Robert Whitcomb: ‘All-Electric’ Future; Worcester Better Run? Genocidal Columbus? Another Religious
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Robert Whitcomb: ‘All-Electric’ Future; Worcester Better Run? Genocidal Columbus? Another Religious
Went out like beauty from a face."
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-- Edwin Arlington Robinson
"All politics is based on the indifference of the majority.’’
-- The late New York Times journalist James Reston
In what must be giving the oil industry the shakes, General Motors and Ford will make a big push to switch to making electric cars and trucks from internal-combustion-engine-run vehicles, whose origins go back to the 19th Century.
GM, the largest U.S. automaker, says it will move to an “all-electric future’’ over the next decade and plans 20 new all-electric models by 2023. Ford, for its part, says it will bring out 13 electric vehicle models over the next few years.
The companies are in part driven by China, which is pushing hard to replace all gasoline-powered vehicles with electric ones, partly for environmental reasons and partly to reduce its dependence on oil from very insecure regions, especially the Mideast and West Africa.
Such major nations as China, Britain, and France have made it a policy to eventually ban all sales of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.
President Trump, still obsessed with pleasing his base in coal states, has now thrown out President Obama’s power-plant emission-reduction program mostly aimed at addressing the global-warming effects of burning coal to generate electricity.
For a while, some of his backers may continue to believe that his action will dramatically increase the number of coal-mining and related jobs. But it won’t, because cheap natural gas from fracking and ever more affordable “green energy’’ from solar, wind power, hydro, etc., will make coal mining look economically worse and worse – beyond its devastating effects on health and the environment. Those effects include pollution of streams from mercury and other toxic minerals associated with coal mining, erosion and the general despoiling of the environment, particularly in Appalachia. Take a drive through parts of southwest Virginia, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky and you’ll see what I’m writing about. This isn’t just about air pollution from burning coal.
Coal is yesterday’s fuel.
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So what explains the rating difference? I’d guess Providence’s continuing failure to get its pension and other employee costs under control is the biggest factor. That’s at least in part because Worcester has a city manager system, which encourages professional (“technocratic’’) administration with far more insulation from political and special-interest pressures (e.g., municipal unions) than you get in a traditional mayoral system like Providence’s. The lower the bond rating, the higher the interest rate that a city must pay and the higher the taxes to pay the bond interest.
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Columbus Day this year predictably included denunciations of the explorer and the colonialists who accompanied and followed him. Columbus, et al., was presented as world-historically brutal and are blamed for presiding over a huge genocide.
But members of Native American tribes were just as brutal to members of other tribes and to European usurpers. They just didn’t have the equipment (particularly guns) to defeat the far more technologically advanced Europeans, and, of course, their numbers rapidly declined after the European arrival because they didn't have immunity from the diseases brought over from Europe.
As for the African slaves brought over to the Americas by Europeans, we ought to remember that it was African chiefs who captured these poor souls and sold them to the Europeans. For that matter, slavery still exists in Africa.
People of all shades and nationalities are brutal.
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You have to suspect that the Russians have been doing their best through cyber and other tools to encourage the crazy Catalonia independence movement. Russia’s fascist dictator, Vladimir Putin, works hard to undermine the West by fomenting division and distrust and distributing fake news within and between countries. His strategy has performed well in America, with the help of members of the Trump circle, and in parts of eastern Europe.
Moscow will keep relentlessly trying to break up NATO and the European Union so that Russia can reestablish control in the nations of Eastern Europe that broke free of it with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Meanwhile, I have to ask why any Western organization would do business with Kaspersky, the Russian cybersecurity and anti-virus company that Putin uses as a cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare tool against the West. Anyone in the West concerned about Russian aggression should cancel any link with Kaspersky immediately. That includes National Public Radio, which gets money from it.
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As The Boston Globe reported: “The lack of organization on a rotary was both its beauty – cars could move quickly through them if the traffic was light, barely touching the brakes – and its chief problem, especially as traffic volumes swelled over the decades.’’ To read The Globe’s story, please hit this link:
So what’s the difference between a rotary and a roundabout? Here’s at least a partial explanation from City of Brooklyn Center:
“No lane changes occur within a roundabout. Except for vehicles that are turning right, entering a roundabout is a ‘crossing’ movement. A rotary is typically large, with entry speeds of 40 mph or higher. A roundabout is generally small; speeds are rarely more than 25 mph.’’
