In defense of (and fear of) Chinese censorship

  Read how growing up in a police state affects a young person's understanding of freedom of speech -- and lack thereof -- as we see in this piece in The Journal of Political Risk. In this case, it's Grace Zhang, a Chinese student studying at Adelphi University, in New York, defending censorship.

Most Americans would find her argument preposterous. But then, this Shanghai  native will have to return to China some day. It just wouldn't do to irritate the authorities.

Here's the first paragraph of her piece:

"There has been a great deal of attention, domestic and abroad, surrounding China’s education minister, Yuan Guiren, and his January 2015 speech in Beijing.[i]In his speech, Yuan touched on the controversial topic of minimizing the usage of Western ideals in textbooks and classroom discussion in higher education. He called for limited use of Western textbooks, effectively blocking the way of Western values entering the classroom and forbidding the criticism of Communist Party’s leadership and negative attitude from teachers that will affect students. To Western countries, this speech may be difficult to understand and may also easily trigger criticism because Yuan’s opinions go explicitly against the liberal education that Western higher education has stood for centuries. I, however, am of the opinion that if one only reads the words of the speech without any consideration of China’s difference in political systems from Western countries, it is very easy for readers to think that China is blocking the way of liberal education in their universities, but the actual purpose behind this speech, is Yuan’s advocating for Chinese national interest.''

G.W. Bush's $100,000 fee from nonprofit for wounded vets

  ABC News reports, says The Boston Globe, "that in 2012 former President George W. Bush asked for and received a $100,000 fee from the charitable organization Helping A Hero to speak at their annual fund-raiser for military veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.''

Making a 'Blue Plan' for Long Island Sound

Via ecoRI News Connecticut has caught up with its neighbors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and recently enacted a program of marine spatial planning for Long Island Sound.

After years of background work by a coalition of environmental groups, academics and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) staff, “An Act Concerning a Long Island Sound Blue Plan and Resource and Use Inventory” (HB 6839) was signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy June 19 and went into effect July 1.

This “Blue Plan” establishes a process by which Connecticut will develop an inventory of Long Island Sound’s natural resources and uses and, ultimately, a spatial plan to guide future use of its waters and submerged lands. Currently, Connecticut’s Coastal Management Program (CMP) protects coastal resources and guides shoreline development. The development of a Blue Plan for Long Island Sound will supplement the CMP’s existing authority in the deeper offshore reaches of the sound.

The Blue Plan is intended to prioritize the protection of natural resources and uses, such as fishing, aquaculture and navigation, from future conflicting or incompatible activities and it won't create new regulatory restrictions for them.

Under the plan, an inventory of Long Island Sound’s natural resources and uses must be completed by a Long Island Sound Inventory and Science subcommittee that will be convened by the University of Connecticut.

The inventory will be based on the best available information and data on the sound’s plants, animals, habitats and ecologically significant areas in nearshore and offshore waters and their substrates — surfaces where marine organisms grow. This inventory must also include the human uses of the sound’s waters and substrates, such as boating and fishing, waterfowl hunting, shellfishing, aquaculture, shipping corridors, and energy facilities and interests including electric power lines, natural-gas pipelines and telecommunication crossings.

Once the resource and use inventory is complete, that information will be used to develop the Blue Plan, a spatial plan that will help avoid user conflicts by identifying and protecting special, sensitive and unique estuarine and marine life and habitats. The plan will foster sustainable uses of Long Island Sound that will make the most of economic opportunity without significantly harming the sound’s ecology or natural beauty, according to the DEEP.

The Blue Plan will also remain “fluid,” adapting as necessary to ever-evolving knowledge and understanding of the marine environment, recognizing current issues such as climate-change impacts and sea level-rise adaptation while anticipating and addressing future issues.

Another significant benefit of the Blue Plan, according to state officials, will be the identification of appropriate locations and performance standards for activities, uses and facilities that are regulated by permit programs, developing measures that will guide the siting of those uses in ways that are consistent.

Development and implementation of the Blue Plan must also be coordinated with the state of New York, and with local, regional and federal planning entities and agencies including the Connecticut-New York Bi-State Marine Spatial Planning Working Group, the Long Island Sound Study and the National Ocean Policy’s Northeast Regional Planning Body.

The plan will not “zone” Long Island Sound. There is no need to specify uses or “use zones” over every part of the water surface, according to state officials. However, the plan could establish priority use areas such as utility corridors or shellfish beds. The plan could also identify critical areas that may need greater protection and management of uses.

A version of this story originally ran in the July 2015 edition Sound Outlook, the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection’s e-newsletter.

When will U.S. strike back against China?

When will America  retaliate against China for its relentless cyber-attacks to steal the personal information of tens of millions of Americans (for blackmail and other nefarious purposes) and its non-stop theft of U.S. patented and copyrighted intellectual property? Our passivity in the face of a new kind of  highly aggressive war by the Chinese police state/kleptocacy against America is making things worse and worse for us.

We are at war.

But not organic

"Primal Garden" (paint rags, foam, acrylic and mixed media), by SARAH MEYERS BRENT, in her show at Kingston Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 2.

It's the drip effect. Jackson Pollock would have liked it.

Chris Powell: Of 'rats' and foreign and local flights in Conn.

