June 14-16, 2019
Jun 14 02:29 What are Nancy Pelosi's SF values? Jun 14 11:12 Eric Swalwell's hit piece Jun 14 23:19 The DFL's accountability crisis Jun 15 15:13 It's the accomplishments, Stupid Jun 16 01:00 The Swamp visits Minnesota Jun 16 02:14 Twins win after retiring Joe Mauer's jersey Jun 16 19:31 What if you held a rally & people didn't attend? Jun 16 23:21 The definition of compassion
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Prior Years:
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
What are Nancy Pelosi's SF values?
Seemingly each day, Nancy Pelosi issues another statement insisting that President Trump is a threat to our democracy. Each time, Ms. Pelosi steps up to the microphone to make these accusations, she makes the charge, then doesn't offer proof that her accusations are substantive.
At other times, Ms. Pelosi insists that President Trump's policies run contrary to America's "values". (That's rather rich coming from someone who hasn't ventured outside of the DC/New York/San Francisco beltway. She wouldn't know what American values were if they bit her in the arse.)
Mrs. Pelosi, what do DC's values have in common with Minnesota's values or Indiana's or Ohio's values? What do San Francisco's values have in common with Arkansas's values or Mississippi's values? What do New York's values have in common with Utah's values or Iowa's values or Kansas's values?
This time, Ms. Pelosi accused President Trump of undermining our democracy by answering George Stephanopoulos' hypothetical question about whether to contact the FBI if a foreign government offered "dirt" on his 2020 Democrat opponent.
Democrats cried wolf -- for the umpteenth time -- because President Trump thought about this way about a hypothetical question. Those Democrats didn't utter a peep when they found out that Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid for dirt on then-Candidate Trump from a foreign spy. I guess buying dirt from foreigners is acceptable? Here's Pelosi making an ass of herself during her press conference:
[Video no longer available]
Ms. Pelosi is right. She's said multiple times that President Trump has been involved in a criminal cover-up. What the Democrat-leaning media hasn't done is ask her for specific proof that she's pointing to. That's because they're there to protect her highness. The Media Wing of the Democrat Party isn't interested in being a journalist. They're interested in being propagandists.
Posted Friday, June 14, 2019 2:29 AM
No comments.
Eric Swalwell's hit piece
Eric Swalwell's hit piece in the Atlantic is what you'd expect from a no-talent back-bench bomb-thrower. He went into this election season as a nobody. Nothing has changed. As always, Trey Gowdy puts it best during this interview with Martha McCallum:
[Video no longer available]
But I digress. Now onto Rep. Swalwell's hit piece. This paragraph is particularly revealing of Rep. Swalwell's (lack of) character:
The president continues to betray America, putting his own interests ahead of our country's. His statement that he would accept a foreign power's offer of information harmful to an electoral rival, and probably not inform the FBI of such an effort, shouldn't be shocking - because he already did it.
Here's what President Trump actually said:
[Video no longer available]
There's no doubt that President Trump said that, if you're a congressman and a foreign operative offers said congressman dirt on the congressman's opponent, that they wouldn't necessarily call the FBI. When Stephanopoulos brought up Al Gore calling the FBI, Trump immediately highlighted the fact that Gore had just received a stolen briefing book. A crime had been committed. Of course, you're obligated to report federal crimes to the FBI.
There's also no doubt that President Trump, when posed with a hypothetical question on getting dirt from a foreign operative, said "Maybe you do both", meaning he'd listen to what the operative said and he'd call the FBI, depending on the content. I'm not a constitutional scholar but I'm fairly certain that isn't what the Founding Fathers meant when they talked about high crimes and misdemeanors.
Keep fighting, Eric. If you do, perhaps you'll achieve what Joe Biden already has. Biden has gotten a nickname of "1% Joe" from President Trump. How appropriate.
Posted Friday, June 14, 2019 11:12 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 15-Jun-19 05:35 AM
The democrats are using false information gathered from a foreign government to continually attack Trump for collusion and obstruction.
The DFL's accountability crisis
Each budget year, the DFL insists on 'investing' more on 'education'. Each year, the DFL ignores the massive amounts of money essentially thrown into a dumpster by education bureaucrats.
Harold Hamilton's commentary (If you haven't subscribed, you should ) highlights that waste, citing a St. Paul Pioneer Press article:
A recent article in the Pioneer Press explains that capital improvement projects in the district are experiencing massive cost overruns, even by government standards. There are 18 such projects that are running a collective $180 million over the projected budget of just two years ago.
In what could have been the quote of the week, a former school district official observed, "Every contractor wants to come work for St. Paul Public Schools because it's frickin' open checkbook."
As is so typical in government, it appears that oversight and expertise were woefully lacking in this case.
Then Hamilton cites an example:
Perhaps the most egregious example of the waste is at Humboldt High School, where a $14.4 million project estimate now sits at $48 million, just two years later.
