Sunday Funday: The Queen Is Dead Edition

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Meeting the Queen – a good laugh (3 minutes):

Since there has already been billions of words uttered on the death of the Queen and the new King, I will not bore you with more. Just one observation: in this chaotic word, the Queen represented a stability that is hard to find these days. There is a lot to be said for having a constancy in your life.

Now, back to our regular scheduled programming.

A) The Michigan Supreme Court overruled the Michigan State Board of Canvassers to order that a proposal for what be on the ballot this November?

B) The nation of Canada was shocked last week when two brothers committed a mass killing using what weapons?

C) Very quietly on Labor Day a Florida judge ruled that the investigation into the top secret documents stolen by the former president required a what to sort the documents?

D) Appearing defiant, Steve Bannon was indicted in what state for his role in the fraudulent scheme raise money to build the wall?

E) Surprise! Although the US government will not consider it as a form of income, seven states may be taxing what recently cancelled indebtedness as income?

F) Surprisingly,  what state with a sizable Republican majority in their state senate failed to pass a total abortion ban because of a threatened filibuster?

G) What was Queen Elizabeth’s real name?

H) Right wing media tried to raise a kerfuffle last week because President Biden gave a speech Monday accompanied by what?

I) Old home week – what couple returned to the White House for the unveiling of their portraits last week?

J) Stressed about the price of gas? A $30,000 electric SUV was unveiled by what company last week?

K) Not too surprisingly student test scores in what two areas fell significantly due to the pandemic?

L) As her last public duty, Queen Elizabeth met with what new British Prime Minister?

M) As if the mass murder last May wasn’t enough, what Texas town reported two wounded by shooting in a park in what city?

N) Over the Labor Day weekend a worker at an airport stole a plane and tried to crash it into a what?

O) 15 minutes of fame: Who is Cuoy Griffin?

P) Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill in the senate last week that would outlaw what kind of laws at the state level?

Q) The Dutch city of Haarlem will be banning advertising for what product from public spaces?

R) Juul will pay nearly $440 million to settle lawsuits in 33 states. What product does Juul make?

S) Vladimir Putin threatened to end the deal that allowed Ukraine to ship what from its seaports?

T) A team at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, England came up with a vaccine for what major disease that may cut deaths from the disease by as much as 70%?

I guess prosecuting Trump is like discussing common sense gun laws. It’s always “not the time.” And look how well that works out. – Randi Mayem Singer

Answers:

A) Reproductive freedom (abortion)

B) knives – 10 killed and 19 injured.

C) “special master” – the DOJ is appealing

D) New York

E) student loan forgiveness

F) South Carolina

G) Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor

H)Two Marine guards

I) Barack and Michelle Obama

J) GM

K) reading and math

L) Liz Truss

M) Uvalde

N) A Walmart in Tupelo, Mississippi

O) Former County commissioner in New Mexico who was barred from holding public office under the 14th amendment’ insurrection clause

P) Right to work laws. The bill is called the Nationwide Right to Unionize Act 

Q) meat 

R) e-cigarettes

S) wheat

T) Malaria

I did an interview for my book today and the guy asked me, “Who was smarter, Carter or Reagan?” That’s an easy one. Carter built people homes. Reagan made people homeless. – Andy Borowitz

Posted in #trumpresistance, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: The Queen Is Dead Edition

Will Republicans Accept Their Losses This Fall?

Posted on September 10, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Just doing a little musing. We still have a former president and I hope future inmate running around all over the country trying to get his picks elected to congress. In elections, his main claim is that elections are rigged. As far as I know, we haven’t heard this schtick yet, but I am sure we will soon. We are just out of the primary season and claiming elections are rigged during inter-party skirmishes would really make you look stupid.

But as I said, I fully expect the radical right to start rolling out this go-to strategy soon. Get the seeds planted early for the shellacking they will be taking this fall. When you simply look at the issues, there is nothing that the radicals stand for that is appealing to any but the wealthy and well connected.

