitutional amendment or the light of transparency and the vigilance of a free press.
This is not a platform is a cause and indeed a veritable requirement for survival. We are a free people who chose their own fate, our choice to continuing being proud and free and to pass all this along to posterity. THAT is our sacred duty in these troubled times.
Only democracies can regenerate themselves.
Tyranny has a terrible width and depth, it may last too long for anyone oppressed by it, but the historic phenomenon of tyrannical governance is always on the wrong side of history and as such is on the thin edge of decline at any single moment.
Democracies self regenerate because the people govern themselves, they can do this because they act upon their inalienable rights as catalogued by Thomas Jefferson. In this country, the preferred form by which we live and act on those rights is our current imperiled constitutional order. We have thus "self sovereignty" a literal bequest from generations that have gone before fighting within and without this nation on behalf of those rights.
It is self evident that those rights and that constitutional order is imperilled by certain rampant personalities within the US Government. They have "nothing to declare but their bad intentions", a full catalogue of the dangers they embrace will have to bide awhile.
Suffice to say for the moment that in the last eight months the USA has acculumulated a vast reserve of frightening challenges, and yet one of our most important initial tasks is to decline fearfulness & embrace "being equal to our times".
The goal of this manifesto is a frank appeal to the citizenry and the people of the United States on behalf of those rights and that precious constitution, a statement of what we want to do and more importantly why we want to do it.
Because if we wish to regenerate, then we can only do it as a free people aware of their inalienable rights and in the name and spirit of our constitutional order. We seek unity, order, freedom, honesty transparency, the rule of law & equality before that law.
We ask for nothing more, we will accept nothing less.
The crisis is acute and the challenges complicated, I ask the American People But One Thing did they truly believe that their alloted portion of American History would pass thru their lives without incident or crisis or fearsomeness?
If you answer that yes, read no further and depart in peace, the rest of us have work to do under the harsh light of a sobering realization, that democracy and our right are imperiled and only we ourselves may correct these problems.
25% of the electorate may not rule the other 75% unless that majority says and does nothing whatsoever...and if docility becomes a habit then the outrages will increase in scope and frequency.
Our opponents the malovent and misguided love to threaten violence, we should take pains to separate the mere threat from the actuality, we will as much as is possible pursue a constitutional and lawful line of resistance but it should be stated plainly that our antagonists will not be allowed to allocate violence sans recourse.
We will permit no delays or cancellations of elections under any circumstances whatsoever.
We will not allow the voting lists to be "examined, reviewed or purged", the fear of voting fraud is nothing but an attempt to subvert democracy in the name of a despotic minority.
We will resist any attempt legal or otherwise to abrogate our constitutional rights.
Organized violence will be met with mass resistance, we will not be ruled by fear in any way.
We will make our decisions based on facts and the paramount need to protect our democratic inheritance and pass it along unsullied to our progeny.
The power of wealth to "vote" in elections will be ended, either thru legislation, constitutional amendment or the light of transparency and the vigilance of a free press.
This is not a platform is a cause and indeed a veritable requirement for survival. We are a free people who chose their own fate, our choice to continuing being proud and free and to pass all this along to posterity. THAT is our sacred duty in these troubled times.
Monday, September 25, 2017
I'm not gonna get too deep into the whole "Taking the Knee" controversy
the argument over police brutality has predicatably and swifty generated into a race to grab off the shaming power of the "moral equivalence" baton ...nothing new from that perspective.
Moreover this is the NFL we are talking about, not the smartest people in their world with little in common with the polity when push cometh to shove. I strongly suspect that the whole thing blew up yesterday largely because the President was tweeting away the usual threats and the players (who are themselves acutely sensitive to "domination politics") simply responded in kind lest they look like punks by their own estimation.
That having been said, this is about police violence aimed at young black men, the counter argument that no one protests when cops get killed in the line of duty...but then protests aren't necessary in that case, cop killers generally get hunted down and face a jury for their crimes. What do those dead young black men have? A couple of NFL players....just sayin' thass all.
Moreover this is the NFL we are talking about, not the smartest people in their world with little in common with the polity when push cometh to shove. I strongly suspect that the whole thing blew up yesterday largely because the President was tweeting away the usual threats and the players (who are themselves acutely sensitive to "domination politics") simply responded in kind lest they look like punks by their own estimation.
That having been said, this is about police violence aimed at young black men, the counter argument that no one protests when cops get killed in the line of duty...but then protests aren't necessary in that case, cop killers generally get hunted down and face a jury for their crimes. What do those dead young black men have? A couple of NFL players....just sayin' thass all.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Thought Experiment...
If the PRC really wanted to resolve this current Korean Krisis....all they'd have to do is find some pretext by which to summon Comrade Kim to a summit in Beijing and simply place him under arrest on a charge of "right deviationism" or whatever tattered Marxist rubbish they can dredge up. I doubt anyone in Pyongyang would blink an eye or raise a hand to defend him once he was safely sequestered in a allied socialist state.
Now...in order for this to work, the PRC needs a candidate lined up for the succession one who can keep North Korea viable as buffer state which is that nation's sole value to Beijing at this point. I doubt they have anyone that deeply imbedded in the Korean Leadership, but ya never know....
Now...in order for this to work, the PRC needs a candidate lined up for the succession one who can keep North Korea viable as buffer state which is that nation's sole value to Beijing at this point. I doubt they have anyone that deeply imbedded in the Korean Leadership, but ya never know....
Friday, September 22, 2017
I wonder who is tasked
in the White House Situation Room to update either Messr's Mattis, McMaster or Kelly if any "unusual" military orders are issued by the President? Whatever the set up is, given the military caste of the President's current advisory regime it's likely a simple set up. Allegedly in the run up to August 1974, then SecDef Schlesinger told the JCS to accept no orders from Richard Nixon unless countered by the Defense Secretary...mind you, I used the a-word as the historic record is sketchy on this point.
This is worth contemplating as we swing from sanctions to bluster with respect to North Korea....
This is worth contemplating as we swing from sanctions to bluster with respect to North Korea....
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Paul Sagan Has Got to Go!
If that sneaky bastard has a half million to spend on charter schools and other Putinistic Fantasies of Privatization then he CANNOT be a good faith advocate for The Commonwealth's Public School Students in any way. As such he owes it to the polity (assuming he thinks said polity even exists) to resign and lobby on bahalf of his crackpot privatization cult as a private citizen. He has demonstrated a crippling and blatant bias in public office. The state board of education requires a willingness to stand above politics...and Sagan can't do that, he is an infiltrator not an administrator. The fact that he still has a job is proof positive that Charlie Baker is himself a privatization cultist and no moderate by any means.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Boy not since the Fabled Days of Nikita Khrushchev
and the "Shoe Incident" has the UN seen a more degrading spectacle than Donald Trumps' heralded speech yesterday...nothing but threats animated by a childish need for dominance or else a definite "yer on yer own" vibe. Keep in mind over the short term this is what Pyongyang wants, the more Trump threatens the less chance he'll back it up...so far most of his threats have proven hollow. That having been said, the President is systematically backing himself into a corner where he'll need at some point to either lash out or cave in...nothing else seems to be in the pipeline. Oh and He is back threatening Iran as well....the pro nuke faction in that country must be high-fiving itself, Trump is gonna eighty-six the nuclear deal give them a free hand....
If I was Netanyahu I'd reconsider all that clapping and nodding...Trump has three Generals at his elbow telling him how tough a nut to crack is North Korea to say nothing of Iran.
If I was Netanyahu I'd reconsider all that clapping and nodding...Trump has three Generals at his elbow telling him how tough a nut to crack is North Korea to say nothing of Iran.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
As Trump rants and raves at the U.N. Today...
