Good for law enforcement. Everyone should be excited about this new approach to educate the public on distracted driving laws. Hopefully it will move the needle.
Our son is one year from driver’s education. He is attached to his device. My wife and I are very mindful of the example we set for our children. If only more people were. People like the House Chair of the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance, Rep. Tony Cornish (R) District 23B.
Cornish forwarded bills from his committee that increase penalties for distracted driving. His son is a State Trooper and Rep. Tony Cornish frequently cites his own experience in law enforcement.
However, I find it troubling that Rep. Cornish can’t refrain from posting on Facebook while he is behind the wheel. Three of these images are from his personal FB page.
• On April 17, Rep. Cornish documented himself on a highway overpass handing a homeless man a dollar. • On April 8, Rep. Cornish posted an image on FB while waiting for a stop light in Rosemont, MN. • On March 11, Rep. Cornish posted an image on FB while driving to a casino in Hinckley, MN.
Am I alone here or is Rep. Cornish breaking the law he helps to create?
He notes that he'd pitched these images to the media before coming to Bluestem but got little interest. We're posting because we'd wondered about Cornish's posts to Facebook over a year earlier.
Bluestem loves to read State Representative Tony Cornish's Facebook page, with its lively discourse about life and politics. . . .
But the photo from his page that we've screengrabbed and posted above caused us to pause. Not because Cornish (R-Vernon Center) declares that the woman is in need of prayer (isn't eveyone?) or the comments about the bumpersticker, but that the photo was taken while someone--presumably the state representative, a retired lawman who serves as the chairman of the Minnesota House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee--while driving.
We can't say with any certainty that the photo was posted to Facebook while the driver-photographer was still driving. Bluestem believes that he must have waited to post the image and the prayer request after he arrived at his destination.
For purposes of this section, "electronic message" means a self-contained piece of digital communication that is designed or intended to be transmitted between physical devices. An electronic message includes, but is not limited to, e-mail, a text message, an instant message, a command or request to access a World Wide Web page, or other data that uses a commonly recognized electronic communications protocol. An electronic message does not include voice or other data transmitted as a result of making a phone call, or data transmitted automatically by a wireless communications device without direct initiation by a person.
Subd. 2.Prohibition on use.
No person may operate a motor vehicle while using a wireless communications device to compose, read, or send an electronic message, when the vehicle is in motion or a part of traffic.
This section does not apply if a wireless communications device is used:
(1) solely in a voice-activated or other hands-free mode;
(2) for making a cellular phone call;
(3) for obtaining emergency assistance to (i) report a traffic accident, medical emergency, or serious traffic hazard, or (ii) prevent a crime about to be committed;
(4) in the reasonable belief that a person's life or safety is in immediate danger; or
(5) in an authorized emergency vehicle while in the performance of official duties.
Given the different angles in the four photos above (which suggest the device isn't hands-free), it's looking more and more as if the Chair of the Minnesota Public Safety Committee is indeed playing with social media while driving.
He should knock that off--even the appearance of flouting the law.
Photos: Screenshot from Cornish's Facebook page.
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The Republican Seniors of Minnesota host representatives of the organization, ACT! For America on Tuesday, April 5 at the Richfield American Legion, 6501 Portland Avenue.
Debbie Anderson and Clare Lopez will make a presentation on Islam, Shariah and jihad. Also appearing will be candidate for state senate in District 51, Victor Lake, who will tell his story of immigrating from Soviet Uzbekistan.
Republican Seniors is a long-established group of Republicans aged 50-plus.
****DEBBIE ANDERSON and CLARE LOPEZ are representing ‘ACT! For America’, an American political organization founded in 2007 working to build a nationwide volunteer chapter network that trains citizens to recognize and help prevent criminal activity and terrorism in the United States while preserving civil liberties protected by the U.S. Constitution. They have over 300,000 members and 890 chapters. Their topic will be: “What is Islam, Shariah, Jihad and How They May Affect Minnesota”. [bold in original]
Given the effort of Republican State Chair Kenneth Downey and other Republican to make the Republican Party a more inclusive organization, we're surprised to learn of this program--and the presence of a Republican candidate on the bill. The Minnesota Republican Seniors is an official affiliate of the Republican Party of Minnesota
In the radio interview, Lopez told Ochsner that she had spoken earlier in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. But that's not all she said.
Clare Lopez, the vice president of the Center for Security Policy and a national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, told a Minnesota radio program yesterday that parts of Minneapolis have become “no-go zones” where the police “don’t go” and are letting Sharia law take hold.
Lopez, speaking on the “Ox in the Afternoon” program about supposed “no-go zones” in Europe, said that “we’ve got them in America, at least in the beginning stages.”
“In Minneapolis, for example, places where the police don’t go because they know they’ll be attacked, have been attacked in the past already, and places where the police know that Sharia is being practiced,” she said.
Last year, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins similarly claimed that neighborhoods in Minneapolis had become “no-go zones” where authorities had allowed Sharia to become the law of the land. This prompted Rep. Keith Ellison, who represents parts of Minneapolis, to invite Perkins to tour the city and see for himself. Perkins is now a prominent supporter of Cruz.
“No-go zones, well we’ve got them in America, in the beginning stages,” said Lopez during her appearance on “Ox in the Afternoon,” a radio program. “In Minneapolis, for example. Places where the police don’t go because they know they’ll be attacked, have been attacked in the past already, and places where the police know that Sharia is being practiced.”
Minneapolis begs to differ.
“This is Islamophobia, pure and simple. Of course, our police serve every part of the city. There is no part of our Minneapolis that the police, residents, and visitors should avoid,” said Mayor Betsy Hodges to The National Memo in response to the claims.
Radio host Ochsner ran for Minnesota State Senate in a special election in 2005; he was defeated by DFLer Tarryl Clark. Although his guests may tend to be conservatives, the leadership of St. Cloud's #UniteCloud are often guests as well.
Bluestem Prairie was unable to determine which venue or organization hosted Lopez's appearance in Grand Rapids, MN.
Photo: Clare Lopez, via YouTube.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie's posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or use the paypal button below:
Kresha said he had issued a statement criticizing earlier BLM protests, but the statement had been ignored.
"When Black Lives Matter started protesting at the Mall of America, and they tried to shut down the airport, I immediately put out a statement that said, 'Get that group into the homes of North Minneapolis, where you have no fathers, where you have drug abuse,'" he recalled. "'That's where they should be protesting.'"
We have contacted Representative Kresha and a member of the House Republican communications staff to see if there was another statement that we haven't been able to find. We will update this post if something emerges.
Kresha did send out a press release that day, but it concerned REAL ID, rural broadband, early childhood education, as well as wishing readers a Merry Christmas. Black Lives Matter and the protests at the Mall of America and the airport were not mentioned.
We did find a cluster of December 23 tweets by Ron Kresha which advised Black Lives Matter protestors to volunteer at shelters and churches, visit the elderly elderly in their homes, and to shop as a form of economic development.
Hey, BLM organizers, today is a great day to work at shelters, volunteer at a church, or visit elderly at homes. #ChangeTheWorld
In light of Rayann Hayes' various statements to law enforcement and to WCCO that she was not his girlfriend and that there was no domestic assault (as well as the 911 call that stated there as no emergency), Kresha is looking a bit judgmental about a dead man.
Whatever the case, little online resembles the lecturing about fatherless homes and drug abuse that Kresha painted to the Republican delegates on Saturday. Bluestem suspects that he was caught in a special moment with the base and felt the need to embellish his tweeted with negative stereotypes of black communities. He could have stuck with the more neutral suggestion about volunteering.
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As a constituent of state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, we're used to watching our fearless leader undergo 180-degree shifts in where he stands on policy.
Healthy and sustainable job growth resides in the private sector. Government is not capable of anything more than short term jobs because their [sic] is no incentive for profit...and therefore growth.
While overall crime is down, Minnesota is incarcerating a record number of people. This has led to prisoners being housed in local jails – giving rise to safety concerns for both staff and prisoners – has adversely impacted the Department of Corrections ability to provide adequate rehabilitative services to inmates, and is creating a significant financial burden on the state. Sen. Latz’s proposal contains several pieces of legislation that addresses these concerns. They include:
Fund the governor’s bonding request to increase the Challenge Incarceration Program at MCF-Togo and MCF Willow River.
Funding to increase capacity at MCF Lino Lakes and require that those beds be dedicated to mental health and chemical dependency (CD) treatment.
Appropriate money to expand the EMPLOY program which helps released offenders find employment.
Appropriate money for increased mental health and CD treatment services.
Appropriate money for re-entry programs that link offenders with services in the community to help them successfully rejoin their families and communities.
Take no legislative action on the proposed Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission changes to the sentencing grid in order to allow the changes to take effect.
Senator Latz said the reform package will move Minnesota toward national sentencing norms while better using our corrections system to rehabilitate our fellow citizens and still maintaining public safety. . . .
By last week, Representative Miller had experienced a change of heart, which he expressed in the most sincerest of words and facial expressions during an interview for a feature about the prison issue that was aired on TPT Almanac in the March 25, 2016 episode. The feature begins here at the 16:37 point and ends at 22:30 (TPT no longer supplies embed code since its site was redesigned, or we'd embed the entire clip).
Some of Miller's statements:
LaHammer: Did you know what you were getting into with this bill?
Miller: I believe that I did. . . .Even when I was campaigning, I said that this was a need and an opportunity out there, and so I campaigned, I said I'm going to help get the Appleton prison open again...
Is there potential for people to be wrongly accused and therefore wrongly and therefore in prison for the wrong reason? Does that happen? I believe so, but I believe the penal system in the United States is among the best in the world.
Do we need to look at sentencing reform? I'm all for it. Having people in for a little bit too long for the lesser offenses . . .
Then, after some footage of the hearing, the clip cuts back to an interview with Miller:
It's difficult to express this when I'm saying, "Open the Prison," but I want them to know that I do understand quite a bit, I don't quite understand, I appreciate that, but I understand their pain, their angst, and this disparity of African-Americans in the prison system I think is reflective of our society that we have a problem. And I want to be able to fix those things.
How crazy is that? We will be keeping an eye out for Miller's name on the House companion bills to the senate bills related to Latz's reforms.
Miller: Dayton equity programs are ACORN's handiwork
Unfortunately, Miller isn't convinced of measures that might address the other problems of racial disparities that are "reflective of our society." We're guessing that Mary LaHammer interviewed Representative Miller about the bill before the House broke for the Easter holiday.
By Good Friday, Miller was dissing items designed to address those larger racial disparities in the Governor's supplemental budget, sharing an Alpha News article while evoking the long shadow of the six-year dead group ACORN. Miller wrote this headnote on his Facebook wall:
We have not seen a plan to this point and have no idea what he intends to spend the money on. Don't be fooled by statements like "existing community programs". No one says they are effective or true to any proven efforts. Think ACORN.
The copy in the story from the conservative news service doesn't support that summary. The unsigned article reports:
Racial equity is a hot button issue being pushed by Black Lives Matter, Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, and Minneapolis NAACP among others, but according to these groups change has not been achieved. The Star Tribune reports that each of these groups were able to voice their concerns to Dayton in the months leading up to the release of his proposed supplemental budget.
Included in Dayton’s proposal is funding for the Department of Human Rights, a statewide agency that addresses racial discrimination, workforce training, capital infusions to help businesses, and “equity and opportunity” grants. Of the proposed $100 million to be spent on equity programs, roughly $33 million would be at the discretion of the legislature. A clear depiction of Dayton’s proposed method of allocating funds can be seen below (numbers in the millions).
Would Representative Miller have evoked the name of ACORN to the people who appeared at last Tuesday's hearing to call out of turn about the injustice they perceive not just in re-opening the prison, but in spending money to lock people up rather than address disparities?
He certainly seems awfully compassionate when interviewed for public television it's likely that Mary LaHammer brings out the best in people. But on social media? Not so much.
Perhaps the groups who visited with the governor could make an appointment for an office visit with Representative Miller to explore his new-found interests in criminal justice reform and racial disparities.
Almanac: supporters "drove hours;" Appleton Option's bus did the driving
LaHammer reported that supporters from Appleton "drove hours" last week. That's not particularly accurate, since nearly all rode into town on a free bus, and received a free lunch as well. We see nothing wrong with the practice, though it should not be spun as individuals driving.
The photo above is from the pro-prison Appleton Option page post,We are on our way, so perhaps Alamanac's pity party might be toned down just a tad.
Moreover, whenever progressives bring in bus loads of people, we hear about employees of unions, non-profits and such being bused in. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
Photos: Still of Miller on Almanac (above); screengrab of Miller's "ACORN" post (middle); The Appleton Option's motor coach to last Tuesday's hearings.
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Why isn't Governor Dayton and his agencies talking about this? Water quality is actually improving, as many of us know. Read out state MPCA report here.
When the clean water evidence is different than the narrative those on the LEFT are projecting, they simply ignore the evidence and push for tougher standards.
The screenshot:
While Drakowski's friend and the former state senator deliver confident answers about the Dayton administration's motives, a quick review of the MPCA's website exposes a far different answer to Drazkowski's question.
Truth is, the agency is "talking about" the report. It's Drazkowski who's presented it out of context, as an orphaned document collecting cyberdust somewhere on the MPCA's website.
Minnesota’s water has come a long way from the days when raw sewage flowed untreated into rivers as a matter of course. However, there is still a lot of work to be done if we are going to restore the impaired lakes, rivers, and streams in the state. Land use is a major factor in our current water quality problems — agricultural drainage, urban and rural runoff, and erosion caused by removing vegetation from shorelines. It's not just the regulated facilities like wastewater treatment plants that need to do more, it's all of us — the citizens.
In general, Minnesota streams in the northeast part of the state are in better condition than elsewhere. Stream conditions — including the condition of fish and other organisms, and levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants — worsen as you move west and south in the state. The changes correspond to the type and intensity of land use in each ecoregion, due to the differences in soils, climate, and other factors.
Overall conditions
Good progress has been made — mostly through improved wastewater treatment by cities and businesses — in reducing the levels of several pollutants in Minnesota waterways, including phosphorus, ammonia, and bacteria.
The amount of organic matter — primarily sediment and algae — in the water has been reduced overall, which helps keep oxygen in the water at healthy levels.
Nitrogen is the key, high-volume pollutant in state rivers and streams and has been increasing over time. Chloride concentrations are also rising.
Current regulations and voluntary best management practices will not be sufficient to maintain healthy rivers and streams and shield impaired ones from additional pollution. Even if all existing laws were followed to the letter, waterways would still be subject to unacceptable levels of nutrients and other contaminants. Targeted action will be required to cut off unregulated sources of pollution.
Long-term trend analysis of seven different water pollutants measured at 80 locations across Minnesota for more than 30 years shows consistent reductions in five pollutants, but consistent increases in two pollutants. Concentrations of total suspended solids, phosphorus, ammonia, biochemical oxygen demand, and bacteria have significantly decreased, but nitrate and chloride concentrations have risen, according to data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) “Milestone” monitoring network. Recent, shorter-term trends are consistent with this pattern, but are less pronounced. Pollutant concentrations show distinct regional differences, with a general pattern across the state of lower levels in the northeast to higher levels in the southwest.
These trends reflect both the successes of cleaning up municipal and industrial pollutant discharges during this period, and the continuing challenge of controlling the more diffuse “nonpoint” polluted runoff sources and the impacts of increased water volumes from artificial drainage practices.
The report itself is linked on the bottom of this page, under the section title: Dive deeper: a more in-depth look at our rivers and streams. The agency is sharing this report. Indeed, it's used as the foundational document for "the bottom line on rivers and streams."
Moreover, the Environmental Quality Board's Beyond the Status Quo: 2015 EQB Water Policy Report focused one section on approaches to reducing chloride, one of the two pollutants that the 2014 report found to be increasing. At the Governor's Water Summit, much of the discussion about rural water quality centered around nitrates/nitrogen pollution in groundwater, as well as rivers and streams.
But there's more. The report notes that its data set ends at 2010, since a new framework for measuring water quality has been adopted following the approval by Minnesota voters of more tax dollars dedicated to water quality (among other things):
The Minnesota Milestone sites are a collection of 80 monitoring locations at rivers and streams across the state with good, long-term water quality data. The period of record is generally more than 30 years, through 2010, with monitoring at some sites going back to the 1950s.While the Milestone sites are not necessarily representative of Minnesota’s rivers and streams as a whole, they do provide a valuable and wide-spread historical record for many of the state’s waters.
Monitoring was done by MPCA staff for a standard set of key pollutants on a regular basis, usually monthly for 9 to 10 months of the year. Generally, sites were sampled each year through the mid-1990s, at which time the sampling frequency was reduced to two out of every five years on a rotating basis. In some cases and when appropriate for this report, data from the Milestone sites has been supplemented with data collected at the sites through other monitoring efforts. All water quality data is stored in the Environmental Quality Information System (EQuIS).
In 2010 the Minnesota Milestone program was superseded by the Minnesota Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network, which will be used to evaluate water quality trends in the future. This new network has more than twice as many monitoring sites, much more frequent monitoring, and includes streamflow to document not only the concentration of pollutants, but also pollutant loads, flow weighted mean pollutant concentrations, and watershed pollutant yields.
Establishment of basin and major watershed monitoring sites within the network began in 2007 following the passage of Minnesota’s Clean Water Legacy Act with subsequent funding from the Clean Water Fund of the Minnesota Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. Establishment of subwatershed monitoring sites began in 2011 with all sites scheduled to be operational by 2015.
Moreover, the watershed approach led to the addition of data from lakes, while the earlier report only gathered information from "80 monitoring locations at rivers and streams across the state with good, long-term water quality data," the new report included water quality data from lakes. The "swimmable" part of the report summary notes:
How are our watersheds? Water quality is a reflection of what happens on the surrounding land. So far, MPCA's monitoring and assessment work highlights the following themes:
In watersheds dominated by agricultural and urban land, half or fewer of the lakes fully support the standard for swimming because of phosphorus. Excess phosphorus is the main driver of harmful algae in lakes.
Watersheds that are heavily farmed tend to have high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids in their waters. These pollutants hurt aquatic life and recreational opportunities.
Bacteria levels in streams are also a problem. Watersheds where fewer than half the streams fully support swimming because of bacteria levels are generally in areas with a higher density of people and livestock – the developed and agricultural portions of the state.
More lakes fully support the swimming standard in the more forested and wetland-rich areas of north-central and northern Minnesota. The same goes for streams in areas with lower populations and little animal agriculture.
The general pattern is that water quality is exceptionally good in the northeast part of the state and declines moving toward the southwest
It's worth remembering that report Draz imagines isn't part of the Governor and agencies' discussion (in reality, it is) noted that measured phosphorus levels dropped in the rivers and streams measured at the Minnesota Milestone sites because of stricter discharge standards for "point" pollution at wastewater facilities. Additionally, legislation Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, introduced and passed in 2005, banned the use fertilizers containing phosphorus for lawns by Minnesota homeowners excerpt under certain circumstances.
Remember, the earlier Minnesota Milestone sites monitoring also found nitrate pollution to be rising--and this comes from "non-point" sources like agricultural uses.
The broader framework allowed by the new system--brought about by a statewide popular--didn't result in a contradiction of the earlier data examined in the earlier report. Instead, the reports are complementary. Perhaps that's why Dayton's administration uses both of them at the MPCA. Draz and Al must have thought they had one heckova talking point there. Nope.
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It's a revealing look at the material Erickson presents via social media, but doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's observed the internal politics of Minnesota's Second District Republicans in this half-decade.
Here's Dan Feidt's March 30, 2015 Youtube post, Matt Erickson drops F Bomb at GOP freakout caucus: Andy Kaufman team wins big, which was accompanied by the caption, "Spunky younger Republican offends older ones by dropping the F Bomb. Lulz ensues! This was at St. Croix Lutheran School - no hot dish for pottymouths."
