Sunday Funday: C-C-C-Cold Edition

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Dave Bradley

Some one has a case of the WTFs: (2:13)

Well when you live in Iowa you’ve got to expect that in the middle of January it will get cold, very cold. But this batch of cold is milder than winters I can remember. (Uh-oh here comes the ‘back when I was a kid’ story) I go back to the days of going out to start your car an letting it run for half an hour so it would start in the morning to get a person to work. 

The coldest I remember was -35. Remember that climate change tends toward warmer temperatures, but extremes may be exceeded – so it is possible that there may be colder days ahead.

Just listening to John Fugelsang. He reminds us that most authoritarians get really rankled when they are ridiculed. We hope to do our best to ridicule the touchy and hopefully temporary occupant of the White House.

MLK Day tomorrow – remember why we have a day for him, please.

A) A peace agreement? Really? What two warring entities announced a cease fire would begin today?

B) A White House reporter asked who gets the credit for this cease-fire? Can you answer that question for her?

C) The senate confirmation hearings were a major story this week. What nominee is still unable to say who won the 2020 election?

D) Whose confirmation hearing ended early as the nominee was looking bad under fire from Democrats?

E) A major find in geology. A massive aquifer was found under what US state?

F) Rather than helping during a disaster, MAGA politicians are resorting to what to turn popular opinion against California?

G) The new administration showed that they are relevant by announcing what band will be playing one of the inaugural balls?

H) You are smarter than the next Secretary of defense if you can name a country in ASEAN. Can you?

I) Joni Ernst’s vote for the Secretary of Defense nominee is being touted as critical. Is Ernst voting for or against the nominee?

J) What small group of specific people refuse to attend the inaugural lunch tomorrow?

K) Pope Francis’s autobiography was released Tuesday with what one word title?

L) What former First Lady will not attend the inauguration tomorrow?

M) What congress member threatened to “take it outside” when she felt she was insulted by what other congress member last week?

N) Iowa state senator Mike Bousselot proposed that Iowa do what in order to grow?

O) Not his problem. What cabinet nominee felt that a $7.25 minimum wage was adequate for workers?

P) A law banning what goes into effect today?

Q) MAGAs in a mess. What former major MAGA advisor is fueding with Elon Musk?

R) The FDA called for a ban on what color dye in foods because it has been labeled a possible carcinogen?

S) In what city did Martin Luther King, jr. meet future wife Coretta Scott?

T) In one of his final acts as president, Biden declared what amendment would be part of the constitution?

Bonus) Up to today how many presidents have been felons?

Donald Trump is quid pro quo’ng wildfire disaster aid.  Unf–kingbelievable. – JoJoFromJerz

Tip of the hat to democraticunderground.com

Answers:

A) Israel and Hamas

B) Let’s see. – Trump had nothing to do with the agreement so he gets no credit

C) AG nominee Pam Bondi was asked repeatedly who won in 2020 and she refused to answer. What is she afraid of?

D) Pete Hegseth

E) Oregon

F) lies about California’s preparedness

G) The Village People

H) Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia.

I) She has been bullied into voting yes.

J) the living former presidents

K) Hope

L) Michelle Obama

M) Nancy Mace responded to a comment by Jasmine Crockett with a invitation to “take it outside” with Crockett

N) Buy the 9 Minnesota border counties with Iowa from Minnesota. This is the kind of thinking that makes Iowa special.

O) Treasury Secretary nominee billionaire Scott Bessent. Low wages don’t bother Bessent

P) Tik-Tok

Q) Steve Bannon

R) red dye #3

S) Boston

T) the equal rights amendment. Since it met approval criteria, I guess it is now an amendment.

Bonus) Up to now none have been. But as of tomorrow that number swells to @% or 1. Warn your children

Reading through Jack Smith’s report makes me sick. Our system of justice failed. It is a failure. Trump was able to run out the clock, then win an election to stay out of jail. The system is a f–king joke. – emzorbi

Posted in #trumpresistance, Humor | 1 Comment

STATEMENT: Gov. Reynolds Ignores Needs of Iowans

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Dave Bradley

In Condition of State Address

Once again we turn this page over to our friends at Progress Iowa for their succinct analysis of the State of the State from Governor Reynolds. Yet again Reynolds falls for Iowa.

