Sunday Funday: Hard Of Hearing Edition

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Let us start with something happy. There are always plenty of shelter critters looking for  a forever home. One is curled at my feet as I type this. (3 minutes)

New Trumpublican exercise: Cover ears with hands, stick out tongue and repeat ad infinitum “la la la la, I can’t hear you!” Recommend this exercise to be done while national news networks cover the J6 Committee hearing. Exercise may result in permanent loss of reality and a desire to become a Trumpublican

Well that was quite a week.

A) What national TV network did not carry the January 6th (J6) Committee hearing Thursday night?

B) Perhaps the dumbest person in congress said Wednesday that mass shootings happen because what happened long ago?

C) 3 killed and three wounded in a mass shooting at a manufacturing facility in what state Thursday?

D) The United States and President Biden hosted a gathering of what countries on Los Angeles last week?

E) What British Prime Minister survived his party’s no-confidence vote although by  a relatively small margin?

F) Saturday night/ Sunday morning saw a mass shooting killing 3 and injuring 11 in the South Street district of what major American city?

G) A major what will test the country’s electric infrastructure this weekend and next week?

H) At the J6 hearing Thursday night who warned Trumpublicans “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,”?

I) June 12, 1929. What young girl is born in Frankfurt, Germany whose diary of hiding from the Nazis will become a posthumous best selling book?

J) In somewhat of a surprise, who won the Democratic nomination to run for Iowa’s senate seat?

K) Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry was identified as having asked the then president Trump for what?

L) Speaking of Trump, which of Iowa’s Trumpublican office holders did he fail to endorse in an endorsement statement last Sunday?

M) The leading Trumpublican candidate for governor in Michigan was arrested by the FBI Thursday for his part in what?

N) Next Sunday is what major holiday for slaves in Texas at the end of the Civil War?

O) The PGA has suspended how many professional golfers who have signed with what new Arab backed professional golf tour?

P) The recount is done in Pennsylvania. Trumpublicans nominated what candidate for senate who reportedly lives in New Jersey?

Q) What actor born in Uvalde, Texas garnered huge attention for his impassioned plea to politicians to address gun violence?

R) The new US quarter featuring what female Cherokee Chief goes on sale Tuesday?

S) Trumpublican candidate for congress in western New York Carl Paladino made headlines Thursday when he said the US could use a leader like who?

T) In an incredible result a small clinical trial of immunotherapy at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center saw what happen to patients with rectal cancer?

Happy 21st anniversary, Bush Tax Cuts. 

Thanks for saving the economy from that Clinton surplus and for creating all those new jobs.  

In Asia. – John Fugelsang

Answers:

A) Fox of course

B) Prayer in school was banned

C) Maryland

D) countries of the Americas

E) Boris Johnson

F) Philadelphia

G) Heat wave

H) Rep. Liz Cheney

I) Anne Frank

J) Admiral (ret) Michael Franken

K) a presidential pardon for his part in the insurrection

L) Marriannette Miller-Meeks

M) the J6 insurrection

N) Juneteenth (June 19th) when slaves in Texas were informed of the outcome of the Civil War

O) 17

P) Dr. Oz

Q)  Matthew McConaughey

R) Wilma Mankiller

S) Hitler

T) All patients in the trial saw their cancer disappear.

I 100% don’t give a crap if the #January6thCommitteeHearings change the minds of Trump supporters. I only care that the evidence presented is so damning that the DOJ has no choice but to criminally prosecute Donald Trump and all involved in the failed coup and Jan 6 attack. – Dean Obeidallah

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Issues 

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Dave Bradley

As we look at the upcoming election we ate that there are vast differences between the current two major parties on issues. Actually it should be noted that there is only one party in America today that is running on issues.

What used to be the Republican Party has turned into a cult of personality around a truly pathetic human being. Party gatherings have turned into candidates trying to prove which one has the most allegiance not to our country, but to the man who is their central cult figure. 

