Dan Proft

Excellent piece on voter fraud.

As I've been saying for some time, the system is the fraud. Therefore, as @CynicalPublius rightly argues, the GOP needs to operate within the system to foreclose on the aspects of the system (which varies from state-to-state) that throw the doors open to manipulations.

Only Frank the History Teacher can connect the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck to the location of the Bears' new stadium.

Below is this week's installment of @MorningAnswer's "In-depth History" as there is nothing new in this world. It's just the history you don't know and Frank does.

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Gales of November

Good Morning! Lake Superior is the most interesting of the Great Lakes. It’s cold all year and its deepest trench of over 1330 feet actually goes well below sea level. It also covers up a mountain called the Superior Shoal which at its closest point to the surface is only 21 feet deep. North of Copper Harbor it has been a major hazard to ships ever since it likely sunk two newly constructed minesweepers on their voyage over to Europe during WWI. Much further east, the Edmund Fitzgerald which perished 51 years ago tonight in the middle of a snowstorm with hurricane force winds, tragically sunk with 29 souls on board on its way to safe harbor near Whitefish Bay.

Its fateful journey originated in Superior, WI carrying a heavy load of taconite pellets, which are a wonder of modern tech and capital investment. Prior to World War II, the Mesabi Range of NE Minnesota produced high amounts of hematite ore, which could be used as is by steel plants. But these reserves became depleted and the less rich taconite ore, which is technically a rock, could be crushed down and then magnetically separated to create uniform pellets.

But the huge investment required tax certainty in a very liberal state so an Amendment to the State Constitution in 1964 which strictly limited the taxes on taconite for 25 years was passed. The industry then boomed. But when crisis hit the American steel industry in the early to mid 80s, the Land of 10,000 Lakes politicians knew in 1989 they would have to temper their itch to raise taxes on an industry that creates lots of union jobs and votes in Duluth.

Today taconite is still lightly taxed upon extraction. And the revenue is kept local “in lieu” of property taxes. Sounds a lot like the potential deal the Bears might make with our craven legislature. I’d rather eliminate the gas tax and let them move to London if they want. But…. Ya know…..Bears. The kids at school are all into this too wearing #18. When I ask why they are wearing Mike Tomczak jerseys I only get a blank stare.

"He's so well-spoken." So was Harold Hill.

First, Adam Smith never used the word "capitalism" much less did he coin it.

Second, Smith's main target in The Wealth of Nations was mercantilism--the state conferring benefits to favored sectors or companies--which is exactly what El-Sayed like so many pols in DC promotes. The only "danger" of monopoly is one established by the government--you know, like Medicare for All.

Third, his laments about corporations using their resources to influence pols (what about unions?) and agency capture call to mind P.J. O'Rourke's observation that, "As long as buying and selling is controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators."

El-Sayed is a free marketeer like RuPaul is a woman.

I don't doubt the intelligence Kennedy references. We know Iran has ballistic missiles that can reach Germany.

The question is, if Kennedy is free to say this out loud why didn't Trump do the same for the past 7 months?

Because the Iron Sheik is unavailable.