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 →

Biden will lose if he fails to stop the genocide in Gaza

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Given the Israeli military’s atrocities against a civilian population and the mounting presence of widespread starvation, why won’t President Biden freeze military aid to Gaza? Great question. Let’s dig into it.

First, just how bad are things? Dr. Fozia Alvi, a Canadian physician who’s treated Palestinian children in southern Gaza, said, “This is not a normal war. The war in Ukraine has killed 500 kids in two years and the war in Gaza has killed over 10,000 in less than five months. We have seen wars before but this is something that is a dark stain on our shared humanity.”

On March 18, an Oxfam official reported that “the catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation in Gaza are the highest ever recorded in terms of number of people and percentage of the population.”

These horrifying truths make the words of Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) even more appalling: “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.” Continue Reading →

Repealing hard-earned rights: How far will Republicans go?

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It’s heart-wrenching to see the governor and Republican lawmakers target the LGBTQ community with a barrage of hurtful legislative proposals — some blatantly biased, others more subtle. It’s encouraging to see most Democrats, some Republicans, and a lot of rank-and-file Iowans speak out against these proposals.

One such bill just signed by Governor Reynolds is the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Really? Show me where there’s been a loss of religious freedom in America. I’m waiting. Tap, tap, tap.

So, what’s this bill really about?

As Heather Matson (D-Ankeny) points out, the bill “weaponizes religious beliefs to justify discrimination.”

No doubt. My deeper concern is that this bill, and others of its ilk, are part of an effort to establish a theocracy in America. Nothing could be more antithetical to the founding principles of our country than a government of, by, and for “the church” — meaning the narrowest, most biased interpretation of what it means to be Christian.
Continue Reading →

Republican hypocrisy on local control

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One blatant lie that has persisted for decades is that Republicans support local control. Even a casual glance at the track record makes it clear Republicans only support local control when it aligns with their big-business/Christian-nationalist agenda.

That’s why, in the 1990s, when Iowa City required lawn care companies to inform neighboring properties in advance of a chemical application, Republicans rushed to defend the chemical industry by passing a bill taking away this right.

That’s why, also in the 1990s, when big national mobile home companies complained about cities requiring parks to build a storm shelter, Republicans passed a bill stopping them — immediately after a tornado killed eleven people in a mobile home park in Oklahoma City.

Maybe an Iowa county or city wants to ban plastic bags, as over 500 cities across the US have done? Too bad. In 2017, then-governor Branstad signed legislation outlawing it.

That same year, after four Iowa counties enacted living wage ordinances, Republican lawmakers came to the aid of big business and took away a city or county’s authority to do so.

Managing erosion from construction sites. Siting of hog confinements. Use of traffic cameras. Where fireworks can be sold. How libraries are funded. These are just a few of the many, many local government functions that Iowa Republican lawmakers have struck down or proposed to strike down. Continue Reading →