Author: Rick Smith

Iowa Democrats expected the Republicans in the Legislature would continue their far-right agenda in 2019. Following the experience from the 2017-18 session, Democrats anticipated more of the same this year. The Republicans didn’t disappoint. They didn’t moderate their radical, take-no-prisoners scheme to impose their one-party rule on Iowans. Having taken control of the Iowa Senate in 2016 and reelected Governor Reynolds in 2018, they have been emboldened to move even further to the right. The specific Republican-sponsored bills define a broad ideological assault on good government, basic democratic principles, public education, worker rights and the environment. It’s a continuation of […]

Iowa and the Upper Midwest have suffered unprecedented flooding on the Missouri River. It is of historical proportions exceeding the previous 1952 record by 51% and smashing a 67-year-old record. The latest cost estimates have spiked to over $2 billion dollars, and the Corps of Engineers is warning that there will be continued flooding through the fall. In addition, the Corps cites a 2012 climate change report on the Missouri River that predicts an additional 6% increase in upper-basin runoff and a 10% increase in lower-basin runoff by 2050. 2018 was the third wettest year in the Missouri Basin since […]

The Trump Administration decided this week to ask the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to kill the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Trump Justice Department said it supported the Texas Judge who ruled in December to end the ACA in its entirety. The case will most certainly go to the Supreme Court, and it will put millions of Americans’ heath care at risk. Hundreds of thousands of Iowans would lose their pre-existing condition protections, including Iowans that receive their insurance through their employers. Senator Ernst has been a cheerleader for the Republican ACA repeal crowd, and she will own this […]

This Friday, March 15, tens of thousands of the world’s students will strike for climate in 80 different countries. This is predicted to be the largest global environmental protest in history. It was all ignited by Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish student, last summer. Thunberg has become a world-renown climate activist after speaking at the United Nations Climate Conference in Poland and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She has shamed the world’s leaders by calling out their lack of action on the climate crisis. Her brutal honesty about the catastrophic threat of climate change has inspired climate activists […]

A very small but vocal group, Coalition for Rural Property Rights, is attacking Iowa’s clean renewable wind industry. This coalition of anti-wind energy fanatics have convinced some Republicans in the Iowa Senate to sponsor a bill that could severely damage Iowa’s wind industry. The bill SF 361 sponsored by Waylon Brown (R-St Ansgar) would increase the minimum distance a wind turbine can be placed from an adjacent property line, increasing the distance to 1,250 feet. It seems designed to be a way to kill the wind industry. Setting unreasonably large setbacks will severely limit the potential sites available for future […]

The Green New Deal introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has an inspiring goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within a decade. The resolution proposes to reach that goal with an audacious plan to rapidly transition to renewables. In addition to decarbonizing the American economy, it simultaneously proposes making that transition with a focus on social justice. Behind the scenes, economists, scientists and political staffers are attempting to find the best ways to do it. In 2009, President Obama and Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that leveraged $90 billion dollars in loans, […]

Democratic legislators and the public should be very suspicious of Governor Reynolds’ proposed constitutional amendment to restore former felons’ voting rights. There are several glaring reasons to distrust her proposal as simply a public relations stunt. She can claim she supports restoring former felons’ voting rights knowing that it’s likely to run into a buzz saw from Republican lawmakers. The public must ask Reynolds why she publicly claims to believe in redemption but refuses to exercise her executive authority as Governor to automatically restore former felons’ voting rights. “Let’s begin that process now. I believe Iowans recognize the power of […]

Republicans are beginning their 2020 messaging early with campaign attacks that paint all Democrats as socialists. They plan to demonize Democrats as crazy leftists out to destroy America. They have focused on the Green New Deal (GND) resolution sponsored by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey as evidence that all Democrats have suddenly gone socialist. The GOP is quickly developing their 2020 national playbook theme that all Democrats have abruptly lost their minds and have shape-shifted into Marxists. The truth is the GND is simply a very bold roadmap pointing toward aggressively addressing climate change while simultaneously promoting social justice […]