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Two Americas: It’s About Money, Not Race
How are you going to get through the holidays? Will you bake artisanal bread and play board games?
Others will spend the time dying of fentanyl overdose because that is better than acknowledging their lives had fallen somehow even another level closer to hell. These ghosts of our nation drove overdose deaths to record highs. More than 100,000 Americans OD’ed in a recent year-long period, up almost 30 percent from the prior year. According to one researcher, while some users sought out fentanyl others “may not have wanted to take it. But that is what is being sold, and many people are dying without knowing what they are ingesting.” Imagine reaching a point where you don’t care anymore what drug you’re taking. The majority of these deaths, about 70 percent, were among men between the ages of 25 and 54, men who should be creating or influencing or building cars or welding high steel.
Babies are dying too. Overall the U.S. has the worst infant mortality rate in the industrial world. We’re a world “leader” if you isolate the five worst states, where one out of five women of reproductive age live with a high risk of death and other poor maternal health outcomes, such as post-partum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and preterm birth. It is unsurprising the same places where babies die are the same places with poor overall health, high rates of substance abuse, mental health problems, and low socio-economic conditions. I did not mention race but you’re thinking it. Hold on.
I know a maternal health care worker in a “border zone,” a so-so neighborhood near a very rich city. She has two broad groups of clients, roughly half middle class women with an education and insurance, and half women on Medicaid. One group starts prenatal care as soon they learn they are pregnant (and they test often at home to learn ASAP) and one group that shows up in the second trimester for a first visit after they can’t ignore the baby bump anymore. One group has practiced good nutrition since trying to conceive, one group usually drinks and takes drugs and got pregnant by “accident.” One group takes their prenatal role as a duty, the first step in a journey that will lead through enrichment classes and Mandarin lessons and a “good school,” and one sees it as a pain in the ass that interferes with work. If you parsed infant mortality statistics with this divide, one group would be below many developing nations.
Most places talking about the two Americas will at this point invoke race. “To solve a complex problem like maternal mortality, we must better understand why mothers, especially those of color, are dying at higher rates,” says the NGO which compiled some of the latest maternity data. In its own reporting, the woke-standard NYT tries hard not to make it all about race but they just can’t help themselves. They see everything through that lens.
But while you can draw racial lines the reality is, as in the developing world, we have two disparate economies living near but not with each other. They have very little in common other than geographic proximity. They may be coded by race but they are separated by money and education. Racial causality — the thing that causes the other thing to happen — as speculative as it is attractive to those who want that simple answer for everything from how Trump got elected to how to move more Nikes by hiring Colin Kaepernick as a spokesman.
To look deeper into the economic roots of Third World America, Hawaii is a fine laboratory example because it removes race as the easy go-to driver of all things bad. Hawaii has no racial majority. The largest group are Asians at 38 percent, that number itself a pastiche of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and others who see little in common with each other other than your statistical needs. Only 24 percent of the population are white, 10 percent native Hawaiian with the rest a broad spread of ethnicities including 23 percent who are multi-ethnic. It is hard to find a simple BLM answer here, or to isolate the mythical idea of “POC” when almost everyone is of some color.
That’s the new world here in Hawaii where abject poverty (some call it West Virginia with much better weather) lives alongside incredible wealth. The stark disparity (a bad joke would label it black and white) makes broad poverty statistics suspect; a millionaire and a homeless person don’t create an average net worth of $500,000. But there is plenty to see off the beaches, large homeless encampments right out of Grapes of Wrath. For the last nine years Hawaii spent more on public welfare benefits, about 20 percent of the state budget, then it did on education. More than one out 10 people in Hawaii get food stamps (SNAP), though the number is even higher if you include free lunches at school and for the elderly. One out of four women and girls say they can’t afford menstrual products and make do with toilet paper or handouts if they attend public school. Fewer working people means fewer tax-paying people, and Hawaii already vies with California for the nation’s highest state income tax. Hawaii exists in distinct economic microbiomes where the division is not color but income; call it spatial segregation. The cops have devolved into a force that essentially manages the social results of the inequality.
