If you slept in this morning brothers and sisters, here’s the embarrassing question few have the gumption to ask:  “Why do you work harder for others than you do for yourself?”

The most precious resource we have is time.  We’re all here as “little gods in training” trying to figure out how we’re going to manage that universe between the ears when we die. Yet, for reasons logic won’t reveal, people piss away whole lifetimes pondering the point instead of beating the clock and scoring consciousness touchdowns.

Flummoxed isn’t the right word for it.  But we try to keep it R-17.  At least, when school’s out.

Point is, when I was out “tractor-back” – mowing it “all” here is a 3-day project – I noticed a crow trying to use a stick as a tool. Bird-brained, or not, he at least was out of bed and working his action.

If your plans for the day are shaped by a hangover, hydrate, electrolytes, and come back when the fog lifts.

My new book Downsizing (ad, right column) goes into fair depth on something to think about: When is America going to wake the f**k up and figure out we’re all lying to one-another?  While you’ve been sleeping, globalism’s been landing body-blows and city-states are on the rise.

Think your independence is safe?  Not on your life.

Take Microsoft this week: Laying off 9,000 American workers,.  Yet, lining up the lobbying for 14,000 H1-B visa-holders.  From an All-American company, Microsoft has gone full…whategver it is.

That’s just one blade of grass dying in the American Field of Dreams.  There’s a fungus among us and it’s sold to voids betwixt ears.  On sale, at a group-think near you. Mean while, question “for whom the axe tolls.”

California’s Gruesome Future?

I pick on California now and then because it’s the “state of our future.”  Started off fine. Won in war, people forget it was (what passed for) fair and square.  The revolutionaries are back and the U.S. Army’s not chasing them, A “tolerance policy” is being sold – not real equality – based on fear marketing and laziness.  Already, the pandering to pickers – felonies and illegal entry overlooked – is the weekend’s hard sell.

The Developer in Chief’s trying to craft a deal to fix (New Trump plan to let farmers vouch for illegal migrants before they get deported). But we hope you remember 2-years ago, we started building greenhouse and water storage space and talk famine plans?

Because there’s a Depression-Like Shift in the air.  Smell it as choke…

Winds Behind History

What made the Great Depression (not so great) was the migration to cities because that’s where the jobs were.  In 19o0, farmers were “home on the range” raising draft horses.  Got to the store to “pick up a few things” involved horses, not horsepower.

The cities flooded, but when the financial Damn! broke in 1929, it was the rural areas that kept feeding America.  A rural electrification program, and massive irrigation from federal dams got people working and producing to push back Depression.  But they were The Hungry Years and people today?  Well, we forget.

When the Cities run the world, it’s not always a good thing.  Pull up another cup.  Ure’s on a rant.

America’s Roots: Rural Presidents

As fireworks (“snap, crackle, and pop”) this Independence Day, let’s cut through the smoke and ask a hard question: Was Harry S. Truman the last real rural American to sit in the Oval? And more urgently—can anyone outside the urban power club crack the 2028 presidential race?

I’ve told you before, American elections in current form belong on eBay, not “voting machines.”

Dirt Roads to Donor Rolls

Most early presidents came from small towns and farms. Jefferson’s agrarian ideal wasn’t just theory—it was lived reality. Think you could run Monticello? Our asses get run over regularly trying to make 29-acres work. Jefferson was rolling 5,000 acres. Long before Allis-Chalmers  was founded in 1901. About the same time as the the other – ironically named ICE farm equipment manufacturers using horsepower instead of hands to do their dirt-work.  (The Jefferson foundation still runs 2,500 acres, a docent once told me…)

Lincoln, log cabin. OK, he was a lawyer and we all know there’s an off-ramp in hell for those. But he did understand equality even of modern’s don’t grok it well.

Coolidge, Vermont village. Even Truman, with his glasses and farm-boy grit from Independence, Missouri, won the presidency the old-fashioned way: with trains, elbow grease, and blunt talk. I don’t believe I ever saw a modern pres in a straw hat, come to think of it.

They weren’t perfect, but they weren’t corporate products either. Their loyalty leaned toward dispersed communities, not Wall Street donors and D.C. consultants.

Then came the shift.  Or, more properly, the shift hit the fans.

Cities, Corporations, Consolidation

By mid-20th century, the tide had turned on us. Urbanization, mass media, and campaign finance restructured the whole game. FDR used New York’s machines. JFK’s Boston pedigree and Nixon’s California sheen masked elite networks. Even Reagan’s cowboy image came wrapped in Hollywood PR. Skull boners rose in lore.

From Clinton forward, it’s been a parade of presidents who look rural but bank urban. Obama, pure Chicago. Trump, Manhattan real estate. Biden, Delaware credit card country.

