Democrats Must Reclaim Their Heritage As The Party Of Freedom

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Dave Bradley

“Neccessitous Men Are Not Free” FDR January 6th, 1941 (How strange. The same date that another president would lead an attempted coup against our form of government 80 years later.) 

Thom Hartmann has a daily newsletter. He calls it a rant. His rants frequently get to the very nut of issues unlike many others. Monday he hit at a soft spot in Democratic politics. Why has the Republican Party over the past decades become known as “the freedom party” when their actual politics is authoritarian control?

Here is Hartmann’s rant:

In his newsletter Monday, Hartmann put most of this in print. For emphasis I will post a few important passages. This is the kind of things I would love to hear from Democrats this election year:

 You can’t disentangle economics from liberty. Which is why Democrats have proclaimed since the 1930s that:

  • If you’re hungry and don’t have access to food, you’re not free.

  • If you can’t afford decent housing and therefore don’t have a safe place to live, you’re not free.

  • If you’re out of work and can’t support yourself or your family, you’re not free.

  • If you’re sick and can’t afford medical treatment, you’re not free.

  • If you live in fear of rightwing terrorism because of your religion or the color of your skin, you’re not free.

  • And if you have the inherent capability to be a scientist or union electrician but can’t afford college or trade school to reach your potential, you’re not free.

Instead, as FDR said in the next sentence of that speech:

“People who are hungry, people who are out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”

It’s time for the Democratic Party to begin messaging like FDR did. 

Referring to the wealthy base of the Republican Party, Hartmann notes:

For most of our history conservatives have promoted the interests of slaveholders, big property owners, big business, and big money, while progressives have promoted the interests of freedom for average working people.

Hartmann also notes the power of the wealthy in America to keep folks from truly being free:

While fascism was rising in Europe, another type of tyranny was overtaking America, driven by bankers and industrialists who controlled vast wealth and political power.

If you lived under the thumb of an employer who refused decent pay and benefits, and you lacked the legal political power to join a union, you were not free.

Since there are limits on cribbing from other folks, I highly recommend clicking on the link to read Hartmann’s full newsletter or listening to his rant above to get the full flavor of what this very important message is.

FDR in his State Of The Union address of 1941 listed his Four Freedoms. The freedoms of speech and worship, with the right to live without fear and want, were spoken to be as inalienable as the rights laid out by Thomas Jefferson: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He opened the speech with this statement:

“We have come to a clear realization of the fact, however, that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry, people who are out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, or race or creed” 

It is time for Democrats to reclaim the heritage as the real party of freedom by letting voters know what party created almost all of the framework that allows what freedoms we do enjoy. It is also time to let people know that there is plenty more work that needs to be done to allow all Americans to be fully free.

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2022 Election campaign, economic inequality, Economic Justice, Economy | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Democrats Must Reclaim Their Heritage As The Party Of Freedom

Zach Wahls On Legislature’s #1 Problem

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls (12/9/21)

“The biggest challenge facing the Iowa Legislature’s 2022 session is the Kim Reynolds Workforce Crisis.

“In Iowa manufacturing, health care, education, our service industries…everywhere across our state there just aren’t enough workers…

“During the 2022 session, Senate Democrats will tackle this issue head on. We have an agenda to solve the Kim Reynolds workforce crisis and fix Iowa’s economy.

“Senate Democrats will focus on:
• expanding career and technical education, and apprenticeships
• making child care more available and affordable throughout Iowa
• expanding broadband
• fully funding public and higher education
• increasing Iowa’s affordable housing
• and other steps to get Iowa’s economy back on its feet.

Complete statement: https://www.senate.iowa.gov/…/the-kim-reynolds…/

Follow Iowa Senate Dems on Twitter   Facebook   YouTube   Instagram

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Zach Wahls On Legislature’s #1 Problem

The Biden Plan To Save Democracy

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Trish Nelson

I don’t know about you but I don’t regularly visit Whitehouse.gov. But as bad as most other news sources are in terms of  just getting the facts without the hysterics, I may make it my primary news source along with Jen Psaki press briefings and Biden himself. I learned during the Obama years to never trust what the media said Obama said.