And what are taxpayers getting for their considerable investment in these schools and the district?
- At Humboldt, 28% of their students don't graduate.
- Only 19% are proficient in reading.
- Only 10% are proficient in math.
- A dismal 6.5% are proficient in science.
The legislature should refuse to subsidize this failure and demand strict accountability for both spending and results in the classroom.
That's theft. The people 'teaching' these students are stealing these students' futures. When 1 out of 20 students are proficient in science, that's theft. When 9 of 10 students fail at math, that's theft. That must end ASAP.
Further, Education Minnesota must be made to pay for this theft. Ditto with the administrators who apparently don't care whether students learn or not. Ditto with the DFL, who keep feeding the broken beast. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why this crisis hasn't been turned around.
The DFL is owned by Education Minnesota. Education Minnesota is anti-competition. That means it's anti-accountability, too. As long as there's a DFL governor or a DFL majority in the Minnesota House or Senate, they'll fight to maintain the status quo even if taxpayers are getting screwed. Education Minnesota's primary mission is helping raise teachers' salaries. It isn't about helping students.
What type of system allows a $14,400,000 project to turn into a $48,000,000 project ? You'd have to essentially be comatose to miss that. Whoever missed it should've been fired instantly, then ordered to spend time in prison for defrauding taxpayers. Further, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the subcontractors are friends of the person who didn't detect the massive overruns. It's difficult to believe that anyone's that incompetent. It isn't difficult to think that someone associated with a school district is that corrupt.
The DFL won't hold these thieves accountable. That's how the DFL buys votes. The only way to hold the DFL accountable is to restore the Republican majority in the House and maintain the GOP majority in the Senate, then force reforms that would eliminate this type of corruption. That means putting stiff criminal penalties on people who commit this type of graft.
Posted Friday, June 14, 2019 11:19 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 15-Jun-19 05:53 AM
And the moron voters in St. Paul voted last election to give the district even more money to piss away.
Comment 2 by J. Ewing at 15-Jun-19 08:27 AM
Isn't that the great puzzlement, though? You and I see clearly the open sewer, and the politicians shoveling even more taxpayer money into it. It's blatantly, even painfully obvious to us, how can it be completely ignored by the majority of voters?
Comment 3 by Chad Q at 15-Jun-19 02:11 PM
Because it's all for the kids. You're a monster if you vote against the kids.
Comment 4 by J. Ewing at 16-Jun-19 09:53 AM
I've tried pointing out that if education was "for the kids" we wouldn't be failing to educate 90% of them, but it hasn't sunk in. Ideas?
It's the accomplishments, Stupid
A theory developed while reading Salena Zito's latest article , which is titled "What happens when Joe stops being Joe?" Salena's article asks the question of what happens to VP Biden when he stops being lovable old Joe. That theory is that President Trump should highlight his economic accomplishments by highlighting his regulatory accomplishments in Rust Belt states.
She notes that Biden's rollout was virtually flawless but that his handling of the Hyde Amendment was a disaster. Then she quotes Jeff Brauer, a "political science professor at Keystone College here in Factoryville." Brauer said "What Biden needs to do is appeal to voters in the middle and even the Right. This move isn't going to help in that. Moving hard left in the primary could prove to be fatal for the general. Biden has also succumbed to far-left pressures on the environment by rolling out a policy plan that is far more liberal than expected."
Zito then points out, as I have multiple times, that "Trump's victory in 2016 was primarily due to his support in the Midwestern, Rust Belt states, whose voters had been hit hard economically as jobs moved elsewhere. With a recent boom fueled by natural gas, some of these areas are bouncing back."
The Hyde Amendment hurts Biden in the short-term but the environment hurts him in the long-term. If Democrats don't flip the blue collar vote in 2020, they can kiss that election good-bye.
Few people paid attention to the early days of the Trump administration. That's when Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and President Trump used the Congressional Review Act to eliminate tons of Obama environmental regulations. That wasn't just smart policy. It was fantastic politics. President Trump can visit the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana cities most affected (positively) by the elimination of those Obama-Biden era regulations.
What should worry Democrats most is that Biden and Tim Ryan are the only Democrats with a legitimate shot at those voters. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg don't have a shot at those voters.
This is Biden's Hyde Amendment flip-flop:
[Video no longer available]
On issue after issue, President Trump has been the reasonable politician in the room. Whether we're talking about immigration, taxes, regulations or the economy, President Trump has presented sensible options. When Congress runs away from some of those policies, it just makes him look that much more reasonable, especially in light of the fact that Democrats are hell-bent on impeaching President Trump.
What's especially helpful to President Trump is the fact that he, Ryan and McConnell eliminated so many environmental regulations. Now that the US is a net exporter of energy, he's in an especially strong negotiating position with Eastern bloc countries and Russia. Put differently, President Trump should make the case that his strong economy has made the US stronger internationally. Biden can't make that same argument.
