Meet Kimmie the Clown
Top headline: Des Moines Register, 3/3/2022
Bottom headline: Des Moines Register, 7/24/2022
From the 7/24/2022 Register article:
The 60% support for legal abortion is a new high-water mark in the Iowa Poll. In 2008, 48% of Iowans thought abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Last September, that number was 57%.
The new poll, conducted July 10-13 by Selzer & Co., comes weeks after a pair of court decisions removed some constitutional protections for abortion in Iowa. In June, both the Iowa and the U.S. supreme courts reversed previous decisions that established constitutional rights for abortion.
6/29/2022 update, " Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds seeks to fire up GOP base in advance of tough re-election race", starts here.
Headline: Des Moines Register, 6/28/2022
Reynolds' actions to restrict abortion come about four months before voters will decide whether to elect her to a second full term in office. Her Democratic opponent, Deidre DeJear, said Tuesday in a statement that Iowa leadership should be focused on other issues, like education, housing and workforce shortages, rather than pursuing abortion restrictions.
“Imagine if the governor had this much tenacity to fight for our public education system," she said. "This announcement only confirms what we already know to be true: Reynolds is determined to stand against the will of the vast majority of Iowans to ensure the personal rights and bodily autonomy of all in our state."
6/17/21022 update stats here
Headline: Des Moines Register, 6/16/2022
The new law, House File 2198, raises the child-to-staff ratios for 2- and 3-year-old children, effective immediately. It will also allow 16- and 17-year-olds to begin working in child care centers without supervision starting July 1.
Equating a daycare provider with a babysitting service. Parents beware!
Source: Where Imagination Grows
5/28/2022 update, "Its GOP governor and legislature are nothin' but a clown show", starts here.
Top headline: Gifford Law Center
Bottom headline: Des Moines Register, 5/27/2022
When asked whether she would consider new gun control laws, including the banning of assault rifles, Reynolds said there isn't "one single answer." "There is evil that exists in the world," she said. "And if you're determined to do something like this, you're probably going to find the means to do it."The usual small-minded drool
5/1/2022 update starts here
Headline: Des Moines Register, 5/1/2022
Instead, in recent years, lawmakers have been busy cutting budgets to build bigger state surpluses and cutting regulations in deference to businesses. They're letting agricultural facilities help erode the soil and pollute the water with chemical runoff and hog confinement waste.
Now lawmakers are weakening the laws governing child care facilities' toddler-to-adult ratios and cheating people who lost their jobs out of some of the unemployment benefits they could previously count on getting. And the elected leaders do it while mouthing meaningless stereotypes about how Iowans value life so much they'll always do the right thing without being required to. We saw how that worked during the worst of COVID-19.
4/26/2022 update, " This tells you all you need to know!" begin here.
Top headline: Des Moines Register "Iowa Politics" email
Bottom headline: the article itself
Related reading:
Let's take a visit to Iowa's whitest counties. (4/19/2022)
3/16/2022 update, "Minority of out-of-touch Iowans party like its 1953, support GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 3/16/2022
A separate question found that a larger share of Iowans, 71%, oppose allowing parents to sue school districts for distributing books the parents believe include obscene material. Twenty-five percent favor it.
The two legislative proposals are included in a bill that Iowa Senate president Jake Chapman, R-Adel, introduced earlier this session. The proposals have gained some support from Senate Republicans as school districts in Iowa and across the country have seen a rise in book challenges.
3/9/2022 update, "State flushes its reputation down the toilet with passage of anti-transgender legislation", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 3/9/2022
Iowans’ opinions are split nearly evenly on a new state law that bans transgender girls and women from competing in female sports offered by Iowa’s schools, colleges and universities.
Forty-six percent of Iowans favor the law, while 45% oppose it, according to the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Another 9% say they are not sure. The new survey illustrates the polarizing nature of the legislation, which Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed into law Thursday. [emphasis added]
Poll respondents are sharply divided along party lines. The poll also shows splits by gender, age and parental status.
2/5/2022 update, "Kimmie the Clown's groveling at the altar of Trump, for one", starts here.
Top headline: Des Moines Register, 2/4/2022
Botton headline: Iowa Starting Line, 2/4/2022
From The Starting Line:
A collection of 14 Iowa Republican representatives introduced a bill Tuesday that makes it illegal for a person affiliated with a public school or public library to knowingly spread “material the person knows or reasonably should know, is obscene or harmful to minors.” Colleges and universities are exempted.
The penalty would be an aggravated misdemeanor, upgraded to a class D felony if the person was previously guilty of this.
Aggravated misdemeanors can be punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine between $625 and $6,250. Class D felonies are punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine between $750 and $7,500.
This is what matters most to the Iowa GOP right now.
10/12/2012 update, "Struggling to stay awake, Charles Grassley grovels on stage with Donald Trump", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 10/9/2021
"We have with us tonight a great American patriot, a man who truly loves Iowa — loves Iowa," Trump said. "He’s a young — very young guy. He’s strong. And he’s very handsome. He fights like no other. When I’ve needed him for help he was always there."
"I’m thrilled to announce tonight that Sen. Chuck Grassley has my complete and total endorsement for reelection," he said.
