MLK Day Links

Interesting stories from the last week:

Don’t Worry, MLB — Hitters Are Killing The Shift On Their Own – FiveThirtyEight

Government shutdown puts ranchers in a bind – Rapid City Journal

What Life Is Like When Corn Is Off the Table – The Atlantic (h/t Kaye)

Is Trump Trying To Politicize Agricultural Data? Some Former USDA Officials Suspect Yes. – FiveThirtyEight

Quinoa Whiskey? Modified Crop List Spurs Distilleries To Try Alternative Grains - The Salt

On Prohibition's 100th anniversary, Supreme Court tackles state liquor laws - USA Today
How the Klan Fueled Prohibition – New York Times

In Rural America, There Are Few People Left to Drive the Ambulances - The New Yorker

A Farmer Found a Trojan Horse Inside an Insurance Contract.  Now He Might Bring Down the Canadian Insurance Industry. - Institutional Investor.  Bwahahahahaha

Welcome to Tax Breaklandia - Bloomberg.  This is going to blow a large hole in the U.S. Treasury.

Europe’s Most Important River Is Running Dry – Bloomberg

Farms, More Productive Than Ever, Are Poisoning Drinking Water in Rural America – Wall Street Journal

CovCath, Twitter, the Trump Presidency and a Nation Unhinged

Saturday afternoon and evening, I got sucked into the apparently fake controversy in which a kid in a MAGA hat appears to be standing in the path of a Native American protester from the Indigenous Peoples march, while his classmates surround them laughing and jeering.  I watched the video, and my initial reaction was, "man, these MAGA folks are assholes."  Then I saw this video from another angle.

My reaction to the second video perspective was a little different.  It hit a little closer to home.  First off, seeing the guy in the Covington Catholic  sweatshirt made me realize these kids were from the local area, and also Catholic.  Secondly, I saw a kid in the background wearing a Notre Dame cap.  That is my alma mater.  Finally, assuming these kids were ultra-conservative Trump supporters spouting racist crap about foreigners (build that Wall), I felt like I was looking at myself in high school.

I tried to write a post late Saturday night entitled, "In Partial Defense of the Worst Kid In America."  The gist of it was going to be that, I, like that kid, was once a super-conservative supporter of the GOP who held some pretty racist beliefs, so there is the real possibility that the kid will grow up to hold totally different views as an adult.  That pretty well describes my arc from high school kid who listened to WLW around the clock and believed the United States was being taken over by the Japanese, to an adult who finds conservative politics to be generally racist arguments that Democrats and minorities are moochers, and that social welfare programs should be slashed so that tax cuts can be given to the wealthy.  I gave up on it because it was late, I was tired and half-drunk, and I wasn't sure how in-depth I wanted to be about a few of the things I'm most ashamed of from my youth.

Come Sunday, when additional video came out, and it now appears that the supposed showdown was staged by the handful of Native American protesters, I ended up feeling bad that I was quick to assume the kids were being assholes, and that the furor raised by the Twitter mob could end up benefiting Trump's bid for re-election.  It is a pretty good example of how easily we can be swayed to believe the worst in our fellow citizens who happen to be in the opposite political camp, and how we can dramatically overreact. Even on Saturday afternoon and evening, when I assumed the kids were being assholes, I felt bad for the school administrators who were caught up in this political firestorm.  They were suddenly being overwhelmed with terrible publicity and national media attention because a group of kids were involved in a public incident, and the school was being overwhelmed with vitriol.  The administrators had to try to get out in front of the news even though they didn't really have any idea what had happened.  After the additional footage came out, the case for feeling bad for the administrators and students is overwhelming. 

I am absolutely no fan of President Trump, and I hope he suffers a landslide defeat in two years.  I equate MAGA hats with racism.  When I saw stories that the additional video showed the kids to be innocent and the Native American protester sparked the incident, I didn't want to believe it.  And yet, at the height of the Twitter freakout, when I thought the kids were the assholes in the situation, I was feeling badly for the school administrators and could look at the kid in the center of the incident and empathize with him.  If I was feeling that then, you can imagine how Trump supporters will see all of this.  It is a massive own-goal for everyone who wants to see Trump defeated. 

Yesterday was the second anniversary of Trump's inauguration.  We have two more years of this pressure-cooker political environment which will be played out in a brutal election campaign.  The events of this weekend will most likely not be the most divisive we'll see.  It is going to be miserable, and I'm afraid the wounds to our civil society are going to be even deeper than I believed before.  Everyone, myself included, needs to take a deep breath and try to back down the rhetoric. 

Mid-January Links

Interesting stories from the last week or two:

Mike Trout is the God of WAR - FiveThirtyEight. Video. 

Female Ranchers Are Reclaiming the American West – New York Times 

Court Strikes Down Iowa's 'Ag-Gag' Law That Blocked Undercover Investigations - NPR

Meet The Granary Weevil, The Pantry Monster Of Our Own Creation - The Salt (via my old boss)

Fire, Floods and Famine: The Pessimist's Guide to 2019 - Bloomberg.  Even I hope this is too far-fetched.

