July 24-25, 2018

Jul 24 07:37 Rick Nolan's troubles continue
Jul 24 11:57 Karin Housley's Senate agenda
Jul 24 20:38 Karin Housley vs. Tina Smith, PolyMet edition

Jul 25 00:22 Open borders/Abolish ICE lefties
Jul 25 01:00 Angie Craig's hidden agenda
Jul 25 09:21 Ellison's crazy-minded socialism
Jul 25 15:13 Sen. Shaheen's silly stumble
Jul 25 16:32 Trump negotiates major trade pact
Jul 25 23:02 Gov. Dayton's bragging misses important details

Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Rick Nolan's troubles continue

Based on this article , I'm betting that the Swanson-Nolan campaign is unofficially finished. Rest assured that women voters are fleeing the Swanson campaign by the day. I'd argue that it's already killed AG Swanson's campaign.

The Swanson-Nolan campaign took another major hit when a woman wrote a letter to 8th Congressional District DFL chair Emily Nygren on Monday while using "the pseudonym of 'Amanda.'" In the open letter, she wrote: "You threw Jim a goodbye party and bought him a cake. You made us all sit in your office and listen to you praise the man you knew harassed and demeaned us. You allowed him to resign with honor as you graciously thanked him for his loyalty and friendship over the past several decades."

Later in the article, 'Amanda' wrote: "The fact that you're blaming your political opponents because eight of your former staffers spoke the truth about your misconduct proves that you do not understand the severity of what you've done." She wrote this because "the Swanson-Nolan campaign's initial reaction to the accusations" was to suggest that the accusations were "partly politically motivated because one of the accusers works for the rival Tim Walz-Peggy Flanagan campaign."

This wouldn't be the first time that a scandal was used to kill another team's campaign. That being said, this doesn't sound like that. 'Amanda' seems genuinely upset at the 'retirement party' she was allegedly forced to sit through.

Whatever chance Swanson had of winning suburban female voters disappeared when this scandal hit. The initial story hurt. The continuing stories have hurt worse. This video hurt the most:

[Video no longer available]

There's no escaping this situation after the campaign suggested that this is politically motivated. Once 'Amanda' wrote her letter, the Swanson-Nolan campaign essentially died. There were no more moves left.

Here's 'Amanda's' letter:








Click to enlarge.

This is the unofficial end of the Swanson-Nolan campaign. I suspect that the official end will be August 14.

Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2018 7:37 AM

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Karin Housley's Senate agenda

The benefit of reading this article is to find out Karin Housley's priorities if she's elected to the US Senate.

In the article, Sen. Housley said her priorities in DC would be "the economy, health care and senior issues." She then said "Taking care of our seniors is a really big issue," Housley said. "I think we need to preserve and protect Social Security for them. That's one thing that they're worried about. I want to make sure those dollars are there for our seniors." An opponent of the Affordable Care Act, Housley also said she doesn't think a one-size-fits-all model works for the entire country. "It was supposed to decrease our health care costs, and it hasn't," Housley said. "I want to focus on a free market-based system for our health care costs and a patient-centered system." On the economy, Housley said the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump have made progress on the economy and would like to help keep it going. "I'd like to support continuing the way the country's going with jobs and the economy booming," Housley said. "I think there are so many great bills that are brought up in the U.S. Senate, but they (Republicans) have such a slim majority."

Simply put, Sen. Housley's main priorities are significant in the grand scheme of things and they're important to Minnesotans.

I haven't seen any recent polling on the Smith vs. Housley race but it's apparent that Sen. Housley is running for everyone's votes:








Then there's this:








When Gov. Dayton picked her to replace Sen. Franken, Tina Smith said it wouldn't be wise to underestimate her. That remains to be seen. There's no doubt, however, that it's foolish to underestimate Sen. Housley.

Minnesota has had liberal senators representing them for too long. Sen. Franken and Tina Smith have worked hard to represent only portions of Minnesota. It's time for a real senator who will represent the entire state.

Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2018 11:57 AM

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Karin Housley vs. Tina Smith, PolyMet edition

It's rather sad that the DFL has become consumed by anti-mining environmental activists. Thanks to them and their wholly-owned junior senator, PolyMet faces still more hurdles. The woman running to replace DFL appeaser Tina Smith isn't too happy with the gamesmanship that the DFL is playing.

Karin Housley issued this statement , which says "I'm extremely disappointed the PolyMet land swap agreement was not included in the final defense spending bill. With the economic viability of real communities and the livelihoods of real people on the line, Tina Smith simply could not deliver. After years of obstructing the process as lieutenant governor and chief of staff, Tina Smith brought a sense of false hope to the region that she could get this done - despite her Democratic leadership never being on board. These thinly-veiled attempts at political pandering ended in failure, and it's the people of northern Minnesota who will pay the price. I've supported PolyMet from the beginning, and as a U.S. Senator, it will be my top priority to get it across the finish line."

Let's be honest. Tina Smith did just enough so she couldn't get accused of doing nothing. Smith knows that she'll need to do well in Minnesota's Eighth District because she won't run away with things in the Metro because Karin Housley was born in South St. Paul and represents Forest Lake, Lake Elmo and Stillwater in the Minnesota Legislature. Tina Smith wasn't committed to fighting the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, aka MCEA. Smith wasn't committed to fighting Becky Rom of Save the Boundary Waters.








Becky Rom

She couldn't afford to. Those people and organizations control too many votes that Tina Smith will need. Trust me when I say that Becky Rom and Tina Smith understand that. That's why this act is more theater than substance. It's time for people to stop pretending that Tina Smith cares about anything outside the Twin Cities metro.

Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2018 8:38 PM

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Open borders/Abolish ICE lefties

This morning, former State Department spinmeister Marie Harf got into a disagreement with David Webb while they appeared on FNC's Outnumbered. Harf insisted that the moderates that are running for office in the Midwest are more moderate and that Nancy Pelosi wouldn't be speaker if Democrats retake the House this November.

Webb replied that Pelosi raises tons of money for candidates so she'll essentially own those candidates. Next, he replied that the last time they had the House majority, the talk was that they'd recruited tons of moderates that fit their districts well. That's true at the start but it didn't take long before Pelosi had them voting like hardline lefties.

The setting for this argument was about the Democrats' open borders policies. Harf insisted that those new Democrats weren't talking about open borders or abolishing ICE. Tough. The hardline left isn't interested in having a debate on this. That matters because they're the ones controlling the Democratic Party right now. That's the direction the Democratic Party is heading whether the so-called moderates like it or not.

The truth is that lots of their 'leaders' (they're the people leading the Democratic Party into the grave) think that's where they should go :




Again Gillibrand, in addition to others like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, didn't simply watch the protest unfold outside of their offices. They joined in and took selfies with those demanding open borders for all. "We need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom, starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our morality and that works," Warren said a day later at another rally.



Going even farther left, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison declared during a recent interview that American borders are an "injustice" and argued people should be able to move freely. This week, dozens of House Democrats further solidified their open-border, lawless immigration philosophy by voting against a measure supporting thousands of men and women who work for ICE.


This is part of the resolution that the vast majority of Democrats voted against:






Supporting the officers and personnel who carry out the important mission of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Whereas calls to abolish ICE are an insult to these heroic law enforcement officers who make sacrifices every day to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and protect our safety and security; abolishing ICE would allow dangerous criminal aliens, including violent and ruthless members of the MS-13 gang, to remain in American communities.


It isn't a stretch to say that Democrats hate enforcing the law, especially immigration laws. That's what makes them such a despicable bunch. If you can't vote for the men and women who protect us from drug cartels, sex traffickers and lethal gangs, then you're morally bankrupt.

[Video no longer available]

Read John Hinderaker's post on what matters to voters and you'll quickly realize that they care passionately about illegal immigration, tightening borders and stopping international crime. That's true whether it's stopping MS-13, human traffickers, sex trafficking or drug cartels. What sane person wants those things infesting their cities?

If Democrats think that they can win with an open borders/Abolish ICE agenda, then they're kidding themselves.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 12:22 AM

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Angie Craig's hidden agenda

Saying that Angie Craig doesn't want MN-2 voters to know what she stands for is the truth. It isn't difficult to find out what she's against. This statement on the Trump/GOP tax reform is a perfect example of Ms. Craig telling voters what she's against. In the statement, Ms. Craig said "Paul Ryan finally released the tax plan that Jason Lewis has been talking up for weeks and it's just as bad as we thought. This isn't real tax reform. This is a giveaway to big corporations and the rich, paid for by tax increases for the middle class."

First, Ms. Craig is relying on the Democrats' talking points. It's worth noting that the Democrats' chanting points are dishonest. (Go figure, right?) As people have found out, everyone has gotten a tax cut. The middle class have gotten rather significant tax cuts. That's in addition to many of them getting significant bonuses, significantly increased benefits from employers and lower out-of-pocket health care expenses. Other than those significant benefits to the middle class, the Democrats are right. If not for those benefits to the middle class, the middle class would've gotten the shaft.

In terms of health care, Craig is a bit of a radical:

[Video no longer available]

Before he ditched his constituents, Keith Ellison announced that he was taking over the Democrats' single-payer health care bill. In the above video, Ms. Craig said that Keith Ellison told her that he wanted her at the table when they figured out health care. That's what makes this so funny:








Let's get serious. When Craig is talking to her DFL activist allies, she knows exactly what she wants. When she's talking with John and Jane Q. Public, she's as transparent as Rod Rosenstein's DOJ.

As the lit piece shows, Jason Lewis's supporters know him to be a man who doesn't moisten his finger to figure out where he stands on the issues. That's why he'll win re-election this November.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 1:00 AM

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Ellison's crazy-minded socialism

I know that it isn't shocking to see a title claiming that Keith Ellison is a socialist. Still, what's in this article is shocking.

The shock starts when it says "The object of the caucus is to not only answer questions about single-payer government-run health care for everyone, but also to campaign for the legislation to create it, HR676 and a companion bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt. Those measures would replace the U.S.'s current, private jury-rigged high cost health care 'system' with federally run health care, eliminating the health insurance industry and other for-profit aspects of health care. ' Profit must have no place in health care ,' Jayapal said."

First, this should be a warning siren to Republicans. They'd better put aside their differences and vote. If they don't totally swamp the polls, these idiots will try passing this crazy health care plan. And yes, they're idiots. Anyone that thinks that "profit must have no place in health care" is an idiot and then some.

Without profit, nothing happens. Innovation is the first thing that stops. Efficiencies cease because the pay is the same whether they're efficient or inefficient.

This is just part of the Democrats' lunatic agenda. Based on their public statements, Democrats want to kill the American health care system entirely. They want to abolish ICE. Finally, they want to get rid of your tax cuts. Don't believe me? Here's what Nancy Pelosi said:

[Video no longer available]

It's pretty clear that Democrats think you're keeping too much of the money you're earning. It's pretty clear that Democrats think that government, not families, do a better job of managing their health care needs. Finally, it's pretty obvious that they think they know what's best.

Sidenote on Ellison: It's obvious that rational thought isn't part of his DNA. There isn't a single policy of his that could've passed when they had real legislators like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Hubert Humphrey and other giants. Ellison is a mental midget.

It's time for people to walk away from the Democratic Party. They're the mean-spirited party, the hate-filled party. This is the agenda that Obama wanted to pursue but didn't have the cajones to attempt. This should be ridiculed mercilessly:




Single-payer government-run health care will help end that problem by eliminating those costly middlemen, whose tab patients - or public hospitals such as Stroger - must foot, Jayapal said.


That's right. Lazy government bureaucrats will take the place of the profit makers. Instead of the profit makers making profits and creating incentives for innovation, those government bureaucrats will take the profits, then give themselves bonuses.



