Can the Globe’s news desk sue the Globe’s editorial board for plagiarism?
Here’s what I’m talking about. We’re at halftime in the biennial legislative session and the Governor is feeling a little vexed at the “glacial pace” with which legislation has been reaching his desk. In a December article entitled “Baker to Lawmakers: Pick up the Pace Already!” he grumbled to Globe reporter Joshua Miller that “there’s a whole bunch of fairly noncontroversial but important pieces of legislation that didn’t happen in the first half of the session.” He offered these examples:
Providing more capital and tax incentives for the life sciences industry
Taxing and regulating AirBNB and similar establishments
Increasing penalties for so-called “revenge porn”
Updating the state’s wiretap law
(A pause here to note that updating the state’s wiretap law qualifies as “noncontroversial” only if you ignore the fact that such legislation was proposed as an amendment to both the House and Senate criminal justice reform bills and was rejected, after debate, in each chamber. But let us move on.)
Just two weeks after the Globe’s Metro section reported on the Governor’s complaints, the editorial board surveyed the Legislature’s 2017 accomplishments and also found them wanting. “Pick up the pace already, Beacon Hill,” the board urged, offering “a handful of matters that should be (easily) resolved before the legislature leaves formal session on July 31.” The board’s list:
Providing more capital and tax incentives for the life sciences industry
Taxing and regulating AirBNB and similar establishments
Increasing penalties for so-called “revenge porn”
Updating the state’s wiretap law
In the interests of reminding the board about other legislative priorities (some of which it has endorsed in the past), and encouraging a broader perspective about which pieces of pending legislation ought to qualify as easily resolvable, here are some suggestions from Senator Jamie Eldridge for the coming year:
A minimum wage of $15 per hour
Paid family leave
The safe communities act
Paid family leave is the kind of value message that Democrats need to embrace. Not only does it bring about a strong sense of family values, it also puts matters into what most Americans would consider the proper order; family first, work second.
Finally, it has the added bonus of raising wages as a consequence. When a business has to decide how many people are need to staff a particular function that number increases to cover the employees who will now be spending less time on the job. This will result in an an increased demand for labor at at time with unemployment is under 5%. That ought to raise wages.
One I’d add is the reconsideration of the foundation budget (‘though I fear the Governor isn’t much of a hurry on that one). It’s a basic constitutional question that the Legislature needs to put into place.
I’m with you Hester on the Globe being a comically transparent mouthpiece for the Governor. That said, with the exception of the wiretap bill, I don’t see why these aren’t wise fiscal priorities and frankly the legislature looks worse in this fight. This is exactly the kind of inaction Baker can point to to excuse his own while running against our eventual nominee as the only fiscally sane man on Beacon Hill.
Why are you trying to score own goals again?!
What does this mean?
JConway seems to very often play up Baker’s chances and play down ours.
One might hope that our local Democratic Party might develop some positive policy goals– other than cutting taxes for the rich and opposing public transportation and public education, that is– rather than depending on internet blog posts for mindless cheerleading.
The fact is that the Baker administration has been relatively competent administrators of the government. This is particularly notable because the prior administration, which Dems are hoping to duplicate, was not, and glaringly so.
So far, the Dem case for governor is to pretend that Baker is a dastardly hybrid of Trump and Roy Moore, which is obviously false, and lands on the independent voter like the lie that it is, not unlike Trump claiming credit for no plane crashes. Insulting the intelligence of independent voters, particularly in Massachusetts, is not a good strategy. It wasn’t a good strategy all the times they tried it against Weld or Cellucci, either. Really, the only reason that Patrick was able to gain the traction he did is because Romney’s “severe conservative” turn played into the hands of the Mass Dem’s single-page playbook.
JConway is merely pointing out that you guys probably want to run a different play, so that you have a chance.
Honestly, I like Setti Warren. I hope he has success, long-term. But someone really has to explain why having a progressive visionary elected governor, without also getting, say, a turnover of maybe 80% of incumbents in the Great and General Court, is worth a damn.
