Doug Hoffer is just doing his job.

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Apparently Doug Hoffer struck a few nerves when, in his recent op-ed, he attempted to correct  some misconceptions concerning VEGI awards and other economic development incentives.

One of those nerves connected to St. Albans City Manager, Dominic Cloud, who responded very defensively in his own op-ed, which claims that the state auditor is biased against such incentives and therefore unfit to audit these programs.  

Sorry, Mr. Cloud, but that is his job.  

As City Manager, your job and that of everyone on your team is to promote the City and whatever you believe will serve the near-term interests of the City.  Hopefully, those near-term interests will not jeopardize long-term interests, but that is where politics complicate decision-making. 

The job of any business negotiator is to promote the immediate interests of the company, and that includes seizing on any available financial incentive.

The job of the state auditor is to assess, however possible, the net value of state invest

ments wherever they occur.  If the auditor genuinely cares for the interests of the citizenry, he/she goes one step further and attempts to explain the metrics involved in his assessments so that informed voters can do a better job of evaluating the performance of those who hold the purse strings.  Auditor Hoffer is to be applauded for his commitment to truth and transparency, even when that truth may be less flattering than others might hope.

It isn’t his job to be a cheer-leader for the state.  We have plenty of elected and appointed officials who need no coaxing to fill that role.  

We don’t need to look any further than the EB-5 scandal for evidence that incentive programs can be abused.  We need only look a little further back to remember when the Milton TIF went off the rails.

We need the cold hard gaze of an unromantic number cruncher like Doug Hoffer to offset

the overly rosy picture of opportunity that local politicians are inclined to paint.

What Mr. Hoffer is reminding us is that these economic incentive programs may look like easy wins; but the devil is in the details, of which we often have an insufficient grasp.  Outlining some of those considerations for taxpayers to weigh may look like “bias” to Mr. Cloud.  To me, it looks like responsible stewardship and an auditor’s job well-done.

Could it be that Mr. Cloud is trying to throw a little shade on Hoffer in anticipation that the   audit of St. Albans’s TIF will prove unfavorable?

We need a statewide Council on Senior Mobility

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It’s been a thoroughly harrowing winter. That, and an approaching big birthday, got me to thinking… 

We regularly hear moans about Vermont’s “aging population;” but little innovation is undertaken to improve the experience of old age  for those who either will not or cannot choose to simply move away.

Gone for good is the tradition that advanced age brings wisdom and a valued place at the table.  Having stayed on this earth well beyond their “use-by” date, the elderly grow accustomed to being the butt of the joke in a world where youth and beauty are currency.

Having myself reached that age of permanent embarrassment, I feel well-qualified to propose a statewide Council on Senior Mobility to explore ways to make later life more meaningful and valuable to the community through innovative accessibility solutions.

Yes, there are buses and ride services available to those who require motorized transport; but a large and growing sector of the senior population would prefer to walk or cycle on their daily rounds, both for health and for convenience sake.

Take, for instance, St. Albans City, where I live.  A network of sidewalks link neighborhoods with shops, services and gathering places.  They are admittedly a burden to maintain and not always in top condition; but at least they are available to the determined pedestrian.

Sadly, that amenity disappears at the City boundaries where the Town takes over and there are no sidewalks whatsoever.  All of the large shopping centers and box retailers lie beyond city boundaries and therefore, beyond access by foot traffic.

Anyone choosing to walk or bike along Main St. to those bustling hives of retail commerce is at risk for his or her life.  No quarter is given by motorists for the hapless pedestrian who has invaded “their” roadway.

Priority #1 for the Council on Senior Mobility would be to incentivize Vermont towns and cities to build sidewalks and bikepaths. This would benefit, not just seniors, but all citizens.  Here “incentivize” means to provide generous funding and planning assistance.  Some towns will not see the value of building and maintaining pedestrian infrastructure no matter how it is explained, so there must be a long-term funding commitment by the state to maintenance as well as the initial build.

When local shoppers begin to leave their cars at home, the payoff will come in health benefits to the entire community and reduced costs from illness and accident.

Each community will have slightly different infrastructure needs to address its senior population, but all should plan to make local amenities accessible in all four seasons without the necessity of an automobile.

This means in winter, too.  Snow removal and ice mitigation should be obligatory for any municipality, and state assistance should be available as needed.  Nothing is worse than looking out at a new blanket of heavy snow, realizing you have no choice but to go out to the bank or the post office, and then attempting to guess at a viable pathway to do so.  If the sidewalk hasn’t been plowed, you take your life into your hands to walk down the middle of the street.  If ithe sidewalk has been plowed, you might be tempted down the path, only to slip and fall on the ice lying hidden just beneath the remaining snow.

The end result is that older adults may become winter shut-ins, missing the fresh air, daylight and society that a walk downtown might provide.

So, in Vermont, Priority #2 should be to adequately fund and maintain snow removal and ice mitigation so that any pedestrian of any age might safely use the sidewalks in winter.

Senior Mobility Priority #3 takes the pedestrian equation one step further, to providing and maintaining dedicated bike lanes of a sufficient width to allow a bicycle and an adult tricycle to safely pass one another.  Bike lanes should be signalized and provided with clear signage for maximum safety.

These first three priorities represent a fairly modest wish list, really; but they require a kind of investment Vermonters have been loathe to prioritize. We routinely pay for roads, parking lots and parking garages with only minor grumbling; and don’t imagine for a second that they don’t require even more maintenance investment than sidewalks do.

Priority #4 should be to make more affordable groceries available to the people who really need them;  not just to those with automobiles and living space to accommodate bulk buying.  This isn’t just a concern for seniors but for anyone of any age who has neither the means nor the space to do big box shopping. Thinking along the lines of food shelf organization, communities can make this happen by organizing non-profit group stores where box lots can be broken down for individual purchase, and the bulk savings shared among a pool of single and elderly neighbors.

Priority #5 is to think outside the box.  Mobility of the mind is just as important to senior health and well-being as physical exercise.

If we have to begin addressing our growing elderly demographic and declining youth population,  instead of bemoaning the shift as a loss, perhaps we should grow up and embrace it as an opportunity to explore a new market, adapting some of our old systems to fit that market.

If Vermont’s many small colleges are closing due to enrollment drops, how about opening them up again as Senior Living and Learning campuses?  

We are finding ways to live longer lives, why not make them better quality lives as well?  I would expect there might be quite a market out there among the growing population of people who are long on years but still full of vitality.

Not so very long ago, life was short and brutal, ending normally before age 50.  Now at age 50, there is every possibility that one might live an additional 50 years to age 100 or beyond.  That’s equal to a second lifetime!

Opportunity for the forward-looking state economy lies in identifying what people will want to do with that second lifetime, and what services they will require in order to get the most out of their additional years.  A progressive state like Vermont should see the value of investment in such an innovative economic model.

If we were smart, we would begin to examine Climate Change as an opportunity to positively rebrand Vermont’s four-season reputation.  A lot of people are growing weary of the scorching heat, water shortages and weather dramas that are playing out in America’s traditional retirement states.  

The cup is half-full, not half-empty.  Fill it to the brim with new ideas and innovative ambitions!

McAllister Loses One

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My confidence in Vermont jurisprudence has been somewhat bolstered by the news that Judge Michael Kupersmith has denied attorney Robert Katims’ motion on behalf of Norm McAllister to dismiss prostitution charges against him, “in the interest of justice.”  Pul-lease!

The disgraced ex-senator’s second trial on the same charges is expected to proceed in April.

You may recall that  three women accused him of sexual crimes ranging from soliciting for prostitution all the way to rape. All of his accusers were epically unlucky and poor. They had been forced by their circumstances to rely on McAllister, a landed farmer and politician, for housing or employment. One of his accusers died before her complaint could be heard.  