10/9/2021 update, "What else can you expect from a state that ranks among the whitest and oldest in the U.S.?", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 10/4/2021
The latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows 53% of Iowans now have a favorable view of the former Republican president and 45% have an unfavorable view — his best showing ever on either metric in the Iowa Poll. Another 2% are not sure how they feel about Trump.
9/24/2021 update, " It's a COVIDIOT wasteland!", starts here.
86 of Iowa's 99 counties are at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
And apparently, the majority of residnets are just fine and dandy with that.
Des Moines Register, 9/20/2021
Brent De Ronde is among the latter group.
“I don’t think it’s the place of an employer or any government agency to mandate an injection into a person’s body,” he said in an interview after taking part in the poll.De Ronde is a Republican who farms near Oskaloosa.
He said he received childhood vaccinations, and he is not opposed to the practice in general. But he was uncertain of the safety of the new COVID-19 vaccines, and he decided they weren’t worth the risk for someone like him. “I’m 36 years old. I’m in great health, as far as I know,” he said.
Oskaloosa is located in Mahaska County, Trumpier in 2020 than it was in 2016.
Mahaska County's vaccination rate of 38% is well below the Iowa average of 58%.
The number of new Covid cases in Mahaska County has spiked in September.
9/19/2021 update, "Governor's approval rating inches higher while COVID cases spike", starst here.
Headline from Des Moines Register, 9/18/2021
Graph from New Yoek Times
84 of Iowa's 99 counties are at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
7/1/2021 update, "Troglodytes on its Supreme Court", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 6/30/2021
Meet the activist judges on the Iowa Supreme Court
"Even if the programs do not include any discussions about abortion, the goals of promoting abstinence and reducing teenage pregnancy could arguably still be undermined when taught by the entity that performs nearly all abortions in Iowa," the justices wrote. "The state could also be concerned that using abortion providers to deliver sex education programs to teenage students would create relationships between the abortion provider and the students the state does not wish to foster in light of its policy preference for childbirth over abortion."
The ruling came on a 6-1 vote, with Justice Dana Oxley joined by Susan Christensen, Thomas Waterman, Edward Mansfield, Christopher McDonald and Matthew McDermott in the majority and Justice Brent Appel dissenting.
5/22/2021 update, "Will the real Kim Reynolds please stand up." starts here.
Des Moines Register, 5/22/2021
Des Moines infectious disease Dr. Rossana Rosa, who has been critical of Reynolds' pandemic response, said the law makes no sense to help people cope with public health during the COVID-19 pandemic or others threats that may arise. Coronaviruses like the one that causes COVID spread through community interactions, and masks primarily protect other people, not the person wearing it.
"This is is a contagious virus, a social virus that moves throughout our community," Rosa said. "What happens to one individual is actually linked to what happens to other people in the community. ... This is completely wrong. It is so wrong, so unscientific to say that (this is about individuals). It just shows you the willful ignorance of those who put this into law."
3/19/2021 update, " Big guns compensate for small penises.", starts here.
Des Moines Register, 3/18/2021
Iowans would still be able to obtain permits to carry or acquire handguns if the bill became law, but the process would become optional. Supporters of the legislation say many people would still apply for permits so they could carry their weapons out of state.
It's the first time that a full chamber of the Iowa Legislature has approved such a measure, although gun rights advocates have pushed for years to remove the state's gun permit requirements.
3/12/2021 update, " Why did this white man press charges this woman of color reporter?", starts here.
Polk County Attorney
Andrea Sahouri
Reporter for the Des Moines Regiter
NPR, 3/10/2021
In a statement ahead of this week's trial, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said that "the decision to move forward with [Sahouri's] prosecution flies in the face of the First Amendment."
"Law enforcement should never have arrested Andrea Sahouri in the first place simply for doing her job as a reporter," the group's executive director, Bruce Brown, said. "Andrea and other journalists like her played an essential role in informing their communities about the protests for racial justice and police accountability that took place last year, and how law enforcement responded to those demonstrations."
Original 3/10/2021 post start here
Governor Kim Reynolds rubberstamps GOP voter suppression legislation
Des Moines Register, 3/9/2021
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law Monday, saying it would create transparency, accountability and give Iowans greater confidence in their elections.
But the suit argues that the law, which cuts the number of early voting days by 9 and gives Iowans one less hour to vote on Election Day, violates the Iowa Constitution's protections for the right to vote, free speech, free assembly and equal protection.
Like Maggie Sutton in neighboring South Dakota, Kim Reynolds is also fluent in Newspeak.
Original 3/7/2021 post starts here
Too many old white men in the state legisalture. (For crying out loud, this grouping looks like a family reunion.)
GOP members of the Iowa House Public Safety Committee
Des Moines Register, 3/4/2021
Rep. Jarad Klein, R-Keota, [top row, left] who chairs the House Public Safety Committee, said "nothing's ever done for the year" but said the governor's proposals to ban racial profiling and track police stops lacked support from his committee.
"There wasn’t enough consensus to move those forward at this point in time," he said.
Jared doesn't name names, but I suspect all of the culprits are pictured above .
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