This year a group of Ukrainians with temporary work visas joined us at the orchard.
They were hard-working and fun to be around.
Their contracted wage far exceeds the $185 per month they can earn in Ukraine from their trained profession as English teachers. The visa sets a specific hourly rate of pay and the host is required to provide round trip transportation to Iowa plus housing. They can stay for up to eight months at a time. The Ukrainians went home to their families after the season, although each of them plans to return in a couple of months to help prune apple trees.
Saturday I drove to the orchard to pick up apple cider and frozen cherries. While there, the octogenarian friend who referred me showed up. We talked with the owners long enough for my spouse to wonder where I was. We ran through the usual topics —the hickory nut harvest, Gold Rush apples, cooking projects, which books we were reading, activities of mutual friends — and told jokes, usually one at the expense of another. It was a great conversation among friends.
We live in the same political precinct and have common political interests. We discussed the surprising plan to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within a few years, and scuttlebutt about Democratic candidates considering a run to replace our state senator Bob Dvorsky when he retires at the end of 2018.
Multiple sources told me local internet personality Zach Wahls and former diplomat Janice Weiner are both kicking tires on a state senate run. I’ve not met either of them and it was news to my co-workers. While politically engaged, each of us has bigger fish to fry than politics.
The orchard sales barn will be open next weekend and that’s it for the year. I’ll need more cider… and conversation by then.
Everyone wants work that’s fairly paid. Once one accepts a work contract — agreeing to work for a wage — that usually ends discussion about compensation. We turn to our co-workers and the life we share in a place and time. If the job is any good we don’t talk about compensation, work hours, or much of anything but the idea of what we do and how to do it better. This has been the case most of my life in every job I’ve held.
At the home, farm and auto supply store we recognize it as lowly paid work, not just for hourly employees but for management. Yet we engage in work as a team and do our best to meet our goals. Employee turnover is high in retail and based on my experience compensation is not the driver. What matters more is it’s relatively easy to get retail work and if one keeps their nose clean and shows up, the employment and paycheck are predictable. A job easily secured is one easily left and that drives turnover. Our workplace is a stopping point for many people enroute to something else.
One of my colleagues was recruited from the sales floor to help check in freight during our busy season. We talk while working. Cognizant of his low wages, he said, “you get what you pay for,” indicating he would work harder if paid more. I’m not sure about that but didn’t tell him so. He is already a hard worker compared to others, and his income contributes to a household with his wife and two children. The job means something to him, but he’d leave it on short notice if a better one came along. We don’t talk much politics at work but he wears a stocking cap and coat with the word “Trump” screen-printed on them.
As my worklife winds down before taking “full retirement” next year, I value the people with whom I spend time. They are a diverse group and I hope to add something to our relationship before I go — remembering the past and living each moment to the fullest extent. These are stopping places, part of a long, personal journey that’s not over. As Robert Frost wrote in 1923, “I have miles to go before I sleep.”
The trouble for Iowa Democrats is a too long primary season fraught with internal competition. “Competition” is saying it politely.
On Dec. 2, U.S. Representative John Delaney (D-Maryland) began his fifth trip to the Hawkeye state as a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Delaney may be unrealistically early, but the presidential candidates are expected to help during the midterm elections next year, more than a year before the Iowa caucuses and two years before the general election.
There is an open race for governor after Terry Branstad resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to China. Republicans have two major candidates, and Democrats have seven. The primary election is June 5, 2018 and already Democrats are running television ads, sending mass mailings, and campaigning all around the state. Part of what’s good about early activity is it can activate people to pay attention to politics.
Whether early activity actually does activate people is an open question. The calls to knock doors and make phone calls for primary candidates in a supposed “ground game” six months out ring hollow in December. Democratic activists will use all the time given to pick and choose among people who are running and vote in the primary or caucus for their favorite presidential candidate. If, as in previous election cycles, the rest of the electorate lets political parties nominate candidates then choose among them a week or two before the election, the activation aspect of a long primary is rendered null. There is little to indicate 2018 or 2020 will be any different from the past.
