The Unbearable Bigotry of Townies
The only worthwhile question is how to end their public life
When those manhole covers over by Union Station flew off the street and up into some unknown oblivion never to return—I think we peasants used to call stuff like that an ‘omen.’
A sign of ill tidings to come, surely. Or perhaps a bit of sage advice? Should some members of our community fly up and away from this place, twirling, twirling, twirling, same as those iron slabs? Might they find their freedom somewhere else?
A few posts ago I put an idea on the table: Maybe some of our old guard councilors should just opt to hang it up themselves.
It’s on us to hold the mirror of moral clarity up to their faces. To say that if you can’t take a stand on this, what can you take a stand on? And, if it bothers you so much to see an organized and motivated public demand something, maybe politics isn’t for you, actually? Maybe just hang it up? No one would blame you... Just think about it, okay?
One already has! Thank you, Mr. Russell! The other five have found themselves this week in lockstep alignment with Libs of Tiktok, the far-right gay-bashing social media account which shares no small amount of blame for a mass shooting. But we’ll get there.
I had a big picture, ‘zooming out’ sort of story I intended to put up this week. It’s about homelessness and the 311 app and the ongoing class war concealed behind the big border wall of bipartisan consensus. But that’ll have to wait.
The unknowable blast that sent those manhole covers up and up into the great nothing may well have emanated from the depths of some hell, ushering in a new, chaotic chapter in Worcester. No time for zooming out... we gotta zoom in, in, in, baby, toward our new deity in the dark recesses beneath the train station. The law of Roko’s Basilisk applies. We do as it commands now so that we may later be spared. Lest we end up another Russell, another Mero-Carlson... Lest our outlook be as bleak as Polar Park’s pro-forma...
What I mean to say is it’s been a rare news week. This post is an effort in sorting and synthesizing so you don’t have to, which is of course why you pay me the big bucks (about a beer a month, please and thank you).
This one is a doozy so take your time. Also, best to read in a browser or on the app.
Candy Mero-Chaos—Thank you, George!—Aislinn’s big literacy feature—Dowdle dunks on the city—our criminal constable—odds and ends
The Unbearable Bigotry of Townies
City Councilor and crank thought leader Candy Mero-Carlson has apparently taken to calling Councilor Thu Nguyen “it” of late, reducing the identity of the state’s first non-binary elected official to that of an inanimate object.
Nguyen said as much on Wednesday morning, in a statement announcing a month-long hiatus from council business. Thu wrote of “recently learning that District 2 Councilor Mero-Carlson has been referring to me as ‘it’ multiple times.”
It is unfortunate, as we transition under a Trump administration and exponential increase of fear experienced by the LGBTQ+ community that I, as a City Councilor At-Large of Worcester, had to file a complaint to our Executive Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion about my experience in the past 3 years of dealing with transphobia and a discriminatory and toxic council culture, being misgendered by Mayor Petty and Councilor At-Large Toomey publicly on the council floor and recently learning that District 2 Councilor Mero-Carlson has been referring to me as "it" multiple times.
Thu goes on to say they’re calling for an investigation into it and an action plan from the city’s new chief diversity officer. And the manager has ostensibly initiated such an investigation. I’m conducting my own: I put in FOIA requests for emails and calls, but at this point I can safely say Candy’s “it” talk was in person, at city hall, and that it happened within earshot of quite a few people who’ve since confirmed it. If it comes to light Candy’s also put it in writing, all the better.
Make no mistake, calling a non-binary person “it” is a slur. It is not some incidental ‘misgendering,’ as the cranks have tried to frame it. It is hate speech. This shouldn’t be hard to understand, and the apparent inability in this city reads as willful.
In the most recent episode of Outdoor Cats, “Candy’s A Big-‘It’”, Chris and I discuss this situation in depth. Here I’ll shoot for brevity. Really you can sum it all up in this one image a listener emailed me, taken at the Greendale Mall way back when.
I for one am truly shocked that a councilor who went to the mat to save “Plantation Street” from a name change would harbor such animosity for a fluid gender expression. Shocked! This is a person truly unafflicted by the Woke Mind Virus. Mero-Carlson is also a prominent member of our Democratic City Committee and has strong ties throughout the amorphous blob of speculative interests we’ve come to call the ‘inner circle.’ A good example of your stock character baby boomer Democrat: the center-right bulwarks that make the party the graveyard of social movements that it currently is.
