I am 70, raised on a dairy farm and have had plenty of shit on my clothes over the years. The current farming methods in the U.S. are devastating on the land and peoples health. The tons of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals are creating untold disease. The current farming practices are allowing billions of tons of top soil to head down rivers. If we dont switch to something similar to regenerative farming eventually, it might be years, the soil will not support the food needs of the world. I am not part of any group or follow any one in particular. The facts are easy to see.
Don't the greenies want to abolish the consumption of meat? Where do they think manure comes from? I guess farmers will have to ask their community to forgo the use of their toilets and enjoy the breeze as they do their business in his fields.
So the the government creates this mess and expects us to believe they have the knowledge and moxie to fix it. Never, ever going to happen no matter how many times the Minister of Truth tells us otherwise.
"Last week, the Director of National Intelligence, the data-gathering and data-concealing arm of the American intelligence community masquerading as the head of it, revealed that in 2021, the FBI engaged in 3.4 million warrantless electronic searches of Americans."
It's one thing to have a Fascist Economy, but this.....
We're most definitely not in Kansas anymore no matter how many times our Fascist Minister of Truth tells us otherwise.
Not sure what you mean by "Tribal Apologists." I'm guessing you mean anyone who doesn't live off of every piece of sh*t that comes out of Trump's ass. And, I suppose that you consider me to be a "Tribal Apologist." Well, I recognize Trump for the evil dictator wannabe that he is, and I don't buy his lies. Guess that does make me a "Tribal Apologist" and I'm proud to bear the title!
I don't trust the federal government, regardless of what party is in charge. That includes the FBI. I suspect that the majority of those 3.4 million warrantless electronic searches were done in an effort to root out the planners and perpetrators of the Jan. 6th insurrection.
I don't agree with what the FBI did. They are not above the law (Donald Trump, take note. Neither are you or your kids!). But, I can see why they did it, if it was the insurrectionists they were after. The Jan. 6th insurrection had the goal of overthrowing America's Constitutionally-protected democracy and installing a fascist dictatorship in its place. If that had happened, the entire federal government as we know it, would have ceased to exist, including the FBI. So, they were just covering their own asses and protecting their own interests. That said, they should have obeyed the law and gotten warrants. No excuse for that.
Just two Tribes in the U.S.; Democrats and Republicans. Both lean heavily Fascist. We've been practicing Fascism in this country since the days of Lincoln and FDR put it on the fast track. The current administration labels anyone who criticizes their self sabotage agenda an Extremist. Unfortunately for them over 2/3's of the population are not buying their agenda. The right thing to do would be to change course, but not in these enlightened times. No need to change course when you can just sic the alphabet agencies on the Extremists. When the Republican's birthed the unconscionably illiberal Patriot Act many Libertarians warned that these agencies would soon be politicized resulting in yet more liberties being stripped from Americans. Now you have the current administration planning to expand on this horrendous legislation and create a Ministry of Truth. Neither Tribe will change the trajectory because they're living off the government largess. When I see people apologizing for or rationalizing their Tribal leaders poor behavior, I just smile and think to myself; Useful Idiot. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
The biggest problem with this country is the "two-party system." The Founders warned us about the dangers of a two-party system over two hundred years ago.
The easiest and simplest way to get America back on a sensible course would be for people to stop voting either Democrat or Republican, and start voting for "third-party" candidates! The problem is that everyone is afraid of "wasting their vote" unless they vote either Democrat or Republican. I've voted for Green Party and Libertarian candidates, as well as Democrat and Republican.
If Congress, and every state legislature, was equally divided between five, different, political parties, there would be no gridlock or any of this stupid in-fighting! No single party would ever be able to hold control. No two parties could hold control. It would take a coalition of at least THREE parties to get anything done. That would give more of the American people a voice. More viewpoints would be represented and considered. To get anything done, members of at least three parties would have to reach a compromise.
In that regard, the parliamentary system is superior to ours. And, while we're at it, I'd also like to see America have the means for either Congress, or the president, to call for a new election if it was needed. Being locked into this system of holding elections every two years is ridiculous! Politicians -- especially the House of Representatives -- spend more time campaigning than they do, taking care of the People's business. If the president, or Congress, or one party is fuc*ing-up, we shouldn't have to wait until the next election to make changes. Call for a new election and throw the bums out!
Dream on, I guess . . . It'll never happen. Not for the foreseeable future, anyway.
I remember the Tribe that implemented the Patriot Act, trashed the Middle East looking for those elusive weapons of mass destruction, and Locked Down the economy during the Plandemic. Both Tribes are wetting themselves over the prospect of controlling the Ministry of Truth. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that both Tribes are hazardous to your health.