While freedom of information prevailed with some big stuff during this year's sessions of the Connecticut General Assembly, legislators still snuck secrecy into bills here and there, and of course did it secretly as well. At least two such incidents involved the budget "implementer" bill, which was passed in the legislature's special session.

The "implementer" is supposed to do no more than implement decisions already made by budget legislation, whose provisions have faced public hearing and discussion. But the "implementer" often is used to enact policies that have received no scrutiny at all. Since legislators are given little time to review the "implementer" before a vote is called, unscrutinized provisions -- in legislative jargon, "rats" -- sometimes become law.

That was the case with an "implementer" provision to exempt the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority from the state Freedom of Information Act. Authority members said they didn't want their communications with each other between meetings to be subject to disclosure, as if utility regulation isn't the public's business.

The authority's objection might have been challenged at a public hearing. But there was no hearing and no legislator questioned the secrecy provision as the "implementer" was rushed through.

Another "rat" to defeat open government, a provision to nullify legislation subjecting state-financed "charter" schools to freedom-of-information law, was inserted into an early draft of the "implementer" but was noticed, complained about, and removed.

Still more anti-FOI language was belatedly inserted, without a hearing, into a bill requiring municipal school systems to report their special-education expenses to the state. The bill passed but, for other reasons, Governor Malloy vetoed it.

House Speaker Brendan Sharkey and state Senate President Martin Looney, whose offices are responsible for the "implementer" bill, should investigate where the "rats" came from and demand accountability. The speaker and Senate president also should arrange repeal of the provision exempting the utility regulators from the FOI law, sending the idea back through the normal legislative process.

With its last-minute secret writing and rewriting of the state budget legislation this year, the legislature made itself ridiculous. Public deliberation would have avoided that. The legislature's sneakiness risks making it contemptible.

xxx 

Connecticut may not fully appreciate its main airport, Bradley International, in Windsor Locks. While Bradley is small, it offers much convenience -- 29 daily direct flights, many of them reaching air traffic hubs: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto and Montreal.

But Toronto, Montreal, and Cancun, Mexico, are the only destinations that make Bradley international, and while those cities have excellent connections, the Air Canada flights between Toronto, Montreal, and Bradley use small twin-propeller planes that may make some people nervous, while Cancun is far out of the way.

So spurred, by Governor Malloy, the Connecticut Airport Authority is aiming to recruit an airline to operate direct flights from Bradley to Europe. Ireland's Aer Lingus is the leading prospect and would take Bradley passengers to Dublin, which has excellent connections to the continent.

A direct flight to Europe is a nice idea but probably not realistic, since state government might have to subsidize it with $5 million, with no assurance that it ever would become self-sustaining.

But being less ambitious could still be a big improvement -- that is, starting service between Bradley and Logan International in Boston and Kennedy International in New York, and increasing flights from Bradley to Newark and Philadelphia. Many Connecticut residents fly to Europe from Boston and New York, and getting to the airports there involves hours of surface travel far less convenient than a flight from Bradley would be.

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn.

Charles Chieppo/Jamie Gass: School-test conflict of interest

BOSTON What would have happened if the general manager of the MBTA had also chaired the board of Keolis or the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad when the two companies were competing for the multibillion-dollar contract to operate the T’s commuter-rail system? That would never have been tolerated, and neither should a similar situation that is currently playing out in K-12 education in the commonwealth.

Later this year, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester will make a recommendation to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education about whether to replace the historically successful MCAS test with those developed by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC.

The problem is that Chester chairs PARCC’s governing board. As such, he should recuse himself from any involvement with the MCAS/PARCC decision-making process.

Chester serves as secretary to the state board and oversees the process for choosing between MCAS and PARCC. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that he heads gathers the information on which the decision will be made and conducts the internal evaluation.

Chester has formed a team of PARCC Educator Leader Fellows within the department. According to a memo from Chester, the PARCC fellows, who receive a stipend, should be “excited about … the Common Core State Standards” and “already engaged in leadership work around them.” The department has no MCAS fellows.

Some local education leaders aren’t buying into the charade that the PARCC/MCAS decision remains an open question. Brookline Superintendent and Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents President William Lupini, in a 2014 letter to the town’s school committee, flatly stated that “MCAS will be phased out in favor of either PARCC or another new ‘next generation’ assessment.”

A strong whiff of conflict tainted the process of choosing between Massachusetts’ previous academic standards and Common Core, which preceded the MCAS/PARCC issue.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested well over $200 million in the development and selling of Common Core. To help inform his 2010 recommendation to the board about whether to adopt Common Core, the three studies Chester relied on were all conducted by Gates-funded entities.

Furthermore, a 2010 WCVB-TV (Ch. 5) report described that he and other department personnel accepted $15,000 in luxury travel and accommodations from Common Core supporters before the board’s decision to adopt.

Gov. Charlie Baker has criticized the MCAS/PARCC and Common Core processes. He told the State House News Service, “I think it’s an embarrassment that a state that spent two years giving educators, families, parents, administrators and others an opportunity to comment and engage around the assessment system that eventually became MCAS basically gave nobody a voice or an opportunity to engage in a discussion … before we went ahead and executed on Common Core and PARCC.”

PARCC is also becoming increasingly desperate, which only increases the temptation to put a thumb on the scale. More than 20 states were originally part of the consortium; that number is now down to seven states and the District of Columbia.

