Lobbyist Daniel Bosley loves GREED and PAC Man Richie Neal

July 31, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I have followed former North Adams State Representative and GREEDY registered Beacon Hill lobbyist Daniel E. Bosley since 1998 when he battled with my dad, Bob, about the state's abolishing and taking over Berkshire County Government back then.  Rep. Bosley said in the local newspaper in the Summer of 1998 that the sooner that Berkshire County Government is abolished the better.  My dad was quoted in the local newspaper that Rep. Bosley's words were "reprehensible".  I emailed Rep. Bosley back in the Summer of 1998 and I told him that he was being mean to my dad.  Rep. Bosley emailed me back and said that it was not personal, and that he and my dad were only talking about politics.  My dad was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner back then.  My dad asked Rep. Bosley about Boston's "Big Dig" multibillion dollar cost overruns back then.  I used to go to Beacon Hill legislative hearings with my dad, and my dad told them all off in Boston by saying that Boston's "Big Dig" project costs tens of billions of state government dollars, while Berkshire County Government's fiscal year budget was 2.5 million.  My dad said to the Boston Pols that he could run Berkshire County Government for 5,000 years with all of the billions of taxpayer dollars they were spending on Boston's "Big Dig".  Then State Representative Marty Walsh scolded my dad and I, and he told us that Boston's "Big Dig" is "an engineering marvel".  All of these decades later in 2021, I wish I could tell President Biden's U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh that Boston's "Big Dig" killed multiple innocent people over the years, leaks millions of gallons of dirty water everyday, will only last around 50 years, will eventually submerge into the Atlantic Ocean, and cost state taxpayers over $20 billion and counting.  That is NOT an engineering marvel, Marty Walsh, who was a Massachusetts State Representative on Beacon Hill, a corrupt Mayor of Boston (who helped my "Enemy #1" Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior open a marijuana dispensary in East Boston over Veterans and minority applicants), and now works in the cabinet of the Biden Administration that is failing the working class with 30 to 40 year high inflation, which is worse than any federal tax.

Rep. Dan Bosley's public record on Berkshire County Government was that he, along with Nuciforo, abolished it in the fiscal year 1999 state budget via a budget rider with an end date of June 30, 2000.  He and "Luciforo" put Pontoosuc Lake, which sits in both Pittsfield and Lanesborough, into a state accounting agency for two years from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2002, before the state put into the Department of Environmental Management.  There are seven county governments (out of 14 counties) left in Massachusetts, but none left in Western and Central Massachusetts.  Franklin County has a regional government in place of its county government.  Nuciforo ran for the old county government post of Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds in 2006 after having to leave the Massachusetts State Senate for illegally double dipping as Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee and at the same time being a corporate Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies.  How Nuciforo never face criminal charges for breaking so many state laws back then boggles my mind, except that he is well protected by his powerful political connections.  Daniel Bosley ran for Berkshire County Sheriff against Pittsfield Police Detective/Officer Tom Bowler in 2010, and Dan Bosley lost to Bowler in the Democratic Primary election that year.  Dan Bosley filed state "ethics" complaints against a few state government workers in the Berkshires who opposed his campaign and instead supported Bowler.  The irony of Nuciforo (2006) and Dan Bosley (2010) running for former county government posts is that they railed against Berkshire County Government when my dad was trying to defend it back in 1997 and 1998.  Also, Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints to multiple state agencies in both Pittsfield and Boston from the Fall of 1997 to the Spring of 1998 against my dad when he (Bob Melle) was a Berkshire County Commissioner and worked in the Pittsfield District Court Probation Office back then.  Nuciforo and Dan Bosley both filed respective state "ethics" complaints against state workers who opposed their political "work" on Beacon Hill to intimidate and retaliate against state workers who opposed them.  The irony of Nuciforo openly saying he enjoyed to file state "ethics" complaints against state and local workers in Massachusetts is that Nuciforo himself was one of the most unethical politicians on Beacon Hill because he was in bed with Boston's financial district from 1999 to 2006, according to the Boston Globe.  Nuciforo and Dan Bosley were both fiscal conservatives who "worked" for Boston's big business interests on Beacon Hill, despite being elected in the mostly rural Berkshires and beyond in Western Massachusetts.

Towards the end of Dan Bosley's 24 year long run on Beacon Hill, Daniel Bosley filed "The Bosley Amendment", which was a secretive budget rider to State House legislation to give Boston's big businesses billions of dollars in state tax breaks that would have upended the Massachusetts State Budget.  "The Bosley Amendment" was quickly defeated, and Dan Bosley faced heavy criticism by his Beacon Hill colleagues and The Boston Globe alike.  Dan Bosley is now a registered lobbyist of Beacon Hill - along with Peter Larkin and Stan Rosenberg, et al - and he makes a 6 figure salary by shaking down Beacon Hill lawmakers for huge tax breaks and favorable legislation for his Boston area wealthy big business clients.  On top of that Dan Bosley collects at least one, or possibly two state pensions, along with his public perks, as a retired Beacon Hill lawmaker.  I write to Daniel Bosley that Massachusetts state taxpayers should pay him directly instead of paying the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  It would be most efficient for everyone involved.

The irony of it all is that Dan Bosley's GREED on the backs of Massachusetts taxpayers has nothing at all to do with North Adams, Massachusetts, which is the poorest community in the Commonwealth.  That leads me to the Massachusetts State Lottery bragging about its most profitable fiscal year on record that went from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.  The Massachusetts State Lottery is a total SCAM against the financially illiterate working class and underclass people of the Commonwealth that pays them pennies on the dollar.  The lottery is really only a financial scheme of voluntary regressive taxation that substitutes would be progressive state taxes on big business and wealthy property owners for voluntary regressive state taxes on millions of uneducated and disadvantaged people who don't know they are being taken advantage of by the corporate and ruling elites.  Dan Bosley knows all of this, but he is on record defending the state lottery from the casino gambling industry during then Governor Deval Patrick's administration, which passed into state law casino gambling in Massachusetts.  Daniel Bosley's public record on public financial policies are for inequity in favor of the wealthy, yet he represented North Adams in Boston for 24 years, which meant that he has enriched himself at the public trough since the mid-1980s by screwing over the proverbial Kapanski family that blogger Dan Valenti writes about day in and day out.

Lastly, Dan Bosley writes countless op-eds in Western Massachusetts newspapers praising PAC Man Richie Neal, who really only represents corporate lobbyists on K Street in Washington, D.C., which critics sarcastically say is the real Capitol Hill.  To Daniel Bosley, there is God and Richie and GREED!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 7, 2021

Re: Greedy politics in the 21st Century is screwing the little guys

Hello Patrick Fennell,

You mentioned the tens of billions of dollars unspent by the feds on helping landlords and renters during the global pandemic.  What about the over $5 billion-plus that Governor Charlie Baker and the vacationing Beacon Hill Lawmakers are sitting on right now?  Post World War 2 America saw big business and big government invest in the people of America until the 1970s when Tricky Dick and the rest of the elites decided to turn to supply side economics.  My personal theory is that after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and pushed his Great Society policies, black workers had the same legal protections as white workers.  Big Business and Big Government are both RACIST and GREEDY, and the elites decided to pay all workers the proverbial minimum wage instead of just the black workers back in the 1950s.  In the 1990s, Slick Willie or Bubba (Bill Clinton) pushed NAFTA global economics, which resulted in countless closed American factories (that relocated overseas) and the loss of millions of living wage jobs for American workers.  Swamp politicians pretend to appeal to the midwestern rust belt swing states, but their real base is Wall Street, K Street and the wealthy coastal states that they use as their ATM to fill their campaign coffers.

My native hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts is Exhibit A in post industrial decay.  GE used to employee over ten thousands working class local residents post World War 2, but today, GE employs zero local residents, and GE made Pittsfield into its dump.  Gregory Crewdson shows his large artistic photos of post industrial Pittsfield to privileged museum and art gallery viewers in London, England, New York City, and L.A.  His art exhibits of Pittsfield are literally called "A City in Decay".  Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal areas in the state and nation because there are no living wage jobs there for the average working class family.  The Mayor, Linda Tyer, and her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont live in a millionaires-only gated community in west Pittsfield within a few feet of the Pittsfield/Hancock border.  Inner city Pittsfield has daily shootings and a man earlier this year of 2021 shot dead in broad daylight on North Street, is always in the top 10 in violent crime in Massachusetts as annually ranked by the FBI, has drugs, gangs, prostitution, poverty, homelessness, and so on.  On a personal level, I don't blame Mayor Linda Tyer for living in a wealthy gated community in west Pittsfield because she values her personal safety, but I still think it sends an elitist message to the rest of Pittsfield.

I have a Master of Public Administration degree from UMass Amherst (May 1999), and I read many public policy papers on state and local government in Massachusetts (and elsewhere).  The government is supposed to invest in the people who live in their state and local community so they have well performing public schools, safe streets, living wage jobs, small businesses, affordable housing, etcetera.  The reason why the government is supposed to invest in the people is so the people can then invest their money back into the community.  The people can spend their money on their property, shop at small businesses, pay taxes, have healthy families who send their children to public schools that will prepare them for careers so the cycle will go on and on generation after generation.  Economics is supposed to about both Supply and Demand.  It is supposed to be a two way street where the government and the people who live in a state and community cycle their money around for their mutual benefit.

What is my point?  Governor Charlie Baker and the vacationing Beacon Hill Lawmakers should NOT be sitting on over $5 billion-plus.  Instead, they should be investing their billions into the regions, communities, small businesses and people throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  When the billions of dollars are finally invested, the people will have more financial resources for their public schools, their small businesses, living wage jobs, their property, and the like.  The state and local government will then have a larger tax base, and they can keep the economic cycle going for the years to come.  I do NOT understand why this process has stalled, and why Chrome Dome Adam Hinds, Trippy Country Buffet, Shitty Pignatelli, Paul Marx and the Mayor John Barrett III are all vacationing when they could be using their billions of dollars in Biden Buck$ to revitalize Berkshire County's distressed and unequal economy.  I don't believe that they don't understand public administration and state and local economics, but maybe they are just being lazy.

On PAC Man Richie Neal, he only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms, which have NOTHING to do with his Western Massachusetts Congressional District.  He has been a Member of U.S. Congress since 1989, and I predict he will serve in the Swamp until he dies in elected office like Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Silvio Conte, and others.  He is still trying to get his hands of Donald Trump's federal tax returns, but it is still being litigated in court.  His 2020 political campaign against Alex Morse was indirectly (via Boston's Democratic Party bag men) sleazy, homophobic and conspiratorial as it gets.  The state Democratic Party leaders in Boston are all still in power after "swift boating" Alex Morse to help PAC Man Richie Neal.  The message from Boston is clear: The state Democratic Party wins at any cost so don't try to challenge our iron grip on political power or you will be next.

The wars of the 21st Century through the Summer of 2021 cost U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars, which are on top of the trillions of dollars U.S. taxpayers forked over to bailout Wall Street (and foreign banks) during the 2008 financial crisis.  We live in the time of "Guns and Butter" because the George W. Bush administration cut federal taxes 3 times, and then the Donald Trump administration passed one of the largest federal tax cuts ever.  The U.S. national debt is ballooning higher and higher by tens of trillions of dollars.  Wall Street is at record highs, while Main Street is at record lows.  The world is going through global warming, and in 100 or so years from now, sea level rise will reach crisis proportions.  Sarcasm: Ed Markey of Chevy Chase, Maryland promised to save the world from global warming with his Green New Deal legislation, and the people of Massachusetts believed his bullshit and reelected him to 6 more years in the Swamp so he can spew more of his hot air in the U.S. Senate.

Now to answer your question about why do we need road, bridge and building money when we pay a gas tax, excise tax, car registrations, inspection fees, Massachusetts sales tax, and other fees and taxes?  I would refer you to GREEDY Beacon Hill Lobbyist Daniel Bosley for an answer.  Dan Bosley receives at least one, but possibly two state pensions, and public perks as a retired Beacon Hill Lawmaker.  On top of it all, Dan Bosley makes a 6-figure salary as a GREEDY Beacon Hill Lobbyist by pushing state lawmakers for tax cuts and favorable legislation for his wealthy corporate clients.  Because of GREEDY Lobbyists like Daniel E. Bosley, Beacon Hill gives big businesses in Massachusetts a whopping $17.8 billion per year in tax breaks.  That is money that could go to road, bridge and building infrastructure, but instead goes to the corporate and ruling elites.  While Dan Bosley enriches himself at the public trough since the mid-1980s (or for the past over 35 years and counting), the little guys like you and me only get to POUND SAND by making Dan Bosley rich with our tax dollars.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 9, 2021

Re: Biden is being HUMILIATED and PAC Man sausage making

Hello Patrick Fennell,

President Joe Biden is being HUMILIATED in Afghanistan right now.  This has to be the WORST debacle in U.S. History.  20 years and trillions in federal tax dollars and thousands of American Soldiers' lives sacrificed, and for what?  For Biden to humiliate both himself and our country on the global stage.  What will history books say about the Summer of 2021 fifty to 100 years from now?  That Biden failed the people of Afghanistan and made a fool of the U.S.A. to the world.

What if Afghanistan was similar to Iraq, which has the second largest oil reserves in the world next to Saudi Arabia?  Would the U.S. Government be so eager to let Iraq fall to the Taliban forces?  I think not.  I have read your past email about Biden's poor history with the Vietnam Conflict and other military encounters throughout his (racist) decades in the U.S. Senate.  Joe Biden was a horrible U.S. Senator and he is a terrible Commander In Chief.

The United Nations has done a lot of good in the world.  The U.S. Government is a major funder of the U.N.  I would rather have the U.N. than another proverbial Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and so on.  I believe the U.N. and Israel became incorporated together in 1948.  Eleanor Roosevelt worked in New York City to establish Human Rights in the U.N. in the years after her husband, FDR, passed away in 1945 and then World War 2 ended.  I agree with you, Patrick Fennell, that the U.N. needs to step up and lead again in the international community on Iran's nuclear weapon threats to Israel, Communist China's authoritarian military threats (and genocide) in Asia, and Afghanistan falling to the Taliban.

PAC Man Richie Neal should follow in Dan Bosley's footsteps and retire from being a Lawmaker and go to work for K Street's Lobbyist firms.  Critics say that the real Capitol Hill is really on K Street.  The Swamp is a glorified casino where only the wealthy lobbyists and corrupt politicians like PAC Man Richie Neal get to pay to play.  As Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, what has PAC Man Richie Neal done for his Western Massachusetts Congressional District?  Not much!  What has PAC Man Richie Neal done for K Street's corporate Lobbyists.  A whole lot of corrupt sausage making: We are in a K-shaped economic recovery (for Wall Street) and recession (for Main Street).

Beacon Hill and the Swamp are both on their August vacations that won't end until after Labor Day 2021.  It must be nice to be an Oligarch!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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August 14, 2021

Hello Erin at Act on Mass,

The Massachusetts Democratic Party in Boston is an abomination. Last year in 2020, they ran a sleazy, homophobic, conspiratorial smear campaign against Alex Morse, who challenged PAC Man Richie Neal for his "1,000th" term in the U.S. House of Representatives. They are all still in power in Boston, and none of them ever apologized for their horrible actions that gives politics a bad name. The message the average citizens received from Boston's state Democratic Party bosses is that they will win at any cost, and if you dare challenge their iron grip on political power, you will be next. While I support your work at Act on Mass, I wish to state that Boston Pols are the dirtiest and most mean-spirited Pols EVER!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 14, 2021

Jonathan,

Where does the time go?

Tonight [Saturday, August 14th, 2021] at 5pm is the deadline to submit written testimony to the Mass Dems Platform Committee. This is your last chance to tell the party what you believe should be in the Democratic party platform, and why.

Over the last two weeks, the Mass Dems have held seven platform hearings where registered democrats can testify orally, the last of which is wrapping up this morning. I attended the hearing last Saturday, and was thrilled to be joined by many others in my call for transparency measures to be included in the platform. Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend and testify at these hearings! Because of you, we are being heard.

If you haven't had a chance to testify, you can still submit written testimony until 5:00pm tonight.

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September 2, 2021

Hello Erin at Act on Mass,

Thank you for your open email about your organization's work with the Massachusetts Democratic Party on proposed rules reform for Beacon Hill lawmakers.  I support your work to open up Beacon Hill to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts.  I believe that Beacon Hill lawmakers only do DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts.  They vote themselves huge legislative pay raises and perks.  They only meet 3 days per week when they are in legislative session.  They take months off at a time from so-called "work".  They don't respond to people's correspondences if the people don't kiss their dirty behinds.  They retire and go right back to Beacon Hill as greedy registered lobbyists.  They aspire to either public sinecures or higher elected office.  They get into ethics scandals, sexual harassment scandals, and other legal troubles.  They rule by fear and retribution instead of democracy and public accountability.  As for the Boston-based state Democratic Party, they don't practice what they preach.  They persecuted Alex Morse one year ago with a sleazy, homophobic and conspiratorial smear campaign in 2020 to favor PAC Man Richie Neal's reelection to his "1,000th" term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and they are all still in power, and they never personally apologized to Alex Morse.  All that being written, I hope your lofty proposed reforms will make a difference in Boston and beyond, but I won't be holding my breath.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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Jonathan,

Last night, the Massachusetts Democratic Party released their proposed new platform. This is the moment all those Platform Hearings (and pesky email reminders on my part) have been leading up to. 

First, I want to take a moment to thank all of you who took time out of your day, and out of your August, to testify at a Platform Hearing and/or submit written testimony. The movement for State House reform is stronger because of you. Because of you, the proposed platform includes most of our transparency planks! You can read the full proposed platform here. The Ethics & Transparency section can be found on page 15.

READ THE PROPOSED PLATFORM >>

While some of the language differed from our version, this proposal includes much of what we fought for:

Committee hearings should be scheduled far in advance

All votes cast by public officials should be public

The legislative branch should be subject to public records law (here called Massachusetts Freedom of Information Act)

Ensuring legislators and the public have ideally 72 but at least 48 hours to read substantive legislation

Per anecdotal evidence, roughly 20% of all oral testimony at the Platform Hearings was in support of our planks. One out of every five people. If our movement hadn't turned out in these huge numbers to support these transparency planks, they would never have been on the platform. 

Together, we’ve just made it that much harder for Democrats to defend their positions against these policies. Having these planks enshrined in the party platform will give our movement a critical advantage as we shape the narrative during the 2022 elections, and eventually the 2023 rules debate.  

Our organizing worked. Your voice made a material difference.

But, of course, it wouldn’t be a battle against the status quo if we weren’t met with some resistance. The one plank we fought for that didn’t make it on the platform in any form was speaker term limits. Similarly, our friends at Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts organized behind a plank stating that State House leadership shouldn’t reward or punish legislators for the votes they take. This plank, too, was conspicuously missing from the proposed platform.

Challenging power is rarely easy, and it's clear that we have a steep climb ahead of us. But because of your time and hard work, we’re now a few steps closer.

In solidarity,

Erin

Act on Mass

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September 4, 2021

Hello Alan Chartock,

I agree with your political column about sanctimonious politicians calling out other politicians when they are often no different than the pot calling the kettle black.  Then Governor Andrew Cuomo, 63, allegedly groped young women subordinates by putting his hands up the young women's skirts and other sexual areas of their bodies in an unwanted and nonconsensual manner.  My mom told me that when an older man or woman boss does something similar to Andrew Cuomo to younger subordinates, it is more about power than it is about sex.  If the allegations against Andrew Cuomo have merit, it means that he abused his power through his unwanted and nonconsensual sexual behaviors against young women subordinates as Governor of New York.  Of course, Andrew Cuomo denies all of the women's allegations of sexual misconduct against him during his time as Governor, but so doesn't everyone else out there except a very few number of honest people who are willing to face the consequences of their wrong actions.  When a man or a woman has power over others in an institution, they show poor leadership by abusing their power for their own sexual gratification and/or other selfish wants and needs.

Politicians should know and understand that they are in elected office to serve the people and taxpayers of their locality, state and country.  Politicians are not there to enrich themselves and their "K Street PAC Men" campaign donors at the public trough.  Politicians are not there to become career politicians, and then after they retire, they get to collect their overly generous taxpayer-funded public pensions and perks and then make even more money as greedy registered lobbyists (see Daniel Bosley), public sinecure holders (see Public Payroll Patriots), owners of multimillion dollar marijuana dispensaries (see Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior), and so on.  The people and taxpayers should NOT have to kiss their politicians' dirty behinds out of fear of retribution.  The people should have a legal right to tell off their politicians when they need to be told off for their corruption and poor leadership.  

Lastly, I agree with you, Alan Chartock, that it is downright annoying when sanctimonious and moral hypocrite politicians go after other politicians without also holding themselves into account.  It is also very annoying when the same thing happens in other areas of society and in one's own life.  It is called practicing Moral Hypocrisy instead of Equal Justice for All.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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Alan Chartock’s The Capitol Connection: "Ethics reform no more than pipedream"

The Saratogian, op-ed, September 3, 2021

Everyone talks ethics reform.

Good idea, but the players in the political game are no different than the players in all the other games — like the people who run the biggest corporations in America but pay little or no taxes thanks to their lobbyists and their lack of social conscience.

Legislators or governors get elected and then convince themselves that they are not paid enough for what they do. They then fix the rules in order to favor themselves. In some cases, they actually believe their own garbage. They are convinced that only they can do their jobs. Years ago, I heard a senior state senator suggest that if he wasn’t there, some kids would be running and ruining things.

I was a college professor for a long, long time. I took on extra courses because I wanted to. Trust me, some of my colleagues were not happy about that and thought that I was showing off to their disadvantage. Fixing the game is what it’s all about. It really is no different in the state legislature. All of a sudden, a great phalanx of legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, decided that the governor was corrupt. Out came the long knives and pompous, nay pious, attestations of gubernatorial wrongdoing. Oh, don’t get me wrong. His character was not sterling, particularly when it came to political skullduggery.

On the other hand, neither was theirs. They had the nerve to yell about changing the rules of gubernatorial politics, but I heard almost nothing about fixing the larger political game.

Why do people hate politics? Because they know the game is loaded.

Their legislators tell big fat lies. They say the Speaker in the Assembly and the Majority Leader in the Senate listen to their aggregate caucuses in order to make decisions. Right. Sure they do! I remember when Shelly Silver (remember him?) was the Speaker. Does anyone really have the nerve to tell me that when Shelly went into the now famous “three men in a room” room, he would say, “Wait a minute — I have to go back to my members to ask what they want before I commit?” Nope, those three men would make decisions and compromises on the spot. Anyone reading this column knows that was the truth.

What a bunch of nonsense. Do you really think we are done with ethics reform now that Andrew has been done in? Nope, you’d better believe that we are not done until the legislature is also called to account.

When the majority and minority members of both houses gather together in their ornate chambers, we need to know just what decisions are being made. If we don’t, the whole concept of representative government goes out the window.

How about term Iimits for legislators? Theoretically, not a great political science idea but considering the money these people raise in order to stay in office, it needs to be done, and now.

If we don’t do that, the whole process becomes a farce. One of the reasons why people like to be committee chairs is that they can be sure that the people who are affected by those committees will pony up money to help them get reelected. Frankly, the whole thing stinks. You might respect the leaders of the anti-Cuomo insurrection for their insistence that Andrew be called to account for his various misbehaviors but it sure would be great if they were as passionate about themselves.

I’ve been speaking to many of these very folks for a long time. Will Speaker Heastie come on my radio show and face the tough questions? He’s always welcome and will be treated fairly. Nope, the game is loaded and the people know it. It smells like fish. It’s time for yet another look into the way the things work.

Alan Chartock is professor emeritus at the State University of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and president and CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network. Readers can email him at alan@wamc.org.

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September 4, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Beacon Hill's state Legislature is disgraceful.  The Boston-based state government is sitting on over $5 billion in direct aid Biden Buck$, and they are doing NOTHING at all with the financial windfall that should be helping hospitals, communities, and agencies prepare for the predicted Fall 2021 spike in Covid-19 cases.  As for Beacon Hill lawmakers and leaders being convicted Felons, having state ethics scandals, having sexual harassment scandals, and having other legal troubles, it shows their culture of corruption, secrecy and enriching themselves at the public trough instead of having an honest, open and democratic state government.

To illustrate, Daniel Bosley is a retired Beacon Hill lawmaker who makes a 6-figure salary as a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill.  Dan Bosley voted for two convicted Felon state House Speakers named Tom Finneran and Sal DiMasi.  Daniel E. Bosley tried to give politically connected business billions of dollars in state tax breaks years ago via a secretive budget rider to Beacon Hill legislation, but even the otherwise corrupt Beacon Hill House leaders threw it out.  Daniel Bosley writes countless op-eds supporting K Street's top PAC Man named Richie Neal.  Daniel Bosley is a prime example of Beacon Hill lawmakers and registered lobbyists only being in it for their own financial gain.  Joke: Beacon Hill should make a "Dan Bosley $cratch Ticket" to honor their top $hakedown Arti$t in Boston and throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

U.S. Congress is spending over $10 trillion in 2021, and they put aside a few million taxpayer dollars to pay out sexual harassment claims on Capitol Hill in the Swamp.  When U.S. Congress impeached then U.S. President Bill Clinton years ago for receiving blow jobs from Monica Lewinsky in the Oral Orifice (Oval Office) and then lying about it, porn producer Larry Flynt paid women a lot of money to tell their stories of Members of U.S. Congress receiving blow jobs and other sex acts from their young aides on Capitol Hill.  Not surprisingly, many women came forward and told their stories of having adulterous love affairs with the same Members of U.S. Congress who voted to impeach Bill Clinton.  To be clear, many of the same Members of U.S. Congress were committing similar sexual misconduct acts as then President Bill Clinton, yet they still voted to impeach him, and then voted to unsuccessfully convict him.

Lastly, I know that I may sit in my living room and say that if I was a powerful politician, I would not have sex with a pretty young woman aide, but I also know that it is different when one is in the heat of the moment.  The best thing for one to do is to not be alone with a beautiful young woman so there is no opportunity for either side to make sexual advances.  Furthermore, if either side makes an allegation, there will be witnesses instead of he said versus she said allegations.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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Jonathon;

Both Congress and the MA state legislture have passed and funded pay-off funds to help elected politicians with sexual harrassment cases. In congress it is about 4 million dollars.

MA hides it in the House and senate budgerts. Remember three house speakers have been given paid legal help and at least two senate presidents have also had taxper paid lawyers, one involving sexual harrassment.

Patrick Fennell

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September 20, 2021

Why is mostly rural and economically distressed Western Massachusetts represented by K Street's favorite PAC Man Richie Rich Neal?  It boggles my mind how PAC Man Richie Neal gets away with writing tax laws in the U.S. House of Representative that are totally disconnected with the people and small businesses in his large geographical legislative district.  PAC Man Richie Neal is a total Corporate Democrat who has been in the Swamp since 1989 - or for the past nearly 32 years and counting.  He is the Chairman of the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.  He does the bidding of K Street's big money corporate lobbyists on Capitol Hill.  The news article, below, shows his latest public financial tax hiking schemes that favor the richest Americans and biggest corporations.  PAC Man Richie Neal sold his soul to the Devil!

Jonathan A. Melle

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"House Democrats Are Too Chicken To Boost Billionaires’ Taxes, Says Robert Reich - Billionaires pretty much get a pass in the tax-hike proposal, even though their wealth has increased 62% in the pandemic, wrote the former U.S. labor secretary."

By Mary Papenfuss, HuffPost.com - September 20, 2021

When House Democrats last week unveiled their tax-hike plan to pay for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending bill, a surprise group went largely unscathed: billionaires.

“You might have thought Democrats would be eager to tax America’s 660 billionaires whose fortunes have increased by $1.8 trillion since the start of the pandemic,” wrote Robert Reich, an author and columnist who was U.S. labor secretary in the Obama administration. That amount alone “could fund half of Biden’s plan — and still leave the billionaires as rich as they were before the pandemic began,” Reich wrote in The Guardian on Sunday.

Senior House Democrats instead decided to raise revenue the “traditional” way — taxing annual income, “rather than giant wealth,” Reich explained. 

Democrats also could have targeted America’s biggest corporations — “awash in cash but paying a pittance in taxes,” Reich wrote. Among S&P 500 or Fortune 500 corporations, 39 paid absolutely “no federal income tax from 2018 to 2020. Yet they reported a combined $122 billion in profits to their shareholders,” Reich noted.

Yet “remarkably,” the Democrats decided to set corporate tax rates “below the level they were at when Barack Obama was in the White House,” wrote Reich. 

So what gives?

Democrats don’t want to mess with wealth because they’re controlled by wealth, Reich wrote. Many of them rely on that wealth to finance their election, he explained. “They also dread becoming targets of well-financed ad campaigns accusing them of voting for ‘job-killing’ taxes.”

Republicans “sold their souls to the moneyed interests long ago, but the timidity of House Democrats shows just how loudly big money speaks these days even in the party of Franklin D Roosevelt,” Reich wrote.

