Juxtapose democracy with corporatism, and of course the corporatists will try to buy out the government. Capitalism is reduced, by competition, to corporatism, and once the corporate cartels succeed in gaining control of government, it becomes fascism. If we follow the script and take the money, they win. If we speak the truth and reject the money, we are free.
"In 1985, Don began his military career when he joined the U. S. Air Force and served nearly thirty years on active duty, culminating his military career at the rank of Brigadier General. During his career in the Air Force, Don specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence.
"His military career highlights include two tours as a Wing Commander, at Ramstein Airbase in Germany and Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska; squadron and group command at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona; and expeditionary squadron command, flying combat missions over Iraq. Don served 16 assignments with four deployments to the Middle East, including one to Iraq from 2007 to 2008 during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Don is a National War College graduate, Distinguished Graduate of Intelligence School, Navigator School, and Air Command and Staff College. He earned two master's degrees while serving in the Air Force."
Surrely he also can't tolerate SIGNAL, Musk, and the ire from his constituents and major donors. Nebraska farmers lost their crop subsidies.
Unless it is a corporate farm, i.e., one owned by a big corp. and farmed by vassals, next year most farmers who still own their land will be up a creek. I grew up in NE, amidst hundreds of thousands of acres of corn, sorghum, alfalfa, soybeans, etc. Most real farmers play the wheel game - they borrow big in the winter/spring, hope for good weather and low insect populations, spend all that borrowed money (mostly by mortgaging their farms) in the summer and fall, and then recoup the costs, and hopefully some profit, by Dec. Then they do it again. Big corporate AG gets the same subsidies, but has billions in its privately owned banks and money carousel of multi-corp ownership, so they can weather some losses, or else pay the bribes to TFG et. al. to get them waived. This is more and more the case these days, since small farms cannot compete with the highly mechanized/chemicalized toxic AG that exists today. The neo-conservative rural Plains population is angry at the wrong people, as usual. They do have a fairly good life, but like all white folk in their regions, they believe they are gifted with privilege and so they rant and vote against their own real survival.
Yet it is the plains farmer that voted for Trump, in one recorded interview he voted for Trump because of DEI, which frankly doesn't even touch farmers or rural community, DEI is mostly found in cities and universities, Rural communities are as white bread as can be, if you see a black person, you stare because it is a rarity, yet they are all up in their drawers about DEI, so much so that they voted for Trump, and now they are shitting bricks, they still haven't abandoned their learned racism,trans and homophbia, and exenophobia. Still the ignorants they've always been, just felt betrayed by their lord and savior.
I like Willy Nelson, but I was never on board with his save the farmers campaign.
I know these people and who they really are, narrow mind, up tight,self righteous,intolerant god fearing folk,salt of the earth types.
Agreed! As far as Willy and Farm Aid, that all started during a period of time that a lot of farmers were going broke due to interest rates around 18%. At that time, there were still alot of private and small(by today's standards) farms. That is not the case these days with the huge Corporate Farms, still cashing in on subsidies that were originally put in place to actually help the small family farmer. Just like everything else, these programs have been abused and corrupted by big business.
Yes I know but actually large corporate farms were the thing in the 70's.
I was stationed in Oklahoma and had an occasion to talk to a tractor drive plowing this huge field. He didn't own the tractor, the corporation did, It had a microwave and a refrig, not to mention ear phones and a radio,
He started in the southi n the Spring plowed and seeded one strip, then moved to the next and then the next till he reached Minnesota, then turned in the tractor,it was leased.
Headed south again after a nice summers break, and in fall picked up a harvester and continued the process, he was just one of hundreds.
In those days the biggest farmer was Prudential.
Yep farm subsidies now are corporate welfare, but the family farmer just can't figure out who his enemy really is, because he is led around by his bias, bigotry and emotions, it is them dam queers,trans, immigrants, feminists that are making his life miserable.
Perhaps an essential requirement to be a farmer is an atrophied pre frontal cortex.
I'm sure you are correct about that, William. I guess I just wasn't seeing that from my view, at the time this was going on. I personally knew small farmers that were going broke and taking on other jobs to make ends meet. I would like to think that Willy's interests were true to helping the small family farmer.
That was indeed Willy's interest,helping small farmers, but Willy was not really in touch with the culture, that they were in essence narrow minded and especially hated pot smoking hippies, except maybe Willie.
BTW Willie is one of my all time favorites, along with Roy Orbison, Kris Kristoffersen.
Gib was referring to my Musical favorite Gerald, As regards your response well. You even admitted that the plains farmer that was the salt of the earth, is by and large the Trump voter.
We can discuss why? A long discussion, in part because he was infected with right wing talking points abot the culture war.
I left Louisiana in 57 and never looked back, only went back to bury Dad and my grandfather, but when grandmother died, there was nothing or no one left for me. Why anyone would want to go back, except maybe large cities like Austin,Dallas, NOLA, Atlanta the south is dreary, depressing, worn out, hot, humid, bug ridden. Yankees ain't never laid on the grass and got up with red bugs, can't go berry picking or hunting squirrel without coming home covered in ticks.
