There are plenty of times in which Americans engage in a bit of exaggeration at the expense of our federal government.  It’s a defense mechanism, really, in which we are trained to extrapolate the worst possible outcome of any interaction with our elected officials, to guard against abuse at the hands of the tyrannical among us. Very rarely do these sorts of predictions come true.  Truly, this is just part of the American DNA, and it has deep roots in the caffeinated waters of Boston Harbor back in 1773. And if you thought that a new tax on tea was a flimsy enough excuse to rail against the oppressors, what happens when a state government outlaws bacon? At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market. The threat is no hogwash, either. California’s restaurants and groceries use about 255 million pounds of pork a month, but its farms produce only 45 million pounds, according to Rabobank, a global food and agriculture financial services company. The National Pork Producers Council has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for federal aid to help pay for retrofitting hog facilities around the nation to fill the gap. Hog farmers said they haven’t complied because of the cost and because California hasn’t yet issued…

Despite his arbitrary removal from both Twitter and Facebook, former President Donald Trump continues to exude a great deal of sway over the American political ecosystem…and he’s only going to get more influential from here. Trump and his surrogates are still months away from officially announcing anything as far as 2024 goes, but, with the 2022 midterms just around the corner, the MAGA machine is already beginning to get tuned up. And let’s just say that there is plenty of fuel in the tank, too. Former President Donald Trump’s political committees brought in $82 million during the first half of 2021 and have $102 million in the bank, according to federal filings made public Saturday evening. The figures, shared first with POLITICO, underscore the profound reach of Trump’s fundraising power. While the former president is out of office and has been deplatformed on social media sites, he maintains a massive online donor network that he could lean on should he wage a 2024 comeback bid. The numbers are extraordinary, historically speaking. The scenario is virtually unprecedented: Never in history has a former president banked nine figures’ worth of donations to power a political operation. Over the first six months of the year, Trump’s political groups whipped up supporters with baseless claims of election fraud to pull in cash on a scale similar to the GOP’s official political arms, the Republican National Committee and the party’s House and Senate campaign committees. The numbers are undoubtedly troubling for liberals listening in from the left side of the aisle, as worries continue to grow about whether or not the Democrats have any shot at holding onto a majority in the House in 15 months’ time.