How To Stay Connected With The Pro-Democracy Movement

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Trish Nelson

“The biggest danger is that we give them powers they don’t have.” – Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible

Happy Friday!

Don’t miss Indivisible’s What’s The Plan? live discussion every Thursday. If you did not catch this week’s call you can watch the recording below. If you had listened to Thursday’s Zoom call you would already know that no formal date is set yet but the most likely date range for NoKings#3 is late March 2026.

Did you know there are DOZENS of new Indivisible groups forming EVERY WEEK?
On the call new Indivisible groups are welcomed weekly.
This week new groups in:
– Zionsville, Indiana!
– McCook, Nebraska!
And that’s just to name two.

Join thousands on the call for:

– Live Q & A
– Vote for top questions you want answered
– News of the week
-Resources
– Access to tools
– News article links
– Follow up email with everything discussed including transcript sent out to all attendees of the live Zoom.

Please enjoy this recording of yesterday’s weekly Zoom. If you prefer, read the transcript.
Then RSVP for What’s The Plan? 2026
Then don’t forget to join Indivisible Iowa on Facebook and follow on Blue Sky
Find your local Indivisible group at  indivisible.org/

 

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Congress Wants to Use the PERMIT Act to Gut the Clean Water Act

Posted on December 11, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Stream in the forest – Photo: JFFAN


ACTION ALERT from Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors (JFAN)! Congress Wants to Use the PERMIT Act to Gut the Clean Water Act. Don’t Let Them.

The PERMIT Act (H.R. 3898), dubbed the “Permission to Pollute” Act, is a set of 15 dangerous bills that would gut many key Clean Water Act protections, drastically weakening this landmark legislation passed over 50 years ago. The US House of Representatives Committee on Rules will consider the bill, introduced in August by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), starting the week of December 9.

If passed, the PERMIT Act would reduce industry regulations designed to keep pollutants out of rivers, streams, and lakes. Drinking and recreational waters are at risk of pesticide, PFAS, and other toxic chemical contamination.

Take Action Today to Tell Your Representative to VOTE NO on the PERMIT Act

Designed to streamline the permitting process, the PERMIT Act is supported by a diverse group of construction and home building, agribusiness, transportation, manufacturing, and mining associations along with the US Chamber of Commerce.

Environmental and clean water organizations oppose the PERMIT Act and with good reason.

Here are a few things the PERMIT Act would do if passed:

• Reduce protections for streams and wetlands by redefining which waters are protected, threatening many small streams, wetlands and seasonal waterways.

• Allow top officials at the EPA or Army Corps of Engineers to exclude any waterway from protections without public input or oversight.

• Provide immunity for polluters even if they are aware of and don’t report harmful pollutants in their wastewater.

• Allow dangerous chemicals like pesticides, PFAS and mercury to contaminate waterways with no consequences to polluters.

• Require the EPA to base pollution control and remediation technology recommendations on how much it would cost polluters to implement the technology rather than on science-based water quality standards.

• Fast track projects without proper oversight, eliminating state and tribe rights to review, prohibit or require more stringent conditions for harmful federal projects. It would reduce public participation, and federal agencies would make decisions, not impacted communities.

• Place the financial and public health burden of increased pollution on communities

• Limit the EPA from regularly updating water control standards with new or state-of-the-art pollution control and remediation technologies.

There’s more. Read how the PERMIT Act would further gut the Clean Water Act here.

The PERMIT Act would be a financial bonanza for industries looking to skirt or streamline the permitting process at a draconian cost to water quality, public health, and community rights. Iowa doesn’t need more polluted water. It needs laws that better protect this public natural resource.

Send a message to your U.S. representative today and tell them to vote NO on the PERMIT Act.

Or call your Congressperson today to urge them to vote NO on the PERMIT Act. Find your legislator here.

Congress should be looking for ways to strengthen the Clean Water Act, not weaken it. Clean water is a human right.

Thank you for all you do to take action to stop this harmful bill.

