The Climate Crisis Is Accelerating – Now What?

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Paul Deaton
Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica Nov. 4, 2017. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

What can we do when confronted with the climate crisis? The answer is everything. If climate change is developing faster than human solutions, what then?

During the last few months we have been assaulted with news about the climate crisis getting worse. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built, threatening downstream communities with loss of needed water. People are dropping dead on the street in the Pacific Northwest which is experiencing record high temperatures. President Biden called a White House meeting with Republican and Democratic Western Governors about the continued heat wave and wild fires it caused. Above the Arctic Circle in Siberia, ground temperatures approach 120 degrees, melting the permafrost. 2020 was the hottest year in recorded history for Antarctica, causing a record 1,600 square mile iceberg to calve off the Ronne ice shelf into the Weddell Sea. Drought continues in Iowa, the worst in 20 years. This is what I mean by being assaulted.

Professor Julia K. Steinberger offers a toolkit for would-be climate activists in info graphic format here. It is pretty cool and accessible. It offers things a person can do to address the climate crisis. It is something, not everything. It is not enough.

The next step in taking effective action to address global climate change is to understand where we are. According to Bill McKibben in the New Yorker, we’re not in a good place.

“The earth won’t simply keel over and die like a human being might, but it is now changing in substantial ways in real time,” McKibben wrote. “If you’re used to thinking that the earth changes in the course of geological epochs, and that fundamental shifts require thousands or millions of years, think again.”

“The speed with which this happens is remarkable,” he said. “And it is dramatically outpacing the speed at which humans—our governments, our economies, our habits, our mind-sets—seem able to adapt.”

In a piece in the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo opined, “Democrats have a year to save the planet.”

We’d better get going.

While we need to do everything possible to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis, the longest, most complicated journey begins with a single step. Click on the links in this post. Read the articles. Discuss them with friends. Figure out how you can contribute to solutions to the climate crisis.

“Become active as a citizen of our democracy, regardless of party,” recommended Al Gore on CNN.

This is about the future of humanity. We all have a stake.

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There’s A Reason Republicans Call It ‘Communist China’

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Paul Deaton
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

“The unprecedented global challenges that the United States faces today—climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, massive economic inequality, terrorism, corruption, authoritarianism—are shared global challenges. They cannot be solved by any one country acting alone. They require increased international cooperation—including with China, the most populous country on earth.” ~ Sen. Bernie Sanders, June 18, 2021

Readers have likely noticed recent Republican reference to “Communist China.” They seek to create a bogeyman to scare the electorate–one more trick in their fear-mongering bag used to dominate low-knowledge voters.

In a recent article on the Portside website, Sen. Sanders laid out how relations with China have changed, why they remain important, and require further change despite challenges.

“It is distressing and dangerous, therefore, that a fast-growing consensus is emerging in Washington that views the U.S.-Chinese relationship as a zero-sum economic and military struggle,” Sanders wrote. “The prevalence of this view will create a political environment in which the cooperation that the world desperately needs will be increasingly difficult to achieve.”

As far as a military struggle goes, the claim that China challenges the U.S. militarily is exaggerated.

It’s important to begin any assessment of the challenge from China by noting that the United States currently outpaces it militarily by a large margin. The U.S. has a more modern air force, a more capable navy and a far larger nuclear arsenal than China, and it spends roughly three times as much on its military. The spending gap widens considerably when U.S. allies in NATO, Australia, Japan, and South Korea are taken into account.

The nuclear gap is especially stark – the United States’ active nuclear stockpile is 11 times the size of China’s and deployed U.S. warheads are five times what China possesses. The gap between the U.S. and Chinese militaries is documented in detail in a recent analysis by the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation.

William Hartung, Forbes Magazine, June 22, 2021

As recently as 2000, the consensus in the United States was that China should be granted “permanent normal trade relations” status or PNTR, according to Sanders. It may be familiar to hear that to compete in a global economy, U.S. companies require access to Chinese markets.

“At that time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the corporate media, and virtually every establishment foreign policy pundit in Washington insisted that PNTR was necessary to keep U.S. companies competitive by giving them access to China’s growing market, and that the liberalization of China’s economy would be accompanied by the liberalization of China’s government with regard to democracy and human rights,” wrote Sanders.

This approach was wrong according to Sanders, as is the current approach of casting China as villainous. “For the American people to thrive,” Sanders wrote. “Others around the world need to believe that the United States is their ally and that their successes are our successes.” He supports President Biden’s approach toward relations with China.

