Perfectly forming what Johnny-Warball-McCain used to call an, ‘Iron-triangle of influence & corruption’
And McCain damn sure knew influence, corruption and their handmaiden, incompetence, pretty well. Moreover, as he would tell you, the form of a triangle is a very strong & stable one in nature, let alone in the world of local governance and influence.
So here’s my analogy to McCain’s ‘Iron Triangle’ metaphor when it comes to observing Tucson since 1982.
Triangle Point #1: the University of Arizona: basically where it all originates, and is funded by a gullible AZ public, and witless, trusting legislators who’ve foolishly subcontracted their legal oversight for this multi-billion $$$ yearly operation to the Arizona Board of Regents. And thus giving the bloated UA bureaucracy & faculty, a sinecure of “Shared Governance” since 1992, in a spectacular, statutory lapse of judgment (ARS § 15-1601B). This hideout for the Hard-Left really got rolling when a certain Hungarian crypto-communist, UA Political Science Professor got himself elected Mayor of Tucson just as the Cold War was ending. I’ve written numerous op-ed pieces on various aspects of UA’s continued influence in Tucson over the last 5+ years; you can find them all listed at this single op-ed, done August 2024. UA is now facing 2 giant challenges; a disappearing and highly skeptical, college-age demographic, and the existential competition from el cheapo, quick AI-based learning. Their bloated, nonperforming, overpaid corpulence won’t endure what’s coming.
Triangle Point #2: the Center for Bio-Diversity (CBD): Headquartered in Tucson since its 1989 founding, this highly disruptive organization has metamorphosed into a Neo-Druid, environmentalist cult; a giant legalistic shakedown and poverty-creation machine (with an $$$ 8-figure annual budget), that’s just 1 Nazi-Thule Society conceptual leap, from being the human-extinguishing handmaiden of the AI robots in Terminator. All under the rubric of protecting the environment from anything human. Tucson’s current feckless Mayor, the Diva “Triple-R” (Regina Romero Regime), is a CBD alumnus. What does that tell ‘ya? CBD has been a safehaven for legions of Tucson’s anti-growth, anti-human, Hard-Lefties since the get-go. They’ve gone national with their massive scheme out of Tucson, as evidenced by this giant list of their staff operatives. And since it’s a “Non-Profit” NGO, they have an absolute cornucopia of tax angles to shelter income and personal wealth.
Triangle Point #3: the Arizona Daily [RED] Star Newspaper (ADS): I’ve written so much about this awful rag I’m sick of it; but they know their audience, that’s for sure. The ADS is the ultimate post Cold War propaganda platform, so adroitly redesigned by that former Tucson Mayor Tamás Ján. It runs ‘aircover’ for #1 & #2 above, in between obvious gaslighting of the local “booboisie” (per HL Mencken). From its constant sports news fillers (on UA, of course), to the absolute looney-tune, geezer op-ed submissions, the RedStar is a gaslighting propaganda machine, eliciting admiration from Havana to Beijing. Having fully weaponized UA liberal arts kids, it had to turn its attention to the city’s Geezers (Trump was a godsend here), due to the sheer demographic disaster I long warned about. Yet one call to their Iowa HQ and/or stock analysts, from big local advertisers, like Jim Click and others, would have sent the RedStar’s Zombie half-parent, LEE Enterprises, into bankruptcy #3 long ago, and that inevitable B-Court “chop shop”. It’s a mystery to many Tucson conservatives why that has not yet happened; but their demise is still on the way, baked into a failing operating model.
Am writing this synopsis in the fervent hope someone with a future dynamic vision for Tucson emerges and decides to slay these 3 dragons before they can do further damage…. at least to Arizona taxpayers, parents, school kids, business people, farmers, ranchers, miners ….those who haven’t got the water UA could have found as the state land-grant university, or were stopped by CBD acolytes in the use of their own assets. John McCain’s original analysis was correct; he loved war, and surely understood how such schemes & struggles get fought successfully for so long.
Sellers is a Southpark, Roosevelt-Republican (TR) living in incorporated Oro Valley; his background is federal technology commercialization.
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