Category: Living in Society

Politics mostly social commentary.

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Living in Society

Into the Hurricane and Presidential Politics

Hurricane Matthew Oct. 6, 2016 Photo Credit - NASA/NOAA GOES Project
Hurricanes Matthew and Nicole Oct. 6, 2016 Photo Credit – NASA/NOAA GOES Project

Millions of people began evacuating Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in advance of hurricane Matthew. Hundreds are reported dead in Haiti.

Downgraded to Category 3, Matthew began hitting Florida Thursday. It’s expected to pick up velocity.

During the most recent communication with our child in Orlando, she was soaking wet. After determining she had a safe place to stay, I reminded her of Florida’s Oct. 11 deadline to change her voter registration. She’s good in more ways than one.

With Hillary Clinton Jan. 24, 2016
With Hillary Clinton Jan. 24, 2016

My support for Hillary Clinton began as she declared for president April 12, 2015. There was never a question she would win in our precinct, except by what margin. The margin was enough to win two delegates and make Martin O’Malley viable. When O’Malley dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucus we picked up his delegate at the county convention making us three of four for Hillary. My support for Hillary Clinton has not wavered.

The Des Moines Register asked Donald Trump on June 28, 2015 what he would do differently if elected president.

“I would probably comb my hair back,” Trump said. “Why? Because this thing is too hard to comb. I wouldn’t have time, because if I were in the White House, I’d be working my ass off.”

This election is more about hurricanes than hairstyles.

What brought us to the odd and irritating presidential election campaign of 2016 is continued, intentional obstruction of Democratic administrations by moneyed interests beginning with the 1992 election of Bill Clinton. A case can be made this started with Franklin Delano Roosevelt after World War II, but the Bill Clinton administration was a time when Republicans held an ongoing witch hunt working to find something wrong. Politics changed under Clinton and not in a good way.

Hillary survived multiple attacks from Republicans since then, each time ending with a finding there was little or nothing there, including the recent investigations of Benghazi and her email management process while Secretary of State.

We hear about dark money in politics, but it really isn’t a question that Charles and David Koch are key organizers among wealthy people trying to influence, if not buy elections. They and others like them are behind the continuous obstruction of anything in government that doesn’t serve their interests. They have plenty of resources to make their case and taking money out of politics isn’t a long-term solution. I don’t believe it is possible. We should accept that there will always be moneyed interests whose political activities require more sunshine.

Unlike Republicans, Hillary Clinton has been doing her job. She is better prepared to be president than any candidate. The constant attacks and obstruction have made her stronger. It is telling of her strength that Republican Party of Iowa chair Jeff Kaufmann, with little positive to say about Trump, constantly criticizes Clinton.

“The American people have had enough of failed status quo policies which have left them less hopeful for our country’s future,” Kaufmann said in an Aug. 10 press release. “They have had enough of serially dishonest, corrupt, and self-interested career politicians like the Clintons.”

Former Tiffin mayor Royce Phillips’ comments at yesterday’s debate with North Liberty mayor Amy Nielsen in House District 77 represent the accommodation Iowa Republicans make for Trump.

“Do I agree with everything the man says? Of course not,” Phillips said of Trump. He then drew a false equivalency between Trump and other politicians, cozying up to his nominee with every breath.

I call bullshit on Kaufmann, Phillips and other Republicans like them. Kaufmann is a successful campaigner but represents moneyed interests in the presidential race more than he does Iowans. He is experienced in campaigns and must realize that to win he has to keep attacking Hillary Clinton with his every breath regardless of the truth. For Kaufmann and his ilk the election is only about winning and there’s the rub.

Whatever the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, Americans will have reaped what they sowed. My hope is the electorate will send Hillary Clinton to the White House.

In a weird comment during the first presidential debate, seeming to promote his new Washington D.C. hotel, Trump said, “I’m going to get to Pennsylvania Avenue one way or another.” Expect obstruction of Democratic administrations by the richest Americans to continue if Hillary is elected Nov. 8.

For the rest of us, this election will soon be over. We know how to deal with a hurricane by evacuations or by hunkering down in a safe place. We know how to clean up the aftermath and rebuild.

What we don’t know is how the 2016 political campaign will leave us in its wake. Expect the damage to extend well beyond Florida, throughout the country. The rebuilding materials won’t be found at local hardware stores.

