The Federal Government Has A Serious Fascist Problem

The Border Patrol obviously has a fascist problem. As is usually the case, this rot spreads from the top, by cynical politicians who know how to mine the treasure trove of grievance, resentment, and scapegoating which is the source of the power of this malign movement. Americans who look upon the horrible mistreatment of the immigrants from Central America as nothing which should concern them, ought to realize that there are many other groups who would be targets of attack and persecution by a fascist government. Socialists, liberals, Democrats, “bleeding heart do-gooders,” ‘Never Trump’ Republicans, intellectuals, experts-in short, anyone or any group which runs afoul the new “truth,” or shows insufficient enthusiasm for the great leader, may find themselves a despised minority, defined by the leaders of the government as enemies of the people. I hope I’m wrong, but the signs are dire. And in any event, the mess Trump has made cannot be cleaned-up by the next congress or Democratic president. Trump has energized fascists who were already in government, and has brought a lot of new fascists into government.

Fuck The USA

Donald Trump is more friendly and warm with Kim than any other world leader at the G20. He doesn’t know what American freedom is. He doesn’t respect the history of the Korean war. He doesn’t respect our allies. It is time for our allies to recall their ambassadors and cut all diplomatic ties with the US. There need to be serious consequences for this betrayal. Today, Donald Trump betrayed every free person on earth. Fuck this. Fuck him. And fuck us.

Trump’s supporters love it when he breaks things, is contrarian, or causes retired generals and pundits to condemn his actions. If he bombed New York, they would praise him. They will love what he did today, but it was an attack on our freedom and an insult to every US citizen. Full stop. And frankly, fuck what they think or like. 

The USA Is Evil

This is evil. Don't look away from evil. See it, confront it, and defeat it

The Week The Republic Died

The last two weeks have been incredible. We entered the third stage of a slow-motion constitutional crisis that began with Bush v. Gore. It’s a crisis in which one political party - always the GOP - smashes a crucial part of the constitution.

In 2000, Bush v. Gore broke the Constitution so that a legal recounting of votes could be stopped. In 2016, the GOP-controlled Senate broke the Constitution so that a nominee to the Supreme Court could be blocked. We were naive to think that the block would only happen once. Because there were no negative consequences for the GOP, they will block a nominee anytime the president is a Democrat and the Senate is run by Republicans. And then in April 2019, we had a third major breakage of our Constitution. The White House simply refused to cooperate with House inquiries and oversight in any way. By simply saying no over and over, the White House stumbled upon a way to neutralize the House, which had swung Democratic at the start of this year.

When the Democrats won dozens of House races in the fall of 2018, pundits and journalists rushed to write stories about how the House would rain subpoenas upon the White House, and force Trump’s financial secrets out. Virtually no one predicted that it wouldn’t happen. The House has the power of the purse and the power of subpoena. Or it used to. Now it has zero power. Who could have imagined it?

This is a shocking discovery. Could it mean that all it takes to kill the world’s greatest constitution is for the Executive branch to refuse to play with one or more other branches? That’s all it takes? The Constitution was held together by an ‘honor system’ among powerful white men? It was an honor system all along?

Everyone, from elected officials, to pundits, to journalists to history and constitutional law professors assumed that the system couldn’t be broken because everyone was playing within the bounds set by the Constitution. Then team Trump basically smashed it. They smashed it by clinging to theories that the Executive has inherent dominant powers. Those theories have been around since Nixon, and the executive has become particularly strong since Bush 43. But it seems that the Trump White House has accidentally found the mechanism to make the executive even more powerful. And that is a simple refusal to cooperate with equal branches of government.

They are now in courts arguing that Congress doesn’t really have the power to oversee the Executive. Who knew!

Make no mistake, this started with Bush v. Gore in 2000 and became entrenched by the time the GOP refused to consider Obama’s nomination of Garland in 2016. Looking at the history, Bush v. Gore had a feel of “we’ll only break the system this once, and we’ll pretend it didn’t happen.” But by 2010 the GOP had decided to break everything. Treat the Democrats as illegitimate even when they win office. Don’t respect the Power of Inquiry that is in Article 1. It’s fairly obvious that if a Democratic House were to impeach, a Republican-led Senate would not proceed with a trial.

