Rural America

American Urban Areas Dominate Economy, But Are Controlled By Hostile State Governments And Trump Hostility!

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The latest economic statistics demonstrate how American cities and urban areas dominate the American economy.

Metropolitan areas accounted for 90.8 percent of the nation’s economic output; employ 88.2 percent of the American population; and house 86.4 percent of the people of the nation.

The total land mass of cities and urban areas are, overall, a small percentage of the total land of the nation, but rural areas, while certainly significant, particularly in regards to agriculture, have a very small total influence on the nation.

But many state legislatures, dominated by rural conservative and often Republican power centers, make life difficult for their metropolitan areas and populations, not allowing them local control of their policies and prograrms.

And Donald Trump has declared ‘war” on cities, and is utilizing his power to force militarization of cities, with his false accusations of crime and terrorism in the metropolitan areas.

Already, he has caused chaos and disarray in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland Oregon, and seems ready to impose the Insurrection Act of 1807 in an uncalled for, abusive manner as part of his plan to establish an authoritarian, Fascist regime on American democracy!

Horrible Tragedy: Gutting Of So Many Federal Commitments And Agencies!

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Six months have passed since the second Trump Presidency began, and it is now perfectly clear that Donald Trump has waged total war on the federal government, both commitments of long duration, and of agencies and departments of long standing.

The Republican Party in Congress, and the Supreme Court six member majority, are complicit in these horrendous actions.

USAID (US Agency For International Development), which provided life saving aid to millions of poor people, including particularly children, around the world, has been destroyed.

PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Program For Aids Relief), the major accomplishment of former President George W. Bush, which saved at least 26 million lives in Africa from the AIDS epidemic, has been gutted.

The Department of Education, created under President Jimmy Carter after being part of a combined agency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a commitment to federal engagement in education standards and support, has been cut dramatically.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), created under President Jimmy Carter, had been on the chopping block until the recent Texas Flood Disaster, but still is in danger of being eliminated, as the federal government is moving toward leaving weather and natural disasters to the states to handle on their own.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service, created under Republican President Richard Nixon, are both crucial agencies facing massive cuts in personnel and ability to do their work to protect Americans.

Public funding of NPR and PBS, one tenth of one percent of the federal budget, is being cut completely.

Medicaid and SNAP (Food Stamps), both coming about under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, are suffering massive cuts, which will affect, in particular, rural states, but overall, the disabled, the elderly, and poor children, a total travesty!

Tens of thousands of federal employees in a multitude of agencies have lost their jobs, and with it, the federal goverment loses their generations of expertise on all kinds of issues of national security, health care, environmental protections, and so many other roles the federal government has engaged in since the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society, and commitments by Presidents of both parties in the past 50 years since the 1970s.

The Republican Stronghold, Rural America, To Be Disastrously Affected By Medicaid And Food Stamp Cuts In “Big And Beautiful” Trump Budget Bill!

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The Republican Party stronghold in rural America will be disastrously affected by the proposed Medicaid and SNAP (Food Stamp) Cuts in the “Big and Beautiful” Trump budget bill being promoted to become law by July 4!

Much of rural America is “red”, the strongest supporters of Donald Trump, but clearly, Trump and his Republican Party are more interested in promoting massive tax cuts for the wealthy one percent and corporations, and ignoring the reality that rural health care will be dramatically harmed by this legislation, with many rural hospitals shutting down, when Medicaid is cut.

And to cut nutrition for poor people is unseemly, and the bulk of people affected by these heartless cuts in Medicaid and SNAP (Food Stamps) are actually white working poor, disabled, elderly, and deprived children.

Most Trump supporters are not aware of what is happening, and a rude awakening is coming!

Voting Patterns For Presidential Election Of 2024 Hard To Predict

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Indications are that the Democratic Party has been gaining in suburban areas among well educated voters with a college education and more in recent years, a massive change from long term trends that such voters were usually voting Republican.

At the same time, rural voters, often less educated, are becoming much more oriented toward Republicans than they have been, leaving the role of racial minorities as being crucial in national elections.

The Democrats have seen alienation by Latinos and African Americans from the very high percentages that usually vote for them, and Asian Americans are also unpredictable in their voting patterns.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has become an issue that is causing division among racial minorities, including the growing influence of Muslim Americans and Arab Americans, as well.

Also, Jewish Americans, usually two thirds Democrats, are in play for this upcoming election.

At the same time, the abortion issue is gravitating more women toward the Democrats than is usually the case.

And the growing number of young voters, particularly Generation Z, is also a factor hard to predict the extent of their participation and where it will go.

So there are so many strands of voters competed for by both Democrats and Republicans, making predictions on the upcoming Presidential Election of 2024 even more confusing and hard to project.

The “Pro Life” Court Votes To Promote More Gun Deaths!

Ronald 6 Comments

The Supreme Court of 2022 is the most extreme right wing Court since the 1920s!

It has “good Christians” who wish to protect every fetus from conception to birth, while not caring how mothers, who often are victims of rape or incest, or in danger of losing their lives by carrying to term, cope with the attitude that it is not the job of government to protect and provide for the lives of children once they are born!

But, at the same time, these “good Christians” are endorsing by their decision on gun rights yesterday, to prevent protection of the American people in public places from unstable people who now will have the right to have their guns displayed and carried in all kinds of situations.

These include subways, churches, supermarkets, schools, parks and every other potential situation, insuring the already horrendous mass murders that are occurring regularly all over the nation, will now be multiplying by order of the Supreme Court!

This insane Court ruling not only threatens the ordinary citizen, but also law enforcement personnel, and insures that those who are racists, nativists, homophobes and anti semites now have open license to kill with impunity!

To use the idea of rural America as being the same as urban and suburban America demonstrates that the Court majority have not spent much time in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major urban and suburban areas.

