Category Archives: Weekly Updates

RoboDog! Coming to a mega-farm near you?

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If AI wasn’t so existentially frightening, it’d occasionally be downright funny. For example: robotic dogs patrolling mega-farms.

Here’s what one of these adorable puppies looks like.

Aw. So cute. RoboDogs are being deployed at Bayer’s 8,000+ acre GMO-seed-corn operation in Hawaii to monitor wildfires, wild boars, and wild-eyed protesters.

Protesters? Not really. Even though a 2015 poll found that 70% of Hawaiins support stricter controls and mandatory labeling of GMO foods, current opposition to Bayer is focused primarily on advocacy and legal action. Continue Reading →

Wait, you mean it CAN happen here?

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This week, I found a new way to speak out against the rise of fascism – or rather, a new way found me.

Last month, John Earl Robinson with the Iowa Stage Theater Company asked me to read the lead part in a 2016 adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here — a play about America’s imagined (but frighteningly realistic) descent into fascism in the 1930s.

This past Monday, I read the part of Doremus Jessup at the Company’s first Scriptease of 2026. Jessup is a newspaper editor who at first dismisses the threat of fascism. Yet after Buz Windrip is elected President and institutes martial law, Jessup joins the opposition — and nearly gets killed. Other resistance fighters do, indeed, die. Everyone suffers. It’s not a pretty picture, though the play ends with a modicum of encouragement.

Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here in response to the spread of fascism in Europe in the 1930s, and as fascism in the US was gaining strength and momentum. Continue Reading →

If robots could vote

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(01:56) – IF ROBOTS COULD VOTE, we’d surely land our first AI president in 2028. Wait, never mind. The Tech Bros found an easier way to take over the government: pay Congress to kill efforts to regulate AI.

For fun, and because I enjoy irony, I searched “tech industry donations to Congress” and AI gave me this:

“The technology industry has heavily increased its financial influence in Washington, with top firms and executives pouring hundreds of millions into lobbying and campaign donations to shape regulations regarding artificial intelligence, antitrust issues, and data privacy. Major tech firms spent over $260 million on federal lobbying from 2020 through 2024, with spending in 2024 alone reaching $61.5 million, a 13% increase over the previous year.”

Ok, so I’ll give AI an A+ for transparency — and Congress an F for failing to place guardrails on what has truly become an existential threat. Continue Reading →

An interview with Mark Jacob, and a press release on Summit’s CO2 lies

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Mark and Jeff do a great job helping to navigate difficult conversations. Why difficult? In part because we have to call out Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller, for what he is: a full-fledged White nationalist.

Please give the show a listen. And check out Mark’s Substack, STOP THE PRESSES. He’s doing important work and we oughta help land him additional exposure.

Unrelated to this week’s program, but of great interest and concern to those of us in the upper Midwest, here’s the press release I sent out today about the Summit CO2 pipeline. Can you share it with at least one member of the media or blogiverse? (I think I made up that last word, but you know what I mean). Thanks! Continue Reading →

Randy Evans is an annoying loudmouth

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RANDY EVANS IS AN ANNOYING LOUDMOUTH
When it comes to freedom of speech, Randy Evans is perhaps Iowa’s biggest loudmouth. Furthermore, if you’re a public official operating in secret or treading on people’s First Amendment rights, Randy can be downright annoying.

Those are two of the qualities I admire about Randy, who writes a weekly column as president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. On this week’s radio show/podcast, he and I discuss two of his recent columns calling out public officials for a lack of transparency.

NEWTON VS THE FIRST AMENDMENT
In a March 30 column, Respectful or not, America enables criticism and dissent, Randy writes, “[Noah] Petersen went to two [Newton] City Council meetings in 2022 to express his frustrations during the public comment period. Despite Petersen’s calm approach, both times the mayor ordered him to be quiet, then had Petersen arrested, placed in handcuffs and led out of the council meeting…” Continue Reading →

Plant strawberries!

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In 2018, City of Des Moines staff did something bold and unique. They planted strawberries all around City Hall. Then they planted them at another city building on the east side of Des Moines, and at Gray’s Lake on the City’s south side.

