Governor Pritzker of Illinois along with other Chicago area politicians are standing up to the potential invasion of Chicago by federal troops that Trump has said he will be sending in unilaterally. The video is 55 minutes long. The Pritzker portion of the video is the first 15 minutes. The Governor returns at 44 minutes to answer questions. {Note: There is a microphone problem at @ 27 minutes that lasts about 4 minutes to 31 minutes.
This may be a rehearsal for the 2028 presidential race. Right now Pritzker and Governor Gavin Newsom of California have been the most outspoken against the insane and authoritarian policies of fascist strongman wannabe Donald Trump.
It is simply nice to hear politicians from the Democratic Party whose speeches make sense and are built on sound and proven policies. It is so good to see anyone standing up to the insanity that is the Trump administration. It would be nice to see one Republican get a spine and call out the accrual of power by Trump and his office. Instead they cower in fear. This includes Iowa’s full congressional delegation: Grassley, Ernst, Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Feenstra and Nunn.
Another point of interest to me is that despite how hard Illinois politicians have tried to cut down on arms in Chicago, they simply cannot stop the flow of guns particularly from Indiana. Instead of sending in Guard troops that are not well trained for such a mission, Republicans should gear efforts toward getting guns off the streets. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson makes a strong statement against guns and guns coming in from the outside into Chicago in his presentation.
I am hoping media will give more time to those who oppose the insane policies of the cult of personality known as the MAGA or Republican Party.
Trump’s invasion of cities is illegal based on the Posse Comitatus Act of the late 19th century. Of course we all know that violating laws is part of the Trump package.
You and I have a major stake in ending the insanity of Trump policies. We must stand up against the authoritarians and their enablers in 2026. Before that we must pick the very best candidates to stand for office. One criteria I will be looking for is whether a candidate is going to stand up to Trump or not.
From the September 2025 edition ofThe Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The PP is funded entirely by reader subscription, available in hard copy for $15/yr. Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244. Click here for archived issues
Iowa’s governor routinely denies requests for public records. Media outlets have been charged exorbitant fees for emails from public officials doing public business on public time.
When COVID rampaged through the state, the Iowa Department of Public Health stopped posting daily updates and provided only minimal details about the number of infections and where they occurred.
Reynolds sued the Des Moines Register to prevent it from releasing emails from her staff. Reporters have resorted to suing the administration to receive public records. In the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that would have enacted penalties for any
governmental official violating laws on open meetings and open records. Reynolds vetoed this bill—her only veto of the entire session.
Now comes the Governor’s latest affront to transparent government. Recently, Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services (DAS) announced it will close the State Historical Society of Iowa’s Centennial Building (SHSI) in Iowa City.
The decision was made in a brief period of time without consulting the SHSI board, donors, or other stakeholders. The DAS ignored protocol by failing to request funds from the Iowa legislature to merge the Iowa City collections with those of the Historical Society’s building in Des Moines. The closure appears to be illegal; Iowa Code 8A.707
states that the Department of Administrative Services “shall maintain research centers in Des Moines and Iowa City.”
The Reynolds administration is once again acting hastily and without public input. Property owners, attorneys, city planners, documentary filmmakers, genealogists, developers, and everyday Iowans use this incredible resource—not just academics and students.
Abruptly announcing the closure of a widely used state resource serving Iowans since 1857 is only the latest example of our governor’s arrogant, secretive, and heavy-handed style of
decision-making. Reynolds’ excuses of confidentiality and executive privilege have worn thin.
In the words of Randy Evans, director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, “Government officials sometimes forget that government belongs to the people, not to the
officials.” Our government officials have also forgotten that the history, culture, and valuable artifacts donated by thousands of Iowans are not their private property.
Governor Reynolds’ phone number is 515-281-5211.
—David Leshtz
BFIA editor’s note: A petition to reverse this bad decision is on its way to 7,000 signatures. Please go to change.org and sign if you haven’t already to help it reach 10,000 signatures. Click here for more information and to add your name.
