This is what democracy (parades) look like

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“This is what democracy looks like” has become a classic chant, but I’m not much of a chanter. Maybe that’s why I pull out the camera. “Sorry, can’t chant, I’m recording!” My motives being whatever they are, I marched with a big bunch of DFLers in the May Day Parade in Minneapolis on Sunday and recorded bits of it. The campaigns of Keith Ellison, Mark Dayton, Al Franken, and Betsy Hodges were there, and several other candidates and elected officials will appear below. If you want to participate in grassroots politics, but you’re not comfortable knocking on strangers’ doors or making cold calls to people who may not want to talk to you, join some candidate you support at a parade. Even just being there, you help your candidate tell parade watchers that you’re asking for their vote and not taking it for granted, which hopefully was a message conveyed Sunday. Continue Reading

Stop fighting about global warming

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Let me be clear as possible about that headline. No, don’t stop fighting global warming. Don’t stop trying to do something about it. Yes, stop fighting about it. Stop wasting time with science deniers. That means stop arguing with the crazy uncle at family gatherings and the dittohead at the watercooler. Don’t let the trolls hijack the comment threads and cause you to frustrate yourself trying to convince the unconvincible. Continue Reading

$3.5 million too much to spend to give kids lunch in school

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$3.5 million is too much to spend to make sure low income children get to eat lunch at school. I wouldn’t have thought so either, but Sen Sean Nienow has shown me the light: “If the problem is that we have one or two or 10 or 50 or 100 or 1,000 kids that have a parent that [isn’t] fulfilling their responsibility, well then let’s look at targeting the resources to fix that problem, and not spend it on all 60,000 kids.” Continue Reading

Require a damage deposit from sulfide mining

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Since the proposed sulfide mines in Minnesota’s Iron Range are estimated to be worked out in 20 years, and then the mining companies are gone, it’s sort of like the mining companies are renting a piece of wilderness and potentially leaving the place trashed like a spiteful tenant leaving an apartment with no expectation of recovering the damage deposit. At least the landlord gets the damage deposit to cover cleaning and repair costs. Would it be such an imposition to demand a damage deposit before approving sulfide mining? The mining companies are supposed to make some sort of assurances under existing law, which feels a bit like a landlord just accepting some assurances that damage will be paid for. Continue Reading

Reframing the minimum wage

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There was a recent poll showing Americans 76% support an increase in the minimum wage. This last election, New Jersey voters raised their state minimum wage in a constitutional amendmentthat also will raise it with inflation. This despite easily reelecting Chris Christie who vetoed an increase. They overruled their bully boy governor even as they bizarrely gave him another term. When minimum wage increases are on the ballot, they pass, seemingly every time. I’m hardly claiming exhaustive research here, just noting that if a ballot measure to raise a state’s minimum wage ever failed, I couldn’t find it. Continue Reading

Strategy and opportunity with marijuana legalization

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A recent Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans favor marijuana legalization for the first time, and supporters skew towards the younger end of the age spectrum. TPM gets a hat tip and credit for calling it correctly. They said last April this would happen, “Surprised At Speed Of Gay Marriage? Pot Legalization Is Next“. In that article, they posted a graph using polling data going back to 1995 which showed that support for marijuana legalization followed the same trajectory as support for marriage equality, being just a bit behind. With the increase in support for marriage equality which a few months earlier allowed supporters to win at the polls in four states, they predicted marijuana legalization would shortly reach the same level of support. Apparently they were right. TPM unfortunately lost the graph when the redesigned their web site, but I found it in an internet archive. Here it is: Continue Reading

Don’t give me some sugar because I’d rather have my money back

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What would you think of somebody who took out a loan, used something valuable as collateral, and when the collateral dropped in value by the time the loan was due, refused to pay the loan and made the borrower take the less valuable collateral? Assume the borrower had the money to pay the loan, but just chose not to pay. Perhaps the first thought that came to your mind upon hearing that description was the horror that greeted the suggestion that underwater homeowners who were struggling to pay their mortgages should just walk away, and tell the bank to just keep the house. How immoral! How irresponsible! In some places, even illegal! You can’t just walk away from a debt, come on. Continue Reading

Syrian war crimes trials or missiles

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I’m skeptical of suggestions of ad hoc war crimes trials as a way to respond the chemical weapons attacks in Syria, partly because they’re so far just congressmen tossing off suggestions at a time when Congress is working on the specific wording of resolutions already, but let’s suppose the idea was developed and serious. There are other problems. When there’s already a permanent International Criminal Court which most nations have signed on to, but not the US, the only interest in an ad hoc court might come from us. Are we willing to do that alone? Would such a court have any legitimacy? If some future Syrian government would support such a court, it won’t actually need or even want our help. Even if such a court can get up and running, it would have the legitimacy problem of being perceived as victor’s justice. Even that assumes that the prospective defendants can be brought to trial. If they attain or retain power, trying them isn’t going to happen. Besides, maybe knowing there’s an indictment hanging over their heads, maybe they have an incentive to fight to the bitter end, well past any realistic hope of victory. Continue Reading