July 2-26, 2015
Jul 02 10:44 The establishment strikes back Jul 03 11:37 Reagan vs. Obama Jul 03 14:06 Dayton defends unfair pay raises Jul 06 03:08 Thissen's mini-rant Jul 08 16:26 Donald Trump, arrogant windbag Jul 09 15:51 Trump's fake conservatism Jul 17 09:47 Perry punks Trump Jul 26 07:49 Minnesota's silent crisis?
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
The establishment strikes back
This NY Times article falls squarely into the GOP establishment's wheelhouse:
After Mr. Walker moved to support Iowa's prized ethanol subsidies, abandoned his support for an immigration overhaul and spoke out against the Common Core national education standards, his pointed tone on marriage caused some Republicans to ask publicly whether he is too willing to modify his views to aid his ambitions.
'It seems like pollsters gone wild,' said Scott Reed, a longtime Republican strategist and top adviser to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, discussing Mr. Walker's call for a constitutional amendment. To Republicans like Mr. Reed, Mr. Walker appears increasingly willing to lose the general election to win the primary.
Apparently, Mr. Reed didn't notice that Republicans ran to the center the last 2 elections and got thrashed. If the GOP doesn't figure out that conservatism is popular, they'll continue to get thrashed in presidential elections.
But the expectations created by that early prominence, as well as a growing threat from conservative firebrands like Senator Ted Cruz, have taken a toll. To protect his lead in Iowa, a state with a heavily conservative Republican electorate, Mr. Walker has taken a harder line on a number of issues than his allies had anticipated. Now a growing number of party leaders say Mr. Walker is raising questions about his authenticity and may be jeopardizing his prospects in states where voters' sensibilities are more moderate.
Moderates don't excite the GOP base. They frequently run on the issue of electability but they're usually unelectable themselves because principled voters want principled politicians fighting for them. The last thing that the GOP needs is another Bush at the top of the ticket.
They've underperformed in the past. Their Supreme Court justices haven't turned out well, either.
Posted Thursday, July 2, 2015 10:44 AM
No comments.
Reagan vs. Obama
Recently, President Obama's sympathizers have tried making the case that he's as consequential as Ronald Reagan. If they define consequential as doing historic things that are disastrous, then President Obama has been consequential.
Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster. Premiums are sharply higher. Deductibles have exploded. Choices are fewer. Networks are limited. We're forced into buying policies that cover things that we don't need. We couldn't keep our doctors even though we were promised that we could.
Despite that, President Obama insists that he's protected the middle class :
After having a friendly chat on the tarmac at LaCrosse Regional Airport with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, President Obama made fun of the GOP field jockeying to succeed him and ripped into Walker's actions as governor.
"You all have enough for an actual Hunger Games," Obama said about the large Republican presidential field. "That is an interesting bunch," he quipped before explaining why trickle-down economics doesn't work.
He said that many of the contenders are proposing ideas that they say would benefit the middle class. "Tammy, Ron, me - we were talking about the middle class before it was cool," he said referring to Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Ron Kind, whose district encompasses LaCrosse, who were in the audience at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse auditorium. "We were talking about it before the polls" said politicians "should be talking about it," he added.
Mr. President, talking about the middle class isn't the same as improving middle class lives. President Reagan created more high-paying union jobs than you've created jobs. That's before talking about how many companies shifted from full-time employees to "29ers." Mr. President, is it a triumph that companies shifted from full-time jobs to part-time jobs?
That's what Obamacare did. It also created "49ers." Let's review. 29ers are employees whose hours were cut from 40 hours to 29 hours to avoid having to provide health insurance to the. 49ers are companies that've chosen to not expand past 49 employees so they don't have to comply with the employer mandate.
In September, 1983, the US economy created 1,100,000 good-paying full-time jobs. Thanks to President Reagan's policies, we had 6 straight quarters of economic growth of more than 5%. Internationally, the United States vanquished the Evil Empire, aka the Soviet Union. President Obama resurrected it. Israel knew it could count the United States as a steadfast ally. President Obama couldn't push Israel to the side quickly enough.
Thanks to President Obama's policies of non-intervention, the global terrorist network is expanding rapidly. President Reagan's policies of militarism checked Soviet expansionist policies.
We'll be cleaning up President Obama's messes for years. By comparison, President Reagan's economic policies ushered in a quarter century of unprecedented economic growth.
