20 miles east of DeKalb the right rear tire blew out and ruined it. There was a two-inch gash, most likely from hitting something laying on the Illinois Tollway. After the noise, we got off to the shoulder quickly and safely.
When I got out of the car an Illinois Tollway H.E.L.P. truck was already parked behind me with his flashers going. The driver waved me away when I approached the truck, pointing to my car. I got to work cleaning stuff out of the back so I could access the spare tire and tools. The driver said he had a jack and offered it. It was the kind one finds in an auto repair shop and just what was needed. Luckily the spare had enough air pressure to make it to the DeKalb oasis where I fully inflated it.
We made it home safely and Thursday I began calling around for a tire. Ours is a common size and I found one easily. There is a catch. The 2002 Subaru is an all-wheel drive vehicle and to a tire person that means just one shouldn’t be replaced, but all four.
I asked a large tire shop salesperson why all four needed replacement and he said only, “because it is all-wheel drive.” An unsatisfying answer to the former maintenance director of a fleet of thousands of heavy-duty vehicles. He quoted me on a set of Hankook tires, about $600. I told him I had to consider it more as I hadn’t planned on replacing all four. I didn’t like his response to my question.
The next call was to my local mechanic. He took the time to explain why I needed four tires instead of one, having to do with the diameter of all the tires matching when the all-wheel drive function is engaged. He doesn’t keep tires in inventory any longer yet he quoted me two options, including the same Hankook tires the large dealer offered at the same price. “We sell a lot of those,” he said. I scheduled the next available appointment.
It’s good to know as I approach age 70 I can still change a tire while parked on an Interstate Highway. The last time that happened, I was on my way home from work in the Chicago Loop. The Dan Ryan expressway during rush hour can be a scary place to change a tire. They didn’t call them H.E.L.P. trucks back then, but an early equivalent pulled up to alert drivers I was there. I don’t know how the tollway figured the budget for H.E.L.P. trucks yet I’m glad they are there.
Many thanks to the Illinois Tollway H.E.L.P. drivers.
Among things that have become harder to manage in the digital age are images. It is easy to take photographs with my Samsung mobile device today. Because it’s so easy, and has been for a while, the quantity of images on file is huge.
Every photograph is not important. Most are geared toward editing and posting on line in one of my social platforms, including WordPress. It is unclear what I should keep longer term. The cheap availability of storage suggests there is no need to sort through and delete some of them. While that may be the default process, I want change as I transfer files to my new CPU.
In August I captured 186 images, which is a typical monthly amount. Most of them are photos of garden produce, cooking, books, artwork, and things that happened or places I went. The best solution to reducing the quantity of files is to delete originals after cropping them for posting. Another is decide on the story a series is to tell. For example, I have 12 images related to donating my 1997 Subaru to Iowa Public Radio. They could be reduced to four. The best time to do this is immediately after I download them from my mobile device.
As I transfer thousands of images I plan to go through them all. To get this done I put an item on my daily outline, “work on file transfer.” I don’t know how long it will take yet I’ll work until it is done, a bit each day.
I don’t know the provenance of many of my photos, especially those with political subjects. In 2006-2008 I was getting used to a digital camera as my main image capturing technology. I felt little restraint about downloading photos by others when my own at a specific event were sub-par. I work harder to give credit today, but some of the older digital images are fond, and I have little idea who made them. I try to avoid using them outside my computer.
A main use of the files is in story telling. Before I deleted my Flickr account it was a great platform for story telling. The problem is how to translate those types of online stories into something more meaningful inside our home. When Yahoo had the problem with personal information security, I killed all the related accounts and downloaded the text from the stories on Flickr. It’s not the same.
Photos are a significant part of my autobiographical research. While ten years later I don’t care what I had for dinner on a given Sunday, those photos play a role in daily life, one that should be explored and developed for the story. A few will go into the final book yet the rest are best stored by editing, printing them out, and placing in an album. That’s as big a project as working through the transfer. The file transfer project will, in part, be designed to set up an album-making project for later.
