Farmers still taking it on the chin thanks to Trump incompetence and stupidity

These items speak for themselves. Especially the one about Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN).

One economic expert after another said Donald Trump’s tariff war with China, Mexico, and other key trading partners would not benefit the United States, and now U.S. taxpayers are stuck with the bill. U.S. farm exports such as soybeans, pork, and even cheese have plummeted, while countries like Russia are enjoying some of their biggest orders in history, as giant markets like China turn to new suppliers. 

As Carl Quintanilla of CNBC reports (Feb. 22), the biggest losers in Trump’s trade war appear to be all of us taxpayers, who have had to disburse $7.7 billion to keep American’s farmers afloat. - Daily Kos 

- "After Trump Shutdown costs the United States economy $11 billion, MN08 Stauber wants to Empower the “Imperial President” with more Tariff Authority" - MN Political Roundtable

- "Why Minnesota legislators are so worried about the state's farmers" - MinnPost

MN AG: Ellison joins one of many Trump-blocking lawsuits

From Monday:

Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that Minnesota is joining a multistate lawsuit, led by the State of California, to enjoin the Trump administration from illegally and unconstitutionally diverting federal funds to build a wall along the United States southern border that President Trump announced in his emergency declaration on Friday, February 15. Minnesota is one of 16 states to join the lawsuit.

“President Trump, who has been unable to persuade Congress and the American people that a wall is necessary, is harming the people of Minnesota by forcing this constitutional crisis. I have joined this lawsuit because I cannot allow him to do that,” Attorney General Ellison said. - MN Attorney General website

It seems pretty likely that the Supreme Court will block Trump's effort. In fact, I suspect that Chief "Justice" John Roberts is pushing hard for a 9-0 vote (though he may not get it), because of what letting Trump get away with this would potentially mean for the "constitutional balance of power," or whatever.

As far as I'm concerned, one of the first steps that the new, Democratic president should take, in January 2021, is to demand that all judicial appointments made by, among many other reprehensible and contemptible things, a god-damned traitor against the United States of America, immediately resign. (And, yes, that includes Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.) One could indeed argue that the new prez would be derelict in her own duties, if she lets those appointments stand.

Probably a pipe dream, I know. But having Trump-appointed judges block every effort in coming decades to make things better is to my mind far more unthinkable. When things have gone very, very wrong, we have the right to do what it takes to fix them.

MN Gov: Walz budget proposal aims high

You’ve probably seen some things about MN Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal. I’ve been concerned - and still am, frankly - that as someone who made a big deal of being a “moderate” in Congress, now that he’s governor Walz will be willing to give away too much to Republicans in the legislature to cut deals. Perhaps this is an indication that I’m wrong, which would be good.

The issue, though, is what chance he has of picking up the two Republican votes he’d need in the MN Senate - and of holding on to all of the DFL votes. (It’s frankly Walz's own fault that he’ll need at least two of those Party of Trump votes and not just one. But there’s no use bemoaning, at any length, what’s over and done with.) He’s pretty clearly shooting for the stars with these opening numbers with the idea of still having some of it when all is said and done. I could see, for example, a few cents/gallon gas tax increase getting through, for now, maybe, but not any more than that. Perhaps I’ll end up actually being happy at having been proved wrong on that, too.

I haven’t looked at the budget details, but there’s presumably plenty therein designed to help get those Senate votes, from both parties. Without speculating with names, there certainly are those who can be persuaded if there’s something really good for their districts. And with Traitor Trump still doing his odious, contemptible things, vaunted Republican legislative “unity” could well be a lot more fissionable than has been the case. We’ll find out.

MN-05: How dare Rep. Omar tell it like it is!

Perhaps you saw the headline across the top of the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning, assuring its ornery old subscriber base that someone is being put in her place. The following is quoted from the sort of reality-based item that, in a better world, would be the stock-in-trade of corporate media like the Strib as well.

