Category Archives: Weekly Updates

Birds & Bees Urban Farm Harvest Party

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THE COOLED AND THE COOKED. Jeff Goodell writes about the two camps Americans split into during hotter and hotter summers.

The cooled spend most of their days in air-conditioning, while the cooked either don’t have the luxury of AC or work as delivery drivers, farm workers, roofers, and road crews, to name a few of the toughest hot-weather jobs.

Some of these jobs come with scant legal protection. Migrant workers, for example, even those here legally, are afforded little protection in high heat. In fact, farmworkers are up to 35 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than workers in other industries.

To quote Goodell: “It is symptomatic of the larger injustice of the climate crisis, which is that the people who have done the least to cause it are the ones who will suffer the most from its impacts.”

ZUCK AIN’T A GREAT NEIGHBOR. Speaking of those contributing most to climate chaos, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has purchased a cluster of 11 homes in Palo Alto, California. His neighbors refer to the place as a “compound,” and find the construction noise almost unbearable. Some neighbors say they feel they’re under an occupation. Continue Reading →

America’s nuclear test victims

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Sadly, here’s something on which nearly all of us can agree: Our government lies.

One of the most egregious lies came into renewed focus last month when the Republican Congress did something I support., approving compensation for Idahoans poisoned by above-ground nuclear tests detonated in Nevada between 1951 and 1962.

Americans have been lied to by our federal government so often it’s easy to understand why people don’t trust politicians. The lie I want to talk about today (and during the first segment of this week’s radio show and podcast) happened during and after America’s first nuclear test, called Trinity, denoted on July 16, 1945, in central New Mexico. Continue Reading →

A deep dive into the genocide in Gaza, with Maria Reveiz

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If Democrats running for Congress hope to win in 2026, they MUST take a strong stand against Israel’s attempted genocide.

Here’s a bit of our dialogue:

MARIA: I have so much rage inside of me. I’m less angry at the Republican Party because I never expected anything from them. In fact, I’m slightly optimistic with what I hear from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

[After Greene called Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee attacked her. Greene’s response, again to her credit, was to say, “AIPAC needs to register as a foreign lobbyist because they’re breaking US laws by donating to members of Congress and taking them on a fully funded trip to Israel.”]

ME: Are there any Democrats in Congress who’ve called what’s happening in Gaza a genocide?

MARIA: Only Rep. Rashida Tlaib. I feel so personally betrayed by the Democratic Party. You saw how active I was. I went to every presidential candidate and talked about Gaza. I hosted Democratic candidates at my venue, and even let them have functions for free. Continue Reading →

The journey of one thread of plastic from your washing machine to your dinner

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The Guardian is one of the few mainstream news sources I almost always appreciate. I was particularly impressed by The Guardian’s recent account of how a thread of microplastic finds its way from your washing machine to your dinner. The story is clever, informative, and deeply disturbing. Read the full story here, and/or check out these key quotes from the story:

The story starts with a single thread of polyester, dislodged from the weave of a cheap, pink acrylic jumper [i.e., sweater] as it spins around a washing machine. This load of washing will shed hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fragments and threads.

Along with billions of other microscopic, synthetic fibres, our thread travels through household wastewater pipes. Often, it ends up as sewage sludge, being spread on a farmer’s field to help crops grow.

Spread on the fields as water or sludge, our tiny fibre weaves its way into the fabric of soil ecosystems. A worm living under a wheat field burrows its way through the soil, mistaking the thread for a bit of old leaf or root. Continue Reading →

Does America need a divorce, or just marriage counseling?

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Des Moines Area Community College poli-sci prof, Jeffrey Weiss, thinks so. He’s written a piece called We the people, to dissolve an imperfect union, grant a divorce to the United States of America. You oughta read it.

Weiss also makes his case on this week’s Fallon Forum. We discuss dividing the country along the Mississippi River — Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other. I ask tough questions like, “Who gets the nuclear weapons?” and “Won’t it just devolve into another violent civil war?”

