Late word comes to us that Don Imus the groaning gasping scourge of AM Talk Radio up and died down in Texas.
No loss really, he was a drunk, more than a little racist, abusive to those beneath him, a shameless truckler to those above, his comedy was execrable, his novel allegedly ghostwritten and lets face it, there is nothing worse than a drug addicted reactionary unless its a drug addicted reactionary with a nationally syndicated drive time radio show.
I recall with the simplest nostalgia the I-Man's nauseating war whooping in the lead up to the Second Gulf War, Him, the Late Tim Russert or Chris Matthew all shrieking like Middle School Magpies at the prospect of Iraq's Easy Conquest.
Of course by 2008, he'd walk all that back, but he wouldn't have been the I-Man if he hadn't believe me.
That having been said, he was virtually the only drive time radio yakker who put national democrats on the air, John Kerry, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joe Lieberman (yes, I know...) among others. It ain't much but it was one of the few places where I could hear what was on the minds of the party's alleged elite.
Keep in mind, this is back in 2002, when Howard Stern was a reliably belligerent mark for the GOP, as opposed to the Buttigeig democrat The King of All Media is Today.
Anyhow, that nasty old man is dead now, his accomplishment add up to almost nothing, I'd say good riddance but I'd happily have him back if I could have Harold Ford Jr. as President.
Shit at this point I'd settle for Jerry Ford.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Friday, December 27, 2019
I got to hand it to Nancy Pelosi
she may actually be a better Speaker of the US House than my Landsman, Tip O'Neill. A scant year ago the likes of Seth Moulton were indifferently scheming at her overthrow, and now today look at her, US Rep Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House Constitutional Democracy's Last Best Hope to Endure!
Much is made of the fact that she gathered no republican supporters when the Impeachment Articles came to a vote, less commented upon is that she had exactly three defections from the democratic ranks, Tip O'Neill could but dream of party discipline so tightly cinched! Moreover I think all along, Pelosi knew she'd wouldn't get a single GOP vote when push came to shove, she took one look at the House Republican Caucus and saw it instantly for a cowardly rabble given to groveling before Shakespeare's False God "Commodity."
Maybe Humble Elias is Shocked that no-one from the GOP voted in favor of Impeachment (not even the republican House Members who are retiring, who understand clearly that Trump is Guilty) but Speaker Pelosi clearly wasn't.
She made her move, when history told her to move, GOP support or no GOP support, I like that about her, she is tough, smarter than Trump in every way and she knows Mitch McConnell is a grim cheap hoodlum, why else would she dangle the Articles of Impeachment over their heads like the Mythic Sword of Damocles?
My guess is, forget the taunts and the tweets, Pelosi knows Trump is a sick impulsive man, the longer she drags out the suspense the better the chances Trump will do something stupid like make ludicrous concessions in the name of a quick Senate Trial.
Churchill said it best when discussing President Lincoln's many critics "They did not know leadership when they saw it".
Much is made of the fact that she gathered no republican supporters when the Impeachment Articles came to a vote, less commented upon is that she had exactly three defections from the democratic ranks, Tip O'Neill could but dream of party discipline so tightly cinched! Moreover I think all along, Pelosi knew she'd wouldn't get a single GOP vote when push came to shove, she took one look at the House Republican Caucus and saw it instantly for a cowardly rabble given to groveling before Shakespeare's False God "Commodity."
Maybe Humble Elias is Shocked that no-one from the GOP voted in favor of Impeachment (not even the republican House Members who are retiring, who understand clearly that Trump is Guilty) but Speaker Pelosi clearly wasn't.
She made her move, when history told her to move, GOP support or no GOP support, I like that about her, she is tough, smarter than Trump in every way and she knows Mitch McConnell is a grim cheap hoodlum, why else would she dangle the Articles of Impeachment over their heads like the Mythic Sword of Damocles?
My guess is, forget the taunts and the tweets, Pelosi knows Trump is a sick impulsive man, the longer she drags out the suspense the better the chances Trump will do something stupid like make ludicrous concessions in the name of a quick Senate Trial.
Churchill said it best when discussing President Lincoln's many critics "They did not know leadership when they saw it".
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Boris Johnson's Landslide Logic...
Apparently Great Britain MUST leave the EU, but Scotland and Northern Ireland MUST remain within the U.K. no matter what the majorities in those countries may want or say. All I know is there is a clear majority in Scotland that wants to remain in the EU and Pro-Nationalists have a Majority in Belfast's Legislature. Johnson will get his Brexit but centrifugal forces are building up in British Politics, Union with the Irish Republic is openly discussed sans homicide in North, and Scotland clearly believes its best long term economic interests lie in the European Union. England may well be a Kingdom but it won't be a United Kingdom ere long methinks.
Ya know what?
I'm fine with it.
F*ck em'.
I am done Talking England Off Yet Another Ledge, if the British People Wanna Jump into the Abyss, Let Them. Boris Johnson with all his shifty populist rubbish may well be the best way to get peaceful & lawful Irish Unity in the span of my life time. If the breakup of the UK is the price that has to be paid to unify Ireland, so be it, they were warned.
Just a quick pro-note to Boris Johnson, my advise is, if Brexit goes off and England slides into depression you will literally get better terms from almost any lender of choice than Donald Trump, that guy is a consistent mortal danger to those who work closest with him, just ask any of his current or former attorney's...Pay Heed Boris.
Ya know what?
I'm fine with it.
F*ck em'.
I am done Talking England Off Yet Another Ledge, if the British People Wanna Jump into the Abyss, Let Them. Boris Johnson with all his shifty populist rubbish may well be the best way to get peaceful & lawful Irish Unity in the span of my life time. If the breakup of the UK is the price that has to be paid to unify Ireland, so be it, they were warned.
Just a quick pro-note to Boris Johnson, my advise is, if Brexit goes off and England slides into depression you will literally get better terms from almost any lender of choice than Donald Trump, that guy is a consistent mortal danger to those who work closest with him, just ask any of his current or former attorney's...Pay Heed Boris.
Sunday, December 08, 2019
With Friends Like Saudi Arabia...
who the f**k needs enemies??
I mean how can we not just luv dese guys? The chop up journalists and lie about it, they keep trying to get us to destroy Iran for them, their second biggest export seems to be nascent terrorists and they are so special and dear to us that their military trainees can buy firearms in the USA Free & Clear.
Sounds Like a Bargain to Me, What could go wrong??
Central America has the gall to send us starvelings willing to work sh*t jobs for short money, Saudi Arabia though sends us trained motivated killers, are they a great ally or what??
I mean how can we not just luv dese guys? The chop up journalists and lie about it, they keep trying to get us to destroy Iran for them, their second biggest export seems to be nascent terrorists and they are so special and dear to us that their military trainees can buy firearms in the USA Free & Clear.
Sounds Like a Bargain to Me, What could go wrong??
Central America has the gall to send us starvelings willing to work sh*t jobs for short money, Saudi Arabia though sends us trained motivated killers, are they a great ally or what??
Sunday, December 01, 2019
Governor Charlie Baker is the Dullest Politician from Massachusetts
since the Empire Days of Calvin Coolidge. He was reading tonight's winter storm advisory like it was a slightly baffling & unexpected invoice. His voice modulates up and down with slight sing song variance, and he a profoundly uncomfortable presence on the television. And then when is done droning away, he summons Lieutenant Polito to the podium, her first line is "Thanks, Guv!"...I mean this is a lightweight in a lightweight's job. The rest of the team (Secretary of Transportation, MBTA Chair) are all just as enervating to watch. Frankly the most charismatic and animated public servant serving in the current Executive Department of the Commonwealth, is Charlie Baker's sign language interpreter.
Monday, November 25, 2019
The Story So Far...
After last week's democratic debate on MSNBC, I can only come to the conclusion that Senators Kamala Harris & Cory Booker are hanging in there to burnish their Vice Presidential Prospects. Both are passionate, articulate, can swing a mean soundbite and even so they are both dead in the water, in the patois of Frank Dell, "They aren't mo-oving bay-bee!" Right now their last best hope of Overthrowing Destiny Lies in a Joe Biden Nomination for President. Harris would make a formidable Veep for Biden, classy yet tough, Pence wouldn't last long in debate with her believe me. Booker on the other hand is a Veep for Mystic Symmetry, Biden made it to Veep with an African American Heading the Ticket, now he returns the favor by nominated another poised articulate passionate African American Man as his Veep.
Meanwhile Buttigeig is moving up in the polls out in Iowa, but then all polished articulate outsiders with a Kennedy-esque ability to project a comforting establishment glow have their Day in the Sun in the democratic presidential sweeps. And lets face it, Buttigeig has an Obama-like capacity to incarnate himself as the very prospect of change, it obscures his essentially centrist pragmatic outlook nicely. At the moment though, the polling indicates he is pulling support pretty much from Biden which does sent up an interesting confrontation down the line...maybe.
Biden meanwhile lumbers along, abandoned seemingly by everyone save the voters who consistently seem to regard him as the preferred grizzled gunslinger hired to clean out the high binders & bandits currently infesting the Republic.
These are pretty much the front runners at this point, Bloomberg seems poised to spend 37 million dollars of his own money on TV adverts in Iowa and NH, but then this is stark necessity, time has gotten so short its impossible to shake enough hands or eat enough spaghetti to make a fast surge up in the polls.
As for the other late entry, our own Deval Patrick, who apparently if the Boston Globe is to be believed thinks he can turn the South Carolina Primary into a Game Changer...I just don't see it happening, the era of the late coup in the democratic primaries is long over. Its a sort of narcotic myth indulged by the punditariat, like brokered conventions and sudden third party bids. No right now the field with the inside track seems to be Sanders, Warren, Biden & at the moment, Buttigeig...that fourth outlier spot could change, who knows Yang might catch fire but time is getting short for everyone front runner and dark horse.
But, if I was to speculate, if its Biden it'll have to be someone who excites the base as well as someone younger, that superficially favors either Harris or Booker. I also think Biden may himself feel constrained to choose a woman as a gesture toward the forces of change in the democratic party.
On the other hand, he seems to get along famously with Warren...regardless of their health care policy differences.
Sanders is more of an interesting poser, he is so very self contained politically, I'm not sure what would be his idea of a Veep that would promote party unity? Certainly I think he'd be under some similar constraints to pick someone younger. Who knows, maybe Beto O'Rourke?
Elizabeth Warren likely needs someone that speaks "foreign policy gravitas", A General Perhaps...is Wesley Clark still listening to pitches?
And lastly Buttigeig the change agent incarnate, he faces the longest odds and who knows if his bounce will still be there next week, but with him, the Veepstakes are simple, he needs an African American, Harris or Booker again, even Patrick would do nicely in a pinch.
Granted the race is in flux, but recall please not too much flux, sooner or later someone racks up a plurality that looks pretty formidable, then we are off to the races.
Meanwhile Buttigeig is moving up in the polls out in Iowa, but then all polished articulate outsiders with a Kennedy-esque ability to project a comforting establishment glow have their Day in the Sun in the democratic presidential sweeps. And lets face it, Buttigeig has an Obama-like capacity to incarnate himself as the very prospect of change, it obscures his essentially centrist pragmatic outlook nicely. At the moment though, the polling indicates he is pulling support pretty much from Biden which does sent up an interesting confrontation down the line...maybe.
Biden meanwhile lumbers along, abandoned seemingly by everyone save the voters who consistently seem to regard him as the preferred grizzled gunslinger hired to clean out the high binders & bandits currently infesting the Republic.
These are pretty much the front runners at this point, Bloomberg seems poised to spend 37 million dollars of his own money on TV adverts in Iowa and NH, but then this is stark necessity, time has gotten so short its impossible to shake enough hands or eat enough spaghetti to make a fast surge up in the polls.
As for the other late entry, our own Deval Patrick, who apparently if the Boston Globe is to be believed thinks he can turn the South Carolina Primary into a Game Changer...I just don't see it happening, the era of the late coup in the democratic primaries is long over. Its a sort of narcotic myth indulged by the punditariat, like brokered conventions and sudden third party bids. No right now the field with the inside track seems to be Sanders, Warren, Biden & at the moment, Buttigeig...that fourth outlier spot could change, who knows Yang might catch fire but time is getting short for everyone front runner and dark horse.
But, if I was to speculate, if its Biden it'll have to be someone who excites the base as well as someone younger, that superficially favors either Harris or Booker. I also think Biden may himself feel constrained to choose a woman as a gesture toward the forces of change in the democratic party.
On the other hand, he seems to get along famously with Warren...regardless of their health care policy differences.
Sanders is more of an interesting poser, he is so very self contained politically, I'm not sure what would be his idea of a Veep that would promote party unity? Certainly I think he'd be under some similar constraints to pick someone younger. Who knows, maybe Beto O'Rourke?
Elizabeth Warren likely needs someone that speaks "foreign policy gravitas", A General Perhaps...is Wesley Clark still listening to pitches?
And lastly Buttigeig the change agent incarnate, he faces the longest odds and who knows if his bounce will still be there next week, but with him, the Veepstakes are simple, he needs an African American, Harris or Booker again, even Patrick would do nicely in a pinch.
Granted the race is in flux, but recall please not too much flux, sooner or later someone racks up a plurality that looks pretty formidable, then we are off to the races.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Apparently, according to Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe Today...
we are All guilty of impeachable offenses, we permitted congress to let go of its war making powers and so somehow we are all implicated in literally millions of war crimes.
That is literally his argument today, and you know what, I applaud him, at least he followed all of his ideas thru to their logical conclusion and then tied them all together in an unfathomable granny knot.
Of course none of it has any practical value, if everyone is guilty, then no one is, because there is no real or metaphoric possibility of Justice. How can criminals act as judges, juries, prosecutors or defense counsel?
Now me? I say justice is the redress of wrongdoing and the punishment of wrongdoers. A free people who live by the rule of law are best able to honor and uphold justice. Kinzer has a theory of injustice its vast and well thought out, but it'll never redress any wrongdoing nor penalize any wrong doer.
I think he knows that, which is why I suspect Stephen secretly wishes Trump every success, since it'll destroy the USA's skein of overseas alliances and what...bring about a new eschaton of grievance where This Republic will stand Indicted For All Its Crimes At Long Last...or else a sweet wind will blow down from the mountains and make all right again...some damn thing.
That is literally his argument today, and you know what, I applaud him, at least he followed all of his ideas thru to their logical conclusion and then tied them all together in an unfathomable granny knot.
Of course none of it has any practical value, if everyone is guilty, then no one is, because there is no real or metaphoric possibility of Justice. How can criminals act as judges, juries, prosecutors or defense counsel?