And for fun,well there is Wednesday nite prayer meeting, and Sunday church, or the Grange, VFW, or American Legion.
Huey Long and William Jennings Bryant two populists of a mixed bag.
In one sense leftist and in the other racist and antisemitic.
The one aspect of Bryant that stands out was his Cross of Gold Speech,he was 100% correct, he championed bi metallism, but gold and silver are problematic, they are both responsible for depressions and inflations.,
there either isn't enough or their are two much, and they were never pure species,save during the Conquest of Americas
Bankers used gold and silver as their reserves when the created money by printing bank notes in response to deposits and loans. There has never been enough gold or silver in a banks vault to cover all of the loans and deposits.
Good music, Daniel. Lol, yea, you can take the farmer out of the country, but you can't take the "country" out of the farmer. I live in a rural area, hardly anyone is financially well endowed, except for the farmers. Alot of really good people but, admittedly, they really have the blinders on when it involves anything outside of their little world around them.
Ironically, alt enegy is a major cash crop and Trump want's to kill it. I've lived through the demise of say, burley tobacco and aI will testify that the biggest suporters of alt enegy via hemp as a replacement are the Republcans in Kentucky.
BTW virtually all the members of Congress from fly over have the same racial attiuitudes.
On a one to one basis, many of these people see the light. Democrats need evangelists... Jimmy Carter, Andy Beshear.
I find it interesting Daniel. You mention that reps from flyover country have he same racial attitude. Let me state that they are racists, sexual bigots and Misogynists.
Yet they and their constitutents live in areas where you barely see a non white person, never see a gay or trans, and never see or are threatened by a liberated women. Rural women are, by and large, Handmaids, Stepford Wives.
Yet go to cosmpolitan centers where you see diversity, and you find acceptance and DEI.
Then again I know for a fact that if you walked into a rural house when the TV was on, it would be tuned to Fox, and the radio in the tractor would be tuned to hate radio.
William,I am afraid you are right.I don't know what will ever change their minds about the issues you mention. I think maybe just referring to these racists,etc as " Neo Nazis" a term they may object to but it precisely describes them. Unfortunately since Trump announced he was running for Pres.in 2015,according to the Southern Poverty Law Center,the growth of Neo Nazi groups especially in the south has been startling.
Related, I was watching the 3 part Documentary by Louis Henry Gates Jr, the Great Migration. About the two migrations of blacks from the south, mainly Mississippi to the Great Lakes States, but there is a third migration from the Great Lakes back to the south. Jobs in the north have been shipped to Mexico and Asia, and the north is not welcoming to blacks it seems. More at home in the south.
Now if only they wouldn't congregate and thus enable the racists to Jerrymander.
Yeh, these anti humans don't like being called out for what they are, they whine and complain that calling them out only makes them entrench. Well entrench mother fucker, trench's are bull dozed in
The thing about fascists is that they don't realize that the ultimate victim are the very people that made fascism possible. Who paid for Mussolini, even before the allies invaded Italy? The Italians.
Who paid for Hitler: The Germans and even before they were bombed, all of the German boys that were slaughtered as he invaded Russia.
Who is paying for Putin. The Russians. Who is paying for Erdogan, the Turks, except the increasing number of Islamists inTurkey, yet they pay but don't care.
Those that voted for Trump are among the first to pay. You would be surprised at the number of civil servants that voted for Trump, thinking that he would get rid of that pest in the next cubicle.
Farmers as a group voted for Trump and are now paying the price, and on it goes.
Mr. Farrar, you are correct about most farmers on the Great Plains being conservative and Republican. Years ago when the great transformation from family-owned farms to corporate owned agribusinesses was taking place; I was doing USDA-sponsored research in Iowa. Those farmers were on average more formally educated by far than the average American. I found the genuine Iowa farmer to be an all around good citizen, well aware of the issues of ethnicity and what we now call DEI. There were many migrant Hispanic workers on the Great Plains and into the Midwest as well. Still are. Iowa farmers are NOT "narrow mind, up tight, self righteous, intolerant." But they ARE "god fearing, salt of the earth types." I was glad to leave Iowa after three years there at Iowa State U. because I was politically out of step with Iowans and grew up in a big city. But I loved the people and still have fond memories of Ioway.
I was born and raised in Iowa. Still have lots of family there. Iowa used to provide good schools and education. I don't know about now? In high school, I was a volunteer for the Democratic Party. Sorry to see how Red they are now,but so is the state I currently reside in........MO.
In my experience rural America and the south outside of large cities are very insular, very homogeneous. A hive mind of sorts, non conformists are essentially shunned and have to leave, like me.
Social life, and thus political though revolves around the church and other social organizations.
And football is indeed a religion.
The first question that you are asked on meeting someone every you say, howdy is "what church do you belong to", with that answer they know all that they need to know.
Affects corporate farms, too. Once upon a time, I had clients who made more in commodities trading than in actually farming. Most of them were cash poor, land rich, otherwise.
Many big farms have equipment that's financed, and everyone along that chain will lose.Much of the financing was government subsidized...
