Category Archives: Weekly Updates

A conversation with State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott

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During each year’s legislative session, I invite all Iowa lawmakers to come on my program. Few seem inclined. I guess I’m scary, or maybe most don’t appreciate hard-hitting questions. Maybe I smell bad. Who knows.

This week, Iowa State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott joined me in the studio. Sarah doesn’t mind tough questions, and her answers were always clear and straightforward.

In addition to being a mom, a wife, and a Lutheran minister, Sarah represents Dallas County — the fastest growing county in the state. She’s won three close races in a district previously represented by Jake Chapman, the former Republican President of the Senate, who Sarah beat in 2022.

We discuss Sarah’s priorities. She’s concerned about Republican attacks on education, including a disturbing double standard: increased oversight of public schools and very little oversight of private schools funded with public money.

We discuss eminent domain legislation, which for three years has passed the House but stalled in the Senate. With public pressure mounting, the Senate Commerce Committee agreed to take up the House’s strong eminent domain bill last month. But under the leadership of the Committee’s chair, Republican Senator Mike Bousselot, many of the bill’s protections for landowners were removed.

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Two reasons to be hopeful

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Here’s an email I received in response to last week’s program:

Ed,
I’m a Republican and Trump voter and man enough to say, “I wish I didn’t.” You are touching on some issues like fascism that have some merit. Democrats should be happy about what is going to happen in politics. Because of the idiot Trump screwing things up, the Republican Party will be shunned and our candidates rolled in the next election. Voters will finally get enough of this unprofessional loose canon who is a business disaster for America.

Such discontent isn’t an anomaly. It’s the tip of the iceberg. A mere 93 days into Trump’s second term, a small but meaningful slice of Trump voters are already experiencing buyer’s remorse. As the President’s assault on the Constitution, the economy, and decency itself continues, the number of disgruntled Trump supporters will only grow. Continue Reading →

Gulf of Iowa Topsoil

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Ok, so there’s farmers, and there’s farm managers. Being a small-is-beautiful guy, I’d rather see more farmers than farm managers. But there are big farms and there will be big farms. So there will be farm managers. What we need is for everyone involved in agriculture to embrace sustainable practices.

Last week, one of my program contributors shared a story about a farm manager who took over operation of several farms 25 years ago. The manager told farmers renting land from him that, instead of tilling in the fall, they would be required to sow cover crops.

Some farmers didn’t like that. But the farm manager tells of one farmer who hasn’t applied chemical fertilizers for eight years. His yields are the same or better than when he used chemicals. He was able to sell off some machinery that was no longer needed. His costs are less and his profits are up. Most important, his soil is being enriched instead of degraded. Continue Reading →

South Dakota deals fatal blow to CO2 pipeline

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It’s no secret that I view Donald Trump as a dangerous, narcissistic authoritarian, even as I respect my friends and acquaintances who voted for him. My question for these friends is this: Has Trump delivered what you hoped for, or has he gone off the rails in directions you hadn’t anticipated?

Take eminent domain. Trump supports it. Strongly. Years ago, he even said: “I happen to agree with it 100%. If you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and … create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.”

Trump’s willingness to take people’s property by force might explain why he hasn’t cancelled the 45Q tax credits. Without that handout, Summit Carbon Solutions’ CO2 pipeline isn’t viable. Continue Reading →

Trump says something I agree with

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In an interview on Fox News earlier this week, Trump said the country’s “greatest” threat was nuclear weapons that are “big monsters.” He went on to lament the amount of money the US has spent on its nuclear weapons program.

That’s good, right? But is it just rhetoric, as it was when President Obama flip-flopped on nuclear weapons?

Yes, sorry to have to remind you, but Obama’s record on nuclear weapons was a classic case of political hypocrisy. On April 5, 2009, in Prague he said: “Today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

Ah, hope and change. Well, that didn’t go so well. As the Federation of Atomic Scientists pointed out, at the end of Obama’s second term, “the Obama administration has reduced the U.S. stockpile less than any other post-Cold War administration.”

I share this historical reflection not to dwell on one of the broken promises of the Obama years but as a sobering reminder that many politicians often say one thing and do another. Who knew.

So, while I love what Trump said this week (and previously) about the nuclear threat, his chaotic foreign policy has several European and Asian countries pondering whether they should acquire their own nuclear weapons.

As Debak Das writes in An Unreliable America Means More Countries Want the Bomb, “While on the surface it might seem as though a warmer relationship between two of the world’s largest nuclear powers could reduce the risk of nuclear war, the opposite is true. We are on the precipice of a global turn toward nuclear instability, in which many countries will be newly incentivized to build their own arsenals, increasing the risk of nuclear use, terrorist subversion, and accidental launch.”

Bottom line, Trump’s rhetoric doesn’t match his actions. But the fact that he’s calling out the nuclear threat is a starting point. Maybe those who have his ear can push him to embrace a foreign policy that moves us toward nuclear disarmament, not deeper into the peril of a globe armed to the teeth with weapons that could end life on Earth.
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Federal spending needs a scalpel, not a chain saw

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Regarding the budget carnage in Washington, DC, here’s a few things I feel strongly about. I’m interested to know if you agree or disagree.

1. A federal budget deficit of $1.8 TRILLION is unacceptable and unsustainable. The federal government needs to end deficit spending and enact a balanced budget amendment.

2. Federal spending, especially on the military, has grown way too big.

3. There absolutely is waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal budget.

Agree, yes? Yet Elon Musk’s metaphor for addressing legitimate budgetary concerns is a chain saw. I’ve used a chain saw (on wood, to be clear). It’s not a delicate or discerning tool. Cutting federal waste, fraud, and abuse with a chain saw will eliminate much more than the fat. Americans are seeing that, and more and more are unhappy about it.

To “muskify” (my latest linguistic contribution) programs that benefit most Americans and protect our environment, national parks, water, and air might be deemed juvenile if it weren’t so devastating. Devastating as in life-and-death devastating. Continue Reading →