Now me? I say justice is the redress of wrongdoing and the punishment of wrongdoers. A free people who live by the rule of law are best able to honor and uphold justice. Kinzer has a theory of injustice its vast and well thought out, but it'll never redress any wrongdoing nor penalize any wrong doer.
I think he knows that, which is why I suspect Stephen secretly wishes Trump every success, since it'll destroy the USA's skein of overseas alliances and what...bring about a new eschaton of grievance where This Republic will stand Indicted For All Its Crimes At Long Last...or else a sweet wind will blow down from the mountains and make all right again...some damn thing.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Deval don't do it!!
This is Elias, Man, I was in back of the Arlington Sons of Italy when you first came to town in 2005, remember the guy that had a fugue and stormed out? You didn't turn a hair, thats when I first believed you could do it.
But running for President?
Now??
Thats Crazy...
Listen to me Governor, you've got no organization, no money and you aren't that famous from the git go...this cannot end well.
The Spartans were all signed up months and even years ago, I'm in that room every month and the only people we hear from are either Madly for Liz or Even More Madly for Bernie...who ya gonna send up to Manchester the PawSox??
This is gonna be the end of your political career, up until now you were a future VP/AG or some damned thing, but you can't say no in April and Yes in November and expect to win, that only worked for Bobby Kennedy...and there the metaphor endeth.
Don't do it, I'm begging you...The Day is Late, and the Light Grows Dim.
But running for President?
Now??
Thats Crazy...
Listen to me Governor, you've got no organization, no money and you aren't that famous from the git go...this cannot end well.
The Spartans were all signed up months and even years ago, I'm in that room every month and the only people we hear from are either Madly for Liz or Even More Madly for Bernie...who ya gonna send up to Manchester the PawSox??
This is gonna be the end of your political career, up until now you were a future VP/AG or some damned thing, but you can't say no in April and Yes in November and expect to win, that only worked for Bobby Kennedy...and there the metaphor endeth.
Don't do it, I'm begging you...The Day is Late, and the Light Grows Dim.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Hang in There President Carter,
I voted for you in 1980 and never once regretted it! Word is the Former President is feeling poorly, I hope he pulls thru, he is a living rebuke to every money worshipping sluggard in This Republic.
Saturday, November 09, 2019
Bloomberg is running for President...
this'll be a stone riot. All the endorsements are tied up with other candidates, all the best organizers are signed away long ago, good thing there is no salary cap in Presidential Politics, because all Bloomberg has left is plentiful liquidity to waste on a late candidacy that no one yearned for at all.
Remember Senator Fred Thompson? He was a big name who got in late and went nowhere...
All these billionaires are apparently shaking in their boots at the thought of Elizabeth Warren climbing into office and enacting even one tenth of her ambitious program. So Michael Bloomberg drew the short-straw I guess, Ted Turner must've guffawed mightily...
Bloomberg's game plan is to run up the flag over the "Vital Center" and swear to die in it's defense. He doesn't realize though, what Sanders & Warren figured out long ago, the center is shifting leftward at least when it comes to promising stern retribution for financial malfeasance. Nobody is booing Senator Warren's plan to tax the ultra-rich at the market rate, the debate centers on what to do with the revenue which is likely been her plan all along. Bloomberg sooner or later is gonna look like a desperate "hostile takeover bid" nothing more, my main worry enters on preventing him from running on a third party ticket next fall possibly with Tulsi Gabbard for Veep.
Otherwise, this is the political equivalent of homeopathic medicine, the ruin brought down on us by an alleged billionaire staggering around the White House in a perpetual dangerous fugue state is somehow to be remedied by yet another billionaire candidate.
Remember Senator Fred Thompson? He was a big name who got in late and went nowhere...
All these billionaires are apparently shaking in their boots at the thought of Elizabeth Warren climbing into office and enacting even one tenth of her ambitious program. So Michael Bloomberg drew the short-straw I guess, Ted Turner must've guffawed mightily...
Bloomberg's game plan is to run up the flag over the "Vital Center" and swear to die in it's defense. He doesn't realize though, what Sanders & Warren figured out long ago, the center is shifting leftward at least when it comes to promising stern retribution for financial malfeasance. Nobody is booing Senator Warren's plan to tax the ultra-rich at the market rate, the debate centers on what to do with the revenue which is likely been her plan all along. Bloomberg sooner or later is gonna look like a desperate "hostile takeover bid" nothing more, my main worry enters on preventing him from running on a third party ticket next fall possibly with Tulsi Gabbard for Veep.
Otherwise, this is the political equivalent of homeopathic medicine, the ruin brought down on us by an alleged billionaire staggering around the White House in a perpetual dangerous fugue state is somehow to be remedied by yet another billionaire candidate.
Wednesday, November 06, 2019
Kerry Gilpin is Outski at the State Police
cashing in her pension awfully quickly if'n you asked me, it is a sweet 180K per year by the way. But two years of coping with the perception of widespread corruption at the State Police was enough, now some other jobber will have to keep the lid on until the public wearies of being robbed & cheated.
Don't look for leadership from anyone on this one, the Governor has a pathological fear of any distance getting between him and Law Enforcement, and the Legislature's Devotion to Public Sector Unions, is a romance worthy of De Sade.
Anyhow So Long Colonel Gilpin, you changed little, antagonized few, coped mightily and left the State Police in the same stupor of disfunction that was nigh on your first day.
Only Joe Lawless can beat a record like that...
Saturday, November 02, 2019
Can the Washington National...
(the improbable victors in the World Series) please have a full scale Victory Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC....with Tanks!???
Classic Tanks of course, like the work horse Sherman Tank from World War II
Classic Tanks of course, like the work horse Sherman Tank from World War II
OR the French Char B-1 B the nigh invulnerable assault tank the French fielded at the Outset of World War II.
Just those two words together "French Tank" might give Trump a stroke...
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Putin & Erdogan (with Assad shaking his pom-poms)
have carved up Syria like Stalin & Hitler carved up Poland in September 1939. Bad things came of that, and equally bad things will come of this stark and inept betrayal.
Because right now, our friends in the region are down to the Israelis who are riddled with political paralysis handy allies though they are and The House of Saud, which so far as I can tell, could screw up a Two Car Funeral.
Neither of these entities can look on the fate of the Kurds with any satisfaction...
Meanwhile Stephen Kinzer in the Sunday Globe had the gall to compare the Kurds to Charlie Brown's humiliating annual attempts to kick Lucy's Football, a glib and obtuse metaphor that ought to live in Op-Ed Infamy but, we live in evil times and there is much competition in this category.
Because right now, our friends in the region are down to the Israelis who are riddled with political paralysis handy allies though they are and The House of Saud, which so far as I can tell, could screw up a Two Car Funeral.
Neither of these entities can look on the fate of the Kurds with any satisfaction...
Meanwhile Stephen Kinzer in the Sunday Globe had the gall to compare the Kurds to Charlie Brown's humiliating annual attempts to kick Lucy's Football, a glib and obtuse metaphor that ought to live in Op-Ed Infamy but, we live in evil times and there is much competition in this category.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
So VP Pence gets sent to Ankara to negotiate a "ceasefire"
which any normal mentality would label a "surrender". Said "Ceasefire" will last as long it takes for the Turks to Reinforce & Renew the Purge of Kurdish. Hardly longer than the time it took for Air Force Two to clear Turkish Airspace really.
So that is Trump's move really, send Pence, Hat In Hand, to Ankara to get the best deal he can for...who again? The Kurds? The Saudis, the Israelis...US??
Who knows really, we don't have a policy or a plan, Putin has a plan and a policy and it's all working to his advantage right now, what we have....is tweets.
And this is the shameful mishaugas demanded by Trump solely so that he can boast in front of his rallies that he has somehow outfoxed them all and achieved peace with honor.
Let me be clear, Ankara doesn't fear sanctions (imposed on them last week by Trump as punishment for the invasion the US President himself enabled), no Turkey fears Kurdish Autonomy and is willing to ethnically purge the region to stop it. Steel tariffs & blustering childish letters from gruesomely subnormal US President are a very small price to pay indeed to achieve that goal.
And if along the way a strategic partnership with Moscow is created along with Putin's Vassal Assad, so much the better for Ankara who is likely itching to be Out of NATO at this point. That in turn is going to create a malign security dynamic for the US in the Eastern Mediterranean.
I have to give Vladimir Putin perverse credit, he is presiding over a creaking declining kleptocracy that produces little in the way of exports save oil, weapons and mischief. The man has played a bad hand masterfully, he has reduced Syria to a satellite state, brought Turkey into Moscow's policy orbit and is clearly making overtures to Iran. I doubt he'll even permit a US presence at whatever peace conference he is cooking up...indeed why should he? He and his proxies are permitted to Humiliate this Proud Republic with Impunity, no doubt should his Lackey in the White House achieve a Second Term he will at last achieve the Dream of the First Secretaries of the CPSU, the dissolution of NATO..
Our allies are frightened, our enemies are emboldened that is pretty much our policy at this point...
So that is Trump's move really, send Pence, Hat In Hand, to Ankara to get the best deal he can for...who again? The Kurds? The Saudis, the Israelis...US??
Who knows really, we don't have a policy or a plan, Putin has a plan and a policy and it's all working to his advantage right now, what we have....is tweets.
And this is the shameful mishaugas demanded by Trump solely so that he can boast in front of his rallies that he has somehow outfoxed them all and achieved peace with honor.
Let me be clear, Ankara doesn't fear sanctions (imposed on them last week by Trump as punishment for the invasion the US President himself enabled), no Turkey fears Kurdish Autonomy and is willing to ethnically purge the region to stop it. Steel tariffs & blustering childish letters from gruesomely subnormal US President are a very small price to pay indeed to achieve that goal.
And if along the way a strategic partnership with Moscow is created along with Putin's Vassal Assad, so much the better for Ankara who is likely itching to be Out of NATO at this point. That in turn is going to create a malign security dynamic for the US in the Eastern Mediterranean.
I have to give Vladimir Putin perverse credit, he is presiding over a creaking declining kleptocracy that produces little in the way of exports save oil, weapons and mischief. The man has played a bad hand masterfully, he has reduced Syria to a satellite state, brought Turkey into Moscow's policy orbit and is clearly making overtures to Iran. I doubt he'll even permit a US presence at whatever peace conference he is cooking up...indeed why should he? He and his proxies are permitted to Humiliate this Proud Republic with Impunity, no doubt should his Lackey in the White House achieve a Second Term he will at last achieve the Dream of the First Secretaries of the CPSU, the dissolution of NATO..
Our allies are frightened, our enemies are emboldened that is pretty much our policy at this point...
Saturday, October 12, 2019
A Veritable Munich on Twitter...
I've lived long enough to watch an incumbent US President casually and obscenely sell out allied freedom fighter to a fellow autocrat, I write of course of the withdrawal of US Forces from Syria and the green light given to Turkish Tyrant Erdogan to invade & route the Kurds.
These would be the same Kurds who undertook most of the front line fighting that reduced ISIS to a bloody pulp. And now those same fighters are naught but cannon fodder for Turkish Tanks. The whole world has seen in glorious vivid color, the value of a US Guarantee, Ghod Almighty Help this Country the next time we need to forge alliances or even recruit proxies.
Like any other ethnic enclave in the region, I'm sure the Kurds have a lot to answer for, but the ancient foreign policy principle of "My Enemy's Enemy, Is My Friend", does not absolve the recruiting party of interest & some responsibility towards the proxies duly recruited. I'm not saying we should redraw the map in the region for the Kurds, but acting as a good faith diplomatic sponsor and arbiter is well within reason. But then, this is Trump we are talking about, "subtle" isn't his thing, he doesn't do patience well while enabling his fellow authoritarians is a knee jerk reaction at this point.
Right now the big victors in this mishaugas is Vladimir Putin is it HE that will be the arbiter and interested diplomatic sponsor when the negotiations commence, he has Assad in his back pocket and has been assiduously courting Erdogan. This pretty much puts Russia in the driver's seat in the Middle East, which is good news for no one most especially Israel. Clearly the Israelis who have a cynical high regard for Trump (at least until this week) have to be worried, if Trump can throw over the Kurds, can Jerusalem be far behind?
Who knows quite frankly....?
To me though, this is a curtain raiser, Trump sold out the Kurds and if he can do sans paying a political price he'll sell out NATO next, watch for it. In which case I do think that its time the citizens starting quizzing GOP candidates for congress exactly what they will do if President Trump attempts to withdraw from NATO?
Those answers ought to be noteworthy.
The only thing I'm grimly looking forward to is Stephen Kinzer's column tomorrow where no doubt the Kurdish sell out will be greeted with joy and as a sign that the American Imperium is at last over ...Anyone wanna take a bet that Stephen will bring up the CIA sponsored 1953 Iranian Coup...again?
These would be the same Kurds who undertook most of the front line fighting that reduced ISIS to a bloody pulp. And now those same fighters are naught but cannon fodder for Turkish Tanks. The whole world has seen in glorious vivid color, the value of a US Guarantee, Ghod Almighty Help this Country the next time we need to forge alliances or even recruit proxies.
Like any other ethnic enclave in the region, I'm sure the Kurds have a lot to answer for, but the ancient foreign policy principle of "My Enemy's Enemy, Is My Friend", does not absolve the recruiting party of interest & some responsibility towards the proxies duly recruited. I'm not saying we should redraw the map in the region for the Kurds, but acting as a good faith diplomatic sponsor and arbiter is well within reason. But then, this is Trump we are talking about, "subtle" isn't his thing, he doesn't do patience well while enabling his fellow authoritarians is a knee jerk reaction at this point.
Right now the big victors in this mishaugas is Vladimir Putin is it HE that will be the arbiter and interested diplomatic sponsor when the negotiations commence, he has Assad in his back pocket and has been assiduously courting Erdogan. This pretty much puts Russia in the driver's seat in the Middle East, which is good news for no one most especially Israel. Clearly the Israelis who have a cynical high regard for Trump (at least until this week) have to be worried, if Trump can throw over the Kurds, can Jerusalem be far behind?
Who knows quite frankly....?
To me though, this is a curtain raiser, Trump sold out the Kurds and if he can do sans paying a political price he'll sell out NATO next, watch for it. In which case I do think that its time the citizens starting quizzing GOP candidates for congress exactly what they will do if President Trump attempts to withdraw from NATO?
Those answers ought to be noteworthy.
The only thing I'm grimly looking forward to is Stephen Kinzer's column tomorrow where no doubt the Kurdish sell out will be greeted with joy and as a sign that the American Imperium is at last over ...Anyone wanna take a bet that Stephen will bring up the CIA sponsored 1953 Iranian Coup...again?
