My first takeaway from the NYT’s Ross Douthat fascinating talk with Steve Bannon: Bannon is absolutely convinced he’s not one of the elites even though he’s spent most of his adult life hovering at the tippy-top of the most elite of elite institutions. … The second takeaway: he loves to talk – much of it about himself and his role in shaping today’s politics. … The third takeaway: He’s an angry but intriguing man who makes sense on some of what ails America. I liked his description of the tech moguls now “crawling on their bellies” to Trump; George W. Bush’s weaknesses leading to the “worst presidency in the history of our nation, except for James Buchanan’s”; unfairly blaming Blacks and Hispanics for the 2008 financial crisis caused by the “entire establishment,” etc, etc. … Dems ignore some of what Bannon says at their peril. He’s not wrong all the time.
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Amateur hour: White House rescinds order on federal grant freeze
They’re know-it-alls who know so little about the government they run. … Remember: this is their second time around overseeing the federal government. Yet they didn’t have a clue what they were unleashing when they issued the initial freeze order. … Here’s the AP story on the administration’s freeze flip-flop.
Update – Wait! They’re now saying OMB’s rescission order doesn’t really rescind the spending freeze, causing more confusion on top of confusion. …
Update II – Another policy, more confusion, this one over buyouts.
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Caroline Kennedy’s RFK Jr. broadside: exposing the Bouvier-Kennedy divide
Of all people, I thought of my late mother while watching the extraordinary video of Caroline Kennedy’s harsh criticism of her cousin, RFK Jr., on the eve of his confirmation hearing as Health and Human Services secretary. The NYT gets it right: Her opposition to RFK’s cabinet appointment seems to go beyond professional and personal objections. It’s also about the “battle over who gets to claim the mantle of the Kennedys.” … But my late mother, who loved following all-things Kennedys and who had that incredible Irish knack of sensing class and cultural divides, would have taken the analysis further, pointing out, as she did to me on numerous occasions over the years, how Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, after the assassination of her husband, raised Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. slightly apart from the rest of the Kennedy family. It seemed as if Jacqueline was shielding her children from the excesses of the rest of the Kennedy clan, my mother used to say. …
Then came Caroline’s harsh words yesterday about RFK Jr.’s alleged animal cruelty (yes, the blender part) and how as a youth he “encouraged” siblings and cousins “down the path of substance abuse” and ultimately to “addiction, illness and death,” etc. … And the NYT does bring up JFK Jr.’s once biting remark about his cousins being “poster boys for bad behavior,” etc., etc. … The Bouvier-Kennedy divide. There it is.
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‘What is the honorable way to oppose while hoping for the best …’
Peggy Noonan at the WSJ asks all the right questions when it comes to how to react to all things Donald Trump:
“What is the honorable way to oppose while hoping for the best, to oppose while being as quick to recognize progress as to see failure, to oppose while appreciating any outcomes that are healthy for the United States of America? And without forgetting why you oppose? We’ll find out.”
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Is Massachusetts ready for its own DOGE-like efficiency agency?
The Mass Opportunity Alliance, a recently formed business group, is not-so-subtly floating the idea (scroll down past its UI blast) of a Massachusetts version of President Trump’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), saying its recent survey of state residents showed strong support for an “advisory commission that would recommend bureaucratic reforms and cost saving strategies for the state government.” … Next up: Maybe a statewide ballot push for such an agency? … You can definitely feel it in the political air: growing frustration with state and local government tax-and-spend policies in Massachusetts. Some evidence of this: Rob Gavin’s recent Globe Trendlines criticism of the state’s high cost of living — and government’s seeming obliviousness to its role in those high costs. … Then there’s Jon Keller, who sweet talks in circles till he gets to the point: Gov. Healey’s ‘candy tax’ idea is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of people. His ominous warning: “Budget implosion and its tax-hike antidote has been political poison here for years, and Healey seems unlikely to be immune.” …
So to answer the question in the above headline: Something’s definitely stirring out there, a local frustration with high taxes and costs in Massachusetts, and so, yes, I think voters are ready for a BOGE-like approach to problems. … Btw: the Mass Opportunity Alliance item is via Scott Van Voorhis’s excellent Contrarian Boston. And here’s more on the alliance’s September launch via the Globe.
