“The brave service members who fought on D-Day represent the Greatest Generation in our history.
Together, they stood to oppose the forces of fascism, volunteered to lay down their lives for our liberty, and answered freedom’s call at its hour of greatest need.
And today, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I met with 41 World War II veterans in Normandy to honor their service. Together we remember their sacrifice and recommit to the future they fought for – one grounded in freedom, democracy, equality, and opportunity for all.” – President Joe Biden
Here is an action alert from Zach Wahls who continues to be a strong progressive leader in the Iowa senate. You can donate to his re-election campaign and there is also a link below including a link to a petition you can sign supporting the Right to Contraception act in Iowa.
Email from Senator Wahls:
Earlier today, the U.S. Senate took a crucial vote on the Right to Contraception Act—a bill I proudly co-sponsored here in Iowa to safeguard access to contraception for everyone. Despite its importance and bipartisan support, the bill did not pass, primarily due to opposition from Senator Joni Ernst and other Republicans who continue to align with extreme MAGA agendas that threaten our basic rights.
The refusal to support such fundamental health care protections reveals a stark reality: there is a concerted effort by many elected Republicans, including Ernst, Chuck Grassley, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, to roll back the clock on reproductive rights, including access to safe and effective contraception.
Now more than ever, we need your help. As MAGA conservatives push their agenda to take away contraception, we must fight back harder. Your donation today will support our efforts to mobilize, educate, and ensure that these critical rights are protected.
Yesterday’s primary election results are proof that your support is crucial in this fight. Together, we can stand against those who wish to undermine our freedoms and ensure that rights once thought settled remain secure.
Thank you for your quick action and unwavering support.
Iowa has a Big Ag problem that could be getting worse. From our inbox here is a word from Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture. Please like and share. If you can, please consider a donation to IARA. Contact info. below.
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The Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA) has serious concerns about Daisy Brand LLC’s plans to build a processing plant in Boone, Iowa. The Texas-based company is the largest cottage cheese and sour cream producer in the United States.
In an ideal world, the new plant could provide a needed boost for Iowa’s independent small-scale dairy farmers and the local Boone economy. But if CAFOs are built to accommodate production needs, the project could further degrade Iowa’s environment.
Given Iowa’s lax regulations of, and support for, industrial agriculture, IARA questions the impact the Daisy Dairy plant will have on neighbors and water quality.
Certain economic impacts are clear: the Boone facility is projected to create 106 jobs initially and hire up to another 149 people. In addition, Daisy Brand will need to expand Iowa’s dairy industry by 43,000 additional cows to meet production needs, an 18% increase in Iowa’s current dairy herd requiring an estimated 4,000 new dairy workers.
The Iowa Governor, Secretary of Agriculture, City of Boone, and Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) have all hailed Daisy Brand’s new plant which comes with a $67.2 million public investment.
However, that’s a lot of taxpayer money allocated to a company headquartered in Texas.
A plus for Iowa? The complex repercussions need to be examined closely.
Iowa’s independent dairy farmers are struggling, victims of the “get big or get out” agricultural trend, along with decreased demand and low prices. If 43,000 cows were spread among 100 farms and raised sustainably, they would provide a welcome boost to independent farmers and, therefore, their communities, schools, and environment. Cows with access to pasture distribute their manure where it can decompose naturally and build soil health.
IARA’s concern, however, is that the 43,000 cows will likely be raised in large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) with their resultant pollution of air and water.
In one year, 43,000 dairy cows can generate approximately 220 million gallons of manure, based on a Holstein’s daily production of 14 gallons/day. Due to the proliferation of hog and chicken CAFOs, Iowa already has a glut of manure which results in over-application on some fields. The inevitable runoff into streams and rivers pollutes 751 waterways in the state.
Currently, Boone County already has 41 CAFOs, and the six bordering counties (Story, Polk, Dallas, Greene, Webster, and Hamilton) have a total of 475 according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources database.
The need for approximately 4,000 workers to staff dairy operations for an additional 43,000 cows raises other questions. Dairy CAFOs frequently rely on large numbers of immigrants and refugees, documented and not, to staff the facilities. Finding enough documented immigrants is a challenge for farms throughout the country, and recent legislation through SF 2340 makes Iowa an especially risky place for undocumented workers for whom it’s also illegal to even hold a driver’s license.
Does Daisy Brand have a plan to help dairy operations fill these jobs? With the depressed dairy market, will they be able to purchase milk at price points that allow farm owners to operate at or above the cost of production and pay a living wage to their workers?
