Tomorrow evening the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee will consider purging a leading party activist for the low political crime and not even a misdemeanor of challenging the progressive’s favorite candidate and losing badly in the primary.
Amazing how quickly the Democratic Socialists have forgotten how these purges were used against them. My Farmer Labor grandmother was accused of being a communist and her state convention delegate seat taken away in the late 1930s. In the early 1960s my grandfather along with the entire Carpenters Union Local executive board he served on were accused of being communists and removed from office. I’ve known my grandparents all my life and never saw even a shred of evidence they were communists and I don’t give a damn if they were. Fact is, they were purged not for their alleged political affiliation but because somebody else wanted their position and whatever power they though went with it. In the last couple decades I’ve had to attend a couple more of these inquisitions, and in both cases the inquisitors goal was clearly not punishing any wrongdoing but a plain old power grab. In this case, the accused is a devoted long term supporter of the DFL, it’s Outreach and Inclusion Committee, Labor, and her African American Community but as a reasonable DFL moderate she has incurred the wrath of the Democratic Socialists who want her seat on the DNC. After near a century of these unjustified power grabbing inquisitions it’s time to say no and quite purging our movements best leaders!
ICE just bought a privately owned prison in Appleton, Minnesota and took it off the tax rolls, taking away 30% of the city’s revenue. True to form the local GOP electeds defended Trump and ICE, with Michelle leading the pack.
Note the usual GOP briefing book…
Then, without answering a single constituents question, Fischbach bailed…
As the moderator moved on with private prison operator Core Civic’s canned response, neither Core Civic nor ICE were officially present.
Back in the days of fast mail by rail, many trains left the big city union stations ’round midnight with literally hot off the press election results to be delivered in the morning across the states.
I been worried- Democratic Socialists are not the preferred answer when voters simply want fair pay and reasonable prices. To put it simply, give Americans a union job, pension, and a home of their own and they’ll lose all interest in socialist fantasies, no matter how colorful the unicorns. Thus in normal election cycles democratic socialists are viable candidates only in D+20 or better districts.
Wisconsin is 94% counted and defying the polls, moderate David Crowley is leading Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong by about 3000 votes with most of Milwaukee’s absentee ballots still out. Looks like Wisconsin democrats took a hard look at Hong and decided she’d given the GOP too much ad material to use against her.
Minnesota is 95% counted with Amy Klobuchar easily winning the nomination for governor while the least crazy GOP candidate, Lisa DeMuth, sent Pillow Man back to Texas and endorsed candidate Qualls into 3rd place, ouch! In the US Senate race Peggy Flanagan scored an upset win over Angie Craig by a 20% margin, and on the GOP side former Football reporter Michele Tafoya handily beat endorsed candidate Adam Schwarze and 3 time Order for Protection recipient Royce White.
The governor’s race is pretty much over and Klobuchar will insure that even if the GOP controls the legislature Minnesota won’t sink into the abyss of backward GOP “governance”. The US Senate worries me though- We need to win 4 seats to take back the senate and the Democratic Socialist candidate in Michigan is likely to lose the seat we hold there. We’ve a democratic seat to lose in Minnesota too, and the GOP has plenty of Democratic Socialist misstatements to turn into attack ads against Flanagan.
But with strong turnout even “yellow dog democrats” and Democratic Socialists can win outside of progressive strongholds. In Minnesota the closest analogue to the 2026 race is 2018, and it took about 1,200,000 votes to win that year which we democrats handily did. Despite having two competitive statewide primary races to the democrats one, the GOP side of the primary had about 410,000 votes cast while on the democratic side about 689,000 votes were cast. Most of those will carry over to the general election, giving the democratic statewide candidates about 500,000 general election voters to win over while the GOP needs to win over about 800,000 to win. So while the GOP can spend millions broadcasting baseless fraud charges against Flanagan, Even playing the GOP moderate with no political past Tafoya has to win over nearly twice as many general election voters- That’s a tall order! The democratic turnout advantage will resonate all down the ticket- unsubstantiated charges of fraud, decency to trans folks and immigrants, and making a better state flag are unlikely to succeed when the democrats are turning out half again as many voters as the GOP!
