It's laughable that people could try and spin the letter from the AG about receiving the report as some sort of no collusion proof, not even Trump seems to be doing that at the moment. Collusion is already shown and public knowledge from a number of instances, during the election and afterward, along with all the instances it was lied about. Among the many indictments were Russians as well as Trump campaign people, some for the lies. This is not the end of all investigations, other charges could be/most likely are pending in many other areas that have also been turned up as serious and possibly criminal.

The Captain, I know how you feel. Many's the time I'm surrounded (figuratively and literally) by those of a different political persuasion, so no worries. I know I'm left of center -- Obama disappointed me for being too conservative/ moderate at times -- but I also know that compromise is not a dirty word, especially in politics. And it certainly shouldn't be seen as capitulation. What strikes me so "funny" about conservatives these days is that they want their way or the highway. Think McConnell proclaiming that the GOP would do everything it could to insure that Obama would be a a one-term president, think Merrick Garland, think the scorched-earth tactics they used against Obamacare, which, as we all know, was the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation and was implemented here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by none other than Willard Mitt Romney, fer cripes' sakes!

My point about you and the college issue is that you're borrowing trouble and putting the entire circus train before the horses.. We're way far out from crafting any proposals, let alone policies, on that issue., so it's too early for the "Yeah, but" arguments. I know how it is in Europe, and maybe the winnowing of potential college students does become a factor here. Too early to tell, though, and I tend to agree with you that b/c it smacks of too much government interference, it wouldn't fly here.

Bringing it up isn't a problem, though. I think it's great to trouble-shoot ideas like this as a way to work out the bugs, but I also think that we shouldn't shoot down ideas based on the bugs we find in the proposal. We should anticipate them and then see if they can be worked out so that the proposal works for as many of us as possible. I saw this as similar to the way gun owners always take it up to Def-con 6 when the least little idea of reform is mentioned.

As for the split between rural and urban America, it's obvious that the balance of population has shifted; voting power hasn't, though. Without the Electoral College (relic of the days of slavery that it is), we don't have Presidents Trump or Dubya Bush (at least his first term). Who knows how differently things might be today? (We need a "What If?" comic on that.)

Your observation about the causes for the imbalance is spot-on. "Companies" have abandoned what previously have been the manufacturing, energy and agricultural centers of the nation. They've gone overseas, retooled their plants to make them more efficient, outsourced work and so on. Amoral, capitalistic entities can't be expected to behave in any other way, especially in an environment that's been sculpted to suit their needs alone.

However, the very socialism many of the residents of these areas have been programmed to bark at when the word is mentioned is actually less socialistic than the system they lived and worked under in towns that for decades were reliant on one Poppa Corporation that was the area's largest employer, largest contributor to local taxes, largest philanthropic donor to the community, etc., etc. The communities become dependent on the corporations, the kids know they'll always have a job in the mine or the plant and life goes on nicely. Who needs to go to college? Who needs national health care? Poppa Corp takes care of everything.

Until it doesn't.

When they pull up stakes, there;s the weeping and gnashing of teeth, and pleas for sympathy, but... Ever try pleading with a rattlesnake? A shark? Same results when the profit margin is the sacred text and the shareholders are your gods.

So now they need Social Security and Medicaid and FEMA. It's as if, because they've had a guaranteed style of life since dirt was new, they don't have the wherewithall to do what they want everyone else to do: pull themselves up by the proverbial bootstraps. It's not like anyone put any money into their local schools all those years.

And so the military beckons and the proportion of casualties in those states far outweighs those of more prosperous states, and the opioids flow like water and meth is a quick way to make a buck.

Where's all that American ingenuity? Where's the re-invention? Bemoaning the obvious gets us -- and them -- nowhere. What are we going to do to reinvigorate these places? Bringing back coal and strip-mining ain't gonna happen, no matter how much Trump bellows and no matter how much they want to believe him.

It's not about whether those values are relevant today or not, but the fact that they still affect politics today anyway. 

What th'?

Which values are we talking about here?

Collectivism vs. rugged individualism is probably the biggest one, and probably has a trickle down effect on many values that make us differ with our European cousins. 

A lot of the political difference between the US and Europe is less about philosophical development and more about how they came out of WW2. Most of Europe suffered pretty badly and had been suffering going into the mess. Afterward, they rebuilt, with the knowledge that they had to work together to survive and they needed to care of everyone, to move forward. The US came out of it stronger than before and its people having, relatively, suffered very little (not talking about losing loved ones; I'm talking about being bombed, tortured, humiliated, starved, metaphorically and literally raped, etc....) The Great Depression helped nudge the US a bit towards similar ideas, which Roosevelt implemented; but, the end result of the war put a halt to that, as the country and its power brokers revelled in their new statu. I don't think we will see real movement forward until this country really suffers enough to demand change and gets tired of a few lording it over the many.

I could not agree more.