Podcast 336

Monday Updates. The week kicks off with a reply to one North Metro Tea Partier upset by comments in the previous podcast ‘Political Crossroads’. The point of the podcast? Is this group punching above, or below its weight politically? Is a true friend someone who tells you what you want to hear, or what you need to hear in order to be more effective? Yes, the nation is at a crossroads politically, and especially on the right. Either grassroots groups will mature and develop the kind of political power that changes political fortunes and history, or they will fade. In this time frame, that means more moderate republican candidates and leaders like John Boehner, for example. People tea partiers don’t generally like. While for voters 2016 is an ocean of time away, for political operatives, the election is already on. Just this past weekend in Minnesota’s open political process, local Basic Political Unit and Congressional meetings were held, with delegates chosen and rules voted on. If you weren’t there, you missed a prime opportunity to set the tone for, yep, 2016. In the end, the proof will be in the pudding. It would be nice to be wrong about the influence of these grassroots groups, but right now – and it brings us no joy to say this – the state’s Bicycle Lobby looks more effective. Meanwhile Minnesota has a surplus, and while the DFL wants to spend that cold, hard cash on programs, the republicans want to spend it in targeted tax cuts and other nonsense. Republican Chair Keith Downey says the money should be given back to the people, and he deserves credit. As usual the Minnesota Chamber of Italian Fascism and Speaker Kurt Daudt wants to split hairs; spend some money on roads and bridges and old people. Republicans need to be a strong voice for spending cuts, and tax cuts. The surplus is not a sign of success, but a sign of fiscal mismanagement. Give the money back, cut spending and then cut taxes. Lots of talk about layoffs at Target, and General Mills. Lots of people will be free lancing. Surprise, lots of people already are, and it may become the new way to work. 53 million Americans are freelancing and some surveys suggest as much as half the work force will be freelancing suggesting new ways to work, live and contribute. Here’s to the 1099’rs; You’re making a great contribution to the future of this country. Freelancers, and people working from home are happier and more productive than those in offices. In Austin, Texas this weekend at the SXSW Tech Conference, protesters demanded something done about stopping robots and autonomous machines. “If man was meant to fly”, they shouted, “God would have given us wings”. Not really, but they may as well have. Technology is fueling the greatest revolution in the history of mankind, and will change everything in the world in the next twenty to fifty years. Get on board, or get out of the way. The coolest development? If you could take a pill that reversed your aging, and allowed you to live fifty, one hundred, one hundred and fifty, maybe three hundred years, would you do it? Sponsored by Complete Basement Systems. 

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Podcast 333

Licensing Yoga Instructors? Updates to start the week out right. This is the day Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will sign the state’s Right To Work law, making Wisconsin the 26th state to do so. Is Wisconsin so different from Minnesota? A University Professor says they didn’t used to be, but now that they advocate laws like ACT 10 and Right To Work they are. Fact is, Wisconsin has always been more industrial than Minnesota and was settled by people from different parts of Europe. Moreover, Wisconsin’s industrial base is a little older than Minnesota’s. Is it possible Wisconsin is facing the fall out from too much regulation and choking demands from unions in the public and private sector a decade or so sooner than Minnesota? With Target, and now General Mills laying off people, and businesses considering the Badger state’s friendlier attitude toward business, things might not be as rosy in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes as some think. While Wisconsin’s Assembly and Governor address these kinds of problems, Minnesota’s legislature is playing small ball, trying to break up the Minneapolis School District and brokering peace between warring DFL leaders. Is Minnesota too passive-aggressive to actually have the discussion about what is best for the future of the state, between progressives and conservatives? And in Colorado, the state legislature is considering requiring yoga instructors to be licensed, introducing higher costs and more regulation. The sponsors? A publicly traded company with lots of studios called ‘CorePowerYoga’. Suddenly crony capitalism wears Yoga Pants. In Minneapolis are you ready to pay for yet another Stadium. Rich Guy Bill McGuire and his rich friends including the Pohlads and Glen Taylor want the hard working tax payers of the state of Minnesota to foot the bill for a professional soccer team. And the artist responsible for all that triumphal Red Guard Propaganda in China during the Cultural Revolution, a man who flourished while others were being oppressed, will be painting the official portrait of Pope Francis. Wonder if the Pope will be wearing a green hat with a red star on it? He should. Sponsored by Complete Basement Systems. 

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Podcast 327

Right To Work. As Wisconsin’s Assembly considers Right To Work legislation amid controversy, Minnesota conservatives wonder what’s wrong with Republicans in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. The Washington Post this week ran a piece decrying the decay of the organizational power of unions in the Badger state since ACT10 was passed in 2011. The reader is left with the idea this isn’t such a bad thing for local and state budgets, or the employees of counties, towns and the state either. Was this the intent? 24 states have passed right to work legislation, and Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker made history with legislation limiting the power of government unions. A brief history of collective bargaining for government workers suggests why the democrats and the left are terrified by Walker. At least two of the landmark government acts establishing unions in the public sector were executive orders. Given President Obama’s precedent setting use of executive orders and executive memoranda, think what a President Walker might do with the existing executive orders dating back to Nixon, regarding Federal workers and collective bargaining arrangements. Wisconsin is the home of AFSCME, and was the first state to pass a law allowing its public workers to unionize. How things have changed. The reality is collective bargaining in state and local governments created a gordian knot that must be cut, if authorities want to be able to get control of their budgets. The state cannot offshore its work, or move to a right to work state in the south, to cut costs. As the media tries to cover right to work laws negatively it is inadvertently showing how governors in democrat and republican states are able to cut that knot and get control of their budgets. Now, Minnesotans want to know why what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t happening in Minnesota. Minnesota Republicans seem content to play small ball; Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt is thrilled to act a peacemaker between warring democrat Governor Dayton and Senate Majority leader Bakk, and in the Senate, minority leader Nienow is thrilled to announce more spending for education than the Governor wants, which is saying something. Small Ball, indeed. Some might characterize it as small balls in fact. What should be advocated? What’s working in other states? Why are Minnesota’s Republicans unable to take a lesson from Wisconsin’s Republicans, who are having a better time of it. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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