Author: Paul Deaton

Categories
Living in Society

Political Funnel Land

Iowa State Capitol

Monday’s date was written on an almost completed to-do list. I failed to figure out why.

I think it was because South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg held two public events in the county seat. At 2:30 p.m. he was hosted by the University of Iowa Democrats at a local bar, and at 7:30 p.m. the Iowa City Book Festival and Iowa City Public Library hosted him in one of a series of LIT Talks where he read from and discussed his book, Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future. Buttigieg is a Democrat running for president in 2020.

Glad I’m not obsessing with the horse race to be president. I also wish my memory was better.

The political news originates from Des Moines where the Iowa legislature’s “first funnel” is this week. That means bills must be introduced and passed out of committee to remain viable for debate during the remainder of session. That is, unless someone, typically in the majority party, wants to stick the language into the end of year bills to balance the budget and close the session. A bill is dead if it doesn’t pass the first funnel, but not dead, dead.

I checked the daily bill roster several times yesterday and found one I believe has merit pertaining to pioneer cemeteries. I wrote an email to the county supervisors:

Supervisors,

House Study Bill 234 pertaining to pioneer cemeteries was introduced to Representative Bloomingdale’s committee on Local Government today. I read the bill and find it to have merit.

I served as a Big Grove Township Trustee for one four-year term. We managed Fackler’s Grove Cemetery near Seven Sisters Road which meets the criteria for a pioneer cemetery outlined in the legislation. George Fackler is said to be the first person who died in the township and is interred there. The cemetery had been neglected for many years and despite efforts between the trustees and the Ely Historical Society, little progress has been made identifying the graves, if that’s even possible at such a late date.

The question the legislation poses is whether management of the county pioneer cemeteries should be by the township trustees or a centralized county commission for that purpose. I favor the commission approach because of its potential to make the county approach to pioneer cemeteries more uniform.

I realize you have a lot on your to-do list, but if this bill makes it out of the first funnel I hope you will support it.

Thanks for your work on the board.

Regards, Paul

Many bills were filed yesterday addressing fundamental issues with government. There was a bit of fluff, but you’ll have that.

This morning I wrote the chair and ranking member of the State Government Committee about HF 608 which is “an act relating to the tracking and counting of mailed absentee ballots.” The post office no longer uniformly postmarks mail but they do affix a bar code with a time stamp in it. This unresolved technical issue could have changed the 2018 general election results in House District 55 where a number of ballots that lacked a postmark, yet had a bar code, weren’t opened or counted. The law needs fixing to keep up with post office practices and so voters will not be disenfranchised by a minor process deficiency going forward. We’ll see what the legislature does this week.

Adults in Iowa spend some part of their time discussing politics and the rest of their time pretending politics doesn’t exist. Yesterday was a day to spend in political funnel land. I’m not sure I’m the better for it.

Categories
Home Life Writing

Used Book Sale and Other Necessities

Sign for the Book Sale at the Solon Public library

Yesterday was the annual used book sale at our library.

In addition to clearing the stacks of unpopular or outdated books, the community donates books, media and labor to manage the sale.

Each item is reasonably priced and this year’s proceeds were about $800. That’s a lot of $0.50 and $1.00 books.

I spent ten bucks on ten past issues of the Wapsipinicon Almanac, three large format picture books about Yellowstone National Park, the Vietnam War, and the Marx Brothers, one fiction book, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and a book of poetry, Songs of a Sourdough by Robert W. Service. I spent part of the afternoon reading Service’s poetry about the Yukon. First published in 1907, the copy I got is more than 100 years old. Thoughts of surviving bitter cold, wolves, pine trees, bonfires to stay warm, dog sleds, and the gibbous moon roamed my consciousness for the rest of the day.

It is doubtful I needed more books. The measure of a person’s library is less about reading or having read every book in it. A personal library is more a reminder of what we don’t know. I don’t feel guilty having more books than time to read them. I’m lucky to have a stable home life and the space to fit in a few more books after a used book sale in town. The house hasn’t exploded… yet.

I’ve been buying clothing this year. In 2018 I spent $281, and this year I already spent $150. T-shirts, jeans, socks and underwear, along with a few sweatshirts and woven shirts make up my wardrobe. For funerals and weddings I keep one pair of dress slacks, a good shirt, some neckties, two pair of shined shoes from when I worked in the Chicago Loop in 1991, and a blue blazer. Judging from what people wear to funerals and memorial services, I could get by with a decent pair of jeans, a woven shirt and a newer pair of sneakers.

There was a gift of four t-shirts and a sweatshirt from my spouse. The t-shirts are for the shepherdess to imprint next time she silk screens an image from the farm. I missed out last year because most of my shirts already had something printed on them.

The big 2018 expense was a pair of steel-toed boots to wear on my shifts at the home, farm and auto supply store. Last week, after my shift, I bought a new overcoat using my employee discount.

Me: I need a new coat.
Cashier: You really do.
Me: I know… big grease stains, broken snaps and zipper… it’s disreputable.
Cashier: Oh my!
Me: It will be my first Carhartt… this is Walls. Well I do have a pair of Carhartt bib overalls.
Cashier: Every man has those.

When I worked in the Loop I quickly wore out the pants in my suits. I picked styles where I could get multiple pairs of matching slacks. I don’t need fancy work clothes at the home, farm and auto supply store where the main issue is the quality of Wrangler jeans purchased on discount for less than $20. The denim must be of an inferior quality because holes show up in unexpected places after washing. Too, the radio and box cutter wear a hole just below my belt line on the left side. I asked the Wrangler sales representative about this at a recent trade show. He didn’t have any good answers except to buy more expensive jeans. I didn’t mention my low wages.

Food, shelter and clothing are traditional basic needs. Add potable water, clean air and sanitation and that’s still really basic. A good night’s sleep? Needed, but optional. Without these things, the need for survival dominates our daily lives. Education, healthcare, transportation and internet access are basic needs according to Wikipedia, but seriously, while important, those are extra when it comes to survival.

A lot of people would have us return to life as basic survival. For our family, years of hard work made us financially stable and built a foundation so we don’t often worry about survival. As long as there are used book sales and employee discounts at the home, farm and auto supply store we’ll be alright. Knowing a bunch of farmers and a good auto mechanic helps.

Wolves are mentioned in the history of Lincoln County, Minnesota where my grandmother was born. Wolves can be an issue, but mostly one read about in books about the Yukon… or Iowa and Minnesota at the time of settlement. As we live our modern lives it is important to remember there were once wolves, even if their meaning is lost for want of an education. Education is a salve for our worries. That’s part of why library used book sales remain important.

Categories
Sustainability

Will Lady Conductors Sing Karaoke for Kim Jong Un?

On June 14, 2018 PSR Board member Ira Helfand, MD met with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon in Seoul, urging South Korea to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The main nuclear weapons threat on earth is increasing tension between the United States and Russia over Syria, Ukraine, Crimea and other issues. Not far behind is the ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Either conflict, if escalated to nuclear war, could end life as we know it.

So what the hell was the Hanoi Summit between Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong Un?

As a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army often described our duty performance when it did not meet his refined standards, it was a “goat screw.”

We don’t know what preparations the North Korean dictator made, in fact we know little about his country except what we might read in books like Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. He presumably prepared for the summit, and had a 60-hour train trip from Pyongyang, North Korea to Đồng Đăng, Vietnam, in case last minute changes and consultations were required. Kim traveled by rail for security considerations according to Associated Press.

Air Force One’s 20-hour trip to Hanoi, with two refueling stops, was also very long. We don’t know what preparations the U.S. President made either, but it was clear from the news coverage it wasn’t much. Here’s CBS News reporter Mark Knoller:

Couldn’t this have been discovered and vetted long before the actual, expensive in person meet up? Isn’t that why we have diplomats? Why elevate this meeting to a “summit” if we didn’t know the basis for an agreement beforehand?

While Air Force One was enroute home, North Koreans disputed this characterization of the summit. Why cut the meeting short before agreeing what happened and would be said to the press? Seems like basic diplomacy is missing from this administration.

What a bunch of knuckleheads. I’m not referring to the North Korean dictator and his staff. Why would the U.S. elevate this guy to this level of prominence on the world stage? Importantly, it was a staged distraction from Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton’s dismantling of the U.S. – Russia arms control protocol. There is other stuff going on the the country to be distracted from as well. The tail is wagging the dog.

We don’t know but Kim must have been feeling good on the long trip home to Pyongyang after the president failed to find common ground for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. We do know something about his green, bullet-proof train with yellow trim on the cars.

“Kim Jong Il, who was Kim Jong Un’s father, was known to have hated flying and traveled by train on several trips to China,” Eric Talmadge and Adam Schreck of AP wrote. “He is said to have fitted his train out to accommodate lavish parties and karaoke sessions.”

His father is also said to have kept four female singers on the train when he traveled, referring to them as “lady conductors.” Will lady conductors sing karaoke for Kim Jong Un on the trip home? Since the U.S. president won’t hold him to account, there may be something for a dictator to celebrate.

Categories
Environment Writing

Bird of Prey

Sheet of Ice

There was no time to stop and get a photograph.

While eastbound on Highway 382, a large bird lifted from the ground within my headlights and dropped a recently killed rabbit. It hesitated, perhaps wanting to return to its prey, but not long enough for a collision.

I don’t know what species it was, but suspect it was an owl since it was two hours before sunrise. Owls live all around us in Big Grove and at night use the peak of our roof to observe the neighborhood and dine on small rodents.

As I continued around the lakes, then westbound on Mehaffey Bridge Road a deer crossed the road in front of me. I tapped the brakes. It was less dramatic than the bird of prey. I’m used to living with wildlife after so many years. I know what to do.

The lakes are covered with a smooth surface of ice, perfect for skating. With a couple more days of deep freeze, conditions should be excellent. The problem is no one I know ice skates any more and it is not a solitary activity. Time was we would clear a rink and sometimes start a bonfire. Importantly, it was fun. We’re getting older and other things occupy neighbors, busy looking at screens, I cynically suppose.

Wildlife appears to be flourishing. Maybe I’m just noticing. It is possible to step away from the screens and observe nature… a nature adapted to the built environment humans made since settling here in the 1830s. There was no risk of roadkill when there were no motorized vehicles or roads.

I don’t have much to say about the world outside our ecosystem today. Aren’t others saying enough? Suffice it that the 25-minute trip to work provides a window to the world around us.

I wonder if the owl returned for it’s dinner?

Categories
Living in Society

Living a Terrestrial Astronaut Life

Squirrel Training for Acrobatic Work at Walt Disney World

I opened the door to the garage and turn signals on my car were flashing.

It was the first time in the garage yesterday and I feared having left something turned on, depleting the battery charge. I put the key in the ignition and it started.

At an undetermined point in the night turn signals and some dash lights started a slow blink. I couldn’t turn them off. I started the car and turned it off — still blinking. I started the car and drove it around the block — still blinking. Should I call my mechanic or troubleshoot and fix it myself?

I went to a computer and searched “1997 Subaru Outback lights blink when ignition off.” Some results came back and 83 people recommended a procedure to disconnect the battery, then reconnect it with the ignition turned on. It was simple and it worked. Make that 84 people recommend the procedure to reset the electrical system.

That I drive an old beater is not news. I bought it six years ago and with a good mechanic fixing things as they break, it gets me around. I feel a little like the Mercury astronauts running around Cape Canaveral before Florida car dealerships gave them Corvettes and such to drive, just another guy needing earthly transportation. As long as it is mechanically sound I don’t care what vehicle I drive. The astronaut dreams are extra.

Yesterday’s farm work shift cancelled because of a cold weather forecast the following week. CSA farmers who belong to Practical Farmers of Iowa gathered at a local restaurant to discuss their trade. I am a member but declined to go. I’m more interested in reducing the amount of farm work I do than in engaging more. Since I began earning a living wage last year the economic need for farm work went away. It’s mostly a social event any more despite the well-received work I do at the farms.

