Obamacare stands and Medicare and Social Security are still in place, but it looks like the Koch Brothers instruction to get their tax cuts or else has the Republican Congress in craven obedience. It's enough to make the Kochs Time Magazine's Men of the Year.

There are a lot more unknowns about the 2018 Massachusetts governor’s race today than there were a month ago. The pundits, pollsters, insiders, and blogging profs can be forgiven for attempting to apply conventional wisdom to this popular parlor game, but when it comes to the potential toxicity of Donald Trump in 2018, we may have to recognize a new species of unknowns that would probably even befuddle Donald Rumsfeld himself. In the Age of Trump we may have to get used to grappling with “virtually certain unknown unknowns.”

Yesterday morning I assumed that Charlie Baker would earn re-election the old fashion way. Today, I have my doubts.  The situation is so potentially unstable, in fact, that I wouldn’t be shocked if Charlie Baker ends up running for re-election as an independent.

Ever have $3,000 in dark money slipped to you from out of state interests and then forgotten about it? That seems to be what happened to Malden Ward 3 School Committee candidate Mekka Smith.

_{Malden High School. Wikimedia Commons.}

The Dark Money/Privatization Industrial Complex is back at it again, this time in Ward 3 Malden.

Halloween, a time of darkness and zombies. What better occasion to shed some light on Families for Excellent Schools defense of its dark money operation?

Massachusetts law requires ballot committees to disclose their top five contributors in all television ads. But in 2016 Great Schools Massachusetts didn't do that. Read on to see the disclosure Massachusetts voters had a right to see - but didn't.

Massachusetts Board of Secondary and Elementary Education chair Paul Sagan recently issued a seven page letter defending his dark money contributions to banned-in-Boston Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy. His defense may be a violation of the precept, if you are in a hole, stop digging.

New school privatization shops are sprouting up all over Boston, and they have some hiring needs.

Last week Stand for Children blocked me on Twitter. Maybe it's because I've suggested that the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and Attorney General Maura Healey investigate its dark money operations. No hard feelings though, so let's welcome Stand for Children back to Massachusetts politics with a Special Edition of Your Dark Money Reader.