“The looming debate over taxes is really a debate over the allocation of wealth and power,” and that issue is only going to become more pressing and more critical, warned Reich.

“Behind it will be this simple but important question: Which party represents average working people, and which shills for the rich?” 

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October 25, 2021

Hello GREEDY Lobbyist Daniel Bosley,

I read your letter to the editor, below, endorsing Lynette Bond for mayor of North Adams on Nov. 2, 2021.  I have questions for you.  You wrote: "She understands the delicate balance that small municipalities face to meet the needs of their communities while addressing tough revenue realities."  What about the fact that Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on $10 billion in cash for months on end?  What about the fact that the Boston Globe reported that due to GREEDY Beacon Hill Lobbyists like yourself, Massachusetts lawmakers are giving away a whopping $17.8 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to politically-connected big businesses that don't exist in most of Western Massachusetts?

Dan Bosley is said to collect up to two state pensions and all of his other very generous public perks that are funded by state taxpayers, and he goes back to Beacon Hill and makes a 6-figure lobbyist salary on top of all of his other taxpayer-funded benefits, and he wants us common folk to believe that he cares about us in places such as the poorest municipality in all of Massachusetts: North Adams.  Give me a break, GREEDY Lobbyist Daniel E. Bosley!  You are playing a Shell Game by writing these disingenuous letters to the Editors of Western Massachusetts newspapers, Daniel Bosley.  The next time you write a letter to the Editor of a Western Massachusetts newspaper, please answer my questions first; thank you.

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Bosley Endorses Bond as 'Most Qualified' for Mayor"

Letter to the Editor of iBerkshires.com - October 24, 2021

To the Editor:

I am writing to ask my fellow North Adams residents to vote for Lynette Bond for mayor on Nov. 2. While I know and like both candidates, this election has to be about who is most qualified for the tough tasks that face North Adams. I believe that Lynette Bond has shown the qualities and qualifications to be our choice.

Lynette has a truly diverse background that will serve her well as mayor. She has a master's degree in management. She served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps creating jobs in a third world country and under the most demanding of situations. She has worked at the Berkshire Workforce Board in grant management and training programs and, with the town of Adams, she managed community development block grants programs in housing rehabilitation, infrastructure, and economic development.

Currently, at MCLA, she is the director of grants and research, which brings in and oversees millions of dollars throughout the college's education, research, and student programs. And her eight years serving on the Planning Board for the city of North Adams gives her a view of the city that few others have through the board's role in guiding growth and development in the community as well as their role as an advisory body on other municipal land use, development, and planning regulations. Her entire career has equipped her with the experience that North Adams needs to meet the challenges our city faces.

North Adams faces some tough decisions over the next few years. Lynette was raised in a small town, has worked in municipal government, and served on our Planning Board. She understands the delicate balance that small municipalities face to meet the needs of their communities while addressing tough revenue realities. This knowledge has led her to detailed solutions to create jobs and fix an aging infrastructure.

Qualifications for mayor aren't just about the jobs Lynette has had. She has continually shown her love and dedication to North Adams through her volunteer efforts, such as serving as treasurer and on the board of Childcare of the Berkshires; her work in literacy programs; and her leadership on the volunteer campaign for the Colegrove Park Elementary School Project. She has raised her children in our community, been a foster mom, a host parent for the SteepleCats, and has coached youth sports in our city.

Being an elected official is not just a job. It's a lifestyle where you work 24/7 to improve the lives of others. Lynette's work experience gives her the tools to do the job. And her volunteerism and participation in our community shows her dedication and compassion for our city. Please join me in giving Lynette your vote on Nov. 2.

Dan Bosley

North Adams, Mass.

Daniel Bosley is the former state representative for the 1st Berkshire District.

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October 27, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I read that tomorrow (Thursday, October 28th, 2021) Beacon Hill lawmakers will vote on spending billions of dollars in cash that they have been sitting on for months now.  Like the elusive most expensive spending bills in U.S. history being endlessly debated in the Swamp, do you think that all of the billions of dollars in cash in Boston will go to the people who need it, or will it go to GREEDY lobbyists such as Dan Bosley, Peter Larkin, Stan Rosenberg and the politically connected businesses that don't exist in most of Western Massachusetts?  The GREEDY Pigs will be feeding at the trough on Beacon Hill tomorrow!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

Post Script: Will Smitty Pignatelli write another one of his annoying op-eds after Beacon Hill lawmakers vote on spending billions of dollars in cash tomorrow?

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Letter: "Rep. Neal should represent constituents over big money donors"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 12, 2021

To the editor: The Berkshires' U.S. congressman, Richard Neal, is working hard these days to deliver a very nice return on investment to his big-money insurance industry donors while cutting benefits for working people.

Paid family leave may not make it into the final version of the big budget bill currently being negotiated in Congress, but one thing is certain: Rep Neal saw an opportunity to benefit his donors at the expense of working parents. As originally proposed, new parents would get 12 weeks of benefits, paid directly to them, to be with their newborn or newly adopted child. Monies would be dispersed through the Social Security Administration. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Neal whittled down the plan so that fewer parents will qualify to get the benefit, single-parent families will get less benefit and parents working minimum-wage jobs likely won't receive enough money to take the time off. On top of all that, private insurance companies will be paid to administer the monies.

The clear winner in Rep. Neal's plan is the insurance industry; the loser is the rest of us. No one will be surprised to know that the insurance industry is among Rep. Neal's top donors over his decades-long career in Congress. And he has a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest to buy lots of glossy ads to get your vote.

Many in Berkshire County are proud and pleased that Rep. Neal is a powerful member of Congress, and he does bring home some pork, as most legislators do. But Neal clearly prioritizes using his power to deliver payback to his big donors, rather than serve the fundamental needs of the people of our district. Call Rep. Neal's office at 413-785-0325 to remind him whom he is supposed to represent.

Cheryl Rose, Dalton

Jeanne Kempthorne, Pittsfield

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November 16, 2021

Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,

You wrote in your political email letter today that: "The [Massachusetts] legislature is leaving for the holidays tomorrow, while thousands of Massachusetts residents are losing their homes. We are demanding tenant and homeowner protections now against inequitable and avoidable evictions and foreclosures...."

Like you, I am upset that Beacon Hill's career politicians are starting their 7-week-long taxpayer-funded holiday vacation while thousands of Massachusetts residents are at risk of homelessness.  I agree with you that Beacon Hill should protect at risk homeless residents throughout Massachusetts from losing their homes or apartments during freezing late-fall and winter nights.  It cost more taxpayer dollars to care for homeless people than ensuring they have access to safe and affordable housing.

As for Beacon Hill lawmakers open aversion to democracy, it has been that way in Boston for decades.  Massachusetts is a China-like one (Democratic) party state that is only about money and power for the establishment ruling elites.  Massachusetts is ran by the financial elites, which means that the middle class, working class and underclass don't matter to the "Limousine liberals/Latte liberals" - a pejorative U.S. political term used to illustrate hypocritical behavior by political liberals of upper class or upper middle class status.  The financialization of big government and big business equals the decimation of the middle class.  To be clear, one has to be politically-connected to the powerful to have a chance to earn a living wage or higher salary to provide for his or her family.  That leaves 90 percent of the American people in the proverbial ditch.

Lastly, politicians are not the people they pretend to be in public.  Politicians are phony and they say "Jesus Christ-like Holy Sermon on the Mount" speeches in public, but in private they are all about money and power.  One has to kiss the powerful elite's dirty behind or face retribution.  It is Democracy in theory only, and a corrupt Oligarchy in practice!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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Jonathan,

The Massachusetts Legislature: Democracy in Decline

Pretty punchy title, right? This report, just officially released by our friends at Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts (PDM), provides a deep-dive into the functioning of the Massachusetts State House, and where things have gone terribly wrong.

Over the last 6 months, a PDM-led working group (of which I was lucky to be a part) conducted interviews with current and former elected officials, legislative staff, advocates, and experts to investigate the question that has plagued the Bay State for years: we know the state house is where good bills go to die - but why?

The end result is a thorough report that explains the interconnected ways House leadership exerts and maintains control over the legislature by stripping power away from rank-and-file reps and their constituents (aka all of us), including:

Inadequate professional resources, i.e. understaffing, low staff pay, no independent Legislative Research Bureau

Over-centralization of power in leadership, i.e. Speaker controls salaries and appointed positions, determines staff allocation

Lack of transparency, you already know this one, i.e. no public records law or open meeting law, few on-the-record votes, secretive committees

Persistent lack of diversity, i.e. the legislature and especially leadership is disproportionately white and male, and doesn’t represent the broad ideological diversity of the Commonwealth

The report also establishes Beacon Hill's outlier status among other state legislatures, confirming another sneaking suspicion many of us have had: none of this is normal. 

Click here to read the report in full:

READ THE REPORT >>

One thing’s for sure: State House leadership will want this report to get buried and forgotten. But that means it’s all the more important that we use it to motivate and guide the work we’re doing at Act on Mass, and all across the movement for democracy. 

"I am a cancer survivor. I'm at risk of a no-fault eviction. I need the COVID19 Housing Equity bill passed to STAY off the streets," - Betty Lewis, a member leader and tenant organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana

Our friends at City Life / Vida Urbana have been organizing to pass the COVID19 Housing Equity Bill. We want to invite you to participate in their Digital Day of Action today to pressure the State House to take action on this crucial bill before they leave for vacation. Here’s a message from CLVU on how you can take action today:

The legislature is leaving for the holidays tomorrow, while thousands of Massachusetts residents are losing their homes. We are demanding tenant and homeowner protections now against inequitable and avoidable evictions and foreclosures through the advancement of H.1434 / S.891: An Act to prevent COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures and promote an equitable housing recovery.

The idea is to send as many calls, emails, and social media as possible to the Housing Committee chairs: Senator John Keenan and Representative James Arciero. You can find our TweetStorm toolkit here. If you are interested in actively supporting the Twitter storm, please DM us @CityLife_Clvu on Twitter.

TWEETSTORM TOOLKIT >>

Don’t have Twitter? You can call the Housing Committee co-chairs with this handy guide: www.homesforallmass.org/act/call/

Thank you for all you do,

Erin

Act on Mass

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December 6, 2021

Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,

I agree with your political email letter that it was wrong for only 6 State Representatives on Beacon Hill took only 10 minutes to pass the state's 163-page ARPA bill to spend $4 billion of our money.  I have a few follow up questions that I hope you will address in your future political emails.  The state has $10 billion in cash.  What is happening with the other $6 billion in state cash in Boston?  Where will the $4 billion in state cash go to and who will benefit from the state's ARPA spending bill?

Please let me know if any or all of the greedy Beacon Hill lobbyists will benefit from the state's multibillion-dollar ARPA spending plan.  I read on a blog that retired Beacon Hill career politician Daniel Bosley collects up to two state pensions plus public perks on top of his 6-figure salary as a Beacon Hill greedy lobbyist.  In closing, it seems to me that the politically-connected elites always benefit while the people, families and taxpayers always lose in Massachusetts politics.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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6 Reps. 10 minutes. $4 billion of our money. 

On Thursday, only six representatives were present during the informal House session in which leadership passed the final ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) spending bill, determining how $4 billion of federal COVID relief money will be spent here in Massachusetts. You may recall that the legislature failed to get this bill to the governor’s desk before taking their seven week holiday recess two weeks ago. That meant they could do one of two things: wait until the new year to pass the bill during a full formal session with debate and a roll call vote of the members, or pass it during an informal session without a roll call vote and with only a handful of members present. Yes, they chose the latter.

Over the past two weeks, a conference committee negotiated a new version of the bill behind closed doors. And once a bill emerges from these secretive conference committees, it cannot be amended. To make matters worse, legislators and the public hardly had time to read it: the conference committee made the text of the 163-page bill public only 15 hours before the “vote.” Well, let’s hope we agree with what ended up in the bill!

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December 6, 2021

Hello Patrick Fennell,

First, in response to your political letter to the editor, Joe Biden spent a whopping $6 trillion federal dollars in his first 100 days in the Oval Office, which was on top of the $6 trillion federal budget, and his federal spending bill(s) are the most expensive federal spending bill(s) in U.S. history.  Prior to Joe Biden, Donald Trump signed into law the single largest federal tax cut bill in U.S. history.  Near the end of 2021, the U.S. national debt is over $29 trillion.

The federal reserve, Capitol Hill, Wall Street and foreign banks, all move around trillions of federal dollars a year only among themselves only for their own benefit.  All of the economic, financial and income gains are made by the ELITES.  It does not matter if the underclass and working class in the USA or a foreign country is at or near poverty to the ELITES as long as the ELITES control the government and economy for their own benefit.

Second, in response to your political email letter to Erin Leahy at Act on Mass and myself, respectively, Lenox (Massachusetts) State Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli is two-faced in state government.  While Smitty Pignatelli writes lofty letters and op-eds to Western Massachusetts' newspapers, he also goes to Boston and mostly votes for the State House leadership and their legislation that has systemically shafted the Berkshires and beyond.  I have written to him for years pointing this out to him, but Smitty Pignatelli keeps writing lofty words while his public record is anything but lofty.  To be honest, I always become annoyed when I read Smitty Pignatelli's lofty letters and op-eds because he has only enriched himself at the public trough for decades-on-end by serving Boston's powerful politicians that shutout the people from their corrupt sausage making.

 

In closing, Western Massachusetts has no real political representation in Boston and the Swamp.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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To the Editor; The other day on the radio two local charities set higher goals for fund raising. The food panties are stressed out and even the Salvation Army need more money.

Meanwhile Congress and two presidents signed TRILLION dollar relief bills. Trillions have been passed out to universities and colleges who have billion plus dollar endowments, art galleries who cater to Hunter Biden, million dollar businesses, non-profits that have executive directors who make high six and seven million dollar salaries and even congress, state legislators, and local governments have grabbed huge pieces of the pie! The rich, connected, elites and all of the above have benefited.

Sadly the poor, needy, small businesses, veterans, elderly and disabled have to depend on local charities, the Salvation Army and next door neighbors to get by. Like every big spending bill the poor are ALWAYS ignored.

Senators Warren and Markey and our members of Congress, NEVER seem to care about those in need, after all their friends come first.

So help out the local charities, after all Government is wealthy and absent again.

Patrick Fennell

Great Barrington, MA

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December 6, 2021

Jonathon and Erin;

This morning Smitty was on WSBS taking donations for the Watson Fund, a charity that collects money to help 400 families in the Southern Berkshires, throw in the Lala Bertie Toy Fund, Eagle Fund and many more local charities and of course the Salvation Army they are the reason poor kids can get clothes, toys and food. Sadly none of the four billion will drip down far enough to put a winter coat on the back of a poor person, however Williams College worth BILLIONS will get another handout as will big businesses charities that pay staff member six and seven digit salaries, and of course invent paid positions for politicians friend and family members, with the four billion.

