Voices In The Fight For Clean Water In Iowa

During the run up to the 2024 election, why didn’t we hear more about clean water and Iowa’s water quality problems from candidates for office?  I don’t know, but my prediction is in 2026 water quality will be front and center in large part due to citizen journalists and groups such as Sierra Club of Iowa and CCI who are reporting and organizing local communities and taking action.

With the demise of newspapers, other forms of news and information sharing are cropping up everywhere. Substack is one of those.  There is some great journalistic work being done on the growing platform on Iowa environmental issues, particularly water quality.  Nina B. Elkadi, of Corn Belt Confidential, is one to follow.

https://cornbeltconfidential.substack.com/p/mapping-illegal-manure-spills-in

Substack bio:

Iowan writing about ag & water. Bylines in National Geographic, Civil Eats, Inside Climate News, High Country News, Barn Raiser, and more.

Elkadi is an Iowa City native and is also a member of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative.

This is an excerpt from a recent post:

Manure spills in the state of Iowa have contributed to what environmental advocacy groups call a water quality crisis. In the capital city of Des Moines, the local water supply has one of the world’s largest nitrate removal facilities. Nitrate is the resulting chemical of manure that is not absorbed by the soil or crops. Due to high levels of nitrate in water, which can cause blue baby syndrome in children and colon cancer in adults, the Des Moines Water Works has to run its nitrate removal system more frequently as the situation worsens — at a cost of anywhere from $10,000 to $16,000 per day, which falls entirely on utility customers.

Full story linked here.

Here are some links to more of her work on BarnRaiserMedia.com, InsideClimateNews.org, and SentientMedia.org.

You can also find an interview with Elkadi on Robert Leonard’s Substack, https://substack.com/home/post/p-152024548

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Election Board Rejects 60k Ballot Challenges By GOP

A win for democracy.

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“Defunding Public Schools Is Part of the Plan”

Are we having fun yet?  It’s time to start making phone calls, letters and emails to protect Social Security and Medicare.

Iowa Congressional Delegation

U.S. Senate
Senator Joni Ernst Phone: (202) 224-3254
Senator Chuck Grassley Phone: (202) 224-3744

U.S. House of Representatives
Representative Ashley Hinson (1st District) Phone: (202) 225-2911
Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (2nd District) Phone: (202) 225-6576
Representative Zach Nunn (3rd District) Phone: (202) 225-5476
Representative Randy Feenstra (4th District) Phone: (202) 225-4426

###

There are some really good Substacks to follow out there.  Substack is no replacement for newspapers, but most are free and paid subscriptions are voluntary so it’s hard to complain.  I move my paid subscriptions around from month to month to support various writers. Some cover local events, the kind of thing newspapers used to do. Robert Leonard is one.  If you’re interested in a unique voice in Iowa, someone who has no interest in parroting established narratives, I recommend Robert Leonard.

Here is a brief excerpt from a post about an event he attended in Iowa City featuring Jess Piper, Executive Director of Blue Missouri, and  Chris Jones, formerly of the University of Iowa and now president of Iowa Driftless Water Defenders.  The event topic was clean water and building political power.  It was sponsored by Progress Iowa, the Singh Family Foundation and 100 Grannies.org. It was attended by over 100 people.

https://rleonard.substack.com/p/progressive-power-grows-in-the-rural

Reporting on Jess Piper’s remarks, Leonard writes:

“The depopulation of rural America is a goal.  A big seed and chemical distributor in the county once told me that it would be much more cost-efficient and profitable if he only had to deliver his products to 25-50 farms than a thousand. The “small” farmer was a nuisance to him.

Corporations have extracted resources with Government support for generations with devastating consequences for our people and the environment. Defunding public schools, especially rural schools and their consolidation is part of the plan.

The answer, at least in part, is smart government that breaks up monopolies and diversifies and stabilizes our agricultural base. We need more farmers on the land, not fewer. We also need more livestock on the land, and not in confinements.”

The sentence above, “depopulation of rural America is a goal” reminded me of this BFIA post from 2021, Is Iowa A Sacrifice Zone?

““A sacrifice zone or sacrifice area (often termed a national sacrifice zone or national sacrifice area) is a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by heavy environmental alterations or economic disinvestment, often through locally unwanted land use(LULU). These zones most commonly happen to exist in low-income and minority communities.[1] Commentators including Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, and Stephen Lerner have argued that corporate business practices contribute to producing sacrifice zones.[2][3][4]

Jess Piper also wrote about the Iowa City event on her Substack:

“After we spoke, there were many who gathered to ask more questions or tell us their own stories. I met several women with cancer. I heard so many stories about cancer…family members and children and parents and neighbors.

