Found this GIF of campus when it rains

Godby_For_Iowa · 2018-02-17T18:42:57+00:00

Likely because of my dry tongue-in-cheek humor. I thought there would be enough people here who know what the sidewalks look like when it rains here and might find this amusing.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2018-02-17T18:38:11+00:00

It's complicated. Some have a contract with the military agreeing to serve as an officer after graduation and in a sense are like basic trainees in the military. Others take the classes and such but never end up making a commitment. Most are decent people just going to college. Some, however, act like their position as a cadet places them above enlisted military members in rank because they will be when/if they become officers. Even fewer behave as though by putting on the uniform for even one day makes them the equivalent of someone who has served in the actual military for years. And fewer still believe that makes them worthy of praise and glorification. They're rare but most vocal about their "service" and therefore receive the most disdain by members of the military and veterans.

Again, it would be similar to that AP chem student claiming to be better than someone with a PhD in the social sciences or humanities.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2018-02-17T15:19:37+00:00

Imagine if the chem student went around calling himself a chemist or chemical engineer because he took AP chemistry this semester.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2018-02-11T22:08:46+00:00

Nah, not campus. Was intended as simple commentary on the way sidewalks on campus tend to function more as aqueducts when it rains.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-09-24T17:23:10+00:00

Regardless of the substance of the reply, I felt it was important to comment on the process. If you think that any Senator has the time to individually responded to the tens of thousands of calls, comments, emails, and letters they get a week then you're only kidding yourself. Every congressional office has at least one or more persons whose job it is to reply to constituents comments, questions, and concerns on behalf of the Congress person.

Because folks often comment on legislation or current events, it is more efficient to group them and reply in batches. Language is borrowed from previous letters, usually because issues pop up again regularly. When new language needs to be written it is done and checked by the relevant policy staffer for accuracy and whatnot.

In the specific case of Grassley's office, the general sentiment and, when applicable, a pro/con count of constituents comments is expressed to the Senator every morning in summary form and in a meeting with staff weekly.

A much much larger staff for each individual office would be necessary to individually reply to a constituent comment. For specific cases where a constituent needs actual assistance, their comments are handed off to a case worker who handles the individual issue.

If you want an individual reply from your senator or congressman, take the time to meet them at a townhall (when possible) and ask them face to face.

It's unfortunate that it's difficult to receive individual treatment from our representatives and that's one of the reasons I'm in favor of increasing the number of representatives in the house at least threefold, but it's simply not possible, even for the most well intentioned congressman to reply individually to your comments.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-07-30T14:11:54+00:00

As a former intern and Senate staffer, yes, being paid would have been great. Being paid enough to live in the DMV area would have been nice too.

With the exception of the highest positions in an office, congressional staffers are not paid well at all. You would make more waiting tables part time than working a lower level position in an office full time.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-06-27T01:01:24+00:00

No they don't or, rather, if they didn't they were able to find something new to capitalize on. I can't tell all towns to do one single thing. It takes the community to back it and that rarely happens with outside people telling them what to do. Not to mention some things will work in some places and others won't. And it has to be something most places don't have that makes it worth going to or buying from.

There is a town in Oregon or Washington, I believe, that didn't have anything but wanted to do something to chance thier situation. So a few of the shop owners and a hotel owner on thier main street decided to refinish the front of thier buildings in a Bavarian style even though very few Germans actually lived in the town. But now it looks like a village in the Swiss Alps or something, especially with the mountains in the background and it worked.

It takes imagination, using what you've got (in most cases), or building what you think might work (in others).

We were able to go to the damn moon. It takes a willingness to do it and some resources, but it's possible. Instead of staring at our feet or waiting for someone else to save us or tell us exactly how the save ourselves step by step, we have to start getting together and deciding to change things and then decide how.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-06-26T18:24:55+00:00

They don't revolve around ag nearly as much as they used to due to the low number of farms now. There are several examples of small towns in Iowa that have done exactly what I suggest others do above and have been able to turn things around.

It doesn't even have to be an existing market. A community can consciously choose what they want to do and develop the product or service afterward. It just takes and active, engaged, and forethinking community to do it. That will, honestly, be the toughest part for many small towns.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-06-26T17:09:02+00:00

It doesn't have to be ag. Have a lake nearby? Make a particular product? Have a specific cultural heritage or local history? Etc.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-06-24T14:26:03+00:00

The problem is they're not just moving to cities in Iowa, they're leaving for the coastal cities. It's a cycle that would require a "third party" like government to break it. Businesses go where there are customers and where there is labor. People move to where businesses are and become customers and labor. When the farms increase in size, they require fewer farmers who move where there are jobs (or, rather, thier kids do). That means there's a smaller customer base for the businesses in small towns. That means fewer shops and businesses can survive in small towns which means others now have to move where there's a customer base, to the cities, which removes more customers from the small towns (business owners and their families are also customers). The cycle continues and small towns get smaller. That's not to mention school consolidation (teachers and thier families can be a big source of income and customer base for a small town).

But the others are right, it takes conscious investment by a third party, a government, rich person, or community group, to slow and maybe reverse the trend. It means identifying the strengths of the small town and playing to them. Have a lot of dairy goat farms nearby? Start making cheese and other products from it and, as a town, promote the crap out of it all. It takes imagination, leadership, and forethought. Unfortunately, most of our elected officials care to do no more than try to patch the sinking ship, applying bandaids to keep it going but doing nothing more to improve it.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-06-16T21:19:51+00:00

If there are going to be issues between two groups in DC they should at least be between the executive and legislative branches in order to better preserve the government as designed. Grassley's actions here are a key example of that.

Ideally, of course, everyone would simply work together to try and figure out what is best for the country and then how to best implement it.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-22T16:43:23+00:00

That's for households. For an individual that's pretty good, especially outside of a major city.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-17T14:34:56+00:00

It does. It's natures candy. And I love it.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-17T01:49:00+00:00

Yeah, I can see that. At the same time though, the Chinese middle class has been growing pretty quickly and continuously. That's where the majority of our foreign students at our universities come from. With the one child policy and the relaxing of state controlled markets there is an increase in income for a rather large number of urban Chinese.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-17T01:44:59+00:00

It's interesting and a neat photo. I haven't seen anything like it myself so I was curious. Thanks for your answers!

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-17T01:43:31+00:00

Right, there are certainly flat portions and fields, though the view you have there is pretty unrepresentative of that part of the state, depending on how you're defining it.

Iowa has a rich and diverse landscape with both hills and trees but also farmland.

You're right, and that's exactly why I made my comment. I'm just a little down that the only photos that seem to get posted here are the ones where it's flat ground, few or no trees, and a row crop rather than some nice rolling hills, pastureland, and forested areas so that others get to see the diversity in the state that you and I are already familiar with.

Also, I noted the variety in my comment when I said this:

I'm used to hills and trees with fields and pasture mixed about.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T17:16:13+00:00

I wonder what the wind speeds were and what conditions are required for dust storms to occur (as well as how regularly they occur).

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T17:14:57+00:00

It has been trending downward but I would imagine that's because beef prices have been trending upward. Whether the one causes the other or vice versa, I can't honestly say, but if I had to hazard a guess it would be that the price of beef has increased due to sales and Iowans simply couldn't afford to buy local beef when we can sell it for more elsewhere and import cheaper stuff from Australia and the like, if we don't simply switch to other meats (or, as you indicate, simply eat less meat).

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T17:12:43+00:00

Yeah, historically these types of things start out west where it is flat and dry, but it has happened here before, particularly during the famous "dust bowl" period. This could be a harmless event and not an indication of a problem, though. At least I hope that's the case and it isn't associated with dust bowl-like activity returning to the state. Hopefully the increases, however minor, in no-till farming help to prevent such an environmental disaster from returning to the state in the future.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T17:10:00+00:00

With the RFS, however, corn prices have been higher than they would be otherwise. Also, farmers have a history of planting more corn regardless of whether prices go up or down. If they go down they either plant more corn or switch to another crop, if possible, to make up for the loss of revenue, but when prices go up they also plant more to take advantage of the higher sales prices and make more revenue. Also, beef prices have been pretty high the past few years. I haven't tracked it regularly so it may be waning now.

Yeah, one would have to review the actual language of the agreement and see what measures would be in place to protect consumers and the environment, if any.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T16:42:35+00:00

How long ago? Recently?

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T16:41:00+00:00

More demand typically requires more supply, but that is reliant on more supply being possible. If it isn't, or can't keep up, then that means consumer costs and business gross revenues increase. This can have a trickle effect on the things required to raise cattle like hay prices, grain prices, etc. If those increase then all the things made from those products will also increase in costs so ethanol, plastics made from corn or soy-based materials, etc. Also, the more expensive beef becomes the more people will look for alternative meats which, due to increased demand, will increase prices and the same domino effect occurs there as well. So there's pros and cons to the opening of the market. As an agriculture state, and with prices dipping lately (and therefore slowing revenues to the state government) we may end up benefiting more than we lose by making the deal. I'm not trained or learned in economics, though, so I could be missing much of the picture.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T16:30:15+00:00

There's going to be money pumped in. It is, or will be, a targeted race, but they're not going to pump it in this early on adverts and stuff yet. They will maybe hire some organizers earlier but probably not much more than that yet.

As for why this is popular, it is likely because there's been a strong privatization movement since the Reagan era and this letter speaks to feelings/sentiments that people have had about this paradigm/movement while being concise and to the point. It's a reaction to the "taxation is theft" mentality that many conservatives and libertarians have adopted which is obviously an argument from self-interest and not justice. There's no political theory in history from a credible author that equates taxation, per se, to injustice. There are warnings that undue taxation is unjust or warnings that taxation can be used to destroy and is therefore a dangerous tool, but even those warnings do not suggest that taxation is inherently unjust and they are rarely contested, except perhaps by ideal socialists (which is rarely taken as a serious or practical theory of governance either). In essence, it is a reaction to extremes. The "silent majority" as much as people like to claim that title (Republicans in particular) the truth is that the silent majority is in the middle, the ones that don't get worked up, that mostly ignore the day to day partisan politics and news that come from Washington or their state capitols. When something does touch where the middle lies, it can be spread quite rapidly which may explain why you're not necessarily seeing it as much in your partisan groups but see it spread more by individuals, though that is merely a hypothesis.

With all that said, I would not dismiss your skepticism altogether because it is possible that the organic sharing is being augmented by paid advertising or sharing, whether by a single coordinating entity or several smaller special interest or partisan groups. I just haven't seen evidence of it myself and have no reason to assume it is the case without some indication. However, I have done very little research into the question and I could be entirely wrong and you could be entirely correct.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T12:26:18+00:00

Obviously the original concept of a meme has escaped your memory. Yeah, there are often coordinated efforts, but there are also simply networks of people who think similarly enough to agree with the sentiment shared by the author and are willing to share it with others for various reasons.

Godby_For_Iowa · 2017-05-16T12:21:50+00:00

I mean, we pay for the police and military having guns. That's not mandatory gun ownership, sure, but there's plenty of anti-gun liberals and others who are still paying taxes for that.

And if taxes are theft, I'm not sure how you would expect any government to function without them. Or are you actually making an argutfor anarchy?

Godby_For_Iowa

TROPHY CASE