Bright lights, big city

I flew down to Phoenix this past week for a book signing. Here are a few observations, make of them what you will.

— As my fictional character David Mapstone is given to saying, "Phoenix is beautiful at night." Unfortunately, during the day the uglification of the garden city of my youth continues. Gravel has replaced grass with desert plants dying from the radiated heat. Few shade trees can be found (when one does, the temperature drops 10 degrees). This was an extraordinary warm January, a sign what's to come. I can't count the number of times I've told people that the Salt River Valley experience several hard frosts every winter — that's why we didn't have West Nile Virus.

— Denial is widespread. Denial of the damage done to Phoenix. Denial of history. Denial of climate change. Denial of the peril our experiment in self-government faces in November. People live in their own tribes, with their distinct tribal beliefs. Very intelligent people I spoke with were shocked that I think Donald Trump will win the presidency again. It's highly likely and the Republicans might win control of both houses of Congress.

Our cynical retired Front Page Editor argues that the Democrats should dump President Biden (or "Bye-done" as he says) in favor of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She's impressed me, too. But this is magical thinking. When incumbents are challenged they always lose the nomination, such as Reagan vs. Ford in 1976 and Ted Kennedy vs. Carter in 1980. The internecine conflict within the party only weakens it.

— The Gilbert Goons, a gang of teenage hoods terrorized the area for more than a year before police began making arrests. Gilbert? The "town" (population 273,136) has an LDS stake or meetinghouse or megachurches almost every mile along Guadalupe Road and "bad things never happen here." They happen in downtown Phoenix (whose boundaries are essentially wherever people in "the valley" find as a sceery place. Or Maryvale, Scaryvale. Or along light rail (WBIYB). But in reality the really lurid stuff happens in safe suburbia with championship golf.

— According to the Arizona Republic, "Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s second phase will start a year or two later than last projected." This is the scheme that promises to bring thousands of employees and $40 billion in investment. The plant is located at 43rd Avenue and Dove Valley Road. This is about a mile south of Carefree Highway and far from light rail or other transit.

This is touted as a big economic-development win, yet it's full of uncertainty and boosterism. Chip "fabs" use a tremendous amount of water. Wired magazine reports that, "a single fab might use millions of gallons in a single day, according to the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET)—about the same amount of water as a small city in a year." What a smart place to locate.

It's similar to the nation's fifth most populous city being downwind of North America's largest nuclear generating plant — another big water-user. So keep sprawling and building projects such as these as the center-city oasis is starved of water for cooling grass ("turf") and shade trees.

Meanwhile, at the risk of repeating myself, Phoenix lacks the corporate headquarters with large, well-paid workforces in the central core, along light rail routes. It also lacks advanced industries. And Taiwan companies will face a difficult future if China chooses to invade or things turn nasty with North Korea.

— Drive, drive, drive. The typical metropolitan Phoenix major "street" is twice as wide as the major arterials in Seattle. No wonder the limited Phoenix Fire Regional Dispatch page is so full of 962s (auto collision with injuries). Often these involve pedestrians, people on bicycles or motorcycles.

It's also full of calls for natural gas leaks. This "new city" grew so fast and spread out so far it didn't have time to clean up after itself. Air quality is among the worst in the nation. But the average newcomer from the Midwest, who doesn't realize or care about how much has been lost, believes life couldn't be sweeter.

What did I miss? The comments section awaits you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Rich Weinroth]

Well I'm awake at 1:05 AM, so I might as well write something. I've lived in the city of Phoenix for 41 years. When I moved here permanently in 1983, I was astonished to see red roofs on homes instead of white and the failure to use light colors everywhere as I had seen in other desert cities in my travels to reflect and not adsorb heat. I was also surprised by the non-native vegetation which provided little shade. Seriously, tall palm trees that I find in Miami Beach? But there was enough desert that it would still cool off at night in most places during hot summer days. Since that time the population has more than tripled and nothing has been learned about living in a desert environment. So the nighttime temperatures keep soaring from the ever expanding heat island effect. My conclusion is that nothing will change until there is a crisis. Developers will not change what they are doing as long as people keep moving here and buy into the dream and the public stops voting for political leaders who fail to address long-term problems and instead tout the next housing development.

[julia watson]

jon, truer words than ive heard in a
l o n g time...sad for all of us who grew up there and for future generations who are bound to suffer...

