Was Trump Dabbling In Pump-And-Dump This Week?

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Dave Bradley

Were the NATO meetings a chance to shake the sabre and scare the markets?  (1 minute)

(BTW the more Trump’s hands move the more illegally he is acting)

Pardon me for being skeptical. Like many, during the day I take the occasional break and turn on some form of connection to the outside world. The last couple of weeks have been really interesting when I do that because it feels as if this country’s president has changed direction just about every time I check in.

 

At one point we are invading Iran; next we are in a cease fire; then we are naming some new enemy of the state; then we are no longer trading with an old trading partner. On and on it goes.

 

This week Trump took a trip to Turkey to a NATO summit. This would be a space where his current problem of misidentifying people and problems could really stir the current pot of troubles.

 

As I was watching one day, as he flung a pile of poo around the cage exciting all sorts of response from other heads of state and corporate newsers alike, I began to wonder if his behavior was actually spontaneous or was it scripted.

The reason that my BS detector was even engaged was that just a couple of weeks ago Trump’s family accidentally (?) reported that the family had made over $2 Billion last year. There seemed to be many scenarios they employed, but one that many reporters alluded to was the scenario where the President would make an announcement that greatly affected some sector of the economy. Before he would make such an announcement, he would sell or purchase large lots of company stocks in that sector.

 

That is the very essence of insider trading. Insider trading is illegal as hell unless you are the one man in the country that the SCOTUS designated as untouchable when acting in your job. That is the president of the US. Thus by simply claiming that he is acting in a way to do his job, Donald Trump can claim that buying or selling stock in anticipation of his own announcement that will greatly move the markets is part of his job.

 

So as I casually turned on the TV I think it was Tuesday I happened to catch Trump in the middle of condemning Iran. I can’t remember what his words were. I remember his demeanor  was that of a 5 year old child. I started to parse his words and then it hit me:

‘It matters not what he says. He makes no sense anyway. He doesn’t want to be able to be analyzed. What he does want is markets to move. He or one of his kids or one of his butt buddies must have placed a heavy bet on one or more markets and they want a big swing in order to make bundles.Then in a couple of days, or in a week or two they will do the opposite and score a big windfall.’

‘In the meantime many Iranians or somebodies will get killed and maimed. Trump doesn’t care. He’s making money. The news won’t report the subsequent sale of stocks. They will have moved on to the next coverup story. This chapter was done weeks ago and Trump has moved on to his next pump-and-dump – his next use of his powers of the presidency to score some quick cash.’

So pardon me for being so skeptical. Trump has the stage all set for him to come waltzing in, make the grand set up and start cashing in. SCOTUS made it legal. The corporate press covers for him. His own party in congress covers for him. He sets up the scenario, puts the money in whatever instruments he needs to and ka-ching! We are in the chips.

 

So were we all watching a staged set-up? Act 1 in a three act play to make the president some walking around cash?

 

Well, c’mon Republicans in congress – Grassley, this one is right down your alley! Start asking some questions.

Posted in #nevertrump, Republican Obstruction, SCOTUS | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sunday Funday: Commie! Commie! Commie! Edition

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Dave Bradley
(3.5 minutes)

Donald Trump has turned this year’s midterm on its head with his introduction of the use of the epithet “Commie” against his Democratic opposition. Recently a dormant insult, Trump’s resurrection of the one time Republican go to phrase has shaken the race up. The use of this insult has rekindled memories of its use by that old master himself, Richard M. Nixon.

As we can see in the short documentary above, Trump has once more caught the true flavor of his opposition. People will not laugh at such a serious charge.

Donald Trump ruins everything.

He ruined America’s 250th birthday. He ruined the National Mall. He ruined fireworks. He ruined the bipartisan housing bill. He ruined passports. He ruined soccer.

And that’s just in the past week. – Middle Age Riot

A) My other ride is AF1. What move did Trump pull to return from the NATO summit in Turkey?

 

B) Republican senators lined up to say they had had 20 minute conversations with who last week?

 

C) Red Card!? Who made a mockery of the World Cup competition by calling on the FIFA head to cancel an American players suspension due to a red card?

 

D) The history of communism in the US? Why not? What Republican US senator gained massive fame with unjust and unsubstantiated charges of communism in the early to mid 1950s?

 

E) As charges of sexual violence swirled around his campaign, what Democratic candidate withdrew from the Maine US senate race?