Abortion? The radicals are trying to cover their tracks on that one in a hurry. Student debt relief? They are trying to make it an issue, but the majority can understand the reason behind the need for relief. Inflation? As radicals rail about inflation, Biden and the Democrats are actually doing something. Labor unions? Forget it. They bow to the wealthy

Don’t forget that the radical right has opposed popular programs for veteran’s health care, capping insulin prices, bringing chip manufacturing back to our country, and the program which will combat inflation while fixing infrastructure problems and preparing the country for the future. Opposing all that popular legislation is a heck of a bad record to run on.

And people are getting sick and tired of tax cuts for the wealthy that doesn’t now nor has it ever trickled down!

At the state level here in Iowa Kim Reynolds and her band of radicals is finding that destroying what was once a great public school system is not very popular. How about that privatized Medicaid? Iowa was once more reminded last week how hundreds of millions of dollars that was once used to deliver medical care for the most needy is now going to make corporate profits higher.

On top of all that, the radical right wing has a man who appears to have committed the biggest, most egregious and open case of treason in our history at the head of their party. He has spent the summer when he should have been locked up hand picking candidates for office across the country for his party. The only criteria a candidate must pass is that he or she declare loyalty to Trump and his big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

With lousy candidates, lousy stands on issues and loyalty to a person over loyalty to the country most radical right candidates are running their races with lead weights around their ankles. 

So what to do? Well they have already put some field tilters in place. At some polls they will have poll watchers who will be doing all they can to keep Democrats from voting. State legislatures have already changed voting laws to make it harder to vote. Plus they have already gerrymandered the hell out of most states to favor Republicans.

But that may not be enough. So in the next couple weeks I expect the radical right to start laying the seeds for claims of “rigged elections.” What that may lead to is that despite clear results in most elections, Republicans will delay results with recounts and court cases. Also expect the press to spew propaganda supporting spurious claims.

Here in Iowa with a paper trail system, claims of rigging will be hard to support and should be able to be to be resolved without much question. However, as the case of the race in what was then Iowa-02 in 2020, there could be some that are really too close to call.

Just trying to prepare myself and others for what I am thinking will become an election year event – the desperate cries of “fraud” as the radical right sees its fortunes drown in a tsunami of bad policies and terrible candidates.

Here is a thought to mull over now that the radical right continues to try to dismantle much of the good public programs:

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2022 Election campaign, Economy, Republican hypocrisy, Republican mythology, Republican Obstruction, Republican Policy | Tagged | Comments Off on Will Republicans Accept Their Losses This Fall?

Tomorrow Is 9/11

Posted on September 10, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Richard Clarke talks about Bush Administration failure (3 minutes)

Tomorrow will be the 21st anniversary of the attack on America that took place in 2001. There will be the usual remembrances that will pour out the deep sense of sadness that we all have at the needless loss of life on that day.

What will be missing will be any in depth analysis of what brought on the 9/11 attack. What many people forget is that Osama Bin Laden and his followers were on the American radar as we had a change of administrations in 2001. 

This was a transition from a Democratic Administration to a Republican administration. While concern over terrorism was not top priority in the Clinton administration, it was certainly on the radar. Bin Laden had led strikes on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in the late ’90s. However during the transition, the incoming Bush administration showed little interest in terrorism or Bin Laden.

Slightly more than a month before the attack on 9/11, then President Bush blew off a Presidential Daily Briefing titled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.” With a little prompting, most of remember that the new Bush administration did not pay much attention to foreign policy or terrorism. They were focused on tax cuts for the rich at the time.

Fast forward 21 years and we find ourselves in another crisis dealing with foreign policy: theft of Top Secret documents by a Republican president. As a country we are trying to get a handle on just how much damage the most recent Republican president, Donald Trump, may have done to our security due to his and his administration’s handling of Top Secret documents.

We as a country have no idea what documents he stole. We have no idea what he has done with these documents. We have no idea if he has shared in some way, these secrets with our enemies. We have no idea if he has sold these secrets or if he has destroyed these secrets or if he has copies of these secrets. In short we know that Trump has taken Top Secret documents, but we have no idea what he has done with them.

And of course he and his band of bandits refuse to co-operate. We also know that Trump could simply could not have moved such a volume of documents by himself. As already reported, there are boxes and boxes and boxes of Top Secret documents. This raises the question of not only who physically moved them without anyone blowing a whistle, but also who allowed (approved?) the movement of such a massive amount of documents.

As we contemplate how this crime took place the mind simply boggles at all the points at which the system should have stopped this apparently on-going theft which failed. Who failed and why did they fail? Did the system fail because the people in place did not stop it because they allowed the president to do what he wanted or were they all part of the plan? 

Are those people still in place? Why did the appointment system allow such people to be put into these jobs if they were either incompetent or potentially criminal? There are just so many questions. We hope the FBI and the Justice Department are digging deeply to find answers to these questions. 

But we see Republicans of all stripes and at all levels from elected officials including senators and representatives on down to their propaganda disseminators on cable TV and in newspapers and online doing all they can to intimidate the FBI from investigating this incredible theft and possible major espionage case. 

Don’t forget that some 43 – think of that FORTY-THREE! – folders are empty. What was in those 43 folders? We know they were Top Secret, so it must have been information vital to our government. What happened to all that information? Sold to our enemies? Handed out to settle some debt?

And amazingly how come no one, NOT ONE PERSON, is in jail with all the boxes of Top Secret information having been stolen and at least 43 folders totally missing. Our country has been compromised like it has never been compromised before. This is a crime that is unmatched in our history and the obvious perpetrator continues to walk free. He continues to do rallies where he stirs up hate for our government and our institutions.

He is able to do so I believe because of his enablers in congress that he has conned. Also the threat of violence from his followers is actually intimidating the country from following the rule of law. 

Trump has changed this country forever. He has also shown that the US is no different than all the countries who have been conned before by authoritarian leaders. 

Two Republican presidents, two disasters. And don’t forget that both left the economy in shambles.

We may have one chance left to fix it and that comes this November. We need to vote out Trump enablers like Grassley, Hinson, Miller-Meeks and Feenstra. But we also need to vote them out at all levels, including state and county. It has never been more important.

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2022 Election campaign, Economy, Republican hypocrisy, Republican Obstruction, Republican Policy | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Tomorrow Is 9/11

If America Has Been Poisoned What Is The Antidote?

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Trish Nelson

The Powell memo, Ronald Reagan, money is speech, corporations are people, union busting, racism, Willie Horton, Rush Limbaugh, guns, white supremacists, voting, etc.  Antidote at 9:55.

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Barbara Ehrenreich’s Legacy

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Trish Nelson

Barbara Ehrenreich died last week at the age of 81. She was the author of more than 20 books, including her best-known, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”  I read Nickel and Dimed years ago and found it profoundly moving.

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Lies, Politics and Democracy

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Trish Nelson

In case you missed it. This documentary was broadcast on Frontline September 6. You can watch the entire film here or on YouTube.

Find FRONTLINE on the PBS Video App, where more than 300 of our documentaries available to watch any time: https://to.pbs.org/FLVideoApp Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1BycsJW
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinepbs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontlinepbs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline

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Book Review: The Hidden History Of Neoliberalism

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Paul Deaton

Thom Hartmann’s latest in the Hidden History Series, The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness, is scheduled for release on Sept. 13. Well-written and timely, it takes a deep dive into neoliberalism with direct application to life in Iowa.

As the guardrails are removed from our Democratic Republic, it is important to examine how we got to a place where people believe government should have only a minimal role, if any, in our economic life. Hartmann’s new book fills that need. Not only does he explain what neoliberalism is, he says it is time for us to turn our backs to it.

My focus is on Iowa and the recent Republican rout of Democrats by taking the governor’s office and large majorities in both chambers of the legislature. Without saying what they were doing, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican crew embraced neoliberalism principles about which Hartmann writes. Their policies include reducing taxes, gutting government spending, reducing licensing requirements, and other tactics to minimize the impact of regulations on business and enable the invisible hand of the global free market to work its magic. For goodness’ sake, there was even a Grover Norquist opinion piece in the June 7 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette!

Reading Hartmann brought this aspect of the Republican culture war into focus. It is neoliberalism at its zenith.

If Iowa Republicans had their way, society as we know it would be dissolved, leaving scattered family units headed by white, male patriarchs. Such families would have many children. Women might well take a subservient role to men in public life. If you listen to Republican rants from the state capitol, they already believe their chosen tribal relationships are in place. If Republicans declare war on trans people, or others who don’t lead what they consider to be a traditional life, they will fight until every one of them has been run out of the state or marginalized. It’s a crusade!

