Crime! Missed Buses! Free Scotland! Trump Bribes Farmers!

 Well, it was not a good Monday, Things just did not go as planned. When the #1 bus finally came around, I got to CVS too late to get my med (the pharmacy closed for lunch). I wasn't taking chances on being stuck on the west end of Muncie for an hour, so I left behind the distilled water needed for my CPAP machine to get the bus downtown. I took the $3 bus to Payless and got the supplies I needed (and a couple I didn't). That took between 1 and 3 PM.

Before that, I cannot recall clearly. Getting old, I guess.

I did some work on a research job. Getting what I required, I started on the email.

Wyden Says Trump's $12 Billion Farmer Bailout Exposes Folly of 'Destructive Tariff Spree' (Common Dreams)

Trump formally unveiled the relief plan Monday afternoon at a White House roundtable with top officials, lawmakers, and farmers of corn, soybeans, and other crops. Reuters reported that up to $11 billion of the funds are “meant for a newly designed Farmer Bridge Assistance program for row crop farmers hurt by trade disputes and higher costs.” The other $1 billion is earmarked for commodities not covered by the program.

“Quite an admission that his policies have hurt Americans,” economist Justin Wolfers wrote in response to the plan.

Farm Action, a farmer-led agricultural watchdog group, welcomed the relief package but said it’s not enough to end suffering caused by “tariffs, soaring input costs, and years of volatile markets.”

“The current problems facing our agriculture system have been decades in the making due to failed policy that prioritizes commodity crops for export, which only benefits global grain traders and meatpackers,” said Joe Maxwell, Farm Action’s co-founder and chief strategy officer. “Without addressing the root causes of this issue, farmers will be left to continue relying on government assistance into the future. That is why Congress must take action and fix our failed subsidy system in the next farm bill.”

Rebecca Wolf, senior food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, said that “bailouts are a denigrating Band-Aid to farmers whom decades of misguided domestic policy have left vulnerable to trade wars.”

But will farmers care enough to regret voting for Trump, or will they take the money and run out on the rest of the country?

We Need More Leftist Crime Fiction (Jacobin) - thankfully, it mentions Rex Stout, Per Wahloo, and Maj Sjöwall. (For other Rex Stout fans stumbling across my blog: Comfort Food (Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin) (DO THE M@TH)

A rejection for another of my stories, “Coming Home”:

Thank you for your submission to I Haven't Made It Home Yet. After reviewing your work, we've decided to respectfully decline due to it not being a good fit for our current publication.

We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your work with us, and hope to hear from you in the future for other collaborative projects! To hear about upcoming PWU news & opportunities, we recommend joining our mailing list here.

Sincerely,

✐ Procrastinating Writers United
Welcoming all disorganized creatives!

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