America’s Hypocritical and Self-Destructive Attitude About Immigrants

   

For a nation of immigrants, where US citizens are well below demographic replacement numbers (our population is contracting fast) needed to sustain economic growth, where highly educated skills as well as the bottom level jobs are desperately short of local available workers, where we have relegated upward mobility to history books by making education hideously expensive, where scientific and medical expertise are resented and denigrated in favor of populist conspiracy theories, WE ARE BECOMING A NATION OF SELF-DESTRUCTIVE IDIOTS USING HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY AS OUR TOOLS OF CONTROL. And in the process cutting off our nose to spite our collective face.

We are a contracting population: “3.59 million [is the] number of children born in the U.S. in 2023, a 2% drop compared with 3.66 million in 2022 and the lowest number since 1979, according to provisional federal data. The U.S. fertility rate also fell last year—to 1.62 births per woman, a 2% decrease from a year earlier, the data showed. It’s a new low and a sign of years of decline.” Wall Street Journal, April 25th. 2.1 live births per woman is what it takes just to hold the population steady. Home construction, restaurant operations and hospitality and food supply labor costs are soaring, feeding inflation, because there aren’t sufficient workers willing to accept those jobs at the bottom of the workforce.

Our biggest tech companies are locating new research facilities outside the US, because the United States, with some of the most expensive higher education costs on earth, simply does not graduate enough STEM workers… and we are blocking immigrants with the necessary qualifications. For students of history, this anti-immigrant, anti-educated-elite, anti-science wave sweeping this country is reminiscent of the decline that pushed the Netherlands from the top performing nation on earth for 200 hundred years to stagnation, allowing Britain to soar to the top, in the 1700s. We are hurting ourselves exactly the same way.

We ignore that many of these wannabe immigrants knocking at our southern border are 1. fleeing cartel dominated de facto civil wars – fed by easy gun purchases in the US with the revenues to buy those guns generated from American narcotics users – and 2. desertification-destroyed farms, tanked by America’s globally leading emissions of greenhouse gasses during the industrial revolution that made us rich and powerful. Congress is still grappling with a “big picture” solution to that border crisis but will not do what needs to be done, and the optics remain terrible.

Yet we are still a nation of immigrants to this very day. “More than half of the foreign-born population in the United States lives in just four states — California, Texas, Florida and New York — and their numbers grew older and more educated over the last dozen years, according to a new report released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“In 2022, the foreign-born population was estimated to be 46.2 million people, or almost 14% of the U.S. population, with most states seeing double-digit percentage increases in the last dozen years, according to the figures from the bureau’s American Community Survey… In California, New Jersey, New York and Florida, foreign-born individuals constituted more than 20% of each state’s population. They made up 1.8% of West Virginia’s population, the smallest rate in the U.S.

“Half of the foreign-born residents in the U.S. were from Latin America, although their composition has shifted in the last dozen years, with those from Mexico dropping by about 1 million people and those from Central and South America increasing by 2.1 million… The share of the foreign population from Asia went from more than a quarter to less than a third during that time, while the share of African-born went from 4% to 6%.

“The report was released as immigration has become a top issue in the 2024 presidential campaign, with the Biden administration grappling with an unprecedented influx of migrants at the southwestern border… Immigration is shaping the 2024 elections in a way that could determine control of Congress as Democrats try to outflank Republicans and convince voters they can better address problems at the border.

“The Census Bureau report didn’t provide estimates on the number of people in the U.S. illegally… However, the figures show that more than half of the foreign-born are naturalized citizens, with European-born and Asian-born people leading the way with naturalization rates at about two-thirds of their numbers… However, the figures show that more than half of the foreign-born are naturalized citizens, with European-born and Asian-born people leading the way with naturalization rates at about two-thirds of their numbers.

“Around two-thirds of the foreign-born population came to the U.S. before 2010… The foreign-born population has grown older in the last dozen years, a reflection of some members’ longevity in the U.S., with the median age increasing five years to 46.7 years… It also became more educated from 2010 to 2022, with the rate of foreign-born people holding at least a high school degree going from about two-thirds to three-quarters of the population.” Associated Press, April 14th. PS I have yet to meet a lazy Mexican, and I live in LA.

For those border-crosser not able to be released pending asylum processing (which now takes years), we are not above separating young children from their parents, placing people in exceptionally harsh “detention facilities,” making border crossing a deadly risk and shipping many asylum seekers by the busload to distant cities under false pretenses. And no, statistically there are fewer murderers, rapists and violent criminals in these recent immigration pools than we have with our own citizens. We don’t lose jobs from immigration; we create them. The engine of job creation in the United States is magnificently driven by immigrants, from Google to Tesla to just about every farm and construction site in the southwest.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it’s time for Americans to rediscover what made this country great, embrace the immigration that is absolutely essential for a strong and growing economy, and stop fabricating theories resulting in immigration policies that work against our own best interests.

House Dem Apples?

The only people who believe that inflation is under control are those who have owned homes since before the recent explosion in real estate costs and who don’t drive much and eat less. That the inflation rate looks good on paper flies in the face of reality for a vast pool of voters. Incumbent politicians will always get the blame, notwithstanding these facts: oil prices are priced by a global marketplace (not us!), housing prices have skyrocketed for most of the nation due to simple supply and demand economics, interest rates are fixed by a very independent Federal Reserve (not by elected officials) and climate change is playing havoc with both insurance costs and agricultural realities. Even with significant wage increases in some arenas, nothing glares at ordinary Americans like daily costs they can see and feel. Arguing that statistically, inflation is under control, is a non-starter for so many voters.

Red state America truly loved pointing to the cost of living in California and New York as signs of failed governance. Texas boasted how Californians were moving there because of housing and other costs. Florida loved touting inexpensive housing to go along with its mild weather. Well, it seems that residential real estate costs (rents and home prices), related insurance and cost of normal services have crept into red state costs too. It now seems that those blue state cost refugees have discovered that prices aren’t so low anymore in red state paradise. The more buyers there are in a marketplace, the higher the prices. You can buy cheap in rural California or Texas, but it is in the job-center cities where the pain is growing.

Hurricanes, wildfires and coastal erosion – add sink holes if you must – along with skyrocketing electric power bills from air conditioning in the summer have made what used to be minor hidden costs more like a Mac truck slamming into your mythological world of “reasonable.” People are actually voting for anyone who claims they can fix this, even though in the red states they need look no further than their climate-change denying, spend “tax money battling woke” legislatures.

Where this is particularly salient is in states that have the possibility of voting Dem or GOP, swing states, where real estate has skyrocketed to California levels. Notably, Arizona and Nevada. Writing for the April 24th Los Angeles Times, Benjamin Oreskes explains:” Home sale prices in Clark County [Las V egas] have jumped by 50% since 2016, to about $414,000, according to an average of the middle-third of values collected by Zillow. The news for renters is no better. Zillow computed the expected price of a lease on a single-family residence, and it has jumped almost 70% during the same period, to about $1,750 a month.

“As President Biden and Donald Trump prepare to face off once again in November, the hope of owning a home is all but dead — or at least on life support — for many middle-class voters in Nevada and Arizona, battleground states. The culprits are low supply, high interest rates and population growth — driven significantly by new arrivals from California.

“Biden’s focus on the subject during a campaign swing last month is a reflection of how profound the crisis is for voters, observers say… ‘I think he realizes the magnitude of the situation,’ Steve Sisolak, a Democrat who was Nevada’s governor from 2019 to 2023, said of Biden. ‘He’s not out there to chase polls, but when you do poll people, affordability of housing is a major issue. If you’re not in the housing market right now, it’s going to be difficult to ever get into the housing market.’

“[One cash-strapped Arizona voter] said she plans ‘to hold her nose and vote for Biden,’ in part because then-President Trump’s behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol was so ‘insulting.’ But Doreen, who asked that her last name not be used, said she probably won’t vote. There’s too much going on in her life, and voting never felt like much use, she said.

“In the northern Nevada town of Fallon, loan officer Shannon Faught said she’s ‘leaning toward voting for Trump.’ Low interest rates when he was president, at the outset of the pandemic, allowed her to buy several homes, which she uses as rental properties… Politics don’t weigh on her heavily, she said, but she’d like to see the country be run more like a business and thinks Republicans are better positioned to do that.

“‘I don’t think about the election a ton except for the fact that it’s maybe having an effect on interest rates,’ she said, though she recognizes that those rates are set by the Federal Reserve, which is independent from the administration in Washington. ‘I think about interest rates. Who knows if they’re being timed with the election?’… The Fed funds rate — a benchmark set by the Federal Reserve — is about 5.3%, a 22-year high. Inflation has dropped to about 2.5% from 7%.

“In Arizona, which Biden won by just 10,000 votes in 2020, home prices and rents have skyrocketed as well, as the unemployment rate remains lower than the national average, at 3.7%... The jump in prices, driven partially by an influx of Californians, has boosted anxiety.

“A study from the Common Sense Institute Arizona found a housing shortfall of approximately 67,000 units as of early 2024… Daniel Scarpinato, who was chief of staff to former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, said he thinks the border will be the dominant issue among Arizona voters, but issues of affordability and the direction of the economy won’t be far behind. Arizona’s 11 electoral votes and Nevada’s six will be pivotal in a contest in which relatively few states are up for grabs.” Strange and as inaccurate as their assessment may be, there is a vast pool of voters who simply do not believe that the Biden administration does not control interest rates.

I’m Peter Dekom, and since facts have been relegated into a world where “alternative facts” have taken their place, don’t count on truth as a determinant of the 2024 election... but rising costs might.

The Rising Homeless-a-Phobia

 

"I have no doubt the private sector is ready to step up, but that will not happen until there is confidence investments won't be tossed on the bonfire of wasted and ineffective spending that's characterized our city's homelessness strategy to date." 

Richard Caruso, former LA Mayoral candidate and major developer on an Instagram post, after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced (April 15th) she is looking for donations from business leaders and philanthropic organizations to buy buildings for the unhoused.

I live in Los Angeles, where homelessness is a horrific public policy failure. Sure, there are criminals and drug addicts in the mess, but given our warm weather combined with a profound dearth of affordable housing, homelessness is not only growing but embracing employed people who just cannot find a place to live. For those incumbent residents whose streets have evolved into homeless encampments – replete with garbage, urine and defecation raging – or endless lines of decrepit trailers parked on city streets, they have a legitimate beef with local law enforcement and governmental social services officials on why their neighborhoods are effectively providing these fetid “homes” where crime is absolutely on the rise… and government is not protecting legitimate renters and homeowners.

And yes, there are occasional “clean-ups” by governmental officials, but the results can be life changing and catastrophic. “For homeless people, the only place to store their belongings is on the ground or inside a tent. When city workers clean up a sidewalk and take those belongings and destroy them, the effect is devastating. People have lost their tents, clean clothes, personal records, IDs, medications and more, according to a lawsuit accusing the city of Los Angeles of illegal seizure and destruction of property.

“Janet Garcia, one of the eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles along with pro-bono counsel, who works as a house cleaner, lost her cleaning supplies when L.A. Sanitation workers seized and destroyed her belongings while she stepped away briefly to go to the bathroom and get ready for work, the lawsuit says. The seizure, one of several, made it difficult for her to keep working.” Los Angeles Times, April 22nd. But what’s the answer? LA Mayor Karen Bass’ asking wealthy Angelenos to pony up? The above quote tells you how that went over. Arresting the homeless as trespassers? But the federal 9th Circuit ruled in 2018 that arresting homeless people just for sleeping in public parks, people with nowhere else to go, was “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Well conflicted fans, the 9th Circuit ruling is being challenged before the US Supreme Court in Grants Pass, Oregon vs Johnson, the most important dispute over homelessness to come before the high court. The question is whether the Constitution protects the rights of homeless people who camp on sidewalks or in parks. In questioning before the Court on April 23rd, the Court seemed reluctant to grant either side a blank check. But municipalities argued that they need some meaningful regulatory power to protect existing citizens’ and governmental property. Writing for the April 23rd Los Angeles Times, David Savage writes:

“The court’s three liberals said they were wary of giving cities a broad and unchecked power to use arrests and fines to punish homeless people who are sleeping outside… ‘Sleeping is a biological necessity,’ Justice Elena Kagan said. It ‘seems like you are criminalizing the status of homelessness,’ she told a lawyer representing the city of Grants Pass, Ore.

“But conservatives, led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., said they were skeptical of treating homelessness as a status that deserves constitutional protection… People can be homeless for one week and find shelter the next week. ‘You can move into and out of that status,’ he said… He also questioned why judges or the justices, rather than city officials, should decide how to cope with the problem of homelessness… ‘Why would you think these nine people are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?’ he asked one attorney...

“Los Angeles-based attorney Theane Evangelis, representing the Oregon city, said the problem of homelessness has been made worse in the West because of U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that found it was unconstitutional for cities to impose fines or other punishments on homeless people who sleep outdoors. No other federal appellate court in the nation has followed suit… She began by urging the justices to ‘end the 9th Circuit’s failed experiment.’ She said cities should have the flexibility to enforce ordinances that limit where people can sleep and camp.

