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.

Mid-June Links, Part II

More stories for you, as I avoid working in the heat:

This ex-Detroit football player is vowing to become a nun - Detroit Free Press

Ashes of an industry: A Pennsylvania tradition is dying, one baseball bat at a time - Philadelphia Inquirer

No more cathode ray tubes from China, says Trump Administration - Asia Times

Philadelphia Shipyard Struggles to Survive on Order Drought - Wall Street Journal.  Calling Donald Trump....

Billions in U.S. solar projects shelved after Trump panel tariff - Reuters.  I guess if your goal is to bail out coal, this is a win.  If your goal is to have a sane energy policy, this is idiotic.

When North Dakota Farmers Blew up Partisan Politics - Zocalo Public Square.  Nonpartisan League.  I knew North Dakota has a State Bank.  I didn't realize they have an elevator and flour mill.

The Failed State of Franklin - ThoughtCo

The bishop and the brothels – Wellcome Collection

Farm Bill Targets Food Stamps -- But Not Handouts to Well-Off Farmers – Governing.  For Republicans, that is a feature, not a bug.

Lone Star Rising - Fortune.  Fracking in the Permian Basin.  The avoidance of Peak Oil means we will probably drill until the climate is completely wrecked.  It might be a good think I don't have kids.

T. Boone Pickens on Selling the Ranch - Texas Monthly

The preventable tragedy of D’ashon Morris – Dallas Morning News.  Think of this when you hear Republicans say they are pro-life.

How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People - The Cut

These Harvard Kids Got The Lesson of Their Lives in the Heartland - New York Post.  A noble effort, but I don't know how much can be gleaned by these junkets.

The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar – New York Times.  The line between genius and madness is often blurry.

America’s Largest Private Company Reboots a 153-Year-Old Strategy – Bloomberg

The Kansas Experiment

And it failed. Whodathunkit?

4/4 Mainly Ag Links

I've had some time at work to find links, so I've got some more today:

GMO Yeast Mimics Flavors Of Hops, But Will Craft Brewers Bite? – The Salt 

A Novel Virus Killed 24,000 Piglets In China. Where Did It Come From? – Goats and Soda 

Lawsuit Targeting Smelly Hog Feces Pits in North Carolina Moving Forward – Modern Farmer  

When the Death of a Family Farm Leads to Suicide – NYT

What this Silicon Valley VC learned on the ‘Rust Belt Safari’ – Recode

Scott Walker Dismayed That Wisconsin Apparently Smarter Despite Cuts in Education – Borowitz Report.  A little humor for you.

The Whitewashing of King’s Assassination - The Atlantic  


The Dynamite Cruiser Was Nearly as Dangerous to Her Crew as She Was to the Enemy – War Is Boring 

Turning Poultry Poop and Scrap Wood Into Electricity - Bloomberg

Trump and His Tariffs - Counterpunch 

Trump Tariffs Stick It to U.S. Manufacturers  - Bloomberg and Midwest Farmers Have Trump to Thank for Their Latest Export Woes – Bloomberg.  I'm getting the feeling that Bloomberg thinks the tariffs are stupid policy. 

Locations of U.S. Elevators

Pi Day Mini-Links

I hope you had a great Pi Day.  I figured I would throw a few links up, especially since the first one involves a high seed that might not be in the tournament very long:

The Nun in Loyola-Chicago’s Huddle Has a Few Things to Say – New York Times 

Why No. 1 Virginia’s Plodding Pace Makes It Ripe for an Upset – Wall Street Journal

The EU Is Going After the U.S. Cranberry Industry – Bloomberg.  Targeting Paul Ryan's home state.

The Number of Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Mexico Is Down Again – Modern Farmer. For what it's worth, I've been avoiding the milkweed when mowing waterways and scrubland.  I've noticed more Monarchs the last couple years than I saw in previous years.

