The run of the Mill
“Amoskeag Canal” (1948), (oil on canvas), by Charles Sheeler, at the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H.
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., in Manchester, along the Merrimack River, was once the largest cotton-textile factory in the world.
Allison Stanger: Another Musk/DOGE/Trump threat to privacy and Democracy and a Corruption spawner
From The Conversation (except for image above)
MIDDLEBURY, VT.
Allison Stanger is political-science professor at Middlebury College and an expert on the role of technology in society.
She receives funding from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented access to at least seven sensitive federal databases, including those of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. This access has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy violations.
Another concern has received far less attention: the potential use of the data to train a private company’s artificial intelligence systems.
The White House press secretary said government data that DOGE has collected isn’t being used to train Musk’s AI models, despite Elon Musk’s control over DOGE. However, evidence has emerged that DOGE personnel simultaneously hold positions with at least one of Musk’s companies.
At the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX employees have government email addresses. This dual employment creates a conduit for federal data to potentially be siphoned to Musk-owned enterprises, including xAI. The company’s latest Grok AI chatbot model conspicuously refuses to give a clear denial about using such data.
As a political scientist and technologist who is intimately acquainted with public sources of government data, I believe this potential transmission of government data to private companies presents far greater privacy and power implications than most reporting identifies. A private entity with the capacity to develop artificial intelligence technologies could use government data to leapfrog its competitors and wield massive influence over society.
For AI developers, government databases represent something akin to finding the Holy Grail. While companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI currently rely on information scraped from the public internet, nonpublic government repositories offer something much more valuable: verified records of actual human behavior across entire populations.
This isn’t merely more data – it’s fundamentally different data. Social media posts and web browsing histories show curated or intended behaviors, but government databases capture real decisions and their consequences. For example, Medicare records reveal health care choices and outcomes. IRS and Treasury data reveal financial decisions and long-term impacts. And federal employment and education statistics reveal education paths and career trajectories.
What makes this data particularly valuable for AI training is its longitudinal nature and reliability. Unlike the disordered information available online, government records follow standardized protocols, undergo regular audits and must meet legal requirements for accuracy.
Every Social Security payment, Medicare claim and federal grant creates a verified data point about real-world behavior. This data exists nowhere else with such breadth and authenticity in the U.S.
Most critically, government databases track entire populations over time, not just digitally active users. They include people who never use social media, don’t shop online, or actively avoid digital services. For an AI company, this would mean training systems on the actual diversity of human experience rather than just the digital reflections people cast online.
A security guard prevented U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., from entering an EPA building on Feb. 6, 2025, to see DOGE staff working there. Al Drago/Getty Images
The technical advantage
Current AI systems face fundamental limitations that no amount of data scraped from the internet can overcome. When ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini make mistakes, it’s often because they’ve been trained on information that might be popular but isn’t necessarily true. They can tell you what people say about a policy’s effects, but they can’t track those effects across populations and years.
Government data could change this equation. Imagine training an AI system not just on opinions about health care but on actual treatment outcomes across millions of patients. Consider the difference between learning from social media discussions about economic policies and analyzing their real impacts across different communities and demographics over decades.
A large, state-of-the-art, or frontier, model trained on comprehensive government data could understand the actual relationships between policies and outcomes. It could track unintended consequences across different population segments, model complex societal systems with real-world validation and predict the impacts of proposed changes based on historical evidence. For companies seeking to build next-generation AI systems, access to this data would create an almost insurmountable advantage.
Control of critical systems
A company like xAI could do far more with models trained on government data than building better chatbots or content generators. Such systems could fundamentally transform – and potentially control – how people understand and manage complex societal systems. While some of these capabilities could be beneficial under the control of accountable public agencies, I believe they pose a threat in the hands of a single private company.
Medicare and Medicaid databases contain records of treatments, outcomes and costs across diverse populations over decades. A frontier model trained on new government data could identify treatment patterns that succeed where others fail, and so dominate the health-care industry. Such a model could understand how different interventions affect various populations over time, accounting for factors such as geographic location, socioeconomic status and concurrent conditions.