[Diane D'Angelo]

I chatted with some neighbors today while on my walk. I mentioned that I lived in Phoenix for 32 years. They shook their heads....

[cal lash]

Eight(8) billon humans and counting!
What possibly could go wrong.
Tom Malthus
Soaring the skies with Edward Abbey.

and cal lash a Sloper that landed in the tubercular tent zone in 1950.
Thirty (30) good years before it all went to dangerous American Lung Association warnings.
Solutions, WAR and Starvation?

[Linda VandeVrede]

We lived in Phoenix/Scottsdale for 34 years. In addition to the cleaner air we found when moving back to my home state (Rhode Island), the other big difference we noted was in service vendors. Phoenix grew so fast in the last few years that too many fly-by-night vendors sprang up. They weren't reliable, didn't show up on time for appointments, and often (like our roofing company) quietly and mysteriously went out of business. Reputation in our new area is paramount - family businesses have survived for generations based on good, reliable service. It has been a nice change. Phoenix when we moved there in the 80s was magical. It is disheartening to remember what it once was. You're absolutely right - most newcomers to AZ don't realize or care about what has been lost.

[Patty Prokosch]

I love that you write the truth about what has happened to destroy the valley. I moved here in 2962.p

[Henry]

Dear time traveler, was Kari Lake still filing law suits in 2962?

[Reality Street]

“People live in their own tribes, with their distinct tribal beliefs. Very intelligent people I spoke with were shocked that I think Donald Trump will win the presidency again.”

Yep. And there you have it.

The shock is a byproduct of the social and intellectual parochialism within which so many “intelligent” people have sequestered themselves.

It’s amazing how quickly a person can be labeled a Trumpist and worse simply for pointing out obvious weaknesses among the opposition—even in the context of opposing a Trump return to power.

If Trump wins, it won’t be because everyone stopped caring about what is good, right, and reasonable, but because so much of the “woke” opposition insist on ideological/personal purity—or fear being seen as unenlightened—at the expense of dismissing fears and real problems that so many other folks face and can’t so easily ignore. Whether or not many of those others are ignorant hicks being cynically mislead is largely beside the point. Such as assessment does not erase them.

Sadly, it’s probably much too late to field a more viable opposition than Biden and Harris. Whether or not it’s fair that they remain weak is similarly beside the point.

[Cal Lash]

I'm not an intellectual or even very smart. But fairly well informed.
Theres really no suprise about Trump.
The "SOPRANOS" had a 98 percent favorable rating.

[Cal Lash]

Here the desert Campfire dudes are
72 percent Trump.
They call the other 28 percent
Gay Caballerors.

[B. Franklin]

The idea that Biden and Harris are "weak" is laughable.

The polls that show Trump doing well with Blacks and young voters are a well documented joke.

The idea that Trump is a viable candidate is absurd.

Winning one half of one seventh of Iowa's Republicans is not exactly an overwhelming mandate.

He only looks strong compared to the likes of DeSantis, Haley, and Ramaswamy, who are doing an excellent impersonation of the 3 Stooges.

Have you heard Trump speak lately? He is confused about, well, everything.

And physically? Morbidly obese with the diet of a spoiled child. And the exercise habits of a sloth. Throw in a strong lingering odor, too.

Wouldn't be surprised if he stroked out during one of his Hitler fanboy harangues.

When he loses his business and whatever few assets he still has he will only get worse.

Ain't enough illiterate, racist, xenophobic, misogynists in the world to carry his bloated ass to victory.

The Republican Party will have to really step up their cheating game to even make the election close.

Probably won't get much help from the Russians this time, either.

[Reality Street]

As I was saying…

[Reality Street]

“Dec. 9, 2023:
WASHINGTON—President Biden’s political standing is at its weakest point of his presidency, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds, with voters giving him his lowest job-performance marks and favoring Donald Trump for the first time in a head-to-head test of the likely 2024 presidential matchup.”

Yes, many reasonable people agree that Trump’s a bloated buffoon and embarrassment to this country. But the notion that his support is limited to a shrinking cohort of “illiterate, racist, xenophobic, misogynists” is typical self-righteous elitist ignorance of the type that could very well get him elected.

B. Franklin is doing a wonderful job of demonstrating that point.

[Cal Lash]

Would the GOP care if Donald died in office after his "day one"?
Should they not be more concerned about the House and Senate?

