Darkness of The Sun

Below is my column as submitted to the editor of the Sturbridge Times Town & Country Living Magazine for the July, 2019 issue.

The drive from Long Hill to Sturbridge is routine, but barring some auto mishap, mostly pleasant.  At certain times of day, sunrise or sunset, it can be sublime.  There is a farm on the left that milks cows.  Out front is occasionally something for sale with small signage.

This June, there was a different type of sign up.  It was not on a poster nor did it look carefully drawn.  It consisted of two white wrapped hay bales with words written in black, "Stop the Solar Farm."  

Unless you drive with blinders on, you've seen them.  They seem to be situated on slopes that decline gradually to take advantage of the sun.  Whatever view existed previously is now completely obscured by banks of panels.  Sometimes, what seems a whole forest is uprooted to set it up.

The farmer who put up that bale sign appears to have had some unwanted controversy and announced his withdrawal from the battle on social media.

If instead of heading to Sturbridge one takes Brookfield Road towards Brimfield many more protest signs come into view on the right.  It turns out that the panels are to be set on a hill behind those dwellings. 

 Not everyone was going silent and social media had leads to other opponents.

Krista Virchow is a longtime resident and her sister lives next door.  She will be directly affected and when I spoke with her, her voice was emotional and the concern was heartfelt.  Krista with deep roots elsewhere, chose to live along Brookfield Road saying "my home is my life."

I spoke to Krista's brother-in law, Mike Burke, who said one day heavy equipment arrived to build an access road through the driveway Krista and Mike and his wife share.  He was able to send them off, but that will hardly be the end of it.  The forested hill is to be clear cut.

The solar company made Krista and her sister an offer of $3,000 each for 25 years to use the right of way between their neighboring houses.  They might have been trying some divide and conquer tactics as they also offered one sibling $6,000 for an easement.

Mike told me of the fortune being offered to the landowners who will be able to move away while all their neighbors are stuck.

There was a meeting at the town hall on June 17th with lots of questions and few answers and it is to be continued.  It turns out, there are other solar farms on tap for Warren.  Townspeople are in for a long fight.

Can the little guys win?  The odds are not good.  Over in Monson, a similar battle has been going on since 2016 and it is not over yet.  Jessica Lee Allen is a daughter of the town and lifelong resident.  It also appears that she is the point person in the opposition.

It is from Jessica I first heard the term, "Big Solar."  We've all heard of Big Pharma (much in the news with the Opioid crisis), Big Tech, the Big Banks, et al.  When you put Big in front of an industry, it signals a negative.

It is hard to blame Ms. Allen for the way she feels.  She and other citizens voted it down on August 22, 2016, but the Big Solar Company saw that coming and filed what is known as an ANR or Approval Not Required on the 17th to get the project grandfathered.

It appears enterprises that are part of Big Solar and their legal teams learn from each project while for the small-town folk who want to resist, it is always, as one might say, "the first rodeo."

Supposedly, the Monson solar farm, though built, does not have final approval to be running.  Something is happening as Jessica and her mom hear an audible hum coming from the project.  I heard it too when I visited the array.

In an inquiry to Mass DOER (Department of Energy Resources) to find out if there were any subsidies to the project we came up empty, as the state agency claimed no knowledge of a project at the stated address.  DOER did acknowledge one down the street that became operational in February of this year, but according to Jessica, that address does not exist.

As it is, Jessica and the team fight on though the panels are up and humming.

In an interesting and informative book, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil, Professor David Goodstein surveyed the forms of energy available on this earth and what they can do for us.  The tone of his book is pessimistic.

Dr. Goodstein is a professor of physics and applied physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the premier scientific universities in the world, and no diploma mill.  Maybe the man is not infallible, but he is hardly making anything up.

If civilization is to survive, solar will be huge, if not the major part of the equation.  From Out of Gas, it is clear, we are not there yet.  Advances are being made, but compared to what we need, the state of the art is primitive.

We can see some evidence of that just by reading or listening to ads for rooftop solar.  If it were perfected, there would not be the need to push tax incentives to homeowners to panel the roof.  Your columnist has looked into it for his residence, but though there are some good reasons, the benefits are not that large, at this time.

In the April issue of this magazine, supergrids were discussed.  A supergrid can take power from a region where it is easier to generate and transport it to where it is not with minimal loss in transmission.  Clearly, New England is not where generation is easy. 

The future is solar and so was the past.  All life depends on the sun, but that will take a big improvement in Photovoltaic technology to make it truly worthwhile locally.

The future is also a "waste management issue," according to Garvin Heath, a senior scientist at the Renewable Energy Laboratory.  The panels do not have an overly long use life and then they must be disposed of and that is its own "green" issue. 

Rest assured the executives from Big Solar have no intention of helping out with that task.

Celebrating Black History Month on Long Hill

Below is my column, as submitted to the editor, that appeared in the February 2016 Sturbridge Times Magazine.

Long Hill Road celebrates Black History Month

by Richard Morchoe

It is February and time again for Black History Month. We have decided to observe it up on Long Hill, but not in the usual manner. All the civil rights pioneers and cultural icons are feted, most now post mortem, again and again. Who has not been honored in the second month celebration?

Up here on our hill, we consider ourselves an outpost of high culture. In consideration of that, we have decided to profile three men who were not merely artists, but exemplars of European civilization. Yet all three, had they been living in the American South at a certain time, would have been subject to Jim Crow laws.

It must also be observed that none of the enforcers of such statutes ever produced anything to compare with our subjects.

The work of the first name is known to everyone, or at least anyone who has gone to the movies. The Three Musketeers has been put on the big screen over 25 times and has had several animated versions. It is a novel that just cried for translation to film.

Set around the first quarter of the 17^th Century, there is little lacking in the portrayal of France and Europe in the era. There are of course, the Musketeers themselves who swashbuckle around the realm constantly crossing swords with all who serve what passed in those days for the Dark Side.

That Dark Side is represented by Cardinal Richelieu. The Cardinal was arguably the most able statesman of the age. He was also a subtle intriguer, and thus a man easy to portray as evil incarnate.

The Musketeers and their protege, d'Artagnan wish to protect the queen against the machinations of the prelate

How did it happen that the grandson of a slave came to write the quintessential French novel?

Alexandre Dumas' father had been born a slave,. The nobleman dad took his slave son to France. Since the Middle Ages, slavery had been abolished on French soil. The minute the young man stepped on Gallic ground he was free.

Dumas' dad had him educated and enlisted in the French Army. He eventually became the highest ranking black general ever in any European military. Thus the son had been born into some privilege. This is not to say he had any love for the Ancien Regime. Dad, after all, had been part of Napoleon's army.

The Three Musketeers is not pro-monarchy.

His other work, about as famous, The Count of Monte Cristo, may not have as many sword fights, but it does not lack for adventure. It begins as Napoleon is about make his last throw of the dice. A young sailor, Edmond Dantes is framed and imprisoned in a French Alcatraz, The Chateau d'If. His escape and adventures lead to fame and fortune. The tone of this novel is also anti-monarchy. No matter the politics, it's a great tale. Few writers have produced anything more French than this descendant of Africa.

When we think of Russia, maybe Putin comes to mind, or Stalin or the Gulag Archipelago. Few Americans learn too much about that nation, and my knowledge is hardly exhaustive.

So it came as a shock when I learned that the man who many consider the greatest poet in that great white north was a black man and also a descendant of slaves.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born into the nobility, but his great grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, had been taken into slavery. If you are going to be in bondage, there are worse fates than being raised as part of the Tsar's household. The young man was well liked by the sovereign who stood as godfather at his baptism.

Alexander was thus, despite ancestry that would be crippling in much of the world, a nobleman.

He was also a literary giant. Pushkin's influence was most recently found in a film that featured beautiful music and a story of intrigue. The movie, Amadeus, was based on his drama Mozart and Salieri.

Pushkin was no stranger to drama in his own life. The last bit of it would be a duel in which he lost his life at the age of 37. His death would lead to more literature as many Russian writers would take up the subject.

