One of the most worrisome outcomes of the 2016 election is the likely “U turn” on efforts to protect the environment. As Vox recently reported,
Unified Republican control of the federal government over the next two years augurs a sea change in US environmental policy like nothing since the late 1960s and ’70s, when America’s landmark environmental laws were first passed.
If Donald Trump and the GOP actually follow through on what they’ve promised, this time around will be a lurch in the opposite direction. Federal climate policy will all but disappear; participation in international environmental or climate treaties will end; pollution regulations will be reversed, frozen in place, or not enforced; clean energy research, development, and deployment assistance will decline; protections for sensitive areas and ecosystems will be lifted; federal leasing of fossil fuels will expand and accelerate; new Supreme Court appointees will crack down on EPA discretion.
Given the rate at which the planet is warming, Trump’s promise to pull America out of the Paris Accords is a prescription for disaster. Local efforts to reduce America’s carbon footprint will be important, but those efforts won’t be universal and they won’t be sufficient.
So I was really heartened by Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed response.
Sarkozy told the French television channel TF1 that he would “demand that Europe put in place a carbon tax of 1 to 3 percent for all products coming from the United States” if the U.S. refuses to apply the environmental rules that France and other nations are imposing on their companies under the accords.
This seems eminently reasonable to me. Why should companies that are complying with measures intended to reduce a global threat be disadvantaged in the marketplace? The environmental rules benefit the entire planet; companies operating everywhere on the planet ought to share the costs of compliance.
Among the enormous number of things Donald Trump obviously hasn’t learned and doesn’t understand is that actions have consequences.
Foreign countries will retaliate when the U.S. acts in ways that threaten their interests. Senators and Congressmen will balk when a President–even one of their own party–expects them to support measures that they know will be deeply unpopular with their constituents. The Constitution limits a President’s ability to restrain the media or single out citizens for disparate treatment. Etc.
Governing is complex, and Chief Executives in democratic regimes–unlike CEOs–can’t simply issue orders and fire those who refuse to obey them.
Well, it’s a good idea to rein in this new administration. Did you see the interview with LePen that is running for the PM for France? In summary, she was elated that Trump was elected and said that this new world order of anti-immigrant views can win in France and throughout the far right wing of Europe. OMG. Did I not just say that last week? Voting for Trump has given a voice to these nut jobs all over the world. What have we done?
If they put these constraints on our companies will that apply to American products made for instance in Mexico? Will this force our American companies to become for instance Mexican companies?
We can hope that the new majority is so enamored of its victory and its little ideas that in their zeal to make wealthy people wealthier they will move to do something that their less wealthy supporters find unacceptable. Admittedly, at this moment it’s hard to imagine what their supporters might find unacceptable given the apparent appeal of the president-elect. Maybe it’s completely hopeless.
Sheila, you are certainly more optimistic about the future actions of Congress and political officials than I am. Members of the Republican Party had their chance to rise up against Trump six months ago. They didn’t. They put political expediency ahead of the country and I see no change in their behavior forthcoming.
As for a terriff war to save the environment, if such a move would be so effective why hasn’t it taken place before this? Against China, for example. No, what I see as the most likely saving grace of the world against Trump’s form of imperialistic terrorism is the right’s own self destruction as they fight over power and money. And from the headlines today I gather that their in-house, fire fight has already started. I am in favor of us pouring as much gasoline on it as possible. These are not nice folks, people. They never were, and they never will be.
Bravo to Sarkozy and his idea!! It makes sense and money, or the lack thereof, talks especially to American business-types. Vive la’ France!!
“If Donald Trump and the GOP actually follow through on what they’ve promised, this time around will be a lurch in the opposite direction. ”
There is no “IF” regarding Donald Trump’s negative, hateful, abusive, destructive campaign promises regardless of his appearing to “walk back” (how I hate that term) his rhetoric since the election. The appointment of Bannon; a white supremist who hates women and stated that “working women are dykes”; plus letting Pence and Ryan run amok with their promised derisive actions proves his campaign promises (threats) are standing strong. He is attempting to make it appear that it is not him the country needs to fear. That leopard has not changed his spots; merely changed his tactics and is hiding in the undergrowth waiting to attack. He never lasted more than a few days during his campaign when the GOP reined him in briefly.
News from Bipartisanreport.com stated that two “Democratic electors have decided to “dump Trump”. Washington state Brett Chiafalo and Colorado Michael Baca have launched what they call “Moral Electors” in an attempt to persuade their colleagues to dump Trump along with them before he officially takes office.” Electors need 37 votes to block his election. Sounds right to me but I am confused on one issue here. Democrat electorals? Are all electorals required to support one candidate for their state?