“TW3” AKA “That Was The Week That Was” played on BBC TV in the early 60s and was a satirical spoof of network TV news, and a damn good one at that. The political events of the last week in the midwest could just as well pass for satire, and came all too fast. Crowning a day of humiliating themselves at Farmfest, the GOP outdid themselves when Minnesota CD8 Rep Stauber claimed that CD6 GOP Rep Emmer was MIA and was “fighting for his life”. Maybe for his political life, as an MPR reporter soon confirmed that Emmer was recovering from a foot injury… You can’t make up comedy this good! Next day live at Farmfest topped even that…
So here you come to a nice normal farm show to be greeted with this, before you can peruse even a single tractor or hybrid seed? But from a guy who by court order must stay at least a quarter mile away from the ex-wife and child he abused for the next half century, would we expect anything less grandiose? Says something of the GOP that he’s outpolling their endorsed candidate who didn’t even qualify to be on the debate stage, and the GOP endorsee for governor barely qualified.
I know, they look bored- Amy Klobuchar on the left is the most popular politician in Minnesota since at least Humphrey and will win easily. The three GOPers on the right may as well be sending out resumes, though “Pillow Man” in the middle might be a good candidate for appointment as Minnesota’s “Court Jester”. Lisa DeMuth caught heck from the other GOPers for being too civil with the DFLers, Pillow Man promised a magical budget to fix Minnesota while he’s still trying to figure out the budget, and does anybody remember anything the actual GOP endorsed sacrificial lamb on the end said?
Pretty much reached my limits hiking over to the excellent Gillfillan Farm museum and working antique farm equipment display for lunch, then to the DFL candidates hangout AKA the Farmers Union hoop barn for much needed coffee…
Great Farmers Union coffee, but the Senate Forum provide more than enough stimulus…
So on the left we got democrats CD2 Rep Angie Craig and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, who despite a hard fought primary managed to avoid attacking each other for a change, followed by GOP Football color commentator and candidate Michelle Tafoyia who was trying to navigate the difficult political straits of being a sorta pro-choice GOPer and frequently checking her briefing book. and last but least, Abuser Royce White standing up and yelling to impress or intimidate us or something. While Angie talked sense, Peggy tried, and Michelle tried to fake it, Royce called the democrats and probably Michelle too by association communists and had at least one ardent pro-lifer doing the pentecostal waving of hands during a poor attempt at “call and response” ministry.
Had to bail to help set up the SD15 fundraiser, then a fast hours drive to my City Council meeting and back. Meanwhile a campaigngn who shall go nameless dumped a Transit sized load of lawn signs and bigger on us, necessity a scramble to find vehicles to haul the haul. Spent half an hour switching my flatbed over from machinery hauling to sideboards and everything was already loaded when I got there. Nearly 10 when I got home so kicked back, showered, and slept.
Then ‘fore I could even write this up Trump and his GOP screwed up again, right in their western Minnesota backyard! ICE had been threatening to reopen the abandoned for-profit Appleton, Minnesota prison for some time, and they outdid themselves- After Trump had bought stock in the owners ICE bought the whole damn prison and another one in Kansas. It gets crazier- They paid a 500 million of our tax dollars for a prison that Minnesota turned down for less than 100 million and has an assessed value of 15 million. And what happens when the federal government buys private property? It don’t pay taxes no more. This leaves Appleton with a half million dollar revenue loss effective just about immediately, ’cause the corporation ain’t even paid the second half taxes yet. Appleton, a city of around 1,400, has a budget of around 2 million including a library bond payment of over $100,000 due every year and infrastructure in dire need of repair, and the GOP just stiffed’ ’em! And those good jobs the republicans were promising along with tax revenue? The company will still run the prison, so no well paid with benefits federal employees boosting the local economy.
