We're Not in Hooterville Anymore (the State of the Union Address won't tell us where in the hell we are)
"When you married me, you knew that I couldn't cook, I couldn't sew, and I couldn't keep house. All I could do was talk Hungarian and do imitations of Zsa Zsa Gabor."
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| U.S. AGRICULTURE |
IATP SPELLS OUT FARM BILL PRIORITIES: Many
other groups also have the farm bill on their minds. Representatives of
Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy chatted with
yours truly about the group's hopes for the farm bill.
Cut the CAFO funding: First on the list is to
limit the money that large-scale operations also known as CAFOs get for the
environmental quality incentives program, or EQIP. Presently, one-third of EQIP
funding goes to CAFOs, which have been criticized for having poor animal
welfare conditions or environmental issues. Ben Lilliston, IATP's director of
rural strategies, said that his group's members started meeting with lawmakers
in November to see how this limited federal money could be reallocated to
smaller farmers. "There is a high demand for these EQIP dollars. More
people apply for them than actually get them," said Lilliston. "CAFOs
are gobbling up these dollars and farmers who are not following that particular
model are not able to get access to the money."
Protect farmers who depend on SNAP: IATP
is also seeking to leave SNAP intact. Many farmers in rural areas don't have as
many emergency resources like food banks and church pantries as those in cities
do, the group says. "We're very aware of how much rural American, rural
populations, are just as dependent on the food title of the farm bill as crop
insurance," said a spokesman, Josh Wise. "It's important that rural
populations have access to food and are able to remain food secure." [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, January 23, 2018]
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| STEVE BANNON |
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| READ |
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| BORDER WALL |
DHS CLEARS WAY FOR 'BOLLARD WALL': Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will issue a
waiver today to allow construction of barriers along a 20-mile stretch of the
Southwest border in New Mexico. The waiver, which will be published in the
Federal Register this morning, dismisses environmental, historic preservation,
and other regulations, and will allow DHS to replace existing vehicle barriers
with bollard fence (which the Register announcement calls "bollard
wall"). The department notes that Ciudad Juarez sits across the dividing
line in Mexico, an urban center that "creates opportunities for illegal
entrants to gain quick and immediate access to the border," according to
the announcement. DHS issued a similar waiver in August for the construction of border-wall
prototypes in the San Diego area. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, January 22, 2018]
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| U.S. CONSTITUTION |
Bob
Eatinger, former CIA senior
deputy general counsel, examines the Commander-in-Chief's
Constitutional authority to give such a command — and whether a military
office should obey it:
- "It is common knowledge
that military personnel are required to obey the lawful orders
of their superiors, and those who know the order to be unlawful must refuse
to obey it...If an officer refuses to obey in the belief that the order is
unlawful but is determined to be wrong in assessing the legality of the
command, that officer can be court-martialed for failing to obey a lawful
order."
- "The delegates to the
Constitutional Convention were deliberate in choosing not to give the
president the power to declare war. The delegates wanted
it to make it difficult for the U.S. to get into a war and thought it
unsafe to entrust the president with both the power to declare war and the
power to make war."
- "The devastating power
of nuclear weapons has made it more important than ever to know what the
Constitution’s deliberate division of our nation’s war powers means with
respect to whether there are limits on when the president can order their
use. At the same time, the lack of a definitive answer, when a nuclear
launch could start a total war that might last only a few hours, may have
rendered the Constitution’s deliberate division of our nation’s war powers
meaningless." [The Cipher Daily Brief, January 23,2018]
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| U.S. MILITARY |
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| REPUBLICAN PARTY |
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| PUTIN |
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| FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA |
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
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