From our inbox – Please read this and share it on social media. Statement by ProgressIowa calling out our governor and senior Senator for aligning themselves with the liar in chief Donald J. Trump.
Reynolds and Grassley betray Iowans by campaigning with Trump
Des Moines, Iowa — Progress Iowa Executive Director Matt Sinovic issued the following statement in response to former President Trump’s hosting a rally with Governor Kim Reynolds, Senator Chuck Grassley and other Iowa Republicans in Sioux City:
“In America, voters decide their elected leaders. But former President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the will of the people, including threatening the Vice President and helping promote, pay for and pardon the attack on our country on January 6th. MAGA Republicans and the former President himself have repeatedly tried to cover up their role in this attack by blocking the Congressional and FBI investigations of these crimes.
“At the same time, Iowa Republicans like Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley have refused to denounce the former President’s behavior. Instead, they’re now campaigning with Trump.
“People who attempt to sabotage our democracy and endanger the lives of fellow citizens have no business leading or governing. And neither do those who stand by and refuse to condemn the organizers of such attacks.
“Trump and MAGA Republicans are a continued threat to our freedom as voters. They want to overturn elections and overrule the will of the people, changing laws to allow Republicans to decide who wins elections. By campaigning with Trump, Reynolds and Grassley show they side with the MAGA Republicans who oppose American freedom rather than their constituents. Iowans will not forget where Reynolds and Grassley stand – with Trump instead of with us.”
Blog for Iowa has been part of discussions regarding whether to leave or stick around on Twitter. Since Elon Musk took over, BFIA and others have lost followers who apparently decided to leave the platform before it turns into a right wing cesspool. For now we’re staying and we hope you do too. We must not cede ground to the wannabe fascists. We’ll see what happens.
Mary Trump does an interesting, fun podcast that is great to listen to while you’re driving or doing something else. As a professional psychologist and niece of DJT she has a unique perspective on how things work. Her 2020 book Too Much and Never Enough, sold nearly one million copies on the day of its release.
“In the aftermath of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the attack on Paul Pelosi, Mary Trump rallies #NerdAvengers Wajahat Ali, Jen Taub, Brian Karem, Kurt Bardella, Cliff Schechter, and Dahlia Lithwick to fight back. They weigh the best way to respond, highlighting the need to hold our ground in the name of truth, stand against the Right’s stochastic terrorism, and remember that democracy is not zero-sum. Together, we can stop the forces of extremism and build a brighter future for us all. ‘Ask Mary Anything’ Email: MARY@POLITICON.COM
I just had one question for Todd Halbur that the Iowa Press panel didn’t ask. Is he who Kim Reynolds was talking about when she famously said she needed both her “own AG” and “a state auditor that’s not trying to sue me every time they turn around?”
Vote for Democrat Rob Sand for Iowa State Auditor.
It remains a mystery to most of us why Republicans are reluctant to appear on Iowa Press when the panel basically brings them hot chocolate and slippers. So why did Zach Nunn decline the invitation from Iowa Press to debate incumbent Cindy Axne for the job of 3rd district representative?
Because he’s running a dishonest campaign and anyone watching would believe her and not him, IMHO. Or it’s just a Republican thing now because they think it is cool to shun the press except for fake news.
The mid-term election will truly be a test of the right wing propaganda machine. Please vote if you haven’t already.
I sent an inquiry to Iowa Press a couple of weeks ago inquiring why no Third District debate? Districts 1 Bohannan v Miller-Meeks and 2 Mathis v. Hinson debated on Iowa Press and Ryan Melton in IA-04 showed up when his Republican opponent Randy Feenstra did not. This was the reply I received from IPBS:
“Thank you for reaching out to Iowa PBS. We invited candidates from all four congressional districts to participate in debates but were unable to confirm dates with each district.”
Hmmm.. unable to confirm dates… During Friday’s program with Cindy Axne, Kay Henderson shed more light on the subject:
“This year’s Third District congressional candidates were invited to debate on Iowa PBS. Republican Zach Nunn declined our invitation. Congresswoman Cindy Axne accepted.”
How could anyone expect that Zach Nunn would stand up for Iowans in Washington, DC if he can’t even debate his opponent in Des Moines, Iowa? Same goes for Feenstra.
Please watch the program and support Cindy Axne to defeat her MAGA Trump opponent. Iowa doesn’t need more Republicans. We have more Republicans than any state could ever want. We need honest representatives like Cindy Axne in Washington. You can make a donation here. Click here to get involved in Cindy’s campaign. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Often times we pass off much of what the crazies on the radical right say because whatever they say, we know they will be doing what they are told by their owners in the billionaire class. But this week their quotes were simply beyond the pale.
First up the one and only, a legend in her own mind but nowhere else, Marjorie Taylor Greene:
“You know what they did after January 6, Steve? They stopped donating. All the lobbyists, all the big corporations stopped donating to a whole bunch of my Republican colleagues that they used to donate to,” Greene said.
“They said: ‘Oh no, we can’t support you because of the big lie,’ or whatever they want to call it,” she continued.
“There is going to be investigations coming,” Greene added. “And there should be. There definitely should be, because the way corporations have conducted themselves, I’ve always called it corporate communism.”
During a call-in show on Monday night, Greene was confronted by a woman who told her, “My body is my body and I don’t want the government telling me what I can do with my body.” Based on her voice alone, the caller sounded like she might be elderly and while her age is obviously not relevant, Greene insisted it was. “Ma’am, are you having children any time soon?” she asked, not pausing for an answer. “That’s my question, I’m asking a legitimate question.” She then went on to insist that “abortion is murder” before circling back to her premise that the caller should not get to express her opinion because she possibly no longer ovulates. “I don’t think you’re having children any time soon,” Greene said. “So I appreciate your interest in women’s rights but killing an unborn baby is not a woman’s right and that’s not health care.”
Uh, MT, if a woman who can’t have a baby shouldn’t have any say on abortion, how about all those men out there who I am pretty sure can’t have a baby either?
In the only debate of the closely watched Pennsylvania Senate race on Tuesday night, Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz said women, doctors and “local political leaders” should decide whether a woman can obtain an abortion.
Uh, what the F—? Dr. Oz, are you nuts? Sure looks like it.
Host Larry Kudlow told Pence that “far-left progressives… will not allow God into the conversation, will not allow religion into the conversation. Not just the conversation, the schools, the communities, the workplace… I mean, no one is allowed to talk about the Ten Commandments or the importance of moral values.”
Pence waited a bit – possibly to see if Kudlow was actually going to ask a question – and responded: “Well, the radical left believes that the freedom of religion is the freedom from religion. But it’s nothing the American founders ever thought of or generations of Americans fought to defend.”
Huh? From what I have always understood Freedom of religion gives everyone their choice, which includes “none.” So if the worst happens and old Mikey becomes the president we will have to choose among the 5000 or so TRUE! religions in the world. I may just start my own based on people sending me money in return for some vague promises of doing something good for them. Seems to be a winning formula.
I would like to think that these are really fringe characters in the American landscape. I would like to think that, but these are all people who are at the very core of radical Republican thinking these days. They are simply buffoons who want to run our lives,
Sadly there are Iowa versions of these clowns – Grassley, Reynolds, Nunn, Hinson, Feenstra, Miller-Meeks – and they are running for office.
Be wary when you vote. Vote for people who are in touch with reality and who will work for the people, not someone who will impose their radical ideas on us.
This video is a haunted house at Universal Studios in Florida (3 minutes):
Halloween is a night when we pretend that evil has taken over in all its many forms. Of course for most of us, Halloween fun takes place within parameters so no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, reality these days is much more scary. This week in Iowa, our top two elected officials will be campaigning with a guy who attempted to overthrow our democratic government and also stole Top Secret documents.
Our top two elected officials – Senator Grassley and Governor Reynolds think that campaigning with such a disreputable person is perfectly fine. It is in reality an insult to Iowa and a message as to what the Republican Party will do with power. It is truly frightening!
What a week!
A) Once the mighty highway of America what river has shrunk to trickles in spots below St. Louis?
B) Despite a recent stroke what Democratic candidate for the US Senate took part in a televised debate last week?
C) The spouse of what top US politician was attacked and beaten in their home Friday morning?
D) Politics around the world – to no one’s surprise, who was re-elected as China’s leader for a third 5 year term last week?
E) In Britain, who became the 3rd PM in two months after his rival Boris Johnson dropped out in a battle for leadership of the Tories?
F) One more – what major western hemispheric country has a run off today to pick its new president?
G) “Americans have no freedom from religion” stated what major Republican politician last week?
H) A story slowly developing in far southwest Iowa has a woman telling police that her father was a serial killer who may have killed over how many women over 3 decades?
I) After entertainer Ye went on a horrible anti-semitic rant, it has come out that he (Ye) has an obsession with what historical figure?
J) While inflation is high, how are profits for the oil companies doing?
K) Elon Musk finally bought his big toy, Twitter. What was one of the first things he did as owner?
L) What regulating group told Musk he would play by their rule or be shut down in their sphere?
M) What do you sprinkle on your doorstep to keep evil spirits out of your house on Halloween?
N) What country banned the sale, purchase or transfer of handguns about 10 days ago?
