Now what? Five things you can work on immediately.

After Tuesday’s election, a whole lot of Americans are fretting, even afraid. Understandably. What will Trump do to immigrants? Women? Journalists? Activists? College professors?

Trump’s revenge-tour list could be quite long.

I like what Bill McKibben wrote this week: “Can things get worse? I think they can, and I think we will find out, here and around the world. But I don’t think it will last either, because the promises on which this new MAGA order are built are mostly nonsense.”

That’s the mix of honesty and optimism we need. In the coming weeks and months, my talk-show guests and I will have a lot to say about the risks that lie ahead — and what we can do to address them.

The question I’d like to address today is, regardless of where a Trump presidency might take us, what can we do right now to protect ourselves and strengthen our communities?

Here are five positive things I challenge each of us to do to build resilience as we move forward toward an uncertain future. Continue Reading →

“You’re probably getting screwed”

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 →