New Year’s Political Niblets

New Year’s Political Niblets

The only real military action Trump has initiated is to attack air facilities of Syria after they used nerve gas against civilians.  That was actually the only clean air action that Trump has taken.  As far as Americans go, Trump has only removed clean air regulations, despite these regulations on PM2.5 micro particles extending lives in various cities by one to three years.  As I made clear in the next to last post, the Mercurial characteristics induced by methylmercury exposure from coal plants are well known to Americans now in Trump’s actions, and make it important to remove mercury and PM2.5 from coal smokestacks.

The House has not formulated significant legislation for climate action or air pollution, even if they know that it won’t be passed by the Senate or signed by Trump.  But they can at least carry out hearings about the severe health effects of renewing our air and water pollution.

Trump may think that his shutdown is only affecting government workers in DC or only Democrats.  But it affects government workers throughout the country, and the denial of services affects everybody, Republicans and Democrats both.  And government workers are split between Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

With only 3.7% of workers unemployed and looking for good jobs, agriculture is hurting in many part of the country.  There are also not enough construction and repair workers to cover current and future storm, flood, and fire damage.  We really need to open up the border to guest workers and embrace our DACA trained Americans to allow for agriculture and business growth.  The $27 billion for the undefined (mercurial) wall is best spent on infrastructure, or sea level rise “fortress” walls, or higher flood dikes.

It’s terrible that Trump is already insulting newly announced candidate Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as if she has a psychiatrist.  Psychiatry is a well established and covered medical profession, which Trump has often referred to to avoid action on gun control.  I think many people would agree that if anybody in government needs a psychiatrist, it is compulsive liar Trump himself.

My dream for the midterm was that enraged Democrats would turn out as they did for the Presidential election, and that disappointed Republicans and Republican voting independents wouldn’t.  One analysis shows that that is roughly what happened.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2018 Midterm Election, 2020 Election, Air Quality, CAFE Standards, Coal, Donald Trump, EPA, Fossil Fuel Energy, Houston Flooding, Hurricane Florence, Immigration Policy, Politics, Regulations, Sea Level Rise, Trump's Mental Health, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

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