Categories
Living in Society Social Commentary

Can Hipsters Live With Congolese Cobalt?

Youth cleaning cobalt ore Photo Credit - Getty Images
Youth cleaning cobalt ore
Photo Credit – Getty Images

The lithium ion battery is becoming ubiquitous.

These rechargeable, portable batteries power our mobile phones, tablets, laptops and cars, providing longer battery life, low self-discharge, better recharge life and comparatively low weight.

Many of us take these benefits for granted, not thinking much beyond the brand of our phone, computer or car — other than the fact it is better with a lithium ion battery.

There are issues with cobalt, a key element in lithium ion batteries, mined and produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the Washington Post,

The world’s soaring demand for cobalt is at times met by workers, including children, who labor in harsh and dangerous conditions. An estimated 100,000 cobalt miners in Congo use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet underground with little oversight and few safety measures, according to workers, government officials and evidence found by The Washington Post during visits to remote mines. Deaths and injuries are common. And the mining activity exposes local communities to levels of toxic metals that appear to be linked to ailments that include breathing problems and birth defects, health officials say.

“60 percent of the world’s cobalt originates in Congo — a chaotic country rife with corruption and a long history of foreign exploitation of its natural resources,” Todd Frankel of the Washington Post wrote. “A century ago, companies plundered Congo’s rubber sap and elephant tusks while the country was a Belgian colony. Today, more than five decades after Congo gained its independence, it is minerals that attract foreign companies.”

Image Credit - Washington Post
Image Credit – Washington Post

Cobalt is not covered under U.S. law regarding conflict minerals. When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, it directed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to draft rules for companies that use conflict minerals — tantalum, tin, gold and tungsten — when deemed “necessary to the functionality or production of a product.”

“Congress enacted (this section) of the Act because of concerns that the exploitation and trade of conflict minerals by armed groups is helping to finance conflict in the DRC region and is contributing to an emergency humanitarian crisis,” according to the SEC web site.

Some advocate inclusion of cobalt in Dodd-Frank rules.

Conditions among cobalt miners in the Congo are deplorable compared to hipsters who use phones in part produced by their hands. Can hipsters live with Congolese cobalt?

Our social responsibility regarding Congolese extraction and production of cobalt is unclear. Like much of the work that supports our global supply chain cobalt mining has been out of site and out of mind. There is no adequate, intuitive answer. Nonetheless, users of lithium ion batteries share responsibility for the conditions in Congo whether we are aware of them or not.

To learn more, read the entire Washington Post article, The Cobalt Pipeline: Tracing the path from deadly hand-dug mines in Congo to consumers phones and laptops, by Todd C. Frankel, Michael Robinson Chavez and Jorge Ribas.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Home Life Writing

Last Bits of Work

Bangkok Peppers
Bangkok Peppers

Two hours before my shift at the orchard I was feeling punk. I went to work anyway.

While ringing up a dozen customers I felt light headed and a bit nauseous so my supervisor sent me home. She didn’t want whatever I had to infect other workers. Good call on her part.

After two four-hour sessions of sleep, I feel much better and am ready to head over again later this morning. Before I do, some last thoughts about this 96-hour staycation in Iowa.

I’m lucky to have worked a full career that paid our mortgage and helped put our daughter through college. There are plenty of people who work low-paid jobs like mine who don’t have that kind of financial platform for support. To make up the difference between income and operating expenses we’ve taken on some debt. We feel it’s manageable and have a plan to pay it off. Like most anyone should, we watch our cash flow. We also have been able to weather multiple challenges in recent years that would have sent others to the poor house if such a thing still exists.

Everything on my “deal-with list” has been addressed. Some things — car repairs, understanding and signing up for Medicare, writing about the Cedar River flood — came easily. Others — financial planning, longer writing projects, producing value from life as a sixty-something — present longer term challenges. What I wrote on Sept. 11 proved to be useful.

The key to dealing with this and everything else on my deal-with list is to take care of myself and not freak out. That I have this blog helps with the not freaking out part. There is solace in work.

I haven’t freaked out and am taking better care of myself as the staycation ends.

Sliced Red Zeppelin Onions
Sliced Red Zeppelin Onions

Canned goods were moved to the lower level where the storage rack is once again full. The production was less than in previous years, but focused on items we will use well over the coming months. Gardening is a perpetual process and this year produced in abundance. The trouble was August when I worked four jobs without adequate time to reap what I sowed. It was a learning point more than disaster and local farmers helped me make up for what was missed at home.