Watch the rally in Iowa City to save Iowa history.
A huge, huge story broke just before the holiday weekend, but hardly anyone is talking about it. Let’s change that, shall we?
Here’s the story: Donald Trump and Dr. Oz* are rolling out a pilot program to fundamentally change Medicare. They want to require senior citizens to get prior authorization for some healthcare services, and here’s the kicker: Artificial Intelligence (AI) gets to decide whether medical care is approved or not.
Believe it or not, it actually gets worse when you dig into the details of these “AI Death Panels,” which we’ll do in a moment, but if you’re already caught up on this story, here’s what you can do right now:
Medicare has historically covered more procedures, with fewer hoops to jump through, than for-profit insurance companies. Whereas private insurers callously limit care and require “prior authorization” before covering many services or procedures, Medicare offers broad coverage that’s comparatively transparent and simple.
Not anymore, if Trump and Oz get their way. The Trump regime wants to introduce prior authorization — one of the most hated aspects of private insurance — to Medicare, and they’re outsourcing those life-changing authorization decisions to unproven AI companies.
It gets even worse: AI developers will be paid based on the value of requested services or procedures they reject — meaning AI companies would directly profit from denying needed care to seniors.
In short, if a computer program decides that you “don’t need” a medical procedure — even if your doctor recommended it — an AI executive gets paid while you get left holding the bag.
Remember when the GOP invented the term “death panel” in their scare campaign to stop the Affordable Care Act? That was totally manufactured nonsense. This is actually happening. Trump is rolling out real-life AI Death Panels.
OUR DEMANDS
These for-profit AI Death Panels will roll out this January in six pilot states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. The pilots will reportedly be limited to about 17 procedures to start, but if they achieve their goal — cutting costs by denying a lot of people a lot of care — they could expand to more procedures and more states.
This attack on Medicare creates massive political risk for Trump and his GOP enablers in Congress. Medicare is one of the most popular public programs in US history, and hard working people typically don’t respond well when politicians interfere with their health decisions.
That gives us an outside chance of swaying enough congressional Republicans to take action to stop AI Death Panels before they roll out — or failing that, make them pay a HUGE political price in 2026.
Step one: Let ‘em hear it. Give ‘em hell.
Email your Members of Congress right now! Demand that they stop AI-powered Medicare service rejections and use the upcoming federal budget fight to restore healthcare funding.
This is just the latest dystopian move in Trump and Republicans’ campaign to systematically dismantle our healthcare system at the behest of corporate backers and billionaires. With a huge federal funding deadline around the corner, now is the time to fight back hard.
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team
P.S. We focused much of this email on the Republican side of the aisle. But we need to put pressure on Democratic members of Congress, too, because it’s important they use all their leverage to protect healthcare. Whether Dems or Republicans represent you in Washington, email your senators and representative now.
*Did you forget that Trump picked (and GOP Senators confirmed) another disgraced TV star, Dr. Oz, to run the federal agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid? That’s right, millions of seniors’ healthcare is in the hands of a famous snake-oil salesman!
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This interview was posted one day before we knew Joni Ernst was not going to run for re-election. Still an interesting interview that gives us a great look at candidate Josh Turek and dives into his friendship with J.D. Scholten including a bit of the back story of J.D.’s decision to suspend his campaign. If you plan to vote in the Democratic primary, I definitely recommend watching the interview with Lauren Egan at The Bulwark.
Click here to find Labor Day events sponsored by labor organizations in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Keokuk, Mason City, Sioux City, East Moline, Des Moines, Burlington, Iowa City, Council Bluffs
Click here to find more Labor Day events in Humboldt, Des Moines, Newton, Ames, Independence, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Spirit Lake, Iowa City, Decorah, Cedar Falls
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What does Labor Day mean to you? My dad was a factory worker and a loyal union guy. He found meaning in his job through solidarity. Walking the picket line when the workers were out on strike was a point of pride with him, I remember.