There is no denying quality varied a lot over the more than 50 years I’ve been taking photographs. Sometimes a blurry image is all one has and it must be used for the album or story to make a point. I hope the formats .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .png, and .tif persist yet there are no guarantees. The main issue going forward is there are a limited number of commercial outlets to print photos. We are tied to whatever those technologies are. It is too expensive to make our own prints on a home printer, except for on special occasions.
As I approach my seventieth birthday I think more about not leaving a large task of image sorting behind when I die. I may want to keep a couple of photos of tomatoes I grew, yet I don’t need a thousand. Likewise, if I can’t remember the name of a person in a photo, there is little reason to keep it. The recycling bin is already getting full.
I’ll be better off by giving this project some measure of thoughtful approach. Now that I’ve started, I hope to persevere until the work is done. The best part will be in actually completing the transfer so I can devote this time to something new. Wish me luck!
Mariannette Miller-Meeks on the Iowa State Fair Political Soapbox on Aug. 13, 2010. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
During the 2020 primary with the late Bobby Schilling, Mariannette Miller-Meeks was heartless. She took an extremist right turn away from constituents and never came back.
It is telling about a person’s character that despite a call from Schilling’s son for both campaigns to cease false, negative campaigning, Miller-Meeks persisted. While Schilling was recovering from cancer surgery, Miller-Meeks ran a television ad criticizing him for not supporting the former president. Her ad asserted: “I am pro-life, pro-Trump.” She beat Schilling in the primary then went on to win the general election by six votes.
Since her arrival in Washington, Miller-Meeks has taken one extreme position after another. She adds her name to resolutions and legislation that go nowhere but attract additional extremist Republican co-sponsors.
Her most recent caper was signing a letter saying she won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling along with Republican extremists Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorne, and Devin Nunes, among others.
When her vote mattered to Iowans, as in the American Rescue Plan Act, she opposed it, aligning herself with the Republican caucus rather than helping Iowans. Where is her concern for constituents? I see very little of it.
Is embracing twice-impeached Donald Trump endearing Miller-Meeks to voters? What I do know is we can do better than Mariannette Miller-Meeks as our member of congress.
~ Published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Sept. 10, 2021.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks on the Iowa State Fair Political Soapbox on Aug. 13, 2010. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
I’m upset about the flag bill, HR 4392, the Flag Standardization Act of 2021.
Why didn’t Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks just call it the “I hate the gay and black people flags act” when she introduced it?
It was bad enough when Republicans reacted to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcement he would permit the “LGBT flag” (in April) and the “Black Lives Matter” flag (in May) to fly over U.S. embassies.
Right after President Biden signed an executive order recognizing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month, the Republican Freedom Caucus skullduggery crew got to work on their own bill, HR 85, the Old Glory Only Act. Joined by such eminent Republican members as Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Madison Cawthorne, and others, the bill had 20 co-sponsors.
It went nowhere.
In the hell’s kitchen of Republican legislation cookery Miller-Meeks’ bill may seem like a compromise. Truth is it is a restoration of the policy of President Donald Trump’s homophobic ban of the LGBT flag on Federal property. We want no part of that.
Don’t Congressional Republicans have better things to do?
United Airlines Flight 175 hits World Trade Center south tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
First published at Blog for Iowa on Sept. 11, 2011.
I was scheduled to fly from Moline, Illinois to Philadelphia on Sept. 11, 2001. My flight was cancelled. I returned to the office, and with the other office employees watched the twin towers burning and then collapse on television. I neither understood what happened nor knew what to do. But I turned to a president, one I believed stole the 2000 election, and said that I would support him after this act of terrorism. We all did.
What I remember most from the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 was my trip to Philadelphia a few days later. The plane was almost empty. As I approached the Eastern Iowa Airport, the radio announcer said President Bush was also heading to Philadelphia on an unannounced trip. Air Force One was already parked at Philadelphia International Airport when I arrived and I drove past it in my rental car heading to Interstate 95. There were hundreds of law enforcement officials stationed along the presidential route.
As I headed North, I passed the presidential motorcade returning to the airport. It was 10:30 a.m. On the radio I discovered that the President was in town fulfilling a campaign promise to visit a women’s shelter. He couldn’t have been in Philadelphia three hours. I shook my head, disappointed that after all that had happened, we were back to politics.
