Deny, Deflect, Retaliate
Candy Mero-Carlson and Joe Petty are doing textbook workplace harassment
Hello my lovely Sucksters! Another missive on Bigot-Gate ahead of the city council meeting tonight. Below, Greg Opperman examines the situation within the tradition of workplace harassment, and also dives deep into the lesser-scrutinized Candy-gone-wild story arc: that she’s been running around saying Etel Haxhiaj is not a real refugee.
It’s a great piece to read then get fired up to come down to city hall in support of Nguyen and queer people everywhere. There’s a press conference and a rally planned for before the meeting. We need as many people as possible down there as possible! See you there.
Before we get to Greg, a quick look at a statement Khrystian King put out Friday, which lends us good context for how to approach the meeting tonight (which we’ll be streaming per usual, 6:15 p.m. on WCT3k Twitch.) In a statement released Friday, he said:
As Vice Chairman of the Worcester City Council and a member of a historically marginalized community, I reaffirm full-fledged condemnation of the hate that is foundational in these targeted attacks upon our City Council Members.
The targeted threats, vitriol, and abdominal hate that Councilor Nguyen and others are being subjected to is despicable and unconscionable.
I thoroughly support the Councilor Thu Nguyen’s regrouping process and the time dedication that it necessitates.
The hate has been very real, and all over the place. Colleen West and the gang over on Facebook have been relentless. The Worcester subreddit is a lit garbage can. In the anti-woke spirit of the times, people around here have really glommed on to the bigotry, using the lie Petty put forward about Nguyen’s attendance as just cause.
In particular, the Reddit crowd has found it very hard to understand that traffic and parking and transportation and public service are not real responsibilities in the first place. They don’t seem to know or care about whether Nguyen is “showing up”—or what that even means—but rather find themselves content to take the mayor’s word for it. The obvious reason for this is it provides a way of expressing bigotry without saying the objectionable stuff out loud. No one knows or cares about what the transportation and public service subcommittee does because it’s fake. Petty’s appointment of Nguyen to that committee was an act of punishment. That he’s using it now as cudgel to inflict further punishment is appropriate. It speaks to a pattern of workplace harassment of a certain kind, which Greg will get expand on.
In that light it’s worth looking at this statement Petty was going to release then didn’t.
Actually let’s not condemn the “spike of open hate speech,” says Petty. Hm. Also note that Nguyen’s name is not mentioned once. Kudos to Thu for sharing this on their Instagram.
This stuff has consequences. Tonight, we should all be on Psycho Watch, especially after this story made it all the way to the Daily Mail, along with Libs of TikTok as we went over in my last post: “The Unbearable Bigotry of Townies.”
Yesterday saw the alignment of MLK Day and Trump’s inauguration, throwing into stark relief the absurdity of the annual ritual of historical revisionism around the former. During his inaugural address, Trump said he’ll make MLK’s dream come true, to raucous applause. The final nail in MLK’s dream as a thing with a functioning definition. Rest In Peace. Rendered meaningless by our First White President.
If you took all 11 members of the council back in time to the 1960s and asked them to vote on “MLK good?” it would be a 6-5 vote against. Maybe even 7-4.
In 1961, MLK came to Worcester and spoke for two hours at Temple Emanuel. I listened to it last night. Check this quote out:
Now, it is one thing to look to the south, and it is one thing to say that the problem is centered in the South, but one day we must come to see that this problem is not a sectional problem, but it is a national problem and people all over the nation must take a stand. And what we too often find in the north is a sort of quasi-liberalism based on the principle of looking sympathetically at all sides. And it is a liberalism that gets so involved in looking at all sides that it doesn't get committed to either side is a liberalism that is so objectively analytical that it fails to get subjectively committed. It's a liberalism that is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.
In Joe Petty, we see a perfect avatar of that lukewarm liberalism—one that fails, in any particular moment, to subjectively commit itself to justice. A problem MLK identified while in this city in 1961 still present in its leadership in 2025.
