Category: Massachusetts

Cambridge City Council and “Israel’s current genocide in Gaza”

by philg

Harvard students were urged via mailing lists to vote (today) for three candidates with a link to a letter that they wrote:

We are heartbroken by the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel. We send our deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragic situation.

We condemn all forms of violence unequivocally. That includes the recent attacks from Hamas and Israel, and the ongoing Israeli occupation and apartheid of Palestinians for the past 75 years. What we are witnessing in Gaza is an evolving humanitarian atrocity, and we remind all that collective punishment is a war crime. We do not support U.S. funding of Israel’s current genocide in Gaza.

We must come together as a community in Cambridge to protect and hold each other as the situation continues to escalate. We denounce all doxxing, intimidation, hate speech and silencing of individuals in our city. We specifically call on Harvard University to protect its students from racist attacks and threats.

We urge everyone in our community to spread love, not hate, to treat each other with empathy and support, to acknowledge all the suffering that is happening overseas and locally and to lean on our shared humanity and desire for peace. We must all do what we can to alter the course of history toward peace, justice and freedom for Palestine.

Quinton Zondervan, Ayah Al-Zubi, Vernon K. Walker and Dan Totten

(Hamas did some bad stuff on one day; Israel has been doing bad stuff for 75 years.)

As I noted in Why won’t the people who say that Israel is committing genocide go to Gaza and fight?, it remains a mystery to me why people who have identified an ongoing “genocide” advocate doing almost nothing about it. Do these progressives propose sending in the lavishly funded U.S. military to stop the genocide? Do they say that they’re going to leave their comfortable Cambridge homes ($1,000/square foot or, if one refrains from working and gets through the waiting list, $0/sf in public housing) and go to Gaza to help the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad stop the genocide? Do they demand war crime trials at the Hague for Israelis? Do they demand the expulsion of Israelis, the perpetrators of this genocide, from the U.S.? No, no, no, and no. The Righteous of Cambridge (TM) suggest a slight reduction in Israel’s financial resources.

Let’s meet the candidates for election…

Mr. Zondervan is an incumbent who isn’t running for reelection, but is hoping to pass the torch to these three new candidates. Quinton is an MIT graduate (he and his now-wife were on our floor in the old CS lab) and immigrant from Suriname:

Ayah Al-Zubi is a Harvard graduate in sociology and psychology who immigrated from Jordan:

Vernon Walker works on “the inseparable connection between climate justice and racial justice”:

Dan Totten is “a queer renter from Central Square and a democratic socialist”:

They’re all apparently content to be idle bystanders to an ongoing genocide so long as they think they aren’t directly funding it. Let’s see how these milquetoasts do in today’s election, which might be decided by people who can’t read English. Here are the language options from the city :

Update: The people have spoken (in at least 8 languages). None of the above candidates were successful (which means they’re all free to go to Gaza and help Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad stop occupation, apartheid, and genocide). All of the incumbents were reelected, including Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui (“the first Muslim mayor in Massachusetts”). Two insiders were elected, one a former councilor and one a school committee member. One outsider won, a bike lane advocate (of course, Cambridge does it in a mostly unsafe manner compared to Denmark).

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Massachusetts governor: the border should be open, but migrants should not come to Massachusetts

by philg

“As Massachusetts shelters fill to capacity, Maura Healey says there are ‘a lot of places in the country where people can go’” (Boston Herald):

With the state’s shelter system at or approaching maximum capacity, the governor is suggesting new migrants could consider settling somewhere other than Massachusetts after they cross the U.S. border.

According to Gov. Maura Healey, there are 40 to 50 new families arriving in the state every day and seeking state assistance with housing, and the influx of people to Massachusetts — many without lawful presence in the U.S. — has pushed the state’s shelter system close to its 7,500-family limit.

“We expect to reach it soon,” Healey told WCVB. “We’ve just reached capacity here in terms of the physical space where we can house people, the number of service providers who are out there to provide services, and also the funds to pay for this.”

Healey did not directly say what happens to a family seeking Emergency Assistance shelter after the cap is reached, though she said she hoped it didn’t come to unhoused people sleeping at Logan Airport or in emergency rooms. She also suggested that there are other options available to new U.S. arrivals.

“There are a lot of places in the country where people can go once they cross into the United States,” she said.

“Mass. AG Joins Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Emergency Declaration At Southern Border” (state-sponsored WBUR, 2019):

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Wednesday joined 19 other states in challenging President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The suit claims the Trump administration’s use of the emergency declaration in this instance is unconstitutional and unlawful.

The states are asking a federal court to block the emergency declaration in order to prevent construction of a border wall and stop the diversion of federal funds to pay for Trump’s proposed wall.

