Author: Paul Deaton

Categories
Living in Society

Following My Tracks – Hillary’s First Campaign Visit

Iowa Row Crops
Settled Iowa

Hillary Clinton spent Monday night at the Blackhawk Hotel in Davenport.  It felt very close.

When I was 17 my father had me put on a tie and took me to dinner there with his boss at the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America Local 431. I recall the room was dimly lit. I had steak which was something we rarely had at home.

Dad was a union steward deciding whether or not to make his living from union work. When he died soon thereafter, he planned to get out of the meat packing plant as soon as he was licensed to become a chiropractor.

My wife and I spent our wedding night at the Blackhawk Hotel. We couldn’t afford the presidential suite, but it was a nice hotel—a way station on our wedding trip to Chicago. It served free champagne to newlyweds.

When I saw photographs of Clinton departing the Blackhawk in social media they possessed a peculiar reality that harkened back to those seminal events.

From there, Clinton went to LeClaire, another town imbued with my footprints. Once I sought the William F. Cody homestead there, only to find there was a controversy about where it was located. Cody was born and raised near LeClaire and his family subsequently moved near McCausland, with the two sites competing for authenticity and tourism dollars. Never mind that Cody shipped his family home out to Cody, Wyoming on a rail flat car. It was good to see Clinton did not weigh in on the controversy and opted for a local coffee shop. The Cody homestead may not be controversial any longer.

LeClaire’s namesake has been a prominent figure, literally. When visiting family grave plots at Davenport’s Mount Calvary Cemetery, we drive past the tall monument on Antoine LeClaire’s grave. He has been a presence ever since my father died and I visited the cemetery more frequently—as much as his 300-pound frame was when he was living.

Clinton’s last stop of the day was at the Kirkwood campus in Jones County—also near a family site. A family cemetery at Langworthy is two miles from the Kirkwood facility. When our daughter was young we explored it to find her maternal ancestors buried there in the 1840s and 1850s. The page of a nineteenth century plat book with our ancestor’s Wayne Township farm noted on it hangs in our living room.

In addition to launching her Iowa presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton is walking where the founders and early settlers established Iowa. I don’t know if her handlers were cognizant of this when the trip was planned, but it seems different and perhaps significant.

One more thing to consider as the run up to the 2016 Iowa caucuses continues.

Categories
Living in Society

Eminent Domain Bill Emerging in Iowa Legislature

Iowa Capitol
Iowa Capitol

An eminent domain bill is emerging in the Iowa legislature. If it becomes law, it would impact both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Rock Island Clean Line which share the issue of being merchant distribution lines for oil and gas, and electricity respectively.

Whether an eminent domain bill would be sent to the governor is an open question. The Iowa legislature is stymied over K-12 school funding, and the overall budget. Last weekend’s discussion was whether or not to send legislators home while a committee ironed out details.

“I think that’s unwise,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal in an Associated Press interview. “I think everybody’s voice needs to be heard. I think everybody should stay and work. I think it’s time to knuckle down and get to work.”

The legislature is required by statute to finish the budget before adjournment, so April and likely part of May will be a slow grind toward compliance. At this point, the parties can’t agree on a revenue number or on how to spend it. There appears to be time to work on an eminent domain bill while the budget is finalized.

Last Thursday, Ed Fallon completed his walk across Iowa along the route of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline. In his daily report from the project, Fallon wrote, “eminent domain legislation is coming this week! I was in touch this weekend with two key lawmakers who assured me that, before week’s end, we’ll have companion bills with bipartisan support in both House and Senate. This is very encouraging. Stay tuned.”

The two lawmakers are State Senator Rob Hogg and Representative Bobby Kaufmann, who chair the government oversight committee in their respective chambers. I confirmed the bills were sent to drafters with Kaufmann in a telephone conversation last night. Government oversight is exempt from the funnels that limit introduction of new legislation during session.