The MCAS/PARCC choice is Chester’s last chance to regain the public’s trust in his department’s ability to manage an impartial, transparent and accountable process.
As chairman of PARCC’s governing board, the first step is to recuse himself from the decision.

Charles Chieppo (Charlie_Chieppo@hks.harvard.edu) is a senior fellow and Jamie Gass directs the Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank. This piece first ran in the Boston Herald.

The way it sometimes looks

 

"Plymouth, Massachusetts, Potion 2014'' (photo), by DIANA BARKER PRICE, in her show "Untamed Forest,'' at the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury.

The gallery says that she "creates images that occur between the transitions of day and night, calm and storm, reality and fantasy, fleeting moments of magical light that become forever real once they are photographed.''

The picture above evokes how Plymouth looked to me in the very early morning of a certain summer day in 1968.

-- Robert Whitcomb

Meanwhile, from 1934:

Times have changed And we've often rewound the clock Since the Puritans got a shock When they landed on Plymouth Rock. If today Any shock they should try to stem 'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock would land on them.

-- From the opening of the song "Anything Goes,'' by Cole Porter

Those 'heavy downpours'

I always enjoy weather and sports jargon.  For instance, we keep  being warned about  "heavy downpours.'' Could there be a "light downpour''?

--- Robert Whitcomb

Chris Powell: Our Humpty Dumpty courts

MANCHESTER, Conn. From all the cheering and hissing that greeted the Supreme Court's decisions about the Affordable Care Act -- "Obamacare" -- and same-sex marriage, it seemed as if the issues before the court were elections or even football games, not judicial matters.

That has been the problem with appellate courts for some time now, their tendency to act as unelected legislatures, deciding policy, decisions properly cheered or hissed, rather than interpreting constitutions and laws, a dispassionate undertaking quite separate from policymaking.

In the "Obamacare" decision, even Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court's majority sustaining the law, acknowledged that it was full of "inartful drafting" requiring the majority to reach for "context" elsewhere in the law so that "established by the state" could be construed to mean "established by the state or federal government." To prevent a vast, new edifice of government from collapsing abruptly under its flaws, the court's majority decided that the law didn't really mean what it said.

Those gratified by the Obamacare decision did not seem to worry that the court's conclusion -- that laws don't always mean what they say -- might someday be invoked to their disadvantage.

As for same-sex marriage, public attitudes have changed dramatically in its favor.

Laws against same-sex intimacy long have been invalidated as invasions of privacy, based only on arbitrary religious objections, and there is little in marriage that same-sex couples have not been able to arrange through ordinary contract law.

Much if not most of the argument against same-sex marriage arises only from those arbitrary religious objections, which aren't really arguments at all.

As a practical matter lately the issue has been only whether all governments and commerce should have to ratify homosexuality.

But the weakness of the argument against same-sex marriage as policy has nothing to do with whether the Constitution requires states to authorize it. Further, equal-protection claims for a constitutional right to same-sex marriage are themselves weak, since no person or class was being denied the right to marry. Everyone was free to marry someone of the opposite sex, even if sexual identity itself lately seems to have fallen into question.

The same-sex marriage case may have been a good example of the conflict between the two major schools of constitutional law, the "originalist" and the "living constitution" schools.

The originalists hold that constitutions must be interpreted to mean what they meant at the time of their enactment, or else they aren't really constitutions at all.

The advocates of a "living constitution" hold that constitutions should be adapted to new circumstances without formal amendment through the democratic process, the adaptation done by judges, largely unelected.

Through the years political liberals and conservatives have inhabited both schools, but small-d democrats tend to favor the originalist school, while totalitarians everywhere favor the "living constitution" school, for reasons that Lewis Carroll, in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," explained as well as anyone has explained them in the 150 years since:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

The "Obamacare" and same-sex marriage decisions suggest that Justice Dumpty would feel right at home on the Supreme Court.

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn.

They come and they go

 

"HOLE'' (photopolymer etching), by JENNIFER DAY, in her show "Deciduous: Prints and Drawings'' at Bromfield Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 2.

The title of course refers to trees that lose their leaves every year, and, thus are reminders of change and disappearance. including all of us. New England, with its seasons, provides perhaps more reminders of our transience than do many  other places.

Treadmill for textiles

 

"Come, run in me'' (video, audio, wood, vinyl, acrylic, treadmill, spray paint, LED light strips, speaker, fabric and tag fastener), by CHRISTY CHOW, from the series "Laborland,'' in the show "Now You See Me: The Best of the Northeast Masters of Fine Arts,'' at the Helen Day Art Center, in Stowe, Vt., through Aug. 23.

With this installation, she wants us to consider the low-wage laborers needed to produce our clothes.

Maybe, but she may as likely be getting people to think about their local YMCA.

Looking at a new bridge over Cape Cod Canal

By JOYCE ROWLEY, for ecoRI News Due to a typographical error, Route 6 was rendered Route 9 in an earlier version of this article. This is the corrected version.

As summer visitors to Cape Cod fume in gridlock 10 miles long, it may help to know that state, federal and local planners are trying to do something about it.

It’s long been a problem getting on and off the Cape on any summer weekend — so much so that locals have a tradition of standing on the bridges at the end of Labor Day weekend and waving goodbye as summer guests leave. For them, the end of the summer means being able to cross the canal freely.