Posted Friday, July 3, 2015 11:37 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 03-Jul-15 01:47 PM
Gary:
Lets not forget that President Reagan talked about hey we have to expand our domestic energy production. Obama doesn't care what we have to pay for gas let alone to light our homes. Yet he wants to claim that he cares about the middle class.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Dayton defends unfair pay raises
I wish I could say that I'm surprised that Gov. Dayton defended his unfair pay raises for a set of incompetent commissioners but that's what he did:
Gov. Mark Dayton followed through on his promise Wednesday, giving two dozen cabinet members and other commissioners salary increases. It's essentially the same set of pay hikes Dayton granted in January before lawmakers voted to rescind the raises in the midst of a political uproar over them. The same legislation granted the DFL governor a one day window to reauthorize the pay, on July 1. And he used that power, citing the need to attract and retain high quality administrators for multi-billion-dollar state agencies.
"I do believe in government. I believe the issue isn't smaller or larger government, it's better or worse government," Dayton told reporters Wednesday afternoon. "And my goal is to make government better."
As I wrote yesterday, some commissioners are utterly incompetent . Yesterday, Gov. Dayton complained about getting criticized for his foolish decision. Here's what he said:
GOV. DAYTON: It's very, very frustrating to me that their bottom line goal seems to be to discredit government as much as possible, discredit me, build up some political talking points so they can get re-elected next time.
Giving incompetents like Myron Frans a $35,000 annual pay raise isn't justified. When he was commissioner of the Department of Revenue, he projected revenue from electronic pull tabs to be $35,000,000/yr. That was the projection. The reality was $1,700,000/yr. That's a shortfall of 95%.
When governors give $35,000 pay raises to a commissioner that was off by 95% with an important forecast, it isn't difficult to discredit that governor. In fact, I'd argue that it's impossible to make that governor look anything but incompetent.
Gov. Dayton whines about Republicans wanting to discredit him. The best way to prevent that is to stop doing stupid things. Unfortunately, there's little chance that Gov. Dayton will stop making foolish decisions before he leaves office.
Posted Friday, July 3, 2015 2:06 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 04-Jul-15 04:48 PM
Gary:
There are two questions which I believe we're asked before, but I will ask them again.
One, if these positions need such a higher salary level why not ask the state House and state Senate to pass them and make them law?
Two, will any of these people be asked at a hearing how are you doing your job better or differently now that you're making $30,000 plus a year.
A third question, isn't that wage increase $14.42 per hour which is far more than a minimum wage worker is getting?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by J. Ewing at 04-Jul-15 10:32 PM
I come at it from the opposite direction. Supposedly these folks are "underpaid" relative to the private sector and we need to attract "top talent" to these jobs by paying more. So, are we admitting that our current commissioners are bottom of the barrel? Or are we rewarding them because they are doing such an outstanding job (nowhere in evidence)? If the latter, why did they take the job in the first place instead of going out to private industry and getting paid more? And why, if they took the job to do "public service" despite the low pay, do they need or even want a raise? And lastly, when was the last time anybody else got a 40% raise in one day?
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 05-Jul-15 12:03 PM
Guys, don't complicate things. The point that people will get right instantly is that that pay raises are too big and the commissioners are incompetent.
That's the message that we're selling.
Comment 4 by walter hanson at 05-Jul-15 12:32 PM
Darn! Trying to point out the increase is $14.42 per hour doesn't show it's too big?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Thissen's mini-rant
The St. Cloud Times published House DFL Leader Paul Thissen's op-ed this weekend. Suffice it to say that it would've been about 22 words if you omitted the DFL's dishonest chanting points. Let's debunk the most disgusting of Thissen's dishonesties, starting with this:
Students at the St. Cloud State University recently learned they will receive a tuition hike next year. Raising tuition is essentially a tax increase because you're taking money out of the pockets of students, many who simply can't afford it. Now, thanks to these misplaced priorities, the cost of tuition, room and board for 2015-16 in St. Cloud will be almost $17,000.
This tuition hike wasn't caused by the GOP legislature. It's been caused by 5 years of mismanagement by President Potter. He insisted that enrollment was fine while it was dropping by 20+ % in a 5 year period. He insisted that we needed to build an upscale apartment complex even though there wasn't a demand for it. That project has cost SCSU $7.7 million in 5 years. He paid EMG $417,000 to rebrand SCSU. Potter spent another $50,000 to find out that the professors think he plays office politics and that he doesn't mean what he says.
