Tag: politics

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Living in Society

Joni Ernst: Lying Liar of the Liardom

Signing the Police Pledge – Photo Credit – @joniernst Twitter Account

Tonight at 7 p.m. Democrat Theresa Greenfield debates her Republican opponent, the incumbent, junior U.S. Senator from Iowa.

Greenfield is expected to be well-prepared for the face off on Iowa Press. She should lay out her plans to make health care more affordable, and to protect Social Security. The link to a live stream is here.

Why didn’t I mention her name? Joni Ernst, the lying liar of the Liardom, may be pathological and I don’t want to get into other possible personality disorders. I want to be as focused as Greenfield is expected to be tonight.

What set me off is Ernst lies about Theresa Greenfield’s position on police reform and systemic racial injustice. Those are both issues requiring our thoughtful attention. By rendering the discussion into hyperbole and outright falsehoods, Ernst preempts any serious discussion or debate.

Epitomizing the distraction, on Sept. 3, Ernst signed the so-called “Police Pledge” from the radical conservative group Heritage Action. Here’s what it says:

A lawful society—free from mob rule and violent insurrection—is not possible without Law Enforcement.

Police Officers have chosen a noble profession. They dedicate their lives to upholding the law and protecting the sacred rights of their fellow citizens. As a profession, they deserve support and respect.

I stand with America’s Police and pledge to oppose any bill, resolution, or movement to “Defund the Police.”

The statement seems reasonable until we realize it is an attempt to rally around our police officers as a political calculation. I mean, who doesn’t like law officers we get to know in our communities? Ernst’s hyperbole and blatant lies about Greenfield obfuscate the issue. Instead of having a reasonable discussion about police reform or systemic racial injustice Ernst distracts us.

What lies has Ernst told? Here is one.

“But I see that my opponent and presidential candidate Joe Biden, you know that path is defund the police,” Ernst said in an Aug. 11 interview with KCAU. “It is encouraging others to rise up against the government.”

At no time has Greenfield, or Joe Biden for that matter, supported defunding the police. Greenfield has been explicitly clear. She does not support defunding the police. Instead, she believes we need real reform with more transparency and body cameras, more civilian oversight and Department of Justice reviews, and better racial bias and de-escalation training and standards, along with other long-term investments to address racial disparities in policing, housing, health care and education, according to her campaign. Greenfield said something similar on multiple occasions.

Here’s another lie:

“My opponent will support a position of dismantling our police, not just correcting injustice as it is out there, but actually getting rid of the police, which is not the direction that Iowans want to see,” Ernst said at the Aug. 26 Spencer Daily Reporter forum.

Nope. Theresa Greenfield doesn’t want to get rid of the police.

Here’s a third lie:

On Sept. 3, Joni for Iowa sent a press release titled, “Iowa Democrat Theresa Greenfield Denounces Police as Racist.” Three days later, at the Crawford County GOP Tractor Parade, Senator Ernst claimed that Theresa Greenfield said police are “systemically racist – which means that every single sheriff’s deputy, sheriff, every police officer, every trooper up there, she’s calling them racist.”

Theresa Greenfield has never once said that all police are racist. Ernst’s lies falsely manipulate Theresa’s comment on WHO-TV’s “The Insiders” where she said that “we do need to address systemic racism, not only in our policing, but in our housing policies and systems, in education, in health care, in financing, lending, and so much more.”

Like normal people we expect to hear candidates debate issues that matter. Instead of promoting that type of discussion Ernst seeks to distract from her own shortcomings.

Let’s face it, I’ll rarely agree with Senator Ernst. However, I believe that instead of rallying around the police we should address the actual mob rule and violent insurrection going on as conservative Republicans dismantle our government, assault the idea of equal protection under the law, and loot the commons. Here the junior senator seems a willing co-conspirator.

Highly recommend watching the debate. Let’s see if the lying liar from the Liardom can speak any truth.

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Living in Society

Sunday Turn Around

Soybeans coming out of the field in Johnson County.

As the odometer hit five miles I stopped and turned toward home. A light rain began.

Pedaling at 15 miles per hour I rode ahead of the rain cloud. Real rain would come later in the day, in the afternoon, on my political yard sign pickup event.