Our last personality was not famous as a writer. In fact, he is not too famous at all. Unlike Dumas he did not write about men of action, but was himself a swashbuckler.

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges  was the son of a rich planter and his slave wife. Brought to France and well educated, he was a prodigy as a swordsman and musician. Le Chevalier conducted orchestras, commanded troops and ran a fencing school.

All these accomplishments pale in comparison to one part of his life. The man is also known as the Black Mozart. He composed operas, concertos and a symphony, all while following other pursuits as well. For the skeptical, his music is available on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube..

Up on Long Hill Road, we hope we have broadened some horizons. There is nothing wrong with putting on an Ellington CD or reciting a poem by Hughes. Still, there can be more to life.

My Review of Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy by Michael Hudson

Below is my review of Michael Hudson's Killing the Host as submitted to the editor for the February, 2016 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine.  I don't completely agree with the author, but his analysis is better than much I've read.

If you grew up in this country before the 1970s, you experienced a world that is nothing like today. Back in that other reality, there were factories in abundance employing full complements of workers, sometimes in multiple shifts.

American Optical, with beginnings in 1833, was a powerhouse, with its great factory complex in Southbridge. Once dominant in its field, it is now defunct, brought out by others.

Driving along the Quaboag River on Route 67 in Warren, you can see the Wright's Mill Complex. It seemed like everyone knew someone who worked there. Since 2008, no more.

There are still factories, but they are all too often, sans workers. How could our region, let alone country go from having workshops everywhere, all highly productive, to the point where they have almost died out?

One man has an answer, debt.

Michael Hudson is a research professor of economics at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Your reviewer discovered him accidentally. As a history nerd, I came across his writing and was surprised to find out that his research found the builders of the pyramids were not slaves but well paid, skilled workers. It's too bad Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner are no longer with us, as some corrections need to be made to their movie, the Ten Commandments.

Mr. Hudson avers that the debts owed to the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) sector were causing labor and industry to suffer. American labor, squeezed by debt becomes over priced as do American products. Debt is taking a greater and greater share of revenues from non-financial businesses, and workers have to pay more in interest such that they are on the way to debt peonage.

According to Professor Hudson, we are headed to the day when the parasite of a financialized economy will kill the host, or the debts will have to be reduced or even forgiven. Your average free-marketer might be scandalized by the idea, but it is no more unfair than the bailing out of the banks in 2008.

The concept is one that raised its head with the phenomenon of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Mr. Hudson, among others, noted that student loans exceed credit card debt. Paying that debt takes a toll on graduates whose salary prospects may be less than what they can afford to service the loan.

As Michael Hudson states many times in his book, “Debts that can't be paid, won't be.” The FIRE Sector would want it to be for the debtors to sell off assets. As there are less and less assets with enough equity, that is not going to be too popular and one day it will be impossible. A reduction of debt or even forgiveness would be inevitable as an alternative to national ruin.

Many consider Hudson a bit of a commie as he participates in Marxist conferences and has good words to say about Karl. To be fair, he has some nice things to say about Adam Smith and Classical Economics.

He has, however a special dislike for free market economists. He sees them as champions of the FIRE sector. Free market advocates would disagree with that characterization. They would be adamantly against the existence of a central bank and would claim the crony capitalist shenanigans were only possible because there is a Federal Reserve. That discussion is for another day. If there must be a central bank, the author's points are well taken.

In his last chapter, he offers Reforms to Restore Industrial Prosperity. Will they bring economic nirvana? Some make common sense, such as writing down debts that can't be paid and letting people stay in their homes rather than protect the second homes of Goldman and Morgan execs.

His suggestion to tax economic rent to save it from being capitalized in interest payments has merit in that we should have a tax structure that promotes production over financialization. Is his emphasis on land taxes as the way to do it the right idea?

Revoking the tax deductibility of interest has some good arguments, but will not go over too well with every home buyer.

The public banking option, similar to the Japanese Post Office banks is not a bad idea, but my local savings bank provides most of those services. The Japanese system had low interest on savings, but they had been tax free. Bring that on any old time.