SCSU's scholastic reputation has taken a significant hit. SCSU's financial standing has taken a significant hit, too, because FY2015's deficit was more than $9,500,000. That's before the news that there's a good chance SCSU's deficit for FY2016 will be in the millions of dollars, too.
Rep. Thissen wants to blame the GOP legislature for the SCSU tuition increase when President Potter is the one to blame. Rep. Thissen's never let important things like facts get in the way of a dishonest diatribe, though.
Making college affordable should be a higher priority for our Legislature, as it was over the past two years. In 2013, Gov. Dayton and our DFL-led Legislature froze tuition for all Minnesota students for two years, despite a $627 million deficit.
It's disgusting that Rep. Thissen thinks that the tuition problem is caused by the legislature not spending enough. Why hasn't Rep. Thissen looked at the possibility that DFL legislators have let the MnSCU Central Office and university presidents spend like drunken sailors?
Chancellor Rosenstone paid McKinsey & Co. $2,000,000 for a couple months of work that college professors could've done. Why isn't Rep. Thissen complaining about wasting money on Charting the Future? Is it because he doesn't care about how much gets spent as long as he gets to play Santa Claus with the taxpayers' money?
If Rep. Thissen's attitude is that he isn't interested in spending money wisely, then he's part of the problem. He definitely isn't part of the solution.
Posted Monday, July 6, 2015 3:08 AM
Comment 1 by Terry Stone at 06-Jul-15 10:08 AM
Thissen is drinking too much of the liberal Kool Aid. A tuition increase is an increase of price on a product. A tax increase has no reasonable expectation of a good or service in return; just a vague hope of improved common good.
The electricity increase on my home power bill for which Mr. Thissen voted would be a good example of a tax increase. I'm paying an increase for which I will get nothing in return.
Comment 2 by Patrick at 06-Jul-15 10:58 AM
Meanwhile, east of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, higher education enrollment has been increasing or at the very least stopped declining. Amazing that President Potter would say enrollments are down all over the region - we really need to ask him what region he is referring to.
Comment 3 by walter hanson at 06-Jul-15 04:30 PM
Silly question:
Gary can you make a graph where the spending on the U of M is plotted on the graph with one line and the tution paid for the U of M is plotted on the graph with a second line. I the U of M tution has jumped far more than the increase of money spent. Assuming I'm right how will Thissen react to a reporter asking why did tution jump faster than the growth of spending for the U?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 4 by walter hanson at 07-Jul-15 09:41 PM
I wonder what Thissen will think of this billboard that has been put in Minneapolis by Better Ed. Obviously meant to try to show that Minneapolis schools are great.
Minneapolis spends $525,000 per classroom of 25 on education.
A couple of things if Minneapolis is spending so much money how come the schools are performing so badly.
Based on the math that the Minneapolis school district gave me the city is spending something $21,000 plus per student per year. If all that money is being spent how come Minneapolis is performing so badly?
I guess money doesn't create results.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 5 by Gary Gross at 08-Jul-15 04:46 AM
Walter, the best place to look for that type of statistic would likely be through the Center for the American Experiment.
If they don't have such a graph, they'd likely tell you where to look.
Comment 6 by eric z. at 08-Jul-15 11:41 AM
Less a comment to this post than a suggestion. Three GOP legislators are declining to run again. One, Branden Paulsen, SD 35, is in the GOP-safe district in which I live. Likely so for the other two. It might be worth a post, if you can find whether there is a common thread in the decision making or whether each has separate reasons.
Comment 7 by eric z. at 08-Jul-15 11:51 AM
Sorry. Dumb mistake. Branden Petersen.
I had Paulsen, CD3, in mind when I typed. Petersen has noted per reporting quotes that family and career were impacted by the time demand and stress of legislating, and he is taking time off, at least, and may reenter public service in time.
It leaves SD 35 "up for grabs," and I can envision a grabber possibility, but that's real local politics.
At least one GOP person has put a toe in to test the water.
Donald Trump, arrogant windbag
This morning, Donald Trump predicted that he'd win the Hispanic vote during his interview on NBC. Trump is nothing if not arrogant and dishonest. That he's said that he'll win the Hispanic vote shows just how gigantic his ego is and just how much his mouth resembles a sawed-off shotgun.
Trump's been riding high while proclaiming that he's the only candidate in either party who'll tell it like it is. What chutzpah. There's no question that there are plenty of candidates who talk like career politicians. Ranked high in that category are Jeb! (quick, everyone forget his last name!), Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and George Pataki just like there's no question that Trump sounds too anti-politician.