Its important to remember some context, its the U.N. Security Council that in the summer of 1950 sanctioned the use of armed force against North Korea (and by extension her patrons in Moscow and Peking) clearing the way for a half dozen or so member nations to participate on the battlefield.
"Make the U.N. Great"...Indeed.
Likely all this is a historic fact lost on the President, he can of course ignore history to his heart's content, but that doesn't mean history is gonna ignore the rest of us one bit.
"Make the U.N. Great"...Indeed.
Likely all this is a historic fact lost on the President, he can of course ignore history to his heart's content, but that doesn't mean history is gonna ignore the rest of us one bit.
Monday, September 18, 2017
In response to North Korea's Latest Missile Test
The President tweeted out this weekend a video inflicting some humiliation on Hillary Clinton, today at the UN that same President opened a major speech on North Korea's continued intransigence with a virtual commercial for a nearby Trump Property.
Seriously is this any way to win a war? Even a cold war??
I wonder who Trump will send to Pyongyang to Get The Best Deal They Can for the American People? My money is on Tillerson....it seems like it'll be his turn by then.
Seriously is this any way to win a war? Even a cold war??
I wonder who Trump will send to Pyongyang to Get The Best Deal They Can for the American People? My money is on Tillerson....it seems like it'll be his turn by then.
Friday, September 15, 2017
Its important to remember
that North Korea is fecklessly testing ICBMs over the South Pacific in part because President Trump has such a sketchy commitment to the USA 's Military Alliance Structure....so the question might need now to be asked "Are South Korea and Japan Paid Up?"
Keep in mind, North Korea only knows "what it reads in the papers", they know nukes "work good" at deterring overwhelming conventional challenges. They also know they are all but bereft of serious allies internationally, at best they can be described as the PRC's nuclear armed mendicant. So if the President of the United States can't decide if "NATO has a right to exist" then just possible a small nuclear power can deter intervention with enough threats and bluster....because rationally speaking that is whats on the table for them, regardless of their twitchy bloated Supreme Leader Komrade Kim.
Its a problem that requires caution, patience, cunning and resolution none of which is present in the Oval Office at the moment, which puts Pyongyang in the Driver's Seat Policy Wise. Komrade Kim keeps testing strategic weapons, we keep threatening and doing nothing, he concludes that his policy is working and then keeping testing and pushing the envelope.
I'm not Stephen Kinzer I'm not a "peace at any price" man by any means, at best in this situation we need to keep our powder dry, lines of communication open and make sure all and sundry understand that our word is good. If we draw a line we have to honor it sans bluster or dithering...
Keep in mind, North Korea only knows "what it reads in the papers", they know nukes "work good" at deterring overwhelming conventional challenges. They also know they are all but bereft of serious allies internationally, at best they can be described as the PRC's nuclear armed mendicant. So if the President of the United States can't decide if "NATO has a right to exist" then just possible a small nuclear power can deter intervention with enough threats and bluster....because rationally speaking that is whats on the table for them, regardless of their twitchy bloated Supreme Leader Komrade Kim.
Its a problem that requires caution, patience, cunning and resolution none of which is present in the Oval Office at the moment, which puts Pyongyang in the Driver's Seat Policy Wise. Komrade Kim keeps testing strategic weapons, we keep threatening and doing nothing, he concludes that his policy is working and then keeping testing and pushing the envelope.
I'm not Stephen Kinzer I'm not a "peace at any price" man by any means, at best in this situation we need to keep our powder dry, lines of communication open and make sure all and sundry understand that our word is good. If we draw a line we have to honor it sans bluster or dithering...
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Granted...
This is an indifferent likeness of Nathan Bedford Forrest (to say nothing of Braxton Bragg)....but surely even this lot Have First Amendment Rights Yes?
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
One of the few bright spots on election night 2016
was that the charter school expansion ballot question went down to defeat in Massachusetts. Now today we find out that two of Charlie Baker's Cabinet Secretary's donated well north of a half million dollars to some shady dark money "privatize education" outfit that spent big bucks in this state in favor of said initiative. Let this be an object lesson to all those democrats & Boston Globe Columnists out there who still think Charlie Baker is some sort of Kumbayah singing GOP Moderate. Nope the man is a libertarian sky-grifter, granted he is passive aggressive about it, but his collaborators and his big political projects all inevitable revolve around some species of dubious privatization of public functions. This is simply another case in point, and let me further assert that unaccountable privatization is no way compatible with Jeffersonian Principles of Local Governance and Small Government...it simply seeks to create an nice new shiny autocracy for the few and the many can go to hell in a handbasket.
This is the eschaton that Charlie Baker is always trying to immanentize...its utopian unworkable and thoroughly dangerous in every way and the fact that the electorate said no to it loudly and definitely won't register with his passive aggressive temperment one damn bit, we'll get more of this sneaky ideological nonsense going forward unless of course Charlie gets turned out of office next year...and that depends in part on democrats waking up.
Everyone awake yet?
This is the eschaton that Charlie Baker is always trying to immanentize...its utopian unworkable and thoroughly dangerous in every way and the fact that the electorate said no to it loudly and definitely won't register with his passive aggressive temperment one damn bit, we'll get more of this sneaky ideological nonsense going forward unless of course Charlie gets turned out of office next year...and that depends in part on democrats waking up.
Everyone awake yet?
Monday, September 11, 2017
Memorials Amidst Disasters...
Its a beautiful day today in Boston, skies clear, warm sans oppressiveness....just a perfect "kiss of a day". Of course I recall, 9-11-2001 was a beautiful day as well...Like all Fraught Anniversaries on Social Media the range of commentary will careen from Wise to Wanton...my main taeaway these days is that shocks and surprises and all, we have to adapt to history, history shows no sign of adapting to us.
Friday, September 08, 2017
For The Love of God
Everyone in Hurricane Irma's Path please stay safe this weekend and beyond. Down the line we need to have a discussion in this country (insofar as we can have a discussion anyone) about rethinking what constitutes good civil defense preparations in an era of superstorms and sundry catastrophic weather events. Maybe we need a sort of "Domestic Rescue Division" something than can be airlifted in to start up on a moment notice or the like. We can always couch it as a national security issue, its what got federal monies freed up for highways and education in the 1950's...Congress loves its national security issues after all.
But for the moment, everyone stay safe as best you can!
But for the moment, everyone stay safe as best you can!
Thursday, September 07, 2017
I see in the paper that
Charles "The Bell Curve" Murray managed to get thru a personal appearance at Harvard without the Riot Squad Getting Called Out. Props to Harvard for standing by the First Amendment Rights of a Primitive Eugenics Obsessed Weirdo...Big Red enacted my long spouted dictum when it comes to provocative on campus speakers, "Politely Received, Fully Engaged, Peacefully Protested".
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
Make no mistake about it, ending DACA
Is tantamount to conducting ethnic cleansing on cohorts least capable of resistance, it is bullying by way of presidential executive order and largely to satiate the Base of the GOP's lust for reprisal.
Dumping it in congress' lap is simply Trump's Way of Evading Responsibility for the inevitable news footage to come depicting weeping children being forcibly expelled to countries they don't know from a cord of wood.
This is disgraceful, its Dred Scott all over again, and I'll stand by Abe Lincoln in this Dark Hour and assert that I'd just as soon move to some outright despotism like China where vileness isn't alloyed with passive aggressive hypocrisy.
And as for local resistance a'la the UnderGround Railroad, Bring It, I can think of no other more Patriotic Tradition than standing by our own Inalienable Rights.