Posted Saturday, June 15, 2019 3:13 PM
No comments.
The Swamp visits Minnesota
Perhaps, it's more fitting to title this article "The Swamp lives in Minnesota. After writing about the IRRRB's corruption in this post a month ago, I can't say that I'm surprised by this information:
This week, it was revealed that the [IRRRB] paid a long-time staffer $166,000 to retire early and then hired him back as a consultant just one month later for up to $43,000 per year. The retirement payoff consisted in $66,000 in unused vacation and sick days as well as nearly $100,000 in cash!
If I didn't know better, I'd think that the DFL, starting with Tom Bakk and Tim Walz, have turned a blind eye to the IRRRB's corruption. How can anyone watch what's happening there think that the DFL is interested in good governance? Further, what type of law permits a government employee to retire early, cash a huge check ($166,000 is a big chunk of money), then allow the 'retired' employee to get rehired as a 'consultant'? That's stupidity and then some.
If an employee wants to retire early, they should be forced to sign an agreement that forbids them from being hired as a consultant anywhere. At minimum, if the 'retired' employee is rehired as a consultant, then their pension should be immediately stopped and they should be penalized.
That shouldn't apply just to IRRRB employees, either. That should apply to all government employees , whether they're school board employees, municipal employees or all the way up through state employees. In fact, the cleanest way to deal with this is to prohibit people from retiring early. If a person wants to retire at age 55, let them foot the bill for their retirement until they get to age 62.
The IRRRB needs a major overhaul. It's been corrupt essentially since its creation.
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2019 1:00 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 16-Jun-19 06:46 AM
The IRRRB needs to be disbanded because all it is is a DFL money machine.
Also, most government and private businesses have limited the amount of vacation time an employee can carryover from year to year for cases just like this one.
Twins win after retiring Joe Mauer's jersey
This year, the Minnesota Twins are playing phenomenal baseball. In fact, after Saturday night's game, the Twins have the best record in baseball with a 47-22 record. Saturday night, though, things were different because the Twins retired Twins jersey # 7 forever. In an emotional speech, Joe Mauer thanked his fans, his family and especially his parents, his wife and their 3 kids for making his career possible.
After his speech, Joe Mauer threw out the first pitch. This was different because he didn't throw it to a Twins catcher, which is customary. The 'catcher' this time was Mauer's dad. After Jake Sr. caught the ball, he and his son came together for another emotional moment.
Once the game began, the Twins' started a little bumpy, with Jake Odorizzi serving up a 2-run homer in the top of the first. By the time he left the game after completing 6 innings, Odorizzi had given up 4 runs, the most runs he's given up in a game this season. After the game, Odorizzi praised Mauer's professionalism before adding this:
[Video no longer available]
This Twins team is as good as it is in part because of Joe Mauer. During his last 2 years with the team, Mauer would award game balls for important plays that'd normally go unnoticed in the box score. He'd hand out a game ball for a baserunner who ran hard to second base and broke up a potential double play. He'd highlight teammates for hustling out of the batters box and stretching a single into a double.
This year's team are making lots of those types of plays, seemingly on a nightly basis. The players that were taught by Mauer's attention to detail and Mauer's professionalism are this year's leaders. That being said, Thad Levine and Derek Falvey have put together a pretty talented team.
This past offseason, the Twins brought in talented veterans like Johnathan Schoop, Nelson Cruz, Martin Perez, C.J. Cron and Marwin Gonzalez. Their leadership, combined with young veterans having career years have caused the Twins to jump out to an 11-game lead over the 3-time Cleveland Indians.
This year's Twins team is a true team effort. Thad Levine put together a deep and talented roster. Jim Pohlad approved the budget to go out and get these talented players. Rookie Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has made one great decision after another. Nelson Cruz has helped hitting coach James Rowson teach these young hitters how to work the count into their favor, which has led to lots of extra base hits. (The Twins are on pace to shatter the MLB record for slugging percentage and homeruns in a season.)
While the Twins lead the majors in home runs hit and slugging percentage , their hitters have struck out just 629 times. Compare that with the fact that they've collected 651 hits. No other team in the AL can say that they have more hits than strikeouts. (That kinda sounds like a traditional Mauer year, doesn't it?)
After his ceremony, Joe Mauer joined Twins great Bert Blyleven and long-time Twins announcer Dick Bremer in the booth for half an inning:
[Video no longer available]
It's worth your while to watch the entire ceremony, too:
[Video no longer available]
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2019 2:14 AM
No comments.
What if you held a rally & people didn't attend?
Let's pose a hypothetical question. Let's suppose that an organization announced that they were holding a rally? Then let's imagine that nobody attended this rally. Finally, let's imagine that it wasn't just any organization and that it wasn't a rally (single) but rallies.
