Senator Marco Rubio

 that dismal pallid mollusk of a Senator from Florida, really didn't need to "Set an example" by getting the Corona Virus Vaccine this week, he is 49 years old and in perfect health for a repulsive reactionary invertebrate.  He could have made it a point to donate his vaccination to a front line worker, or say MY MOTHER who is 97 years old and in a Nursing Home instead of saving his own miserable ass.  He's devoted four years to fawning on Donald Trump and helping to screw up the Country Beyond Hope of Redress, I suppose he felt he deserved that early vaccination...that he was entitled.

But in fact Senator Rubio is literally leaving his own constituents to die during a pandemic while he leverages his indestructible status to get immunized way ahead of everyone else. He is the Bruce Ismay of US Politics quite frankly, lets hope his constituents hold him accountable...

It seems to me, that,

 Trump is rapidly becoming a spent force in US Politics, he's tried anarchy, threats, childishly overwritten legal briefs but apparently he cannot overthrow an eight million vote lead and a rock solid majority in the Electoral College.  Of course, this is Trump we are talking about, he'll devote every waking moment of his remaining time in office to imposing bad decisions his fellow citizens, that is when he isn't golfing, whining or abusing god-knows-what....

Lets face it, he is old, sick, crazy, toxically indebted to Cthulu Knows Who and legally exposed to an appalling degree...and his luck seems to have run out. All that makes a bad combustible combination.

So I am moving on the presumption that Trump's Star of Destiny has Set for Good, Trumpism though, that is a different matter. Trump is a would be autocrat is every way, save the most impotent, he lacks the political skills, the attention span and necessary guts to foist a vanguard totalitarian party upon us. Lord Knows though, he tried in his own bombastic erratic way. Just remember every constitutional norm Trump defied, every rule he broke, the power he worshipped and abused & any one of a number of GOP Politicians in DC and without were all taking notes.

So I think we will have more concerns about who takes up with Trump's base and who tries to run on a platform promising autocracy & tyranny, in other words who wants to run and Make Trumpism Work.

Put it another way, Mussolini was Adolf Hitler's Patient Thorough Teacher, despite being a clown, a bully, a braggart and ultimately a chump, Il Duce taught the future Reichs Chancellor the dire need for an obedient cadre of street fighters, an all up Secret Police Force, A One Party State Apparat, he also demonstrated to Hitler that the League of Nations could be defied, that one could terrorize civilian populations as a war tactics and to rule the conquered by Pure Force. At the end of the day, all Hitler Did was take what Mussolini had done and put it on a ruthlessly efficient industrialized basis; "Fascism SuperSized" so to speak.

So the issue here is, who shall be Trump's ideological successor, who is gonna end up super sizing Trumpism?  

Over the short term we need to encourage all possible fissures between the Trump Base and the Institutional GOP, we also need to stir up infighting between the Trump Family (especially Junior, Ivanka and Jared Kushner) and whatever personalities may seek to inherit Trump's Mantle...thats my practical advise anyway. My impractical advise is, we are by no means out of the woods yet, we've won a respite with control of the US Presidency soon to be in safe hands, but soon enough we'll be fighting these battles again at least until our opponents crack asunder and there is a realignment in this country.

We'd better make sure they crack first.

Charlie sent the Police Reform Bill Back to the Legislature

 thus keeping peace with the Police Unions and the State GOP, I'm gonna bet we'll never hear about that bill ever again.  He picked a good day to pluck an irksome political thorn from his side, the FDA approved the Pfizer Covid19 vaccine, even as the pandemic spirals on out of control, nationally...I think WCVB finally mentioned the bill's fate some ten minutes in on the 6pm broadcast with no follow up or opinions solicited.

Anyway, I doubt the political stars will be back in alignment for this bill anytime soon, everything is about to  be flooded out by "vaccine politics" and the slow train wreck that is the handoff from Trump to Biden.  It seems a shame because there is a need for change that builds trust without and without communities of color in the Commonwealth. Alas for different reasons the local republicans and democrats fear anything that can be construed as being "anti law enforcement", and so here we are, exactly where I thought we'd be, some six months ago.

If Charlie Baker signs the Police Reform Bill

 that I am sure, the legislative leadership doesn't want him to sign, I'll bet Scott Lively or some other Loonytunes primaries him come 2022...IF Charlie breaks for third term that is.  If he doesn't sign it, the Senate President & the Speaker will probably emit sighs of relief and thank Ghod that Charlie Baker fears the Patrolman's Union more than he fears BLM. If he DOES sign it, that means he thinks it is more important to draw BLM's alleged claws than it is to keep peace with the Police.

But I digress, I don't think Charlie will sign it, thats my prediction.

This Guy....

Literally cannot take a good picture, Stephen Miller looks like a reptilian stiff from every damn angle.  Why would anyone schedule a face to face job interview with a cold miserable condescending man?

Oh well, if he ends up on relief, I'll need to rent Harvard Stadium to laugh in...

Happy Thanksgiving...

Oh and while I am at it,

 "LIZ DON'T INHALE!!"

The Boston Globe must feel Biden's inauguration is a sure thing come January, because they ran their usual speculative piece on which local democrats are gonna go to work for the incoming democratic admin. They did it for Clinton, Obama and now Biden, you can set your watch to it, IF the democrats happen to win a presidential election.

And as usual they've picked out a heroic sinecure for our redoubtable Senior Senator, Elizabeth Warren, Secretary of the Treasury, among other beguiling portfolios. All I can advise is, Liz don't do it!!  If you grab off a plum job with the admin, that means Charlie Baker appoints your temporary successor and we then have to fight a Special Senate Election, you will recall, we lost in 2010 catapulting your onetime rival Scott Brown to the US Senate.

I'll be blunt, I don't wanna fight that election, we botched it once, and it could get botched again, easily. Chuck Schumer can't be sanguine about the idea of even a temporary GOP US Senator MA, even with all his own prospects riding on two Senatorial Run Offs, In Georgia...

If Schumer is smart he's already asked that Biden not upset the senatorial equilibrium in any way, that doesn't favor the democrats...

Anyway, my message today is, "Liz Don't Listen", the people blowing smoke in your face here all wanna sell newspapers, get themselves a soft touch in DC, burnish their credentials or boost their ratings. They don't give a rat's ass about the great challenges of our times, challenges best met by Elizabeth Warren fighting it out in the US Senate!

CNN calls Georgia for Biden...

 this is an astonishing turn of events, Joe Biden is the FIRST White Liberal Democrat from the Northeast to carry The Peach State, since....My Landsman, John F. Kennedy. Funny, they are both Roman Catholics too...

But of course, as I've said before, Biden carried Georgia and cracked the Solid South thanks to Stacy Abrams, whatever she wants please give it to her, I only wish that what she wants to win both the Senatorial Run Offs down there come January.