[Bobson Dugnutt]

@Cal Lash, the GOP are concerned about Congressional control.

Republicans look good at taking control of the Senate right now. Manchin's seat is going to flip, and Sinema's peregrinations could undermine Ruben Gallego, though Gallego's favorables look pretty good. Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester are going in as underdogs.

The House has a good chance of going back to Democrats. Under Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic bench is more disciplined than, well ever. Republicans are a shitshow and have so many attritions, like ex-House speaker Kevin McCarthy resigning and George Santos being turfed. Most of the candidates coming up are very much in the Gazpacho Space Laser mold.

[Pat]

Maybe it's time for old Phoenicians to let go of the past. The old oasis and its agricultural breadbasket were evolving into a serious economic driver, then AC came along and made summer comfortable, and developers/swindlers like the Goldwater brothers began the cultural and environmental rape of their own nests. It's gone, and it's never coming back. The world changes around us, and the valley changed quicker than the than the rest of the country. When Phoenix started its postwar boom, Los Angeles and Denver were already big cities. El Paso was bigger than Phoenix in 1950.

[B. Franklin]

"Elitist ignorance" is it?

You're telling me that Trump isn't in a very obvious cognitive decline? Have you listened to his word salads? He doesn't know what year it is, he thinks Obama is still President, he thinks Nikki Haley is Nancy Pelosi, he doesn't know how many world wars there have been, etc etc. I must admit his missile sound effects are kind of entertaining, in a "my somewhat slow 3 year old learned a new word today" kind of way.

You still insist, to the point of nausea, that we should try to "understand" the people who continue to support that bloated orange traitor.

That we should listen to the "concerns" of people who have walked away from reality and now live in an alternative universe, complete with their own set of "alternative facts." This is the "keep your government hands off my Medicare" crowd. This is the "slavery wasn't so bad" crowd. This is the "Jewish space lasers started the fires" crowd.

But sure, let's spend the time to talk to people who do not want to listen, who do not want to learn.

There's a word for that kind of thinking.

And it's much worse than "ignorance."

[Reality Street]

Oh, come on, BF. Now you’re just being thick as a hick.

“You're telling me that Trump isn't in a very obvious cognitive decline?”

No, I’m not. And I’m really starting to wonder about you, now, since no reasonable person would draw that inference from any comment I’ve made.

At any rate, what I think about Trump’s mental state is hardly the point. The fact that he continues to draw lots of support— he just took New Hampshire, in case you missed it—and will almost certainly be the GOP nominee, is the point.

Yes, I do insist that we should try to understand his supporters, because that’s critical to defeating him. That doesn’t mean we should agree with them or even sympathize with them.

Even if you consider anyone who doesn’t absolutely agree with your worldview as an enemy, there’s this rather ancient and quite basic military doctrine that says you should Know Your Enemy and not underestimate him.

Yet here you are, blithely dismissing all potential Trump voters as the most vile and irrational kooks “who have walked away from reality“ and “who do not want to listen.”

Did you ever consider, even for a moment, that maybe SOME people actually have legitimate concerns that differ from yours, and that they may vote for Trump, despite his enormous faults, because they’re convinced the Democrats have written them off completely—just like you have—and they have no confidence in Biden/Harris?

But you’re so much better than THOSE PEOPLE “who have walked away from reality” and “who do not want to listen.”

Yeah, there certainly is a word for that kind of thinking. Actually quite a few.

I’ll be charitable and just go with “irrational.”

[Bobson Dugnutt]

If we're keeping score, the point goes to B. Franklin.

Today on the liberal blog Lawyers Guns and Money, writer Scott Lemieux offers a take on the Politico profile of the modal New Hampshire GOP primary voter. (Most of it quotes the Politico piece, which if you want to read for yourself is here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/22/new-hampshire-primary-voter-00136850 )

Lemieux's one paragraph response pretty much has the magavolkisch dead to rights:
The idea that Obama-Trump voters must by definition be gettable via marginal policy changes completely misunderstands the issue. Affluent Fox News grandpas aren’t looking for material things from the government, and there’s nothing Uncle Joe Brandon can do to force their estranged relatives to talk to them again. In theory, someone whose grandfather died should be amenable to arguments to expanding access to healthcare, but not when their takeaway is that “everyone needs to suffer more.”

