Tag Archives: Mark Clipsham

My presidential prediction(s), with an apology to democracy

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My guest, Dijana Mihajlović, lived the first half of her life in Serbia, before moving to Des Moines as a high school student. Her experience as a child watching the rise and fall of a dictator, Slobodan Milošević, gives her a unique perspective on the current threat of authoritarianism in the US. Besides her work as a mother and architect, Di calls herself “a fierce defender of democracy and true freedoms.”

Nobody likes my election predictions. Heck, I don’t like my election predictions. But tis better to be honest than to give false hope. On today’s program at 38:44, I explore three scenarios for how the presidential election might unfold.

First though, I need to say this: More than ever, this election is about turnout. Really big turnout. Especially in swing states. That’s Kamala Harris’ only possible path to victory. So, before I lay out the three scenarios, here’s my ask:

Contact five people you know in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Ask each to contact three other marginal voters and ask them to support Harris. Continue Reading →

Property insurance in the New Climate Era

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Ccheck out my discussion with Mark Clipsham about a little-recognized climate victim: insurance companies.

Should we cry a river for them? Nah. They’re finding a pathway through the huge claims that come with more frequent and more intense climate catastrophes. Of course, that pathway includes sticking you with more expensive policies and higher deductibles.

Mark can’t offer advice on how to navigate the choppy waters of an evolving property-insurance universe. But what he can offer is decades of experience on how to build stronger, more climate-resilient structures. 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 →

A better way to get around

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Architect Mark Clipsham joins me for the first half of the program. Among other angles of sustainability, Mark discusses transportation options to the present car- and plane-dominated system.I’ve posted a set of images Mark shared with me on the Fallon Forum Facebook Page. I  hope you’ll check those out, along with this week’s program.

Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action! Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action! And many thanks to the local small businesses, non-profits, and individual donors who help make this program possible. If you’d like to pitch in, contact me at ed@fallonforum.com. Continue Reading →

Water and the Endless Growth Economy

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As reported in Axios Des Moines this week, Microsoft’s West Des Moines data centers consume 11.5 million gallons of water for cooling each month! Globally, Microsoft’s water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 to nearly 1.7 billion gallons.

Sidebar: For all you lovers of the “free” market, Microsoft has received $219,785,484 in taxpayer handouts for seven Iowa projects, according to Subsidy Tracker. Corporate socialism is alive and well in the US heartland!

What’s not alive and well is intelligent planning, which Mark Clipsham (pictured above) and I discuss this week. Running out of water may be what finally shakes the most staunch US capitalist (and the most hard-line Chinese communist) out of their stupor, compelling them to admit that the limits of growth have been surpassed.

We need to say it over and over again: the Endless Growth Economy is a failure. The “grow or “die” mentality is a lie. Billionaires must be abolished. Comfortable citizens of affluent nations must learn to live with less — and perhaps even discover they’re happier. Global population must plateau and eventually decline. We need to replace GNP with something like HDI (Human Development Index) — a tool developed by the UN to measure a nation’s well being beyond just economic growth. Continue Reading →

Beyond Woke

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Peter Lumsdaine with Physicians for Social Responsibility recently visited Ukraine. His first-hand perspective from that trip is well worth listening to. One thing I learned from our conversation is that there is a Ukrainian peace movement.

Regarding “woke,” the claim to wokeness is a form of virtue signaling, i.e., “I understand what’s going on, you don’t, so I’ll use my superior status to bludgeon you. Oh, and while we’re at it, you’re canceled.”

That’s pretty counterproductive. And it ignores the reality that some of us have been aware of (and working to fix) such problems for decades. Furthermore, visionary women and men of past generations were “woke” to injustice and fought against it in a far more hostile environment.

Of course, the Right’s intentional misrepresentation of “woke” is even more problematic — and also used as a bludgeon. Just listen to Ron DeSantis talk for five minutes about any subject, and if he doesn’t mention “woke,” it’ll be a rare occurrence.

My two-part solution? Part One: Push back against the radical-right by cutting to the chase. … Continue Reading →

Trump’s arrest could backfire on Democrats

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Like Trump’s followers who compare him to Jesus, Mark and I couldn’t help but notice the irony of Trump being arrested during Holy Week.

Yes, as offensive as it is, the frequency of Trump-Jesus references is astounding. There’s this tweet by attorney Joseph McBride: “President Trump will be arrested during Lent—a time of suffering and purification for the followers of Jesus Christ. As Christ was crucified, and then rose again on the 3rd day, so too will Trump.”

My view on Trump? He’s an unstable, power-hungry narcissist with an unprecedented disdain for civility and honesty. Do I agree he should be prosecuted for his crimes? Absolutely.

Yet legal action against Trump may have unfortunate consequences. Last year, I stated that bringing Trump to trial would help solidify his support among Republican primary voters. That’s happening, and the way things are going, Trump is almost certain to win the nomination.

That makes Democratic strategists giddy. They think another Trump-Biden showdown assures Biden of a second term. Yet that analysis is deeply flawed.
Continue Reading →

Canceling Gandhi

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This week marks the 75th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, who in recent years has joined the legions of leaders lesser minds love to cancel. 

Yes, move over George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln. Make room for the Indian who toppled the British Empire. Make sure you ignore the big picture and only focus on what you consider his shortcomings.

To be clear, there are politicians and celebrities who do dumb, hurtful, or even illegal things. They absolutely need to be called-out and held accountable.

But cancelling the dead because they don’t stand up to modern standards? Continue Reading →

Why Biden and the DNC killed the Caucuses

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Democrats across the US are celebrating the demise of the Iowa Caucuses. That’s unfortunate, because the passing of the Iowa Caucuses is a huge loss to democracy. And President Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) are to blame.

Iowa has never gone well for Biden. In 1988, Biden polled poorly even before dropping out after he got caught plagiarizing Neil Kinnock. In 2008, Biden finished fifth in Iowa. In 2020, fourth. Ouch.

It’s no surprise that Biden would love to never have to campaign in Iowa again. He made that clear at a 2019 forum when he said to me and others in attendance, “All you guys in Iowa are pains in the neck, you know that?”

Continue Reading →

Marijuana: Legalize it!

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During my 38 years as a politician and activist, I’ve frequently been out of step with mainstream opinion on controversial issues. One of those is cannabis. After meeting Carl Olsen in 1992 during my first legislative campaign, I agreed to help push legislation to legalize marijuana.

Carl’s my guest on the first segment of this week’s program — and a veritable encyclopedia of weed wisdom. Carl has spent his adult life pushing to decriminalize marijuana. He understands the ins and outs of federal and state drug policy better than anyone I know.

With Carl’s guidance, in 1993 I was one of ten House members — nine Democrats and one Republican — who introduced HF 404. That bill would have authorized the lawful possession of marijuana for therapeutic purposes. Not surprisingly, in the Republican-controlled Iowa House, it went nowhere. Continue Reading →