Wednesday, July 23, 2025
You buy the car, you want to drive the car. Where, when, how those go with owning the car. Take along friends. If nobody has laws about the driving, it's free rein. Or why am I seeing this stuff surfacing now?
Why is Jon Stewart making hay over a birthday greeting? Who released the birthday greeting to Murdoch's WSJ people? Crabgrass sure as fuck cannot say. JD a while back visited the Murdochs in Montana.
Crabgrass can guess. Connecting dots which are speculatively there, but unconnected in the public domain. That's guessing.
Buying the car. Driving the car. This link.
Palintar. JD and Thiel know each other well. Finding needles in haystacks, there's a saying.
Now, appearing on YouTube. This, this and this. Crabgrass posted none, but it got posted. Somebody sorted out stuff and fueled the fires.
Maxwell in the news again, but that's because Epstein is.
If Trump's out, JD is in, and Speaker Johnson is next in line. Johnson, who he is, seems that it would stoutly cement JD in place, given the succession, were JD to be installed in the White House. Who'd want Johnson's end times finger on the button? Or is that too extreme a way to say it?
It seems the walls are closing in on Trump, odd things - that 1991 stuff - from somewhere that data exists, somewhere in accessible form, data mining is a thing and now it hits YouTube. Gee how did that happen?.
The investment world runs on speculation. Gambles, some more informed than others.
Speculation, disparaged, is conspiracy theories. So looking for connections among dots is speculation, good stuff like Warren Buffet speculates, not conspiracy theory bad stuff, no. the good kind. Right?
Grok4 is in the news to where you can search it on the web. Hot stuff! Elon's Xai is moving fast. Palintar, Xai. New stuff, capabilities while that Utah NSA data stack sits. To be mined. Right?
Who said, "Collect it all?" That was DOGE, if not saying it, then doing it while having access to government data stores. The sheer capacity of that data operation in Memphis does get you thinking, doesn't it? Smart people doing smart things with money no issue.
You have the car then it is yours to drive. Friends can ride along. Joyriding.
But sound, sober driving, not joyriding, if it is you having to talk to the judge. But try to have it never reach the judge. Be prudent.
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Just here, there, things bubble up into the collective consciousness, and consequences can happen.
We live in interesting times, per the reported Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
What do I know? Never even ever been to Silicon Valley.
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UPDATE: A greeting from where, the Wasatch mountain trails?
Net-zero greenhouse gax emissions - "Shell withdrew its expert from the initiative after a draft standard failed to substantially reflect the industry's perspective. Aker BP also exited the advisory panel, citing limited influence over the standard."
Donald Trump did not make these decisions. They were made by bottom-line considerations by firms aware of Donald Trump.
Yahoo carries an AP report of Hunter Biden opining over things. To me it is more important than it likely is to others.
Link. Why it matters to me is I admit to a fantasy/hope that Hunter Biden would move to Minnesota's CD6 to run against Tom Emmer. He has the name recognition, and could bury Emmer with the slogan, "It's An Upgrade".
It would be. Another slogan, "Not your crypto bootlicker."
Mr. Emmer and others might feel otherwise, but from reports of the screed young Biden ranted, it was an honest, heartfelt thing. Not like praising that fucking Trump budget bill as good for the people.
[That's a circumstantial inference. No honest and cogent human being could honestly say that bill was good for the people. Republicans say it, yes, but I stand on the circumstantial inference.]
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
An added interesting twist on a twisting story Trump avoids. "“Epstein had to pay for all his sex trafficking somehow. Further evidence shows he used Russian banks to process hundreds of millions in payments. Again, this is info in the possession of the Trump administration, but they’re refusing to investigate.”
So, former Israeli Premier Bennett has said, not Mossad. and Crabgrass cannot prove that wrong, but then, the money did not materialize out of thin air. So, the headline from The Times, mid-item raises a possible reason Trump wants Epstein questions buried with Epstein, but that's not ringing any bells with MAGA people like MTG, who want the people (them) to have the truth, the perps named, and all.
Sen. Wyden's Democratic Party membership on committee posts has given him a glimpse where he says we all should see and weigh. Crabgrass agrees. Russian money and Trump hiding deep from it is of interest, given how the "hoax" word has been so coarsely abused. This is smoke under the old saying.
Second source online, again quoting Wyden, who is on YouTube over this speaking slowly enough that you will not mishear a word -
Wyden discussed the revelation in a Thursday floor speech, saying, “Last year, the Biden administration allowed our investigators to look at portions of the file. We did that at the Treasury building. Here is what it says. Treasury’s Epstein file details, Mr. president, 4,725 wire transfers.”
“Let me repeat that: 4,725 wire transfers, adding up to nearly $1.1 billion, flowing in and out of just one of Mr. Epstein’s bank accounts. If you ask me, that is more than 4,000 potential lines of investigation right there. Hundreds of millions more flowed through other accounts. That’s even more to investigate. The file shows that Mr. Epstein used multiple Russian banks, which are now under sanctions, to process payments related to sex trafficking,” Wyden said.
Wyden’s findings were also reported on in the New York Times. Wyden shared the Times article and added, “Epstein had to pay for all his sex trafficking somehow. Further evidence shows he used Russian banks to process hundreds of millions in payments. Again, this is info in the possession of the Trump administration, but they’re refusing to investigate.”
The Miami Herald’s Julie Brown, who has spent years investigating Epstein, shared Wyden’s remarks and noted, “In almost every interview I’ve given on this story, I’ve said ‘Follow the Money.’”
Wyden’s comments come amid a firestorm of controversy around the Trump DOJ and FBI releasing a memo saying that the main conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein are false, a claim that has deeply divided the MAGA base.
