Ed Markey owns two homes: One in Massachusetts and the other in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Ed Markey is a career politician in the Swamp. He really lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
February 25, 2023
Hello Blogger Dan Valenti,
I apologize for my constant political emails to you, but this news article:
https://www.nhpr.org/2023-02-24/once-supportive-of-epas-housatonic-cleanup-plan-sen-warren-now-calls-key-part-of-it-an-insult
.... explains that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has changed her alleged past support for the corrupt EPA and the heavily indebted GE company's agreement to "cleanup" the polluted Housatonic River from Pittsfield south to Sheffield, Massachusetts to opposing the stupidest so-called cleanup plan in the history of the world.
It is shocking to me that Ed Markey, who really lives in an upper-class suburb of the Swamp in Chevy Chase, Maryland, ran for reelection in 2020 on the Democrat's Green New Deal lies - see Joe Biden's July 15th, 2022, fist-bump meeting in Saudi Arabia with MBS on the global stage - but after Ed "Maryland" Markey won reelection in 2020, he has since supported GE's plan to put a leaky landfill toxic waste dump full of GE's PCBs inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River that is above the October Mountain aquifer. Even GE stated that their capped (leaky) landfills all have an expiration date in the future!
Ed Markey is in GE's pocket! Ed Markey supports GE's pollution of the environment in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. This is scandalous. Ed Markey is a bald-faced liar about his support for the Green New Deal. Ed Markey should resign over this life and death issue! To illustrate, please note that GE's PCBs in Pittsfield have caused cancer clusters there.
However, I am NOT surprised for Congressman (aka PAC Man) Richie Neal being a corporate shill for GE on this issue. He is K Street's ultimate corporate Democrat in the Swamp. PAC Man Richie Neal receives the most special interest campaign dollars from the insurance company industry, and he has received many campaign contributions from GE over the 1,000 years he has been in the Swamp.
I have always been disappointed in the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) for supporting GE's so-called cleanup plans over the past 25 years. GE last so-called cleanup in Pittsfield cost the company over $500 million. GE's promised so-called cleanup plan is without any financial commitment from the heavily indebted GE company. Where is the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) on all of these matters?
Shame on Ed Markey for supporting GE over the protests of the people he is supposed to be representing in Berkshire County, Massachusetts! When I looked up the term "Bald-faced liar" in the fictional dictionary, I viewed a big picture of Ed Markey.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 26, 2023
Hello Mr. Fritz, I get it. Similar to Tulsi Gabbard comparing Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler and his EVIL Nazi regime, I often compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and his violently racist and genocidal reactionary political party that led to the tragic Holocaust. Unlike Tulsi Gabbard, I - Jon Melle - never ran for the highest political office of U.S. President, but like Tulsi, I am a U.S. Army Veteran. What do you want me to write about Tulsi's remarks that Joe Biden is like Adolf Hitler in that he selects his bureaucrats based on their race and gender over their qualifications? My reply is that we should all live in a multi-cultural melting pot nation whereby everyone who believes in the rule of law based on Human Rights, national self-determination based on democracy, and liberty and justice for all who live in the U.S.A. should be accepted, tolerated and given an equal opportunity to live a good and rewarding life for themselves and their loved ones.
Joe Biden HYPOCRITICALLY slammed Donald Trump in 2020 over Trump's close ties to MBS and Saudi Arabia, but only two years later on July 15th, 2022, Joe Biden met MBS in Saudi Arabia and fist-bumped the dictator on the world stage, which upset the families of the victims of 9/11/2001, as well as the news media and family of the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the people who believed in the Democrat's Green New Deal more HOT AIR LIES. Joe Biden voted for the Bush 2 invasion of Iraq 20 years ago in the U.S. Senate, but now he is HYPOCRITICALLY denouncing Putin's Russian invasion of Ukraine one year ago now, and he is denouncing Xi's Chinese planned invasion of Taiwan that is predicted to take place two years from now in 2025. Joe Biden criticized Putin for being a dictator and abuser of Human Rights, but MBS is also a dictator and a worse abuser of Human Rights than Putin ever was known to be. Joe Biden, as well as Donald Trump, has a well-known 50-year public record history in the Swamp of him saying racist words and supporting racist public policies. All of a sudden, the multimillionaire Joe Biden wants us to believe that he is altruistically serving as the sitting U.S. President to fight for the soul of our country because Donald Trump is a racist. Joe Biden has been running for U.S. President since 1988, which is 35 years ago now. To me, Joe Biden is a corrupt politician who wins elected offices via his outright HYPOCRISIES!
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 27, 2023
Re: Joe Biden's 50 years of double standards has made Wall Street trillions of dollars
Please write about Pittsfield politics, such as the multimillionaire CPA Barry Clairmont's civil lawsuit against Melissa Mazzeo for her publicly accusing Mayor Linda Tyer's aforementioned third husband of political corruption prior to and during the too close for comfort 2019 mayoral election. How about writing about Massachusetts' new Governor Maura Healey reneging on her promise of opening up the state's "Cooked Books" to Sunshine Laws and related rules reforms in the executive branch? She must not want her career political colleagues in Boston to go to jail for all of their corrupt and secretive financial shell games over the years. How about Ed Markey making a mockery of himself and the Democrat's Green New Deal by openly and publicly being in GE's pocket by supporting GE's plan to put a "capped" leaky landfill inside of a watershed in Lee, Massachusetts, in the polluted Housatonic River that is above the October Mountain aquifer, while the people who live in Lee and Lenoxdale are protesting the dumbest, unfunded and would-be very expensive so-called "cleanup" plan in the history of the world?
I am saddened by WW1 and WW2, the rise of Adolf Hitler close to 100 years ago and the tragic Holocaust, and then the post-WW2 military industrial complex that has made Wall Street trillions of dollars at the cost of many millions of innocent lives around the world. The U.S. Government profits off of war(s). The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export is arms sales. The wealthy U.S. politicians give speeches about democracy, world peace and Human Rights, while at the same time they voted 20 years ago to invade a country, Iraq, with the second largest oil reserves in the world second only to Saudi Arabia. The U.S. politicians are comparing Putin to Hitler, but on July 15th, 2022, U.S. President met with MBS in Saudi Arabia and fist-bumped the brutal Saudi dictator and Human Rights abuser on the global stage. Saudi Arabia has vast oil and gas reserves so they can get away with the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks, murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and ruthlessly using the death penalty to instill fear and terror in the Saudi People.
Why was it O.K. for then U.S. Senator Joe Biden to vote 20 years ago for the U.S. Government to invade Iraq (for its oil), but it was not O.K. for Putin to invade Ukraine one year ago now? Why are U.S. politicians decrying Putin for being a dictator and Human Rights abuser when MBS has a much worse public record than Putin is known for when it comes to being a brutal dictator and a Human Rights abuser? The same questions apply to Xi's Chinese Government's plan to invade Taiwan that is predicted to happen two years from now in 2025.
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 27, 2023
My source: GE is "building a dump in Lee above the October Mountain aquifer". "General Electric knew since 1937 that PCBs are harmful to human health and still dumped PCBs in the Housatonic River and throughout Pittsfield, which caused generations of cancer and loss. People in Pittsfield want GE to take responsibility and clean up their mess. People in Lee don’t want a toxic dump in their community, especially not built directly above the October Mountain aquifer." "Today, GE has a net worth of $87 billion". - Letter writer Jennifer Zuker, North Adams, Massachusetts, who stated that she is a high school Chemistry teacher, whose letter was published in the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) on February 4, 2023.
Would somebody out there please explain to me how GE's proposal to build a capped toxic waste dump - sarcastically called a "Leaky Landfill" - full of GE's cancer-causing industrial chemicals called PCBs inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River in Lee, Massachusetts, that is above the October Mountain aquifer makes any scientific and environmental sense whatsoever? How in the Hell did the corrupt EPA agree to this proposed so-called cleanup by GE, which has made no financial commitment for the estimated one-billion-dollar project that will take up to 15 years to complete once it begins after the years of still pending litigation in federal court. Even the Massachusetts state environmental agency would not sign off on this would-be debacle of a so-called cleanup project.
Governor Maura Healey has an opportunity to fight the good legal fight by speaking out about this ongoing fiasco. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently spoke out against GE's proposal in defense of the local residents of Lee and Lenoxdale, Massachusetts, who are protesting GE's proposal to put a toxic waste dump in their communities.
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 1, 2023
Re: Billionaire John Forbes Kerry is a phony!
The Boston Globe published several letters to the editor today (March 1, 2023) from people praising John Kerry's role as Joe Biden's climate envoy to fight global warming. Two years ago, billionaire John Forbes Kerry owned millions of dollars in his personal investments in the oil and gas industry. The White House made John Kerry sell off his greenhouse gas investments so that he could serve as Joe Biden's chief propaganda minister for the Democrat's Green New Deal lies. On July 15, 2022, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia and fist-bumped MBS on the world stage. Where was John Kerry on that one? Twenty years ago, John Kerry and Joe Biden, as well as Hillary Clinton, voted for Bush 2's invasion of Iraq for its second largest oil reserves in the world second only to Saudi Arabia. Then there are the facts that the Pentagon is the number one polluter of global warming gases in the world, and the U.S.A. is the number two polluter of global warming gases in the world second only to China. Combined, China and the U.S.A., which both have huge military industrial complexes, account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's global warming emissions. Lastly, please don't get me started on Ed Markey being in GE's pocket with the U.S. Senator from Chevy Chase, Maryland (not Massachusetts) supporting GE's proposal to put a toxic waste - leaky landfill - capped dump inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River that is above the October Mountain aquifer. Ed Markey's support for the Green New Deal is nothing but more HOT AIR. The Democrats, especially billionaire John Forbes Kerry, are phonies on climate change!
Jonathan A. Melle
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"John Kerry has a planet to save"
The Boston Globe, Letters to the Editor, March 1, 2023
Climate envoy sets an example for us all
John Kerry sets an admirable and important example for all of us (“For Kerry, a world of work remains ahead: Voicing both optimism and urgency, envoy vows to stay in climate post until after summit,” Page A1, Feb. 27). No one would fault him, at 79, for slowing down at the end of a career dedicated to serving the greater good and spending more time with his family, including grandchildren who (like mine) will be living into the end of this century of climate change. Yet Kerry says, with significant understatement, “There’s sufficient unfinished business that I felt it would be inappropriate to walk away from that at this point in time.”
Most of us don’t have the position and influence of someone like Kerry, but we can surely be inspired by his example and by the urgency of the escalating climate crisis to do what we can each do personally and in our communities. As Kerry also said in his interview with the Globe, “there are real possibilities here of surprising ourselves.” He was speaking of the national and global stages, but we each have a part to play, whatever our age, wherever we are.
Ken Read-Brown
Hingham
The writer is 71.
Grateful for Kerry’s commitment to see this work through
I have always liked and admired John Kerry, and after reading Jess Bidgood’s article “For Kerry, a world of work remains ahead,” I like and admire him even more. As the nation’s top international climate envoy, he has taken on a grueling job. He has traveled to 30 countries to plead with governments to help stop climate change, and he will be in Dubai in November for the COP28 summit. We owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done in this effort and for what he is continuing to do.
Barbara Murphy
Milton
The urgency of the threat we face is great
Anyone paying attention can see that humans have haphazardly trashed the atmosphere enough to drive changes in our weather patterns. The earth’s temperature is rising, and it doesn’t take AI to reason that when the atmosphere and oceans are warmer, our weather will be affected. Storms, floods, and fires are more intense. Ice is melting, sea levels are rising, pathogens are proliferating, biodiversity is crashing, and it’s all happening sooner than expected. Those who are paying attention are rightfully horrified.
Scientists have known that human activity has been causing the earth to warm at least since James Hansen’s testimony to Congress in 1988. Now, as sure as the sun rises every day, they know failure to act will mean global catastrophe. Reason would suggest that nations would act multilaterally, proportionate to the threat before us. But alas, we are busy preparing for war, asleep at the wheel, unable to conceive of our future uninhabitable earth.
Kerry Castonguay
Leominster
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March 1, 2023
Hello Blogger Dan Valenti,
I love reading your blog, especially when you write about Pittsfield politics. I understand that my post about Pittsfield politics was lengthy today, but I wanted to point out how the city is failing the people who live there - our native hometown. When I posted my letter about billionaire John Forbes Kerry, I wanted to point out how the Boston Globe letters to the editor were misguided. When the Democrats, such as Joe Biden and John Kerry, spew their HOT AIR about the Green New Deal, I liken it to a heavy smoker going to public schools telling the children not to smoke. The fact is that the U.S.A. is the second worst offender when it comes to polluting the Earth with greenhouse gas emissions with only China, which burns a lot of coal, being the worst offender. Joe Biden is not working with other world leaders for peace with Russia, and he is being very hostile to China about Xi's threat to invade Taiwan in the years to come. It is the militaries of the world, especially the Pentagon and the Chinese military industrial complex, that is the biggest polluter of global warming gases. If Joe Biden really wanted the Green New Deal, then he and John Kerry would be working with the world leaders to establish peace with Russia, China and other nations. Please remember that the U.S. Government and Wall Street's biggest profits come from arms sales exports and war(s). Please remember that Joe Biden, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton all voted 20 years ago for Bush 2's invasion of Iraq for its second largest oil reserves in the world second only to Saudi Arabia. Then there is Putin's ongoing threats of deploying and using his nuclear weapons to defend Russia and its national security interests. There is no way we can fight an endless war against Russia, and there is no way we can possibly fight Russia itself without the threat of nuclear war. The same goes with China. We need to start working with world leaders for peace with Russia, China and all of the other countries in the world. I love your witty sense of humor, too. Please do not post more than one or two comments on your awesome blog unless it is about the discovery of UFOs or the second coming. Thank you for making me laugh today.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 5, 2023
China invests billions of dollars into Big Tech and the news media to keep up their facade about how great they are. They may have even paid the think tank, too, to spread their manipulated information. Wasn't there another authoritarian regime in the 1930s that was all about propaganda? They even hosted the Olympics in 1936, and the EVIL dictator refused to shake the hand of a certain U.S. gold medalist. Blogger Dan Valenti - the man, myth and legend whom the Fourth Estate is named after - may want to differentiate between the propaganda that China pays a lot of money to influence us into believing that their country is on the path to glory versus reality. It would be like us believing that a certain past Mayor of Pittsfield's Rolodex and Renaissance propaganda made the city a better place!
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 6, 2023
Hello Blogger Dan Valenti,
I read your comments on your blog, Planet Valenti, today about NATO either going all in or not, that no NATO country was attacked and/or invaded by Putin's Russian military, that Uncle Sam is paying for NATO and Ukraine's war against the over one-year-old Russian invasion of Ukraine, and like posts.
The U.S. Government and Wall Street both profit off of war. The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export is arms sales. The U.S. Government has fought - either directly or via proxy - in endless wars since the end of WW2. Many millions of innocent people and Peoples throughout the world have tragically died at the hands of the U.S. military industrial complex since the end of WW2 (to make Wall Street trillions of dollars - BLOOD MONEY!). After the Cold War ended in the early-1990s, the Russian economy tanked, and the U.S. Government took over a big chunk of the Russian's market share of arms sales 30 years ago, which made the economy boom during the Bill Clinton administration; He was not a financial genius, but rather a U.S. President who sold more arms exports than any other U.S. President in U.S. history (during a time of so-called peace). 20 years ago, multimillionaire Joe Biden, billionaire John Forbes Kerry, and multimillionaire Hillary Clinton all voted for multimillionaire George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which has the world's second large oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia. In 2020, Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump for his close relationships with MBS and Saudi Arabia. On July 15th, 2022, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia and fist-bumped MBS on the world stage to ask the brutal dictator for increased oil. Two years ago, John Kerry had millions of dollars in personal investments in the oil and gas industry. Then the White House made him sell his personal investments in the oil and gas industry so that John Kerry could serve as the nation's climate envoy. The Pentagon is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The U.S.A. is the second largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China, which burns a lot of coal. Combined, the U.S.A. and China account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Government and Chinese Government have the world's two largest military industrial complexes in the world, which is directly causing global warming.
Please look at this big picture of hypocrisy, HOT AIR, and political propaganda. In 2020, Joe Biden received the most campaign dollars from Wall Street and K Street than any other political candidate in U.S. history. Joe Biden bought the White House from the billionaires, including John Forbes Kerry. Joe Biden doesn't want NATO to go all in or not. Joe Biden doesn't want to say that Putin did not invade any NATO countries. Joe Biden doesn't want to say that he voted for Bush 2's invasion of Iraq (for its oil). Joe Biden doesn't want to talk about him going to Saudi Arabia to meet with MBS on July 15th, 2022. Joe Biden doesn't want to stop bankrolling NATO because the Ukrainian war against Putin's Russian military invasion serves as a money-making cash cow for both the Swamp and Wall Street alike.
Let me be clear. Joe Biden was wrong to vote for Bush 2's invasion of Iraq (for its oil) 20 years ago. Putin is wrong to have invaded Ukraine a little over one-year ago. Xi is wrong for planning his Chinese military invasion of Taiwan in 2025. The problems and horrors of war are no match for Joe Biden's hawkish public record and public policies that serve to enrich both the Swamp and Wall Street. Joe Biden's Green New Deal propaganda cannot be taken seriously because the military industrial complexes and wars are the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the world by far. Until Joe Biden works on peace deals, diplomacy and a dovish public policy, then the Green New Deal is nothing more than more HOT AIR!
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 18, 2023
Hello, Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,
Thank you for your political email about Beacon Hill lawmakers doing nothing (but DISSERVICES) during Sunshine Week, which ends today. The other 51 weeks should be called "Cook the Books" weeks. Are you, Erin Leahy, really surprised by everything that you wrote about Beacon Hill politics in your political email today?
Please allow me to explain how corrupt career politicians operate state and local government. They pass huge spending bills via excessively high regressive taxation schemes such as the state lottery SCAM, and then they use tens of billions of dollars per fiscal year to enrich themselves and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough. How do you think Maura Healey won her elected position as the first elected woman Governor of Massachusetts? She "played ball" with the financial, corporate and ruling elites. Her spending bills are filled with more regressive taxation schemes so that Beacon Hill lawmakers can give tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks away per fiscal year to the wealthy.
Why do you think most people dislike career politicians? It is because they (do nothing but) screw us over time and time again, while they take care of themselves. The only way to change the political system is to vote out all of the corrupt career politicians, call out all of the greedy lobbyists, and call out all of the financial and corporate elites who legally bribe our elected officials. I hope that your public advocacy organization, Act on Mass, will organize a statewide grassroots campaign to recruit new political candidates to run against all of the corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill in 2024 and beyond.
Lastly, the Green New Deal is a lie. The U.S.A. is the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China, which burns a lot of coal. Combined, China and the U.S.A. account for a little less than 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in the world. I liken the Green New Deal propaganda to a heavy smoker going to public schools telling children not to smoke. I don't understand why people blame big banks and insurance companies for bankrolling fossil fuel companies when the U.S. Government is the single biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The only thing that the Green New Deal really stands for is more HOT AIR!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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March 18, 2023
Jonathan,
This was a slow week on Beacon Hill–even for Beacon Hill standards. Not only did the legislature opt against advancing any legislation, they also neglected to form a conference committee to finalize the time-sensitive bill from last week which includes funding for SNAP benefits and for emergency migrant shelters.
So what have our lawmakers been up to? Not much it seems, other than perhaps prepping jabs and zingers for Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast on Sunday. The breakfast is an annual tradition where Massachusetts elected officials of all stripes come together to roast each other. It’s essentially our own White House Correspondents Dinner, but instead of D.C. it takes place in Southie, and will be decked out with $583.50 worth of “St. Patrick's Day decorations and items.” The only way this breakfast could be more “Boston” is if the Dropkick Murphys were the house band and Big Papi was passing out mimosas.
Or, Irish coffees, rather.
Made with Dunkin’ coffee.
(Okay, okay, I’m done.)
State House Scoop
Healey’s Budget: further analysis, further disappointment
When Governor Healey released her FY2024 budget two weeks ago, it didn’t take much analysis to see it was atrocious: it proposes $1 billion in permanent tax cuts, effectively canceling out the net gain from the new Fair Share Amendment. Worse, nearly half of these cuts are designed to benefit the super wealthy. In our initial Scoop on the budget, we also noted the line items that seemed, at first blush, really great. But upon closer inspection, and some number crunching, even these encouraging line items are, well, pretty discouraging. As you read the following, just remember: it is a deliberate policy choice to spend $1 billion on tax cuts instead of goods and services.
