Chuck Grassley: The Senate’s Keystone Kop

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Dave Bradley
Keystone Cops

Keystone Cops

Scene: Outside a major bank in a major city that has just been robbed. The perpetrator got away to begin with, but came back in order to brag to pretty much anyone who would listen that HE had indeed robbed that bank. Yes he did and he was proud of it. Not only is he bragging about it, but the money is in a white canvas bag with $$$ signs all over it. Police have the perpetrator handcuffed and are about to take him away. They only await the official go ahead from Detective Grassley before hauling the perpetrator to a jail cell.

Enter Detective Grassley. 

“Let him go. I can see that this is a good young man who was only trying to help his family. He would never have been tempted if the bank had not let him in the door! My recommendation is to arrest the bank president who failed to stop him at the door.”

Officer Muldoon: “What the hell are you talking about? We have witnesses, we have his confession, we have the evidence. What the hell more do we need?”

Detective Grassley: “That may look bad. But this young man is from a good family. His father has been running into some struggles while trying to achieve some personal success. This young man was merely doing what any good son would do. He saw an opportunity to help and he took it. The bank president knew something like this might happen. He should have stopped this young man at the bank’s door before temptation took over and led to the robbery.”

Officer Muldoon: “Are you nuts?”

Detective Grassley: “Hardly. We have seen many cases recently where good people saw holes in the law or open invitations for them to bad things. And they took advantage of these openings. I believe we can’t blame those who exploited such openings. The blame obviously lies with those who drafted the laws or left items somewhat unprotected. Now release him!”

Officer Muldoon: “But this is wrong!”

Detective Grassley: “And hurry. I must attend to a situation where some poor people are trying to make it legal to steal health care by making those who have worked and accumulated much pay for it. Allowing those who really can’t afford health care to get it tears at the very fabric of our society. I am honor bound to stop this misuse and save our country. But I need to act immediately.”

Coming Up:

Steve King explains why building a wall against Mexico is so much more important than feeding the poor.

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Third Week Of the Ernst Traveling Show

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Dave Bradley

joni-ernst-the-perfect-Koch-investment

The third week of the 4 week Joni Ernst 99 county traveling show takes place next week. Senator Ernst herself will not be appearing at any of these meetings. Her staffers will be holding these meetings and be passing information up to her.

It is extremely important that people get out to let Ernst know that the Republican agenda in general is bad for the country and Iowa. The new Republican health care destruction bill is out. Ernst claims to be undecided so we need to to help her decide with a strong showing. Next week the internet neutrality bill is up for a vote in the FCC. Net neutrality is extremely important for our country function.

Don’t forget that the Republican health care destruction bill is in reality a huge tax cut for the wealthy.

Here are next week’s meeting in date and time order. For a list of meetings by county, please refer here:    http://www.blogforiowa.com/2017/06/20/schedule-of-joni-ernst-travelling-office-hours/

 July 17th Monday

Monona County 
Monday, July 17, 2017
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Onawa Public Library
707 Iowa Avenue
Onawa, IA

July 18th Tuesday

Ida County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Holstein Lohff Schumann Memorial Community Center
301 Lohff Schumann Drive
Holstein, IA

Johnson County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Iowa City Public Library
Meeting Room A
123 South Linn Street
Iowa City, IA

Page County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Clarinda Public Library
100 East Garfield St
Clarinda, IA

Lee County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Fort Madison Public Library
1920 Avenue East
Fort Madison, IA

Cedar County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
West Branch Public Library
300 N Downey Street
West Branch, IA

Crawford County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Norelius Community Library
1403 1st Avenue South
Denison, IA

Louisa County

Tuesday, July 18, 2017
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Wapello Public Library
119 North 2nd Street
Wapello, IA

Mills County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Glenwood City Hall
5 North Vine Street
Glenwood, IA

Muscatine County 
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Muscatine Community College
Strahan Hall Room 11
152 Colorado Street
Muscatine, IA

July 19th Wednesday

Clay County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
10:00 AM – 11:00 am
Spencer Public Library
ICN Room
21 E 3rd Street
Spencer, IA

Franklin County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Hampton Public Library
4 South Federal Street
Hampton, IA

Wright County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Eagle Grove Public Library
101 South Cadwell Avenue
Eagle Grove, IA

Dickinson County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Arnolds Park City Hall
156 North Highway 71
Arnolds Park, IA

Hancock County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Garner Public Library
416 State Street
Garner, IA