Parker Williamson, Press Secretary

press@progressiowa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 14, 2025

Des Moines, Iowa — Progress Iowa executive director Matt Sinovic issued the following statement in response to Governor Reynolds’ Condition of the State Address:

“Tonight, the governor laid out her vision for Iowa, and once again, it’s clear she plans to side with wealthy corporations and the rich, while making life harder for Iowa’s working families. Under Reynolds’ leadership, Iowa’s students and teachers have been left to face growing challenges with fewer resources, children have been forced to go without the meals they need to thrive, and hateful legislation targeting already vulnerable communities has been passed. All with little support from the majority of Iowans.” 

“Iowans deserve a leader who fights for families, not corporate donors and their profits. Gov. Reynolds’ priorities are out of touch with the values and needs of our state. We will continue to advocate for a government that invests in our communities and works for everyone–not just the privileged few.”

###

Progress Iowa is the state’s progressive communications hub with a network that reaches nearly 100,000. We conduct research, develop winning messages, communicate with Iowans about critical policy issues, and empower people who want to improve our state. 

(Editor note: Last I knew Kim Reynolds was by far the least popular governor in the country)

Posted in #trumpresistance, Kim Reynolds | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Where To Start? Monday The World Changes

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Dave Bradley

Since Election Day I think many of us have hoped that somehow, some way The world will stop turning and January 20th won’t come this year. Then we and the rest of the world won’t have to deal with what will almost certainly be the worst leadership in human history.

But here it comes. I doubt any are ready, no matter what yo have done to prepare. Our government is about to be turned upside down as America puts a convicted criminal in charge of the apparatus that is supposed to determine who is a legitimate citizen and who are felons. Or as the old saying goes: the inmates are in control of the asylum.

This week I have vacillated between hope that it won’t be so bad; that somehow the immediate shock will turn into immediate resistance. But the other side of that vacillation is that it will be as bad or even worse than expected. Plus there is the question about whether we the people will ever be told any of the reality that is going on.

As most of us know, controlling ‘news’ – that is propagandizing information – is one of the most critical weapons that authoritarian governments will employ. Since much of the main stream press works on the right wing side of the road, we have already seen how they perpetuated the lie that the economy was bad even at a time when Biden’s strategies will be leaving the next administration with one of the most robust economies ever.

It will be amazing how the press will suddenly acknowledge the robust economy following Monday. But they will be giving credit where it doesn’t belong – to the new administration. From there on it may be hard to find economic reality reported in the main stream. 

The next administration rode a wave of lies into power. Keeping that power will require continuing disinformation. More than ever being a good citizen will require critical thinking skills. Such skills are not in abundance in the USA these days. Keeping critical thinking at bay will be one of the main strategies of the coming oligarchy.

The constitution is set up with its divergence of powers among 3 branches such that no one branch could aggregate power unto themselves. And even inside that diversification, the US Senate was set up so they could be a place where fires of the moment could be cooled.

However, this senate has abrogated their duties to stop an out of control executive. Under Trump we can expect them to be reporting for orders. We already see them showing off their new functionality during the senate confirmation hearings for the appointees. The confirmation hearings became more of an exercise in stroking candidates than in trying to collect information.

Perhaps one of the most pitiful examples of this was Iowa’s own Joni Ernst who has curried an image of a tough military person deeply concerned with women in the military and the sexual coercion in the military for women. The nominee, Pete Hegseth has had many stories of him attacking women. The stage was set for a showdown concerning Hegseth’s past and Ernst’s pet issue.

But by the time, Ernst had changed he mind and an expected showdown became a stroking for perhaps one of the least qualified cabinet pick ever. The whole MAGA bunch of MAGA senators were set up to do one thing – stroke the nominee and curry favor with the Don as mafiosa did on TV decades ago.

I use the term Don because as I watched bits and pieces of the confirmation hearings it reminded me of the Mafia hearings in the 1950s as witness after witness took the 5th amendment right to avoid answering self-incriminating questions. Watching Pam Bondi – the nominee for Attorney General – made me think how well she would have fit in to that group.

Buckle up folks the ride is about to get really bumpy. Even for folks like you and I who know it is coming it will be rough. Economist Paul Krugman in an interview with Greg Sergeant of the New Republic  noted that those who may be most affected are the worker or small business person who voted for trump:

Sargent: It’s funny, we often talk about Trump’s working-class base and his working-class white voter base and so forth, but there’s also a fairly large MAGA contingent represented by small business people, people who operate small manufacturing concerns and so forth. He just seems to have no concern for them at all. Aren’t those people that type of Trump supporter, the reactionary small business person? Aren’t those people going to get brutally scammed by tariffs here?