The line item: $20 million to make community college free for residents over 25 without college degrees
The Scoop: This was one of Governor Healey’s first proposals as governor–a program she’s calling MassReconnects. We already criticized this program for being needlessly narrow; all public higher education, and especially community colleges, should be free for everyone. But more than just too narrow, it turns out this proposal is too… nothing. There are about 700,000 MA residents with some community college without a degree. If they were all to seek funding from MassReconnects, that works out to about $28 per person. If all 1.8 million residents with a high school degree and no college degree enrolled, that would allocate $11 per person. While community colleges are one of the more affordable less unaffordable options for higher education, last time I checked, a degree was still a little more expensive than that.
The line item: $2 million increase in funding for rural schools
The Scoop: Healey’s budget included $7.5 million in rural school assistant grants, up $2 million from FY2023. While this looks like a significant increase (36%), it’s still just ⅛ of what is needed–at least $60 million, according to a report released last year from a commission convened by the legislature to study the issue.
The line item: $130 million to extend additional SNAP benefits
The Scoop: Covid-era federal aid for emergency SNAP (i.e. food stamps) benefits is ending on April 1st. Without the federal dollars, Massachusetts residents who rely on SNAP will see their benefits shrink by an average of $160 per month. For many, this means reducing the benefits they have relied on to feed their families for the last three years by half, if not more, all while food costs are soaring. Governor Healey proposed funding to partially fill the gap when federal funding ends, but it’s woefully inadequate; Healey’s proposal would cover an additional $65 per month. Plus, the $130 million would only stretch a few more months. What happens to these families after that? We don’t know, but thank god we’re reducing the short term capital gains tax rate from 12% to 5%!
All eyes on Legislature as they decide fate of Boston rent control
After passing the Boston City Council 11-2, the fate of rent control in Boston now officially rests in the hands of (checks notes) a rep from Quincy and a senator from Ashland. On Wednesday, Act on Mass-endorsee Rep. Sam Montaño of Jamaica Plain filed HD.4216, which is the home rule petition to enact rent stabilization in Boston. The policy comes at a time of desperate need for affordable housing measures in Boston and all across the state. (I’m looking at you Somerville—I know my rent could definitely use some control.)
And it’s not just word-of-mouth rental horror stories; the Attorney General’s office released their 2022 Consumer Advocacy Annual Report this week which revealed that they received a record number of housing complaints this past year. For the first time ever, housing complaints outnumbered all other categories. But the battle for rent control has only just begun and advocates worry the legislature’s history of inaction on rent control is going to make this even harder.
In response to the dire need to address the Commonwealth’s housing crisis, earlier this week, over 300 people organized by Greater Boston Interfaith Organization took to the State House steps for a rally for housing justice in what one seasoned legislator described to us as one of the most lively and powerful gatherings they’ve ever witnessed. Housing rights activists, faith leaders, and renters spoke about dire conditions they’ve faced and made direct calls to Spilka and Mariano to take immediate action. Check out their campaign overview here, and help them keep up the momentum by answering their calls to action today.
Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
Take Action
Tell your legislators: Protect Fair Share Revenue
On November 8, 2022, after a years-long effort, Massachusetts voters passed the Fair Share Amendment. The voters spoke, and in doing so, we chose a fairer tax system that raises more than a billion dollars in annual state revenue for new investments in Massachusetts. Contact your legislators today to prioritize and protect both the new revenue from the Fair Share Amendment, and overall state revenue in general, this year in the FY24 Budget:
EMAIL YOUR REP ABOUT THE BUDGET >>
National Day of Action to Dis-Credit the Bad Banks
The fossil fuel industry needs money to drill new wells, build new infrastructure, and otherwise create climate chaos, and banks lend our money to the industry to expand. Our friends at 350 Mass will be organizing a protest on March 21st at 12pm at the Chase branch office in Downtown Crossing, at noon. (Chase is the #1 Worst Bank in the World for lending to the fossil fuel industry.) Actions will urge customers to move their money away from the "Big Bad Banks" that do most of the lending and cut up their related credit cards, and will let the banks know that we won't let our money be used to destroy the planet's ecosystems.
SIGN UP FOR THE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION >>
That’s all for this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, even if that means eating leftover corned beef and cabbage or nursing a Guinness hangover (or both!).
Until next time,
Erin Leahy
Executive Director, Act on Mass
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March 20, 2023
Our country was founded on contradictions. Most of the Founding Fathers owned Slaves, but they hypocritically fought against British King George III in the name of Classical Liberty. France and other countries of that era outlawed Slavery so don't give me the excuse that the Founding Fathers lived in an era of Slavery, please. During the Civil War, Abe Lincoln freed the Slaves, but he did so to keep European Powers from siding with the Confederacy, and he planned to deport all black people to foreign nations prior to his assassination. Abe Lincoln also signed off on the deaths of many Native Americans in the Minnesota Territory, as well as saved some of them from death. Prior to and during the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, the U.S.A. practiced eugenics, Jim Crow, a segregated military, racist immigration laws that discriminated against Jewish and Italian immigrants, and so on. While FDR successfully fought against Hiter in WW2, FDR refused to sign a federal law against lynching. Harry Truman is the only leader in history to use atomic bombs in a war. Post WW2, the U.S. Government has killed many millions of innocent foreign peoples, grew its military industrial complex, made trillions of dollars for Wall Street off of war(s) and arms sales, which is our country's number one non-farm export to the world, and is the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions second only to China, which burns a lot of coal. Joe Biden voted for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq 20 years ago. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world second only to Saudi Arabia. The U.S.A. is currently in an endless proxy war against Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine. Xi is openly planning China's future invasion of Taiwan. To me, it is the government(s) that has been and always will be the scariest of science fiction stories!
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 26, 2023
On Saturday, March 25, 2023, Putin announced that he will deploy Russia's nuclear weapons to Belarus. This comes after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin for his alleged war crimes in Ukraine. There is no way out of this military conflict in Ukraine caused by Putin's Russian military invasion over one year ago. There are basically two choices here. Either we find a way to sign a peace agreement to end this war or we escalate the possibility of nuclear war. Wall Street has spent many decades making trillions of dollars off of war(s) and arms sales and look where it has taken us. The Pentagon has an almost $1 trillion per fiscal year budget. The Pentagon is the single biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The U.S.A. is the second biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China, which burns a lot of coal. China and the U.S.A. combined account for a little less than 50 percent of the globe's greenhouse gas emissions. While war(s) and arms sales are profitable for Wall Street and their political puppets in the Swamp, it is unsustainable on many levels, including the escalating threats of nuclear war, global warming, and the many millions of innocent people and Peoples who have been killed by the military industrial complex since the end of WW2 in 1945. We don't live in 1945 anymore. It is 78 years later in 2023, and we need to stop acting like we are still fighting Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. We have federal leaders who are in their 80s, who lead like it is still the 1970s and 1980s when Russia and the U.S.A. were engaged in the Cold War. We are stuck in the past! We need to find a way towards peace and stability to stop the threats of endless wars, or God forbid, nuclear war.
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Saudi crown prince hands Putin his biggest weapon in the energy war"
By Melissa Lawford, The Telegraph, April 4, 2023
During his presidential campaign Joe Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia an international pariah. Then came sky high inflation and a war. In July, Biden swallowed his words and travelled to Jeddah to meet the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
But if Biden had hoped that MBS, as the Kingdom's ruler is known, would boost Saudi Arabia’s oil output at a time when higher crude costs were driving a surge in inflation, he was to be sorely disappointed.
Instead, in October, the Saudi-led Opec cartel of oil producing countries slashed output by two million barrels per day to drive prices higher. Now – heedless of an angry US president who has threatened unspecified "consequences" – it is cutting production again.
As Biden looks on powerlessly, one of the biggest winners is likely to be Vladimir Putin.
On Sunday, nine members of Opec + (a larger collective of 23 nations) announced a voluntary output cut of 1.2m barrels per day from May until the end of the year. This amounts to 1.1pc of global supply.
The move drove up oil prices immediately – and they will continue to rise. Brent crude oil jumped from $79.77 per barrel on Sunday to $85.02 on Monday.
Goldman Sachs has raised its forecasts for Brent crude for December 2023 up from $90 to $95. By December 2024, prices will have climbed to $100.
These prices will be the new normal, says Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst at SEB financial services. And it will inevitably translate into pain for millions of consumers through higher prices at the pump and greater costs in the shops.
The blow to the West is threefold. High oil prices will keep inflation up. The move signals that Saudi Arabia is turning its back on the West and turning to China. Rising oil prices will also undermine sanctions on Russia – where oil profits are about to surge.
Every $1 increase in the price of crude oil boosts Russian export revenues by about $2.7bn a year, says Benjamin Hilgenstock, author of a report on Russian sanctions for the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a think tank.
A $10 increase in the oil price will therefore increase Russian oil export revenues by around $27bn to $145bn this year. This is about 22.5pc more than CEPR had forecast before the Opec decision.
Western sanctions on Russian oil came late. The EU only introduced an embargo on crude in December 2022 and on oil products in February 2023. For the majority of last year, Russia benefited from high oil prices and its current account surplus hit a record high, says Hilgenstock. Revenues were just starting to come under pressure – until the boost from Opec.
“This is Saudi Arabia saying ‘hey, Russia, you’re our friend’. What they are doing here is siding with Russia and the Chinese alliance,” says Schieldrop.
“After the cuts from Opec, we are going to have a tighter market. Russia is going to be able to charge a higher oil price, get better income, and be more easily able to finance the war in Ukraine, which will indirectly counter the sanctions the West has implemented.”
The move is natural for Saudi Arabia because the majority of the future demand for its oil will come from Asia.
Other nations can purchase from Russia as long as the crude price is below a cap – this is necessary if they want to use shipping and transportation services from countries in the OECD club of rich nations and the EU. But countries such as China have no restrictions if they do not need to rely on these services.
Russian oil exports to China, India and Turkey have jumped since the war began. Overall exports in December 2022 were higher than in December 2021, according to CEPR.
Just as Russia rakes in cash, the West will be creaking under the burden of inflation.
“It is like a tax on the global economy. It works the same way as rate hikes, it has a slowing effect,” says Schieldrop.
Headline inflation is unlikely to rise, if only because oil prices were so high last year, but the Opec cut means prices will stay higher for longer.
