“We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith. A man who believed in things not seen. A man who believed there were better days ahead, off in the distance. A man of service who persevered, knowing full well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed.”
President Obama’s statement on the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.
On March 23, 2010, I sat down at a table in the East Room of the White House and signed my name on a law that said, once and for all, that health care would no longer be a privilege for a few. It would be a right for everyone.
Five years later, after more than 50 votes in Congress to repeal or weaken this law and multiple challenges before the Supreme Court, here is what we know today:
This law worked. It’s still working. It has changed and saved American lives. It has set this country on a smarter, stronger course.
And it’s here to stay.
If that means something to you today, add your voice here. Tell us how the Affordable Care Act has impacted your family’s life and health.
This morning, the Supreme Court upheld one of the most critical parts of health reform — the part that has made it easier for Americans to afford health insurance, no matter where you live.
If the challenges to this law had succeeded, millions would have had thousands of dollars in tax credits taken away. Insurance would have once again become unaffordable for many Americans. Many would have even become uninsured again. Ultimately, everyone’s premiums could have gone up.
Because of this law, and because of today’s decision, millions of Americans will continue to receive the tax credits that have given about 8 in 10 people who buy insurance on the new Health Insurance Marketplaces the choice of a health care plan that costs less than $100 a month.
If you’re a parent, you can keep your kids on your plan until they turn 26 — something that has covered millions of young people so far. That’s because of this law. If you’re a senior, or have a disability, this law gives you discounts on your prescriptions — something that has saved 9 million Americans an average of $1,600 so far. If you’re a woman, you can’t be charged more than anybody else — even if you’ve had cancer, or your husband had heart disease, or just because you’re a woman. Your insurer has to offer free preventive services like mammograms. They can’t place annual or lifetime caps on your care.
And when it comes to preexisting conditions — someday, our grandkids will ask us if there was really a time when America discriminated against people who got sick. Because that’s something this law has ended for good.
Five years in and more than 16 million insured Americans later, this is no longer just about a law. This isn’t just about the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
Today is a victory for every American whose life will continue to become more secure because of this law. And 20, 30, 50 years from now, most Americans may not know what “Obamacare” is. And that’s okay. That’s the point.
Because today, this reform remains what it always has been — a set of fairer rules and tougher protections that have made health care in America more affordable, more attainable, and more about you.
That’s who we are as Americans. We look out for one another. We take care of each other. We root for one another’s success. We strive to do better, to be better, than the generation before us, and we try to build something better for the generation that comes behind us.
And today, with this behind us, let’s come together and keep building something better. That starts right now.
A bipartisan bill to expand broadband internet access to more homes, schools and businesses was signed into law by Governor Branstad last week. The bill also contains language regarding uniformity for local governments when approving cell tower siting applications.
Broadband
Communication providers identified the cost of laying fiber optics as one of, if not the, main barrier to expansion of broadband service into rural Iowa. Under House File 641, a provider can apply for and receive a ten-year property tax exemption for the installation of broadband in identified targeted areas. The Legislature also created a Broadband Grant Fund that providers can access for assistance, up to 15% of qualified installation projects.
A targeted service area is one that is defined to an area that doesn’t have a communication service provider that offers or facilitates broadband service at or above 25 megabits per second of download speed and 3 megabits per second of upload speed. The property tax exemption will be for projects that begin on or after July 1, 2015, and will no longer be available for projects beginning July 1, 2020.
Cell Tower Siting
A uniform process was created for the location of new cell towers, modifications of existing cell towers, and collocation of cell towers and the rights and responsibilities of local governments for approval of the towers. The goal of the legislation is find the right balance between how much information must be provided by the cell tower applicant and how much authority a local government can have over these decisions.
Applicants (cell tower companies) will be required to provide an explanation as to why they are asking to build new rather than to collocate with an existing tower. Local governments feel that this information is important to help them in make an unbiased decision. Likewise, local governments must approve an application for a new tower in 150 days, or the application is automatically approved. This gives applicants a definitive timeline to help with their business decisions.
Business and political leaders in Iowa have been outspoken against bullying – a problem in our classrooms, on our playgrounds and in our streets. But these same leaders ignore – and actually enable – the corporate bullying tactics of Dakota Access in its aggressive push to build the Bakken Oil Pipeline.