A company wielding the model could influence health care policy by demonstrating superior predictive capabilities and market population-level insights to pharmaceutical companies and insurers.
Treasury data represents perhaps the most valuable prize. Government financial databases contain granular details about how money flows through the economy. This includes real-time transaction data across federal payment systems, complete records of tax payments and refunds, detailed patterns of benefit distributions, and government contractor payments with performance metrics.
An AI company with access to this data could develop extraordinary capabilities for economic forecasting and market prediction. It could model the cascading effects of regulatory changes, predict economic vulnerabilities before they become crises, and optimize investment strategies with precision impossible through traditional methods.
Elon Musk’s xAI company is well financed.
Infrastructure and urban systems
Government databases contain information about critical infrastructure usage patterns, maintenance histories, emergency response times and development impacts.
Every federal grant, infrastructure inspection and emergency response creates a data point that could help train AI to better understand how cities and regions function.
The power lies in the potential interconnectedness of this data. An AI system trained on government infrastructure records would understand how transportation patterns affect energy use, how housing policies affect emergency response times, and how infrastructure investments influence economic development across regions.
A private company with exclusive access would gain unique insight into the physical and economic arteries of American society. This could allow the company to develop “smart city” systems that city governments would become dependent on, effectively privatizing aspects of urban governance. When combined with real-time data from private sources, the predictive capabilities would far exceed what any current system can achieve.
Absolute data corrupts absolutely
A company such as xAI, with Musk’s resources and preferential access through DOGE, could surmount technical and political obstacles far more easily than competitors. Recent advances in machine learning have also reduced the burdens of preparing data for the algorithms to process, making government data a veritable gold mine – one that rightfully belongs to the American people.
The threat of a private company accessing government data transcends individual privacy concerns. Even with personal identifiers removed, an AI system that analyzes patterns across millions of government records could enable surprising capabilities for making predictions and influencing behavior at the population level. The threat is AI systems that leverage government data to influence society, including electoral outcomes.
Since information is power, concentrating unprecedented data in the hands of a private entity with an explicit political agenda represents a profound challenge to the republic. I believe that the question is whether the American people can stand up to the potentially democracy-shattering corruption such a concentration would enable. If not, Americans should prepare to become digital subjects rather than human citizens.
‘An army of Cranks’
1908 colorized postcard
“Boston runs to brains as well as to beans and brown bread. But she is cursed with an army of cranks whom nothing short of a straitjacket or a swamp elm club will ever control.’’
— William Cowper Brann, in The Iconiclast, a Texas newspaper published in the 1890s
Geology with Biology
“‘Core #6” (birch plywood with milk paint and wax), by Michael Beatty, in his show “Fabrications,’’ through April 1 at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery , at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester.
The gallery says:
January 21-April 1, 2025
“Associate Professor Emeritus Michael Beatty taught sculpture and three-dimensional design at Holy Cross for 25 years before retiring in 2023. This retrospective exhibition celebrating his sculptural practice investigates duality and hierarchy as a dialogue between technology-assisted and handmade forms. Beatty’s work, inclusive of prints and drawings, is informed by concepts and visual culture taken from science, nature and mathematics. Beatty’s sculptures and drawings are evocative hybrids of geometry and biological form.’’
Spring seeping in
Drawing maple sap
“It was March in Vermont. Spring was filtering, seeping in like a wave in its tentative, halting, sometimes backtracking fashion — slow up the mountains, fast along the valleys.’’
Arturo Vivante, in “The Sugar Maples,’’ in the March 1983 edition of Yankee magazine
‘A look of Kindly Promise Yet’?
‘Month of March,’’ by Paul Nash, (1889-1946), a British surrealist painter and war artist.
The stormy March is come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies,
I hear the rushing of the blast,
That through the snowy valley flies.
Ah, passing few are they who speak,
Wild stormy month! in praise of thee;
Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak,
Thou art a welcome month to me.
