Month: February 2026

Did Trump just give up on the farm vote?

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IS TRUMP WRITING OFF FARMERS?
Back in 2018, Trump said this about farmers: “I love them, and they voted for me, and they love me. … And they said, ‘We don’t care if we get hurt, he’s doing the right thing.’”

I wonder how many farmers actually told Trump “we don’t care if we get hurt.” There’s already enough hurt in farm country.

Climate change. Floods and droughts are measurably worse than they used to be. Besides outright crop loss, climate change impacts crop and livestock viability, meaning some farmers are having to invest in new equipment, find new markets, and figure out how to deal with new pests and diseases.

Costs vs profits. Input costs are consistently higher than market prices. According to a story last month in Farm Policy News, in 2025 “production costs were more than 50% higher than in 2011, while prices farmers received were only about 21% higher.”

Bankruptcy. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, “Chapter 12 bankruptcies increased for the second year in a row, reaching 315 filings in 2025. This is a 46% increase from 2024.”

Suicide. According to the National Rural Health Association, the suicide rate among farmers is 3.5 times higher than that of the general population.

The challenges facing farmers are already overwhelming. Add to that Trump’s tariffs, his $40 billion bailout of Argentina (our second biggest competitor in the soybean market), and his 80,000 metric ton purchase of beef from Argentina, and “farmers who love Trump” is a shrinking universe. Continue Reading →

Tapping the peace nerve

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When it comes to peace, we desperately need more people — especially American-flavored people — pushing for an end to the nuclear arms race, an end to regime-change wars, and the urgency of diplomacy over armed conflict.

That said, most of us also need more peace in our lives. Yet working to avert the many horrors of war while nurturing the inner peace necessary to remain happy, healthy, and productive is a real challenge.

There are all kinds of ways to instill inner peace. Meditation. Music (some, not all). A walk in the forest (which I guess fancy-folk now call forest-bathing). Sunsets and moonrises.

For me, this morning’s ticket to inner peace involved taking a few moments to admire the beautiful, fresh-fallen snow covering our garden beds.

I suspect most of us don’t realize how desperately we crave inner peace. That’s one reason the Buddhist monks who recently walked 2,300 miles drew literally millions of followers, admirers, and fellow walkers. Continue Reading →

Three things you can do

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Instead of my usual blog, I’ve got three asks for you:

ONE. Listen to at least one segment of this week’s program. Share it on social media or in an email message to friends. Spread the word. With so-called “Legacy Media” in free-fall and increasingly dominated by large corporate interests, local and independent alternatives are more important than ever. Ours is one of them. Please support it.

TWO. Support local businesses owned and operated by people in your community. I can’t emphasize this enough. The dominance of national chains is a plague on our economy, entrepreneurship, and the land itself.

If you live in the greater Des Moines area, patronize the small, locally-owned businesses that help make this platform possible Continue Reading →

The congresswoman who could save the Democratic Party

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What do blinding headlights have to do with saving the Democratic Party? A lot, if you heard Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) speak about it during a committee meeting last year. Maybe you’ve noticed that headlights have become significantly brighter, creating a hazard for oncoming drivers.

Gluesenkamp Perez refers to the problem as a “plague in this country of headlight brightness.”

I love the drama in that statement. Sure, when you consider the pressing, even existential, threats we face, headlights seem trivial.

But Gluesenkamp Perez’s point is that there’s a pervasive sense among Americans that our overall quality of life is declining and government doesn’t give a flying darn. Continue Reading →