Matthew Tully’s column in the Star today, “Folks on left have better options than protest” is interesting and offers some alternatives while agreeing with peaceful protests. He urges readers to directly contact politicians we can “believe in and support” and lists suggested Indiana Democrats. Mayor Joe Hogsett of Indianapolis, Karen Freeman Wilson of Gary, Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Greg Good of Kokomo and House Minority Leader Scott Pelath. I am only aware of Joe Hogsett; but we were looking for names to begin building a stronger Democratic party; Matthew Tully is a good source. And, no, I don’t always agree with him.
Ryan’s plan to abolish Medicare has me deeply afraid; his voucher plan will only allow us a specific level and time frame for ill health, I suppose after that we suffer and die. If he gets his way, will Medicare supplementals pick up the slack and accept those vouchers? Has any thought been given to anything beyond destroying Medicare?
I do not doubt Trump’s full support to destroy the EPA; which in Republican estimation is the result of a figment of Al Gore’s imagination. IPALCO is the biggest offender in the state of Indiana regarding pollution of our environment. Just Monday morning there was a “boil water” warning in Muncie; I am still wondering what happened with the “cancer cluster” in Johnson County which was denied by Public Health…yet the cancer victims continue to suffer and die. And we cannot ignore the Standing Rock situation which is part of the environmental dilemma although basically being ignored by the meda.
We must not let down our guard; when we find a receptive Democratic official who will listed, or read and respond to our E-mails, we must not stop contacting them. I will not lay down and die to please Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan or McConnell, nor will I shut up or stop signing petitions.
Sadly, we are now faced with disastrous consequences on several fronts. Despite all that was at stake, the establishment owned Democratic Party pushed an unpopular candidate on the people and it backfired. And yes, there are consequences. Neoliberalism creates Neofascism, which is what we got with Trump.
I believe the World Economic Forum reported the fossil fuel industry receives a subsidy in the trillions of dollars because we don’t enforce an environmental and public health cost to the actual costs of mining and burning dirty fuel. If we capture and add those costs to fossil fuels like coal, it isn’t really that cheap. Jeffrey Sachs has done some incredible work in this area.
For instance, Indiana has not one, but four super polluters near Evansville. It would be interesting to see the link between those super polluters and toxicity in the air/cancer treatments in the area. However, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management doesn’t track that data.
Governor Mike Pence gave $500,000 toward a Big Data project to see why Indiana had a high infant mortality rate, but solely wants to look at data points related to the mother – not the environment.
The medical field has been complicit in this scam on America. They know the costs associated with pollution – however, they call it profit. They’ve long profited off treatment of the diseases created. Western medicine isn’t interested in the source of diseases (prevention) – we treat the symptoms. The pharmaceutical industry has made trillions off preventable diseases, and Big Pharma owns the Democratic Party. This is why the party pushed their corrupt candidate over Bernie Sanders (a real progressive). Bernie has been pointing out all this corruption for years, just like Sachs and Noam Chomsky. Has the media focused on this?? Where are the journalists?? Where are the truth seekers??
Once you peer behind the curtain, you’ll understand why progressives insisted on a candidate who wasn’t corrupted by the establishment. The corruption is all intertwined, so once you start picking at the string, it starts unraveling. This is why the American “media” is a fraud, it’s a public relations department for capitalism run amok.
In the meantime, we all get to endure white nationalistic authoritarians in offices around the globe – a result of Neoliberalism policies enacted against Middle Eastern countries over the past 40 years. We’ve displaced how many residents from their homeland?
Viva la Sarkozy!
Donald Trump is not well. He’s made it through so far by bluffing. He needs his family with him to make complicated decisions. He’s just like my father. That’s why I have been reading him so well since he first announced for the Presidency. He will bring into his administration, as we have been seeing, the most extreme types in order to protect his position. I’m sure he has learned to do that in his business ventures. He’ll destroy everything in his path including the planet if he is not stopped. He can’t compete legitimately, he has no other choice than to destroy. He’s a real life monster. He reminds me of the GOLEM, the Jewish mythological monster.
In his application to build a sea wall around his golf course in Scotland, Trump cited sea level rises due to global warming as the principal driver of his request. To feed his mob in the US, he claimed global warming is a Chinese hoax. The President called it when he said Donald is a pragmatist. He will always do what is best for him. I don’t think he believes in anything, except himself. Who knows what he’ll do? I certainly don’t.
