Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

It isn’t surprising that Gov. Tim Walz has caved to environmental activists. In fact, it’s entirely predictable.

Gov. Tim Walz says his administration will continue to appeal regulatory approval of the Enbridge Energy Line 3 pipeline project in northern Minnesota. State utility regulators last summer approved Enbridge Energy’s plans to build a new $2.6 billion pipeline to replace the aging and corroding Line 3. But, former Gov. Mark Dayton’s Department of Commerce appealed that decision. Walz on Tuesday said his administration will continue that effort.

Gee, I wonder what could’ve caused that cave. Perhaps this?

Last month, more than 50 people, including scientists from the liberal activist group Science for the People, gathered in the governor’s reception room to say the science is clear the Line 3 upgrade will aggravate climate change by facilitating further use of fossil fuels.

Gov. Walz is just as owned by the lefty environmentalists as Gov. Dayton was. No wonder our economy isn’t what it could be.

After reading Councilman-elect Paul Brandmire’s editorial, it’s clear that a significant portion of our community isn’t interested in listening. It’s apparent, too, that another significant portion of our community doesn’t understand the US Constitution.

In his LTE, Councilman-elect Brandmire wrote “when thousands of people from a very different background are transplanted into the middle of that region in a very short period of time without the population having any say in that decision, it’s going to cause friction and take some time to adjust.”

Later, Brandmire said this:

That is why I support the idea of closing the seemingly wide-open spigot of refugees coming here until we can assimilate those who are already here.

One of the commenters replied “Brandmire’s side has been listened to, extensively, but as Don points out above, that side has pushed for an unworkable and un-Constitutional solution.” Actually, “Brandmire’s side” wasn’t tolerated. They were ambushed. They were called haters and Islamophobes. They were treated like they weren’t welcome in their own city:

There’s nothing unconstitutional about letting the federal government know we can’t absorb all of the refugees they’d been sending us. There’s nothing improper about telling the federal government that there’s a limit to how many refugees St. Cloud can support. Finally, there’s nothing unconstitutional to passing a resolution stating these things.

FYI- Monday night, I’ll be addressing the St. Cloud City Council. I hope to highlight the fact that several of the councilmembers haven’t listened to the people worth a damn. My councilmember, Steve Laraway, thinks that St. Cloud is a great place to live even though one-fourth St. Cloud’s population lives below the poverty level. Dave Masters, who represents St. Cloud’s First Ward, was offended by hats that said “Make St. Cloud Great Again” because, according to him, St. Cloud already is great. Masters thinks that despite the fact that St. Cloud’s violent crime was almost double the rate of Minnesota’s rate per 100,000 people.

Based on this article, it sounds like Chuck Schumer’s days as ‘minority leader for life’ might be numbered. Early in the article, it says “Progressive groups have a blunt assessment of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s work to defeat Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination: ‘You are failing us.’ Thirteen liberal groups have signed on to a letter, delivered Wednesday morning, that pans the minority leader’s strategy of stopping President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. They say that ‘the Democratic Party’s progressive base expects nothing less than all-out resistance to Trump’s dangerous agenda,’ and question whether Schumer is delivering it.”

That’s just part of it. It continues, saying “But Schumer is grappling with multiple challenges: a base that wants him to stop Kavanaugh even though Republicans can confirm him without Democratic help, as well as a brutal midterm map and vulnerable incumbents who are under pressure to support Trump’s pick. Senate Democrats have largely united behind Schumer’s strategy of demanding documents and disrupting the Judiciary Committee’s hearing. But liberal groups say it’s not enough.”

Do these people look like they’re capable of processing complex questions?

At this point, I question whether they’re capable of arriving at 4 when adding 2 + 2. Whether Schumer gets axed or not is beyond my control. Watching the fireworks, fortunately, isn’t.

In his open letter to the NFL, it’s pretty apparent that NBA superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar forgot to read the Constitution. In his letter, Jabbar said “In May, you implemented a childish policy about how grown men must respond to the national anthem: a player can stay in the locker room during the anthem, but if he takes the field and then protests, the team and the player can be fined. Oh, Dear Owners. You stood at the precipice of history tasked with deciding whether to choose the principles of the US Constitution over profits of commerce, patriotism over pandering, morality over mob mentality, promoting social justice over pushing beers. Sadly, you blinked. Courage, it seems, is expected only of players.”

Actually, the Constitution gives employers the right to squash free speech if that speech hurts their business. Each individual NFL franchise is worth lots of money. For instance, the Dallas Cowboys’ franchise is worth $4,800,000,000. The NFL’s TV contract is literally worth billions of dollars each year.

For that reason, these owners have the right to protect their financial interests. Abdul-Jabbar’s whining about owners choosing “the principles of the US Constitution over profits of commerce, patriotism over pandering, morality over mob mentality, promoting social justice over pushing beers” sounds like socialist blather.