Four Years Ago, at the dawn of a new dark age, Trump hailed his 306 Electoral Votes as "A Landslide", who am I to deny that Biden has touched off his own landslide??

Congrats to President Elect Biden & VP Elect, Kamala Harris...

 who finally kicked Donald Trump's fat @ss this week with a four million and climbing Mandate...Today, for the first time in four long terrible years, I woke in a good mood and sustained it, all day long.

And I have Joe Biden to thank for that.

Amazingly our current good fortune goes back to the South Carolina Primary, where an entire democratic electorate, woke up too one look at the still considerable slate of presidential aspirants and turned to Joe Biden, as one, and cried out "Joseph, Veep of Barack, Lead Us Out of the Wilderness, Lest We Perish!!"

Thats when the Walls of Jericho came tumbling down and a scant two week later, Biden had a lock on the nomination...because Ghod Knows Prior to that Biden sure as hell looked like a punch drunk plug with more bruises than sense.

But I will say this about Joe Biden, he can get up off that canvass like nobody's business and go right back into his stance, any other politician who got hit like Kamala Harris hit him last fall would have literally disintegrated on camera.

Now today, He is President Elect, and that Champion Pugilist Kamala Harris his Running Mate...Kudos to Biden for doing the right thing and graciously elevating a former competitor, he "transcends"...

I'm not gonna split hairs at the moment about his margins in the Electoral College (newsflash, they were always a little thin), or the House or the Senate, our paramount goal in this election was to separate Donald Trump from the nuclear codes, we took a giant step on that this week, we should be proud and breath easier.

From this day forward

 during an election cycle, if someone comes to me, with data, insisting with hushed yet astonished tones that "Texas and Florida are In Play..." My response will be loud and emphatic "BULLSHIT!"

But...if...Stacy Abrams sez "Texas and Florida are in Play", THEN I will believe and send money and do my part. That woman is a sorceress, she reversed engineered a voter suppression statute and drove 800,000 new voters to the polls. Whatever she wants, President Elect Biden should give it to her and please God, put her in charge of the two pending Senatorial Run Offs in Georgia!!

I mean it, Abrams should get her pick of a Cabinet slot, Ambassadorships, if she wants another Go at the Governorship in Georgia, whatever it is, I'm fine with it.

"Whats the Worst Thing That Could Happen?"

 If you are nervous, uncertain, wracked with anxiety, just remember this one very steadying thing, you've already been thru this once before, and in 2016 it came as a surprise and a shock as well. So whatever happens tomorrow and in the days or weeks to come, you've been there.  You can take some strength and even comfort from that grim memory.

To quote Churchill (always our refuge in testing times),"Let Us Brace Ourselves to Our Duties", to which I must add "We Must be Equal to Our Times". Our progeny are counting on us to right these manifold wrongs wrought by Trump's Cabal in DC and to not pass along to them the dire necessity of hard decision.

History and Democracy Itself, Are Counting on Us, Our Challenges are Great, Therefore Our Determination Must be Greater.

Good Luck to All of You, God Bless.

The USA has never lost a war

 quite like the war we are currently losing against Covid_19.  Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff du jour, did however finally tip the Admin's coronavirus strategy this week quote: "We are not going to control the Pandemic" unquote.

Well, we are certainly not going to "control" anything unless we make an effort, dedicate resources, counsel patience & listen to the scientists...but who has time for that in the Trump Admin eh?

But I digress, as my white haired old mother used to say "Not to Decide, is to Decide", and the callous lack of decision by the White House re Covid_19 seems to indicate they are back hoping that "herd immunity" is somehow magically triggered and it all "goes away".  That is akin to feeding more and more Covid-Fodder to the Pathogen, until it gets sick of killing us!

That is what Meadows' means when he says we aren't gonna control the pandemic...and when fatalities have reached 200,000 + its time to call "herd immunity" what it is, genocide.  Someone somewhere doesn't want to do the hard work of a continental Covid_19 policy and simply prefers to feed the pandemic additional victims...that is what this comes down to....

A Legit Tweet....

 Posted on Twitter by the RNC (otherwise known as a synod of zombies and the undead with unmatched fundraising skills):

"Pres. Trump is fighting for YOU! Here are some of his priorities for a 2nd term:

*Establish Permanent Manned Presence on The Moon *Send the 1st Manned Mission to Mars *Build World’s Greatest Infrastructure System *Establish National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network"

This is a laugh and half, no mention of covid_19 (I suppose it triggers cringeworthy presidential tantrums at this point, who knows?), or jobs or really anything. It is no more than two items on NASA's wishlist, a broken promise from campaign 2016 and a patently mendacious pledge for free internet that AT &T etc WILL NEVER countenance.

Or put it another way it's the GOP's version of California Governor Jerry Brown's 1980 pledge to "Protect the Earth, Serve the People & Explore the Universe."

But lets face it, these days, with enough money, a person, especially one of influence can enter their own personally tailored fantasy world live there, and govern from there for extended periods of time sans consequence.

Thats our real problem today, the Overclass has become completely detached from reality/consequence. In a democracy, under the rule of law, normally this can be corrected via free & fair elections...I say normally but these aren't normal times and and democratic mores and habits have degraded dangerously.

Thus metaphorically speaking, if there is a healthful change in government next month, the new admin's topmost priority is the restoration and strengthening of democratic norms as a means to firmly reattach the overclass to the empire of consequence in which the rest of us live.

Like I said, If....

I haven't yet paid $750.00 in Federal Taxes...

 but I Did That, The Honest Way, By Being Poor and Marginal!!  Not like that penniless chiseler Donald Trump who is using every dishonest trick in the book to conceal his huge losses and massive indebtedness. Allegedly Trump has personal debts that total to over four hundred million dollars that come due in his notional second term, he doesn't seem to have the money!! 

His kids must be sweating like whores in a church, I'm sure they knew how busted Daddy was, no, I think they were counting on the whole  cringeworthy mishaugas remaining a secret.  I wonder which one of them will turn state's evidence? I think Junior is too high on the prospect of power to make a move, Eric might snitch but word is, Eric is as dumb as a bag of hammers....no my money is on Ivanka, her eyes are full of cold inhuman hate, she is just the type to sell out her father and brothers to the IRS  all the while crying her eyes out on the news cameras.

You Were Expecting Better of Senator Mitt Romney? Really??

 Today, predictably, Mitt Romney did the right thing...for President Trump and Mitch McConnell and came out for an unseemly and hypocritical fast track process for the Late Justice Ginzburg's successor, per his statement, Romney incredibly asserted that what happened to Merrick Garland and this current misgauges both are constitution and both somehow serve precedent!

