I almost didn’t open the e-mail containing this video because I assumed it was just another money ask, but it wasn’t. There was no “click here to donate” button anywhere to be found. Watch the video to find out why this 103-year old woman – 7 years old when women won the right to vote – when asked why she was voting for Clinton replied, “now that is a very foolish question.”
If we accept the premise articulated by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, that we are stronger together, there is a lot in society requiring our collective attention.
What did we work on? What are we working on? What should we be working on? What did we get done?
If we are separated from the pack, answers to these questions don’t much matter. We might think of ourselves as lone wolves, fending for ourselves in a hostile world, but we aren’t by nature. Being stronger together is a fundamental characteristic of homo sapiens. It’s what we do as a species.
I see three critical issues requiring us to be stronger together to save ourselves from near-term extinction.
The first is applying the golden rule, or the law of reciprocity. When we view the troubles of society through our flawed lenses, there is no other, only the One, of which we are all a part. We should treat others as one seeks to be treated oneself. We should be applying the golden rule to everything we do already. This is basic.
Second is the threat of nuclear weapons. Today, on very short notice, nuclear powers could unleash a holocaust that could end life as we know it. Nuclear war is not talked about much in the 21st Century, however the threat is as real today as it was in the wake of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. The United States should begin taking steps to eliminate nuclear weapons. As my friend Ira Helfand said, “We need a transformational change in our nuclear policy that recognizes that these weapons are the gravest threat to our security and must be banned and abolished.”
Finally, we are wrecking our environment and need to stop. Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, taking carbon out of the ground and putting it in the atmosphere, geographer Richard Heede said. If that’s the case, and he has evidence to suggest it is, the move to eliminate fossil fuel extraction and use can’t come quick enough. Our governments must intervene, and targeting the 90 most responsible businesses should make it easier. The businesses say they are not to blame for demand from billions of consumers driving fossil fuel use. The technology exists to eliminate fossil fuels and we should work toward its adoption with haste.
The measure of August’s passing was in milliseconds, and September will be the same. The election will be here before we know it, as will the next one. What should be our focus? The three issues outlined above represent a viable starting point, and I plan to get to work. Will you join me?
Woman Writing Letter
A goal of a writer should be to provide unique insight into contemporary society informed by life events. If what’s written is not so informed, then why bother?
At the rate internet memes are cranked out and distributed in conventional social media channels, a primary source for contemporary information and opinion, it is not easy to differentiate oneself from the vociferous hoards. Like an amateur anthropologist it is difficult to avoid tainting the insight with questions asked.
At the same time, there is no such thing as “objective” reportage. Those who have been through “new journalism” know that by now. Unique is not equal to unbiased. Tainted can be akin to seasoned, as in adding chervil leaf to a soup or casserole. We bloggers should seek to be a cross between Margaret Mead, Howard Zinn, Joan Didion and Hunter S. Thompson, with a dash of Truman Capote, Molly Ivins or Tom Wolfe added for extra measure.
There are two parts to this: reading and writing. Of these, reading to inform one’s point of view is the critical aspect requiring diligence. Following are some authors you may not have heard of who are worth reading.
Arnie Alpert is Co-Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s New Hampshire Program. He recently participated in a two-week fact-finding trip to Mexico focused on human rights. He posts at https://inzanetimes.wordpress.com/. I met Arnie at FCNL in Washington, D.C. while advocating for the New START Treaty.
Recent post: Central Americans are Running for Their Lives.
Carrie La Seur practices energy and environmental law on behalf of farmers, ranchers, and Native Americans, and does a little writing, from an office in Billings, Montana. I met Carrie while serving as a member of the Johnson County, Iowa Board of Health.
Recent post: Little Miracles Everywhere, or How Billings, Montana Got Its Bookstore Mojo Back.
Leilani Münter is a biology graduate, professional race car driver and environmental activist. I attended Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project Training with Leilani and a thousand others in Chicago in 2013.
Davis Shorr is a member of the Stevens Point, Wisconsin City Council and author of a new book, I Call Bullshit: Four Fallacies That Keep Our Politics From Being Reality Based. I met David while working on nuclear disarmament issues.
Recent post: Today’s Republican party is out of ideas.
Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian, author and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of seven books. I met Paul at a reading from one of his books in Iowa City.
Recent post: Miranda, Obama, and Hamilton: an Orwellian Ménage à Trois for the Neoliberal Age.
Rod Sullivan is a Johnson County, Iowa supervisor and blogger since 2007 at RodSullivan.blogspot.com. I met Rod while working on a campaign at the Johnson County Democrats office in Iowa City.
Recent post: August 30, 2016.
Lynda Waddington Sometimes dances in the rain. Often sings in the car. Always loves the journey. Columnist at The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Lynda was secretary of our Second Congressional District caucus for John Edwards.
Recent post: #DemsInPhilly — Finding Homelessness Everywhere.
David Shorr (Photo credit: David Shorr)
(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Stevens Point Journal and is re-posted here with permission of the author).
Today’s Republican Party Is Out Of Ideas
By David Shorr
Throughout his political career, Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville has built a brand for himself as a man of ideas. In 2016 this means a sharp contrast with the party’s blustery and provocative nominee, Donald J. Trump. It was hard to miss Speaker of the House Ryan’s point last month in Cleveland, where he told the GOP faithful “it still comes down to the contest of ideas. Which is really good news, ladies and gentlemen, because when it’s about ideas, the advantage goes to us.”
Don’t buy it. The Republicans’ problem is bigger than Donald Trump. As they have drifted toward the far right, they’ve traded pragmatism for ideological purity. The result is an utterly unworkable agenda — ideas with no basis in fact or experience. Remember the GOP’s struggles to come up with an Obamacare alternative so they could repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act? They’ve voted to repeal all right, but never got around to unveiling a replacement plan that doesn’t leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured. The difficulty is trying to reconcile laissez-faire fantasies about free markets with health care realities.
The Holy Grail for Republican health care proposals is so-called empowered consumers. As Ryan himself has put it, “Instead of forcing you to buy insurance, we should force insurance companies to compete for your business.” Raise your hand if you think you can squeeze insurance companies for a better deal by being a choosy consumer. Without Obamacare, insurers once again will have the option simply to refuse to insure you.
Republicans often accuse Democrats of thinking the government knows better than the people themselves what’s best for them. But they’re missing the point. Yes, I think the government is better equipped than I am to stop insurance companies from tricking me into a rotten deal on health coverage. Anyone who’s been tripped up by the fine print in an insurance policy or a credit card understands the need for government regulation.
In researching my new book on the policy agenda of today’s GOP, I looked back at how earlier generations of Republicans stood on the issues. In the health care reform debates of the 1970s and 1990s, conservatives actually offered serious proposals. Not coincidentally, those proposals included some combination of employer mandates, individual mandates, government-regulated exchanges for private insurance plans, and/or Medicaid expansion — a.k.a. the dreaded Obamacare government takeover of healthcare.
On issue after issue, the Republicans of yesteryear offered a pragmatic, centrist agenda with the same stances that today’s zealots rail against. As recently as the 1990s, for example, wide bipartisan majorities in Congress voted in favor of increases in the federal minimum wage and nuclear arms control agreements. If you’re wondering whatever happened to bipartisanship, don’t look at the Democrats.
And the current generation is the first since President Herbert Hoover to push for reduced federal spending in response to an economic downturn. Republicans are fond of saying the government can’t create jobs and spreading the lie that President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill failed. But the truth is that the federal government is uniquely able to bolster the economy in a recession. By definition, a recession results from weakness in the private sector — a lesson from the Great Depression learned by everyone but congressional Republicans like Ryan and a few European governments whose economic recoveries have been quite weak. If Republicans had their way and the private sector was left to heal itself, economists at Princeton and Moody’s estimated the U.S. economy last year would’ve had 3.6 million fewer jobs and unemployment of 7.6 percent instead of 5 percent.