“It highlights the Opec willingness and ability to control prices. That means that if we have an economic downturn, where some of the weakness could have been alleviated from lower input prices, that will not materialise,” says Ole Hansen, head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank.
Prices will rise in particular markets that rely on oil. “When it comes to sectoral sensitivity, transportation will certainly be the first under attack,” says Tamara Basic Vasilijev, senior economist at Oxford Economics. According to the AA, for every $2 increase in the value of oil, there is a 1p rise in petrol pump prices.
The cost of operating farm machinery will also go up, bringing further pressure on food prices, says Hansen.
“We have seen soybeans and corn prices rise since Friday,” he says.
The move is a major power play from Saudi Arabia, which has announced cuts just after America said it would not boost global demand by replenishing its strategic stocks this year.
America and Saudi Arabia have historically had strong links. Saudi Arabia is America’s largest foreign military sales customer. But relations peaked when Donald Trump was president, says James Swanston, Middle East and North Africa economist at Capital Economics. Trump took a strong line on Iran. Relations under President Joe Biden, who campaigned with anti-Saudi stance, have deteriorated.
“One thing almost on a personal level was that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has taken some offence to the fact that President Biden always wanted to talk with King Salman himself, rather than MBS,” says Swanston.
The Opec move takes advantage of the fact that US shale production is nearing a peak, following a long period in which fracking in the country drove prices down.
“Slowing growth in US shale oil since early December 2022 is basically a whole free card for Opec plus.
"Now they can more or less do what they want and control the oil market as they wish because shale is no longer growing crazily. That was a big, big change in the oil market. The next five years are going to be very different.” says Schieldrop. Opec has no fear of losing market share in the global oil market.
Opec says the new cut is in response to falling global demand, but expectations of a slowing world economy may well be overblown.
Growth is still strong in key importing nations such as India, and China’s post-lockdown reopening means global aviation is normalising.
“We are very bullish for global oil demand. I think global demand is going to continue to strengthen and Opec has good and steady control and they will keep the price and the level they see fit,” says Schieldrop.
“It does look as though the global oil market was in a balance and towards the end of this year might have had a slight surplus. Now, we will move into a deficit. There does seem to be a Saudi Arabia first policy,” says Swanston.
As China, Russia and Saudi Arabia move closer together, America is moving further away. Last year, there were rumours that Saudi Arabia might accept renminbi for its oil exports, which have always been priced in dollars.
Such a change would be a nuclear option and remains highly unlikely in the short term. But as what was once America's closest Middle Eastern ally drifts into the orbit of fellow autocracies, it no longer seems impossible.
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"Kerry & Transparency"
The Boston Herald, Letter to the Editor, April 11, 2023
The Biden Administration claims to be the most transparent presidential administration in history. Then there is Climate Czar John Kerry. He has refused to turn over operational documents requested by Congress. He evades direct questions from members of Congress. He ignores or slow rolls Freedom of Information Act requests. His departments’ budget and staffing are a mystery. He is apparently using his own Gmail account to conduct government business. He is spending OUR money, not HIS money and WE have the right to know how and where it is being spent.
Robert Perry, No. Dighton
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April 16, 2023
U.S. Civilian turned Traitor Edward Snowden was only 19 years old when he released national security intelligence information and data to the world. U.S. Army National Guard Soldier Jack Teixeira is 21 years old, and he is facing federal criminal charges of espionage for releasing national security intelligence information and data to the world. The U.S.A. has and still is foolishly entrusting teenagers and young adults in their early 20s with national security intelligence information and data. Edward Snowden fled to Putin in Russia, where he now has a family over there. The U.S. Government is losing its influence in most of Europe because the European overseas countries are dependent on Russia's energy supplies and China's manufacturing supplies. The U.S. Government protects most of Europe with its almost $1 trillion per fiscal year military budget. Joe Biden if facing the reality of OPEC's cut in oil production that will begin in 2 weeks on May 1st, 2023, when U.S. demand for travel will be heading towards in peak months. How much money will U.S. citizens pay at the gas pump to travel during the late-Spring and Summer months of 2023? I hope it won't be $5 per gallon per gas again like it was for a time during that same period of time last year 2022, which led to candidate Joe Biden breaking his 2020 campaign promises to stand up to MBS and Saudi Arabia's notorious record of Human Rights abuses and role in the terrorist attack on the U.S.A. on 9/11/2001 when the sitting U.S. President traveled to Saudi Arabia and fist-bumped MBS on the world stage before meeting with the Saudi dictator to beg MBS for increased oil exports on July 15, 2022. In 2020, then challenger Joe Biden took then sitting U.S. President Donald Trump to the mat for Trump's favoritism with MBS and Saudi Arabia, but the 2022 midterm elections that turned the U.S. House of Representatives by a margin of 222 - 213 in the Republican's favor and kept the U.S. Senate 51 - 49 in the Democrat's favor proved far more important than Joe Biden's campaign promises.
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 27, 2023
Hello, Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle),
I read a letter that refuted your rag (newspaper) editorial's LIE that technologies for remediation of PCBs-contaminated sediment don't currently exist. The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) has been on GE's side of capping PCBs in leaky landfills in Pittsfield and a would-be one in Lee, Massachusetts, for several decades. The capped landfills are all time limited. After the caps expire, which could happen on day one, after a period of time, the PCBs spread once more in the land, water and air. The capped landfills' flaws have been explained to the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) for decades.
The corrupt EPA and the heavily indebted GE agreed to so-called cleanup the polluted Housatonic River from Pittsfield to Sheffield and put a capped landfill inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River in Lee that is very close to the October Mountain aquifer. Ed Markey, who campaigned for reelection in 2020 on the Democrat's Green New Deal to save our planet from its warming environment, supports GE's proposal, which GE has not funded, but GE's corporate lobbyists have legally bribed Ed Markey and many other phony, sellout-career politicians.
Why isn't Ed Markey stating that the Pentagon is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world? Why isn't Ed Markey stating that the U.S.A. is the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world? Combined China, which is the largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world due to its burning of coal and other fossil fuels, and the U.S.A., account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Who in the Hell does Ed Markey believe he is fooling with his Hot Air from the Swamp?
Ed Markey and his colleagues in the Swamp are spending trillions of dollars, while telling the American People it is for the Green New Deal, but the same Ed Markey does not support GE spending more money on technologies for remediation of PCBs-contaminated sediment. Ed Markey's Green New Deal really means more Green for the Democrats in the Swamp, while the American People pay 40-year record high U.S. inflation.
Jonathan A. Melle
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Letter: "A response to Eagle editorial on Housatonic cleanup"
The Berkshire Eagle, April 27, 2023
To the editor: In The Eagle's recent editorial about Sen. Elizabeth Warren's letter regarding the proposed PCBs dump in Lee, The Eagle editorial board wrote that technologies for remediation of PCBs-contaminated sediment don't currently exist.
Thermal desorption has been known to work since at least 1997, when TerraTherm Environmental Services did a successful demonstration of in-situ remediation of PCBs at Mare Island Shipyard in Vellejo, Calif. More recently, in the 2010s, USAID successfully remediated soil contaminated by dioxins in Danang, Vietnam. Dioxins act simlarly to PCBs in regard to thermal desorption. This was done in-pile, which is more suitable to the Housatonic River contamination.
At a public meeting in 2020, Bryan Olson, director of the Office of Site Remediation and Restoration for the New England region of the Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed that it would be possible to remediate the soil but it would simply cost General Electric more money. His rough estimate was that it would cost $400 million more.
Let's keep the facts straight. This is a matter of money, not technical ability.
Sage Radachowsky, New Marlborough
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Letter: "I didn't like EPA's response to Sen. Warren"
The Berkshire Eagle, May 18, 2023
To the editor: The Environmental Protection Agency’s response to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which describes the proposed upland disposal facility as “an already damaged and altered area, abutting two existing adjacent landfills” and claims that “the UDF will eliminate the barren areas of the property and will be restored with vegetation, including the possibility of recreational use on top or near the UDF,” is at best a description containing half-truths that are totally misleading to all. ("EPA administrator says Lee PCB storage site will be safe for recreation once finished," Eagle, May 10.)
In their reply, they show before and after photos, the before showing acres of a “low-value, disturbed gravel area,” with just a fringe of trees along the border. They claim that the 75 acres contains very little woodland, when in fact almost the entire acreage hosts a 100-year tree canopy, a brush wetland and at least two vernal pools. It is a haven for songbirds and turtles. It’s a spot where I spend every Mother’s Day sitting early morning listening to the woodland music. Our neighborhood enjoys this natural resource, protected long ago by one of our great conservationists, George Darey, who fought many years to have it deemed an area of critical environmental concern. We all know what grass-topped landfills look like. Our children should not be playing on top of a toxic landfill. To claim that this area will be safe for recreational use while not yet having shown us their final plans is simply a publicity stunt and totally misleading to Sen. Warren.
Clare Lahey, Lee
[But the Green New Deal's "HOT AIR" U.S. Senator Ed Markey supports GE's proposal!]
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"Sad state of affairs on Beacon Hill"
Lopsided Democrat majorities concentrate power at the top
By Jerry Berger, Commonwealth Magazine, May 26, 2023
THE MASSACHUSETTS Legislature is broken.
It’s not as bad as Tennessee or Montana, where Republican supermajorities have tried to expel or silence Democratic dissenters. Or Oregon, where Republicans simply walk out to prevent the Democratic majority from conducting business.
But remember that $56.2 billion budget, including 1,566 amendments, unanimously approved by the Massachusetts House in three days last month? Unless you are a lobbyist or political junkie the answer would be a resounding no.
That’s because there was virtually no public debate as lawmakers worked in the closed-to-the-public meeting rooms adjacent to the House chamber where amendments were consolidated and voted upon in large tranches. And a similar scene played out in the Senate this week as that branch debated its budget.
The Democratic supermajorities in the Massachusetts House and Senate exercise power just as effectively, if less offensively, than those Republican legislatures. And they’ve been doing it longer. The last time party control of either branch changed was at the start of 1955.
Today, there are 25 Republicans in the 160-member House and just three in the 40-member Senate. The last time Republicans had enough votes to block a gubernatorial veto was 1991, when 16 Republican senators sat in the chamber – and Republican William Weld was in the corner office.