A second accuser, who was a teenager at the time of her alleged assault, was persuaded to come forward despite the fact that she was mortified by the prospect of testifying in public. After a grueling cross-examination in which she was further victimized, she perjured herself on an irrelevant detail which she feared would damage her relationship with her then boyfriend.

The state’s attorney dropped her complaint like a hot rock and she was allowed to sink back into the woodwork, alone with her humiliating memories.

The remaining complainant was herself put through the brutal experience of testimony and cross-examination, but the state was not allowed to share any of the other allegations against Mr. McAllister; nor even audio recordings, made under police supervision, of Mr. McAllister admitting he had engaged in coercive sexual behaviors with his accuser.

Without ever having to, himself, testify,  Mr. McAllister was convicted on only the least punitive of the prostitution related charges against him.  

Not content with that lenient outcome, McAllister insisted his attorney challenge the verdict on a technicality.  The attorney’s arguments were successful in getting the judge to void the conviction and tentatively schedule a new trial.  

Mr. McAllister’s next move was to request a full dismissal.  If all had gone as he had learned to expect from his prior experiences with the justice system, he was undoubtedly expecting to get off, scott-free.

Thank goodness Judge Kupersmith has a stronger instinct for justice than does Mr. McAllister:

“(McAllister) was a member of the Vermont Senate,” the judge wrote. “The Court must infer that he had a measure of political experience and power by reason of his attaining that office…It would significantly erode public confidence in the judicial system if the public could infer that the Court dismissed the charge as an act of political favor.”

A lot has happened in the interim since the first case against McAllister was brought to trial in 2016.  Donald Trump was elected, Bill Cosby was convicted and the “Me Too” movement elevated public awareness and indignation over sexual abuse which had, until recently, been enabled by misogynistic tropes and cultural apathy.

Here’s hoping Mr. McAllister will finally feel compelled to take the stand.  If he wants us to believe he is so blameless, let’s hear how he answers questions under cross-examination.

 

OneCare Vermont chafes under additional scrutiny

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The state legislature would like to have another pair of eyes cast over the books of Vermont’s fledgling all-payer, OneCare Vermont.   That collective pair of eyes belongs to Doug Hoffer and the state auditor’s office.  OneCare argues that this is unnecessary since the Green Mountain Care Board already regulates the organization.

Additional scrutiny may not be welcome at OneCare, but when you consider they’ve just been approved for a budget of $900 million public dollars, interest from the auditor’s office is not surprising. 

Even though OneCare Vermont is a private entity in the usual sense, the state of Vermont has a particular interest in determining the success or failure of managing healthcare costs through this all-payer model.  Healthcare costs represent a huge and growing public funding challenge; and all possible models are subject to debate. For that reason alone, an  audit of OneCare Vermont is a legitimate interest for the Auditor’s office.

Add to that, the fact that OneCare Vermont is a “freshman” enterprise and already being criticized for lack of transparency and for adding a new layer of bureaucracy to the system  rather than reducing it.  It can only benefit public confidence in OneCare Vermont’s management of their healthcare dollars to have the state’s own auditor take a look under the hood.

Auditor Hoffer is known for his political independence, investigative vigor and commitment to public service.  With everything that both the Green Mountain Care Board and the hospital partners have on their respective plates, they should welcome an assist in oversight from their state counterpart.

Bernie 2020

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Bernie is IN.

How could it be otherwise?  He owns the territory now and knows the terrain.

It was he who created the people-powered funding model in 2016.  

It was he who revived the spirit of democratic socialism that, in the past. has contributed popular programs like Social Security, Medicare and public education, our proudest and most humane domestic achievements. 

…And it was he who graciously and tirelessly supported the ultimate Democratic nominee without looking back.

Those aspirational ideas that are energizing youth and the Democratic base?  Bernie’s been pitching them for years.