But let us look at some of the country’s most vexing problem:

Climate Change. 

        – Trumpublicans continue to ignore it. Beyond that what passes for policy for them is to continue to burn both fossil fuels and carbon based fuels. Solar, wind and non-polluting sources are being squelched

         – Democrats continue to move to the future of non-polluting sources of energy. If we don’t do that the planet becomes uninhabitable.

Economy.  

         – Trumpublicans continue to try to sell the “trickle down” economics which has gutted the American middle class and created huge wealth and income gaps in our country that are usually characteristic of Third world countries. They also continue onslaughts of any New Deal type programs such as Social Security,, Medicare and Medicaid. They also continue to work to destroy unions. Economic policy greatly favors the wealthy.

         – Democrats support a bottom up economy. Under President Biden this has created the fastest expansion in history despite active opposition from the radical right. Democrats continue to support safety net programs that were essential to creating the middle class. They also support unions that are essential for good paying jobs. Taxes should be based on ability to pay, not campaign contributions.

Guns:

       – Trumpublicans favor gun ownership without restrictions that have led to thousands of gun deaths in the US. 

       – Democrats favor gun ownership with responsible restrictions such as age restrictions, restrictions of felons and restrictions on guns with large clops meant to inflict massive casualties.

Health Care:

       – Trumpublicans favor abolishing programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare and turning everyone over to privatized insurance.

       – Democrats favor some sort of national health care that would end our current Rube Goldberg model and make health care available to all. This would be better for national health care outcomes and deliver health care at a much lower price.

Education:  

      – Trumpublicans want to privatize education. Governor Reynolds is in the process of destroying public education in Iowa.

      – Democrats support a strong public school system available to all children. Teachers and staff should be well compensated for their critical work.

I think I will stop there for today. The purpose of this exercise os to illustrate that our current parties represent starkly different views on issues that should matter to every American. The radical right favors dismantling infrastructure that has take in some cases a hundred years or more to establish.

We are facing real crises in several areas. If we fail to address these issues, particularly the climate, we are choosing to ignore a problem that will destroy us. If we choose the wrong path on other issues, we will gut what is left of our democracy and turn our government into a permanent oligarchy with a wide wealth gap.

Vote as if your life and that of your family depends on it.

Posted in #nevertrump, 2022 Election campaign, Affordable Care Act, Economy, Education, gun safety, Health Care & Medicare | 1 Comment

Decapitated

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Dave Bradley

From Lawrence O’Donnell’s program from Wednesday night (16 minutes)

Like many of us I have not been sleeping well since the massacre in Uvalde. Perhaps one of the most heinous crimes in American history. Because it was so horrendous it seems like the kind of crime that would evoke a strong and immediate response from a congress answerable to an enraged public.

Or at least that was the way it used to be. In the video we see a Uvalde pediatrician describing bodies mutilated beyond recognition. We hear him describe children bodies that were decapitated by bullets. Surely such a horrendous crime would cause nearly 100% passage of a bill to restrict the use of the killing machines capable of such destruction. You would think.

But in American society today, loyalty to the gun is much greater than the obligation to our children to be able to go to safe schools and learn in a safe environment. While HR 7910 the “Protecting Our Kids Act” did pass, it passed with only five Republican votes. Of those I believe four are not running for office this fall.

How did Iowa’s Republican delegation vote? Of course they voted for the guns and against the children. The self-proclaimed ‘right to life  party’ voted en masse for killing machines in opposition to giving kids a little break that might keep them from being shot in school.

Marriannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra with no doubt some real mental gymnastics believe it more important for people to be able to walk around with killing machines than it is for your kids, your grandkids, your nieces and nephews, your neighbor kids to be able to go to school safely.

Next week we can be almost 100% assured that Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst will join the chorus of twisted logic that rates gun access higher than children’s lives.