Cerro Gordo County 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Mason City Public Library
Large Group Study Room
225 2nd Street SE
Mason City, IA

July 20th Thursday

Adams County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Corning Public Library
603 9th Street
Corning, IA

Ringgold County
Thursday, July 20, 2017
9:30 AM- 10:30 AM
Ringgold County Courthouse
Meeting Room
109 West Madison
Mount Ayr, IA

Worth County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Manly Public Library
127 South Grant Street
Manly, IA

Clinton County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Clinton Public Library
306 8th Avenue South
Clinton, IA

Union County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Union County Courthouse
Law Enforcement Center Room
300 North Pine Street
Creston, IA

Winnebago County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Lake Mills Public Library
102 South Lake Street
Lake Mills, IA

Scott County
Thursday, July 20, 2017
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Bettendorf Public Library
2950 Learning Campus Drive
Bettendorf, IA

Adair County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Adair County Courthouse
Jury Room
400 Public Square
Greenfield, IA

Carroll County 

Thursday, July 20, 2017
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Manning Public Library
310 Main Street
Manning, IA

Mitchell County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Osage Public Library
406 Main Street
Osage, IA

Pottawattamie County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Walnut City Hall
229 Antique City Drive
Walnut, IA

Floyd County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
3:00 PM – 4:00 pm
Nora Springs City Hall
Community Room
45 North Hawkeye Avenue
Nora Springs, IA

Madison County 
Thursday, July 20, 2017
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Iowa State University Extension Office
117 North John Wayne Drive
Winterset, IA

July 21st Friday

Howard County 
Friday, July 21, 2017
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Cresco Public Library
320 North Elm Street
Cresco, IA

Sac County
Friday, July 21, 2017
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Sac City Public Library
1001 West Main Street
Sac City, IA

Chickasaw County
Friday, July 21, 2017
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
New Hampton Public Library
20 West Spring Street
New Hampton, IA

Butler County 
Friday, July 21, 2017
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Allison Public Library
Community Room
412 3rd Street
Allison, IA

Calhoun County 
Friday, July 21, 2017
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Manson City Hall
1015 13th Street
Manson, IA

Bremer County 
Friday, July 21, 2017
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Denver Public Library
100 Washington Street
Denver, IA

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How People Power Defeats Corporate Power

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Trish Nelson
Posted in #trumpresistance, Corporate Greed | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on How People Power Defeats Corporate Power

Country Needs To Stop Whining About Trump

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Trish Nelson

“Why do we have to be victimized by this fecklessness, his ignorance?”  – David Letterman

Former late-night television show host David Letterman says that people need to “stop whining” about President Donald Trump and instead “figure out a way” to remove him from office.

Speaking in an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Letterman said he’s “tired” of “people, daily, nightly, on all the cable news shows telling us there’s something wrong.”

Instead, Letterman said, “I just think we ought to direct our resources and our energies to doing something about it.”

“If the guy (Trump) was running Dairy Queen, he’d be gone,” Letterman said. “This guy couldn’t work at The Gap. So why do we have to be victimized by his fecklessness, his ignorance?”

Trump’s behavior, the former television host said, is “insulting” to the country.

“But it’s just the behavior is insulting to Americans, whether you voted for him or not – and I feel bad for people who did vote for him because he promised them things that they really needed and one wonders if he’s really going to come through.  I know there’s trouble in this country and we need a guy who can fix that trouble. I wish it was Trump, but it’s not, so let’s just stop whining about what a goon he is and figure out a way to take him aside and put him in a home.”

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Constituents Confront Ernst 8:00 Monday Morning In Harlan

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Trish Nelson

Our Senator Ernst

Not exactly a convenient time or place to attract a lot of constituents, but still a bunch of Iowans showed up.  Despite Ernst’s constant drumbeat of “I want to hear from you!”  she displayed how little she has been listening to anyone but the Koch Brothers crowd.  Finding excuses and answering with GOP talking points, she used the town hall to get the Republican message out and politely ignored her constituents’ concerns.

WQAD.com

HARLAN, Iowa (CNN) — In a tense exchange during a town hall meeting, 54-year-old Craig Gill told GOP Sen. Joni Ernst that he had been living with Type 1 diabetes since he was seven and he feared that he would no longer be able to afford insulin if Republicans move forward to replace the Affordable Care Act with legislation that loosens protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

“You’re worried about how much somebody’s premium is, what about how much it is going to cost me to live?”