It should be pointed out that Rep. (Ilhan) Omar (D-MN) has been relentlessly hazed because she is a Somali Muslim and critical of Israeli policy toward their Palestinian semi-chattel. One of her critics is close to the hate figure Frank Gaffney, purveyor of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of the sort the Nazis used to circulate about Jews...

She may be wrong about the motives of some of her opponents. The anti-Palestinian politicians in the United States may have come by their determination to keep millions of displaced people stateless and without basic human rights honestly. That is, many may just be racists who believe that brown people should be kept down.

Nor should consideration of the Israel lobbies only focus on money. Their propaganda techniques, for instance of equating any criticism of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank to terrorism, are also extremely effective. - Informed Comment

I get that it's not just Republicans who are spouting off about this. That fact is a big part of the real problem, here.

SCOTUS stuns forced-birth zealots

This doesn’t guarantee anything in the longer term. All they did was grant a stay. But the news could have been a lot worse.

This probably is another indication, though, that Chief Justice John Roberts doesn’t intend for “his” court to go down as a thundering bastion of radical-right extremism, which wouldn’t look good in the history books. Not to mention which could produce huge electoral backlashes, amplifying those already created by the ultimate embodiment of “movement conservatism,” namely, putting a massively narcissistic and delusional, corrupt beyond description, treasonous, and most of all just an absolute god-damned fucking pitiful idiot in the White House.

In June 2016, an eight-member Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that required doctors who perform abortions to have the authority to admit patients at a local hospital. The makeup of the court has changed significantly since then: In 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died a few weeks before the Texas case was argued, and Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 and was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But although the court by most measures has become more conservative, the justices (yesterday) granted a request from abortion providers to block a similar Louisiana law from going into effect while the providers appeal a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in a dispute that some court-watchers regarded as a bellwether for the court’s possible direction in future abortion cases. - SCOTUSblog

2020 Prez: AKlo will probably announce a run on Sunday

That would be Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), entering a stuffed-to-bursting field because everyone with any sense knows that whoever wins the Democratic nomination is highly likely to be the next POTUS. Even if, as I anticipate, Trump will be long gone from the White House by the 2020 election. The fetor will linger. Strongly.

AKlo’s approach has always been to pick the safest political position on every issue, and stay there as if welded down. It’s made her electorally invulnerable in Minnesota, and has absolutely nothing to do with being a leader for positive change. But, you know, that’s just my take, and I suppose her gaudy approval ratings and effortless election blowouts speak for themselves.

An interesting question, for me at least, is to what extent Minnesota’s corporate media may or may not  display the same kind of groveling boosterism here that it did during Tim Pawlenty’s pitiful presidential “run” (and his attempted 2018 comeback). Though as you may have guessed from the above I’m not her biggest political fan, Amy Klobuchar is certainly a far better candidate, for anything, and a far better person, than TBag. But, she’s a Democrat, and given that corporate media’s base audience is old Republicans, and that it’s owned by Republicans, and that the GOP in Minnesota is in a desperate place looking forward, coverage will probably be at least a little less starry-eyed.

Another step toward Trump VA privatization

Plans by despicable, asshole greedheads to privatize the Veterans Administration, and then strip it to the bone for profit, certainly predate the Traitor Trump “presidency.” But Trump is all for it, and tying those efforts to the most loathed and despised president at least since the invention of polling seems to me entirely justified political rhetoric.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration proposed new rules, known as access standards, to automatically make veterans eligible for private care. Instead of 30 days, it’s 20 days for primary care or 28 days for specialty care. Instead of 40 miles, it’s a 30-minute drive for primary care or a 60-minute drive for specialty care...

“Today’s announcement hastily rolling out new access standards places core VA services and vital research programs at risk by shifting money towards care outside VA,” House veterans committee chairman Mark Takano said in a statement on Wednesday, vowing to hold a hearing. “Today’s announcement places VA on a pathway to privatization and leads Congress to assume the worst.” - ProPublica