'Toontime: The Great Wall of Trump

credit: John Darkow

US Person cannot decide which is more frightening: voters believing a wall would actually succeed keeping out illegal immigrants, or that Mexico would pay for such an insultingly useless project. The very concept testifies to the extent of Trump supporters' ethnocentrism.   Perhaps this is the way the befuddled brain of the Trumpster perceives his wall folly:

credit: Wolverton
Wackydoodle axes: Can I git pupae with that?

Fortunately, Congress mustered enough spine, a precious commodity on Capitol Hill, to oppose the Trumpster.  He was forced to do another about-face on this issue, and decided to postpone the 'great wall' debate until September.  In the words of a Democratic member, "He folded like a cheap suit".  Then, on the other side of a two-headed coin, there is the Former Occupant being paid $400,000 for a 'speaking engagement', which in reality represents remuneration for heading off socialized medicine.  Classic!  At least the price of betrayal has gone up in two thousand years.

COTW: Poverty rising

Repugnants continue to claim that a growing economy raises all boats.  This chart belies that ridiculous claim.  They constantly plug for tax relief for the rich and corporate. while poverty has surpassed levels seen in the 1950's, apparently their version of a 'golden age'.  The US poverty rate is one of the highest in the developed world.  Only Chile, Mexico and Israel have higher rates.  But the Trumpist, will build a wall and that will fix their wagon, won't he? Not!  Fortunately for him, white supremacists don't read much world history.  China already did that, and it didn't work there either. Just ask the Mongols.

Antifa Makes News in Stumptown

KKK parades in Portland

US Person thinks the strangest thing about Portland, OR, the city that pridesmake the grade, it harbors far-left anarchists as well as far right neo-nazis. At the same time, it is governed by conservative business interests that foster an intensely parochial attitude among the "mainstream" citizens. In fact Portland, despite its liberal facade has a history of white supremacists in power. In the twenties the KKK was a powerful influence in Oregon, and the city's mayor was a member as well as the chief of police. Portland is the whitest city in America. (72%+)Local traditions are regularly promoted to maintain the appearance of a close-knit, harmonious, progressive community. One of Stumptown's cherished icons is the Rose Festival and Parade. Residents flock to the parade route to mark out spaces on the sidewalks from which they can view the floats and marchers days in advance. Curiously, these exclusive claims to public property are for the most part respected by other spectators in a typically odd Portland manner. This year is different, however. The 11th annual Rose Parade was suddenly canceled in an unprecedented move by the 82nd Avenue Business Association sponsor because of the threat of violent confrontations between anti-fa activists and extreme right-wing elements within the county Republican Party.
itself on being "weird", is the political dichotomy that exists here.  Home to many young people struggling to

One group, Direct Action Coalition, created a Facebook page in which it promised to shut down the parade if the Multnomah Republican Party was allowed to participate, claiming known members of neo-nazi and anti-immigrant hate groups exist within the Multnomah Republican Party which it opposes . The Party has participated in three previous parades. The antifa group said on its page, "No Portland child will see a march in support of this fascist regime go unopposed." Predictably city politicians decried the threat of violence which prompted the cancellation. But Portland antifas are not alone in their protest. In several places around the country, anti-fascists are openly and sometimes violently confronting alleged fascists.  This is a trend to watch as the Trump regime marches steadily to the right.

Scientists Find $17.2 Billion Damage to Gulf

In the first attempt to actually quantify the environmental damage done by BP'sDeepwater Horizon disaster, scientists writing in the Science journal found $17.2 billion worth of damages to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the 2010 well blowout the spewed crude into the Gulf for 87 days before it was capped. An estimated 134 million gallons of crude spoiled the waters and coastline, killing an unknown number of birds, fish and marine mammals.  The figure is slightly less than the $20 billion settlement reached between BP and government authorities and approved by the court last year.  BP was found to be grossly negligent in its operations, engaged in willful misconduct, and mostly responsible for the largest spill disaster in US history (67%).

the spill from space, credit: NASA

The damage figure was arrived at by a team of researchers retained by NOAA who randomly surveyed a large sample of American adults that took three years to complete. Based on the survey, researchers found that the average household was willing to spend $153 to insure 100% spill-free operations in the future. That figure was extrapolated to reach the final figure of $17.2 billion. Researchers considered the individual contribution size to be "eye-opening", but an accurate indication of how valuable a clean environment is to Americans.

'Toontime: MOAB-in-Chief

When US Person was a junior-high punk he had the privilege of visiting Carnaby Street in London during the "swinging sixties".  It was an exciting time, full of psychedelic art, rock music and cultural change, especially in London.  One of his vivid memories of that visit, besides the gold-and-silver brocaded Neru jacket his mother lavished on him, was viewing the Beatles' animated feature, "Yellow Submarine".   A small mystery occurred when the "blue meanies" were portrayed in the film dropping bombs on everyone.*  What were the blue meanies supposed to represent?  Of course, that visual metaphor is no longer a conundrum:

credit: Trevor Irwin

Wackydoodle sez: His bomb is bigger than Li'll Un's!

*In the words of the Washington Post: "Since World War II, the United States has engaged in an almost unbroken chain of major and minor wars in distant and poorly understood countries. Yet for a meddlesome superpower that claims the democratic high ground, it can sometimes be shockingly incurious and self-absorbed. In the case of the bombing of North Korea, its people never really became conscious of a major war crime committed in their name." The Post article goes on to say: The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops.  Blue meanies, indeed!

Conservationists Ask Giraffe Be Protected

credit: Giraffe Conservation Foundation

A coalition of five major conservation groups including NRDC and the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the US Fish & Wildlife Service for protection of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.  Giraffe numbers have plummeted in recent years due to habitat fragmentation, and human predation.  Their petition notes that a significant portion of the giraffe's decline can be attributed to the importation of body parts and trophies into the United States--a minimum of 20,000 bone carvings alone were brought into the US between 2005 and 2016.  The agency has ninety days to determine if the petition contains substantial scientific or commercial basis for granting the requested determination.   The process for listing a species is a lengthy one that allows for public discussion of the issues involved.  Of the nine subspecies of giraffe, four are decreasing in number and four are increasing, but the overall trend, should present pressures persist, is downward.  In 1985 there were an estimated 150,000 giraffes in Africa, that number is down to 97,000 currently.

COTW: A Dream Denied

It used to be that the key to a prosperous future was a college education.  Not so much these days.  This chart shows the disturbing trend in the value of a college degree in the labor market:

In 1990, no so long ago, a typical graduate incurred debt equivalent to 28.6% of his annual earnings. In 2015 that figure shot up to 74.3%. By one calculation given the trends continue at the same rate, a graduate could end up with debt in excess of of their annual wage by 2023. Seven out of ten college students pay for their education with debt and one in four of those are in default according to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.