What is my beef with current Democratic politics? Everything takes too freaking long.
In 2015 I had an email exchange with political operative and race horse owner Jerry Crawford. My issue was
The better question is what are Democrats doing to bring new people into the process? Prove me wrong, but they aren’t doing much except dusting off the same old sawhorses for the post-caucus campaign. Is anyone else tired of hearing the name Jerry Crawford?
Crawford unexpectedly responded, defending himself, “I got involved in politics as a teenager and one of the problems in Iowa is that at age 65 I am still younger than many activists.”
After a back and forth in which Crawford enumerated the ways he sought to bring new people into the Democratic Party, I wrote,
Democrats could use a better organizational strategy. The current one, which came into use beginning in 2004, alienates grassroots activists by being top-down, and not listening to what people in the community are saying. There is no evidence that changed with Hillary 2016. Democrats in a precinct, who seek to get active in politics, should be given more power to contact every voter living there, and not just ID people supporting our candidate, but invite them to join us in the struggle for social and political justice, which is bigger than any single candidate. We all have our dreams and that’s mine.
I don’t bear any political ill will toward Crawford. With Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price’s recent comments, I feel somewhat vindicated:
“In Iowa,” Sioux City Journal reporter Brent Hayworth wrote, “Price said a lesson from the 2016 election was the so-called coordinated campaign, where candidates tap the state party for help, ‘has not been working, it has been too top down.’”
I wish the party under Andy McGuire had realized this before the 2016 election. If wishes were horses, Jerry Crawford’s jockeys would ride in a society where our current government favors capital over labor.
What is next?
I have grown to dislike the Iowa caucuses. The 2015-2016 fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders went on far too long. There was never any serious doubt Clinton would be the Democratic nominee whether or not she won Iowa and Sanders supporters focused their energy on taking Clinton down rather than on winning the general election. This created a electorate where former Obama voters flipped to Donald Trump, not only in my Johnson County precinct, but in Democratic strongholds across the state. The long caucus battle, with a close result, and continuing acrimony contributed to the Republican victory in the general election. I understand giving up the early precinct caucus presidential preference activity would change Iowa politics. Borrowing a phrase from gubernatorial candidate Ross Wilburn, who didn’t mean it this way, “Let’s be Iowa” without the caucuses.
Thus far the seven Democratic gubernatorial candidate have played things mostly Iowa nice. While I’m not as active politically as I was in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 campaigns it seems clear the winner of the June primary for governor will be one of three candidates: Nate Boulton, Fred Hubbell or John Norris. Cathy Glasson and Andy McGuire are doing the work of a state-wide campaign but seem unlikely to prevail in the primary because of ties to old ways of campaigning: Glasson to the John Edwards caucus campaign in 2007, and McGuire to campaigns run during her tenure as Iowa Democratic Party chair. At this point, I don’t feel a pressing need to pick a gubernatorial candidate for the June primary but intend to see how things play out among them. That I feel a luxury of time is part of the problem with Iowa Democratic politics in 2017.
We don’t have time because what matters more in 2018 will be community organizing. That’s a much different approach to politics and Democrats abandoned it in favor of data analytics and targeted canvasses to win elections. What community organizing means is being active in our communities and getting things done with other people who live there.
What kinds of things? Water issues, sewer issues, economic development, budgeting, road use, public safety, planning and zoning, emergency services, school boards, cemetery maintenance, public health and other ultra local issues. The reason there is no time is the Iowa Democratic Party may develop policies to support values that impact these areas, however, local problems must be solved by local people who are willing to get involved beyond voicing an opinion. That means everyone regardless of voter registration. Once we work within our communities, we open a door of influence. While it may seem self-serving, it means influencing people to vote for our candidates. This is precisely what Republicans have been doing and it’s time Democrats got on the playing field.
