Saw this family on the trail Tuesday morning. Spring is definitely here!
Our family was discussing whether or not to stock up on things we commonly use like toilet paper, dried pasta, canned beans, rice, tomato sauce, water and coffee. I hear there may be shortages due to the president’s trade policies. The way we provision in normal times is to constantly have a buffer of pantry items on hand in case we can’t get to the store for a couple of weeks. We didn’t go crazy, yet we won’t run out of toilet tissue or pasta any time soon.
The Congress delayed markup of the reconciliation bill until next week. Bits and pieces are becoming known with the biggest question being what they will do with Medicaid. I wrote Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks Tuesday afternoon:
I urge you to avoid changing Medicaid using the reconciliation process. Everyone knows Medicaid reforms are needed. Any changes in Medicaid should be accomplished in regular order in a bipartisan manner. Thank you for reading my email.
At 3:04 p.m. the same day her office responded as follows:
Dear Mr. Deaton, Thank you for contacting me to express your support for Medicaid. Views from fellow Iowans help inform and guide me in Congress, so I greatly appreciate your insight and opinion.
As a physician and former Director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, I understand the crucial role healthcare plays in our lives. I am committed to working with my colleagues in Congress to ensure that state Medicaid programs have the resources they need to help people in need while ensuring the long-term financial viability of this necessary healthcare program.
To that end, I have been working on legislation that will strengthen and streamline Medicaid, such as:
H.R. 1019, the Medicaid Program Improvement Act, which would improve the accuracy and reliability of address information for Medicaid beneficiaries, ensuring seamless access to healthcare services while reducing the chances of people being enrolled in multiple state Medicaid programs.
H.R. 1509, the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act, which would streamline the process for out-of-state pediatric care providers to enroll in another state’s Medicaid program to reduce care delays, while also safeguarding important program integrity measures.
In Congress, I will continue fighting to ensure Iowans have quality access to healthcare.
Thank you again for contacting me. If there is anything I can do to be of assistance, or if you would like to receive my e-newsletter, please visit MillerMeeks.house.gov. You can also follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/RepMMM and on Twitter @RepMMM. Again, I thank you for your opinion and look forward to serving you. Please do not hesitate to contact my office in the future.
She didn’t really address my concern, yet at least someone in their office noted my email. Not holding my breath about “regular order.” Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of partisan cuts Republicans will make when the markup is finished.
I may need another walk along the state park trail.
There is a golden spring season from the appearance of first buds to full leafing out of deciduous trees, flowers, and bushes. Later in May, insects descend upon us and start spoiling the pure beauty of trees especially, but every living plant in our yard. A gardener does the best they can to keep them away from the good stuff. The fragrance and beauty of lilacs is a fleeting spring pleasure.
Spring shows us where nature is if we have the eyes and mind to see it. Our Autumn Blaze maple tree was damaged in the 2020 derecho, and the years since then have taken their toll.The bark is shedding around the main trunk, and there are cracks in the trunk where the derecho twisted the tree around in high winds. I suppose insects crawled into the cracks. The tree can sense something is wrong and this spring grew many more seeds than used to be normal. Their presence indicates the trauma of the derecho and that something is wrong so it needs to propagate. While I may have to climb up on the roof to clean the windblown seeds out of the gutter, the true meaning is that the time left for this tree is limited.
Autumn Blaze Maple tree with seeds on May 5, 2025.
I planted two Green Ash trees before the Emerald Ash Borer was known in popular media to be a threat. The first one succumbed last year and the second did not leaf out this spring. I examined the tree trunks and branches and the tell-tale boring holes where the insects enter underneath the bark are evident everywhere. Luckily the trees are small enough I can remove them myself.
We enjoy the lilac flowers while we can. They are truly a spring blessing.
Over the weekend I assembled the greenhouse, moved trays of seedlings from inside the house, and transplanted tomato starts from channel trays into full-sized blocks. I feel I am way behind on the garden, yet things are moving.
The first day outside is always dicey for the seedlings. It is plenty warm, but the direct sunlight can be strong on them. Lettuce is wilting a bit. I make sure the trays are well watered and cross my fingers, hoping they will recover overnight. I’ll have a better idea how everything went at sunrise this morning after ambient overnight temperatures were in the 40s.
The tray of cruciferous vegetables, kale and collards, is ready to go into the ground. The plot is cleared so I just need to turn it over, fertilize, till the ground, lay down sheets of garden cloth and plant. “Just” is doing a lot of work in this paragraph.
