September 20-21, 2016
Sep 20 01:55 Betsy Hodges' powerful paranoia Sep 20 05:28 Hillary's frightening ignorance Sep 20 12:27 TakeAction Minnesota exploiting Crossroads shooting Sep 20 18:46 DFL, Dayton driving away farmers Sep 21 04:42 Piers Morgan criticizes Hillary? Sep 21 12:26 Dayton shafts farmers, rewards cronies Sep 21 16:13 Gov. Dayton, the DFL & cronyism
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Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Betsy Hodges' powerful paranoia
If anything demonstrates that Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges is paranoid or isn't thinking clearly, this Facebook post is proof that a little paranoia goes a long ways.
In the key part of the post, Hodges wrote "At this difficult moment, I also urge every Minneapolitan and every Minnesotan to support and stand firmly with our Muslim, East African, and Somali friends and neighbors. A horrible, violent attack like this should never be exploited to attack a whole community and a whole religion. Yet we have seen Islamophobia rear its ugly head in terrible moments like this far too many times - *and* at a moment when one person in particular is playing to fear and hatred of immigrants on a national scale, I fully understand the worry of the Somali community here that it will happen again. From the first moments after this terrible event, the Somali community of Minnesota came together to decry this horrible act. We all get to come together to reject hate in all of its forms. We must not and will not allow hate to divide us. We are stronger together."
Why do Democrats think that the first instinct for people they don't know will commit acts of violence or discriminate without reason? It's a bit insulting or more than a little paranoid. But I digress.
It's worth noting that the definition of Islamophobia is "hatred or fear of Muslims or their politics or culture." Let's hear Mayor Hodges highlight the times when Islamophobia reared "its ugly head". Let's differentiate, though, between distrust and hatred or fear.
It isn't normal to trust people you don't know if that community has a history of committing acts of terrorism. Let's talk about the elephant in the room that Ms. Hodges doesn't want to talk about. A significant number of Somali Muslims have been convicted of "ISIS-related terrorism charges."
Gov. Dayton visited St. Cloud Monday and added "I implore the citizens of St. Cloud and citizens throughout Minnesota to rise above this tragic incident and to remember our common humanity, our shared citizenship and our shared desires to live together peacefully and constructively for the benefit of ourselves and our families and our communities."
The fact that the terrorist's father has lived here for 15 years but still can't speak English sets off red flags for me. If Mr. Adan shares my dedication to living as citizens of the United States, why hasn't he become proficient in using its language? It isn't like he can't learn a language in 15 years.
Frankly, I think Gov. Dayton and Mayor Hodges take a lot of things for granted that might not actually be true. Whether that's because they're firm believers in wishful thinking or whether it's because they're knowingly denying reality is almost besides the point. It's time for these high-profile DFL politicians to pull their head out of the sand and accept reality.
Finally, let's remember that Gov. Dayton isn't a fair arbiter in these fights:
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2016 1:55 AM
Comment 1 by JerryE9 at 20-Sep-16 09:10 AM
So, if some lone white guy shoots at a couple of Somali Muslims, we get to blame all white Americans, but if a lone Somali Muslim slashes a dozen people while shouting "Allahu akbar" we're all supposed to ignore everyone else with a similar background? What the heck is this ridiculous obsession with refusing to name the enemy?
Hillary's frightening ignorance
Hillary Clinton's ignorance, stupidity really, about terrorism is frightening. During a paranoid rant on the tarmac in White Plains, NY, Hillary Clinton virtually admitted that she doesn't understand what drives ISIS , saying "There are millions of law-abiding, peaceful Muslim Americans. That is why I have been very clear. We are going after the bad guys and we are going to get them, but we are not going to go after an entire religion and give ISIS exactly what it is wanting."
I would've loved it if she'd gone after the terrorists instead of letting them in via the refugee resettlement program. Mrs. Clinton, for some inexplicable reason, apparently thinks that Trump voters think that all Muslims are evil. Mrs. Clinton's proof for that doesn't exist. The truth is that Donald Trump simply said that we shouldn't admit people into our country through the State Department's refugee resettlement program if we can't vet the refugees from that country.
That's hardly a radical idea, especially in light of this IG report that states "The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) today released a report that found that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted U.S. citizenship to at least 858 individuals from special interest countries who had been ordered deported or removed under another name."
Mrs. Clinton apparently hasn't figured it out that there are multiple flaws with current refugee policy. First, we don't know who's already here. We've already seen that the federal government didn't prevent Tashfeen Malik from getting a fiance visa even though they knew she'd been radicalized.