Finally, a concentration of 43,000 cows, many shipped in from other states, raises another concern: H5N1 highly pathogenic avian flu, which has already infected at least 79 herds in 9 states. Avian flu is increasingly jumping to other mammals, including now at least three cases in humans. With Iowa’s small dairy industry, our state has so far escaped infection, but will bringing in so many cows tempt fate?
If Daisy Brand can create an environment that supports the expansion of small-scale independent farms in Iowa, then it can be a boon for rural economies and a win/win situation that IARA welcomes.
However, if CAFOs will be the primary source of milk for the plant, then this “exciting new announcement” will create an additional blight in rural Iowa that IARA opposes. IARA believes that taxpayer money should support small farms that have a positive impact on the lives and environment of Iowans and not large-scale agribusiness.
The Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA) is a coalition of community, state, and national organizations calling for a factory farm moratorium until there are less than 100 water impairments. Learn more at iowaresponsibleagriculture.org. Your donations help keep us going. If you like what we’re doing, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. Thank you for your support!
This chart says a lot about the history of newspapers in the 21st Century. As the number of employees in the business declined by 75 percent, private equity extracted financial resources from these businesses through mergers and acquisitions, leaving a much diminished infrastructure to provide news and information. There are fewer daily newspapers in 2024 compared to 2000.
As newsroom employees are purged, and substacks, blogs, podcasts, and the like proliferate, we are left with fragmented news sourcing around specific reporters’ individual interests. There is a role for that, but obtaining reliable news about things that matter is increasing difficult, both from the news consumer’s perspective and from the newspaper perspective of doing more and more with fewer resources.
I am interested in the issue of blogs as news sources. Like it or not, Bleeding Heartland, Blog for Iowa, and Iowa Starting Line are no news substitute for the vacuum being created by private equity shedding newspaper employees and mining news assets. Iowa Starting Line is part of Courier Newsroom, funded by reader contributions, sponsors, and philanthropic and corporate underwriting, according to their website. Both Blog for Iowa and Bleeding Heartland have been privately funded, although that model is changing at Bleeding Heartland. Funding is addressed on the Bleeding Heartland website: “Readers can support independent journalism and help cover reporting costs, such as public records requests, by contributing here.” This type of funding provides freedom to do what editors think is best. While a lot of solid journalism is accomplished on blogs like these, they are not a replacement for news.
Some journalists found a way to make a living outside the world of newspapers. It is increasingly clear that with the rise of potentially profitable podcasts, substacks, YouTube channels, and the like, there is more money to be made in these new entities than in writing for a newspaper. There are important essays to read in this fragmented news media, yet our formal news environment is the worse for these one-off entrepreneurial enterprises.
While individual reporters venture into single-source, news-like publications, other things are filling the vacuum left by the demise of newspapers.
Political operatives are filling the news void with coordinated, partisan messaging. When Republicans like Kim Reynolds, Joni Ernst, Ashley Hinson, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks all refer to the New York trial of former president Trump as a “sham,” it is not by accident. They have the resources to develop consistent messaging to an increasingly poorly educated populace where they sow the seeds of their right-wingery. Furthering such messaging is important to Republicans maintaining a majority of elected offices in Iowa. The decline of newspapers created this opportunity for them.
At the same time, the rise in misinformation and disinformation in social media is rampant. First, social media is not a public forum as long as a user name and password is required to gain access. Second, a person can say almost anything, subject to after the fact censoring. Most importantly, troll farms can flood the social media space with posts aligned toward a specific perspective. Whether we like it or not, there is a propaganda war going on in social media, and I don’t mean cats are taking over the world. The degree to which Chinese and Russian troll farms work to infiltrate American social media is a substantial political issue.
For all the hobbles attached to news organizations in the current environment, subscribing to a major newspaper provides more value than harm. It is not enough. We must seek out news writers offering distinct, less biased messaging, and follow them where they are. I’m thinking of Heather Cox Richardson, but there are many others. By all means subscribe to a newspaper. Also take the next step to find writers whose work is valuable and follow them where they publish. This means some work we didn’t previously have to perform, yet the rewards will help us cope with a changing news media infrastructure.
For those who have been reading blogforiowa.com for many years you all know that at this time of year I usually post something in admiration of my father-in-law. He was one of the 73,000 Americans and 160,000 allied troops in total that invaded Europe on June 6th 1944.