That lopsided control has allowed House speakers and Senate presidents to hold a tight grip on their respective chambers. They do it by rewarding supporters with choice committee assignments that come with enhanced pay.
And by relegating dissenters to the hinterlands where they are rarely heard from again. The exception? Former state Rep. Edward Markey – who parlayed his opposition to then Speaker Thomas McGee, who ordered his desk put out into a State House hallway in 1976, to a career in Washington with the campaign slogan “the bosses may tell me where to sit but no one can tell me where to stand.”
Successive leaders have simply just tightened their grips, often to an extreme. Speakers Tom Finneran, Charles Flaherty and Sal DiMasi found themselves breaking laws instead of making them. Ironically George Keverian, the one speaker who didn’t rule with an iron fist, is remembered by many as failing to exercise the leadership needed to get the state through a fiscal crisis.
On the Senate side, much has been written about the iron grip of William Bulger, or the inability of the more bottom-up leader Stan Rosenberg to control his then-husband’s interference with government business.
Today, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka follow what has become standard practice for most legislative leaders – withholding measures from the floor until they are assured they have the votes for passage. Passage is often on voice votes without debate.
That has made rank-and-file lawmakers willing to challenge leadership a virtually extinct species. Look no further than State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who tried to shake up both the House and Senate but ultimately followed the Markey model to higher office where she is still focused on shaking up the Great and General Court.
How successful she will be is an open question.
DiZoglio says her charge includes auditing the House and Senate, relying on a 100-year-old review. Mariano and Spilka beg to differ, citing the state Constitution that does not specifically include the General Court as subject to review.
Lawmakers have offered her considerable fodder, where committees often operate in opacity, even rejecting calls to list which members oppose moving bills along for consideration.
DiZoglio’s predecessor Suzanne Bump, herself a former lawmaker, initially sought to oversee the Legislature before deciding her office has no authority to do so. It’s a judgment that will likely be left for the Supreme Judicial Court.
But Spilka has seemingly availed herself of a legislative prerogative – shortchanging the auditor’s office in the budget process, although a Senate Ways and Means spokesman rejects the claim. The House chose a different route and the end result will not be known until lawmakers pass and Gov. Maura Healey signs a budget later this summer.
But it’s not all sweetness and light, even among Democrats. The House and Senate chairs of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy are feuding over rules and scheduling separate hearings in a power play over which branch is dominant.
So what’s the answer, if any? Journalists have long been the strongest watchdog over the Legislature, but the ranks of the State House press corps have shrunk dramatically over the years, particularly among regional outlets that used to staff Beacon Hill with reporters focused on local delegations.
Groups like the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, and the Center for State Policy Analysis try to fill the void, largely on tax and spending questions. But as the closed-to-the-public nature of the amendment vetting process shows, they face challenges too.
What can the public do? Budget debates in legislative election years are usually held after the deadline for potential challengers to throw their hats into the ring. And sitting lawmakers often have considerable stockpiles of cash to ward off potential opponents.
Legislative proceedings once aired on a public television station are now livestreamed. And anyone willing and able to find them will discover they can be incomprehensible if you don’t know the rules and the jargon.
Perhaps we need to recognize that supermajorities, regardless of party, can be as toxic to our political culture as narrow majorities that spin their wheels.
Jerry Berger is a former Massachusetts State House reporter who now directs the Statehouse Reporting Program at Boston University, which covers state government for regional news outlets.
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May 29, 2023
Billionaire John Forbes Kerry will save us all so that we will live in his 57-degree average utopia. When John Kerry flies over us in his private jet, we wave to him like he is Zeus. Like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden voted for George W. Bush's Iraq conflict over 2 decades ago. When John Kerry ran against George W. Bush in 2004, he was sarcastically called "Bush Lite". When one asks John Kerry what he accomplished during his time in the U.S. Senate, he said very little. When the news media files Freedom of Information requests, John Kerry makes Beacon Hill lawmakers look like they enjoy the Sunshine. Joe Biden took in more campaign donations from Wall Street billionaires and K Street lobbyist firms in 2020 than any other candidate for U.S. President in U.S. history. No wonder why billionaire John Kerry and Joe Biden are so close to each other: MONEY and POWER. In early-2021, John Kerry had millions of dollars in personal investments in the oil and gas industry, but then the White House made him sell his investments so he could be the Climate Czar. John Kerry owns many homes: Nantucket, Beacon Hill, Georgetown (Swamp), Pennsylvania, Idaho. During the warm weather months, John Kerry lives in his home on Nantucket, which means that he is rarely on mainland Massachusetts with the common people of the Commonwealth. Lastly, when one adds up Joe Biden's over 50 years in the Swamp plush John Kerry's decades in the Swamp, it equals a lot of HOT AIR!
Jonathan A. Melle
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May 31, 2023
Dr. Rob Moir's letter to the editor of the Boston Herald left out the biggest piece of the Climate Change pie: The Chinese and U.S.A.'s Military Industrial Complexes. China and the U.S.A. combined account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions because the two countries have the world's largest militaries.
The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export is arms sales. Last week, the news media reported that Joe Biden set new records as U.S. President for arm sales exports and the foreign buyers of U.S. arms sales exports being authoritarian regimes around the world that have no regard for Human Rights, Democracy, and so-called Rules-based institutions.
Since the end of WW2 in 1945, the U.S.A. has used endless wars and limitless arms sales exports to make Wall Street trillions of dollars in profits. The tradeoffs include many millions of innocent people around the world being killed over the past almost 78 years, a warming planet, and the message of "Peace through Strength" really meaning Blood Money.
That billionaire John Forbes Kerry is Joe Biden's Climate Czar exemplifies that the financial, corporate and ruling elites are the real culprits of Climate Change because all of the elites profit off of wars and arms sales exports. John Kerry should be called Biden's hypocritical HOT AIR envoy!
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Climate change contrarians"
The Boston Herald, Letter to the editor, May 30, 2023
A wheezing noise has emanated from Capitol Hill in Washington of late. It is a last gasp to stop America’s progress on the climate crisis. House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., recently said the following to Fox News:
“(Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry) was not confirmed by the Senate. He is not held accountable by the American people. He is skirting congressional oversight, and that is unacceptable. For the past two years, the Biden Administration has withheld information on John Kerry’s role within the Administration for the past two years despite the committee’s many requests.”
“His reported upcoming negotiations with the Chinese on climate topics, an action which he has done on numerous occasions, is inappropriate and potentially undermines U.S. interests and domestic energy security,” he continued. “Mr. Kerry’s continued engagement in shady negotiations will be met with intense scrutiny by the committee.”
Grasping for technicalities rather than addressing the most pressing issue on hand, climate change, the senior committee chair was surprised that the president and not Congress had appointed the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
Kerry has gone rogue with Congress to push a global transition from fossil fuels to green energy. He has jetted around the world and attended high-profile climate summits and diplomatic engagements on behalf of the U.S., all with little oversight by the State Department.
Rep. Comer sounded the alarm stating, “His reported upcoming negotiations with the Chinese on climate topics, an action which he has done on numerous occasions, is inappropriate and potentially undermines U.S. interests and domestic energy security. Mr. Kerry’s continued engagement in shady negotiations will be met with intense scrutiny by the committee.”
In May, according to Comer, speaking with Fox News, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was told the following by a State Department official: “Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry reports directly to the President. The Secretary of State consults closely and regularly with the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate to ensure policy coordination. We have established a variety of mechanisms and channels to ensure robust coordination between their respective staffs, including regular meetings between the Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs of Staff and other senior policy advisors.”
President Biden was wise to separate the diplomatic work of the State Department from that of climate change. China has pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. This is an insurmountable challenge because China is currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 28% of global emissions. The United States, once the worst, is today the second largest emitter, responsible for around 15% of global emissions. China can only succeed by working collaboratively with the USA by including American-built climate solutions and world-best practices.
Dr. Rob Moir is president and executive director of Cambridge-based Ocean River Institute, a nonprofit providing expertise, services, resources, and information unavailable on a localized level to support the efforts of environmental organizations.
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Sign up here to join Elizabeth Warren for a Town Hall in Holyoke on Sunday, June 25.
Here are the details:
Holyoke Town Hall with Elizabeth Warren
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Holyoke Community College Plaza
303 Homestead Avenue
Holyoke, MA 01040
Doors open at 12:00 PM. Event begins at 1:00 PM.
NOTE: This event will be outdoors. General attendee parking is available in lots R&S. ADA parking is available in the Visitors lot. Access to these lots is available via Homestead Avenue and George Frost Drive.
https://action.elizabethwarren.com/a/20230623-wfs-holyoke-event
"Sen. Elizabeth Warren to hold town hall forum at Holyoke Community College"
By Jeanette DeForge - jdeforge@repub.com - June 22, 2023
HOLYOKE — Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be speaking with constituents in a town hall style forum at 1 p.m., Sunday at Holyoke Community College.
The event, which is one of several she is holding across the state, will be held outside in the college’s courtyard at 303 Homestead Ave. In the case of rain, it will be moved to the Campus Center. Doors will open at noon and the general public is welcome to attend.
Warren, a Democrat who is running for reelection in November, is expected to talk about the June 24 anniversary of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and her efforts to protect women’s health care and reproductive freedom. She will also talk about other issues she is fighting for in Washington, including pressing issues facing Massachusetts.
Warren also wants to hear about people’s concerns and issues and will answer questions from the audience. Tickets are not needed but people who want to attend are encouraged to respond at hcc.edu/warren-townhall.
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June 22, 2023
If I attended Elizabeth Warren's Town Hall Forum, which I won't be attending, I would ask her the following questions:
Why do you support Joe Biden's 2024 reelection campaign after he raised more money from Wall Street and K Street lobbyist firms than any other candidate for elected office in U.S. history? Doesn't your support for Joe Biden contradict your stance on fighting for Main Street, U.S.A.?
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 10, 2023
Hello Editor(s) of the Boston Herald,
Billionaire John Kerry had millions of dollars in personal investments in the oil and gas industry stocks in early-2021 prior to Joe Biden naming him as the U.S. Government's first special envoy for climate. The U.S. Government's multitrillion-dollar military industrial complex is the world's single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S.A. is the second largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions only behind China, which still burns a lot of coal. Combined, China and the U.S.A. account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. China and the U.S.A. have the world's largest military industrial complexes.
