By Frederick A. Hurst

WHEN WILL VOTERS FIGURE HIM OUT?
By now everybody in Springfield knows that when Mayor Sarno says he is giving you a property tax break, it’s time to move to another city or change mayors because every year, since he first came into office, our property taxes have gone up after he ceremoniously, with great fanfare, announced a property tax cut that somehow morphed into a tax hike…every year! And this past year he claimed to have reduced taxes with an injection of government money but the same thing happened. Taxes went up even more in most cases.
Of course, Sarno has an excuse every year for shading the truth and genuinely seems to believe we are being fooled just like he thinks we forgot about that trash fee that the late Mayor Charlie Ryan started and Sarno promised he would end if we voted for him. Of course, we all know he not only didn’t end it but he increased it for many, especially for small businesses whose trash pickup he outsourced to a private contractor resulting in an even much, much larger trash fee.
If Mayor Sarno really wanted to lower taxes, he could easily have allocated a lot more of the tens of millions in free cash he chose to put in a savings account for a future use of his choosing after allotting only a miniscule amount to relieve the tax burden. Since it is too late for that now, he might listen to Councilor Justin Hurst’s proposal (See The Republican, December 10, 2022 or POV, page 17) and, at least use some of the money to finally keep his old promise and eliminate the trash fee or significantly reduce it.
It’s time to remind Mayor Sarno that he can fool some voters all of the time; some voters some of the time; but he is not fooling all voters in Springfield all of the time especially when it involves peoples’ scarce money.

THE NEW HOME OF FAILING MAGA CANDIDATES ACCORDING TO PEGGY NOONAN
This, coming from the pen of The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan, is something I’ve never heard before. Commenting on the recent MAGA election losses suffered by people selected by former president Donald Trump, Noonan wrote: “A Hollywood director once said of pragmatic choices … that it’s one thing to temporarily reside up someone’s organ of elimination but it’s wrong to build a condo up there, people will notice and get a poor impression. That’s sort of what happened (to Trump’s MAGA picks.)” (Saturday/Sunday, November 12-13, 2022)
She wrote in the same article: “…the man himself poisons his own movement. That’s what became obvious this week.”
She also wrote: “Mr. Trump was a breakthrough figure, changed the party in some healthy ways, but got lost in obsessions and bitterness, in petty feuds – in an All about Meness that came at the expense of policy and party. All about Me is a losing game, because politics is all about us.”
Finally, she wrote at the end of her lengthy article that all should read: “The old saying is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. This is the third kick, after 2018, and 2020. Maybe they will learn now.”
(My wife asked me if I really thought the Trump bubble has finally burst. I think so, but Peggy Noonan seems even more certain that it has.)

“CONFIDENCE IN THE SUPREME COURT IS CRATERING. IT NEEDS A CODE OF ETHICS.”
The above headline of a November 12, 2022 Boston Globe editorial tells it all. The editorial was to the point: “Over the past few years, an institution that could once claim some distance from the country’s partisan passions has become uncomfortably enmeshed in them.” Need I say more? The editorial reveals some damning facts about Justices Alito and Thomas and, of course, Thomas’s MAGA wife Ginnie.

KARI LAKE TRIED TO “BUILD A CONDO” UP YOU KNOW WHERE
Trump looks bad enough being Trump but Kari Lake looked even worse trying to be Trump in her failed run to become Arizona’s governor. She lost by 17,116 votes, a mere 0.7 percent margin, and she screamed fraud louder than Trump did in his 2020 loss of the presidency. As was pointed out in a Wall Street Journal editorial (December 3-4, 2022): “Ms. Lake received 77,342 fewer votes than GOP state Treasurer Kimberly Yee…, 39,165 fewer votes than the combined GOP U.S. House candidates (and) 23,901 fewer votes than GOP county prosecutor Rachel Mitchell.”
Ms. Lake argued that long polling lines caused many of her voters to leave the lines and go home and that others stayed home but as the editorial revealed: “Perhaps some did, Democrats included: … But how can Ms. Lake blame no-shows for her loss, when other GOP candidates outran her by tens of thousands of votes?” Her problem, of course, is, like other failed Trump supplicants, she tried to build her condo up in the wrong place and voters figured her out.

SOMETIMES “I TOLD YOU SO” IS THE ONLY THING TO SAY
I wrote a full article and many “bits” on the racial inequities in the cannabis industry many months ago so it doesn’t surprise me to read in a Wall Street Journal editorial (December 3, 2022) that: “Black and Latino entrepreneurs seeking to capitalize on the new market have been tripped up by steep application fees, lawsuits and state programs that have favored entrenched players. Even when minority businesses do obtain a prized license to sell or grow marijuana, they face a paralyzing problem; little or no access to cash.”
Saying “I told you so” won’t change anything but it is certainly a worthwhile reminder that some of us were not fooled early on by the inequitable way in which the industry was unfolding. One honest White cannabis businessman was quoted in the same Wall Street Journal editorial as saying: “The industry needs to address (what he called) the “hypocrisy” of legalization. Companies such as his are making money selling a drug legally while minorities are in prison for doing the same thing.” Massachusetts has made some recent changes designed to correct inequities in its laws but it’s not enough and its timing is much like the proverbial barn door that was closed after the horses had escaped.

REPUBLICANS PAY AT THE BALLOT BOX FOR REJECTING THE OBVIOUS
An Opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal by Arthur Herman (December 2, 2022) states the obvious but I thought I should reprint parts of it for the benefit of wayward Republicans. Herman wrote: “Disappointment over the red wave that didn’t happen has led to soul searching and recriminations among Republicans…the GOP’s real problem wasn’t its message or the messengers. It was a more basic failure: not understanding or accepting how Americans today participate in elections. Early voting and mail-in balloting have irrevocably changed things. Election Day no longer counts as it once did…. the more that Republicans decry mail-in ballots and early voting, and wish that somehow, they could elect governors and state legislatures who will bring back the good old days and the old rules, the more they miss an opportunity to seize the new electoral terrain. If Republicans don’t recognize the new rules that shape elections, 2024 will be as disappointing as 2022, if not more so.”

ART JONES
Who didn’t know Art Jones? He gave his all to young people for as long as I’ve known him. And that has been a long time…well before I attended the Boys Club Camp in Brimfield decades ago with my older brother Jimmy where Art was our chief counselor. And he continued to exert a positive influence in the Hurst household when he coached our sons, Fred, Jr. and Justin, in baseball for many years. He was one of the good ones and he will be missed.

RICHIE NEAL RUMORS
A rumor circulating among political insiders is that Congressman Richie Neal will leave Congress for a lucrative job in higher education. If proven true, get ready for a volcanic political scramble to replace him. ■