You would think with everything the Biden administration is accomplishing it would generate more media coverage but you would be wrong. Lack of media coverage and bad media coverage makes it seem like the Biden-Harris administration is not taking action to combat threats to Democracy.  So if you think they are not taking it seriously, think again. This list is a tiny sample of everything the Biden administration is doing to save Democracy.  Head over to Whitehouse.gov for much more. You might be amazed.

And don’t forget to share on social media.

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/08/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-is-taking-action-to-restore-and-strengthen-american-democracy/

FACT SHEET: The Biden-⁠Harris Administration is Taking Action to Restore and Strengthen American Democracy

From the first day in office and every day since, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken decisive action to restore and strengthen American democracy, from cracking down on corruption and promoting transparency to taking critical steps to ensure the federal government works for every American — no matter what they look like or where they live. This cause will be a guiding principle throughout the President’s time in office, and that includes prioritizing the fight to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections.

Sustaining democracy is also a shared challenge and commitment for our allies and partners overseas. Against the backdrop of a rise in authoritarianism and increasing threats to democracy around the world, President Biden is convening world leaders for a Summit for Democracy to provide an opportunity to listen, learn, and share how governments and non-governmental actors can strengthen their commitment to democratic principles and practices, and their responsiveness to the people they serve.

As President Biden made clear in his first Address to the Joint Session of Congress on April 28, 2021, “We have to prove democracy still works — that our government still works and we can deliver for our people.” Demonstrating that democracy can deliver to improve people’s lives and address the greatest challenges of our time — and that we, the people, can work together to address the threats facing our democracy — is at the heart of the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to Build Back Better.

Last month, after working across the aisle to negotiate with Members of Congress from both parties, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This once-in-a-generation investment in America’s infrastructure and competitiveness will drive the creation of good-paying union jobs, grow the economy sustainably and equitably, and shows that democracy can deliver results for the American people. President Biden continues to work with Congress to enact the Build Back Better Act, historic legislation that will cut the cost of child care and elder care, invest in affordable housing, position the U.S. to tackle the climate crisis, make health care and prescription drugs more affordable, and much more — fully paid for by ensuring the wealthiest individuals and corporations pay their fair share. These transformational pieces of legislation also make critical investments in American democracy, including:

  • Delivering Broadband Access and Digital Literacy Skills. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $65 billion to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet, close the digital divide, and fund digital literacy initiatives to provide individuals with the skills needed to critically evaluate information online. These investments will democratize access to information, services, and opportunity while promoting information awareness and education.
  • Foster Civic Engagement and a Culture of National Service. The Build Back Better Act will create a new Civilian Climate Corps (CCC), bringing together a diverse generation of over 300,000 Americans to work together in common purpose to conserve our public lands and waters, bolster community resilience, and address the changing climate. It will provide AmeriCorps with a historic $15 billion investment to expand service opportunities and increase the living allowance and education award for all AmeriCorps members, making national service a more accessible pathway to good-paying union jobs for more Americans of all backgrounds.
  • Investing in Civic Infrastructure. The Build Back Better Act contains $3 billion to create a new Community Restoration and Revitalization Fund, which will fund community-led civic infrastructure projects to create shared amenities that spark local economic activity, provide services, and strengthen communities’ civic fabric.
  • Supporting Local Journalism. The Build Back Better Act will provide tax credits for local newsrooms to hire journalists, helping to stabilize newsroom budgets in the face of unprecedented challenges and sustaining Americans’ access to the independent journalism that informs citizens and holds the powerful accountable.

The Biden-Harris Administration firmly believes that renewing democracy around the globe begins by working diligently and transparently to strengthen its foundations at home. The Administration is taking bold action across the Summit’s three broad themes: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism; fighting corruption; and promoting respect for human rights.