 

F) Another hospital in what major Iowa city is ending maternity care due to Medicaid cut backs from the big beautiful(?) bill?

 

G) Due to tariffs, rising costs and shrinking markets what kind of bankruptcies have more than doubled in Iowa in the past year?

 

H) What Hollywood legend saw his reputation smeared because of his liberal politics in the 1950s? This person was best known as the ‘Little Tramp.”

 

I) Iowa recorded its first instance of what highly tranmissable disease for 2026 last week?

 

J) Donald Trump was ordered to finally pay the $5 million to settle a lawsuit against him brought by whom?

 

K) How did Iowa’s congressional delegation vote on giving multi billions to the out of control ICE organization?

 

L) Speaking of ICE there has been another very suspicious immigrant death in what major US city?

 

M) While at the NATO meetings, Trump declared the US would stop trade with what European country?

 

N) In a cruel action, the state of Iowa once again has refused to equip prisons with what summer need?

 

O) The Babylon Fire has burned over 100,000 acres in what US state?

 

P) Back to that red card interference incident. Who won that game?

 

Q) What 1976 movie was based on the black listing of accused communist Hollywood writers? The story starred Woody Allen as a mediocre writer who sells others’ screenplays as his own.

 

R) Trump refused to sign what popular piece of legislation which he then allowed to become law by not signing it by Friday?

 

S) What was the name of the infamous US House committee that was brought into existence to investigate Communists in the ‘50s?

 

T) Finally, the FTC and John Deere settled a long standing lawsuit that will allow Deere equipment owners to do what?

Jennifer Welch: “Republicans always do the exact same thing: start wars, add to the national deficit, cut social safety programs, bankrupt the stock market and then corporations get a surge of socialism, the American taxpayer has to fund it, and then a Democrat has to come back in and fix the economy”

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

Answers:

 

A) He took the Qatari bribe plane to the NATO meeting but flew home in the real AF1

 

B) Mitch McConnell

 

C) Trump

 

D) Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin

 

E) Graham Platner

 

F) Council Bluffs

 

G) Farm

 

H) Charlie Chaplin

 

I) Measles

 

J) E. Jean Carrol 

 

K) 6 for funding ICE 0 against

 

L) Houston

 

M) Spain

 

N) Air conditioning

 

O) Utah

 

P) Belgium beat the US

 

Q) “The Front”

 

R) bipartisan housing affordability legislation

 

S) House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC)

 

T) It will allow equipment owners to repair their own equipment

 

One day after Democrats forced a rapist out of a major Senate race, Republicans officially named a major airport after one. – \Covie

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

Posted in #nevertrump, 2026 election, Humor | Leave a comment

Obscene Pictures

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Dave Bradley

The extreme radical right that runs the Republican Party in Iowa and in the country, found reason to add to my small but growing collection of what I think of as obscene pictures this week. These are pictures I so deem because they illustrate situations that should not happen in the US if we truly followed our founders and practiced the ideals they left us with.

My original obscene picture was from Iowa from 2017. It was a picture of the Governor Branstad signing a hateful piece of legislation behind closed doors. He had to sign it behind closed doors because it was so odious that the Fire Marshall may have had to clear out the capitol because of the stink.

2017 from bleeding heartland.com

 

But what made this picture truly obscene is that Branstad signed the bill with an audience of 1. That individual was Drew Klein. Mr. Klein’s job that day was to make sure his group – Americans For Prosperity (a political front group for the Koch Brothers) – got what they paid for as Branstad signed a bill that drastically cut the rights of unions in Iowa. It was the capture of Iowa for the wealthy recorded in all its obscene glory for the ages.

 

And it was prescient. Almost 10 years later, Republicans have once again teamed with Americans For Prosperity – well maybe teamed with isn’t quite right – now they are just running one of the Americans For Prosperity members for governor and cutting out the middle man. Elect Zach Lahn and you get the Koch Brothers right in Terrace Hill. No need for even a phone call. You can bet they will care about Iowans that’s a joke, folks).

Just to show how smug they are about it, Republicans didn’t even bother to pick an Iowans to run. Talk about ‘in our face.’

 

I had that pic as my “most obscene” for a long time. Actually it still is. If Iowans do the dumbest thing possible and elect Zach Lahn governor, a picture of his swearing in will join it. Americans for Prosperity 2 Iowa 0.

