A symbol of resistance to the Nazis during Word War 2 makes a reappearance in the US against the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump. Here is a short history of the paper clip protest and it application today (2 minutes):
On Thursday, E. Jean Carroll started it: Paper Clip Protest.
“Comely Reader! I suggest we all start wearing the paper clip. Subtler than a red hat, more powerful as a CONNECTION,” she wrote, explaining they were also worn during World War II as a sign of resistance against the Nazis.
Norwegian teachers and students wore paper clips to signal their opposition to Nazi occupation. They attached them to their lapels and wore them as jewelry, a symbol of solidarity binding them together as paper clips did with papers. It was a quiet act of defiance, expressing that Norwegians remained united against Nazi rule.
Friday, when I signed on to tape the #SistersInLaw Podcast, Jill Wine Banks had a clip delicately attached to the collar of her shirt. It made me smile. In that moment, I knew E. Jean was onto something. Our defiance can and must be loud and public at this point. But the quiet symbol of solidarity on someone’s collar when you walk into a crowded room? Genius. And much better than a red hat.
You probably have a paper clip in your desk or junk drawer that you can put on straight away. You can be a subtle signal of support for people who need that right now. You can be a conservation starter. Jill tells me she’s having special paper clips made for the occasion—very fitting for a woman known for wearing pins—and has promised to send me one.
When you show up to protest the authoritarian regime of the Felon in the White House in two weeks, be sure to wear a paper clip!
“On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith sits down with investigative journalist Carey Gillam, editor-in-chief of The New Lede and author of “The Monsanto Papers” and “Whitewash.” She spent 17 years as a senior correspondent with Reuters international news service. Her work has been at the center of how powerful agricultural interests suppress critical public health research while Iowa families pay the price.”
00:00 – Iowa’s Shocking Cancer Statistics: Second Worst in America 01:30 – The $400,000 Cover-Up: Public Health Funding Disappears 05:00 – Pattern of Suppression: Multiple Studies Buried by Officials 07:30 – EPA Chief Grills with Polluters at Iowa State Fair 09:00 – Big Ag’s Corruption Playbook: Ghost Writing and Revolving Doors 12:30 – Trump EPA Reverses Water Protection for Iowa Rivers 16:30 – Farmers Fight Back: Real Solutions from the IDEA Network 19:00 – Why Voluntary Change Won’t Save Iowa’s Water
Allison Gill of Mueller She Wrote and Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles are two of the best people to follow on the internet. Allison was a guest on Simon’s podcast this weekend. You’ll learn where the name Hopium Chronicles originated, a quite interesting anecdote.
“Hopium is an internet slang term that describes an unfounded or unrealistic state of optimism. The term is a portmanteau of hope and opium, implying that a person is using false hope as an addictive, mind-numbing drug to avoid facing a difficult or negative reality.”
The word does NOT describe Hopium Chronicles.
I hope you enjoy this amazing conversation as they parse through the new strategy of authoritarians, the polling industrial complex, the fall of Nate Silver, how to focus on the fight and the wins without getting nasty feedback from the internet, and much more. I am including a text highlight from the conversation. It confirms much of what I observed and you likely observed from the past three elections. But the media doesn’t cover certain ideas or truths and Simon explains why. Here’s ten minutes of the conversation that I found fascinating and the rest of the conversation was just as good so I hope you watch.
Follow Allison Gill at Mueller She Wrote on Twitter and Blue Sky and elsewhere.
Simon Rosenberg: “I’ve been working full time in Democratic politics for over thirty years. I started my career as a TV producer and writer so I grew up on the media side of the business. I’ve always been in the communications side of politics. I came to believe during the course of Trumpism that one of his central strategies was to pump negative sentiment into our discourse every day and to make us feel bad about our country, our leaders, our institutions, each other, everything. And that we needed a strategy to respond to that negative sentiment by putting positive sentiment into the world, not because we just wanted to feel better, but because that negative sentiment was a precursor for Trump to push his radical politics.
He got up at the UN last week and told every country in the world their countries are horrible. The person who really first turned me onto this was Anne Applebaum and in 2016 she talked about how Trump’s speech at the Republican convention sounded as if it could have been written by Moscow, that of all of the indictments there was nothing uplifting about America. It was all the terrible things that we had done and she was so shocked by it because it was such an un-American speech and it was the beginning of me really starting to think about discourse, of us taking greater responsibility of managing our discourse. She’s since written about how the new strategy of authoritarians is not to tell you how good their countries are but to tell you how bad yours is as a matter of strategy to create again this kind of sense that we need something radically different than what we had.
