From the Minnesota Reformer:

By J. Patrick CoolicanJuly 24, 2020

No surprise: With the virus surging in key states like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and southern California, data show the recovery is stalling out.

Ricardo Lopez on how police reform was a major achievement for the People of Color Indigenous Caucus, which was just formed in 2017.

(Also, I wrote in this space July 9: "Given Senate Republicans' lack of interest in serious police reform, the place for a deal is on a big infrastructure bill." I shall eat crow, and good on Senate Republicans for proving me wrong. And I was wrong twice cuz no infrastructure bill.)

We had a discussion at Reformer HQ about how to describe U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn and GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan, who are married.

Are they Minnesota's own Kid Rock and Pam Anderson? Or how about Peg and Al Bundy?

Either way, they embarrassed themselves and all Minnesotans Thursday.

Carnahan:

Your math is wrong. Also, there's a lot of reliable information out there for general interest readers on the benefits of masking. Even your hero, the game show host president, is encouraging us to wear masks.

Hagedorn, meanwhile, was the only Minnesota member of Congress to vote no on a measure to remove confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol, as well as a bust of Roger Taney, to be replaced by one of Thurgood Marshall, Ricardo Lopez reports.

Roger Taney: Author of the Dred Scott decision.

Thurgood Marshall: Argued for the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Ks.

Minnesota: The first state to volunteer troops to the Civil War effort.

Republicans have their summer retreat tonight and tomorrow at Madden's On Gull Lake in Brainerd. Tonight's featured speaker is said to be potential 2022 candidate for governor Mike Lindell, who uses infomercials to sell pillows. Also, buy his memoir What Are the Odds? signed hardcover, low low price: $49.95 buy it now before it's too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fox News poll of Minnesota: Joe Biden 51, President Donald Trump 38. (Gov. Tim Walz polling well, as are local police and Black Lives Matter.)

David Shor would tell us we should expect reversion to the mean, meaning tightening.

And Minnesota's own James Hohmann points out in his Post column that Dems should be concerned about turnout. Those polls may not be what they seem. And APM Reports' Tom Scheck et. al. have a scary story about votes disqualified in the Wisconsin primary due to user error, and whether it's a scary preview of what's to come in November. 23,000 votes were thrown out. (Trump's 2016 margin was just shy of 23,000. Yikes.)

Mall of America owner Triple Five has missed mortgage payments and has no reopen plan for its $5 billion American Dream mall in New Jersey.

An interesting, diverse mix of writers on the Strib op-ed page argue the City Council is falling down on the job when it comes to the Police Department.

Vice has a lengthy story on the upcoming DFL primary in the 5th Congressional District, leading with a recent mailer Rep. Ilhan Omar sent out ripping the challenger Antone Melton-Meaux for accepting big donations from out-of-state donors.

"Can We Trust Antone Melton-Meaux's Money?"

What do you know they're all Jewish.

Reformer contributor Rabbi Avi Olitzky of the Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, who endorsed Melton-Meaux this week, is quoted: "My immediate thought when I saw the mailer was 'Here we go again.'"

Her Jewish supporters defend her in the piece:

As an adolescent I believed former President Bill Clinton was sending "jack-booted thugs" to trample on our liberties. (Who else here is in Ayn Rand recovery? No shame in it! One day at a time!)

As an adult in the era of former President Barack Obama, the Republican claims of "tyranny" sounded both hysterical and disingenuous, especially after the Patriot Act and warrantless surveillance of the Bush era that they often supported.

And now this:

If you're a libertarianish Republican: This is it. It's happening. You warned us that confiscatory taxation was a stone's throw from federal agents violating our rights. Well, now it's happening. What are you doing about it?

I asked readers Thursday how you're caring and feeding your souls and got some nice responses:

Local bookstore owner L.E. writes that "My mostly harmless mission is to offer people the sorts of books that either inform this time or help them through this time. This is Happiness, by Niall Williams, is the latter. It's about everything in life. Love, loss, hunger, family, etc. All of this within the structure of an epic tale about how rural electrification comes to a small Irish village."

Reader P.F. is reading the graphic novels and nonfiction, including Open Borders and Banned Book Club, which is set in South Korea in the early 1980s. "Yeah, they're illustrated books, but it's a lot easier to swallow content like that right now," P.F. writes.

K.M. listens to podcasts while biking and recommends Pitchfork Economics and says she's learned more from it than any Econ 101 course ever.

And reader S.S. is reading The Great Evil: Christianity, the Bible, and the Native American Genocide but only when she can steal it back from her boyfriend, who took it from her after Chapter 2. Hey Mike: Give it back!

Correspond: patrick@minnesotareformer.co

Have a great day all. JPC

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can't or won't tell..

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