Thread for obviously newsworthy stuff

[Aeson]

Hillary voters

[Dinner]

If shipping produce to market X was demonstrably deemed not viable before tariffs... what makes you think it will be viable when prices drop making it even less viable?

The adjustments here will be government intervention and/or US farmers getting screwed.

It wasn't that it was nonviable simply that there was a heaper option. That cheaper option is now gone yet demand remains the same so the soy beans must come from some where. The price will now be higher yet the soy beans will come from some where (and the producers will get lower prices to make up for increased shipping costs).It is never that it is impossible but simply that the most profitable is X given prevailing shipping costs,

[Aeson]

Soy is not a zero sum game. Production can vary, in relatively short periods of time. The US has always had excess capacity of staples, by design to provide fod security in case of natural disasters. Also to keep prices high farmers are even paid to leave fields fallow or crops on the field. If it was profitable to send the excess to other markets they’d already be growing and selling it.

You can see that the trade war is actually hurting US farmers as some US farmers are leaving soy crops on the field as it’s a bigger loss to pay for harvesting, soy shipments being way down, storage (in hopes the trade war ends soon) being maxed out, farmers getting more government money, farmers asking for government to develop new markets ... while Brazil is cutting more forests to plant more soy.

[Aeson]

Bear in mind that soy and other staples are generally very thin margins, even with government subsidized crop insurance. Something like 90% of soy growers are subsidized even before the trade war. A drop in prices can put a crop underwater, and not being able to sell the full crop can too.

Right now farmers are storing and eating up reserves (or going into debt) in hopes the trade war will be short lived. If it lasts until next harvest there’s going to be huge problems as they won’t have a choice to store more. Then even if the trade war ends the increased production in Brazil and other places is going to perpetually hurt US farmers.

[Aeson]

China has dropped tariffs and import bans on other sources of feed from other countries that used to favor US feed. This is something that may perpetually hurt US farmers too. There never was a shortage of places for China to buy food ... politics kept the US as a preferred supplier. Politics has changed that.

[ZEE]

[rah]

You seem to be the only one. It's been much more (not totally) civil around here recently and we all know the reason why.

[spambot]

Networks agree to carry Trump’s speech about nonexistent ‘crisis’ at U.S.-Mexico border

A 2014 Obama address on immigration was called too “overtly political" to air by many of these same networks.

President Donald Trump announced Monday in a tweet that he would be addressing the nation on Tuesday night regarding his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s announcement comes as his partial shutdown of the federal government stretches into a third week with no end in sight. The Trump administration is demanding $5 billion to fund the president’s wall and Democratic lawmakers have refused to grant his request.

Trump and his top officials have repeatedly misrepresented immigration policies and smeared immigrants in an attempt to justify the wall — including Trump’s questionable claim of a “crisis on our Southern Border,” which he has continued to repeat even though border-crossing attempts are at a historic low and have been in steady decline since 2000.

Nonetheless, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News have agreed to broadcast Trump’s speech on Tuesday night.

Former President Barack Obama requested and was denied air time from major broadcast networks for a 2014 address regarding executive actions on immigration because it was deemed “overtly political” and not a “bipartisan announcement.”

A television executive told CNN “we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t” about the decision to broadcast the president’s address.

TV exec texts: "He calls us fake news all the time, but needs access to airwaves… If we give him the time, he'll deliver a fact-free screed without rebuttal. And if we don't give him the time, he'll call every network partisan. So we are damned if we do and damned if we don't."

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 7, 2019

Of course, Trump was likely to continue attacking news outlets regardless of whether or not they aired his speech on Tuesday.

Roughly six hours before announcing his address, Trump referred to news media as “crazed lunatics” and “the Enemy of the People” in a series of tweets on Monday morning.

The Trump administration’s rhetoric about a “crisis at the border” was thrown into further doubt on Monday when NBC News reported that only six immigrants in a database of “known or suspected” terrorists have been caught trying to cross into the U.S. The White House had previously claimed that number was around 4,000.

However, the president is reportedly still considering declaring a national emergency at the Mexico border so he can obtain funding for his long-desired wall without having to go through Congress.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill without Trump’s wall funding that would have avoided a shutdown last month. But after pressure from conservative media, the president reversed course and decided he would not sign any spending bill that didn’t fund his border wall.

Upon taking control of the House last week, Democrats passed a spending bill that is nearly identical to the one that had passed the Senate unanimously before Trump changed his mind. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has indicated he will no longer support the legislation he recently voted for.

Senate Democrats are now threatening to block any bills that are unrelated to reopening the government.

Trump has said the government shutdown could go on for months or over a year if he doesn’t get funding for his wall.

https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-border-wall-national-emergency-immigration-address-nation-mexico-twitter-909cd43a66a8/

LIBRUL MEDIA

[ZEE]

You seem to be the only one. It's been much more (not totally) civil around here recently and we all know the reason why.

Just wait, Rah. Once Kidicious is unbanned next month he will rain a fury and hellfire upon this forum the likes of which has nevar been seen before in this site's history.

We are talking about Kidicious.

[rah]

Then I have no doubt that his return will be short.

[Aeson]

Networks agree to carry Trump’s speech about nonexistent ‘crisis’ at U.S.-Mexico border

A 2014 Obama address on immigration was called too “overtly political" to air by many of these same networks.

https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-border-wall-national-emergency-immigration-address-nation-mexico-twitter-909cd43a66a8/

LIBRUL MEDIA

Obama was a politician giving a political speech ... Trump is a clown making a spectacle of himself ... ratings dictate the networks decisions.

[ZEE]

I hope our Glorious Leader, Donald Trump, declares a National Emergency so bad. We need a good National Emergency to help Make America Even Greater Again!

[ZEE]

He didn't declare an Emergency in his speech tonight.

[Aeson]

Look on the bright side ... his Presidency is a sort of National Emergency in it's own right!

[spambot]

He didn't declare an Emergency in his speech tonight.

Trump has no balls.