But over the years I have moved other photos into obscenity status. I was reminded of such status by my two new entries that were taken over Trump’s pathetic mashing of what should have been a great event (250th birthday) for all (that is ALL!) Americans. The first was a black woman on a DC Metro train surrounded by 400 masked up “Patriot Front” white supremacists sometime during the weekend festivities.

That woman had to be scared to death. My thought immediately jumped to Little Rock Arkansas, 1957. One picture from that event still lingers in my mind from when I first saw that long ago.

Sadly it truly represented the America of its time, much as the DC Metro picture represents America today. In both cases these pictures represent what happens when true morality is abandoned by on of our political parties.

Shortly after that, Citizen Roswell Encina, a historian, took a picture of himself that parallels that of the black woman on the DC metro. Encina is of Filipina heritage and gay. As such he would be a target of a group like the Patriot Front. This picture also shows the obscene side of America today. Remember, it is groups like the Patriot Front that Trump called “fine people” in Charlottesville some 10 years ago. Obscene!

 

Finally, I present a picture from way back that is both obscene but also portended the hope and progress to come. I think all I have to say is Ruby Bridges and you all know what the picture is.

We must sweep away the vestiges of racism. America must once again set itself on a course of equal justice under the law as our founders wanted. Enough obscenities.

 

As I was writing my thoughts to tie these images together into this post, I ran across this substack piece that does a much better job of tying it all together than I did. I recommend you take a few minutes to read it.

Posted in #nevertrump, 2026 election, Branstad | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Warning On More ICE Raids In Iowa From Iowa Starting Line

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Dave Bradley

We just received an email from Iowa Starting Line and wanted to pass it along quickly:

ICE, flush with new cash, increasing raids in Iowa

ICE raids have increased in Iowa in recent weeks, including at workplaces. Here’s what you need to know.

According to immigrant advocacy group Escucha Mi Voz, ICE detained at least four people across eastern Iowa in June:

  • Ozgur Demirkan, a Turkish student attending Kirkwood Community College who worked as a DoorDash driver, was detained in Iowa City;
  • Rozenna Nazia Ali, a church employee from Fiji, was detained in Butler County;
  • Jose Alejandro Cocmaxsolovid and Jose Luis Mejia Lopez, both Guatemalan nationals, were detained at a residence and construction site in Waterloo.

Those detentions come as ICE receives a major funding boost.

Congress recently approved another $70 billion for immigration enforcement. (Meanwhile, an estimated 96,000 Iowans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage this year after the GOP-led Congress refused to extend subsidies to help people afford health insurance.)

All six members of Iowa’s congressional delegation voted in favor of the funding, which was quickly signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Since then, immigration advocates say detentions have increased across the country, with roughly 10,000 people detained just the past week alone.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also gave the Trump administration the ability to remove temporary protected status from legal immigrants who have fled war or disease in their countries, which could mean another 1.3 million people—again, legally in this country—are at risk of detention and deportation.

In response, organizations like Escucha Mi Voz and the Iowa City Catholic Worker are encouraging Iowans to “care for one another in difficult times,” and connect with local support groups.

If you witness suspected ICE activity, need help locating a loved one in detention, or want to get more info on Know Your Rights trainings, you can call Escucha Mi Voz’s hotline at (319-382-5203).

Thanks to iowastartingline.com for allowing us to use this story.

Posted in #nevertrump, 2026 election | Tagged | 1 Comment

Watch Live: Ann Selzer Attorneys Argue For Dismissal

Posted on July 10, 2026 by Trish Nelson

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Data Centers – The New CAFOs?

Posted on July 10, 2026 by Trish Nelson

From our inbox: Iowa CCI (Citizens for Community Improvement) and communities all over Iowa are organizing to stop massive data centers from draining Iowa resources. Check out the petition link and fact sheet below.

Data Centers descending on Iowa
Data centers have been rapidly expanding, despite the fact that this AI data center expansion far exceeds what we need to live our normal, day-to-day needs, and people across the political spectrum are standing together to stop them.
This is a long-haul fight. And we need to build a statewide people-power movement to protect our communities, land, and water.
Have a data center proposed in your area? Download this fact sheet as well as this petition. Use them to talk to folks in your community about what’s happening, send the petitions back to CCI’s headquarters, and email Katie Biechler at kbiechler@iowacci.org if you have questions.

What are data centers?

