We discuss Chicago politics as 26-year-old progressive influencer Kat Abughazaleh challenges veteran Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who may be announcing her retirement after 14 terms in Congress. Then we take a look at Trump's latest projection scheme as his DOJ targets ActBlue while conveniently ignoring WinRed's shady operations. Both sides don't! Only one for-profit fundraising platform skims millions off donations; we connect the dots on how money flows through our political system—and who's really pulling the strings. This episode might be shorter than usual as we prepare for a brief break, but we're packing in the analysis you won't hear anywhere else!
Driftglass will be on the Bob Cesca Show AND the Bradcast on Wednesday 4/30, and we'll be back on the air next week!
If you're from around here -- the middle of Middle America -- odds are
you might remember 2017 and 2018 as the year Donald Trump fucked over the
American farmer.
And as with all Trump-related disasters, it all started with a ridiculous
lie told to stupid people
...more than 75 percent of rural voters in the Farm Belt cast their
ballots for Trump in the last presidential election. They cheered
Trump’s promise to support the Renewable Fuel Standard (which props
up the ethanol industry), his pledge to eliminate estate taxes on
inherited farmland and roll back regulations on farm runoff, and,
most of all, they liked his tough talk on trade policy.
The trade war caused economic pain on both sides and led to diversion
of trade flows away from both China and the United States. As described
by Heather Long at the Washington Post, “U.S. economic growth slowed,
business investment froze, and companies didn’t hire as many people.
Across the nation, a lot of farmers went bankrupt, and the manufacturing
and freight transportation sectors have hit lows not seen since the last
recession. Trump’s actions amounted to one of the largest tax increases
in years.”
A September 2019 study by Moody’s Analytics found that the trade war
had already cost the U.S. economy nearly 300,000 jobs and an estimated
0.3% of real GDP. Other studies put the cost to U.S. GDP at about 0.7%.
A 2019 report from Bloomberg Economics estimated that the trade war
would cost the U.S. economy $316 billion by the end of 2020, while more
recent research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Columbia
University found that U.S. companies lost at least $1.7 trillion in the
price of their stocks as a result of U.S. tariffs imposed on imports
from China...
In 2020, Trump tried to unshit the bed by signing a trade truce with
China which Brookings described as:
In other words, Beijing essentially paid for the deal with a
promise of a windfall in purchases of American goods. It appears
that President Trump accepted an IOU as a declaration of victory.
But you know what? It turns out there's a fix for that.
Bribery!
Specifically, taking tens of billions of your tax dollars and handing it
over to farmers who, by substantial majorities, voted for Donald Trump in
2016, and whose livelihood was damn near destroyed by the aforementioned
lunatic agricultural trade war Trump started with China.
‘Here’s your check’: Trump’s massive payouts to farmers will be
hard to pull back
The president was already spending double his predecessor to spare
farmers the cost of his trade war. Now the price is reaching
unsustainable levels.
Government payments to farmers have surged to historic levels under
President Donald Trump as the Agriculture Department floods the
industry with cash to stem the financial losses from Trump’s tariff
fights and the coronavirus pandemic.
But as agriculture grows more reliant on unprecedented taxpayer
support, farm policy experts and watchdog groups warn the subsidies
are growing too big and too fast, with no strings attached and
little oversight from Congress — and that Washington could have a
difficult time shutting off the spigot.
Government payments to farmers have surged to historic levels under
President Donald Trump as the Agriculture Department floods the
industry with cash to stem the financial losses from Trump’s tariff
fights and the coronavirus pandemic.
But as agriculture grows more reliant on unprecedented taxpayer
support, farm policy experts and watchdog groups warn the subsidies
are growing too big and too fast, with no strings attached and
little oversight from Congress — and that Washington could have a
difficult time shutting off the spigot...
OK, fine. On the one hand Trump treated them like whores.
But on the other hand, he did leave the money on the dresser with a
generous tip.
And now, everybody knew where everybody stood..
So, having taken all of that in and begun to flourish again under the
Biden administration (From
NBC News) --
Farmers flourish under Biden, see recovery from Trump-era trade
wars
The prices of corn and soybeans have increased and demand is up for
American exports.
...
"We had farm income that was up by a pretty fair amount in 2021,
almost to the record level of 2013, but not quite," said Patrick
Westhoff, director of the University of Missouri’s Food and
Agricultural Policy Research Institute. "Part of that, of course,
was continuing government payments, but there was a very strong
recovery in both crop and livestock prices last year."
Soy and corn prices, two of the largest cash crops in the United
States, have suffered slightly, falling below $9 and above $3 a
bushel, respectively, during the pandemic. Now, exports have had an
increase in demand, in part because of exports to China and poor
weather affecting South American producers. Soy was up to $14 in
2021 and corn is projected to continue above $5 in 2022.
-- have American farmers finally figured out who's actually on their
side? Who's word they can actually trust?
Of course not. Turns out that 30 years of rural Hate Radio
pumping Rush Limbaugh and all his imitators into the skulls American
farmers has built them into some of the stupidest, rage-drunk idiots on
Earth.
Trump support grew in America’s top farming counties despite
first-term trade war
Farming-dependent counties rallied behind Trump with an average of
nearly 78% support.