I woke early this morning, around midnight, and picked up my mobile device in the dark. There was a Washington Post alert from 11:24 p.m. saying Michael Cohen had prepared a written statement about his testimony today before the House Oversight Committee. In it, Cohen indicated Donald Trump personally signed the check to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, and that Trump knew Roger Stone was negotiating with WikiLeaks to publish stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee during the run up to the 2016 general election. Trump and another of his attorneys, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, have both accused Cohen of lying since then.

We’ll see what Cohen actually says while I work a shift at the home, farm and auto supply store. Like with Watergate, it would be hard to watch the proceedings live. If what Cohen said is true, the president has been lying to the American people. In today’s corrupt political climate I’m not sure what that means. If Trump were Nixon, we’d already have his resignation on our Resolute desk.

Categories
Environment Kitchen Garden Work Life

Wind Howled All Day

Squirrels Dining on Sunflower Seeds

The store manager from the home, farm and auto supply store phoned Sunday afternoon to ask me to work on Monday. The colleague who assumed my full time job last spring was visiting family in Nebraska and bad weather closed roads across the state, including Interstate 80. She couldn’t make it back in time for her shift.

In Iowa, helping out is part of our culture. I said yes I’d work and rearranged my plans so I could.

In addition, the farmer decided the weather was bad enough she didn’t want people venturing out to the farm. The roads were iced over and the wind howled at 30 miles per hour all day. Her sister, the shepherdess, posted social media photos of installing a new anemometer and weather station. Its LED panel displayed the digital message, “hold onto your hat!”

As I was settling in last night, the Washington Post put up an article about White House plans to form an “ad hoc group of select federal scientists to reassess the government’s analysis of climate science and counter conclusions that the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming the planet.”

In other words, the Fourth National Climate Assessment told the story of how dire our future could be without climate action. Rather than doing something, the administration is arguing with their own scientists that global warming is not caused by burning fossil fuels. These are times that will fry men’s souls.

Which part of yesterday’s howling wind was an amplification caused by global warming? The answer doesn’t matter because it’s the wrong question. We know the deleterious effect of burning fossil fuels. We also know thawing permafrost, agriculture, methane releases during oil production, building construction, manufacturing processes, air transport, deforestation, landfill decomposition and other human activities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. We can’t get bogged down in details when the bigger picture is we have an obstructionist government led by Republicans and their conservative, dark-moneyed think tanks who would interpret the howling wind as something else. The better question is when will voters do something to fix this?

Yesterday’s wind was the kind that calls for hunkering down until it ends. Eventually we will have a calm, sunny day and the opportunity to work as normal. Or maybe it is something else, as Bob Dylan sang in the 1970s,

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

Categories
Environment

Hard Winter

Through the Window

This weird weather is unsettling. Wild variations in temperature made it a damaging winter… it’s not over.

The driveway buckled a few feet from the garage door because of temperature swings. Water must be trapped underground with inadequate drainage before refreezing. The buckled pavement is directing rain under the door, flooding the car park.

Everything is off the floor as I advance plan for water emergencies. I found all the parts for the wet/dry vacuum and removed about 60 gallons from the floor. I let the water settle for a while, then will go at it again.

I’m supposed to soil block at the farm today. Temperatures are dropping and a coat of ice is expected on roads, on everything, as the wind howls 30 miles per hour until sunset. I’m to text the farmer before leaving for my shift to make sure roads are passable.

With the ground still frozen, snow melt and rain have nowhere to go. It is pooling near the main intersection a few dozen yards south of our home. The culvert under the road must be blocked with snow and ice. There will be river flooding later in the week as everything drains to the Mississippi basin.

I’m not freaking out… yet. I don’t know what to do but mitigate water damage and wait it out. Fixing the cause of this weird weather is not something to address in a day or two.

Media discussion of climate change seems more frequent. I reviewed Google Trends and there was a spike in searches about global warming the first week in February. Every day or so local newspapers carry a story about climate change. A lot of it has to do with the Green New Deal resolution proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Who doesn’t like what the resolution says? It seems toothless until a Democratic majority returns to the U.S. Senate. We are at least two years away from the possibility of that happening.

What will the Congress do to act on climate? More importantly, what will they do that the president will not veto? These are dark times if we rely solely on politicians.