The upper midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind...and Trump hates wind power.
On Wisconsin! On Wisconsin! Plunge right through that line......
Good song lyrics for a team called the Badgers and for a scrappy state. They are probably going to have to be like a honey badger that doesn't care, because who knows what Musk and Trump will want to do for retaliation.
I thought Musk was ridiculous when he said the planet's fate could depend on this election. If this is a turning point, maybe he is on to something---just not the something he was hoping for.
We need the encouragement to Fight Fight Fight as the song says.
Thom omitted an important variable in the equation - greed. Musk could justify his almost $100M "investment" not so much to promote Fascist MAGAism but to rig the court so he could overturn a state law banning the direct sale of autos by manufacturers as Tesla does. Voters saw through the phony cheesehead antics and fake millioni-dollar giveaways.
The Wisconsin election begs the question of why some states seem more immune to cultish politics than others. It only takes basic critical reasoning skill to see that Trump, like Musk, is a greedy insecure bully who, like all fascists before them, do not give a damn about governing - just ruling.
Was there some subtle distinction made between the $270 million Musk used to buy the presidential election and the money he used trying to buy the Wisconsin judicial election? Are the people of WI any different than the people of the US as a whole? Or have the recent events brought about by the DOGE freaks made that much difference? We can hope all Americans are figuring this out, but we have short attention spans and short memories, and no one should count on it. I'm wondering also if there was a single Republican senator in the chamber during the 25 hours when Cory Booker made his historic speech or if any of them is in any way enlightened or emboldened by it. I'm going to be an optimist today and hopefully (sic) one until after the big Saturday marches and rallies. But I fully expect Trump to reach a point of desperation and declare martial law. That will be the ultimate test for the American people. Sometimes I wish I could believe in the power of prayer.
Musk could take a charitable deduction instead of his political donations to save the Social Security reirement trust fund. https://www.ssa.gov/agency/donations.html
Robert,great post.Remember 19 sec attention spans and 1 day until an event is forgotten. Trump will declare martial law whenever he deems it necessary,maybe Saturday @ the large rallies. In view of what Musk,Trump,Vance, Kennedy have done,their is only one solution. It is not talking about it.
I hope the Wisconsin AG amends his case and gets the Musk bribery for votes case back in front of the Supreme Court, which on April 1 denied the appeal based on an undisclosed technicality. paying people to vote is a felony is Wisconsin. If the AG doesn't take this case to conclusion, musk will keep buying elections. Equally crucial, stopping Musk's illegal election payments will help GOP senators find their missing balls.
Wisconsin rejected Musk, Schimel lost, Crawford won, and Musk wasted over $25 million, This was also a rejection of Trump Musk is rationalizing and deflecting and is now backing a Voter ID campaign a must read this Musk Watch substack https://www.muskwatch.com/p/wisconsin-rejects-musk
Thank you, Mr. Hartmann. The Wisconsin election definitely is a much-needed respite from the doom and gloom elsewhere. To reinforce that victory, I hope to see hundreds of thousands of my fellow Americans joining me in the Hands Off demonstrations taking place across the nation on 5 April ( https://handsoff2025.com/about ). And in that same spirit, please familiarize yourself with the 3.5% Rule; it could save our democracy ( https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world ).
As loud and vehement as my voice may be at times, I still maintain relationships with people who voted for Trump and identity as Republicans. I do this because I believe that many of these people are - at their core - decent. And I believe this because I engage with them on issues and have found that using the proper voice, we are of very similar mind. Most of these associates of mine - fellow Wisconsinites - did not vote yesterday because they were repulsed by Musk's overtly corrupt meddling in our state's electoral process.
We are closer to unification than we might believe. Talk to people. Don't address a person by their perceived identity. Treat them with respect and listen. They are human too, frustrations and dreams alike.
The true monsters are above - not to the left, not to the right.
Jon,I agree that in Wisconsin and maybe other Northern states you can maintain relationships with Republicans who are not crazy.That does not work in the South,the Republicans think anyone who not think like they do are the enemy.Facts,persuasion,nothing works.
Mr. Notabot, I couldn't agree with you more. I wish more people on the web could be as you are. I fear this electronic-screen type of communication gives encouragement and license to the most extreme kind of vulgar, thoughtless haters.
I am a left wing, big city-bred boy who lived and did research in rural Iowa for years. But in spite of the differences between Iowayans and me; I still loved and respected them and remember them fondly.
Volunteering on this campaign was a breath of fresh air... so many of varied ages and from all over the country, recognizing its importance. Last night was a 1st night of going to bed with some good news...I am thrilled for our democracy and for the persistent Wisconsinites!
Thom, I have come to consider you a "polymath," a "Renaissance Man." You have had to wait a long time for the public to catch up with you. I'm attending a protest rally in Dallas on Saturday. I'm 78 years old with a gimpy knee, but I'm convinced Trump wants to bankrupt America and steal my assets. Politicians and the Media have kept Citizens United under the rug for too long.
It is about time someone screamed about THIS TRAVESTY. It exposed America for who it is, who we are! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Tell us about Plutus or Mammom - IT'S ABOUT TIME! Tell us about FATE!
