We live in the best country in the world which has the "worst form of government…except all the others." The unpleasantness of Nov 7 for many of the things we hoped for is still tempered by the fact that at the Congressional level, many new winning Dems ran on a lot of Republican principles.
We did hold some of the tight races at the last and there is at least 5 strong Rep seats that were lost "just because" of the indictments, scandals or last minute retirements, etc. These seats should flip back our way next time on the natural. So our side needs to focus on how to convince Americans that this "course correction" needs to only last 2 years. Maybe 24 months of Speaker Pelosi will do it, but if we count on that, our side could be outside the frosty windows looking in for a long time. [Ray Haynes posted on this topic yesterday, we would do well to heed that advice]
In California, we re-elected a Republican governor by one of the biggest blowouts for a statewide Rep. in a long time. No, Rep. legislators aren’t in lock-step with the Guv all the time, but the difference it has made inside the Capitol and out on Main Street for small businesses and large, for jobs, for a chance for our economy to flourish is unquestioned. Or we could’ve finished the last 3 years with Gray, then Cruz? Plus, Steve Poizner is going to do a great job of playing it straight in the Insurance Commish role, I look for good things to come from his work there. In my own 2nd A.D., I’m very thankful for a strong affirmation by the voters for my third term.
Many of our ag crops did pretty good this year. We had a very late spring and plantings were set back for field crops, like our own farm’s rice plantings by as much as 3 weeks…which is a lot. Your whole season is pushed 3 weeks further into the fall, harvest then occurs in colder and potentially wetter weather. We started cutting in October, we’ve never started that late in my lifetime. I saw someone harvesting just north of Sacramento yesterday, that’s late folks. Your plants have a shorter window of warm weather to ripen in or, in the case of rice, the kernals may "blank out" and be empty of grain due to cool nights. Extremely hot valley weather occurs in a younger stage of plant life and caused great damage to those with early plantings. Despite all that, most growers I talked to had a very respectable yield with very good milling quality. Our friends with peaches and olives, their yields were hit very hard this year. Spring weather damaged their blooms. Many didn’t have enough to make the cost of harvesting them even pay. Please buy their previous years stock of California-grown crops. Almond [say "ammund" if you’re from Butte County] growers took a hit in many areas up here but their long term outlook is still great. Prune growers bounced back strong from a couple very tough years. Walnuts always seem to be stable..we even beat the squirrels to ’em on our own tree this year.
Couple all this with highest-ever fuel prices, which touches every aspect of ag, from making fertilizer to stocking food on the store shelf. And we have to figure out a legal-labor situation one way or another. All in all, with a tough spring, most farmers had a year to be thankful for, to get by OK.
We are in a land of opportunity, where you can make your own breaks if you work hard and access what our freedoms allow us to. A place with the right to own property, [notwithstanding Kelo vs New London or the temporary setback of Prop 90’s loss], a place with the freedom to worship and associate, all cornerstones of the greatness of America. Jon’s post this morning reminds us why we need to preserve our freedom to succeed, or sometimes fail, on our own and not turn it over to a collective government to fail ‘for’ us.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.