Like all the books in the Hidden History series, The Hidden History of Neoliberalism is a great weekend read with depth of thought hard to find on television or radio. I’ve been reading Hartmann’s series for the last couple of years, and each time his explanations and historical research bring something new to my attention.

For example, I lived through the U.S. plot to overthrow Chilean president Salvador Allende, the C.I.A.-backed military coup by Augusto Pinochet, and the restructuring of Chilean society by Milton Friedman and his gang of Chicago school neoliberals. Hartmann highlights the relevance of Friedman’s work during this fifty-year-old event to today’s Republican governance. “The blank slate of a new Chile offered the perfect laboratory for Milton Friedman’s Chicago Boys to try out their exciting new neoliberal experiment,” Hartmann wrote. Neoliberals have been hard at work creating a radical, right-wing culture that seeks to dominate our politics.

Thom Hartmann

According to Hartmann, America could go one of two ways: continue down the road to neoliberal oligarchy, as supported by the GOP, or choose to return to FDR’s Keynesian economics, raise taxes on the rich, reverse free trade, and create a more pluralistic society. The Hidden History of Neoliberalism is a primer in how the United States got to this point.

In a June 29 interview, I asked Hartmann what progressives should do about the clear and present danger of neoliberalism.

“The best way to combat what they are up to is expose it,” he said. If Democrats would speak more loudly, in a consistent enough fashion, the Republican policies of supporting great wealth, and white, male supremacy would be easy to organize around. Hartmann acknowledged organizing Democrats to work on a single thing is complicated.

Hartmann is essential progressive reading and I recommend The Hidden History of Neoliberalism. While readers await the new book, the others can be found at https://hiddenhistorybooks.com/

Happy autumn reading!

Thom Hartmann is a four-time winner of the Project Censored Award, a New York Times bestselling author of thirty-two books, and America’s #1 progressive talk radio show host. His show is syndicated on local for-profit and nonprofit stations and broadcasts nationwide and worldwide. It is also simulcast on television in nearly 60 million U.S. and Canadian homes.

To buy a copy of the Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore its Greatness, click here. The book is available Sept. 13, 2022.

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Iowa Labor Day Celebrations

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Trish Nelson

Happy Labor Day from Blog for Iowa! If you have the day off, be sure to thank a union member.  Here is a list of Labor Day events for Monday, September 5

UFCW Local 222 Labor Day Celebration
11 am-2pm
Riverside Park
Sioux City
– food, games, prizes, meet elected representatives and pro-labor candidates

2022 Labor Day Picnic
Iowa City Federation of Labor
Noon-4:00 pm
City Park Shelter #12
Iowa City
– music, games, all members, families and friends are invited

Des Moines/Henry County Labor Day Picnic
4:00-7:00pm
40 & 8 Park
Burlington

Labor Day Picnic
4:00-7:00 pm
Lake Manawa Shelter #6
Council Bluffs
Special guest: Ryan Melton for Congress
– sposored by Pottawattamie County Democrats and Western Iowa Labor Federation

Labor Day Picnic
Black Hawk Union Council
11:30 am-3:00 pm
Gateway Shelter
Cedar Falls
-Food, bingo, face painting and more

Labor Day Parade
South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO affiliates
Parade kickoff 11:00
Iowa State Capitol
U.S. Representative Cindy Axne, Grand Marshal
Admiral Franken, Parade Marshall
Des Moines

Labor Day Picnic 2022
Hawkeye Area Labor Council
11am-4pm
Hawkeye Downs
Cedar Rapids
-music, kids entertainment, door prizes

Quad City Federation of Labor GRALF
Labor Day Parade  Rock Island IL
11 am

For more information about these events and more visit Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO

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If You Are Voting Absentee, Request A Ballot NOW!

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Dave Bradley

In case you have not been paying attention, Republicans in the Iowa Legislature changed the voting process for this year. Absentee voting has been drastically shortened from a former beginning in late September to the new start date of October 19th. That is a Wednesday. The window for requesting an absentee ballot opened last Tuesday, so you can now request an absentee ballot.