The Treasury Department responded to Wyden’s remarks in a statement, saying, “Despite Senator Wyden’s fantasies, there are no hidden files at Treasury. The Biden Administration had access to this information during its tenure. The fact that Senator Wyden never asked Joe Biden or Merrick Garland to address this matter shows this is pathetic political theater and a complete joke.”
The numbers are real or not, and whether Biden and Garland did a thing about them is an irrelevancy. They are real or not, so let the truth out. The bottle's been uncorked, and bullshit from Trump "hoax" musings only heightens interers.
BOTTOM LINE: The genie is out of the bottle.
Someone said "Russia, Russia, Russia" disparagingly, showing hubris in so speaking, but - ITS BACK!
______________UPDATE______________
Something Crabgrass expects to be fleshed out, other banks and other amounts, and were any Israeli?
_____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
As a mental exercise, if I were a Mossad administrator running Epstein as an asset, I'd possibly think to use a Russian Bank rather than a local one as an intermediary in paying things. Or a Cypriot Bank, Ukraine Bank, whatever. Multiple intermediaries. And he'd be an independent contractor and not an employee on the books, so Bennett could say he was not employed by Mossad without stretching truth too much by implying no tie, as opposed to no regular paycheck on the books.
Heart and head both say Mossad, no matter what Bennett or others deny, ran Epstein. Israel getting alliances by blackmail might be more reliable than by moral allegiance to Zion.
Doing what's done in Gaza could cloud Zionist loyalty. Having video might bind faster, firmer, longer.
Jacob Frey, the conservative GOP-lite Democrat incumbent mayor of Minneapolis does not like losing, bad sport and all. His people are alleged to have walked out on a vote, and now carp that the numbers are wrong.
FREY: The fucker lost. Start with that. End with that. A caucus was held. The other guy packed the caucus. A vote taken. Frey lost. Now trying to undo stuff by appeal to inner party operatives. They in turn can be honestly fair, or give Frey something circumstances say he does not deserve.:
Strib coverage, (while wanting objectively while valuing a good story)::
Democratic socialist Omar Fateh just won the Minneapolis DFL endorsement for mayor. Now what?
Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign is challenging the results of the DFL convention, saying the numbers don’t add up.
July 22, 2025 at 6:00AM
Three years ago, Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh was in the hot seat, sitting through a Senate ethics investigation into an alleged quid pro quo with a Somali news outlet.
On Saturday, Fateh was riding high, as Minneapolis Democrats endorsed him to be the city’s next mayor over incumbent two-term Mayor Jacob Frey.
Now the race begins in earnest, reflecting a conflict that’s been brewing for years: A comparatively moderate [their opinion from which Crabgrass differs, and opinion early in a "news" item]Democratic mayor against a rising young progressive who’s part of the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) wing of the party — an election that is likely to draw national attention and money while potentially upending the power dynamic in City Hall.
Saturday marked the DFL’s first endorsement of a Minneapolis mayoral candidate in 16 years. The party endorsement carries no legal weight, but it’s highly sought after in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and can open up party resources to Fateh.
It also marks another win for the DSA, after Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary last month. Fateh has drawn national attention since Mamdani’s win, with some calling him the “Mamdani of Minneapolis.”
Some perspective
The endorsement represents a fraction of Minneapolis voters — hundreds of delegates who tend to be more politically engaged than the average voter. Over 140,000 people voted in the 2021 Minneapolis election.
And the delegates’ favor hardly predicts the winner of the fall election.
In 2017, Frey finished second in the convention and went on to win. [rank choice voting at fault]
In 2021, after one of the most tumultuous years in the city’s history when Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, community organizer Sheila Nezhad won more votes than Frey at that DFL convention. During that campaign, Frey resisted pressure to support defunding the Police Department and advocated for the mayor to have more power and control over police. He was re-elected by 10 percentage points in a 17-person race.
History suggests a Frey ploy, reemployed. Run many, have name/incumbancy recognition. Strib continues with wording highlighted by Crabgrass]:
Fateh supported the failed ballot measure to overhaul the Minneapolis Police Department.
Last year, a more progressive bloc won control of the Minneapolis City Council, including democratic socialist Robin Wonsley. She and her progressive allies on the council have sought to block much of Frey’s agenda and have been skeptical of police funding, pointed the finger at landlords and developers for rising housing costs, and criticized Frey’s treatment of the unhoused as lacking compassion — views shared by Fateh.
Frey is hard on homelessness is what that says, and the council majority opposes his heavy hand.
Fateh also supports a ban on the police interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fateh called a June federal drug raid in south Minneapolis “blatant fascism,” accused MPD of cooperating with ICE, and said it would be “unconscionable” for police to help with crowd control at an ICE raid.
Frey has said the militarized operation was a bit tone-deaf, but defended MPD’s involvement in what turned out to be an investigation into money laundering and human and drug trafficking.
Crabgrass has not tried following any Strib links. Strib has a paywall.
Fateh ousted an incumbent before
Fateh has been an underdog before. He unseated veteran state Sen. Jeff Hayden by nearly 2,000 votes in the 2020 DFL primary.
That victory also came with heightened scrutiny. A federal investigation into ballot fraud during the primary later led to his brother-in-law being convicted of lying to a grand jury about his handling of absentee ballots as a campaign volunteer. No other charges were brought, but the case became part of the Senate ethics investigation.
Fateh was the first Somali American elected to serve in the state Senate, yet Frey has generally enjoyed support among many in the East African community and has recently been highlighting his Somali support.