From: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/01/worse-case-of-economic-anxiety-ive-ever-seen

Consideration over. Causa finita est.

[B. Franklin]

The GOP modus operandi, to quote the great Jimmy Breslin, is "the poor can never be made to suffer enough."

That some of the white poor are happy to suffer if they know that poor people of color are suffering even more, is a pathology that can only be explained by deeply entrenched racism.

Also, it seems obvious that the wealthier Republicans, racist or not, misogynistic or not, traitorous or not, only care about their rate of taxation--and how to avoid paying it. And they secretly revel in pitting the poor against each other, if only as a distraction, while they continue to loot the commons.

Whether or not I think I'm "so much better" than those people isn't the point. The point is you can't reason with unreasonable people. And I think that trying to, again and again and again, and expecting different results is one of the definitions of insanity.

But yes, Unreality Street, as a matter of fact, I do think I'm better than those people.

If I didn't, I'd be too depressed to get out of bed in the morning.

[Reality Street]

Sometimes B Nuts is so easily impressed. And he’s certainly good at misunderstanding the issue! But who’s keeping score?

BF, I don’t recall anyone advocating “reasoning with unreasonable people” at all, let alone “again and again and again.” Unless, of course, you’re referencing my modest attempts here to help you extricate your bloated noggin from a very dark place indeed.

You’re probably much better off staying in bed.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Reply Guy Street: Sometimes B Nuts is so easily impressed

Every accusation is a confession.

The claim: I don’t recall anyone advocating “reasoning with unreasonable people” at all, let alone “again and again and again.”

The receipts: Yes, I do insist that we should try to understand his supporters, because that’s critical to defeating him.

The fundamental problem here is that "we" are doing all of the doing. And when "we" are doing all of the doing, we are submitting.

Trumpism is the guy in the Politico article at scale. Telling "we" to meet them at their level is not different than the dynamics of domestic abuse. Trauma psychologists know that one of the behavior patterns of battered victims is that they believe they take custody of their beatings. They know their partner is abusive and violent, but correctly see that the abusive behavior is fixed yet have no power over the other person. So they must change their behavior to not set off the abuser.

This is not an anomaly, either. Anyone covering a Trump rally goes to see the magavolkisch let their freak flags fly. Adam Serwer wrote an essay in 2018 that became the title of a book and both are self-explanatory: The Cruelty Is The Point.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55873263

A Florida woman defined the essence of Trumpism when she told a reporter, "He's not hurting the people he needs to be."
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida

I offer a counter-proposition: The people who are anti-Trump fear and hate him because we understand what Trumpism is and represents all too well. Magas are undeserving of the benefit of the doubt.

[Reality Street]

Umm, B Nuts, “understand” does not equal “reason with.” And not everyone is easily categorized. You clearly have great difficulty with intellectual honesty. Or you’re just awfully damn dense.

Either way, I’ll try to make it bite-sized enough to squeak past your obstructive ego: Not everyone who ever voted for Trump, or might be persuaded to, or might not vote at all, is an unredeemable, hard-core MAGAist with no legitimate concerns about how this nation is run and how that impacts them.

Some people are seriously confused, fearful, misguided, misled, etc.

And yes, some are just stupid—especially some who have absurdly inflated opinions of themselves and their abilities.

Some people are interested in reality and the ways in which electoral politics actually work.

Some are just constantly trying to find reasons to make themselves feel that they’re better people than they really are.

[Cal Lash]

"Reality" taped.
Lake moves to screw Sinema.

[Rich Weinroth]

Pat, I think you are correct, unfortunately. Fortunately, I can afford to move if needed. I'm now on Medicare, so I no longer need to live in Arizona to keep my health insurance. I've been looking into alternatives out of state. I'm also looking at the Tucson area, because the environment is in somewhat better shape and it's much cooler than Phoenix, especially at night. Maybe Tucson is a bit more boring, but there is a lot less chaotic growth. I'm open to suggestions from the gallery.

[DoggieCombover]

Sorry, reality, I am unable to comprehend or "understand" anyone who is just fine with the immoral monstrosity that is trump. And are willing to vote for someone who tried to overthrow the government and have his VP assassinated, only the last couple of items on a long list of criminal acts. I now have a coping mechanism for dealing with that: Fuck 'em...

