CONSEQUENCES OF DIVISIVE POLITICS.

I watched the State of the Union Address and was appalled by the rudeness of some members of congress.  I've read political analysts who lament the divisiveness that has invaded the culture of Washington where we have two parties who cannot work together for the greater good of the Union. And many couldn't even muster politeness for Obama's speech. How sad!

 

The consequences are grave for we the people. It bothers me that three of my grandsons are now old enough to vote and they have no background to realize things were not always gridlock.

It bothers me that the Republican leadership from day one swore to destroy Obama's presidency. He tried to be the great compromiser and got vilified by his own party.

 

On Wednesday Barbara Boxer handed over the gavel -- and the chairmanship of the Environment and Public Works Committee -- to Republican Senator James Inhofe, who has called global warming "the greatest hoax." Private groups and governments from great nations are desperately trying to turn around climate change, and Inhofe and others, non-scientists, of course, deny that climate change is a fact and a threat.

 

On January 19th, the Bridger Pipeline,running oil from Canada to Baker Montana where it meets the Butte pipeline, had a leak into the Yellowstone river near Glendive, Montana.  The  system gathers crude from Bakken producers in eastern Montana and North Dakota. The company cannot yet say when the line will reopen or what caused the leak.

 

Since the new Republican Congress was sworn in, they’ve challenged the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline, when we are no longer dependent on imported oil and we have oil surpluses with the solar farms and electrification of autos. And gas prices are so low, Jim reported to me that he paid just under $2 a gallon in Arizona. 

 The new Republican congress attacked women’s healthcare, Social Security, Wall Street reform and they are pushing back against net neutrality.  Republicans are circulating bills––some disguised as "bi-partisan." These bills are proposing fake net neutrality to confuse the issue––the bills were written by members of Congress bought and paid for by Big Cable.

They won't stop working to decimate Obamacare and Wall Street reform. They won't stop trying to give new tax breaks to oil companies, or to millionaires and billionaires. (That recent bank written 1.1 million compromise on the Dodd-Frank bill putting us in the same position for another meltdown,for example.)

This isn't Democracy as I've known it. Am I just imagining a non-productive, low wage, poorly educated population, an imprisoned black population, and charter schools that teach a false history?  Am I just imagining that our country is moving backward, getting poorer and more violent and militant? Am I wrong about the growing ranks of the jobless and homeless with no opportunity to retire with a pension or at least, social security? What have they done to the middle class?

It will be a hard long slog to change things, slowly, at the state level, bit by bit. Or convince Republicans that their agenda isn't right for our country. Can you help?

WORLD TRADE IS COMPLICATED (AND NUTS)

Things are far more complicated than they seem, certainly more complicated than I’m capable of imagining.
I try to buy whatever I need made in America and  avoid buying stuff made in China, nearly impossible in my community. We don’t have the variety of shopping options that city people do. And, I’m a solar nut. I love it, I’m delighted that California leads the nation in solar installations and even without taking the subsidies away from big oil, solar is booming. Now, listen to this:
Solar is booming because cheap panels are coming from China. That leads to competition. Solar panels made in the USA, Germany and Japan are still available and China has forced prices down everywhere.  Since we have a trade deficit with China, it is nice to see it benefit us in such a big way.  American installers are doing a brisk business and we are moving toward sustainable energy because  clean technology is almost as cheap as dirty fossil fuels. The US and the European Union are threatening to stifle this breakthrough. So, how?
Both the US and EU give billions in taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil and Coal. Do they turn those subsidies to clean energy?  No, they are about to drive solar prices back up by putting tariffs on China and China is threatening to retaliate?  Oh, let’s have a trade war. Who would benefit by hurting the burgeoning, green solar industry?  The oil and coal industry, of course. I’m not saying we don’t need oil, I’m just saying we shouldn’t subsidize it anymore. Why not turn those subsidies into clean energy. The oil companies rake in billions in profits and we still subsidize them?  Enough is enough.
I’d rather see them rescind the whole trade agreement than tariff solar. China has a poor human rights record and they supply us with our own stuff at cheaper prices. I read in Smithsonian Magazine where one expert claims that “Every major company in the United States has already been penetrated by China.”  He also fears they have implanted logic bombs , trapdoors and Trojan horses in our electronics, l that can be activated on command like a cyber-Pearl Harbor attack. That may be fear mongering, but we certainly stand to lose our competitive edge. Our F-35 Bomber technology- important and our early American quilt patterns- irritating.
The farm industry in the U.S. has been facing declining beef and pork consumption in the U.S.  Now, land grabs for grazing land are being taken over to keep beef flowing to Asian countries. Yup!  They take our electronics, steal or buy our technology, and now we export our food to them.
China has a poor human rights and environmental record, and its strategy of flooding the global market with subsidised goods is annoying and costly to jobs. The best thing is not to blame China, but to aggressively entreat our leaders to subsidize US solar manufacturers with cheap loans just like China does. We should learn from their practices.
Experts predict that tariffs could cost 60,0000 US jobs. So, cheaper panels provide more work for people. Forget the tariff. It only sounds like a good answer.
More information:


NYT — “U.S. Slaps High Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels”
Bloomberg – “U.S. Solar Tariffs On Chinese Cells May Boost Prices”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/u-s-solar-tariffs-on-chinese-cells-may-boost-prices.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/business/energy-environment/us-slaps-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-panels.html?pagewanted=all