Trump is symptomatic of a wider Republican problem. Take his recent claims that widespread cheating by Democratic voters will attempt to steal his victory in November, which rehash an old GOP myth. Wisconsinites especially should know that the purported cheating voter is a bogeyman Republicans use as a pretext for obstacles that make it harder for minorities and other Democratic-leaning constituencies to vote. A recent federal court case on Wisconsin’s battle over voting showed that the Legislature’s ulterior political motives repulsed at least one of their own. As Republican former state Sen. Dale Schultz said about the laws, “we should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future rather than mucking around in the mechanics…and trying to suppress the vote.”
I don’t know whether Schultz recognizes the other problems with his party’s ideas, but at least he wants a fair fight.
David Shorr is a member of the Stevens Point, Wisconsin City Council and author of a new book, “I Call Bullshit: Four Fallacies That Keep Our Politics From Being Reality-Based.”
video: about 3 minutes
Is it a scandal? When you gouge the public just crank up profits, it sure seems like a scandal.
The very first lesson is that allowing monopolies in any field is a bad idea. So called conservatives proclaim the value of competition every day but work daily to limit competition by passing laws in favor of the big players. The more competition the better. As we learn here, when a company has a monopoly or extremely weak competition what is there to stop them from charging outrageous prices for their products? In such cases the only impediment to price gouging is a strong government. Our government has been neutered in these areas long ago.
The second lesson is that when a medication is necessary for a segment of the population to survive, there must be more than one supplier so that a monopolistic supplier cannot either limit supply nor gouge the public.
The third lesson is that depending on a Rube Goldberg style health insurance system that may cover this for that guy, but not for this guy; that only covers after huge out of pocket costs or that is simply priced out of the range of a huge swath of people should no longer be acceptable in the self proclaimed greatest country on earth. If we are not the greatest country we certainly are the richest by far. To condemn thousands, possibly millions of our fellow citizens to serious health consequences including death over the sale of a product that is essential and cheap to make is insanity.
We are nearly a century behind most of Western Europe and half a century behind the whole world in taking care of our citizens health care. We have the money. We have the facilities. We have the resources (trained personnel) to make it happen. Why can’t we find the politicians who will stand up and do what is right? That is to create a national health care system that covers all of our citizens.
Somewhere out there are true leaders who will take on the current system and break it down to create a system that is equal for all. It just takes the willingness to do what is right and stand up for it loud and proud. Others will follow. You saw what happened with Bernie Sanders. National Health Care was one of his major issues.
When I think of this issue I think of Canadian Tommy Douglas. He fought and fought for a couple of decades to bring national health care to Canada. He fought many of the same entrenched groups we have here. He didn’t give up. Today Tommy Douglas is not thought of as just another politician who went along just to get re-elected. No, Tommy Douglas stood for something. Today Tommy Douglas is revered as the Greatest Canadian.
If finding out that we may have another earth like planet to escape to after we destroy this one wasn’t enough there was also exciting news in the health and another astronomical mind boggler.
In the other story concerning space, astronomers seem to have discovered a galaxy made up mostly of dark matter. This, to our minds, strange galaxy seems to be about the same size as our galaxy but made almost entirely of dark matter. Something truly tangible for astronomers to study. So when you look into the night sky the darkness may not be just empty space. Keep watching this one for future discoveries concerning dark matter.
Here on earth, a major discovery has been made in how cancer spreads throughout the body. This is a major step in figuring out how to stop cancer from spreading. As noted in the article
“Catching these secondary growths is incredibly important, because most cancer deaths are caused not by the original tumour, but by the cancer spreading.” If that spread can be stopped, many lives may be saved.
Such exciting news. It is too bad that Republicans don’t believe in science, because discoveries like this could really add hope to their lives.
BTW – that trip to the new earth is only about 25,000,000,000 miles. Pack accordingly
Were you paying attention?
1) In a speech in Reno, Nv. Hillary Clinton tied Donald Trump to what new group on the right?
2) In Atlanta, GA., Martin Blackwell was sentenced to 40 years in prison for pouring boiling water on a couple because they were what?
3) In France, officials banned beach wear often worn by Muslim women known as what?
4) Iowa 4th district congressional candidate Kim Weaver called for legalizing what as a soil and water conservation measure in Iowa?