"The teeth and claws of the morbidly rich are now deeply sunk into the American body politic. The question today is whether we can twist free of them and again become a self-governing nation. Or if we’re doomed to continue to devolve into a full-blown oligarchy like Russia and Hungary did, where all decisions are made by oligarchs and a strongman leader empowered by them, and elections are just done for show and around local issues."
Yes, that's THE question of our time, not just for the US, but for all democracies.
In the Wisconsin election, the authoritarian forces tried to bribe voters. That failed. But authoritarians have a much more effective tool for influencing voters: deception. That's how the Republicans and Trump have been winning elections.
What's Trump's most outstanding characteristic? It's his continual stream of manipulative lies, delivered in the same charismatic manner that all con men use to fleece their victims. Ditto for the Republican party. The liberal deep state that controls everything is a lie. That criminal immigrants are pouring across the border and are causing untold violence and mayhem is a lie. That we're going to build a wall and Mexico will pay for it was a lie. Trickle-down economics is a theory suggesting that tax cuts and economic benefits for the wealthy and corporations will "trickle down" to benefit the broader economy and lower-income individuals, ultimately leading to increased prosperity for all. But it doesn't work. It's a lie. What is Fox News? It's a propaganda machine designed to elect right wing Republicans with clever lies. And so on.
Here's the point. Lies work MUCH better than bribes, because there is simply not enough money to bribe enough voters to swing elections. Plus bribes are illegal.
In a democracy, the main ways a minority (such as the rich or a would-be autocrat) can persuade a majority to vote for them are by force, threats, rigged elections, voter suppression, favoritism, bribes, or deception. Force, threats, and rigged elections are illegal. Voter suppression is mostly illegal. Favoritism doesn’t work on large populations, since there are not enough favors (like jobs or contracts) to dole out. Bribes are inefficient, as even the rich lack the resources to bribe millions of voters. This leaves deception as the main preferred strategy and explains why deception is so common in right-wing politics. Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, reached the same conclusion in 1824:
"…it is impossible by fair reasoning ...to justify the sacrifice of the interests of the many to the interests of the few.... It follows that for effecting this purpose they must have recourse to every kind of fallacy, and ad-dress themselves, when occasion requires it, to the passions, the prejudices, and the ignorance of mankind."
Thom, you asked "The question today is whether we can twist free of them (the morbidly rich) and again become a self-governing nation." I'd say yes, but only if we unite and focus on preventing political lies from working.
I've written an article on this subject. I'm a concerned citizen, just like you, who has dedicated himself to helping to save democracy. The article summarizes an analysis of the democratic backsliding problem. The main root cause appears to be low political truth literacy. Because it's low, lies work like a charm. Politicians like Trump get elected. The article explains all this and offers a list of potential solutions. I think an analytical approach like this has the clear potential to allow Americans to "twist free of them (the morbidly rich) and again become a self-governing nation."
This approach won't be an instant cure, since the cancer of lying has reached an advanced stage and has created the MAGA Cult of Trump. But I believe the tide can be turned using this approach.
Mr, Harich, I tried to respond to your excellent comment after reading your full article on RCA and backsliding. However, while I was typing something happened to this substack. the screen suddenly jumped and my messaged-response to you was lost in the digital ether. I shall try again later. Earlier today some scammer tried to hack into my computer and I had to reboot it in order to get rid of that person's interference. Right now I must return to my reading. Please do not go away.
What happens Mr Dobberetin is while you are typing someone posted a comment and your browser jumped to the new comment. Your old comment was not lost, itis still there scroll up and complete it.
You give strength to fight against this Tyranny of Extreme Wealth!
You are absolutely correct!
The Republican-controlled U.S Supreme Court is “bought and paid for,” by corrupt corporations!
Can we defeat this Tyranny of Corrupt Wealth?”
We succeeded over a hundred years ago with the Tillman Act (1907), prohibiting national banks and federally chartered corporations from contributing to election campaigns at any level, national, state
I didn't think Wisconsin would allow itself to be up for sale, this morning I was grateful to fine out I was right.
Juxtapose democracy with corporatism, and of course the corporatists will try to buy out the government. Capitalism is reduced, by competition, to corporatism, and once the corporate cartels succeed in gaining control of government, it becomes fascism. If we follow the script and take the money, they win. If we speak the truth and reject the money, we are free.
I think the Wisconsin vote should be an object lesson for Congressional Republicans who represent majority Democratic districts like mine.
Cast your fate with Musk and you will LOSE. Bigly.
Still asking Thom to check out Feathers of Hope. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
E.G. Republican House member Don Bacon -- "Pro-Ukraine GOP rep ready to risk Trump’s wrath: ‘I feel so strongly about it, I just don’t care’" https://nypost.com/2025/03/31/us-news/pro-ukraine-gop-rep-don-bacon-on-risking-trumps-wrath-i-feel-so-strongly-about-it-i-just-dont-care/
"In 1985, Don began his military career when he joined the U. S. Air Force and served nearly thirty years on active duty, culminating his military career at the rank of Brigadier General. During his career in the Air Force, Don specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence.