This was on my mind this morning when, through bleary eyes, the above-the-fold Des Moines Register headline screamed at me: “Firm: Most pipeline land secured”
Really? Sixty percent is “most?” If my kid leaves 40% of his dinner on his plate, he doesn’t get dessert. If I buy you a beer and you leave 40% in your glass, I’m unlikely to buy you another. “Most” involves a lot of grey area, but rarely does it mean a mere 60%.
Furthermore, as one reads the article, the 60% figure is highly disputed.
And as to the word “firm” – very clever double-entendre on the part of the Register’s editors, using a synonym for “company” that is never used in the article itself, while implying that the pipeline is a done deal.
There are two types of corporate bullying, and Dakota Access is good at both of them. First, there’s the direct approach:
– Tell farmers they should sign an easement or risk condemnation.
– Trespass on private property and wax defiant when confronted by landowners.
– Stockpile pipe on a central Iowa farm even before a permit has been granted.
Then there’s indirect bullying, getting others to do the bullying for you. Dakota Access’ billionaire owner, Kelcy Warren, has deep, deep pockets. He knows how to throw around his financial weight, to get others to either do his bidding or meekly step aside and abdicate their responsibility to protect the public good. Consider that:
– Warren has bought off labor unions – and along with them, the state’s Democratic leadership – with the promise of a handful of temporary jobs.
– He’s bought off the state’s Republican leadership with campaign contributions.
– Though we can’t see the smoking gun, he’s silenced the leadership of Farm Bureau, who historically would be front-and-center in any battle to protect private property from eminent domain.
– And it’s likely that Warren has bought off some of the corporate media through advertising revenue, although again, there is no discernible smoking gun . . . at least not yet.
Part of the problem is that the corporate bully is harder to identify than the playground bully. When the latter comes at you, the meanness in his eyes makes it clear you’re about to get your butt kicked. The corporate bully on the other hand smiles, wears a suit, drives a nice car, looks respectable.
And his victim doesn’t sport a black eye when the corporate bully moves on to his next target. Yet a black eye will heal far more quickly than the wounds Dakota Access threatens to inflict on our farms, our water, and our planet.
My life this year has been committed to stopping the Bakken Oil Pipeline. The work I feel called to do springs from my passion for our Earth, land and water. Yet as I walked 400-miles along the route of the proposed pipeline in March and April, my passion grew to embrace the hundreds of people I met along the way – farmers and landowners adamantly opposed to having their land condemned for a pipeline, even as some felt they had no option but to sign an easement.
I heard story after story of the bullying tactics of Dakota Access, its representatives and its surrogates. These tactics, and headlines such as the one in today’s Des Moines Register, are designed to cause despair, to make us abandon hope.
Don’t! This fight is far from over. As the battle shifts from legislative chambers to the Iowa Utilities Board office and Iowa’s courtrooms, never forget that on our side we have truth in a just cause. I leave you with this quote from Gandhi:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
Join us live on The Fallon Forum, Mondays 11:00-12:00 noon CDT on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m., and Wednesday on KPVL 89.1 FM (Postville) at 7:00 p.m. Podcasts are available at www.fallonforum.com.
The story we would like to be able to tell is of a world that “works for 100 percent of humanity.”
We’re not there. In fact, L. Hunter Lovins points out, “Humanity stands at the edge of a crumbling cliff.”
Whether one believes in climate change or not, it is time to walk back from the precipice and focus on what will sustain us. The doctrine of austerity, as reflected in today’s Iowa legislature, in Washington, and around the world is bankrupt. Lovins points out such policies were not an accident.
“Abraham Lincoln once said that the best way to predict your future is to invent it,” she wrote. “Indeed, 36 men created the economic mental model that has delivered the mess we’re in. Meeting in 1947 at the Mont Pelerin hotel outside Montreux, Switzerland they built the intellectual architecture of an economy of small government and individual decision-making in an unfettered free market.”
Sometimes we just want a livable world: clean air, a safe place, a sustained life. Thing is, walking back from the cliff we’ve made for ourselves will take economic engagement and Hunter Lovins tells a new story of what is possible. Here’s the article she posted Saturday on Unreasonable.
Economy at the Edge by L. Hunter Lovins
Humanity stands at the edge of a crumbling cliff. Half of the world’s wealth is owned by one percent of the population—the 80 richest individuals having as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people.