Look you all have to grow up here, and realize Mitt Romney was never "A Man of Honor" not when his political interests are on the line, nope never. He simply poses as a Man of Honor because the remnants of his conscience bothers him at times. Its a sad little tax his compromised convoluted equivocal self pays to virtue, nothing more.  The Man that Mitt voted to Convict, Somehow Rates Hasty Consideration for a Supreme Court Nomination, THAT is Romney's definition of Legality and Precedent!!?? And  Also, thanks to Mitt, no doubt McConnell can now really put the screws to that other Senatorial "Profile in Discourage", Susan Collins.  

I hate to say it, but until the American People themselves flip the Senate there isn't much that can stop this rubbish quite frankly. Romney made his big grandstand play during impeachment, that is pretty much all he had in him when it comes to His Country's Honor.

Senator Susan Collins...

 locked in the fight of her life up in Maine, has this to say about Mitch McConnell's hypocritical haste to replace the late lamented Ruth Bader Ginzburg on the Supreme Court:

""Given the proximity of the presidential election, however, I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,"

Its not exactly "we will fight on the beaches" is it? But then its never like that at all when we are talking about the Senator Susan Collins the Moderate from Maine who has never actually successfully moderated anything in her long undistinguished career.  And anyway, look at the quote carefully, she doesn't say what she'll do if a nominee is referred out by the Senate Judiciary Committee...likely she'll do as she has always done, vote to confirm.  Moreover she will vote to confirm regardless of whether or not she is reelected in November. All she is really doing is expressing a preference, in a rather passive voice and furthermore Collins asserts no leadership let alone takes much of a stand quite frankly.  But she is locked in a tight race and this sort of timid utterance is classically her idea of hurling her defiance at The Gods Themselves.

And of course, our own "Profile in DisCourage" Governor Charlie Baker actually endorsed Collins for reelection last week and cut an advert for her!  Pretty badly timed on his part quite frankly, but Charlie needs to mend fences with the National GOP and helping out Mitch McConnell's Most Reliable Mark is part of that obligation I'm sure.  Charlie's riding high in the popularity polls right now, but the State GOP is riddled with disgruntled and angry Trumpers who'd love it if Baker got primaried on the road to his third term. If I was that lot though, I'd primary Lt. Governor Polito, it'd be serious leverage over Baker to force him to run with someone the likes of Scott Lively.

Alas I digress, I do think this sickening haste to cram another Falangist onto the Supreme Court is a heaven sent issue for all democrats running for the US Senate this Fall. Incumbents and Challengers Alike, ALL need to pressing their GOP Opponents on Ginzburg's successor...I mean I can promise you, they were fine "citing precedent" when it was President Obama's nominee, now however pure power is in play and its a different story by Ghod. So hammer them on this, Hammer Them!

If for nothing else than a fitting memorial to Associate Justice Ginzburg.

"Markey Beats Kennedy"

 Wow who expected that to happen? Wasn't Markey trailing by eleven points last winter?  I got to hand it to Ed, he never flinched, raised the money secured the endorsements and fought Kennedy to a standstill.  Ed's greatest and most consequent decision was to simply refuse to back down. Don't kid yourself, a lot of democrats in this state, privately wanted him to step aside, on grounds of age or out of respect for Camelot, Markey stood athwart the whole sickening process and cried "HALT!" Certainly a Kennedy had never lost in Massachusetts but there is a first time for everything isn't there? A lot of things went into the brew that is this victory, securing AOC's endorsement (note to the punditariat, The Lady has Reach Outside Her District, Pay Heed) and running to the Left of a Kennedy, successfully and the campaign's entire bold defiant tone...it all paid off.  I also think this is a reminder to the state that John Walsh, Ed Markey's campaign manager can still make things happen in this Commonwealth, Charlie Baker had best pay heed....

As for Kennedy, he gave up a sure thing, hoping to replicate the "rise by challenge" mythos that drove his Grandfather & and Great Uncle into the Primaries, but sad to say, it must also be noted neither man won their respective nominations.  If JPK 3 had but waited, he could likely have succeeded either of our current Senators both of whom though feisty, are also of an age. I think though, the usual blowers-of-smoke that surround any given Kennedy were all whispering that once he was in the US Senate, JPK 3 could pile into the Presidential Primaries Sans Demure as the Candidate of Camelot Redemption circa 2024...assuming we even have free elections in 2024.  Don't laugh, ludicrous ambition, thats how the Smoke Blowers Really Think! 

Otherwise, this sure seems like "The Twilight of the Gods" in Hyannisport even if for different reasons the Herald and The Globe will continue to blow on those embers, the back story is too juicy for either daily to walk away now.  Nonetheless I think it's over the enchantment is gone, I can't miss it because I know it fled a long time ago.

Anyway Kudos and Congrats to Senator Markey, "He Stood His Ground" On To November!!

Oh and a Hearty Endorsement to Steve Owens

 in the race for the democratic nomination for State Rep in the 29th Middlesex District Tomorrow.  Humble Elias had some doings with Steve back in the Great Days and always found him thoughtful, reliable and honest in his views. He will make a fine State Representative for Watertown/Cambridge in every way. Vote for Steve Owens tomorrow!

Down to the Wire...

 Senator Markey made another successful campaign appearance in Menotomy today, Congressman Kennedy seems to be doing very little business among the Spartan Elite.  But then, Ed signature is on every political IOU in town from the Mugar Wetlands to the Great Meadow.

But should Kennedy prevail on Tuesday, it is because he took to heart his Grandfather and Great Uncle's example's to heart i.e. "only by challenge shall I rise".  In the example of Bobby Kennedy his race to unseat LBJ as the Party's Presidential Nominee in 1968 and then Teddy Kennedy's quixotic and unsuccessful bid to supplant Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Y'know whenever a Kennedy runs especially in Massachusetts the air turns blue with superlatives like "leadership, dynamism, zeal, zest, energy, service, enthusiasm etc etc", sometimes it is all emitted to obscure the lack of specifics or else an unspectacular record in public life. In this case though, it is supposed to delineate an intangible difference from that long serving congressional work horse, Ed Markey.

And in Truth, Kennedy has to prattle on about leadership, service and dynamism because for the most part, he has to run on the same platform as Markey to get anywhere in this democratic primary. So what it comes down to is this,  if JPK3 wins, it is because those intangible shibboleths still has some power in a Massachusetts Democratic Primary.  On the other hand, if he loses, then its a sure sign that the Blazing Sun over Hyannisport has dipped below the horizon and the Twilight of the Kennedy's is upon us.

I make no secret of my preference for Senator Markey, he has put the time in with respect to a myriad of pressing issues, he indeed the classic congressional work horse, he has no interest in higher office, he is a ambitious older man who still dreams of new legislative successes.  I say keep him, "Good Enough for AOC, Good Enough for Me" is my motto.

