My local paper keys in on one dire phrase that our Congressional delegation used in its please-stop-the-beatings letter to Donald Trump, “the brink of economic collapse” facing rural South Dakota due to Trump’s reckless tariffs:
…this is just the beginning of what economists across the board are calling an all-out, no-backing-down trade war. In other words, it’s probably going to get worse before (and if) it gets better.
…Their dire letter begs a followup: Shouldn’t Noem, Rounds and Thune be doing more to stop these tariffs? If such action will lead our state to “the brink of economic collapse,” shouldn’t our policymakers be enacting, well, different policy?
We did not elect our lawmakers to write bold letters. We elected them to make laws and to serve as a check to executive power [editorial, “Congress Must Act to Stop Devastating Ag Tariffs,” Aberdeen American News, 2018.07.21].
The AAN backs Democratic Congressional candidate Tim Bjorkman’s call for Congress to seize this tariff bull by the Article 1 Section 8 horns before Trump’s trade war knocks the “cornerstone” of South Dakota’s economy out from under us.
Comrade NOem sent out one of her blubs and she basically said that sometimes you have to destroy the village to save it, more or less. That kind of thinking worked real good for us in Vietnam so why not try the same failed program in South Dakota.
Where is Sutton on this? That boy should be all over this like a bulldog on a T-Bone.
For all you AAN readers, Comrade Munchkin says this at the G-20 in the big town of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Representing the U.S. at the meetings is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who on Saturday said the overall U.S. economy has not been harmed by the trade battles set off by President Donald Trump’s get-tough policies. But he acknowledged that some individual sectors have been hurt and said U.S. officials are looking at ways to help them.”
So then Munchkin, which is it? Is the AAN completely wrong on this that South Dakota has not been harmed? Or are our ag producers just getting the wrong figures in their checkbooks? With Comrade trump and the Quislings, you can’t believe a damn word they say. How would you ever play Liars Poker with this crew?
Realistically what can Thune, Rounds and Noem possibly do with their president that doesn’t listen and take advice from his staff and advisors?
Our congressional representative haven’t had the courage to challenge Trump thus far and I doubt they will change now. Do they even have a plan on how to approach the president and the leadership of their party?
The Republicans own this economic crisis lock, stock and barrel. Their options are to put their shoulders to the wind and go forward, or to reverse course. Reversing course is a long-term loss and a short term embarrassment for their president and their party. Sailing into the hurricane created by their president has the potential for a long-term win, but nobody knows what that would look like or has faith that the captain of the ship can deliver it. And the hurricane itself is tough to bear. Very tough. Will they mutiny, go down with the ship, or somehow against the odds make it through to calm waters? These are the times that try the souls of Republican politicians, if in fact they have souls.
We are on a huge economic down swing in SD and you really think any of our Congressional Representatives will do anything to ruffle POTUS feathers? No, I bet not. Noem, who is running for governor, talks about, “…destroying the village…” It isn’t a village it is South Dakota (and some of you really want her for governor? Thune stands behind the other talking heads and his head yes. Rounds double speaks about everything (read/listen to his statements about Trump & Putin). You get what you vote for gang…..
Comrade’s Thune and Rounds could shake that wretched Russian stench from themselves by putting America first and voting with the Democrats to beat back this invasion. As far as Comrade NOem goes, there is no hope for her as she has shown at least 65 times that she is not for South Dakota and never will be. Comrade NOem will always be a Comrade.
Mnuchin’s overall-economy-improving argument isn’t going to help his boss’s political fortunes. Even if it is true (and I invite evidence and analysis on that point), the tariffs are hitting his rural base hardest, meaning the benefits must be accruing in places where Trump isn’t going to win anyway and the costs will only help his opponents where those opponents need the most help. Bjorkman, Sutton, holler harder!
Noem saying she is “concerned”, is ridiculous. She had her spine removed a long time ago, and is only “concerned” about her own personal advancement into power.
Come on Billie Sutton. This is a huge ole fast ball down the middle of the plate, served up perfectly for you. If she won’t stand up to this obvious reckless president in name only, how can South Dakotans trust her to do what is right for the state? Sutton’s “more of the same” argument is good, BUT, go deeper Billie. Go deeper!
Indeed Dana P, if the campaign manager for Billie Sutton could read further into what is going wrong in South Dakota it may take a Canadian to give more wisdom:
“It has been thirty two years since the anti-American Antonin Scalia was given a seat on the court.