Funding government deficits by central bank, and not by taxes, is, for a true believer in that system, reasonable. Of course, if you are going to create money to cover the shortfall, hey, why not fund the whole budget in the same manner. No IRS or Form 1040 would make a lot of people happy this time of year.

Paying Social Security and Medicare out of the general budget has some appeal as there are demographic problems and the last deal raided SS for $150 million for the Disability Trust Fund.

Keeping natural monopolies out of the public domain is okay. Privatizers have taken over some water departments and gouged the public. No, one, however, is remotely thinking of trying to take the MBTA away from the government.

As most capital gains are in real estate, taxing them at progressive rates should dampen speculation.

Hudson's desire to deter irresponsible lending by making the creditor bear the cost of any loan that could be considered a fraudulent conveyance is worthwhile. Many loans have been made that there was no way that they could be paid without looting assets. That should be stopped.

One question about his reforms is why he did not propose a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act separating retail deposit banking from investment banking. It would seem if you are not going to hang investment bankers from the lamp posts, you would want to restore that law.

One might grant a federal reserve run by Mr. Hudson or someone like him would establish policies that would better serve the economy as a whole. It is hard to believe it could be anything more than an interregnum as capture by interests is what happens to bureaucracies.

Still, it should be given a try. It would be hard to do worse. If it fails, we can bring in Ron Paul to shut down the Fed.

Straight Outta Spencer

Below is my column from the October 2015 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine as submitted.

It's not the largest fair in the world. It's not even biggest in Worcester County. It is, however, sizable in our neck of the woods and it is ours.

The Spencer Fair has to be the most un-hip place in the region. I love it. True, I'm not the country's foremost fan of Demolition Derby, but it's nice to know that there are people who have no problem banging into each other in a beat up old heap.

The plaintive sounds of Country-Western are heard from the loudspeakers on the main stage. Actually, the music is inescapable. With no chance of convincing management to book The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, I've long resigned myself to enjoying it. The rumors that my toes tap to some of the tunes are baseless.

Then there is the food. If you are part of Weight Watchers, Paleo, a vegan or kosher, there is something here for you not to like and much to scorn. That's okay, there's more for us who have thrown caution to the wind, at least for the duration.

Pork in most of its forms is available, if not avoidable. After that sausage sandwich, if one cannot find pulled pork, that is underachieving. Cheese fries were one of the first vendors to catch my eye. Normal french fries were also available, though the grease content was probably no less.

Had your minimum daily requirement of fried dough? Did you step it up a bit and get the fried oreo this year? There are strict rules for food safety and a board of health permit is required. One is tempted to think such requirements are superfluous given the nature of the fare.

Though known to give in to temptation after a not overly long struggle, I do tend to like to spend my money at more community based organizations like the David Prouty High School hot dog stand.

Despite all the social changes that have taken place in our country, some are still so retrograde that they judge a young man by the size of the stuffed animal he can win for his love interest at the games of chance. Plus ça change!

None of the rides are scary and appeal mostly to children.

The vendors are many and varied. If mass produced garish tee shirts are how you express individuality, you may find fulfillment.

The Spencer Fair is not just food and the hawking of wares. In truth, agriculture is the soul of the institution. It began in the 19^th Century with a local farmer displaying crops across his dining room table. That humble origin led to this year's 127^th edition.

There may not be a dining room, but vegetables are all over tables in the exhibition hall The tradition continues with displays competing for the blue ribbon. Almost anything that can be grown in Worcester County is here, from tiny veggies to giant pumpkins. I love to see these behemoths, but it's hard to understand the appeal. You can't eat them and they will soon be almost their own compost pile. I guess it's that we love big. As Josef Stalin said, “Quantity has a quality all its own.”

There is, in the center of the hall a glass bee hive that is a safe way to look at the little critters without getting stung. People hover around the exhibit all day trying to figure out which one is the queen.

Along part of the wall is the 4H table. It is refreshing to see young people out and about speaking enthusiastically about their projects and not obsessed with smart phones.

At one end of the building, life is emerging. First a beak cracks a shell and then with effort a wet, feathered little bird breaks out. It is the perennial favorite chick incubator.

