Dear Friends,

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL PROGRAM. Here are the segments:

(01:28) Constitutional amendment on the ballot in Iowa, with Ed Tibbetts — LISTEN
(19:37) Billion-dollar corporate handout is about politics, with Charles Goldman — LISTEN
(39:22) Trump’s taxpayer-financed self-promotion ads — LISTEN
(51:13) Momentum building to protect environment, with Kathy Byrnes — LISTEN

FORWARD PARTY
Here’s my interview with The Forward Party Podcast (click on the image, below).

My main points: (1) We need election law reform to create real opportunity for new political parties, and

(2) This year, our focus must be to help Democrats gain control of the US House and Senate to prevent Trump from establishing full-blown fascism. (And yeah, they used a pic of me from a few years back.)
AMENDMENT 1 WOULD HURT MOST IOWANS
This election, Iowa voters will find Amendment 1 on the ballot. I can’t say this on my FCC-regulated radio program, but I’ll say it here: VOTE NO!

If the amendment passes, any income tax increase would need a super majority of the state legislature to pass. As my guest, Ed Tibbetts (check out Ed’s regular column, Along the Mississippi), points out, Amendment 1 “would let just 17 state senators, or 11.3% of the 150 lawmakers in Des Moines, reject the will of the majority.”

How’s that for democracy?

Independent, non-partisan research shows that recent changes to Iowa’s tax laws have shifted more of the burden to low- and middle-income people, disproportionally benefiting Iowa’s upper crust.

Amendment 1 would make income disparity even worse. If you want to do your small part to stop Iowa’s widening income-equality gap, vote “NO” on Amendment 1.

HERE’S MY CONVERSATION WITH ED TIBBETTS.

And if you don’t think the Iowa Legislature, even under Republican control, is going to be forced to raise taxes …

STEEL PLANT STEALS FROM IOWA TAXPAYERS
I’ve been fighting corporate welfare since the last millennium. Last week, Iowans saw the mother-of-all corporate handouts: the $1.4 billion giveaway to a foreign-owned corporation to build a steel plant in southeast Iowa.

Kudos to the eight Republican senators and reps who voted “no.” I guess there aren’t a lot of true fiscal conservatives left in the party that has long-touted itself as the defender of responsible budgeting.

Bigger Kudos to Iowa Senate Democrats, all 17 of whom voted against the bill.

The Iowa House, on the other hand, showed that the Iowa Democratic Party as a whole remains clueless when it comes to standing up for people over corporate profit. Nearly half of the Democrats in the House voted for the bill.

HERE’S MY DISCUSSION OF THE BILL WITH CHARLES.

TRUMP SENT BY GOD, AND OTHER CRAZY TALK
If you haven’t seen any of the taxpayer-funded ads praising Trump and condemning dissenters as communists, socialists, and Marxists, well, maybe you don’t want to.

But if you’re among the shrinking universe of Americans who aren’t convinced that Trump is deranged, at least check out the GOD MADE TRUMP ad.

And if you’re not yet involved in the upcoming election, do it. America needs all hands on deck helping good candidates win by big margins — margins that can’t be corrupted by Trump’s team of anti-democracy thugs. For my part, I’m knocking doors for Sarah Trone Garriott.

Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action. And if you’re a central Iowa resident, remember to support the local businesses and nonprofits that help underwrite this platform.

Ed Fallon

*******

In addition to our PODCAST, listen to the Fallon Forum on these affiliates:

– KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames, Iowa)
– KICI.LP 105.3 FM (Iowa City, Iowa)
– WHIV 102.3 FM (New Orleans, Louisiana)
– KPIP-LP, 94.7 FM (Fayette, Missouri)
– KCEI 90.1 FM (Taos, New Mexico)
– WGOT-LP 100.1 FM (Gainesville, Florida)
– KRFP 90.3 FM (Moscow, Idaho)
– WGRN 94.1 FM (Columbus, Ohio)
— WJLQ 99.7 FM (Muskegon, Michigan)
— WRWK 93.9 FM (Midlothian, Virginia)
— WDRT 91.9 FM (Viroqua, Wisconsin)