Republican Party Surrenders To TFG

Posted on May 14, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Well, now we know what he meant. Very bad for women

Now that primary season is upon us throughout the land, it is very interesting to see that what was once the Republican Party is being primaried out of existence by its one time leader, the previous president. Just Tuesday, The Former Guy (TFG as he is known throughout the cyber world) had candidates challenging what were once regular Republicans in primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska.

TFG has become the major issue in Republican politics this year. A Republican politician is either endorsed by TFG or he or she isn’t endorsed by TFG. The issue that gets an endorsement from TFG is whether or not a candidate supports TFG’s big lie that the 2020 election was a fraud. That is it. 

The kind of candidate that is willing to sell their soul for a TFG endorsement is a sad character indeed. But the TFG endorsement is powerful. His followers vote. His endorsed candidates in West Virginia won, one defeating an incumbent representative. His endorsed candidate in Nebraska lost, but there were some really bad extraneous circumstances involving sexual assault allegations.

So far TFG endorsed candidates are winning and winning big, but this is the primary.  Thus primary by primary TFG has basically taken firm control of what was once the Republican Party. I think we can dispense with the name “Republican.” This party has no relationship to Republicans of any other vintage.

Today’s TFG Party is much closer to the extreme right politics of Viktor Orban in Hungary. They are only distantly related to Ronald Reagan and certainly no relation to former party heroes Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

This new party is being built in two ways. The first we described above where TFG is challenging those in the current party in primaries and winning. This is causing a major shift to an even more extreme right wing stance among both current party regulars and primary challengers. Even as current party regulars go even further to the right than  they have ever gone, they are finding themselves outflanked to the right by challengers.

The other way the new party is being built is by having the old guard simply surrender to avoid a primary challenge. In Iowa we saw such a surrender from the old Republican Party to Trump at the state fairgrounds early last October, when Iowa Republicans from Grassley on down lined up to kiss Trump’s ring: 

Sen. Chuck Grassley gave a stirring, 25-second explanation of why he was accepting former President Donald Trump’s endorsement last night: solely because it would help him politically.

The 88-year-old senator briefly took the stage with Trump before a crowd of thousands of energized Trump fans in Des Moines on Saturday evening.

“I was born at night, but not last night,” Grassley said while standing next to Trump. “So if I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91% of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart. I’m smart enough to accept that endorsement.”

Kim Reynolds, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson were all there to supplicate themselves before Trump and surrender to his new political order. We wonder how smart that will look as the January 6th Committee starts revealing Trump’s deep involvement in the attempt to overthrow our government. 

In return for Trump’s endorsement Grassley et alia silently agree to support Trump’s Big Lie. Also they sign on to the even more extreme politics of what was the Republican Party. This includes an absolute ban on abortions, ending gay marriage and ending Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.

This also includes the unholy entanglement of Church and State that Republicans charged into to get Ronald Reagan elected. Historian Heather Cox Richardson had some observations on this in her sub stack newsletter Thursday:  

“The modern Republican Party rose to power in 1980 promising to slash government intervention in the economy. But that was never a terribly popular stance, and in order to win elections, party leaders wedded themselves to the religious right. For decades, party leaders managed to deliver economic liberties to business leaders by tossing increasingly extreme rhetoric and occasional victories to the religious right. Now, though, that radicalized minority is driving the party. It has thrown overboard the idea of smaller government to drive economic growth and embraced the idea that a strong government must enforce the religious and social beliefs of their base on the rest of the country.

This religiously based government wants to control not just individuals, but also businesses. We are seeing not only the apparent overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, but also the criminalization of contraception, attacks on gay and trans rights, laws giving the state the power to design school curricula, fury at immigrants, book banning, and a reordering of the nation around evangelical Christianity. 

<< snip >>

This is no longer your mother’s Republican Party, or your grandfather’s… or his grandfather’s.

Today’s Republican Party is not about equal rights and opportunity, as Lincoln’s party was. It is not about using the government to protect ordinary people, as Theodore Roosevelt’s party was. It is not even about advancing the ability of businesses to do as they deem best, as Ronald Reagan’s party was.

The modern Republican Party is about using the power of the government to enforce the beliefs of a radical minority on the majority of Americans. “

For those who support the current radical turn in what is now a party based on fealty to Donald Trump, they had better be ready for the time when Trump’s wrath turns on them. It always turns in a cult of personality.