If you want to see it for yourself, do some grocery shopping. At Whole Foods in swanky Ward Village nearly everyone has Amazon Prime and pays electronically. There is a huge cheese and wine section and a butcher counter where the butcher talks to you. A sign explains how the cows were raised. At the seen-better-days Times Market on Beretania there are signs saying “no checks” and “we take SNAP” and the ground beef of unknown origin comes in five pound packs. If Whole Foods has things in a can, they came from Italy. Times has very limited fresh anything. You could walk from one store to the other in 10 minutes but no one would. You could probably look up the infant mortality rates for each neighborhood but it’s pretty clear your guess is already correct. You could do the same with reading levels for a few public high schools on the island and the Punahou School, the private high school Barack Obama graduated from, tuition paid by his well-to-do grandparents. You could visit the “nice” CVS where someone asks if they can help you, and then the one where they lock up the razors and deodorant and watch you from the aisle cap to make sure you don’t steal something else.
And if think Hawaii is especially unique in disassembling race from economic inequality, checkout Nantucket, where presidents spend their holidays. Former President Joe Biden drops by the $30 million Nantucket estate owned by private equity billionaire David Rubenstein. Meanwhile the Nantucket outside the mansion’s gates was one of four counties in Massachusetts that saw projected food insecurity rates for struggling families increase by more than 70 percent. Half the local population who are not multi-millionaires struggle to pay their rent. They are close to 90 percent white.
So how to account for Hawaii, with inequality problems in spite of diversity? Or Nantucket? Hawaii is what we’re all supposed to be aiming at, a fully diverse world where whites are a minority. Nantucket refutes the racial narrative. The same problems of economic inequality exist, and can’t be conveniently blamed on the grievance narrative of choice.
If you are waiting for the solution paragraph here you will be disappointed. There’s probably a German word for what this all is, a set of problems without a solution because no one really wants to resolve them; the poor, dressed up as people of color, are far too handy for Democratic politicians to lose. The real missing word we are searching for here is one that describes modern America, one where some bake bread and play board games to pass the time and others OD on fentanyl and watch their babies die. Every day we blame all this on the ravages of slavery or on systemic racism, we simply allow that gap to grow wider. Almost as if someone wanted it that way.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Reader said...
1Bring back the civilian conservation corps.
01/9/26 12:16 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2Geez Peter, you just wrote about a country that actually works. DENMARK. That is why Our criminally insane Prezidunce threatens it. The orange clown is the living embodiment of what is sick about US.
YOU KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH US. SEE A PROBLEM, FIX IT.
01/9/26 2:43 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
3Bauer: Denmark doesn’t “work” and neither does Finland. They cleverly manage their image message of an enlightened and adjusted populace to other nations. Both nations are full of repressed uptight citizens.
New subject: A lesbian gal is shot dead by an ICE guy. She and the press identify her as Christian. A legitimate Christian would have approached the ICE guys with a hot chocolate, a hug and a message that she hopes they would approach illegals with compassion. She was far from a Christian. A real Christian is not full of anger but instead a seering compassion for all of us deeply flawed homo sapiens.
01/9/26 6:10 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Two Amerikas, One is delusional
MAGA believes the Fat Gatsby’s lies despite no evidence to support them, like Donnie Dementia won the 2020 election. His 40,000 plus lies are easily debunked with an internet search. When asked about his opposition to renewable energy wind turbines, for example, Demented pointed to China as an example, saying: “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? They are not able to find any. They don’t have windmills. I have told my people we will not approve windmills. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
But China is a world leader in both wind turbine production and usage.
There’s probably a German word for what this all is, a set of problems without a solution because the delusional refuses to listen to the truth.
