What we have here is a failure to communicate. And they’re not happy about it in Raleigh, where Bill Belichick’s sullen personality and losing record at UNC are reportedly wearing down the patience of parents and players alike, as WRAL reports (“Divided locker room, disastrous results: Players, parents blame Belichick culture for UNC problems”). … MassLive is jumping on WRAL’s ‘complete disaster’ report. … Bill’s not even talking to the players’ parents? … Well, at least he’s taking care of his own kids. Two of them are coaching at UNC, one of whom is getting paid $1.3 million a year.

Update — From the NY Post: “UNC exploring potential Bill Belichick ‘exit strategy’ as ‘weird’ rumors surface.”

Update II — 10.9.25 – From the Globe: “Bill Belichick, UNC reaffirm commitment after rumors of dysfunctional football program”

Update III  – 10.10.25 – Andrew Callahan at the Herald thinks it’s time for Bill to call it quits.

Update IV –– 10.11.25 – From the Globe’s Tara Sullivan: “Bill Belichick’s genius label is taking a hit at UNC”

I feel the same as Harvard’s Steven Pinker. … W Reader sent me the Times of London link with the following note: “I had to read this Pinker interview twice to understand it, but I am glad that I did.  It explains a lot about our crazy seeming world.” … And I loved this quote from the centrist Pinker, on whether right-wing or left-wing authoritarianism is the greater threat: “Trump has an army … whereas the Department of Romance Languages — there’s only so much damage they can do.”

In a reference to a friend’s email about Bari Weiss selling her Free Press website to Paramount (“we’ll see how this goes”), I responded: “I don’t see this turning out well. These types of corporate takeovers of small shops rarely do. Look what happened to Huffington Post and Business Insider, etc. Bari Weiss is cashing out. That’s the bottom line.” … And Huff Post and BI were indeed never the same after co-founders Ariana Huffington and Henry Blodget, respectively, disengaged from the businesses. I assume the same will happen to The Free Press. I’d add that The Free Press sale comes at a time when, at least in my opinion, the website was getting rather stale. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I had gotten tired of its predictability. … 

But I and most others are more intrigued with Paramount’s appointment of Weiss as the new editor in chief of CBS News. This is a deliberate ideological shakeup at CBS, perhaps/probably as a wink-wink side deal with the Trump administration. It’s obviously an attempt to break up the “liberal media,” as both Weiss and Trump see it from slightly different angles. Weiss is no MAGA groupie, but she is vehemently anti-woke. And that will be her personal and probable corporate mission: to wring out any sign of DEI-ism at CBS News.

Fyi: The NYT has a good piece on the journalistic oddity of her CBS appointment, considering she’s never worked in television. I’d add she’s from the opinion-page side of journalism, not the grunt-reporting side of journalism, a distinction that many grunts at CBS will note and deeply resent, guaranteed.

Update – 10.8.25 – From Holman Jenkins at the WSJ: “CBS Deal Smells Like a Gimmick” (and subhead: “An aspiring mogul finds yet another way to appease Donald Trump”).

Update II – 10.9.25 — From the Atlantic: “Bari Weiss Still Thinks It’s 2020.” And its subhead: “She co-founded The Free Press as a bastion of liberalism in an illiberal time. Her arrival at CBS is paved with excuses for illiberal friends.”

Here we go again. Someone with the wrong views is about to get canceled in Massachusetts. It happened following Charlie Kirk’s murder, as the Globe reports. Now it’s happening on Nantucket, as the Globe also reports. Granted, Maxamillian Dutton’s religious opinions about women are pretty hard to take. But he apparently never brought those subjects up during a motivational speech at Nantucket High School. Doesn’t matter. Someone objected to his previous public statements. So the superintendent of Nantucket’s schools is establishing a “new committee to review speaker candidates to ensure ‘that their messaging, both professional and personal, aligns with NPS’s core values, vision, and mission.” … In other words, they’re developing a speech code aligned with the “school’s values of respect, inclusion, and equity.”

Amid the raging debate over free-speech across the county – and the hypocrisies of right-wing woke-ism and left-wing woke-ism – it seems they’ve learned absolutely nothing on Nantucket.