He was a young man who had just turned 20 about a month before. Like everyone of those 160,000 troops that could easily have been his last day on earth. If DDay wasn’t his last day on earth, there would be plenty more coming up soon that may have been that last day. If he made it through D-Day, then there would be the battles that would lead to the end of the Nazi regime and Hitler. One of those could have easily been his last day on earth.
Seems like every year when I ponder his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all the veterans and their families that won the Second World War for the US and its allies, my mind focuses on a different aspect. This year I am drawn to their simple courage.
Most of us wonder what we would do in that moment when we must make such a choice. Would we make the right, but hard choice? While many like to think they would choose to be the hero, the honest truth is that most of us take the easy way out.
In today’s world we see that daily, especially in the worlds of business and politics. On a daily basis we have leaders of industry denying their company’s or their own contributions to spoiling the planet’s air, water or land. We see weasely word games to avoid taking responsibility. We see choices made that avoid responsible stewardship.
In the world of politics we see the MAGA Party cowering in fear of their leader, Donald Trump. There has been only one or two who have stood up to Trump. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are the only two who have stood up to Trump and held fast.
Just last week we saw Nikki Haley wither in her opposition to Trump. She joined the myriads of spineless MAGAs who when given a chance to stand up to Trump have cowered and hid away. Romney, Kim Reynolds, Marionette Miller-Meeks, DeSantis – the list of cowards is endless.
We are just 5 months from a momentous election. Trump is telling us straight up that he will end democracy in the US. He is telling us that he wants to be a dictator. He is telling us that he will align our country with dictators and authoritarians. He is warning us how he will change the political world. This is probably only time he is telling the truth.
Now every citizen is being confronted with a life altering choice. Vote for Trump will be a vote to end the American experiment and to end democracy in the US. You and I are the ones who can make a choice to save America. Not as dramatic as D-Day and certainly not as dangerous, but in its way just as meaningful. You and I must stand for democracy for our friends and neighbors, children and grandchildren.
The truly neat thing about our act is that no one needs to know you and I were heroes because the instrument we will use in our defense of democracy is a SECRET ballot. No one else will know how you voted.
Make sure you are registered to vote. Make a plan to vote. We will plan to go to the courthouse and vote early. We do that in case something happens we still have time to cast our vote. We will make sure that we will make our voices heard in this year when one of the choices will end democracy. We will stand up against Trump and for democracy.
Oh – and if you think Trump and the MAGAs will never turn on you think again. History is full of people and groups who thought they were insulated from the wrath of the leader until they weren’t. But once democracy is gone there is no system or rule of law to protect you.
“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” — George Bush, “President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York,” May 24, 2005.
We start with the MAGA strategy of propaganda for Trump. (10 minutes)
I am not going to spend a lot of time on the 34 Trump convictions. We all know it happened. This guy gets so much free publicity I hate to give him any more. Let me simply say that I am glad to see that in at least one corner of the US, the justice system still works.
What was sad was to see the Trump sycophants representing Iowa were so quick to jump to Trump’s defense. The other side of that coin is that they are more than willing to undermine our justice system for one man. Try to remember that when they ask for your vote.
One of the best stories of the week was the inclusion of the old Negro League records into Major League Baseball records. ‘Bout damned time.
The week started slow and took off like a rocket:
A) Speaking of the inclusion of African-American records in baseball’s record book – who now is recognized as having the highest lifetime batting average in baseball?
B) Last weekend Trump vied for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. How many votes did he get?
C) What presidential candidate last week said he was against removal of confederate statues because the people they honor may have had “other qualities”?
D) In Iowa, 4 million chickens were slaughtered due to the detection of what?
E) Another sports question – What all-time NBA star and Grateful Dead head died of prostate cancer last week?
F) Gay Pride Month already? Why is Gay Pride celebrated in June?
G) Nikki Haley did what thoroughly disgusting act while visiting Israel last week?
H) What well-known actor took a trip to New York to confront Trump supporters outside of Trump’s trial?
I) Who is Chase Oliver?
J) Louisiana designated mifepristone and misoprostol as “dangerous drugs” because they do what?
K) Louisiana’s legislature also passed a bill last week to require what to be posted in every public school classroom?
L) When was the first legal same sex marriage in Iowa?
M) In economy killing mega-merger news What oil company bought out Hess Oil for $53 Billion?
N) In another competition killing merger in oil what company boughtMarathon Oil for $22.5 Billion?
O) Do you like tubing on snow? What midwestern city opened a park with a hill that has a surface to allow tubing all year?
P) What head of the Judicial Branch of the federal government declined an invitation to discuss judicial ethics sent by Senators Durbin and Whitehouse?