Water may have settled in the car park, so it’s time to vacuum up a few more five-gallon buckets. Hopefully spring is on the horizon, even if it hasn’t arrived.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Moving the Goal Posts

Farm Landscape

More than at any previous time I feel a goal line was crossed when I left full time work last spring.

So what’s next?

I don’t anticipate buying a fancy television with new, matching easy chairs to put in front of it.

My late aunt and uncle had that. When we visited their Alabama home our conversations turned to the evangelical Christianity their family had undertaken. It was a distance from the socialist and Catholic household in which she grew up with her brothers and sisters. I suspect aunt and uncle watched FOX News, although we talked the entire visit without turning on the T.V. Dinner was a tuna-noodle casserole taking me back to a time I hardly remembered. Mom never made tuna-noodle casserole at home. My uncle died shortly after we left them and she died soon after that. All that’s left are memories.

My fear is if we had a digital television I’d sit back in an easy chair, watch too much, and my mind would succumb to the blather that invades people’s lives from cable news. I’d spend the rest of this life talking about, to and at the television.

There is only one answer to the question, and that’s to stay active physically, emotionally and mentally. That’s really a lie. There are plenty of answers, although doing these three things can form a foundation upon which an answer can be built. Maybe that’s what I’ll do.

Birds eat from the feeder and a freezing rain falls on the county. Snow melt is filling the ditches and running toward the lake. Soon there will be floods in Iowa as the crazy weather continues.

Tomorrow I return to the farm for the first round of soil blocking. They already started seeds in the house, but these will go into the greenhouse despite the coming cold spell. I’m waiting another week to plant celery. At 120 days, celery has the longest plant to pick cycle.

Will farm work bring catharsis to my search for truth and meaning? I don’t know, but I’ll be spending time with friends again and that means something.

I’ll get to see the lambs, those sad but cute creatures destined for someone’s dinner table. I’ll be careful not to get attached but new life is always a pleasure. That’s what I need in the rainy, snowy, flooded Iowa I call home as the cycle of the growing season begins anew.

Moving the goal posts once they are set is not a good option in retirement. We may only get one chance for new goals and it’s important to be sure. I’ll be thinking about that as I make the soil blocks tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to getting started.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Cook Not A Chef

Italian Spaghetti

Is there a difference between being a cook and a chef?

An immediate answer has to do with training, tutelage, apprenticeship or working in a professional capacity. I know several chefs, and they are among the best in the area. I eat at their restaurants, appreciate their presentations, and respect what they have learned.

Cooks know their limits. My main goal is to get a satisfying meal on a plate, matched to the individual tastes of diners. Even in a small gathering there is rarely a single taste. Working with well-known diners, attempting the satisfying rather than the sublime, makes me a cook first — a journeyman raw food processor if you will.

Understanding flavors that produce great meals is important and flavor is foremost in the mind of a cook. Will the diners welcome a dish? What from the repertory will please? How do I use a seasonal vegetable? Will diners notice when the flavor stands out? Above all, will they eat it? We worry less about replicating specific dishes and more about the making the routine sublime.

I recently bought a large bag of Mexican oregano on line. Used in many dishes now that it is on hand and convenient, it is mostly an experiment with taco fillings, red sauces and stir fry. I like it because of the mild citrus flavor it imparts. Although I’ve been using it a couple of months, the experimentation is just getting under way. A cook’s process can be quite long.

Cooking has to do with ingredient sourcing, cooking techniques and trying dishes with varying seasonings. I feel little pressure for repeatable tastes so a dish can be listed on a menu. Being a cook is living life in each moment, a prepared dish as its own reward.

If I am a cook, not a chef, then so be it. I’d rather be a journeyman and get the work done.

Categories
Living in Society

The Unraveling Fabric of Iowa Life

Shadow on a Snowy Day

Thread by thread the fabric of our lives is unraveling.

What we thought was permanent turns out to be fleeting vapors transformed to undue amounts of snow.

Everything about the unraveling is out in the open and more’s the pity.