Trillions of dollars later the poor, working poor, small businesses, elderly, disabled and veterans have been ignored, 

Question; If pols like Smitty are so good at their "JOBS?", why do Charities have to raise more money every year because we have more people in need?  Isn't it his "JOB?" to make our lives better and eliminate the poor? Or is his job to keep Williams College wealthy?

Patrick Fennell

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January 5, 2021

True dat. Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky turned the Oval Office into the Oral Orifice.  Bill Clinton had 26 flight log entries on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet.  Bill Clinton deregulated Wall Street, which led to casino-like institutional investment banks melting down the financial system in 2008.  Bush 2 got all of the blame when PAC Man Richie Neal and his corporate Dems in the Swamp were cashing in with K Street Lobbyist Firms.  To be fair, Bush 2 openly said that the financial and corporate elites were his base, which means that he gave away the proverbial store to Wall Street.  Lastly, both the Republican and Democratic Party leaders in the Swamp voted for bailing out Wall Street and foreign banks in Europe and Asia, which was outrageous!

Jonathan A. Melle

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February 3, 2022

I just read a political news article about Super PAC Man Richie Neal raising more K Street lobbyist money than ever.  How does that work out for the people who live in his mostly rural Western Massachusetts Congressional District?  Answer: Richie Neal only represents K Street lobbyist firms, especially Insurance Companies.

https://readsludge.com/2022/02/02/neals-pac-is-raising-more-money-than-ever/

Meanwhile, on February 1st, 2022, the U.S. National Debt crossed the $30 trillion mark.  Joe Biden has spent well over $10 trillion in his first year as U.S. President, while Richie Neal refuses to raise federal taxes to pay for Biden's Buck$ because his real constituency are his K Street lobbyist firms who are filling his campaign coffers with a record amount of money.

https://www.usdebtclock.org

The Hill recently reported that the top K Street lobbyist firms reported record earnings in 2021.  If you want to know where all of the Biden Buck$ are going, please look at Super PAC Man Richie Neal.

Jonathan A. Melle

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February 7, 2022

Hello WAMC & Alan Chartock,

I read WAMC journalist Josh Landes' news article about PAC Man Richie Neal's record campaign fundraising numbers from K Street corporate lobbyist firms.

https://www.wamc.org/news/2022-02-07/neals-leadership-pac-reports-record-fundraising-with-backing-from-corporate-donors

The problem with PAC Man Richie Neal (D-Insurance Companies) really representing K Street corporate lobbyist firms in the Swamp is that it has nothing to do with the people who live in his large geographical Western Massachusetts Congressional District.  The Ruling Elites are only serving money and power in the Swamp, while the people they are supposed to be representing have no real representation in their federal government.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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March 9, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

The U.S.A. - federal, state and local - only have one true political party: The Incumbents.  The Ruling Elites are mostly career politicians who worship the Almighty Dollar for power.  Look at how wealthy Joe Biden and his family are, Bill and Hillary Clinton (and Chelsea) are, Nancy Pelosi is, and so on.  They are all career politicians who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  How is that even rational given that they all are/were career politicians?

No one in power fights for you and me (Jon Melle), Patrick Fennell.  Instead, they fight for their own enrichment.  When I email politicians, they either block my political emails or I never receive a written response from them.  The only written responses I receive from Joe Biden, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, and Annie Kuster are form letters.

I have spent many years of my life studying and following politics and government.  Ideally, politicians are supposed to campaign and then govern on an Agenda that will best serve the people and taxpayers they represent in government.  Ideally, a citizen/voter is supposed to ask their politicians about their Agenda, and then follow up by asking their politicians why it is not being legislated and executed in government.  Ideally, the government is supposed to be transparent, unless there are rational/legal explanations to not be transparent.  Ideally, politicians are supposed to educate the public about their work in government.  Ideally, the public is supposed to be well educated and informed about the government's policies, spending and leaders.

Is that so difficult?  In reality, it has proven to be impossible to have good government that lives up to the ideals of American Democracy.  Instead, the people and taxpayers distrust their politicians, and they fear their government because of the use of retribution to control the public.  The politicians spend most of their time fundraising, which puts them at the will of their wealthy donors on K Street.

To illustrate, in 2008 - 2009, the Swamp bailed out Wall Street and foreign banks with trillions of federal dollars.  The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was in 2009, which was the same year as the bailouts.  Tens of millions of American citizens are either uninsured or under-insured, and the cost of a family's monthly health insurance is more than the average family's monthly mortgage payment.  Yet, the Ruling Elites and their wealthy campaign donors have little to no need of the federal minimum wage, nor do they have much need for affordable healthcare insurance.

The government is supposed to serve the American People, but, in reality, it is the other way around.  When the proverbial Jon Melle writes to the Ruling Elites about it all, I only pound sand.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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March 11, 2022

PAC Man Richie Neal (D - K Street Insurance Companies) is being criticized for his retirement planning gimmick legislation.  To read more, please visit:

Congress Is Set to Make the Rich Richer—Again – Mother Jones

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/congress-ryan-neal-secure-2-act-retirement-wealth-gap-inequality/

Jonathan A. Melle

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Brooks Ballenger: Dismayed at Neal’s efforts to bring back surprise medical billing

The Daily Hampshire Gazette, op-ed by Brooks Ballenger, March 11, 2022

One thing wrong with our current health care system is a scheme called “surprise medical bills.”

When someone needs to go to the doctor, the emergency room, or the hospital, they often assume, or are even told directly, “insurance will cover this treatment.” Yet weeks or months later, a surprise medical bill may arrive — often for thousands of dollars. The insurance company refuses to pay, so the hospital or health care provider demands payment from the patient.

The result is often financial difficulty or even bankruptcy for the poor victim. An emergency room visit can often become a financial emergency as well. Medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S.

The Biden administration, to its credit, recently banned these surprise medical bills. That is why we are shocked and dismayed that Rep. Richard Neal is attempting to bring back surprise medical bills. See https://theintercept.com/2022/01/17/surprise-medical-billing-lawsuit. This will please corporations that donate to his campaign, but not people who need medical care.

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We can only speculate about Mr. Neal’s reasons, but we think he should be fighting for his constituents, not helping the health care industry overcharge us. Isn’t that why we sent him to Congress? If you are troubled by Rep. Neal’s actions, we urge you to call or email his office and ask him to fight for us, not the health care corporations.

Brooks Ballenger

Amherst [Massachusetts]

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March 12, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

I agree with you about PAC Man Richie Neal and his close ties to K Street corporate lobbyist firms, especially the insurance industry.  He does DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers who live in his large geographical Western Massachusetts Congressional District.  He only represents the wealthy special interests so he can fill his campaign coffers with millions of corporate PAC dollars every year.  PAC Man Richie Neal stands for everything I dislike about the Swamp!

The Washington Post published a news article today: "Lobbying broke all-time mark in 2021 amid flurry of government spending - Industry topped $3.7 billion for first time, as 3,700 new companies and organizations hired lobbyists since start of the pandemic" By By Jonathan O'Connell and Anu Narayanswamy, March 12, 2022.

"The lobbying industry had a record year in 2021, taking in $3.7 billion in revenue as companies, associations and other organizations pressed Congress and the Biden administration over trillions of dollars in new pandemic spending and rules affecting health care, travel, tourism and other industries.... The jump in 2021, when lobbying spending was about 6 percent higher than 2020, came as the government’s pandemic interventions and record expenditure took center stage, including an additional $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package."

Joe Biden took in more money from Wall Street and K Street than any other candidate in the 2020 presidential election year.  Yet, total hypocrites Elizabeth Warren and Ed "Maryland" Markey both support him, despite saying that they support Main Street and the phony Green New Deal.  Don't you see that Joe Biden is the leader of the Corporate Democratic Party, and the winners are Wall Street, K Street, and the Ruling Elites, especially in the Swamp?  The losers are the rest of us who are paying 40-year high U.S. inflation prices, while continuing to pound sand about corrupt career politicians such as PAC Man Richie Neal.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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March 15, 2022

No matter who wins the White House, the Almighty Dollar always wins!  To be clear, the ELITES, who are only about money and power, always win, while the rest of us feel lucky to cut even and maybe save a few Biden Buck$ or fall into our country's huge and always growing larger underclass.  Most people know this all too well and no longer give a damn which Ruling Elite gets to sit in the Oval Office.  2022 Capitalism equals CLASS Warfare in a rigged financial system!  2022 American Democracy equals multimillionaires and a few billionaires enriching themselves in the Swamp.  What happened to the government of, by and for the American People?  To answer that lofty question, just ask PAC Man Richie Neal about K Street's corporate lobbyist firms legally bribing Members of U.S. Congress, and he will tell you that the U.S. Constitution is just a piece of paper from the 18th Century that he wipes his ass with because he sure as Hell does NOT represent the people who live in his Western Massachusetts Congressional District!

Jonathan A. Melle

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March 17, 2022

Casino.org's news article about boasts that the tax benefit of casino gambling in Massachusetts recently went over $1 billion, but what it doesn't say is that gambling operations - similar to so-called "Sin Taxes" on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco products, etcetera - is voluntary regressive taxation.  The state lottery and casino gambling operations are the worst kind of regressive taxation because they make a majority of their revenues from the financially illiterate mostly poor and low-income uneducated people.  I try to explain to people that when one gambles, he or she is really trying to beat the odds to win money, but the odds are not in their favor.  I am asked, what about the people who win money?  I explain that if a state lottery or casino gambling operation has enough people trying to beat the odds, the people who do beat the odds and win money are far less than the people who do not beat the odds and lose money, which is the profit margin that the state lottery or casino makes, which is usually a lot of money, especially for the government because the politicians get a big cut of the action for their countless pay raises and generous public perks.  The politicians say that the money is for public education and other worthy causes, but that is not the whole truth.  Any form of regressive taxation, including gambling revenues, means that the higher income earners get to pay less in taxes.  The politicians then get to give lucrative tax breaks to the politically connected businesses who donate money to the politicians' campaign coffers.  When a career politician retires and collects their big public pension and perks, they often go right back to the government as greedy registered lobbyists who push for more and more regressive taxation schemes so they can push the politicians for more and more tax breaks for their wealthy politically connected business clients.  This all goes over the heads of most of the people who the politicians mostly do DISSERVICES against because most of the people don't begin to understand it all.

Regressive taxation via gambling operations, so-called Sin businesses, and the like, is PREDATORY.  Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is a corporate financial manager and Attorney who established casino gambling in Massachusetts during his tenure as the Chief Executive on Beacon Hill.  Deval Patrick campaigned on progressive state government in Massachusetts, but his legacy of casino gambling operations is anything but progressive.  When then State Representative Dan Bosley, who is now a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill, only fought then Governor Deval Patrick on Casino Gambling many years ago now because he (Bosley) wanted to protect the state lottery's profits, despite Dan Bosley's thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from casino lobbyists.

I had lunch this past Sunday afternoon with my best friend, and he gave me a piece of valuable advice: Never trust a career politician.

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Massachusetts Casino Tax Benefit to Commonwealth Eclipses $1B"

Devin O'Connor @Casinoorg - March 16, 2022

Massachusetts legalized commercial gambling in 2011 with its Expanded Gaming Act. The bill authorized as many as three destination resort casinos, plus a slots-only facility.   

Then-Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick shakes hands with then-Speaker Robert DeLeo after signing a bill legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts on November 22, 2011. A little more than a decade later, Massachusetts has received more than $1 billion in gaming taxes. (Image: AP)

More than a decade since then-Governor Deval Patrick (D) signed the Expanded Gaming Act, Massachusetts today is home to two destination casinos — Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield — plus a slots parlor with Plainridge Park.

The state’s gamble on commercial casinos has certainly paid off. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) this week announced that the three gaming properties have collectively directed more than $1 billion in gaming taxes to the commonwealth.

The MGC still possesses one final destination casino license earmarked for the state’s southeastern region. Market saturation concerns because of commercial casinos in nearby Rhode Island, plus an ongoing effort by a Massachusetts tribe to build a gaming property in Taunton, have resulted in the MGC holding on to the concession.

Industry Success

Plainridge Park was the first casino in Massachusetts to open after the Expanded Gaming Act’s passage. The slots began ringing at the horse racetrack in June of 2015.

MGM Springfield, a $960 million undertaking, was the first destination casino to open in August of 2018. Encore Boston Harbor, which was originally going to be named Wynn Boston Harbor before career-ending sexual misconduct allegations were levied against Steve Wynn in early 2018, opened in June of the following year.

MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts each paid Massachusetts $85 million for their destination casino licenses. Penn National Gaming, which operates Plainridge, was required to pay a $25 million one-time fee.

The two categories of gaming licenses are taxed drastically differently. MGM and Encore gross gaming revenue (GGR) is subject to a 25% tax, while Plainridge’s slots direct 49% of their win to the government.

February Rebound

The MGC also announced today February GGR numbers, and the report signals that the three casinos are nearly back to pre-pandemic business levels. GGR last month totaled $85.5 million — just shy of the $86 million the three casinos won in February of 2020.

Encore continues to dominate the state gaming industry. The Wynn Resorts property won $54.7 million off of gamblers last month. MGM was a distant second at $19.9 million, and Plainridge third at $10.9 million.

Massachusetts could soon have another gaming tax generator. Legislative discussions surrounding sports betting continue in Boston.

But even if sportsbooks are authorized in the commonwealth, state lawmakers would be smart not to overly project a bounty of new tax income from the expanded gaming. Sports betting is a low-margin business, which is why associated tax revenue is minimal compared with slot machines and even table games.

QUOTE: "Just over 11 years since this law was signed, the Commonwealth has collected over $1 billion in total taxes and assessments from casinos operating in Massachusetts. This revenue has and continues to benefit the Massachusetts economy by bolstering local aid, funding transportation and infrastructure projects, ensuring essential community mitigation initiatives are backed, and that the health and safety of the industry and those who engage with it are a top priority,” said MGC Chair Cathy Judd-Stein.

