As I semi-promised in Friday’s Hub Blog newsletter, here’s a photo of this year’s Easter Lamb Cake masterpiece, made by yours truly. … Notice the use of coconut flakes for the wool, unlike Martha Stewart’s lame “squiggling” wool. 

Even Ted Williams regularly got booed at Fenway Park (with Ted reciprocating by spitting back at the cranky boo-birds). So I guess one could say Mayor Wu and Gov. Healey were in good company when they got booed during last Friday’s opening day ceremonies at Fenway. But … were they really booed? An alert Hub Blog reader noticed that the Wu-Healey booing was a reality in one media universe but not another media universe:

To me, it’s pretty indicative of the media landscape today:

1) An anti-Dem news event may or may not have happened.

2) Fox/NYPost/Herald take a far-right view of it.

3) The Globe/Boston.com don’t cover it at all.

The reader added: “Fox News tried to tie it (without any evidence) to Healey and Wu’s anti-ICE views.” … Videos of the dramatic, earth-shattering incident can be found here and here, among other places. … Get a load of this “Communists!” catcall. 

Update — From yet another reader: “They weren’t booing them. They were yelling – Wu! Wu! Wu!”

— Auditor Diana DiZoglio is passionate about auditing the legislature’s books. But she may be getting a little too passionate, as in taking a rhetorical flamethrower to just about everybody and anyone who might conceivably disagree with her. Jon Keller at MassterList has more on Dizoglio’s take-no-prisoners approach to the audit fight. … Fyi: At least one GOP gubernatorial candidate is siding with DiZoglio in this fight, the Herald reports.

— Who says the Globe can’t be tough on Mayor Wu? Check out this Globe editorial urging Wu to stop with the progressive virtue signaling and start addressing the city’s budget deficit in a more realistic way, i.e. “spend less, grow more.” 

— The BPS nearly doubled its administrative bureaucracy over the past decade. And now it’s mostly cutting … classroom jobs. The Globe has more on the BPS’s budget priorities. Meanwhile, the Herald looks at how the BPS bureaucracy just couldn’t find the funds for baseball caps at Southie high school.

— This isn’t exactly a good time to be asking voters to raise their own taxes. You know, the price of food and gas, the whole affordability thing. Right? Anyway, GBH reports on Malden voters’ rejection of a Proposition 2 ½ tax override.

— Reading this Globe Ideas piece on the ‘manosphere,’ I thought of two things: Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March way back when and the old adage that there’s two sides to every coin. Sure, there’s disturbing aspects to the ‘manosphere’ phenomenon, as Luc Olinga writes. But there’s also the consistent message to confused young men about the need for self-discipline, wealth building and taking responsibility. A lot of pols and pundits don’t seem to get this, as Olinga notes.

— Progressives are often accused, rightly so, of imposing purity tests on Dem candidates, as part of a never-ending quest for ideological uniformity and obedience. But conservatives do the same damn thing – and they’ve’ been far more successful than progressives in purging moderates and other non-believers from their ranks. And they’re at it yet again, as the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld reports. But this time they’re not really going after RINO moderates per se. They’re going after everyone and anyone who isn’t loyal to the president. 

— What is it with Hitler analogies and The Atlantic? The Atlantic’s latest heavy-handed Nazi analogy: “Hitler’s Edifice Complex,” obviously tied to the you-know-what renovation at the White House without actually saying it’s tied to the you-know-what renovation at the White House. … I’ve posted before (here and here) on The Atlantic’s TDS-driven Hitler-Trump overkill. They’re obviously not paying attention! …

Btw: I’m still a huge fan of The Atlantic. But its anti-Trumpism can get out of hand now and then.

— Very encouraging. But it’s a long way away: “Rail Projects Inch Along in W. Mass. as MassDOT Discusses Hourly Springfield-NYC Train” (B&T)

–Also very encouraging. But where would they build one?  “New England governors back nuclear in bipartisan push” (Axios Boston)

–Let ‘em howl: “Harvard’s Push to Cap ‘A’ Grades Has Students Howling in Protest” (WSJ)

–Former Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca and Boston got screwed on this deal: “Connecticut Sun reach deal to sell to Rockets owner for $300 million, move team to Houston in 2027”  (WBUR)

–Speaking of professional basketball, this is a clever idea to discourage disgraceful team tanking: “An embarrassing ritual plagues the NBA. The solution is math” (Washington Post)

–He opposed the awful Davis Square tower project while running for office – and he should stick to his word: “Mayor in the Middle” (B&T)

–I don’t know which one to get more excited about — the technology or the name of the Finnish firm: “Will This ‘Miracle’ Battery Finally Change Your Mind About EVs?” (WSJ)

–Real or wishful thinking? “Once gutted by globalization, the South Coast is regaining manufacturing momentum” (BBJ)

–The only problem is the town of Woburn isn’t all-in: “One of suburbs’ largest planned mixed-use developments goes all-in on residential” (BBJ)

–Another sign a ground war may be imminent: “Pentagon Is Doubling Fleet of A-10 Attack Planes in Middle East” (NYT)

One of my favorite newsletters, The Liberal Patriot, is no more. … Another sane centrist voice drowned out by the extremes. But Liberal Patriot did make a difference. It helped start a much needed debate about the future of the Democratic Party. … Check out some of its archived pieces. There’s a lot of common-sense in them. Unfortunately, not enough Dems are reading and listening to that common sense.

Could this WSJ article (“They’re Rich but Not Famous—and They’re Suddenly Everywhere”) explain why the state’s millionaire’s tax is raising far more money than originally projected? It doesn’t explain everything. But it sure is intriguing. … The big picture: there’s simply more eight-figure millionaires in the U.S. today than ever before. And, last time I checked, Massachusetts is part of the U.S., therefore it also has more millionaires than ever before – and more millionaires paying the millionaire’s tax. … Mystery solved! … Well, partially, maybe.

Fyi — The WSJ focuses on net worth, not net income, and how the wealth of the rich grew over the years via investments. But they earned their principal wealth somewhere – and that somewhere is high six- and low seven-figure jobs associated with the uber-upper middle class. Or is it now the super-uber upper middle class? Anyway, they’re everywhere too – and moving into the minimum seven-figure millionaire category at a surprisingly fast clip and at an early stage in life.

Fyi II – I still like my millionaire’s tax compromise plan. But it’s never going to happen. The state is too addicted to the revenue by now.

Update — 4.2.26 – Check out Contrarian Boston’s report on the seven-figure pay of non-profit hospital chiefs across the state. The pay of the CEO of MGB: $6 million. UMass Memorial: $3.1 million. Baystate Health: $2.6 million. … You get the picture. The seven-figure millionaires. They’re everywhere , the beneficiaries of a system that rewards people at the top first and foremost.

The Iran War seems to be generating its share of doomsday predictions of late. Not nuclear doomsday predictions. Financial doomsday predictions, as in how the huge AI debt bubble, funded largely by suspect Private Credit, could pop big-time after colliding with a real-world global energy crisis caused by the war. There’s this from the Atlantic: “Welcome to a Multidimensional Economic Disaster.”… And then there’s this from the NYT: “I Predicted the 2008 Financial Crisis. What Is Coming May Be Worse.”

What do I know about AI debt and Private Credit, the latest opaque financial product concocted by Wall Street? Not much. But two things strike me: 1.) The two doomsday predictions above appear in two non-business publications whose politics tilt distinctly toward anti-Trumpism and whose coverage of the war has been rather, well, doomsday-ish of late. 2.) I tend to agree with the WSJ’s Greg Ip, who says we’re not close to a 2008-like financial crisis. But the growing size and scope of the lightly regulated Private Credit market makes him more than a little nervous.

Btw — The Private Credit market has replaced cryptocurrency as my new economic bete noire, i.e. Wall Street’s latest financial product that could one day seriously stress the U.S. financial system.

Update — 3.30.26 – And then there’s this, via the WSJ: “Private Credit’s Exposure to Ailing Software Industry Is Bigger Than Advertised.”