In the current moment, the prevailing civil rights struggle is that of trans people. There is an assault being carried out by the Trump movement in such an open way as to neatly compare to the racial segregationists of King’s time. And, similarly, Petty and all the feckless liberals like him across the country are failing to identify it, let alone confront it. They are, yet again, the polite and uncomfortable facilitators of discriminatory violence. The inherent inferiority of African-Americans swapped for the “mental health issues” of trans people. History repeats. So, there’s another line from King’s Worcester speech that stands as good advice for us right now:
But I would go on to say something rather paradoxical that there are some things within our social order to which I'm proud to be maladjusted. And I call upon all people of goodwill to be maladjusted. And so if you will let the preacher in me come out at this point, I say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of discrimination and the evils of segregation. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry.
Ok, now to Greg. After I ask that you help keep this outlet alive and well, of course. Unfortunately, it takes going out on your own, discarding “objectivity,” to write the truth. But that’s what we’re dealing with. Same now as in 1961.
To look at the Telegram, for instance, is to see the issue portrayed as an issue of whether the victim of bigoted workplace harassment should be collecting their $2,000 monthly stipend while on leave. A total failure to meet the moment.
Any support you can give us, in any form, is much appreciated. It helps us pay for and place amazing work like that which you’re about to read!
Candy and Joe do workplace harassment—Etel tells her story—the literacy crisis, part II—odds and ends
Textbook workplace harassment
By Greg Opperman
City Hall is swirling with allegations of toxic behavior, centering around Councillor Candy-Mero Carlson. Mero-Carlson has been accused of a pattern of harassing and bullying behavior, including referring to non-binary Councilor Thu Nguyen as “it,” as well as bizarre claims that Etel Haxhiaj fabricated details of her own family’s flight from Albania and subsequent immigration to America.
In case you missed it, here’s a brief timeline of events:
On Tuesday, Jan. 7th, a City Council considered a resolution to support a ceasefire in Gaza. After hours of supportive testimony from ceasefire supporters, council voted to file the resolution, or dismiss it without a vote. During the heated meeting, Khrystian King was accused of losing his composure and violating decorum by asking Joe Petty to follow rules on speaking from the Mayor’s dais. Councilors Nguyen, King, Haxhiaj, Pacillo, and Ojeda all voted against filing the motion.
Next Tuesday (Jan. 14), City Council held a meeting during which Mayor Joe Petty put forward two proposals, one on remote meeting participation, and another on “meeting decorum." Thu Nguyen, one of the councilors who supported the ceasefire resolution, frequently attends meetings via remote video.
On Wednesday (Jan. 15), Councilor Thu Nguyen announced they are taking a brief hiatus from their council duties, citing “Transphobia and Discriminatory and Toxic Council Culture.” In the statement, Thu alleged council members publicly misgendered them and that Candy Mero-Carlson has repeatedly referred to them as “it.”
Later on Wednesday, Candy Mero-Carlson released a statement where she claimed to not remember calling Thu “it”, but acknowledges “it was a challenging and emotional week”, then proceeded to criticize Thu’s council attendance record.
The same day, Mayor Joe Petty released his own public statement. In the statement, he acknowledges accidentally misgendering Thu, but does not apologize. He then pivoted to criticizing Councilor Nguyen for their attendance and remote meeting participation.
On Thursday (Jan. 16), Etel Haxhiaj published her statement, supporting Thu and making another shocking allegation: City employees reported to Haxhiaj that Mero-Carlson called Haxhiaj a “liar,” that she “lied about her refugee story,” and that it isn’t true that her family “was forced to leave Albania due to war.”
On Friday (Jan. 17), the City Manager’s office confirmed that they’ve opened up a third-party civil rights investigation into the matter.
It didn’t get much play, but on Saturday (Jan. 18) Councilor Jenny Pacillo released a statement to Facebook (and only to Facebook, hence the lack of play). She joined King, Nguyen and Haxhiaj in speaking out, bringing the total to four of 11 councilors condemning bigotry. “The past few days have put a spotlight on the kind of rhetoric that has no place in our community. I have read comments and messages directed at Councilor Nguyen and the trans/queer community that have been demoralizing, transphobic, and deeply disappointing. No one—no matter their identity—should ever be shamed, questioned, or ridiculed for simply existing.”
For anyone with a job that has required them to sit through a mandatory workplace safety training, Mero-Carlson and Petty’s behavior reads as textbook harassment, followed by textbook retaliation, designed to punish and discredit the victims. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines harassment as:
“unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy), national origin, older age (beginning at age 40), disability, or genetic information (including family medical history). Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.”
