Why Do Iowa Republicans Want To Destroy Our Universities?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Still the party of Trump

There is a bill making its way through the legislature that would be very bad for Iowa’s universities.Why would the Iowa legislature want to harm Iowa’s universities?

It is self evident why Republicans would want voters to lack education and critical thinking skills. Not to say that being smart and having a formal education are the same thing. There are plenty of people who do not have a college degree who are very smart and well informed and they do not support right-wing crazy. But it sure does make it easier to influence opinion with simplistic talking points, lies and propaganda.  Here’s recent polling published by Newsweek:

About half of Republicans and Americans without college degrees said they want Trump to remain the head of the party for the foreseeable future. And 89 percent of U.S. adults with no college degree said they want the former president to remain at the forefront of politics.

One of Trump’s former spokespersons who is probably in jail now said once, remarkably, “Donald Trump is the president for the uneducated.”  That’s about the size of it and why democracy needs an educated citizenry, even if bad for Republicans.

“If this bill were to pass (SF 41), many of our best and brightest would leave. It would make Iowa an educational backwater that no one would want to be associated with in higher education,” Keith Saunders, Iowa Board of Regents.

Bill text: legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=SF41

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Labor Coming Back?

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Amazon workers attempt to organize may signal change in Labor’s standing.

Biden moves signal new era for Labor?

We all felt it when Joe Biden won the election as President. The winds of change were blowing hard. The wind was now at the back of several groups that had had a strong wind blowing in their faces for many years. Perhaps the group to be most appreciative of the wind behind their back will be a group that has been a target of Republicans always but especially since Ronald Reagan – Labor.

Few can forget that one of Ronald Reagan’s early acts as president was to fire 11,000 PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Org.) on August 5th of 1981. (note 40th anniversary this year.) Despite campaigning as a union fiend in 1980, Reagan’s action sent an unmistakeable message to unions and workers – You are no longer welcome.

Since then, especially in Republican led states and during Republican led administrations, labor has gotten the short straw. Businesses have favored candidates who busted unions with major campaign contributions since. While productivity has gone up 69% since the late 70s – just before the Reagan action against PATCO – wages have been flat.  

NPR has a great map showing declines in labor union participation at this website. While it is from 2015, it is still true today. You may note that as union membership declined since the 1970s, so have wages.

Now there is a new sheriff in town. Joe Biden sent a message early and definitively: Labor will count in his administration. From Rebecca Rainey at politico.com:

“President Joe Biden is forcing out two Trump-era counsels from the National Labor Relations Board, the first time in more than 70 years a president has exercised that power over the agency.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, was fired Wednesday after refusing a request from Biden to step down from his post. On Thursday, Biden asked for the resignation of Robb’s replacement, Deputy General Counsel Alice Stock, by 5 p.m. or said she would be dismissed.

Robb’s dismissal — hailed by union officials and their Democratic allies, who blame him for what they say is a pro-management turn in the labor board — marked the first time a president has removed the top lawyer at the NLRB since Harry Truman did so in 1950.

Robb said that if he followed through with Biden’s request Wednesday, it “would set an unfortunate precedent” for labor relations in the U.S., according to a copy of a letter obtained by Law360. The White House said he was subsequently fired.

In a Thursday letter, Stock also declined Biden’s request, arguing that it would be “detrimental” to the agency’s operations given the “dubious legality” of Robb’s firing.”

Before Biden, however, workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama “fulfillment center” (don’t you love that phrase) had begun organizing to unionize.     

As the US economy took a huge hit thanks to the pandemic, Amazon and a few other businesses flourished. Workers worked in harsh conditions, including possibly getting the corona virus at work daily. Their time is tracked to the microsecond. Workers were barraged with anti-union propaganda constantly. 

Workers are still trying to get enough signatures for a vote, at least Biden sent them a bit of good news by letting them kn. Ow that the NLRB was no longer a plaything of business.

