What should be done about Big Meat

Trenchant.

President Joe Biden has declared war on Big Meat. Yup, Biden’s war. The president pinky swears new rules and a billion dollars in new funding will somehow end decades of what amounts to a meat monopoly in the beef, pork and chicken industries.

In announcing the plan, Biden noted, “Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation. That’s what we’re seeing in meat and poultry industries now.”

...Biden acknowledges that Big Meat has for years put its collective thumb on the meat scale to cheat ranchers, farmers and yes, all of us, at our local grocery store meat counter. And the president believes it's high time to do something about it...

But like presidents that have gone before (most recently Barack Obama anybody?) Biden's plan as introduced in January falls short. Way, way, WAY, WAY short.

Because Biden's plan at the moment would not break up Big Meat. - Investigate Midwest

Biden food/ag policy is mostly the same old

It's well past time to get going on big changes, but that doesn't look likely.

The federal government appears not to have learned from the experience. At the U.N. Food Systems Summit held on 23 September, U.S. Secretary for Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a new “Coalition of Action on Sustainable Productivity Growth for Food Security and Resource Conservation.” The accompanying document succinctly presents the current global food security challenge as one of a growing population, a deteriorating natural resource base, an urgent need to reduce and cap climate emissions, and for farmers and food workers to earn more from agriculture to reduce global poverty. It’s a decent list of the challenges. From there, though, the document makes a leap to claim that “increasing agricultural productivity growth” is the only solution to all these problems. The proposed solution is to grow (a lot) more food using less water, soil and labour, with the help of genetic manipulation.

Secretary Vilsack’s call for a new coalition follows a long line of U.S. agriculture leaders who have boasted that U.S. agricultural productivity "feeds the world”. As ever, that boast does not spare a glance to the problems — including hunger — at home. The Biden administration has promised to tackle persistent systemic racism, including environmental racism, to end child poverty, and to make sharp, real cuts to climate emissions. Instead of confronting these problems, the secretary is pushing to globalize an agricultural system that has impoverished rural communities, polluted waterways, stripped soils, and created such surpluses that we don’t just feed most of our production to animals, but also to fuel tanks and methane-producing landfill. The share of U.S. productivity given over directly to food is shockingly small. - IATP

Why hasn't Pres. Biden dealt with DeJoy yet?

Perhaps he thinks the justice system will take care of the problem, instead. Maybe he's right. Maybe not.

The United States Postal Service seriously mismanaged Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s conflicts of interest from the start, according to documents obtained by CREW via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents show that USPS’s initial decision to allow DeJoy to recuse from matters involving his former company XPO Logistics rather than divesting from the conflict-creating assets was clearly insufficient, given DeJoy’s role as the head of the agency and his later divestment. - CREW

A superlative takedown of the contemptible pro-war cowards in corporate media

My take is that this won’t have a lasting political impact. But I’m noting that I could be wrong, and that the last time corporate “news” media behaved this despicably, pandering to the most misinformed and gullible segment of the population, Trump ended up in the White House.

Mainstream coverage of Kabul’s fall and its aftermath has been anything but circumspect. Attempts to weigh the benefits of America’s withdrawal (e.g., the humanitarian gains inherent to the cessation of 20 years of civil war) against its costs have been rare; attempts to judge Biden’s execution of that withdrawal against rigorous counterfactuals have been rarer still. Instead, ostensibly neutral correspondents and anchors have (1) openly editorialized against the White House’s policy; (2) assigned Biden near-total responsibility for the final collapse of the proto-failed state his predecessors had established; and then (3) reported on the potential political costs of Biden’s actions, as though they were not actively imposing those costs through their own speculations about just “how politically damaging” the president’s failures of “competence” and “empathy” would prove to be...