A week from today the county auditor will send out vote by mail ballots. Increasingly my energy is devoted to the election outcome. It will be a long, hard ride to Nov. 3. I’ve been in training for the coming month and am ready.

Everything else takes a back seat as I help bring this home.

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Living in Society

It’s Time to Vote

Voting by mail.

The auditor sends out the first vote by mail ballots Oct. 5. I can’t wait to get mine. I’m hoping Democrats sweep Iowa yet the races are tight.

The Des Moines Register released a poll saying the presidential race is tied. What’s curious is Biden leads Trump by 20 points in every demographic of women and Trump leads Biden by 20 points in every demographic of men. If you want proof women are smarter than men there it is.

I’m voting for Theresa Greenfield for U.S. Senate because she’s smart and disciplined. During my interview with her this spring she stayed on message. She remains so despite the buckets of tar outside groups throw at her. Greenfield also understands the risk reelection of President Trump poses to Social Security. Trump would eliminate payroll taxes and bankrupt the trust fund by 2023. Greenfield is engaged, tough, independent and persistent.

Rita Hart is a farmer and former teacher. During her opponent’s three previous campaigns I spoke with Miller Meeks at parades. There is really no comparison between the two. Hart has the experience Iowa needs, the energy to get things done in the Congress, and she puts people over party.

Lonny Pulkrabek is the change we need at the statehouse. I like Bobby Kaufmann personally, he’s a hard worker. At the end of the day he votes with Republican leadership which is taking the state in the wrong direction. We know Lonny has the experience to make a difference in the Iowa legislature.

Please vote on or before Nov. 3.

~ Submitted as a letter to the editor of the Solon Economist

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Living in Society

Rita Hart on Iowa Press

Rita Hart

Thursday, Sept. 24, Second District Democratic Congressional candidate Rita Hart debated her Republican opponent Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Press.

Here’s the link. Starts at 15:35.

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Living in Society

Turning Point 2020

Predawn light. Sept. 20, 2020

A few things in the election campaign need doing before turning toward home. Compared to past years the work ahead is enough to keep busy yet less.

Chaos in the pandemic response, racial tensions, economic turmoil, and the obvious impact of global warming made it easier to get to this point in the 2020 election cycle.

I’ve been discussing candidates with friends, family and neighbors. Everyone is planning to vote. Most have decided for whom.

I want to finish the lit drop for the state house candidate, take a look at our budget to see if we can afford another contribution to congressional candidate Rita Hart and state house candidate Lonny Pulkrabek, and finish the last writing for the campaigns before boxing up the memorabilia and moving on. Unlike in past years we won’t likely have a final get out the vote gathering or operating center in town because of the coronavirus pandemic.

What bothers me most about 2020 is the inadequate government response to the coronavirus pandemic. If African nations, with a lot fewer resources than the United States, can control the virus what is our problem? I don’t have good answers.

The fact that Russia is blatantly trying to influence the outcome of the election gets to me. It’s not because I viewed the former Soviet Union and Russia as an adversary while serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany. It’s because Republicans apparently agree with the Russian view that reelecting Trump serves their purposes. When did we become susceptible to Russian propaganda? I don’t know but Trump is without question their favored candidate. What the president does to contain Russian global aggression is pitiful. Did he think we wouldn’t notice?

The issue of China is problematic. In a new world order with the United States diminished by the president’s America first agenda, China is rising. They have been for a while. It’s been 11 years since I retired from my job in transportation and logistics when the appetite for American companies to do business with China could not be sated.

There were many examples, Hon Industries in Muscatine is one. They pursued a deal with China to manufacture and distribute office equipment in the Asian market. Manufacturing costs were much lower in China and there was proximity to developing markets combined with transportation infrastructure to export the goods. Doing business in China seemed obvious from a global perspective. The kicker was they could own no more than 49 percent of any China-based business, surrendering control to the Chinese. I don’t know how this worked out for Hon but they were vulnerable to the Chinese and deemed it worthwhile to expand use of their technologies into new markets.