And from Northeastern University:
“Rotaries are typically a hundred to a few hundred feet across. Because the circle is so large, traffic moves very quickly. An important aspect is the tangential entries and exits. Speeds are 30-40 mph or higher because vehicles can drive straight onto the rotary with little or no deflection. The tangential entries also make it confusing for drivers.’’
“A modern day roundabout is very different from a rotary…. In a roundabout, the entering traffic approaches at a smaller angle than that of a rotary. Vehicles enter at an angle closer to 90 degrees. Drivers know they must yield before entering the roundabout. Because the diameter is smaller, and all cars must yield, the speed of traveling vehicles is approximately 25 mph or less.’’
“Another reason vehicles travel at slower speeds {in a roundabout} is that they are deflected. No vehicle can travel straight through the roundabout. All traffic is deflected around the center island and forced to only make right turns. This is much safer for vehicles as well as pedestrians and cyclists trying to cross.’’
Rotaries are traffic free-for-alls; roundabouts are a major organizational and safety improvement. The rotary is a bit of New England quaintness we can do without. Visitors to New England from elsewhere have often complained about rotaries, of which New England has the greatest density in America. Because it’s basically the oldest part of the country?
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In Europe, it’s very common to name streets, bridges, parks and other public infrastructure after scientists, visual artists, writers, actors and directors. But in the United States, very few pieces of public infrastructure are named after these creative types.
So it was pleasant to learn that Congress might turn one of the rare public places in America named for an artist --- the Augustus Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, in Cornish, N.H. -- into a full-scale National Park, the first one in New Hampshire. Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) was a famous American sculptor and a major figure in the Cornish Art Colony, which also included such luminaries as the painter Maxfield Parrish. The buildings (including studio) and grounds are gorgeous. Across the Connecticut River in Vermont can be seen Mt. Ascutney, the subject of many paintings done by members of the Cornish colony. The fame of the Cornish Art Colony may have led writer J.D. Salinger to move to the small town and became a famous recluse. I was in a class with his ex-wife Claire at nearby Dartmouth College; we never talked about Salinger.
And in Providence, there’s a move underway to make Megee Street, on College Hill, Bannister Street instead, after a distinguished 19th Century African-American painter and (of course) abolitionist Edward Bannister and his wife, Christiana, a businesswoman and philanthropist. The street is now named for the early 19th Century slave trader (one voyage) William Fairchild Megee, who was also involved in the China Trade (think opium). The latter business was Providence’s first great source of Big Money. (A lot of it was then invested in the city’s new textile, metal-related and other factories.)
Mr. Bannister was a co-founder of the venerable Providence Art Club and served on the board of the Rhode Island School of design.
So renaming the street would serve at least two good symbolic missions. I realize the name change would inconvenience people living on Megee, whose mail would probably be disrupted for months.
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Many years ago, when I worked at the Boston Herald Traveler (RIP), I was amused that late summer and early fall brought lots of phone calls from gardeners and farmers claiming that they had grown the world’s largest vegetable – be it a tomato, a cucumber, a pumpkin, a gourd, etc.
So reading about the achievement of Joe Jutras, of Scituate, R.I., in reportedly growing a world-record-size pumpkin, a record-long gourd and the heaviest squash was a nice nostalgia trip. Of course, while Mr. Jutras’s huge vegetables are impressive (if useless), it’s very unlikely that they’d be considered records if all of the world’s many millions of farmers could have submitted their freaks.
But what do vegetables of these sizes taste like?
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Lee Smith has a nifty story in The Weekly Standard about why the long-whispered truth about the odious sexual predator, Clinton pal, Democratic contributor, former Steve Bannon partner and mega Hollywood producer is finally coming out now. It’s revolting that so many luminaries shielded this creature for so long.
Among the Lee Smith’s observations:
“….That’s why the story about Harvey Weinstein finally broke now. It’s because the media industry that once protected him has collapsed. The magazines that used to publish the stories Miramax {the original name of the Weinstein operation} optioned can’t afford to pay for the kind of reporting and storytelling that translates into screenplays. They’re broke because Facebook and Google have swallowed all the digital advertising money that was supposed to save the press as print advertising continued to tank.’’
