Michael Bryan

Michael founded BlogForArizona.net as the Howard Dean presidential campaign blog for Arizona in 2003, and has been blogging ever since. The Blog is now coming up on 20 years of continuous publication, a major achievement for any political blog, which usually have the life-spans of mayflies. Michael is an attorney living in Tucson with his wife Lauren. In 2008, Michael remade BlogForArizona into a collaborative project. Michael is now but one of the contributors to the blog and provides editorial and publishing direction in consultation with the Board of Directors and the other authors. If you want to keep up with the latest Arizona and National political news in an entertaining quick hit of news and opinion, check out the BlogForArizona twitter feed, which Mike largely curates and writes. Michael is also an AAPC member who occassionally consults on political campaigns, strategy and communications.

Donkey Feed, August 25, 2018

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By Michael Bryan

Welcome to your Feed for the Weekend! Slip off your shoes and strap on the feedbag! It’s time for some Feed…

First a cool tool:

The Sunlight Foundation is compiling a comprehensive database of all of Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest. Warning: The list is huge! You can add to it if you become aware of further conflicts of interest.

Next, some graphical goodness (or actually, in this case, graphical bad news…): Are we in an “everything bubble” with  a wide range of asset classes being overvalued, including the stock market, corporate and government bonds, and real estate, due to a sustained quantitative easing and low interest rate binge at the Fed? Some say, “You bet we are.” Here’s some of the proof:

Looks a little scary, doesn’t it? Read the linked article; it only gets scarier.

Next, a great video of Democratic Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke answering a tricky and sensitive question about the NFL protests with courage and tact. This guy deserves to be in the Senate:

Finally, a few beautiful books:

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, by Jason Stanley, is in pre-order, which means I can’t read it yet, but it is a timely and critically important topic at this juncture in American politics when us versus them politics are ripping our nation apart. Drops on Sept. 4th.

Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime, by Ron Stallworth, is a true story, and now a major (and really good, I just watched it on the 23rd) motion picture by Spike Lee. It’s a hell of a story that once again has a great deal of resonance with current political events.

Now, just click on “Continue reading” and enjoy the rest of the Feed…

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I-11? NIMBY!

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Picture Rocks (a rural, unincorporated community west of Marana) was the place to be this past Tuesday night when representatives from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) came to a Citizens for Picture Rocks (C4PR) meeting to brief residents about the proposed I-11 highway. I counted about 120 people overflowing the community center and although people were mostly polite, it was obvious feelings run raw on this subject.img_2037.jpg

I-11, is a new north-south Interstate Highway envisioned to someday run from Mexico to Canada. In Arizona, the project is at the Tier 1 Environmental Impact Study (EIS) stage to identify a Selected Corridor Alternative on a 280-mile long corridor between Nogales and Wickenburg. This EIS was authorized by the State Transportation Board in December 2014 and was slated to run for three years at a cost of $15 million to determine the “preferred alternative” route.

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