Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Neoliberal Priorities

The air continues to be horrible, filled with ash as well as smoke. Today the fire crew lost control of one of the nearby fires. I assume it will get worse today since the temperatures between 108 and 110.

People are being evacuated. Dormitories are being opened for the evacuees.

I had to go to the dentist about 5 miles away. Even though I wore a mask and peddled slowly, I still felt tired when I came home.

Close to 20,000 people are fighting fires in the state, and the fire season is not yet begun.

A few National Guard people have been assigned to the fires, but we know where many of the rest are.

The state faces a $15 billion deficit. No stimulus package here. The Republicans have enough votes to block any tax increases and vowed to do so.

The whole tragedy seems to be an experiment in neoliberalism: inadequate public resources to meet unexpected problems, fires here, flooding in the Midwest, inadequate regulation of everything from food to finance. We are in an election year and I have not heard one politician saying anything reasonable.

2 comments:

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Ugh.

Anonymous said...

What did you expect? The Republicans ran on a platform of Death To America. The American people voted for a platform of Death To America. Vox Populi, Vox Dei, if you'll pardon my French.