To read the piece, please hit this link:
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As Massachusetts goes gaga over the prospect of getting Amazon’s “second headquarters,’’ here’s a little context from Craig Douglas, director of editorial research and analysis at Boston Business Journal:
“What Albuquerque’s favorite son {Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos} is accomplishing, and the ruthless speed at which he is accomplishing it, is unprecedented.
“He’s had lots of help along the way.
“Americans have supported the Bezos surge in two distinct ways: by buying everything from dog food to diamonds on Amazon.com and by kicking in at least $1.24 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies and incentives that have fueled the company’s growth across the country. That figure does not include hundreds-of-millions of dollars in additional breaks from deals to phase in state sales taxes, nor does it include dozens of hard-to-quantify tax abatements and land arrangements struck with a mosaic of towns, counties and school districts along the way.’’
Have these giveaways really been worth it economically, if you include the devastation to local retailing done by Amazon? Perhaps the convenience trumps everything else.
To read Mr. Douglas’s piece, please hit this link:
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Marine-related industries should be a great competitive advantage for Rhode Island, for geographic and historical reasons. Thus the Youth Summer Boatbuilding Program launched by the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association and the International Yacht Restoration School’s School of Technology & Trades in 2009 is a terrific idea. Each summer, students in the program create a seaworthy vessel.
As Providence Business News reported in an Oct.6-12 editorial, “Summer shipbuilding program a great idea but needs follow-up’’:
“The program has grown from eight students that first year to 49 this past summer….{but} unfortunately RIMTA and its partners have not done a good job of tracking what the participants go on to do. Have they entered the marine trades?’’
Good question.
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More news from the crooks-and-suckers world of the religion industry:
Roy Moore, the Bible-thumping, Trump-loving former Alabama chief justice and now extreme right-wing GOP candidate for the U.S, Senate, arranged to get $180,000 a year for part-time work at the Foundation for Moral Law, although he had asserted that he didn’t take a “regular salary’’ from this dubious evangelical outfit, The Washington Post reported. The organization has also covered his health-care benefits, travel expenses and bodyguard as he has used it to promote his political career and other personal interests.
The foundation is a nonprofit and so doesn’t pay taxes. So we the taxpayers have been subsidizing this sweetheart deal.
Mr. Moore got more than $1 million in total compensation as president from 2007 to 2012, an amount “that far surpassed what the group disclosed in its public tax filings most of those years,’’ The Post reported. The Moore outfit has done its best to keep the payments as opaque as possible.
Further, the foundation “has employed at least two of Moore’s children, although their compensation is not reflected in tax filings. Moore’s wife, Kayla, who is now president, was paid a total of $195,000 over three years through 2015.”
In recent years, Moore’s compensation has amounted to about a third of the contributions to the group.
So the foundation is a Tea Party political group that also enriches the Moores. Why anyone would give a cent to Moore, Pat Robertson, the Falwells or the many other snake-oil salesmen in the religion-political complex is beyond me.
To read more, please hit this link:
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After George W. Bush got big tax cuts (mostly for his fellow rich people), the economy eventually crashed after George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton got tax rises, the economy boomed. Economies are complicated….
Raimondo's Tenure as Governor - The Good, Bad, & Ugly
UGLY: Ethics Violation for Lally
Right out of the box in 2015, the Raimondo administration tapped State Representative Don Lally for a slot at the Department of Business Regulations — before he had been out of office for one year.
The Ethics Commission found that the appointment violated the Rhode Island ethics laws.
BAD: Appointment of McDonald
In 2015, the appointment of the former aide to former Governors Don Carcieri and Lincoln Chafee, Jamie McDonald, to head DCYF when she did not have the minimum qualifications turned out to be a BAD decision that led to UGLY outcomes. The agency was investigated by a division of the federal Department of Health & Human Services and found to have violated more than two dozen policies.
BAD: Out-of-State Staffers
It was supposed to be a strategy of bringing new ideas and new people in to elevate Rhode Island, but it turned out to be a collection of unemployed staffers from the Governor’s office in Maryland (back when Hillary was the Presidential front-runner...and national ties oh-so-appealing).