According to the 2024 Cancer in Iowa report, Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the United States and the fastest-growing rate of new cancers.

Iowa is the only state where the rate of new cancers has increased.”

You can find Robert Leonard, Jess Piper and Chris Jones on BlueSky and Twitter in addition to Substack.

###

Two good news items this week so far:

#1 – I think this is huge although of course he will appeal. Rupert Murdoch lost his attempt to lock in Fox’s right-wingy-ness forever.

 

#2 Trumpsters face additional charges in fake elector scheme in Wisconsin. This is in state court so Trump will not be able to pardon if they are found guilty.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-lawyers-and-aide-face-additional-felony-charges-in-wisconsin-over-2020-fake-electors

Do something nice for yourself today.

 

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Clinton: America Is Deeply Yet Closely Divided

Former President Bill Clinton has been showing up lately and it just so happens he has a book out, Citizen: My Life After the White House. This is also the 20th anniversary of Clinton’s presidential library. I think it was quite savvy of Joe and Mika to travel to interview him as they try to climb back up in the ratings, or even stay on the air after the trip to Mar-a-Lago debacle.

Say what you will about Bill Clinton (and there is no need to remind that he signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that brought us insane media consolidation, a huge problem now). There are many other complaints perfectly valid, some not, about Clinton. But he’s a heck of a politician who left office with an astounding 66% approval rating, the highest exit approval rating of any president since the end of World War II.  This despite being the first target of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News that hit cable TV in 1996.

Let’s digress for a moment.  Little known factoid: Murdoch actually paid cable to put Fox on the air.

“It was routine for cable companies to pay networks such as HBO or MTV for the right to broadcast their content, but Murdoch reversed the equation, paying cable providers to carry Fox News. As a result, when the network first took to the airwaves on October 7, 1996, it was viewable in more than 17 million homes.”

Anyway, President Clinton has some interesting things to say.  I hope he can help Democrats get back on our feet because our side is going nuts right now when we need to be able to think clearly.  It’s 12:40 minutes.

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How To Prevent A One-Party State

From the On Tyranny series by Timothy Snyder, lesson #3 of twenty.

The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.

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Iowa Cancer Summit Sheds Light

On Pesticides And Cancer Risks

From Accountable Iowa

The following came in our email Thursday concerning agricultural practices, pesticides and cancer:

The Iowa Cancer Consortium is following through on one of the top priorities of their recently released Iowa Cancer Plan: “Raise awareness on and educate agricultural workers on the link between certain agricultural practices and pesticide use, and cancer.”

This recommendation comes at a time when foreign chemical companies such as Bayer and ChemChina continue to push for immunity from lawsuits brought by farmers, family members, and agricultural workers who develop cancer after long-term exposure to their pesticides.

At the recent Iowa Cancer Summit held by the Consortium, the link between agricultural chemicals and cancer was the topic of many gripping presentations. Experts painted a stark picture of the dangers posed by the pesticides and other ag chemicals that saturate rural Iowa.

The Silent Threat: Chemicals in Every Sip and Breath

“We are each 65% water by weight,” Dr. Sandra Steingraber reminded the audience. “That water is not manufactured by our genes. It is drawn up from the aquifers under our feet.” She spoke passionately about the direct link between environmental exposure and cancer, drawing from her own experience growing up in central Illinois. “Whatever is in the environment is inside of us,” she stated, emphasizing the insidious way that chemicals permeate the human body.

Dr. Steingraber is no stranger to challenging the powerful. A biologist, writer, and cancer survivor, she has dedicated her career to investigating the links between environmental toxins and cancer.

Iowans have heard plenty about the dangers of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup. Among other chemicals under scrutiny are herbicides like dicamba and atrazine. Dicamba is “linked to liver cancer and bile duct cancer,” while atrazine is “linked to lung and prostate cancer,” Steingraber revealed.

“Iowa is the number one corn-producing state. It’s the number one user of weed killers in the nation. So that is the context in which I think you should take a look at these really disturbing, disturbing cancer registry data,” Steingraber said.

Agricultural Health Study: 30 Years of Evidence

Dr. Laura Beane Freeman, an epidemiologist and senior investigator for the National Cancer Institute, presented findings from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS). This 30-year research project tracks cancer and other health outcomes in nearly 90,000 farmers, family members, and pesticide applicators.

Her research corroborates a disturbing pattern. While Iowa farmers in the study have lower cancer rates than the general population (possibly due to lower rates of smoking and drinking and more exercise), they suffer from a significantly higher prevalence of prostate cancer, leukemia, and testicular cancer. Freeman said their research has found a “stronger association” between five pesticides and these cancer rates.