I am a 70 year Canadian who knew the USA when it was committed to the values and ethics of the founders. I have read Jefferson when he warned about the corporate take over of your country.
Back in 1980 if you had told me that in 38 years the average Canadian would be wealthier, healthier, better educated, happier and more secure than the average American I would ask you what you were smoking.
The conservatives were right about one thing neoliberalism would provide maximum economic growth. Low taxes and small government would make the richest most powerful country in the world richer and more powerful. The conservatives never told you that for most Americans conservative economics would do exactly the same thing it did in the 19th century. Most Americans would see less opportunity, stagnant income and a dramatic drop in their personal security.
Nafta saw your GDP grow at twice the rate as ours but as we invested in the health, education of our citizens your citizens became consumers and those that could afford to consume the most became the new aristocracy.
The Canadian historian, writer and philosopher John Ralston Saul says America is the most European country on the planet. Saul is an historian and he means 18th and 19th century Europe like the Europe that saw three million Irish starve to death or deported from a land where food was plentiful except for potatoes.”
I agree with the AAN fully and completely on a well written article that speaks of truth. We have lacked that truth here in South Dakota for 4 decades of economic stagnation. We need change and that change must come from a governor who clearly sees that the healthcare is killing our rural way of life and our economic well being. The governor must clearly see how important it is to demand from those who are sent to Washington to be more than just a yes vote for the elite that pay them handsomely to be a doormat. The governor must see that with his moves he would be directing a complete change in the legislature that will also move our state forward. Clean house Governor Sutton and lets move up!
Also, as a follow up. The AAN should put candidate Cory up against incumbent Al to discuss the complete failed breakdown of the legislature in doing their jobs for the people of the state instead of special interests and what they will do to fix it. This should be done in every legislative district in the upcoming election.
Our ‘fearless leaders’ (including Thune, Rounds and Noem) will stay the course and continue to head into the wind, assuming that, as South Dakota usually always does, the voters will conveniently ‘forget’ and vote with them anyway. It’s the Republican way.
Comrades trump, NOem, Thune and Rounds along with Comrade Dusty, are all giggling with approval of what is happening with our pork producers as there trade scam digs in even further to what the AAN article speaks of.
“WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6, 2018 – U.S. pork producers now face punitive tariffs of 62 percent on exports to China, a market that represented 17 percent of total U.S. exports by value in 2017.
China announced a new 25 percent tariff in response to U.S. action under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. That tariff is on top of the 25 percent punitive duty levied by China in early April in response to U.S. action under Section 232 of The Trade Expansion Act of 1962. U.S. pork already had a 12 percent tariff on exports to China. (The country also has a 13 percent value-added tax on most agricultural imports.)”
http://nppc.org/china-tariff-on-u-s-pork-now-tops-60-percent-american-pork-producers-face-financial-crisis/
If you all continue to vote republican, maybe you will see pork chops sold at the super market for $.39 per pound back when America Was Great Again in 1965.
A new day and another new ‘The sky is falling” crisis. None of them ever come true and nothing ever happens. . . Remember Korean war, nuclear war, trump collusion, it just goes on and on, every day a new crisis. . .
The state run farms of Russia, where Comrades NOem, Thune and Rounds and Comrade Dusty, believe are the answer to putting beans and rice on the tables of ag producers here in South Dakota, will go back back back to the Depression days for their solution”
“The USDA has examined drawing upon Depression-era programs that permit borrowing of as much as $30 billion from the Treasury as a way to compensate farmers for tariff-driven price declines.”
How ya gonna pay it back?
The failed governance of the corrupted republican party is staggering. To make once proud farmers and ranchers as economically dependent as Native Americans, makes me think they may consider joining forces. Native’s know what it is like to have your livelihoods taken from you and then making you dependent upon the government for subsistence. In the recent past, ag producers looked upon reservations as failed states, now, read the article from AAN and see for yourself the failed state in which you live. See how quickly it has happened? In a matter of 40 years, it is history repeating itself going back now further to the Great Depression. Wake up!
Wall Street Journal agrees with AAN with this headline:
BUSINESS
2.5 Billion Pounds of Meat Piles Up in U.S. as Production Grows, Exports Slow
Profits, prices are threatened as record amounts of red meat and poultry fill U.S. warehouses
By Jacob Bunge
July 22, 2018 10:00 a.m. ET
Meat is piling up in U.S. cold-storage warehouses, fueled by a surge in supplies and trade disputes that are eroding demand.
