September 27, 2017
Sep 27 05:02 Northern DFL's rift exposed Sep 27 05:46 What Board of Teaching accountability? Sep 27 10:21 The Democrats' 47% problem Sep 27 15:47 Trump's Wednesday victory Sep 27 19:45 NFL as tone-deaf as Hillary?
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Northern DFL's rift exposed
Ken Martin and Rick Nolan have fought hard to keep the DFL's divisions from splitting the party. Thus far, they've been successful enough. At some point, though, the floodgates won't hold. That point might be closer than we've thought.
This weekend, a "food fight" broke "out in the press and on social media between DFL factions in Duluth." The participants are "Duluth City Council President Joel Sipress" and "Justin Perpich, chair of the Eighth Congressional district DFL and former aide to Rep. Rick Nolan."
The fight likely won't last but it got nasty this weekend, with Sipress telling Perpich "Go [expletive] yourself. I mean it. I respect your right to shill for PolyMet but when you start lying about hard-working local Duluth volunteers, then we are done." Perpich responded, saying "I wanted to share this post because I wanted to call attention to aggressive online bullying and personal attacks that are being used by Sipress and other volunteers with the Duluth for Clean Water dark money political nonprofit."
The fight won't end there, though:
The disclosure quickly led to an online petition already signed by nearly 400 residents, demanding the powerful city council president resign his position and an official censure by his colleagues.
The Council President should be held to the highest of standards. Sipress's language and threatening tone does not reflect the values and the professionalism we seek from our elected leaders. Please sign this petition asking the Duluth City Council to censure Sipress as well as asking for his resignation from the Council President position.
Some Sipress supporters started defending him, saying:
Why would Perpich want to start a public feud on the mining issue that is now going to create even more division within the DFL. (Will Munger)
The whole political landscape has gotten so ugly. That being said, I'm not beneath dropping a few F bombs in order to protect the BWCA from sulphide mining. (Edna Ciurleo)
Mr. Perpich, as leader of the 8th District DFL owes us better than to start a smear campaign against a group of well meaning citizens with who he happens to disagree. It was wrong and petty and not the first time he's attempted to pick a fight over Clean Water and the PolyMet issue. (Patricia McNulty)
As always, I'll keep a watchful eye for further developments.
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 5:02 AM
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What Board of Teaching accountability?
This article highlights the lack of institutional accountability at the Minnesota Board of Teaching. The article starts by saying "Minnesota teachers accused of engaging in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior with students have not been reported to law enforcement." What's astonishing is that the Board "does not consider itself a mandated reporter of allegations of sexual or inappropriate behavior involving teachers and students."
Alex Liuzzi, the board's interim executive director, said "The specifics behind some of this conduct often may reflect unacceptable and unprofessional behavior and/or boundary violations, but do not constitute criminal conduct and law enforcement involvement. Liuzzi then added the milquetoast statement that "The Board has an obvious interest in ensuring that the teachers who have engaged in inappropriate or illegal conduct are appropriately disciplined when warranted."
Frankly, that's unacceptable. This is, too:
The state Legislature passed a law earlier this year, after the Hughes case became public, which will require the board to notify law enforcement of such allegations -- but only if it takes disciplinary action. That means the board will continue to act as a gatekeeper in which its process determines which allegations should be investigated by law enforcement. That law will go into effect next year.
Here are the people who refuse to report teachers to the proper authorities:
This should frighten parents and anger taxpayers:
The board's disciplinary process, which occurs behind closed doors, takes at least 30 days and would essentially delay criminal investigations that often depend on immediate access to evidence. Reiter says law enforcement should be notified within 24 hours. "These cases must be investigated criminally so these people can be held accountable," she said.
The law that the legislature passed sounds like it's watered down, most likely because of intense lobbying by the various teachers unions. The last thing they want is a system that guarantees accountability.
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 5:46 AM
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The Democrats' 47% problem
In 2012, Mitt Romney was criticized for his comments about the 47% of Americans that don't pay any taxes. What Mitt said was "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48 - he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax."
Immediately, Mitt was accused of not being in touch with America. As a result, President Obama won re-election. This election, Democrats lost because they had their own 47% moment, which Josh Kraushaar explains in this article . In the article, he wrote that "In her campaign tell-all, Clinton sounds like a full-fledged member of the progressive #resistance, content to blame all of her campaign's woes on sexism, media bias, James Comey, and Russian interference. But she never fully grapples with the biggest problem that crippled her campaign, and which continues to dog her party: the Democrats' growing cultural disconnect from the rest of the country. Clinton's decision to call Trump backers deplorable was one of her campaign's low points. But the problem runs much deeper within her party. Progressives now instinctively label pro-Trump conservatives as 'white supremacists,' a slur that paints nearly half the country with a racist brush."
