A doodle in celebration of my first day post-retirement:

Big difference between the islands and much of the mainland: We don’t have an economy outside of tourism.
The military is the next big chunk here, but it’s not rushing to fill the gap. Much of the military economy here is skilled labor (technicians, specialists), with very few opportunities for out-of-work restaurant servers and hotel staff.
Our politicians are too much in the pockets of the tourist industry, in my opinion. That’s why we get a smattering of affordable housing with a larding of luxury high rises aimed at rich corporations and non-residents.
I think this would have been a good opportunity to balance things better. Tourism is an addictive drug; for decades it has been easy money, crowding out investment in anything else. Why risk investing in healthcare, green infrastructure, manufacturing, IT or even high-end farming (gourmet coffee or chocolate), when you could build or renovate a Waikiki hotel and start making millions right off the bat?
Public transport will now be free in Luxembourg
But, of course, the only purpose for anything in the United States is to make more profits for the already-wealthy.
“So-called charity, with its implicit assumptions of high and low, is no remedy to injustice, but its willing accomplice. Charity allows the privileged the opportunity to buy the silence of their consciences for a few coins (with the added bonus of much to-do being made of their philanthropy)–rather than wrestle with why, in a world of plenty, they wallow in pampered luxury through no particular virtue of their own, while most of the world is in rags, starving, and living in shacks. Jesus advised the rich man to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. The numerous charities operating under his name ever since have set a significantly lower standard.”
Peter Kropotkin, narrater in “The Watch” by Dennis Danvers
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190404135433.htm
And Trump and his rich Republican buddies seem to think that poverty is so great they want to destroy the social safety net and middle class so even more people can enjoy poverty!
#vote #no #Republicans
And the rail looms
a Frankenstein lurking
over everything yanking
feet from under us wanking
its way along dumping
wasted lumps into an
apocalyptic
revelation
sea.
The beast arises.
And the rail ends.
© 2017 David W. Jones
P.S. And happy birthday to Dancing Treefrog blog!
Zuckerberg’s Russian handlers have him firmly under control.
…but charity has not.
Those pseudo-Christians whose budgets cut support for the poor are the followers of pagan Rome, not Christ.