The U.S. Supreme Court cafeteria on Friday was surprisingly quiet, as if noontime eaters were subdued by the Brett Kavanaugh nomination drama playing out at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Outside on the steps of the august building, hundreds of protesters listened to speeches by women senators urging Kavanaugh be rejected. The peaceful but passionate demonstrators …
Continue reading Kavanaugh nomination taps primordial feelings
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is a lightning rod for antipathy to the Democratic Party. And she's a great fundraising opportunity for Republicans, who are using her possible restoration as Speaker to rally the GOP to keep the House, just as they used Ted Kennedy as a fundraising bogeyman years ago. But Republicans aren't the …
On a recent sultry summer evening, well over 100 people crushed into a suburban Newton garden to hear Jared Golden, candidate for Congress. Haven't heard of him? That may be because he is from Maine's second Congressional district, currently represented in Washington by Republican Bruce Poliquin. That night's attendees understand the need not to be …
John McCain died on August 25th, the same day Ted Kennedy died nine years ago, from the same lethal disease. Two old warriors, who disagreed on much but fought for their principles in the national interest and became good friends in the process. But I wonder whether our celebration of him and his life would …
Whoever wins the Massachusetts 7th Congressional district Democratic primary on September 4th will be uncontested in November and serve in the next Congress. It will be a Democrat, but what kind and what difference will that make for us? In the intergenerational struggle for control of the Democratic Party, Ayanna Pressley, 44, hopes to unseat long-term incumbent Michael Capuano,66, from the …
Continue reading Seventh CD a battle between good and better
I ask you: do I look like an enemy of the people? Given my 30+ years in journalism (including Boston Phoenix, WGBH-TV, WCVB-TV) and nearly a decade more as a blogger, Donald Trump would probably say yes. Journalism is certainly in my DNA. Which is why I’m so proud of what my local newspaper is …
The following are suggestions from when I wasn’t fleeing the daily news into real fiction, as noted in my previous blog. I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey behind the Lines of Jihad, a memoir by Washington Post national security reporter Souad Mekhennet, takes us into dangerous territory to places she was uniquely qualified to …
Every year at this time I share books that that may interest my readers. What I have discovered in year two of the Trump administration is how I often have I sought escape into fiction, though it is fiction with a political edge. Waking Lions by Israeli writer Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a thriller about a …
Continue reading Summer reading part one: escape into fiction
"I'm a capitalist to my bones," Senator Elizabeth Warren this week told a New England Council audience of business leaders, adding, "We have to make markets strong so everyone can do better." Addressing an arcane and often dry subject, she made an impassioned pitch that good bankruptcy laws are essential to well-functioning markets. She was …
Continue reading Elizabeth Warren: tribune for the downtrodden or capitalist to the bones?
Massachusetts voters voted in 2016 to allow the growing and sale of marijuana for recreational purposes, and last week the state's Cannabis Control Commission issued its first permit for a retail outlet. The doors are not yet open because the dispensary still faces another level of inspections and background checks. Statewide implementation was initially delayed …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 