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March 27, 2022

The point blog writer/posters are making is that the career politicians increase taxes by lying to us and making false promises to fund public education and other worthy projects, programs and public services, but at the end of the proverbial business day, they are never fully funded because the politicians ALWAYS use the tax dollars for their own self-interests to enrich themselves and their campaign donors at the public trough.  No one said/wrote/posted that spending money on public education automatically produces better results.  To illustrate, career politician Smitty Pignatelli writes the loftiest op-eds in Western Massachusetts newspapers saying that he is fighting for state funding and so on, but I have followed his nearly 20-year public record on Beacon Hill and he mostly votes in favor of the top-down State House leadership's legislative agenda, which does DISSERVICES against the people and taxpayers who live in Western Massachusetts and points east.  Smitty Pignatelli voted for and accepted countless state legislative pay raises and public perks, and he makes 6-figures doing nothing in state government.  NEVER trust career politicians!  And keep them as far away from public education as possible.

Jonathan A. Melle

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May 2, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

First, thank you for voting.  Second, my opinion is that with today's 5G technology, universal access to legal voting should be a no brainer.  Third, I believe that political candidates, including all of the corrupt career politicians, should hold monthly open forums to educate the people they serve in government and receive our feedback about what they are doing in government.  Fourth, I believe that the corrupt career politicians, such as said to be billionaire Speaker Nancy Pelosi, should NOT be enriching themselves at the public trough.  Fifth, I, like you, have no faith in Beacon Hill, especially because they are still sitting on billions of dollars in state surplus dollars, which is the people's state tax money - NOT the corrupt career politicians' money!  Sixth, I have little to no faith in the Swamp.  The beneficiaries of Biden's excessive single largest federal spending bill(s) in U.S. history are K Street lobbyist firms who are bragging about their record earnings in 2021, Wall Street making a financial killing off of the record high Pentagon budgets and Putin's unprovoked war in Ukraine, and the Swamp leaders all said to be worth hundreds of millions to over $1 billion each.  In closing, we have an Oligarchy government instead of a democracy.  The corrupt career politicians don't want to hear from people such as you and me because we don't fill their campaign coffers with millions of PAC dollars every year like K Street, Wall Street, and the super-rich mega donors.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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May 2, 2022

Today I requested a Mail-in ballot to vote in the Great Barrington Town Election. Since the 'Pandemic' is over, even though masks throughout the Commonwealth are still requested. I had to settle for an Absentee Ballot. I was required to include my date of birth with the written document. Apparently Blue States are not required to use Mail-in ballots and have more restrictions than GA and TX. Is racism still accepted in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?  Based on mask requests is the phony pandemic still on or off?

Before I decide who to vote for this year, what is your opinion on this issue? 

I will be honest I have absolutely NO faith in Massachusetts government at all. ZERO!!!!!!! Although that is higher than my faith in the Federal government, both parties. Trusting government is like trusting a member of the Bulger family with money and power.

Give me a reason to trust and count on you.

Patrick Fennell

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May 2, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

My guess as to why Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have similar state budgets, despite the big differences in population and area size is that Massachusetts plays more financial shell games due to its systemic institutional corruption ran by the one dominant political party (Democrats) who are totally disconnected from the realities working people and families face.  Moreover, with all of the tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks that goes to Boston area big businesses, and all of the regressive taxation schemes (state lottery, casinos, pot, alcohol, tobacco, and so on) that goes over the heads of so many of the financially illiterate and poorly educated people, the nearly $50 billion Massachusetts state budget is punishing the underclass, working class and middle-class families, as well as distressed communities such as Pittsfield, through the ruling elite's mockery of the people whom financial ignorance is bliss.

You and I are nobody's fool, but the corrupt Boston Pols unfortunately have millions of people fooled.  To illustrate, greedy pro-big business Beacon Hill registered lobbyist Dan Bosley writes disingenuous op-eds in Western Massachusetts newspapers praising various corrupt career politicians, such as PAC Man Richie Neal, while he gets paid a 6-figure lobbyist salary (on top of his possible two state pensions plus public perks) for selling out the people and taxpayers, especially in mostly rural Western Massachusetts.  Beacon Hill lawmakers have no business giving Boston area big businesses a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks, while always systemically underfunding state aid to public school districts and municipalities.  The corrupt career politicians in Boston think they are fooling someone such as Mayor Linda Tyer by mockingly giving her millions of state aid dollars from the lottery, casino, pot, and the like, but she is nobody's fool because she called out Governor Charlie Baker and Beacon Hill lawmakers earlier this year of 2022 for lowballing state aid to the 47 Massachusetts Mayors whom she leads.  Mayor Linda Tyer knows what is really going on in Boston, which makes her a very smart cookie!  I am impressed with Mayor Linda Tyer, but I feel the opposite way about Beacon Hill's corrupt career politicians.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Massachusetts Lottery likely to hold line on ad budget"

By Colin A. Young, State House News Service, June 1, 2022

The Massachusetts Lottery Commission on Tuesday approved a $5 million outlay for the next year of its advertising contract and got a presentation from its ad firm that Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said highlighted what the Lottery has done "on an incredibly small shoestring budget."

State spending to promote the Lottery has been called both essential to maintaining the steady stream of revenue used for local aid and exploitation of vulnerable residents who might be drawn into gambling by the ads. Though it has not been much of an issue on Beacon Hill for years, Lottery advertising was once a hot-button issue at the State House.

The Lottery Commission on Tuesday authorized the agency to spend up to $5 million for Boston firm Full Contact's advertising services in fiscal year 2023, subject to legislative appropriation. The Lottery and Full Contact entered into a three-year contract with two one-year options last May. For more than five years, the Legislature has level-funded the Lottery's advertising line item at $4.5 million, though the Lottery can supplement that with some monitor game funds.

Goldberg, who at one point early in her tenure as treasurer asked lawmakers to allocate $10 million a year for the Lottery to advertise its products in an increasingly competitive gaming market, said a few times during Tuesday's meeting that the Lottery's advertising budget is not proportional to the $5.8 billion in revenue it took in last budget year.

"It's unheard of, the size of the advertising budget, comparing it to any other operating company that generates that amount of volume. And so that makes it all the more impressive," she said. Goldberg later added, "As you can note, it's an extraordinarily lean advertising budget for a very large operating company."

Tuesday's meeting also featured a presentation from Full Contact on its work to produce ads connected to the Lottery's 50th anniversary this year. The commission also saw a video produced in-house to advertise a Keno promotion; like another recent Lottery video, this one cast a Lottery employee in an acting role to minimize costs.

"It would be nice to have a little bit more," Goldberg said of the Lottery's advertising budget. "Maybe it's something we can, as we continue to grow in volume, and we can show the percentage of our marketing budget getting smaller and smaller versus the amount of volume that we have. It would be a fascinating number to be looking at."

Lottery Advertising History

The Lottery's advertising-specific budget line item has been set at a steady $4.5 million since mid-2016 and the House and Senate have both approved that same amount again for the fiscal year 2023 budget. If the ad budget stays there through conference negotiations, it would be the seventh straight year of level funding. The Lottery's ad budget is supplemented with a small portion of funds from its monitor games.

Lottery advertising has not been much of a talker on Beacon Hill in recent years, but its history intersects with a number of significant people and events of the last few decades of Massachusetts politics.

Massachusetts spent between $11 million and $13 million on lottery advertising during the late 1980s and early 1990s but the Legislature gutted the budget starting in the mid-1990s, according to News Service reporting. After approving $11.8 million for fiscal year 1994, Lottery advertising funding was slashed to $400,000 and advertising was limited to the point of sale starting in fiscal 1995.

That dramatic cut corresponded with the time that Thomas Birmingham, who felt that Lottery advertising preyed on poor and vulnerable residents, was deeply involved with the state budget as Senate Ways and Means chairman and then as Senate president. The Chelsea Democrat was successful in holding down Lottery ad spending for several years, but he gave up the gavel in the Senate to run unsuccessfully for governor in 2002.

Instead of Birmingham moving into the corner office in 2003, it was Republican Mitt Romney. By September of that year, in a bid to boost sales and deliver more aid to cities and towns hit by local aid cuts, the Legislature and first-year governor had signed off on $5 million for Lottery advertising via radio, television and billboards in fiscal year 2004.

That $5 million turned into $10 million in fiscal 2005 and the Lottery got $10 million for advertising each year through fiscal 2009, until the recession forced cuts. The account was funded at $2 million in fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Lottery advertising was at the center of the scandal that ensnared Treasurer Tim Cahill and led to a 2012 indictment on charges of public corruption, conspiracy, and procurement fraud stemming from Lottery ads that appeared designed to bolster his unsuccessful 2010 run for governor. Cahill's legal case ended with a mistrial and a fine.

As casino gambling, which was legalized here in 2011 as direct competition to the Lottery, was becoming a reality in Massachusetts, the Lottery was given additional advertising ammunition as its ad budget was bumped back up to $5 million for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 and then boosted even further to about $8 million for budget years 2015 and 2016.

"As a businesswoman, I firmly believe that the last thing you do when you're trying to increase revenue is cut advertising. And especially not when new competition is moving into your backyard," Goldberg said, referring to casinos and slot parlors, as the Legislature began to build the fiscal 2016 budget.

But in the fiscal year 2017 budget, Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed some Lottery advertising spending and the Legislature allowed it to stand. Lottery profits had been mostly flat in the face of competition from online entities and a new slot machine facility in Plainville. Baker left the Lottery with $4.5 million for ads, saying that is the amount that's "necessary" and neither he nor lawmakers have seen fit to adjust the budget since.

April Sales and Profit

Sales were down again at the Massachusetts Lottery in April, pushing the agency even further behind its record-setting profit pace of the last fiscal year.

April 2022 sales of $465.5 million represented a drop of $25.9 million or 5.3 percent from April 2021, Interim Executive Director Mark William Bracken told the Lottery Commission on Tuesday. The dip followed a 4 percent year-over-year decline in sales in March.

The sales drop combined with a $9.8 million multi-state prize settlement for Mega Millions and Powerball that was processed in April and a higher prize payout percentage led to an estimated $27.4 million decrease in net profit last month compared to April 2021. The Lottery paid out 74.29 percent of the money it took in as prizes last month, compared to 71.23 percent in April 2021.

"Our prize payouts have been extremely high in the last couple of months, including the month of April, and we are at our highest prize payout than we have seen in our last five years," Bracken said. "So, once again, good for the players in that aspect."

Through 10 months of the fiscal year, Lottery sales of $4.94 billion are up $73.2 million or 1.5 percent over the same 10 months of fiscal 2021, but this year the Lottery's net profit is running $38.4 million behind the pace that led to a record $1.112 billion in profit in fiscal 2021.

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June 4, 2022

While I understand that pro big business greedy registered Beacon Hill lobbyist Daniel Bosley would disagree with me, the 50th Golden Anniversary of the Massachusetts State Lottery should NOT be celebrated!  Here are 10 reasons why the Massachusetts State Lottery is unfair and inequitable:

1. It is premised on a lie to "help" local government and public school district with financial aid, but it is a nothing more than a form of regressive taxation that only benefits the wealthy few.

2. It boasted record profits in fiscal year 2021, but all that really means is that it exploited low to moderate income people who are mostly financially illiterate and are being taken advantage of by Boston's corrupt Ruling Elite who plays financial shell games with state taxpayers' money that goes over the heads of most of the people and taxpayers.

3. It makes a mockery of distressed cities such as my native hometown of Pittsfield by elitist Boston mocking municipal leaders with lottery funds when they give away nearly $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to Boston area big businesses that they could use to increase state aid to local governments and public-school districts.

4. It spends millions of public dollars advertising its financial schemes to voluntarily tax the poor and vulnerable residents, who don't understand what is really going on.

5. It is a predatory public business that preys on places such as Pittsfield instead of one of the top 10 wealthiest cities in the U.S.A. named Wellesley; further mocking distressed places such as Pittsfield to benefit wealthy places such as Wellesley.

6. The Ruling Elite corrupt career politicians in Boston know full well what they are doing by selling lottery tickets, but they pretend that they are doing a service instead of a DISSERVICE.

7. It is one of many voluntary regressive taxation schemes by elitist Boston.  Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, the lottery, casinos, and so on are all voluntary taxes on low to moderate people.

8. It is a means for the corrupt career politicians, greedy lobbyists, and politically connected Boston area big businesses and unions to all enrich themselves at the public trough, which gives Beacon Hill's State House its well-deserved bad reputation.

9. It is addictive.  Gambling is part to the "Unholy Trinity" of mentally ill people paying for strippers and sex workers, substances such as alcohol, marijuana, drugs, and lottery tickets, casino poker chips, slot machines, and the like.  When mentally ill addicted people pay for the "Unholy Trinity", it is not all about sex, getting high, and winning money, but rather, it is also about releasing dopamine chemicals in their fragile brains to find a temporary pleasurable release from their stress, anxiety, depression, and so on.

10. It is the opposite of the government investing in the people and their communities with living wage jobs, safe streets, fully funded Level One public schools, and so on.  To be clear, it is the government divesting from the people and the communities who need government investments the most.  The social costs greatly outweigh the state lottery aid that goes back to local governments and public-school districts.

My letter should be where the state lottery's $5 million-plus advertising budget is spent.  I don't want any money from the Massachusetts State Lottery, but anyone who does want their money is being fooled on many more levels than the 10 reasons stated above.

Jonathan A. Melle

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June 5, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

You hit the proverbial nail on the head about the state lottery.  People with money benefit from people without money scratching off scratch tickets.  Towns with money benefit from low to moderate income people who live in distressed and economically unequal cities such as my native hometown of Pittsfield Massachusetts dreaming of winning the lottery jackpot(s).  The lottery has NOT helped Pittsfield's Level 5 public schools one bit, but it most likely hurt the cause of quality public education for low to moderate income families.

The lottery is the epitomy of political corruption, and many Beacon Hill lawmakers have said just that over the years of the elites enriching themselves at the public trough by screwing over the low to moderate income people, families and taxpayers of Massachusetts and beyond.  The lottery and other regressive taxation schemes like it really allow corrupt career politicians in Boston and beyond to give billions of additional dollars in state tax breaks to big businesses that don't exist in most of Western Massachusetts and other mostly rural regions of the Commonwealth and beyond.  The lottery is nothing more than an unfair and inequitable SCAM, and the elitist Boston politicians know full well that they are lying about what it is really all about.

As for the military, only 7 percent of the U.S. population have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, which means that 93 percent have skipped serving our country, including Bill "Draft Dodger" Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald "Bone Spurs" Trump, and Joe "Asthma" Biden, who has used the hostile words "KILLER" & "BUTCHER" against Putin who is now in his 101st day of invading Ukraine, as well as him threatening China with WW3 last Autumn of 2021 and again this Spring of 2022 if China invades Taiwan.  Biden plans to meet with "Pariah" State of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince MBS, whom he said he was going to stand up to the bully, in July of 2022 because he wants Saudi Arabia to increase its oil output .... (sarcasm): to help the Democratic Party's Green New Deal nonsense.

