In his excellent convention speech, Joe Biden identified four crises in America: “The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.”
I think it is vitally important to the future of America to add one more crisis: the easy spread of misinformation and the inclination of citizens to suspect data and facts. Continue reading
Dear Tim,
Two years ago, in the second week of August 2018, we were in a union hall in St. Paul to celebrate your victory in the primary election. We had attended the state convention with you, walked in parades with you, and spent hours making calls to help you win the primary election. We continued to campaign with you for the next several months and were in downtown St. Paul to celebrate your election as governor. We were convinced that you were the right person to implement policies that would benefit all of Minnesota – the cities, the suburbs, and of course, Greater Minnesota. Continue reading
Ever since global warming became an issue, climate-change-denying Republicans have relied on four big lies to block solutions. Now they are trying to use these same lies to reduce fear of the coronavirus, and they are failing. The difference between climate change and the coronavirus is that the effects of the former happen over decades, while those of the latter happen over days. The four big lies allowed Republicans to successfully kick the climate-change can down the road. But that is not going to work with COVID-19.
The four big lies are:
You cannot trust the federal government
You cannot trust scientific experts
You cannot trust the media
You can trust prayer.
Let’s take a look at each lie and why it was successful in the past and is failing now. Continue reading
DFL’ers have three major objectives in November: elect Joe Biden, elect Tina Smith, flip the Minnesota State Senate. The Democrats only need to flip two seats to win control of the Senate. Because of the interest in the Minnesota State Senate, in March I provided an analysis of this year’s contests to control the Senate. Before the August 11 primary election, I’m now providing an update to the spreadsheet that I included in my March post. Continue reading
I found out today that I will be a delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The decision was made by delegates to the CD3 congressional district convention. Thank you to all the CD3 delegates who voted for me.
I have wanted to be a national delegate for a long time, but this was the first time that I submitted my name. I was hoping that all of the Democratic volunteering that I have done in the past four years would give me a chance to be selected. Continue reading
I submitted this letter to the Star Tribune’s opinion page. They did not print it (one reason might be that I had a letter to the editor published only two months ago), so I thought I should post it here. I make additional comments about this worthwhile and timely topic at the end.
During the COVID-19 crisis, America is beginning to recognize everyday heroes like doctors, nurses, teachers, garbage collectors, and supermarket workers. This is a big step up from calling pro-athletes and rock musicians heroes. But, some heroes are not getting the recognition they deserve – blood donors. Continue reading
I had an idea for a book club last fall, something I call the One-to-One Book Club. In this time of the coronavirus crisis, it has been surprisingly helpful. I recommend that everyone try it.
Last fall, I was visiting my friend Liz in Wichita and we started discussing books. She held up her favorite book, “The Master and Margarita,” and said that she recommends that everyone read it. And, since I had nothing to read at that point, I said, “OK, I’ll read it if I can call you after I get done with the book so we can discuss it.” That was the seed that grew into my book club. Continue reading
In this blog post, I’ve included a spreadsheet that analyzes the competitiveness of the 2020 Minnesota Senate races. I determined that only 23 races out of 67 are competitive. Fifteen of those include an incumbent Republican and eight include an incumbent DFLer. I then categorized the races into five levels of competitiveness. Continue reading
Last night, Suzanne and I volunteered as Precinct Captains for Amy Klobuchar’s campaign in Marshalltown, Iowa – a site we requested because I grew up on a farm 10 miles north of that city. (The caucus took place at Marshalltown Community College, which my two older brothers attended in the early 1960s.) Continue reading
Last month, Peter Callaghan, Greta Kaul, and Tom Nehil published an informative article on Minnpost.com titled “Who’s running for the Minnesota Legislature.” It lists the current shape of the 67 Minnesota Senate races and 134 Minnesota House races. It includes useful filters so you can narrow down the list.
In a recent blog post, I wrote that one person with energy and determination can have a significant impact on the 2020 elections by supporting a Democratic Minnesota House candidate in a swing district. So I decided to take a closer look at the 134 House races. Continue reading