To learn more about the change in Republican views toward China, and why it is important to coming elections, I recommend reading the two linked articles. I also recommend we don’t let Republican scare tactics divide us.

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‘What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?’

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Descendants Read Frederick Douglass’ Speech | NPR

This may go against Iowa’s new law against teaching about race. We here at blogforiowa believe our readers are adults and can handle material that reveals truths about slavery. I even invite Kim Reynolds to step out of her fantasy world and watch this (@ 7 minutes):

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Greta Thunberg – Speech To Austrian World Summit 2021

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

July 1, 2021. She does not mince words: It is a crisis. Act like it!

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Sunday Funday: July Fourth Edition!

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Are the Democrats on the rebound? If you love America, you better hope so. Republicans are being manipulated like puppets as they turn this once great democracy into an oligarchy of the extremely wealthy. If you can’t believe it, we just had one of them as president. How did that work out for us? 600,000 dead and thousands of other lives shattered. Our enemies were suddenly our friends and given access to who knows what?

Here’s to PRESIDENT Joe Biden, VP Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has just appointed a select committee that should give us the real story on the attempted coup by Trump’s army. That is really something to look forward to!

A) That select committee to investigate the January 6th insurrection – who will be the chair?

B) The town of Lytton, British Columbia recorded Canada’s highest temperature ever early this week. Then what happened?

 For today’s quiz we will ask questions about the Revolutionary War not just the 4th of July:

C) What American General was known as the Swamp Fox?

D) The week began with the fully unexpected release of what very famous American prisoner?

E) AG Merrick Garland announced the stoppage of what form of punishment in the federal prison system that had been restarted by the previous Administration?

F) What intellectual movement is associated with the American Revolution?

G) One bright spot in Iowa’s pandemic period were the sales of what quasi-governmental industry whose sales increased 25%?

H) There were many cultural issues brought into play as what major pop star tried to bring an end to the conservatorship imposed on her by her father?

I) How many charges did the grand jury hand down on Trump Company CFO Allen Weiselberg Thursday?

J) Perhaps America’s most able general, who switched sides thus causing his name to be a synonym for traitor?

K) In a ranking of US presidents by historians for CSPAN, which president ended up dead last?

L) What right wing voice announced she would be leaving ABC daytime show “The View” in September?

M) The SCOTUS ended its term with a party line 6 to 3 defeat for a major piece of what 1965 civil rights legislation?

N) Not all colonists supported the Revolution. What were colonists who supported remaining with Britain known as at that time?

O) On July 1st the Communist Party of China celebrated how many years of existence?

P) A study from the London School of Economics found that the big tax cuts in the US since Reagan have contributed how much to our economy?

Q) During the Revolutionary War General Ethan Allen commanded an army known by what colorful name?

R) President Biden chose what state to unveil his infrastructure plans?

S) Last week saw the death of what perhaps most reviled Secretary of Defense in our history?

T) The Federal Trade Commission’s first meeting under new Chair Lina Khan broke decades of precedent Thursday by doing what?

A few more – I am cooking!

U) To really impress the spectators, what two Republican senators did push ups on a stage at Sioux Center, Iowa last week?

V) The city council of what California city decided that gun owners will pay an annual tax to help defray costs incurred by gun related incidents?

W) Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy called what an “Woman’s problem?”

Whew I am done!

Can we finally stop pretending it’s radical to expand the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College, and end the filibuster? We do these things, or we let democracy die. It really is that simple. – Robert Reich

Answers:

A) Rep. Benny Thompson of Mississippi

B) It burned down a couple of days later

C) Francis Marion 

D) Bill Cosby

E) he paused the death penalty

F) The Enlightenment

G) The Lottery

H) Brittney Spears

I) 15

J) Benedict Arnold

K) James Buchanan (I hear a distant voice saying the vote was rigged)

L) Meghan McCain

M) The 1965 Voting Rights Act

N) Loyalists

O) 100

P) Nothing, NADA

Q) The Green Mountain Boys

R) Wisconsin

S) Donald Rumsfeld

T) Meeting in public for the first time

U) Tom Cotton and the immortal Chuck Grassley

V) San Jose

W) Infrastructure – seems women drive on bridges and highways to do their shopping (Cassidy could use some critical gender training) 

Notice one thing missin’ from all of Trump’s statements and lawyers?  A denial. – Tea Pain

first seen on democraticunderrground.com

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RELEASE: Iowans Speak Out Against New Laws –

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Dave Bradley

 Enacted By Corporate Kim Reynolds & Republican Legislature

 

