May 17-18, 2018
May 17 03:22 Warning signs for Democrats? May 17 10:06 Win! Good guy with gun stops school shooter May 17 10:40 DFL tax prediction proven right May 17 14:45 Rejecting Gov. Dayton's veto letter May 17 17:36 House passes constitutional amendment for roads & bridges May 18 11:20 Adelson fires up the GOP base May 18 16:38 John McCain's final fight
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Warning signs for Democrats?
For months, perhaps years, it's been obvious that the energy in the Democratic Party has been in the 'Bernie Sanders wing' of the party. One thing that showed up bigtime in last night's Democratic Party primaries was the 'Bernie Sanders wing' of the party . In "Nebraska, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wanted former Rep. Brad Ashford as its nominee for an Omaha-based seat. But Tuesday night ended with liberal Kara Eastman, a social worker, proclaimed the winner by more than 1,000 votes."
The voters said that Ashford wasn't radical enough for their liking.
In Pennsylvania, Greg Edwards, who lost the primary to Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, and winner Susan Wild, summed things up perfectly when he said "That's where the momentum is. If you try and run a Republican-lite or a Democrat-lite candidate, it suppresses the Democratic vote." Also in Pennsylvania, another moderate candidate, Rachel Reddick, "lost to 'proud progressive' Scott Wallace. The self-funding millionaire drenched the airwaves with TV ads that attacked Reddick for recently being a registered Republican."
So much for Democrats recruiting candidates like Conor Lamb that "fit their districts."
This isn't good news for the blue wave theorists in the media:
Eastman's victory had liberals feeling emboldened. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group, said Tuesday night that Eastman's win should teach Democrats that "the way to inspire voters in 2018 is to campaign on a bold progressive agenda of Medicare for All, higher wages for workers, and other economic populist ideas that help working families and challenge corporate power."
Progressives mix together with moderates like oil mixes with water. The question most likely to be asked after these primaries is whether Democrats will unite behind these candidates or will they stay home. With a message like this, Kara Eastman won't win in November:
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Seriously? Health care, raising the minimum wage and "debt-free education"? In Nebraska, she's gonna run on those? I can't picture those issues playing well in Nebraska.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2018 3:22 AM
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Win! Good guy with gun stops school shooter
H/T: Ed Morrissey/Hot Air
We must not be in Parkland because this "school resource officer stopped an armed teenager at a high school Wednesday morning." We know from past reporting that Parkland school resource officers stay outside the school and establish perimeters. They also resign after school shootings after they're called out by other police departments for not doing their jobs.
According to the ABC article , "the 19-year-old suspect fired several shots near a gym at Dixon High School, the school resource officer reported the incident to authorities and then confronted the gunman, Dixon police chief Steven Howell said at a news conference. When confronted, the suspect, a former student at Dixon High School, started running away, and the officer pursued him, Howell said. The suspect shot several rounds at the officer, and the officer then returned fire, hitting the gunman, the chief added."
Here's the good news:
The suspect was taken into custody with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The suspect was identified on Wednesday evening as Matthew A. Milby, according to Illinois State Police. He faces three charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Milby is currently under surveillance at a hospital and will be taken to jail when he is discharged, state police said. No students or staff were injured but the high school and all other schools in the district were placed on lockdown, Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss said in a statement.
Gun-free zones are for idiots. This verifies the old saying that "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Thanks to this school resource officer, one good man did something smart.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2018 10:06 AM
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DFL tax prediction proven right
In this post , I said "Here's a fearless prediction: the DFL will criticize the House-Senate GOP tax cuts as tax breaks for big corporations. What the legislation says is irrelevant to the DFL. What's important to the DFL is that they've rehearsed their lines properly."
This morning, I received an email from the Alliance for Telling Filthy Lies, aka ABM. In their email was a sentence that said "if state Republicans get their way, corporations and the wealthiest Minnesotans will get millions in tax breaks as our schools face teacher layoffs and program cuts from lack of funding ."
Talk about a total filthy lie. Here's the truth:
The House and Senate deal lowers the state's first tax bracket from 5.35 percent to 5.25 percent. The change affects a single filer's earnings below $25,890 and a couple's below $37,850. The second tax bracket rate drops from 7.05 percent to 6.85 percent. This decrease affects a single filer's income between $25,891 and $85,060 and a couple's between $37,851 and $150,380. The rate reductions would take place over two fiscal years, so the lower rates would be in place by 2020. The changes would cost $137 million this year and $341 million by 2020.
It's disgusting to hear the DFL lie like that. Only people in the lowest 2 income tax brackets will have their rates cut. There's nothing in the bill that remotely relates to corporations or upper income tax brackets.
Here's the edited email that I received:
Apparently, it's asking the DFL too much to actually tell the truth. The only legitimate conclusion that can be drawn is that they're disgusting people who haven't hesitated to lie to get their way. I expect better than that. I can't vote for people I can't trust.
