The Globe’s Chris Van Buskirk has a good piece on the push to eliminate party primaries in Massachusetts – and how it’s dividing state Democrats. … Did you know that former Gov. Deval Patrick is among those supporting the shift to non-partisan primaries in the state? I’m impressed. But here’s a non-surprise: many progressives (though not all) are against the switch. In a way, can you blame them? They love the current status quo precisely because it gives them a disproportionately large influence over the state Democratic Party — a party that itself represents only 25 percent of enrolled voters and yet controls all six statewide elected offices and 11 Congressional seats while maintaining a super-majority in a Massachusetts Legislature that Dems have dominated since 1959. Today, winning election to an office in Massachusetts increasingly means winning a Dem primary, since the hapless MassGOP regularly doesn’t field candidates in general elections. So, yes, many progressives, such as Robert Kuttner, support the current status quo, even though it has contributed to 51 percent of all elections in Massachusetts going uncontested since 2014.

Do I think non-partisan primaries are the cure-all to the state’s current political and governmental woes? Nope. But it sure would shake things up in a state that desperately needs shaking up. I’ll let Danielle Allen, a Harvard professor and former gubernatorial candidate, explain the main pluses of scrapping the current party-primary system (Globe). … I’ve previously harped on our flawed primary system here and here …

Jaylen Brown should be praised for having his best season ever with the Celts. He deserves credit for leading a team that outperformed all pre-season expectations. He deserves to be considered for league MVP and All-NBA. He’s earned the right to be proud. So why is he being criticized by Stephen Smith and others for saying this past year was his ‘favorite season’? The answer: he committed a classic Kinsley gaffe by telling the truth. He wasn’t supposed to say or even hint he enjoyed the spotlight without Jayson Tatum. He wasn’t supposed to say he enjoyed being the team leader. He wasn’t supposed to distantly suggest, as many others have, that there might be chemistry problems when he and Tatum are on the court together. He blurted out truths. … And it’s those truths that suggest another truth: that, yes, maybe it’s time to break up the Brown-Tatum duo. … A Brown trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo? I’d take it in a second. For that matter, I’d be open to trading Tatum for the right price. But that still leaves us with the stubborn Joe ‘Process’ Mazzulla problem.

Update — 5.10.26 – From Perk, via the Globe:

I like Queta but I don’t think he’s a starter. They need to go find that All-Star-caliber big. If I’m the Celtics, do I break up JB and JT? No. But if a Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes available, I might have to think about it. Or if Anthony Davis is feeling some type of way as a Washington Wizard and you could package something up and bring him to Boston.

Re yet another proven Celts problem, there’s this from Gary Washburn in the same piece:

Of the top 12 teams in 3-point attempts this season, only five reached the playoffs and just two, the Knicks and Cavaliers, are still playing. The three teams that shot more 3-pointers than the Celtics during the regular season were the Warriors, Hornets, and Trail Blazers. Only Portland reached the playoffs.

Will someone in the organization please point this out to Stubborn Joe?

The new Emerson poll showing Seth Moulton within 5 points of Ed Markey in the Dem primary for U.S. senator is so out of sync with other polls that it’s easy to dismiss it. Except … except it makes a little sense when you drill down into the numbers and see Moulton picking up support from unenrolled voters – the type of voters the more moderate Moulton needs to win in a Dem primary and the type of voters he’s been courting in recent months (Globe). … Anyway, GBH’s Adam Reilly and the Herald’s Tim Dunn have more on the surprise Emerson numbers. …

Btw: the same Emerson poll shows the income-tax cut and rent-control referendums attracting big support.

Update — A reader wonders if the big bucks “Chronic Reelection Disorder” campaign (Globe) is helping Moulton.

— First Ezra Klein. Now Bret Stephens. Auchincloss seems to have a growing fan club at the NYT: “A Democrat Who Makes Me Listen” (NYT)

— Supermarkets’ eventual embrace of pre-made meals (particularly Rotisserie chickens) contributed to its doom in the end: “The last Boston Market in Mass. has closed. We tracked the once beloved chicken restaurant’s downfall” (Globe)

— It’s about the location, certainly not the home: “A Vineyard home is less than 1,500 square feet. It sold for $5.8 million” (BBJ)

— Another old New England manufacturer bites the dust: “Storied toolmaker closes it last hometown plant – and blames its tape measures” (WSJ)

— An excellent primer for those who have lost track: “Mass. voters might face 11 ballot questions this fall. Here’s where each measure stands” (Commonwealth Beacon)

— Birmingham, Alabama beat Boston? Yep: “Here are the best hiring hotspots for recent college grads” (Fortune)