“It was unclear that there was a solid majority to overturn the 9th Circuit entirely; some justices appeared to favor a middle-ground approach… That would allow cities to regulate where people can sleep outside, but it would not prohibit camping or sleeping throughout the city… Deputy U.S. Solicitor Gen. Edwin Kneedler urged the court to adopt that approach. Although cities should not make it a crime for homeless people to sleep outdoors, cities should have ‘flexibility to enforce’ reasonable restrictions on where homeless people can sleep, he said.

“Many cities in California, including Los Angeles, generally follow that approach. Gov. Gavin Newsom has also advocated ‘reasonable limits on public camping.’… Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett may hold the deciding votes. Both questioned laws that would punish homeless people for sleeping outdoors.” Prison may not be the answer, but the Supreme Court is hardly a legislative body that is the appropriate forum to solve the homelessness problem. Yet it is shameful that in California cities where housing for the rich is now exceeding $100 million, we have a third world problem for which no one has proposed an overall solution. Jail cannot be a vile bed and breakfast for the homeless, and fear of the homeless needs to yield to finding a viable solution. Where exactly can homeless people sleep and live?

How bad is this rising negativity? Try this on for size: “Here in Arizona, a novel response has emerged, one that has alarmed homeless rights advocates and mayors but that could win favor among a public that has grown weary, and in some cases angry, with public encampments. Voters will decide this November on a ballot initiative to award property owners tax refunds if they can prove monetary damages resulting from their local government’s failure to enforce nuisance laws…The initiative’s authors see it as a potential model for other states. That’s what its opponents fear.” Los Angeles Times, April 24th. Think about it.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I suspect the court will not accept the 9th Circuit ruling but won’t give cities a floating right to arrest the homeless for trespassing, and since the Court cannot vote in new legislative allocations to fund the solution, the problem would seem to fall right back in the lap of hapless cities and towns.

Coal Me, Irresponsible

“Coal is not dead yet… It’s still alive and well… This is such a solvable problem… It’s just that nobody wants to solve it.” 

Anne Hedges, a leader of the Montana Environmental Information Center

Wyoming is a major coal, oil and gas state. They hate alternative energy so much – that “woke” radical leftwing Democratic agenda – that they even go so far as to levy a special tax on alternative energy. “In Wyoming, meanwhile, the economic importance of fossil fuels, and fury over [the Obama/Biden] climate policies, threaten to derail the fledgling wind industry. Wyoming is already the only state in the country to tax wind energy [one dollar per megawatt hour generated], and some lawmakers are working to raise the tax.” Palm Springs Desert Sun, 2017. Fortunately those “increase the wind tax” bills have stalled in the legislature.

But ironies of ironies, oil and Internet trunkline billionaire, also owner of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team and it Crypto.com arena, Phil Anshutz, has invested billions of dollars into a Wyoming based wind farm; he owns the expanding 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind facility that will someday send power through the proposed TransWest 732 mile powerline all the way to California. The new alternative energy jobs could easily displace any lost jobs in Wyoming or other fossil fuel states with a large alternative capacity… and build from there. Texas, where oil is synonymous with the state, is today the nation’s largest producer of solar power. Still, to red state politicians, global warming either does not exist (to them, even dramatic temperature change is simply a “normal cycle”) or an overblown issue fomented by leftwing “woke” radicals.

But make no mistake, even in blue states where fossil fuels are still extracted, the transition from that traditional power source to alternative energy is still a very hot political issue. Fossil fuel extractors are still very rich and powerful political forces in many blue states and are the shot-callers in red states. That lots of new jobs are created from alternative energy just does not address communities where fossil fuel extraction is a way of life, the value that makes many parcels of land very valuable, where property tax supports local government, and a place where workers don’t want to give up jobs that have defined their regions for decades, perhaps over a century, in favor of new jobs with different wage scales and required expertise.

It may seem odd that some of the more progressive cities in the liberal west – from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Portland and Seattle – place the greatest West Coast demand for electrical power generated by fossil fuel… even where there is an abundance of hydroelectrical power generation. Is it necessary that the communities where fossil fuel extraction is a way of life are doomed to extinction, which many blue state constituencies simply do not care about, or is there an alternative? Writing for the April 21st Los Angeles Times, Sammy Roth traveled to a coal-producing region (Colstrip, Montana, pictured above) to find out.

“Hedges and her fellow Montana environmentalists were happy when Oregon and Washington passed laws requiring 100% clean energy in the next two decades. But they’re furious that electric utilities in those states are planning to stick with coal for as long as the laws allow, and in some cases making deals to give away their Colstrip shares to co-owners who seem determined to keep the plant running long into the future…

“That’s an uncomfortable reality for West Coasters critical of red-state environmental policies but not in the habit of urging their politicians to work across state lines to change them — especially when doing so might involve compromise with Republicans.

“One example: California lawmakers have refused to pass bills that would make it easier to share clean electricity across the West, passing up the chance to spur renewable energy development in windy red states such as Montana and Wyoming — and to show them it’s possible to create construction jobs and tax revenues with renewable energy, not just fossil fuels.

“Instead, California has prioritized in-state wind and solar farms, bowing to the will of labor unions that want those jobs… It’s hard to blame Golden State politicians, and voters, for taking the easy path… But global warming is a global problem — and whether we like it or not, the electric grid is a giant, interconnected machine. Coal plants in conservative states help fuel the ever-deadlier heat waves, fires and storms battering California and other progressive bastions. The electrons generated by those plants flow into a network of wires that keep the lights on across the American West…

“Nearly everyone in Colstrip has a version of the same answer: Even if [climate change is] real, it’s not nearly as bad as liberals claim. And without coal power, blackouts will reign. West Coast city dwellers don’t understand how badly they need us here in Montana… [Local power executive, Jim Atchison] is an exception… Yes, he’s dubious about climate science. And yes, he wants to save the mine and power plant. His office is plastered with pro-coal messages — a sign that says, ‘Coal Pays the Bills,’ a magnet reading, ‘Prove you’re against coal mining: Turn off your electricity.’.... ‘Colstrip is evolving from a coal community into an energy community,’ Atchison says. ‘We’re changing. We’re not closing.’

“Already, Montana’s biggest wind farm is shipping electricity west via the Colstrip [power] lines. A Houston company is planning another power line that would run from Colstrip to North Dakota. Federal researchers are studying whether Colstrip’s coal units could be replaced with advanced nuclear reactors, or with a gas-fired power plant capable of capturing and storing its climate pollution.

