Iowans Want September To Be Declared Labor Union Appreciation Month

Posted on September 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Progress Iowa <press@progressiowa.org>

Wed 9/1/2021 2:00 PM

For Immediate Release: September 1, 2021

Contact: Ivy Beckenholdt, ivy@progressiowa.org

Iowans Want September To Be Declared Labor Union Appreciation Month

More than 80 elected officials, organizations, and businesses sign on in support at thankaunion.com 

Proclamation request made of Gov. Reynolds to recognize Labor Union Appreciation Month

Des Moines, Iowa — Iowans are speaking out in support of recognizing September as Labor Union Appreciation Month. More than eighty elected officials, organizations, and businesses have signed on to the effort at ThankAUnion.com.

A proclamation recognizing September as Labor Union Appreciation Month will be requested from the office of Governor Kim Reynolds, as well as from cities and counties across the state. Supporters of Labor Union Appreciation Month will also share information about the important role labor unions have had and continue to have in Iowa and across the country.

“The Iowa State Education Association stands with our labor family in celebration of Labor Union Appreciation Month. We are proud of our collective efforts promoting safe and healthy working conditions, health care benefits for employees and families, increased wages and salaries, and a just and equitable workplace. Joining a union is how people gain a voice at work and the self-empowerment to shape their working lives for the better,” said ISEA President Mike Beranek.

“Labor unions are crucial for worker safety here in Iowa, and the pandemic, Anamosa, and collective bargaining attacks truly brought that to the forefront,” said Rick Eilander, President of AFSCME Council 61. “That’s why now is the time for Labor Union Appreciation Month to be recognized. Every Iowan deserves to feel safe and respected on the job. We’ve been advocating for that everyday, but we need the public’s support to win this fight.”

“Labor Union Appreciation Month is a great opportunity to empower Iowa’s workers,” said Charlie Wishman, President of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. “While Iowans have gained important working conditions because of unions, we have further to go. With outdated laws, negotiating and bargaining for better wages, sick leave, and other benefits has become more difficult. Workers deserve to have a voice, and recognizing labor unions and the work being done to advocate for employees across the state can have a true impact this month and beyond.”

“Labor unions are regularly the unsung heroes in our country,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “They fight for working families to have better pay and better lives, and every one of us benefits, because we all have higher wages, safer workplaces, and more quality of life as a result. If you like having paid sick leave, vacation days, or things as basic as child labor laws, you should thank a union. And if you want working families to have a seat at the table when it comes to determining the future of our state and country, you should support labor unions.”

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Call Your Rep. Today To Pass The Women’s Health Protection Act

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Trish Nelson


Action alert from Indivisible.  Click the link on the sidebar to join Indivisible Iowa if you haven’t already.

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This week, in the dead of night, the Supreme Court took a major step towards overturning Roe v. Wade by allowing Texas to deny pregnant people the right to an abortion after six weeks — i.e., before almost anyone knows they’re pregnant. As if that wasn’t dystopian enough, they also allowed Texas to effectively offer bounties for reporting anyone who might have been involved in enabling an abortion (including cab drivers!). Quite literally, they promised every Texan a $10,000 check to personally interfere in strangers’ reproductive choices.

It’s hard to overstate how horrifying this is. Make no mistake — this ruling and Texas’s barbaric new law will kill people. Banning abortion does not stop abortions from happening, it just makes them less safe.

There are three things you can do right now to fight back. 

  1. This morning, Nancy Pelosi announced that the House will soon vote on Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act, which will enshrine reproductive health rights across the nation. Click here to call your representative and demand they vote to pass the bill without delay. (Real talk: This is the BEST legislative action you can take right now.)
  2. We need to rebalance the court. Donald Trump installed three (THREE!) conservative extremists on the Supreme Court. His appointees are dangerous, and will stop at nothing to destroy what’s left of Roe. Democrats need to step up to protect all of our fundamental rights. The Judiciary Act of 2021 is our best chance to undo this decades-long GOP power grab and restore balance to the Supreme Court. Click here to call your representatives and tell them to cosponsor the court expansion bill without delay. (Real talk: This is a long shot, but will have a massive impact if Democrats find the resolve to do it.)
  3. Outside of legislation, there are groups doing critical on-the-ground work to make sure Texans have access to reproductive healthcare and abortion. Click here to make a donation to Texas abortion funds today. (Real talk: This is the best non-legislative thing you can do to directly support Texans right away.)