All presidential candidates have over-sized egos. That's the way it's been for 75 years. Trump's ego is bigger than all of the presidents of the Twentieth Century and this century. Here's Trump's prediction:
Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believes he will win the Latino vote, slamming Hillary Clinton for promoting what he called an immigration policy that would "let everybody come in: killers, criminals, drug dealers."
"I have a great relationship with the Mexican people. I have many people working for me - look at the job in Washington - I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico. They love me, I love them," the 2016 GOP contender said in an interview with NBC News. "And I'll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I'll win the Latino vote."
First, we don't need a candidate who thinks that the presidency is just another opportunity to market himself. That's all this is. Second, even though he has Hispanics working for him, that'll get ignored because he said that Hillary's immigration policy would "let everybody come in: killers, criminals, drug dealers."
That isn't the path to winning the Hispanic vote.
When we get closer to making our decisions, people will reject Trump's loose cannon approach and start gravitating towards serious candidates that don't need to hear their voice every 10 minutes. The minute that that starts is the minute Mr. Trump will fade, then disappear.
Posted Wednesday, July 8, 2015 4:26 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 09-Jul-15 07:33 PM
Gary:
I'm glad you threw in the term "20 century" Because if we have to use the 21st century Obama by far tops the Donald. I think one reason why the Donald does what he does is because the media lets Obama get away with all the stupid things he says.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by eric z. at 12-Jul-15 03:41 PM
Gary - Bridge players are disturbed to, when their trump is an empty suit.
Trump's fake conservatism
Saying that Donald Trump isn't a constitutional conservative is understatement. Calling Trump a despicable man who's only interested in himself is totally justifiable, especially in light of this video:
DONALD TRUMP: In life, you have a thing called condemnation and cities have a right to condemn for the good of the city, whether it's New York, whether it's Los Angeles, whether it's any other place. Atlantic City is one of those places and it's got the right to condemn.
DANA BERLINER: In the 1990s, Donald Trump was behind an outrageous case of eminent domain abuse. Vera Coking was an elderly widow who lived in her home alongside Atlantic City's Boardwalk. She bought that home and Donald Trump wanted Vera's home so he could build parking for his casino across the street.
TRUMP: Everyone coming into Atlantic City sees that property and it's not fair to Atlantic City and the people. They're staring at this terrible house instead of staring at beautiful fountains and beautiful other things that would be good.
JOHN STOSSEL: You're bullying these people out...
TRUMP: Excuse me. That's wrong. For you to use the word bully is very unfair. This is a government case. This is not a Donald Trump...
STOSSEL: Yes, it's Donald Trump. It's you and your cronies in government working together.
TRUMP: For you to call these people cronies is very unfair. You're calling good public servants cronies.
BERLINER: An unaccountable state agency tried to condemn Vera Coking's property and transfer it to Donald Trump. He convinced the government officials to use their eminent domain power to take Vera's home. This was public power but it was used for private gain.
Eventually, a case like this made its way to the Supreme Court. We know it as Kelo v. New London. The Rehnquist Court sided with the developers. An entire neighborhood was demolished, supposedly to build a shopping mall. After the ruling, though, the development never happened. An entire neighborhood was destroyed for nothing. Here's more to the Trump-Stossel fight:
STOSSEL: Basic to freedom is that if you own something, it's yours. The government doesn't just come and take it away...
TRUMP: Do you want to live in a city where you can't build schools? Do you want to live in a city where you can't build roads or highways or have access to hospitals? Condemnation is a necessary evil.
STOSSEL: But you're not talking about a hospital. You're talking about a building that a rich guy finds ugly.
This is proof that Trump is no more a constitutional conservative than Hillary Clinton.
What's disgusting is the fact that otherwise level-headed Republicans are actually buying Trump's schtick. They're saying that he's a fighter. They're partially right. Trump can always be counted on to fight for the things that interest Trump. Trump's hardline statements against illegal immigration are part of a charade that's soon to be exposed. Trump is, putting it charitably, a temporary border hawk. That'll become apparent when the opposition research on Trump shows how his properties were built with illegal immigrants.
Donald Trump is no more a conservative than Hillary is. In fact, Trump has contributed to her campaigns in the past. He's also contributed to the Clinton Foundation.
