Quick Hits for 3/9/17

• First off, a big salute to all women with yesterday's International Women's Day.  As I said yesterday, it's inexcusable we don't have equality for women in the workplace in 2017.  Judging by some of the far right troll comments I received afterwards, it might still be awhile before this injustice is taken care of.  I'll never understand Republican women who, when trying to stop an equal pay law from being passed, scramble in front of a microphone to proudly state, "I want to be paid less for the comparable or superior work I do better than my male counterparts do!"  Maybe they should go talk to a councilor...

• The greatest fail of Minnesota media so far in 2017 is their unforgivable lack of outrage about President Trump's undeniable double-cross of the Iron Range mining industry.  More on that in a second, but let me take a quick moment to focus on what the media in this state is trying DESPERATELY to make a far bigger story than it really is, Vikings-Ticket-Gate!  A few people with Democratic names got cheap or free tickets while members of the governing body of the new Vikings stadium.  One, why am I supposed to be getting furious over a few hundred dollars of employment perks when the Republican House and Senate approved spending a billion and a half in tax payer dollars for a football stadium for a billionaire, a stadium which will house 10 games a year, that most of us will NEVER be able to afford to go to, run by a team who threw a temper tantrum when they didn't win the MLS franchise for Minnesota, stating "they can't play on OUR field," and who are trying to place a fence around the facility to keep the public from getting too close?  'People's Stadium' my ass!  And Two, this is the epitome of the media helping the MNGOP create a fake news story to try to damage Democrats.  I'm sure KSTP and the Star Tribune are dedicating many man-hours to the robust transgression of slightly less than face value country music tickets...

• But back to the Iron Range.  As the media is micro-focused on the made up outrage of Vikings-Ticket-Gate, they're purposely ignoring Trump's boldface lie "American Steel for American Pipelines," a line he was applauded mightily for when he said it during his address to the joint session of Congress, a line he knew was a bold faced lie when he said it.  Two days later, he back tracked, insisted Russian steel, not Minnesota steel, would be used for the Keystone Pipeline, the largest of the two, eluding to more compromises on future infrastructure projects.  Meanwhile, a Russian ore tanker pulled into a New Jersey port, to a brand new processing facility, which will almost exclusively process cheap foreign ore.  The pipelines are only the beginning as Trump's real allies, the Russians, will become the de facto supplier for the steel used in most major domestic projects.  The only people left out of this money making scheme are the Iron Rangers, many of whom FOOLISHLY supported Trump, insisting Trump's bold faced favoritism to cheap foreign steel was only an act.  The mining industry in Minnesota is looking at an likely recession, or depression, and the only way we'll be able to get the mines operational is if we get rid of the unions, allowing for $8 an hour mining jobs with no benefits.  It's INEXCUSABLE the media, outside of Cory Zurowski at City Pages, have completely ignored this story.  Heck, Bill Hanna at the Mesabi Daily News actually defended Trump's death blow to the northlands major industry.  But someone got three free tickets to a football game?!?  HOW DARE THEY!!!

• Trump HATES the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare replacement being called TrumpCare.  That's why we should all call it TrumpCare! Reminder, Former President Obama didn't start calling the ACA Obamacare; the Republican's did, knowing they could get their followers who despised Obama (mostly because he was black) to hate the program which benefited most of them.  Their blind hatred of Obama gave the Republicans the ability to repeal and replace.  Now, with the media no longer needlessly vilifying the ACA, the Republicans are stuck.  They know people are realizing 'getting rid of Obamacare' really means 'killing off a program many of us actually like.'  Republicans are desperately trying to find a way to sell their crap sandwich as filet mignon.  The GOP replacement is a freaking mess, like we all knew it would be.  Call it TrumpCare.  The best part is when Republicans voters will start screaming at their politicians to bring back Obamacare.  HA!

• Ice went out on Minneapolis lakes on March 7th, freakishly early once again; the earliest ice out on record for all of the lakes.  Lake Minnetonka, the massive lake on the west side of the Twin Cities, will likely ice out, even with the normal cold weather returning, in the next few days.  The average ice out date for Lake Minnetonka is April 14th, over a month from today.  Last year, the ice went out on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th.  We also had tornadoes in the far northwestern part of the metro on Monday night, the earliest recorded tornadoes in Minnesota history.  For those who insist climate change isn't causing any damage, I'll let you go to the winter based industries in Minnesota and yell at them about how their disappearing profit margins are all a myth.  Weather deniers can go to the victims of the unnatural, natural disasters and tell them how their 'experts' insist the tornados weren't really tornadoes, so they can stop whining and complaining about their losses.  Pace yourself climate change denying guy!  At the rate we're going, you're going to be needing to do A TON of screaming in people's faces as the signs of a damaged planet becomes more and more undeniable.