Federal data, coming as early as Monday, are expected to show a record level of beef, pork, poultry and turkey being stockpiled in U.S. facilities, rising above 2.5 billion pounds, agricultural analysts said.”
This surplus will now be rendered into pet food while ranchers will be part of the Communist giveaway of the state run ag business.
The American Academy of Neurology? (AAN)
OS, pay attention. The editorial is real. Farmers’ losses are not fake news. You don’t get to wish the failings of your party and Administration away with your distractions. Trump is hurting the SD economy. Thune, Rounds, Noem, Tim Bjorkman, the AAN, WSJ, Ernie Goss—everyone agrees with this fact.
Randee, I’ll bet the neurologists would agree with the Aberdeen American News!
Jerry, I’d be happy to participate in a public forum or debate about the impact of Trump trade policy on South Dakota agriculture and the broader state economy. However, I hesitate to propose such an event, simply because I’m not sure there’s much either I or Al can do in the South Dakota Senate to relieve farmers of this problem. When Lori Walsh asked me on SDPB what the Legislature can do about it, I suggested may some radical reconfiguration of the state’s ag/econ development programs to promote local markets and self-sufficient agriculture instead of mega-dairies and industrial-scale production of crops and livestock intended for export… but that solution only assumes that knnejerk protectionism becomes the norm and Trump closes foreign markets to our farmers for good. High tariffs on SD farm goods forever means economic trouble; we want a restoration of fair access to global markets, and there’s nothing the Legislature can do about that, is there?
So what Cory? I never said the headline wasn’t true. I said, once again, it will all amount to nothing. Again.
As far as farm losses go, farm products, like stocks cannot experience a loss until,the item is sold. On my drive east yesterday it appeared the Crops were still in the ground.
“amount to nothing”—try telling that to a farmer seeing his thin profit margin disappear. Try telling that to the implement dealers seeing new orders dry up. Try telling that to a Legislature that will have to build a state budget in dwindling sales tax revenue.
One thing for sure Cory, Medicaid Expansion would make a lot of hurt be treated immediately and bring much needed capital into the state. The plight of the ag producer is real and it is dangerous to a democracy. When food stocks become endangered through manipulation, then we all loose.
What can be done though to help solve the farm crisis would be for the South Dakota legislature to develop the gumption to demand from the three crooks and liars that represent the state to demand change and to end this con game. They can easily do that by caucusing with Democrats in Washington. If the state stood for something rather than falling for anything, we could do just that. That will never happen with Al in the senate nor will it happen with any of the incumbent republicans. They are all in on the con.
Comrade old soviet, the beans and corn are not ready to harvest yet. Corn is in late August on, sometimes to even when first snows come. Depends a lot on the moisture content as it costs a lot to dry corn when in the grain bins on dryer floors even at a buck a gallon for propane.
October and early November is usually when the beans are harvested. So yeah, about the only small grains you have seen harvested right now is wheat.
What has been the obvious is now agreed upon. The markets are being manipulated by Comrade trump. So the false sense of security we seem to think we have with our markets, both monetary and commodity, are just a bubble. Weak tea.
“President Trump may have trained stock market investors.
Although he appears to be unpredictable, some reactions to him in the stock market have become quite predictable. I’ll explain.
We know there is a tariff battle going on, and we can sense that companies don’t like it. Whenever the debate becomes heated and global tensions surface, the stock market reacts adversely as well.
The action in the stock market overnight after Thursday’s session was indicative of that. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.01% were up 50 points and suddenly were down 100 points, a move of 150 points. The same move happened in the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.19% and even the stronger Nasdaq 100 NDX, +0.21% gave up ground.
In fact, after almost every major negative tariff-related news in the recent past, the market has fallen, but then reversed itself, and sometimes sharply. In each case, “buying the news” made sense.
That is the lesson the stock market is learning from Donald Trump. The market is being trained to buy the initial negative reaction to tariff-related news.
Although Donald Trump himself may be very unpredictable, the stock market considers the tariff battle to be a provider of rather predictable opportunity instead.”
