Beachcomber posted:

Cross posted from wherever this is originally from:


Banning yourself for life to own the libs. Also, his wife's just about to leave him.

zegermans posted:

hmmm

quote:

Spoiler alerts ahead, but Pepe and his centipede sidekick Pede start the book ecstatic that the old farmer has left after eight years of oppression. But Alkah and his minions have entrenched themselves in a pond that very much resembles a swamp — and are threatening to spread throughout all of Wishington Farm. Pepe and Pede have one weapon to vanguish the gator: buds from the honesty tree.

Samovar posted:

Defending CNN over Donnie on what?

zegermans posted:

hmmm

Dead Beef posted:

https://twitter.com/dril/status/873264183281889281

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

Equeen posted:

the plot is as subtle as a loving sledgehammer lol

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

quote:

U.S. farmers scramble to contain trade-war damage, find new markets
Clouds crowded the Illinois sky as Nick Harre walked away from his combine at the peak of harvest to join four fellow farmers in greeting some unlikely visitors.
Inside a nearby seed barn, they made their pitch to eight Sri Lankan government officials: Please buy our soybeans.

The wooing of such a tiny market underscores the depth of U.S. farmers’ problems after losing their biggest customer, China, to a global trade war.
Sri Lanka bought about 3,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans last year. China bought about 32 million tons – but now buys almost none after Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports in July. The move came in retaliation for U.S. duties on Chinese goods imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. farmers would need about 11,000 markets the size of Sri Lanka to replace Chinese soybean purchases, but these days many growers will take any shred of new business they can get. A small but growing number of farmers have all but given up waiting for diplomatic solutions and started scrambling themselves to help open new markets and salvage existing ones disrupted by tariffs, according to dozens of interviews with producers, industry officials and trade lobbying groups.
They are lobbying lawmakers, joining overseas trade trips, and hosting prospective buyers – often while neglecting or passing off farm duties during harvest.
Some tried jumping into politics as Democratic candidates this year, but had little success: Fifth-generation Pennsylvania dairy farmer Denny Wolff lost his fight for a Congressional seat, as did Mississippi poultry farmer Michael Evans - who is pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tariffs.

Harre, 29, a third-generation dairy and grain farmer, said he'd rather talk directly to importers than trust the task to Washington.
"I could care less about the politics, to be honest," he said. "We're lacking people advocating for us. If someone's going to be telling our story, I'd rather it be myself."
The grassroots movement comes as the agrarian economy is in its fifth year of financial woe, with oversupply undermining revenues. Corn and soybean prices are hovering near decade lows, and this year's bumper harvest is further swelling U.S. farmers' massive stocks of unsold grain.
U.S. net farm income will fall to $65.7 billion this year, down 47 percent from just five years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts.
(For a graphic on falling U.S. farm exports, see: tmsnrt.rs/2PBPKjx.)

These activist farmers know they face overwhelming odds; China had traditionally purchased 60 percent of U.S. soybean exports, and building new trade relationships can take years.
"If we can get buyers to step away from the politics and see us as people, we can get them to trust us – even if they can't trust Washington," said Doug Schroeder, a fifth-generation farmer in Bellflower, Illinois. "If we can do that, they will want to buy from us again when the trade war ends."

"As long as we're still in business, of course."

A PEACE OFFERING: COOKIES

As tensions with China escalated, Schroeder, 57, reached out to neighbors and fellow farmers at the state soybean association, offering to host overseas buyers.
"I'd do anything to get them back," Schroeder said.
In mid-September, some 20 Chinese buyers arrived at his farm in a bus, a visit set up through the U.S. Soybean Export Council, an industry group. Schroeder's 89-year-old mother baked them chocolate chip cookies.

When they arrived, adding a new stop to their annual tour of the U.S. Midwest to survey soybean fields, their response was polite, but awkward.

"We value your business," Schroeder told them repeatedly.
The visitors said nothing, looking at the ground. They declined the cookies.

"This isn't going to work," Schroeder recalled thinking at the time.

LOSING 'A GENERATION' OF FARMERS
A pile-up of farm work made Duane Aistrope turn down two invitations to visit China with trade groups this year before most tariffs took effect.
But as soybean prices plummeted in August, and Trump threatened to hit China with more tariffs, Aistrope dropped his chores and jumped on a plane to China for a trade mission arranged by the U.S. Grains Council, a industry group financed in part with taxpayer money.