While I enjoy watching seeds grow into vegetables and fruit, I have been less enthusiastic about the garden this year. I plan to cut back by two plots, leaving five. When time allows, the plot by the compost bins will be converted into some kind of storage. In time, I may put up a shed for garden tools. I plan to take better care of the plots that are in production.
I am hoping to get a crop, yet also cut back on the number of varieties. I grow what I can use in the kitchen-garden rather than production of the most produce possible for its own sake. It has me looking at things differently. Any more, I put up tomato sauce and pickles in canning jars and freeze leafy green vegetables to use until the following season. If I have a big garlic or basil crop, I make pesto and freeze pureed garlic and olive oil.
I had a pain in my left hip for the last couple of weeks. Today, I relented and took two ibuprofen after breakfast. It worked. I was able to get through a four-hour shift of loading the greenhouse. I don’t like taking pain medication, but after today’s experience, I might do so again. I find it is a gardener’s friend.
I tried using Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence query for the first time last week. Then I tried ChatGPT. This post is about what the ai software returned with a query of “Tell me about Paul Deaton Johnson County, Iowa.” The responses are at the bottom of this post, yet I think my commentary may be more interesting.
Because of the way responses were written, combined with the fact I don’t have my defense shields up, I’m inclined to believe what I read. The ai software is taking advantage of my naivety. In a text world environment, my default belief is a human has written the text. That’s not at all true with ai software. While most sentences are well-composed, the smooth narrative hides all the stuff that is missing from real life as if it doesn’t exist. It’s a superficial answer to my query.
Naturally, some statements are completely wrong. In particular, I have not lived my whole life in Johnson County. ChatGPT is particularly bad here, saying, “has resided there for over 25 years, living in Iowa City, North Liberty, and currently in Swisher.” I have lived in Johnson County for more than the last 25 years, yet in none of those cities.
Both ai software queries picked up that I worked on Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 campaign. I Googled “Paul Deaton Lyndon Johnson” and found the ai software likely learned this from Bleeding Heartland or the Cedar Rapids Gazette, although I mentioned it many times in public spaces. ai software only picks up stuff that is prominently and publicly available on the internet, apparently. Bleeding Heartland is the source of multiple data points in the queries. I write more about myself on this blog and Blog for Iowa than I have on Bleeding Heartland. ai software appears to be cherry picking information that is most easily available.
There was no apparent reference to the 100 newspaper articles I wrote that were published in Johnson County for the Iowa City Press Citizen, the Solon Economist, and the North Liberty Leader. They weren’t the stuff of Pulitzer Prizes, yet they exist. Likewise, with the exception of Veterans for Peace, there is no mention of the many peace and social justice organizations for which I volunteered. Absent is any mention of working on the campaigns of Dave Loebsack, Rita Hart, Christina Bohannan, or several presidential candidates for whom I wrote letters to the editor. The reason VFP is prominent we made a diligent effort to make sure we were covered by traditional news organizations. That effort got picked up by ai software.
I find the main problem is a bias towards present-day points of view and internet exposure, also called presentism. There is a pronounced tendency to interpret the query in terms of what’s available right now in certain places. While the ai software states some facts about me, there is no deeper analysis. They editorialize in a way that wants to stroke the “Paul Deaton” ego without knowing anything in depth about them. If news organizations are using this kind of ai software to write articles, heaven help us: it is not news.
Here are the query results. I’d be interested in your comments about using ai software.
First, Gemini:
While there isn’t extensive information readily available about a “Paul Deaton” specifically tied to Johnson County, Iowa, several mentions suggest he is a politically active individual within the Democratic party there.
Here’s what the search results indicate:
Active in Johnson County Democrats: Paul Deaton is identified as a “lifelong Democrat living in Johnson County” and a “Democratic activist.” He was even inducted into the Johnson County Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame in 2025. This indicates a long-standing and significant involvement in local Democratic politics.
Political Commentary and Blogging: He is an author at “Bleeding Heartland,” a progressive Iowa politics blog, and also contributes to “Blog for Iowa” and his own website, “Journey Home.” His writings cover a range of political and social issues in Iowa and beyond. Recent topics include reflections on Armistice Day, analysis of Iowa politics, and book reviews.
Early Political Involvement: His first political work was reportedly for Lyndon Johnson’s presidential campaign, suggesting a long history of engagement in Democratic politics.
Views on Policy and Politics: Based on his writings, Deaton appears to hold progressive views. He has discussed topics such as water quality in Iowa, the challenges facing the Iowa Democratic Party, and the importance of political engagement. He seems to prioritize policy alongside political strategy.
Local Connections: He has been involved in local events, such as Armistice Day observances in Iowa City, and has connections with other local figures involved in politics and community initiatives. For example, he mentioned meeting Maureen McCue when they were both on the Johnson County Board of Health in 2006.
