| SEPTEMBER 2, 2024 -- As I write this article, it is the 55th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. As a ten year old, I remember this event and my 14 year old brother tried to go, but was stopped because it was a cool thing to experience. As the concert-goers invaded this town, many without food, shelter, water or money, the community came together to aid these young people and at the concert many strangers helped others survive this great event. People helping people, hmm sounds like Grangers.
In the last article, the Republican National Convention (RNC) had just ended and Trump and Vance are the candidates for the 2024 election for the Republican party. The following week President Joe Biden withdrew as candidate for the Democratic party for the good of the country, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as candidate for the Presidency. Two weeks later she chose Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota as her choice for Vice President. He has 24 years of service in the National Guard, a school teacher, assistant coach for his school’s football team, turning them from a losing team into a State Champion. As Governor, Walz provided funding for school lunches, tax credits and helped build the economy for Minnesota.
The Trump rallies are the same as the 2020 rallies with a lot of anger, and unhappy fans. The Harris rallies have brought out loud, joyous attendees. Even in 106˚ heat, crowds wait hours to get in to cheer and witness a happy campaign. August 19th was the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago.
The UAW strikes have been settled and workers are back to work. John Deere has laid off 3,000 assemblers and engineers, and plan to move Part Production to Mexico due to unskilled Americans and cheaper Mexican labor. Wow! What a way to treat your workers who proudly work to build the best farm machinery in the world. Many farmers are struggling to get parts.
Stellantis North America, owner of Jeep and Ram Trucks have laid off and closed plants, moving operations to Mexico. The Ram 1500 bare bones pick-up truck will stop production, Hemi Engine plant will close and a new engine, the hurricane will be made in Mexico. Word is the engine is a lemon. Ford Motor Company is laying off and closing a plant. Sorry, but in 2008 during the financial crisis, the United States government bailed out many of these manufacturers to save jobs and keep these products made in the USA. Fair wages and benefits are the basic fundamentals of good business. Happy workers have always built the best products.
Inflation is down to 3% and unemployment is at an all time low. If the Federal Reserve took my advice from July, we may have been in a better state today, just saying.
The 2024 Olympic Games are over the the United States won the most medals. It was great to see all of our athletes doing well, but I was shocked that one of our female athletes was glad that she was able to utilize the free healthcare services from the Olympic Games host, a pap smear exam, dental exam and eye exam! What? Don’t our Olympic teams cover this healthcare? The next summer games will be in Los Angeles in 2028 (winter will be in Cortina, Italy, 2026). Hope the fires and earthquakes don’t ruin them.
This August, many customers opened their electric bills to a very, vcery large increase. During the pandemic, the Governor authorized a plan to help fund people who couldn’t pay their electric bills by having an added surcharge fund the program. With lower energy costs for natural gas the revenue wasn’t there, so the surcharge was passed on to the customers. This is a great stress on seniors, small businesses and farmers whose use increases during the summer. Legislators are requesting a special session to correct the wrong and get refunds for the customers. This week the utility board approved an increase to customers. I thought this was part of the Build Back Better program? Why should we hapy for this, isn’t the solar panels, wind turbines, farm digesters invested in to reduce energy dependence?
We are 85 days away (as of this writing) from the 2024 elections, as I have asked, please check your voting status, so you will be able to vote. Tim Walz, at his first campaign rally surmized that we whould all watch out for our neighbors, and follow the golden rule in Minnesota, “Mind your own damn business.” In this time we are in, maybe this should be our battle cry.
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