One can critically report on concrete failings in the Biden administration’s withdrawal plans. But one cannot presume Biden’s responsibility for every negative consequence that follows from ending a misbegotten war and deserve the title journalist. By privileging the victims of American military withdrawal over those of American military engagement — while presuming the U.S. president’s capacity to decisively shape events in foreign lands — the media has rendered itself objectively pro-war. In allowing personal attachments to dictate its humanitarian concerns, mainstream reporters have concentrated moral outrage on an injustice that the U.S. can’t resolve without resort to violence (the Taliban’s conquest of Afghanistan), while enabling mass indifference to a much larger injustice that the U.S. can drastically mitigate without killing anyone (the global shortfall of COVID-19 vaccines). - New York Magazine

One of the good things Pres. Biden is doing

Lately I've been passing along items critical of the Biden administration, all of them justified and righteous. But it hasn't been total disappointment. Actually, it's been pretty much the mix of good and bad that I and many others expected.

Along with Khan, the Biden administration now has antitrust advocates with a track record of actually pursuing antitrust in powerful positions, rather than former toadies ready to engage in the corporate capture that has been the norm under recent presidents, both Republican and Democrat.

Both will need some help from Congress. Staff attorneys at the FTC and the Justice Department have been leaving the government, not only because of differences of opinion with the new regime, but because Big Tech firms are throwing money at them. Enticing new talent will require money, and a bill that recently passed the Senate which would increase merger fees to fund enforcement agencies will help. Expect a much younger and less experienced crop of more aggressive lawyers at both agencies.

Biden in some sense tipped this move with his sweeping July executive order, which directed the Department of Justice to pursue a litany of competition-enhancing antitrust measures, everything from consideration of unwinding past mergers to a patent policy reform to expanding competition in air transportation. - The American Prospect

It's decades past time to end the Cuba blockade

Imagine how much better things could be, if the U.S. would maintain only friendly, supportive relationships with small countries. That could be done without being seen as "endorsing" authoritarian governance, if the U.S. would maintain political leadership that was a lot quicker on its own intellectual feet.

The corporate media have been bashing the Cuban government in response to the recent protests in Cuba, while President Joe Biden claims, “We stand with the Cuban people.” But they ignore or minimize the leading cause of economic suffering in Cuba: the U.S.’s illegal and punishing economic blockade that Biden has left in place...

“The embargo is absurdly cruel and, like too many other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) said in a statement. “I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day people.” - Truthout

Corporate media does the war pigs' bidding on Afghanistan

There's nothing surprising at all about this. Many of the same people who own corporate media, and ultimately determine how it spins things, have also undoubtedly made money off the death and suffering there.

Incidentally, I just read America's War for the Greater Middle East: A History, by Andrew Bacevich. If in some fantasy world I got to pick a book that every American has to read, right now, that would be it.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize the foreign policy of President Biden: his failure to fully end U.S. participation in the Yemen war more than five months after he pledged to; his staffing out of his foreign policy to a shadowy consultant firm called WestExec whose clients include military contractors and powerful corporations; his support for Israel’s brutal bombardment of Gaza.

But when it comes to U.S. press outlets, they’re more likely to critique Biden when he steps away from militarism. This reality was on full display following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Bagram Air Base, which began in late June as part of the Biden administration’s broader exit from Afghanistan (which, it is important to note, does not constitute a full withdrawal and is likely to result in the farming out of the war to the CIA). - In These Times

Pres. Biden's horrifying "defense" budget

As bad a gift to the war pigs as we’ve ever seen.

President Biden’s first Pentagon budget, released (in late May), is staggering by any reasonable standard. At more than $750 billion for the Defense Department and related work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy, it represents one of the highest levels of spending since World War II — far higher than the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or President Ronald Reagan’s military buildup of the 1980s, and roughly three times what China spends on its military.

Developments of the past year and a half — an ongoing pandemic, an intensifying mega-drought, white supremacy activities, and racial and economic injustice among them — should have underscored that the greatest threats to American lives are anything but military in nature. But no matter, the Biden administration has decided to double down on military spending as the primary pillar of what still passes for American security policy. And don’t be fooled by that striking Pentagon budget figure either. This year’s funding requests suggest that the total national security budget will come closer to a breathtaking $1.3 trillion.

