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Jon Erik Kingstad

Afton, MN
Commenter for
2 years 45 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/21/13 at 01:28 pm in response to Sequestration is imperiling scientific research — and economic growth

It's true that the economy has "boomed" during wartime and that such "boom" was due to government contracts with "private industry". But until WWII came along, this country was still recovering from the Great Depression. Since WWII, the country has boomed because of the continued government intervention in the economy, an intervention highly invisible to the man on the street because of the high level and indirect nature of the contracting.

I agree with the author that sequestration...

Posted on 05/20/13 at 08:47 pm in response to Peter Waldron, Bachmann whistleblower, describes a campaign and candidate in distress

For many in the Republican party, including Mr. Waldron, you cannot be a true Christian unless you are a Republican. Bachmann's right wing base has always been a church based enterprise. She recruits and campaigns in churches and has many pastors campaigning for her from their pulpits. They've become what unions used to be for the Democratic Party- a reliable source of voluntary help and cash. Mr. Waldron was apparently an important cog in the machine in Iowa.

I think what they mean...

Posted on 05/16/13 at 08:24 pm in response to House passes Bachmann's 'Obamacare' repeal bill

is far from being anybody's darling. It's a far cry from what I ever hoped or expected in this country, which should simply adopt single payer health care and eliminate the costly apparatus of insurance company middlemen. Bachmann doesn't care about the people. She only cares about the fat cat insurance companies and their executives who keep feeding her fantasies that she is a credible human being.

Posted on 05/16/13 at 03:38 pm in response to Bachmann, Tea Party rally against IRS disclosures

why wouldn't any political party qualify as a 501 (c)(4) organization? So I form a corporation called "Democrats for Change" and apply for 501 (c)(4) status. Am I going to complain when the IRS scrutinizes the application to see how I'm affiliated with the Democratic party? So the IRS, having a sneaking suspicion that a group calling itself "Tea Party for Return to 1895" might be somehow an alter ego of the Republican party and that the real purpose might be really be political delays...

Posted on 05/16/13 at 08:19 pm in response to Bachmann, Tea Party rally against IRS disclosures

This issue is not about the IRS. Nobody's defending the IRS It's about the President, who really has no business involving himself in an administrative matter. By publicly taking a position and sanctioning the IRS for doing its job, the President has unwisely given credence to the false howls of "politicization" from the right wing.

He will get no credit for whatever he does. Watch and see. The Tea Party Caucus in Congress, meaning the party in control, are already drawing up the...

Posted on 05/08/13 at 12:05 pm in response to Kline becomes top booster for GOP labor bill

Another little strategy by the right to help employers steal people's wages. Kline won't campaign in Minnesota on his party's leadership's goal stated by Majority Leader Eric "Repeal the 20th Century" Cantor of repealing the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The FSLA is the law that makes overtime compensable at time and half in the first place. Kline's bill is the fallback theft position of allowing employers to "offer" paid leave instead of time and a half for overtime and then of course...

Posted on 05/03/13 at 03:31 pm in response to Gun-control advocates push Thissen for vote on 'doomed' background-check bill

I gathered from an article in yesterday's MinnPost from a comment by Mr. Paymar that the background check law was being iced to spare the DFL a likely defeat of his bill on the floor. I believe the public is entitled to an "up or down" vote on this important issue. The public is entitled to know what their elected officials stand for. The DFL leadership needs to stop providing "cover" to its members from taking public stands on important issues just because they are "hot button" issues....

Posted on 05/04/13 at 05:24 pm in response to Gun-control advocates push Thissen for vote on 'doomed' background-check bill

That's certainly one litmus test: of how unpopular - indeed, I would say despised is not too strong a word- the NRA is as an organization and symbol of disproportionate power and influence. But you can't talk about "litmus tests" when the influence is devious and hard to measure. The NRA's influence reaches far beyond its ability to promote candidates. It relies on intimidation and bullying from the disinformation campaign attack ads to its astroturf activities and letter writing campaigns...

Posted on 05/05/13 at 04:47 pm in response to Gun-control advocates push Thissen for vote on 'doomed' background-check bill

You choose to ignore everything I wrote. I did not write "behind the scenes [the NRA calls] the sots of the candidates that they campaigned against."
What I wrote was that the NRA and its members use intimidation and bullying to achieve their agenda. And it's working. Which is one reason the DFL leadership won't call an "up or down" vote on background checks. The other, lesser reason is that with the majority as you show it, they will still vote it down. Despite the public support of...

Posted on 05/03/13 at 02:53 pm in response to Kathleen Hall Jamieson and the 'attack on fact'

"The policy model requires that certain groups of experts maintain a high level of public trust. This includes academics but also special institutions that have been set up to be what Jamieson called “custodians of the knowable,” organizations like the Congressional Budget Office and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, both of which have been sheltered to the degree possible from partisan and ideological bias so that the public can trust at least someone to provide neutral data from which public...