Republican politicians repeat the words “Chinese Communist Party” without end. If China was such a good business partner a short while ago, what turned us on them now? The answer sounds dumb but rings true: the problem the president created with his management of foreign affairs is coming home to roost. Instead of managing diplomatic and economic relations with China the president let the whole thing turn into a mess. Our former governor now outgoing ambassador to China Terry Branstad’s personal relationship with the Chinese president couldn’t stop the president’s inept policy.

Part of the president’s message is about jobs. It is incoherent. For anyone following this as long as I have, history tells a different story about job migration. Once President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA the job exodus began. Jobs first went to the Mexican side of the border where labor was cheaper than in unionized plants in the United States. These plants were called maquiladoras. Ultimately corporations left Mexico and chased cheap labor around the globe, ending up in China and Southeast Asia. As I’ve written previously, there is no bringing those jobs back. The global system American business created would be difficult and costly to dismantle. I’m not sure we want it dismantled.

Whatever the outcome of the election we’ll go on living. As the disaster of 2020 governance has shown, it will be better with Democrats in positions of power. I’ll continue working to elect Democrats until the polls close on Nov. 3. At the same time I am ready to turn toward winter and what’s next.

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Living in Society

Business as Usual

Cottage Reserve from Lake Macbride Beach

In a first for this blog I’m publishing a post by another author. I met Kim Painter during her election campaign for Johnson County Recorder in 1998. She continues to serve as recorder. I have the Painter yard sign I put up back then but don’t use it any longer because she has run unopposed for reelection. Readers may recall I frequently write about Big Grove Township. The Cottage Reserve, the subject of this article, is located in our township.This article first appeared in The Prairie Progressive in print edition. It is reprinted here with permission of the author.

Business as Usual by Kim Painter

Once in a great while, though you think you know what your job is and what it means, the earth of the greater wide world beyond will shift, sending you off-balance in a signal moment of realization. Suddenly the job is not what you thought, but rather all that and much more. For me, it’s happened a few times. Once, when same-sex marriage went from being a contentious back-room LGBT community issue to a national, front-burner fastball coming hard across the plate. Suddenly the media spotlight was intense, emotions ran high, and I was operating at a whole different level than on a day-to-day basis. Day-to-day kept coming to be sure, but so did this other social and civil rights issue with a life and velocity all its own.

It happened more recently when a gentleman wrote to me asking for some assistance with a research project. The man was F. Wendell Miller Professor of History at the University of Iowa, Colin Gordon. He wanted all our deed document images from 1900-1950. It was a new kind of request, for which there was no current template.

He explained that he hoped to get the digitized images into a file to run through optical character recognition (OCR) software. He and his class would then scan for phrases like “the Caucasian race” to locate what we now call ‘racially restrictive covenants.’ Back then, they were called business as usual. I was hooked on the idea, and proceeded to work with our software vendor and county IT staff to load the entire 50 years of deed documents into a file for him. It was a privilege to play a small role, and it is a marvel that today, all documents of this sort in Johnson County and Iowa City are online and mapped. The work is found here: https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/mappingsegregationia/.

As I began this article I was struck to recall a third occupational epiphany, a personal one. Some 15 years ago, I was printing off some covenants and restrictions for a customer with questions about a potential property boundary dispute. The situation was unfolding out around Lake Macbride, at what is known as the Cottage Reserve. My eyes stopped on a page, widening considerably, as I slowly comprehended in full the following verbiage:

(6) The said Cottage Reserve area is hereby platted for the sole use and benefit of the Caucasian Race, and no lot or parcel of ground shall be sold, owned, used, or occupied by the people of any other race except when used in the capacity of servant or helper.

Please note the awful and purposeful use of the word “used,” as in “used in the capacity of servant or helper.” There’s no mistaking that meaning. People of color are able to occupy space on this property only if being used… by white people.

As if the above weren’t clear enough, consider the fast-following item (7). It prohibits the ‘keeping or maintaining of hogs, cattle, horses or sheep.’ So in near proximity to reserving the Reserve for the sole benefit and use of the Caucasian race, people of color are categorized alongside hogs, cattle, horses, or sheep.

Again, there is no mistaking the meaning. This is what we thought at the time. This is what we ordained and enforced in legal documents. It is a mark of racism’s insidiousness that such documents were so
often mundane in one paragraph — stipulating maximum heights of garages or number and kind of outbuildings, delineating collective
use of shared roads or wells—only to pivot in the very next to equating entire swaths of humanity to livestock, allowing their presence only if white owners were using them.