As the hope of getting something done in Washington D.C. this year wanes, and our attention turns to “jobs,” the “Super Committee” and the 2012 Presidential election, we are approaching the tenth anniversary of the event that brought almost everyone in the country together. I am referring to Osama Bin Laden’s successful hijacking of four aircraft and the deaths, destruction and economic damage it brought. It did bring us together, if only for the briefest of moments. Whatever consensus may have existed then, devolved into political gridlock unlike any in living memory.
We know about the deaths that day, and the illnesses of workers at Ground Zero. What we don’t consider enough is the death, destruction and economic damage caused by the United States reaction to Sept. 11, 2001. Hugh Gusterson reports in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and his collaborator Linda Bilmes estimate that, in funds already disbursed or committed, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have so far cost the American taxpayer… $3.2 trillion.” It is noteworthy that this amount includes $200 billion in interest incurred after the decision to pay for the war with deficit spending. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the United States will incur another $800 billion in interest charges on the war debt by 2020. The wars are costing a lot.
In this month’s issue of The Lancet, Vic Sidel and Barry Levy published an article titled, “Adverse health consequences of U.S. Government responses to the 2001 terrorist attacks.” The article reminds us of the fact that there were more than the dollar costs of these wars. According to the article, as of July 26, 2011 there were 1,568 US Military deaths in Afghanistan and 4,408 in Iraq. There have been tens of thousands of US casualties. Likewise there were many times this number of Afghan and Iraqi deaths. Estimates are that 655,000 Iraqis died in the first 40 months of the Iraq War. Millions of refugees in both countries are on the move as a result of the wars. The health care infrastructure in Iraq was damaged, much of it destroyed. Thousands of villages in Afghanistan and their environs have been destroyed. Of 222,620 US military personnel who returned between May, 2003, and April 2004, 42,506 (19%) reported mental health problems and 68,923 (31%) used mental health services over the first year after they returned home. The article continues, but I have made the point: the cost of our reaction to September 11 was in more than dollars.
As we honor the lives lost and damaged by the terrorist attacks, I hope that for a moment we can include those lost and damaged by our political decision to invade Iraq and to prosecute a war with Afghanistan that no one has been able to win after more than thirty years of fighting.
Once we understand the true cost of war, it seems too high a price.
Yesterday the weather was as good as it gets. Today looks to be more of the same. Wherever you are on this jumping green sphere, have a great day! To get you going, here’s the uniquely talented Jimi Hendrix, who left us too soon.
Labor Day weekend work: preserving Guajillo chilies.
For the second year in a row I’m not employed on Labor Day. The kinds of events marking the day are not the same as they were.
An announcement on the Iowa Labor News website read, “Most of the Union sponsored Labor Day events around Iowa have been cancelled, for safety reasons.”
“Safety reasons” refers to the coronavirus pandemic, which is not over, which has no end in sight. “The virus is here to stay,” Governor Kim Reynolds said at a Sept. 2 news conference. “Which means we have to find a way to live with it in a responsible, balanced and sustainable way.” There is no going back to the way things were before the coronavirus came along on Labor Day or on any day.
It’s been 48 years since I carried a union card at a meat packing plant. Since then, private business restructured to minimize its exposure to a unionized workforce. I’m not sure what Labor Day represents any longer. It sure isn’t about unions even if they are the groups most likely to plan events during better times.
Locally grown Honeycrisp apples.
This weekend the orchard began its Honeycrisp apple season, the university had a Saturday home football game, and there is a Labor Day Vendors Market in nearby Mount Vernon. It’s not much considering how many people work for a living. This year’s Labor Day Mayor’s Bike Ride in Cedar Rapids has been cancelled due to the pandemic. Suffice it Monday is a holiday and the weekend can be a time to take it easy.
Labor Day weekend is the “unofficial end of summer.” That’s going to have to do. Since I returned from a trip to Florida at the beginning of July the weather has been exceedingly hot and humid. Sunday morning’s ambient temperature was 59 degrees, reminding us of autumn’s approach. Sumac along the state park trail has begun to change color. There are signs of the end of summer all around.
