Copy of AFF Sentinel V22 #06-First Week Thoughts
- Steve Dittmer
- Jul 22
- 4 min read
Trump Zeros In On Water, SCOTUS Hurts Us & RFK Jr. Worries Us
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 01/22/25
President Trump specifically mentioned water for farms in California during his visit to the Los Angeles area Friday. We knew he had taken some interest in California’s Central Valley water problems during his first term. We had seen the evidence of cutting off water and fields looking like desert when we went through the area years ago. The horrendous fires in the area with empty reservoirs served to highlight the folly of letting water flow into the ocean without using it.
The Central Valley is where a huge share of fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown to supply the nation. Cutting off water and forcing thousands of acres to go fallow is a tremendous miscarriage of prioritization of animals -- in this case, fish -- over human beings.
It will be great if the President’s attention on the need, especially when California’s mistaken stewardship of the region is highlighted, puts pressure on governments to get something done about the water supply for California’s farmers.
The Supreme Court cleared the injunction that put a hold on the Corporate Transparency Act requirements.
NCBA’s Kent Bacus said NCBA was disappointed that this allowed the government to “blanket family-owned farms and ranches in fresh red tape while subjecting millions of law-abiding small business owners to potential legal jeopardy. We urge President Trump, and his nominee for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to rescue millions of American small business owners
from these burdensome reporting requirements and delay enforcement until a meaningful solution is found."
The injunction had prevented the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act and requiring small business owners to file beneficial ownership reports.
There are other lawsuits contesting the legality of the law but this allows enforcement while those suits are not ruled on.
NCBA is recommending cattlemen consult their attorneys and tax professionals to decide the best course of action.
The original deadline to comply was Jan.1 but that is obviously, not an operable course of action now.
We’ve written before about our concern over some of RFK Jr.’s radical views on certain health and nutrition subjects. His confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week, so there has been some additional scrutiny of his viewpoints.
Perhaps the most concerning facet of his approach is his background as a trial lawyer. We knew him as a rabble rouser but wasn’t really familiar with his career as a trial lawyer with several different law firms.
Kimberley Strassel, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is someone we’ve followed for many years. We’ve never found her work to be untrustworthy.
So when she makes strong statements about RFK Jr., we listen.
“How to rationalize a nominee who rejects basic science, who labels U.S. farmers a greater threat than al Qaeda, who wants to ‘punish’ climate `deniers,’ who loves big government,” was her early point in a recent column (“RFK Jr.’s Trial-Lawyer Ethics,” Wall Street Journal, 01/24/25).
From Strassel’s viewpoint, confirming Kennedy would be to “put trial lawyers in charge of American business, regulators and Congress itself.”
Strassel’s opinion:
“He’s a trial lawyer, a specialist in extortion by litigation, a practice he acknowledges he wants to encourage via public office.”
And he is no garden-variety trial lawyer. It is likely you have heard lawyers’ pitches for one of his cases hundreds of times.
“…his war against the weed killer glyphosate is motivated by his desire to save humans from `poison,’” It was Kennedy’s claim that glyphosate is carcinogenic -- a position rejected by most health agencies -- that enabled him and other lawyers to land a $289 million judgement against Roundup maker Monsanto. (The judgement was reduced on appeal.)”
We’ve all heard about his war on “junk” foods or “ultraprocessed foods.” He has a referral agreement and “of counsel” position with Morgan and Morgan, a law firm that bragged that last month it had filed a giant “first of its kind” lawsuit against Kraft and others for engineering their “ultraprocessed food products to be addictive” and causing a “chronic disease,” she noted.
Kennedy’s plan is to get NIH to determine what products are “causing” chronic disease, make a connection between an exposure and injury, which then “allows attorneys to bring lawsuits. You can’t do it through Congress…”
Kennedy views bringing in the trial lawyers as the “marketplace” fixing the problem rather than the government. He holds that Congress and regulators are all on industry payrolls and, therefore, useless.
In other words, only trial lawyers are between citizens and misdeeds by corporations. He doesn’t mention that government -- not exactly the most trusted institution -- is what makes the trial lawyers action possible.
As an industry that has been persecuted, and is still being persecuted, by government nutrition and health bureaucrats, this does not inspire confidence in Kennedy’s approach.
Strassel reports that the Republicans have taken a “dim view of the trial bar’s manipulation of the trial system.”
Anyone who has done much reading about the way the trial lawyers have taken certain issues and destroyed companies and made millions for law firms would have some doubts about putting a trial lawyer at the head of an important government agency.
We are sympathetic with President Trump’s goal of getting out-of-the-box people into his Administration. People are policy is true. We are writing just after Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. We did not like Sen. Mitch McConnell voting against Hegseth.
But we do think putting Robert Kennedy Jr., a proud trial lawyer, in charge of HHS is a bridge too far, about the only one of his cabinet nominations we would not endorse.
Our address: Agribusiness Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 88179, Colorado Springs, CO. 80908.
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