O) Looking like this fall and winter will be a ‘triple-demic’ with covid, flu and what other respiratory disease that usually hits kids all hitting at once?
P) As the World Series started Friday night, what was missing in the lineups of the two teams taking part?
Q) Darrell Brooks has his 15 minutes of fame as he is found guilty on six counts of homicide from his driving through a Christmas parade where?
R ) What singer’s new album, Midnights, became the year’s top selling album in just one day?
S) Is the pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
T) what is the derivation of the word ‘bonfire?’
On Dec.7, the Supreme Court will hear a case that will determine if State Legislatures have the sole power to elect our next President. The only way to prevent that is to hold onto Congress and pass Voting Rights. If you’re not scared of creeping Fascism, you’re not alive. VOTE! – Rob Reiner
Ron Klain: GOP Has ‘Horrible, Horribler, And Horriblelist’ Ideas To Cut Social Security (8:18)
Radical Right Republicans have been pretty open about what they plan to do if they are returned to power in congress this year.
Since the Clinton presidency radical Republicans have used a relic of the long distant past known as the debt ceiling as a hostage situation to try to bring about radical changes in government policy. There is another debt ceiling vote coming up just past the election and Republicans already have plans to use this vote to hold the country hostage once again.
The way I understand it the debt ceiling was supposed to be reached around the end of September, but politics being what it is no one wanted THAT to become an issue in the mid-terms. Therefore there was a vote to raise the cap enough to get it past the mid-terms to approximately December 16th. Merry Christmas, America.
At that time, Democrats will still be in charge, barely, of both houses of congress. Can the Dems pass a debt ceiling bill even with Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema? Still probably dicey. They may get an extension to just past the beginning of the next congress in January.
That is where the radical Republicans plan to use the debt ceiling as the tool to force a hostage crisis on Democratic programs. And the top prospects as hostages are Social Security and Medicare. The radical right wing Republicans hope to “bargain” to get cuts in both programs by once more threatening to shut down the government and create an economic crisis by defaulting on debt.
They believe when they are in the majority in congress they can force President Biden’s hand on SS and Medicare with the threat of the very unpopular move of shutting down the government. They believe that President Biden would rather negotiate than allow the government to shut down and also create an economic catastrophe by defaulting on US debt payments.
For decades, the conventional wisdom in American politics has treated cuts to Social Security and Medicare as a political third rail due to their vital role in ensuring more than 60 million Americans’ economic security. This is to say nothing regarding the substantial sway beneficiaries of these programs have in U.S. elections. However, the situation has changed. Today’s Republican Party is no longer making plans behind closed doors to gut these safety net programs—instead, they are running on this platform in the most competitive races across the country. It is yet another sign of how extreme the party has become.
In fact, House Republican leadership publicly boasts that they are planning extreme tactics to force Social Security and Medicare cuts. They are threatening to force the United States into a potentially catastrophic default on payments it owes—including interest payments on the debt and the wide array of regular payments, such as veterans’ or Social Security benefits, that Americans rely on—if they don’t get their way. A U.S. default would have catastrophic consequences not only for individual families but also for the economy as a whole. In assessing the consequences of a U.S. debt default, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics forecasts that the economic downturn could be similar to that experienced during the financial crisis, with real GDP plummeting, millions of jobs being lost, and the unemployment rate skyrocketing. Put simply: The extreme positions of MAGA Republicans and the extreme tactics that they are willing to use pose grave risks to all Americans.
Over the past 10 months, the GOP has grown increasingly bold in telegraphing their plans to cut Social Security and Medicare. Like their assault on abortion rights, it is often the case that many avoid acknowledging what is at stake until it’s too late. However, a bounty of evidence paints a clear picture of the threats to the U.S. economy from a MAGA Republican majority:
Rick Scott’s (R-FL) “Rescue America” plan: The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee—Sen. Rick Scott—released a plan that would sunset Social Security and Medicare after five years.
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)’s debt limit threat: In an interview with Punchbowl News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “signaled that Republicans would again hold the debt limit hostage for policy changes.” Despite the fact that Republicans added trillions to the debt with their tax cuts, McCarthy said, “You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt. And if people want to make a debt ceiling [for a longer period of time], just like anything else, there comes a point in time where, okay, we’ll provide you more money, but you got to change your current behavior.” When pressed on whether Republicans would seek cuts to entitlement programs in a debt ceiling fight, McCarthy refused to take cuts off the table, saying “he wouldn’t ‘predetermine’ anything.”
If you are at or near retirement age or have friends or loved ones who are in the retirement age, think very carefully before you vote. Grassley, Feenstra, Hinson, Nunn and Miller-Meeks will follow their party line which means to threaten a catastrophic default, shut the government down and bringing monumental changes to Social Security and Medicare.