On my TO DO list:
Call my State Rep Dave Wolkins (ALEC state chair) and ask him why he believes in a Free Market economy, yet supports subsidizing oil drilling/fracking companies. In my opinion, that is in direct opposition to a free market economy. It is time that we point out to our elected politicians that they must stop blindly supporting and protecting profits for theircorporate donors and start doing what is right and best for the citizens, our planet and our future.
While I am for the French response to impose a tax on goods imported from the United States for Trump’s thumbing his nose at environmental treaties and protocols, I here note that the strong dollar is already a drag on our export industries and that this additional cost to our export industries make the drag heavier with increased unemployment here and a rise in wage inequality as labor costs will be the first to take a hit in our export industries (not profits, of course). I also note that American-owned and/or managed industries in poor and emerging economies should take the French import tax (essentially a tariff) hit based on who owns or manages such industries so as to prevent or at least mitigate further exodus of American jobs to such venues. Trump has to somehow be made to understand that the French and others (including us) have to live with the toxic consequences of our acts and that all of us are trying to live on this planet. Breathing, for instance, is already at a premium in some parts of our planet, and undeniably caused by man-made activities. (See Chinese cities and millions walking around wearing masks where state capitalism seems to be more important than the lives of Chinese citizens, apparently regarded as collateral damage by Chinese politicians.) Since such environmental acts verge on the criminal, perhaps the French and the United States should impose an import tax on Chinese goods and services until, literally, they clean up their act. (Expect Wall Street multinationals to object as breathing takes a back seat to profit-making from such slave wage venues.) We had better wake up before we don’t.
News Flash!
Pence is pushing for Tony Bennett to become the Secretary of Education. We can then count on a much less educated nation. This is exactly what the Koch brothers want – or they at least want students to be indoctrinated into following what the Koch’s want them to believe.
Nancy,
Just sit back and relax. It’s only an attempted fascist like takeover led by a madman.
Marv,
Thanks for your last comment from yesterday! If this situation hasn’t spurred us into action, nothing will. Hope the movers and shakers will get movin’ and shakin’! No time to waste!
Betty,
This might help a little more. Guess who and what?
ambulatory schizophrenia
a mild form of psychosis, characterized mainly by a tendency to respond to questions with vague and irrelevant answers. The person also may seem somewhat eccentric and wander aimlessly
Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 9th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.
I’m not a psychiatrist, however, I’ve handled close to 100 mental illness hearings, lectured for the Law and Psychiatry Seminars, handled the first criminal case involving the Texas Insanity Defense Law and my appeal in the Pesch vs. The State of Texas was responsible for changing the law regarding the release of those found innocent because of the successful use of the insanity defense + my politically powerful, millionaire father was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia around the age of Donald Trump. Those suffering from ambulatory schizophrenia can escape detection for many years. As they grow older, the symptoms become more pronounced.
Disclaimer: I do not accept patients.
One thing we all need to understand, it has been reported and I have witnessed the reluctance of psychiatrists to involve themselves in partisan politics. So don’t wait around for the medical fraternity to speak-up. They can’t for many reasons.
The first Trump promise was to build a wall to keep the world out and us in exactly as did East Germany for decades.
What East Germany found over that time was that it is a terrible idea economically as well as socially.
Trump will too late be taught the same lesson but he’s a very slow learner due to his oversized ego. Unfortunately Americans will be taught the same lesson at the same time by the same consequences.
One of the related lessons will be his insistance that we have a right to dump our fossil fuel wastes in earth’s one atmosphere at the expense of all other countries.
Sarkozy is absolutely politically and morally correct in his proposal of how the world should react to the new america, which is as the world acted towards the old E Germany.
We are pariahs to the rest of the world. While Trump may not represent a majority of us, the Electoral College says he does represents an adequate minority.
The whole regressive meme will persist here until the people who allow their sexism and racism and misogyny and isolationism and nationalism and absence of empathy and evangelism collapse the nation.
Then we will rebuild from the ashes.
By happenstance, I exchanged e-mails yesterday with a friend and former co-worker, who is a French citizen who lives part time in this country, but spends about half the year in France. She said it appears very likely the right wing parties, like Le Pen’s, have a good chance of winning the upcoming elections in France and elsewhere in Europe largely on the anti-immigrant sentiment — just as occurred in Great Britain in the Brexit election.
