Board Beyond Recognition

 You have to hand it to school board members around this great nation. They ain't doing it for the money, and as of today, they are taking much more than their fair share of grief. Who knew that authorizing expenditures and overseeing policy decisions was worthy of such consternation, but apparently it is. So, why do these mostly anonymous people do it? Well, if the local school board is any indication, they seem to care about all kids getting an equitable, good basic education. WHAT! Somebody grab a pitchfork.

For their trouble, current and former members of school boards are threatened in private and in public for closing schools or building new ones. They are threatened because of the color of their skin, or for allowing some book in the school library, or having sex education classes or for insisting that schools should be safe places for teachers, children, and staff to be without contracting a contagious (and for just under 7,000  Iowans including 117 just this past week), a deadly disease.

Education is a good thing, not because we all have to agree about everything, like what "public safety" means. We should have a lively debate over things like liberty and freedom, but when your debate rhetoric dissolves into angry (and hopefully, ironic) Nazi salutes, death threats, and stalking people performing public service, you got to ask: is it worth it? Because from where I stand, no one should be brutally disrespected or tormented for doing what they were elected to do--and that is to make hard and, in some cases, mind-numbing decisions.

There is no glory in being a school board member. That is why you should actually learn about them before you elect them and voice your opinion to them at meetings with civility. School Board meetings are not reality shows, they are places to give input, get involved, and/or to get out of the way. Do you think you can do a better job? Have at it, Bud/Budette. Take your time and run for one of those cushy seats. No doubt, you'll have people telling you how to do your job, too.

By the way, if you live in Iowa City, we have an election for the school board. Go learn about these people and vote on Tuesday, November 2nd, or vote early at the County Administration building or satellite locations. It is important work they do, but don't be a jerk to them about it.

Blurred Lines

 So the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency has put forth their latest version of redistricting maps for Iowa's congressional, state representative, and state senate districts. While it looks sort of pornographic with congressional districts jutting in and out of other districts like some sort of unwholesome orgy, it still seems to make these districts appear competitive. Other than the unholy aesthetics of the map, my real question is why the renumbering of Districts 1 and 2? Not for nothing, but just changing stationery and doorplates should annoy the crap of our current Representatives. 

That aside, if the Legislative Services Agency has met the concerns that the ruling party raised and the Democrats' leadership expressed being okay with this, you just have to think that these maps will be redrawn again if for no other reason than the delicate sensibilities of Family Leader and the Faith & Freedom Alliance being upset by the suggested fornication going on the maps.

No, the leadership of the House and Senate will have to ask for a more family-friendly rendition of maps to be redrawn and preferably in as much to their favor as possible, because otherwise, what good is an independent agency? Also, mapping like this is kind of like trying to get a neighborhood to agree on rezoning to add low-income multi-family development; everyone is going to have an opinion and somebody is going to be unhappy.

Parks & Re/Creation

 I went to a "community input" meeting at my local park which is in the midst of adding "amenities" to it, thanks to the staff of the Parks and Recreation Department and a local design firm. To be clear, my neighborhood park is a grassy meadow and covers about five acres or slightly more than 3 square blocks. It was purchased by the city when the former owner died (it was a private business that largely delivered dirt for the years I've lived near it). At the moment, there are two sizeable garden plots, a weird metal sculpture with some new landscaping, a large pile of mulch, a water hose spigot, a couple of picnic tables, and a trash bin. We have gardeners, dog walkers, a random cyclist who sets up obstacle courses on the grass, high school students who hang out and likely smoke in a clump of trees toward the back of it, and occasional family sightings. In a word, it could use improvement--or be left alone.

As common spaces are harder to come by, I like the idea of creating a space where families with or without kids, teens, old folks, gardeners, and solace seekers can comingle. This park seems like a reasonable place to do it. However, the plans call for building a shelter, a playground, a bathroom, and loads of concrete including a paved parking area to make it accessible--in addition to increasing the gardening space. To this reasonable people may disagree.

