Off the Editor’s Desk -09-2023

Grow Wheat!

The following is a report in the Capitol Guardian about Ukraine’s wheat exports.

“After Russia halted a deal to allow Ukraine to export wheat from certain locations on the Black Sea, and has resumed bombing of Odesa, Ukraine’s ability to export grain is once again being degraded – an outcome entirely predictable from the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – but the United States has failed to boost wheat production since then. U.S. wheat production is down 15 percent since 2019, from 1.93 billion bushels in 2019 to 1.65 billion bushels in 2022, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Overall, the U.S. produces a little more than half of what it did in 1981, when it produced more than 75 million metric tons of wheat. That was down to 44.9 million in 2022. The reason simply is we don’t plant as much land as we used to. In 1981, we planted on 88 million acres, but that is down to about 45 million acres, according to the Department. On May 11, 2022, President Joe Biden promised that U.S. farmers were ‘expanding production and feeding the world in need’ and pushed for ‘double-cropping,’ a practice where wheat and other crops are planted twice without cultivating new land. It didn’t work. In part that was due to the weather, as yields fell in 2022, but if the U.S. really wants to boost production, more land is the ticket.”

Changing our discussion to last Tuesday’s news where former President Donald Trump’s legal problems took on another indictment and that news was spread all over the national news stations. While I was delivering this newspaper to local news stands I had my radio in the car tuned into all the comments about charges against Trump.

I learned early Wednesday morning that a Trump lawyer would be on NBC’s Today program. I was very interested in learning what kind of defense that Trump’s legal team would mount against these new charges.

I usually watch Fox News to get my information. But, I tuned into NBC’s Today program to hear John Lauro, Trump’s attorney. NBC billed it as “A Big Discussion with a Trump Lawyer.” How disappointed was I when Savannah Guthrie, the Today host would not let the attorney tell what kind of defense they would bring to the court. She kept interrupting him and tried to inject her feelings into the conversation. It was more of a debate than an interview. So I turned back to Fox News. I can see why Trump calls the mainstream media names.

So, if I were to become President, I would on the first day in office, pardon Trump, and both Joe and Hunter Biden, with part of the deal that they would not seek the office of president again. This would be the first step in an attempt to heal our country and bring back common sense to our divided nation.

On the second day, I would close the southern border and stop all illegal people from getting into our country and attempt to round up all the bad people and drug dealers that have crossed illegally.

On the third day, I would ask the Legislatures of at least two-thirds of the states to call a Constitutional Convention for a proposed Amendment to the Constitution that would limit the number of years a person could serve as a member of Congress or Senate. I would put that no person can serve longer than a dozen years, total.

By limiting a term to 12 years, it would keep people from making a life-long career on the public dough. That may also help us taxpayers by not having to pay retirement to those that served.

But, as long I am not running, these are only suggestions I hope someone can do something with!

 Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton