KSTP-TV reports: “The St. Louis Park City Council will return to saying the Pledge of Allegiance prior to its meetings. According to KSTP reporter Brett Hoffland, the council unanimously voted to return the recitation of the pledge at its Monday night meeting. The pledge debate wasn’t even on the agenda for Monday night, but that didn’t stop a few hundred people from cramming into city hall to share their opinion on the issue, many coming from St. Louis Park and all across the state.”
Say Jim Spencer and Patrick Condon for the Star Tribune: “President Donald Trump, under fire for tweets attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar and three other first-term Democratic congresswomen, renewed his assault on the Minnesota Democrat on Monday during a formal presentation before dozens of business owners gathered on the South Lawn to celebrate American entrepreneurship. Speaking at a White House event to honor American manufacturers, including Minnesota-based 3M, Trump mounted a lengthy attack on Omar, accusing her of saying ‘how great al-Qaida is’ and claiming she ‘hates Jews.’ Omar has never made a comment suggesting al-Qaida is ‘great,’ nor has she ever said she hates Jews.”
MPR’s Euan Kerr writes: “Following a day of dueling press conferences and withering accusations of racism on one side and unpatriotic hatred on the other, the Trump-Omar standoff continues. After being personally attacked by the president, Rep. Ilhan Omar responded on Monday with some accusations of her own. … Turning to the president’s claim that they were always complaining about America, she countered not too long ago this was one of the president’s favorite subjects. ‘When this president ran, and until today, he talked about everything that was wrong in this country and how he was going to make it great,’ she said. ‘And so, for him to condemn us and to say we are un-American for wanting to work hard to make this country the country we all deserve to live in, it’s complete hypocrisy.'”
An AP story says, “Pelosi announced Monday that the House would be holding a vote on a resolution condemning Trump’s comments. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president who golfed with him over the weekend, advised him to ‘aim higher’ during an appearance on ‘Fox and Friends,’ even as he accused the members in question of being ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘anti-American.’ … He said Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues ‘are American citizens’ who were ‘duly elected,’ while adding: ‘We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country.’”
For The Hill, Zack Burdyk reports, “Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) tweeted Monday that it’s time for people to start taking President Trump ‘literally.’ ‘It’s time to stop taking Trump seriously and to start taking him literally,’ Franken tweeted Monday afternoon, referencing a 2016 column in The Atlantic by Salena Zito arguing that the press takes Trump ‘literally, but not seriously’ while his supporters take him ‘seriously, but not literally.’”
The Pioneer Press’ Nick Woltman writes: “A line of violent thunderstorms rumbled through the Twin Cities Monday evening, causing flash flooding and power outages as more than 3 inches of rain fell in some areas. The slow-moving storms rolled into the metro shortly after 6:30 p.m. and had dumped about 1.75 inches of rain at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 8 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Totals approached 4 inches in the northwest metro. St. Paul and Minneapolis were both under flash flood warnings until 11:30 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Several east metro suburbs were also under a flash flood warning.”
The Star Tribune’s Joe Carlson reports, “The Minnesota Hospital Association said the state’s largest not-for-profit health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, is probably breaking the law by imposing a slate of new policies designed to deny or delay access to routine colonoscopies and hundreds of other services in hospitals. The hospital trade group is asking state officials to investigate the practices of the state Blue Cross plan….”
WCCO also reports: “Governor Walz is hoping a new bill will protect workers against wage theft in Minnesota. He signed the bill today, which increases penalties for wage theft. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry estimates up to $12 million is lost through wage theft every year. Wage theft can happen through wrongful withholdings, not getting paid enough, or missed payment for mandatory breaks or overtime.”
Says Sarah Horner in the Pioneer Press, “A caretaker who stole nearly $100,000 from a 96-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease must serve three months in the Ramsey County workhouse and stay away from vulnerable adults. Barbara Joan Siercks, 70, also must pay restitution and complete 100 hours of community service over the next year, according to Ramsey County court records. She is eligible to receive certain accommodations as she serves her sentence, including electronic home monitoring and work release.”
I bet almost all of those few hundred people at St. Louis Park city hall have never been there before and will never be there again. This reminds me of some sidewalk graffiti that was on a bike path in my neighborhood during the Obama years. The quote had something to do with how Obama was doing something unconstitutional. Only problem, the graffiti artist didn’t know how to spell constitution. I haven’t trusted flag waving “patriots” since I came home from Vietnam. Their cartoon logic is all about the darker side of American history.
Agreed. The pledge is as accurate an indicator of “patriotism” as the “Lord’s Prayer” is about Christianity.
You are correct, the controversy was all hyped up on Fox News, of course Donald picked it up and a band of is MAGA minions showed up to flex their muscle, or more accurately bully St. Louis Park into bending to their will. They don’t live in the community, they don’t care about the actual functioning of government in fact they’ve made if clear that they hate government, they just want to shove their opinions down everyone else’s throats.
Also too, good analogy Ray.
There were a couple hundred protesters there last night, but there were also quite a few SLP residents who supported the city council. The protesters were slow to enter the building (rain drove most of them in) and the residents already occupied 3/4 of the chairs in the chamber. Most everyone else had to take seats in the lobby or an overflow meeting room on the first floor.
One councilmember chided the protesters for wearing flag themed clothing, going so far as to read to them from the flag code. Of course the protesters booed.
I personally took a photo of a protester’s flag lying on the floor, which her young son was stepping on. The previous week I took photos of two other protesters who also placed their flags on the carpet. I don’t think they understand the whole concept of respecting the flag.
So has the 3M official who heard DJT racist comments yesterday at a WH event, made a public statement condemning the racist attacks on four Congresswomen?
That may be the funniest thing I’ve read all week.