The United States has turned inside itself. We are focused: on Donald Trump, on the border, on the Democrats running for President. And the Trump Administration continues to re-focus Americans internally. Yesterday they issued two new policies.
Species Endangered
The Trump Administration wants to revise the Endangered Species Act to factor in an “economic cost” in saving endangered species. Put simply, they want to allow consideration of the value of the lumber that could be logged out of a forest, over the survival of a species in that forest, such as the “Northern Spotted Owl.” This economic analysis is specifically prohibited in the original law passed by Congress. They thought that the fact that a particular species was endangered and could become extinct was a “beyond price” kind of problem. Bald eagles, grizzly bears, timber wolves, and many other species exist today because of the law.
The current Secretary of Interior, David Bernhardt, did legal work for a variety of businesses prior to coming to the Department. Familiar names like: Halliburton, Cobalt International Energy, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America were his clients. All of these groups were looking for oil wherever they could find it. Pesky endangered species got in the way of drilling.
Who Gets to Enter
The Trump Administration also announced that they would revise immigration regulations to require legal immigrants to be financially self-sufficient. Immigrants applying for “green cards,” the symbol of permanent legal immigration status; would have to have “private” insurance, a good “FICO Score,” and a bank account.
That might seem reasonable, except that’s not what legal immigration has been about for literally the entire history of the United States. Almost everyone has his or her own “immigration story.” Here is mine.
An American Tale
Isaac Dahlman came from the border area between France and Germany called Alsace. He arrived at New York in 1869, before the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, and went to join relatives already in Cincinnati. He married Clara Dreyfoos, became a “rag” dealer, and had four sons. One of those sons, Ben, became the sports editor for the Cincinnati newspaper, the Post. His son, Donald, became a successful broadcast executive, developing a popular national talk show. That was my Dad.
Many Americans have that literal “rags to riches” story to tell. Isaac didn’t have private insurance, or a FICO score, or a bankroll when he came to America. Neither did any of the millions who arrived with him, including Frederick Trump, who emigrated from Germany sixteen years after my great-grandfather. He started as a barber, and then joined in the gold rush of the 1890’s by running restaurants and brothels for the miners in the state of Washington.
He ultimately ended up as a hotel manager in Queens, New York, where he began to acquire property. His son, Fred continued buying up property, and set up his son, Donald, in the field. The rest is history.
This is America’s story. But the Trump Administration decided that we don’t want “those” kind of people, probably because today’s immigrants are coming from Central America and India not Germany or France. The Trump view of the traditional American dream is not just in black and white, it’s in white only.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane
So we worry about the borders, and we worry about the next attack on the American Dream from the Trump Administration. And while we worry about all of that, we better worry about what happened in the world this week as well.
There was an explosion at a military base on the White Sea in far northeast Russia. At first, it was described as a failure on a “test platform” with several casualties. But then radiation levels in a city twenty miles away went up 200%. It now looks like the Russian’s were testing their vaunted “nuclear powered” cruise missile, what they call the “Burevestnik” but NATO has named the “Skyfall” (thank goodness.) This test failed, and at least five were killed.
The “Skyfall” cruise missile, if it worked, is a “game changer” in the nuclear missile field. It uses a small nuclear reactor to superheat air, and then propels it out of the tail of a missile. This “scramjet” engine could produce speeds of up to 20000 miles per hour, and could remain in flight for – wait for it – months.
Extinction Isn’t Just for Animals
The combination of speed, flight time, and a traditional cruise missile profile of near-ground flight; makes it near impossible to defend against. Up until last week, these kinds of missiles were banned by treaty, the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF.) But the Trump Administration let negotiations collapse, and a nuclear weapons race seems ready to takeoff.
Yes, this test failed. The five scientists killed have been buried with full honors, “Heroes of Mother Russia.” But while we are focused on our internal problems, we better look out.
It isn’t just the Northern Spotted Owl that is threatened by the Trump Administration.