Diane Rosenberg
Executive Director

—–

Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors, Inc.
PO Box 811
Fairfield, IA 52556
www.jfaniowa.org
641-209-6600
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JFANIowa

JFAN is funded by grassroots support and gratefully welcomes your donations. https://www.jfaniowa.org/donate-today

JFAN is a member of the Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA)

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Local Unions To Assemble Holiday Food Baskets For Central Iowa Families

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Local union to assemble 300 holiday food baskets for central Iowa families

Des Moines, Iowa — On Friday, December 12, 2025, Labor union volunteers will continue a long tradition of community support as they assemble 300 holiday food baskets for local families, demonstrating once again the essential role unions play in strengthening the communities they serve.

Hosted by the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the event begins at 9:00 a.m. at DMARC, 100 Army Post Road, Des Moines, IA. Media are welcome to attend (though we might put you to work).

Unions have long been part of the community fabric — supporting schools, disaster relief, public services, nonprofits, and neighbors in need. The holiday basket project is one more example of organized labor stepping forward to help local families.

Interviews available:

 Tom Hayes, President, South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
 Melissa Speed, Community Services Committee Chair

EVENT DETAILS

 WHAT: Assembly of 300 Holiday Food Baskets
 WHEN: Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 — 9:00 a.m.
 WHERE: DMARC, 100 Army Post Rd, Des Moines
 WHO: South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO & union volunteers

 AFSCME Council 61, is directly affiliated with the Iowa Federation of Labor – Iowa (AFL-CIO)

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AFSCME To Endorse Rob Sand For Iowa Governor

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch

AFSCME Council 61 to Announce Endorsement of Rob Sand for Iowa Governor

DES MOINES, IOWA — AFSCME Council 61 will hold an endorsement event on Saturday, December 13, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at 2000 Walker Street in Des Moines, where the Council will officially endorse Rob Sand for Governor of Iowa in the 2026 election.

This endorsement builds on the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO’s early affiliate endorsements of Rob Sand for Governor and Nate Willems for Attorney General, underscoring a united labor movement heading into 2026.

AFSCME represents more than 40,000 public-service workers across Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, including employees in corrections, public safety, human services, public health, education, and local government. This endorsement reflects a member-driven process focused on workplace safety, staffing, wages, and strong public services.

*Reporters will have opportunities for photo, video, and interviews after remarks.

EVENT DETAILS

WHAT: AFSCME Council 61 endorsement announcement for Rob Sand for Iowa Governor

WHO:

  • Rob Sand, Candidate for Governor of Iowa
  • Todd Copley, President, AFSCME Council 61
  • Melissa Speed, Political Director, AFSCME Council 61
  • AFSCME frontline public-service workers

WHEN: Saturday, December 13, 2025

TIME: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:
2000 Walker Street
Des Moines, Iowa

To RSVP go to 👉 https://mobilize.us/s/nPzk7p

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Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (Clean Water)

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Trish Nelson

 

From At the Iowa Farm Table Podcast:

attheiowafarmtable.substack.com/this-is-why-we-cant-have-clean-water

“The fact that we’ve engineered the landscape in order to move water out of the ground quickly is called tiling.

Tile is pipe 4 feet below the surface. That tile is essentially ground water that hasn’t quite reached the water table yet.

The water that would have slowly done its dance through the soil oozing down through the cracks to the water table never gets a chance to do so. The tile, which is really piping… moves the water out too quickly.

We wouldn’t have the extensive agriculture beause in many areas if we didn’t tile you couldn’t grow the kind of crops that we grow here. To grow corn and beans it needs to be dryer in some areas than what is natural.

Then, that second ingredient to Iowa agriculture is the fertilizer. It helps the plants grow – especially when you deplete the soil by growing one crop over and over. In 2024 farmers bought more fertilizer than ever before. And it’s estimated that they are also growing 600,000 more acres of corn this year than last.

