“Being in Iowa all those years ago on my first major campaign had such a profound impact on me as a young adult and the generosity of spirit, the welcoming attitude of Iowans that we had then. It means a lot to me that we have played a role in helping give you the opportunity to reclaim this remarkable state that you are a part of. I learned so much from the people of Iowa. It really shaped a lot of my own understanding of the world. And so I’m grateful to be part of a team here at Hopium that’s giving back to a place that gave me so much so many years ago…
There are two primary ways to help these good Democrats of Iowa win this November. First, you can give to our Winning Iowa fund which splits a contribution three ways among Sand, Turek, and the state party. Next, you can give to our Winning The House fund which includes Bohannan and Garriott. Among these various ways to give to Iowa this remarkable community has already contributed almost $400,000 this cycle” – Simon Rosenberg, Hopium Chronicles
“Friday afternoon the Trump administration released a formal proposal to ring Lafayette Square with a permanent fence up to ten feet tall and to install gates across Pennsylvania Avenue at 15th and 17th Streets, all of it designed so officials can seal off America’s most famous protest ground within minutes.”
And this from Thom:
“Trump is preparing to steal an election. I think that’s fairly obvious to everyone, now. And if he does, if he pulls it off, there’s going to be a lot of pissed off people and they’re going to be in the streets, and they’re going to be protesting. And so, he’s just making sure that they can’t get close to the White House. That’s my take on what’s going on. Governments that trust their own people don’t wall themselves off from them. Fortress states do.”
“This might be our last chance to actually say we’re going to go down that road that Lincoln and FDR went down. We’re going to defend democracy. We’re going to rebuild the middle class. We’re going to make America a functioning democratic republic rather than a corrupt, oligarchic tin pot dictatorship like Donald Trump is definitely trying to create – and to a large extent has – in the United States right now.
And that depends on you and me showing up, on all of us showing up at the polls and waking up our friends.
The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy, and we will always work to protect it for every eligible American. Making sure all eligible voters can vote protects our power instead of handing it over to billionaires and corporations. That’s why our friends at the ACLU are hosting a training leading into the Good Trouble Lives on Weekend of Action – so you can learn more about how to protect your vote!
Our right to vote starts with knowing how to protect it. During this training, we’ll share:
– How elections work
– How you can exercise and protect your voting rights
– Strategies to safely resist voter intimidation efforts
WHAT: ACLU for Good Trouble Lives On Weekend: Know Your Voting Rights Training WHEN: Monday, July 13th at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT WHERE: On Zoom- RSVP for the link!
Our knowledge is our power. As we head toward major elections happening throughout this year, defending the right to vote is more important than ever. Get ready with us on July 13.
Were the NATO meetings a chance to shake the sabre and scare the markets? (1 minute)
(BTW the more Trump’s hands move the more illegally he is acting)
Pardon me for being skeptical. Like many, during the day I take the occasional break and turn on some form of connection to the outside world. The last couple of weeks have been really interesting when I do that because it feels as if this country’s president has changed direction just about every time I check in.
At one point we are invading Iran; next we are in a cease fire; then we are naming some new enemy of the state; then we are no longer trading with an old trading partner. On and on it goes.
This week Trump took a trip to Turkey to a NATO summit. This would be a space where his current problem of misidentifying people and problems could really stir the current pot of troubles.
As I was watching one day, as he flung a pile of poo around the cage exciting all sorts of response from other heads of state and corporate newsers alike, I began to wonder if his behavior was actually spontaneous or was it scripted.
The reason that my BS detector was even engaged was that just a couple of weeks ago Trump’s family accidentally (?) reported that the family had made over $2 Billion last year. There seemed to be many scenarios they employed, but one that many reporters alluded to was the scenario where the President would make an announcement that greatly affected some sector of the economy. Before he would make such an announcement, he would sell or purchase large lots of company stocks in that sector.
That is the very essence of insider trading. Insider trading is illegal as hell unless you are the one man in the country that the SCOTUS designated as untouchable when acting in your job. That is the president of the US. Thus by simply claiming that he is acting in a way to do his job, Donald Trump can claim that buying or selling stock in anticipation of his own announcement that will greatly move the markets is part of his job.