Krugman: A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed. Those are his most fervent supporters. It is, in fact, probably the local business elites are the most fervent MAGA types out there, more so even than the working class, but that doesn’t mean that Trump cares about their interests. Small business people are the people that he’s all through his life hired as contractors and then not pay, right? Scamming people like that is what his whole life has been around.

Posted in #trumpresistance, Joni Ernst, Media Bias | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Lawrence O’Donnell’s Unedited Interview With President Biden

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Mandatory viewing. Please watch or listen to this amazing, unedited interview of President Biden for these reasons.

1 – If you were a democrat calling for him to step down because of so-called cognitive decline,  you can now learn how it is possible to be susceptible to the media, and maybe democrats won’t let it happen again in the future.

2 – There is obviously nothing wrong with Biden’s cognitive abilities. This will be clear when you listen to his answers and his depth of knowledge on display here.

3 – We are going to soon be very sorry when he is gone.

4 – We will need to remember what a real president is like.

Have a great weekend.

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President Biden Warns America About The Coming Oligarchy

Posted on January 16, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Thank you, President Biden. This was an amazing speech. Please watch and share.

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , | Comments Off on President Biden Warns America About The Coming Oligarchy

Newspapers Matter

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Trish Nelson

Kenny and Ruby delivering papers

Newspapers are one of the pillars of democracy and I’m sorry, but digital versions do not provide the same community experience for a variety of reasons not covered here today.  Yesterday subscribers of the Cedar Rapids Gazette were informed they were reducing paper delivery to three days a week. The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald is doing the same. I am glad they are continuing delivery. I am glad they are surviving.

The news reminded me of a letter to the editor I wrote to the Iowa City Press-Citizen back in 2009.  I would like to share it today.

Dear Editor,

It’s the end of an era. When Press-Citizen carriers were given word that, due to the Gazette taking over delivery services, they would be out jobs, our carriers, Kenna McKeever and Jerome Fox, informed us that they would no longer be delivering papers.
Kenna and Jerome split their route, so for eleven years, Kenna and Ruby (her friendly, gentle pit bull), brought our local paper right to our door.

You would see Kenna and Ruby on the sidewalk together every morning, with their stroller that carried the newspapers, Kenna handing out treats to the dogs that lived on the route. Our dogs looked forward to running into them on their morning walk, and if by some happenstance of schedule they didn’t cross paths on that particular day, our dogs would park themselves in our front window and wait for Ruby and Kenna to appear. Ruby would pull on her leash in front of our house as they went by, if Sage and Zucchini were not outside.

Usually, the dogs would go out for a quick visit and a treat. Kenna would have them sit for the treats, and we would try to use the encounters to practice doggy front door ettiquette, like staying calm and not jumping up (with limited success). All this took just a minute or two, then they would be on their way, back to work.

We came to know Kenna as a neighbor and friend. At Christmas time, everyone on the route received a newsletter, complete with family updates. Kenna even gave out her cell phone number to customers. This week, she left her final newsletter saying good-bye, telling us when their last day would be, explaining that she could have re-applied, but after eleven years, it’s time to move on – all those vacations and trips not taken, for all those years, because of no one available to cover the route.

“We want to again thank each one of you for being loyal customers during our eleven years of delivering papers. It’s time to hang up the old paper bags, pack away all our extra winter stuff and retire the old stroller. We have decided we are tired of being tired all the time and not being able to go anywhere because of not finding anyone to sub for us.” And then she added, “many, many thanks!”

As if WE did something. Now that is dedication and commitment.

For many, the delivery of the P-C is a frustrating experience of not getting the paper on time, not knowing where to find it in the yard, not knowing if it was going to appear at all. In the past, we’ve cancelled our subscription off and on for the exact same reason.

But for the last 8 years, as long as we’ve lived on our street, our carriers were as regular and steady as clockwork, and the way they did their job added to the quality of our lives. We should all take a lesson.

We will miss Ruby and Kenna coming by our house every day, but we know we will still see them out walking in the neighborhood. Many, many thanks to you, Kenna and Ruby, and Jerome, for your great service to our community! We wish you vacations, treats, and lots of sleeping-in time!

Trish Nelson, Iowa City

Sage and Zucchini

 

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Ben Wikler And David Hogg For DNC Chair And Vice-Chair

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Trish Nelson

DNC chair candidates

The DNC is headed by a chairperson, five vice chairpersons, a treasurer, a secretary, and a national finance chair, who are all elected by vote of members of the Democratic National Committee itself. 448 DNC members will vote on a chair; a simple majority of votes is required to win.  Voting takes place February 1 at the DNC winter meeting.  Wiki

I like Ben Wikler to lead the DNC. I also like David Hogg, co-founder of March for Our Lives running for vice chair.  Below is the video of the virtual forum that was live on the Democrats.org YouTube channel over the weekend.

