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Feb 26, 2021Liked by Jared Yates Sexton

Maybe if they invested all those trillions of dollars in the people, instead of wars to slaughter brown people in the middle east, they would have the technology and knowledgeable people that COULD build those planes. But America refuses to invest in it's greatest asset, it's people. What a travesty and a sham this country is.

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I feel like we've been trying to change this my whole life (I'm 44) and it's gone almost nowhere.

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Feb 26, 2021Liked by Jared Yates Sexton

It's all so terribly devastating when your eyes are opened to the truth of how things really work in this country. It's been a cold, harsh awakening.

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A report on the $100 billion (yes, billion) in unnecessary and new nuclear weapons from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was on the front page of my local newspaper (northwest Montana) last week. It's worth reading the report in full, as it talks about the economic dependence of rural areas on these weapons--which the writer points out are outdated and don't serve national security anymore--because of where the silos are located and asks the question, "What if rural Montana could have high-quality roads without the Air Force? What if a military base weren’t the only route to a dignified living? What if the range of choices available to Americans wasn’t so narrow that building a weapon of mass destruction can come to be seen as an essential paycheck?"

There is a lot in the original essay but it's worth reading as it's excellently written and reported and details all the special interests, revolving doors, etc., that make getting rid of this expense so difficult: https://thebulletin.org/2021/02/why-is-america-getting-a-new-100-billion-nuclear-weapon/

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I'm so glad you brought this up. We have this problem in Alabama. Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville makes Patriot missiles, and they were also impacted by the NASA layoffs. "Luckily" they got a contract with Space Command recently. One of our senators, Shelby, is a great contracts hustler (despite his gross politics), but he is retiring, and our newer Republican politicians (Tuberville, Brooks) are hollow culture warriors with no concern as to how their actions affect our state economy. In fact, they'd probably be happy to run our economy into the ground so they can hand control of a large, desperate pool of cheap labor over to their corporate buddies. Thanks to federal money, Huntsville has a high standard of living, and lots of educated people have been pulled in to Alabama, which has helped moved the political attitude forward in some respects. Birmingham has also benefitted from federal money, but less so. There is a video somewhere on YouTube of Sen. Shelby grilling Elon Musk about his bid for a government contract, because he was competing with the Redstone bid, and Shelby needed to shut him out. In reality, I don't think Elon had a chance, but it was great PR; Shelby looked like a corporate goon using slimy, made-up arguments to explain why Musk's business was more unreliable and risky than the current contractor, but on the other hand, losing that contract would be devastating to the people of my state. I'm honestly worried about what is going to happen to these cities in the future. It feels like they are trapped in a cycle and will just keep making up reasons to manufacture things we don't need; our social needs are blowing right past the old system, requiring a complete overhaul, but people will be forced into keeping useless, made-up jobs to prop up the rickety economy.

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That last phrase really hits the nail on the head, doesn't it? I remember--maybe you do, too--during the George W. Bush administration or maybe early in Obama's when the Pentagon wanted to close some air bases or stop manufacturing certain fighter jets they had no use for, but those jobs were so important in certain congressional districts that they were forced to keep paying for them. I don't know which is more depressing, that we use billions of our own taxpayer dollars to pay for weaponry that the Pentagon doesn't even want because it keeps people in good jobs, or that we do it while blaring about the evils of socialism. We could pour a fraction of that money into paying people to restore riparian areas or plant trees or teach children in high-quality public schools but we don't because socialism. It makes no sense but there we are.

I have to say it's nice to meet other people who pay attention to the complex effects these issues have on their local areas! One of the things that essay I linked to talked about was the quality of jobs the missile silos had brought to Great Falls, Montana, but also the diversity. My grandmother lived in Great Falls for most of her adult life, so I know what they're talking about, and sympathize with the high standard of living dependent on these industries that you're talking about.

I also don't know what's going to happen. We only have one representative for our state, and he's definitely a "hand control of a desperate pool of cheap labor over to corporate buddies" type. It's hard to see how to build a system that actually represents humans and life, but I keep telling myself it's just going to take a lot of time and all we can do is to try to keep caring for one another throughout.

I'd kind of like to see our rep try to grill Elon Musk. I'm not a fan of either of them but it sounds like Shelby's exchange at least exposed some realities!

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I grew up not far from Oak Ridge, TN. Lots of older people would wax nostalgic about how nice the area was "back then," how cultured the people were, just because there was an influx of professionals from other states who worked at ORNL for the Manhattan Project. "We used to have our own symphony orchestra!" Of course that was also a time when the white middle class had a higher standard of living in general. It's sad that we aren't replicating that process of improving our communities' value for everyone, by building up new ideas and new industries that are healthy and more equitable and employ people in productive work. It could be done!

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It could! Something that's bothered me so long about the U.S. is how effective the messaging is that we somehow incapable of making these kinds of big changes. Like with climate change, if we cut out the whole denial issue what comes up repeatedly is that it's just too hard. With all the amazing things humanity *has* accomplished?! I'd love to see forward-thinking leadership in every state that talks about the possibility and empowerment inherent in building a better society for all. And we could have symphony orchestras too!

That sounds like a really interesting place to grow up, BTW :)

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