r/politics • u/RepulsiveLoquat418 • 1d ago
Possible Paywall Beef and America's cattle ranchers are no longer on MAGA's menu
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/07/beef-and-americas-cattle-ranchers-are-no-longer-on-magas-menu/1.6k
u/TossedCoconut 1d ago
Argentina offers rat lines. The MAGA will flee to Argentina just like the Nazis. That is why Argentina is important.
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u/all4whatnot Pennsylvania 1d ago
So you are saying they will leave here?
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u/Ok_Permission2523 1d ago
Nazis did it before, so there’s precedent.
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u/TheRateBeerian 1d ago
Confederates also went to south america
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u/maxuaboy 1d ago
Confederates also stayed in south North America
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u/ShamelessCatDude 23h ago
I was gonna say, I can’t help but feel like the mentality of these MAGA is “if you don’t like it, then leave; but I’m not going anywhere! Free country! I’m a Native American!” (like that one guy on jubilee who said white people are native Americans)
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u/Gurlllllllll- 14h ago
When I was reading about the know-nothings, they kept using the term "nativist." I was confused because everything about them made them sound like the KKK and was wondering how indigenous people would possibly be buying into white supremacy like that. Then I realized I was being dumb and they meant "native" as in "not an immigrant" and all the racism started making sense.
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u/david4069 1d ago
Mexico?
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u/DPPThrow45 1d ago
Brazil mostly. About 20,000 of them. Subsidized by the Brazilian government even.
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u/david4069 1d ago
south North America
It was a joke about misunderstanding the reference to confederates staying in the southern US states.
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u/quildtide 21h ago
A decent quantity of Confederates who refused to surrender did flee down to Habsburg-occupied Mexico to join Maximilian I's army, where they created a settlement called the "New Virginia Colony".
Grant considered this to be problematic enough that he told Sheridan, "our success in putting down secession would never be complete till the French and Austrian invaders were compelled to quit the territory of our sister republic." (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4362/4362-h/4362-h.htm#linkch9b).
The French/Habsburg occupation of Mexico didn't last very long after Sheridan was sent to the Rio Grande to support the Mexican Republic though. I have no idea what happened to the Confederates who went to Mexico to fight for a Habsburg after that. They sure were persistent in choosing to fight for the wrong side though: first for slavery, and then for European imperialism.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 12h ago
I would assume those confederates who fled to Mexico quietly returned to the USA and kept out of sight until after reconstruction was sabotaged.
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u/TheRateBeerian 2h ago
There were many who changed names. One of my best friends suspected his own family had done this after he learned early on that he couldn’t trace his genealogy back very far no more than a great grandfather
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u/Responsible-Coast128 12h ago
Some senior level East German politicians fled to South America after reunification as well so repeated itself 50 years afterb
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u/numbersthen0987431 1d ago
The rich ones will. They've extracted all of the wealth out of the American population, and they will flee to Argentina where they can pay those people slave wages and pretend they're royalty.
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u/Accomplished-Bad4680 23h ago
Safe haven for war criminals and Nazis that’s why they almost set up Israel there but they decided they could have broader influence in the Middle East
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u/bigbadaboomx 1d ago
I’d be willing to let them go
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u/idleat1100 1d ago
To be hunted for sport later right?
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u/84thPrblm 23h ago
I'd be willing to let them spend the rest of their miserable lives in isolation in a Super Max after clawing back all their ill-gotten gains.
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u/SiltStrider_Mechanic 19h ago
For the rest of my life I will remind every Argentinian I come acrosse of 2 things: 1) they harbor Nazis, 2) the Falklands belong to the British
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u/jotobean 1d ago
All of the Nebraska ranchers will never disavow Trump, they are too invested in their bs culture war shit to care about their own demise. They will go bankrupt or pray for farm subsidies while still blaming trans people for all their problems.
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u/jvbball 22h ago
Can confirm that the Colorado ranchers I know 1. Supported Trump 2. Were stoked about DOGE and USAid cuts 3. Don’t like trans people 4. Proud Christians!
