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Mingo's avatar

This is what happens when people are so blinded by their loathing of "others " that they vote against their interests. Americans have an enormous sense of entitlement. He wants to rescind money for projects passed by legislation for infrastructure and inflation. Way to go dumb ass voters in states that need that money . Kiss the economy and your jobs bye-bye.

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kdsherpa's avatar

"This is what happens when people are so blinded by their loathing of 'others' that they vote against their interests." This is the most concise, on-target description of what has just happened in our nation that I've seen.

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Patrick Daniels aka Cromulent1's avatar

True dat kd, knowing that half the population is willfully ignorant fits nicely with the narrative!!

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Eva Porter's avatar

There’s a big solar project between Phoenix and Tucson Arizona on Interstate 10 that’s funded by the inflation reduction act. It’ll just stay an eyesore for the foreseeable future. I’m interested to see what the signage looks like next time I drive to Phoenix

Keep in mind this is one of the hottest and sunniest places in the country. Solar powers a smart idea. They’re also supposed to be widening the interstate.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

Bummer. I'm wondering how much GDP will also be lost from California fires. I'm sorry people don't get how interconnected everything is. As my brother said while building houses in NC recently, a 50ft wall of water doesn't care about the gates around your community.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

Not as much as you think. We are the fourth largest economy in the world. Think of all the homes that will be built. When we had the Oakland fire in 1991, practically every contractor in the country showed up to get jobs rebuilding. My brother, not the best of them (ask Amy Tan) may show up. Warning: Do not accept a bid from Live Oak Construction, Berkeley, CA.

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Teri's avatar

Ellen, re LA fire aftermath. Paradise, CA's 2018 Camp Fire brought enormous resources to clean up toxic debris. IIRC they removed everything 6 feet down. Gov. Newsom said the fire debris removal from Pacific Palisades to take at least a year. Our highly toxic debris was hauled 20 miles away by a staggering number of trucks. Only step 1.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

I hear you. It speaks volumes about the toxicity of the stuff we use.

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P. J. Schuster's avatar

Sure, who are they going to hire to do all that frame-up work, the drywall & mudding, the roofing, the stucco???

Huge numbers of those laborers are undocumented males.

I live in a smaller village in southern NM that burned last summer & then our summer monsoons came & flooded stuff that didn’t burn, roads & bridges to little clusters of rental cabins washed out. About 900 homes need to be rebuilt & people are just now getting a few foundations laid.

Even though the state generally goes blue, my county is quite red. My friend & handyman, who works construction, is a 33 yr old, undocumented Mexican.

I worry about him getting deported. I msg him every couple days to make sure he’s still okay. He has 2 little boys who are American citizens.

I know it’s not very kind of me, but I hope every damned, rich Texan who had a second home up here in the cool mountains that got burned to the ground, has to wait a really, really long time to get it rebuilt. Same goes for any local who voted for that hateful fuckwad.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

This kind of work is done by undocumented all over the country. Around here, if they're not working, they wait at stores that sell building supplies for jobs or at a street corner the city has designated as a pickup point. The city checks to make sure they are getting paid fairly. We see them as hard workers. I just don't understand why there is so much prejudice against them. I don't see them taking American jobs.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

I don't think it's unkind, I think it's only fair that people who vote for this kind of draconian shit should suffer the consequences of their actions. If you have enough money to rebuild your second house that is empty until you take a holiday and you voted for mass deportation, maybe you don't deserve a second house built by migrant labor. Maybe those people need to pay union wages to white guys who will charge $200/hr one stupid brick at a time. It bears repeating, nothing is free. Capital is hugely fond of it's ability to externalize the REAL cost of their consumption, so maybe capital should suck it for reducing labor during a labor shortage and plundering GDP for others over their broken thoughts about punishing the working poor. It would be great if it was fafo for people with money and not just the immigrants, the disabled and the pleebs who get to spend their dreams cleaning up after them.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

I lived in NorCal for a decade and have family there since the 50s and I don't see how California is going to stay blue while the redev money is under GOP control (conditions?), and alt is private dev money (more GOPs), AND the labor force in construction and ag is already staying home because they're afraid of ice roundups, which apparently started in NJ. I don't think what's in front of us in terms of economic development is even somewhat like what we've seen in the past. Oh and news today is they are disabling FEMA.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

Teri is better qualified than me to speak to this. She survived the Camp fire. But I seriously doubt the Bay Area (our nine counties make up the 17th largest economy in the world) will turn red. I buy most of my food sourced in these nine counties. I'm guessing that we won't be vacationing in the mountains and our representatives won't be helping out the red counties. The big question is who runs to succeed Newsom. And I'd like to see California secede. We're big enough (4th largest economy in the world) to be our own country.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the people will be turning red anytime soon, but I can see GOP mouths foaming over 'conditions' and for all his faults, it's a good question about who comes behind Newsome. Say GOP decides this week FEMA is done and CA doesn't really get bailout money, it's like any war zone where private money and profiteering takes over. It's like what happened with Katrina, the suffering was immense if you stayed, so people were given one way bus tickets to Idaho and weren't beneficiaries of the recovery money spent there. It's super sad.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

California is not Louisiana, or any other state, for that matter. More than any other state, it can stand on its own. Since we've sent so much to the federal government, I think we should get some back, but if we don't, we don't need to be part of this country.