For thou, to northern lands, again
The glad and glorious sun dost bring,
And thou hast joined the gentle train
And wear’st the gentle name of Spring.
And, in thy reign of blast and storm,
Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day,
When the changed winds are soft and warm,
And heaven puts on the blue of May.
Then sing aloud the gushing rills
And the full springs, from frost set free,
That, brightly leaping down the hills,
Are just set out to meet the sea.
The year’s departing beauty hides
Of wintry storms the sullen threat;
But in thy sternest frown abides
A look of kindly promise yet.
Thou bring’st the hope of those calm skies,
And that soft time of sunny showers,
When the wide bloom, on earth that lies,
Seems of a brighter world than ours.
‘‘March,’’ by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), a native of The Berkshires who became a famous poet, essayist and New York newspaper editor.
Until they drag him away
Iconic illustration by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), for The Saturday Evening Post, and inspired by New England town meetings.
Pain, love, Courage, New Research in the Battle against early-Onset cancer
Dr. George Beauregard’s riveting book, Reservations for Nine: A Doctor's Family Confronts Cancer, is timed to Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. The foreward is by NBC News Today Show anchor Craig Melvin, who lost his own brother to early-onset colorectal cancer.
Dr. Beauregard is scheduled to be interviewed on the Today Show at about 9:30 p.m. on March 17 — appropriately St. Patrick’s Day.
Many books have been written about cancer – be it about a patient undergoing treatment, a loved one dealing with a family member's diagnosis, a doctor treating a patient, or a cancer researcher looking to change the trajectory of those diagnosed and treated.
This book is unique. Dr. Beauregard is the father of Patrick Beauregard, a U.S. Marine diagnosed at 29 with stage 4 colorectal cancer. He had been in the prime of his life, healthy and just married, but he lost his battle against the disease at 32. His father, a New Englander who himself is a early-onset cancer survivor, is a primary-care physician who treated patients for two decades and now works on the administrative side of health care.
This book is part memoir and part tribute. It includes powerfully emotional journal entries from Patrick and unforgettably narrates the struggle of Patrick’s large and close family during his illness. It also includes much information about cancer treatments, current and potential, and informs us about exciting ongoing research. Reservations for Nine aims to educate the public about the alarming rise in early -onset cancers, provides a roadmap for loved ones going through a cancer battle in their own families, and is a call to action to the medical community to get ahead of the dangerous rise in early-onset cancers so that many more families don’t have to endure what happened to the Beauregard family.
Patrick Beauregard, while undergoing years of grueling treatment, became a national spokesperson dedicated to awareness of young-onset cancer, appearing nationally on NBC's TODAY with Craig Melvin in March of 2020, just months before he succumbed to his cancer.
Hit this for more about Dr. Beauregard and to order the book.
Brief chemically induced happiness
‘‘Me and Kelly Drinking in Douro,’’ by Adam Handler, at the Morrison Gallery, in Kent, Conn.
Finding some logic in Boston’s seemingly chaotic street Map
Boston in 1775
(New England Diary’s editor, Robert Whitcomb, is chairman of The Boston Guardian’s board. A Guardian journalist wrote this piece.)
Compared to most of the streets of Manhattan and Washington, D.C., conveniently organized by numbers and letters, Boston’s spiral of streets may appear chaotic and random to first-time residents. But there is a method to Boston’s geographic madness, at least to a degree.
When Boston was founded, in 1630, it had so few residents that its streets were initially left nameless and remained that way until 1700.
The first street in Boston to receive a name was Hull Street in what is now the North End. The name was given by Hannah Hull Sewall, wife of judge, businessman and printer Samuel Sewall, in honor of her deceased parents.
Beacon Hill, many of the streets are named for founding fathers and noteworthy figures in the Revolutionary War, including Hancock and Revere Streets.
The neighborhood now known as Beacon Hill was initially composed of three hills, and was referred to as Tri-mount, or Tremont. During the Revolutionary War, a beacon was placed at the top of one of the hills, to warn residents about approaching invaders, and the name stuck.