Thousands of plants. Probably millions of strawberries. Hugely popular. Each year has seen more and more Des Moines residents picking, eating, and preserving.

Oh, and strawberries are an excellent ground cover — a delicious alternative to grass. They also provide pollen and nectar for bees. And the color-combo of red berries and green leaves makes it feel like Christmas in June. 

Sadly, some City officials in Des Moines are citing budget constraints as a reason not to establish new plantings, and to ignore maintenance needs at existing plantings. Continue Reading →

Building arks

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Mary Reynolds is a renowned Irish landscape designer, author, and nature activist. She advocates for re-wilding gardens, encouraging biodiversity, and returning land to its native state. She calls these places arks — nooks and crannies where life can continue to flourish despite the tumult in the world around us.

Here’s a beautiful and inspiring clip from Reynolds work that I share on this week’s program.

With so much damage being done to local ecosystems and the planet itself, Reynolds argues that creating safe spaces for plants and animals is crucial.

Kathy and I try to do that at Birds & Bees Urban Farm. We raise half the food we eat, yet leave plenty of room for wildlife to flourish in and around our space. Sure, we don’t want insects, birds, and small mammals gobbling up everything we grow. But we don’t mind sharing a bit of our chemical-free bounty with other creatures. Continue Reading →

An Irish-American’s brush with sainthood

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Kevin’s my guest during the first segment of this week’s program. We touch on the shared experience of being doused with mosquito spray by a truck, in his case, and by a helicopter, in my case — both in small towns on opposite sides of Massachusetts.

Yes, back in the day, they indiscriminately sprayed DDT! During the day! When kids were out playing! I remember feeling the sticky stuff on my skin. Kevin and his friends would actually run after the spray truck, breathing in the fumes until they felt light-headed.

It’s kind of shocking that we’re still alive.

Most of my conversation with Kevin is about his brush with sainthood as a ten-year-old boy. It’s a delightful story. Continue Reading →

Protest is not enough

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We’re going bullet-point style this week, starting with:

PEACE AND JUSTICE AWARD
For my Iowa audience, the Bishop Dingman Award Celebration is this Saturday, March 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 2926 Beaver Ave in Des Moines. This year’s award goes to Humanitarian Operations and Public Education Foundation, a non-profit focused on human rights and providing aide to Gaza. Suggested ticket price is $50. Contact catholicpeaceministry@gmail.com for details.

(RELATED: Check out my conversations with DMACC poli-sci prof Jeffrey Weiss about Iran and building a new peace movement.

THE SEAGULL
Again, if you’re in central Iowa, the Iowa Stage Theater’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull runs from March 13 – 22. Director Alex Wendel and I discuss the play’s edgy political commentary when it was first released in Russia in the late 1800s, and its relevance for the mess we find ourselves in today. Details and tickets here.
Continue Reading →

Did Trump just give up on the farm vote?

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IS TRUMP WRITING OFF FARMERS?
Back in 2018, Trump said this about farmers: “I love them, and they voted for me, and they love me. … And they said, ‘We don’t care if we get hurt, he’s doing the right thing.’”

I wonder how many farmers actually told Trump “we don’t care if we get hurt.” There’s already enough hurt in farm country.

Climate change. Floods and droughts are measurably worse than they used to be. Besides outright crop loss, climate change impacts crop and livestock viability, meaning some farmers are having to invest in new equipment, find new markets, and figure out how to deal with new pests and diseases.

Costs vs profits. Input costs are consistently higher than market prices. According to a story last month in Farm Policy News, in 2025 “production costs were more than 50% higher than in 2011, while prices farmers received were only about 21% higher.”

Bankruptcy. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, “Chapter 12 bankruptcies increased for the second year in a row, reaching 315 filings in 2025. This is a 46% increase from 2024.”

Suicide. According to the National Rural Health Association, the suicide rate among farmers is 3.5 times higher than that of the general population.

The challenges facing farmers are already overwhelming. Add to that Trump’s tariffs, his $40 billion bailout of Argentina (our second biggest competitor in the soybean market), and his 80,000 metric ton purchase of beef from Argentina, and “farmers who love Trump” is a shrinking universe. Continue Reading →