Hey, there! Log in / Register
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Good Candidates for Massachusetts State Secretary.
If only good Candidates would turn up for Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to improve the Elections Division, the Public Records Division State and Local Records Management practices.
Just one
Donald Werner Saklad
He must be pumped about Q4
Because he's obviously high. Why would you try and run against an incumbent Gov. with one of the highest approval ratings in the nation. He literally has never had a job outside of Gov..
He's a good guy
I've met Mayor Warren, spoken to him several times and he's a great guy.
Why not. We just elected a president who never held political office or served in the military. Setti Warren has done both honorably.
Why?
The general backlash against the national GOP here in state might be pretty strong. Baker is also not going to have a lot of friends in Washington in the new administration so he won't get much benefit for the state from that side either. So even though Baker is much, much better than Ryan, Trump, Sessions (insert your least favorite GOP leader here), he'll be tarnished by association IMO.
I like how you lumped Warren's military service as just a government job though.
Warren was a Navy Reserve
Hardly "Service". Also, there is backlash but only in pockets, i would suggest you leave you bubble.
Backer isn't going anywhere anytime soon, sorry!
Backlash
Obviously this is all conjecture by all of us but there's a very, very good chance that a White House run by Trump surrogates is going to do some unpopular stuff in MA. So this isn't a case where Baker is going to do anything wrong per se but rather the people who were ok with him but lean Dem are going to move towards a Dem candidate in reaction to the national political climate.
I'm not saying there's any Baker backlash now but the situation in 2 years will could be very different and it's not a bad strategic move to get in on that early by Warren.
OH I think there's huge backlash to Gov Baker from Question 2
Count me as someone who now feels mobilized to look for a new Gov. I was definitely more favorable to him before those Question 2 ads, then hearing that he didn't vote for ANYone for President?
You're mad at him for siding with underprivileged kids?
Instead of the unions?
trolling
C'mon. You lost. Do like the other side did and get a marching band of "hey-hey-ho-ho"s to cry for the children.
A year from now
Two years, three years, Four years, however many years
Get back to me when BPS fixes what's driving 10,000 kids to want to get out.
I didn't lose - I don't have a dog in this fight personally.
Those kids lost because the unions put up a pack of lies on the telly - all protected free speech under the first amendment.
They'll pay eventually - but in the meantime the kids pay the price going to crappy schools that the unions will never fix. Because if they could have or wanted to, they would have.
No dogs here either
Likewise, no kids and not employed in the education field. And I won't defend unions -- they're their own worst enemy. Changes need to be made and they need to engage in that process.
But the idea that the push for charter schools is driven solely by some altruistic desire to "think of the children" and the magic of unicorn farts is just naive beyond belief. It is an obvious money grab and a short conversation with a few burnt out, fresh-out-of-undergrad charter school teachers will reveal that while those individuals are truly thinking of the children (and riding farting unicorns), the pencil pushers and lobbyists working them down to a nub are trying to keep the loss-leaders going until such time that they can crank up the margins on this scam. Follow the money.
You're right follow the money
Annual cost to put a kid in a charter school = about $17k including $1k in private donations and $1k from the school budget for transportation - and they have to pay to rent/acquire their own real estate from this budget.
Annual cost to put a kid in BPS well over $25k - not including any allowance for owning/using the school property beyond operating and capital maintenance
Nobody will tell you that and only a budget wonk like me can dig those numbers out of the boston.gov. They won't give them to you - I've tried. Crickets.
No dog? Of course you do.
You hate the $ spent by the city on the schools. You go on and on (often with demostrably inaccurate details) about how inefficient and wasteful the Ed budget is. You take many digs at the teacher's union.
To claim you 'have no dog in this fight' is just mendacious.
BS
I've said many times I don't mind spending the money - if it's well spent. I've long said there's probably about 15% fat in the school budget - lo and behold the school committee's own subcommittee recently came up with 10% - and I'm betting there's a 5% sharper pencil out there if you want to find it.
Note - that 10% isn't 10% on the parks budget effectively nothing. It's $100 million of fat.
