Whitcomb: Done Deal Via Minority Rule; Repulsive Roadblock; Offshore Wind Power Deficit; Leave Leave

Monday, October 19, 2020

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

“It gradually became a different country

After the reversal, dominated by a distant,

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Universal voice whose favorite word was never,

Changing its air of quiet progress into one of

Rapidly collapsing possibilities….’’

-- From “Morning in America,’’ by John Koethe (born 1945)

 

 

“The fact that human conscience remains partially infantile throughout our life is the core of human tragedy.’’

-- Erik Erikson (1902-1994), German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst

 

 

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

-- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

 

 

GOP Judges - Bibles or Billionaires

Republican presidents’ nominees to federal posts and their backers have often wrapped themselves in religiosity, however bogus. But as with fervent Catholic Amy Coney Barrett, etc., they usually act in accord with the dictates of some powerful forces in big business and the very rich, whose actions and desires often don’t accord with the Bible. It’s no wonder that billionaire  (fossil fuels, etc.) Charles Koch, and other right-wing businesspeople, activated their networks to help ensure that the appeals court judge gets on the high court, where she’ll probably serve for decades.

 

The political cohort touted by Trump, et al., called “People of Faith’’ these days mostly includes the likes of many evangelical Protestants (including quite a few led by rich TV crooks like  Paula White, a Trump “spiritual adviser’’) and conservative Catholics. Not every religious believer, Christian or otherwise, is offered admission to the GOP’s “People of Faith’’ club/lobby.

 

Mrs. Barrett was born in New Orleans, where her father was a Shell Oil lawyer and her mother a high school French teacher. They are  devout Catholics and had,  thus, not surprisingly,  seven kids. People tend to follow, in varying degrees, the faith of the families that chance has put them in. If the judge’s parents had been Muslim, she’d probably be one, too.

 

Mr. Koch and his sidekicks hate regulations, especially those meant to protect the environment, and want their taxes (which pay for services that benefit them, too) even lower. He knows that Judge Barrett, based on her record, will almost certainly be overwhelmingly his ally, including by making it even easier for corporations to secretly funnel money into political campaigns and by supporting gerrymandering to put their candidates into office, and keep them there. In office they will reliably support certain (not all) powerful industries – e.g.,  fossil fuel, commercial real estate, agribusiness and airlines. She’ll offer assistance to monopolists.

 

Nothing in Ms. Barrett’s charmingly evasive testimony suggests that she won’t be anything other than a reactionary ideologue from the time she takes her seat. Yes, people can change but in her case, that seems highly unlikely. You see no evolution in her basic views. She’s been hard right from the start of her legal career in 1997.

 

Note that while at the law firm of firm Baker Botts, she worked on Bush v. Gore, the lawsuit that grew out of the 2000 presidential election, providing research and briefing assistance for Baker Botts's representation of George W. Bush, to whom the Supremes handed Florida’s electoral votes after dubious vote-counting there and thus gave him the White House;  he had half a million fewer popular votes than Al Gore. She’s been highly political from the start. (It makes me nostalgic to remember that “W’’ helped bring us two wars and the worst post-Great Depression economic crash until now.)

 

The current version of the Republican Party is adept at suckering followers by presenting itself as defenders of “faith,’’ whatever that can mean, as a route to what they really want:  more money and power. They are not, of course, defenders of all faiths,  certainly not of,  say, Islam, nor  respectful of the opinions of admitted agnostics and atheists. Organized religion, though it represents a shrinking percentage of the population, has great political and economic power.

 

It’s darkly comic that the most immoral president in American history, so far, leads a party that presents itself as an advocate of “Christian values’’.

 

Meanwhile, the Democrats at the Barrett Senate confirmation hearings spent far too much time last week on such social issues as abortion and gay rights, which many people are ambivalent about or even repelled by. They should have stuck almost entirely to economic-justice and health-care issues and voting rights while constantly reminding voters that the presidency, the federal courts and the Senate are increasingly selected by, and run for the benefit of, a minority of the population.

 

The sessions were far too long because of the GOP desire to ram Judge Barrett onto the high court in as few days as possible before the fraught election. That would give Trump a friend on the high court if he disputes the results of an election he’s trying to sabotage. This confirmation process is deeply corrupt but you have to give the judge credit for handling herself carefully, courteously and energetically as the hours and her evasions rolled by and the senators bloviated for the election.

 

Her assertions over the years that she follows “the original intent” of the Constitution’s authors in 1787 are laughable, as if anyone could know the full intent of these 18th Century intellectuals. The Founders did know that the Constitution had to change over time as the nation’s conditions, demography and challenges changed; that’s why they included an amendment process!

 

Judge Barrett’s rulings are rife with her personal views and loyalty to the Republican Party.

 

I thought that Perry Bacon well summed  up what she’ll do in a piece in FiveThirtyEight.com – the polling site:

 

“She would likely vote to further dismantle Obamacare, uphold abortion limits that would make it impossible to get an abortion in some states, invalidate most regulations on guns* and back corporations over individuals in most legal matters. She does not seem inclined to recuse herself from a case involving Trump’s election, even as the president has implied that he wants Barrett confirmed, in part, to rule in his favor if election-related issues reach the Supreme Court.’’