It is the cesspool called Washington, D.C. that has become the issue. These entitled shitheads aren't there to actually do something for the country, they are there for the job, hoping to turn it into a career and retirement with awesome benefits. We need to push for term limits in Congress, so we can clean the cesspool of crappy ideas, or lack thereof. The creation of more government has been toxic and many programs which have passed only look to solve an issue in the short term, but create huge issues down the road. Also, the division between the far left (Progressives) and the far right have created a situation where nothing is getting done. What happened to rational thinking?
As usual spot on. Unfortunately this "Disease of the Mind" is being shoved down our throats and given the Left's credo of "the ends justify the means" I don't see this ending well (for anyone).
Most Fox watchers, and certainly Tucker's fanboys, have been conditioned to hate democracy and to believe in authoritarian, brute-force, powerful state rule: a police state is, in fact, precisely what they desire. When these types yip about "freedom," all they mean is the freedom of the state to brutalize and harm the people they hate.
This is why DeSantis is a rising star in the Republican Party. He's already brought nascent fascism to Florida---a state where there are now ThoughtCrimes and election police and laws empowering citizens to assault dissenters without penalty. The state's Republican voters are as excited as any German mob at Nuremberg.
Amen! AMEN!! Thank God I'm not the only one who sees this!
The Republicans -- the DeSantis followers, especially -- have become nothing but fascists. Fascists, Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, call them what you will. They are a threat to democracy and the United States of America! Nothing proved this more than the attempted coup on January 6, 2021. People can downplay it and whitewash it (pun intended) all they want. January 6th was an insurrection and everyone who participated in it is a traitor, including most of the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans who weren't active in the attempted coup's planning and execution are complicit by their failure to condemn it and vote for Trump's impeachment.
Tucker Carlson is setting himself up to be the 21st Century's version of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda. Carlson continues to support Trump while he praises Putin. He's kissing the ass of every authoritarian and wannabe dictator out there, because he wants to be the guy who spreads their lies.
People in this space are very fond of hating the Democrats and blaming them for everything that is wrong under the sun, but I've never seen a Democratic president attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, attempt a coup, and then continue to lie about it a year later. I will say, however, that the Democrats have no guts. If they did, they would have arrested Trump and his cadre of enablers and put them on trial for treason.
Trump can and should be brought on sedition charges. Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power since before the first votes were cast, even using the presidency to act against the best interests of the country by initially attempting to block the Biden transition team. Most infamously, from a national stage, he told the Proud Boys, the founder of which was ordered not to enter D.C. due to fear of riots in recent days, to “stand back and stand by,” leaving the door open to sedition. Trump has also actively floated the idea that the military should intervene to alter the outcome of the election. He did this after he admitted that he had attempted to rig the election before the votes were cast, such as when he attempted to starve the Post Office of the funding it needed; as well as demanding simultaneously that the votes stop being counted in areas he was carrying the vote and continue being counted in areas where he wasn’t. Trump has since threatened, cajoled, lied to, and begged other politicians and officials to help him steal the election: such as when he threatened Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, unless he helped him “find” a little more than 11,000 votes, stepping through the door he cracked open and into sedition. This fact alone shows that Trump did more than play footsie with a coup attempt.
It's the "I have no faith in the election process anymore" (I am of the same mind on that too) that scares the hell out of me. I think they will brazenly harvest votes, stuff ballot boxes, and do whatever it takes to win.
I don't trust either McCarthy or McConnell. They are there only to enrich themselves and be shot callers. Even if the right guys win in sufficient numbers come November, with those two in charge I'm not sure anything that needs to be done (and undone) will happen. I fear it will be reminiscent of Haster, Boehner, and Ryan.
I've been touting the concept of Trump stepping back and playing consigliere for a year now. His message is good, but no so much the messenger. De Santis buries the fools, but in the nicest way. Of course the Left and the media will try to destroy him because that's what they do. But, his style is like Teflon and because far more people will listen to him (unlike the former President) he will garner more support.
Imagine if FDR never federalized agriculture and there was no USDA. I'm pretty sure market forces would ensure a fairly reliable supply of food. What we have now is approaching what Lysenko inflicted on the Soviet Union. Things like ethanol (it takes more than a gallon of oil to produce a gallon of ethanol) and USDA mortgages(WTF?) illustrate the sheer corruption and insanity of our government-directed food ag sector.
