STATEMENT: Stop ICE. Stand up for Iowans.

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Dave Bradley

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –  Sept. 26, 2025

Parker Williamson, Press Secretary 

press@progressiowa.org

Statement: Stop ICE. Stand up for Iowans.

Iowans deserve answers from so-called leaders 

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 them to 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

Rep. Hinson: (202) 225-2911 or (319) 364-2288

Rep. Feenstra: (202) 225-4426 or  (515) 302-7060

###

Facebook: ProgressIowa   Instagram: @ProgressIowa   Threads: @progressiowa.bsky.social

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.

Posted in #trumpresistance | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on STATEMENT: Stop ICE. Stand up for Iowans.

ICE Seizes Immigrant Worker At Bread Garden Market In Iowa City

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Trish Nelson

ICE violently seizes an immigrant worker at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City

By Paul Brennan

“Shortly before 11 on Thursday morning, two men who eventually identified themselves as “federal agents” violently seized a worker at Bread Garden Market on the Ped Mall in Iowa City. Neither man was wearing a uniform or displaying a badge or identification as they tackled Jorge Elieser González Ochoa, forcing him to the floor. After handcuffing him while one agent held a sparking Taser, the two marched González to the store’s rear entrance, then placed him in an unmarked minivan and drove off. The whole time González was calling out in Spanish, asking for someone to help him.

González was preparing to apply for asylum, and at the time he was seized was in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, in which immigrants remain free while their immigration cases are being resolved.

The seizure of González by the two agents in plainclothes was captured on video by bystanders, one of whom kept shouting for agents to identify themselves, and for someone to call the police.”

More info and video at littlevillagemag.com

###

Here is a link to video and KCRG TV-9 report.

https://www.kcrg.com/2025/09/25/escucha-mi-voz-claims-ice-takes-one-its-members/

KCRG posted video on its YouTube channel. The video is muted due to profanity, according to KCRG.com

 

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , | Comments Off on ICE Seizes Immigrant Worker At Bread Garden Market In Iowa City

Save America March Across Iowa Seeks To Build Unity

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Ed Fallon

Save America March seeks to build unity, one step at a time

DES MOINES, IOWA — On Monday, September 29, talk show host and former state rep Ed Fallon begins a five-week trek through Iowa. Fallon sees the Save America March as an opportunity to dialogue with Iowans of all political stripes about preserving America’s democracy through peaceful, nonviolent means.

Fallon plans to walk about 10-15 miles a day. He’ll carry only the walking stick he received from Trappist monks in 2006, the satchel gifted to him by Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter Sumitra Kulkarni in 1995, and a few personal items. He will ask people along the route to put him up in their home each night.

The first week of the March includes stops in Des Moines, Pleasant Hill, Clive, Waukee, and Van Meter. Tentative plans for the second week include stops in St. Charles, Winterset, and Greenfield.

“Our democracy is being supplanted by authoritarian rule,” said Fallon. “We’ll never address the existential threats of climate change and nuclear weapons, or any other pressing issue for that matter, without a functional democracy. Violence isn’t the answer. The approach of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day is what will save us.”

Fallon invites people to march with him for a mile or a day. He’ll ask overnight hosts to organize a meeting, a meal, and music, and to include family, friends, and neighbors with differing viewpoints. “It’s a big ask,” admitted Fallon. “In my experience, when people who don’t see eye-to-eye politically get together over conversation, food, and music, they inevitably find common ground.”

As an example of this principle, Fallon references Crossing the Divide, a short documentary that followed the Climate Justice Unity March in 2017. The initial antagonism by local residents toward marchers was replaced by an understanding of the need to address common concerns.

“Authoritarianism has been spreading for a while,” said Fallon. “This year, it’s gone from bad to worse. The civility that used to define public engagement is being supplanted by name-calling, lying, and flouting the Constitution.”

Fallon’s history of marching as a vehicle for social change dates back to 1986, when he organized the Iowa stretch of the coast-to-coast Great Peace March. Since then, Fallon has organized five long marches and walks.

— He founded Great March for Climate Action (now Climate March) and in 2014 joined 50 people to march 3,100 miles from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. His memoir — Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim — chronicles that journey.

— In March-April 2015, Fallon completed the Dakota Access Pipeline Walk — a solo hike of 400 miles from southeast Iowa to northwest Iowa along the route of the then-proposed Dakota Access pipeline.

— In November 2015, Fallon and Steve Martin walked 200 miles from Normandy Beach to Paris, France, in support of the United Nations Climate Summit.

— In April 2017, thirty people participated in the Climate Justice Unity March, walking 85 miles from eastern Iowa to Des Moines to call for climate action, and to highlight the shared concerns of Native and non-Native Iowans.

— In September 2018, thirty participants in the First Nation – Farmer Climate Unity March walked nearly 100 miles from Des Moines to Fort Dodge to oppose expanding the Dakota Access pipeline.

In addition to directing two non-profits — Climate March and Bold Iowa — Fallon hosts the Fallon Forum, which has aired continuously for sixteen years. His platform includes a weekly radio show on eight stations in seven states, a podcast, and blog.

Fallon also manages Birds & Bees Urban Farm with his wife, Kathy Byrnes. The non-profit’s mission is to help people turn their yard into dinner. Fallon is also an accomplished musician, performing traditional Irish music with the Des Moines Irish Session and having recently recorded the Chopin Nocturnes.

Save America March is sponsored by the Fallon Forum and Climate March. People interested in supporting the March can donate to either organization. People who would like to host Fallon or march with him can reach him at (515) 238-6404 or ed@fallonforum.com.

###

“Resist the change you don’t want to see in the world.” — Ed Fallon

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Save America March Across Iowa Seeks To Build Unity

No, We’re Not In An ‘Ideological War’

Posted on September 24, 2025 by Paul Deaton
Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya on Pexels.com

There is little to say about the death by gun violence of Charlie Kirk. Too many U.S. citizens die of gun violence and the Congress can, and should do something to prevent more death and destruction. On the other hand, Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Brad Sherman, find things to say,

In a Sept. 16, “Letter to the People of Iowa,” published at The Iowa Standard, Sherman wrote in response to the shooting, “…many are waking up to the uncomfortable reality that the United States of America has been and is engaged in a long ideological war that is threatening to break out into all-out chaos.”

I’m calling malarkey.

There will only be chaos for as long as conservatives like Sherman persist in framing our lives in society that way.

When I go to the grocer, the convenience store, the hair stylist, or the hardware store there is no war going on. People are trying to live their complicated lives. For war to exist, there have to be at least two sides, and I just don’t see it in the people among whom I live. We don’t need Republican agitators like Sherman. We are better without them.

Kirk is dead. We should pay appropriate respects. Put down your inflammatory words Mr. Sherman. Any ideological war, if there ever was one, is over.

Let’s get on with making Iowa a better place to live.

~ First published as a letter to the editor  on Sept. 18, 2025 at Little Village Magazine

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on No, We’re Not In An ‘Ideological War’

Opposition Update And Actions

Posted on September 23, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Go to Indivisible.org to join Indivisible and to find your local Indivisible group.

And now a word from Ezra Levin at Indivisible.

This week’s actions are all about fighting bravely and pushing others to be brave with us — from Disney execs in the Kimmel showdown, to our Democratic senators in the funding fight, to our communities on No Kings Day. But first, Ezra addresses the past few days’ big news.

A while back, Leah and I watched the HBO miniseries Years and Years, which tells a dystopian fictional story of the UK’s slow decline into authoritarianism. Each episode jumps forward a few years, with the technofascist story lurching ahead ever more menacingly. Emma Thompson is great as an authoritarian leader, but it may hit too close to home if you’re (reasonably) looking for escapism now.

Unfortunately, our reality is not just some dystopian fiction. Things that all-knowing political commentators dismissed as alarmist months ago are now being defended by MAGA footsoldiers and both-sided by upstanding political commentators. The simple facts are galling:

The president of the United States said publicly, “I couldn’t care less” about right-wing political violence.

His regime then bullied ABC/Disney to censor Jimmy Kimmel for being too critical.

And the administration is now widely reported to be preparing a crackdown on political opponents.

But as threatening and dangerous as all this is, what I see here is a weak regime lashing out. This is desperate, bizarre stuff that will backfire if we make it backfire.

The regime is making a mistake. We’ve got to take advantage of that. I’m not a professional political commentator (thank god), so here’s my take as a pro-democracy organizer instead:

The regime is overplaying its hand. They think they are now justified in cracking down on free speech, peaceful protest, and the opposition. But they’re wrong — they don’t have the support for it.

We’ve seen this kind of overreach and blowback again and again this year. “Winning” issues for Trump — immigration, cancel culture, crime — all crumble in the aftermath of his spasms of authoritarian power grabs.

Americans don’t like masked men disappearing people to foreign gulags. Americans don’t like invading and occupying American cities. Americans don’t like rigging the next election to protect the regime from accountability. Americans don’t like crackdowns on freedom of speech.

And over the past few days, Americans have shown that. Just as we were about to send a different version of this newsletter, ABC/Disney reinstated Kimmel.

Pressure works! This happened because Disney executives — including CEO Bob Iger and Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden — felt the heat:

Tens of thousands of Disney fans moved to cancel their streaming services, Disney trips, and more until Kimmel was reinstated. At one point, so many people were cancelling their Disney+ subscriptions that the page crashed.

They were joined by Disney stars who announced their own account cancellations and skewered their employer for capitulating.

Responding to popular outrage, enough people in power spoke up. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez sounded the alarm about the illegality of threats by her colleague, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, and congressional Democrats called for Carr to be subpoenaed.

By all accounts, ABC/Disney caved to Trump because they thought it’d be the easier thing to do, but they were not in any way prepared for the blowback that followed. They bought into the image of Trump as all powerful — but found out pretty fast that everyday people hold a lot of power, too.

The regime wants to look all powerful — we shouldn’t let it. On Friday, I talked to Jen Psaki on MSNBC about the Disney pressure campaign and the regime’s escalation. My main point: The best way to fight back against Trump’s attacks on our rights is to exercise those rights.

We did that over the last few days by pushing Disney to reverse course. Now, we’ve got to do it again — by making No Kings on October 18 an enormous, historic demonstration of people peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.

We’re closing in on 1,500 events on the map with nearly a month left. We’re exceeding the rate of new event registration we saw for No Kings in June — then the largest domestic protest in years — meaning this is shaping up to be the largest peaceful protest in modern American history.

I want to close out with the guy who closed out our official No Kings launch last week. Mark Ruffalo — one of the Disney stars who pressured the company to reverse course — told us: “We’re the home of the brave and the land of the free. But if we want to be free, then we gotta be brave.”

Damn, Mark, you said it. Read on to this week’s action items for some actionable ways to be brave — and push others to be brave, too.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , | Comments Off on Opposition Update And Actions

Helping Endangered Species In Iowa

Posted on September 22, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Action alert from Iowa Chapter Sierra Club.  Follow them on Facebook.  Join the Friday weekly Lunch and Learn every Friday at noon. Today Wally Taylor, Sierra Club Iowa legal chair discusses what we can do to help endangered, threatened, and special concerns species in Iowa.

What you can do:

Watch this short video.

Tell the Iowa DNR that you do not want the species of special concern removed from the administrative rules.

Email comments to the DNR by 4:30 pm o September 24 to kelly.poole@dnr.iowa.gov or john.pearson@dnr.iowa.gov

Attend the virtual DNR hearing about these changes on September 24, 10-11 am. To access  the virtual event send an email to kelly.poole@dnr.iowa.gov or john.pearson@dnr.iowa.gov

 

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Helping Endangered Species In Iowa

Questionable Deaths In Mississippi Last Monday

Posted on September 21, 2025 by Dave Bradley

Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, the current climate in this country and the history, many questions have been raised that need answering. Since we seldom watch corporate news I do not know if this was given any coverage. My impression was that it was not.

I post this to raise awareness. Hopefully we will be hearing followups quickly on these deaths. (7 minutes)

Note that at @ 3:45 Representative Benny Thompson called for the FBI to investigate. That seems perfunctory given that the current FBI under Pam Bondi and Kash Patel seems to have been fully politicized and incapable of investigating much these days. 

In a report from NBC news the NAACP expressed skepticism of law enforcements version of the students death:

The death of a 21-year-old Black student whose body was found hanging from a tree on a university campus in Mississippi has sparked outrage and allegations online, even after officials said there was no evidence of foul play.

<< skip >>

Yet, that has not prevented people from calling for justice for Reed on social media and circulating unsubstantiated allegations regarding his death.

The NAACP on Tuesday expressed skepticism of the possibility Reed died by suicide in such a manner.

“You’d have to excuse our skepticism amidst growing racially motivated violence targeted at our communities across this nation,” the country’s oldest civil rights group said Tuesday on Instagram in a post with a picture that read, “A man was lynched yesterday.”

“So while we await more formal autopsy reports and information, we offer this piece of history with a level of certainty: Our people have not historically hung ourselves from trees,” the post caption read.

Let us pray we are not descending back to the Jim Crow era. 

Posted in #trumpresistance | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Questionable Deaths In Mississippi Last Monday

Sunday Funday: End Of Democracy Day Edition

Posted on September 21, 2025 by Dave Bradley

I am warning you! If you don’t watch your steps, America, the only approved comic will be Greg Gutfield! Is that what you want, America? O, the tyranny. (1 long minute)

That is where the FIWH wants to take the country! Is that funny or what?

Watching the whole Kimmel scenario unfold has captured America’s attention even as the administration takes in bribes, wrecks our health care system, destroys democracy and on the home front wrecks Iowa’s farm economy. Has it sunk in yet that Trump is only worried about Trump?

Meanwhile, Autumn starts tomorrow at 2:19 PM. It is pretty hot this year as we go into fall. Climate change is alive and well. We are in the middle of Hispanic Heritage month and Caitlin Clark’s team moves on in the WNBA playoffs without Caitlin Clark.

A reminder for those who do not know, the FIWH reference is for the Felon In the White House.

A) Since May, what percentage of their soybeans has China purchased from the US?

B) What bureaucrat raised the alarm on Jimmy Kimmel that got Kimmel fired?

C) Disney fired Kimmel because that bureaucrat threatened to do what? (Hint: business deal)

D) What TV show is in the administration’s sites next for scrutiny?

E) What country has the highest number of Spanish speakers?

F) What country had the ?pleasure? of hosting the FIWH last week?

G) Besides being the day that Jimmy Kimmel got fired, what else is celebrated on September 17th?

H) Another act of war? The US once again attacked a fishing boat from what country this week?

I) Oklahoma is responding to a teacher shortage by importing teachers from what country?

J) What state has the most Spanish speakers?

K) Jimmy Kimmel got his tv start as the comic relief and quizmaster on what Comedy Central daytime quiz show?

L) In return for access to thousands of the world’s most powerful and scarcest computer chips, UAE Sheik Tahnoon deposited $2billion in a crypto fund owned by whom?

M) In his first interview as pope, Pope Leo XIV criticized what world condition?

N) The ruins of ancient Machu Picchu are remnants of what civilization?

O) Robert Redford died last week. One of his earliest roles was as “Mr. Death” in what 1960s TV anthology series?

P) Susan Monarez testified before the Senate last week. Monarez was the head of what agency but was fired whence refused to “replace evidence with ideology”?

Q) Who is the only hispanic heritage justice on the SCOTUS?

R) Shouting matches ensued along with calls for resignation as what FBI leader testified before a senate committee?

S) This seems almost too cruel and barbaric. Alaska has once again allowed the resumption of hunting what animal by helicopter?

T) How many troops has the FIWH deployed in American cities so far?

Eric Trump said his father saw Charlie Kirk as a second son. No, I am not kidding.

Thanks to democraticunderground.com

Answers:

A) 0%. None- and they have no intention of buying any from us. Votes have consequences

B) Brendan Carr head of the FCC

C) Carr threatened to intervene in a couple of corporate mergers that included Disney and ABC station owners Nexstar and Tegna

D) The View – I believe Carr mentioned they should live by the long defunct equal time doctrine

E) Mexico

F) Great Britain

G) Constitution Day

H) Venezuela

I) Mexico – got to wonder if ICE will be rounding them up soon

J) California

K) Win Ben Stein’s Money – Kimmel made Stein tolerable

L) Tahnoon put $2B in the Trump family World Liberty Financial (can you say ‘corruption?’)

M) Vast wealth, income inequality and polarization

N) Inca

O) Twilight Zone

P) the CDC

Q) Sonia Sotomayor

R) Kash Patel

S) Bears

T) the number I found is 35,000. Not sure if that includes Memphis

I’ve watched the military take over our streets.

I’ve watched our universities be threatened and fined.