They were ineffective and dismissive of Rhode Islanders. A number of them are gone.
UGLY: Raimondo’s Initial Toll Plan
The initial toll plan proposed by the Raimondo administration was government funding as its worse.
The architect of Raimondo’s truck toll infrastructure plan is the same firm that the State of Rhode Island litigated against, for its role in the state’s loss of over $100 million in the 38 Studios collapse.
First Southwest was a key defendant in the state of Rhode Island's effort to recover the millions in loss loan funds and damages. Ultimately, the firm settled - and paid $16 million.
GOOD: Final Toll Plan
Rhode Island has the 47th ranked roads and bridges and the final truck toll plan minimized the influence and costs of the program. The House trimmed back Raimondo’s initial plan and shifted the structure of financing minimizing the Wall Street boondoggle.
Now, roads are getting fixed.
UGLY: Blocking Release of 38 Studios Documents
In October of 2016, GoLocal filed suit asking the court to force Raimondo to require her administration to release the State Police 38 Studios interview notes. Raimondo repeatedly claimed that they could not be released because they were tied to the Grand Jury.
That simply was not true and a few months later many of those documents were released, but not all.
GoLocal continued to press for all of the State Police records.
UGLY: Fate of Children at DCYF
As GoLocal reported in April of 2017, "In Rhode Island, ten babies all under 18-months old, have died in the past 26 months, and at a recent State House hearing, it was disclosed by the state’s Child Advocate that two new 'near deaths' are now under investigation."
The disclosure was made during a House Finance sub-committee meeting in which most of the subcommittee's members were missing for the majority of the meeting.
BAD: McDonald Goes to Work at Deloitte
The revolving door from government, to private consultants that have contracts with the government always raises questions, but in this case it was simply inappropriate for Jamia McDonald, who was neither qualified nor competent at running DCYF to go to work for UHIP contractor Deloitte (who has not demonstrated many competencies).
Raimondo should have told Deloitte not to do it.
GREAT: Jobs Numbers
By the end of 2019 Rhode Island hit a record number of Rhode Islanders working — just over 530,000. The long recovery from the Great Recession appeared over.
Rhode Island's job growth mirrored the national growth.
GREAT: Girls and Coding
Raimondo has pounded a constant beat to encourage girls and young women to focus on education and careers in technology.
Raimondo has supported the group Girls Who Code, which states: Women represent one of the single largest untapped sources of talent in the technology field and according to new research, only 24% of technology jobs are held by women today. Solving this challenge demands a tailored and sequenced series of actions starting in junior high school that is sustained throughout high school and college.
BAD: Deloitte Sponsorship
Just days after blasting UHIP consultant Deloitte, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo spoke at a conference in California -- sponsored by Deloitte.
"We paid them a lot of money, we didn’t get what we paid for," Raimondo said at the time of Deloitte's involvement in the UHIP debacle. "And they represented to us that it was in much better shape than in fact it was: defective functionality, incomplete interfaces, engines that still aren’t working."
Days later, Raimondo was en route to headline the Deloitte-sanctioned event.
"Deloitte is not paying for any of the travel," said Raimondo spokesperson David Ortiz. "She had already committed to be at the event, and was able to have a private conversation with the CEO of Deloitte Consulting, who committed to being in regular communication with the Governor."
GOOD: Cost of College Funding
Raimondo deserves credit for bringing attention to the issue of the high cost of college education. Ultimately, her proposal got severely trimmed back and she insisted on a number of provisions which undermined the program — no means test, no requirement for grads to work in Rhode Island and minimum GPA at a measly 2.5.
But, give credit where credit is due.
UGLY: Perception of Staff Self-Dealing - Smiley Inc.
While working for Governor Raimondo, Chief-of Staff Brett Smiley owned a political consulting business that represents clients including Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, and he hired his consulting firm’s former staffers to work in the Governor’s office. Smiley earned more than $170,000 per year in his role for Raimondo.
Providence City records showed that he and his husband Jim DeRentis sold their house to Brown University for $1.1 million — 30% more than the assessed value of the house at $843,600.