Small Weasel-Like Animals Are Taking Down Big Cats – National Geographic  

Norway Embarks On Its Most Ambitious Transport Project Yet – NPR.  Floating bridges and tunnels?  I'll let somebody else design those.

This GIF shows how far the 100th Meridian has shifted since 1980 – Grist

This is how Canada’s housing correction begins – McLean’s     

Meet The Woman Turning The Payday Loan Industry On Its Head – Forbes.   Trying to work up a low-interest payday loan replacement was one of my not-for-profit goals.

The French Burglar Who Pulled Off His Generation’s Biggest Art Heist – The New Yorker

Taleb the Philosopher – First Things

The Grand Illusion – Lapham’s Quarterly

After the Storm – The Baffler

Learn about the Iowa district that re-elects Steve King year after year - Des Moines Register

Here's an update of what was called last year as "One of the most important charts about the economy this century.” Price Changes of selected consumer goods and services over the last ~20 years. It made the rounds at the Fed last year. @ritholtz @slangwise @AEI @MichaelRStrain pic.twitter.com/pt8UEJSIL5

— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) January 11, 2019

Deep Tunnel, Deep Trouble?

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credit: Lisa Larson-Walker

Slate has a nice piece which takes a look at the Chicago Deep Tunnel sewer project (formerly the TARP), and the challenges it faces keeping up with the greater intensity rains which appear to be a part of climate change.  The project scale is massive:

Altogether, 109 miles of subway-size tunnel lie beneath Chicago and its suburbs, covering more miles than the L, culminating in three suburban reservoirs (not the kind you drink from)...

Fitzpatrick drives me to McCook Reservoir, the mammoth holding pen, opened in late 2017, for the tunnels that run beneath the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers. We stand on the edge of a pit that can hold 3.5 billion gallons of wastewater, enough to fill the Empire State Building and then some. It doesn’t smell terrible, thanks to floating aerators and because the pool has dwindled to 30 feet deep—Friday’s leftovers from a half-inch of rain on Tuesday. At the far end we can see the circular tunnel mouth leading downtown. The city’s wastewater netherworld has its own Chicago-centric measurement system. Lake Michigan is elevation 0. The pumping-station control room, on a little hillock, is +25, or 25 feet above the lake. The roaring motors that empty McCook after the rain sit at -297, 30 stories below ground.

Behind us, the second section of McCook—which will more than double the holding capacity of the Mainstream Tunnel—is being excavated by gigantic mining trucks. Vulcan Materials, the country’s largest vendor of crushed rock, is digging millions of cubic yards of limestone out of the ground.

The gist of the project is that many of Chicago's sewers handle both sewage and stormwater.  When the city would get almost any rain, the sewers would be overwhelmed, basements would be flooded with sewage, and untreated waste would be dumped in the rivers.  So the city came up with this crazy project to build giant tunnels a couple hundred feet underground to divert the excess flow to giant reservoirs to hold it until it could be pumped through the treatment plant, where it would be treated and released. Obviously, the cost of such a program is astronomical.  On top of the cost, the changing climate has been a game-changer:

“The large and costly deep tunnel-reservoir system in Chicago is not adequate” to handle 50-year storms, Changnon wrote of the impacts from a September 2008 storm that caused the evacuation of more than 10,000 homes in the region. The Chicago Tribune reported that in the four years after the tunnels were completed in 2006, the MWRD released nearly 19 billion gallons of stormwater into Lake Michigan compared to 12 billion gallons in the preceding 22 years. Similarly, there have been 24 incidents of sewer overflow in the lake since the first tunnel came online in 1985, compared to about 21 in the previous 40 years. Then, in February 2018, after McCook had opened, tripling the capacity of the main tunnel, a big rainstorm filled the new 3.5 billion-gallon reservoir and sent another 3.8 billion gallons of sewage into local waterways....By the time I visited in November, McCook Reservoir had filled to capacity five separate times. Chicago’s multibillion-dollar anti-flooding system is already struggling to keep up with the region’s larger and more frequent storms.

As the article notes, the change in storm intensity over the 50-year construction timeframe exceeded the designers' imaginations. The scary part is that the combined sewers were also a result of lack of foresight by their designers.  They were glad at that time to get the sewage out of the gutters and away from the city.  Later, they had to re-engineer the Chicago River so that the sewage wouldn't foul the water intakes and cause disease outbreaks.  Then, development caused massive flooding because the sewers weren't able to handle the increases in runoff from all of the pavement laid over the formerly pervious soil.  Now that they have designed a system to handle the overflows, climate change is causing more intense rainstorms with longer durations.  None of our storm infrastructure is built for it.  I've been out of the civil field for almost 10 years, so I'm not even sure if the powers-that-be have even tried to grapple with what our design standards should be under the new climate regime.  That should terrify people.  It sure does me.

End of Year Links and New Year's Resolutions

2018 was a pretty bad year, both for this blog and for the world.  2019 might be better, but I have my doubts.  Here are a bunch of links I've saved from the last part of the year:

My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley – NPR Only A Game.  This is a great read.

#CardCorner: 1958 Topps Wally Post - National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Local legend from St. Henry, Ohio.

Nebraska vs. Oklahoma State in an old-school battle in South Dakota? How did that happen? - Omaha World-Herald.  Here because of the gym.

