A Farm Bill looks to be done - Update

We apparently won’t see the whole thing until next week, after it’s been scored by the CBO.

The tentative deal was reached after House Republicans agreed to dump new, stricter laws around SNAP, which have been a major bone of contention in their chamber. Bloomberg reports that those provisions will be left out of the final bill. That would reconcile the House bill with the Senate bill, which did not impose new restrictions on SNAP benefits. - New Food Economy

There’s some detail here, from AgWeb. Conservation Reserve Program acreage will get a little bump from 24 to 27 million. From the article linked above it looks like other major conservation programs will also be at least maintained. As far as what else is or isn’t there for the conservation/environmentalist crowd, like me, we’ll find out.

Update: Traitor Trump has been making triumphant claims. Reality check:

Once again Trump is taking what’s basically an agreement to negotiate and hailing it as a HUGE deal that is definitely 100 percent settled in his favor. In addition to his usual level of bluster, he’s trying to convince a very specific audience here: farmers, a key part of Trump’s base that’s been hit hard by Trump’s trade war. He tweeted Monday morning that “Farmers will be a a very BIG and FAST beneficiary of our deal with China. They intend to start purchasing agricultural product immediately. We make the finest and cleanest product in the World, and that is what China wants. Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” 

Farmers should be taking note that the amount of U.S. products the White House says China will be buying is “not yet agreed upon,” a real red flag when you’re dealing with Team Trump. Especially since, for all his insistence that “We are dealing from great strength,” it sure looks like Trump wants a deal, any deal. And as we’ve seen, Mr. The Art of the Deal is a crappy dealmaker even when he hasn’t telegraphed to the world how desperate he is. - Daily Kos

Voters rejected the school deformer agenda

At least, majorities of them did, in a number of places.  Good deal.

The blue wave that swept the nation in the recent midterm elections was also a broad rejection of recent trends to privatize public education through school voucher programs and privately operated charter schools. From New York to California, new candidates ran and won on platforms opposed to privatization, big-money backers of charter schools suffered humiliating losses, and voters trounced efforts to expand voucher programs that drain public schools of the funding they need.

This spring’s teacher walkouts that made news across the country can take some credit for propelling the anti-privatization message to voters and prompting educators to take their support for public schools to the ballot box. But opposition to the privatization industry was also strong in states that did not experience teacher walkouts, and public education advocates are vowing to take their cause to state capitals and Congress to curb the flow of public money to unaccountable, privately operated education providers. - Jeff Bryant/AlterNet

The Farm Bill saga drags on

There are some mildly inconsistent accounts of what’s going on with the Farm Bill, based on what I could find this morning. This probably sums up the current state of affairs as well as anything. Having it wait until next year, with greater input from a Democratic House, would be better, but I rather doubt that that will happen.

Leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees say they still hope to finish a farm bill this session, but they have not shown signs of reaching a final agreement. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has hinted that the farm bill might be added to the appropriations bill so that House leadership would not have to bring it up as a separate piece of legislation. Meanwhile, Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who will chair the House Ag Committee next year, says that if the bill does not pass, he wants to organize his committee quickly in January and bring up the farm bill in short order. - Hoosier Ag Today

A couple of related items:

Trumpers plan more VA privatization

Overtly, it's being claimed that the Veterans Administration, especially its health care system, won’t be privatized. The reality is that back-door crap is already underway.

Last June, President Donald Trump signed a landmark law on veterans’ health care after months of tense negotiations. At the ceremony in the Rose Garden, Trump said the bill would deliver on his campaign promise to let veterans see private doctors instead of using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ government-run health service: “I’m going to sign legislation that will make veterans’ choice permanent,” he said.

Standing behind him, the leaders of major veterans groups looked around uncomfortably. What Trump called “choice” these veterans groups called “privatization,” and they’d been warning for years that it would cost taxpayers more money and deliver worse care for veterans. The veterans groups had endorsed the bill, but Trump’s description of it was not what they thought they were there to support.

The moment left no doubt that the Trump administration is determined to use the new law to expand the private sector’s role in veterans’ health care. The administration is working on a plan to shift millions more veterans to private doctors and is aiming to unveil the proposal during Trump’s State of Union address in January, according to four people briefed on the proposal. - ProPublica 

Crunch time for PolyMet

You probably saw that PolyMet/Glencore got some of their permits from the state. It’s important to bear in mind that they still have plenty more to get. The way they got their permits so far is messed up - especially if they ultimately get away with it.

First, Minnesota’s Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) has argued PolyMet is planning to build a dramatically bigger mine than it has actually proposed. The second is that some disputes over the project — such as questions raised about the safety of its tailings dam intended to store waste — should be subject to review from an administrative law judge...

Based on financial information submitted by PolyMet through Canadian disclosure laws, however, the MCEA contends the mining company wants to build a mine at least double in size. Copper-nickel mining has long-term risks for the environment, including the creation of acid that can leach heavy metals into water.

