President Biden, Beating the Coronavirus, Climate Change Mitigation, Blue State Freedom, DACA, Democratic City Freedom, University Freedom, Respect for Science, California VP and Future Presidential Candidate Harris.
As Americans we have so much to celebrate today, and also as Californians. We also have so much to celebrate as scientists and university educators and researchers.
Trump started with threats to defund Universities over supposed free speech restraints, although he ended up discrediting massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations. He then threatened Democratic cities with defunding, and also Democratic states who desperately need Coronavirus funding. That will stop, as well as there will hopefully be another economic boost and bailout. The Blue states taxes have been channeled into Red states every year, starting with McConnell’s Kentucky.
I originally wrote about energy and environment, and this last year switched to our lack of action on the Coronavirus. I had also spent the last five years fighting Trump’s assaults on science. Of course, it will take four years to remove Trump’s destruction of action on climate science. This will be worse if Republicans maintain dominance of the Senate. The Supreme Court also has three new justices who were lifetime screened by the Federalist Society, run by the Koch brothers. I suspect that many of the environmental cases in the courts were just initiated regulation removal by Trump executive actions, which could be reversed by similar executive actions, before they go through the full court process. When Trump activates his Schedule F and fires federal scientists and advisory committees to be replaced by industrial hacks, they will take time and effort to replace.
In terms of jobs, since Coronavirus restrictions will be with us for many months still, we can invest in infrastructure and include in that jobs for clean energy, energy efficient buildings, and electric and hybrid cars.
I usually complain about Presidential Primary candidates ignoring California except to collect funds. This was true of the Presidential election also. But Kamala Harris is our Senator, and will bring our concerns and issues directly into the White House. We will also have her replacement in the Senate, giving us another force. Of course, we also have 53 members in the House, and Speaker Pelosi is from California.
California is one of the largest states affected by Trump’s threats to DACA and to sanctuary cities and states. Unless he does something drastic to kill the programs, these programs can succeed, and replaced with a road to citizenship and full rights.
We are also in a crucial period for extending nuclear agreements, which can be saved next year. We could also see more progress on important programs to limit nuclear weapons developments in a period when all nations have tight budgets.
To ruin the depth of this article, I am paraphrasing the ditty from the Wizard of Oz:
Ding, Dong, the Don is Gone.
I found Trump’s voter litigation swan song amusing when he claimed that he was being funded by small contributions from common folk. Last week he was in Newport Beach collecting $150,000 per couple to have their picture taken with the Don who gives out government favors and contracts. Trump’s biggest donors and backers of Netanyahu were Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who gave $75 million.