The Texas-based Brett Sanders blog includes a partial transcript in Young Republican Goes off on GOP Establishment: ‘I’m F*cking Tired of It’:
A young republican recently took to the podium at the 2nd Congressional District Convention of Minnesota and delivered a passionate campaign speech that is sure to upset the ‘go along to get along’ Republican crowd.
Matt Erickson, who is known to challenge his own party, spent the majority of his speech for treasurer calling out the ‘republicans’ in his state that participate in crony capitalism with billionaires to build sports stadiums, or vote to implement the largest expansion of socialized medicine since the new deal, medicare part D. As the speech went on you could feel the frustration start to boil over and he eventually dropped the F’ Bomb.
…that’s Bush’s program, that was republicans massively socializing prescription drugs. And you know what? I’m getting damn sick of this, I’m fucking tired of this!
One crusty republican really took offense to the curse word and can seen standing up yelling, “clean up your language or get out of here.”
Erickson quickly responds by asking the crowd, “you think that word is obscene? Do you want to know what is obscene to me? What is obscene is shackling our children with 18 trillion dollars with debt!”
The old man responds in sort of a threatening way, “You get rid of the obscene language!” and Erickson responds just seconds before they cut his mic and escort him off stage…
You get rid of these obscene republicans. I’m a real republican.
Erickson called out state representatives Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, and Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, in the speech, which Garofalo duly tweeted:
Heard I got trashed from the stage at #CD2 - I'm old school. On Monday I challenge my adversary to a duel. #GoingAllAaronBurr
Hats off to Erickson for controlling his discourse on TPT Almanac. Nonetheless, we look forward to a lively CD2 Republican convention..
Photo:Screengrab of Erickson's Facebook response to the City Pages article. Erickson's friends engage in a lively discussion, including this observation about Erickson's political career:
Brian MazurThis story as I understand it, is testament to the American dream still being alive. A person can start a facebook page, get on television to talk about their beliefs and get even more media coverage. As opposed to being "handpicked" by a national campaign.
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Perhaps more importantly, the newly-formed independent expenditure political commitee illustrates how how associations with joint private and public membership work not only to promote policy, but to "elevate" issues to candidates and voters and to spend money to support candidates for offices.
In some ways, the AgriGrowth Council's three-pronged strategic campaign to elect candidates friendly to its policy agenda could be the poster child for the DISCLOSE Act, an effort to put an amendment to the Minnesota state constitution before the voters.
The 2015 History has shown us that state election results directly impact the future of food and agriculture in our state. With all 201 Minnesota legislators up for re-election in 2016, AgriGrowth will work to ensure that the voice of our industry is heard by candidates and voters. We will be involved again with the “A Greater Minnesota” Coalition to elevate issues important to Minnesota’s agriculture and food sector. AgriGrowth will also be forming a new independent expenditure political committee to help amplify our ability to support pro-food and ag candidates for offices (page2).
We look forward to learning which candidates might be considered anti-food, as we have yet to meet one.
Since 1968, AgriGrowth Council has been representing members from all areas of Minnesota’s food systems and agricultural sectors. In its role as an advocate, convener and trusted information source, AgriGrowth brings together its members for the purpose of engaging in safe and solution-oriented conversations, aimed at finding common-ground.
As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, AgriGrowth often serves as a sounding board, idea generator and asks the tough questions necessary for moving the food and ag sector and Minnesota forward.
The AgriGrowth Council is a registered association with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board; Aasness and Cory Bennett are registered lobbyists for the association. Bennett also serves other registered associations.
We contacted Aasness by phone and email for this post. In addition to serving as executive director and registered lobbyist for the AgriGrowth Council, he's the chair of the new independent expenditure political committee. Here's his emailed response (quotes in original):
"2016 will be an important election year in Minnesota, with all 201 legislative seats up for election. AgriGrowth believes it's important to engage in efforts that help support the competitiveness and growth of Minnesota's diverse agriculture sector. One of the ways we do so is to help elect pro-ag candidates to the state legislature. As we did during the last election, AgriGrowth will be working with other organizations on these efforts. In addition, AgriGrowth has expanded its ability to participate in elections by forming an independent expenditure political committee called the AgFood Alliance. This entity is meant to complement AgriGrowth’s current efforts to help support and elect pro-agriculture legislators."
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (CFB) also responded to our questions. According responses by CFB director Gary Goldsmith to email queries, the new IE political committee isn't part of the registered association.
If the AgriGrowth Council wished to attach its good name directly to a contribution, it would have to have to form a political fund (as would any other registered association). Goldsmith writes:
The new organization is organized as an independent expenditure political committee. Being a political committee means that the association operates as an entity separate from any affiliated or supporting association. Technically, a political committee is a group of people, not part of some other association. . . . some people – maybe closely affiliated with another association, got together and formed a political committee. A political committee is never formed by an association. If an existing association wants to use its money to engage in campaign spending, it would register a political fund account. In that case, the account is part of the overall association and the political fund is formed by the association.
So when the 2015 Annual Report of the Agrigrowth Council states, "AgriGrowth will also be forming a new independent expenditure political committee to help amplify our ability to support pro-food and ag candidates for office," don't believe it.
Or when the executive director writes, "AgriGrowth has expanded its ability to participate in elections by forming an independent expenditure political committee called the AgFood Alliance. This entity is meant to complement AgriGrowth’s current efforts to help support and elect pro-agriculture legislators[,]" don't believe him either.
That's against the rules.
We asked "Under what circumstances can it [the AgFood Alliance' give campaign contributions to elected state officials?" Goldsmith responded:
Since this association is registered as an independent expenditure political committee it may not contribute to candidates, to party units, or to general purpose political committees or funds.
At least we won't have to follow the money, as it's not supposed to go anywhere beyond independent expenditures. But there are other vexing ethical questions here.
The one about AgriGrowth Council's public and foreign members
Membership in the AgriGrowth Council's Board of Directors includes a member of the governor's cabinet and the dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at University of Minnesota.
What is the relationship between public employees, a public agency and centers at public universities and Agri-Growth Council related independent expenditure political committee to support (and possibly oppose) candidates for office?
Will the public centers and public employees recuse themselves from any involvement with the independent expenditure political committee? Will there be a firewall so that no public dollars find their way into the AgFood Alliance coffers? Is there a mean to avoid in-kind contributions of public employees' time?
What will happen if the Agri-Growth Council's independent expenditure political committee supports candidates opposed to the Dayton administration's policy--say the buffer law?
With these sorts of question in mind, asked Goldsmith additional questions via email. Are there any limitations on the government and public higher education members in contributing to the [independent expenditure political committee] ?
Goldsmith: There are no campaign finance limits under Chapter 10A. However, other statutes not under the Board’s jurisdiction may limit the use of government or public education money. Since any such laws would not be under the Board’s jurisdiction, I have never examined whether any exist.
Can a foreign government agency contribute to [an independent expenditure political committee] ?
Goldsmith:No since any political committee or fund is for the purpose of influencing elections, foreign governments and foreign nationals cannot contribute – this is a federal law prohibition
Will that be a problem? Only if that member gives money to the independent expenditure political committee called the AgFood Alliance, which legally was not formed by the AgriGrowth Council, whatever it tells its members in its annual report or to us in emails.
We're still trying to establish if there are laws preventing Minnesota state agencies and centers at public universities from contributing to political committees making independent expenditure to support or oppose legislators who vote on their budgets and shape policy.
While this practice might turn out to be legal, we suspect that it won't pass the average citizen's smell test, just as the legal fiction that independent expenditure political committee wasn't formed by the group that's claiming to form it was part of a three-part strategic plan.
A Greater Minnesota or http://www.farmandfoodmn.org/
Aasness' email alludes to an effort to elect candidates in 2014 that share the AgriGrowth Council's vision of what favoring agriculture and food means:
One of the ways we do so is to help elect pro-ag candidates to the state legislature. As we did during the last election, AgriGrowth will be working with other organizations on these efforts.
As we noted in the beginning of this post, the Annual Report is specific about this endeavor:
AgriGrowth will work to ensure that the voice of our industry is heard by candidates and voters. We will be involved again with the “A Greater Minnesota” Coalition to elevate issues important to Minnesota’s agriculture and food sector.
So what is "A Greater Minnesota"? We live out in it, in sunny Maynard, but on July 28, 2014, AgriNews reported in Minn. farm coalition creates 5-point pledge for state legislators that the AgriGrowth Council, Minnesota Pork Producers Association, the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota and the Minnesota Milk Producers Association had a different definition:
A new coalition of Minnesota food and farm groups is asking state legislative candidates to pledge their support for agriculture.
The coalition, known as A Greater Minnesota, developed its five-point Minnesota Farm and Food Pledge. The goal is raising awareness, particularly among legislative candidates, of farming, food production and their economic impact in the state, coalition officials say.
This effort slipped completely under anycampaign finance or lobbying reporting. According to Goldsmith and the records online, "A Greater Minnesota" didn't register as an association nor as any sort of political committee.
In an email, Goldsmith explained the campaign end of the situation:
Since it avoids the “magic words” like vote for, vote against, etc, it’s not an independent expenditure. Even though they got the pledge from the candidates, there is no Board authority on whether that would be the kind of cooperation necessary to make the publication a contribution. With a narrow definition of independent expenditure in Minnesota (and everything that falls outside the definition excluded), it’s easy for organizations to avoid the campaign finance system in Minnesota.
The argument would be that this communication is for the purpose of convincing candidates to support the association’s legislation and to thank those that have pleged to do so, thus ensuring legislative success. That puts it outside the campaign finance system. Sort of like “call Senator ----- and thank her for taking the AGM pledge to protect Minnesota’s family farmers
Short skinny? There's absolutely no transparency for voters or candidates about who is funding this effort. We know who is sponsoring the drive, but there's no disclosure about the source of the money.
While the new independent expenditure political committee maintains the legal illusion that it's not part of the Agri-Growth Council, the AgFood Alliance will eventually disclose its spending, we won't see that from "A Greater Minnesota."
The 2014 pledge
So what are candidates for office supposed to pledge? (And will the independent expenditures--whether direct mail, phone banking, paid media--mention this pledge?)
