An alternative view on tariffs?

[JerryBaumchen 1,436]

1 hour ago, kallend said:

 

No doubt, because they can't do math anyway.

Hi John,

My granddaughter is 11 yrs old & in the 5th grade.  Back on Pi Day, March 14th, she was in a contest to see who could count the digits in Pi correctly.  She won at 42 digits; 2nd place went to a boy at 33 digits.

I have hopes for her.

Jerry Baumchen

[nigel99 568]

This is funny. Only the brightest of MAGA. 

[normiss 851]

22 hours ago, nigel99 said:

This is funny. Only the brightest of MAGA. 

AmeriKKKa is so smart, we allowed Springfield pork to be purchased BY China!

I find it surprising how many MAGAts don't realize (or refuse to see)  how much our own government has sold us out. Businesses have long known they could purchase legislation and the dishonesty of the politicians continues to line their pockets.

Smithfield: Then known as Shuanghui Group, WH Group purchased Smithfield Foods in 2013 for $4.72 billion. It was the largest Chinese acquisition of an American company to date. The acquisition of Smithfield's 146,000 acres of land made WH Group, headquartered in Luohe, Henan province, one of the largest overseas owners of American farmland.

 

Edit to add: and I'm now finding beef companies sold to foreign entities. Politicians have sold us out. Amazing what greed can do.

Edited April 15 by normiss

[normiss 851]

Four giant companies – that’s right, FOUR – Tyson, Cargill, and Brazil-based National Beef and JBS, now control 85% of the U.S. beef market. WH Group (Chinese), JBS, Hormel, and Tyson control about 67% of the pork market. Tyson and Pilgrims Pride control about 45% of the chicken market. 

Tyson –  the second largest food company in the country, American owned and headquartered in Springdale, AL with $47 billion in sales for 2021. Tyson bought the world’s largest supplier of premium beef and pork products, IBP Inc., in 2001. It’s the second-largest pork and chicken packer in the U.S. and sells products in 90 countries. 

Cargill – headquartered in Wichita, KS with $134 billion in sales for 2021. USA owned Cargill Meat Solutions is one of 75 businesses under Cargill Inc., the largest privately-held corporation in the United States. Cargill runs the biggest flour-milling company in the world, is a leading corn syrup and soybean processor, and has cocoa and chocolate operations on four continents.

JBS – headquartered in Greenly, CO., JBS USA is the American offshoot of Brazilian meat producers JBS S.A., which is the largest beef packer in the world, with 54 processing plants on four continents. $64 billion in sales 2021 for the USA sector.

JBS USA bought Swift (the third-largest packer) in 2007, then bought Smithfield (the fifth-largest packer and largest U.S. feedlot owner) in 2008, then bought Pilgrim’s Pride, the largest chicken processor, in 2009. The company tried to buy National Beef Packing Co. in 2008, but the U.S. Department of Justice opposed the acquisition. The parent company, Brazil-based JBS S.A., is the largest beef packer in the world, with 54 processing plants on four continents. 

Smithfield is no longer owned by JBS. In 2013, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, was acquired by a Chinese firm, ‘Shuanghui International’ (now known as W.H. Group), for nearly $5 billion – 30% more than the company’s market value. Leaving many with concerns that the Chinese government was a hidden player in this deal. A foreign country who is not very fond of the USA, now owns 25% of our pork industry. 

JBS was recently investigated for hiring a food processing company cleaning service employing more than 100 children including some as young as 13 years old. The underage workers worked overnight shifts during which some suffered chemical burns, cleaned extremely dangerous equipment such as razor sharp bone saws, while also being enrolled in school during the day.

JBS has a reputation among ranchers for being the most aggressive of The Big 4. They recently appointed the previous head of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition as their general legal counsel. This took place after JBS avoided a series of antitrust class action lawsuits (all ending with settlements), and created serious questions with regard to antitrust regulation.

In 2020, the Brazilian brothers who run JBS, Joesley and Wesley Batista, were ordered to pay $27 million to resolve charges resulting from an extensive bank bribery scheme that took place over multiple years.

National Beef – Kansas City, MO. $11.7 billion for 2021. Controlled by Brazilian beef producer, Marfrig Global Foods SA. In June 2018, Marfrig acquired 51 percent of National Beef Packing. Then, in November 2020, Marfrig announced it would acquire another 31% of National Beef from New York City-based investment bank Jefferies Financial Group for $970 million. National Beef, the fourth largest beef processor in the country, is now 80% owned by a company controlled by another nation.

 

 

Maybe it's time to add some chickens and cows to the effort of growing my own vegetables ... adding massive deregulation to our food safety in AmeriKKKa has me concerned.

This is getting infuckingsane.

[wmw999 2,534]

It’s more expensive, but I’ll admit I’m happy to pay for locally-produced meat and veggies when they’re available. It goes to real people, who then buy stuff around here. And having it be more expensive really just means I consume less expensive stuff, instead of so much meat.

Wendy P. 

[billvon 3,070]

2 hours ago, normiss said:

AmeriKKKa is so smart, we allowed Springfield pork to be purchased BY China!

 

Keep in mind that JD Vance helped start a company (AcreTrader) that let Chinese investors buy into US farms.

[BIGUN 1,406]

6 hours ago, wmw999 said:

but I’ll admit I’m happy to pay for locally-produced meat and veggies

Welcome to Oklahoma.

[JerryBaumchen 1,436]

8 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

Welcome to Oklahoma.

Hi Keith,

It looks this Oklahoman came here to Oregon looking for food:  An Oklahoma man stands accused of illegally shooting at a deer with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle

Man arrested after firing AR-15 out car window, fleeing police in Linn County - oregonlive.com

Jerry Baumchen

[BIGUN 1,406]

1 minute ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Oklahoman came here to Oregon looking for food:

Afternoon, Jerry.

Taking a page from Trump's playbook - We export our Billy Joe Bobs to Oregon.   

[normiss 851]

6 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Afternoon, Jerry.

Taking a page from Trump's playbook - We export our Billy Joe Bobs to Oregon.   

Never had such problems in FloriDUH.

[nigel99 568]

“

The US set new duties as high as 3,521% on solar imports from four Southeast Asian countries, delivering a win for domestic manufacturers while intensifying headwinds already threatening the country’s renewable power development.

The duties announced Monday are the culmination of a yearlong trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the US at rates lower than the cost of production. The investigation was sought by domestic solar manufacturers and initiated under former President Joe Biden.

While the duties are set to benefit domestic manufacturers, they also will pinch US renewable developers that have long relied on inexpensive foreign supplies, heightening uncertainty for a sector whipsawed by political and policy changes in Washington.”

This is an extract from a Bloomberg article. Insane tariff levels!

https://archive.is/2025.04.22-062719/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-21/us-imposes-new-duties-on-solar-imports-from-southeast-asia

[billvon 3,070]

11 hours ago, nigel99 said:

 . . . that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the US at rates lower than the cost of production.

US gives our oil companues $760 billion a year - and currently sells some oil at or below the cost of production.

Looks like some more tariffs against US oil!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/brand-connect/wp/enterprise/why-american-crude-oil-is-selling-for-less-than-its-worth