Gill, who lives in nearby Council Bluffs, asked Ernst. “Because they take the ability for me to get my insulin away, and my other medications. I’m blind in one eye because of my diabetes because I didn’t take care of myself for a while when I was younger. I take care of myself now. I tried to take and use an insulin pump. It didn’t work. But I take shots. I take multiple shots a day. I go through six bottles of FAK and insulin a day, and three bottles of long acting insulin a month. We’re talking $3,000-$4,000 a month worth of insulin. And you want to take that away from us. Why?”

Ernst interjected “No, I do not want to take that away from you, sir, don’t put words in my mouth, first. I don’t want to do that.”

After a back-and-forth over whether Obamacare-controlled insulin costs, Ernst said Republicans needed to find a way to control the cost of life-saving drugs.

“We have to go back and we have to figure out a way with the pharmaceutical companies to control those costs and make sure that you have what’s available to you,” Ernst said.

“Why don’t you make that part of what they’re doing, today?” Gill asked.

Ernst told the audience that “if we can, that’s a great plan.”

But Ernst warned that the Senate’s rules could inhibit Republicans’ ability to make those changes. Under reconciliation — the process the Senate is using to replace Obamacare with just 51 votes — Republicans cannot make any changes to health care that don’t have a direct impact on the budget.

“The Senate rules through reconciliation will only allow us to do so much,” Ernst said.

A man yelled at Ernst to “reach across the aisle.”

There were about 150 people in attendance at the meeting, officials estimated.

Back in Washington, Republicans plan to replace Obamacare has stalled because of intra-party disagreements. Lawmakers are expected to pick back up on the health care negotiations this week after returning from recess, but it’s unclear whether differences between moderates and conservatives can be mended.

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Tell Governor Reynolds: Restore Overtime Pay

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Trish Nelson

AFSCME Council 61 Action Center

Action alert from AFSCME

Do you get paid for working?
Of course!..

With dismantling collective bargaining in Iowa for public employees, Acting Governor Reynolds and her administration have reclassified over 160 positions of state workers to avoid paying overtime effective July 1st.

Nurses, Safety Inspectors, Social Workers, Income Maintenance Workers, and the list goes on and on.
Mandatory Overtime is one thing.
Mandatory UNPAID overtime is another.
Please click on the link below to add your name to this petition.Thank you.
Allison Ritchie, President
AFSCME Local 3011AFSCME Council 61

PETITION ALERT: On July 2, 2017, the State of Iowa took away overtime eligibility for employees who, under the old Collective Bargaining Agreement, were eligibile to be compensated for their work over 40 hours in a work week.Over 160 job classifications are impacted by this below the belt move. One of the largest sectors of targeted job classifications are in patient care positions. If our nurses and other patient care professionals are being forced to work overtime (as they often are) and not being paid for it, the quality of care for our veterans and others who rely on their expert care will suffer.

Our hardworking public employees deserve better, and the Iowans who rely on quality public services deserve better, too.
We are calling on Governor Reynolds and Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Director Janet Phipps to do the right thing and restore the overtime eligibility of every single job classification that was stripped away on July 2nd.
Click on the link to add your name!
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/restore-our-overtime-eligibility
Posted in Blog for Iowa | Comments Off on Tell Governor Reynolds: Restore Overtime Pay

What You Can Do To Save The Free And Open Internet (Again)

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Trish Nelson

al-franken-on-net-neutralityIs it me, or does it seem like we just did this? “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” said Thomas Jefferson. No kidding.

http://act.freepress.net/

Net Neutrality or Bust: A Call With Free Press Action Fund

The fight to save the open internet is heating up fast. That’s why we’re hosting a member call TONIGHT to talk about all the ways you can take action in the weeks ahead — and help win this fight.

We have a lot of exciting news to share with you — Will you join the call this Monday July 10 at 7 pm Central?

The Trump administration, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and greedy corporations have banded together to kill real Net Neutrality. But they’re about to find out what happens when you mess with the internet.

We’re teaming up with organizations, companies and individuals to stop the FCC’s nefarious plan to roll back our online rights — but we need your help to succeed. Join our Net Neutrality planning call on Mon., July 10 to find out what you can do next in the fight to save the open internet.

We’ll talk about all the ways you can participate in the July 12 day of action to save Net Neutrality and we’ll have a policy expert on the call for you to Q&A with. You can submit your questions for our policy expert on the call registration page.

RSVP now for the Net Neutrality or Bust call

 

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Russia Readying To Attack Our Electric Grid?