Oh if someone wants to ask Charlie Baker what he thinks of all this, be sure to get the video footage of him hiding under his desk with a weak scream of fear.....
Dumping it in congress' lap is simply Trump's Way of Evading Responsibility for the inevitable news footage to come depicting weeping children being forcibly expelled to countries they don't know from a cord of wood.
This is disgraceful, its Dred Scott all over again, and I'll stand by Abe Lincoln in this Dark Hour and assert that I'd just as soon move to some outright despotism like China where vileness isn't alloyed with passive aggressive hypocrisy.
And as for local resistance a'la the UnderGround Railroad, Bring It, I can think of no other more Patriotic Tradition than standing by our own Inalienable Rights.
Oh if someone wants to ask Charlie Baker what he thinks of all this, be sure to get the video footage of him hiding under his desk with a weak scream of fear.....
Friday, September 01, 2017
President Trump donated
one million dollars of what is alleged to be his own money to Hurricane Harvey Relief. Given however, the deliberately murky and tangled nature of Trump Inc.'s finances, whatever charity is the recipent of the President's alleged generosity is advised to check the exchange rate on Russian Rubles...and watch Trump's hands as they used to say in East Texas.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
I don't know if Joel Osteen's Palacial
"Lakewood Church" nestled in the inland sea former known as Houston Texas is a fit and viable shelter for flood victims...I will grant that much.
I Do Know However, that Osteen is supposedly worth some fifty six million dollars and is further alleged to live in a mansion worth some ten million USD. Fifty Six Million USD and all from preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ...or some variant thereof. I am gonna make the blunt assessment that if you are down on your knees on your respective Sabbath, doesn't matter if its Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim...and the guy up at the pulpit is a MULTIMILLIONAIRE then you need to get out of that congregation PRONTO. My next door neighbor's cotton poodle has more love of God in her than the wealth worshipping likes of Joel Osteen. Time and again we are confronted by an ancient truth, we can never rely on mere wealth to do the right thing in a crisis, they are almost always centered solely on preserving & protecting their own privileges and power....and the rest of us can go swim for it...quite literally.
I Do Know However, that Osteen is supposedly worth some fifty six million dollars and is further alleged to live in a mansion worth some ten million USD. Fifty Six Million USD and all from preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ...or some variant thereof. I am gonna make the blunt assessment that if you are down on your knees on your respective Sabbath, doesn't matter if its Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim...and the guy up at the pulpit is a MULTIMILLIONAIRE then you need to get out of that congregation PRONTO. My next door neighbor's cotton poodle has more love of God in her than the wealth worshipping likes of Joel Osteen. Time and again we are confronted by an ancient truth, we can never rely on mere wealth to do the right thing in a crisis, they are almost always centered solely on preserving & protecting their own privileges and power....and the rest of us can go swim for it...quite literally.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
It goes without saying
That I'll vote for any democratic sonofabitch on the books if he or she proposes sane preparations to blunt the effects of climate change in the Commonwealth's Coastal Areas. We've got to start prepping for rising sea levels, asset preservation, a whole new weather disaster preparedness regime and all like that. And yes that means regional outreach etc....climate change is, for the moment an issue where the Feds will be the Last Entity to Take Notice, which mean the states and individuals have to start getting ready now and the hell with whatever happy horseshit the President is eructating.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Historically the Federal Government
was literally the very last entity in the USA to get hip to the menace of slavery...and only when the US Capitol was all but under the guns of secessionist soldiers. So too is the case with climate change, until and if the Feds catch on it'll be the duty of the states and individuals to either explain or prepare....states with any kind of coastal exposure at all, need to figure the problem out quickest I think based on how events in Texas are unfolding.
Monday, August 28, 2017
First and Foremost...
Everyone in Texas, please stay safe....right now the sole emphasis is rescuing the imperiled and safeguarding the public during the floods, wind and blackout conditions.
But...down the line, there is going to be a discussion about why Houston wasn't evacuated given the magnitude of the storm predictions. Fair enough, but that's likely gonna devolve into a partisan slanging match given time. My question is, what city in the USA has credible mass evacuation plans on the books with the necessary funds & resources allocated for a weather driven eventuality?
My guess is...none. Just the jurisdiction issues alone have to be nightmarish, where does Texas put two million internal refugees? These are questions were haven't considered in detail since the mid 1950's but all those nuclear civil defense preparations fell by the wayside simply because the Bombs Never Fell on our cities. Now we've got "once a century" weather events hammering our coastal cities two and three times a decade we may need to revisit civil defense as a public policy...and when I say we I mean us'n here in Massachusetts, sooner or later some category four blockbuster is gonna tear us up and we're gonna want to have done some planning and prep believe me.
But...down the line, there is going to be a discussion about why Houston wasn't evacuated given the magnitude of the storm predictions. Fair enough, but that's likely gonna devolve into a partisan slanging match given time. My question is, what city in the USA has credible mass evacuation plans on the books with the necessary funds & resources allocated for a weather driven eventuality?
My guess is...none. Just the jurisdiction issues alone have to be nightmarish, where does Texas put two million internal refugees? These are questions were haven't considered in detail since the mid 1950's but all those nuclear civil defense preparations fell by the wayside simply because the Bombs Never Fell on our cities. Now we've got "once a century" weather events hammering our coastal cities two and three times a decade we may need to revisit civil defense as a public policy...and when I say we I mean us'n here in Massachusetts, sooner or later some category four blockbuster is gonna tear us up and we're gonna want to have done some planning and prep believe me.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Charlie Baker has walked past likely a dozen
Better qualified candidates and instead appointed one Luis Ramirez as MBTA General Manager, who prior CEO gig "Global Power Equipment Corp" hovers on the brink of bankruptcy due to wildly innacurate SEC filings....
A known "bankruptor" in charge of a lumbering public agency with chronic revenue, physical & administrative challenges...smells like passive aggressive privatization to meeee!
***
I doubt Baker is going to campaign for privatization of the MBTA or anything so controversial next year, he just wants the right people in place against the inevitable day when the T finally has a catastrophic meltdown and he can make that privatize-it-all argument as a quick simple cure-all. Its pretty cynical from Charlie Baker but then the Governor is a profoundly cynical man as only someone who is chronically enabled thru his public career can be. It also goes without saying that we can expect none of the desperately needed investments in the T's physical plant to go thru any time soon and again I stress the only thing that can change this is an alliance between the ridership and the captioned Unions...but I doubt that'll ever happen at this point.
A known "bankruptor" in charge of a lumbering public agency with chronic revenue, physical & administrative challenges...smells like passive aggressive privatization to meeee!
***
I doubt Baker is going to campaign for privatization of the MBTA or anything so controversial next year, he just wants the right people in place against the inevitable day when the T finally has a catastrophic meltdown and he can make that privatize-it-all argument as a quick simple cure-all. Its pretty cynical from Charlie Baker but then the Governor is a profoundly cynical man as only someone who is chronically enabled thru his public career can be. It also goes without saying that we can expect none of the desperately needed investments in the T's physical plant to go thru any time soon and again I stress the only thing that can change this is an alliance between the ridership and the captioned Unions...but I doubt that'll ever happen at this point.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
On the other hand...
Let us always remember that Robert E. Lee is also one of the few "Epic & Historic" Losers that President Trump has felt obligated to defend in public. Now I could snark on about Lee's status as a slaveholder and a honor bloated state's rights warrior...but I prefer to recall Marse Robert as the alleged military genius who got his Ass Kicked at Gettyburg by what amounted to a Military Temp who'd been on the job for 48 hours.