“We do know that some pesticides seem to increase the risk of specific cancers in highly exposed farmers,” Dr. Beane Freeman noted.

A Call to Action

Two State Representatives, Dr. Austin Baeth (D-Des Moines) and Hans Wilz (R-Ottumwa), also spoke at the Summit. They discussed their bipartisan legislation to combat Iowa’s second-highest in the nation and fastest-growing cancer rates.

The Baeth-Wilz proposal is a good beginning. However, as the Iowa Cancer Summit made clear, much more must be done.

Iowans expect lawmakers to maintain accountability for chemical corporations like Bayer and ChemChina. And we must be prepared to face a painful reality: the same chemicals that foreign corporations are marketing as safe crop protection tools may also be fueling its cancer epidemic.

Visit the Iowa Cancer Consortium to view the research presented at the 2024 Iowa Cancer Summit, held Oct. 22 in Coralville. Also, check out past articles from Accountable Iowa on the pesticide threat and efforts by chemical conglomerates to avoid accountability here, here, and here.

Posted in Calls to Action, Farming, Iowa Legislature | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sunday Funday: The Great Resistance Edition

Don’t forget, Kiddies – Christmas will soon be here and that’ll be followed shortly by a new president and America’s turning into an oligarchy. It won’t be fun. But since it has happened before remember that we have learned from our ancestors that we must resist those who want to take our democracy away.

You may want to make a memory book so the kids and grandkids can have some idea what democracy was. This will literally be the calm before the storm, but even during the calm we will have many squalls. 

Here is a little story of resistance from a land far away and a time long ago (Tommy Douglas in Canada in the 20th century) (8 minutes)

It’s crazy out there folks. We will probably mix in some holiday questions as it is that time of year.

A) Almost as if on schedule a new mysterious disease has broken out in what country as an administration that is anti-science is about to come to the US?

B) The week started with a big bang when the President pardoned who?

C) An Ohio law that allows for release from school for religious education has given what quasi-religious group a chance to use the time for teaching critical thinking skills?

D) What multi-multi billionaire funded a Trump Super-PAC to the tune of $250 million this election?

E) What word (actually 2 words) which makes a person think of a Trump supporter was voted as the Oxford Word of the year for 2024?

F) How about some questions about holiday movies? Where did the McCallister family go when they accidentally left Kevin “Home Alone”?

G) Another good month in job creation for the Biden admin as how many jobs were created in November according to the BLS?

H) Quietly what extreme right documentary maker admitted his “documentary” “2000 Mules” was false?

I) According to the movie Elf, what is the first code of elves?

J) What policy did Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield have to rescind in one day following a huge backlash from customers and doctors? 

K) Who is Brian Thompson and why was he in the news this week?

L) Pete Hegseth is sure in the news a lot. What habit did he say he would quit when he is confirmed as Secretary of Defense?

M) Bitcoin passed what major milestone this week?

N) Belgium allowed what type of professional to sign formal employment contracts beginning this week?

O) What was the name of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s late partner in “The Christmas Carol”?

P) Dubbed “America’s dumbest senator” who called on the DOGE billionaires to make daylight savings time permanent?

Q) Was he joking? Who floated the idea of annexing Canada as the US’s 51st state to PM Justin Trudeau last week?

R) In the movie “Christmas Story” what is the name of the department store that is having their Christmas parade as the show starts?

S) What European government was toppled last week on a vote of no confidence spearheaded by the extreme right in that country?

T) December 5, 1933. What constitution amendment was repealed by the newly ratified 23rd amendment?

South Koreans demand that their leader who tried to stage a coup resign immediately while in America we re-elected the coup plotter as president. Embarrassing. – Covie

Answers:

A) The Democratic Republic of the Congo – we may hear some update this weekend

B) His son Hunter Biden

C) The Satanic temple will use that law to free students up for an hour of training on critical thinking

D) Musk of course. So much for donation limits. In a huge insult he named the PAC after RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

E) brain rot

F) Paris

G) 227,000

H) Dinesh D’Souza

I) “Treat every day like Christmas”

J) they were going to allow anesthetic to only be administered for a limited time during an operation whether the operation was complete or not

K) Thompson was the CEO of United Health Care who was murdered on NYC streets Wednesday

L) Drinking – Pete, millions of Americans can tell it is not that easy to quit

M) valuation over $100,000 – not bad for something that has no value nor is tied to anything of value.

