I confess that until a few months ago I knew Idaho was a red state, but did not really appreciate what a fascist, White supremacy, male dominant state it had become, and how much it has been damaging its healthcare and public education, and social wellbeing. I have covered healthcare, here is the reality of Idaho education. This is where the Red states are heading.
Boundary County covers a rural area at the top of the Idaho panhandle, along the Canadian border.
Idaho spends less on schools per student than any other state. Kids are sweating, freezing and struggling to learn.
Jan Bayer sank into the couch in the family room of her Bonners Ferry, Idaho, home and stared at her phone, nervously awaiting a call. Her twin teenage daughters were nearby, equally anxious.
It was election night in March 2022, and Bayer, the superintendent of the Boundary County School District in a remote part of Idaho on the Canadian border, had spent months educating voters about a bond that would raise property taxes to replace one of her district’s oldest and most dangerous buildings: Valley View Elementary School. Built just after World War II, the school was falling apart.
The walls were cracked. The pipes were disintegrating. The ceilings were water-stained. The electrical system was maxed out and the insulation was nearly nonexistent. Classrooms froze in the winter and baked in the summer. The roof, part of which had already collapsed once, was nearing […]
Do you remember Trump promising that his company would make no foreign deals while he was president so that his presidency would be without “conflicts of interest?” I certainly do. It was of course,like almost everything he says a lie. It turns out foreign interests pumped $160 million into the Trump companies while he was president. As time goes on the constant criminality of Trump and his family has become an almost daily media story. Will he be the Republican candidate in 2024. I don’t think so.
Criminal Trump Credit: CREW
Donald Trump made up to $160 million from international business dealings while he was serving as president of the United States, according to an analysis of his tax returns by CREW.
Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest. Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t—all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.
Trump pulled in the most money from the United Kingdom, where his Aberdeen and Turnberry golf courses in Scotland helped him gross $58 million. Trump’s now-defunct hotel and tower in Vancouver helped him pull in $36.5 million from Canada. Trump brought in more than $24.4 million from Ireland, home to his often-visited Doonbeg golf course, as well as $9.6 million from India, […]
I warned you this was going to happen; well, now it is. It is going to become dangerous for a woman to get pregnant in Red states, particularly the Southern Red states which already have very poor healthcare social outcome data. If you are a fertile woman and you voted for Republicans you voted against your own safety and wellbeing.
States with abortion bans may see an unappreciated consequence when it comes to their physician workforce: fewer medical students, especially those interested in obstetrics and gynecology, are choosing to do their residency training there.
This could mean a looming shortage of doctors practicing in those states, since some 55%opens in a new tab or window of residency graduates end up practicing in the same state in which they trained.
“I think those states are going to have fewer doctors,” said Atul Grover, MD, PhD, executive director of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Research and Action Institute, who co-authored a reportopens in a new tab or window that examined what could be the start of a worrisome trend.
In an interview with MedPage Today, Grover noted that “if nothing else changes, if this is a trend, [states with restrictive policies] are likely to have even fewer ob/gyns available than they do now. And we know that a lot of states already have what are basically maternal care deserts.”
There is a trend going on in the United States to which no one except the military is paying much attention: the deteriorating fitness of Americans. When this is seen in the context of American obesity it is clear that this is a cultural failure. And the comments about recruits from Red states in the South, I think, are particularly telling. It also correlates to gun ownership at the time of recruitment.
Army recruits Credit: Shutterstock
A new study has found that recruits entering the U.S. Army are the most out of shape they’ve ever been, Fox News reported.
The study, published in the Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases journal, shows the increased number of unfit recruits led to a soaring rate of injuries during basic training — compounding the Army’s existing challenges when it comes to finding new recruits.
The study found that in 2017, nearly 35% of initial-entry trainees suffered at least one musculoskeletal injury during training, with 62 percent of female trainees hurt compared to 32 percent of male recruits.
“The medical costs associated with treating the trainee injuries have piled up, with the study estimating that the Army spent $14.8 million on the issue in fiscal year 2017 alone,” Fox News’ report stated. “About $7.2 million of that cost was attributed to eight southern states, which included Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina. New York and Rhode Island joined the southern states in the top 10.”
Col. John B. Alexander, USA (Ret.), PhD, - Daily Kos
Stephan:
John Alexander is a retired Army officer, and a special forces combat veteran. I mention this to say that this is a person who know whereof he speaks about what guns do to people. And, I think, he has a very good take on our culture and the role of guns.
Politicians often talk of “God given Rights’,” including gun ownership. Having closely checked their Christian Holy Bible, there is not a single reference to guns in the entire document. Nor is there a reference to God granting any rights to Americans. That does not stop Republican politicians from uttering such audaciousness, nay stupidity, as they offer thoughts and prayers after each horrendous mass shooting. Yes, audaciously they have the temerity to speak for their God – and assure us that He (as that entity is certainly a male) is okay with indiscriminate killing of innocent people. That in obvious contravention of Exodus 29:13 (thou shalt not kill/murder).
As the bodies pile up, we hear from Congressional representatives and we get nonsense as they abdicate their responsibilities. Consider Tim Burchette’s poignant comment immediately after three nine-year-old students and three adults were slaughtered in his state, “We’re not gonna fix it.” He went on to astutely note, “Criminal gonna be criminals.” He then opined about what his father told him about World War II. Unfortunately, comparing combat in the Pacific during WWII, to a […]