In February I bought a new CPU to replace the one I’ve been using since 2013. This Labor Day weekend I hope to get it up and running, with files transferred. I face the same issue as in the past: what files do I want to keep? Ready or not, change has come and it’s time to decide. Like with the Labor Day holiday I must act like there is no going back. What is hard is deciding whether that means keeping old behavior or developing new. For now, I plan to work at home on Labor Day.
Text on the postcard: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is coming your way! To find out when, and much, much more, visit www ringling com MAY ALL YOUR DAYS BE CIRCUS DAYS!
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was a mainstay of my youth. Each year they came to Davenport, usually at the levee of the Mississippi River, to put on the Greatest Show on Earth.
A biography of the Ringling Brothers was one of the first books I checked out from the bookmobile after getting my library card. It was interesting four of the Ringling brothers were born in McGregor, Iowa. They inspired us to put on our own show in the backyard of the American Foursquare my parents bought in 1959.
The circus influenced my decision to be part of the high school stage crew where I could participate in putting on shows.
The days of circuses are ending and Ringling Brothers folded the tents for the last time on May 21, 2017. It was a really big deal when the circus came to town… until they no longer did.
My trips to Texas have been entirely business related. I can’t say how many times I’ve been there but since 1984, when I began my work in transportation, maybe a couple dozen times. I may also have stopped over in Dallas on a flight from time to time. I am familiar with the skyline in the approach to DFW airport.
I wouldn’t want to live in Texas.
It is a land of uneducated people and many are proud of the fact. Texans I’ve known were both religious and hypocritical, always in things for themselves or not at all. Thievery was accepted if a person got something out of it and got away with it. Racism was common among people I met. There was a deep-seated hatred for black people treated equally by the federal government. Treatment by the government was a particular catalyst for conversations about injustice to white people. Hispanics? They were needed for labor whether they were documented or not. Hispanics were a permanent underclass during my travels. When I say “uneducated” I’m referring to white folks.
Don’t get me started on the treatment of women. Texas SB8 bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant. No exceptions for rape or incest, just bear the child. If you are 11 years old and can’t get a driver’s license, just bear the child. Got a medical problem during pregnancy? Just bear the child. Naturally, the man’s role in a pregnancy is seldom mentioned. The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to stay the law as it is litigated through the court system, effectively ending a woman’s right to choose in the state. The court’s decision was a step too far even for Chief Justice John Roberts who was responsible for gutting Texan Lyndon Johnson’s Voting Rights Act of 1965.
It’s well reported in the national news Texas Senator Ted Cruz placed a hold on President Biden’s state department and foreign service nominees needing confirmation by the U.S. Senate. It has to do with Biden lifting sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Oil and gas has played heavily in Texas politics since before LBJ was elected to the U.S. Senate. How different would our last days in Afghanistan have been if State was fully staffed with permanent people?
I’m not saying Iowa is much better than Texas. It’s not. Since the Republican Party went off the rails after the re-election of Terry Branstad in 2010 it’s gotten worse here with each legislative session. It won’t be long before Iowa clones Texas SB8, although there is a sticky problem with the Iowa Supreme Court decision in 2018 which said Iowa women have a fundamental right to an abortion according to the Iowa constitution. A news person I know said, “It’s pretty clear that anti abortion organizations feel this is their moment, so the pressure will be there (to pass a law similar to SB8).”
We don’t grow cotton in Iowa yet our approach to controlling agricultural pests is similar: spray them with chemicals until they die. About the best thing I can say about Iowa compared to Texas is we don’t have tumbleweeds here. We have a government controlled by Republicans who say they reflect what people want. I haven’t met many of those people in 60 years living here.
I retain some hope for Iowa. We’ll see how the 2022 election goes before going too negative. Suffice it I have no reason to travel to Texas anytime soon. Not even for a visit to the popular festival, the rattlesnake roundup. We have our own snakes in Iowa. They need to be voted out of office.
Each day it becomes clearer electing Mariannette Miller-Meeks to the Congress was a mistake. Instead of supporting the president’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, on Aug. 26 she posted this partisan comment to her twitter account, “Joe Biden’s withdrawal of Afghanistan has been a failure and has ended with needless deaths and injuries. Joe Biden should resign as Commander-In-Chief!”