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Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

I believe they were sent to Houston, at least the POC were.

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SPW's avatar

Your brother must be somewhere near my hometown then rebuilding after Helene? I’m worried about future monies that should be headed to all that area now that the felon is in office. California too is likely to find itself in dire straits as well. God! Of all times to have all these yahoos in power. Not good.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

I apologize that I can't remember the name of the first town they were building in - he said only 7 of 41 residents survived. Stunningly sad. They have a Co is SC that cuts house material with lasers (400 patents, eat that Elon), they can put it on a flatbed and drive materials up, set foundation and they show local tradespeople how to construct (so there are local jobs). They developed all this after Katrina. They're going to be able to build like 2000 houses in the near term at cost with state/fed support. They don't want to make money on the tragedy, just want to prove housing can happen without delay and local communities can survive.

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Mingo's avatar

I know. I live in eastern Maricopa County. My rep Gregg Stanton has already decried this action .

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

Greg Stanton is opposing this solar project? He asks me for money.

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Mingo's avatar

No he's against the loss of funding. These are clean energy jobs.

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longtimebirdwatcher's avatar

Thank you.

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Kathleen Weber's avatar

How about a quonset hut style arc of solar panels covering the Internet. Sounds like a good use of the space. You could leave a 10 foot tall space on both sides so vehicles could get off if necessary.

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Robert Eckert's avatar

covering the *Interstate? I was trying to imagine the solar panels covering the giant system of tubes.

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arne link's avatar

That made me laugh for a moment. But Kathleen has a point. All possible roofs and covers should contain solar panels in the southland.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

They should be everywhere but the corps and gvmt here need it to be a money making industry. There was such a glut last yr of Chinese panels that people in Europe were using them for fencing and our gvmt asked the Chinese to stop overproducing because it was hurting our solar industry. Oi. I would have loved to see the gvmt but up the panels and slap them on houses all over the big cities where people will never be able to afford them FOR FREE. In the 70s everyone talked about ecology and "energy independence " (does anyone really remember Jimmy Carter?) and now nobody even considers it as a driving rationale for what we do. It's gross how far off the potato truck we've fallen.

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David A Pitock's avatar

They mostly do in az, especially Phoenix and Tucson most public schools have covered parking with solor panels quite a few business inspite of 47 and have for some time ⏲️ ⏳️

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Kathleen Weber's avatar

Just brainstorming. I was envisioning it on rural stretches rather than interchanges. Actually, it would work better on a N-S highway than an East West Highway. On an east west route, one side would be in perpetual shade and the other in perpetual sunlight.

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Robert Eckert's avatar

Putting solar panels over the canals that bring water south to LA would be even better, reducing water loss from evaporation as a side benefit.

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Kathleen Weber's avatar

Absolutely. It would also be more effective because those solar panels would be close to the ground and less subject to damage by high winds.

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P. J. Schuster's avatar

Excellent brainstorming.

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P. J. Schuster's avatar

I sincerely hope that every employee that got laid off any of those wonderful infrastructure jobs are people who voted for the anus-mouth.

I am angry & vengeful. 🤬

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Michael Guenon's avatar

He doesn’t want Biden to receive credit. He’ll insist that he will do something bigger and better and of course he won’t. Same goes for renewable energy industry which was actually generating jobs in places like AZ. He is such a small man.

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Patrick Daniels aka Cromulent1's avatar

78 year old mobbed up career criminal and Russian asset, with a drug addled mind as well Michael!!

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Sharon C Storm's avatar

He also suffers from some type of dementia.

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Patrick Daniels aka Cromulent1's avatar

A team of medical professionals concur Sharon!!

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Susan Niemann's avatar

"Americans have an enormous sense of entitlement.” You said it. These people deserve to suffer-and they will.

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Anne Whitney's avatar

Spot on. Entitlement coupled with a profound lack of accountability or sense of responsibility. It's mind numbing.

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Patrick Daniels aka Cromulent1's avatar

Exactly Susan, why is the question??

We’ve filched this country through lies and conquest, allowing ignoble poltroons, criminals and ignorance to power…huh!!

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