But when the tile moves the water out of the soil quickly it takes the fertilizer with it out into the creeks and streams and the water doesn’t have time to shimmy down through the soil where it can do something called de-nitrification. That’s when microbes in the soil break down the dangerous nitrates.”

More

 

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Rescheduled Union Vote For UnityPoint Nurses In Des Moines Today

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Dave Bradley

hat tip to iowastartingline.com

A big load of thanks to Amie Rivers of iowastartingline.com for sending out the reminder email about the union vote taking place starting today and going through Tuesday, December 9th.

The very fact that we have a situation where professionals like nurse have to unionize in order to not only get reasonable wages and benefits, but also to get working conditions and equipment that most of us would think would be standard in hospitals.

That “bad side,” according to nurses who spoke with me (Amie Rivers), is relentless cost-cutting at the expense of workers and patients: Nurses have seen their pay shift differential cut, meaning they’re working more hours for less money. Longtime nurses get burned out, leave, and aren’t replaced—meaning patient wait times go up, increasing frustration and angry outbursts.

Carpenter recalled a time a colleague was assaulted by a patient and broke their back. UnityPoint, she said, disciplined them when they were unable to return to work because of the pain.

“That type of stuff is the stuff that’s super disappointing, because I thought better of this company,” she said.

Even patient equipment has become substandard, said Dawn Balek, an overnight recovery room nurse at Iowa Methodist Medical Center with nearly 18 years of nursing experience.

“They don’t ask us which would work better; all of a sudden, we get new IV bags,” Balek told me. “We go to the cheapest tubing, and it falls out … We’re constantly telling them there’s a problem; they don’t care, ’cause they’re saving money.”

There is more at the link. Here is hoping that the nurses have a big turnout and that they become represented so they can get some resolution on their issues. Looking in from the outside, it definitely looks as if corporate health care is putting profit way ahead of care and while the nurses are losers in this situation, patients are the biggest losers.

This also gives me another thought. Of the many evils promoted by the right perhaps one of the most evil is for profit health care. To see that one of the nurses demands is simply for adequate equipment and staffing makes me wonder how far for profit health care will go to squeeze out that profit. Certainly this is not good for patients.

Which leads me to think that at some point the United States, once the shining light on the hill, especially in science, has to join the modern world and offer single payer health care to its citizens. Things like adequate equipment and staffing should not be negotiation items.

Single payer would be so much cheaper and would free us up to do the work of America rather than creating a multi-tiered society based on things like access to health care. Humanity over profit!

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Sunday Funday: December Holidays Edition

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Dave Bradley

6 minutes:

Boy, do we ever need some diversion from the dismemberment of our government and society being led by the Felon in the White House. As the spectacles unfold of Republican politician’s unlawfulness and corruption, including a march to war to steal the oil in Venezuela, I am trying to take a bit of a break from reality for a few days.

 As long as our species has been around in the northern hemisphere this time of year has been a time for joy because we can actually see the day time lengthening and therefore reasoned that the sun is coming back. No better reason to party than knowing the sun will be around again for a while. So Party on!

In the course of celebrating mankind created some low level festive days leading up to the big kahuna which in various places and times has been Saturnalia, Jul, Christmas, Winter Solstice or Hanukkah. Most of these fests have a theme of the retuning light, thanking some deity for that return and fun, fun, fun.

So I will mix in some qiuestions on St. Nicholas and Santa Lucia whose minor feast are celebrated this week as we wind down to the big kahuna. Hope it takes away the stench of questions about what Republicans are doing:

A) We end the week with an announcement of another giant takeover in the media world as who announced they will buy Warner Brothers?

B) In what seems like following a long established script, what cabinet member claimed the blame for illegal acts in the Caribbean were not his fault?

C) Well, then, just whose fault were those illegal acts according to the administration?

D) Santa Lucia Day is December 13th. Traditional celebration has a teen aged girl wearing a white dress and what on her head?

E) SCOTUS topped the week by pronouncing that what state’s gerrymandering plan was OK with them?

F) The week began with an appeals court saying that what Trump appointment for New Jersey’s US Attorney was done illegally?

