Yeah, I’ll give him kudos for staying with that stance in Corn-dependent Iowa. Ethanol Subsidies are definitely a giveaway with little proven benefit overall. There are better solutions, they just don’t have a bunch of midwestern agribusinesses dependent on the subsidies.
Heard that. The whole ethanol situation is fucking stupid, and massively damaging to the Midwest despite the massive amounts of propaganda to the contrary.
Ethanol hardly made sense with $150 oil, at $28 oil is economically idiotic and morally indefensible to turn perfectly good food into fuel.
“Perfectly good food” is not a useful way to think about it. Sweet corn (what you buy at Kroger or whatever) is not what is being grown for ethanol production.
The massive distortions of ethanol subsidies have gotten farmers and SuperFarmers (thank, capitalism!) to grow feed/ethanol corn to the exclusion of all else in big sections of the Midwest. Unfortunately corn is a shit crop for the soil and just generally short-term-good long-term-bad.
Ethanol is one of those initiatives that makes me sympathetic to the viewpoint that gummint is bad for the economy.
Yellow corn is what is grown for ethanol, feed for animals, and used in corn syrup, corn meal and variety of other ag products. The fraction of corn that is consumed directly by humans in the US is tiny. So it is perfectly good food. I agree with you on the rest.
Just to clarify this: I had to read the book in the sixth grade. There is no way that book should be forced down the intellectual throats of students in the sixth grade. It was pure pain, and all nuance was lost in the loud complaints of students asking why the heck people thought this boring-a$$ book was considered a “classic” and why they thought we should be reading it. I am able to somewhat appreciate it in hindsight, but my disdain for the educators that selected it for kids that young certainly colors any thoughts that might otherwise approach fondness for it.
I thought I read somewhere that it takes more energy to produce corn ethanol than it gives back when used as fuel, and it is purely viable due to absurd corn subsidies. This seems like a silly state of affairs.
It’s getting marginally better, but it seems like, for now, the typical ratio’s about 1.3 in the US for what I understand to be the most common form of bio-ethanol production (that is, 1 ArbitraryUnit’s worth of Energy goes in, 1.3 ArbitraryUnit’s worth comes out).
The downside there being that at such a slim margin, even dedicating a very large portion of our remaining easily extractable fossil fuel reserves to the sole purpose of creating ethanol from corn or switchgrass or whatever is only providing a relatively linear increase in “time before Peak Oil/World War 3” type scenarios, if you’re of the mindset that such things are likely. And while linear time is great in programming, it’s not so helpful here!
Miramon
4370
I read that too. But that’s the sort of factoid you’d expect to trickle out of an oil-industry-sponsored researcher… Perhaps they include the solar energy needed to grow the corn in the first place, which is real, but free… Or perhaps it is a totally legit statement and it’s idiotic ever to use ethanol for fuel.
I believe that’s out of date, but it’s certainly not a great alternative fuel. It’s just that the infrastructure is already in place for it.
edit - what everyone else said above
Timex
4372
It’s idiotic to use CORN based ethanol. Corn takes a lot of energy to grow, and its not efficient as an ethanol source.
But other plants, like some grasses, or waste from sugar cane production, can make effective ethanol I believe.
I tried to listen to Sarah’s “speech” but my brain was suffering from a meltdown from the stupidity. Trump and Palin talking at the same time this is a nightmare.
Timex
4374
It was so jumbled and weird. What’s annoying about her speaking is that it’s so disjoint, not only in thought, but just in flow. The cadence is just all nonsensical, up and down, with emphasis on weird words. She tends to speak almost in sentence fragments.
What funny is that she eventually started just reading a speech that was obviously prepared, but it was still just as terrible. It still lacked coherent flow, and was just a rambling jumble of hokey bullshit.
ShivaX
4375
Right after he starts making his clothes in the US?
Or do the rules not apply to The Leader?
Appearing on-stage with Palin for her endorsement is the first major misstep Trump has made.
He would have gotten 95% of her supporters’ votes anyway. On the other side there’s a certain number of Trump supporters who know in their gut that Palin is a moron but who have convinced themselves that Trump is a super-genius playing 11th dimensional chess, putting on a show to fool the rubes. Actually putting him up there with Palin makes it clear that nope, they’re two dim bulbs from the same pack. Not to mention the fact she’s covered in loser stink. He should have just let her endorse him at a distance.
… and then, as icing on the cake, Palin’s son ends up being hauled in on domestic abuse charges on the very same day. Stay classy, Donald!
Rachel Maddow had a interesting perspective on the Sarah Palin endorsement that I didn’t think of.
McCain has been completely loyal to Palin, even after the fallout from the campaign and as her post-candidacy failings and eccentricities were repeated and obvious. In 2012, McCain said naming Sarah Palin his running mate was “still the best decision I’ve ever made”. Practically everytime McCain is interviewed he is asked about whether he regrets the decision. He always sings her praises. Maybe it’s a way to protect his own pride and validate that decision, but nevertheless the effect has been one of steadfast, unwavering loyalty.
And what does Palin do in return? She heaps praise on the guy who joked about McCain’s years as a POW and insulted his service. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. "He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
I don’t have any particular fondness for McCain, but I feel a bit sorry for the guy today.
I love Great Expectations (as I do all Dickens I’ve read) but I read it freshman year of high school*. Assigning it in 6th grade is a bit much, to be sure.
*college, I mean
ShivaX
4379
I’ve felt sorry for McCain the day he lost the nomination to Bush in 2000. He sold his soul to get it the next time around and then lost anyway.
I still like him more than most of the GOP. He’s far more likely to be himself now that he doesn’t give a crap about being President.
I agree with this but i wonder if Cruz could have turned some Trump supporters if he had received Palin’s support.
Not enough ‘likes’ and ‘thumbs up’ for you my friend. Bless you.