Ah but there are few statues out there to the military Genius of General George Gordon Meade USA maybe because he had the ill fortune to be fighting on behalf of a winning cause.
Ah but there are few statues out there to the military Genius of General George Gordon Meade USA maybe because he had the ill fortune to be fighting on behalf of a winning cause.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
The Problem with Afghanistan is...
we went in all those years ago in pursuit of a rational-realist agenda that mostly revolved around "Getting Bin Laden" and smashing up his enablers in the Taliban. Well, we blew the Taliban to hell (as much as we could find anyway) and sent Bin Laden to sleep with the fishes but all these years later we are still tied down in Afghanistan out of very real fears that a departure will only bring back the same old crowd of barbaric wowsers to power.
Somewhere along the line we crossed over the "fact-value nexus' and made ourselves responsible for delivering The Afghans from the clutches of a new class of oppressors....some of this comes from guilt some of it from overweaning ambition. But all the same it's gotten tangled together to create a perfect storm of procrastination, it's NEVER the right time to exit Afghanistan from a policy perspective.
The Kabul Government is never gonna be strong enough, or have enough popular support to perpetuate itself, four thousand more troops and who knows how many money grubbing contractors can't really change that.
We could stay thirty more years in Afghanistan and never get the right conditions to terminate that war, maybe we should start planning a right and proper "declare victory and get out" exit.
I hate to pull a "Stephen Kinzer" like this, but this comes from a sure knowledge that the manpower and resources dedicated to Afghanitan are gonna be needed elsewhere sooner or later....
Just Sayin'
I doubt any of this will come to pass under the present admin, but we should at least start the necessary logistical and diplomatic planning....
Somewhere along the line we crossed over the "fact-value nexus' and made ourselves responsible for delivering The Afghans from the clutches of a new class of oppressors....some of this comes from guilt some of it from overweaning ambition. But all the same it's gotten tangled together to create a perfect storm of procrastination, it's NEVER the right time to exit Afghanistan from a policy perspective.
The Kabul Government is never gonna be strong enough, or have enough popular support to perpetuate itself, four thousand more troops and who knows how many money grubbing contractors can't really change that.
We could stay thirty more years in Afghanistan and never get the right conditions to terminate that war, maybe we should start planning a right and proper "declare victory and get out" exit.
I hate to pull a "Stephen Kinzer" like this, but this comes from a sure knowledge that the manpower and resources dedicated to Afghanitan are gonna be needed elsewhere sooner or later....
Just Sayin'
I doubt any of this will come to pass under the present admin, but we should at least start the necessary logistical and diplomatic planning....
Monday, August 21, 2017
Nice work this weekend
The anti alt right march went off well...fewer arrests than at a Patriots Victory Parade...granted the president's tweets were ignorant & churlish but that is how he reacts to things that scare him....remember that going forward.
And I suppose while we are at it that Charlie Baker will get a pass for what amounted to clapping Mayor Walsh on the back lasty week and offering him nothing more than a hearty "Good Luck".
And I suppose while we are at it that Charlie Baker will get a pass for what amounted to clapping Mayor Walsh on the back lasty week and offering him nothing more than a hearty "Good Luck".
Friday, August 18, 2017
As for Robert E. Lee
that drawing Christ-Like Man on Horseback can Cordially Kill My Fat Irish Ass. He all but looked Abraham Lincoln in the eye and declined to command the Union Armies in 1861 in their mission to put down the Confederate Rebellion. He blubbered something about "Honor" and "Conscience" and then rode off to Richmond and the Command of the Army of Northern Virginia, CSA conveniently forgotten that long ago oath he took to "Defend the US Constitution".
Let me also point out that almost the entire Confederate Leadership DIED IN BED after the Civil War was lost for the South...with malice towards none indeed mah friends.
The fact that there are statues erected to the memory of Robert E. Goddamned Lee is nothing but proof positive that the USA is the most generous forgiving nation on Earth....frankly they can melt the lot down and sell it for scrap as far as I am concerned.
Don't give me that "Washington & Jefferson owned Slaves, Woodrow Wilson was a negrophobe etc etc " shit either. Washington started this nation and defended it against all comer whatever his flaws, Jefferson loved this country so much he trebled it's size, neither man was ever a disunionist in act or word.
As for Woodrow Wilson, his predecessors and successors were equally negrophobic....no traitors among them at all though...
Let me also point out that almost the entire Confederate Leadership DIED IN BED after the Civil War was lost for the South...with malice towards none indeed mah friends.
The fact that there are statues erected to the memory of Robert E. Goddamned Lee is nothing but proof positive that the USA is the most generous forgiving nation on Earth....frankly they can melt the lot down and sell it for scrap as far as I am concerned.
Don't give me that "Washington & Jefferson owned Slaves, Woodrow Wilson was a negrophobe etc etc " shit either. Washington started this nation and defended it against all comer whatever his flaws, Jefferson loved this country so much he trebled it's size, neither man was ever a disunionist in act or word.
As for Woodrow Wilson, his predecessors and successors were equally negrophobic....no traitors among them at all though...
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Looks like the Alt Right's Rally is a GO This Saturday
On the Common, the kid who took out the permits though, sounds like a passive aggressive little dupe quite frankly. And I reiterate that the Governor is well within his rights to call out the National Guard, one to protect the citizenry from a very obvious threat of political violence and unrest and secondly to protect a variety of monuments & statues on the Common that are accutely vulnerable to counter vandalism.
But this is Charlie Baker after all, you can wait on real leadership from him until senility makes it all a moot point.
As for Statues of Robert E. Lee...I got short shrift indeed for that whole phenom, Lee looked Lincoln in the eye back in 1861 and declined to lead the Union Armies against the confederate rebellion...the fact we didn't hang him (a commissioned officer in the US Army sworn to defend the US Constitution BTW) after the war and that we've tolerated statues to his bony ass for a hundred plus years is PROOF that this nation is built on charity & tolerance!
But then these mooks down in Virginia didn't show up to venerate Lee's alleged military genius it was to affirm symbolically solidarity with apartheid...hence the guns and violence as well, since you can't successfully segregate sans violence.
I would also point out to Mayor Walsh & Governor Baker (not that they read this dire political remnant) that the Streets of Berlin fell to the Nazis in 1930 because the Government ceased prosecuting and imprisoning NSDAP street thugs, it was a failure of law enforcement, mainstream conservatives panicked, started negotiating with Hitler and the heat came off the Brownshirts as a consequence. Thus then Berlin Gauleiter Josef Goebbels could rack up a victory that was largely due to political cowardice, until the government caved, the Nazis were making little progress in the Capital.
And if indeed, a Synagogue in Charlottesville was menaced by armed Nazis last Saturday, then I can safely save these bastards have a taste for blood now, and thus sterner measures must be taken next time...it'll save us all trouble later on believe me.
But this is Charlie Baker after all, you can wait on real leadership from him until senility makes it all a moot point.
As for Statues of Robert E. Lee...I got short shrift indeed for that whole phenom, Lee looked Lincoln in the eye back in 1861 and declined to lead the Union Armies against the confederate rebellion...the fact we didn't hang him (a commissioned officer in the US Army sworn to defend the US Constitution BTW) after the war and that we've tolerated statues to his bony ass for a hundred plus years is PROOF that this nation is built on charity & tolerance!
But then these mooks down in Virginia didn't show up to venerate Lee's alleged military genius it was to affirm symbolically solidarity with apartheid...hence the guns and violence as well, since you can't successfully segregate sans violence.