Here is a very straight forward website with dates and instructions.  https://voterready.iowa.gov 

Please be sure to check your registration. If you are not registered you can follow instructions on this website to register. This website gives directions and links to complete your registration:

https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/voterinformation/voterregistration.html  

If you plan on voting absentee, remember that the window to request and return an absentee ballot is much smaller this year. So plan on requesting a ballot as quickly as possible to avoid time crunches. Your ballot will not arrive until October 19th. At that time plan to vote it quickly and return it quickly to avoid it being received too late.

The Secretary of State’s website on absentee voting https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/electioninfo/absenteeinfo.html has all the details on voting for this election cycle.

We plan on driving to our local court house on October 19th to vote. 

As many have stated this year, this is the most important election of our lifetimes. Make sure your vote counts! 

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Sunday Funday: Labor Day Edition

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Robert Reich: Corporate Lies About Unions (4 minutes):

Well, once a year America takes its hat off to Labor. The rest of the year they are pretty much ignored except to bitch about them. This year Labor in general has received some raises due to shortages of labor as a commodity. This has sort of backfired in that as inflation took hold, Labor was blame, most think undeservedly. 

Yet the Federal Reserve is on a mission to raise interest rates that will slow borrowing that will slow expansion that will reduce the need for Labor, because raises to labor is what has cause inflation. That is their faulty thinking. Could to possibly be shortages due to the Russian war on Ukraine or corporations raising prices to score massive profits, could it?

Still, at this point things are looking pretty good for those looking for work, plus wages continue to rise. Union activity is up, though still not strong. Unions have a 71% approval right now. Maybe people are finally remembering that it is labor that really does the building.

Another week of right wing radicalism.

A) In a speech Thursday night in Philadelphia, President Biden warned that what threatens the very foundation of democracy?

B) Among the folders recovered during the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago were several folders that were what?

C) History of Labor: What man started the Cigar maker’s Union, and eventually founded the American federation of Labor (AFL)?

D) A new documentary released last week examines the life of what Iowa hero from the 1930s and 1940s?

E) On top of extreme flooding rains, what state capital has the additional problem of a water plant that quit working?

F) Who is famous for organizing farm workers in California during the 1960s?

G) As yet another stalling tactic, the legal team for FPOTUS is calling for a what to sort documents stolen by FPOTUS?

H) North to Alaska! Who won the election to replace the late Don Young as Alaska’s representative in Congress?

I) Almost as note worthy what former national candidate lost in the Alaskan election?

J) What is the largest union in the US (stats from 2020)?

K) Speaking of Labor, the monthly jobs report was released Friday. How many new jobs were created last month?

L) Once again, Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, was found to have tried to change election results in what second state?

M) A Dutch soldier, in the US for training exercises was shot to death in what US city last week?

N) Inspectors from The UN visited what kind of generating plant in Ukraine last week to assess any damage?

O) What former Speaker of the House is in the sights of the January 6th Committee for information about the attempted coup?

P) In what year was the largest percentage of the labor force represented by labor unions?  

Q) Which sitting US Senator predicted (threatened?) that prosecuting Trump would lead to “riots in the streets”?

R) What last premier of the USSR died last week in Moscow at age 91?

S) The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rebuffed an attempt by what company to nullify an earlier successful union vote?

T) Serena Williams lost her match Friday in what may be her last US Open tournament. She has been called a GOAT in tennis. What does GOAT mean?

Harry Truman’s famous line fits perfectly for Pres Biden’s speech on MAGA: “I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”  Dean Obeidallah

Answers:

A) Extremism 

B) Empty – 43 to be exact. Must have been sold?

C) Samuel Gompers

D) Nile Kinnick

E) Jackson Mississippi

F) Caesar Chavez

G) Special Master (and we bought Putin was his special master)

H) Mary Peltola

I) Sarah Palin

J) Education Association 

K) 315,000 

L) Wisconsin (she has been found to try in Arizona earlier

M) Indianapolis

N) nuclear powered generating

O) Newt Gingerich

P) 1953 – 32.5%

Q) Lindsey Graham

R) Mikael Gorbachev

S) Amazon

T) Greatest Of All Time

Republicans Worry That Midterm Voters Might Believe Women Deserve Rights – Andy Borowitz

Happy LaborDay, All!

Posted in Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Labor Day Edition