Posted Thursday, July 9, 2015 3:51 PM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 10-Jul-15 09:48 AM
Although you may be correct, I don't think comparing Trump to Hillary is the correct syllogism. That's at best a race to the bottom. At least give Trump credit for saying the right things now, and for annoying the dickens out of both the MSM and GOP "establishment," even if past actions make him less than credible. Hillary isn't even doing that much; she's trying to get to the left of Bernie Sanders.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 10-Jul-15 12:02 PM
I won't give Trump credit for saying the right things now because he's saying those things to help Hillary get elected later. Trump isn't a real Republican. He supports the Kelo v. New London ruling that essentially ended private property rights. When he's contributed to political campaigns, 54% of those contributions went to Democrats, including Harry Reid & Hillary Clinton. He's contributed to the Clinton Foundation. His properties were built with illegal aliens.
He's a liberal who's doing this to promote himself. That's despicable beyond belief.
Comment 2 by J. Ewing at 11-Jul-15 08:28 AM
I think I see your point. You think Trump is damaging the Republican brand, and you could be right. As for his motivations, I agree it has far more to do with his promoting his own brand recognition than any ideology, and mostly for entertainment. Fortunately I don't think he has a real chance at the nomination and maybe won't even make the cutoff to enter the debates.
The one thing I wish would rub off on the other candidates, though, is the ability to say things that annoy the media but sound to the public like the plain-spoken truth. Scott Walker has some of that.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 11-Jul-15 11:22 AM
He's hurting Republicans in the sense that his words will eventually get wrapped around our nominee's neck.
Comment 3 by Carpenter at 11-Jul-15 10:41 AM
In 2004 Donald Trump was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and said that he identifies more as a Democrat!!! more as a Democrat?
He also claimed that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.
see
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/21/le.00.html
Trumps also says is friends with Chuck Schummer, attended Chelsea's wedding, has donated CASH to Hillary's election campaigns and the Clinton Global Scandal Innitiative.
He is a total fraud.
I believe he is being paid (or will be rewarded later by the Clinton's) to be the new Ross Perot. Donald Trump has divided what little hope we had and is leading us down the path to a Clinton victory.
Comment 4 by Carpenter at 11-Jul-15 10:46 AM
Here is Mark Levin dissecting Trump's financial support of the Democrats. Right Scoop on Apr 15, 2011
Listen to AUDIO at
http://therightscoop.com/levin-rips-donald-trump-to-shreds/
Comment 5 by J. Ewing at 12-Jul-15 09:57 AM
My only concern about Trump's words being "wrapped around..." is alleviated by the knowledge that the Democrats and MSM are going to be 100% negative in their campaigning-- it's all they've got-- and where they can't cite actual "wrong" issue positions of the candidate, they will use guilt by association, and where they can't do that they will just make $%^! up. Let them expend that effort on somebody the GOP won't put up anyway. Trump as stalking horse.
Comment 6 by Patrick at 12-Jul-15 11:25 AM
The Republican brand is dead. They will never win the White House or the Minnesota Governor's office with the RINOs in charge. and I think Wisconsin will go back to the crappy blue state it was before given the RINOs in charge now.
Comment 7 by eric z. at 12-Jul-15 03:39 PM
Gary - It surprises me. We agree. Trump at heart is a developer.
Developers ARE Crabgrass.
And you appear to agree. Trump-wise, if not otherwise.
Comment 8 by Carpenter at 12-Jul-15 03:48 PM
Dead? RINO RINO RINO!!
Most of the time the people who call Republicans RINOS are, in fact, NOT Republicans (which makes them the real rinos). They (the real rinos) usually hate the Republican Party because Republicans win elections and the Libertarian/Tea Party loses time and time again.
If anything is dead it is the Tea Party Libertarian Alliance which is even less popular than Obama!
Now I am not saying the Tea People, or that Glenn Beck and Palin (and whoever ect.. ad naseum) are wrong. In many cases they are absolutely correct. It's just that they are only popular amongst thier own kind.
Anyway, Donald Trump should be re-named the TOXIC REVENGER because that is what he has become. He was widely despised and rejected by the Republican base in 2008 and now he seeks revenge so he is trying to poison the process with Toxic rhetoric.
Comment 9 by walter hanson at 12-Jul-15 05:24 PM
Carpenter:
I think you're wrong about the Tea Party being dead.