We see where this is going. The next phase is to ignore the courts when they rule against the Executive. So in 2020 (or earlier if the Justices decide this is an emergency) the Supreme Court could affirm that House subpoenas are legal and must be respected. However, the White House will then continue to defy and ignore the subpoenas. Congress nor the Supreme Court can enforce the Court’s decision. Imagine a sporting event where the referees are ignored. I think we’re about to see that happen. The Justices are the referees, and they can’t force the White House and Congress return to regular order. The 2018 midterms and the Democratic gains in the House have been effectively nullified by Trump.

And worst of all is that we let it happen. All of us, sitting on our asses. We deserve to have our Republic burned down by these angry old men.

If You Work In Trump's White House, You Are A Criminal

Last week’s story in the Washington Post was really something, even in this wild and depressing decade. Stephen Miller is trying to get DHS to enact a policy of ‘catch and release', in which asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants are transported to and released in large Democratic-leaning cities like Denver, San Francisco, Austin and New York. The story unfolded in the usual way - with whistleblowers inside the White House leaking the story to established journalists. But it has continued in the following news cycles because the president himself confirmed the accuracy of the story, and went further to state that the policy might still be implemented.

We should remind ourselves that we don't have to wait for Trump to commit a felony in plain sight in order to impeach him (although his recent use of the word "treason" is a technical violation of his oath). This policy, if implemented, would be very illegal and very dumb. I think Trump can be impeached for both his crimes and the policy suggestions he endorses. Just because his administration didn't go through with an idea doesn't mean they are clean.

Once again, someone in the White House has leaked a story to the press about a policy that was barely stopped. Can these people simply leave? They are not saving our nation by remaining there. Everyone who isn't evil needs to go. Everyone who stays needs to be in prison. They are all criminals.

The proposed policy idea also weakens the argument that our nation is “full.” They would love to stop all immigration, of course. But if given a choice where undocumented immigrants go, they are okay with them being “dumped” into the blue states and blue cities. Just keep them away from Rocky Mountain resort towns and elite Texas game ranches, right? 

This is analogous to the abortion war. The right wing would love to criminalize abortion in all 55 states in territories. But that won’t happen. Some states, like New York, will have legal termination available for women who can travel there ad take time off from work. So their solution, in their minds, is to have ‘abortion free states.’ God won’t bring death and destruction to their red state if it can stop all family planning from being practiced.

Or put another way, the Right Wing sees “shitholes.”. New York. Chicago. San Francisco. Shitholes. They never believed in cities and don’t see cities as being part of the US. 

What this amounts to, in my mind, is something far from One Nation. We are 55 states and territories, unified by a federal government that needs us to fund its forever wars. We’ve been sharply divided since Watergate. But stories like this really highlight how violent and permanent our divisions are. We will never fix anything ever again. We will never get back to the comparatively good old days of 1973, with a mild recession, no wars, and Republicans who were not only okay with abortion, but led the way in legalizing it. They celebrated Earth Day, too.

Jim Jarmusch's Zombie Movie Is Heading To Cannes

I was going to post this when news first broke that one of my favorite filmmakers, Jim Jarmusch was going to make an off-beat zombie movie. When I ran the news past Uncle Tim, he emailed me:

A Jarmusch zombie movie somehow sounds desperate to me. Of course, since much of the style of acting he prefers in his movies always struck me as zombie-like, perhaps this was simply a logical progression. When I was a kid, I always found zombies creepy but distinctly un-scarey. After all, they were so slow and physically handicapped, they couldn't catch anyone they chased, and in any event, didn't do anything bad to you if they did. It was George Romero who changed the entire genre. The zombies were still creepy, but now they were lethal and cannibalistic. The zombie-movie has gone from absurd to ludicrous without even brushing up against interesting. But, since apocalyptic horror, thoroughly peppered with blood, inchoate violence, and gratuitous helpings of viscera has become hugely popular and profitable, why shouldn't Jarmusch join the sanguine parade?

