Soybeans

If one just reads the headlines, one would think American farmers are on the ropes. However, looking at the above chart (source: CNBC), one can see that things are not quite as bad as supposed. Add to this the fact that Trump has pumped tens of billions of tariff-collected dollars into US agricultural subsidies ... and that China has just agreed to import more US pork and soybeans ... farmers here may be doing a little better than OK ... not what the media are saying.

Lessons: Kind reader, at a moment in time there is only so much food in the world ... and always look behind the headlines ...

Big Bucks

It seems that virtually every entrenched politician is a multi-millionaire ... even if they had entered office a pauper. How do these often slow-witted people pull their enrichments off? Let me count the ways:

- Gifts and gifts-in-kind from lobbyists
- Book deals
- Kickbacks from overpaid staffers (illegal)
- Exorbitant speaking fees and go-alongs
- Syphoning money from campaign funds
- Insider stock and commodity trading
- Plush no-show jobs for spouses and relatives
- TV appearance fees
- Sweetheart real estate deals
- Fake foundations
- Fat salaries and pensions
- Pork from pork-barrel legislation
- Bribes (illegal)
- Padded expense accounts
- Free medical expenses and other allowances
- "Friendly" bank loans and loan forgiveness

It would seem that new forms of this political grease are constantly being invented. Chasing these ephemera is a frustrating and no-win exercise. The easier these money scams become, the more attractive politics becomes for low-life's. The only possible solution might be to force full annual public disclosure by politicians as to the sources of their net worth increases?

Cuba Today

I recently mentioned that liberal friends returned from Cuba (right before Castro boxed). ... see: Measure of the Man. As I have indicated, they would not go back for a variety of reason ... but mostly because of the poverty and oppressive atmosphere. However, they did relate a few interesting facts about their experience:

Cuba imposes a 4% tax on converting foreign currency to Cuban currency ... except for American dollars which are hit with an additional 20% surcharge. You had to use this Cuban currency scam because you cannot use credit cards. For less than a week in poverty-stricken Havana, they had to bring in almost $3,000 US.

The primary protein offered at meals was pork ... almost exclusively. And, although they do have cattle, very little beef is eaten. Also though Cuba is surrounded by water, fish is usually not available. Guess why fishing boats are not permitted to fish these plentiful waters? You guessed it ... any boat going out would not come back.

Cuba was once the sugar cane capital of the world. ... and it was the Soviet Union buying this sugar that supplied most of Cuba's hard currency. Today there is virtually no sugar cane grown in Cuba. These fields are all now lying fallow.

They were warned not to talk politics anywhere because everything is bugged -- hotel rooms, cabs, restaurants, even churches. Therefore conversations with Cubans were very circumspect. But as best as they could determine almost every young person wanted to flee Cuba.

Rotting from Within

Government is inherently corrupt.  The fact that anything gets done ostensibly to benefit the governed that also doesn’t diminish individual freedom and line the pockets of those governing is most often just an oversight.  Our founding fathers knew this and did their level best to construct a mechanism of governance which would minimize this genetic flaw … at the expense of substantial legislative, executive and judicial efficiency.

However, almost 240 years later, the devilishly devious minds of our elected snollygosters have managed to circumvent most of these Constitutional barriers … the latest being the legislation that became law last night in Washington.  From Politico we read about the law that broke our latest fiscal impasses:

The legislation also includes a McConnell-written proposal that would allow Congress to disapprove of the debt-ceiling increase. Lawmakers will formally vote on rejecting the bump of the borrowing limit - if it passed, it could be vetoed by Obama. 

 The deal would also deliver back pay to furloughed federal workers, require a study of income verification for people seeking health-insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and also allows the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to pay the nation’s bills if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling in a timely fashion.

Other than a little window dressing that means nothing to our power-lusting President, this is a rollover.  Basically, the power of the purse, as granted to the legislature in the Constitution, has been greatly usurped by corrupt politicians of both stripes in Washington ... much of this prerogative is now the President's ... a very dangerous thing.  For what?  So that many in Congress might get a puff-piece in the New York Times or help insure their re-election … read and weep: The Conversation.

Oh yes, and Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, also gets a $3 billion piece of pork for his state, Kentucky … see: The WFPL News.  I suspect there are surely some other bits of bacon also included in this legislative travesty.

QED

Afterward: I was right about the additional bacon, see: The Hill Story.

Catfish Row

One of the beauties about being in office before an election is that you can direct government funds to the voters with the expectation that they will return the favor on election day.  Our President is exercising this same prerogative in Iowa with the following announcement: "President Barack Obama will announce on Monday that the Department of Agriculture intends to buy up to $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help support farmers suffering from the drought." (see: NBC News Story).  Now I can understand helping drought-stricken farmers with pork, lamb and chicken purchases ... but catfish purchases?

Isn't this a little like aiding tsunami victims by sending them surfboards?