Revealing What Kind Of A State We Are

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Dave Bradley

1 minute – the Lincoln project:

 

My wife and I were discussing the state of the presidential race as the Jack Smith evidence bomb was being revealed on the cable newser we were watching. What we were mulling over was how nearly half of America’s voting public could cast a vote for a wannabe dictator without batting an eye.

One thing we both agreed on was that the state of the former Republican Party in this country is truly sad. In among their various office holders, candidates, party officials and various water carriers there are only a handful who have stood up to the Trump lying machine and said “NO” to them.

Recently there have been quite a few addition of former Trump staffers who have come out and said that Trump is not fit for office. For the most part, however, MAGA party members have remained loyal to the Liar in Chief. As we discussed this the only reason we could come up with is that the followers are much more interested in votes or power than they are interested in truth and doing the correct thing.

So far as I know, up until just very recently about the only names that were floated as people who stood up to Trump were Liz Cheney, Adam Kissinger, the Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (I think) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In a party of tens of millions that is one damn short list.

There are probably a few more that some of you can name, but the point is that those who stand for reality, our system of government and our judicial system should well be over half of the former Republican Party. Instead it is only a handful of people who have had to withstand constant death threats and harassment for standing for the truth.

Democrats had no problem seeing through Trump’s criminal activity and calling it out. From the courthouse to the White House, Democratic leaders have been standing up to the criminality. 

All this to bring up what may be the most important unspoken issue of this campaign: leaders ability to assess situations and come up with responses to the reality of those situations. The MAGA Party currently lives in a make-believe world with constantly changing stories made to fit their refusal to deal with reality.

Outside of the few people mentioned above there simply are no MAGA party members who deal with reality. That means that by voting for congressional candidates such as Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, Zack Nunn and Randy Feenstra you will be voting for people who do not deal with reality.

Iowa’s congress members live in the fear that they make a misstep, Trump will turn on them and they will be out in a second like Cheney and Kissinger. Iowa should be represented by members who have the courage of their convictions. They must also be represented by members who deal in reality instead of the make believe world that DonOLD Trump lives in.

Iowa was once well known for its common sense. Iowa was once known as being very fair in its policies and in its solutions to problems. Under the leadership of Kim Reynolds and now Steve King acolyte Brenna Bird, Iowa is now among the most extreme of states rubbing elbows with former confederate states very comfortably. It is sad to see the extremist right turn Iowa has made in the past two decades.

The upcoming election will tell us where Iowa stands these days. Do we cast our lot with those who reside in a make-believe world headed by a wannabe dictator? Or does Iowa return to a sensible state with common sense picking leaders that deal with reality. 

Voting for Democratic Congressional candidates Christina Bohannan, Sarah Corkery, Lannon Baccam and Ryan Melton will signal to the country that Iowa is ready to regain their former standing as a state that can handle reality and will choose leaders with good old common sense.

Don’t forget the down ballot either. Iowa’s MAGA legislators are among the worst in following the make-believe world of DonOLD Trump. Be sure to vote for Democrats who will once again  bring reality and common sense back to Des Moines.

Then we can set our sights on removing the country’s most disliked governor in 2026. Plus it will be a good time to bring in an attorney general who deals in reality to replace the current Steve King clone who makes  a mockery of Iowa’s laws.

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Liz Cheney Campaigns For Kamala Harris In Wisconsin

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Trish Nelson

Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.”  – Liz Cheney

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Will Iowa Voters Protest Six-Week Abortion Ban?

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Trish Nelson

Iowans for Health Liberty is “a coalition of Iowans who support the rights of patients to choose the care that is best for them.”  They are endorsing candidates for the Iowa legislature.  Check out this list before you vote.  Follow Iowans for Health Liberty on Facebook  Twitter  Instagram. Donate here

https://www.desmoinesregister.com
— A PAC is funneling money toward candidates running for seats in the state Legislature after Iowa’s 6-week abortion ban.