The U.S. Armed Forces train 18-year-olds and older to use automatic weapons.  I trained with a machine gun, a grenade, a M16, and an M4 rifle during my honorable military service in the U.S. Army many years ago.  Soldiers are taught to treat their rifle like a brother with care and respect.  Soldiers are taught that use of force with a weapon is well regulated by the military command.  The 93 percent of the U.S. population that are not Veterans have not been trained and taught about guns, rifles, grenades, and the like, nor have they been taught about the use of force being well regulated by the military command.  Ergo, I disagree with you that 18 to 20-year-old civilians should be and are legally eligible to buy guns, rifles, and the like because they don't understand what kind of weapon(s) they are using, and how the use of force is supposed to be well regulated by the military command.

When a U.S. President and/or a Member of U.S. Congress authorizes a military conflict, they should know that federal and state laws to provide care for Veterans should be fully funded and upheld.  The VA is the 2nd largest federal bureaucracy behind HHS, but the VA has had systemic management problems and related issues for many years.  Veterans literally die because the VA is systemically mismanaged.  Governor Charlie Baker's mismanagement of the Chelsea and Holyoke Soldiers Homes resulted in the deaths of over 80 Veterans during the outbreak of Covid-19.  Like the aforementioned U.S. Presidents and many Members of U.S. Congress, Governor Charlie Baker never served our country in the military.  The needless deaths of so many Veterans could have been avoided if the state and federal government properly managed the VA.

Politicians should stop supporting wars, making billions if not trillions of dollars off of the U.S.A.'s lucrative military industrial complex that has killed millions upon millions of innocent foreign Peoples and people since the end of WW2, and the U.S. Government being the world's number one arms dealer to the world year in and year out.  The Pentagon pollutes more greenhouse gas emissions that 140 countries combined.  The U.S.A. is the number 2 polluter of global warming emissions in the world behind only China.  Combined, China and the U.S.A. account for a little less that 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.  Look at the path we are on.  It has to change in the future, but the Swamp only cares about the Almighty Dollar and POWER so it will only get worse and worse until Putin's threats to take out and use his nuclear weapons proverbial toy box becomes a horrible reality and Putin destroys the world as we now know it.

The U.S. House of Representatives will pass gun reform legislation soon, but there will never be the needed 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to send it to Joe Biden's desk in the Oval Office, and Joe Biden knows that despite his justified moral outrage.  The U.S. Supreme Court will continue to say that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution entitles law abiding citizens without serious mental impairments and/or illnesses to bear arms.  Nothing will change with gun violence in the Swamp in the near future.  Some state governments are passing gun reform legislation, but many other state governments, including New Hampshire, are not and will not be doing so in the near future.  I wish 18-year-olds and older civilians did not own lethal firearms, but the carnage will continue because too many politicians are spineless assholes!

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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I have never seen anyone scratching off scratch tickets in a Cadillac or Lexus. Usually a clunker. Poor towns and cities have more lottery victims than wealthier towns and cities.

The Lottery is a total failure, because the original reason for the Lottery was to help the public schools. Based on Pittsfield and most urban and many rural schools it is a failure.

We have already seen the corrution with the pot shops and industry.

Patrick Fennell

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To the Berkshire Eagle;

Right now many men and women in the military are under twenty-one-years-old. The carry automatic weapons, use them and protect the American people bravely and proudly. We should respect and be proud of them.

If an eighteen-year-old man does not register, he can be denied student loans, government jobs and other benefits.

Based on raising the age to purchase AR-15 rifles, should we raise the age to register for the draft to say the average age of a member of Congress, after all they start the wars and conflicts?

Patrick Fennell

Great Barrington, MA

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June 6, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

The corrupt career politicians in Boston and beyond, as well as in the Swamp, are not allowing us law abiding citizens who have the Constitutional Right to bear arms to protect ourselves and our communities because too many of the Salons are spineless assholes who only care about the Almighty Dollar and political power so they will be reelected to public office for decades on end.  We don't matter to them, which leads me to my thought for today.  The Massachusetts State Lottery is rolling out its propaganda ad campaign about its Golden 50th year Anniversary of voluntary regressive taxation that exploits the low to moderate income mostly financially illiterate people and families and communities for the benefit of the wealthy few and corrupt career politicians who enrich themselves at the public trough.  It has been around 50 years since Wall Street and the Swamp began decimating the middle class in the U.S.A., while the financial, corporate and ruling elites have all become super wealthy.  The Massachusetts State Lottery should do an ad celebrating Wall Street and the Swamp's supply side economics and financial shell games as its inspiration for exploiting vulnerable people and families and communities out of their hard-earned money to benefit the wealthy elites in Boston over the past 50 years.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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July 16, 2022

Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,

Your Saturday Scoop political email today is the best one yet.  The corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill are in the process of passing a multibillion-dollar so-called tax relief bill, but they are leaving out the most economically distressed people of Massachusetts out of the loot.  Do you understand why that is so wrong?  The answer is because Beacon Hill lawmakers use (voluntary) regressive taxation schemes such as the multibillion-dollar state lottery, casino gambling, excise taxes on marijuana, tobacco, alcohol, and the like, and so on, that all exploit low to moderate income people and the distressed cities they live in.  The average distressed person and community doesn't always understand what is going on because they are financially illiterate and the cities that they live in are paid off with increased state aid that could easily be much higher if Beacon Hill lawmakers didn't give away between 35 percent to 40 percent of state revenues in state tax breaks to Boston area big businesses who enrich both themselves and the Ruling Elites at the public trough.  Believe me when I tell you that I know what I am writing to you about because I have studied all of these public financial shell games, as I have a Master of Public Administration degree from UMass Amherst (1999); I turn 47 next week - I know I am getting old.

Moreover, my dad was a Berkshire County Commissioner for 3.5 years (1997 - mid-2000), and I used to go to Beacon Hill Committee hearings with him, and we also used to meet with the corrupt Berkshire County area State Representatives (who are now greedy Beacon Hill lobbyists - Daniel Bosley and Peter Larkin - who collect their Massachusetts state pensions plus perks, along with State Senator/Corrupt Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies Nuciforo - aka Luciforo - who runs a multimillion dollar marijuana business in Pittsfield and East Boston, and he has a law office in Boston's financial district instead of being in state prison) back then.  The corrupt career politicians from Pittsfield to Boston all enriched themselves at the public trough, while the beautiful Berkshires fell behind with its distressed regional economy and severe economic inequality.  Beacon Hill lawmakers are not fighting for low to moderate income people, families, taxpayers and small businesses.  What is worse is that they are exploiting them and the regions, such as Berkshire County, that they live in with the billions of dollars in inequitable state revenue they take in from worthless scratch tickets, casino chips, joints, cigs, whiskey, and so on.  I wish the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald all the way west to the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) would publish my political emails about how inequitable Beacon Hill is to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts and beyond, but I am blacklisted because I am not a political hack who kisses the Solons' dirty behinds by telling them how great they are NOT!

When will Beacon Hill pass the late fiscal year 2023 Massachusetts State Budget that began on July 1st, 2022?  Anyways, please keep up your good work.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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July 16, 2022

Hi Jonathan,

The Massachusetts State House has a certain M.O.: at the start of the session, reps file upwards of 7,000 bills. But the vast majority of these receive little to no discussion and are sent to study come February.

A trickle of bills are passed throughout the session, but the firehose of legislation turns on in June and July–just before the deadline. Most of the bills that come to a vote this late weren’t filed at the beginning of the session and never received a committee hearing; they’re bills that have been cobbled together and written by House and Senate leadership behind closed doors.

These omnibus bills are brought to the floor for a vote with 24 hours notice or less. Amendments to change or improve the legislation end up buried in “consolidated amendments” – a process that also takes place, you guessed it, behind closed doors. 

The result is a unanimous or near unanimous vote on a giant piece of legislation, crafted out of view of the public, and with little to no debate on the floor.

This M.O. was on full display this past week on Beacon Hill. 

State House Scoop

House passes $4.2 billion spending bill

After two formal sessions and nearly 900 amendments, the House passed a major spending bill on Thursday. And as with any multi-billion dollar bill, there’s a lot to discuss. So let’s break this into bite-sized scoops:

The good

This budget-adjacent bill includes many budget-adjacent things, like earmarks for local projects, and funding for housing and health care programs. But most importantly, this bill is a tax cut–$524 million in tax cuts, to be exact. Many cuts proposed in the bill would provide relief to low and middle-income families and individuals. That’s great! If only the cuts stopped there.

The bad

Unfortunately, this bill also included a major tax cut for the wealthy: it would raise the threshold for the estate tax from $1 million to $2 million. This tax cut, championed by Governor Baker, would cost the state over $200 million per year and affect just 2,500 of the wealthiest taxpayers in the state annually. I’m no math wiz, but by my count almost half of the tax cut package is being spent on the estate tax cut. Essentially a tax on inherited wealth, the estate tax is the only tax that addresses the racial wealth gap. And our Democratic supermajority just slashed it in half.

The ugly

In addition to tax cuts, our legislators proposed a tax rebate–a one-time check of $250 to return some taxpayer money directly back whence it came. Here’s the thing: in order to be eligible for a rebate, the bill specified that your annual income had to be between $38,000 and $100,000. That’s right: low-income people, the people who need it the most, are excluded from these rebates.

Voice votes used to reject popular progressive amendments

Despite the time crunch, some progressive reps banded together and filed amendments to the spending bill that would have addressed these issues; Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven filed #630, which would have reigned in the estate tax cut, and Rep. Tami Gouveia filed #813, which would have made people making less than $38,000/year eligible for rebates.

Leadership tried to bury these amendments before they could even be heard on the floor by “consolidating” them into a giant mega-amendment. Thankfully, the sponsors of both of these amendments objected to their amendments being tossed out without debate, and were at least able to speak on the floor. 

Want to see how your rep voted on these issues? Well, you’re out of luck. Unfortunately, neither rep requested a roll call vote, so both critical and popular amendments were killed on a mere voice vote. There is no record of rep’s stances on these amendments. This is particularly disappointing during an election year–surely now, more than ever, voters deserve to know where their rep stands on issues like these.

In other news

Senate passes abortion access bill, one key difference with House version

Following the House’s lead, the Senate passed a major reproductive rights bill this week. Both versions protect MA providers from out of state lawsuits for providing abortion and gender affirming health care. The one key difference is about when to permit abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy; the House bill would allow these rare later-term abortions in the case of severe fetal anomalies, whereas the Senate would only permit them in the case of fatal fetal anomalies. If that doesn’t sound like a big distinction, consider the story of Kate Dineen, a Massachusetts woman who had to travel to Maryland to receive an abortion after learning that her son had a catastrophic stroke in utero at 33 weeks pregnant. 

Take Action

Thursdays at 6:00PM: Phonebank for our Endorsed Candidates!

You read it right! Every Thursday this summer we’ll be making calls for our incredible roster of endorsed state rep candidates. Phonebanking is fun, easy, and absolutely vital for our candidates to win. Plus, you’ll get to hang out with the coolest people on Earth for two hours a week: Act on Mass volunteers! Join us:

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Even in our Backyard: Our Broken Democracy in Massachusetts - 7/20 6:00PM

Join us for a special hybrid event with one of our endorsed candidates, Jack Stanton, and Former State Rep Kathy Teahan (D-Whitman) sponsored by Act on Mass and Incorruptible Mass. Register to attend virtually or in person!

DETAILS & RSVP >>

This week served as a great reminder of the stakes of State House reform; if our legislature were truly accountable to everyday people, we would have gotten tax rebates for low-income folks. We would have preserved the estate tax instead of widening the racial wealth gap. And who knows what else we could have accomplished?

That’s all the Scoop I have in me this week. A bit of housekeeping: I won’t be in your inbox next Saturday as I’ll be on a family vacation in Maine. Perhaps we'll have our first ever Tuesday Scoop!

Until then,

Erin Leahy

Executive Director, Act on Mass

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July 17, 2022

Someone emailed me: What did Mr. Nilan mean "no one cares anymore". What is he referring to?

My reply is that Cliff Nilan was referring to an event during the Summer of 2005 when Peter Larkin held a political gathering in Pittsfield that invited the local Democrats such as Cliffy to his home.  Peter Larkin was a Pittsfield State Representative who resigned earlier in the year of 2005 to cash in on his political connections on Beacon Hill by becoming a greedy registered lobbyist.  Similar to former North Adams State Representative Daniel Bosley, who is a greedy registered lobbyist in Boston, Peter Larkin collects his public pension plus perks paid for by the taxpayers of Massachusetts and beyond.  I have read on the blogs that Dan Bosley even collects two Massachusetts public pensions, but I have not been able to verify that claim.  I do know that Daniel E. Bosley has written and published several letters to the Editors of Western Massachusetts newspapers giving glowing praises to K Street's PAC Man Richie Neal, who is in the pocket of the big insurance companies industry.  Former State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who resigned in disgrace, also collects a public pension plus perks and is a greed-ball registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill.  I hope that clears things up for everybody.

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 4, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Beacon Hill passed a multibillion-dollar (voluntary) regressive taxation sports betting bill, but they did not pass an over $4 billion economic development and tax relief bill.  The message Boston's corrupt career politicians sent to the people and taxpayers is that they want more (voluntary) regressive taxation, but they do not want the low to moderate income commoners to reap the economic and financial benefits from it.  Beacon Hill lawmakers are still sitting on billions upon billions of surplus state government tax dollars, but they are making even Scrooge look equitable to the excess population.  When will it ever end?  Why are the likes of Smitty Pignatelli (Shitty Pigpen), Tricia Farley Bouvier (Trippy Country Buffet), John Barrett III (The Career Mayor), and Paul Mark (Marxism) always reelected in Berkshire County?  Don't the people comprehend that Boston is NOT their friend, but rather a con artist that is mocking them while Beacon Hill lawmakers enrich themselves and their well-heeled campaign donors at the public trough?

