Getting To True Net-Zero

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Paul Deaton

It has been ten years since I first attended former vice president Al Gore’s training on the climate crisis. Since then, the organization surpassed 50,000 trained climate leaders located in 190 countries. Every one of them will be needed because there is so much to be done to solve the climate crisis.

July 2023 was the hottest month on Earth since we began keeping records in the modern era. The year 2023 is also tracking to be the hottest. We, as a civilization, must do something to mitigate the human causes of this excess heat by achieving net-zero emissions. The words “achieving true net-zero” are important and there is misinformation about what they mean.True net-zero includes reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced on Earth. Climate Reality works toward achieving true net-zero because once it can be achieved, global temperatures will begin to decline within a few years. Society can avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis by achieving this goal.

Climate Reality has a strategy to achieve true net-zero emissions by 2030 in four primary campaigns with working groups. They are:

Reducing Emissions

This campaign focuses on building a clean energy future by cutting or avoiding emissions and opposing new fossil fuel infrastructure. 

Calling Out Greenwashing

This campaign works to expose the lies fossil fuel companies tell and counter with the truth about the energy transition we need.

Financing A Just Transition

This campaign focuses on mobilizing global finance to build thriving clean energy economies.

Strengthening International Cooperation on Climate

This campaign supports climate action through the Conference of the Parties (COP) which hosts international gatherings to agree to approaches to the climate crisis. The 2015 Paris Agreement is a work-product of the COP.

There is plenty of work for individuals to do to address the climate crisis and avoid the worse effects of increasing global atmospheric and oceanic temperatures. If you would like to learn more about The Climate Reality Project, click here. Not ready to get involved? Here is an inspiring poem by Amanda Gorman suggesting why you should consider it, if not with this organization, then one near you that is working on solving the climate crisis.

Posted in Environment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Making Life Harder For Iowa Women

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Paul Deaton
Pregnant woman attended by physicians. Image credit – Wikimedia Commons.

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973, I was a junior at university. I reread the decision after retirement in 2009, along with dissenting opinions and some of the briefs. I know exactly one thing about House File 732 passed in a special session of the Iowa Legislature this summer: It restricted abortion in the state, yet did nothing, zero, to resolve controversy over abortion.

In 2022, a Republican-stacked Supreme Court overturned Roe which had enabled women with the right to seek an abortion. Discarding legal precedent, the justices ignored what’s best for the common good.

Along with this decision, male dominance over women is surging. Presently and throughout American history men have sought to dominate women at home, in the boardroom, and notably in legislation. A new generation of women, subservient to mostly male Republican legislators, are taking their marching orders. As Governor Kim Reynolds signed a near total ban on abortion in Iowa, women are faced with a familiar historic uphill struggle.

Along with the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe, abortion restrictions have led to a significant uptick in intimate partner violence, according to PBS Newshour.

Moreover, contraception is also coming under attack.  If Republicans seek to take away abortion rights, effective contraception is the only method to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.  If Republicans don’t agree, I suggest a remedial sexual education course. The United Nations Population Forum states that since 1994 modern contraception has more than doubled. 

The takeaway? If half of humanity is not unfairly burdened everyone will benefit.

“Receiving an abortion does not harm the health and well-being of women,” according to The Turnaway Study by Diana Greene Foster. “Being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health and family outcomes.”

Failure to enable women with bodily autonomy and to make their own health decisions is a human rights violation.

A majority of Iowans can begin to take back rights denied us by House File 732 during the 2024 election.

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Don’t Tell Us What To Read

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Paul Deaton
Iowa history books

A fundamental right in the United States is to choose what we each read, see and hear. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives us this right. Where is the boundary between educating our children and providing them free access to all forms of cultural expression regardless of content?

This is not a new question and society has been answering it in different ways for as long as I can remember. The Iowa legislature decided to codify where the boundary is and passed a law last session. Based on the new law, the Urbandale School District pulled almost 400 books from their stacks and curricula. Most districts are expected to be overly cautious in their approach to compliance. The state has been less than helpful in providing guidance on how schools and libraries should handle the new law. Urbandale reversed course on many of these books. There needs to be binding guidance from the state board of education before districts begin pulling books. State Senator Janice Weiner posted on X, “IMO all districts need to write and demand binding guidance.” In the military my drill instructor would describe this situation as it is playing out in real life a “goat screw.”

