Support Admiral Michael Franken to defeat Chuck Grassley. Check out his campaign website https://frankenforiowa.com/. You can also follow his campaign on Facebook and Twitter
One of the most learned individuals we know, Nicholas Johnson, endorsed Mike Franken calling him one of the most informed individuals he has ever known and that is saying something.
Letters to the editor are a powerful way to make sure your voice is represented in the media. Here’s one from Gary Sanders, long time progressive activist from Iowa City, published in the print version of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Yes, many of us still read actual newspapers. Posted here with permission from the author.
Dear Editor,
Like most people, I’ve been worrying about the price of gasoline. Even my economical little 2016 Ford Focus eats up about $41 when I fill the tank. I know that there are a lot of causes for high gasoline prices, but I have been wondering how the oil companies have been doing. I got my answer to that question on the front page of the July 30 Wall Street Journal:
“Soaring Fuel Prices Catapult Oil Giants to Record Profits”
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, here are the oil giants profits for just the second quarter of 2022:
Exxon, the largest US oil company, reported profits of $17.9 billion, its highest ever!
Shell reported its second consecutive record profit–$16.7 billion!
Chevron also posted a record profit–$11.6 billion!
You might want to chew on those numbers the next time you fill your gas tank.
This is an excellent presentation. Please watch and share on social media.
“The rate of gun deaths has increased 56% from 2011 to 2020 in Iowa, compared to a 33% increase nationwide.”
Every day brings word of more mass shootings and preventable gun tragedies. Join the Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus as we discuss opposing the 2nd amendment Ballot initiative. Plan to walk away with the tools and actions to share this important message with other Iowans.
Check out Iowa Democratic Party Rural Caucus Facebook page here
The Lincoln Project catches Ron Johnson of Wisconsin saying the Republican plan for Social Security and Medicare out loud. This is not a secret. This is the plan that the radical right is advancing under the leadership of Senator Rick Scott of Florida. If they even get a sniff of being the majority in the House and Senate again, this is what is coming:
(1 minute)
If they have the trifecta, expect Social Security and Medicare to be targets #1 and #1A.
But Chuck Grassley wouldn’t do that to us would he? Sure he would. Even though it is money you paid in all your life Chuck and his radical right wing party would love to figure a way to give your money to the wealthy in some kind of yet another tax break.
Don’t believe it? Be very very careful or you may find out. Vote for Grassley this year and two years from now you may be kissing Social Security and Medicare goodbye.
Vote for Michael Franken. He will work to protect what you worked for all your life.
From: Ed Flaherty, Secretary, Veterans For Peace #161
When: Tuesday, August 9. 6:30-8PM
Where: Old Brick lower level, 26 E. Market St. Iowa City
Further Information: Contact Ed Flaherty 319 621-6766. flahertyem@aol.com
The Golden Rule
Sailing Into the Future; Remember Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Abolish Nuclear Weapons
In 1958, four Quakers sailed their boat, the Golden Rule, from California, bound for the Marshall Islands. Their purpose was to insert themselves into the nuclear bombing the US was doing there. They didn’t make it. They were arrested in Hawaii, the boat was sold. In 2010, the battered Golden Rule was found in a salvage yard. Peace activists recognized its significance, and the boat was restored.
A video about the sailboat, the Golden Rule, will be shown on August 9th, accompanied by a presentation on the historic and very present dangers of nuclear war by Dr. Maureen McCue, president of Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility. She will commemorate the deaths of 70,000 people in Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945. John Jadryev, President of Veterans For Peace #161, will describe the upcoming sailing of the Golden Rule down the Mississippi River this October, with educational events in many Iowa Mississippi River cities. Sponsored by Veterans For Peace #161, Johnson County United Nations Association, PEACE Iowa and Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Admission is FREE. Donations to support the work and journey of the Golden Rule will be accepted.
Randy Rainbow’s (not safe for work) newest: (3:46)
About once a year I do a post on the pagan wheel of the year, usually at this time of year. As summer moves past it’s midway point it feels like there is a reawakening to move on to the activities that will get us through the winter. Lughnasadh is the time of early harvest:
Lughnasadh marks the midpoint between summer and fall, and is the first harvest festival of the year. It’s a time for harvesting grains, giving thanks for the growth that has happened, and to enjoy the warmth and light that is still to come. For Wiccans, Lughnasadh is marks when the god’s power begins to decline. And, for some pagans, it’s the time when the Celtic Sun God Lugh transfers his power to the grain. When the grain is harvested and baked into bread, his cycle of life is complete.
The year seems to break more properly into the eight divisions that the pagan world celebrates. Now is the time of return to school, early harvest and other preparations.