With Kennedy you'll get all the above cited mantras, I'm sure he'll talk up any number of Markey's signature issues, I doubt he has the patience to bring any of them to a successful conclusion though.

And anyway we all know what happens next, if nominated & elected, no matter who wins the Presidency this fall, assuming there is an election 2024, Kennedy will have a Presidential PAC by Thanksgiving.  Maybe JPK3 can't walk away from "Avenging Dallas & Los Angeles", maybe he cannot resist another Death March to the Potomac, but we can, we can say no, politely but firmly.

And we should, on Tuesday, Vote for Markey....

Four Nights of Trump talking in Prime Time..

 Apparently because he craves the limelight and the groveling approval that can only come from a thoroughly cowed and sniveling GOP Convention. Like all narcissists, Trump thinks all his ideas are genius, they go awry only because of the mendacity or the incompetence of his underlings.  But, Four Full Hours of Trump blathering away between now and Thursday, is a very bad idea indeed.  Let me tell ya why, there is indeed a thing called "Too Much Trump", because the more he talks the more he damages his own prospects. Oh he'll be cheered, he make all the usual crowd pleasing threats, the delegate will debase themselves like trained circus animals, but believe me Trump's incoherent berserker act will wear thin by tomorrow night 10:30pm EDT.

This is what went wrong with his daily corona virus press briefings, instead of steadying the public's nerve, disseminating facts, controlling the narrative in a positive the President became a daily dose of ignorance and chaos. Instead of addressing the problem, he became the problem, and that is all that will happen with these nightly speeches, they will lose him support outside the hall. Moreover, at a four hour commitment the GOP exposes itself to the very real risk that Trump will make some humiliating irrevocable gaffe that'll only confirm his rumored illness & malevolent confusion.

No wonder the only legitimate outcome they'll accept is a Trump Victory, they got no choice, made too many bad decisions to back off now. That having been said I think a majority of the GOP won't do a thing if Trump loses in November, at least in turns of any threatened violence or mayhem. The problem is, none of them will do a blessed thing if he steals the election.

So given all that, is it any wonder that the GOP has started pounding itself over the head with a 2x4 and screaming "You Are Next!!"?

Funny

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

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

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

do work...

The Inadequacy that is Shame...

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

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

Oh Thank Ghod....

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for the Pending Democratic Senate Primary

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

On the other hand,

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

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

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

If I had to guess

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

Woo...

I'll bet Esper is out by the weekend...the reason will be "interfering with a tyrant when he is unlawfully trying to project strength".

Or maybe Trump will try and provoke the Iranians...or maybe a mix of both, because when Trump F*cks Up this Badly, he usually opts to distract...when he cannot project strength of course.  And right now despite a ring of bayonets around the White House, Trump looks like a weakling & a loser.

There is Something Grimly Hilarious

about Donald Trump, literally cowering behind sandbags in the Oval Office, tweeting out childish threats to demonstrators protesting the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Clearly Trump is trying to goad the protesters into some foolhardy act of violence, and to stoke the fires he boasts in a cowardly way of the firepower and ferocity of The Secret Service.
This my friends, Is Praetorianism, but not in the way you think, these are Trump's threats, which the Secret Service May Have to Make Good On...I wonder how the rank and file agents feel about that?
Keep in mind, its the Praetorian Guard that assassinated The Emperor Caligula (they got tired of being his personal death squad), when it was Nero's turn, the Guard refined their technique, they simply withdrew their protection and the Emperor promptly committed suicide.
So If I was Trump I don't think I'd be polarizing his own security like this...the historic precedents are ominous.

"The Feast of Annihilation"

Y'know if Roy Cooper currently the Democratic Governor of North Carolina, wanted to create absolute chaos in the National GOP, all he has to do, is nothing.
Nothing, in the sense that, he will simply enforce the current public health & social distancing guidelines that would prohibit the Republican National Convention in Raleigh from packing the hall to capacity.  Trump has already thrown a tantrum about it...apparently the President's malevolent, senile vanity includes creating his own personal pathogen petri dish to scream his praises. So Cooper should insist the guidelines be honored, stand fast, do nothing and let the President blow his stack and impulsively send the convention elsewhere.  There will be the usual twitter tantrums and more darkly death threats...but Cooper has every right to insist on the maximum safety margin during a pandemic with limited treatment options and as yet no vaccine.

I say he should stand fast...who knows this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Trump looks terrible these days by the way, I think he's gained 20 lbs in the last two months, he's clearly increasingly incoherent and berserk.  He's a fat sick senile old man with an alleged fondness for the recreational aspects of certain medications.  Let him apply all that to finding a new location for the RNC, it'll go as well as his response to the pandemic I assure you.
STAND FAST GOVERNOR COOPER!! LIGHT THE FUSE!

Palliative Potions...

Late today the President (who is looking increasingly bloated befuddled and feeble) casually announced he is taking "Hydroxychloriquine" (sp) as a precaution to prevent a covid19 infection.
This is sheer nonsense, if the President's Personal Physician has even the common sense of a Medicine Show Croaker, he has issued a placebo to Trump and clocked out early.  Trump gets to pretend his magic potion works, the WH Physician gets a little peace and quiet for a change.
I guarantee you someone in that medical office has given Trump's blood a toxicity screening so they know all about his alleged abuse of adderall, as well as Ghod Knows What Else...
But lets pretend for a moment, Trump is getting his much touted palliative, can anyone out there answer this question?: "Can someone with a bad adderall dependency take "hydroxychloroquine on a daily basis without risking malign side effects or some sort of dangerous reaction?"
I'd love to know the answer to this one...

If Covid 19 is truly

"The Downfall of Donald J. Trump", it will because his toxic and ominous rhetoric cannot alter the fatal optics of this crisis. Death tolls are mounting all over the country, testing is more or less rationed and all this weekend Trump rants and raves on twitter...
And the ultimate tragedy, IF this is his Waterloo, nothing else save a fatal pandemic could get rid of him, not law, nor convention or morality. No that it cost lives to do it, like in a war.
Dear God!
Perhaps the President can can convinced to resign, I doubt it, but its worth exploring. It depends on people giving up their fear of him and confronting fearlessly...all he can do is yell threaten and curse like a sad nasty end of lifer in a nursing home.  Meanwhile the optics out there are relentless, far more damaging than any tweeted threat.

The Flyover Tomorrow

is tolerable since it is executed by the Massachusetts Air National Guard, at least its the local Unit trying to keep up local morale among First Responders.
If it was the Blue Angels (redoubtable though they may be) I'd probably blow a gasket, the Feds sending us jets when my mother's Nursing Home is desperate for PPE of all kinds. At least our National Guard is committed to executing Covid-19 testing in the local Nursing Homes, thats more than I can say about the leaderless Feds at this point who are still seizing PPE on a moment's notice and stockpiling it Jared Knows Where.