The Tea Party was developed because people saw government with horrible rules destroying health care, schools, businesses. There is a large percentage of the population (and a lot of it believes they are democrats or independents that believe in the things that the Tea Party stands for). The biggest problem with The Rino's which you complain about is when the leaders of the House or Senate (both on a national level or state level) will make a deal just to get something signed which if you had a Republican they wouldn't be making that horrible deal to begin with.
The most important thing is we nominate in 2016 a Republican who will run on the Tea Party agenda and be trusted to show that he or she will act on it. In that sense it's not Donald Trump.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Perry punks Trump
When President Obama essentially opened the border a couple of years ago, he did it with the intent of forcing Republicans into passing "comprehensive immigration reform." President Obama's plan caused tons of chaos, which was his plan. Rather than just watching Texas get overrun with illegal aliens, then-Gov. Perry stepped into the breach. He ended the chaos. He restored order. He earned praise from border security hawks for, first, filling the gap and, second, eliminating the chaos.
Donald Trump was nowhere to be found at the time. Perhaps he was too busy visiting one of his world-class golf courses. Perhaps he was putting together his next real estate deal. Wherever he was, he wasn't interested in border security.
Recently, Trump has tried selling the image that he's a border security hawk. He wasn't one before. Why should we think that he'll change into one now?
On the other hand, we've seen proof that Gov. Perry is a border security hawk. Gov. Perry's statement this week highlights who's qualified and who isn't:
'Donald Trump continues to demonstrate his fundamental misunderstanding of border security. Make no mistake - border security is a federal responsibility, but when I met with President Obama last year and it became clear he would not act, I told him if he would not secure the border, Texas would. Rather than thanking Texas for stepping into a gap it shouldn't have to fill, Mr. Trump has made clear that he believes the states should fend for themselves on border security. Not only is this wrong, it perpetuates the same failed policies that have left our southern border porous and vulnerable.
I have a message for my fellow Republicans and the independents who will be voting in the primary process: what Mr. Trump is offering is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism - a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense.
America doesn't need another president who pays lip service when issues of national security are at stake. America doesn't need another president who will pass the buck on border security. We need a president who will finally act to secure the border after decades of failed leadership in Washington, D.C. And Mr. Trump has done nothing to prove that he is the president America needs.'
It's apparent to thoughtful people that Trump isn't serious. He's great at talking the talk. He's terrible at walking the walk. Trump is all talk and no walk.
We don't need someone that eccentric and that flighty in charge of border security. Trump's dabbled in politics for years, mostly specializing in crony capitalism. America needs a president who will shut down the border and restore sanity.
That disqualifies Donald Trump.
Posted Friday, July 17, 2015 9:47 AM
Comment 1 by Steve at 21-Jul-15 06:15 PM
Video - Second Planned Parenthood Senior Executive Haggles Over Baby Parts Prices, Changes Abortion Methods:
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/07/video-second-planned-parenthood-senior.html
Comment 2 by eric z at 27-Jul-15 07:18 AM
Whose bloc is Trump affecting? Is it Perry speaking up more than others because his support is crumbling?
Walker? Santorum?
Jeb! seems to appeal to a different demographic within the GOP, and is keeping a hold on his support.
Is Trump a stalking horse, and if so, for whom?
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 28-Jul-15 07:56 AM
Trump is Hillary's stalking horse. His rants against the Republican candidates sound almost verbatim like they're coming from Hillary's spinmeisters.
Trump isn't eating into Walker's numbers because he's still very strong. I'd recommend that you read this article from Patrick Ruffini.
Minnesota's silent crisis?
There's a situation that's approaching crisis status here in central Minnesota. The federal refugee resettlement program is out of control because local governments are saying that it's beyond their control because it's funded by appropriations from the U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, the State Department is able to say that their funding of the program is limited to 6 months, which means that cities and counties have their budgets exhausted faster by what essentially is a massive unfunded mandate from the federal government.
Bob Enos has taken quite an interest in this program. He's done tons of research into the subject. He's attended meetings. He's spoken out about how cities, counties and school districts have been negatively affected by this State Department program. His 'thanks' for that time and leg-work has been criticism.