When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home - The New Yorker 

Stephen Hawking Is Still Underrated – The Atlantic  

Pi Day 2018: the math of pi explained, as simply as possible - Vox

Trump's mining giveaway – Politico.  There is no better example of the ineptitude and corruption of Congress than the fact that a law as shitty as the General Mining Act of 1872 is still the law of the land after 146 years.

Canadian Amateurs Discovered a New Type of Aurora.  It’s named Steve. - The Atlantic  

Early March Links

Here are a few of my favorite stories from the last week or so:

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found. - FiveThirtyEight

Sweet Redemption As Men's Curling Team Brings Olympic Gold Home To Duluth - NPR

Schuyler, Nebraska, school officials call state intervention a 'scarlet letter'- Omaha World-Herald.  The state declared the school was low-performing because of changing demographics.  Translation: the town has a meatpacking plant so the school-age population is is over 85% immigrant.

California Fruit Will ‘Die on the Vine’ After ICE Raids, Labor Warns - Bloomberg.  Stupid.

Harvard Blew $1 Billion in Bet on Tomatoes, Sugar, and Eucalyptus - Bloomberg

Jerry and Marge Go Large - Highline (h/t my former boss).  Good story about a screwy lottery game that got gamed.

The Rise Of Yeast: How Civilization Was Shaped By Sugar Fungi - The Salt

Impact of warming seas felt by northeastern fisheries - Toledo Blade

Some of the World's Biggest Lakes Are Drying Up. Here's Why. - National Geographic

The Slow-Motion Catastrophe Threatening 350-Year-Old Farms - The Atlantic 

The Man Who Bottled Evolution - MSU Today

How Trump’s Hudson Tunnel Feud Threatens the National Economy - Bloomberg

The Radical Left-Wing Theory That the Government Has Unlimited Money - Vice.  Well, not so radical.  It is Modern Monetary Theory.

Who Was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? - Portside

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie - The Atlantic 

WH quietly issues report to Congress showing benefits of regulations - The Hill

Trump steel tariffs to hit these 8 countries the hardest — and China isn’t one of them - MarketWatch.  Actually, they will probably hit the U.S. the hardest.

End of February Links

Here are some stories from the last few days that caught my eye:

Canadian Grief: Curling and Hockey Losses Are “Terrible, Terrible, Terrible” – WSJ and The Worst Tickets at the Winter Olympics – WSJ

The Doomsday L Train Shutdown Just Might Save NYC - Wired
 
Like Lemons? Quinoa? Thank This Food Explorer For Bringing Them To Your Plate – The Salt

Refiner goes belly-up after big payouts to Carlyle Group - Reuters.  Ted Cruz is blaming the Renewable Fuel Standard and RINs.  I'm guessing Carlyle bled them more than the RFS.

Rainfall's natural variation hides climate change signal – Phys.org

Worst Roommate Ever - New York Magazine 

A Well-Regulated Militia - Part 0 - Advice Unasked.  A good explanation of the most poorly understood part of the Second Amendment.  I think this will have to figure in any assault rifle ban that may come about.

 'This is not normal': Glitches mar new tax law - Politico.  Democrats will have to help these idiots fix these fuckups.

The Frat House of Representatives – Politico

Here are two bonus medical history stories I was talking about this weekend.  I think I've posted each at one time or another, but they are both fascinating.   How Moldy Hay And Sick Cows Led To A Lifesaving Drug - All Things Considered, and The 'Man Who Touched His Own Heart' Changed Medicine - All Things Considered.

35 Minerals Absolutely Critical to U.S. Security - Visual Capitalist

Sabotaging U.S.D.A.

Michael Lewis covers the Trump Administration's (and overall GOP's) hostile takeover of the federal government by focusing on the Cabinet Department that has the largest impact on the rural voters who foisted these clowns on the rest of the country.  One of the main points of the article is that most people don't have any idea what U.S.D.A. does:

One day in his new job he was handed the budget for the Department of Agriculture. “I was like, Oh yeah, the U.S.D.A.—they give money to farmers to grow stuff.” For the first time he looked closely at what this arm of the United States government actually does. Its very name is seriously misleading—most of what it does has little to do with agriculture. It runs 193 million acres of national forest and grasslands, for instance. It is charged with inspecting almost all the animals people eat, including the nine billion birds a year. Buried inside it is a massive science program; a bank with $220 billion in assets; plus a large fleet of aircraft for firefighting. It monitors catfish farms. It maintains a shooting range inside its D.C. headquarters. It keeps an apiary on its roof, to study bee-colony collapse.