G) The FIWH held a cabinet meeting this week. During the praise portion of the meeting DHS Secretary Noem showered Trump with praise for keeping what out of the US this year?

H) Santa Lucia is mostly celebrated in what area of the world?

I) In what looks like the first skirmishes in what may become a widening conflict what religious group issued condemnations of US actions against members of that group in the US?

J) European leaders are meeting Dec. 18 to discuss using what to aid Ukraine in their war against Russia?

K) What very select group of people get a wake up call from Santa Lucia and her attendants on Santa Lucia Day (Dec. 13)?

L) What major retailer made headlines when they joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration to recoup tariff payments that the company claimed the administration had collected illegally?

M) Revenue is down over $4 B in Las Vegas because what group of people are boycotting travel to the US this year?

N) Monday the US Department of Transportation threatened to shut down 3000 of what kind of schools in a crackdown?

O) Last Thursday was the one year anniversary of whose shooting that focused attention on the health insurance industry?

P) Saint Nicholas Day was yesterday. Most people know that Nicholas was the Bishop of what city on Turkey’s southern coast?

Q) The hypocrit of the year has to be the FIWH for pardoning the former Honduras president who was incarcerated for what crime?

R) Out of this world edition. The Mars rover discovered indications of what earthly natural phenomena on Mars?

S) Who is Franklin the Turtle and why is he in the news?

T)  What name do the Dutch refer to Saint Nicholas as?

If we are at war, then Pete Hegseth is a war criminal. If we are not at war then Pete Hegseth is a murderer.

Answers:

A) Netflix

B) Secretary of WAR Hegseth

C) Looks like Admiral Frank Bradley is the designated fall guy

D) a crown of candles

E) Texas

F) Alina Habba

G) hurricanes

H) Scandinavia

I) Catholics

J) Frozen Russian assets in European (mostly Belgian) banks

K) People who have just won the Nobel prizes announced on December 10th

L) Costco

M) Canadians

N) truck driving schools. If you think prices are high now, just wait……

O) Brian Thompson, United Health Care CEO

P) Myra

Q) bringing drugs (cocaine) into the US – something like 400 tons – while claiming he is trying to stop drugs coming in from Venezuela

R) lightening in dust devils

S) Franklin is a much loved Canadian children’s book hero who was used by SOW Hegseth to sell his (Hegseth’s) version of his war on Venezuela

T) Sinterklaas (which evolved into Santa Claus)

I spent two years in the Trump administration. During that time, I saw how the president handled national security decisions. One of my biggest takeaways was this:
He fantasized regularly about maiming & killing unarmed civilians. Actually. –Miles Taylor

Canadians boycotting the United States are actually moving the needle. Las Vegas alone has taken a four-billion-dollar hit because Canadians chose not to go. The American alcohol industry is down another nine hundred million. That is real impact. – Microinteracti1.

Jesse Welles: Department of War (2 minutes)

Posted in #trumpresistance, Humor | Leave a comment

Nebraska (Iowa?) Is On A Roll

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Dave Bradley

This is a reprint from Markos Moulitsis on dailykos.com from Saturday November 29th. Dailykos does allow reprints of their articles.

Without too much imagination, you should be able to see that what is ailing Nebraska is also ailing Iowa.

Nebraska has been on a roll. After voting big for President Donald Trump in 2024 and Republicans since forever, the state is now reaping what it so eagerly sowed.

Its economy is collapsing. It lacks the workers it needs. It is losing its medical facilities. And none of this is surprising given how dependent Nebraska is on federal subsidies, immigrant farm labor, and international trade—all things Trump and his party have targeted with budget slashing, mass immigration raids, and tariffs.

The latest blow is the announcement that Tyson Foods is closing its beef processing plant in Lexington. The facility employs around 3,200 workers—roughly a third of the town’s population. 

