The suburban Minnetonka and Wayzata zillionaires that run the Republican Party of Minnesota threw a lot of money and effort this year into rebranding themselves as the party of rural Minnesota. If by “rural Minnesota” they mean “gigantic big-city business interests”, they’re absolutely right.

Not much to say that the song doesn’t say itself.

By now I’m sure everyone in the world has heard Elizabeth Lauten’s catty attempt to slut-shame the two sweetest people anywhere in or around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Whatever one may think of their parents, most people are in agreement that the Obama daughters, Malia and Sasha, are very sweet, well-behaved young ladies, and may well be the best things their parents ever created.

Charles Murray’s popped up again, apparently hoping that nobody remembers his history of cross-burning as he tries to fit scientific research on the Procrustean bed of his white-power agenda:

You can tell the Turner Diaries arm of the right wing is feeling frisky. Charles Murray’s popped up again, apparently hoping that nobody remembers his history of cross-burning as he tries to fit scientific research on the Procrustean bed of his white-power agenda: It’s one thing to point out that

After spending the better part of a decade working extra jobs on the side, hiring part-time and volunteer help when they could, and stretching the occasional bit of grant money as far as it could go, Scott and Julie Brusaw now have, thanks to Indiegogo and Uncle George Takei, a big full-scale facility and the full-time staff to go with it.

Tonight’s musical interlude is by a charming and talented Irish soul singer – and no, that’s not an oxymoron – named Hozier. Courtesy of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.

In other news…

Well before November, the Senate Republicans had a big fat list of all the things they intended to do once they retook the upper chamber: kill the EPA, gut Federal employees’ pensions, hand out more free-money tax breaks to the rich, yadda yadda yadda.

But they can’t do any of that just yet, because their base is all riled up by the bright shiny object called “immigration”.

In case you hadn’t heard, which is probably true if you depend on the evening TV news for most of your information, the Keystone XL is all but dead, and there’s nothing that Mary Landrieu, Congressional and Senate Republicans, or the White House can do to save it.

The clowns haven’t even been sworn in yet and already they’re plotting once again, just as they tried back the last time they held the legislature, to trash our rights on behalf of their Big Business masters as they seek to take down both local control and state stewardship of our land, air, and water.