New Hampshire Governor Teases Taxachusetts on Flag

Plus, a former Obama speechwriter takes on the anti-Zionists

The governor of New Hampshire is teasing Massachusetts for its higher taxes.

The Republican governor of zero-state-income-tax, “Live Free or Die,” New Hampshire, Kelley Ayotte, is teasing her southern neighbor, Democrat Maura Healey, as Healey’s Massachusetts tries to choose a new flag to replace an existing one with an image of an Indian.

The Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission recently released three finalists for the new design—a Mayflower, a circle of Turkey feathers, a star atop a blue hill.

Ayotte took to social media to post an alternative suggestion—one closer to the existing one, which has served the Bay State since 1908. Her suggestion, a not-so-subtle reference to the “millionaires” tax that Massachusetts voters narrowly approved in November 2022, features a flag with the words “higher taxes.”

Conservatives in the Bay State are attempting a 2026 ballot initiative to gradually lower the base personal income tax rate in Massachusetts to 4 percent from 5 percent. That’d be progress, but it’d still be higher than New Hampshire, to which jobs and people have fled Massachusetts. Give Ayotte credit for some creativity and a sense of humor in reminding people of the Granite State’s tax advantages over Massachusetts.

If Healey is smart she’ll copy the good idea from Ayotte and turn the idea around by teasing Rhode Island over its Taylor Swift Tax, an extra property tax targeting people (like Taylor Swift) who aren’t Rhode Island residents for income-tax purposes but who do have second homes in the state. That levy, effective staring July 1, 2026, is a classic example of taxation without representation, which Massachusetts, and the American Revolution itself, was all about opposing.

Former Obama speechwriter takes on the anti-Zionists: The high-profile, high-expectations American Jewish book launch of the fall publishing season is “As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us,” by Sarah Hurwitz.

The cover of “As a Jew” by Sarah Hurwitz.

Hurwitz was a White House speechwriter for President Obama and for Michelle Obama and has also written for Hillary Clinton. I reviewed her first book, “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life — in Judaism (After Finally Choosing To Look There)” positively in the Algemeiner when that book was published back in 2019.

“As a Jew” won a Natan Notable Book Prize, which comes with “a $5,000 cash prize, as well as cus­tomized sup­port for pro­mot­ing the book and its ideas.” There was a New York launch event on September 10 at the The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center featuring Hurwitz with the A-list group of Dara Horn, Dan Senor, and Abigail Pogrebin. A series of other events are planned online and in person.

I was excited to dive into “As a Jew.” And there is plenty there to appreciate and like. There are strong discussions of both Christian antisemitism and “enlightenment” antisemitism. There’s a sensible discussion of the shortcomings of what Hurwitz describes as being “a cultural/ethnic/social justice/good person/remember the Holocaust Jew” and an argument in favor of being what she calls a “knowing Jew.” Some of the book is a rebuttal to the antizionism that has become trendy in some circles. Some of it is an encouragement for less involved and less knowledgeable Jews (or even people who are not Jewish but are in relationships with Jews) to become more deeply involved with and knowledgeable about the Jewish tradition, as Hurwitz herself has.

Yet given all the high anticipation and notwithstanding the fact that I’m largely aligned with Hurwitz’s goals, I found some passages of this book maddening and disappointing. Here’s what I mean: