A young rabbit got into the greens patch. At first it ate the carrot tops. I sprinkled some dried hot peppers around them and it looks like they will recover. Now the cute little beast moved on to kale, collards and other cruciferous vegetables. I must do something about it. I grew enough to share but the rabbit doesn’t know any better and will take bites from multiple plants without finishing a particular leaf.
I must remove all the weeds that are providing cover, in the garlic patch and the greens patch. Then, I’ll replace the 2 x 4 welded wire protecting the greens patch with chicken wire. (Why do they call this mesh “chicken wire?”). There is enough season remaining to make the effort worth the time. In fact, kale I planted in February won’t finish until well after the first frost in October. I MUST do these things…
Winterbor kale is as good as kale gets and the rabbit appears to prefer the Blue Dazzling kale and collards. I picked the biggest leaves from our six Winterbor plants, washed, and froze them for winter. No, I don’t blanch them. Just because I grew something doesn’t mean I should preserve everything beyond the season. Winterbor is the best kale, though. I’ll freeze everything I don’t use fresh.
That brings me to mustard greens. I plant them because there are seeds left from previous seasons. There is not much use for them in our kitchen because it is so spicy. One of my recent traditions is to make pesto with them to spread on toast. This year’s batch included a generous amount of mustard greens, Pecorino Romano cheese, pine nuts, garlic scapes, salt and extra virgin olive oil. There are now two small jars ready for use. It is a tasty if somewhat expensive addition to the pantry.
Today, the auto auction company arrives to pick up our used Subaru. With the repairs needed they will likely sell it for parts. I donated it to Iowa Public Radio as I did our last one. I don’t understand how their financial settlement works, although I’m glad they have it. The dealer wouldn’t give us much in trade against the new purchase. We feel we are helping a good cause.
White butterflies flit around cruciferous vegetable plants laying eggs. It is a sure sign summer is here. I spend more time in the garden and noticed increased insect life. In addition to the green worm-producing butterflies, there are plenty of pollinators. Insect life is a blessing and a curse, something with which gardeners learn to live. There should be a big harvest this year.
Using a scissors, I clipped the top parts of chervil plants and held the herb in my hands. The mild anise fragrance was intoxicating. It made about two cups of loosely packed leaves which are washed, dried, and in a tub in the refrigerator waiting for me to figure out how to use the herb.
I plan to make my first batch of pesto today of mustard greens, garlic scapes, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and salt. Mustard is strongly flavored and will dominate the pesto. There is little benefit to adding herbs as they would be overpowered. Will see how it tastes when I get into the project. I have plenty of basil yet I may reserve that for a more traditional pesto.
Today is the first day of summer and we ended spring with spaghetti and peas for dinner. The sauce was made of last year’s tomatoes, vidalia onions, garlic scapes and fresh basil. Tomato sauce so good I had to stop and consider how lucky we are to have a garden. It was a fine way to welcome summer.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Ross Wilburn at the state convention, June 18, 2022.
My dance card is rapidly filling and there is no relenting until the end of the year. With the primary elections in the rear view mirror, it’s hammer down until the Nov. 8 election.
I attended what I hope is my last state Democratic convention in Des Moines on Saturday. I participated in the Senior and Retiree Constituency Caucus where we briefly heard from Admiral Mike Franken. The agenda for the caucus was unclear since officers had previously been elected and there was no new business. Some attendees complained about the types of benefits currently received from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other retirement programs. They wanted more benefits, which is understandable. What Democrats need to do in the midterm election is elect majorities in the U.S. Senate and House so we can at least retain what we have. If Republicans win majorities, they have stated publicly they intend to sunset Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid every five years unless the Congress extends them. While Biden will veto such legislation, I’m not sure voters understand this is at stake.
Parade season, a mainstay of political campaigns, is upon us. At the convention I overheard someone who lives in a rural area say, “People are hesitant to walk in parades because they don’t want to get yelled at for being a Democrat.” There has always been some support and hate from crowds at parades. Part of being a Democrat is standing up to both the good and bad by walking in community parades along with any member of the community that wants to join. While voter concerns about harassment in heavily Republican areas are understandable, it doesn’t have to be that way. Republicans could choose decency and respect for people with whom they don’t agree. We Democrats can’t give up before we get started.
The political speeches at the convention were fine. The messaging was consistent: set aside our differences and focus on winning in November. Much is at stake. Continued Republican rule could be disastrous for everything we have come to rely upon in our government. It has already been a disaster.
I’m having to decline invitations to political events because there are so many of them. I don’t know what we can win this cycle, yet we are about to find out. Tally ho!
Our 2002 Subaru reached the end of its life. The frame is dangerously rusted and other repairs are needed. We can’t get parts for it. If we could find used parts there is no assurance of their quality. If repairing it was possible, what else might break that we couldn’t find parts to repair? We decided to replace the vehicle as quickly as is practicable.
The fact we need motorized personal transportation is a result of our 1993 decision to live in a rural area. Back then, living within commuting distance of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty and the Quad-Cities sounded good. I wanted the flexibility for work. Over time, I worked in all of these places. When in February 1999 I took a job in the Quad-Cities, gasoline was $1.029 per gallon. We inherited a 1989 Cadillac in excellent condition and I continued to commute rather than relocate there. Things have changed since then. We retired and turned our lives inward.
Our need for transportation is real. We have the same existential errands as other septuagenarian retirees: getting groceries and other household items, medical appointments, and occasional trips to the county administration building to take care of business. With the coronavirus pandemic, our trips for socialization have diminished, yet that may change going forward. It all takes transportation.
We spent time researching what kind of vehicle we wanted to purchase and first decided on a new plug-in electric hybrid like the Toyota Prius Prime. A number of friends drive a Prius and they recommended it. The future of personal transportation is electric and we were ready to make the transition.
After family discussions I called the dealer to discuss ordering a plug-in electric and secured a loan to pay for it. It turns out dealerships are subject to allocations from the manufacturer, all Prius products are made in Japan, and the waiting time for a Prius Prime to be delivered is well over six months. In fact, the dealer said he couldn’t accurately predict how long we would have to wait after specifying and ordering a car. For other Prius models, the wait time is less, three to six months according to the dealership. We couldn’t wait that long with the issues affecting our auto.
Our go-to dealership for used cars is the Ford-Chevy dealer in a nearby small town. I arrived around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and they had my contact information in their computer database from the last purchase. We discussed new vehicles and they have the same problem Toyota does: allocation of vehicles from the manufacturer is less than demand and there is a long waiting time. We looked at used vehicles.
Their website had 147 used vehicles in inventory, but the in-person inspection revealed only a couple of them were suitable for us. The sales representatives at this dealership are paid on salary vs. commission and made a conscious effort to be honest and straightforward about the cars without exerting any kind of sales pressure. I identified two options and went back home to discuss. We returned to the dealership later that evening to buy a 2019 Chevrolet Spark LT. Used cars are currently expensive and selling quickly. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity on this particular vehicle. It took longer than anticipated to finish the paperwork so we returned the following day to meet with the business office and finalize the deal. The vehicle was delivered to our home less than 24 hours after I first arrived at the dealership.
On Saturday we went on a day trip to Des Moines in the Spark and it meets our expectations. As a subcompact hatchback, the cargo space is less than we would have liked, yet it will serve until we are ready to go electric. It drives well and there are a number of electronic gizmos to figure out, including how to display Google maps on the touch screen using my Android mobile device. When I bought my first auto in the 1960s, accessories like that didn’t exist. The fuel economy is better than our 2002 Subaru. We were able to make it to Des Moines and back without refueling. Importantly, we can start planning trips again.
I don’t want to contemplate the day when I have to give up driving. I have octogenarian friends who continue to drive and hope to be able to go at least that long. I don’t relish the thought of moving into a city to be closer to amenities. We navigated this crisis in personal transportation and reached a point of stability for now. That may be all we can ask in June 2022.
Newly installed bench on the state park trail, Spring 2022.
Mid-June, the garden is in full production and expected to remain so until September. With everything going on in society — politics, transportation, and malarkey from Republicans — it has been difficult to focus on writing. Maybe at some point I can walk to this bench and take a rest. Not now, though. There is too much else to do.
If Iowa Republicans had their way, society as we know it would be dissolved, leaving scattered family units headed by white, male patriarchs. We would enter a life that was a combination of a Darwinian struggle for existence, non-denominational religion, and rugged individualism. Such families would have many children. Women would be allowed to continue to vote… for now. If one listens to Republican rants from the state capitol, some already believe their chosen tribal relationships are in place.
When Republicans declare war on trans people, or others who don’t lead what they consider to be a traditional life, they will fight until every one of them has been run out of the state or marginalized. The same applies to what’s taught in schools. It’s a crusade. The culture wars are more sinister if we don’t recognize their inherent neoliberalism.
Without saying what they were doing, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican crew embraced a conservative form of neoliberalism that includes private school vouchers, reducing taxes, gutting government spending, reducing licensing requirements, and tactics such as under funding the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to minimize the impact of regulations on business. Their unspoken goal is to enable the invisible hand of a global free market to work its magic. It’s as if they were students of Adam Smith at Milton Friedman’s Chicago school. There was even a Grover Norquist opinion in the June 7 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Understanding the commonalities between Iowa Republicans and neoliberalism doesn’t make us feel better. It helps us understand what is at stake during the coming elections.
Thom Hartmann says the end of the neoliberalism era that began with the election of Ronald Reagan is at hand. What’s next? Voters gave Obama a chance to make changes. When he didn’t or couldn’t make needed changes in our politics, they gave Trump a try.
The surge in Trump support in the 2020 Iowa election is due largely to a lie he perpetrated that he was a populist candidate. His policies did little other than support the flow of money to the richest Americans while impoverishing the rest of us. He was hardly populist despite the fandom. Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley enjoy the support of the grifting ex-president. Reynolds posted she was honored to have it.
Where do we go from here?
People don’t like neoliberalism when they know how it impacts their lives. I would argue Iowa under Kim Reynolds is a textbook example of it. We must point out the neoliberalism inherent in current Republican rule every chance we get. We must do so for as long as it takes to get voters to recognize it. Before that, we ourselves must understand and be able to articulate the meaning of neoliberalism in 2022 Iowa.
It is not helpful that voter turnout in the 2022 Democratic primary election was lower in our county compared to 2018. We hear about doing things different and rural outreach, yet 82 percent of Iowa’s Democratic primary votes cast were in the 26 most populous counties. It is hard to see how any rural outreach would benefit Democrats given that scenario.
Iowa Democrats have no one who stands out as a populist candidate at present. While President Joe Biden is doing good work, the slim majorities Democrats hold in the House and Senate prevent him from doing more. Given the partisan divide of the legislature, Biden has actually accomplished a lot in his brief tenure. Biden’s age is apparent in his mannerisms and speech, yet his policies reflect a righteous attempt to reverse the ravages of neoliberalism. He believe society as we knew it is something that should endure, as should we all.
When I left the house, I planned to weed the onion patch. I didn’t make it there. Instead, I harvested four tubs of greens, replanted under the row cover, and set up the new tomato support system for cherry tomatoes.
I grow indeterminate cherry tomatoes, which means the vines grow and grow until they get much higher than the four foot cages and begin to snake around the garden. I ran out of cages this year so I tried something different, a post and lattice method of supporting tomatoes. I like it because there is less hardware. It should make it easier to manage the vines. Time will tell if the new method is successful. If it works, I may use it for all the tomatoes and phase out the cages.
Spring greens, before insects arrive in large numbers, are the best. Saturday I started a batch of vegetable broth to which I added kohlrabi greens, collards, four kinds of kale, wilted spinach, Fordhook chard, and mustard. It produced a flavorful broth which I’ll water bath can in quart jars this morning. In addition, I made vegetable soup, using the best of the greens.
I harvested cilantro, dill, chives and basil. Each of these herbs has a specific use in the kitchen. One of my experiments was to grow chervil, which is classic French cooking as part of the fines herbes that includes tarragon, chives and parsley in addition to chervil. Next year I must grow tarragon. I’m developing applications for chervil and would appreciate comments about how readers use it.
I grow cilantro for a couple of main purposes, mostly to use fresh on tacos. If I have it, it will go into any Mexican-style dish. It’s the tacos.
I don’t know if the weeds are too far gone in the onion patch. When the sun rises, I plan to give it another go. Here’s hoping I don’t get distracted again.
Our television tuned to C-SPAN for first Jan. 6 Committee hearing.
C-SPAN filled the half hour before the Jan. 6 committee hearing with Republicans whining about how Democrats were the worst. House Minority Leader Mark Meadows reviewed how many days remain until the midterm election (153) and made it clear House Republicans will delay and obfuscate until then. Meadows didn’t say it specifically yet they predict regaining majorities in both legislative chambers. This will position Republicans to return to their radical agenda. God help us.
The benefit of the televised hearing was the committee created a narrative of what happened before and on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. The piecemeal manner in which information had been published as it became known made it difficult for regular citizens to make sense of it. This hearing was a remedy for that. Some things are very clear.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. His advisors, including Attorney General Bill Barr testified they repeatedly told him he lost, beginning in November 2020. While under pressure to do so, Vice President Mike Pence did not delay the Constitutionally required electoral ballot count as Trump requested publicly and privately. Chants of “hang Pence” were heard on video footage presented by the committee. When the violence subsided, the count was made, indicating Donald Trump lost the election.
Trump supported the violence. “Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea,’” Liz Cheney (R-WYO) said. “Mike Pence ‘deserves’ it.’”
When repeatedly asked to call off the mob breaching the capitol, the president declined to do so for a number of hours. In evidence presented during the hearing, Trump encouraged the mob to assault the capitol and stop the vote counting.
“The violence was no accident,” Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said as he opened the hearing. “It represented Trump’s last, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power. And ultimately, Donald Trump — the president of the United States — spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy.”
The events around storming the capitol building were violent. We heard testimony from Caroline Edwards, a Capitol police officer who was injured while defending a barricade. 140 security personnel were injured. There was video footage of violent conflict and use of force to gain entry to the capitol. The video erased any doubt this was a peaceful demonstration gone wrong as some have asserted.
There was a crude yet clear plan for what to do. The Proud Boys, an American far-right, Neo-fascist organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States, planned to assault the capitol building. The morning of Jan. 6, they assembled near it, not on the Ellipse, where Donald Trump was to give his speech. The Proud Boys played a leadership role in planning and executing the tactics of the day’s events. Thus far, five leaders of the group were federally indicted on seditious conspiracy charges. Many other members and affiliates have been indicted on lesser charges. There could be more.
The two-hour hearing drained my energy yet I stuck with it until the end. President Trump was so far off the reservation with his lies about the 2020 election and his efforts to subvert it I needed the hearing to regain some sense of reasonable discourse. We will never be the same after the Trump presidency. It is hard to find a silver lining in that thunderstorm.
We have been blessed with some perfect June days. Temperatures have been moderate and when it rained, it was the gentle kind that nourishes everything it touches. We can’t get enough of these long, beautiful days.
The garden is producing an amazing amount of greens: arugula, spinach, chard, collards, kale, mustard, turnip, lettuce and others. The season is only just beginning.
I’m halfway through the garlic scape harvest. Everything planted the last few weeks has taken and the greenhouse is emptying. There is weeding to do, a lot of it. At the same time there is a brief caesura. I can breathe.
It’s time to elect a Democrat in the First Congressional District, one that will listen to voters after arriving in Washington. That person is Democrat Christina Bohannan.
With the close election of Nov. 3, 2020, decided April 1, 2021 when Rita Hart withdrew her contest from the House Committee on Administration, Mariannette Miller-Meeks had a choice. Either address the concerns of a divided electorate much as Representatives Jim Leach and Dave Loebsack did before her or do something else. What she did was unexpected and unwelcome.
Almost immediately the congresswoman became a parrot for Republican talking points, adopting an “all of the above” energy strategy developed by the oil, coal and gas industries. Society must stop using fossil fuels. This policy is bad for her constituents.
NOAA recently noted carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere hit 421 ppm and continues to increase — more than 50 percent higher than pre-industrial times, a level not seen since millions of years ago.
Miller-Meeks’ junket to COP 26 with the Republican Climate Caucus resulted in her parroting the “all of the above” energy strategy including development of more fossil fuel capacity. Since Russian fuel exports were sanctioned in its war with Ukraine, Miller-Meeks doubled down on this misguided policy.
Voters need a voice in Washington, not a parrot of right-wing talking points. Miller-Meeks works for us, not the fossil fuel industry. She had her chance. It’s time to elect Christina Bohannan on Nov. 8.
~ First published in The Little Village on June 7, 2022.
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