Mero-Carlson’s harassment of Nguyen is potentially illegal based on their gender identity. Dehumanizing someone by calling them “it” is the same as any slur designed to dehumanize anyone. If you don’t agree, you only need to imagine if she referred to a person of color the same way to get the idea. Candy Mero-Carlson’s bizarre statements calling Etel Haxhiaj a liar constitutes harassment based on national origin, which is also protected against the law.
To say nothing of what Councilors Nguyen and Haxhiaj have experienced, the city employees who have been forced to endure Candy’s bigoted rants are also victims. Per the EEOC, “The victim does not have to be the person harassed, but can be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.” While this kind of harassment is tragically common, it’s behavior that would easily get anyone fired for cause at most workplace—or attract a hefty discrimination lawsuit.
As we’re seeing at City Hall, Mero-Carlson’s toxic behavior is often just the beginning in many harassment cases. The EEOC has reported that over 50 percent of complaints made to the agency are for retaliation, making it by far the most common form of discrimination. Mayor Petty has chastised Councilor Nguyen in a way that could potentially be interpreted as retaliation for reporting harassment.
One of the most common ways to retaliate against harassment claims is to attack the victim for a series of petty or frivolous issues. After coming forward with their allegations, Nguyen quickly became a target for retaliation from both Mero-Carlson and Mayor Joe Petty. Both councilors criticized Nguyen’s attendance and remote participation in meetings, a clear attempt to deflect from the allegations and discipline Nguyen for availing themselves of a privilege that is well established in state law. Incidentally, the Workplace Bullying Institute reports that 51 percent of workplace bullying occurs for hybrid workers, and “bullying is made worse for hybrid employees on remote working days.”
Petty’s suspiciously-timed scrutiny of Nguyen’s meeting attendance stands in sharp contrast to his lack of action and deference to other councilor’s behavioral problems. While Petty’s statement dedicates ample space to criticizing Nguyen, he opted not to respond to the allegations about Mero-Carlson’s hate speech. During a brutal year of pedestrian deaths and strikes, Councilor Donna Colorio abdicated responsibility for her committee to take up the speed limit reduction until Mayor Petty released a joint statement with City Manager Eric Batista. Despite the fact that the measure languished in committee for over nine months, the statement spared naming Colorio and did not call her out for her inaction. Petty was silent after Councilor Kate Toomey was caught texting during a prayer for Tyree Nichols. Petty’s selective scrutiny demonstrates that he’s clearly retaliating against Nguyen in a blatant effort to protect Mero-Carlson and shield her from consequences.
Workplace bullying and harassment can have devastating effects on victims. The vast majority of workplace bullying and harassment cases have negative consequences for the victim. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, 62 percent of targeted employees risk losing their job, either through termination or by being forced to quit due to sustained harassment. Petty has shown he is willing to use the power of his position to discredit Nguyen, which may harm them in the upcoming election.
Harassment can have surprising, and serious physical consequences. According to a study published in the journal Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience:
“Several studies have verified that increased stress and mental distress are possible psychological aftermaths of workplace bullying, even up to two years later. Investigators have also identified the consequences of sleep disturbances; depression and anxiety fatigue in women and lack of vigor in men; major depression; mood, anxiety, and adjustment disorders;36 and even work-related suicide.
In addition to emotional/psychological consequences of workplace bullying, researchers have identified a number of medical consequences, as well. These include greater general health complaints, neck pain, musculoskeletal complaints, acute pain, fibromyalgia, and cardiovascular disease.”
It’s normal for people experiencing workplace harassment to withdraw, or to take measures to protect themselves from their harassers and/or a toxic environment. Regardless of Councilor Nguyen’s reason for remote participation in meetings, it could be a healthy way to mitigate some of the harms of the toxic environment they’ve had to endure. For Petty and Mero-Carlson to retaliate against a victim of harassment by attacking their coping mechanism is particularly heinous.
We don’t yet know the full extent of the harassment against Nguyen. It’s likely that this is a pattern of behavior that has been going on for years (a third-party investigation is forthcoming). What we do know is that Candy Mero-Carlson and Joe Petty are running a well-worn playbook: First, create a toxic environment where bigotry is tolerated. Second, silence any dissent by disciplining those who speak out, no matter how small and inconsequential the infraction. Once the victims are isolated, they can withdraw to protect themselves, which only helps you continue to discredit them. Any form of weakness stemming from the ongoing trauma can be used as further ammo to destroy the victim.
