British World War Two Ministry of Food poster urging potato consumption. Taken from Sara Sundin's blog on World War Two.
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Poster Saturday. Soup
British World War Two Ministry of Food poster urging potato consumption. Taken from Sara Sundin's blog on World War Two.
Friday, October 30, 2020
Pandemic, Part 3.
July 25, 2020
And on to part 3 of our Pandemic series. Perhaps its surprising that there aren't more.
At this point, as we post this new chapter, it's really hard to tell where this is all going. Careful observers have the feeling that we may be headed back into quarantines, and in some states we have, but nobody can really tell for sure just now. There's an eerie feeling about all of it, with the unknown being a big part of that.
________________________________________________________________________________
July 27, 2020
A new model suggest that Coronavirus deaths could be cut by 2/3s if people universally wore masks.
COVID 19 is now in North Korea. Interestingly early information suggests that it may have entered the country by way of a defector to South Korea who recently returned to North Korea. The country has entered a state of emergency.
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July 29, 2020
Italy, whose infection rate is now way down, extended its Coronavirus Emergency yesterday.
The World Health Organization stated yesterday that rather than a spring wave and a fall wave, the disease was likely to have one big wave which we are still in.
U.S. infection rates continue to be at record or near record rates.
A major promising vaccine has gone into a large trial.
Wyoming extended its existing disease orders. In doing so the Governor urged wearing masks, stating that people who wanted the economy to fail should refuse to do so. On the same day, Wyoming had a record number of reported new cases.
A pending bill in Congress on relief for the pandemic included $8B for military weapons. Both major recent relief packages have featured favored policies or, in this case material, depending upon the party.
_________________________________________________________________________________
July 30, 2020
Michigan has imposed restrictions in the form of closing bars and limiting indoor gatherings to ten people.
The Speaker of the House has mandated masks in the US House of Representatives.
_________________________________________________________________________________
July 31, 2020
Jury trials were announced as resuming next week in Wyoming.
Casper College announced that it would have all live classes for the fall, but mask wearing would be mandatory.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 4, 2020
The Laramie Brewfest is the latest casualty of the pandemic, having just been cancelled.
The huge motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, is not however. While it expects to draw 250,000 attendees, and while the local community wished for it to be cancelled this year, it's going forward for its 75th anniversary.
As progress occurs on a vaccine, experts are warning that the pandemic will continue to be with us for months, if not years, and that things will not immediately return to normal.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 5, 2020
Mississippi mandated masks at public gatherings and schools.
Canadian pastor David Lah was arrested for defying a large gathering prohibition in Myanmar.
________________________________________________________________________________
July 27, 2020
A new model suggest that Coronavirus deaths could be cut by 2/3s if people universally wore masks.
COVID 19 is now in North Korea. Interestingly early information suggests that it may have entered the country by way of a defector to South Korea who recently returned to North Korea. The country has entered a state of emergency.
_________________________________________________________________________________
July 29, 2020
Italy, whose infection rate is now way down, extended its Coronavirus Emergency yesterday.
The World Health Organization stated yesterday that rather than a spring wave and a fall wave, the disease was likely to have one big wave which we are still in.
U.S. infection rates continue to be at record or near record rates.
A major promising vaccine has gone into a large trial.
Wyoming extended its existing disease orders. In doing so the Governor urged wearing masks, stating that people who wanted the economy to fail should refuse to do so. On the same day, Wyoming had a record number of reported new cases.
A pending bill in Congress on relief for the pandemic included $8B for military weapons. Both major recent relief packages have featured favored policies or, in this case material, depending upon the party.
_________________________________________________________________________________
July 30, 2020
Michigan has imposed restrictions in the form of closing bars and limiting indoor gatherings to ten people.
The Speaker of the House has mandated masks in the US House of Representatives.
_________________________________________________________________________________
July 31, 2020
Jury trials were announced as resuming next week in Wyoming.
Casper College announced that it would have all live classes for the fall, but mask wearing would be mandatory.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 4, 2020
The Laramie Brewfest is the latest casualty of the pandemic, having just been cancelled.
The huge motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, is not however. While it expects to draw 250,000 attendees, and while the local community wished for it to be cancelled this year, it's going forward for its 75th anniversary.