Because we did that, and we know how it works. The day after the inspiring inauguration speech (“Yes we can! Hope! Together!!) the new governor will meet with the legislative leadership and will be told to shut up and do what he is told, when he is told to do it, or else. And then we will have exactly what we have now, and have had for quite some time, only without the administrative competence that Baker has brought to the table.
Really, the only chink in that armor is the MBTA, but I’m not sure how a Dem can make that attack credibly, given that the legislative Dems do not support fixing or funding the MBTA, and the 2015 fiasco is owned by them. Maybe something happens this winter–today??– that changes that calculus, but even if so, a significant portion of the state doesn’t give a fig about the MBTA.
I’d like to see Mayor Warren in Congress, perhaps giving us a chance to have some non-geriatric energy in Washington, and maybe for Markey’s seat if he retires (and even if he does not) next time.
Umm… Democrats are the party FOR public transit and education; GOP tends to be the party of privatization and neglect.
No they are not. They just say they are, and you believe them, because you are apparently and extremely gullible person.
Dems had complete control of the government for two full terms (and the ability to override vetoes for far longer). During those two terms, you had a governor who was an enthusiastic supporter of both transit and education, and both things went the wrong way. In fact, they humiliated Patrick when he pushed hard on transit.
That’s why the Dems in the legislature support Baker for governor, and will not do anything at all to help someone like Mayor Warren: the existence of Baker allow them to blame their lack of support for things like transit on Baker, and gullible voters like you will believe them.
Another 100 6’s for CMD. He’s on fire in this thread with the hard truths that voters hate the legislature and elect Republicans to check them which is just fine with the legislature since it’s an easier scapegoat. They gave far more leeway and cooperating to Baker than they did to Patrick.
Granted, Patrick had a lot of incompetent people around him and viewed the act of legislative horse trading to be beneath his station, but he still had a bold progressive vision an ostensible supermajority not only refused to enact but actively thwarted.
Baker gives comfort to the suburban moderates who swell the ranks of the unenrolled that he’s one of the good Republicans since he’s not a crazy on social issues and he keeps their taxes low. They are largely immune from the [lousy] T since they drive or rideshare. They are largely immune from [lousy] public schools since they bought into communities with good ones or send their kids to private ones. They don’t like the overt racism of the South, but run a thought piece on racism in Boston and they’ll have thousands of excuses for why its can’t possibly be true. Forgetting that their schools and communities are largely white enclaves of people that look and think just as they do.
Another 100 6’s for CMD. He’s on fire in this thread with the hard truths that voters hate the legislature and elect Republicans to check them which is just fine with the legislature since it’s an easier scapegoat. They gave far more leeway and cooperating to Baker than they did to Patrick.
Granted, Patrick had a lot of incompetent people around him and viewed the act of legislative horse trading to be beneath his station, but he still had a bold progressive vision an ostensible supermajority not only refused to enact but actively thwarted.
Baker gives comfort to the suburban moderates who swell the ranks of the unenrolled that he’s one of the good Republicans since he’s not a crazy on social issues and he keeps their taxes low. They are largely immune from the T since they drive or rideshare. It’s a good issue to drive up millennial and urban turnout, but I still don’t see a campaign agenda that convinces the most important bloc of MA voters to defect from their comfort zone.
Is the name calling necessary? Christopher is sincere. It may look gullible to you because you’re in a cynical mood.
You’re certainly right that the Legislature is not as progressive as we’d like. They’re complacent, But they’re not smart enough to pull off the conspiracy you’re describing, and they aren’t rooting for Baker.
The official stance of the party comes from the platform, not legislative leadership.
I like all of the Dem candidates for Governor. Every one is a thoughtful progressive.