There’s an old riddle that goes: “A Nazi walks into a bar. The other nine people sitting at the bar don’t say anything. How many Nazis are at the bar?” It’s not a trick question—the answer is 10. If nobody kicks the Nazi out of the bar, you now have a bar with 10 Nazis.
Readers, you do the math on the next problem: A bigot walks into City Hall and starts slinging slurs. Four city councilors speak out against the bigot, two bully the victim, and the other five stay silent. How many bigots are there on the City Council?
Councilor Etel Haxhiaj Tells Her Story
One of the more surprising elements of the Candy-Mero Carlson bigotry allegations came from Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, who alleges in a public statement that Candy Mero-Carlson called Haxhiaj a “liar”, accusing her of “lying about her refugee story” to several City Hall Employees. While the accusation that Haxhiaj fabricated her personal journey as a refugee is bizarre on its face, it fits in with a larger pattern of bigotry and anti-immigrant sentiment. It’s one that traces as far back as the Birtherism movement, where racist conspiracy theorists (and Donald Trump) questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship and repeatedly demanded that he produce his American birth certificate.
I reached out to Etel, who not only spoke to me about the allegations, but shared a cache of personal documents that illustrate her incredibly harrowing experience as a young refugee. Candy Mero-Carlson did not respond to a request to comment.
The Collapse
From 1945-1985, Albania was ruled by a brutal dictator, Enver Hoxha. Hoxha’s dictatorship left Albania as one of the poorest countries in Europe heading into the 1990’s, when international pressure forced the country to “liberalize” into a western-style market economy.
While the International Monetary Fund characterizes Albania’s transition to a market-based economy as “rapid and quite successful”, it left Albania with a rudimentary finance system, with little regulation. With almost no government oversight, Bernie Madoff-style investment schemes flourished.
The 90’s in Albania were characterized by an explosion of financial fraud. With little money and limited prospects, many Alabanians were lured into investing in ubiquitous Ponzi schemes. Some of these schemes were pure fraud, while some mixed fraud with a modest portfolio of legal investments. Others were thinly-veiled fronts for smuggling weapons into Yugoslavia in contravention of UN sanctions. The International Monetary Fund reports that “At their peak, the nominal value of the pyramid schemes' liabilities amounted to almost half of the country's GDP. Many Albanians—about two-thirds of the population—invested in them. When the schemes collapsed, there was uncontained rioting, the government fell, and the country descended into anarchy and a near civil war in which some 2,000 people were killed.”
By 1996, almost half of the Albanian GDP was invested in some form of pyramid or Ponzi scheme. Rising interest rates and political uncertainty led to the collapse of one of the largest schemes, then another, and another, until the economy was in shambles. Inflation rose to 40 percent. The government fell. Rioting and violence ensued. In Etel Haxhiaj’s hometown, Vlora (or Vlorë), a hunger strike at the local university escalated into armed conflict between protestors and Albanian secret police, kicking off a year of violence.
Etel described the situation in her own words :
“What happened in Albania a lot of us called "lufte" or war, or civil war. Some called it anarchy. It does not matter. It was political, economic, social violence, and chaos. Over 2000 people died. The State Department report outlines a lot of what happened. A funny thing (maybe not so funny) was that several foreign journalists stayed at our house during this time. I remember being sort of a voice for what was happening at that time- telling them what I heard from people in the streets. There’s a video of my mom on CNN being interviewed about the lack of food, and all the violence taking place. I remember one day, I got caught in between gun fire between two fighting gangs. I ran to escape the bullets and ran so fast that I fell and hurt my knees. In another instance, we huddled at school in the hallway, when local gangs were fighting. I remember crying, never feeling this scared in my life.”
“The nights were cold, and I didn’t know if the next morning I was going to be alive or dead.”
Etel shared a collection of personal essays written as a teenage refugee over 27 years ago. The images, which you’ll see excerpted below, show dated, hand-written essays written on yellowed notebook paper, with grammatical corrections marked up by a teacher’s red pen. They speak to Etel’s frame of mind as a young woman, and how she processed the trauma of the crisis in Albania.