Control over which books K-12 students could access at school was evident in the 1950s and ’60s. We didn’t call it K-12 back then. When I was young, teachers kept an eye on my reading and made their opinions known. If they didn’t like a particular book, I read it at home where my parents supervised me. I got my first library card in 1959 and have been reading books from the library ever since.

My first conflict was in eighth grade over a book written by Ian Fleming, one of the 007 series. The priest saw I had it and confiscated it because of James Bond’s interaction with women. I discussed it with my parents and eventually bought another copy from the corner drug store with my allowance.

In high school I heard about J.D. Salinger’s book Catcher in the Rye and wanted to read it. It was prohibited and unavailable in the school library, or even in our local bookstores. I went across the river to a Rock Island bookstore where I bought it, and read that one too. I was free to manage the conflicts between teachers and my reading.

Fast forward from the 1960s and here’s where the controversy over boundaries for student reading seem to be heading, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial board:

Our public schools will be shackled by authoritarian, politically motivated edicts intended to dictate what hundreds of thousands of Iowa students can and can’t learn in school. State actions that historically have been aimed at improving public schools will be used instead to narrow their educational missions to please a minority of outraged parents whose complaints are being elevated by Republican politicians eager to attack public schools.

It’s called “parents’ rights,” but the rights are only for parents who agree with Moms for Liberty.

We don’t need state lawmakers to intervene in local disputes over books. There are processes in place locally to challenge books. Just because banning a book is not easy does not mean the local process is flawed. And one school district’s decision should not affect other school districts.

Editorial, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Feb. 10, 2023.

What I can’t abide is the state Legislature regulating which books should be allowed in schools. This decision should be between teachers, librarians, and parents. The claim parents don’t know what books are in schools or somehow don’t have input seems bogus. If the Legislature wants to do something on libraries, fund online access to card catalogs throughout the state. We don’t need lawmakers telling us what to read.

Posted in Iowa Legislature | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Let’s Remember Democratic Policies

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Dave Bradley

I am so tired of reading and writing about Trump and his MAGA world. I am so sick of turning on the TV only to see the latest rumor being treated as ‘serious news’ such as the recent distraction using Hunter BIDEN. I am so sick of MAGA hate being turned into laws that dehumanize those who do not fit their idea of what a human is. 

I am so sick of billionaires using the system to get what they want as the vast majority of Americans see their lifestyles diminished as corporations raise prices without challenge, collude with their ‘competitors’ and form quasi-monopolies as they thumb their noses at regulators all with the blessing of MAGAs. 

I am also sick that we almost never anymore speak of our ideals and hopes, but instead have a media almost totally focused on the worst in our country.

Democrats remain the repository of the dreams and hopes of the vast majority of Americans of all colors and faiths or non-faiths. Among the most important aspect of Democratic policy is to keep and strengthen the democracy in which we live. MAGA policy as spoken by Paul Weyrich, the founder of the Heritage Foundation, so long ago is to choke voting.

So before I go off into a long rant on how bad the MAGA Party is, let’s just remind ourselves what policies that Democrats are still working for for Americans. While I do not want this to turn into a list, that may be hard to avoid. And by no means is it comprehensive, just a reminder of how good Democratic policies are and to take the focus off the clown show of the far right MAGA world:

  • The most important is the environment. Climate change is now the ultimate overriding issue on everything. It is no good having great policies if people are dying in huge numbers because we have not taken to huge steps we need to at least stop the current runaway climate crisis.
  • Behind that is health care for everyone from cradle to grave. Enough with the bullshit that health care is “communist” or “socialist.” It isn’t. It is simply people banding together to take care of each other. That was the basis of this country’s founding. Health care is simply another expression of that founding principle. 

      Note that we are the only major country without national health care. Note also that we now pay WAY more than any other country and still have many people not covered, or who do not get dental, eye or old age coverage. 