Under Candidate Spotlight on the A Greater Minnesota website, candidates were asked to agree to this 5 point pledge and voters were asked to pay attention (though never to "vote for" certain candidates):
Meet the candidates running for office and find out if they have taken the pledge to support good Minnesota farms, foods and jobs.
Minnesotans have a stake in supporting all farmers in Minnesota who practice responsible farming methods whether the farms are large or small, traditional farming or organic. Fortunately, nearly every Minnesota farmer farms responsibly.
Good MN farmers are responsible stewards of their land and water. After all, they live on the land and have a vested interest in protecting the environment in and around their farms. Farmers will continue to improve upon best practices as better methods are discovered.
Good MN farmers know that the proper and ethical care of their livestock is not only the right way to treat animals, but also results in better food. Many farmers have adopted animal care policies that far exceed what is required by current standards. In recent years, activist groups have painted a distorted picture of animal care practices. In fact, many activist proposals would actually reduce the protection of farm animals from disease and also result in higher food prices.
Good MN farmers and good MN food companies support food product labeling that helps consumers make informed choices regarding nutritional information and food-allergies. We do not support labeling requirements, however, that are based on pseudo-science or activist agendas such as calling out GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The reality is most foods, even many organics, involve genetic enhancements to improve food quality and reduce the incidence of pests and disease during food production.
Good MN Farms and good MN food companies are intensely focused on ensuring safe food for consumers, often imposing new standards and best practices into their production systems that exceed what is legally required. MN farmers and food producers also support one set of standards for food safety at a federal level. Farmers and food producers across the nation should be required to uphold one uniform set of regulations that make food safety a priority.
You can register to vote, find out election dates and where to vote, monitor candidate filings and find other answers to commonly asked questions at the Secretary of State website. Voting absentee? Get your ballot online here.
Check back here throughout the fall to see what candidates you should be keeping an eye on and which ones have taken the pledge.
Bluestem trusts that our readers can use reason, Mr. Google and critical thinking to evaluate that agenda which encourages voluntary stewardship, resists environmental regulation based on "competitive" economic factors, rejects labeling the new and improved food known as GMOs, and animal welfare concerns that aren't coming from farmers, pet breeders and veterinarians. What a bandwagon.
Therein followed the pledges. They're still there though we anticipate a change is going to come once the candidate filing period closes.
Though these three efforts--lobbying, candidate and voter "education," and independent expenditures-- may be legal, together, they created the sort of tangled web that may cause ordinary citizens to think that while all Americans are equal, some corporations and nonprofits are more equal.
Is the DISCLOSE Act a piece the transparency solution?
Those "issue communications" like A Greater Minnesota could be a thing of the past if Minority Leader Paul Thissen, members of his caucus and good/transparent government advocates get their way. Last week at the Star Tribune, J. Patrick Coolican reported in House DFL proposes constitutional amendment for campaign money disclosure:
House DFLers proposed a state constitutional amendment Thursday that would make it easier to see who is giving money to efforts aiding candidates, the latest twist in an ongoing feud over the disclosure of campaign contributions.
Current law shields certain groups from having to disclose money they raise and spend as long as it is spent on so-called issue-based advertising that does not expressly say “vote for” or “vote against” a candidate.
The DFL says that’s a loophole and the proposed amendment would close it, requiring the groups to disclose where they receive the money and how they spend it.
A constitutional amendment would need to pass both houses of the Legislature to appear on the ballot and then be approved by the voters in November.
“It’s time for politicians to … give Minnesota voters the opportunity to decide for themselves if they have a right to know who is spending money to influence their vote,” said House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis.
Coolican reported that that Republican lawmakers responded to the proposal as if requiring disclosure for "issue" communications were solely a partisan battle. Both Republican and Democratic candidates signed that pledge, without clear disclosure of who was paying how much for its promotion among voters.
We'll eventually know who is giving money to the AgFood Alliance, but as in 2014, there will be no full transparency about two of the other tines of the AgriGrowth Council's forking out the barn of ag policy. DISCLOSE would at least let us see two-thirds of the effort.
Photos: A modern manure sprayer (above); screengrab of the Candidate Spotlight at "A Greater Minnesota"/www.farmandfoodmn.org.
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The passing of Justice Scalia on February 13 brought out some very strange reactions among the GOP. Most notably, GOP leaders were especially quick to politicize their hero’s death. This was surprising, but not necessarily shocking. Most of us probably expected it but were annoyed and found it crass when it actually happened.
Some of us joked that crazy right-wingers would probably try to figure out a way to blame Obama for Justice Scalia’s death…but no one actually could have predicted the insanity of that conspiracy theory as it all went down.
Therein follow a series of tweets along the lines of "Scalia murdered by muslim group at isolated resort in Texas under unbrella of Obama secret police force."
The third comment raised fears about Scalia's death and potential successor:
Mary TuomiYou wonder if it was a natural death... And you wonder if he will replace him with a Muslim...
George SelvestraMary Tuomi, I doubt that Obaqma will get an apointment through the Senate.
Noah Frederick WrightLooks like Sri Srinivasan (born in India) is going to be his pick. The longest appointment up to this point has been just under 150 days with a large scandal around it and Obama has roughly a year. I doubt the GOP would hold it up until the next president because it might make moderate voters lean left in the general elections.
George SelvestraNoah Frederick Wright The Senate Majrity leader has already stated that an Obama pick will likely not be approved.
One of the commenters mentions Sri Srinivasan, widely reported to be on the top of President Obama's short list for nomination to the court Sri Srinivasan was confirmed as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuitby the Senate by a vote of 97–0 on May 23, 2013.
At his formal swearing-in ceremony in September 2013, he took the oath on the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita. He was born in India, but moved to Kansas in the last 1960s; his father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas, and his mother taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, according to Wikipedia.
Screengrab: Fear and loathing in the Brainerd Lakes area.
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There are fresh signs that tensions are still simmering.
Last week, a crowd attended a chicken dinner and talk titled “Shariah 101” by Jeffrey Baumann, a Coon Rapids man who said he believes Muslims and sharia law will take over the country. Standing at the front of a ballroom at Michael’s Restaurant in St. Cloud, Baumann said Muslims will eventually outnumber Christians in the United States.
The evening was organized by Kathleen Virnig, the former owner of a Catholic bookstore in St. Cloud. She said she was “dragged through the mud” by critics on social media in the days before the event. “They aren’t even willing to hear what the other person is saying and they condemn them,” she said.
Virnig said refugees have overwhelmed St. Cloud’s ability to care for them, costing the taxpayers too much and bringing changes to the city that aren’t supported by local Christians.
Baumann encouraged people to go to interfaith dialogues and public talks on Islam in Mankato, Brooklyn Park and, next week, at St. Cloud State University. Baumann said that people should go to the foot-washing station at the SCSU student union and use it to “make a scene.” The station was installed in 2001 after a Muslim student slipped and hit her head while washing her feet at a bathroom sink.
“If they’re challenged, ask ‘Is this Muslim-only or is this a public facility?’ ” said Baumann, adding that someone should bring a video camera to make sure that it has an effect.
Where did Minnesota's Anti-Sharia bills come from?
And Rao adds a couple of more names to the list of Minnesota legislators who attended the event:
The four legislators who attended Baumann’s speech were Sens. David M. Brown, R-Becker, and Bruce D. Anderson, R-Buffalo, and Reps. Jim Newberger, R-Becker, and Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen. None returned calls and e-mails last week seeking comment, though Brown told MPR that Baumann’s talk was not an “Islam-is-terrible type of thing.”
Pugh spoke briefly at the event, according to a source; she is a co-sponsor of HF2489. The sponsor of the pre-filed bill is Lake Shore Republican Mark Anderson, whose campaign committee chair, Bill Dain, organized an anti-refugee talk in Baxter on behalf of the Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots. Based in Browerville, the group is a separate Tea Party organization from the St Cloud area's Central Minnesota Tea Party.
There is a growing trend in the states to ban the use of foreign and international law, including Sharia law, in state courts. At least seven states have enacted measures to prohibit their courts from considering foreign and international law and many others are considering such a ban. But despite the lofty rhetoric of supporters, these bans can do nothing that state law does not already do. The bans do not protect against the undue influence of foreign or international law upon our own domestic law and they do not protect against any real threat to individual rights. At their best, they are a solution in search of a problem. At their worst, however, they alienate politically unpopular groups and gratuitously condemn their beliefs.
The trend started in Oklahoma when, in 2010, Oklahoma voters approved the "Save Our State" constitutional amendment. The amendment banned the use of international law and foreign law in Oklahoma courts; it singled out Sharia law for particular disapprobation. It provided that "[t]he courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or Sharia law."
The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit roundly struck the amendment in Awad v. Ziriax [PDF]. The court ruled that the ban on Sharia violated the Establishment Clause because the ban discriminated among religions without a compelling interest—or without any interest, for that matter. Indeed, the court noted that defenders of the amendment could not identify a single instance when an Oklahoma court applied Sharia law or other foreign law, much less an instance when such application resulted in a concrete problem for the state. But even if the state could identify an interest, the court said that the amendment was so crude that it could not "closely fit" any interest, anyway. The plaintiff's case illustrated why: Awad claimed, among other things, that the ban on Sharia would prevent Oklahoma courts from probating his will, which contained references to Sharia law. Before the amendment, state courts would have probated Awad's will, including its references to Sharia, so long as it did not violate public policy. But after the amendment, the courts could not have considered Sharia law at all, even as part of Awad's will. It is hard to see how that result serves any purpose. . . .
But in truth ALAC is worse than unnecessary and irrelevant; it is harmful and divisive. That is because it contains the same gratuitous anti-Islam intention as "Save Our State." According to the American Public Policy Alliance, which spearheads ALAC, ALAC is designed as a bulwark against Sharia law in American courts, even if ALAC itself does not specifically mention Sharia. Yet for all the blustering, advocates for ALAC have yet to identify a single instance when a court has applied foreign law, including Sharia law, in a way that created problems. They have not even coherently explained how such problems might arise, especially in light of the existing public policy exception to the general comity rule.