That mind-boggling figure underscores just how misguided Washington’s current “security” — a word that should increasingly be put in quotation marks — policies really are. No less concerning was the new administration’s decision to go full-speed ahead on longstanding Pentagon plans to build a new generation of nuclear-armed bombers, submarines, and missiles, including, of course, new nuclear warheads to go with them, at a cost of at least $1.7 trillion over the next three decades. - TomDispatch

A key point regarding the immigration situation

This is not about Biden-bashing. He inherited a terrible mess. Even if near-perfect measures are taken, it's going to be a while. And certainly corporate "news" media is back to pandering to the conservative-leaning older people that are its shrinking base. But this is important information.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order Trump invoked, known as Title 42 after the section of U.S. Code dealing with public health, allows for temporary entry suspensions, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has used to expel any migrant, without screening for human trafficking or fear of return. An agreement with Mexico’s government allows the U.S. to expel Mexicans and Central Americans across the border, but other nationals are immediately deported to their country of origin. Those with humanitarian visas or residency in Mexico are also sent to Mexico.

Biden has kept the Title 42 order in place...

Most public-health experts say that Title 42 is a bogus health order that does little to stop the spread of COVID-19...

The main difference in Biden’s implementation is that border officials are no longer deporting unaccompanied children under Title 42. That decision, combined with confusion about Biden’s border policies among migrants, has led to a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied children taken into custody, transferred to the refugee office, and placed with a sponsor. In February, shelters received more than 7,000 unaccompanied children, double the number accepted in February 2020. - The American Prospect

Hopefully Pres. Biden won't be a war pig

This is about an airstrike that was ordered last week. I consider that to have been a negative, unnerving early indicator.

Members of the hoary foreign policy “blob” inside the Beltway told the Washington Post that the strike was intended to let the Iranians know that the US could not be pushed around, in advance of the opening of negotiations over the US return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

That’s the most damn fool thing I’ve ever heard.

The US tore up the nuclear deal in 2018 and never had abided by its part of the bargain, to lift economic sanctions on Iran. President Biden should concentrate on nuclear issues if he wants a nuclear accord, and avoid extraneous distractions like militias. - Informed Comment

President Biden should get rid of ethanol fuel

It is of course extremely unlikely that he'll do anything of the kind. That said, growing insane amounts of corn is bad. It's bad for the environment, for the climate, for farmers, and ultimately for everyone.

President Joe Biden campaigned on an ambitious plan to tackle climate change with a “clean energy revolution,” including incentives to phase out gas-powered cars in favor of electric ones. The growing consensus among climate experts is that to slash carbon emissions quickly enough, we need to eliminate as much air-fouling combustion as possible while expanding wind and solar energy to power the grid. But a key aspect of Biden’s agenda contradicts this push: He’s vowed to “promote ethanol and the next generation of biofuels,” declaring them “vital to the future of rural America—and the climate.” Biden tapped longtime ethanol champion Tom Vilsack—former governor of Iowa, the fuel’s Saudi Arabia—to run the Department of Agriculture, a post he held under Obama.

In doing so, Biden is doubling down on a bad idea that has flourished since the days of President George W. Bush...

From a greenhouse gas emissions perspective, the renewable fuel standard has been a bust, says Jason Hill, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering. By displacing petroleum, the ethanol mandate made conventional gasoline cheaper, which made people drive more while buying less-fuel-efficient vehicles. As a result, Hill and two colleagues found in a 2016 paper, the net effect of the law was to increase greenhouse gas emissions from cars by about 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the output of nearly six coal-fired power plants.