Name me a "demonstrably inaccurate detail"? You have a disagreement- fine - cite me numbers - not subjective accusations.
Your hatred of unions is
Your hatred of unions is quite apparent. Exactly how are unions responsible for fixing schools? Wouldn't that be the administrations job? Get a clue you labor hating elitist
If you need a union you have a problem
Either bad management, bad employees or both.
take your pick
Yawn
yawn
well...
...that is a pretty pointless post. So you think we don't need unions? Or we just need them until we don't need them anymore and you'll let us know when that is? And how exactly does unionizing bad employees turn them into better employees? Were you drinking Drano when you wrote this?
No
Just a little fed up with the labor love crap. unions had their point many years ago. Most are thankfully now gone outside a few areas except public employees. Many of them now exist more for the union bosses than the rank and file.
I know a few people that went to work for union shops and couldn't take it. Their co-workers spent more time trying to get out of work (or thinking of new ways to get out of work) than actually doing any work. Things like coming back after a couple days on the job and getting yelled at by the shop steward for doing too much work etc. etc. etc.
Good organizations don't have unions - or their role has become pretty much irrelevant. this is a good thing.
1985 called
They want their hateful stereotypes back.
Generalize much?
Yeah
You don't wanna know.
We pretty much already do
You kind of hang it all out there, brother.
Sorry, Baker sided with
Sorry, Baker sided with privatizing public schools which equals a money grab by a corporation. It's just not a good idea. Think about it, do you want a for profit running schools? Or the T even? How's Keolis working for you?
Keolis doesn't seem to be the problem
I have a hard time blaming them for a lot of what I hear about - kind of hard to make the system work when your equipment is 10-15 years past its useful life. The subway/T system is run by the T and based on Adam's posts is at least as bad if not worse than commuter rail.
idiotic
You've definitely been huffing something you found under the sink. So having equipment way past its shelf life is what hamstrings Keolis but not the case for the T? The T should just magically force the Legislature to invest in maintaining the system, right? And it's no secret that the system has been let to rot for years by both Republican and Democratic Governors (and all Democratic Legislatures) -- therefore the contractor should have not KNOWINGLY low-balled their bid with the expectation that the State would juts bail them out (which Baker has been doing).
There's plenty of blame for the T management to shoulder - they couldn't run a bidding process for a package of staples let alone a trainset. They're more concerned with countdown clocks and happy-apps than with trains and buses that don't go up in flames. But ultimately it's the attitude of "I DON'T WANNA PAY FOR IT" that has led us here. Putting it all into the hands of the private sector is going to result in the shrinking of the system down to those sections that can be made profitable which will not include huge swaths of the region. PUBLIC transit is a PUBLIC good and should be treated as such and not treated as something to be strip-mined.
(The Boston chapter of the ATU is indeed run by morons who need a swift kick in the 'nads. Maybe if they cared more about public transit and less about nap time they'd be getting somewhere, but there we are. I'll support unions but I reserve the right to insult their mothers non-stop because they deserve it for being such dip-shits.)
English much?
That's exactly what I said - Keolis and the T are a screwed up mess - in large part for both because the equipment shouldn't even be in a museum because it's such crap.
Did Keolis low-ball the bid and hope to get more revenue later? Maybe. That may even be their business model. They are in biz to make money. (although I'm guessing part of their problem was that the equipment was worse than they even thought and you can't blame 2015 on anyone - those 6 weeks or so were OFF the charts for snowfall).
Blame the management/politicians - they're the ones that accepted the offer. Kind of like the developers that get tax breaks - it's their job to ask. Blame your government for saying yes.
Hey!
I English all the time!
I see a Baker backlash over two things.
The Trump one is the most obvious. At best you could say that he sat on his hands, but there were plenty of instances where a "no comment" would have sufficed and he instead disparaged the then nominee.
The other issue is the transgender rights bill. There are Republicans worked up enough over it that in a very short window of time they managed to get the enormous number of signatures to get a repeal of that law onto the 2018 ballot. What's he going to do, not take a position on the ballot question? He agrees with the law he signed even though he was rather meek about it. Surely he will be against the repeal.
