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Reading in the Age of Coronavirus

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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 →

2020 Iowa Caucus

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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 →

How to Support Minnesota’s Democratic Legislature

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In my last blog post, I wrote that one person could have a significant impact on the 2020 elections by doorknocking for a DFL State Representative candidate in a swing district. I then list ten candidates in swing districts to consider.

Hilary Beste, who is the Director for DFL Senate District 46, has the same goal but has been advocating a different strategy. She is encouraging DFLers to donate $10 to each DFL House candidate in a swing district. Below is the flyer that she was handing out at a recent DFL state committee meeting. I liked her idea and flyer so I asked her if I could add it to my blog. She said sure, but I would also have to tweet about it, which I will do. Continue reading →

WE

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About a year and a half ago, I started this blog and a Twitter account by the same name hoping that I would be able to share intelligent and insightful observations about local and national politics. I figured if I was especially intelligent and insightful, I’d have hundreds of followers to my blog and thousands of followers to my Twitter account after a couple of years.

Even though I’ve written some intelligent blog posts (in my humble opinion) and tweeted numerous clever tweets (again IMHO), I’m going to fall way short.  I’m OK with that since I’m not being paid by the New York Times or the Washington Post for my writings. But in this post, I have a suggestion that I think the Democratic Party should adopt. Continue reading →

Will Minnesota in 2018 be like Virginia in 2017?

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Virginia made election history on Tuesday when the Democratic Party flipped 15 seats to change control of the House of Delegates from 66 to 35 for the Republicans to 49 to 47 for the Democrats with four districts needing recounts. All 15 seats that the Republicans lost were held by men and 11 of the winning Democrats were women.

Should these results encourage the DFL to think they can flip 11 seats in 2018 to take control of the MN House of Representatives? Should it strike fear into the Minnesota GOP? Continue reading →

Why I Support Tim Walz

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the importance of the statewide races for the Minnesota House of Representatives. With work hard, Democrats can change 11 house seats so that we take control of the house.

In that post, I added that the most important race in 2018 is the governor race, because we are one race from becoming Wisconsin. I want to use this post to explain why I’m supporting Tim Walz as the next governor of Minnesota. Continue reading →

Winner’s Chapel vs Dignity Center

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I live in Brooklyn Park so I spend a lot of time driving east and west on 85th Avenue North. When I do this, I pass by a large abandoned church building. Apparently, it was one of those mega-churches which become not-mega.

A couple of weeks ago, I nearly slammed on the brakes when I drove by the building, because it had a brand new sign on the front saying “Winner’s Chapel.” Starting a chapel only for winners did not seem very Jesus-like to me. Continue reading →

MN House Races in CD3

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The 2018 elections in Minnesota are going to be very interesting for Democrats in CD3. Probably the most important election is for governor. As more than one person has said, Minnesota is only one governor race away from becoming Wisconsin. Another priority is getting rid of the despicable Erik Paulsen and having a Democrat represent this district for the first time since 1961.

I’d like to suggest that equally important is electing more Democrats to the Minnesota House of Representatives. Right now, there are 77 Republicans and 57 Democrats in the House. The Republicans control the Senate by one vote 34-33. The senators do not run again until 2020, so unless one Republican decides he or she can no longer be a member of the Trump party, the GOP will control one branch of the government for three more years. Continue reading →

White Working Class (WWC) vs Get Out The Vote (GOTV)

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Now that I’m retired, I have more time to listen to podcasts. Actually, I’m finding that it is a great era to be retired. I can listen to podcasts, binge-watch TV shows, watch YouTube videos, listen to Audible books on my iPhone, google random topics which leads to more googling, and read internet blogs (like this one!).  

Getting back to podcasts: last week I listened to two podcasts back-to-back that offered contradictory advice to the Democratic party. After the first podcast, I said to myself, “That makes sense.” An hour later, I listened to the other podcast and said to myself, “I’m not sure what makes sense now.” Continue reading →

Optimism

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As mentioned last week, I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday getting campaign training at Camp Wellstone at the University of Minnesota.  www.wellstone.org @wellstoneaction #cwminnesota

I learned a lot about operating a campaign, but my biggest takeaway from this weekend is a sense of optimism even as we endure these dark days of the Trump Presidency. I met many amazing people at the training who decided to get involved in politics after November 8th. Continue reading →