It mwans that all of us in public places now are at an increased danger of being victims of gun crimes, far surpassing what happened in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas!

The blood and lives of future victims of gun violence will be on the conscience of the six right wing Justices who live in an alternate reality, and shows the need for Court reform, including adding Justices to the Supreme Court to bring it back to sanity!

The Disaster Of The US Senate

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This author, scholar, and blogger has long studied and been fascinated by the institution of the US Senate, only second to the office of the American Presidency.

There have been many great US Senators, out of the nearly 2,000 who have served in that body.

But there have also been many disgraceful, disastrous US Senators, who have undermined the reputation of that institution, and too often, have stood in the way of progress and democracy.

This reality has become much more prevalent in recent years, as one party, the Republicans, have set out to promote only the interests of the wealthy and corporations, while utilizing the race card, to keep working class and lower middle class whites loyal to a party which promotes racism, nativism, misogyny, and promotion of Christian theology!

And as the population of the nation continues to grow, the undemocratic nature of the US Senate becomes ever more tragic and unrelenting.

The facts are that 15 states, with 38 million people, elect 30 Republican Senators dedicated to negativism and stalemate, while California, with 40 million residents, elects two Democratic Senators.

With the population trends of the nation moving forward, by two decades from now, 2040, close to 70 percent of the nation will be represented by 30 Senators, while the remaining Americans, disproportionately whiter, older, and more rural, will have 70 US Senators!

This reality will, long term, harm any possibility of major reforms and change, such as represented by the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson!

Rural America In Rapid Decline, But Having Ability To Prevent Change

Ronald 5 Comments

Rural America is in rapid decline, but has the ability to prevent change, due to gerrymandering, and the fact that the declining white population can cause grief in Congress and in many state legislatures.

60 million people live in rural areas, which contain 97 percent of the land area of the nation.

So 23 percent of the population have an impact, and are against progressive reform, and the advancement of the interests of urban America, and of people of color, and people of superior educational accomplishments.

Rural America is a drag on the progress of the nation in the 21st century, but they are able to wield great power politically, and they present a threat to the future stability of America, as many people in rural America seem willing to consider the concept of secession.

So one has to wonder if a future breakup of the nation is conceivable!

Demographic Changes Dooming The Republican Party Future

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The Republican Party has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight Presidential elections, ever since 1992, except for 2004.

The suburbs, and particularly suburban women, are leaving the Republican Party in droves, and racial minorities are increasing rapidly as part of the voting population, despite attempts to suppress it.

At the rate the situation is changing, once Texas goes to the Democrats in the race for the White House, likely in 2024, but certainly in 2028, the Republican Party will never be able to win the Presidency again without changing their views.

The Republican Party must stop its anti immigrant and racist and misogynist policies, as white male America, much of it rural in nature and non college educated, is not the future of the nation.

So demography, along with education affecting the future, rapidly changing before our eyes, America will never be what it was a half century or more ago!

One Third Of Americans Are Ignoring Facts Of History And Science To Their And Our Detriment!

Ronald 5 Comments

With the summer coming on us, and the CoronaVirus Pandemic spreading rapidly in rural America, we are witnessing a third or more of Americans totally ignoring the facts of history and science!

They are giving in to their own whims and desires, and showing how they have no concern over the loss of life of 100,000 people in a bit more than two months, more than the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined and nearing losses in World War I.

They are also ignoring the history of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919, which had a bigger second wave in the fall of 1918 than it had in the early months of 1918.

They are ignoring scientific and medical evidence that we are far from through this nightmare.

But all that matters is having their drinks in crowded bars; exercising incessantly in gyms to show off for others how strong and muscular they are; tending to their dire need for tattoos and hair coloring; and hugging and touching everyone. This is because they cannot control their behavior, and sacrifice for the common good, of their children, parents, grandparents, neighbors, fellow workers, and even strangers, whose lives should matter just as much as those people they personally know.

This one third or more is only concerned about “me, myself, and I”, and that is the downfall of civilization in the long run, as catering to their own selfish desires is a sign of loss of morals, ethics, and common decency.

The nation will pay heavily for this recklessness, but sadly, only when some of this deplorable group die or have close family members or friends die, will they belatedly get the message—SACRIFICE—as Americans in past generations, far less spoiled, expected as part of their social responsibility!

The Brett Kavanaugh Debacle Will Accelerate A “Blue Wave” And A “Pink Wave”, Which Will Transform American Politics

Ronald 5 Comments

I am writing this entry after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has gone before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, September 27, 2018, and before Federal Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh has started his testimony on the charge of inappropriate sexual behavior toward Dr. Ford.

Dr. Ford was a very credible witness, but it will be unlikely to change any Republican votes in the Senate, which is hell bent on confirming Kavanaugh to a lifetime position on the high Court, despite many doubts about his honesty and veracity.

In any case, no matter what happens, it is clear that this is a turning point in American politics, and that this debacle will accelerate a “Blue Wave”, as well as a “Pink Wave”, both of which will transform our political system.

The Republican Party has tried, under Donald Trump, to maximize their support among white males, but now they have alienated intelligent, educated white women, and unless the Russians are able to collude again in 2018, and fix the results of the midterm elections, as they did in the Presidential Election of 2016, then the Democrats will have a massive midterm election victory, and it will carry over to the 2020 Presidential election and beyond.

The Republican Party, relying on the diminishing white male population, the South, the Midwest, the Great Plains, and rural America, are going to see much of the Midwest give up on the Republicans, for many reasons, but misogyny is one of those factors.

This is indeed a major turning point in American history, and will seen as such in retrospect.

The vast majority of the American people are sick to death of misogyny, racism, nativism, and the hatred of white supremacists and their ally, Donald Trump!