        Enough with the hodge-lodge jumble of government programs and insurances. Let us have one comprehensive plan that covers it all like other major countries.

  • Education – Hey, if small countries can educate their populace without putting them deeply in debt forever then I bet we can also. Education investment will pay for itself many times over. We will also need it as problems become more complex and we won’t be able to try to solve these problems with a prayer book.
  • Good pay, good benefits and respectful hall workers. All workers should be represented by some form of a union.
  • Comprehensive immigration policy coupled with a sane foreign policy.
  • All humans should be treated as humans with equal rights. Not all of us are the same but we all should have the same rights no matter our race, religion or gender identification.
  • Women must be able to control their own bodies and health care.

Just a reminder that there is a party in this country that believes in its citizens and believes that we can achieve to goal of humans having basic rights accorded to all. 

The political life of this country should be focused on the good of the commons and survival of the living and should not be a game of gotcha and what group can be screwed over the worst.

Posted in Climate Change, Education, Environment, Health Care & Medicare, womens rights | Tagged , | Comments Off on Let’s Remember Democratic Policies

Sunday Funday: Hiroshima Remembrance Edition

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Dave Bradley

(4 minutes)

We will have a quiz, but first take just a few seconds to think about the horror of what happened 78 years ago today. The instant death of somewhere around 100,000. The lingering and painful lives and then deaths of so many more. Unfathomable horror – and then it happened again three days later.

Let us all resolve that in never happen again – although the possibility of a similar occurrence in Ukraine is ever present in that insane war.

Thanks for your considerations. Now some quiz questions:

A) In a show of enormous chutzpah, what far right Republican presidential candidate challenged VP Harris to a debate on Black history and the benefits of what “unique institution””

B) Many cable stations carried wall to wall coverage as who was arraigned in Washington, DC Thursday?

C) NASA lost contact Monday with the Voyager 2 space craft but picked up a ‘heartbeat’ later in the week. How far is Voyager 2 from earth?

D) Six co-defendants were unnamed but were described in the indictments handed down Thursday. Who is the consensus as Co-defendant #1?

E)  What actor famed for his child-like alter ego died Monday from cancer at age 70?

F) The Orlando Magic basketball team made some not basketball news by giving what far right presidential campaign a $50,000 donation?

G) Last Friday night (July 28) what Republican presidential candidate drew loud jeers at a candidate joint appearances in Des Moines when he dissed Donald Trump?

H) Just heard that what book that detailed the ordeals of a Jewish family hiding out from Nazis during WWII has been removed from at least one school in Florida?

I) The family of what cancer patient from the early 1950s whose cells have been used in cancer research ever since have come to a settlement for the use of those cells?

J) An illegal medical lab containing 20 infectious agents, 1,000 mice, unknown chemical agents and much more was busted in what state last week?

K) 7 current and former Iowa and Iowa State athletes were charged with what crime last week?

L) Governor Kim Reynolds is sending a group of what to the Texas – Mexico border this week?

M) Did you stock up? As of August 1 Americans can no longer buy what kind of light bulbs except for specialty type bulbs?

N) Devon Archer gave testimony to a US House Oversight Committee this week on the relationship of what business partner and his father?

O) Under the leadership of Ron DeSantis, Florida is seeing a scary rise in what two unusual diseases for the US?

P) Speaking of diseases out of place, Finland is having an outbreak of what disease usually found in more temperate zones?

Q) The “IQ Quarter” in what city’s business district was struck twice by drones last week?

R) The Prime Minister of what country announced he would be separating from his wife Sophie Gregoire?

S) What major trucking company known for its Less Than Load (LTL) emphasis announce Monday it would close quickly throwing 30,000 drivers out of work?

T) The Food Bank of Iowa reported it broke every record for food distribution in its how many year history?

People are starving in Iowa and our governor is wasting money on a political stunt in Texas 

Answers:

A) Ron DeSantis. VP Harris wisely said ‘NO’

B) Trump

C) 12.4 billion miles

D) Rudy Giuliani

E) Paul Ruebens aka Pee Wee Herman

F) DeSantis

G) Will Hurd

H) The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (I just can’t believe the MAGAs would take that unique book from students!) 