I would also point out to Mayor Walsh & Governor Baker (not that they read this dire political remnant) that the Streets of Berlin fell to the Nazis in 1930 because the Government ceased prosecuting and imprisoning NSDAP street thugs, it was a failure of law enforcement, mainstream conservatives panicked, started negotiating with Hitler and the heat came off the Brownshirts as a consequence. Thus then Berlin Gauleiter Josef Goebbels could rack up a victory that was largely due to political cowardice, until the government caved, the Nazis were making little progress in the Capital.
And if indeed, a Synagogue in Charlottesville was menaced by armed Nazis last Saturday, then I can safely save these bastards have a taste for blood now, and thus sterner measures must be taken next time...it'll save us all trouble later on believe me.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
I wanna take a moment admidst the ongoing Crisis of the Republic
To congratulate CongressPerson Tsongas on her retirement from the US House...71 is old enough I think to stop and smell the roses I think, especially in these perilous times. I recall with much fondess my "political debut" as lowly volunteer on her Late Husband's Presidential Campaign, would to God I had done ten times as much for him, win or lose.
I suspect this is a congressional race that Charlie Baker and the GOP will contest, but you can never ever tell with that guy...shifty ain't the word for him....
Monday, August 14, 2017
When in the History of the Far Right in the USA
Have the Klan and the Nazis EVER shown up for a demonstration without the intent to incite or initiate violence?
Thats the main lesson from Charlottesville...those guy show up and riots follow they are good at that sort of thing.
Allegeldy a similar "demonstration" is planned on Boston Common for the 19th, if I was Charlie Baker I'd call out the National Guard, but this is Governor Spreadsheets leadership in the face of far right provocation isn't his strong suit.
Some strong leadership now, might prevent violence later, just remember Dr. Goebbels' streetfighters made little progress in Berlin until the national and city leadership essentially fell for the Nazi Bluff and started negotiating with the NSDAP.
Thats the main lesson from Charlottesville...those guy show up and riots follow they are good at that sort of thing.
Allegeldy a similar "demonstration" is planned on Boston Common for the 19th, if I was Charlie Baker I'd call out the National Guard, but this is Governor Spreadsheets leadership in the face of far right provocation isn't his strong suit.
Some strong leadership now, might prevent violence later, just remember Dr. Goebbels' streetfighters made little progress in Berlin until the national and city leadership essentially fell for the Nazi Bluff and started negotiating with the NSDAP.
Friday, August 11, 2017
What a Minute...
A scant ten months ago at the third presidential debate, didn't Donald Trump groan into the camera "Our Nuclear....It's the Worst!!" What happened to our strategic forces since then to give the president the confidence to promise North Korea "Fire and Fury"?
:)
All snark aside the modalities behind this crisis are relatively simple, Kim wants keep his Plantation Overseer Hold on North Korea, he saw what happened to East Germany when the Socialist Bloc lost interest in the Cold War and wishes to avoid the same fate...chiefly because Komrade Kim is such sketchy little freak he's have few flight & asylum options. To do that he needs nukes, "nukes keep out troops" is his mantra. Its not lost on him that Israel's minimal nuclear arsenal has an outsized affect deterring Arab Agression against the Jewish State in Middle East.
The USA on the other hand, is desperately trying to shore up a nuclear non proliferation regime in the region sans much help from Moscow or Peking, NK's acquisition of nukes compromises our whole "active forward defense" posture in Asia & creates fear among our own alliance structure...it may even contribute to a pro Peking swing among said allies...who can say? Then again our president is an amateur who may think playing nuclear chicken with a vastly underestimated "pipsqueak Asian Despot" pushes Robert Mueller off the front pages which may well be Trump's sole goal here.
Well as Adlai Stevenson once observed "We are about to discover if this magnificent civilization of ours can create the statesmen necessary to prevent it from being blown sky-high".
:)
All snark aside the modalities behind this crisis are relatively simple, Kim wants keep his Plantation Overseer Hold on North Korea, he saw what happened to East Germany when the Socialist Bloc lost interest in the Cold War and wishes to avoid the same fate...chiefly because Komrade Kim is such sketchy little freak he's have few flight & asylum options. To do that he needs nukes, "nukes keep out troops" is his mantra. Its not lost on him that Israel's minimal nuclear arsenal has an outsized affect deterring Arab Agression against the Jewish State in Middle East.
The USA on the other hand, is desperately trying to shore up a nuclear non proliferation regime in the region sans much help from Moscow or Peking, NK's acquisition of nukes compromises our whole "active forward defense" posture in Asia & creates fear among our own alliance structure...it may even contribute to a pro Peking swing among said allies...who can say? Then again our president is an amateur who may think playing nuclear chicken with a vastly underestimated "pipsqueak Asian Despot" pushes Robert Mueller off the front pages which may well be Trump's sole goal here.
Well as Adlai Stevenson once observed "We are about to discover if this magnificent civilization of ours can create the statesmen necessary to prevent it from being blown sky-high".
Thursday, August 10, 2017
"Fire & Fury"
The history of bombastic empty threats is a rich one. Mussolini was an absolute master of the art, he referred to the Mediterranean as "Our Sea", threated to invade islands already under Italian Control & his territorial demands at the armistice talks with France in 1940 are as funny as any work by P.G. Wodehouse.
Achmed Sukarno (once the top swank in Indonesia in the 1960's) wanted to rename the Indian Ocean "The Indonesian Ocean" as soon as his poverty wracked nation Got The Bomb of Course.
The late Gamal Nasser used to threaten to push Israel "into the sea" on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, The Late Colonel Ghadaffi used to howl imprecations at the US Seventh Fleet....its all very bloodcurdly and usually impotent.
Because these are threats that are uttered largely for domestic consumption or to rhetorically deter certain international threats, they are the recourse of international actors with limited resources. Komrade Kim v.3 in Pyongyang makes all sorts of crazy threats to forestall the very real possibility of a US Backed Invasion while spending scarce resources to a crude nuclear deterrent he thinks will somehow keep the wolf from his door.
Thats the main reason he is building those nukes to keep us out, he can't really do much more with them at all given North Korea's small size and stagnant economy.
In other words to quote my late father "threats are the lexicon of weaklings", and its worth noticing that Asia's top threatener, Komrade Kim hasn't yet made good on a single one of his voluminous of international carnage. Thus for Donald Trump to get down to Kim's Level and counter threaten all sorts of merciless mayhem, it isn't so much a sharp rebuke as a confession of a similar degree of weakness.
But remember, the weak make bad decisions on the fly so all this palaver of mine can go up in smoke pretty instantly.
Achmed Sukarno (once the top swank in Indonesia in the 1960's) wanted to rename the Indian Ocean "The Indonesian Ocean" as soon as his poverty wracked nation Got The Bomb of Course.
The late Gamal Nasser used to threaten to push Israel "into the sea" on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, The Late Colonel Ghadaffi used to howl imprecations at the US Seventh Fleet....its all very bloodcurdly and usually impotent.
Because these are threats that are uttered largely for domestic consumption or to rhetorically deter certain international threats, they are the recourse of international actors with limited resources. Komrade Kim v.3 in Pyongyang makes all sorts of crazy threats to forestall the very real possibility of a US Backed Invasion while spending scarce resources to a crude nuclear deterrent he thinks will somehow keep the wolf from his door.
Thats the main reason he is building those nukes to keep us out, he can't really do much more with them at all given North Korea's small size and stagnant economy.
In other words to quote my late father "threats are the lexicon of weaklings", and its worth noticing that Asia's top threatener, Komrade Kim hasn't yet made good on a single one of his voluminous of international carnage. Thus for Donald Trump to get down to Kim's Level and counter threaten all sorts of merciless mayhem, it isn't so much a sharp rebuke as a confession of a similar degree of weakness.