Sound familiar? It should. That's a description of the VA system from 4 years ago .




Last week, President Obama said anyone found to have manipulated or falsified Veterans Affairs records "will be held accountable," even as he defended Shinseki.


A week later, Gen. Shinseki resigned in disgrace.





Whether you call it Medicare for All, VA Care for All or whether you call it a failed, corrupted system is irrelevant. Single-payer health care systems have never worked because they kill innovation while incentivizing corruption. The people at the top, aka those that play the role of the oligarchs, reap all the rewards.

Though these dipsticks don't want to admit it, that's how all systems operate. There's corruption in every system. Pretending that government employees are somehow more virtuous than the rest of society is a fallacy. Milton Friedman explained that fact brilliantly in this interview:

[Video no longer available]

Keith Ellison has announced that he's running for Attorney General of Minnesota. Think about this -- he thinks that white police officers are bigoted and don't know it. He thinks that the VA hospital system as constructed a few years ago was patriotic and corruption-free. Now he's telling us that getting rid of profits in the health care industry is the path to innovation and health care for all.

Which of these things sounds craziest? Good luck with that. I'll be damned if I know which idea is craziest.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 9:21 AM

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Sen. Shaheen's silly stumble

The first interview on today's Outnumbered Overtime program was New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Sen. Shaheen sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The interview got a bit contentious when Harris Faulkner pressed Sen. Shaheen on why Shaheen is calling for the interpreter at the Helsinki Summit but she didn't speak up about the side deals made to the Iran Deal. Early in the interview, Faulkner asked Sen. Shaheen why she's pressing for the interpreter to testify. Sen. Shaheen replied, saying "I think we need to know what happened in the meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. There's been a lot of information put out by the Russian government and their Ministry of Defense, by their ambassador but we haven't gotten any kind of a readout from President Trump about what happened there and I've had the chance to ask some of our State Department officials about what they know about what he might've agreed to on Syria, on Crimea, on Ukraine and none of them have been able to answer what went on at that meeting."

In other words, Sen. Shaheen wanted to know tons of details about the Trump-Putin Summit. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what oversight is about. What happened later, though, was quite telling:




HARRIS FAULKNER: You know, Senator, I'm patiently listening for that turn to, because there was so much that went on between the former president and Iran. There's still side deals that we haven't seen with that dictatorship for lack of a better term and what we've agreed to we've now pulled out of. I wonder if there isn't a double standard and I ask it, with all respect and fairness, because I didn't hear the same pushing back then. Well, what did President Obama agree to from Democrats?

SEN. SHAHEEN: Well, we saw what he agreed to. It was called the Iran Nuclear Deal.

FAULKNER: I still haven't seen the side deals.

SHAHEEN: There aren't any side deals that we've seen because those side deals didn't exist. Those side deals have been made up by people who didn't agree with that Iran deal.


At the 2:59 mark of the interview, watch Harris Faulkner's facial expression when Sen. Shaheen said that:



Harris Faulkner's facial expression is priceless. I'm betting that she couldn't believe that Sen. Shaheen was trying to run that BS past her. It's one thing to spin information. It's quite another to pretend the information doesn't exist.



Finally, it's worth betting that Sen. Shaheen will think twice before appearing on Outnumbered OT another time.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 3:13 PM

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Trump negotiates major trade pact

The minute the news was announced that the EU had agreed to major trade concessions with the United States, the markets rallied. According to the article, the "major averages rallied on the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average popping more than half a percent to a session high. The NASDAQ rose about 1 percent. The euro also rose, hitting a session high against the dollar."

That happened as news broke that the "Europeans agreed to lower industrial tariffs and import more U.S. soybeans, Dow Jones reported. The Europeans also agreed to work on more U.S. liquid natural gas exports, the newswire reported. The two delegations had not yet finalized language on car tariffs, which had been a major sticking point for Trump in advance of the Juncker's first visit to the White House Wednesday."