Dear Bill, I owned the ranch Las Moras just south of Chicoana, Arg. I encountered some of the squatter problems that you may have so I sold in 2014. I have been a farmer in 3 countries for 55 years and the statement that we can grow enough food with manure and compost is NOTHING BUT MANURE. To think that the elected officials are this dumb and uninformed is embarrassing for the country but they do not seem to mind ! "You just cannot fix stupid ! "
Well this is quite interesting commentary and a very complex complicated one at that. Hard not to draw lines in the sand and not get political. I grew up on my relatives family farms. Having been born in 1957 I feel that my generation is one of the last ones that has roots back to a farm. In today's political outlook at it when politicking these are what they want the public to think we are saving. In yesteryear it was quite a different scenario of the family farm and farming in general. Often relatives pooled together to own equipment. You had dairy cattle 20-65 head, and you had chickens, and your own bulls, you grew oats, corn, hay and soybeans in the midwest. In the Dakota's and more arid regions Durham wheat. Other areas grow nuts and oranges and fruit. You ground and chopped your own feed. You were diversified and you could make it on 300 acres or so. Not an extravagant living but a good one that started at 5:30 AM and did not end until about 9:30 to 10PM. As a kid I did not even know it was work I thought it was the greatest life ever! You learned a lot on a farm more than you ever will learn about how things work and where food comes from as a city kid. Take manure it was spread on your land and was a significant source of your fertilizer and in many cases your only but in that era you did not need as much for the scale of your operation. The ground itself had much more nutrients in it than today as well and by this I mean trace minerals which are all but gone today so what was grown was actually a considerably a better product/produce. For any doubting Thomas' it has been documented I believe in federal registers if you car to dig and read them. If you were having a hardship your neighbors pitched in and helped you so that you did not lose your farm. Fast forward and contrast to practices today. For one there are considerably more people in the world today - so farms evolved (not necessarily for the better). Today we have mega corporate farms. They are not diversified for the most part. There are milk farms across the country that have 12000 head of dairy cattle and more, and a complex down my Chicago that runs an operation the scale that can provide enough milk for all of St. Louis and Chicago alone. Hooray! We have farms that specialize in Hogs only as well as chickens only. These farms, more so the hogs and dairy, generate massive amounts of manure far many more than they can use on their land and it becomes regulated waste .aka a problem particularly if there lagoons fail from structural or weather. The lagoon pits have some potential to generate their own energy a plus but most do not. This production means draws huge criticism from the 98% of folks living on 3% of the land - for the mass producing farms of livestock for the quality of an animals live's prior to slaughter but is necessary to produce what is needed at what people want to pay is at issue. Grain farming another sector no longer can make it on 300 to 400 acres other than those in the high dollar organic sector. Many are several thousands of acres. In Canada where I hunt for geese in Saskatchewan one Hutterite colony farms 30 sections. For those of you from the city that may not know what a section is that means they farm 30 square miles of land. The days of helping a neighbor for the most part are gone. They most farmers not singling out any particular group, will let you go under so they can buy you out and increase their operations. Unfortunately the way it works is that grain farmers get paid for tons and bushels and not necessarily the quality of the grain - hence no trace minerals. They have to have fertilizer to gain the output that is required to make it. The massive tiling in the country, particularly the Midwest, has washed generations of soil down the Mississippi and created a very real and large dead zone in our Gulf where we used to shrimp and have created a huge dead zone. We also have lakes overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorous and huge water quality issues. So it is no easy task to turn back the clock and simply say lets go green and do it right now. These shortages will be real and they will be ugly and they will persist. I could go on but have said enough for you to get the idea of farm evolution and the problems that have developed. Had Bill know the war wold be an outbreak he may have picked the agricultural commodity markets as the trade of the decade for they shall surely rival oil - my guess in both cost and availability.
Thanks for trying to teach these people the truth about how farms, agriculture, raising livestock, etc., work, Jon. I, too, grew up on a farm. Everything you say is true. Most of these city-slickers think that food comes from a grocery store or is delivered by Grub-Hub. They have no idea what goes into the production of the food they take for granted and waste, shamelessly. Most of them wouldn't last a day on a farm because they've never known anything like true, manual, labor.
Farmers and ranchers have much more in common with environmentalists than people care to believe. At least, the farmers and ranchers of my childhood, anyway. If we destroy the land (which humans are doing at a breakneck pace) we kill ourselves, because the land will be unable to grow the food that feeds us. That's what "environmentalism" is all about -- we take care of the Earth and the Earth takes care of us. God commanded Man to "Be good stewards of the Earth." Humanity has spit in God's face and ignored his command, and we're going to pay for it, dearly.
Human overpopulation has created the need for "corporate factory farms" that require the use of fertilizers manufactured from petroleum; billions of gallons of pesticides and herbicides that are poisoning the land, water table, waterways and decimating the natural world; and chicken, hog and cattle operations that produce billions of tons of manure and other waste, as well as methane gas that contributes to Global Warming. I believe that God is preparing to winnow the human population down to a manageable level.
The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" are: War, Plague, Famine, and Death.
Thanks to Putin we have War. Also courtesy of Putin and human stupidity, we have Famine, fast-approaching. Covid has been a piss-poor excuse for Plague, so far, but it is a very strange virus that is unlike anything we have seen before. It may, yet, mutate into a form that is worthy of the title "pandemic." Then, we'll have Plague. The last Horseman is Death. That requires no explanation.
Neocons are a protein source. We could make a sport of it. Sell tags and have a nationwide hunt. Rid the country of these miscreants while alleviating the starvation. Sounds like a Win-Win to me :-)
Thanks Brad,its nice to hear from someone who understands farming and whats happening to the farmland.Sleepy Joe (Biden) should go back to sleep for the rest of his Presidency,he is clueless as to what is happening in this country.
