Thursday, February 23, 2017

Prosperity in Mexico is in our best interest

Prosperity in Mexico is important to America, so I am worried about souring relations between the US and Mexico; our third largest trading partner.

When the president of Japan came to USA to meet with Trump, a Japanese automaker cancelled plans to build a factory in Mexico. If Mexico becomes more impoverished and unstable, the US will suffer. In spite of border walls, we live in an interconnected world.

We, in US, preach a gospel of prosperity that people's around the world emulate. This can become problematic if obstacles are thrown in the way of prosperity that other nations, such as Mexico, seek to develop. International instability results.

Maybe there are too many cars in the world, but future cars can run on green energy. Sustainable prosperity, in Mexico, is in our interest for political stability in our neighborhood. It would not be in our interest if Mexico were to become a failed state on our border. Even a wall wouldn't stop folks from coming in via the oceans, such as people fleeing Syria on the seas.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Dakota Access Pipeline may be inevitable in spite of nodapl efforts

Lots of protesting in Bellingham last Saturday, February 11. A protest in support of Planned Parenthood. Another protest, I guess unrelated, against the North Dakota Access Pipeline (Standing Rock). That protest blocked the freeway for a bit.

As for the pipeline, I hate to say it, but seems like it's construction could be inevitable. Especially if it's true that they only have the last 1000 feet to build plus the political situation, in Washington DC, weighing in. If they have to build it, too bad they wouldn't reroute that last part farther away from the Native Lands. The native people have had lots of stuff pushed down their throats over the centuries.

Even though that one symbolic battle has the whole nation talking; like big protests here in Bellingham, it still may be hard to win in the short run. Hope people don't burnout because of this one battle. In the long run, looking at the big picture, we should be switching away from fossil fuels. Then it wouldn't make sense to build fossil fuel infrastructure. In the short run, fossil fuel politics, economics and habits are hard to beat.

Saturday's protest, in Bellingham, blocked the freeway for about 1 hour. Since then, there has been lots of discussion about whether that protest was the right thing to do, or not. I haven't yet jumped into that fray of debate. As usual, there are plenty of folks discussing that. I just listened, at least, to a real good discussion of that topic and more on a new and local radio show. The February 15 episode of Cascadia News Now. Podcasts available. Show is produced by KMRE Radio, the station at the Spark Museum in Bellingham (formerly known as American Museum of Radio and Electricity).