"His military career highlights include two tours as a Wing Commander, at Ramstein Airbase in Germany and Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska; squadron and group command at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona; and expeditionary squadron command, flying combat missions over Iraq. Don served 16 assignments with four deployments to the Middle East, including one to Iraq from 2007 to 2008 during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Don is a National War College graduate, Distinguished Graduate of Intelligence School, Navigator School, and Air Command and Staff College. He earned two master's degrees while serving in the Air Force."
Surrely he also can't tolerate SIGNAL, Musk, and the ire from his constituents and major donors. Nebraska farmers lost their crop subsidies.
Unless it is a corporate farm, i.e., one owned by a big corp. and farmed by vassals, next year most farmers who still own their land will be up a creek. I grew up in NE, amidst hundreds of thousands of acres of corn, sorghum, alfalfa, soybeans, etc. Most real farmers play the wheel game - they borrow big in the winter/spring, hope for good weather and low insect populations, spend all that borrowed money (mostly by mortgaging their farms) in the summer and fall, and then recoup the costs, and hopefully some profit, by Dec. Then they do it again. Big corporate AG gets the same subsidies, but has billions in its privately owned banks and money carousel of multi-corp ownership, so they can weather some losses, or else pay the bribes to TFG et. al. to get them waived. This is more and more the case these days, since small farms cannot compete with the highly mechanized/chemicalized toxic AG that exists today. The neo-conservative rural Plains population is angry at the wrong people, as usual. They do have a fairly good life, but like all white folk in their regions, they believe they are gifted with privilege and so they rant and vote against their own real survival.
Yet it is the plains farmer that voted for Trump, in one recorded interview he voted for Trump because of DEI, which frankly doesn't even touch farmers or rural community, DEI is mostly found in cities and universities, Rural communities are as white bread as can be, if you see a black person, you stare because it is a rarity, yet they are all up in their drawers about DEI, so much so that they voted for Trump, and now they are shitting bricks, they still haven't abandoned their learned racism,trans and homophbia, and exenophobia. Still the ignorants they've always been, just felt betrayed by their lord and savior.
I like Willy Nelson, but I was never on board with his save the farmers campaign.
I know these people and who they really are, narrow mind, up tight,self righteous,intolerant god fearing folk,salt of the earth types.
Agreed! As far as Willy and Farm Aid, that all started during a period of time that a lot of farmers were going broke due to interest rates around 18%. At that time, there were still alot of private and small(by today's standards) farms. That is not the case these days with the huge Corporate Farms, still cashing in on subsidies that were originally put in place to actually help the small family farmer. Just like everything else, these programs have been abused and corrupted by big business.
Yes I know but actually large corporate farms were the thing in the 70's.
I was stationed in Oklahoma and had an occasion to talk to a tractor drive plowing this huge field. He didn't own the tractor, the corporation did, It had a microwave and a refrig, not to mention ear phones and a radio,
He started in the southi n the Spring plowed and seeded one strip, then moved to the next and then the next till he reached Minnesota, then turned in the tractor,it was leased.
Headed south again after a nice summers break, and in fall picked up a harvester and continued the process, he was just one of hundreds.
In those days the biggest farmer was Prudential.
Yep farm subsidies now are corporate welfare, but the family farmer just can't figure out who his enemy really is, because he is led around by his bias, bigotry and emotions, it is them dam queers,trans, immigrants, feminists that are making his life miserable.
Perhaps an essential requirement to be a farmer is an atrophied pre frontal cortex.
I'm sure you are correct about that, William. I guess I just wasn't seeing that from my view, at the time this was going on. I personally knew small farmers that were going broke and taking on other jobs to make ends meet. I would like to think that Willy's interests were true to helping the small family farmer.
That was indeed Willy's interest,helping small farmers, but Willy was not really in touch with the culture, that they were in essence narrow minded and especially hated pot smoking hippies, except maybe Willie.
BTW Willie is one of my all time favorites, along with Roy Orbison, Kris Kristoffersen.
Good favorites, William!
No Gib, Mr. Farrar is not correct. Please see my response to his comment, about the plains farmer.
Gib was referring to my Musical favorite Gerald, As regards your response well. You even admitted that the plains farmer that was the salt of the earth, is by and large the Trump voter.
We can discuss why? A long discussion, in part because he was infected with right wing talking points abot the culture war.
Could it be the pesticides exposure?
Even when they are living as exiles in the diaspora, they keep theoir roots.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-lBbwY-eM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I_hateVasY
I left Louisiana in 57 and never looked back, only went back to bury Dad and my grandfather, but when grandmother died, there was nothing or no one left for me. Why anyone would want to go back, except maybe large cities like Austin,Dallas, NOLA, Atlanta the south is dreary, depressing, worn out, hot, humid, bug ridden. Yankees ain't never laid on the grass and got up with red bugs, can't go berry picking or hunting squirrel without coming home covered in ticks.
And for fun,well there is Wednesday nite prayer meeting, and Sunday church, or the Grange, VFW, or American Legion.
