Month: February 2026

• For Healey, it’s about Trump, not the economy, definitely not the economy

  February 3, 2026

  Thermo Fisher, Panera, Cape Cod Potato Chips, Zipcar. They’ve all recently announced job cuts and/or closing their headquarters in Massachusetts. And don’t forget all those people bolting the state for more affordable environs. So what does Gov. Maura Healey do? Hold a press conference about Trump’s immigration policies. The Globe’s Joan Vennochi has more. And so does, strangely, from a business-news standpoint, Howie Carr. 

  Fyi: Re her press conference last week, I should have also made the obvious re-election connection. I didn’t. But Joan did.

• ‘The Half-Billion Dollar Offseason That Rebuilt the Patriots Winning Machine’

  February 2, 2026

  Now this is a half-billion dollars well spent, as opposed to the corrupt half-billion dollars noted in the post immediately below. … Re the Pats’ half-billion, via the Journal:

  “All told, the Patriots spent tens of millions firing a coaching staff and hiring a new one, doled out more than any other team in free agency and began construction on a new practice facility. And the scary part for the rest of the NFL is that this year’s success hardly looks like a blip. Belichick and Tom Brady are gone, but the conviction at Patriot Place is they are building for a new dynasty.”

  Ah, dynastic music to our ears.

  Btw: From a HB reader:

  “(Re Mack Hollins piece at ESPN):  Reminiscent of the long gone long form stories that made ESPN The Magazine special. … I will avoid local news coverage of Drake Maye’s health boo-boos whilst acknowledging the reality that they have to write/talk about something. (But) I will not avoid analytics coverage from Barnwell and Aaron Schatz as long as we keep getting nuggets like this one. Not to get ahead of ourselves but I think two of the Patriot Super Bowl victories came against the teams on this list.”

• Selling of the presidency: Trump family nets half-billion dollars from secret crypto deal with UAE leaders 

  February 1, 2026

  They know it’s wrong. They know it’s corrupt. They know it’s far worse in scale than anything Hunter Biden ever did overseas. But you won’t hear a peep of protest about this among Trump supporters and Fox News watchers for obvious tribal/partisan  reasons. From the WSJ:

  “Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities.

  “The deal with World Liberty Financial, which hasn’t previously been reported, was signed by Eric Trump, the president’s son.”