My sister and brother-in-law were driving us thru the cornfields of northwest Iowa today and I asked her to take a couple photos of the large number of wind turbines amongst the barren fields.
We saw a couple farmers beginning to plant their corn crops using tractors to drop the seeds.
Along the quiet country roads we also saw numerous pig, cattle and chicken farms. The baby pigs are imported from the south in the US and once raised sent to slaughter houses in this region and in the south.
It's mostly industrial scale farming around these parts.
Iowa is known for the dark rich farm soil that grows corn, soybeans and wheat.
The corn feeds the animals and the people but is also used to make ethanol fuel for vehicles.
Trump tariffs on China, and other customers of the farm products from Iowa, are beginning to frighten many in this region. I heard one farmer on the radio and he sounded quite worried about the impacts of the tariffs on his future.
China has been a big customer for pork, corn and soybeans. Beijing is starting to look for other suppliers for those products. If China abandons the US markets there will be big problems across this region.
The same goes for the big box stores like Wal-Mart that import mostly Chinese goods. Trump says his plan is to bring back manufacturing to the US. That is a commendable goal except it takes years to build new factories, train the workers and produce the products. By the time that is done it would likely be that most of the big box stores would go out of business - which would obviously hurt the economy and the current workers.
I'd not cry though since I hate the big box corporate stores that killed the mom and pop shops in most down-towns all across America. The industrial corporations intentionally moved their operations to China and other Global South nations wanting to use cheap labor in order to maximize profits. Now that strategy (which made them alot of money) is coming back to haunt them as China and other nations begin to challenge American economic domination.
So Trump is really opening up a can of worms that will come back to haunt us in the near term.
The oligarchs though don't really give much of a damn about how the public is impacted by their decision making. They are out to make money and the people can go to hell.
What many are saying these days is that the people need to organize national strikes in order to re-balance the power dynamic in America.
I agree and am ready to join the movement.
Bruce
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