Above the video I have posted Ben Wikler’s response to the opening forum question because he gave an A+ answer.  He brought up an issue toward the end that many of us in Iowa have noticed with campaigns for some time now.  That is, they seem to be listening to consultants and ignoring grassroots activists except for the daily email ask for money.

First question to the chair candidates was this:

What was the DNC’s biggest mistake in 2024 and what would you immediately do to fix it?

Ben Wikler was called on first.

“In the last election there were millions of Americans who didn’t know that we were fighting for working families and if we’re going to correct that we need to communicate everywhere – that means on conservative media where conservative voices dominate and tell stories about democrats. That means building a progressive media ecosystem where we tell our own story and critically it means speaking to folks who are not tuned into politics who don’t trust either party – people who are paying attention to YouTube and podcasts and Tik Tok, people who are on platforms that often an older generation of democrats haven’t heard of but dominate news and information for younger voters. That means building a war room nationwide that is on offense laying out the fight for working people across race and ethnicity in rural areas, suburbs and cities alike.

And in every state building a strategy custom built for that state to be able to make the case that republicans are trying to divide us based on our identities in order to rip everybody off.

We know the uniting thing in this country is that everyone needs a safe place to sleep at night; they need food on their breakfast table, they need to be able to send their kids to great public schools.

In this country unions have tremendous trust. Small business has tremendous trust. But the democratic party and the republican party don’t have that trust because people need to see and feel that we’re fighting for them. Just as democrats in fact are fighting for working people in every corner of this nation. So it’s communicating, it’s organizing from the ground up across our full coalition in all the states.

And I’ll say this too. In the last election we lost touch with a lot of voters because we weren’t showing up where they were and there were consultants and people making decisions who we need to take a hard look at. We should go into this next election cycle with no commitments to anyone who’s been on a campaign payroll before and do a full audit top to bottom.

There are candidates in this race who are raising money from firms that made millions of dollars from contracts with the DNC. I am going into this race committed to convening DNC members to think about how we build our consultant networks and making sure we’re spending based on the path to victory, our coalition, and our values.”  [bolding BFIA’s]

And here is an MSNBC segment with David Hogg where he makes a very persuasive case for his candidacy and discusses why he’s running. In my opinion it would be a why-we-can’t-have-nice-things moment if we pass up this opportunity to put Hogg in a leadership position at the DNC. We need this impressive young man who at 24 years of age is older than his years.

So pick a candidate and lobby our IDP voting members.

Iowa DNC members:

Scott Brennan, DNC Member
June Owens, DNC Member
Jan Bauer, DNC Member At-Large
Sandy Opstvedt, DNC Member At-Large

IDP contact info:
5661 Fleur Drive| Des Moines, IA 50321|Phone: 515-244-7292|info@iowademocrats.org

 

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

On Tyranny Lesson 8: Stand Up And Stand Out

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Trish Nelson

From the On Tyranny series by Timothy Snyder, lesson #8 of twenty. Check here for a lesson every Monday or you can find them on YouTube.  They are all short videos, no ads.

“Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example the spell of the status quo is broken and others will follow.”    – Timothy Snyder

Please watch and share.

Posted in Blog for Iowa | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

SLAPP Lawsuits Coming In The Trump Era

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Dave Bradley

2 minutes

Wednesday the Iowa Capitol Dispatch (which does a great job of covering Iowa news) reported that a second lawsuit in the case of the Des Moines Register’s publishing of the Ann Seltzer poll that had Trump losing in Iowa just before the November election. 

The lawsuit was bought by some so-called “conservative non profit” from Chicago. As the story relates this lawsuit is pretty much a copycat of the Trump lawsuit. It looks like one of the major strategies of the right during the next administration is to drain the opposition dry through things like SLAPP lawsuits.

At the end of the article the group defending Seltzer discusses what they believe to be the right’s strategy:

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit focused on freedom of speech protections, is representing Selzer and her company in both lawsuits.

FIRE attorneys Adam Steinbaugh and Conor Fitzpatrick published a news release Tuesday arguing that the Trump lawsuit is “the very definition of a ‘SLAPP’ suit” — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation meant to punish defendants through time and costs of litigation.