Enos has focused like a laser on the financial impact these refugees have had on cities, counties and school districts. Recently he addressed the Willmar City Council. This videotape is of his presentation:
Here's part of what Mr. Enos said:
We've been working on an issue that's become pretty important to us which has to do with the subject of the resettlement of political refugees around the world and how that affects our counties particularly. I don't know if you've had any briefings on this matter but back in November, the coordinator for the refugee resettlement program for the state of Minnesota in St. Paul requested the director of Family Services here at the County to organize a meeting that took place over a couple of days. Twenty people attended from 3 county agencies, the Willmar School District as well as city hall. The Mayor-elect was there. A couple of vice presidents from Jenny O were there. The subject of the meeting had to do with migration of refugees to Kandiyohi County. We're used to thinking of the refugee issue in terms of those that are leaving the refugee camps in east Africa and winding up on our shores and going out to the cities and the counties.What's particularly disturbing is that nobody from the St. Cloud City Council, the school district or the Stearns County commissioners attended the meeting hosted by the St. Cloud chapter of Lutheran Social Services. Were they unaware of the meeting? Were they simply disinterested in the meeting? Or didn't they attend it for a different reason?
The big issue lately that we can't seem to get a handle on very easily, particularly from a financial planning standpoint, and that has to do with the secondary relocation of refugees from other states around the country. The most recent data that we're seeing now from the State of Minnesota, specifically from the Department of Health, now tells us that of every city and town, the city that is attracting the most refugees is Minneapolis. The city that's attracting the second-most refugees is Willmar, not St. Paul, not Bloomington, not St. Cloud, Mankato, Worthington. Willmar.
We suspect that, for the most part, most of this has to do with family re-unification but, best guess, there's a number of factors contributing to this. What we're seeing is the Somali community, in particular, is such a size and critical mass, that that critical mass is, in and of itself, the primary magnet for refugees coming here from Atlanta, California and Texas. The last time we knew, we were looking at a number roughly of 2,000 or roughly 10% of our population. We know that's quite conservative.
I've been to 2 other meetings subsequent to the meeting held in November. One was held out in St. Cloud and was sponsored by Lutheran Social Services organization, which in Minnesota, is called the # 1 volunteer agency or VOLAG, which is a private contractor with the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services from the federal government to aid in that relocation within the first 6 months that they're here. That meeting, interestingly enough, had about 35 stakeholders, people that have some part, some incentive, some exposure to the program. There was not a single elected official there from the City of St. Cloud or the county. There were no representatives of the School District and these are the places where we're seeing the most impact, and, of course, the schools.
The federal contracts that the VOLAGs have, though they're hardly volunteers, requires that they quarterly have meetings with stakeholders. Those stakeholders are supposed to include members of the community. I would take that a member of the community to be an elected representative and I have not been to a meeting where I've seen a city councilman, a county commissioner or anyone of an elected status.
That's just what's happening now. Minnesota's U.S. senators Klobuchar and Franken "are advocating that the U.S. participate, along with the UN High Commissioner of Refugees in the relocation next year of 130,000 Syrian Muslim refugees." Enos then said that "the director of the intelligence division of the FBI testified 2 months ago before Congress that the problem with bringing in refugees from failed states like Somalia and Syria is that there's no infrastructure for our government to vet those people coming from overseas. There's no record. There's no office. There's no way of knowing what we're getting when they show up other than the good word and the good faith of the U.N."
This is unprecedented. It isn't that the U.S. hasn't accepted refugees before. It's that the U.S. hasn't accepted political refugees from failed nations with substantial populations of terrorists before. This isn't something to be taken lightly. If ever there was a situation when additional caution is required, this is that situation.
What's required is a slowdown for multiple reasons. It's totally justifiable for taxpayers to know the financial impact this 'federal' program is having on their property taxes and state government programs. It's also justified for the federal government to put in place a verification system that doesn't bring ISIS terrorists to the United States on our dime.
Until these issues are satisfactorily resolved, skepticism will be justified.
Posted Sunday, July 26, 2015 7:51 AM
Comment 1 by EBOLAOUTBREAKMAP.COM at 26-Jul-15 07:46 PM
Airline stewardess dies from Ebola symptoms http://www.ebolaoutbreakmap.com/listings/british-airways-stewardess-dies-from-ebola/
Comment 2 by Gretchen Leisen at 29-Jul-15 10:48 PM
This is another side of the coin from what the southwestern border states have been experiencing for about 30 years.
In Arizona the sheer numbers of illegal aliens pouring into that state has bankrupted the counties along the border. Some of these counties no longer have any public hospital facilities because they were forced to accept all illegals into the public health system and they no longer could afford it. So, the local taxpaying citizens do not have local health services now.
The aggravating thing is that this is all a political decision, designed to bribe new citizens into voting for Democrats.