Fair points. But now, we have a trailer! It’s funner than his other two off-beat “genre” films, Ghost Dog (1999) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).

I’m in. Surely this is going to have awkward moments and hit-and-miss humor. But has Jim Jarmusch ever made a bad movie? No. Are his movies super fun? Hell yes. And while now, decades after Ghost Dog, Coffee & Cigarettes and Stranger Than Paradise, all the cool actors want to star in a Jarmsuch film, it hasn’t made him any less cool. So I am in.

I Have A Serious Question About Melania

Lady Sterling has a serious question about Melania Trump. If she’s a millionaire married to a president who demonizes immigrants, why hasn’t she hired a dialogue coach to reduce her accent? Where is the effort to assimilate, dammit? I know it’s probably because she doesn’t care and never wanted to be first lady. But doesn’t she remind people of her Slovenian birth every time she speaks? Christ, even Madonna picked up a fake London accent during her years there.

I Had A Blast At The L.A. And Detroit Auto Shows

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It was a tale of two very different auto shows: Los Angeles in December 2018 and Detroit in January 2019. The Detroit show would be the last time the show would be held in January, and you can see why. With all German automakers except Volkswagen skipping the Detroit show, the hall was a little quiet and sad.

But I still had a blast. The L.A. show was exciting and had a different vibe from my home New York show. The food selections in L.A. were also more interesting. Some manufacturers even offered tiny test drives around Gilbert Lindsay Plaza.

These trips were follow-ups of my new car shopping at the New York show. I attend the New York International Auto Show as a member of non-credentialed media, and I usually spend both press days there (that’s about 16 hours). I have attended the press days at the New York show since 2010, less than a year after I got my first car in the city. But in 2018, I was seriously car shopping.

I want a compact SUV this time around. At the New York show, the BMW X1, Ford Escape and Volvo XC40 were looking like the front runners. But all of that changed when I went to L.A. I had ignored the Lincoln MKC. I didn’t like the push button gear selector. I didn’t think it was interesting at all. It used to have an ugly face. But now it doesn’t. And Lady Sterling really liked it. I finally gave it some attention, and I think it’s really interesting now. It’s a baby Ford Explorer. And when we went to the Detroit show, the front-runner was still the MKC. And so I am test driving the MKC next week, and if I have time, I will post a small review.

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The Detroit show was not sad overall. First off, we arrived in a snowstorm (pictured above) and drove a JK Wrangler Sport to get to downtown, where we stayed at the lovely Siren Hotel. Cadillac has a great booth that featured a 1959 Eldorado Biarritz convertible that had an incredible amount of chrome. Chinese automaker GAC crashed the party and showed off its cars that have surprisingly good design and build quality. Kia finally showed-off the production version of the Telluride. I finally learned that owners can get into the lounges of most booths by showing their keyfob or some other proof of ownership. As Hyundai owners, Lady Sterling and I got into the Hyndai booth for snacks, a gift (a USB power bank), and a full 15 minute back massage. After an exhaustive 3 hours at the show, we had dinner at San Morello, the fantastic new Italian restaurant at the Shinola Hotel.

We also learned during these trips that Los Angeles is very walkable. We walked from the Staples Center to downtown, City Hall, Union Station, Little Tokyo, the Arts District and back to the top of the impressive Wilshire Intercontinental Hotel.

When we go back to the New York show, we’re going to take fuller advantage of the owner perks at the brand booths. I might have a Lincoln on-order by then. A Lincoln at age 46. Now I am old.

Newcastle Rescue Themselves

Newcastle have rescued themselves from relegation for the second consecutive year. Last year it was an improbable home win against Manchester United. This year it was an even more improbable win against a red hot Manchester City. In both matches, Matt Ritchie scored the winner.