[Bobson Dugnutt]

@Rich Weinroth, go for Tucson if you like Arizona in general or you need to stay for economic reasons.

Fortunately, it's not as vast as the Phoenix metro area. It's only about a 30 minute drive from one end of town to the other. There's still a lot of fun things in Tucson, but you'd want to be close to the university or downtown for them, especially for sports or the museums.

[Reality Street]

Well, Doggie, you’re not the only one to miss the point entirely no matter how it’s broken down, so good luck with your hatred and self-isolation.

It’s been instructive to watch seemingly intelligent folks rush to demonstrate clearly that “People live in their own tribes, with their distinct tribal beliefs.”

The Trump Tribe ain’t the only ones lost in the jungle.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Reply Guy Street, since you've now stirred up shit with three people on this post, let me point out why you are exceptionally feckless in getting your message across.

You're the wrong person to be advancing your arguments. Start with your handle, Reality Street. You operate under this delusion that everyone not-you needs you to interpret "reality" for us like we're cavefish swimming in the dark.

Your need to make "reality" your brand just makes you bumptious.

Second, you betray the values you claim to represent by being thin-skinned. I notice there's a discursive pattern to your rhetoric and your thinking. I will admit to exploiting it to sort of play with my food, if you will.

As a kid, I played "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" on the 8-bit Nintendo. With the primitive capabilities of video games at the time, the secret to beating the game was to know the patterns to KO the boxers on the way to Mike Tyson and the underboss, who were very hard and required actual skill to beat.

Reality Street is like one of the mooks at the beginning of the game. The pattern is:
1. Reality Street opens by punching left.
2. Someone on the board challenges him.
3. Reality Street gets really thin-skinned and throws a punch that leaves him defenseless and open to a counterpunch.

No. 3 is the fun part, because while you are thinking of some self-impressed insult -- and again, patterns: we are all smug/condescending/elitist/egotistical (me) and/or "confused, fearful, misguided, misled" (your words, but likely talking about B. Franklin or Doggie) -- you leave yourself unprotected. All we have to do is point out you are projecting or show a counterclaim that the people you advocate for are every bit as wretched as we perceive them to be and so much less.

Step 4 is your soccer-diving. This is where you appeal to civility or moderation. I, for one, recognize it as a fallacy and merely a rhetorical ploy. This is Internet Trolling 101, and you become these comics:
◘ "Fault Right" guy: https://thenib.com/fault-right/
This is your preferred explanation for why Americans go maga.
◘ The Sea Lion: https://wondermark.com/c/1k62/
This is how most appeals to civility on the internet look. Sealioning has become a term of trolling and harassment, and it comes from this comic.
◘ Amoral pudding: https://twitter.com/janecoaston/status/995021881899089920
This is a companion to the "Fault Right" comic, and Jane Coaston explains why labeling is no excuse for radical beliefs.

Reply Guy Street really hates this one, so please don't mention amoral pudding around them. ;)

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Bonus material: Field guide to the 9 Types of Reply Guy (content warning: it's on Twitter):

https://twitter.com/sbarolo/status/1501219278275723268

[B. Franklin]

"Not everyone is easily categorized."

No.

But some people are.

[Reality Street]

And once again Bugnuts demonstrates his thin-skinned pathological need to convince himself that he’s dominated a conversation. Can’t even accept agreement with the basic premise—Trump bad man, must be defeated—unless he can play mastermind and moral superior, thus inadvertently underscoring the noted tribal fallacy.

Enjoy your pudding, Bugs. Just don’t play with it too much.

[Reality Street]

BF: Agreed!

[Reality Street]

Oh, and you forgot to include “pretentious” in your No. 3 litany, Bugs. That’s a biggee.

For what it’s worth, "confused, fearful, misguided, misled" were meant to apply to actual and potential Trump supporters, not BF or Doggie. Thought that was fairly obvious. Not the first time for you to misconstrue, deliberately or otherwise.

Ok, resume your pud playing.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Reply Guy Street, are you saying ... you're the pud? You are the one I was playing with.

I spell out your behavior patterns. Lo and behold, you perform them. And in the same order, too.

And of course, You. Are. Going. To. Take. The. Bait. You'll respond to this. Cue up No. 3: The self-impressed insult of the populist envy-spite against knowledge.