According to Emily Zanotti's article , MoveOn.org "kicked off a nationwide campaign to impeach President Donald Trump Saturday with a series of '#ImpeachTrump' rallies and a 'Day of Action' meant to inspire the far left to pressure Congressional legislators to undertake impeachment proceedings."
The bad news is that "'dozens' of protesters 'packed' a park to listen to speakers talk about Trump's sins against democracy" in Portland, OR. Then there's this important information:
MoveOn partnered with around two dozen organizations on the event, including activist group, Indivisible, the national Women's March, Democracy for America, and CREDO, and looped in celebrities like Chelsea Handler and members of the cast and crew of Modern Family to help promote the event. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is leading the impeachment charge in the House of Representatives, was among those legislators and high-profile guests invited to speak at the rallies.
With such far left firepower, you'd think the turnout was through the roof. It wasn't. But things didn't quite go as planned:
The Washington Times reports that MoveOn.org expected massive turnout at 120 events in cities and towns throughout the country. "Donald Trump's abuses of our communities and country demand action from Congress, which has the responsibility and authority to hold Trump accountable. The next crucial step is an inquiry into whether to draft articles of impeachment," MoveOn.org claims on their website, Impeach.org. "The time is now to push every member of Congress to act on behalf of the constituents, country and Constitution and begin impeachment now."
Portland, OR isn't exactly known as a hotbed of conservatism. Look at this 'crowd' gathered in Portland:
[Video no longer available]
There are town team baseball games in small town Minnesota that attract more people. By all means, though, Democrats should keep making the #ImpeachTrump drumbeat. Don't let the crowds fool you, Democrats. You've found your winning issue for 2020. Want more proof? Check out the 'crowd' that gathered in Newport, RI:
[Video no longer available]
I'd argue that it attracted people by the dozens except I'm not certain the plural conjugation of dozen is accurate. Again, it's worth noting that Newport, RI isn't a hotbed of conservatism. One of their senators is Sheldon Whitehouse. Ideologically speaking, Whitehouse is just a bit to the left of Al Franken.
That's what happens when you try selling something people don't want.
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2019 7:31 PM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 17-Jun-19 07:46 AM
Tomorrow will be the test. Trump is announcing his campaign and there will be watch parties across the country. At least one venue of 25,000 had 100,000 ticket requests. Compare and contrast.
The definition of compassion
Written by Rambling Rose
Do people in the USA really know what they want? What they believe? 'Save the children!' Really?
Media sources applaud states, politicians, celebrities, left-wing feminists that have moved from the 1973 Roe v. Wade legalized abortion decision to legalized (or just practiced by some healthcare workers who turn their backs on a child born from a botched abortion) infanticide. I don't need to provide the list here - you all have read the news releases and heard the cheers from the streets about women's rights (the blob in the womb is not a person so it has no rights) to decide what happens in their body.
Incessantly, there are protests about the alleged mistreatment by the Trump administration of the children entering this country illegally; multiple times as they are 'rented' to form families, then returned to Mexico to be 'rented' again in a different family, not biological families, only families to break even more of the immigration laws of this land. Where is the outcry about the financial, physical, mental and psychological abuse to those children? Or, is the need greater to grow the number of illegal persons to depend upon the government and vote for those who promise much just to buy their votes of the poor to continue to live in DC, breed corruption and promote their hatred of the USA?
Yet several times a night on over-the-air TV broadcasting (I can't write about cable broadcasts; I don't have or want cable/direct TV/dish), the ads abound to 'save the children.' The ads are for the malnourished, sick, disabled and dying, primarily in Africa. Naturally, my heart breaks as I view these young children who are only about half the size of a healthy child of the same age. Naturally, I hope that all the organizations requesting donations are honorable and in fact, making the donations of food and medical care available to those in need. I pray that ethical charities are 'saving the children.'
Similarly, there are nightly pleas for donations to numerous organizations in this country to provide for the children afflicted by various cancers and the resultant agony of their families. Again, the skeptic hopes that the donations actually provide for the children and their families in the various challenges that face them. Young children should not have to fight just to live. Their families gave them life; they did not abort them and toss them into the trash. Why are not the 'compassionate' progressives marching for them? Organizing fundraisers to pay for their care?
Even more numerous, laughable and disgusting are the ads for financial gifts for the 'humane' treatment of animals. Wait a minute. Humane implies that the four-legged creature is a human. I do not oppose pets; neither do I object if owners (not parents) choose to pamper their pets (that are not their biological offspring) as long as they also meet the needs of their children.
Why are the unborn babies killed if children in other countries are to be saved? Why are animals held in higher esteem than children who are conceived and then called 'inconvenient'?
Fortunately, the children do have a Savior.
'But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' (Matthew 19:14)
Posted Sunday, June 16, 2019 11:21 PM
No comments.
