Central Minnesota Political

Rick Nolan had this in his weekly newsletter on May 14th. I believe that the President has nominated a VA Secretary since then but nothing else has changed. Tim -------------- Dear Mr. King,  After repeated campaign promises to “take care of our great, great, great Veterans,” the President has accomplished nothing at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – other than presiding over the departure of two VA Secretaries and the voluntary withdrawal of a nominee not even remotely qualified to run an agency with a $180 billion annual budget and 380,000 employees. So who’s minding the store at the VA? That’s hard to say.  The President has yet to nominate a new VA Secretary  two weeks after White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew his name from consideration. The key jobs of Undersecretary for Health, Undersecretary for Benefits, and Chief Information Officer in charge of medical records have yet to be filled. And the Washington Post is reporting that  more t...

It's been a busy week of planting here at Maple Hill Garden. As a result, there has been little time to study the news coming out of St. Paul. It did seem, however, that whenever I turned on the radio in the pick-up, as I moved  between field and house, I heard either Paul Gazelka or Kurt Daudt berating Governor Dayton for his thoughtless vetoes. In one greasy moment I heard Senator Gazelka chortling about getting the Senate's work done four minutes before the legislature was required to close. He thought it was funny! Planting is dirty work but I felt particularly soiled by Paul Gazelka in that radio moment.  I need to get back to planting but I wanted to give voice to Mark Dayton's reasoning for vetoing much of the work product of the 2018 Legislative session. I encourage you to read it. Tim ------------------ May 23, 2018 The Honorable Michelle Fischbach President ofthe Senate 2113 Minnesota Senate Building 95 University Avenue West St. Paul...

Poverty, to a large extent, is a state of mind, Ben Carson, the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said last May during an interview with Armstrong Williams on SiriusXM Radio. Because poverty is largely a state of mind, Carson was suggesting that cutting poor people’s housing assistance would help them develop a state of mind that would help pull them out of poverty. If we gave people less financial assistance and required them to go to work before giving them any assistance we could break the cycle of poverty, the Secretary was saying. Tough love was what he was proposing. Ben Carson - from Wikipedia A few weeks ago Secretary Carson put some details to his Tough Love for America’s Poor (TLAP) program. On April 24th he unveiled a legislative plan that would triple the rent for Americans on housing assistance, as well as impose work requirements for them, according to the online political newspaper The Hill.  Carson’s basic idea is the same...

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka has demonstrated a remarkable lack of leadership and inability to govern during the recent legislative session. The most recent example of his failure to lead was the passage of a tax bill that he knew was doomed due to Governor Dayton’s promise to veto it. Passing a major piece of legislation that you know will fail rather than working with the Governor to reach thoughtful compromises is an insult to Minnesotans and it further erodes our belief in government. As I write this Governor Dayton has vetoed Gazelka’s tax bill and now, with less then three days in the legislative session, the negotiators are saying they are beginning to work on compromises with Dayton. Why now? Why not earlier? Paul Gazelka via his Facebook In another remarkable failure to lead the Senate and serve Minnesotans Gazelka, along with Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt, have failed to introduce legislation required to apply for federal elections cybersecurity ...

https://www.epi.org/blog/minnesota-and-wisconsin-had-similar-job-growth-trajectories-leading-up-to-the-great-recession-and-after-it/

The legislative session ends in just two weeks, and the party in power is about to send the Governor the  biggest, all-encompassing Omnibus bill that we’ve ever seen  - that rolls back environmental protections, takes away our rights, and ignores the democratic process. They are also presenting the Governor with individual bills that favor special interest groups. Call Governor Dayton (651 201 3400) and ask him to veto the massive Omnibus bill,  SF3656 . It ignores our Constitution’s “one bill, one subject rule,” and rolls back protections for surface and ground water.  Please also ask him to veto a standalone bill that we are also tracking -  SF 3463  (the  guilty by association with pipelines bill ).  We are grateful Governor Dayton just vetoed the standalone bill  HF 3280  - the bill that nullifies the sulfate standard for wild rice waters, but the same language is also still in the current version of the Omnibus bill, SF3...

I wrote this for the Long Prairie Leader some months back. The recent actions by The Former Reality TV Star known as The Donald as regards Iran and North Korea got me thinking about it again. Perhaps you'll find it interesting. - Tim While Donald Trump was in Asia last week he called North Korea a Rogue Regime.  “The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation,” The Donald announced to the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. That may be so but, as we used to say on the playground in third grade, it takes one to know one. While Trump’s uncreative name calling was still being measured and weighed by diplomats, politicians, and pundits, Rogue State Syria became a bit less of a rogue. It signed the Paris Climate Agreement. Since Nicaragua signed on to the deal earlier this year, every nation on this small blue planet is now a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement.  The U.S. is still a s...

Imagine you’re at a public event, rally or protest. Someone you don’t know causes damage – and suddenly you face the possibility of a fine and civil liability for someone else’s actions. The Minnesota Legislature is considering right now whether Minnesotans can be guilty by association – and the bill (HF3693/SF3463) could have sweeping consequences.   Please take action today and tell Governor Dayton to veto the Guilt by Association bill! Dear Governor Dayton,  The Minnesota Legislature is considering right now whether Minnesotans can be guilty by association – and the bill (HF3693/SF3463) could have sweeping consequences.  Minnesota has a long and proud history of people coming together to exercise their rights and make their voices heard. This bill would compromise First Amendment rights of all Minnesotans with the threat of prison time or monetary liability for anybody even remotely associated with a gathering in which damage or trespass to “critical...

We are taking the week of to produce our 11th annual Cinco de mayo fiesta. Carlos Pesquera y Margarita Jimenez Cinco de mayo 2017 By Jennie Zeitler, La Voz Libre