Whitcomb: Respectable Raimondo Years; URI’s Dr. General Flynn, Gravest National Security Threat

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

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Robert Whitcomb, columnist

“…Pilgrim,

stranger, whatever you care to call yourself,

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you who stood there above the waters

spelling the Connecticut, my thanks for waking me

to such splendid weather before the traffic

crashed back over us again in torrents

and I lost you in the slanting rearview mirror.’’

-- From “A Break in the Weather,’’ by Paul Mariani (born 1940), an American poet and professor emeritus of literature at Boston College

“It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.’’

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Supreme Court justice and solicitor general and perhaps best known as the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, which served as a coda to a long stretch of Fascist brutality. Now we face less coherent but violent actions from American Neo-Fascists led by Trump.

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We’ll know that spring is getting close when new buds start to push out those old brown leaves still hideously hanging on the oak trees

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Governor Gina Raimondo PHOTO: GoLocal's Richard McCaffrey

I think that Gina Raimondo has been a good – and moderate -- Rhode Island governor, though she looked better before the pandemic. A sort of Truman Democrat. She has emphasized and implemented essential policies for the long-term improvement of the state and has run an honest administration, with generally competent people to assist her. Did purely political decisions intervene from time to time? Of course, like everywhere. All human life is “political’’ in some ways. Taking care of your friends and allies, etc….

I especially note her emphasis on boosting education, including vocational training; starting to rebuild the state’s infamously crumbing physical infrastructure; luring businesses into the state, and helping those already here expand. That’s not to say that all those economic-development initiatives were wise and worked out well. Too many variables. And officials of every state, including Rhode Island, tend to focus too much on luring big, name-brand companies to move there; the companies almost always break their promises about jobs.

Ms. Raimondo’s incentives have worked particularly well in some industries, such as the food sector. I do wish that she had been able or willing to work closely with Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, both for him to take on some of her heavy load so she could focus better on the biggest problems and to use his special interest in education reform and small business. But there’s apparently a lot of enmity between them, and they have rarely spoken, at least in the past couple of years. This is another example of why the governor and lieutenant governor should run together in elections as a team, like the U.S. president and vice president. A governor should be able to use the lieutenant governor as his/her most important deputy.

Through it all, Governor Raimondo has done her job with calm, high intelligence and generally good humor. That’s despite the fact, that, as with many women officials, she has been subjected to more vitriol than male officials usually get. (They sure hated Hilary Clinton!)

Take a look at Facebook comments. White males tend to be the most toxic, angry that they may not have forever the advantages they’ve always had over everyone else. Besides social media, I’m in various right-wing/Trumpian text and email systems. I see this stuff all day. It ain’t pretty. Worse than Joe McCarthy.

On the pandemic, of course, her administration has made mistakes and miscalculations, as all governors have. Some of them stemmed from outdated and erroneous information from various public- and private-sector sources. But then, the expert guidance changes by the minute. I do think that there were several times when the governor should have declared a near-total lockdown to stop the spread of the disease but declined to do so because of its short-term economic effects and political outcry. But the longer-term public-health and economic effects of not imposing a lockdown can be far worse. And, sad to say, Rhode Island’s vaccination program still looks chaotic, as it does in many other states. Still, much of the blame can be laid at the door of Trump regime, whose nonmanagement of vaccine distribution has been disastrous.

In the fullness of time, after we’ve all been jabbed in the arm, people can calmly review her pandemic record and make solid judgments. For now, I note that the location and demographics of the Ocean State make it very vulnerable to this unprecedented-since-1918 public-health challenge: It’s the second-most densely populated state (after New Jersey), between two big cities (New York and Boston) and on the Main Street of the East Coast (Route 95), and has a disproportionate number of very dense and poor urban neighborhoods.

I would have preferred that the governor stick around for another, say, six months to oversee the rest of the pandemic response, especially vaccination rollouts. At 49, she is still quite young, and could have expected to get other Biden administration job offers in the next year or two.

As for Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, I much admire his efforts for public-education reform and for small business. He’ll have his hands full taking over state government during the current public-health, economic and social crises. Again, I wish that Governor Raimondo had given him more duties, which would have gained him more direct statewide administrative experience. But he’s a calm guy and has seen a lot in his 69 years. I think that he’ll do okay in these tough times.

Texas, a right-wing state, and California, a center-left one, took different approaches to dealing with the pandemic. They’re both, like Rhode Island, in bad shape. That shows the difficulty posed by the novelty and mysteries of the virus, exacerbated by so many Americans’ refusal to adopt basic and very simple public-health protections. Hit this link to read a fascinating article on this:

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I’m sure that many people have noted the very large number of immigrants amongst health-care workers and expert talking heads in this pandemic. Bless ‘em.