The U.S. economy is based on the U.S. Government's military industrial complex. The U.S.A.'s number one non-farm export is arms sales to foreign countries. Joe Biden surpassed his predecessor Donald Trump for being the number one U.S. President in U.S. history for arms sales exports. In 2020, Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump for exporting and selling arms to authoritarian governments around the world, but then Joe Biden recently surpassed Donald Trump in that category too. The bottom line is that the U.S. military industrial complex makes Wall Street trillions of dollars, the U.S. Government billions of dollars, and K Street corporate lobbyist firms in the Swamp millions of dollars in profit.
What does "Peace through Strength" really mean in the 21st Century? The answer is Global Warming! What does John Forbes Kerry really mean as Joe Biden's Climate Czar? The answer is HOT AIR!
Jonathan A. Melle
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Editorial: "Put John Kerry on ice"
Boston Herald editorial staff, July 9, 2023
John Kerry’s hush-hush jet-setting days could finally be numbered — and that’s long overdue.
The FY24 House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee spending bill includes a prohibition on funding for envoys not authorized by Congress or confirmed by the Senate. That would be Kerry, who has told the Herald he “only” reports to the president.
“Over the last several years, we have witnessed a boondoggle of climate change spending, and our bill provides a much-needed course correction in several key areas,” said Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
What we’ve also been reporting is Kerry’s abysmal record with Freedom of Information Act requests. His lack of transparency takes elitism to new heights. Now the subcommittee, along with countless others, has had enough.
If Kerry is not going to share details with taxpayers about his office staff, his budget should be frozen.
It’s basic good economics. Would you pay for any service if you didn’t receive an estimate? A progress report? A list of employees you’re paying for? Supplies? Airfare?
Kerry has been living in the clouds he’s supposed to protect with smug impunity. He’s the nation’s first special envoy for climate, yet we hardly know what he’s up to. President Biden’s buddy-buddy relationship with Kerry is hurting all of us.
The Herald has an open records request for documents surrounding Kerry’s payroll and staff. The State Department has told us not to expect that payroll until October 2024, a mere month before the next presidential election.
Republicans, particularly House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, have expressed concern about Kerry’s position, saying he has been given the opportunity to bind the U.S. to climate agreements with limited accountability.
The State Department said funding for Kerry’s office was $16.7 million annually for both fiscal 2022 and 2023.
The Biden administration said in April it intends to provide $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund to assist populations in developing countries and small island states threatened by climate change.
So why isn’t John Kerry explaining all that on a regular basis?
There’s only one answer: Kerry considers himself to be above the rest of us. It’s below his lofty status in society to answer questions.
Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, Democratic nominee for president and secretary of State, serves taxpayers. His champagne-and-caviar clique could care less about the intricacies of his Climate post — but we do!
Freedom of the press is vital and we applaud congressman Diaz-Balart for saying enough really is enough.
The Herald has learned that Kerry’s appointment could actually run out before he said he’d share his office payroll. But the mess he will likely leave behind will still have to be cleaned up by honest public employees working hard to do the right thing.
John Kerry needs to be put on ice before it’s too late.
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July 10, 2023
Sarcasm: I received the original copies of:
The Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal, but most of the Founding Fathers and original U.S. Presidents were Slave Owners".
Andrew Jackson: "The Trail of Tears was a Nazi Germany-like genocide of the Native American Peoples one hundred years prior to Adolf Hitler's Holocaust"
Abraham Lincoln: "Slavery must be abolished, but I proposed the mandatory removal of all black U.S. Citizens from the U.S.A. after the end of the Civil War. I also signed off on the mass hangings of many Native American Peoples in the then Minnesota Territory, but I did pardon some of them for good measure"
The Communist Manifesto: "The workers of the world must unite to overthrow the owners of capital, but Karl Marx never lived in a Socialist or Communist Country"
The Red Scare: "Communists are evil, but when Karl Marx wrote his books on his vision of Communist Utopian Communities, Slavery was still legal and in practice in the U.S.A."
FDR's New Deal: "The Government must spend public money on the Have Nots to lift the nation out of the Great Depression, but FDR refused to sign a federal law outlawing the lynching of black U.S. Citizens, he interned Japanese Americans against their U.S. Constitutional Rights, and he was in the Oval Office when a ship full of persecuted Jewish Peoples trying to flee the tragic Holocaust in Europe was turned away from entering the U.S.A."
Post WW2: "The U.S. Military Industrial Complex will fight in endless military conflicts around the world resulting in the deaths of countless millions of innocent foreign people, the U.S. Government will make Wall Street trillions of dollars by always growing the U.S.A.'s #1 export: arms sales, the U.S. Government will go around the world preaching climate change despite the fact that the U.S. Government is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, as well as the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China"
Blogger Dan Valenti: "Philosophers of old wrote that the government is evil and that it is futile to fight the system, but the real bad guy is the former Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington, who was in elected office for only 4 years from 2019 to 2023"
Jonathan A. Melle
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Opinion Columnists | Howie Carr: "John Kerry’s jet-setting heats up House session"
By Howie Carr [howard.carr@medianewsgroup.com], op-ed, The Boston Herald, July 14, 2023
Boy, did the United States dodge a bullet in 2004 when John Forbes Kerry was not elected president.
That’s my takeaway from the testimony yesterday of the “climate czar” under oath in front of a Congressional committee.
As disastrous as George W. Bush’s second term was, Kerry’s presidency would have been a catastrophe. This isn’t a new revelation, but every time he steps out in public, Kerry just reminds us how lucky we are, or were, since obviously under Biden we have now run out of luck.
First of all, what’s up with his face? (And no jokes about long faces, please.)
He’s going to be 80 in December. But no wrinkles. What’s his secret? I have my suspicions but, like the Secret Service in its now-finished White House cocaine probe, I have “no leads.”
Still, what was that line of desiccated skin under both his eyes, running across the bridge of his nose? Is there a botoxologist in the house who can provide a clinical diagnosis?
And what about the private jets? That’s what those bourgeois Republican parvenus wanted to ask him about.
“We don’t own a private jet. I don’t own a private jet. I’ve never personally owned a private jet,” he said.
“My family owned a plane,” he corrected, as he so often has. Pressed on the question, Kerry elaborated.
“My wife owned a plane.”
As the GOP congressmen kept reminding Kerry, he was under oath. I think they got the blue-blooded Brahmin on two counts of perjury right there, just about the Flying Squirrel.
Is it not true, Mr. Kerry, that the Gulfstream GIV-SP in question was in fact owned by your second wife’s first husband’s trust fund?
Then somebody asked him how many times he’s flown on a private jet since he got this latest phony-baloney job.”
“Possibly, once.”
Again, Mr. Secretary, I must remind you that you are under oath.
The bigger news, though, was how courageously John Forbes Kerry is battling the climate crisis.
He is doing this in any number of ways. For instance, he will soon be jetting off to India to “follow up.”
He’s “at a point in the process of the meetings.” It’s part of “revisiting” all the same issues, a “revisiting within the process.”
The reps from Flyover Country kept asking him what exactly he was doing every day, and he kept babbling gibberish.
“We’re trying to establish ways to address the crisis.”
Can you be more specific?
“Let’s at least get everyone in the world to sign onto something.”
It’s all about the conferences, and always in those sunny places for shady people, as they say. Fine dining experiences around the world!
Kerry also likes to have “engagement.” (Preferably to some widow worth north of $500 million.) Followed by marriage with a very flexible pre-nup, and perhaps a new yacht, or at least a 17th century oil painting by a Dutch master.
The Republicans were baffled by how, if the climate crisis is so dire, why China is exempted until 2060 from most of the draconian cutbacks that Kerry et al. would so gleefully impose upon Trump voters by 2030?
Chairman Michael McCaul asked him point-blank why China was getting a pass, and whether he would bring up the issue on his upcoming vacation, er, junket, er, fact-finding mission to Red China.
“With respect to this develop developing,” Kerry stammered, before saying it confounded him as well. But as to actually raising the issue with his masters, er, counterparts, he added:
“Let me be frank with you, that’s not gonna happen.”
Of course it isn’t! Have you read any of Hunter Biden’s emails from the laptop? The customer is always right, and when it comes to the Biden Crime Family, the Red Chinese are the customers.
Dementia Joe Biden even says he’s John Kerry’s “best buddy.” And best buddies cover for each other, right?
One of those Republican reprobates on the committee mentioned how Kerry’s patron had called the dictator of China, Xi Jinping, a dictator. Did Kerry agree?
“He is… the major decider.”
Kerry describes the world’s leading dictator as the major decider. And of course he bent over backwards to talk about how when it comes to renewable energy, the Red Chinese butchers are ahead “by fathoms.”
Note: Climate Czar John Kerry testified in a hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. The subcommittee held a hearing on “The State Department's Climate Agenda: A Budget Overview by the [U.S. Government's first] Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.”
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July 25, 2023
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing multiple would-be trials on the state and federal level. Joe Biden is facing an impeachment threat from the U.S. House of Representatives, which would begin later this year of 2023 and run into early-2024. The nation is facing many important issues, including the possibility of an economic recession either later this year of next year of 2024, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine with escalating military weapons and threats that include nuclear war, China's ongoing threat to invade Taiwan in the near future, the Climate Change crisis that's biggest cause of global warming greenhouse gas emissions are the military industrial complexes around the globe without Biden, Putin or Xi calling for peace treaties, the debt crises in the private and public sector with the Federal Reserve Bank continuing to raise interest rates that casually lead to increases in bankruptcies, layoffs, and economic pain, the past 50 years of almost all of the income gains going to the financial, corporate and ruling elites, while the working class of 2023 makes a whole $5 more per week than their grandparents did back in 1973, and on and on and on.... I wish that I was a would-be U.S. President because I - Jon Melle - would call out all of these issues, along with calling Trump's legal woes and Biden being threatened with impeachment for really being a diversion!
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 26, 2023
Trump is facing legal woes on the state and federal level. The Republicans are threatening to impeach Joe Biden. Hunter Biden entered a "not guilty" plea in federal court today (Wednesday, July 26th, 2023), which will play out during the 2024 presidential campaigns.
Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are not good examples of leading by example and family values alike. Trump is a moral hypocrite who touts Republican Party values, which - moral hypocrisy - may be a perfect illustration of what the Republican Party really stands for in the Swamp. 2024 will showcase a rematch of Joe Biden versus Donald Trump that nobody wants to see.