I’m being glib because what are you supposed to fucking do when your city lets you down in such a fundamental way and no one involved faces a lick of punishment for it?
She advanced a line of attack on a member of our queer community that, like the domino effect meme, ended with multiple Libs of Tiktok posts about Nguyen going out to some 4 million revanchist followers. Posts on Libs of Tiktok, an account run by Chaya Raichik, have led to the shutting down of children’s hospitals, at least 21 bomb threats, countless more incidents of threats, intimidation and physical assaults. They galvanize neo-Nazi groups. Most famously and monstrously, the account factored heavily in the 2022 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.
It is embarrassing that this city has allowed a rotten, bad faith, and cut-from-whole cloth story about Nguyen to percolate locally until it boils over onto the national stage. But it’s also fucking dangerous. There are real life consequences for the harassment campaigns that people like Nguyen are made to endure. Mero-Carlson finds herself in a public-facing leadership position of such a campaign. Bringing even more shame onto us all is Mayor Joe Petty, who happily picked up what Mero-Carlson put down. He has let his city down in a way it’s doubtful he understands but will certainly be his lasting legacy.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
There’s a straight line to be drawn from Candy Mero-Carlson to Chaya Raichik—and the scary part is that Candy finds herself not on an island but perhaps more popular with her core constituency than she’s ever been. People in this community are practically frothing at the mouth to see punishment leveled on a young non-binary person of color holding a council seat. Because its their fuckin city. And Thu is not one of them.
All the diffuse and amorphous grievances of the townies are coalescing around this one member of our community who’s trying to do good and isn’t apologizing for it. One of them apparently is the new city hall reporter for the Telegram.1 Mero-Carlson and Petty are directing it.
And make no bones: it is their city. So long as Mero-Carlson and Petty remain in public life we have not finished the job of taking it away from them. When we retire her and then him, likely in that order, we can start the process of wresting control from these townie freaks who give us a bad name. But we are reminded in this moment of a brutal truth: they are still the constituency toward whom city hall bends. And all they want to see is pain inflicted on a city councilor who has refused to capitulate to their cultural discipline. Thu remains unlike them and proud of it. So they must pay.
There is no rational-seeming criticism of Nguyen in the discourse right now that does not stem from that place. That is what they mean when they say ‘Thu doesn’t show up for work.’ They can’t be convinced otherwise because they don’t care. They happily swallow the slop Candy and Joe are feeding them. I’d break down how they’re lying if it mattered but it doesn’t.
They’ve just found a way to say what they mean without saying it. A micro-manifestation of Build The Wall. No one in support of the wall cares whether the wall gets built, just like no one suddenly concerned with Nguyen’s attendance has ever checked attendance records once in their life. Different slogans for the same emotion: a way to indignantly pre-grieve the future loss of your current entitlements.
So, if you’re looking for a way to fight Trump, here it is. It’s right here in front of you. It’s not on the TV. It’s not in some red state. It’s right here in your community. It’s Candy Mero-Carlson and Joe Petty and it’s a good portion of your neighbors, especially in the owner-occupied neighborhoods where most voters are. The solution lies in awakening the consciousnesses of apathetic and disengaged people around you who hate what’s going on but don’t know what to do about it. You can in a very material sense end the political careers of Candy Mero-Carlson and Joe Petty. And in doing so you will have fought the coming evil. You will have made an important stand.
Right here, we can beat it. We can make these bigots pay. We can remind them of their intellectual, physical, geographic minority status. Confirm the root cause of their anxiety. Make them feel small as they are. There’s no reasoning with a bully, there is only the establishment of dominance. The sense of entitlement and power and freedom from scrutiny within the political class that Mero-Carlson represents is Trumpian all the way down. It is also contingent on 20 percent voter turnout or less. They all vote. No one else does.
A campaign that brings mere hundreds of new voters into the fold makes these bullies scared. And, really, that’s why they’re lashing out. It’s not Nguyen’s pronouns they can’t stand, it’s the constituency behind them. They look at Thu and they see the limits of their discipline. Nothing scares a bully more.
We see absolutely all of that in 4K in the response that Candy Mero-Carlson released on Wednesday afternoon.
Candy’s statement, as we’re about to get to, essentially takes a years-long whisper campaign, bashing progressives like Nguyen behind closed doors, into the public. She and everyone like her advanced the story in such a way it got picked up by Libs of Tiktok. There is no daylight between our crank councilors and that far-right gay bashing account. I hope they take a good long look in that mirror.