Yeah. Sure. On the Somali support. Selective history is probative but biased, since negatives against Frey go unreported. Now the nitty-gritty -
Frey campaign challenging the results
The Frey campaign is challenging the results with the state DFL, questioning why only 578 votes were recorded on the first ballot, even though over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in.
The campaign argues there’s no plausible reason why over 20% of the total delegates and upgraded alternates would skip voting on “the most hotly contested, highest-interest business of the convention.”
Near the end of Saturday’s convention, which featured numerous voting delays, convention co-chair Ann Friedrich announced Fateh had secured the endorsement after he won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.
Monday evening, Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist said he hadn’t had a chance to review Frey’s official challenge, but said, “We are confident that our handling of the convention will be upheld.”
Dave Orrick of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
Open with a gut punch to the candidate the owner likely does not favor. Great "news." Then at the end indicate the inner party will face things, AND WHAT IT DOES WILL REALLY MATTER.
The inner party cannot in good conscience nor with appearances of fairness preeminent, interfere with what actually happened, and give Frey something he failed to achieve at caucus-
CAN THEY?
WILL THEY?
Because there will be an election in the fall, and passions are now hot, the Crabgrass guess is the inner party will want to cool things without leaving Frey on an island, and will issue some statement that serious irregularities appear to have happened but they will not interfere with the result of voting at a caucus, since the ultimate question awaits the general election and passions there will be least inflamed by inaction now, so that logic and merit hold sway in November.
Election integrity then will be paramount, while by doing nothing now besides clucking a little does the least partywide harm.
Anything more heavy highhandedly favoring the incumbent conservative would show itself to be very bad politics against an ethnic-and-policy minority member, early and notably, so just sit tight.
But it is the Minnesota DFL, a party of politicians first and foremost, hence a party not immune from awful political decision making.
Aside from that, fair use? The entire Strib item is presented, since a major theme of the post is whether Strib has a finger on the scale in its reporting, which requires thorough airing. Presenting it all, with a few marginal comments, is the best way for readers to see Crabgrass opinion with that opinion being presented as minor to the full report itself, which readers can see and weigh. Crabgrass in effect believes this is preliminary with intervening time, so letting the chips fall as they have is best handling.
_______________UPDATE______________
Related to Frey's bitching about losing the caucus, is the larger question of whether the Dems should put their civil war aside with the goal being to temporally unify enough to win the midterms, ideally in both houses of Congress, use such a victory if they acheive it to set hearings agendas, and then to play out the civil war in their ranks, chips falling as they may.
Progressives would end up losers that way, since they are outnumbered in the Democratic Party, and it would be same old same old redux, but unseating the Republican federal trifecta is more important to the factions within the party than any other thing. Or should be.
Repeal the Trump Bill could be a unifying theme. That whole story is for a future full post, but is footnoted now. Trump's mental situation is also a unifying need to put down roots of sanity as quickly as feasible, for the People. Crabgrass believes JD Vance is bold enough to push a palace coup once he sees it required, Trump showing himself more and more unhinged day by day. Vance would have to act per Constitutional procedures, the problem being the bunch of misfits that make up the Trump Cabinet, whose agreement Vance would have to seek. More later, perhaps.
Monday, July 21, 2025
For a blog from the States, there seems to be diverse interest in Crabgrass posting. Letting people know viewership demographics, Last Seven Days.
Below, is the by-nations viewing that Google Blogger reports to show blog authors which nations have which level of readership, where one can choose time periods and this is the default, LAST SEVEN DAYS. Why the numbers are as they are is unknown, one guess is that Brazilian interest may relate to the two most recent heads of state there and how they're doing.
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I would have expected the United States number to be highest, but it is not. Hong Kong and Singapore show up, but mainland China is absent. So there is a Chinese readership, but US content might be regulated or censored on the mainland. South American numbers are higher than expected. The numbers suggest the effort to keep posting is justified, and all readers are thanked for their interest.
All over the Internet. Web search = doj told to flag any record where Trump mentioned
Give it a try. Crabgrass ran it on three search engines: Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo.
Bonus: Here's the link to the Durbin letter to Bondi calling bullshit on DOJ foot dragging and liberties with the truth:
Need more? It seems enough for me, and so far it appears Bondi is yet to respond. She should quickly, before she gets fired.
___________UPDATE____________
Two returned items: MSN and Yahoo. It appears full Epstein file content release is a hot topic. The FBI seized much. Make it ALL public. Quit dicking around and do it. The longer the stall, the worse it must be in terms of implicating Trump and other bigwigs.
We can then, after full transparency, move on to other news of governing the nation with trust.
For now, trust is absent with all the crap and withholding.
Great new discussion at EmptyWheel.
BACKGROUND: Eptstein file - all the stuff - vs Maxwell Grand Jury transcripts, and Epstein Grand jury transcripts, nothing else. First, Trump likely was not mentioned before the grand juries deciding whether Maxwell's actions were criminal. (Ditto, Epstein.) Maxwell was the focus there, nobody else, so what's expected? That tailored release stuff is a dance ticket nobody will buy. Moreover, there's something at risk, if the Maxwell appeal to the Supreme Court, a cert petition, is granted and there is a remand for a new trial - and, lo, all these transcripts are published and a new trial would be prejudiced that way and figure the rest out - so what's the second reason to say limit it to those transcripts where trump being mentioned is nil? Wha's 'appening? Who's in favor of that, aside from Trump and Bondi's folks at DOJ?
Why Is Todd Blanche Risking the Conviction of a Sex Trafficker Rather Than Use Fruits of Already-Completed Review?
- with reader commentary. At the end an invitation to post a comment to add to the thread. Which still seems to be an open thread.
