Categories
Living in Society

Progressive AI

Toolbox.
Toolbox.

Joe Trippi’s 2004 work to mine the internet and empower supporters of the Howard Dean campaign was revolutionary. As he described it, it was an “open-source revolution” that went beyond the dissemination of campaign messages. Using Meetup.com, blogs, and other media, he turned hundreds of thousands of volunteers into decentralized, self-organizing activists who powered fundraising and local organizing — like a “virtual mid-size city.” It was something to see in real time.

Since then, there have been two distinct iterations in the use of information technology in campaigns. The first was the Republican Party’s use of Cambridge Analytica to microtarget individual voters during the 2016 Trump campaign. While the success of this operation continues to be debated — and how it worked was not transparent — it was a compelling idea for moving beyond bulk messaging that delivers identical messages regardless of individual differences. What made it a game changer was that voter persuasion could be individualized at scale. On the darker side, Cambridge Analytica announced it was shutting down and filing for insolvency in May 2018. The closure was a direct result of intense media scrutiny, investigations, and the loss of clients following the March 2018 revelations that it misused data from up to 87 million Facebook users.

That progressives need to catch up with Republicans in the use of technology seems evident. This challenge is complicated by the advent of readily available, yet still unproven, artificial intelligence technologies like Claude, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini.

Today, it isn’t entirely clear how artificial intelligence will be used in campaigns. We do know a few things. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders recently sat for an interview with Anthropic’s Claude. (Click here for a clip from that conversation, which exposes some of the motivations for collecting data from internet users.) We also know we need to balance ethical safeguards on AI with innovation in tools that could benefit progressive causes. Finally, misinformation and AI-generated propaganda could undermine democratic processes. What do we do?

What we can’t do is stick our collective progressive heads in the sand. I can’t count how many people I’ve heard say something like, “AI uses too much energy, so I won’t use it.” Two things about this. First, privacy issues are more important than energy use. Second, energy use compared to what?

In her new book, Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers, author Hannah Ritchie writes, “Data centers currently use only a few percent of the world’s electricity. The big question, though, is whether this will explode with the rise of AI. Probably not.” She discusses a Pareto-style analysis that points to the true energy hogs. Not surprisingly, these are industry, buildings, electric vehicles, air conditioning, and heating, with data centers eighth on the list at around 1-3 percent of consumption. At a minimum, progressives need to stop hyping unknown energy scenarios and instead resolve issues around privacy (Senator Sanders has a bill) while pressuring Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic to meet their corporate climate goals.

Dealing in facts, not hyperbole, is always good advice.

AI is imperfect and no substitute for grassroots knowledge about campaigns and the real voters who will participate in elections. While the database of personal profiles AI draws upon is vast, the granular knowledge that a political activist in a specific race possesses is more relevant to an individual’s potential behavior than AI ever will be.

Like other technologies, AI is a tool that belongs in campaign toolboxes. It is an extension of what Joe Trippi did so long ago — and it is worth learning about instead of shunning.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Leeks and Onions

Brush fire.
Brush fire.

The next step in the garden is planting onions and leeks. It began Wednesday with burning brush on the plot where they are planned. The weather has been funky, with rain one day, cool ambient temperatures the next, and an 80+ degree day thrown in for good measure. I work in a t-shirt in 45 degree weather, but don’t stay at it for long.

If leeks grow successfully there will be a bumper crop. They are great for soup and freeze well if there are extra. I bought started plants this year, so there is a good chance for a harvest. Onions have been hit or miss for me, although any that grow will find a place in our meals.

Kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, and chard are getting big enough to go into the ground. The plot where they will be planted has desiccated fox tail which needs burning off. It was too windy for that on Wednesday, yet I cleared all the fencing and fabric so the burn would be clean when it happens.

Garlic is up and I crawled through the rows to make sure the sprouts that were not pushing through the mulch were exposed to sunlight. That was not a big job, yet important to having a full crop. Only one or two cloves did not sprout. Perhaps half a dozen had trouble pushing through the matted grass clippings.

Some volunteer garlic sprouted and I used it in making taco filling Tuesday night. There is another bunch and I’m waiting for the right dish to use it.