Here in Sri Lanka, the President decided last year that henceforth (ie overnight) inorganic fertilizer was banned. This decision was lambasted by almost anyone who could add two and two without a calculator. Sure enough, one year later, crop yields have plummeted, costs to the consumer have skyrocketed and the country is passing the begging bowl around so-called friends (such as China, which has refused to allow the government to re-schedule its debts) for help out of this hideous own goal.
Now the hot meme is the US dollar is expiring and gold / commodity-backed currencies will replace it atop the heap. Many of us on the fringes have pondered alternatives to fiat currency, and so this becoming mainstream is a real sea change.
Which immediately arouses my contrarian curse. Ok, so exactly how does a gold/commodity-backed currency work? If gold or wheat declines (as measured in purchasing power to everything else), does the quantity of currency shrink to reflect this decline in value? Can the currency supply only expand if gold/commodities rise in relative value? Can the issuing central bank just keep emitting new currency without expanding the reserves of gold/commodities?
What about private banking creating new "money" by originating new mortgages and other loans? What's backing all this new privately-created "money"?
Lots of knotty questions, few if any detailed answers to how a gold-backed currency functions in actual markets. An idea can be great as an abstraction but the execution of the details is what differentiates an abstraction from a real-world system that's functional, transparent and thus trustworthy.
Can I convert my gold-backed quatloo into gold? If not, then what exactly does gold-backed mean?
As for digital currencies issued by central banks or private banks, how are these different from existing fiat currencies, which are for all intents and purposes, already fully digital currencies?
Even more contrarian: what if the demand for US dollars pushes the relative value higher despite the intrinsic flaws in fiat currencies?
You raise a lot of good questions. Personally, I think that crypto currencies will eventually fill the role of failing fiat currencies.
The most attractive thing about Bitcoin is the fact that it is impossible to inflate. Once the last Bitcoin is mined, there will be only 21 million of them in existence. There can NEVER be more, because the algorithm that creates Bitcoin will cease to function (Don't ask me how THAT works). No government, no central bank . . . No one will be able to create more than the limit of 21 million Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is already being accepted by financial institutions around the world. Last week, Fidelity announced that it is allowing its clients to add Bitcoin to their portfolios. Two countries -- El Salvador and The Central African Republic -- already accept Bitcoin as legal tender. So, the genie is already out of the bottle.
The problem with Bitcoin is its volatility. It can go up or down in price by dozens of percentage points, literally, in a matter of hours. The trend is always upward, however. Bitcoin has constantly risen in price over the years, despite its incredible volatility. That said, it raises obvious questions about using it as actual money. I believe that Bitcoin's true value lies in its use as a storehouse of wealth, like gold.
There are other crypto currencies that have been created with the idea that they can function as money. There are a couple that are backed by gold, and there are several that are pegged to the price of fiat currencies. The USDT crypto is pegged to the US dollar. I don't see the value in such cryptos, because, as the dollar falls in value, so does USDT. Gold-backed cryptos may be more viable, however.
As you said, all of the world's fiat currencies are already digital, for all intents and purposes. "Digital" and "crypto" are one and the same, save for the fact that cryptos are secured by the blockchain, which makes them completely transparent and decentralized.
The world's economic system is headed for an inevitable collapse. Whether that happens sooner or later, when it does, I think we'll see a tsunami of wealth flowing from fiat currencies into Bitcoin and other digital currencies as people try to hold onto some sort of value for their money. When that happens, I think the volatility of cryptos will vanish for the most part. People won't be investing in them, per se, as much as they'll be putting whatever wealth they have into cryptos to hold onto some value. At that point, I think we'll see true crypto "money."
I have to laugh at all the greedy companies who moved our manufacturing offshore. It is all coming full circle now and is damaging the country. We should have grown our own wheat.
Now maybe some creative type will figure how to reuse the lakes of manure at the feed lots where cattle await processing or the pig farms tons of manure..
I cant access my acct I went subscribe because that worked before it said as before a link was sent to my email as before click here to access my acct and i keep getting returned to the subscribe page. What do I do? John Camamis ps love you guys
I am 70, raised on a dairy farm and have had plenty of shit on my clothes over the years. The current farming methods in the U.S. are devastating on the land and peoples health. The tons of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals are creating untold disease. The current farming practices are allowing billions of tons of top soil to head down rivers. If we dont switch to something similar to regenerative farming eventually, it might be years, the soil will not support the food needs of the world. I am not part of any group or follow any one in particular. The facts are easy to see.
Facts. When you have done the work, you will see the stuff.
Don't the greenies want to abolish the consumption of meat? Where do they think manure comes from? I guess farmers will have to ask their community to forgo the use of their toilets and enjoy the breeze as they do their business in his fields.
😂 thinking about it.
Too bad we can’t figure a way for the farmers to utilize all the “fertilizer” that comes from the mouths of politicians and progtardes.
We’d have a surplus of both fertilizer and crop yields…
What comes out of their mouths is poisonous to humans!
So the the government creates this mess and expects us to believe they have the knowledge and moxie to fix it. Never, ever going to happen no matter how many times the Minister of Truth tells us otherwise.
Here's little dandy for the Tribal Apologists.
"Last week, the Director of National Intelligence, the data-gathering and data-concealing arm of the American intelligence community masquerading as the head of it, revealed that in 2021, the FBI engaged in 3.4 million warrantless electronic searches of Americans."
It's one thing to have a Fascist Economy, but this.....
We're most definitely not in Kansas anymore no matter how many times our Fascist Minister of Truth tells us otherwise.
Not sure what you mean by "Tribal Apologists." I'm guessing you mean anyone who doesn't live off of every piece of sh*t that comes out of Trump's ass. And, I suppose that you consider me to be a "Tribal Apologist." Well, I recognize Trump for the evil dictator wannabe that he is, and I don't buy his lies. Guess that does make me a "Tribal Apologist" and I'm proud to bear the title!
I don't trust the federal government, regardless of what party is in charge. That includes the FBI. I suspect that the majority of those 3.4 million warrantless electronic searches were done in an effort to root out the planners and perpetrators of the Jan. 6th insurrection.
I don't agree with what the FBI did. They are not above the law (Donald Trump, take note. Neither are you or your kids!). But, I can see why they did it, if it was the insurrectionists they were after. The Jan. 6th insurrection had the goal of overthrowing America's Constitutionally-protected democracy and installing a fascist dictatorship in its place. If that had happened, the entire federal government as we know it, would have ceased to exist, including the FBI. So, they were just covering their own asses and protecting their own interests. That said, they should have obeyed the law and gotten warrants. No excuse for that.
Just two Tribes in the U.S.; Democrats and Republicans. Both lean heavily Fascist. We've been practicing Fascism in this country since the days of Lincoln and FDR put it on the fast track. The current administration labels anyone who criticizes their self sabotage agenda an Extremist. Unfortunately for them over 2/3's of the population are not buying their agenda. The right thing to do would be to change course, but not in these enlightened times. No need to change course when you can just sic the alphabet agencies on the Extremists. When the Republican's birthed the unconscionably illiberal Patriot Act many Libertarians warned that these agencies would soon be politicized resulting in yet more liberties being stripped from Americans. Now you have the current administration planning to expand on this horrendous legislation and create a Ministry of Truth. Neither Tribe will change the trajectory because they're living off the government largess. When I see people apologizing for or rationalizing their Tribal leaders poor behavior, I just smile and think to myself; Useful Idiot. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Can't say that I disagree with anything you said.
The biggest problem with this country is the "two-party system." The Founders warned us about the dangers of a two-party system over two hundred years ago.
The easiest and simplest way to get America back on a sensible course would be for people to stop voting either Democrat or Republican, and start voting for "third-party" candidates! The problem is that everyone is afraid of "wasting their vote" unless they vote either Democrat or Republican. I've voted for Green Party and Libertarian candidates, as well as Democrat and Republican.
If Congress, and every state legislature, was equally divided between five, different, political parties, there would be no gridlock or any of this stupid in-fighting! No single party would ever be able to hold control. No two parties could hold control. It would take a coalition of at least THREE parties to get anything done. That would give more of the American people a voice. More viewpoints would be represented and considered. To get anything done, members of at least three parties would have to reach a compromise.
In that regard, the parliamentary system is superior to ours. And, while we're at it, I'd also like to see America have the means for either Congress, or the president, to call for a new election if it was needed. Being locked into this system of holding elections every two years is ridiculous! Politicians -- especially the House of Representatives -- spend more time campaigning than they do, taking care of the People's business. If the president, or Congress, or one party is fuc*ing-up, we shouldn't have to wait until the next election to make changes. Call for a new election and throw the bums out!
Dream on, I guess . . . It'll never happen. Not for the foreseeable future, anyway.
I remember the Tribe that implemented the Patriot Act, trashed the Middle East looking for those elusive weapons of mass destruction, and Locked Down the economy during the Plandemic. Both Tribes are wetting themselves over the prospect of controlling the Ministry of Truth. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that both Tribes are hazardous to your health.
We need real experienced leaders back in the White House like Jared and Ivanka.....hahahahaha
"You may ignore politics, but politicians will not ignore you." (I forget who said it.)
I think it was Pericles. Yeah, an investor can't and shouldn't ignore it. Some folks just have a higher tolerance for a good and regular shearing.
It is the cesspool called Washington, D.C. that has become the issue. These entitled shitheads aren't there to actually do something for the country, they are there for the job, hoping to turn it into a career and retirement with awesome benefits. We need to push for term limits in Congress, so we can clean the cesspool of crappy ideas, or lack thereof. The creation of more government has been toxic and many programs which have passed only look to solve an issue in the short term, but create huge issues down the road. Also, the division between the far left (Progressives) and the far right have created a situation where nothing is getting done. What happened to rational thinking?