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
A Shout Out to the Indomitable Senator from Vermont,
that Great Progressive, Bernie Sanders. Hope he is feeling better and back out on the Hustings Soon...I hear tell unblocked arteries release heretofore unknown reservoirs of energy, so get ready for "Bernie Unleashed"!
I may not accord with the man's views, but he is deserving of respect and deference in these circumstances...
I may not accord with the man's views, but he is deserving of respect and deference in these circumstances...
Friday, September 27, 2019
I wouldn't put it past Trump to...
1.) Blame it all on Rudy Giuliani and "fire" him in a loud and public way. It won't work but its the sort of loud stupid move that the President thinks is subtle leadership.
2.) If conviction in the Senate looked likely (and that is A Big If), to Browbeat VP Mike Pence into resigning, and thus daring his former enablers on Capitol Hill to Make Nancy Pelosi President.
3.) If conviction in the Senate looked likely (see above) to blackmail Mike Pence into issuing a Pardon to himself Donald Trump and his miserable family.
And if he is convicted in the US Senate then I fully expect Trump to flee to Moscow and request asylum, I think that may have well been the arrangement all along.
2.) If conviction in the Senate looked likely (and that is A Big If), to Browbeat VP Mike Pence into resigning, and thus daring his former enablers on Capitol Hill to Make Nancy Pelosi President.
3.) If conviction in the Senate looked likely (see above) to blackmail Mike Pence into issuing a Pardon to himself Donald Trump and his miserable family.
And if he is convicted in the US Senate then I fully expect Trump to flee to Moscow and request asylum, I think that may have well been the arrangement all along.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Kennedy Piles In...
Seeking Ed Markey's Seat in the US Senate.
Call me crazy, but regardless of the polls, I don't think Kennedy has a lock on this thing. He has money, he can hire talent and build a network, but I don't seem to know anyone who is defecting to JPK III.
It was different in 1986, Menotomy was on fire for his dad, Joseph P. Kennedy II when he was running to succeed Tip O'Neill in the US House. The Spartans blazed a Trail of Glory that time...I've yet to run into anyone who is prepared to stake out a place of honor in the Last Ditch for Congressman Kennedy's Senate Bid.
I don't think Ed is going down without a hellacious fight either. Markey has pockets crammed full of political IOU's, climate change activists love the guy, even the Buzzcuts down at Town Hall have to respect his work ethic and thorough constituent services.
Rep. Kennedy talks of a "Reckoning" forced on us by the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, indeed this is an astute observation on his part. But I ask with all honesty why is the consequence of said reckoning being visited on Senator Markey?
Because he is old??
Because Rep. Kennedy is impatient and fears Senator Warren can't bootstrap herself into the White House and create the vacancy he covets?
Because Re. Kennedy is likely surrounded by the usual crowd of ambitious hangers-on who are blowing "smoke in his face" (to quote my white haired Irish Mother) about his sterling prospects?
The World Wonders...
Sadly this is a worrisome distraction that will bedevil us until this time next year, I think the only people that are really happy about this is the Boston Globe/Herald who have instant headline fodder until State Primary Day 2020.
Call me crazy, but regardless of the polls, I don't think Kennedy has a lock on this thing. He has money, he can hire talent and build a network, but I don't seem to know anyone who is defecting to JPK III.
It was different in 1986, Menotomy was on fire for his dad, Joseph P. Kennedy II when he was running to succeed Tip O'Neill in the US House. The Spartans blazed a Trail of Glory that time...I've yet to run into anyone who is prepared to stake out a place of honor in the Last Ditch for Congressman Kennedy's Senate Bid.
I don't think Ed is going down without a hellacious fight either. Markey has pockets crammed full of political IOU's, climate change activists love the guy, even the Buzzcuts down at Town Hall have to respect his work ethic and thorough constituent services.
Rep. Kennedy talks of a "Reckoning" forced on us by the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, indeed this is an astute observation on his part. But I ask with all honesty why is the consequence of said reckoning being visited on Senator Markey?
Because he is old??
Because Rep. Kennedy is impatient and fears Senator Warren can't bootstrap herself into the White House and create the vacancy he covets?
Because Re. Kennedy is likely surrounded by the usual crowd of ambitious hangers-on who are blowing "smoke in his face" (to quote my white haired Irish Mother) about his sterling prospects?
The World Wonders...
Sadly this is a worrisome distraction that will bedevil us until this time next year, I think the only people that are really happy about this is the Boston Globe/Herald who have instant headline fodder until State Primary Day 2020.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Y'know...
I'm not one to traffic conspiracy theories, most of the popular ones out there fail the simplest application of "Occam's Razor"...or the arithmetic fact that the more people in on a conspiracy the more short lived it's security. But if I had to speculate, I'd wonder if those drones and cruise missiles that hit that Saudi Refinery this week, were in fact fired by the Saudis themselves.
I know its outlandish, but consider, they might've done it to drive up the price of oil and tempt Trump into a volitional war with Iran and its also the sort of ham fisted dumbass scheme a homicidal jobber like Crown Prince Salman might dream up in a bid to reshuffle the deck in the Middle East. After all he had a dissenting journalist hacked to death in broad day practically in front of the whole world, its a hard act to top but bombing one's own oil refinery might just do it.
Of course, if I really wanted to traffic I'd note that somehow the refinery will be back to 70% of it's capacity ere long...I mean there is a definite Gulf of Tonkin vibe here.
Predictably, Trump is bellowing the most bloodthirsty cringeworthy threats imaginable and backpedalling at a speed to put Lance Armstrong to shame. He wanted to nuke em' on Sunday and as of today its all enhanced sanctions, who says Trump doesn't respect international norms??
I know its outlandish, but consider, they might've done it to drive up the price of oil and tempt Trump into a volitional war with Iran and its also the sort of ham fisted dumbass scheme a homicidal jobber like Crown Prince Salman might dream up in a bid to reshuffle the deck in the Middle East. After all he had a dissenting journalist hacked to death in broad day practically in front of the whole world, its a hard act to top but bombing one's own oil refinery might just do it.
Of course, if I really wanted to traffic I'd note that somehow the refinery will be back to 70% of it's capacity ere long...I mean there is a definite Gulf of Tonkin vibe here.
Predictably, Trump is bellowing the most bloodthirsty cringeworthy threats imaginable and backpedalling at a speed to put Lance Armstrong to shame. He wanted to nuke em' on Sunday and as of today its all enhanced sanctions, who says Trump doesn't respect international norms??
Monday, September 16, 2019
One Thing They'll Never Take from Sean Spicer...
I could make a good rant out of the "commodification of stupidity" but it is "Coals to Newcastle" at this point.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Y'Know...if the EU wanted to...
really f**k with British PM Boris Johnson, they should unilaterally impose a thirty day extension to the October 31st "Drop Dead No Deal Brexit Date".
And don't do it for high minded reasons either, just to bring down an arrogant f**khead who desperately needs humbling.
Oh and thereafter grant automatic thirty day extensions at quarter to midnight on the exit date....keep it up until Johnson devolves into a gibbering mess and resigns.
And don't do it for high minded reasons either, just to bring down an arrogant f**khead who desperately needs humbling.
Oh and thereafter grant automatic thirty day extensions at quarter to midnight on the exit date....keep it up until Johnson devolves into a gibbering mess and resigns.
Monday, August 19, 2019
I sincerely hope...
that Congressman Kennedy takes a pass on challenging Senator Ed Markey in next year's state primary.
I like Ed, he is a bit of a blatherskite but his heart is bolted in the right spot and he has waited a long long time for his Main Chance in Politics, he has a right to a Uncontested Victory Lap. Indeed though, what are these "rights" in an age of Rising Primary Challenge Politics? Both Congresspersons Moulton and Pressley owe their current preeminence to a willingness to aggressively challenge a democratic incumbent in a primary. Sooner or later this motif was gonna assert itself at the senatorial level, it was only a matter of time.
Lets face it though, even though the Kennedy Vibe is to "hire the best & smartest", there is always cadre of shit-stirrers surrounding politician in question urging him or her to Greater Glory. This is where we get Edward Maximus' abortive 1980 Campaign for the Presidential Nomination or Joseph P. Kennedy II's stillborn Gubernatorial Bid, all the work of shit-stirrers. JKIII is no different in that respect, that crowd around him may also be unconvinced that Senator Warren can go all the Way to the White House, therefore its either overthrow Ed or sit on their hands for six more years.
Supposedly the poll shows Kennedy leading by a narrow margin, both candidates are flush with cash, but Markey already has a statewide organization and pockets bulging with political IOUs. Assuming he is willing to fight for it, this won't be a cakewalk for Kennedy, who'd potentially be terminating his political career prematurely if Markey prevailed in the Primary.
I say give it a pass Congressman the Commonwealth's democrats need to concentrate on volunteering in NH, fundraising, selecting a winning Presidential Nominee and most of all beating Donald Trump...
I like Ed, he is a bit of a blatherskite but his heart is bolted in the right spot and he has waited a long long time for his Main Chance in Politics, he has a right to a Uncontested Victory Lap. Indeed though, what are these "rights" in an age of Rising Primary Challenge Politics? Both Congresspersons Moulton and Pressley owe their current preeminence to a willingness to aggressively challenge a democratic incumbent in a primary. Sooner or later this motif was gonna assert itself at the senatorial level, it was only a matter of time.
Lets face it though, even though the Kennedy Vibe is to "hire the best & smartest", there is always cadre of shit-stirrers surrounding politician in question urging him or her to Greater Glory. This is where we get Edward Maximus' abortive 1980 Campaign for the Presidential Nomination or Joseph P. Kennedy II's stillborn Gubernatorial Bid, all the work of shit-stirrers. JKIII is no different in that respect, that crowd around him may also be unconvinced that Senator Warren can go all the Way to the White House, therefore its either overthrow Ed or sit on their hands for six more years.
Supposedly the poll shows Kennedy leading by a narrow margin, both candidates are flush with cash, but Markey already has a statewide organization and pockets bulging with political IOUs. Assuming he is willing to fight for it, this won't be a cakewalk for Kennedy, who'd potentially be terminating his political career prematurely if Markey prevailed in the Primary.
I say give it a pass Congressman the Commonwealth's democrats need to concentrate on volunteering in NH, fundraising, selecting a winning Presidential Nominee and most of all beating Donald Trump...
Friday, August 09, 2019
"Dear Mister President"
Let me be blunt.
Senator Mitch McConnell has no intention whatsoever of passing mandatory background check legislation, if necessary he will drop napalm on common decency and his own honor to prevent these sensible firearm measures from passing.
Whatever he said to you, however vague or explicit is designed to buy him time until the next tweet or crisis distracts your attention and permits him to quietly drop the matter. He won't help you, assuming you truly want mandatory background checks on fire sales because Mitch McConnell isn't on your side. No, if you were smart you'd best figure out how far Chuck Schumer is willing to go then see if you can leverage some pressure on McConnell.
That is IF you are serious...and that is likely the key question here, my guess is, you are not...
Senator Mitch McConnell has no intention whatsoever of passing mandatory background check legislation, if necessary he will drop napalm on common decency and his own honor to prevent these sensible firearm measures from passing.
Whatever he said to you, however vague or explicit is designed to buy him time until the next tweet or crisis distracts your attention and permits him to quietly drop the matter. He won't help you, assuming you truly want mandatory background checks on fire sales because Mitch McConnell isn't on your side. No, if you were smart you'd best figure out how far Chuck Schumer is willing to go then see if you can leverage some pressure on McConnell.
That is IF you are serious...and that is likely the key question here, my guess is, you are not...
Wednesday, August 07, 2019
A Throng of Citizenry Descended on the Hapless Governor Of Ohio
(his name is unimportant even if I could remember it) and demanded that he "do something" in the wake of this Weekend's Mass Shooting in Dayton.
Poor Deluded Foolish Crowd!!
They should know instinctively, that no GOP Governor of OH has ever prospered by doing anything at all, they are good for all of two things, getting elected & waiting by their phones for the US Vice Presidency to be offered them by the RNC...
And this pathetic puling wretch is no different he is hoping the outcry can die down and the electorate distracted by fresh massacres so he can stump the State with Eric Trump in Peace.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Debate Halftime:
I'd say Citizen's Warren & Sanders both had good nights last night. Elizabeth broke a nice sharp zinger over Congressman Delaney's Head and Bernie abandoned all pretense at being a "Front Runner" and jabbed away like a ferocious underdog. Effectively, He and Senator Warren fought off the swarming moderates "back to back", thats a clever strategy in an overpopulated debate, but as the race tightens it won't work so well.
My only complaint about Senator Warren is that her line; "I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running to be the president of the United States to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for!" was really a rhetorical club she wanted to bust over Joe Biden's head.
That having been said of the moderates trying to mix it up with Warren/Sanders, Bullock came off the best even if he kinda smarmed it up at times, Delaney and Ryan are dogged but superfluous at this point and Hickenlooper though able...isn't making much of an impression. Senator Klobuchar, again eloquent, but her game plan seems to be get to the Right of Senator Warren and to the Left of Joe Biden, which seems to be where almost everyone else wants to be save, Bernie Sanders and there may not be room enough on that spot.
I suspect though, that given their arguments the end result of all the moderate sniping last night at Warren/Sanders will be to hold the bridle that Joe Biden might mount up and ride.
That having been said, Joe has some challenges tonight, Harris will be gunning for him no question, he has to prepare for that and likely Cory Booker as well. He also needs to project authority and experience better, "rise above" and seize those reigns.
Of all of them tonight, its the toughest challenge I think, if Biden falls though, it becomes "Bernie and Elizabeth against the world" which is the fight they want, while the moderates will scramble to anoint Booker or even Buttigeig as their Candidate.
Gawd I love this, I'm likely wrong about everything still makes for good copy!
My only complaint about Senator Warren is that her line; "I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running to be the president of the United States to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for!" was really a rhetorical club she wanted to bust over Joe Biden's head.
That having been said of the moderates trying to mix it up with Warren/Sanders, Bullock came off the best even if he kinda smarmed it up at times, Delaney and Ryan are dogged but superfluous at this point and Hickenlooper though able...isn't making much of an impression. Senator Klobuchar, again eloquent, but her game plan seems to be get to the Right of Senator Warren and to the Left of Joe Biden, which seems to be where almost everyone else wants to be save, Bernie Sanders and there may not be room enough on that spot.
I suspect though, that given their arguments the end result of all the moderate sniping last night at Warren/Sanders will be to hold the bridle that Joe Biden might mount up and ride.
That having been said, Joe has some challenges tonight, Harris will be gunning for him no question, he has to prepare for that and likely Cory Booker as well. He also needs to project authority and experience better, "rise above" and seize those reigns.