On April 10, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a 23-page ruling on Clarke County Reservoir Commission v. Edwin D. and Deloris A. Robins Revokable Trust, in which Justice Thomas Waterman wrote for the majority, “we strictly construe statutes delegating the power of eminent domain and note the absence of a clear legislative authorization for a joint public-private entity to condemn private property.”

Both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Rock Island Clean Line are such public-private partnerships, so this court decision has ramifications for the projects. Notably, as Fallon described during his pipeline walk, many land owners along the route oppose the pipeline and eminent domain would have to be used to gain an easement. The legislation proposed by Hogg and Kaufmann includes definition of “merchant projects” and “public use,” which if enacted into law could effectively end both projects in their present form.

In Kelo v. City of New London, the U.S. Supreme Court found that projects initiated by private developers could use eminent domain as a tool, finding that “economic development did not violate the public use clauses of the state and federal constitutions.” However, as Kaufmann noted last night, if states have a stricter interpretation of eminent domain and the takings clause of the U.S. Constitution, such state laws would take precedence under Kelo. An intent of the proposed legislation is to create stricter interpretations of public use when used in the context of eminent domain, and to separate eminent domain uses for merchant projects from those of regulated utilities.

An eminent domain bill is emerging. With legislators divided over the Rock Island Clean Line and the Dakota Access Pipeline, and over eminent domain abuses in the state, there appears to be enough support to advance the bill.

For parties interested in eminent domain and in both projects, this will be one to watch.

Categories
Environment

Join The Climate Reality Iowa Training

Iowa TrainingOn Tuesday more than 400 people joined a webinar titled, “Change Starts with You: Becoming a Climate Reality Leader,”  hosted by the Climate Reality Project in advance of the May 5-7 training in Cedar Rapids.

The Climate Reality Leadership Corps already has more than 7,000 members from 125 countries since its beginning in 2006. It seeks to add another 3,000 in this year’s North American trainings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Miami, Florida, and Toronto, Ontario.

Attendees are expected to travel to Iowa from around the globe to be a part of the Climate Reality Project.

“Solving the climate crisis is within our grasp,” said Al Gore, founder and chairman, The Climate Reality Project. “We need people like you to stand up and act.”

Change Starts With YouBlog for Iowa received the following letter about the Iowa training:

I’m following up today from The Climate Reality Project. We are an organization started by former vice president Al Gore and focused on creating a global movement to influence action on the climate crisis. We have an upcoming training opportunity that I believe you and members of your organization will be interested in.

On May 5-7 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we and Mr. Gore will be hosting a training for new Climate Reality Leaders to help grow the movement. As you well know, United States leadership is critical as we travel the Road to Paris in preparation for December’s COP21. There has never been a better time to engage people in the U.S. and around the world on solutions to one of the world’s most important issues.

The training in Iowa will highlight the U.S.’s important and unique role in the COP21 negotiations, climate impacts on agriculture in Iowa, and Iowa’s ability to be a leader in renewable energy sources such as wind.

Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis with the applications due no later than April 13.

To apply, please visit: http://www.climaterealitytraining.org/iowa/apply.php

Please contact me with any questions or more information. I hope you and your colleagues will want to join the network of over 7,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 125 countries taking action on the climate crisis.

Thank you for your time!

Best,

Joseph Moran | Program Assistant-Climate Reality Leadership Corps
Email: joseph.moran@climatereality.com

the-climate-reality-project-logo

Categories
Living in Society

Hillary Clinton Announces for President

I spent most of Sunday working with people without Hillary Clinton on their mind. People going about their lives without a care for politics, or any perceptible interest in it. That is the new normal, and it has been the norm for a while.

Later in the day, I had a conversation about Hillary’s announcement to run for president and the other person said, “I’m not sure it’s a good idea because she is such a lightning rod.”

She is, I said. But look what has happened with Obama. There is an active movement to de-legitimize his presidency by impeding anything he has done or tried to do. Any Democrat who runs for president will experience the same thing. “What else is Hillary going to do?” I naively said.