As progress occurs on a vaccine, experts are warning that the pandemic will continue to be with us for months, if not years, and that things will not immediately return to normal.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 5, 2020
August 5
Mississippi mandated masks at public gatherings and schools.
Canadian pastor David Lah was arrested for defying a large gathering prohibition in Myanmar.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 7, 2020
Schools on the Wind River Indian Reservation are starting this school year off with virtual learning and have postponed school sports.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 9, 2020
Yesterday the President issued a series of executive orders that are aimed at economic relief due to the recession caused by COVID 19. This came after negotiations in Congress failed to yield a deal on the competing provisions aimed at the same topic.
The legality of this move is very questionable and undoubtedly will be challenged in court.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 11, 2020
The Mountain West Athletic Conference, which includes the University of Wyoming, cancelled football for the fall.
I don't really follow sports, but it's my understanding that this is also true of other fall sports this year.
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August 12, 2020
Trini Lopez, folk singer and actor of the 1960s and 1970s, died at age 83 of the disease.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 7, 2020
Schools on the Wind River Indian Reservation are starting this school year off with virtual learning and have postponed school sports.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 9, 2020
Yesterday the President issued a series of executive orders that are aimed at economic relief due to the recession caused by COVID 19. This came after negotiations in Congress failed to yield a deal on the competing provisions aimed at the same topic.
The legality of this move is very questionable and undoubtedly will be challenged in court.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 11, 2020
The Mountain West Athletic Conference, which includes the University of Wyoming, cancelled football for the fall.
I don't really follow sports, but it's my understanding that this is also true of other fall sports this year.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 12, 2020
Trini Lopez, folk singer and actor of the 1960s and 1970s, died at age 83 of the disease.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 18, 2020
Wuhan China, where the disease first broke out, hosted a huge party yesterday.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 21, 2020
Cineplex theaters in Canada are reopening nationwide.
The first reports of infections of SARS-CoV-2 stemming from attendance at the Sturgis motorcycle rally are coming in, all attributable so far to attendance at a large party.
Delta Airlines has banned retired Navy Seal Robert O'Neill from its flights. O'Neill photographed himself not wearing a mask on a Delta flight, with a comment about himself, and an older man wearing a mask and a Marine Corps hat in the background.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 21, 2020
Cineplex theaters in Canada are reopening nationwide.
The first reports of infections of SARS-CoV-2 stemming from attendance at the Sturgis motorcycle rally are coming in, all attributable so far to attendance at a large party.
Delta Airlines has banned retired Navy Seal Robert O'Neill from its flights. O'Neill photographed himself not wearing a mask on a Delta flight, with a comment about himself, and an older man wearing a mask and a Marine Corps hat in the background.
_________________________________________________________________________________
August 24, 2020
Kentucky Fried Chicken suspended the use of its "finger licking good" slogan for the duration of the pandemic.
___________________________________________________________________________________
August 25, 2020
The University of Hong Kong has identified a man who has had COVID-19 twice, neither time seriously. His infections were with two different strains over time. This is significant in that it demonstrates that having had one strain doesn't prevent you from getting infected with another, but how you manifest it the second time isn't clear. The individual in question was asymptomatic the second time.
August 25, 2020, part two
And now two more individuals, both in the Netherlands, have exhibited the same thing.
It's worth remembering that some have theorized that the 1918 Flu it the world in two waves and then dissipated as it continued to evolve. That's not proven, it's merely a theory, but it does suggest that we may be looking at a more complicated scenario than we were hoping for.
Additionally, it may mean that COVID-19 behaves much like the common cold, to which it is closely related, and it will mutate itself out of our being able to be absolutely immune to it. That doesn't mean that a type of immunity won't develop, but it'll be sort of a weak one leaving us still vulnerable to catching it, but our bodies will be able to handle it relatively quickly, much like colds. If that's the case, it'll be around for years and years.
__________________________________________________________________________________
August 26, 2020
New infection rates in the United States have fallen 20% since the beginning of the month.
High school athletics locally have been restricted to 1,000 viewers.
__________________________________________________________________________________
August 27, 2020
Public Health Orders Extended Without Changes
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – An extension to Wyoming’s current public
health orders released today by the Wyoming Department of Health contain no
changes.
The orders, which remain in effect through September 15, continue to allow
outdoor gatherings of no more than 50% of venue capacity, with a maximum of
1,000 people as long as social distancing and increased sanitization measures
are in place. Indoor gatherings in a confined space remain limited to 50
persons without restrictions and 250 persons if social distancing and
sanitization measures are incorporated.
The public health restrictions that apply to restaurants, bars, gyms,
performance spaces and personal care services also remain unchanged, as does a
requirement that students in schools wear face coverings in situations where 6 feet
of separation cannot be maintained. Specific exemptions are listed in the
orders.
Over the past 14 days, Wyoming has averaged 35 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19
per day, compared to an average of 27 cases per day for the period of July
30-August 12. More than 104,000 tests have been completed by the Wyoming Public
Health Laboratory and private reference laboratories as of August 27.
The Wyoming Department of Health and Governor Gordon continue to strongly
recommend the use of face coverings in public settings where it is not possible
or reasonable to stay physically apart. On Wyoming’s COVID-19 dashboard the
categories of number of new cases and new hospitalizations continue to be
rated, “Concerning.”
As of August 27, Wyoming has recorded 3,166 lab-confirmed positive cases of
COVID-19, 556 probable cases and 37 deaths.
The updated orders are attached and can be found online at https://covid19.wyo.gov/governors-orders
-END-
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 4, 2020
Brazil has now had 4,000,000 cases of the disease.
Parties at the University of Wyoming have resulted in a spike of infections which in turn are delaying the reopening of in person classes at the university. Classes are presently being conducted remotely.
290 cases of the disease have been attributed to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 9, 2020
AstraZeneca Oxford halted its vaccine trial due to one of the subjects having a severe reaction. In fairness, it is not known if the reaction was to the vaccine.
A report claims that the Sturgis motorcycle rally can be traced to 250,000 new infections, although it is disputed.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 10, 2020
The British government is hoping for mass testing of vaccinations in the UK by the Spring.
US deaths from COVID-19 are now at approximately 190,000. Iowa and South Dakota have emerged as hot spots. South Dakota was otherwise in the news for using CARES funds for tourism advertising.
Global deaths are reported as having reached 900,000, although the accuracy of those figures could be questioned India is experiencing a surge of cases.
Indiana's Bradley University declared a complete student quarantine.
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September 12, 2020
Readers of the Star Tribune today will be treated to the oddity of a headline noting that UW has decided to resume in person classes next week and an editorial from a disgruntled transfer student who is upset that UW hasn't resumed in person classes.
___________________________________________________________________________________
September 15, 2020
The University of Wyoming announced it was resuming in person classes.
___________________________________________________________________________________
September 17, 2020
The Big 10 has decided it will host a football season this year.
The Southern hemisphere is reporting record low flu cases this year as a byproduct of the Coronavirus lockdowns.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 18, 2020
Van Morrison, the Northern Ireland born British singer, is releasing an album of protest songs related to the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, it protests the British government's lockdown policies.
In India the pandemic is now being associated with a rise in child marriages and child labor in that country.
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September 19, 2020
Casper College is testing all of its dorm residents due to positive testing in some athletes.
The College of Law is going on a temporary shut down/remote learning period due to six of its students coming down with the virus.
Utah, which never really imposed any measures, is now considering doing so due to an increase in infections following the opening of the schools.
Coreleone Sicily went into a limited lockdown following a spat of infections following a wedding.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 20, 2020
Studies have shown that among the "severe" risks for COVID 19, i.e., those conditions that create a severe risk for those who acquire COVID 19, is obesity.
Upwards of 40% of Americans are regarded as obese and there's no doubt that Americans carry, even in this health conscious age, considerably more weight than they did even a couple of decades ago. The story has become oddly controversial as at the same time that this has occurred, and more Americans have acquired extra pounds, both "fat shaming" and a movement to simply accept overweight as normal has occurred, and both have oddly found voice in the fashion industry. As examples, Kate Upton, who is a very tall and well endowed model, was asked at one point to lose weight, which she refused to do (she's tall. . . and well endowed, not overweight), whereas just a couple of years later fashion models who are clearly morbidly obese hit the scene. A movement to stop the shaming commenced with fair success, which is a good development in the context that shaming is brutal and brutally juvenile, but that has morphed a bit into a movement ignoring the risks of the condition.
All the while Americans continue to be prime consumers of diet fads. Indeed, one of my email address is bombarded constantly with spam about ice cream and the like you can eat and supposedly grown thin with.
Anyhow, the health dangers of being overweight are very well known in general, but the degree to which it impacts all sorts of other conditions is now well understood. A World War Two vintage medical study, for example, found underweight wounded German POWs recovered from their wounds quicker than American soldiers. Something to do with weight, and that during an era when carrying a little extra weight was thought to be a good thing as a hinge against disease.
And now it appears that obesity is one of the conditions that puts a person at a higher risk for a COVID 19 infection being severe.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 24, 2020
In a bizarre story a South Korean fisheries official who as attempting to defect to North Korea (why on Earth would anyone do that?) was shot and killed by North Korean troops who subsequently burned his body to prevent the spread of the virus.
Israel is closing its open air markets and all non essential businesses in order to address the second wave of infections in that country.
Belgium is suspending the mandatory wearing of face masks.
The Governor of Missouri and his wife have tested positive for the disease.
Justin Trudeau has stated that Canada has entered the second wave of infections.
Recent infection reports in Wyoming are at a record high.
The University of Wyoming's forty member cheer squad is in isolation following three of its members coming down with COVID 19.
_________________________________________________________________________________
September 25, 2020
The Mountain West Athletic Division will be playing football this year, according to an announcement made yesterday.
__________________________________________________________________________________
September 26, 2020
Casper College put its residence hall students on quarantine due to an infection outbreak among students living in them.
UW is moving to its third phase of its COVID plan with a resumption of many in person classes.
At the same time, a UW upperclassmen published an op ed in the Tribune today complaining about the slowness to open up there and noting that an associate professor at the College of Health had participated in recent protests in Laramie, an obvious public gathering.
_________________________________________________________________________________
September 29, 2020
The global death toll of the virus is now 1,000,000, of which 200,000 are Americans.
The World Health Organization marked the number with noted sadness, but added this comment:
The one positive thing about this virus is it is suppressable, it is not the flu.
An epidemiologist would probably be required to really explain what that meant.
Florida has removed its pandemic rules for restaurants.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 1, 2020
A physician in Jackson is participating in a vaccine trial, and hence that means Teton County residents can be part of that.
In a controversial move that is being contested by the city, Spain has ordered Madrid locked down.
A gene associated with severe cases of the Coronavirus has been found to be one of the ones inherited from Neanderthals. 50% of South Asians carry the gene and 16% of Europeans, which is interesting in part because I was unaware that any human population other than Europeans carried Neanderthal genes until just recently.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 2, 2020
President Trump and Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID 19.
This followed news that the President's close advisor, Hope Nicks, had tested positive for the disease. The President and First Lady were accordingly tested and found to be infected. This followed with one of the Presidents archetypal tweets, which stated:
Tonight,
@FLOTUS
and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!Wyoming has over 1,000 active cases for the first time, and with 27 hospitalizations, it also has a record number in the hospital.
Mississippi has lifted its mask mandate.
Movie theaters in India will reopen on October 15.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 3, 2020
President Trump was hospitalized in Walter Reed hospital where he is undergoing an experimental treatment for the virus.
Republican members of Congress, including some on the Judiciary Committee, and members of the White House Press Corps, are now also reporting positive with the disease.
Eleven University of Wyoming freshman football players have tested positive.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 5, 2020
New York City is closing some schools and bars in certain areas of the city that have been experiencing an increased number of infections.
Paris has closed its bars.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 6, 2020
Governor Gordon held a press conference yesterday, Monday October 5, on the increase of COVID 19 cases in the state. He declared that things were headed in "the wrong direction". The National Guard has been partially activated to participate in contact tracing efforts.
Free home tests for the disease will soon be available in Wyoming.
President Trump returned to the White House.
Masks are now mandatory in the Bundestag.
The World Health Organization estimates that 10% of the world's population has been infected with COVID 19 during the pandemic. Herd immunity, fwiw, would require between 60% to 80%.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 7, 2020
Anthony Fauci, in an address to American University, warned that there could be 300,000 to 400,000 deaths due to the pandemic if precautions are not enacted. The University of Washington has already issued a prognostication that deaths could reach 300,000 by December 1.
Deaths are already as follows according to the CDC:
Updated October 7, 2020
While the CDC has the figures at 198,809, its generally accepted that the totals are over 200,000 for COVID 19. The interesting aspect of these figures, which I haven't seen actually discussed, is the added the added element of influenza.
Given the way this generally works, and the current rate of infection, while it is just my guess, I'd find it difficult to believe that the death toll won't reach 300,000, and I'll decline from making predictions after that. This isn't a comment on anything other than the attack rate of the disease and what we currently seeing going on, with increases in many parts of the United States and around the globe.
FWIW, India now has a death toll of 100,000.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 8, 2020
Italy has ordered that face masks be worn outdoors.
Hasidic Orthodox Jews protested in Brooklyn over new restrictions in parts of that city which restrict, among other things, the number of people that can be in houses of worship.
Brazil has surpassed 5,000,000 cases of the disease.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 10, 2020
The White House organization making recommendations on the virus recommended mask be worn in several Wyoming counties in September but not in October according to a report in the Tribune. The report goes to the Governor whose recommendations were not as extensive as those recommended by the report.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi questioned certifying a British vaccine which has been certified, stating her concern that British standards for certification may be lower than American ones.
The US government has ordered 1,000,000+ of a Lilly COVID 19 antibody treatment and expects delivery prior to 2021.
India's infection rate is set to outpace the total number of US cases.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 13, 2020
An American in his 20s is the first confirmed case in the US of a person getting COVID 19 twice. In that instance, the second infection was determined to be a slightly different strain and was the more serious of the two infections.
Necessarily this complicates coming up with an effective vaccine and it also suggest that the disease is evolving.
The Michigan Supreme Court struck down that state's governor's emergency executive orders.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 15, 2020
Europe is now reporting twice the daily infection rate that the United States is, which of course isn't a completely fair comparison in that Europe is a continent, not a country.
France has imposed a night time curfew on major cities.
London will return to a strict lockdown this weekend. Such restrictions have been very widely ignored in London recently.
Casper's Wyoming Medical Center opened a new wing to handle a surge in cases. At a press conference it presented dire warnings and urged individuals to observe strict mask wearing protocols.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 16, 2020
Seven cases were reported in one of the University of Wyoming sororities.
A chief Irish health minister stated that the disease is "not in control" in that country. The press has been clamoring for Ireland to go to Level 4 or 5, the two highest states of response in Ireland, but the Irish PM has resisted and indicates that he won't do so unless there's an exist strategy such as was the case for Germany.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 17, 2020
Wyomingites going to Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island or Washington D.C. must quarantine for fourteen days upon arrival in those locations.
Wyoming hit an all time high infection number yesterday.
__________________________________________________________________________________
October 23, 2020
Casper College is going to mostly online classes following its fall break.
Wyoming has now had 10,000 confirmed cases, a large number but far less than the suspected national infection rate, which would require five times that number. Having said that, there may well have been many undetected infections.
There's some current speculation on the regional infection rate and its relationship to the recent Sturgis motorcycle rally, although the upswing in cases in Wyoming most likely cannot be fairly attributed to that but to other factors.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 27, 2020
Laramie County is getting ready to impose an indoor public mask requirement.
The Tribune has closed its lobby.
___________________________________________________________________________________
October 30, 2020
Governor
Gordon, Department of Health Take Actions to Address Statewide COVID-19
Surge
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – With the alarming rise in
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations around the state, Governor Mark Gordon and
the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) are stepping up their efforts to protect
vulnerable populations, enhance contact tracing efforts and expand testing
availability to all residents.
Governor Gordon is also concerned that Wyoming’s
economy will be affected by this rise in cases. While the state remains open,
the impacts of the surge in cases affect all Wyomingites. Wyoming has averaged
more than 200 new cases of COVID-19 per day over the past 14 days, and more
than 100 Wyomingites with the virus are hospitalized around the state as of
October 30.
“This surge in cases in our communities is
directly impacting Wyoming’s healthcare system, our businesses and industries,
and straining our healthcare workforce,” Governor Gordon said. “This is the
time to recognize that our actions impact others, their lives and livelihoods.
All of us have a role to play in ensuring that our hospitals can continue to
care for all patients, not just those suffering from COVID-19.”
To protect vulnerable citizens, Wyoming
continues to provide enhanced testing at nursing homes and assisted living
facilities, including testing all residents and staff at facilities where
COVID-19 outbreaks or clusters have been detected. At other facilities that are
not experiencing outbreaks the state continues its surveillance testing
program, where a percentage of residents are tested regularly.
WDH is supplementing its contact tracing efforts
by bringing on a Wyoming-based company, Waller Hall Research, to provide
assistance. The Wyoming National Guard will step down its help with contact
tracing support next week. Contact tracing is one of the state’s most effective
strategies in isolating the virus and preventing its spread.
“I want to thank our citizen soldiers for being
ready and willing to serve their communities when counties requested assistance
with this vital service,” the Governor said.
The state is supporting health facilities,
correctional facilities, counties, and other entities through testing available
at the Wyoming Public Health Laboratory and through the 175,000 tests Wyoming
purchased with CARES Act funds. Additional rapid testing utilizing the limited
number of BinaxNOW platforms provided by the federal government is also being
integrated into the state’s strategy.
A free, at-home saliva testing program remains available to residents, and WDH is launching a
program to support businesses and employers across the state with free COVID-19
testing as well. By making regular and frequent surveillance testing available,
Wyoming businesses will have an additional way to keep their staff and their
customers as safe as possible, preventing future impacts to their operations
due to illness. Wyoming’s school surveillance testing program is underway, with
27 districts currently participating.
Wyoming is also in the process of exploring a
program that would offer incentives to businesses that voluntarily make changes
to operations that enhance the safety of employees, customers, and the general
public.
Wyoming’s public health orders have been extended
an additional two weeks through November 15. The orders are attached and can be
found on the state’s COVID-19 website.
--END--
___________________________________________________________________________________
Pandemic, Part Two
The Election Season's Agrarian Lament
What greater or more wonderful spectacle can there be, after all, or when is human reason more able after a fashion to converse with “The Nature of Things,” than when after seeds have been sown, cuttings potted, shrubs planted out, graftings made, each root and seed is questioned, so to say, on what its inner vita force can or cannot do, what helps and what hinders it, what is the range of the inner, invisible power of its own numerical formula, what that of the care bestowed on it from outside?
St Augustine.
"A Member of the Family". English idealized agrarian panting. While highly idealized to be sure, the painting does hit upon actual features of the agricultural and agrarian family. Fresh food, a connection with animals, and a close working family.
This thread goes back to the primary season. It has lingered there since long before Joe Biden was nominated on the Democratic ticket. A tour through The Front Porch Republic brought it back into mind. More specifically, it was last worked on, on November 26, 2019. . . nearly a year ago. For that reason, even though it will read extremely oddly, we're breaking it into two parts.
Nebraska homestead, 1880s.
One thing watching the (then) recent Democratic debates brings home is that there's no home for rural voters or voters of an agrarian mindset in the Democratic Party.
Which is not to say there's one in the GOP either.
Only one candidate in the recent debates mentioned rural concerns at all, Amy Klobuchar, and only in the context of her having carried rural districts in elections. But then Klobuchar is technically a member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party, and Minnesota, long time home to a type of liberalism that it is, is also heavily rural in quite a few areas. It's an odd state in that way, although that feature does repeat in other localities.
Now, in fairness, it wouldn't be true to suggest that the concerns of rural voters have really been in the forefront of national politics for a very long time. Arguably the last time they really were was during Franklin Roosevelt's administration, at which time a larger percentage of the country's population lived in rural areas and there was a gigantic rural (and urban) crisis going on. FDR's actions were very mixed in terms of what they achieved, however. Probably the biggest thing he did that really helped was to cause the end of homesteading, which was a good thing in that it preserved ranch and farm viability.