Strengthening Democracy and Defending Against Authoritarianism

In addition to pressing for essential legislation to protect voting rights and strengthen our democracy, the Biden-Harris Administration is using available authorities and resources to defend the right to vote. The Administration has also advanced a broad range of actions to repair the fabric of our democracy, from bolstering workers’ rights and unions, an essential bulwark of democratic societies, to combating domestic violent extremism. This work includes:

  • Ensuring Compliance with Voting Rights Laws. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken a variety of steps to help protect the right to vote, including doubling the number of voting rights attorneys, taking steps to ensure compliance with voting rights statutes, and issuing guidance on (1) the civil and criminal statutes that apply to post-election audits, (2) methods of voting, including early voting and voting by mail, and (3) the vote-dilution protections that apply to all jurisdictions under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as they engage in redistricting.
  • Making it Easier for Americans to Register to Vote. Federal agencies continue to robustly implement President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting, including among many other things:
    • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make it easier for consumers using HealthCare.gov to connect to voter registration services and receive assistance. CMS will also work with states on improving access to voter registration.
    • The Department of Veterans Affairs will provide materials and assistance in registering and voting for tens of thousands of inpatients and residents, including VA Medical Center inpatients and residents of VA nursing homes and treatment centers for homeless veterans.  The Department will also facilitate assistance in registering and voting for homebound veterans and their caregivers through VA’s home-based and telehealth teams.
    • The U.S. Small Business Administration became the first federal agency to request designation as a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, committing to offer Americans seeking services at the agency’s District Field Offices the opportunity to register to vote.
  • Combating Misinformation and Disinformation. Today, the White House announced that an interagency Information Integrity Research and Development Working Group will develop and release a first-of-its-kind strategic plan concerning government-wide research and development to better understand the full information ecosystem; design strategies for preserving information integrity and mitigating the effects of information manipulation, including mis- and disinformation; support information awareness and education; and foster a multi-disciplinary and collaborative research environment.

Fighting Corruption

Since Day One, the administration has worked to earn and keep the trust of Americans by cracking down on corruption and promoting an accountable and transparent government that works for the people, from  requiring all appointees to take a stringent ethics pledge, to releasing the President’s and Vice-President’s taxes, to issuing policies to restore DOJ’s independence. In addition to the steps we’ve already taken, this week we will be highlighting actions including:

  • Developing a Strategy on Countering Corruption. The Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, outlining a whole-of-government approach to elevating the fight against corruption both at home and abroad. The Strategy includes the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) publishing proposed regulations requiring companies to identify to FinCEN the real people who own or control them, making it harder for criminals to launder illicit proceeds through shell companies. The Strategy also commits FinCEN to launching a regulatory process for potential new reporting and record keeping requirements to increase transparency in real estate transactions, diminishing the ability of corrupt actors to launder ill-gotten proceeds through real estate purchases.
  • Restoring Ethics, Transparency, and the Rule of Law. The Administration will continue working with Congress to restore democratic guardrails to prevent future abuses of presidential power and curtail corruption, with legislation that is consistent with our constitutional principles and that appropriately addresses the balance of powers between the three branches of our federal government. In doing so, the Administration will work to ensure that no branch is able to abuse its authority or undermine a co-equal branch’s constitutional prerogatives, no matter who is in power.

Click here to read more at Whitehouse.gov

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Biden Plan To Save Democracy

Climate Change Is Missing In CCS Debate

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Paul Deaton
2012 Drought Conference in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

The language used by supporters of carbon capture and sequestration in Iowa is very specific. Not only doesn’t it include the words “climate change,” it specifically avoids mentioning it. This is a long-standing practice among major agricultural groups.

As mentioned last week, Iowa is primarily a production landscape for hogs, cattle, corn and beans where our water, air and land have been and continue to be used like an open sewer. The major agricultural groups are the Iowa Pork Producers Association, the Cattlemen’s Association, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, and the Iowa Soybean Association. Agricultural Iowa is about business at a distance from the meme farmers are the original environmentalists. To them, carbon capture is about business, not reducing greenhouse gas emissions or stewardship of the environment.

Representatives of these agricultural associations showed up in Mount Pleasant, Iowa during the 2012 drought. Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds heard their report. The words “climate change” were absent from public discussion of the drought.

The eight hundred pound gorilla in the Mount Pleasant High School Gymnasium today was the subject of climate change. Governor Terry Branstad called for a public discussion on drought conditions in Iowa and all of the governmental players were there: USDA, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Farm Services Administration. The phrase “climate change,” or any analysis of causation for the current drought was absent from the public discussion. This was a meeting about row crop agriculture and related agricultural producers and it was intended to deal with the as-is situation. The obvious problem, as Mark Schouten of Homeland Security and Emergency Response put it, “you can’t snap your fingers and make it rain.”

Paul Deaton, Blog for Iowa July 17, 2012.

The eight hundred pound gorilla has returned to Iowa as the Iowa Utilities Board hears the case for Summit and Navigator to implement carbon capture and sequestration systems which include hundreds of miles of buried pipeline. The language is familiar in its avoidance of discussion of climate change.

On Monday, Rep. Chuck Isenhart attended a public information meeting held by the Iowa Utilities Board for the Navigator project in Manchester. He used Twitter to relay news from the meeting. If landowners were most concerned with restoration of land productivity in the event the CO2 pipeline crossed their property, following is a main point about the absence of climate change from the discussion:

While the project as proposed would offset the CO2 equivalent of 34.7 million barrels of oil annually, according to Isenhart, “No meaningful impact on PPM atmospheric CO2 anticipated from project.” What is the project about if not reducing greenhouse gases like CO2? “Economic competitiveness of ethanol and fertilizer producers.”

States like California and Oregon have already begun to move toward a low carbon economy, including debate on whether ethanol is a “low carbon fuel.” Let me settle it this way. Summit and Navigator are spending more than a billion dollars to ship condensed CO2 from ethanol and fertilizer plants and bury it deep geological formations. Seems like a lot of carbon dioxide production to me. Why are they doing that?

In a July 2021 letter to President Joe Biden, a group of 70 ethanol producers pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The main method is carbon capture and sequestration. Why send it?

  • The delay by the Biden administration in release of volume requirements in the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2021 and 2022.
  • The ethanol industry suffered major setbacks in court with the loss of year-round E15 and at the Supreme Court on a small-refinery exemptions case.
  • In response to policies like the Renewable Fuel Standard, California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and Oregon Clean Fuels Program.
  • President Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The debate among environmentalists is whether a decarbonized economy reaches net zero emissions or zero emissions. In either case, pairing ethanol and fertilizer production with CCS doesn’t meet the requirements.

The more study of the matter, the clearer it becomes that the Summit and Navigator projects are about making ethanol “competitive” should the economy decarbonize. It is a big hedge against a government directive to eliminate the financial and policy incentives to produce corn for ethanol.

Opposing production of corn ethanol is not a popular position in Iowa because more than half of corn raised is feed stock for ethanol. However, it is the right position.

Monday I was a guest on the Fallon Forum discussing Iowa CCS projects. Click here to view. I’m at the 32:30 mark.

Posted in Environment | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Take Action This Week For Iowa

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Action alert by CCI (Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement) –  Check out their website and sign up for their weekly organizing letter.

To be as powerful, strategic and effective as possible, CCI Action needs you!

Join, donate today and your gift will support work that stands up against corporate power, supports an end to racist policing, builds Iowa communities that are resilient in the face of climate change, and wins Medicare for All!

Polk County – take action on ARP$ this week

The recent win in Johnson county to establish an Excluded Workers Fund shows us that when we organize everyday people we can win real investments in our communities and for our people.

In Polk county, Supervisors are currently soliciting input from the community and holding forums to help shape how Polk county uses its roughly $95 million in American Rescue Plan money.

Another lesson from the work in Johnson county is that unless people speak up, the voices of everyday people, and especially people of color and marginalized communities, will be left out of the decision-making process.

Make your voice heard! Attend the next forum on Economic Well-Being Dec. 8 to support our Immigrant Rights Team to ask for an essential and excluded worker fund in Polk County. We will be masking up and meeting at the CCI office to prep at 8am before going to the Supervisor forum at 9:30am. Let us know if you can join by registering here.

Can’t make it in person? You can still attend the forum virtually by clicking here. And, make sure you take their survey here on how the county should allocate ARP funding before it closes on December 31.

Not in Polk county? Contact your city council and county supervisors and find out how they’re engaging their constituents in decisions as to how pandemic relief money is being spent.

Were you shortchanged by Reynolds?

Were you receiving federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) but got your benefits cut off early by Governor Reynolds? We might be able to help you retrieve the money you were owed. Some smart legal allies of ours are working on strategies to make sure people who were owed that federal support get it back. And they’re looking for people like you to help make it happen.

So if you received federal unemployment benefits but got that benefit cut in June by Gov. Reynolds, call Lisa at 515.282.0484 or send an email to lisa@iowacci.org and we’ll connect you to the right folks.

Protect Iowa’s Land and Water: Say No to Navigator Pipeline

Another greenwashing scheme threatens 36 of Iowa’s counties.

Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC is proposing a large-scale carbon capture pipeline that would cut through Iowa from Lee to Lyon counties, with several branches along the way. Public informational meetings are currently underway – click here to find the meeting closest to you.

These meetings are excellent organizing opportunities – it’s a chance to meet landowners in the pipeline’s path as well as other concerned residents who want to stop the pipeline. Let us know if you plan to attend and how you can help! Contact Lisa at lisa@iowacci.org or 515.282.0484.

These are a few links that are informing our work – we’ve shared them so that you can read, too! 

Climate change is making it harder to provide clean drinking water in farm country (featuring CCI member Janis Elliot) [Iowa Public Radio]

The Corporate Plan to Murder Medicare Runs Through Medicare Advantage [Common Dreams]

The Betrayal of Roe [New York Magazine]

Liberals Are Increasingly Embarking on Dangerous Flights from Reality [Jacobin]

What Rep. Massie’s Christmas photo says about today’s GOP [CNNIowa has $141 million in undistributed federal rent and utility aid. The US Treasury might take funds back [Des Moines Register]

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Take Action This Week For Iowa

Al Franken Talks With David Cay Johnston

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Here at BFIA we’re not into promoting the former guy and the crazy-crowd antics associated with him.  This is a reality based conversation about the former guy for a change.

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Comments Off on Al Franken Talks With David Cay Johnston

Iowa’s Republican House Delegation Votes To Default

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Quite a difference between what Democrats will do and what Republicans will do

Once again Iowa’s Republican members of the US House shamed the state by voting not to raise the debt ceiling and thus cause the US to default on its debts. This was not a vote to spend more money, but to pay the bills for the debt that all congresses have run up since the beginning of the republic. 

Were the US to default on paying its bills – literally refusing to pay debt it incurred through our democratic process – it would throw the international economic systems into chaos. Voting against raising the debt ceiling is a vote against the country itself. That is what Iowa’s Republican delegation voted for Thursday evening.

Perhaps Iowa’s Republicans do not understand what such a vote means. Makes a person wonder how people who attain the power to cause such potential damage could be SO ignorant of the consequences of their votes. How can Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra be in congress and be so totally uninformed of the consequences? 

My guess is that the information they get in their lives is so slanted and false that they are incapable of making well considered decisions. If that is true then Iowa’s voters have an obligation to vote them out of office due to their own self-imposed ignorance. Iowa and the country can not continue to support such ignorance that leads to such bad decisions.

Remember that the Republican Party contributed mightily to the debt that they now vote to refuse to pay. 

  • Since the days of Richard Nixon taking the Viet Nam war out of his budget to the days of 
  • Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts for the wealthy and military build up that greatly increased the debt to the days of 
  • Bush I’s tax cuts for the wealthy to 
  • his son’s (George W’s) HUGE tax cuts for the wealthy and his wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. These were wars for which there were no taxing to pay for the wars. The first war on a credit card in our history to
  • The previous president whose $1.7 Trillion tax cut for the wealthy really bumped the debt.

All those tax cuts for the wealthy have done nothing to stimulate the economy as was promised. All they have done is moved tax payer money from the poor and middle class to the wealthiest 1%. 

Iowa’s Republicans in congress ignore the massive spending, unpaid wars and massive give-aways to the wealthy to jibber-jabber about Democratic proposals to stimulate the economy. Analyses of the Democratic proposals have shown that the spending proposed and the taxes proposed will pay for the spending. They also show that real stimulation to the economy will pour money into the economy that may pay down some of the debt.

By their own votes Iowa’s House Republicans have shown themselves to be simply too ignorant of the issues – especially economic issues – to remain in congress. They are either incidentally ignorant or purposely ignorant. Either way they are too ignorant of issues to remain nonsuch powerful positions.

From Heather Cox Richardson we also are reminded of this unintended consequence:  

The struggle in Ukraine illustrates the deep connection between the strength of the U.S. economy and our national security—something to keep in mind when former president Trump calls for Republicans to refuse to lift the debt ceiling and force the country to default on our debts in order to try to kill the Democrats’ agenda.

We have a duty to remove them next fall. Iowans have excellent choices in Iowa-01 in the person of Christina Bohannon and in in Iowa-02 in the person of the highly experienced Liz Mathis.

Posted in 2022 Election campaign, Republican hypocrisy, Republican Policy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Iowa’s Republican House Delegation Votes To Default

Sunday Funday: Slowly I Learn Greek Edition

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Dave Bradley

“It’s that Time Of Year” 30 seconds:

What was the old joke? War is America’s way to teach its children geography. Well it looks like the updated version of this is epidemics are America’s way to slowly teach its children the Greek alphabet. So far we have learned Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, some lesser letters, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi and Omicron. More to come I hope not.

It feels like the world teetered a bit last week, but it feels like we have the right people in the right places to prop it back up and keep it rolling. Last year I was hopefully optimistic. This year I know we are headed the right direction. If the anti-vaxxers would just quit trying to commit slow suicide and get a jab for all of us.

Lots of news last week.

A) Let’s start with perhaps the biggest story. The SCOTUS heard arguments in a case specifically aimed at overturning what landmark case?

B) During those arguments, Justice Amy Coney Barret said that adoption could “obviate the need for” what?

C) What European country announced it would enforce an extreme lockdown for unvaccinated individuals beginning in February after a parliamentary vote?

D) Once again the US is stunned by a high school shooting in what city?

E) Where did the suspect in the above shooting get his weapon?

F) Former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, became the butt of derision after he called a story in his own book what?

G) Speaking of books, how is that new Chris Christie book doing?

H) Time to sneak in some ‘time of year’ questions. Although the solstice is December 21, when does the sun start setting later in the day?

I) The debt ceiling was once more extended to February thus avoiding a year end disaster. How did Iowa’s congress members vote on the debt ceiling extension?

J) Some news on the labor front last week. What major player in cereal with a huge plant in Omaha settled their strike last week?

K) On the east coast of Iowa, what long term project connecting Iowa and Illinois has finally been completed after 4 years?

L) Tuesday is the 80th anniversary of what one of America’s most infamous tragedies?

M) What TV doctor has announced he will run for senate in Pennsylvania despite the fact he doesn’t live there?

N) The far right made a big to do when the Vice President bought what on a trip abroad?

O) In Tucson, Arizona a police officer was fired after he shot what kind of  person in an alleged shopping incident?

P) Kind of a Cinderella story. Susan Arnold was chosen as the first female Chair of the Board for what major entertainment company?

Q) The high profile trial of what consort of Jeffery Epstein began last week?

R) What now former head of Twitter announced he was leaving Twitter as of Monday?

S) What CNN news anchor has been indefinitely suspended?

T) Hundreds of what items were found in an Alabama ravine by local authorities?

life hack: avoid the stress of following the government lifting/reinstating of mask mandates by ignoring them and wearing a mask regardless. – shaun tweet

Answers:

A) Roe v. Wade

B) Abortion

C) Germany – unvaccinated will only be allowed to go to things like grocery stores and drug stores.

D) Oxford, Michigan

E) It was an unsecured gun in his parents house.

F) “Fake News”

G) It has sold 2,289 copies so far, making it one of the biggest flops in history

H) next week on December 13th

I) Axne voted to extend and avoid a disaster. MillerMeeks, Hinson and Feenstra voted No and for a possible disaster.

J) Kellog’s

K) the I-74 bridge

L) Pearl Harbor 

M) Dr. Mehmet Oz

N) A copper cooking pan

O) The victim in this case was wheel chair bound and was shot 9 times in the back. He was alleged to have stolen a tool box from Walmart.

P) Disney

Q) Ghislaine Maxwell

R) Jack Dorsey

S) Chris Cuomo. He used his connection to try to help his brother the governor identify those who were accusing his brother of sexual harassment

T) Fed-Ex packages.

Hey Lauren Boebert, maybe not a good idea to call a colleague a terrorist when you’re the one who brings a gun to work. – Andy Borowitz

Posted in #trumpresistance, Covid-19, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Slowly I Learn Greek Edition

Covid Kim Battles The Public Good

Posted on December 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

photo courtesy of progressiowa.com

I had a dental appointment this week. Thanks to the Covid-19 it was my first visit in 2 years. I do not like to put so much space between dental visits. I go to the U of Iowa Dental School. One would think that being a public institution set up for public health that the good folks at the Dental School would be tops in Covid-19 preventative measures.

Well boy, was I ever surprised when I went to make an appointment. I asked a simple question that has to be on the mind of everyone who is about to access any kind of health care – Will my provider be vaccinated? I thought this was a fairly straight forward question. And I expected a fairly straight forward answer. I was told that that information can not be given out.

So now I am in the position of possibly risking getting a virus that may kill me or continuing to postpone needed care. I chose to make the appointment, but not before a few calls to the Dental School and several choice words with their public liaison. While I understand there are privacy rules, this seemed over the top. Why could there not have been some indication that the providers were vaccinated.

Since probably a large portion of the Dental Schools patients have their dental care paid by some federal agency, I would guess that the School would come under the guidelines that President Biden set out several months ago that health facilities that get payments from federal programs will have a mandatory vaccination. 

Monday a federal judge in Louisiana stopped the administration’s mandate for now. No doubt this came as good news to Covid Kim. Not sure if this was the case she had our state join in. It did accomplish what she wanted however. While the public good should be the goal of governmental leaders, since Trump was installed as president, disruption has been Republican leadership goal. 

A decision such as this will certainly cause disruption. While the governor will claim this is a victory for freedom, I think most of us would call bullshit on this premise. There is nothing in any constitution or other official document that allows people to cause other people suffering. Most of our laws are based on stopping people from causing pain, damage and bodily harm to others. 

Thom Hartmann in his daily newsletter reminds us that SCOTUS addressed this very issue in 1905:

This (not getting vaccinated – ed.), the Court ruled, was a patent absurdity.

“But the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction,” the majority wrote in the very next sentence, “does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. On any other basis, organized society could not exist with safety to its members.

“Society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others. …

“Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

Being a health care worker with a highly transmissible and possibly deadly disease working in an environment where people are extremely vulnerable sounds to me like the very definition of what should be a crime. Yet our governor supports keeping our system disrupted by allowing providers who potentially have a deadly virus to work around the often vulnerable customers of the health care system.

I would hope most of us would think that the very least requirement that a worker in a public health care system must show is that they are vaccinated against highly contagious diseases. Without that, public health care systems become public spreader systems.

What this does accomplish is to disrupt centuries of work to instill trust in our public systems. As this distrust spreads private business may fill the void. Such a vacuum fill will be a poor substitute, since the private businesses will be much less reliable and less available to the poor.

Just to add to the disruption Reynolds is causing, let’s take a look at the concept of paying unemployment insurance to those who voluntarily leave their jobs rather than get a covid vaccination as their jobs required. This was originated here in Iowa. Back in the old days – a couple of weeks ago – someone who left their jobs for failure to follow orders would be laughed at if they tried to get UI when they purposely left their jobs.

But it is so important to Reynolds and her band of disruptors that the unvaccinated be kept unvaccinated that they will pay them with our money. As long as a large chunk of society stays unvaccinated, it will affect the economy by keeping people home away from stores. Most political students believe as the economy goes, so goes the election. Keeping a high level of unvaccinated will keep the virus spreading and mutating will be a damper on the economy. So Republican governors therefore will pay unvaccinated with our money.

Here is a synopsis on the state of Unemployment Insurance for the unvaccinated from slate.com:

On Oct. 20, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a crackdown on unemployment benefits. She required recipients to double their job-search activity, and she imposed strict audits—with the threat of cutting off payments to anyone who fell short—to ensure that “no Iowan who is receiving unemployment benefits unnecessarily remains on the sidelines” of the job market.

Nine days later, however, Reynolds signed legislation that pays vaccine refusers to do just that: sit on the sidelines. Under the new law, anyone “discharged from employment for refusing to receive a vaccination against COVID-19 … shall not be disqualified for benefits.”

Reynolds is one of many Republican politicians who openly advocate, and in some states have successfully imposed, a two-tiered system of unemployment insurance. It’s not a left-wing policy of money for everyone or a right-wing policy of money for no one. It’s a policy of pernicious hypocrisy: welfare for vaccine refusers, tough love for everyone else.

