US General Election 2016

He seemed to be talking like a farmer, but if he wasn't then the way he slapped the table and laughed at the joke was pretty insulting. In fact that's why I felt he had to have some farming in his background, because otherwise they way he reacted to his own joke was beyond belief.

His dad was a farmer. He worked as a veterinarian and later a commodities trader before going into politics and eventually climbing to Governor of Georgia.
Both 'Politician' AND 'Commodities Trader' isn't a resume that would inspire confidence in many farmers...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-danish-pm-us-buying-greenland-absurd-nasty-174601374.html


Gotta admit, no matter what else you may say about him, Trump is entertaining. Much of the entertainment consists of , but it's still a diversion.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/denmark-offers-to-buy-us

COPENHAGEN (The Borowitz Report)—After rebuffing Donald J. Trump’s hypothetical proposal to purchase Greenland, the government of Denmark has announced that it would be interested in buying the United States instead.

“As we have stated, Greenland is not for sale,” a spokesperson for the Danish government said on Friday. “We have noted, however, that during the Trump regime pretty much everything in the United States, including its government, has most definitely been for sale.”

“Denmark would be interested in purchasing the United States in its entirety, with the exception of its government,” the spokesperson added.

Spoiler:

(too bad it's satirical)

{{ How can anyone tell any of this is satirical?- Denmark call it absurd and the President of the most powerful country in the world has a hissy fit and cancels his visit. Its like a little kid refusing to go around to a friends house because last time they were there their mum gave him into trouble. Its pathetic really. }}

{{ I see once again Pompeo is doing the clean up work fpr a Trump tantrum- having called the Danish PM nasty and said of her comment his suggestion to buy Greenland was absurd that it was an insult, as she was not talking to Trump but to America and no one under his Presidency is allowed to talk to America that way and cancelling his trip, Pompeo has stepped in with the soothing words (given the US military assets Denmark lets them have in Greenland no wonder!)

'US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has praised Denmark...Mr Pompeo "expressed appreciation for Denmark's co-operation" as a US ally. ..he US State Department said Mr Pompeo and Mr Kofod had a friendly phone call on Wednesday about the "postponement" of the president's trip.

"The secretary expressed appreciation for Denmark's co-operation as one of the United States' allies and Denmark's contributions to address shared global security priorities," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. "The secretary and Foreign Minister Kofod also discussed strengthening co-operation with the Kingdom of Denmark - including Greenland - in the Arctic."

Meanwhile the Danish themselves dont seem too impressed with Trump- }}

'The cancellation was described as a "farce" by the leader of the populist Danish People's Party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl.
"What is this man thinking of though? And with grounds that are worthy of an April Fools' joke," he tweeted.
Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov accused Mr Trump of lacking respect for his country.
Former foreign minister Kristian Jensen said Mr Trump's move had resulted in "total chaos".
A spokeswoman for the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Pernille Skipper, said: "Trump lives on another planet."
Pia Kjaersgaard, the populist former speaker of the Danish parliament, said it showed "rude behaviour to the Danish people and the Queen, who invited him."'- BBC

{{ I see Trump' trade war is going well, lucky these thins are so easy to win!

I also note the Farmers Union seem to have finally lost patience with him over this one-

'The National Farmers Union issued a statement today regarding China's tariffs on US goods.

"It’s no surprise that China is slapping even more tariffs on American products. Every time Trump escalates his trade war, China calls his bluff — and why would we expect any differently this time around? And it’s no surprise that farmers are again the target. In just the past three years, US soybean exports to China have fallen nearly 80 percent, and once these tariffs kick in, things are likely to get worse. Things have been difficult for farmers long before this trade war rolled around. Farmers are making half of what they were in 2013, and they’ve taken on record levels of debt just to keep their doors open. Chronic overproduction continues to push commodity prices down, and extreme weather events and higher temperatures caused by climate change have made the job of growing food just that much more challenging. But instead of looking to solve existing problems in our agricultural sector, this administration has just created new ones. Between burning bridges with all of our biggest trading partners and undermining our domestic biofuels industry, President Trump is making things worse, not better."