This is an election year. This year you and I and all our relatives and friends and neighbors will have a chance to let our feelings be known. Do you value children’s lives more than giving some possibly demented person the ability to get a killing machine? Then vote that way on Election Day! 

This year, please vote as if your life depends on it. This year your life may really depend on your vote. And it is not too difficult to figure out who favors guns over life and who favors life over guns. Republicans bow to their masters at the NRA and vote for more and more guns to terrify our society. Democrats defend life.

And here is a little secret most people don’t know. When you vote your ballot, it is a secret ballot so nobody will know how you voted. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE SOCIETY. You can change the direction of this country. Just say no to these killing machines and the party that promotes them.

Resolve now that this year you will vote to turn this pandemic of violence around. That means voting for Michael Franken for senator, Randy Melton in Iowa-04, Cindy Axne in Iowa’s third district, Liz Mathis in Iowa’s revamped second district and Christina Bohannan in Iowa’s revamped 1st district.

Then you can be proud that your vote was the first step in securing a future for our children.

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2022 Election campaign, gun safety | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

First Congressional Hearing On January 6th Points To Trump

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Trish Nelson

Videos of the entire first hearing are age restricted and only available on YouTube.  Here is a link to the entire hearing on C-SPAN’s YouTube channel.  Below Liz Cheney describes Trump’s involvement.

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March for Our Lives Events in Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Ames, Des Moines, Storm Lake and Quad Cities June 10-11

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Trish Nelson

Click here or on the image for information.

Click on the image for information

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Matthew McConaughey Gives Impassioned Speech For Gun Reform

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Trish Nelson

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Jon Stewart Still Around Criticizing The Media

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Trish Nelson

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Vote In The Democratic Primary Tuesday

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Trish Nelson

L-R Finkenauer-Franken-Hurst – photo credit: Iowa Public Radio

Please vote in the Democratic primary today or tomorrow. If you don’t know where/how to vote we trust that you can figure it out. The Democratic candidates for senator to replace Chuck Grassley are Michael Franken, Abby Finkenauer and Glenn Hurst.

Admiral Michael Franken answered questions about Grassley, January 6, guns, the environment, and how Democrats will win, in Iowa City on Sunday as part of his River to River campaign tour.

Here is a video from Sunday’s event in Iowa City. Check out and subscribe to Blog for Iowa YouTube channel.

 

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Heather Cox Richardson: U.S. Politics “A Tyranny of the Minority”

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Amanpour and Company  –  posted May 27, 2022 (17 minutes)

Our gun culture and the mythology of the Cowboy.

Listen closely as Historian Heather Cox Richardson fills in the huge gaps in how we got to where we are today.

In an article on this same theme from early 2021, Richardson delves a bit deeper into the cowboy mentality that has become the Republican Party. At the end she discusses how this has taken America to brink of falling into a small group of oligarchs:    

And so, in 2016, we faced a clash between a relentlessly changing nation and the individualist ideology of the Movement Conservatives who had taken over the Republican Party. By then, that ideology had become openly radical extremism in the hands of Donald Trump, who referred to immigrants as criminals, boasted of sexually assaulting women, and promised to destroy the New Deal government once and for all.

In the 2016 election, the themes of the past 36 years came together. Embracing Movement Conservative individualist ideology taken to an extreme, Trump was eager enough to make sure a Democrat didn’t win that, according to American intelligence services, he was willing to accept the help of Russian operatives. They, in turn, influenced the election through the manipulation of new social media, amplified by what had become by then a Republican echo chamber in which Democrats were dangerous socialists and the Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was a criminal. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which permitted corporate money to flow into election campaigns, Trump also had the help of a wave of money from big business; financial institutions spent $2 billion to influence the election. He also had the support of evangelicals, who believed he would finally give them the anti-abortion laws they wanted.

Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes but, as George W. Bush before him, won in the Electoral College. Once in office, this president set out to destroy the New Deal state, as Movement Conservatives had called for, returning the country to the control of a small group of elite businessmen who, theoretically, would know how to move the country forward best by leveraging private sector networks and innovation. He also set out to put minorities and women back into subordinate positions, recreating a leadership structure that was almost entirely white and male.