I) Henrietta Lack. Lack’s cells were taken without he permission 70+ years ago.

J) California

K) Illegal gambling

L) Troopers

M) Incandescent bulbs

N) Hunter Biden and his father Joe. Once again the MAGA congressmen could find nothing

O) malaria and leprosy

P) West Nile virus

Q) Moscow

R) Canada. PM Justin Trudeau announced the split.

S) Yellow

T) 41 years

Quick reminder: if democrats really did rig the election, we sure as sh*t wouldn’t let the likes of Abbott, Cruz, Graham, Boebert and Greene get elected. – irishrygirl tweet

Posted in Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Hiroshima Remembrance Edition

Reynolds’ Latest Waste: Iowa Troopers At the Mexican Border

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Dave Bradley

As Iowa prepares to waste millions in taxpayer dollars that were NOT earmarked for border control let’s take a little look at some of the shenanigans taking place on the Texas border. Maybe Iowa troopers can learn skills such as deployment of razor wire and pushing people into rivers. 3 minutes:

From the iowacapitaldispatch:

More than 100 Iowa National Guard soldiers will deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to support the state’s “Operation Lone Star,” the governor’s office announced Wednesday.

Federal American Rescue Plan funding will pay for the deployment, the governor’s office said. The troops will support “Operation Lone Star,” a joint operation with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 to counter illegal border crossings and the trafficking of illegal substances.

Reynolds first announced her plans to deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in May, in response to the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era measure allowing the U.S. to turn away asylum-seekers at the southern border.

Once again our governor takes flight into her MAGA fantasy land where women are subservient to men, children gladly go to work at 13 after a fabulous day in religious schools and she and Greg Abbott stand at the border with Mexico battling bad hombres trying to overturn Truth, Justice and the American Way!

A couple more lines from the Capital Dispatch article:

Reynolds said since Biden took office, the country has “experienced a historic rise in illegal immigrants and illicit drugs entering our country.”

Not true there, Captain Kim. As a matter of fact, immigration has dramatically slowed since the end title 42 in May, There has been a slight increase since a judge in July threw some screws in the machinery, but most immigrants are trying to use the system so that once they get in they can stay.

The Guard troops will remain in Texas until Sept. 1, and DPS personnel until Oct. 2.

There is nothing for them to do here? As football season starts and school starts. Look. If we can do without them for a month, let’s see if we can do without them for a year or forever. Are they really needed here? They seem expendable.

What we really need to do is have congress look at our comprehensive immigration program which as far as I can tell hasn’t been updated since 1986. That is damn near 40 years. Why so long? Because as the once decent Republican Party morphed into the MAGA Party their desire to use immigration as an issue far outweighed their desire to do the right thing for the country.

In an article from 2013(!) the Washington Post gives a short synopsis of what has happened since that Reagan era policy. I will only post the opening paragraph as most of us have lived the this MAGA twisted tale.  

* The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986: The amnesty law of 1986 passed through Congress and was signed by President Ronald Reagan, but it is largely considered a failure. The legislation was meant to tighten border security and crack down on employers hiring undocumented immigrants, while offering amnesty to those already in the country illegally. Three million immigrants were legalized, but the law did not slow illegal immigration or create a framework to deal with it going forward. Since then, opponents of comprehensive reform have often cited the 1986 legislation as a reason to be wary.

We have all watched our immigration policies degenerate into solid proposals from Democrats being attacked and demonized by the far right who in turn have no policy suggestions other than to turn the US into an insular country surrounded by water and walls.

So, Governor, fly into your fantasies of saving the world and MAGA far right democracy while in reality Iowans are facing food insecurity as never before – boy we could really use that money to feed people ,- women are treated like second class citizens and humans who do not conform to your narrow view of humanity are treated like they are not human in your Iowa.

Posted in Kim Reynolds, Republican hypocrisy, Republican Policy | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Reynolds’ Latest Waste: Iowa Troopers At the Mexican Border

Brenna Bird: Victim’s Services

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Dave Bradley

Brenna Bird talks about ending the Emergency Contraception for rape victims program. The segment begins at 5:15 and ends at about 6:45:

Like many I was somewhat stunned by what Iowa’s new Attorney General had to say on Iowa Press last Friday night July 28th. So far, perhaps the most controversial policy that has come from Iowa’s new AG is her office’s suspension of payment for emergency contraception for rape victims. 

