Thunderstorm Rolling In

World-wide Weather:

After a scorching June, July is exiting in graceful fashion. But let’s be honest, the trend around the world is not good. More heat creating more unstable and more extreme weather. This week’s spotlight where unheard of weather event are happening in Finland, Sweden and Norway have seen temperatures in the 90s, well over the normal highs of about 73. 

In Japan, temperatures have broken the hover above and below the 100 degree mark near Tokyo. In a country that uses little air conditioning, the extreme weather has been devastating.

According to CNN June 2018 was the fifth hottest June ever with all of the top ten hottest Junes coming after 2005. Gee, who could have ever predicted this, I wonder? Maybe U of Iowa graduate James Hansen?  

Farmer Bailout:

Let’s call it what it is: A blatant bribery attempt using our money to paper over one of the most boneheaded policy decisions in American history. Trump’s decision was his and his alone despite loud pleading from friend and foe alike. I don’t know about you, but the thought of Donald Trump using my money to pay off those he harmed through his own stupidity is galling. I would never vote for him of course, and I certainly will not vote for anyone running for office who supports him.

Of course this is exactly what he did in private life – use other people’s money to pay for his boneheaded decisions either through his “charity” or with money from his investors. This makes the American people simply another group in the long line people Trump has defrauded.

Isn’t he in the “party of personal responsibility?” Well, Donald, take some responsibility and pay for the catastrophic error you made with your own money for once. You claim to be rich. Pay for your own damn mistakes. $12 billion? Pocket change, right Donnie?

Separated Families:

Thursday came and went with yet another failure for the current administration. After imposing perhaps one of the most cruel policies ever imposed by the US on. Innocent children, the current incredibly incompetent administration has failed miserably in putting families they ripped apart back together by a court issued deadline. Think if it was your family and your children. Think of the misery they have caused. How can we trust this super-incompetent group with anything?

Ernst on Kavanaugh:

I have no doubt that the Ernst office churns out a canned response for pretty much every question that we peons email to her staff. For some reason I found the canned response from her office on Kavanaugh must have been written by a staff laughing their butts off as they remembered what Republicans did to Merrick Garland. From an email response:

“Judge Kavanaugh is a well-qualified nominee who deserves a respectful and timely confirmation. I am confident that Senator Grassley, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will ensure that this Supreme Court vacancy is filled in a way that respects the rule of law while fully vetting the individual put forth for confirmation. I look forward to the next several months where my colleagues and I will have the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive and fair confirmation process.

As your U.S. Senator, I take the role of judicial confirmation very seriously, and I appreciate your input. Please feel free to contact my office with any additional information, as I always appreciate hearing from Iowans.”

Her staff must have been laughing their asses off when they wrote lines like “Grassley …. respects the rule of law” and “fair confirmation process” and “I take the role of judicial confirmation very seriously.”

Her re-election really depends on us being as stupid as she thinks we are.

Puerto Rico and Iowa Storms:

I am sure I am not the only one who thought of how miserably Puerto Rico has been treated by the Trump administration after being devastated by Hurricane Maria 10 months ago as tornadoes ripped through Marshalltown, Pella and Bondurant. 

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US and it’s people are citizens of the US. However the administration has treated them like dirt. Their population is slightly larger than Iowa’s. They certainly deserved to be treated as any other state. Yet, you can bet that when our Republican governor goes calling for help to recover from last week’s tornadoes, the administration will jump to her requests. This is a Republican governorship in an election year. Getting VIP treatment during an election year will make Reynolds look good.

Compare what Iowa gets to what is still happening in Puerto Rico and ask yourself, how blatant can they be?

Rural Hospitals – How Are They Doing?

With all the air being sucked out daily by the incredible incompetence and criminal activity of the current administration we lose track of some of the things that really affect Iowans daily life. A year ago as I recall the Iowa senate was having committee hearings on the effects of the privatized Medicaid system imposed on the state by its former governor.

Much of what was reported was scary. Late payments, no payments or drastically reduced payments for services by the MCO companies handling our Medicaid were having serious effects on practitioners and more especially rural hospitals. Has there been any followup?

All I remember from the last legislative session is that the MCOs needed more money and that Republicans thought the system was working well, despite evidence it wasn’t

Closing hospitals in rural areas in Iowa would be catastrophic in some areas. Having people’s health based on the profit motive has never made sense. Fred Hubbell has promised to return Medicaid to public control. That is where it should be.

Finally: Sinclair’s Takeover Of Tribune Company Looks Like a No-Go:

Consolidation of media is never good. Democracies need a wide variety of voices to present views. The takeover bid of Tribune Company by Sinclair was even too much for Republicans on the FCC. Maybe some of them understood that as the number of voices lessens their power increases dramatically. One day a powerful voice may turn on them. 

We have been following Sinclair on blogforiowa for quite a while. Stopping this takeover is good news. We thank all who took time to contact the FCC or their congress member to stop this.

Now if we could get the FCC to return the internet to a net neutrality rule…….