While Tremont no longer refers to a neighborhood, its name lives on as Tremont Street, which stretches from Downtown to the South End and beyond.
Many names for Boston streets originate from English towns, regions, or royalty. For instance, Charles Street takes its name from English ruler King Charles, and Cambridge Street is named after Cambridge, England.
Boston itself is named after a town in the English county of Lincolnshire, from which several prominent colonists emigrated. The word Boston is also a derivation of Botolph, the patron saint of travelers, which is where St. Botolph Street in the South End gets its name.
The street names of the Back Bay have a particularly British influence. The neighborhood’s streets running from North to South each stem from a different English lord, arranged in alphabetical order.
This pattern begins with Arlington and continues all the way to Hereford on the far side of the Back Bay.
Supposedly, the goal behind the Back Bay’s Anglo names was to distinguish the newly constructed neighborhood as an exclusive locale, attracting wealthy residents, since during the 19th century, at the peak of the British Empire, English culture was considered more sophisticated than American culture.
Fenway also has several streets named after alphabetized English lords, including Ipswich, Jersey, Kenmore, Lansdowne and Miner, although these roads don’t fit neatly into a north-south formation as they do in the Back Bay.
In the South End, the cross streets pull their names from Massachusetts towns, and are arranged based on their proximity to Boston.
Milford and Newton Streets can be found in the Northeast corner of the South End, while the opposite side of the neighborhood is home to Northampton and Lenox Streets.
The construction and development of Boston took place over a longer period than most American cities.
In fact, during the establishment of Boston’s first neighborhoods, many other contemporary Boston locations, such as the Back Bay and South Boston, were still underwater.
Due to this staggered city planning, the logic of Boston streets operates on a strictly neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. While this will likely be confusing for new residents, we promise you’ll get the hang of it eventually.
Abstract characters
“Back to the Garden” (acrylic on canvas), by Diane Novetsky, in her show “On the Cusp,’’ at Kingston Gallery, Boston, March 5-30.
The gallery says:
“Diane Novetsky presents a new body of work that centers around curvilinear forms—circles and spheres that serve as celestial bodies, sources of light, architectural fragments, and constellations. These shapes, both serpentine and biomorphic, evoke the female form, suggesting sensuality, while the circular forms represent the continuity of life and the cyclical nature of existence. Through geometry in its most iconic form, Novetsky’s work becomes an abstract narrative, where these forms take on roles as characters, revealing stories of their creation.’’
Llewellyn King: Extreme NarcissistTrump rampages as he Tries to Build a dictatorship
The plundering of the Judengasse (Jewry) in Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire on Aug. 22, 1614
WEST WARWICK, R.I.
As Juliet might have said, “O America, America, wherefore art thou America?”
What has become of us when the president, Donald Trump, who has frequently alleged that he opposes big government, wants the government to have its hand in everything, from the operation of The Kennedy Center to the regulatory commissions, to gender identification, to traffic control in New York City, to the composition of the White House press pool?
Under the pretext of cutting three shibboleths (“waste, fraud and abuse”), Trump is moving to bring everything that he can under his control; to infuse every apparatus of the country with the Trump brand, which emerges as a strange amalgam of personal like and dislike, enthusiasm and antipathy.
He likes the brutal Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — he who orders assassinations outside of Russia and causes his opponents to fall out of windows with the nation — so much so that he is about to throw Ukraine under the bus. Short shrift for people who have fought the Russian invader with blood and bone.
He has a strange antipathy to our allies, starting with our blameless neighbor Canada, our supply cabinet of everything from electricity to tomatoes.
He shows a marked indifference to the poor, whether they are homeless in America or dying of starvation in Africa.
He and his agent, Elon Musk the Knife, have obliterated the U.S. Agency for International Development, ended our soft power leadership in the world and handed diplomatic opportunities to China, while at home, housing starts are far behind demand, the price of eggs is out of sight, and necessary and productive jobs in government are being axed with a kind of malicious pleasure.