N) sex workers

O) Jacob Marley

P) Tommy Tuberville

Q) Trump

R) Higbee’s

S) France – the vote was spearheaded by marine Le Pen

T) Prohibition

We regret to inform you that once again Iowa’s First District will have the pathetic Miller-Meeks as representative once more. Or should I say non-representative?

 This is how you grind an economy to a halt.

Trump’s goal is to cause so much economic damage that the system collapses and his wealthy supporters can buy up the remains for peanuts and rule whatever system takes its place.

It is literally the Russian playbook. – Denise Wheeler

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December 7th, 1941 “A Date That Will Live In Infamy”

5 minutes:

83 years ago President Franklin Roosevelt went before a joint session of congress to ask for a declaration of war on Japan following the Japanese unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. As you can witness by the reaction of congress, the people of the US were pretty well 100% behind Roosevelt.

Seeing this near unity in this country at that time makes one ponder what would happen if we were in a similar situation today. MAGA policies and their use of media to spread misinformation and disinformation (aka lies) would make any reports of some kind of an attack very suspect.

Following the first Trump administration attempts to claim that the Biden family was in some way taking payments from Ukranian sources that led to trump’s first impeachment is a very fine example of why most people would be very wary of information coming from a Trump source.

We also know that MAGAs in congress have spent much of their time trying to prove things that are lies. Covid being created in a Chinese lab leaps immediately to mind. Given that MAGAs are much more concerned about making Democrats and other citizens they hate look bad than they are concerned about finding truth makes anything they say suspect immediately.

Now that many areas of the media has decided that currying favor of the right wing is more important than finding the truth again makes believing anything they say suspect immediately. There are a few media outlets we can trust, but I would be leery of trusting anyone 100%. Get more. That one source.

If Donald Trump or one of his designees were going to the press or to congress claiming of some such attack I would immediately be suspect. I would wonder where they got the story. Based on Trump’s lifelong record of lies, suspicion seems to be a very smart reaction.

The second thing I would wonder is what is in it for Trump? What is in it for Elon Musk? Is one of Trump’s children or in-laws in line to make a killing on whatever happened. We have never had any reasoning behind the $2 Billion that Jared Kushner got from the Saudis while he was in government service (or shortly thereafter )

I would wonder if some aspect of Trump’s business empire would benefit from such a declaration? Would some extreme right wing dictator serve to benefit from Trump’s move? We have seen that almost everything Trump did in his first round benefitted himself to some degree.  

Also I would wonder who would be suffering because of his decision. Trump has already made it very clear that there is a list of groups and individuals that he (Trump) intends to attack, from Democratic office holders to people he claims are undocumented aliens to reporters who have uttered opinions against Trump to even MAGAs who are insufficiently loyal.

If a Franklin Roosevelt makes a statement I would have trusted it. If Joe Biden makes a statement I trusted it. When Herbert Hoover, Dick Nixon, Ronnie Reagan and both Bushes made a statement I was suspicious (remember W Bush’s lies leading up to his invasion of Iraq?).

But boy oh boy no one is on the level of distrust that Donald Trump has earned and I do mean earned. The assumption is that anything he says is a lie and designed to make money for himself. 

And yes, given her track record, I would believe Kamala Harris.

3 minutes:

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Attempted Coup In South Korea Tuesday

Dr. Timothy Snyder talks about his first lesson of “On Tyranny” (3:40)

Is the attempted coup by South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol Tuesday any kind of a forerunner of what may happen following the inauguration of Trump on January 20th? I can imagine that many of us had that very same thought when we heard of what was going on in Seoul.

Koreans are fiercely possessive of their hard won democracy and they are not about to give it up for a tin pot loon. Right now a tinpot loon seems to be what they got. Another fine example of the right wing turn that the world seems to be taking.

There are a lot of differences between Yoon in South Korea and Dictator Donald here in the US. The biggest differences are that the opposition is in the majority in South Korea thanks to an election last March. Here in the US, MAGA has the presidency and the congress, even if only by a slim majority.

Along with the attempted coup in South Korea BY the president we have also recently seen the election of a far right president in Argentina a year ago which is turning their economy upside down; also this week we have a vote of no confidence in France spurred by the far right led by Marine Le Pen; and questionable elections in Georgia that put in a government that is leaning to Moscow even as people protest to return to a move toward Europe.

Professor Timothy Snyder  – most well known for his scholarly “On Tyranny” talked about the attempted coup in South Korea and how that situation compares with America’s tin horn loon future president Trump. Trump has made it perfectly clear he intends to act as a dictator in some ways. Professor Snyder gave us some good guidance and advise in his substack newsletter Wednesday:     

Yoon won a very narrow election, as did Trump. Like Trump, he refers constantly to “fake news” and calls his political opponents enemies of the state (as Trump says, “the enemy within.”) Yoon used this language to justify the imposition of martial law, as will Trump if he decides to invoke the Insurrection Act in the United States.