My advice? Forget about the run up to the primary and work in your community to effect change with which people can agree. That may mean giving up the long road trips to attend political events and using the time to get to know our neighbors — all of them. It’ll take some wrangling to get this done, but I’m confident we can move onward in pursuit of a better politics and a better government. We have to.
Today is the first day of shotgun deer season. Until Dec. 17 Iowa shows its culture in tradition-laden, bloody and violent detail.
The deer population needs culling. The damage they do in nature and on farms goes mostly unnoticed by city dwellers. The closer one lives to the land, the more empathy there is with the deer hunt. My solution to deer over-population — re-introducing wolves — is not going to fly where cattle, hog and chicken producers and ranchers live.
Roughly a third of Americans say they or someone in their household owns a gun, according to PEW Research Center. Estimates vary but there is about one gun for every man, woman and child in the United States. Given that reality, hunting serves a purpose to promote education, safe gun ownership, and proper handling of firearms. Gun ownership rates have been in decline since the 1970s.
I encountered a herd of deer on my way back from the home, farm and auto supply store last night. I’m pretty sure they sense what is coming. Many of my colleagues at the store are deer hunters. In some cases, husband and wife hunt together and mount their trophies side by side in the living room. Last year’s Iowa deer harvest was reported by hunters as 101,397, a typical year.
Iowa’s hunting culture seems sane and a bit reassuring against last week’s tumultuous news cycle. Opening the Twitter app on my smart phone was like viewing a portal directly to hell. Reading this week’s news stories was like drinking from a fire hose that left me ragged and didn’t suppress the hellfire. I felt thirsty for more after each Twitter session.
Given that, what to write about?
Despite what’s been in the news ad nauseum (Republican Tax Bill, Flynn flipping in the Mueller probe; emoluments investigation; U.S. boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony; Interior Department selling vast seams of coal from national monuments for $0.41 per ton; EPA discarding Obama era rules requiring mining companies to fund cleanup from hard rock mining) the story that stuck with me is related to how we can change all the junk we see. Elections still matter and the 2018 election matters a lot.
Brent Hayworth, reporter for the Sioux City Journal, wrote about a Nov. 30 meeting of 110 Democrats from South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska held in Sioux City.
“Let’s do something and not just have lunch,” Linda Smoley, chairwoman of the Siouxland Progressive Women said. The group worked on strategy to turn out voters during the 2018 election.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price attended the meeting.
“They said we would never win again, we could just go out to pasture,” Price said. “Democrats do what we always do — when we get knocked down, we get back up.”
This verbiage could have happened at any Democratic meeting after a tough election. Here’s what made the difference:
“In Iowa,” Hayworth wrote, “Price said a lesson from the 2016 election was the so-called coordinated campaign, where candidates tap the state party for help, ‘has not been working, it has been too top down.'”
This was a key learning experience for me during past campaigns. Price acknowledging it, and potentially doing something to change our political campaigns, validates the idea Iowa Democrats must and will find a new path forward to regain control of elected offices currently held by Republicans.
Good news during a hellish week. Better news than I expected.
(This note on the Tax Reform bill was sent this morning to U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst.)
I ask you to vote no on the final tax reform measure being considered by the U.S. Senate this week for these reasons:
As a low wage worker, I don’t see any benefit to me personally or to people like me whose annual income is less than $30,000.
By reducing revenue to the federal government the tax bill will force cuts in areas not covered by the bill. While cuts are needed in defense spending, my concern is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will have to be cut. As a low-wage worker I rely on those programs.
I spoke with my state legislator, a Republican, and he said Iowa is waiting to see what the Congress does to craft 2018 state tax legislation. As you should know, Iowa is failing to generate enough tax revenue to fund programs at reasonable levels. Cuts in revenue based on federal legislation are unneeded tampering in this time of fiscal stress.
Thanks for reading my email.
Regards, Paul
Response from Senator Chuck Grassley, Dec. 6, 2017
Dear Mr. Deaton:
Thank you for contacting me about tax reform. As your Senator, it is important for me to hear from you.