Under these new laws, any worker who gets fired for broadly defined “misconduct,” such as flunking an employer-imposed drug test, is disqualified from unemployment benefits—but employees who refuse COVID vaccination are glorified, protected, and subsidized. The state must guarantee, in Reynolds’ words, that these reckless freeloaders “will still receive unemployment benefits despite being fired for standing up for their beliefs.”

The GOP’s coddling of vaccine refusers makes a joke of its rhetoric about self-reliance. This summer, for instance, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ended the federal government’s supplemental COVID-era unemployment benefits. “We are paying people to stay home. That needs to change,” he declared. But two weeks ago, Lee signed legislation that pays vaccine refusers to stay home. Under Tennessee’s new policy, the state’s normal rule about employees fired for “misconduct”—that they lose their eligibility for unemployment benefits—can no longer be applied to anyone who is terminated for “refusing to receive a vaccination for COVID-19.” 

I sure hope our press is ready with tons of questions and follow ups next year when Covid Kim stands for re-election. It is long past time that she be held accountable for her policies that have kept Iowa near the top of Covid cases and Covid deaths.

Posted in 2022 Election campaign, Covid-19, Kim Reynolds, Republican Policy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Reminder: Republicans Only Anti-Abortion For Politics

Posted on December 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

You may remember this segment of the Samantha Bee’s “Full Frontal” from the primary year of 2016.  We have posted it here several times before. Sam Bee does a great job of explaining how evangelicals were maneuvered into becoming the shock troops against abortion WELL AFTER Roe v. Wade (10 minutes)

This and its companion video posted at the end explain how the Republican Party took evangelicals major issue of race and were able to twist the evangelicals desire to maintain segregation into an anti-abortion movement. 

For many in the evangelical community this is the only issue that matters. However, as noted in Sam Bee’s videos and in many historical treatises, before Republicans were able to use abortion to turn evangelicals into the anti-abortion fanatics they are today, few in the religious community cared nada about abortion except for Catholics. As a matter of fact, abortion was seen as another tool for families.

From out of the past in Politico Magazine, Professor Randall Balmer then at Dartmouth traced the anti-abortion movement back to its segregationist roots:

“One of the most durable myths in recent history is that the religious right, the coalition of conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists, emerged as a political movement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. The tale goes something like this: Evangelicals, who had been politically quiescent for decades, were so morally outraged by Roe that they resolved to organize in order to overturn it.

This myth of origins is oft repeated by the movement’s leaders. In his 2005 book, Jerry Falwell, the firebrand fundamentalist preacher, recounts his distress upon reading about the ruling in the Jan. 23, 1973, edition of the Lynchburg News: “I sat there staring at the Roe v. Wade story,” Falwell writes, “growing more and more fearful of the consequences of the Supreme Court’s act and wondering why so few voices had been raised against it.” Evangelicals, he decided, needed to organize.

<<skip>>

But the abortion myth quickly collapses under historical scrutiny. In fact, it wasn’t until 1979—a full six years after Roe—that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but as a rallying-cry to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term. Why? Because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools. So much for the new abolitionism. 

***

Today, evangelicals make up the backbone of the pro-life movement, but it hasn’t always been so. Both before and for several years after Roe, evangelicals were overwhelmingly indifferent to the subject, which they considered a “Catholic issue.” In 1968, for instance, a symposium sponsored by the Christian Medical Society and Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of evangelicalism, refused to characterize abortion as sinful, citing “individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility” as justifications for ending a pregnancy. In 1971, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, passed a resolution encouraging “Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.” The convention, hardly a redoubt of liberal values, reaffirmed that position in 1974, one year after Roe, and again in 1976.

So what then were the real origins of the religious right? It turns out that the movement can trace its political roots back to a court ruling, but not Roe v. Wade.

What follows is the story of “Christian schools” founded by evangelicals to keep education segregated having their tax exempt status taken away due to their refusal to integrate. While the action to repeal their tax exemptions were started under Nixon, the ruling came during the Carter administration. So, in a pattern that would soon become familiar, a Democrat takes the blame for a Republican action.

How did abortion tie in? Please read the story to get the full cause and effect. However, Sam Bee’s part two may help fill in (7 minutes):

Posted in Republican Policy, SCOTUS | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Reminder: Republicans Only Anti-Abortion For Politics