5) Which candidate dispelled rumors of health problems by appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s show and opening a jar of pickles?
6) This date in 1963 the march on Washington took place. Who was the originator and main organizer of this march?
7) What Louisiana KKK leader celebrated Trump’s hiring of Steven Banon by stating with a guest on his radio show stating “We have taken over the Republican Party”?
8) Donald Trump appealed to what group for their votes by proclaiming “What the hell do you have to lose”?
9) The Clinton Foundation has come under attack recently by Republicans. How many people worldwide has this Foundation been estimated to have helped?
10) After doing some of that illegal over the TV diagnosis on Hillary Clinton, what doctor has had his TV show canceled?
11) A man in Manchester, England died in 2014 from a lung disease. In a paper published this week it was revealed that the man died from mold growing in his what? (hint: musical instrument)
12) August 31st, 1786 what rebellion began in Massachusetts that would in some degree lead to a constitutional convention to strengthen the central federal government?
13) The epipen made news this week with a 400% rise in price. The CEO of the company that is the only manufacturer of the epipen has what tie to congress?
14) What Iowa congressman called for Republicans to unite behind Donald Trump, despite Trump’s moves to the extreme right?
15) The Iowa Utilities Board in an emergency meeting voted 3-0 to deny a request from which group in the Dakota Pipeline eminent domain dispute?
16) September 2, 1945 President Truman officially declared what?
17) Yet another sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed against Fox News by what former Fox News host?
18) Speaking to Der Spiegel in Germany, what former Bush administration “architect of the Iraq War” said he will probably vote for Hillary Clinton?
19) Iowa’s own anti-immigrant stalwart Steve King said he is “uneasy” with the softening by who on immigration?
20) Well known British racist leader Nigel Farage joined what candidate for a rally in Jackson, Mississippi last week?
Is it already time for college football again? By golly it is! Go Hawks!
Answers:
1) the alt-right. Trump’s new campaign manager is one of the leaders of the movement.
2) gay.
3) burkinis
4) industrial hemp – smart idea
5) Hillary Clinton
6) A. Phillip Randolph
7) David Duke
8) blacks
9) 400 million including some 11 million who get AIDS medication
10) Dr. Drew – on CNN
11) bagpipe which he played daily
12) Shays Rebellion
13) She is the daughter of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin
14) Rod Blum – grab that anvil while you sink Rod
15) landowners whose land the pipeline will cross
16) Victory over Japan day!
17) Andrea Tantaros
18) Paul Wolfowitz.
19) Donald Trump
20) Donald Trump
video about a minute
Seems many folks in Iowa and across the country are noticing that our vaunted senior senator is running a campaign by not running.
Since the death of Antonin Scalia, now closing in on 200 days, and the reaction of Iowans to Grassley’s unconstitutional stand on obstructing any Obama appointments, Grassley has essentially taken to a hidey hole only popping up in friendly areas. I believe his last appearance in a somewhat populated area was in Muscatine, Iowa in March. That did not go well for him. Since then he only seems to pop up in very rural counties and even then very infrequently.
You can rest assured he will not be appearing in Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Davenport or even Sioux City. People in those cities will be seeing their senator on TV only. That will be in ads or in short mostly positive blurbs on the news but they will not see him live. Most likely he will not even come within reasonable driving distance of any city where democrats might be living.
This is hardly a new tactic. Recent Republican campaigns across the state have been centered on saying nothing and only appearing in front of friendly crowds. Who can forget Joanie Ernst who smiled, enunciated a few platitudes and avoided interviews like a plague. Nobody really knew where she stood.
We do know that Grassley backs Trump. Here is a DSCC campaign video that omits Grassley by name, but everything they say pertains to Grassley. (about a minute)
Meanwhile Patty Judge continues to meet voters across the state and take the fight to Grassley. (30 second video)
As I have been doing for the past several weeks, I will once more post the Grassley schedule for next week in hopes that a few Democrats will visit his town hall and ask him some questions on things like why he supports a racist like Trump. As you may note from the video above, asking him a question and getting an answer isn’t easy.