“West Coast voters and politicians could speed up the evolution, for Colstrip and other coal towns. Instead of just congratulating themselves for getting out of coal, they could fund training programs and invest in clean energy projects in those towns… They’ll never fully replace the ample jobs, salaries and tax revenues currently provided by coal. But nothing lasts forever. One hundred years is a pretty good run.” Make everything good for the blue states and simply forget about the red states and their obvious issues with local realities? Or not…

I’m Peter Dekom, and yes while global climate change is very real and getting worse fast, it’s just time for those in blue states, despite political polarization, to ignore state lines and stop saying “me” and start believing in “us.”

Quit Yer Whinin’

 

Quit Yer Whinin’

Truth, the Spiral Nature of Historical Cycles and the Decay of America

To any student of historical change, the United States is clearly repeating mega-mistakes of past dominant nations that led to their decline and marginalization… dooming its own status as a superpower. The reason I hold that “cyclical changes” throughout history are actually spirals (not true circles) is an acknowledgement that accelerating achievements in technology (adding today the impact of climate change plus social media) prevent the application of a simple circular pattern of repetition. But the metrics of American failure are everywhere. Simply in terms of standard of living and life expectancy, according to a March 24th analysis of The Economist, the numbers are not subtle.

We’ve slipped to 20th in terms of our overall standard of living (behind the UAE and S Korea), and even China, Thailand, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Croatia have longer life expectancies. History’s lessons? Holland dominated the earth in just about every metric imaginable – military power, economic success, innovation, stability and an overall higher quality of life – for two centuries ending in the mid-1700s. Why? Holland (the Netherlands aka the Dutch) did not have the fierce delineation between the noble classes and everyone else, feudalism had faded, success was not limited to the capital city, they aggregated risk and investment with the precursor of modern corporations, and wind power supported their manufacturing and export values. While the rest of Europe was consumed with battling itself, Holland maintained its military primarily to protect its trade and to support its colonial expansion to secure raw materials. An entrepreneurial class was rich with invention and innovation, and religion no longer determined political power.

But in order to protect its incumbent advantage, Holland’s guilds slowly became very exclusionary and based on heredity. They opted for trade barriers over enhancing their competitive advantage. Instead of embracing as well as investing in accelerating technology and fostering the competition of entrepreneurial excellence, they relied on the past; they just watched as England’s coal resources create a vastly more productive and predictable source of industrial power: steam. England’s growth was not simply centered in London; Manchester became the new major manufacturing hub, and additional cities joined that club. And as Holland began to close its doors, Britain benefitted from Holland’s lessons… from a Dutch king.

William III (better known as William of Orange) was born on 4th November 1650. A Dutchman by birth, part of the House of Orange, he would later reign as King of England, Scotland and Ireland until his death in 1702. William's reign came at a precarious time in Europe when religious divide dominated international relations. Supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, in 1688 William invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution.

A highly educated monarch, having survived military conflicts in mainland Europe, William began layering in the success lessons of earlier Holland into Britain. That was the basis for Britain’s eventual rise as the dominant colonial power with the largest and most modern navy on earth (whose main job was to protect trade routes from pirates and marauding wannabe nations leering at her colonial wealth). Britain replicated the corporate aggregation of investment capital, spread the miracle all across England… and after the merger, with Scotland and Wales. And yes, slavery was a fundamental part of that colonial effort, a historical black spot for sure.

But Britain was ready for that ascent, and William set in motion an unstoppable force. That was quite the opposite from France at the time. With almost all its minor economic success focused on Paris and her environs, with class distinction on steroids and never-ending religious animosity (protestants – Huguenots – escaped to Britian and later to America) that culminated in the disastrous and ultra-violent French Revolution in 1789. Bankrupt from her tremendous support of the American Revolution (fighting France’s traditional UK enemy) and still mired in the vestiges of feudalism, populism under the notorious Maximillien Robespierre (middle picture above), literally destroyed the nation.

The guillotine was the symbol of Robespierre’s vector of retribution, known as the Reign of Terror. The noble intention to form a functional and representational republic died in an orgy of blood. The next rising powers relied on a nondescript French general, an artillery genius, to provide the power they needed to stabilize the nation. It seems they underestimated his ambitions, and a monarch took over. Napoleon Bonaparte soon no longer reported to those who appointed him.

The parallels from the above, and many other historical realities (I’ve only selected a few), are mirrored in the currents spate of American trends that do not portend well. Our rising antipathy, a MAGA basic, against “educated” elites, science and medicine, along with a rising proclivity to install trade barriers and sanctions, seem to replicate the demise of mega-powerful Holland to the status of an also-ran. Britain then embraced science and modernity to become the most powerful nation on earth.

The erosion of our middle class, with the worst income inequality in the developed world, seems to look like the revulsion of the French Revolution in 1789 (which unlike Holland and Britain did not have much of a middle class… but lots of peasants). After a spate of retribution-driven populism plus the installation and defeat of a “Make France Great Again” autocrat, France was once again relegated to an also-ran run-of-the-mill European nation, leading up to a “war to end all wars” that didn’t: WWI. The United States, with vast natural resources, a rising middle class and an economic structure devoted to growth and an influx of immigrants whose hard work built the most powerful nation on earth.

The last time the United States focused on building a stronger nation – the post WWII era where the GI bill ignited a cadre of educated experts, with science and engineering becoming the new priorities, particularly after the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 – is long gone. Americans are living off the investments of that past era with little inclination today to accept investing in the vital basics of education, infrastructure and engineering over an inane desire to keep taxes for the rich low and allow deficits to skyrocket as a result. Upward mobility – the American dream – has left the building.

Even as our incumbent population is shrinking, there is a newfound loathing of immigrants… the very people whose hard work built our nation. “Make America Great Again” with a trashing of education, science and investment in ourselves – and a large dose of retribution to reinstall an under-educated racial elite to a perceived return to glory days (that really never existed… notwithstanding conspiracy theories to the contrary) – is beyond a set of historically failed policies with obvious and foreseeable consequences.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if those MAGA voters succeed in their election hopes and dreams, the only certainty is that the world that they create for themselves will be a precipitous and irreversible decline from what they have even now.

If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the State

 

If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the State

The New Red State Right: The Right to Cruelty

“[I]n order to provide good jobs, we need to not put businesses out of business." 