Of all of them tonight, its the toughest challenge I think, if Biden falls though, it becomes "Bernie and Elizabeth against the world" which is the fight they want, while the moderates will scramble to anoint Booker or even Buttigeig as their Candidate.
Gawd I love this, I'm likely wrong about everything still makes for good copy!
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
If I was Joe Biden
looking to regain ground in Wednesday Night's Debate, I'd have one of my younger saavy-er female staffers constantly rhetorically ambush me "Kamala Harris Style". At the very least have an aggressive female staffer "pay" Harris in some debate-prep, because trust me, no one can move up in the polls until Biden is out of the way. They are gonna be gunning for him pure and simple.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
South Dakota has a new law
mandating the entirely synthetic phrase "In God We Trust" be plastered all over their public schools. Apparently an entirely unconstitutional appeal to what Andrew Jackson called "The Eternal" is supposed to inspire the kids to put down their smartphones and ace the SATs.
The misuse of prisoners and schoolchildren is a sure sign of a state in decay, a state ruled by creepy corruptards who wanna abandon the public schools to the ethereal embrace of their idea of the Almighty.
And that is what is happening here in South Dakota make no mistake, my only question is, if movement conservatism likes the phrase "In God We Trust" so goddamn much, why don't they tattoo it to their foreheads like good little Manson Cultists?
The misuse of prisoners and schoolchildren is a sure sign of a state in decay, a state ruled by creepy corruptards who wanna abandon the public schools to the ethereal embrace of their idea of the Almighty.
And that is what is happening here in South Dakota make no mistake, my only question is, if movement conservatism likes the phrase "In God We Trust" so goddamn much, why don't they tattoo it to their foreheads like good little Manson Cultists?
Thursday, July 18, 2019
"Brittany Zamora"
remember that name, she is the Arizona school teacher who got twenty years in prison for molesting a 13 year old boy.
Meanwhile the Judge in Jeffrey Epstein's burgeoning child sex abuse case came to his senses and ordered the alleged pederastic plutocrat held without bail.
My Question is this, IF Epstein is found guilty (thats a big if, remember Keven Spacey beat the rap...) will he get as lengthy a sentence as Zamora?? Keep in mind, Zamora molested one boy (with the help of juvenile enablers allegedly), Epstein has raped & degraded dozens of underage girls! So, I do feel a useful baseline has been established here for the Southern District of New York...if they see fit to follow thru. Otherwise we will have a front row seat on the sordid spectacle of money deforming yet another outcome in the USA....
Meanwhile the Judge in Jeffrey Epstein's burgeoning child sex abuse case came to his senses and ordered the alleged pederastic plutocrat held without bail.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Every Fourth of July Here in Boston
the musical centerpiece of the famous Boston Pops Esplanade Concert/Fireworks is the 1812 Overture, an ode to a Russian Victory over our First Allies of Consequence, France.
I say we stop running down our allies and celebrating our rivals here in Boston on the Glorious Fourth, I propose the following musical motif as a replacement for the "1812 Overture".
Kidding!
Kidding!
I Kid!
I Kid, Because, I Love!
I Love...
To Kid...
I say we stop running down our allies and celebrating our rivals here in Boston on the Glorious Fourth, I propose the following musical motif as a replacement for the "1812 Overture".
Kidding!
Kidding!
I Kid!
I Kid, Because, I Love!
I Love...
To Kid...
Monday, July 15, 2019
Amidst our current chaos
A vortex of needs, social, political, constitutional, somewhere on the list, can we please an entry for "A New OverClass" for the USA? Because the bunch we have now are embarrassing even by the abysmal standards of the Roman Senate of Commodus Augustus.
We are ruled by alleged perverts, sick old reprobates, chiselers and what amounts to a rising and expanding class of wealthy panhandlers with the keys to the US Treasury....
They'd be clowns and perhaps grimly entertaining ones if they weren't hell bent on reducing the USA to Third World Status, regardless of our awesome nuclear arsenal and gaudy armed forces.
Frankly we are one good TIA away from nuclear holocaust...but lets not let that get in the way of a good reform project shall we?
Lets at least start with the notion that movement conservatism as envisioned by William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater is dead, the whole cult of patriotism, rule of law, constitutionalism is very much dead as well. And when these things perish, what you get, by default, is Donald Trump.
So, we need a new overclass, I don't pretend this will resolve any of our current political and social problems but at least we will have elites loyal to this country and its Constitution, at this point, I'd take that (and that ain't much believe me) over the collection of vagabond mercenaries who rule us as of today.
We are ruled by alleged perverts, sick old reprobates, chiselers and what amounts to a rising and expanding class of wealthy panhandlers with the keys to the US Treasury....
They'd be clowns and perhaps grimly entertaining ones if they weren't hell bent on reducing the USA to Third World Status, regardless of our awesome nuclear arsenal and gaudy armed forces.
Frankly we are one good TIA away from nuclear holocaust...but lets not let that get in the way of a good reform project shall we?
Lets at least start with the notion that movement conservatism as envisioned by William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater is dead, the whole cult of patriotism, rule of law, constitutionalism is very much dead as well. And when these things perish, what you get, by default, is Donald Trump.
So, we need a new overclass, I don't pretend this will resolve any of our current political and social problems but at least we will have elites loyal to this country and its Constitution, at this point, I'd take that (and that ain't much believe me) over the collection of vagabond mercenaries who rule us as of today.
Sunday, July 07, 2019
Epstein Busted Again...
That money is a terrific consequence insulator isn't it? Under normal circumstances even a semi competent DA could leverage all sorts of info out of a busted two timer like this Mook. Alas though, he is rich, a 'friend" of Donald Trump (if indeed Trump really has any friends in the accepted medical sense of the term), lord knows if he wasn't rich, he'd be singing like a canary about Trump's alleged sexual peccadilloes...not that shame is any sort of a weapon that works on the President.
***
He has a private jet, passport or not, I say Citizen Epstein is in Havana by Wednesday, Viva Dinero!!
Tuesday, July 02, 2019
With respect to the RMV...
Charlie Potato's latest slo-mo catastrophe, it should be noted that when an older relation got into a slight fender bender on Route 128, it took the RMV all of about ten days to revoke their driver's license.
On the other Volodymyr Zhukovsky blazes an epic trail of automotive mayhem across six states and only after he incinerates seven of his fellow citizens on a highway in NH does the RMV condescend to wake up and take notice.
But wait there is more, apparently hundreds drunk driving reports from other states, information that would indeed trigger license suspension/revocation, have been piling up unprocessed in an RMV store room!
Boy if this is Charlie Baker's idea of Prussian Efficiency in the Public Sector I'd hate to see what sheer venality and incompetence looks like?! Ah but Charlie Potatoes has a solution (other than hiding under his desk that is) he has called in a private company to audit the RMV...I mean Helloooo we have a whole State Auditor already on the payroll guys???
On the other Volodymyr Zhukovsky blazes an epic trail of automotive mayhem across six states and only after he incinerates seven of his fellow citizens on a highway in NH does the RMV condescend to wake up and take notice.
But wait there is more, apparently hundreds drunk driving reports from other states, information that would indeed trigger license suspension/revocation, have been piling up unprocessed in an RMV store room!
Boy if this is Charlie Baker's idea of Prussian Efficiency in the Public Sector I'd hate to see what sheer venality and incompetence looks like?! Ah but Charlie Potatoes has a solution (other than hiding under his desk that is) he has called in a private company to audit the RMV...I mean Helloooo we have a whole State Auditor already on the payroll guys???
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Rating the Debate Vol. II
Waal, that coulda gone better for Joe Biden, but then the format favored controlled chaos and those best adapted to it. Although I love the retrograde notion that whole bunch of people who voted for Joe Biden twice, are outraged over his allegedly compromised record on Civil Rights.
On the other hand, Biden should have been better prepared, he sounded his age and he should have known those questions would be brought up. Moreover, the tenor of the first debate, the lack of directed fire at Donald Trump ought to have tipped Biden that he'd be A Prime Target, on the second night. The Former VP has racked up the best polling numbers and any one of his rivals can transform the debate into a zero sum game at any moment, Joe's a professional you'd think he'd know that. Joe can come back from this, he needs to dial down to an indoor voice, invoke Barack Obama a little less and invite his audience's to look over his own program. He should be billing himself as "An Equal, Not a Sequel".
Kamala Harris definitely had a good night let us be honest, she was brainy, passionate & focused on one goal, demonstrate feistiness, "I can handle this debate and I can handle Donald Trump" was her coded mantra. She put some deep claw marks into Joe Biden, and she did it without turning a hair, the ability to carry the fight to the enemy rhetorically is something the democratic base will be looking for in the primaries. Senator Harris has title and deed to roughly seventy electoral votes from the git-go, but can she grow that base? Thats my current question.
Pete Buttigieg, I confess the South Bend Mayor felt like "the phenom du jour" to me, he was young, gay, fecklessly liberal, he has a big social media presence...it all felt very superficial to me. Ah but that boy-o can debate yo! He is very poised, articulate and well adapted to television, rising from a Midwestern Mayoralty (especially in a Deep Red State) to the White House seems like a stretch but its no more improbable than Trump's rise to power. I dunno if he can carry Pennsylvania or Florida, but I do think democrats and republicans underestimate him at their peril.
Bernie Sanders, The Senator from Vermont may as well have been in The Fraternal Order of the Eagles Lodge on Central Street in Manchester NH, he hardly seemed to take notice of his fellow candidates, he was content to blast thru his Greatest Hits. It is likely the highly truncated format was a burden to him. I thought, he might be the one to directly confront Biden, but I guess Sanders can feel Senator Warren's hot breath on his next so he opted to shore up his base for the bulk of the debate.
Senators Bennet, Gillibrand, Governor Hickenlooper, Andew Yang, Rep Swalwell, Mariann Williamson, are pretty much going nowhere at this point, but the format favored candidates with a strong fundraising profile so its doubtful anyone is dropping out anytime soon...Williamson in particular made a perfectly bizarre impression with her weird "1940's Wonder Woman" style monologues about love conquering hate. Typically the GOP has been routing money to Williamson to keep her in the race in the hopes of embarrassing the democrats. This is a strange stupid strategy as their party is headed by a Horror Movie Clown, Williamson could ramble on for a year and not make a bigger fool of herself as Trump does every day on Twitter.
On the other hand, Biden should have been better prepared, he sounded his age and he should have known those questions would be brought up. Moreover, the tenor of the first debate, the lack of directed fire at Donald Trump ought to have tipped Biden that he'd be A Prime Target, on the second night. The Former VP has racked up the best polling numbers and any one of his rivals can transform the debate into a zero sum game at any moment, Joe's a professional you'd think he'd know that. Joe can come back from this, he needs to dial down to an indoor voice, invoke Barack Obama a little less and invite his audience's to look over his own program. He should be billing himself as "An Equal, Not a Sequel".
Kamala Harris definitely had a good night let us be honest, she was brainy, passionate & focused on one goal, demonstrate feistiness, "I can handle this debate and I can handle Donald Trump" was her coded mantra. She put some deep claw marks into Joe Biden, and she did it without turning a hair, the ability to carry the fight to the enemy rhetorically is something the democratic base will be looking for in the primaries. Senator Harris has title and deed to roughly seventy electoral votes from the git-go, but can she grow that base? Thats my current question.
Pete Buttigieg, I confess the South Bend Mayor felt like "the phenom du jour" to me, he was young, gay, fecklessly liberal, he has a big social media presence...it all felt very superficial to me. Ah but that boy-o can debate yo! He is very poised, articulate and well adapted to television, rising from a Midwestern Mayoralty (especially in a Deep Red State) to the White House seems like a stretch but its no more improbable than Trump's rise to power. I dunno if he can carry Pennsylvania or Florida, but I do think democrats and republicans underestimate him at their peril.
Bernie Sanders, The Senator from Vermont may as well have been in The Fraternal Order of the Eagles Lodge on Central Street in Manchester NH, he hardly seemed to take notice of his fellow candidates, he was content to blast thru his Greatest Hits. It is likely the highly truncated format was a burden to him. I thought, he might be the one to directly confront Biden, but I guess Sanders can feel Senator Warren's hot breath on his next so he opted to shore up his base for the bulk of the debate.
Senators Bennet, Gillibrand, Governor Hickenlooper, Andew Yang, Rep Swalwell, Mariann Williamson, are pretty much going nowhere at this point, but the format favored candidates with a strong fundraising profile so its doubtful anyone is dropping out anytime soon...Williamson in particular made a perfectly bizarre impression with her weird "1940's Wonder Woman" style monologues about love conquering hate. Typically the GOP has been routing money to Williamson to keep her in the race in the hopes of embarrassing the democrats. This is a strange stupid strategy as their party is headed by a Horror Movie Clown, Williamson could ramble on for a year and not make a bigger fool of herself as Trump does every day on Twitter.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Rating the Debate...
Y'know, the democrats didn't do half bad last night, granted the ten person line up was cumbersome, the technical gaffes embarrassing and the podium gabble sometimes incoherent, but some good ideas and better candidates shown thru all the same.
Jay Inslee: Obviously, one's expectations are set low when we are talking about a candidate seemingly mired in the cheap acts, but damn me if Jay Inslee didn't convey decision & insight even if he was seemingly monomaniacally focused on Climate Change as the cause of all our ills. He even looks like a US President, which means he definitely looks like Vice President. Not sure if he has the right "Electoral College Transcript" but he was impressive last night all the same.
Bill di Blasio: I am not sure why the Mayor of NYC is running for President, other than the fact that like almost everyone else in Manhattan he has a deep unrepentant grudge against Donald Trump? Be that as it may he is another one who conveyed decision & brains last night, and like the Above Cited Governor of Washington, he looks the part. Alas the last Mayor of New York to run for President was John Lindsay, he didn't do too well at the end of the day...but then, di Blasio is shut out of the Governor's Mansion and the US Senate, this is likely his last and only hurrah outside of NYC.
Cory Booker: The Senator for New Jersey wants it, and he wants it bad. Of course, he is running as "Obama 2.0.1" but that is a winning routine all the same. Booker threw some sharp elbows last night, wasn't afraid to talk himself up and he knows there is a huge possibly decisive national constituency out there waiting for him, if he can only bootstrap himself off the mid card.
Julian Castro: Who knew Obama's HUD Secretary would come to a democratic debate, loaded for bear? If Jay Inslee regards climate change as destiny's fulcrum, then surely Castro is serenely assured that a humane immigration policy is literally the answer to all our woes. Moreover he wasn't afraid to mix it up with the other candidates, Like Booker he seems to be running as "A Pugnacious Barack Obama". Castro as well senses a vast potential constituency out there if he move up into the double digits.