Last week I casually urged an investigation of ‘Plaza-gate,’ as the Herald pundits are now calling it. But appealing to President Trump to investigate the highway-plaza controversy now engulfing MassDOT, as Howie Carr writes this morning? I think it’s safe to say Trump groupies would take a guilty-as-charged approach to any probe and merely unite the hacks on Beacon Hill. Then again, who else could investigate this mess? Andrea Campbell? … In case you’re wondering, here’s a good ‘BUR summary of Plaza-gate, which recently reached a new low when the “winning” highway plaza-redevelopment bidder suddenly dropped out of the project. …

My hunch is this is more about gross mismanagement than it is about outright corruption. It’s hard not to jump to that conclusion when you think of who’s running the show at DOT (“Has the state transportation secretary been benched?”— Globe. “Some believe Monica Tibbits-Nutt has lost her voice as transportation secretary. Can she find it again?” — Globe). … And, oh, Suffolk Construction is involved. Of course.

— The business community sends forth yet another knight to lose to an incumbent: “Businessman and GOP donor Michael Minogue jumps into Mass. governor’s race” (WBUR)

— For most colleges, it’s going to get much worse before it gets better: “Berklee College lays off 70 employees” (UH)

— And even schools with $7.2 billion endowments are feeling the pinch: “Brown University lays off 48 employees as the institution faces millions in deficits” (MassLive)

— He forgot to mention democratic socialism, but otherwise this is a great piece by Jeff: “Why won’t zombie bad ideas stay buried?” (Globe)

— Really? Shaming? Is this the more aggressive resistance demanded by progressives?: “Democrats Use Empty House to Shame G.O.P. Ahead of Shutdown” (NYT)

— It’s going slowly because we’ve allowed our industrial capacity to become so depleted: “Pentagon Pushes to Double Missile Production for Potential China Conflict” (WSJ)

— One way or the other, we’re going to be paying for this empire building via higher premiums: “Mass General Brigham plans new inpatient tower at Brigham and Women’s” (BBJ)

— Romney’s wise advice that unfortunately went unheeded: “’We just can’t begin to be prosecuting political opponents’: Romney says he urged Biden administration to pardon Trump” (Globe)

— A fourth scenario is Markey graciously stepping aside, but that’s unlikely to happen: “Three scenarios. Three different winners. How Mass could have the nation’s most interesting Democratic primary next year” (Globe)

— This is encouraging: “AbbVie invests $70M in Worcester facility” (BBJ)

— It’s for partly noble and partly modern-collegiate selfish reasons: “Why is the Ivy League’s best player taking a year off from basketball?” (Washington Post)

I was going to write a post expressing alarm at President Trump’s “enemy within” speech to U.S. generals early this week. But then I read Eliot Cohen’s funny telling-it-like-it-is account of the president’s bizarre meanderings before 800 assembled generals and admirals. And I felt a little better. Cohen merely describes what he saw and heard – and it’s a wonderful read as it follows the president’s weird train-of-thought style of speaking. Have there been other historical figures who regularly spoke in this same at-length, unscripted style? Castro? Juan Peron? Huey Long? … Anyway, Cohen’s description of the hapless Pete Hegseth’s performance is equally funny and spot on.  … Cohen piece via the Atlantic, btw.

Update — From Peggy Noonan at the WSJ: “The Embarrassing Pete Hegseth.”

Idrees Kahlook at the Atlantic has a good primer on how our politics got so crazy in America. A minor quibble: Grievance politics resides on both the left and right, not just the right. The modern left’s grievances are historical in nature. The modern right’s grievances are more personal and immediate in nature …

If we have to change the state flag, can we please agree a new one shouldn’t reflect one faction’s ideological belief system? Yeah, we’re taking about you, Karen Spilka. … And you too, Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve. … My suggested new state motto: Deus nos ab stultis servet. … Joan Vennochi has more on the Great Flag Flap 2025.

 Btw: I still think a variation of the current flag, minus the pilgrim sword hanging over the Native American’s head, is a good compromise. But no one is obviously listening to me. … 

Update — 9.30.25 – A reader sent in this Globe piece — and I’m 100 percent with the Globe’s Billy Baker: the state has come up with a great looking license plate commemorating the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution (see below). It’s handsome, simple and eye-catching. Maybe we can do the same with a new flag.

Mayor Michelle Wu basically redefined the definition of business competitiveness last week at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event, telling business leaders that higher corporate taxes are actually good for them, as the Globe reports. And how did business leaders respond to Wu’s rather novel definition of business competitiveness? They gave her three standing ovations. And did we mention that this was Wu’s first appearance at a major business event since trouncing Josh Kraft, supported by many chamber members in the room, in the Sept. 9 preliminary electon? … I knew the business community was going to suddenly suck up to Wu following her landslide victory. But I wasn’t expecting three standing ovations.  

Update — 9.29.25 – At the Globe, David D’Alessandro is doing the ultimate suck-up: lecturing other business people to suck up to Wu. …