On another note, I was saddened to hear of the death of Bill Russell. Russell was a hero to a young me, not because of his basketball skills which were truly unique, but because he was the ultimate team player both on the court and where it really counted: in life. Russell left it all on the line working for civil rights. So happy President Obama awarded him with a well deserved Medal of Freedom.
Stay tuned and I will Alex you some questions.
A) Get my little pun there? What was the name of the Alex Jones internet page that he used to disparage Sandy Hook parents?
B) Bill Russell had a lot of records that will never be broken. One for sure is that he was the first black head coach in what?
C) Get ready for fried Oreos! The Iowa State Fair starts when?
D) Another chapter in the Brittney Griner story ended this week as the basketball star was sentenced to how long in jail in Russia for her supposed crime?
E) Tuesday was a big primary day. The biggest story of the day came from what state where an amendment that made abortion a right was not changed?
F) Some questions from the Alex Jones trial. Jones’ daily income was pegged at about how much during the trial?
G) Perhaps the biggest story of the trial was Jones’ attorney’s release of the contents of Jones’ what to the opposition attorney?
H) What Republican candidate for governor in Arizona claimed the election Tuesday was rigged, but has dropped that line after she won?
I) Another major luminary in the sports world died this week as what longtime Dodgers broadcaster died at age 94?
J) Falling gas prices suddenly had pundits claiming this could be a sign of a looming what?
K) A truly unexpected strong jobs numbers report for July saw how many jobs created nationally?
L) There are still some jobs in the teaching area. Des Moines made news when they offered a bonus of how much for one year if retiring teachers would hang on for another year?
M) Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who is up for reelection this fall proposed that what two programs for the elderly become discretionary programs that are voted on every year?
N) At the end of last week a huge mega millions lottery ticket was bought in what state?
O) After a loud public outcry against Republican opposition to it, a bill to vastly increase funding for what group of people passed overwhelmingly in the Senate this week?
P) A trip by what House leader to Taiwan caused what country to do some saber rattling?
Q) To begin the week, President Biden announced the death of what top Al Quieda operative?
R) In Utah, a wildfire was started by a man who was trying to light what on fire with his lighter?
S) Stephen King took the stand in a what kind of lawsuit brought by the Justice Department to stop a merger of book publishers?
T) What communicable disease was declared a health emergency in the US as more than 6,600 case have been confirmed?
For too long, big, super-wealthy corporations haven’t paid their fair share in taxes.
We’re going to change that with Inflation Reduction Act. – President Biden tweet
Each Dec Schumer puts out schedule for Senate I set Grassley family reunion based on schedule. For 2nd yr in row I won’t be at reunion I’m in DC to fight Dems irresponsible tax&spend bill. Need a Republican majority to hv schedule we can count on & A RESPONSIBLE FISCAL AGENDA
10:58 AM · Aug 5, 2022
Well, Chuck, if work is getting in the way of more important things, maybe it is time to reassess your priorities.
There is lots of Iowans who would like to help you in this quest.
So I am appealing to my fellow Iowans to help Chuck out. He needs to be with his family. He needs to get his priorities straight. Besides, he is not doing a whole lot for Iowa. So let’s send someone who wants to do the work – Mike Franken!
Iowa has a real choice this fall. Democrat Deidre DeJear for Governor
The overwhelming vote in Kansas leaving abortion as a fundamental right in their constitution gives us hope that voters across America are awakening to how badly they are being screwed and who is screwing them. At every level, the screwing is being done by radically right which has turned government into a toll to punish those who do not fit their image of an acceptable American.
Leading those who use the government to interfere in people’s lives in Iowa is Gov. Kim Reynolds. She is committed to ending any access to abortion in Iowa. She is also heading up the charge to wipe out public education in Iowa.
Iowans don’t want this. There is no reason to vote for a Kim Reynolds. She has failed as a governor for some six or seven years. Why would we want more? Voting for a sure four more years of failure seems like a bad idea.
Deidre DeJear is up to doing the job of governor. Right off the bat you know she will protect women’s access to abortion. She will also provide the environment for women’s reproductive health in Iowa. Under Reynolds, I believe we will see more doctors leaving Iowa. I don’t believe that will happen under DeJear.
Under DeJear I believe we can expect to see public education once more given the priority it deserves. Iowa was once among the premier states for education. Under Reynolds we have lost that lofty status. We are now around 30th and headed down. Expect DeJear to fight to re-establish Iowa as an education state. Education is usually the basis for a solid economy.
Also expect DeJear to fight for the common Iowan rather than giving Iowa’s wealthy the breaks. Iowa has a history of being a good place for all to live with decent wages and educational opportunity. The Reynolds years have been a major break with that history. We need to return Iowa back to its historical place as welcoming to all.