Louisiana. Huey Long's theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVUtRaJcMwE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Long
Archie Boggs was my colleague.
Huey Long and William Jennings Bryant two populists of a mixed bag.
In one sense leftist and in the other racist and antisemitic.
The one aspect of Bryant that stands out was his Cross of Gold Speech,he was 100% correct, he championed bi metallism, but gold and silver are problematic, they are both responsible for depressions and inflations.,
there either isn't enough or their are two much, and they were never pure species,save during the Conquest of Americas
Bankers used gold and silver as their reserves when the created money by printing bank notes in response to deposits and loans. There has never been enough gold or silver in a banks vault to cover all of the loans and deposits.
Good music, Daniel. Lol, yea, you can take the farmer out of the country, but you can't take the "country" out of the farmer. I live in a rural area, hardly anyone is financially well endowed, except for the farmers. Alot of really good people but, admittedly, they really have the blinders on when it involves anything outside of their little world around them.
I had shit on my shoes until I was 18.
Good for you! You can bet that it helped shape your character in a good way!
So true Gib, I saw it with my own eyes in Ioway.
Ironically, alt enegy is a major cash crop and Trump want's to kill it. I've lived through the demise of say, burley tobacco and aI will testify that the biggest suporters of alt enegy via hemp as a replacement are the Republcans in Kentucky.
BTW virtually all the members of Congress from fly over have the same racial attiuitudes.
On a one to one basis, many of these people see the light. Democrats need evangelists... Jimmy Carter, Andy Beshear.
I find it interesting Daniel. You mention that reps from flyover country have he same racial attitude. Let me state that they are racists, sexual bigots and Misogynists.
Yet they and their constitutents live in areas where you barely see a non white person, never see a gay or trans, and never see or are threatened by a liberated women. Rural women are, by and large, Handmaids, Stepford Wives.
Yet go to cosmpolitan centers where you see diversity, and you find acceptance and DEI.
Then again I know for a fact that if you walked into a rural house when the TV was on, it would be tuned to Fox, and the radio in the tractor would be tuned to hate radio.
William,I am afraid you are right.I don't know what will ever change their minds about the issues you mention. I think maybe just referring to these racists,etc as " Neo Nazis" a term they may object to but it precisely describes them. Unfortunately since Trump announced he was running for Pres.in 2015,according to the Southern Poverty Law Center,the growth of Neo Nazi groups especially in the south has been startling.
There has been a brain drain from rural areas, but check out Andy Beshear. IMHO replicate him in rural areas and the outcome can be different.
Related, I was watching the 3 part Documentary by Louis Henry Gates Jr, the Great Migration. About the two migrations of blacks from the south, mainly Mississippi to the Great Lakes States, but there is a third migration from the Great Lakes back to the south. Jobs in the north have been shipped to Mexico and Asia, and the north is not welcoming to blacks it seems. More at home in the south.
Now if only they wouldn't congregate and thus enable the racists to Jerrymander.
That is an excellent idea, Daniel.
Yeh, these anti humans don't like being called out for what they are, they whine and complain that calling them out only makes them entrench. Well entrench mother fucker, trench's are bull dozed in
The thing about fascists is that they don't realize that the ultimate victim are the very people that made fascism possible. Who paid for Mussolini, even before the allies invaded Italy? The Italians.
Who paid for Hitler: The Germans and even before they were bombed, all of the German boys that were slaughtered as he invaded Russia.
Who is paying for Putin. The Russians. Who is paying for Erdogan, the Turks, except the increasing number of Islamists inTurkey, yet they pay but don't care.
Those that voted for Trump are among the first to pay. You would be surprised at the number of civil servants that voted for Trump, thinking that he would get rid of that pest in the next cubicle.
Farmers as a group voted for Trump and are now paying the price, and on it goes.
Mr. Farrar, you are correct about most farmers on the Great Plains being conservative and Republican. Years ago when the great transformation from family-owned farms to corporate owned agribusinesses was taking place; I was doing USDA-sponsored research in Iowa. Those farmers were on average more formally educated by far than the average American. I found the genuine Iowa farmer to be an all around good citizen, well aware of the issues of ethnicity and what we now call DEI. There were many migrant Hispanic workers on the Great Plains and into the Midwest as well. Still are. Iowa farmers are NOT "narrow mind, up tight, self righteous, intolerant." But they ARE "god fearing, salt of the earth types." I was glad to leave Iowa after three years there at Iowa State U. because I was politically out of step with Iowans and grew up in a big city. But I loved the people and still have fond memories of Ioway.
I was born and raised in Iowa. Still have lots of family there. Iowa used to provide good schools and education. I don't know about now? In high school, I was a volunteer for the Democratic Party. Sorry to see how Red they are now,but so is the state I currently reside in........MO.
In my experience rural America and the south outside of large cities are very insular, very homogeneous. A hive mind of sorts, non conformists are essentially shunned and have to leave, like me.
Social life, and thus political though revolves around the church and other social organizations.
And football is indeed a religion.