A hit of that scale doesn’t land on Lexington alone, though. It sends shockwaves through the region: restaurants, grocery stores, landlords, schools, trucking operations, small suppliers, and everyone else tied to the local economy. With the closure slated for January, the message for the holidays and the year ahead is grim. Entire communities now have to brace for an economic crater their political choices helped create.

Trump has spent years attacking the inputs that keep Nebraska’s agriculture-heavy economy afloat. The state depends on immigrant labor to run its farms and packing plants, yet Trump’s raids have scared those workers away or deported them. It depends on access to global markets, yet Trump keeps slapping tariffs on everyone in sight, inspiring them to retaliate with tariffs of their own—driving up the cost of doing business. 

And for all the talk about putting America first, Trump was perfectly happy to boost Argentina’s far-right president, Javier Milei, by cutting a deal to import Argentinian beef straight into the U.S. market. Trump got to help a fellow authoritarian, and Nebraska got undercut.

 

tip of the hat to dailykos.com

{editor’s note: Iowa and Nebraska tied at -6.1% decline}

Tyson’s cuts aren’t limited to Nebraska. The company is also slashing another 1,700 jobs at its plant in Amarillo, Texas. In total, those cuts will slash the nation’s beef processing capacity by up to 9%. And when capacity drops that sharply across the country, the downstream effects show up exactly where you’d expect: higher prices at the checkout counter and fewer jobs in the places that can least afford to lose them.

There’s yet another layer to this crisis, one that Republicans pretend doesn’t exist. 

Years of intensifying drought have helped to shrink cattle herds across the Great Plains. Climate change makes every part of the system more brittle—feed costs rise, grazing conditions worsen, ranchers liquidate herds, and the supply chain tightens even further. Instead of facing that reality, though, Republicans have spent decades mocking climate science and blocking any serious attempt to prepare for the future. That denial is now baked into the economic suffering states like Nebraska are experiencing.

None of these problems are abstract. They are the predictable result of a political movement that promises easy answers, scapegoats immigrants, attacks the very federal investment its states rely on, and refuses to accept the basic facts of a warming planet. 

As long as Nebraskans keep voting Republican to, you know, keep some trans kid from a swim meet or whatever, this won’t be the last town in the state to face economic collapse.

Posted in #trumpresistance, Republican Policy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ramblings Of A Polluted Mind

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Dave Bradley

After watching the video that Trish Nelson posted on here Thursday morning concerning Iowa’s heavily polluted waterways, I also ran into some stories concerning Trump administration’s recent efforts to  roll back rules that concern pollution or are adjacent to pollution in some way.

What started me on this track was the story that popped up Thursday morning that the the administration through Secretary of Transportation Duffy would be rolling back mileage standards for fleets from 50.4 MPG (miles per gallon) to 34.5 MPG. If my math is correct that is about a 35% lessening. Here is America’s #1 liar giving his slanted view: (1.5 minutes)

If a fleet of vehicles is burning fuel 35% less efficiently where does that fuel that is burned less efficiently end up? I am not a mechanic, but my understanding is that inefficiently burned fuel ends up either as pollutants in the air or somehow leeches out of the cars system as a solid or liquid waste. Either way it is out there in the environment for us or other animal life to inhale or take into our bodies.

When I saw this story, my mind immediately leapt a couple of summers back to a cross country classic car caravan that happened to go right in front of our house as part of its journey across the US. We had a ringside seat! There were cars from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s! Chevys, Dodges, even American Motors. We thought we were so lucky to have such a parade go right by our house!

But we forgot about the big drawback to those old cars – the pollution. We had watched for about half an hour from our porch when we started getting sick. We got sick in a hurry. We realized that it was the gas fumes from those old polluters that was choking us and making us dizzy. We got in our car and drove about thirty miles in the other direction to get some cleaner air. We stayed away for about 4 hours. When we got back, the air still had a stink, but was tolerable.