UGLY: Perception of Staff Self-Dealing - Neuman and DraftKings
Boston-based DraftKings is a “fantasy sports” startup company that is now valued in excess of $1 billion, and is under fire in many states for being an unregulated gambling venture.
After Neuman’s wife was hired, only then did he seek an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission on how to handle a potential conflict moving forward, but the letter seeking the advisory opinion did not speak to Neuman’s involvement in legislation during his wife’s hiring process.
GOOD: DMV Reboot
Rhode Island DMV has been the “House of Pain” for years and faced with a major upgrade to the software, the Raimondo administration (maybe for the first time) under promised and over delivered.
The process was not perfect, but it was without a major tech failure and the outcome is an improved customer experience.
GOOD: Raimondo Releasing Tax Returns
One of the few times Raimondo demonstrated transparency — Raimondo and her husband released their tax returns annually.
UGLY: Raimondo's Ownership in Point Judith Capitol While RI Had an Investment in the Firm
Raimondo's ownership in Point Judith while she was General Treasurer and Governor had the appearance of self-dealing and conflict of interest.
BAD: Raimondo’s Invenergy Position
It was hard to know exactly what Gina Raimondo’s position is on the controversial gas powered power plant proposed for Burrillville. When the plant was proposed, she strongly endorsed the project.
Then, Raimondo said she would leave it to the State's Siting Council to determine the project's fate. Then, she took campaign donations from top officials with the company and their agents. Then she said she regretted "putting her thumb on the scale" of the process.
Which one was it?
She then faced an opponent whose primary political focus had been fighting Invenergy.
19.
UGLY: Raimondo Gives $3.6 M to Los Angeles “Slum Lord”
Governor Gina Raimondo and the Board of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation voted in September of 2016 to provide Urban Smart Growth — which is run by controversial developer Lance Robbins — up to a maximum of $3,569,657 in Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credits.
However, one of the top advocacy lawyers in the country, Lauren Saunders, told GoLocalProv.com following the announcement that “Robbins was one of the most dishonest and unscrupulous people I have come across in my career working for vulnerable tenants and consumers. I cannot imagine entrusting any (public) money to him.”
Despite Rhode Island leaders questioning the decision, the Raimondo administration pushed forward.
20.
MIXED: Combating Opioid Abuse
Governor Gina Raimondo signed several pieces of legislation strengthening Rhode Island’s response to the opioid crisis.
"This epidemic is our single greatest public health crisis, and the legislation I signed today will help our state fight back and save lives. I hear stories from families hurt by overdose everywhere I go. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Rhode Island have spiked in the past year, and I commend the General Assembly for passing legislation that specifically targets this problem. By ensuring that patients are aware of the risks of opioid addiction and increasing the penalties for trafficking fentanyl, we are steps closer to winning this fight,” said Raimondo.
However, in 2018, the Centers for Disease Control released data that showed that the number of Rhode Islanders who died from opioid overdoses increased from 2016 to 2017.
In 2020, RI ranked high for overall drug abuse.
UGLY: UHIP
Raimondo has overseen the greatest financial failure, staffing failure, and human failure for Rhode Islanders -- ever.
Rhode Island Auditor General Dennis Hoyle said that the state had "unrealistic expectations" regarding the rollout of UHIP - and that project costs to develop the integrated eligibility system known as UHIP/RIBridges and HealthSource RI totaled $407.3 million at April 30, 2017.
The auditor’s report includes observations -- including that there was "a near-term over-emphasis of purported savings" - and that the state "did not have an established and staffed project management function in place to support and facilitate the state’s oversight of this large and very complex technology initiative."
A federal court had to intervene and assign a special master to ensure that low-income Rhode Islanders get their food stamps.
By the end, the cost of UHIP was more than $700 million.
UGLY: Budget Management
Raimondo was supposed to enter office as an experienced budget manager — both from her experience as a venture capitalist and as Rhode Island’s General Treasurer.
But in 2017, the budget shortfall (as of September 2017) was more than $230 million.
Every year was a budget fiasco and she leaves office with Rhode Island facing an estimated $500 million deficit.
GREAT: Wexford
Between federal and state investments in moving I-195, roughly a billion dollars has been spent over nearly 20 years. Raimondo deserves credit for breaking the logjam.