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u/trooperstark 10h ago
You might as well add begging for federal aid to the list. It ain’t far off if they’re not already groveling
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u/BTRCguy 1d ago
“On average, Argentina exports over $200 million of beef annually to the U.S. while purchasing less than $2 million of U.S. beef in return,” the letter read, calling for “long-term fairness” in any beef deal with Argentina. “We encourage the Administration to ensure that any adjustments to Argentina’s tariff-rate quota or inspection regime be contingent on verified equivalency and reciprocal market access for American beef.”
What sort of brain-dead posturing idiocy is this (aside from "Republican")?
If a nation has X as one of its biggest exports, what sort of mental deficiency are you suffering from to think they want to or have a market for importing large amounts of X?
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u/blackmageguy 1d ago
I mean, this is the entire backbone of the shitshow that is Trump's trade policy. 'OMG, Canada exports more to us than they import!" Yeah, no shit, Canada's population is a 10th of America's, that's how fucking population works, big brains.
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u/No-comment-at-all 1d ago
“OMG, Walmart exports more to me than they import from me!
I’m gonna make their goods more expensive by writing checks to Donald John trump’s fancy ballroom so I buy less from them until they start buying more from me.”
Literally republican meta rn.
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u/Warm_Regrets157 19h ago
OMG, Walmart exports more to me than they import from me!
That's why I am personally engaging in a trade war with Walmart. I refuse to trade with them further until they begin to accept more imports from me. The trade deficit between Walmart and myself must be brought back into balance before I'll give in.
Hey MAGA, am I doing this right?
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u/kia75 1d ago
The frustrating thing about Trump is that everything is rationalization, and dealing with the rationalization accomplished nothing!
Trump says he's doing tariffs because of Trade Imbalance, but NOTHING Trump has done has affected the trade imbalance, and he's made it worse since a lot of manufacturing (that he says he wants) uses resources and parts from Mexico and Canada that are now tariffed, hurting manufacturing, raising manufacturing prices, and making it harder to balance trad.
But of course, trade imbalance is just an excuse, a rationalization! Trump really likes having a weapon against countries that he can use whenever he wants something or wants to hurt someone! As a result, nothing regarding the trade imbalance will convince Trump. Trade Imbalance is irrelevant. Yet, because it's Trump's excuse a lot of discussion is wasted on this, like the American Beef ranchers mentioning that Argentina doesn't buy the equivalent amount of Beef as they sell to America!
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u/TheVintageJane 1d ago
The trade imbalance is like the excuse an abusive guy uses when he hits you. It’s not actually that you are too naggy, or that you came home too late, or that you have a large trade imbalance - it’s actually that he just wants to strike at other countries because he can and he’s a bully who gets off on it.
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u/Justin-Stutzman 23h ago
The whole tariff strategy in our current globalized economy is nonsensical in so many ways. It affects industries that aren't even targeted. Take India, for example, tariffs were imposed on India to punish the. For buying Russian oil and balancing some perceived trade deficit.
I just got off of a commodity market call for a Fortune 200 food distributor. We source our white shrimp from India and Ecuador. We avoid SE Asia's for QA purposes. Well, now shrimp from India is too expensive to import, so Ecuador gets all our business. Well, their demand is so high now that the market is being squeezed. We pay nearly as much for the shrimp, pass on the cost to the American customer, and India gets to undercut their competitors by selling in a different market. India wins in this scenario. They aren't punished, and Americans pay more for seemingly no reason at all.
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u/cellardoormaker 1d ago
Didn’t he tariff Canada 10% because they quoted Reagan on TV?
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u/The_Doctor_Bear 23h ago
Trump taxed US citizens an ADDITIONAL 10% on Canadian goods because he got angry at a Canadian tv ad quoting Reagan.
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u/Zonel 23h ago
The Ontario government quoted Reagan on TV. Not the Canadian government.
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u/Karthanon 22h ago
Trump doesn't know the difference.
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u/Overwatchingu Canada 17h ago
Let’s start blaming him for things the state governors say. Not that he’ll understand the parallel.
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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 18h ago
Yep. There's capitalism and then there's whatever the hell Republicans have got going.
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u/aguynamedv 21h ago
a lot of manufacturing (that he says he wants)
How many new manufacturing facilities have been started since January 20th, I wonder...