This is a big deal politically and economically. Lower tariffs and greater exports for US companies will give the already-hot US economy a significant boost. The soybean exports to the EU will help Republicans politically because it's helping farmers, which is a major part of their political base. This does nothing except motivate that base to vote to re-elect Republicans this fall.

[Video no longer available]

The other thing that's worth noting is increased liquefied natural gas trade. That's the fastest way to cripple Russia's economy.

The markets breathed a sigh of relief, too, because the "Dow Jones Industrial Average popped Wednesday afternoon, rising more than half a percent on the news" of the completion of the trade deal. Now that this trade deal has been mostly finalized, the US can focus on completing other trade deals which will further strengthen the US economy.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 4:32 PM

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Gov. Dayton's bragging misses important details

This afternoon, Gov. Dayton couldn't resist the temptation of bragging. That's why he issued this statement , which read in part "Our state government has made a complete financial turnaround in the past seven-and-a-half years. The credit for Minnesota's success belongs to the people of our state. I thank Minnesotans for their many contributions to the strength of our economy and the stabilization of our State's budget. And I thank MMB Commissioner Myron Frans and his tremendous staff for their steadfast commitment to improving Minnesota's financial management."

The reason I discount Gov. Dayton's bragging is because the GOP legislature turned things around. When they assumed majority status in the House and Senate, there was a $6,200,000,000 projected deficit waiting for them. When the DFL took control of St. Paul in 2013, that projected deficit had shrunk to $600,000,000.

Deep in the press kit document, it says "In January 2011, Minnesota was still facing the economic consequences of the Great Recession, and the state budget was a mess. Over 202,000 Minnesotans were out of work, the State of Minnesota was facing a $6.2 billion deficit and owed school districts $1.9 billion, and there was nothing in the State's Budget Reserves. Since then, Minnesota's economy and fiscal health has greatly improved."

Again, the heavy lifting was done by the GOP legislature during the 2011 budget session. The unified DFL government in St. Paul in 2013 had a projected deficit ten times smaller than Republicans faced in 2011. Rather than exercising fiscal discipline, rather than listening to the voters, the DFL raised taxes by an extraordinary amount. At the end of session, they returned to their districts and got blasted by their constituents. Then they tried disguising their tax increase reductions as tax cuts. The voters weren't impressed and installed a Republican majority in the House in 2014. Then the voters installed a GOP majority in the Senate in 2016 while keeping the GOP majority in the House. But I digress.

[Video no longer available]

Earlier this morning, I found this op-ed by Sen. Julie Rosen on MNLARS' failures. If we're going to examine Gov. Dayton's history, let's examine the entire history. This paragraph especially jumped out at me:




At the time MNLARS was released, the state had already spent $90 million to get it up and running. Starting on day one, it was a complete failure.


A competent governor would've just bought the software from other states that had just successfully revamped their DMVs. Unfortunately, we didn't have a competent governor. The idiot we have as a governor insisted that we keep spending more and more money on a failed system that won't get fixed until we get a real governor. Thankfully, that's less than half a year away when a Republican governor gets sworn in.






Make no mistake: getting it turned around will be a long, complicated process. As we speak, the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor is running four separate investigations of MNLARS. This is virtually unheard of, but it speaks to the level of dysfunction within the program. In March, the Legislature approved $9.65 million in emergency funding to address immediate IT-related costs. This money was focused on fixing the problems, not on adding unnecessary staff to answer phones.


The failures continue to this day. Thoughts of a properly-run MNLARS system have disappeared.



Let's be clear about things. Gov. Dayton and the DFL contributed somewhat to restoring Minnesota's financial health. In 2 of the 4 Dayton budget years, Republicans put together the majority of the budget that eventually got signed into law. In 2015, Speaker Daudt and Sen. Bakk put together a bipartisan budget that formed the framework of the budget that Gov. eventually signed. Except for the 2013 budget, Gov. Dayton shut down the government or required a special session to sign the budget he could've signed the final day of the regular session.

Gov. Dayton is a tragic figure in Minnesota history. A son of privilege, he's had a troubled history rather than being a true leader.

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018 11:02 PM

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