The country’s priorities are now clear.
We’ve added ice and border patrol agents, including MacArthur Park in LA on Monday morning, revitalizing the troops and invading American neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, even as extreme weather events become more common, we are removing medical researchers and weather forecasters.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won over 12 National Journalism Awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.
Based on the priorities of President Trump’s budget, tax and policy bills approved last week, I believe immigration is the biggest threat to our health and safety.
it’s not.
But billions have been added for border and ice agents, but billions have been cut further from healthcare, climate and weather-related resources.
On Monday morning, I got off at a power show at MacArthur Park in an armored vehicle with a federal agent on horseback. Children playing in the park were led to safer ground, Mayor Karen Bass said at a press conference.
“Frankly, it’s ridiculous and not American to have a federal armed vehicle in the park when nothing is happening in the park,” Buss said.
“It’s a political agenda of causing fear and fear,” she said.
The event “seemed to be a staging of a Tiktok video,” said City Council President Markie Harris Dawson.
MacArthur Park has a substantial, undocumented immigrant population and there are many major issues to tackle, including homelessness, widespread drug trafficking, and gang activities. One day, the park area was unavailable for families. The first responders unfolded with overdose calls, the addicts took over the alleys and the merchants struggled to keep them open amidst all the mayhem.
In December, people sit on the corner of Alvarado Street and Wilshire Boulevard, an area known for illegal drug use in the Westlake neighborhood.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
As we discovered in months on the ground last year, local officials waited too long and moved slowly in response to the long-term crisis.
But the stupid military parade wouldn’t help, unless they were actually chasing an undocumented drug lord, but there was no immediate evidence of that.
If the federal government wants to help, LA can use more support for housing, drug blocking and treatment. It could use a more stable and fair economy that has not been undermined by tariff uncertainty and the provocation of the president’s trading partners.
As we know in California, countless industries rely on undocumented workers. It’s an open secret, and for decades not only across the Golden State but also across the nation, Washington has failed to put together a wise immigration reform package for many years.
Congress approached last fall, but do we need to remind you of what happened?
That’s right. Trump threatened Lucky GOP Rep. and ordered the spineless Ninny to attract their support.
Every time you see a helicopter in LA, and as we know, they’re like the mosquitoes out there.
My colleague, Rachel Ulanga, recently reported that “ICE has not released data on the criminal history of detainees.” However, private data from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, showed that “9 out of 10 people were never convicted of violent or property crimes, with 30% having no criminal history. The most common crimes are immigration and traffic crimes.”
There is nothing to guarantee the fear of the neighborhood or community. There is no guarantee of armed, unknown identities and agencies roaming the streets and armed masked agents of agencies arresting workers at car washes, home depots, restaurants.
Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on Monday.
(Carlin Steel/Los Angeles Times)
It’s almost as frightening as some other realistic and existential threats:
Anti-Vax Crackpot is responsible for the country’s medical and medical research system.
Trump’s big Bonehead bill calls for a $18 billion cut for the National Institutes of Health.
Several of the leading researchers in medicine and science have left the country in a trend that could lead to a catastrophic brain drain.
The other day I received an email from the Social Security Bureau. I thought it was a joke at first – a satirical view of the rise of an authoritarian regime.
But it was real, as was the cuts from the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Meteorologists say extreme weather events like storms that have led to a surge in rivers in Texas’ Hill Country over holiday weekends, making it more common.
Florida had a record number of 11 hurricanes in 2024, of which $1.1 billion in damages.
Wildfires destroyed thousands of Southern California homes last year, making them increasingly common all over the world.
Mediterranean sea temperatures have destroyed records for June, with scientists warning of the disastrous effects on ocean life and food chains.
The crisis is exaggerated to the president and his minions.
That’s fake news.
And the federal government cannot be distracted from its core mission.
I’m young this week and don’t know which LA neighborhood will be invaded next.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
Source link
