Pretty, but no smoking please

"Boathouse'' (oil on canvas), by LISA NOONIS, in the "Hydration'' show at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass., through July.

These old boathouses are moldy and firetraps and yet so soothing to look at.

I like best the ones that are extended over the water from the shore, as my Minnesota relatives had at their lake places, with the pines so thick around the building that you could barely see some of the boathouses from a couple of hundred yards offshore.

-- Robert Whitcomb

Sweet, sweaty summers in the city

I've always liked cities in mid-summer. They have a sweet, slow gritty melancholy. The vegetation, turning grayish green, wilts in the heat, but it's a good and pleasant time for rumination. I have considerable nostalgia for  walking slowly around Boston at lunch breaks in summer jobs and then as a reporter for the Boston Herald Traveler (RIP). My boss, the city editor, was more relaxed about deadline assignments in July and August and I could wander around and look for feature stories every few days.

The sulphur smell of the  then highly toxic Fort Point Channel in those pre-EPA days remains to this day a powerful memory, as  the smell of diesel reminds me of Paris.

Even stronger are my memories of strolling down to Battery Park at the tip of Lower Manhattan on Sundays in August as an editor for The Wall Street Journal (we worked Sundays-Thursdays; there was no weekend edition then) to get a hot dog and feel the humid, polluted southwest breeze coming up over New York Harbor. Or walking down Riverside Park between 88th Street, where I lived for a while, and Columbia.

Then there were the slow, sweaty strolls around mid-summer Washington, interrupted by a little work  in the National Press Building and trips to the restaurant-cafe on top of the  Hotel Washingtonian, where the capacious beverages served made one forget the Congo-like heat.

Later there was the openness of Paris in August, when so many residents went off  on vacation,  emptying the parks away from the main tourist strips.  We lived in an middle-class neighborhood (in the 15th Arrondissement). A lot of local stores closed for much of August as residents were in Normandy, Brittany or on the Riviera, but most of the street markets were open and everyone  was quite laid back.

And the densely treed East Side of Providence has its mid-summer charms too -- quiet and parklike. But the college kids come back to  school much earlier than when I was in college. So the summer now effectively ends about Aug. 20 in our neighborhood -- not the week of Labor Day.

--- Robert Whitcomb

It's better below you

"Looking Down'' (pastel on  paper), by WOLFGANG ERTL, in  this month's "Hydration'' show at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.

Violent beauty

 

"Blue Thunderheads'' (watercolor), by BRIAN HERRICK, at Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, Center Sandwich, N.H., in his show "Squam Landscapes/New Watercolors''.

Abbey Greene: Horseshoe crabs being bled to death

By ABBEY GREENE, for ecoRI News

Horseshoe crabs are a marine arthropod found along the Atlantic coast from northern Maine to the Gulf of Mexico. Delaware Bay supports the largest spawning population in the world.

Older than dinosaurs, horseshoe crabs have survived plenty. But human impact may be the threat that could wash them out of the Atlantic.

For more than 350 million years, these living fossils have crawled ashore underneath the light of a full moon and laid their eggs in the sand. These hard-shelled crustaceans are a keystone species, making them vital to the ecosystem. Their eggs are a critical food source for many migratory shorebirds, and their ocean floor walks rototill the bottom, keeping the seafloor healthy.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reports  that horseshoe crabs were hunted heavily from the 1800s to the early 1900s, with catches averaging from 1 to a whopping 5 million crabs a year. Total catch numbers dwindled over time, all the way down to 42,000 crabs by the 1960s. However, millions more were being harvested unreported and at a detriment to the horseshoe crab’s survival.

Bob Prescott, sanctuary director at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, said the sanctuary’s research into the ecosystem importance of horseshoe crabs began in 1999. Some fisheries didn’t see the benefit of horseshoe crabs at the time, and were more concerned with, say, their clam harvest than anything else.

