Month: March 2023

Solutions to Iowa’s “red-state” problem

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I first met Dennis Kucinich in 2003 when he ran for president. Unlike most politicians, when Dennis took a position on an issue, you knew exactly where he stood. There was no equivocation, no weighing of political nuances, no corporate donors to appease. Refreshing and, alas, rare.

I hope you’ll listen to my discussion with Dennis, which covers the sorry state of the Democratic Party, the Biden administration’s misguided foreign policy, and how “free” trade treaties have eroded the economic foundation of our country.

Here’s a quote from my interview with Dennis: “The Democratic Party used to stand for the small farmers trying to resist monopolies. Now you have agribusinesses that don’t give a damn about the soil, and we see taxpayers’ money helping facilitate the destruction of millions of acres of farmland to create shopping malls for the purpose of marketing goods from China.”
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America needs a new peace movement

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Other than a few persistent, isolated voices for peace, we mostly hear crickets. Thus the question I ask in this week’s program and have asked before: Where is the peace movement?

Forty years ago, the anti-nuclear-weapons movement was broad and vibrant. It embraced every conceivable strategy — from hammering missile silos to volunteering in campaigns of “pro-peace” candidates.

That movement accomplished a lot: The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, START, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, US-Soviet citizen-diplomacy, and much more. There are still 13,080 nuclear weapons in the world, but that’s down from over 60,000 in 1986.

Change happened, as it always does, because hundreds of thousands of people marched, spoke out, got arrested, campaigned, and made more noise than the lumbering colossus of the federal government could ignore. Continue Reading →

My St. Pat’s Day reflection on fairies and fracking

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Stopping the abuse of eminent domain has become the defining issue in Iowa this year. A recent Des Moines Register poll found 78% of Iowans across the political spectrum oppose using eminent domain to build CO2 pipelines. That’s an astounding preponderance of opinion on one side of a very important issue.

Seventy-eight percent oughta be way more than enough to compel politicians to take action. To quote Senator Zaun from our conversation, “If Republicans don’t protect property rights, they’ll be on the road to being in the minority.”

Zaun believes the House and Senate will pass eminent domain legislation this year. That’s encouraging. Still, it’s remarkable that Senate Republicans were unable to push an eminent domain bill through committee before last week’s “funnel.” At least a promising bill is alive in the House, though it may take every ounce of public pressure and political courage to pass it.

I believe Zaun is correct when he says that if Republicans don’t rein in the abuse of eminent domain, they’ll probably lose seats in 2024. Continue Reading →

Why going vegan won’t solve climate change

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Veganism. I have nothing against it, nor any other diet, for that matter. Raw. Paleo. Carnivore. Breatharian. Bring it on. It’s your call. Why? Because I believe in freedom (unlike the Republican majorities at the Iowa Statehouse, it seems).

What I have trouble with is the occasional “vegangelical” who calls me a climate hypocrite because my Locavore diet includes meat. Even my favorite mouthpiece of the Mainstream Media, The Guardian, has an entirely lopsided take on the role of animals in agriculture and dining.

The main problem is that many vegan and vegetarian arguments against meat lump large-scale industrial production in with sustainable alternatives. That’s unfair, disingenuous, and actually harmful. Continue Reading →