The game of their lives was 25 years ago. They’re still replaying it in their minds. - Washington Post

How Christmas evolved from raucous carnival to domestic holiday - The Economist  

A Storm and a Strike Hit Blueberry Giant's Global Supply Plans – Bloomberg

TREADING WATER | Unfocused and underfunded, goal of cleaner water falters – Cedar Rapids Gazette

Uncertain fate awaits quirky Rochester landmark – Minnesota Public Radio

40 million Americans depend on the Colorado River. It’s drying up. - Grist

As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony” - Texas Tribune

Oklahoma’s Future Rests in the Hands of Two Very Different Oil Billionaires - Bloomberg

Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell – Wired 

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI – Wired

Bizarre ‘dark fluid’ with negative mass could dominate the universe – what my research suggests – The Conversation 

Indiana's 'broken arrow' — that time 5 nuclear bombs got caught fire – Indianapolis Star.  How we survived the Cold War I will never know.

Austin Rising - Louisville Courier-Journal.  A series on Austin, Indiana, where an HIV outbreak in 2015 linked to IV drug use shocked the Midwest.

Losing the Farm - Belt Magazine 

The Corruption of the Republican Party – George Packer

The Plot Against America – The Atlantic.  Paul Manafort

A college kid running for 13th Ward alderman gets a lesson in the Chicago Way – Chicago Tribune

The godfather of fake news – BBC

King of the Low Road – The Weekly Standard

These charts show how Democrats represent the growing modern economy – and how Republicans are left behind - CNBC 

Finally, for the resolutions.  One, I'm going to have to start exercising.  I am not looking forward to that.  Two, I'm going to have to take on a lot of maintenance projects this year.  Finally, I'm going to try to get back into regular blogging, with at least two posts a week.  We'll see how that goes.

The Day After

Wow.  I had gone into the election thinking that voters nationwide would have seen through Trump's lies and bigotry.  People in cities and suburbs did, but folks in rural areas just want to drink from the fire hose (with Steve King, how bigoted does one have to be to lose?).  In that respect, Trump was vindicated, so we can expect more of the same in the next two years.  In Ohio, Republicans cruised.  No incumbents in the state legislature lost.  Based on the Kansas and Wisconsin examples, the Republican party has to completely drive the state into the ground before they lose a statewide election.  I personally was hoping to avoid that, but I think that is what will happen.  For example, our next State Representative, like much of the rest of the legislature, wants to roll back Medicaid expansion.  The only reason the state expanded Medicaid was because John Kasich did it by executive action.  Now we have to depend on Mike DeWine and the health care lobby to keep it in place.  If it were to be rolled back, rural areas and the people who live there will suffer, and some places may lose hospitals.  I am sure we will get more useless tax cuts which strip resources from rural areas and put greater burdens on local populations, and more talk about rolling back regulations.  I doubt that much on the regulatory front will actually happen, but I expect you won't see DeWine pushing to deal with algae blooms in Grand Lake St. Mary's or Lake Erie, either.  Overall, rural areas will continue to decline, and they will continue to work to drag the rest of the country down with them. 

Election Day Live Blog

6:03 AM:  Off to the polling place.  I'm making sure my ballot gets cast.  Don't worry, I won't be casting a single one for the Republican Party cult.

5:33 PM:  Just got home from work and feeding the cows.  Cracked a Troegs Scratch Series #342 Fest Lager.  It is pretty damn good.  I've got some work to do yet starting the grill and wood stove and feeding the calves.  I should be settled in around 6.  That's when the polls close in parts of Kentucky and Indiana (which are practically the same state).

6:01 PM:  Fire is taking off and the grill is warming up.  Polls are closed in most of Indiana.  As is always the case, I don't expect anything good to come out of Indiana.  Hopefully Joe Donnelly can eke out a win, but I am personally chalking the seat up as a loss to the GOP. Maybe I will be surprised.

6:18 PM:  Just heard an interview on NPR with a FreeDumb caucus member who was repeating Jim Jordan's talking points about doing what they promise, even if it is miserably stupid.  About the time I was wondering who it was, they said it was my useless Congressman, Warren Davidson. Fuck me.

6:44 PM:  The first two stories on Marketplace tonight were about Foxconn and Amazon HQ2.  One thing I would like to see come to an end are subsidy giveaways to multinational corporations.  Maybe a Scott Walker loss will make politicians think twice about making outrageously foolish deals.  Then again, lots of suckers think Donald Trump is some kind of expert negotiator.  Maybe they ought to read about his negotiating prowess for The Art of the Deal.

6:53 PM:  I wonder what the race will be the first one that news organizations call?  Maybe Vermont governor (a Republican)?

6:59 PM: Just started on a  Sam '76 out of the Sam Adams Winter Classics variety pack.

7:00 PM:  CNN called Bernie and Tim Kaine as winners.  How many times will we be told we are waiting on results from Lake County, Indiana (home of Gary)?  Interesting side note, Crown Point is the county seat of Lake County.

