U.S. News & World Report's Best State Rankings, 2019: Alabama 49th of 50.

[VOX]

The absolute bottom of the bucket, ranked 50th, is— surprise— Mississippi. The Alabama state motto should be, “Hey, we’re not Mississippi!”

Recommendation to Alabamians: Before you grant personhood to zygotes, you really ought to clean up your own sorry mess. Seriously, have you no shame whatsoever? (That’s rhetorical, since your idea of a great candidate is pedophile Roy Moore.) Look at yourselves: dead last in education. Four slots from dead last in health care. Five slots away from dead last in economy, opportunity, crime & corrections. Only a third of Alabamians make it to college. Your favorite “president” referred to struggling countries using a particular slur; I won’t repeat it, but it definitely defines your state as well.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings
ALABAMA

HEALTH CARE: 46/50
EDUCATION: 50/50
ECONOMY: 45/50
INFRASTRUCTURE: 38/50
OPPORTUNITY: 45/50
FISCAL STABILITY: 23/50
CRIME & CORRECTIONS: 45/50
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: 35/50

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alabama
Overview of Alabama
AREA: 52,420 SQ. MI.
GDP: $211.197 Billion
COLLEGE EDUCATED: 34%
POPULATION:4,874,747
CAPITAL: Montgomery
MEDIAN INCOME: $26,498

Alabama’s role at the center of the civil rights movement, coupled with its ongoing traditional college football culture, lends it a more colorful – and sometimes painful – history than most.
The Confederacy was born in Montgomery, its first capital during the Civil War. About 120,000 white Alabama men served in the Confederate forces. After the war, segregation prevailed in the South, and in Alabama in particular. In 1901, state legislation limited voting rights for thousands of blacks and poor whites through poll taxes, literacy tests and other restrictive requirements.

In the mid-20th century, the state was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and peaceful activism against racial segregation. It was in Montgomery that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus in 1955, leading to the city’s 381-day bus boycott.
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[RHMerriman]

1. This is an illuminating rating:

This is an illuminating rating: Infant mortality (meaning infants dying before their first birthday)

US nationwide is 5.9 per 1000 live births.

Five highest rates:
Alabama - 9.0
Mississippi 8.7
Arkansas - 8.2
Louisiana - 8.0
Delaware - 7.8

Five lowest rates:
Vermont - 3.5
New Hampshire - 3.7
Massachusetts - 3.9
New Jersey - 4.0
California - 4.2

The conclusions are obvious.

Source:
[link:https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-death-rate/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Infant%20Deaths%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D|]

[VOX]

2. Obvious indeed.

And thanks for that link. It’s an excellent source.

[RHMerriman]

3. You are very welcome ... a case where facts can shove the right-whiner's hypocritical bleating

You are very welcome ... a case where facts can shove the right-whiner's hypocritical bleating about life and children right back in their teeth...

It's great piece of evidence. Be good if more Democrats used it, rather than bleating about "hurtful" words.

[VOX]

6. Yes! Democrats SHOULD use these numbers, repeatedly.

It’s not like there’s any chance of taking Alabama in the 2020 election.

[RHMerriman]

14. True that...

And even the most racist POS had a hard time defending infant mortality as something to be proud of.

[Takket]

4. yup. that rethug run states don't give a fuck about kids.

stupid people vote rethug.............. so keep them stupid!

[RHMerriman]

5. Four of the bottom five were rebel states, as well...

and the fifth was still a slave state in 1861.

[dalton99a]

8. +1.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Damn! You could do a Red State / Blue State overlay and it might come very close to matching.

[RHMerriman]

15. Thanks for the map.

Last edited Mon Jul 1, 2019, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Nice work.

You should insert a legend to explain what's being measured. Even something as simple as "Infantry Mortality per 1000 live births. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, 2017"

[KentuckyWoman]

11. Damn liberal healthcare.

Keeping babies alive.

[RHMerriman]

19. Yeah, I know...

Reality smacks them in the face.

[tishaLA]

21. Why is Delaware's so high?

That seems so anomalous to me

[RHMerriman]

22. Dunno.

Dunno.

Does seem like an outlier.

[GulfCoast66]

10. Had a spirited conversation with my 70 something year old uncle

Lives in rural Arkansas. All stereotypes apply.

Unlike some here I can’t/won’t sever family ties due to beliefs. Not built that way and I always hope to influence them. Foolish I know.

Anyway he was ranting about the government when I unloaded on him. I named everything his poor county had that made it livable. Power, phones, paved highways, schools. Everything. Hell, even deer we love to hunt. When he was a boy there were no deer. All killed out. Thanks to FDR and the WMAs they came back. I finished with the statement that without the federal government they would be a 3rd world nation, which is totally true.

His response? ‘I’d be free.’

My response ‘you’d be dead!

Without Medicare he would have died 6 years ago due to a serious health issue!

We started talking about squirrel hunting and his new squirrel dog at that point.

He will vote for Trump in 20. Reason will never work.

[UniteFightBack]

12. I'd start calling him a socialist that medicare lovin uncle of yours. Also bet he collects that....

SOCIAL security....another socialist program I mean it has social in it's name.

[GulfCoast66]

13. Respect the reasoning. But those are not socialist programs.

Socialism has one accepted meaning. Outside of the Democratic Party it seems.

The public ownership of the means of production. Had I told him they were socialist he would have responded with the same. I never said he was uneducated.

Medicare, Social Security and Universal healthcare are not socialism. They are examples of Social Democracy insuring capitalism, which is the system all western countries have, works for those who have little or no capital.

Conservatives like my uncle are not against Social Democratic programs. They are against them for people of color.

[UniteFightBack]

17. Well gee whiz uncle racist...Lest ye not forget that black folks were dragged over here kicking

and screaming. I have people like this in my life too. Granted they're not going squirrel hunting but the mindset is the same..even here in deep blue NY and I'm not from upstate.

[ProudLib72]

16. Highest disability statistics, too

National average = 12.6%

Alabama = 16.7%
Mississippi = 16.2%

To be fair, WV came in at 19.4%!!!

Good thing they don't need the gubment to give them support!

[VOX]

18. I often wonder what the U.S. would be like if the Confederacy had been allowed to go their own way.

It’s a futile exercise, I know, and not a novel one, as there have been numerous books and films with that theme. It’s easy to see why— the former slave states in the Deep South and the neighboring “border states” have been a major pain in the ass and a drag on the system since 1860 (or longer).

[RHMerriman]

20. Or if the rebs had simply been given the option of departing or being tried for treason in 1865...

Or if the rebs had simply been given the option of departing or being tried for treason in 1865...

If it had been limited to former officers and officials of the "rebel" national and state governments, the numbers would not have been huge ...

But it would have cut out the leadership class who built up the Klan and similar anti-Reconstruction organizations.