America’s most farming-dependent counties overwhelmingly backed
President-elect Donald Trump in this year’s election by an average
of 77.7%.
Trump...increased his support this year among farming-dependent
counties by nearly two percentage points compared to
2020.
Some political observers questioned whether Trump’s support would
wane among farmers after his first-term trade war, which led to
increased prices and a drop in agricultural exports. During the
campaign, Trump promised a return to high tariffs if given a
second term.
“His policies didn’t do us any good; his tariffs didn’t do us any
good,” Lance Lillibridge, an Iowa farmer, told Investigate
Midwest.
Not only did Trump increase his support among farming-dependent
counties, but more than 100 of those counties supported him with
at least 80% of their vote.
And so here we are again, the same thing but different.
Agriculture isn’t nearing trade war tariffs crisis, ‘it is full
blown crisis already’ farmers say
The global backlash to President Trump’s tariffs is punishing U.S.
agriculture, especially a decline in Chinese buying of U.S. farm
products.
A leading agriculture exports group says “massive” losses are
already racking up at farms, with cancelled orders, pricing pressure
as demand slumps and layoffs, as China stops buying products from
pork to hay and straw, and lumber.
“No one can replace all the volume that China buys,” one farm
operator reported.
But don't worry kids. Trump stands ready once again to steal
billions of your tax dollars, and hand them over to the same inbred
meathead farmers who voted for him.
Trump ready to bail out farmers amid trade war squeeze, Rollins
says
President Trump is prepared to bail out American farmers if the
trade war continues squeezing commodity exports, Agriculture
Secretary Brooke Rollins said Sunday.
Why it matters: Exports of key commodities are plunging,
particularly soybean and pork sales to China, threatening tens of
billions of dollars in farm income.
Today’s episode is going to be a little more unstructured than usual because we have a very special guest. He is a renowned political journalist and staff writer for Esquire, where he writes the popular blog "Politics with Charles P. Pierce." He's known for his sharp political commentary, incisive humor, and encyclopedic knowledge of American politics and history. He previously wrote for outlets including The Boston Globe, Grantland, and Sports Illustrated. He is also the author of "Idiot America," an indispensable book on American politics and culture.
You know him, you love him, and if you don't, we can’t be friends. Welcome to the Professional Left Podcast, Mr. Charlie Pierce!
US FDA suspends food safety quality checks after staff cuts
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) -
The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program
for its food testing laboratories as a result of staff cuts at the
Department of Health and Human Services, according to an internal email
seen by Reuters.
The proficiency testing program of the FDA's Food Emergency Response
Network is designed to ensure consistency and accuracy across the agency's
network of about 170 labs that test food for pathogens and contaminants to
prevent food-borne illness.
The firing and departure of as many as 20,000 HHS employees have upended
public health research and disrupted the agency's work on areas like bird
flu and drug reviews. President Donald Trump hopes to slash as much as $40
billion from HHS.
"Unfortunately, significant reductions in force, including a key quality
assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists at FDA's
Human Food Program Moffett Center have an immediate and significant impact
on the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) Proficiency Testing (PT)
Program," says the email sent on Tuesday from FERN's National Program
Office and seen by Reuters...
Sure, but on the other hand, these people use big, smarty-pants words like
"analytical" and "microbiologist" and "proficiency" so
they're probably snotty, college-educated elitists who you shouldn't trust
anyway.
Since my wife forbade me throwing my Carhart cap and the lovely hand-knit hat she made for me into the ring, the field is now wide open. I have my own
local favorites, but Illinois is a big state with a deep Democratic bench, so
let the irresponsible speculation begin!
James Mountain Inhofe hasn't been dead long enough that you've forgotten him
already, right?
He was the neanderthal Senator from Oklahoma. In that, he was Oklahoma's
longest serving senator, because, for deeply fucked-up cultural reasons too
twisty to go into here, Oklahomans like sending knuckle-draggers to
Washington. Exhibit A: In 2023, after long COVID made it
impossible for Inhofe to function, in a special election Oklahomans replaced
him with Meathead Markwayne Mullin.
You may or may not know that Inhofe wrote a book entitled,
"The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your
Future", which was well received and upvote by many climate change denialist
crackpots. He passed away in July of 2024, and if you look up his
gravesite in Find-a-Grave, bless their hearts, you'll find this sentence --
He served as Chair of the Armed Services Committee, and chaired the
Senate Environment Committee, frequently smearing the scientific consensus
on human induced climate change as a hoax and conspiracy perpetrated by
leftists...
-- but in January of 2025, KGOU Oklahoma, "Your NPR Source", may have
unintentionally written the most fitting obituary for the old bastard without
ever once mentioning his name:
Report: Oklahoma just had its hottest year on record
A federal report shows the state was one of 17 that experienced
record-breaking heat.
A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
says
Earth had its hottest year yet in 2024. Oklahoma’s temperatures also
exceeded previous records.
The federal weather and climate monitoring administration analyzed
records going back 130 years to show how natural and human-caused climate
change is altering the planet’s temperatures.