But lately, even spring and fall sees its share of traffic snarls. The Sagamore and Bourne bridges turned 80 last week. Completed in 1935 under the Works Progress Administration and now owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, maintenance is an ongoing problem.

With only 10-foot-wide travel lanes and no breakdown lanes, maintenance work on either one of the bridges requires lane closures. That work can’t be done during the summer, because of a fourfold increase in traffic volumes over both bridges. Therefore, maintenance is done during “shoulder” seasons — March through May and September through November.

“Everyone is saying, ‘You have to do something about the bridges, you have to do something about the bridges,’” said Glenn Cannon, transportation planner for the Cape Cod Commission. “There’s a significant disruption of residents’ lives with lane closures.”

Cannon said there are people who don’t even try to leave the Cape on summer weekends. Bourne residents, whose town straddles the Cape Cod Canal, are now loathe to go to Town Hall on a Friday because of the long return trip through tourist traffic.

In 2013, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) created the private-public partnership (P3)Project SPAN that will select a private firm to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a third bridge over the canal. Last fall, Project SPAN kicked off with an industry tour, as MassDOT brought in engineers and developers from all over the country.

This year, MassDOT launched the Cape Cod Canal Transportation Study to explore the environmental issues associated with building a new bridge. A 30-member working group made up of state, federal and local stakeholders augments public-input sessions. Consulting groups Fay, Spofford & Thorndike and The Cecil Group are providing an engineering assessment of the project.

“The two projects are running concurrently,” said Bob Frey of MassDOT’s planning division. “The canal area study is one of our typical corridor planning studies. It will also be more comprehensive than the P3 study.”

Frey said the canal study is trying to address the future of the existing bridges. The P3 alternatives for either a mid-Cape bridge or a second bridge near the Sagamore are just two of an array of alternatives the study will evaluate. Having the Army Corps of Engineers in the mix changes things considerably, he said.

The Army Corps is responsible for bringing both bridges up to modern standards — 12-foot lane widths, shoulders and safe accommodations for bicycles and pedestrians. Those changes would greatly improve traffic flow, but the cost would be significant — about $320 million per bridge.

“In general, there is support for replacing existing bridges among the residents,” Cannon said. The problem, he noted, is that the bridges are structurally sound, although functionally obsolete.

“It’s a matter of perspective,” Cannon said. “From the Army Corps’ perspective, there's no justification for replacing the bridges. Their responsibility is to the shipping traffic underneath.”

He said the Cape Cod Commission has put a lot of projects on hold to see whether new bridges will be built.

“A new crossing could have major impacts to other ongoing projects,” Cannon said. “They could bypass the Belmont Circle in Bourne. A fix could alleviate the traffic problem there and decrease the cost of the project. It could become a pedestrian accommodation and improved pedestrian crossings.”

Choke points “If you accept that the choke points are the bridges, then what are the conditions on the existing roads?” asked Ed DeWitt, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod.

By moving a single bottleneck, DeWitt believes the merge on eastbound Route 6 at Exit 6 on the Cape will still back up. “The highway and road system across Cape Cod will still have problems.”

DeWitt supports replacing the bridges through a process called “twin spanning.” He points to Connecticut as leading the way in this method of building a new bridge with modern standards next to an existing bridge, then switching the traffic over and replacing the old bridge, to minimize traffic disruption.

But the problem is more complex than just replacing bridges, DeWitt said.

“(Former) Governor (Mitt) Romney said the flyover would fix the issues,” DeWitt said, referring to the removal of a rotary and construction of an on-ramp at the foot of the Sagamore Bridge. Backups have continued to grow.

Although Cape Cod’s resident population is about 210,000, its summer population is at least double that, according to Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce data. Traffic volume on the bridges has risen in the past 40 years from 80,000 average daily trips (ADT) to 130,000 during peak season. Off-peak January ADTs more than tripled, from 20,000 in 1972 to 75,000 by 2012.

“There is an opportunity to get a good solution,” said DeWitt, voicing concerns that the industry-financed alternative was begun before the public got involved.

“I’m not sure that starting with preconceived ideas will get that result.”

DeWitt noted that there are substantial environmental issues to a central bridge as has been proposed by the state. The proposed northern terminal in Wareham lies in areas of special concern, wetlands and herring runs, he said. On the Cape, the P3 bridge would end at Joint Base Cape Cod, formerly Camp Edwards, a military base that lies over the Sagamore Lens — the largest of six groundwater lenses included in the Cape Cod Sole Source Aquifer and is the public drinking-water supply for the towns of Barnstable, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Sandwich and Yarmouth.

“It was a major accomplishment to get it protected,” DeWitt said of the largest lens. “Governor (Jane) Swift reserved and protected that area and the state monitors the military activities there.”

The memorandum of understanding between the state and the Pentagon only allows three uses on the property: water supply, habitat and compatible military training, according to Mark Begley, executive director of the Massachusetts Environmental Management Commission at the military base.

Much of the prior military practices using artillery, rockets and mortar have been banned. There was talk of eliminating the base altogether, Begley said, but at 33 square miles, it’s the only place in New England to do large-scale operations training.

“Everyone needs to have input on how to deal with the traffic while protecting the resources — whether habitat or aquifer,” Begley said. “The only way to really make progress is to have good dialogue when people have strong opinions, especially about the bridges.”

