Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

"Freedom isn't free" isn't just for soldiers.

It's for all of us.

And sometimes it just means "If you're lucky enough to be entrusted with land, do a good job with it.

"Don't just shoot yourself in the foot & grovel for refunds."

We need to see how much work the farm sector's doing to undermine our republic. We need to name this for what it is.

I want farmers to think very carefully about if this is the kind of country we want to leave for our kids.

And if it's not, we need to wake up and do the work it takes to live in a free country.

And that's what I'm seeing this time around as well.

Congress can stop the trade war, AND budget bailouts.

But the farm sector isn't even bothering to ask Congress for anything.

It's all pleas, for money, directed towards Trump himself.

When Trump bailed out farmers in his first term, that was executive branch orders. Congress had nothing to do with it.

So already setting up a pattern of "Who cares about checks & balances? Or how Congress is supposed to be in charge of the US's budget? I'm gonna rule unilaterally. Like a king. And you support me, so I like you, and here's your money."

That's why I'm in a unique position to tell you how US farmers warm up to the idea of "It's time to grow something else."

They don't.

(Sorry guys, these Farm Facts are gonna be a little different than the usual fun little factoids. Because our farm sector is doing its best to light itself on fire right now.)

Anyway, here's what this all means.

US soybean farmers have two options.

Grow something else, or get welfare checks forever.

There is no third option.

A helpful primer on how major soybean buyers like China are viewing the US's new penchant for trade wars.

Really appreciate the writers' commitment to breaking it down so a 5-year-old can understand it

https://asiatimes.com/2025/09/brazil-will-remain-chinas-preferred-soybean-supplier-not-the-us/

This is how the New York Times pretends to do journalism -- treating the Trump/Hegseth fascist military event as just routine partisan politics.

The Times will go down in history as a quisling operation, and its bosses will be remembered for their cowardice.

Our "mainstream" media are consistently botching their jobs, directly -- and IMO willfully -- assisting the fascists who are destroying our nation.

Occasional pieces of real journalism do not begin to fix Big Journalism's malpractice. Mike Masnick has more:

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/30/the-mainstream-media-is-catastrophically-failing-to-meet-the-moment/

Attempting to farm Midwest-style on sand has led a lot of people to describe Southern soils as "bad."

This is false. Slanderous, even.

Sand is great!

Root crops love it! It's soft! Long skinny roots like carrots can push downward without hitting rocks or clay pans & turning into this

Ope this is going off

Ok folks! My Congressman is a MAGA clown who's on multiple ag committees.

As a farmer, I need ag policymakers with a spine who tell Trump no.

So for every donation to Kim Hardy, who's running against my
Congressman, I will post one (1) ag fact.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nc07social

can't wait to read Elon's new bio on Grokipedia

If you know anyone in the U.S. military at any level, please make sure they see The Orders Project, "a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may not be legal."

https://www.nimj.org/top.html#/

This is why it's so important that US agriculture quit its "positive vibes only!" strategy and actually learn from its own mistakes.

So we can stop repeating them already.

Anyway, here's the next Egyptian cotton: Argentine & Brazilian soybeans.

https://mishtalk.com/economics/us-soybean-exports-to-china-drop-to-zero-argentina-and-brazil-win/

By the time the US Civil War was over, so was the US cotton industry.

Egypt had ramped up to growing so much cotton, nobody really needed any from the US South anymore.

Without Southern cotton, the British textile industry would be brought to its knees.

And that would force the British Empire- with the world's most powerful navy- to help the US South in its fight for "freedom."

At least, that's what cotton plantation owners THOUGHT would happen.

"Worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses, with staff working better and smarter and production organised more efficiently. "https://www.uk.coop/resources/what-do-we-really-know-about-worker-co-operatives
Where to start? Here:
https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/2024-02/Retrofit%20report%20%28final%20draft%29.pdf ...the net zero retrofit for UK housing
#netzero #coop #economics

US farmers are saying they "just need temporary help, until things get better."

Here's the thing. US farm exports- which are mostly soy- CANNOT get better.

Other countries expanded their soy industries to fill China's demand.

We've walled ourselves out of the global market, folks. This is it.

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Three journalists were assaulted by federal officers while reporting outside the immigration court at NYC’s Federal Plaza this morning.

One of the journalists, L. Vural Elibol of Anadolu Agency, struck his head and has been hospitalized.

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/turkish-journalist-hospitalized-after-assault-at-nyc-immigration-court/