The mindlessness of Musk’s marauders has cut the efficiency he is supposed to be cultivating. It is reasonable to believe that government worker productivity is at an all-time low because of the unelected slasher’s rampage.
If there is a word this administration enjoys it is “firing.” The Trump-Musk duopoly relishes that word. It goes back to the reality television show The Apprentice, when its star, Trump, loved to tell a contestant, “You’re fired!”
Now a catchphrase from a cancelled TV program is central to the national government.
Meanwhile, the extraordinary assemblage of misfits and socially challenged individuals in Trump’s Cabinet — and, it must be said, who were confirmed by the Republicans in the Senate — are doing their bit to disassemble their departments, fixing things that aren’t broken, breaking things because they hated their authors or because revenge is a policy. Look to the departments of Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security — really all the departments — and you’ll find these hearties at work.
There is a quality of cruelty that is alien to the American ethos, that is un-American, running though all of this.
When everything that isn’t broken is fixed, we may lose:
Our standing in the world as the beacon of decency.
Our role as a guarantor of peace.
The trust of our allies.
Our place as the exemplary of constitutional government and the rule of law.
Our leadership in all aspects of science, from space exploration to medicine to climate.
Nowhere is the animus of Trump and its lust to control more evident than its hatred of the free press.
The free flow of news, fact and opinion, already damaged by the economic realities of the news business and its outdated models, is an anathema to Trump. A free press is a free country. There is no alternative.
Last week the White House and his 27-year-old press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, moved to destroy the norm of decades in the press room, where the press corps collectively through its elected body, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has assigned seats. The association also decides who will be a part of the small rotating group of journalists and photographers — the pool — who accompany the president. It has been effective and is time-honored.
Now Leavitt, a Trump triumphalist, will choose the pool and favor the inclusion of podcasters and talk-show hosts who are reliably enthusiastic about the president.
At The Washington Post – the local newspaper of government — editorial pages are to be defenestrated. The Post, which has had for decades the best editorial columnists in the nation, is to be silenced. Its owner, the billionaire Jeff Bezos, has told the editorial staff that going forward they will write only about his version of “free trade and personal liberty.’’
It is the end of an era of great journalism, the dimming of a bright light, the encroachment of darkness in the nation’s capital.
A newspaper can’t be perfect, and The Washington Post certainly is far from that.
But it is a great newspaper, and its proprietor has been manipulated by the controlling fingers of the Trump machine: A machine that values only loyalty and brooks no criticism. A machine that is unmoved by the nation’s and world’s tears. A Romeo who doesn’t hear Juliet.
Llewellyn King is the executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS, as well as an international energy-sector consultant. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com and he based in Rhode Island.
Or countries
— Photo by Hansueli Krapf
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
— ‘‘Nothing Gold Can Stay,’’ by Robert Frost (I874-1963)
‘Embellishes vulvar Form’
From Kyle Browne’s show, “Garnish,’’ at Boston Sculptors Gallery, through March 30.
Edited version of the gallery’s description:
“Kyle Browne’s exhibition invites viewers to a surreal feast where mixed-media sculpture, found objects and hand-beaded photographs offer an ornate cabinet of curiosities. This installation draws from Browne’s Celtic lineage, the natural world, the decorative arts and sacred rituals to explore tensions between wild and domestic spaces, as well as between acts of consumption and celebration. ‘Garnish’ uplifts and meticulously embellishes the vulvar form, an archetypal symbol of creativity and the divine. Subverting the role of decoration as mere vanity, here it becomes a portal to deeper meaning.’’
Chris Powell: Conn. insanity Law is Crazy
Depiction of Mongol cannibalism from Matthew Paris's chronicle.
MANCHESTER, Conn.
Having recently shrugged off his inability to get state government employees to return to their normal workplaces, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont may have been lucky to be traveling in India the other week when the state Psychiatric Review Board announced it had conditionally released Tyree Smith, a murderous cannibal, back into society, proclaiming him cured of his taste for human flesh.
