I will see your billion and raise you a few more...

"In January of 2019, we need to swear in a Governor who is NOT a progressive and NOT a RINO (sorry Tim)."

When Jesse Ventura was Governor of the great state of Minnesota, he did many things wrong. However, he also did some things right. And he said some things which were true. Like what? Like calling the Republicans and Democrats the Crips and the Bloods. Why did he do that? Because they both operated the same way. Sometimes the only difference between the two parties were their colors.

This is not a hit piece on Tim Pawlenty, but Tim was part of the problem with our state. State government grew under his watch. And he did not raise taxes to cover this growth - but he raised many fees (code speak for hidden taxes) and shifted bunches of money around. Two terms of Tim, and we had bigger government.

Then Mark Dayton came around. And one of the biggest mysteries in the universe was how Dayton beat a highly qualified man like Tom Emmer. But he did. Dayton won and Minnesota lost. After Dayton was sworn in, his unspoken mantra to his predecessor was, "I will see your billion and raise you a few more."

Under Dayton, spending was off to the races. Wait a minute! Hold on! We have had a GOP controlled House for half of Dayton's tenure! And a GOP controlled Senate for Dayton's last two years! I don't get it! Yes, (Ventura talk) the Crips and the Bloods work well together. One gang just spends money a little faster than the other gang. But between the two of them under Dayton's tenure, the size of government in Minnesota has gone up an astounding and unsustainable 56%!

Dayton tried to mask this massive increase in spending by giving us the third highest tax bracket in the country. True, our top bracket is over 3% lower than the Republic of California's top bracket, but guess what? Even with the crushing tax burden that California has, the goofballs running that state are still spending so much money that their debt is an amazing $1.1T.

In January of 2019, we need to swear in a Governor who is NOT a progressive and NOT a RINO (sorry Tim). We need a REAL conservative who will say, "I will fold on your billion and start reducing the pot." NO MORE saying maybe we can reduce the growth of spending. We need a Governor who will reduce spending from the year before. NO MORE hidden fees. I love how Matt Dean has described out government - it has become "flabby". In fact, I will take Matt's term and strengthen it a bit. Our state government is morbidly obese.

I am backing Jeff Johnson for Governor in 2018 for one simple reason - the trajectory we are on (and I will use by good friend Tom's words with his permission), is making Minnesota "Illinois in training". Yes, it can get that bad. The GOP has some incredible people lined up to run for Governor. Any one of them would be a vast improvement over Dayton. I just happen to think Jeff's vision is the preferred path we need to take right now. 

How would Jeff do working with the Crips and the Bloods in St. Paul?  He probably won't be voted the homecoming king by the free spending lawmakers and lobbyists down there. But he will be a hero to the taxpayers. He will be the person who FINALLY breaks Minnesota's addition to uncontrolled and unsustainable growth in government.

The Illinois bankruptcy exit

"Take a good look at your own state. How are the government pensions funded? Are they adequate or is your state on the same path as Illinois. Just asking..."

This could be the race of the "Blues". Blues? Blue what? And what race? This is the blue state marathon. Okay, maybe now it has turned into a sprint. And leading the pack right now to go over the cliff just like the Thelma and Louise movie is the great state of Illinois. How bad can it be? The current Republican Governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, recently said his state has entered "Banana Republic" status. 

One would think that California with a state debt approaching $1.1T (Yes, that is trillion, not billion), would be the first state to go over the cliff. Ha! Illinois, a state which has existed under crushing Democratic rule and blistering corruption as long as I can remember, is finally starting to reap the negative benefits of such. 

How bad is it? A top financial official recently warned that 100% (that be all) of the revenue projected to come in needs to go to court ordered payments. The state is so broke, it might have to abandon the state lottery as they will not be able to honor cash prizes won. The state also has $130B of unfunded pension obligation. And to put frosting on the cake, it also has $13B of unpaid bills.

The battle royal (politically) will be in Illinois, instead of a state like California. California has all but outlawed Republicans. So the monopoly of Democrats in California are spending money like nobody's business. The result? California's debt is almost looking as bad as our national debt.

Illinois on the other hand, has a Republican Governor who is trying to use a leaky bucket to bail out the Titanic. His biggest problem? A Democratic controlled legislature. The battle continues.

Illinois however, might only be the canary in the coalmine with its unfunded pension problem. Yes, it could be that bad. The United States, as well as individual states, have been making bets which cannot be covered for decades. Right now, according to a Business Insider article from April 2016, our country has as much as a $20T problem in unfunded and underfunded pensions. That is a huge bubble that many economists have been warning about for years.

Thinking about a sunny vacation in the Land of Lincoln this summer? I wouldn't. Stay as far away from that state as possible. And one more thing. Take a good look at your own state. How are the government pensions funded? Are they adequate or is your state on the same path as Illinois. Just asking...

Eight Mysterious Young Deaths

"President Trump? Congress? This is front and center on many minds right now. Forget August recess. We have work to do."

During the past week, our country has lost eight of our young men. One might say,"Big deal - Chicago loses that many to gang violence on any ordinary week." True. But these eight young men died under very mysterious circumstances. Seven died in the middle of the night while on a Navy ship cruising through international waters. And the other died at the hands of one of the most murderous regimes on the planet.

Before I address what happened aboard the USS Fitzgerald, I want to talk about Otto Warmbier. This young man, full or promise, was a soccer player, gifted student, and homecoming king in high school. He went on to the University of Virginia and became an honors student.

Almost two years ago, Otto wanted to visit China. Once there, an opportunity arose through a Chinese company to visit North Korea for five days. Why did he want to go to North Korea? I don't know. Maybe it was like to the Steven Covey saying, Otto wanted "Seek to understand". While in North Korea, he wanted to take an innocent souvenir - a political poster. That turned out to be a fatal mistake.

He was convicted of a "hostile act" in a North Korean court and sentence to 18 years of hard labor. After spending over a year and a half of his prison sentence, Otto Warmbier was pardoned to come home. He had been in a coma for over a year, and I believe the North Koreans knew he was close to the end. So rather than have a corpse come back to the United States, they released this young man who was just days from death. How did this healthy young man get into a coma? No answers as yet - just many questions for the Nork regime.

Now the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62). On June 17th at 2:30 in the morning, the USS Fitzgerald was rammed by a Philippine flagged container ship, the ACX Crystal. Seven innocent sailors died, drown in the quarters in which they were sleeping. One might ask how in the world could a state of the art, AEGIS equipped warship, get rammed in the open sea? 

Having worked for companies who supplied equipment to the DDG ship class for years, I know something about these ships. They are almost invulnerable to attack. Why? The phase arrayed radar is so sensitive, it can (as the joke goes) "hear a fly fart at 10,000 feet". So in the middle of the open sea, with a container ship doing very unusual maneuvers, the USS Fitzgerald allowed itself to get rammed. Not only rammed, but for a while, in danger of sinking.

My suggestion to Congress is simple. Rather than spending thousands of hours and countless millions of dollars on this Russia-Trump connection (by the way, as we can now see from Syria that so called Russian connection is looking at bit tenuous), we should be investigating both the Warmbier death and the USS Fitzgerald incident. Both of these incidents stink to high heaven. There is way, way more to each or these stories - which we all need to know.

Eight mysterious young deaths. Eight young men - gone in the early stages of adult life. Eight families left to grieve and question why. And a nation on edge, also wondering what has happened. President Trump? Congress? This is front and center on many minds right now. Forget August recess. We have work to do.  

The Met Council HATES TCO!

"If a candidate tries to waltz you around the May Pole with a bunch of happy talk, send that person packing. We no longer have the time nor money to put up with fairy tales." 

Aw, Bird! Are you going to talk about that boring business crap called "TCO" again? And put people to sleep? Why Bird, why? For starters, let me again refresh anyone who is not familiar with "TCO", what it means. Total Cost of Ownership. In other words, if you look at the cost of buying a car, a non-TCO approach would be to recognize just the cost of the car. A TCO approach to what the car would cost would also cover license tabs, gasoline, maintenance, insurance and depreciation.

I have been told by a detractor or two (when I harp on the Met Council) I don't know what I am talking about. Because I have never sat on this most evil Council. Well glory be! Today in the paper was an editorial letter penned by someone who sat on the Met Council for 18 years. Did this person defend all the bone headed decisions this Council had made, especially with regards to transportation? Nope - he told the emperor he was not wearing any clothes.

The editorial writer first lit into our most famous money hole - the Northstar. In his words, "the Northstar is an absolute disaster". Gasp! Really? Really. It only pays for a measly 10% of its operating cost and 0% of its capital costs. Then where in the heck does the money come from to operate this choo-choo? A money tree in St. Paul? Nope - the taxpayers back pocket.

