One Woman's Viewpoint
Merritt Hamilton Allen, whose work is published previously in the Edgewood Independent, will also provide her columns to the Grant County Beat.
The new nuclear age can't come fast enough
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 28 July 2023 28 July 2023
New Mexico is getting worldwide attention with this last weekend's box office opening of the film "Oppenheimer" which centers on Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the establishment of Los Alamos in its current role as a nuclear research hub.
(Full disclosure: I saw "Barbie" instead. I have no regrets.)
(Additional full disclosure: I am not handwringing over whether it is okay or not to see films already made in light of the current writers' and actors' strikes. I have no regrets.)
Los Alamos is also setting itself apart from other Western communities by returning to its roots, if you will. Its county-run utility is looking to the latest nuclear technology to meet its decarbonization goals for power transmission. Their utility managers have signed on to become anchor customers of the first small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to come online, joining Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), a compact to subscribe to power generated by a cluster of six SMRs in Idaho.
Surprise! Threads is a money-making enterprise
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 14 July 2023 14 July 2023
In its first week, Threads, the Meta/Instagram/Facebook alternative to Twitter, signed on more than 100 million users. It seems many of them expect Threads to be a “safe space” from the scary right-wing Elon Musk-controlled Twitter.I have terrible, terrible news for Threads account holders. Mark Zuckerberg is monetizing your data just as fast, if not faster, than Musk. With three very different platforms from which to track and mine your data, parent company Meta gets more data from more users to sell and more ad revenue than Twitter ever thought about.
Social media is not a public service. It is a massive global market bringing in hundreds of billions in revenues. The enjoyment of instant connection and the giddy potential of viral recognition come at a price – our privacy.
Here are some highlights of the data rights you are giving to Meta by using Threads:
Polarization has eroded the power of Congress
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 07 July 2023 07 July 2023
Congress has been so polarized along partisan lines for so long, voters are now accustomed to it. The devolution from rules of civility began some three decades ago when Newt Gingrich rose to the Speakership and both sides quickly jumped onboard the tribalism train.
Republicans weren't the first to try to refuse to certify a presidential election this century. In 2001, a dozen Democratic House members objected to the certification of Florida results and tried to block the counting of Florida's electoral votes. When then-Vice President Al Gore refused, they left the House chamber in protest.
In the next Congress, Democratic senators blocked President George W. Bush's federal appellate court judicial nominations no fewer than ten times. After regaining a GOP majority in 2005, new Senate Republicans were ready to invoke the "nuclear option" and eliminate the filibuster to prevent such actions in the future until the "Gang of 14" stepped in and brokered an agreement that Democrats would not filibuster judicial nominations and Republicans would not propose the nuclear option.
A Tale of Two States
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 30 June 2023 30 June 2023
New Mexico ranked at the bottom of another national data survey released this month, this time the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kids Count Child Welfare rankings. There we are, number 50. Again.
One of the most telling numbers is that one of the markers is for early childhood education. New Mexico has made no progress in the last decade for the number of three- and four-year-olds in school, with only 31% of them enrolled. That is despite the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into early childhood education at the state level.
We are great at spending money. We are terrible at accounting for it.
The airman and the President
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 16 June 2023 16 June 2023
I have held a security clearance for more than three decades. Depending on the job, it has fluctuated between Secret and Top Secret.
It never, ever has occurred to me to leave a classified document out on my desk, much less take it home. Once one is finished with the document, it is returned to the safe or destroyed. Electronic documents can only be stored on secure servers, accessed by verified personnel, and sent via secure networks.
This isn't obscure or hard-to-discern practice in the government. This is long-established policy.
2024: The Election That Changed Nothing
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 09 June 2023 09 June 2023
After the 2020 election, hopes began to rise for 2024. "Biden won't run in 2024." "The GOP can move past Trump and find a new center."
Well.
It's June 2023 and look who's running. Donald Trump leads all credible GOP primary polls by double digits and the President has announced he's seeking a second term. The joke is on the voters, played by national party committees afraid of change.
It feels like everyone decided to join the Republican primary this week, a movement that helps Trump. A large field divides the non-MAGA votes further and strengthens Trump's numbers. And there's a flavor for everyone in the GOP field.
There's Trump. There's DeSantis (Trump Without Baggage or Trump Lite). Haley (The Woman). Pence (The Vice President, or It's My Turn). Then there are the color characters: Tim Scott (The BIPOC Senator); Vivek Ramaswany (The Random Rich Guy); Asa Hutchinson/Doug Burgum (The Sane Governors); Chris Christie (The Fun Governor). There are some others, but they aren't even this interesting.
Of course, some of the candidates, especially those just fighting to get into the debates, may just be running for a shot at a vice-presidential bid or eventual Cabinet appointment. It's a very expensive and time-consuming job interview.
When neither side offers a solution (Debt Crisis Part II)
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 02 June 2023 02 June 2023
It's a week later, and Americans still have lousy options regarding the federal budget.
Oh, the debt ceiling crisis will be averted. But not after nearly five months of "extraordinary measures" taken by the Treasury to shift accounts around to forestall the default that should have happened in January. Sort of like opening another credit card account to pay off the balance of an existing balance.
Except for the Treasury, their new credit card comes with higher interest rates. Treasury bond rates are going up. That means the cost of the interest on the national debt is going up. That's a problem. At current spending rates, a quarter of the budget will be spent on interest in 30 years, in 60 years, it will be half.
The urgent reality is simple in concept but seemingly impossible to execute: spending should balance with revenues. While the Republicans want to do this by cutting spending, and Democrats by raising taxes, neither original proposal actually did enough of either to make a significant dent in the debt.
Washington kicks the can down the road again
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 28 May 2023 28 May 2023
As of this writing, the debt ceiling fight between House Republicans and the White House remains unresolved.
House Republicans have, in my view, made some rather tepid proposals to cut spending: raising the existing age for work requirements for food stamps to 55; expanding the work requirement to Medicaid and “cash welfare” eligibility; “clawing back” unused federal Covid funds from the states; spending caps that would save $4.8 trillion over the next decade.
The first two proposals, in particular, are popular with Republican voters but anathema to Democrats. The third, as drafted, is largely symbolic. None will result in a balanced budget, much less contribute to paying down our $31.46 trillion national debt.
Under the GOP plan, the debt growth will slow, but it will still grow. And it all hinges on Congress committing to adhering to the spending caps year after year. Ha!