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Miller-Meeks Let Farm Bill Expire

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Trish Nelson

From our inbox:

Miller-Meeks Lets Farm Bill Expire (Again) To Focus on Her Campaign

The Farm Bill is expiring today (Sept. 30) after Mariannette Miller-Meeks left Washington for the next month to prioritize her campaign. Miller-Meeks should have passed a new five year Farm Bill a year ago – instead, she let it expire for nearly 50 days last year and has failed to pass a new one yet again.

Over the last two years, Miller-Meeks has done nothing to pass a new five year Farm Bill, putting 84,900 farms and 14,890 dairy jobs in Iowa at risk of missing out on critical monthly payments.

Iowa families will also pay the price – failure to pass a new Farm Bill could cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $20 billion dollars and more than double the price of milk at grocery stores.

September 30, 2024

PAID FOR BY DCCC. DCCC.ORG. NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE.

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Ann Selzer on Iowa Press

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Trish Nelson

In this episode of Iowa Press, Ann Selzer talks about the latest Iowa poll and the “spectacular changes” in the way the electorate is thinking.

Erin Murphy can’t believe the numbers and begs Selzer to say it isn’t so.

Meanwhile Dave Price speaks for the “haters.”

Selzer reminds that it always comes down to turnout.

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Important Information For Iowa Voters

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Trish Nelson

Early voting in Iowa starts October 16. It is recommended to make a plan to vote.

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Thwaites Glacier: A Real Threat

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Dave Bradley

7 minutes:

As America goes through another inane presidential cycle with media concentrating on the horse race and the “He said, She said” blaming, real serious threats slowly mount past a point where they can be stopped.

The Trump campaign makes its bones on lies against pretty much any and all “others” – women, Jews, Haitians, Muslims and now you can even add Catholics to the mix – in an effort to divide the country while ignoring real imminent danger caused by human activity. 

We are talking climate change and the increasingly uninhabitable planet we have created for ourselves. Scientists tell us there is still time to reverse some of the worst effects of climate change but we must start taking action now and it must be drastic.

We know what will happen based on studies by scientists and what climate history has told us. Previous predictions have warned us of increasingly hot weather, bigger stronger storms with much more rain and rising oceans. So far they have only been wrong on how soon we will see these effects. The effects are happening much earlier than anticipated.

In the past few years climate scientists have focused much attention on an Antarctic glacier called the Thwaites Glacier. The Thwaites Glacier is also known as the “Doomsday Glacier” among scientists because when it finally melts it will be one of the leading indicators of doomsday on our planet. Remember folks there is no Planet B. Right now this is the only planet we have to live on.

Just to remind you – I hope you have given some consideration to the consequences of climate change when you vote – here are some excerpts from the highly regarded Scientific American concerning the effects of the Doomsday Glacier:   

At the bottom of the Earth sits a massive bowl of ice you may know as the West Antarctic ice sheet. Each day, the ocean laps away at its base, slowly eroding the glaciers that line its rim. When they inevitably give in, the sea will begin to fill the basin, claiming the ice for its own and flooding coastlines around the world.

Thwaites Glacier is one of the bulwarks guarding against the collapse of this critical ice sheet, most of which rests below sea level and holds enough ice to raise the ocean by 3.3 meters, or almost 11 feet. Unfortunately, this frosty Goliath, the size of Florida, is also one of the world’s most unstable and fastest-melting glaciers. While glaciologists knew its rate of ice loss was dire, they recently discovered that it’s exposed to far more warming water than previously believed. In a study published last week, scientists using satellite imagery and hydraulic modeling found that warming tidal currents are permeating the massive block of ice at depths as great as 3.7 miles, causing “vigorous melting.”

Thwaites Glacier, often dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier,” already accounts for 4 percent of the planet’s sea level rise and loses 50 billion tons of ice annually. When it collapses, it could raise oceans worldwide by 65 centimeters, or just over 2 feet. “It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you think of how much ocean water we have in the world, that’s a huge volume,” said Dow.

<< snip >>

As climate change drives global temperatures ever higher, glaciers and ice sheets in polar and mountainous regions inevitably melt. The water and dislodged ice flows into the oceans, causing them to rise. Since 1880, global sea levels have climbed roughly 9 inches, and any sudden increase could be catastrophic for coastal cities like New York, Mumbai, and Shanghai. Low-lying countries like the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu could be submerged entirely.  

Let me add that the Thwaites Glacier is only a leading indicator. Water locked up in glaciers around the world is being released in similar fashion adding to the rising oceans. And of course as the ice melts, temperatures rise which in turn allows the atmosphere to hold more water.

This in turn creates the changes in climate that make for higher rainfalls and flooding or contrarily, little rainfall and drought.

We need leadership that will take on real problems, not the fantasies that the demented MAGA imagination creates. Climate change is a real problem that we still have time to work on. Kamala Harris and Democrats in congress and in state legislatures will address these problems. We all know Trump and the MAGAs will have their hands out for a “tip” from polluters, as the SCOTUS described bribes last term.

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Sunday Funday: Smell Test Edition

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Dave Bradley

Robert Reich on Trump economics (4.5 minutes:)

I have been reading that there is some concern over whether the current first district congress member, Marionette Miller-Meeks, actually lives in the district or not. While we all like to think OUR congress member should reside in OUR district I don’t believe they have to.

I seem to recall a Minnesota congressman from the Duluth area whose wife got a professorship in Pittsburgh, Pa. He kept his seat after he moved to Pittsburgh. And the good people of Duluth tossed his ass out the next election. You have the power to remove faulty congress members. Miller-Meeks seat is not a heritage and in my humble opinion she is definitely faulty. This just doesn’t pass the ever famous smell test.

We need some fall! And an end to political commercials! We will try to throw in some old time autumn questions this round.

A) Must be something in the water in NYC. Who got indicted on numerous felonies Thursday in NYC?

B) Were #1! Hey, it was reported this week that Iowa produced more of this than any other state?

C) Justice may be on the horizon! A judge in the Sandy Hook disinformation case ruled that whose assets will be sold off in November to satisfy the $1 B settlement against him?

D) House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reminds us that last Friday was the 30th anniversary of the introduction of what disastrous Republican document of policy positions?

E) Fall means delicious apples. Can you remember the real name of the guy known as Johnny Appleseed who planted apple seeds as he wandered across the US?

F) As DonOLD Trump paints a dystopian picture of the US, how did crime statistics gathered by the FBI come in this week?

G) Inflation stats were released Friday. How did inflation for August fare against the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%?

H) Who was named Rookie of the Year in the WNBA this week?

I)  Next Tuesday night (October 1) Americans will see what leaders engage in a debate?

J) What fall month sees the birth of more babies than any other month?

K) Despite continuing revelations of more inflammatory comments and having his staff quit, Mark Robinson continues his campaign for governor of what state?

L) What SE Asian country recognized same-sex marriages last week?

M) In a truly unexpected move what nation has committed to increasing oil production by December?

N) On the eve of the start of a defamation lawsuit that could end the company, what RW newser settled out of court with Smartmatic Election?

O) What town in Illinois is considered (by someone) to be the pumpkin capital of the world?

P) DonOLD threatened what midwestern based company with a 200% tariff if they moved some production to Mexico?

Q) A tenth death has been assigned to a listeria outbreak caused by deli meat from what company?

R) Democrats care! Democrats in the House bailed out MAGAs on what issue last week?

S) In California the Attorney General has sued Exxon for misleading the state on what practice?

T) The blue light dims. Last week it was announced that the final store in what once mighty chain will lock its door in Bridgehampton, NY on October 20th?

