GOP abandons self-reliance, embraces moral hazard

A farm bill laden with subsidies and ecocide has passed from a house committee.

In an audio statement, Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) said, "I know a lot of you are calving right now, and these calves and cows are in danger. There are two farm programs available as a safety net for you. The first is the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), and it's there to help mitigate the cost of some of those losses. That program will reimburse you for 75 percent of the market value of livestock that are lost due to a storm like we see here this weekend. The second is Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP), which is there to help with secondary losses. Both programs are administered by your local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office, so please stay in touch with them if losses were to occur.

Read that here.

A Vale ranch pair lied to the Farm Service Agency after a blizzard buried parts of western South Dakota.

The offense carries maximum penalties of five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. In a Journal interview following the storm, Karl Knutson said he had been checking cattle and fences on the ranch of his father, Dale, east of Sturgis.

Read the rest of that here.

South Dakota writer, Tom Lawrence calls it part of the "insanity of the Farm Bill."

Senator John Thune (earth hater-SD) is already notorious for encouraging moral hazard and adding a layer of government overreach bureaupublicanism on fighting wildfires.

Kristi Noem and Marty Jackley have both panicked outlining radical steps to preserve habitat for the Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant, an invasive species that crowds out native wild turkeys.

“Get the youth involved, that’s a big part of it. This is the year my daughter shot her first pheasant at age 11; we should do everything we can to get our youth involved in this tradition,” Jackley said. [KSFY teevee]

They're just employing magical thinking.

Last year, South Dakota landowners applied to enroll more than 42,000 acres during the regular sign-up for CRP, but only two landowners and 101 acres were accepted. That’s right, only two landowners.

Read the rest here.

Which part of ecocide don't you understand?

“Even the good habitat is lacking in birds,” said Eric Rasmussen, a soil conservationist for the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Ipswich. “It’s one of the first years when guys like Tony Julik are seeing it.” Signs of distress are everywhere: dried-out swamps, a sickly corn crop, cattle grazing on the thinnest of stubble and baby pheasant hens so small they look like doves.

Read the rest here.

As this species is wiped out by industrial agriculture revenues in South Dakota continue to slide.

So far this year, about 4,600 fewer people have purchased South Dakota non-resident, small- game hunting licenses, which allow people to hunt ring-necked pheasants in the state. That represents a roughly 9 percent decline in non-resident license sales in the state. It also means a $556,000 revenue shortfall for the state’s Game, Fish and Parks Department. That’s a big deal because the department largely is funded by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.

Read more about red state collapse here.

Real conservatives at the Heritage Foundation have called for subsidy reform for years. Both Kristi Noem and Mike Rounds have taken handouts. Noem frequently calls for a socialized Black Hills timber industry to placate Hulett, Wyoming-based donor, Neiman Enterprises.

South Dakota owns loads of the means of production: part of the very definition of socialism.