In a press release yesterday, Governor Kim Reynolds indicated she ended her court battle regarding Iowa Code chapter 146C, otherwise known as the “fetal heartbeat law.”

“This was an extremely difficult decision, however it is the right one for the pro-life movement and the state of Iowa,” Reynolds said. “When I signed the Fetal Heartbeat bill last May, we knew that it would be an uphill fight in the courts that might take us all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“I think the Iowa Supreme Court got it wrong,” she said in the release, referring to the court’s decision to strike down the 72-hour waiting period included in the law.

Republican legislators plan to do something about the court getting it wrong. They plan to increase politicization of how Iowa judges are nominated to the governor by changing the composition of commissions that make those nominations. House Study Bill 110, and its companion, Senate File 237, have been introduced to that end.

Representative Mary Wolfe (D-Clinton) explained the issue in a Feb. 18 article in the Clinton Herald.

Here’s how our current system works: there are fourteen district court judicial nominating commissions — one for each of Iowa’s fourteen judicial districts. Each district court nominating commission is made up of five local citizens appointed by the governor and five local citizen-attorneys elected by local lawyers; the district’s senior judge acts as the chairperson of the commission. When a judicial vacancy arises in a judicial district, interested attorneys from that district submit applications and the members of the local judicial nominating commission, working together, select the two most qualified candidates to “send up” to the governor; the governor then chooses one of the two attorneys to fill the vacancy.

The Iowa Supreme Court process is similar in that it blends commission members appointed by the governor and chosen by attorneys, sending three nominees to the governor.

“The current system works,” Wolfe wrote. “Iowa’s non-partisan judicial nominating process is considered one of the best in the country, and our judiciary is consistently ranked in the top ten by many organizations (including conservative organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) in terms of expertise, efficiency and objectivity.”

“Rather than be distracted by a losing legal battle,” Gov. Reynolds said in yesterday’s press release about the abortion bill. “Now is the time to renew our focus on changing hearts and minds and to seek other ways to advance the cause of protecting the unborn in Iowa and around the nation.”

Among those “other ways” is to pack the courts. If the bills were to become law, all commission members would be selected by politicians.

I sent an email to my state representative on Sunday:

Bobby,

I don’t support the changes Rep. Steven Holt from Denison is proposing to the judicial nominating commission and the process for how judges are selected in Iowa.

Iowa Press ran an episode on Friday with Holt and Mary Wolfe from Clinton discussing their views on the matter and Holt did not make a substantial case for changing the process.

Holt repeated himself during the program, coming back to two things: that only 18.45 percent of attorneys vote on commission members selected by attorneys and that the voice of the people needs be heard. I believe the voice of the people has been heard in establishing the current process and it should not be changed without thorough vetting and public input. Most people I know aren’t even aware the change is being discussed. Your colleague Mary Wolfe made the case why Holt’s proposal is not good for Iowa and I agree with her.

I hope you will align yourself with moderates like Wolfe on this issue.

If you haven’t seen Iowa Press this week, here is the link: https://youtu.be/H6-F4u4oPyo.

I appreciate hearing the schedule of your listening posts via email, so please keep sending the information. Thanks for your work in the legislature.

Regards, Paul

Kaufmann responded a few hours later, saying he would address judicial nominating reform in a public column in the near future. He is a member of the judiciary committee.

The simple truth is Republicans have the votes to do this and almost anything they want in the legislature. Elections have consequences and in 2018 Democrats fell short of re-taking a majority in the Iowa House and lost ground in the Senate. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds was elected for her first full term.

None of this is a hidden agenda now that the bills have been revealed. If changing the judicial nominating process was not a campaign issue in 2018 it is a legislative issue now.

Thread by thread, beginning in the 87th Iowa General Assembly, Republicans are unraveling the fabric of life in Iowa and this is just one more example. I believe this second two-year bite of the apple, the 88th Iowa General Assembly, will provide them the time they need and want to re-shape Iowa in the image of an insular group that ignores reason and would take our state backward.

Progressives, if we are to be successful, must row against the tide, never losing site of the shoreline, hoping our dreams and values hold together. On this snowy February day, under this governance, the veil of Maya wears thin.