MassDOT’s Frey encouraged people to sign up for the project’s e-mail list. “There’s a long way to go with plenty of opportunity for public comment on the process.”

The Hub of vertigo

"Copley {Square} Plunge'' (oil on linen), by JOEL BABB, in the show "The Best of Maine Contemporary Art,'' at  Maine Art Collectors, in Freeport, Maine, through Oct. 12.

Message from Fete on the Fourth

  Coming up this month at FeteMusic. the big, stunning entertainment venue in Providence.

Here's their latest press release:

-Every Tuesday: Frontrunnerz present: Turnt Up Tuesdays (21+ Dance party)

-Every Thursday: Word of the Day (All Ages Poetry Slam)

-Every Friday: Dr. TKO Entertainment presents: Fête Fridays (18+ Reggae Dance Party)

Tuesday, July 7^th

Electric Six, w/ The Atlantic Thrills and The Sweet Release

Hailing from Detroit, MI sextet Electric Six mix garage, new wave, and metal into in-your-face songs like "Danger! High Voltage," which reached number two on the British charts early in 2003. Singer Dick Valentine, guitarists Rock and Roll Indian and Surge Joebot, bassist Disco, and drummer M. formed the Wildbunch in 1996 , releasing their debut single, "I Lost Control (Of My Rock & Roll)." The group switched to Flying Bomb for singles like 1997's "The Ballade of MC Sucka DJ," the Christmas single "Flying Bomb Surprise Package, Vol. 1," and 2001's "Danger! High Voltage," which became an underground hit, particularly in the U.K. The following year the group signed to XL and re-recorded "Danger! High Voltage," this time adding backing vocals from the White Stripes' Jack White. After the re-release of the single in 2003, Electric Six issued their full-length debut album, Fire, later that spring. In 2004, the band got a new record deal with Rushmore, a British Warner Bros. imprint,. The second Electric Six album, Señor Smoke, arrived in the U.K. early in 2005. Early in 2008, Valentine embarked on his American Troubadour solo tour, which included stops in Hamtramck, Michigan, and Portland, Oregon; that spring, Electric Six recorded their fifth album, Flashy. Metropolis released Flashy that fall, followed by Sexy Trash, a 30-track album of demos and previously unreleased material, and two new studio albums, Kill (2009) and Zodiac(2010). The following year, the band took their sound in a darker direction, shifting slightly from dance-rock to synth pop on the nocturnal Heartbeats and Brainwaves. 2012 saw them bringing their high-energy live shows to fans on their first concert album, Absolute Pleasure. Their tenth studio album, Mustang, arrived in October of 2013.

Fête Ballroom. Doors: 7PM, Show: 8PM. Tickets: $11, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5803855&pl=fete

Friday, July 10^th

Dr. TKO Entertainment presents: Fête Fridays

            Come see what everyone is raving about! Quickly becoming one of the hottest dance parties in Providence, Fête Fridays is a weekly 18+ party featuring the legendary DJ Paul Michael spinning some of the hottest reggae and dancehall favorites!

This event is 18+

Fête Lounge. 18+. Doors/Show: 10PM. Cover: $5

Saturday, July 11^th

JDS Entertainment presents: Spirit of Cesaria

The sounds of Cape Verde come to the Fête Ballroom! Don’t miss the Cesária Évora Orchestra featuring Nancy Vieira, Jenifer Solidade & Nilza Silva, plus Special Guest Dino D'Santiago.

Fête Ballroom. Doors: 9PM, Show: 10PM. Tickets: $30 adv. $40 DOS, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6024995&pl=fete

Wednesday, July 15^th

Great Caesar

Great Caesar aims for the heart with a vulnerable blend of brass, voice, and indie-rock, drawing from acts like Arcade Fire and Beirut to create music that confronts the things that really matter: love, legacy, and the complexity of human relationships.

The NYC band’s 2014 debut phenomenon, Don’t Ask Me Why, combines art and activism in a video that juxtaposes the civil rights movement of the 1960s with today’s fight for sexual equality. Supported by figures as varied as Russell Simmons, Deepak Chopra, Arsenio Hall, and Superbowl champion and LGBT advocate Brendon Ayanbadejo, the video has already challenged hundreds of thousands to take a stand for love and equality.

Fête Lounge. Doors: 7PM, Show: 8PM Tickets: $10 Adv., $12 DOS, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6029975&pl=fete

Thursday, July 16^th

            Scope & Figure, w/ Today Junior, Apples, and Psychotropics

Fans of cutting edge indie rock, look no further! Scope & Figure, an up and coming band from upstate New York, are coming to town, with Today Junior (Boston), Apples (formerly Radiant Shades, of Dartmouth, MA) and Psychotropics of Providence. Don’t miss out on a cheap date filled with great music from young bands on the rise!

Fête Lounge. Doors: 8PM, Show: 9PM, Tickets: $8, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6032955&pl=fete

Friday, July 17^th

Dr. TKO Entertainment presents: Fête Fridays

               Come see what everyone is raving about! Quickly becoming one of the hottest dance parties in Providence, Fête Fridays is a weekly 18+ party featuring the legendary DJ Paul Michael spinning some of the hottest reggae and dancehall favorites!