It left town; but we are looking for it!
As usual spot on. Unfortunately this "Disease of the Mind" is being shoved down our throats and given the Left's credo of "the ends justify the means" I don't see this ending well (for anyone).
Most Fox watchers, and certainly Tucker's fanboys, have been conditioned to hate democracy and to believe in authoritarian, brute-force, powerful state rule: a police state is, in fact, precisely what they desire. When these types yip about "freedom," all they mean is the freedom of the state to brutalize and harm the people they hate.
This is why DeSantis is a rising star in the Republican Party. He's already brought nascent fascism to Florida---a state where there are now ThoughtCrimes and election police and laws empowering citizens to assault dissenters without penalty. The state's Republican voters are as excited as any German mob at Nuremberg.
Amen! AMEN!! Thank God I'm not the only one who sees this!
The Republicans -- the DeSantis followers, especially -- have become nothing but fascists. Fascists, Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, call them what you will. They are a threat to democracy and the United States of America! Nothing proved this more than the attempted coup on January 6, 2021. People can downplay it and whitewash it (pun intended) all they want. January 6th was an insurrection and everyone who participated in it is a traitor, including most of the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans who weren't active in the attempted coup's planning and execution are complicit by their failure to condemn it and vote for Trump's impeachment.
Tucker Carlson is setting himself up to be the 21st Century's version of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda. Carlson continues to support Trump while he praises Putin. He's kissing the ass of every authoritarian and wannabe dictator out there, because he wants to be the guy who spreads their lies.
People in this space are very fond of hating the Democrats and blaming them for everything that is wrong under the sun, but I've never seen a Democratic president attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, attempt a coup, and then continue to lie about it a year later. I will say, however, that the Democrats have no guts. If they did, they would have arrested Trump and his cadre of enablers and put them on trial for treason.
Finally, someone who knows the truth and says it...Thank You!
Trump can and should be brought on sedition charges. Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power since before the first votes were cast, even using the presidency to act against the best interests of the country by initially attempting to block the Biden transition team. Most infamously, from a national stage, he told the Proud Boys, the founder of which was ordered not to enter D.C. due to fear of riots in recent days, to “stand back and stand by,” leaving the door open to sedition. Trump has also actively floated the idea that the military should intervene to alter the outcome of the election. He did this after he admitted that he had attempted to rig the election before the votes were cast, such as when he attempted to starve the Post Office of the funding it needed; as well as demanding simultaneously that the votes stop being counted in areas he was carrying the vote and continue being counted in areas where he wasn’t. Trump has since threatened, cajoled, lied to, and begged other politicians and officials to help him steal the election: such as when he threatened Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, unless he helped him “find” a little more than 11,000 votes, stepping through the door he cracked open and into sedition. This fact alone shows that Trump did more than play footsie with a coup attempt.
You must have dyslexia; you get a lot of your information all wrong.
It's the "I have no faith in the election process anymore" (I am of the same mind on that too) that scares the hell out of me. I think they will brazenly harvest votes, stuff ballot boxes, and do whatever it takes to win.
I don't trust either McCarthy or McConnell. They are there only to enrich themselves and be shot callers. Even if the right guys win in sufficient numbers come November, with those two in charge I'm not sure anything that needs to be done (and undone) will happen. I fear it will be reminiscent of Haster, Boehner, and Ryan.
I've been touting the concept of Trump stepping back and playing consigliere for a year now. His message is good, but no so much the messenger. De Santis buries the fools, but in the nicest way. Of course the Left and the media will try to destroy him because that's what they do. But, his style is like Teflon and because far more people will listen to him (unlike the former President) he will garner more support.
Here's a link to what happens if you do try to "go organic": https://ourorganicwellness.com/amish-farmer-faces-250k-fine-jail-time-and-losing-his-sustainable-farm-for-processing-his-own-meat/
Thanks for the link! Depressing that our own government has sold out to the large agribusiness interests and is screwing small farmers like this.
Imagine if FDR never federalized agriculture and there was no USDA. I'm pretty sure market forces would ensure a fairly reliable supply of food. What we have now is approaching what Lysenko inflicted on the Soviet Union. Things like ethanol (it takes more than a gallon of oil to produce a gallon of ethanol) and USDA mortgages(WTF?) illustrate the sheer corruption and insanity of our government-directed food ag sector.
When ethanol production inflated the price of my corn tortillas, I got really pissed!