“It is very rare for a regulatory agency to say no to an expansion,” Aaron Klemz, a spokesman for the MCEA, told reporters Thursday. “This is a very common technique for the mining industry — to get their camel’s nose under the tent and then come in with the actual proposal.” Klemz’s organization has a pending lawsuit challenging the decision to not review a larger mine in the Court of Appeals. - MinnPost

Moreover:

Paula Maccabee, WaterLegacy Advocacy Director and Counsel expresses concern that the DNR has allowed PolyMet to put up much less financial assurance than required by law to protect taxpayers:

“It would be very troubling if the DNR was allowing PolyMet to circumvent the rules and low-ball financial assurance to make PolyMet’s economically marginal sulfide mining project appear financially feasible.” - WaterLegacy

So, we’ll see.

Trump should be gone by the summer solstice - Update

That is, I think there’s a considerably better than 50/50 chance that he will be.

Not by impeachment and removal; it won’t have to come to that. The forthcoming public investigations should bring more heat than the heart of a quasar. A while ago a list was published of what Democrats probably have in mind - according to House Republicans. This is just the first four; to quote more here would exceed fair use standards, so you’ll have to click over to Axios to see the remaining 14, and the author's own learned remarks on the matter.

President Trump’s tax returns

Trump family businesses — and whether they comply with the Constitution's emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization

Trump's dealings with Russia, including the president's preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin

The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels

Behind all the tough talk and bluster, there is not a more pitiful, cowardly, whimpering, sniveling half-a-man on the face of this planet than “President” Donald J. Trump. (There are unfortunately a good many just about as bad, and they make up a far higher percentage than they do in the general population of right-wing electeds, right-wing media ranters, and so forth. But none worse.) He’ll break.

He will, for want of a better term, abdicate. Flee on a private jet in the middle of the night (after he and his family have stashed much loot in what they hope are untraceable accounts) to who-knows-where. I used to think Russia, but since he still owes Russian banks many millions, perhaps even billions, I now doubt he'd go to where they could get their hands on him effortlessly.

North Korea? Nah. But we'll find out.

Update: More, much more, from Axios.

Elections stuff

- Here is a voter guide from Twin Cities Daily Planet. It has extensive information on elections for Hennepin and Ramsey counties, like commissioner, sheriff, etc.

- In the “I hope so, and it makes sense, but we’ll see” category, “Trump’s Immigration Stunts Are Driving Progressive Voter Turnout” here.

- Ditto for “Great News. Washington Post poll shows Baby Boomers and Silent Gen. turning on GOP!” here.

- Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) is one of the Wall Street Flunkies website's “Bankers’ Dozen.” Considering that we’re talking about just 13 people out of the entire U.S. Congress, I suppose it could be heralded as a significant achievement for him. If you click on his portrait, the article is comprehensive and damning.

When it comes to the issues that matter to Wall Street, Paulsen has consistently ignored not only the interests but the clearly expressed will of the people he is sworn to represent. Ten years after the financial crisis, the great majority of voters—across lines of geography and political party—voice their support for existing regulations and say they would like to see the rules governing Wall Street and the financial world made made tougher. Yet in all the actions described here, Rep. Paulsen has not once called for stronger rather than weaker regulation of banks, lenders, and other financial entities.

If Republicans ran Minnesota - education, elections, &c.

This series is based mostly on what Party of Trump state legislators have been trying to do. It is not remotely meant to be anywhere near exhaustive. Just items I’ve chosen to particularly highlight, being brought together for easy reference. I may be adding stuff, from time to time. Part 1, finances and budget, here. Part 2, environment, here.

School funding issues would only get worse. That’s what you call a “lock bet.”

State aid to Minnesota school districts—properly adjusted for inflation—has fluctuated significantly over the last fifteen years, but the overall trend has been downward, as documented in a recent North Star report. Of course, long-term trends are not exclusively the result of changes enacted by state policymakers.* Using information compiled during the 2017 special legislative session, it’s possible to isolate the impact of legislative actions during the current fiscal year (FY) 2018-2019 biennium. And those actions led to a decline in real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) per pupil general education revenue. - North Star Policy Institute

More here. And here, especially about how Republicans seek to backdoor public money for private schools.

- Election-rigging. Of course. Republicans have made numerous efforts to destroy Minnesota’s public campaign financing, and to potentially enable gerrymandering. In particular, they’ve sought to add riders to these ends to must-pass budget bills, apparently blissfully oblivious to just how obnoxiously childish - and cowardly - such tactics make them look.

- An effort to get the Appleton prison doing its thing died in the Senate, this time. Also from Bluestem Prairie, outstate locals do not in fact really seem to be on fire for the lock-em-up mentality. But a GOP legislature and governor would presumably quickly pass one of those override bills, mostly used in other states so far to reverse local minimum wage increases, to deal with such manifestations of intelligence and humanity.