This event is 18+

Fête Lounge. 18+. Doors/Show: 10PM. Cover: $5

            Jackson Productions and XFactor Alex Jackson present: Disco Reunion Studio 54

Paying homage to the classicdisco parties at the legendary Studio 54, this night is all about bringing back the platform shoes, bell bottoms and disco balls with a free buffet, live music and DJ’s! Dress to impress in a retro suit to win a special prize for best costume! Featuring XFactor Contestant Alex Jackson, Brother 2 Brother, Lisa Penha, George Cherry, La Dawn, Bobby Braciola, Torrel Osborne & DJ Scooper Vega.

Doors/Show: 8PM. Tickets: $20, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6023465&pl=fete

Sunday, July 19^th

The Green, w/ Tobler and the Copacetics

The Green formed on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, in 2009. The group began as a vehicle for six different members of Hawai‘i’s tight-knit music scene to record a few songs and have a bit of fun along the way. Their self-titled debut album, released in 2010, earned both critical and commercial acclaim, and was awarded iTunes Best Reggae Album of the Year.

Afterwards, the band jumped on a plane to the mainland and started a heavy touring cycle. On the strength of their debut album, The Green struck a record deal with ground-breaking independent reggae label Easy Star Records to record their sophomore album, Ways & Means. Ways & Means hit #1 on the iTunes and Billboard Reggae charts and the band embarked on more intense touring; supporting acts like Rebelution, Iration, SOJA and Damian Marley. They also played at acclaimed festivals including Vans Warped Tour, Wakarusa, Sierra Nevada World Music Festival and California Roots Festival.

Despite all the time spent away from home, Hawai‘i never left the band’s day-to-day life on the road. In almost every state, the band met Hawaiian ex-pats, driven away from their home state for reasons both economic and social. The Green’s concerts became a place where Hawaiian natives could gather and for one night, share a bit of Aloha spirit from the Pacific islands they call home.

Fete Ballroom. Doors: 7PM, Show 8PM. Tickets: $16 Adv. $18 DOS, $30 Reserved Seating, available at fete music.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5975655&pl=fete

Thursday, July 30^th

Mike Posner, Unplugged

Singer/ songwriter/ producer Mike Posner is probably best known for his 2010 Billboard Top Ten hit “Cooler Than Me.” However, since then, Posner has since traded his frat-party hip hop sound for an acoustic guitar and piano. In the past few years, Posner has made a successful career writing and producing songs for pop stars such as Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and Nick Jonas. Now fresh off the release of his new EP “The Truth,” you can see Posner in an intimate environment, showcasing his expert songwriting and musicianship in the Fête Lounge.

Fête Lounge. Doors: 7PM, Show: 8PM, Tickets: $10, available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6044525&pl=fete

Friday, July 31st

Guitar Masters, ft. Andy McKee, Stephen Bennett, and Antoine Dufour

The celebrated and successful "Guitar Masters" tour comes to Fête this July, featuring headliner Andy McKee who will be joined by Stephen Bennett and Antoine Dufour to give fans another chance to see three of the most popular, talented, innovative, and musically rich acoustic guitar players and composers in contemporary music coming together to perform and interact on stage.

The trek is sure to be another unforgettable musical experience for concert-goers that unites guitar virtuosos known their awesome skills, technique, gift for song composition and melody and drawing out the full musicality of the solo acoustic guitar to near-orchestral dimensions. Creative sparks, one-time only stunning improvisations, and mutual inspiration are sure to abound as they come together at the end of every show to offer a value-added concert bill that appeals to fans of many musical styles as well as guitar aficionados.

Fete Ballroom.Doors: 7PM, Show: 8PM. Tickets: $20 GA Standing Room, $25 Seated (Adv.) $30 Seated (DOS), available at fetemusic.com and the Fête Box Office.

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5958975&pl=fete

Robert Whitcomb: Land of the all-too free

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling authorizing gay marriage across America has  helped to cement homosexual citizens’ sense of civic acceptance. However, in part because homosexuality usually involves behavior as well as orientation, they’ll continue to suffer some angry bias that will be impossible to prevent. There are limits to social engineering and even of litigation, however noble the intentions.

Meanwhile, the erosion of traditional, heterosexual marriage continues. That has helped lead to poverty, child abuse, addiction and other social pathologies as an increasing number of families are led by overwhelmed, low-income unwed mothers, and all too often fathers don’t help support the children they’ve helped create. Indeed, many fathers just disappear.

Thus, we have increasing social dysfunction, exacerbated by the continuing loss of jobs to globalization and technology. Still, some social legislation, such as the Affordable Care Act, may alleviate the effects, especially poverty, of traditional marriage’s decay.

None of this is to say that marriage is a panacea for anything or that no-fault divorce doesn’t have merits. Whatever, it’s good to know that all American gay adults can now experience, if they really want to, the joys, anxieties, sorrows, fun and boredom of marriage and the privilege of paying divorce lawyers to help them terminate their unions. (Since a much higher percentage of married gay couples will presumably be childless than of married straight couples, most of their divorces will usually be fairly easy. But who will look after them when they’re old?)

But I suspect that, as with many heterosexuals, many gay couples will assiduously avoid the duties of marriage. Why get tangled in the red tape of marriage – the smallest unit of government? Isn’t this “The Land of the Free’’?

xxx 

Northerners should know that to many Southerners the Confederate battle flag is a symbol not of slavery per se but of regional pride, including in the friendliness, courtesy and sense of community more common in the South than in much of America.

