warning .....I am going political

and not local political although on the local front it does seem that ASD (aspen school district's) head of HR has been terminated (or is on paid leave pending resolving her suit for unlawful termination).  Just a reminder this is the head of HR who pleaded guilty to crimes related to her last job and had zero relevant experience (making the typical leap from family law practice and criminal to head of HR for a district school). 

Also the superintendent's employment contract was not renewed.  A win for common sense.

Now to Trump.

But first a word from my son's debate class--one of the subjects he is debating is 'should all US mail be inspected for weapons?'  My son's research showed that in the past 20 years there have been 5 deaths due to mail born weapons (those would be anthrax in 2001).  Compare that to 48k deaths from opiate overdoses or 14.5k deaths from firearm homicides last year.  Spending money on making mail safe (or safer) is a cure in search of a problem.  And yes there were some bombs sent recently and over the past 20 years but most of those were ineffective and or stopped.  Our current systems are working pretty well keeping us safe from the mail.

Which brings us to Trump and his big beautiful wall.  Believe it or not ISIS is not bringing across thousands of trained terrorists and weapons through the southern border.  If there were, we would be seeing those terrorists on FOX news 24/7.  Much like the mail system, our current immigration system has done a very good job of keeping terrorists, gang members, and bad actors out.  Its not perfect, yes a few bad actors slip through.  Yes drugs slip through.  But the drug problem isn't coke from Colombia, its oxy from US pharma.  If ISIS or gang members do slip through, they don't need to worry about bringing weapons with them, they can find all the weapons they need on the US side of the border.  Trump wants $5 billion to start building the wall or he will shut down the government.  Figure maybe $15-20 billion to build the wall in total, another $2-3 to man and maintain the wall per year.  And while millions seem like rounding numbers lets not forget the $200 million or so to send the Army to the border as an election stunt.  All this spending from the party that solves every problem by cutting taxes, and then bitches about the deficit. 

To my GOP friends:

1.  You support a party that wanted an unfunded procyclical tax cut that is blowing up the deficit (and then you are surprised that interest rates go up)
2.  Your party is anti free trade
3.  You support a president whose foreign policy is to play kissy face with Russia and N Korea and MBS
4.  You seem to accept that the president is above the law

What has happened to the GOP?

tomorrow I promise no politics