This is solid, progressive-prairie populism, and it has deep roots in northwest Iowa. (The 1932 Farmers’ Holiday sported this poetic slogan: “Lets call a Farmer’s Holiday, a holiday let’s hold. We’ll eat our wheat and ham and eggs, and let them eat their gold”.)
J.D.’s message is timely and resonates with most voters. Which brings me to the obvious question:
WHY ISN’T J.D.’S MESSAGE THE IOWA DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S MESSAGE!?
Continue Reading →
Dear Friends, Jeffrey Weiss, Charles Goldman, and I found plenty of stories to feel good about this week. Before I give you the detail, I need to make a quick Continue Reading →
I look at my own background as a second-generation Irish American. To quote from my dad’s short biography in reference to his parents coming to the US 100 years ago, “Anti-Irish sentiment was everywhere, exemplified most notably by the all-too-common sign, ‘No Irish Need Apply.'”
The cartoons above are instructive beyond anti-Irish discrimination. (See Flashbak for more such cartoons.) Dehumanization is key. Whether Irish, Black, Jewish (check out How Cartoons Brainwashed Us With Jewish Stereotype), or some other “undesirable” minority, haters and the power elite endow the target group with sub-human features. Make them look dirty, drunk, angry, and dangerous. Thus demonized, they become easy targets for political and economic oppression, including slavery. (Yes, hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women were forced into slavery. More on that some other time.)
The Irish have, fortunately, moved beyond being targets of racism and discrimination. No doubt, it helps to be white, and there are plenty of other groups for bigots to target. Continue Reading →
I took a break from hosting the Fallon Forum this week. Charles and Kathy filled in, with a deep dive into the recent US Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. Charles also interviewed “Patricia Longbottom,” an over-the-top parental rights advocate. (Spoiler alert: this segment is a parody.) Charles and Kathy also discuss the 14 foods you’ll need to get you through the apocalypse. (I wish I could tell you this was also a parody.)
In other news, it’s been a tragic Independence Day holiday for too many American families, with celebrations marred by gun violence. Between Friday and Wednesday, 20 people were killed and 126 injured at 22 mass shootings.
Twenty-two mass shootings in six days! Wrap your mind around that. Sorry, thoughts and prayers are not a rational response.
I could say a whole lot more about gun violence, but want to reflect on another critical aspect of American life that comes to mind during this holiday. Here’s an excerpt from my book, Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim. As always, I welcome your feedback: Continue Reading →
Not many of us could afford to drop $250,000 on a boat ride to the bottom of the sea to gawk at the wreck of the Titanic. But last week, five rich guys did just that and, sadly, perished when their submersible imploded. Taxpayers shelled out over $6.5 million (according to one source) in an unsuccessful rescue mission. I have no problem with the rescue mission, but the estates of these dudes — three millionaires, two billionaires — oughta pick up the tab.
What I have a whole lot of trouble with is what happened, by comparison, off the coast of Greece last week. Over a hundred migrants are dead and hundreds more missing after a fishing boat transporting them capsized. According to a story in The Guardian, there is “rising evidence that European authorities knew the boat was in trouble but did not intervene.”
This quote from Abdul Karim, a Pakistani shopkeeper who lost a cousin and uncle on the boat, sums it up: “It’s sad that a submarine carrying five rich people was given much more consideration, coverage and importance than the migrants on the Greek boat.”
Already this year, over 2,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean. Continue Reading →
The Iowa Supreme Court’s split decision means that abortions in Iowa will remain legal up to twenty weeks. If the ruling had gone the other way, abortion would be illegal after six weeks — before many women even know they’re pregnant!
Undaunted, Governor Reynolds said after the ruling, “We are reviewing our options in preparation for continuing the fight.”
Charles and I discuss what those options might be …
I’ll leave you with an important caveat. The extent to which Republicans have gone to undermine the freedom of pregnant women has already landed the GOP a whole lot of political baggage. They’ll certainly keep pushing for even more draconian measures, in Iowa and across the country. Some of those measures may pass, and many people, especially mothers, will be hurt.
