Whitcomb: Silly Day Points to Spring; Local Aviation Advance; Besides Foulkes? Sleeping With the Mob

Whitcomb: Silly Day Points to Spring; Local Aviation Advance; Besides Foulkes? Sleeping With the Mob

 

“To claim, at a dead party, to have spotted a grackle,

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When in fact you haven’t of late, can do no harm.

Your reputation for saying things of interest

Will not be marred, if you hasten to other topics….’’

- From “Lying,’’ by Richard Wilbur (1921-2017), American poet and translator

Here’s the whole poem:

 

 

“For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.’’

- Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867),  French poet and essayist

 

 

“I have known Bobby my whole life. We grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator."

-  Caroline Kennedy on her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

 

 

Today is Ground Hog Day, one of those silly folk celebrations (if it can be said to rise to the level of a “celebration”)  that can help pass the time in boring times of the year, such as early February. And the day, which apparently originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch, presents the pleasing reminder that spring isn’t all that far off, even if the big rodent does see his shadow. Even the Super Bowl,  that annual orgy of combat and commercialism, is a reminder that we’re well more than halfway through winter.

 

Meanwhile, there are the birds at the feeders, which we fill not so much to be nice to these hungry dinosaur descendants as to get them close to us so we can admire their colors, some flamingly bright, such as Cardinals and Scarlet Tanagers, some subtle and requiring very close observation, and their interactions with other avians. Of course, the squirrels – those gymnasts -- insist on getting into the act.  It often seems that “squirrel-proof bird feeder’’ is an oxymoron.

 

Yes, bird flu is spreading, and may soon become a pandemic among humans, but you can encourage the avians to frequent your yard without fear as long as you don’t pick up dead birds.

 

Here's another harbinger of spring in southern New England: Black-capped Chickadees step up their singing as we head into February.

 

But there’s still winter. Most of us of a certain age around here well remember the Blizzard of Feb. 6-7, 1978. It wreaked havoc, especially for transportation, but many of us fondly remember its wild beauty and the exhilarating cold, but dry and still, days that followed, as well as the camaraderie the storm encouraged. There were lots of impromptu parties and more than adequate drinking. Then, there were such amusing episodes, as when President Carter sent National Guardsmen from the Deep South to help dig us out. “Y’all have interesting weather up here,’’ one good ole boy yelled to me on Governor Street in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood, where we lived for a few years before moving out of the country for a few years. Some of these Guardsmen had never before seen snow.

Winters have generally gotten shorter since then, but still, you never know when a freak snowstorm might happen, say on April Fool's Day.

 

Snow, for all its inconveniences, is good for New England. It helps maintain our water supply and insulates plants from the worst cold, and it has been called the “poor farmers’ fertilizer’’ because snowflakes trap nitrogen and other nutrients from the atmosphere and then slowly release them into the soil as they melt.

 

 

 

Making Things

It’s great news that ground has been broken for REGENT Craft’s new “seaglider’’ factory at Quonset Business Park, that dynamo for the region’s economy. The company expects to employ hundreds of well-paid workers at the facility. Announcements that new real, physical things will be made around here are usually very good news, especially when it involves promising new technology that uses local attributes, such as our coast. (REGENT is capped because it stands for Regional Electric Ground Effect Nautical Transport – you might miss your flight saying all that.)

 

These craft are electric-powered things that take off from the water via retractable hydrofoils and will carry 12 passengers (at a pretty price) on flights of up to 180 miles flying only about 30 to 60 feet above the water! They’d offer high-end convenience in such densely populated stretches places as the East Coast. I can imagine businesspeople and rich people, in business or not, using these things to commute harbor to harbor. Beats gridlock on Route 95 and the Southeast Expressway.  A couple of years ago the company estimated that the cost, for example, of a Boston-to-New York City one-way trip could be $100. I’d guess it will end up more.

 

Kudos to the folks at Quonset for helping to make this happen.

 

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As Providence leaders prepare for a property-tax hike to pay for a legal agreement that mandates that the city pay more for its schools, which are ultimately overseen by the state, and for higher city operating costs in general -- the price of eggs isn’t the only rising expense – it’s a good time to look at the Rhode Island property-tax situation in general. It’s too bad that there’s such a reliance on this kind of levy.  Hit this link:

 

 

Other Options?

Helena Foulkes had long seemed the most plausible Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Lots of high-level executive experience, mostly at Woonsocket-based CVS, access to loads of money to finance another run after her near miss in campaigning for the nomination in 2022,  membership in a large and well-connected family in Rhode Island and beyond, a reputation as a moderate and an articulate and pleasant persona.

 

READ THE STORY ABOUT FOULKES AND CVS HERE

 

But her tenure in senior executive roles at CVS during the opioid-addiction epidemic, off which CVS heavily profited, might (it’s early) have cast her candidacy deeply into doubt.