“Healey Among AGs Suing Trump Administration Over ‘Public Charge’ Immigration Rule” (AP 2019):

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is among those in 13 states that have filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration rule that’ll allow immigration officials to deny green cards to migrants who use public assistance, including food stamps or housing vouchers.

Under new rules unveiled this week, Citizenship and Immigration Services will consider whether applicants have received public assistance among other factors such as education to determine whether to grant legal status.

The attorneys general argue the expansion will cause “irreparable harm” and deter noncitizens from seeking “essential” public assistance.

“Massachusetts Becomes the Second State to Sue Trump Over Muslim Ban” (Slate 2017):

Massachusetts will become the second state to sue the federal government over President Trump’s executive order barring immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. In a press conference on Boston’s Beacon Hill, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey declared the order “harmful, discriminatory, and unconstitutional” and announced that her office will join a suit filed Saturday night by the Massachusetts ACLU and immigration lawyers seeking to have the order overturned.

Related:

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Gun violence is a “public health crisis” and “urgent”, but Maskachusetts won’t pass a gun safety law this year

by philg

“Mass. Senate’s gun bill won’t bow until 2024, top Dem says” (MassLive.com, October 27, 2023):

The state Senate’s version of a much-anticipated gun violence reduction bill won’t make its debut until January — even as the chamber’s top leader has acknowledged “the true sense of urgency” around the issue.

That’s the word from Senate President Karen Spilka’s, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, office.

“It’s a very complex issue. The House struggled with it, they took their time as well,” Spilka said, according to Politico. “But we recognize the true sense of urgency here.”

The House passed its version of the bill after a marathon debate on Oct. 18, MassLive previously reported.

“Mass. House passes updated gun violence reform bill” (October 18, 2023) is the referenced story:

Since July 1, there have been 90 separate shootings in the Commonwealth, which have left 40 people dead and 86 injured, Day said.

“We are in the midst of a public health crisis and it is unrelenting,” he said. “‘Thoughts and prayers’ are not enough.”

The revised measure makes slight modifications to where people can carry firearms, expands the state’s assault weapons ban to include firearms developed after 2004, and aims to stem the flow of illegal firearms.

The bill also includes language that prohibits someone from bringing a gun into schools or government buildings and polling locations.

A major focus of the bill is also cracking down on “ghost guns” or untraceable firearms, by registering them with the state. As ghost guns are becoming more common Day said he hopes that serializing these firearms will help police trace where they are coming from and who’s putting them out on the street.

The updated legislation requires receivers – the part of the gun that contains the firing mechanism – to be serialized, but not the barrels or feeding device.

The House bill has been met with praise from gun safety advocates and lawmakers who’ve been pushing for the Legislature to act on Day’s bill since it was first proposed.

(It didn’t meet with praise from a gun enthusiast friend who still lives in Massachusetts. “I can possess normal magazines and ARs but won’t be able to carry magazines over 10 rounds. And they have to be stored at home both in a safe and also unloaded. And I will no longer be able to pick up my kids at school with a gun.” (I didn’t ask who needs to be shot in the pick-up line.))

So… politicians agree that we are in a crisis and there is urgency. It’s a one-party state so there is no political opposition to whatever Democrats might agree to do. People are dying and this new law will prevent those deaths. But there is no need for the Senate to act, e.g., simply approving the language already passed by the House, so that the new law can take effect.

And from the southeast part of the state…

And in the west-central part…

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Why won’t the government abide by its own minimum wage law? (jury duty in Maskachusetts)

by philg

A friend in the Boston suburbs was recently sentenced to state court jury duty. He’s an immigrant, so he had some naïve questions, such as “What happens if you are stuck on in a long trial? Who pays your salary?” We had to explain to him that if you’re a government worker you get paid at 100 percent while you do no work, but if you’re a working-class day laborer you get nothing. The Maskachusetts law says that laptop class members will get money from their employers for at least the first three days of jury duty while the working class scrambles to find rent money.

Our self-employed friend would be getting $50 per day starting on Day 4 of his involuntary presence in the courthouse. Why is that interesting? Massachusetts minimum wage is $15 per hour (real money in pre-Biden terms!) and jury service may be 7 or more hours per day (i.e., minimum wage for this job would be over $100 per hour).

Why won’t the government abide by its own minimum wage law?