Like Trump, Yoon telegraphed his move in advance, and not only with such language. He surrounded himself with military men and intelligence officers who were characterized by personal loyalty. Trump is trying to do the same, now, with his proposals for Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Kash Patel as director of the FBI, and Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. He also wants to purge the top ranks of the armed forces.

<<snip>>

But Yoon failed, and very badly. His dictatorship for a day lasted only about six hours. What can Americans learn from his less-than-a-day dictatorship?

First of all, we have to take in a very basic reality: that attempts to establish military dictatorships have been made in democracies, and will be made in other democracies –including, very possibly, in the American one.

<<snip>>

The most worrying moment of Yoon’s invocation of martial law was that, in the beginning, the military acted as he wished that it would. Military leaders initially joined in his coup attempt, with General Park An-su claiming to ban political actions, political parties, political gatherings, and “propaganda,” which can mean anything anyone says. He also claimed to take all media outlets under the control of the military.

The pertinent question for Americans would be: will Trump be able to surround himself with loyalists who will do the same thing? He is trying to do so. And so the Senate, in confirmation hearings, has an obvious question to ask all of Trump’s appointees with any responsibility for national security or intelligence: if Trump attempts to invoke the Insurrection Act to stifle domestic political life, just as Yoon attempted to do in South Korea, would you take part?

For legislators, the lessons are also very clear. The moment Yoon declared martial law, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, Kim, told people to rally at the parliament. Legislators themselves entered its chambers, despite the wishes of the military leadership, and then voted unanimously for the revocation of martial law. Members of Yoon’s own right-wing party, in other words, joined with the opposition in a dramatic demonstration of unity in the face of the threat of a military dictatorship.

For his part in fomenting the attempted coup, South Korea’s Yoon is expected to be impeached quickly. While we know that Trump wants to take over any and all authority of the government in what was known during his last term as the “unitary executive.” As of right now we have no indication that the executive branch will attempt to stage a coup to bring any power they don’t have under their umbrella.

However, we can expect the executive branch to push legislation and through executive orders the usurpation of powers. As citizens we must be very aware of what Dictator Don is up to. Plus the legislative branch, including MAGA congress members and the Judicial branch must also be on utmost alert of the executive branch usurping their powers.

As Professor Snyder observed very astutely following this year’s election: “Do Not Obey In Advance!”

Stay awake and aware!

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Marc Elias Suggests A Resistance Strategy Upgrade

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National hero Marc Elias discusses his ideas about a resistance strategy for fighting Trump.  What should be the opposition mindset?  Who should lead the opposition?  What five things does Marc Elias think we need to do to successfully oppose the Trump administration? Rest assured, Democracy Docket will not obey in advance and we shouldn’t either.

“We need to be unafraid doctrinally… if I read another article from another law professor who says we don’t want to make aggressive use of this law…or Democrats are really pushing it when they use this legal theory.. or you shouldn’t be attacking his policies using X-Y-Z argument… That is a bunch of nonsense.

Donald Trump and Republicans and the right-wing use every legal tool available to them. Every tool in the courts they will use and the reason why I’ve been successful as a voting rights lawyer is because I do the same. I don’t care whether it’s a doctrine that was developed from the left.. or a doctrine developed from the right… I don’t care if its an old statute or a new statute. If there is a way to protect voters I use that law and I’m not afraid to do it and I’m not afraid that if I lose that somehow I’m going to create bad precedent. This is a time to break glass…because we are facing a time in history where we need to use every legal tool available.

We were very successful during the Biden administration of expanding and protecting voting rights. Lots of progressive organizations were successful during the Biden administration in advancing his agenda and advancing their own progressive policies by using the courts. The fact is that yes the SCOTUS is not great.. it’s worse than not great. But most cases are decided by lower courts or by state courts. And Joe Biden has put a real imprint on the federal judiciary. He has appointed and confirmed more judges than Donald Trump. ..more than half of the federal judges right now were appointed by Democratic presidents.

We need to use the courts, we need to invest in using the courts because we don’t have the congress or the White House. The judiciary is the best hope we have in the legal process to protect American citizens, to protect American values, and to stop Donald Trump from running through American democracy.” – Marc Elias

He talks fast so the above quote was just a snippet.  Watch for more good stuff about what everyone can do to not obey in advance and defeat Trump one more time.

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