7:05 PM:  While we wait for results to come in, I emphasize enough how important it is that we see some results that indicate Trump's ridiculous minority and refugee scapegoating doesn't work.  I'm afraid we'll see a Senate result which will cause him to double down on the crazy for the next two years.  I'm not sure I could get through that with my sanity.

7:09 PM:  Polls in Ohio close in about 20 minutes.   Because of radical gerrymandering, we only have one (OH-12) or two (OH-1, which is doubtful) potential seat changes, barring a serious wave.  The statewide races should be very interesting, though.  I'm almost optimistic there.

7:15 PM:  Election night distraction.  Wes Goubeaux, I know you are looking forward to picking up some Reds 1939 merchandise:

1939 Home. #RedsThreads pic.twitter.com/MZfaV1Ou7F

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 5, 2018

7:21 PM: Also, this:

The Reds proudly commemorate the 150th anniversary of professional baseball in Cincinnati during the 2019 season. pic.twitter.com/PO2JX4NU7G

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 5, 2018

Good video

7:26 PM: No matter who wins, it may be a tough slog economically between today and the 2020 election

Word to the wise. We have endured two 10% corrections in the same year for all three major averages. This has only happened in 1973, 1974, 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008. All but 1987 signalled recession, but that wasn't a pretty picture either.

— David Rosenberg (@EconguyRosie) November 6, 2018

7:30 PM: Polls are closed in Ohio.

7:33 PM:  I would expect the race is called for the Ohio 80th House district.  Even though she really didn't campaign after the primary, I'm sure Jena Powell will win.  That is unfortunate, because she is a truly useless right-wing nut.  Her opponent, DJ Byrnes put together a couple of nice ads, but this district is ridiculously skewed to right-wing nutters.

7:39 PM:  Kent State vs. Buffalo is on ESPNU.

7:44 PM:  I can't believe college basketball is already here.

7:52 PM:  My county's results came in.  Powell beat Byrnes 68%-32%, while only repeating tripe about lowering taxes and cutting regulations that strangle business.  I hate how big of suckers rural voters are.

7:57 PM:  My county is so right-wing.  Jim Renacci won 57% of the vote even though his campaign was a joke.  

8:00 PM:   Luckily, the rest of the state appears to have elected Sherrod Brown.  Overall, Democrats seem to be doing well so far, nationally.

8:10 PM:  I still can't believe how big the rural/urban divide is.  Why do rural voters buy into the Republican bullshit about taxes when wealthier folks in cities and suburbs don't?

8:14 PM:  I would like to see a Democratic sweep of Governors' races in the Midwest.  It might be doable.

8:18 PM:  When I was signing the election register, I saw my sister's name listed as an active voter, even though she's been out of the state for almost 20 years.  She hadn't voted today.  I tried checking the Ohio Secretary of State's listing of registered voters.  I was there, but she wasn't.  All I could figure was that she was one of the voters who got purged in recent years for not voting, but maybe her name was restored because the ACLU won a suit against the Secretary of State for removing voters from the rolls.  Either that or my county is just incompetent, which is also likely.

8:24 PM:  Indiana is looking bad for Donnelly, and thus, for the United States.  Geez, I can't stand Hoosiers or Donald Trump.

8:34 PM:  Why do rural voters, who claim they don't like how their local economies are going, keep voting for Republicans who never, ever give them any help?  I just don't get it.

8:35 PM:  Well, I don't get it if I don't take into account bigotry.

8:36 PM:  I see the billionaire challenger in Illinois beat the nearly billionaire incumbent.  Unfortunately, Illinois residents will get four more years of dysfunction.  On the plus side, Rahner will probably be one of the few recent former governors of Illinois not to go to prison.

8:40 PM: Goddamn Florida.

8:42 PM:  If Democrats aren't working tomorrow to register voters for 2020, they are insane.  Donald Trump and his idiot base must lose.

8:44 PM:  In good news, felons may have voting rights restored in Florida.

8:48 PM:  Indiana is a shithole.  Braun and Pence win.

8:52 PM:  Things are not looking good for Democrats right now.

8:57 PM:  Going to have to speed up the beer consumption.

9:03 PM:  I still struggle so much with the idea that rural areas keep electing politicians who have no interest in helping out their constituents.  It is just like the Brexit abortion.  Rural voters are committing economic suicide electing conservatives.

9:11 PM:  Trump is going to be off the hook for the foreseeable future.  The United States is going to be screwed.

9:13 PM:  This is insane.  Who are all of these GOP voters, and why do they hate rationality?

9:17 PM:  County-by-county results do not show Ohio suburbs breaking for Democrats.

9:23 PM:  Donald Trump campaigned with an insane freakout about the caravan, and mountains of lies.  Why on earth do people support him?  Are they as big of assholes as he is?

9:29 PM:  CNN is currently building up Beto O'Rourke.  I dread watching his lead slip away, too, as it is one of the few bright spots on the map right now.

9:36 PM:  So far it looks like Republican voters in Ohio didn't find out who the GOP was pushing for state Supreme Court.  One bright spot for Democrats so far.

9:43 PM:  If Democrats don't find those 1.6 million felons in Florida and get them registered to vote, they do not deserve to be called a political party.

9:52 PM:  I understand why Ted Cruz is so unpopular, but how in the fuck can anybody like Donald Trump?