Newcastle are too good to be relegated this season. I didn’t believe that a few months ago, but it is apparent now. Even when they were failing to win points, their defense was holding together. Their back four have helped keep their goals allowed total one of the lowest in the league. And they were unlucky. They’ve lost points due to final conceded goals in injury time. They have drawn matches that they should have easily won. They’s been an odd team, finding more success on the road than at home.

They practically got a new midfield in January. Issac Hayden, who repeatedly asked to be transferred, accepted his situation and decided to focus on his football. He got selected to start more as a result. Back in September, their best passer was arguably Jonjo Shelvey. Now, with Shelvey on the injured list, their most expensive signing ever, Miguel Almirón is in charge of counter-attacking. Together with wonderkid Sean Longstaff, Issac Hayden and Matt Ritchie, the Newcastle midfield is getting balls closer to goal, and is driving wins.

Before Almirón joined the club, Newcastle whupped Cardiff on their home pitch. Another big step towards safety.

Then with Almirón, Newcastle pulled themselves within 6 points of safety with back to back wins over Huddersfield and Burnley on just 2 days rest.

Their dominance over Burnley was notable. The first half brought the goals, and the second half closed the clean sheet.

There are nine matches remaining in Newcastle’s season. They ought win four of them. I think they only need to win two and draw some others. I will see half of one of their future matches in the Toon next month.

Newcastle’s talent and growing English Premier League experience have gotten them through another season in the top league. The question remaining is whether Rafael Benítez will give the club another year to find a new owner. Newcastle never do anything the easy way under Mike Ashley.

New York Gives Away Too Much, Again

Last November, New York announced that it was going to take from its residents and give billions to Amazon.

If Amazon was going to open a large office in New York anyway to support its original programs ("streaming content"), then New York should never have offered incentives or tax breaks aside from the lease of city land. New York offered Amazon far too much. And we’ll be reading articles supporting that in the years ahead.

And that’s if this deal sticks. Perhaps it won’t.

New York attracts smart, energetic people to live there, just as it called me in 1995, when I was just 22. They know what New York has to offer. Pity Amazon didn’t see any value in my city without corporate welfare and publicly-financed handouts. Or maybe, New York isn’t as great as it thinks it is. Maybe having some of the best museums, parks, bars and cultural institutions in the US is not a draw at all. We don’t have the best hospitals and universities in the US. That’s Boston. We don’t have the best mix of dominant professional sports teams in the US either. That’s also Boston. Maybe New York doesn’t realize that it’s not number one in anything aside from population and local taxes. It’s just another desperate city begging corporations to rent space. That’s what this process revealed.

This is classic welfare for billionaires. States and cities should stop giving taxpayer money to the richest corporations and individuals on Earth, and spend it on public projects for the benefit of the people. Wouldn't that be a radical idea. Having a contest between cities intensified the madness and showed the intelligent among us how destructive it is..

This isn’t the first time that New York State has thrown taxpayer money away in trying to attract new companies. The Start Up New York program blew a big budget ad campaign and tax breaks to net either just over or under 1,000 new jobs, depending on which report you choose to believe.

Considering how much Albany was willing to give, one has to wonder if New York’s economy is not as strong as Albany tries to make it appear. Upstate unemployment is a Mississippi-like 11%. The city is now made up of luxury towers full of millionaire families and absentee billionaires built over crumbling infrastructure. New York is not well. And I think Albany showed its hand and its future economic forecast in this deal.

There is strong resistance to this deal. It has already exceeded exceptions in that it has forced Amazon to reconsider leasing land in Queens. And the resistance has proven that the Democratic base in New York has shifted to the left. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blaso are not progressives, and the base knows it.

And as a footnote to this ordeal, I hope that Mayor de Blasio has killed one of the worst buzzwords of corporate America in the last 20 years: synergy. When he and Cuomo did their rare joint press conference to announce the Amazon deal, de Blasio was asked wouldn’t it be awkward for Amazon to build a corporate campus next to a public housing complex. He answered that having the rich and poor next to each other on the Long Island City waterfront would produce extraordinary “synergy.” In other words, both sides would benefit from each other. Bullshit. Get out of here with that word. That buzzword is now dead. And hopefully, so is the Amazon tax break and subsidy from Albany. Amazon can reconsider Virginia or North Carolina now.