Dear Bill, I owned the ranch Las Moras just south of Chicoana, Arg. I encountered some of the squatter problems that you may have so I sold in 2014. I have been a farmer in 3 countries for 55 years and the statement that we can grow enough food with manure and compost is NOTHING BUT MANURE. To think that the elected officials are this dumb and uninformed is embarrassing for the country but they do not seem to mind ! "You just cannot fix stupid ! "
Well this is quite interesting commentary and a very complex complicated one at that. Hard not to draw lines in the sand and not get political. I grew up on my relatives family farms. Having been born in 1957 I feel that my generation is one of the last ones that has roots back to a farm. In today's political outlook at it when politicking these are what they want the public to think we are saving. In yesteryear it was quite a different scenario of the family farm and farming in general. Often relatives pooled together to own equipment. You had dairy cattle 20-65 head, and you had chickens, and your own bulls, you grew oats, corn, hay and soybeans in the midwest. In the Dakota's and more arid regions Durham wheat. Other areas grow nuts and oranges and fruit. You ground and chopped your own feed. You were diversified and you could make it on 300 acres or so. Not an extravagant living but a good one that started at 5:30 AM and did not end until about 9:30 to 10PM. As a kid I did not even know it was work I thought it was the greatest life ever! You learned a lot on a farm more than you ever will learn about how things work and where food comes from as a city kid. Take manure it was spread on your land and was a significant source of your fertilizer and in many cases your only but in that era you did not need as much for the scale of your operation. The ground itself had much more nutrients in it than today as well and by this I mean trace minerals which are all but gone today so what was grown was actually a considerably a better product/produce. For any doubting Thomas' it has been documented I believe in federal registers if you car to dig and read them. If you were having a hardship your neighbors pitched in and helped you so that you did not lose your farm. Fast forward and contrast to practices today. For one there are considerably more people in the world today - so farms evolved (not necessarily for the better). Today we have mega corporate farms. They are not diversified for the most part. There are milk farms across the country that have 12000 head of dairy cattle and more, and a complex down my Chicago that runs an operation the scale that can provide enough milk for all of St. Louis and Chicago alone. Hooray! We have farms that specialize in Hogs only as well as chickens only. These farms, more so the hogs and dairy, generate massive amounts of manure far many more than they can use on their land and it becomes regulated waste .aka a problem particularly if there lagoons fail from structural or weather. The lagoon pits have some potential to generate their own energy a plus but most do not. This production means draws huge criticism from the 98% of folks living on 3% of the land - for the mass producing farms of livestock for the quality of an animals live's prior to slaughter but is necessary to produce what is needed at what people want to pay is at issue. Grain farming another sector no longer can make it on 300 to 400 acres other than those in the high dollar organic sector. Many are several thousands of acres. In Canada where I hunt for geese in Saskatchewan one Hutterite colony farms 30 sections. For those of you from the city that may not know what a section is that means they farm 30 square miles of land. The days of helping a neighbor for the most part are gone. They most farmers not singling out any particular group, will let you go under so they can buy you out and increase their operations. Unfortunately the way it works is that grain farmers get paid for tons and bushels and not necessarily the quality of the grain - hence no trace minerals. They have to have fertilizer to gain the output that is required to make it. The massive tiling in the country, particularly the Midwest, has washed generations of soil down the Mississippi and created a very real and large dead zone in our Gulf where we used to shrimp and have created a huge dead zone. We also have lakes overloaded with nitrogen and phosphorous and huge water quality issues. So it is no easy task to turn back the clock and simply say lets go green and do it right now. These shortages will be real and they will be ugly and they will persist. I could go on but have said enough for you to get the idea of farm evolution and the problems that have developed. Had Bill know the war wold be an outbreak he may have picked the agricultural commodity markets as the trade of the decade for they shall surely rival oil - my guess in both cost and availability.
Thanks for trying to teach these people the truth about how farms, agriculture, raising livestock, etc., work, Jon. I, too, grew up on a farm. Everything you say is true. Most of these city-slickers think that food comes from a grocery store or is delivered by Grub-Hub. They have no idea what goes into the production of the food they take for granted and waste, shamelessly. Most of them wouldn't last a day on a farm because they've never known anything like true, manual, labor.
Farmers and ranchers have much more in common with environmentalists than people care to believe. At least, the farmers and ranchers of my childhood, anyway. If we destroy the land (which humans are doing at a breakneck pace) we kill ourselves, because the land will be unable to grow the food that feeds us. That's what "environmentalism" is all about -- we take care of the Earth and the Earth takes care of us. God commanded Man to "Be good stewards of the Earth." Humanity has spit in God's face and ignored his command, and we're going to pay for it, dearly.
Human overpopulation has created the need for "corporate factory farms" that require the use of fertilizers manufactured from petroleum; billions of gallons of pesticides and herbicides that are poisoning the land, water table, waterways and decimating the natural world; and chicken, hog and cattle operations that produce billions of tons of manure and other waste, as well as methane gas that contributes to Global Warming. I believe that God is preparing to winnow the human population down to a manageable level.
The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" are: War, Plague, Famine, and Death.