So as I casually turned on the TV I think it was Tuesday I happened to catch Trump in the middle of condemning Iran. I can’t remember what his words were. I remember his demeanor was that of a 5 year old child. I started to parse his words and then it hit me:
‘It matters not what he says. He makes no sense anyway. He doesn’t want to be able to be analyzed. What he does want is markets to move. He or one of his kids or one of his butt buddies must have placed a heavy bet on one or more markets and they want a big swing in order to make bundles.Then in a couple of days, or in a week or two they will do the opposite and score a big windfall.’
‘In the meantime many Iranians or somebodies will get killed and maimed. Trump doesn’t care. He’s making money. The news won’t report the subsequent sale of stocks. They will have moved on to the next coverup story. This chapter was done weeks ago and Trump has moved on to his next pump-and-dump – his next use of his powers of the presidency to score some quick cash.’
So pardon me for being so skeptical. Trump has the stage all set for him to come waltzing in, make the grand set up and start cashing in. SCOTUS made it legal. The corporate press covers for him. His own party in congress covers for him. He sets up the scenario, puts the money in whatever instruments he needs to and ka-ching! We are in the chips.
So were we all watching a staged set-up? Act 1 in a three act play to make the president some walking around cash?
Well, c’mon Republicans in congress – Grassley, this one is right down your alley! Start asking some questions.
Donald Trump has turned this year’s midterm on its head with his introduction of the use of the epithet “Commie” against his Democratic opposition. Recently a dormant insult, Trump’s resurrection of the one time Republican go to phrase has shaken the race up. The use of this insult has rekindled memories of its use by that old master himself, Richard M. Nixon.
As we can see in the short documentary above, Trump has once more caught the true flavor of his opposition. People will not laugh at such a serious charge.
Donald Trump ruins everything.
He ruined America’s 250th birthday. He ruined the National Mall. He ruined fireworks. He ruined the bipartisan housing bill. He ruined passports. He ruined soccer.
And that’s just in the past week. – Middle Age Riot
A) My other ride is AF1. What move did Trump pull to return from the NATO summit in Turkey?
B) Republican senators lined up to say they had had 20 minute conversations with who last week?
C) Red Card!? Who made a mockery of the World Cup competition by calling on the FIFA head to cancel an American players suspension due to a red card?
D) The history of communism in the US? Why not? What Republican US senator gained massive fame with unjust and unsubstantiated charges of communism in the early to mid 1950s?
E) As charges of sexual violence swirled around his campaign, what Democratic candidate withdrew from the Maine US senate race?
F) Another hospital in what major Iowa city is ending maternity care due to Medicaid cut backs from the big beautiful(?) bill?
G) Due to tariffs, rising costs and shrinking markets what kind of bankruptcies have more than doubled in Iowa in the past year?
H) What Hollywood legend saw his reputation smeared because of his liberal politics in the 1950s? This person was best known as the ‘Little Tramp.”
I) Iowa recorded its first instance of what highly tranmissable disease for 2026 last week?
J) Donald Trump was ordered to finally pay the $5 million to settle a lawsuit against him brought by whom?
K) How did Iowa’s congressional delegation vote on giving multi billions to the out of control ICE organization?
L) Speaking of ICE there has been another very suspicious immigrant death in what major US city?
M) While at the NATO meetings, Trump declared the US would stop trade with what European country?
N) In a cruel action, the state of Iowa once again has refused to equip prisons with what summer need?
O) The Babylon Fire has burned over 100,000 acres in what US state?
P) Back to that red card interference incident. Who won that game?
Q) What 1976 movie was based on the black listing of accused communist Hollywood writers? The story starred Woody Allen as a mediocre writer who sells others’ screenplays as his own.
R) Trump refused to sign what popular piece of legislation which he then allowed to become law by not signing it by Friday?
S) What was the name of the infamous US House committee that was brought into existence to investigate Communists in the ‘50s?
T) Finally, the FTC and John Deere settled a long standing lawsuit that will allow Deere equipment owners to do what?