While Amazon workers make @ $15/hour, CEO Jeff Bezos net worth is in the $180 BILLION range as he and Elon Musk vie for the title of richest human. Could Bezos afford to pay his workers a little more with more benefits?

Remember that during the post-WWII era in the US, when unions represented about 1/3rd of workers, wages were high enough that even working people could afford to have one job in the family and still make enough to afford a house, a yearly vacation, college for their kids and a decent retirement.

Restoring labor and laborers to their place of dignity in America will be necessary ti rebalancing the economy so it works for all.

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Sunday Funday: Valentine Edition

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Dave Bradley

blogforiowa’s favorite couple and their humans: (4 minutes)

It is always curious how ancient rituals or beliefs turn up in our day as something entirely different from the original. In this case St. Valentine’s Day. The only common thread seems to be lovemaking.

From an NPR story from some 10 years ago:   

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.

Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them.

From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.

The Roman romantics “were drunk. They were naked,” says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.

The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.

The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.

Much more at the link. We strongly recommend not trying to emulate the ancient Romans. 

On to the quiz:

  1. Feb. 1, 1960 “four African American students sat down and ordered coffee at a lunch counter inside a Woolworth’s store.” What city did this first “sit-in” occur in?
  1. Impeachment defense lawyers Friday launched a defense that included a long video of Democratic politicians uttering what word over and over?
  1. What amendment to the US constitution abolished slavery in the US?
  1. Rudy Giuliani was sued by Dominion Voting Systems for how much for the lies he broadcast about Dominion?
  1. Feb 22 & 23, what Biden cabinet nominee will finally get a senate hearing some 5 years after his original hearings were blocked by Mitch McConnell?
  1. Feb. 11, 1937 the original sit-down strike began at what automaker’s Flint plant was a major turning point for labor rights in this country?
  1. Due to the pandemic, the world is suffering a shortage of what component of seemingly everything that is made these days? New cars are especially short of these items.
  1. What well-known anti-vaxxer has been banned from instagram for his continuing sharing of corona virus vaccine misinformation?
  1. Utah Senator Mike Lee said Tuesday about Trump that “Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone deserves a …” what?
  1. Meanwhile in Iowa, a bill advances in the legislature to take away what from university professors at our state universities?
  1. Tomorrow is President’s Day. Can you name 3 of the 4 presidents born in February?
  1. In Iowa, working to keep our children ignorant, Republicans have advanced a bill that would pull funding from public schools if material from what source is used in History courses?
  1. Ah, THE BIG GAME was last Sunday. Who was the winning quarterback for Tampa Bay?
  1. What high ranking administration official was in true danger of being murdered during the Trump insurrection even as Trump acted as if he could care less?
  1. Kim Reynolds lifted most of the restrictions around corona virus as of last Sunday. She did this without agreement of what group?
  1. Republican Richard Shelby of what state became at least the 3rd Republican to announce he would not run in 2022?
  1. More than 100 former Republican officials met last week to discuss organizing what?
  1. Meanwhile, a criminal investigation has been started in what state concerning Trump’s attempt to “overturn election results”?
  1. A hacker in Oldsmar, Florida got into the water supply computer and tried to increase the amount of what chemical in the water supply?
  1. Mary Wilson died at age 76. Wilson was a member of what barrier shattering major rock ’n’ roll group in the 1960s?

If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense. It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators. – Hillary Clinton

Answers:

  1. Greensboro, NC
  1. “Fight”
  1. 13th
  1. $1.3 Billion
  1. Merrick Garland nominee for Attorney General
  1. General Motors
  1. Computer Chips
  1. Robert Kennedy, Jr.
  1. Mulligan
  1. Tenure – that should turn us into a backwater pretty quickly
  1. Lincoln (12th), Washington (22nd) were the reason behind president’s Day. Also Reagan (6th) and WH Harrison (9th)
  1. The New York Times 1619 Project
  1. Tom Brady
  1. VP Pence
  1. Her corona virus advisors
  1. Alabama
  1. A new anti-Trump party
  1. Georgia
  1. Lye – it was caught by an alert city official
  1. The Supremes

Is there anyone who doubts he’d do it again if he could? – Stephen Beschloss

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STATEMENT: Grassley, Ernst Earn Dark Place In History

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Dave Bradley
email from Progress Iowa
Progress Iowa <press@progressiowa.org>
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Just Hoping I Can Survive Covid Kim’s Leadership

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Man oh man. Over the past two weeks I have been trying to figure out just what Iowa’s vaccination system is. My search has felt like one of those Russian nesting dolls. I finally figure out how to get inside the top doll only to find another copy of the doll underneath. And I keep going.

