A small percentage of Leftists, which includes Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Fascists, see themselves as elite shepherds to the remainder of the population. These self appointed masters of the universe believe they have the right to rule over the masses who they believe to be unwashed and brainless.  These privileged leftists believe they are Pavlov and the common folk are the dog.

It is obvious that the Democratic Party is infested with this class of elitist Marxists   The paternalistic nature of the laws and edicts crammed down the throats of Americans by Democrats is a dead giveaway. 

Democrats found that most Americans were more resistant to outright rule by leftist masters than those that had never lived in the land of the free.  The Democrats learned they had to be more subtle in their attempts to impose their rule on Americans.  Bludgeoning Americans into submission did not work.  They found that nudging us in the direction they chose for us was more effective.  Barack Obama implemented the philosophy of nudge on the federal level.  He used the federal bureaucracy to infect the rest of the nation with this vile crap. When Trump took office this nudge nonsense faded into the background.  When I saw this article, The Obama ‘Nudge Unit’ Rides Again – American Thinker, I knew that we would soon be up to our eyeballs in this Marxist crap again.

The American Thinker article was good, however, I found that the original source material cited in the article was far more informative.  I used those sources as the backbone of the rest of this article. 

As you can see from this official White House document, 09-2022-Policy-Development-in-the-Social-and-Behavioral-Sciences-Subcommittee.pdf (whitehouse.gov), the Biden Regime is using nudge to force woke crap down our throats with subtlety.

The Biden-Harris Administration formally rechartered the Social and Behavioral Sciences Subcommittee (SBS) of the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council in April 2022. The SBS coordinates policy action to address pressing social issues and Biden-Harris Administration priorities using the tools and insights of the social and behavioral sciences.

The social and behavioral sciences offer unique tools for describing, understanding, and addressing societal challenges, and assessing and evaluating initiatives, programs, and policies. As described in its Charter, the SBS leverages these tools to advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s agenda, to carry out short-term, high-priority tasks, and to lay the groundwork for longer-term coordination of agency efforts related to the social and behavioral sciences. The first short-term task of the SBS is to deliver a whole-of-government framework or “blueprint” for the use of social and behavioral science research to advance evidence-based policymaking by April 30, 2023.

The SBS is co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health, and comprises membership from a diverse range of Agencies, Departments, and Executive Offices. It provides a forum for collaborative, interagency work towards advancing equity through the activation of social and behavioral science evidence

This article, Obama’s effort to ‘nudge’ America (politico.com), contains a wealth of background information from the Obama era. It was not surprising to me that the author of this Politico article practically purred with delight as he describes this Marxist brainwashing because of how far to the left Politico leans.

For the past year, the Obama administration has been running an experiment: Is it possible to make policy more effective by using psychology on citizens?

The nickname is “nudging”—the idea that policymakers can change people’s behavior just by presenting choices or information differently. The classic example is requiring people to opt out of being an organ donor, instead of opting in, when they sign up for a driver’s license. Without any change in rules, the small tweak has boosted the number of registered organ donors in many states.

Nudging has gained a lot of high-profile advocates, including behavioral-law guru Cass Sunstein and former budget czar Peter Orszag. Not everyone likes the idea—“the behaviorists are saying that you, consumer, are stupid,” said Bill Shughart, a professor of public choice at Utah State University—but President Obama was intrigued enough that he actually hired Sunstein, a law professor at Harvard who co-wrote the best-known book about the topic, “Nudge.”

The president officially adopted the idea last year when he launched the White House’s Social and Behavioral Science Team (SBST), a cross-agency effort to bring behavioral science research into the policymaking process

OK, but is this really nudging?

The team’s projects were definitely a form of prodding—giving people little pokes to improve their behavior in some way. But the more muscular form of “nudge” involves what experts call changing the “choice architecture”—automatically enrolling employees in an optional 401(k), for instance, or making organ donors opt out.

This article contains a great definition: The Best—and Worst—Nudges, According to CHIBE Affiliates    – Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) (upenn.edu)

A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”

This Nudge business is absolutely repugnant to the text and spirit of the Constitution. It reeks of collectivism whereas the Constitution was written to protect the liberty of each and every individual living in the United States.

This week pitchers and catchers are reporting for Spring Training which was a big deal for most of my lifetime here in New England. The Redsox however have fallen so far in the last five years that nobody seems to have noticed.

While I disagree with the assertion that giving away the store for a pitcher last season would have helped it seems impossible that the only move the Redsox have made was to fail to re-sign Turner who was a spark plug last season and wanted to stay.

It seems winning four World Series in 20 years has taken all the oomph out of the fans.


Yesterday the Celtics blew out the Nets by 50 points.

By the early third quarter the C’s were up by 30+ but they kept their starters in for a good chunk of the 3rd.

