Greetings Earthlings – and happy 364th day of the regime of chaos. It’s looking likely that the government will shut down tomorrow at midnight. It’s just unbelievable to me that we are here. Interior Secretary Zinke is proposing to leave the national parks open with no rangers on the job. I can’t imagine how that will work out.
Unlike the eastern side of the country, we are having decent weather. Saturday we went to Tubac for something to do. It’s an artsy fartsy community south of Tucson. Some of their products are very nice, some not so much. This is the Elephant Head rock formation we see from the freeway. It was a beautiful day.
Yesterday we hiked the Ammunition Box trail. The view from the top is just stunning.
If you look at the hill top center photo, that’s where Jim is standing in the above picture.
Today we headed out to the Tortolitas and hiked the Lower Javelinas. It was a glorious day.
Rocks.
The gnarly cactus.
In the GPNW, they experienced 35 foot waves at the coast. This was taken at Cape Disappointment. It’s pretty impressive water.
The administration continues in its desire to cut off immigration, unless the immigrants are from Norway. This is so bad. It’s just amazing to me that the politicians can not read and understand the population projections that are being published. White people are not reproducing in sufficient numbers to support the coming bulge of retiring boomers. We need immigrants to enter the workforce.
A growing workforce would ease the fiscal pressure that the expanding senior population will impose on Social Security and Medicare. But Trump's efforts to reduce legal immigration would consign the U.S. to virtually no growth in the workforce, Pew projects. Trump has endorsed legislation from Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, two attendees at last Thursday's explosive White House meeting, that would cut the total level of legal immigration in half. Pew projects that under that level of future legal immigration, the size of the workforce will remain virtually stagnant over the next half century.
If the workforce remains essentially unchanged while the senior population grows by 40 million, each worker will be required to fund 80% more seniors than they do now. That demographic imbalance represents a political tourniquet that will inexorably increase pressure for cuts in Social Security and Medicare -- a prospect that polls show is anathema to the older and working-class whites Trump relies on.
So there you go.
Immigration is a convenient distraction for all the dysfunction in Washington.
ReplyDeleteGood point on the workforce need for immigrants. Such short-sightedness by the administration not realizing that need and promoting policies that will actually help the people they think are being hurt by the previous administration's policies. D'oh! Heads in the sand, blinded by their own bigotry.... Sad and ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteFascinating information that I had not heard yet. How can they be so blind that they cannot see the truth that immigrants are an integral part of America.
ReplyDeleteI will be marching tomorrow along with many thousands of San Diegans...I believe the turnout is expected to be more than double the 40,000 they had last year. Let our voices be heard!!!!!