Next, if we don't know who's here already, we certainly shouldn't let additional terrorists in through the refugee resettlement program. Mrs. Clinton wants to let in people claiming to be Syrian refugees. Let's stipulate for this discussion that they're all legitimate refugees. (They aren't but let's stipulate that.) The Crossroads Mall terrorist entered the United States as a refugee as a 5-year-old. At some point, he got radicalized.
The point is that letting 'refugees' into the US is exceptionally risky. The best decision is to not let refugees from terrorist nations into the US. The primary function of the President is to protect us. That's impossible to do when the State Department, which Mrs. Clinton ran, keeps letting potential terrorists in through the refugee resettlement program.
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2016 5:28 AM
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TakeAction Minnesota exploiting Crossroads shooting
I didn't think they'd do this but TakeAction Minnesota is doing its best to exploit the Crossroads Mall shooting for political advantage. This morning, I received an email from Justin Lewandowski. Justin says that he "was born and raised in Saint Cloud" and that he's "also a former student of Saint Cloud State" and that he's "a community organizer."
Justin wanted me to know that "What happened in Crossroads, in my community, this weekend is a tragedy. I'm hurting and so is the rest of my TakeAction team. We wish the ten victims of the attack and their families healing and strength." After that, the email gets uber-emotional fast.
For instance, Sarah Drake, a single mother, community leader and TakeAction Volunteer, said "I'm a single mother passionate about learning about others and being a bridge builder. On Sunday morning I visited a Somali Muslim owned business so they knew they had an ally in the wake of this tragedy. My daughter and I discuss the issues facing our community regularly and as a result, she was leading conversations with students at school. By letting people see my actions, they started to talk about their fears and good experience with their neighbors."
Next I heard from Sabrin, who is described as a "community leader and a "TakeAction Volunteer." Sabrin said:
Emotions are contagious, so spread positivity. A community is like marriage, through sickness and in health, to have a healthy community requires that we be strong together, speak to each other, and to move in one breath and beat. We need to come together right now, or we won't heal. We can't be afraid. Let us hold hands through our roughest times.
Both of these testimonials make some foolish assumptions. First, they're assuming that the Somali community wants to assimilate. At this point, that's a theory. It isn't a fact. If Somali refugees were interested in assimilation, why did the terrorist's father need a translator when talking to police? He's been here 18 years, which is more than enough time to learn the language.
Next, these TakeAction, aka DFL, volunteers apparently think that these refugees just need to be told that they're welcome here for them to become productive members of the St. Cloud community. I'm sure that if Sabrin and Sarah had just talked with Dahir Adan, he wouldn't have attacked those shoppers at Crossroads Saturday night.
It's pretty sick to use a terrorist attack to cozy up to voters who frequently don't share our priorities. That's what TakeAction Minnesota just did.
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2016 12:27 PM
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DFL, Dayton driving away farmers
This article makes it pretty clear that farmers aren't fond of Gov. Dayton. It isn't a stretch to think that farmers aren't happy with DFL legislators, either.
Farmers are upset with Gov. Dayton because "farmers were not happy when Dayton tried to do an end-around the legislative intent of the new buffer law and make it apply to private farmland as well as public bodies of water." As always, Gov. Dayton tried siding with the environmental activist wing of the DFL.
Gov. Dayton wasn't satisfied with just that. According to the article, Gov. Dayton "followed that with an executive order aimed at restricting the use of certain pesticides that some scientists have implicated in the decline in pollinators, such as honeybees."
Gov. Dayton still wasn't finished. According to Becker County Board Chairman Barry Nelson, "the new buffer law will also cost farmers money, because areas now enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program will no longer qualify because of state-mandated buffers."
TRANSLATION: Farmers get shafted because Gov. Dayton couldn't resist appeasing the DFL's environmental activist wing. Gov. Dayton didn't consult with the farmers though it's virtually certain that he gave the environmental activists all the time they needed to make their case for this law.
It isn't a secret that the DFL's reputation with farmers is dropping. Rep. Thissen thinks that expanding broadband in rural Minnesota is the way to attract additional voters. Apparently, Gov. Dayton thinks that farmers won't notice him siding with environmental activists. It isn't that farmers don't care about other things. It's that they care most about making money through farming.
Thus far, Gov. Dayton and Rep. Thissen haven't figured that out. That's why Republicans will hold onto their majority in the House. That's why they have a shot at flipping the Minnesota Senate.
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2016 6:46 PM
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Piers Morgan criticizes Hillary?
Saying that this election isn't like most elections is understatement on steroids. I thought I'd seen everything but I haven't. Piers Morgan's op-ed is spot on, which is something that I never thought I'd say.
Then again, I didn't think I'd hear Piers Morgan say "Yet despite this unprecedented bombardment of mainstream abuse, Trump's poll numbers keep rising and his chances of becoming President keep increasing. The reason, to me, is obvious: tens of millions of Americans just don't agree with that withering verdict. They think Trump's a fiery, flamboyant, super-rich, shoot-from-the-hip buccaneer on a mission to make America great again. They agree with him about illegal immigration, about big Government corruption, about Wall Street greed, about 'crooked' Hillary Clinton and most pertinently, about the threat of Islamic terrorism."
This is an election of opposing factions. That's indisputable in my estimation. One faction a) is complacent, b) believes in the status quo and c) thinks we're in a narrative fight with ISIS:
It's frightening to think that there's videotape proof that the White House Press Secretary actually said it's a narrative war and that we're winning that fight. What's almost as frightening is that the DC media criticized Donald Trump for calling the bomb that went off in New York City a bomb. What's almost as frightening is that they didn't post a single tweet when Mrs. Clinton also called Saturday night's attack in New York City a bombing.
The reason why people are warming up to Mr. Trump is because he isn't afraid to call a pressure cooker bomb explosion a bombing. Millennials immediately identified that pressure cooker bomb as a bomb. Then they saw Mrs. Clinton tap dance her way through her solution. I can picture millennials scratching their heads when they heard Mrs. Clinton say "We should also launch an intelligence surge to help identify and thwart attacks before they can be carried out."
Meanwhile, Trump isn't afraid to take a little heat to tell people that we can't keep importing terrorists through the State Department's refugee resettlement program. It's like the first rule of holes; if you're in one, stop digging.
We know that there are refugees here who have gotten radicalized. We know this because, in Minnesota, 3 Somali refugees were convicted of "ISIS-related terrorism charges." Another 6 Somali refugees accepted plea deals on essentially the same charges.
With acts of terrorism accelerating both internationally and here at home, it isn't surprising that people are flocking to Donald Trump. They don't agree with all of Trump's solutions but they definitely appreciate the fact that he's willing to call a terrorist attack a terrorist attack, a terrorist a terrorist and an exploded pressure cooker bomb a bombing.
This is where Morgan delivered the kill shot to Mrs. Clinton:
But what neither she nor Obama offers the American people is any kind of plan to combat such attacks. They talk of how awful it all is, but studiously avoid advocating any real action for fear of upsetting or offending people.
The President doesn't even like using the phrase 'Islamic terrorism', which is utterly absurd given that's plainly what it is. In the face of such apparently weak, insipid, mealy-mouthed and frankly meaningless rhetoric, it's hardly surprising that Trump emerges as a non-PC, no-nonsense voice of reason to many Americans.
Another way of putting it is that Americans want a leader. Mrs. Clinton isn't a leader. She's too cautious to be a leader.
The thing that's selling Trump to the American people is that he's speaking their language to them. He isn't tap-dancing his way through a politically correct word salad to not offend someone. If Trump wins, something that's still in doubt, I think it'll be because the American people chose a leader.
Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2016 4:42 AM
Comment 1 by LadyLogician at 21-Sep-16 09:10 AM
WOW - is this the same Piers Morgan that was on the Clinton News Network all those years? It can't be....
;-)
LL
Comment 2 by JerryE9 at 21-Sep-16 09:58 AM
You are correct, but Trump is a special kind of leader, the kind that finds out which way the parade is going and gets out in front of it. As Sen. Norm Coleman used to say, "a leader without followers is just a guy out for a walk." And Clinton seems to have trouble even walking, let alone in the right direction.
Dayton shafts farmers, rewards cronies
In mid-June, Gov. Dayton pocket vetoed a tax relief bill that would've provided tax relief to lots of middle-class people, which I wrote about here . The editorial I quoted got it right when it said "when Gov. Mark Dayton pocket vetoed HF 848 which would've provided significant tax relief to the citizens of Minnesota, it sort of felt like something major was lost. Gone was tax relief for veterans, gone was tax relief for small business owners, gone was a tax break for farmers, gone was a tax break for the residents of Houston County who live in Minnesota but work in Wisconsin, gone was the forgiveness of interest paid on debt on the new school building."