The two new apple trees are getting big enough I removed the caged and pruned them. It looks like there will be a decent crop on one, and it’s too early to tel on the other. The remaining three legacy trees are in their off-year in 2026. That’s okay because I put up plenty of apple products when fruit was in abundance last year. The pear tree will have blooms again this year. We mostly eat those fresh.

I was fussing around with the extra dirt around the potato tubs. I left it piled up to use in hilling the potatoes once they poke through the surface of the soil and grow a few inches.This year I am going strictly by the book in hope of bigger spuds.

A hill of ants appeared yesterday in the yard. One of them got inside last night, so the problem continues. If we kill them all, they eventually subside. We don’t like using poisons in the kitchen.

On April 1, it’s no joke there is a lot of garden work to do. I keep at it daily in hope of having a crop.

Categories
Living in Society

Meet and Greet

Jessica Andino, Jon Green, and Janet Godwin address Solon Area Democrats at a March 28, 2026, meet and greet at the Solon Public Library.

After talking with the three candidates for Johnson County Supervisor in District 2, I decided to support Jon Green in the June 2 Democratic primary. All three would make great supervisors, but Jon, the incumbent, is the person who worked to gain consensus among board members on building a new jail. That was difficult work, and I support his re-election so he can finish it.

It’s no more complicated than that.

The Republican in this race is Phil Hemingway. When I was covering Iowa City Community School District board meetings for the North Liberty Leader, I listened to him ask questions — often multiple ones at each board meeting. He was engaged and once won election to the school board.

I looked at historical voting numbers in the precincts that make up new District 2, and the votes are there to defeat Hemingway resoundingly in his sixth bid for supervisor — badly enough that he will never run for this office again. That would free him to return to automotive work until he retires.

I am working for Green to win the primary. If he doesn’t, whoever does will have my full support.

Categories
Living in Society

After A Storm

Moon setting after a thunderstorm.

Thunder and lightning woke me early Tuesday morning. We needed the rain and could use more. When I went for my daily walk a few hours later, the driveway was almost dry. The ground just soaked the water up, wanting more.

The next county over is experiencing drought conditions, noting one of the drier starts of a year. 51.8% of the state is experiencing moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. I’m not a climatologist yet I would say this is the new normal.

Fields and pastures where I travel in Eastern Iowa show the strain of limited moisture. Some corn is planted and just emerging. Subsoil moisture, built during wetter seasons, can carry the plants only so far before they begin to show stress. What matters most in the growing cycle is not just whether it rains, but when. If heat and dry conditions settle in during July pollination, the crop has little margin for error. Today, we notice how quickly ponds and ditches recede after a decent rain. In many years, a single well-timed rain can bolster a crop. In others, storms miss us, and that absence becomes the story.

Lawns are beginning to green up after losing color over the winter. Garden soil remains pliable, yet hardens between rains and watering. We simply hope the next storm will stay longer than the last.

That I see such patterns, repeated over multiple seasons, is part of a broader conversation about climate change. While our current dry conditions can be attributed to natural variability, the increasing frequency of such conditions aligns with projections of more erratic precipitation and warmer temperatures. Drought cycles persist, making recovery more uncertain.

I remember the 2012 drought and how it negatively impacted corn yields. Luckily, soybeans had time to recover. In July, I attended a meeting with the governor and farm groups and came away with this conclusion:

Whether it was acknowledged or not, today’s meeting of farmers, citizens, elected officials, bureaucrats, media and advocates is what climate change looks like. Grown men and women who have invested a lifetime in doing what they think is right, facing the existential reality of a changing climate.

It is unclear whether an extended drought will take place this year. It depends upon soil moisture going in, weather timing, and heat. What I can say with some certainty is I’m glad it rained Tuesday morning and hope we have more. So much depends upon it.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Last of the Apples

Last six apples from 2025 season in the refrigerator.

Sunday I finished reading A Basket of Apples: Recipes and Paintings from a Country Orchard by Val Archer. I wrote a brief review: “The paintings are gorgeous. The recipes very British, heavy on dairy and animal flesh. If you cook like that, give it a go!”