Do You Really Want...

Donald Trump deciding on how a potential Covid-19 Vaccine gets distributed? Do you really trust him to do that job fairly and efficiently?  Do you really thing he can manage the process without recourse to grievance? Do you think when it comes time to decide serious matters relating to said notional vaccine that he'll listen to the experts instead of say, Jared Kushner?
What it comes down to is, do you really believe that somehow "Operation Warp Speed" (a stupid name from a stupid craven man) can deliver on any of its absurdly inflated promises?
If the answer to any of this is, "yes", then gawd help ya, you've already arrived in Paradise.
The rest of us though, think different leadership is needed and that starts with different values and different goals.  It is appalling to think that our last chance for leadership in this ghastly crisis won't come until November of this year, so we'd better make it a good one when the opportunity comes...

I'll say this much for The Late Reverend Jim Jones

the homicidal cult leader of "Jonestown Fame", when it came time to compel his hapless followers to commit mass suicide, he at least sweetened the cyanide with grape flavored Flavor-Aid; Donald Trump apparently expects his cultists to guzzle bleach like busted derelicts.

Look at Dr. Fauci's Face

That, is the expression a Man Wears when he is counting the minutes before a Military Coup Overthrows the Alleged US President he serves...Like He Cannot Wait for the entire Cabinet to face a Drumhead Court Martial at Fort Meade.   Granted the photo is a month old, so you can imagine what Headspace Fauci is in now.

Oil Closed today at $9.06

it was underwater entirely yesterday, so $9.06, although it doesn't get you into the movies these days is somehow an improvement.
I wanna rent Harvard Stadium in which safely guffaw with social distance, after all my three favorite cohorts have been laid low, Texas Wingnut Oilmen, The F*ckin' House of Saud & Vladimir Putin's Petrocracy....
Or at least I like to think that anyway, late world on the street is, The House of Saud will somehow come out on top in the end.
It'd be funny though, if Putin had to furlough his Hackers...
As for the Texas Oil Wingnuts, they have a natural class of enslaved politicians at their beck and call, no doubt a new regime of subsidies will be on deck within hours.
Hell I may need a second job and a side hustle to pay for all this generosity to the USA's shriveled and shrunken overclass, hell I got cruise lines (foreign flagged), Oil Companies & Bailouts to Support!!
Hell why do you think I call it "Reactionary Socialism"?

If I was Joe Biden

I'd shine a solo spotlight on a sound rigged podium, with a neon sign behind it that blinks "THIS IS OUR HERO", and then invite Senator Sanders to don what the Roman's called "Triumphal Regalia" and then mount the rostrum acquaint us with his thoughts .
The Pandemic is ruining every single one of Trump's deliverables, this is not his "9/11", it is his Hostage Crisis, every day more bad news, every day an even more cringeworthy briefing.  Meanwhile Joe keeps a low profile (albeit with regular pressers etc) and steadily gains in the polls while the President Rants and Falters.
If Joe was smart, he'd use this time for outreach to Sanders' supporters, giving the Vermont Senator a place at the table when the VP nominee is chosen is an excellent start.  I don't think Sanders himself wants the VP Nomination, revolutionary leaders never run for "Vice President" of anything after all, but I do think the schism in the democratic party must be bound up and a Veep acceptable to the Progressives is a good start.  The good news is, Joe and Bernie actually get along well, but the former VP is noted for his friendly demeanor.
If I was Bernie Sanders, I still wanna amass as many delegates as possible in order to put some pressure on the Party Platform, the Veepstakes is nice, but the Platform is the real ballgame for the Bernie-crats.
Joe won this thing on the strength of voters who were prepared to do anything, anything, to get out from under Donald Trump. Nonetheless Biden's short term goal is to arrange a soft landing for the progressives, this will be a test of his social skills, his acumen and perhaps even his luck.

You'd a Thought, Bob Kraft was the Second Coming Thursday Night...

the way Channel Five News was carrying on about the planeload of hospital supplies The Pats Owner literally had to sneak into the country from the PRC.
I don't care for the visual of anyone from the USA going "Hat in Hand" to Beijing for supplies like we were a Third World Country or something, but I then I'm the one who recommended last week that State Governors seek out foreign sources of PPE.  So I can't fault Charlie Baker and Bob Kraft for reading the "Chimes at Midnight" and taking it's humble advise to heart.
But given the absolute lack of leadership from the White House, the States are literally reduced to a Hobbesian "War of All Against All", frantically bidding on dwindling lots of supplies while the US President basks in the praise of the "My Pillow" Guy.
So Hell Yes, Bob "Orchids of Asia" Kraft HAD BETTER be leveraging his money and connections to secure PPE for the Hot Zones!  He can damn well spend all that loot he made off the Trump Tax Cut on three more planeloads of supplies easy, and still have plenty left over.  I'm very glad he secured the supplies, but Bob Kraft is still an embarrassing entitled moral sink hole...tell him to get back to work, the Local Nursing Homes need more personnel & supplies!

Captain Crozier got a Rapturous Send Off...

from the USS Theodore Roosevelt, having been relieved of command following the publication of a letter wherein he requested of The Brass that his covid-19 wracked crew be humanely quarantined on shore.  These are good sailors celebrating a good CO who put his career on the line for his crew, but in a larger more ominous sense, the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt are rendering a loud vote of "No Confidence" in the current civilian leadership at the Pentagon and more than a few of their superior officers as well.
That bares watching, and if I was the GOP I'd stop pretending I'm the best pal ever of our men and women in uniform...the USS Theodore Roosevelt sez otherwise.

Y'know it looks to me like

Trump backed down on some major shit this weekend.  One...he dropped that bizarre notion of a tai-state super quarantine, basically it shriveled up & died as soon as NY Governor Cuomo pissed all over it.  And then, the president pushed back the end date of the shelter-in-place until the end of April, having previously tried to gin up an end to restrictions by Easter.
In all a bad weekend for threats, delusion and malignant fantasy.
Meanwhile, The Useless and Malevolent Governor of Florida, whose sole contribution to the current crisis was creating tens of thousands of pathogen vectors by not closing the beaches for Spring Break, has mopped his brow, gritted his teeth and blamed New York for the whole damn thing.
That will be the GOP line this week, that somehow NYC is to blame for all of it, the problem is, the visuals stark, horrific and even sometimes heroic, that are coming out of Manhattan, strongly undercut that message.
So my prediction (and what else is there to do save sit at home and figure out VOD?) is that the GOP and the rest of the Forces of Reaction will be scrambling for a new message by Wednesday.