Now, while a lowering of the mileage standards may not have that effect, we do know that any retrenchment in pollution standards will have negative effects. When you are in a state like Iowa, couple more car pollution with the highly publicized water pollution that Trish’s post dealt with on Thursday and we are mixing a toxic brew that probably ups the chances of contracting cancer in a state where cancer is a top killer.

Then if we add farm chemicals to the mix the toxic brew becomes a super toxic brew that will come get you. You do not have to take one step out of your way, it will seek you out.  So here in Iowa we start with a base level of waterways polluted by farm nutrient run off, mix in a pollutants in the air that were slowly coming down thanks to fuel standards and then to tie it all together, let’s add in more farm chemicals. This time let’s add in pesticides.

As it sometimes seems to happen, stories that have some commonality will seem to pop up in a timely manner. In this case it was a story that the Trump Administration will be doing what it can to help Bayer company face limited liability for damages alleged in lawsuits over it Roundup brand of glyphosate weed killers.

You may recall last winter and spring that Iowa’s legislature wrestled with limiting liability for Bayer’s Roundup. A bill to limit liability passed the Iowa senate before it stalled in the House. I have no doubt that some form of this bill will be on the Republican agenda when they meet again in January. Farmers are still using glyphosate in the meantime.

“This is like a win-win, where we both win or where we both lose, which is why I’m hopeful that we can convince the decision-makers in the state to stand by us and ultimately to stand by their rural communities,” Matthias Berninger, Bayer senior vice president for public affairs and science and sustainability, told the Des Moines Register in an April 30 interview.

The high-profile bill, Senate File 394, would protect pesticide and herbicide manufacturers from claims their products’ labels didn’t disclose potential health risks, like cancer, as long as their labeling follows U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules.

Opponents of the legislation, who’ve rallied at the Capitol against it, say the bill prioritizes corporate profits over the lives and health of Iowans. Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers in the country.

Investors have been clear that they want a solution soon, Berninger said, which is why Bayer claims it won’t be able to sell glyphosate in the U.S. without the guardrails, like the Iowa bill, because of the risk of losing billions of dollars more from litigation. The company faces 67,000 pending cases.

The company has faced thousands of lawsuits linking cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer to Roundup, paying more than $10 billion in 2020 to settle suits of more than 95,000 cases related to claims that the product’s labels did not warn of potential cancer.

As you get up and get out today, be mindful of what you eat, what you drink, where you walk and what you breathe. The late Tom Lehrer gave us a heads up on conduct in other countries with pollution problems 60 years ago. This little ditty seems to apply to Iowa today:

Posted in #trumpresistance, Iowa Legislature 2025, Iowa Legislaturę 2026, Republican Policy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Iowa AG And SOS Help Trump Build National Citizen Registry

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Follow Ed Tibbetts’ Along the Mississippi on Substack.  To read this entire article, click on the link. edtibbetts.substack.com/

by Ed Tibbetts

Iowa is helping the Trump administration build a national citizen registry.

Groups worry the registry threatens the privacy of millions of Americans

Brenna Bird buried the news. I can understand why.

No self-respecting right-winger would want to be seen backing a centralized citizen registry in Washington, DC.

For as long as I can remember, conservatives were in the vanguard of opposing such big government excesses. Yet, here is Iowa’s attorney general—along with Secretary of State Paul Pate—actually helping to build what some critics are likening to a super database for Big Brother.

Iowa’s involvement in this pursuit was revealed on Monday, when Bird and Pate bragged about an agreement with the Trump administration. They called it a victory for election integrity. But they conveniently failed to explain a separate part of the deal. The news organization Stateline reported that Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Indiana also agreed as part of the bargain to assist the federal government’s effort to scoop up the driver’s license records of Americans now being held in a nationwide law enforcement computer network.

The pursuit of this detailed personal data is part of the Trump administration’s effort to convert the federal Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE program into what is, essentially, a national citizen data bank.

Originally, the SAVE program was built to ensure applicants for government benefits were eligible citizens. But the new Trump initiative, which has been under-reported in the mainstream news media, has been going on for several months and is currently the subject of a court challenge.

Read more

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