Reproductive healthcare advocates have been warning for years that this would happen, and it’s frightening and saddening to know we were right. But there are real avenues to fix this, if we work together. Thank you for being in the fight with us.

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

We’re able to rapidly create resources and tools and distribute them to activists because of the generosity of grassroots donors. If you’re able, chip in $10 to help support this and all our work.
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Right Wing Crazy Is Nothing New In America

Posted on September 2, 2021 by Trish Nelson

“More popular than Jesus.” 1966


On Thom’s program this week he reminds us that right wing crazy is not new in America. Yes I am old enough to remember this style of crazy in the photograph, burning Beatles records because John Lennon made a comment that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.  Not that it is by any means the worst example of right wing nuttiness but it may be the funniest.

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“Back then we had whipping and beating and stoning and hanging and nailing and being pilloried and dragging and burning and branding and all these other techniques…

“..And if Trump and his boys could bring it back if they get power again they’ll try to bring back probably half of those things.

“But this is not new.

“Instead of public whippings to humiliate their enemies they use social media, truck caravans with semi automatic weapons and giant flags. They pick fights in airports and public parks. Instead of denying that the earth goes around the sun, now they’re denying the dangers of Covid and global warming.  Instead of closing schools, they force teachers to expose themselves to disease and harass and threaten them if they dare teach actual science and the actual racial history of the United States. Instead of requiring the payment of church taxes to vote as they did back in the day they now have these elaborate ways that you have to prove your citizenship and they regularly purge what they refer to as undesirable people from voting rolls with no consequence at all, the supreme court giving a wink and a nod. No problem.

“From Ben Franklin’s time until today every generation of Americans have confronted right wing authoritarians who were bent on maintaining violent white male supremacy using the twin levers of religious fanaticism and concentrated wealth.

🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart… ⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart… MORE FROM THOM 🎦 Watch a full program re-run anytime: http://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann 🎧 Audio Podcast: http://www.thomhartmann.com/podcast 📜 Free Newsletter: http://www.thomhartmann.com/podcast

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J.D. Scholten: Democrats Need To Campaign Everywhere

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Trish Nelson

J.D. Scholten understands how to engage rural voters. He’s working hard to persuade Democrats to invest in winning back the rural vote. Please read his action alert and help out if you can.  https://www.ruralvote.org/

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With the 2022 election just over a year away, it’s time to get organizing. Right now, Republican politicians dominate the messaging in rural areas. This must change. Democrats need to stop writing off rural areas of the country as unwinnable, otherwise they will never make inroads with rural voters, and we’ll continue to lose statewide races and state houses across the country, including in my home state of Iowa.

When I ran for Congress, I drove an RV to every single rural community in my district. I won over Democrats, Independents and Republicans in rural Iowa because I valued each and every voter in my district. I listened to them. I told them my plans on health care, agriculture and more. And I told them when they were being misled. If I hadn’t campaigned day in and day out in rural Iowa, I never would have gotten as close as I did to beating Steve King.

The idea that Democrats can win elections by only campaigning in urban areas is a recipe for failure. Democrats need to campaign everywhere if they want to win statewide races and improve their chances down ballot. That’s why RuralVote.org is committed to getting our messaging out to rural counties in critical Senate battlegrounds before the 2022 Election. We must fight back with the truth.

Chip in $5 before midnight tonight for our critical end-of-month fundraising deadline and help fuel our fight. With your help, we’re going to change the game in rural America in 2022.

Standing Tall for All
J.D. Scholten
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Frequent Covid Questions Answered By Dr. Andrew Nish

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Dr. Nish answers questions about risk, boosters, delta, fear, stress and immunity.  Lots of information here and some surprising advice. Follow Podcast by George! on YouTube

We’re in the midst of a surge. Hospitals are bursting at the seams. A leading medical expert has an update from Mid-America!

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Book Review: The Hidden History of American Healthcare

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Paul Deaton

In The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich, author Thom Hartmann returns to familiar themes of greed, racism and oligarchic corruption. He applies them to a system of healthcare that profits the wealthy and provides marginal healthcare to Americans. A proponent of Medicare for all, Hartmann dives into what’s wrong with American for-profit healthcare and how changing it to a single payer system would be better for citizens.