"For too long, the I-195 land was nothing but dirt," Raimondo said at the Wexford groundbreaking. "Today marks the start of something transformational, not just for this land, but for our state and its economy. This complex will become the epicenter of Rhode Island's resurgence, creating jobs at every rung of the ladder, from janitors to Ph.D. computer scientists. We've worked hard for this, and we are finally seeing the results of our efforts. Wexford, Cambridge Innovation Center, Johnson & Johnson, Brown University and others are making an investment in Rhode Island because we are making crucial, forward-thinking investments in our people and in our economy. This is just the beginning."
UGLY: Wexford's False Claims, Lack of Transparency, and Mismanagement
In an interview with GoLocal, Raimondo continued to refuse to answer questions about the leases between Wexford and Brown University, Cambridge Innovation Center, and Johnson & Johnson, citing that they are private -- and unconcerned as to whether Rhode Islanders should know where their $40 million is going to.
A GoLocal investigation found that the permanent job claims for the Wexford project by the Raimondo administration were inflated.
Raimondo had repeatedly claimed that the project will create 1,000 new permanent jobs in Rhode Island. After weeks of requesting information about tenants, rents, and job creation, GoLocal was finally able to secure actual job numbers for the project and then fact check those claims.
In fact, actual jobs created will be closer to 80 to 90.
$1 Million Wasted
A GoLocal investigation uncovered that the Raimondo administration will waste $1 million for incentives building out space for Johnson & Johnson.
The monies go to the private developer Wexford and in two years, Johnson & Johnson will leave to move into another Wexford space — which is receiving $40 million in incentives.
UGLY: Lack of Support to Rhode Island Small Businesses
Under Governor Gina Raimondo, the agency in charge of building Rhode Island’s economy has spent 65 percent of its contract dollars with out-of-state companies over two years.
Nearly $8 million of taxpayer dollars went to consultants as far away as New York, Toronto, London, and Frankfurt under the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Even the money spent on porta-johns contracted for Volvo races went to out-of-state interests by an overwhelming margin.
Havas Got as Much as All of Rhode Island
No companies scored more consulting dollars than consulting businesses located in New York. Havas, the public relations firm that oversaw the development of the tourism campaign that included the now infamous promotion video for Rhode Island that included footage from Iceland, received payment in the past two years more than $4 million — $4,114,025.78 according to data provided to GoLocal from Commerce.
Havas has been paid nearly as much as all Rhode Island contracts combined during the past two years.
UGLY: Tourism Campaign
It was a state, national, and global embarrassment.
Gina Raimondo, accustomed to getting glowing national press, was suddenly not just in the Rhode Island media glare, but under national scrutiny for the botched rollout of the state's tourism campaign in 2015.
“The campaign’s rocky start marks a public setback for Governor Gina Raimondo, a Democrat and former venture capitalist who has basked in waves of positive press since taking office in early 2015,” wrote Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe.
“A world-renowned designer was hired. Market research was conducted. A $5 million marketing campaign was set. What could go wrong?” quipped Katharine Seeyle for The New York Times in the post-mortem a week later. “Everything, it turns out.”
“The anatomy of a disastrous state branding campaign,” wrote Aarian Marshall for City Lab for The Atlantic Cities. “After Rhode Island’s epic screw-up, a five-step guide to doing better.”
A reboot was more successful, but the "Warmer and Cooler" campaign is forever a scar - and an ongoing joke - in the Rhode Island psyche.
UGLY: RI's Reputation for Business
CNBC annually ranks states for being best for business. Their 2019 list - its last ranking before the pandemic - had RI 50th.
When the ranking came out, Governor Gina Raimondo was not in Rhode Island — she was at a tech conference in Idaho — and she Raimondo refused to answer press questions on RI’s last-place ranking in CNBC’s "Best States to Do Business" for 2019.
UGLY: Raimondo and Sackler Money Became a National Embarrassment PART I
Two leading activists — who gained national attention when their protest involving an 800 pound heroin spoon outside OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma ended in an arrest this past summer — traveled to RI in2018 and out Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo for keeping nearly $12,500 in contributions from Purdue scion Jonathan Sackler and his wife Mary Corson for their role in the national opioid epidemic.
