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Democrats' Virginia redistricting fails

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Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court, aka SCOVA, handed Democrats a stinging defeat in their attempt to change their congressional district maps. According to the report, "Democrats were dealt a blow in their efforts to minimize Republican redistricting gains around the US when the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday blocked a voter-approved map that would have flipped as many as four GOP-held US House seats in November’s midterm elections. In a 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court ruled on Friday that the legislature’s process for pursuing the new map violated Virginia’s Constitution and ordered that an earlier version be used in the upcoming midterm elections." It isn't likely that Virginia will appeal today's ruling since it was based on state law. The U.S. Supreme Court, aka SCOTUS, only rules on federal issues like civil rights or the US Constitution’s equal protection clause. That would give SCOTUS an opening, though the Roberts Court prefers staying out of parti...

Salena Zito: the press got it wrong again, Indiana edition

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It isn't exactly a well-kept secret that Salena Zito is my favorite political beat reporter. When she reports on a story, she reports from the location of the election. In Salena's latest report , she reported "Going into Tuesday night, both the local and national press professed doom for Trump’s fortunes and influence, with headlines from Politico reading 'Trump’s redistricting revenge tour in Indiana isn’t going so well.' The reporter openly mocked the attendance at a Turning Point USA rally with conservative activist Scott Pressler, showing shots of a handful of people attending as proof that the effort was flailing." The so-called experts miss their predictions because they didn't spend a week in, for instance, Indiana talking to people. Without that, you've got nothing substantive. At that point, to use a longtime friend's phrase, are SWAG, aka Statistical Wild Ass Guesses. You don't have data. Salena's report continues, reporting ...

Is the DFL's affordability plan high property taxes and unaffordable license tab fees?

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Apparently, the DSA, formerly known as the DFL until it turned full-blown socialist, has a blueprint for fixing Minnesota's affordability crisis. Based on repeated events in recent past history, the DFL intends on raising your property taxes and your license tab fees. Affordability will be a significant issue but it isn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue by far is fraud. According to this Alpha News article , the DFL will have to lie to win elections this November. It reports that a "new poll from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce shows that 67% of Minnesotans feel that state taxes are too high. Additionally, almost half of those surveyed (47%) said their personal finances have gotten worse in the past year." Gov. Walz, aka Gov. the buck stops with me, has already blamed the Trump administration for bad policies. Never mind the fact that the DFL Trifecta foolishly spent away the entire $18,000,000,000 projected surplus, then passed a tax bill that hiked taxes an...

What is Tim Walz hiding?

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After reading this Alpha News article , it's painfully apparent that Tim Walz will do anything to prevent the DFL Commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Human Services from testifying before the House Fraud and Oversight Committee. Shireen Ghandi was scheduled to testify tomorrow. It was expected that Acting Commissioner Ghandi tough questioning from Republicans throughout the hearing. This isn't the first time Gov. Walz reshuffled DHS upper management the day before a hearing of the Committee. Like I said, Gov. Walz will do anything to avoid his employees from testifying. Alpha News quoted House Speaker Lisa Demuth as saying "Recycling the same failed staff will not root out fraud — only wholesale change will. Fraud will continue until the Walz administration takes the problem seriously." Let's get serious for a minute. For Tim Walz, this is purely performative. The DFL is getting their butts kicked on the fraud issue. This isn't the battlefield the DF...

Will the REAL Donald Trump please stand up?

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I'm certain that Ed Morrissey speaks for me when Ed said "Perhaps we can call this A Tale of Two Trumps. One Donald Trump appeared to grasp the necessity of staring down an Iranian regime that has never honored an agreement. The other Donald Trump announced late yesterday that he had ordered the suspension of Project Freedom, a purely defensive effort to reopen an international waterway, on the off chance that Ahmad Vahidi might agree to negotiate on Pakistan's terms..." The difference between me and Ed is that I won't be as diplomatic as Ed was. NOTE: Ed didn't exactly pull his punches. Ed said "To call this puzzling is to engage in vast understatement. Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth had just rolled out Project Freedom yesterday morning. Hegseth and Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Dan Caine had emphasized repeatedly that the US Navy was limited to just reopening an international waterway that shouldn't have been shut in the first place. Additionally,...

Minneapolis City Council to vote for banning assault weapons

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According to this Fox9.com article , "The Minneapolis City Council’s Committee of the Whole voted unanimously to send a proposed gun control ordinance to the full council for a vote on Thursday. The ordinance would ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and ghost guns in the city." Later in the article, it said "During a public hearing, almost everyone who spoke supported the ordinance. Many were parents of Annunciation School students, who are still struggling to cope after the August 2025 mass shooting. One man, who survived being shot four times at a birthday party, also spoke about being haunted by the experience. The hearing highlighted the emotional toll gun violence has taken on families and survivors in the community." When a newspaper or news station refers to gun violence, it's said with the intent of portraying the gun, an inanimate object, as the villain in a crime. This isn't accidental. It's done to establish a bad guy for the situati...

Jamie Long's long, disastrous day continues

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Jamie Long isn't a talented legislator. The fact is that his biggest value is his ability to weave word salads. I initially wrote this article to talk about the Minnesota Senate passing a gun control bill. The article wound up highlighting Rep. Jamie Long's word-salad-weaving abilities. In this article, which you might consider a 'Part II' of the series, I'll highlight Rep. Long's word-salad-weaving abilities. HINT: He's exceptionally talented at that. In Part I, Rep. Long gave usa word salad saying "Mr. Chairman, we have 1 month left of session and, instead of focusing on the things Minnesotans are asking us to do, like deal with cost-of-living, like deal with gun violence prevention, the Republicans are proposing that we use that remaining time in partisan attacks." In Part II, Long blustered "You all want to use the next month that we have available in committee, even on the floor, basically platforming Republican campaign speeches when we...