December 10, 2020

Good news! Several pharmaceutical companies are close to having their highly efficacious vaccines approved, and ready for distribution. Trump calls it a miracle, which suggests divine intervention. At the same time, he is willing to take credit for the rapid development. “It’s like nothing anyone has ever seen before.” Actually, it does seem like a miracle that we were able to develop a vaccine in less than a year when four years is the norm. What is going on here?

The research that went into the vaccines actually goes back ten years when we had to deal with SARS. Ten years gets you to 2010. Who was President in 2010? Oh no…it was Barack Obama. If anyone should be taking a victory lap, it’s Obama, but he has too much class for that. Great Britain and Canada must have stolen the Trump vaccine because they have already started inoculating their people. In fact, Pfizer took no federal funds, and was not part of Operation Warp Speed. The only thing that is warped is Trump’s opinion of his own accomplishments.

December 8, 2020

Sorry, Republicans. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t vote for Donald Trump because you agree with his policies, but, on the other hand, say you don’t like his style. I know. You wish he wouldn’t Tweet so much. Too bad. You are all in, and you are complicit in the “Steal” Trump is trying to perpetrate. Here is what you are complicit in. You are complicit…

• in Trump’s feeble and unsuccessful attempts to overturn the most secure election in American history

• in not acknowledging Joe Biden as President-elect

• in the death threats made against election officials like Chris Krebs

• in Trump’s stonewalling of the Biden healthcare team

• in voting for the first President who has refused to concede to his opponent

• in encouraging armed protesters to gather outside the home of a Michigan election official

• in the 287,000 deaths due to coronavirus

• in inviting vaccine skeptics to testify before Congress

• in making Rudy Giuliani a national embarrassment

• in creating a national security risk

• in the event someone gets killed

• in promoting a birther conspiracy against Kamala Harris

• In encouraging 17 Attorneys General to block the election

You voted for him, probably twice. You will probably vote for him again in 2024 if given the chance. But, in the meantime, man up, and own it. You can’t have it both ways.

December 8, 2020

The “Queen’s Gambit” is a very popular mini-series on NetFlix. It is about the exploits of a female, chess idiot savant, and her exploits in conquering a male-dominated world. We now have a real estate developer from Queens on his own gambit to overturn the safest and most secure election in American history. To call him an idiot savant would only be half correct. Rex Tillerson had a more colorful description. Ironically, we have a Russian calling him out on his egregious and undemocratic behavior. Garry Kasparov, former chess grandmaster and world champion, recently attacked Trump in an article titled, “Win or lose, prepare for the unimaginable after the election.” You know things are bad when we are being lectured to by Russians about democracy. Trump has lost in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Check mate.

December 7, 2020

The Springfield Republican’s editorial page recently had an op-ed touting New England’s growing influence in Washington. Richard Neal, The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is the best example. However, I would like to point out what I would consider a glaring omission. Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D) of Melrose has been elected to the fourth-most powerful position among Democrats in the House of Representatives. She won the election to become Assistant Speaker of the House. Clark was elected to Congress in 2013 in the special election for Sen. Ed Markey’s seat. She was most recently vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus. She started her political career as a member of the Melrose School Committee, and continues to champion educational initiatives. As a proud graduate of Melrose High School, I look forward to having the interests of Massachusetts and its residents be well-represented.

December 7, 2020

Many, if not too many, people get there information free from the internet. Facebook is a go to resource for people looking for the latest information. Facebook is free if you don’t count the barrage of ads you are subjected to. Facebook is free so it qualifies as free speech. I am not on Facebook because I found it to be trivial and a time-waster. My suggestion to folks is to pay for your news because nothing, even free speech, is not free.

You might complain about the Springfield Republican and believe it is fake, left-wing news, but, like its counterparts, it attempts to maintain journalistic integrity. It checks and double checks it’s sources. It vets its information, and then subjects it to editorial oversight. The same is true of major publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and so on. They are not enemies of the people. They are the enemies of misinformation. Can you say the same about your news feeds? Give yourself a Christmas gift of honest information. You will pay, but nothing worthwhile is free.

December 6, 2020

Religiosity is an intense, excessive, or fervent religiousness. It is best exemplified by the coalition of Christian Conservatives and the Moral Majority. They found a champion in Donald Trump, who is the antithesis of being a Christian in all manner of words and deeds. Holding up a Bible in front of a church does not make one devout . On Sundays, Trump’s church is the golf course. He is not contrite. He asks for no forgiveness. “Vengeance is mine,” sayeth the Lord and Donald Trump. His charity is corrupt. Yet, these Christians were okay to sell their souls to this man in return for conservative judges and hopes of overturning Roe. vs. Wade. They supported the pagan over the devout Catholic, who actually attends church on Sundays and conducts himself like a Christian.

President-elect Biden’s sin is that he doesn’t support overturning Roe, and he does support gay marriage. To be clear, neither one of these positions requires religious leaders of any faith to follow suit. The state is not requiring anyone to get an abortion, and the state is not requiring any church to recognize gay marriage. However, as most of us believe, it is not up to the state to incorporate religious biases into public policy. If you don’t believe in abortion or gay marriage, good for you. Just don’t impose your beliefs on me.

Which gets me to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s complaints about loss of religious freedom. Religious freedoms are not being lost. The only thing being lost is the ability of Christian Conservatives and devout Catholics like Alito to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. If you want to pray in school, bow your head, but don’t have the football coach lead it. If you want the government to subsidize your health plan, you don’t get to pick what you want to offer. If you want to send your child to a religion-based school, go ahead, but don’t expect me to pick up the tab. It’s a free country. I consider what you call religious freedom to be an attempt to force your religiosity on me.

December 5, 2020

The devil goes down to Georgia today, and he will be making a play to steal the soul of America.

“The Devil went down to Georgia

He was lookin’ for a soul to steal”

The rest of us need to help Georgia to “Stop the Steal.” It is up to the two Democratic candidates for the Senate, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, to out fiddle Trump.

“My name’s Johnny, and it might be a sin

But I’ll take your bet, you’re gonna regret

‘Cause I am the best that’s ever been”

The criminally complicit Republicans are more than willing to invoke the name of the one who devilishly calls himself the Savior, but the name of the President-elect sticks in their throats.

“And he pulled the bow across the strings and it made an evil hiss

And a band of demons joined in…”

Hopefully, Ossoff and Warnock can pull off the daily double, and deliver us from evil. The circular firing squad which doubles as the Republican Party is doing its best to help.

“The Devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat

And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny’s feet”

December 5, 2020

“The devil goes down to Georgia.”

December 3, 2020

Lloyd Bentsen famously said to Dan Quayle in a Vice Presidential debate, “I knew John Kennedy. You’re no John Kennedy.” As it turns out, Donald Trump is just like John Kennedy. He will be not be attending the inauguration of his successor just like John Kennedy did not to attend LBJ’s inauguration. Richard Nixon boycotted Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, and Franklin Roosevelt did not show up for Harry Truman’s. Abraham Lincoln famously did not show up for the inauguration of his top General, Ulysses S. Grant. Trump is planning on announcing his run for the presidency in 2024 from his basement while the eyes of the world will be on Washington, D.C. and President-elect Joe Biden. Actually, he won’t be missed, but he does need to return the Bible that he hijacked.