I think Hopium in part came about through Nate Silver in 2022, a week before the election. When I was saying that I thought the election was going to go better for us and there was going to be no red wave, he accused me of “smoking Hopium” and misleading the Democratic party.
And so when I founded my Substack community a few months later I used that as a way of acknowledging that part of the project was to reject the bullshit and to reject the corruption of our information space and to be far more purposeful about lifting America up and lifting each other up than tearing us down as part of my central undertaking.
And so I haven’t talked about this for a long time but that’s part of what’s behind it. Every day I try to stay very focused on, not dwell on all the terrible things that happen but what can we do that will make it more likely that we can mitigate the damage and win back power – that’s what we’re focused on in the Hopium community.”
Allison Gill: Ah, Nate Silver, heh-heh.. he and I got into a bit of a tussle when I pointed out that the WSJ poll that many corporate media conglomerates and 538, his podcast, were relying on about what the U.S. voters thought about Joe Biden and his age, that that WSJ poll kicked off the push to get Biden out of the race. I noted that the pollster that did that poll was Fabrizio-Lee, run by Tony Fabrizio. And if you’d like to do a word search for Fabrizio in the Mueller report you’ll find that he comes up quite often in the Mueller report. And so when I pointed that out, a lot of people including Steve Kornacki and Nate Silver and whoever hosts the 538 Politics podcast, not Nate himself, called me out and said that I was ignoring reality and again smoking Hopium. They didn’t reach out for comment, they just dragged me on their podcast..
Simon: Yeah, the fact that President Trump’s pollster, while he’s working for Trump, does a poll that is considered to be “independent” is part of the corruption of the whole information space around polling.
What happened with the red wave in 2022 and why everyone got the election wrong was that independent polling showed the race close, but the Republicans dropped fifty of these very right-wing polls that were far more Republican than the independent polling and those got put into the polling averages and the polling averages then moved to the right. And so if you were just following the polling averages, you saw a red wave. If you dis-aggregated those polls from the polling averages, the independent polls, you showed a close competitive election.
So I had the audacity to dismiss fifty polls… the way the system works, is what Nate Silver was telling us at the time, is that even if those are Republican funded polls, you throw everything into the blender, it all comes out okay. But garbage in, garbage out. This was an attempt to game the polling averages; the same thing happened in 2024. Instead of fifty polls they had one hundred and fifty polls in 2024.
And so like every other part of the information space that we live in now, polling and early vote data are contested spaces by the right where they use illicit tactics to gain advantage.
I mean this shouldn’t be a big surprise. Once you tried to overturn the American government in 2021, you know, throwing fifty right-wing polls into the polling averages is like miniature golf compared to what Trump had done in 2021… But the polling industrial complex defends itself because so many people make money off of interpreting this stuff. And we even had it just happen this week…” WATCH.
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption.
Water quality has been in the forefront of the news in Iowa this summer: beaches filled with toxic algae, high nitrates in drinking water, and water use restrictions. As a state, we have been grappling with these issues and more as a product of pollution in Iowa’s waterways. Submit your comments to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) by October 20 and ask them to improve Iowa’s water quality protections for our health.
Clink on thte link below to tell the Iowa DNR to properly address Iowan’s health through the triennial review process. Here are a few protections IEC is advocating for:
Adopt numeric nutrient standards to prevent nitrate and algae problems.
Set a protective nitrate standard for drinking water.
Adopt human health criteria that EPA has recommended.
Maintain requirements that help meet standards and protect Iowa’s water supplies from pollution.
The Iowa DNR is accepting written public comments until October 20. Questions? Contact us at iecmail@iaenvironment.org.
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Iowa City Wed, Oct 1 @ 5:30 – Ped Mall Fountain Stage – downtown
Featuring State Senator Zach Wahls, candidate for U.S. Senate, UI Law Professor Andrew Jordan, UI Journalism Professor Brett Johnson, Iowa City Librarian Sam Helmick, County Supervisor Jon Green, and more.
Come show your support for our Free Speech rights! For questions or further information please contact Rod Sullivan at rodsullivan29@gmail.com.
💙🇺🇸💙
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Leila for Iowa
Help elect Leila Staton to fight for Iowans’ financial freedom, access to healthcare and housing in Iowa House District 54.
I am not running on corporate PACs, and am relying on grassroots contributions just like yours.
GORDON WATKINS
President and Co-founder
Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
DR. CHRIS JONES
Retired University of Iowa Research Engineer
Author of The Swine Republic, and President of Driftless Water Defenders
FREE!
A $5 donation helps JFAN protect Jefferson County’s quality of life
Imagine a state that works with a community to shut down a large CAFO then establish a permanent moratorium in a valued watershed.