At the same time, we are losing the biological integrity of the planet. Global Biodiversity Outlook Three states that we are losing life at a rate never before seen in history, and that the earth’s ecosystems are tipping into collapse. Three of them, are at particular risk: Business as usual, there may be no living coral reefs on planet earth, perhaps as early as 2035. The Amazon, the earth’s lungs, is drying up and burning. And the oceans are acidifying. This puts the whole of the oceanic food-chain at risk.
Scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre demonstrate that humanity has moved beyond the planetary boundaries in at least four of the nine critical categories: Loss of biodiversity, disruption of the nitrogen cycle, climate change, and forest loss. Despite this overuse of the world’s resources, we are still failing to supply all people with the basic necessities for life and human dignity. Dr. Kate Raworth of Oxford describes the doughnut: the safe and desirable operating space below the boundaries of the planet’s carrying capacity but above a minimum standard that fairly allocates resources to meet basic human needs for food, water, energy, equity and health care.
The great cultural historian Thomas Berry observed, “We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The Old Story–the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it… sustained us for a long period of time. It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with a life purpose, energized action, It consecrated suffering, integrated knowledge, guided education… We need a [new] story that will educate man, heal him, guide him.”
The new story must, in the words of Buckminster Fuller, be about, “a world that works for 100 percent of humanity.”
A message from DVIP following the recent shooting at Coral Ridge mall:
Eastern Iowa – we love our communities and the quality of life we enjoy here. But we are becoming more aware of the rising rate of violence related to domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and child abduction. Out of respect for the ongoing investigation and limited information about the relationship between Andrea Farrington and the alleged assailant, this is not a commentary on that case, but a response to the escalation of violence against women in the Eastern Iowa Corridor.
Small town Iowa has always been synonymous with safe homes, but 6 of the past 11 domestic homicides in Iowa have been in the Eastern Iowa 380 Corridor or Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, Marion and Cedar Rapids [bolding BFIA’s]. The Domestic Violence Intervention Program provides the only emergency safe shelter in our eight county service area (Johnson, Cedar, Des Moines, Henry, Iowa, Lee, Van Buren and Washington Counties).
The Domestic Violence Intervention Program not only helps victims of domestic violence, but also victims of dating violence, child abductions related to domestic violence and stalking. Stalking is defined as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear”. Over 85% of victims are stalked by someone they know—in domestic violence or dating violence, a victim is stalked by their intimate partner for an average of 21 months AFTER they leave their abusive partner. Of the 7.5 million people stalked each year in the United States, 15% of women and 6% of men have experienced stalking to the point where they felt very fearful or believed that they, or someone close to them, would be harmed or killed.
How a community responds to victims of violent crime is critical and requires an investment on everyone’s part to reduce crimes like stalking and domestic/dating violence. Our communities are strong and practice a national model Coordinated Community Response, which is a series of cross agency protocols and safety measures put in place by the community— advocates, health/mental health care workers, law enforcement, courts, child welfare workers—to collectively support victims and hold perpetrators accountable. But these systems often address the back end of the problem – after the crime has been committed. Our current Coordinated Community Response models lack one key element, a Bystander Network of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers looking out for and supporting victims. Bystander support networks have the capacity to intervene and prevent these crimes through thoughtful, caring support of victims and challenges to the attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate violence against women.
To have effective community change, you need to know the facts about stalking or domestic/dating violence and how to really help someone in fear.
First, call our 24-hour crisis line (1-800-373-1043) to get real information on how you can help.
Second, with guidance from our trained staff and volunteers, talk to your friend/family/colleague about the situation in a way that is respectful to their safety and needs—they know the situation better than anyone else, and how to best keep themselves safe or the resources they need.
Third, ask what they really need; learn as much as you can from them about what they fear, what they hope for and what will change their situation for the better. And then most important – help them get what they need. Too many times we look in from the outside and make assumptions about what should happen – too many times those assumptions are wrong.
The Domestic Violence Intervention Program’s mission statement is to provide comprehensive support and advocacy services. To that end, we offer training to businesses and corporations to evaluate policies surrounding workplace stalking and domestic/dating violence, what to do to help prevent an incident at the workplace and how to safety plan with your employees when violence comes into the workplace.
Please contact dvip@dvipiowa.org for a workplace environment safety assessment and more information on policy and training addressing stalking and domestic/dating violence in the workplace.