That isn’t to say that the centrality of slavery in “The Lost Cause’’ doesn’t evoke enthusiasm among many of the region’s racists, who hate the melanin-rich President Obama. And I agree with the general sense of Ulysses S. Grant’s opinion that the Confederacy was “the worst cause for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”

In any case, America is now more than ever a land of tolerance. Indeed, for all the rhetoric about bigotry here, by world standards America is a very welcoming place for virtually all minorities, rivaled only by a few northwestern European nations (that we militarily protect). Many Americans would be surprised to learn how lucky they are in this regard. Vicious bigotry reigns on much of the planet.

Dictatorships and discrimination are on the march, and America and the West in general must be ready for a renewal of what John F. Kennedy called the “long twilight battle’’ of the First Cold War. Computers may be the biggest weapons on this war; just ask the Chinese, who are winning it so far and who aren’t about to permit gay marriage.

xxx

“You go to my head

With a smile that makes my temperature rise Like a summer with a thousand Julys’’

-- From “You Go to My Head’’ (1938), music by J. Fred Coots,  lyrics by Haven Gillespie

July Fourth marks the start of high summer, which goes so fast in New England.

Perhaps oddly, considering that he was a World War II combat veteran, my father loved loud fireworks. In those days (the ‘50s) it was nearly impossible to buy them in New England so he’d purchase boxes of them at stores in the Carolinas and fill much of a station wagon with them, often with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

The blasts would happen every few minutes on the Fourth – mostly large firecrackers, such as M-80s, but we also fired a small cannon. The finale was around sunset at a beach, where whatever was left was exploded. This violated town laws, but few local ordinances were enforced on the Fourth.

Robert Whitcomb (rwhitcomb51@gmail.com) is a Providence-based writer and editor and the overseer of New England Diary. He's also a partner at Cambridge Management Group (cmg625.com), a healthcare-sector consultancy, and a Fellow of the Pell Center.

Now for a house to put them in

"Objects of Love and Desire'' (porcelain and mixed media, installation dimensions variable), by CHRISTINA PITSCH, at Kingston Gallery, Boston, in the show "Christina Pitsch: Fancied'' through Aug. 2.

Don Pesci: The Democrats' star slavers dinner

In case anyone has not noticed, we are in the midst of a Nietzschean transvaluation of all values epoch.  Last week, the U.S.  Supreme Court raised the roof on marriage to accommodate gays, striking down with one bold stroke state laws governing marriage that the justices and the editorial board of the New York Times thought primitive and unnecessary.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, WFSB reported, “called the decision historic and had a LGBT pride flag flying at the Governor's Residence in Hartford on Friday. ‘This is a historic moment, and we should recognize and celebrate its significance. Equality, freedom, justice and liberty – all recognized by the Supreme Court in this ruling that moves our nation forward,’ Mr. Malloy said.” His administration, Mr. Malloy has said previously, is the gayest in state history and has been full of historic moments.

“Well, Scott Walker, if you believe the next president’s job is to encourage bigotry and to treat some families better than others, then I believe it’s our job to make sure you aren’t president. That’s just a taste of the ugly picture of Republican leadership,” said progressive flamethrower U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, during the Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson, Jackson, Bailey dinner at the Connecticut Convention Center.

Ms. Warren disappointed progressives when she refused to enter the primaries as an alternative candidate to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Some progressives, Connecticut’s own Bill Curry among them, think that Mrs. Clinton is a middle-of-the-road Democrat of no strong principles who, once in office, will surrender to the blandishments of non-progressive Democrats.

In addition, she seems pox-marked with various scandals she may not be able to overcome. The loss of the bully pulpit after eight years of autocratic rule by progressive President  Obama would amount to a revision of values that would put a serious dent in the good humor of progressives as displayed by Ms. Warren in what might have been a thumping presidential stump speech. Scott Walker, she says twice elected governor of Wisconsin, is a bigot; Jeb Bush wants to privatize Social Security; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wants to repeal Obamacare and provide tax breaks for Big Business; and former President  Reagan’s trickle-down economics was “nothing more than political cover for helping the rich and helping the rich become more powerful.”

That sort of bumper-sticker thought went smoothly down the throats of the 1,300 Democrats in attendance who purchased tickets beginning at the non-proletarian price of $185 to hear Ms. Warren spank the behinds of Republican presidential candidates. Not a serious candidate for president herself, Ms. Warren is under no compunction to lay out a domestic and foreign policy program that might garner a sufficient number of votes to propel her into the White House; this is the unhappy lot of Mrs. Clinton, whose candidacy Mrs. Warren has not yet fulsomely endorsed. However, progressive Friends Of Warren (FOWs) here in Connecticut, among them uber-progressive Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, have thrown in their lot with Mrs. Clinton and her scallywag but loveable husband.

Ms. Warren’s appearance at Connecticut’s Jefferson, Jackson, Bailey fundraising dinner was rich in irony. The event itself is named after two slavers and an Indian killer; Andrew Jackson, the founder of the modern Democratic Party, was both a slaver and an Indian killer. John Bailey, the last Democratic Party boss in Connecticut, was innocent of these crimes against humanity, and he was an upstanding Democrat too, though politically he was not as ferocious a progressive as Ms. Warren.

