The Family: inside the sinister sect that has infected western democracy

Seth Anderson0 comment

If you haven’t watched the 5 episodes of The Family on Netflix – based on Jeff Sharlet’s book of the same name, you should. Fascinating, and a bit creepy. Jesus has no place in the corridors of power, per my reading of the Christian Bible, but these dudes think otherwise.

The Guardian:

The series profiles an American evangelical Christian organisation, sometimes dubbed “the Family” but more often known as the Fellowship – which presumably was felt to lack the connotations of death cults and organised crime that make for a juicy documentary title. For decades, the Fellowship was overseen by the mysterious Doug Coe: a series of amusingly Zelig-esque photographs of him lurking smoothly behind US presidents and foreign leaders confirms Coe (who did Netflix’s lawyers a favour by dying in 2017) as the most powerful guy you never heard of.

…

It is made clear to Sharlet that the gang he has joined is all about power, based on a Bible reading that sees Jesus – and, in the Fellowship’s reading of its favourite scripture story, murderous home-wrecker David – as a sort of original alpha male, lending legitimacy to men who believe they have been chosen to be in charge. The faith and devotion are perfunctory, a means to an end, an excuse.

The Family’s focus on the Fellowship hides what is really a portrait of the whole “Christian” right wing in the US – as well as the type of (white) man who has thoroughly infected western postwar politics. A stale whiff of viciously inadequate masculinity hangs over the whole show, from the young Fellows’ awkwardly enforced celibacy to the episode that sets out how Fellowship missionaries have been sent to less developed countries that might be vulnerable to campaigns against gay rights. As an LGBT activist in Romania puts it: “They have a purpose in their life now. To hate you.”

(click here to continue reading The Family: inside the sinister sect that has infected western democracy | Television & radio | The Guardian.)

As an aside, I knew that Hillary and Bill Clinton were at the least allies of Doug Coe’s group, one of the reasons I’ve never supported them. I did not know until I started browsing the Wikipedia entry on The Fellowship (aka The Family) that Senator Amy Klobuchar was the chairperson of The Family’s National Prayer Breakfast in 2010. Ewww. No wonder I don’t support her for president…

National Prayer Breakfast keynote and chairs
National Prayer Breakfast.PNG

Democratic Debate in New Hampshire

Seth Anderson0 comment
  • Suffering

Well, I watched as much of the debate last night as my liver could tolerate. No candidate changed my mind, I have the same rough ranking of all the Democrats on the stage, if my state’s primary were tomorrow, I know who I’d chose. If my preferred candidate is not still in the race by the time that happens, I have backups.

Any of them are better than The Dotard.

Pot Store Near Addiction Center vs Alcohol Sale Near Addiction Center

Seth Anderson0 comment

Wishbone

Ally Marotti of the Chicago Tribune reports:

A marijuana company wants to open a dispensary in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood that would be near trendy restaurants and boutiques. It also would be on the same block as an addiction treatment center.
“This will trigger patients to relapse,” said Dan Lustig, a psychologist who is president and CEO of Haymarket Center.

…

NuMed wants to open its dispensary on the second floor of 935 W. Randolph St., above Floyd’s 99 Barbershop. Haymarket Center is at 932 W. Washington Blvd. If NuMed’s dispensary opens as planned, the entrance will be on North Sangamon Street, on the same block as entrances to Haymarket.

(click here to continue reading Pot store near addiction center ‘cannot possibly be a good idea’ – Chicago Tribune.)

I struggle to understand this logic. Is a cannabis store more likely to be a trouble to the neighborhood than an establishment that sells alcohol? Because also within a block of the Haymarket Center are several restaurants that serve wine, whiskey, beer and so forth. There is even a proposed Jerry Garcia themed jazz club to open in the former location of Wishbone, less than half a block away on the same street. People are not allowed to consume cannabis on location, but they can drink until the room spins. Is Dan Lustig also trying to turn this area of the West Loop into an alcohol free zone? If not, why not?

In my experience, alcohol is more of a trigger for addicts than cannabis. Granted I am not the CEO of a treatment center with a vested interest to get my name in the newspaper, but come on. 