Leaving the hall, we're not done with farm stuff. Integral to the fair is the cow barn. These are purebred animals that have been lovingly raised by the owners and are being shown off in competition. Inevitably, one of the ladies gives birth at her stall to a calf that will soon take its firsts steps. Doubtless, it will be to the gushing of the visitors.

There are tents with amazingly colored chickens and ducks and other fowl. Rabbits as well. Some animals are athletes as oxen and horses compete in feats of strength.

This is Labor Day Weekend at the Spencer Fair. There are larger such events, but they are far from here. This is a cozy, local affair. Would the world notice if it disappeared. Probably not, but something would be lost.

Where I grew up, in the next town there was the homey, little Weymouth Fair. It was part of the civic fabric and was well loved, then it was gone. That town is just an indistinguishable part of the Boston suburban sprawl.

The Spencer Fair reminds me I am a refugee here.

The Law and the Profits

Below is my column from the August 2015 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine.

Copyright law protects artists from having their work used for free. It is an understandable safeguard for creative people. It is not, however, supposed to last forever. Eventually, music or literature and other works pass into what is known as the Public Domain and anyone can use or copy them.

Unfortunately, Mickey Mouse disagreed with that. Minnie probably did as well. Their empire, the huge corporation known as The Walt Disney Company, wanted to keep Mick, Min and other properties of the eponymous founder Walt, from passing into the public domain.

In 1998, with others, Disney pushed to get rights extended according to the copyright office circular from 50 years to the “life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.” Bill Clinton signed what is known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act into law.

Winnie the Pooh et al are safe within the good old Disney stable as well as many other characters.

Well you say so what? How do we as American people suffer because a corporation gets to keep properties they have arguably done good things with?

What the copyright extension displays is the American system of crony capitalism. Disney is a huge entity, but it is not the biggest player in the American economy, yet Mickey and some other corporations easily gamed the system.

One hopes no one is naive enough to believe the citizenry rose up to demand that their elected representatives save cartoon characters from the vicissitudes of the free market. We can safely assume that no campaign funds were harmed as our solons served the national interest.

Crony Capitalism is hardly limited to the frivolous aspects of American culture. It transpires that the same legislature that handed over intellectual property policy is about to give away far more to powerful interests that dwarf the might of Disney.

Congress recently debated a bill without disclosing what was in it. The Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is a vast proposal covering many aspects of trade, from digital communications to agricultural policy. It is Crony Capitalism raised to a power.

It's difficult to criticize because it's a secret to all but a few and they're not talking because they can't. Politico's Michael Wessel, as a cleared advisor, has got to see it, but can't say much. He notes, “The government has created a perfect Catch 22: The law prohibits us from talking about the specifics of what we’ve seen, allowing the president to criticize us for not being specific.”

As mentioned above, this is a bill encompassing many areas of the economy. Like most, some aspects interest me more than others. As an organic gardener, I have always avoided GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) seed. We do our best not to eat food grown from GMO sources. You may think me some goofy granola and that may be true. Still, people should have the right to know what they are eating.

In America, support has been growing for the labeling of GMO foods. Some states have laws to that effect and more are likely to. The trade agreement could short-circuit that, giving authority to international bodies. This is hardly surprising as the chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique. Monsanto is the chief purveyor of GMO seed in this country.

Now, even if GMO seeds are not harmful in and of themselves, why is there such a struggle to keep them from being labeled? Should not we great unwashed at least have the right to our informed folly?

Being an average man, I do my best to be informed, but when it comes to science, there is only so much the layperson can know. It comes down to who do you trust. That's what we do in elections. From the results of most presidential contests, we tend to disagree within a few percentage points. In 2008 Obama was elected with a healthy 53% to 46%. Good, but not a coronation. He made a campaign promise in 2007 to require the labeling of genetically modified foods. Like presidents going back to the beginning of the Republic, he did not keep his word and is now full on for TPP.

Clearly, the 600 corporate advisors who have input into the agreement are having their way with the country's economy. The citizenry will not be consulted. The mere change of chief executive will mean little. Bush would have done the same thing and Clinton pushed NAFTA.