Planting apple trees on our lot in 1996 was a defining moment in my life. I remember the family gathering at our house after my mother-in-law’s funeral, then leaving for Ames with my father-in-law while I stayed behind to plant the orchard before joining them. Over the years, some trees were lost to windstorms and a derecho, but three of the original six still produce. Today, the pantry is full of apple cider vinegar, dried apples, applesauce and apple butter… plus these six fresh apples.

At a political event on Saturday, a long-time friend arrived with a car emblazoned with promotions of veganism. It got me thinking about why I settled on being ovo-lacto vegetarian. Sunday night our household had a conversation about that and I reached some conclusions:

  • I won’t give up butter but can limit myself to one tablespoon per day, and some days have none.
  • There is no reason I can’t limit the amount of hard cheese I consume to one or two ounces per day, or seven ounces per week.
  • Cottage cheese is less offensive than hard cheese when it comes to encouraging LDL cholesterol production. I consume the regular product, so should limit myself to no more than one cup per day and try low-fat.
  • Fluid milk is basic in my diet, and I will measure how much I consume. Not sure of a limit, yet drinking 16 ounces per day seems like a start.
  • Peanuts and peanut butter are a daily menu item. Roasted, salted peanuts for snacks, and Jif-brand peanut butter for meals or evening dessert. Goal is quarter cup peanuts per day and no more than two tablespoons peanut butter in a day, leaning toward one. Natural peanut butter will be for some, but not all of my consumption.
  • Sodium intake is a constant overage in my diet. Need to continue to reduce how much I consume. That dang brain of mine rewards consumption of salt, so I need to be less “brainy” in that regard.
Promoting veganism.

Sadly this means I won’t be visiting Archer’s book for recipes. From time to time, though, I can remember her beautiful paintings.

Categories
Living in Society

Naming Solon

Corner of Main at Market

I am enjoying the discussion of how the City of Solon came to be named. Both versions—the newspaper’s “after the famous, ancient Athenian lawmaker and poet,” and Antonia Russo’s “Solon Langworthy, one of Dubuque’s Langworthy brothers”—have something to offer, even if neither considers the account mentioned by Harold Dilts in From Ackley to Zwingle: The Origins of Iowa Place Names, which says, “Solon…was named in memory of one of P.B. Anders’ sons. Anders and a Mr. Kerr founded and platted the town.”

The 1850 U.S. Census makes clear the P.B. Anders family was well established in Big Grove Township. Later accounts say the town was named in memory of his son, but no such child appears in the census, and no burial evidence in township cemeteries has been found.

As with many stories about the pioneering days of Big Grove Township and later Solon, there is no single “right version” of how the city was named. It is lost in history. Russo is right to tie the naming to Dillon’s Furrow, reflecting the networks through which people traveled and settled. That there are both a Solon in Johnson County and a Langworthy in Jones County is no coincidence. These names were part of a shared world, shaped by the same influences and carried along the same paths.

Why did 19th-century folk name people and places after an ancient Athenian? It reflected how Americans understood themselves and what they hoped their communities would become.

~ Submitted as a letter to the editor of the Solon Economist.

Postscript: I found the Anders marker on March 30, 2026, in Oakland Cemetery, Big Grove Township. It was difficult to read beneath the moss that grew there. The place where P.B. Anders name was is completely obscured by moss. On the side, it marked the grave of “Meline,” wife of P. B. Anders, who died in 1853. No other stones stood with it. If there had been more, they were gone. The name remained, but the family did not.

Categories
Sustainability

Nuclear Power In A Wind State

Iowa Windmill

If Iowa is a net exporter of electricity, why the push for new nuclear reactors?

I get it. Duane Arnold Energy Center has infrastructure to add/renew generating capacity: connections to the electrical grid, access to water for cooling, and transportation in and out. Compared to the new Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, re-starting DAEC would be quicker and less expensive than building a new reactor. If an investor were to pick new nuclear capacity, they can do it on the relative cheap by re-starting old nuclear reactors.