Two whole town halls next week:
Cherokee County Meeting
Monday, August 29, 2016
4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Cherokee County Courthouse, Courtroom
520 West Main Street
Cherokee
Buena Vista County
Tuesday, August 30
10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
Sioux Rapids Memorial Library, Basement
215 2nd Street
Sioux Rapids
Contribute to Patty Judge here.
Iowa Capitol
Below are four reminders on upcoming Medicaid happenings.
We hope you find this information helpful.
You can follow our Medicaid efforts at www.senate.iowa.gov/democrats/Medicaid.
–Iowa Senate Democrats Staff
P.S. If you know somebody who’d like to receive these updates on Iowa Medicaid, they can subscribe at www.senate.iowa.gov/democrats/medicaid/subscribe.
***********************************************************************
1. Medicaid listening post is Monday morning at the Statehouse.
Many Iowans have signed up to share their experiences with Iowa’s transition to private Medicaid at a listening post on Monday, Aug. 29. This meeting will run from 9:30 to 11:30 AM in room 116. Medicaid members and providers will have three minutes to tell their stories to legislators and the public.
The meeting will be livestreamed at bit.ly/IowaSenateLive and available to view later at www.youtube.com/user/iowasenate.
2. The “Health Policy Oversight Committee” meets Monday afternoon at the Statehouse.
The Legislature’s “Health Policy Oversight Committee” will meet on Monday, Aug. 29, in Room 103 from 12:30 to 4:30 PM. The meeting will provide updates on Iowa’s transition to private Medicaid (including public input, billing, payments and more) from the Department of Human Services, the Medical Assistance Advisory Committee and Managed Care Organizations.
The meeting will be livestreamed at bit.ly/IowaSenateLive and available to view later at www.youtube.com/user/iowasenate.
3. DHS is hosting public input meetings on Medicaid.
The Iowa Department of Human Services is holding public listening sessions on Iowa Health Link, the state’s new managed care program. The schedule for upcoming sessions is listed below. For more information, go to https://dhs.iowa.gov/iahealthlink/IHL-Public-Comment-Meetings.
Date Time City Venue
September 14, 3 to 5 p.m. Waterloo Hawkeye Community College
Tama Hall Room 102
1501 E. Orange Rd.
Waterloo, IA 50704
October 11, 3 to 5 p.m. Sioux City Western Iowa Tech Community College
Cargill Auditorium (D103)
4647 Stone Ave.
Sioux City, IA 51106
November 17, 3 to 5 p.m. Ottumwa Bridge View Center
Room C4 & C5
102 Church St.
Ottumwa, IA 52501
December 7, 3 to 5 p.m. Des Moines Des Moines Central Library
Meeting Room
1000 Grand Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50309
4. Annual provider training sessions.
The 2016 Annual Provider Training through the Iowa Department of Human Services will focus on the IA Health Link transition to managed care. Training sessions will be facilitated by the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise and will include representatives from the three MCOs.
The free provider education sessions will be offered in 11 communities throughout the state, with Professional and Institutional training in the mornings. Afternoon training will be for Long Term Care and Home & Community-Based Services.
The MCOs will present information on subjects of interest based on provider feedback. Each session will include an update from IME, followed by detailed presentations from the MCOs, and a question and answer time. Each MCO will have staff available before and after to answer individual questions from providers.
The schedule for upcoming sessions is listed below. Space is limited. For complete details and to register, go to https://dhs.iowa.gov/ime/Providers/tools-trainings-and-services/ATRegistration/APT2016
Date City Venue
8/29/2016 – Mason City – Northern Iowa Area Community College
8/30/2016 – Storm Lake – Buena Vista University
8/31/2016 – Cedar Rapids- Kirkwood Community College
9/1/2016 – Waterloo – Hawkeye Community College
9/6/2016 – Dubuque – Grand River Center
9/7/2016 – Ottumwa – Bridge View Center
9/8/2016 – Burlington – Burlington Memorial Auditorium
9/12/2016 – Sioux City – Sioux City Convention Center
9/13/2016 – Council Bluffs – Iowa Western Community College
9/14/2016 – Bettendorf – Scott Community College
Apples
Hillary Clinton spent three days in California this week raising money for her campaign and for those of selected state parties.