“There was virtually no oversight by the (Massachusetts) Division of Marine Fisheries, and all of the shellfish departments and shellfish wardens were happy to get rid of this predator from their systems, thinking they’d get more clams,” Prescott said. “But, as we now know, the horseshoe crab is a really important part of the ecosystem, and you may even end up with less clams with less horseshoe crabs.”

By 2001, state-by-state harvest quotas were required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Horseshoe Crab Management Plan, and harvests have decreased in an effort to save the crabs.

Today, these crabs have two big threats looming over their oddly shaped heads. Horseshoe crabs are a popular bait for conch and eel fishermen, and they are wanted for their blood. Horseshoe crab blood is used for biomedical research and product manufacturing involving the detection of gram-negative bacteria, which can be harmful to humans.

Overfishing is the species’ primary threat, according to Scott Olszewski, marine biologist at Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM). He said a stock assessment taken in 2012 indicated that the Mid-Atlantic stock was stable, but the southern New England stock had low abundance.

Not only do horseshoe crabs need to worry about being hunted, but their habitat is also being taken away. Mark Faherty, science coordinator at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, said, “A lot of beaches in certain parts of the Cape have been really impacted by stonewalls people put up, and they totally disrupt the natural sand movement, and the beaches end up getting scoured away. That means spawning grounds for horseshoe crabs, piping clovers, heron ... all these species that use the edge of the beach no longer have habitat. There sort of are regulations to prevent habitat loss, but there is not enough and a lot of damage has been done.”

However, actions have been taken to help the horseshoe crab population recover. In southern New England, there are catch limits, and if a limit is reached, the fishery is closed for the season. Furthermore, every May, June and July, two days before and after new moons, fisheries are closed to harvest.

“It is peak spawning activity around the highest tides,” Olszewski said. “The idea is that peak spawning is going to take place then, so for 10 days each month we ensure some level of uninterrupted spawning.”

Combined with the addition of a few sanctuaries on the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the populations are expected to bounce back over time. So far, no change has been seen.

There has, however, been some legal pushback in Massachusetts to enlist the horseshoe crab as endangered.

“The state is saying that we have this four hundred-crab limit,” Prescott said, “we have these no-harvest windows, so why don’t we see what happens and if the crab populations will respond to these restrictions. But the problem is we have to wait ten years, and we can’t wait 10 years.”

Olszewski is hoping for a legislative change soon in Rhode Island. There is a total annual catch reported in Rhode Island, but no daily catch limit. Not only would a daily catch limit make fishing more fair to all fishermen but it also could help remove some of the pressure on the horseshoe crab population, he said.

He said this idea could be put into effect as soon as the 2016 fishing season, after a public hearing process and approval is received from the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council and the DEM.

“I think the populations can come back in certain places, like Chatham,” Faherty said. “There is no harvest there, so the horseshoe crabs have a sort of sanctuary. There are thousands of juvenile crabs and adult crabs there, and it shows how it used to be. It shows us what it could be like and that the populations can really come back. It may just take some time, and work from us.”

PCFR speakers from far and wide

  Speakers at the 2014-15 season of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org) were:

Anders Corr, a geopolitical analyst and former Defense Department official in Afghanistan, on Chinese expansionism.

Richard George, former high National Security Agency official, on international cyber-security.

Prof. Evodio Kalteneker, on the Brazilian economy and politics.

Professor and journalist Janet Steele on democratic Indonesia.

Jennifer Yanco, a public-health expert and a director of the West Africa Research Association, on the Ebola crisis.

Australian Consul Gen. Nick Minchin, on his nation’s relations with Asia and the U.S.

Delphine Halgand, a high official of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, on threats to free speech and journalism. (She spoke a few days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.)

Amir Afkhami, M.D., a psychiatrist, on dealing with mental illness in war zones, particularly the Mideast.

Military historian and retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich on why America should stop fighting wars in the Mideast.

Famed Canadian journalist Diane Francis on why the U.S. and Canada should consider merging.

International landscape architect Thomas Paine on making cities more humane, especially in China.