He spent 10 days traveling with other farmers, visiting two dairy farms and meeting importers at a large feed maker.

They struck no deals; Chinese importers said they saw buying U.S. soybeans as politically untenable even if their prices continue to fall. Aistrope was left to hope his visit might make a difference in winning buyers back if the trade war ends.

Back his farm in rural Randolph, Iowa, a friend helped empty out the last of Aistrope's corn bins to make room for harvest, hauling truckloads of grain to a local ethanol plant.

Aistrope, 61, is losing money on every bushel of corn and soy. He worries more about younger growers.
"If something doesn't happen soon," he said, "we're going to lose a generation of farmers."

A WIN BY WASHINGTON STANDARDS
In Washington, the trade-war spin is far more optimistic.

Trump last month hailed a renegotiated trade pact with Canada and Mexico as a huge win for U.S. workers and farmers. This year, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney has doubled the number of trade missions the agency takes, inviting farm groups and agricultural businesses to join him.
One trip this spring resulted in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador agreeing to jointly spend $49 million over the next 12 months on U.S. agricultural goods ranging from feed grains to wine.
McKinney described the deal as the largest financial agreement USDA had ever signed from a trade trip. But in the world of commodity exports, it amounts to a rounding error, equal to 0.035 percent of 2017 U.S. agricultural exports.

"Every journey of ten, a hundred, a thousand miles begins as a single step," he said.

HOPES FOR TAIWAN
Taiwanese buyers were particularly eager to visit the United States this year because U.S. prices had fallen dramatically and because China had gobbled up most South American soybeans in a shift to avoid tariffs on U.S. crops.

For years, Minnesota farm groups have courted importers from Taiwan, which last year was the sixth largest buyer of U.S. corn and soybeans.
When the buyers arrived in September to sign a letter of intent to purchase up to 3.9 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans - potentially Taiwan's biggest purchases in a decade - farmer Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, jumped into his SUV and raced to Governor Mark Dayton's residence in St. Paul to meet the Taiwanese buyers.
The deal was promising - but a ceremonial signing rather than a firm commitment. Paap said he remains confident Taiwan will come through, eventually.

CHASING SRI LANKA
For Harre and the Illinois farmers gathered inside the seed building in September, every market is worth chasing - including Sri Lanka.

Fourth-generation grain farmer David Droste cleared his throat, greeted the visitors and herded them inside a kitchen, taking questions on crop yields, seed traits and soybean exports. The group spent three days in the Midwest partly because low U.S. soybean prices had intrigued buyers back home.
W.M.W. Weerakoon, an agronomist and director general at the Sri Lankan Department of Agriculture, asked about the impact of Chinese tariffs on U.S. farmers.

The Americans winced. Droste explained that they had spent years growing more crops to export and now had no place to sell them.
Afterward, Droste shook Weerakoon's hand.
"We'd love to work with you," he said.
Weerakoon smiled, without committing to anything, and the two men walked side-by-side into Droste's soybean field.

FMguru posted:

Normally I hate long twitter "essays", but here's a fun collection of over 60 examples of how Brexit is already wrecking Britain's economy.

https://twitter.com/uk_domain_names/status/1062663820525686784

Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:

A MAGA hat should come with a gun

TontoCorazon posted:

To shoot yourself in the maga hat?

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

Grape posted:

God even in sugary child propaganda form they can't help but draw their mascot looking villainous. Look at those fuckin' eyes.

Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:

https://mobile.twitter.com/HuffPost/status/1062736911230533633

rafikki posted:

B) Why don't they just have fox and friends talk about how Acosta should be reinstated? That should do the trick.

Cacafuego posted:

they’re that riled up about the AZ recount and losing 1 senate seat? they still control the senate, right, so what’s the big deal?

FMguru posted:

"I can't think of any better way for Trump to own the media than to reinstate Acosta's press credentials"
"That certainly would expose the fake news media for the low-intelligence hypocrites that they are"
"Can you imagine all those liberal heads exploding if he did that? They'd probably have to take Nancy Pelosi to the hospital"
[SFX: All three laughing]

rafikki posted:

A) BREAKING
B) Why don't they just have fox and friends talk about how Acosta should be reinstated? That should do the trick.