Artist Domenic Esposito and Stamford Gallery owner Fernando Luis Alvarez appeared on GoLocalProv News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE, to talk about their efforts to bring attention to the role that Purdue has played — as well as elected officials in taking contributions from top drug makers — in the hundreds of thousands of deaths in America tied to the drugs.
As GoLocal has reported, Raimondo — and Raimondo PACs — have received $8,000 from Sackler and $4,500 from Corson — and refused to return the money.
“So it’s okay to take money from them but not from Pablo Escobar or El Chapo in Mexico? It’s the same thing — it’s probably worse, because they have sugar coated it,” said Alvarez. “Have they become so cynical and weak to the point where some Americans have become complacent to this?”
“The time has come…Americans are not going to put up with this anymore. They’re going to stand up to these politicians, and they’re going to do their own research. Absolutely don’t vote for people like that — do your homework,” said Alvarez. “Do not fall for her. Get her out of office. We need better answers than what she’s telling us.”
“Americans are not stupid. We are fed up. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this,” said Alvarez.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” said Alvarez, of Raimondo.
UGLY: Raimondo and Sackler Money PART II
In March of 2019, Governor Gina Raimondo announced that she was donating the $12,500 that she had received in campaign contributions from Jonathan Sackler and his wife Mary Corson — Sackler had been named in lawsuits for his direct involvement in the opioid crisis in America.
The move came after GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle asked Raimondo on a Democratic Governors Association call with other state Governors why Raimondo continued to refuse to give up the donations.
Sackler and his family own Purdue Pharma the manufacturer Oxycodone.
GoLocal had written more than twenty stories related to the link between Raimondo and the Sackler family.
Lawsuits are piled up against opioid maker Purdue Pharma. Documents unveiled show the family who owns the company had direct involvement with the sales strategy that led to the national health crisis and helped build their massive fortune. Documents also reveal that one of the target markets that the Sacklers' company zeroed in on with its sales and marketing was U.S. military veterans.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Sackers were directly involved in the Purdue Pharma marketing strategy — a strategy that more than 1,600 lawsuits across the country allege was fraudulent and has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 2020, Sackler died and many of the lawsuits were settled.
UGLY: Endorsement of Bloomberg After Disclosure of His Record of Women and Race
A GoLocal editorial questioned why Governor Raimondo would endorse Michael Bloomberg.
READ EDITORIAL BELOW
Governor Gina Raimondo's decision to endorse former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems misguided at best.
Bloomberg's record as a CEO is impressive. His record as an elected official has an overriding stench of racism.
An analysis by the NY ACLU revealed that "innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 5 million times since 2002, and that Black and Latinx communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. At the height of stop-and-frisk in 2011 under the Mayor Michael Bloomberg administration, over 685,000 people were stopped. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent."
Stop and frisk exploded not under New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani -- but under Bloomberg.
Oh wait -- he is sorry now.
Bloomberg was Mayor from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2013, and year by year here is the data on “stop and frisk:”
In 2002, 97,296 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
80,176 were innocent (82 percent).
In 2003, 160,851 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
140,442 were innocent (87 percent).
77,704 were Black (54 percent).
44,581 were Latinx (31 percent).
17,623 were white (12 percent).
83,499 were aged 14-24 (55 percent).
In 2004, 313,523 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
278,933 were innocent (89 percent).
155,033 were Black (55 percent).
89,937 were Latinx (32 percent).
28,913 were white (10 percent).
152,196 were aged 14-24 (52 percent).
In 2005, 398,191 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
352,348 were innocent (89 percent).
196,570 were Black (54 percent).
115,088 were Latinx (32 percent).
40,713 were white (11 percent).
189,854 were aged 14-24 (51 percent).
In 2006, 506,491 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
457,163 were innocent (90 percent).
267,468 were Black (53 percent).
147,862 were Latinx (29 percent).
53,500 were white (11 percent).
247,691 were aged 14-24 (50 percent).
In 2007, 472,096 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
410,936 were innocent (87 percent).
243,766 were Black (54 percent).
141,868 were Latinx (31 percent).
52,887 were white (12 percent).
223,783 were aged 14-24 (48 percent).
In 2008, 540,302 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
474,387 were innocent (88 percent).