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 26, 2022

Hello Dan Bosley,

I agree with your endorsement of Alf Barbalunga for Berkshire County Sheriff.  You called him a man of character.  I found that interesting because you have always attacked my character for the past over 24 years when you sided with Luciforo's push to abolish Berkshire County Government when my dad was a Berkshire County Commissioner back then in the Spring and Summer of 1998.  After Luciforo and you passed the bill attached to the fiscal year 1999 Massachusetts state budget to abolish Berkshire County Government effective July 1st, 2000, Luciforo later ran for the county government position of Registrar of Deeds in 2006 and he won by strong-arming two women out of the state government election, and you, Dan Bosley, later ran for the county government position of Berkshire County Sheriff in 2010 and you lost the state government election to Tom Bowler.  You, Dan Bosley, filed state "ethics" complaints against some of the state workers who did not support your candidacy.  Even the news media criticized you for being a sore loser back then.  Now, you are a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill and beyond who collects a 6-figure salary while also collecting up to two state government pensions plus public perks.  I posted a blog page that says that Massachusetts state taxpayers should pay Dan Bosley instead of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because it would be the most efficient way for you to get your hands on as much public loot as possible.  I am still waiting for the Massachusetts State Lottery to commemorate your loyalty to their (voluntary) regressive taxation schemes by selling a Dan Bosley themed scratch ticket.  MASS MoCA should dedicate a wing of their museum to you and all of the other corrupt career politicians called "The Shakedown Artists".  If being a man of character means a man wanting government money and power, then I am happy that you have long attacked my character since 1998.  I don't measure up to Alf Barbalunga and PAC Man Richie Neal, but I am just a commoner who sometimes places my sucker bets in hopes of winning the lottery jackpot instead of being an insider public payroll patriot who greedily wants money and power while the proverbial little guys have to pound sand.

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Andrea Harrington campaign questions rival's outreach to GOP voters; Timothy Shugrue lists appearances"

The Berkshire Eagle, August 26, 2022

Berkshire County Sheriff

BARBALUNGA LISTS ENDORSEMENTS: The Alfred E. “Alf” Barbalunga campaign reports receiving endorsements from the following people: Daniel E. Bosley, former state representative, who said of the candidate: “He is a true gentleman, a man of character, and an established professional in the criminal justice field.”

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August 28, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

PAC Man Richie Neal stands for everything that I oppose in big government.  He only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms, and he is the pocket of the insurance companies.  The biggest problem with that is that the people who live in his mostly rural large Western Massachusetts Congressional District have nothing to do with K Street in the Swamp.

Richard E. Neal is the ultimate corporate Democrat in the Swamp.  Similar to Beacon Hill's corrupt career politicians giving away a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to Boston are big businesses who all selfishly enrich themselves at the public trough, Congressman Richie Neal gives K Street billions of dollars per fiscal year in federal tax breaks that inequitably goes to Wall Street and big businesses.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is said to have hundreds of millions of dollars in stock holdings in the Pentagon's military industrial complex.  If you ever want to ask how Pelosi became so filthy rich in the Swamp, then I suggest you write to your corrupt Congressman for answer.

Unlike PAC Man Richie Neal, I believe that big government should use their limited resources to invest in the people who elected them to political office.  I use the Christmas classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" as an illustration.  George Bailey invested in the people of Bedford Falls, while Henry Potter exploited the people who lived in Pottersville.  George Bailey's Building and Loans company used its limited resources to help the working-class families own homes and enjoy the benefits of a middle-class lifestyle in a warm-hearted and caring community.  Henry Potter used his bank to exploit the working-class people to enrich himself with enormous wealth.  The working-class people who lived in Potter's slumlord apartments lived in a cold-hearted and hostile community.

The Elites investing in the people to help us live middle-class lives in nice communities is not a new idea, as the aforementioned Christmas classic movie was made in 1946, which is 76 years ago now.  From the time the movie was made to around the time I was born in 1975, the working-class families had the social mobility to make it into the middle-class, but for the past nearly 50 years, big government has waged Class Warfare against the commoners to give nearly all of the income gains to the rich and powerful Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites, which systematically decimated the middle-class.  Wall Street Investment Bankers sarcastically call their time in the Swamp "Slumming It" for a few years to pay their dues before they go back to Wall Street to make huge sums of money for themselves.

Big government politicians are selling us out.  They know full well that if common people have access to affordable housing, well-performing public schools, affordable healthcare insurance, a solid social safety net and Social Insurance programs, living wage jobs, financial security and financial literacy, realistic pensions, affordable colleges, job training programs, government officials who actually give a damn about their constituents, a healthy environment without industrial chemicals endangering our public health, disability programs that care for those people in need of public assistance, and so on, then we would not be experiencing the severe levels of economic inequality that we haven't experienced since 100 years ago.  To be clear, our society should not have an underclass!  We should not even know that word anymore because we are the wealthiest nation in the human history of the world.

I will be happy when PAC Man Richie Neal's long career in Swamp politics is over.  I hope that a real Democrat will someday take his place in the future!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 30, 2022

Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,

I couldn't agree more with your statement: "Together, brick by brick, we’re building a Massachusetts State House that actually reflects the needs and values of the people, not corporations and lobbyists."

Governor Charlie Baker recently said that the Massachusetts State Government never had as much surplus public dollars as they do right now.  Beacon Hill lawmakers are literally sitting on billions upon billions of surplus state dollars without passing any form of economic stimulus, economic development, and tax relief for low to moderate income people and taxpayers.  What is wrong with this inequitable and corrupt picture in Boston?  The answer is EVERYTHING!  This is state government at its lowest and worst point EVER!

My friend Patrick Fennell of Great Barrington writes political emails to me and the public at large that Massachusetts voters are stupid to keep reelecting the same corrupt career politicians.  While I agree with Pat, I also believe that the Ruling Elites always outsmart the voters with their propaganda and outright lies.

When my dad, Bob, was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner over two decades ago, my father and I received nothing but retribution from state and local politicians when we spoke out about Beacon Hill lawmakers' DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts.

I support your statement: "This end-of-session chaos, incompetence, and cowardice made it clear: the people of Massachusetts deserve better. And that’s exactly what we at Act on Mass are fighting for."

Beacon Hill lawmakers are always enriching themselves and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough.  If you are a commoner, forget about having a voice on Beacon Hill.  They look annoyed when you write and talk to them.  They scold you when you tell them they are wrong.  They block your political emails when you write unfavorable political letters about them.  The biased news media blocks all of your letters and op-ed submissions.  You may as well be in one of Putin's medieval-like prisons in Siberia, Russia!

I am so happy when I receive your political emails about Beacon Hill politics.  I hope that you will never lose faith and you will always keep fighting the good fights for us.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 30, 2022

We’re so close, Jonathan!

When we announced our goal of raising $7,000 by the end of August, I knew it would be a challenge. But I also knew we could do it. In the last 6 weeks, we’ve raised $6,450–an enormous accomplishment. 

But we still need to raise $550 by midnight tomorrow to meet our matching goal. Can you donate today to close the gap?

This outpouring of support came right after the end of the legislative session–after the legislature handed all their power to our Republican governor, leading to the death of bills like the 5-year prison moratorium and making phone calls to incarcerated loved ones free of charge. This end-of-session chaos, incompetence, and cowardice made it clear: the people of Massachusetts deserve better. And that’s exactly what we at Act on Mass are fighting for.

Together, brick by brick, we’re building a Massachusetts State House that actually reflects the needs and values of the people, not corporations and lobbyists. But we can’t do it, any of it, without you.

Together,

Erin Leahy

Executive Director

Act on Mass

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August 30, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Your comparison of Massachusetts excessive state budget with that of Pennsylvania's moderate state budget makes sense because the corrupt career politicians in Boston give their Boston area big business wealthy campaign donors a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks, tax, borrow and spend money to the point that Massachusetts state government is the top per capita (by population) debtor state government in the nation, always vote down proposed Sunshine laws and rules reform measures to the point that there is no transparency on Beacon Hill, and the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites all always enrich themselves at the public trough, while the commoners always pound sand.

Please do me a favor, Pat.  If you bump into Smitty Pignatelli (Shitty PigPen) and Adam Hinds (Chrome Dome) during their current 5 monthlong taxpayer-funded vacation, please say "Hello Shitty PigPen and Chrome Dome" for me.  It would mean a lot to me.  Thank you.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 30, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Me too, buddy.  I have very few friends in elected office, but I have 14-year-old dog named Chocolate.  I like to tell Chocolate the dog that he should be the U.S. President.  But when people overhear me, they say to me that my good dog wouldn't be able to carry out his Constitutional duties.

I liked that you wrote that you could count the politicians who are your friends with on one hand and have three unused fingers.   It means that you are good man who doesn't kiss the dirty behinds of the Ruling Elites and the Corporate and Financial Elites they serve for power and the Almighty Dollar while screwing all of us over day in and day out.

Here are my sarcastic suggestions on how to be a politician's friend:

1. Give them a lot of money so they have the campaign funds to lie to you.

2. Tell them how wonderful they are so you can return the favor and lie to them.

3. Let them know that you will always kiss their dirty behinds so they can think that their shit smells like blooming flowers.

4. Thank them for borrowing huge amounts of money for your grandchildren to pay back decades from now.

5. Thank them for raising taxes and increasing public spending so you have to choose between food and medicine.

6. Let them know you oppose term limits so that can be corrupt career politicians for life.

7. Tell them that they are always right and that they should surround themselves with rubber stampers and "Yes men".

8. Tell them that they are right to have not raised the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour since the year of 2009 because low-income people should work to stay in poverty.

9. Tell them that universal healthcare is wrong because the big Insurance Companies and Pharmaceutical companies come first, while an uninsured person should just die for having a major illness.

10. Tell them that the government should not serve the American People because politicians are gods who we should all worship.

I bet that if you, Pat, did these 10 simple things, then Shitty PigPen, Chrome Dome, PAC Man, Maryland Markey, Elizabeth Warren NOT of Main Street, and Joe Biden the record deficit spender would all be your best friends!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 18, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

PAC Man Richie Neal will have some new lobbyist friends on K Street.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/17/departing-lawmakers-lobbying-jobs-00068078

Departing lawmakers are lining up cushy lobbying gigs - POLITICO

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 26, 2022

Hello Alan Chartock,

I agree with your unfavorable view of Donald Trump in U.S. politics.  To be brief: Donald Trump is a political bully.  Where I have differences with your view is with your claim that the Democratic Party is the political party of the Have Nots, while the Republican Party is the political party of the Haves.

It has been about 50 years now - just about as long as Joe Biden has been in the Swamp - that the U.S. Government and Wall Street (and K Street) has systemically decimated the U.S. middle class to create the largest wealth inequality ratios in about 100 years' time.  Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are directly responsible for supply side economics and the financial shell games that have given nearly all of the income gains to the wealthy few since the 1970s.

Look at your State Representative Smitty Pignatelli as an illustration of inequitable public policies on the state level in Massachusetts politics.  Smitty is nothing more than a rubber stamp vote for Boston's corrupt and secretive State House leaders, who giveaway a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to Boston area big businesses, which enriches the ruling, corporate and financial elites at the public trough while the rest of us have to pound sand.

What is wrong with this picture?  Where you, Alan Chartock, live in Great Barrington, Beacon Hill lawmakers for a long time have systemically underfunded public education state aid (by over $1 billion per fiscal year), local aid, and other forms of state aid that makes your local taxes increase a lot higher than necessary.  When someone such as I write about these matters to Smitty Pignatelli, he blocks my political emails, and then he seems to mock me by writing one of his lofty yet phony op-eds how he goes to Boston (for the past 20 years and counting) and fights for the people and taxpayer of Berkshire County and points east.  If I wanted someone fighting for my economic and financial interests, I would not want it to be Smitty Pignatelli because he would give me back a fraction of what I am paying for in state government.

Your U.S. House of Representative Richie Neal (aka PAC Man) is even worse than Smitty Pignatelli.  PAC Man Richie Neal only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms, especially insurance companies, in the Swamp, which has nothing to do with Great Barrington and all of the other municipalities in his geographically large Western Massachusetts Congressional District.  PAC Man Richie Neal has been in the Swamp for over three decades, which is even longer than Smitty has been in Boston.  The point I am making is that Smitty and Richie alike do nothing for the middle class but make all of us pound sand.

In my many years of studies, I found that the way to wealth going back hundreds of years is through (elite) education and (elite) family marriages, which has nothing to do with work, owning a business, winning the large state lottery jackpot or going to a Las Vegas casino and winning big, and so on.  To be clear, the way to wealth has nothing to do with a working-class man pulling himself up by the bootstraps.

However, the way into the diminishing middle class has many components: Affordable Housing, Affordable Healthcare (Insurance), Adequate public education, learning to be financially literate and independent, having access to living wage jobs, having access to savings and investment accounts for one's financially secure retirement, having access to public transportation, living in safe communities with safe streets, electing politicians who will fight for the commoners' interests in government, having a voice in one's government without fear of retribution, living in a livable environment free of unhealthy industrial chemical waste, communities investing in their most valuable resource: The people and taxpayers who live there, opposing the corruption and greed of career politicians, greedy lobbyists, the vested interests (such as big public labor unions), and the special interests (such as out-of-town multimillionaires), and rewarding the people and taxpayers who invest in their communities with moderate taxation in return for quality infrastructure, and so on.

As an aside, most Have Nots fall into our country's always growing larger underclass, which gives the elites more and more power as the years passes us by.  The bigger the underclass equals the more money and power for the ruling, corporate and financial elites, which means the steady loss of our nation's democratic values and institutions.

When I write to politicians about public policy matters, most of them block my political emails to them.  The ones that do not do so never reply to me unless it is a generic form letter.  When my dad was a politician in Berkshire County in the late-1990s and we went to Beacon Hill to testify about county government to the state lawmakers in Boston, they looked annoyed at us when we spoke to them for less than three minutes apiece.  You, Alan Chartock, would not believe the amount of retribution that my dad and I received from the political elites since the Spring of 1996 when my dad began to give his campaign speeches to the people and taxpayers in Berkshire County.  Or maybe you are not surprised at all?  I don't know.

Politicians spend 90% of their time raising money and the other 10% of the time doing DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers they represent in government.  I wish it was a different story, but at the end of the day, politicians are not helping the Have Nots live a middle-class life.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Melle

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Alan Chartock’s The Capitol Connection: "Is America willing to put Trump back in office?"

By Alan Chartock, The Saratogian, November 25, 2022

Donald Trump is just a despicable, dangerous man. We know that he has tried to game the system for years.

Many people believe that Trump is all about personal enrichment and that is just bad for this country.

What terrifies me, and so many of you, is that despite all his failings, Trump still has a very large part of the populace behind him. Maybe when he runs the next time, he won’t win. I just don’t see how he can after the disgrace of two impeachments. He has already announced that he is running, and we know, unbelievably, that lots of Americans will vote for him.

What we can’t know is how many votes he will get.

I have always believed that the split between the rich and the poor in this country is no more than a continuation of the Civil War. There are still many very smart people who believe that the south could and should have won that conflict. Many believe Trump has enough Americans behind him to win. I just don’t see that. He really can’t win. With all that we know of the character and chicanery of the man, I can’t fathom why people will cast a ballot that, if successful, would make him the leader of the free world.