LRT is not quite as bad as the Northstar. 30% of the operating costs come from user fees. The other 70% as well as all other costs come from - the back pocket of the taxpayer. But here is the money quote from the article. The ticking time bomb. The article goes on to state that right now equipment which is replaced is capitalized with the feds paying 50 to 90% of the capitalization costs. But there is no guarantee that will last forever. In fact, in this current environment, that could come to a screeching halt at any time. Then the taxpayers are stuck holding that bag also.

The article goes on to demonstrate how the state does not account for costs like a normal business does, and that is why costs are often times under estimated. In the real world, a finance person would be updating his or her resume should estimates such as these be presented to management. But in the world of make believe (that be the Metropolitan Council), this is just business as normal.

How do we get rid of this tribe of village idiots who are wasting billions of tax dollars on follies? One more time - WE NEED A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WHO CAN, ALONG WITH A REPUBLICAN LED SENATE, KILL THIS COUNCIL FOR ONCE AND FOR ALL!! It is as simple as that. 

When the candidates come knocking at your door during the upcoming campaign season, be sure to ask the tough questions about transit in Minnesota. Arm yourself with the facts, the truth. If a candidate tries to waltz you around the May Pole with a bunch of happy talk, send that person packing. We no longer have the time nor the money to put up with fairy tales. 

Dethroning Ms. Hotdish

"The GOP needs to get an 'early bird' identified like yesterday to run for Amy's seat. Failure to do so will allow Ms. Hotdish to once again become a Bar-B-Que queen by smoking the GOP in November of 2018." 

Currently, people are lining up on both sides of the political fence to be the next Governor of Minnesota. There are some good people on both sides who are committed to take this year plus campaign journey. I happen to think the GOP has better people than the DFL, but that is just me. We even have two very qualified GOP candidates running for Attorney General. But the silence is deafening on who is going to dethrone Minnesota's "Ms. Hotdish". That would be Senator Amy Klobuchar who up for re-election in 2018.

Last time around, the GOP put up a tepid candidate who ran a tepid campaign. Because of that, Amy smoked him big time. A total waste of time and money. In the opinion of many (including me), Franken was very vulnerable and beatable in his last election. But again, the GOP put up another tepid candidate running another tepid campaign. Sad. 

November 2018 will be here before we know it. I know, there are Washington whispers about Amy Kolbuchar maybe running for President in 2020. And she would be tough to beat should she decide to run. But that is down the road. First things first. My opinion, as a political novice, is simply this - whoever on the GOP is going to run for the Amy Senate seat, should have declared months ago and already be organized and the campaign running.

Is it possible the GOP could let Amy run un-opposed? Or is the GOP going to find a "sacrificial lamb"? Someone who knows he or she would get waxed and not care. My preference would be to have a real candidate, with a real message, and a real campaign team step forward. Is Amy beatable? Sure, everyone is. But to beat a Senator who is one of the most popular Senators in the nation, with a favorable rating of 63% and unfavorable of only 26%, the road to victory will be rocky and steep.

What say you MN GOP? This next election the GOP will have the chance to not only hold Congressional Districts 2, 3, and 6, but they also could also pick up 1,7, and 8. Okay - 8 might be a stretch, but 1 and 7 certainly are not. Is that the strategy of MN GOP? To try and run the table on congressional seats (save the unwinnable 4 and 5) and then cede the two senate seats? Seems so. What say you Jennifer?

This summer is a "dipping the toe in the water" year for the declared candidates. Next summer will be a whole different story. The silly season will be in full force. However, being a bird watcher, I still like the old saying, "The early bird catches the worm". The GOP needs to get an "early bird" identified, like yesterday, to run for Amy's seat. Failure to do so will allow "Ms. Hotdish" to once again become a Bar-B-Que queen by smoking the GOP in November of 2018. 

Who in the world is Maximus Garrulous?

Who is Maximus Garrulous? It is me. Trying to spread the most important message of all time.

No, Max is not The Thinker from Rodin as shown in the graphic to this article. Then who is Max Garrulous for crying out loud? Quite simply Max is this - my alter ego. Yes, Max is me. Max was my first blog attempt. And years ago, I put a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears into Max. Some might wonder, what was Max about? Max was strictly faith based. And what did his name mean? Simply put, it meant "talks a lot". Then one final question - why is Max still not a blog post? Because nobody read him.

When my wife and I attended the church we deeply loved, I was asked to contribute to the weekly "e-letter" which went out to the congregation. I agreed, as I did not mind that at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. The Executive Director of the church only had one simple rule - 300 words or less. The associate pastor had a more stringent rule - no blasphemy. But we were on very good terms, so he knew that would never come from me.

