The jig is up, Massachusetts. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has found us out. We’re all sanctuary-jurisdiction sinners despite Gov. Maura Healey’s repeated assertions that we’re not. … How did Kristi find out? Did Hampden County rat us out? … The Herald and Universal Hub have more on the new Scarlet S on our foreheads.
Month: May 2025
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Homeland Security: Massachusetts is a diabolical sanctuary state despite pathetic pleas to the contrary
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The Demoulas Family Feud: No heroes this time
I agree with the Globe’s Shirley Leung: Something feels different about the latest Demoulas family battle over control of the popular Market Basket supermarket chain. It doesn’t seem as simple as the dramatic power struggle 11 years ago between Bad Arthur and Good Arthur. Now you have siblings versus sibling – with Good Arthur once again at the center of controversy. … Maybe, just maybe, Good Arthur is also Pain-In-The-Neck Arthur? That’s one of the impressions I get reading this BBJ piece by Grant Welker, who snagged an interview with a company director, Steve Collins, who sounds genuinely frustrated with Good Arthur’s apparent go-it-alone, headstrong leadership style. My hunch says there will be no heroes in this latest round of the Demoulas family feud. …. Back to Shirley’s excellent piece: money and family succession are ultimately at the heart of this battle. You can bet on it. … The Globe’s Jon Chesto has more on the depressing family soap opera.
Update – Some shoppers are vowing a repeat of the 2014 MB boycotts in support of Good Arthur, the Globe reports.
Update II – 5.30.25 — UMass Lowell business professor Scott Latham tells the BBJ that this time is indeed different. “From what I can tell, this is not going to end well for Artie T.,” Lantham says. “He’s not in an ownership position that has leverage. As far as a repeat of 2014? Not a chance.”
Update III — 5.30.25 – Even Howie Carr is chiming in: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s my position on the latest family struggles involving Market Basket. I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong in this new saga in the ongoing Demoulas family feud. My only wish is that Market Basket remain what it is today – the best, most affordable supermarket chain.”
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Boston’s ‘70s and ‘80s music scene: coming soon to a theater near you
I recently received a pleasant blast-from-the-past jolt when I learned that a local award-winning filmmaker, Vinny Straggas, is putting the finishing touches on a new documentary on Boston’s punk/new wave/whatever music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They’re all included: The Neighborhoods, Mission of Burma, Human Sexual Response, the Nervous Eaters, Pastiche, Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, The Atlantics, the Lyres and many more. … I briefly talked to Vinny, who told me he expects his feature-length “Life On The Other Planet” to be released around mid-September. He’s hoping to nail down theater locations and dates soon. ..Why the “Life On The Other Planet” title? “Because that music place we lived in long ago no longer exists,” said Vinny, an Emmy Award-winning producer who worked for years at WGBH. “It was like another planet.” … Screen shot above via Life On The Other Planet, where you can view the actual video trailer (scroll down).
Fyi: I played a very small role in the late ‘70s/early ’80s music scene as an assistant entertainment manager at the now closed MacPhie Pub at Tufts. I hired many of the bands mentioned above. I had a blast doing so. Such fond memories.
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Harvard roundup: ‘Harvard, Harvard, Harvard’ … ‘Bizarro World’ … The Destroyer … Lack of conservative views. … Capping foreign students (not of the shooting kind) … Standing by the snobs
As a selfless public service, I’ve decided to provide one roundup post of all this week’s Harvard news, screened and curated for all those tired of all things Harvard. And the Globe’s Joan Vennochi even has that angle covered, i.e. Harvard fatigue. … The WSJ editorial board poses a question: “Is Trump Trying to Destroy Harvard?” Its answer: Yes, unfortunately, for both Harvard and America. … From the NY Post: “Harvard President Alan Garber admits lack of conservative views on campus is a ‘problem’” It’s true. It is a problem. But as the WSJ notes in the previously linked piece: The problem requires reform, not destruction. …. Speaking of conservatives, Stanley Kurtz at the National Review drops the BS that the crackdown on Harvard is about antisemitism, making it clear it’s all about right-wing ideological resentment. I’m sticking with Steven Pinker in this debate. …. Trump has suggested a 15 percent cap on foreign students enrolled at Harvard, the Hill reports. It looks like the foreign students are obliging the president, requesting information about how to transfer out of Harvard, the NYT reports. … From Larry Edleman’s excellent Globe newsletter: “In Trump’s Bizarro World, kneecapping Harvard will make America great again.” … As a sort of financial coup de grâce after the research-grants kneecapping, Trump has announced he’s cutting all fed contracts with Harvard, reports the AP at GBH. … OK, another piece from the Globe, this one from a rural-Maine alum of Harvard who’s now proudly standing by the insufferable snobs who he had to endure while in Cambridge. …. And from the Harvard Crimson: “A Reluctant Fight: Inside Harvard’s War with Washington.”