Iowa’s media has been pretty much missing in reporting what is really going on in Iowa. There was little critical reporting in the early days of covid when Reynolds total lack of leadership led to many unnecessary deaths in the meat industry and in nursing homes. Reynolds focus was not on saving lives, but rather on keeping businesses open.
Only a few could have done a worse job of leading during the pandemic. Reynolds leadership was based on ideology, not sound science. Iowa’s compliant press pretty much gave her a pass.
For me I would much rather have someone in a position of leadership who is guided by science and norms rather than ideology. I believe DeJear would be that person.
We just saw an overwhelming upset in Kansas where voters on both sides of the aisle looked around and said “ENOUGH.” I believe that Iowa voters are looking around, especially at the abortion issue, the attempt to end public education in Iowa and the terrible leadership especially during covid and will say “ENOUGH!”
DeJear needs our votes. But right now she also needs some money to get her story to the public. Help her out with a contribution today:
Unlike many on the left, I am not ecstatic at the voters in Kansas thoroughly trouncing the attempt by the right to overturn their constitutional right to abortion and hand it off to the radical Republicans in their legislature. I am cautiously happy. But I know that these purveyors of wanting to rule our lives have not given up since FDR, so they are not about to give up after one battle lost.
Considering that radical right Republicans in Kansas quickly set up a referendum to coincide with the primary in Kansas that traditionally has a low turnout, especially for Democrats, it was thought that abortion rights would be turned over to the legislature easily. As historian Heather Cox Richardson noted in her Wednesday sub stack email:
“Today, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to their state constitution that would have stripped it of protections for abortion rights. With 86% of the vote in, 62% of voters supported abortion protections; 37% wanted them gone. That spread is astonishing. Kansas voters had backed Trump in 2020; Republicans had arranged for the referendum to fall on the day of a primary, which traditionally attracts higher percentages of hard-line Republicans; and they had written the question so that a “yes” vote would remove abortion protections and a “no” would leave them in place. Then, today, a political action committee sent out texts that lied about which vote was which.
Still, voters turned out to protect abortion rights in such unexpectedly high numbers it suggests a sea change.
It appears the dog has caught the car, as so many of us noted when the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision on June 24. Since 1972, even before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Republican politicians have attracted the votes of evangelicals and traditionalists who didn’t like the idea of women’s rights by promising to end abortion. But abortion rights have always had strong support. So politicians said they were “pro-life” without ever really intending to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs decision explicitly did just that and has opened the door to draconian laws that outlaw abortion with no exceptions, promptly showing us the horror of a pregnant 10-year-old and hospitals refusing abortion care during miscarriages. Today, in the privacy of the voting b ooth, voters did exactly as Republican politicians feared they would if Roe were overturned.”
As Richardson notes, the vote was set up such that the referendum should not have lost. Yet it did, despite it coinciding with a normally low turnout election, a cryptically worded question and a last minute deceptive campaign by the radical right to confuse voters.
So it seems that the electorate is paying attention. It also seems that the outrageous act performed by six unelected radically religious right wing justices to take away a woman’s right to choose woke up a somewhat slumbering electorate. Not just women, but also men who believe that women should have control of their own bodies.
You know how the radical right mocks the “woke” voters. Well, now we know that when voters wake up they realize how badly they have been screwed and who has been screwing them.
Who has been screwing them? At the top of the list is Chuck Grassley. Who can forget how Chuck Grassley used his power as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to subvert the constitution in 2016 to stop Merrick Garland even a nomination hearing as a Supreme Court Justice? This was a pivotal moment in changing the SCOTUS into the radical right entity it is today.
“Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said over the past 40 years as a member of the Judiciary Committee, he’s helped shape the Supreme Court’s six-to-three conservative majority.
“Judicial confirmations do matter and elections matter,” Grassley said, “and 2016 made a big, big difference.”
Three weeks ago, Chuck was bragging in front of a very radical group of right wing evangelicals who have used government as a tool to take over people’s lives, especially women’s lives. Grassley was chortling that day. Is he chortling now with the Kansas vote in? We will see. Grassley can’t hide what he has done and how proud he is.
Will Iowa voters wake up to Grassley’s pivotal role in ending abortion? Both men and women are affected, but obviously women it may be a life and death situation. Will Iowa voters remember Grassley’s role in dismantling safe reproductive care in Iowa and America? Let’s hope so. No one is more to blame for this situation than Chuck Grassley.
Let me add that Grassley’s opponent is proudly an advocate for reproductive care access for women. Admiral Mike Franken has been making decisions that affect people’s lives all his life. He will uphold the right to abortion and access to reproductive care.
Franken needs your vote this fall and if you could throw a couple of bucks his way. Grassley has a huge war chest and won’t be defeated easily:
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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