Editor’s Note: In some kind of karmic happenstance, as I chose to write about how our government at all levels has become basically beholden to corporations in Republican controlled legislatures, this comment from ProgressIowa fell into my inbox:

For Immediate Release: July 1, 2021

Contact: Ivy Beckenholdt, ivy@progressiowa.org

Iowans Speak Out Against New Laws Enacted By Corporate Kim Reynolds & Republican Legislature

Des Moines, Iowa — During the 2021 Iowa legislative session, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate delivered one policy disaster after another for Iowa families, many of which take effect as of today. Every significant piece of legislation passed and signed into law followed the same themes: selling out Iowans so corporations that fund Republican campaigns can rake in more profits, and limiting the ability of citizens to participate in the democratic process.

In response, Iowa leaders are standing together to hold our elected officials accountable, and to speak out on behalf of Iowa values:

“Republicans campaigned last cycle on standing up for all Iowans, yet they have governed only to help themselves and their corporate backers. The laws enacted this year are designed to do one thing and one thing only – keep those who have the power in power. And they are doing this on the backs of hard working men and women across the state. Iowans must stay vigilant and must be ready to fight back at the ballot box.”

– Danny Homan, President, AFSCME Council 61

“Iowans are good neighbors, value hard work, and want to look out for each other. Unfortunately, corporate Kim Reynolds and the Republicans running the legislature proved this year they have abandoned Iowa’s working families. Every significant policy decision they made was designed to fatten the bottom line of their funders, all at the expense of Iowa’s workers. We all deserve better than to be sold out for Corporate Kim’s donors.”

– Charlie Wishman, President, Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

“There is simply no way to get around it. The 2021 Legislative Session was unnecessarily divisive and harmful to everyday Iowans.. Whether passed or simply introduced, legislation to take away human and civil rights, to diminish public schools that are open to all children, and to further divide Iowans into haves and have nots is not the Iowa way, or at least historically it has not been. Iowans believe strongly in our shared value of caring for our neighbors. The question remains if Republican leaders will stop and listen to Iowans who want them to redirect their energies to the common good, or if they will continue to pass harmful legislation in future legislative sessions.”

– Connie Ryan, Executive Director, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund

“This legislative session was an extremely difficult one for LGBTQ Iowans across the state. While all fifteen bills which targeted LGBTQ Iowans for explicit discrimination were defeated, many others which will have a disproportionate impact unfortunately passed. For all the talk about protecting freedom of expression this legislative session advanced restrictions on protesting, a ban on teaching about systemic racism, and an all out assault on voting rights. There is no more fundamental way of expressing yourself than telling government officials how you feel via protest or the ballot box. There is no more obvious intrusion into academic freedom than preventing the instruction of well established topics like systemic racism. The Iowa motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain”. Sadly this legislative session brought serious restrictions on both rights and liberties. We urge the Governor and the legislature to head back to the drawing board and work on bills that improve the lives of all Iowans and live up to the lofty goals expressed in our state motto.”

– Courtney Reyes, Executive Director, One Iowa

“The Iowa legislature is leading our state down a dangerous path. They are working hard to take away our right to vote, our right to peacefully assemble, and our right to safe, legal abortion. said. And here’s the thing: we know Iowans disagree with the politicians. Iowans were boxed out of the legislative process this year, and politicians ran away with their niche agenda. I am confident Iowans will beat back the abortion constitutional amendment at the ballot box, but many other laws will get signed into law without Iowans having a say.”

– Jamie Burch Elliott, Director of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa

“Iowans want to be good neighbors, part of a community, and look out for each other. Corporate Kim Reynolds and the Republicans in control of the legislature know this, and work to divide us with fear and lies for their own political gain, and in the interest of their corporate donors. Iowans have had enough of the dishonest leadership coming from Terrace Hill and the Iowa capitol. We deserve and demand better from our elected officials.”

– Matt Sinovic, Executive Director, Progress Iowa

###

Progress Iowa is a multi-issue progressive advocacy organization with a network of more than 75,000 progressives. Year-round, Progress Iowa advocates for a stronger middle class, first-class public education, and fairness for all Iowans under the law.

Comment:

Any criticism of Reynolds rolls right off her back. She cares only about what her donors say, not the citizens of Iowa. Her biggest crisis last year was keeping meat processing plants open even thigh workers were dying, because profits were more important than life. She also soft-pedaled responses to deaths in nursing homes. One of her main projects was to get and keep schools open despite the pandemic. 