After a while, I was asked to also contribute an article to the monthly hard copy publication for the church. I did, and enjoyed doing it also. Then after some time passed, I considered using my articles to create a blog of my own. Thus was born Maximum Garrulous. It was loaded for bear with many of my better faith based articles. It was all was good save one minor issue - nobody outside the church read them. 

So Maximus Garrulous faded into the woodwork and was later replaced by the Very Angry Bird. The Bird has done well in readership, and I have no regrets on how the Bird continues to expose politics as he thinks as it should be. The Bird does not mind doing that as he thinks very fondly of this great country we live in. But if you pull the feathers off of  Bird and strip him naked - you will find Max.

Why Max? Because that is my true calling. Once saved, the real truth is way too important to keep contained. Yes, I can unabashedly talk about the redeeming love of Jesus. And before being nailed as a hypocrite, I can remind folks I was as rotten as they come. But through Jesus, I am also redeemed. And without redemption of Jesus, I would have stayed rotten.

I have been told in the past if I spent too much time on this "Jesus talk", it would hurt my numbers. Okay. I get it. Who cares? That is not what the Bible teaches us. Matthew 28 on our Great Commission is crystal clear on this issue. So, before I close this, let me give a simple example.

The Bible tells us once saved, we are to show the world our unbridled joy. After a while, people who have that unbridled joy are easier to pick out than a glorious sunset on a stormy day. People can witness with their behavior as well as their words.

This world, our world, needs God more than ever right now. Now just a little God, I mean jumping into the deep end of the pool. If you think you have strayed too far, become too rotten, here is the good news. There is NOTHING you can do wrong, which will cause God to love you less. By the same token, there is NOTHING so good you can do which will cause God to love you more. That is the "Wow" statement, right there.  

Who is Maximus Garrulous? It is me. Trying to spread the most important message of all time. But don't worry - Max is still here - he has not gone away. He is safely tucked under the wing of the Very Angry Bird. From time to time, Max will emerge and share his heart once again. And when Max does that, it is a very good day. The Word of God is way too important to keep tucked away. 

Slow healing wounds

"How can we help? First, if you are the praying sort, pray for healing of the families. Then, pray for healing of our great country. Finally, before we judge either side, first seek to understand. I think that is the best we can do."

What a week. Turbulent, gut wrenching, and heart wrenching all at once. The shooting of Steve Scalise. And then the not guilty verdict of Officer Jeronimo Yanez in the shooting of Philando Castile. What do these two events have in common? They both demonstrate how the social fabric in our country has become dangerously thin. So thin, it is on the verge of tearing.

First the Scalise shooting. Authorities have now found out that the shooter of Congressman Scalise had a hit list in his van of six Republican legislatures. Most, if not all, were members of the Freedom Caucus. The man had a visceral hatred of Republicans, especially the most conservative ones. The sad irony on the day Scalise was shot, he was not one of the six on the list. The shooter just decided that a ball field full of Republicans was too tempting of a target. Fortunately for all, the shooter was a lousy shot. Plus, the Capitol Police were at the ready. 

It was announced a Republican Congressman was going to cancel a town hall meeting. Why? He feared for his safety. And why wouldn't he based on many of the town halls so far this year? And now mix in an assassination attempt at Republican law makers. What is next? Do all our law makers need to wear some kind of body armor and have Secret Service protection? Have we really become that lawless?

On the local scene, my heart goes out to both the Castile and Yanez families. One unfortunate incident, and a life is lost and countless others changed forever. Officer Jeronimo Yanez will never be the same. He took a life. Talk to most anyone who has taken a life, even in war, and it is life changing. He will probably never be a police officer again. And his legal troubles might not be over. There might a civil lawsuit in the future.

One week, many wounds. All slow healing. Even though Steve Scalise is not totally out of the woods as yet, there is continual slow improvement in his condition. To be shot in that area of the pelvis, is very damaging. One surgeon is confident Scalise will someday walk, maybe run again. But this wound will take a long, long time to totally heal.

The woulds with the Castile and Yanez families are a different matter. These are also slow healing. Only they might never totally heal. After the verdict was read, the continued mistrust of the police by certain segments of our society has grown deeper.

How can we help? First, if you are the praying sort, pray for healing of the families. Then, pray for healing of our great country. Finally, before we judge either side, first seek to understand. I think that is the best we can do.