The Constitution is just fine. Just because it doesn’t give you the outcome you prefer doesn’t mean it isn’t intact. The truth is that the Constitution is built on the premise that there’s constantly competing principles that have to be balanced against each other. That’s why the First Amendment doesn’t prohibit business owners from limiting their employees’ speech.

Further, this didn’t help the players’ cause:

The entire Hands Up, Don’t Shoot thing was a myth. That isn’t opinion. It’s a finding of fact. If players want to be activists, let them do it on their own time. NFL fans tune in, at least partially, to escape politics. Then, too, if the players want to use the opportunity to be activists, I’m certain that lots of fans will be willing to eliminate the NFL from their TV schedule. I’m certain because lots of them already have eliminated it from their TV priorities.

For all of Abdul-Jabbar’s high-minded talk, he apparently hasn’t figured out that free market capitalism still drives this nation.

This article highlights the depths of depravity that Democrats have sunk to. Remember Michelle Obama saying “When they go low, we go high”? What BS. The truth is that Democrats frequently go as low as it gets. This article is proof of it.

It opens by saying “Republican Rep. Jason Lewis told Fox News he has contacted the police over threats to him and even his daughters in the wake of reports about controversial statements he made as a radio show host. ‘It was serious enough for my office to alert the Capitol Police,’ Lewis told Fox News. The Minnesota congressman said his daughters were threatened in sick messages received by his office. It marks the latest in a wave of threats against not just Republican lawmakers themselves but their families.”

Last August, I wrote this post to highlight the fact that TakeAction Minnesota, a far left/anarchist organization, sent protesters to Lewis’ house last August. While they were there, TakeAction Minnesota took the time to intimidate some of Lewis’ neighbors.

In other words, I wouldn’t rule out TakeAction Minnesota as being involved in threatening Lewis’ daughters. I won’t say positively that TakeAction Minnesota is behind these threats. I just won’t rule it out. They’re that depraved. Just watch this video of TAM at Lewis’ home:

I’ll just be straightforward on this. This is proof that TAM is totally depraved. They should be investigated to within an inch of their existence. There’s no question that TAM isn’t afraid to use intimidation/anarchist tactics. They simply aren’t.

This isn’t the Party of Wellstone and Humphrey. The DFL has become the home for lunatics, mean-spirited anarchists and socialists.

It didn’t take long for Keith Ellison to admit that he’s running for the Minnesota Attorney General job to harass President Trump. Ellison said “It was attorneys general who led the fight against the Muslim ban. I want to be a part of that fight.”

What Rep. Ellison omits from his cheap shot statement is that a) it isn’t a Muslim ban and b) these attorneys general’s cases are flimsier than wet cardboard. The Supreme Court will rule that a) presidents have sole authority to set U.S. foreign policy and b) courts don’t have the intel or authority to set U.S. foreign policy.

What’s clear is that Ellison knows Republicans will maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the foreseeable future and that he’s likely to not be able to impact policy anytime soon. Ellison is an agitator. Being unable to be influential in DC, Ellison left.

GOP endorsed candidate Doug Wardlow didn’t waste time before attacking Ellison:

“Keith Ellison supports open borders, meaning he does not support the laws America currently has in place. How can he be the state’s top law enforcement official if he is unwilling to enforce our immigration laws?”

The thought of Ellison being Minnesota’s chief law enforcement officer is laughable. Ellison is famous for selectively enforcing laws:

Ellison also spoke favorably of convicted cop killer Assata Shakur and expressed his opposition to any attempt to extradite her to the United States from Cuba, where she had fled after escaping prison. “I am praying that Castro does not get to the point where he has to really barter with these guys over here because they’re going to get Assata Shakur, they’re going to get a whole lot of other people,” Ellison said at the event, which also included a silent auction and speech by former Weather Underground leader Bernardine Dohrn. “I hope the Cuban people can stick to it, because the freedom of some good decent people depends on it.”

Isn’t that great? The man that wants to be our attorney general wants cop-killers protected. Seriously?

Here’s Assata Shakur, aka Joanne Chesimard, in her own words:

That’s who Rep. Ellison fought for. Electing Ellison to be Minnesota’s Attorney General would be spitting in the face of Minnesota’s law enforcement personnel. Ellison has been a defense attorney his entire legal life. Why would we think that he’s capable of enforcing laws, especially when he’s had a history of ignoring laws he doesn’t like?

Written by Rambling Rose

A religion of peace? That is often the claim from the Left. They add that God and Allah are the same person and the religions are compatible…the same. Not at all! Attentive parents are finding out that such claims are taught in their school’s curriculum. Occasionally, media reports acknowledge schools where young people are forced to participate in Muslim practices as a means of promoting acceptance and understanding while banning the Bible from those same schools. Indoctrination and proselytizing in public, taxpayer-funded schools. It must stop!