When my brother graduated from high school he also found work in a factory and joined the union. It was good paying work and you were considered successful if you had a good union factory job. Eventually, he was laid off as the factory jobs began to disappear and he found a job in sales.
I had to read Studs Terkel’s book “Working” in grad school. Even though it was assigned and I would probably not have picked it up on my own, I found it fascinating and read it cover to cover. There was one quote that I remembered all these years and that was (as I remember it) something like, “People don’t need jobs. People need meaningful work and a way to make a living.”
“It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying. Perhaps immortality, too, is part of the quest. To be remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of the heroes and heroines of this book.”
― Studs Terkel, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
The jobs may have changed and modernized but the nature of being a working person in America has probably not changed that much in many ways.
Studs Terkel’s classic oral history of Americans’ working lives—and the inspiration for Barack Obama’s new Netflix series about work in the twenty-first century
“Reading these stories, I started to consider my own place in the world, and understand how connected we are to one another. [Working] helped inform the choices I made in my own work.” —President Barack Obama
Perhaps Studs Terkel’s best-known book, Working is a compelling, fascinating look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews conducted with everyone from gravediggers to studio heads, this book provides a moving snapshot of people’s feelings about their working lives, as well as a timeless look at how work fits into American life.
Working received rave reviews upon its initial publication, including from the New York Times Book Review, which praised its “incredible abundance of marvelous beings” and “very special electricity and emotional power,” and the Boston Globe, which called it a “magnificent book . . . a work of art,” adding, “To read it is to hear America talking.”
Nearly fifty years after its initial publication, Working remains a deeply relevant American classic, one of the most important works of oral history ever published.
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
A short (3:13) look at the history of Labor Day. Nothing happens without Labor
From Progress Iowa:
As we head toward Labor Day weekend, we are once again excited to promote the entire month of September as Labor Union Appreciation Month, and we need your support more than ever!
This year, the stakes are even higher. With increasing attacks on unions from Republican lawmakers and anti-worker proposals from initiatives like Project 2025, it’s crucial to stand up and show our solidarity with labor unions. Our effort over the past several years has grown significantly, gaining statewide recognition and press coverage. Proclamations have been passed in counties and city councils across the state, highlighting the vital role unions play in our communities.
Unions are a cornerstone of fair work conditions: as union membership rises, inequality declines, the race and gender wage gap narrows, and everyone’s wages and benefits improve. The contributions of unions extend far beyond Labor Day, and that’s why we are advocating for an entire month to recognize their impact. {ed. note: my bolding}
Attacks on workers’ rights at the state and federal level, along with proposed changes to IPERS by Iowa’s DOGE committee, mean Iowans must stand strong together with our labor unions this month and year-round. In the past two years, over 100 labor unions, organizations, businesses, and elected officials joined us in solidarity, and we aim to exceed that support in 2025. If you or any group you are connected with would like to be featured on our website at ThankAUnion.com, please let us know. We will continue to update the website throughout the month, which will remain live year-round.
Here’s how you can help:
Sign the petition – Add your union/organization/business by signing the petition or replying directly to us.
Share this email – Spread the word! We want to unite as many friends of labor as possible.
Promote on social media – Use the toolkit at ThankAUnion.com to share information, research, and sample messaging about the importance of unions year-round.
Thank you all for standing with us in support of unions and their critical role in our society. We hope you can join an event in your community to recognize Labor Day. Together, let’s make Labor Union Appreciation Month 2025 a powerful statement against anti-worker initiatives and a celebration of solidarity.
I would love to share some true pearls of wisdom on this weekend to celebrate labor, but let’s face it, anyone below the station of multi-multi-millionaire in this society is in some way getting screwed by this administration. Look for this only to pick up in its speed and intensity as the FIWH (Felon In the White House) moves to ending our democracy and installing some form of fascism.