Reservists have been serving for years
Since we got over-extended in Afghanistan and Iraq, many reservists have been deployed overseas. Warren spent a year in Iraq.
http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/executive/bio.asp
Reserve IS Service
It's not active combat, but it's service. More than Trump has done.
Like you would know what that meant
Something tells me that you have no idea what role the reserves play in our national defense.
HINT: Reservists are considered to be the FIRST line in the event of a mainland invasion. Reservists and Coast Guard are what gets in the way if it hits the homeland fan, while the regular military sorts out their responses.
Not sure about this Warren
Maybe they could run a Warren-Warren ticket for Gov/Lt Gov in the hopes he'll take over when she heads to the oval office?
Or maybe Donny Boy will surprise everyone and get re-elected - we can only hope.
Not holding my breath on any of the above.
Baker lost big this election...
He didn't support Trump, and all the republicans that voted him in voted Trump this week, so he just dissed his base big time. Not to mention he strongly came out for charters and against pot, and lost on both counts. He also refuses to ride the T for even just a week to see how terrible it is. He will be seen as someone who is out of touch with his constituents, who will be turned on by his base, and who will face someone that ISN'T local pariah Martha Freakin' Coakley (seriously had Warren run last time Baker wouldn't even be gov in the first place). The democrats in MA are gonna run him out of town just to rid themselves of one more crony who will be complicit in Trump's policies, as well as pushing GOP policies at state level and denying liberal ones.
I would say it almost doesn't matter who runs against him, but unlike Republicans who simply vote for the (R), dems shoot themselves in the foot constantly overthinking things like issues, integrity, and character.
Wait for a Trump hug
Unless Charlie suddenly finds Jesus and cuddles up to Trump, he's going to remain popular in MA. The people who didn't vote for Trump approve of and will remember his anti-Trump stance, even if it comes back to bite us when Trump tells us all to go to hell.
And then?
Enter NEWXIT: New England, New York, New Jersey.
We get less $$ back from the fed than we put in. Time to balance the ledger.
Keep dreaming
Have you seen what's going on?
Fixed 128 over the weekend without a hitch - ahead of schedule
Pike tolls going bye-bye very smoothly (hope I didn't jinx it) and ahead of schedule
Spending half a billion dollars a year on T capital projects
Plugged the giant hole in the budget Deval left us
I agreed with him on one of those ballot issues and not on the other - but for someone running a budget of tens of billions with tens of thousands of employees - he's doing a pretty amazing job so far. (and you can't fault his reasoning - he was fighting for kids on both counts - he wasn't going to get anything out of it personally - and probably not politically so you have to respect his integrity).
I respect Baker
He has been doing a pretty good job and he shocked the world signing that LGBT bill. The transparency he brought to the T is also admirable, I just think that (R) next to his name means curtains for him come election time. The dems just need to run someone more appealing than a soggy baloney sandwich this time.
The talking points against MJ legalization were flat out lies and ignorance, and the charter school positions were only slightly less so. He still has plenty of time to supply b-roll for the TV ads on top of that.
ehhh....
The bridge replacement thing was done before by Patrick. The tolls going away is not universally seen as a good thing (especially not when you see how much personal data is being collected and saved). They may be spending money on the T but the service is tanking and all they can talk about is privatizing it (I guess that's for the children too?).
But in the end for the lame-ass liberal Democrats of this state this really isn't adding up to much. His approval ratings will remain highish (they're suckers for that boyish grin...AND he danced with black people in Roxbury once!). But for the Herald, the Tea Party types, the lunchbucket Demopublicans and especially those groups from Worcester and beyond, Prince Charlie is seen as less than stellar. While the Globe can't stop slobbering over his knob the Herald would like to bite it off. They haven't forgiven the Beacon Hill GOP insiders for what they did to Mark Fisher, are still pissed about his treating LGBT people like humans and they're looking for revenge. Dissing Trump certainly doesn't help the matter.