 

Atty. Gen. Peter Neronha seems the likeliest luminary to enter the race against her.

 

So, who else might be seen as a major candidate? I remain semi-confident that Gov. Dan McKee will decide not to run for re-election, especially, fairly or not, after the Washington Bridge fiasco and the huge state benefits data breach.

 

As for the Trump Party nominee – who knows?

 

 

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I’m always impressed by how so many people with severe disabilities press on to do their jobs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) with his polio, and the great composer and songwriter Cole Porter (1891-1964), with his legs shattered in a horseback-riding accident, and Helen Keller (1880-1968), the blind and deaf woman who became an author and activist, especially for peoples with disabilities.

 

I thought of this last week after minor surgery on my right hand made typing difficult. It’s a blessedly brief disability. Consider the people who soldier on through many years of high performance in the face of what would seem insurmountable physical challenges and pain.

 

 

Fuel of the Future?

China is apparently making big advances in nuclear fusion research, both for bombs and for electricity generation. Fusion holds the potential to bring unlimited generating power with much less radioactive waste to worry about than with fission.

 

Have the Chinese leapt ahead of the work famously being done at Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems?

 

In any case, a breakthrough in fusion would be huge, helping to get us off the products of the global-warming and often politically corrupting fossil fuel sector. Fusion energy would be a huge hit to Red states, which produce most of the country’s oil and gas.

See this on the Chinese facility:

 

 

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European Green Crabs flourish in ocean waters warmed by climate change, are voraciously eating New England clams, mussels, oysters, and lobsters, and damaging eelgrass beds and marshes, undermining entire wildlife coastal ecosystems.

 

But, as I have written, you can help by eating the crabs, which are very tasty. The more they’re harvested, the better. They are very popular amongst gourmands in Europe, by the way.

 

Hit this link from a Providence-based nonprofit.

 

And order some Green Crab stuff at this Rhode Island outfit:

 

 

 

As Predicted …

Trump got 49.7 percent of the popular vote in 2024, when 36 percent of those eligible to vote didn’t bother to do so. I wonder how many of them are now having second thoughts or are they still enjoying the “reality TV’’ show?  Trump’s support is particularly strong among those most dependent on federal programs he wants to cut.  They have been beneficiaries of the long-time transfer of federal tax money from Blue States to Red ones. Ah, the joys of willful ignorance!

 

Here's a useful breakdown:

 

And who gets what:

 

 

Meanwhile, the endlessly corrupt and power-hungry Trump regime/cult wants to encourage up to 2 million federal employees to quit so that he and his toadies can fill lots of those slots with political servants and free up more money to give deeper tax breaks to the very rich, especially Trump donors, at the same time.  And, of course, cement Trump’s thieving tyranny and treason.

 

It would also be useful in not having to worry about oversight as Trump people grab taxpayer money, via sweetheart government contracts and other transfers, for his and their schemes. The Trump family and associates have always seen his takeover of the federal government as a huge promotion for their money-making. It sure was in his first term. But this time around will put that corruption in the shade. And now we have Trump crypto. Replace the Federal Reserve with it?

 

See this:

 

 

In short, Trump aims through executive orders, some of them illegal, to convert as many merit-based civil servants as he can to at-will employees, enabling political appointees to fire and replace them with loyalists.

 

Trump and the company are trying to reverse 140 years of civil service reform aimed at ensuring that federal employees have the skills and expertise to best serve citizens while protecting the civil service from dangerous nepotism and cronyism.

 

Good luck to citizens who may need information and other assistance from federal employees in crucial programs if this happens. You’ll be on hold forever.

And prepare yourself for nonstop brazen lies from the White House on just about everything, and someone else will always be blamed for the regime’s mistakes. When stuff goes bad, the policy will be: Always avoid taking responsibility. Hey, this approach has worked well!

 

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Trump has, of course, been threatening American allies –at least they used to be allies –- with steep tariffs, if they don’t cooperate with his demands on immigration, etc., and all in all to treat the narcissist-in-chief as their lord and master. Colombia is the latest example as he presses it to take back Colombians who have entered the U.S. illegally.

 

However, these threats, along with many allies’ impatience with the unpredictable gyrations of American policy as administrations change, will push more nations to reduce trade with us and expand it with China. And, of course, American consumers will end up paying for the tariffs.

 

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The old line “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes’’ (often, perhaps falsely, attributed to Mark Twain) comes to mind with the sucking up of big businesspeople to Trump and that of German businessmen (at such enterprises as Krupp, Siemens and I.G.  Farben) to Hitler as he came to power in the early ’30s offering big contracts in preparation for his mass murders.

 

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You’ll be happy to know that there won’t be anything about The Orange Caudillo in the next column. Time to give immune systems a break and let a plurality of the glorious American electorate snuggle in the seamy bed they’ve made.

Updated 2/2/2025 at 8:18 AM