The Trump justices invented presidential immunity, and then didn’t even carve out treason. – Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse

Note: in a speech last week Trump (a man accused of many rapes) said

“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today,” Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”

Answers:

A) The Mayor, Eric Adams

B) hog manure

C) Alex Jones

D) “The Contract On America” this year’s version is “Project 2025”

E) John Chapman

F) crime down often by double digits almost across the board. 

G) inflation came in at 2.2% so they hit it. Way to go Biden / Harris

H) Caitlin Clark

I) VP candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance

J) September

K) North Carolina

L) Thailand

M) Saudi Arabia

N) NewsMax

O) Morton, Illinois – they do have a fun pumpkin fest every September

P) John Deere

Q) Boar’s Head

R) keeping the government open

S) recycling of plastics. This could be very interesting

T) Kmart

There are now 16 “centibillionaires” worth $100 billion or more.

These individuals have grown $414 billion richer this year alone, and are worth a collective $2.4 trillion.

16 people…

Once again: It’s not radical to tax the rich. It’s radical to allow this level of extreme wealth concentration to continue. – Robert Reich

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Guilt By Association

Posted on September 28, 2024 by Dave Bradley

2 minutes:

In the past few weeks we have all been hearing the insane and totally fabricated stories of immigrants from Haiti supposedly kidnapping and eating pets in the Springfield, Ohio area. The story supposedly sprung from a report that a Springfield resident filed with local police there that she claimed she saw a neighbor steal her cat and the resident could not find the cat.

The version of this story I heard said that the resident then found her cat alive in the basement 3 days later. 

As I look it up online I see that there are several versions of the story differing in some details. Oddly, most of the stories cited do not mention a Haitian as a guilty party to begin with. That appears to be a detail that came to the story later.

Why later and why Haitian? This is from a discussion I heard on the radio last week I believe on Thom Hartmann. 

Because whipping up hate against immigrants is the very core of the MAGA campaign this year, MAGAs are on the lookout for anything that sounds like immigrant crime. A story like the above especially with the added gory detail of eating a dog or cat is right up their alley.

In the case of Springfield the threat is heightened by there being a sizable number of these immigrants in the community. Remember the Haitians settling in this country mostly came under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) due to the problems in Haiti itself. Springfield had a huge need for labor and brought Haitians in to cover their labor shortage.

How the story evolved to specify Haitians were the fantasy culprit is unclear. However, seeing a great chance to bash immigrants, bash black people, bash speakers of foreign tongues and include a story that is anathema to most Americans all rolled up in one, here it was on a platter for MAGAs. Using social media, it spread like wildfire.

In the final analysis there is one extra morsel that the MAGA unreality troops can extract from this story and that is to bash Kamala Harris by association. Harris is of course a citizen by birth having been born in Oakland California. But her parents were immigrants.

In particular, her Father, Donald Harris is from Jamaica. If you look at a map of the Caribbean you will see that Jamaica and Haiti are neighboring islands. So MAGA reasoning would lead you to this insane conclusion:

Jamaica near Haiti so populations are similar. => Kamala Harris’s dad is Jamaican so Kamala is like a Haitian. => Haitians are criminal so Kamala Harris is criminal. MAGA logic at its finest.

As you ponder this incredible (uncredible?) bit of logic just imagine having a mind like that having the nuclear codes or advising the guy who has the nuclear codes. Now that is scary.

In what I hope will be one of the final stories in this whole sordid saga, MAGA representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana kind of brought the whole mindset together with this tweet:

Higgins, of Lafayette, posted the following tweet on X Wednesday afternoon: 

“Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gansters … but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their a– out of our country before Jan. 20.” 

Reminder folks: This is an election year. People like Trump, like JD Vance and any of the people who either support them or fail to stand up to them (Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Nunn, Feenstra) are not fit for office. YOU can vote them out.