Suffice it to say, there is a difference of opinion about what makes a park a park. While I think about the future and the needs of the aforementioned groups, neighbors living nearest to the park fear the change as becoming disruptive to them or creating potential flooding in their basements--status quo would be their preference. Some of the parents worry about having to watch their kids on the playground equipment while they garden and prefer nature as is while others want a playground. I like the idea of a gathering place and think a shelter is fine, but want it to be solar-powered and include a bathroom that benefits from that power, others don't. Some others think we have plenty of garden plots and others want more. Some want more open space and others want park benches and plants. One thing most seem to agree on is we love our trees!

A neighborhood is a microcosm and misses voices in the conversation. For instance, neighbors who are new and more diverse. We also don't hear from our poorer neighbors who may not be able to make a meeting due to work or children. Kids and teens have no say either. Microcosms, it turns out can be exclusive and majority-centric.

This brings me to the difficulty of planning. No one knows the future, but everyone wants to leave her or his mark on it. Wide and open spaces are becoming a rarity in urban places because we humans are crowding in and pushing creatures outward. Nobody has asked the squirrels or deer what they think should be done with the park, but as they don't pay property taxes, their lives are sort of in our hands. It is my hope that we leave enough open space to allow wildlife a place even as we try to find a way to give the people what they want--whatever that may end up being.

Taking Leaves of My Senses

 

I will be taking a long weekend to celebrate the one outstanding accomplishment that I have made in life, a solid, successful partnership/marriage now of 35 years (with three other years prior for hanky-panky/"living in sin"). We will be traveling north to the land known as Minnesota and hope to partake in ample hiking and leaf gazing, in addition to keeping the home fires burning. I will not be paying attention to the news/nuances of the world or seething over the state of it--call it planned optimism.

In my absence, be kind to each other, except for those who are incapable of it--yes, I mean you Senate Republicans and Democrat scalawags senators Manchin and Sinema. When you have a choice as simple as making peoples' lives better or worse and you have to think about it as if it were the red wire or blue wire in the movie "Speed"? No. Kindness is wasted on you when you lack basic humanity.

And on that cheery note, I wish you all a pleasant (and kindness-filled) goodbye for now.

Comped to Go Boldly Where Billionaires Have Gone Before...

 

Congratulations of a sort are in order for the nonagenarian and heavily senior-discounted (actually he flew for free) passenger, William Shatner who took an 11-minute joy ride into near space today. Shatner returned to earth without enough time to write in his captain's log, but did call the sky a "comforter of blue that we have around us." Well, if things keep going this way, that comforter may well smother us as the climate keeps warming things up and drying things out. 

"It would be so important for everybody to have that experience through one means or another," Shatner further said. I'm not sure how we would send over 7.6 billion people into space (Priceline, perhaps?), but if it is needed to save our beleaguered planet, perhaps it is worth rewarding Bezos in advance for his interstellar largesse when we all arrive on Mars or "Amazon presents Mars" as it will be known then. 

While not exactly the USS Enterprise, the brief ride was certainly enterprising for founder Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin who expected the goodwill journey would get good press (Beyond the WaPo) and so it has. At the moment, it seems that Blue Origin and billionaire-owned companies will be lining the pockets of their benefactors instead of funds being collected for space agencies to expand their programs. Many would have to agree that properly aiding these agencies would be a better use of those resources than a playdate in space.

 

Progress Stops When Passivity Begins

     Liberals and progressives like me are generally "make love, not war" kind of people. When we see injustice, we roll up our sleeves, work to get people elected, and say, "okay, now you fix it".  Generally, that strategy has not worked out well for our people, or the people being treated unjustly. Counter that with conservatives of this generation who are not passive and definitely turn their beliefs into action. Thankfully, there are seemingly at least 7 million more of us than them (with a generous helping of independents swinging back and forth like a pendulum) that have beaten back a tyrant recently. But, conservatives are a relentless bunch and, unlike us, will not rest until they figure out how to rig the game in their favor, as they have successfully done at the state legislature level in quite a few states. 