Grouchy grandpa persona and all, the working-class core of America really responds to Bernie.

We can vouch for that here in Vermont, where the only prior election he ever lost was a mayoral race in his distant youth.

Before the Hillary folks start grousing that his candidacy cost her the election, they should remind themselves of what really happened: Russian interference and a thoroughly incongruous electoral college.

Those Bernie supporters who failed to get on the Hillary train as it left the station have plenty of soul-searching to do, for sure;  but Bernie is blameless when it comes to that,  and his continued participation in Democratic politics has served to energize and re-purpose the somewhat tired old party to a new, visionary model that appeals to youth and diversity, and recognizes the legitimate challenges Americans face in the twenty-first century if we want our democracy, and indeed our planet, to survive.

Sure he’s old.  So am I.  That doesn’t mean that either of us has nothing more of significance to contribute.  

Perhaps because Donald Trump is such a crazy old man, ageism isn’t getting the righteous attention that other prejudices do.  

The problem with Donald Trump isn’t geriatric dementia; it is a narcissistic dementia that has warped his entire life.  That a third of Americans still support him says more about cracks in the American psyche, regardless of age, than it does about old men in general.

Great experience in public service is a positive, not a handicap, for presidential potential. Look at what gross inexperience and ignorant vanity has cost us in just two years.

I’m going to get enthusiastically behind the nominee, whomever that may be. Without exception, they comprise the most promising field of Democratic hopefuls I can ever remember; an embarrassment of riches.  

It is my hope that before too long, they all come together in a private room to agree to some ground rules and an over-arching message of unity.  From there they can talk about what distinguishes their ideas and qualifications from the rest of the herd; but without descending into negative territory.   We don’t want to aid Donald Trump in his only campaign strategy.

The amazing DNC voter data machine: Who gets the profit?

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Some news just washes by like untreated sludge in the stormwater overflow, but here’s some national news with a local angle that fetched up on the shore last week.

Reports are that Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez has organized a new data-exchange operation. Perez is matching the successful GOP voter-data operation on display in the last presidential vote that is believed to have boosted their turnout. The plan is for the Democrats to do as the Republicans did and form a for-profit entity; Perez’s new organization will be gathering all available Democratic data now scattered throughout state party organizations and some non-profits.

The complex operation is coming together  after months of serious internal wrangling. Politico.com reported last December that state party officials were looking to know who exactly would stand to benefit financially from the new for profit data base entity.

Now Howard Dean, with stints as a Vermont governor, a presidential candidate, and as DNC Chairman has agreed to  oversee the new DNC voter-info project. AP reports: The arrangement would allow the national party, state parties, and independent political action groups on the left to share voter data in real time during campaigns. That means, for example, that a field worker for a congressional campaign in Iowa and another for an independent political action committee knocking on doors in Florida could update a master voter file essentially as they work. When a presidential campaign spends big money on consumer data to update voter profiles, the new information would go into the central file as well. And all participating organizations would have access to the latest information.

The new exchange will operate as an independent for-profit enterprise led initially by Democratic strategist Jen O’Malley Dillon, once a top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. [emphasis added]DNCdata

The deal worked out with the DNC chair to calm the waters among the state party officials divvies up the control over the data-exchange between former Hillary people and people seen as progressives — Howard Dean and Ken Martin (leader of the Democratic state party chairs association, a MN liberal inspired by the late Senator Paul Wellstone).

As APNews reports: Martin and Perez would chair a party committee that would license the party’s voter files to O’Malley Dillon’s group, which would establish its own agreements with PACs and other groups. Dean would chair the governing board of the new outfit, and once assembled, that board will hire staff to run the operation.

Some competition and general wrangling for resources between the national organization and state party organizations are nothing new. But a for-profit business model — copied from the GOP — stocked full of licensed DNC voter data available for a price seems designed to invite grifters up to the campaign table for a big-money feast. And as always there is the ever-present potential for hackers gaining access to all that data — all those eggs in one basket could prove an irresistible target.