One comment links to:
https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3luhy4ed6ws2x
That social media item discusses the judge who'll be assigned Trump's lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch et al. AND that item has its own thread, including:
PBS has two related items to the birthday letter and the Maxwell transcripts.
Keeping EmptyWheel as primary source (there's stuff all over the internet) see: EW posts, here and here.
It seems as if the mainly MAGA discontent over Trump/Bondi trying to quash full release of the Epstein files, chips falling where they may, IS A DISCONTENT GROWING LEGS.
May the full truth surface, and the analysis be fair.
UPDATE: Link checking was needed, links should be fixed now.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Klobuchar is reported to blow a little smoke about why the Dems sat on Epstein matters.
The Hill:
Klobuchar defends Democrats for inaction on Epstein under Biden
Many paragraphs, many things argued, zero mention "Bill Clinton" and "Lolita Express flight logs."
Read it and see if it's rhetoric over substance in your view. Clinton may well be one of several Dems involved, but at least for him, if nobody else, Biden's people did not see a need to cast shame that direction. A quote from the story's later paragraphs:
Klobuchar emphasized that Democrats have not been as focused on the issue as Republicans have been.
“Blaming Democrats for this, to me, I’m sorry. This is- the people that have been fomenting this are right-wing influencers, members of Congress,” she said.
“People have a reason that they want to know what’s in there. They believe the President when he said there’s stuff in there that people should see. Wall Street Journal. These are not bastions of liberalism or wild progressives that have come out and said the public has a right to know what is in these documents,” she continued.
Trump, in a Truth Social post on Friday, asked why the Democrats did not release the files linked to the disgraced financier when they controlled the Senate and White House.
“If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [ex-prosecutor Maureen] Comey in charge, use it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added, “BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!”
Notice how Trump also glides and slides over Bill Clinton as an answer to his rhetorical question.
Klobuchar and Trump both having cause to bend the angles rather than squaring truths.
Both, politicians. Both DC veterans, Amy more than Donald, having been there longer.
UPDATE: Neither of the two apologists - politicians mention Ehud Barak either.
Tucker Carlson seems to be on an agenda exploration. He is consistent, but the context differs, one with a guest, one a speech, the last with a differentr guest.
Tucker Carlson is running anti-Israeli themes, (NOT "antisemitic" which was co-opted as all-Jews inclusive yet Arabs are Semitic people and Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages - but Yiddish is Germanic). And, related, Tucker has gone virulently anti-Epstein as a crusade.
This is not saying Tucker is wrong. Nor that he is right. In one of the linked items, near the end where Carlson and his guest trash pedophilia as "the worse crime." Torture and murder exist and are objectively more extreme. Clearly. The two over clutch at their pearls.
With those qualifications, three Tucker links are given and readers are encouraged to view them fully but skeptically when they editorialize too much. Links are in decreasing importance, as Crabgrass sees things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BGfo4yiCc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAJvmOjkTz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHayOkXe5ig
The first part of the first linked item develops Epstein related facts Crabgrass had not crystalized in mind.
The speech is strident at too many points. And there are points of disagreement and substantial agreement with the speech content. See what you think.
The last item examines how Christians living in Israel/Palesting are experiencing things.
The speech was linked to in a previous post.
MSN carries a Strib item [paywalled at Strib] about a Democratic Socialist gaining DFL - Democrat caucus candidate endorsement over a two-term conservative Schumer style politician/incumbent.
The Democratic party of Minnesota’s largest city has endorsed a democratic socialist over a two-term incumbent mayor, according to Minneapolis DFL convention co-chair Ann Friedrich.
State Sen. Omar Fateh won at least 60% of the Minneapolis DFL delegate vote Saturday, defeating Mayor Jacob Frey in the party’s first endorsement of a mayoral candidate in 16 years, according to an initial announcement by Friedrich. Fateh won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.
[...After endorsement Fateh spoke] “Today we witnessed a rejection of politics as usual, a rejection of the inhumane way we have been treating our unhoused neighbors, a rejection of the way our mayor has turned his back on labor,” Fateh said. “Yes, we secured the DFL endorsement, but we know the status quo are going to do anything and everything to maintain power. They’ll have all the money in the world, they’ll have all the influence in the world ... but they don’t have you.”Frey campaign manager Sam Schulenberg said in a statement: “This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention. Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and the leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
Well, the entire city will vote in November. Meanwhile, Minnesota has a primary system which likely includes city offices as well as State offices, so Frey will run somehow, and hopefully lose.
He's been nothing special, and if replaced, a new dawn will be welcome by many.
Alpha News, an extreme right-wing local Minnesota outlet reports:
So, both have good teeth. Beyond that, one is believed by Crabgrass to be a Somali-American, and the other Jewish. No reporting found by Crabgrass really fleshes out ethnicity, so we guess.
Alpha news has more interesting reporting:
“I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor. This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us,” said Fateh, a democratic socialist who is serving his second term in the Minnesota Senate.
The 35-year-old has been described as the “Minneapolis Mamdani,” a reference to Zohran Mamdani, a socialist who won a stunning victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City earlier this year.
After Mamdani’s victory in June, the Minneapolis chapter of the DSA declared Fateh’s mayoral run to be the next battlefront in advancing their socialist agenda.
Fateh’s record includes an unsuccessful bill to make Minnesota a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants and support for a 2021 charter amendment to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new “department of public safety.”
Frey campaign describes convention as ‘extremely flawed’
Frey’s campaign released a statement describing the Minneapolis DFL’s convention as “extremely flawed and irregular.”