Right now, there is a tug-of-war at the state level to unlevel the playing field where state and congressional districts are concerned. In good ol' Iowa, they are asking the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, who drew the new state congressional map, to dig in a little deeper because of their concerns over the shape of the districts or as one Senator Roby Smith said, “There are clear indications that plan one can be improved by a second iteration addressing compactness and population deviation." Kind of like Iowa football, it is a game of inches where a call going your way would help you to run up the scoreboard. As it stands, the new map looks like folks from western Iowa are trying to move east as fast as they can to make room for more hog confinements. Population shifts of people from rural counties to more urban ones (and/or possibly people leaving the state and being replaced by new urban Iowans) show that it is actually conservatives who are looking to consolidate their hold on the statehouses. They likely they will, no matter what unless counties themselves are allowed to consolidate (which the state legislature would likely not allow any more than allowing counties to dictate a minimum wage in their area).

So the real question is can liberals and progressives elect people to statewide or federal offices and can they be effective in pushing a more liberal agenda through? Well, if the Biden presidency is your proof, it will be a long time in coming. The likelihood of a one-party hold on the House, Senate, and White House is slanting more towards no as time goes on. The ability of one party to hold sway at the state level is favoring conservatives in states like mine. In large population states, the grip is lessening, but not for a decade. So, the conservatives are pushing hard to game the system by saying the system has already been gamed (against them). They are pushing voting and election laws intended to limit the ability of liberally, progressive, and even many independent voters to vote conveniently and easily. 

In the past, when one voice is louder than others, it is generally the middle that is moved--one way or the other by that voice. When that voice is amplified by social and other media, it is hard not to believe that voice will be ignored. Therefore, the only way to counteract it is to be just as loud or louder and offer a different view. Where is that voice coming from? It certainly is not happening right now. We claim we are the "ones we've been waiting for", what are we waiting for?

Monday Morning Reign of Terror

 Mondays remind us that the news never stops. Weekends are filled with diversions like the new Bond film or the fortunes of football. However, they are all too often accompanied by inevitable gun violence among the less sunny news. To this I say, what is the number that we need to arrive at before we agree that people possessing guns have reached the tipping point, that point where something needs to change or accept the consequences of inaction?

While it is entertaining to see 007 take out the bad guys (and an occasional bad girl), when it comes to some dude getting mad at a birthday party and opening fire or some ill-adjusted psychopath gunning down a church full of people, it is not good for society. But add to that the well-meaning vigilante with a side piece shooting arriving late to the party and shooting an innocent bystander or himself, the injuries add up. And, if you want to be sobered up further, take into account the accidental shootings that occur due to childish curiosity, accidental discharges, and so on. There are many statistics to bear out that violence is worse and likely to continue going in that direction. 

    We are doomed to repeat history, it is said. For more and more people, a time to die is not just a movie title, it is what happens to them in their own homes, on their streets, and in their schools.

Stand-up Person of the Week

 Give actor and possible candidate for Texas's next governor, Matthew McConaughey his due. In an interview on the New York  Time's podcast "Sway" he said "Politics is a bag of rats." and "It's a fixed game. [Politicians] go in there [and] just put on a bunch of Band-Aids in four years, and walk out, and they rip ’em off when you’re gone. I’m not interested in that. Does politics itself need such repurposing right now that it’s like, don’t get into that game? They’re lost." Clear as a Lincoln commercial right? For a guy maybe, probably running for governor, he is having a hard time articulating why he'd want the job. And maybe that's a good thing.

Politics is a safe haven for the enlarged ego and posturing fools who'll spout anything that the adoring yahoos will suck up and activate around. Maybe a well-known person with a moral compass could turn this around. Certainly, a well-known person without one showed us what that would look like (See photo to left).

We know he isn't crazy about Texas's recent abortion squealer bill and also he doesn't know everything about voter rights, but   “I think it should be easier to vote…. Texas is its best— I like to say this— we’re here to lead, not secede,” he said. So, yeah, he's learning. Not the worst thing in a person--to be willing to study the issues. But from a purely partisan perspective, you can really be screwed over by a leader who is wishy-washy.

He may not be "born to be in it" like Beto O'Rourke confessed to being for Vanity Fair when running for president, but he may be a change that Texas could benefit from--or maybe not. I mean, would you want to be jumping into a bag of rats?