 Florida State Legislator Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito Against Expanding Worker Protection from Excessive Heat

How do I despise thee, let me count the ways. From cutbacks, limitations and outright withdrawals, too many red states reject embracing Medicaid, leaving millions without access to healthcare. Despite statutes likely to be held unconstitutional, several red states allow police to arrest and detain people who look like they might be undocumented aliens and do everything in their power to make sure minorities cannot vote (or their votes do not count)… including offering bottles of water to folks waiting in long lines to vote. With the horrific result of women facing serious pregnancy-related medical issues (many life-threatening) or potentially children born of rape or incest, wildly unpopular strict abortion bans (with no or limited exceptions and threats of arresting physician who want to help) are all over red America.

Barbed wire and untrained local national guard and cops, with guns and clear histories of bigotry, are now being charged to round up and detain desperate immigrants (mostly people of color), as part of byzantine ad hoc local substitute for an bipartisan immigration policy that has not been able to survive Congress since 1986. They separate young children from parents, shipping busloads of confused and “ready to work at anything” immigrants off to blue states.

That the cartel-driven civil strife that these folks are running from are fully enabled by a combination of cash from American drug users and the “easy to buy and smuggle south” American guns, is never discussed. That the greenhouse effect that has dried up so much farmland in Latin America, sending farmers looking for how to survive, was substantially driven by the major industrial polluters since the late 19th century, in which the United States was the major source of carbon effluents, is not even hinted at. They’re not taking our jobs. Very, very few are criminals. And we have a severe labor shortage of lower-level workers. But hate, bigotry, conspiracy theories, “us vs them” polarization and out-and-out lying are the stuff, the very heart of MAGA politics.

Indeed, the new inscription on the Statue of Liberty should read: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, So that I may detain, abuse and reject them.” As blue states may be generous in minimum wages and worker protection, even for US citizens, red states are going the other way, to allow corporate America to eliminate worker safety to make more money… even as their efforts just might kill or permanently impair many in their labor force.

Writing for the April 16th USA Today, Samantha Neely and Anthony Robledo address a red state on steroids adding more burdens to ordinary workers: “Florida will become the second state [after Texas] to stop local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433… The law, which DeSantis signed last week, goes into effect on July 1 and establishes multiple restrictions for city and county governments, including the ability to set heat exposure requirements not already required under state or federal law…

“Around two million people in Florida work in outdoor jobs, from construction to agriculture, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. On average, the state's summer can reach up to 95 degrees, with the humidity and blazing sun making it feel well over 100 at times… ‘Whereas local governments have started to adopt their own workplace heat exposure requirements, some of which apply only to specific industries, which ignore the individual responsibility of an employee to follow relevant guidelines and to protect himself or herself from heat-related illnesses, and rely on fines and penalties assessed on employers to fund the enforcement of such requirements,’ according to the bill.”

What is fascinating and horrifying at the same time is the apparent embrace of judgmentalism, cruelty, hatred, violence (from gun control to the death penalty), bigotry and separation of “us” (the White Christian Nationalists) as the good force and the “them” (Democrats, minorities and people of color) as the evil intruders trying to distort true American values. Trump is now campaigning well beyond his “victim” mantra into telling the world that he has been selected by Jesus Christ himself (see the above campaign image) to be President.

This is now MAGA evangelical doctrine, even though anyone who has ever read the New Testament (the purported road map for Christians) and follows its dictates, could never accept the above policies and call himself or herself a Christian. After Easter Sunday, ex-President Donald Trump declared that Election Day would be called “Christian Visibility Day” – a not-so-veiled reference to the conservative-led uproar over Trans Visibility Day (touted by Joe Biden) which fell on Easter. Biden’s proclamation prompted Trump’s claims that the administration was “trying to cancel Christianity,” despite Biden’s himself being Roman Catholic. The rising MAGA/Trump hypocrisy and mean-spiritedness are staggering!

I’m Peter Dekom, and to use Christianity as a political tool to embrace values that would be more appropriate in a satanic handbook simply disgusts me.

MAGA Hypocrisy 101

 vs 

MAGA Hypocrisy 101:

We Hate Government Regulation Unless We Do It

Why would I provide side-by-side pictures of a once perceived to be moderate Republican – Marco Rubio – with the GOP buffoon-in-chief – Marjorie Taylor Greene? Aside from the fact that they both favor a virtual support of whatever-Donald-wants populism, the dramatic shift from Reagan’s laissez-faire free market mantra (the very basis for GOP policy for decades) to tightly controlled, highly regulated economy, is stunning. And these two Republican members of Congress now walk in lockstep over massive government interference in the business world, only seeming to embrace low taxes for the rich and corporate rich.

It bad enough when the GOP rants about rampant crime while supporting loosing what little gun control there is. It not surprising that they overlook the massive flow of illicit US firearms to points south, enabling narco-wars and gang/cartel ultra violence bordering on civil war… which drives an increasing number of immigrants to our southern border. Or that they struggle with their right to life constituency, the same base that favors the death penalty and the further relaxation of gun control. It begins to be a bit more interesting when the same GOP representatives (the “law and order” party), having lived through the 1/6/21 attack on the Capitol (hiding where they could) where police officers were seriously injured or died from that conflict, refer to the peaceful and “legitimate political discourse” of that violent mob… and call these violent and convicted January 6th violent felons “patriots” and “hostages,” worthy of immediate pardon.

Indeed, the values of personal freedom and keeping government out of citizens’ lives that was once a major plank of the GOP has now splintered and burned. MAGA politicians have learned to embrace “no compromise” extremism as a clear path to being elected. As the August 31, 2023, The Economist puts it, this is a global trend: “Unfortunately, the love of ‘us’ has an ugly cousin: the fear and suspicion of ‘them’, a paranoid nationalism that works against tolerant values such as an openness to unfamiliar people and new ideas. What is more, cynical politicians have come to understand that they can exploit this sort of nationalism, by whipping up mistrust and hatred and harnessing them to benefit themselves and their cronies.” A very good view of the MAGA GOP. It’s no longer “conservatives” vs “liberals,” but “paranoid” and misinformed MAGAns vs “everybody else.”

Nothing brings this home like the personal restraints on normal, acceptable individual choices that we have not seen since prohibition. Whether it is book censorship, whitewashing classroom lessons in primary and secondary school with severe consequences for offending teachers, banning “woke” companies from doing business in some red states (or banning them from government contracts) and the exceptionally unpopular severe restrictions – even outright bans without reasonable exceptions – on those aiding, providing or having abortions, based on Christian beliefs that are often quite different from those of other faiths.

