Fans' racial slurs at Fenway Park this week led to national news stories about Boston as a racist city. People are all too quick to believe that and damn the city, as did Saturday Night Live's Michael Che several weeks ago. The same attitude was reflected by Stephen Colbert on CBS and headliners on CNN and elsewhere. But Boston's …
Moulton and the great mentioners
Speculation is stirring; the mentioners are mentionning. Despair about the lack of a Democratic bench is giving way to thoughts of who may really be "out there" as potential contenders for opposition party candidates for President in 2020. So there it was, in this morning's Boston Globe, front-page speculation about a potential 2020 presidential bid by …
College students need more, not fewer controversial ideas
Right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter has cancelled her plan to speak tomorrow at Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley, on the very spot at which the Free Speech Movement was launched more than 50 years ago. She was supposed to talk about immigration, (of great importance to the academic community) and event planners had hoped there would be a …
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How Trump is succeeding in his first 100 days
Don't snicker at Donald Trump's high unfavorable ratings and lack of legislative achievements. He's doing better than you think. Trump may not have succeeded yet on his promise to repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act. He may not have succeeded in building a wall or ending immigration. He may have reversed himself on the Export-Import Bank, …
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Charlie Baker: the vision thing
For Democrats hoping to unseat Republican Governor Charlie Baker in 2018, my advice is: hang onto your day job. Would-be opponents will charge that Baker may be an okay manager, but he lacks vision. Making the charge stick will be difficult, if not impossible. Baker's immediate goals upon taking office may have lacked rhetorical flourish. They were: rebuilding relationships …
Will the Senate nuke itself?
Once upon a time, when students learned civics in high school, we were taught that one of the inspired decisions of our Founding Fathers was the creation of a bicameral Congress with different yet complementary roles. The House was closer to the people, its members serving two-year terms. It was the "cup," containing the passions and …
Elizabeth Warren: be in this fight!
Life under Donald Trump resembles what I would imagine a bad LSD trip to be. Psychedelically shocking news one day. Excruciating news the next. Today we awoke to an executive order ending a regulation that officials consider climate change when making decisions. But on which front should critics rally? "You can't shoot at everything that moves," senior Senator …
Repeal, replace; reveal disgrace
The House vote Thursday will tell us a lot about who we are as a society. Sixty times over the past seven years the Republicans could afford to play games with their efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA), knowing that President Obama would veto their destructive behavior. Now we're talking about real people, …
Trump budget: keeping his promises?
They say it's DOA - that all Presidents' budgets are dead on arrival. We might want to think this is just the opening gambit from the central player in The Art of the Deal, in this era of obtuse and erratic Presidential actions, there is no certainty of outcome. One's head spins. The $1.1 trillion document …
Florida escape warm but no political respite
Twelve days in Florida were a therapeutic escape from grey snow and brutal cold in Massachusetts, but even in the Sunshine State one couldn't escape the maladies of the political environment. A tour boat along the inland waterway near Palm Beach chronicled gossipy profiles of the billionaires, including Bernie Madoff marks, who built breath-taking mansions. Visitors …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 