Describing the overall theme of the series of Hidden History books, Hartmann lays out the challenge:

Americans must now prepare politically for 2024, and that starts by picking candidates and promoting policies that will beat oligarchy at both the presidential and congressional levels.

But most urgently, the entire country must laser-focus on stripping the oligarchic and fascistic elements that have crept into our republic since the Powell Memo, multiple Supreme Court interventions, and the Patriot Act with the war crimes and torture it has already facilitated.

Preface, The Hidden History of American Healthcare by Thom Hartmann

Anyone who bought health insurance through an employer or privately knows the issues with the American system: health insurance premiums are expensive and subject to high annual increases; there are co-pays that vary depending upon what type of coverage is purchased; preexisting conditions affect premium amount and can exclude people from some types of coverage; rather than visit a clinic close to home, an insured must visit medical professionals within the network of the insurance company or face higher costs. This system led to health care costs representing 24 percent of GDP. Countries like Taiwan have a healthcare cost of six percent of GDP, according to Hartmann.

There is a better, less expensive way of providing healthcare. The trouble is, Hartmann said, “(it) would cut off the hundred of millions of dollars that health care industry executives take home every month.”

Thom Hartmann

Hartmann seeks to put healthcare into historical context. He recounts the first single-payer healthcare system in 1884 Germany. He takes us through the creation of Medicare from John F. Kennedy’s initial proposal to passage into law under LBJ, and through the Republican dissent over the program. Hartmann describes Republican efforts to privatize Medicare through what is called Medicare Advantage implemented by President George W. Bush. That section of the book alone makes it worth the reading.

Like previous books in the series, Hartmann’s book is readable and familiar. It is divided into four sections: How bad things are in America regarding healthcare; the origins of America’s sickness-for-profit system; the modern fight for a human right to healthcare; and saving lives with a real healthcare system. The last section proposes solutions to our healthcare system problems.

The Hidden History of Healthcare in America takes us through the history to make the critical point: “It is time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.”

Because the subject of the book is so familiar, it renders a complicated process to bare essentials with concrete proposals for action to fix the healthcare system. I highly recommend the book, which is scheduled to be released Sept. 7, 2021.

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Quick Hitters

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Somehow I missed that Karl Marx wrote “Mein Kampf” in 1848. I always thought it was Groucho

Some short thoughts on our current state of affairs:

  • Did you ever think that if the Supreme Court had not appointed George W. president, and Al Gore eventually became president when the count in Florida was done, we would not be in Afghanistan today. Nor would we have attacked Iraq. Neither country had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.
  • For that matter, a President Gore would have most likely responded to the Presidential Daily Briefing and 9/11. May have been avoided.
  • One final Gore thought. Since the country was on a glide path to getting out of debt, we wouldn’t be in this huge deficit that has been mostly created by Republican fiscal mismanagement – unpaid for wars and massive tax cuts for the rich.
  • Perhaps non-vaxxers should be treated like smokers in restaurants and not allowed in. This is not denying their rights. They made a choice and it has consequences.
  • We need official document to separate the vaxxed from the non-vaxxed.  Again, then non-vaxxed made a choice and it should have consequences.
  • It is scary to think that many of the loud anti-maskers who are showing up at School Board meetings and threatening Board members are very likely toting loaded guns thanks to all the new open carry laws.
  • This intimidation politics has been in full throttle since the Tea Party days. This is how intolerant minorities gain power.|
  • Watching the Olympics, I was rather enthralled by the rowing races. Every one had their backs to the finish line yet they were all able to keep a straight line to the goal. This was due to everybody rowing together. Up in Minnesota, coach PJ Fleck has a team motto of ‘everyone rowing together.’ He has achieved some amazing results with some mediocre talent.  Imagine what the US could do if we rowed together. Yet we have a large minority segment that refuses to join in. But they are fueled by the wealthiest among us.
  • As President Biden gets us out of yet another Republican swamp. Republicans scream we should stay. They always seem to have money for forever wars, but can’t find a nickel to give to some poor out of work schmuck.
  • So it looks like we suddenly have some money freed up that was going to forever wars in the Middle East. Maybe we could use that money for infrastructure repair and rebuilding. Republicans are always claiming they want “pay for” for any domestic projects.
  • I have always felt that one of the major reasons we invaded Afghanistan was to burn through money so it couldn’t be used for social safety net programs. Same is true of Iraq.
  • And of course another big reason was to create Great War profits for corporations.