On  slavery, Jefferson was somewhat torn. Unlike George Washington, he did not liberate his slaves in his will; he thought blacks were primitive and therefore unworthy of full manumission. Both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Jackson breeded slaves for private gain. Of the two, Mr. Jackson was less conscience-stricken by what the founders called our “peculiar institution.”

Not only did Mr. Jackson own hundreds of slaves, he vigorously prohibited abolitionists from distributing tracts condemning slavery, tabled abolitionist activity in Congress and was himself a slave trader, according to a piece in Salon.

But it was as an Indian killer That Mr. Jackson excelled. T.D. Allman argues in “Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State” that brutality was a habit of mind for Mr. Jackson long before he prepared the ground as President for the Trail of Tears, the forced death march that killed 4,000 Cherokees in 1838-39.

Slaving and Indian resettlement were not unrelated in that brutal mind. As early as 1816, then-U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson displaced Spanish-speaking black and Choctaw Indian in Florida because he feared that a free black community nearby might serve as a magnet for runaway slaves. Mr. Jackson convinced his subordinates that the blacks and Indians, free under Spanish rule, were bent on “rapine and plunder,” when in fact they were small farmers raising crops.

The news that there is a move underfoot across the nation to re-title all Jefferson Jackson dinners trickled down late to Connecticut. Blue Virginia may already have gone Jacksonless by the time this column appears in print. As a progressive, Ms. Warren’s conscience is exquisitely tender, which is why she called the inoffensive Mr. Walker a bigot. How a woman of such refined feelings could bring herself to participate in a function that honors both herself and Mr. Jackson, a slaver and Indian killer, is a deep puzzlement. Following Ms. Warren’s appearance, The Democratic Party in Connecticut belatedly scrubbed the names of both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Jackson from their annual fund appeal dinner.

Don Pesci is a Vernon, Conn.-based political writer.

Seasonal transients

 

"Squam Sail'' (oil painting), by SHAUN McNIFF, in the "Invincible Summer'' show at Flatrocks Gallery, Gloucester, through July 12.

Mr. McNiff  uses rather loose, fluid gestures to evoke the beauty and nostalgia associated with the brief New England summer, in this case the Massachusetts North Shore.

John Kiriakou: Pride's big role in Greek crisis

Greece is in dire straits. As a Greek American, it hurts me to watch.

Without emergency loans from its European partners, Greece will default on its debts and likely be forced out of the Eurozone. That means tougher times ahead for Greece, Europe, and international financial markets.

In exchange for a short-term loan, European powers led by Germany want the Greek government to impose brutal new austerity measures on its people. So why won’t Greece take the deal?

First, some background: Past Greek governments are largely to blame for the country’s fiscal woes.

In 1981, Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou famously told his finance minister to “spend it all.” And that’s exactly what he did.

Greece became the first European country to allow all workers to retire with a full pension at the age of 55. A worker in a “dangerous industry” could retire even earlier. But “dangerous industries” ended up including everybody from hairdressers to radio disc jockeys.

In the meantime, the government hired everybody who wanted or needed a job. The public sector ballooned to unsustainable levels, and practically everybody was retiring early at full pension.

Later on, conservative governments jumped on the bandwagon too, handing fat government benefits to their supporters. Tax evasion ran rampant and the entire political system was corrupted.

The system was bound to collapse, and collapse it did. A few years ago, Greece’s neighbors and the International Monetary Fund loaned the country money to make ends meet.

But instead of eating the losses on their banks’ bad investments, the Europeans — and especially the Germans — demanded harsh austerity cuts that shredded Greece’s social-safety net, gutted the public sector, and plunged the country deeper into despair.

Fed up with the resulting poverty and unemployment, Greeks rejected their mainstream political parties in the last election and replaced them with the left-wing Syriza party. Led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Syriza campaigned on protecting Greece’s now-huge underclass from Europe’s dictates.

Why would the Greeks risk losing everything by not continuing with a well-defined program of pension cuts and layoffs?

The answer isn’t hard to understand.

First, Syriza rejects balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. Over 40 percent of Greeks now live at or under the poverty level. Middle-class people who worked all their lives have been thrown out of their jobs and have no hopes of getting another. Unemployment for young Greeks hovers around a whopping 50 percent.

Tellingly, suicides in Greece are up over 35 percent since the economy fell apart in 2009, and a “brain drain” of educated professionals to other countries is running apace.

Second, Europeans are ignoring the concept of saving face. The European ultimatum to Greece doesn’t respect the country’s election results or allow the government to claim even a partial victory. Add in the Greeks’ lingering resentment toward the Germans over Nazi atrocities in World War II, and you get an even more difficult situation.

There’s still hope for a last-minute breakthrough. If that doesn’t happen, though, the money will dry up and the Greek economy will fall further apart. Yet compared to endless austerity, that might not be the end of the world.

It may be ugly for a while: Stock markets will slide, Greece will have to re-invent its currency, and the economic depression Greece has endured may last several years longer. But the Greeks will survive, and so will everybody else.

And despite their pain, the poor will know that their government did this for them. The Greek people will know that they weren’t beholden to the Germans or to the International Monetary Fund.

It’s not just about the money. It’s about pride.

John Kiriakou is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies,  former CIA counterterrorism officer and former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This piece originated at OtherWords.org.