I appreciate hearing your thoughts on tax reform. There is broad consensus that our tax code is in dire need of reform. It was last reformed just over 30 years ago. Since that time it has grown out of control in length and complexity with taxpayers cumulatively spending over 6 billion hours annually complying with its dictates. Small businesses are estimated to be burdened with $15 to $16 billion annually in compliance costs. These are resources that would be better spent growing their businesses. Moreover, our outdated corporate tax system puts American companies at a competitive disadvantage as they try to compete in a 21st century global economy.
The Senate recently passed tax reform legislation that would make good on our commitment to provide significant tax relief to the middle income taxpayers, while making the tax code simpler, fairer and more pro-growth. Some of the middle-income tax relief in the bill includes nearly doubling the standard deduction, doubling the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child, reducing the current law 15% bracket to 12% and the current law 25% bracket to 22%, meaning hardworking Americans will see more money left in their pocket to spend, save, and invest as they see fit.
According to an analysis by the Joint Committee on taxation, on average every income group will experience a tax cut with the largest percentage tax reductions in the middle income groups. As an example of the tax relief under the bill, a median income family of four would see a tax cut of nearly $2,200. Moreover, the reform bill would make the tax code more progressive with taxpayers earning more than $1 million shouldering a larger share of the tax burden than they do under current law.
Additionally, the Senate bill lowers the burden on middle class families by eliminating the tax penalty in the Individual Mandate. Iowans who have decided that Obamacare is too expensive for them are penalized by the federal government. More than 52,000 Iowans in 2015 were forced to pay the individual mandate tax. Over 80 percent of those who paid the tax made less than $50,000 a year. That’s a tax on working families, and this legislation does away with it.
The bill also enacts much needed tax relief for job creators providing a significant deduction on business income for small businesses, effectively lowering their top tax rate by nearly 9 percentage points. Moreover, the bill lowers the statutory corporate rate down from the highest in the develop world to 20% in 2019. This will allow U.S. corporations to create more jobs and pay higher wages. Economists generally agree that a significant portion of the corporate tax falls on workers in the form of reduced wages. Estimates of the burden of corporate tax on workers range from 25% to more than 70%. While the exact amount may be debated, one thing is clear; corporate rate reduction results in bigger paychecks.
I understand some are concerned that tax reform will add to the deficit. I agree it is important for tax reform to be done in a fiscally responsible way. Our tax reform proposal is designed to spur economic growth, which will result in more taxpayers and more revenue for the federal government. If tax reform spurs as little as .4 percent of additional growth on an annual basis that would equate to about $1 trillion in additional revenue. In truth, if we are ever to get a grip on our growing debt we can’t continue to settle for the anemic growth of less than 2% we have experienced since 2010.
I also understand that there is concern that the bill will trigger a budget rule under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, which some have claimed could lead to across-the-board cuts in certain government programs, such as Medicare. However, the Act has never been enforced since its enactment. Congress has acted to prevent a sequester on 16 occasions, and there is no reason to believe that Congress won’t act this time. Moreover, both Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan have pledged to work to ensure that these spending cuts are prevented.
Tax reform will provide middle class Americans with financial relief, make U.S. industry and workers more competitive, create jobs across the country, and get the economy growing again after years of stagnation. There’s still work to be done. The legislation now goes to conference and will have to be reconciled with legislation passed by the House of Representatives. This is a historic opportunity to help Americans from every walk of life. I look forward to working with my colleagues in both chambers to deliver on our promise for middle class tax relief.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Chuck Grassley
Response from Senator Joni Ernst, Dec. 22, 2017
Dear Mr. Deaton,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about federal programs, such as Medicare, that support folks during their retirement. Your feedback is critical to me, as I know many of our elderly neighbors rely on the valuable services of this program. I am committed to ensuring that Medicare remain accessible and viable for current and future recipients.