But remember, the weak make bad decisions on the fly so all this palaver of mine can go up in smoke pretty instantly.
Monday, August 07, 2017
I am gonna break with orthodoxy and
Take Senior Senator Elizabeth Warren at her word when she says she is NOT running for President in 2020?
Indeed why should she? She has a safe seat (that she should not of course, take for granted), she is a noted fundraiser, she has a line of the Senate Leadership and should the democrats take congress next year she is poised to Do Big Things.
Why give all that up for an uncertain flyer in a volatile race?
Besides we could all be radioactive ash drifting the stratosphere by then, I mean anyone out there checked twitter this morning??
All morbid humor aside, Potomac Fever is being ritually transmitted by the Boston Globe these days, they were ginnin' up Seth Moulton in 2020 earlier this summer and last week it was Deval Patrick's turn, you watch they'll be talking up a primary challenge to Trump by Mitt Romney ere long.
Well I'm glad Senator Warren has stood thwart this process and howled "STOP!" Massachusetts has a few too many unsuccessful presidential candidates on the books, why add another?
Indeed why should she? She has a safe seat (that she should not of course, take for granted), she is a noted fundraiser, she has a line of the Senate Leadership and should the democrats take congress next year she is poised to Do Big Things.
Why give all that up for an uncertain flyer in a volatile race?
Besides we could all be radioactive ash drifting the stratosphere by then, I mean anyone out there checked twitter this morning??
All morbid humor aside, Potomac Fever is being ritually transmitted by the Boston Globe these days, they were ginnin' up Seth Moulton in 2020 earlier this summer and last week it was Deval Patrick's turn, you watch they'll be talking up a primary challenge to Trump by Mitt Romney ere long.
Well I'm glad Senator Warren has stood thwart this process and howled "STOP!" Massachusetts has a few too many unsuccessful presidential candidates on the books, why add another?
Sunday, August 06, 2017
I think its hilarious
that down in DC Jeff Sessions and Mean Ole' Boss Donald Trump are trying to enact a sort of Anti-First Amendment Fatwa against "leakers", meanwhile someone up at the Manchester NH VA Facility had the fortitude to drop a dime on the dilapidated conditions therein to the Boston Globe! And thank ghod too...because the Globe went big with that article and now the DVA is taking "stern measures" to fix the situations. NOTHING would have happened unless someone spoke up..."leaked" in other words.
Ironic...but at least the combat veterans of NH will get the care they deserve.
Ironic...but at least the combat veterans of NH will get the care they deserve.
Congress has Adjourned without Accomplishing Anything
save squabbling with the Administration. Normally I'd be "up in arms" about this Do Nothing Congress of Ours (dominated by aging corrupt GOP time servers) but their actual agenda is pretty much alt right torture porn, so for once we are likely dodging ourselves a bullet. For however long it lasts anyway....my guess is, Trump will take out his frustrations on the debt ceiling...watch that process closely y'all.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Health Care "reform" Goes "BOOM!"
The GOP's scheme to impoverish millions and destroy the social safety net once and for all failed last night in the US Senate when John McCain the "GOP Moderates" and impressive democratic unity all beat back Mitch McConnell's best shot for a nice hot place in Healthcare Hell.
Meanwhile North Korea just tested another ICBM so if I was the Secretary of Defense I'd be on the alert for any tantrum driven orders to the Pentagon emanating from the Oval Office....and no that is not snark. Hopefully Trump will steer clear of the red button and just fire some people....
Meanwhile North Korea just tested another ICBM so if I was the Secretary of Defense I'd be on the alert for any tantrum driven orders to the Pentagon emanating from the Oval Office....and no that is not snark. Hopefully Trump will steer clear of the red button and just fire some people....
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Kid Rock...
Wants to run for the US Senate in Michigan in 2018, currently he is polling well, but that is likely by high name recognition at this point. From what I can gather he is running as a sort of "MiniTrump" blusterly about the ACA and the Second Amendment in other words.
Get used to more of this by the way, Trump has fatally "made it look easy" with respect to twitchy weirdo celebrities taking a flyer in politics, that seems Kid Rock's real motivation here.
I'm gonna take the counterintuitive view that simply tarring Rock with the brush of "Trumpism" may not be enough to keep the seat in democratic hands.
I think, Trump has already polarized the electorate as much as it can be polarized, but with no diminuation of his appeal to the GOP Base. So slagging Kid Rock as a Trump acolyte is likely to be counterproductive....no I would take three issues in hand come the general election in 2018;
1.) "Health Care", The GOP promised to make you pay more for less coverage, and by ghod they've delivered. They've managed to keep an entire nation sleepless and anxiety ridden on this issue in just six short months, I'd hammer away on this whether ACA is reformed or abolished....they promised chaos and misery and they delivered.
2.) The Second Amendment, Kid Rock is gonna Claghorn his ass off on this issue, his rallies will be de facto gun shows...fine let him get as crazy as he wants about firearms. But don't forget to point your finger at him and remind the electorate that every gangster and cop killer in Detroit is armed to the teeth thanks to Kid Rock and the NRA. And if Detroit is a war zone, its a war zone because a bunch of lobbyists & zealots like Kid Rock in DC decided "an armed society is a peaceful society".
3.) "Chaos in Government", don't hammer Trump hammer the anxiety, uncertainty, fear & ineptitude his governance has created, vote for a congress that will do it's damn job.
Start with these three sez I....
Get used to more of this by the way, Trump has fatally "made it look easy" with respect to twitchy weirdo celebrities taking a flyer in politics, that seems Kid Rock's real motivation here.
I'm gonna take the counterintuitive view that simply tarring Rock with the brush of "Trumpism" may not be enough to keep the seat in democratic hands.
I think, Trump has already polarized the electorate as much as it can be polarized, but with no diminuation of his appeal to the GOP Base. So slagging Kid Rock as a Trump acolyte is likely to be counterproductive....no I would take three issues in hand come the general election in 2018;
1.) "Health Care", The GOP promised to make you pay more for less coverage, and by ghod they've delivered. They've managed to keep an entire nation sleepless and anxiety ridden on this issue in just six short months, I'd hammer away on this whether ACA is reformed or abolished....they promised chaos and misery and they delivered.
2.) The Second Amendment, Kid Rock is gonna Claghorn his ass off on this issue, his rallies will be de facto gun shows...fine let him get as crazy as he wants about firearms. But don't forget to point your finger at him and remind the electorate that every gangster and cop killer in Detroit is armed to the teeth thanks to Kid Rock and the NRA. And if Detroit is a war zone, its a war zone because a bunch of lobbyists & zealots like Kid Rock in DC decided "an armed society is a peaceful society".
3.) "Chaos in Government", don't hammer Trump hammer the anxiety, uncertainty, fear & ineptitude his governance has created, vote for a congress that will do it's damn job.
Start with these three sez I....
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Congrats to Cindy Friedman
on her election to the state senate yesterday, we expect great & good things from her in the months and years to come.
In other news, President Trump is defagging the military, tossing out all trangender soldiers (much to the amazement of the far more tolerant Pentagon), he's making loud belligerent (and impotent noises) about Hillary Clinton's "crimes" and fitfully attacking his own Attorney General trying to jawbone Sessions into resigning.
Oh and that meltdown in front of the Boy Scouts....epic yo.
Y'know I think given the peak decibelage dementia currently issuing from the White House I think all that would be necessary to provoke a complete Presidential Fugue State is for Former Secretary Clinton to quietly suggest that the President is "off his meds".