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Dave Bradley

Ran across this very scary article yesterday concerning hacking into computer systems that control power plants and our electric grid, including nuclear power plants. The fact that this happened should send shivers down your spine.

“Hackers working for a foreign government recently breached at least a dozen U.S. power plants, including the Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas, according to current and former U.S. officials, sparking concerns the attackers were searching for vulnerabilities in the electrical grid.

The rivals could be positioning themselves to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply, warned the officials, who noted that a general alert was distributed to utilities a week ago. Adding to those concerns, hackers recently infiltrated an unidentified company that makes control systems for equipment used in the power industry, an attack that officials believe may be related.

The chief suspect is Russia, according to three people familiar with the continuing effort to eject the hackers from the computer networks. One of those networks belongs to an aging nuclear generating facility known as Wolf Creek — owned by Westar Energy Inc., Great Plains Energy Inc. and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc. — on a lake shore near Burlington, Kansas.

The possibility of a Russia connection is particularly worrisome, former and current officials say, because Russian hackers have previously taken down parts of the electrical grid in Ukraine and appear to be testing increasingly advanced tools to disrupt power supplies.”

The article gives a very in depth analysis of our vulnerability and it is not real comforting. Such attacks have taken place on smaller scales in other countries successfully.

One of the aspects that the article does not delve into is the political atmosphere in this country. When you think of it, this may be a critical factor in our response to an attack.

First we have a president who is less than interested in doing his job and much more interested in golfing, watching TV and pursuing personal vendettas.

The administration has a policy of putting people in decision making positions based less on expertise and much more based on their loyalty to the president and how they look. In this case one of the most critical positions would be that of Secretary of Energy. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry was placed in that position. Six months into his tenure he as yet seems to have little idea what his job is.

Competent lower level administrators are being ignored or are leaving and not being replaced. Clearly running the country in a competent manner is not a high priority.

And one final concern is the president’s admiration for the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Will this lead to hesitation in responding to threats in a responsible manner.

This administration has demonstrated incompetence from the word go. These demonstrated incompetences display vulnerabilities to those who wish to harm us.

These are the unspoken consequences of voting for a party whose priority for 37 years has been to dismantle our government. Voting for spite for a rich thug with no competence is a poor way to get a functioning government.

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Tom Greene And The Cost Of Insulin

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Dave Bradley

CapitalistsTom Greene, who is sadly my state senator, was the deserved subject of an editorial blast from the Des Moines Register on July 4th. Seems that Mr. Greene responded to a previous Register editorial concerning the exorbitant price increases for insulin that is necessary for some diabetic sufferers to stay alive.

Greene’s response was that these people simply need to get more active and watch what they eat. His expertise in this area is that he is a retired pharmacist and has dealt with diabetics in his business. Republicans in congress who are in the process of playing God with the lives of millions use similar logic to justify voting to take away access to health care and hasten their death or suffering.

It must make their conscience feel good to blame their cruelty on those who will be the victims of their cruelty. Based on Tom Greene’s logic, they deserve their suffering.

What happened to the country where we cared about our fellow human beings? Oddly caring for our fellow man is the very basis of the Christianity that Greene professes to follow.

Tom Greene wasn’t sent to Des Moines to preach to us on morality. He was sent to solve problems, one of which is the insane cost of life saving drugs for diabetics.

Nor were Republican congress members sent to Washington to moralize. We expect all members of congress to solve life threatening problems, not to become those life threatening problems.

Remember these things well, citizens. When you go to the voting booth think which person you will vote for could you depend on in a life threatening situation. Anyone who has followed the Republican Party for the past 30 years realizes that they are the last ones you want in problem solving situations.

The Tom Greenes and the Rod Blums, David Youngs and Steve Kings need to be sent packing. We need problem solvers not scape-goaters and problem makers whose only concern is their donors.

Posted in Health Care & Medicare, Iowa legislature 2017 | Tagged | Comments Off on Tom Greene And The Cost Of Insulin

Where’s Charles?

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Dave Bradley

He's available for some

He’s on a break
But who would know?
He seems to be hiding
He must have camped in a deep dark hole.

I just want to talk about health care
And maybe my friend dying
Will he vote to keep us safe?
Or was he just lying?

Is he here? Is he there?
He doesn’t seem to be anywhere!

Is he in here someplace

Is he in here someplace?

Maybe I could say I have a BIG donation?
Something crisp and green
And he will spring from hibernation
And I will finally be seen

Is he here? Is he there?
He doesn’t seem to be anywhere!

he's got to be here someplace

He’s got to be here someplace

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