Finally, as a reluctant DFL officer I have to support endorsed US Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan and I’ve done my best, despite Peggy never asking for my support- Heck, we seldom see Peggy out here. The PolSci 101 dropouts of the Democratic Socialists are backing Peggy, and maybe they talked her into running despite serving one term in the legislature, school board before that, and never facing a serious GOP opponent. At the Farmfest Forum she was checking her briefing book while primary opponent Angie Craig gave us an education on the details of farm policy and health care, no surprise why she’s the top democrat on the Ag Committee. While Peggy simplistically argued for the progressives latest rebrand of “single payer”, now “Medicare for All”, Angie skillfully explained how many Americans have better health care than Medicare and prefer to keep it, and how the “public option” she supports will offer a choice that will serve everyone better. No surprise that the GOP would prefer to run against Peggy and has millions ready to spend against her. We need to pick up 4 seats to take back the US Senate, good change we can win them but we can’t afford to give back senate seats in Michigan and Minnesota to the GOP. For us western Minnesota democrats, Angie can run a winning campaign without our help while Peggy will suck up all our resources and drag down our downballot candidates.
I exercised my constitutional right to protect my health care and defied the DFL by voting for Angie Craig.
First off, best wishes for a prompt recovery to MN6 GOP Congressman Tom Emmer from the illness that prevented his participation.
Been going to Farmfest and it’s famous candidate forums for a couple decades now, and like it’s sponsoring big ag aligned Farm Bureau it’s slowly shrinking along with the number of farmers in our country, just as big ag intended. So no surprise that Farm Bureau’s membership and finances are shrinking too, with plenty of vacant lots in the temp city that is Farmfest and empty seats at the forum. Used to be SRO at the forms, today plenty of empty seats despite today’s relief from the global warming that has plagued Farmfest in recent years. So the giant pole building poorly cosplaying as a theatre that could hold hundreds barely saw a hundred in attendance at best.
Noting their rural approval ratings falling with the crop prices, the Trump Regime flew in apologists, with USDA head Brook Rollins finally taking the stage about the time the actual candidates for CDs 1 and 2 were intended to. Scheduled to start at 10:10 she talked up Trump until damn near 11, despite never having to wait for applause from the thin audience. Didn’t do much better online, with about 10 viewers on Valley News Live’s 21K subscriber YouTube channel.
Thus the CD 1 and 2 candidates started on their 2nd or 7th question, couldn’t tell due to bad audio, when Farmfest’s video finally worked at 10:20, over an hour behind schedule. CD1 GOP incumbent had at best a half dozen occasionally clapping supporters, well outnumbered by the democrat’s supporters. Showing the desperation of his re-election campaign, he spoke in support of vague “immigration reform” and joined the forgettable republican challenger for CD2’s open seat in opposing “foreign threats” to ag land ownership. Meanwhile, democratic candidates Jake Johnson in CD1 and CD2 candidates demonstrated detailed mastery of ag issues despite many not coming from farm backgrounds- Like current CD2 democratic congresswoman Angie Craig, they’ve clearly been doing their homework! The three democratic candidates running in the CD2 primary also demonstrated commendable civility to each other, U.S. Senate candidates please take note. With network news invoking a time certain forum end at noon, this first group of candidates were denied 20 minutes time by the Trump apologist- Finsted must need covering up pretty bad!
The afternoons forum with the CDs 6, 7, and 8 candidates started on time and drew a whole maybe hundred onlookers. CD7 democratic challenger Erik Osberg had over half the audience behind him, the first time I have ever seen democrats outnumber republicans at this event, they were spontaneous and even gave CD7 republican incumbent Michelle Fischbach a chorus of boos when she deserved it. CD8 republican incumbent Pete Stauber wore an AC/DC T-shirt and tried to play alpha male, clearly past his prime for the part. Again, DFL challengers Osberg, Doug Chapin from CD6, and Trina Swanson from CD8 showed mastery of policy details while Fischbach and Stauber dared not stray from the standard Trump talking points. When Stauber accused democrats of health care fraud, Swanson reminded him that Trump had just pardoned the largest health care fraudster in history! Both Stauber and Fischbach supported tariffs and Stauber even supports the Data Center that got snuck into Hermantown, corruption being SOP for the GOP.
The candidates got to run over a few minutes and the second Trump apologist, under secretary of something or other at USDA Luke Lindberg, got too prevent the dreaded “dead air” if the broadcast feed was still live as the crowd wandered out. After drama queen alpha male wannabe Stauber claimed the missing CD6 republican incumbent Tom Emmer was “fighting for his life”, several sources have confirmed that Emmer recently underwent surgery for a foot injury. As Donald Trump has taught us, foot injuries can be very traumatic for republicans… Especially when they’re trying to get outa something!