:)
In other news, President Trump is defagging the military, tossing out all trangender soldiers (much to the amazement of the far more tolerant Pentagon), he's making loud belligerent (and impotent noises) about Hillary Clinton's "crimes" and fitfully attacking his own Attorney General trying to jawbone Sessions into resigning.
Oh and that meltdown in front of the Boy Scouts....epic yo.
Y'know I think given the peak decibelage dementia currently issuing from the White House I think all that would be necessary to provoke a complete Presidential Fugue State is for Former Secretary Clinton to quietly suggest that the President is "off his meds".
:)
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
There is a Special Election Today in
In the Fourth Middlesex State Senate District to fill the seat of the Late Senator Ken Donnelly, I urge all my readers in Lexington, Arlington, Burlington, Billerica and the requisite wards in Woburn to get out and vote for Cindy Friedman, an eminently qualified democrat and someone who will "have the district's back" in every way. I had some cause to experience her zeal and ability with respect to a personal matter and they are qualities that will serve this district well...Vote for Cindy!
***
BTW on an unrelated note, that robocall Sunday, had no "paid for" outro as required by law, making it a sort of vile political prank perpetrated by exactly who no one seems to know...but disgruntled democrats might be in the mix....might. All the more reason to vote freely and boldly today sez I.
***
BTW on an unrelated note, that robocall Sunday, had no "paid for" outro as required by law, making it a sort of vile political prank perpetrated by exactly who no one seems to know...but disgruntled democrats might be in the mix....might. All the more reason to vote freely and boldly today sez I.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Per the Lowell Sun
Ian Jackson the Rainbow-Green Party Candidate for State Senate in Tuesday's Special Election has raised about $2,500.00 mostly thru a alleged self loan. Now he has chosen apparently to spend that cashola on a robocall to the district slagging democrat Cindy Friedman via an alleged elderly Billerica Resident who carps about a Friedman for State Senate Sign being placed on her lawn sans consent.
Its not quite "If Elected, I Shall Go to Korea" by any means, but it is a kind of a low desperate act....
Its not quite "If Elected, I Shall Go to Korea" by any means, but it is a kind of a low desperate act....
Thursday, July 20, 2017
The Sun Shines Down Like a Blessing on
Charlie Baker's seventy percent approval rating, little stands in his progress towards a "Big Sure Win" in 2018 per Joanie Vennochi in Today's Globe.
I mean we are knee deep in cheap smack despite an election night promise to get a handle on the "Opioid Crisis" from Citizen Baker....no matter, "seventy percent".
An Oxcart is generally more reliable than the MBTA's Red Line or the Green Line or the Orange Line etc etc etc, despite the Governor's assumption of complete financial authority over Mass Transit....a trifle, "seventy percent".
A kid seeking to start over in Boston can find nothing safe or reasonably private to rent anywhere in Greater Boston for less that $1,500.00 a month push utilities and first born. Ho Hum..."Seventy Percent".
Nobody seems to know where to start when it comes to solving a murder case....just chant to yourslf "Seventy Percent!"
And then there is the Governor's utter abdication of any leadership role in the National GOP, either as a gadfly, loyal opposition or whatever in the face of a semi mad chronic adolescent in the White House....just groan aloud "Seventy Percent"....
Enjoy that Seventy Percent while it lasts sooner or later it'll become seventy percent of misery & chaos....
I mean we are knee deep in cheap smack despite an election night promise to get a handle on the "Opioid Crisis" from Citizen Baker....no matter, "seventy percent".
An Oxcart is generally more reliable than the MBTA's Red Line or the Green Line or the Orange Line etc etc etc, despite the Governor's assumption of complete financial authority over Mass Transit....a trifle, "seventy percent".
A kid seeking to start over in Boston can find nothing safe or reasonably private to rent anywhere in Greater Boston for less that $1,500.00 a month push utilities and first born. Ho Hum..."Seventy Percent".
Nobody seems to know where to start when it comes to solving a murder case....just chant to yourslf "Seventy Percent!"
And then there is the Governor's utter abdication of any leadership role in the National GOP, either as a gadfly, loyal opposition or whatever in the face of a semi mad chronic adolescent in the White House....just groan aloud "Seventy Percent"....
Enjoy that Seventy Percent while it lasts sooner or later it'll become seventy percent of misery & chaos....
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
BTW kudos to Chuck Schumer
for holding his senatorial caucus together during the entire repeal ACA mishaugas, not one defector so far, forcing that old impotent golem Mitch McConnell to continually canvass his own factured majority for the votes necessary to F*ck Over the American People.
NORMALLY there are at least two twitchy specimens among the senate democrats, pouting out their lower lips and oozing fake regrets as they bow down to the GOP in abject worship "I Luv You Doctor Zaius" they groan...but so far here, nada. Like I said, this speaks well of Schumer's skillset....its also something of an underreported story, but then I suppose the other shoe could drop at any time.
NORMALLY there are at least two twitchy specimens among the senate democrats, pouting out their lower lips and oozing fake regrets as they bow down to the GOP in abject worship "I Luv You Doctor Zaius" they groan...but so far here, nada. Like I said, this speaks well of Schumer's skillset....its also something of an underreported story, but then I suppose the other shoe could drop at any time.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
I love How Senator McCain's All Expense Paid Blood Clot
is delaying Mitch McConnell's master plan to gut ObamaCare...good thing McCain is on "the public option" huh? At least he won't be worrying about what vital treatments are or are not covered by his plan..."Deductible, What Deductible, I am a US Senator!"
***
Not for Nothing, but Mitch McConnell looks all the world like a busted Sunday School Principal who flagrantly torments his students then belligerently lies about it....
All this is akin to the high noon of the Emperor Commodus in Rome, the senatorial order and the overclass in general became completely disengaged from the polity, ne'er to return. Ah but the USA is a democracy, and a true function democracy can always regenerate itself...and right now we need to start regenerating on the quick....
***
Not for Nothing, but Mitch McConnell looks all the world like a busted Sunday School Principal who flagrantly torments his students then belligerently lies about it....
All this is akin to the high noon of the Emperor Commodus in Rome, the senatorial order and the overclass in general became completely disengaged from the polity, ne'er to return. Ah but the USA is a democracy, and a true function democracy can always regenerate itself...and right now we need to start regenerating on the quick....
Monday, July 17, 2017
Last Week The President
Idly mused (indeed ALL the President's thinking at this point is idle unaccountable whimsy) that his notional "border wall" with Mexico should be "transparent" so that law enforcement can spot Mexican Drug Dealers "heaving bags of contraband" over the barrier.
Never mind the mirthful image of the Cartels all busily engaged building medieval catapults....I am unalternably opposed to a transparent border wall. Such a wall would give the Mexicans a front row seat on the decline of the Estados Unidos into mental spiritual & physical barbarism. This loutish spectacle will no doubt lead to a decline in church attendance all over Mexico...in sum "Bad Form" as the English Say.
Never mind the mirthful image of the Cartels all busily engaged building medieval catapults....I am unalternably opposed to a transparent border wall. Such a wall would give the Mexicans a front row seat on the decline of the Estados Unidos into mental spiritual & physical barbarism. This loutish spectacle will no doubt lead to a decline in church attendance all over Mexico...in sum "Bad Form" as the English Say.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
On the other hand...
IF the Kremlin wants to reduce this proud country to abject vassalage, then they are going to have to recruit better more effective stooges than Donald Trump Jr. In a family of entitled dumbasses he stands out as utterly incapable of tying his own shoes without a team of lawyers and forensic accountants to walk him thru the process.