I had been talking to friends and relatives who have been vaccinated to figure out what they did that I didn’t do to get the vaccine – what was the system? After several conversations I finally realized on Wednesday that there was no system. Right now it is a catch as catch can set up with various hospitals or pharmacies doing some small amount of vaccinations depending on where you live.

Got to say for about the tenth time during this pandemic – Way to Go, Governor! Not like you didn’t have some time to prepare for possible vaccinations. At least 3 months since Pfizer was first approved.

Perry Beeman at the Capitol Dispatch wrote on the lack of a system Thursday:

Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday defended the state’s delay in setting up a centralized COVID-19 vaccine scheduling system, which is still weeks away.

At the governor’s news conference, a reporter asked why Reynolds’ administration is just now moving to set up a central vaccine scheduling system when then-President Donald Trump had discussed starting vaccinations before the November election.

“We tried to take the infrastructure that we have and make that available,” Reynolds said. “Some of the problem is really a lot of our systems are so antiquated and they’re siloed and they’re not operating at a capacity that we need them to.”

Reynolds compared the problem to when the state realized there was no central count of intensive care beds day to day, even though each facility had the information. The state then came up with a way to track that. 

Well, no time like the present my Mom used to say. Hope you are preparing now. A little late, but better than next June.

Got to congratulate you on not consulting anyone on changing Covid-19 precautions last week. Maybe no one told you, but there are other people who should be involved in decisions.

Here’s hoping we can survive your “leadership” until we can find a competent leader.

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Trump Still Clouds The Country

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Dave Bradley

Thanks to EarlG at democraticunderground.com

Donald Trump is living the egomaniacs wet dream. For a guy who wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every wake –  the guy who wants all the attention all the time – Trump has achieved his dream. He is dominating airwaves as few ever have. 

The few that have gotten the attention that Trump is getting started major wars or overthrew the government of major countries. Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States. He didn’t get the job done, but he came a lot closer than most of us would care to consider.

The impeachment is only focusing on the insurrection on January 6th and some of the events leading up to the insurrection. While there were other events during the Trump presidency that in any other presidency would have led to an impeachment, such incidents were so frequent as to become the norm and thus not stand out as so egregious. It literally took a violent, deadly attempt on his part to overthrow the government to be impeached.

Beyond the insurrection, the Trump presidency was known mostly for its trademark incompetence and corruption. What little that did get done was often bad for the country and offered a big payoff for somebody in the administration with some reward for the Trump family among the lucre. I offer the USPS as exhibit A.

So while our attention is once again turned toward Trump, in an almost dark corner of the media universe, newly minted President Joe Biden continues the work of REBUILDING the WHOLE DAMN GOVERNMENT that he inherited. Trump left Biden a ship of state that was full of holes and no patching material because the Trumpers had sold it.

Faced with an economy that has been upended by a pandemic that was allowed to run unrestricted by the previous administration, Biden and his team started say one to put together plans and systems to bring the country off its knees. Biden hasn’t even been there a month yet most Americans are feeling optimistic again, believing that we once more can beat conquer whatever tries to take us down.

One pundit whose name escapes me was asked on the Stephanie Miller Show the other day what grade would he give President Biden so far. “What comes above A+?” was his answer. But it will take time to fix what Trump broke – including the USPS. 