Is Trump finally losing the farmers? }}

Something tells me these fires in the Amazon also have something to do with people rushing to step into the shoes of US farmers in the Chinese market...

Seems likely.

I wouldn't rule it out...

Petty wrote:Is Trump finally losing the farmers?

I don't know anybody who thinks the trade wars are helping, but I have more than a few neighbors who still say "We gotta give him a fair chance."

I went to the county fair this afternoon and there were several red MAGA hats and "TRUMP 2020: FUCK YOUR FEELINGS" T-shirts, but they're a minority and they knew it. Mostly just guys looking for a fight, and mostly being ignored.
Honestly most of the really farmers I know don't waste a lot of time on politics. They view it like the weather. You don't have much control over it so you do your best to farm around whatever it throws at you, good or bad.

Trumps latest is to order companies to find alternative sources other than China...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lawsuits_involving_Donald_Trump#Lawsuits_around_potential_sexual_misconduct_and_assault

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump

Well, yeah.

It's a mess in Farm Country. I've just heard from friends in Wisconsin that family farms there are selling or going back to the bank at a rate of 1-2 a day.

This from Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-farmers/many-u-s-farmers-fume-at-washington-not-trump-over-biofuel-trade-policies-idUSKCN1VV11U

{{ What's weird in that article is even people who know its down to Trump and him not living up to his promises to farmers, still choose to blame the 'deep state' and continue to vote for him anyway.
There's even one farmer clearly articulates it before apparently going on to say he will still vote Trump!

“It’s much easier to be angry at a faceless Washington bureaucracy than at the man you voted for,” said Jere Solvie, 69, grain and hog farmer from west-central Minnesota who voted for Trump and still supports him.

Who'd have thought farmers would be like turkeys voting for xmas! }}

When you never heard anybody but Trump saying what you wanted to hear, you're not gonna abandon a shred of hope for no hope. You hardly ever hear a democrat say anything about agriculture. It's just not on the map for them. Sure they may pass through and put on straw hats and say some nice words, but it's not national agenda level speech making.

The thing is, things were going to hell before Trump and he was the only voice promising a simple solution. It would make no sense to expect that getting rid of Trump now would somehow fix a problem that's been building for decades. So I can understand people giving him credit for at least trying something, even if it has backfired.

{{{ I get hope is better than no hope.
But surely there must come a point when your livlihood is disappearing before your eyes that you realise it was always only hope promised by a snake oil salesman.

But then thats where I don't understand the democratic position and what their political analysts are doing.
It was clear that Trump getting the support of forgotten rural areas of the US was a factor in his election- a good plan would surely then be trying to position democrats closer to those communitites and to appeal more to them, to show more of an interest, elevate their fears higher in the national agenda.
I suspect had there been all this time democrats speaking strongly and shouting out publicly in defence of farmers against say, Trump's changes to organic fuel or the loss of overseas markets, or the slow pace of help and the promised bail outs, then they would be in a better position now and Trump's support in rural areas at least somewhat less secure.
But they seem to continue to ignore rural America all together. Which seems an obvious mistake. }}

I think there's a good chance of Trump being re-elected, and the democrats have only themselves to blame.

It's back to the fence sitting problem. There's a deep fundamental divide between rural farm values and urban/suburban values when it comes to land use and social programs. And though there are a lot of grassroots Democratic politicians from rural areas, at the national level the Democratic Party has been jumping off on the urban/suburban side of the fence for years. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat president with real rural cred (a good man, but not a great president). Clinton was an expert at sitting on the fence, and at the end of the day he'd always go with the max dollars and votes. So not a lot of trust for either party.

So the Trump administration is simultaneously trying to block California's higher auto emissions standards while castigating them for poor air quality.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/epa-california-highway-105137055.html

So Trevor Noah just dubbed Twitter the "Presidential Baby Monitor".

It's been such a Trump overload the last half week I didn't bother to post anything, but that was a pretty good summary.  I sort of hope he does something else to piss off Republicans so he can finally get impeached - even Mike Pence the evangelical would be better, and that's a scary statement.