Happy Earth Day To You, But Don't Drink the Water

 It may come as a limited surprise that this Earth Day presents many of the same unresolved problems as the first Earth Day in 1970. According to the Earth Day organization: 

Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. 

Since the first Earth Day, thousands of Iowa's private wells have dangerous levels of nitrites and bacteria, nitrogen pollution flowing out of Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico have grown by close to 50 percent over nearly two decades, and over 700 Iowa waterways are impacted. What is behind much of this? Lax enforcement of existing law as it applies to agriculture particularly as it relates to mitigating animal (mostly hog-related) waste.

In a state where the leadership cuts the budget for the Department of Natural Resources and relies on guidance from the Farm Bureau to make policy, there is a good reason why we are walking backward,. The problem is when will we say "enough already"?

Republicans Against Transparency (RAT)

As the legislative session has arrived at the magic Day 100--when legislators are no longer paid to do per-diem payments to cover personal expenses like hotel rooms and gas--the knives are being sharpened in private thanks to Republicans Against Transparency (RATs) to deliver as many of the choice budget meats that will satisfy the "Win column" of both the legislature and the governor (RAT-in-chief) who wants to declare victory on education reform as she re-ups for the office that she'd clearly like to hold on to for another four years. Since "to the victors go the spoils," they are working behind doors to figure out what the final policy and budget will look like. Yes, the same party that wants you to believe they are capable of creating elections above reproach also wants you to believe that closed-door politics leads to good things for the working stiffs of Iowa.

While they say they are not there to spend the people's money but creating scholarships for private schools in the form of vouchers is doing exactly that. Picking winners and losers in the still not passed bottle bill is another example of how things work when you have rural interests and corporate interests colliding. The most transparent thing about these proceedings is that the leadership has sent their party members home with the message, don't call us, we'll call you. Once a RAT, always a RAT.

Iowa: Bad Nanny State

Conservatives like to talk up themselves as the bearers of "freedom" but the Republicans in our state are creating a bad nanny state. They are doing it by reducing the kind of local control counties and cities may have around wages, environmental and water quality, and even fireworks saying that they are supporting small businesses. They are controlling what school boards, libraries, and universities may allow students to learn or read or do to ensure inclusion and equity for all students under the guise of giving parents more say. They are even picking winners and losers in the workforce sector by guiding Federal dollars to questionable projects. Also, in true form, they are ratcheting up the limits a woman has over her own body and health by further limiting access to reproductive care saying that they are saving lives. Lastly, they are limiting all of our right to choose by making it increasingly harder to vote by saying they are protecting our elections.

You wouldn't be wrong to say that you are free to do whatever Republican lawmakers in Iowa allow you to be free to do. The party of "small government" is big on law enforcement and bigger on new laws to enforce against your personal freedoms. While they help corporations and the wealthy to profiteer (which, in no small way is a chief reason for inflation and wages that are growing at less than the national average), they are making it harder for people to get back on their feet after the setbacks of the last two years and to care for their children.

Given the differences between Republican policies of the last several years, you'd think that Iowans would see that their freedom isn't so free and certainly is not freeing. And what will Iowans get for their continuation of policies? Republicans want you to believe that they will allow you to keep more money in your pockets. But how is that possible when they keep making it more expensive to take care of your family, your health, and even your livelihood? In their picture, we will only make investments in things that endanger the lives of workers, prop up decaying (and even dying) industries, and increase their personal bottom lines. All politics serves a purpose, a really important question for Iowa voters to consider is who is serving their interests today and tomorrow? 

Funny is Hard

 I was a stand-up comedian once. I really was. I wasn't a particularly good one, but I knew it and stopped doing it. I say I gave it up for love, but I know I gave it up because it was unhealthy for me. Like the song says, looking for love in all the wrong places-- generally is.  Comedy is the art of making the darkness funny. The problem is that sometimes that the darkness outweighs the funny. Funny is hard. I muse about this because some comedians succumb to the darkness and don't know when they cease to be funny. This is harsh, but not everything is meant to be funny. 

Those elite older comedians, many of them, but not exclusively men do not seem to realize that time marches on without them and they come off to their youngers as out-of-touch scolds rather than truthtellers. Worse, they are not funny and they hurt people. Definitely not funny. It may be that I am being ageist or even anti-guy in saying this, but part of writing good comedy is to be in sync with your intended audience. 

On one of my other blogs, I keep my hand in writing jokes. Some are good, some okay, and some are likely deemed as awful--not by me, but by those who run across them. I'm okay with that. I have some rules in their invention. I lean to the silly over the cruel. I try not to be overtly sexist in writing them or racist or ageist, or anything else but my idea of what is funny. Again, I'm not the best judge of what others find funny, but at least I'm not going out of my way to alienate or harm. I just like to write jokes, not perform 'em. That is the lane I stay in and it is definitely not the fast lane (though at my age, it may be my last lane).

Comedy, like Liam Nesson's characters, has a very particular set of skills. To entertain does not always mean that laughter is what you are going for. Cinema and theater prove this quite often. But comedy is supposed to make you laugh--sometimes uncomfortably, but laugh nonetheless. Without laughter, there is just hopeless cynicism. Not funny.