On December 22, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the first comprehensive tax reform in over 30 years. The law will provide significant tax relief for low- and middle-income families by doubling the standard deduction and child tax credit and lowering rates across the board. For a family of four earning the median income of $73,000, it will reduce taxes by $2,058. A single parent with one child who earns $41,000 would see a $1,300 tax cut.
It also makes significant changes to the taxation of businesses in order to make the United States more competitive with other developed countries and stimulate wage growth for middle-class workers. It would lower business tax rates for job creators of all sizes, impose a one-time tax on assets that businesses hold overseas, and establish anti-abuse taxes designed to prevent tax evasion.
As you shared with me, concerns have been raised in regards to the Medicare program and the pay-as-you-go rule, also known as PAYGO. PAYGO was first established by Congress in 1990 as a mechanism to help eliminate and reduce the deficit through immediate reductions to certain mandatory spending programs, such as Medicare. Social Security and Medicaid are not subjected to this rule. Since enacted, Congress has waived this rule from going into effect on numerous occasions.
Our seniors paid into the Medicare program with their hard-earned, taxpayer dollars with the assurance that Medicare would be an available option upon their retirement. We must preserve and protect Medicare for Iowans receiving benefits today, as well as for our children and grandchildren. We made a promise, and as your U.S. Senator, I am committed to keeping that promise.
On December 22, President Trump also signed into law H.R. 1370, which provides funding for government operations through January 19, 2018. Further, you will be pleased to know that H.R. 1370 also waives PAYGO, and no subsequent cuts to Medicare will go into effect. I supported this effort.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your input with me on this important matter. Feel free to contact me with any further information as I always enjoy hearing from Iowans.
I’m not a fan of human physiology. Given a Cartesian outlook toward life, I’d rather not think about or acknowledge my physicality even exists.
Yet there it is, influencing my daily affairs in ways I don’t comprehend. The physicality of others impacts everything I do in public and in private. My physicality — driving a lift truck, operating a bar code scanner, lifting bags of feed, sitting in meetings with other humans — impacts others as well as myself. For at least a moment, I should consider and endeavor to understand physiology.
Maybe in another life.
“I think, therefore I am” has been my beacon since I was a grader. I call it Cartesian now but its roots are in serving as an altar boy a few blocks from home in the Catholic Church and in the convent located on the upper floor of our elementary school. I’d come home from daily Mass and read what today is called juvenile literature printed on cheap paper and mailed from places of which I’d never heard. I became fixated on my own awareness and with the fact that other people, places and things existed and had impact on me. I felt separate from their reality, connected only by ink on paper, conversation, and radio and television. I became aware that in fact it was a reality.
The origins of a Cartesian outlook have roots further back in my hospitalization for a head injury at age three.
“What I learned through the injury and recovery in the hospital was that there is an infrastructure of knowledge and caring to support us when things happen,” I wrote in 2009. “This experience assured me that although we are vulnerable, we are not alone.”
Four physicians ago, when we first moved to Big Grove, my doctor laid me back on the examination table and rested his left hand on my naked belly and held it for a moment.
“This is not normal,” he said, referring to excess weight layered between my guts and skin. I agreed, respecting his training and experience in physiology, something about which I cared little. One would have thought it easy to improve my Body Mass Index given the intellectual provenance awareness can bring.
But no.
It has been especially hard to exercise since developing plantar fasciitis. Given my love of jogging, I tend to avoid thinking about exercise now, hoping gardening and the physicality of work at the home, farm and auto supply store compensates. I don’t know if it does and am reluctant to do the type of analysis I did with other life schemes.
If mine is a life of the imagination, that’s where I’d prefer to live. Yet reality beckons: in the form of news stories of horrible things happening to people the world over; in the work required to put a balanced meal on the table; or in staying awake during the 25 minute commute to the home, farm and auto supply store. Who wouldn’t want to live in the imagination? There is an unparalleled comfort there.
Whatever I am, physically or intellectually, I go on looking.