In the times to come, people like Mero-Carlson are the opposite of the allies our most vulnerable people need. If she were a decent person she’d have already resigned. She’s not, though, and will have to be dragged out of the place kicking and screaming. Luckily, she’s incredibly vulnerable electorally, and has a progressive challenger with genuine odds in Rob Bilotta.
When you read Mero-Carlson’s response, you’ll find not a whiff of that precarity. She makes it abundantly clear she’s the victim. We can skip the first paragraph, in which she just praises herself as a Good Democrat using stock language, and makes the hilarious claim of having been an “activist” at some point. After that, it reads:
While I do not recall making the statements in question, I acknowledge that it was a challenging and emotional week where difficult conversations took place.
This is an interesting way to open it because no one was saying anything about a specific week. Sort of an obvious tipoff she’s lying and very much does “recall making the statements in question.”
These claims, however, misrepresent my character, my record, and the values I have consistently upheld. It is deeply troubling that Councilor Nguyen has chosen to distort the narrative and weaponize these accusations for political purposes, rather than engaging in constructive dialogue that serves the best interests of Worcester's residents.
And here she goes on the offensive. If Thu’s distorting, what’s the narrative? And what constructive dialogue is there to be had when someone calls you “it,” anyway? Was that what you were doing, Candy, when you called Thu “it”? The statement is so obviously bullshit only those who want to hate on Thu are going to swallow it. That’s exactly who she’s talking to in this next line:
It's no secret that Councilor Nguyen and I approach public service differently. This year, Councilor Nguyen has the lowest attendance record of any City Councilor-a striking contrast to my near-perfect attendance and presence at meetings and events across the city nearly every night of the week. My focus has always been on showing up for our community, listening to constituents, and delivering results.
More insulting than “it” is what she says next:
Unfortunately, Councilor Nguyen's approach seems more centered on sowing chaos and division, rather than collaboration or addressing the real needs of our city.
She’s not just saying that to Thu. That line is directed at you, me, and everyone else who isn’t among her small coterie of insiders. Getting people involved in local government, building community, getting local government to actually do something the community wants—that’s sowing chaos.
In reality, Candy’s politics are the preservation of chaos. She has never once been in the business of “addressing the real needs of our city.” She has, on the other hand, quite effectively addressed the needs of real estate speculators, police officers, and her fellow grifters on the right flank of the local Democratic Party apparatus. She works for people like Anthony Petrone, a close friend and adviser, who happens to be all three of the above mentioned constituencies—real estate speculator, police officer and grifter. She also takes a weirdly large amount of money from a tow truck company. And don’t forget the city’s first and only spray paint bandit John Piccolo, recently in court for assault charges he caught doing the most out-of-pocket crime city hall may have ever seen.
In the next line, Candy pulls the classic crony move: accusing a politician of doing politics.
I am not surprised by their actions given their consistent support for my opponent in the last election and their apparent determination to prioritize political agendas each week over the pressing work we are elected to do. Worcester residents deserve leadership that rises above small-minded politics and remains focused on progress and unity.
The use of ‘progress’ is... I’m not even touching that. Progress for whom? Toward what? To answer would require your having a political agenda, which you apparently don’t, so...
How she ends:
I remain committed to the work that truly matters creating opportunities and making Worcester a stronger, more inclusive city for all. I will not be distracted by unfounded attacks or divisive rhetoric."
It’s a miserable, nasty statement. She lets on in the first line of it that she did in fact call Nguyen “it,” then goes on to say all that, and ends with an appeal toward inclusivity... craven behavior!
Joe Petty’s statement is basically a rewrite, with the addition of spurious claims about the bullshit subcommittee assignments he gave Thu as punishment for their being progressive. The details are not worth the space it would take here. But we go over them in depth about an hour into the most recent podcast. Here’s a clip also.
It also just came out that Candy is going around city hall telling people that Etel Haxhiaj is a liar. Haxhiaj said in a statement Thursday morning:
City Hall staff has told me that Councilor Carlson has said to them that I am a "liar," that I am "lying about my refugee story," and that it's not true that my family "was forced to leave Albania because of war."
Saying “you’re not a real refugee” isn’t quite as gross as calling someone “it,” but it’s still pretty fucking gross. The sad truth we have to grapple with is it doesn’t matter. It’s going to endear Candy to her base. They’re going to like her more for it. There will be no consequences. Candy and the rest of the cranks can be as irrational and as craven as they want.