Separately, here are the livestream messages from our imprisoned friend:

  • the jury pool is 90% white; we watched a video where nearly everyone was a person of color and a woman; video mentioned diversity three times; the video told us how blacks and women couldn’t serve on juries
  • (responding to “what are prospective jurors talking about?”) just boring so far. we’re sitting quietly; everyone is on phones; or reading books if a geezer; i am the only one with a laptop

I asked about COVID-19 prevention. The virus was serious enough that some school systems in Maskachusetts were shut down for 18 months, 5-year-olds were ordered to get an experimental vaccine in order to be in public places, peasants were ordered to follow Fauci and wear their cloth masks, and it was illegal to work except in “essential” businesses such as marijuana stores. Our friend reported that the government crammed all of the potential jurors into a single room so that their respective respiratory viruses could be fully distributed. Only 2 out of about 60 jurors wore masks and nobody working for the court, including the judge, wore a mask.

After a 4-hour SARS-CoV-2 incubation session, which started at 8 am on a Wednesday, everyone was sent home. Not a single person out of the 60 present was needed. Cases were postponed or settled (#LoveWins?).

In one sense it isn’t surprisingly that an enterprise that pays nothing for labor would make no attempt to use labor efficiently. On the other hand, given that hardly any jury trial would get organized before 10:00 am (judges tend to hear motions at the beginning of the day), I’m surprised that the court makes people show up at 8:00 am. Why not at least let people sleep late and avoid rush hour? Or put people on a 1-hour standby list: potential jurors are not required to come in, but they must be available to show up within one hour of getting a call. I couldn’t find any court anywhere in the U.S. that does this, so presumably there is a flaw in the idea, but I can’t figure out what the flaw is.

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Gifted education in public schools: Massachusetts vs. Florida perspectives

by philg

As a general rule, whatever is sacred in Massachusetts is illegal in Florida and vice versa. In MA, there is no state funding for gifted programs and the typical town-run public school system has no differentiation until 8th or 9th grade. The idea that children of all abilities go through material at a single level, with some bored and some lost, is sacred. In FL, by contrast, county-run school districts are required by state law to offer gifted education beginning in 2nd grade. Parking an academically-inclined student in a grade-level classroom is actually illegal.

A friend and I were chatting about this while on a walk with his dog in Wellesley, Maskachusetts back during my August trip up and down the East Coast. A neighbor walking her own dog joined the conversation and opined that public schools shouldn’t have gifted education because it tended to result in racial segregation, with Black students left behind, for example.

Where had she attended school? Milton Academy ($64,000/year for day students) and then an Ivy League college. Had she sent her own children to the Wellesley Public Schools where they could receive the benefits of sitting in a classroom with a diversity of academic talent if not a diversity of skin color? No. They also went to Milton Academy and then on to the Ivies.

Has the lack of gifted education in Maskachusetts public schools resulted in racial harmony? Let’s check NBC:

At one point, the teen grabbed a bigger stone, threatened the victim with it and called him “boy” and the N-word, according to the police narrative. …

The victim also wrote in his statement that the other juvenile “started laughing and called me George Floyd, obviously making fun of me and showing NO remorse.”

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Migrants in Maskachusetts want to work…

by philg

… but they can’t cook for themselves.

“As Migrants Are Placed Around Massachusetts, Towns Are Welcoming but Worried” (New York Times, today):

The mayor of Woburn, where hotels are housing 150 migrant families, said the state’s 40-year-old right-to-shelter law “was not meant to cover what we’re seeing now.”

[photo caption: Volunteers [in a church] cooked for Haitian migrant families in need of food at the United Methodist Church in Woburn, Mass.]

On Aug. 31, [Governor] Healey authorized more than 200 National Guard members to assist the more than 2,500 families living in hotels, a step meant to address a shortage of social service agencies to help incoming migrants.

… the volunteers … chafed with frustration when meals for the families arrived late from a state-contracted company

Translating for several adults, including his father, the teenager said their most pressing concern was how to swiftly become authorized to work. Current rules delay asylum seekers’ ability to work legally; Ms. Healey and elected officials in other states have increased pressure on the federal government to revise those policies.

The migrants have skills that would delight any employer and they desperately want to work. In fact, they hate to be idle. They were so busy learning calculus, physics, and engineering before they crossed the border that they never learned how to cook, which is why untrained volunteers and/or state contractors must cook and serve?

From the same article:

In Massachusetts, the only state with a right-to-shelter law that guarantees every family with children a place to stay, the crisis has been accelerating, with more than 80 cities and towns receiving migrants to date. … Officials estimate that as many as half of currently sheltered families are recently arrived migrants from other countries; most have come from Haiti, drawn by word of mouth and the pull of the state’s well-established Haitian community.

According to the NYT, the guarantee of free housing forever is not what has drawn migrants in.