By splitting up oversight Perez, Dean, and all the professional movers and shakers in the presidential election industrial complex seem to have decided for now to navigate this one with some care. Except there are still questions: 1) who keeps the profits; and 2) why should state and local volunteers provide free labor to stock a data base for sale to favored, deep-pocketed entities/campaigns, when the “profits” are not going to the parties? I’d hate to see the Democrats following the Republican-capitalist model: privatize the profits and socialize the cost and the consequences.

I hope Perez, Dean, et al., at least manage to keep the peace. After all there’s not much riding on this next election but the whole ball of wax. But let’s not lose sight of our principles in the process.

Using hot highway de-icer: radioactive AquaSalina®

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In Ohio a Cleveland Plain Dealer report on state legislation surrounding a 2017 public health report details radiation hazards from a salt-brine road de-icer mix used there. And the risk is more than a little alarming. keepback

Salt-brine is defined by the American Public Works Association as a solution of salt (typically sodium chloride, calcium chloride or magnesium chloride) and water.

It seems AquaSalina, the commercial brine mixture spread all over Ohio, has: […] elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said. [find Ohio Department of Natural Resources pdf here]

Ohio’s Duck Creek Energy, Inc., maker of the trademarked product, says the de-cier brine and dust control agent  “AquaSalina® is a natural saltwater solution produced from ancient seas dating back to the Silurian age almost 425 million years ago.”

That is likely true — as far as it goes — but the “ancient sea water” is also toxic oil-field brine dredged up from conventional (not shale fracking) oil and gas wells. At the wells the waste water is stored in tanks and residual oil and gas is removed after it floats to the surface. The toxic waste water — err, I mean “ancient sea water” — is trucked to Duck Creek facilities where volatile organics and trace minerals — but not naturally occurring radium — are filtered out. What remains is rebranded (apparently with a straight face) as AquaSalina “natural saltwater” road brine and dust control agent.

Problem is: “Heavy metals and radiologicals accumulate in the soil and become problematic for drinking water,” said Trish Demeter, the Ohio Environmental Council vice president of Policy, Energy. “They don’t just go away. The more you use deicers [and dust control agents] the more these toxins build up over a long period of time.” Not sure if Ohioans should feel complacent, even though the report does say they believe radiation exposure from wintertime use of AquaSalina was “unlikely” to exceed human dosage limits. In the previous winter Ohio road crews used one million gallons of AquaSalina, a fraction of the 10 million total gallons of de-icer mixes used. But then again, it is the only proven radioactive mix splashed on the roads.

 The State of Vermont started experimenting with salt-brine highway deicers (the non-radioactive variety as far as we know) about ten years ago. The VTrans FAQ webpage says that the state currently uses them to “jump start” the melting process and to minimize the amount of salt that bounces into the ditches. The salt we typically use is sodium chloride, the same as on your dinner table at home. Then again, VTrans has not yet (that we know of) released the exact chemical make-up of its brine formula.

Road salt, brine de-icing brews, and mixtures are widely seen as culprits that not only pollute streams but prematurely rust car bodies, corrode brake lines, and erode concrete highway structures. In 2017 a Vermont bill that would have banned the use of sodium chloride, calcium chloride and or magnesium chloride brine mixes was introduced but not passed.

Alternatives to salt-based brines are being tested. Carbohydrate sugars in juices left over from commercial industrial processing beets, cheese, potatoes and pickle brine are effective at lower temperatures. Beet wastewater reportedly smells like stale coffee and may change oxygen levels in waterways. Dumping tons and tons of anything on the highways is bound to be problematic for water runoff and throw habitats out of whack.

While it may be difficult to find out exactly what homemade blend or commercial salt-brine product VTrans may be using, an increase in rusty trucks and cars, eroding bridges, and polluted streams seem to suggest there’s evidence of increased harm to balance a supposed increase in vehicular safety on otherwise slick roads. The assumption appears to be that spraying salt-brine  can’t be as bad as sluicing ancient radioactive sea water all over the roadways … or can it ?