Thanks to Putin we have War. Also courtesy of Putin and human stupidity, we have Famine, fast-approaching. Covid has been a piss-poor excuse for Plague, so far, but it is a very strange virus that is unlike anything we have seen before. It may, yet, mutate into a form that is worthy of the title "pandemic." Then, we'll have Plague. The last Horseman is Death. That requires no explanation.
Here you go again calling people "fools" who you don't agree with...How sad for you.
I repeat . . . Coming from you, I take that as a compliment!
Neocons are a protein source. We could make a sport of it. Sell tags and have a nationwide hunt. Rid the country of these miscreants while alleviating the starvation. Sounds like a Win-Win to me :-)
That's interesting because I have often read your posts claiming to be such a Christian.
Thanks Brad,its nice to hear from someone who understands farming and whats happening to the farmland.Sleepy Joe (Biden) should go back to sleep for the rest of his Presidency,he is clueless as to what is happening in this country.
Here in Sri Lanka, the President decided last year that henceforth (ie overnight) inorganic fertilizer was banned. This decision was lambasted by almost anyone who could add two and two without a calculator. Sure enough, one year later, crop yields have plummeted, costs to the consumer have skyrocketed and the country is passing the begging bowl around so-called friends (such as China, which has refused to allow the government to re-schedule its debts) for help out of this hideous own goal.
Now the hot meme is the US dollar is expiring and gold / commodity-backed currencies will replace it atop the heap. Many of us on the fringes have pondered alternatives to fiat currency, and so this becoming mainstream is a real sea change.
Which immediately arouses my contrarian curse. Ok, so exactly how does a gold/commodity-backed currency work? If gold or wheat declines (as measured in purchasing power to everything else), does the quantity of currency shrink to reflect this decline in value? Can the currency supply only expand if gold/commodities rise in relative value? Can the issuing central bank just keep emitting new currency without expanding the reserves of gold/commodities?
What about private banking creating new "money" by originating new mortgages and other loans? What's backing all this new privately-created "money"?
Lots of knotty questions, few if any detailed answers to how a gold-backed currency functions in actual markets. An idea can be great as an abstraction but the execution of the details is what differentiates an abstraction from a real-world system that's functional, transparent and thus trustworthy.
Can I convert my gold-backed quatloo into gold? If not, then what exactly does gold-backed mean?
As for digital currencies issued by central banks or private banks, how are these different from existing fiat currencies, which are for all intents and purposes, already fully digital currencies?
Even more contrarian: what if the demand for US dollars pushes the relative value higher despite the intrinsic flaws in fiat currencies?
You raise a lot of good questions. Personally, I think that crypto currencies will eventually fill the role of failing fiat currencies.
The most attractive thing about Bitcoin is the fact that it is impossible to inflate. Once the last Bitcoin is mined, there will be only 21 million of them in existence. There can NEVER be more, because the algorithm that creates Bitcoin will cease to function (Don't ask me how THAT works). No government, no central bank . . . No one will be able to create more than the limit of 21 million Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is already being accepted by financial institutions around the world. Last week, Fidelity announced that it is allowing its clients to add Bitcoin to their portfolios. Two countries -- El Salvador and The Central African Republic -- already accept Bitcoin as legal tender. So, the genie is already out of the bottle.
The problem with Bitcoin is its volatility. It can go up or down in price by dozens of percentage points, literally, in a matter of hours. The trend is always upward, however. Bitcoin has constantly risen in price over the years, despite its incredible volatility. That said, it raises obvious questions about using it as actual money. I believe that Bitcoin's true value lies in its use as a storehouse of wealth, like gold.
There are other crypto currencies that have been created with the idea that they can function as money. There are a couple that are backed by gold, and there are several that are pegged to the price of fiat currencies. The USDT crypto is pegged to the US dollar. I don't see the value in such cryptos, because, as the dollar falls in value, so does USDT. Gold-backed cryptos may be more viable, however.
As you said, all of the world's fiat currencies are already digital, for all intents and purposes. "Digital" and "crypto" are one and the same, save for the fact that cryptos are secured by the blockchain, which makes them completely transparent and decentralized.
The world's economic system is headed for an inevitable collapse. Whether that happens sooner or later, when it does, I think we'll see a tsunami of wealth flowing from fiat currencies into Bitcoin and other digital currencies as people try to hold onto some sort of value for their money. When that happens, I think the volatility of cryptos will vanish for the most part. People won't be investing in them, per se, as much as they'll be putting whatever wealth they have into cryptos to hold onto some value. At that point, I think we'll see true crypto "money."
The amount of comic comments here iss.... And it is all fact!
I have to laugh at all the greedy companies who moved our manufacturing offshore. It is all coming full circle now and is damaging the country. We should have grown our own wheat.
Now maybe some creative type will figure how to reuse the lakes of manure at the feed lots where cattle await processing or the pig farms tons of manure..
I cant access my acct I went subscribe because that worked before it said as before a link was sent to my email as before click here to access my acct and i keep getting returned to the subscribe page. What do I do? John Camamis ps love you guys