I can’t see it myself, if you’re up by 30 or more the bench should be on the floor. Every minute of playing time you give that bench makes it more likely that such players can step up if the painful necessity arises, but more importantly given the length of the season every minute you can rest the starters now will pay off when it counts in the playoffs.

On the plus side if the biggest thing you have to complain about is how you manage a 30 point lead you’re doing pretty good.


The Boston Bruins sit on top of their division with the best record in the east and the 2nd best record in the league a year after their record setting regular season year with two key players retired.

The real strength is the goaltending. Only one team has allowed fewer goals this season and only one other has a better goal differential.

I’ve seen them remain in games where they were outshot as much as 3-4 to 1 simply because the goaltending has been outstanding.

Anyone who thinks it would have been a good idea to trade one of them is out of their mind.


With the firing of Bill Belichick and the start of the new era in New England the Patriots are starting at the bottom.

It doesn’t seem to be a destination choice for coaches and it certainly isn’t one of choice for players. People were willing to come here to play with Brady and some were willing to come to be coached by Belichick who was considered the best, but now it’s the Chiefs who have that kind of star power where people will go there to play for Reid or play with Mahomes.

I don’t know how or if the new regime will do but if they manage to achieve anything at all it will be because they earned it.


Finally in pretend sports the draft for our 1972 league (and perhaps our 1997 league) is March 2nd.

We still have spots open if anyone is interested.

I have multiple first round picks and two picks in the 3rd, 5th and 6th so if I fall apart it’s all my fault.

By Christopher Harper

I’ve found an antidote to the swirling morass of bad news and vibes in current affairs. I’ve started reading a variety of books—both fiction and fact—about even worse times in history.

Author Bernard Cornwell provides an incredible array of terrible tales.

I just finished a quartet of books, The Grail Quest, which follows the trials and tribulations of an English archer, Thomas of Hookton, during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France in the 14th Century. In the books, the English are ravaging and raping their way through Frances, including some of the bloodiest battles I have ever read. Two of his women die, and another is blinded. He’s excommunicated from the church as a heretic, and his village has been destroyed.

At the time, the Catholic Church was corrupt and split between Avignon, France, and Rome. The plague has killed one-third of the European population. Much of the population lives under corrupt counts and lords.

In the books, Thomas, the bastard son of an English priest, becomes entangled in the search for the grail, the cup used at the Last Supper. He runs into cardinals and kings who are trying to find the grail. Eventually, he locates the grail and tosses it into the sea because of all the evil it has wrought.

If you think times are tough now, you wouldn’t survived England or France in the 1300s!

Another book, The Wager by David Grann, puts today’s troubles into perspective. The nonfiction book isn’t about a bet but an English ship called by the name.

The ship left England in 1740 on a secret mission to capture a Spanish ship during a war between the two countries. En route, The Wager was wrecked on a remote island off the coast of South America. There, roughly 100 men divide themselves into three groups: those who follow the captain, those who follow the first mate, and those who follow neither. Many sailors die from starvation or extreme weather. 

Amazingly, each of the three groups sees some of the followers make it back to civilization, where some are considered mutineers, and the captain is a murderer for shooting one of them without due process. 

As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the government convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life and death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang. 

The final rulings reflect the desire of nearly all governments to put some sort of spin on what events happened and what they mean. 

Happy escape to historical reality!

The speed of cultural change in this country amazes me. A recently as 5-10 years ago and definitely 20 years ago a military operation that successfully recused civilians taken hostage unharmed that took only one casualty slightly wounded and killed multiple terrorists in the process would be universally hailed by both sides of the political aisle and lionized by the press.

Instead it has at best been ignored and at worst attacked by sitting members of congress as a “massacre”.

There have been quite a few national disgraces over the last few years. This is one of them.


Rand Paul did something yesterday that we don’t see much of. An old fashioned filibuster of the Ukraine Bill where people actually hold the floor and talk.

While I concede that the current cloister rules are what allowed the chances at SCOTUS which finally doomed Roe I approve of both the Filibuster and Paul’s use of it here and would bring it back if I could, HOWEVER I’d only approve of the real thing.

You see for the last few decades rather than actually holding the floor and making the face a filibuster was considered as read if enough senators indicated they were behind it. I’ve always felt that was lazy. If a bill is worth filibustering it’s worth doing it for real.

Because of a previous vote Paul’s filibuster is limited but he’s playing out the string like Jackie Robinson remaining on the field watching Bobby Thompson circling the based ready to protest if he missed any of them on his way around them in the excitement of the moment.

Agree or disagree on various issues he’s a man of principle. We need more of them in congress.


The difference between a good player and a great player is how they perform when the chips are down. 