Maybe Bernie Sanders or Jim Webb would be different, but they are not going to get elected.

We have referred the question to our official think tank, The Long Hill Institute for the Study of Political Theater. We tasked them to find a reform to obviate the power of the few in economic matters. Alas, they could come up with nothing. As they opined before in this publication, there is no philosophers stone of government. They did note, the longer a nation lasts, more is centralized in the hands of a few. Their final conclusion, everything eventually reduces to its absurd.

Maybe it's just my paranoia, but it is impossible for me to disagree with Lily Tomlin, “No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.”

Why do I have a pen name

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Below is my column from the July, 2012 Sturbridge Times Magazine, Page 20 explaining why I felt it necessary to be less common.

NOM DE PLUME

BY RICHARD MORCHOE (THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS RICHARD MURPHY)

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Such are the words of Juliet as she tells her Romeo he is not his name.  Is that true?  Is what we are called merely an incidental aspect of our lives?  I’m not sure, but I have a problem with my name.  There are way too many Murphys.

To give you an idea of what I’m up against, nobody in Massachusetts will ever say, “You know the problem with this state is you can never find anybody with the last name Murphy.”  It may not be the most common surname around, but there are a lot of us.

That is not the worst of it.  Murphy is the go to name for humorous treatment of Irish people.  Whether it’s Funky Murphy’s bar or the song, “Who threw the overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder,” we are the victims of our name.  We don’t even get royalties for Murphy’s Law.

Someone hears your name, they figure you are an expert or at least a source of Irish information.  In my case that might not be completely untrue.  I do have a lot of friends and relatives who are Irish.    There is a lot of Irish history I know, but I am a history nerd and probably know more about someone else’s ethnic record because that is my interest.

Then there is the subject of alcohol.  I am no teetotaler, but there is the assumption sight unseen that I must drink more than average due to my Hibernian ancestry.  True, in college I did my part to keep the American brewery industry healthy, but failed to become an alcoholic.  Though I can happily ingest the odd pint of Guinness, my preference is more vin rouge avec le diner.  

It has become such that when people ask me something that assumes i am Irish, I tell them my ancestry is full blooded Italian.  Upon their skepticism, I reply that when my great grandfather Giuseppe di Merfi came to immigration, those horrible Irish made him drop the di and change Merfi.  I then claim the cost in therapy for the family has been brutal.  Considering the number of people who actually believe that foolishness, I should think about becoming a conman.

I had thought a unique first name would solve the problem for my children.  I didn’t name my son Sue as in the Johnny Cash song.  There would have been no point to that as there are too many Sue Murphys.  He was given a name that I thought no one in America would possess.  Wrong.  I was sure until my sister handed me a business card of a co-worker with my son’s name.  I fleetingly thought it would have been good idea to use exotic names of other ethnicities, but Genghis Murphy doesn’t really work.

Then there was the recent Russian sleeper spy ring that was caught.  One of the spies was named Richard Murphy.  I am no expert on the subject of slavic nomenclature, but my guess is that Murphy was not the man’s original tag.

Getting other peoples’ mail can also be interesting.  Unfortunately there were never any checks.  Someone else with my name was the patient of the same doctor.  I would get notices that I was long delinquent on the bill.  Being considered a deadbeat by the man I was entrusting with my health is not where I wanted to be.

For a writer, the name is much too common.  Yet actually, I am proud to be a Murphy.  My family and ancestors suffered occupation and oppression and never gave in.  I don’t want to change my name, only its form. In fact Murphy itself is an Anglicization, and there is a form, Morchoe, which is more Irish though it does not sound so.  People will mistake me for something else, or nothing else.  I’m okay with that.  Best of all, there are no other Richard Morchoes in the country, or maybe the world.  Go ahead, google it.  There are nada, zip, zero.  When Richard Murphy is searched there are over seven million.

Maybe Juliet was completely wrong and we are our names.  Maybe I’ll be a changed man with a nom de plume.  My family might aver that it would not be a bad thing.  

Anyway, I never had a pen name before.