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The pharmaceutical sector is moving very fast indeed to come up with more vaccines against COVID-19. Clinical trials are a key part of bringing them to market. I’m in one myself, for a Novavax vaccine.

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I gave blood a few weeks ago, something I hadn’t done in a long while. I was intrigued by how many more diseases they must check you for these days. In any event, give blood if you can!

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A medical appointment forced me to drive to the hideous Bald Hill Road in Warwick the other day. I try to avoid large parts of Warwick because its sprawl reminds me of Los Angeles or Route 1 in New Jersey. That, in turn, reminds me of former Public’s Radio and Providence Journal journalist Scott MacKay’s quip that “Florida is Bald Hill Road with palmettos.’’

I’ve had a lot of medical appointments lately (sorry, FB Trumpsters at the bottom of this column, nothing lethal yet) and noticed yet again the extreme inefficiencies in American health care. For example, one has to fill out form after form after form asking the identical information that was asked before by the same organization. The information integration and record keeping are abysmal. This, of course, raises the cost and crashes the efficiency.

The American health-care system is by far the costliest and least efficient in the Developed World. You’d think that the land that brought the world hyper-computerization could do better!

How Unusual!

Whoa, a U.S. labor secretary who will be pro-labor instead of pro-plutocrat (the case under the outgoing gangster in the Oval Office)! President-elect Biden has named the very successful mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, to be the next labor secretary.

Mr. Walsh used to run the Boston Building Trades, among other union positions, before he became mayor. He understands the needs of working people. But he also understands business and has continued the nurturing of Boston’s economic climate that characterized his predecessor, Tom Menino. So Boston has continued to be one of the richest, most dynamic cities in America under his tenure. Yes, you can be pro-labor and pro-business. Indeed, such a mating is the best for the long-term health of the economy.

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And ‘So It Goes’ With the GOP

“So it goes” is the phrase most associated with Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The phrase was used after someone's (or something's) death is described or mentioned in the novel.

The decades-long descent of much of the national Republican (QAnon, Confederate, Proud Boys, etc.) Party into brazen-lie-based kleptocratic fascism, or neo-fascism, and treason, and now led by a psychotic gangster, has come to be the greatest threat to American democracy and national security. Will many Republican officials cast off their customary gutlessness and double talk and try to reverse this? (BTW, I come from a Republican background and indeed for a time was a registered member of this now disgraced and dangerous organization myself.)

I doubt it; they have minimal consciences. I have covered politics from time to time over the past half century, in various places, and I’ve never seen such craven pusillanimity

in regards to pols’ corrupt leaders as with these bogus “conservatives.’’ Still, to be more forgiving, I note that some GOP congresspeople voted against impeachment last week because they feared that crazed Trump disciples would kill them for betraying their God on Earth. You see what a bed they have made for themselves while imperiling the nation that they swore an oath to defend.

I also note that some Republican congresspeople, who, sucking up to their Fuhrer and his base, refuse to wear masks, infected some of their colleagues during the assault of the storm troopers on the Capitol Jan. 6. Typical. And, of course, some refuse to go through the metal detectors installed to discourage their followers, or maybe even the GOP/QAnon reps themselves, from taking “executive action’’ with their beloved guns in the House and Senate chambers.

Meanwhile, the amateur fascists on social media, etc., swim 24/7 in lie-and propaganda media machines (Newsmax, Parler, Fox, far-right talk radio, etc.) bankrolled by far-right billionaires, such as the Mercers. These “aristocrats’’ are expert at suckering willfully ignorant, already bigotry-inclined dolts to elect people who will further expand the plutocrats’ wealth and power at the expense of the middle class.

To be sure, a few of the direct terrorists are rich themselves, and the fact is that the average Trump voter has an income a bit above the American median income. As the British say, “I’m all right, Jack.’’

“Conservative” German businessmen gave money to Hitler, thinking they could control him. Utter cynicism. The rich folks who finance these media outlets also remind me of how the Southern Planter Class used race hatred to rile up poor and middle class whites and divert them from how they were being screwed by the Planters.

Today’s ever-more-powerful self-perpetuating plutocracy is using far-right media to strangle democracy in America.

A reminder again:

The 2020 election results were far and away the fairest and most hyper-verified (in Republican and Democratic states) in American history.

Biden’s inauguration should be held indoors, for security’s sake.