This is What Dysfunctional Democracy Looks Like

Congress has no way to end the federal government shutdown, now in its second month. This shutdown is going to start to kill Americans.

Meanwhie, Trump has no agenda, no ideology, and no conscience. All he has is the reality television show that his farcical "administration" has become. From here, it will only get worse, as the country descends into farce

However, despite the doom and gloom, this presidency is over. It’s been over since Christmas Eve 2018. The criminals in this administration are simply not aware of that yet. besides, they are jut a little out of touch. And they don’t ever want to acknowledge their failures.

The only thing that can end this is a TSA strike. Please stop reporting to work, now. It’s time to strike.

Get On It, Tidley!

Tidley? As in Tidley Winks? Was that something that Daddy Fred Trump used to say?

Anyway, President Fuckface Von Clownstick might not remember, but there was a day in April 2017 when he badly wanted NASA to land humans on Mars. He badly wanted it to happen in the fall of 2020, so it would cap an incredible first term and assure a triumphant re-election.

What's the problem? You build a ship, put some astronauts in it, and send it off to the Red Planet. Oh, and make sure it arrives there on time for the Orange One's triumphant November 2020 re-election. Get on that right away Tidley!

The US news media was so damn dizzy from Trump’s lies that his demand of NASA is only being re-examined now, nearly two years later.

Come to think of it, a shit ton is being re-examined. This is like the start of the third act of a film noir or thriller, where the heroine or detective hero thinks back and realizes that he overlooked some key clues that can get this saga wrapped-up. A montage of images and voices fly by. Trump is crazier than we thought. Well, of course he was.

And someone get him Hogan Tidley! Sanders is done. Tidley is on it.

The Limited Modified Hangouts Of Rudy Giuliani

Mister Sterling believes that the White House counsel will have to become Trump’s primary legal team once the Muller report is released. Well, that report might not arrive until August 2019. So until then, Trump is relying on his personal, private lawyers.

Rudy Giuliani had been lying low for most of the fall of 2018. But by mid-December, he was back on television and speaking to the press. And in these last 33 days or so, he has been even more unhinged. He has unleashed more limited hangouts, and he even has a outrageous request from the DOJ and the Mueller team.

When Rudy was trotted out to defend Trump in early 2018, most journalists, anchors and pundits treated him as a joke or comic relief. But Marcy Wheeler wonders if Giuliani is intentionally being ineffective to assist with a future Trump conviction appeal. She was corrdect about something else as well. Mueller has taken another look at both Cohen and Manafort based on Rudy’s “haywire” news media appearances.

In one of his nutty hangouts since Thanksgiving, Rudy asserted that Trump’s crimes aren’t so bad because no one was killed. Remember the broken windows theory of crime suppression? If you nip bad behaviour in the bud, this perverse theory said, you'll stop criminal activities before they start. This quickly morphed into the assertion that if we stop and frisk young men, especially young men of color, we'll get guns off the streets, reduce the crime rate, and send a powerful message to the "bad guys", that the crack down on anti-social behaviour is real. Oh, it violated the rights of hundreds of thousands of innocent, mostly black men? It amounted to the humiliation of people whose only crime was being black in New York City? Well, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

And then this disgusting man came round again in a historically bad week for Trump, with a new limited hangout. And what do you know? There was collusion? So there was a conspiracy involving a quid pro quo? And so Don Jr. lied to Congress, then?

Hoo boy.

The Day Trump Stopped Winning

At last, it happened. Trump stopped winning. The day was December 20 2018. On that day, Trump committed to a meaningless government shutdown. And since that day, his presidency has been collapsing. It has been dramatic. If we weren’t already numb to Trump’s madness, this would be a shocking, unforgettable Christmastime collapse of a presidency. But nothing shocks us anymore. However, we should step back and look at what has happened since December 23. Trump is sinking fast. I said that his presidency is not sustainable. It finally broke.

