I’ve enjoyed this Tottenham season because it makes everything else seem better

This is pretty much why the political risk industry exists

This week I'm looking at two big developments: the hearing on the PROTECT Act, with moving testimony from many residents of the Commonwealth, and the impact of the Iran War on energy prices here in Massachusetts. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

Such a shame that a war is disrupting rich people’s tax schemes

I’ve been to an amusement park and did bumper cars in Iraqi Kurdistan

Also what parents have the time to participate like this? People working at that time?

Been a busy week catching up from the blizzard, but here’s the latest MA digest and #mapoli wordcloud. massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/post-blizz...

Not a good sign when I see on social media a screenshot in orange text

I think I just heard Lewis Hamilton do a podcast ad read for IBM but didn’t introduce himself as IBM. Did they save money hiring a Lewis Hamilton impersonator or assume everyone who would buy IBM can instantly recognize him?

It must be very difficult living your life being this wrong. Has this man never played GoldenEye?

With #mapoli indoors today, it’s the perfect time to launch campaigns for ideas that don’t get attention normally. Mine is to finally correct the fact that Suffolk County is north of Norfolk

Slow week on Beacon Hill so we have an ourobouros of Substacks instead, thinking about what it means when a legislative body becomes a media entity. massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/a-substack...

Primary dates for states should be selected by drawing balls out of a bag like the FA Cup

Of all the kids books I read to my son, Richard Scarry’s Busytown definitely has the highest level of economic complexity

The article makes sense (the company also makes ceramics for semiconductors), but hats off to the editors whose photo choice and headline made it inevitable I would click

I see this sentiment a lot in Massachusetts. But let’s be clear - it’s still bad that our friends, neighbors, family are choosing to leave our state. The fact that international migration meant it wasn’t worse is not a reason not to have worried about it.

calmly waiting for the patriots offense to arrive

I’m no farmer but is a half acre of land in the middle of a city with a housing shortage best used to grow food or build homes / commercial / parks and then use the tax revenue to go to the grocery store?

The idea that book smarts is correlated with high standards for food is disproved by pretty much my entire grad school experience.

This week we take a glance at some hearings, a press conference with as big a crowd as I’ve ever seen for a governor, and the skeets of the week massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/hearings-a...

Adding Delaware to Legislata and slowly working my way down the East Coast like Edward Payson Weston Here's a post from Legislata: House Elections & Government Affairs Committee Meeting — Wednesday, Jan 14, 2026 12:30 PM - 1:24 PM 54 Minutes app.legislata.com/posts/282286...

This is really simple when you think about it. There are three phases of life tax wise: - Birth to graduation: Use tax dollars (school), don't work - Graduation to retirement: Generate tax dollars by working, use some - Retirement to bucket kicking: Use tax dollars (Social Security), don't work

Testing our new share to Bluesky feature. Seems like it works? Here's a post from Legislata: Senate Session of January 29, 2026 (Part 1) app.legislata.com/public_offic...

It’s been a tough run for Tottenham with Burnley, West Ham, and Sunderland, but at least we’ve got an easy one tomorrow. #coys

Crazy #mapoli stat. In 2022 and 2024, there were 38 competitive Democratic primaries (loosely defined as the result being within 30 percentage points). The average winner got 2,525 votes and four were decided by less than 100 votes. So when your seat is contested, your vote really matters.

What are the trends in where Massachusetts gets its money from, according to the estimates from the governor's budgets? I look at that here, with the tl;dr being that income taxes are becoming more important, with both pros and cons to that. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

Today's @massterlist.com should set the tone for the year. The MBTA Communities Act can be attributed to less than 6,804 new units, which is 3% of the target set by the Gov for 2035. So will we pass the other laws needed to fill the rest of the gap?

What’s crazy about these stats is that it was obvious that public opinion would head this way if ICE continued this way. Elected officials needs to be able to trust their own judgement at what they’re seeing, not have to wait a couple weeks for a poll to tell them what’s happening

This week, I'm looking at how government can work when a huge success - 20% of MA's electricity from clean energy - happens without much attention. Is this business as usual because if it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead, or something new to a fragmented media open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

I've only seen one of these and it's the one everyone's making fun of

The @massago.bsky.social win against Kalshi really exposes how politically clueless many businesses can be. Clearly, they’re doing sports betting. But somehow smart investors thought they wouldn’t have to follow gambling regulations because…?

For the #mapoli crowd, a trivia question. Which of these projects do you think, based purely on the timeframes, was a four mile extension alongside existing rail lines, and which tunnelled under an entire city?

With the #mapoli legislature back in session, we had Senate Arts, Financial Services, and Bonding Committee hearings. We also had a real debate about the Boston tax shift, which you may have heard about. But there was one line that really stood out- massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/2026-is-st...

Trying to decompress at night by reading history. This week it’s a one volume of World War I. No spoilers but the archduke was shot and I’ve got a bad feeling

I don't know if other startups use the same metric, but I'm happy to announce that @legislata.com has transcripts of the state legislatures worth 96 electoral votes. Still not enough to get to the White House, but we're working on it.

Anyone here know folks in the Maine public policy world who'd be up for a chat? We're now producing transcripts of committee hearings in Augusta and are curious what other transcript feeds would be useful down east.

Set up transcripts for the Scottish Parliament and saw this: “The cabinet secretary highlighted the importance of not blaming vandalism solely on young people” What is happening to Britain, @stephenkb.bsky.social? Blaming the youths are what politicians do! app.legislata.com/public_offic...

"For journos and national influencers, Bluesky."

Note for #somerpoli since its council meeting time. Transcripts of all of the meetings are available here (along with about 30 other cities and towns) for free. Usually by the next morning: app.legislata.com/public_offic...

I wanted to see if the Grok going crazy story was over or underreported and in the first few of its posts I saw a photo of Billie Eilish that Grok put into a swastika bikini with a MAGA hat and this was its reply to someone praising it. How in the world is this thing still running.

Since my days are spent trying to understand what’s happening in politics, I’ve decided to get off social media at night and read books about quieter times. First up: the Napoleonic Wars.

Exciting #mapoli news: we've decided to make all of the public info on app.legislata.com - like transcripts of State House committees, Gov Council meetings, etc - completely free for everyone. Rather than sell subscriptions, it feels better to make it free and support it with sponsorships

Exciting #mapoli news: we've decided to make all of the public info on app.legislata.com - like transcripts of State House committees, Gov Council meetings, etc - completely free for everyone. Rather than sell subscriptions, it feels better to make it free and support it with sponsorships

Since this has generated talk from the coffee cup placement, if I were running for office, every photo would have a strategically placed controversial item like engagement-bait Where’s Waldo

Thanks to @gintautasd.bsky.social for including me in the @massterlist.com set of New Year’s resolutions. Though apparently I made a mistake by giving an actual resolution when it looks like the thing to do is recite a policy agenda?

Just got an automated sales prospecting email from a SaaS company I already use. These things always clear me of any FOMO I have that my go to market efforts aren’t as good as billion dollar companies

You can pretend like you’re not 40, and then you extricate yourself from a blocked in parking situation and feel like you won the Super Bowl and realize time is inevitable

Was at the same restaurant as John Cena tonight and I have to give some credit to that guy’s tailor. Impeccable.

Grinchmanji