Even before reading this story (“Iran may be where the US-led world order ends”), whose headline I first noticed at Drudge (of course), the history-buff in me was thinking of the Suez Crisis (really) and how that joint European-Israeli strike in 1956 broke the world-order back of the U.K. and France. Now we have it sort of in reverse: how the current joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is breaking the world-order leadership back of the U.S. … Think about it: not one of our European allies is offering to help the U.S. in the Strait of Hormuz. Can you blame them after the way Trump has trashed them? The U.S. didn’t even consult them prior to our Iran strike, just as the U.K. and France didn’t consult the U.S. before their attack on Egypt in 1956.

Image above via Wikipedia (scroll down), where you can watch the 80-year-old newsreel report on the Suez Crisis.

Update – Great minds think alike: “Trashing American Allies Turns Out to Be Bad for National Security” (Atlantic)

They nailed it. Enjoy.

A friend recently told me how Mayor Michelle Wu personally edits many city press releases before they’re released, confirming what I gleaned from this year-old snippet and from Joe Battenfeld’s complaint last year that she’s become the ‘master of tightly controlled messaging.’ Now this from the Globe: ‘As pressure mounted on transit plans, Wu imposed a new policy: nearly all streets projects must go through her.’ The subhead is the kicker: ‘Advocates and city staff say the majority of Boston’s transit, street safety projects have stalled over past year.’ … What a surprise. … What else is she micromanaging and screwing up? Just asking. …

Looking for some damning quotes/thoughts on micromanagement, I stumbled across this alleged Steve Jobs quote (“Hire great people and let them do their jobs”) but it turns out Jobs himself was a notorious micromanager. … Searching for more apt samples, I discovered other non-damning examples of successful micromanagers, including Martha Stewart and Walt Disney. Then again, the same source says Warren Buffett and Richard Branson are considered classic non-micromanagers. … Anyway, I wasn’t finding what I needed until I found this innocuous career-guide advice piece from Indeed: “14 Examples of what to say to a micromanager.” The first example: ‘Understand their insecurities.’ … Fyi – Not one of Indeed’s suggested sayings has the ring of reality to it. But no matter.

Update — From a Boston reader: “I noticed that everyone quoted in the (Wu) article is from an advocacy group. No one else. No neighborhood groups or business associations, no elected officials. I read the linked article about Blue Hill Avenue, and it was clear that people have legitimate concerns.

“It may be that the people who are in place are tone deaf, or so anti-car that their proposals are generating lots of backlash.”

Update II — 3.16.26 – Another reader also spots the articles’s heavy ‘advocacy’ emphasis and wonders if Wu isn’t a little right (and I’m a little wrong), at least in this particular micromanagement case:

“My first thought reading your post today was… if Jobs, Martha Stewart, Disney were micromanagers… how does that correlate to their statuses as notable business visionaries who created entirely new categories of product/service/’brand’?   I’d guess, a lot.  …

“So my first thought was ‘inside Mayor Wu’s low key cautionary demeanor is a visionary trying to break out.’  Totally consistent with the bike lanes and progressive bona fides… but then I read the Globe article and it completely flipped my perspective.   Not everybody in the city is onboard with speed bumps and bike lanes – I suspect the majority of people who need cars and trucks to do their business in the city of Boston.  Money quote:

‘Wherever possible, we need to be getting things right the first time,’ Wu said. “Our role as a city is not to decide within City Hall what’s right for the neighbors and fight to force people to accept that.’

“This is constrasted in the article with ‘advocates’  (including ‘transit advocates’) who disagree and cite ‘broad community support.’   It also seems more consistent with the Mayor’s low key cautionary demeanor.”

 

— It’s sort of a cross between Northeastern’s co-op program and Olin College’s initial (and later abandoned) free-tuition model: “A new Northeast college plans to graduate students with no debt. Here’s how” (MassLive) 

— Our very own Al ‘Chainsaw’ Dunlap? “The CEO of Baystate Health wrote a book on how to fire people. He’s got plenty of practice” (Globe)

— This program could be big, if the state actually sticks with it: “356 Apartments Proposed Under Healey Fast-Track Review” (Banker & Tradesman)

— But I hope they slow-track this awful project: “Developer behind 26-story Davis Square tower says he’ll do what it takes to get neighbors’ support. It may take a lot” (Globe)

— Democratic socialists play Santa Claus: “New York City’s $30 Minimum-Wage Proposal Rattles Small Businesses” (WSJ)

— Howie’s asking the right questions: “$11.9M reasons to demand State Police reforms” (Herald)

