The problem is a state legislature that’s been dominated by the same party for literally longer than anyone reading this has been alive. Regardless of one’s individual politics that lack of competition isn’t healthy because it results in a political class with so little fear of being held accountable that they do stuff like prevent the public from accessing huge amounts of info that should be easy to get. The corruption in this state is endemic, if I’m correct either the 2 or 3 state speakers of the house before the current speaker were indicted for corruption related offenses. Hell, Whitey Bugler’s brother was the president of the state senate for 18 years….until in 1996, with zero educational experience, he left government to go be the president of Umass for another 7 years. Then in 03 he got in trouble for lying to the feds about taking phone calls from whitey (a fugitive on the fbi 10 most wanted list at the time) and left Umass…as of last year Billy Bulger’s state pension, funded by taxpayers, was >$275,000 for the year. The man’s nickname was literally “the corrupt midget.” This state’s government is a disaster

MA staties have become way over militarized…they have more warfighting equipment and non-explosive weaponry than some smaller countries. The pentagon provided the state with bearcats and a bunch of other shit like 10 years ago…literally got equipment meant to fight a war against foreign adversaries lol even according to Boston magazine some literal Tanks

Do it, you won’t

“WBZ-TV Security Analyst Ed Davis says it's not unusual for some tactical officers to keep their firearms in their vehicles for ready access, but what the intentions are of these thieves raises many more questions.

"That's your fear when you get into an investigation like this. In the back of your mind, you're thinking what's next," Davis said. … I-Team sources said it "appears to be a professional job." As the cruiser was driven from the garage, and then put on a flatbed, a broken lock was visible on the driver's door.

The State Police cruiser was towed away hours after a rifle was stolen from a locked compartment in the SUV. Davis says troopers and officers take many steps to secure their firearms, heightening the concern this was a more sophisticated robbery.

"There is usually a process of things to go through to get that thing open," Davis said. "That would indicate inside knowledge of how systems work. That doesn't mean someone within the police agency, but someone who may work in the industry."

Welp, starting next month (wnenever the first striped bass begin showing up this far north) this ruddy cheeked old succubus will have to get used to seeing me happily navigating the pathway through her precious rock field with a surf rod in hand. I figure I’ll usually be arriving right as shes sitting down to enjoy that day’s early morning glass of breakfast scotch and the first of 5000 chain smoked Marlboro lights. I feel like this woman probably smells like a distinctive bouquet of mothballs and dollar store perfume, with a strong top note scent reminiscent of the very bottom layer of an overflowing ashtray.

For what it’s worth, this is perfect example of the fraudulence of the people running this state. The rainmakers on Beacon Hill go overboard to try and paint themselves and Massachusetts as ultra compassionate & progressive, with the “Brahmins” virtually unanimously working to craft their individual reputations as champions of equity and justice who fight tirelessly against enemies like the right wing and the 1% on behalf of the most disadvantaged members of society, people who the deck is stacked against that really do need help to have a serious chance at breaking out of the generational cycle of poverty and impossible choices that so many people are stuck in starting at birth. Then either by participation or simple inaction they bring a $50 dose of cardboard crack scratch ticket to market that is expected to generate $1.5 BILLION by serving as an extralegal tax collected via tempting the most vulnerable, desperate people in MA with dreams of an instant fortune that will be split by the commonwealth’s individual towns to use as they see fit, with zero earmarks to direct the town’s spending. People may argue with this, and I’d love to hear a well reasoned defense of $50 scratch offs. As a libertarian leaning MA resident my stance historically was that if fellow residents wanted legal scratch tickets then the government shouldn’t stand in their way, but this has been taken to such an extreme that I’ve reevaluated my position.

Tell me you’re a Liz warren voter without telling me you’re a Liz warren voter

Teddy Kennedy killed a girl, seeing me dare to mention it irked you, and I’m the insufferable asshole

Have you not been paying attention to the world lately? We live in Massachusetts… Even if there was a pool of $25 billion to fix the roads with the state wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to mismanage every dime of it. The roads would be left in the same condition but somehow there would be a group of contractors with friends on Beacon Hill that, after “competitive bidding processes” got $$PAID$$

Take either the woods hole or Falmouth ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, then head out to a little spit of land off of Edgartown called Chappaquiddick. Beautiful spot. Somewhat marred by that time teddy drove off a bridge at 2am and let the young female intern he happened to be with sitting at the bottom of the ocean in his car while he went to sleep it off. At least he did the stand up thing and alerted authorities 10 hours later, after locals noticed a car underwater, pity that the air bubble in said underwater car only gave the poor girl around 6 hrs of oxygen….

Right? Especially when the way the car went into the water meant that she was alive in an air pocket for upwards of 4 hours at minimum while teddy went to sleep it off and pretend nothing happened until someone saw the car in the water the next day on their own….even then he still stalled for time so the Kennedy family’s fixers could get to work spinning the story before he said anything on the record to anyone