275,588 were Black (53 percent).
168,475 were Latinx (32 percent).
57,650 were white (11 percent).
263,408 were aged 14-24 (49 percent).
In 2009, 581,168 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
510,742 were innocent (88 percent).
310,611 were Black (55 percent).
180,055 were Latinx (32 percent).
53,601 were white (10 percent).
289,602 were aged 14-24 (50 percent).
In 2010, 601,285 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
518,849 were innocent (86 percent).
315,083 were Black (54 percent).
189,326 were Latinx (33 percent).
54,810 were white (9 percent).
295,902 were aged 14-24 (49 percent).
In 2011, 685,724 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
605,328 were innocent (88 percent).
350,743 were Black (53 percent).
223,740 were Latinx (34 percent).
61,805 were white (9 percent).
341,581 were aged 14-24 (51 percent).
In 2012, 532,911 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
473,644 were innocent (89 percent).
284,229 were Black (55 percent).
165,140 were Latinx (32 percent).
50,366 were white (10 percent).
In 2013, 191,851 NYPD stops were recorded. Bloomberg not sorry.
169,252 were innocent (88 percent).
104,958 were Black (56 percent).
55,191 were Latinx (29 percent).
20,877 were white (11 percent).
In 2014, 45,787 NYPD stops were recorded. The year after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
37,744 were innocent (82 percent).
24,319 were Black (53 percent).
12,489 were Latinx (27 percent).
5,467 were white (12 percent).
In 2015, 22,565 NYPD stops were recorded. Two years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
18,353 were innocent (80 percent).
12,223 were Black (54 percent).
6,598 were Latinx (29 percent).
2,567 were white (11 percent).
In 2016, 12,404 NYPD stops were recorded. Three years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
9,394 were innocent (76 percent).
6,498 were Black (52 percent).
3,626 were Latinx (29 percent).
1,270 were white (10 percent).
In 2017, 11,629 NYPD stops were recorded. Four years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
7,833 were innocent (67 percent).
6,595 were Black (57 percent).
3,567 were Latinx (31 percent).
977 were white (8 percent).
In 2018, 11,008 NYPD stops were recorded. Five years after Bloomberg was Mayor, Bloomberg not sorry.
7,645 were innocent (70 percent).
6,241 were Black (57 percent).
3,389 were Latinx (31 percent).
1,074 were white (10 percent).
In the first half of 2019, 7,101 stops were recorded. Six years after Bloomberg was Mayor, he announces his run for the presidency, and he is sorry.
4,795 were innocent (68 percent).
4,246 were Black (60 percent).
2,039 were Latinx (29 percent).
680 were white (10 percent).
According to NBC News in November of 2019, "Addressing a black church in Brooklyn, Bloomberg said he was 'sorry' and acknowledged it often led to the detention of blacks and Latinos.
'I can’t change history,' Bloomberg told the congregation. 'However today, I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong.'"
DATA: NYACLU Data: NY Police Department Annual Reports
GOOD: Education Initiatives
Governor Raimondo's efforts to improve Rhode Island's schools were laudable.
From funding pre-K to focusing on Providence's deplorable schools, her focus was often on the right things.
GOOD: Early Management of the Pandemic, PART I
Raimondo had some early success in addressing the coronavirus. Her shutdown was early and her tone was reassuring to many Rhode Islanders.
There were some errors:
- Telling the public not to wear a mask
- Returning infected nursing home residents to nursing homes after hospitalizations, increase the spread and deaths
- And, failing to wear a mask at a protest
By the first week in July, Rhode Island had a record low number of cases.
UGLY: RI's Response to the Virus PART II
Whether it was Governor Raimondo's distraction of seeking a federal appointment or an inability to adjust, Raimondo allowed the coronavirus to explode in the fall and winter.
About September of 2020, the cases began to explode in Rhode Island and Raimondo could not adjust. She constantly sent mixed messages -- open for Halloween and allowing people to shop on Black Friday before going into a shutdown.
By December, Rhode Island became the poster child for failed policies. Rhode Island scored the highest infection rate in the world.
In the U.S., RI has the 4th highest death rate and number of cases per 100,000 residents. The vaccination program is ranked as one of the worst in America (46th).