— Hope the BSO board knows what’s it’s doing: “Why has one of the world’s great conductors been shown the door?” (Guardian)

— It makes sense – and it doesn’t make sense: “Curry College to absorb neighboring school despite drawing millions from endowment” (BBJ)

— At least they’re thinking in these terms: “Competitiveness fears weave through budget hearings” (Commonwealth Beacon)

— It’s right up our culinary alley (without the toast): “One Food All Americans Can Agree On” (Atlantic)

— Just a nice story that makes you feel a little better about life: “Larry called me to complain about one of my stories. Then we became friends” (WBUR)

The head of GBH is floating the idea of a merger with WBUR, its cross-town NPR rival/cousin, as the Globe reports. For now, WBUR doesn’t appear very interested, ghosting the preliminary courtship gestures. … But the idea does lead to some interesting questions: Who’s financially worse off and needs this merger more, GBH or WBUR? Who would inevitably dominate a merger? (I’ve covered too many corporate “mergers of equals” to know there’s no such thing as a merger of equals.) … My hunch is that GBH, the significantly larger and more stuffy of the two, would ultimately consume ‘BUR’s identity in any merger.  And the scrappy WBUR knows it. Thus the initial scram ghosting from Commonwealth Ave. … Then again, WBUR radio has maintained a bigger audience (at least as of 2024) ever since GBH decided in the early 2000s to switch to ‘BUR-style news-and-talk format. … Any way you look at it, this seems to be a shotgun-wedding situation.

Personally, I hope a merger doesn’t happen. I like the competition. GBH is also too establishment for me. I mean, you can’t get any more establishment in this town than Boston Public Radio.

Hub Blog’s intrepid Manhattan Spy, who normally tracks all things NY Yankees and other enemy sports-team activities, reports that the Mass.-based New City Microcreamery’s high-end ice cream is a hit in NYC, particularly its Newtella Roche flavor. … Hey, if it’s sold in Greenwich Village, it has to be a hipster hit, right? … New City Microcreamery has stores, btw, in Sudbury, Cambridge, Arlington and the hipper-than-hip Hudson (its original location – and why I’m writing about it; its coffee is also pretty good).

Btw: Does this make me an influencer? … I have a donut post in the making. Stay tuned.

How many locals read this Globe headline the other day (‘‘Can’t seem to get their act together’: Boston’s bold dream of hosting World Cup is on shaky ground’) and thought to themselves: ‘Thank God we didn’t host the 2024 Olympics.’* … The whole World Cup-vs-Foxborough spat is just classic Boston. The backbiting, the grudges, business and political leaders’ financial promises and broken promises, the overbudget projects and the behind-schedule projects, etc. … And now, for the second time, the fight is allegedly over. Let the games begin! …

Btw – From the Globe’s Shirley Leung: “Can Bob Kraft save us from the embarrassment of being the worst World Cup host city? No, he can’t.”

* Ah, the glorious memories.

Gov. Maura Healey should still somewhat easily win re-election, based on the most recent UNH poll (scroll down) and other surveys. But she’s definitely making it harder than it should be. There’s the migrant-shelter debacle, the rise and fall of odd-duck Monica Tibbits-Nutt, the governor’s cocaine-peddling liaison to western Mass., natural-gas pipeline flipflops, the rapid-fire turnover of her cabinet, etc. And there’s also, of course, the general affordability issue that’s driving residents out of Massachusetts and the general crappy-time-to-be-an-incumbent sentiment that could be detected in last year’s local elections.

Btw – There’s one thing I’m pretty sure voters aren’t overly concerned about: the governor’s schedule. What an odd story from the Globe. I suppose her pullback from the spotlight does say something about the governor. I just don’t know what. 

With only 8.4 percent of voters registered as Republicans in Massachusetts, the state GOP has to take what it can get when it comes to people joining the party. And that applies to three out of seven GOP statewide candidates who only recently registered as Republicans before filing to run for offices, the Globe reports. … Call it the party’s rent-a-candidate strategy. Or is it the candidates’ rent-a-party strategy? 

But when you think about, the state Democratic Party has been doing roughly the same thing in Massachusetts for decades, often playing host to pols who would be Republicans in any other state. They run as Democrats merely because, well, they’re not going to get very far as a member of a nearly bankrupt GOP in this bluest of blue states.

Btw: Is this bluest of blue states really that blue? After all, only 25.8 percent of voters are registered Democrats in Massachusetts, meaning a party representing only a quarter of all voters in this state has 100 percent control over our Congressional delegation, 100 percent control over of our statewide executive offices and more than 80 percent control of the Massachusetts legislature. …