In one essay, Etel recounts the violence she witnessed in January, 1997:
“...I saw the bullets that killed or wounded innocent people, and the blood that stained people’s hands, clothes, and faces...I felt tired of being evacuated at nights [sic] from home because the ammunition store had been set on fire. During those nights I could only see terrified faces of women holding small children tight to their breasts, and old bent people cursing the days they were living, and myself immersed in tears and sighs. The nights were cold, and I didn’t know if the next morning I was going to be alive or dead.”
In another essay, Etel recounts learning of the death of a friend. She writes of the funeral, “When I went close to his coffin and saw him lying there immovable I realized I had lost a part of myself, yet I was still alive, in pain with my heart beating so powerfully and thousands of thoughts in my head.”
Etel’s personal experience in Albania lines up with recorded events. Etel wrote contemporaneously about a disaster in which 80 refugees from her hometown were lost at sea.
“It was the 31st of March. It wasn’t a usual day. Only 3 days ago a ship and 80 people from Vlora had sunk in 800 metres of water in the strait of Otranto, in Italy...it had been a tragedy that shook everybody.
“Finally the crowd was coming. I could notice the people. The women wore black and many of them held flowers in their hands. As they came closer I could see the women’s faces that looked pale and without showing any signs of feelings except suffer [sic]. Everyone was silent. I looked at their eyes. The eyes of my people showed wrath and pain that had turned them mute. No one spoke, no one looked at each other, for their eyes wept.”
Etel’s recollection of events lines up with international reporting from the time. After the financial crisis and ensuing violence, Over 13,000 refugees fled for Italy. In response, Italy set up a naval blockade to stop the influx. At the same time, a local gang in Vlora hijacked a naval vessel from the port, in order to ferry refugees overseas for a hefty price. The vessel was rammed by an Italian warship enforcing the blockade. Per the New York Times, “The refugees were said to have been jammed into the boat's hold when it went down in 2,400 feet of water.” Out of 117 passengers, only 34 survived. The Italian government blamed the refugees for “trying to evade” the blockade.
Later that summer, Etel’s father purchased counterfeit passports and smuggled his family over land to Greece. Amidst the rampant violence and chaos, young women were being kidnapped not far from the Haxhiaj family’s home. Etel, in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette, recalled that “My dad felt he couldn’t protect me from the potential kidnappers and traffickers, so we packed all our lives in three suitcases and fled to Greece, where we lived undocumented for two years," she said. Of her time in Greece, Etel said, “I had just turned 17. In Greece, I oftentimes hid my Albanian identity because there was a lot of xenophobia against Albanian refugees/immigrants." From Athens, they applied for a US visa lottery, were lucky enough to be selected, immigrated to America via Texas, and finally, Worcester.
“Trying to erase my story speaks to the level of hate-filled, back-stabbing behavior”
In defending herself from Mero-Carlson’s attacks, Etel has had to relive her trauma. “[It’s been] very triggering to convince people that my story is real, that my family’s trauma is real...Trying to erase my story speaks to the level of hate-filled, back-stabbing behavior.” At various times during the interview, I could hear her voice begin to crack and swell with emotion. “A lot of my neighbors and the friends that I’ve lost...” she trailed off, audibly fighting back tears, “...to say that that didn’t happen is so deeply hurtful. And for what?”
Challenging someone’s personal history, one that is backed up by years of evidence, is so wildly out-of-pocket that I asked Etel to speculate on why she thinks Mero-Carson decided to accuse Haxhiaj of lying about her past. Etel was quick to point out “what she is saying is mirroring everything that we’re seeing nationally,” more specifically, a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise since Donald Trump’s re-election. “Maybe she doesn’t respect us [Etel and Thu] as human beings, as immigrants”
I asked Haxhiaj if recent events will make it harder to do the work of the City Council. Calling out Mero-Calson specifically, she said, “Candy is creating an environment that is so toxic for us and for staff.” I asked what kind of support she’d like to see from her colleagues on the council. “I don’t want to make it about me, Thu is experiencing way more harm. The way that you normally respond to another being hurt or harmed is by publicly naming the behavior and state the harm that has occurred...It’s hard to be sitting in a room with people who won’t acknowledge the harm that’s been done.”
