This morning the president of the United States threatened to delay (cancel) an election he is obviously losing. I’m not going to comment, but Abraham Lincoln already has, in his post-election Response to a Serenade of November 10, 1964: It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong…
Battenfeld swings and misses in swipe at Healey
I haven’t read a Joe Battenfeld column in years, but yesterday’s effort to throw shade at the likely 2022 Democratic nominee for governor caught my eye. According to Joe, “[p]artisan politics has permeated the office of the state’s top cop to an unprecedented level – whether it’s the scores of lawsuits she’s filed against Trump…
Polito’s Gubernatorial Prospects are Out of Her Control
Shira Schoenberg’s excellent CW piece about Karyn Polito’s political future is thorough and fair. Lt. Governor Polito has been a good Lt. Governor to Charlie Baker. Under different circumstances, and despite her former profile as an aggressively conservative Republican legislator, Karen Polito could have been an excellent candidate for the Corner Office in 2022. Unfortunately…
Gov. Baker’s School Reopening Panel–Waltons Win Again?
With the national coronavirus situation grim Massachusetts is doing better and is preparing to reopen—including schools. Governor Charlie Baker’s reopening panels (No Place for Heroes) have been long on C-suite types (Zoom!) and short on front line workers. In the case of the school reopening panels, a solid five of the five “parent” members are…
Police Reform: Cooler heads need 20/20 vision to prevail
Former state police detective Robert Long’s Boston Globe op-ed is clearly intended to be a call for cooler heads to prevail in the effort to advance meaningful reform of policing in America. While this is certainly a laudable sentiment, Mr. Long’s presumably sincere effort is marred by an outdated and inaccurate understanding of partisan politics…
Right Wing Reopeners Move on Schools. And, Is Charlie Baker More Like a Commie or a Fascist?
A new prong of the Reopen movement has launched in Massachusetts with a splashy website and professional media push debut but preesenting the same old question: who is funding it? And then there is the burning question the Foley Hoag partner David R. Geiger poses in CommonwealthMagazine: is Governor Charlie Baker more like a Chinese…
Systemic Racism, Trumpism, & Dishonest Expertise
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, more forcefully than after the scores of other highly publicized murders of black people by police in the recent past, Average Americans are stepping up and out to say “enough is enough.” Even a pandemic couldn’t stop thousands of able-minded Americans in all 50 states from registering their…
Attorney General Maura Healey Strips the Bark off WalMart. It’s Ugly.
Attorney General Maura Healey has joined the attorneys general of several states in demanding accountability of WalMart over its failure to protect workers from coronavirus. The AGs sent a letter to WalMart CEO Douglas McMillon on June 2 and its allegations are scorching. But first some context. You may be asking, how are the WalMart…
Oyez! Oyez! Approach the Bar for The Case of Charles Koch v. Charles Baker!
Today the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, associated with the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, announced a lawsuit on behalf of business owners and clergy claiming that Governor Charlie Baker lacks the authority to keep businesses or religious services shut down during the coronavirus crisis. That’s not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the legal representation is…
Governor Baker’s Reopening Panel Follies
When Governor Charlie Baker made his appointments to the statewide reopening advisory panel it was laden with CEOs and C-suite types, with no workers. We may be tossing around terms like “heroes” for front line workers like nurses, grocery workers, and housekeeping staff but the governor’s reopening panel was No Place for Heroes. Workers are…