Admiral Robert Girrier, deputy chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, on countering Chinese expansion in the South China Sea.

Gary Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya at the time of the Benghazi attack and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on lessons for the U.S. in Libya and the future of international trade.

The new season looks exciting too. (And maybe even useful for investing decisions.)

We’re still penciling in speakers and dates, but we can say that Cuban-American businessman and civic leader Eduardo Mestre will speak on Sept. 30 about the reopening of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the land of his birth.

Mr. Mestre is a member of the boards of the International Rescue Committee and the Cuba Study Group.

He’s also a senior adviser at Evercore and was previously vice chairman of Citigroup Global Markets and chairman of its Investment Banking Division. Before then, he headed investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and its predecessor firms from 1995-2001 and was co-head of Salomon Brothers' mergers and acquisitions department in 1989-1995.

Skedded for Oct. 22 is Scott Shane, the New York Times reporter who wrote the new book Objective Troy, about  Anwar al-Awlaki, “the once-celebrated American imam who called for moderation after 9/11, but a man who ultimately directed his outsized talents to the mass murder of his fellow citizens’’ and was eventually killed by an American drone. Among other things, he’ll discuss the moral issues raised by the increasing use of drones.

Some of the people we have on the drafting board for the rest of the season:

A U.N. expert on international refugee crises; a journalist or diplomat who will discuss the Greek crisis; a member of the Federal Reserve Board who will discuss international financial-system challenges; a Japanese journalist to talk about that nation’s increasingly muscular regional posture; an expert on international shipping in light of the widening of the Panama Canal; a status report on Mexico; a Chinese philanthropist; a member of the Ukrainian Congress Committee; (we have been trying for some time to get a Russian official or journalist to give Moscow’s side of the war in eastern Ukraine), and the director of the Aga Khan University Media School to talk about training journalists in the Developing World

All subject to change. We frequently repeat Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s purported response when he was asked what he most feared:

“Events, my dear boy, events.’’

Members should feel free to chime in with suggestions.

Also, we’ll strive to frequently update the PCFR Website with supplemental news and commentary on international matters that may be of interest.

Please consult www.thepcfr.org or message pcfremail@gmail.com for questions about the PCFR.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Robert Whitcomb, chairman

pcfremail@gmail.com

Robert Whitcomb: Local power; summer music; Iran

Politicians love news stories about their luring big out-of-area companies, even as they camouflage the associated tax breaks. But rarely do these arrivals bring as many jobs as promised, and they sometimes kill existing local ones. Then they may leave town in a few years, drawn by another sucker’s offer of bigger subsidies. What they don’t pay in local taxes, others must make up. And even if they stay, their profits leave town.

For obvious fiscal and emotional reasons, locally owned firms usually are loyal to their communities, and spend most of their profits there. These businesses tend to reliably support good jobs, tax revenue, social stability and civic participation, including local charitable donations – mostly without tax breaks.

Still, local businesses have found it hard to offer the cheaper prices and range of products of the huge national and international companies because they haven’t had economies of scale, especially in purchasing and overhead.

But technology, and especially the Web, are now making it easier for “Main Street’’ businesses to pool resources and benefit from economies of scale. Some use computerization to help cut costs, by, say, merging some back-office administrative and distribution functions. And local firms can do joint marketing to widen the range of goods and services that they sell collectively -- operating sort of like departments within the same store. Consider Providence’s Hope Street Merchants Association.

John McClaughry, a vice president of the free-market Ethan Allen Institute, wrote about this in a column, “The Local Economy Solution,’’ in the July 12 Valley News, an Upper Connecticut Valley newspaper, inspired by Michael Shuman’s new book, “The Local Economy Solution.’’

He cites such Shuman examples as ShopMidland, in Ontario; Main Street Genome, in Washington, D.C., and Sustainable Connections, in Bellingham, Wash.

