I can’t seem to copy the chart from gun violence archive website. Click on the link to see the up to date number. We had 702 mass shootings last year averaging just short of 2 per day.
Remember that Iowa passed a constitutional amendment in the mid term elections that made guns gods in this state. Let us hope an outbreak of gun violence doesn’t follow.
The following video discusses public health aspects of gun violence (4:30).
At the end of the video the telephone number for suicide prevention NOW is 988. Jot that down if you don’t have it memorized – 988!
Not only is the quiz master back and ready to grill you on your knowledge of recent events, the Iowa legislature is back in session tomorrow to screw your life up. I suspect after the joke of the speaker vote in congress, the national media will be looking for some shiny bauble to distract the masses with. That bauble may well be the Iowa republican caucuses a year away.
One question they may be digging into: Can Trump win in Iowa if he is sitting in jail?
Speaking of distractions, how about some kittens? (6 minutes)
And now to the main event:
A) The sporting nation was stunned when player Damar Hamlin suffered a what during an NFL game last weekend?
B) Tuesday saw the reconvening of congress and the beginning of a marathon voting session on what question?
C) In Iowa news the city of Muscatine will be introducing what kind of housing construction this coming spring?
D) Another lawsuit against Trump. The estate of what victim of the January 6th insurrection is suing Trump and two rioters for responsibility in the victim’s death?
E) President Biden is visiting what US city today?
F) President Biden hosted a bi-partisan group while visiting what city Wednesday?
G) The big finale: What two major college teams will meet for the national title tomorrow night?
H) What state has been experiencing flooding rains due to an “atmospheric river” this past week?
I ) January 8, 1964, President Johnson declared war on what during his State of the Union address?
J) What former president received votes for speaker of the house this week?
K) The US jobs report was released Friday. How many jobs were created or lost on this report?
L) In the first two years of the Biden presidency how many jobs have been created?
M) The handover of power in Brazil took place Sunday. Who was not present?
N) Former kickboxing star Andrew Tate trolled climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter. Romanian police tracked those tweets and arrested Tate for what crime?
O) Speaking of tracking a criminal, Brazilian police revived a case against what member of congress whose huge lies have made him a big media story?
P) Two men were arrested in attacks on Washington electric substations did so in order to commit what other crime?
Q) What Michigan Democratic senator created headlines by announcing her intention not to seek re-election in 2024?
R) The northeastern section of the US is being hit hard by what new covid variant?
S) In Rome, a first as the current pope presided over the burial of what previous pope?
T) According to the Justice Department, mailing of what type of prescription pills does not violate the Comstock Act?
them a chance to save their party from extremists. – Sarah Reese Jones tweet
This is hardly news to most of the readers here who are very conscious of the dire straits that the world is in environmentally. But since it is the New Year and the fact that this bit of reality seems to be so dire that it made it to corporate television (CBS), I thought it a good idea to spread it around.
Note that the max human population that Paul Ehrlich says the earth can sustain is about 3.5 billion. We are currently at 8 billion with two countries – China and India themselves nearing 3 billion between them. (13:16):
Yesterday was the second anniversary of a day that should live in infamy. An attack on the halls of our government led by a sitting president. What has followed since has been sad to see indeed. An attempt to hold that president accountable for his actions through impeachment failed on a near party line vote.
Hard to imagine that one party in this country ignored what happened right in front of their eyes, right in their faces and did not have the courage to stand up for what is right. Hard also to believe that that president who led that insurrection is not only still walking free, but is also the leading candidate for his party’s nomination for president.
It feels like we are caught in some kind of real dystopian science fiction novel where the writer’s purpose in telling his tale is to illustrate just how low humanity can go. We are only part way through that novel. How will it end?
“It’s not hard to imagine the ungovernable GOP majority clashing with Democrats and the White House this summer and fall over the debt ceiling — with the entire world economy hanging in the balance.
Even before the House speaker stalemate, Goldman Sachs warned late last year that 2023 could bring the scariest debt ceiling fight since that infamous 2011 episode that cost America its perfect AAA credit score.