I say that to underscore they have been playing on home turf this whole time—the entire three years Nguyen and Haxhiaj have been on the council and a hell of a lot longer than that. They don’t need to make a rational argument. We do. And the rational argument is there’s something entirely rotten in the culture at city hall. Need I remind you of how we burned through three chief diversity officers in as many years. Candy’s statement is just another piece of evidence in the running case.
To a trained eye, Candy’s statement is also a series of code words meant to activate the grievance machine the cranks summon to reliably thwart progressive reforms and villainize progressive thinkers. It’s like if the Grafton Street Honey Dew was a Transformer. On command it rises up into a 100-foot mecha-slumlord manned by five slumlords in the cockpit. It takes a crashing step toward city hall. It scans its surroundings with a thin blue laser beam. A booming voice ripples from its megaphone mouth, saying something you can’t quite make out but you definitely heard it say “the Puerto Ricans.”
The stranglehold the townies have had on the electoral process of this municipality is real. It runs deep. It is the reason nothing has changed since the Reagan era. It’s a loose coalition that chews up and spits out anyone who tries to do anything good around here. Death by a million character-assassination cuts. Mero-Carlson knows she has this Honey Dew Transformer at her command, and she uses it. Short of some sort of some new transfer-your-mortgage-to-Florida subsidy from the Trump administration, that machine is here to stay. There’s no winning of any hearts and minds because there are no hearts and there are no minds. We simply need to build a larger coalition. Our own Transformer. We need to remember that the cranks are, at most, 10 percent of the population. Then we need to remind them of that in certain terms.
So, rather than go on about all the myriad ways Candy’s made a fool of herself with this statement, I’ll leave you with a closing note on the matter: 150 new voters.
We turn out mere dozens of new voters in District 2 and we’ll have sent Candy and her bigots a stronger message than any post on the internet, in this newsletter included, could possibly muster. We’ll have ended her public life. And what better punishment could there be for the way she’s misused it?
Question becomes how. And I think you’ll find it’s a much more liberating question than ‘how do we convince Candy she’s wrong?’ which is impossible.
So we get involved in Rob Bilotta’s campaign. We donate, we volunteer, we talk to our neighbors. All that most people need to hear is that Rob’s a stand-up dude and Candy’s a piece of work. Candy called a non-binary colleague “it,” she voted against a ceasefire in Gaza. There’s two gifts—simple truths that make apparent who she is, without any need to explain the erudite and obscure machinations that comprise her shitty political project. People don’t need to be abreast of the corrosive effect of the local AFL-CIO that she and her husband run, nor the overly cozy company she keeps with local developers bilking the city. That information is there if you want it, but most people aren’t going to dig that deep.
She called Thu “it.” She voted against the ceasefire. Bilotta has done neither of those things.
And Bilotta’s a cool guy. An earnest, longtime advocate in the arena of accessibility. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He doesn’t take thousands every election cycle from a tow truck company. He isn’t personal friends with a police union official who just recently demanded that victims of sexual assault have their identities handed over to the officers they accused of such. That’s who Candy is. And Rob isn’t that.
Candy is awful. Rob is cool. This is a simple equation. The trick now becomes, how do we convince a mere 150 new people in that district to show up on election day and act on it? We have the whole year—unless, of course, Candy resigns before that. Which would be welcome. With any luck she pulls the same move that George Russell did this week, as we’ll go over in the next section. But it’s not likely.
Convincing Candy to be less shitty is a sisyphean task. Like all the cranks, she operates as if above reproach. Convincing a few more people to get out and vote is easy, comparatively. And what clearer way to send the message that she isn’t, in fact, above reproach? That her actions do have consequences?
You can join in the effort this coming Tuesday. The more people that show up, the more we’re able to remind Petty et al of the limits of their discipline. City hall 6 p.m.
I’m reading Abolish Rent right now. Great recent book about and by the LA Tenants Union. Here’s a fitting line:
Organizing is the alchemy—and the science—that turns individualized vulnerability into shared power.
Candy is one of six councilors who are setting this city on a ruinous course, captured as they are by the evil coalition of cops, cranks, and real estate speculators. They need a six-vote majority to continue executing their vision. This six vote majority is contingent on our individualized vulnerability and is easily smashed by our shared power. Candy is the most electorally vulnerable of the six. She is the target. We have so many great people on our side. Just look at the statements from Worcester Havurah, Racism Free WPS, Standing Up For Racial Justice, State Se. Robyn Kennedy, and many others.