In the darkest of times, we have relied on comedians and musicians to see us and perhaps even to guide us through. It is very serious work, to tell the truth in a way that tears and laughter are all we've got in our arsenal of emotions to react with. It is said that many comedians are broken people. I understand that. Many people who are not comedians are broken too. It is not excusable to use your pain to harm others and it certainly isn't funny. The comedian walks a very specific tightrope when they walk on a stage. Like the tightrope walker, the spotlight is very much on them, and, yes, there are people in the crowd wishing them ill. But, also like the tightrope walker, it is through their skill and guile, their ability to engross and captivate the audience in their craft that by the end of the show, the audience may be as relieved as the comic, even as they clamber to their feet to applaud the effort. The cathartic nature of comedy is that powerful. 

I equate comedy to a religious experience. The late Robin Williams likely channeled that sentiment better than anyone in his frenetic crowd-pleasing way of his. I miss Robin Williams. I thought of him when I wrote this joke: "What's the difference between a comedian and a fool? A comedian knows when to get off the stage."

Dear Abby, You've Been Served

 A judge in Polk County has done what the Republican Party and its lawyer, Alan Ostergren, wanted. Judge Scott Beattie, a 2018 appointee of Gov. Kim Reynolds, has ruled that former Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer can not be on the Democratic primary ballot for the US Senate, overruling the state board that ruled differently. Thanks to a change in the rules about what makes a candidate qualified passed by the Republican legislature in 2021, Finkenauer needed to have 100 eligible signatures from at least 19 Iowa counties by the deadline date, something that the other two candidates Michael Franken and Glenn Hurst cleared the bar of (or at least were not challenged about). Due to missing or incorrect dates in at least 2 counties which cost the campaign the needed required signatures, Finkenauer's ruled ineligible petitions disqualify her name from appearing on the primary ballot.

Barring the Iowa Supreme Court intervening quickly or an unprecedented write-in campaign (such as a primary version of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's unlikely re-election bid), this ruling almost assures that Finkenauer's campaign for the US Senate has been scuttled. In the meanwhile, the Republicans pat each other on the back and say "the rules are the rules" (because they revised them). The Democrats, once again, are put on the defensive as they have to find a way to spin a seemingly rookie mistake of not collecting more than enough valid signatures for the "front-running" candidate who was beginning to make a dent in the lead of the long-time incumbent in the Senate race. 

While it is true that Team Finkenauer fumbled, the fact that she is not likely to be on the ballot serves to tell Iowans to what length Republicans will go to preserve their current lock on this state's politics. While it is considered better to hate the game and not the players (even when the players are also the rule makers), in this case, the opposition played for keeps. Just as they did in the 2nd Congressional District vote recount that enabled Rep. Miller-Meeks to be elected by 6 votes, they lawyered up and used the rules to their advantage. The lesson to every non-Republican running for statewide, local, or federal offices should now be--don't leave room for a squeaker. In this case, if you fail, you may not make it to the starting line.  

Iowa's Republicans Don't Care What You Think

 This week Republicans in our state decided that you don't need unemployment insurance for 26 weeks and that 16 weeks is plenty unless your company packs up and leaves. Also, they don't care if you have to work for less than you did before you were laid-off as you'll have to accept a job that pays as little as 60% of your former earnings or be cut off from your benefits at 8 weeks. You see, Iowa has 50,000 jobs that need to be filled and only about 29,000 people who are seeking work. Oh, and no they did not raise Iowa’s minimum wage to $15, or restore collective bargaining rights, or prohibit asking about criminal history on a job application, or even invest in affordable housing which Democrats tacked on as amendments. Republicans rejected those amendments.

What else don't they care about? They don't care if you are told if the well on your property is safe to drink. They passed a bill telling landowners that it is perfectly dandy to sell a property without having groundwater hazard statements. Nitrites, they're what's for dinner!

Republicans also think that junior and senior college students should only get $12 million in scholarships for studying what they see as "in-demand" jobs and universities can expect no additional funding. They ain't paying for no darn Liberal Arts degrees.

Republicans also don't care who the governor appoints and are planning on ending the Senate approval of many of the governor’s appointees.  Their philosophy is "Let the Executive do the Executive thing."

The Notable KBJ

 

To hear it, you'd think that Ketanji Brown Jackson was CRT incarnate instead of a well-qualified nominee for the US Supreme Court. You'd think that a person sitting on the second-highest court in the land with a decade of judicial experience could be expected to be questioned about her legal qualifications rather than the amount of time spent in church or (on a scale of 1 to 10) what her level of "faith" is.

But this is the nature of US politics where every high profile process has to be slathered in political rhetoric and shape the issues that the next election will be the battlefield for. A sane person or a sober judge might find this laughable unless they are sitting in the presence of these political provocateurs seeking their blessing to adjudicate law at the highest level in the land. Also knowing that both sides are trying to bend the will of the court to their POV does not make it easier to sit there and get the good cop/bad cop treatment.

To her credit and patience, this notable judge who is a Harvard Law School product has handled herself with aplomb and dignity when asked about her faith, Judge Brown Jackson said "Personally, my faith is very important, but as you know, there is no religious test under Article six and it is very important to set aside one's personal views and the role of judge." Responding to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa "about a speech she had delivered citing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she told the senators how one generation could go from the racially segregated schools her parents attended in Florida to her sitting before the Senate, nominated to the high court. "The fact that you can come that far was, to me, a testament to the hope and the promise of this country, the greatness of America," she said."

233 years is more than enough of time for a Black woman to be seated on the Supreme Court and Judge Brown Jackson is highly qualified to join the ranks. As always, Senate hearings may be about many things, but they are always about the preservation or expansion of power. It is my servant hope that despite the theatrics and the playing to the camera, that ultimately the votes will fall in favor of her confirmation based on the content of her character and her ability to adjudicate.