Dear Friends,

This weekend, I attended a most incredible, eclectic gathering of around 2,000 farmers, rednecks and environmentalists. People arrived via pick-up truck, Prius and Harley. They came to support Lee County landowners fighting to stop the Bakken pipeline. If one needed a reminder that the passion for liberty and justice still burns strong in America, this was it. I’ll save that story for next week, when we’ll have some video clips and photos to share.

Over the weekend, a new Iowa Poll showed Hillary Clinton’s lead over Bernie Sanders had shrunk to a mere seven percentage points in the Iowa Democratic Caucus. On the Republican side, two non-politicians – Donald Trump and Ben Carson – lead the other 15 candidates by ten percentage points!

Of course, the mainstream media and the political elite mostly miss the essential message that these polls reveal: Across the political spectrum, people are fed-up with establishment politicians.

Really? Who knew? Aren’t we all just thrilled with the way things are going in Washington, at our Statehouses and at City Hall? We’re not the least bit upset that the richest Americans are hoarding more and more of the wealth we toil to generate. No one’s bothered by the bloated military budget and the larger and larger chunk of our tax dollars it eats up. Folks are fine with our government spying on us like never before. We’ve got no complaints about politicians fiddling while climate change scorches the southwest and threatens to drown most of Florida. And we’re all fine with the obscene amount of money in elections – and the onslaught of attack ads that comes with it.

Enough sarcasm for one morning. The message to the Political and Corporate Elite is this: You have failed. We’re at the end of our rope, and we’re ready to shake up the political universe. We’ll express our dislike of your business-as-usual candidates through our enthusiasm for presidential aspirants with zero political experience (Trump and Carson) and a candidate who, despite years of political experience, has always been an outsider and consistent voice for reform (Sanders).

Will the Establishment hear? Or will they continue to believe that the masses can be satiated with another sliver of cake when they’re starved for steak?

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Dr. Charles Goldman joins me on today’s Fallon Forum. We’ll discuss the Sanders-Trump-Carson phenomenon, the likelihood of Joe Biden entering the race, Jeb Bush’s immigration problem as a result of his “anchor babies” comment, and the Hillary Clinton event in Ankeny last week.

Also, it’s the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s visit to New Orleans, prompting President Obama to stop by there last week. We talk with Liana Elliott, a New Orleans policy analyst and urban planner. Was the devastation to New Orleans caused by a monster storm, or was it the direct result of not being prepared for a changing environment, of corporate disregard for the environment, institutionalized inequality and chronic lack of investment in public infrastructure?

Also, wind energy continues to surge, with the CEO of MidAmerican Energy recently asserting that when its latest renewable energy project comes on line, the company could generate up to 57 percent of its power from wind. But as wind surges, so does resistance – not just from the fossil-fuel industry but from farmers, landowners and rural residents as well.

Join us live every Monday from 11:00-12:00 noon CDT on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday on KPVL 89.1 FM (Postville) at 7:00 p.m. Podcasts available, too.

Thanks! – Ed Fallon