Meanwhile members of the corporate media complained it has been a long while since she gave a press conference. Republicans complained about the trip for many reasons summed up simply as “it’s Hillary Clinton so it’s bad.”
I would comment further about the complaining, and the repeated calls among Republican supporters to lock her up, but what the hell. There is nothing with which to charge her and the illusion of something being there sustains them in their time of Donald Trump.
Sadly, I revert to the commonplace: let sleeping dogs lie.
My support for Hillary Clinton hasn’t wavered this election cycle, nor will it. The rise of the World Wide Web — with its increased visibility of the human condition — has changed politics forever. I don’t know if it is good, bad or irrelevant. We know more about what people are willing to say in public and it’s a poor reflection of the homes and K-12 schools in which they came up. Hillary won’t fix these things or what ails society — what politician could? I’m not sure they need fixing.
2016 makes the need for people to get along in society crystal clear. Not just locally, but globally. We are doing a wretched job of that right now. It may be beyond humanity’s capacity to get along, even if our lives depend upon it, as some of us believe they do.
Instead of trying to say something profound, I’ll post a video: Patty Judge’s first television ad. We haven’t tuned on our TV set for a couple of years, but she’s trailing the incumbent by 8 points and needs our help.
Watch this, then write a check or volunteer or both.
That’s all I have to say about the 2016 campaign as summer turns to fall and communities get busy with school, the harvest, and with looking forward to next year’s hope.
I believe there is reason to hope and so should you.
Garbage Picker at Work
School is out for Iowans who work yet remain on the margins of society.
There is no recess from the constant demand to secure basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. The add-on expenses of transportation, health care, interest on loans, and servicing addictions? It’s a question of what gets priority each week.
Last summer I wrote about two issues: how work is not valued adequately and how compensation is a murky endeavor at best. There is a third: the resilience of people who work and are poor.
This August I work four jobs writing, in retail, and on two farms. After a 25-year career in transportation and logistics, our family balance sheet looks better than most of my low-wage peers. I can afford the experience. I’m one of the few workers who keeps a balance sheet because most live paycheck to paycheck sustaining their lives with inadequate income. I don’t see how people can make it, but they do.
I’m cautious when writing about peers because my narrative is grounded in real people with lives. It is important to show respect and maintain their privacy. I won’t write about anyone with whom I am currently working unless they already are a public figure. That rules out most everyone.
A significant number of my peers are aged 14 through 18 and live at home with parents or grandparents. Their money is spent on personal expenses and they are full of confidence and hope — enough so to be inspiring. There are also spouses and significant others where the partner works a big job with benefits and their low wage income adds to the household. There are the “special people” whose stories are so different they garner attention easily.
The person living in a car with her dog, boarding her horse with a co-worker while figuring out what to do next; the woman in an abusive relationship attempting to hide bruises with makeup; the man who has trouble standing for a shift on a concrete floor yet tolerates it because he needs the income; the small-time loan shark recently arrived from Chicago who heard from friends there are jobs and cheap living in the Cedar Rapids – Iowa City corridor. These stories capture the imagination, but in my view are too “special.” I’d rather write about plain folk like myself. My takeaway is no one who works for low wages has given up and that too is inspiring.
Many of us have lives where there is more to do than time allows. We have to set priorities. Approaching Medicare age it is hard for me to keep up with everything while working fours jobs. I don’t. Mowing the lawn falls to the bottom of the list and the long grass becomes habitat for birds and small animals. The garden is producing with abundance and I struggle to preserve enough of it for winter before it goes to compost. I have trouble staying awake on my daily drive across the lakes to work in Coralville. My challenges aren’t unique. The thing is I’ve worked a big job with benefits and wouldn’t go back for anything.
Once a person accepts the decency of most people, and what we share in interests, working poor are no longer a cipher or story for journalists and social scientists. They are one of us, more than we acknowledge.
If August is no recess, life is still pretty good because there are people who behave as if the amount of money we make is less important than seeking ways to help each other get along. That is as good as it gets.