Let’s visit such a school in West Virginia. After reading what is happening there, check with your own children’s/grandchildren’s/neighborhood children’s schools. It is certainly more widespread than just one school. There are instances of similar reports coming from other schools—just not being reported by the PC media.

Rich Penkoski, the father of a middle schooler at the Mountain Ridge Middle School in West Virginia, exposed a sinister indoctrination program of conversion to Islam. His daughter shared with him an assignment from her teacher to write the shahada, a faith declaration, declaring “there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” This assignment invoked fear in the father who knew that a shahada makes one a Muslim and any attempt to later contradict this claim is punishable by death as an apostate.

The teacher alleged that it was a calligraphy task, claiming that calligraphy was the script of the Muslims. The father knew that calligraphy was invented by the Chinese some 3000 years prior to the ‘existence’ of Mohammed.
When confronted by Mr. Penkoski, the teacher, Miss Hinson, and the principal, Dr. Branch, claimed that the assignment was optional. That contradicts the understanding by his daughter of the assignment who heard the teacher instruct the class that the work had to be completed or face disciplinary consequences.

Even worse were the reactions from his daughter’s classmates who threatened to send ‘friends’ his house to kill him, rip out his organs, and mutilate his body. Other classmates threatened to kill his wife and to hang his younger children and to kidnap his middle school daughter. Apparently, some of the students had already reached the decision to practice the “religion of peace.” Contrary to the claims from the Left, the Quran is explicit in its punishment against anyone who speaks negatively against its beliefs albeit in this country or in Sharia regimes. Mr. Penkoski and his family became their targets.

The packet for the middle school social studies class contained a detailed history of Islam, the prophet Muhammad and the five pillars of the religion, as well as the ‘calligraphy’ assignment. In the same class, the students also completed a packet on Christianity but that was not detailed. There was nothing in Hebrew in the assignments on Judaism. Hinduism and Buddhism were also a part of the unit. The teacher claimed that unit was a study of world religions but was not promoting any specific religion.

The principal asserted that “…each religion has received ‘equitable treatment’ throughout the world religions unit.” That was not the observation made by Mr. Penkoski’s daughter, who was in the class. She recalled that in the lessons on Christianity and Judaism, they had seen the start of two videos, learned a bit about Moses and the Ten Commandments, that the Israelites were persecuted by the Romans, and were told about the Jews and a little bit about Jesus.

Mr. Penkoski found the full version of the packets online (prepared by Teacher Created Resources Inc.) and contends that sections related to the Bible and the faith aspects of Christianity had been removed from the packet given to his daughter. “They cross the line with Islam because they went from the secular aspect of it to the faith aspect of it,” he continued. “Let’s be honest, if they had come home with the Lord’s Prayer, we would have atheists suing all over the place.”

It’s quite clear that public schools are including proselytizing for Islam in their curriculum. Is that a strategy to convert our children in the quest for worldwide domination?

It’s important that parents engage their students in conversations about their classes and examine the content of their homework assignments. This is not the first time that this father has confronted this school about their PC curriculum. Ms. Coffin showed a video about suicide prevention in her music class. That alone is a juxtaposed logic in curriculum…the theme would seem more appropriate in a health education class. It was a musical video about two male students, one an African-American gay, in bed together. A sex toy was shown in another scene. The teacher instructed the class NOT to share this “class activity” with their parents. In response to queries from the parent and the principal, the teacher claimed that the students wanted her to show the video and that she had NEVER instructed them to keep the information from the parents.

Society bemoans the loss of teachers from education, but this behavior, if mandated or even tolerated by administrators, will drive real experts of academic programs from the classroom. They cannot condone such practices in good conscience. This is not the reason that teachers become teachers. This is an example of community activists invading the schools and corrupting the innocent minds of the next generation.

God helps us all!!

ISD 742 was one of the 43 school districts that received a letter that “for suspension and expulsion disparities that the department claims violate the state Human Rights Act ‘because they deny students of color and students with disabilities educational access and negatively impact academic achievement.’ The human rights department offered the district two agreements to consider as a way to eliminate those disparities. A lawyer offered the district a modified agreement.”

Unfortunately, the District has already bought into this liberal ideology. According to the article, “the board voted Wednesday to offer the human rights department a fourth option, a version that highlights the work the district is already doing to eliminate suspension disparities and to change the focus of the agreement to keeping all students in school by using nonexclusionary practices.”

Discipline in the district was effectively nonexistent already. Commissioner Lindsey’s Department will make things worse.