Remaining is fall yard work, home maintenance, financial planning, and most importantly writing. The reason for retiring in July 2009 was to enable my writing. I’ve gotten better at it and am ready for something longer, maybe book-length, which can be promulgated. That and ensuring our sustainability in a turbulent world remain on the deal-with deescalated to to-do list on my white board.

Better prepared to tackle today’s challenges, I’m hopeful. Hopeful about the lives of family members. Hopeful about the community of friends and acquaintances we’ve built here in Big Grove. Hopeful our country will make sound decisions during the Nov. 8 election.

Whatever the outcomes, the brief vacation this week helped get me back to who I am. I’m thankful for that and ready to engage in society again.

Categories
Home Life Writing

A Place To Work

Garage Selfie
Garage Selfie

Only after a couple of days away from daily routine can a person begin to be themselves.

That’s where I am this morning.

I crave a place to work.

Desire is a blessing and a curse. When we want something, we set ourselves up for disappointment. We may get it, but can’t always get what we want.

It is a difficult path to nirvana. I do my best to void consciousness of self. It persists. There are selfies.

Like Eugene Henderson we feel restless and unfulfilled, harboring a spiritual void that manifests itself as an inner voice crying out I want, I want, I want.

Work is a cure for that.

Busy hands make happy children and happy children build a new world.

That’s where I am this morning.

Childlike and craving a place to work.

Categories
Home Life

Vacation – Hour 12

Soup Ingredients
Soup Ingredients

A political meet up, dinner using orchard-fresh apples, watching the presidential political debate on my phone, and five hours of sleep highlighted the first 12 of 96 hours of vacation this week.

I need to get more rest, but not now. Not today.

Awake and writing, soon to be picking detritus from the yard, I expect to spend most of the day outside. According to my weather widget, sunrise is three hours away with zero percent chance of precipitation until after sundown.

The beginning of soup is on the stove — three jars of tomato-y liquid from the ice box and a bag of onions. I’ll add vegetables and seasonings from the garden, ice box and pantry through the day, progressing toward a peasant’s meal tonight.

In the United States we aren’t peasants and homegrown vegetables owe fealty to no one. Raising vegetables is a revolt against those who would enslave us.

I paid my taxes so the land is ours… at least for now. Property rights are an American common denominator stronger than any political party. Having dispossessed those who lived here before, we are free until someone dispossesses us.

A long list of tasks resides on my phone. I left the device on the night stand while I bask in this window of freedom before sunup. Feeling the breeze from the lake, and for a brief moment, being myself against the wind — resisting for a while, then giving way to its cool waves in the predawn darkness.

Categories
Work Life

Crashing into September

Openings to the Dual Septic Tanks
Openings to the Dual Septic Tanks

Things are falling apart so Tuesday I begin four days paid vacation from the home, farm and auto supply store. I plan to catch up around the house and run a few errands in and near the county seat — and try to regain a sense of being in control.

Not counting one paid sick day, I will have made it 64 of 100 in my plan to work 100 straight days.

It is time to deal with existential realities in the life of a sixty-something.

There is a lot of crap going on.

As I posted Friday, autumn began with a flood, one wholly predictable, but still catching many by surprise. Politicians talked about doing something after the 2008 flood to mitigate future flood damage. Not much talk turned into action. One doesn’t need to be Jeane Dixon to predict there will be more, similar flooding caused by heavy precipitation events during the next ten years.

The presidential election is sucking up space to the extent even I’m tuning it out. Tomorrow is the first televised debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. If it is streaming I’ll tune in for as long as I can take it (still haven’t solved the problem of owning an analog television set).

Trump is a ridiculous candidate supported by many of my neighbors and co-workers. The Republican Party of Iowa appears to be running a superior ground game when compared to the Iowa Democratic Party. However, this presidential election is changing the rules, tactics and values of ground games. If both parties have mastered similar Get Out The Vote practices, the next winner will breakout with something new. Trump is trying to do that. The outcome is uncertain even if Clinton continues to lead in the polls. Trump would make a disastrous president if elected.

Perhaps a few days of retreat will help me get centered and facilitate positive action going forward. At least that’s the hope. Right now it feels like crashing into September with a long skid into insanity if I don’t do something about it. I intend to take corrective action.