Elizabeth Warren: I swear to Ghod, the Senior Senator from Massachusetts had nine of her interns faithfully impersonate her fellow candidates as part of her debate prep, she seems unnaturally at home in that chaotic atmosphere, she literally had "time in her head". Ah, but then her goals were fewer, Warren was mainly there to display passion, decision and erudition, all this came thru in spades. The Senator is playing a very long game in all things, she is grinding away waiting for Biden to Peak and Sanders to founder, if that happens she can surge and surge convincingly in NH even late in the game.
On the other hand, Beto O'Rourke got his ass kicked last night, he looked unshaved, unprepared and he sounded very nervous, this is a bad start indeed for a much touted candidate, Julian Castro skated rings around him on immigration. I don't think the campaign has degenerated into a zero sum game...yet, but clearly being "the big candidate from Texas has become a gladiatorial contest with first blood to Castro. Delaney and Ryan, on the other hand came in as cheap acts, and departed the hall as cheap acts sad to say. Ryan at least, has nowhere to go, a stalwart Ohio politician learns from youth how to wait patiently by the phone for that Vice Presidential Call...but Sherrod Brown has a lock on that possibility, so all thats left for Ryan is a kamikaze run at the White House. Both men will be out of the race before Thanksgiving, the value of their respective endorsements seems minimal at the moment.
Klobuchar made some sense, Gabbard might be the flag waving-est candidate since John McCain, but I also suspect they may be mired on the mid-card, they'd be standouts any other year, but women candidates just aren't that remarkable anymore.
If I had to predict tonight, I suspect the lack of sustained fire at Donald Trump will inadvertently put a target on Joe Biden's back, Bernie Sanders must recapture his old legionaries (who are prone to drifting away to Warren whom most of them desperately wanted to run back in 2016 anyway), slagging the Former VP seems like an important step in that process.
But I could be wrong...:)
Jay Inslee: Obviously, one's expectations are set low when we are talking about a candidate seemingly mired in the cheap acts, but damn me if Jay Inslee didn't convey decision & insight even if he was seemingly monomaniacally focused on Climate Change as the cause of all our ills. He even looks like a US President, which means he definitely looks like Vice President. Not sure if he has the right "Electoral College Transcript" but he was impressive last night all the same.
Bill di Blasio: I am not sure why the Mayor of NYC is running for President, other than the fact that like almost everyone else in Manhattan he has a deep unrepentant grudge against Donald Trump? Be that as it may he is another one who conveyed decision & brains last night, and like the Above Cited Governor of Washington, he looks the part. Alas the last Mayor of New York to run for President was John Lindsay, he didn't do too well at the end of the day...but then, di Blasio is shut out of the Governor's Mansion and the US Senate, this is likely his last and only hurrah outside of NYC.
Cory Booker: The Senator for New Jersey wants it, and he wants it bad. Of course, he is running as "Obama 2.0.1" but that is a winning routine all the same. Booker threw some sharp elbows last night, wasn't afraid to talk himself up and he knows there is a huge possibly decisive national constituency out there waiting for him, if he can only bootstrap himself off the mid card.
Julian Castro: Who knew Obama's HUD Secretary would come to a democratic debate, loaded for bear? If Jay Inslee regards climate change as destiny's fulcrum, then surely Castro is serenely assured that a humane immigration policy is literally the answer to all our woes. Moreover he wasn't afraid to mix it up with the other candidates, Like Booker he seems to be running as "A Pugnacious Barack Obama". Castro as well senses a vast potential constituency out there if he move up into the double digits.
Elizabeth Warren: I swear to Ghod, the Senior Senator from Massachusetts had nine of her interns faithfully impersonate her fellow candidates as part of her debate prep, she seems unnaturally at home in that chaotic atmosphere, she literally had "time in her head". Ah, but then her goals were fewer, Warren was mainly there to display passion, decision and erudition, all this came thru in spades. The Senator is playing a very long game in all things, she is grinding away waiting for Biden to Peak and Sanders to founder, if that happens she can surge and surge convincingly in NH even late in the game.
On the other hand, Beto O'Rourke got his ass kicked last night, he looked unshaved, unprepared and he sounded very nervous, this is a bad start indeed for a much touted candidate, Julian Castro skated rings around him on immigration. I don't think the campaign has degenerated into a zero sum game...yet, but clearly being "the big candidate from Texas has become a gladiatorial contest with first blood to Castro. Delaney and Ryan, on the other hand came in as cheap acts, and departed the hall as cheap acts sad to say. Ryan at least, has nowhere to go, a stalwart Ohio politician learns from youth how to wait patiently by the phone for that Vice Presidential Call...but Sherrod Brown has a lock on that possibility, so all thats left for Ryan is a kamikaze run at the White House. Both men will be out of the race before Thanksgiving, the value of their respective endorsements seems minimal at the moment.
Klobuchar made some sense, Gabbard might be the flag waving-est candidate since John McCain, but I also suspect they may be mired on the mid-card, they'd be standouts any other year, but women candidates just aren't that remarkable anymore.
If I had to predict tonight, I suspect the lack of sustained fire at Donald Trump will inadvertently put a target on Joe Biden's back, Bernie Sanders must recapture his old legionaries (who are prone to drifting away to Warren whom most of them desperately wanted to run back in 2016 anyway), slagging the Former VP seems like an important step in that process.
But I could be wrong...:)
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Will someone please tell The Boston Globe that
That Valentina Tereshkova (Vostok Six, June 1963) was the first woman in space, NOT Sally Ride?
Ms. Ride, wasn't even the Second Woman into Orbit, that Honor belongs to the ridiculously over qualified Svetlana Savitskaya. No, Sally Ride was the USA's First Woman into Space, its a conspicuous honor, but in the end she was the third woman up there. The gender line buster of record was still Ms. Tereshkova in 1963...you'd think they'd know that at the Globe.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Patrick Shanahan is Outski
as SecDef Nominee following repeated reports of the rollers intervening in various domestic disputes at his household allegedly including the arrest of his wife on assault charges and an alleged incident where his teenaged son hit his mother with a baseball bat.
I guess I am conservative and old fashioned but I think it is awfully unchivalrous to call 5-0 on your wife if she takes a legit above the belt swing at you. I wish to protest this unmasculine behavior, Shanahan ought to stand there and Take His Medicine Like a Man!
That sets a very poor example for Our Fighting Men and Women in Uniform....
As for his son allegedly hitting his moms with a baseball bat, there you have me, sometimes ya gotta call 911, otherwise is this twitchy little running mook still around free? Sensible people need to know these things.
My last question is of a rhetorical nature...where does Trump get these gaudy self destructive freaks??
Is there a factory in Manila that churns them out?? Cuz you know thats one business Trump owns free and clear 100%...
I guess I am conservative and old fashioned but I think it is awfully unchivalrous to call 5-0 on your wife if she takes a legit above the belt swing at you. I wish to protest this unmasculine behavior, Shanahan ought to stand there and Take His Medicine Like a Man!
That sets a very poor example for Our Fighting Men and Women in Uniform....
As for his son allegedly hitting his moms with a baseball bat, there you have me, sometimes ya gotta call 911, otherwise is this twitchy little running mook still around free? Sensible people need to know these things.
My last question is of a rhetorical nature...where does Trump get these gaudy self destructive freaks??
Is there a factory in Manila that churns them out?? Cuz you know thats one business Trump owns free and clear 100%...
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Two count em' TWO...
derailments in one week, (and the week ain't over by any means), and still Charlie Baker thinks the MBTA "is Headed in the Right Direction"!!
Hell a fare increase goes into effect next week, which is nothing but a targeted tax increase on the MBTA ridership, apparently its a costly privilege indeed to go thru a derailment on the Red Line!
When is anyone anywhere gonna Charlie Spreadsheets responsible for his slack-ass "management" of Public Transportation????
When!!??
By every measure the MBTA ridership gets less and less worthwhile service every day while simultaneously incurring greater and greater sheer danger.
They can't be actually scared of this tone deaf mook can they?? Eff his seventy percent approval rating he is inert mediocrity, entirely bereft of inspiration or charisma...will no one take this nullity on???? Charlie Baker is an Inept Hack!!! Does No One Else Get This???
Hell a fare increase goes into effect next week, which is nothing but a targeted tax increase on the MBTA ridership, apparently its a costly privilege indeed to go thru a derailment on the Red Line!
When is anyone anywhere gonna Charlie Spreadsheets responsible for his slack-ass "management" of Public Transportation????
When!!??
By every measure the MBTA ridership gets less and less worthwhile service every day while simultaneously incurring greater and greater sheer danger.
They can't be actually scared of this tone deaf mook can they?? Eff his seventy percent approval rating he is inert mediocrity, entirely bereft of inspiration or charisma...will no one take this nullity on???? Charlie Baker is an Inept Hack!!! Does No One Else Get This???
Monday, June 10, 2019
On receiving a robocall at home at 3:20 PM EDT
would love to know where some outfit called "The Affordable Arlington Committee" came up with the scratch to robocall the town urging no votes on tomorrow's dual New High School/Prop 2.5 override?
Just curious, did they target retirees (which is my theory) with bold promises of keeping housing affordable? Or did the call really blanket the town. One way or another its a sign that someone has more money than volunteers to work with...
Frankly Affordable Housing in Arlington went over the hump in the 1990s when rent control was repealed and hundreds of Department Chairs at Harvard and Project Managers in Kendall Square came surging up Mass Ave with their liquidity and good credit, searching for housing like neanderthals looking for the secret of fire. By 2001 we'd had our first million dollar home sale and it's been a land office business ever since.
Which brings me back to the money question? Who is financing "The Affordable Arlington Committee"? Any ideas?
Just curious, did they target retirees (which is my theory) with bold promises of keeping housing affordable? Or did the call really blanket the town. One way or another its a sign that someone has more money than volunteers to work with...
Frankly Affordable Housing in Arlington went over the hump in the 1990s when rent control was repealed and hundreds of Department Chairs at Harvard and Project Managers in Kendall Square came surging up Mass Ave with their liquidity and good credit, searching for housing like neanderthals looking for the secret of fire. By 2001 we'd had our first million dollar home sale and it's been a land office business ever since.
Which brings me back to the money question? Who is financing "The Affordable Arlington Committee"? Any ideas?
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Well whaddya know...
I might have been wrong, about Governor Baker's future plans, I thought it possible that he was throwing in the towel and bailing on politics. Turns out he's been beefing up his political team, aggressively fundraising, hiring lawyers to fend off Scott Lively's lawsuits in short behaving like a craven third rate shyster hell bent on re-election.
Well color me chagrined, that freezes up the political plans of more than a few statewide democrats and a couple of republicans as well, as long as Baker's approval ratings stay in the seventy percentile that is...
But lets face it, the very factors that might force Baker out into the private sector are the same ones that might persuade him to run for a third term, namely he has nowhere else to go, he is blocked beautifully nationally, he is too skittish to run for the US Senate, that leaves either the Bain Capital Group or a Third Term. Right now, it looks like a Third Term.
In truth, Baker is a surprisingly uninspiring politician, a crashing bore on he best day, he is almost comically incapable of any decision when faced by any sort of public corruption, currently the State Police and the Prison System are under Federal Investigation, Baker keeps track by reading The Boston Globe every day. He will never be mistaken for "Horatio at the Bridge", he is certainly no sort of Governor for a truly serious crisis in anyway. His lack of leadership in these areas is astonishing, makes you wonder what else he is ignoring so successfully?
No, Baker abides because he is a bore who gives no offense, sometimes sheer vacuums can have very high approval ratings.
Just remember "Bust Follows Boom", The Higher They Climb, The Further They Fall. Baker will never do anything to risk that seventy percent approval rating, but thats his problem, when the going gets tough he'll never put any skin in the game, and like Herbert Hoover, he will inevitably lose it all, count on it.
Well color me chagrined, that freezes up the political plans of more than a few statewide democrats and a couple of republicans as well, as long as Baker's approval ratings stay in the seventy percentile that is...
But lets face it, the very factors that might force Baker out into the private sector are the same ones that might persuade him to run for a third term, namely he has nowhere else to go, he is blocked beautifully nationally, he is too skittish to run for the US Senate, that leaves either the Bain Capital Group or a Third Term. Right now, it looks like a Third Term.
In truth, Baker is a surprisingly uninspiring politician, a crashing bore on he best day, he is almost comically incapable of any decision when faced by any sort of public corruption, currently the State Police and the Prison System are under Federal Investigation, Baker keeps track by reading The Boston Globe every day. He will never be mistaken for "Horatio at the Bridge", he is certainly no sort of Governor for a truly serious crisis in anyway. His lack of leadership in these areas is astonishing, makes you wonder what else he is ignoring so successfully?
No, Baker abides because he is a bore who gives no offense, sometimes sheer vacuums can have very high approval ratings.
Just remember "Bust Follows Boom", The Higher They Climb, The Further They Fall. Baker will never do anything to risk that seventy percent approval rating, but thats his problem, when the going gets tough he'll never put any skin in the game, and like Herbert Hoover, he will inevitably lose it all, count on it.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Oh And...
If President Trump is giving AG Barr full authority in investigate and declassify info relating to the origins of the Russian Investigation (Y'know the one with "no collusion but a shit ton of guilt" all the same) its pretty much a lead pipe cinch the Russian Intelligence desks at the FBI and CIA are about to be decimated. Which is tantamount to tagging in, Russian Trolls and Hackers to really start interfering with the 2020 election since vital assets are about to be compromised as part of Trump's war on his own government...
I would remind Bill Barr that sooner or later the US Presidency Changes Hands and the Pardon Power is invested in someone potentially unaligned with his interests...He'd best give this whole sorry ass jihad some second or even third thoughts, or else sooner or later he'll be facing a judge himself, a frequent thing with the President's closest collaborators...
I would remind Bill Barr that sooner or later the US Presidency Changes Hands and the Pardon Power is invested in someone potentially unaligned with his interests...He'd best give this whole sorry ass jihad some second or even third thoughts, or else sooner or later he'll be facing a judge himself, a frequent thing with the President's closest collaborators...
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Theresa May: An Autopsy...
Failure Indeed....
True, Theresa May had a genius talent to jerry-rigging coalitions to outlast the short term, but the short term has run out.
Most everyone in the U.K. knows a hard or a soft Brexit is a bad idea, Britain suffers needlessly under either scenario, there is indeed a pro-Brexit faction, but the largest faction of all, wants to keep their phony baloney jobs, and right now, the nigh unavoidable "Hard Brexit" imperils everyone's prospects. Everyone in other words, is bound to implement a policy they themselves know to be disastrous, and its impossible under those circumstance to get good people to make smart decisions or even sustain transparency and honesty. A constitution, written or unwritten, is not a suicide pact, referendum or no referendum. The U.K. cannot figuratively hold a revolver to it's head and scream "You are next!" to the World...