Why does he get away with this stuff?

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Donald Trump wants freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omer to resign over a single objectionable tweet?  Congresswoman Omer has apologized and accepted responsibility.

Decades older and holding the highest office in the land, Donald Trump, on the other hand,  has made countless far more offensive comments . He has never apologized for any of them, so we must assume that he stands by those comments, violating social norms in so many directions.

He has called for Hillary Clinton to be “locked-up,” but after lengthy investigation by the Republican Congress and the FBI, it was concluded that she was not guilty of any crime.  

Donald Trump, on the other hand behaves like a racketeer.  He has packed his campaign and his administration with a  cast of shady characters who might easily populate a spy or crime novel; has displayed a conspicuous bias toward Putin while disparaging US intelligence bodies; has shared sensitive information about Israel with a Russian official in the oval office; and has boasted to the Russian that he fired James Comey in order to relieve himself of the collusion investigation.  

He has lied at an ever accelerating rate, about everything from the trivial to the monumental, throughout the first two years of his administration, so that the number of lies is now over 8,000 and counting. 

Corruption in the Trump administration exceeds that of any administration in living memory.  Apart from that, aspects of his businesses, his administration, his campaign  and his personal finance  are under investigation by at least three different bodies, which have already resulted in multiple inditements of individuals acting on his behalf.

And that’s just the short list.

If we are pressuring elected officials to resign for racial insensitivity, the racial insensitivity and all-out race-baiting  of Donald Trump is certainly equal to if not greater than that of any of the others.  If we are demanding resignations from elected officials for past allegations of sexual assault, there are even more unresolved allegations against Donald Trump, whose credibility is reinforced by the witness of his own words on the “Access Hollywood” tape.

How can we hold anyone else accountable for these misdeeds unless the President himself, our chief executive, is held accountable in the same way?

Never mind impeachment, if the Republican Party re-nominates Donald Trump for a second term, Democrats should demand that every one of their congressional members resign.

While we are on the subject of enabling, let’s not forget the role the mainstream media (most especially CNN) played in electing Donald Trump in the first place.

CNN seems guilty of short-term memory loss.  They’re doing a fine job now of fact-checking Trump; but throughout the campaign, they gave him unlimited airtime to propagate mistruths with only the weakest attempts to reign him in. 

There is one thing the mainstream media can now do to address Donald Trump’s worsening habit of demonizing them: don’t cover his rallies.

Having a corral of press, ringside at these carnivals of self-indulgence, only provides Trump with a handy target and foil for his vitriol.  He LOVES press coverage and will become apoplectic if he is denied their attention.

If the mainstream media doesn’t show up, he will be left with the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, outlets that receive little respect and credibility beyond the base that already attends his rallies in dwindling numbers.  

Once having moved freely between the Democratic and Republican parties as a “harmless” business buffoon, Trump now finds himself, on the whole, socially isolated.  Still, he continues to crave and court approval (from his dead father?) and, to that end, seeks every opportunity to make a spectacle of himself.

Like a child starved for attention, the 73-year old refuses to do his homework, lies prodigiously, and is devoid of any strategy other than bullying.   “Look at me!” he seems to be saying, “Ain’t I something?!”

It’s not as if we learn anything new about Trump from analysis of his rally footage.  It’s always the same appalling intolerance, misogyny and misinformation.  

If nothing he has said or done so far has provoked the GOP to reject him in defense of their constitutional obligations, there is no earthly excuse for providing his lies with a mainstream media platform.

It diminishes us as a nation to indulge his appetite for sensation; and, as the attack on the BBC cameraman clearly illustrates, it is building to a dangerous place.

