Mike Luckovich for September 01, 2019

seems odd there are only 2 red hats in the line

Most are gimme’s

Most are gimme’s

Any farmer that votes for trump is an idiot, and they DESERVE to go bankrupt!

And yet, they will still vote Trump to “stick it” to the libs. “In the victory is our defeat” is the slogan.

Brain damage from rot gut.

All that grain and hops has to get used for something, right?

I have no idea how Trumpite brains work. As I’ve written before, many republicans with whom I talk vote one-issue, make abortion illegal. When I ask them about fixing the gov’t as well as the earth so these fetuses will have a decent life – in every part of the world – I get called a few names and then see the back of them as they walk away.

Can soy be used to make booze?

I wonder if China has started importing pork yet, what with the epidemic of African Swine Fever that has dramatically slashed pork production there. If not booze, I suppose the soy could be fed to pigs, for export to China.

Fake cartoon.

How can they be selling more booze to people who are bankrupt?

Late one raucus evening, in the chaotic USA

The madness hit its newest heights, when Trump these words did say:

“I am your new Messiah, I’m the biggest and the best

And all of you not on my side have failed my Mighty Test

You therefore must be punished, and you therefore must be smote

I’ll thrash you all, each one in turn, while Eric holds my coat

I’ll give you such a thrashing, all you evil wicked curs

No flesh or blood will there be left, but just a few bone spurs!"

But it was all hallucination—there never was a fight

Some idiot had slipped covfefe in my Miller Lite!

If you must “accept the pain,” I suppose a pain-killer is in order.

Especially when you distill the booze yourself!! No taxes!!

The Smart Farmers will convert to producing Crops that make Good Whiskey & Beer.

Micro Breweries and Distilleries will soon be popping up all over Farm Country.

Some of them may even Survive the Crash.

So where do they get the money to buy booze?

Joe Barleycorn.

Hey, THERE is a use for the corn that can no longer be sold to U.S. refineries due to exemptions given by the Trump regime.

More and more it looks like Trump wants to drive out independent farmers to get industrial farms cheap added acreage. The acceleration of farms that have had to be sold to industrial farms at rock bottom prices had already been driven up greatly by Trump’s tariffs, the weather (not Trump’s fault though he is undermining all control measures that would try to slow the rate of worsening) and by moves like this one:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/your-epa-went-too-far-farmers-hit-hard-trump-epa-n1048011?cid=eml_nbn_20190829

Short quotes:‘Your EPA went too far’: Farmers hit hard by Trump EPA’s new ethanol rules are fuming…

Aug. 29, 2019, 5:07 PM EDT…The Midwest agricultural industry is up in arms not only due to the president’s trade war, but because the Environmental Protection Agency recently exempted 31 small oil refineries from rules that would require them to blend ethanol, which comes from corn, into their fuel supply. Those exemptions are now forcing farmers to grapple with lost revenue from wasted crops.

…Corn makes up roughly one-third of crop produced in the U.S. and over the past several decades its production has steadily risen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forty percent of total corn use in the U.S. is tied to growing ethanol production, according to the agency. And Iowa is among the top corn-producing states.

However, since Trump took office, his EPA has issued 85 exemptions to oil refineries to stop blending ethanol in their fuel — a staggering increase from previous administrations. The waivers have extended to giant oil corporations such as Chevron and Exxon. As a result, more than one dozen ethanol plants have shut down or halted production across the country this year.

…As a result of the waivers, ethanol and corn prices have decreased 12 and 11 percent respectively, which

continued:

…As a result of the waivers, ethanol and corn prices have decreased 12 and 11 percent respectively, which could result in “a staggering $10 billion transfer of wealth from the agriculture and biofuel sectors to the oil industry,” the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade organization, said in a statement last week.

end short quotes and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THE LINK AND READING THE ARTICLE — especially for farmers (and I grew up with farmers in the family and helping on one of those farms two towns over from the time I was 4 years old during my childhood so farms and farming are dear to me)

Bankrupting farms (Trump’s Trade War, the Trump Ethanol Refinery Waivers, the relaxing of standards that helped slow worsening climate disruptions) is turning out to be a very effective scam to drive more farms into bankruptcy which is a cheap way for industrial farms to buy up the farms, stock, or equipment they want at bargain basement prices. Some see that as “very efficient business”. I see it as being heartless.

I think a lot of people here have some very negative and very STUCK preconceptions about people who differ from themselves. That is certainly NOT a problem restricted to people commenting here; Trump uses it all the time in many versions. Look at the clap trap in which Trump paints anyone with an education as “elitist”. Well, hey, a lot of people got those educations by working and sometimes starving their way through in order to afford it, often part time year-round to avoid debt, all of which are approaches I used at various times. There is NOTHING elitist about hard work to meet a goal. You know who also work danged hard to meet goals? Farmers! (You want to now who is an actual elitist? Look at anyone who not only has as much money as a small nation, but also lacks the empathy to use a decent chunk of it to help those whom life falls upon hard.) So, please, dump the generalized insults. No matter the group those are aimed at they cause people to double down in defensiveness. Did too many farmers not see that Trump was going to be true to form and find cheap routes to make things more “efficient” and “business-like” (i.e. implement and not worry at all about approaches that allow industrial farms to increasingly pick up acreage, stock, equipment, and supplies at cut rate prices due to bankruptcies from his refinery waivers, trade war, and worsening of climate disruption contributors)? Sure. Are more and more farmers realizing they, their families, and their neighbors have been scammed (echoes of Trump U. on that score)? YES. So, don’t insult people who are hardworking and intelligent and having second thoughts by assuming they are stuck in one place mentally. As in all groups some will be, but most people have the ability to be realistic. Please, be realistic about unwarranted insults, too.

BTW Sukie, “Gasoline Alley” at Indianapolis speedway hasn’t had gasoline for many decades, “Indie cars” run on alcohol, not gasoline.