Crazy pipe dream?
This actually happened in Arkansas in the Buffalo National River watershed. On Thursday, October 16 you’ll hear the whole story during the JFAN Annual Meeting.
Gordon Watkins, Co-founder and President of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, will unfold the inspiring story of how the local and broader community came together to oppose C&H Hogs, a 6500-head hog factory farm permitted in 2012. C&H Hogs was built in the watershed of country’s first national river. Its 2.5 million gallons of manure per year threatened the recreational opportunities and aesthetics of this valued resource.
The community’s outreach and perseverance over a 12-year period drew a wide range of allies working to protect the scenic 135-mile Buffalo National River, a major tourist destination and economic driver in Newton County, Arkansas, where C&H Hogs was located.
Watkins will describe how this coalition came together how it pushed the Hutchinson administration to close the CAFO and enact a temporary moratorium in 2019. Its continued efforts resulted in the Sanders administration recently declaring the moratorium permanent.
And then we have Iowa. Could something like that ever happen here?
It could if water quality advocate Dr. Chris Jones had his way. Jones knows all too well how Iowa’s political system bends to the will of agribusiness to the detriment of water quality and public health. He will first provide an overview of why it’s so difficult getting the Iowa state legislators to properly regulate CAFOs and protect water quality.
But Jones recently developed a comprehensive vision for a progressive food and farm policy that could start to heal the land and better protect water quality and the health of Iowans. He’ll share this vision, providing a roadmap of how we can improve the state’s circumstances.
About our Speakers
GORDON WATKINS has lived in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas since 1973 where he and his wife, Susan, operate an organic farm and a tourism business catering to visitors to the Buffalo National River.
In 2013, Gordon helped co-found and is current president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA), a non-profit organization created in response to the sudden appearance of the 6500-head confinement C&H Hogs.
DR. CHRIS JONES, President of Driftless Water Defenders, is a retired research engineer from the University of Iowa and former manager of the Iowa Water Quality Information System that provides real-time monitoring and reporting of water quality data throughout the state.
The JFAN Annual Meeting is free; a $5 free-will donation helps JFAN protect Jefferson County’s quality of life. Registration is required, and you can sign up here.
We have gone through an absolute convulsion of media micro coverage on the Charlie Kirk shooting. One of the most interesting offshoots was the firing of Jimmy Kimmel for making an innocent comment. It had nothing to do with the comment but instead had everything to do with using the incident to accrue power to the executive against the constitution.
We must have heard a thousand times that Charlie Kirk was a ‘conservative.’ No one explained how Kirk was a conservative or how he practiced his conservatism. Whenever I hear the use of such all encompassing words it gets me to wondering just what the user means. In this case I think it is just lazy journalism.
Words such as ‘conservative’ have become trigger words that are meant to evoke an often erroneous image in the listeners mind. ‘Conservative’ has been shaped to evoke the image of someone who believes in a long established set of rules and norms that are the basis for sound and sane society.
For instance most would say conservatives defend intelligent use of our resources such as nature, money and manpower. It also evokes the image of a person very much in control of themselves, not prone to impulsive actions, deliberate in their thoughts and actions.
Now think of those who claim the mantle of conservative. For the most part they are destroying nature and causing irreversible climate change; their policies often do not make any monetary sense; their actions are often impulsive and poorly thought out (use of guns). As for self control, they are often led by a pack leader (such as a wealthy strong man) and seldom act outside the pack.
If you think about it this is hardly the image the lazy journalist conveys when they blankly utter the phrase ‘conservative’ as in ‘conservative Charlie Kirk.’ When you think of what Kirk did, it was hardly ‘conservative.’ He was much more of a far right radical extremist than someone who was trying to save and maintain a society.
But of course for today’s mass media lazy journalism that doesn’t rouse the wrath of the king is the coin of the realm these days. So our pathetic, corporate media spent precious air time making an extremist into a Marty. It always helps to have a bag of reliable words at the ready.
My second thought related to Kirk is why do we never hear of what happens to those shot and injured. I guess most of us just kind of assume that those victims, since they didn’t die are able to go merrily on their way and resume life. But when we all think about it, if you have been shot, there is a very good chance you will have life altering problems.
But in our society even if you have such life altering problems due to someone else’s shooting of a gun you are saddled with the financial responsibility for the rest of your life. Maybe a person needs special living accommodations? Perhaps round the clock nursing care? Maybe they can never work again?