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Bans Off Our Bodies Iowa Events

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Trish Nelson

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/rightfully-ours/bans-off-our-bodies#events

Bans Off West Des Moines

On Monday, May 2nd, Politico published a leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that explicitly overturns Roe v. Wade. This is an unprecedented lea… more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies in Cedar Falls

On May 2nd, we learned from a leaked draft opinion that SCOTUS is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping the constitutional right to abortion in spite of fifty years of precedent. The Supreme Cou… more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies in Dubuque

Join together of a national Day of action! We will be meeting up at the courthouse 1:45-2pm and Marching to Town Clock Plaza

2-2:25 pm The March route will start at the County Courthouse and … more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies Iowa City

On Monday, May 2nd, Politico published a leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that explicitly overturns Roe v. Wade. This is an unprecedented lea… more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies Davenport

On Monday, May 2nd, Politico published a leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that explicitly overturns Roe v. Wade. This is an unprecedented … more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies in Burlington

On May 2nd, we learned from a leaked draft opinion that SCOTUS is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping the constitutional right to abortion in spite of fifty years of precedent. The Supreme Court… more info/RSVP

Bans Off Our Bodies in FAIRFIELD IOWA

On May 2nd, we learned from a leaked draft opinion that SCOTUS is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping the constitutional right to abortion in spite of fifty years of precedent. The Supreme Court… more info/RSVP

These are the ones we know of as of Thursday night. Check the link to see if more have been added or to host your own event.

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Watch Iowa Democratic U.S. Senate Debate

Posted on May 12, 2022 by Trish Nelson


ICYMI – Lots of good stuff here. All are quality candidates.

Strong statement by Abby Finkenauer –

“If you are a state legislator you do not belong in my doctor’s office or a doctor’s office of women across this country. I you’re a supreme court justice you do not belong in my doctor’s office. What’s happening here is horrifying and it’s happening because of the fact we have a current U.S. Senator who has been sitting there for nearly 5 decades and held up the nomination of Merrick Garland leading to this U.S. Supreme Court. It shouldn’t have happened.”

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Tell Republicans To Fix Iowa’s “Worst in the Nation” Child Sex Abuse Laws

Posted on May 11, 2022 by Trish Nelson

Action alert from Iowa Senate Dems:  Child sex abuse victims lose the right to confront their abuser faster in Iowa than in any other state.

Sign the petition to fix Iowa’s failing child sex abuse laws. And then tell Iowa Republican state legislators to fix Iowa’s “worst in the nation” child sex abuse laws” BEFORE the 2022 session ends.

Sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/…/end-the-statute-of…

Find your legislator: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EulIXPaveQ

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Check Out The Latest Bizarre Kim Reynolds Video

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Trish Nelson

ICYMI.  Scroll down. That’s our governor.

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The Biden Presidency, the Economy, and the Political Challenges

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Trish Nelson

by Ralph Scharnau
Posted with permission

Since assuming the nation’s highest elective office, President Joe Biden has encountered an economy with both good and bad aspects.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment fell to 3.6% in March, the lowest level in about 50 years.  Yet the inflation rate comes in as the worst in 40 years.  Record wage gains of 5.6% over the past year, for example, run up against consumer prices that have risen 7.9% annually.

In mid-July of last year, the Democrats introduced in the Senate a measure that aims to reshape the American economy.  The $3.5 trillion budget blueprint proposed by President Biden and his party have called it essential to rebuilding the American middle class, lifting people out of poverty, and restoring an economy buffeted by the coronavirus, unemployment, climate change, homelessness, and medical crises.  If the main parts of the Biden economic plan are enacted, it would mean a capstone Democratic achievement that fundamentally overhauls Americans’ relationships with work, jobs, and the federal government.

A central feature of the Biden agenda involves passing economic legislation.  This includes pushing for Congressional approval of public spending on the nation’s physical infrastructure and jobs.  The Biden infrastructure proposals provide public money for repair, rebuilding, upgrading, or replacement.  This money includes public funding for roads, bridges, waterways, airports, and railways.  And requiring that infrastructure projects use U.S. produced materials like iron and stee will stimulate manufacturing and create millions of jobs.  Infrastructure construction work, moreover, provides good paying employment.

Wages figure prominently in Biden’s economic initiatives.  He rates as one of the nation’s strongest labor/union advocates.  He endorses living wages for all workers.