In the past, brinksmanship over the debt ceiling eventually gave way to a compromise, though often not until significant pressure was applied by business leaders, financial markets — or both.
It’s not clear how a debate over the debt ceiling will play out this time though, given the narrowly divided Congress and skepticism from Republicans about corporate America.”
Republicans have already let it be known that their first order of business will be a tax cut for the wealthy. Out of one side of their mouth you hear screeching about government debt and out of the other side of their mouth they are proposing tax cuts that will greatly increase that debt. Their unreal dream is that they will then be able to then bring about the death of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other safety net program by cutting off funding for these programs.
Did you know that when you voted for a Grassley, a Miller-Meeks, a Hinson, a Feenstra or a Nunn that you were voting to end these programs? We tried to tell you. Will you believe it when they do it and Mom and Dad move in with you?
One such issue is Social Security, a program that Republicans have targeted for cuts and privatization for years under the guise of “saving” it from insolvency even though its finances remain strong and it can’t—by law—add to the deficit, rendering common GOP talking points moot.
“Republicans may be in ruins, with the lunatic extremists fighting the slightly less extreme extremists,” Social Security Works PAC president Jon Bauman wrote on Twitter as Tuesday’s speakership vote descended into chaos.
“But there’s one thing you can count on,” he added. “They ALL want to cut your Social Security.”
Months before the internal GOP struggle over the top House post burst into the open, a group known as the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—comprised at the time of 158 of 212 members of the House GOP caucus, including McCarthy supporters and detractors—released a policy agenda that called for gradually raising the Social Security eligibility age to 70 and means-testing the program’s benefits.”
Two years ago our Happy New Year was a an insurrection led by a sitting president. We then witnessed that party fail to convict that impeached president. Now that party is in charge of one branch of government and at least some of them are planning to do some real damage to the American people.
January 6th, 2021 – a day that should live in infamy.
I will say this about Jan. 6, 2021: American society has bred and indoctrinated some of the dumbest people around. I understand what “Hang Mike Pence” and “Stop the Steal” mean. While repulsive and opposed to our constitutional legacy, the ask was at least coherent: reinstate Donald Trump as president.
As the U.S. House of Representatives elects a speaker for the 118th Congress, we are exposed to all manner of malarkey, including the statement from a U.S. Representative-elect from Georgia that former House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to implement MAGA policy and that’s why he was removed. For some reason, I believe electing a Democratic majority to the U.S. House in 2018, followed by the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as speaker, was the reason… but what do I know.
House Republicans will do everything possible to make us forget about Jan. 6, 2021. Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or something else, the nation’s best interests are served by remembering that day, determining what happened, and telling the truth about it. People who broke the law should be brought to justice. Whether we are too dumb as a society to do that is an open question.
The day after the insurrection on January 6, 2021, I wrote this on Blog for Iowa.
“Trump has lost and is doing everything in his power to have that not be so, but nothing he and the Republicans have tried to overturn the results of the election has worked. I can view that as a testament to the strength of our institutions and the American people who voted. Despite how fragile we seem to be at times, our country has withstood an enormous malevolent force these last four years.
Trump will not get a second term in the White House. Democrats have won the White House and after the special election in Georgia, we also secured control of the Senate and are now in charge of both houses of congress. This is no small thing.
As a nation we held off and beat back Trumpism, the propaganda machine, the tsunami of lies, the money, the ignorance, the racism, and the hate in all of its forms. And we did it handily. Biden won by at least seven million votes. At least for today, Democracy in America is alive, if not well.”
Today on the 2nd anniversary of the January 6th 2021 attack on the U.S. capitol I write:
We came through the 2022 mid-terms still intact. What concerns me now is the level of denial still out there, particularly in the media, “expert” pundits included.
The media narrative after the mid-terms was “Democrats did better than expected ” and the “Republicans did worse than expected.” Why would we think the party of insurrection would do well in the mid-terms?? Nevertheless, conventional wisdom said the outcome was cause for celebration for Democrats – even though the Republicans gained back control of the House of Representatives from Democrats despite being the party of insurrectionists.