Jennifer Welch: “Republicans always do the exact same thing: start wars, add to the national deficit, cut social safety programs, bankrupt the stock market and then corporations get a surge of socialism, the American taxpayer has to fund it, and then a Democrat has to come back in and fix the economy”
tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com
Answers:
A) He took the Qatari bribe plane to the NATO meeting but flew home in the real AF1
B) Mitch McConnell
C) Trump
D) Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin
E) Graham Platner
F) Council Bluffs
G) Farm
H) Charlie Chaplin
I) Measles
J) E. Jean Carrol
K) 6 for funding ICE 0 against
L) Houston
M) Spain
N) Air conditioning
O) Utah
P) Belgium beat the US
Q) “The Front”
R) bipartisan housing affordability legislation
S) House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC)
T) It will allow equipment owners to repair their own equipment
One day after Democrats forced a rapist out of a major Senate race, Republicans officially named a major airport after one. – \Covie
The extreme radical right that runs the Republican Party in Iowa and in the country, found reason to add to my small but growing collection of what I think of as obscene pictures this week. These are pictures I so deem because they illustrate situations that should not happen in the US if we truly followed our founders and practiced the ideals they left us with.
My original obscene picture was from Iowa from 2017. It was a picture of the Governor Branstad signing a hateful piece of legislation behind closed doors. He had to sign it behind closed doors because it was so odious that the Fire Marshall may have had to clear out the capitol because of the stink.
2017 from bleeding heartland.com
But what made this picture truly obscene is that Branstad signed the bill with an audience of 1. That individual was Drew Klein. Mr. Klein’s job that day was to make sure his group – Americans For Prosperity (a political front group for the Koch Brothers) – got what they paid for as Branstad signed a bill that drastically cut the rights of unions in Iowa. It was the capture of Iowa for the wealthy recorded in all its obscene glory for the ages.
And it was prescient. Almost 10 years later, Republicans have once again teamed with Americans For Prosperity – well maybe teamed with isn’t quite right – now they are just running one of the Americans For Prosperity members for governor and cutting out the middle man. Elect Zach Lahn and you get the Koch Brothers right in Terrace Hill. No need for even a phone call. You can bet they will care about Iowans that’s a joke, folks).
Just to show how smug they are about it, Republicans didn’t even bother to pick an Iowans to run. Talk about ‘in our face.’
I had that pic as my “most obscene” for a long time. Actually it still is. If Iowans do the dumbest thing possible and elect Zach Lahn governor, a picture of his swearing in will join it. Americans for Prosperity 2 Iowa 0.
But over the years I have moved other photos into obscenity status. I was reminded of such status by my two new entries that were taken over Trump’s pathetic mashing of what should have been a great event (250th birthday) for all (that is ALL!) Americans. The first was a black woman on a DC Metro train surrounded by 400 masked up “Patriot Front” white supremacists sometime during the weekend festivities.
That woman had to be scared to death. My thought immediately jumped to Little Rock Arkansas, 1957. One picture from that event still lingers in my mind from when I first saw that long ago.
Sadly it truly represented the America of its time, much as the DC Metro picture represents America today. In both cases these pictures represent what happens when true morality is abandoned by on of our political parties.
Shortly after that, Citizen Roswell Encina, a historian, took a picture of himself that parallels that of the black woman on the DC metro. Encina is of Filipina heritage and gay. As such he would be a target of a group like the Patriot Front. This picture also shows the obscene side of America today. Remember, it is groups like the Patriot Front that Trump called “fine people” in Charlottesville some 10 years ago. Obscene!
Finally, I present a picture from way back that is both obscene but also portended the hope and progress to come. I think all I have to say is Ruby Bridges and you all know what the picture is.
We must sweep away the vestiges of racism. America must once again set itself on a course of equal justice under the law as our founders wanted. Enough obscenities.
As I was writing my thoughts to tie these images together into this post, I ran across this substack piece that does a much better job of tying it all together than I did. I recommend you take a few minutes to read it.
Since then, immigration advocates say detentions have increased across the country, with roughly 10,000 people detained just the past week alone.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also gave the Trump administration the ability to remove temporary protected status from legal immigrants who have fled war or disease in their countries, which could mean another 1.3 million people—again, legally in this country—are at risk of detention and deportation.
In response, organizations like Escucha Mi Voz and the Iowa City Catholic Worker are encouraging Iowans to “care for one another in difficult times,” and connect with local support groups.
If you witness suspected ICE activity, need help locating a loved one in detention, or want to get more info on Know Your Rights trainings, you can call Escucha Mi Voz’s hotline at (319-382-5203).
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