Categories
Environment Living in Society Social Commentary Sustainability

Protect Environment; Stop Nuclear Weapons

Paul Deaton
Paul Deaton

(Editor’s Note: When this guest column ran in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Wednesday, Sept. 21, its abstract nature became real as heavy precipitation events pummeled Butler County and other parts of northeastern Iowa, disrupting lives there and downstream. Living in an environment where rain damages crops instead of nurturing them; where rivers jump their banks, close schools and displace people; and where Cedar Rapids must protect the city from record amounts of floodwater multiple times in eight years, something’s wrong. We must take action that includes electing a government that will address the causes of global warming and nuclear proliferation, not just deal with the actuality we have created).

Protect environment; stop nuclear weapons
By Paul Deaton
Guest column for the Cedar Rapids Gazette Sept. 21, 2016.
Reprinted with permission of the author

If we accept the premise articulated by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, that we are stronger together, there is a lot in society requiring our collective attention.

There are no lone wolves in human society, although a number of people want to get away from the pack. Can we blame them? Being stronger together is a fundamental characteristic of Homo Sapiens. It’s what we do as a species.

What should we be working on?

It is hard to avoid the primacy of following the golden rule. We should be applying the golden rule, better than we have been, to everything we already do. This is basic.

Two other issues call for our attention, the threat of nuclear weapons, and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Today, on very short notice, nuclear powers can unleash a holocaust ending life as we know it. Nuclear war is not talked about much in the 21st Century; however the threat is as real today as it was when President Truman authorized the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. The United States should take the lead in eliminating nuclear weapons. We need a transformational change in our nuclear policy that recognizes these weapons are the gravest threat to our security and must be banned and abolished.

We are wrecking our environment and should stop. Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, taking carbon out of the ground and putting it in the atmosphere, geographer Richard Heede said. If that’s the case, the move to eliminate fossil fuel use can’t come quick enough. These companies should be targeted for regulation by governments. Companies say they are not to blame for the demand from billions of consumers that drives fossil fuel use. Technologies exist to eliminate fossil fuels, and we should adopt them with haste. One purpose of government is to act as a voice for people who have no voice. Regulating business to protect our lives in the environment would serve that purpose.

After the 2016 election these issues will remain. The first can gain wide support easily. It is time the other two gain parity.

~ Paul Deaton retired from CRST Logistics in 2009.

Categories
Living in Society

Letter to the Solon Economist

Big Grove Township Trustee Ballot
Big Grove Township Trustee Ballot

If you have been thinking of running for elected office, a slot is open on the ballot in Big Grove Township.

Mark Haight is the lone candidate seeking re-election as township trustee for two open seats. Mark has unique skills suitable for being a trustee, so I hope you’ll flip the ballot and vote for him.

I announced my decision not to seek re-election six months ago. To date no one has been recruited to fill my seat and that creates an opportunity.

Is it too late? Not at all.

On the first day of early voting in 2012 I noticed there was only one candidate for two seats. I decided in the voting booth to write myself in and campaign to become a township trustee.

I issued a press release, made a post on my blog, and made one speech at a political event on Cottage Reserve where State Senator Bob Dvorsky allowed me to speak to Big Grove residents. I sent a note to friends and neighbors and won the election with 71 votes.

The Big Grove Township Trustees are responsible to provide fire protection and first responder service for the township, manage the Oakland and Fackler’s Grove cemeteries, and to resolve lot line disputes. Our main activity is preparing and approving a budget each year.

If you’ve been thinking about running for public office, here’s your opportunity to campaign and win. The non-partisan board of township trustees is a great place to get started in politics.

Categories
Living in Society

Iowa Returning to its Roots

GOP Outpost in North Liberty, Iowa
GOP Outpost in North Liberty, Iowa

Tucked away in a North Liberty strip mall in Iowa’s most Democratic county is a Republican campaign office.

The yard signs along Highway 965 are noticeable only for their comparatively large number (five), and one including an image of the GOP elephant and the letters “G.O.P.”

The county had 18,335 registered Republicans on Sept. 1 and regardless of their chances in 2016, Republicans hope to build on their numbers and influence here.

Former Apprentice finalist and Donald Trump Iowa campaign chair Tana Goertz was slated to appear with State Representative Bobby Kaufmann, who represents six precincts in Johnson County, at yesterday’s grand opening. Current office hours are 1 until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, a token presence in a Democratic county.

