Trump's Secretary of Agriculture Tells Joke About Whining Farmers to Room Full of Farmers

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

President Donald Trump's Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue cracked a joke that American farmers "whine" about Trump's trade war with China and got laughs as he intended but also boo's from audience members that seemingly found it insensitive.

"I had a farmer tell me this in Pennsylvania," Perdue said at a farm show in Minnesota last Wednesday, according to Agri-Pulse. "He said, 'What do you call two farmers in a basement?' I said 'I don't know, what do you call them?'"

Perdue said the farmer said: "A whine cellar."

There was laughter but boo's came as some members of the crowd did not find Perdue's joke funny, just two days after China declared it would no longer buy any American agricultural products to hit back at Trump for imposing an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

Perdue made the joke at the end of a back-and-forth with farmer Mike Peterson of Northfield, Minnesota. Peterson said that a June Acreage report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s National Agricultural Statistics Service was "speculative," which Perdue denied by saying the officials "are professional." Petersen then complained that the data has been released several weeks after farmers were surveyed and joked, "the show American Idol can tabulate how many votes in the course of an episode?"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trumps-secretary-of-agriculture-tells-joke-about-whining-farmers-to-room-full-of-farmers-gets-bood/ar-AAFHXEb?li=BBnbcA1

Just as boorish as his boss.

[She_Totally_Gets_It]

1. I have trouble feeling sorry for them...

79% of farmers support The Occupant.

[SharonClark]

2. Is it a joke if it's true?

[OnDoutside]

5. Ouch!

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Well well,Mr. Peterson was proven right

today,and Corn just fell of the table price wise. Sonny was just proven just how dumb he really is when it comes to Ag related issues.

[Blue_true]

12. Brazil, Russia and Argentina will buy the American corn at below market,

and sell it to China for a profit. China will get American grain, just the American farmers won't get any profit from it, only losses.

[Wellstone ruled]

17. Thanks for paying attention.

Yes,Cargill,ADM,and Bunge have major buy sell operations in Brazil. In fact,Cargill has developed a specialized fleet of grain Barges that operate on the Amazon river as well as New state of the art Grain Handling facilities for both export and import .

Yes,they will buy on up on the QT millions of tons of Corn and Beans at mega distressed prices and just reroute the Manifests on the Boats once they are beyond the three mile limit.

[Blue_true]

18. None of what you pointed out should surprise anyone.

Big AG totally controls the imported fruit and vegetable market in this country. The quaint notion that imported fruit and produce come from family farms in foreign countries is just that, quaint. Big AG controls massive blocks of land in those countries, or the work with land Baron ages-old elite families in those countries to control the world food supply.

[live love laugh]

4. How long before it becomes obvious these "mistakes" aren't "stupid" but intended distractions?

After all, is this thread about the actions taken -- or worse the inaction -- or the personalities involved?

With Republicans it should be a red flag anytime a discussion derails from the topic.

Every time we laugh at or talk about THEM and not their actions on issues and policies they win.

[PSPS]

6. Farmers ARE considered a joke to the USDA under Perdue. Why else would trump appoint him?

[Takket]

7. "boo's from audience members that seemingly found it insensitive"

whoa whoa whoa! Wait a minute! I thought jokes at a group's expense were just jokes, and us Democrats need to lighten up and that political correctness is out of control.

Oh so I guess a joke is funny so long as it isn't at YOUR expense, but if it is, THEN we need to "sensitive".

Fucking hypocrites.

[lpbk2713]

8. Real farmers wouldn't have had the time to be there.

They couldn't afford to take a day off work.
Especially to see a talking asshole.

[struggle4progress]

9. Well, that fell flat. Let me try! What do you call it when Trump shoots Perdue on Fifth Avenue?

Who cares!

[tblue37]

15. A start. nt

[real Cannabis calm]

10. here's a 5th recommendation

[Blue_true]

11. But they mostly cheered him. Says more about them than him. nt

[UTUSN]

13. Let 'em keep on keeping on!1

[keithbvadu2]

14. Something you won't hear from a Trump-country farmer: Rejecting Donald's socialism.

Something you won't hear from a Trump-country farmer:
Rejecting Donald's socialism.

[MontanaFarmer]

16. He was read the riot act by the president of Minnesota farmers union

at that event, I understand. Farmers are largely trumpers, it's true, but there's also a fairly strong resistance movement occurring in ag. The agrarian left, if you will, is beginning to rise from the ashes of history just a bit.

[Brad Wilson]

19. Grassroots Democratic and Republican farm politics are easy to misunderstand here.

Context: Democrats had a lot of farm vote in the past, and "Democratic" farm bill ideas were repeatedly supported by the majority of farmers in polls and referendums, including over the past 60 years and at the United Farmer and Rancher Congress. Farmers called for fair prices and no subsidies. They called for minimum farm price floors at "living wage" or parity levels, with no farm subsidies needed, like the positions of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, John Inslee, Tulsi Gabbard, and Marianne Williamson today, and like National Farmers Union and National Family Farm Coalition. A famous earlier proposal was Harkin-Gephardt, (various names,) which was voted on in 1985, but lost. Under increasing Republican pressure, starting with Eisenhower, they reduced (1953-1995) and ended (1996-2023) these programs. This meant that the big corporations, (CAFOs, junk food, export dumpers, etc.) could buy cheap, below full costs most of the time since 1981. Farmers got very inadequate subsidies starting on various years for various crops, (1977 for rice, 1982 for oats, 1998 for soybeans, etc.). Especially starting in 2001, (I'm not supposed to mention names here,) Democrats also stopped supporting these programs. So farmers had neither party supporting fair prices. the change was probably a strategy to win more of the rural vote, but in fact, Democrats have gone backward on the rural vote since 2001. But earlier, it was a huge political fight against Republicans and there were many put downs against farmers, (David Stockman, Ronald Reagan, Earl Butz, etc.). Fighting for economic justice, for ending farm subsidies, and for making a profit on farm exports was ridiculed as whining. The cheaper and cheaper farm prices was a huge trade war to win greater export share, but we ended up with less. Free markets and free trade, (Republican ideology,) have chronically failed for agriculture on both supply and demand sides, for 150 years and is projected ahead. That's why we need true Democratic farm programs, to do for small farmers what large corporations do for themselves, manage inventory. Trump initially said he opposed TPP and NAFTA, but he turned out to be a free/corporate trader after all. What Trump has done so far has been to lower farm prices even more, basically to kick farmers when they're down, but to then give subsidies a good ways back to where they started, (way down low). Soybeans was one crop that was paying a little more, and those prices were especially lowered under Trump. Agriculture has lost diversity and sustainability from the increasingly anti-farmer programs. Democratic candidates who also blame the majority of farmer victims will do poorly, basically conceding issues we should win to the Republicans. Republicans are sitting ducks on these issues, as true Democratic farm bills are cheaper, better business practices, and make more money, both domestically and from exports.