10:00 PM:  It looks like urban and suburban voters are going to carry Democrats across the line to gain control of the House, which is a very good thing.  However, rural results are so depressing that I'm chalking 2018 up as a loss.  Rural areas are going to suffer miserably in the future.

10:02 PM:  I see Kris Kobach is projected to lose.  Thank God.

10:04 PM:  Dem candidate wins Michigan, but Scott Walker is leading.  WTF is wrong with Wisconsin?

10:09 PM:  Warning to Ohio: Kansas has discovered how fucked up Republican governance is.  Are we going to have to follow them clear to the bottom before we get some goddamn sense?

10:18 PM: Ted Cruz wins.  Today sucks.

10:31 PM:  How in the fuck is Mike DeWine winning?  His campaign was godawful.

10:40 PM:  The rural/urban split keeps getting worse, and rural voters keep getting more and more wrong.  Brexit 2.0.

10:41 PM:  Republican plus third party vote is 55-45 in Ohio.  What the hell is going on?

10:59 PM:
Truth, and dominating in rural areas, but getting crushed outside of them.

Republicans aren’t running on taxes anymore. They’re running on bigotry. https://t.co/vXLXhm8ZOq pic.twitter.com/QmvC7hhLSC

— Slate (@Slate) November 7, 2018 

11:02 PM:  Ohio really feels like Indiana tonight.

11:26 PM:  Right now, all I've got is the hope that Scott Walker loses.

11:29 PM: 

That's what he says about all of his bankrupt enterprises https://t.co/BS7FzikZkl

— Daniel Larison (@DanielLarison) November 7, 2018 

 I needed that laugh.

11:35 PM:  Oh, I also forgot about the possibility Steve King might lose.

12:01AM:  There are a lot of things going on tonight.  Somehow, Republicans swept all of the statewide executive offices.  Oddly, I didn't really see any campaign ads for state Supreme Court justices, and they lost both seats (it appears).  That is one tiny bright spot in a very depressing bunch of electoral result in Ohio.  Regionally, Indiana is horrible as always.  Michigan looks pretty good, as does Minnesota.  Iowa could go either way, but it looks to remain with a Republican governor, but they lost at least one Congressional seat.  If Scott Walker loses, I'll be smiling.  Nationally, our Constitutional dysfunction gets worse.  We have a popular vote loser sitting in the White House, while a minority of the population holds the Senate.  It also appears the Democrats crushed Republicans nationally in the House.  This will allow the Republicans to continue to stack the courts with lifetime appointments, giving them a generation of control of the only branch of government that can prevent Executive overreach.  Additionally, the rural/urban split worsened.  Nothing good will come of this.  I dread our political (and economic) future.

12:08 AM:  Also, racism won where it normally wins.  That saddens me.

12:12 AM:  Why in the fuck is that useless sack of shit Rick Santorum on CNN?

12:20 AM:  Would Rick Santorum please shut the fuck up? 

12:27 AM:  How does a complete dumbass like Rick Santorum dominate the debate on CNN?  Every other person at that table is smarter than him and has more useful stuff to say.  This is a perfect example of what is wrong with our political discourse.  I'm going over to Twitter and drinking until I have to go to sleep.

Election Eve Links

Tomorrow is the big day.  It is the chance, after two long years, to give Donald Trump, and the Republican Party which foisted him on us, a giant fuck you.  I'll be going in first thing in the morning to cast my straight-ticket Democratic ballot.  It might make a difference for U.S. Senator and the statewide positions, but it will be meaningless for Congress and State House and Senate.  But it will be cathartic.  It is already raining, so after work tomorrow, I'll get the animals fed, make supper, then crack my first beer and turn on the TV and start blogging the election results.  Please tune in, and feel free to comment.  In the time between now and then, here are a few stories for you to enjoy:

The Southernization of the Midwest - Benjamin Studabaker.  I've resisted GOP efforts to turn Ohio into Alabama for a long time.

Wisconsin's $4.1 Billion Foxconn Boondoggle - The Verge

Rural America’s Own Private Flint: Polluted Water Too Dangerous to Drink - New York Times

Trump the Revealer - The Big Picture.  Excellent post by Ritholtz.

The President's Lies - The Atlantic   

Something's Happening in Texas - The Atlantic 

Can the Republic Strike Back? - Andrew Sullivan

Vote against all Republicans.  Every single one. - Max Boot!?

What the 2018 Campaign Looks Like in Your Hometown - Bloomberg

Monsoon V, and sucking at blogging

First, a video:


Monsoon V (4K) from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.


I realize I've really been sucking at the blogging. For this, I blame Trump. Sure, harvest has been taking up a decent amount of time, and we are still screwing around trying to get done. We've had some breakdowns, some elevator closings over the last couple of weekends, and a little bit of inclement weather, but we've got about 4-5 days left, and I'm not going to get too stressed out about that considering it's Halloween (this is probably a few run-on sentences, but I'd like to see it diagrammed nonetheless). Yes, the forecast does look like shit, but we are a lot better off than last fall. Mainly, it is that the dysfunction of the Trump presidency (I still cringe typing that phrase) is constantly in the news, but everywhere I turn there are people who not only don't think the Donald is a complete fuckup, they actually think he's doing a good job. While alone, I constantly think that Trump supporters are stupid or evil, and then I remember that they are my neighbors whom I otherwise respect.  The festering anger is challenging to handle.  Anyway, I'll give you a little warning-I'll be live/drunk blogging/tweeting the election next Tuesday if we aren't shelling corn that day.  The current forecast indicates I'll be drunkenly ranting come midnight Tuesday/Wednesday.