Data Centers are giant warehouses that host electronic equipment used to store, compute
and transmit all sorts of information and data; they’re full of computer servers, chips and
related equipment that power AI (artificial intelligence) and other technologies. They use
enormous amounts of electricity, water and land, and they’re oftentimes owned and operated by trillion-dollar tech corporations like Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft.

Here’s what we know:

• Big Tech has been rapidly expanding its data centers -> there were 2,701 in the U.S.
in 2022, and by 2025 that number had jumped to almost 4,200.

• This expansion has been driven by Big Tech’s speculative AI “boom” and its close
ties to the fossil fuel industry and other big industries.

Some states are keeping coal plants open, building new gas-fired power plants,
and reopening nuclear plants solely for data center use.

• The biggest demand now is for mega-facilities called hyperscale data centers, just
one of which can use as much energy as an entire town.

• When it comes to water, a typical data center uses about 300,000 gallons per day.
But large data centers can use an estimated 5 million gallons of water each day,
equivalent to the needs of a town of up to 50,000 residents.

• When it comes to electricity, a single hyperscale data center can consume 20-100+
MW (megawatts) of power continuously, equivalent to powering 15,000-75,000 homes.
The largest facilities consume over 650 MW – enough electricity for nearly 500,000
homes. U.S. data centers – in 2023 – collectively consumed enough electricity to
power 16 million homes for an entire year. And in states with a high concentration of
data centers (like Virginia), electricity prices have increased by up to 267% over the
last five years.

• Data centers receive billions of dollars in financial incentives from state and local
governments through property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions and other
subsidies.

The technology they use may be new, but the story has been around a long time: big
corporations profit by extracting and over-using our finite resources, while offloading the
costs onto taxpayers and our communities.

Analysts say the current data center expansion far surpasses what is necessary for our
everyday digital lives and what our resources can sustain.

How many data centers are in Iowa?

A November 2025 Business Record story said Iowa has at least 104 data centers, with more on the way. Some of our giant data centers include…

• Google has a 1,000-acre data center complex in Council Bluffs with 3 buildings that
have a total of 2.9 million square feet.

• Google wants to build a data center complex next to Palo in Linn County, adjacent to
the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant – it’s expected to have up to 6 buildings with a
total of 3-4 million square feet of construction (bigger than 52 football fields
combined!)

• QTS (a global Big Tech company) is building a hyperscale data center in Cedar Rapids
on 612 acres – it’s expected to have 6 buildings ranging in size from 400,000 square
feet to 1.2 million square feet; The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that QTS is set to
receive tax rebates worth more than $500 million. The company said it expects to
produce 15 permanent jobs during each of seven planned phases.

• Microsoft and Meta have hyperscale data centers in Altoona and West Des Moines.

• Apple has a 400,000-square foot data center in Waukee.

Big Tech corporations want to build more data centers in Iowa, so we have to be organized and pay attention to the impact they can have on our water and energy systems, our land and quality of life – and our public treasury (tax dollars).

How are everyday Iowans fighting back against Data Centers?

In January, we started hearing from CCI members in different parts of the state who were
concerned about data centers being built – or proposed – near them.

• We started doing some local organizing with a group of CCI members in Story County,
and in March they won a 1-year moratorium on data center construction in
unincorporated areas of the county.

• Mitchell County passed a 1-year moratorium on data centers after 150+ local residents
spoke out against a bitcoin facility.

• At least 18 Iowa counties have either passed – or are planning to pass – data center
moratoriums. We need more counties (& towns!) passing moratoriums in the coming
months.

Looking ahead, we’re almost certain the Iowa Legislature will weigh in on data center issues in 2027. And when that happens, we know Big Tech corporations – and their high-paid lobbyists – will be there pushing hard for weak rules and regulations, lax enforcement, and little or no public oversight and accountability. They’ll also be pushing for lots of taxpayer subsidies (our money!) to pay for their expansion.

That’s why we need to be there, too – standing up for what’s right, going toe-to-toe with the billionaires (and their trillion-dollar companies), and doing everything we can to protect the people and places we love – people before profits, communities before corporations!

To join the fight-back against giant data centers, contact Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement at iowacci@iowacci.org or call us at 515.282.0484

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Oligarchy In Action

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Follow More Perfect Union

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Debunking The “Democrats Suck” Narrative

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles posted this last week on Substack.  Click here to read the entire article.