With that in mind, we transition to another of the cranks, who actually did the right thing...
Thank you, George!
Just a few weeks after George Russell pulled the befuddling move of invoking his Lebanese ancestry as justification to vote against a ceasefire in Gaza, two bits of news arrived: the possibility of a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and the certainty of Russell’s retirement from the city council.
It hit the Telegram Wednesday afternoon, amid everything else: Russell’s seventh straight term will be his last. District 3 becomes an open seat. "It's time for new leaders to step up and bring their vision to the voters of our District 3,” Russell’s quoted saying.
Cross one of the Cranky Six off the list! With Russell bowing out, the six-vote majority needed to tell everyone else to fuck off for forever becomes an open question very early in the election season.
We need some people stepping up to the plate for this seat. Rumor has it Binienda crony Rob Pezzella and former state Rep. John Fresolo are sniffing around about a run. Feanna Jattan-Singh, who ran last cycle, would be much preferable to either. No word yet on whether she’s trying to run.
This next part’s for George: Thank you for doing the right thing. Thank you for recognizing you’re ill suited to meet the demands of the present moment and stepping aside on your own accord. For what it’s worth, you were the least shitty of the bunch. For instance, you had the temerity to break rank and vote your conscience on crisis pregnancy centers. Can’t say the same for the rest of the cranks—least of all Mero-Carlson, who had the audacity to call herself a feminist while voting to squash the proposal to regulate those deceptive centers in a small way.
You seem like a nice enough guy. You did the right thing by getting out. Here’s to hoping Mero-Carlson, Colorio, Toomey, Bergman, and Petty look at what you did with envy and start to consider it themselves. No one would blame you or think any less of you. Your life would be free of the “politics” you claim to loathe. There would be no more “divisiveness.”
Just think about it, okay?
Define ‘crisis’
Earlier in the week this outlet released what I proudly believe to be some of the finest education reporting ever produced here! Over in the WPS In Brief section Aislinn Doyle put up the first part of “Worcester’s literacy ‘crisis,’” a piece she’d been working on for literal months. It’s well researched, well reported, and offers a sharp, compelling critique.
If you read the Telegram, MCAS scores often make headlines that lead us to believe we are in a literacy crisis1; and politicians and local nonprofits say that low MCAS scores are proof that our kids can’t read. There are podcasts and national news headlines emphasizing that scores are dropping and kids are illiterate. As a parent of early elementary-age kids, it’s hard to hear this rhetoric and not worry. Should I be concerned that my four-year-old can’t identify all the letters? Or that my second grader is horrible at spelling? Can I trust that Worcester schools are equipped to teach our kids how to read?
So I started talking to parents, teachers, principals, district administrators, and community members about literacy in Worcester. I started asking questions because I wanted to understand: If we cannot blame the current literacy challenges of our education system on the pandemic alone, what else is it? Is there something deeper? And the most important question: How do we fix it?
It was a joy to edit and publish—exactly the kind of work that this outlet is designed to take on.
If you’re a paying subscriber, you can take some personal pride and responsibility in this. If you’re not already, you can become one for about a beer a month, and then you can take some pride in part two, which is coming out on Monday.
While I’m doing my plugs, quick story time: Had a reader tight on cash call me up to help them refund a yearly subscription. No big thing. During the conversation they said that I’m “continuing the spirit of Abbie Hoffman,” a comment well worth the $69 it cost me!
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Dowdle dunks on the city
Earlier in this post I made quick reference to the real estate speculators to whom your Pettys and Mero-Carlsons are beholden. While we were all rightfully preoccupied with the bigotry, one of those real estate speculators, Denis Dowdle, went down court with another hedge fund called The College of the Holy Cross and did a big Harlem GlobeTrotters-style alley-oop on the city’s political class.
Dowdle’s Madison Properties and the College Of The Holy Cross announced the acquisition of the warehouse on Southbridge Street formerly home to Rotmans Furniture.
I checked property records to find that Dowdle ponied up $7.95 million for the property. At first glance it looked like $795,000, which would have been too perfect. Almost the exact amount of money that the city had to draw from the general fund—sorry, “loan to the BID”—to cover Polar Park construction loans this year.