In summary, Paul Deaton is a long-time Democratic activist and commentator based in Johnson County, Iowa, with a history of involvement in local and state-level politics and a progressive viewpoint reflected in his writings. (Results of a Gemini query, May 3, 2025).
Now ChatGPT:
Paul Deaton is a prominent figure in Johnson County, Iowa, known for his extensive involvement in journalism, activism, and local politics.
Background and Community Involvement
Originally from Davenport, Iowa, Deaton moved to Johnson County for college and has resided there for over 25 years, living in Iowa City, North Liberty, and currently in Swisher . He is a lifelong Democrat, with his political engagement dating back to the Lyndon Johnson presidential campaign.
Deaton has served on the Johnson County Food Policy Council from 2016 to 2020 and was a founding member of the Iowa chapter of Veterans for Peace . He has also been active in organizing political events, such as candidate meet-ups in Solon.
Writing and Journalism
As a journalist and commentator, Deaton contributes to various publications, including Blog for Iowa , Bleeding Heartland , and The Gazette. His writings often focus on political analysis, book reviews, and social issues, reflecting his commitment to progressive causes.
Advocacy and Public Engagement
Deaton is actively involved in advocacy, particularly concerning peace and social justice. He co-founded the Iowa chapter of Veterans for Peace and has participated in events calling for humanitarian aid and ceasefires in conflict zones. Additionally, he engages in local issues, such as advocating for library funding in Solon, Iowa.
Through his multifaceted roles, Paul Deaton continues to influence and contribute to the civic and political landscape of Johnson County, Iowa. (Results of a ChatGPT query, May 3, 2025).
Larry Pippins died Dec. 2, 2017. Photo Credit – E.J. Fielding Funeral Home and Cremation Services website.
We were at home talking about some of my Army buddies and turned to my friend Larry Pippins. I Googled him and found he died on Dec. 2, 2017, after an 18-month battle with ALS. I hadn’t known. May he rest in peace.
Larry was born three days before me in 1951. I picked this photo from the funeral home site because the way he is standing and the shape of his hands remind me of how I knew him in Germany where we met. I could imagine standing next to him and taking a burger from the tray.
Larry was born in Pensacola, Florida, one of the few native Floridians I have known. He was a male of the South and enjoyed fishing, hunting, kayaking, drinking whisky and vodka, as well as many other activities.
He and his first wife split soon after they left Germany. I stayed in touch with them both until the 1980s. Together they lived in a German castle near Heidesheim that had been subdivided into apartments. I remember more than one overnighter sleeping on the flokati rug they had in the living room. One time, after too much drinking, they had to have it laundered. Those were the days.
We were in the infantry, although he changed his MOS (military occupational specialty) to military police soon after leaving Germany. When we were together, I said the changes we experienced were to transition the military from being prepared for jungle warfare in Vietnam to fighting a war over oil in the Middle East. As so, there we were. He was deployed to the Middle East to support Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I kept a photograph of Larry with a postcard he sent from Desert Shield framed and with a yellow ribbon on it in our Indiana living room until the war was over.
When Larry was accepted to Ranger School I shipped all the fatigues I had left from my service to him to use while in training. Finishing Ranger School was a high point for him at the time. After graduation, he didn’t think Ranger School was all it was cracked up to being. Not a complete waste of time, but close.
When I was living as a writer in Iowa City in 1981, he sent me an audio cassette in which he admonished me to re-join the military. I did not. We fell out of touch after he invited me to attend a change of command ceremony down South and I couldn’t. We hadn’t had a good conversation since we last met in Chicago in the early 1980s.
We spent so much time together in the military and then after leaving our first assignments we corresponded in the days before the internet and email. Tonight I’ll say a prayer for my Army buddy. He lived a decent life full of friends and family. He made something of himself. He was something.
The advertisement read, “On May 1, 2025, we will come together to raise our voices in support of our quality public schools.” The event was volunteer-organized for the National Education Association.
Some students and adults showed up outside the high school in Solon, Iowa on a rainy Thursday morning.
May Day 2025 demonstration outside the Solon High School in Solon, Iowa.
Meanwhile, from Washington, D.C. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy posted the following:
Like many people, I am self-sufficient, reasonably healthy, and don’t like going to the doctor or clinic. I go often enough to catch things before they get bad and mostly take their preventive medical advice. On Tuesday I had the third colon screening of my life and the results were favorable. The practitioners were helpful and congenial. I knew one of them from in real life, although surgical spaces with structured hierarchies and apparel are real life too.
