Survey SAYS

Happy Wednesday. A birthday for Mike Tyson and Dave Van Ronk.

It’s hot. It’s too hot. Another record breaking day. There may be some big thunderstorms this afternoon as well.

A majority of likely voters of all races think the police in Boston are doing a good job. The Globe and Suffolk University commissioned the survey. Faced with the results, the Globe questioned the methodology of its own poll and downplayed the implications. Sounds like some serious cognitive dissonance going on there.

There’s a narrative going around that resturants can’t get help because government stimulus checks are disincentivizing workers, not because employers were offering too little in wages. Missouri decided to remove the disincentive to see if that would bring workers back. So far it hasn’t.

In this recorded call, JFK was a little angry with the General. Send that furniture back to Jordan Marsh!

And since Trump left office, web traffic and general viewership is down for both right and left leaning media. Twitter is probably having a slump as well. It’s bad news for media bean counters but I’ll take the peace and quiet any day. Totally worth it.

Amature hour

A beautiful sunny Monday. And a quiet news day.

Subscribe to a car? Welcome to transportation as a service.

Wall Street Journal reporter Mike Bender’s new book details a blow up between Trump and General Milley. The more we learn the scarier our recent history was.

The story of Sriracha sauce. Interesting and inspiring. I always have a bottle of in the kitchen.

Now it’s Republicans who are defunding the police -and just to get back at Democrats.

And yes, they’re baack. Close the beaches. Cancel Fourth of July festivities. We’ll also need to get a bigger boat.

Too much of a good thing

Saturday. The first bar-code scan happened today in 1974. Wrigley’s gum. 67 cents.

The UFO report is out. It’s a head scratcher. You can read it here.

Charlie Baker’s proposed two month tax holiday should be great for consumers and business. But some special interests and Democratic lawmakers don’t like the idea. They think the money should be applied to programs rather than returned to consumers. A classic dynamic. On top of all that, Shira Schoenberg points to experts that are questioning why Baker would do this now when there’s so much other stimulus money going around. It might be good politics, but economically it could hurt more than help.

Flight attendants are the cops of the sky. And they’re getting the same treatment from the public as their counterparts on the ground.

Lawn Starter ranked 200 cities for bike friendliness. Boston came in at number 10. Not bad. The Times excused New York’s poor 19th place ranking based on its climate, “which can get too cold (and icy) for most cyclists for months on end.” Not like Boston, right?

And a new Fox News poll shows… well, they won’t tell you what it shows.

The urgency of this moment

Friday. It’s finally Friday.

It’s been four weeks now that no towns in Massachusetts have shown to be at high risk for Covid. Excellent. (Also, excellent is Pat Greenhouse’s photo of a discarded mask caught in the trees.)

The Globe Editorial Board has woken up to the fact that all the political grandstanding in the City Council could have a negative impact on the health of the city, particularly the AAA bond rating. Councillors are lining up to vote no on the latest budget submitted to them. That’s a mistake. They’ve had their input. Now they need to pass a city budget.

The Times looks at police resignations in the wake of a terrible year.

The governor wants a two month tax holiday.

And the Red Sox are in first place. All is well in the world.

Ships in the night

Good morning. It’s Thursday.

Here’s a list of Bill Gates favorite songs. Looks like Steve Jobs was right.

Scientific American is running more UFO articles. In one, John Gertz writes that the objects Navy pilots are seeing are probably robotic drones dropped off in the neighborhood by aliens to study us. In another article, Avi Loeb makes a connection between Oumuamua, the mysterious asteroid-like object that flew through the solar system in 2017, and the recent pilot sightings. Loeb believes that it’s possible that Oumuamua was a supply ship of sorts, sent to drop off the alien ships in our vicinity. These articles are much more meaty and speculative than what’s expected to be in the actual Pentagon report on military UFO sightings, due out this week.

The Steamship Authority is now stating that they did not pay the ransom on their systems. Unless they somehow obtained a decryption key, rebuilding their systems from the ground up must have been a lot of work.

A Republican investigation into election fraud in Michigan during the presidential election found no indication of fraud. “Our clear finding is that citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan.” And… “The committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.” Good advice.

And a healthy breakfast should include lots of chocolate. I’m beginning to feel like Miles Monroe.

Thanks for playing

Wednesday. On this day, Babe Ruth was ejected for punching an empire and Ernie Shore stepped in to pitch a no-hitter.

Everyone is trying to figure out what Rachael Rollins is up to and somehow I don’t think she cares.

It looks like legislators are going to grab the lion’s share of that $5 billion in stimulus funds, leaving the governor with a measly $200 million dollar consolation prize.

There will be another big full moon this week. A Strawberry Moon rises tomorrow at sunset.

Raging virus numbers, a mis-managed electric grid, widespread voter suppression. Texas voters just shrug it all off. But when it comes to dogs, well, they pay attention. Don’t mess with those dogs.

And how did I miss this? Al Pacino in a Dunkins’ commercial. OK, it’s a parody from an Adam Sandler movie, which I definitely would have missed, but it’s still amazing. And it’s in the news. (Kind of.)

In left field

Happy Tuesday. For what it’s worth.

Who thought it was a good idea to allow an energy company to control your thermostat?

Crime is the new Covid. Or it will be soon. Progressive Democrats have mostly been playing to the crowd on crime and ignoring the serious and difficult discussions about law enforcement infrastructure, except for sloganeering about reallocating resources, etc. The media are amplifying coverage of police corruption and use of force while downplaying violence crime and effective policing. There’s no balance. Police are running for the exits. Republicans are going to be over all this like a cheap suit and hard won Democratic gains will soon be history. That’s my unfortunate take.

New York subway trains are being cancelled faster than flights on American Airlines.

As people head back to the office, those mid-day, between-Zoom Peloton workouts will soon be history. But not if Peloton has anything to say about it.

And a Fox News writer is mad about Maggie Haberman covering Trump and ignoring Biden. Is it opposite day already?

Fit to print

Monday the 21st. If it seems like a long day, that’s because it is.

Boston to New York in an hour and a half and a train to Revere Beach. Now that’s what I call infrastructure.

The mayor of New Bedford believes that every city needs a functioning local newspaper. So he helped to create one – with a little help. Welcome to the New Bedford Light, a non-profit online paper not driven by click-throughs.

The Verge has a few good TV deals for Prime Day.

Some Catholic bishops are cautioning the president on abortion rights, appearing to threaten his ability to take communion. Karen Tumulty provides a history lesson on mixing politics and religion. In any case, this won’t go anywhere.

And running an airline is hard. Booking a flight on American this weekend was even harder.