Donald Trump should point out that in 2020, Joe Biden criticized Trump for: Arms sales exports to authoritarian regimes, which Joe Biden surpassed Trump along with every other U.S. President in; MBS and the Saudi regime that Joe Biden called an abuser of Human Rights and a Pariah state, and that Joe Biden would seek justice for the families of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks victims, but Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia a little over one year ago and Joe Biden fist-bumped MBS on the global stage; Climate change with Joe Biden spending a record amount of federal money on the defense budget (which is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world), along with Joe Biden approving the permits to drill in Alaska and elsewhere; Joe Biden calling Putin a KILLER and a BUTCHER, along with Joe Biden calling Xi as DICTATOR; the huge increase in the U.S. Government's national debt; Hunter Biden's alleged tax and wire fraud case(s), alleged gun form perjury case, child support case in Arkansas, and his Joe Biden's involvement with his son Hunter Biden in any or all of these legal matters.
Joe Biden has been running for U.S. President since 1988, which next year will be 36 years of Joe Biden campaigning for U.S. President. Joe Biden has been in the Swamp for over 50 years. Joe Biden will be 86 in 2028 at the end of his would-be second presidential term.
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 3, 2023
Sarcasm: Billionaire John Forbes Kerry's climate change statements:
"In early-2021, I - Jonn Kerry - owned millions of dollars in stocks in the oil and gas industry. But then I sold them to become Joe Biden's first every climate envoy of HOT AIR!"
"The U.S. Government is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world due to its huge military industrial complex."
"Joe Biden surpassed all previous U.S. Presidents in arms sales exports, including to authoritarian regimes and countries. Military industrial complexes around the world are the leading cause of human caused climate change."
"China is the biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions due to its huge military industrial complex and that 60 percent of its energy supply comes from the burning of coal. The U.S.A. is the second biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions due to its huge military industrial complex and 20 percent of our energy supply comes from the burning of coal. Combined, China and the U.S.A. account for a little less that 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions."
"Climate change is an important issue, but the only thing that really matters is that Wall Street makes trillions upon trillions of dollars off of the military industrial complex, the Swamp makes billions of dollars from arms sales exports, and Joe Biden's administration not signing peace treaties with Russia or China because it would cut into war profits. So much for the Green New Deal LIES!"
"Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry all voted for the second Iraq War over 2 decades ago. Saudi Arabia has the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. Iraq has the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world. I, John Kerry, spew the most HOT AIR of any person in the world!"
"When I, John Kerry, go around the world in my private jet and I speak to foreign people at climate conferences, most of them roll their eyes at me because I am the poster child for "Do as I say, NOT as I do!"
Jonathan Melle
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August 6, 2023
In Massachusetts, the latte drinking limousine riding liberals are given a pass for being unable to help the underclass and the vulnerable children who suffer under family poverty and community violence. The latte limousine liberals are socially liberal, but when it comes to the Almighty Dollar, they are just as greedy as everyone else.
The Boston Herald published two letters concerning the social crisis on "Mass and Cass". Meanwhile, Beacon Hill lawmakers are sitting over $7.22 billion in surplus state dollars, which is the largest Slush Fund figure in the over 400-year history of Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is being questioned over her so-called enemies list - like retribution in Massachusetts politics is unheard of? [Not by me - Jon Melle, of course!]
I read a news article that Governor Maura Healey will be making her first trip to Nantucket as the state's chief executive officer:
"Governor Maura Healey will be on Nantucket later this month to attend a political fundraiser that will be hosted by the island's Democratic state representatives [- along with the fictional Massachusetts State Representative named Sellout Shakedown and his greedy lobbyist friend named Dan Bosley, who is a state pensioner].
The reception is being held on Saturday, Aug. 19th [2023] at the island home of Ken Jarin and Robin Wiessmann, according to an invitation obtained by the Current. Tickets to attend the event range from $500 to $5,000."
Isn't Nantucket the wealthy island that billionaire John Forbes Kerry spends his summers on? When John Kerry is sighted on the non-island parts of Massachusetts during the summer, people sarcastically say that John Kerry was sighted on the mainland, but lately he has been flying in the sky in his private jet like he is Zeus. But rather than bolts of thunder, John Kerry spews HOT AIR to the world, which earns John Kerry eye rolls after eye rolls after eye rolls....
Joe Biden is known to summer on the islands off of Cape Cod, too. The 46th U.S. President vacations in the home(s) of his billionaire campaign donors. Joe Biden has raised more money from Wall Street and K Street in the Swamp - along with China, Ukraine and other foreign nations - than any other politician in U.S. history. Elizabeth Warren must be proud of Joe Biden's lucrative campaign coffers because (sarcasm:) she stands for Main Street U.S.A.
I wonder if the "Mass and Cass" social crisis was located in a red state city instead of Boston, what would the liberal establishment write more about the ongoing humanitarian crisis? But Boston is dominated by Democratic Party politicians so "Mass and Cass" is given a free pass for being unsolvable to Michelle Wu, Maura Healey, Elizabeth Warren, HOT AIR Ed Markey of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and our probably one-term sitting U.S. President Joe Biden.
Those latte limousine liberals! All of them sure fit the definition and the illustration of GREED!
Jonathan A. Melle
Letters to the editor, By Boston Herald editorial staff, August 6, 2023
Mass and Cass
I agree that something must be done sooner rather than later over the malignant presence of the Mass and Cass homeless encampment (“Time to act on Mass & Cass,” Boston Herald, Aug. 1). Actions always speak louder than words.
What once was an encampment along Melnea Cass Boulevard and across Mass. Ave. on the highway ramp headed north and south has now metastized over to Southampton Street, Atkinson Street, up to Clifford Park and seemingly on hold at Edward Everett Square by the giant pear at Columbia Road. Apparently, the city takes some action but then disappears and only returns when the numbers of homelessness swell up again as they always do.
You can’t seek a solution until you understand why the homeless keep returning to the same place over and over again.
Is the homeless crisis really about not having enough places for folks to live? Or are there a multitude of factors like substance abuse and mental illness that have created so many folks choosing to live on the streets rather than seek or accept housing?
When I first heard of the proposed creation of a floating hospital-like solution I opposed it. However, at this point in time, it might be the only thing to do. There is no rebuilding of a Long Island facility any time soon. Not only would a new bridge need to be built but then the whole infrastructure out on the island would need rebuilding.
The choice is clear. Do nothing and nothing changes at Mass & Cass. Maybe, a floating treatment center/housing proposal might just work at least for now until the powers-that-be can come up with any other kind of plan.
I am an optimist, I believe that if Boston’s business community and Boston’s political class actually sat down together, we might see new ways of tackling this homeless street people crisis. We have a collection of problems to be solved.
Stop the sound bites and photo opps. The time is now to broach the idea of going back to the future with floating hospitals. This could be the solution or at least bring us closer to the solution.
As the Boston Herald editorialized, “…the status quo along Mass & Cass does not need to be the norm.” It should not be the norm.
Sal Giarratani
East Boston
Sound the alarm?
What does it matter (‘Sound the Alarm,’ Aug. 03). This (Mass and Cass) has been going on way too long and if we “sound the alarm” we are only going to hear political posturing. The local politicians are never going to really address this issue, just politicize it.
Now I am not a big fan of Michelle Wu but what is Maura Healey’s responsibility with this issue? As far as I can remember she is the Governor of Massachusetts which includes Boston, unless that has changed.
Also, don’t we have two senators that oversee Massachusetts? Sorry, it is not involving climate change so they want nothing to do with it.
This is one of the easiest problems to solve and as you can see the politicians have no plan to solve it, just keep using it to get more federal money.
Michael Westen
Malden
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"Continue successful strategies at Mass. and Cass"
Letter, The Boston Globe, August 9, 2023
Mayor Michelle Wu says conditions at Mass. and Cass have reached a “new level of public safety alarm” and plans “‘to take a major step’ to address safety threats in the neighborhood” but has not yet elaborated (“Wu sounds alarm on Mass. Cass,” Page A1, Aug. 3). Meanwhile, public officials have called for increased law enforcement intervention and a warrant sweep, saying “it requires a public health and safety response” (”Criminals city’s focus for Mass. and Cass,” Page A1, Aug. 4).
Increased criminalization of people with substance use disorders increases risk of overdose, disrupts treatment plans and services, and hinders housing opportunities. Instead, resources should be devoted to transitional and permanent housing options and harm reduction and treatment programs. Tania Del Rio, director of the Mass. and Cass Response Team, noted the success of this approach, saying, “nearly half the people who were originally living at Mass. and Cass when Wu came to office have moved through transitional housing to permanent housing,” ultimately reducing the number of tenants at Mass. and Cass. Wu also notes the success of the services offered in the area as a reason why people stay close by.
It is not the time to diverge from methods with proven success. We need commitment to evidence-based public health approaches that center community treatment and housing.
Amelia Caramadre
Boston
The writer is is a legal fellow for the Action Lab at Northeastern University School of Law and a member of the Massachusetts Rights Coalition for Health.
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Letter: "Disappointed but undaunted by appeals court ruling on Housatonic cleanup plan"
The Berkshire Eagle, August 10, 2023
To the editor: While we are saddened by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit's ruling against the Housatonic River Initiative and the Housatonic Environmental Action League, it did not come unexpectedly. ("A federal appeals court rejects challenge by environmental groups to the Housatonic River cleanup plan, including a landfill in Lee. Activists say they'll keep fighting," Eagle, July 26.)
Having fought against the injustices of General Electric to our environment and health and safety of our communities, we have seen an erosion of our legal system that supports wealth and power at the sacrifice of our citizens. It is well known that judges are chosen these days based more by political positions than legal accomplishment. The luck of the draw was that the appeal was in front of a judiciary that has past decisions that clearly supported industry rather than citizens.
The agreement, which allows for a toxic dump in Lee, was created under secret negotiations by an individual appointed and paid by the Environmental Protection Agency who, I believe, should not have been selected. The agreement violated many citizen protections such as local citizen involvement and environmental justice tenets of both Massachusetts and the United States. A handful of representatives from the affected towns along the Housatonic “surprisingly” chose Lee, which is considered the less affluent community of the group, to be the locale of the dump. Lee residents never stood a chance to fight this injustice.
More importantly, the politicians and even the media who support the agreement suffer from willful ignorance where they purposely ignore the science which warrants a more thorough cleanup than offered and the problematic results of creating a toxic dump in Lee. Such dumps can eventually fail, considering the products used as liners rarely have warranties greater than 30 years, and I believe this one will fail based on the original decision by the EPA in the 2016 CMS as to why this Lee location was considered to be problematic.