When investors found Google, who was willing to enter a 25-year contract to buy electricity from the Palo plant to support a data center, it resolved a main issue with nuclear power: financial risk. While re-starting DAEC for a single large customer resolves one issue, it isn’t scalable. How many more deals like this are possible at DAEC given that specific infrastructure has a limit: grid capacity, and how much water for cooling can be drawn from the Cedar River?

The president has engaged in nuclear policy and changed priorities in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Even so, certain things still have to happen for real-world reasons to approve a new nuclear power plant. It takes time, despite entreaties to speed the project approval process. Why the president’s interest in nuclear power? It appears to be self-serving.

The parent company of Truth Social has announced a multibillion-dollar merger with fusion developer TAE Technologies, giving it a stake in this still-experimental form of nuclear energy. At the same time, the administration pushed to accelerate nuclear power licensing and reorganize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as mentioned. Critics argue this overlap raises potential conflict-of-interest concerns, although no direct evidence has emerged that regulatory changes were made specifically to benefit the Trump family. In a March 27 article in CounterPunch, Karl Grossman and Harvey Wasserman detail Trump’s potential interest in the nuclear regulatory environment. Read it here. Is the Reynolds administration close enough to the president to be influenced by his self-serving interest in nuclear power? You know they are.

If electricity generation development proceeded on a logical basis, we wouldn’t be talking about new nuclear power. Not only is it very expensive, and subject to implementation delays, it doesn’t fit our state. The build out of wind generating capacity in Iowa makes baseload power like nuclear less desirable. Grid operators like MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) value the flexibility found in natural gas, battery storage, and reduced usage when demand drops. That isn’t what nuclear does well.

Who would want nuclear power when the costs are so high? Each unit of electricity produced from the proposed new technology of small modular reactors would be far more expensive that the same unit from solar or wind power generation, even when the cost of storage technologies and other means of accounting for renewable energy’s variability are included. The answer to my question is no one would want it.

It is also important to note there are no commercial nuclear fusion or small modular reactors operating currently in the United States. The work the legislature (HSB 767/SSB 3181 both advanced this week) and Linn County are doing to promote nuclear power may be good in some respects. I remain unsure the “build it and they will come” philosophy will work here because grid operators need flexibility, not baseload.

There is a lot more to say about Iowa’s current infatuation with nuclear power. Watch this space for more.

Categories
Living in Society

Post Convention Organizing

Ed Cranston and Tom Larkin announcing the number of delegates (114) attending the county convention on March 21, 2026.

With the county convention in the rear view mirror, it’s time to organize for the Democratic primary. Our votes are important, yet three races are at the top of the list here: the U.S. Senate race between Zach Wahls and Josh Turek, and the District 2 county supervisor race between Jessica Andino, Janet Godwin and incumbent Jon Green lead. The U.S. House race matters, yet Christina Bohannan is widely expected to win the primary over challenger Travis Terrell. It’s her third go-around, so she should. My main work this week has been organizing a supervisor meet and greet event this afternoon at the Solon Public Library. After that, it is a mad rush to the June 2 primary.

There was no competition in Johnson County to be a delegate to the district and state conventions and that’s okay. I decided not to advance to district either. There are too many other things begging for our attention to engage in rituals. The thrill is gone from Democratic conventions, and that too, is okay. Promoting Democratic policy in our communities is where most of the action will be in 2026, I predict.

What does that mean?

Partly, it means participating in campaigns. It also means talking to voters about the race and why it is important to support Democrats. The latter is not a given and this graphic of results from the 2024 general election in my precinct tells why:

RaceRepublicanDemocrat
PresidentTrumpHarris
699598
U.S. HouseMiller-MeeksBohannan
700617
State SenatorDriscollChabal
741526
State RepresentativeLawlerGorsh
716545

We voted Obama twice and Trump three times shifting from blue to solidly Republican. The numbers suggest it is possible to turn that around but not without significant work. My first order of business is to figure out which activists remain after we suffered some people becoming less active, moving out of the precinct, and dying.

Once more activists are located, the next step is finding ways to talk to neighbors and then convert them, if possible, to turn the precinct from red to blue.