The environmental footprint of industrial-scale corn farming is another stain on ethanol’s claim to be a green fuel. Corn typically covers about 90 million acres of farmland—an area nearly the size of California. Fertilizing the crop emits nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than carbon, as well as nitrate pollution that fouls water from the upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, where it generates a low-oxygen dead zone larger than Connecticut. Hill and his colleagues have found that nitrogen fertilizer applied to corn also results in emissions of ammonia, a powerful pollutant, that have been associated with a staggering 4,300 premature deaths yearly in the United States. - Mother Jones

Current reality re: Biden and progressives

This is a solid, objective look at what's really going on. I don't like it any more than you do.

The left has viewed Joe Biden with skepticism throughout his presidential campaign and the transition to the White House. But a popular story in recent weeks has been this idea that Biden has tamed the left, through outreach and hiring of certain personnel and adoption of certain agenda items. I think the transition was relatively smooth, and the large relief package has kind of overshadowed everything else going on.

But this marriage, if you could even call it that, was never going to last. Progressives simply want more than Biden is willing to give. Yes, Biden positions himself in the center of the party, and that center has shifted left. But that’s not going to be good enough for a lot of people, and there’s still decades of reflexive recoiling from aggressive policy to cut through.

We have seen this most directly in the debate over student debt cancellation, which I think we can say that Biden really doesn’t want to do. - The American Prospect

Pres. Biden needs to pardon non-violent marijuana "offenders"

Biden's pardons/expungements would only apply to those convicted of federal crimes. But in addition to being the right thing to do, in and of itself, it would set a great example.

A coalition of drug reform advocates on Monday urged President Joe Biden to follow through on his campaign promises and signal the nation is "truly taking a new course" by expunging the records of those with non-violent marijuana convictions.

In a letter (pdf) sent Monday, the groups—including National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and the just-launched U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC)—pointed to a national criminal justice system "in urgent need of reform" and called for a general pardon of those currently and formerly incarcerated.

"Cannabis prohibition ruins lives, wastes resources, and is opposed by a large majority of Americans," the group wrote. - Common Dreams

Biden has a great chance, on public schools

Elements of the proposed rescue/stimulus package are a good start. But there needs to be a lot of effort and resources beyond that. And the opposition is given to a plethora of classless, underhanded, cowardly tactics.

After decades of federal legislation that emphasized mandating standardized testing and tying school and teacher evaluations to the scores; imposing financial austerity on public institutions; incentivizing various forms of privatization; and undermining teachers' professionalism and labor rights, there is a keen appetite for a new direction for school policy.

Due to the disruption forced by the pandemic, much is being written and said about the need to "restart and reinvent" education and a newfound appreciation for schools as essential infrastructure for families and children. With an incoming Biden administration, Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, and the influence of incoming first lady Jill Biden, a career educator, we may be on the cusp of a historic moment when the stars align to revitalize public schools in a way that hasn't happened in a generation.

Among the promising ideas that appear to have growing momentum behind them are proposals to fund schools more equitably, to expand community schools that take a more holistic approach to educating students, to create curriculum and pedagogy that are relevant to the science of how children learn and the engagement of their families, and to reverse the direction of accountability measures from top-down mandates to bottom-up community-based endeavors. - Jeff Bryant/AlterNet

What the Pres.-elect can quickly do for reproductive rights

Pretty straightforward, really.

Even with Democrats poised to control the Senate, our wait on some of these issues may continue for at least another election cycle. Which is why it’s worth focusing on at least one action Biden can take immediately that will help increase reproductive freedom: He can commit to combatting the rampant disinformation campaigns that have targeted reproductive and sexual health, rights, and justice issues with the same vigor he applies to attacking other destructive lies.

On December 10, House Democrats sent President-elect Biden a proposal for combatting digital disinformation. The signees specifically called out the flagrant spread of fictional claims regarding COVID-19—what has been dubbed an “infodemic”—for contributing to the erosion of our democracy, and expressed grave concern about how foreign adversaries might take advantage of a citizenry that’s proved to be highly vulnerable to online manipulation. - Rewire News Group

Will anything change about America's Forever Wars?