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Healey gets it right on immigration. Not so Josh Kraft
This is interesting. As Gov. Maura Healey resists pressure by progressives to more aggressively oppose President Trump’s immigration policies, mayoral candidate Josh Kraft was jeered last night for vowing to aggressively oppose Trump immigration policies. … The Globe has the story about Healey. The Herald has the pretty amazing story about Kraft, who at a mayoral debate apparently thought that he could out lefty Michelle Wu. He thought wrong. …
The conclusion to be drawn? Maybe it’s not always a smart idea to snuggle too closely to progressive causes and tactics when it comes to immigration. There really are non-MAGA types out there (including yours truly and apparently many at last night’s mayoral forum) who actually appreciate the balance Healey and, it seems, mayoral candidate Domingos DaRosa are bringing to the immigration debate. They’re being pragmatic, something Dems desperately need more of if they’re ever going to defeat MAGA-ism.
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It keeps getting weirder: RFK Jr. may bar scientists from publishing in N.E. Journal of Medicine and other pubs
We’re living in truly bizarre times. RFK Jr. now says he may prohibit government-funded scientists from publishing in prestigious medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet and JAMA, calling them corrupt and controlled by pharmaceutical companies, reports the Washington Post and Stat News. He indicated he wants the government to start its own “in-house” science publications. … The NEJM is owned and published by the Massachusetts Medical Society.
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Sweet Jesus, what were Quincy officials thinking when they OK’d these statues?
Did they really think no one would object? A group of residents have filed a suit to block installation of two 10-foot tall statues — one of St. Michael, the Catholic patron saint of police, and the other of St. Florian, Catholic patron saint of firefighters – outside Quincy’s new public safety building, claiming they violate the state’s constitutional ban on promoting one religion over another, according to Boston 25 News and Universal Hub. … Forget the legitimate legal concerns or the fact the statues cost $850,000. One of the residents says the statue of St. Michael stepping on the head of a demon sort of looks like how George Floyd was killed. And you know what? It does! … The demon (see below) also looks like a Notre Dame gargoyle, a Middle Ages touch I’m not sure artistically works on a modern public safety building. I could be wrong.
Photos via Boston 25 News, which got ’em from the Quincy mayor’s office.
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So what is this ‘Abundance’ thing?
The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait has a good explainer piece on the so-called ‘abundance’ agenda pushed by some Dems who believe government has an important role to play but it needs to function better in order to get things done and provide true ‘abundance.’ … And they’re going after zoning laws that deter construction of new housing, the thicket of laws and rules that prevent major infrastructure projects from being built in a timely and affordable manner, etc. etc. … Think: Taking 11 years to build a new fleet of T subway cars in Massachusetts. Think: the Cambridge City Council recently approving landmark zoning changes to spur home construction. The former is an example of inefficient government. The latter is an example of reforming inefficient government. … So what’s the hitch? Who could possibly object to such common-sense ideas? As it turns out, many progressives, though not all, believe the ‘abundance agenda’ is nothing more than a neo-liberal attempt to weaken local citizen and activist power. Chait has lots more on the ‘abundance’ debate.
Fyi: The NYT’s Ezra Klein has co-written an abundance-themed book called, not surprisingly, ‘Abundance.’
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Super PAC isn’t going to save Kraft’s sagging mayoral campaign
So a Super PAC backed by New Balance chairman Jim Davis and other wealthy businessmen has dumped $1.4 million into anti-Michelle Wu advertisements around the city, according to the Herald and Globe. But unless I’m really missing something here, I don’t see it doing much good on behalf of Josh Kraft’s bid to oust Wu as mayor. Wu may be an ideological prig, but she does have a pragmatic side when it comes to winning elections. … Keep in mind Davis, a long-time GOP donor, plunked down big bucks to prevent Wu from becoming mayor in 2021. Didn’t do any good.
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Another little-known Revolutionary War event: The Battle of Chelsea Creek
Here’s more media coverage tied to the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, via the Globe, which dispatched a photographer to yesterday’s reenactment of the little-known Battle of Chelsea Creek in East Boston. … Some readers in the comments section express disappointment that the Globe didn’t provide more details about the battle. But judging by the lack of a reporter’s byline, I assume it was always meant to be just a photo-gallery package. Which is fine with me. I’m just glad they covered the event. … For history buffs, here’s a detailed description of the battle, which was more extensive than I thought. It’s also known as the Battle of Noddle’s Island, among other names, and much of the fighting did occur on Noddles. See colonial-era map above. … Also for history buffs: See GBH’s piece last week on the little-known “courthouse rebellions” of 1774.
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