Miya Rodolfo-Siosan (4 minutes)
Long time Iowans can remember back to the November 1991 shooting on Iowa’s campus by graduate student Gang Lu. Lu killed himself and six others died from gunshot wounds delivered by Lu. However, one victim survived. Miya Rodolfo-Siosan was permanently paralyzed from that day until her death in 2008.
“An average of 118 people a day died from a gun-related incident in 2023. For every person who dies by firearm, more than two survive, often with significant and expensive mental and physical injuries. {ed note: That is ~40,000 dead and over 100,000 who survive and must figure out how to live a year}
In June 2024, US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, MD, issued a Surgeon General’s Advisory on Firearm Violence, the first publication from the Office of the Surgeon General dedicated to the health issue.
Gun violence has significant health and economic consequences, especially among child and adolescent survivors. Gun violence can place a strain on health care systems, with survivors increasing hospitalizations and spending by 1,449% and 1,713% respectively.
Gun violence in the US has steep economic consequences, totaling $557 billion in 2022. Most significant are the quality-of-life costs, which include the value of pain and well-being lost by survivors of firearm injuries, decedents, and their families.”
First, I simply must ask – since Iowa State fired an employee for allegedly celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk will the honchos at our universities comb through emails and social media posts for any such similar conduct following the period after Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered?
Grab on to something well anchored. This next week may test our ability to hang on. Remember that Wednesday is the day that MAGAs will be shutting down the government as the FIWH {Felon In the White House} has been angling for as his admin continues to distract from the EPSTEIN! files.
Then comes the SURPRISE! meeting of military brass that Secretary of WAR! Petey Kegbreath has called. Will it be war with Venezuela? Purging the top brass and imposition of loyalty to the FIWH demands? Both? Whatever you can bet it won’t be good.
And what political enemies are in the scopes for next week? The James Comey indictment shows that even being a Republican or MAGA or someone who did an immense favor to the FIWH himself is no defense against retribution from the FIWH. (Did you forget about Comey’s roll in the 2016 election? His October surprise?)
But first, some animal comedy before the swirling the drain starts. It is our old friend Stella and a few piles of leaves (4 minutes)
A) Airports in Denmark, France and Norway were shut down by what last week?
B) Thursday ICE abducted or arrested a worker at a downtown grocery store in what Iowa town?
C) Despite cutting foreign aid to many poor countries that is resulting in deaths, the administration has promised to bail out what extreme right wing country?
D) Old fashioned values! Tom Homan took his $50,000 bribe in what old fashioned way?
E) How about some Autumn questions? About how many women in the US are named Autumn?
F) The FIWH had people with what kind of visas abandoning trips to return to the US as quickly as possible last weekend?
G) Some folks were planning on getting a free house or car last week but their plans were foiled when what did not happen (again)?
H) A sculpture was erected near the US capitol and then quickly removed of the FIWH cavorting with what close friend?
I) Let’s reach back to grade school to remember what kind of trees lose their leaves in the autumn?
J) The acolytes went nuts when they claimed that a what the FIWH was riding on was stopped on purpose at the UN?
K) Speaking of the UN, what world leader was the subject of a mass walkout before he gave his scheduled speech Friday?
L) Why do leaves turn colors in autumn?
M) What Canadian sport will change its rules in 2027 to make it look more like its US counterpart?
N) The FIWH issued an Executive Order against what non-existent group Monday?
O) RFK jr. and his lackeys at Health and Human Services announced they will conduct a ‘review’ of pills designed to do what?
P) Party on, dudes and dudettes! What world known party goes from September 20th to Oktober 5th in Munich, Germany?
Q) Apples are often associated with autumn. Back in colonial days what were apples called?
R) What is Kenvue and why was it in the news last week?
S) Ryan Walters, Secretary of Education for the worst public school system in the US in Oklahoma, did what last week?
T) Morton, Illinois is called the pumpkin capital of the world. Why?
“If you think Tylenol is bad for children, wait until you learn about guns.”Comment on Trump’s saying Tylenol causes autism
Tip of the hat to democraticunderground.co
Answers:
A) drones buzzing airports thought to have been sent from Russia
B) Iowa City
C) Argentina. Current Argentine President Milei îs a big admirer of the FIWh and practitioner of far right economics
D) In a paper restaurant take out bag
E) 135,000
F) H1B visas. The FIWH announced he would charge $100,000 to any H1B visas coming in to the US as of last Sunday
H) Jeffrey Epstein
I) deciduous
J) escalator – it was inadvertently stopped by his videographer. Many were surprised he was able to overcome the obstacle
K) Netanyahu
L) as the sunlight fades less chlorophyll is made and the colors underneath show up
M) Canadian football. Fans are upset
N) antifa. It doesn’t exist. It is a philosophy
O) Mifepristone
P) Oktoberfest
Q) winter bananas or melt-in-the-mouth
R) Kenvue is a company spun off from Johnson & Johnson for its Over the counter medications. Kenvue is the maker of Tylenol, the drug falsely cited by the FIWH as causing autism
S) He ordered all high schools in Oklahoma to start turning Points USA chapter at their schools. Then he resigned to start a company to work against teachers unions.
