Since I got into following the dark money business with the 2016 school privatization ballot question in Massachusetts, I try to stay up on newly arising organizations that serve as fronts for the plans of billionaires. One such group is the National Parents Union, which is not national, not parents, and not a union. I…
“You ain’t black” should become 2020 speak for “you ain’t bright.”
The effort of those on the right (and the left) to make an issue of Joe Biden’s penchant for awkward comments is a product of political desperation, not discernment. He told a black radio talk show host who was giving him a hard time that if he was having trouble deciding between Trump and himself…
National Parents Union, a Unit of the Billionaire Boys Club
Last week I explained how the National Parents Union is not a union, not national, and not about parents. Today we’ll go into more detail about what NPU is: a political unit of the Billionaire Boys Club. Education scholar Diane Ravitch popularized the term Billionaire Boys Club in her 2010 book The Death and Life…
America the Spoiled
Spoiled children stink at birthday parties. Tantrums follow such egregious offenses as having to wait in line (as opposed to waiting one’s turn) or not getting the red popsicle (be happy you got one at all). Spoiled children cannot handle that the world does not bend to their desires. And while they are not the…
National Parents Union: Not a Union, Not National, Not About Parents
One unsurprising characteristic of the Walton family sponsored National Parents Union is that it has so few parent members. Here is how NPU describes itself on its website: I wanted to look at two aspects of NPU’s claims, that it is a parent organization and that it has members in all 50 states. It seems…
Joe Biden, Tara Reade, & Morality “Rightly” Understood
Sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden will undoubtedly be exploited by the Republicans as a way to reduce progressive voter turnout. Interestingly, their own candidate’s far worse sins will not dampen right wing exploitation of this allegation against Biden, which will succeed in helping convince some progressives to stay home or to cast a “protest…
Why Lt. Gov. Polito Should Add Workers to the Reopen Mass. Advisory Panel: It’s in Her Own Best Interest
In Baker’s Reopen Advisory Panel: No Place for Heroes I called for workers to be added to the advisory panel on reopening the state, headed by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. That call went nowhere. Let me try again. Lt. Gov. Polito, putting workers on the panel is in your own best interest. Apparently the absence…
Baker’s Reopen Advisory Panel: No Place for Heroes
One of my students works at a grocery and he’s scared. So I looked over the advisory panel on reopening the state appointed by Governor Charlie Baker to see who is looking out for my student’s health and well-being. The answer is: no one. Not a single solitary member is looking out for workers. No…
Republicans Sprint to Place Democracy in Chains (with a Boston Liberty Rally Postscript)
With the likely defeat of Donald Trump in November and a possible Democratic takeover of the Senate, Republicans must quickly exploit the coronavirus crisis to reorient American democracy toward oligarchy—the supremacy of property. Some of the sharpest writing on American politics has come from historian Heather Cox Richardson. In her April 19 Letters from an…
The Growing Koch Presence in Massachusetts
There is an essential piece in today’s Washington Post about the ReOpen America campaign, Inside the conservative networks backing anti-quarantine protests and no quote is more important for Massachusetts than this one from Professor Robert Brulle, who exposed the Koch Brothers funding of the climate denial industry: “The involvement of the Koch institutional apparatus in…