Dear Friends,
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM:
(01:45) Which does America need: a divorce or marriage counseling?, with Jeffrey Weiss;
(36:58) Small farmers are getting hurt, with Zachary Couture;
(45:13) Central Iowa water-quality study released, with John Norris;
(55:14) America’s protein obsession, with Kathy Byrnes.
First, before I tell you about the proposal by Jeffrey Weiss (in photo with me in our studio this week) to split the US into two countries, a couple plugs for my Des Moines peeps:
FRESH FOOD. Check out the LSI Global Greens Farmers Market Saturday mornings at 1907 Carpenter Ave.
WATER QUALITY. The Harkin Center kicks off public discussion of the Central Iowa Water Quality Report at Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium, Monday, August 4 at 6:00 pm. Details here.
Also, a couple quick “kudos” to politicians you would not normally expect me to be kudo-ing.
SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY. President Trump chastised Grassley for not doing his bidding on judicial nominees, calling him “weak and ineffective,” and bizarrely claiming that he “got [Grassley] re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot.“
Instead of cowering before Trump’s wrath — as politicians, the media, universities, and law firms seem inclined to do — Grassley said, “I was offended by what the President said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults.“
Trump tossing out personal insults is standard fare. It’s too bad Grassley is only now offended by it. But hey, it’s a start. Trump’s march toward a Fascist America just hit another speed bump.
REP MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: On Monday, MTG became the first Republican member of Congress to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide, writing on X, “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct. 7 in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza.“
Good for her. Maybe MTG won’t be the only Republican to call out genocide. It even sets her apart from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has never uttered the “g” word, and this week voted for additional military aid to Israel even as Israel’s military escalates its genocide against the Palestinian people.
DOES AMERICA NEED A DIVORCE? 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.”
If you’re not a regular listener and aren’t in one of the markets where the Fallon Forum airs on a community radio station, please listen to our thirty-minute conversation on this week’s podcast. Jeffrey and I would love your feedback.
Thank you for reading, listening, and speaking out.
Ed Fallon
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