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Cambridge, Massachusetts is the East Coast’s Berkeley, California. Its crunchy reputation — from hippie/granola to People’s Republic — is well-earned on average, but, well, a bit off-target and way out of date. You see, since rent control was thrown out by the end of 1994, Cambridge has seen a dramatic erosion of its working class communities. And going back to 1940, when the Plan E / City Manager form of government was first instituted, the elites have found it easier and easier to pull the strings on policies of social upheaval and community destruction.

While no substitute for reading Bill Cunningham’s historical backgrounder Which People’s Republic?, he manages to sum it all up in one sentence:

In Cambridge, these policies have uprooted poor and working class communities in order to cultivate, on the same soil, the University City.

And for all the feel-good progressivism that pervades this city, there is an underbelly of corruption, liberalism, and exploitation that stink up the place. The racial diversity is lovely, but quietly growing apartheid conditions and a fierce, latent racism mean that such feel-good sentiments are dangerous illusions. And while it’s lovely that we are sister cities with so many others around the world, we are on a path of social destruction here at home. I am proud and grateful to live in a city that has an active, funded Peace Commission, but I am ashamed to live in a city with a more active, better-funded city government that colludes to protect the elite university, biotech, and developer interests at the expense of its own people.

So it is with a bit of glee that I observe the unfolding drama around the wrongful-termination lawsuit that is haunting City Manager Bob Healy and the complicit City Council. It’s rare that all the corruption, hypocrisy, and racism hiding under the veneer of all the many positives that Cambridge has going for it bubble to the surface in one instance.

Continue reading Oh Cambridge, you came and you gave without taking
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Have seen talk among Greens and others about a move to draft Feingold to primary Obama. Not happening. Quite the opposite:

“When I said on election night last year that it `was on to 2012,’ I meant it. As I said those words I was especially thinking of the need to re-elect President Obama. I will be working to re-elect him and hope to play a significant role in that effort.”

For some,of course, this will simply be another indication that even the most progressive Democrat suffers from that Original Sin that causes them to buckle and knuckle under: My Party Uber Alles (not that Greens don’t do preciusely the same thing). My take: sane progressives know how important it to maintain what we got while creeping forward (at a pace that dismays us all, but that’s reality).

In any case,scratch him from your wish list (and mine–he’s the only one in the Democratic Party whom I felt could have pulled it off–not that we would have won).

Continue reading Feingold: “I’m Not Running for Anything”

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Until recently, I had not thought of sheriff offices as places for “Greens.”

But last week, at the US Green Party Annual National meeting in Alfred, New York, I saw the energy and excitement around Cheri Honkala’s candidacy for Sheriff of Philadelphia. I had seen her name here and there before, including on this website, but I had not really understood who she was or why she was running for sheriff as a Green – or why this was important for Greens in general.

Cheri Honkala has a long track record of advocacy for poor people. She is very concerned about the large numbers of people being thrown into the street due to foreclosures – a hot topic among Green advocates these days. As Sheriff, she can do something about this: “Cheri Honkala vows to serve the interests of the people instead of the interests of the banks by ‘Keeping Families in Their Homes’ until the economic climate in Philadelphia changes.”

This video of the speech she gave at that meeting says a lot:

Continue reading The Need for Green Sheriffs
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Here’s my latest Solar PSA on how a south-facing window is already a solar collector:

http://www.youtube.com/v/FdGAd…

“Any window that sees direct sunlight is a solar collector.  You can learn how to use that free energy to make your home more comfortable and secure.  Caulk and seal the window against drafts.  Install storm windows on the exterior, interior, or both.  Cover the window at night with an insulating curtain to prevent conduction, convection, and radiative heat loss.  A valence above the window will stop night-time drafts and reduce condensation.  A sunny window can double as a greenhouse for starting seedlings or growing house plants.  Expand the solar space below, above, or beside the window with a windowbox solar air or water heater.    You can even design a living system to provide fresh vegetables and fish year round while producing space heat, cleaning the air, and reducing waste.  A south-facing window is already a solar collector.  Learn how to use it.”

Continue reading Solar PSA: A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector
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It’s so easy to fall into the partisan trap. To assume that your party or religion, or whatever, is the sole repository of truth, or integrity, or wisdom, or even just “the facts.”  But that’s a fool’s errand. We’re all struggling out here, we all have our chosen mechanisms, we all experiment with different strategies, we all adopt those vehicles that seat us best. Doesn’t mean the others are of no value. And just because you don’t care for the driver or the way the other car is headed doesn’t mean its a bad vehicle. Sometimes, you just need someone different in the driver’s seat.