“She could practice law, she could work at the Clinton Foundation, she could write another book, there’s lots she could do.”

“Well she’s decided to run,” I said. “and there’s no stopping her now.”

If you don’t think Clinton can hold her own, think again and watch this segment of the Benghazi hearings posted on YouTube by ABC News.

In a little noticed Sunday afternoon tweet, John Podesta, chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign posted this:

That he mentioned climate change as a priority in a 140 character micro blog  indicates the importance of addressing the climate crisis. Both politically, and in the real world where the economic effects of climate change are being felt by almost everyone I know whether they recognize it or not. How this plays out over the campaign remains to be seen, but it’s early, and Democrats are expected to own the issue. The Mad Hatter’s tea party of the Republicans is expected to continue denial to their detriment.

Because Clinton is a prominent public figure we know a lot about her and there is much to like and dislike. That seems okay because a perfect candidate—one who matches our shopping list of desired qualities—does not exist. What matters more politically is she is a woman.

During a recent conversation about the 2008 Iowa caucus someone recounted a story about a group of local Democrats who caucused for Obama. The upshot was “rather the black guy than a woman.”

Since the 2008 election, some of them bought into the bullshit about Obama, according to the story, and changed their voter registration to no preference. They aren’t coming back to the Democratic party any time soon.

Within the microcosm of a precinct the departures may be good for Hillary during the caucuses, but the attitude is not good for our lives in society. In the whisper campaigns that go on in Iowa, being a woman will make a difference, and not always in a good way.

I’ve made my preference for Jim Webb known publicly, and there are not a lot of others in that or any camp at the beginning of the run up to the Iowa caucuses. If Webb decides not to run, or if Hillary wins the Democratic nomination for president, I will support her more than I did Obama after the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The simple truth is a lot is at stake and Hillary’s combative strength will be needed if progressive ideas are to gain prominence in our country.

As I wrote on Saturday, caucus season in Iowa has begun.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Good, Getting Better in the Garden

Sunning Seedlings
Seedlings after Watering

In 1983 I became a gardener. At our rented duplex in Iowa City I planted tomato seedlings which yielded some fruit. Every year since, and with every one of our four subsequent moves, we have improved our gardening capacity and techniques.

Our garden in Big Grove is likely as good as it gets. Each growing season has been full of observations, experiments and efforts to improve. I’ve learned a lot about soil, compost, mulch, seed propagation, weed control, pest control and disease. There is a lot more to learn. Hopefully I’ll be blessed with a normal lifespan to pursue improved gardening.

Seedling Watering Station
Seedling Watering Station

Work in the local food community helped me gain clarity on gardening. Perhaps the biggest change has been growing my own seedlings for transplanting. It opened the door to plant diversity, better germination, better garden plantings and better crops.

This year’s garden may be the most diverse yet. I’m experimenting with multiple crops in the same space, beginning with early lettuce, spinach and peas.

Pea Planting Space
Pea Planting Space

This year’s planting includes two varieties of peas: snow peas and snap peas. Using the SE plot, where I grew tomatoes last year, I removed remains of last year’s plants, turned and tilled the soil around the stakes, and broadcast peas. I replaced the cages to protect the peas from predators. The hope is after the 60 day growth cycle, soil nitrogen will be improved and I can get another crop of tomatoes before the first hard frost. This technique came after research and some creative thinking, although I suspect I am not the first gardener to use it.

Watering Seedlings
Watering Seedlings

I inspected the garden for the first time in several days. Radishes and lettuce in the compost heap are progressing nicely. The broadcast early lettuce and turnips look to yield a crop. The carrots and spinach have not germinated yet. There will be spring garlic in abundance, although the Golden Delicious apple tree looks to be a goner, despite my efforts to save it from disease. The rest of the fruit trees are have leaf buds on them, but I can’t see flower buds yet. I have to remind myself, it is still early—a month before last frost.

We don’t use many potatoes, so I no longer plant them. I grow a patch of spring onions, but buy mature onions on the market. Eggplants are always in abundance, as are zucchini and cucumbers. I plan a row of zucchini and three types of cucumbers, but no eggplant.

The garden is in reasonably good shape for April 12. The next big project is harvesting mulch from the lawn.

Farm work made up 20 hours of my week: planting seeds and seedlings. The high tunnel was half planted as of yesterday. It will be the source of lettuce and greens for the spring shares. Word is onions arrive next week and it will be all hands on deck to get them planted in the field.

When I get my schedule at the warehouse this afternoon, every time slot will have something next week. With local food production in the mix, life is good, getting better.

Categories
Living in Society

Webb, O’Malley Speeches Kick Off Iowa Caucus Season

Polk County Awards April 10Former U.S. Senator from Virginia Jim Webb and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley kicked off the run up to the Iowa Caucuses on Friday at the Polk County Democrats Spring Awards Dinner in Des Moines. Polk is a Democratic county where Bruce Braley won the 2014 U.S. Senate race with 50 percent of the vote. Democrats presented former Congressman Neil Smith with a lifetime achievement award at the pork chop dinner.

My press credentials were not approved, so I live-streamed the speeches of Webb and O’Malley on C-Span. The view was actually better than what I may have had in person. Someone in the room direct messaged me on twitter to ask where I was sitting, which was funny.

We all get to describe the event using the same English language, including depiction of “hoots and hollers,” usage of which I did not swipe from this CNN person I never heard of until last night.

My takeaway from the speeches was that O’Malley told a better story, but Webb had the better story, one worth paying attention to as the run up to the caucuses unfolds.

This Democratic event felt less like a scene from Alice in Wonderland as the mad tea party of Republicans often does.

According to multiple anonymous sources, Hillary Clinton will announce her second bid to become president in a twitter message on Sunday. Because of Hillary’s prominence in American society, there will be a media frenzy which may eclipse whatever good Webb and O’Malley did yesterday.

Here are some of my tweets from last night:

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586688334182752257

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586689432113168384

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586690687984275456

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586692492327682048

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586692733978288128

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586695358077472768

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586697523592429568

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586697879428796416

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586700092830191617

https://twitter.com/PaulDeaton_IA/status/586702269405474816

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Back at the Farm

Inside the Greenhouse
Inside the Greenhouse

This week began another stint working at Local Harvest CSA. I’m back to soil blocking, planting seeds in trays and seedlings in the high tunnel in preparation for another season of vegetables. This year the plan is to work until the regular crew arrives in May—a month of physical labor to reinvigorate after winter’s inactivity. I’ll help with the first deliveries to members in two weeks.

The fields we burned earlier in the week look great, and the green up should be spectacular.

The work has been going a lot faster this year. With experience I’ve become better able to move from one task to the next. By the time I get fully proficient, my one-month stint on the farm will be about over.

That said, the rain has kept me out of the home garden where most of this year’s produce will originate. The green up in our yard has begun.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Burning the CRP

Photo Credit: Kate Edwards
Photo Credit: Kate Edwards

Prescribed burning is a requirement of some USDA/Farm Service Agency Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts. Burning is an economical way to reduce lower thatch in a field and encourage growth of desired grasses.

It took four of us about four hours to complete a prescribed burn at the farm where I began work yesterday.

Another day in the life of rural Iowa.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Easter Sunday Work Day

Burn and Compost Piles
Plot NM Compost and Brush Pile

It’s important to schedule work days at home. Our lives are busy enough, so retreat by setting aside concerns and being at home interacting with neighbors, doing chores and working the soil can’t happen often enough.

That was my Easter Sunday—the second work day this month.

It was a perfect day to burn the brush pile. At one point, I had three fires going. My neighbors to the south were also burning theirs. Once the fire got going, I cleared a space to pile mulch until the garden is planted.

