Dear Reader,

I’m an argumentative person. As I see things, it’s often better to fight it out ahead of time, since accountability is hard to come by after shit hits the fan. Anybody who deals with children knows all about this; if you tell a kid a thousand times to stay away from a glass of water, and they go ahead and knock it over anyway, there’s very little you can do about it at that point other than get totally pissed and say, What the fuck, I fucking told you so. And then you’re a monster, even though they predictably fucked up.

And that’s why I am going to make it more of a point in the new year to lambaste Mass Gov. Charlie Baker as much as possible, and to designate more space in these pages for tearing him down. Baker’s often in the background—if we’re covering the criminal culture within the Mass State Police, for example, he may not be directly in the story, but he still has the most power in the commonwealth and can spur change, but instead, like countless other cowards who sat behind the big desk before him, does nothing.

The situation is similar on the South Shore, where Baker’s mix of neglect and inaction around a natural gas compressor station speaks to the depravity of money-and-industry shills like our governor. From Joe DiFazio at the Patriot Ledger:

After years of legal fights, protests and political lobbying, construction on a controversial natural gas compressor station in Weymouth could begin as early as Tuesday [Dec 3].

The proposed 7,700-horsepower station has been met by vociferous protest from residents and lawmakers, but multinational energy transportation company Enbridge and its subsidiary Algonquin appear ready to start building after a last go-ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

Alice Arena, a Weymouth resident who heads the group Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, said it was typical for the federal government and a large company to make this kind of announcement around the holidays, calling the development “not completely unexpected.” “Our response is one of great disappointment,” said Arena. 

Yeah, mine too. As Arena’s group points out, “The compressor station would pose a serious threat to the local community,” and “potential negative effects include, but are not limited to, excessive noise [and] exposure to toxic pollutants.”

The governor’s home value won’t be impacted, and if there’s some kind of awful disaster as a result of the station being built in Weymouth, he and his family probably won’t suffer as a result. So, like I said, it’s time to call him out for being a shameless business-assist monkey right now, because later’s always too damn late.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF