Category Archives: Weekly Updates

Making progress on human rights

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Some say all politics is local. Maybe. But it’s also important that we know what’s going on in the rest of the world.

When it comes to getting a handle on global affairs, my go-to guest for the Fallon Forum is Jeffrey Weiss. Jeffrey’s a college prof, an activist, and a life-time student of international affairs.

Between wars, human rights abuses, genocide, famine, and the nuclear threat, there’s so much global strive that it’s sometimes hard to remain positive. But when you step back and look at the bigger picture, over time, we should feel encouraged.

Jeffrey makes some good points on the progress that’s been made on human rights. Sure, we’ve still got a long way to go, and some of the current abuses show the barbaric side of the human condition. Continue Reading →

Why RFK Jr. is being excluded from the debates

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Last year, my wife, Kathy, literally fell into a rabbit hole. She was spared encounters with hookah-smoking caterpillars and creepy-smiley cats, but did wrench a knee badly.

Last week, I fell into a different kind of rabbit hole while writing this blog. I entered the conversation with this question “Why are the corporate media excluding Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the debates?”

The deeper I dug, the more I realized that the media (specifically CNN and ABC, the two debate sponsors) are less to blame for excluding Kennedy than the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and both parties’ presumptive nominee.

So, here I am on Fathers Day, rewriting a blog to go along with last week’s talk show/podcast when I should be doing what fathers do on this hallowed day: as little as possible.

As US News noted on May 16, “If there’s one thing that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump can agree on, it’s that they want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of the presidential election.” Continue Reading →

Talking with “the other side”

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I’ve heard it before and I’ll probably hear it again today: “Ed, why are you giving these right-wingers air time? Their crazy views get enough coverage already.”

I invite Republicans on my show because dialogue is important. Critical, in fact, if we are to find a way out of the divisions rending our country.

Some may recall that, in 2021, I interviewed 13 Iowans who voted for Donald Trump. The most important truth to come out of those conversations is that all of us, regardless of political affiliation, share a lot more in common than we have differences.

For sure, there are crazies in the Republican Party. In fact, the loudest voices on the right tend to be the craziest. Unfortunately, they have some pretty powerful microphones at their disposal.

One Republican I’ve had on my program is Pat Bertroche (April 2, 2021). Pat and I may disagree on some (but not all) issues, but he’s not crazy. In fact, especially on Ukraine (check out our conversation at the 20-minute mark) Pat’s quite well-informed. Continue Reading →

Second Trump presidency could usher in fascism

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You’ve probably heard of the Heritage Foundation — the far-right think-tank whose “trustees have historically included individuals affiliated with Chase Manhattan Bank, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Mobil, Pfizer, Sears and other corporations,” according to Wikipedia.

The Foundation’s latest contribution to the subversion of democracy is a 900-page corporate wet dream called “Mandate for Leadership,” known also as Project 2025. It’s a detailed guide on how the next Republican president should govern — a blue print for further consolidating wealth and power in the hands of the few.

Project 2025 is also a blueprint for full-blown fascism. Continue Reading →

Four reasons to support Melissa Vine for Congress

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The corporate-funded DC establishment has thrown its collective might behind Lanon Baccam in the Democratic primary. I’ve got nothing against Baccam. Never met him, and I’ve only recently met his opponent, Melissa Vine. But I’ll give you four quick reasons why you should support Vine:

(1) It’s insulting, undemocratic, and morally wrong for DC insiders to try to handpick winners in local elections. Not surprisingly, the candidates chosen by DC Dems tend to be cozy with big business. A vote for Vine is a vote against this increasingly pervasive corruption of the democratic process.

(2) DNC-backed Democrats usually lose in the fall. See Patty Judge and Theresa Greenfield for details. Vine is hands down the best candidate to beat Republican Zach Nunn.

(3) Baccam’s light on key issues. Vine’s solid on the things I care most about and has a compelling personal story. Ten years ago, she bailed out of an abusive marriage, lost everything, and took a job checking groceries for $8.50 an hour. After earning her master’s degree in mental health counseling, Melissa became the Executive Director at The Beacon, a nonprofit for women coming out of trauma.