Its long past due for the electorate to take parliament in hand and issue clear and concise instructions, no last minute miracles, no sudden coups no ridiculous drama. In other words, psychologically it is time for a election, I know the UK is sick unto death of voting seemingly continually but the current Leadership in Whitehall is pretty blatantly failing them, a new mandate is desperately needed.
Monday, May 20, 2019
Phil Scott
the incumbent republican Governor of Vermont, is actually ginnin' up Charlie Baker as a GOP challenger to Donald Trump in next year's presidential primaries.
Apparently Charlie is still The Most Popular Governor in the Country...And Governor Scott thinks that might prove to be leverage over Donald Trump.
Nothing could be further from the Truth, The President still has toxically high approval ratings among the GOP base, exactly how a Phil Scott, Bill Weld or a Charlie Baker is supposed to do business in a GOP Primary under those circumstances is a mystery to me.
Moreover, Charlie looks great on paper, in reality he is an even bigger fatuous bore than Mike Pence with a curiously irritating sing-song delivery, MBTA commutes have gotten longer and more uncertain under his administration and the Massachusetts State Police are hemorrhaging federal indictments.
And then there is his kinky devotion to Charter Schools, a malign rightical chic fad that he thinks can quite literally cure gunshot wounds.
No, Charlie won't get in, he is too equivocal to even endorse his old boss Bill Weld, no Baker will make the same old helpless noises and keep his head down all next year, worked like a charm in 2016 after all.
You have to understand something, to confront Trump in a GOP Primary, you have to have something of a "heroic mood" (to quote Theodore Roosevelt) and that requires a willingness to sacrifice, take chances risk annihilation. Phill Scott, John Kasich or Charlie Baker just aren't "Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden" type politicians. They believe in small government and low taxes and narrow minded judges, the conservative echo chamber that nurtured them gave them little by which to resist a shopworn would be tyrant like Donald Trump. As long as they aren't being attacked, they think they can wait this cyclone out, they may bleat piteously when backed into a corner, back that is it, don't ask for more.
Apparently Charlie is still The Most Popular Governor in the Country...And Governor Scott thinks that might prove to be leverage over Donald Trump.
Nothing could be further from the Truth, The President still has toxically high approval ratings among the GOP base, exactly how a Phil Scott, Bill Weld or a Charlie Baker is supposed to do business in a GOP Primary under those circumstances is a mystery to me.
Moreover, Charlie looks great on paper, in reality he is an even bigger fatuous bore than Mike Pence with a curiously irritating sing-song delivery, MBTA commutes have gotten longer and more uncertain under his administration and the Massachusetts State Police are hemorrhaging federal indictments.
And then there is his kinky devotion to Charter Schools, a malign rightical chic fad that he thinks can quite literally cure gunshot wounds.
No, Charlie won't get in, he is too equivocal to even endorse his old boss Bill Weld, no Baker will make the same old helpless noises and keep his head down all next year, worked like a charm in 2016 after all.
You have to understand something, to confront Trump in a GOP Primary, you have to have something of a "heroic mood" (to quote Theodore Roosevelt) and that requires a willingness to sacrifice, take chances risk annihilation. Phill Scott, John Kasich or Charlie Baker just aren't "Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden" type politicians. They believe in small government and low taxes and narrow minded judges, the conservative echo chamber that nurtured them gave them little by which to resist a shopworn would be tyrant like Donald Trump. As long as they aren't being attacked, they think they can wait this cyclone out, they may bleat piteously when backed into a corner, back that is it, don't ask for more.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Faced with a Nation that has fitfully
legalized marijuana use, gay marriage and foreign fundraising for US Presidential Candidates, what does Alabama do to keep up? They decriminalize incest and rape.
Thanks to Alabama's New Draconian Anti Abortion Law, the Taliban look like a bunch of Loony Leftists, the punishment for terminating a pregnancy within the State of Alabama is ten years years in Prison. Rapists and Incest Perpetrators can sue for caregiving rights under the law...Truly Its The Day of the Beast in Alabama...and elsewhere. Meanwhile Texas is debating outright gendercide by debating the death penalty for women who obtain abortions. This is all malignant insanity...there is a native class of power worshipping brutes on this loose in this country, and if we don't stop them now, we will be fighting them on the Banks of the Connecticut River.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
It Is Not...
or "America First"....Its "The Constitution First", it is to that sacred document foibles and all we must take increased devotion to quote Mister Lincoln. Look at the Oath Sworn by Commissioned Officers of the US Armed Forces: "I do solemnly swea that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." The Country, per se, is barely mentioned, the whole of the sworn oath is to protect The Constitution itself, its laws, its ethos, its rights, obligations and its very survival. The planet is crammed full of countries with bombastic anthems to power and glory eternal, but there is only One, All Too Fragile United States Constitution and we'd all Best Love It Or Else.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Biden Piles in (for a third time...)
Its Joe Biden's third bid for the US Presidency, after having run nationwide for VP twice...thats a shit ton of experience that neatly obscures the historic fact that politicians that's this dogged rarely achieve the office they seek...
But watch that word, rarely it is a strict qualifier indeed.
Given the spate of bad publicity he's run up these last few weeks I do think, that if Joe Biden is nominated (which is hardly set in stone no matter how strong his fundraising), its a lead pipe cinch he has to take the hoodoo off by nominated a woman for Veep.
The Good News is, The Democrats are Lousy with Qualified Women.
The Bad News is, Most of Those Qualified Women Know It and thats why they themselves are Running for President.
Anyway forecasting is impossible at this stage of the game with twenty candidates so far, its less a party primary and more like a Kentucky Derby Cavalry Charge, with more candidates getting in, even as I write this...
So, I will make this pledge, I refuse to do the work of a Russian Spambot, and cite anyone as inherently unacceptable, at this point I'd vote for Juan Peron if it meant Ousting Trump next year. My job isn't foisting my views on the Primary/Convention/General Election, no my job is saving The Constitution and the Republic...and God Damn the Russian Spambot Primary too....
But watch that word, rarely it is a strict qualifier indeed.
Given the spate of bad publicity he's run up these last few weeks I do think, that if Joe Biden is nominated (which is hardly set in stone no matter how strong his fundraising), its a lead pipe cinch he has to take the hoodoo off by nominated a woman for Veep.
The Good News is, The Democrats are Lousy with Qualified Women.
The Bad News is, Most of Those Qualified Women Know It and thats why they themselves are Running for President.
Anyway forecasting is impossible at this stage of the game with twenty candidates so far, its less a party primary and more like a Kentucky Derby Cavalry Charge, with more candidates getting in, even as I write this...
So, I will make this pledge, I refuse to do the work of a Russian Spambot, and cite anyone as inherently unacceptable, at this point I'd vote for Juan Peron if it meant Ousting Trump next year. My job isn't foisting my views on the Primary/Convention/General Election, no my job is saving The Constitution and the Republic...and God Damn the Russian Spambot Primary too....
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Weld Announces, Romney Denounces...
"Senator" Romney, announced he was "sickened" by the blatant "dishonesty" & disregard for the law detailed in the Mueller Report, and then of course, being Mitt Romney did exactly nothing to end the lawbreaking.
He can do that, not because he comes from a very safe republican set, but because he is ineffably Mitt Romney, he will speak out sometimes and then do nothing. He once groveled unsuccessfully to be Trump's Secretary of State, just remember that, if the going gets hot, he'll grovel again, count on it.
Mit contradicts himself like this because he holds the electorate in contempt, he thinks they don't pay attention to his contradictions, but in fact they do, in case anyone is wondering why Romney was never elected President.
Truly the thinnest loneliest book in all of the Library of Congress is "The Political Courage of Mitt Romney".
Meanwhile Bill Weld has awoken from his latest bender to discover his lance has been freshly painted and he has somehow announced for president, yet another Windmill looms in the morning mists it seems. Weld is making brave noises about raising six million large to compete in Iowa and New Hampshire, that sounds like very wishful thinking on his part. If this is the scope of Trump's GOP opposition then he need fear nothing, for now.
On the other hand, Weld did beat Trump's 1990 Beta Prototype, John Silber in a fair and open contest, so he does have some experience defusing blustery extremists, there is that. That was twenty nine years ago though, Weld is seventy three years old and has been off the grid effectively for decades, I cannot begin to imagine how his fundraising will go, likely badly and quickly.
What all this comes down to is, there is a myth out there, that there is substantive GOP opposition to Trump, there is not, that party may not be entirely united behind Trump but they are thoroughly cowed, which is bad news because short of an electoral earthquake it'll take coordinated action by both parties to rid us of this outlaw administration.
He can do that, not because he comes from a very safe republican set, but because he is ineffably Mitt Romney, he will speak out sometimes and then do nothing. He once groveled unsuccessfully to be Trump's Secretary of State, just remember that, if the going gets hot, he'll grovel again, count on it.
Mit contradicts himself like this because he holds the electorate in contempt, he thinks they don't pay attention to his contradictions, but in fact they do, in case anyone is wondering why Romney was never elected President.
Truly the thinnest loneliest book in all of the Library of Congress is "The Political Courage of Mitt Romney".
Meanwhile Bill Weld has awoken from his latest bender to discover his lance has been freshly painted and he has somehow announced for president, yet another Windmill looms in the morning mists it seems. Weld is making brave noises about raising six million large to compete in Iowa and New Hampshire, that sounds like very wishful thinking on his part. If this is the scope of Trump's GOP opposition then he need fear nothing, for now.
On the other hand, Weld did beat Trump's 1990 Beta Prototype, John Silber in a fair and open contest, so he does have some experience defusing blustery extremists, there is that. That was twenty nine years ago though, Weld is seventy three years old and has been off the grid effectively for decades, I cannot begin to imagine how his fundraising will go, likely badly and quickly.
What all this comes down to is, there is a myth out there, that there is substantive GOP opposition to Trump, there is not, that party may not be entirely united behind Trump but they are thoroughly cowed, which is bad news because short of an electoral earthquake it'll take coordinated action by both parties to rid us of this outlaw administration.
Monday, April 15, 2019
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Stop & Shop goes on strike...
Let me assert publicly that I am in complete solidarity the five locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union that're currently striking for better benefits at Stop & Shop.
Stocking aisles, working a cash register is a hard dollar yo, people live off that money and the corporate in question ought not to nickel and dime their workers.
Stocking aisles, working a cash register is a hard dollar yo, people live off that money and the corporate in question ought not to nickel and dime their workers.
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
"Polls are Open in Israel"
"Vote Early and Vote Often!"
:)
I kid, but I stick by my prediction that Netanyahu will win in a squeaker, the coalition he assembles will be a marvelously rickety contraption and the opposition will simply lie in wait for the indictments.
Because, the indictments are indeed coming...
:)
I kid, but I stick by my prediction that Netanyahu will win in a squeaker, the coalition he assembles will be a marvelously rickety contraption and the opposition will simply lie in wait for the indictments.
Because, the indictments are indeed coming...
Sunday, April 07, 2019
So I guess...
per his column in Today's Globe, that Stephen Kinzer has indeed read all 300+ pages of the Mueller Report, a feat that not even the President of the United States has yet attempted. Cuz...according to Stephen, the Mueller report does indeed completely and irrevocably exonerate Citizen Trump from any hint of collusion with Russia back in campaign 2016.
And Stephen being a scholar and a journalist would never ever take Attorney General Barr's crass exculpatory letter to congress at face value...he'd read the Mueller Report for verification...wouldn't he??
So if...Stephen does indeed have a copy of the Mueller Report, and he would have to, in order to issue such a blatant groveling Ukase as he did today, then could he at least have the decency to leak the Goddamn Thing??
Because I for one, want to know what sort of shitty lashed up telecom Team Trump was using back then, because something was preventing them from calling the FBI every time a Russian Security Asset came knocking on their doors promising assistance against Citizen Clinton. Hopefully, that much, is in the Mueller Report.
And Stephen being a scholar and a journalist would never ever take Attorney General Barr's crass exculpatory letter to congress at face value...he'd read the Mueller Report for verification...wouldn't he??
So if...Stephen does indeed have a copy of the Mueller Report, and he would have to, in order to issue such a blatant groveling Ukase as he did today, then could he at least have the decency to leak the Goddamn Thing??
Because I for one, want to know what sort of shitty lashed up telecom Team Trump was using back then, because something was preventing them from calling the FBI every time a Russian Security Asset came knocking on their doors promising assistance against Citizen Clinton. Hopefully, that much, is in the Mueller Report.
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
The Brute Life in Belmont.
Politics is an ugly business, take it from me.
Never moreso than in placid antebellum, upper class ,poorly paved Belmont Ma, where Tim Flood, a guy I couldn't pull out of a police line up is coming in for all kinds of harassment because he is running for Town Selectman.
Never mind the fact that the Board of Selectmen, is a thankless drudgery, I've never yet met a local pol that wasn't visibly relieved when they left that particular office no matter what the circumstances of said departure. So these Falangist Tactics over in Belmont are especially galling, so much viciousness over an office that pays nothing with limited power and much responsibility....
I've said it a thousand times there is something about local politics that makes people crazy, I could run against Dave Rogers on a communist ticket promising the forced collectivization of agriculture in Arlington and not make the lifelong enemies I'd make if I so much as announced for the school committee....
I've been blogging on and off since 2003, I've seen blogging rise fall, evolve and vanish, and in all that time I never thought I'd write these words "Hey Belmont, Knock Off the Rough Stuff Willya??"
Never moreso than in placid antebellum, upper class ,poorly paved Belmont Ma, where Tim Flood, a guy I couldn't pull out of a police line up is coming in for all kinds of harassment because he is running for Town Selectman.
Never mind the fact that the Board of Selectmen, is a thankless drudgery, I've never yet met a local pol that wasn't visibly relieved when they left that particular office no matter what the circumstances of said departure. So these Falangist Tactics over in Belmont are especially galling, so much viciousness over an office that pays nothing with limited power and much responsibility....
I've said it a thousand times there is something about local politics that makes people crazy, I could run against Dave Rogers on a communist ticket promising the forced collectivization of agriculture in Arlington and not make the lifelong enemies I'd make if I so much as announced for the school committee....
I've been blogging on and off since 2003, I've seen blogging rise fall, evolve and vanish, and in all that time I never thought I'd write these words "Hey Belmont, Knock Off the Rough Stuff Willya??"
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Thought for the Day...
