Theft In Broad Daylight

Posted on December 14, 2024 by Dave Bradley

Remember that presidential candidate who said he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and get away with it? Seems the same guy is planning an epic theft to take place in broad daylight. Funny that mainstream media fails to bring this up. Fortunately there are still some slices of media that are paying attention, such as Chris Hayes at MSNBC: 

(6:37)

What Hayes is telling you is something that we at BFIA warned you about prior to the election. Trump made no effort to stop his skimming and scamming throughout the campaign. He is still doing it during the transition. In short he is making it fully known that he cares little about.

Back in September we noted that  Trump was starting his own crypto company. This seemed like an almost certain step in an effort to move money from us to him under some legalese that Trump will claim is covered under the. “Get out of Jail Free” card he was given by his hand picked SCOTUS last summer.

What we said back then:     

As the media droned on and on about as supposed assassination attempt gone awry, the Trump men – DonOLD, Junior, Eric and Barron – quietly announced on X that they were jumping into the world of cryptocurrency. Considering that family’s propensity to stretch the law to its breaking point and cryptocurrency’s use to avoid money laundering and tax laws this could be their hugest scam ever.

And think how much huger it could be with the power of the presidency, the protection of immunity, a totally spineless and corrupt MAGA congress, and an extreme right wing, very corrupt SCOTUS to give approval to any laws passed by said congress or issued through executive order. Throw in that Trump recently stated that the President should have some control over the Federal reserve policy just to add to the conglomeration of power. The mind just boggles.

So not only would Trump first return to the trickle-down model with big tax cuts for the wealthy, he will then pivot to what? Manipulating the currency of the US to include cryptocurrency in which he will have a major stake. I am telling you, folks, this could be by far the biggest crime ever conceived. 

Trump moves since then seem to be calculated to set us up for the huge move to crypto. Clearing the way for Kash Patel to head the FBI where Patel will do nothing to stop the Trump crime family. Patel will be under AG Pam Bondi who is scared of Trump. 

A final hint was to put large crypto investor Elon Musk in charge of a phony “committee” that is charged with recommending spending cuts. Trump even made sure he gave a wink and a nod to Musk’s love of crypto by naming the committee after Musk’s favorite crypto coin, the DOGE. (Department of Government Efficiency). Breaking campaign laws like Musk did to buy the presidency for Trump must have a payoff.

In discussing the Trump move to crypto, Tom Sullivan on Hullabaloo talks about the Senate bill setting up the implementation of bitcoin in the US. He notes that while he doesn’t understand  bitcoins themselves he understands the rationale of the rich behind the move:

I’m neither rich enough nor libertarian enough to have invested my time in deciphering how cryptocurrency works, much less invested any of my money. But uber-rich crypto investors, Chris Hayes reports, now have a president-elect ready to backstop their funny money with public money. Even after watching his Friday night report, I still don’t understand how crypto works. But he confirms how oligarchy does.

Like much libertarian dogma, protestations by these shrugging Atlases that government stay out of the way of their Randian penis-enhancement schemes is so much Trumpian puffery. Government is not their enemy. It’s a tool of the moneyed class for making more money.

Matt Taibbi in his heyday understood this. He wrote in Griftopia (2011), “There are really two Americas.” For the grifter class, government is “a tool for making money,” while “in everybody-else land, the government is something to be avoided.”

Elon Musk invested — what other word is there for it? — over a quarter billion dollars in getting Donald Trump reelected. Now it’s time for Trump to pay dividends. Not from his own stash, of course. From America’s. “They’re just backing the truck up to the government,” Hayes warns.

As I discovered when I was very young, when a rich man has a hell of a deal for me, I grasp tightly onto my wallet and back quickly away.

Pay attention and get those letters to your senators and reps ready even if they are Republicans. Now is the time to resist.

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12 Years Ago Today: Sandy Hook

Posted on December 14, 2024 by Dave Bradley

Video of Sandy Hook survivors as they prepare to graduate high school last summer(9:10)

I am sitting here trying to come up with some meaningful phrase to try to capture the continuing enormity of what happened 12 years ago today. There is little that can be said except that like in many issues those who stand to make big bucks from the suffering of others – especially the poor and the vulnerable – often are able to exploit such a tragedy to multiply their wealth.

When we have what seems to be a transforming event those who profit from the suffering of others seem to somehow always come up with ways to forestall and sometimes even profit more from the tragedy. Or they often even profit further despite a tragedy.

Just a week ago we had an incident that high lighted what in America has become a true tragedy – how Americans are denied access to the use of their own insurance dollars for their own healthcare. Stories of denials that lead almost immediately to a patients demise have been all over the internet. 

Expect the insurance companies to follow the lead of the gun industry and keep a low profile for a while as the politicians they have bought work to lower the temperature of the nation on insurance company malfeasance.  Voila, another horrific tragedy (I mean the insurance company denials) swept under the rug with no change.

Not only will the paid shills in congress once again avoid doing anything, they will probably pick up votes from the very voters who are harmed by their action.

So here we are 12 years after the horrendous tragedy in Connecticut. The party that refuses to do a damned thing to stop the insane gun lobby has just taken over our government from stem to stern with no plans giving up their power ever.

And in 12 years death by gun is the leading killer of under-18 year olds in the US.

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Voices In The Fight For Clean Water In Iowa

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Trish Nelson

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

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

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

Substack bio:

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

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

This is an excerpt from a recent post:

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

Full story linked here.

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

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

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

Election Board Rejects 60k Ballot Challenges By GOP

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Trish Nelson

A win for democracy.

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“Defunding Public Schools Is Part of the Plan”

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Trish Nelson

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

Iowa Congressional Delegation

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

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

###

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

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

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

Reporting on Jess Piper’s remarks, Leonard writes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

###

Two good news items this week so far:

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

 

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

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

Do something nice for yourself today.

 

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Clinton: America Is Deeply Yet Closely Divided

Posted on December 10, 2024 by Trish Nelson

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

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

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

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

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

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How To Prevent A One-Party State

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Trish Nelson

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

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

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Iowa Cancer Summit Sheds Light

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Dave Bradley

On Pesticides And Cancer Risks

From Accountable Iowa

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

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

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

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

The Silent Threat: Chemicals in Every Sip and Breath

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

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

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

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

Agricultural Health Study: 30 Years of Evidence

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit the Iowa Cancer Consortium to view the research presented at the 2024 Iowa Cancer Summit, held Oct. 22 in Coralville. Also, check out past articles from Accountable Iowa on the pesticide threat and efforts by chemical conglomerates to avoid accountability here, here, and here.
Posted in Calls to Action, Farming, Iowa Legislature | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sunday Funday: The Great Resistance Edition

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Dave Bradley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M) Bitcoin passed what major milestone this week?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answers:

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

B) His son Hunter Biden

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

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

E) brain rot

F) Paris

G) 227,000

H) Dinesh D’Souza

I) “Treat every day like Christmas”

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

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

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

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

N) sex workers

O) Jacob Marley

P) Tommy Tuberville

Q) Trump

R) Higbee’s

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

T) Prohibition

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

 This is how you grind an economy to a halt.

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

It is literally the Russian playbook. – Denise Wheeler

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

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Dave Bradley

5 minutes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 minutes:

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