Michelle MacDonald’s loose grip on the law

October 20, 2016

Specifically, Minn. Stat. sec. 211B.02 (2016)

Jennifer Janovy for Edina City Council

October 19, 2016

And, of course, incumbent Mary Brindle, too

Mourning opportunities lost, a reprise

October 18, 2016

Below the bubbles is a story I wrote in the wake of the 2014 elections and the DFL’s loss of the Minnesota House of Representatives. One of the things I predicted — although it wasn’t that hard — was this: My friends, you can look forward another [2016] election cycle just like the last [2014] one, only […]

And Amy’s not a journalist, either!

October 15, 2016

And yet another update (10/19): The instances of people trying to divide the media from everyone else and decide who’s a journalist continue apace. Here’s constitutional lawyer Eugene Volokh in the Washington Post on CNN’s Chris Cuomo: “Also interesting is, remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you […]

Who runs this burg, anyway? Part Two

October 13, 2016

In Part One, I described the outsized role in making policy held by the staff (well, and consultants, too) in a city like Edina, and in fact, in Edina. And I cautioned against stacking the city council with members who are themselves professional municipal technocrats, likely to be staff and developer oriented, rather than resident […]

Who runs this burg, anyway?

October 12, 2016

Playing Sim City with other people’s money

Drinking Liberally talks politics

October 8, 2016

Well, even more than usual

Who the [blank] is “The Northstar Leadership Fund?”

October 3, 2016

Update: It is always gratifying when a newspaper article is published subsequently that confirms what you wrote, here about the EpiPen price gouging. This lit piece arrived in my mailbox this weekend: It was sent, not by Anselmo’s campaign, but by a group that lists its address as on the 48th floor of the IDS […]

Here a VAT, etc., part three

October 3, 2016

See the update at the foot of the story. In the first and second stories in this series, I described how the international trading system is stacked against US manufacturing workers, and that much of it is our own fault. Or more accurately, it is because we want it that way. The neo-liberal elites who […]

Here a VAT, etc., part two

October 2, 2016

Now with an update at the foot of the story. (10/3) And a second update. (10/4) In an earlier story, I wrote about value added taxes everywhere but the US, and how they can disadvantage US business. There is much more to this story, of course. One of the first thing we must realize is what […]

Here a VAT; there a VAT; everywhere a VAT VAT

September 30, 2016

I had an animated conversation with someone recently about value added taxes, arising in part out of Donald Trump’s mention of them in the recent debate as a disadvantage to the United States. My conversation partner said VAT was neutral, since everyone selling in a market pays them. I said that’s true as far as […]

Drinking Liberally on October 6th

September 30, 2016

You won’t want to miss it