(4) Finally, a vote for Vine pushes back against the absurd attack against her, orchestrated by the DCCC, a local activist, and the mainstream media (MSM). Spurious ethics complaints and outright lies were thrown at me when I ran for Congress, and I can assure you the ethics complaint against Vine is so much BS. Yet that hasn’t stopped the MSM from giving it all kinds of coverage, basically parroting Melissa’s detractors’ talking points. I challenged two MSM outlets to give equal coverage to the real scandal of DC election meddling. They declined. Continue Reading →

The conversation people avoid about Kristi Noem killing her dog

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Farm and ranch families comprise less than 2% of the US population, so most Americans might not be familiar with the rural expression “take the dog for a ride.” That’s a euphemism for “we got a bad dog and we gotta put it down.”

Common law dating back to the 1800s supports a farmer’s right to kill a dog to protect livestock. Additional state statutes allow farmers and ranchers to shoot dogs that are chasing, harassing, or attacking their livestock. That’s as it should be.

Yet the national media have pounced on Noem, some even calling her a monster. The truth is, if you’ve got a dangerous dog, especially one that has killed livestock, the responsible thing to do is to get rid of it.

Now, perhaps Noem should have taken Cricket to a shelter. It might have been adopted by someone with the skills and patience to train it. More likely, it would have been euthanized.

Bottom line: If a dog kills livestock, shooting it is an appropriate and legally defensible response. Continue Reading →

Campus protests are hugely impactful

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In my view, the campus protests are historic and will profoundly impact both policy and politics. Already, officials at three universities — Brown, Northwestern, and Minnesota — have agreed to address students’ demands to divest funds from businesses enabling Israel’s annihilation of Gaza.

This enlightened response represents a stark contrast to what’s transpired at Columbia, UCLA, and many other universities — where heavy-handed intervention by law enforcement has resulted in over 2,000 arrests.

Politically, though Democrats want me and other honest commentators to shut-up, the protests are hurting President Biden’s reelection prospects. Badly. If the administration insists on staying its course of lip-service criticism while funding the war, Biden will lose in November.

Democrats need to learn from 1968, when in response to the Party’s support for the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon was elected president in a landslide and Republicans picked up seats in both the US House and Senate.

It’s not too late for Biden to do the right thing… Continue Reading →

Addressing the housing crunch

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Last week, I cleaned our chicken coop. It was a dirty, dry, dusty deal. An intelligent person would have worn a mask. Me, I chose to land a sinus infection.

Why am I telling you this? I barely had enough voice to manage two segments of this week’s program. Thus, the other two segments are reruns: conversations about walking across the Mojave Desert, and why America needs another coast-to-coast march to address the twin perils of climate change and nuclear war.

I was glad to have architect Mark Clipsham as my guest during the first segment of this week’s program. One reason: It’s easy to get Mark to do most of the talking. That gave my voice a bit of a break.  Continue Reading →

Flawed study claims urban ag bad for planet

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Did you know that growing food in cities is more damaging to the climate than industrial farming? Six times worse, in fact!

That’s the absurd conclusion advanced in a recent study — and promoted by the mainstream media. So, city folk, quit trying to feed yourselves. You’re destroying the planet. If you gave an actual dang, you’d drive to Walmart for your trucked-in fruits, veggies, eggs, and meat.

THE STUDY. “Comparing the carbon footprints of urban and conventional agriculture” was funded by Springer Nature (more on them in a bit). It purports to compare the carbon footprints of urban agriculture and conventional agriculture.

WHAT’S “URBAN AGRICULTURE?” The study defines three types of urban agriculture: “urban farms (professionally managed, focused on food production), individual gardens (small plots managed by single gardeners) and collective gardens (communal spaces managed by groups of gardeners).”

The study examined 73 operations in the US and Europe. Apparently, only the first type is considered food production. I guess we home gardeners are just in it for entertainment.

WHAT’S A “CONVENTIONAL FARM?” Who knows! Incredibly, the authors never provide a definition. If by “conventional” they mean big and industrial, then we’re talking about all kinds of heavy machinery, tiling, confinement buildings, lots of energy to heat and cool buildings, massive lagoons for manure storage, society’s cost to clean up any messes, etc. No carbon footprint there, folks. Continue Reading →