I also remember the 1994 Gov’s race. We got slaughtered despite fielding Roosevelt, Bachrach and Barrett. Sure Clinton f-ed up the national tide to be against Dems but the local ebb and flow were worse for us. It is hard to beat an incumbent gov with buckets of money and an insouciant charm while the economy is heading upwards for likely voters (alas, people getting screwed in this economy are less likely to vote in non-Presidential election years).
Jconway is right in discounting Dem prospects in 2018. Like him, I also would not mind seeing a few DINOs in the House take it on the chin.
I guess the argument this crop seems to be making is that Baker can be nationalized in a way he wasn’t in 2014 and his predecessors were not in the 1990’s. I am very skeptical of that approach, but would be happy to be proven wrong.
6 6’s for CMD. Thanks for understanding.
“Fiscal sanity” = lower taxes for rich people & fewer benefits for families. Everyone knows that. If Democrats focus on “fiscal sanity,” they will lose, and deserve to! Let’s talk about what we want to do for working families.
Why is funneling even more money to the Life Sciences industry noncontroversial? Other than movie production, they’re probably our most over subsidized industry already.
Yeah, I’m with thegreenmiles and marcus on this one. We’re in trouble when fiscal sanity is defined by proposing another $5 million in refundable tax credits to the life sciences industry — just a few months after raiding $4 million from a fund to provide housing for families at risk of becoming homeless
I wasn’t actually arguing Baker is fiscally sane, I am saying that by being slow moving on these minor issues, the legislature is unwittingly positioning him as such. He wants new taxes on Airbnb and wanted to end the far more hacky film tax credit and the legislature won’t budge. Neither of them is doing the kind of heavy policy lifting required to set up effective revenue streams from marijuana legalization. Neither of them is moving on the progressive income tax or funding the T. Neither of them is making investments, but by willing to make some investments and raise some revenue the Governor actually looks better than the legislature right now.
So it will be up to our nominee to make the case for fiscally sensible revenues to make needed investments in critical services and needs. I don’t look at the biotech subsidies as a binary with cuts to the working poor. Under a progressive governor we would be doing both and not funding dinosaurs like GE or giving money to the richest company on Earth to further stratify our housing market and congest our roads. The three candidates have made strong cases for what they would do and weak cases for how they would do it facing a legislature more fiscally conservative than the Republican incumbent.
The new workers brought in to work in biotech make a handsome wage, no doubt, and they like their lawns mowed, kids supervised at daycare, on-line purchases delivered to their doorsteps and so much more……just where are the workers who provide all the aforementioned services supposed to live when they have to compete with biotech wages in the real estate market?
I don’t hear answers from Democrats apart from telling them to go to college, improve their skill sets and get into biotech.
All Dems need to fight for $15 (at minimum), universal health care, paid family leave and higher taxes on the wealthy class to subsidize housing for the service division of the working class.
FWIW, a key reason I’m supporting Warren is that he is talking sense not just about the budget per se, but also the budgeting process.
I’m leaning his way-but what’s his plan for taking on the legislature?
Not sure what one can do beyond bully pulpit and motivating constituent support.
As long as this Governor is arguing against the legislature for lack of action, we should be asking why he keeps within his administration people who conspired to violate campaign finance laws to fund a pro-charter school ballot question. He declared the matter settled. I disagree. He should fire all of the people within his admin who participated in this massive scam.
Sure the Deleo team is bad but Baker can act with the stroke of a pen.
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/09/pro-charter_school_group_pays.html
Why is it that whenever I post a comment, something that is growing ever more rare, it is held for moderation?
The attraction of reading or posting here is still evaporating.
Do you always drop f-bombs in your comments? Seems you did. I now have a filter for those, and edited and approved your comment.
To my mind the site deteriorates when people call each other names and tear their pants. Swearing is an inexact measure of incivility, but that’s what I got.
Ah. I suppose I was unaware of the new policy, and will do my ducking best to comply.
Thx 👍
Have you been doing that for a while because I don’t recall CMD having a particularly foul “mouth” and I’m probably one of the more sensitive ones to that kind of thing?
His comments have never been held in moderation until this one instance.