The rural healthcare pogrom

May 5, 2017

It won’t be news to anybody that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare. Just as replacing Obama with Trump was a bad idea generally, this is, too. According to the linked Strib article, the bill faces a steeper climb in the Senate. It is interesting to note that […]

by Steve Timmer

“It’s illogical,” says Dusty

May 5, 2017

There was an op-ed by a flack for internet retailers in the paper edition of the Strib on May 3rd. It concerned the entirely oppressive requirement, proposed by lawmakers, that out-of-state internet sellers collect sales taxes on sales to their Minnesota customers, just as the brick and mortar stores do. I don’t know how this […]

by Steve Timmer

An unapologetic love letter to Historic Fort Snelling, part two – a reprise

May 5, 2017

2017 note: This is part two of my story from the end of the last legislative session about bond funding for the restoration of Historic Fort Snelling. The Minnesota Historical Society is trying again this year. o O o In part one, I described the bonding request from Historic Fort Snelling and the Minnesota Historical […]

by Steve Timmer

An unapologetic love letter to Historic Fort Snelling – a reprise

May 3, 2017

2017 note: The Minnesota Historical Society is trying again this year to get bond funding from the Legislature to renew and improve Historic Fort Snelling for its bicentennial year in 2020. o O o There was a crowd, just as large, on the other side of the parade grounds, too. Memorial Day 2016. Historic Fort […]

by Steve Timmer

Kim Jong-un is really an annoying little s**t

April 15, 2017

Everybody thought he was going to set off another big firecracker on his grandpa’s birthday: The United States, China and other regional powers had feared that North Korea might mark the occasion by conducting its sixth nuclear test or by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile. The United States sent a naval strike group to the coast […]

by Steve Timmer

DJ has a sad

April 3, 2017

D.J. Tice may be excused for fawning over Supreme Court nominee, the great wooden cigar store Indian, Neil Gorsuch. D.J. criticized (with some justification) the grandstanding Democrats and the blubbering, grandstanding Republicans at the recent hearing on the Gorsuch nomination. To me, the reason that Gorsuch should be rejected is not because of a frozen […]

by Steve Timmer

“People don’t care one iota”

April 2, 2017

The Minnesota House of Representatives passed a transportation bill: The Minnesota House on Friday approved a $2.2 billion transportation plan that would boost state spending on roads and bridges and likely force cuts to public transit. Here’s what the bill’s chief author, Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said about the it; the bill contemplates spending $6 […]

by Steve Timmer

“Fascism is the result of the failure of the left to provide an alternative”

March 27, 2017

Update 4/7/17: Readers here know that I am an admirer of writer Thomas Frank. He just finished a long and international book tour that ended in his home town, Kansas City. I am sure it was kind of a valedictory presentation for him. Here’s a video of his appearance at the Kansas City Public Library; […]

by Steve Timmer

Paul goes fishing with Fredo

March 26, 2017

From The Hill on Saturday evening: Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose show President Trump urged his followers on Twitter to watch earlier in the day, opened her program on Saturday evening by calling on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to step down. “Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House. The reason, […]

by Steve Timmer

Dear rural friends: it’s not our fault: a reprise

March 20, 2017

The politics of grievance and resentment

by Steve Timmer

The comedy team of David & Linda

March 2, 2017

When Sen. David Osmek and Rep. Linda Runbeck filed legislative resolutions to divert about a billion federal dollars away from the Southwest Light Rail Transit line, I almost wrote about it then, but I decided to wait for the inevitable denouement. (I like that word; I haven’t had a chance to use it lately.) Said […]

by Steve Timmer

What happened to the rule of law?

February 12, 2017

I haven’t written anything for a long time. I will amend that; I haven’t written anything at LeftMN for a long time. I have been busy with lawyering stuff, though, about which you will undoubtedly hear more later. Since last we’ve spoken my friends, Donald Trump has become our president. Opinions about President Trump are […]

by Steve Timmer