Members of the Republican minority in the General Assembly exploded with exasperated questions.
Of course, the Democratic majority let the event pass without comment. But at least the Democrats' indifference wasn't caused by what might have been expected -- the political influence of something like the Connecticut Anthropophagist Association. Such a special interest would have to work hard to become as predatory as the primary constituencies of the Democrats, the state employee and teacher unions. No, Democratic legislators ignore everything questionable in state government when their party controls the administration, which is almost always.
The Republican questions were fair: Where is the cannibal living? Does he have roommates? If so, are they aware of his past? If he is in a group home, is the staff aware? Do his neighbors know he is nearby? Who makes sure he takes his medication? How often he is to take it? What are the supervision and mental health regimens imposed on him? What safety protocols surround him?
The Psychiatric Security Review Board's executive director, Vanessa M. Cardella, answered some of the questions. The parolee's medicine will be administered by a visiting nurse. (He or she better be tall, muscular, and heavily armed, or accompanied by several such guards.) The state probation office will supervise him. He will wear an electronic monitoring device, be tested regularly for drug and alcohol use, and keep receiving mental health treatment. If he fails to comply, the board can send him back to Whiting Forensic Institute, Connecticut's euphemistically named prison for the criminally insane.
Cardella said, ‘‘There is a 0% recidivism rate for violent crime for acquittees on conditional release status."
Yes, so far, so good -- or so it may seem. But many ordinary parolees violate their probation, not all crimes are violent, and psychiatric parolees may offend again short of violence and may already have done so.
Now who wants to volunteer to be neighbor to someone acquitted by reason of insanity for murder with a side of cannibalism?
For that matter, where do the governor and legislature find volunteers to serve on the Psychiatric Security Review Board? Those jobs may be as thankless as those of the state auditors, who at least get paid.
But there are fair questions here for legislators too.
The law distinguishes the ordinary criminal from the insane one on the presumption that the latter did not understand the wrongfulness of his actions and so shouldn't be held responsible for them -- shouldn't be punished but just confined, comfortably enough, for the safety of society -- and that he may be restored to sanity and good behavior.
While this may seem sensible and just in principle, it is not persuasive in practice when the crime is murder. For then the law's presumption carries much greater risk. The law assigns the Psychiatric Security Review Board to measure that risk and make a judgment.
That is, state law, not the board itself, already has decided that release should be available to insane murderers judged cured. The board's judgment on the cannibal may be mistaken but appears to have been conscientiously reached.
The problem is that the law itself is crazy.
The best solution here may be to forbid any release of murderers acquitted by reason of insanity, allowing release only for insane people acquitted of lesser crimes, if there are any such offenders.
The cannibal's case provides a strong financial reason for this change in policy. For enforcing all the complicated conditions imposed on his release to protect the public probably will be far more expensive and far less reliable than keeping him at Whiting and continuing to treat him there.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years (CPowell@cox.net),
Christine Keiner: NOAA, Which Trump wants to Tear up, plays a vital role in Coastal economies
Fishing boats in New Bedford, Mass.
From The Conversation (except for image above)
Christine Keiner is chairwoman of the Department of Science, Technology and Society, at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology
She conducted research at the NOAA Library for her books The Oyster Question and Deep Cut.
Healthy coastal ecosystems play crucial roles in the U.S. economy, from supporting multibillion-dollar fisheries and tourism industries to protecting coastlines from storms.
They’re also difficult to manage, requiring specialized knowledge and technology.
That’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the federal agency best known for collecting and analyzing the data that make weather forecasts and warnings possible – leads most of the government’s work on ocean and coastal health, as well as research into the growing risks posed by climate change.
The government estimates that NOAA’s projects and services support more than one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet, this is one of the agencies that the Trump administration has targeted, with discussions of trying to privatize NOAA’s forecasting operations and disband its crucial climate-change research.