I can't imagine that his political capital really got depleted by the Q2 sinking or the weed issue. But they are small chinks in the armor. We'll see if Setti can shoot an arrow in there. If he's using Patrick as his model, I'm less than enthused.
He has been a failure when it
He has been a failure when it comes to the T. Prices are way up, late night service was terminated, two winters ago was a huge mess, they are running fewer trips during rush hour, and there is no way the green line extension or anything else gets done now that his party controls Washington since they hate public transportation and the people who use it since they sold themselves to oil corporations.
This is all true, but...
MBTA reform/failure is not a state-wide winning issue - even though it impacts the biggest portion of our economic engine, metro Boston. The sad fact is that the Legislature doesn't care, including Boston's reps. and senators and Walsh does seem to care but has no influence over this.
Seriously, name on State Rep or Senator who is agitating on behalf of the MBTA users in the city?
Baker has
run away from and stiffed the Tea Party big time to get where he is. I don't see him falling in line, as Tea Party politics is dead in a state where old school New England Republicans call themselves Democrats, and associate with them much more than the reactionary conservatism of the south.
The you have this map, where Mass turned more blue this election:
http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/massachusetts
Bakers not an idiot. He knows the coalition that voted for him and the one he needs to please.
The Republican Party is an ill fit for him right now.
Maybe he will follow Weld into the Libertarian Party. They are on the ballot now.
Why?
Simple answer- someone's name has to be on the ballot.
More complex answer- go back to 2010 and ask Charlie Baker why he's running against a popular governor.
Baker ran against Martha Coakley
the woman who lost an election for Ted Kennedy's senate seat to Hometown Redneck Scott Brown. Patrick would have crushed him if that was the race.
Republican here.
I'm blanking the ballot.
I'd be surprised if he wanted to be the sacrificial cow
Someone has to do it and it will raise their profile so they can try for some other higher office. I just don't think that's his path upward, but time will tell.
Setti couldn't even get bike
Setti couldn't even get bike lanes installed in Newton and his signature accomplishment, a plastic bag ban, has resulted in little old ladies dropping their groceries from torn bags on rainy days.
Can't say he's really done anything as an executive in Newton to make himself a good candidate for the job as chief executive of the state.
You forget....
Donald Trump just became president. A plastic bag ban and failing at getting bike lanes installed is 1000x more than Trump has ever accomplished politically, and probably ever will. The bar has now been set so low that your average street-junkie panhandler now has a shot to win elected office.
Murphy just won Register of Deeds, aka- steady paycheck to do nothing, as well. With no prior experience in any field related to the office.
In this day and age, no qualifications are needed. Money, connections, and a healthy twitter following gets one elected.
Politically, Trump becoming
Politically, Trump becoming president is an accomplishment. There was a lot going against him. It's stunning. People are tossing around blaming his election on things, but let's also give credit to the man himself. And picking up Kellyanne Conway when she had been against him in the primary? Genius move. Guy can pick'em.
He got less votes
Than McCain or Romney in a country of 350 million people.
I'll give them credit they were able to keep the party from ripping itself apart, but they didn't make any inroads to expanding their appeal.
They won because those that supported Obama stayed the fuck home.
Decreasing voter turnout is never good for Democracy.
All votes counted yet?
Are you sure all the absentee, mail-in, etc ballots have been counted?
But that isn't how campaigns
But that isn't how campaigns are run. Both campaigns were trying to win the electoral vote. We don't know how things would be different if we had a system where the popular vote mattered and both campaigns were vying for it (although I suspect Trump would still win).
Any precedent?
Going from mayor of a sleepy suburb to governor of a state (commonwealth) seems like a biiiig jump. Has anyone gone from mayor to gov in recent MA history?
Palin is an out of state example
Palin was a city manager/mayor of 8k population suburb prior to becoming governor of Alaska, right?
Does this count?
Trump has never held elected office. Anything, it seems, is possible.
(No subject)
Deval held what previous
Deval held what previous elected office?
Are you trolling?
Know what Charlie Baker was before governor?
Selectman of Swampscott.
I would like to see
Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty run for Governor in 2018!