I defended Joe Kennedy from attacks against him because he ran against Ed Markey, someone with a mixed record whom I thought this blog overrated as a progressive champion. Later I decided to support him for two key reasons. I felt like he … [Read more...]
How progressives can win down ballot races before November 3
All politics are local and personal. That has been my operating principle for 60 years of campaigning in my hometown of Wakefield, Massachusetts. Case in point. My normally April town election was postponed to June 23 due to Covid-19. … [Read more...]
Ending Racist Policing Starts at Home
Jon Stewart called the cops our internal border patrol in a recent interview and I’ve seen it in our own backyard. While I love seeing photos of white majority towns in Greater Boston holding BLM rallies and vigils on their town commons, I … [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...]
Protests Have A Positive Impact Near and Far
Nearly 70% of Americans support the protests and support the idea that police need to be held accountable for their actions. NASCAR is banning the flag of treason from its events which is akin to the Pope banning holy water at the Vatican. … [Read more...]
Being Both/And in 2020
I’ve always been a both/and kind of guy. Some allies are new to the cause or coming from more moderate places and that’s okay. I like Campaign Zero and the abolitionist campaign because they reinforce one another. The latter keeps the … [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...]
Why I stand with Ed Markey
I will be voting for Senator Ed Markey in the Democratic primary, in part, to honor my late mother and father. Despite starting their American journey without much money, from the very beginning they believed strongly in the idea of … [Read more...]