 

Big Pharma drug money & big museums

Business, local/regional, National,

Did you know Vermont went to “war” last September? “We’re going to war with Big Pharma” said Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo along with Attorney General TJ Donovan at a press event to announce that Vermont had joined 23 other states suing the manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. “The basis of our lawsuit is this: Purdue Pharma lied, they misrepresented, they fabricated, they deceived, and they spread falsehoods, and they made billions off of it and they created a path of destruction that the state of Vermont is still reeling from,” Donovan said.

And later Governor Scott announced he wanted to support the effort too, although he accepted and will not return campaign donations from Purdue.drugmoney

The “war” against Purdue Pharma that Vermont joined is being fought on a second front, and the Sackler family — the owners — are beginning to feel heat. Thanks to OxyContin, their wealth rivals that of the Walton (WalMart) and Rockefeller families. The Sacklers are known for their (upscale) philanthropy, and accordingly have donated to and funded dozens of well known museums and universities around the world. Those institutions are now being targeted.

The Guardian.com reports on a recent demonstration: US art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.

Once addicted herself to OxyContin, Nan Goldin is quoted in January telling Art Forum magazine: “They have washed their blood money through the halls of museums and universities around the world,” she wrote. “We demand that the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma use their fortune to fund addiction treatment and education. There is no time to waste.”

In New York these institutions are recipients of Sackler family foundations:

Seventeen major arts and educational institutions in the UK are major recipients as well as others in France (The Louvre) and Germany.

And even right here in Vermont the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation gave 313 historical Ancient Near Eastern, Chinese, Korean, Byzantine, Islamic, and Pre-Columbian American  art objects to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in 2017 according to a press release.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleged in a recent 274 page Purdue suit memorandum that: “[…] the Sacklers flooded Massachusetts with sales reps, influenced state legislation, and financially backed medical facilities and universities so they could tout Purdue opioids.” If these charges are any indication of what is to come, that family’s name may not be what famous-image-minded international institutions want over their front entrance or on their donor list.

The Sacklers did what all upper echelon corporados do: privatize profit and socialize cost/consequences. Is there no PR advisor to these robber barons who might recommend they fund an addiction treatment center in every state instead of more art museums for the rich?

Leave Elizabeth Warren’s family myth alone.

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I truly wish that Democrats were a little less inclined to eat their young.

I don’t just identify with Elizabeth Warren because of her politics.  We are both midwest girls, born about six months apart, and raised in that economic grey zone that could only aspire to middle class.

Being something of a romantic in my adolescence, I longed to have a more compelling origin story.  I expect that is why I readily accepted the family myth that, through my great- grandmother whose surname was “James,” we could claim the legendary Jesse James as a distant cousin.  Even though, as years went by, I came to understand that the connection was purely apocryphal, the story remained so much a part of my personal fabric that when my son came along, I named him “Jesse” in fond tribute to the myth, if not the man.

I was finally told by my aunt that  it was nothing more than a tall family tale, constructed by an unreliable cousin; before then, if I had been required to complete some boring form and came across a question where I might write in answer that I was a distant cousin to Jesse James, I surely would have done so without hesitation.

We all want a little romance in our lives.  When we were very young and had no story of our own, we pestered our parents to tell us about our family history.  “Irish, English, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scottish,” we proudly repeated to our far more interesting friends.  “Pennsylvania Dutch” isn’t even a nationality, but that’s what we were told and that’s what we believed.  Jesse James was just the icing on the cake of our constructed identity.

I imagine Elizabeth Warren feels a little foolish about the whole thing; but now that the cat is out of the bag she will spend the rest of her public career apologizing and trying to change the subject.  

The only people who might have a right to an opinion on the matter are members of the Cherokee nation, and even they should recognize that what she did wasn’t exploitation.  It was tribute; the ultimate compliment.

If fancying herself Native American is the worst charge against her, she’s an authentic angel by Capitol Hill standards.

So I say to the braying mob, “Snap out of it!” We’ve got far bigger fish to fry!