Biden's Approval Ratings Sinking Fast

A new poll has Joe Biden's approval ratings hovering in Donald Trump's area at 38%. He is sinking fastest with independent voters,  Only among three groups is Biden’s overall approval is above water. Those who are 65 and older who rate him 49-48. Black Americans have him at 66-19. And the last is among Democrats where he is at 80-10. Mostly, people who are not with him are pointing to his administration and their sense that he needs a better team. Well, good luck there. Remember this is a guy who took the train home every day for over 30 years. Change is not likely happening in this band. 

  How to stop the fall? Well, a huge legislative win wouldn't hurt, but it might be too late for it to happen if he is seen as the captain of a sinking ship. Also, he might start looking at his Secretary of State and Chief of Staff. He is getting bad intel from key people or, he isn't hearing them. Either way, it is a credibility problem for him.  It is way too early to count Joe Biden out, but with the pressure building for the mid-terms, a reversal of fortune needs to happen soon. 

Build Back Bitter!

 Dear Senate Democrats,

WTF? Remember in 2009 when you had an agenda around healthcare for all to get through and the Republicans stopped you at every turn, even though you had a majority? Remember how frustrating it was that the ACA was passed, but without any single-payer program? Remember how people still benefitted from it and even in red states, it gained acceptance? Remember how the Republicans used the courts and their legislative power to try to undermine it and almost succeeded? Remember how we got lucky and it somehow survived, just barely?

Okay, now rerun the scenario with Build Back Better and include two Democrats to the scenario. The legislation is hugely popular with many people of both parties, not just the oddly separated infrastructure bill. 

The latest poll from Quinnipiac University of Americans says by 62% for - 34% against "that they support a roughly $1 trillion spending bill to improve the nation's roads, bridges, broadband, and other infrastructure projects.... Americans say 57 - 40 percent that they support a $3.5 trillion spending bill on social programs such as child care, education, family tax breaks, and expanding Medicare for seniors...."

Do you all not learn anything from the past. If you do not pass popular key parts of this legislation, we will be sunk by a red wave sweeping back through in 2022 and that will suck beyond all suck. It is that bad. Work together or watch the party of FDR, JFK, Clinton, and Obama decimated by a voter whiplash and welcome back the worst instincts left behind in the Trump era in a worse package.

Yes, I am serious. I know the leadership sees it as a deal to be made, but to average folks, it is jobs, care for their children, water that doesn't kill or sicken you, it is healthcare, and it is damned expensive. You know what else is expensive, a party that wants to rip the guts out of social programs for another tax cut and another billion here and there on a bottom line. You will be responsible for that and it won't matter that you had the power, but not the will. 

The Republicans and their legions are betting you won't be able to get your stuff together to get this done--heck, even some of your members seem like they would rather sink this than lose their seat in the Senate. I got news for you, at least one of them will most likely lose his seat next cycle, so why are you dicking around? If you let these modern-day Luddites run the show, it isn't just bad politics, it is extinction politics.

So take a page out of the book of then Sen. Lyndon Johnson and arm-twist the fuck out of them until you have the bill passed. Hell, create a shrine to these two holdouts if you have to. Build a bridge to Mars for them (though feel free to push them over the edge at the ribbon-cutting, if the mood strikes). But for all that is holy, get this done. Lives are literally in the balance. 

P.S. To the two holdouts, were you mistreated as children? Are you that disconnected from humanity that you don't see what you are doing to harm the very Americans who need this the most? Seriously, do a gut-check because I think hell is reserving two choice spots for you.

Eats Shoots and Leaves

 To say that gun violence is out of control in the US is to say that water is wet. We know it and, yet, at every turn, we see it get worse. Add to it that lawmakers pass even more laws (e.g., open carry and stand your ground laws) that make it more likely that someone you know will be harmed at some point in their lives by an armed person. As it stands four-in-ten U.S. adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 30% who say they personally own one, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2021. So, with 40% of households possessing a gun, it is logical that accidents and murder will happen. It may be a shooting of a child like this. It may be someone standing their ground like this. It may be a mass shooting like this. Or a cry for help that ends up like this. Whatever the means or circumstances, a lot of innocent people are likely going to die by someone else's hand.