My previous colonoscopy was on Feb. 20, 2015. The visit became a horror show when the physician asked me whether I wanted to add an extra procedure just as I took sedation. This seemed a bit of hucksterism. The treatment plan had been laid out for weeks. While I still had consciousness, I told them no thank you, I came for a colonoscopy, so let’s stick with that.
When I presented for the procedure on Tuesday, there was a protocol whereby I stated my name, date of birth, and why I was there. Then the practitioners repeated “colonoscopy” then they each said “I agree.” Things went much better because of this protocol. In both cases, no polyps or biopsies. On Tuesday, doctor said I was good for ten more years. I thought of the Social Security life expectancy table and said to myself, may I live so long.
Neighbors were involved in both procedures. In the earlier case, the neighbor hooked me up to the saline drip which had the apparatus for administering sedation. The night before, we had a discussion on the telephone about another matter. They had the professionalism to not bring that up while I was getting my IV. The procedure was well done. Tuesday, a different neighbor was called in because there was a shortage of nurses to do all the work. This nurse had been a member of the board of directors of a group I was in. In those days, I did not know they were a nurse. We used the time between tasks to catch up.
The community of practitioners is not very big in Iowa. It seems inevitable there is a relationship between the patient and one or more of the folks in blue scrubs and hair netting. One should be on best behavior… always.
The other thing I would mention about my 2015 procedure is getting a colonoscopy was a communal event. After check in, the morning’s patients were assigned space in a large room with flimsy curtains partitioning off one patient from another. We could hear each other talk and we knew what was going on right next to us. That curtain made for little privacy. In 2025, I had a room of my own as a base where the person accompanying me could wait and I could leave my clothing until needed. I felt the care was more personal in the new setting.
Other than the procedure, Tuesday was a lost day. I used the afternoon to sleep off the sedative. One day in the life in Big Grove. Let’s hope there will be others.
There is an obvious, intentional flight among journalists and others from working at a news organization to producing a newsletter. Many use the platform Substack, yet there are others. They all can attract viewers, and importantly, have a subscription component that can generate revenue. What they do not do is replace the collaboration of working for a newspaper. Substackers are on their own.
On the road to perdition, this seems the next evolution of journalism. It is littered with potholes and pavement cracks. It has all the aspects of a do-it-yourself, one-person start up. There usually is no editor except the author, unless one is lucky enough to join with others to build some basic, on-the-cheap infrastructure. Call it a newspaper, only without union employees or a big fancy building like the Des Moines Register used to occupy. If a writer misses an issue, they may not get paid, yet there is no blank front page to be concerned about. Newsletters are not redemption for the failings of news organizations. They fracture and fragment news gathering and reduce it down to one-person experiences broadcast on a semi-regular basis. There is value in that, yet it’s not the same by a distance.
Ana Marie Cox wrote on Monday, “Some of the best writing out there is from writers striking out on their own.” That may be so, yet what the proliferation of newsletters has done is enable focus on writers readers like to learn from and leave the rest behind. It is easy to build a silo out of newsletters we like, further breaking down the view that a diversity of writers and opinions is of value. The pressures of today’s society and the changing role of media makes us hunker down into our silos and that is not a positive thing.
“(The exodus from legacy journalism) has created something that it is so personality- and brand-driven, so geared to the success of one person at a time, it scares me,” Cox wrote. “Newsletters are atomizing. They incentivize speed and volume. The newsletter ecosystem isn’t built to support doing big things, or doing things slowly, or doing things collectively. Or doing big things collectively, slowly.”
I get most of my news from one of four sources: newspapers, newsletters, emails, and the social media platform BlueSky. Importantly, I seek news sources that are grounded in the human experiences of the author. Such experience comes at a cost, and newspapers seek to drive out costs by using content from sources like The Associated Press, or in some cases by using artificial intelligence to fill a page. When cost concerns trump personal experience, what is called news becomes less engaging, less worth following.
Newsletter writers try to make it on subscriptions, yet it can be a tough row to hoe. Writers know they need more than a newsletter on their financial platform to live a life. Part of the risk of writing an article is it can be a dud. Without the infrastructure of a news organization, that means less pay for the time spent on the article. As a long-time blogger, I realize the benefit of producing posts with 400 to 1,000 words. They can be produced in an hour or two with less investment of time gathering new experience or information. A seasoned news professional knows the ropes and can survive a dud on a newsletter platform. However, there is a need to produce content on a recognizable, regular basis. To be successful (i.e. generate enough income) a writer must produce engaging volume for their followers. That’s tough to do when an article is based on one person’s experience.