“This lawsuit uses an inapplicable state statute as a cudgel to force Selzer and the Register to waste time and money on lawyers to respond to the allegations,” the attorneys state.

 “Enlisting the courts to settle political grudges is directly at odds with the First Amendment’s protection for political speech.”

It will be a long 4 years and it is going to be bumpy.

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Sunday Funday: Extremes Edition

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Dave Bradley

(6:30)

Christopher Titus Armageddon Update (language warning)

Wednesday Jimmy Carter was laid to rest. Carter was simply one of the most courageous and decent of people in politics. He lived a life grounded in his beliefs. Among his beliefs were that all humans were created equal. He spent 100 years showing what he believed.

On the other hand perhaps the worst man to ever grace this planet made yet another mockery of a justice system that has been developed and adjusted over the centuries. Donold Trump essentially walked away from his valid felony convictions scot free. Next he will become president where he has announced that he will use the awesome power of the presidency to wreak revenge on what he perceives as his enemies. The SCOTUS has already pre-approved his ability to do this by giving the presidency a blank check to do what it wants.

Meanwhile, climate change continues ravaging the earth, this time in the form of fires in Southern California.

One week util the hell-beast takes the reins.

A) What huge target was breached concerning temperature and climate change last week?

B) What show business personality who built her career on bigotry toward gays died this week?

C) Kissing the ring, Iowa edition. What leading party official who had been somewhat estranged from Trump made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-lago to kiss the ring this week?

D) As Trump had business come before SCOTUS this week, he breached the separation of powers ethics by calling who?

E) What highly noted singer from a major folk-rock band died this week at age at age 86?

F) Stowaways were found dead in what part of a Jetblue Airline’s airplane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week?

G) In the good news department, hiring during the Biden Administration continued strong racking up how many new jobs in December?

H) New Senate leader John Thune stepped on Trump’s toes by saying the Senate would keep what tradition?

I) What female actor described herself as a “popcorn actress” after she won a Golden Globes award Sunday

J) Pierre Pollievre will be an emerging name in world politics. Who is Pierre Pollievre

K) It was a vacation. Can’t you believe that? Who “vacationed” last week in scenic Greenland?

L) Jean-Marie Le Pen died last week in France. Le Pen was the leader of what political faction in France?

M) “Pay your bills” a court said to what businessman who owed DHL $778,000 in unpaid shipping fees?

N) “Fact checking? We don’t do no stinking fact-checking!” Might have been said by what corporate CEO last week?

O) Be sure to check that number before you text. A Florida woman was arrested when she texted a drug order to who instead of her drug dealer?

P) Perhaps nothing meant more than Jimmy Carter’s fight to eradicate what scourge from Africa?

Q) On the job to make our lives worse immediately. Now that MAGAs are in charge, a bill has already been submitted to block the cap on what life saving drug for diabetics?

R) 15,000 US doctors signed a petition to try to stop the nomination of who as Secretary of Health an Human Services?

S) Last week what one of the Democrat’s favorite internet policies was dealt a death blow in federal Appeals Court?

T) As we head into the final week of the Biden Administration we are hoping to see at least one of the two reports from what Special Counsel?

The stock portfolios of more than two dozen members of Congress outperformed the market in 2024.

This isn’t due to luck or skill.

Lawmakers can use privileged information to trade stocks while they’re supposed to be working for you.

Make no mistake, it’s legalized corruption. – Robert Reich

Answers:

A) the 1.5 degrees C that was marked as the amount of warming the earth absorb before climate change would get totally out of control

B) Anita Bryant

C) Kim Reynolds

D) Sam Alito – Alito wipes his butt with ethics rules

E) Peter Yarrow of Peter. Paul and Mary. (Noel) Paul Stookey remains

F) The landing gear. There is no heat in there and it’s cold at 40,000 feet

G) 276,000

H) the filibuster

I) Demi Moore

J) he is the head of Canada’s Conservative Party and has a good chance of winning when election is called

K) Junior Trump and his close bud Charlie Kirk

L) The far right fascist faction. His party was the National Front and his grand daughter is now heading it

M) Mike Lindell

N) Mark Zuckerberg as he ended fact checking on Facebook

O) the county sheriff

P) the guinea worm

Q) to block the $35 a month price cap on insulin (why do they want to make people suffer?)

R) RFK, jr.

S) Net Neutrality

T) Jack Smith 

The death of President Jimmy Carter as well as his very touching funeral procession quite honestly feels like a funeral for the United States, democracy and overall human decency. – Ricky Davila

Posted in #trumpresistance, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Extremes Edition