Need to reenergize the idealistic batteries amid today’s complete lunacy in D.C.? Need to feel good about our country again? I suggest watching Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln,’ which I did yesterday when I accidently stumbled upon the flick playing on FXM. It was  just what the doctor ordered: a truly inspiring story of a great man trying to hold together a democracy, end slavery and bring to a close a horrible civil war – all at the same time. … I’ve seen the movie before. It’s great. But it rang truer yesterday. It was quite effective, for a few hours, in getting small people like Kristi Noem, Jacob Frey, Stephen Miller etc. out of mind. It was pure escapism from the smallness of today’s ideological-driven news cycles. It was a brief idealistic antidote to today’s soul-crushing cynicism coming out of Washington. … And I should add: Daniel Day Lewis definitely deserved the Oscar for his performance in ‘Lincoln.’ … Now back to the real world. Sigh.

I’m no anti-trust expert, but c’mon. The largest health care provider in the state, Mass General Brigham (formerly Partners), is now proposing, as the BBJ and Globe report, to take over Fallon Health, its second acquisition of a health insurer in 13 years? …  Let’s get this straight: an entity that provides both health services and health insurance gets to set fees on both ends of the payment equation. Brilliant! This will truly bring down health-care prices! … Or maybe not. … Anyway, don’t hold your breath waiting for state regulators to do the right thing. They approved the MGB/Partners takeover of Neighborhood Health Plan (now MGB Health) in 2012 – and they’ll probably OK this deal too after the two parties provide sob stories about how all health plans are suffering these days, blah, blah, blah. … What a crazy health-care system we have. Just amazing.

State Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem says no, no, no. Her S2246 bill (“An Act Aligning the Commonwealth’s Transportation Plan with its Mandates and Goals for Reducing Emissions and Vehicle Miles Traveled”) is not about taxes or fees, she says. But it sure looks like the state is inching toward a “Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax” that they’re starting to experiment with in other parts of the U.S. and in Europe, etc. Some have even discussed a new national tax on miles driven by individual motorists. This recent Herald piece on Creem’s legislation doesn’t dive into the tax implications of her bill, focusing instead on legitimate privacy concerns tied to the collection of VMT data by the state and concerns about how reducing the miles driven by motorists would unfairly impact rural drivers. CBS Boston was focusing on the same policy concerns last year.

But Axios Boston’s Mike Deehan was rightly making the connection to taxes (“The long, long road to taxing mileage in Mass”) when he wrote last year that “factoring miles driven into state policy — and possibly taxing them down the road — would be a sea change in the way Bay Staters move around the commonwealth.” The fact is that many environmental and progressive types have long privately discussed and embraced the idea of a VMT tax – but they deny they want it in public.

But now we have S2246, with Creem saying it’s only intended to align Massachusetts with its carbon-reduction goals and allow the state to analyze VMT stats in order to expand walking, biking, or train options accordingly, as she told CBS Boston last year. … Yeah, right. As if new walking and bike paths and train and bus infrastructure improvements can be easily and quickly implemented after VMT stats stream into MassDOT offices, giving technocrats precise data on exactly what and where critical infrastructure improvements are needed, from Pittsfield to Provincetown, in order to hit annual incremental carbon-reduction goals. … As I said: yeah, right.

Bottom line: this is another one of those dubious deep-blue ideas, similar to ill-thought-out congestion pricing plans, that a handful of college-grad elites love and everyone else hates – and a policy idea that flies in the face of current attempts by Dems to portray themselves as the party of affordability.

This is a great, historically meandering opinion piece at the NYT by Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan, who writes that today’s combination of political polarization and Gilded Age excess has occurred before in America, followed by an era of ‘restraint,’ as Grinspan calls it, or ‘moderation,’ as I would call it. The only problem: we may have to wait till Gen Z (born 1997-2012) and Gen Alpha (2013-2055) grow up and take power before we see that more restrained/moderate era. …

It kind of makes sense when you think about it. Basically, Baby Boomers and Generation Xers have already blown it. Meanwhile, Millennials are in the process of blowing it with their own double-down generational versions of extreme lefty and righty leaders. So it’s up to you, Gen Z and Alpha.

— Joe doesn’t quite give her credit, but she deserves it: “Michelle Wu ignores Kraft-Trump bromance to broker stadium deal” (Herald)

— Basically, it pinned a bull’s-eye on itself: “How Harvard became Trump’s perfect target” (Globe)

— The ultimate $64,000 development question: “What’s Holding Back New Housing in Boston?” (Banker & Tradesman)

— A possible harbinger of things to come in Massachusetts?  “California Cuts Back on Costly Immigrant Healthcare” (WSJ)

— They don’t seem to realize you can take Chuck Taylor nostalgia only so far: “Converse seeks rebound by reaching into its brand heritage” (BBJ)

— Yet another company that’s relied too heavily on nostalgia and heritage” “Why Sears’s Last Great Hope Was a Promise That Never Materialized” (NYT)

— Meanwhile, our president has a bad case of WWII battleship nostalgia: “A ‘Trump Class’ Folly on the High Seas” (The Atlantic)

— One of the challenges facing the new owner of Solomon Pond: how to make its Brutalist-like exterior more inviting to Internet-era shoppers: “29-year-old mall, once among Simon’s jewels, sells for rock-bottom price” (BBJ)

— Mandating a long daily commute is like slapping a tax on workers – and they’re rebelling against it: “For many New Englanders, working in Boston means an exhausting commute” (Globe)

— Small religiously affiliated colleges are becoming an endangered species around here: “Eastern Mass. college on closure watchlist could lose its accreditation” (BBJ)

— What’s happening in Texas and New Mexico falls somewhere in between Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring: “America’s Biggest Oil Field Is Turning Into a Pressure Cooker” (WSJ)

As a HB reader put it in an email to me: The WSJ has struck again. Two days after running a piece on our struggling life-science sector (“Ph.D.s Can’t Find Work as Boston’s Biotech Engine Sputters”), the WSJ comes out today with a piece on our struggling high-end condos market (“Boston Went Big on Luxury Condos. The Buyers Didn’t show Up”). It seems we’re not a New York or Miami when it comes to high-end living. … Is it the New England weather? The early T and bar-closing hours? … We need to find a scapegoat. We’re definitely good at finding scapegoats. 

Instead of asking ‘Is the college sports system broken?’ (to which the answer should be obvious) perhaps Dan Shaughnessey should have asked ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a shill has Charlie Baker become for the NCAA?’ … My answer to the second question: A solid ‘9.’ I would have given Baker a 10 (a complete shill), but in an interview with Dan the former Massachusetts governor and current NCAA president at least acknowledges frustrations with the current semi-pro Division 1 sports system. … But maybe I’m being too harsh. Being a cheerleader for the NCAA, which pays Baker’s multimillion-dollar salary off the backs of unpaid ‘student-athletes,’ is part of his job.

Other related thoughts: 1.) Have you noticed how many NCCA college-establishment types (coaches, ADs, college presidents etc.) are suddenly bitching and moaning about the new transfer ‘portal’ and NIL payment rules after years of enriching themselves off of unpaid ‘student-athletes’? 2.) My favorite recent sports-related headline, via the Post: “With dumb names and no stakes, bowl games’ days are numbered.” 3.) My favorite dumb-names bowl games: “The Pop-Tarts’ Bowl” and the “Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.” Amazingly, they still pay out $6M and $4M respectively to participating schools.

The perils of puff pieces. From the Globe, 5 a.m. this morning: “Patriots struck gold when they signed Stefon Diggs, one of the finest free agent pickups in club history.” … From the Globe, 4:04 p.m. this afternoon: “New details emerge as Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs faces assault, strangulation charges.”

Hey, it happens to all journalists sooner or later. Believe me, I know. But still … 

Update – 1.1.25 — And now this, via WCVB: “Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore facing domestic assault charge, court documents show.” … We’re not quite in Aaron Hernandez territory, but it looks bad for the New Patriots Way, not to be confused with the Old Pats Way.

As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and it’s happening right now at Harvard, where sophomore Alex Bronzini-Vender, in a Times op-ed, bemoans the new new campus orthodoxy that’s replaced the old campus orthodoxy. … I have at least one suggestion: How about eliminating freshmen sensitivity training sessions in general, both the lefty and righty varieties? It would represent a small step toward campus sanity.

Some other thoughts: 1.) Oh, now they’re citing the free-speech concerns expressed by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), an organization that spent literally decades warning about the left’s relentless attacks on campus free-speech. Well, better late than never when it comes to embracing free-speech principles. 2.) The right’s imposition of a new campus orthodoxy is not worse than the previous left orthodoxy. At least not yet. But they’re trying. * 3.) The right is definitely exhibiting classic mirror-image behavior here, i.e. complaining about lefty antics while adopting lefty antics. As a Harvard professor put it in Bronzini-Vender’s Times op-ed, new conservative demands amount to “a tragic and very effective use of the previous decade’s standards around what we call ‘safe spaces’ and ‘wokeness.’”

*Update — 12.30.25 – The Globe has a good piece on the right’s dream college. Basically, it’s the mirror image of woke schools.