ElGroucho posted:

gently caress the farmers imo

CharlestheHammer posted:

I thought it was pepe after frog, Pede isn’t even the short version for pedophile

ikanreed posted:

They have a dating site for that

Dixie Cretin Seaman posted:

again, there is zero chance a group steeped in 4chan, the gab to reddit's twitter, doesn't understand pede and pedo sound alike. much like the 👌 and pepe himself, they enjoy the subversive ambiguity

MunchE posted:

Legit because they're insecure manchildren who are constantly pretending everyone agrees with them to make themselves feel better so when they get hard evidence to the contrary they loving melt down.

shirts and skins posted:

And, as with all things, right winger accusations are admissions.

Thundercracker posted:

Nah. You only have influence over Trump if you agree with everything he does. Then you can steer him in a direction.

Antifa Turkeesian posted:

It was easier with Sessions, as you could gain power over him by tricking him into saying his name backwards.

MunchE posted:

Legit because they're insecure manchildren who are constantly pretending everyone agrees with them to make themselves feel better so when they get hard evidence to the contrary they loving melt down.

Dixie Cretin Seaman posted:

Call to remove Muslim from post divides Tarrant Republicans

At a time when many want to focus on the 2020 election, in the wake of this reliably red county turning blue in this year’s U.S. Senate race, Tarrant Republicans instead are focused on a call to remove a Muslim from party leadership.

...
“Dr. Shafi is a practicing, Mosque-attending muslim who claims not to follow sharia law or know what it is,” Republican Sara Legvold wrote on the Protect Texas Facebook page in calling for his removal. “As a practicing muslim that is an overt falsehood. Sharia law is anathema to our Constitution because Islam recognizes no other law but shariah.

“As the most conservative county in the nation, this is a demoralizing blow to the conservative rank and file of the Republican Party across the nation and in Texas.”

Shafi has said he became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and soon joined the Republican Party.

He said he’s not associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, nor CAIR, “nor any terrorist organization.” He also said he supports Second Amendment rights and American Laws for American Courts. And he said he’s never promoted Sharia law.

Dixie Cretin Seaman posted:

Call to remove Muslim from post divides Tarrant Republicans

At a time when many want to focus on the 2020 election, in the wake of this reliably red county turning blue in this year’s U.S. Senate race, Tarrant Republicans instead are focused on a call to remove a Muslim from party leadership.

...
“Dr. Shafi is a practicing, Mosque-attending muslim who claims not to follow sharia law or know what it is,” Republican Sara Legvold wrote on the Protect Texas Facebook page in calling for his removal. “As a practicing muslim that is an overt falsehood. Sharia law is anathema to our Constitution because Islam recognizes no other law but shariah.

“As the most conservative county in the nation, this is a demoralizing blow to the conservative rank and file of the Republican Party across the nation and in Texas.”

Shafi has said he became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and soon joined the Republican Party.

He said he’s not associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, nor CAIR, “nor any terrorist organization.” He also said he supports Second Amendment rights and American Laws for American Courts. And he said he’s never promoted Sharia law.

ElGroucho posted:

lmao, minority conservatives love smashing in to the wall over and over

"Never thought they'd gently caress me in the rear end", says man who joined gently caress Brown People Party

quote:

“This small despicable group is whipping up a frenzy. That’s where this gets dangerous,” said Kelly Canon of Arlington. “They are doing this guilt by association crap and it goes against everything I go by. You have to judge a person by their deeds, not their religion.

”I realize that Islam is more than just a religion, and that it’s an ideology, but look at Dr. Shafi’s actions within the Republican Party. He’s not a terrorist. If this small group is successful in removing Dr. Shafi, I’ll resign my post as area leader and precinct chair. I’m not going to be part of that. I’ve got more important things I can do.”

wizzardstaff posted:

You left out the worst part of the article (for me at least):


"I am very disappointed that people are judging him by his religion and not his deeds. He's a good guy, not a terrorist like the rest of the Muslim ideology."

Guze posted:

How are they shocked everytime the leopards eat their face?

quote:

Comcast on Wednesday fired Andrew Kovalic, a 10-year employee who earlier this week became the target of a viral petition alleging that he is a member of a hate group. The petition that called for Kovalic’s termination, which had garnered 373 signatures by Wednesday morning, was created and sponsored by the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Media Mobilizing Project, which often scrutinizes media and telecommunications companies like Comcast.

In a statement to Philadelphia Magazine, Comcast said, “There’s no place for disrespectful, offensive behavior in our culture. The individual is no longer employed by Comcast.” When asked how Comcast made its determination to fire Kovalic and what specific behavior led to the company’s decision, a spokesperson said they could not comment on the situation beyond the statement.