Yet Biden will not be without opposition. With the US Senate at 50-50 the Democrats may have to compromise a bit more than they want. In Republican led states, legislatures and governors are doing all they can to disenfranchise Democrats before the next election in order to take power in what seems to be the only way they can – by cheating. 

Don’t forget, also, that most of the radio and TV stations in this country are owned by corporations that are right wing and therefore disposed to be against whatever Biden and Democrats do.

So dig in America. We can get beyond the pandemic, we can get beyond the disastrous 4 years of the Trump Administration if we work together and follow the lead of President Biden and VP Harris.

The scourge of the Trump years will continue to resurface on occasion as his policies are rejected with new and hopefully more airtight laws. 

One last thought. I can’t get over how so much of what went on in the past four years seems to be straight out of an old time Mafia novel – think of The Godfather if you will.

At the top of one of the crime families is Don Trump. His family business is ostensibly travel with hotels and golf courses. That is his cover. Mostly his business is accumulating power at all levels. He “owns” congress men and women. He owns nearly half the US Senate. He owns 2/3rds of the Supreme Court and over half of the lower courts in the country. He is affiliated with Governors at the state level who do his bidding in order to gain his blessing and the love of his followers.

He has the loyalty of nearly half the police in the country and they are willing to bend rules to do what they believe will help Trump. And while he has no army per se, he has bands of loyalists throughout the country who will do his bidding at the drop of an ask. This includes harassing protestors, starting protests, harassing Democratic governors.

This all culminated with his ask that these loyalists come to Washington, DC to overthrow the government to keep him in power. 

Like all things, soon this will all be a bad dream. However, every January 6th should be memorialized with silent vigils to remind us just how close we came to seeing our democracy end.

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Historian: Trump Could Be Convicted (But Not Because Republicans Have A Spine)

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Political historian Heather Cox Richardson has quite a bit to say about the way things are right now, where we’ve been and where we might be going.

“If you look at the way the political culture seems to be sliding, it looks to me like we are doing what we did in the 1860’s and the turn of the last century and the period after WWII, when we reclaimed American democracy, as Lincoln said “of the people, by the people and for the people.” And it’s time. If you look at the timing of all the events I just said, we are overdue for that kind of a renewal. And I have faith we’ll do it.”

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Biden And Harris Inaugurated, Capitol Stormed And Parties Divided

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Photo by Adam Schultz / Biden for President

by Ralph Scharnau

The November 2020 elections resulted in impressive victories for the Democratic Party. The final certified tally showed Biden the winner with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris won the race for national office at the top of the ticket. And Democrats also now control both houses of Congress.

The transition from the previous administration turned into a jarring fiasco. Trump, the loser, zealously tried and failed to overturn the certified election results, insisting, without proof, that he had actually won reelection by “a wide margin” and the election was “stolen.”

Trump used lawsuits and appealed to friends, elected officials, state supervisors of elections, and the courts to overturn Biden’s victory. These efforts uniformly failed. And he even said that a cabal of socialists, left-wing Democrats, and the media rigged the election against him.

Trump’s most ardent supporters heeded his call to march on the Capitol, standing by and ready to compel lawmakers to proclaim his victory and feed his need for egoistic adulation. Incited by Trump’s inflammatory words, hundreds went to the Capitol. And some extremists became a mob that ransacked congressional offices before the insurrection was quelled by National Guard forces.

Many people turned away in horror from the violence they witnessed on January 6. But most Republicans who broke with Trump over the Capitol insurrection soon returned to the party he continues to control.

Democrats remain united. They believe that the inciters and perpetrators of the Capitol assault must be held responsible and punished.

The Democrats’ majorities are very slim in the House and the Senate. They want to use their new majoritarian status to pursue a progressive agenda. They seek to reverse four years of the Trump administration marked by chaotic and incompetent actions and untruthful pronouncements.

From the moment he took office, the new President laid out an ambitious agenda. He used a flurry of executive orders, memorandums and proclamations to dismantle Trump administration policies that caused great damage to the nation.

Biden swiftly acted to replace Trump’s pandemic response and reverse his environmental actions.