Also by happenstance,I woke up this morning with the realization that if you need or want to buy a new TV, smart phone, car or any of the other things that are now manufactured in other countries and imported — in reality just about every manufactured item we buy today — you should buy NOW. All those imported manufactured items are going to cost a lot more next year after Trump starts his trade wars. While the fact we might have to pay more to buy our electronic gadgets might at first glance seem relatively minor compared to many of the other bad things Trump and his buddies have in store for us, that isn’t where this pain ends.
Sarkozy’s proposal, although it sounds good in principal, would, unfortunately, give Trump and his fellow travelers just the excuse they are looking for. If Sarkozy’s proposal is implemented by Europe, Trump and the Repubs in Congress will immediately retaliate against Europe by imposing an even larger tariff on goods made in Europe (and they probably won’t stop with just Europe). And gosh, what happens next? Europe and other exporting countries will then retaliate against the U.S. with more restrictions and higher tariffs on U.S. goods. And so on and on, until the entire world is in a deep depression — made even worse, of course, by other Trump economic policies.
Willful ignorance of how such trade wars historically end should be a crime.
Daleb today:
“the apparent appeal of the president-elect”
Say what? Please check daily and today’s posts on Sheila’s blog expressing the opposite of “appeal”.
Wait until you hear about the budget to overhaul the White House to make it an “acceptable” residence for him.
“All those imported manufactured items are going to cost a lot more next year after Trump starts his trade wars. ”
David F; and this is a bad thing because…? Isn’t this the problem with businesses moving out this country, causing job losses to Americans. We see the posts asking us to “Buy American”. How is this possible when most products in all markets are from other countries; either foreign made or by American companies who have moved to find cheaper workers? I would gladly buy American made if products are available.
Sarkozy has a good idea. Here’s a good idea for the 62% of Americans (per Pew Research) who get their news from Facebook posts. I see the most unbelievable posts on FB from friends/acquaintances who run the gamut from far-left liberals to far-right conservatives.
Fake or misleading news spreads like wildfire on Facebook because of confirmation bias, that strange quirk in human psychology that makes us more likely to believe information that conforms to our existing world views. The conspiracy theories are also amplified by a network of highly partisan media outlets with questionable editorial policies.
This week both Facebook and Google are working to eliminate the influence of fake and misleading websites, but how they accomplish this feat remains undecided.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/15/facebook-and-google-take-action-against-fake-news-sites/
As with most things in life, it’s up to us to discern between actual news and fake news or misleading news or satire. This morning I took a personal step toward this end by installing a free extension on my Chrome browser that alerts me when visiting a website that may contain misinformation whether fake or simply misleading. The extension has a simple name, Fake News Alert.
BSH; I have found two problems with Facebook regarding the posts you refer to. I get so many posts that, if I don’t “share” a post I cannot find it after researching the information to later comment. Also; when I make comments against the information; when I share it, my comments do not accompany the post so it often appears I am supporting a bogus post. I have received a number of complaints from friends for “supporting” a post I disagreed with.
I have found old friends and made some new friends so I guess it is worth the struggle.
JoAnn, I have a personal rule of thumb for FB posts. I always open the article posted and read it entirely before sharing it. Many posts sound intriguing based on their titillating headlines; however, they may be, and usually are, nothing more than click-bait filled with highly partisan, both Democrat and Republican, misinformation.
One of the decisions good Americans will have to make, which is just like the decisions all who love a dysfunctional person make, is between letting the natural consequences unfold and rebuilding after the collapse and its inevitable lessons, or protect the individual from suffering the consequences of the dysfunction.
Tough love.
JoAnn:
The thing Trump and his ilk don’t understand or care to understand (willful ignorance) is that the world is interconnected now. It isn’t a zero sum game where the U.S. and it’s interests can be imposed on the rest of the world just because we say so. And as mentioned before, historically trade wars usually turn out to be bad for everyone, i.e, everyone is worse off.
1) For starters, many people in this country already can’t afford to pay more for necessities. I know, electronic gadgets aren’t necessities, but cars, washing machines, refrigerators, etc., are.
2) Let’s say the multi-national corporations decided that because the cost of goods has risen sufficiently due to Trump’s higher tariffs on foreign goods that it might be economically feasible to again manufacture those goods in the U.S.
The first and immediate problem is the U.S. doesn’t have the modern manufacturing capacity/infrastructure necessary to competively manufacture all those goods in this country. More importantly, we don’t have enough educated, trained, skilled workers. The jobs that do remain in modern automated factories require education, skills and training. There are large numbers of relatively good paying jobs open at this very moment in this Country that can’t be filled because employers can’t find enough workers with the necessary education, training and skills to do the work. This has actually been a drag on our economic growth over the last several years.