But...he took the Russian Bait Last Summer and seems proud of his actions and baffled by the outcry, entitled dumbass indeed. In a larger sense if we conceptualize Russia as having returned to its ages old role as "Europe's reserve army of reaction" (to quote Karl Marx), then it follows that the reactionary class (ergo "the rich") are being targeted for recruitment by Putin's Regime. But they have a long way to go in creating a subversive cohort within the overclass if they are starting with the useless likes of Donald Trump who is useless as an asset and just stupid enough to get his father thrown out of office....
But...he took the Russian Bait Last Summer and seems proud of his actions and baffled by the outcry, entitled dumbass indeed. In a larger sense if we conceptualize Russia as having returned to its ages old role as "Europe's reserve army of reaction" (to quote Karl Marx), then it follows that the reactionary class (ergo "the rich") are being targeted for recruitment by Putin's Regime. But they have a long way to go in creating a subversive cohort within the overclass if they are starting with the useless likes of Donald Trump who is useless as an asset and just stupid enough to get his father thrown out of office....
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
This is the face of a Russian Asset
He isn't some twitchy grad student, some scruffy would be revolutionary...nope he is an heir to a great fortune and as privileged and entitled as a man can be in the USA circa 2017. Likely his whole family including his Father are Russian Assets, they went hat in hand to Moscow for help in taking over the USA and clearly got it. The fact that the Russians helped the Trump's out is almost but not quite secondary to the disgraceful spectacle of soliciting help from a foreign power in a US Presidential Election. We are on a collision course with Destiny in this Country, and We Must be Equal to Our Times.
Monday, July 10, 2017
Yesterday in the pages of the Boston Sunday Globe
Columnist Jeff Jacoby threw his hands up in the air and blamed ALL of Donald Trump's morbid excesses on the bad example set by..."Bill Clinton".
Normally this is where I jump ugly on Jeff, the Globe's resident conservative and the Local Punditariat's own laughing Young Senescence but today I'm gonna try and break it all down factually.
This column succinctly illustrates the hopeless inability of movement conservatism to organize itself as any sort of opposition to Donald Trump. Let me be clear they hate and fear his feckless pseudo populism, they justly fear his connections to Vladimir Putin and they all have first hand experience with his ineptitude and untrustworthiness....they know but won't admit sooner or later all this will bring down some terrifying crisis on the USA from within or without or likely both.
BUT as long as Trump holds the pen that'll potentially sign into law the privatization of social security, toxic tax cuts and a repeal of ObamaCare, they'll go on making a bad bargain with a bad and unreliable US President. To oppose him, means sacrificing either control of congress or the White House, their unwillingness to put either asset in play is a simple and eloquent confession of intellectual corruption i.e. "Placing ideology ahead and above The Nation".
Now, Jeff Jacoby knows this, insofar as Donald Trump is concerned he is not particularly intellectually corrupt, but he cannot confront these forces in any meaningful way, so in and the Orwellian sense of the term he retreats into complete stupidity there to sit until the storm passes or else sweeps him and his away.
Therefore given all this, waiting the GOP to "do something" is fruitless, if the issue is to be forced it must be done by others, no help can be expected from "principled conservatives" like Jeff Jacoby.
Normally this is where I jump ugly on Jeff, the Globe's resident conservative and the Local Punditariat's own laughing Young Senescence but today I'm gonna try and break it all down factually.
This column succinctly illustrates the hopeless inability of movement conservatism to organize itself as any sort of opposition to Donald Trump. Let me be clear they hate and fear his feckless pseudo populism, they justly fear his connections to Vladimir Putin and they all have first hand experience with his ineptitude and untrustworthiness....they know but won't admit sooner or later all this will bring down some terrifying crisis on the USA from within or without or likely both.
BUT as long as Trump holds the pen that'll potentially sign into law the privatization of social security, toxic tax cuts and a repeal of ObamaCare, they'll go on making a bad bargain with a bad and unreliable US President. To oppose him, means sacrificing either control of congress or the White House, their unwillingness to put either asset in play is a simple and eloquent confession of intellectual corruption i.e. "Placing ideology ahead and above The Nation".
Now, Jeff Jacoby knows this, insofar as Donald Trump is concerned he is not particularly intellectually corrupt, but he cannot confront these forces in any meaningful way, so in and the Orwellian sense of the term he retreats into complete stupidity there to sit until the storm passes or else sweeps him and his away.
Therefore given all this, waiting the GOP to "do something" is fruitless, if the issue is to be forced it must be done by others, no help can be expected from "principled conservatives" like Jeff Jacoby.
Friday, July 07, 2017
Bipartisanship on Beacon Hill...
Consists of de facto collusion between the legislature and the governor to stiff the private sector lawyers who contract with the Commonwealth to advocate for the poor & indigent. THAT particular line item's budget ran out last month and with no new budget passed & signed, the program goeth unfunded. This is a smoke and mirrors attempt to ease the pain of balancing the budget before years end, and it stinks as it amounts to a plethora of well heeled well connected attorney's in the legislature decline payment for services rendered to the lawyers who still actually practice law on behalf of the vulnerable.
Like I said, it stinks.
Like I said, it stinks.
Thursday, July 06, 2017
The Federal Parliament in Germany has concluded a
"review" that indicates that there is no "legal" barrier to prevent Berlin from negociating for "alternate nuclear umbrella" under. Dual Key Control System.
This is per today's New York Times, I'd provide a link but we all know that can't be breached unless $$ is in play.
The whispers about an independent nuclear deterrent for the EU started in Poland last year concurrent with the still mysterious deployment of brand new cruise missiles in Eastern Russia by our old friend, Vladimir Putin.
The proposal is still mightily controversial, likely at the moment a majority would oppose it in Germany...but elections are looming therein and the debate and consquent agenda can change with the speed of a Donald Trump Tweet.
And there is something Teutonically thorough, about checking to see if it's "legal" to subcontract with Paris for a new independent nuclear deterrent for the EU.
I take this as a general indication that institutional confidence in Donald Trump in Europe is already quite low and likely to go lower, and if it starts rubbing up against the sanctity of our strategic guarantees to NATO then heaven help us all.
Meanwhile the President is meeting Vladimir Putin tomorrow solo, Trump's aides are likely in a lather about what he'll say to the Russian Leader or what obligations he'll undertake. Thats a worry and real one, but I'm more concerned with what Putin is looking to get out of that meeting, does he want his consulates & diplomatic retreats reopened in the USA or is he looking to leverage Trump to further destabilize NATO?
I'll bet Macron & Merkel would like to know that themselves....
This is per today's New York Times, I'd provide a link but we all know that can't be breached unless $$ is in play.
The whispers about an independent nuclear deterrent for the EU started in Poland last year concurrent with the still mysterious deployment of brand new cruise missiles in Eastern Russia by our old friend, Vladimir Putin.
The proposal is still mightily controversial, likely at the moment a majority would oppose it in Germany...but elections are looming therein and the debate and consquent agenda can change with the speed of a Donald Trump Tweet.
And there is something Teutonically thorough, about checking to see if it's "legal" to subcontract with Paris for a new independent nuclear deterrent for the EU.
I take this as a general indication that institutional confidence in Donald Trump in Europe is already quite low and likely to go lower, and if it starts rubbing up against the sanctity of our strategic guarantees to NATO then heaven help us all.
Meanwhile the President is meeting Vladimir Putin tomorrow solo, Trump's aides are likely in a lather about what he'll say to the Russian Leader or what obligations he'll undertake. Thats a worry and real one, but I'm more concerned with what Putin is looking to get out of that meeting, does he want his consulates & diplomatic retreats reopened in the USA or is he looking to leverage Trump to further destabilize NATO?
I'll bet Macron & Merkel would like to know that themselves....
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