April has gotten very busy. There are dozens of tasks to do at home and farm work has kept me busier while my warehouse work and newspaper writing continue at the same level. It seems impossible that I had eight jobs at one point last year. Working three jobs fills the time if it doesn’t produce enough money to get ahead.
Farm work has been planting, planting and more planting—in the field, in seed trays, in the high tunnel. Yesterday was lettuce greens and broccoli. The day before onions and soil blocking. Today, I will seed some trays before cleaning up to head to the warehouse.
The challenge is to find time for our own garden. When I receive next week’s work schedule a priority will be setting aside a home work day.
A livestock farmer spent yesterday preparing his fields to plant corn. His planter is maintained and ready. Another spread fertilizer, complaining of a sore throat because he had the tractor window open.
Everyone’s busy with spring. That includes me. The garden needs planting before Memorial Day. It’s five weeks away, but it seems like tomorrow.
Out in the country good stories get circulated. I don’t mean Liz Mair’s self-described “incendiary” piece on Hillary Clinton, or other tales of paid punditry emanating from inside the D.C. beltway and nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
Here’s one that circulated earlier this week as an example:
FARMER: I’d like to see Hillary Clinton again.
ME: I thought you caucused for Obama.
FARMER: I did, but I met her. Did you hear my story about that?
ME: No, I didn’t.
FARMER: Well a friend invited me to the Democrats annual barbecue and I was in the rope line. I can’t recall whether I had just shaken Hillary’s hand or was waiting my turn. Up came George McGovern and I said, “I don’t suppose you remember me, but I ran your campaign in San Francisco.”
MCGOVERN: Of course I remember you.
HILLARY: Well I ran your campaign in Texas.
FARMER: Yeah, but we won.
I don’t tell the story as well as the farmer, but a couple of things are important.
First, who thought Hillary would be so competitive on a personal level after being a first lady and U.S. Senator? Contrary to what some people say, Hillary made a strong effort in Iowa during the run up to the 2008 caucuses. Even I got an invitation to meet her personally in a small group setting. Some of my best friends and neighbors supported her and got involved in politics—some for the first time—because of her campaign. While there is the famous memo, what gets forgotten is she disregarded the advice.
Second, it was the reforms of the Democratic party after the debacle of the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention that brought us the Iowa caucuses in their present form. McGovern had a hand in those reforms, and Jimmy Carter was arguably the first presidential candidate to leverage them in 1976, beginning with his appearance at the Iowa State Fair. There are still some Harold Hughes for President backers in our county who can tell the tale of what went on to bring about the changes in the Democratic party.
And finally, Hillary is a fighter. This link to an excerpt from the Benghazi hearings shows what kind of fighter Hillary Clinton is. Most readers have seen it before. Of the national Democrats traveling Iowa presently, Jim Webb, was Born Fighting and established an exploratory committee. Elizabeth Warren is a fighter, but is likely not running for president. Not to be dismissive of other hopefuls, but that’s it.
There are other great stories circulating in rural Iowa. I hope to have an opportunity to tell a few more.
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.
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.
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:
Helping working families succeed, building small businesses, tackling climate change & clean energy. Top of the agenda. #Hillary2016
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.
Former 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.
Biggest O’Malley applause line of the night comes after he stresses the importance of unions. Hoots and hollers, standing ovation.
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) April 11, 2015
@GovernorOMalley pushing the needed issue buttons. Hearing hoots and hollers from audience. #iacaucus
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.
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”
The full moon eclipsed before disappearing behind clouds in a predawn sky. It reminded me of the vast and quiet universe and how small our lives are in comparison.
I like to think we are somewhat important. Not so important that people would start saying how much we suck. But more than a piece of animate dust in the universe. Somewhere in between.
Looking for a while, I went inside and got about the day.
It’s been a dry March and El Niño has begun.
“A drier March and a drier first one-quarter year was last recorded in 1994,” said Harry Hillaker, state climatologist. “Much of Iowa, the upper Midwest, and the central and northern plains states have been very dry over the past five or six months.”
The good news this year is above average precipitation is expected during the first year of El Niño. We’ll see what happens. The second year is expected to be drier.
My work at the warehouse included a shift near the floral display. I could have spent the whole day watching women choose cut flowers. Tulips were popular. Young girls favored inexpensive, colorful bouquets. One can’t but wonder what lived behind the looks, gestures and touches as bouquets left with them. I noticed many adult women wore a pair of sunglasses on top of their head. They say it was sunny outside.
Tomorrow is Easter.
The sign at the Catholic Church proclaimed, “He is Risen!” When it comes to the risen Lord, I don’t believe that any more.
I believe in redemption.
It is hard to believe we can be redeemed from the sins and errors of our lives. There is a god and we fall short of his standards. We are sinners and it would be surprising for a deity to redeem our transgressions. It would deprive us of our humanity. Redemption must come in another form.
Each of us wants to go on living. Some may despair, but if I believe anything, it is in the persistent desire to go on living on Earth. To go on living, something is required of us.
Wanting, we reach for tomorrow, never to touch it. If that’s all we do with our lives, we are lost to a fate worse than eternal damnation. Deliverance will come by releasing tomorrow in favor of today.
Relief to isolation caused by an eclipsing moon; hope like cut flowers blooming briefly before the compost.
We shall be released of our mortal debt too soon. If we are lucky, not before we go on living—here and now.
It’s working folks who pay taxes and each year there are life lessons learned through this necessary intrusion.
