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From The Reporter’s Notebook
In Iowa, Jeb Bush finished in sixth and in the low double digits, but his biggest test—the one that may give the best glimpse yet as to whether or not he is still a viable candidate—will come in a week in New Hampshire. GOP operative Al Cardenas told TPM’s Lauren Fox that donors are ready for Bush to make a move, and that success would mean coming in the top four, optimally ahead of the other governors in the race: Chris Christie and John Kasich.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “An environmental/population pressure concern of mine is the demand for ever larger quantities of meat. There is only so much available grazing land for cattle and most cattle end up finishing in high-input feedlots for 4-6 months. Man’s effects on the environment can appear from the smallest actions. In 1904 someone imported nursery stock from Japan. This stock contained trees carrying Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus causing the chestnut blight which wiped out our primary forest tree. This ties into our conversation here because prior to this time vast tonnages of pork were raised by ranging hogs in our forests upon chestnut mast (fallen nuts). The oak trees that supplanted the chestnut only contribute about 40% of edible mast that chestnuts supply. In the ensuing 120 years we’ve turned to raising hogs in vast confinement houses where we feed them 2 and a half pounds of grain and fish meal for every pound of pork we yield. “
Related: The disturbing ways America keeps up with its demand for meat.
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What We’re Reading
Who was Joan Didion before she became Joan Didion? (Vanity Fair)
How much harm can the Zika Virus really do? (NPR)
In a normal political year, Kasich would be on a roll. (The Boston Globe)
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