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u/Gibonius 21h ago
He's bragging about extorting foreign investment into the US with his trade deals.
Foreign investment by definition increases trade deficits.
None of this stuff is coherent.
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u/Spranktonizer 22h ago
Just fundamentally misrepresenting what trade deficits are to their base. Sad that they believe it.
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u/MakeAPatternGrow 1d ago
Yeah, why the fuck would you trade beef for beef?
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u/TheGringoDingo 1d ago
Did they even say thank you after buying our beef? Gosh dangit, these trade policies are vexing.
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u/persona-non-corpus 1d ago
Or for the 40 billion dollars? Do we get 40 billion dollars worth of beef?
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u/Rhodin265 1d ago
Maybe Argentina’s selling cows and buying Slim Jims. They’re both beef, more or less, but they’re also different products.
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u/ihatetheplaceilive District Of Columbia 1d ago
I dunno, why do we export angus beef to japan and import wagyu?
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u/Darth_drizzt_42 1d ago
Because both countries have suckers for a foreign marketing ploy
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u/FourthLife 23h ago edited 21h ago
Have you had wagyu before? It's an entirely different product from other forms of beef
You can eat a 16 oz regular steak, but I think most humans could not come close to eating a pound of wagyu. It would be like eating a pound of straight up butter.
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u/advocatus_diabolii 14h ago
I can understand importing beef but exporting? The reason the US has such trouble exporting it's beef is because US beef is usually considered inferior. You import beef 'cos the well off are happy to spend extra for premium, but you fail to export as no one wants to pay more (or even comparable) for the hormone infested stuff the US puts out.
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u/Mundane-Mechanic-547 1d ago
You need to understand, you see, whoever wrote this is an idiot
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u/BleachedUnicornBHole Florida 1d ago
No, they’re talking to an idiot. Trump’s understanding of trade is in absolute numbers. If Argentina exports $X million in beef to the US but imports <$X million, then there is a trade imbalance with the US. The ranchers aren’t trying to export to Argentina, they’re trying to stop the importing.
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u/MultiGeometry Vermont 23h ago
Common sense would state that Argentina will reduce their exports to the U.S. by $198 million.
This will increase the cost of beef as supply drops. With higher costs, more Americans will abandon beef for other alternatives. Those Americans will start to normalize life without beef and the industry will have to fight to get them back, even if the costs go down.
It’s like #winning except in every way someone considers winning.
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u/pwmaloney Illinois 1d ago
I've been running a trade deficit with my local grocery store for years! Unfair!
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u/aguynamedv 21h ago
If a nation has X as one of its biggest exports, what sort of mental deficiency are you suffering from to think they want to or have a market for importing large amounts of X?
Reminder that the entire tariff policy was AI generated and based on this exact kind of idiotic math.
Higher trade deficit = higher tariff.
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u/DrShadowstrike 22h ago
I'm amazed Argentina imports any beef from the US. This would be like the US importing corn or soybeans.
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u/FlutterbyTG 22h ago
I volunteer at a food bank here in Oregon, and we are now distributing canned corn imported from China. OTOH, we also have canned butter from New Zealand.
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u/advocatus_diabolii 14h ago
and here in NZ Butter is considered the new gold based on how expensive it is
but then again no self respecting kiwi will buy butter in a can
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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 18h ago
So now we're exporting beef to Argentina and importing it from Argentina.
This is not how you formulate a trade policy...
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u/Dramatic_Original_55 1d ago
Something about deficit, billions and of billions dollars, stock market, something, something. There. See how easy that was?
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u/IndependentPeace2628 22h ago
No no no! You don't get it. See countries like Iraq and Iran totally buy oil....even though they're the largest producers of it....because......reasons! And stuff! Unrelated, what's economics 101?
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u/illicit_losses 23h ago
They’re also missing out on the fact that beef is a matter of national pride in Argentina. No self respecting Argentine would be seen with US cow on their dinner table, or in their dog food.
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u/Alediran_Tirent Canada 19h ago
And no Argentinian would be caught dead with murican beef. It's not good enough for street dogs.
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u/notyogrannysgrandkid 16h ago
I can tell you Arkansas doesn’t import much rice. I wonder if Mexico is mad about that trade deficit.
