The entire letter from Lech Wales to President Trump is devastating, as reported by the NYT. But these lines really stood out to me, regarding Volodymyr Zelensky’s rude treatment last week in the Oval Office:
“Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. We do not understand how the leader of a country that is a symbol of the free world cannot see this.”
How will the Trump groupies spin this? … They’ll probably dismiss Walesa as a has-been and ignore it. But you never know. They’re pretty resourceful when it comes to blaming others for the president’s behavior.
Update – From CNN: “Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine.”
I got a kick out of the headline at MassterList.com. … Speaking of the audit resistance, CBS Boston has a story on Beacon Hill’s chief audit resister, Ron Mariano.
Give Gov. Maura Healey credit for telling the NYT that Dems need to focus more on economic and working-class issues. In the Times interview, she also criticizes the Biden administration’s past immigration policies and says she will remain open to working with President Trump when and if possible. Bottom line: Healey proves once again she’s a pragmatic progressive — and that she gets much of what ails Democrats of late. But …
… She doesn’t get what ails Dems entirely if she truly believes they have nothing more than a “brand problem” when it comes to DEI issues. She doesn’t seem to understand that there’s an idealistic side to DEI – and then there’s the ideological side to DEI. The former represents the general ideals and sentiments underlying a desire for more diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s the ideological side of DEI – its more radical adherents and oppressive dogmas, its formal programs that sometimes resemble indoctrination sessions, its maddening political language – that’s driving many moderate voters away from Dems. It’s driving many Democrats nuts too, like Pete Buttigieg, who’s been hammering away at how party officials approach diversity and inclusion issues, asserting it more often than not alienates the very voters they’re trying to attract. “It’s how Trump Republicans are made,” Buttigieg recently said of the stultifying language and robotic thought-process of many party leaders and activists. … Josh Barro at the Atlantic says the problem goes beyond just “DEI-speak,” asserting the entire identity politics world-view that underpins much of DEI needs to go if the party is serious about stopping Donald Trump and other MAGA demagogues.
I think it’s critical for Dems to start differentiating between idealistic DEI versus ideological DEI, between more moderate DEI views and policies versus radical DEI views and policies. The latter is killing Dems. … Fyi: The Globe and Herald have more on Healey’s NYT interview.
Weill Cornell Medicine has produced a sharp video and article package that features my brother, Dr. Daniel Fitzgerald, who discusses Weil Cornell’s amazing partnership with the Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza, Tanzania. As the article notes, the Tanzanian center associated with the school serves more than 15 million people – a population the size of NY, LA and Chicago combined. Incredible.
The Herald’s Howie Carr makes a rare return to his long-ago muckraking roots, exposing the generational hackerama at the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. Yes, the same commission that’s been experiencing more than a little turmoil of late.
Note: Two Herald-driven posts in a row? The Herald may be a shell of its old self, but it still produces some scrappy copy.
This is the type of thing that makes this ardent DOGE critic an ardent DOGE supporter. From the Herald: “A Boston school custodian cleaned up as he retired with $567,427 in take-home pay last year, with a barrelful of that cash coming from unused vacation time.”
No use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies in government. … The custodian in question, whose base salary was $108,815 last year, claims he didn’t use 6,000 hours of vacation time “over decades,” or roughly 150 weeks of unused vacation time. … Does this sound plausible? Can the public see his vacation stubs?
Re the jaw-dropping Zelensky-Trump showdown yesterday, one word summarizes my reaction: sadness. Sadness that an America I used to know and be proud of is gone. It’s a deeper and more profound sadness than the one I felt the other week.
Another thing popped to mind yesterday: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” I thought of this infamous Donald Trump line after watching MAGA types scramble yesterday to defend the president and denounce Zelensky.
But there are still a few principled conservatives left. From the NYT’s Bret Stephens: “There’s no getting around the fact that Friday was a dreadful day — dreadful for Ukraine, for the free world, for the legacy of an America that once stood for the principles of the Atlantic Charter. Roosevelt and Reagan must be spinning in their graves, as are Churchill and Thatcher.”
The NYT’s Tom Friedman wonders aloud: Imagine Trump and JD telling Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that the “war with Hamas had gone on too long, too many lives had been lost and it was costing America too much money,” etc. etc. It would never happen. Unless Putin factored into the equation somehow.
Update – The Atlantic: ‘It Was an Ambush.’ … I’m not buying it. And I don’t really care who started it. Only hyper-partisans care about such things. … What matters is the substance of what was said and conveyed as the cameras rolled.
This early Emerson poll sounds about right: Mayor Michelle Wu is comfortably ahead of challenger Josh Kraft by 14 points, but her level of support is only 43 percent. … Here’s a surprise: A majority (53 percent) support the controversial redevelopment of White Stadium, while 22 percent oppose it and 26 percent are unsure, according to the poll. The White Stadium plan has more overall support than Wu has? I didn’t see that one coming. … The Globe has more on the Emerson poll.
Btw – From the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld: “Is it time for BosNation soccer investors to reassess?” Apparently not. See White Stadium survey results above.
Update – 2.28.25 – The Boston police union has endorsed Wu, a move that should help her fend off any soft-on-crime charges coming her way.
Sorry to harp too much on this subject. But Marty Baron is weighing in on the Jeff Bezos fiasco, saying he’s ‘cravenly yielding’ to Donald Trump and ‘no doubt’ trying to protect his business interests by changing opinion-page policies at the Post. … The Globe has more.
Update – 2.28.25 — Jill Abramson, the former editor of the Times, has more at the Globe on Bezos’s business-first political principles.
Hub Blog 