August 31, 2016
Aug 31 01:46 Did Angie Craig cheat veterans? Aug 31 09:20 WCCO's SWLRT fantasy reporting Aug 31 11:39 St. Cloud Joint Cities forum notes Aug 31 13:56 Hitting Hillary's diplomacy
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Did Angie Craig cheat veterans?
Based on this article , it sounds like Angie Craig isn't an honest businessperson. The article says "The company in 2012 paid $3.65 million as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice over the allegation. The settlement resolved allegations by two whistleblowers that the company violated the False Claims Act that it had inflated the cost of replacement pacemakers and defibrillators purchased by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs."
The issue had subsided until this week when "St. Jude came under renewed scrutiny last week when Carson Block, a prominent short seller, issued a memo to investors warning that the company's devices could be fatally hacked. "The nightmare scenario is somebody is able to launch a mass attack and cause these devices that are implanted to malfunction," Block said in an interview with Bloomberg .
At the time of this settlement, Ms. Craig "ran media relations" for St. Jude Medical. Now, Ms. Craig is running an ad touting her as the veterans' hero:
That's downright shameful. Ms. Craig's company ripped off veterans and exposed them to hackers that might kill these veterans. Putting veterans at risk of getting killed isn't the way to be a veterans' hero. That's like saying the administrators at the Phoenix VA Hospital are heroes. They're nothing of the sort. Ms. Craig isn't the veterans' hero, either.
Posted Wednesday, August 31, 2016 1:46 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 31-Aug-16 07:38 AM
WTF is Carson Block? A short seller who takes a short position and then goes on line to try to lower trading price by bad mouthing the entity? Wow. Gravitas. Exactly the kind of person Jason Lewis would take seriously.
Comment 2 by JerryE9 at 31-Aug-16 07:47 AM
Have you noticed the extent to which Angie Craig is trying to paint herself as a conservative, just to get elected? In a just world, she would be laughed off the planet for such a howler.
Comment 3 by Chad Q at 31-Aug-16 06:15 PM
Not only did St. Jude screw veterans and had to pay up, they got caught paying kick backs to doctors and there's another story brewing where they are going to pay more.
Ms. Craig is part of what she rails against and will screw over the "little people" any chance she gets to obtain power, just like all progressives.
WCCO's SWLRT fantasy reporting
Saying that WCCO's reporting on the SWLRT project is based on DFL talking points and outright fantasy is understatement. The SWLRT project won't happen for at least 3-5 years. That's the reality thanks to the route that the Met Council picked for the SWLRT project.
WCCO is reporting that "Hennepin County officials announced Tuesday that the county will put in another $20.5 million in funding for a total financial commitment of $185 million - which is 10 percent of the project's total cost," adding that "The county's increased commitment, along with that of the Metropolitan Council and the Counties Transit Improvement Board, will make up for the $144.5 million that was supposed to be paid for by the state."
My reaction to this is simple: "So what"? The FTA (Federal Transportation Administration) has said they won't fund the SWLRT until the Tunheim lawsuit is settled. I reported in this post that the Tunheim trial won't start until Sept. 17, 2017 . There won't be a ruling in that lawsuit until the start of 2018. The thought that the SWLRT project will get started without federal money is preposterous. The latest projection for the total cost of the project is $1.9 billion ($1,900,000,000).
The DFL has been on the offensive about the project. Now Republicans are fighting back. Republicans have the stronger arguments in this fight. Jeff Johnson's video provides some of those strong arguments:
The simple point is that SWLRT won't get built for years even if the legislature voted to fund the project tomorrow. SWLRT is fraught with legal difficulties. The lawsuits will tie the SWLRT project up like lawsuits tied up the Big Stone II project. Once a project gets tied up in the courts, it takes on a life of its own. It's beyond the politicians' control. That's where it's at right now.
Posted Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:20 AM
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St. Cloud Joint Cities forum notes
Saying that the questions asked at the St. Cloud Area Joint Cities Forum had a leftward tilt to them is understatement. For instance, the first question was "While the legislature accomplished its most basic responsibility of passing a state budget, the last biennium, it does seem that the last 2 years are marked with significant disappointment, including the failure to pass a Tax Bill, no major bonding bill, and continued impasse over transportation. What do you think needs to happen at the legislature to make sure that these other important pieces of legislation get passed?"
If that question sounded like it was written by Rep. Thissen or Gov. Dayton, raise your hands. If you think that question was written by Rep. Thissen, you earned bonus points. He's specialized in criticizing everything that Speaker Daudt did the past 2 years. That's because he didn't like getting cut out of the budget negotiations in 2015. He didn't like it that Speaker Daudt and Sen. Bakk put the budget together in an afternoon.
The truth is that the past 2 years produced a bipartisan budget that should've gotten signed during the regular session. The only reason why the Tax Bill didn't get signed into law was because our spoiled rich brat governor vetoed the bill in his attempt to get funding for a SWLRT project that has no chance of happening before the end of the first term of Minnesota's next governor. The problem with the Tax Bill wasn't with the legislature. That fault is exclusively with Gov. Dayton, aka Gov. Temper Tantrum.
Here's another question:
Q3: Local government aid continues to be an important program for restraining property taxes and providing services to residents and businesses at a reasonable cost. For 2017, the LGA formula distributes approximately 66% of all LGA funds to greater Minnesota vs. 34% to the metro area. The LGA appropriations to cities across the state is still $45.5 million less than it was in 2002. Do you support the current LGA formula and would you support an increase in LGA to get back to the 2002 level?
I reject the premise that LGA is "an important program for restraining property taxes." There's no proof of that. Why should I accept that premise? The truth is that it's more likely to increase spending on foolish projects in the Twin Cities than it is to stabilize property taxes.
The truth is that property taxes have increased significantly since the DFL legislature increased LGA and Gov. Dayton signed those increases into law. Here are all 8 questions from the forum:
Posted Wednesday, August 31, 2016 11:39 AM
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Hitting Hillary's diplomacy
When Hillary criticized Donald Trump for visiting Mexico , she said "You don't build a coalition by insulting our friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships. Getting countries working together was my job every day as your Secretary of State. It's more than a photo op. It takes consistency and reliability. Actually, it's just like building personal relationships. People have got to know that they can count on you - that you won't say one thing one day and something totally different the next."
I'm sick of Hillary flapping her gums while pretending to have been a competent secretary of state. She wasn't competent. HRC said that people "have got to know that they can count on you", something that Christopher Stevens found out he couldn't do. HRC wasn't someone he could count on. He died while counting on HRC.
Next, Hillary said that diplomacy is about "putting in the slow, hard work of building relationships." Is she talking about the slow, hard work of building a relationship with Iran's mullahs? Or building the relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the Arab Spring? Perhaps, she meant capitulating and appeasing Vladimir Putin in Russia? Which of those instances would HRC pick as shining examples of her competence?
Here's hoping Donald Trump hits back at HRC with questions about her incompetence as Secretary of State.
Posted Wednesday, August 31, 2016 1:56 PM
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