Right-wing war on farmers elevates

Some views from the ground on Trump’s trade war. Most farmers' options are of course limited.

The soybean markets have been the source of much heartburn this spring, particularly in (mid-May), when prices rode a rollercoaster of Twitter announcements of additional tariffs and another round of trade mitigation payments to farmers.

Farmer reactions varied widely, from anger and disgust to stoic support and even Zen-like detachment.

"The markets just feel like a punch in the gut right now," said Honebrink. "Every time I get my new budget and plan figured out, markets drop and I have to go back to the drawing board."

Rendel added: "I can't tell you how worried and on edge I am every day watching the markets, wondering what is the next thing I'm going to see on Twitter. I'm walking on pins and needles every day."

In central Ohio, Keith Peters believes not all our trade partners will return when the dust settles. "We have to go forward with the realization that we have lost market share for the foreseeable future," he said. - Progressive Farmer

While it looks unlikely that the “new NAFTA” is going to get through Congress, this has useful facts to bear in mind in any case.

"The ITC computer model forecasting does not include the likely impacts of non-tariff measures in New NAFTA," said Dr. Steve Suppan, IATP senior policy analyst. "New provisions streamline approval of foreign food safety, plant and animal health and animal welfare measures as 'equivalent' despite well-documented evidence they are not. New rules in New NAFTA will lock in a process to further lower U.S. food and agricultural chemical safety standards for decades. Based on the historical record, there is real reason for concern over foodborne illness from imported food and New NAFTA's provisions to enable trade of legally unauthorized products of agricultural biotechnology."

The original NAFTA hurt farmers and hollowed out rural communities in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and despite claims from President Trump and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that New NAFTA is needed to fix the farm economy, the ITC report shows this rhetoric does not match reality. In fact, the New NAFTA will entrench underlying structural issues, exacerbating our ongoing farm crisis, plagued by low prices, rising debt and increased bankruptcies. It locks in a system where global agribusiness firms exploit farmers and extract from rural communities in all three nations. - IATP

An addendum:

The second issue is that this year’s plan is expected to mirror that of last year, when Trump handed out $12 billion to address the problem he created. And under last year’s plan, most of that money went to huge corporate farms, including corporate farms owned by foreign companies, and not to small farmers. In fact, as The Des Moines Register reported, hundreds of Iowa farmers ended up with a payment of less than $25. Not $25 million. Or $25,000. $25. Some payments were less than $5. The average payment was $7,236, which is a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of operating the most modest farm. And even that number was inflated by the large checks written out for the largest corporate farms. 

Trump is handing out $16 billion. It’s a genuinely large amount of money. But it’s too late, it’s going to the wrong people, and it’s still just a tiny fraction of what’s needed to repair the damage that Trump has caused. - Daily Kos

23 (I think) Dem prez candidates, and counting

Don't get me wrong, there's always plenty of good stuff on the progressive web. But this is the best thing I've read in a while.

The second question is fairly asked. If (Montana Gov. Steve) Bullock should stumble on his path to glory, the Democratic Party’s center-right contingent will still be championed by (in alphabetical order) Sen. Michael Bennet (Colorado), former Senator and Vice President Joe Biden (Delaware), Mayor Pete Buttigieg (Indiana), former Rep. John Delaney (Maryland), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), former Gov. John Hickenlooper (Colorado), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), Rep. Seth Moulton (Massachusetts), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), and Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio).

That is 10 stalwart banner carriers for the “centrist” vision of whatever it is they see when they look in a mirror, all crowded together in a clump of half-loaf mediocrity, trying to distinguish themselves from the pack without (gasp) leaning too far to the left. Remember the phonebooth stuffing fad from the 1950s? Like that, but just so much worse....

Running for president has become an industry of its own, and a multibillion dollar one at that. “Across America, the business of politics now channels up to $10 billion a year,” report Dave Helling and Scott Canon for the Kansas City Star, “much of it pocketed by the pros who conduct the polls, craft the ads, buy the airtime, spin the news releases.”

The kind of bottomless spending orgy that typifies modern campaigning makes its own gravy, and is one hell of an incentive for political consultants who have the ear of high-profile politicians: "Listen to me, Senator Frackeverything, I know there are 94 other candidates already running, but you can win! I just need $10 million for the ad buy to get you started. Trust me, this will be great!" What big-ego politician doesn’t want to hear that? Plus, as stated, the candidates get to keep what they raise for use in future campaigns. - Truthout

Actually, if you search the question of how many are running for U.S. President in 2020 as Democrats, it's 244 as of May 13. (Click on that link and scroll down for a full list, which I think will be updated regularly.) 23 are apparently currently considered to be significant, more or less.

Sen. Sanders calls for ban on for-profit charters. Would it fly?

I of course wholeheartedly support the concept. And if you click and read it all, he seems to have a lot of bases covered. (It's a little unclear, from what I've seen, if the proposal includes shutting down existing for-profits. I'm taking a bit of a leap of faith here and presuming that that's part of the intent of the entire package.)

Sen. Bernie Sanders will unveil a major plan to support public education and rein in privatization on Saturday, CNN reports. Sanders will call for a ban on for-profit charter schools and pledge that, as president, he would refuse to use federal funds to open new charter schools.

On the anniversary weekend of Brown v. Board of Education, Sanders will take up the NAACP’s call for a moratorium on charter school expansion, at least while the schools are audited. Sanders will also propose subjecting charter schools to the same oversight as public schools—something that charter backers have oh-so-mysteriously fought tooth and nail—and transparency measures like financial disclosure and student attrition rates. That oversight and transparency would be combined with requirements for representation of parents and teachers on charter school boards.

