Happy New Year?

I am a glass half empty kind of guy.  It is hard for me even to conceive of a happy 2018.  Trump will still be president, the environment will continue to deteriorate, the gap between rich and poor will widen, immigrants will continue to be demonized, Republicans in Congress will represent their campaign donors, religious fanaticism and ethnic hatreds will be unabated.

Too pessimistic?  I don’t think so.  If I am still here, check back with me a year from now and we will see.

A hero from Ghana

Emmanuel Mensah, 28, immigrated to the U.S. five years ago.  Last year he joined the National Guard  He was home on leave, visiting relatives in the building in the Bronx that burned two days ago, killing twelve people.  Mr. Mensah saved four people from burning and then went back into the building to help more people to safety.  He died in that attempt.

I think the word “hero” is way overused, but in this case it fits.  

First bats, then frogs, now snakes

In 2006 a winter den of timber rattlesnakes in New Hampshire suffered a population crash.  Then similar cases popped up in Massachusetts, then in Illinois.  By 2009 a snake-killing fungus, Ophidiomyces ophidiodiicola (don’t ask me to pronounce it) had been identified and named.  

Now up to 20 species of snakes are suffering from the fungus.  Other fungal infections have killed millions of bats and millions of frogs.  Some snakes do survive, but scientists are not sure if the infections will increase in intensity.  

At this point some of you are probably thinking, well, who cares about snakes, or bats, or frogs.  Or for that matter, canaries in coal mines.

I’ll leave you with a quote from naturalist John Muir, Sierra Club founder.  “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

For more info, see James Gorman, “A Spreading Fungus Can Be Deadly to Snakes,” New York Times, (26 Dec. 2017), p. D-3.

Standing with America

Last week the UN voted to declare Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void.”  The vote was 128 to 9.  The nine, of course, included the U.S.and Israel.  I thought you might be interested in the other seven.  They were Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Togo.  

Guatemala and Honduras are client states.  They are the equivalent of what we used to call the satellite nations of the USSR during the Cold War.  Togo is a small dictatorship in Africa that receives U.S. aid.  Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau are also client states with a combined population of less than Boise, Idaho.

Remember when we used to be called the “leader of the Free World?”

(Information for this post is from an article by Jessica Durando and Oren Dorell, “USA Today,” (Dec. 21, 2017).  I want to thank Tom M. for drawing my attention to this list.)

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch

I always thought Hatch was one of those conservative Republicans who had integrity.  As happens occasionally, I was completely wrong.

The Salt Lake City Tribune labeled Hatch the “Utahn of the year” on Monday, but it was not a compliment.  The paper stated Hatch had an “utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.”

Before Trump signed the tax bill, Hatch told Trump, “You’re one heck of a leader.”  The Tribune said the dismantling of the Bears Ears National Monument was basically a political favor granted by Trump in return for Hatch’s support of the corporate tax giveaway.

The lack of patriotism and personal courage among some of these old Republican members of Congress–McCain, Graham, Hatch, Collins–is depressing.  Toomey, of course, is not in that group, since he never had any integrity to begin with.

The great Amazon taxpayer ripoff

If you’ve been paying any attention, you probably know that Amazon is planning to build a second corporate headquarters.  

Amazon is the company started by Jeff Bezos, who in 1994 developed the “Amazon Loophole” which allowed the corporation to avoid collecting local and state sales taxes.  In the meantime, brick and mortar stores which did collect the taxes were driven out of business and state and local governments were out millions in sales and property tax.  

Now Bezos, one of the richest men on the planet, has started a bidding war by cities trying to lure the company into building its headquarters in their location.  Please, Mr. Bezos, please.  

Here is how this works, according to Jim Hightower, publisher of the “Hightower Lowdown.”  New York gave a $258-million subsidy to Yahoo and got 125 jobs, costing taxpayers $2 million per job.  North Carolina gave Apple $321 million and got 50 jobs, which is $6.4 million per job.  There are many other examples, including the recent one by Gov. Scott Walker giving the store away to Foxcomm.

On the other hand, the mayor of San Jose wrote in an op-ed column that San Jose wouldn’t offer special incentives to any giant corporation, “Because they are a bad deal for taxpayers.”  The mayor of San Antonio also wrote to Bezos that “giving away the farm isn’t our style.”  Too bad other mayors and governors have not figured that out.

In case you are wondering, I have never bought anything from Amazon.  It is so much fun being a Luddite.

Broken slate

I apologize for not posting last night, but I was outside the whole evening guarding our house.  It seems as though last year we had a whole pile of broken slate on Christmas Eve.  Evidently eight reindeer were walking around on our house roof.  

I had to make sure that didn’t happen again.  

Normal and depressing political commentary will resume tomorrow night.

Happy Boxing Day.