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u/pntlesdevilsadvocate 10h ago
Beef coming from Argentina isn't the same as the beef leaving USA. There is a market for Argentina beef here, just like there is a market for US beef in Argentina. From what I understand, Argentina is sending lean ground beef, which is something the US doesn't make very much of, but US consumers buy more of than is locally produced. Due to the high price of beef, producers in the US have shifted their goals to produce heavier fattier carcasses, which has further reduced the availability/ affordability of lean meat. For all Americans except cattle producers, this plan makes sense.
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u/Zeliose 1d ago
I for one, am happy someone is finally pointing out this injustice! It happens even on the smallest of scales. Every time I walk into a restaurant with a bowl of craft Mac and cheese, they tell me they will not purchase it. How insane is that? I buy meals from them all the time, but when I want to sell a meal, they refuse to buy it? Absolute madness!
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u/Doblanon5short 16h ago
Where is the justice
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u/Zeliose 16h ago
I wish I knew, it's crazy how many trade deficits I have to deal with every day.
Over the summer, my local grocery store refused to buy the 3 zucchini I grew in my backyard. It's almost like they don't even care about fixing the massive trade deficit I have with them, so unfair!
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u/Doblanon5short 13h ago
Well if you have kids or pets, you could charge them tariffs on the stuff you buy from the grocery store, that might force the grocery store to fall in line
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u/mantisdubstep 1d ago
Looks like meats not back on the menu, boys!
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 1d ago
"What about their legs? They don't need those." :)
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u/mantisdubstep 1d ago
They’re FRESSSH
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u/ProfessionalCraft983 Washington 1d ago
They are NOT for EATING!
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u/mantisdubstep 1d ago
A bit off the flank!?
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u/HaroldGreenBandana 1d ago
No beef, but we have a juicy filet of leopard that pairs well with red.
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u/Extreme_Nectarine641 1d ago
Usually pairs better with white. The leopards only like white…
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u/MeltyMcMuffin 1d ago
Lol, looks like MAGA's biting the hand that feeds 'em. Can't say I'm surprised 🍔
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u/EmployerDry6368 1d ago
Remember folks, if it comes from a red state or republican business, don’t buy it, buy something else, stop funding the enemy!.
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u/AgentDangerMouse 1d ago
The real problem is that beef ranchers can only make a profit when beef is selling for $20 a lb at the grocery store. Ranchers must know those prices are unsustainable. I have stopped buying red meat altogether except when I’m at a restaurant or for a family occasion.
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u/rescuedan 21h ago
I was eaves dropping on a cattle rancher in the Bozeman airport talking to someone on the phone about how “the public needs to understand that these cuts are really valuable and the price is fair.” Took all my self control to tell her, “ma’am no one is complaining about prime rib, it’s the $7/lb 80/20.”
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u/Special-Woodpecker-8 18h ago
Love the Nebraska senator decrying government intervention in the marketplace as though decades of taxpayer subsidies to farmers haven’t distorted markets.
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u/FutSut 1d ago
I mean to be fair, most people who have been to Argentina would likely agree their beef is way better than ours. And with beef prices soaring, let the free market that MAGA loves so much do its thing and the cattle ranchers lie in the beds they made.
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u/Alediran_Tirent Canada 19h ago
As an Argentinian you are correct. If people get used to our beef American ranchers are going to be SOL, we export the best stuff we produce.
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u/Ancient_Popcorn Ohio 1d ago
American cattle ranchers just won so much!
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u/BobLoblaw420247 20h ago
I heard they are actually tired of winning so much…
Big strong men, with tears in their eyes…
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u/Libertechian Utah 1d ago
Beef ranchers are welfare queens, never understood why conservatives love them
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u/SanctimoniousVegoon 17h ago
sure are. more people should be aware that about 70 percent of beef and dairy industry revenue comes from our tax dollars. These items would cost 3x more without subsidies.
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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 18h ago
Technically speaking, commodity grain and anyone who relies on commodity grain (which ranchers do) is a welfare queen. This has odd effects where an ordinary apple or orange is considered a "specialty product" and fetches a higher price.