— Actually, it might undermine one-party hegemony in Mass., which would be good for democracy: “How an all-party primary in Mass. would undermine democracy” (Globe)

— David Modica’s viral ‘doing nothing’ video goes national: “The Latest Hero of the ‘Yimby’ Movement Is a Massachusetts Man in a Hoodie” (WSJ)

— Barney Frank is never at a loss of words, even while in hospice care with congestive heart failure. As the Globe’s Bryan Marquard reports, the former congressman is spending his last days trying to steer the Democratic Party in a more pragmatic direction, using his credentials as a liberal’s liberal to warn that the party is drifting too far left and away from the political center. There’s so much to unpack here, but two things Frank says stand out to me: 1.) how moderate Dems need to more clearly criticize and distance themselves from crazy far-left ideas like defunding the police, etc. 2.) how moderate Dems are too often cowed by progressive threats of denunciation and primary challenges. The net result: moderate muddle on issues. … Fyi: GBH’s Adam Reilly also spoke to Frank about the same moderate-muddle issues

— Speaking of moderate muddle, definitely check out Ross Douthat’s recent NYT piece (“Slouching Toward Kamala Harris”), which pretty much describes the lame inability of Harris and today’s Dem establishment to connect with centrist voters: “Despite being on the record taking radical positions, Harris was never a radical politician. Rather, she was a perfectly hapless embodiment of a Democratic establishment that aspired to manage its base without ever strongly resisting its demands and that aspired to win moderate voters not by moderating on the issues but through a change of affect or a change of subject.” … In other words, as Frank might put it: The party establishment isn’t explicitly distancing itself from extreme left views.

— A classic example of lame Dem establishment moves? Propping up Maine Gov. Janet Mills, 79, to run against Graham Platner, 41, the latest fresh face on old lefty ideas and passions embraced by old lefty pols like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. In a Vox interview, Maine journalist Alex Seitz-Wald explains why Mills’ lackluster campaign ultimately collapsed – and it wasn’t because of Platner’s ideas. … Seitz-Wald’s description of Platner, btw, is  fascinating: He’s kind of a real-but-not-real blue-collar guy capable of “code switching” between his upper-middle-class upbringing and his adopted working-class lifestyle. … I.e., he’s a quasi-“gentleman oyster farmer” (my words), not a true born-and-raised “oyster farmer.”

— A recent UNH poll shows a dip in Gov. Maura Healey’s approval ratings, suggesting she might be a bit more vulnerable to a general-election challenge than thought, as the Herald reports. But let’s not suggest too much. This fall’s election is still Healey’s to lose. And the fact she probably will face off against a pro-Trump/Vance and pro-life GOP candidate, Mike Minogue, may make that likely outcome a bit more likely. WBUR’s Beth Healy and the Globe’s Joan Vennochi have the details on Minogue’s right-wing baggage in this bluest of blue states. Meanwhile, the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld is urging the GOP to rally around Minogue, saying he needs the time and room to counter the Healey/MSM narrative about his conservativism. 

Well, that was an easy headline to write. Fifteen months ago, I wrote a post headlined: “Dell orders workers back to office, donut shops thrilled.” Now Fidelity has ordered its workers back to the office – and all I have to do is switch the company names. … Presto! No AI assistance needed! … Anyway, the Globe’s Larry Edelman admirably admits he stepped in it last week when he wrote, in the wake of the Fidelity’s BTO edict, that “Boston’s economy would get a much-needed boost if more employers required workers to return to the office full time.” He’s now getting an earful from readers – and his own Globe colleague Shirley Leung. 

As a long-time remote worker, I might as well add my two cents: I’m truly sorry Al Capone’s closed, but I and other workers weren’t put on this earth to spend two-plus hours a day in traffic in order to fill downtown pizza parlors, Dunkin’ shops, power-lunch restaurants and corporate office towers, etc. Nor to help replenish the city of Boston’s depleted property-tax coffers. … Btw: I miss the Summer Street Al Capone’s, not necessarily the Haymarket Al Capone’s.

