I’m siding with the NIMBY types on this one, i.e. Boston’s proposed zoning rules that would make it easier to build new residential skyscrapers in Downtown Crossing, as the Herald and Contrarian Boston report. I know we need more housing. But enough with these banal glass-covered monstrosities. They’re harming the city’s historic quaintness. Aesthetics matter. … Past rants on this subject here and here.
Update – From the BBJ: “‘This is not New York City:’ Proposed downtown building guidelines face opposition.”
Watch out, white-collar America: Amazon CEO says AI will reduce its corporate workforce in the next few years
This is one of those stories that makes you stop in your tracks and think: ‘Did he just say what I think he said? I think this is important.’ … And it is important. Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy is not saying AI may soon eliminate lots of corporate jobs. He’s saying it will eliminate lots of corporate jobs, reports the AP. And AI is going to create a lot of career turmoil in general. … The question is: Whose career turmoil? The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that white-collar workers are about to find out what blue-collar workers have been enduring for more than a generation now: massive outsourcing of their jobs. Except the jobs won’t be outsourced to workers in other countries. The jobs will be outsourced to AI. … What new jobs might be created in the process is the great unknown. But lots of career disruption is indeed coming.
Update – 6.23.25 – From the WSJ’s Allysia Finley: “When new technologies made manufacturing more efficient, many workers lost jobs and dropped out of the labor force. … College-educated young people face the same risk if they don’t develop intellectual vigor, curiosity and grit.”
Suggested holiday change: Make it officially ‘Emancipation Day,’ unofficially ‘Juneteenth Day’
For a number of reasons, I’m starting to get worried about the new Juneteenth holiday: 1.) After reading this Globe story, the holiday celebration seems to have become a little unfocused, too diffuse, too much of an overlap with MLK Jr. Day and Black History Month. 2.) After reading this WSR article about how Plano, Illinois is backing off of Juneteenth celebrations due to nervous businesses pulling sponsorships amid ideological tensions, it seems the holiday is already getting politicized and 3.) related to the second point, I’m starting to hear some white people mocking the holiday’s name in a racist way, feigning a Black accent when pronouncing ‘Juneteenth,’ etc. … But I do think there’s a simple way to address the three points above, via a greater emphasis on the historic origins of Juneteenth while simultaneously shoving the word “Emancipation” in the faces of ugly critics. … Though I absolutely support a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in America (and believe there should have been one long before 2021), I’ve always thought the “Juneteenth” holiday was misnamed. Did you know its official name is “Juneteenth National Independence Day,” even though it’s directly tied to the emancipation of slaves during the U.S. Civil War? Somewhat incredibly, there’s not one mention of “emancipation” in the Congressional legislation creating the holiday. …
There’s a way to correct the problem: At minimum, change the official holiday name to “Juneteenth National Emancipation Day,” so there’s absolutely no doubt about the intent of the celebration. I’d even go a step further, officially calling the holiday “Emancipation Day,” with “Juneteenth’” acknowledged as a co-name, similar to how “Independence Day” is widely known as “July 4th” or “Fourth of July.” With such a blunt (and highly honorable) official name, one could counter neo-Confederates and other critics of the holiday with lines like, “Oh, so you oppose the emancipation of slaves? Do you think slavery shouldn’t have been abolished? Are you pro-slavery?” … Imagine how the business owners in Plano, Illinois would have responded to such retorts.
Btw: There are plenty of precedents of Congress tweaking the names, focus and timing of federal holidays, so my idea isn’t exactly radical.
Update — The Globe’s James Pindell explores why the Trump administration et gang hasn’t acted to repeal Juneteenth. The reason: It’s too popular. Or put another way: a repeal effort would be too politically risky even for critics. And, as the WSJ article shows, there are indeed critics of the holiday out there.
Update II – 6.22.25 – And the Globe’s Jeff Jacoby blasts President Trump’s honoring of those who openly fought against Emancipation: “Fort Lee and the fraud of Confederate rehabilitation.”
The GBU-57: Everything you need to know about the ‘Bunker Buster’ bomb in order to render an informed armchair-general opinion on attacking Iran
Thanks to the WSJ, I can now impress my friends with all sorts of stats and tidbits about the GBU-57, the 30,000-pound ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator,’ aka the ‘Bunker Buster’ bomb. … And use of the GBU-57, not to be confused with the GBU-28C, is considered only the ‘best chance’ of destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities. … More GBU-57 stats, including total AFX-757 and PBXN-114 polymer-bonded explosive payloads, at Wikipedia.
Update — 6.20.25 – Via the Guardian, here’s more on whether the Bunker Buster would even work or not.
Update II— 6.23.25 – Two days after the U.S. attack on Fordow, there’s apparently little doubt the Bunker Buster’s inflicted heavy damage on the facilities, but it’s not clear whether the facilities were completely destroyed, the NYT reports. … Meanwhile, it appears Iran was rushing to evacuate materials out of Fordow in the days before the bombings, as CNBC reports.
The NYT’s brutal take on progressive urban policies and pols
A Hub Blog reader sent me a link to this NYT editorial on the New York mayoral race with the message: “This is extraordinary. … The Times trashes the progressive candidate. They are moving to the center very fast.” … They’re specifically trashing Zohran Mamdani, rather brutally so, saying the democratic socialist is running on an “agenda uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges.” Along the way, the Times also trashes the progressive urban policies of former NY Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and past leaders of San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore. …
… Ah, what the hell. While I’m at it, I might as well throw in Joan Vennochi’s column in the Globe on progressive meanies and Sabrina Joy Stevens’s piece in the Globe on progressive blues. … Don’t worry. I’ll be back to bashing Trump soon. I just needed a break from the president and thought a few rounds on the progressive punching bag would help. It did. I feel better.