“This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention,” said campaign manager Sam Schulenberg. “Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
One convention attendee, Will Stancil, elaborated on Schulenberg’s comments, writing on X: “The issue is that the convention rolled out an electronic voting system that seemed to break. No one is sure but many voters were not receiving confirmation emails their votes were recorded.”
[...]
After leading in the first round of electronic voting, Fateh ultimately received the endorsement in a process that involved delegates raising their badges for their preferred candidate. Video shows very few delegates raising their badges for Frey because, according to Wedge Live, his campaign “tried to deny quorum by pulling their people off the floor.”
[...]
The Frey campaign told Axios that they plan to challenge Fateh’s endorsement to the state party.
[links in original, to tweets, not publications] Tweets omitted, Another published report:
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minneapolis-dfl-considers-5-nominations-for-mayoral-race-endorsement/ --- stating in part:
Sen. Fateh received a video-recorded endorsement from fellow state Sen. John Hoffman, who has been recovering at a rehabilitation center after he was shot in June during a targeted attack.
Residents supporting Fateh praised him as a backer of union workers and humane homeless response policies.
An endorsement of Fateh, who is running as a Democratic Socialist, would create a unique moment for the city’s DFL Party, possibly signaling a further shift for the party.
“People are starting to accept, you know, some more socialist and more, you know, to the left politics, which, in my view, is a good thing. It’s a progressive thing,” said Colton Baldus, a delegate in support of Fateh.
“It means that we’re starting to, I don’t know, put our weight in, and become more and more, you know, worker-centered in our politics, and I think that’s a very good thing.”
Two-term Mayor Frey was backed on stage by Red Lake Nation Secretary Sam Strong and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt. Supporters of the mayor referred to him as the more moderate candidate.
Matt Saxe, a delegate supporting his reelection, said he considers the mayor “progressive on economics.”
“He understands that people are getting squeezed in this city, and that is one of the things he’s focusing on. I think he’s been doing a good job so far, and the idea is to keep down property taxes and not fall into this repressive taxation the Trump administration is trying to foist on the entire country,” Saxe said.
Delegate Saxe, you're entitled to your opinion, wrong as it is. That being the Crabgrass opinion.
The Hoffman endorsement is important because he and spouse survived the Boelter shooting which took the lives of Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman, DFL legislators.
A breath of fresh air hurts nobody, again a Crabgrass opinion. Frey is stale. A drag upon more progressive city council member policy choices.
_______________UPDATE_______________
NYPost reports, getting ethnic about Fetah being a Somali - American Muslim socialist, while acting as if Frey's ethnicity and political biases are irrelevant. It is information as to both. But NYPost is a Murdoch outlet, so don't expect fair and balanced reporting (a slogan never really met by the Murdochs).
NYP published this image of Fetah with a handful of supporters. Diverse, yes, but more important, young. As in those facing the future on a longer time scale than the old guard. Young and more restive. Crabgrass is a bit akin, being old and restive in the same policy directions.
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Public Broadcasting Gets Snuffed by Republicans - Don't look there, EPSTEIN! At least Wyden says "Publish All The Government Holds About the Money"
Wyden says that, more or less:
Epstein case: 'Follow the money' in Treasury Department's files, Sen. Wyden urges
---
'Follow the money': Senator describes what he saw in Epstein's bank records
---
Sen. Wyden presses DOJ to release Epstein bank reports to Congress
--- and as a bonus
Maurene Comey warns her former colleagues: ‘Fear is the tool of the tyrant’
One supposes Ms. Comey has some particular tyrant in mind, while it's hard to miss what Sen. Wyden has in mind as his route to our understanding things better.
All for now, but the Congressional majorities are at play while Epstein distracts attention. DC per usual. Without lazy reporters told what is news and being obedient trained dogs, what might differ?
Sunday, July 13, 2025
The Epstein files. There are no Epstein files. The Epstein list. There is no Epstein list. The concerns about Epstein. There are none. Trust me. [UPDATED]
That image was published by Gizmodo. In the context of the latest Trump/Epstein news splats, where Gizmodo suggests Musk attention as a potential Trump Achilles' heel together with Musk having a platform and voice, while suggesting he'll have a third party soon.
Figure things out.
Empty Wheel has a post that there is Achilles' heel potential that Trump would but cannot control. From there, this image, and check it out for context. It's separate from Elon being an empoowered voice which is hard to silence if he pit-bulls onto something.
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Like where was that Achilles' heel placed exactly when Epstein was in full flower, and who else had their heels into things? With documenting images/tapes? Why is Bondi instructed to not let stuff out? The Dems did not release any Epstein files or list during Biden's term, but, again, whose heel was where, when? Bipartisan heels at play?
Who knows, a sub-question being - G. Maxwell, is she under "suicide watch?"
These days, Epstein is again on a roll, but too dead to enjoy it. Maxwell, silence it seems.
Add to that Gizmodo/Elon view and Empty Wheel's Epstein posting, an Empty Wheel's subsequent post touches another place where Trump/MAGA divisions may form and last. With the sentence, "How the hell is this making America great again?"
If being authoritarian is the game, be competent at it.
______________UPDATE______________
Rupert Murdoch's outlet is in hunting mode; this link, title:
Methinks Mossad and others doth protest too much. Who else may have funded Epstein? The Iranians? Have the Iranians any alleged frequent Epstein visitor known to the public? Is it relevant that Ms G. Maxwell's father, Robert, a British publisher, per this 1991 JTA coverage had an Israeli state funeral with the highest of praise?Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett denies conspiracy theories linking Jeffrey Epstein to Mossad
President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir headed a galaxy of dignitaries and politicians, both government and opposition, who attended the funeral.