This is something of a downer, but I have to do what I can to amplify it anyway, because it's a critical issue.

In this mystifying moment, the post-electoral sentiments of most Americans can be summed up either as “Ding dong! The witch is dead!” or “We got robbed!” Both are problematic, not because the two candidates were intellectually indistinguishable or ethically equivalent, but because each jingle is laden with a dubious assumption: that President Donald Trump’s demise would provide either decisive deliverance or prove an utter disaster.

While there were indeed areas where his ability to cause disastrous harm lent truth to such a belief -- race relations, climate change, and the courts come to mind -- in others, it was distinctly (to use a dangerous phrase) overkill. Nowhere was that more true than with America’s expeditionary version of militarism, its forever wars of this century, and the venal system that continues to feed it.

For nearly two years, We the People were coached to believe that the 2020 election would mean everything, that November 3rd would be democracy’s ultimate judgment day. What if, however, when it comes to issues of war, peace, and empire, “Decision 2020” proves barely meaningful? After all, in the election campaign just past, Donald Trump’s sweeping war-peace rhetoric and Joe Biden’s hedging aside, neither nuclear-code aspirant bothered to broach the most uncomfortable questions about America’s uniquely intrusive global role. Neither dared dissent from normative notions about America’s posture and policy “over there,” nor challenge the essence of the war-state, a sacred cow if ever there was one. - TomDispatch

Who Biden picks as trade representative will say a lot

This article is a really good overview.

For several presidencies, including those of Obama and Clinton, the U.S. trade representative has been keeper of the orthodoxy. U.S. policies ignored the fate of domestic manufacturing. Instead, they pursued a brand of globalism by and for multinational corporations, especially financial ones.

Biden’s USTR nominee will signal whether he is serious about rebuilding U.S. industry and jobs. - The American Prospect

Look forward, and back, and investigate, and indict

I don’t expect President-elect Biden to make it all about investigating and prosecuting Trump and Trumpers, either. But he can do nothing better for this country than anything that advances the political destruction of right-wing conservatism. Full accountability, no mercy.

In some ways, it makes perfect sense that Biden doesn't want his entire presidency consumed by probes into Trump, his minions, and an inevitable cycle of recriminations. But Donald Trump so misused and abused the federal government that his entire tenure represents an assault on American democracy itself, not to mention a series of crimes against humanity, ranging from literally ripping children away from their parents and caging them to intentionally slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Americans through coronavirus denialism and weaponization of disinformation.

For those reasons, Trump and those who did his bidding must be held to account through both criminal inquiries and uncovering information that could mar the reputations of certain individuals for life. This is absolutely critical to preserving the integrity of our republic moving forward. Using the U.S. government to commit crimes against humanity cannot be tolerated at any level.

Biden can preach unity all he wants, but it is incumbent upon the incoming administration to make it glaringly clear that efforts to subvert our democracy and use the federal government for malign political purposes carry with them a steep cost for everyone involved. This is a fundamental part of safeguarding our democracy. Otherwise, the next autocrat—who will surely be far more competent than Trump—won't think twice before trodding the same paths Trump did, but with greater efficacy and fervor. - Daily Kos

Undoing disastrous Trump farm/food policies

A very informative and helpful guide.

In January 2021, President-elect Biden will have the opportunity to roll back the rollbacks, to re-regulate the de-regulated. These are changes he can make without the aid of Congress; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may slow down the process of confirming his Secretary of Agriculture, but his reach doesn’t extend to the rulemaking process.

In many cases, Biden won’t have to do much to ensure the Trump administration’s most controversial food and farming policies never see the light of day. In others, he’ll need to go to court or issue executive orders. Still more will require Congressional action or a lengthy rulemaking process.

Here’s your guide to the Trump administration’s signature rollbacks—and our predictions on their survival in 2021. - The Counter