Show of hands – Who ever thought they would live to see our major cities invaded by the federal government under the cover of an “emergency” that does not in any way exist. And who would have ever thought that representatives from the once level headed state of Iowa would cheer it on? Look out Iowa City “Daddy” (the FIWH) is coming and our congress members say it is OK.
Maybe some questions on labor; maybe some questions on school shootings. Gawd that is heart-breaking.
A) Representatives Massey and Rho Khanna will be bringing victims of who to testify before congress next week?
B) If this happens what major emergency will the FIWH create as a diversion?
C) What the hell has the FIWH been doing in our name in Greenland that Denmark had to call our ambassador on the carpet?
D) Hey, what are those troops, called in because of an “emergency,” doing in DC these days?
E) What two major civil rights related events occurred on August 28th – one in 1955 and one in 1963?
F) Although not really the first mass school shooting, the rifle sniper in a tower in 1961 at what state university is often thought to have instigated the current era of school shootings?
G) The CDC – one of the world’s premiere disease fighting agencies – has certainly been in an uproar for several weeks. When was the CDC established?
H) Leaders of the Democratic Party have called for the resignation of what cabinet member whose department oversees the CDC?
I) The announcement “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” referred to whose engagement?
J) Just in but not yet from the horse’s mouth. What major Iowa politician has decided to forego re-election next year?
K) With all the mess at the CDC, it is a great time to learn that a flesh eating what has made its way into the US?
L) What major US city was brought to a standstill by a haboob last week?
M) The FIWH lost big in the US Court of Appeals Friday on what issue?
N) The FIWH is basing his plan to invade US cities with federal troops on an emergency. What is the emergency he claims gives him this power?
O) The intellectual Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed the FIWH saved what during the last cabinet praise-a-thon?
P) What European leader called the FIWH a “Russian asset” in a speech Thursday?
Q) What year did Labor Day become a holiday in the US?
R) Who is Susan Monarez?
S) This again? The FIWH issued an EO (Executive Order) requiring the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute people who burn what?
T) Democrat Caitlin Drey won a surprisingly lopsided election in what state Tuesday?
When your house is on fire, the most important consideration is that your firefighters are here legally. You don’t want anybody illegally fighting fires. After you have determined their papers are in order, then you can go about getting your family to safety. – Rep. Jack Kimble. {ed. note: sarcasm for the humor impaired}
A) Epstein – as much as the FIWH tries to cover up this scandal some in congress won’t let him
B) The US just sent 7 warships to the coast of Venezuela last week – Diversion? Possibly
C) The US has personnel in Greenland trying to influence Greenlanders to ask to join the US
D) Picking up trash
E) The murder of Emmett Till and the March on Washington (that date chosen to commemorate Till’s death)
F) the U of Texas in Austin
G) 1946
H) RFK, jr.
I) Taylor Swift and some football player – er Travis Kelce
J) Joni Ernst. Don’t let the door …..
K) New World screwworm
L) Phoenix. A haboob is a huge sandstorm
M) tariffs. The court said the FIWH did not have emergency powers to implement such tariffs – headed to the SCOTUS
N) Crime in the cities. Such crime has been diminishing for years and troops are more likely to instigate a reaction.
O) college football – I have no idea what she meant
P) Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Q) 1894
R) She was the head of the CDC who was illegally fired by the FIWH because she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.
S) The American flag. I suggest burning ’TRUMP’ flags instead.
T) IOWA! Funny that Drey’s victory should closely precede Ernst’s withdrawal. Keep it up, Iowa!
The Republican Party is the greatest friend a mass shooter could have.
Sadly, this sentence is evergreen at this point, with only the geography and the death toll changing.
And before you run down some ridiculous road of misdirection and Fox News fiction: yes, it’s the damn guns.
Of course, it’s the guns.