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Sheldon Adelson has died at 87. He’s the sleazoid international casino operator (but I repeat myself) who enlarged national public corruption with his massive campaign donations, made easier by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, in 2010. That ruling accelerated the long process of further empowering powerful economic interests at the expense of average Americans and democracy. But then, considering that the casino industry is soaked in corruption (yes, including the gambling palaces around here) it’s fitting!

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“Secretary of State” Mike Pompeo, continuing his Dear Leader’s diversionary-seeming obsession with Iran, asserts that al-Qaeda is in cahoots with it. Al-Qaeda is Sunni Muslim; Iran is Shiite. The two branches of Islam hate each other. The Iranian theocratic dictatorship, as bad as it is, is better than the more murderous and tyrannical Saudi regime, with which Trump and his family are in nice, tight sleeping bags.

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Ret. General Flynn receiving an honorary degree from URI President Dooley

Many people in and out of government have long felt that the former (and very briefly) Trump national security adviser the criminal, volatile, enraged Michael Flynn, a Rhode Island native who remains a fervent Trump acolyte, is insane. Well, he is: He’s a loyal member of QAnon. But then insanity has been spreading like wildfire in the past few years in America.

QAnon is an absurd, easily disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory and movement alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles are running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against Trump, who is fighting the cabal. Of course, these alleged perverts are Democrats, say Flynn and his fellow lunatics.

What a country!

As insanity swells, charlatans prosper.

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President Teddy Roosevelt

An Updated New Deal Urgently Needed

I saw a rerun of the PBS show A Day in the Life of America the other night. There are some pockets of joy in it, but lots of socio-economic despair, in a country where so many of the privileged (many because of huge inheritances, not hard work and ingenuity) show less and less concern for their fellow citizens. “Trickle down’’ economics has been a disaster for many Americans. And the general decline of traditional values, such as marriage and personal rectitude, has also wreaked social and economic havoc. We all have had a hand in that. And I don’t think that encouraging an obsession with one’s racial or sexual identity will help make things better….

What to do? Raise tax rates on the rich and upper middle class to help pay for big job-training programs and rebuilding America’s crumbling physical infrastructure. These moves would employ people with good wages and provide useful training. It would also make the country more competitive and reduce, at least a tad, the immense and growing unfair political-power advantages of the very, very rich. Think of it as a WPA souped up by information technology.

Taxes should also be raised to address the yawning federal debt and to ensure the preservation of the programs that the great mass of the public demand (though of course many don’t want to pay for), including such “socialist’’ programs as Medicare and Social Security, the Interstate Highway System, etc., etc.

Take heed of the words of Theodore Roosevelt, one of three best Republican presidents – the others were Lincoln and Eisenhower. None of them would have had anything to do with the current organization. (I speak of the national party. A few of the very best governors are Republicans; consider Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker, Vermont’s Phil Scott and Maryland’s Larry Hogan.). TR wrote:

“In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows.”

What’s With Dubious State Consulting Contract for RIC?

The public is owed an investigation into why and how the State of Rhode Island has been spending $76,000 a week for a New York consulting firm with a no-bid contract to advise Rhode Island College, now with a $10 million deficit, how to get out of its fiscal hole. The state Council on Postsecondary Education signed this contract on Dec. 14. After The Boston Globe got wind of this fragrant deal, the contract was cancelled.

The firm, Alvarez & Marsal, was supposed to provide “analysis and recommendations related to programmatic, operational and financial improvements’’ (the usual bureaucratic babble). Why can’t somebody at RIC do that, if it is needed, which I doubt? Indeed, in many years of covering business and government I have rarely seen anything particularly useful come out of expensive consulting contracts. They’re about as useful as “strategic plans,’’ most of which fall apart as reality hits them; I have had to write some myself. Generally a waste of time!

Rhode Island has several business schools. Why couldn’t somebody in-state get this work, assuming that it was necessary? Why Alvarez & Marsal? Is it “I know a guy’’?

And

“The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.” That includes the rule of law, including property rights, public physical and social infrastructure, including public safety, without which the rich would find it very difficult to make and maintain fortunes.

Or, as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.’’

An 1852 committee appointed by the governor of Vermont wrote a report for the legislature which included the following:

“Taxation is the price which we pay for civilization, for our social, civil and political institutions, for the security of life and property, and without which, we must resort to the law of force.’’

Whitcomb: Respectable Raimondo Years; URI’s Dr. General Flynn, Gravest National Security Threat

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Whitcomb: Respectable Raimondo Years; URI’s Dr. General Flynn, Gravest National Security Threat

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