 Grateful Dead

BlockClubChicago:

After rent hikes forced beloved West Loop restaurant Wishbone to relocate from its longtime home, the space could soon be turned into a lively jazz venue paying homage to Jerry Garcia, the late guitarist of the Grateful Dead.

Brooklyn Bowl owner Peter Shapiro has been in talks to bring a Jerry Garcia-themed jazz venue to the vacant restaurant space at 1001 W. Washington Blvd., according to multiple sources familiar with the project.

The West Loop venue will be themed around Garcia, who died in 1995 at age 53, and will be a seated, traditional jazz club, a source said. The venue will also feature an accompanying restaurant.

 

(click here to continue reading Jerry Garcia-Themed Jazz Venue Could Come To West Loop’s Old Wishbone Thanks To Brooklyn Bowl Owner – Block Club Chicago.)

Photograph Titles Continued

Seth Anderson0 comment

Sometimes my system of “mad libbing” my poems1 into photo titles works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe then I should reshuffle somehow, and rename images with the better name. Nobody would even notice but me.

As Close To Yesterday

Self Balance

Reckless To The Point Of Being Honest

Honest To The Point of Imbalance

Footnotes:

  1. and let’s be honest, borrowing other people’s lines too [↩]

Elizabeth Warren Was A Blogger Before A Politician

Seth Anderson0 comment

Low Key Lobby

Talking Points Memo reports:

Starting in December of 2004 and into the early months of 2005 TPM turned itself almost exclusively over to a focus on President Bush’s eventually failed effort to partially phase out Social Security and replace it with a system of private investment accounts. This got the attention of a Harvard Law Professor named Elizabeth Warren and her students and alerted them to the potential of online advocacy about key public policy issues affecting ordinary Americans’ lives. Warren and her students reached out to me and this led to our setting up a short-run blog exclusively focused on the federal bankruptcy bill then moving through Congress. Around the time that legislative battle had run its course we were launching TPMCafe. We decided to make that short-term effort permanent with Warren Reports, one of five sections of the original TPMCafe.

In 2005 Warren was far from an unknown figure. She had published widely read books on middle class squeeze and consumer debt issues and her public profile was growing. But she wasn’t an elected politician and I suspect (though obviously I can’t know) had little expectation of becoming one. Certainly she was far less well known than she is today and has been for going on a decade.

So today we’re republishing the posts she wrote for the TPM Bankruptcy Bill Blog (read them here) and Warren Reports (read them here) from mid-2005 through 2008, after which she went into the Obama administration.

(click here to continue reading Elizabeth Warren Before She Was a Pol | Talking Points Memo.)

That’s pretty interesting actually. I’d read a few of these back then (TPM has long been an essential read for me), but not all of them, and not in many years. 

Google Photos trialing subscription to get best pics printed

Seth Anderson0 comment

Little By Little The Night Turns Around

Speaking of algorithmic art selection, 9to5Google reports:

Google Photos is now trialing a “monthly photo prints” subscription program.

Google will send you 10 prints that will be “automatically selected from your last 30 days of photos.” This subscription program is a way to “get your best memories delivered straight to your home every month.” For $7.99 per month, subscribers get 4×6 pictures printed on matte, white cardstock that features a 1/8-inch border.

While an automatic process leverages Google Photos’ smarts, you’ll be able to pick one of three themes for your monthly prints. Google touts the first “people and pets” option as being the “most popular.” Additionally, you can edit the photos before they’re printed.

  • Most people and pets: Relive your best moments of people and pets. Get prints featuring them and other great photos every month.
  • Mostly landscapes: Revisit your most memorable places. Get prints of your outdoor shots, city scapes, scenery pics, and more sent to you every month.
  • A little bit of everything: Mix it up! Get a mix of all your best moments! Photos of people, landscapes, and other photos delivered to you each month.

(click here to continue reading Google Photos trialing subscription to get best pics printed – 9to5Google.)

SmugMug/Flickr could emulate this, actually, and I’d probably consider it. I don’t use Google Photos, so unless there is an IFTTT recipe that automatically uploads Flickr images to Google Photos, this monthly scheme wouldn’t be viable for me. 

Conceptually, I like the idea of having prints sent to me, selected by not-me. The 21st C.E. is buried in gazillions of photos, but most only exist in the digital realm, and aren’t physical objects that can be studied by future generations, or by our Robot Overlords, or whatever.