Like many Iowans I was really smacked by the cruelty of that decision at the time. A woman is the victim of an unwanted sexual attack. She is confused, scared and not sure who to trust. The last thing she wants to worry about at a time like that is an unwanted pregnancy. 

I note a lot of irony when she states it is important to serve victims well, then goes on to say she wants to end emergency contraception. Bird also states that her department is “trying to find ways to make things better” yet then goes on to admit that she plans to kill one of the most important services her office renders. 

In another era, recognizing the seriousness of the situation, then AG Tom Miller decided that getting emergency contraception for the victim was indeed vital and should be covered by the state’s victim’s fund. There could hardly a more textbook example of what a victim is nor what victim’s compensation fund should be used for.

Bird earlier claimed the reason the policy was under review because all of the victim’s compensation payments were being reviewed and payment suspended until the review is over. Friday night she said the emergency compensation will never be renewed. 

Why? we must ask. My best guess is that first there has always been the background mumble in MAGA world that there is no such thing as rape. A woman somehow enticed the man so it was really not rape. As ludicrous as that sounds that seems to be one reason. The second reason is that MAGAs believe that any abortion is wrong no matter the circumstances. Thus a morning after pill is an abortion and as such wrong.

Little Village had a great article on Bird’s position including some background:

Less than four months after becoming Iowa Attorney General, Brenna Bird ordered her office to stop paying for emergency contraception for rape victims. The attorney general’s office had previously covered the cost of Plan B pills, and in some cases abortions, for rape victims since 1990 as part of Sexual Abuse Examination Program. The program was created by the Iowa Legislature in 1979, and moved into the attorney general’s office 11 years later.

In April, when Bird’s order was first reported by Iowa Public Radio, a spokesperson for her office characterized it as just a delay in payment during an audit of all victim services provided by the attorney general’s office.

“As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” the spokesperson told IPR’s Natalie Krebs. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”

{{ snip }}

Bird seemed to dismiss the idea that this may cause hardship for victims or be a problem for healthcare providers who assist them, saying “those services still remain available under Iowa law to victims. It’s just whether public funds will pay for them.”

Asked by Henderson if she intends to make the current refusal to pay a permanent policy after the formal conclusion of the audit, Bird replied, “I do, yes, once it’s done.”

So it looks like Brenna Bird has unilaterally ended the emergency contraception program. While Bird notes that a woman can still get emergency contraception at her own cost, many of us expect the day after pill to be a target of the next legislature. Thus Bird and other anti-abortionists can make very hard for a woman to end a pregnancy caused by a rape. 

In an editorial in the CR Gazette shortly after Bird first announce her policy the Gazette noted this:

Iowa Public Radio reports that 70 sexual assault survivors have yet to be reimbursed. The claims add up to $3,300, including $730 for an abortion.

It shouldn’t take much time to audit these small yet critical expenditures. Instead, it seems clear sexual assault victims in Iowa have become pawns in the politics of abortion rights. Bird has said she is “100 percent” pro-life, following in the footsteps of former U.S. Rep. Steve King, whom Bird served as chief of staff. King opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. {my bolding – ed.)

The attorney general, who also campaigned last year on a pledge to stand up for crime victims, should reverse course immediately.

Brenna Bird, ending the emergency contraception for rape victims program is a really bad policy that blames the victim and can lead to an unwanted child and severe life consequences for the victim. The policy is cruel period. Bring back the emergency contraception program now.

And office holders like Bird and Reynolds wonder why Iowans leave and no one is moving in.

Posted in church and state, planned parenthood, Republican hypocrisy, Republican Policy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Brenna Bird: Victim’s Services

Medical Journals Call For Nuclear Abolition

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Paul Deaton
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War issued the following press release on Aug. 2, 2023.