Nonetheless, an awful lot of people will actually cast a ballot for this miserable, corrupt human being.

What is it that will make so many of your friends and neighbors cast a ballot for a Trump? I keep thinking about that. Maybe it is the traditional battle between the haves and the have nots. There are a lot of would be Trumps in this country. When your kid is attacked by a bully in school, he is being attacked by someone who will grow up to be a Trump. I’m sorry, but when I see his miserable face on television my sense of revulsion is so pronounced that I have to question how a low life like Trump can rise to his present stature (or lack thereof).

Think about all the bullies you knew as a kid. If you read Archie comics, you had to really dislike the rich bully who was always on Archie’s case. Yet people still love the guy.

We like to think of this country as fair and equitable. So many of our films show our soldiers in the world wars fighting for the freedom of mankind. The word “democracy” fits so well into our national self-image. The word democracy implies that we can arrive at an understanding of sharing and dividing equally. That’s why the Democratic Party has always been the party of the have nots and The Republicans have always been the rich kids in the Archie comics.

We all understand that most Americans are addicted to at least the possibility of getting rich.

Socialism is a dirty word in this country. The idea that everyone would share equally even if they didn’t work to get there is an anathema to our American belief system. If your job involves picking up trash, you don’t get the respect that you deserve for your hard work. You should get that respect, but you don’t. The people who have the most are often the most respected. There was this guy on Fire Island where I grew up who had a great big yacht.

He owned blocks of real estate and surrounded his property with inlaid brick paving, as if to declare, “MINE!” Many of us don’t hold contempt in our hearts for the rich people, but that’s not to say we didn’t have the hope that maybe someday we, too, would have a big house and a yacht.

We live in a funny country. That’s why Trump still has a chance to win.

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January 21, 2023

Hello greedy lobbyist Dan Bosley,

Please take a few minutes to read the op-ed in the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) by Evan Berkowitz about the inequitable SCAM called the multibillion-dollar Massachusetts State Lottery, which is nothing more than a system of (voluntary) regressive taxation that symbolizes your political career and legacy as a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill (and beyond).

Evan Berkowitz is spot on about the lottery, but he misses the bullseye, which is the real purpose of the lottery scamming the low to moderate income people who spend their limited financial resources on lottery tickets and games that really serve to enrich the financial, corporate and ruling elites in Boston.  To be clear, the real purpose of the lottery is for Beacon Hill lawmakers to be able to giveaway billions of dollars in annual state tax breaks to their wealthy donors who don't exist in most regions of the state, which are shortchanged by the lottery SCAM.

In April 2021, the Boston Globe reported that Beacon Hill lawmakers giveaway a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to their wealthy donors, who are big businesses in and around Boston, which is very far away from the beautiful Berkshires.  How does they do so?  They come up with a myriad of regressive taxation schemes such as the lottery to play their inequitable financial shell games to benefit themselves and their wealthy donors.

Of course, someone such as yourself, Daniel Bosley, knows all of this all too well, because you are said to collect up to two state public pensions plus perks on top of your 6-figure salary as a greedy lobbyist on Beacon Hill (and beyond).  After Stan Rosenberg resigned his State Senate seat in disgrace, he, too, became a registered lobbyist and he went right back to Beacon Hill to enrich himself at the public trough on top of his state public pension plus perks.  I asked my dad, whom Stan Rosenberg and you (and Luciforo) were not very nice to over two decades ago, if he was surprised by Stan Rosenberg being a sellout.  My dad replied that he wasn't surprised because they all do it.

In closing, I propose that the Massachusetts State Lottery sell a "Dan Bosley" scratch ticket to honor your corrupt political career and your legacy as a greedy lobbyist.  When Evan Berkowitz sees your mug on the new lottery scratch ticket, he could write a follow-up op-ed about how the corrupt career politicians and greedy lobbyists in Boston use the lottery to pad their fat wallets!

Jonathan A. Melle

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Evan Berkowitz: "The lottery is a poor tax. Ban it"

By Evan Berkowitz, op-ed, The Berkshire Eagle,  January 21, 2023

Every few months, you see the headlines: Mega Millions rises to record level … billion-dollar jackpot to be drawn … no winner this week, sum to increase … person from place wins life-changing thing … and on and on for the next million, billion, more.

We all like to dream of what we’d do with the money. Eliminate our debt. Quit our day job. Take that trip. Buy that boat. Collect that comic in wondrous, mint-condition plastic. It’s not exclusively American, but it says a great deal about the American dream: Even though we know better, we believe for a second or a week that we might just win.

It’s one reason some folks oppose the estate tax or higher taxes on the wealthy, even though they’ll likely never reach the income level to benefit from such policies. It’s why get-rich-quick schemes like NFTs and multilevel marketing attract so many. We want to believe we can strike gold.

Of course, the reason these thoughts bear such weight is that some have done it. So history’s one-in-a-million pioneer prospectors, garage-housed geniuses and incubated entrepreneurs captivate our thoughts while some vote down their own self-interest, fall prey to plotters and keep buying losing lottery tickets.

No convenience-store product has this racket down pat like Mega Millions and the other national lottery games. Don’t take my word for it — listen to the state lottery chief.

In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and amid skyrocketing inflation, the tables had turned. This time, the Massachusetts Lottery needed a windfall. Thank goodness for the big games.

Massachusetts Lottery Interim Chief Mark William Bracken said nationwide drawings like Mega Millions were a “saving grace” for the state’s lottery system, bolstering income due to the hype and draw of enormous pots. But there is nothing graceful about the lottery, and nothing worth saving.

Massachusetts and the nation should abandon these criminally unfair “games” that act not to distribute riches downward but in fact keep wealthy people’s wealth intact. Ban the lottery, and fund efforts that actually enable upward mobility for the millions, not the one.

The lottery ‘poor tax’

The lottery is a carefully propagandized, state-sponsored poor tax. The rich don’t play the numbers in meaningful numbers; why would they? Instead, lower-income folks subsidize schools, roads, safety and all the other local funding that the system returns to municipalities and let the wealthy off the hook.

When proponents point to the virtues bought by the Lottery’s income, they betray the con. Instead of the state deriving the revenue by equitably taxing the rich and poor alike, the poor suffer. If Beacon Hill proposed a levy almost exclusively for lower-income Bay Staters, we’d rightly cry foul. So they dress it up as a game instead.

Of course, “game” is a misnomer. There’s no skill involved, and any luck is coincidental. Unlike some table games of chance, there’s little of the entertainment that brings some to casinos. The lottery is a giant state slot machine without even the bells and whistles: mindless and mind-numbing, addictive and with a near-unrivaled ability to destroy a family’s finances. Critically, while Mega Millions and its eye-popping sums might draw the attention, the more expensive products are far more pernicious.

On the face of it, this is exactly the sort of behavior that the state would want to discourage. Ironically, the usual way of discouraging behavior is to tax it. It’s the core bargain of political economics: You tax what you want to limit, and subsidize what you want to encourage. That’s why cigarettes are taxed enormously, but your retirement contributions are tax-free.

But the lottery flips the script. The state’s ticket sales amount to a voluntary tax, and yet demand stays hot even as it increases. Not only does the government not discourage this societal ill, it sells it, and hard. Treasurer Deb Goldberg (no arch-libertarian by any stretch) even crowed recently about the impending introduction of a $50 state ticket. (For what it’s worth, the Mega Millions costs $2.)

This is where I hesitate. The free-expression advocate in me says that those who wish to gamble ought to be able to — and clearly, people want to.

But then I think of that $50 ticket, that new $50 poor tax. That could be a few days of groceries, a kid’s worth of school supplies or nearly a top-up on a tank of gas. Buy a ticket a week and it’s over $2,500 in paid-down debt, planned-for down payment or whatever else one would save up for. It needn’t even be that dire — it could be a meal at a restaurant, a family’s movie tickets or a day at a minor-league ballgame.

It’s heartbreaking, and even if we allow private gambling, the state should have no part in it.

That $50 could, and should, be anything. Anything other than thrown away on a bad bet where the house — in this case, the commonwealth of Massachusetts — always wins.

Evan Berkowitz is The Eagle’s page one design editor. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of The Eagle.

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Bart Bouricius: "Forests, logging and lobbying"

The Daily Hampshire Gazette (online), February 7, 2023

A Jan. 28 Recorder article detailed opposition to Gov. Maura Healey’s planned temporary moratorium on the roughly 20% of Massachusetts forest lands that are owned by the public.  The purpose of the moratorium is to review forest policy in the light of scientific evidence.  

The article describes one opponent, the Massachusetts Forest Alliance (MFA), as a “forest advocacy group.” In reality, MFA is a trade association for the timber industry. They do “advocate” strongly, but for cutting of forests on our public lands, without even a pause in the cutting. Yes, they literally do have an ax to grind.    

In the Biomass Industry Directory, a listing of trade associations supporting forest biomass incineration, MFA is listed as an association that “represents forest landowners, foresters, timber harvesters, sawmills, forest products companies and wood energy companies in Massachusetts.” In this listing, MFA notes, “We represent our members in the legislative and regulatory arenas, educating policymakers and the public at large.”

Dan Bosley is the paid lobbyist for MFA, who in revolving door style, went into public relations and became a lobbyist for MFA after retiring as a Massachusetts legislator.  In recent legislative sessions, Bosley lobbied against bills expanding state forest preserves. He also lobbied against bill H.853, which would have prohibited raising residents’ electricity rates to subsidize companies generating electricity from forest-biomass incinerators.

Additionally, Mr. Bosley lobbied against restrictions on the use of glyphosate (the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup), which, with similar herbicides, is used by state agencies to “manage” forests.

Possibly Chris Egan, the executive director of the Massachusetts Forest Alliance who was frequently quoted in this piece, didn’t mention that he is paid to do public relations for this timber industry trade association.  Such information might have been helpful to the readers understanding. 

Bart Bouricius, Wendell State Forest Alliance

Montague

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March 29, 2023

When will they sell a "Dan Bosley" Scratch Ticket?  It could cost $100 a pop.  I would honor the former North Adams State Representative and current greedy registered Beacon Hill (and beyond) lobbyist Daniel Bosley's inequitable legacy of supporting (voluntary) regressive taxation schemes such as the Massachusetts State Lottery, as well as the infamous "Bosley Amendment" that was a secretive rider to state legislation that would have given big businesses billions of dollars in state tax break but it was quickly defeated many years ago, and his years as a greed-ball lobbying for big businesses in the Boston area.  The "Dan Bosley" Scratch Ticket could have a second chance drawing whereby the winner(s) can win a cash prize along with a free buffet with Dan Bosley.  He will tell you how great the lottery is because it allows him to successfully lobby the corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill for more and more tax breaks for Boston area big businesses.  In closing, the would-be "Dan Bosley" Scratch Ticket would symbolize everything that is WRONG with the corrupt, inequitable and secretive politics in Massachusetts!

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Scratch ticket rebound lifts lottery" - Sales of scratch tickets provided a boost to the Massachusetts Lottery’s revenue in February [2023].

By the State House News Service, March 28, 2023

Sales at the Massachusetts Lottery were up more than 20% in February, due in large part to a sizable bump in sales of a key product that Lottery officials have been concerned about in the last year.

The Lottery sold $513.3 million worth of its products last month, an increase of $88.5 million or 20.8% over February 2022. Scratch tickets accounted for about 71% of February sales, or $363.8 million, up $82.3 million or just more than 29%, according to a report by Interim Executive Director Mark William Bracken.

The month’s sales combined with a $23.9 million decrease in scratch ticket grand prizes paid out during the month to help the Lottery turn a monthly profit of $94.3 million, $23.5 million more than in February 2022. The Lottery also paid out a smaller percentage of its revenue in prizes last month, 74.72% compared to 76.26% in February 2022.

Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and the Mass. Lottery have been closely watching scratch ticket and Keno sales for months because those two categories account for roughly 85% of all Lottery sales. Keno sales were down just slightly in February and are down $3.4 million or 0.4% so far this fiscal year.

Through eight months of fiscal 2023, Lottery sales of more than $4.1 billion were up $109.8 million or 2.7% over the same period in fiscal 2022. And the agency’s profit of $808.5 million, which funds local aid, is up $44.2 million compared to this time last budget year.

– Colin A. Young / SHNS

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Guest columnists Matt L. Barron and Jon Weissman: "Rep. Neal selling out patients for drug industry"

The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Opinion, 12/25/2023

On Dec. 11, [2023], the U.S. House passed the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, legislation to require Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to disclose drug rebates and discounts, revealing what they pay drug makers for prescription drugs. The bill would also require hospitals, insurance companies, labs, imaging providers, and ambulatory surgical centers to publicly list the prices they charge patients. 

The bill passed by a bipartisan vote of 320–71. However, Rep. Richard Neal was the only member of the Massachusetts delegation to vote against it. Why? The answer lies in the fact that Neal is the recipient of huge doses of campaign contributions from PBMs which act as middlemen between drug makers and insurers. PBMs negotiate prices in exchange for including drugs in insurers’ formularies. They are supposed to pass the savings to patients. However, PBMs, often working hand-in-hand with insurance companies that own them, pocket the discounts, leaving patients to foot the bill. 

Also, you won’t find Neal’s name on the Protecting Patients Against PBM Abuses Act, H.R. 2880, which his colleague Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Newton has co-sponsored.

According to OpenSecrets, between 2014-2022, Rep. Neal has taken a total of $88,000 in campaign donations from the top three PBMs, including $28,500 from CVS Health (Caremark) which has 32% of the market, $31,000 from Cigna Corp (Express Scripts) with 24% market share and $28,500 from UnitedHealth (OptumRx) with 21% market share. 

A report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Sept. 5, 2023 recommended that the administrator of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should monitor the effect of rebates on plan sponsor formulary design and on Medicare and beneficiary spending to assess whether rebate practices are likely to substantially discourage enrollment by certain beneficiaries. 

A national poll from March 2023 found that 84% of likely voters say it’s important or very important to have rules that require PBMs to provide value and lower drug costs for consumers. What’s more, respondents want elected officials to take on the issue of regulating PBMs with 73% saying it should be a high or top priority for Congress and their state legislatures, and 72% saying they are more or much more likely to vote for a candidate who supports regulating PBMs. 

Sadly, there has been no coverage locally of Rep. Neal’s actions on behalf of PBMs by the Springfield local television news stations which are too busy showing the congressman posing with holiday revelers. For more information about how Neal is beholden to corporate interests, please visit richienealsecrets.com/. 

Matt L. Barron lives in Chesterfield and Jon Weissman lives in Granby.

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