The Proposed "Tri State Quarantine"

eructed by the President today, in a most offhanded fashion, is really nothing but another ploy by the Regime to find someone or something to pillory instead of making the hard decisions to fight the epidemic.
Mark My Words, if he so much as attempts such a lock down, without the consent and assistance of local authorities, the damn thing will end up being a farce that Trump will try to blame on the democrats.  Just floating the idea alone will back up the Bourne & Sagamore Bridges two miles with Gothamites desperate to reach the imagined safety of their summer McMansions in Wellfleet.
No, this nonsense is simply an attempt to blame local authorities for the epidemic, Trump will announce the quarantine then simply blame Cuomo, DeBlasio & Murphy et al, when it doesn't work.
I urge all these worthies not to fall for it, they need to keep the narrative focused their lack of PPE supplies and ventilators, they've got to keep the lockdown going as long as necessary with or without the help of the Feds.
Quite frankly, we are approaching, in the patois of the US Navy "The Final Extremity", Governors Cuomo, Murphy and even Governor Whitmer of Michigan are entirely within their rights to explore requesting help in the form of supplies either from foreign vendors or the U.N./WHO.
its a dim chance but we are running out of options and "Peak Virus" hasn't hit yet.

We know what happens when a State or States

secede from the Federal Union, we found out in 1861, Civil War Breaks Out.  But what happens when the Federal Government decides, whimsically, to go to war with an individual state on purely partisan grounds?
Because we seem to have reached that point in Michigan, where the White House is seemingly pressuring vendors not to sell PPE to said state because the incumbent regime has a grudge against the Governor.
My recommendation to Governor Whitmer is to outreach to Canadian vendors and see if anything can be procured there.  I'm thinking Canada simply to exploit a short supply line, but other foreign sources should be cultivated if possible. Likely there is nothing much to be found, but it's worth a try anyway.
This "policy" from the White House is politicizing mass murder quite frankly, but it is almost beside the point. The constitutional issue remains what is the corrective when the executive department goes berserk and starts randomly settling scores with individual states?
Per a strict reading of "The Federalist Papers", it was assumed by the founders in the unlikely situation described above that the coequal branches of the US Government would step in to redress the situation.
Well we saw how well that went back in January with the so-called "Senate Trial", the Courts as well, packed as they are with vengeful witch burners seem equally hapless in this crisis.
There is also the 25th Amendment, but that depends on the VP being a better man and better patriot that the groveling toady that is Mike Pence.  Or another Senate Trial...likely an impossibility given the current pathogenic situation, to say nothing of the politics of the idea.
After that whats left?
Mass Civil Disobedience? We aren't yet outside the US Constitution based on the notion of "petitioning for the redress of grievances, but we are getting there all the same.  I don't know what must happen next, I think wise action starts with a self admission that critical leadership personalities have deliberately failed us, and they must be compelled to leave public office, now.  Rights are inalienable no matter what the circumstances, the right to compel a change in leadership most of all.

I'm getting a paltry $1200.00

from the Feds instead a Corona Virus Vaccine.  I think the idea is, that somehow via sheer incantation, Randian Economics will take hold and I'll somehow stumble over a cure all by myself if fortified with some chump change.  Whenever republicans run up on the rocks, and a real crisis is down on us, their first instinct is to make a bonfire of Milton Friedman's books and then ascend the Truman Balcony and rain largesse down on the masses like Gaius Caligula.
So much for "Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden".
Meanwhile the stimulus bill is merrily bailing out Cruise Lines most of whom are foreign flagged to avoid US taxes, I do not understand why Carnival Corporation cannot appeal to the Government of Panama/The Bahamas/Malta for their bailout...?
Frankly a good hundred of those floating anachronisms could get send to the boneyard sans any effect on the GNP.
My Ghod and we are still three weeks away from "Peak Virus" in the USA....

Senator Richard Burr (GOP NC)

the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, apparently unloaded his most vulnerable stocks prior to the Corona Virus outbreak in the USA.  He'd been briefed, that this was gonna be a game changer. While the pathogen was ramping up, he was calling press conferences assuring the press & public the Government had everything well in hand...and dumping his hotel stocks.
So lets see, Burr is a crook trading on inside info to enrich himself, he is a liar and a malevolent one, misleading his fellow citizens in  a time of danger, to protect his own wealth no less...it it axiomatic he should resign and depart public life before he gets us all killed,but alas so should about five hundred other people in Washington DC and list grows longer every day.  Burr is a ghoul and a criminal and with the crisis escalating around us the M-F-er will probably get away with it.

But in a Larger Sense

this is a Crisis Forty Years in the Making, since the High Noon of Saint Ronald of Santa Barbara, prepped with diabolical fury by the Bushes, Father and Son and now, a mere mirthless senile Birthday Party Clown Falls Heir to All of It.
The fact that that crisis is the Novel Corona Virus, is almost beside the fact, the mania for small government, good at waging war, smacking minorities around, ignoring women and self destructively inept at everything else, has brought us all to this pretty pass.  A Government creaky understaffed, underfunded and riddled with sky grifters and Teachables in High Places is on a collision with a outmoded healthcare system that is mostly geared to maximize shareholder.  Dunno who is gonna win, but right now, my money is on the pathogen, quite frankly I don't see how it can lose given how well the ground has been prepared.

Charlie Baker is a Crashing Bore in Extremis

possibly the least inspiring Governor of Massachusetts since the Empire Days of Calvin Coolidge, but at least, he does not live in grievance-land or the Trumpian Republic of Delusion, He listens to the doctors/scientists and tries to act according.
It ain't much, very frankly I can think of ten other people I'd prefer as Governor, but thanks to the Trump Regime the standards of leadership have been so abased that a chronic droner like Charlie can be a Demosthenes.
Meanwhile Our President mused on Twitter of a full pardon for Michael Flynn, ginned up Hillary's emails again before another one of his dementia laced non-press conferences, such is a Typical Sunday in a Prolonged Drought of Leadership.
People will start running out of money soon, whole classes of people will be laid off, thousands will be sick and like to die. Chaos is looming quite frankly. But in all of this we must hold on, to our character as a democratic polity, to our lives of charitable citizen and resolve to survive, revive and endure.

Wow one speech on TV

and Trump drops the market twenty three hundred points and set off a nationwide panic that is emptying grocery stores and causing our economy to grind to a halt even as I write this...one good thing comes of this, the American People are so alarmed they are actually willing to listen to the Doctors and Scientists and try to mitigate this thing into a early plateau that won't crash our already creaky health care system
Trump looked terrible last night, glassy eyed, inarticulate, he looked like he needed a cocktail of stimulants to get thru the gig as he ground thru his usual lies and excuses. He honestly has no idea what to do, there is nothing, no one to eviscerate, he cannot browbeat a virus on social media, hence his remarkably flaccid performance, without some person to hate Trump literally can't think or act.
Well, y'all were warned, I can't really say much more than that.
Our leaders are either grifters or ineptoids or at worst, inept grifters, all they can do is fix blame or steal and hope this thing blows over, nothing more. Thats why there is a shortage of testing kits for the Corona Virus despite three full months of warning something bad was coming.  There is nothing left for us now, the wrong people are making bad decisions and screaming like stuck pigs when they get called out on it, it'll cost lives, its already costing lives.
So if they won't lead, then the American People will have to lead themselves, save themselves, succor themselves, I hope we are equal to the challenge.