Mr. McClaughry notes that in “In Ann Arbor, Mich., a successful deli named Zingerman’s has created a family of independently owned but coordinated enterprises – creamery, bakery, coffee roaster, candy maker, produce grower, roadhouse restaurant {and} online sales collectively named the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. It operates an entrepreneurship training program for employees who have visions for new businesses of their own.’’

Local firms that want to collaborate to compete with the big shots should consult the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and the American Independent Business Alliance for pointers. And consumers seeking to improve their local economies should do the obvious and patronize locally owned business, be they manufacturers, farms or stores.

xxx

Jeb Bush has been backing and filling after saying that Americans ought to “work more’’. He meant that more people should be able to get full-time jobs, but his arrogant-sounding (if not intended) phrasing reminded people that his wealth and career success are due in large part to his being born, as they say, on third base.

He also focused on sustaining 4 percent annual gross domestic product growth. Economic growth in itself won’t make most people’s lives better. It depends how it’s sliced up.

But I enjoyed David Frum remarks in July 10 Atlantic online article, “What Jeb Bush gets right – and wrong -- about American workers’’:

“Nor are these under-employed Americans for the most part devoting themselves to childcare, elder care, community involvement, or self-improvement. As sociologists such as Robert Putnam have noted, contemporary Americans do less of all those things than their longer-working counterparts of half a century ago. Instead, as Americans reduce their work commitments, they increase their hours watching TV and playing video games.’’

xxx

For people of a certain age, there are “Summertime,’’ “Hot Town, Summer in the City’’ “Those Lazy-Hazy-Days of Summer,’’ etc. Whatever your age, the season sends lots of songs. The durable institution of the summer vacation (more time to listen) and the invention of the transistor radio have played key roles in making so many of them memorable.

Every July, I have flashbacks of riding around in the mid-‘60s in a friend’s Mustang listening to the Beach Boys blaring. The hot-weather music will fade out in a few weeks. But new songs will arrive late next spring and become life markers for the young.

xxx

Foes of President Obama’s deal with Iran need to be forthright about what they’d do instead. The other major powers are dropping sanctions, so keeping sanctions doesn’t work very well with us as the only ones imposing them. Or do we attack them militarily? Really? How? Are we prepared for the Iranian retaliation?

Robert Whitcomb (rwhitcomb51@gmail.com) is a Providence-based writer and editor, chairman of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org), a partner of Cambridge Management Group (cmg625.com) and a Fellow of the Pell Center.

Sort of a sex scandal

  Sort of a sex scandal in Cohasset, Mass., schools.

What about Pataki?

Cartoon from OtherWords.org

Why don't more people pay attention to a person you'd think would be a major GOP presidential hopeful  -- former  three-term New York Gov. George Pataki, a very successful chief executive of a very big state?

He's running for president, but  New Jersey's Chris Christie, a not very successful governor, gets about 95 percent of the attention from those who think that  a Northeast Republican could actually win the nomination of a party now mostly run from the South.

--- Robert Whitcomb

Jill Richardson: Luxury vacation with no conveniences

When you read this, I’ll probably be out in the wilderness on a 220-mile hike along the John Muir Trail. Embarking on this journey through California’s breathtaking Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks reminded me of a conversation I had in Mexico five years ago.

I’m a relative newbie to hiking and backpacking — I didn’t grow up outdoorsy. Traveling to a rural part of Chiapas in 2010 to research indigenous farming techniques took me outside my comfort zone and helped me find a new hobby.

I went with friends I trusted, and they were comfortable with our accommodations. My discomfort started the first time I asked for the restroom and somebody told me to go behind a tree.

Wait, you mean there’s no — what?

About a week later, I noted to my fellow travelers that living among peasant farmers felt an awful lot like camping. Only camping is something Americans do for recreation for short periods of time (and with fancy gear).

In this part of Mexico, this was how people spent their entire lives — except without down sleeping bags or portable espresso makers. The closest thing many Americans can imagine to that is Survivor, the old reality TV show.

