The Crack in the Wall?
I just watched a breathtaking exchange on Meet the Press Daily where Mike Rounds, conservative Republican Senator from South Dakota cried uncle to Trump’s trade war. He said that farmers and ranchers in his state are getting killed by backing out of the TPP and the escalating trade war with China and (former) friends of the US. US Soybean prices have plummeted and Russia has stepped into US farmers’ shoes exporting to China. That’s right, kids…the winner so far of the trade war with China is RUSSIA. What a coinkydink! Oh, BTW, we’ve designed a new MAGA hat for South Dakota farmers:
Anyway, I digress. Rounds roundly (no pun intended) condemned Trump’s trade war, saying his constituents are loudly complaining. Is this finally a crack in Trump’s wall? Are the GOP invertebrates in congress finally growing spines? We’re a long way from that, but at least we know that Repubs are not all in a coma.
Yes, I saw that as well. Ditto for some other Senator types from the R Side of the aisle. All of a sudden, with the threat of no food and worse, NO BEER, agriculture is their baby and they have to protect it! Whatever the hell it takes to crack the bully upside the head!
1Rump will destroy the GOP and everyone else before they act.
2According to Mother Jones Soy bean prices are down 18%, corn prices down 13%.
But it gets worse, a quarter of last year’s soy bean harvest is still unsold, as is a third of last year’s corn crop.
Hillary’s emails are the real problem here.
3I have zero sympathy for Rounds, his GOP buddies in Congress, or for those voters, including many farmers, who blindly fell for Trump’s MAGA shtick. PBO looked out for those farmers when he was in office, but many of them had a major problem with him, and it very little to do with his policies. They were primarily upset because he was a black man in “their” WH. Instead of complaining about Trump’s trade war, they should be throwing a party in his honor at every farm affected by them because they got exactly what they voted for—an incompetent *sshole who doesn’t seem to care that they’re suffering or that some of them are staring bankruptcy and foreclosure in the face as he is in Europe displaying his ignorance for the world to see at the NATO Summit.
4At my highest, best self, I want and hope all American companies to do well, including well in world trade. I don’t want American soy bean farmers to lose world market to Russian soy bean farmers, especially since these tariffs were a quid pro quo for Russia’s aid in electing Drumpf, the Russian Candidate.
That said, in my lower self, I hope Drumpf supporters everywhere, Las Vegas casino owners, timber producers, all the soy bean farmers, over-grazing ranchers, soul-less silicon valley billionaires, retirees in rural Texas, are utterly catastrophically financially destroyed. Not two coins to rub together. Not a pot to pi$$ in. Beyond bankrupt. The punishment for their voting treachery should be dear.
5And this is only the beginning. These are the effects of China’s retaliation. We have yet to really feel the pain of Trump’s tariffs yet.
I wonder how many people cheering about saving $200-300 in taxes this year will still be as happy when the new 2019 F150s cost $2000-3000 more because steel and aluminum is a lot more expensive.
6Funny how the pain is so easy to ignore until it is your own. The more the better for these fools who supported him. Maybe it will open more of their eyes to what they have done.
7When I saw, on the news, that Trump had managed to totally neutralize the sanctions against Russia with his tariffs, I thought he might have surprised us all. Could this be some genius move on his part? A big, wet, sloppy kiss to Putin?
Then, a few days later, I met a woman from the Midwest. A soybean farmer’s wife. She lives on a farm that has come down the generations in her husband’s family and she believes this may be not only the last generation they own their farm, but THE LAST YEAR.
I’m betting I can guess who she voted for during the last election — snacilbupeR all the way, hands down.
Want to bet who she WON’T be voting for next time around? She may not vote at all this November since I’m also betting she has never voted Democratic in her life.
So, no. This was not some genius strategy on tRump’s part. He just managed to find the one thing he can do to alienate his base:
8Endorse the KKK? No problem.
Tear children from their parents’ arms? **Yawn**
Get rid of the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, even Social Security? **Shrug**
But now you’ve hit them in their pocketbooks without even poking the Democrats [who live mostly in the cities] in the eye. This is WAR!
Well, if Putin wanted to destroy our country quickly, he certainly chose the right guy for the job.
1929 anyone?
Time to stock up on rice and beans.
9I’m afraid the potential crack in the wall will simply be plastered over with that delusion that it’s all the fault of liberals somehow (I’m sure there will be Gohmert-style creative interpretation applied).
Admitting error is painful, and many are incapable.
10Voting has consequences. I hope every single damn farmer, rancher, redneck and ignoramus who voted for Trump takes it in the neck — and the pocketbook — bigly. About time the people who vote Republicans into office over and over again, get screwed just like the folks the Republicans screw with their “profits over people” policies.
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