But the powerful can only go so far in negating personal freedom before the mass of people rise up and say, “Enough!” We’re already seeing that happen, and the groundswell for a restoration of sanity on abortion policy will only continue to build. Continue Reading →
This week — our Memorial Day edition — we discuss Steve’s soon-to-be-released book, One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause.
In an era where misinformation and outright lies too often pass as facts, Steve’s book “looks at the contentious post-Civil War era from the perspective of that special breed, Union soldiers, who lived by the bayonet and survived to carry on the fight for equality in the decades to come.”
Edna Greene Medford (professor of History Emerita at Howard University) writes, “Goldman offers a compelling argument in this comprehensively researched volume that addresses ways in which certain groups of northern white Union veterans supported a ‘just’ Reconstruction that aimed to protect and extend the rights of African Americans. Of particular interest is Goldman’s discussion of the role of the members of the Veterans Reserve Corps (wounded warriors), whose political activism, especially in veterans’ organizations; Freedmen’s Bureau work; and opposition to Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction plans, countered the prevailing prejudices and racism of post-Civil War America. This is a study that will enlighten both the serious student of history as well as the general reader.” Continue Reading →
Democrats should be in panic mode about Biden’s poll numbers. The way things are going, Joe Biden is going to lose to Donald Trump in November, 2024. You probably don’t want to hear that, and I hate to say it, but I believe it’s true and a reality that needs to be confronted.
A May 7 Washington Post-ABC News poll confirms my fear. That poll found that 44% said they’d either definitely or probably vote for Trump in 2024, while 38% picked Biden. The poll also had DeSantis beating Biden, 48-41%.
Democrats ignore these numbers at their peril. But wait, it gets worse. A question on page 18 of a February, 2023, Harris Poll reads: “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his fitness for office?”
A whopping 57% of respondents had doubts about Biden’s mental fitness, and 63% said he’s too old to be president. Sure, the same questions could be — and should be — asked about Donald Trump. Regardless, the reality is voters have reservations about Biden’s mental well being, and those reservations aren’t going away. Continue Reading →
I’m a big believer in reaching across the political divide. My first guest this week, Katie O’Harra, seems to fit that bill.
Katie is a recently retired attorney for pipeline companies. You will, no doubt, be surprised to learn she doesn’t sport satanic horns and spew fire (see photo for confirmation). In fact, Katie and I agree on a wide range of concerns unrelated to pipelines.
Not surprisingly, we disagree on the use of eminent domain. Katie defends eminent domain as “a balancing of private rights and the public need,” though she agrees that “the net benefit goes to the producers who are selling and the consumers who are buying — and the people in the middle, not so much.”
And while Katie and I agree that climate change is an urgent matter, we disagree about the speed with which the problem can/must be addressed. Katie says that the company she worked for most recently “sees the writing on the wall and knows that pipelines aren’t the wave of the future.” She explains that the industry understands it has to eventually move beyond fossil fuels. Good, but I’m not convinced the industry (or its supporters within the political class) are willing to evolve at the speed science indicates is necessary. Continue Reading →
Other than a few persistent, isolated voices for peace, we mostly hear crickets. Thus the question I ask in this week’s program and have asked before: Where is the peace movement?
Forty years ago, the anti-nuclear-weapons movement was broad and vibrant. It embraced every conceivable strategy — from hammering missile silos to volunteering in campaigns of “pro-peace” candidates.
That movement accomplished a lot: The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, START, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, US-Soviet citizen-diplomacy, and much more. There are still 13,080 nuclear weapons in the world, but that’s down from over 60,000 in 1986.
Change happened, as it always does, because hundreds of thousands of people marched, spoke out, got arrested, campaigned, and made more noise than the lumbering colossus of the federal government could ignore. Continue Reading →