As a marine environmental historian who studies relationships among scientists, fishermen and environmentalists, I have seen how NOAA’s work affects American livelihoods, coastal health and the U.S. economy.
Here are a few examples from just NOAA’s coastal work, and what it means to fishing industries and coastal states.
Preventing fisheries from collapsing
One of the oldest divisions within NOAA is the National Marine Fisheries Service, known as NOAA Fisheries. It dates to 1871, when Congress created the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. At that time, the first generation of conservationists started to worry that America’s natural resources were finite.
By conducting surveys and interviewing fishermen and seafood dealers, the fish commissioners discovered that freshwater and saltwater fisheries across the country were declining.
Looking back on 150 years of NOAA’s fisheries history:
Oil spills and raw sewage were polluting waterways. Fishermen were using high-tech gear, such as pound nets, to catch more and more of the most valuable fish. In some areas, overfishing was putting the future of the fisheries in jeopardy.
One solution was to promote aquaculture, also known as fish or shellfish farming. Scientists and entrepreneurs reared baby fish in hatcheries and transferred them to rivers, lakes or bays. The Fish Commission even used refrigerated railroad cars to ship fish eggs across the country.
Today, U.S. aquaculture is a US$1.5 billion industry and the world’s fastest-growing food sector. Much of the salmon you see in grocery stores started as farm-raised hatchlings. NOAA provides training, grants and regional data to support the industry.
Men carry pails of fish specimens to a U.S. Fish Commission ‘fish car’ – a train car designed specifically for transporting fish or fish eggs to stock U.S. rivers, lakes and coastal waters – in this historical photo. Smithsonian Institution Archives
NOAA Fisheries also helps to regulate commercial and recreational fishing to keep fish populations healthy and prevent them from crashing.
The 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and other laws implemented catch limits to prevent overfishing. To develop fair regulations and combat illegal practices, NOAA and its predecessors have worked with fishing organizations through regional fishery management councils for decades.
These industries generate $321 billion in sales and support 2.3 million jobs.
Restoring coral reefs to help marine life thrive
NOAA also benefits U.S. coastal communities by restoring coral reefs.
Corals build up reefs over centuries, creating “cities of the sea.” When they’re healthy, they provide nurseries that protect valuable fish species, like snapper, from predators. Reefs also attract tourism and protect coastlines by breaking up waves that cause storm-driven flooding and erosion.
Divers relocate corals damaged by a ship to a safer restoration site. NOAA
The corals of Hawaii, Florida, Puerto Rico and other tropical areas provide over $3 billion a year in benefits – from sustaining marine ecosystems to recreation, including sport fishing.
However, reefs are vulnerable to pollution, acidification, heat stress and other damage. Warming water can cause coral bleaching events, as the world saw in 2023 and 2024.
NOAA monitors reef health. It also works with innovative restoration strategies, such as breeding strains of coral that resist bleaching, so reefs have a better chance of surviving as the planet warms.
Battling invasive species in the Great Lakes
A third important aspect of NOAA’s coastal work involves controlling invasive species in America’s waters, including those that have menaced the Great Lakes.
Zebra and quagga mussels, spiny water flea and dozens of other Eurasian organisms colonized the Great Lakes starting in the late 1900s after arriving in ballast water from transoceanic ships. These invaders have disrupted the Great Lakes food web and clogged cities’ water intake systems, causing at least $138 million in damage per year.
Zebra mussels found attached to this boat at an inspection station in Oregon show how easily invasive species can be moved. The boat had come from Texas and was on its way to Canada. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, CC BY-SA
In the Northwest Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, invasive lionfish, native to Asia and Australia, have spread, preying on native fish essential to coral reefs. Lionfish have become one of the world’s most damaging marine fish invasions.
NOAA works with the Coast Guard, U.S. Geological Survey and other organizations to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic species. Stronger ballast water regulations developed through the agency’s research have helped prevent new invasions in the Great Lakes.
Understanding climate change
One of NOAA’s most crucial roles is its leadership in global research into understanding the causes and effects of climate change.