The first question that you are asked on meeting someone every you say, howdy is "what church do you belong to", with that answer they know all that they need to know.
Affects corporate farms, too. Once upon a time, I had clients who made more in commodities trading than in actually farming. Most of them were cash poor, land rich, otherwise.
Many big farms have equipment that's financed, and everyone along that chain will lose.Much of the financing was government subsidized...
The upper midwest is the Saudi Arabia of wind...and Trump hates wind power.
Corn producers have ethanol....
Cattle and meat packing are in panic.....
On Wisconsin! On Wisconsin! Plunge right through that line......
Good song lyrics for a team called the Badgers and for a scrappy state. They are probably going to have to be like a honey badger that doesn't care, because who knows what Musk and Trump will want to do for retaliation.
I thought Musk was ridiculous when he said the planet's fate could depend on this election. If this is a turning point, maybe he is on to something---just not the something he was hoping for.
We need the encouragement to Fight Fight Fight as the song says.
Thanks for the history, Thom.
Thom omitted an important variable in the equation - greed. Musk could justify his almost $100M "investment" not so much to promote Fascist MAGAism but to rig the court so he could overturn a state law banning the direct sale of autos by manufacturers as Tesla does. Voters saw through the phony cheesehead antics and fake millioni-dollar giveaways.
The Wisconsin election begs the question of why some states seem more immune to cultish politics than others. It only takes basic critical reasoning skill to see that Trump, like Musk, is a greedy insecure bully who, like all fascists before them, do not give a damn about governing - just ruling.
Was there some subtle distinction made between the $270 million Musk used to buy the presidential election and the money he used trying to buy the Wisconsin judicial election? Are the people of WI any different than the people of the US as a whole? Or have the recent events brought about by the DOGE freaks made that much difference? We can hope all Americans are figuring this out, but we have short attention spans and short memories, and no one should count on it. I'm wondering also if there was a single Republican senator in the chamber during the 25 hours when Cory Booker made his historic speech or if any of them is in any way enlightened or emboldened by it. I'm going to be an optimist today and hopefully (sic) one until after the big Saturday marches and rallies. But I fully expect Trump to reach a point of desperation and declare martial law. That will be the ultimate test for the American people. Sometimes I wish I could believe in the power of prayer.
Trump received enough in donations to give every voter a million dollars. https://www.ssa.gov/agency/donations.html
Musk could take a charitable deduction instead of his political donations to save the Social Security reirement trust fund. https://www.ssa.gov/agency/donations.html
Robert,great post.Remember 19 sec attention spans and 1 day until an event is forgotten. Trump will declare martial law whenever he deems it necessary,maybe Saturday @ the large rallies. In view of what Musk,Trump,Vance, Kennedy have done,their is only one solution. It is not talking about it.
Some of us will NEVER bow down. Watch for the protests on 4/5. I'm 83 and I'll be out there shouting HANDS OFF! Join me!
I hope the Wisconsin AG amends his case and gets the Musk bribery for votes case back in front of the Supreme Court, which on April 1 denied the appeal based on an undisclosed technicality. paying people to vote is a felony is Wisconsin. If the AG doesn't take this case to conclusion, musk will keep buying elections. Equally crucial, stopping Musk's illegal election payments will help GOP senators find their missing balls.
How about Wisconsin and Pa state courts for voter fraud.
It would be a great time for Josh Kaul to start acting with the authority he has
Wisconsin rejected Musk, Schimel lost, Crawford won, and Musk wasted over $25 million, This was also a rejection of Trump Musk is rationalizing and deflecting and is now backing a Voter ID campaign a must read this Musk Watch substack https://www.muskwatch.com/p/wisconsin-rejects-musk
Thank you, Mr. Hartmann. The Wisconsin election definitely is a much-needed respite from the doom and gloom elsewhere. To reinforce that victory, I hope to see hundreds of thousands of my fellow Americans joining me in the Hands Off demonstrations taking place across the nation on 5 April ( https://handsoff2025.com/about ). And in that same spirit, please familiarize yourself with the 3.5% Rule; it could save our democracy ( https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world ).
As loud and vehement as my voice may be at times, I still maintain relationships with people who voted for Trump and identity as Republicans. I do this because I believe that many of these people are - at their core - decent. And I believe this because I engage with them on issues and have found that using the proper voice, we are of very similar mind. Most of these associates of mine - fellow Wisconsinites - did not vote yesterday because they were repulsed by Musk's overtly corrupt meddling in our state's electoral process.
We are closer to unification than we might believe. Talk to people. Don't address a person by their perceived identity. Treat them with respect and listen. They are human too, frustrations and dreams alike.
The true monsters are above - not to the left, not to the right.
Jon,I agree that in Wisconsin and maybe other Northern states you can maintain relationships with Republicans who are not crazy.That does not work in the South,the Republicans think anyone who not think like they do are the enemy.Facts,persuasion,nothing works.
Mr. Notabot, I couldn't agree with you more. I wish more people on the web could be as you are. I fear this electronic-screen type of communication gives encouragement and license to the most extreme kind of vulgar, thoughtless haters.