Separately, on August 8, 2023, “Declaring a state of emergency, Gov. Maura Healey asks residents to host immigrant families as shelter system reaches capacity” (Berkshire Eagle). Friends who still live in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a town that is rich in “No Human is Illegal” signs in front of large single-family houses, report that they’re not aware of anyone in the town hosting an immigrant.

How long did Maskachusetts go without being in a state of emergency? Based on “the Healey-Driscoll Administration announced that the state’s COVID-19 public health emergency will end on May 11, 2023” (source), it looks like there was a three-month gap between emergencies.

Who’s paying for the owners of hotels and government contractors in Massachusetts to be enriched by the bonanza of undocumented immigrants? According to state-sponsored media, federal taxpayers outside of Massachusetts.

Boston plans to use the funds on temporary hotel rooms for eligible people, which will be staffed by emergency service providers.

Great news if you’re a hotel owner, in other words, and bad news if you’re in the market for a hotel room.

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God wants you to identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+

by philg

From Needham, Maskachusetts, a suburb of Boston:

Some more images of the church where God speaks directly to humans:

(Sometimes the best way to “Dismantle Racism” is by first moving to a town that is 2 percent Black.)

The church reminds us that it is not Ukrainians who are fighting for their lives:

Speaking of Ukraine, another church in Needham:

Here’s what I think might be a 2SLGBTQQIA+ version of the Ukrainian flag:

What about back in Cambridge? A friend snapped this photo of Riverside Boat Club, which reminds folks that Black Lives Matter, that the trans-enhanced rainbow flag is our national symbol, and that the best way to support Ukraine is to stay safely in Maskachusetts while hanging up a flag.

Who can explain the intersection between Black and 2SLGBTQQIA+ on the boat club whose web site shows only white people? Perhaps a professor of Queer of Color Critique who will soon be working at Williams College:

The Program in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies seeks a professor of Queer of Color Critique, field open, ideally with interdisciplinary scholarship. We also especially welcome those with additional interests in Disability Studies/Crip Theory, Feminist Technoscience Studies, and/or Migration Studies.

The candidate should be able to teach introductory courses, including WGSS 101 and a Foundations in Sexuality Studies seminar in addition to electives.

We are especially interested in candidates from historically underrepresented groups

Coronapanic is over in Maskachusetts? The August 10, 2023 job post:

We recognize that these are uncertain times with changing health and safety restrictions given the endemic nature of COVID-19 and other viral illnesses. This search will follow all state and college policies, and we anticipate collaborating with candidates to best navigate health and safety during the recruitment process.

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Indoor, Outdoor, and Bearded Maskers in the Boston Area

by philg

Photos from August 21, 2023, Allston, Massachusetts (adjacent to Boston University):

My favorite, of course, is the surgical mask over full beard as a means of blocking out an aerosol virus. However, the most confusing are the outdoor maskers. The risk of being in a crowded city is so high that they need a mask when outdoors… yet they won’t move away from the crowded city. I guess the masked supermarket shoppers are also tough to explain. Why don’t they stay safe at home and let the Latinx essential delivery workers incur the risk of gathering groceries? (See The social justice of coronashutdowns)

I visited a friend in Brookline who warned his elderly mother to stay away from me because I was insufficiently cautious about the possibility of a SARS-CoV-2 infection (I had arrived from an oceanfront estate in Maine with about 3,000 square feet of space per person). A few minutes later, he decided that it would be too onerous to cook pasta at home, safe from COVID-19, on the high-end induction cooktop. So we then all went out to a cramped neighborhood Italian restaurant in which the elderly mom was within breathing distance of about 30 local humans (presumably not Covid heretics, however).

Both the mom, a Manhattan resident, and the grandkids spontaneously offered the opinion that Florida schools were terrible, partly due to the fact that reading was banned in Florida. Said grandkids had been removed from the Brookline, Maskachusetts public schools (one of the highest-rated districts in the state) due to being bored and the school system not having any gifted program. So they were paying private school tuition ($55,000+/year per student) on top of state income tax (banned by the FL constitution), state estate tax (also banned by the FL constitution, unless it can be credited toward federal), and property tax at a similar rate to what a typical FL county charges. I pointed out that Florida state law required every public school district to offer gifted education beginning in 2nd grade and that, if necessary, there was also the Big Hammer in which Florida high school kids can take online or in-person courses for free at any state-run college or university (and taxpayers have to buy them the textbooks as well!). Finally, the larger counties run magnet schools for those who are artistically or academically inclined (one of Miami’s is the #4-ranked public high school in the U.S.).

Related:

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Signs of Justice in Maskachusetts

by philg

I stopped overnight at Hanscom Field (KBED) and visited Cambridge, Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, MA.