Situations like Andrea Farrington’s are becoming much too commonplace in Eastern Iowa. We need to keep the conversation going about how we can keep victims of stalking, dating violence, and domestic violence safe.
Been a really bad week for those who believe that America can be what it claims to be. As with many here, the events of the week have been roiling in my mind making me wonder if it is worth the fight. Murder in a mall in the heartland, race driver mass murder in South Carolina, politicians in Washington giving away America’s sovereignty in something called the TPP, all in all a bad week.
Sometimes, we just need to step back and get away from the daily grind and have a laugh.
For those of us who remember, for a moment of levity. Enjoy
These great questions and answers are from the days when Hollywood Squares’ game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now!
Q. Paul, what is a good reason for pounding meat?
A. Paul Lynde: Loneliness!
(The audience laughed so long and so hard it took up almost 15 minutes of the show!)
Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.
Q. If you’re going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.
Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years…
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.
Q. You’ve been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A.. Don Knotts: That’s what’s been keeping me awake.
Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he’s married?
A.. Rose Marie: No wait until morning.
Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency..
Q. What are ‘Do It,’ ‘I Can Help,’ and ‘I Can’t Get Enough’?
A. George Gobel: I don’t know, but it’s coming from the next apartment.
Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I’ll give you a gesture you’ll never forget.
Q. Paul, why do Hell’s Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.
Q.. Charley, you’ve just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A.. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I’m too busy growing strawberries.
Q. In bowling, what’s a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.
Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I’m always safe in the bedroom.
Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A.. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.
Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?
Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark..
Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.
Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.
Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?
Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.
Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh
WE DON’T STOP LAUGHING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD,
WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP LAUGHING
no, no guys it’s Fathers Day. You guys are up in a couple of weeks
Well, well, well, Dad. Pull up a chair and sharpen the brain, time to impress the kids with how smart you are.
Have you been paying attention?
1) What is the shortest day of the year in Sydney, Australia?
2) The Pentagon let it be known this week that it was considering putting heavy weaponry in what trouble spot of the world?
3) Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign Tuesday. In that announcement he said he would build a fence on the border with Mexico. How would he pay for that fence?
4) The TPP passed the House last week. How many Democrats voted for the TPP?
5) The Catholic arch-bishop and his top deputy resigned amid abuse coverup charges in what state bordering Iowa?
6) Quietly last week what western hemisphere country had marriage equality legalized through its Supreme Court decisions?
7) In SCOTUS news this week putting the confederate flag on Texas license plates was not allowed. Who was the swing vote in this 5 – 4 decision?
8) What is the name of the church in Charleston, SC where 9 people were murdered in a racially motivated attack?
9) What pharmaceutical chain paid $1.9 billion to take over Target’s in store drug business?
10) Even though he is Catholic, Jeb Bush is not going to let what guy tell him anything about climate change?
11) The Treasury Department had what surprise announcement about currency this week?
12) The California Labor commission found that drivers for what cab company were actually employees and not independent contractors?
13) Friday was June 19th. This date is also known as what, especially in Texas?
14) Rachel Dolezal got her 15 minutes of fame last week. Why?
15) Senator Joni Ernst had to defend her vote against a bill that would address what problem in the military?
16) The Iowa Supreme Court in a bit of a surprise ruled what unconstitutional Friday?
17) The FDA has set 2018 (3 years) as the goal to rid foods of what substance?
18) The FCC flexes its muscle. They fined AT&T how much for slowing down the internet to its customers after promising unlimited data?
19) Fox News claimed the shooting in Charleston was aimed at what group, despite the message the shooter left that it was racially driven?
20) Bill did a lot of damage this week. Who or what was Bill?
Sports BONUS: Major League baseball cancelled 60 million online all-star votes after members of what team were leading in 8 of the 9 hitting positions?
OOPS! just read that Father’s Day is the most dangerous day on the roads in Iowa. Be Safe!
Answers:
1) today – the first day of winter in the southern hemisphere
2) The Baltics and Eastern Europe
3) He’d make Mexico pay for it. Yes he would
4) 28 more than enough to have stopped it.
5) Minnesota, specifically the St. Paul diocese
6) Mexico
7) Clarence Thomas joined Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayer and Ginsburg (words that will probably never be written again)
8) Mother Emmanuel AME
9) CVS
10) the Pope. Jeb didn’t cotton to the Climate Change encyclical
11) in 2020 the $10 bill will feature a woman’s image on the face
12) Uber
13) Juneteenth – the date that Texas learned the civil war was over and slaves had been freed.