Herzog delivered the eulogy for the multimillionaire publisher, whose holdings in Israel. including Ma’ariv, are estimated at $300 million.
” He scaled the heights of human endeavor. Kings and princes waited on him. Many admired him. Many disliked him. But none was indifferent to him,” Herzog said.
And this is about as reliable as Kash and Pam's changing story. But hear the woman out, anyway. With due skepticism, of course. What's expected, with this pending? Not that it's a thumb on the scale, Bondi's DOJ being the putative "adversary" in the Maxwell petition for Supreme Court relief. Filing the opposing brief, posing oral argument, etc.
Where there's smoke, etc., is an old adage for a reason. Generally true. Frequently enough.
And Trump wants to move on to something else, say perhaps, flooding down in Texas.
So, let's have hearings seems a House mantra whenever hearings could help, or cast shame.
____________FURTHER UPDATE______________
If not the Israelis, then the Russians? Rudy's Ukranians? Our spooks, CIA, DIA or others?
At least Walz did not say "Gazpacho."
Only, so far, MTG in DC made that gaff.
With no paywall, MSN reposts a Strib item:
Minnesota taxpayers are on the hook for $430,000 in legal costs to outside lawyers who helped Gov. Tim Walz prepare for a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing where he sparred with Republicans over immigration.
[...] On the day of the hearing, Minnesota’s budget agency sent a letter to a state legislative commission asking it to approve a $430,000 transfer from a general fund account to the governor’s office to pay for the legal services.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to Walz in April requesting his testimony at the hearing. [...]
“Accordingly, the State agreed to use K&L Gates to prepare for the hearing, and to ensure that the State, administrative agencies, and the Governor were well-represented,” the letter says.
Walz’s spokesman, Teddy Tschann, said in a statement Tuesday that U.S. House Republicans “planned a political stunt on the taxpayer dime.”
“They were too busy performing for the cameras to even feign interest in hearing from Governor Walz about Minnesota’s balanced approach to immigration,” Tschann said. “What’s most frustrating is that Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber planned this spectacle knowing what it would cost and went through with it anyway.”
[...] In his remarks before the House Oversight Committee, Walz stressed that the country’s immigration system is broken and said state and federal officials need to work together to fix it. The DFL governor mostly avoided engaging in heated exchanges, even when fellow Minnesotan and GOP House Majority Whip Emmer launched into a several-minute attack.
But Walz angered several Republicans on the committee when he refused to apologize for his claim that President Donald Trump is using federal immigration agents as a “modern-day Gestapo.”
[...] Stauber said at the hearing. “Will you rescind it? This is like the fifth time, yes or no?”
In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday, Walz accused Republicans on the oversight committee of engaging in “theatrics” and using the June hearing for “personal attacks.”
So, in a nutshell, Emmer and Strauber, rather than doing real work for their federal paychecks, took a key role in attempted assassination of Gov. Walz's political career, and Walz defended.
Those two assholes ran the states meter, indirectly yes, but, to the tune of half a million dollars that could have been spent on schools or day car, or Medicaid. Instead of helping the poor the law firm's bill was run up to help wealthy lawyers so Walz could avoid a wholly unnecessary career ambush attempt by the two jacking around instead of doing real work.
But Walz and AG Ellison put the work outside instead of AG prep of Walz for the fucking stupid ambush attempt, where you'd think Walz cannot be faulted for protecting himself.
Not so.
A PiPress opinion piece:
Walz was a predictable candidate to be summoned as he stubbornly refers to ICE agents as a modern-day Gestapo; the left in this country fanboys itself into a lather when it comes to Germany.
The coaching sessions began April 10 and continued right up to June 12 when the K&L team, their fingers crossed, boxed Walz up and shipped him to Washington for the day.
Oh, the bill. The bill was $430,000 of our money, with the K&L people promising not to wink at each other until they cleared Minnesota air space.
None of it makes sense.
[...] In comes K&L Gates with a reported fee of $516 per hour. Among the questions we’ll never get answered is why K&L Gates? A local firm couldn’t have been tossed this bone? How about a firm that bills at, say, $316 an hour? How is it that K&L Gates just popped up on somebody’s rolodex?
Here’s another reason it doesn’t make sense. From the moment Walz got the letter summoning him to Washington, he grumped and griped about how this was nothing but a grandstand play by Republicans. He had a spokesman, Teddy Tschann, claim that the Republicans were planning a political stunt on the taxpayer dime. Practiced in the art of deflection, like a good spokesman, Tschann meant the federal taxpayer dime, not the local soaking for the legal bill.
[...] But here’s the best reason the $430,000 doesn’t make sense. Walz served in Congress from 2007 to 2019. He was on countless committees and commissions. He held congressional hearings. Walz could walk through the nation’s Capitol building blindfolded. He not only knows all the nooks and crannies, he knowns all the tricks, the deflections, the stunts, the BS, you name it. And we’re supposed to believe that Walz needed highly specialized and outrageously expensive coaching for two months so he could handle those evil attack dogs, of whom he once was one.
Saying Walz knew the game because he'd been on the other side of hearings is to say both sides of the two party approch to getting real and helpful business done is somehow wrong down to the bone.
It is.
Aside from that, Wals should not have said Gestapo. It was a rude and provocative usage, but, mainly, the concentration camps in Nazi Germany were Schutzstaffel, not Gestapo, e..g., as noted here.
If Walz has said Schutzstaffel instead of Gestapo he may have gotten more milage, better media attention, Because reporters out of ignorance would have had to look it up.
