the attitude with Arnie Arnesen the Friday edition noon to 1pm EST Aug 29

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Arnie Arnesen

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Aug 28, 2025, 6:22:19 PMAug 28
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The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts:musk houston tunnels what could go wrong

China decouples from US energy as key exports crash to zero

producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon&7pm EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
podcasts available at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/attitude-with-arnie-arnesen/id1634055179
 opening thoughts:
a texas story that just dropped at propublica

A Texas Congressman Is Quietly Helping Elon Musk Pitch a $760M Plan to Build Tunnels Under Houston to Ease Flooding

The devastating flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed dozens of people, inundated hundreds of thousands of homes and left the community desperate for a solution.

Since then, local flood experts have extensively studied the possibility of a multibillion-dollar tunnel system across Harris County, where Houston is located. Studies have focused on the construction of pipelines, 30 to 40 feet in diameter, that could ferry massive amounts of water out to the Gulf in the event of a storm.

Now, after years of research and discussion, Elon Musk wants a piece of the project.

An investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle has found that the billionaire, in partnership with Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt, has spent months aggressively pushing state and local officials to hire Musk’s Boring Co. to build two narrower, 12-foot tunnels around one major watershed. That could be a potentially cheaper, but, at least one expert said, less effective solution to the region’s historic flooding woes.

Hunt’s team has said the Boring project would cost $760 million and involve the company getting 15% of the cost up front from state and local coffers.

Within two months of this push, the Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to study a pilot program that included a look at smaller tunnels, with specifications similar to what Boring had pitched. The commissioners court, made up of five elected members including a county judge, oversees the county’s budget.

Both Musk and Hunt stand to benefit should Boring be selected to build any part of the project. Hunt is reportedly considering a challenge to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in next year’s Republican Senate primary. And landing a job like this would also be a significant win for Boring, which has not completed a major public project in Texas and faces criticisms for its ventures elsewhere.

The discussions about the Boring pitch have happened mostly out of the public eye. Hunt mentioned the project in passing at a town hall in Houston in February. Since then, he has refused to answer the newsrooms’ questions about when Musk sold him on the idea and why he became its pitchman.

Efforts to reach Musk and representatives with Boring were not returned.

Experts and some local officials question whether Musk and his company are the right pick for the job. The Boring Co. has focused on transportation tunnels, not flood mitigation.

part one: A big win in Iowa special election...it is a story the country should replicate
Laura Belin is the publisher, editor, and primary reporter for Bleeding Heartland, a community website focused on Iowa politics. She is also the Statehouse reporter for KHOI Radio in Ames and co-host of the station's "Capitol Week" program, as well as a member of the Iowa Writers' Collaborative. 
 Zachary Oren Smith and Laura interview Catelin Drey today:

Here's my preview from this past weekend:

Democrats flip Iowa state Senate seat, breaking GOP supermajority https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5471284-drey-victory-breaks-gop-majority/


part two: 
Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.  
Tim Noah is a New Republic staff writer and author of The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It.

topics: 
Trump says “most people” would “rather have a dictator” in the Oval Office The president maintained that he was "not a dictator" while arguing he had "the right to do anything" he wanted https://www.salon.com/2025/08/26/trump-says-most-people-would-rather-have-a-dictator-in-the-oval-office/

Meet Your New Fed Chair: Donald TrumpWe knew the president would end the central bank’s independence, and for all intents and purposes, now he has. https://newrepublic.com/article/199633/trump-lisa-cook-fire-federal-reserve

The Trump Recession Is ComingThe president’s assault on the independence of the Federal Reserve is only the latest of several reckless economic actions that have put the country on the brink of economic disaster. https://newrepublic.com/article/199657/trump-recession-coming

Trump Is Governing a Lot Like a Country He Despises He’s testing whether the world’s most important central bank belongs to the U.S.—or to him. https://slate.com/business/2025/08/trump-lisa-cook-federal-reserve-firing.html

Democratic Party Scraps Resolutions on Israel and Gaza After Fraught DebateThe measures were almost entirely symbolic, yet laid bare the broader fault lines dividing and shaping the party nearly two years after the war began. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/us/politics/dnc-israel-gaza-war-resolution.html


A Looming National Security Crisis of Incoherent ContradictionsThe Self-Inflicted Hole in America's Biosecurity


jobs and the return of manufacturing...not so much:
Few commentators have pointed out that to the extent that manufacturing comes back to the US, it won’t generate many jobs because the production will be highly automated:

Trump’s War on Wind Power Is a War on His Working-Class Voters The president’s cancelation of wind farms and other attacks on renewable energy are hiking Americans’ energy bills and destroying blue-collar jobs. “This isn’t what they voted for,” said one union head. https://newrepublic.com/article/199707/trump-war-wind-power-war-working-class-voters

Why The White House Thinks Ford Mustangs Can Help Solve ICE’s Recruitment Crisis nugget: The Federal Government’s Latest Recruitment Pitch Comes With A V8 The U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE, has a pretty compelling staffing shortage. The remedy? Muscle cars. The Trump administration has bought a couple of 2025 Ford Mustang GT Fastbacks as recruitment tools, complete with gold ICE logos and ‘Defend the Homeland’ graphics to up their visual appeal. 

How a Historic Immigration Drop Is Changing the Job Market 


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