But today, I would like to follow an LA Times April 10th editorial from Jonah Goldberg, who looks at what the MAGA plan would be to rein in corporation in ways that would make Ronald Reagan roll over in his grave: “The changing of the conservative mind in recent years could hardly be captured more pithily than in the headline of a recent op-ed: ‘Why I believe in industrial policy — done right.’ So opined Sen. Marco Rubio for the Washington Post and, at greater length, for National Affairs… What I’m referring to, rather, are the ideas, arguments and principles that once defined conservatism intellectually, among them rejection of the kind of government intervention in the economy that the Florida Republican now apparently favors. [Like Disney vs DeSantis?]

“Modern conservatism — the sort associated with Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley, George Will, Thomas Sowell, Ronald Reagan and to some extent Rubio when he arrived in Washington — once regarded central economic planning and everything associated with it, including ‘industrial policy,’ to be dangerous folly… Buckley’s 1955 mission statement for National Review declared: ‘Perhaps the most important and readily demonstrable lesson of history is that freedom goes hand in hand with a state of political decentralization, that remote government is irresponsible government.’ He also noted that the “competitive price system is indispensable to liberty and material progress.”

“This conviction can be traced back to Edmund Burke and Adam Smith, but it became a defining principle on the American right during the Cold War, against the backdrop of the rise of the Soviet Union as well as the domestic programs of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society… There are many strands to the conservative argument against state efforts to shape the economy. One is the ‘knowledge problem,’ a phrase adapted from Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek’s brilliant 1945 essay ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society.’… The knowledge problem, simply put, is that society, including the market, is too complex and too dynamic for government experts to reliably direct it from afar. In a free market, prices capture information that even the best data-gatherers can’t. The closer you are to the problem, the closer you are to the solution.

“Public choice theory — what another Nobel laureate economist, James M. Buchanan, called ‘politics without romance’ — adds another layer of reasons to distrust central planning. Government experts and regulators are often ‘captured’ by the industries or activists most affected by their policies. Also, once politicians get involved, policy priorities multiply — extending to boosting employment, expanding diversity, favoring certain states or districts, protecting specific industries and so on — and the government’s stated goals become pretexts for other motives. ‘Crises’ — pandemics, war, unemployment, environmental problems — become excuses to reward favored constituencies.

“Take President Biden’s recent announcement that he would rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge both ‘as rapidly as humanly possible’ and ‘with union labor and American steel.’ Well, which is it — rapidly or with those restrictions?

“That brings us to Rubio. Take it from a longtime columnist, you can’t always blame writers for the headlines mischievous editors put on our articles. But ‘Why I believe in industrial policy — done right’ perfectly captures the senator’s argument and the trouble with the broader right-wing fad for central planning… Oh, you want to do it right? Well, that changes everything!... I mean, if only someone had told Hayek and Buchanan that their objections could be answered by just ‘doing it right.’

“The change in the conservative mind goes beyond industrial policy. It’s really about the use of state power generally. Too many Republicans no longer have any problem — moral or otherwise — with government imposing its will on society, so long as the ‘right’ people are doing it ‘right.’ The knowledge problem, they seem to believe, is confined to the left wing.” As the MAGA populist GOP (read: virtually all elected Republicans) centralizes corporate control under severe MAGA restrictions, this Trumpist movement looks a whole lot more like Chinese President Xi Jinping’ s re-centralizing his economy than any vision Ronald Reagan ever held for the United States. Oh, and Xi’s economy is faltering.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while I am no fan of Reagan’s failed supply-side (trickle down) economics, Reagan was whole lot more in tune with letting companies make their own business decisions and set their own priorities than are these MAGA economic autocrats.

Why is the Obvious Our Leaders Ignore that Others See So Clearly?

 

What never ceases to amaze me is how senior American leadership, immediately embraced by blind-followers who have totally outsourced their opinions to those leaders as well as corporations desperately trying to make profits without taxes or regulations by head-in-the-sand tactics, believe that ignoring a problem or kicking the can down a very long road is a good idea. I wrote a book, Not on My Watch; Hollywood vs. the Future (New Millennium Publishing, 2003), about the entertainment industry’s top management’s proclivity to make any serious problems become the next management’s headache… by minimizing, lying, accounting games, hiring high-priced consultants to tell them what they need to pretend the issues don’t really matter or simply hoping that a serendipitous success will bail them out… at least for a while. But someday, the piper comes with a huge invoice that must be paid.

And no, it’s not about our deficit, which could be fixed if the mega-rich actually paid taxes relative to their wealth. I’ve written about it before, but let me remind you that loan proceeds are not taxable and interest is often deductible… so if you are mega-rich with mega-assets… guess how you can avoid paying taxes?! No, instead I am focusing today on mega-trends, global realities that will impact every human being on earth (and most other biological species): 1. the growing intolerable consequences of climate change (and have we already passed the tipping point?) and 2. the rise of artificial intelligence, which if carried to the extreme, could foment new military conflicts and, by taking the value of education and experience away from people and giving it to artificial intelligence driven technology, force a new world social order.

Since I’ve already blogged frequently about climate change, let me just present this short summary of our pending “tipping point” reality from the April 9th BBC.com: “Last month was the world's warmest March ever measured, breaking the global temperature records for a tenth month in a row. March 2024 was 1.68C (3.02F) warmer than "pre-industrial" times. This all-time high was expected, partly because the El Niño weather system, which peaked in December, caused some of the extra warmth. But even El Niño can't explain why records were broken with such large margins over the past months. The climate phenomenon is waning, but scientists are worried that average temperatures might not cool down. ‘By the end of the summer, if we're still looking at record breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic or elsewhere, then we really have kind of moved into uncharted territory,’ said Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The next few months will tell researchers if the past year was just out of the norm, or the sign of a sea change in our climate. But scientists are certain about one thing: the way to stop the world warming is to rapidly cut emissions of planet-warming gases.”

Now, inspired by an April 7th Wall Street Journal article by Peter Landers, I look at how generative artificial intelligence (where access to information is not limited but determined by the AI machines), could, as Lander’s headline reads: ‘Social Order Could Collapse’ in AI Era, Two Top Japan Companies Say: “Japan’s largest telecommunications company [Nippon Telegraph and Telephone] and the country’s biggest newspaper [Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings] called for speedy legislation to restrain generative artificial intelligence, saying democracy and social order could collapse if AI is left unchecked…

“Combined with a law passed in March by the European Parliament restricting some uses of AI, the manifesto points to rising concern among American allies about the AI programs U.S.-based companies have been at the forefront of developing…. The Japanese companies’ manifesto, while pointing to the potential benefits of generative AI in improving productivity, took a generally skeptical view of the technology. Without giving specifics, it said AI tools have already begun to damage human dignity because the tools are sometimes designed to seize users’ attention without regard to morals or accuracy.

“Unless AI is restrained, ‘in the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars,’ the manifesto said… It said Japan should take measures immediately in response, including laws to protect elections and national security from abuse of generative AI.

“A global push is under way to regulate AI, with the European Union at the forefront. The EU’s new law calls on makers of the most powerful AI models to put them through safety evaluations and notify regulators of serious incidents. It also is set to ban the use of emotion-recognition AI in schools and workplaces.

“The Biden administration is also stepping up oversight, invoking emergency federal powers last October to compel major AI companies to notify the government when developing systems that pose a serious risk to national security. The U.S., U.K. and Japan have each set up government-led AI safety institutes to help develop AI guidelines… Still, governments of democratic nations are struggling to figure out how to regulate AI-powered speech, such as social-media activity, given constitutional and other protections for free speech.

“NTT and Yomiuri said their manifesto was motivated by concern over public discourse. The two companies are among Japan’s most influential in policy. The government still owns about one-third of NTT, formerly the state-controlled phone monopoly… Yomiuri Shimbun, which has a morning circulation of about six million copies according to industry figures, is Japan’s most widely-read newspaper. Under the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his successors, the newspaper’s conservative editorial line has been influential in pushing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to expand military spending and deepen the nation’s alliance with the U.S… The two companies said their executives have been examining the impact of generative AI since last year in a study group guided by Keio University researchers.”

Questions arise like: “who owns AI software and hardware”? Rich people owning the technology through their controlled corporations? The government? Which party? If the value of people is devalued, who earns enough to buy the products AI creates? Do we battle for goods and resources? Is socialism the only system of government that can sustain a viable economic model? Who or what makes the decisions and allocations? Why would education continue to be relevant except for entertainment value?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you think the above set forth the only real issues, you ain’t seen nuffin’ yet!

They Were Once Destined to Overtake the US Economy Forever

They Were Once Destined to Overtake the US Economy Forever

Oh Well, Maybe Centralized Autocracies Just Cannot Get There

After consolidating his power, eliminating term limits and extending amplified repressive measures against all of China, especially the Uighur region in Western China, and by ignoring the 1984 handover treaty with the UK (continuing the same of governance that that Hong Kong had prior to the actual handover in 1997 under 2047) imposing that repression onto that island city, President Xi Jinping pictured himself as the new Mao Zedong. Xi was set to redefine China under his brutal centralized control. The “state is the power” mantra led to Xi’s efforts to contain, if not crush, the decades of billionaire wealth-related arrogance and power based on capitalism. CEOs and major holders of wealth were arrested, often much of their wealth confiscated, and all were required to pledge absolute fealty to Xi and the Communist Party. The state (read: Xi) was the only power. The Chinese growth engine began to slow.

Xi illustrated his power by imposing an economy destroying “zero tolerance” policy against COVID outbreaks, even as the pandemic had subsided. Chinese productivity plummeted as factories closed. His commitment to the Peoples Liberation Army (the entire Chinese military which is part of the Communist Party and not the government itself) was reflected in the greatest military build up on earth, quickly eclipsing the US Navy and Army at least in size, while building an ultra-modern air force. His expanding the land mass of one of the Spratley Islands gave him a military base from which to extend PRC domination over regional seas. As massively overbuilt residential housing resulted in huge failures which rippled into the banking sector that funded this egregious effort was tanking access to capital, growth and bad economy ripples became waves. Unemployment, especially among younger, and often well-educated workers, soared.

All the saber-rattling, threats to invade Taiwan, China’s confrontational tactic with regional nations as it attempts to control neighboring waterways and undersea exploitation rights, its willingness to use its naval and air power in a war of risky brinksmanship as it attempts to assert control of what the rest of the world considers international waters and its willingness to use heavy debt loads imposed on regional powers under China’s Belt and Road initiative – intended to create regional commercial linkage infrastructure with China at the center – were part of the grand plan… but became the grand distraction to become a national rallying point to bring the Chinese people together under Xi’s “magnificent” leadership. China’s economy was actually unraveling under the litany of Xi’s attempt to rework his centralized control mode. To make matters worse, the birthrate in China dropped like a stone, well below replacement value. There were fewer younger workers (especially employed younger workers) to care for an aging and retiring population.

So, with double whammy of massive youth unemployment and an aging population, “China is aging so quickly that over the next quarter-century, 520 million people, or nearly 40 percent of its current population, will be older than 60. And over the next decade the public pension will run out of money, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government research institution… ‘Because of the aging population, people are skeptical about their future pensions,’ said Tao Wang, the chief China economist at UBS. ‘They worry that in the future the payout would be less.’… China is aging so quickly that over the next quarter-century, 520 million people, or nearly 40 percent of its current population, will be older than 60. And over the next decade the public pension will run out of money, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government research institution… Citing a rapidly aging society, difficult job market and uncertainty about the future, some young people are rejecting the idea of saving for old age.” Alexandra Stevenson and Siyi Zhao, writing for the March 5th New York Times.

Prices for Chinese exports are falling fast as Xi attempts to reignite his failing economic plan. In recent travels to China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese officials to stop dumping cheap goods into the US marketplace, that it’s time to transform the PRC economy for a modern world where it own people are prioritized. Yellin’s message includes telling the PRC “to stop relying on exports to prop up their underperforming economy and instead boost their own consumer market. ‘We don’t want to be overly dependent, and they want to dominate the market,’ she said in an interview. ‘We’re not going to let that happen.’” Andrew Duehren for the April 3rd Wall Street Journal. China may pass the US economy for a very short while, but then…

Xi’s grand plan is flawed at so many levels. As the April 4th The Economist tells us: “The scope of this plan is breathtaking. We estimate annual investment in ‘new productive forces’ has reached $1.6trn—a fifth of all investment and double what it was five years ago in nominal terms. This is equivalent to 43% of all business investment in America in 2023. Factory capacity in some industries could rise by over 75% by 2030. Some of this will be made by world-class firms keen to create value, but much will be prompted by subsidies and implicit or explicit state direction. Foreign companies are welcome, even though many have been burned in China before. Mr Xi’s ultimate aim is to invert the balance of power in the global economy. Not only will China escape dependence on Western technology, but it will control much of the key intellectual property in new industries and charge rents accordingly. Multinationals will come to China to learn, not teach.

“However, Mr Xi’s plan is fundamentally misguided. One flaw is that it neglects consumers. Although their spending dwarfs property and the new productive forces, it accounts for just 37% of GDP, much lower than global norms. To restore confidence amid the property slump and thereby boost consumer spending requires stimulus. To induce consumers to save less requires better social security and health care, and reforms that open up public services to all urban migrants. Mr Xi’s reluctance to embrace this reflects his austere mindset. He detests the idea of bailing out speculative property firms or giving handouts to citizens. Young people should be less pampered and willing to ‘eat bitterness,’ he said last year.