Dowdle, if you’ll remember, is right up there with former City Manager Ed Augustus among the men most responsible for the lie we were sold on. That Polar Park would “pay for itself.” The $792,000 that “plan” came short this year was due primarily to Dowdle. He promised the city five new, tax-generating buildings around Polar Park and has only built one.
A few months ago, he told the Worcester Redevelopment Authority he’s under no obligation to follow through on the rest. You know... ~the market~. The WRA’s Mike Angelini has since been kicking and screaming. Most recently, it came to light he sent a bitchy letter in December. Really nice pull here from Eric Casey at the Worcester Business Journal:
“[Madison’s] claim that it must only proceed with its responsibilities under the agreement ‘when it is ready’ and that it will not do so to the extent that it affects Madison's profits ignores both the letter and the spirit of the agreement, and has directly led to the substantial deficit in the Project revenues for 2024,” WRA Chair Michael Angelini wrote in a Dec. 13 letter to Madison Properties obtained by WBJ via a public records request.
Complain as Angelini might now, back in 2018, Ed Augustus gave Dowdle an out to break and renegotiate his tax agreement with the city after some three years, with no penalty! The city simply has to renegotiate to find more favorable terms for the developer. That’s how it’s written! Crazy.
Buried deep in the 2020 contract is this provision:
Followed by this course of follow-up action:
And wow wouldn’t you know it, that’s what Dowdle did this year. It’s all on the up and up, though! Classic “above board corruption” leaving the city stuck with the bill. Neither Augustus or Dowdle facing any repercussions whatsoever, of course. Both benefiting tremendously.
While Ed Augustus is consolidating power on Beacon Hill, Dowdle is taking all the money he saved by fucking the city—in the exact way Augustus neatly carved out for him—and going into business with Holy Cross. It’s not the first nor the last building in that neighborhood Dowdle has bought on the college’s behalf. But this one, given the timing, looks a lot like Dowdle was given a public subsidy to acquire property on behalf of the College of the Holy Cross. The purchase will, in turn, likely take the parcel’s significant tax obligation (almost $5 million annually, according to WBJ) off the rolls, like WPI did with the hotels that the local political class freaked out about.
Meanwhile, rent control remains illegal in Massachusetts A real estate firm indicted in a massive rent fixing scandal employs a former city manager. It does start to seem like Dowdle isn’t the only one dunking on us.
Our criminal constable
This one got totally lost in the sauce of this especially soupy week. There’s one constable employed by the city who’s particularly bad news. His name is Francis Trapasso. He runs a whole evicting and asset seizing company. Truly a monster on those grounds alone. But he and people under his employ also have engaged in a pattern of criminal behavior, up to and including assault and molestation. I had the chance to review an advanced copy of a soon-to-be-released report on Trapasso from the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team. It is really something.
So wouldn’t you know it, Eric Batista reappointed that guy. Mayor Joe Petty on Tuesday cut the mic on WAFT’s Grace Ross as she was calmly explaining why that’s a bad idea. But, under some pressure from Ross and progressive councilors, Batista did agree to set up a meeting between WAFT and the police department, and did say he has the ability to withdraw the appointment. This is a story that deserves more attention than I can presently give it. Expect a deeper dive in the near future.
Someone on the stream commented that Trapasso’s political connections within the Democratic Party run deep, and that he may have worked security for Bill Clinton on a book tour.
Batista yet again put in a position to do the right thing or capitulate to the prevailing political order. We love to see it.
Odds and ends
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Some stray thoughts…
Governor Healey has proposed more restrictions still to a family shelter system that wasn’t adequately funded or staffed to begin with. In doing so, she’s capitulating yet again to the right, who will never be satisfied, while telling the left, who’re begging for scraps, to go fuck itself. In other words, the national pastime of the Democratic Party. This might but probably won’t satisfy that one columnist at the Boston Globe who gleefully reports on crimes committed in shelters, as if to confirm her unstated belief that there should be no shelters at all, actually. Can’t believe I used to aspire to working there.
If you haven’t read it yet allow me to plug one more time the piece I wrote for Hell World on Healey and the shelter system and the insane public discourse around it: “It becomes hard to see the difference.” A “Best of Hell World 2024” winner mind you.