While Tom Brady will always have the edge on Patrick Mahomes because of their head to head record in the playoffs (favoring Brady 2-0) Mahomes with his 3rd Superbowl win proves he belongs in the GOAT conversation not just by the victory. But by the fact that TWICE in the same game he lead his team down the field to score the tying or winning points where failure would have meant defeat and did so with less than 30 seconds on the clock.

A lot of stat guys are not believers in “Clutch” performers. Mahomes as well as Brady proves such an assertion is nonsense. Having Mahomes follow Brady It’s like watching DiMaggio come after Ruth or Mantle after DiMaggio.

Oh and full marks to Brock Purdy the idea that a Mr. Irrelevant forced Mahomes in a situation where he had to do that is astounding


Law Professor Glenn Reynolds, the Blogfather has been worth reading for 23 years and if I actually had a bucket list lunch with him would be on it.

At substack yesterday he posted one of the best assessment of Joe Biden’s current situation that I’ve read. That something Reynolds has written is good is a given, but this is SO far above even his standard that you must read it. There are two bits that jump out at me:

As Time magazine reported shortly after the 2020 election, a “cabal” — Time’s word — of “left-wing activists and business titans” worked to get rid of Trump. It pushed mail-in voting. It moved to block election fraud suits brought by Trump and supporters. It employed social media censorship to mute pro-Trump arguments and amplify anti-Trump arguments. It sponsored protests.

Time called this a “conspiracy to save the election,” but in truth it was a conspiracy to save the election for the Democrats. The consequences in terms of lost faith in democracy have been severe, but the worst effect is that the winning ticket was never seriously vetted by the media or the campaign process. 

As one of those who was muted by twitter and is still muted by Youtube for this reason that really strikes home. The second:

After noting the Democrats desperate to replace him he makes what I think is THE critical point:

But whatever the Democrats do about 2024, I would like to see some accountability for the election of 2020.  A cabal of insiders colluded to control the outcome, through all sorts of underhanded tactics.  (Tech companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story broken by The Post, and retired intelligence officials falsely claimed it was fake, Russian disinformation).  The press allowed Biden to campaign from his basement, covering up the truth that he was already unfit for office.

Now we’re in a pickle.  Whatever happens in this election, I would like to see some consequences for the games played with our democracy in 2020.  Elections belong to the voters, not the insiders.  Or at least they should.

To get that point across, we’re going to have to impose some costs on the folks who rigged the last one.

This states a basic truth that blue cities that were once the envy of the world and are now lawless places where police can be assaulted with impunity, where open air drug markets reign and business have fled. There have been people trying to steal elections for as long as there have been elections just has there have been thugs, drug deals and thieves in all of human history. They only get away with it when those whose job it is to stop them turn a blind eye for their own purposes and let them do it. 

Unless there are consequences for these actions both for those who did it and those who allowed it, it will happen again until the people finally say ENOUGH! 

I suspect if it reaches that point, ENOUGH will not be conveyed via an excellent essay on substack.


Finally as you might recall the WQPH 1st Annual Shrove Tuesday Brunch is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM at Slattery’s Restaurant in Fitchburg. There have been a lot of small coincidences that have taken place to retard this event that seemed to be overcome. About 48 hours ago it appeared there was one that would not be, the projected storm that closed my place of work today with the potential of 13″ of snow falling fast right at the travel time. The restaurant mindful of the storm and scheduled to be closed on monday gave us till 4 PM on Sunday to cancel or reschedule. After discussion with the head of WQPH we decided to go ahead even if it meant half or less would show but dreaded that is was the wrong one. Yesterday I came home from Eucharist Adoration (cancelled today because of the potential storm) to a phone message from the owner who was there because of a funeral luncheon asking for one more confirmation one way or the other.

I called the head of the station again, our speaker coming down from NH and bringing a relic of the Crown of thorns was determined to come and give his talk on the feast of the Holy Face of Jesus. It was at this time I remembered General Patton’s famous weather prayer written by Fr James H. O’Neill a Catholic priest. I tweaked it and tweeted it out while sending a copy to the head of the station who email blasted it out to her prayer group. It reads:

“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain the immoderate weather due tomorrow with which we have to contend. Grant us fair weather for Spiritual Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

We ask this through Christ our Lord Amen”

As of this moment (4:47 AM woke up coughing) the snow that two days ago was predicted to start at 1 AM and end at 3 PM has not yet started (although it’s predicted to do so shortly and is now scheduled to end at 1 PM with an 80% chance of 1-3″ in my area, a walk in the park for any New Englander.

The Biden admin not withstanding this is still a free country and if you wish to believe this is a coincidence you are welcome to do so. If you don’t and are one of the folks who prayed that prayer at our request, thanks much for making the prayer and thanks to he who answered it.