Since Nguyen and Haxhiaj’s initial statements, the City Manager has launched a third-party civil rights investigation. Joe Petty, Kate Toomey, and Mero-Carlson herself have all released statements about Nguyen’s accusations, mostly consisting of denials and deflections (Councilor Toomey did ok). So far, no councilors have commented on Etel’s situation, and it remains to be seen if it will be addressed publicly at the next council meeting.
Twenty seven years ago, a teacher recorded her feedback on Etel’s essay in the bottom margin. “Good, Etel” it reads, “How might you help the reader know + feel your values of love, friendship?” Needless to say, Candy Mero-Carlson could show a little more love, friendship, and respect for her colleagues. At the meeting tonight, I suppose we’ll see if she takes that turn, or instead continues her campaign of harassment. At the very least, now she’ll know where Etel is coming from.
Greg Opperman is a regular Worcester Sucks contributor. His past writing for Worcester Sucks includes pieces on pedestrian deaths, the Mill Street redesign and the 2023 municipal election results. Follow him on Twitter @gopperman.
What to do about literacy in WPS
Part two of Aislinn Doyle’s big feature on literacy dropped yesterday! Very proud we got this over the finish line. The amount of work she put in is tremendous, and the work speaks for itself: “A Road Map for Improving Literacy in Worcester”. The strongest passage in my opinion is on bi-lingual education, and why Worcester should move to it:
Fear may also lay behind resistance to dual-language programs: fear from parents that their kids won’t learn English and fear from the monolingual community that prioritizing bilingualism will exclude them. It comes from the deficit mindset, where dual language flips that mindset. Resendes told me, “Dual language is an equity opportunity to engage speakers of the Spanish language in authentic academic learning where we leverage their native skills and elevate their language skills as an asset and not an obstacle while engaged in learning.” We have to remember that Worcester’s greatest untapped resource is that so many children in our city speak a language other than English. Imagine if they could also read and write at that same academic level and be fully biliterate? If the city could embrace and prioritize dual language education, it could be an incredibly effective way to propel our city forward. We just have to have the gumption to do it.
Anyway read the whole thing. It’s worth it. And here’s part one, if you haven’t read: “Worcester’s literacy ‘crisis’”
Coincidentally, I started reading Harvest of Empire this week. In the introduction, there’s this analysis, which layered on top of Aislinn’s work speaks to a cultural problem that goes way deep.
A disturbing number started to believe in the 1990s that the country was under attack by modern-day Huns, hordes of Spanish-speaking "barbarians at the gate." Many came to regard the multicultural education movement in the public schools and universities as nurturing a divisive form of ethnic nationalism, one that is subverting the Euro-centered traditions of U.S. history and fostering such "un-American" reforms as bilingual education. Nothing seems to inflame advocates of our nation's Anglo-Saxon traditions so much as this issue of language.
Between Aislinn’s work yesterday and Greg’s work today it’s been a banner week already for the Worcester Sucks team. It’s so heartening to be in a position of saying “go for it” when people bring me cool ideas for the outlet.
Of course my being able to do that grows as the number of paid subscribers grows. It’s $5 a month, and it’s a direct investment in supporting work like this, which in turn makes the community better informed and richer for it.
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Odds and ends
Let’s see let’s see. Few quick things.
There are a few other things on the council agenda tonight. I’ll defer to Mike Benedetti’s great agenda preview newsletter for that.
We’ve got a new head of the DPW+P. John Westerling, who comes from the same position in Natick. We love to see an outside hire!
The Telegram got video of the weird TikTok stunt at Assumption. In case you want to watch some feral children scare a stupid man.
Two good open letters on Bigot-gate: One from Joshua Croke in the WBJ and another from Giselle Rivera-Flores on her substack.
How are you feeling about the whole thing by the way?
Came across this new band D.C. band Hammered Hulls which checks all sorts of boxes for me. Their 2022 LP “Careening” is a modern update on the best of the Minor Threat moment: notes of Embrace, Rites of Spring, Fugazi. Guy Picciotto guitar parts all over it. A Lungfish-inspired rhythm section at times, with the big swinging grooves. All that and it somehow manages to feel new. So good.
That’s all today. Back with a post of my own and a podcast episode later this week.
Til then, toodloo!
What does it say that the Inner Circle hasn’t found someone more palatable to back in D2 so they can have Candy say “I guess my work here is done” and decline to run again.
Great piece 👏