You’re insulting people’s intelligence when you claim that it isn’t; attempting to gaslight us all into imagining we’re not seeing what we’re seeing, trying to fool us into believing that our faculties are not fully intact, that our minds are somehow clouded, not accurately assessing the reality in front of us.
But we see it all clearly.
And we see you clearly, too.
As you rush to throw blame everywhere else for the daily massacres we’re witnessing in America except on guns, you’re exposing yourselves, you’re tipping your hand, you’re showing us who you are.
You’re telling us you know it’s the guns, by going to such ridiculous lengths to prove that it isn’t the guns; by flatly refusing to even consider it, by taking nonsensical tangents about immigration and video games and mental illness and the Internet and rainbow flags.
You protest too much.
Rational, reasonable people can admit that there are all sorts of factors contributing to the United States’ stratospheric gun homicide rate.
We know that depression matters, that addiction matters, that a culture of violence does, that toxic misogyny does, that institutional racism does, that incendiary politicians do, that personal upbringing does, that extremist religion does. And, we believe in addressing all of these areas, both personally, collectively, and legislatively where possible.
But we damn well know that the guns matter, because the guns are the preferred method of choice when unwell, unstable, hateful, angry people want to murder many human beings quickly.
When it comes to easily-accessible instruments of rapid carnage, it is guns by an American, God and Country mile.
And it’s not just guns, but everything around them: your glorification of guns, the grocery magazine shelf real estate they occupy, the invasive and deep-pocketed gun lobby that has your ear, the NRA that you’ve permanently in bed with, the availability of assault weapons, the general proliferation of handguns—but yeah, it’s the guns.
We understand that entertaining these realities is problematic for you because it will do something to you that we all have a hard time with: it will show you your culpability. It will be a mirror to your policies and your President and your prejudices. It will present you with choices at the polls and changes in your heart and alterations in your allegiances that you may not want to make.
To face the reality of our gun problem, you’ll have to admit that you are the problem, too.
You’ll be forced to connect the dots between
guns and your theology,
guns and your nationalism,
guns and your Islamophobia,
guns and your white supremacy,
guns and your resentment of foreigners,
guns and your President’s irresponsible rhetoric,
guns and the people who so often shoot strangers in shopping malls and schools and churches and concerts, because you’ve helped make guns easier to get than a house or a driver’s license,
and between guns—and your bizarre love for them.
Every nation in the world has mental illness and racism and nationalism, but they aren’t seeing the bloodshed we’re seeing, and we can’t ignore that we have more guns per capita than anywhere else, and that this isn’t immaterial in the rising body count here.
25 years ago, we had a single shoe bomber on a plane, who didn’t kill a single human being, and we completely altered airport screening for the country. We changed protocols. We “inconvenienced” millions and millions of people, and you were willing to abide that because the how of murder matters, and you know it.
And there is no greater how in the bloody mess we are seeing in our schools and streets and neighborhoods and churches, than the weapons you tirelessly advocate for and pump your chest over.
Yeah, Republicans, it’s the damn guns.
You can deny it and hide from it and refuse to acknowledge it and try and distract from it, but that’s simply the truth.
And if you won’t admit this and you will not commit to doing anything about it, then yeah, it’s you too.
We have a brutal, sickening, heartbreaking gun problem in America—and you’re it.
Do not let them distract you any more. If you love children, vote the damn Republicans out! Nothing else will do!
Hey, Bobby Kennedy! Guns are killing a lot more kids than vaccines. Why don’t you outlaw guns??!
The Gun Violence archive will give you an idea of how many gun deaths are being recorded in the US. Remember that the US is the only country where the leading cause of death for children is guns. Are we going to accept this?
Trump’s invasion of America’s cities is a very scary ramping up toward fascism. Let’s let the MAGAs know this is not acceptable. Remember all six of Iowa’s congressional delegation spoke in favor of the invasion of America’s cities. Also remember Trump already has his sights on Chicago.
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
Blog For Iowa 