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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump has sold out the farmers who voted for him -- and now they're racing toward calamity.
File this under "The Corporatocracy Will Never Stop Consuming Everything in it's Path." (until it's too late)
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/trump-sold-farmers-voted-now-theyre-racing-toward-calamity/
--snipski--
Not satisfied with intentionally injuring family farmers, Trump added insult by calling the dab of support they get from the government overly generous. This from a real estate flimflammer who continues to rake in millions of dollars in government cash and special tax breaks.
Far from stepping up to stop this robbery of farmers, ransacking of rural vitality and rip-off of consumers, Congress and Trump coddle the monopolistic robbers, ransackers, and rip-off artists. To help counter their insanity, join forces with the grassroots power of Farm Aid.
True Blue American
(17,984 posts)The tariffs are killing them heading into planting season.
FakeNoose
(32,639 posts)Chump turned his back on them, just like we knew he would.
Vinca
(50,271 posts)Republicans control the Senate and will vote as Don decrees. All we can pass for certain is thoughts and prayers. In any case, I'm betting these same farmers who are hurting will join the lemmings and vote for Don again (God sent him . . .remember?).
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)understand the dynamic of the problems they have and propose ways to help them if they would vote for Dems. SDo you understand why the tropes "flyover country" or "forgotten Americans" had traction in farm country? It's because Dems ceded ground and left nothing but Republican voices. We are starting to do it again, I fear, as I see the attitude that only urban centers are deserving of power sharing and representation. If we want to hold solid governance, we need to include all.
Vinca
(50,271 posts)How do you convince people who only watch a Sinclair television station locally and Faux News nationally of anything? How do you convince people who see their fields flooded because of climate change, but will vote for Trump because God sent him? We need to try, but I'm not very hopeful. You can lead a horse to water . . .
JI7
(89,249 posts)bunch of racist hypocritical assholes that vote for steve king and trump while hiring undocumented workers.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)We acquired two new Dem reps to the House. Now three of our four reps are Dems. We flipped many offices in counties. Now that we have made inroads, you think we should be abandoned before we acquire strength? Kings district is the NW corner, always a conservative area. We need help to hold ground. Grassley and Ernst have been weakened by their support of Trump and his trade policies. King has been weakened by his removal from the ag committee. We can make other gains.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)But let's be realistic. Most of them will continue to support the GOP. Most of them will complain about liberals giving stuff to freeloaders. Many of them will blame liberals for the impact on farms.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)truth about why they are suffering.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)Just don't expect to be thanked.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)address these issues with farmers we know regularly. Many regret their votes for Trump, Ernst, Grassley, and Kim Reynolds. Hopefully they will follow through on their stated vows not to vote for them in the future.
plimsoll
(1,668 posts)we should not count on them. Experiencing buyers remorse doesn't seem to protect most people from making the same impulse decisions they did the last time.
Keep in mind I'm saying we live our values, and we have to be prepared to do so without compensation or reward. Our values include supporting and trying to protect them from predation the same way we try to protect others from predation. We just shouldn't plan on them suddenly realizing that actions speak louder than words.
Motivate our side, but that doesn't include punishing them.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)think they suddenly will now? No, our resources are better spent elsewhere and we should let the farmers reap what they have sown.
Thekaspervote
(32,767 posts)Gore1FL
(21,132 posts)The 50-state strategy needs to come back and stay.
uponit7771
(90,336 posts)INdemo
(6,994 posts)When Jimmy Carter put the sanctions against Russia and would not sell them Grain, when they invaded Afghanistan, the markets went to hell.
It took years to come back. The Farmers voted for Reagan in 1980 and have voted for Republicans ever since.
Farmers could/will go broke but they still wouldn't vote for Democrats.
A local Farmer just had a farm sale a week ago and he is a MAGA Republican and for him "Trump has never had a chance because of the Democrats" even though Trump forced him out of Farming.
has been my argument for years. For reasons I don't fully understand, farmers have been voting against their own interests for decades. They are responsible for many of their ills. Not all the ills; the corporatization of farming and seed production has played a huge role in eliminating the family farm. With so much of the global market at stake, it seems to me that the corporate farm is only going to increase its power. Local farmers just can't compete.
Hotler
(11,421 posts)even the farmers. They will always vote to spite themselves just to fuck over liberals.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)Ignoring the truth. So good luck you all. I wonder how many of you will lose your farms?
janterry
(4,429 posts)I'm getting one full share for $ and the other share I am getting by working 4 hours a week. My idea is that it's great exercise, it will give us free food, it's organic, it's fresh - I'll be there when they have an excess of whatever so I can buy it, can it, or freeze it.
Plus, I'm putting in a small garden this year - and working there will help me learn more about how to have a better garden .
I want out of big agriculture.
Find a CSA in your area: https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
Luciferous
(6,079 posts)the massive amount of rabbits in our yard would also love it
I'm thinking I will have to do raised beds with fencing. It will be a good project to work on with the kids!
True Blue American
(17,984 posts)You with barbed wire!