Really, someone oughta organize a debate for us.

I’m not for divorce. I’m for marriage counseling. Let’s talk through our differences and brainstorm solutions. I believe that most Americans want to persevere and continue this grand experiment to build a more perfect melting pot of freedom, justice, and democracy. (I know, we still have a long, long way to go.)

As Kathy said to me after we recorded the program, “When a relationship is so bad that one party recommends ending it, both parties might suddenly wake up to the reality that splitting up would be harder than taking steps to make up.” Continue Reading →

My lunch with two Zionist friends

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Which brings me to last week’s conversation with two friends I’ve known for 25 years. Mostly, we dwelt on shared experiences. Biking. Art. Music. Climate change. Urban sprawl.

The conversation unexpectedly veered to Gaza. I was blown away when my friends asserted that they are Zionists. And that launched a very uncomfortable discussion.

Every time I brought up the horrors of what Israel is doing in Gaza, they deflected to the hostages.

Every time Kathy or I shared facts presented by most media, facts verified by video and first-hand accounts, they refused to accept the legitimacy of those sources.

One even accused the UN of culpability in Hamas’ horrific attack on October 7, 2023.

They regarded any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism, which I resented. I didn’t earn a degree in religious studies, learn to read the Bible in Hebrew, and spend two weeks in Israel years ago to be labeled “anti-semitic.” Continue Reading →

Tom Harkin is right about Iowa’s water quality problem

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Iowa’s water is so bad it should be the top issue in the next election. We’ve known about the crisis for years, but state and federal officials have done nothing. As a result, Iowa’s water quality is now worse than ever.

That fact is evidenced by a comprehensive report just released by Polk County government, Currents of Change.

What’s contaminating our water? Fertilizer and manure runoff are the primary culprits. High levels of nitrates and other toxins are making people sick, and literally killing some of us.

Iowa has the second highest rate of cancer in the nation.

Des Moines operates one of the most expensive nitrate removal systems in the world, at a cost to residents of $10,000 per day. Beyond the cost, people are rightfully concerned about the system’s capacity to bring nitrate concentrations down to the federal level — a level some experts feel is too high. Continue Reading →

My take-aways from Trump’s July 3 rally in Des Moines

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I went to last week’s Trump rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds to (1) hear first-hand what the President had to say, (2) interview rally attendees, and (3) check out the counter protest.

Last things first, between 50 and 100 protesters showed up. Many conveyed important messages. A few were counterproductive, like the woman who yelled “racist” at everyone (including me) entering the venue.
 
Once inside, I spoke with five Trump supporters, two who agreed to be interviewed. My summary of those conversations is at 5:15 of this week’s program.

Here are my takeaways from the rally:

TRUMP IS FUNNY. Humor is part of what endears Trump to his base. Objectively, while it’s not brilliant comedy, Trump is indeed sometimes humorous. Continue Reading →

“The enemy” is sometimes right

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First off, regarding the title of this message, I don’t see the world in terms of enemies and allies. Thus the quotation marks. Sure, there are hard-core evil-doers who pock-mark the annuls of history with their wickedry. Adolf Hitler. Vlad the Impaler. Oliver Cromwell. The Zodiac Killer. Jack the Ripper. That’s the tip of the ne’er-do-well iceberg, the sordid sliver of humanoids the world would have been better without.

But of the estimated 117 billion people that have, at some point, called Earth home, most have been decent, reasonable, and good. Granted, that’s an opinion, not a fact. But it’s an opinion I’ll back-up with 67 years of personal experience. 

This week was, for me, a reminder that there aren’t too many people in today’s world who I’m willing to tag as “the enemy.” (I do put Donald Trump in that category, with apologies to my friends who voted for him. If history proves me wrong, I’ll apologize.)

I use the term “enemy” lightly because, as this week demonstrated, politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. Here are some of the Republican voices I’m finding common ground with this week, in response to President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran and the threat of nuclear war:
Continue Reading →