With the cost of fertilizer and energy inputs surging due to the war on Iran, Nebraska’s farming industry, always squeaking by on the thinnest of margins, is being thoroughly brutalized.
Nebraska isn’t suffering because “the market will fix it.” It’s suffering because people like Pete Ricketts built an economy where monopolies set the prices, workers eat the losses, and billionaires shrug from a distance. This article makes it painfully clear: farmers are being crushed by fertilizer cartels, towns are hollowed out by meatpacking giants, and a war that Washington refuses to debate is driving basic costs through the roof.
Meanwhile, Ricketts votes seven times to avoid even discussing the Iran war, takes Tyson’s money as 3,200 Nebraskans lose their jobs, and lectures everyone about the magic of the free market. That’s not leadership — it’s abandonment.
Osborn isn’t perfect, but he’s living the same crisis the rest of the state is living. Ricketts is living above it. And that difference is exactly why Nebraska’s political map is shifting under his feet.
Everybody has the right to their own opinion. Mine is that I was a trial lawyer for many years. The idea was to convince, not get into the weeds with detail.
Getting into the weeds feels better, but it is not as effective for convincing.
LOL. In the 60s, there was a campus SDS initial meeting. 2 guys debated whether to call the group the Committee to End the War in Vietnam or Committee to End the War in Viet Nam and Stop Racism. 3 hours of this. No one went to a second meeting.
Good report. A minor thing on the video, any video that you might do that is reporting, please don't have music running in the background. It's uncalled for and adds nothing to the information you are out to provide.
Instead of building golden ballrooms and monuments to himself Trump should swallow his egotistical pride and try helping fix the damage to America he has caused. He should stop blaming
Own up, America ! Your deranged and increasingly demented Russian "asset" ("The Guardian," 1/29/21) made no secret that a return to the White House would be his (and Putin's) "retribution tour" -- and in your stratospheric stupidity you STILL re-elected him. NOW, MAKE PUTIN HAPPY AND SUFFER THE INCREASINGLY DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES.
I wonder if Julian would also like to talk to Austin Ahlman, an independent candidate, who is challenging Flood? He has a compelling story which reinforces the fact that what we are facing in Nebraska is not new. Here's his first campaign video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYE10gacxiE
Admittedly, I have only lived here for 6 years and I am not a farmer. Anyway, there is something going on here that is worth noting.
I have never heard it explained why rural agricultural communities have for some time leaned conservative or Republican. Was it the right wing news outlets propaganda or some sort of abandonment by the Democratic Party? Former senator John Tester, an a Democratic, always seemed to lean to the right, too.
I bleed Cubbie Blue for decades. Actually dreamed of being an usher in my retirement! When the Rickets bought them, it was a hard pill to swallow. Hung in thru the epic World Series win in 2016, and haven't been back to the most beautiful baseball field, the Friendly Confines. Anyway, I digress. Free enterprise, my ass. No competition when there are a handful of monopolies controlling every aspect of our lives, from the federal government to toilet paper. THEY. DON'T. CARE. They own us, like George Carlin said years ago. The Third Way Dems are in on the game. They ALL need to be taken down. (And don't forget the Supremes.) Government by and for the people. Not the corporations (who, no: are NOT people.) And make billionaires obsolete. ✊🏼
Thank you Ryan! MLK understood that the white moderate is actually worse than the white supremacist. A centrist-moderate is just a fascist with an Instagram filter.
Nebraska isn’t suffering because “the market will fix it.” It’s suffering because people like Pete Ricketts built an economy where monopolies set the prices, workers eat the losses, and billionaires shrug from a distance. This article makes it painfully clear: farmers are being crushed by fertilizer cartels, towns are hollowed out by meatpacking giants, and a war that Washington refuses to debate is driving basic costs through the roof.
Meanwhile, Ricketts votes seven times to avoid even discussing the Iran war, takes Tyson’s money as 3,200 Nebraskans lose their jobs, and lectures everyone about the magic of the free market. That’s not leadership — it’s abandonment.
Osborn isn’t perfect, but he’s living the same crisis the rest of the state is living. Ricketts is living above it. And that difference is exactly why Nebraska’s political map is shifting under his feet.
This is Trump's War, not the Iran-US war. We need to emphasize this.
Trump's war? Maybe if you called it Trump/Netanyahu's war I could get behind that.
Too many syllables to be effective. Keep it simple.
I prefer accuracy over simplicity.
Everybody has the right to their own opinion. Mine is that I was a trial lawyer for many years. The idea was to convince, not get into the weeds with detail.
Getting into the weeds feels better, but it is not as effective for convincing.
Your opinion is that you were a trial lawyer?? What were other people's opinions?
"Getting into the weeds feels better, but it is not as effective for convincing."
I guess you really were a trial lawyer; truth and accuracy are sacrificed on the altar of expediency.
LOL. In the 60s, there was a campus SDS initial meeting. 2 guys debated whether to call the group the Committee to End the War in Vietnam or Committee to End the War in Viet Nam and Stop Racism. 3 hours of this. No one went to a second meeting.
Let's not do that here.
Trump-Netanyahu-Putin, the three hounds of hell!
We need articles like this from every single state that has been directly affected by the Iran-US-Israeli war.
Good report. A minor thing on the video, any video that you might do that is reporting, please don't have music running in the background. It's uncalled for and adds nothing to the information you are out to provide.
Instead of building golden ballrooms and monuments to himself Trump should swallow his egotistical pride and try helping fix the damage to America he has caused. He should stop blaming
everybody else for his own screw ups.
He is purposely neglecting and abusing us. We are being “sorted out”. Destruction, Disease, Death is the goal.
Own up, America ! Your deranged and increasingly demented Russian "asset" ("The Guardian," 1/29/21) made no secret that a return to the White House would be his (and Putin's) "retribution tour" -- and in your stratospheric stupidity you STILL re-elected him. NOW, MAKE PUTIN HAPPY AND SUFFER THE INCREASINGLY DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES.
Excellent piece, the video report is so well done. More of this!!
I wonder if Julian would also like to talk to Austin Ahlman, an independent candidate, who is challenging Flood? He has a compelling story which reinforces the fact that what we are facing in Nebraska is not new. Here's his first campaign video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYE10gacxiE
Admittedly, I have only lived here for 6 years and I am not a farmer. Anyway, there is something going on here that is worth noting.
I am so glad you are circulating this story.
I have never heard it explained why rural agricultural communities have for some time leaned conservative or Republican. Was it the right wing news outlets propaganda or some sort of abandonment by the Democratic Party? Former senator John Tester, an a Democratic, always seemed to lean to the right, too.
Read Thomas Frank's book "What's the Matter With Kansas?"
I bleed Cubbie Blue for decades. Actually dreamed of being an usher in my retirement! When the Rickets bought them, it was a hard pill to swallow. Hung in thru the epic World Series win in 2016, and haven't been back to the most beautiful baseball field, the Friendly Confines. Anyway, I digress. Free enterprise, my ass. No competition when there are a handful of monopolies controlling every aspect of our lives, from the federal government to toilet paper. THEY. DON'T. CARE. They own us, like George Carlin said years ago. The Third Way Dems are in on the game. They ALL need to be taken down. (And don't forget the Supremes.) Government by and for the people. Not the corporations (who, no: are NOT people.) And make billionaires obsolete. ✊🏼
Thank you Ryan! MLK understood that the white moderate is actually worse than the white supremacist. A centrist-moderate is just a fascist with an Instagram filter.