Sanders isn’t stopping there... - Daily Kos

But:

- Even to my not-a-lawyer head it seems like there would be constitutional issues with an outright ban. Moreover, that could very possibly have been the case even before the Trump/McConnell savaging of our federal courts. Perhaps denial of federal funds to existing for-profits would have pretty much the same effect as a ban. But I wouldn't put it beyond the far-right majority on our current SCOTUS to knock that down, and even have the gall to cite Brown as a precedent requiring purported "equality of opportunity," here.

- Plenty of “non-profit” charters are being strip-mined for big bucks by greedheads. I don’t know that for-profit charters couldn’t just make a few cosmetic changes in how their cash flows are treated, label themselves non-profit, and go the same route. It’s the charter-industrial complex in general, not just the overt for-profits, that needs to be cut way, way, way down to size. Full funding of our public schools, along with much stiffer federal regulation of all charters, would be good starting points.

Trump in full-on lunatic mode as his trade policy crushes farmers

I know, when is he not in “full-on lunatic mode?” Anyway:

President Donald Trump is seeking an additional $15 billion in U.S. subsidies in an effort to protect farmers from the devastating impact of his trade war with China. That’s on top of $12 billion already earmarked for the farmers to help them weather the fallout.

That would be an additional bill for U.S. taxpayers already shouldering the cost of increased tariffs in the form of higher costs for products and parts from China. 

Trump revealed the subsidy figure in a tweet Friday. He suggested the government use the funds to buy agricultural products to ship to other nations for humanitarian aid, though setting up such a system would be extremely complicated. In his most recent budget proposal, Trump proposed eliminating three food aid programs, Politico noted.

The president appeared to dismiss the impact of the cost as he falsely claimed — again — that “massive” tariff payments are being paid by China “directly” to the U.S. Treasury, which would presumably be used to cover the cost of the subsidy. There is “absolutely no need to rush” to negotiate a deal with China, he tweeted. - Huffington Post

Even South Dakota’s right-wing governor is bemoaning what Trump is doing. But I’ve seen little indication that his political support is really plummeting in farm country the way it should. Making that happen would seem to be a “hard row to hoe.” (Weak, I know. I typed it anyway.)

MN-04: Rep. McCollum keeps trying to do something for the Palestinians, but without enough company

From a recent email I got:

Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota just reintroduced her legislation in Congress that would prohibit our tax dollars from funding the Israeli military detention of Palestinian children—and this time, it’s an even stronger challenge to occupation and apartheid! The groundbreaking bill is the followup to H.R. 4391 in the last Congress, which boasted 31 cosponsors.

This bill exists because every year, Israel detains and prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts that have a conviction rate of 99.74%. Instead of living free and safe childhoods, Palestinian children fear Israeli soldiers pulling them from their beds in the middle of the night to face torture and ill-treatment. - US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

I get that Israel has a “right to exist.” I also get the population and resource pressures that country is facing. But that doesn’t give the country’s politicians, or any of its citizens, any right to treat the Palestinians as subject people without rights - up to and including extremes of exploitation, abuse, and even murder.

Charters are not escaping accountability, try as they might

I figure that those who run, and ultimately profit from, the charter-industrial complex thought they'd never have to deal with teachers unions and/or strikes. Wrong.

Chicago charter teachers are racking up firsts. In December 2018, Chicago saw the first-ever walkout at a charter network in the United States. And on Thursday, teachers employed by two other private operators launched the nation’s first multi-employer charter school strike.   

“We’ve been bargaining since last summer, and the process has been insulting to educators,” said Carlene Carpenter, a social studies teacher at the Latino Youth High School (LYHS), which is affiliated with the Youth Connection Charter School network. “If charter operators really cared about education, we wouldn’t be here today.” - Working In These Times

And:

In Milwaukee’s recent school board election, a slate of five candidates swept into office under a banner of turning back years of efforts to privatize the district’s schools. The win for public schools was noteworthy not only because it took place in a long-standing bastion of school choice, but also because the winning candidates were backed by an emerging coalition that adopted a bold, new politics that demands candidates take up a full-throated opposition to school privatization rather than cater to the middle.

Unsurprisingly, the coalition includes the local teachers’ union, who’ve long been skeptical of charters, vouchers, and other privatization ideas, but joining the teachers in their win are progressive activists, including the Wisconsin chapter of the Working Families Party, and local civil rights advocacy groups, including Black Leaders Organizing for Communities and Voces de la Frontera. - Jeff Bryant/Salon

The Minnesota Senate budget proposal is quite a deal

Here’s a look, for example, at what they have in mind for Health and Human Services. And the environment.

One area of specific note is education. From Education Minnesota:

The education budget proposals by Gov. Tim Walz and the House DFL represent strong first steps toward fully funding our schools. They include:

3 and 2 percent formula increases

Special education funding increase

Dedicated $ for more support staff

$ for paraprofessional training

Full-service community schools funding

Senate Republicans? Not so much:

.5 percent formula increases

ZERO dedicated $ for more support staff

ZERO $ for paraprofessional training

ZERO full-service community schools

Never has the phrase “Minnesota Party of Trump” been more apropos, because there is a suspiciously marked ideological resemblance here to the White House budget plan. Which might seem odd, given Traitor Trump’s job approval ratings here. About the lowest in the upper Midwest, along with Illinois, though the numbers aren't good for him anywhere in our region except in the Dakotas.

Objective, rational people would not produce something like the MN Senate plan. But diehard right-wingers are anything but objective and rational. On the contrary, they strongly tend to reality-bereft cognitive rigidity in the extreme. They also tend to extreme authoritarianism, which will make picking off the two votes that would be needed in the state Senate to pass DFL proposals very challenging. I expect that Minnesota’s next budget will end up looking a lot like the current one. Not awful, but not what it should be. We need the trifecta, beginning in 2021, for that.