It was time to pass a stop-gap bill to keep the government running another two months. However, with a new Congress beginning January 3, it was Trump’s last chance to demand his biggest campaign promise - a tall wall along the southern border, from the Pacific to the Rio Grande. Ann Colter and Rush Limbaugh demanded that he do it, just like they did 11 months before. So he did it. And he wouldn’t sign a spending bill unless he got his wall. The Senate said no, and the government has been closed since Christmas.

Rather than acknowledge and try to correct his mistake, Trump sulked in the White House and descended further and further into madness. Even a surprise campaign trip to Iraq fell flat and was immediately forgotten.

On his way down, he blamed Democrats for the still-unknown number of children who died in CBP custody in 2018. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. He kidnapped children, separated them from their parents, and now, inevitably, immigrant children have died in American custody, while Trump desperately blames everyone but himself for his disgrace.

But Trump has only just begun his relentless blaming as he spirals down. For example, he made the claim that the most people being harmed by the Federal government shutdown are Democrats. Sure. And American Indians.

And then there were his own talking points over the reasons for the shutdown, which were always shifting. Why does the White House have communications office? They don’t write the talking points and tweets. Trump runs the White House his way, on his own. Only when he was left all alone this past Christmas, did he prove that he didn’t need anyone there. The press laments that he has no friends in the White House, and the “adults” are gone. That’s right. It’s just Trump now. Anyone paying attention since February 2017 knew it was leading to this.

When he finally got back to work on January 2, his madness was on full display. And just in case hosting an incoherent, 90-minute cabinet meeting in front of the press while displaying a dorm room poster of himself wasn’t a sign of his madness, he went on to deliver a completely incorrect history lesson on the Soviet invasion and war in Afghanistan.

My blog partner, Uncle Tim has been reading, studying, writing, thinking and teaching history since grammar school, which, in his case, began in 1945. Trump's comments on Russia in Afghanistan is the single stupidest thing he has ever heard a national leader say on any historical subject. It's only because he has lied so often, and been wrong so frequently on so many topics, that we simply shrug when we hear nonsense like this. You could be the most leftist, revolutionary scholar like me, and even you would agree that the president condoning the Soviet invasion by repeating Russian revisionist history talking points was completely wrong and completely mad.

While historians and national security experts picked apart the first ever approval of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by any US president, Trump went back to work 48 hours later, and he was much angrier. He had made his decision. He couldn’t reverse himself after he was provoked by the far right media to trigger a shutdown. Trump appeared ready to make this the longest Federal government shutdown ever. Or, as he called it, a strike.

He then stormed out to the Rose Garden and did this.

It is now day 15 of the shutdown. The madness continues. And the Trump presidency is finished. It has crumbled before our eyes. We know the Democrats don’t have the spine nor drive to impeach Trump (their deadline is this summer. Robert Mueller has uncovered so many crimes and cooperating witnesses, his report won’t be released until August (because that is the month that shit goes down). But Trump has decided to blow it all up now. His presidency will die on this hill. The wall never had a chance of being built at all, let alone in his first term. So he is sacrificing himself for the entertainment and rage of his racist, violent base.

Uncle Tim contributed to this post.

General Motors Betrays The City Of Detroit (Again)

General Motors has done it again. They have shut down a Detroit plant. The last time they dealt a big blow to a Michigan town, it was Flint in 2017.

Back in the halcyon days of the Reagan administration, corporations joined the late capitalist movement of putting the enrichment of the investor class above nearly every other consideration. This involved crushing what was left of industrial unions, stealing the pensions of retired workers through the perversion of bankruptcy laws, and, needless to say, the ruthless looting of public subsidies and tax breaks. Naturally, the public subsidies were delivered, but the promised jobs and prosperity somehow never arrived. GM was simply following the new rules of corporate citizenship when it took the public money, and then walked away when their promises came due. Surprised?

