Wednesday, October 10, 2018

E15

Trump said something in his speech last night in Council Bluffs Iowa that left viewers who are not farmers a little bit confused. He said, "This is a bit early, but E15 year round" and that got a strong response.

I'm not the only one who didn't know what that meant.

I looked up E15. It's about ethanol. This does not compute. Trump's appeal to me is he out-conservatives the political conservatives, but now plant-based fuel seems more a liberal thing. Why is Trump behaving so liberal toward farmers and why are conservative farmers liking it so much?

Because they grow the corn that's used for ethanol. I didn't know the regulations about ethanol were not a year round thing. I thought whatever laws that bear on ethanol were already a year round thing.

Trump's economic war against China is hurting American farmers. His remark last night was Trump telling farmers that he's acknowledging that and seeing to them.

This is where back and white turns to gradient gray.

Market Watch. Here's what Trump's ethanol plan means for farmers, refiners, and motorists. Corn farmers benefit, but some refiners and car engines won't. It's a whole bunch of words pro and con and being natural Trump skeptics, mostly con.

Something else about last night Council Bluffs rally was amusing.

Apparently Trump realized during his speech where he was geographically.

It happens, you know where you are, but not specifically on a map, nor how that place relates to nearby cities. "Pilot, fly me to Council Bluffs Iowa."

He was in Council Bluffs Iowa. I didn't know this until I looked at a map. Looked at three maps, actually, I had to ask specifically for the river. For some reason maps are against labeling rivers.

The Missouri River separates Omaha from Council Bluffs. Basically, Council Bluffs is a suburb of Omaha. I had been to Omaha before but didn't realize it's right next to Iowa. Trump knows he is in Iowa and he thinks he's speaking to mostly Iowans who came out in large numbers to see him. As if he is in the middle of Iowa. He said, "Iowan farmers" and got solid applause, then he said, "and Nebraskan farmers" and got huge applause. He suddenly realized there are far more Nebraskans than Iowans in his audience. He delighted in the hard uproarious response at the mention of Nebraska so he kept saying, "Nebraska" to evoke the applause. He repeated, "Iowa" clap clap clap, "Nebraska" CLAP CLAP CLAP. He had fun with his realization. They had fun.

I had fun.

Please allow a rude observation.

Go ahead and chide me, I won't argue.

The people I saw on television last night by scanning the crowd did not match the people I saw when I went to that area this time last year.

The whole time driving through Nebraska and Iowa I was dismayed by seeing so many fat people. Everybody is fat with few exceptions. I was surrounded by oversized overweight people the whole time, my family included, I had gained weight myself so I was conscious of that but everyone else outdid me by far. I kept playing the "who's hot?" game, as you do, when encountering new people in steady stream and nobody popped out. I kept thinking this is a real bummer because nobody is hot. And they're probably thinking the same thing about me.

4 comments:

edutcher said...

Trump realizes he can't win all his fights and he doesn't try to invade Russia where others might.

PS Council Bluffs was one of the big jumping off places for wagon trains before the railroads came through. That's what made Omaha the big town.

john said...

Too much corn, chip.

lol

Dad Bones said...

Yup, fat rules around here. As for ethanol I think a lot of the tanks the E15 is going into belong to the state government. Fat people may get a little careless about what goes into their mouths but they're pretty fussy about what goes into their gas tanks.

Most of the corn goes to the CAFO's (confined animal feeding operation). Nobody wants to live too close to one, especially downwind, and they're building new ones all the time. It's probably good for the local economy and an efficient setup to mass produce cheap meat and I don't expect them to go away even though they're taking a toll on the environment. North Carolina apparently decided their state would be a nicer place to live if they didn't have so many CAFO's so the meat guys moved here. And now there's some resistance building here so they're looking at westward expansion.

It's a complicated arrangement and I'm not the one to try to explain it. I will say that Smithfield Foods is one of the larger, if not largest, owners of the CAFO's, and Smithfield is owned by a Chinese company so probably most of their pork is sent to China. I suppose jacking up the price of corn a little will add to Smithfield's expenses if that has anything to do with Trump's ruling.

MamaM said...

Corn may be part of the problem along with an abundance of hormone laden meat and dairy.

I kept playing the "who's hot?" game, as you do, when encountering new people in steady stream and nobody popped out. I kept thinking this is a real bummer because nobody is hot. And they're probably thinking the same thing about me.

I wonder whether they're even bothering to notice whether or not you're hot or think the same thing about you?

No chiding but some incredulity involved on my part as I don't recall when I've scanned a crowd looking for hotness. It's not something I do. Even during the years when some have said I was verging on hotness myself, I wasn't looking for that quality in others.