Update — 6.18.25 — From the NY Post’s Michael Goodman: “Cuomo should thank Mamdani for making him look like the safe, stable choice for NYC mayor.”.
Sneak preview of Ken Burns’s upcoming ‘The American Revolution” documentary
The Globe’s Mark Feeney alerts readers to the latest video teaser (or ‘snippet,’ as Mark calls it) for Ken Burns’s upcoming ‘The American Revolution’ documentary. The latest video focuses on the Battle of Bunker Hill. A previous video was released earlier this spring to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington & Concord. … Rick Atkinson, the historian, is featured in both videos. I loved his first book on the American Revolution (‘The British Are Coming”). But I’m going to wait to buy the second book in the trilogy (“The Fate of the Day”) until the price comes down a bit. The current $36.59 is a little steep even for this history buff. … Screen capture above via PBS.
The Rafael trade: Is John Henry morphing into a Jeremy Jacobs?
Mookie Betts. Xander Bogaerts. And now Rafael Devers. Ben Lindbergh is right: the dismantling of the World Series–winning 2018 Red Sox is now complete. And Sox pundits are furious, from Bill Simmons to Dan Shaughnessy. … I’m only a bandwagon Sox fan. But even I know this isn’t exactly a Money Ball-style analytics move. Indeed, the Sox haven’t been playing true Money Ball for a long time. It’s more like hybrid-Money Ball, i.e. using analytics some of the time to build a team, throwing money at the problem other times, and then jettisoning a high-paid star for attitude problems not necessarily tied to stats (i.e. Devers). Lately, if anything, John Henry et gang’s hybrid-Money Ball has started to resemble Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs’s style of ownership, i.e. spending just enough on payrolls to appease fans, but not spending enough to produce a consistent championship-caliber team. …
… I got to thinking along these hybrid-Money Ball lines after receiving the following email from WW Reader: “No idea who Bryan Joiner is, but this is another good analysis of the Red Sox situation (that raises) a key question: how does a World Series Champion turn itself into the Moneyball Edition of the Oakland A’s?”
OK, maybe my Jeremy Jacobs comparison is unfair. Maybe all of this is tied to a necessary unraveling of the bloated 2018 payroll. But it still points to a hybrid-Money Ball pattern of up-and-down payroll spending, mixed with a growing private-equity mindset, as WW Reader points out.
The latest critic: Wu now at odds with NAACP over White Stadium
Is Mayor Michelle Wu going to criticize the messenger this time around, like she did the other week when someone dared to raise issues that challenged her assumptions? Not likely. Because the latest bearer of bad news is the Boston NAACP, which is now criticizing the mayor’s White Stadium renovation plan/boondoggle, according to reports at MassLive, the BBJ and Universal Hub. … It’s sort of an awkward moment for the uber-progressive mayor. The Boston NAACP opposing one of her major policies? This is not supposed to happen. … Meanwhile, Josh Kraft is claiming the White Stadium costs continue to skyrocket, reports Contrarian Boston and the Herald. …
Unless she suddenly decides to ditch the White Stadium white elephant, it seems this issue isn’t going away between now and Nov. 4. Wu’s still going to win re-election, I assume. But she’s making it far more difficult than it should be. … Rendering of new White Stadium via city of Boston.
Update – 6.18.25 — The mayor is acknowledging Kraft’s new cost estimate comes from a city document, but it’s a worst-case-scenario estimate, etc. , report the Globe and Herald, which have slightly different spins on the story.
At a local ‘No Kings’ protest, lots of American flags, no keffiyehs, and the protesters won my support
A few weeks ago, I slowly drove through Hudson’s quaint downtown rotary, passing protesters waving various anti-Trump signs. Even though I was sympathetic to their general cause, I scowled at the protesters and refused to wave back or honk my car horn in support. Why? Because I didn’t see one American flag. Not one. It upset me. … Fast-forward to yesterday’s ‘No Kings’ protest at the same quaint rotary: scores of anti-Trump protesters with American flags. Adults waving flags. Children waving flags. Flags painted on anti-Trump signs. Flags planted in the rotary gardens. It felt like a 4th of July parade in small-town America. I enthusiastically waved back at the protesters and honked my car horn in support. These protesters had won my backing. …
Get the picture, future anti-Trump protest organizers? American flags in, keffiyehs out, as the Globe’s Carine Hajjar might put it. Stop alienating potential anti-Trump supporters by dragging in other left-wing causes that many people might find objectionable, if not offensive, as the New York Times recently reported (‘Protests Go Beyond Immigration to Include Array of Left-Wing Causes’). … A little patriotism goes a long way, folks. …. Photo by iStrfry , Marcus on Unsplash.
Update – A Hub Blog reader has reminded me about my Retake the Flag post a short while ago, featuring a Bill Maher rant on the subject. Check it out.
Update II — Universal Hub has photos of other local protests. And I see flags. ….
Bunker Hill’s proud descendants, 250 years later
It’s so long ago, you might think there are no descendants left of those who fought at Bunker Hill in 1775, or at least those conscious of their ancestral connections. But they’re out there – and they’re rightly proud. WBUR’s Amanda Beland reports. … Fyi: My all-time favorite book about Bunker Hill is ‘Now We Are Enemies,’ by the late Thomas Fleming. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about the epic battle. Written 65 years ago, the book is still widely available via used-book sales at Amazon and elsewhere.
Update – From the Globe: “Bostonians celebrate 250th anniversary of legendary Revolutionary War battle.”
Update II – 6.18.25. From NBC Boston: “‘They did it for their children’: Descendants honor soldiers in Battle of Bunker Hill.”
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