George Steinbrenner Was The Donald Trump Of Baseball

I have always believed that the criminal George Steinbrenner should not have been allowed to buy a ticket to a major league baseball game, let alone own the flagship team of the American Pastime. He was a man who was convicted twice of serious crimes, who consorted with mobsters to destroy a Hall of Fame baseball player, who made illegal, corporate contributions to the Nixon reelection campaign, and who brought the worst of greedy corporate culture to baseball. His life and legacy in sports has been toxic. He really was the Donald John Trump of baseball.

So it should be no surprise that Donald Trump and George Steinbrenner were close friends.

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But what might be a surprise is that Steinbrenner’s name has come up in relation to the massive Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal. He was vice chairman of he US Olympic Committee, and he led the Steinbrenner Commission in reducing the number of US Olympic committees from about 30 to 13. This had the effect of making it more difficult for athletes to have a say in the management of teams, or to launch formal complaints. Steinbrenner helped transform the USOC into a medal minting machine. However an unintended consequence was that he made it easier for a Nassar to get away with what he did for years.

Great Jobs That Nobody Wants

Here’s a theme for this week. There are two high profile positions no one wants. They are hosing the 91st Oscars, and White House Chief of Staff. One requires two months of intensive preparation and execution. The other could last just six months and completely destroy a career. Why don’t you want these good jobs, America? These are really good, high paying jobs!

Welp. Newcastle Will Be Relegated

Newcastle United are too far behind to pull themselves out of the relegation zone. It’s too late to catch the bus. The bus is gone. They are going down next spring.

How quickly Newcastle have failed this season. And how accurate was manager Rafael Benítez, when he warned everyone this would happen.

Today’s performance in Southampton was emblematic of Newcastle’s hopeless season. There was no attack. There wasn’t a single shot on target.

I’m not sure if Rafael Benítez will be allowed to finish his contract, which expires at the end of May, 2019. Indications are that he will, as the candidate to replace him, Brendan Rodgers, is poised to complete a somewhat disappointing season at Celtic. Also, the Newcastle ownership and board have no desire to stay up in the Premiership, despite the extra revenue for doing so They seem perfectly content to watch this club go down.

Boston Is A Professional Sports Town. It's What They Do.

The Red Sox are going to sweep the Dodgers. They have been simply incredible this October, particularly their three wins in Houston. Their pitching has been inconsistent, but their defense has been stunning, and their bats have been relentless. Who’s to say that the Red Sox won’t overtake the Cardinals for second most MLB titles?

A Deadspin article yesterday proclaimed that it “blows” that a Boston club is going to win another title. Excuse me?

Boston is a professional sports town. It has been a pro sports town since around 1912. It doesn’t care about the four NCAA hockey teams (yeah, the Beanpot is a thing, but not a big thing). It doesn’t care about Boston College football or basketball. It didn’t care about my U Mass and Marcus Camby making it to the Final Four in 1996. It’s pro sports all the way. Only Los Angeles comes close in terms of league championship diversity and frequency. And that’s pretty amazing, given how small Boston is compared to L.A.

What does “a pro sports town” mean? It means that each decade since the 1950s, at least one of its pro-sports teams has won a title (hmm, aside from the 90s, so my argument has a weak spot there, but moving on). The Celtics were unbelievably dominant in the late 1950s and through almost all of the 1960s. In 1967, the Red Sox awakened, ushering in a new era of fan support, revenue, and the quest to be the best team in baseball. They went from less than 4,000 tickets sold per game at Fenway to sellouts for over fifty years. What we’re seeing is the fulfillment of that 1967 dream. The Red Sox are about to add a ninth title to their trophy case - the same number that the Cardinals had at the end of 1982. The Red Sox now have the third most number of titles of any MLB team.

That 1967 Red Sox team didn’t just motivate the Sox. It motivated the other three pro sports clubs. And what we’ve seen since 2001 is a synchronization of their efforts. Boston has celebrated ten titles this century, soon to be eleven. That doesn’t blow. That’s what Boston is good at. Pro sports titles are its thing. 