Voters need to understand what they are getting when they vote for the radical Republicans this year. What they plan to do is not a figment of somebody’s imagination. Leaders within their party are saying it out loud. The media is not covering this, but it is stark reality nonetheless.
And just in case you don’t know who won’t do this – The Democrats will not be shutting down the government, defaulting on payments or ending Social Security and Medicare. Matter of fact, Democrats have plans to strengthen those plans. Oh – and SS and Medicare are programs that pay for themselves.
“You’ve got a political party who has stated quite clearly that they want to privatize Social Security and Medicare… well, this has not gone well in the state of Iowa. This will not go well in the future and most people believe it’s a profit grab and benefits will go down and profits for those managing it will go up.” – Mike Franken
From the Fall 2022 issue of The Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The PP is funded entirely by reader subscription, available only in hard copy for $15/yr. Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244. Click here for archived issues.
by Dave Leshtz
As the leaves turned orange and scarlet in Iowa, I spent a weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city I had never seen. I was drawn by the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center.
Dylan has provided much of the soundtrack of my life. Put simply, visiting the site of his archives and exhibits about his work did not disappoint; even a casual fan can spend hours watching and listening to rare interviews and performances from the early sixties to the present.
Next door to the Dylan Center are similarly-housed archives and exhibits about Oklahoma-born Guthrie, who was Dylan’s spiritual and artistic father and thus, by extension, the spiritual and artistic influence of nearly every great American singer, songwriter, and poet of the past sixty years.
The two centers side-by-side in the Tulsa arts district are worthwhile for any observer of popular culture, music, literature, and politics. I learned, for example, that Woody campaigned vigorously for Iowa native and former Vice-President Henry Wallace when he ran for President in 1948.
It was at a third Tulsa site, however, that I learned the most. Just a few blocks from Dylan and Woody lies Greenwood Rising, in the heart of what was once known as Black Wall Street. This center depicts a vital neighborhood and its prosperous citizens, contrasted with photos and artifacts of smoking ruins and the distraught survivors of racist mayhem.
Thanks to HBO dramas like Watchmen, Lovecraft Country, and several recent documentaries, more of us know something about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. Even Black residents were unaware that 35 blocks of homes and thriving businesses were burned to the ground and at least 300 people were killed when white residents—supported by the government—went on a two day rampage of unpunished hatred, resentment, and blood lust.
Some older black residents knew about the massacre but kept quiet, mostly because it was too frightening to talk about. Angel, a docent at Greenwood Rising, told me her grandmother still avoids the subject for fear that it could happen again. Only in the last twenty years, with the discovery of mass graves and evidence of official cover-ups, has
the horror been acknowledged. Sam, another docent, repeatedly told visitors, “The cat’s out of the bag.”
In the spring of 1921, a Black man was arrested for assaulting a white woman. Unfounded rumors rippled through the white population. A mob gathered outside the jail. A shot rang out and the mob erupted, burning the entire Greenwood district while the National Guard stood by.
In addition to the deaths and thousands of injuries, 9,000 people became homeless. Thousands were interned through the winter. City and state officials, the newspapers, and a grand jury blamed the Black residents. No one in the mob was held accountable. The only white person charged was the Chief of Police, convicted for dereliction of duty. Redlining and racist law enforcement became more firmly entrenched in Tulsa.
What can we learn from Greenwood Rising? One glance at the day’s news suggests that smaller versions of the Tulsa Massacre happen every day in America: a Black man murdered for jogging in a white neighborhood, white policemen exonerated for shooting unarmed Black people, church and synagogue-goers slaughtered by self-proclaimed white
supremacists, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers carrying torches (shades of Tulsa) to terrorize Blacks and Jews.
A perfect example on a larger scale is the January 6 insurrection, a white rampage that the Republican Party—including Iowa’s US Senator Grassley—is doing its hypocritical best to blame on Black Lives Matter and Antifa. And Iowa’s Governor is running the most shamelessly racist television ad in the state’s history; despite being far ahead in campaign
money and polling numbers, she feels a need to fan the flames that can burn down a neighborhood.
The cat’s out of the bag, and it’s as mean and ugly and as dangerous as ever. If there’s any hope against ongoing repetitions of Tulsa massacres, insurrection attempts, and the fascist cult that has taken over the Republican Party, it’s at the ballot box. Electing Democrats
on November 8—and by margins large enough to overcome voter suppression—will not kill the cat but will at least hold accountable the party that encourages mobs like the one that destroyed an entire neighborhood a hundred years ago.
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)
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