"Save Our States," ALAC and other attempts to restrict the use of foreign law in domestic courts are solutions in search of a problem. At their best, they do what the law already allows and requires. At their worst, they reveal an ugly underside of law and politics that seems calculated only to alienate and disempower certain disfavored peoples and to condemn certain disfavored faiths.
Update: In the St. Cloud Times, Kirsti Marohi got the same answer (it's already in the US Constitution) from two legal scholars at the University of Minnesota for her Fact check: Is ban on Sharia law necessary?.
In short, it's a redundant law, but Baumann and his pals believe they've found a way around Constitutional protections for Muslims. Just convince folks that Islam isn't a religion.
Baumann's anti-Islam views
Baumann's past published views about Muslims suggest that indeed he believes that Islam is terrible. In a 2013 letter to the editor of the ABC newpapers, "Bombings in Boston," Baumann wrote:
The bombings in Boston horrified us all, or at least we would like to believe it did, if we could just have a clear idea of who “us” is.
It’s easy to be confused when there is today little clarity about language, borders, citizenship, voting, culture, religion and even marriage, our history and our Constitution.
One bomber is dead, and the other in custody. Were there others? Maybe. Probably. But what was the motive? . . .
Lost in all this will be the simple – and accurate – answer. These were Muslims, being fully activated Muslims, waging Jihad against Kufr as best they could, just as Mohammed did and just as he instructed.
But despite this simple truth, our politicians, media and intellectuals will inundate us with calls to respect Islam, stressing that these two were part of a tiny fringe, reminding us that Islam is a Religion of Peace™, and shaming us into being more and more deferential to the demands of the most easily offended group on the planet.
And we will be lulled into returning to our lives, comfortable in the knowledge that our all-knowing, all-caring, beneficent government will keep us safe. And informed. And tolerant. And deluded.
Until one day, the number of young, male, fully activated Muslims will be such that they will simply slaughter us with impunity, as is currently happening in Thailand, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, India, Tanzania, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Norway, the Philippines, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Syria. And Mali and Tunisia. And Kosovo. And Chechnya. And right here in America (Nidal Hasan).
If only we had a clear idea of who “us” is.
Eventually they will have killed more Americans than Kermit Gosnell.
Would it be too much to ask that no more Muslims be granted citizenship until this can all be sorted out?
In short, Baumann believes, based on his reading of Islam, that Muslims are not "us," and because some Muslims adopt extremist terrorist beliefs, all Muslims are a threat.
According to our source, part of Baumann's policy agenda is to remove Islam from the protections of the First Amendment because it is a "complete replacement social system, not a religion.
The view is not original to Baumann and it's not homegrown in Minnesota. It's typically espoused by speakers associated with Act! For America.
Though often circulated by the hard right, constitutional scholars believe the interpretation has little merit. Constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh, beloved by many gun rights supporters given his brilliant defense of the Second Amendment, has been on it for years. In 2011, the Volokh Conspiracy blogger wrote in Islam and the First Amendment, concluding after claims that the Framers of the Constitution only extended religious freedom to Christian that:
I know of no sources that suggested that anyone during the Framing era understood the Constitution as excluding “Mahometans,” or non-Christians more generally, from either the Free Exercise Clause or the No Religious Test Clause. (The Framers were open to general religious references, and sometimes references to Christianity, in the speech of the federal government; they likely had a much narrower view of the Establishment Clause than that reflected in the Supreme Court’s modern caselaw. But that is a separate matter from which religions were protected by the Free Exercise Clause and the No Religious Test Clause.)
So says Oklahoma state legislator John Bennett — using logic under which much of Christianity would have not even been a religion for much of its history. I’m delighted that modern Christianity prefers to advance its agenda of global conversion through peaceful means rather than through conquest. But it’s pretty clear that many varieties of Christianity have been spread more forcefully than that at various times, and have been “social[ and] political system[s]” as well as purely theological ones. This didn’t make them “not even a religion” back then, and similar behavior on the part of some streams of Islam doesn’t make Islam “not even a religion” today.
Now I do think that criticism of various religions can be perfectly sound, and is often proper, whether the religion is Christian Science, Mormonism, evangelical Christianity, Catholicisms, Christianity generally, Judaism, Islam or theism generally. Religions are ideological belief systems that often lead many of their adherents to act in particular ways; they may rightly be criticized just as other belief systems may rightly be criticized. (I also think that much criticism of various religions has at times been overstated or ill-founded, and that includes Islam as well as the other religions.) But the first requirement has to be to talk candidly and accurately about what’s actually going on; attempts to deny that Islam is a religion don’t qualify.
Anti-Muslim and anti-refugee advocates often cite Volokh when it fits their version of "facts."
Baumann, Butt Hurt and Knoblach
Baumann provides his audience with an opportunity for motivated reasoning. Uncomfortable with change and new neighbors who don't share their heritage, they're looking for answers; some look for "facts" to support their fears. Speakers like Baumann and Corcoran offer affirmation to those fears.
Fact checks? Evaluation of sources? Fire up the butthurt machine after closing events to the general public. We agree that these events shouldn't be cancelled--and those efforts to shut them down on the part of regional labor council staff member Jane Conrad have done more harm than good.
Indeed, these event should be opened to the general public. But those who organize closed events aren't promoting open discussion. They're embracing their fears, including a fear of the rough and tumble of open debate.
As a point of fact, the first bullet point in the list, $180,000 to support the establishment of a Civil Rights in St. Cloud, was brought to the governor's attention by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jim Knoblach, according to an October article in the St. Cloud Times.
Harsh words and heartfelt sentiment were exchanged by community members and local officials on racial issues in Central Minnesota at the St. Cloud NAACP Community Conversation with Gov. Mark Dayton.
Hosted on Tuesday at St. Cloud Public Library, about 100 people from diverse backgrounds gathered to ask questions of St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson, Rep. Jim Knoblach, Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey, Council on Black Minnesotans Community Program Specialist Kolloh Nimley and St. Cloud AFYA Pharmacyco-owner Dr. Edris Kosar. . . .
Knoblach vowed to repeat last year's efforts in the Legislature to increase funding for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, including money for the department's office in St. Cloud.
Since Knoblach wasn't serving in the legislature in 2014, we'll assume the reporter is considering the last session and he means HF1364, a bill for which he was a co-author; retiring St. Cloud Republican John Pederson was a co-author of the companion bill, SF889.
While those pushing anti-refugee sentiment and anti-Muslim bills are conservatives in the Tea Party and Republican Party, not all Republicans are embracing this tripe. Knoblach, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was a panelist at the NAACP Community Conversation in October.
It might be convenient for both conservative and progressive operatives to heighten tensions in St. Cloud-- whatever their motives might be--but Bluestem suspects that many residents would like to see efforts that lead to a stronger community for all residents, new and old.
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On Tuesday, Religious Right activist Bradlee Dean appeared on “The Real Side with Joe Messina,” where he criticized “the homosexual industry, or lobby, in America” for going to “war with Scripture.”
Dean also had a message for “radical” gay rights advocates: “Those radicals need to be lawfully dealt with because they are radical, they mean to divide and conquer, they mean to make war against real Christianity.”
“I’ve yet to find a situation where a homosexual could actually verify the fact that they were the victim of someone actually hating on them,” he said. “I have yet to see it.
Dean struggles after street ministry teams disband
Dean gained national attention in 2011 when he questioned President Obama's faith in a prayer delivered while serving as guest chaplain for the Minnesota House. The prayer was redacted and then-Speaker Kurt Zellers ordered a do-over for that day's session opener.
Later, Dean unsuccessfully tried to sue Rachel Maddow, MSNBC and local Minnesota reporter Andy Birkey for defamation after they reported remarks delivered on his radio show.
The 2013 and 2014 990 reports for Sons of Liberty posted online by Citizen Audit document the decline in the non-profit's revenues since the end of the street teams. Contribution and grants went from $899,202 in 2012 to $740,311 in 2013, then sank to $411,426 in 2014. (It's also possible that large donors departed from the scene).
Photo: On Facebook this week, Dean posted a photo of himself and his children walking on Hollywood Boulevard. We cropped out the kids for privacy sake (and don't link to the Facebook post), but Bradlee's flaxen ponytail and ballcap are unforgettable. Is he about to have that big break in a Netflix original series or just on a family vacation?
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The two bills aren't paired as companion bills, but they're fairly close in language. State representative Mark Anderson, R-Lake Shore, is the author of the new house bill; Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, Bob Dettmer, R-Forest Lake, and Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen, are co-authors.
UPDATE: Cindy Pugh spoke briefly at the Sharia 101 event in St. Cloud on January 26, according to a source who attended the event. [end update]
UPDATE #2 1/31/2016: The Star Tribune reports "The four legislators who attended Baumann’s speech were Sens. David M. Brown, R-Becker, and Bruce D. Anderson, R-Buffalo, and Reps. Jim Newberger, R-Becker, and Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen." At the time of this update, neither Anderson nor Newberger are co-authors of the bills in their respective chambers. [end update]
UPDATE: Anderson is retiring after one term. [end update]
As we reported in our late December 2015 post, Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots to host Branstner refugee rabblerousing event, Anderson's campaign committee chair Bill Dian, organized former California Minuteman Civil Defense Corps member Ron Branstner's talk in Baxter, MN for the Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, based in Browerville.
A state legislator is taking heat for attending a private Shariah law event in St. Cloud that critics are calling anti-Islam.
Sen. David Brown, R-Becker, said the backlash he's getting for speaking at the event, billed as "Shariah 101," is unfounded. . . .
Brown said he was simply there as a lawmaker invited to speak about a bill he introduced last session. That bill would ensure the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution over foreign law. That issue has come up in divorce proceedings, he said, and he cited the example of a Somali woman going through a divorce.
"Her husband wanted the judge to use Shariah law for him to get custody of the children," Brown said. "Fortunately the judge ruled in favor of the woman, based on her constitutional rights."
Elrashidi pointed out that Shariah legally does not supersede the laws of the United States.