 

This is not what most Americans want but America is run by a  privileged, plutocratic minority that doesn’t care what they want.

 

*The rationale for the Second Amendment, written in the time of muskets and swords, is the need, as the amendment says, “for a well-regulated Militia.’’ I guess Mrs. Barrett, who has a gun (as do I –but it’s very old), considers herself a one-woman militia?

 

 

I love how judicial and other nominees to high government positions parade out their children, some very young, as photo ops at confirmation hearings to show that the nominees are wonderful people swimming in family values, however, anti-family might be the effect of some of their decisions. Judge Barrett has seven kids, six of whom were at least one of the hearings. A golden retriever would have been a nice addition.

 

A very soothing picture!

 

xxx

 

I enjoyed hearing Trump spokesperson/official liar Kayleigh McEnany, who has been dealing with her very own COVID case, identify Judge Barrett as a “Rhodes Scholar.’’ Well, sort of: Ms. Barrett is a graduate of Rhodes College, in Memphis.

 

 

How fitting!

Politico reports that a new pro-Trump super PAC ad “uses stock footage from Russia and Belarus, in the fourth time in three months that an ad promoting Trump’s re-election has used footage from Russia,’’ run by Trump’s, er,  murderous mentor Vlad Putin.

Hit this link to read the article:

 

 

The Civics Deficit

Kudos to a group of Rhode Island students for bringing a lawsuit in the federal courts to protest grossly inadequate civics education in the state, which mirrors that around the country. The growing ignorance about civics – and history – partly explains why American politics now is so toxic, and democracy so threatened, looking at them from a treasonous and larcenous gangster in the White House on down to the local level.

Far too many people don’t understand how American government works, or is supposed to work, and so have less political and civic power than they should have as citizens.

 

xxx

 

A great American socio-economic disaster: The vast numbers of unmarried women raising children. Bring back marriage! Bring back paternal responsibility!

 

 

Make Blocking Roads a Felony

“As Columbus announced when he knew he was bounced

It was swell, Isabelle, swell.’’
 

--- From Cole Porter’s 1935 song “Just One of Those Things’’

 

I’m with Rhode Island Democratic state Sen. Leonidas  Raptakis, who wants to make it a felony to block a highway, which is what seven activists promoting “Indigenous Peoples Day’’ and denouncing Christopher Columbus did last Tuesday in Providence on the north-bound side of Route 95, the main street of the East Coast.

This outrageous act, which might have gained the lawless Trump’s “law and order” campaign some voters, could have caused fatal accidents and have blocked such emergency vehicles as fire trucks and ambulances. These idiots belong in the slammer for a good long time. Nobody has a First Amendment right to block essential public infrastructure.

Also, let’s not romanticize Native Americans. Like the hemisphere’s European occupiers, they inflicted their share of horrific brutality. Tribes would fight each other, as well as invading, land-hungry white people, with awful violence. What they didn’t have was immunity to diseases from Europe and Europeans’ weaponry.

 

 

Leave Fallen Leaves

It’s been good to read lately a pushback against the American obsession with lawns, which has been a slow-motion environmental disaster, however pretty they can be. To maintain lawns, as opposed to other ground covers, vast quantities of pesticides and toxic fertilizers are used, polluting bodies of water (and ground water) and killing all sorts of creatures. And the erosion from lawns can be severe.

 

I particularly think of this now, what with leaves covering lawns and homeowners tempted to get the blowers or rakes going and remove all traces of leaves from their lawns. But in fact, decomposing leaves are good for the soil, including the dirt that grass grows in.  They add nitrogen and other important nutrients, keep down weeds, and harbor microbes and insects that are good for plants and birds.

 

Mulch the fallen leaves with a lawnmower if you think that they’re getting too thick. If you have a composter put the excise leaves there or let it decompose in a pile in the corner of your yard.

 

One very unpleasant aspect of autumn life in areas like ours with lots of falling leaves is when homeowners and/or hard-working yard crews (often illegal immigrants), wield shrieking and heavily polluting leaf blowers to clear their lawns. They often blow the leaves into the street, where they clog drains. Many are blown into piles and then trucked to landfills to  take up space at those overloaded sites.

 

 

When There’s No Mask Mandate

Studies of some transit systems suggest that they’re not dangerous unless people don’t wear masks. Very crowded subway systems in Asia and Europe, where people are bumping up against each other, have not seeded pandemic outbreaks, because unlike in crazy Trumpian America, just about everyone wears a mask. Social distancing per se is overrated, as is that theatrical spraying with disinfectant.

 

Unfortunately, there’s no nationwide mask mandate for U.S. public transit, unlike in many other countries. It’s been politicized here, mostly because Trump supporters state their affiliation by refusing to wear masks, thus jeopardizing everyone else’s health.

 

Meanwhile, some states may have to declare harsh new lockdowns because of COVID seeding going on in bars, restaurants, colleges and public events.

 

The MBTA, by the way, is quite safe. Yes, I’ve used it recently to do business in Boston. It’s safer than driving into that city! But given how few people are using it, and the fact that conductors now sometimes don’t collect fares, the agency’s finances are in dire straits.