I made a few posts in my Substack account and they get a lot more views than my posts on WordPress. Part of that is how they count a “view.” They explain the same reader may count for multiple views while reading an article. I will continue to post unique content there to see what it does. I doubt I would move this blog to a newsletter format because that is already available to subscribers via email. Too, if there was potential to earn a decent income, I would consider more newsletter content. I don’t see that path as viable at present.
Freelancing has been part of the gig economy since long before we called holding portfolios of income producing jobs as such. Freelancing benefits the news organization because there is a fixed price for each piece of work, and because the number of freelancers can surge or be cut back depending on needs. I produced 100 newspaper articles as a freelancer and I neither felt part of an organization nor like I was paid enough for the investment in time. The idea of a gig economy sounds positive until one has to live in it.
I haven’t talked about “content creators” yet. Maybe that is a topic for a different post.
The Big Oak in Thomasville, Georgia. Photo Credit – Wikimedia Commons by Carla Finley
A foundational childhood memory is driving with my family through South Georgia and seeing Spanish Moss hanging over U.S. Highway 319 between Thomasville, Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida. Here is an excerpt from my upcoming autobiography where I wrote about this.
Our family drove from Iowa to visit Tallahassee, Florida, the place Father lived after re-uniting with Grandfather after his release from prison. Family lore is Grandfather’s conviction for draft evasion was a misunderstanding. He hadn’t meant to be a draft dodger during World War II, according to his late son Eugene. Apparently, there was a problem with the U.S. Mail service, he said. Father spent time as a teenager in the area and graduated from Leon High School. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army with his brother Don.
That trip was to visit relatives in Wise County, Virginia, according to a conversation with Mother. The Tallahassee stop was a side trip, although look at a map and see it was not on the way. I don’t recall whether the memory occurred southbound or northbound, maybe both.
I sat in the back seat of the family automobile as Father drove on two-lane Highway 319 where Spanish Moss hung from oak trees with branches extending over the road. I suspect it was live oak trees, yet I don’t know. Mother was in the passenger seat, I was in back with my brother and sister. Except for Dad, we had never seen Spanish moss before. We did not have that in Iowa. We visited the plantation where Father stayed, the high school, and maybe stayed over with a relative, I can’t remember. These events and the long trip at slow speed along U.S. Highway 319 rolled into one with my trips commuting back and forth between Tallahassee and Thomasville for work.
For three months in 1997 and 1998, I was assigned to a logistics project in Ochlocknee, Georgia. I flew home from Tallahassee every other week, driving the same road I had as a child, U.S. Route 319. Oak trees lined the highway, their branches leaning over the highway were hung with Spanish moss. I lived there long enough to recognize other flora and fauna, in particular, pine forests and pecan plantations. I made this regular trip between Ochlocknee and Tallahassee for most of my stay.
The main memory, of this drive is essential. It is an unchanging remembrance of something seen as a child in a way that shaped me. It has no time or place. Some days I don’t know if it’s real. It is the human condition to believe it is real, and eternal. So, I do.
The U.S. president looked like an old man struggling to descend the steps outside Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome Saturday morning. He leaned his head over and looked down, watching each footstep like a person who needed assistance on the stairs leading to Saint Peter’s Square where the requiem Mass for Pope Francis would be celebrated.
It seems clear at the end of week fourteen Trump is not in charge of the government. If there is a power player in the administration, it is Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Budget and Management. Vought also played a primary role in creating Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, also known as Project 2025. It is as if they are implementing Project 2025 policies page by page.
It is also clear the administration is in a hurry to gather all power it can in the executive branch of government, under the president specifically. Some describe this as conformance with the unitary executive theory, according to which the president has sole authority over the executive branch of government. In our government today, the legislative and judicial branches continue to have a role to play, including funding the administration and its agencies, and adjudicating what is out of bounds. The president signs executive order after executive order pushing our form of democracy toward the guardrails designed by the founders. No one knows if the guardrails will hold. Some of us have faith.
The Congress returns from Easter recess today. If their work seems superficial in the coming days, the more consequential work of shaping the administration will continue behind the scenes in the lead up to the budget reconciliation vote expected in late May. With the closely divided House, there will be tremendous pressure for Republicans to hold to a conservative budget, one that formalizes some of the president’s executive orders. Everyone knows all it will take is a few Republican House members to vote no to scuttle the conservative dreamscape of government. Democrats cannot afford to let the reconciliation bill pass without a fight.
The playing field is prepared, the players are known. While Democrats are playing defense, they must stick together and find a few Republicans to join them. This alone makes it worth contacting our members of Congress to let them know that the power and money grab by the well to do will not stand.
Journey Home 
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