The Democrats' problem persists. They still sound as out-of-touch as Hillary did. They still hate blue collar America as much as she did. Another of Hillary's campaign low spots happened in coal country when she insisted that her administration would put lots of coal companies out of business:
Democrats think that they're riding a wave of popularity on the NFL/National Anthem fiasco. This paragraph shows how out of touch they are and how far they've drifted:
For a sign of how far to the left Democrats have drifted on culture, just look at the last major anthem protest to sweep up a sports league. In 1996, Nuggets star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the national anthem, calling the American flag a symbol of tyranny. He was promptly suspended for a game and fined by the NBA. There was no uproar in favor of his right to protest, even in a league where most players were African-American. Condemnation of Abdul-Rauf's action ran across the political spectrum. Then-commissioner David Stern later mandated players stand in a dignified manner when the anthem was played - a wholly uncontroversial decision.
Democrats in East Coast newsrooms treat Christians like aliens from another planet. They wouldn't know how to talk with Christians if their life depended on it.
Until they fix their culture wars problem, they should get used to looking in from the outside.
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 10:21 AM
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Trump's Wednesday victory
Based on Katie Pavlich's reporting , President Trump is on the verge of his first legislative victory. According to Ms. Pavlich's article, the House Freedom Caucus issued a statement on President Trump's proposed tax reform plan, saying "President Trump has delivered a forward looking tax reform framework that will let hard working Americans keep more of their money, simplify our system, end carve outs for special interests, and will help make our businesses competitive abroad. The Freedom Caucus looks forward to sending a final bill based on this framework to President Trump's desk as soon as possible."
Though tax cutters like Art Laffer will be somewhat disappointed with some provisions, it's difficult seeing him unhappy with the package. According to Ms. Pavlich, the package will include a "small business tax rate" of 25%, "the lowest in America since the 1930s." Also, the "corporate tax rate will be decreased from 35 percent to 20 percent." That's just the start of President Trump's framework. According to the article, President Trump's proposal will also include an expanded child tax credit. The bill will also rewrite "tax regulations so Americans can complete their taxes on a single page" and will eliminate "double taxes, including the death tax." Finally, charitable deductions won't change; neither will the mortgage deductions.
Having the Freedom Caucus on board from the start is a big thing. Paul Ryan's and Kevin Brady's job just got better thanks to that announcement. The bottleneck for this legislation is in the Senate, where Democrats might try killing the bill. If Democrats are stupid enough to fight against a major middle class tax cut in an election year, I'd recommend that Republicans use the Democrats' obstructionist tactics against them in the 2018 midterms.
Here's President Trump's speech in its entirety:
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 3:47 PM
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NFL as tone-deaf as Hillary?
Steve Hayward's post , titled "You will be made to conform", offers an insight into why Alejandro Villanueva apologized for doing the right thing. After the Steelers had a players-only meeting to decide whether they'd stay in the locker room during the playing of the National Anthem, Villanueva walked out of the players tunnel and stood at attention. By the time the day was over, Villanueva's jersey was the hottest-selling jersey on the market. People bought his jerseys because they essentially said with their jersey purchases that they approved of Villanueva's decision.
Later, though, Villanueva apologized. In his post, Hayward highlights the fact that Coach Tomlin hosted a fundraiser for Hillary. It's Coach Tomlin's right to host a fundraiser for Hillary just like it's his players right to take a knee on the sideline during the National Anthem (as long as they have their owner's permission.)
What's frustrating is that Coach Tomlin spoke out after the game, saying that he was hoping "for 100% participation" in whatever they decided. That's a not-so-subtle hint to Villanueva that he was disappointed with Villanueva's decision. Coach Tomlin's coaching skills are considerable. Unfortunately, they vastly surpass his patriotism.
There. I questioned a black coach's patriotism. Does that make me a bigot or racist? I'm neither of those things and I'm perfectly willing to defend my positions in a debate. Steelers team owner Art Rooney II stepped into the fight , saying "I want to reach out to you, the members of Steelers Nation, based on what I believe is a misperception about our players' intentions in not taking the field for the National Anthem in Chicago. The intentions of Steelers players were to stay out of the business of making political statements by not taking the field. Unfortunately, that was interpreted as a boycott of the anthem - which was never our players' intention."
What foolishness. I don't buy that for a split second. Mr. Rooney could've settled it by simply ordering his players to stand respectfully on the sideline during the playing of the National Anthem. That would've ended any accusations that the Steelers' players were playing politics. While the NFL, supposedly the gold standard for professional sports, has difficulty getting their act together, the Lingerie Football League understands what's at stake. They issued this statement on whether their players would kneel or stand for the National Anthem:
The LFL recognizes everyone's First Amendment right to protest, but our nation's flag and anthem are far too sacred. Too many fellow Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice, so that our flag and anthem continue in all its majesty.
The NFL has suffered one PR misstep after another the past 3 years, starting with the Ray Rice fiasco. Meanwhile, the Lingerie Football League figured things out immediately. They didn't need a do-over. They didn't need to get yelled at for not figuring things out. They put out a statement and got it right the first time.
Apparently, the NFL is as tone-deaf as Hillary Clinton. That should frighten NFL owners.
Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2017 7:45 PM
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