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Sunday Funday – Science Guy Edition

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Arizona is another state that is working hard to kill their kids. (Note: I have skin in the game there). So far schools have found a loophole that allows them to mandate masks until September 30th. Most school districts have therefore mandated masks. Ducey is fighting those mandates tooth and nail. Just wants to please Trump is my guess.

Iowans are back in school. Governor Covid Kim is conducting a little science experiment with your children, especially with those under 12 years old. By forcing them back into crowded classrooms without a mask mandate, Kim will see how many of Iowans youngsters will get sick and possibly die under these circumstances. Maybe you didn’t sign up for this experiment, but Covid Kim knew you wouldn’t mind. Hope she signed her grandkids up for her experiment.

And speaking of politicians that think they are scientists, we have Chuck Grassley, Science Guy! When last seen (by iowastartingline no less) Chuck was expounding on whether masks work at one of his famous town halls. In response to a question from a nurse about wearing masks, Grassley said:    (note: I would love to post this video, but it doesn’t seem to exist on YouTube)

“I think everybody says, ‘follow the science,’ but it doesn’t seem like science has proved one way or the other, but I wear a mask where I have to wear a mask,” he said. “For instance, for almost a full year in the United States Senate we had to wear a mask and I did.” 

Chuck has lots of staffers that we pay for. He could have any of them look this up for him OR he could ask pretty much any doctor, nurse, science teacher or pharmacist in this state to find out. Instead he pretty much depends on some anonymous boob on the internet for the misinformation he is proud to pass on. Once more Chuck embarrasses Iowa, making us look like a backwater village. 

A) An offshoot of the Covid pandemic is a steep rise in poisonings due to people taking what horse medicine instead of getting vaccinated for Covid?

B) It is the height of hurricane season in the Atlantic. Hurricane Ida appears to have what often hit target in its sights for landfall?

C) 58 years ago yesterday, August 28th, 1963 – what historical event occurred in Washington DC?

D) What group claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul Afghanistan that killed 13 US service members and 169 Afghanis?

E) What often forgotten about vaccination company announced that a booster 6 months+ after its single dose vaccination greatly increased Covid antibodies?

F) The last of what duo rock and roll brother act that grew up in Shenandoah, Iowa died last weekend?

G) What two congress members took an unscheduled flight to Afghanistan to see the evacuation first hand? This caused a major disruption in the evacuation.

H) A school board in Norfolk, Virginia agreed to pay $1.3 million legal fees for a student who sued the board over what policy?

I) What edifice that was a signature achievement of the previous administration was torn apart by monsoon storms?

J) Who declared her candidacy as a Democrat to run for Iowa’s second district congressional seat?

K) As of Thursday, how many US school children have had to quarantine due to Covid so far this year?

L) “I saved countless lives” stated what Capitol Place Officer as he outed himself as the person who stopped Ashli Babbitt’s attempt to attack members of congress?

M) In Florida, despite threats of legal sanctions Fromm Gov. DeSantis, approximately what percentage of school children are under local masking mandates?

N) As evacuation from Afghanistan steals all the headlines, VP Kamala Harris has been on a diplomatic mission to what area of the world?

O) August 31, 1786 – one of the first challenges to the federal government was led by what Revolutionary War hero trying to keep former soldiers out of debtors prison?

P) Sept. 1, 1939 5:30 AM what began?

Q) Heavy rains (9 to 17 inches) fell across the middle of what state killing at least 21 and leaving many more missing?

R) Members of what far right group provoked violence in Portland, Oregon last Sunday?

S) What Covid-19 vaccine was granted full approval by the FDA Monday?

T) The House of Representatives passed a voting rights bill this week named after what Civil Rights icon?

I wonder about a nation that does more vetting for the host of Jeopardy than for the president. – Jeet Heer tweet

Answers:

A) Ivermectin.

B) New Orleans

C) The march on Washington

D) ISIS-K

E) Johnson and Johnson (J&J)

F) Don Everly of the Everly Brothers

G) Reps. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan

H) Transgender bathroom use

I) The border wall with Mexico

J) Stae Representative Christina Bohannon

K) over 90,000

L) Lt. Michael Byrd

M) 52%

N) Southeast Asia

O) Captain Daniel Shays in Massachusetts (Shays’ Rebellion) Note: This was under the Articles of Confederation.