Just joking but I always had enclosed beds and my Son just bought cheap wire to enclose his. He lives close to a woods so has deer, rabbits, coyotes nd those in between, including birds.
I also covered my garden with black plastic, cut holes for plants. No weeds, no birds, no rabbits.
Luciferous
(6,079 posts)pretty good sized garden so I think I'll have him come over and give me some tips. We've always had flower beds but this will be our first vegetable garden. I also did some research on CSAs in our area and we have some good ones so maybe we can supplement with that.
True Blue American
(17,984 posts)But we have farms all aound so get a lot of local produce in our stores. Start small,work up. You will do fine.
I asked my son to plant arugula for me. He planted the package. They could have fed the whole city. i had plastic bags full the size of a pillow case!
I just finished snapping green beans. Sre they are not local yet, but really fresh and nice. Asparagus, too.
SWBTATTReg
(22,124 posts)hoped COOPs (farmer cooperatives) would have done this type of thing but it hasn't happened. I don't why, but I liked the MFA outlets in MO (mostly rural towns) and enjoyed shopping in them.
It has been a given that farmers and ranchers complain about people ignoring them (flying over them, etc. remarks), but it works both ways, have the farmers and ranchers come to the city (they do here in STLMO, the farmer's market in Soulard, is a big gathering of growers and other vendors that come together every weekend). The consumer is always looking for fresh veggies, meats, dairy, etc.
Now I can understand that farmers are already strapped for resources so they can't just pick up and leave for the city. They already are having problems finding laborers in rural areas, especially more so when rump cracked down on illegal immigrants, and the economic boom is hitting urban cities (not farms) so young folks are leaving the farms and migrating to the cities (which do have more choices, more 'life', more of everything). Perhaps some kind of joint arrangement where laborers from the cities go out to the farms to help out?
Also, there needs to be an end to farmer subsidies, which aren't supporting the family farm as these bills are intended, but instead are supporting massive no name corporations. This is not what I suspect American taxpayers intended.
Luciferous
(6,079 posts)TheBlackAdder
(28,194 posts)safeinOhio
(32,676 posts)Consumers are being raped too. The price of tofu, cereal and beef keeps going up for us while the wholesale prices drop like a rock.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)A local farmer (he looked wealthy...not a small local country-type farmer) was on tv and said pain up front is fine, since the end game will make things better for them.
And let's not forget that Trump gave them handouts to help them.
This is the age of Trump. Even when Trumpers experience bad things, they think it's good.
Wounded Bear
(58,654 posts)True Blue American
(17,984 posts)Those just hanging on not so much.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)James48
(4,436 posts)New law:
No individual, corporation, or other type of entity may own, control, or voting power over more than 7% of anything.
Not more than 7% of the stock.
Not more than 7% of the market share.
If the ownship or marketshare exceeds 7% for two consecutive quarters, or more than 10% at any time, a clock is triggered to spilt up, divest, spin off or break up the entity into pieces smaller than 5% ownship/influence/voting share.
Monopolies must be broken apart.
LiberalArkie
(15,715 posts)No one shall own more than 7% of the electrical service in a community, or water etc..
I semi agree, but there will always be monopolies.
paleotn
(17,913 posts)and natural monopolies should be owned collectively. Thus they cease to be monopolies.
paleotn
(17,913 posts)Just like my kin down south, it's simple math. The cost of inputs rises drastically. The price for output averages flat long term, and in the case of soybeans along comes an absolute moron. Each peak in prices barely pays for the debt incurred from the last collapse. The eventual result is bankruptcy. Selling the acreage or the herd. The end of a multi-generational livelihood. As the grandson of farmers and the nephew and cousin of those who still farm, it breaks my heart.
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/selling-the-herd-a-milk-price-crisis-is-devastating-vermonts-dairy-farms/Content?oid=14631009
dlk
(11,566 posts)Laughing all the way to the bank?
Wounded Bear
(58,654 posts)and gobbling up all the small farms as they go broke.
Freethinker65
(10,021 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,692 posts)Here in Minnesota the Democratic party is actually an affiliated party called the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). It was formed in 1944 by a merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the left-wing Minnesota FarmerLabor Party. The Farmer-Labor party, for awhile one of the few successful third parties, was formed in 1918 and promoted farmer and labor union protection, government ownership of certain industries, and social security laws. But the "farmer" part of the party has mostly gone over to the GOP, just like elsewhere in the country - even though the GOP has never done a damned thing for them.
Golden Raisin
(4,608 posts)to vote Republican all the way down ballot and for Trump.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)First they have the tariffs killing their bottom line and now the flooding is killing their livestock and endangering this year's crops. They may never recover. I know there are people on here who say, you get what you deserve for voting for him, but hey, these are hard working families, some of these farms have been in their families for generations.
Trump is going to get what he wants, corporate farms that don't give a lick about the environment, safety or anything related to the earth and people.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)After conning them out of their vote is growing by the day now.
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Would be interesting to see how much money Trump has collected from Big Agriculture.
Snarkoleptic
(5,997 posts)combined with his lazy pattern of believing the last person he spoke with.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's profiting from it as well.