More Politics

DARK MONEY

Dark money (from the Hubbards and Kochs) may have been involved in last week’s Twin Cities election but we won’t know until January due to Minnesota’s lax disclosure laws on political campaigns.

That was the headline from MinnPost writer Peter Callaghan who gave an informative post mortem on the election at today’s UofM OLLI Minneapolis Government class in United Methodist Church.

At least $40,000 of that “dark money” was left on the table when the St. Paul Police Federation’s smear campaign blew up in their face and they had to abandon a sinking ship.  Melvin Carter, the victim of the smear, handily won the election and the $40,000 that could have helped his opponent Pat Harris was never spent.

PNW NATIVE PETER CALLAHGAN

It was an OMG moment today in class when I learned that Peter Callaghan knew my boss at UPI Spokane, Bobbi Ulrich, when she was covering the State Legislature for the Oregonian.

Callaghan, now reporting for MinnPost, covered the State Legislature in Olympia for the Tacoma News Tribune, a respected Puget Sound newspaper. I worked for the very patient and understanding Ms. Ulrich in the summer and fall of 1962 when UPI was in the KXLY (CBS) Building on Main Street, Spokane.  Even though I was quite green, she said I could have covered the legislature for UPI but the draft was threatening and I enlisted the Coast Guard Reserve. 

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES

Two Netflix documentaries deal with “bad daddy” families, “One of Us” and Trump (BBC).  In the former, people separating from ultra orthodox Hasidic families suffer depression and chemical dependency in Brooklyn, NY.

The later sheds light on the Trump family starting with grandpa who ran brothels and beer halls for miners in the wild west.  His son, Frederick, offered his children the winners/losers dictum and you better be a winner.  This was not a fit for Donald’s older brother Fred who succumbed to alcoholism and worked as a pilot and then maintenance man in Trump Tower.

Both documentaries are disturbing but “One of Us” is a fitting counterpart for the movie “Fill in the Void” about the emotional turmoil a young girl suffers in having to marry her brother in law who she doesn’t love.