Consider that the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour has not been increased in 12 years.  Wage gains of 5.6% over the past year run up against consumer prices that have risen 7.9% annually.  Today many people work two or even three jobs to pay for food, housing, child   care, and transportation.  The abysmal level of minimum compensation brings economic distress to millions of wage earners.  Congressional votes to raise the federal minimum show a deep partisan divide with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.  Biden and the Democrats call for a $15 minimum.  Beyond the controversy over the need to even raise the federal minimum wage itself, other points of party contention include not only the size of the increase but also how to implement it.

Passage of Biden’s economic package in Congress faces a series of challenges, including filling in key details on taxing and spending and holding together a fragile Democratic coalition.  But if the plan’s central components become law, it would mean a capstone Democratic achievement that fundamentally overhauls Americans’ relationship with work, school, and the federal government.

All of these economic reforms will require unity among Democrats.  The razor thin Democratic majority in Congress could be upended by defections.  The real test will come in the Senate where conservatives and moderates wield more power than their more liberal colleagues in the House.

Ultimately, the degree of success of President Biden’s economic program faces two major hurdles.  One tests his ability to present a solid front of support from his party.   The other tests his ability to fend off attacks from Republicans who characterize his economic spending plans as exorbitant.

The continuing struggle to make the nation’s economy one where all people benefit should remain our goal.  With mid-term elections looming, voters will decide the fate of Biden and his Democratic party’s economic agenda.

Ralph Scharnau
April 26, 2022

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No High Five Today

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Dave Bradley

When it came Friday it was mostly about Reproductive Rights rallies. It has been incorporated into yesterday’s post.

The major issue that Republicans are still dealing with is destroying Iowa’s once highly praised public school system. The plan is to redirect funds to private schools through a “voucher” system.

There is no evidence that private schools would provide education for Iowa’s students. But that is not the driving force behind this transfer of funds from the public to the private sector.

The driving force is to trash Iowa’s public school system. Many of the private schools that will be getting public money through vouchers are religious schools. This should raise concerns among even the most religious citizens.

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“Soul Crushing Milestone”

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Dave Bradley

US officially passes one million deaths from Covid.

From Scientific American of March 29th:  

“The U.S. will record one million confirmed deaths from COVID in the next several weeks. This toll is likely an undercount because there are more than 200,000 other excess deaths that go beyond typical mortality rates, caused in part by lingering effects of the disease and the strain of the pandemic. These immense losses are shaping our country—how we live, work and love, how we play and pray and learn and grow.

 <<skip>>

“We will see the rippling effects of the pandemic on our society and the way it impacts individuals for generations,” says Nyesha Black, director of demographic research at the University of Alabama. “This is definitely a huge marker in the way we will think about society moving forward—it will be that anchor event.” COVID has become the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.

These deaths have wide-ranging consequences. The effects on children may be the longest-lasting. In the U.S., an estimated 243,000 children have lost a caregiver to COVID—including 194,000 who lost one or both parents—and the psychological and economic aftershocks can have lifetime negative impacts on their education and career.

<<skip>>

Younger people have not escaped. About 240,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 have died, nearly a quarter of the total toll. Among working-age Americans, “we are seeing right now the highest death rates we have ever seen in the history of this business,” said J. Scott Davison, CEO of the insurance company OneAmerica, in late December 2021. “Death rates are up 40 percent over what they were pre-pandemic.” For comparison, he said, “a one-in-200-year catastrophe” would lead to a 10 percent increase, “so 40 percent is just unheard of.”

“People are dying in the prime of life,” says Andrew Stokes, an assistant professor of global health at the Boston University School of Public Health. “They’re leaving families. They were caregivers. When we think about the children left behind, the single moms and single dads who don’t have a partner any longer, that’s going to create inequity that will be experienced for years to come.” Those lost took others to the doctor or checked in on friends or neighbors to make sure they were eating well and their blood pressure or sugar levels were okay. “What does it mean when these ties have been broken?” Black asks. “Can you put these pieces back together?”

The milestone was officially passed Wednesday, but as noted in the SA article that is probably a major undercount. We are by far the leader in deaths world wide with the next closest number of deaths is in India with slightly more than half our number of deaths. India has four times our population.

It is so shameful that our country with its wealth, education and access to vaccinations has had such a miserable response to this life threatening disease. Our response was worse than most 3rd world countries.

The reason for such a miserable response lies at the feet of one person – Donald Trump. But others deserve a lot of blame. Fox News broadcast lies and disinformation about the pandemic 24 hours a day while hundreds of thousands died. 