“Another flaw is that weak domestic demand means some new production will have to be exported. The world has, regrettably, moved on from the free-trading 2000s—partly because of China’s own mercantilism. America will surely block advanced imports from China, or those made by Chinese firms elsewhere. Europe is in a panic about fleets of Chinese vehicles wiping out its carmakers. Chinese officials say they can redirect exports to the global south. But if emerging countries’ industrial development is undermined by a new ‘China shock,’ they, too, will grow wary. China accounts for 31% of global manufacturing. In a protectionist age, how much higher can that figure go?

“The last flaw is Mr Xi’s unrealistic view of entrepreneurs, the dynamos of the past 30 years. Investment in politically favoured industries is soaring, but the underlying mechanism of capitalist risk-taking has been damaged. Many bosses complain of Mr Xi’s unpredictable rule-making and fear purges or even arrest. Relative stockmarket valuations are at a 25-year low; foreign firms are wary; there are signs of capital flight and tycoons emigrating. Unless entrepreneurs are unshackled, innovation will suffer and resources will be wasted.

“China could become like Japan in the 1990s, trapped by deflation and a property crash. Worse, its lopsided growth model could wreck international trade. If so, that could ratchet geopolitical tensions even higher. America and its allies should not cheer that scenario. If China was stagnating and discontented, it could be even more bellicose than if it were thriving.” Indeed, that need to appear tough as a distraction for failure, is a threat to world peace in a huge way.

I’m Peter Dekom, and to allow irrational and xenophobic economic threats, such as the tariffs on Chinese goods promised in Trump’s campaign rhetoric, is very much like waving a red flag in front of an enraged bull, a bull with an outsized military and ultra-modern weapons.

I Hate to Barge in, But….

    

In March, when a container ship (pictured above), lost all power after the tugs that could have taken over were released, the main shipping channel to one of America’s major east coast ports was entirely blocked as that vessel slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending the entire structure crashing into the water below. Baltimore Harbor and all the ships in that harbor were trapped. A few weeks later, a small opening in the channel allowed a few ships to transit the channel, but the clean-up and replacement will take years and cost billions, although the Army Corps of Engineers has yet to release a full assessment.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators reported that 56 containers on the vessel contained hazardous material, mostly corrosives and flammables, as well as some lithium-ion batteries. That shimmering golden picture above is a computer-generated visual of the sonic findings looking strictly at the structural steel underwater that has to be removed. But the economic loss of the full use of one of our larger ports means imports will cost more, exports will be delayed, and crowding at our other major ports will increase. Lots of folks will lose their livelihoods until the bridge is replaced… and folks who relied on the Interstate that crossed that bridge may be more than just inconvenienced. Just because no one funded the barriers needed to protect the bridge supports against major collision.

The picture on the right is of one of the Pittsburgh bridges hit by a barge from 26 day-loaded barges that broke away and drifted down the Ohio River on April 12th. Pittsburgh closed two bridges out of an abundance of caution. “No hazardous materials were on board the barges, according to the city. Of the 26 loose barges, 23 were loaded and carrying dry cargo, including coal, according to the news release… Eleven of the barges were located and pinned against the river bank by Brunot Island, according to a news release from the City of Pittsburgh. They were being held by a tugboat… Meanwhile, 14 continued down the river and six have gone over the Emsworth Dam, the city said.

“While there have been no reports of people injured, Peggy’s Harbor - a family owned and operated full service marina located on the Ohio River - was damaged, the release said. It’s unclear exactly what the damage to the marina looks like… ‘The barges are owned or operated by Campbell Transportation Company located on the left descending bank of the Ohio River, just downstream from the West End Bridge,’ Pittsburgh officials said in the news release.” CNN.com, April 13th. Those bridges were spared the impact of a larger, heavier vessel.

It is less than subtle that the United States has been facing trillions of dollars of deferred maintenance on our infrastructure from the lockstep doctrinaire GOP willingness to cut taxes for the rich (e.g., the 2017 reduction of the federal corporate tax rate that generated virtually no measurable economic benefits but has resulted in several trillion dollars being added to the federal deficit) and, except for defense, pretty much cut or threaten to cut the federal budget for everything else. At least a bi-partisan bill, passed in 2021, slowed the “kicking the infrastructure can down the road” for a while.

“In November 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IIJA funds desperately needed improvements to the United States infrastructure. This historic bill is the largest commitment to U.S. infrastructure in over 100 years. The IIJA includes $500 billion allocated for surface transportation systems, $73 billion to update the electric grid, $55 billion to improve countrywide water quality and $50 billion to support community resilience in the face of climate change, cyberattacks and more.” BigRentz, Think Big Blog, United States Infrastructure: Past, Present and Future, February 16th.

So, just looking at our nation’s bridges – not looking at dams, levees, highways, power grids and energy generation, just bridges: “According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), 1 in 3 US bridges require replacement or repair. Of these bridges, 42,400 are deemed ‘structurally deficient,’ yet people cross them approximately 167 million times a day… They may not collapse in the middle of rush hour, but they need plenty of attention before existing issues deteriorate to a point where the structures are unsafe.

The estimated backlog for bridge repairs is $125 billion, and annual spending needs to increase from $14.4 billion to $22.7 billion to make necessary improvements. A systematic preservation program prioritizing preventive maintenance is crucial to address this issue… Fortunately, the new United States infrastructure bill recently allocated funds to the Bridge Investment Program. This program is the largest bridge investment in U.S. history and supports the replacement, rehabilitation and preservation of poor or at-risk bridges with $40 billion allocated over five years.” BigRentz

The US Department of Transportation has announced its Bridge Investment Program that provides funding for bridge replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, and protection projects that reduce the number of bridges in poor condition, or in fair condition at risk of declining into poor condition. This willingness to cut taxes for the rich, increase the federal deficit which sucks tax dollars to pay the massive interest carry like a mega-vacuum cleaner of steroid, and ignore what needs to be done to keep our country on track is horrifically self-destructive. Productivity relies heavily on education – which is increasingly unaffordable – and vigorous infrastructure (which is obviously in severe decay). Not priorities for GOP tax-cutters.

I’m Peter Dekom, and this catering to the rich and lovers of conspiracy theories while refusing to fund what makes us productive and great is killing us… as we watch income inequality grow, productivity plunge and our national debt continue to rise to staggering and unsustainable heights.