As I remind you all almost every time I write one of these, the Star Tribune is a very reliable barometer of the Dem attack messages of the moment; it is nothing but a puppet mouthing the words of the media leaders for the Dem party–the NYTimes, the Wash Post (although less so since Bezo took over), the AP. These are the sources for the Dem messages so reliably carried by the Strib. Completely predictable, completely irrational, and the result is a flailing, failing paper.
We know that since Trump came into office, the main national themes were that the tariff stuff is going to kill us all, the government employee and program cuts are going to kill us all, the world doesn’t respect Trump, Trump is a fascist authoritarian, and so on. We still see the echoes of those, but they never really took hold with the American people, so there is sort of a sense of casting around for anything that might stick, like the Epstein garbage that lasted a week. On a state and local level, the paper constantly ignores how badly Minnesota is doing and tries to pretend everything is hunky-dory, while the level of fraud in the state alone has made us a national laughing stock. The stories about fraud usually condemn it but fail to note that it is all Walz’ fault, he didn’t stop it, the responsible people don’t even get fired, and Dems benefit from it. Even the Strib is now having to publish stories saying all the warning signs were ignored.
So we are still seeing immigration-related stories; a couple of weeks ago the Strib had a full-page story tearfully describing how a multiple deportee and multiple illegal re-entry father had been caught again and was missing his daughter’s birthday. Sorry, no sympathy when legal pathways are available. The same issue had a story about how China tariffs will hurt consumers. The new work visa fee will kill us all.
Charlie Kirk, the tone of the stories is that he was really a bad person and got what he deserved. The Strib even published an op-ed from one of the whacked Minneapolis city council members flat out saying that. Jimmy Kimmel, who isn’t even funny, is a martyr for free speech. No recognition of the distinction between saying whatever you want and having to suffer the consequences for saying awful things. Kimmel will be gone for good soon, as his ratings are in the tank again. Tim Walz’ solution to this and to school shootings is solely gun control, because he wants no discussion of how his educational policies are turning young people crazy. The Strib expresses more sympathy for moron professors and other losing their jobs for celebrating Kirk’s murder.
Right now we are reading that the shutdown is Trump’s fault and it is going to kill us all. The paper dutifully pushes the line that all Dems want is to try to keep health insurance cheaper. There is a very technical issue behind this regarding the expansion of ObamaCare exchange subsidies during the epidemic. Extending that expansion will cost hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t have. It means that some people get a huge break, while the average working person continues to pay far more for health insurance than those getting it on the exchanges do. The Strib chimes in with examples of huge premium increases–“double digits”, but in dollar terms the increase would be relatively small and as I just noted, still cost far less to the consumer than typical premium sharing in an employer-sponsored plan.
Our imbecile governor chimed in on the health insurance issue blaming Trump for increases, betraying his usual flimsy grip on reality. He is incapable of understanding that a big part of the issue is the relative portion paid by the consumer, as noted above, on the exchanges, even if the overall premium stayed the same, the consumer would be paying more of it. A separate issue is that health insurance costs are going up significantly for everyone, and that is largely due to health care costs going up. Trump doesn’t have any control over those. They are going up because providers are raising prices. Trump is trying hard to get drug prices down, Walz hasn’t done crap. Walz has allowed ongoing provider consolidation that is driving prices up. Minnesota is a highly concentrated health care market but Walz has just ignored the consequences of allowing that to occur.
The real issue with the shutdown, which the Strib won’t mention because it is after all a mouth-organ for the Dem party, is that the far-left core of the Dem party wants to fight with Trump about everything, wants “resistance” and so most elected Dems are terrified of not satisfying this bloodlust. As with most of the shutdowns we have had to endure, it won’t make a bit of difference in most people’s lives.
The usual laughable stories regarding climate change and other environmental extreme policies that have thwarted economic growth and jobs for years. Trump is a crook stories. Trump is going after his “enemies”, which would be just exactly what Dems did to him, with no objection from the Strib. RFK, Jr. is bad for public health. That I agree with. Harris is drunk on the speech trail to support her pathetic book which she certainly didn’t write. Turns out Fat Timmy wasn’t her first choice; shouldn’t have been her last choice either. The Strib also continues its drift to anti-semitism in its Israel/Gaza coverage. Pete Hegseth should be ashamed for actually expecting the military to be an in-shape force whose priority is defending the country.
Locally, hard to avoid the crime stories, even for the Strib. People don’t feel safe and are moving because of it. But the Dem party hacks they talk to all still push blame onto the police. It’s absurd. The Hennepin County prosecutor, who loves criminals, especially if they aren’t white, is refusing to prosecute a wide variety of crimes–what incentive do you think that creates. Big property tax increases coming for Minnesotans, as if they don’t already pay enough taxes. The new family leave law will impose a huge tax on employers and leave them scrambling to fill vacancies. More businesses will leave or fold up. The Strib is very worried that the federal Department of Justice might get access to the state’s voter rolls and find out just how much cheating the Dems have been doing, which is a lot. And the Strib is finally noticing that student achievement in Minnesota in reading, math and science has plummeted. But that should make them happy, dumber Minnesotans are more likely to read the Strib.