I look through a window where spiders persistently weave and reweave a web to catch insects drawn to the warmth and light of our home;
I look through eyeglasses the prescription of which needs an upgrade;
I look through the car windshield alert for the sudden appearance of deer during the rut;
I look through the fog of morning to see what each day brings;
I look for things I recognize more than for discovery and that’s regrettable.
After college I vowed to read every book in our Carnegie library. At the time that may have been possible. I didn’t get past the religion section of the Dewey Decimal System-organized stacks. I don’t read as much today as I did then.
Now the veil of Maya wears thin.
Everything I believed upon retirement from my transportation career has been called into question. I was hopeful the long, difficult work of electing a Democratic president was finished and that common sense would dominate public discourse. It turned out to be too much imagining as we were struck in the tuchus by the physicality of modern politics.
As if awakening from a dream, it will soon be time again to get dressed and find my running shoes. Not because my plantar fasciitis is in abeyance, but because the built in arch support will comfort my aging feet as I re-engage in society. I didn’t imagine I’d have to do that again in this life. It turns out I was wrong and Frederick Douglass was right:
It is in strict accordance with all philosophical, as well as experimental knowledge, that those who unite with tyrants to oppress the weak and helpless, will sooner or later find the groundwork of their own liberties giving way. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” It can only be maintained by a sacred regard for the rights of all men.
I imagine it’s time to get back to work in the physical world.
At 11:21 p.m. yesterday the U.S. Senate Finance Committee voted to pass a tax reform bill on a partisan vote, according to Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia). Note well, it was during the dark of night.
No Congressional Budget Office scoring, no hearings, no nothing. It was an indication that nothing we once thought mattered about legislating matters. Wealthy donors have an agenda and through the Republican Congress they are having their way with the American people.
My spouse and I were discussing the situation a few hours later and I concluded my part of the conversation by saying, “They are all a bunch of assholes.” I’ve calmed a little since then.
It is probably just as well the Congress rip the bandage off this live wound of a government, exposing its interest in perpetuating narrow views of governance and increasingly becoming a voice for the richest Americans. They go on because few citizens are engaged beyond headlines in the news.
While the federal government set me off this morning, Iowa Republicans are waiting to see if the Senate’s tax bill gets 50 votes plus the vice president and goes to reconciliation with the House version. If the president signs a tax bill into law, that will set the stage for the Iowa legislature, now controlled by Republicans, to take their own, reflective actions.
Here’s the exchange between Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) making news this morning. I watched it twice and can’t do it again.
Sherrod Brown really takes the fight to Orrin Hatch here. No Trumpian namecalling or low blows. Instead focusing on the GOP helping only the ultra-rich. Judging by how mad Hatch got, Brown hit a soft spot. pic.twitter.com/WxDFb8ipHB
In the meanwhile, I’ll go to work at the home, farm and auto supply store where I’ll take home another $54 after deductions for a day’s work and try to sustain our lives. It’s clear nothing matters in our politics. That is, nothing except our own engagement to repair the wound and protect the commons.
Group of captured Allied soldiers on the western front during World War I representing eight nationalities: Anamite (Vietnamese), Tunisian, Senegalese, Sudanese, Russian, American, Portuguese and English. Photo Credit – Library of Congress
Most of Armistice Day was at home.
The forecast had been rain, however, a clear fall day unfolded and I planted garlic. Pushing cloves into the ground with my thumb and index finger, I made two rows and covered them with mulch retrieved from the desiccated tomato patch. It doesn’t seem like much, it’s my first garlic planting ever. If it fails to winter I have plenty of seed to replant in the spring.
Had I been more prescient about the weather I would have spent more time outside: mowing, trimming oak trees and lilacs, clearing more of the garden, and burning the burn pile. Neighbors were mowing. The mother of young children piled up leaves from the deciduous trees at the end of a zip line portending great fun. Instead, I spent the morning cooking soup, soup broth, rice and a simple breakfast.