"Shariah is simply divine law," he said. "It's no different than canon law or Talmudic law."
He and other critics objected to the event having been private and held at an undisclosed location. It lacked the opportunity for an open dialogue or factual information about Islam and Shariah law.
"That would've gone a long way, but instead it was very secretive," he said. "It was very much promoted in a way that fits with an intent to present a skewed perception." . . .
CAIR officials said they plan to meet with Brown and that he's been open to having more conversations about Islam.
New: Brief history of anti-Sharia laws
Baumann's ideas are original. We take a look in our January 31 post, St. Cloud disunity: where'd those MN lawmakers get that wild & crazy anti-Sharia bill anyway? Short answer: the first state anti-sharia measures in the United States in Oklahoma. We also look at the sources of Baumann's notion that Islam isn't a religion (a position that would strip Muslims of First Amendment protections.
At the St. Cloud Times, Kirsti Marohi sought answers from two legal scholars at the University of Minnesota for her Fact check: Is ban on Sharia law necessary? Short answer: No.
Hello my name is _______ I am calling out of concern for my Muslim friends, family and neighbors. During your term you have made it your mission to target the Muslim community by spreading fear and misinformation which fuels the racial and religious tension that racks our state. I strongly encourage you to retract defaming statements you have made about the Minnesota Muslim community, to stop pursuing an agenda of fear, and to retract your unnecessary and mean-spirited law targeted at the imagined threat of sharia law. In show of support we ask you specifically to withdraw your bill SF1264. We hope that the communities that are fighting against this fear and hatred, who strive to have of all races and religions live together in harmony and cooperation, are given your support.
Minutes from an October 2011 Southwest Metro Tea Party Patriots meeting state that Baumann spoke on "The Threat of Shariah Law" and "painted a frightening picture of what is in store for the U.S. as deference to Islam continues to grow." The meeting minutes also state that Baumann was raised in Saudi Arabia. . . .
It sounds like not everyone wants to "hang out." Jeff Baumann, of Coon Rapids, said he was raised in Saudi Arabia and is "very, very informed about Islam." Baumann said he'd fought against Shariah mortgages and attended a board meeting of TiZA, the Islamic charter school.
As Baumann began to read from a book about Islam, he was interrupted, and again Commission Chairman Jim Davis tried to interject with the purpose of the meeting.
"Land use, aiding the enemy, is treason," Baumann said.
"These are not my enemies, sir," Davis said.
Baumann continued, and eventually Davis had his microphone cut, with several others in attendance yelling at Baumann, "Sit down!"
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First lady Michelle Obama and congressional Republicans may be headed toward a truce on meals served to the nation's schoolchildren, but at least one GOP presidential candidate is signaling the political battle isn't over.
A bipartisan Senate agreement would revise healthier meal standards put into place over the last few years to give schools more flexibility, easing requirements on whole grains and delaying an upcoming deadline to cut sodium levels on the lunch line. . . .
After more than two years of public quarreling, the bill signals a possible armistice between school lunch directors, congressional Republicans and first lady Michelle Obama, who has highlighted the standards as part of her campaign against childhood obesity.
Farris reports Peterson's reflections on the compromise being cooked up in Washington:
U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson spoke with local leaders in education on Wednesday, shuffling through his opinions on topics including private funding of political campaigns (opposed) and attempts to relax health requirements for school lunches (in favor).
Perhaps most relevant to the audience of educators, he voiced support for a Senate bill that would loosen whole grain requirements, and extend a deadline to cut sodium levels. Other meal standards created by the Obama administration would remain in place.
"It sounds like schools like it better. Schwan's likes it better," he said. "It's good for everyone."
That might not be good enough for Peterson's presumptive opponent, Amanda Lynn Hinson, who wrote in Why I'm Running for Congress:
I put my kids in public school this year. My kids don't like the taste of skim and 1% milk, and I’m a firm believer that Minnesotans in cold weather require a few more lipids. When I checked with the school to see if there was some way we could have 2% milk available to my kids, I had to work my way up from the school lunch guy to the MN Department of Education and then was told I would have to talk to my U.S. Congressman about getting my kids 2% milk.
I’ve called congressmen about this; they confirmed it’s up to them. The National School Lunch Program touts that school lunch is "a matter of national security", rhetoric Collin Peterson has used about the food industry. Really? When we have to talk to our congressman about what our kids eat and drink at school lunch, I think we have a big problem with government overreach.
Can you imagine what this is like having national policies for anything educational? It's like playing volleyball, and the ball just volleys back and forth with no real resolution about anything. The very spirit of the law is lost, and we keep aimlessly trying to follow it-- this is stupidity. Federal regulations on local schools brings an environment of fear as our schools attempt to do everything by regulation and can't do anything about parents' concerns. Eventually, we all have to give up, give in, and drink the skim milk.
Hunger-Free Kids Act. This bill was so championed by the first lady, children don't complain about the lunch lady anymore, they blame Michelle Obama for their dislike of school food. Last year, when the House Republicans tried to answer the complaints of their constituents (people and schools), Michelle Obama got into the scene and fought back. The people lost! Try calling your congressman or the USDA today about what they're "offering" your kids at school, and you will find that your opinion falls on deaf ears. I, personally, was told by the USDA that since this was public school lunch, I didn't have a say-- the Government was the one in charge. I beg to differ! We all have a say! We pay for that school lunch with our tax dollars and some of us still opt out of the free lunch program, paying additionally. As you can read in her own speech, Michelle Obama is more concerned about what a handful of "experts" say about food than what your kids and you would prefer they eat.
#1 Bestseller print on cover of Hinson's self-published book
Hinson seems ready for the world of politics and spin. Elsewhere, on the cover of her self published book, Hinson claims that her memoir was a #1 Bestseller.
The Amazon page for Wide Open Curtains: A Journal of a Pregnant American in Russia Kindle Edition lists these rankings:
Within very narrow categories, she's done fairly well, but the book doesn't show up on the 2013 Ebook 100 Bestsellers list, much less as #1. The page states that the book was published in 2013.
The paperback, which was self-published via the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 22, 2012), according to the book's Amazon page, also doesn't appear to have been a bestseller. According to Amazon, these are the rankings for the paperback:
We looked elsewhere to find reviews of the volume or mention of it in the book trade, but were unable to find any reviews outside of reader sites like Goodreads.
That book, “Wide Open Curtains: A Journal of a Pregnant American in Russia,” went on to become one of the best-selling e-reader books on Amazon in 2012.
As she campaigns for office, let's hope Hinson clarifies for the media which bestseller list her self-published book topped.
Photo: U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (left) talks with Superintendent of Bemidji Area Schools Jim Hess in front of other educators on January 27, 2015 n Bemidji. Via Jillian Gandsey | Bemidji Pioneer.
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I read with interest the West Central Tribune’s Jan. 21 editorial defending Willmar’s immigrant community. I commend the editorial board for speaking out against hateful speech that demeans Willmar’s East-African residents. I thank you for celebrating the invaluable economic and cultural contributions of these hard-working Minnesotans.
Minnesota was built by immigrants and pioneers. Today’s immigrants may look and sound different than the Germans and Scandinavians of generations past. But their hard work, and the dreams and aspirations they hold for their children, themselves, and our communities are no different.
Willmar is stronger because of our immigrant neighbors. So is Minnesota.
Willmar and the West Central Tribune have taken an important stand. I applaud your courage. And I stand with you as a partner as we resolve to make our state a welcoming place for all Minnesotans.
Thank your for your insightful editorial on Jan. 21 regarding our Muslim neighbors in the Willmar community.
We winter in California and we even had received an email with that biased piece that you referred to in your editorial out here.
We responded back to the sender by stating that was NOT the Willmar we know and love.
Sadly, too many people forward such erroneous and mean-spirited emails without bothering to check the sources, causing prejudice and divisiveness to foster and grow. We can all do our small part to improve our communities and world by not forwarding such “garbage” and instead challenging people who do.
Willmar isn't a paradise for anyone living there, but many people, new and established residents, work intentionally to build a better community. Those talking against refugees and immigrants haven't made their case, though they've tried.
Photo: From September 2014: Bashir Yusuf speaks to participants in the Walk the Corridor tour Tuesday at his restaurant, Somali Star. Event participants visited ethnically-owned businesses in downtown Willmar. (Tribune photo by Gary Miller). via Walk the Corridor, West Central Tribune.
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So this week the governor's office released his spending priorities to the legislature. Help me out, does this make sense to anyone?
But rather than linking to the Governor's job/bonding proposals as a whole, the freshman lawmaker posted the bottom of page one of a letter that Dayton had sent to Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, and Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, in their capacity as chairs of the Legislative Working Group on Disparities (membership at the bottom of the page here). . . .
In comments about the image Heintzman's Facebook, some of his friends posted objections to the entire list of proposals at the bottom of the letter, not just the one item circled in red, and Heintzeman followed their lead.
At one point, the freshman representative posted:
Joshua Heintzeman Clearly the governor is disconnected from the people of Minnesota and believes these should be the priorities going into this coming session. It's our job to 'help' the governor understand their expectations.
And:
Joshua HeintzemanThis is the governor's agenda. Because we control the house his spending recommendations must originate in our body. An agenda like this is incredibly frustrating because now throughout negotiations these are the things that his office will continue to demand as we move forward. By exposing this nonsense our hope is that the people of Minnesota push back and demand He redirect his energy back towards creating jobs, investment in roads and bridges, and providing good government.
As a point of fact, the first bullet point in the list, $180,000 to support the establishment of a Civil Rights in St. Cloud, was brought to the governor's attention by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jim Knoblach, according to an October article in the St. Cloud Times.
Harsh words and heartfelt sentiment were exchanged by community members and local officials on racial issues in Central Minnesota at the St. Cloud NAACP Community Conversation with Gov. Mark Dayton.
Hosted on Tuesday at St. Cloud Public Library, about 100 people from diverse backgrounds gathered to ask questions of St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson, Rep. Jim Knoblach, Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey, Council on Black Minnesotans Community Program Specialist Kolloh Nimley and St. Cloud AFYA Pharmacyco-owner Dr. Edris Kosar. . . .