A small fraction of its massive annual budget ($164 billion in 2016) was actually spent on farmers, but it financed and managed all these programs in rural America—including the free school lunch for kids living near the poverty line. “I’m sitting there looking at this,” said Ali. “The U.S.D.A. had subsidized the apartment my family had lived in. The hospital we used. The fire department. The town’s water. The electricity. It had paid for the food I had eaten.”

 And a little more along that thread:

There’s a drinking game played by people who have worked at the Department of Agriculture: Does the U.S.D.A. do it? Someone names an odd function of government (say, shooting fireworks at Canada geese that flock too near airport runways) and someone else has to guess if the U.S.D.A. does it. (In this case, it does.) Even people who have worked at U.S.D.A. for years wind up having to chug. So it’s no use pretending that I can actually explain to you everything the place does.

Lewis ends up focusing on several areas where Trump will likely do the most damage.  The folks who used to be at U.S.D.A he talks to come up with food aid for the poor, scientific research (especially related to climate change), food safety and rural development.  I think they are correct in that assessment.  Here are a couple of the most enlightening quotes from these sections:

“The food-stamps program,” he says, instantly, when I ask him for his biggest concern. The Trump budget had proposed cutting food stamps by more than 25 percent over the next 10 years and more or less abandoning the notion that the country should provide some minimum level of nutrition to its citizens. The Trump budget was just an opening bid and unlikely to become policy, at least not right away, because Congress could always fight it. But it signaled an intention and, perhaps, a shift in public attitudes. “Why is it that people channel so many of their hang-ups about people who are poor or unsuccessful into the food-stamps program?” asks Concannon as we settle into our chairs, then answers his own question. “No one really knows when you go to the doctor and the government is paying. But people see you with this card or coupon and react. People would say to me, ‘I saw someone buying butter with food stamps.’ And I would say, ‘Well, yes.’”...As the head of Oregon’s nutrition programs he learned that the country’s willingness to feed people who are hungry does not mean that hungry people are always fed. The federal government makes the benefits available, but then leaves it to states to administer them. “Where you live in this country makes a huge difference if you are poor,” says Concannon. “And it’s not just the weather. You have states with these 60- or 70-page documents people have to fill out to get benefits. Poor people are easy to wear down.” Georgia was usually a problem. Texas too. “If they ran any of their football teams the way they ran their food program, they’d fire the coach,” said Concannon. A Wyoming legislator, proud of how badly he had gummed up the state’s nutrition programs, told him, “We pride ourselves on doing the minimum required by the federal government.” An Arizona congressman proposed that the card used by people receiving food-stamp benefits be made prison orange, conferring not just nutrition but shame. In 2016, after several counties in North Carolina suffered severe flooding, the state tried to distribute federal disaster-relief food-benefit cards on the day of the presidential election, to give poor people a choice between eating and voting. In Kansas, Concannon had explained to an executive who oversaw the state’s food-stamp program how he had made it easier for people in Oregon who were going hungry to access their program. “He said, ‘Jeez, if we did that we’d have more people coming in the door.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but isn’t that the idea?’”

