KY Farmers Afraid To Speak Out In Midst Of Trump-Induced Trade Mess, Climate Chaos

[hatrack]

EDIT

The Ohio River has been up and down over 36 feet since before November last year. The data pulled from the Cairo Gage from Dec. 28 to May 3 shows the river has been over 40 feet for 113 days. If you take into consideration the forecasted crest and fall, we will have had a flood stage river for over a third of the year. But crop insurance subsidies need to go? Many farmers are seeing the results of the high water through delayed barges, closures, planting delays — all this on top of the trade wars.

Why aren’t we hearing more concern? Because the current administration has made it impossible for farmers to criticize without retaliation from Republican landowners.

A farmer who wrote an opinion piece early last year in response to farmers’ incomes dropping more than 50% since 2013 and highlighted the increase in farmer suicides due to status-quo policies, lost 300 acres of sharecropped land because word got out that he was a Democrat.

Money lenders in agriculture base who they lend money to on more than just financial statements. Lenders make phone calls within the community to understand the “general character” of someone. The idea is to see if the farmer in question is in good standing in the community and doesn’t have anything to “hide.” But rumors spread all the time about certain operations having to file for bankruptcy. Farmers already struggle to compete with larger farms that bring in their cloud-connected combines and quote production numbers to landowners that compete for pennies on the pound. Now they have to compete with their conscience as well.

EDIT

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2019/05/24/donald-trump-trade-wars-hurt-kentucky-farmers-who-fear-retaliation-republican-party/1222909001/

[True Blue American]

1. Ohio River floods have been devastating

Ever since I can remember up and down the River. I moved away from that area long ago.

http://homepages.uc.edu/~huffwd/Ohio_River/The_Ohio_River.htm

We have 5 rivers here, but 5 really good dams on each one.

I live very high above them but the only areas that flood are the very low lying areas. No flood plain for me.

[2naSalit]

2. They are well conditioned to toe the line...

Meanwhile, the goal from the top is to run them off their land so corporate farms can take over. Perhaps these same farmers will end up working those corporate farms just to survive just like in the Philippines back in the 60s and 70s and likely still ongoing. Those people were run off their land as the government sold out to Dole and others, the farmers either had to work the farms yet couldn't afford the food they grew for the corporation or migrate to a city. Many of them became the garbage people who live in a huge landfill near Manila. They survive by dump-picking and recycling items to sell along with finding food to eat. This is what -45 wants here. The climate does not matter to him either.

[PJMcK]

3. Sorry for the pun but cry me a river

The voters in Kentucky helped elect Trump. Same as many other states. Those voters need to learn some fundamental lessons, foremost is that elections have consequences.

When these voters start voting for their own personal interests instead of acting with the Republican tribe, I'll have some consideration for them. Until then, not so much.

[yellerpup]

4. Not all voters in KY voted for Trump.

Not all farmers voted for Trump. Tornados and floods are not political. If we don't show compassion for KY citizens then we are as bad or worse than Trump.

[PJMcK]

5. Fair enough

And yet Kentucky keeps re-electing McConnell. It's hard to feel compassion for those voters whose senator violates the U.S. Constitution.

There is about 1/3 of Americans who are, in essence, unredeemable because of their hard right political views. How am I to feel empathy for them?

[sharedvalues]

6. They are brainwashed by Fox and Limbaugh

They believe the lies.

[Skittles]

21. that makes them very dumb indeed

there's plenty of other choices.......these are folk who CHOOSE to remain ignorant

[yardwork]

9. Why are you blaming the Democrats who vote against McConnell?

Not every Democrat's family farm is conveniently located in a blue state.

[PJMcK]

15. I'm not blaming Democrats

I don't know how you projected that idea but it's not what I wrote.

Red states have too much power when compared to their populations. It doesn't matter if one votes for a Democratic candidate in Kentucky, (or Alabama, Mississippi, etc.). The stranglehold that Republicans have over their gerrymandered districts results in a Republican dominated Senate and too many votes in the Electoral College, again because of the imbalance of populations between Red and Blue states.

Perhaps one day, that death-grip will be relaxed. In the meanwhile, however, those states and districts that send these ignorant, greedy Luddites to D.C. and state governments will continue to reap my scorn.

By the way, I've been a registered Democrat since 1976. I've voted in nearly every election I could and only twice have I voted for a Republican, (once for a excellent local judge who was unopposed and once for a local mayor (first selectman, actually) who was really progressive. I mention these things because I do not blame Democrats except when they don't vote.

[yardwork]

18. You're ignoring the fact that red states have plenty of Democrats who vote.

[yellerpup]

17. The 1/3 are knotheads and you can save your empathy for them.

The other 2/3 are deserving of our compassion. We can't save people who won't participate in their own rescue, but we need to reach out to everyone who does need a hand.

[Johnny2X2X]

13. Lots of good Dems in red states are suffering.

Lots of good people in Kentucky and there are hundreds of thousands who only vote Democratic.

We can’t write off the population of a whole state. Our Democratic voter base lives all over the country and many are suffering terribly in the backwards red states.

[jayschool2013]

7. I know, the Electoral College, percentage of voters, etc., but

1.2 million Kentuckians voted for Trump in 2016
2.8 million New Yorkers voted for Trump in 2016

How do we lump all of them together they so all suffer for their vote? Or should it just be the idiots in red states?

[paleotn]

16. But if disaster befalls NY....

4.6 million Clinton voters suffer, verses 629 thousand in KY. Thanks, but for karma's wrath, I'll take the ruby red states, thank you.

[jayschool2013]

20. If it's upstate NY

then it will probably be one of the 35 NY counties that voted for Trump.

My only point was to say there are idiots in every state, and to wish ill on any of them is going to create suffering for the rest of us in the states that voted for Trump. Enjoy New York, but understand that nearly 3 million of your fellow New Yorkers voted for Twitler, and most of them live in the upstate rural counties, just like every other state.

You have NYC to push the balance in favor of sanity.

Iowa City and our 75,000 residents can do only so much to balance our rural political insanity.

[yardwork]

8. Read it again. Democrats are being retaliated against.

[dalton99a]

10. An important piece

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Yeah, now that Trump is pushing violence

It can be rough on Democratic voters here in the south.

But if you are successful, they don't care what your politics are. Really, they worship rich people and never turn down your money. I'm also retired military, so they tend to leave me alone.

I put up lawn signs last presidential election. And though they were stolen once, I had no problems after I called the sheriff. I'm wondering how it will go next presidential election.

OK, I have to add this story. When I first joined DU in 2012, I bought their bumper stickers and put them on my car. One night I was eating out at a popular bar on the patio. There was a large party of older women drinking and having fun. They got ready to leave and walked by my car pointing and looking at the bumper stickers. They were NOT happy faces. And some of them actually lifted their feet and looked at the ground and under the car as if democrats were actually under the ground coming for them. They eventually moved on but it was funny to watch.

[flibbitygiblets]

12. They'd be yelling from the rooftops if Obama did this

That's how demonized Democrats are. That's how bad our "brand" is.

It's not just that they're afraid of trump. They're more afraid of US.

[murielm99]

19. I live in a red area of a blue state.

There are farmers and business owners here who are afraid to admit that they are Democrats. They do not speak up. They do not vote in primaries. As long as I can get them out in the general election, I don't care.