For a few months, I tried to capture my favorite images from the previous month in a gallery, but it is a hard project to sustain. Life happens, and that would get put to the back burner up until the next month’s batch was due. 

Maybe I should try in 2020 to make an analog version of the Google algorithmic art selection, and make small prints every month from the previous month? 

Gazing Up In Awe – Added to Flickr Explore

Seth Anderson0 comment

A photo of mine was added to yesterday’s Flickr Explore.

Gazing Up In Awe

Click to embiggen…

I took this photo on February 2nd, 2020, and processed it later that evening.

I personally like this photo more than the Chicago Union Station photograph I discussed previously, even though I didn’t quite capture the photo as I intended – aiming at the sun is always a challenge – I mostly was successful.

The winter weather has been frighteningly depressing this year, overcast skies for weeks and weeks, without even a glimmer of sun, has taken a toll on my mental health.

Specs:

Nikon D7000
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

ƒ/10.0
18.0 mm
1/640
200 ISO

Dirt Behind Your Daydreams – In Flickr Explore

Seth Anderson0 comment

A photo I took of Union Station made into today’s Flickr Explore.

Dirt Behind Your Daydreams

Click to embiggen

I took this photo February 2nd, 2020, and processed it in my digital darkroom a few hours later.

While I think this is a perfectly serviceable photograph, I’m not sure I’d add it to my portfolio. I enjoyed good light, I had the proper lens to capture a decent angle on a modestly interesting and historically significant building, but to me, this illustrates a flaw in letting an algorithm define what is an “excellent” image.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the pat on the back of being included in Flickr Explore, there is certainly a dopamine rush of pleasure when the positive attention of social media suddenly converges on my art.

But if I look at the photos I’ve worked on in the last year, this particular one would not be in my own selection of top ten images to hang in a gallery show or sell prints of.

Am I wrong?

Nikon D7000
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
ƒ/5.6
48.0 mm
1/800
200 ISO

Iowa Should No Longer Be First, Nor Should the Caucus System Exist

Seth Anderson0 comment

Gather Ye Popcorn While Ye May

The Washington Post reports on the debacle of the 2020 Iowa Caucus:

But whatever the culture that exists in evaluating candidates, Iowa has also come under strong and recurring criticism for exercising outsize influence on the nominating process. This predominantly white state, where agriculture is a dominant industry, is far from representative of the nation. The absence of a larger minority population, especially for a Democratic Party that has become increasingly diverse in its makeup, rubs raw many non-Iowa Democrats.

Beyond that, the caucus system itself is a target of criticism. Unlike primary elections, in which voters can cast their ballots in secret at any time of the day when the polls are open, the caucus process is far more demanding. Participants must arrive by a fixed time in the evening and be prepared to stay for several hours as the process of alignment and realignment plays out.

The caucuses disenfranchise some voters who, because of working hours or other issues, are not able to be at their precinct sites at the appointed hour. This year, special provisions were made to make it possible for those people to attend satellite caucuses at different hours. Still, the caucuses are cumbersome and to critics unfair as a result.
  

(click here to continue reading An epic breakdown in Iowa casts a spotlight on the caucus system – The Washington Post.)

Iowa is the first primary because…why exactly? Just because in 1972 they decided to be the first? Iowa may or may not be a great state1 but nobody can argue that it is first because it is a diverse, pluralistic state.

Caucuses seem like a modernized version of the proverbial smoke filled room which used to be how presidential candidates were often selected. Why not just have a primary? Everyone votes, in secret, and go from there? Why make the process so cumbersome?

Why does Iowa have an out-sized role in selecting presidential candidates, especially Democratic Party candidates? Trump stomped Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Iowa by nearly 10 percentage points, and there are only 6 electoral college votes in play. Why not spend time in a state who has enough electoral college votes to make a difference in the end? 

I say rotate the early voting states, maybe the first 5 are selected randomly via a televised lottery? Why not go to other parts of the country to test a candidates skills at fundraising and organization? Why not Hawaii? Alaska? Michigan? Or California, Texas and Florida? 