It’s Time To Move On From The “Democrats Suck” Narrative – It’s Wrong, And We Have An Election To Win – by Simon Rosenberg, Hopium Chronicles

My talk this week generated a spirited discussion in our chat yesterday about what I will call for today the “Democrats suck” narrative that ripples through/poisons our discourse every day. Fighting what I have believed to be false and overly negative narratives about the Democratic Party – and America more broadly – was a central reason I started Hopium back in 2023. Here is what I wrote in that very first Hopium post:

I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, of love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win.

Throughout the 2024 election cycle each month I showed a presentation called With Democrats, Things Get Better (link) that shows, conclusively, how much better things get for the American people when Democrats are in charge. That the two parties are not the same. That when we are in power things get better for the America people, something that cannot be said when Republicans have been in the White House. The most recognizable bit of data from that presentation was cited by Bill Clinton at the Democratic Convention in 2024:

In With Dems I go through lots of data including that under Biden we had the lowest uninsured rate in American history, the lowest poverty rate in American history, the lowest unemployment rate in a peacetime American economy since WWII, and the most robust growth of new businesses ever recorded. The contrast to all that progress we made under Biden and Obama and Clinton and what is now happening under Trump could not be more stark.

I want to be clear that the goal of this kind of work is not to be pollyannish, but to forcefully challenge the facile, overly negative narratives about this great country and the Democratic Party itself. To create a more rounded, and more accurate in my mind, picture. So, let’s bring this sensibility to present day and this election.

Right now Democrats have one of our strongest Party ID advantage of the post-Cold War era, and our largest lead since 2008. This directly challenges the “we are only doing well because Trump is unpopular and Democrats suck” narrative that flows through our discourse right now.

Another direct challenge to that narrative is what’s happening in the Senate battlegrounds. Look at how many of our candidates have hit 50+% in recent polls – that is an affirmative vote for them. 6 of our candidates are running more than 10 points ahead of Harris in 2024 – extraordinary performances by our candidates right now. This is not data consistent with a “weak party.”

there is no reliable recent independent polling in Florida

Additionally, the anger and disappointment among Democrats towards the Party and its leaders is overstated. Look at this June YouGov data, favorable/unfavorable, among registered Democrats:

  • 84%-13% – Democrats in Congress
  • 86%-14% – The Democratic Party

Here’s their most recent data on Leaders Schumer and Jeffries among Democrats (adults), favorable/unfavorable:

  • 45%-36% – Leader Schumer
  • 56%-23% – Leader Jeffries

What this data tells us is that among Democrats right now the number of people with expressly negative or unfavorable views of the Party, Congressional Democrats, or our Congressional Leaders is a small minority. Small, but yes very vocal and very organized. And of course Trump aligned powers, foreign and domestic, are going to do everything they can to amplify these voices to make this sentiment appear far more pervasive than it really is, and weaken us as we head into the general election. I have already seen a significant uptick of this kind of inauthentic amplification on my YouTube channel.

And let’s be very clear about one thing – if you think the Democratic Party sucks, and you say so, you are giving people permission to not vote for us this November. For why should anyone vote for a party that sucks? Which is why this ongoing sustained attack on “Establishment Democrats” in this moment of opportunity for us is so reckless, and also I believe a misread of the broader trends in our politics right now.

“Establishment Democrats” have been winning elections and overperforming in hundreds of critical election since early 2025. Establishment Democrats had one of the strongest off year performances in 2025 of any party in recent memory. Establishment Democrats have one of the largest Party ID leads in the last 50 years of American politics; our Senate candidates are putting in some of the most remarkable battleground performances in recent memory; and are viewed favorably by 86% of Democratic voters. Establishment Democrats have nurtured a politics where an overwhelming majority of our campaign monies comes from every day people not wealthy people or corporations. Establishment Democrats won the 2018 mid-terms by 8.6 pts and flipped the House. Establishment Democrats took the Presidency away from Trump in 2020 and flipped the Senate; we had the best mid-term performance by a party in power in 2022 in almost 100 years; and in 2024 our Senate candidates outperformed Harris throughout the battleground and won, and we gained a seat in the House. Let us be very clear – absent a rancid North Carolina redistricting in 2023 Hakeem Jeffries would be Speaker right now. The SCOTUS/GOP alliance that has rigged the system is why we do not control the House, not our electoral performance in a tough year in 2024.