Here’s a real soul-restoring email I got from Claire Schaeffer-Duffy in response to my writing on the second Gaza demonstration last week (that was last week?!). Sharing it with her permission of course:
Dear Bill,
It's late at night a time when I am my most incoherent. Nonetheless, before I hit the sack, I want to thank you for your article on the ceasefire resolution. I was inspired by how quickly you devoured Refaat Alareer's book (I too have ordered and am still waiting for my copy) and then incorporated what it revealed into your own writing. Israeli subjugation of Palestinians has been tediously relentless, an ongoing negating of a people in a thousand ways. Now its open slaughter without compunction. You gave details on what Palestinians endure. Thank you. So many Americans have tried to bring this story to light over the years and often paid a price for doing so. After the Jesuit priest Dan Berrigan spoke up for Palestinians, publishers dropped him and his opportunities to teach at colleges and universities shrank. But this muting of the Palestinian narrative no longer has the force it once did. More and more people are writing about it as you have done. Thank you. Thank you too for putting the heat on our politicians. To stay human we have to fight indifference, within ourselves and our community. You are doing that.
Take care,
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy
PS. Berrigan's 1973 speech that got him in hot water with Israel supporters. Pretty amazing to read now.
Thank you, Claire. It is nice to be reminded that it all matters. That goes for anything any of you have done. Every small act of resistance adds up. Thank you!
Some pretty wild copaganda from the Telegram in this one: “Carrying a badge - and a PHD,” about a Worcester cop who got a doctorate in the criminology of online scams (a scam itself if you ask me). There are attribution-less opinion statements the likes you wouldn’t believe. “It is his deep commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of society — children at one end of the spectrum and seniors at the other — that motivates him and is his highest priority.”
Ah wait no this one is worse: “Worcester police introduce their latest asset: a very friendly dog”
Meanwhile, the city isn’t putting the exorbitant expenditures tied to civil settlements over police abuses on its open checkbook. Hmmm wonder why. Also friendly reminder that money comes out of the law department budget and does not affect the police department’s one single bit. We pay out for their crimes.
Some WPD news you can use: POST Commission community info session coming up at the YWCA. Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. and they’re asking that attendees pre-register.
Dr. Satya Mitra entering the city council race. Lew Evangelidis running for governor? Would be only slightly worse than our current one.
District Attorney Joe Early can’t try spray paint bandit John Piccolo for his assault charges because he’s taken too many campaign donations from him—great little detail from the GOAT Brad Petrishen’s coverage of Mr. Pickledick’s arraignment.
Lindsay Corcoran, Early's communications director, said Friday his office does not comment on conflicts of interest.
Piccolo has donated $1,210 to Early since 2010, online records with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance show.
Early is one of many elected officials Piccolo has supported over the years; state records show he's donated more than $18,000 since 2008 to candidates for local and state office.
I liked this story about the sea serpent in Indian Lake and the vortex in Bell Pond (which, I learned from the article, used to be called “Bladder Pond.” Very lol.)
If you want to read an extremely good new comic book check out No/One. Damn.
Me and Katie went out and tied one on real good last Friday. Caught a band at Vincent’s we really liked, and upon investigation (asking the bartender) we found out their name’s Colt and the Coyotes and they play out in Worcester all the time. Really really good female singer. I’m currently shopping for a location to hold regular “Worcester Sucks Election Squad” organizing events. (Details soon.) I think Vincent’s might be perfect but we’ll see.
Speaking of good female singers the new single from Sierra Ferrell, my second crush behind Katie of course, is gorgeous.
Ok toodles!
On Thursday, Toni Caushi took it upon himself to look into whether Thu would receive their—gasp!—$2,641 monthly stipend while taking their leave. The story ran with a headline and a lede framing it as a matter of controversy: “City clerk: During absence from council, Nguyen due to receive $2,641 monthly stipend.” An extremely Boston Herald story and not a good sign of what to expect from Toni. Listen bud: I worked at the Telegram. I know you have paid vacation time. Stupid, malicious bullshit. We miss you, Marco!
"The unknowable blast that sent those manhole covers up and up into the great nothing may well have emanated from the depths of some hell, ushering in a new, chaotic chapter in Worcester. No time for zooming out... we gotta zoom in, in, in, baby, toward our new deity in the dark recesses beneath the train station. The law of Rocco’s Basilisk applies. We do as it commands now so that we may later be spared. Lest we end up another Russell, another Mero-Carlson... Lest our outlook be as bleak as Polar Park’s pro-forma...' Somewhere, Hunter grinned at that writing ....