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Robert Whitcomb, Columnist PHOTO: Bill Gallery<\/p>\n
\u201cImplacable tranquillity<\/p>\n
That searches out the naked heart,<\/p>\n
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE — SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST<\/a><\/p>\n Touches the quick of anxiety<\/p>\n And breaks the world apart.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n — From \u201cThe Window,\u2019\u2019 by May Sarton\u00a0 (1912-1995),\u00a0 Belgian-American novelist, poet and memoirist<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the whole poem:<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf people think Nature is their friend, then they sure don\u2019t need an enemy.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n — Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American novelist<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDemocracy is the menopause of Western society, the grand climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n — Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007), French sociologist and philosopher<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The wind in November often seems colder than January\u2019s because it\u2019s more moist. But there are still spots of color from frost-killed wildflowers.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n View Larger + PHOTO: GoLocal<\/p>\n There are compensations as we head into deeper fall,\u00a0 such as the glow as the slanting afternoon sunshine pours onto trees that still have many of their yellow, orange, and red leaves. Spectacular!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t plan to fly anywhere for Thanksgiving unless you know for sure that the government shutdown will be over.\u00a0 Flying isn\u2019t safe now. The unpaid air-traffic controllers are exhausted, and more and more of them are calling in sick. And the airports are filled with frustrated people. Come to think of it, you might want to put off your flights indefinitely as private-sector layoffs surge and the fragrance of a possible recession starts to waft over us.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n xxx<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m all in favor of capitalism and have only worked in the private sector. But I increasingly think that certain organizations, such as hospitals, should only be nonprofit because of their essential public services. (Of course, too many officially nonprofit entities pay their executives gargantuan salaries and benefits.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Consider that another for-profit company, Prime Healthcare, might buy Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, in North Providence, and Roger Williams Medical Center, in Providence, from the mismanaged Prospect Medical Holdings, now under bankruptcy protection. Prospect had been controlled by the asset-stripping private-equity firm\u00a0 Leonard Green & Partners.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Among other issues, Prime is known for slashing some less profitable services, such as chemotherapy and maternity wards,\u00a0 engaging in dubious real estate schemes that drain operating revenues and occasional Medicare billing fraud.\u00a0 None of this is particularly unusual in the for-profit hospital sector.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, here\u2019s a U.S. Senate report on the role of private-equity firms in hospitals:<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n xxx<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Will Newport decide to try to buy most of the about 25 acres of state land made available by the Newport\/Pell Bridge ramp realignment? If so, what to do with it? Open and wetland spaces? Housing? Other? Very important location.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n xxx<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The City of Providence plans to sell the closed fire station at 155 Humboldt Ave., on the city\u2019s East Side, for private development. How about a grocery store, or my favorite, loft housing?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Backlash<\/strong><\/p>\n The Democrats\u2019 sweeping victories in last Tuesday\u2019s elections were, above all, an expression of frustration about the economy, especially inflation, and the rejection, in the case of far too many voters, belated, of the predictably most corrupt and incompetent (except in such specialties as lies, bribe-taking and demagoguery) administration in American history.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And it showed that Trump\u2019s foes are toughening up. Perhaps the most significant vote was Californians\u2019 approval– by a two-to-one margin! — \u00a0 of a referendum measure to redistrict congressional districts to try to\u00a0 offset the outrageous national right-wing gerrymandering movement that came at Trump\u2019s order.\u00a0 That started in the Texas legislature, and came without a vote by the public there. Californians realized that bringing a squirt gun to a fight with fascist Trump cultists with knives doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And I think some of the vote was to stick it to Silicon Valley\u2019s far-right \u201cTechbros,\u2019\u2019 who see democracy as too inconvenient.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n xxx<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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