Leaves of scarlet kale were kissed by frost leaving a bitter and sweet flavor. I harvested the crowns and bagged the leaves to send to town for library workers. Usable kale remains in the garden. It will continue to grow with mild temperatures. Leaves of celery grow where I cut the bunches. There is plenty of celery in the ice box so I didn’t harvest them and won’t until dire cold is in the forecast. An earlier avatar of gardener wouldn’t have done anything in the garden during November.
I picked up provisions at the orchard: 15 pounds of Gold Rush apples, two gallons of apple cider, two pounds of frozen Montmorency cherries, packets of mulling spices and 10 note cards. Sara, Barb and I had a post-season conversation about gardening, Medicare and living in 2017.
The morning’s main accomplishment was clearing the ice box of aging greens by producing another couple gallons of vegetable broth. I lost count of how many quart jars of canned broth wait on pantry shelves. For lunch I ate a sliced apple with peanut butter.
We live in a time when favorite foods are under pressure from climate change. Chocolate, coffee and Cavendish bananas each see unique challenges from global warming. In addition, recent studies show the higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reducing the nutrient value of common foods. Our way of life has changed and will continue to change as a result of what Pope Francis yesterday called shortsighted human activity. He was immediately denounced in social media by climate deniers.
This week, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) introduced the HERO Act which purports to reform higher education. Specifically, the bill would open up accreditation for Title IV funding to other than four-year colleges and universities. In an effort to break up the “college accreditation cartel” DeSantis would keep current Title IV funding but add eligibility for other post K-12 institutions. States could accredit community colleges and businesses to be recipients of federal loans for apprenticeships and other educational programs.
Telling in all of this is that as soon as he introduced the bill, DeSantis made a beeline for the Heritage Foundation for an interview about it with the Daily Signal. Does higher education funding need reform? Yes. What are Democrats doing to effect change in higher education? That’s unclear. A key problem is progressives don’t have a network of think tanks and lobbying groups funded by dark money to counter the HERO act or the scores of other conservative initiatives gaining traction in the Trump administration.
Even though the 45th president seems an incompetent narcissist, the influence of a conservative dark money network within his administration is clear: in appointments to the Supreme Court and judiciary; in dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency, in undoing progress in national monuments and parks, in weakening the State Department, in potentially politicizing the 2020 U.S. Census, and much more. The reason for his success is his close relationship with wealthy dark money donors and the agenda they sought to implement since World War II.
Today is the 39th anniversary of my return to garrison from French Commando School. I returned with a clear mind, physically fit, and an awareness of my place in the world.
“I am ready to experience the things of life again,” I wrote on Nov. 12, 1978. “The time at CEC4 has cleansed me of all things stagnant. I will pursue life as I see it and make it a place where I pass with love and peace for all.”
We work for peace on the 99th anniversary of the Armistice. If people are not unsettled by evidence of climate change and a Congress that ignores it in favor of pet projects designed to please the wealthiest Americans, we haven’t been paying attention. The need to sustain our lives in a global society has never been clearer.
The president of the Gallery Acres West home owners association invited me to attend Wednesday’s city council meeting and I did. I was amazed.
It was amazing that council gave such thoughtful and considerate deliberation to a request by the rural subdivision to hook up to city water.
Running a three-mile water line from Solon to Gallery Acres West would help resolve a public health issue for about 50 residents who have elevated arsenic levels in their drinking water. They have been consuming non-compliant water since 2001 when the Environmental Protection Agency standard for arsenic changed from 50 to 10 parts per million.
The history of this public water system (No. 5282306) and its failure to comply with the arsenic standard is available on line. In 2015 the Iowa Department of Natural Resources threatened legal action over non-compliance. DNR should not back down from enforcing public water system standards in this or any other case.
Whether running a three-mile water line from Solon to Gallery Acres West is a good or fair idea is for others to say. That council is willing to consider this proposal, even though they are under no legal or moral obligation to do so, reflects well on them and the City of Solon.
Wednesday’s council meeting was a living demonstration of what it means to be a good neighbor and Iowa nice.
