Border Wall Hostile to Wildlife

Border Wall Blocks Jaguar Migration
The jaguar, among the big cats, considered to be by zookeepers,  the most "unreliable" and "untamable," will be blocked from migrating from Mexico if the Trump border wall is built. 'Transborder connectivity' is an important component of  jaguar recovery, and a future border wall would slice across five of the six critical habitat areas of the jaguar. "There is no recovery without connectitivity. By cleaving the landscape in two, the border wall would violate a core axiom of wildlife conservation and foreclose any future for the American jaguar. Separation is how an animal goes extinct -- first its population gets fragmented,  then it winks out."  "Today, most of the 60,000 or so wild jaguars in the world live in the tropics but the animal's range once included what today is the United States. Biologists say that the jaguar likely roamed a territory that stretched from Los Angeles to New Orleans." (See Jason Mark, "Migrants," Sierra, September/October 2017).

The jaguar would not be the only animal whose migration patterns would be threatened by a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The Coronado National Forest, which encompasses most of Arizona's Sky Islands, is a bioclimversity hot spot and contains more threatened or endangered species than any other national forest.

Republicans Slipping in Polls
Pollster Tony Fabrizio has found that President Trump's favorable rating among Republicans has slipped from 78 percent to 71 percent now. Speaker Ryan's favorable rating has dripped from 56 percent to 52 percent and Majority Leader McConnell's  rating is at 27 percent favorable to 44 percent unfavorable.

Among Republicans, 18 percent blamed Trump for the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, and 82 percent blamed the GOP lawmakers.

Republicans Are a Polling Outlier
The most recent Public Policy Polling firm poll has found that 45 percent of those who voted for Trump said they would prefer Jefferson Davis over Barack Obama as president. To the question of what racial group suffers the most discrimination in America, 45 percent of Trump voters said white people; 17 percent said Native Americans; 16 percent said African Americans; and 5 percent said Latinos. And what religious groups suffer the most discrimination? Trump voters said: 54 percent Christians; 22 percent  Muslims; and 12 percent  Jews.

ADDENDUMS:
*Department of Justice attorneys have filed a legal brief in federal court arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect workers from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.

*The Department of Labor is trying to reverse the Obama rule to extend overtime pay to nearly 5 million people.

*President Trump's proposed cuts of 6 percent to the National Weather Service budget and 16 percent to the budget of its parent agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),  could bring strong criticism in the wake of the damage being done by Hurricane Harvey.

*A Pew Research Center poll shows 35 percent support building the border wall and 62 percent oppose.