Medical Journals Issue Urgent Call for Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

More than 100 medical journals, including the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the JAMA have issued a joint call for urgent steps to decrease the growing danger of nuclear war and to move rapidly to the elimination of nuclear weapons. At a time of expanded fighting in Ukraine and increased tensions in Korea, leaders of the global health community underscore that any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for humanity.

The unprecedented call to action comes in the form of an editorial co-authored by the editors of 11 of the leading medical and health journals, the World Association of Medical Editors and leaders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The editorial is being released this week in conjunction with the start of the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee Meeting and the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

“The danger is great and growing,” the editorial warns.   “The nuclear armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us.”

Citing the special responsibility of the health community, the editorial urges “health professional associations to inform their members worldwide about the threat to human survival and to join with the IPPNW to support efforts to reduce the near-term risks of nuclear war.”

It calls on the nuclear armed states, and those allied with them to take three immediate steps: “first, adopt a no first use policy; second, take their nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; and, third, urge all states involved in current conflicts to pledge publicly and unequivocally that they will not use nuclear weapons in these conflicts.”  

The editorial also urges them to, “work for a definitive end to the nuclear threat by supporting the urgent commencement of negotiations among the nuclear-armed states for a verifiable, timebound agreement to eliminate their nuclear weapons in accordance with commitments in the NPT, opening the way for all nations to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”

“This is an extraordinary development,” said Chris Zielinski of the World Association of Medical Editors. “Normally medical journals go to great lengths to ensure that the material they publish has not appeared in any other medical journals. That all of these leading journals have agreed to publish the same editorial underlines the extreme urgency of the current nuclear crisis and the need for prompt action to address this existential threat.” 

“The medical community needs to warn the general public of the enormity of the threat we face,” explained Dr. Arun Mitra, one of the authors of the editorial.  “It is an integral part of our responsibility as health professionals.”

“We have to support the efforts of civil society organizations like the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back from the Brink campaign in the United States,” added Dr. Ira Helfand, another co-author.

This Editorial is being published simultaneously in multiple journals. For the full list of journals see: https://www.bmj.com/content/full-list-authors-and-signatories-nuclear risk-editorial-august-2023

Click here to read the Editorial.

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Cranes For Our Future

Posted on August 3, 2023 by Paul Deaton
Paper Cranes. Photo by the author.

Take action to raise awareness of the need to eliminate nuclear weapons by folding a crane for peace between Aug. 4-9, along with others associated with the nuclear disarmament movement and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Crafting a brighter future starts with all of us. Between the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, people around the world fold and share paper cranes on social media with a message about what a future without nuclear weapons means to them.

Join people across the globe in demanding a more peaceful, hopeful future.

This project is simple. First, fold a paper crane. Instructions are in this short video.

Next, take a photo of the crane or cranes you folded. Craft a message about why we must move closer to, not further from, a world without nuclear weapons. It could be as simple as a single word or phrase. Finally, post your photo to social media with your message and the hashtag #CranesForOurFuture.

Please join us in this fun project with a broader meaning. For more details, click here.

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January 6: Meadows Edition

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Paul Deaton
Thom Hartmann

With last night’s indictments of former President Donald J. Trump, handed down by a grand jury comprised of 23 ordinary citizens, a number of unnamed co-conspirators were mentioned yet not included in the indictment. The focus on the biggest fish is appropriate, the small fry having been pursued and jailed in significant numbers. What about Mark Meadows who sat in the middle of everything when he was chief of staff? What about the members of congress who were part of the plot? There remain many unanswered questions.

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows may be behind the scenes of the attempted coup against the United States. Thom Hartmann points out we can’t let go of investigations of him and 50 members of congress who joined the plot to overthrow the government. It’s an outrage they haven’t been investigated and appropriately charged already. The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol focused on small fry under Democratic leadership. Apparently there was a deal with Republican committee member Liz Cheney.

For what it’s worth, Heather Cox Richardson reported the following earlier this morning:

Los Angeles Times senior legal affairs columnist Harry Litman concluded that the absence of Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, from the indictment indicates he’s cooperating with the Department of Justice.

Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson, Aug. 1, 2023.

Watch this 5:24 minute video for Hartmann’s important take.

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