Non-GMO Sweet Corn

FiveThirtyEight suggested Illinois should be first, based on how the state’s population matches the Democratic Party base:

To sort states by how much they resemble the larger party, I looked at the race, ethnicity and education levels of Democratic voters in each state using the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a survey of more than 50,000 people conducted by YouGov in conjunction with Harvard University.2 The CCES asks respondents who they voted for in the general election, so to estimate a state’s potential Democratic electorate, I included anyone who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, plus anyone else who identified as a Democrat. From there, I broke the Democratic electorate into five groups: white voters with no college degree, white voters with a college degree, African-American voters, Hispanic voters, and “everyone else.”3 (I broke white voters into two groups because education is a particularly meaningful distinction among white Democrats — and white voters overall.) I then looked at how different each state’s demographic makeup was from that of the national Democratic Party electorate. This allowed me to sort states by which ones best reflected the party.4

And as you can see in the table below, Illinois is the state whose population comes closest to being a cross section of Democratic voters. So under this hypothetical where Democrats prioritize states that best reflect their party, Illinois would go first in the nominating process, and Iowa and New Hampshire would move toward the back of the line. Now, if this calendar followed the current setup where four “carve-out” states vote by themselves at the start of the primary process, the three states after Illinois would be New Jersey, New York and Florida. Just after the first four would be Nevada, which currently goes third, reflecting the fact that there has been some effort to increase diversity at the start of the real presidential primary calendar.

(click here to continue reading We Re-Ordered The Entire Democratic Primary Calendar To Better Represent The Party’s Voters | FiveThirtyEight.)

Dance of the Devil Corn

Sounds good to me. No matter what, Iowa shouldn’t be first anymore. 

And if that changes, maybe ethanol won’t be subsidized so heavily…

Footnotes:

  1. I have little interest in visiting, but maybe one day [↩]

A Terrifying Interview About Lake Michigan

Seth Anderson0 comment

You Got To Try To See A Little Further

Edward McClelland of Chicago magazine reports:

In 2013, Lake Michigan reached its all-time recorded low, forcing ships to carry less cargo and leaving docks high and dry. Now, just seven years later, the lake is approaching its all-time high. Earlier this month, waters from a January 11 storm tore up the lakefront path, temporarily shut down portions of Lake Shore Drive, and forced the permanent closure of three Rogers Park beaches, which will now be covered with protective riprap.

Dan Egan, a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter and author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, gave a talk at the Harold Washington Library four days after that storm. He spoke about climate change’s contribution to the lake’s rapid fall and rise, and why this is particularly threatening to low-lying Chicago. This week, I spoke with Egan about that same topic in more depth.

(click here to continue reading A Terrifying Interview About Lake Michigan | Chicago magazine | Politics & City Life January 2020.)

Preferential Treatment

Fascinating interview, worth a read. One snippet that has been haunting me a bit:

EM: Over the years, Chicago built its shoreline outward into Lake Michigan using thousands of acres of landfill. Would we still have these problems if we had our original, natural shoreline?

I think the problems would be worse. Chicago was kind of a sag. It was lowland. It was built up — that’s why Chicago is where it is. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to put three more feet of water into that lake. Just think: we’ve been up six feet since 2013. What if we went up six feet from 2020?

EM: Then all the lakefront streets are underwater.

It would seem. But they already were when the storm came in a couple weeks ago.

EM: Could we end up back down six feet, if we don’t have a polar vortex and we go back to the evaporation we were having?

It could go down further than that. At five feet above the long-term average, we armor the coast, then all of a sudden it shrinks back ten feet. That riprap at Howard Beach, what’s that going to look like if the lake goes down? Do you go in and pull it out?

Yikes!

Your Confidence Might Be Shattered

Gang of Four guitarist and cofounder Andy Gill dies at 64

Seth Anderson0 comment

Gang of Four
Gang of Four

Chicago Tribune:

Andy Gill, guitarist and cofounder of the influential British postpunk band Gang of Four, died Saturday after a brief respiratory illness, according to a statement from the band. He was 64.
“Andy’s final tour in November was the only way he was going to bow out; with a Stratocaster around his neck, screaming with feedback and deafening the front row.,” the statement reads in part.