I am not saying we should be content with where we are. I understand the disappointment, the frustration, the legitimate fear we all have about what Trump is doing to the country and our future. Everyday here at Hopium I am calling for us to be stronger, to fight harder, to make No Kings the very heart of our offering to voters and not just kitchen table issues. For there is one bit of data from the 2024 Exit Polls that should be informing everything we do as a Party:

Voters must believe that we are strong enough to “bring needed change.” It simply isn’t enough for our hearts to be in the right place, or have a good agenda. We must be seen as being strong enough to deliver for the American people when in power; to overcome the oligarchs, the inertia, the corruption, doomerism, to truly deliver for them. And the only way that happens is by taking on tough battles, fighting, and winning again and again and again, starting with winning this election this November. We must not only be right we must also be strong and willing to fight.

And the fight that matters most right now is for us to beat Republicans in the battlegrounds and take back control of Congress.

All the focus now has to be on beating Republicans, not beating up on and defeating other Democrats. The general election is here. Ads are flying. Early voting begins in eleven weeks. We are going to be outspent. Trump is going to do whatever it takes to keep Republicans in power. This is not going to be easy, and we need to get on with it now…..

Click here to read the entire article.

###

Simon’s latest interview with Sarah Trone Garriott for congress in IA-03.

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Join The Conversation – Rural Urban Bridge and Leaving MAGA CEO

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Trish Nelson

https://ruralurbanbridge.org/events

June Briefing – Leaving MAGA and Connecting Across the Divide: A Conversation with Rich Logis

Wednesday, July 8, 2026
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (ET)

Join RUBI on July 8 for a powerful conversation with Rich Logis, CEO and founder of Leaving MAGA, an organization dedicated to providing a safe, nonjudgmental space for anyone who has stepped away from the MAGA movement or is considering doing so.

Rich brings a deeply personal perspective to this briefing. For years, he was a committed MAGA activist: volunteering, campaigning, and writing in support of the movement. But beginning in 2022, a series of events shook his convictions. The handling of COVID-19, the response to January 6, and ultimately the tragedy in Uvalde became incidents he could not defend, no matter how deeply committed he was to the MAGA community. By August 2022, he made the difficult decision to leave the movement he once believed in wholeheartedly.

Rich describes that departure as an internal struggle tied to identity, belonging, and community. Today, his work focuses on helping others who are questioning where they stand, and on teaching how to reach people across political divides without writing them off. He believes the American people are frustrated, the system is rigged, and Democrats and the left have an opportunity to bring those frustrated by the status quo into the fold through empathy, understanding, and keeping the door open for those who may be ready to rethink their path.

Join us as Rich shares his personal journey in and out of the MAGA movement, what he’s learned about belief and belonging, and how to bring people together rather than push them further apart.

Register here  ruralurbanbridge.org/events

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Tell Senators And Reps Say No To NDAA Section 219

Posted on July 6, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Ed Flaherty of Veterans For Peace addressing about 75 people gathered to protest the military action in Venezuela

Our friend and peace activist Ed Flaherty’s letter to the editor was published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette Sunday, July 5.

Israel gets unprecedented privileges in draft defense bill

Congress is preparing to give Israel unprecedented privileges via the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Section 219 of the draft NDAA directs the secretary of defense to expand integration of the U.S. and Israeli military sectors. If Section 219 becomes law, U.S. and Israeli militaries will be joined at the hip. The measure directs the Department of Defense to appoint a senior “executive agent” to integrate Israeli defense technology directly into sensitive U.S. weapons systems, including artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, autonomous systems and quantum computing.

Nothing like this has ever been done in U.S. history. No other nation has ever been given the access to U.S. military resources that Section 219 proposes to give to Israel. It is an affront to U.S. sovereignty, and is frankly absurd.

The U.S. and Israel are allies, but it has been a contentious relationship, with that contentiousness amplified right now.

There are so many reasons to oppose the draft 2027 NDAA effort (e.g., an over 40% increase in an already bloated, unaudited military budget), but the inclusion of Section 219 is uniquely egregious. Please study this for yourself, and make your opinion known to your employees in D.C. The Armed Services Committees of both the House and Senate have approved the NDAA draft, including Section 219.

The House was expected to begin voting on the NDAA before the Fourth of July. The Senate will be taking a twoweek vacation, so no action there before July 13.

Ed Flaherty

Iowa City

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