The inaccurate media narrative was based on the single factor that historically, the party in power (Democrats in this case) almost always experiences huge losses of seats in congress in the midterms, therefore, the fact that Democrats didn’t experience huge losses means the country repudiated Trumpism and while everyone – media, pundits, politicos, people I respect, were going yippee all over the place my brain was fast forwarding to the scary implications of domestic terrorists in control of a branch of congress. There are still current members of congress who voted against certification of the 2020 election and are likely to chair committees.
Never mind this media narrative didn’t take into account the outrageous, corrupt, traitorous actions of the former president and party out of power, the Republicans. This false narrative did not take into account the unprecedented actions that the party out of power took to overthrow the election, dismantle Democracy, or that they were responsible for a violent coup attempt on the United States capitol on January 6th, 2021, that nearly worked. It did not take into consideration that the Republicans tried to pass off fake electors in order to keep Trump in power after he lost the election. It did not take into account that the party out of power does not know how to tell the truth and has displayed that they prefer Putin to America as long as it keeps them in power. Thechosen narrative was this was an election with a good outcome.
Whatever. I’ve never been a glass half-full kind of person. In my view, how could anyone vote for any Republican after everything they’ve done – even one person – let alone in big enough numbers to hand over control of a branch of congress. Now that they are there, the extremist of the extremes have taken the democratic process hostage with their ongoing refusal to elect a speaker. Even more frustrating, of course is everyone is shocked and didn’t see this coming. The coup attempt is ongoing and in its next phase.
We are in for a rough road ahead these next two years. The current batch of Republicans is already displaying a complete lack of interest in anything other than removing the pillars of democracy. They will continue to do everything in their power to disrupt and denigrate government functioning.
We can never forget what they tried to do on January 6th, 2021. We remain in a perilous situation where we as citizens have to do our part to see that democracy lives to see another day.
I will leave it here with these patriots who defended our capitol on January 6th, 2021.
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, President Joe Biden renominated public-interest advocate Gigi Sohn to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. Biden first nominated Sohn to the position in October 2021, but she faced an intense smear campaign orchestrated by groups funded by the telecom and broadcast industries seeking to deadlock the federal agency that oversees their businesses.
No other nominee in the FCC’s history has had to wait so long for a confirmation vote in the Senate. Sohn’s confirmation has been repeatedly derailed as deep-pocketed communications industry lobbyists have staged underhanded attacks against the nominee. According to reporting by The Washington Post, the industry has bankrolled right-wing and other astroturf groups to place false, anti-Sohn attack ads that have been viewed by tens of millions of people.
Last month, as the 117th Congress ended, Color of Change, Free Press Action and MediaJustice called on Senate leadership to condemn the corrupt, antisemitic and homophobic attacks against Sohn and confirm her to the federal agency as soon as possible.
The failure to confirm Sohn has slowed the agency’s ability to adopt policies to close the digital divide, prevent price-gouging by internet service providers, promote diversity and localism in broadcast ownership and more.
Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:
“The Biden administration just did the best thing it could to ensure media policy actually serves the public: It renominated Gigi Sohn to the FCC. Now the Senate must reject the smear campaign against her and confirm Sohn without delay.
Climate and Environmental activists and interested Democrats, do you want to help move the Iowa Democratic Party toward a better vision for the future of our land and precious resources?
A new constituency caucus was formed at the state convention, the Climate Change & Environmental Caucus. There are so many pressing issues regarding the sustainable health of this land we call home, and of the people on it. A constituency caucus works to educate, activate and resolve to move us toward addressing them.
Join us on Zoom on Jan 5th, 6:30 pm-7:30 for an initial meeting, with plans to elect officers at the next meeting on Jan 20th, 6:30-7:30, on Zoom. Signing up for one meeting will sign you up for both. At the minimum, we will elect a preliminary Chair, Vice-Chair, and SCC Provisional Member (fills in at SCC meeting if needed).
Attendees for the elections must be registered Democrats to run for office or vote.
Ideally, we would like to have geographical representation in all congressional districts, with a leader for each.
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)
ICYMI or you may not follow the Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus on Facebook, please share this public post with Democrats who may be interested.
Blog For Iowa 