Some cities are great at being financial hubs. Some have a great music, restaurant, cocktail or coffee scene. Some are known as tech hubs. Boston is at least three things: a great higher learning town, a great medicine and biotech town, and the leading pro sports town in the US. Back in the 90s, when I had to describe Boston, I talked about 1967, 1972 and 1975, but I also had to stretch a bit and say that it produced a lot of FBI agents (it still does), and was the Mutual Fund capital of of the US (Fidelity). It had the best hospitals of course, but it couldn’t boast anything in pro sports besides Pedro Martinez being the best MLB pitcher since Sandy Koufax.

The New York-centric media didn’t groan when the Yankees won three consecutive titles (1998-2000). New York has two clubs that will never win another championship -the Jets and the Knicks. It has a National League team that should be making the playoffs more often given its revenues and my support (ha!). It has two NFL clubs that are really New Jersey clubs. One of them has four Super Bowl wins and the city doesn’t seem to care (although they are popular on Wall Street and outside the city). And New York has a decent Original Six hockey club. I would argue that New York is a two club town -the Yankees and the Rangers. Boston is all-in with its four leagues. And that’s what makes Boston the premier pro sports town in America.

Did anyone ever say, “We found another great rock band from Seattle. That blows.” Did a food critic ever write, “Well, Los Angeles has another amazing restaurant. That blows.” No. Boston is about to produce its 11th professional sports title this century. That’s what Boston does. People who complain about Boston winning follow teams that don’t win.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to sob about my Newcastle United, and how its disgusting owner is content to let them fall out of the top league for a third time in nine years. That blows.

Update, October 29 2018: The Red Sox nearly did it. They fell a couple of bad plays short of sweeping the Dodgers. Meanwhile, the crying and moaning from the New York-centric press continues.

And Trump Keeps Winning

The House will almost surely swing back to the Democrats. But our criminal president Trump is still in charge, and winning at everything. And his last victory, the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, is his biggest yet. He has broken the judiciary branch, just as he has broken the executive branch. The House is currently broken, so at the moment, Trump controls all three branches of government through the end of 2018.

We have already forgotten about the GOP resistance to Trump. There is none. Instead, we have a GOP that has been completely remade in Trump’s image, while the GOP base serves as the "anti-anti Trump". His supporters don't really care about policies or issues so much, but they love driving those who despise Trump crazy. They see liberal sophisticates as their contemptuous enemies, and anything or anyone who upsets them must be good. That makes Trump their hero.

The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh served three purposes. It stacked the Supreme Court, 6-3 in favor of Corporate plaintiffs. It gives Trump a chance to avoid being subject to subpoena or indictment while in office. And it served as the ultimate insult to American women. The message is load and clear. If a woman tries to hold a powerful white man responsible for criminal behavior, she will be annihilated.

If there was any doubt that the Right Wing has any sense of shame or decency in them, that too is annihilated. Here were are, in 2018, and credible character witnesses that would have sunk an Associate Justice nomination 10 years ago are totally ignored now. Hell, 13 years ago Republicans called out an unqualified nominee from their own party. We’re in a new era now.

Don't you just love the arguments these right wingers make today? We love the life-time appointment of judges who will faithfully complete the task of handing what's left of our democracy to the corporations, and of course we applaud the destruction of the environment and the wrecking of employee's health in the name of untaxed profits. And isn't the bloated and grotesquely out of control military budget wonderful? The rich and powerful have gotten richer beyond the dreams of avarice, and the plutocrats who fund the Republican Party run the economy and the nation to suit themselves. To these anonymous right wingers, all of this is unalloyed good. Unfortunately, the president who has delivered all of these wonderful goodies is so boorish, so vulgar, so embarrassing! If only he would stop tweeting, and become more presidential. Then, life for the Republicans would be perfect!

Some sort of backlash is coming now. But I fear it won’t be powerful or angry enough. The loss of the judicial branch out to send thousands of people into the streets in protest. I fear the majority of Americans, while opposed to Trump, are demoralized and deflated. A new period of national malaise is settling in as our big problems -both economic and environmental- become much worse.