There are two parts to this, in my precinct, and in the rest of the state and country. Both run through the ballot box.

The first is voting: making sure we take care of ourselves by checking our registration and then voting in person, either early or on election day. Encourage everyone we know to do likewise.

The second is changing the public narrative about life in Iowa and in the United States. We should not accept narratives being fed to us by media outlets, churches, interest groups, and political parties. Rather, we should develop our own new narratives that reflect how we live despite our differences. I predict this will change how we vote.

If we can do those things, there is a chance to make society a better place to live, possibly this election cycle.

Now it’s a matter of getting out there and doing it.

Categories
Environment

The Cusp of Spring

Pelicans lifting from the lake surface before dawn.

Pelicans have been on the lake for a few weeks now. For the moment, they gather overnight on the east end, a loose white raft in the shallows, then lift off just before dawn to find better fishing. In time, they will move on, continuing north. It is another sign that, despite the odd turns in this year’s weird weather, spring has arrived.

These are American White Pelicans, and they are everywhere—far more than one might expect. On clear days, when flying into or out of the Cedar Rapids airport, the landscape below reveals why: it is patterned with reservoirs, river backwaters, sand pits, and lakes, all of them inviting to birds in transit. From the ground, one can see them gather into long, shifting V formations, angled north toward Minnesota and the Dakotas. For now, though, they are here — resting, feeding, and reminding us, in their numbers and movement, that the season is turning.

During the day, the pelicans scatter. Across the open water, individuals and small groups spread out, each bird taking up its own stretch of lake or backwater, like a sentinel. They are not simply feeding at random, but searching — reading the surface, the light, and subtle signs of fish below. Only later, when something is found, do scattered birds begin to draw together. The distances close, the spacing tightens, and the loose geometry of the day gives way to purpose. They gang up on fish for dinner.

It took me years to recognize these patterns. I have a lot more to understand about this seasonal guest. For now, I just see them lifting from the lake in the predawn light. Heading out for better feeding areas: the way I would if one of them.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Life Is Change — Fertilizer Edition

Tubs for potatoes.

It was the day for a drive to Monticello to pick up 150 pounds of composted chicken manure for the garden. I learned to use this fertilizer during eight years working on a friend’s farm where they used organic practices. Most farmers use it on a larger scale, yet 50-pound bags were available for gardeners like me. That is, they did sell them before private equity bought the company.

The first sign of trouble was the telephone number being disconnected. I found another number and asked my question, “Before I drive 40 minutes to Monticello, I want to make sure you have 50-pound bags of composted chicken manure.” In a gruff voice, a lady replied, “I can tell you for sure, they don’t have that in Monticello.” Undaunted, I looked for other options as first planting is approaching.

Life is change, Paul Kantner wrote. How it differs from the rocks.

Midwestern BioAg, the company where I sourced fertilizer for years, operates in the sustainable/biological agriculture sector, helping both conventional and organic farms reduce dependency on synthetic nitrogen and phosphorus, aligning with environmental goals, according to Google. That’s why we used them. The composted chicken manure product they made was perfect for a small gardener. It was uniform in texture, easy to apply, and enhanced yields.

When private equity bought a controlling interest in the firm in 2020, there was no noticeable change in company operations… until this week.

I had to do something. Potato planting is slated for Friday, and after that, Katy bar the door on garden work until Memorial Day. It turned out there are a number of “organic” composted manure products available, most selling for a lot less than the one I was using. A nearby hardware store advertised a 40-bag of “organic composted manure” for $2.79, so I drove to the nearby city and bought five.

On the pallet where I picked them up, one bag was open. I could see the mix was not as uniformly granulated as the other. Adaptation is a key part of home gardening. On Highway One I thought about how to address that. I have a screen with quarter-inch mesh mounted on a frame. I will push each bag through it to create a more uniform texture. I had a plan by the time I got home.

I started digging holes for six planting tubs. The soil was easy to dig and everything is falling into place. I don’t like change, yet the best policy in fertilizer is accept it and move on.

Tub with a layer of sticks in the bottom to keep the openings flowing when it rains.