Knoblach vowed to repeat last year's efforts in the Legislature to increase funding for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, including money for the department's office in St. Cloud.
Since Knoblach wasn't serving in the legislature in 2014, we'll assume the reporter is considering the last session and he means HF1364, a bill for which he was a co-author; retiring St. Cloud Republican John Pederson was a co-author of the companion bill, SF889.
Perhaps Heintzman can let his Facebook friends know about the public discussion St. Cloud's powerful Republican committee chair had with the Governor about the item that ended up at the top of Mark Dayton's list.
Or they could just talk about how concerns about disparities shouldn't be a priority--and are just "this nonsense." We suspect Jim Knoblach might want an explanation, whatever Heintzeman decides.
Photo: Rep Joshua Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, who believes spending to address racial disparities is "nonsense."
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A friend passed along a press release for an environmental listening session that Representative Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg) will be holding in Olivia on Thursday, February 4 in the basement of the Renville County Administration Building, 105 S. 5th St., from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
UPDATE: The Renville County SWCD just posted text from an email from Representative Miller that confirms that he's got a preferred sort of constituent for this meeting and an agenda that hasn't been shared in the press release below. There's also mention of the Governor's Water Summit--so Miller's trying to manipulate what he can report there as public opinion in his district.
Here's the text of the email that went out earlier in the week (giving some groups the advantage for notifying their members about the event):
On February 4 at 2:00 pm Chair Denny McNamara and a couple other members of the Environment Committee will be joining me for a listening session in Olivia in the basement of the Renville County admin building. The focus will be the DNR's involvement and actions concerning buffer mapping. However, if there are ANY other concerns, I will be welcoming those as well. This is a key chance to be heard, particularly in light of the Governor's Water Summit February 27, which I will also be attending. [emphasis added]
There will be a media release going out by the end of this week. If you would like a copy let me know. I ask you help me to encourage members of your organization to attend. Invite others as well. It is very important for Ag voices to be heard at this time.
Thank you. Let me know if you have any questions.
Tim Miller
MN House of Representatives 17A
651-296-4228
Miller is trying to stack his own meeting--and doing so in order to shape debate at the Governor's Water Summit. We also have to wonder how many members of the Environment committee can be invited before this becomes on an official House hearing.
[end update]
UPDATE #2: We've learned that Representative McNamara will also be attending a "listening session" in Chokio the same day. Will the "couple of other members" of the Environment committee also tag along? Who of the committee members were invited? How many of these are happening around the state--and which organizations got the heads-up from state representatives before the general public knew?
Jeff Backer is even more slanted in his take on for whom this "listening session" is for, a local radio station reports in Rep. Backer Holding Environmental Session:
“Since taking office, I have received countless phone calls from folks around the area expressing frustration with the DNR, MPCA, and other environmental regulatory agencies,” Backer said. “It is my hope that this listening session will give farmers, local officials, sportsmen, and other concerned citizens the opportunity to speak with Chair McNamara and ensure that their voices are heard.” [end update]
The press release below is a masterpiece of dog whistling to those who want to see environmental protection itself as the problem rather than preserving water quality, soil health and such essentials, since Miller lets folks know that he's been hearing from those " who were concerned about land, water, and wildlife laws and regulations."
Note the construction of that phrase: "land, water, and wildlife" modify "laws and regulations."
Bluestem urges our readers in West Central Minnesota who are concerned about water quality, wildlife habitat, soil health to attend and let Representative Miller and Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee Chairman Denny McNamara.
We also hope that our readers in the audience will live tweet and Facebook the event using the hashtags #mnleg and #mnag.
The press release:
MINNESOTA HOUSE ENVIRONMENT CHAIR McNAMARA, REP. MILLER TO HOLD ENVIRONMENT LISTENING SESSION IN OLIVIA
ST. PAUL – After hearing from numerous constituents who were concerned about land, water, and wildlife laws and regulations, State Representative Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg) announces he will hold an environmental listening session in Olivia on Thursday, February 4 in the basement of the Renville County Administration Building, 105 S. 5th St., from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Also attending will be Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee Chairman Denny McNamara (R-Hastings).
Representative Miller said he invited McNamara to the listening session so he can hear firsthand from area landowners, hunters, and anglers.
“Whether its buffers, groundwater regulations or fish and deer management, I've heard consistently from residents in our area about environmental concerns,” Miller said. “By bringing the chairman of the environment committee to west-central Minnesota, residents can share their views with someone that directly tackles these issues at the State Capitol.”
Miller strongly encourages area residents to attend the listening session and share their thoughts, opinions, and questions about environmental rules and regulations in the State of Minnesota.
Photo: Representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg. via Facebook.
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Minnesota has bonded debt of over $8 billion on the books. It consumes $1.3 billion of taxpayer money each biennium (debt service). There is not a dime of spending in this borrow-and-spend proposal that we need. Not a dime. It's time to stop spending our kids' future, while trying to convince them that it's good for them.
That leaves us to wonder if Miller doesn't think the $3.2 million for flood mitigation in Montevideo in the governor's spreadsheet shouldn't be funded:
Or if Miller's praising the notion that "It's time to stop spending our kids' future" on bonding at all--for things like the proposed veterans' home in Montevideo. Miller didn't seem to share Draz's no borrowing values when he authored a bill last spring for bonding for veterans homes in Monte and Bemidji, so prepares he'll stop being such Draz fanboy on social media.
On the other hand, Draz's 2014 campaign finance report reveals that the veteran Mazeppa lawmaker contributed $4500 cash and $2,452 for a field worker for the Renville County RPM, so maybe it's just gratitude on Miller's part, however much he's forgetting promises to his constituents.
It seems that Miller might be as constant as the prairie wind in March--and as shifting. We'll keep an eye out on whether he changes his mind about the value of helping Montevideo out with its flooding.
Photo: Rep. Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, via Facebook. He wants bonding for projects or maybe not.
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One of the legislative architects of the plan to re-open the facility, state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, shared and responded to the Don Davis article on his Facebook page:
Fact: the state needs more prison space. Fact: Appleton prison has adequate facilities. Fact: utilizing the prison would bring 200-600 well paying union jobs to a county with the second highest unemployment rate in the state. Fact: there is broad bipartisan support in the legislature. [emphasis added]
And yet it appears the Governor and public unions are fighting against this plan. Incredible. I'm absolutely stunned.
Facts about Swift County unemployment
While Miller asserts as fact the notion that leasing the privately-owned prison would bring jobs to "acounty with the second highest unemployment rate in the state," data available through a mapping tool at the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that Swift County is nothing of the sort. (Select Minnesota on the pulldown menu and November 2015 here).
As one can see from the legend, other counties--especially in the northern part of the state, have higher rates. Koochiching County's rate is the highest at 8.8 percent:
Here are all the counties with a higher unemployment rate than Swift County in November 2015, according to results obtained via the BLS county unemployment mapping tool, in alphabetical order (we number them for counting purposes only):
Aitkin County 5.6
Carlton County 4.4
Cass County 6.0
Clearwater Co 7.7
Crow Wing Co 4.9
Hubbard County 5.8
Itasca County 7.2
Kanabec County 5.2
LOTW County 4.7
Mahnomen Co 4.5
Marshall Co 5.4
Mille Lacs Co 4.7
Morrison Co 4.7
Pine County 4.4
Red Lake Co 5.1
Saint Louis Co 4.9
Wadena County 5.0
That puts Swift County at number 18 statewide--and given the cluster of high unemployment in the Northeastern corner of the state, the facts make us wonder why Representative Miller wasn't out beating a loud drum for a special session for laid-off steelworkers or other state efforts to relieve these seventeen counties ahead in the misery queue.
Granted, Swift County has the highest unemployment rate in Representative Miller's district--but we have to ask why an unemployment rate should trump other solutions to the state's increased number of inmates. The Davis article notes that ">Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission last month approved a plan to reduce sentences for many drug offenders, which would reduce pressure on packed prisons[,]" while the ISAIAH MN organizer praised an investment in recovery beds.
Perhaps Miller can share where he found his "facts" --and notion that the only solution for prison populations is more prison space. Meanwhile, will he be suggesting government spending to solve unemployment issues in all those other unfortunate counties?
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Having taken the lede in City Pages' article, Meet the Minnesota Legislature's Top 5 Climate Change Deniers, but not actually having made the top five list of carbon-captured Minnesota House members, insurance salesman and state representative Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, doubled down today.
In a press release sent to his general email list Wednesday, Gruenhagen states:
If you listen to our friends on the left, they may have lead you to believe that wind and solar energy are viable energy sources to provide the base-load power needed to power homes and businesses throughout the world. I wanted to share with you a video that explains why that's just not realistic at this point in time with current wind and solar technologies. Wind and solar simply can't produce enough energy to power our state efficiently, and a dramatic shift toward wind and solar with current technology would mean a more expensive and less reliable energy grid.
Last session, Republicans pushed for policies that would make energy cleaner and more importantly cheaper. Thanks to advancements in technology, energy sources like natural gas provide a less expensive way to fuel vehicles and keep the lights on in our homes. We continue to make advancements in hydro and biofuels. Why would we jump to wind and solar, resulting in skyrocketing energy bills for families who can least afford it, rather than choosing nuclear, natural gas, hydro, and clean coal? These energy sources would continue our efforts to reduce pollution while still protecting the wallets of families.
I hope you'll watch the video and let me know your thoughts.
That link leads to a PragerU YouTube featuring the Center For Industrial Progress head and fossil fuel darling Alex Epstein as totally reliable proof that dirty hippies touting clean energy only want to oppress poor energy consumers.
What Gruenhagen doesn't provide is any context. He does want to know what people think, however, so we'll take him up on that.
What is Prager University--and who funds its pro-fossil-fuel curriculum?
For more than 30 years, Dennis Prager has been a conservative radio host and author. His broadcasts air three hours a day, five days a week across the country, beating the conservative drums against what he sees as a host of “liberal” evils—marriage equality, feminism, and multiculturalism. He has called campus rape culture a “gargantuan lie to get votes” promoted by the “feminist left.”