How Many Times did a Russian Flagged Operation or Asset knock on the door of the Trump for President Campaign and whisper thru the keyhole they had terrible evil career ending dirt on Hillary Clinton?
A lot, quite frankly...too many times in fact.
And did anyone in the Trump Campaign ever once call the FBI on these Porch Climbers from Muscovy?
No.
In fact, Donald Trump like the stupid credulous pathetic man child he is, publicly encouraged the hackery....
So regardless of what is in, the Mueller Report (which will leak soon enough if it isn't legitimately released), we already pretty much know that that greedy hapless gruesome spirits around Citizen Trump are a treacherous lot and perfect reflections of their master's vile personality and worse value structure.
And that IS Collusion in every sense of the word to me.
A lot, quite frankly...too many times in fact.
And did anyone in the Trump Campaign ever once call the FBI on these Porch Climbers from Muscovy?
No.
In fact, Donald Trump like the stupid credulous pathetic man child he is, publicly encouraged the hackery....
So regardless of what is in, the Mueller Report (which will leak soon enough if it isn't legitimately released), we already pretty much know that that greedy hapless gruesome spirits around Citizen Trump are a treacherous lot and perfect reflections of their master's vile personality and worse value structure.
And that IS Collusion in every sense of the word to me.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
"Bartender Makes Good..."
But of course, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would know all about the delirium tremens, she used to be a bartender after all.
It occurs to me, that the fugue state she induces in the whole rightical chic apparat is a function of her youth, good looks, her race and sharp little digital teeth. Normally, a Latina Bartender is someone the Sean Hannity's of this world can safely patronize, ogle, dismiss or colonize, they have perpetual economic leverage over the Alexandria's of this world. Until now at least, AOC has completely inverted that relationship, allocated power and refuses to rhetorically demure to anyone on the right. As a consequence, they can't fantasize about her, she has taken control of that process as well, and all but called them out on it as the final indignity.
They can't fantasize about someone who has seized control of her own destiny, remember that...
These are people who want to return to the patriarchy ridden society circa 1963, what drives them crazy about Rep Ocasio-Cortez is she asserts empowerment by insisting on living in the 21st Century...
Thursday, March 21, 2019
On Christchurch...
The Internet is a unique tool for self-segregation, you can literally imprison your own mind in grim grievance or dangerous utopian. In fact thanks to the largely fictitious feeling of anonymity conferred by the internet, self segregation seems built into the process especially for those with strong resentments and grievances. The self segregated are furthermore vulnerable to suggestion, something that can literally be transmitted digitally. Mind you I cannot quantify that statement, but my gut tells me it is so.
So, the suggestible are self segregating themselves in an environment that magnifies dissatisfaction and strongly amplifies impatience and under certain circumstances, moved to homicidal violence.
For the most part, it is solo actors that are moved to shoot up Synagogues, Mosques and Churches, these are famously "soft targets" that offer the homicidally programmed actor the best opportunity to maximize terror without immediately running afoul of retaliation or escalation.
I could dismiss this as a sort of "digital cowardice", but for the moment I wish to dwell on the gruesome calculus that goes into finding a suitable soft target for a shooter who wishes to "Act Out".
Note the singular, shooter.
Thats my rough theory here, "digitally triggered" terrorists at least the wing nut variety, tend to be one-off actors, they rarely seem to have more than one possibly two accomplices, and those circumstances are exceedingly rare, the Tsarnaev Brothers being the notable exceptions.
So if these are solo-single event perpetrators, predicting their behavior becomes...difficult since one and all, they enjoy the tactical advantage of surprise. Nonetheless, the model does suggest this is still critically a law enforcement model with respect to domestic rightwing terrorism. This therefore is still a situation that favors rigorous enforcement of existing firearms laws, better definitions of soft targets and above all, better communication between federal, state and local law enforcement. Because at least we now know, what they are looking for...
So, the suggestible are self segregating themselves in an environment that magnifies dissatisfaction and strongly amplifies impatience and under certain circumstances, moved to homicidal violence.
For the most part, it is solo actors that are moved to shoot up Synagogues, Mosques and Churches, these are famously "soft targets" that offer the homicidally programmed actor the best opportunity to maximize terror without immediately running afoul of retaliation or escalation.
I could dismiss this as a sort of "digital cowardice", but for the moment I wish to dwell on the gruesome calculus that goes into finding a suitable soft target for a shooter who wishes to "Act Out".
Note the singular, shooter.
Thats my rough theory here, "digitally triggered" terrorists at least the wing nut variety, tend to be one-off actors, they rarely seem to have more than one possibly two accomplices, and those circumstances are exceedingly rare, the Tsarnaev Brothers being the notable exceptions.
So if these are solo-single event perpetrators, predicting their behavior becomes...difficult since one and all, they enjoy the tactical advantage of surprise. Nonetheless, the model does suggest this is still critically a law enforcement model with respect to domestic rightwing terrorism. This therefore is still a situation that favors rigorous enforcement of existing firearms laws, better definitions of soft targets and above all, better communication between federal, state and local law enforcement. Because at least we now know, what they are looking for...
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
D'ye know what I just luuuuuv about the current college admissions scandal?
For the first time ever, privileged overmonied white kid's college degrees have been ruthlessly "delegitimized" to the level of every person of color who has ever had their academic credentials and aspirations questioned or dismissed because of "affirmative action/rampant social engineering".
Seriously, my neighbors are heartily sick of my braying laughter every time this issue is reported on the evening news.
At least we can look forward to a rousing and entertaining round of criminal trials here in the Commonwealth alas the one thing we won't get is a rousing debate on higher education, why it's so expensive, why its become a placebo for income redistribution, will it ever produce better citizenry?
Oh and Andrew Lelling? The US Attorney, you heard it here first, a candidate for Governor...2022, 2026...wait for it I tells yuh. Just remember where Bill Weld came from mah frenz...
Seriously, my neighbors are heartily sick of my braying laughter every time this issue is reported on the evening news.
At least we can look forward to a rousing and entertaining round of criminal trials here in the Commonwealth alas the one thing we won't get is a rousing debate on higher education, why it's so expensive, why its become a placebo for income redistribution, will it ever produce better citizenry?
Oh and Andrew Lelling? The US Attorney, you heard it here first, a candidate for Governor...2022, 2026...wait for it I tells yuh. Just remember where Bill Weld came from mah frenz...
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
My Favorite Controversy...
The current college admissions scandal has superseded completely Robert Kraft's evil thang for ill paid Chinese Sex Workers as my new favorite humiliating crisis...I just sit there and guffaw at the evening news.
Because time after time, we apparently have to re-learn a simple lesson, "Money Always Deforms Outcomes", the more money in play, the less likely an honest transparent result. This ethos dominates politics and now its worked its mercenary way down to the staid reaches of college admissions...why is this surprising anyone??
Only in a country that worships wealth like a Carved Pagan Rock Godling, could ever dream up something as cynical and unsubtle as "affirmative action for wealth".
I won't go into my usual rant about "education substituting for the redistribution of income", that is officially he Bullshit the Legacy Kids foist on the poor commuting students with scholarships.
No I wanna laud those college kids who pointed out on camera tonight, that Lori Laughlin's kinder essentially used wealth and power to steal a pace in an elite college from an inevitably better motivated student.
Which is in turn, nothing but a perfect illustration of everything Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders et al are talking about on the campaign trail, its like the Oligarchy is giving them the sword!
Because time after time, we apparently have to re-learn a simple lesson, "Money Always Deforms Outcomes", the more money in play, the less likely an honest transparent result. This ethos dominates politics and now its worked its mercenary way down to the staid reaches of college admissions...why is this surprising anyone??
Only in a country that worships wealth like a Carved Pagan Rock Godling, could ever dream up something as cynical and unsubtle as "affirmative action for wealth".
I won't go into my usual rant about "education substituting for the redistribution of income", that is officially he Bullshit the Legacy Kids foist on the poor commuting students with scholarships.
No I wanna laud those college kids who pointed out on camera tonight, that Lori Laughlin's kinder essentially used wealth and power to steal a pace in an elite college from an inevitably better motivated student.
Which is in turn, nothing but a perfect illustration of everything Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders et al are talking about on the campaign trail, its like the Oligarchy is giving them the sword!
Monday, March 11, 2019
I think, before the din becomes deafening...
it ought to be said that when Speaker Pelosi says "it isn't worth it" to impeach President Trump she means she'd rather not make the effort to get impeachment resolutions thru the US House only to hand the President an acquittal in the subsequent trial in the US Senate.
Impeachment is a political act, removing the Chief Executive lawfully and constitutionally requires the balance of forces be in the prosecution's favor, right now Trump is down to the shittyest lawyers in DC AND Senator Mitch McConnell as his last line of defense. The President's attorney's are all utterly hapless, but McConnell is skilled political fixer, an impeachment trial where he controls the majority to say nothing of a robust plurality is to guarantee acquittal for Trump.
Acquittal in turn, would be tantamount to vindication and a pardon in the degraded legal estimation of the Trump admin, it also takes certain legal markers off the table.
No, Speaker Pelosi is being realistic, sometimes that is just hard. If the wind shifts, and sooner or later it will, she will change up accordingly but right now she doesn't have the horses.
Impeachment is a political act, removing the Chief Executive lawfully and constitutionally requires the balance of forces be in the prosecution's favor, right now Trump is down to the shittyest lawyers in DC AND Senator Mitch McConnell as his last line of defense. The President's attorney's are all utterly hapless, but McConnell is skilled political fixer, an impeachment trial where he controls the majority to say nothing of a robust plurality is to guarantee acquittal for Trump.
Acquittal in turn, would be tantamount to vindication and a pardon in the degraded legal estimation of the Trump admin, it also takes certain legal markers off the table.
No, Speaker Pelosi is being realistic, sometimes that is just hard. If the wind shifts, and sooner or later it will, she will change up accordingly but right now she doesn't have the horses.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Netanyahu is in the Fight of His Life...
Again...but the currently Likud's wing nut coalition is very much in a fight to the finish in next month's Israeli Parliamentary Elections despite PM Netanyahu's indictment on various bribery charges.
Say what you like, but Netanyahu has a genius talent for survival, stitching together dubious coalitions with twitchy weirdoes with a pending expiration date seems to be his political specialty. I give the guy even odds next month, even though I do have a feeling the corruption charges are very much a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over his head. So my prediction is, Bibbi squeaks back in atop a rickety coalition of witch burners and whatever passes for a Wowser in Israel but will be forced to resign within a year, forcing yet another spin of the wheel. In fact I think the "succession derby" will paradoxically commence as soon as he is re-elected.
Say what you like, but Netanyahu has a genius talent for survival, stitching together dubious coalitions with twitchy weirdoes with a pending expiration date seems to be his political specialty. I give the guy even odds next month, even though I do have a feeling the corruption charges are very much a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over his head. So my prediction is, Bibbi squeaks back in atop a rickety coalition of witch burners and whatever passes for a Wowser in Israel but will be forced to resign within a year, forcing yet another spin of the wheel. In fact I think the "succession derby" will paradoxically commence as soon as he is re-elected.
Monday, March 04, 2019
Context...
For Sheer Continent Destroying Ego, no one could ever beat Napoleon Bonaparte, and yet when compelled to abdicate in 1814, the Emperor merely Kissed the Tricolor...this mook is spooning the National Ensign!
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Oh Thank Ghod...
The Hanoi Summit has amicably collapsed.
Given that pending Jailbird Michael Cohen usurped the news cycle by snitching on his former boss in front of Congress, we should consider ourselves lucky that Trump didn't frantically sign any document that Kim, Vladimir or Xi put in front of him in a vain attempt to wrest control of the narrative from his former henchman.
It is just as well, Trump was walking into Kim's Trap with eyes wide open like a sleepwalker, he had fatally conceded that North Korean Denuclearization might not be the goal, which allowed Pyongyang to potentially pivot to negotiating a final peace treaty, all while retaining their nuclear weapons and demanding God Knows What assurances from our nervous concession prone President.
Just remember, Trump announced at this summit, that Comrade Kim had no role in the death of Otto Warmbier, the late US Student who was clearly tortured near to death while imprisoned in North Korea. So even if the summits go "ka-boom" he loves to alibi for tyrants, no wonder they all wanna meet him.
Given that pending Jailbird Michael Cohen usurped the news cycle by snitching on his former boss in front of Congress, we should consider ourselves lucky that Trump didn't frantically sign any document that Kim, Vladimir or Xi put in front of him in a vain attempt to wrest control of the narrative from his former henchman.
It is just as well, Trump was walking into Kim's Trap with eyes wide open like a sleepwalker, he had fatally conceded that North Korean Denuclearization might not be the goal, which allowed Pyongyang to potentially pivot to negotiating a final peace treaty, all while retaining their nuclear weapons and demanding God Knows What assurances from our nervous concession prone President.
Just remember, Trump announced at this summit, that Comrade Kim had no role in the death of Otto Warmbier, the late US Student who was clearly tortured near to death while imprisoned in North Korea. So even if the summits go "ka-boom" he loves to alibi for tyrants, no wonder they all wanna meet him.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Bob Kraft a Lecher??? Who'd a thunk it??
President Trump is shocked, shocked I say at this startling revelation!
I'm still processing the fact that Bob Kraft, a billionaire four times over, gets his creepy jollies for cheaps at a tacky massage parlor in a grotty Florida Shopping Plaza. $79.00 a hour for a slave labor "lady of joy", Kraft pays more for desert at lunchtime!
Hey...Isn't Howie Carr a club member down in Mar El Lago...he is a crime reporter, I wonder if he saw anything or has anything add?
:)
Its not that Bob Kraft is a pervert per se, sadly many rich people are perverts, its that he is a cheap pervert, and that tells me its all about abusing power over poor enslaved women with no recourse whatsoever.
Indeed the likely outcome as far as the Florida courts is concerned is a misdemeanor trial, a suspended sentence or community service...meanwhile the women get deported back to China and Ghod Knows What Sort of Fate. It is the covert reestablishment of slavery in our midst that is the true crime, forget Bob Kraft, that dirty old man's reputation.
THAT is the real perversion here.
I'm still processing the fact that Bob Kraft, a billionaire four times over, gets his creepy jollies for cheaps at a tacky massage parlor in a grotty Florida Shopping Plaza. $79.00 a hour for a slave labor "lady of joy", Kraft pays more for desert at lunchtime!
Hey...Isn't Howie Carr a club member down in Mar El Lago...he is a crime reporter, I wonder if he saw anything or has anything add?
:)
Its not that Bob Kraft is a pervert per se, sadly many rich people are perverts, its that he is a cheap pervert, and that tells me its all about abusing power over poor enslaved women with no recourse whatsoever.