She expanded her view in her weekly newsletter. Thus far, Joe Biden is Teflon to her spam, paying little attention to her or any Republican criticisms. Biden did right by ending the war in Afghanistan.
The problem with Miller-Meeks is not the partisan sniping. She is not voting in the best interests of residents of her district. She voted against almost all of the bills designed to bring the country back from the brink of financial ruin and a catastrophic pandemic. The complete list of her no votes since being sworn in last January is pretty long, but here is a partial one: HR3684 Invest in America; HR1319 COVID Relief Act/American Rescue Plan; HR1280 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act; HR1 For the People Act; and HR5 Equality Act.
Replacing Miller-Meeks with a less partisan member of congress who is willing to work for Iowans will not be a cake walk. Redistricting of the congressional districts lies ahead and while Iowa’s Legislative Services Agency, which draws the initial maps, is non-partisan, there could be changes in the political climate based on how LSA adjusts for population change reported by the last U.S. Census.
If we look at ten years of voting history in the current district, it’s clear a Democrat could win back this seat. Once the new map is created we’ll have to take another look. Luckily the Iowa Secretary of State has good data, down to the precinct level on the five congressional elections since the last redistricting in 2011. Another look based on new district organization is possible.
2nd District
Republican
Democrat
Under vote
Total
2012
Archer
Loebsack
161,977
211,863
16,563
398,167
2014
Miller-Meeks
Loebsack
129,455
143,431
5,079
278,468
2016
Peters
Loebsack
170,933
198,571
18,283
388,501
2018
Peters
Loebsack
133,287
171,446
4,774
318,269
2020
Miller-Meeks
Hart
196,964
196,958
19,189
413,989
Congressional election results in Iowa’s Second Congressional District.
Of the 24 counties in the current Second District, four are solidly Democratic (Clinton, Jefferson, Johnson and Scott). Five flipped from Democratic to Republican in 2020 (Cedar, Des Moines, Lee, Muscatine and Wapello), and the other 15 voted consistently Republican. Republicans were aided by the decision of Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate to mail every voter an absentee ballot request form because of the coronavirus pandemic. In my view, this was a key factor in the Republican success in 2020.
Looking at the table, what stands out is “midterm drop off.” More people vote when there is a presidential race and the number of voters invariably drops off during the following midterm election. In addition, during the 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections there were significantly more under votes than in midterm elections in 2014 and 2018. That means a significant number of voters cast a ballot for president but didn’t bother to do so in the congressional race. People who are general election voters only are easily identifiable in the voter databases used by both Republicans and Democrats to conduct campaigns.
The key point about midterm drop off is that during the 2018 midterm, Democratic drop off was 14 percent, compared to 32 percent in 2014. I submit the primary cause of better voter turnout among Democrats in 2018 was having Donald Trump in the White House. He was a motivator for Democrats to turn out. That may also be the case for Republicans yet their midterm drop off in 2018 was 22 percent compared to 20 percent in 2014. The meaning is clear.
If Democrats continue to be highly motivated to vote in 2022, reducing midterm drop off, it could give them the votes needed to defeat Miller-Meeks. Without Trump on the ballot, Republicans would be expected to continue to experience midterm drop off similar to 2014 and 2018 or about 21 percent. These numbers should be re-calculated after redistricting but it is hopeful for Democratic prospects in this increasingly Republican district.
The Iowa Democratic Party studied feedback from the failures of 2020 and shared publicly two things that need to be done to win back seats in the Iowa legislature: centralized fundraising for candidates and year around political organizing staff. I have no comment about the former. Hiring permanent staff is a blessing and a curse. If staff can stay focused on 2022 and organize to get out Democratic voters the way we did in 2018, it will be worth it.
If you want to check my numbers, there is more information in the election data which is available at the Iowa Secretary of State website.
Christina Bohannan was endorsed by former Congressman Dave Loebsack on Monday. That means Bohannan is the establishment candidate in a state where establishment candidates usually win if there is a primary. How the congressional campaign organizes is important. What matters more is motivating Democrats to turn up at the polls and vote the whole ballot. Not only will that give us a fighting chance to take back the congressional seat, but will help in races up and down the ballot.
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