If we wring our hands, offer thoughts and/or prayers, nothing changes. If lawmakers choose to not legislate for reforms (or worse, legislate for fewer gun safety laws), we will become a country that claims to value life while ignoring the hypocrisy of pre-authorizing the wholesale distribution of the very tools that end it. We ultimately will have to face the idea that armed insurrection could be in our future because, really, if we continue to believe that we need guns like the 63% who say they have them for personal safety and protection, why do we even need a police force? 

Here is the possible silver lining. In 2019 Congress authorized funding so that both the CDC and the NIH can study firearm injury prevention and currently the agencies are now financing nearly two dozen studies. Ironically, the wife of former Arkansas congressman and NRA "point-person" Jay Dickey and the doctor whose studies he defunded in 1996 through the infamous Dickey Amendment made the case, and $25 million dollars was awarded to do this in 2021. While these studies won't save lives today, they may well in the future. Whether you or I will be here or not to know may rely on a whole lot of luck and a good zip code. The shooting and killing don't happen everywhere as the GunViolenceArchive.org map above shows, but in many places, it is a sea of red.

You Can't Keep a Good Blog Down?

 Imagine my surprise as I visited my old stomping grounds at Popular Progressive - Redux (trust me, go to https://popprogredux.blogspot.com/ and then put on a kettle while the page loads) and learned that it was archived. Granted I had not been there since March 5, 2020, but c'mon--there was and is a pandemic going on! It is true, I have been distracted by basic human functioning, working from home, and not wanting to be named in a criminal action against my wife of 35 years. But, to take away a person's blog--who does that? Well, apparently Google does that. I suspect they are still P.O.'d that Google + was such a disaster, but I digress.

It is now the autumn of 2021. Who knew that in March of 2020 we would have 5,000,000 fewer living souls and 700,000 or so of them would be from the good ol' U.S. of A.? Who knew that Donald Trump would not only mismanage the pandemic but would also get COVID-19 and then be shown the door? Who knew that we would be saying "so long, suckers" to Afghanistan (and to refugees at our southern border) and be at the precipice of crashing through a debt ceiling under, wait for it, Joe R. Biden?

Add to that a thing called a Derecho which would leave this eastern part of Iowa without power and without a huge number of trees in the summer of 2020. It has been a hellacious ride, wouldn't you say? Well, let me say it for you, it has been a Mother F#@ker.

So, what is to be done? Cry in our Busch Light beer? No, this is red-state America, where we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps--if we had boots with straps to pull (since the cargo ship from China with them is still at sea just off of Long Beach, CA). Bootstraps notwithstanding, I have decided to dust off this relic of a so-called popular, progressive-voiced blog and breath new life into it. If I can wait for my boots and their requisite bootstraps to come in, well, I can spend time paying attention to the news of the world, even when the politics seem to be akin to the Flying Wallendas, that not so lucky troupe of tightrope walkers who mostly are dead and/or should be retired (Speaking of which, their website is still alive, but not updated since 2017, but please fact check it: http://wallenda.com/family.html). 

So, this I can promise, as long as we are living in these ridiculous times, with the rich getting so much richer they can create three NASA-like companies and go joyriding to the exosphere while Congress can't even agree that families are about as infrastructural as it gets, I resurrect this as "Son of Popular Progressive". Its predecessor a blog so little read in its so-called heyday that even now calling it a "cult classic" is just blowing the kind of smoke that even CAFO operators would be complaining about the smell.

In these times, we all need to keep fighting the good fight, vexing the unvaccinated, unmasking and then asking "Why are you unmasking?" and doing it with at least 6-feet between us (because at least you have a chance to survive the spray of either droplets (or bullets) being discharged while some dude is standing their ground).

Will I be creating a Patreon site to support this? Will I be "cross-marketing" it across platforms? Will I be worried about SEO, Google analytics, click rates? No! Because I don't know what those things are. Follow this or don't. In any case, I'll be blazing a new trail, because, as the headline reads, you can't keep a good blog down?