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Blog for Iowa

  • Shrinking the Tax Gap

    On July 14, I participated in an online briefing with former IRS Commissioners Fred Goldberg Jr. and Charles Rossotti on modernizing the IRS and shrinking the tax gap. Goldberg was appointed as IRS Commissioner by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and served three years. Rossotti was named IRS Commissioner in 1997 by President Bill… Read more

  • Is Jessica Reznicek a Terrorist?

    Jessica Reznicek, a 39-year-old environmental activist and Catholic Worker from Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced in federal court June 30 to eight years in prison for her efforts to sabotage construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. In November 2016, Reznicek and Ruby Montoya, a former preschool teacher, set fire to heavy construction equipment at a… Read more

  • There’s a Reason Republicans Call It ‘Communist China’

    “The unprecedented global challenges that the United States faces today—climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, massive economic inequality, terrorism, corruption, authoritarianism—are shared global challenges. They cannot be solved by any one country acting alone. They require increased international cooperation—including with China, the most populous country on earth.” ~ Sen. Bernie Sanders, June 18, 2021 Readers have… Read more

  • A World Without Nuclear Weapons

    While it got scant notice in the U.S. press, the joint statement after the Geneva, Switzerland meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin was significant: We, President of the United States of America Joseph R. Biden and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, note the United States and Russia have demonstrated… Read more

  • High Summer In Iowa

    One of the highlights of the 2021 political summer will be distribution of the U.S. Census data and the decennial re-districting. The Iowa legislature is expected to convene a special session for that purpose in August. In 2011 only two members of the legislature objected to the first re-districting map and it passed unceremoniously. We’ll… Read more

  • Epistemological Crisis

    It’s no secret there is an epistemological crisis undermining the authority of knowledge. It may be the most significant problem to grow out of the Reagan administration. That the discussion of creationism versus evolution returned during the 1980s was only the beginning. There is a difference between justified belief (a.k.a. facts) and opinion and it… Read more

  • Toward Sustainable Pandemic Recovery

    The climate crisis continues in the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic with its economic downturn threatens years of progress addressing climate change and sustainability. It’s now or never for the environment. Governments are expected to spend trillions of dollars in stimulus to get the economy going again. Addressing the climate crisis can’t wait. Climate solutions must… Read more

  • Iowa Summer Pandemic Politics

    Independence Day is over! Time to get rolling on the fall campaign to elect Democrats! Not so fast… The 2020 general election cycle has been like no other. Iowa didn’t stand a chance of influencing the national debate after the precinct caucuses yielded a field of five candidates who were awarded national delegates. Joe Biden,… Read more

  • Thom Hartmann Interview, Part I

    If the Iowa precinct caucuses created doubt about the efficacy of our voting process, we are not the only ones with concern. Thom Hartmann, the number one progressive-talk-show host in the United States wrote the book, The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote and How to Get It Back. It… Read more

  • Media’s Theft From The Commons

    “Right-wing media have been laying the groundwork for Trump’s acquittal for half a century,” Nicole Hemmer wrote in the New York Times. “These tactics (i.e. minimize Trump’s transgressions and paint a picture of non-stop Democratic scandals) are not inventions of the Trump era. They are part of a decades-long strategy by the right to secure… Read more