Central Minnesota Political

By Tim King Trump was at it again last week. At a rally he based the press and journalists. Attacks on the press have been a trademark of Trump and is allies from Washington D.C. to Long Prairie the cowards, bullies, and would be dictators have attacked truth telling. To do battle with them and to banish their distortions and lies we must arm ourselves with the truth. I wrote the essay below last  summer as I reflected on the state of journalism in America. We all have a lot of work to doc to avoid falling into the abyss that Turkey, Mexico, and Russia find themselves in. -- Tim, 3/31/18 Last May 15th Javier Valdez was driving his car in his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico. Nobody knows what happened exactly but somehow another driver forced him to come to a stop. Then somebody got out of that vehicle, pulled Mr. Valdez from his car, and shot him dead. There’s no question who the killer was. It was one or the other of the drug gangs that Mr. Valdez wrote about regula...

Wouldn't it be great to see solar panels on school buildings across Minnesota!? Please take the actions described below and maybe solar panels on schools will be part of our future. This a recommended action from MN350.org. - Tim What Is It? HF 3675/SF 3129 was introduced by Jean Wagenuis. It gives $4 million for public schools to add solar to their buildings. Half of this money is set to go to the Twin Cities area and the other half to greater Minnesota. Schools may apply for up to 95% of the solar project to be funded by this bill! Minnesota State Capitol from Wikipedia The Bonding Bill The process of this bill is a little different as it would be included in the bonding bill if approved . Every two years, the Minnesota legislature constructs a bonding bill, which is used to fund state projects. Basically, people apply for state funding and if their application is approved, the project is funded by the bonding bill. ( https://tinyurl.com/jbjv7hd for more...

This is from Brian Nowak at MN350.org  http://www.mn350.org Book Clubbers, The next selection is: BRAIDING SWEETGRASS: INDIGENOUS WISDOM, SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, AND THE TEACHINGS OF PLANTS.     Robin Wall Kimmerer    Robin is Potawatomi and a botanist, and she brings these lenses of knowledge together in a book that "captures the true reverence between Native Americans and the earth, the relationship that we need in order to survive"    Sweet grass from Wikipedia This book and one other had the most "votes"  but there are other reasons as or more important for selecting this book Earth Day is April 22nd The ECO team recommended that we do books that look at the larger picture as well as focusing on solely climate change This book is a Milkweed published book which is part of our local economy We are doing important work with the native american communities in MN and honoring native traditions if important to s...

Alex Hering wins DFL Representative District 9A endorsement. On Sunday, March 25, 2018, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Representative District 9A unanimously endorsed Alex Hering for the Minnesota State House. Alex Hering Photo by  Trina Raymond, Luminous Prints Delegates of Wadena, Todd, Cass and Morrison Counties met in Browerville for the biannual Senate District 9 Convention.  House District 9A includes most of Wadena County, southwest Cass County and two-thirds of Todd County.   All 30 delegates from 9A voted, without dissent, to nominate Hering, a general contractor from Pillager, to run for the seat currently occupied by Republican John Poston of Lake Shore. At the same convention, delegates from Representative District 9B endorsed Little Falls teacher Stephen Browning. Previously, on Saturday, March 17th, in Mahnomen, delegates from Wadena County in Representative District 2B participated in the process of endorsing Karen Branden of ru...

By Tim King It seems like Senator Rand Paul is the last standing member of the Tea Party. Maybe there are one or two others but neither one of them is as courageous, principled, and just plain delightful as the junior Senator from Kentucky. Paul has been an advocate for our Constitutionally protected right to privacy for decades. So it wasn’t surprising when, in May of 2015, he stood in the Senate to begin a ten hour filibuster against National Security Agency spying on Americans by saying: “There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer,“ he said as he began his filibuster. “That time is now. And I will not let the PATRIOT Act - the most unpatriotic of acts - go unchallenged.” Rand Paul - Thanks to Wikipedia Senator Paul did not have the support of more than two or three Republicans, or the Tea Party, when he stood up to protect our privacy rights. Not much had changed when S...