While teeing up your limited range of insults, as the pattern follows you left yourself unprotected. On Jan. 24 at 7:57 p.m., you wrote: "Some people are seriously confused, fearful, misguided, misled, etc."

Your words, your choice. You chose the phantom pronoun "some." You could have meant Trump supporters, but the trouble with phantom pronouns is that the ambiguity leaves the sentence wide open to be misconstrued. Substituting B. Franklin and Doggie makes the argument equally as valid as Trump supporters.

A statement open to interpretation is a statement open to misinterpretation.

If you mean Trump supporters, then just say Trump supporters.

[Reality Street]

Sure, I’ll take the bait — and pull you overboard.

Here’s Bugnuts, right on cue, demonstrating his chronic inability to just admit he was wrong. Or that he tried to misconstrue a point despite obvious context.

Really shouldn’t have to spell this out, but your density and denial are seemingly impenetrable, so: It’s not “populist envy-spite against knowledge.” It’s a keen dislike of insufferable self-deceiving know-it-alls who dwell in closets of sanctimonious intolerance of anyone they fancy to be not as sharp and informed as themselves, and who habitually lash out in feeble attempts at self-reassurance.

You’re just not as smart or righteous as you pretend to be.

Be a good loser now and go play with your pud.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

In Arizona news, here's some political burlesque over the downfall of the state GOP party chair. Hat tip to liberal blog Lawyers Guns and Money.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/01/smile-youre-on-kari-camera
The source material is the Associated Press article of Jeff DeWit resigning over what he thought was a private conversation with Kari Lake to apparently bribe her to bow out of the Senate race. (The kicker is, Lake was already working for him.)
https://apnews.com/article/jeff-dewit-resigns-kari-lake-recording-bribe-07319f36b057f804f880a7e07f8d16b1
The blogger adds an important tidbit about Lake, who is Project Veritas with the Zoom Soft Focus Filter set to max: "Apparently it is widely known that Lake is wired for sound and her husband (edit: takes videos of her interactions with other people) which makes DeWit pretty DeWitless to talk to her at all.

The news has a coda in "Live by the election denying s---heads, die by the election denying s---heads".
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/01/live-by-the-election-denying-shitheads-die-by-the-election-denying-shitheads

It references a year-old Washington Post profile on DeWit.

[B. Franklin]

So, if I'm following this correctly, when the next civil war starts, it will be the fault of those of us who do not coddle, oops, I meant those of us who do not reach out and try to understand, a bunch of ignorant troglodytes.

How dare we ignore the legitimate fears of the "real" Americans.

Apparently we are the real problem. It certainly isn't them.

You know, the battle is between knowledge and willful ignorance. And, so far, it looks like ignorance is ahead on points.

[Reality Street]

You’re not following correctly at all, BF, but don’t trouble yourself further. Just be content to believe that everyone who’s frustrated, angry, uneducated, or fearful and who’s subject to mistake or manipulation by demagoguery is nothing but an ignorant and disposable troglodyte. It’s much easier that way, they’ll all go away, and you’ll feel really good about yourself.

[Reality Street]

Today
“CNN— President Joe Biden is embracing tougher border measures, including shutting down the US-Mexico border, marking a stark shift from his early days in office as he tries to fend off former President Donald Trump’s attacks on immigration policy ahead of the election.

Hours after House Speaker Mike Johnson warned on Friday that the emerging border deal in the Senate is “dead on arrival,” Biden offered this message to House Republicans: “Securing the border through these negotiations is a win for America. For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is the way to do it. If you’re serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.”

Biden took office pledging to restore asylum and manage the border in a “humane” way. But his administration has faced the harsh realities and challenges at the US-Mexico border amid record migration across the Western Hemisphere — making it a political vulnerability seized on by Republicans.”

Translation: Team Biden has recognized that he is in trouble and that he must take a tougher stance on an divisive issue that alarms many Americans and that Trump long ago recognized and exploited to his advantage. Whether the issue is blown out of proportion in comparison to other matters is beside the point.

Biden knows his gesture will piss off some of his allies and some people who view border policy purely in racial terms. But he also knows that those folks will not turn around and vote for Trump, while some actual or potential Trump supporters might just swing his way or, at the very least, be less enthusiastic about Trump and less likely to feel it necessary to turn out and actually cast ballots for Trump.