Q) Because Ohio has a law that says presidential candidates must be nominated on a date before the Democratic convention, the Democrats will do what?
R) OMG it got hot in India last week. How hot (in Fahrenheit) did it get in New Delhi?
S) As the sun rotates and the side with the solar storms faces the earth again, it is possible we could see some spectacular what again next week?
T) Trump’s sentencing will be July 11th. Trump’s attorney will argue that Trump has what condition that should keep him out of jail?
24 yrs ago—Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett & John Roberts were ALL on the legal team that helped Bush steal the presidency from Al Gore
24 yrs later—all 3 are now on the Supreme Court that’s helping to steal the presidency from the American people
Crooks will ALWAYS be crooks. – Lindy Li
Tip of the hat to EarlG on democraticunderground.com
Answers:
A) Josh Gibson at .372 besting Ty Cobb’s .367
B) 6 or 0.65% (he lost bigly)
C) RFK jr. (so sad for his family)
D) bird flu in an egg laying flock)
E) Bill Walton
F) In commemoration of the Stonewall riots that took place June 28,1969. – July 3, 1969
G) Wrote “finish them” on bombs that were used to bomb Gaza
H) Robert DeNiro
I) The Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee
J) They are used in chemical abortions
K) The Ten Commandments
L) April 3, 2009
M) Chevron
N) Conoco-Phillips
O) Des Moines
P) Chief Justice John Roberts
Q) Hold a virtual convention to nominate Biden before Ohio’s date
R) 126 F or 52.4 C
S) Northern Lights
T) he’s too OLD! Not too old to run for president, but too old to go to jail.
In 1944 Einstein stated, “Behind the Nazi party stands the German people, who elected Hitler after he had in his book and in his speeches made his shameful intentions clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding”.
Dr. Jill Biden takes a turn on The View to give her reason why we should vote for her husband. The panel as we can tell from the first question seems to be in agreement that President Biden is doing a great job. No matter what you measure, the country right now is in about as good of shape as it ever has been. Some places still need work, but for gawd’s sake we want someone competent to do that work.
As Joy Behar notes – Biden is “competent.” When you are President, that is quite an endorsement. Especially coming on the heels of the president who is overwhelmingly considered to be the worst president ever in America. The only thing accomplished in the Trump administration was to put the government another $3 Trillion in debt with tax cuts for the rich.
The numbers that really point out the incompetence of Trump are the job losses that totaled nearly 3 million and those who died unnecessarily due to covid. Had Trump not dismantled Obama’s early warning system, had Trump not used covid as a weapon to kill his opposition as many as 1/2 to 1 million may have been spared.
The above are just Trump’s grossest incompetencies. Name any segment of the government or society and Trump was the most incompetent president ever in that area. Bleach for that covid, sir?
As we celebrate graduations at this time of year, I can imagine that those who will be going to university or stepping into the world of work or starting a business if they seriously consider Trump’s record there is no way they would want such an incompetent fool in charge again.
In my spare time I have been jotting down the issues that 15 to 30 year olds should really concerned about. Then they should do a reality check on which president has a better record on the issue. Both Trump and Biden have had a turn at bat as president so this should be a comparison that should be able to be done.
Here is my short list. In my comparison, Biden wins hands down:
SS – raising age requirements and privatizing Medicare (Mom and Dad moving in?)
Climate change – hotter, wetter in spots and desertification in others – forest fires and much stronger storms
International treaties especially NATO
Medical care insurance cut backs
Money being concentrated in few hands – labor union support or undermining them
Education cutbacks in K-12. Privatizing public schools and cutting funding – Cost of college skyrockets
All sorts of get rich quick schemes
No longer a nation of laws – rich get breaks
Justice system broken
Wealth gap wider than ever
Racism really bad – stereotyping
Ability to vote being compromised
Will democracy survive
Corruption in government
Inflation – If Trump is president it will get worse or be stopped by a massive recession
Jobs – Biden +15,000,000 – Trump -3,000,000
Abortion legalized and birth control legal and available
I am sure there are many more topics. It seems to me that the country needs competent leaderships it has now. When we assess Trump’s record in any of these areas. What he did in his turn was scary and he is promising to be much worse if he gets another chance.
They each have a track record. Use real data and compare them.
Just looking over the calendar for June. It’s a good thing that the weather is good because it is going to be really busy in the state and the country.
We can start off with the fact that June is Gay Pride month and some cities and towns are already celebrating this weekend.