This gets at the heart of the crazy experiment that is federal government in these United States.  Just like with the Affordable Care Act, and throughout our history with slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the New Deal and environmental and safety regulations, state and local governments can actively oppose and intentionally undermine the best efforts of the federal government  to achieve the lofty goals set by the founding documents of the nation.  Promoting the general welfare is often not what states, especially in the American South are trying to do.  Do you know which states are seeing some of the worst financial strains on rural hospitals?  Well, Georgia and Texas are two of them.  And this article gets at one of the strangest divides in American politics-that rural voters whose communities and infrastructure are most dependent on federal spending are most hostile to that federal government.  To that point:

By the time she left the little box marked “Rural Development,” Lillian Salerno had spent the better part of five years inside it. The box’s function was simple: to channel low-interest-rate loans, along with a few grants, mainly to towns with fewer than 50,000 people in them. Her department ran the $220 billion bank that serviced the poorest of the poor in rural America: in the Deep South, and in the tribal lands, and in the communities, called colonias, along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Some of the communities in the South, the only checks going in are government checks,” she said. And yet, amazingly, they nearly always repaid their loans....

As the U.S.D.A.’s loans were usually made through local banks, the people on the receiving end of them were often unaware of where the money was coming from. There were many stories very like the one Tom Vilsack told, about a loan they had made, in Minnesota, to a government-shade-throwing, Fox News-watching, small-town businessman. The bank held a ceremony and the guy wound up being interviewed by the local paper. “He’s telling the reporter how proud he is to have done it on his own,” said Vilsack. “The U.S.D.A. person goes to introduce herself, and he says, ‘So who are you?’ She says, ‘I’m the U.S.D.A. person.’ He asks, ‘What are you doing here?’ She says, ‘Well, sir, we supplied the money you are announcing.’ He was white as a sheet.”

Salerno saw this sort of thing all the time. “We’d have this check,” said Salerno. “We’d blow it up and try to have a picture taken with it. It said, UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, in great big letters. That was something that Vilsack wanted—to be right out in front so people knew the federal government had helped them. In the red southern states the mayor sometimes would say, ‘Can you not mention that the government gave this?’” Even when it was saving lives, or preserving communities, it remained oddly invisible. “It’s just a misunderstanding of the system,” said Salerno. “We don’t teach people what government actually does.”

I enjoy listening patiently to farmers bitch about how much money poor people are given by the government and then asking them how many poor people they think have been given more money by the government than they themselves have been given.  Surprisingly, they often think most poor people do, which is laughable.  However important all the economic damage the Trump and GOP clowns can do to poor people and rural areas, the threat to important scientific research is the most dangerous, because it is the hardest to recognize by everyday people.  When the funding for the water system doesn't come through or when the folks you go to church with are having to get food from the church food pantry, you tend to notice, and changes can be made.  But when research into climate change or contagious disease isn't getting done, we won't find out until it is too late:

We don’t really celebrate the accomplishments of government employees. They exist in our society to take the blame. But if anyone ever paid attention they would note that Woteki’s department, among other achievements, had suppressed the potentially catastrophic 2015 outbreak of bird flu. They’d created, very quickly, a fast new test for the disease that enabled them to cull the sick chickens from the healthy ones. Because of their work the poultry industry was forced to kill only tens of millions of birds, instead of hundreds of millions. In the early 1990s, the U.S.D.A. had also dealt with the outbreak of ring-spot virus in papaya trees, when the papaya industry in Hawaii faced ruin and extinction. Inside the little box marked “Science,” the U.S.D.A. helped genetically engineer a papaya tree that was resistant to ring-spot virus....
His (Sam Clovis, who has since withdrawn from consideration) appointment as the U.S.D.A.’s chief scientist felt like a practical joke to those who had worked there: this was the place that, back in the early 1940s, had taken Alexander Fleming’s findings and effectively invented penicillin. It had triggered the antibiotics revolution. It had coped with endless blights and outbreaks. The consequences of the science it funded—or did not fund—was mind-boggling. The person Clovis was replacing had taught at universities, worked in the White House, and, along the way, been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences....