80% of Americans live in cities, mostly big. Pensions and inflation driving taxes past incomes. Campaigns cost a quarter-billion. And donors? Mostly city-based, industry-influenced, and tech-tied.

You don’t  have leadership, anymore.  You have lessees.

Truman: The Last of His Kind?

You might argue Eisenhower or Carter had rural DNA. But Ike was a five-star general with multi- national pull, and Carter’s “peanut farmer” label camouflaged big-donor backing. Truman? He farmed. He failed in business. He worked his way up again through grit, not legacy admissions or IPO wealth. No “secret door knocks” for him.

His 1948 win wasn’t bought—it was walked, whistlestopped, and broadcast to the outback. That’s the last time a rural-rooted American outplayed both media and money.

2028: Urban All-Stars, Faux-Rural Branding

The early read on 2028? Not great for outsiders.

Democrats:

• Pete Buttigieg talks small-town South Bend, but Harvard-McKinsey-NBC screams establishment.
• Tim Walz and Andy Beshear have heartland zip codes but rely on city donors and media handlers.
• Gavin Newsom and AOC? They practically are the urban power bubble.
• The rest—Pritzker, Shapiro, Whitmer—run blue but play for green.

Republicans:

• JD Vance milked “Hillbilly Elegy” for street cred, but he’s knee-deep in VC cash and Trumpworld power.
• Ron DeSantis is suburban, not rural.
• Tulsi Gabbard went rogue but not rural.
• Tucker Carlson? Entertaining, yes. Outsider? Please.

Bottom line: nearly all talk country, walk Wall Street, and policy pension funds.

Can we Be Re-Truman-ized?

Maybe—if lightning strikes. Rural America still swings a few key states. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsyltucky—they’re not as urban as their governors pretend. A candidate with real heartland roots, street-level grit, and national charisma could break through.

We’ve had a “rural datafication” fiber cable sitting in our front yard for 2 years now. Unconnected. Waiting for a vendor to finish the install. Another broken promise to rural residents. We’re used to sketchy out here.

Rural revival and bullshit cleared out?  It’s a long shot at best.

Campaigns are now more like IPOs with flags on top and launch budgets. A true outsider would need media magic, donor independence, and a populist wave big enough to scare the suits. The war for the City-States is on, in the meantime: political extremes with the California salsalution and NYC chomping to bring the Middle East mess home.

Still, we never say never.

If the economy turns south or cities get rougher, Main Street might look for a fighter, not a fundraiser.

Shot Heard Round the Ranch

Truman wasn’t slick. He wasn’t rich. But he understood the cost of things, the value of decency, and how to win a fight without hiding behind consultants. We could use another one like that.

Trump was part way there.  Many of the right policies.  Implemented with a bulldozer and sold like his watches  vodka  crypto  Middle East plays.

Whether 2028 delivers someone with dirt on their boots—or just another resume in wingtips—will say a lot about whether this republic (for which we stand) still belongs to the We the People… or to the highest bidder.

Smart money – truckloads of it – are on the latter.

We’d just like the eBay slice as a class action marketing settlement for pass misdeeds…

Freak Show Finalists

No holiday morning would be complete without a line-up.

Arson, climate change, or environmental malfeasance? You make the call. California’s largest blaze this year explodes in size amid scorching heat, high winds

Russia’s not likely to budge on Ukraine, now that Israel defense has drawn down defensive missile stocks. Russia launches largest aerial attack on Kyiv yet as Trump ‘disappointed’ in Putin.  Somewhere, our consigliere is bowing for his Battle of Britain call,  Yes, even tech suffers attrition…

Is that Egg on your face, cricket eats, or failing Canadian leadership? Trouble Brewing in WEFer Land.  Remember who screwed Canadian truckers, eh, hoser?

Speaking of visuals: Michael Madsen, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ actor, dead at 67.

What “canned the canner”? 140-year-old Del Monte Foods files for bankruptcy.  Will they end up on the dole?

To Market, to Market, etc…

Record Highs at the early close Thursday. What goes up, must be turned into a chart – but in the meantime, BTC is $109,113 at press time.  Silver’s hanging out over $37.  And oil’s down a bit. So for now the Trump version of diplomacy (“Speak and Sell”) seems to work.

Let’s take two aspirin, get lots of rest, and call us if there’s any change before Monday.

At the Ranch: Mo Mowing

Here’s some of the deliverables:

Off to weld on the solar rack – have to add 8-feet to the existing rack because new panels are larger. No rest for the wicked, though if you had told me earlier in life that I’d be welding up solar panel racks instead of sleeping in on a national holiday at age 76, I would have called you a liar…

Panel rack today, new saw assembly tomorrow, dishwasher install Sunday.  Holiday, you say?

Find somewhere no one else wants to live and find a way to make it work.  Water with sweat.

Write when you get rich,

[email protected]