Shay’s is a bar in Harvard Square that was famously committed to ensuring drunkenness among Harvard Business School students (a good hunting ground for child support profiteers?). What is Shay’s committed to now?

I wonder if they will get a ticket from the city for failure to use the trans-enhanced rainbow flag that is the federal government’s official symbol.

A friend and I stopped to pay $40 for an Indian “street food” meal (that would have cost $1 in India?). I washed my hands in the All Gender Restroom.

The suburban towns were packed with signs advocating against the construction of additional hangars at Hanscom. If they get their way, the result might be an increase in the number of private jet flights that irk the almost-rich neighbors. Instead of the rich douche’s plane living at Hanscom in a new hangar, it will have to be ferried in for the flight and then ferried out by the crew to New Hampshire or Plymouth or wherever else hangar space was found. Jesus loves Black people and Rainbow Flaggers (but not the trans?), according to the First Parish Church in Concord, MA, but Jesus hates private jet hangars:

(The Unitarian Universalists also remind us that Jesus hates Israel.)

The righteous who oppose jet hangars say that they’re doing it because they love Mother Earth and hate CO2. But if they hate CO2, why do they live in huge heat-wasting single-family houses in car-dependent suburbs? Shouldn’t they all have sold their SUVs and moved into apartments in Boston or Cambridge?

Downtown Concord was dead as a doornail on a Sunday evening. We were the only customers incurring the risk of indoor dining at an Italian place. Sometimes locals ventured in wearing masks (not always N95s) to pick up takeout (SARS-CoV-2 is terrifying, but not so terrifying that you’d be willing to boil your own pasta?).

Traffic was a disaster, even on a Sunday, due to all of the new bicycle lanes that have been introduced. Streets that were formerly two-lane bidirectional are now one-way with a car lane and a bike lane (separated by ugly plastic stick-ups). I did see a handful of people using the bike lanes, unlike in the Washington, D.C. area. Old Georgetown Road, for example, has been reduced from 6 lanes to 4 due to the allocation of two bike lanes, one in each direction. I stayed overlooking this critical DC thoroughfare and, over a 40-hour period, saw exactly 1 bicycle. If federal government workers ever stop pretending to work from home, I predict even more epic traffic jams!

Any mention of Florida yielded an array of warnings: 101-degree ocean water, the existence of Ron DeSantis (cue the Two Minutes Hate), epidemic leprosy, books and education banned, etc.

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Massachusetts spends money to replace high-income residents with low-income residents

by philg

“A $100 Billion Wealth Migration Tilts US Economy’s Center of Gravity South” (Bloomberg, June 29):

Some 2.2 million people moved to the Southeast in just over two years. That’s roughly the population of Houston.

Maskachusetts did its share to unload rich people with lockdowns, mask orders, vaccine papers checks, and a recent boost to the income tax rate. Nobody on welfare would have had an economic motivation to move because welfare in Maskachusetts pays approximately 118 percent of the median wage, compared to just 40 percent in Florida and Texas (see Table 4 in this CATO report).

What kind of people are the state’s central planners seeking as replacements for the rich? “Massachusetts puts up Pride billboards in Florida, Texas” (CBS Boston, June 27):

Massachusetts is buying billboard space in places like Florida and Texas with a clear message for Pride month. The billboards say “Massachusetts For Us All” and feature pictures of LGBTQIA+ couples in the Bay State.

“At a time when other states are misguidedly restricting LGBTQIA+ rights, we are proud to send the message that Massachusetts is a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for all.” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “To anyone considering where they want to live, raise a family, visit or build a business – we want you to join us here in Massachusetts.”

The largest LGBTQ+ rights organization in the country issued a Florida travel advisory in May.

“The Complexity Of LGBT Poverty In The United States” (University of Wisconsin 2021):

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) have higher rates of poverty compared to cisgender (cis) heterosexual people, about 22% to 16% respectively.

So… Massachusetts is spending taxpayer funds to recruit a low-income demographic, which will be great for those who qualify for the state’s comparatively lavish welfare benefits.

Here are the billboards. Note the implicit message that people should have sex only with those whose skin color matches their own and whose age is approximately the same as their own.

Related… Drag Make-Up WERKshop from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston, for ages 12-17:

See also “LGBTQ-Friendly Housing Project Breaks Ground in Boston” for a project that consumed $8 million in funds extracted via taxation (2022 dollars). And “The Boston Public Library Announces $1,000,000 Gift to Expand the Library’s LGBTQ+ Programming and Collections” that will fund “Interactive programming for youth” and “Resources for teens, building upon the gender and sexual orientation resources already in place”.

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