Often, when the topic of reparations is raised, one observes the heads of certain kinds of white people exploding, if quietly. People of that sort might seek enlightenment in these covenants and restrictions, which were stipulated in property transactions from the early 1900s until outlawed in 1948. They were of like kind across the nation.

Consider the financial implications of the sheer volume of parcels
restricted in this manner. Tote up the generational losses of wealth caused by the absence of just one home and its plot of land from one family. Have you ever borrowed against your home and land? Think of all those who help kids through college by doing that very thing, and how many people of color had no means to do so. How many lost educations, how much lost income, what final tally of all the wealth lost forever to families over time? It is breathtaking to contemplate. And it all starts on pieces of paper, the day-today documents that come through an office as people buy and sell homes and property. It is that simple, and that monumental. In way, it mirrors racism itself.

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Living in Society

Work Ahead

Burn pile, Sept. 18, 2020.

On the driveway, under starlight, I remembered Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It will be a busy fall Saturday.

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began with the governor’s March 9 proclamation there is a can and bottle drive at the high school. We don’t drink many beverages that come in cans yet I have six cases of glass bottles to recycle. I don’t know which charity gets the deposit refund although one person organizing the drive is a member of the school board.

While in town I plan to deliver seven sets of political yard signs. My supply of most signs is close to depleted. We are supposed to get more from the Biden-Harris campaign this month.

Yesterday we re-submitted requests for absentee ballots. A judge ruled our first requests, and those of thousands of others, were invalid because of a paperwork issue. Make no mistake. We will vote.

I expect politics to dominate our daily lives until the election results are known. The Commonwealth of Virginia began early voting on Friday. The line lasted for hours and is a harbinger of what’s to come. Turnout is expected to be higher than normal for a presidential election.

These are not normal times.

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Living in Society

Derecho Clean Up Persists

Turn around on the Lake Macbride State Park trail.

Tuesday morning I cut the fallen locust tree trunk into segments and stacked them along with other firewood produced after the derecho.

It will take several more shifts to cut and sort the remaining damaged tree branches. One of the oak trees needs removal once there is room for it to fall. After that I can get the garden ready for winter, beginning with garlic planting in a couple of weeks.

The call of politics dominates my awareness. I spend time each day improving our chances in the Nov. 3 election. I’ll be spending more time. The stakes in this election are too high to sit on the sidelines.

I’ve learned to take care of myself in times of stress. That’s something we all can and should be doing. As the sun rises it’s difficult to see what today will bring. We must be active agents, not only in our own lives but in our lives in society regardless what light shines on us.

Voting begins on Oct. 5, 19 days from now. One can feel the surge of Americans moving toward election day. Part of it we can’t influence. Part of it we can and that’s where I’ll spend my daily political time. I hope readers will join me by making sure close friends and relatives have a plan to vote.

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Living in Society

Eroding Liberal Centers

Tomatillo casserole with potato, onion, tomatoes, garlic and basil.

Johnson County, Iowa, where I live, is distinctively Democratic. The Republican Iowa legislature doesn’t much care for our deviance from their plans.

In 2010 we were the only county in the state to vote for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Roxanne Conlin. In 2014, Johnson County stood alone in voting for Jack Hatch as governor. “We are the most Democratic county in the statewide races by a very consistent margin,” election official and long-time blogger John Deeth wrote.

Said margin doesn’t mean beans in the scope of statewide elections. If one subtracts Johnson County from statewide and presidential results since 2000 the political outcome and the winners would have remained the same.

Let’s be clear, my political precinct voted for Donald Trump by a substantial margin, as did several others. When I write Johnson County is liberal I’m referring to the urban centers comprised of Iowa City, Coralville, and to a lesser extent, North Liberty. Rural areas near Lone Tree, Tiffin and Solon are more like the rest of the state than the liberal metropolis.

Republicans have noticed and are taking aim.

The county would ban concentrated animal feeding operations if we could. There are votes on the board of supervisors to do so. Managing CAFOs was one of the first areas of the law where the legislature preempted local control, saying hog and cattle lots would be managed from Des Moines.