The oil industry has known for decades that greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels would raise global temperatures.
Evidence and research from around the world have connected greenhouse gas emissions from human activities to climate change. The data have shown how rising temperatures have increased risks for coastal areas, including worsening heat waves and ocean acidification that harm marine life; raising sea levels, which threaten coastal communities with tidal flooding and higher storm surges; and contributing to more extreme storms.
NOAA conducts U.S. climate research and coordinates international climate research efforts, as well as producing the data and analysis for weather forecasting that coastal states rely on.
Why tear apart an irreplaceable resource?
When Republican President Richard Nixon proposed consolidating several different agencies into NOAA in 1970, he told Congress that doing so would promote “better protection of life and property from natural hazards,” “better understanding of the total environment” and “exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources.”
The Trump administration is instead discussing tearing down NOAA. The administration has been erasing mentions of climate change from government research, websites and policies – despite the rising risks to communities across the nation. The next federal budget is likely to slash NOAA’s funding.
Commercial meteorologists argue that much of NOAA’s weather data and forecasting, also crucial to coastal areas, couldn’t be duplicated by the private sector.
As NOAA marks its 55th year, I believe it’s in the nation’s and the U.S. economy’s best interest to strengthen rather than dismantle this vital agency.
Friendlier than people
“Tree Hugger,’’ by Andrew Fish, in the group show “Spring 2025 Solo Exhibition,’’ through June 22, at the Southern Vermont Arts Center,Manchester, Vt., through June 22.
“View of Manchester, Vermont,’’ by DeWitt Clinton Boutelle, 1870
Before the insurers
Sideboard (1804) (Mahogany, satinwood, holly, ebony and brass), made by Aaron Chapin (American, Hartford, Connecticut, 1753-1838), in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s (Hartford) show ‘‘Made in Hartford,’ through July 13.
The museum says:\
“Saukiog. Huys de Hoop. Newtown. Hartford. The site of Connecticut’s capital city has been known by many names over the centuries. Shaped by Indigenous traditions, immigration, and the insurance industry, the objects in this gallery form a dynamic portrait of Hartford and its environs. Local stories of people and place are reflected in objects of everyday life including ceramics and glass, furniture, and metalwork as well as paintings and photography. Take a closer look. Explore over four hundred years of community at the confluence of the Connecticut and Park Rivers. Join us in celebrating a living legacy of creativity and innovation that bridges past, present, and future.’’
Adam-Troy Castro: Sounds like you’re a Hell of a lot worse than ‘Stupid’
“The Ass in the School” (1556) – engraving after Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Caption translated from the Flemish: “Even if the Ass travels to school to learn, as a horse he will not return."
A real question from a Trump supporter: ‘‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’’
THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:
That when you {Trump voters} saw a man who had owned a fraudulent university, intent on scamming poor people, you thought ‘‘Fine.’’ (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/04/10/trump-university-settlement-judge-finalized/502387002/)
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-fines-for-unpaid-work)
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410)
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, “He sure knows me." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/23/president-donald-trump-could-shoot-someone-without-prosecution/4073405002/)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of a Trump country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “Oh my God, that’s disgusting, and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, “That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-appears-mock-reporter-serge-kovaleski-n470016)
That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, “Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/)
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!" (https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-20160313-story.html)
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-orders-protesters-coat-is-confiscated-and-he-is-sent-into-the-cold-a6802756.html)
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/why-cant-trump-just-condemn-nazis/567320/)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-insult-foreign-countries-leaders_n_59dd2769e4b0b26332e76d57)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!" (https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That's smart!" (https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-05/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from-the-presidency-let-us-count-the-ways)
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/)
That you have seen him start fights with every allied country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, ‘‘falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That's statesmanship!" (https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1,500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/06/04/451570/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/)
What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also... hear me... charitable. Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.
Adam-Troy Castro is a Florida-based writer.
(To all who agree with its content, he asks that you PLEASE SHARE IT on your own post, and ENCOURAGE OTHERS to do the same.)
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