I have six garden plots and label them as north or south and then E (East), W (West) or M (Middle). Plot NM is the composting center. There are four peach tree stumps there, and a locust tree—mistakes all. There is also a patch of daylilies. I set the brush pile on top of one peach stump so the coals would burn the remainder away. Mission accomplished. One is below the boxed in compost pile and the other two will be a project for once the mulch is moved to the garden.

Plot SW was covered with grass clippings last year. Having been fallow, I plan to put some of my favorites here. I removed all of the clippings with a fork and moved them to Plot NM for storage. Then I raked the surface, and worked enough soil to put in two rows of Napoli F1 Early Carrots. I haven’t finalized the plan for this plot, but it should be fertile soil.

Plot SM has the early lettuce and turnips I planted on March 20. I removed the fencing and put in a row of last year’s Emperor F1 savoyed spinach seeds. The space where the lettuce, turnips and spinach are will be second planted, and I considered putting in peas next to expand the second planting area. I need to get the peas in the ground before it gets too warm.

I ended the gardening by getting the hose out of storage and watering the seeded areas.

There are always household chores and I cleaned the outside glass on the French door so we could see something through it besides spider webs. We hang a bird feeder there and I filled it with seed.

I swept up the remaining sand from the street in front of our house filling a bucket kept in the garage for next winter. It’s free and it looks nice once it’s removed. There is plenty around the subdivision, but I only take what I need. I used two buckets last winter and the inventory is five.

The kale seeds planted April 2 have germinated and soon I’ll remove the clear plastic cover from the tray. The pepper seeds planted March 21 are beginning to germinate and they will stay under a cover until all of them do. All of the indoor seedlings are growing nicely.

After finishing up chores, I prepared a pasta dinner and read a book. The next work session is scheduled on Tuesday.

Garden Plots
Garden Plots

Categories
Living in Society Social Commentary

Another March Madness

Wild Planet Foods Logo
Photo Credit Wild Planet Foods

While Iowans engaged in the NCAA Basketball Tournament another story was being written by Associated Press reporters Robin McDowell, Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza about food not far from televisions tuned into the games.

Following a year-long investigation, AP broke the story of slave labor being used to fish, sometimes illegally, in Indonesian waters for catch that finds its way to U.S. markets in stores like Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway. You’ll find slave-caught seafood at the food service company SYSCO, and in restaurants. It is also used in popular pet foods such as Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams according to AP.

During its investigation, AP interviewed 40 slaves on the Indonesian island of Benjina.

“The men the Associated Press spoke to on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world,” the March 24 article said. “They were brought to Indonesia through Thailand and forced to fish. Their catch was shipped back to Thailand, and then entered the global commerce stream.”

The slaves interviewed by the AP described 20- to 22-hour shifts and unclean drinking water. Almost all said they were kicked, beaten or whipped with toxic stingray tails if they complained or tried to rest. They were paid little or nothing.

Runaway Hlaing Min said many died at sea, according to the AP.

“If Americans and Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us. There must be a mountain of bones under the sea,” he said. “The bones of the people could be an island, it’s that many.”

There is plenty to provoke outrage among American consumers. Reactions to this story may include a boycott, begging the question who do we boycott? Better yet would be pressuring companies with our pocketbook by making better choices if we consume seafood. The Environmental Defense Fund provides a seafood selector site here; Greenpeace provides a shopping guide for tuna and there are other rating sites on the web. Slave labor is not the only issue with eating seafood.

It is important to note this story about slave labor buried in the U.S. food supply chain would have remained hidden if not for the resources of Associated Press and the work of McDowell, Mason and Mendoza.

Sometimes corporate media does their job, and Associated Press deserves a hat tip on this one.

Read the article “Are Slaves Catching the Fish you Buy” here.

Below is a link to a video version of the same story.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa, titled “Slaves Produce Seafood for U.S. Market”