And don’t think something like this would never happen in Iowa. We have several towns with high immigrant populations. One little lie placed properly could ignite into a conflagration of hate. 

Please vote these people out of office for our county’s sake!

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What Can We Do About Iowa?

Posted on September 28, 2024 by Dave Bradley

From iowademocrats.org 

Another Iowa Poll Spells Trouble for Republicans as Reynolds’ Approval Rating Sinks

DES MOINES – Another Mediacom/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll that was released this morning shows Iowa Republicans are losing their grip on the state as Governor Kim Reynolds hits a record low.

Reynolds’ approval rating is at 45 percent, the lowest it’s been since she took office in 2017, according to the Iowa Poll. Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird isn’t faring well herself, with her approval rating sitting at just 39 percent.

Democrat Rob Sand is the most popular of the statewide elected officials whose names were included in today’s poll. He earned the approval of 53 percent of Iowans.

“Iowans are fed up with extreme Republican policies that ban abortion, give hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy schools in Iowa’s largest cities, and cater to special interests that rig the system and jack up prices for the rest of us,” said IDP Chair Rita Hart. “It’s time to elect Democrats this November who are ready to bring some common sense back into our state. Democrats are listening to what voters want and are ready to put people over politics and move this state in a better direction.” 

This should come as little surprise to Iowans who have watched the Reynolds regime along with the never-caring leaders in Iowa legislature steam roll over the infamous “Iowa Nice” perspective of Iowans to produce a state where kids can go to work about as soon as they can walk but can’t get a meal in the summer. 

Looks like Iowans are finally seeing through the hog manure (which is also at record highs) and realizing that Kim Reynolds and her legislative lackeys are producing a state that must live under their antiquated and religious realm or move on.

Iowans, this is an election year and a great opportunity to do something about this truly intolerable situation. You can’t vote out Reynolds herself this year,  but you can send her an unmistakeable message by voting out MAGAs (or republicans) in the state legislature. Based on their policies, there is certainly no reason to return them to office. Iowa’s legislature could use a good cleansing.

Don’t forget that Iowans once enjoyed a good balanced policy between the state and the unions representing various groups working for the state. Don’t forget that Iowas public school system was once literally the envy of the country. Having gone to school in Iowa meant you had received a good education. 

Children in Iowa didn’t go hungry. Iowa proudly partnered with the federal government to make sure no Iowa child went hungry. Can you remember that Iowa had laws that prevented skeezy companies from hiring Iowa’s kids to do dangerous work? Not anymore.

Iowa was once the home of empowered women. Now they can’t even make their own health care decisions, ironically thanks to a woman (Reynolds) and her lackey legislature. It is time to change that and let women make their own choices again. 

Now Iowa has taken away women’s ability to make their own medical decisions. Iowa has also enacted laws to let employers hire kids. Reynolds has denied aid for programs to feed kids in the summertime. Republicans in the legislature have done all they can to destroy unions in the state while rewarding corporations and the wealthy with tax cuts.

Perhaps the most symbolic blow is the sledgehammer Reynolds and her legislative lackeys have taken to our public school system. Many of those taxes we pay are supposed to go to public schools. That is changed now. Our tax dollars are now being funneled to wealthy private schools that are often religious in nature while public schools suffer. 

The legislature and Reynolds carved out a backdoor way to funnel tax dollars to those who do not need subsidies and taken it from the working and lower classes. What a scam on our public school system. And to add insult to injury, they gutted Iowa’s Area Education Agencies in the process making them much harder to access.

So if we can’t vote Reynolds out, vote out those who enact her policy into law – those Republicans in the Iowa legislature. You will be voting FOR good policy and responsible fiscal policy.

In my area that will mean votes for a couple of really good men. John Dabeet  https://www.dabeetforiowa.com  and Phil Wiese https://iowahouse.org/f/phil-wiese in his battle to take down Bobby Kaufmann. 

If you can, please help them to restore sanity to Iowa.

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