 

Hit this link to learn more:

 

 

Safe to Fly

Also, it’s safe to fly, according to a Defense Department study. A passenger continuously wearing a face mask would have to sit next to someone with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 for 54 hours to get a dangerous level of exposure through the air. The way air is circulated and filtered on airlines greatly reduces the threat of infection.

 

Being in a moving car or truck, alone or with others, is the most dangerous form of travel for most people.

 

 

xxx

 

When in Boston the other week I noticed that the one newsstand in South Station was closed. Thus, the print media take another hit. Sad. It was always pleasant to pick up a magazine there you’d rarely otherwise see. A small pleasure of travel.

 

On the same trip, I lunched with three diplomats at the University of Massachusetts Club on the 32nd floor of One Beacon Street. Out of perhaps 25 tables, only two were occupied, despite the club’s having one of America’s most dramatic views. And, unlike in the past, there were no newspapers or magazines to browse in the waiting area.

 

 

xxx

 

Many businesses, small and large, have weathered this pandemic by coming up with new ways to collaborate and innovate. They’ve created new structures of teamwork and training and new ways to use communication technology. Surely they have lessons for schools, not only for how to get through COVID-19 but also for how to make themselves more effective for the long term, in disasters, such as now, or in “normalcy”.

 

Perhaps some of New England’s business schools can help create collaborations between companies and schools to share what they’ve learned in this nasty time.

 

 

We’re Slipping on Offshore Wind

New England, with some of the world’s strongest coastal- and offshore-wind resources, seems to be falling behind Mid-Atlantic states in developing those resources.

 

Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, noted recently  in Commonwealth Magazine that:

 

 “In 2016, Massachusetts led the nation with the first offshore wind procurement legislation.  Today, our target (3.2 gigawatt, or GW) is a mere echo of the ambitious targets, long-term strategic plans, and economic investments of states to our south—including New York (9 GW), New Jersey (7.5 GW), and Virginia (5.2 GW).  New York in particular is rapidly claiming the prime, finite wind lease areas off of our coast….

 “Not a single New England state has a long-term roadmap for offshore wind, yet each is dearly hoping that somehow offshore wind will be the workhorse for achieving their climate goals. A recent analysis from the Brattle Group forecasts that offshore wind will be the single largest source of New England’s clean energy by 2050, providing almost 50 percent of our entire power supply with nearly 50 GW.’’

 

This would mean thousands of well-paying jobs for New Englanders.

 

Back in 2007, when  I started work as co-author of a book called Cape Wind about what turned out to be an abortive attempt to put a big wind-turbine farm in the middle of Nantucket Sound  -- blocked by Bill Koch, Cape Cod summer resident and heir to  a vast fossil-fuel fortune -- Charles Koch is his brother -- I would have been surprised by someone telling me how little development there would be since then. The only offshore wind farm  for the region remains the tiny, five-turbine project off Block Island.

 

To read Ms. Henry’s essay, please hit this link:

 

 

Those Jobs Are Gone for Good
 

Republican and Democratic candidates keep talking about bringing back millions of manufacturing jobs; steel and autos have been most cited. But automation/robotics and cheaper  foreign labor mean that won’t happen. Entire industries will shrink and even disappear (such, thank God, as the lethal coal industry). Our policy makers should concentrate on retraining and retooling for new ones, including alternate energy, in which Asia and Europe are ahead of us.
 

The temporary transformation of some companies into making stuff to address the COVID-19 pandemics, as with the very fast conversion of much American industry into military manufacturing in World War II, suggests what can be done.

 

 

Maybe Not So Many

I’ve thought for a few months that the COVID-caused exodus from big cities might have been a tad exaggerated. Now a Bloomberg article hints that.
 

Using U.S. Postal Service data, an analysis shows that while temporary moves surged 27 percent from a year earlier in between February and July, permanent moves only rose 1.9 percent.

 

Of course, some of these temporary moves may become permanent if the pandemic grinds on even  longer than predicted in this dark moment. But I think  that many urban refugees will return to city life, drawn by neighborhood affection and even now by  cities’ variety and vitality. And their housing costs there will likely fall for a while, particularly attractive for the middle class, which has found it increasingly hard to afford living in America’s richest cities, such as Boston, New York and San Francisco.

 

But they’ll be spending less time working in offices and more in their apartments.

 

To read the Bloomberg article, please hit this link:

 

 

 

They Went South

I chatted the other day with someone whose family I knew well in my boyhood. I asked about his siblings. He answered: “Ah,’’ followed by a silence and then a tale of woe of bad luck and bad behavior. When they and I were young, they seemed set for golden lives. It was unsettling but a lesson in contingency.

 

While I had not talked with this person since the late ‘60s, I was surprised, indeed shocked, by how clearly my memories, and his, came flooding back.

 

xxx

 

 

There’s something about the sound of the wind through tall trees that evokes the speeding up of time.

 

 

Hurricane History

This should grab some local readers, especially those who live along the shore: Eric Jay Dolin’s new book: Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes. Mr. Dolin’s book includes stuff about some of the worst of these storms to have hit New England.

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