Leave it there for now, but if readers research that law firm which Walz used they might find themselves here or here. Possibly worse.
What this all shows -- Our nation's Two Party stranglehold in splendid display, this whole story. Why I am an independent, but by lesser evil finding my voting record favoring the Democrats. The lawyers get paid and stroked, the taxpayers, well, there is a word or two that could be used for what they get. If JD Vance were to believably and sincerely stand for Medicare for All I might reevaluate, bur remember, Vance is the founder of the Haitian cuisine story, so the believable part weighs heavy against any cred he'd have.
Saturday, July 12, 2025
It is early, the Anoka - Hennepin School District will have an election Nov 4, 2025, but important local decision making is involved.
https://www.abbeypayeurforschoolboard.com/
Please bookmark that link, for campaign donations and for information.
School Board members should be open-minded and courteous to one another, open to the ideas of others, vs. being too dogmatic, and worse, wrong but inflexible.
Of interest, I have a small fold-over Payeur card that emphasizes first off, the importance of an open mind, as well as a trained one. In Payeur's wording, "School board members should be truly nonpartisan and able to hear multiple perspectives on issues and then use evidence and logical reasoning to make solid decisions."
You cannot argue with that. It defines a fitting perspective for anyone entering any meeting or discussion. Or position of responsibility over policies affecting many others. Those familiar with the recent history of this school board know about how factions exist and closed minds - minds like a steel trap, once triggered one way - exist; and the history is of a less than fully functioning system due to strongly held thinking set firmly in place and too narrow to admit there are more ways than one to get a job done.
Abbey will not be that kind of board member. There is no way she would be.
..............................................
I confess to having doubts about "the science of reading," but in this election both candidates should know that the issue of how to effectively teach reading exists and they should have cogent ideas about what is best for estudents. As one trained toward literacy teaching, Payeur deserves respect, and she and her opposing candidate(s) will have that issue to dissect and discuss. I look forward to hearing all sides, and weighing all factors, again including attention toward doctrinaire intransigency vs open-mindedness.
Anyone else having a vote on the seat this November should pay attention and vote the best candidate into the job of setting policy on how best to train the minds of those who will be our electorate of the future. Mistakes in choosing the best may not show up immediately, but we all know the wrong candidate for the job can be a problem with long-term consequences.
So, vote smart. Be informed before having the ballot in hand.
____________UPDATE___________
A reader pointed out something which might add clarity. The official candidate filing period has not formally begun, so it is unclear here whether the incumbent in District 4, where Payuer is running, intends to run again or not. Crabgrass also does not know if the incumbent shares an appreciation of the essentiality of reading - how we keep to the ongoing process of educating ourselves into old age until death. (In one song Bob Dylan wrote, "He that isn't busy being born is busy dying." IT IS ONGOING.) Presumably one would not in good judgment be sitting on a school board without some view of reading as a needed skill. But again, the candidates will have time to discuss or debate priorities before Nov. 4. You can inform yourselves before then. School Boards matter.
Two links: ABC Newspapers. Minneapolis Media. ABC has been with us for some time. The second item is new and Crabgrass neither endorses it nor knows if it's objective or biased. The current report reads as unbiased. With reporting the upcoming election online, today, in varying fashion;
Friday, July 11, 2025
Bipolar syndrome. Can the patient, in this case the Democratic Party, find a cure?
'Trump was right' - John Kerry says Democrats allowed migrant 'siege' of US border
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has told the BBC his fellow Decratmocrats allowed the US-Mexico border to be "under siege" during Joe Biden's presidency.
In sometimes sharp words, Kerry - who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and a US senator from Massachusetts - said he told Biden the party had "missed" on the issue of immigration for years.
He said this had allowed Republicans like Donald Trump to gain political advantage.
[...] Democrats have also wrestled with how they should handle Trump's recent nationwide attempts to detain and deport undocumented migrants
"The first thing any president should say - or anybody in public life - is without a border protected, you don't have a nation," Kerry said. "I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, I'm going to enforce the law."
Such words have been a familiar refrain for Trump during his time in national politics and were included in the 2024 Republican Party policy platform.
But Democrats - many of whom advocate more relaxed immigration laws and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants - attempted to portray Trump's positions as harsh and discriminatory.
According to Kerry, that was a mistake.
"Trump was right," Kerry said. "The problem is we all should have been right."
[... In LA] Over the weekend, armed federal agents and 90 California National Guard troops conducted an operation in the city's MacArthur Park - a gathering place for nearby immigrant communities. The officials swept through the park on foot, horseback and in armoured vehicles.
"To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, said at an impromptu news conference near the park.
Rob Bonta, the California attorney general, issued a statement denouncing what he said was a "cruel and familiar pattern of attacks on our immigrant communities by an administration that thrives on fear and division".
The denunciations, and the legal battles, echo the tactics Democrats relied on during Trump's first presidential term, when the Republican policy of separating migrant families that crossed the US-Mexico border generated widespread national outrage.
Such concerns faded, however, and by 2024 stringent immigration enforcement once again became a top Republican talking point.
Can't have it both ways. Either say the idea behind the effort itself is okay, as Kerry asserts, but the way Trump's doing it is insane, or oppose it all with the fact that birthrate and population dynamics are that more citizens are going off the labor market than into it to take menial jobs, so immigration is an answer, or avoid that and only carp over handling of things. Labor mobility vs capital mobility across a border is how the issue sits in its most abstract terms. Moneied employers want labor mobiliity to oversupply the labor market to enhance employer price power, while the UAW, for example, wants labor pricing to be as high as they can get in their market segment. Ag workers, they're underpaid for long hard hours in hot sunlight, farm ownership knows this, and wants high illegal labor mobility.