01/9/26 8:39 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
5While on tour as Gerry Quarry’s pianist circa 1975 (I didn’t make that up) I stayed at the Coral Reef Hotel. Hawaii was just then considering legalizing gambling including on the passenger ships to and from the Islands. Soon the Chinese mafia, the native Hawaiians, Japanese and Korean businessmen Philippine mafia and the usual white flim-flam types from the Mainland were sorting out who gets to run the casinos in the usual way- bodies floating in the canals. That’s how things are usually settled in today’s very diverse struggle for power and wealth.
01/10/26 9:01 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
6PVB. Studies show that 10% of the hip males are getting access to all the babes while the 90% loser incels are jerking to porn in a relative’s basement. That actually may end up benefitting our species. The alpha lotharios get their sperm into babes while the slacker dopers shoot theirs into a kleenex.
01/11/26 11:48 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
7PVB: Nothing will change for the good as long as we stupidly think of replication as a right. Replication is NOT an inalienable right.
01/11/26 1:20 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
8I’m rooting for Vlad to outbid Donald in buying Greenland. Denmark needs the money and nobody in cares about what the losers in Greenland think. So as Denmark turns over the deed to Greenland I hope it is with a, “Gee, I hope you guys get along (Ruskies and ‘Murkcans.)
01/12/26 4:04 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9Lord Vulgarian gives the whole game away
Called out in Detroit for protecting EPSTEIN’s pedos, Donnie Dementia aka Lord Vulgarian gave the little finger (actually his middle finger) to a heckler. This is not smart for LV to show his hand, as telling someone he wanted to F-U is what got him in trouble in the first place.
01/13/26 9:59 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
10Two Amerikas: Fascist vs US
“If you are waiting for the solution paragraph here you will be disappointed.”
Actually Peter IDENTIFIED IT: IT’s ABOUT MONEY.
DEFUND FASCIST ICE BROWNSHIRTS.
DEFUND FASCIST MILITARY PREPARING TO ATTACK A NATO COUNTRY.
DEFUND FASCIST SUPREME COURT.
01/14/26 11:19 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11JP,
Don’t get your hopes up on a Russia bidding war for Greenland. Only 10 % of Amerikans support DD’s latest pathetic Epstein distraction. The Senate already kicked Dementia in his tiny dick for attacking Venezuela without its permission. Even Mitch the Kentucky turtle has stuck out his neck to tell DD attacking a NATO country was off the table.
RFK JR let it slip he does not think DD will live much longer, with a reference to his fast food diet. But the truth is the MIC DEEP STATE will send DD to his Bedminster final resting place if he threatens the status quo with NATO. DD has made a fatal mistake that JFK made: creating enemies of the Usual Suspects and letting Keyser Söze get away with it. BESIDES, DD’s heart is just not up to it.
01/14/26 4:23 PM | Comment Link
Joevon said...
12Yo PVB it’s ALL about race! Race, race, race! Race-ISM! We want our reparations! Give us our money you RASCIST! Peace out.
01/15/26 5:51 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
13Bauer: If Trump promised every ‘murkcyn $10K from the Greenland mineral plunder they’d be angry he hadn’t invaded and conquered earlier!
01/16/26 9:43 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
14JP,
Falling for the TrumpEpstein Greenland distraction, eh? Thought you were too smart for that. There is Green in them there Greenland hills, right? Them valuable minerals are far deeper in the ground than TRUMPEPSTEIN popularity ratings.
Back to reality- TRUMPEPSTEIN is most dangerous when he has nothing to lose. TRUMPEPSTEIN proved that after he lost the 2020 election. Nero would be proud. TRUMPEPSTEIN would sell Kristi and Hot Lips to an El Sal sex trafficking ring if he thought it would get him out of the TrumpEpstein mess. TrumpEpstein gets an erection thinking about the Insurrection ACT. But them damn judges keep getting in his way. Now all of TRUMPEPSTEIN bad ideas are failing in the polls. TrumpTariffs are polling the worst. Voters got to blame somebody for all their past BAD choices. $10K? DD can’t bribe his way out with the voters. Even his dumbass Hispanic voters are panicking they are the next to be deported.
Wag your dog on Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Canada, TrumpEpstein. But stay away from Kristi. She will take you out if you disappoint her.
01/16/26 4:30 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
15Pity those hapless Cubans on Maduro’s protection detail. They probably never got their sidearms out of their holsters. Droned, sonically pummeled and then quickly eliminated. I’m staying in the suburbs this summer. I sense a messy blowback in Philadelphia.
01/17/26 9:44 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
16Bauer: When Trump croaks and that most likely will happen way before he finishes his second term will you pursue him in the afterlife? It seems he has become your life’s mission. You’re going to have to find a hobby to fill the void of being Trump’s Javert.
01/17/26 2:51 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17JP,
Dont forget I was standing right behind Stupid Hitler for an hour when Gorby visited the State Department. If I wanted to change history I could have pushed SH in front of a bus on 23rd St. But Stupid Hitler played a significant role in the history of AMERIKA: destroying the real dangerous fascists who could be in charge. Imagine if MAGA was in the control of a sinister guy with some real intelligence, similar to the situation in Nazi Germany. In the Endgame Hitler was the greatest threat to Nazi Germany.
01/17/26 5:56 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
18Bauer: I think PVB’s point was about all of us being tragically held as captive slaves within a system of needing to establish a fighting chance within the mating arena. It is indeed about money acquiring enough status that will capture and hold the attention of an attractive female.
01/18/26 9:13 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19JP,
As Dementia and his ilk have proven time and again- The love of money is the root of all evil. Even Peter will attest.
01/19/26 10:14 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
20What isn’t wrong with Donnie Dementia?
Dear Jonas:
Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT
At this point one has to ask what is wrong with Peter and anyone else who does not condemn Stupid Hitler’s ravings? I know Peter is only in it for the money, but come on man.
01/19/26 4:24 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
21It seems, to me anyway, that all the talk about how Trump is threatening America’s cherished democracy and freedom traditions comes from the well off and culturally celebrated. Springsteen is now on a patriotism trip although when his government made a call to serve his beloved country he hung up. Yes, it was clearly a misguided, immoral and illegal military venture in SouthEast Asia but someone has to go in your place if you bail. Springsteen’s exemption was evidently due to a concussion from a motorcycle accident. I too rode at 80 mph in traffic on a Honda CB750 K1 without a helmet on the Santa Monica Freeway in the ’70s. Once I had children I wore a helmet. I got drafted and took my 9’8″ Hobie board to Mazatlan, Mexico knowing I could muster a life playing hotel lobby gigs but with no return ticket to the States. I decided to return and submit and ended up a MOS 02N20 while knowing the defining crucible of my generation-the Vietnam draft- had glanced off me. I’m no patriot due to those surreal two years of “service to my country”.
01/19/26 6:46 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
22OK Bauer. How in hell did you end up in protection detail under State. Be honest!
01/19/26 6:49 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
23JP,
How do Russians sleep at night knowing insane Donnie Dementia has the nuclear codes? Greenland today, MOSCOW TOMORROW? Putin should put Russian forces on HIGH ALERT. DD, who has a deathly fear of sharks, has jumped the shark with Greenland. Over 77,000,000 voted for the felon knowing he was capable of doing anything he wanted. Putin cannot trust MAGA REPUGS to stop his insanity. DD says he wants Greenland to stop Putin from getting it. DD can just launch the missiles. That will stop Putin…and the rest of US.
01/19/26 8:26 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
24TrumpEpstein is really desperate to distract from some really sick photos Bondi et al are hiding from the public. Somebody outside this sicko group must have seen them. Where is the TrumpEpstein Deep Throat in the Deep State that can nix this sicko out permanently? Rat TrumpEpstein out and you can replace Keystone Kash.
