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Ubiquitous furniture/jingle pushers "Bernie and Phyl’s" current promotion promises:  “If the National Voter turnout is 75% or greater for the 2016 United States of America Presidential Election on November 8th, 2016, you will receive your furniture for free!”

New Englanders, this bet is worse than the two major party candidates you have to choose from. 

Elizabeth Warren's speech wasn’t long. And she wasn't speaking as Hillary Clinton's running mate.  But Senator Warren made this much clear: Trump University cheats, Trump actively roots against the American middle class, aligns with Wall Street, deplores Mexicans, hates “others” and undermines/underpays small business workers … A man who must never be President of the United States. 

Last week did tell us quite a bit about Massachusetts’ political culture.  The Supreme Court’s healthcare and gay marriage decisions made many of us proud of the path our inclusive social policy paved. Medical marijuana, gambling, and on-line voter registration nonetheless showed the Bay State both policy leader and laggard, equal parts progressive and moralist, as well as more elitist than pluralist.  

Boston 2024 is so 90210. Athletes and connected rich kids are at the cool table where decisions get made.  The Andrea Zuckerman’s of the world, ie the rest of us, are not included.  We’ll just have to look on as Kelly, Dylan, Brenda, and the gang decide what is best for West Beverly – er, Boston and a Boston Olympics.

That is unless anti-Olympic mobilization continues and further solidifies.  As Political Scientist Jules Boykoff has shown in his comprehensive study or the Olympics and activism, protest and local discontent dissuades the risk-adverse International Olympic Committee (IOC).  Activism and opposition works with the IOC and has repeatedly affected the IOC’s decisions.

So the task is simple:  Rise up, Andrea’s!    

From the perspective of sharing funds with more people (and, especially, from the point of view of reducing inequality and helping people make it into the middle class) the choice of supporting the EITC over the Film Tax Credit is a lay-up. So what's going on? Why aren't working families who could benefit from the EITC more visible than Film Tax credit supporters? At least six explanations stand out:

Ideas on how to fix the T are manifold in policy circles but, unfortunately, neoliberal solutions—replicating private laissez-faire market practices and values in government—seem to be dominating Governor Baker’s favored fixes.  The research suggests it will be the less affluent who pay if neoliberalism wins.