14) She claimed to be black, though her parents are white. She was the head of the Spokane, Wash. NAACP
15) sexual assault
16) the ban on telemedia abortions
17) trans fats
18) $100 million
19) Christians. Presidential candidate Lyndsey Graham parroted this claim later on The View
20) A tropical storm that dumped huge amounts of rain from Houston to Boston
IDP Statement on Iowa Supreme Court Decision Affirming Women’s Right to Healthcare
DES MOINES – IDP Chair Dr. Andy McGuire issued the following statement in response to a ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court this morning upholding a woman’s right to healthcare and expanding access to vital care and services for Iowa women:
“I applaud today’s decision by the Iowa Supreme Court in siding with women’s health care over the needless partisanship of Governor Branstad. All Iowa women, regardless of their location or socioeconomic status, should have access to treatments and services that are vital to their well-being. Today’s decision empowers women with the resources and information needed to take charge of their own health care decisions. That’s a major victory for Iowa women, their families and our state.”
Quick comment: The attempted takeover of the Iowa Supreme Court by Bob Vander Plaats and Branstad seems not to have worked the way they planned.
Father’s Day should be a time for families to enjoy spending time together. For some 30,000 families again this year, gun violence has removed a member or members of such a celebration. That is nearly 100 people that lose their lives in America every day. High profile cases such as the racially motivated murders in South Carolina Wednesday night serve as a slap to wake us out of our stupor – a stupor induced by murder and suicide by gun being a many times a day happening.
Last Friday night a young woman was shot to death in cold blood at the mall in Coralville. While it was shocking for Iowa, in the large scheme of an American day it was just another death by gun. But for that family and those families in Charleston, S.C. there has been an unbelievable, horrible alteration in their respective worlds.
Hearing of such deaths on the news or TV somehow becomes so much background noise. Often we think to ourselves “nobody will do anything about this so why bother?” But at some point gun violence will touch your life in one way or another. A friend, a relative, a close family member, a parent, a grandparent, a neighbor.
Two and a half years ago many thought the massacre of young, innocent children just before Christmas would finally be the spark that would spur enough outrage from voters that politicians would finally be able to reach into the recesses of their souls and find some courage to stand up to the gun lobby.
Sadly, just as certain as there is gun violence in America, there are politicians who are too scared to stand up for Americans against the gun lobby. Here we go again just as after Sandy Hook, we have another high profile slaughter of innocents. People who died simply because of the color of their skin. Just as before, the very next day the gun lobby shuffles out their paid for politicians and their TV model talking heads to quiet the talk.
Once I lived in a country where we had politicians with guts that would propose solutions to stop this slaughter. They are gone now. There are solutions that have been proposed that should be brought to the floors of congress and the state legislatures that could certainly put a dent in this slaughter:
1) Every gun must be insured for liability, just like a car. I would add there should also be medical insurance also. If a weapon is stolen, the owner is still liable for the damage done by that weapon until it is recovered and dismantled.
2) Before a gun is sold by a merchant, proof of insurance must be proven by a prospective owner. In a private sale, insurance and liability on that gun is held by the seller until the buyer gets insurance.
3) Safety must be engineered in. The simplest thing to do is that every gun must have some recognition system for the owner, whether it be eye scan or fingerprint recognition. Upon sale, licensed dealers would be authorized to change recognition system for new owners. Engineering safety in is always better than relying on procedures and promises.
4) Taxes for sales of guns and bullets should be added to finance compensation programs for victims of guns. There is no reason for taxpayers to pay the hospital costs, funeral expenses and social service costs for victims of guns. Those costs should be borne by those who buy the weapons.
5) Background checks must be stringent. Mental health facilities must be restored.
All of the above are market based solutions. All are doable if WE THE PEOPLE (who are ultimately the government) make eliminating gun violence a priority and vote for politicians with guts that will stand up to the gun lobby. At one time cars were extremely unsafe. It took a while, but through legislation, regulation and public pressure the car you get into today is much much safer than its predecessor 50 years ago.
This problem won’t be solved overnight. Safe autos are still in the works. But we must stand up and demand that we start now.
BTW – here are some interesting stats on use of guns to stop other guns. In short, it seldom happens.
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