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‘Mayor Wu kindly invited to Washington to be eviscerated in front of Fox News …’
Adam Gaffin’s Universal Hub strikes again. The lede on his post is also pretty damn funny. …
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AI’s ‘Sputnik moment’: The launch of China’s DeepSeek
Forget about top business stories of the week. The unveiling of China’s DeepSeek AI model last month may be remembered as one of the top business stories over the past year and beyond – and its significance is only now sinking in on Wall Street. From Reuters: “DeepSeek’s ‘Sputnik moment’ prompts investors to sell big AI players.” … Still waiting to see how this plays out in Boston’s tech world. But judging from this WSJ piece, it’s going to involve a certain amount of awe : “Silicon Valley Is Raving About a Made-in-China AI Model.” … I missed this Fortune story from last week (warning: long headline): “The U.S. just pledged hundreds of billions to protect its AI leadership. A Chinese startup with a ‘joke of a budget’ may have already undercut those hopes.”
P.S. – For all you young ones: We went through something like this many moons ago.
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‘Is Gov. Maura Healey tacking toward the center ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial race?’
The Herald asks a good question. The answer is: Yes. …
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Top business story of the week: Trump’s use of tariffs for non-economic reasons
It’s only Monday morning and we already know this week’s top business story. … I thought he might restrain himself by using tariffs, or the threat of tariffs, mostly in the economic sphere. Nope. … According to the NYT, they’re beating their chests at the White House over Columbia’s capitulation: “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.” … No, it makes clear to the world that America has lost its mind.
Update — No sooner did I write this business-story-of-the-week post than it was overcome by DeepSeek AI events. Silly me. See ‘AI Sputnik moment’ post above.
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Nantucket’s housing experiment | Steak tip craving | Higher-ed mixed-use developers | Physician hazing
Some random thoughts on recent news items:
Nantucket’s very unusual housing experiment
This has to be one of the weirder housing programs out there, as reported by WBUR, i.e., a pilot program that allows the town to use public funds to buy deed restrictions on private homes in order to preserve year-round housing. … Sounds like Nantucket, with the state’s approval, is getting into a variation of reverse mortgages.
I’ll let Select Board Chair Brooke Mohr explain how it might work since I have trouble understanding: “They could potentially sell a deed restriction and take that cash and use it to live off of, and stay in the house … on a promise, a commitment, that they would only sell that house to another year-round family.”
‘Audit on how steak tip-craving, indicted Quincy official stole thousands nears completion’
It was more than a 100 pounds of bourbon steak tips … That’s all I wanted to know when I clicked on the Herald story.
‘Boston Magazine? Is it really still in business?’
Once you get past the obligatory, time-worn Howie cheap shots, this a pretty funny Herald column about the good old days at Boston Magazine, now owned by the Globe.
UMass and Regis College: Private mixed-use developers?
It sure sounds like UMass ultimately doesn’t have a clue what to do with a large chunk of the old Mount Ida College campus in Newton that it rushed to buy seven years ago. The BBJ and Universal Hub have the RFP details (or lack thereof) on UMass’s interest in co-developing the site. I liked this line from UH: “(The plan) would still leave UMass Amherst 50 acres on which to teach and stuff but, of course, not grab any students from UMass Boston, which has its own property redevelopment deal at the old Bayside Expo site in Dorchester.” .…
Meanwhile, B&T reports that Regis College is trying to sell off a 62-acre parcel of its Weston campus, hiring Colliers to pitch the land for potential private development that could include an “18-lot single-family subdivision, and a cottage-style continuing care community including 28 cottage-style homes.” … If that’s the choice, we all know which option Weston will choose, right?
‘Man uses flamethrower to clear snow- and ice-covered street in Georgia’
Why didn’t a New Englander think of this? ….
‘Rampant burnout,’ hazing and physician unionization efforts
When you think about it, the brutal training programs young physicians, interns and fellows go through are a border-line form of hazing, which largely explains recent physician unionization efforts at Beth Israel and other hospitals (Globe). … Hospital administrators have long put up with the controversial training practices for a number of unstated reasons, in addition to the stated reasons (such as how intense training programs are needed to prepare doctors for an intense career): A.) it’s cheap labor B.) because, gosh darn it, older physician administrators went through it and so should the young ones C.) brutal hours for young doctors means less brutal hours for older doctors. …
Hub Blog 