SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
June 25, 2024
Sullivan’s Salvos 6/27/24
In this edition:
*Yard Signs
*The Press Citizen is an Embarrassment!
*An Alternative to the Press Citizen
*The Economy Sucks if You’re Poor
*Fan of the Feds When She Needs Them
*Did You Know?
*Yard Signs
I have had a few folks ask about yard signs. If you have one of mine and are willing to hold on to it, that would be great! Please stick it in the garage – that should lower the odds of losing it to wind or vandalism. Thanks!
*The Press Citizen is an Embarrassment!
Johnson County, Iowa. A county where 27% of the population has an advanced degree. A UNESCO City of Literature. A place known for civic engagement. You would imagine a place like this would have a thriving local newspaper. You would be wrong!
Here is the thing. I am tired of the Press Citizen hurting this community. And yes, I sincerely mean hurting it! They fail to cover important civic meetings. They fail to report information the public needs – not only in order to thrive, but to even remain safe. They display a general lack of interest in Iowa City… and it is time to take dramatic action.
If Johnson County is going to continue to thrive, we have to have a reliable source of local news. I believe it is time to act. What do you think?
*An Alternative to the Press Citizen
Maybe the Press Citizen has nothing of value to sell, even if they were willing. I mean, their reputation has fallen so far as to be laughable.
I recently ran for reelection. I never even *considered* buying an ad in the Press Citizen. As a matter of fact, a friend and I joked about how I would get ten times as many eyeballs stepping outside and doing a Tic Tok video of myself burning the $500 an ad would cost. So the question may be, is there anything worth buying?
So what alternatives are there? The Gazette is actually doing a pretty damned good job in a tough environment. I like and respect the Gazette. But they really don’t have the resources to cover Linn County adequately, let alone Johnson County. The Daily Iowan does some good work; but it can be spotty.
What else can be done? I guess a bunch of us could start an online newspaper. I say online because printing costs and logistics would simply be too expensive. Let’s look at some math:
If you could get 200 local people to each invest $500, that is $100,000. Not a lot of money, mind you, but I believe it would be enough to start something. Are there 200 locals who would each put in $500? I believe there are.
You set up some type of cooperative ownership arrangement, and elect an 11-13 member Board of Directors. The Board hires an Executive Editor. The Editor finds someone to do all the graphics/layout. Lots of local folks do that work. The Editor hires a person to sell ads and subscriptions. Then you find a group of stringers who would be paid by the article to cover a specific beat – North Liberty Council, Iowa City School Board, etc. The Executive Editor writes some editorials, and recruits guest opinions from other folks.
Charge people an amount equivalent to a streaming service – say $15/month. Could we get 750 people to pay $15/month? I think that is very doable, so long as the product is good. (500 people get Salvos every week, for God’s sake! Of course, only just over half of those 500 open it. And it is free. But I digress.) That is $11,000 per month in income. It would be tight, but it just might pay the bills.
This is risky, right? The whole thing has to start rolling really quickly or you burn through your $100,000 and there is no revenue to stay afloat. But what is the alternative? We run the risk of a failed society. An informed public is among our most critical needs. It is worth the investment!
I wrote last week about what makes Johnson County special. This is the type of thing that makes Johnson County special. We could do it. There are several veterans of the news industry who live right here. I think the expertise exists. We just have to have the will.
*The Economy Sucks If You’re Poor
The stock market has recently been at an all time high of over 40,000 – numbers unthinkable just a decade ago. In addition, unemployment is low, wages are increasing, and inflation is pretty close to normal at 3%. All the signs of a good economy, right?
Not according to Republicans! They (rightly) point out that groceries and rents have skyrocketed, that medical costs are outrageous, car and home loans are too expensive, and people have not saved for retirement.
As my late grandfather (a Republican, BTW) would have said, “Well I’ll be go to Hell!” It seems that the GOP has discovered what Democrats have known all along – most of the ways in which we evaluate the economy only work for rich people.
Average folks don’t give a damn about the stock market. It makes no meaningful difference in their lives. So let’s look at how each party has tried to address these concerns:
Groceries: Democrats have been noting that large food companies have profiteered since COVID. Tyson, Cargill, ConAgra, General Mills, Wal-Mart, and almost every other company in the food business has had record profits now 3-4 years running. They are price-gouging the American people.
Democrats have introduced all manner of bills to break up these conglomerates and to require greater accountability from them. Hell, just let Dems tax the profits! But no. Republicans fight to keep the price gouging alive.
Rents: Democrats are always talking about affordable housing. The Harvard Kennedy School found cities led by Democrats did much more investing in affordable housing than did GOP led cities.
In DC, Republicans made cuts to HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs a key point in negotiations over the debt ceiling. In Iowa, Kim Reynolds sent much of the federal rent relief money back to DC.
Medical costs: President Biden lowered the cost of insulin, implemented out-of-pocket maximums, and has Medicare and Medicaid negotiating drug prices, all over GOP objections.
Home loans: Biden has suggested ending the mortgage interest deduction on second and third homes. Republicans refuse to move on this. And see the earlier comments regarding the HUD budget.
Oh, and while we are talking about loans – how about student loans? Dems have tried to help, while the GOP remains staunchly opposed.
Retirement: Biden will protect Social Security by forcing millionaires and billionaires to pay taxes on everything they earn. (Right now they only pay on $168,600!) Republicans would change Social Security so that middle class people had to work until 70, then got less benefits.
Biden has also cracked down on unscrupulous “retirement planners,” while the GOP has defended them at every turn.
Bottom line? The economy sucks when you are poor. It always has. Democrats are trying to make things better for the middle class and poor. Republicans are trying to make it better for the wealthy. Those are the facts.
*Fan of the Feds When She Needs Them
My friend Jim Walters recently wrote a letter to the editor that perfectly summed up something I had planned on writing. But Jim did it first and did it better. So here is Jim’s letter:
To the Editor:
Governor Kim Reynolds is sitting on a $2 billion budget surplus, yet anytime something goes wrong - from the recent flooding and tornadoes, to the C6 Zero explosion in Marengo, to the building collapse in Davenport - she goes running to Washington, begging for a handout (not including the millions and millions of federal dollars that pour into Iowa to subsidize our industrialized (fake family) agriculture. Strange, isn't it, considering she's always bad-mouthing Washington and has little or nothing to say about the matter of climate change, which is creating a host of these problems.
Jim Walters
Iowa City, IA 52240-5248
*DID YOU KNOW? The newsletter usually accorded primacy as a definite newspaper is the Relation of Strasbourg, first printed in 1609 by Johan Carolus. A close rival is the Avisa Relation oder Zeitung (Zeitung is the German word for “newspaper”), founded in the same year by Heinrich Julius, duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. (Source: Wikipedia.)
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 4:30 PM
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