Sorry for the radio silence. I've had ... a lot going on. Will say more later. Too long, didn't read: The MA Senate has created a police reform bill called the Reform, Shift, + Build Act. Among many other needed reforms*, it includes an … [Read more...]
“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”?
This seems like an appropriate time to refrain from the usual nod to jingoism -- the NPR voices reading the Declaration of Independence, for instance -- and to state plainly again that the work of self-determination, celebrated on behalf of … [Read more...]
State Rep candidate (Revere, Saugus, Chelsea) Joe Gravellese talks to BMG
Well, this is one of the longer things you’ll see on BMG. I hope you’ll agree it’s also very much worth it. At jconway’s suggestion, I reached out to State Rep candidate Joe Gravellese, who is running in the 16th Suffolk district — … [Read more...]
Underfunding the Student Opportunity Act is racism
In the last month, seemingly every Massachusetts political establishment leader has made a statement against racism. The MA House has just passed a bill making Juneteenth a state holiday. Good for us, let’s pat ourselves on the … [Read more...]
What is police work? And how much should we pay for it?
Happy Juneteenth to everyone. It's wild that we seem to have just discovered this "holiday", but in any event, I strongly support replacing Columbus Day – or our "Evacuation Day", heh – with this day. Today is real. In other news ... I … [Read more...]
What is the Green New Deal? A life raft between COVID-19 and a future that isn’t hell
In recovering from the COVID-19 devastation, we are at a fork in the road. The economic need for heavy government investment is more stark than ever; and the choices that we make for rebuilding -- green or "brown" – will determine whether … [Read more...]
Markey/Kennedy duel continues to show emptiness of Joe Kennedy’s challenge
We've been saying it here since forever; Charlie Pierce told us in February; nothing has changed since then, except that the conventional wisdom seems to be crystallizing: Joe Kennedy has no real reason to run for Senate. He's failing the … [Read more...]
The $300,000 club: Mass. ACLU runs the numbers on police spending in Boston
The Boston Police Department budget is absolutely massive, dwarfing every other department other than schools. ACLU Massachusetts lays it all out in a series of charts. These numbers have always been public knowledge. It's just that now, … [Read more...]
“Irredeemably beyond repair”: It’s long past time for police accountability, and a culture shift
In a context of no accountability from the top, a "Law and Order" President who encourages police rioting, police in cities across the country have been exacerbating violence with a warrior mindset and military-style equipment, abusing … [Read more...]
Viciousness and white spaces
It's been a hell of a weekend. I wish everyone safety -- and if it's too late for that, a fast recovery. I'm still trying to process the events, in Boston and Minneapolis and DC and New York and Louisville ... Let's take a moment to … [Read more...]