 In recent years, much of the department’s research has dealt with the effects of climate change. The head of science directs nearly $3 billion in grants each year. Woteki directed the science that leads to nutritional standards for schoolchildren. She set research priorities. Hers had been food security; domestic and global nutrition; safety of the food supply; and figuring out how best to convert plants into fuel. “All of that has to be done in the face of a changing climate,” said Woteki. “It’s all climate change.” It might sound silly that the U.S.D.A. funds a project that seeks to improve the ability of sheep to graze at high altitudes—until you realize that this may one day be the only place sheep will be able to graze. “We’re going to become even more reliant on the efficiencies that come from the investment in science,” she said. One-quarter of the arable land in the world is already degraded, either by overfarming or overgrazing. “Changing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns will force changes in the way crops are grown and livestock are raised,” she said. “The changing climate brings new risks of food-borne disease. Even the pathogens are influenced by temperature and humidity.”

If the Trump administration were to pollute the scientific inquiry at the U.S.D.A. with politics, scientific inquiry would effectively cease.

The Trump Administration and Republican control of the federal government is going to do a lot of damage to the United States, and rural areas, while most responsible for putting them in charge, are going to be hurt the worst.  Unfortunately, the damage done to scientific research, both at U.S.D.A. and in other areas of the federal government, are going to negatively impact all of humanity.  This should be the first thing you should complain to your Congressperson about.

The Monster the GOP Created

So nearly 40 years of lying and brainwashing their base has finally caught up with Republicans. Apparently, the saner office holders realize that their base is completely out of its collective mind, and they are retiring in droves to keep from being whipped in the primaries by the craziest loons on the ballot.  Aren't they just profiles in courage.  They and their donors whipped up the regular folks with bullshit about the tyrannical federal government and taxes as theft, and watched as the craziest idiots possible got elected to the local school board and city council.  Then those folks moved to the state legislature.  Then to Congress.  Now they control a large minority of the Senate, and the prototypical 71-year-old Fox News viewer is President of the United States.  The country club set that controlled the Republican Party for years has now realized they no longer can control the lunatic base they used since 1980 to get the votes to overturn regulations and give themselves tax cuts and screw the poor and minorities.  And things are going to get much worse.  40 years is a long time to lie to folks and promise them you are going to help them out, only to enrich yourselves and screw them, over and over and over.  The base wants revenge because even though they can't see Donald Trump is a lying, useless dumbass, they've come to figure out the establishment has been screwing them forever.  All I'm sure of is that I'm going to get very drunk on election night 2018 and that the nation I grew up in is never going to be the same.

Idiots At The Gates - The Future of the United States

I recommend this New Yorker article on the recently concluded session of the Texas legislature.  The second-most populous state in the union is almost under the control of complete morons.  Only a few somewhat sensible elected officials prevent them from riding roughshod over reason and logic.  As I sit here on the eve of Independence Day and contemplate the immediate and medium-term future, I have little faith that the sensible folks will win out.  I'm pretty sure we will see these cultists foist their ignorant bigotry and witch doctor economics on the rest of the nation, and only after their policies are complete disasters will we be able to vote them out of office.  In the meantime, I am concerned we will end up seeing unacceptable amounts of violence as regular citizens suffer under their doomed-to-fail rule.  I wish I could be more optimistic, but the last two years have rendered that almost non-existent characteristic in my personality extinct.

House GOP Obamacare Repeal: Robbing From The Sick and Giving To The Rich

GOP health bill. Numbers on left are benefit cuts, those on right are tax cuts. Benefits are cut just to pay for tax cuts. pic.twitter.com/9pnc4CpeAd

— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) May 24, 2017

Chart of the Day: Word Cloud Edition

Quinnipiac asked, "what is the first word that comes to mind when you think of Donald Trump?":

The most common responses, in order:
1. idiot, 39 times
2. incompetent, 31 times
3. liar, 30 times
4. leader, 25 times
5. unqualified, 25 times
6. president, 22 times
7. strong, 21 times
8. businessman, 18 times
9. ignorant, 16 times
10. egotistical, 15 times
It is good that we only did the top 10, because the 11th most-common word is not suitable for a family newspaper. It rhymes with “mass soul.” And actually, it’s only tied for 11th … with “stupid.”