Via songs like “Damaged Goods,” “What We All Want,” “I Found That Essence Rare” and “I Love a Man in Uniform,” Gill’s jagged, lurching, innovative guitar work, a mixture of punk noise and ’60s R&B textures, was the band’s trademark and, along with acts like Public Image Ltd. and Joy Division, defined the sound of British post-punk. Gang of Four had a wide influence on many musicians that followed — R.E.M., Nirvana and many others cited the band as an influence. Gill also worked extensively as a producer over the years, producing the debut 1984 album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers — whose fusion of funk and punk-rock showed a distinct Gang of Four influence in the band’s early days — the Jesus Lizard, Futureheads, Killing Joke and others.

Gill cofounded the band with lead singer Jon King in 1976 while both were attending art school in the Northern English city of Leeds, a fertile source of late-period punk acts (the Mekons also hailed from there). With political-leaning lyrics influenced by socialism and anti-commercialism — a stance echoed in the band’s single and album artwork — and a name from the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Gang of Four’s propulsive and confrontational music quickly drove it to underground fame, and after an independently released 1978 single (“Damaged Goods”) and an enthusiastic cosign from the influential BBC DJ John Peel, the band rather ironically signed with Britain’s largest major label, EMI.

(click here to continue reading Gang of Four guitarist and cofounder Andy Gill dies at 64 – Chicago Tribune.)

Bummer, another Generation X icon died. 

I can’t claim Gang of Four as my favorite band, or even in my top ten, but they certainly are in my top 100 rock bands.

Mr. President, here’s how the budget works

Seth Anderson0 comment

Fire Neurons Not Bombs

The Washington Post reports:

The way the federal budget works is often a mystery to Americans. But it shouldn’t be to the president of the United States.
Here, the president makes a basic mistake. He asserts that even though he signed into law a bill cutting taxes in 2017, revenue has kept going up — a fact he attributes to a robust economy. Some listeners might even have gotten the impression that the tax cuts were paying for themselves — a false claim the administration made repeatedly before the passage of the tax bill.

But revenue was always supposed to be going up year after year, despite the tax cuts. And revenue is way down from what had been anticipated before Congress approved the tax cuts, which (along with higher spending) is the reason the federal budget deficit is soaring despite a good economy.

…

Raw numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course. When comparing budget numbers over time, it’s generally more useful to look at revenue as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the U.S. economy. As a percent of GDP, revenue was expected to drop from 17.2 percent in 2017 to 16.3 percent in 2019 and 16.4 percent in 2020, the CBO said.

That’s a key reason the federal deficit is soaring — from $665 billion in 2017 to more than $1 trillion in 2020. That’s not supposed to happen when the unemployment rate is below 4 percent. Recall that in Bill Clinton’s presidency — he raised taxes and Congress cut spending — that the budget actually went into surplus. But Trump has signed bills that cut taxes and also dramatically increased spending — the exact opposite approach.

(click here to continue reading Mr. President, here’s how the budget works – The Washington Post.)

One of my biggest wishes is for the citizens of the United States to collectively decide that the office of the President is important, and should only be staffed by competent, smart people, and not award it to someone who proves again and again he is not competent, nor smart.

Some Kinda Bubble Boy

I Mean It Sometimes – Added To Flickr Explore

Seth Anderson0 comment

A while ago, this photo was added to Flickr Explore ((August 30th, 2018, but I forgot to post it here))

I Mean It Sometimes

Walking south on Halsted, about to cross Chicago Avenue.

I took this photo with my iPhone in May, 2018, and processed it in my digital darkroom August 29th, 2018. I actually made a mistake, and imported this photo as a Digital Negative in Lightroom, thus I opened it in Photoshop as if was taken with my Nikon. Ooops. It worked out ok though, but I don’t usually process iPhone snapshots in Photoshop.

Senators Who Are Up For Re-Election in 2020

Seth Anderson0 comment

Lake Michigan at Dusk, number 713

Since I looked this up, here is the list of Senators who are running for election in 2020. I would suggest that the ones who voted against witnesses in the Trump* trial should not win their re-election, unfortunately, some will anyway.