Market Watch, July 20, 2018
So what is there to believe in then? Your religion has been hijacked, your business interests if you are an ag producer, your investments are now just like they were in 2008 before the crash, trembling and teetering. Start gaining back your country and your dignity by voting Democratic. Start at the legislative here in South Dakota, and then put a governor in who is not an insider that put us in the position we have been in. Then step it up a notch and elect Tim Bjorkman. With that vote, you will denounce the shenanigans that Comrade Dusty has always tried to bring into the landscape of South Dakota politics. Then, find a replacement for Comrade Rounds and especially for the Confederate Comrade Thune.
Oldsarg
Crops are sold every day every minute every hour doesn’t matter if they are in the ground or not you don’t produce a crop u come up with the loss of you produce a crop you still come up with the loss of these prices
Big Ag giveaway! Comrade trump has raised the white flag of surrender to those pesky Chinese and EU guys after starting a trade war with them. More tax payer bailouts are on the way to farmers and ranchers rather than allowing them free market access, this is the Socialist way. Hell, as long as we are gonna have socialized farming and ranching, why not have socialized medicine. What’s the difference? Buying the vote until the midterms and then…
“WASHINGTON – The Trump administration will announce a plan Tuesday to direct billions of dollars to farmers hurt by the escalating trade war with China and other countries, according to a source a familiar with the plan.
The proposal to stabilize farmers, some of whom have watched prices tumble amid ongoing trade disputes, is a recognition that Trump’s tariffs are having a short-term impact on the agriculture sector heading into the midterm elections.
Trump is set to visit Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday and will travel to Illinois and Iowa later in the week – all states that are beginning to see the impact of U.S. and retaliatory tariffs.”
Farmers and ranchers now you know how it works in Russia.
Great picture of Comrade NOem and Comrade Thune looking like they have found the solution to making Russia Great Again, at our expense of course:
“Russia is the country with the most arable land, but has historically not managed to develop an advanced agriculture. Why should this be done now? There are various security, economic, social, and spiritual-related reasons. First, as part of guaranteeing elementary sovereignty, Russia must ensure food security for its almost 150 million people. Otherwise, in the current context, it is possible that the Western-imposed blockade could severely hurt the country and its citizens.”
Great picture, no? https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/super-kolkhoz-how-russia-could-better-manage-its-agricultural-treasures
The surrender monkeys cannot allow Russia to fail. Another proud moment in US History when trump and the rest of the Quislings, just keep going down the same path of tax and spending taxpayer money like we have the printing presses that don’t matter. Winning!
The complete failure to govern is now upon us and all of it for what? You must vote these madmen out of office and defend your democracy.
“The aid to farmers, to be announced by the United States Department of Agriculture, would come through a direct assistance program, one designed to help with food purchase and distribution, and one specifically geared toward promoting trade, according to one of the people. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have authorization to pre-empt a planned announcement later Tuesday.
The move is an indication that Mr. Trump — ignoring the concerns of farmers, their representatives in Congress, and even some of his own aides about the adverse consequences of a trade war he says he relishes — plans to plow forward in escalating his tariff tit-for-tat around the world. The approach could cost American producers billions of dollars, and potentially inflict political pain on Republicans in farm states who would be forced to answer for the policies of a president who has shown little regard for the consequences of his trade agenda.” New York Times just released
So what about the trillion dollar Farm Bill? The one that declares subsidies are not needed for the poor or disabled, or the elderly or the veterans. What about that?
“The social contract between our government and its people is hanging on by a thread. If the 2018 Farm Bill is any indication of the strength of that last thread, we are in trouble.
With its origins in the New Deal, the Farm Bill’s original three goals were to keep food prices fair for both farmers and consumers, ensure an adequate food supply and protect and sustain the country’s natural resources. The current iteration seeks to dramatically increase food insecurity by weakening SNAP, a proven nutritional lifeline, harming working families and slashing support for small scale and sustainable farmers. We are a far cry now from its original intent to link the survival and viability of farming and rural life with the reduction of hunger and food insecurity in the cities.
How the farm bill is currently shaped – who has the most influence on the policymakers – exposes a crisis of democracy.” http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/398132-the-2018-farm-bill-is-a-crisis-of-democracy
Farmers and ranchers, show your solidarity to your fellow Americans. Show that that stand for democracy. Require your representatives and senators to take that ugly language out of the program that benefits your immensely while hurting those among us who need help. We all are doing that for you with this bailout, so do a solid and give back.
On the other hand: “The rest of us here in South Dakota averaged $50,107, 13% better than the national average.”
I am sure you are including the reservations just like we do with the employment numbers, no? I know a lot of folks who would be shocked to know that they are living high.