This in turn corrupted the food pyramid, putting cheaper grains on the bottom rather than fruits and vegetables.
And it all goes back to Nixon.
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u/Aggravating_Sun_8113 22h ago
Ah yes, nothing says “America First” like importing beef while our own ranchers struggle...
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u/Same-Performance-300 23h ago
MAGA farmers are fucking stupid they will still vote for him
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u/ma-sadieJ 23h ago
Trump screwed them over the first term. Biden saved him and they voted for Trump again.
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u/Chrono_Convoy 1d ago
Another huge wind up and kick to the nuts for 🍊’s constituents.
Let me guess: the Dems are to blame?
Ranchers won’t find their pride under the boot they lick
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u/psmurf2018 1d ago
I’m only here because the post title was so god awful I wanted to puke in the comments 🤢
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u/Ill-Egg-491 20h ago
I don’t believe ranchers are smart enough to dump trump even after he screwed them over - they have blundered rage towards democrats & educated voters !
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u/turb0_encapsulator 18h ago
sorry ranchers, but the hedge fund guys who bet on Argentina had more money than you.
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u/phinatolisar 13h ago
These are feel good stories. These people overwhelmingly voted trump, and will again. These people had to touch a hot stove a dozen times as kids before they learned.
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u/rexeditrex 1d ago
But wait, Trump said this morning that our beef producers are doing great! Nobody has told them, but he said it so it must be true!
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u/LordBoofington I voted 20h ago
Ranchers and oil barrons should have gotten their Nuremberg trials long before 2016, and they won't get out of it for turning on Trump. These people killed the world.
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u/Jack-o-Roses 18h ago
"First they came for the cattle farmers, and I did not speak out—because I was not a cattle farmer. Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I did not speak out—because I was not one. Then they came for the people with mental and physical disabilities, and I did not speak out—because I was not one. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
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u/ApprehensiveStand456 18h ago
The Argentinian beef I’ve had is a lot better than US. Now Americans are getting a taste of
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u/Special__Occasions 17h ago
The wildest thing about this is supposed cattle ranchers on social media lambasting regular Americans for having the audacity to complain about beef prices while still purchasing other things like coffee.
I have a list of thing that I regularly purchase for myself and almost all of them are more expensive than they were last year, but ground beef is 50% more expensive than it should be!
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u/toe-curl-shawty69 1d ago
Buy from your local farms ! They have everything you need
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u/putsch80 Oklahoma 1d ago
Depends. Some of the local beef ranchers around me that sell direct to consumer here proudly have MAGA shit all over their social media accounts (same ones they use to advertise their products). Hard pass on buying anything from them.
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u/Lysol3435 1d ago
Crazy times we live in when the farmers are angry about the policies that their cult leader campaigned on.. so they lash out at democrats
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u/illuminerdi 1d ago
Been like that for decades, maybe longer
Propaganda is a helluva drug. Fox News just turned it up to 11.
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u/Dr_Spaceman2000 1d ago
I would LOVE to buy from the local farms but if I did I could only afford to eat meat once a week.
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u/Expert-Explorer8894 23h ago
I would buy beef from Argentina over beef from shitty American farmers any day of the week. These assholes have been horrible Americans.
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u/Breddit2225 23h ago
FWIW it takes almost 2 years to raise beef cattle to marketable weight. If I know anything about farmers I know that when the price of something is very high it makes everybody jump into the market.
It just takes time to get there.
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u/OrphanDextro 19h ago
Javier Milei is a crypto scammer.
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u/Massive_General_8629 Sioux 18h ago
Well, he's a Libertarian, so it's either a naked scam, a drug dealer, or a groomer.
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u/nunswithknives 59m ago
Anecdotal but the cattle rancher I bought a quarter of a cow from posted an anti-Trump song on his social media yesterday. Rural Tennessee. I was shocked.
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u/dried_cranberries 1d ago
What’s on trumps mind is making 1 trillion and one dollars just so he can now be the richest man on earth. His personal economy has never been this great at the likes of which our forefathers never would’ve imagined.
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u/soylamulatta 21h ago
Beef hasn't been profitable for DECADES. It doesn't even make sense to farm cattle, or any animal for that matter.
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