The Johnson County supervisors raised the county minimum wage. Not every municipality in the county went along with the change. Some other counties also raised the minimum wage. The state legislature preempted local control over minimum wage, nullifying Johnson County’s ordinance.

Protesters in Iowa City have long sought to shut down Interstate 80 as a way to stop business as usual and gain attention for their causes. I participated in one such interstate shutdown in 1971. Republicans increased the penalties for this infraction, although the Iowa Highway Patrol, which is responsible for the interstate, hasn’t been able to prevent protesters from attempting to close it. Protesters closing the interstate highway remains a sore spot for Republicans.

There was talk in the legislature of penalizing so-called “Sanctuary Cities.” I worked with a local group of faith and labor leaders to get the Iowa City Council to declare the county seat a Sanctuary City. They declined to do so because of the stigma attached to the appellation. That hasn’t stopped Republicans from calling our county a Sanctuary County, and our cities Sanctuary Cities.

Our county favors reasonable gun control. No one wants to take guns away from everyone. Most of us would ban the AR-15 and other assault and military-style weapons, and better control the way in which sellers at gun shows operate. The Iowa legislature, especially under House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, will have none of it.

The effect of constant Republican efforts to erode what makes Johnson County a liberal center is not without its effects. The reaction to Republican preemption in governance has been to make us more liberal. At the same time our liberal nature is isolating us within the state.

Republicans keep after us, including attacks on the keystone of our local economy, the University of Iowa. Through decreased funding, and installation by the board of regents of President J. Bruce Herrald, a man without substantial academic credentials, they erode what’s best about the university and as a byproduct, our economic life.

Iowa City is also hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The state would not allow a mask wearing mandate and the city and county implemented one anyway. I was in the county seat yesterday and the percentage of mask-wearing people was about 50 percent. Enforcement is close to zero. It’s no wonder there is uncontrolled spread of the virus in the county.

If the Trump administration ever finishes the U.S. Census count, there will be political redistricting for the 2022 election. Iowa expects to keep its four congressional seats. I expect Johnson County will gain at least one full time state legislator and we will elect a Democrat in that district.

It seems possible to regain control of the Iowa House of Representatives this election cycle and we are working toward that end. People say it’s possible to flip the Iowa Senate as well, but I doubt it. The Republican Party of Iowa is in full campaign mode, defending every seat where a Republican is running. Even former governor Terry Branstad is returning to the state to help with the campaign, announcing yesterday he is leaving his post as U.S. Ambassador to China. If anything, the political landscape will result in Democrats becoming even more concentrated geographically and Republicans harder to beat.

To some extent Johnson County Democrats painted a target on their back by pursuing liberal policies. That leads me to say while Republicans take aim at us liberals, I hope the rest of Iowa Democrats are using the diversion to gather strength and rebuild Iowa as a progressive state. We should be a progressive state and the only way we will return to our roots is by developing a statewide Democratic footprint. I’ve been around long enough to believe that’s possible.

Republican attacks on our county are irritating yet tolerable. They are not going to end soon and hopefully will provide cover for our Democratic friends and allies throughout the state. The Nov. 3 general election will be a bellwether to show us which way the state is going.

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Living in Society

Turn to Autumn

Rural Polling Place

It feels like summer is turning to fall as the general election approaches. It’s the final stretch.

Whether disinformation and obfuscation combined with intentional confusion regarding absentee ballots will be a winning strategy for the president’s re-election remains to be seen. Think about that sentence. What the heck kind of politics is that?

Even with Russian operatives echoing the president’s talking points (or is he parroting them?) the people with whom I discussed the election this weekend feel we have to do something about this president. Even lifelong Republicans feel Donald Trump should be voted out of office and plan to vote for Joe Biden as president.

Perhaps some in the United States support this approach. I believe a majority do not and will show up on election day.

There are some, myself included, who believe where there is evidence Trump should be prosecuted, stand trial, and if found guilty, imprisoned. It’s certain if Joe Biden wins the Nov. 3 election he won’t pardon the then former president after Jan. 20, 2021.

I reviewed our budget and made some political donations yesterday. I will also be spending part of each day working on electing Democrats. On the Labor Day holiday there are no good excuses to hold back. It’s all hands on deck!