The land surface of the United States covers 2.3 billion acres. Private owners held 61 percent in 2002, the Federal Government 28 percent, State and local governments 9 percent, and Indian reservations 3 percent.
Says the internet. Sounds about right I guess. If you fly from Chicago to San Francisco and get a window seat like I always do, and look down after the city fades out it's chockablock farms for a long way, to the Mississippi river and past, and then slowly open spaces appear between the land and by then you are likely to have dozed off from boredom, and when you wake up there is nothing but mountains for a long ways, this is the big brown blotch you see on the maps. You can do this on Google Earth, but that will highlight the roads and hamlets, but from a plane you see a whole lot of nothing. I imagine that is where the federal lands are,
This idea of states splitting up has been around for a long time. When Texas entered the union it was with a provision that it could split into five states anytime it wanted, and you think it would want to. Who wouldn't want ten senators instead of two? But they don't show that inclination. One thing that surprised me about Texas is that there didn't seem to be any regional disagreements, they were just all damn proud to be Texans, when the band struck up The Yellow Rose of Texas there was never a dry eye in the joint. Here in the land of Lincoln if Chicago seceded from downstate, both sides would barely notice, Chicagoans thinking wasn't downstate part of Indiana all along and downstaters thinking wasn't Chicago in Wisconsin.
I think Beagles is right about most of the crap land going for raising cattle. The really crap land is in Bundy country where they claim the right to graze their cattle on scrubland turning it into a bare and muddy mess without paying the feds anything because, well because they are there and they have guns.
What's not to like about Avenatti? Well I guess he comes off as a bit smug, and maybe just a little too clever, and when he waxes righteous it seems a little too glib. But here's the case, the scrappy savvy centrist and Avenatti are running neck and neck in the great state of Illinois whose primary will decide who gets the nomination. The scrappy savvy man of the center will almost surely be crushed by Trump, and Avenatti will almost surely crush Trump. In this particular thought experiment, who does Old Dog pull the lever for?.
Isn't it a shame they did away with the lever before even us old guys got a chance to vote? It would be like a slot machine I guess (do any slot machines still have real levers?), and if you got like seven cherries you might get a double fin. Would that help vote turnout?
I read that Nafta article. It was long and my eyes glazed over. The most surprising thing I found in it was that though the fortunes of the three countries went up it was not that much, and it doesn't seem to have changed that much. Workers in certain industries did poorly after Nafta, but a lot of that was going to happen anyway, but workers in other industries did better and the general consensus is that people are better off for it.
Okay guys, another weekend, and hey, be careful out there.
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