President Biden immediately ramped up the federal response to the COVID-19 virus. Biden plans to curb the coronavirus pandemic by speeding vaccine spending and targeting distribution to high-risk populations and thereby reduce new infections. Biden created an advisory COVID-19 panel of experts and plans to rejoin the World Health Organization.

Environmentally, the President will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord; rescind the Trump rollbacks on vehicle emission standards; impose a moratorium on oil and natural gas leases in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge; and revoke the Keystone XL pipeline permit.

President Biden also took action on other issues. He extended a federal moratorium on evictions and on federally guaranteed mortgages. He called on Congress to cancel up to $10,000 in individual student debt.

Biden protected Dreamers, children of immigrants, from deportation while opening a chance for permanent resident status and a path to citizenship. He ended the Trump practice of finding and deporting undocumented immigrants. And he wants to double the minimum wage.

Biden and Harris reflect the amazing diversity of America. This deeply divided nation will continue the struggle to become a place of healing and hope for all, regardless of politics, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, social class, or religion/spirituality.

Ralph Scharnau

February 4, 2021

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ALEC Provides Free Campaign Software To Republican Legislators

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Trish Nelson

exposedbycmd.org/2021/02/05/alec-gives-lawmakers-free-data-program-run-republican-operatives/

The American Legislative Exchange Council provides a “constituent management program” worth thousands of dollars and run by a leading Republican political data operation to its overwhelmingly Republican legislative members at no charge, in potential violation of its charitable tax status and state gift and campaign finance laws, the Center for Media and Democracy has learned.

As a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is prohibited from engaging in any electoral activity as a condition of its charitable tax-exempt status, and in most states, contributing something of value to legislators or their campaigns would trigger gift or campaign contribution limits subject to public disclosure.

According to ALEC CARE training materials obtained by CMD, the program comes “preloaded with constituent information,” and can enable robocalls or send text messages to constituents. The training also revealed that the “data vendor” (Voter Gravity) has access to users’ data.

This follows a 2015 blog post where Voter Gravity announced that it was “fully integrated with the Republican National Committee database.” Ned Ryun added, “Our ultimate goal is to outmaneuver the left philosophically and politically.”

In 2014, voter data operations on the Right, including the Koch’s i360, the RNC, the NRCC, and Ryun, met with GOP operatives and candidates “behind closed doors to discuss how to synchronize their sometimes competing tech efforts,” Politico reported.

Read more..

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And be sure to check out ALEC Exposed in iowa

Click to access Iowa.ALEC_.report.pdf

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Reynolds Failed To Consult Health Officials Before Ending Covid-19 Precautions

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Trish Nelson

Reynolds at an earlier COVID-19 press conference

The governor is so over COVID!  But this raises the question, who did Kim Reynolds consult before ending COVID-19 precautions?

BREAKING: Reynolds didn’t consult health officials before ending COVID-19 precautions

Potluck Media Network || By Nikoel Hytrek

Governor Kim Reynolds did not consult with the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) before ending the state’s limited mask mandate and gathering requirements, according to a number of legislators who participated in a phone call with IDPH director Kelly Garcia.

Reynolds has faced an outpouring of criticism in response to her decision. Health officials, legislators, and members of the public have shared their responses online and in the press. At one point the hashtag #COVIDKim was even trending nationally on Twitter.

“It’s mind-boggling to me that the Governor didn’t consult her own public health experts when making such a major public health decision for our state,” said Rep. Lindsay James, of Dubuque. “The only sense I can make of such an egregious omission is that this is all about politics, not the well-being of Iowans.”

Currently, according to Reynolds, Iowa is 47th in per capita vaccine distribution and 46th in administering the vaccine to citizens.

Data from the New York Times shows that Iowa is the worst state for efficiently administering vaccines with 7.5 percent of the population receiving one vaccine and only 2.8 percent getting both doses.

As of today, Iowa has almost 325,000 cases and 5,110 deaths, according to the state.

The Potluck Media Network is a project of Progress Iowa

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