Moms for Liberty got caught canoodling with the Proud Boy. Again. In stage horror, Moms for Liberty issued a press release stating “Moms for Liberty is in no way affiliated with the Proud Boys…”. Again. So let’s revisit some of the coverage of the Moms for Liberty-Proud Boys coupling—the one we know the Moms would never, ever engage in. Except . . . Here’s the latest evidence of the close relationship between Moms for Liberty and the Proud Boys, reported on November 13 by Robert Burns in the Space Rocket Daily, Moms for Liberty leadership Poses with Proud Boys and Flashes “White Power” Sign ..read more

The newly rebranded CommonWealth Beacon has put the concept of Massachusetts exceptionalism front and center lately with several thoughtful pieces about the quality of life in the Bay State based on the results of a brand new CWB/MassInc poll of Massachusetts residents. Michael Jonas’s Putting Massachusetts Exceptionalism to the Test asks whether Bay Staters can still claim that we are a “beacon for the rest of the country.” His answer, arrived at with the help of our own Professor Erin O’Brien and MassINC pollster Steve Koczela, is a mixed bag. Professor O’Brien points out, both in her discus ..read more

Click HERE for the CommonWealth Beacon story about Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s rejection of Auditor DiZoglio’s claim that her office has the legal authority to audit the legislature, with or without the legislature’s consent. Campbell’s analysis is entirely consistent with my earlier conclusion that DiZoglio’s push for legislative audit authority is a “well-intentioned bad idea.” The reaction of the Auditor, as well as that one of the progressive activist groups who supports her present efforts, however, has given me some pause. In his reporting, CWB’s Bruce Mohl quoted the auditor as f ..read more

A Citizens Guide to School Privatization Last week was the annual conference of the Network for Public Education and part of my contribution was an 18 page report, A Citizens Guide to School Privatization. I’ll be adding to it over time as phony billionaire “moms” and “parents” groups proliferate. For now it includes national groups like Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education, No Left Turn in Education, and others. You’ll find Christian nationalist funders like the Farris brothers of Texas and libertarian egomaniac Jeff Yass of Pennsylvania, and the invisible-to-Massachusetts-media W ..read more

Click HERE to read Professor Duquette’s CommonWealth Magazine op-ed about the state auditor’s effort to audit the state legislature ..read more

In the aftermath of the mass shooting in Lewiston last week, Maine Democratic Representative Jared Golden publicly acknowledged his previous rejection of federal bans on assault weapons was a failure.  His colleague, Massachusetts Representative Lori Trahan took to social media to declare his statement an example of “Courage in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Selfless service when his hometown needs it most.” Was it really?Joining Trahan in the praise of Golden was Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the representative from Florida’s 10th District. Frost said “It takes a lot of courage to go on na ..read more

Whaaaa! That is the sound Representative Matt Gaetz and seven of his colleagues made when they did not get exactly what they wanted from Kevin McCarthy.  The now former Speaker had the audacity to side with the majority of the Republican caucus to raise the debt ceiling in May 2023 (149-71) and again side with the majority of the GOP to avoid a government shutdown last Saturday (126-90). So Gaetz and his gang of merry children did what children do: they pouted. But Speaker McCarthy had already made a mistake many overwhelmed caretakers do: he gave into their unrealistic demands last Janua ..read more

Did Dianne Feinstein stay in the Senate too long? Yes. Is that how she should be remembered or how I will remember her? No. I remember Senator Dianne Feinstein’s election to the Senate as a part of the “Year of the Woman” in 1992 where four women won Senate seats. That this was such a big deal speaks to how poor women’s descriptive and substantive representation was in Congress — but two of 100 Senators were female and none were on the Judiciary Committee.  So, at the time, the election of four additional female Senators was, to borrow a phrase, a big f*cking deal to this teenage feminist ..read more

Fox News favorite “liberal” “Democrat” Keri Rodrigues is once again swaddling in love from America’s most penalized media outlet. This time Fox gets to use Rodrigues’ criticism of the Biden administration from the “liberal” position, allowing Rupert Murdoch’s $787,500,000-poorer outfit to get huffy from the left. Unless of course you know and acknowledge absolutely anything—a scintilla, a shred, a wisp, a shadow, a trace, a crumb–about Rodrigues’ Walton front the National Parents Union. Readers of this blog do know about NPU,  but the Washington Post, the source of Fox’s story appears to ..read more

Last year I published The Barr Foundation-Hostetter Political Team to set out non-profit advocacy spending by the foundation of Boston billionaire Amos Hostetter through 2020, then the most recent data available. Today I’m updating that with donations through 2021 and the addition of some additional advocacy groups. And no, uh-uh, fuhgeddabouditt, no way will you ever see any of this in the Boston Globe. Skip down to the table if you like, I need to do some preliminaries, first from last year’s post: First, a little political science. In Following the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Publ ..read more