More recently, Prager has developed an ingenious method of getting his conservative opinions to a new kind of audience, one harder to reach via traditional media channels.
Starting in 2011, Prager founded Prager University, an online resource that produces short videos on Prager’s favorite extremist tropes. . . .
. . .Prager University is noteworthy in two respects: the program seeks to insert right-wing religious and political propaganda into schools by providing content directly to teachers and students; and it has the generous backing of two of the richest men in the United States.
. . .Prager University’s largest donors, Dan and Farris Wilks, have spent the last few years using the fortune they made from the fracking boom to fund extreme right-wing causes.
The brothers sold off their Frac Tech shares a few years ago, but they still manage Interstate Explorations, an oil and gas field services company based out of Texas. The two are reportedly worth an estimated $1.4 billion apiece. . . .
In a move that should make Prager’s fracking donors happy, the site recently launched a fundraising campaign to support a five-part video series “investigating the truth behind climate change hysteria.” The series, according to the site, will attempt to “end the debate between science and sensationalism” in regards to global warming. Another video filed under “political science” is entitled, Why You Should Love Fossil Fuel.[link added]
The star of that YouTube linked in the press release? Alex Epstein, the fossil fuel flack in the newer video that Gruenhagen shared with the press and the masses.
Who is Alex Epstein?
DeSmog Blog--motto: Clearing the PR Pollution That Clouds Climate Science--lays out 2002 Duke philosophy major's profile and documents much of his activity in its Alex Epstein profile:
Background
Alex Epstein is the director of the Center for Industrial Progress, a for-profit think tank he founded in 2011. Its mission is to “inspire Americans to embrace industrial progress as a cultural ideal.” He is also a blogger at Master Resource, a “Free Market Energy Blog,” and a past fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute, an organization that has received funding from the Koch Foundations including at least $50,000 between 2005 and 2010. [3]
“As the Founder and the Director of the Center for Industrial Progress, I make it my job to educate the public about the incredibly positive role energy and industry, particularly the oil industry, play in their lives,” Epstein wrote. [4]
Epstein's focus is on energy and industrial policy, and he has written articles in this area in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, The Objective Standard and numerous other publications. Epstein hosts a monthly podcast titled “Power Hour” that features “leading energy thinkers” including climate change skeptics like Richard Lindzen.
He maintains a website, alexepstein.com, where he advertises his range of consulting services “from PR consulting to editorial consulting,” in which he reframes the debate to fit the view that aggressive industrial progress will always benefit the environment.
According to his website, Alex Epstein has done corporate speaking and consulting for the oil, gas, and coal industries. [5]
Stance on Climate Change
“In my opinion, the time for debate is certainly not over because the vast majority of us don't even know what the debate is about — let alone what has been proven and what hasn't, let alone what action implications all of this has.” [6]
Readers--and perhaps those journalists that Gruenhagen (and the communications staff in Daudt's caucus) are trying to woe into pro-fossil fuel copy.
The CIP's mission is to “inspire Americans to embrace industrial progress as a cultural ideal.” CIP summarizes their philosophy on their website: [1]
“At the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP), we celebrate man’s impact on nature, just as our ancestors celebrated Americans' ability to 'tame a continent.' We celebrate the never-ending project of the industrial revolution: to harness more and more energy to feed machines that do more and more work to make our lives better and better.”
“… As for pollution, so long as we embrace policies that protect property rights, including air and water rights, we protect industrial development and protect individuals from pollution. By contrast, 'green' policies do not improve the human environment, but sacrifice it to the non-human–just ask anyone trying to build an industrial project today.”
The CIP regularly publishes articles “debunking” environmentalism, and promoting the oil and coal industries, as well as some of their common talking points. For example, Alex Epstein has said that “we should think of coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear, as clean energy.” [2]
Stance on Climate Change
“The movement to convince the public of catastrophic global warming is fundamentally unscientific. Its leaders do not, as true scientists would, objectively study and relay the full evidence about what drives the climate, they fixate obsessively on CO2. They do not share how poorly understood climate drivers are; they act as if they can predict the climate with certainty. Through manipulation of government agencies, a credulous media, and many of their cloistered colleagues in academia, they have managed to take over much of the field of climatology and the vast majority of its public relations.” [3]
Funding
According to an archived version of their website, the CIP is not a 501c-3 organization, because “with 501c-3 status comes an enormous amount of government invasiveness, including limitations on involvement in policy debates we want to participate in.”* (emphasis added). They no longer share this information on their donations page.
CIP also contendes that “we and our supporters are best-served by a model in which we maintain the flexibility, agility, and lack of red tape to make maximum use of donors' gifts.”* [4]
*The Center for Industrial Progress has since removed their website from the Internet Archive.
Those on the City Pages' list should fret that they could lose their status if Glenn keeps it up. As the screenshot below indicates, a place on the list is a source of pride for members of Speaker Daudt's caucus. On Facebook, Minnesota state representative Eric Lucero, R-Dayton, shared the City Pages article under this headnote:
Proud to take the #2 spot on the top five list and be in good company with great colleague legislators!!!
TRUTH
• The LEFT despises the free market and strives to limit choice by placing government control over the lives of individuals.
• The crisis mongering LEFT promotes the idea of human induced Global Climate Change (formerly known as Global Warming in the 1990s (formerly known as Global Cooling in the 1970s)) because manufactured fear serves as the vehicle the LEFT utilizes to achieve their killing two birds with one stone...bankrupt the free market and continue expanding the class of those dependent upon the government.
• Those on the RIGHT such as myself and my great colleagues marked on their top 5 list strive to empower people with self-sufficiency and critical thinking (otherwise known as individual liberty) for each to make their own decisions to achieve the best outcome for the lives of themselves and their family.
• Those on the RIGHT understand a voluntary system of free exchange and risk/reward Capitalism is the only economic system to maintain freedom.
In a comment on the post, Southwest Metro Tea Party Patriots founder and Chanhassen Republican state representative Cindy Pugh, congratulated her majority caucus peers on getting on the list while lamenting her own absence:
To be honest, the Strib-owned former alt-weekly didn't explore fossil fuel fans and climate change deniers in the Minnesota Senate. It's a pity, because the list might have illustrate that while House Republicans might have something of an exclusive franchise on climate change denial and fossil fuel affection, this guy doesn't seem to be bringing those questions up for a vote in the state's upper chamber.
Finally, Bluestem thinks that a scorecard tallying a number votes would be a better index of lignite love and climate change denial than the anecdotes assembled by the City Pages.
Photo: Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, the lede-er of the pack.
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CNN reports this morning in COP21 climate change summit: 'Never have the stakes been so high', but Minnesota state representative Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, is having nothing to do with it. Not only did the Sibley County Republican tweet a February climate-denying column from the London Telegraph, he share the piece with House colleagues and their staff, as well as his email list.
In the email, Gruenhagen said:
More proof,that global warming temps have been manipulated and exaggerated primarily for keeping the billions of tax subsidies flowing to the climate scientist. Now the UN in Paris is asking for a $100 billion in tax subsidies for the fraudulent global warming scam.
I do believe there are pollution problems in the world but the global warming scam is more about money then fixing pollution problems.
Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming. . . .
Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”. . . .
Nice little echo chamber there, but the claims crumble under scrutiny, like that FactCheck.org published in Nothing False About Temperature Data:
The “report” to which Palmer referred was actually a series of blog posts, written by climate change denier Paul Homewood, which were then highly publicized in twostories by Christopher Booker in the Daily Telegraph in London. Both writers focused on the adjustments made to temperature readings at certain monitoring stations around the world, and claimed that those adjustments throw the entire science of global warming into question. This is not at all the case, and those adjustments are a normal and important part of climate science.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. agency responsible for monitoring national and global temperature trends, has addressed these types of adjustments several times before. NOAA addresses the subject in a Q&A on its website:
Q: What are some of the temperature discrepancies you found in the climate record and how have you compensated for them?
Over time, the thousands of weather stations around the world have undergone changes that often result in sudden or unrealistic discrepancies in observed temperatures requiring a correction. For the U.S.-based stations, we have access to detailed station history that helps us identify and correct discrepancies. Some of these differences have simple corrections.
NOAA maintains about 1,500 monitoring stations, and accumulates data from more than a thousand other stations in countries around the world (many national and international organizations share this type of data freely). There are actually fewer monitoring stations today than there used to be; modern stations have better technology and are accessible in real time, unlike some older outposts no longer in use. The raw, unadjusted data from these stations is available from many sources, including the international collaboration known as the Global Historical Climatology Network and others.
More proof,that global warming temps have been manipulated and exaggerated primarily for keeping the billions of tax subsidies flowing to the climate scientist. Now the UN in Paris is asking for a $100 billion in tax subsidies for the fraudulent global warming scam.
I do believe there are pollution problems in the world but the global warming scam is more about money then fixing pollution problems.
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As the whole world knows by now, North Minneapolis community members organized by Black Lives Matters are occupying Plymouth Avenue in front of the Minneapolis Police Department's Fourth Precinct following the shooting of Jamal Clark by a police officer.
Now a prominent Republican state lawmaker and former lawman has shared his opinion of the dispute with his Democratic colleagues and their staff, according to an emailed document a source forwarded to Bluestem.
Saturday morning, Minnesota House Public Safety Chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, sent file to this distribution list:
Cornish also posted the text on his Facebook page on Saturday morning, asking friends to share on their own pages. As of this time, 398 people had shared the post. Here's a pdf of the document he emailed Democratic state lawmakers and staff:
We'll give Cornish credit for one thing: he admits he'd feel regret at the death. That's more than union head Robert Kroll would concede last night on TPT Almanac. Kroll also claimed that "many" of those protesting are "outside" of the community and on the payroll of the SEIU. [Update: Kroll has come to public attention for extreme behavior and outlandish statements since 1995, according to this 2007 report in City Pages].
Photo: One of Tony Cornish's Throw Back Thursday photos, via Facebook.
We're conducting our November fundraising drive. If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie's original reporting and analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or use the paypal button below:
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors. While progressive in outlook, she does not caucus with any political party.
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