P) WWII as Germany invaded Poland

Q) Tennessee

R) the Proud Boys

S) Pfizer-BioNtech (commercial name Comirnaty – for real)

T) John Lewis

“But the vaccine doesn’t even guarantee you won’t get sick, it really only stops you from dying.” 

Not dying sounds pretty f*cking spectacular, to me. – Angry Staffer tweet

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Posted in Covid-19, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday – Science Guy Edition

Robert Reich: The Real Socialism In America

Posted on August 28, 2021 by Dave Bradley

I have made no bones about my admiration for Robert Reich. He tells the true story of how workers fare in the US. That story for the most part is no good.

Here Reich talks about the real welfare queens in this country – corporations and the very rich:

From https://robertreich.org/post/660532471195189248 

Thousands of big American corporations rake in billions each year in government subsidies, bailouts, and tax loopholes – all funded on the taxpayer dime, and all contributing to higher stock prices for the richest 1 percent who own half of the stock market, as well as CEOs and other top executives who are paid largely in shares of stock.

Big Tech, Big Oil, Big Pharma, defense contractors, and big banks are the biggest beneficiaries of corporate welfare.

How? Follow the money. These corporations and their trade groups spend hundreds of millions each year on lobbying and campaign contributions. Their influence-peddling pays off. The return on these political investments is huge. It’s institutionalized bribery.

An even more insidious example is corporations that don’t pay their workers a living wage. As a result, their workers have to rely on programs like Medicaid, public housing, food stamps and other safety nets. Which means you and I and other taxpayers indirectly subsidize these corporations, allowing them to enjoy even higher profits and share prices for their wealthy investors and executives.

Not only does corporate welfare take money away from us as taxpayers. It also harms smaller businesses that have a harder time competing with big businesses that get these subsidies. Everyone loses except those at the top.  

Of course 3+ minutes is hardly time tp give much more than an overview for this major problem. Just to give an example of how big the problem is, just remember that Trump and the Republicans cut $1.7T from the taxes of corporations and the rich in 2017. Money that was then and is now sorely needed for infrastructure and civic improvements.

And don’t forget Reich is only talking about the federal level of government. When we get down to stay and local level we get into quite a nest of tax abatements, tax rebates, tax incentives for businesses, abatements on municipal utilities, the building and alteration of streets for a specific business just to name a few. 

We have all read or possibly even seen cities throw huge packages of various tax incentives and service cost cuts and building in competitive bidding to get businesses to move into the area. These packages must be paid by someone. That someone is usually you and me. But it is also local businesses who are harmed by brining in certain new businesses.

Who in Iowa hasn’t driven through a small Iowa town that has a downtown that is mostly boarded up while at the edge of town sits a Walmart that probably was able to extract sewer, water, electric and tax concessions from the local town. All that for many low paying jobs that often leave employees looking for Medicaid and food stamps. And thanks to legal set ups, that store probably pays no local taxes. In short it is a net cost that will probably run old local businesses out of business, thus lowering the tax base.

Posted in economic inequality, Economic Justice, Economy, Income inequality, Republican Policy | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Robert Reich: The Real Socialism In America

Real Life Horror Story

Posted on August 28, 2021 by Dave Bradley

The numbers are starting to come in from the superspreader event in our neighboring state of South Dakota known as the Sturgis Bike Rally. They are frightening. If the those fiction writers who wrote some of the classics of the horror genre had written stories with such a plot they would be extremely prod. The plot of our current dilemma should scare anyone to the quick.

We have a fast mutating virus that has skipped species from animal to human. It is a killer, but also has effects that can be life-altering. It is equally at home on any human regardless of age, sex, location or status in life. It spreads quickly and almost imperceptibly with symptoms that don’t show up for days, if at all. Thus the virus can easily be spread by carriers who think they are healthy.

But the biggest trick is in its ability to mutate. So when human with their mighty powers of reason and logic can create vaccines to slow the virus, the virus’s ability to mutate extremely fast gives it power also. And the virus’s opponent, humanity, has among it a large number who will refuse to do anything to fight the spread of the virus.

Unfortunately among the last group is a large number of people with power who are able to block any attempts to stop the virus, thus making it nearly impossible for humanity to mount a campaign focused and large enough to contain the the mutating virus. Even as humans come up with procedures that can stem the virus’s spread and mutation those humans who refuse to cooperate are in reality the virus’s best friend and biggest victim.