01/20/26 10:04 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
25If it’s about money, then Peter better get moving: In Hawaii, retirees need about $2.2 million to stop working at 65 and cover essential living expenses for 25 years, including housing, groceries, transportation, utilities and health-care costs. That is the highest estimated minimum of any state. By comparison, Oklahoma has the lowest estimated total, at $735,284, to cover the same basic costs.
01/20/26 10:44 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
26BREAKING NEWS: TRUMPEPSTEIN has agreed to give Denmark the TRUMPEPSTEIN FILES in exchange for Greenland.
01/21/26 9:30 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
27JP,
Did the Deep State try to crash AIR FORCE ONE last night? Electrical problem forced an aborted Davos flight. Curious that Stupid Hitler called off his Greenland invasion the next day. The next DS warning SH may find Goebbels Miller head in his bed.
01/21/26 4:55 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
28Amerika’s Demented Uncle progressive career
Donnie Dementia has a new career in those Progressive insurance commercials poking fun at premature senile customers who need adult supervision. After his embarrassing senile performance at Davos, DD won’t be acting. While the world is getting tired of DD’s progressive tariff taxes, Progressive Insurance should hire this demented fool.
01/22/26 10:22 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
29Bauer: that’s an even scarier scenario than yours about Trump as a budding Hitler. Rogue players in the MIC can easily nudge the system into chaos and then everyone will pine for the good old days when the focus was only on a single bold and seemingly reckless guy- Trump, There are lots of guys far worse than Trump lurking in the shadows. Today’s Cofer Black and John Negroponte types are always in the wings.
01/22/26 12:35 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
30Bauer: I have no idea what the beribboned gangsters at the Pentagon are up to. Do they get angry at a POTUS for getting them involved in awkward stuff they prefer to avoid or for not getting them involved in enough awkward stuff to guarantee super florid funding? They are in the protection racket shake down business so it’s always a win win for them. We sheeple must be kept very very afraid. Their services are needed to keep us safe in the homeland from beheading bogeymen.
01/22/26 1:21 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
31JP,
It looks as if Real Estate genius Donnie Dementia is about to start a worm farm, judging by his diseased hands and his brainless Davos speech. This could be the work of the MIC or all those McD French fries. Putin better make a deal fast this weekend on Ukraine. DD COULD BE DOA.
01/23/26 10:56 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
32Donnie the Draft DODGER shoots off his big mouth
Trump on NATO: “I’ve always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? That’s really the ultimate test. I’m not sure of that. We’ve never needed them. They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, off the front lines.”
THEY ALL HAD BONE SPURS.
01/24/26 10:12 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
33White people now have their own George Floyd in Alex Pretti a guy who brings his concealed carry licensed sidearm to a protest site is sort of like taking fentanyl after passing off a phony twenty at a convenience store. PVB needs to expand his Money-Race comments. What about pumped up Authority vs Righteous over reaction as the core conflict of our time? Minneapolis now has its Kent State moment.
01/26/26 11:22 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
34JP,
Guns don’t kill people…untrained morons do.
01/27/26 7:47 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
35The only question that remains of the PRETTI murder is which prison KRISTI dog killer spends the next 20 years. There is a nice prison cell in El Sal with her name on it. The two ICE cold murderers will blame Mafia Don Bovino, who will blame Kristi, who has already blamed Goebbels Miller. Demented said he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave and not lose any voters. Well, Demented ain’t running again, but his stupidity in Minnesota will kill the Repug chances in November and in 2028.
01/27/26 9:06 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
36Goebbels Miller’s MAGA POLITICS OF FEAR has reached a turning point. Now the Dems are turning his fear playbook on the fascist goon. Fear this:
The Repugs are coming for your guns. Demented has said it.
The streets are not safe as ICE PROUD BOYS come gunning for you.
You have no rights. Protest and Repug goons will kill you.
Carry a gun and the ICE PROUD BOYS will kill you.
EVEN AMCON has turned against the ICE PROUD BOY GOONS. It knows the Repugs fear and loathing playbook has lost the 2026 election. Be very afraid, Repugs. A very PRETTI badly ending for you.
01/27/26 10:38 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
37Still on point: Rob Reiner failed his draft physical by gulping down a hand full of amphetamines. Rob Reiner’s means of avoiding the draft meant he had only postponed a possible death in ‘Nam to die at the hands of his drug addicted gook son many decades later. Is that what they call Karma?
01/28/26 2:12 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
38Trump: I could shoot a woman and a male nurse in Minnesota and not lose any…wait, what?
01/28/26 5:51 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
39What the misguided magnanimity dispensers fail to realize is that ICE guys are pursuing some pretty nasty and dangerous creeps. It’s not all suit up and party with an assault weapon. The nurse was a jerk- he’s inserting himself into their dangerous business and giving them more stress. Those who want to build a mini ziggurat near the curb to the guy better hope the creep ICE was pursuing doesn’t kill one of “their kind” now that their disruption gave the creep chance to slip away.
But the real lesson is that we do not respect law enforcement. It is a dangerous vocation. Just a regular traffic stop could end a cop’s life quickly. ICE guys are not property vetted so a lot of unbalanced blue light guys sign up who should never be allowed to carry a weapon. Only the finest from each generation should be allowed to enforce the laws. Unfortunately that is rare.
01/29/26 9:08 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
40JP,
Are the damn Putinites controlling your news sources? FACT: 75 % of the undocs arrested by ICE had NO CRIMINAL RECORD.
Demented has lost Newt Gingrich, and he has lost Amerika:
“Americans don’t want to see the police behaving like a mob, Americans don’t want to see people killed in the streets, and Americans don’t want to see the kind of hunting down people in a way that really demeans the process.”
“We need a national conversation about what we’re going to do, about people who’ve come here, some of them 20 years ago, who’ve been obeying the law, paying taxes, good neighbors, have kids, go to PTA,” Gingrich said. “Very few Americans want to see the police walk in and pick them up and deport them.”
These ICE goons have more criminal records.
01/29/26 6:01 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
41The sad thing about a street level activist in Minneapolis is that they want to insert their “quiet desperation” identity into what they want to be a historically notable event. They are far more dangerous than some ICE guy vying for macho status.
01/29/26 7:35 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
42Amerika: Diary of a New York MadMan
Over 77.000,000 dumbass Amerikans trusted a sex pervert who sat on his fat ass eating popcorn while he watched on Faux News his MAGA MORONS attack the Capitol rather than let a BLACK WOMAN live in their WHITE HOUSE. Dems just couldn’t accept these morons could never trust a BLACK WOMAN.
So why should the rest of US trust these morons who trust Demented, a proven psychopath? The rest of the world doesn’t. Iran won’t. Iran’s past experience with Demented and perception of its own existential threat may test the limits of DD’s approach to foreign policy. The pathological liar swears that he wants a deal, but the Iranian government is signaling that it simply does not believe him, based on what it believes to be his duplicitous previous attacks during negotiations, and his willingness to abduct foreign leaders as a means of projecting US power.
The Iranians appear to see few off-ramps, and based on their experience in the past year, now regard concessions as merely inviting further pressure. The Islamic Republic – or at least elements within it – sees that its own survival is at stake. So now, for the US and Demented it is the other side that may have nothing to lose. In these circumstances, can DEMENTED’s “madman” foreign policy approach work? DD’s madman actions may result on a bigger disaster for New York. Bin Laden didn’t have nukes.
01/30/26 4:15 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
43It is about money. MAGA FARMERS Bought the farm
AP: Net farm income is projected to collapse by $41 billion this year—a 23% drop and one of the sharpest declines in decades. Farmers aren’t tightening belts; they’re checking whether the barn rafters will hold.