Indeed the likely outcome as far as the Florida courts is concerned is a misdemeanor trial, a suspended sentence or community service...meanwhile the women get deported back to China and Ghod Knows What Sort of Fate. It is the covert reestablishment of slavery in our midst that is the true crime, forget Bob Kraft, that dirty old man's reputation.
THAT is the real perversion here.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Is Charlie Baker Bailing Out?
Granted he has lots of money on hand, and can raise millions more in legit and funny-money, indeed his chief strength as a candidate is his fundraising operation...yet I wonder, save a brief half hearted attempt to gin up a challenge to Ed Markey in 2020, we aren't hearing a lot about Charlie's future plans.
Which are to say the least, limited, he is hated by the National Republican Party, he can hardly hope for an Ambassadorship let alone a Cabinet Post. He'd need to start making moves now, if he wanted Ed Markey's Senate Seat, and I don't see a lot happening along those lines (I could be wrong though).
Granted the senatorial kaleidoscope remains clouded as long as Senior Senator Warren is running for President, potentially she could win giving Baker a shot at an open seat or a more cynical opportunity to appoint himself to the Senate temporarily and make the race as an incumbent.
After that, he could run for reelection, in 2022, he has plenty of cash on hand and no reason not to make that race. It is however the least creative option but then Baker has little imagination so it cannot be ruled out based on the scant evidence to date.
So I wonder maybe he is bailing? Ergo this is his last term...He is pressing for a real estate tax that'll be used to harden the Commonwealth against Climate Change (a rare good idea given shifting weather patterns). That has to be a revenue decision anathema to the GOP Primary, its also the sort of decision someone who isn't running again might make...
Then again Lt Governor Karyn Polito has been quietly settling up old campaign debts, that is always the first thing one does when one is needs to start fundraising in earnest...because you are envisioning an expensive state wide race.
On the other hand, Baker is as usual refusing to endorse his mentor Bill Weld's quixotic bid for the 2020 GOP Presidential Nomination, bespeaks a desire to keep peace with his own State Committee (a hotbed of pro Trump ne'er do wells) and thus keep his political options open.
So Maybe Baker is out, my only question is, will he serve out his second term or find an excuse to resign and hand over the governorship to Polito so she can run as an incumbent circa 2022?
Which are to say the least, limited, he is hated by the National Republican Party, he can hardly hope for an Ambassadorship let alone a Cabinet Post. He'd need to start making moves now, if he wanted Ed Markey's Senate Seat, and I don't see a lot happening along those lines (I could be wrong though).
Granted the senatorial kaleidoscope remains clouded as long as Senior Senator Warren is running for President, potentially she could win giving Baker a shot at an open seat or a more cynical opportunity to appoint himself to the Senate temporarily and make the race as an incumbent.
After that, he could run for reelection, in 2022, he has plenty of cash on hand and no reason not to make that race. It is however the least creative option but then Baker has little imagination so it cannot be ruled out based on the scant evidence to date.
So I wonder maybe he is bailing? Ergo this is his last term...He is pressing for a real estate tax that'll be used to harden the Commonwealth against Climate Change (a rare good idea given shifting weather patterns). That has to be a revenue decision anathema to the GOP Primary, its also the sort of decision someone who isn't running again might make...
Then again Lt Governor Karyn Polito has been quietly settling up old campaign debts, that is always the first thing one does when one is needs to start fundraising in earnest...because you are envisioning an expensive state wide race.
On the other hand, Baker is as usual refusing to endorse his mentor Bill Weld's quixotic bid for the 2020 GOP Presidential Nomination, bespeaks a desire to keep peace with his own State Committee (a hotbed of pro Trump ne'er do wells) and thus keep his political options open.
So Maybe Baker is out, my only question is, will he serve out his second term or find an excuse to resign and hand over the governorship to Polito so she can run as an incumbent circa 2022?
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
I am not sure it matters whether or not
Attorney General Barr releases The Full Mueller Report or a redacted summary, I feel pretty sure that if the Full Report is not released, it'll leak within Forty Eight Hours. Its a chaotic mismanaged White House we have in DC, they make bloodcurdling threats that they almost never back up, this, and the fear of legal retribution, "brand harm" or a damaged reputation down the line strongly encourages leakers and whistle blowers.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
So When is Vice President's Day?
Y'know that day of days when we celebrate the Democratic Vision of Hubert H. Humphrey, the Stern Jeffersonian Ethos of John Nance Garner or even the Subtle Wit of Thomas R. Marshall...?
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Have No Fear...Bill Weld is Here!!!
The Ubiquitous Knight of the Charles River Swan Dive and Former Governor of Massachusetts has formed a Presidential Exploratory Committee with the intention of challenging Donald Trump in the GOP Presidential Primaries next year.
Lets face it, Weld is a hapless has-been, he is as old as dirt, utterly inconstant & irresolute, he's left the GOP, endorsed democrats, run as a libertarian, he hasn't held office since the late 1990's, the man is Harold Stassen incarnate at this point.
I'll gloss over the fact he's been pro-choice, up until now and he is running in a famously pro-life series of primaries, Ghod only knows where the money will come from to finance this latest example of Weldian windmill jousting. Moreover the political graveyards of this republic are full of men and women who bet the mortgage on "Principled GOP opposition to Donald Trump".
So I give Bill Weld very long odds indeed, if he makes his nickels squeak he might hang in there thru South Carolina, but does anyone think he can do any business at all in Texas or Alabama or any of the "MAGA Primaries"?
I say he cashes his check by March 2019.
On the other hand, The Boston Globe clearly loves Bill Weld that is a useful thing to have in the NH Primary where independent voters can pull party ballots, but we are a long way from any scenario where Weld sets NH aflame with an Anti-Trump Backlash.
Lets face it, Weld is a hapless has-been, he is as old as dirt, utterly inconstant & irresolute, he's left the GOP, endorsed democrats, run as a libertarian, he hasn't held office since the late 1990's, the man is Harold Stassen incarnate at this point.
I'll gloss over the fact he's been pro-choice, up until now and he is running in a famously pro-life series of primaries, Ghod only knows where the money will come from to finance this latest example of Weldian windmill jousting. Moreover the political graveyards of this republic are full of men and women who bet the mortgage on "Principled GOP opposition to Donald Trump".
So I give Bill Weld very long odds indeed, if he makes his nickels squeak he might hang in there thru South Carolina, but does anyone think he can do any business at all in Texas or Alabama or any of the "MAGA Primaries"?
I say he cashes his check by March 2019.
On the other hand, The Boston Globe clearly loves Bill Weld that is a useful thing to have in the NH Primary where independent voters can pull party ballots, but we are a long way from any scenario where Weld sets NH aflame with an Anti-Trump Backlash.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Oh Thank God, GE is still coming to Boston...
But the tottering corporate giant is clearly coming here To Die amidst a Historic Setting. They've even pre-paid the funeral by giving back to the Commonwealth some eighty seven million dollars in tax breaks.
For that kind of money, we can expect all of Beacon Hill to start looking for a nice stately burial plot for GE in Mount Auburn Cemetery...Hell for eighty-seven large, General Electric can hire the entire Great & General Court AND the Boston City Council to serve as pallbearers and gravediggers.
Is it me, but will this boondoggle redound to the discredit of Governor Baker at all??? I mean he practically flopped over on his back and panted like a dog for a corporate headquarters that is down to a bare two hundred people. This is what happens when libertarian minded republicans try to pick winners....
To say nothing of the black eye this gives Mayor Walsh, he was out there every day banging the pots for GE, neither of them look very good quite frankly.
For that kind of money, we can expect all of Beacon Hill to start looking for a nice stately burial plot for GE in Mount Auburn Cemetery...Hell for eighty-seven large, General Electric can hire the entire Great & General Court AND the Boston City Council to serve as pallbearers and gravediggers.
Is it me, but will this boondoggle redound to the discredit of Governor Baker at all??? I mean he practically flopped over on his back and panted like a dog for a corporate headquarters that is down to a bare two hundred people. This is what happens when libertarian minded republicans try to pick winners....
To say nothing of the black eye this gives Mayor Walsh, he was out there every day banging the pots for GE, neither of them look very good quite frankly.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Check this out!
The Southern Baptist Convention has a clerical sex abuse scandal all its own! And lo and behold, they are just as lethargic as the RCC when it comes to countermeasures and transparency! I'd laugh but its all too tragic, its getting so the last place you want to take your kid, is church.
Friday, February 08, 2019
Its been a banner week on the Op Ed Page of the Boston Globe...
Joan Vennochi insists Senator Elizabeth Warren is doomed, (big surprise there huh?) and Scot Lehigh has sighed turned over and decided that Bill Weld is Our Only Hope to defeat Trump!
I love these guys, you could set your watch to them.
This quote from Lehigh pretty sums it all up:
"And in states where unenrolled voters can take a Republican primary ballot, he (Bill Weld) certainly could attract socially libertarian, fiscally moderate independents".
Its like Scot has hooked up the bleached skeleton of GOP Moderation to an EKG and he just sits there week after week month after month waiting for the damn machine to go "beep!"
Quite frankly if "socially libertarian, fiscally moderate independents" were gonna somehow save us all, they'd a done it by now! Where the hell were they on Election Day 2016 Huh?
I'll tell you where they were, they were making a bad deal with Donald Trump for "pennies on the dollar" with no thought in their heads as to the good of the nation or what might be best for the GOP, thats what they were doing!
Why?
Who knows "because her emails" or maybe "Al Gore invented the internet" or Willy Horton or whatever...but like most people who make chronically bad decisions, they are never gonna walk any of it back and so will likely Vote for Trump come 2020.
It sure sounds like Weld has got Lehigh back on his speed dial, he may not have much of a chance within or without the GOP primary but his hypnotic hold on the Boston Globe's Op Ed Page is as strong as ever.
I love these guys, you could set your watch to them.
This quote from Lehigh pretty sums it all up:
"And in states where unenrolled voters can take a Republican primary ballot, he (Bill Weld) certainly could attract socially libertarian, fiscally moderate independents".
Its like Scot has hooked up the bleached skeleton of GOP Moderation to an EKG and he just sits there week after week month after month waiting for the damn machine to go "beep!"
Quite frankly if "socially libertarian, fiscally moderate independents" were gonna somehow save us all, they'd a done it by now! Where the hell were they on Election Day 2016 Huh?
I'll tell you where they were, they were making a bad deal with Donald Trump for "pennies on the dollar" with no thought in their heads as to the good of the nation or what might be best for the GOP, thats what they were doing!
Why?
Who knows "because her emails" or maybe "Al Gore invented the internet" or Willy Horton or whatever...but like most people who make chronically bad decisions, they are never gonna walk any of it back and so will likely Vote for Trump come 2020.
It sure sounds like Weld has got Lehigh back on his speed dial, he may not have much of a chance within or without the GOP primary but his hypnotic hold on the Boston Globe's Op Ed Page is as strong as ever.
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
What do...
Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin & Nancy Pelosi have in common?
They All Seem to Have Figured Trump Out, and to Trump's disadvantage as well...Look at the sheer studied contempt in this photo, it is chilling.
They All Seem to Have Figured Trump Out, and to Trump's disadvantage as well...Look at the sheer studied contempt in this photo, it is chilling.
Friday, February 01, 2019
The merest murmur of Aspirations
on the part of Former Governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld and like a well trained cadre of teenyboppers "The Bill Weld Fan Club" convenes on the front page of the Boston Globe.
I've said it before, I've said it a thousand times, the Boston Globe is mysteriously besotted with the political aspirations of Bill Weld, no matter how inconsequence or casual they may be. They just love him, his detachment, his insolence his casual WASPy contempt for humanity...its make's em' pant...
This time Weld may run for President, either as a Libertarian (assuming that twitchy cohort consents to nominate him) or else a direct challenge to Trump in the Primaries as a Republican. True to Weldian form, there are strong drawbacks to both options; in 2016 Weld pledged heart mind and soul (such as it is) to the Libertarian Cause, backing off on that now would be very..."Weld-Like", but would look like rank opportunism to the rest of Us. Plus you have to factor in the perennial also ran status of the Libertarian Party and sure-as-shooting they'll never secure a berth at the Debates in the Fall.
Weld running as a Republican just means he'll be crushed by the time he reaches the Florida Primary with little to show from his Quixotic Charge for Glory. The Former Governor has to be astute enough to realize that Trump's opposition within the GOP is fatally divided, isolated and limited to rhetorical gusts only.
Moreover, in both scenarios, where the hell is the money gonna come from???
No its time to face facts, Bill Weld is a washed up hack, a jobber, he got bored with being Governor, couldn't get elected to the US Senate, couldn't get a hearing on his appointment as Ambassador to Mexico, couldn't get nominated for Governor of New York and didn't get elected Vice President. Bill Weld isn't a hero, he is a mess, a seventy four year old tattered, ruined, over the hill joke of a politician, More Harold Stassen than anything else these days.
If I had to guess he'll run as a Libertarian and never be heard from again, save for the Boston Globe camping out all night on his stoop to get his autograph first thing in the morning....
I've said it before, I've said it a thousand times, the Boston Globe is mysteriously besotted with the political aspirations of Bill Weld, no matter how inconsequence or casual they may be. They just love him, his detachment, his insolence his casual WASPy contempt for humanity...its make's em' pant...
This time Weld may run for President, either as a Libertarian (assuming that twitchy cohort consents to nominate him) or else a direct challenge to Trump in the Primaries as a Republican. True to Weldian form, there are strong drawbacks to both options; in 2016 Weld pledged heart mind and soul (such as it is) to the Libertarian Cause, backing off on that now would be very..."Weld-Like", but would look like rank opportunism to the rest of Us. Plus you have to factor in the perennial also ran status of the Libertarian Party and sure-as-shooting they'll never secure a berth at the Debates in the Fall.
Weld running as a Republican just means he'll be crushed by the time he reaches the Florida Primary with little to show from his Quixotic Charge for Glory. The Former Governor has to be astute enough to realize that Trump's opposition within the GOP is fatally divided, isolated and limited to rhetorical gusts only.
Moreover, in both scenarios, where the hell is the money gonna come from???
No its time to face facts, Bill Weld is a washed up hack, a jobber, he got bored with being Governor, couldn't get elected to the US Senate, couldn't get a hearing on his appointment as Ambassador to Mexico, couldn't get nominated for Governor of New York and didn't get elected Vice President. Bill Weld isn't a hero, he is a mess, a seventy four year old tattered, ruined, over the hill joke of a politician, More Harold Stassen than anything else these days.
If I had to guess he'll run as a Libertarian and never be heard from again, save for the Boston Globe camping out all night on his stoop to get his autograph first thing in the morning....
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