Locally, Covid Kim Reynolds did more than any other to spread the disease as she kept meat packing plants open as workers died and failed to investigate nursing homes as residents died. Iowans should never trust her with any decision making power again. Her only concern was keeping businesses open and pleasing the former president. Iowans were dead last in her concern.

We are far from the end of this pandemic and its effects. Americans are still dying at a rate of near or over 300 a day. Cases are on the rise. Some people were so damaged by their bout of Covid that they may never be able to work again. And we have no idea what the effects of long covid will be or when it may strike. It is the stuff of the scariest horror stories. 

 And don’t forget that climate change has and will create the environment for even worse pandemics to emerge. First and foremost we need competent leadership who will act responsibly immediately. America can’t handle any more incompetency like Trump or Reynolds. It could kill us all.

graphic with Scientific American article

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Sunday Funday: Mother’s Day As Roe Goes Away

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Interesting juxtaposition isn’t it? As Samuel Alito takes an ax to women’s rights of privacy and the ability to make their own health care decisions comes just before Mother’s Day. Forcing women to become mothers at the possible loss of their health or life seems at odds with the spirit of Mother’s Day. So does the threat of long time jail terms for an attempted abortion.

Also interesting is that the men involved as the partner in making the woman pregnant has apparently no responsibility and will suffer no consequences. And of course as we all know, once the child is born that child and its mother are on their own. Good luck.

Well, we all know what the big story this week was. What else happened?

A) 120 degrees F! Where in the world are they getting these temperatures already?

B) Over in Lebanon, Indiana a Republican candidate wins a primary for county council in spite of what bad circumstances?

C) According to a new book by former Defense Secretary claims Trump wanted to bomb what country?

D) Another stellar jobs report as the Labor Department recorded how many new jobs Friday?

E) Mother’s Day! In ancient literature, who is Lilith? 

F) Republicans in the Iowa legislature passed a bill that would let child care providers do what with parents who get child care subsidy from the state?

G) In response to the leaked SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court building in DC had what done?

H) In another SCOTUS decision that was announced Monday, the city of Boston was told it was wrong in not allowing what flag to fly on a flagpole in front of city hall?

I) According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer there will be a vote on what issue next week?

J) What aspect of the Roe v. Wade did Republican leaders focus on after the leak?

K) Jen Psaki is officially leaving as White House Press Secretary. Who will take her place?

L) Cynthia Rosenzweig won the World Food Prize Thursday for her work on what?

M) Mother’s Day! Is the average age of first time mothers in the US going up or down since 2000?

N) What famous comedian was attacked onstage at the Hollywood Bowl last week?

O) Turbo Tax will pay a settlement of $141 million for misleading ads that claimed what?

P) Is the deficit going up or down under President Biden?

Q) What US political leader led a visit to Ukraine last week?

R) 77 years ago today, what major world event took place?  (hint: May 8, 1945)

S) Iowa’s primaries are June 7th. When can Iowans start in person voting at their county auditor?

T) Over in Nebraska, Republican governor candidate Charles Herbster has been credibly accused of what crime?

Time to remind folks of the insightful words of Rev. Martin Niemöller as authoritarian government slowly grips the US:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. 

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. 

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. 

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Answers:

A) India and Pakistan

B) He is in jail because he killed his wife and admitted to it

C) Mexico

D) 428,000

E) First wife of Adam  – made from the same dirt so was his equal    

F) negotiate so providers could possibly make up the difference between subsidy and what the provider charges. Probably won’t work for the poor.

G) Security fences and barricades installed

H) Christian. After that order the Satanic Church immediately filed a request to fly a flag.

I) Roe v. Wade legislation

J) the leak itself and not the ramifications of the decision. (My money is on John Roberts as the leaker)

K) Karine Jean-Pierre

L) the effects of climate change on agriculture

M) Going up – from 24 in 2000 to 27 in 2020

N) Dave Chapelle

O) Poor people could file taxes for free

Q) Nancy Pelosi

R) VE Day (Victory over Europe) – Germany surrendered

S) May 18th. 

T) Groping women – so far at least 8. 

For Republicans, the question is never, “Who is responsible?”  The question is, “Who snitched?” – Middle Age Riot

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George Carlin on “Pro-Life”

Posted on May 7, 2022 by Dave Bradley

Of course we had to show this video with the leak of Justice Alito’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade: (9 minutes)

“Once you are born you are on your own.”

Don’t you wish the Regressive Party would work as hard to get books into schools as they do to get guns everywhere? Or to give children health care and food instead of poverty and hunger?

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