On a related matter, Gov. Dayton vetoed the tax conformity bill in front of a room filled with students. This November, it's time to throw these liars out. It's time to reject their dishonesty. It's time to demand people that tell the truth and who do their utmost to keep their promises.
Finally, it's time to elect pro-growth politicians. It's time to reject the DFL socialists.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2018 10:41 AM
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Rejecting Gov. Dayton's veto letter
After vetoing the GOP tax conformity bill, Gov. Dayton sent this veto letter to Speaker Kurt Daudt in which he theoretically explained why he vetoed the tax conformity bill. It isn't as much a governing document as it is a political document.
For instance, early in the veto letter, Gov. Dayton wrote "Late last year, President Trump and Republicans in Congress enacted a federal tax law that overwhelmingly favored large corporations and the richest Americans. The federal tax law cut taxes by 40 percent for corporations, totaling 92 percent of the net total, or $1.35 trillion. Because of these federal tax changes, 300,000 Minnesotans will see a $59 million tax increase next year, if the Minnesota Legislature does nothing to respond."
What Gov. Dayton didn't include in his letter is why the federal tax cut was heavy on cutting corporate tax rates. Gov. Dayton didn't mention that Obama-era tax increases in corporate tax rates had made U.S. companies uncompetitive with other nations' companies. The likely reason why Gov. Dayton didn't mention that is because his tax policies have made Minnesota companies uncompetitive.
Here's Speaker Daudt's response to Gov. Dayton's veto:
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This is an outright lie:
Unfortunately, this tax bill, like the Federal Tax Law passed last year, prioritizes tax cuts for corporations over real people. Rather than investing in our children's educations, the GOP has decided that the foreign profits of large, multinational corporations are more important.
I can't wait until Gov. Dayton is just a bad memory. He's raised taxes, including on middle income families and the working poor. Now he's about to raise taxes on the middle class again unless he gets exactly what he wants. He's turned a blind eye towards vulnerable seniors in nursing homes. He's dumped millions of dollars into a broken MNLARS system and that still doesn't work. He's protected his union allies while imposing harsh regulations on those that oppose the unions. (Think child care workers who voted against unionization.)
It's accurate to say that he's been the worst governor in recent Minnesota history. He's supposedly forgotten important provisions in major bills that he's negotiated . (Think sales tax on farm equipment repairs in the Tax bill of 2013 and the PSL provision in the Vikings stadium bill.) Now he's insisting that he didn't hear about the whistleblower report about the Somali child care fraud. This despite the fact that the whistleblower has repeatedly told reporters that he told people in Gov. Dayton's inner circle about the fraud.
When he was in the Senate, Dayton was named the worst senator in DC. It isn't a stretch to think that he's now added worst governor in Minnesota to his 'trophy case'.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2018 2:45 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 17-May-18 06:05 PM
Sadly there are two large group in MN called the DFL and media who believe everything the spoiled little brat Dayton spews out of his rich pie hole.
Comment 2 by Rex Newman at 18-May-18 09:26 PM
A PowerlineBlog commenter speculated that Dayton was amidst his Third Grade peers, maybe his betters.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 19-May-18 02:24 AM
I'm glad that you included the phrase "maybe his betters." If you hadn't, I might've corrected you. LOL
House passes constitutional amendment for roads & bridges
According to this memo , the Minnesota House of Representatives has "passed legislation (HF4437) Thursday on a bipartisan 76-54 vote that would constitutionally dedicate existing sales tax revenue from auto parts to statewide road and bridge construction."
Representative Paul Torkelson issued this statement after the legislation was passed:
Anyone driving around our state knows our roads need more work, and it takes money to do that. It's my hope that this fall, voters can decide if it makes sense to use taxes already being collected from the sales of auto parts in order to continue this road and bridge prioritization. If they vote favorably, we not only will improve our transportation infrastructure but also support thousands of good paying union jobs across our state and put people to work.
If approved by the Minnesota House and Senate, voters would decide this November whether or not to redirect the already-collected sales taxes to road and bridge repair on state, county, township, city and small town projects.
Last year we approved a law to utilize existing tax collections to fund road and bridge repair, and the result is a multi-billion dollar investment over the next decade. This is the logical next step, as we always seem to have trouble finding needed resources as they are always in competition with other portions of the state budget. If voters decide to set aside this revenue, we can assure that it will be spent on roads and bridges.
Gov. Dayton & the DFL insist on funding light rail boondoggles while underfunding maintaining and building road and bridge repair. They've argued against dedicating this money by saying it takes money away from the general fund. This is Minnesotans' opportunity to dedicate these sales taxes to funding road and bridge repair.
If auto-related sales taxes shouldn't be used to fix or build roads and bridges, then they should be abolished entirely. To have them go into the general fund is to overfund government waste.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2018 5:36 PM
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Adelson fires up the GOP base
Earlier in President Trump's administration, Democrats had a big advantage in the generic ballot question and in the enthusiasm gap. The MSM quickly jumped to stories about the big blue wave that was about to hit President Trump and sink his presidency. The good news is that people are stepping forward with tons of campaign cash to save the Republicans' hides.