If you’ve been following the off year election results, democrats have been outperforming there 2024 results by an average of a bit over 10%. That shift on average moves all the U.S. house seats up about R+5 to the democrats and hands us a nice working majority, but isn’t quite enough to take back the U.S. Senate. But Saturday we saw a grossly outspent working class democrat win an R+10 or so Texas state Senate seat the republicans have held for decades by 14%!
Ya, I know, this could be a statistical outlier. But no doubt republicans polled this race and they spent millions on what should have been an easy win. And here in Minnesota, we suddenly have republican legislators in deep red districts retiring- Do they know something we don’t? Most likely what were seeing is independent leaning Trump voters remorse covered with a thick coat of ICE’s terrorism and lubed up with Epstein files to the point where no republican can safely stand for election without falling on their electoral ass!
This should change our whole democratic strategy for 2026- We’ll win easily in swing districts so not point in wasting campaign dollars there, contrary to the usual democratic strategy. The best return for our energy and $$$ will be in the R+5 to R+9 districts, and even the reddest districts should be seriously contested- For example, MN7 is a long shot, but with a 20% shift to democrats and a troubled republican incumbent facing challenges in her own party, this race is winnable too!
Lyrics from The Who, written by Peter Townsend (1971)
“Meet the new boss….”
“Same as the old boss…”
Won’t get fooled again!
I’ll grant that when it comes to nazi cosplay Bitch Bovino wins with extensive ornamentation and the wide lapel Hitler era coat, and in his more often seen executive cosplay Homan tries hard to impersonate a grandfather. But when Nuremberg trials 2.0 comes around, Bovino will get life while Hogan like the slick nazi businessmen who profited handsomely from Jew’s slave labor and furnished their homes with their stolen art, he’ll probably slink off to Argentina or somewhere corrupt when democracy is restored to our nation.
Despite the cordiality between Homan and Minnesota democratic governor Walz and Minneapolis mayor Frey today, out on the cold streets ICE was bustin’ in, grabbin’, and kidnapping like usual. Reports from previously swarmed cities like LA and Chicago advise that ICE never left, and they’re not leaving Minnesota yet either. So keep your guard up.
Sadly we must add VA ICU nurse and AFGE union brother Alex Pretti to our list of Minnesotans murdered by government authorized thugs. Alex, you made the ultimate sacrifice for democracy, may you Rest In Power!
They probably didn’t teach you this in school, but in 1934 Minneapolis Teamster coal drivers went on strike over falling wages and other workers and farmers joined them on the picket lines. The company owners responded with the usual collection of armed thugs known as the “Citizens Alliance” and Minneapolis Police. As the strike grew, on July 20th these thugs attacked the strikers in the warehouse district, killing two and wounding sixty seven. The good citizens of Minnesota were so upset that the funeral precession was at least ten kilometers long, simple math tells us that given the 10 meter or so width of Minneapolis streets, at least 50,000 came out to protest that cold blooded murder and demand justice.
Two months ago ICE invaded Minnesota in retaliation for our simply welcoming our immigrant neighbors. Piling on the stupidity, they responded to massive non violent protests by murdering mother of three Renee Good, then denied her medical care while helping the murderer escape. The protests grew, and ICE thugs only became more violent, wounding innocent bystanders and kidnapping 5 year old and even 2 year old children.
As the 1934 Teamsters strike grew and became a general strike the thugs and their business owner bosses became even more repressive, occupying strike headquarters and imprisoning strikers at the state fairgrounds. But the strike fed on repression, and the company owners finally surrendered and signed union contracts, making Minnesota a union stronghold. Today’s ICE OUT march and rally filled 20,000 seat Target Center with thousands more outside, even conservative media estimated the crowd at 50,000. That’s enough bodies to lay siege on ICE, chase them outa Minnesota, and keep our immigrants safe and fed in the meantime. ICE and Trump will retaliate, but just like 1934 we will win.
May they Rest In Power: Teamsters Henry Ness and John Belor, Philandro Castile, George Floyd, and Renee Good
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Sassy Democrat 