Although the federal data show last year was the state's hottest year on
record, the Oklahoma Mesonet reports 2024 was tied with 2012 at 63.2
degrees Fahrenheit.
In Oklahoma, climate change is likely causing cold months to trend
warmer, adding to the state’s overall temperature increase, State
Climatologist Gary McManus said ahead of NOAA’s report.
“When you look specifically at Oklahoma, you look at wintertime
temperatures, and the overnight temperatures are increasing,” McManus
said. “That's sort of the more robust climate change signal with
temperatures that we're seeing in Oklahoma.”
So what does any of this have to do with, y'know, the headline of this post?
Patience, dearie. We're getting there.
Whether or not you know anything about Inhofe's book or the committees he
served on, I will wager that, if you remember him at all, it's for the
incredibly stupid "snowball stunt" he pulled on the Senate floor that was
supposed to prove that climate change was a hoax made up by Leftists to seize
control and yadda yadda socialism! yadda yadda One World Gummint!
You know the drill.
The source of climate denialist stupidity like Inhofe's was and is their muleheaded unwillingness to acknowledge the difference between "weather" and "climate".
While weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, climate refers to atmospheric changes over longer periods of time, usually 30 years or more.
"Weather" is why Inhofe was able to make an ass of himself showing off a snowball on the floor of the Senate.
"Climate" is why, by 2040, the Senate may have to be sandbagged or moved to higher ground to prevent record flooding due to climate change.
So, now, my Little Red State Fundy from April 24, 2005, which I have mentioned on this blog before.
As you read it, please consider the individual names of individual scumbags and grifters as "weather". Because names and faces come and go.
On the other hand, look at the directional accuracy of this post from 20 years ago -- at the contours of future I was seeing -- as "climate". Broadly speaking, is this what the Republican party has become? And, if so, what does that do to the credibility of all those Never Trumpers who swear no one coulda seen this coming?
Little Red State Fundy sez...
Whatever will we tell the children?
One day we will have to explain to the children what happened
when Thurston Howell III lost his right mind and decided that for the sake of
some tax cuts to make him incrementally more comfortable, his very bestest
buddies in the whole, wide world were the Ultra Right Wing Gorgons down in
Jesusland.
May I suggest the following?
The Story of Little Red State Fundy
Little Red State Fundy found a grain of hate.
"Who will help
me plant the hate?" she asked.
"Not I," said the Moderate
Republicans.
"Not I," said the Undecideds.
"Not I," said
the Libertarians.
"Then I will," said Little Red State Fundy.
So
she buried the hate in the bloody ground of the Old Confederacy. After a while
it grew up paranoid and ignorant and violent.
"The hate is ripe now,"
said Little Red State Fundy. "Who will do the mass mailings and preach bigotry
from the Pulpit?"
"Not I," said the Moderate Republicans.
"Not
I," said the Undecideds.
"Not I," said the Libertarians.
"Then
I will," said Little Red State Fundy.
So she licked envelopes until
her bill was cracked and dry and stood up into the House of God and crowed to
her flocks in their millions that God Loved Them for hating and killing
creatures who were not like them.
Then she asked, "Who will help me
focus this hatred politically?"
"Not I," said the Moderate
Republicans.
"Not I," said the Undecideds.
"Not I," said
the Libertarians.
"Then I will," said Little Red State Fundy.
So
she made databases and phone banks, and walked door-to-door with petitions that
talked of Gods Great Hatred of Gays, and Gods Great Hatred of Judges that did
not worship the Hate God in exactly the way the Little Red State Fundy told them
to.
Then she carried the hate to steps of the Congress and the White
House.
"Who will make a mandate from this hate?" she asked.
"Not
I," said the Moderate Republicans.
"Not I," said the Undecideds.
"Not
I," said the Libertarians.
"Then I will," said Little Red State
Fundy.
So she got on the phone with her very good friend Karl Rove
and with his help organized carpools to the polls, and get-out-the-vote drives,
anti-gay marriage amendments and smear campaigns. For Jesus.
And
Little Red State Fundy delivered the margin of victory and was featured in many,
many magazines: without Little Red State Fundy, the Republican Party could
never, ever, ever win anything.
And now everybody knew it. Then she said, "Now who shall help me
Rule the Earth."
"We will!" said Moderate Republicans, Undecideds,
and Libertarians.
"I am quite sure you would," said Little Red State
Fundy, "but see, now you are all my bitches."
Then
she called Randall Terry and Tom DeLay and Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell and
Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, and they and the rest of the Shining Path
Republicans used what was left of the Constitution as ass-floss. And judges
were terrorized into silence. And those deemed ungodly were beaten in the
streets. And they invaded whoever the fuck they felt like, for whatever
fucking reason they chose. And the very idea of a Free and Fair press
died.
And to people
who had been very clear all along that they genuinely believed
in a Theocratic Nanny State and thought that
precipitating Armageddon and triggering the Second Coming
should be the highest calling of any worldly government, were handed over the
police, courts, government, treasury and nuclear weapons stockpiles of the
United States of America.
And in the end -- just as they
had been warned for the past twenty years -- there was nothing
whatsoever left at all for Moderate Republicans, Undecideds, and Libertarians.