But that wasn’t the only blow to farmers. Demented’s immigration policies were the next strike. By threatening the people who work in the fields at-risk of arrest, farmers were left with even more problems.
“If tariffs were the heart attack, immigration policy was the stroke,” Lincoln Project Wilson wrote. “MAGA demanded mass deportations and got them—only to discover that Stephen Miller’s raids didn’t inspire local teenagers to pick blueberries in 100-degree heat. With roughly 70% of farmworkers foreign-born, the labor force vanished. In New Jersey and California, fruit rotted in the fields.
Don’t worry. Demented’s rich supporters will buy their land for cheap.
01/30/26 10:12 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
44Two Amerikas: the Repugs are a crime syndicate
As if stealing Venezuelan oil wasn’t enough, the Repug crime syndicate is intent on stealing future elections. Its failed attempt on Jan 6 taught it to begin its criminal action way before the election.
The theft of Georgia voter records of the 2020 presidential vote in Fulton County, Georgia marked both an extraordinary event in the history of American elections and a significant escalation in the Repug crime syndicate breaking of democratic norms.
The Repug crime syndicate has long claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen and blamed Georgia, in particular, for his loss to Joe Biden. The warrant served on the Fulton County election center sought ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data and voter rolls, which it alleged might constitute “evidence of the commission of a criminal offense.” It cited stiff criminal penalties related to “the procurement, casting, or tabulation” of fraudulent ballots.
Experts said the action in Fulton County had triggered fears of federal interference in this year’s midterm elections.
“It’s a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to expand federal control over our country’s historically state-run election infrastructure,” said Derek Clinger, a senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative, an institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Dramatic escalation? And Jan 6 was a peaceful protest?
01/31/26 10:49 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
45People who self identify as “artist” are supposed to be thinking long term and big thoughts which transcend the mundane vagaries of human history. Rather than realizing Trump’s name most likely will removed from the venue after his death they had to register disdain and outrage via a boycott. Great artists are entitled to be spared the indignity of playing in a venue with Trump’s name on it. They had no problem playing at and supporting a venue named for a philandering, adulterous POTUS who suckered America into a disastrous war. I’m embarrassed- not really- for discomforting the smug progressive elite by pointing out their hypocrisy.
02/2/26 10:10 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
46JP,
Then you mean we should have named it the LBJ Domino Theory Center.
As for the closing of the Center for the next two years, we still get lots of entertainment on the tv, like the execution of the weak by the Nazi wannabees. I am making do watching old Twilight Zone reruns. Tonight is a favorite: Monsters are Due on Maple Street, where the Aliens watch US kill ourselves.
As for Fat Gatsby, he is lucky he wasn’t ended by Hookers or by Crook. When the Repugs lose in November, FG will have completed his double agent mission and will get a big bonus from George Soros for banning guns in public.
02/2/26 10:38 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
47I’m all for naming it the TWILIGHT EPIPHANY ZONE FOR THE ARTS when it reopens.
02/3/26 11:01 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
48Bauer- I sense both of us would be fine once Trump is gone if they renamed the Kennedy Center: The Rod Serling Moral Epiphany Center for the Arts.
02/3/26 9:29 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
49Nazi DHS don’t like free speech
Post: The Trump administration is targeting free speech with a little-known legal tool: administrative subpoenas.
The Washington Post reports that a retired Philadelphia man, Jon, 67, found himself in the government’s crosshairs after he emailed a lead prosecutor at the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Dernbach, who was handling the deportation case of an Afghan refugee, identified as H, asking him to consider that the man’s life was in danger from the Taliban.
Days later, DHS agents showed up at Jon’s door. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the U.K., Jon was worried about potential violence. The agents showed him a copy of the email and asked to see his side of the story. They didn’t know about the administrative subpoena but said they received orders to interview Jon by DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
02/4/26 9:14 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
50Peter: If you are waiting for the solution paragraph here you will be disappointed. There’s probably a German word for what this all is, a set of problems without a solution because no one really wants to resolve them; the poor, dressed up as people of color, are far too handy for Democratic politicians to lose.