Iowa is not a Democratic state. It is Republican, such appellation including many voters who register “no party.” If the Republican Party of Iowa was caught off guard by the 2006 insurgency against their terrible governance, they reacted and have their act together more now than at any time since our family moved back to Iowa in 1993.

Expect Iowa to award its six electoral votes to Donald Trump this cycle, contrary to the claims of prominent Iowa Democrats. It’s not just me saying this. Yesterday’s Monmouth University poll showed Trump leading Clinton by eight points with a 4.9 percent margin of error.

“Among Iowa voters likely to participate in November’s presidential election, 45 percent currently support Trump and 37 percent back Clinton.  Another 8 percent intend to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson, 2 percent say they will support Green Party candidate Jill Stein, 2 percent say they will vote for another candidate, and 6 percent are undecided,” according to the Monmouth University website.

A single poll in September is meaningful only as a wake-up call to starstruck Democrats. As readers may know, the author is with Hillary and nothing has changed since I declared for her before the February Iowa caucus. She could indeed win Iowa’s electoral votes. If she does it will only have been if the Iowa Democratic Party changed its process for voter registration and turnout. There is nothing to indicate any substantial changes and 2016 is not expected to be a wave election for Democrats in Iowa. If anything, there is a solid chance the wake from relative Republican unity will sweep the Iowa Senate into a Republican majority. Democrats are working hard to prevent that from happening.

In 2016 people still talk about the Kennedy administration as if it were bathed in the glow of Camelot. What is forgotten is Richard Nixon won Iowa’s electoral votes. 2016 is more like 1960 in that despite Iowa’s participation in the nominating process, Hillary Clinton will win 270 electoral votes, just none of them in Iowa.

Why do I say that?

Unlike in Democratic states, Republican culture has gone mainstream in Iowa. Democrats have invested too much in chattering social media and too little in mainstream presences like university activities, farming, community groups, churches, and the like. By focusing on the outrageous behavior of Governor Terry Branstad, Bruce Rastetter and other prominent Republicans, Democrats left everyday Iowans behind.

Low wage workers are everywhere in Iowa in significant numbers. Based on my conversations with them, if they vote at all, they are just as likely to vote for Donald Trump as Hillary Clinton, whose name the corporate media associates with all things bad.

The kernel of hope that arises from 2016 Iowa Republican hegemony is that after Nixon’s defeat, Iowans elected Harold Hughes governor. Hughes was a liberal’s liberal who was later elected U.S. Senator. Let’s hope Clinton holds her own nationally, and that 2018 can be a comeback year for Iowa Democrats.

There are still Iowa Democrats who haven’t given up on 2016. I hope they are right and I am wrong.

Categories
Work Life

Work in Late Summer

Weedy Garden Plot
Weedy Garden Plot

This week my to-do list turned into a deal-with list and I don’t like it.

The tipping point was the car overheating while driving north on Highway One. There is not enough time to fit car repairs into late summer.

I’m going to have to deal with it.

The pool of liquid in the garage was the first sign. At first I thought it was condensation from the hot, humid weather. When it didn’t evaporate after 24 hours, I became concerned, then the car overheated enroute to the orchard. After checking fluid levels and consulting with friends I was able to make it home without overheating again. Now I have to find a repair shop and arrange transportation while it is getting fixed — all without going broke or missing a day of work. I’m dealing with it.

The key to dealing with this and everything else on my deal-with list is to take care of myself and not freak out. That I have this blog helps with the not freaking out part. There is solace in work.

Saturday I worked the orchard mapping station after my colleague left for the day. The ambient temperature was in the 70s and a breeze blew up from the creek bed cooling everything. I interacted with hundreds of people during the remainder of my shift, hearing about people’s plans to pick and later use apples in baking, making applesauce and storage. Most said they would just eat them. Who wouldn’t?

I also heard some personal things: about a trip to Palestine, protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline on the river, and a story about my mother when she was younger, how she had influenced another woman. Everything was part of a broader society, one with many personal connections, that arrives at the orchard in late summer.

From time to time it was quiet. The breeze was cool and comforting on my face. The exigencies of a deal-with life escaped like vapors, leaving me at the map station where I was content just to be.

My advice is when life has many demands, get to work. Not only can it accomplish something positive in the form of income and work-product, it can help sustain our lives in a turbulent world.