Man-Killing Jobs

Late July Links

I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to the blog, but I've got quite a few rapidly aging links I need to use, so here you go:

Family spat leads to two town ball teams in little Milroy, Minn. - Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  I sure would have loved to have town ball around western Ohio when I was young.

The Family Ownership Dramas That Roil the NFL - Sports Illustrated.  As far as I saw, no mention of the Brown family, who beat the IRS.

How the Braves came to Buffalo – and why they left - Buffalo News.  This is a couple of years old, but has a lot of interesting historical deal about college basketball in Buffalo and the NBA as a minor professional league.

Lake surfers say polluted waves are making them sick—but they love it too much to stop – Chicago Reader

Sinking land, poisoned water: the dark side of California's mega farms- The Guardian

I Was Wrong About the Rural–Urban Divide - YES! Magazine.  It was previously noted on the blog that diary farmers were more likely to skew Democratic than other farmers in Wisconsin.

We Have No Idea How Bad the US Tick Problem Is – Wired  

Catastrophic drought threatens Iraq as major dams in surrounding countries cut off water to its great rivers – The Independent  

The Entire History of Steel – Popular Mechanics 

An ICE Raid Leaves an Iowa Town Divided Along Faith Lines – New York Times.  Evangelical Trumpians vs. Christians.

American History for Truthdiggers: Whose Revolution? (1775-1783) – Truthdig 

The fallacy of obviousness – Aeon 

How to get away with financial fraud  - The Guardian

As churches close, a way of life fades – Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  The declines in baptisms are horrific.

Start of July Links

I'm generally not the most optimistic person out there, but last week pretty much squeezed any hope for the future out of me, as far as politics goes.  Maybe this is the turning point where it becomes obvious how wrong I am to be negative, but I'd wager it isn't.  Anyway, I did find some interesting, if not necessarily positive stories for your reading pleasure:

A-Rod, Ken Griffey Jr. and the Greatest Home Run-Hitting Team in MLB History - Bleacher Report

What Makes a Team Great? - The Atlantic 

Weeds Are Winning in the War against Herbicide Resistance – Scientific American  

As Carbon Dioxide Levels Rise, Major Crops Are Losing Nutrients – The Salt

Do We Treat Our Soil Like Dirt? - National Geographic.  Betteridge's Law violation.


These tiny little bugs are a harbinger of wetland health -- and they're disappearing - Minnesota Public Radio

How to Steal 50 Million Bees – Bloomberg  

The Tragic Roots of America’s Favorite Cherry – Atlas Obscura.  Sorry, Mel, it is about Bing cherries, not Rainier cherries.

Rising seas: 'Florida is about to be wiped off the map' – The Guardian.  I'm not sure that is a net loss.

The Grandfather of Alt-Science - FiveThirtyEight.  Hoo boy!

Bavaria: Affluent, Picturesque — and Angry - New York Times.  They call it the Texas of Germany, but I'd rather try my luck in Bavaria than the Lone Star State.

Anger in America – Project Syndicate.  This makes some very important points.

After the Fall -  London Review of Books.  Another reminder of why people are angry.

One County Thrives. The Next One Over Struggles. Economists Take Note. - The Upshot

A Cleveland Revival Must Include Manufacturing – American Conservative.  I like the Cleveland focus, but I think the author has way too much faith in Trump and his tariffs.  Paying more for steel is going to drive out even more non-primary material manufacturing.  Just ask Harley.  They may be the first, but they surely won't be the last.

Best advice to U.S. dairy farmers? 'Sell out as fast as you can' - NBC News.  It is notable that the U.S. dairy farmers interviewed were envious of the Canadian supply management system that tries to maintain a large number of small dairies.  The chart below shows that the U.S. has gone the other way.

A Letter to Congress

A Letter to Congress from Christopher Newman on Vimeo.

Mid-May Late Week Links

More good reads for you:

Gov. John Kasich wants to crack down on phosphorus runoff that feeds Lake Erie algal blooms – Cleveland Plain Dealer.  This isn't going to magically go away.

Warming Planet Could Mean Bigger Corn Crops for American Farmers – Bloomberg.  Just what we need-more corn.

California is turning farms into carbon-sucking factories – Grist.  Farmers might be in for fighting climate change if it means more sweet, sweet government handouts.

Warming Waters Push Fish To Cooler Climes, Out Of Some Fishermen's Reach – The Salt

NASA Satellites Reveal Major Shifts in Global Freshwater – NASA.gov

Louisiana Wants To Use The Muddy Mississippi To Build Up Its Coast – NPR

The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy - The Atlantic. 