Actually, we need these poor immigrants..because they apparently are paying the taxes, as opposed to Demented who only paid $675 in 2016 and 2017.
The government first began gathering detailed information on benefits use by citizenship status in 1994. The data show:
For each year from 1994 to 2023, the US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government.
Over that period, immigrants created a cumulative fiscal surplus of $14.5 trillion in real 2024 US dollars, including $3.9 trillion in savings on interest on the debt.
Without immigrants, US government public debt at all levels would be at least 205 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—nearly twice its 2023 level.
02/4/26 5:28 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
51While DHS Nazis are murdering US citizens up north, perhaps dogkiller Kristi should be sending these goons back to the Mexican border to deal with real criminals. Consider the current case of Savannah Guthrie’s mother in Tucson, likely kidnapped by crossborder Mexican criminals. Savannah is reportedly worth more than $40 million. A ransom note demanding more than a million in bitcoin for her release has reportedly been sent to several tv news outlets.
Assuming these criminals wore the appropriate masked attire, if the ransom is paid Savannah’s mother stands a chance of being released. Doubtful the likely Mexican kidnappers would risk taking her across the border from Tucson. However, the bitcoin avenue is likely going to be used in future kidnappings of rich Americans living along the Mexican border.
So get off your fat ass, Kristi and start investigating Mexican criminals operating on the border.
02/4/26 9:43 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
52So Demented Donnie not only has the blood of two US citizens in Minnesota on his tiny hands, he has helped Mexican kidnappers to run wild along the Arizona border by removing ICE investigators from doing their jobs. DD can call Savannah and tell her he is sending Keystone Kash to lead the kidnap investigation, but these two morons would be more useful if they removed themselves from doing any more damage.
02/5/26 9:52 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
53TACO Chickens Coming Home to Rout
While TACO TRUMP has lost the MexAmerican support with his ICE NAZIS, his TrumpTariffs have damaged his rich friends’ support.
—U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009.
—At the same time, companies announced just 5,306 new hires, also the lowest January since 2009, which is when Challenger, Gray & Christmas began tracking such data.
—Also, job openings fell sharply in December to 6.54 million, to their lowest since September 2020. Available jobs are down by more than 900,000 just since October.
Soon the Repugs will join the unemployment line.
02/5/26 2:34 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
54Donnie Crypto Anti-Midas just killed Bitcoin
Bitcoin rallied to $120,000 on Trump2.0 but now is below the second starting point at $60,000. No doubt the market thinks DD and Bitcoin are toast. If it falls another $5000, Bitcoin 200 day moving average crashes. Next stop is $39,000. The Fat Gatsby won’t be able to post bail when he is convicted for (fill in the blank) crimes.
02/5/26 7:38 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
55Two Americas: With Repugs It is always about race
Demented just posted a video of the Obama as monkeys. Hot Lips says Dems are totally wrong to take offense…as this has been the image Repugs have always had of black people.
02/6/26 9:02 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
56Donnie Dementia knows his time is running out, as the Dems will definitely flip the House this November on his diseased administration. That is why DD is desperate to rename the JFK Center, as well as Penn Station NY and Dulles International. His name will be removed by the Dems on everything requiring their vote.
Come 2027, the diseased Demented will have no power of the purse and impeachments will erupt like herpes on his tiny dick. Hot Lips would be well advised to avoid any more lip service. This also means Kristi will have to go back to her South Dakota shithole or be subject to her impeachment in 2027. Goebbels Miller will have his Nazi Flying ICE Monkeys sent back to the Mexican border. Kash Patel will join his podcaster bud and Tulsi will be charged as a Russian asset.
At least Peter should be happy as he is getting tired of writing articles to defend this sick fuck administration.
02/6/26 10:01 AM | Comment Link