Fourteen years of bullshit

August 25, 2019

In an opinion piece in the Strib, Nancy McReady, president of Conservationists with Common Sense (a “charity” whose last 990 reported on Guidestar is from 1998, even though it participates in the GiveMN program) says that there have been fourteen years of transparency in the permitting of the PolyMet pit mine. Governor Walz hummed a […]

by Steve Timmer

Environmentalist Bob Tammen wins a Spotty ™

August 24, 2019

For this letter in the Star Tribune on Thursday, August 22nd, Bob Tammen wins the coveted Spotty™. As a miner, I know this won’t work The Star Tribune’s Aug. 19 opinion page had an interesting juxtaposition: a counterpoint by Nancy McCready promoting PolyMet (“Transparency, PolyMet foes demand. If only they’d noticed 14 years of it”) […]

by Steve Timmer
boardroom

The new Business Roundtable Declaration: Serious soul-searching or preposterous PR stunt?

August 23, 2019

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But I’d say, a lot more of the latter. This week, the Business Roundtable put out a statement signed by 181 corporate CEOs purporting to redefine the purpose of the corporation. The statement, which has garnered widespread praise among commentators, basically proposes to junk the idea, fashionable since the […]

by Dan Burns

The fate of Bombus affinis is in your hands!

August 20, 2019

The Rusty Patched Bumblebee is the new Minnesota state bee

by Lois Schadewald

Environmental justice in sulfide mining

August 16, 2019

A letter to the governor

by Steve Timmer
popcorn

Trump hireling insults Minnesota farmers

August 14, 2019

But I doubt that he, or his boss, really cares.

by Dan Burns

The authors of “Let the sunshine in” win a Spotty ™

August 14, 2019

Tom Berkelman, Arne Carlson and Janet Entzel win a Spotty ™ for their Commentary

by Steve Timmer

To my fellow tail-end Charlies:

August 10, 2019

If you had any question where you, the St. Louis River watershed, Ojibwe tribe members and landowners, City of Duluth, and environmentalists stood in the eyes of Glencore plc, well now, there is no doubt. If you had any before. Glencore met with Governor Walz and I guess he was bold enough to suggest that […]

by Steve Timmer

I have seen the nadir of the human intellect, and it is Trump

August 9, 2019

Corporate media has done a piss-poor job of informing the public about the major issues with Trump’s mental health, especially his delusional and narcissistic disorders. But it’s been even worse when it comes to how “President” Donald Trump is so god-damned pathetically just fucking unbelievably stupid. The absolute idiot seems completely unable to distinguish fact […]

by Dan Burns

Corporate media cowers on Trump racism, and the results are pitiful

August 6, 2019

1. First and foremost, they never actually use the word “racist” to describe someone who is exactly that. Doing so might get c. media’s base (tellingly, the same as the Republican Party’s), of subscribers/viewers/listeners considerably removed from their first youth, all riled up. But journalists too often look away, insisting they can’t tell where Trump […]

by Dan Burns

Minnesota’s investment follies

August 2, 2019

Word comes via the Star Tribune that Minnesota’s investment board has invested in Glencore, Antofagasta, and Enbridge. Swell. In addition to the teensy conflict of interest it presents (all are supplicants to Minnesota agencies), this makes some members of the environmental community, well, gag, on a general level. Some people are asking for divestiture. As […]

by Steve Timmer
aipoll

“Emotional AI” is going to be the greatest, right?

July 26, 2019

As with everything else tech, the first and so far quite possibly only thing you’ve seen or heard about “emotional AI” is how wonderfully gloriously great it all is, with no downside at all. You know, like social media has worked out to be. Uh, not so fast. An ACLU report published (June 13) called […]

by Dan Burns