Gov. Dayton didn't hesitate in vetoing this tax relief for farmers, veterans, small businesses and students. There's something else that Gov. Dayton didn't hesitate in doing. Gov. Dayton didn't hesitate in paying his political appointees huge severance packages . Republicans are demanding that Gov. Dayton rescind those severance packages. Gov. Dayton, through his mouthpiece, has refused:
State law explicitly authorizes severance of up to six months' salary for senior-level state employees, who make more than 60 percent of the governor's salary, when they leave state service. We offered severances of up to three months' salary to three agency heads, as the law expressly permits. The governor made those decisions, and in his judgement the circumstances justified those severances. Gov. Pawlenty used the same statute to authorize severance payments of $73,552 for two senior-level state employees. House Republicans are desperately trying to place a fig leaf over their failure last session to pass the bills that Minnesotans really need: a correctly-written tax bill, statewide building projects, and improved highways, roads, bridges and public transit.
WCCO's Pat Kessler highlights this important difference:
MMB documents show Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty paid out $75,552 in severance checks to two state workers in 2005 who were not political appointees. One former employee, an administrative law judge, got $26,478. Another, a legislative audit manager, got $47,097.
They weren't political appointees. They were public employees with lots of time on the job. Speaking of which, "Republicans say the law allows severance only under strict conditions, one of which is 10 years of service before becoming eligible. Republicans say the law allows severance only under strict conditions, one of which is 10 years of service before becoming eligible."
The moral of this is that Gov. Dayton killed tax relief to farmers, veterans, students buried with student loan debt and small businesses without hesitation. By comparison, he's fighting hard for illegal severance packages for his political appointees. It's apparent that Gov. Dayton's priorities aren't Minnesota's priorities.
Finally, it's worth noting that the DFL legislative leaders, who spout off about all kinds of silly subjects, are silent about this. It's just more proof that the DFL isn't the party of the little guy ... unless they're government employees.
Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2016 12:26 PM
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Gov. Dayton, the DFL & cronyism
It's indisputable that Gov. Dayton fights harder for golden parachutes for his political appointees than he's fought for tax relief for farmers, veterans, students with student loan debt and small business owners . In fact, it's indisputable that Gov. Dayton and the DFL have fought hard to increase commissioners' pay .
Think about this: Gov. Dayton and the DFL passed legislation that gave Gov. Dayton's commissioners pay raises that sometimes exceeded $30,000 a year. Then Gov. Dayton illegally gave 3 of his political appointees more than $75,000 in severance packages. Katie Clark-Sieben's pay raises increased her salary by $60,000, then she received a $33,750 golden parachute when she left government to pursue other interests. Meanwhile, the DFL legislative leadership has been quiet as a mouse about the severance packages.
Thankfully, Republicans Speaker Daudt and Rep. Sarah Anderson aren't letting go of this. Speaker Daudt released this statement , saying "Once again, Governor Dayton has disrespected taxpayers and used their money to inappropriately reward his top officials who are already making six-figure salaries. Today's report highlights the importance of House Republicans' role as a check and balance on Democrats' wasteful spending." Speaker Daudt's statement also included this:
House Republicans are calling on Governor Dayton to explain unauthorized taxpayer-funded severance payments after a report emerged Tuesday that his administration awarded nearly $80,000 to state employees who voluntarily departed. The most generous severance agreement, awarded to a former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, came on the heels of massive taxpayer-funded pay increases authorized by Governor Dayton. This commissioner was previously a top staffer on Dayton's campaign for governor in 2010.
The DFL's actions are insulting on multiple levels. First, the DFL's priorities aren't Minnesota's priorities . The last time the DFL ran St. Paul, they passed a bill that paid for the $90,000,000 Senate Office Building. They passed another bill that gave $30,000 pay raises to high-profile political appointees. Those aren't priorities for many Minnesotans.
This year, Gov. Dayton apparently decided that the $30,000/yr. pay raises weren't enough for his cronies. This year, Gov. Dayton threw his cronies a $75,000 bone in the form of golden parachutes. This year, Gov. Dayton pocket vetoed a tax bill that would've provided $550,000,000 worth of tax relief for veterans, farmers, students and small businesses.
What's stunning is that the DFL won't answer questions about this :
A spokeswoman for the DFL Senate Majority said Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and Senate State Governments and Veterans Budget Division Chair Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, said the two legislators would not comment on Dayton's decision to offer severance to political appointees.
Then there's this:
It isn't clear why Sieben, Phillips and Wright were given a severance. Eight other commissioners who also left voluntarily during Dayton's time in office didn't receive severance pay .
Apparently, the trick to getting ahead in Minnesota is to make campaign contributions to Gov. Dayton's campaign, then cash in when he appoints you to a cushy job in his administration. If you're a blue collar worker, though, you're SOL with the Dayton administration. They'll only fight for certain types of white collar workers.
Keep this in mind when you go to the polls: The DFL won't fight for you if you're a blue collar worker. They'll only fight for white collar government workers and the special interests.
Posted Wednesday, September 21, 2016 4:13 PM
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