I am a left wing, big city-bred boy who lived and did research in rural Iowa for years. But in spite of the differences between Iowayans and me; I still loved and respected them and remember them fondly.
Fingers crossed that this is an awakening.
Volunteering on this campaign was a breath of fresh air... so many of varied ages and from all over the country, recognizing its importance. Last night was a 1st night of going to bed with some good news...I am thrilled for our democracy and for the persistent Wisconsinites!
Thom, I have come to consider you a "polymath," a "Renaissance Man." You have had to wait a long time for the public to catch up with you. I'm attending a protest rally in Dallas on Saturday. I'm 78 years old with a gimpy knee, but I'm convinced Trump wants to bankrupt America and steal my assets. Politicians and the Media have kept Citizens United under the rug for too long.
It is about time someone screamed about THIS TRAVESTY. It exposed America for who it is, who we are! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Tell us about Plutus or Mammom - IT'S ABOUT TIME! Tell us about FATE!
"The teeth and claws of the morbidly rich are now deeply sunk into the American body politic. The question today is whether we can twist free of them and again become a self-governing nation. Or if we’re doomed to continue to devolve into a full-blown oligarchy like Russia and Hungary did, where all decisions are made by oligarchs and a strongman leader empowered by them, and elections are just done for show and around local issues."
Yes, that's THE question of our time, not just for the US, but for all democracies.
In the Wisconsin election, the authoritarian forces tried to bribe voters. That failed. But authoritarians have a much more effective tool for influencing voters: deception. That's how the Republicans and Trump have been winning elections.
What's Trump's most outstanding characteristic? It's his continual stream of manipulative lies, delivered in the same charismatic manner that all con men use to fleece their victims. Ditto for the Republican party. The liberal deep state that controls everything is a lie. That criminal immigrants are pouring across the border and are causing untold violence and mayhem is a lie. That we're going to build a wall and Mexico will pay for it was a lie. Trickle-down economics is a theory suggesting that tax cuts and economic benefits for the wealthy and corporations will "trickle down" to benefit the broader economy and lower-income individuals, ultimately leading to increased prosperity for all. But it doesn't work. It's a lie. What is Fox News? It's a propaganda machine designed to elect right wing Republicans with clever lies. And so on.
Here's the point. Lies work MUCH better than bribes, because there is simply not enough money to bribe enough voters to swing elections. Plus bribes are illegal.
In a democracy, the main ways a minority (such as the rich or a would-be autocrat) can persuade a majority to vote for them are by force, threats, rigged elections, voter suppression, favoritism, bribes, or deception. Force, threats, and rigged elections are illegal. Voter suppression is mostly illegal. Favoritism doesn’t work on large populations, since there are not enough favors (like jobs or contracts) to dole out. Bribes are inefficient, as even the rich lack the resources to bribe millions of voters. This leaves deception as the main preferred strategy and explains why deception is so common in right-wing politics. Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, reached the same conclusion in 1824:
"…it is impossible by fair reasoning ...to justify the sacrifice of the interests of the many to the interests of the few.... It follows that for effecting this purpose they must have recourse to every kind of fallacy, and ad-dress themselves, when occasion requires it, to the passions, the prejudices, and the ignorance of mankind."
Thom, you asked "The question today is whether we can twist free of them (the morbidly rich) and again become a self-governing nation." I'd say yes, but only if we unite and focus on preventing political lies from working.
I've written an article on this subject. I'm a concerned citizen, just like you, who has dedicated himself to helping to save democracy. The article summarizes an analysis of the democratic backsliding problem. The main root cause appears to be low political truth literacy. Because it's low, lies work like a charm. Politicians like Trump get elected. The article explains all this and offers a list of potential solutions. I think an analytical approach like this has the clear potential to allow Americans to "twist free of them (the morbidly rich) and again become a self-governing nation."
This approach won't be an instant cure, since the cancer of lying has reached an advanced stage and has created the MAGA Cult of Trump. But I believe the tide can be turned using this approach.
https://analyticalactivist.substack.com/p/summary-of-analysis-of-the-democratic
Mr, Harich, I tried to respond to your excellent comment after reading your full article on RCA and backsliding. However, while I was typing something happened to this substack. the screen suddenly jumped and my messaged-response to you was lost in the digital ether. I shall try again later. Earlier today some scammer tried to hack into my computer and I had to reboot it in order to get rid of that person's interference. Right now I must return to my reading. Please do not go away.
What happens Mr Dobberetin is while you are typing someone posted a comment and your browser jumped to the new comment. Your old comment was not lost, itis still there scroll up and complete it.
Thanks Mr. Farrar, I'll try.
Thom! Thanks so much!
You are a great American!
You give strength to fight against this Tyranny of Extreme Wealth!
You are absolutely correct!
The Republican-controlled U.S Supreme Court is “bought and paid for,” by corrupt corporations!
Can we defeat this Tyranny of Corrupt Wealth?”
We succeeded over a hundred years ago with the Tillman Act (1907), prohibiting national banks and federally chartered corporations from contributing to election campaigns at any level, national, state
for are for us!