The first decade of the Cold War did see some attention to farm matters as agriculture was conscripted into the struggle against Communism, but the result wasn't really good long term. All of the administrations of the first fifteen or so years of the Cold War urged planting fence to fence, which had the ancillary result of really wiping out the remaining agrarian nature of American farming. Since that time there's been farm policies focused on this or that, but they're never really taken on the character of, let's say, French farm policy which is designed specifically to preserve the rural population for cultural reasons.
The basic American view has become pretty clear over the last decade or so, and in both parties. Everyone is headed towards a big city cubicle and big city career and they'll like it as they must.
Except many won't.
Indeed, if statistics are paid attention too, most won't.
Statistics about American workers show that nearly all of the assumptions about work made in both parties are made on a bunch of erroneous assumptions. Politicians like to talk about "fulfilling careers" and the like, but that's mostly a bunch of baloney unsupported by statistics. By and large Americans in all demographics don't like their careers very much.
What the modern economy has become very good at is generating income in a corporate setting, and that has indeed raised the standard of living globally. It can be argued, however, that at this point that cycle has passed and the type of capitalistic economy we have has passed a threshold where this is no longer true, and that its presently consuming occupations at the middle class level while distributing income to fewer and fewer at greater and greater levels. This can of course be debated.
But the statistics really cannot be. Repeated polls have demonstrated that a majority of Americans dislike their work even while working harder than ever. The impact on Americans health is fairly demonstrable. At this point we compare unfavorable with "developing nations" which, while adopting our economic system retain very strong connections with their traditional cultures and recently rural natures.
And it's no wonder. American work is deeply anti natural. Indeed, modern work is. Truth be known, except for hopeless weirdos, nobody really figures when they're young that they want to work in some esoteric branch of engineering, computing,or accounting, etc. People might later say "I always", but they never did, except for a tiny few, who are genuinely often odd and often not all that good at what they claim that they always wanted to do. That super accountant, in other words, or great engineer, probably came around to that through a lot of factors, including limited options, societal force and the modern worship of money that's imposed upon all.
Rather, people's attentions remain deeply focused, if now hopelessly debased in their focus in many instances, on what they always were. People want to be outdoors. They want to engage in natural activities like hunting, fishing, and raising their own food.
Thomas Jefferson, the last President who was deeply agrarian in thought. The basis of the Louisiana Purchase was, in part, to secure lands for future agrarians, the only way that Jefferson thought the republic would remain one.
And then, just as this post was first being worked on, came the outbreak of a deadly new virus in Wuhan China, COVID 19.
If anything, that outbreak out to be telling us that the densely packed urban blights that we've created are not only deeply unsatisfying to people, and an economy based on the false notion that, as Col. Saito stated in Bridge On The River Kwai, that you can "be happy in your work", if your work is just being a drone in a cubicle, is false. And indeed a lot of people did take that view. This past year, following the outbreak, has seen a record number of people out in the sticks. It also saw a record number of people, at least for awhile, out of work.
Female pheasant hunter, Colorado, 1960s.
So why does this remain unaddressed? As people like Robert Reich wring their hands in agony over rural states having disproportionate representation in the Senate, and people like Kamala Harris claim false connections with deeply distressed urban populations that they share no real connection with, and all over the country we continue to allow agricultural land to be converted into playground lands rather than lands sustaining agricultural families, maybe a policy to allow a return to the real, which would be the rural, is in order?
There's always all sorts of talk during an election season about "repairing the nation's infrastructure", and other stuff that nobody ever really intends to do. In a little more than a few days from now there's highly likely to be an oval office changing of the guard effected, and maybe a Senatorial one. President Trump and the GOP can claim some credit for passing statutes that guard wildlands and favor hunters, although at least one of those things is predictably tied up in court already (and likely the D. C. Circuit, with its absurdly broad jurisdiction), but nobody is going to interrupt conversations about bridges and highways with fields and farms. Pretty soon, they'll forget the conversations about bridges and highways.
Somebody should try to bring up the conversation about farms and fields.
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