Imagine if the hiking boot were on the other foot. How about a reality show for rural Mexicans in which competitors commuted to work in heavy traffic and then sat at a desk for eight hours looking at spreadsheets, interrupted only by staff meetings?

My time in Mexico didn’t immediately lead me to take up camping, but it helped me grow a little more comfortable going without modern “necessities” like toilets or hot showers.

It was ultimately my love of North American nature that got me to take up camping. You can see a lot of magnificent beauty on short day hikes, but some natural wonders require days of backpacking to get there — and there’s no Holiday Inn on the trail.

So I’m giving up my beloved indoor plumbing and extra-firm mattress to enjoy what a 25-day hike through California’s Sierra Nevada mountains can offer. I’m spending nearly a month close to nature, without many modern conveniences. For fun.

You know what? The hot showers I take in my bathroom are fantastic, but not as good as bathing in a rain forest’s river like the people I met in Mexico do every day.

And beds are utterly fantastic — but I don’t get to see the stars very often when there’s a roof over my head. My friends in rural parts of Kenya, the Philippines, and Bolivia see them every night.

Between doing cardio in a gym and walking on trails, there’s no contest. The gym has no stream running alongside the treadmill, and even the best smelling gym can’t compare with the fragrance of a pine forest.

My comparison of life in rural Mexico to camping initially elicited sympathy for my Mexican hosts because of all the material comforts we have and they lack. Now, I’m heading out to temporarily seek a life more like theirs for a few weeks.

For everything Americans gain from our modern conveniences, perhaps we’ve lost a few too many old-fashioned pleasures. Like walking along tree-lined trails. Or observing wildflowers as they bloom throughout the warmer months. And looking up in awe at the stars every night.

Our national and state parks afford these pleasures to anyone who can get there and spare the time. The 25 days I’m taking to do this hike is an enormous luxury that many Americans will never enjoy. The wonders of nature should be accessible to all, not a luxury for the privileged few.

Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.  This originated at OtherWords.org.

Upholding the dignity of the beach

"Bather'' (oil on linen), by ALEX KATZ, in the show "Alex Katz in the 1950s,''  at the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, through Oct. 18.

Maybe more jailing, less crime?

I was amused to hear the talking heads on the radio  today say, in connection with President Obama's visit to a prison, that we should stop the incarceration emphasis of the last three decades because crime rates have fallen so low. Might they not think that many logical listeners would think that there just might be a link between a higher jail rate and a lower crime rate? Or  does the lower crime rate mostly stem from the aging of the population?

-- Robert Whitcomb

'Infusion 2015' of salsa and fashion

  This was just sent to us:

"Prepare for your next resort get-away by viewing the hottest looks of the season and immerse yourself in a night of fashion, cocktails, music and a mixture of Latin-inspired entertainment by the dance professionals of Salsa con Soul. Following the runway show will be 4 hours of social mingling and dancing.

''INFUSION 2015 is the first fully infused showcase of fashion and the resort experience. It’s about bringing together the looks of resort fashion and the flare of the resort destination experience. For the first time in Rhode Island, both industries, communities and aficionados of Fashion and Salsa unite to host an event in the city of Providence to engage, showcase and celebrate, the talents, brands and people of its scene. On Saturday July 18th, many will witness for the first time a total INFUSION experience that involves two highly talented fashion designers as well as the skillful dance professionals of Salsa con Soul. Resort runway meets resort salsa 7pm-2am at Aurora Providence.''

Lines of memory

 

"Fibonacci's Workshop'' (watercolor), by BARBARA ERNST PREY, in the show "Re/Viewing the American Landscape,'' at Blue Water Fine Arts, in Port Clyde, Maine, July 20-Aug. 31.

The gallery says this is an  example of using color to create "a jarring balance.''

"Each wash within this painting has subtly changed the nature of the piece until the depth and balance are achieved, making the painting as much a reflection of the space changing over time as well as the artist's memory.''