As Trump tried to destroy an activist government once and for all, Americans woke up to how close we have come to turning our democracy over to a small group of oligarchs.

One note I would add is that our history is much more of Americans pitching in to help each other and very little of the loner superhero who saves the day. America was built by a population working together. It is being destroyed by those who are acting for their own benefit. Donald Trump comes immediately to mind.

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Sunday Funday? D-Day +78 Years Edition

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Dave Bradley

We can hardly think “fun day” when we think of D-Day, can we? The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities Russia has committed has dredged up memories of World War 2 and the horrors of Hitler. And the bravery and courage of our forebears.

Perhaps one of the saddest thoughts on this day is that we have a political party in this country that is working to undermine our democracy. At the same time we live in a society that has a tyrannical minority that terrorizes our citizens with firearms as if we are what a former president called “a shithole country.” 

We must stand up to this minority or we stand on the sidelines as the greatest experiment ever attempted by humans fails.

A) Well, Iowa joined the recent spate of mass murders when three people were shot to death Thursday in what Iowa city?

B) Ohio Governor Mike DeWine will (or has) sign(ed) a bill that will make it easy for school districts to do what?

C) June 4th, 1989. What square in Beijing becomes synonymous with oppression as Chinese military massively breaks up ongoing protests?

D) A right wing induced witch hunt came to an abrupt end when what lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign was not indicted by a grand jury in connecting Trump to Russia?

E) On average how many people die of gun violence in America daily?

F) Some gay pride trivia. Quickly, who was the San Francisco gay activist who was elected to city council and subsequently murdered in his office?

G) How many jobs were added in April according to the BLS?

H) Covid vaccinations for what age group are tentatively scheduled to begin on June 21st?

I) Trying to keep up with Amazon, what giant retailer will add four ‘fulfillment’ centers over the next 3 years?

J) June 5,1968. Who was assassinated?

K) According to a Politico story Republicans will be hiring an army of poll watchers to disrupt voting where this fall?

L) In a truly unusual accident, 3 people were seriously injured in Wisconsin when a train collided with what?

M) President Biden gave a nationwide address Thursday on what deadly major American problem?

N) Who were the opposing parties in the SCOTUS case that legalized same sex marriage in the US?

O) What was the code name for the beach that the Allies stormed on D-Day?

P) What attempted assassin will be freed of court restrictions June 15th?

Q) Shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza of Uvalde, Texas was awarded the Bronze Cross for bravery by what organization she was a member of?

R) Admiral Linda Fagan became the first female to lead a branch of the US services when she was sworn in as the Commandant of what?

S) Sheryl Sandberg made headlines as she stepped down as the COO of what major tech company?

T) As many as 1/3rd of the country’s public pools may not be able to open or will have reduced hours due to a shortage of what?

“Being gay is natural. Hating gays is a lifestyle choice.” John Fugelsang on the Stephanie Miller Show

Answers:

A) Ames

B) Arm teachers (insane)

C) Tiananmen Square

D) Michael Sussmann

E) 110

F) Harvey Milk

G) 390,000

H) The under 5 group! (Yay!) 

I) Walmart

J) Robert Kennedy

K) in Democratic precincts

L) a hot air balloon

M) gun violence

N) Obergefel v. Hodges

O) Omaha

P) John Hinckley Jr. (he is 67 yo) 

Q) the Girl Scouts

R) the Coast Guard

S) Meta (formerly Facebook)

T) Life Guards – employment is so good that finding people for this summer job is very hard.

When you go to the polls, I suggest that we all show up with the cameras in our phones on.

Some of us will catch Republicans trying to intimidate people. We need to send as many of them to jail as possible. – DesignationSix tweet

Posted in Blog for Iowa, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday? D-Day +78 Years Edition