  • Alabama – Doug Jones – voted for witnesses, but who knows if he’ll win again in deeply conservative Alabama
  • Alaska – Dan Sullivan – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election
  • Arizona (special) – Martha McSally – voted no, of course, and should lose her election because of it and other reasons
  • Arkansas – Tom Cotton – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Colorado – Cory Gardner, voted no, should lose because of his moral cowardice
  • Delaware – Chris Coons – voted yes, should win in a Democratic plurality state
  • Georgia –David Perdue – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Georgia (special) –Kelly Loeffler – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Idaho – Jim Risch -voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Illinois –Dick Durbin – voted yes, should win re-election handily as he’s fairly popular in Illinois
  • Iowa – Joni Ernst – voted no, should lose for being a tool of Putin, but Iowa is a toss-up so who knows 
  • Kansas – Pat Roberts (retiring) -voted no, because he has no moral courage. Not sure who wins to replace Roberts, the universe sure hopes it isn’t Kris Kobach. Doubtful this seat flips, but maybe? 
  • Kentucky – Mitch McConnell -voted no, sadly will probably win, but it will be closer than usual for Moscow Mitch.
  • Louisiana  – Bill Cassidy – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Maine – Susan Collins – voted yes, but is not popular in Maine and could very well lose which would cause much rejoicing across the country.
  • Massachusetts – Ed Markey – voted yes, should win easily
  • Michigan –Gary Peters – voted yes, and probably will win, but it will be close
  • Minnesota – Tina Smith – voted yes, and might squeak out a win in Al Franken’s old seat
  • Mississippi –Cindy Hyde-Smith – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election in deeply conservative Mississippi 
  • Montana – Steve Daines -voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Nebraska – Ben Sasse – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election despite having no moral courage
  • New Hampshire – Jeanne Shaheen – voted yes, will probably win re-election
  • New Jersey – Cory Booker – voted yes, will probably win easily. Did you know he is a vegan?
  • New Mexico – Tom Udall (retiring) – voted yes, but will the seat flip? Depends who wins the primary I suppose
  • North Carolina – Thom Tillis – voted no, could very well lose because of it, but it’s currently a toss-up 
  • Oklahoma – Jim Inhofe – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election. Should really move to Yemen or somewhere not America.
  • Oregon – Jeff Merkley – voted yes, should win easily
  • Rhode Island – Jack Reed – voted yes, should win easily
  • South Carolina – Lindsey Graham – voted no, of course, and is in real trouble. I’d be embarrassed to be represented by such a sycophant if I lived in South Carolina
  • South Dakota – Mike Rounds – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Tennessee – Lamar Alexander (retiring) – voted no, even though said Trump* was probably guilty. No moral courage, in contrast to his mentor Howard Baker. Will the state flip? Probably not. 
  • Texas – John Cornyn – voted no, and as much as I hate to say it, will probably win because of rural Texans and voter suppression etc.
  • Virginia – Mark Warner – voted yes, should win re-election, though it could be close
  • West Virginia – Shelley Moore Capito – voted no, sadly will probably win re-election 
  • Wyoming –Mike Enzi (retiring) – voted no, sadly will be replaced by a similarly morally bankrupt Republican. 

Remembering That Imperfect Memory

Too early to game it out with certainty, but it is possible that Moscow Mitch will no longer be Senate Majority Leader in 2021, and the nation will collectively heave a sigh of relief

U.S. Farm Bankruptcies Hit an Eight-Year High: Court Data

Seth Anderson0 comment

If Your Words Could Glow

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports:

U.S. farm bankruptcy rates jumped 20% in 2019 – to an eight-year high – as financial woes in the U.S. agricultural economy continued in spite of massive federal bail-out funding, according to federal court data.

According to data released this week by the United States Courts, family farmers filed 595 Chapter 12 bankruptcies in 2019, up from 498 filings a year earlier. The data also shows that such filings – known as “family farmer” bankruptcies – have steadily increased every year for the past five years.

Farmers across the nation also have retired or sold their farms because of the financial strains, changing the face of Midwestern towns and concentrating the business in fewer hands.

(click here to continue reading U.S. Farm Bankruptcies Hit an Eight-Year High: Court Data – The New York Times.)

Because the Republican style of governance is so, so effective. If you are an owner of a corporate “factory” farm that is…

Remember trade wars are good, and easy to win.