Republicans have amassed a sprawling shadow field organization to defend the House this fall, spending tens of millions of dollars in an unprecedented effort to protect dozens of battleground districts that will determine control of the chamber.
The initiative by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), now includes 34 offices running mini-campaigns for vulnerable Republicans throughout the country. It has built its own in-house research and data teams and recruited 4,000 student volunteers, who have knocked on more than 10 million doors since February 2017.
The operation far eclipses the group's activity in any previous election, when CLF didn't have a single volunteer or field office. At this time last election cycle, the group had raised $2 million. As of Tuesday, CLF, which markets itself to donors as a super PAC dedicated to saving the House majority and can collect contributions with no dollar limit, had hauled in more than $71 million. That war chest and new infrastructure could be a significant factor in an election year dominated by expectations of a Democratic wave fueled by a backlash against President Donald Trump.
Rest assured that this operation will get GOP voters out to vote. The other good news is that Democrats aren't listening to Nancy Pelosi. They're still talking impeachment and spreading Russia collusion stories. When they aren't doing that, they're supporting candidates like Kara Eastman and Scott Wallace. These are folks that'd make Bernie Sanders look like a capitalist.
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The tide is turning. The DC pundits are getting it wrong again. After the Fox debate for the West Virginia GOP primary, Chris Stirewalt said that there was real momentum for Don Blankenship. After that, most of the stories written followed that same storyline. Blankenship lost by 15 points to the pre-debate favorite, Patrick Morrisey. The guy with the prison record never really had a chance.
What the GOPe and the MSM don't understand is that the Trump Army cares most about his accomplishments and the people who help him win those fights. Some are annoyed by his tweets but they love his accomplishments. If Republicans run on the Trump policy agenda, the Trump Army will turn out for them. Couple that with Adelson's Army and you have a legitimate shot at outperforming expectations and holding onto the House.
Posted Friday, May 18, 2018 11:20 AM
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John McCain's final fight
It looks like John McCain's final fight will finish in defeat. His final fight apparently is against President Trump. Based on this article , McCain finishes looking like a bitter loser.
John McCain always said he'd go down fighting, and so he has, dickering from his deathbed over CIA nominee Gina Haspel and pre-emptively disinviting President Donald Trump from his funeral, then leaving as a legacy some fierce final words for the leader of his party, who is now a political enemy. All Trump displays is "a reality-show facsimile of toughness," the six-term Arizona senator and former GOP presidential candidate, who for a generation of Washington politicians has defined genuine toughness, writes in his forthcoming memoir.
There's no questioning that John McCain, POW, was tougher than nails. What he did in the Hanoi Hilton took fortitude and then some. John McCain, the politician, however, is an entirely different story.
Sen. McCain, the politician, was a wimp. Further, he wasn't that bright when it came to policy. As a senator, Sen. McCain swore to uphold the Constitution. That's odd because Sen. McCain's signature piece of legislation, McCain-Feingold, was thrown out because it violated the most sacred of our rights, the right to speak freely about our political opinions. The bill wasn't just taken apart a little bit. It was totally uprooted.
Sen. McCain tried preventing Gina Haspel from becoming the CIA Director. He failed in his misguided attempt. Haspel's sin? Doing what was legal at the time she did it while trying to protect the country from a terrorist attack.
The irony of McCain's curtain-closing contretemps with the president is that it is clearly Trump himself who has inherited McCain's mantle as the leading Republican maverick in Washington. Both men have often taken on the party orthodoxy across an array of big issues, with Trump running as the ultimate populist outsider in 2016 and spouting apostasies on trade, immigration and foreign policy; and McCain doing so on just about everything at one point or another during his long career. Both are known for being irascible and often bad-tempered, and unsparing toward enemies and rivals, even in their own party. Indeed, during McCain's first run for president in 2000 he managed to enlist only a handful of his 53 Senate Republican colleagues to support him over George W. Bush, and some cited his volcanic anger and congenital impatience (traits that McCain insists he has since reined in) as reasons. As one GOP senator told me back then, "I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger." The two politicians even share some views on the proper use of American force in the world and the perils of palliative diplomacy - McCain opposed the Iran nuclear deal as fiercely as Trump, for one.
The difference between McCain and Trump is that we always know where Trump is on the important issues of the day. Sen. McCain was totally unpredictable in that respect.
It's become a cliche to label McCain a "maverick" for his dramatic, and increasingly frequent, breaks with the Republican Party line. But it's a cliche because the label fits: Over nearly four decades in Washington, McCain has given a master class in maverickism, and it is for this he will be most remembered.
Sen. McCain was all over the place because he rarely thought things through. He's been short-tempered and not that bright.
Truthfully, the Senate will be a better place when Sen. McCain is no longer part of it. Hotheads that don't respect the Constitution shouldn't be part of the greatest deliberative body in the world.
Posted Friday, May 18, 2018 4:38 PM
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