Lives were far from the biggest consideration. Pretending there was no crisis during the election so her party could win was much more important. Just about the very opposite of what a real leader would do. Don’t forget she is also known as Covid Kim.

Posted in Covid-19, Iowa legislature 2021, Kim Reynolds, Progress Iowa | 1 Comment

Of The People, By The People And For The People

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Dave Bradley

As we crash into the Independence Day weekend this year with a feeling that the doom that was at the door last year is no longer quite beating the door down, our thoughts can go beyond merely surviving to once more trying to achieve the ideals that our country was founded on.

The gap, sometimes a chasm, between our ideals and reality is always a source of tension in this country. The concept that all humans deserve freedom and the very opposite condition of slavery have existed in this country from the beginning until the Civil War. Following the Civil War up to today, the lingering effects slavery continue to haunt us.

The concept of religious freedom and the concept that religion has no place in our secular government runs into those who demand that their religious beliefs be written into laws at all levels.

Even democracy itself, the idea that all citizens of adult age should have the ability to vote and help make the decisions of society runs into the constant push by the right to restrict voting to only those who meet specific criteria. Thus voters don’t pick their representatives, instead representatives are picking their voters.

Many of us can remember when our representatives would try to compromise to come up with solutions that while not ending the tensions would at least take some of the edge off. Since the election of Ronald Reagan the concept of compromise has taken a beating. 

With the creation of their democracy, the founders felt that they had conceived a way to put monster of royalty and oligarchy behind them. With a democracy, even a democracy as limited as they conceived, they thought would be enough to keep the oligarchs at bay. Unfortunately, the founders were human. While they anticipated the possibility of oligarchs working to gain control, they felt that there were enough safeguards built in.

They believed that men (at the time) would put the good of the country above all else when voting. That simply didn’t last long. Within a short time he idea of the good of all broke down into a ‘my interests first’ thinking. Parties became the vehicles for promoting one’s interests over others.

The parties have had very colorful existences. Some have come and gone. One thing that has been mostly true in our existence is that one party has tended to represent lower classes and one party has tended to represent wealth and standing.

While who represents who has been fluid over the decades, parties have generally settled into the pattern of the Democratic Party representing the lower classes and workers with the Republicans representing those of wealth and standing. This has been one of the longest standing tensions in our country. In what is supposedly a classless society, there are definite classes.

In the past twenty years the Republican Party has given up on governing and pretty much focused its energy on reengineering our government and political system to give them large advantages in elections and in making and interpreting laws. Gerrymandering is the norm in America today with the tilt in favor of Republicans.

Mitch McConnell’s main focus since 2000 has been to make the judiciary favorable to the right. Most Americans were aghast as McConnell and henchman Chuck Grassley simply refused to fill an empty SCOTUS seat during Barack Obama’s presidency. Despite being totally against the grain of fair play that most Americans subscribe to, it was technically not illegal. 

The use of the filibuster and use of nearly any procedural moves to block legislation that is good for the country as a whole has become normal behavior for the Republicans as their whole focus is on creating an environment that greatly favors the wealthy and their corporations. We have all heard recently of wealthy and corporations that not only do not pay taxes but get money from our government. All the time their publicity machines and media properties tell us that this is good for society.

Thus we come to the biggest tension in our democratic government – the role of money in our politics. Any one who has paid attention for the past 40 years knows that the candidate with more money can buy more media time. They can also hire top notch advertising companies and those who can manipulate folks on the internet. For those who watch elections closely, watching the money race between candidates becomes one of the most critical pieces of the campaign to with.

Thanks to the SCOTUS decision known as Citizen’s United limits on contributions to a campaign have pretty much been lifted. Between campaigns and political action committees there are no limits. Therefore a person of wealth can use their money to help their candidate to buy more ad time and better ads. In short they can almost buy the election.

So when the candidate with the most wealthy donors become a part of the government can we expect them to address the biggest problem in our political system – money in politics? Of course not. Nor can we expect them to address any question that will impinge on the candidate’s desire to get more contributions.

Therefore we get laws that tilt the election playing field and we stop laws that are good for the whole. Even with the EXISTENTIAL crisis that the climate crisis is, any attempt to address it will be stifled because some wealthy make huge money by destroying our climate. Same with health care. Some wealthy make huge money by setting up a system where the poor die needlessly.

So over nearly 250 years, our founders dreams of a democracy where free persons had input into their governance has slowly returned to a government of oligarchs. How can we expect those who benefit by the current system to ever do anything to fix it? 