Llewellyn King: Alternative energy threatens electric grid

On Feb. 3, 1960 in Cape Town, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan shook up what was still the British Empire in Africa by telling the Parliament of South Africa that “the wind of change is blowing through this continent.”

His remarks weren’t well received by those who that thought that it was premature, and that Britain would rule much of Africa for generations. The British ruling class in Africa – the established order — was shaken.

But Macmillan’s speech was, in fact, a tacit recognition of the inevitable. It was the signaling of a brave new world in which Britain would grant independence to countries from Nigeria to Botswana and Kenya to Malawi. Britain would not attempt to hold the Empire together. His speech was seminal, in that Britain had signaled that things would never ever be the same.

To me, the appearance of investor and entrepreneur Elon Musk at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in New Orleans was a “wind of change” moment for the august electric utility. It was a signal that the industry was coming to terms, or trying to come to terms, with new forces that are challenging it as a business proposition in a way that it hasn’t been challenged in a history of more than 100 years.

But whereas Britain could swallow its pride and start a withdrawal from its former possessions, the electric industry faces quite a different challenge: How can it serve its customers and honor its compact with them when people like Musk, who is the non-executive chairman of the aggressive company SolarCity, and a passionate advocate of solar electricity, and Google are moving into the electric space?

At EEI’s annual convention, Musk didn’t tell his audience what he thought would happen to the utilities as their best customers opted to leave the grid, or to rely on it only in emergencies, while insisting that they should be allowed to sell their own excess generation back to the grid. Musk also didn’t venture an opinion on the future of the grid — and his interlocutor, Ted Craver, chairman and CEO of Rosemead, Calif.-based Edison International, didn’t press him.

Instead Musk talked glowingly about the electrification of transportation, implying — but not saying outright — that the electric pie would grow with new technologies like his Tesla Motors’ electric car.

The CEOs of EEI’s board were ready for the press by the time they held a briefing a day after Musk’s opening appearance. They spoke of “meeting the challenges as we have always met the challenges” and of “evolving” with the new realities. Gone from recent EEI annual meetings was CEO talk of their business model being “broken.”

The great dark cloud hanging over the industry is that of social justice. As the move to renewables becomes a flood, enthusiastically endorsed by such disparate groups as the Tea Party and environmentalists, the Christian right and morally superior homeowners, and companies like SolarCity and First Solar, the poor may have difficulty keeping their heads above water.

The grid, a lifeline of U.S. social cohesion, remains at threat. Utilities are jumping into the solar business, but they have yet to reveal how selling or leasing rooftop units — as the Southern Company is about to do in Georgia — is going to save the grid, or how the poor and city dwellers are going to be saved from having to pay more and more for the grid while suburban fat cats enjoy their sense that they’re saving the planet.

My sense is that in 10 years, things will look worse than they do today; that an ill wind of change will have reduced some utilities to the pitiful state of Amtrak — a transportation necessity that has gobbled up public money but hasn’t restored the glory days of rail travel.

People like myself — I live in an apartment building — have reason to fear the coming solar electric world, for we will be left out in the cold. The sun will not be shining on those of us who still need the grid. It needs to be defended.

Llewellyn King (lking@kingpublishing.com) is host of  White House Chronicle, on PBS, and a longtime publisher, editor, writer and international business consultant. This column was previously published in Public Utilities Fortnightly.

Lose the lawns

Drought-stricken California is starting to make developers reduce the area devoted to lawns, which are huge water-guzzlers. You'd think from looking at Southern California's heavily lawned landscape that it is as wet as New England rather than a desert made green by water from hundreds of miles away in the High Sierra. Lawns, even in usually damp New England, are huge wasters of water, and a major contributor of pollution from the fertilizers and pesticides  that folks dump on them, often to excess.

Ground cover or just trees are a much better use of the land, though I  still appreciate the beauty of a very green lawn. I have fond memories of lying on them on  hot, pre-air-conditioned nights watching the fireflies. But we give lawns far too much space.

I wish that my parents had planted over their lawns on the Massachusetts coast with something that didn't require my spending many hours a month cutting them -- my earliest  steady "summer job.''