I stand with HRI and HEAL, and we will continue to demand improvements to the Rest of River cleanup decision, including more removal of the toxic PCBs from the river, use of alternative technologies to treat and remove PCBs from the river, its banks and the properties along the river. We will also continue to fight against the decision of locating the dump in Lee or elsewhere in Berkshire County and will gather support to have the dump deconstructed when the technology warrants it.
Charles P. Cianfarini, Pittsfield
The writer is the interim executive director of Citizens for PCB Removal.
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August 10, 2023
Re: Re: The real Ed Markey of Chevy Chase MD's environmental record!
Ed Markey supports GE's plan to put a toxic waste dump full of industrial chemicals called PCBs in Lee, Massachusetts. The capped "leaky landfill" would-be inside of a watershed in the Housatonic River that is too close to the October Mountain aquifer. Capped "leaky landfills" only last for a temporary period of time, and they must be monitored from day one.
How on Earth is Ed Markey getting a free pass on siding with GE over the environmental health and safety of the people of Lee and Lenoxdale, Massachusetts?
Other corrupt career politicians who support GE's unfunded commitment to clean-up the polluted Housatonic River include, but are not limited to, PAC Man Richie Neal (D- K Street lobbyist firms in the Swamp), Smitty Pignatelli who represents these aforementioned towns on Beacon Hill, among others.
If there is any worth in journalism anymore, would someone out there please do a front-page news story and editorial about Ed Markey (D- Chevy Chase, Maryland)'s support for GE over the environment?
Jonathan A. Melle
(My mother who was born, grew up and lived in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and who was exposed to GE's cancer-causing industrial chemicals called PCBs is one of thousands of Pittsfield residents who suffers from and probably will pass away from Stage 4 cancer for life).
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August 17th, 2023
Re: Does GE toady Clarence Fanto have a conscience?
Predictably, GE toady Clarence Fanto wrote and published an op-ed affirming GE's proposed so-called cleanup of the polluted Housatonic River from Pittsfield to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I wonder: Does GE toady Clarence Fanto have a conscience?
GE plans to dredge the polluted Housatonic River and place tons of GE's industrial chemical waste called PCBs in a capped "leaky landfill" toxic waste dump in Lee, Massachusetts, which borders Lenoxdale, Massachusetts. The capped leaky landfill would be placed inside of a watershed in the Housatonic River, which is too close to the October Mountain aquifer. Capped landfills do not last long, and they must be monitored from day one to assess the level of pollution that may leak into the environment.
GE is a heavily indebted company that has made no financial commitment to funding the so-called cleanup project that is said to last 15 years once it begins after many years of litigation. GE spent over $500 million supposedly cleaning up parts of Pittsfield's PCBs sites. GE said the cleanup costs - not adjusted for inflation - will cost GE $576 million, which is most likely a lowball financial number.
How anyone out there such as the banal scribe named Clarence Fanto could write an op-ed supporting GE's unfunded and flawed cleanup project and putting a toxic waste capped landfill in Lee is beyond my comprehension, unless Clarence Fanto has no conscience!
Jonathan A. Melle
P.S. Ed Markey and PAC Man Richie Neal supports GE's proposal, as well as Lenox State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, among many other corrupt career politicians and governmental bureaucrats.
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Clarence Fanto: "For the Rest of River PCB cleanup agreement, facts outweigh 'alternative reality'"
By Clarence Fanto, op-ed, The Berkshire Eagle, August 17, 2023
LEE — The recent U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that green-lit the GE-Environmental Protection Agency Rest of River PCB cleanup plan from southeast Pittsfield to Great Barrington is likely to be the last word on the mediated settlement.
The July 25 decision found that the EPA did not "act arbitrarily or capriciously" when it issued the revised work permit that GE must follow, including “hybrid disposal” of PCB waste.
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"As inflation punishes Americans, Joe Biden lies and lies and lies"
NY Post Editorial Board, August 20, 2023
President Joe Biden is in the middle of a victory tour over his supposed economic successes — but the numbers keep showing his arguments for Bidenomics are pure disinformation.
“It’s working,” he crowed Tuesday to an audience in Milwaukee on a re-election campaign tour stop.
Not, it’s not.
For starters: Average Americans are spending $709 more per month on everyday goods and services like food than they were two years ago.
That’s an eye-watering $8,508 yearly bump.
Indeed, inflation since Biden took office totals 15%. Focus on daily essentials (like food, power bills, mortgages), and prices are up almost 25%.
Have wages and salaries kept pace? That’s a big no: They’ve risen less than inflation in all but two of the past 22 months.
Blame Biden’s drunken-sailor spending, which sent an already hot economy into an inflation conflagration after he and his enablers dismissed and denied growing concerns — including from liberal economists — that Democrats’ American Recovery Act risked spiraling price hikes.
Yet for all the damage done, Team Biden can’t stop lying about it: Last week, for example, the White House bragged that the Inflation Reduction Act — the greatest misnomer in legislative history — is “already having a significant impact on American workers and families.”
Yet, in the same week, Biden admitted the IRA was actually all about green subsidies.
And he’s still aiming for inflation-feeding giveaways with his continuing effort to cancel billions in student debt — which is also a direct wealth transfer from the less affluent and less educated to the more affluent and more educated.
Biden’s lies on the economy are nothing new.
Witness his February claim that “We created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term.”
No: Those were jobs lost to COVID policy overreactions that came back during the long and tepid employment recovery he oversaw.
Seems the overall Biden strategy here just to lie and lie and lie as liberal journos seal-clap, and figure everyday voters will buy it.
Huge mistake: Every trip to buy milk or fill the tank proves what a disaster Bidenomics has been.
Then again, Joe and his advisers don’t see that because they all have little people to do the shopping for them.
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November 12, 2023
Donald Trump wrote: The FART of the STEAL: Josef Stolen & Commie Harris
Hunter Biden wrote: I used to smoke crack cocaine every 15 minutes and have sex with prostitutes: How I bankrolled the Big Guy's presidential ambitions from China, Russia and Ukraine
Billionaire John Kerry wrote: In early-2021, I used to own millions of dollars in stock investments in the oil and gas industry, but now I am the nation's first ever Climate Envoy
Joe Biden wrote: The Green New Deal really allows China to burn more and more fossil fuels; Please do not forget that I voted for the second (oil rich) Iraq Conflict in the early-2000's along with John Kerry and Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton wrote: Stand by your man: Bill Clinton has a Cheating Heart and 26 flight logs on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet
Sarcasm: I wrote a book: The 2024 election: The Party of Moral Hypocrites versus The Party of HOT AIR Buffoons!
Jonathan A. Melle
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Letter: "Other towns realizing why Lee doesn't want PCBs"
The Berkshire Eagle, November 17, 2023
To the editor: Special thanks for printing the answer to Sal Angelo’s letter to the editor ("Letter: Where were you when it mattered," Eagle, Nov. 10) in bold headlines right on the front page of the same edition. ("GE funds flowing to coffers," Eagle, Nov 10.)
The Lenox Select Board chairman, along with neighboring select boards' members and Mass Audubon directors, had their heads in the sand counting dirty money they’d be receiving from agreeing to dump PCBs in Lee and Lenox Dale (not to be confused with Lenox, even though folks in "the dale" pay taxes to Lenox).
Now, apparently, neighboring town officials are worried about the trucks transporting and dripping contaminated river water on their country roads. I often wonder what the outcome would have been if the proposed dump site was in Lenox on the field across from Tanglewood or in Stockbridge on the former DeSisto School property? How about a dump site adjacent to Mass Audubon? Since General Electric and the the Environmental Protection Agency have determined the seven-layer dump liner to be safe for humans, surely the wildlife in the sanctuary will be as safe as us who live in the dale and in Lee.
Money talks, and evidently GE has plenty to hand out to towns being affected by PCBs from Pittsfield. How can anyone believe transporting and burying toxic waste is a good idea? Certainly not those of us who live in Lee and Lenox Dale.
Carol Way, Lee
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Letter: "A cost-benefit analysis of the GE money coming to Stockbridge"
The Berkshire Eagle, November 17, 2023
To the editor: Stockbridge received $1.6 million of General Electric settlement funds. ("GE just wrote large checks to the Rest of River towns," Eagle, Nov. 10.)
Let’s remember what this is: compensation for impacts from GE’s poisoning of the Housatonic.
GE opposes improvements to reduce PCB runoff. Why? Money.
GE opposed the 2016 settlement that would have safely incinerated dredged PCBs, resulting in the 2019 agreement that leaves these PCBs atop of liners at the Lee dump with the scientific-sounding name “upland disposal facility.” Why? Money.
GE opposes efforts to use trains to keep more than 60,000 truckloads of PCBs off our streets, unless someone else pays. Why? Money.
GE’s CEO was paid $22 million the year after he saved GE $200 million by tanking the preferred cleanup. GE’s market cap is $121 billion, with profits of $9 billion on revenue of $80 billion. The additional cost of the 2016 plan would have represented just 0.1 percent of its net worth, or just 2 percent of a year’s profits.
Growing up, my best friend Steve lived on Cherry Street about 100 feet from the river. He died of a rare throat cancer. My friend D. lived across from him and got the same cancer. We’ve had cancer clusters all along the Housatonic starting in Pittsfield and heading south.
Thankfully, Stockbridge parents are more aware of PCBs than ours were in the 1960s and 1970s. Thankfully, these parents don’t let their entrepreneurial children enter the river to retrieve golf balls and sell them back to golfers for 25 cents after hand-cleaning the silt off them. Thankfully, our modern farmers no longer locate their farms on the riverbanks as an easy source of irrigation and drinking water, as farmers always did until the scope of GE’s malfeasance was known. Small thanks indeed.
At least we can avoid the river, unlike the beavers and otters and turtles and trout forever forced to live in this beautiful yet despoiled habitat.
Stockbridge received $1.6 million. When you consider the scope and scale and duration of this crime and its human and environmental toll, when you shudder reflecting on the still-hidden 55-gallon drums of below-ground PCBs, buried without record throughout the county, this tiny payment could not possibly represent more than one-hundredths of a penny on every dollar of actual impact.
Patrick White, Stockbridge
The writer is a member of the Stockbridge Select Board.
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