It’s a smart move. It’s the way shit really works. Biden hasn’t suddenly changed his views, but has reasonably concluded that it’s better to know his enemy, bend a little (at least in political posture, if not action), and win a war than to stubbornly self-immolate upon a pedestal of vague idealism and presumed virtue and lose it for all involved while shrieking with futility that absolutely anyone who supports Trump for any reason or even considered doing so is a racist, misogynist, idiotic, fascist Troglodyte. Whether any of those people is any of those things is again beside the point.

In elections, results matter.

Your mileage may vary.

[Cal Lash]

Short answer.
Biddn moved from his Jimmy Hoffa posture to Russell Bufalino negotiations.

[Cal Lash]

Eve, we have to move to survive. Adam, do we have to take the snake?

Joe, we have to close the border.

Jill, we will starve.

Joe, i worked out a deal with Los Chapitos.

[Cal Lash]

Trump, I'll nuke Mexico.

Melania,who will clean?

Trump, former employees of the deep state.

[Cal Lash]

Squanto was more qualified to run a country than most current candidates.

[Cal Lash]

Thanks to immigrant mechanics from South America and Mexico my 2008 Honda Fit has 271000 miles on it.
And continues to blow cold A/C at 32 to 36 mpg.
The local pizza home delivery dude is from Romania.
Three of my immediate neighbors are from Canada.
My barber is from Russia and speaks limited english.

WTF
GERONIMO

[Cal Lash]

Migration.
Pages 292 to 296 in
Tom Zollellner's
book
Rim to River
is a good read.
And
The Reapers Line by Border Patrol agent
Lee Morgan is a good read. In the the mid 2000's i gave away 10 copies mostly to Tucson attorneys I did surveillance for.

[Cal Lash]

Joe Manchin/Kristen Sinema vs a
Joe Biden/Kamela Harris vs Donald/karrie Lake ????

[B. Franklin]

I don't think there's enough money in being Vice President to keep dear Kyrsten happy.

The opportunities to grift in a major way just aren't there.

And Joe Manchin's finances would not hold up in the glare of the national spotlight.

However, it would be a dream team for the Koch family...

[Cal Lash]

Kristen loved Russell Pierce and loves the LDS money dudes even more.
Nothing like a good pyramid scam.

[Cal Lash]

Soon the donation drive for Manchin/Sinema.

[iaed]

Maybe a Manchin/Sinema ticket would bring more water to AZ?

https://grist.org/drought/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom/

[Cal Lash]

How bout less humans.

[2002 subaru outback]

I’m cynical about a lot of things, but I can’t really complain about Phoenix outside of demand for real estate making my rent go up 100% over the past five years. Other than that, life is fine here. It isn’t a perfect city, but perfect cities do not exist.

[Cal Lash]

May your lungs survive.
And Asphalt and concrete be your friends.
Twice a quaint Village arose along the banks of the Salt. Will the current inhabitants go the way of
"those who are gone."

[Kemo Sabe]

The few native shrubs that do get planted are shaved and sheared into little domes and cylinders, forcing new growth constantly, and thereby increasing water requirements. Tree limbs are hacked off indiscriminately. The horticultural atrocities continue apace.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

The Taiwanese chip fab appears to be back on. TSMC reached an accord with Arizona construction trades unions to allow work to proceed.

It's in the latest Substack piece by economist Noah Smith.

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/at-least-five-interesting-things-d7e

Smith: "Of course, the key ingredient in this sudden burst of reconciliation and concord was likely the U.S. government itself. None of the news sources are reporting that the civil servants tasked with disbursing CHIPS Act funding called up both TSMC and the unions and strongarmed them into reaching an agreement. But I have zero doubt that this is what happened. A powerful and competent bureaucracy is absolutely invaluable for identifying and overwhelming bottlenecks."

[eclecticdog]

At this point it looks like Sinema is not running. No effort on her part to even get on the ballot and the lack of donations draining her cash-on-hand for private jet jaunts. Manchin is out too. Bet he moves out of WV too. Should he wander too far into the hollars, he might not be seen again.

The lack of excitement of either party is noticeable. But the Republicans on the Hill are quickly losing votes by their lack of success and obstructionism. Maybe Trump will have a Demo House and Senate (just putting it out there, should he make it).

[Cal Lash]

The race is Biden and the Democrats to lose.
For the country the elections are a race down hill to hell.

Overall the planets many governments of eight (8) billion humans looks pretty sad.