I bring this up because I honestly believe that there’s a rare opportunity for Greens to support a (*gasp*) Democrat without holding their noses.  A Democratic candidate for an incredibly important seat: Scott Brown’s. I’ve posted on the brand new “Half-Term Senator” web site my own reasons for unseating Brown-if you’ve been studying his votes, you already have your own. The candidate I have in mind supports single-payer health insurance. He supports an immediate drawdown of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s promised that his first act as Senator will be to introduce legislation overturning the Supreme Court’s decision in re Citizens United. He has Bill McKibben’s unique endorsement. And unlike Senators Kerry and Brown he would have voted against the debt ceiling “deal” (insisting instead that the President invoke the 14th). (Oh-and he testified against predatory gambling here in MA, too).

Continue reading Turn Blue a Little More Green: A Rare Opportunity for Greens

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A)     The court of public opinion.

At 7:30 on the morning of my arrest, TV and radio stations began sending the message to the world that Chuck Turner, well known activist and Boston City Councilor had been arrested for extortion, conspiracy, and lying to FBI agents. The newscasters’ commentary were accompanied by pictures of a black hand putting something in my hand, while the hidden camera captured a smile on my face. This “evidence” of my guilt was being provided by the Massachusetts US Attorney to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that I was guilty.

Those initial pictures, however, were just the beginning of US Attorney Michael Sullivan’s plan to convict me in the court of public opinion before I had even gone before a judge to begin the legal process. The time was nearing for Sullivan to take the stage. How else could the world appreciate the magnificent job he was doing as US Attorney. Shortly after nine, three hours after my arrest, he stepped onto the podium in the press room of the Moakley Federal Court House to begin putting the final nails in my coffin.

“If I do this right”, I could imagine him saying to himself, “Turner’s days as a Councilor and activist will be done by next week and we won’t even have to waste our resources on him. Then we can concentrate on the big fish and get rid of the Senator. Smiling broadly at the world through the eyes of the cameras, he began his victory speech. Praising the work of his office and the FBI in bringing to justice two corrupt politicians, he then proceeds to use the media to the world.  

Continue reading Chapter 3 of Chuck Turner’s Story of His Trial: The Big Lie

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Today was the day that our system had planned to evict Drusilla Francis and her foster children from their home in Dorchester, MA. One more person and family in one more neighborhood in one more state in a county that is going wild with evicting people from their homes. One more day for a system, that exists to serve the interests of the banks and the wealthy elite and to hell with human beings and the communities we live.

A few years ago a few members of our party, including Chuck Turner, Mel King, Grace Ross, Merelice joined forces with a few other organizations. They saw a gigantic emerging monster beginning to roll down on our communities. They formed a statewide organization, MAAPL (Mass Alliance Against Predatory Lending). www.maapl.info

MAAPL is a growing statewide organization, and unfortunately, the last couple of years our party has become a much less significant force within this organization and movement. Thanks to Mel, Merelice and Eva for keeping us involved. Now, things are looking up, and more interest is expressed from members of our party in Boston and across the state.

Continue reading People’s Victory in Dorchester–8/01/11

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What heartless conservatives would balance a $1.9 billion state budget shortfall by service cuts to the needy, without any effort to take back the tax favors so long showered upon the rich and well-connected?  Was it the Tea Party extremists?  The right-wing fringe of the Republican Party?  No.  “No new taxes” was this year’s pledge by Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, leader of the  dominant Democratic Party.  And DeLeo’s stance was supported by other Democratic legislators — and by newly reelected Democratic Governor Deval Patrick.  

The 2012 state budget as passed was a disaster for children, students, seniors, the disabled; for families, schools, communities;  for anyone who needs state services.  

But not everyone is feeling the pain.  There was no cutback in the corporate welfare budget, a $2.2 billion “black box,” as Auditor Suzanne Bump called it.  Despite ample evidence that business subsidies are ineffective in creating jobs, these so-called “tax expenditures” have, in the last five years, been growing at twice the rate of the service budget, with virtually no oversight or accountability.  A bill attempting to establish some basic disclosure of who is getting this money and what the impacts might be is languishing in the Joint Revenue Committee.  Legislators busy cutting health care and education don’t seem to even want to know what’s being done with the money they’re giving to their business friends.

Continue reading The Republicrat Convergence: House Speaker pledges “NO NEW TAXES”
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