My friend Alex Weego gave a short speech at the Todd County DFL County convention. Felt his remarks were profound but drowned out by the noisiness of the end of the convention. Below are the notes for that talk that Alex sent me. I think if we all worked for and followed his three points below we'd be doing well personally and we'd be better off politically. Please take them to heart. By Alex Weego I’ve learned over the years that for most folks, the last thing they  remember best is what they hear last.  I believe this 2018 election cycle  is pivotal for our national integrity, our  moral and practical values, and that it will be key to reinitiating  truth, stability and civility   at all political levels.  And just as important, it will give us the opportunity to regain our national respect and position within  the international community.   As you prepare to begin your work on this important election pleas...

Farmers Protest Unfair Crop Insurance By John King On Monday, March 12, fifty local farmers and protesters picketed the headquarters of NAU Insurance near Anoka, to protest inequities in the current Farm Bill that contribute to the disappearance of family farms and lead to soil erosion and depletion on marginal farm land.   “Crop insurance is the only Farm Bill program not subject to any limits on the amount of support any one operator can receive. It is uncapped,” said Randy Krzmarzick, who raises corn and soybeans near Sleepy Eye, Minn. “It gives the largest farm business operators access to more financial resources when renting or buying land, putting beginning farmers or small- and mid-sized diversified farms at a competitive disadvantage. We need reform.”   Crop insurance is a significant part of the Farm Bill amounting to over $9 billion in federal dollars. The 2018 bill is currently being crafted in the U.S. House of Representatives. Crop insur...

Xcel Energy and their army of lobbyists have authored and are trying to fast track a bill regarding upkeep costs at their MN nuclear plants in Monticello and Prairie Island.  Cynically they call this a Carbon reduction facility designation. Call your State Representative or Senator now. (See the fun explanatory video link below.) Here's the deal, as described by MN350.org. The problems : It gives Xcel a blank check to make a profit and recover overrun costs from their customers through 2034. Why this matters : The current estimate is $1.4 billion dollars but Xcel has a terrible track record of managing upkeep costs at their nuclear plants: Cost overruns at the Monticello plant were $400 million! Why should Xcel customers have to pay for poor management? They are attempting to bypass the normal process at the watchdog agency, the Public Utilities Commission. Why this matters: The normal process at the Public Utilities Commission, a consumer-watchdog agenc...

With Tillerson out and The Donald still standing I thought it might be good to review a political tempest from so-long-ago last summer. This originally ran in the Long Prairie Leader.----- Did Secretary of State Rex Tillerson call Donald Trump a moron in July? NBC television reported that he did and CNN says that they confirmed NBC’s reporting. When Tillerson was asked in an October 4th news conference if he used the M-word to describe the Commander in Chief, Secretary Tillerson said he didn’t want to talk about petty stuff. But shortly after Tillerson’s visit with the press, the State Department’s spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, denied that Tillerson called Trump a moron. Presumably Heather Nauert spoke with Rex Tillerson in early October and Rex was able to recall what he said ten weeks earlier. He then gave his spokeswoman permission to expose the pettiness of it all. Rex, Heather said, does not use language like that. So what’s the big deal? Since America’s chief diplomat cal...

On Monday, March 19, MN350 will be hosting their first Welcome Event via video and teleconference specifically for people living outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We'll hear from climate groups around MN and representatives from our campaign teams about the work they are doing to keep fossil fuels in the ground and move to clean energy solutions. You can register at   https://www.123formbuilder.com/form-3459464/ The basic structure is: Welcome Intro to MN350 - national organization and origin of MN chapter Past projects and successes Representatives from each "team" describe their campaigns and projects, to give everyone the chance to identify what interests them and how they might like to get involved.  Conclusion Mingle - sign up for events or to be contacted by particular teams, talk with volunteers and staff, etc.  Since you'll be attending the online event, you won't have the chance to mingle, but you will be list...

About seventy delegates and guests attended the Todd County DFL Convention in Hewitt on Sunday March 11th. One of the highlights of the well attended Convention was meeting and hearing from candidates seeking to turn Senate District 9 into the progressive district it should be. Alex Hering, a building contractor from Pillager, is working to unseat John Poston from his  District 9A seat in the Minnesota Legislature. Hering said that there were 26,000 registered voters in 9A and he estimated that about 20,000 would actually vote. Alex Hering "We need 11,000 to win," he said.  "To do that we need to unify the DFL.  We need to get  6,000 DFL voters who will work to get 3,000 more DFL voters to come out to vote. Then we need to flip 2,000 opinions to vote DFL." Hering  said that he needed a lot of help to do that. He said that some of the issues that are important to his campaign are: *We can fully fund public education, provide afforda...