Update II –– 3.30.26 – From the Times: “Private-Credit Wobbles Could Prove Perilous for Trump.” … Typically, the NYT views the issue through the prism of politics and Trump. But I guess I’m guilty of wearing my own political blinders, so …

Update III — 4.1.26 – One more and that’s it, via the Journal: “He Brought Private Credit to the Masses. Now the Masses Are Fleeing.”

Chronicling Dem dysfunction and infighting seems to have become a regular Hub Blog feature. And because there’s been so much of it on display lately, I thought I might as well dump it all into one blog post – along with other political tidbits.

— Is Mayor Wu part Irish? It sure seems like it with her growing list of grudges. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy. Sen. Nick Collins. The Boston Municipal Research Bureau. The Globe’s Shirley Leung, prompted by this Globe editorial, has the full list of recent mayoral grudges and score settlings. And, judging by Shirley’s recent excellent columns on the lack of development in Boston, she might soon have to put her own name on the mayoral grudge/score-settling list.

— This is yet another score-settling incident involving the mayor, but it’s so much more. It’s also a Mayor vs Gov fight. From the Herald: “Governor Healey backs Boston senator who helped to kill Mayor Wu’s tax shift bill.”

—  Gov. Healey hasn’t even won reelection yet and we’re already talking about her possible Dem successors? Yes, at Contrarian Boston, and Auditor Diana DiZoglio and Attorney General Andrea Campbell do seem to be jostling for position.

— I admit it: I immediately thought of Dukakis in the tank when I first saw the recent photo of Gov. Healey taking aim at an imaginary Bambi. The Dukakis connection dates me, I know. But I also thought of something else: Elmer Fudd. Which really dates me. Anyway, Joe Battenfeld and Joan Vennochi have more on Healey lifting the Sunday hunting ban in Massachusetts.

— A Rachael Rollins comeback? Really? Anyway, there’s a lot of talk out there about potential challengers to Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden due to his decision to charge a Boston cop with manslaughter in connection with an on-duty fatal shooting, as the Herald reports. The Globe’s Adrian Walker has more on the Hayden controversy.

— Did you know a New York road paving firm and DraftKings care deeply about the housing crisis in Massachusetts? Apparently so. Or maybe not. WBUR reports on the political “dark money” flowing into non-transparent nonprofits in Massachusetts.

— Yes, there is a Republican Party in Massachusetts, and there’s actual news to report on our cuddly little Bay State GOP: one of the Republican candidates running for governor has picked a little-known and little-experienced (to put it mildly) New Bedford city councilor to be his running mate. It’s a head scratcher, needless to say.

— And there’s more from the Mass. GOP! Long-time House Minority Leader Brad Jones is retiring, after nearly a quarter-century of managing near irrelevancy on Beacon Hill.

— Finally, I couldn’t resist, via Karl Rove at the WSJ: “Republicans’ Biggest Asset: Democrats.”

I took one look at the top infographic from the NYT on where all the oil goes from the Strait of Hormuz and I immediately thought of Charles Minard’s classic graphic showing Napoleon’s losses during the Russian campaign of 1812 (see below). … The Times deserves credit for using a Minard-like approach to conveying information about the strait. It works. But its graphic should be horizontal, as pictured above and on its web homepage, not vertical, as in the actual article. 

Re Minard’s legendary graphic: the beige line at the left conveys how many troops Napoleon had when he launched his attack on Russia – and how dramatically his army had thinned by the time he got to Moscow. The black line, running right to left, shows Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow and his steady loss of troops till he got back to France with only a fraction of his original army. As the Wikipedia entry notes: “Statistician professor  Edward Tufte described the graphic as what ‘may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn.’”

The Globe’s Shirley Leung has another great piece on development (or lack thereof) in Boston, this time about how neighboring Revere’s side of the old Suffolk Downs is booming while Boston’s side is sitting idle. … The Wu administration can’t blame construction prices in this case. The two sites sit literally next to each other. … Hmmm. Is this the bad side of Wu’s micromanaging, as opposed to the good side of her micromanaging? See post immediately below. … Here is HB’s take on Shirley’s earlier development piece.