Wha Happened?

on Super Tuesday I mean?

***
Senator Warren took out Bloomberg in the Debate, tore out his living guts and used them to grease the treads of her tank.  Thus immunizing the democratic party (for now) from the unappetizing prospect of a faithless plutocrat buying the nomination wholesale. Meanwhile, Senator Sanders, on the eve of the Massachusetts Primary went all out balls to the wall Bernie-Bro and held two "huge" rallies intent on humiliating Elizabeth Warren on her home turf.
And what the hell it worked....she came in third.  And right now I can tell you the balance of PUMAs who still gather about her as acolytes do, are a displeased resentful lot with little love for the Senator from Vermont, he's gonna need to preach a lot of peace and make many many promises to reconcile himself to this crowd.
But I think in a larger sense, all Sanders and Warren did was collectively hold the bridle that Former VP Joe Biden might mount up and ride to Glory.  I think Bernie would have been well served to stay out of the Commonwealth and cede the State to Warren, the better to deny a little momentum to Biden, but no, Sanders went for humiliation and went promptly off a cliff.
Insofar as Massachusetts is concerned, I suspect this was the vibe on Tuesday Night elsewhere as well, a shit ton of democrats went into the voting booths, looked over the field and said to themselves,  I Didn't Sign Up for This...and promptly voted for Joe Biden.
The President (assuming he is paying attention in his allegedly drug addled state), Senator Sanders and many others had best beware that italicized emotion above, the voters clearly want an end to fear, uncertainty, grievance, special privileges for weirdos no one has ever heard of AND the tyranny of the wealthy.  They thought Joe can do that, maybe not so much Bernie or even Elizabeth sad to say.
They aren't asking for much, just for all of this shit to stop.
That is the real takeaway from Super Tuesday,  The Country is Screaming for Decent Sane Constitutional Leadership. They'll even vote for Joe Biden to get it.

Thanks to the Market's Collapse This Week

I'll probably have to work until I'm 80 to make up the shortfall. However, thanks to the Trump Admin's chronic bungling with regards to the Corona Virus, I likely won't live to get anywhere near retirement.  Poor Trump, he came back from India convinced he could use Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction as a cudgel against the democrats, and instead a deadly pathogen was waiting for him on the Tarmac...
That having been said I have to say, every time the President tried to reassure the nation last week, the market simply plunged, even the price of gold, even the big pharmaceutical research outfits saw plunging share prices.  Meanwhile away from the cameras the President simply tweets, hoping some conspiracy narrative no matter how cringeworthy will somehow catch on.  I doubt he even took his pajamas off all day Friday raging at the TV screens, ranting at his staff...upping his dosages.
Well so I read in the Globe a reliable vaccine is 12 to 18 months off, so unless dumb luck intervenes or this pathogen proves sensitive to warmer weather...we are officially in Deep Shit.

Ya know who Mike Bloomberg reminds me of...

William Randolph Hearst, back before World War One when Willy was an ultra-rich DIY Politician, from New York City...
Both men are nominal news media magnates, Hearst Penny Dreadful Newspapers, Bloomberg On Line Business News, both were politically ubiquitous being both democrats and republicans at various times and both solved political problems by spending their own money. Of course I think Hearst was at least initially, the far more progressive politician being an advocate for women's suffrage, municipal ownership of utilities, trust busting & generous old age pensions.  In time though, Hearst would try to start his own third party, feud with the likes of NY Governor Al Smith and later, FDR before becoming a rather embarrassing republican stalwart.  Ubiquitous indeed.
Bloomberg on the other hand is charting the same course, from the republican mayor of New York to free spending candidate for the democratic presidential nomination, although I'd never call any aspect of Mike's public career "progressive" if anything he is far more opportunistic than was Hearst.
And like Hearst he is running as an aggressive outsider with cash to burn on behalf of his supporters, allegedly he hates Trump with a mortal passion, but he also hates the prospect of a 70% Top Rate as well, so instead of deploying his wealth strategically to interdict Trump this fall, Mike is making a kamikaze run for President as a democrat to defect Bernie Sanders possible March to Glory.
Y'know like Hearst's Late Guilded Age, the USA just has too many damn billionaires with time on their hands, who think politics is somehow easy and who then run for office for entirely trivial reasons, to chase away the mid life crisis quite literally.
I dunno Sanders may be right, maybe billionaires should be taxed down off their Olympian Heights...I mean look what they do with their money.

As Bracing as it Was...

to see Citizen Warren beat the living shit out of Mike Bloomberg at the Debate on Wednesday, I fear all she did was hold the bridle that Bernie Sanders may mount up and Ride Off to Glory.  I am not one of those pundits who thinks "its all over" there are still plenty of potential surprises out there, but I do think kayoing Mayor Mike came at the expense of coalition building or even crafting an argument that might divide Sanders' base just a bit.
Who knows?
 Perhaps the Senior Senator from Massachusetts wanted to be remembered as having gone down fighting, it could easily be that quite frankly.

New Hampshire, An Autopsy

I'm gonna say it, I think Elizabeth Warren just peaked too damn early, all her best debates were last fall and last summer, and in the teeth of a thirty person field in the democratic race for the nomination.  I think it was a paradoxically smart decision to forego big ticket fundraising, it freed her time up for more campaign stunts and retail politicking, but when the cluster**k went down in Iowa it should have been someone's responsibility to leave enough money in the coffers for an 11th hour advertising blitz in NH.  Because, lets face it, with Iowa's outcome ineffably tainted, that left open a gigantic chance for someone to make a last minute rush in NH, and who made that rush? Senator Amy Klobuchar!
So I'm thinking timing issues in the back stretch afflict the Warren Campaign, they made good decisions but were on the wrong damn schedule. There is no reason why she should not have finished in the top three up there, Senator Sanders went from 61% of the vote to a bare 28% last week that is a staggering loss of support, yet clearly very little of that accrued to Warren's Benefit, I think Buttigeig inherited a good chunk of Hillary Clinton's Base and then made some additions of his own, the rest of it went to Klobuchar and the leftovers were passed to Elizabeth.
Some of this is hypocritical to be sure, as if Warren's Detached Plan to pay for Medicare for All is any more dubious that Bernie Sanders' collection of hot-button soundbites, its just that Bernie isn't being held accountable and Warren, ever the honest policy wonk, is.
Sadly, Warren enters an elite club, formerly an all boys club if thats any comfort, she is one of the those elite Massachusetts Politicians who did not prevail in the NH Primary, Her, Ted Kennedy &...Mitt Romney.
Gaah.
Hang in there Senator, Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night.