3) Many of the former higher paying, skilled labor jobs are never coming back regardless of which country the factory might be in. Those jobs have been replaced by robots and automated systems such that, for one example, an automobile assembly plant can now be operated with perhaps a third or less the number of human workers that used to be required while turning out higher quality products. Plus, without unions, most of the human workers that do still have jobs in such factories get paid less than what the union workers made in their Detroit heyday.
4) Although this is now beginning to change somewhat, for the most part the jobs that have already been shifted to China, Indonesia, Mexico and other third world countries are unskilled, low-paying, manual labor jobs. Workers in those countries are willing to/have to work for far lower wages and benefits than unskilled U.S. workers have historically benefited from (largely thanks to unions).
To make it economically feasible for factories in the U.S. to compete for those type of unskilled labor jobs, the wages and benefits paid to workers in the U.S. would need to be much closer to the wages and benefits paid in the Third World countries, i.e., lower. Also consider that many of the workers in those countries are required to work 12-14 hour days, sometimes 7 days a week, and many of them are child workers. In other words, it would be a race to the bottom. Don’t think getting back low paying unskilled labor jobs is going to help anyone much.
5) The U.S., while still the largest consumer market in the world, is no longer the dominant economic engine it once was. Largely because people in places like China and other countries are now able to buy consumer goods due to the shifting of many jobs out of the country, which of course the standard wisdom has been is that a rising tide lifts everyone’s boats, and it was in the U.S’s best interests economically and politically to facilitate that. Regardless, the multi-national corporations, with manufacturing plants all over the world, now can’t and won’t just take into consideration what the U.S. wants. In order to compete, they must compete globally.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to go back to the good old days when Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It To Beaver’s parents walked the earth. The only real answer, of course, is that we must educate and train our children to fill the type of jobs that are and will be available. And to the extent possible, we should attempt to help displaced workers gain the skills they need to compete for those jobs. Concomitantly, we need economic reform to lessen income inequality back to a more equitable level. But all of that takes a long time and hard work. No instant gratification. It also likely won’t help most of the people in the Rust Belt who voted for Trump.
A few quick comments. First, I post here rarely but feel compelled to thank all of you, as well as Sheila, for the daily insights. Next, as for FB, you can post items just to yourself, if you want to save them for future reference. Finally, before changes are made to tariffs, the big guys like Tim Cook are going to have a little talk with DJT about why it’s a bad, bad, bad idea. He’ll be flattered to be noticed by them so perhaps amenable to reason.
Pete,
“The whole regressive meme will persist here until the people who allow their sexism and racism and misogyny and isolationism and nationalism and absence of empathy and evangelism collapse the nation.
Then we will rebuild from the ashes.”
We need to attack the regressive meme now, not tomorrow, in the most effective way
possible. No matter how difficult it is. Donald Trump is going to be our President whether we like or not.
We have to be stronger than we have been in the past. Our collective weakness allowed him to win. Hopefully, we can admit to our guilt. It appears that some of the young protestors have gotten the message.
We can’t allow the country to collapse into a “heap of ashes” without doing everything we can to prevent that scenario. We must admit to the fundamental change that has happened and understand that we have to adapt to it in new ways and most of all with new leadership.
All those individuals and organizations who are responsible for this “strange defeat” will attempt to hold on and will be a formable barrier for reform. They will market technical changes which will be useless in this new environment and will only delay the building of an effective defense/counter-offense against the ravages of Trump/Pence.
Sorry, “formable” to formative.
The Democrats have given us a bitter taste of what the future will be by selecting Chuck Schumer (NY) as their Senate Leader. He voted to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 and voted to bail out Wall Street in 2008. In between, he slashed fees paid by banks to the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay for regulatory enforcement. In October 2002, Schumer voted for the Iraq War by giving George W. Bush authority to invade. Schumer had this to say in July 2016 >> “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” *** It does not appear this calculation worked out very well.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/14/chuck-schumer-the-worst-possible-democratic-leader-at-the-worst-possible-time/
Paul Ryan Republican House Leader has made no secret he wants privatize Social Security. Trump has named Mike Korbey and Dorcas Hardy to oversee the transition at the Social Security Administration. Korbey – a former George W. Bush advisor – has called Social Security “broken and bankrupt” while Hardy – a former member of Ronald Reagan’s administration – has openly advocated for privatization and called for the closure of hundreds of Social Security offices around the country.