T) Morton is the home to a Libby’s canning factory where 90% of the world’s canned pumpkin is processed.
The ONLY reason Disney is bringing Kimmel back is because the American people stood up, called out the executives by name, Disney’s stock plummeted and Disney lost a lot
First let me remind you thatthere will be a second NO KINGS day of action on October 18th. I personally believe this will be one of the most historic events in this countries history. It will test whether people truly do have the power to hold a tyrant accountable. Trump and his toadies continue to violate the constitution almost minute by minute and it must be stopped.
Let me also remind you that Trump and his MAGA toadies in congress – including Iowa’s entire groveling congressional delegation – are planning to shut down the government on Wednesday. They have made it plain that they plan to shut the government down by refusing to negotiate anything with Democrats. Their only plans are to blame Democrats and fire federal workers and blame that on Democrats.
That, folks, is how kings take power. Remember that each and every cowardly politician who refuses to stand up to Trump is in effect empowering his continuing power grab. From Grassley, Hinson, Ernst, Reynolds on down to state house MAGAs who have attacked unions, cut unemployment insurance and undermined public schools.
With that as a lead in I want to remind you of four events that will be taking place tomorrow Sunday September 28th, Monday September 29th and Wednesday October 1. The first is a rural candidate forum to be held at the Cedar County Fairgrounds in Tipton. Politicians across the spectrum have been invited to address farm issues.
As any good Iowan knows, the current administration has demolished the markets for Iowa farm products potentially making 2025 a disaster for Iowa farmers. The poster below gives the time and location. Hopefully there will be some folks there to explain and defend the administrations policies.
The second event on Sunday in honor of International Safe Abortion Day, will be a screening of Zurawski v. Texas, a groundbreaking new documentary executive-produced by Jennifer Lawrence, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton. The film reveals the devastating impact of abortion bans in the U.S. through the stories of women denied medically necessary abortions and the fearless attorney who took their fight to court. Their struggle is not only for themselves, but for millions whose reproductive freedom hangs in the balance.
The third event will be in Washington. It is an IA-01 Town Hall: Funding & Affordability Challenges for Rural Healthcare. Please join Fairness for Iowa, Protect Our Care Iowa, and Iowa Physicians for a National Health Plan for a powerful town hall discussion on the growing challenges rural Iowans face in accessing vital healthcare services in their communities.
Today, Dr. Ian Roberts, Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, was detained by ICE agents. This follows horrific attacks from ICE across the United States, including in Iowa City just yesterday. In light of these events, Progress Iowa Executive Director and DMPS parent Mazie Stilwell released the following statement:
“No Iowan is safe. We’re living under a fascist regime because Nunn, Miller-Meeks, Hinson and every single Iowa Member of Congress has been in lockstep with the MAGA administration that is terrorizing our communities. President Trump is willing to use political power against anyone who disagrees with him. While the details of Dr. Roberts’ detainment have yet to be released, we cannot let him, or anyone in America, be detained without due process. We demand our representatives provide answers and appropriate action.
“We hope our elected leaders agree our freedoms are more important than their allegiance to Donald Trump. It is time for themto finally stand up for us and stop these attacks on our freedoms and our communities. Every Iowan should call their legislators and ask why Iowans are being detained, and what they are doing to protect us.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley: (202) 224-3744 or (515) 288-1145
Sen. Joni Ernst: (202) 224-325 or (515) 284-4574
Rep. Nunn: (202) 225-5476 or (515) 400-8180
Rep. Miller-Meeks: (202) 225-6576 or (563) 232-0930
Progress Iowa is the state’s progressive communications hub with a network that reaches nearly 100,000. Year-round, we promote progressive ideas and causes with research-backed creative media strategies to empower Iowans who want to improve our state.
DM School Board holds a news conference yesterday afternoon. News conference was in progress as I copied the link.
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)
Follow Cornhole Champions, 
Allison Gill of Mueller She Wrote and Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles are two of the best people to follow on the internet. Allison was a guest on Simon’s podcast this weekend. You’ll learn where the name Hopium Chronicles originated, a quite interesting anecdote.
Action alert from IEC:
Blog For Iowa 