Category Archives: Weekly Updates

Stopping Putin through climate action

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In a March 7 RNS column, McKibben writes, “If you want to stand with the brave people of Ukraine, you need to find a way to stand against oil and gas.

As I and others have been saying for years, a quick shift from oil and gas to renewables (and most importantly, conservation!) can and must happen quickly. The US response to Hitler proves that, when we want to, we can rapidly and radically shift our economy.

As McKibben points out, “In 1941, in Ypsilanti, the world’s largest industrial plant went up in six month’s time, and soon it was churning out a B-24 bomber every hour. A bomber is a complicated machine with more than a million parts; a wind turbine is, by contrast, relatively simple. … Do we think that it’s beyond us to quickly produce the solar panels and the batteries required to end our dependence on fossil fuel?” Continue Reading →

If Iowa Democrats lose in November, blame this

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Why do I think Democrats are headed for another train wreck? Let me take you back to 2006, when I ran for governor. Rural Iowans of all political stripes were fed up with Republicans’ unwillingness to fix the Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) problem. That issue was a key factor in Democrats winning the governor’s office that year and taking control of the Iowa House and Senate.

With a new party in charge, Iowans expected results. Voters gave Democrats four years to fix the CAFO problem. Democrats failed — miserably, in fact, arguably making the problem worse.

Today, the political landscape in Iowa is much the same. Republicans refuse to help rural Iowans threatened by 2,000 miles (yes, 2,000!) of CO2 pipelines. Once again, they’ve handed Democrats a winning issue.

And what does the leadership of the Iowa Democratic Party do? So far, it has refused to take a stand against this property-rights-trampling, public-health-menacing, faux-climate-solution greenwashing scheme. Continue Reading →

Iowa Republicans hand Democrats a golden opportunity

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Republicans just handed Democrats a winning issue: EMINENT DOMAIN! With nearly 2,000 miles of Iowa farmland in the crosshairs of three CO2 pipelines, most rural Iowans are concerned that their land could be taken by force.

The Poobahs of the Iowa Republican Party — Reynolds, Branstad, Grassley, Ernst, Rastetter — are all on board with CO2 pipelines.

What about rank-and-file Republican lawmakers? Hard to say, but it doesn’t look like legislative leaders have the guts to buck the Poobahs. Continue Reading →

Religion, politics, money, and the endless growth paradigm

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Money. Politics. Religion. Those are everyone’s top-three choices for Thanksgiving dinner conversation, right? Ok, not so much.

But maybe they should be, since each has a role to play in fueling the endless growth paradigm — which is neither physically, economically, nor spiritually sustainable.

On this week’s program, we tackle the confluence of those three forces. Mark Clipsham (architect, builder, DJ) is my in-studio guest. We’re joined by five callers who share differing and provocative perspectives. Continue Reading →

Don’t let them treat our soil like dirt

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Big-Ag and Big-Oil are behind these CO2 pipelines, and they’re making the same empty promises made by DAPL. This time, a lot more farmers and landowners aren’t falling for it.

Regarding this week’s Fallon Forum, thanks to all the listeners who called in. If you want to join us next week, we livestream the program on Monday at 4:00 p.m. CT. Here’s the flow of our conversation, with time stamps:

(1:29) MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Some Republicans like to quote King to imply he’d be against teaching about racism in the schools. Yet you never hear the same apologists use more provocative quotes from King. Leonard Pitts has an excellent column about this, and I reference it extensively in our discussion. Continue Reading →

Don’t Look Up … or down

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We humans. We’re a mischievous bunch. When one says “don’t,” our natural response is “do.”

Thus, my thinly-disguised attempt at reverse psychology WANTS you to look up … or more, specifically, to watch Don’t Look Up. More on that next week, because …

I also want you to look down … down at the 1,600 miles of Iowa farmland that could be torn apart by two proposed CO2 pipelines. Here’s the quick-and-dirty as to why the Summit and Navigator (Valero) pipelines are wrong, wrong, and wrong. Continue Reading →

The War on Christmas, and other Fox News myths

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Last week, a mentally disturbed homeless guy lit the Fox News Christmas tree on fire (fake tree, I might add). The arson wasn’t politically motivated, but that didn’t stop Fox News’ Tucker Carlson from saying, “Torching Christmas trees is an attack on Christianity, obviously. It’s an assault of religious observance. By current standard, destroying someone’s religious symbol would be called a hate crime.”

Oh, please. The War on Christmas is as phony as Fox’s tree. It’s merely a self-serving tool to advance one’s political and economic agenda.

No one has mastered that tool better than Donald Trump. Continue Reading →