So IMHO, I can see Schumer and Ryan reaching out to each other. The Wolves will be in the chicken coop.
Louie,
The whole regressive meme will persist here until the people who allow their sexism and racism and misogyny and isolationism and nationalism and absence of empathy and evangelism collapse the nation.
Then we will rebuild from the ashes.
Louie,
“So IMHO, I can see Schumer and Ryan reaching out to each other. The Wolves will be in the chicken coop.”
Thanks. Here we go again. It didn’t take long. Does everyone see what we’re up against?
Sorry for my screw-up. Delete the upper half of my comment.
Louie,
Wow! What a resistance.
David F, I wished I had met you in Tucson before we moved to Europe. We could have had some great discussions…well, until you used that word “Concomitantly.” I had to look that up! I have never in my life encountered that word and learned something new today, wink.
Cheers.
Louie, so much for draining the swamp eh?
The only changes allowed in the future are those changes which benefit the oligarchs with their power from unlimited political money. That means that fascism is simply a means to an end for them. I love all our wonderful liberal laments and proposals, but we must remember that we will be living in a fascist oligarchy. Gandhi and MLK need to be our guides. Non-violent targeted resistance. Think lunch counters and salt. It has to be that simple and basic, or they will not stop until there is nothing left to own and control. Oh, it would also be a helpful in any legal defense – from jail etc., to accept Jesus as your personal savior.
Thanks, Agingl.Grl.
Tucson is still a small slice of “Blue” in a “Red” State, plus just a gorgeous desert landscape, and for the most part a very welcoming multi-cultural community. The “Sanctuary Movement” is very large and well supported here. Even most of the people, who live just a short distance South of here on or near the Boarder, don’t believe a bigger, better, longer wall is the solution to the immigration problems, and most aren’t seeking to deport huge numbers of their neighbors. Most of us here, see a partnership with our neighbors South of the Boarder as being the best path to improving the economy both North and South of the Boarder. There are, of course, exceptions, and Trump supporters here too. Far from an Utopia, and the Big Repub Bosses up in Phoenix keep trying to remind us down here in “Baja Arizona” that they are in charge — which, of course, they are for the most part.
Probably should skip the large, fancy words. Not sure where they come from. A misspent Hoosier education perhaps. But back in the day, it was a good education, and those dedicated teachers in the IPS system and later Professors at Purdue and I.U. managed to impart a few things. What a different world it is today.
David F. I lived in Phoenix in the 90s but Tucson stole my heart for life. I dream about returning there because the climate is good for my health (despite my numerous allergies to things there) and the view from our patio was worth a million even if the house wasn’t. My neighbor across the street has performed gay marriages and looks after the house while it’s rented with the help of the management company. I met a wonderful woman born in Cuba that is in her 90s that I used to walk with often. The other neighbor asked me if I watched O’Reilly, so my neighbors were diverse, kept to themselves and were mostly kind. We left because of the lack of jobs but would love to retire there someday.
AgingLGrl
Am out of words — for once — on Professor Kennedy’s post on the likely repeal of Roe. There is really nothing more to add to what she and the rest of you have already posted.
So instead I will respond to your post.
Southern Arizona and Tucson’s recovery from the Great Recession and housing crash has been very slow. A large part of the economy here in the early part of the 2000’s was based on new housing construction and real estate; all of which came to a crashing halt, And the housing/real estate sector still hasn’t recovered to pre-crash levels. Although it’s much improved.
But in spite of a huge mess and waste of money by a tax supported, government downtown development agency created in the early 2000’s, Tucson’s downtown is now booming in large part due to the building of a “Modern Streetcar” line that runs from the University of AZ campus through downtown (funded mostly with Federal Transportation grants. Don’t think we will see anymore of those Fed. dollars in the future). If you haven’t visited in awhile, you’d be amazed.
Also thanks in large part to the Democratic controlled Pima County Supervisors’ economic development initiatives, all of which were opposed by one of the total Nut Job (in this case that is truly not hyperbole) Tea Party Republican Supervisors, new job development in the Tucson area really took off this year. And most of the new jobs will be high paying jobs.
The catch, of course, is that the public education system in Arizona and Tucson is so dismal that a large portion of the young people living here don’t have the education, training, or skills to compete for one of those new high paying jobs. As in Indiana, public education in Arizona is very low priority for the Repub Honchos up in Phoenix. Better to give more tax cuts — from already extremely low tax rates — for corporations and the wealthy with promises of more cuts to come. Just ranting now.