Meanwhile, I do think this is the Waterloo of the Iowa Caucuses...I think the practice ought to be discontinued, and they can take their chances on Super Tuesday with the rest of us with a proper primary. Thats if we continue with the practice of free elections in this country.

Part of the Current Existential Dilemma

is that we liberals are forced to be both the apostles of progress & change and at the same time act as stern conservatives, mindfully conserving our rule of law and sacred constitution.
Normally, in a stable two party system, both political parties have a certain crossover state in both progress and conserving the democratic constitution legacy.
Alas though, the GOP has turned itself in a grifting party of utopian fantasies and base power worship, they are getting ready to depart the constitutional order, in fact a good chunk of them can't wait to become Sultans, Satraps, Counts, Dukes & Squadristi.
I take the long view, sooner or later, Trump Ends, but when he does, however he ends, he will try and leave behind the ruins of our American Experiment. I don't give a rat's ass as to his motivations, its his actions and intentions that concern us, and those intentions are pretty apocalyptic.
Which brings me back to our original dilemma, we liberals are conserving, Trump et al, are in outright revolutionary rebellion, we are affirming the law by applying the law, they are flouting the law and getting away with it thanks to Bob Barr and Mitch McConnell.  And in some ways, conserving is not what we do best, lawless foes have to be aggressively confronted in a metaphoric sense, they have to be denied their sense of grievance driven entitlement, remember these are people who make bloodcurdling threats and then throw babies into cages on the border.  They are the most painfully oppressive to those aren't in a position to retaliate/escalate.
Lets use our one great advantage over them, our creativity, we may be on the defensive somewhere but elsewhere we must be pressing forward.  New coalitions must be formed, hard unforgiving work looms, nothing will come easily. And when things seems darkest, just remember, Pancho Villa crossed the Rio Grande with seven followers in April of 1913, in a year he had the whole Mexican Tyranny On the Run!
At least this must be the order of things dark & light, until somehow there is a political realignment compatible with our democratic system of government. I don't expect said democracy to perish, I do expect though, in so many different ways, we must fight for it.

Iowa again...

The Great French Philosopher Jacques Ellul once opined that modern technological civilization consumed the rights of individuals and gave in return, quite literally, speed. Physical speed, processing speed, speedy gratification & speedy oppression, speed quite literally is modern civilization's greatest commodity.
And so it was in the name of the "virtue of speed"that the app by which the caucuses results would be swiftly tabulated promptly crashed on election night leaving the entire affair in doubt for days.
Which leads my to my own personal codicil to Ellul's "Rule of Speed", that if something is important,  its also unreliable.  That the quest for sheer speed has made everything fragile & vulnerable utterly unable to withstand the metaphoric high speed impact.  And so it was in Iowa, speed begat impact, fueled by the combustion of individual voting rights.
Be that as it may, Iowa was also a curtain raiser on electoral chaos this fall, and if last week's caucuses were an accident, believe you me, this fall it'll be deliberate nonstop hackery & interference.  So I hope someone out there has an effective plan to deal with all this madness, and whatever that plan is, count on "double the estimate" come the end of October.  I don't know how much can be done, given the almost certain attempted and or successful interference from foreign powers, but forewarned is forearmed at the very least.
One thing is for certain, if we want to hold on to our democracy in the USA we need to eschew the "virtue of speed" in favor of paper & ink analog ballots, with robust hand count back up systems. Or we can watch as our rights speedily vanish in a cloud of tweets.
But I wax lyrical, our rights cannot vanish, they can only be withheld by force per Thomas Jefferson, the degree of effort required to recover them is the measure of the strength of the tyranny.  Which is another thing we'll have to remember come this fall.

Well I coulda told ya that as soon as

John Bolton signified he was willing to testify at the Senate Impeachment Trial, that Senator McConnell would move Heaven & Earth to wrap that sumbitch up quick, and he did by Ghod.
Oh course McConnell shredded the US Constitution in the process and likely had to make some bloodcurdling threats at Senator Collins, but he got the job done.  "High Crimes" only exist when democrats are in office I guess, the Constitution can now rest on its laurels assuming the GOP ever leaves office.
But mostly Trump still has his job tonight out of sheer fright, Lamar Alexander and his useless ilk couldn't stand up to the imagined death threats etc, they are scared of Trump in a childish helpless way and in that sad cringeworthy fear the Two Party System enters its death spiral.
Or not.
In the face of all these challenges I still assert that only a living democracy sworn to a Constitution and the Rule of Law can regenerate itself in times of deep degradation.  Given that McConnell has suborned the US Senate on his behalf, we can expect Donald Trump to do everything in his power, legal and illegal to hijack the 2020 election, and if he succeeds in that Heaven Help Us.
But even in that final extremity, there is a light and a way forward, we are being tested by Inscrutable History and We Must Not Be Found Wanting.
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We...will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
Abraham Lincoln, 1861

How's that Assassination Working Out for You?

I'm gonna put it all out there, Donald Trump is intellectually incapable to executing long range planning of any time.  Clearly Donald Trump was stomping around the White House Situation Room in a fearful snit over impeachment, until of course some oily sycophant mentioned the possibility of killing a high level Iranian Terrorism Facilitator with a drone strike.  Trump immediately saw a tough homicidal stunt that would drive impeachment off the front page...he couldn't begin to conceive of any negative reprocussions from snuffing Soleimani.  And since Trump is mentally deficient when it comes to information that challenges his cherished grievances, we are now on the brink of war with Iran thanks to an unsuccessful bid to get control of the new cycle.
I also don't believe that Senator Graham was briefed about anything, I think he just automatically alibis for Trump after the fact, the nonexistent legal niceties with the Congress just underscores that fact that this action was about as casually volitional as a tweet.
Alas I suspect the long range prospects her are all in Iran's Favor, they can exploit surprise and trained terrorist cadres to retaliate at will and on as carefully planned a ladder of escalation as any conceived by the late Herman Kahn.  Our troops, diplomats, civilian associates everyone in the region is in terrible danger starting now, we'll be lucky to get away with a new round of hostage takings quite frankly.
I don't think Trump wants war (he seems to viscerally fear the US Military on some level, even though he lauds in very crude laughable terms for the most part) but he does want to supersede impeachment and get reelected.  A war is something he could very well lose or at least lose control of, but on the other hand, he does seems to love war-like stunts.
So if John Bolton is still dreaming of Regime Change in Iran, likely Trump is the Last Person on Earth Who Will Make That Happen.  I'll be curious to see if testimony is arranged at the Impeachment Trial, and if so, does Bolton testify?