I would have probably used moron or dumbfuck.

The Trump Tax Cuts In One Chart

Via The Atlantic:

Take a wild guess which column Donald Trump would be The whole, tax break for pass-through income is ridiculous.  Pass-through entities were set up to avoid corporate income taxes.  Now they get treated at the state level in several cases, and in this proposal at the federal level, as somehow better than wage income, which is stupid.  Why should I as a farmer and a member in a farm partnership pay less in taxes on that income than I do for schlepping away at my town job working for The Man?  What if I became a contractor for the company I work in town for, and get paid through a pass-through entity.  This example of how that works is a doozy:

Take a real world example. The state of Kansas does not tax pass-through income, and its highest-paid public employee, Bill Self, the coach of the University of Kansas basketball team, is paid $4.8 million per year through an LLC. Under current federal law, a typical head of household earning $4.8 million might have to give more than a third of his income, or about $1.8 million, to the IRS. Under Trump's plan, somebody like Bill Self could save about $1 million in taxes by setting up a pass-through business, thus paying the same marginal rate as a household making about $50,000.

The highest-paid public employee in the state has his salary paid to an LLC, and thus he pays zero dollars in state income tax.  Brilliant, Sam Brownback, brilliant.  It just blows me away that so many people who are struggling to get by are more than happy to support a billionaire who is going to massively cut his own taxes while destroying the federal budget.  And those same struggling people will get negative returns once budget cuts to stem massive deficits are factored in.  

The Republican Party, In Summary

Alex Pareene goes over many of the things that make the Republican Party such a dysfunctional governing party:

If you want to understand intra-GOP warfare, the decision-making process of our president, the implosion of the Republican healthcare plan, and the rest of the politics of the Trump era, you don’t need to know about Russian espionage tactics, the state of the white working class, or even the beliefs of the “alt-right.” You pretty much just need to be in semi-regular contact with a white, reasonably comfortable, male retiree. We are now ruled by men who think and act very much like that ordinary man you might know, and if you want to know why they believe so many strange and terrible things, you can basically blame the fact that a large and lucrative industry is dedicated to lying to them....
The bottom-feeding amorality of the sorts of people who sponsored the right-wing press, and the crummy nature of the products and services sold, shows exactly who was supposed to be consuming it: suckers. Or, more specifically, trusting retirees, with a bit of disposable income, and a natural inclination to hate modernity and change—an inclination that could be heightened, radicalized, and exploited....
Rather rapidly, two things happened: First, Republicans realized they’d radicalized their base to a point where nothing they did in power could satisfy their most fervent constituents. Then—in a much more consequential development—a large portion of the Republican Congressional caucus became people who themselves consume garbage conservative media, and nothing else.

That, broadly, explains the dysfunction of the Obama era, post-Tea Party freakout. Congressional Republicans went from people who were able to turn their bullshit-hose on their constituents, in order to rile them up, to people who pointed it directly at themselves, mouths open.

The radicalization of the base actually occurred earlier than Pareene lets on.  He pinpoints it to the election of Obama, but, at least around here, it occurred before that.  I ran for office in 2006 because I saw a Republican party being taken over by know-nothing idiots who believe all kinds of non-factual bullshit.  That year was an election year for all of the statewide executive offices, and when there is a contested Republican primary election for Governor, my county's Republican party holds a County Convention.  As one of the candidates for office, I was invited to speak, or I otherwise wouldn't have attended. The opening address was given by John Boehner, who, at the time, was House Majority Leader (he would become Minority Leader after the 2006 election).  He rolled out a lot of red meat, but over the course of the day, his speech was one of the tamer ones given.  Also present was House Freedom Caucus founder and do-nothing government paycheck thief Jim Jordan, who was leaving the Ohio Senate to run for Congress that year.  I don't think he spoke, but if he did, it was while I was trying to keep from puking due to nerves before my speech.  I gave my speech, which didn't stick to my script, but generally focused on the need for more spending on education.  Not surprisingly, I was the only speaker who didn't mention guns, terrorism or abortion, and the only one who mentioned additional spending for education.

