As House and Senate members work out their differences on the education funding bill my thoughts are drawn back to Pioneer Institute Introduces the Beamer vs. Beater Theory of Democracy. That concerned a proposal by Pioneer to keep poor and minority communities from having the same say in their schools as wealthier and whiter communities….
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Annals of Money in Politics: Wayfair Breaks No Politics Policy with Checkbook Activism
The Massachusetts Majority Independent Expenditure PAC is getting some attention as a beard for the political interests of Governor Charlie Baker. So who’s giving? At the top of the list are Wayfair’s founders at $50,000 each. What’s the politics policy over there, anyway? I ask because Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah declared in September that he’d…
Why So Much Political Turmoil in Latin America This Month?
What in the world is happening in Latin America? In the last month there has been major political turmoil and protests in Haiti, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras, Chile and just this week Bolivia. There have been multiple deaths, hundreds wounded, government buildings attacked, subway stations set on fire, and state of emergency declared in Ecuador, Chile,…
The Walton Family’s Massachusetts Political Team, 2019
The Wednesday vote in the House on the Education Funding bill is a crucial test for interest groups opposing the Senate version, and all of them are influenced or controlled by the Walton Family of Arkansas. Let’s meet The Walton Family’s Massachusetts Political Team, 2019. The selected groups all have some political purpose and all…
Why Omitting Climate Change from Last Night’s Debate is a Bigger Deal Than You Think
Last night’s Democratic presidential debate ended without a single question—not one—about climate change. The omission has already drawn the ire of a number of presidential hopefuls, including Julian Castro and Tom Steyer who questioned why CNN and The New York Times, the debate’s two host organizations, overlooked such a vitally important issue. To be fair,…
“Arkansas Billionaires Fight to Change Massachusetts Education Policy.”
Arkansas Billionaires Fight to Change Massachusetts Education Policy.” Interesting headline, and true. No Walton family of Arkansas, no Massachusetts Parents United. No Walton family of Arkansas, no Democrats for Education Reform of Massachusetts. It’s that simple. But the Boston Globe and MassLive, among others, simply ignore that fact. It’s the politics of pretending. Readers deserve…
The Politics of Preparedness Are Changing
Disaster preparedness has historically been little more than an afterthought for elected officials. Between 1985 and 2008, the national government spent nearly 11-times more on disaster relief programs than disaster preparedness, despite the fact that every $1 spent on preparedness translates to roughly $15 in savings from the future damage it mitigates. The lack of…
Special Climate Strike Day Edition of Dark Money
From Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, pp. 205, 207, study by Dr. Robert Brulle: Mayer climate change denialism
Presidential Election 2020: How to Matter in Massachusetts
So you watched the debate last night. You’re pumped. You cannot wait to vote for one of those folks on the stage. Or you’re counting the days where you can vote for their opponent. Cool. …But you live in Massachusetts. The peculiarities of the electoral college, as we all know, make a relatively small number…
CommonWealthMagazine Answers Reader Questions
Last week I posed a Reader Question to CommonwealthMagazine and lo and behold, CW answered the question. I wondered if online polls (CW had a story on one) are reliable. And the answer, according to CW’s Steve Koczela and Rich Parr, is yes. I recommend Koczela and Parr’s Polling, like everything else, is moving online…