I’ve watched the Attorney General try to take away your first amendment rights.

This a RED ALERT.

If we don’t stand up now, the America we once knew will be gone. – Gavin Newsom

thanks to democraticunderground.com

Posted in #trumpresistance, Humor | 2 Comments

Weird, Getting Weirder And Dangerous

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Dave Bradley

Reminder: No Kings protest is October 18th at a location near you!

Brendan Carr’s reaction to Jimmy Kimmel’s ?firing?. Carr’s reaction is in the first 2 minutes – the rest is interesting:

Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz put a word on how the radical right acts in this country that really captured the essence of their actions a bit over a year ago: Weird. He could have added corrupt and dangerous. Since Americans can only seem to handle a few thoughts at a time weird captured the essence then and still does now.

Jimmy Kimmel’s firing is getting lots of coverage (BTW – interesting it happened on September 17th – constitution day). So is the continuing coverage of Charlie Kirk. What is not getting coverage is the continuing and growing evidence that the Felon in the White House [FIWH] was deeply involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal conduct with young girls. 

With all the proverbial shit hitting the fan it is often hard to even focus on an issue, let alone try to determine a resistance strategy. In the case of Kimmel’s firing and the continuing crack down on media I have a few suggestions. 

We long ago moved away from corporate media. Public radio has been one of our main sources for quite a while. With the cuts by the FIWH administration we will be supporting them contributions. However, I would caution that NPR still seems to report as if they know they are being watched by the secret police.

Our second source of news for a long time has been the good folks at Free Speech TV. I bring these folks up occasionally as an alternative for folks to check into. Reality and truth are the watchwords for Free Speech TV. As a fully community funded news source they bend a knee to no one.  

Free Speech TV has shows such as Democracy Now with the inimitable Amy Goodman; the Stephanie Miller Show which offers a unique and sometimes hilarious look at current affairs; and Thom Hartmann whose breadth and depth of knowledge is astounding.

As we watch corporate media supplicate themselves before Trump we really need to consider very strongly funding a group such as Free Speech. The corporate monster will continue to lie and cover up for the administration as they look for favors such as allowing monopolies and mergers. FSTV is one way we can fight back.

Below is a recent (Thursday morning) newscast from Democracy Now and Amy Goodman. If you are new to Amy Goodman, you will find her style dramatically different from the brushed and combed corporate newsers. Amy is a reporter.  

You can find their take on the Jimmy Kimmel firing starting @ 5 minutes to about 8:40.

One other source we use to get perspective is an international internet radio that we use to listen live to radio broadcasts in Canada, Britain and occasionally other parts of the world. Since it is coming over the internet the reception is crystal clear. You can find these radios here.

One thing for sure – we have seen ABC and CBS surrender to the wannabe authoritarian without even so much as a whimper. So far the FIWH has claimed two major victories in their march to ending free speech and democracy in America. So do what you can to no longer financially support Disney or CBS/Paramount/ Skydance.

Don’t go to their amusement parks, don’t subscribe to their cable channels, and do not buy their products or support their advertisers if you can avoid it. I know it is hard to do that in this time of corporate monopolies. 

And for goodness sakes, support candidates who oppose the administration’s war on free speech and our constitution. 

Posted in #trumpresistance | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Weird, Getting Weirder And Dangerous

Candidate Forum In Cedar County Next Week

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Dave Bradley

Republicans and Democrats invited

                              Eastern Iowa Rural Revival and Candidate Forum
                                Sunday, September 28, 2-4pm in Tipton, Iowa

Thanks to Muscatine County’s Weekly Slice

Now this looks like a good time. Looks like several organizations are joining together to host a “Rural Revival and Candidate Forum” next Sunday from 2 to 4 PM at the Cedar County Fairgrounds. It says the forum is free and open to the public.

According to the poster, candidates at many levels have been invited. This may be one of the few opportunities to see candidates actually answer real questions on real issues.

I know Iowans have lots of questions about farm and tariff policies, health care policies, vaccine policies, international policies, immigration policies and the treatment of immigrants, guns and gun violence. 

As I said, this may be a rare opportunity to ask tough questions of office holders and candidates alike.

Thanks to the Muscatine County Democrats for sending that flyer along!

Posted in #trumpresistance, Blog for Iowa | Tagged , | 1 Comment