Posted in Climate Change, Corporate Greed, money out of politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A World Without Nuclear Weapons

Posted on July 2, 2021 by Paul Deaton
B-61 Nuclear Bombs

While it got scant notice in the U.S. press, the joint statement after the Geneva, Switzerland meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin was significant:

We, President of the United States of America Joseph R. Biden and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, note the United States and Russia have demonstrated that, even in periods of tension, they are able to make progress on our shared goals of ensuring predictability in the strategic sphere, reducing the risk of armed conflicts and the threat of nuclear war.

The recent extension of the New START Treaty exemplifies our commitment to nuclear arms control. Today, we reaffirm the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

Consistent with these goals, the United States and Russia will embark together on an integrated bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future that will be deliberate and robust. Through this Dialogue, we seek to lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures.

The White House, June 16, 2021.

The joint statement echoed what President Ronald Reagan and Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev said 36 years earlier in Geneva, “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

“The complete abolition of nuclear weapons is the only way to be safe from their threat, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility of Los Angeles Robert Dodge, M.D. wrote in Common Dreams.

The United States and Russia possess far more nuclear weapons than the rest of the nuclear states combined, enough to destroy life as we know it on Earth many times over. The two states working toward strategic stability is essential to compliance with Article VI of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. During the previous U.S. administration, future compliance with the NPT came into doubt. President Biden is getting the U.S. back on the right track.

That’s not to say it will be easy. As Dodge points out, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons went into force January 22 this year. Currently it has been signed by 86 nations and been ratified by 54. Neither Russia nor the U.S. have joined the treaty and the prospects of them doing so near term are dim.

All nine nuclear states must take a step back from the brink of nuclear annihilation. The Geneva statement on strategic stability suggests it is possible to do so.

To learn more about the U.S. grassroots organizing effort to produce the safer, healthier and more just world that is possible without nuclear weapons, visit the Back from the Brink website.

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High Summer In Iowa

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Paul Deaton
Trish Nelson

One of the highlights of the 2021 political summer will be distribution of the U.S. Census data and the decennial re-districting. The Iowa legislature is expected to convene a special session for that purpose in August.

In 2011 only two members of the legislature objected to the first re-districting map and it passed unceremoniously. We’ll see what happens this year. You’ll know there is skullduggery if the first two maps drawn by the non-partisan commission are rejected.

Trish Nelson is taking vacation in July and I’ll be helping to keep the blog going. I don’t know her plans, other than it will involve dogs, cats, bicycles, and time with family. The blog must go on!

An idyllic version of summer is getting away from stress and tension of American political life for a while and reading a good book. My reading pace slows during summer as more outdoors activities are available. I asked for summer reading recommendations from friends of the blog and here they are for your consideration:

Trish Nelson recommends The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. “Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia,” according to Goodreads. “Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.”

Dave Bradley recommends god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. People love or hate Hitchens, who died of pneumonia while being treated for esophageal cancer in 2011. “Hitchens described himself as an anti-theist, who saw all religions as false, harmful, and authoritarian,” according to Wikipedia. “He argued for free expression and scientific discovery, and asserted that they were superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilization. He also advocated separation of church and state. The dictum ‘What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence’ has become known as ‘Hitchens’s razor.'”

Friend of the blog Ellen Ballas recommended Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by David Corn and Michael Isikoff. We’ve been hearing of Russian influence in the 2016 general election for what seems like an eternity. Corn and Isikoff followed it from start to finish and present an incredible account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow to influence the election and elect Donald Trump.

On my bedside table is Devotions by Mary Oliver. Poetry, which I read outdoors during good weather, has been part of my summer for many years. I enjoyed Oliver’s American Primitive, leading me to buy this collection of her selected poems. I don’t think I can go wrong.

I also plan to read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson’s book has been recommended by so many people I lost count. Many of us are familiar with the great migration from the southern United States to the north. “From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America,” according to Goodreads.

Whatever you are doing this summer, I hope you enjoy it… and that you’ll join me on Blog for Iowa during the month of July.

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Ras Smith Takes Positive Message About Iowa To Council Bluffs

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Trish Nelson

“Iowa is a place where I’m proud to raise my daughters…it’s a place that also showed me what community is.. when I hear our governor telling folks that they don’t belong here that they’re somebody else’s problem…that is not in line with our Iowa values.” – Ras Smith

Donate to his campaign to defeat Kim Reynolds for Iowa governor.  Follow Ras on Twitter and Facebook.  Visit his campaign website:  https://www.rasforiowa.com/

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