The Fake Story Over Black American Farmers

 Around three years ago, some news folks started the black farmer story of woes, and talked about the numbers of black farmers in the 1920s.  One million black farmers existed.  

Today?  45,000 are all that exist.  A story of woe?  No.

The farm population in 1920 consisted of 32-million total.....black, white, Asian, Latino, etc (around one-third of the nation was within this group).  In the 1920s....industry arrived and offered better paying jobs, and automation started to show up.  You didn't need four guys to operate a 100-acre farm as you got into the 1950s/1960s. 

So a second event started to occur.  People reached a point where 50 acres of farmland did not provide the type of income to 'survive'.  

If you walk around today....if you say black-ownership....49-percent of people qualified as black farmers....run a 50-acre or smaller operation.  The rule-of-thumb is that a 50-acre farm (at best) is enough to have around 25 to 30 head of cattle.  You'd have support this with feed, and draw upon your expenses....to make this work....so the simple idea of a guy trying to get ahead with 50 acres....is fairly stupid....yet 49-percent of black farm ownership falls into this category.

Getting to the 180-acre or larger farm (up to 1,000 acres)?  Thirteen-percent of black-owned farms fall into this category.  This is likely one of the two scenarios where black-owned farms are fairly successful (the other second is the 1,000 acre or more farms).

Trying to suggest racial discrimination?  Once automation came, and manpower became the 'thread' of financial success....where you needed to have a farm of significance (180 acres or more)....the business model of the small-time farm dissolved away.  It went that way for blacks and whites.  The only way to make real profit off 50 acres or less....is to run some bio-home garden operation, and selling garden products to local grocery or stand operations.  If you don't modify your farm plan....you don't survive.

So I look at these journalists and politicians....who mostly have never been to a farm in their life, and wonder if they grasp the history to this.  

The other odd part of this story trend?  State by state, the black farm ownership differs.  

Back in 2012....out of California, there were a total of 126k farmers in the state.  Of that....ONLY 526 were black.  

A 2007 study by USDA showed that the majority of black-owned farms were actually cattle ranches (near 45-percent).  Black farms producing fruits and nuts?  If you took all farms (blacks and whites in the mix) in the nation....barely five-percent of them produce fruits and nuts, of that....black owned farms marginally had around two-percent of the deal.

If you were looking for states with higher numbers of black farm ownership....it's in the south....now on the west coast, eastern seaboard or northern frontier of the US.  

Talking Infrastructure

 Just for facts...a study was done in Alabama back in 2018.  

What they said then....around 8,572 Alabama bridges needed some kind of repair or replacement.  Amount figured then?  Around 15 to 16 billion dollars.  

You have to figure a lot of these are just fifty-foot long bridges....built in the 1940s, and a $150k is enough to tear down the old bridge, and mount some cheap concrete bridge to replace it.  

Then they came to this one curious note....there are twenty interstate bridges in the state which need replacement (worst is a Jefferson county bridge on I-65).  Instate bridges?  Oh, you probably need a minimum of $20-million to even start a project on a replacement.  

Grading Alabama in this type mess?  It actually ranks in the middle....some are a lot worse....some a lot better.  On the worse side?  Iowa, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina and New York. 

The Lincoln Tunnel in NY City?  Regarded as being in serious need of renovation.  110-thousand vehicles travel this daily.  Approaching 80 years old now. 

My Avengers-News Media Theory

 If you watched enough of the Hulk, Iron-Man, Hawkeye, or Captain America....you'd reach a point where you'd say that without an enemy....the Avengers don't exist.  They'd quietly go off to Idaho....buy up a 'Ponderosa' style ranch house and grill burgers, and drink gin-sours all evening long.  They only exist....because they have an enemy.

Well...CNN, MSNBC, NPR, etc.....they all went and became like the Avengers over the past four years....identifying Trump as 'Doctor Evil', or 'Mister Heinous', or 'Professor Repugnant'.  

Once Trump (aka 'Professor Repugnant') went away....well, why would you watch a 1-star zero thrilling news piece?

In simple terms, they destroyed their whole business design.  It won't work from this point on.

Trying to say the 6th of January crowd are now 'Team-Repulsive', or the 'Unjustice League', or 'Sect Vile'?  It won't work....no one is buying it. And trying to package 'Super-Joe' or 'Wonder Heels' as some fantastic dynamic duo?  Who is their enemy?  Themselves?

The Three Central Problems with the Biden $2-Trillion Infrastructure Deal

 1.  First, without really saying it....they are suggesting 'shovel-ready', and we all remember that Obama-team quote.  

Normally, if you were going to replace a bridge....you'd have a team plan the replacement and the mandates to write into the contract....then advertise it and get quotes.  This would be a two-year process.  Biden isn't mentioning that....he's suggesting that all of the plans exist already, and you need to just throw money at them.  

2.  Second, most of this money will go to urbanized mega cities (Philly, Denver, Atlanta, Miami, NY City, etc).  I would go and predict that 90-percent of the two-trillion goes in that direction.  So crappy bridges in the Ozarks, or deep in the heart of Kentucky....won't get that type of funding.  The money ought to be split among fifty states, dependent upon the population of each.  

3.  Finally, lets be honest....the full amount to handle this project?  It's probably along the lines of 100-trillion.  That's what Biden's crew are missing, and that most states don't want to admit.  

What We Need to Do

 I had this idea dawn upon me yesterday.  As 'good neighbors'.....Mericans (Americans) ought to go out and start mandating that we speak Spanish (Mexican, for folks from Alabama).  

We'd do this as good neighbors and welcome our new Mexican friends (really Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorians, Belizeans,  Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, etc).

We Mericans would go out and attend local Mexican classes....via church groups, bingo parlors, sports bars, or city parks.

Then we'd start to put pressure on the Washington political folks....they need to attend, and start using Spanish in their speeches.  Then we'd turn to President Biden and VP Harris to also use Spanish.  

The black community....the Asian community?  No choice....get with the 'good neighbor' program or face negativity.

Then I'd turn NPR over to be a full-time teaching vehicle of Spanish....with you getting NPR-news via some some Belizean or Guatemalan team each mid-day.

Yes, with open arms, fake charm, and enforced enthusiasm....we'd bring things to the right prospective.