Skip to Content

Jon Erik Kingstad

Afton, MN
Commenter for
2 years 45 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 08/19/11 at 11:26 am in response to 'Jobs' are back on the front burner for governor and legislators

#1: Paul: "They'll talk about jobs, but they have coherent or reasonable plan." I assume you meant the Republicans have NO coherent or reasonable plan.

I was reading the link to the Republican plan "Reform 2.0" which is about "listening" and something about cranks. Kurt Zellers says that the "liberals" ideas are outdated and from the 1960's. Oh really? When did J.M. Keynes get refuted? By Arthur Laffer and "trickle down" economics? Zellar is too young to know or remember that this...

Posted on 08/19/11 at 02:46 pm in response to 'Jobs' are back on the front burner for governor and legislators

Kevin,

You're right. I'm used to hearing "DFL'ers" equated with "liberals" by the Right all the time so I'll accept the correction. But change it to "DFL'ers" and Zellers still has not explained what he means by "reform" or that he knows what he's talking about. I don;t think my comments were too far off if you look at the rest of the transcript:

"Why no DFLers?

"In a lot of cases, our friends on the other side of the aisle aren't interested in reform," Zellers said. "...

Posted on 08/18/11 at 09:51 am in response to I witnessed a dark side of Michele Bachmann's character

Some of the New Yorker piece by Ryan Lizza (which just arrived in the mail Tuesday and I just started to read) describes how Bachmann refuses to allow herself to be photographed wearing casual clothes. So Lizza describes this and the New Yorker cartoonist illustrator has a fine caricature of Bachmann in cargo pants. The point I think Eric is making is that Bachmann's projected public persona is just too carefully polished to suppress a more fallible, human side. Personally, I think she...

Posted on 08/10/11 at 11:22 am in response to GOP touts 4-2 split in Wisconsin recall elections as affirmation of Walker agenda

Disappointing for sure. Our states and our country are already under a single party, the party of money. These votes to me don't say "victory" as much as "we give up." That's hardly cause for celebration.

Posted on 08/10/11 at 11:24 am in response to Rep. Betty McCollum blames Tea Party for nation's political gridlock

I'm glad someone in an elected position from Minnesota is speaking out.

Posted on 08/10/11 at 11:36 am in response to Rep. Betty McCollum blames Tea Party for nation's political gridlock

"Fact is the increase in the debt ratio to GNP is the cause. Our debt is now greater than our gross national product."

Do you think this might have something to do with the fact the country's been in a recession for the past two and a half years? Or with the fact that the banks and corporations are sitting on the boatloads of taxpayer money and haven't invested in jobs" or that maybe that's because it's part of a GOP plan to make Obama a "one term president"? Until Obama became...

Posted on 08/10/11 at 08:40 am in response to Four senators survive recall, barely keeping GOP control

I find your quote from Morrissey on "last night’s news about the millions of dollars Scott Walker’s law will save Milwaukee" interesting. Aside from the questionable timing of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (which has its own history of union busting), it also seems suspect for the local MSM to simply report Walker's version of it, giving Walker credit for "fiscal prudence" when the victims of his "prudence" are bleeding on the ER floor. It's little wonder the Republicans survived the recall...

Posted on 08/10/11 at 11:04 am in response to Four senators survive recall, barely keeping GOP control

#8 Josh: I' sure you're right that Tina Brown deliberately chose that photo. But a "hack move"? Maybe the lame explanation about how t was chosen. But the picture speaks the utter truth.

Posted on 08/09/11 at 03:23 pm in response to The market meltdown and the hopeless politics of 2011

For 30 years, the GOP has been funding its campaigns with tax breaks and cuts for the wealthy on the now totally discredited theory of "trickle down" economics. They never worked. Unfortunately, Obama has embraced this discredited economic theory by agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy which never worked either and also refusing to implement fiscal policies, i.e. spending money to create jobs. Inadequate stimulus spending hardly qualifies as funding elections through "trickle...

Posted on 08/09/11 at 08:30 am in response to 'What Happened to Obama?' Provocative NYT essay offers skewed view

@33:Obama is not "working from the Keynesian playbook" as you put it. I challenge you to find any Keynesian economist (Paul Krugman, Brad deLong, Stiglitz, Galbraith) who would support that statement. Every Keynsian economist who's spoken about Obama has said the stimulus was too little and too cautious to make any impact in creating jobs and shortening the recession. That was in 2009.

You will not hear any Keynesian economist agree with Obama or Congessional leaders that we have a "...