We fund our government and help produce income that proceeds obviously and directly to the richest people on the planet. We make a life for ourselves while doing so.
As businesses have driven out operating expenses over my lifetime, the notion of security escaped into the ether. Everyone is affected, although there is a tremendous advantage to those whole own capital. When a person has capital, there is less worry about security from anything except populist uprisings.
For the rest of us, to sustain a life one must embrace living without security. It’s likely been that way for most people.
Our tax rate is 20 percent this year, including federal and state income tax and local property tax. It seems high and it was hard to come up with the cash despite a frugal lifestyle. As a result of hard work lasting decades, the checks are written except to the state where the filing deadline is April 30. I’ll likely pay that soon so the bill is not hanging over the household for another month.
This year’s tax cycle brought some learning.
Hidden from the analysis is the cost of health insurance. Because of our projected 2014 income level, we were eligible for a tax credit to subsidize our policy payments. Including the tax credit and what we paid, the premiums for a policy were $13,756 for 2014. Luckily I made more money in 2014 than projected. Unluckily we had to pay back part of the tax credit because of our success, creating a cash flow issue.
According to Medicare.gov, Medicare covered 48.7 million people in 2011 at a cost of $549.1 billion. Do the math and the annual cost per person was $11,275. Assuming health insurance providers have a better ability to manage their business, and the cost to provide care is substantially lower than what Medicare pays, the gross margin of providing health insurance must be about 20 percent or more. That is way better than being in the transportation and logistics business as I was for 25 years.
The numbers don’t include the billions of dollars being taken out of the health care system by the reforms of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The ACA should have reduced costs for health insurance providers. It is fair to say health insurance companies were handed an opportunity to do very well under the ACA, especially those that held firm on initial premium rates.
The other learning has to do with the life I led that year. At one point I worked eight part time jobs. In the end they did not produce enough income to make ends meet, which favors working less jobs that each pay more if that’s possible.
It felt unjust that for those that generated a 1099 I had to pay a flat self-employment tax, while those that paid me as a contractor but didn’t generate the form were taxed at a lower rate. Operationally there was no difference, but tax-wise, it was better when I didn’t receive a 1099.
Bottom line: more is not always better when it comes to working multiple jobs.
I like the ownership brought by contributing to society in the form of paying taxes. What I didn’t expect was that providing health security would be such a large part of our budget, or that compensation for doing the same work would be so uneven. As they say, live and learn.
I predict there will be more lessons as we sustain our lives in a turbulent world.
Some of my neighbors vote only in presidential election years.
How do I know? Using the county auditor records, which can be purchased in spreadsheet form for around $10, I’ve studied their voting patterns since reactivating in politics in the wake of the Gore v Bush election.
It’s not that I’m snooping, although in a way I am. As a precinct activist, it was important that everyone in the neighborhood be accounted for in every campaign. It still is.
I know who to ask what when it comes to politics, and have to live with my neighbors the rest of the year. There is a social courtesy as important as winning elections. What’s wrong with Iowa Democratic politics is a lack of focus on this basic aspect of living in society.
Jerry Crawford exemplifies the worst of it. He was on Iowa Press with Bonnie Campbell and Jessica Vanden Berg last Friday.
“In all the races I’ve been involved with of various kinds it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Crawford said. “Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party, our ticket in this state desperately needs the general election assets that Hillary Clinton will bring as our party’s standard bearer. That’s the way we recover from what was a very, very tough 2014 election.”
This quotation epitomizes the top-down strategy that has done some good things in Iowa Democratic Party history, but has become outdated and should be blown up.
Crawford’s bias toward party insiders is clear in his statement about the Democratic congressional race to challenge Rod Blum in the first district:
“Monica Vernon was first in up in the first congressional district,” he said. “There’s now some noise about Ravi Patel and somebody from Saturday Night Live whose name I can never remember, which is a clue. I do think Monica has an advantage going in up there because of the service she provided to the party as the lieutenant governor nominee when everybody knew that was going to be a tough slog.”
It is easy to review and criticize statements by public figures. No doubt Democrats would be suppressed if substantial financial resources were not forthcoming from a national candidate. Yet winning has become more difficult in an era where the Republican ground game has improved since the 2004 general election. Winning takes more than money.
What’s a person to do?
Giving up on the party is not a good option, but a change is needed. Just read this profile of Crawford by Ben Terris in the Washington Post or the article by Zalid Jilani on Alternet about his corporate clients and tell me why someone like Crawford represents the best direction for Iowa Democratic politics. He is the past.
Vanden Berg’s views on Iowa Press represent our future.
“There may be a difference between what Hillary needs to do to win and what Iowa democrats need to build our party,” Vanden Berg said.
What have Democrats done lately to build the party?
There is stuff going on. Bill Gluba, mayor of Davenport, State Senator Bob Dvorsky, House minority leader Mark Smith and Senate majority leader Mike Gronstal supported the recent trip to Iowa by Martin O’Malley in separate events. This is part of party building whether one supports O’Malley or not. More events like this would be helpful.
What matters more is the regular conversations individuals have with neighbors, friends and family about politics. It’s harder because people don’t want to talk about politics. At the same time, there is an open question of who might join an electorate that will support what’s best for Iowans.
Anymore, party identification isn’t the best indicator of who may join in supporting a candidate. People who will win elections will also engage anyone and everyone at some level. In the end, we all have a stake in every election.
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