The Untold Story of Robert Mueller's Time in Combat - Wired.  Who would you rather your children turn out like: Robert Mueller or Donald Trump?  If you said Trump, I sure hope you don't have kids.

Sulfur Dioxide Damages Lungs, and Scott Pruitt Is Letting More of It in Our Air – Mother Jones  It is ridiculous that existing plants sometimes never have had to meet most environmental regulations.

Too Big To Fine, Too Small To Fight Back – Texas Observer.  Sometimes it seems when Republicans are in charge they really work to make government the enemy.

Which Poor People Shouldn’t Have to Work for Aid? – The Upshot.  I'll give you one guess.  More on Michigan's plan for letting rural poor folks stay on Medicaid without meeting work requirements. 

‘Blue Wave’ Has Been a Trickle Outside Largest Cities - The Daily Yonder.  Yes, rural areas are responsible for Trump.

Trump vs. “The Deep State” – The New Yorker.  More like Trump vs. competent governance.

A Wildfire Likely Spawned a Severe Thunderstorm in Texas – DAMWeather

Derby Day Links

More stories squeezed around planting, fixing the planter and working at the town job:

 Eating Dirt on Kentucky Derby Day - Bloomberg

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code - Bloomberg

These Stories Of Horse Racing Gamblers Will Get You Psyched For The Kentucky Derby - Bloomberg.  It's a podcast, but as you can see, Bloomberg is all-in on the Derby.

Local Dallas Sportscaster Goes Viral For His 'Unplugged' Commentary - All Things Considered.  The part about his racist dad saying the one black family he knows is good and different from all the blacks he doesn't know is pure Midwestern bigotry.  I don't know if I could count how many times I've heard that. Sometimes it includes a statement that that black person or family agrees with that person about other blacks.

The innovation turning desert sand into farmland - BBC

Minnesota experiment upends notions about how plants will offset rising CO2 - Minn Post

On The Hunt For The Elusive Morel Mushroom In Ohio's Appalachian Country  - The Salt

Here's why Michigan Medicaid work requirements will kill people - Detroit Free Press.  Exemptions for rural counties, but not for poor urban areas.  That's the Republican party for you.

How Criminals Steal $37 Billion a Year from America’s Elderly - Bloomberg.  I would like to know what countries' GDP are smaller than the total economic activity generated in the US by crime and fraud.  I would guess it is the size of a medium-sized developed nation

Paul Ryan Just Got Trounced By a Priest - Charles Pierce and Ryan reverses, will keep House chaplain in place - Politico.  As if I needed to add anti-Catholic bigotry to my reasons to hate the GOP.  I did enjoy that more than one political commentator said that the moral of the story is that you don't fuck with a Jesuit (or The Society-God bless Catholic culture).

A Pruitt Aide's Attack on Zinke Angers the White House - The Atlantic.  So the cabinet secretary I hate the most had an underling try to undermine the cabinet secretary I hate the second-most.  That seems about like what I'd expect from the Trump administration.  Even they can understand who the assholes are.

This Map Shows Every State's Biggest Export - How Much (via Ritholtz).  Not too hard to figure out where Poet is based.

On Farming

It was about 9:15 this evening when it really hit me.  We had just finished planting the corn on our first farm, and I was walking from the north field back to my truck about a quarter mile away.  It was approaching the end of the gloaming, and in the general stillness the slightest wisp of breeze would kick up a tiny chill.  It would pass, and then I would feel the warmth of the soil radiating the stored solar energy of a beautiful May Day. That happened four or five times as I made that 5 minute walk. It was a good day.

It didn't start that way.  If you talked to me as late as 2:30, I would have had a tale of woe and frustration that stretched days as we'd managed to get 10 acres planted while neighbors seeded hundreds.  I was trying to repair yesterday's breakdown, and had just discovered that the part I ordered and that dad picked up this morning was the wrong one, and wouldn't work on our machine.  At that point, I was looking for a quick fix and dad, while expressing that immediate retirement was looking pretty attractive, said that we had waited this long, we might as well wait a couple more hours while he went to get the right part and do it right.

"Good enough never is."  That is the sales slogan at my town job, which also happens to be our family business.  It is a potent motto, but from this jaded engineer and farmer's perspective, good enough is good enough.  Dad left to get the part, and I went to work on my quick fix.  From my perspective, we could do the proper fix tomorrow when it was forecast to rain (although that may get pushed back to Thursday [and dad is right, we need to fix it correctly when we can, which I will try to do in the early morning]).  Within a half-hour we were up and running, and with minor slowdowns, were able to complete what we could reasonably expect to get done in what was left of the day. 

That is what I love about grain farming.  When you decide to try something that might not be ideal, you don't have to answer to anyone except family and maybe the banker.  Also, unlike almost every other job, there is a definite start and finish to crop production.  Sure, we are barely a sixteenth of the way to completing our seeding labor, but we got most of that done in less than seven hours from our lowest point at 2:30 to that moment where I felt the last remnants of the sun's work escaping to the atmosphere in the beautiful transition from day to night.  Few other jobs blend that physical feeling of accomplishment with the opportunity to experience nature in all its wonder and beauty.  I got to feel the warmth of the May sun, watch that sun set, and watch the moon rise.  And I got to feel the subtle shift of our work from frustration to success.