Where? Well we can start with the Quad Cities whose festival is in Rock Island and started yesterday and goes through tomorrow. They are also priding up in Dubuque today. Sioux City kicked their festival off yesterday and goes through tomorrow. Finally down in Ottumwa they got a little party going this afternoon. Iowa’s Pride fests are listed by date here.
Ooo – looks like there is a big party next week in Des Moines and in North Liberty and Fort Madison – check it out! Iowa City, Burlington and Fort Dodge in the weeks that follow and Cedar Rapids has a party on the Fourth of July weekend.
What else have we got in June? How about a presidential debate? We got one scheduled on June 27th on CNN. It will be worth watching just to see if Trump can be controlled or will he act like a baby? Or for that matter will Trump be in jail at that time? Put it on you calendar.
When we speak of June we are talking about the third branch of federal government taking the spotlight as the SCOTUS announces their decisions before they skedaddle out of town following the end of their session. This year decisions are already coming out. This year it looks like the rich and powerful will get more rich and more powerful thanks to SCOTUS.
Decisions are handed down on a schedule that the Court creates themselves so there is no set schedule. The best way to keep on top of what is happening is check out a web site called scotusblog.comAmy Howe has been in charge there for quite a while. This year’s decisions promise to be controversial.
Did I mention there are the party primaries this coming Tuesday? Don’t miss it! Some very interesting races this year. Perhaps the most interesting is the Democratic battle to see who will take on MAGA congress member Zach Nunn. Nunn has done nothing to help Iowa in two years. This is the first step in the process to send him back to Iowa.
Will there be any Trump trials in June? I don’t know of any. I do have a dream that soon we will be seeing Trump being locked up for one of his many crimes. June would be a great time to seethe lockup take place.
It sounds like there may be more northern lights coming next week as the solar storms that have been throwing off coronal mass ejections will once again be facing our earth. It is really hard to forecast just what the sun will do, but conditions look like there may some more northern lights coming starting now and going forward for a week or two.
Finally, a reminder that next Thursday is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe by Allied troops. It is sad that on this 80th anniversary we have politicians who are trying to be a latter-day Hitler. Please keep with the solemnity of the day.
That should be enough to keep most of us busy for a month or so.
Scroll down for suggested actions by Indivisible –
Donald Trump was just convicted on all 34 counts in his hush money trial in New York today. This is a historic moment in the fight for our democracy and an absolute victory for accountability and the rule of law.
We know what Trump and his MAGA Republican allies and enablers will say: They will spin, spin, spin. They will attack the judge, the jurors, the law. They will flood the zone with disinformation to try to convince the public this doesn’t matter or isn’t real. They will tear down our democratic institutions in an effort to protect their dear leader
We’re not going to let them do that. We’re going to make sure the truth shines through. We’re going to repeat the truth again, and again, and again:
Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Found guilty on all 34 counts by every single juror. Found guilty of interfering with an election — with his own election.
Repeat this truth.
While we can all take a second to revel in Trump finally facing some repercussions, it’s important to remember that these convictions will not prevent Trump from raising money, they will not persuade his strongest supporters away from voting for him, and they won’t stop him from becoming president for a second term.
With this verdict, our work has never been more important. Our job now is to ensure voters understand this conviction is a confirmation that Donald Trump illegally interfered in his own election. He is unfit for the presidency, and the work we collectively do to defeat him in November will still be the last line of defense between this country and enduring facism.
What this conviction does give us is undeniable proof of Trump’s corruption, greed, and complete apathy toward any law of this land that does not directly benefit him. It is a reminder of why we work. It is a reminder of just what we’re up against.
It is a call to action.
Here’s how you can respond:
Join us (Leah and Ezra) tomorrow, Friday, May 31 at 4pm ET/1pm PT. We hold informal coffee discussions periodically with the movement, and conveniently our next one was already scheduled for tomorrow at 4pm ET. This will be a space to ask questions and discuss what comes next.
Check to see if Neighbor2Neighbor is available in your area. Neighbor2Neighbor is Indivisible’s highly effective, community conversation program, and pre-registration is open now. To defeat Trump, we’re going to need to organize every voter we possibly can. If you want to have the biggest impact on voter turnout, this is the most effective way we’ve found to mobilize community members (our numbers prove it).
We are finally seeing the beginning pieces of accountability for Trump, but that doesn’t mean we can take our foot off the gas. We must defeat him and the rest of his MAGA supporters in November. We must and we will.
In solidarity,
Ezra Levin & Leah Greenberg
Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Indivisible
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)
Blog For Iowa 