Bob CollinsI often wish that Star Tribune columnist Lee Schafer’s work could find its way off the business pages and closer to the paper’s front page because his work is too stimulating to be relegated to one of the most ignored parts of the newspaper.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Politics
Somewhere — maybe — a political strategist for the Trump-Pence ticket is wondering how booing parents of soldiers is going to propel the Republicans into the White House.
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The City Council last night voted not to ban the game-playing in city parks, specifically around the veteran’s memorial next to a playground and band shell in the city. Read more →
You’ll probably see more of this picture in newspapers and on websites. It’s the headstone of the soldier whose parents have been criticized by Donald Trump. You won’t hear the story of the soldier on whose grave the photographers trampled to get it. You should. Read more →
It should come as no surprise — although it still does — that the preferred Republican candidate for president of the United States thought it made some sense to attack Gold Star parents. It doesn’t take a political science degree to see the stupidity of doing so. Read more →
We’ve seen enough nonsensical real political commentary from the mainstream media during this campaign to dismiss The Simpsons version, just because it’s a cartoon.
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There was a lot of sentimentality as I browsed social networks on Wednesday night during President Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which naturally allowed me to think about how I’ll remember the last eight years. Read more →
Sean Kehren doesn’t want to tell you where he’s from.
What matters is he’s going places. Read more →
The Chicago Tribune is rightly getting some pushback today for its tone-deaf front page coverage of last evening’s historic moment when a woman was nominated to be the president of the United States by a major party. Read more →
Honk if you got up yesterday morning thinking it would be the day a national TV network would proudly feature an essay that included a reference to the comfortable life of being a slave in Washington. Read more →
Sean Kehren, 22, didn’t do anything to earn the ridicule of the Internet other than be engaged in civic life by, in this case, becoming a delegate from the 8th congressional district to the Democratic National Convention.
He was shown during television coverage last night crying as Bernie Sanders implored his followers to support Hillary Clinton. Read more →
Political conventions are pretty fertile ground for Bad Lip Reading, the satire site that takes the real and makes it unreal. It was a little more challenging, perhaps to take Ted Cruz’s unreal moment in Cleveland and try to make it more unreal. Read more →
The Democratic National Convention hadn’t even started in Philadelphia yet before we got our first entry in the “disrespect for the flag” category. Read more →
It turns out we didn’t see the end of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s political career after his conviction and prison term on felony charges. Read more →
Is life in America as horrible as Donald Trump painted during last night’s speech? It all depends on whether you like Donald Trump. It always does with presidential campaign messages. Read more →