— Forget pastrami sandwiches. Where am I going to get my weekend brunch fix when visiting Cambridge?: “Oy, guttenyu: S&S Deli is closing” (Universal Hub)

— This is one way to get around the T’s obnoxious price gouging: “Scottish soccer fans aim to skirt World Cup train costs by hiring fleet of school buses” (GBH)

— Scott Van Voorhis explains the state’s half-assed clean-up efforts: “Why You Should Care About the MWRA’s Crappy Sewer Plan” (Banker & Tradesman)

— The unintended consequences of good intentions: “A Bill Aimed at Creating Homes Is Leaving Plots Empty Instead” (WSJ)

— The Pioneer Institute’s Steven Wilson unloads on ideologically driven school reforms: “The Self-Defeating Condescension of an Anti-Racist Education” (The Atlantic)

— What a flimsy excuse to oppose a tax cut: “Ballot initiative to cut income tax could raise taxes, eliminate charitable deduction.” (BBJ)

— It takes a Florida firm to see Brodie Mountain’s winter potential: “Closed Berkshire County ski area eyed for alpine village with 400 housing units” (BBJ)

— Talk about ridiculous micro-management: “Britain Has a Tiny-Window Epidemic, and Old Ladies Are to Blame” (WSJ)

— OK, this YouTube video is ten months old, but I just found it and it’s pretty amazing: “Massive Russian Assaults That Didn’t Go as Planned” (YouTube)

Even Dan Shaughnessy is asking the big question following last night’s Celts loss: “Could Mazzulla be the first man to be fired and named NBA coach of the year in the same week?” Probably not in the same week. But hopefully in the same year. (Assuming he wins the award; you have to wonder if the NBA is fiddling with the votes as we speak to avoid the embarrassment.) … There’s the regular season. And then there’s the playoffs. Sure, the Celts won the championship in 2024 under Joe. But they choked/collapsed in the playoffs in 2023, 2025 and now 2026 under Joe. They’re squandering a potential dynastic era by keeping the status quo in place.

Question: The analytics obsessed Mazzulla keeps talking about “return to the norm” when the Celts’ 3-pointers stop falling. But has anyone analyzed how long the average “return to the norm” takes to unfold – and the won-loss ratio when a team sticks to it too long without making adjustments? I mean, there’s got to be a mathematical way to show Joe he’s mathematically nuts, beyond pointing out to him the playoff results of 2023, 2025 and 2026. … And, yes, trade Tatum or Brown. At least entertain the idea. They can get some excellent players for one of them, hopefully a big man.

P.S. — The Hub Blog mind drifts to the Bill Belichick drama before he was finally canned by Kraft. … 

P.S. II — Meanwhile, Hardwood Houdini‘s mind drifts to Doc Rivers …

Update — From Brian Robb at MassLive: “Joe Mazzulla’s bizarre gamble backfires in Celtics Game 7 loss to 76ers”

 

If you haven’t done so, read Gary Washburn’s brutal take on the Celts’ Game 6 loss last night to the ‘76ers – and how a certain stubborn coach just couldn’t make the necessary adjustments. The result: We’re on the verge of a second epic Celts playoff choke in a row, following last year’s disaster against the Knicks. … A reader sends in a “painful diagnosis” from Hardwood Houdini and adds: “The Celtics have done the impossible in two straight playoffs: they’ve made me admire the Knicks and the 76ers.” 

Question: Can a finalist/actual Coach of the Year be fired shortly after winning such high honors? Answer: it’s happened before. … I doubt Brad would ever pull the trigger, but you have to wonder what he’s thinking.

Update — The same reader adds: “I have wondered whether Joe gets ‘Cora-d.’   Surely depends on the relationship with Stephens and the new owner and who knows what might be bubbling under… ”

Mass Save, the state energy efficiency program that’s morphed in recent years into an all-out anti-fossil fuel one, has seen its three-year budget grow from $2.8 billion ending 2021 to $5 billion in recent years, for a whopping 78 percent increase, according to the Globe. Now lawmakers are talking of reducing that increase to $3.5 billion in stages, a move the Globe and ‘advocates’ say would “effectively gut” the program. Really? Gutting a program by leaving it with $3.5 billion, 25 percent higher than it was just five years ago? Does this mean we might as well cut it down to zero dollars since the program is effectively kaput at $3.5 billion? …

Setting aside the “effectively gut” silliness, the Globe story is actually quite good, explaining how Mass Save has seen more than a little mission creep since the start of the decade — and seen skyrocketing costs as a result. … Mass Save needs to get back to its energy-efficiency roots. Look at the ISO New England power-usage chart below. Notice how total energy consumption (light blue bars) has declined since 2006, the year Mass Save started, and how peak usage has remained basically flat over the years (dark blue). Since the chart measures total New England power usage, Mass Save can’t be credited for all the recent savings – but it certainly deserves some of the credit. Bottom line: conservation in Massachusetts and across the region has worked.

Update –– 5.1.26 — The Globe’s Renée Loth uses the word ‘gutting’ to describe reducing Mass Save’s recent funding increase from a 78 percent boost to a 25 percent boost. … It’s a classic example of treating existing funding levels as sacrosanct.