The ‘remedy’ is worse than the disease:

The agreement the board approved submitting to the human rights department lists policies implemented by the district to reduce instances where student behaviors result in exclusionary discipline. Those include:

1. Eliminating zero tolerance policies except where required by law,
2. Having an in-school suspension policy designed to result in less adverse effects on minorities while still allowing disciplined students to be separated from the student body when necessary,
3. Having a Positive Behavior Intervention and Support program,
4. Practicing restorative justice,
5. Implementing culturally responsive instructional practices,
6. Implementing social and emotional learning initiatives,
7. Providing additional staff training in classroom management, conflict resolution and ways to deescalate classroom disruption and misconduct,
8. Providing programs to engage families,
9. Educating students on conflict resolution skills, and
10. Providing district resources to provide in-school alternatives to suspension.

Setting discipline based on racial quotas rather than behavior is counterproductive. This isn’t discipline. Potentially, it’s a protection racket. Don’t think that gangs won’t keep track of this. Thanks to ‘quota-based discipline’, gangs will know when disciplining them is off-limits.

Further, there’s no proof that restorative justice leads to better educational outcomes. After reading this article, I’m more than skeptical of restorative justice’s viability. That term is similar to strategic patience or leading from behind, which are different ways of saying doing nothing.

The MDHR is an activist position that pays a person a bloated salary. Further, the threats MDHR extends aren’t based on actual complaints but from statistics. Quota-based discipline is a collectivist’s system of discipline. That sounds more like a system based on implicit bias than on what’s actually happening.

Technorati: Restorative Justice, Leading From Behind, Strategic Patience, Kevin Lindsey, MDHR, ISD742, Implicit Bias, DFL, Activism

Many of the Parkland people that’ve hogged the spotlight (pun intended) can’t hold a candle to one of the true heroes of that horrific day. At the age of 15, Anthony Borges has done more heroic things than David Hogg and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel will likely do in their combined lifetimes. All young Mr. Borges did on that fateful day was use his body to protect the lives of 20 other students.

Compare that with disgraced Deputy Scot Peterson, who stayed outside to establish a perimeter while Nikolas Cruz allegedly fired his weapon, killing 14 students and 3 teachers. But I digress.

Borges “was released from the hospital Wednesday after suffering wounds to the lungs, abdomen and legs.” In his statement, which was read by his attorney, Borges said Superintendent Runcie and Sheriff Israel “failed us students, teachers and parents alike on so many levels. I want all of us to move forward to end the environment that allowed people like Nikolas Cruz to fall through the cracks. You knew he was a problem years ago and you did nothing. He should have never been in school with us.”

The FBI and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office have come under intense scrutiny following the shooting. The FBI admitted days after the shooting that they received a call on Jan. 5 from a person close to Cruz expressing concerns about his erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts. The former school resource deputy, Scot Peterson, did not enter the school during the shooting. The former deputy denied wrongdoing and retired from the office before an investigation was launched.

Peterson is the poster child for a disgrace. What he did fits the description of a coward. Rest assured that he’ll be one of the defendants in the Borges’ civil lawsuit.

Technorati: Anthony Borges, Parkland Hero, Shooting Victim, Civil Lawsuit, Robert Runcie, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Scott Israel, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, Nikolas Cruz, David Hogg

If people don’t care about civil rights, this article likely won’t bother you. If you’re big into government accountability, though, it’s a big deal. Here’s what happened.

Gary Gileno is an anti-illegal immigration activist and prolific YouTuber. Gileno “tried to bring a video camera into a meeting of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission last year. California law specifically allows the public to use recording devices at such meetings, but the commission’s meeting in August was held at a federal appellate court building where filming is prohibited.”

When Gileno tried taping the meeting, “deputy U.S. marshals told him he had to leave his camera in his car. Gileno insisted he had a right to record the meeting under the First Amendment and the state’s open meetings law, known as the Brown Act, and began filming the officers.”

First, I’d love hearing what statute was broken. Next, I’d love hearing the Commission’s explanation for why they moved the meeting to a building that doesn’t allow the videotaping of the meeting. If civilians are to provide oversight into this program, shouldn’t that information be available to everyone in video form? If that information isn’t available in video form, isn’t that effectively hiding the information from citizens? In this video, Gileno explains the events leading up to his arrest:

According to this video’s description, “The CA Brown Act guarantees that citizens at public meetings do not have to present ID, can record and display signs.” Despite that, a “citizen You Tuber was arrested for recording” the meeting.

I’m not a legal expert so I won’t speculate whether a civil suit should be filed against this ‘Civilian Commission’ that held its meeting at a location where videotaping isn’t allowed. I won’t hesitate in opining on whether the Commission acted improperly in silencing this journalist. Shame on their silencing this citizen journalist.