And just this little hook for pathos: While vaccines have become easily available for those over 12, children under 12 can not be vaccinated. Despite that, those in power in many regions of the country have decided that these children must be physically taught in schools that are well set up to allow the virus to spread almost unabated. The one weapon these kids get against the virus. – a mask over their mouth and nose – has been greatly discouraged by those in power who seem to be working for the virus.

Quite a story line, huh? We could also add in those seemingly sentient adults who refuse to be vaccinated for various flimsy reason including religious beliefs. They would rather trust their health to some loudmouth on the internet they never met who is touting such quack cures as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. 

Maybe too far fetched and involved? Guess we could add in that one of the two major political parties is aiding the spread of the virus under the blessing of its disgraced but still popular leader. In order for regional leaders within that party to advance they must seek approval of the disgraced leader. Thus their decisions have little to do with what is good for society and much more to do with their career. Reasoning for bad decisions can easily be hidden under the guise of “freedom” and “liberty” as they define them

With that as a background let’s take a look at just how this real life shit-show is progressing. Of interest to Iowans is how our own Covid Kim Reynolds is doing. Oh, by the way, Reynolds doesn’t like the moniker “Covid Kim.” As reported by iowastartingline.com:   

Price suggested that some people think she has been uncaring in her actions throughout the pandemic.

“That’s not true, it’s not accurate,” she replied. “You know, I have to take a look at the data, surround myself with experts that give me feedback, we did that.”

Some of those decisions she’s taken have included banning schools and localities from requiring people to wear masks, requiring schools to offer in-person instruction for the spring 2021 semester, and resisting calls to implement more COVID safety measures last year. Reynolds also pushed back on federal calls from experts to put some of these in place.

I suspect that as the school year goes on and Iowans have to deal with the very preventatble deaths of school children her new nickname will be “Killer Kim.” 

And how is Iowa doing? Pretty bad, but maybe not as bad as Texas or Florida or South Dakota for that matter. From the Des Moines Register:   

The 7,112 new COVID-19 cases reported in the past seven days brings Iowa’s total for the pandemic over 400,000 for the first time. The daily average of new reported cases over the past week topped 1,000 for the first time since January.

It’s a similar average to what was reported in the state in mid-October 2020. The rate of new cases means a new Iowan tested positive for COVID-19 roughly once every 90 seconds over this week of reporting.

The worsening numbers have Polk County officials on high alert.

“Our hospitals are full.  Our healthcare workers are tired. Parents and guardians are scared to send their children to schools,” Polk County Health Director Helen Eddy said in the news release. “We implore everyone to step up, once again, and do the right thing for the people you love and care about, for our community and for the 82,000 kids in Polk County who cannot be vaccinated.”

While Reynolds has really screwed it up, she is but a pop gun to the big bazooka that is South Dakota’s Kristi Noem:   

But while Southern states have been the main drivers of this surge thus far, the recent spike in cases in South Dakota warrants special concern.

The state more broadly has witnessed a 686.8 percent increase in daily case counts over the past three weeks, currently more than 10 times the nationwide rate. Meade County’s post-Sturgis uptick is certainly a contributor to this state-level increase, but neighboring counties have experienced a sharp incline in cases, too—ranging from a 1,900 percent increase in the past three weeks in Butte to a 1,050 percent increase in Lawrence.

The story elaborates on the devastation that Noem is causing in South Dakota. You will be happy to know that Noem will stand up against mandated vaccinations. That could eventually affect you and me. But it may help her reach her ambition of being president. Imagine that.

Finally for today, as I have run on way too long, we have one of the two vying to be the Killer King, Mr. Greg Abbot of Texas. The other is of course Ron DeathSentence of Florida. But right now I will Gove Abbot the nod for this bit of one-upmanship when it comes to dealing out death and suffering: 

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday announced an executive order banning government COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Texas regardless of a vaccine’s approval status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Mr. Abbot is a one man wrecking ball. He treats the Covid-19 virus as a buddy to do business with. Sadly Abbot’s business right now is to burnish those anti-government crews, no matter who dies. That is extremely popular in today’s Republican Party. I predict that Abbot may be the man to bring back polio, pertussis, scarlet fever and other childhood diseases as his mission mutates (ha!) into stamping out all vaccinations. Let’s hope he isn’t contagious.

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