Back then,  in the  '50s and early '60s,  we never worried about using too much water or about pouring on the (pre-Silent Spring) pesticides and fertilizer.

-- Robert Whitcomb

'and our little life is rounded with a sleep'

 

"Floating'' (oil on canvas), by SKY POWER, in the group show "Mystical Landscapes,'' at the Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Mass., July 27-Aug. 9.

Chris Powell: Of a Confederate flag and a corrupt former mayor

MANCHESTER, Conn. For a few days last month Connecticut’s Democratic state headquarters tried to make a scandal out of the Confederate flag being flown by a member of the Republican State Central Committee at his home in Berlin.

The man maintained that he flew the flag as a protest against political correctness, not as support of racial oppression. But Senate Republican Minority Leader Len Fasano, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, and Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, among other leading Republicans, quickly condemned the gesture.

It was a tempest in a teacup, or a thimble, really, since a single member of the state committee of a political party that holds no statewide or congressional offices is of little consequence. The issue was just an excuse for Democratic headquarters to proclaim that since it had located a nutty Republican, all Republicans in Connecticut are nutty -- as if the state has no nutty Democrats.

Infinitely more remarkable is the silence surrounding former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim's candidacy for mayor again despite his extensive corruption in office, for which he served seven years in federal prison before his release in 2010.

Of course Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, facing Ganim in the Democratic primary in September, argues that his challenger's corruption should disqualify him. But all other leading Democrats in the state seem to be silent about Ganim. Thus the Democratic Party is suggesting that a bitter old crank's flying the Confederate flag is more of a disgrace to his party and more of a threat to society than someone who took bribes and kickbacks while presiding over the state's largest city and who may get the chance to do it again.

Last week, in a distressing irony, the ex-convict candidate was endorsed by Bridgeport's police union, apparently in the expectation that as mayor again Ganim would go easier on city employees than the incumbent.

Gov. Dan Malloy could quickly resolve the Bridgeport issue in favor of integrity in government by announcing that his administration would not cooperate with a Ganim administration and that if Bridgeport holds so little respect for itself and the state, it will be on its own. The governor's "second-chance society" initiative to rehabilitate nonviolent offenders, welcome as it is, doesn't rationalize degrading public office.

xxx

A Connecticut Superior Court judge is being criticized for declining to issue a protective order to a woman whose boyfriend later threw their baby to his death from the Arrigoni Bridge, in Middletown. At a hearing the judge concluded that the evidence presented to him didn't support the request -- that the evidence showed that the couple's relationship was "chaotic" but not imminently threatening.

Maybe the judge was wrong about the evidence, but at least he reviewed it, while no one bothered to review it before criticizing him. Rather, the advocates of women against their crazy boyfriends and husbands simply presumed, as they always do, that a woman's accusation should be considered valid without any inquiry at all.

Lately these advocates have been making this argument in regard to guns owned by men against whom wives or girlfriends seek a protective order -- that such men should be required to surrender their guns before any hearing and finding, that simple accusation means guilt, and that ordinary due process of law is dispensable.

In the recent hysteria over gun crimes, even the governor and many state legislators, while sworn to uphold our constitutions, have also supported discarding due process.

But Connecticut can have due process and public safety in the normal way -- with formal criminal accusation, arrest, and speedy trials. Until Connecticut provides speedy trials in domestic cases, the state will be left with these calls for "Alice in Wonderland" justice: sentence first, verdict afterwards.

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

Video: John Oliver on sports-stadium corruption by the rich

  Video: Quite funny John Oliver piece on the insanity (for average citizens) and immense boondoggle of sports stadiums -- which are basically the theft of taxpayer money and public land by rapacious rich people.

Forming a government

 

"Birth of a Nation''  (detail) (installation with toddler T-shirt, digital print and fishing line), by BRYAN RODRIGUEZ,  in the group show "Wildlife Sanctuary,'' at the Samson Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 22.