As I type this, this good day passes into the next one.  I am looking at an early start to a day that may bring rain, will definitely bring a careful balance of labor between the town job and the one that is done more for love than money, and may bring more frustration. But I am looking forward to another feeling of accomplishment as this new day fades into the next one. 

Last of April Mid-Week Links

More stories for you:

The Mobster Who Bought His Son a Hockey Team – The Atlantic.  This is as good as it sounds.

ESPN Fawns Over The Intelligence Of Trevor Bauer, Who Is A Big Dumb Asshole - Deadspin.  I really have no opinion about Trevor Bauer, but this made me laugh, and the twitter exchange is amazing.

Yangxiang aims high with sows on many floors – Pig Progress.  I have no idea if this is true, but if it is, it sounds like a horror show.

Remembering the ‘Spooky Wisdom’ of Our Agrarian Past – The American Conservative.  I still don't think the phase of the moon has anything to do with setting fence posts.

Bosch Says It's Made a Breakthrough That Can Save Diesel Engines – Bloomberg

The Key to Everything - New York Review of Books

The Renegade Sheriffs – The New Yorker

Church of the Donald – Politico and Maybe It’s Time to Admit That The “Grotesque Caricature” of White Evangelicals is the Reality - Religion Dispatches.  These bother me more than most things Donald. 

Why Trump Gets Away With Lying – Bloomberg.  This makes an important point.  I have a hard time talking about Trump without saying, "dumbfuck" or "suckers," but that isn't going to sway any of his supporters, and probably will just make them dig in their heels deeper.  That's a challenging situation that requires more of me (and is one of the reasons I haven't written much about Trump).

Mick Mulvaney Says the Quiet Part Out Loud – The Atlantic.  Yeah, draining the swamp.  

The Reinvention of America – James Fallows.  He's more optimistic than I am, but that is a good thing (honestly, it is often hard to be more pessimistic than me).

This animal kills more people in a day than sharks do in a century – Gatesnotes.  Trump is far from alone when it comes to freaking out about sharks.

Chart of the Day - Earth Day Edition

We are screwed:

A reminder for #EarthDay that our planet’s temperature is rising pic.twitter.com/68ktAHUYjI

— Ed Hawkins (@ed_hawkins) April 22, 2018

Late April Weekend Links

More stories for your perusal:

The Man Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong – The Atlantic  

Iowa's minor league baseball teams team up to help repair the vandalized Field of Dreams infield - Des Moines Register

Local Courts Lift Arkansas Weedkiller Ban, Creating Chaos - The Salt.  Chaos seems to be standard for agriculture right now...

Exclusive: U.S. sorghum armada U-turns at sea after China tariffs - Reuters

The Maraschino Mogul’s Secret Life – The New Yorker 

OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong - The Verge

Canary in the Coal Pond - Propublica
 
Engineers Are Leaving Trump’s America for the Canadian Dream – Bloomberg.  MAGA is effectively MAWA.  No greatness about it.

Palantir Knows Everything About You – Bloomberg

Ranked: The Best and Worst State Economies - Visual Capitalist.  If there is a correlation between tax rate and ranking, it appears to be a positive correlation.

Traditional Tax Day Links

Here are the latest stories for you:

James Harden Isn't Playing Around – GQ 

As dairy crisis crushes farmers, Wisconsin's rural identity in jeopardy - Dairy farmers have been getting pummeled.  I feel awful for them.

Republican Farm Bill Calls On Many SNAP Recipients To Work Or Go To School - The Salt.  Subsidies for me, but not for thee. 

Texas is making billions from oil and gas drilling, but counties say rural roads are being destroyed - Texas Tribune

Be Good or Be Gone: The Legend of McSorley’s Old Ale House - Modern Drunkard.  I've never been to McSorley's.  I will need to go the next time I'm in New York.

How a Defense of Christianity Revolutionized Brain Science - Nautilus  

Does Tech Need Silicon Valley? - California Sunday Magazine  

Two Decades of War Have Eroded the Morale of America’s Troops – The Atlantic.  This is a must-read.  My position has always been that the best way to honor our troops is to not send them to be maimed or killed in pointless, unwinnable wars.

A Saudi Prince’s Quest to Remake the Middle East - The New Yorker.  The man's PR just isn't good enough to cover for what he's really up to.

Michael Cohen and the End Stage of the Trump Presidency - The New Yorker.  I don't know, almost 46% of the voters in 2016 voted for the obviously crooked businessman, I'm not sure why even more evidence that he's a crook is going to convince them they've been conned. 

Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes — “Trump, Inc.” Podcast – ProPublica.  See above for why voters won't change their opinions on this asshole. 

Is It the Spending or the Taxes? Mostly the Spending, But ... – Justin Fox.  In honor of Paul Ryan's (aka Bizarro Robin Hood) retirement from robbing from the poor to give to the rich.

Amid Trade Feud, Recycling Is in Danger of Landing on Trash Pile – Wall Street Journal  

Where Blue-Collar America Is Strongest - FiveThirtyEight.  This map reflects the best farm economy in a generation.  We've seen the peak, and it is going to be worse going forward.