The delegates to the county convention were a mix of elected officials (especially township trustees), party volunteers and business people.  To best illustrate that the base had already been radicalized, all but two of the right-wing loon candidates for statewide office (State Attorney General candidate Betty Montgomery and Mike DeWine, who was the most sane candidate for U.S. Senate present-how times change) was endorsed by the delegates present.  Later that week, I stopped by the county Recorder's office.  He was the county political boss, and he confided to me that he and the other political wheel, the county Prosecutor, were terrified by how radical the base was, and how willing they were to back the morons who professed the greatest faith in the old-time right-wing media bullshit.  Those two were more in it for the power and the ability to hand out patronage, and they were shocked that the majority of the local party was drinking the Kool-Aid.

As Pareene points out, one of the main problems is that the true believers are now a substantial minority in Congress.  The problem is that they were already holding most of the positions at the state level.  Jim Jordan was, at that moment in 2006, making the leap from the state-level stage to the national stage.  My goal was to convince people that they shouldn't be electing morons like Jim Jordan and my opponent to government positions, but instead be electing people who were smart enough to vote for positions outside of the conservative dogma.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time telling my friends and neighbors that they had a lot of stupid political beliefs.  Instead, I tried to work my way around the edges of political discussions, and ended up absorbing a brutal shellacking from a rather dumb incumbent I ran against.

Pareene focuses on Trump's position as the Fox News viewer-in-chief, and how dangerous that is functional government.  The unfortunate thing is that this movement has been building for almost 40 years, and it has taken completely unqualified dumbfuck being elected President of the United States for most folks to realize that stupid people have gradually been filtering up from the grassroots, and now they control almost all the levers of power.  We've had plenty of time to realize what's happening, and the fact that I ran for office is evidence that it was completely obvious back in 2006.  Now we have to reap the whirlwind.

The Trump Budget

FiveThirtyEight:

Idiots.  Note that Trump claims to want to fund massive infrastructure investment, but his cuts to the Ag Department hit investment in water and wastewater projects in rural areas.  Army Corps cuts are going to hit inland river navigation.  And DOT cuts? WTF?  He's the old-time patent medicine salesman ripping off the rubes.  Fuck that asshole.  He's going to be the worst President of my lifetime.

NCAA Bracket

First Four: Mt. St. Mary's, Kansas State, UC Davis and Providence

East
First Round: Villanova, Wisconsin, UNC-Wilmington, Florida, Providence, Baylor, Marquette, Duke
Second Round: Villanova, Florida, Baylor, Duke
Third Round: Villanova, Baylor
East winner: Villanova

West
First Round: Gonzaga, Northwestern, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Xavier, FGSU, St. Mary's, Arizona
Second Round: Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Xavier, Arizona
Third Round: Gonzaga, Arizona
West winner: Gonzaga

Midwest
First Round: Kansas, Miami, Nevada, Purdue, Creighton, Oregon, Michigan, Louisville
Second Round: Kansas, Purdue, Creighton, Louisville
Third Round: Kansas, Louisville
Midwest winner: Louisville

South
First Round: North Carolina, Seton Hall, Middle Tennessee, Butler, Cincinnati, UCLA, Dayton, Kentucky
Second Round: North Carolina, Butler, Cincinnati, Kentucky
Third Round: Butler, Kentucky
South winner: Kentucky

Semifinals: Villanova, Kentucky

Champion: Villanova

Chart of the Day - Trump "Landslide" Edition

FiveThirtyEight:

By most measures, Trump’s victory was modest

		ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHARE		POPULAR VOTE SHARE		POPULAR VOTE MARGIN		OVERALL
YEAR	PRESIDENT	SHARE	RANK	SHARE	RANK	MARGIN	RANK	AVERAGE RANK
1936	Roosevelt	98.5	1	60.8	2	+24.3	3	2.0
1972	Nixon	96.7	3	60.7	3	+23.2	4	3.3
1964	Johnson	90.3	5	61.1	1	+22.6	5	3.7
1984	Reagan	97.6	2	58.8	5	+18.2	6	4.3
1920	Harding	76.1	13	60.4	4	+26.2	1	6.0
1932	Roosevelt	88.9	6	57.4	7	+17.8	7	6.7
1928	Hoover	83.6	9	58.2	6	+17.4	8	7.7
1956	Eisenhower	86.1	7	57.4	8	+15.4	9	8.0
1924	Coolidge	71.9	14	54.0	11	+25.2	2	9.0
1940	Roosevelt	84.6	8	54.7	10	+10.0	11	9.7
1952	Eisenhower	83.2	10	55.2	9	+10.9	10	9.7
1980	Reagan	90.9	4	50.8	16	+9.7	12	10.7
1944	Roosevelt	81.4	11	53.4	12	+7.5	15	12.7
1988	GHW Bush	79.2	12	53.4	13	+7.7	14	13.0
2008	Obama	67.8	17	52.9	14	+7.3	16	15.7
1996	Clinton	70.4	15	49.3	21	+8.6	13	16.3
2012	Obama	61.7	18	51.0	15	+3.9	19	17.3
1948	Truman	57.1	19	49.6	20	+4.5	18	19.0
1992	Clinton	68.8	16	43.0	25	+5.6	17	19.3
2004	GW Bush	53.2	24	50.7	17	+2.5	20	20.3
1976	Carter	55.2	23	50.1	18	+2.1	21	20.7
1960	Kennedy	56.4	21	49.7	19	+0.2	23	21.0
1968	Nixon	55.9	22	43.4	24	+0.7	22	22.7
2016	Trump	56.5	20	45.9	23	-2.1	25	22.7
2000	GW Bush	50.4	25	47.9	22	-0.5	24	23.7

Sources: Dave Leip, Statistical Abstract of the United States, David Wasserman, Wikipedia

Train Wreck

10 days in, and George W. Bush is looking like Lincoln.  I don't think I can take this.  Opening up Facebook makes me want to throw my computer out the window and then run it over with my car.  I may have to spend the next four years keeping a safe distance from the rest of humanity.

State Parks in Scott Walker's Wisconsin

Wall Street Journal:

Wisconsin’s cash-strapped state parks are considering selling naming rights or sponsorships at some facilities, raising concerns pristine natural landscapes may soon be dotted with corporate logos.
​Wisconsin’s is one of a number of state-park systems looking for new ways to pay for their operations as their lawmakers cut public funding....
In Wisconsin, lawmakers in 2015 eliminated all state tax support for the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees its state parks. That led to a $1.4 million deficit and forced the department to come up with new ways to earn revenue.
In December, it submitted a number of proposals to state lawmakers, including raising campsite fees. It also proposed what it called a “limited path” for “sponsorships and advertising.” Some think that could mean selling naming rights for parks or park facilities, a move critics say is something more akin to what sports stadiums would do to raise money....
This November, voters in Alabama overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that will block the state legislature from diverting funds from the state parks department. The legislature had redirected around $15 million from the department since 2010, leading to the closing of five Alabama state parks in 2015.
“We don’t get that money back, but we don’t have the threat of seeing our money taken from us in the future,” said Gregory M. Lein, the director of Alabama State Parks at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Despite that victory, Mr. Lein says budgets remain tight, and he is “open-minded” about working with private companies. One of the state parks that closed in 2015 has reopened under the control of a private company.

 Back in 1995, when I visited a couple of state parks in Wisconsin, they already had a $10 a day parking fee in the parks, along with camping fees and I believe entrance fees.  Good to know that in an effort to give Herb Kohl and the Menard assholes tax cuts, state legislators have decided to not spend any tax dollars in the parks.  Give Republicans another 20 years and they'll be selling the parks to rich folks.  By the way, that privatized state park in Alabama was located in the Black Belt.  I'd have never guessed.  That civil society was nice back when we had it.