~ Published in the Nov. 9 edition of the Solon Economist
Never mistake absence of political noise for lack of a campaign. In both Solon and West Branch, the number of write-in votes in yesterday’s city elections was substantial. West Branch write-ins may make a difference in the outcome of one city council seat.
In West Branch there were 105 write-in votes of 213 cast (49 percent) with Andrew Mundell getting 91 of those and 14 remaining unresolved on election night. That makes Mundell competitive with Jodee Stoolman who received 93. Nicholas Goodweiler received 163 votes for councilperson and is safely elected to one of the two open seats.
In Solon there were 94 write-in ballots for city councilor of 214 cast (44 percent). The Johnson County auditor has not identified the write-in candidate(s) and those votes won’t change the election outcome of Steve Duncan, Lynn Morris and Lauren Whitehead being safely re-elected. One suspects a sub rosa write-in campaign for Dale Snipes who lost to Whitehead in a May 30 special election. I asked the auditor’s office for the names of write-in candidates once they are tabulated.
In low turnout elections a write-in campaign can make a difference by activating voters. I decided to run for township trustee only after casting my ballot in the 2012 general election when only one candidate for two township trustee seats was listed. It took some work to activate my network to vote for me, but not that much for an easy win.
These elections highlight the importance of local political engagement.
On Nov. 2, Dallas County Republicans heard how important they are. Acting Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg and Republican Party of Iowa chair Jeff Kaufmann extolled local political activists saying their county effort was essential to implementing the Republican agenda.
“This is where so much energy is, and this is where the work that gets done to elect conservative candidates really happens,” Gregg said. “This is where the organization happens, this is where the get-out-the vote effort happens, this is where the door knocking happens, and it’s so critical and it’s so important.”
“Electorally, there’s only one way that we counter a Johnson County, and that is for a Dallas County to run up the total,” Kaufmann said. “That’s the numbers game, how that does that.”
Elections matter and there is no denying Lauren Whitehead confirmed her credibility with last night’s solid win. However, when 12.4 percent of registered voters show up for a city election it also indicates people are engaged. In the 2013 Solon city election only 63 voters (4.5 percent) cast a ballot. By tripling voter participation in an uncontested city election last night, Solon voters set the stage for further electoral wins.
It’s a year until the 2018 general election and last night’s results indicate we’re off to a good start.
Solon City Council Nov. 1, 2017 left to right Lauren Whitehead, Mark Prentice, Mayor Steve Stange, Lynn Morris and Steve Duncan. Councilor Shawn Mercer participated via video conference.
My reaction to the Nov. 1 Solon City Council meeting was amazement.
I was amazed at how helpful council was being — a living demonstration of being good neighbors and Iowa nice.
Gallery Acres West requested a hook up to the city water supply. The City of Solon has no obligation to provide the service. Despite the fact Gallery Acres West has been delinquent in complying with the 2001 arsenic standards for public water systems, council politely and professionally is hearing them out. Councilors want additional information before making a decision. Mayor Stange said he would like a decision by the end of the year. Whether council votes for the final proposal is an open question.
Information of varying quality has come out over the subdivision’s proposal and related issues. Council is smart to sort through what’s been presented before deciding. However, the bottom line is leadership of Gallery Acres West decided homes could use high arsenic drinking water since 2001. It’s not the city’s problem.
Why didn’t the subdivision comply? During an Oct. 30 phone call with the president of their home owners association, who recently moved to the subdivision, I asked him that question. He told me it was the cost of compliance. With only 14 homes in their association compliance would run thousands of dollars per household. Who wants an unexpected expense like that? At the same time, who wants to risk public health because a community believes they can’t afford it?
In 2015, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources threatened legal action if Gallery Acres West did not comply with arsenic standards for their public water system. By then it had been 13 years since their first violation. Push has come to shove and Iowa DNR shouldn’t back down.
If Solon decides to help Gallery Acres West I hope council gets all the information they need. Based on Wednesday’s meeting it appears they will. In the meanwhile, 14 homes continue to use high arsenic drinking water.
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