What news sources for Iowa do you keep up with? reasons you don't follow certain news sources?
Especially smaller or less widely known sources.
Why did the article feel the need to mention US foreign policy from the early Trump administration? I can't imagine it would be hard to find hypocrisy from the Biden administration itself.
Instead of talking about the US human rights failures, it spends time downplaying the accusations about Uighurs. None of the information constructed here builds into a cohesive thesis.
user listed as the mod @jimrob4@midwest.social was last active 8 months ago.
This ain't exactly the most active community on here and there's yet to be any vitriol on here that'd need moderating but it's at least something to be aware of.
edit: I humbly accept my new status as the regent of the mighty @jimrob4@midwest.social, my reign of terror will be legendary and act as a warning to all those who would dare question
It's true though, Every place in the US has it's own unique flavor of absolute hogshit
I don't get what's objectionable about this take, it's not even defending any particular aspect of the US or taking a "but I'm not like them" stance.
First thing: Many parts of the school system are done by regional Area Education agencies (AEAs), things like special education, curriculum, media, etc. (heres the link to their website if you want to learn more iowaaea.org). Their boards are elected by school districts.
A version of the changes proposed by Governor Reynolds has already passed the Iowa house (hf2612). The part of the bill I'm focusing on here is how it allows for school districts to use state and federal $ that goes to AEAs and use it for themselves.
The thing that got me to start writing this post was a section of the most recent Iowa press. Todd Abrahamson, superintendent of the Okoboji Community School District and one of the few school superintendents in the state in favor of the proposed changes, when asked about what Okoboji would do with the money said (in more diplomatic language, 8:50) that Okoboji would poach staff from the AEAs to work exclusively for Okoboji and not for other districts.
Okoboji is a relatively wealthy tourism town, and is covered by the Prarie Lakes Area Education Agency in Northwest Iowa. Okoboji is an island of wealth in an otherwise especially rural and economically depressed area of the state where school districts just don't have resources to offer many kinds of resources on their own.
There's other things in the bill as well, shifting parts of curriculum more into the private sector. Also it would put the AEAs under the direct control of the state government.
I can't really imagine danger being particularly extreme for anyone other than trans people, for trans folk updating passports is likely a good idea. But keep in mind that blue states would still be relatively safe.
If shit truly gets to the point where it's death squads and fascist street gangs, realistically there would not be anywhere in the world that would be safe.
I don't think we need to be worried about full-blown civil war, but preparing for an increase in stochastic terrorism probably isn't the worst idea.
Laura Belin explores how Citizens For Des Moines is seeking to influence the mayoral election without revealing its donors or spending.
That doesn't really respond to what I said
but it applies to voting, we can argue about the effectiveness of voting as a tactic but people who vote are more politically engaged than the type of person described in the quote
There are many people who vote, and do nothing else, and that is condemnible. But unless you have direct evidence that the quote originates with someone who explicitly denied the effectiveness of voting in totality I see no reason why the quote would not apply to forms of political advocacy you happen consider ineffective
I don't particularly want to argue about the effectiveness of voting, beyond to say that I strongly disagree with any bright-line distinction between "electoralism" and whatever other strategies you would care to mention, and that EVERY successful movement (leftist or otherwise) that had the option had the ballot as part of their strategy.
but it applies to voting, we can argue about the effectiveness of voting as a tactic but people who vote are more politically engaged than the type of person described in the quote
An important aspect of the success of D&D/40k has been fan creations and lore explainers. A challenge for growing a creative commons (alternatives is that there isn't a unified set of "cannon" stories for independent creators to make "TOP 10 WACKIEST THINGS IN [franchise]" which are the intellectual equivalent to baby food (which I don't mean as an insult).
then again, d&d and 40k are popular because the companies that own them decided to let smaller creators do the work of reprocessing the decades worth of lore into easily consumable and marketable chunks. Both the small creators and the central company got to symbiotically feed off of the brand value of the other. Then begins the enshitification once the brand reaches the mainstream
The problem for less centrally controlled media isn't just that there isn't decades worth interconnected lore within one overarching franchise, it's that stories that aren't centrally controlled will mutate and be remixed too much to have the sort of symbiotic brand growth of 40k and d&d
Recommendations by a state panel to cut or consolidate more than 100 administrative boards and commissions in Iowa could put millions in federal funding at risk to local nonprofits and public entities. And it may hinder efforts to provide safe and affordable housing at a time when homelessness is on...
