What a great chance for Senators Klobuchar and Smith to show some real gumption

January 8, 2021

I wrote this, on another blog, when Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) made her POTUS run official, in 2019. AKlo’s political approach has always been to pick the safest position on every issue, and stay there as if welded down. It’s made her electorally invulnerable in Minnesota, and has absolutely nothing to do with being a […]

by Dan Burns

Kind of pithy remarks on the 2021 MN lege

January 6, 2021

First of all, “pithy,” which means having substance and point, contains an element of sarcasm, here. My record, when it comes to any kind of politics-related prognostication, is, in a word, wretched. The best thing is that I am comfortable suggesting that the DFL caucuses in both houses can legitimately be termed “progressive,” and that […]

by Dan Burns

The grievance and resentment are strong in this one

January 3, 2021

Writing to the Strib while gulping a tall glass of bile

by Steve Timmer

Are phone companies really trying to block robocalls?

December 20, 2020

You may recall this. The article I took it from is dated Jan. 1, 2020. The bipartisan legislation expanded the power of the Federal Communications Commission to deter spam calls and reinforced the responsibility of individual phone companies to protect their own consumers. “With this legislation, phone companies will be required to give all consumers […]

by Dan Burns

Why is Emmer’s the only Minnesota name backing the Trumper sedition? – UpdateX2

December 11, 2020

Why aren’t other MN Party of Trumpers proudly there?

by Dan Burns

Biden and education – who knows, yet?

December 3, 2020

I’m somewhere between progressives who are in “give the guy a chance” mode, and those who are already openly cynical about there being realistic possibilities of Pres.-elect Biden bringing about much, if any, lasting, positive change during his term(s). Nothing wrong with pushing for positives, whether you privately have any optimism that way or not. […]

by Dan Burns

A little pandemic doggerel

November 21, 2020

We are Blue and they are Red

by Steve Timmer

Why not crush this Line 3 nonsense, once and for all?

November 18, 2020

The Minnesota Pollution “Control” Agency just rubber-stamped permitting for the proposed Enbridge Line 3 tar sands sludge pipeline. Here’s one righteously brutal response: Twelve out of 17 members of a group that advises the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on environmental justice issues have resigned in protest of the agency’s approval late last week of a […]

by Dan Burns

I told those stoned fuckers not to do that

November 10, 2020

From this, written by me, some time before the election: It’s different now. There is a very straightforward path, and a very doable one, to make it legal in Minnesota soon. Governor Tim Walz supports legalization. The DFL-controlled House is fairly chomping at the bit – they know damn well what a winning issue this […]

by Dan Burns

Why I’m not particularly worried about Election Night, or after

November 2, 2020

I know doom-and-gloom about Trump stealing the election, and mass violence, and so on, are dominating the progressive internet right now. But I just can’t bring myself to feel it. Earlier today, one of the most right-wing federal judges in the country threw out an effort to disqualify a bunch of mostly Democratic votes. He […]

by Dan Burns

Sputtering hostility is not a legal argument

October 30, 2020

Recently, the 8th Circuit considered a Minnesota law that postponed a federal election date when a major party (one of the cannabis parties) candidate died close enough to the election to require a postponement to permit the nomination of a substitute candidate. Second District Congresswoman Angie Craig brought suit to invalidate the postponement, which had […]

by Steve Timmer

Don’t panic over court ballots deadline decision

October 30, 2020

But do what you have to, to get your vote counted

by Dan Burns