It is not easy, but Kerry is correct that the Dem Party must articulate a sound policy explanation and can then maintain criticism of ways and means. Opinions can differ, but nobody can deny the Republicans made the issue key to their win in the Nov 2024 elections. Winning legislative thin majorities, both houses, and taking the executive Brance while already having poisoned the top judiciary.
_______________UPDATE______________
Breitbart carries its version of the story, dated yesterday, including:
The BBC’s compliant reporter, James Naughtie, quickly changed the subject from Biden’s failure to Biden’s retirement during the 2024 race. This shift allowed the BBC reporter to not ask Kerry why Biden and his deputies welcomed roughly 10 million migrants which flatlined wages, spiked housing inflation, and handed the 2024 election over to Donald Trump.
Democrats are dodging those questions in the aftermath of the 2024 disaster, partly because lobbyists are pushing them to increase the inflow of migrants through the nation’s borders and into Americans’ jobs, schools, communities, and politics.
On July 6, for example, two Indian-origin Democrats pushed a plan that would welcome millions of immigrant workers from India.
The plan was drafted by the president of the influential Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden, and the center’s senior director of Immigration Policy, Debu Ghandi. Tanden was a top advisor to Joe Biden, and Ghandi formerly worked for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il).
[...] The plan echoes President George W. Bush’s “Any Willing Worker” scheme that would have allowed U.S. employers to hire poor people from around the world instead of hiring Americans. The Tanden plan also echoes the economic priorities of the Indian government, which is seeking to migrate many Indians into Americans’ jobs, schools, and legislatures.
The plan is chiefly intended to boost the inflow of migrants — mostly of whom will vote Democratic — which will worsen the damage to Americans’ wages, productivity, and innovation caused since 1990.
Aiming shame at Democrats and mainline non-MAGA Republicans together, pure Breitbart. That outlet was all over Biden month after month before the 2024 election with stories of border porosity.
Biden had made Harris his border czar and then let her twist slowly in the wind before tardily withdrawing and saying, "Here's Kamala." As if it might not have been happenstance, but instead intentional, after the Clyburn/South Carolina endorsement was withheld until Biden gave Clyburn a committment to name a woman of color as VP. Perhaps the condition was Harris specific, but as an Asian African American she checked two boxes. At any rate Clyburn's guy is out at DFC and Martin is in and purging the likes of Hogg while Teacher and Pubic Worker union heads have resigned from the committee. Damage control enough, but party unity behind "support American workers" still needs implementation in full.
Martin is trying his best, while entrenched disgruntled people are making the road hard.
But, yes, Breitbart is correct in pointing out the Bush family was promotionally big on labor market expansion in the US to help big business to keep labor costs low as a near-religious mantra, whether firms faced labor intensive situations or were greatly automated. As in, Musk needs union workers to leaven his spirit and broaden his perspectives. Teach him a military salute instead of a fascist one, etc.
____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
With Crabgrass's discerning readers it could be viewed as an insult to reader intelligence, but it gets pointed out anyway that Breitbart's last two quoted paragraphs say W Bush had the same plan, which was to boost Democratic Party voters. That's meeting yourself walking your story back the other way, which deserved at least an intervening paragraph to make things float better. But factor in, it is Breitbart. And the truth is neither party represented worker interest in fair pay for fair work.
Each party favors and is loyal and in thrall to big donor/big money so that Breitbart misrepresents causation about the fact that since 1990 wages have stagnated, as that is the result of conscious bipartisan policy, from Clinton/Newt onward, each party meeting the big donor expectations of the times. Together.
And AI marches on. Percentage of labor force unionized has gone down, in parallel to decline in inflation adjusted pay. Now Chat and Claud and other LLM usage can automate the pencil pushing, so grunt labor is not the only sector to suffer. The big money is getting us all.
Trump is a social Darwinist, with his voters not the fittest.
Bless implementation of Project 2025. Bless the Heritage Foundation and its leader Kevin Roberts, and bless John Roberts, with the two kindred in spirit, if not genetically. Twin sons of different mothers, fathered by greed and pliability. Class warfare by the rich against the People, that's as old as sin. And generation of warriors that way keep showing up, some in bloodlines, others as opportunists. A cosmetic difference from the Roberts situation, John Foster Dulles and Alan Dulles were actual brothers during Eisenhower days and later John Kerry and W Bush ran against each other while each stunk of money and class privilege. It is our Constitutional democracy in action. As the founders of the nation planned it.
I think "Great Again" means to Trump the period after the Civil War and before trust busting thoughts matured into the wealthy facing some token regulation. The period when the Buffalo Soldiers were recruited by government to hunt down indigenous people so railroad owners could lay track wherever they wanted without risk of mishap. But you'd have to ask Trump. That is only my guess. Today I guess his mind runs: no frontier, no immigrants needed to bust sod or find and mine silver. Who knows.
___________FURTHER UPDATE__________
DHS Memo Requires ICE Agents to Stop Carrying Certain Sig Sauer Service Weapons, Switch to Glock
The Buffalo Soldiers, were provided Buffalo Springfield rifles, or Remingtons or Sharps, for their hunting. The Buffalo Guns were the first sniper rifle. One shot, one kill. They were cartridge rifles, not muzzle loaders. At some distance to the herd animals could be dropped without any real likelihood of spooking a stampede and being trampled. And at a distance the animals expected no danger and were there, quiet for the shooting. Detention and transporting illegal aliens by ICE is more humane than shooting dead and using the skulls for fertilizer. So humane our nation's ICE agents are.
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