All posts by Publius Jr.

I’m a US Army Veteran, who used his GI Bill to earn a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at the U of MN. I had transferred in from Iowa State University. I had a Secret Security Clearance for the job I did in the Army. I am a Packers Shareholder. I am a straight knitter. I put my intellectual ideas in a file I keep called Tom’s Bright Ideas. I’m a writer of sorts started from my letter writing I used to do in the Army at Ft Bliss Texas. I’m originally from Winona MN and I love maple frosted Long Johns from Bloedow’s Bakery.
2A, HD66B, St Paul

MN Gun Owners Caucus Illuminates about DFL Gun Control Bills to St Paul GOP Candidates

Leave a comment
Meet & Greet the St Paul Republican House Candidates
6 of 7 Candidates invited attended the Meet & Greet. from Left to Right, Fadil Jama (HD 66A), Dan Walsh (HD 64A), Mike Hilborn (HD 65B), Scott Hesselgrave (HD 67A), Greg Copeland (HD 66B), present but not pictured, Peter Donahue (HD 64B)

The MN Gun Owners Caucus was invited to help St Paul Republican Candidates to understand what they may be up against in debate/forums and in town halls against DFL career politicians, concerning gun laws and regulations, which are unconstitutional due to the Supremacy of the US Constitution over State Constitutions.

The nonpartisan nature of the MN Gun Owners Caucus was such that if they called this meeting, instead of the HD 66B Republicans, they would be required to invite DFL Candidates to the event. Lawful Gun Ownership is a nonpartisan issue, yet too often DFL legislators and their party are hellbent on adding cumbersome regulations that pose to be “gotcha” laws that will make any law abiding gunowner into a criminal or go insane trying to follow all of them.

Many examples of “gotcha” laws are posed as “Reasonable” Gun laws.  One such law that was proposed in a bill by Rep Kaohly Her HD 64A DFL was the Safe Gun Storage Bill where guns would need to be locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Thankfully this “Gotcha” bill which was Insane & Unreasonable failed thanks to the MN Gun Owners Caucus. Rep Kaohly Her at the HD 64 A&B Forum  on Sept 17th said she was a gun owner and stores her gun separate from her ammunition, unloaded and locked at her home. Hopefully her home isn’t located and invaded by armed criminals as she just stated her home doesn’t have an accessible firearm ready to thwart a crew of career criminals wanting to steal and possibly kill anyone who gets in their way. We pray that day never happens to her, or anyone else.

MN Gun Owners  Caucus Explained What they Do
MN Gun Owners Caucus, Comms Director, Nick Majerus explained about how gun laws and what the organization does

Nick Majerus explained about many gun laws that were put into an omnibus anti-2A bill and how the bill failed. It failed because gun ownership is nonpartisan and Rob Doar a full time lobbyist for the organization lobbied legislators to see the insanity of certain laws, and also worked to water down bills that looked like they were headed toward passage due to party line votes and Big Money organizations pushing for gun control.

Bryan Strawser is a co-founder and Chairman of the MN Gun Owners Caucus.

There are 2 main In-Session Events the MN Gun Owners Caucus invites Law Abiding Gun Owners to the Minnesota State Capitol Building. It is for Rally Day, as well as the Lobby Day. We posted both of those days this year.

May Lor Xiong Addresses the Audience

May Lor Xiong, the Endorsed Republican Candidate in CD 4, running against Betty McCollum

May Lor Xiong talked about the importance of being safe and defending oneself and your family. She cited how despots and Communists will tell people who they want to protect you while they take some of your money, but after they take your guns away they might take you away and no one will ever see you again.  All Communist regimes do this.

Questions and Answers with Nick Majerus

Nick Majerus answered questions from Candidates and from the audience at the event room at the American Legion Post 577.

One of the questions was about the most recent obscene MN Supreme Court Ruling in MN v Blevins. Mr Blevins had been threatened with a knife on the Light Rail Station near the US Bank Stadium. Blevins pulled a machete in self defense. He then gets charged with second degree assault-fear using a weapon.  They said from the camera footage on the platform Blevins did not retreat. Yet there is no such law or requirement by anyone wishing to defend themselves. The Majority opinion was that Blevins didn’t retreat and he caused fear with his machete and thus guilty. The dissenting opinion by Justice Thissen and the case can be read here.

St Paul Republican Candidates Address the Audience

Each of the Endorsed Candidates that attended the event got up and addressed the audience. There were 7 candidates who were running, only Sharon Anderson who beat the endorsed Republican Candidate AJ Plehal, did not attend the event.

Those in attendance were HD 64A Dan Walsh, HD 64B Peter Donahue, HD 65B Mike Hilborn (there was no candidate filing for HD 65A), HD 66A Fadil Jama, HD 66B Greg Copeland, and HD 67A Scott Hesselgrave.

American Legion Post 577, 1129 Arcade St, St Paul MN 55106

Thanks to the American Legion Post 577

HD 66B Republicans would like to thank the American Legion Post 577, at 1129 Arcade St, Saint Paul MN 55106, for having a real nice establishment for us to hold our event at. They are having a Booya on Saturday October 19th.  They have a beautiful building, and a great atmosphere inside.

This post was a write up about an event planned by HD 66B Republicans for the sole purpose of educating the public, candidates, and anyone interested in lawful gun ownership.  We thank all the invited Republican Candidates of St Paul for the MN House. We are glad to bring attention to some really great candidates other than our own endorsed candidate Greg Copeland, and May Lor Xiong.

Thanks to the MN Gun Owners Caucus to help educate those who attended our event.  We are not associated with them, though some of our BPOU delegates are members of their organization.  — Admin

 

Faith, Recipes

Happy Varfrudagen (sounds like Vaffeldagen or Waffle Day) March 25th

Leave a comment

Waffle Day is a tradition that is celebrated in Sweden, and to a lesser extent elsewhere, on March 25.  Waffles are usually eaten on this day. The name comes from Vårfrudagen (“Our Lady’s Day“), which in vernacular Swedish sounds almost like Våffeldagen (waffle day).

Our Lady’s Day is celebrated on March 25 (nine months before Christmas), the Christian holiday of Annunciation.  It is the day that the Virgin Mary found out that she was to be Jesus’ mother.  The Archangel Gabriel told her this.  We believe that Jesus was not born in December due to a number of factors like how the shepherds were herding their flock, and that there was no mention of Hanukkah, which had been practiced for about 150 years or so.  Until the actual day is determined we err on the day as being December 25 as Jesus’ birthday, and the Immaculate Conception on March 25th.

Here is the American Swedish Institute’s Recipe for some great waffles.

Try their recipe to make your waffles extra crispy and delicious. Serve with jam in lightly whipped cream.

Recipe for Waffles

  • 1.25 cups cold water
  • 1.5 cups flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 2 cups of whipping cream
  • butter for the waffle iron
  • whipping cream
  • jam

Mix water, flour and salt until smooth. Whip cream until stiff and fold together with batter. Bake with butter in a waffle iron at full power and put them on a grid to cool. If you don’t have a waffle iron or sandwich press, cook them as you would pancakes. Beat the cream and place on waffles with raspberry, strawberry or cloudberry jam.

Wikipedia was used and the SC Times, and American Swedish Institute websites for this article. I am half Swedish and I enjoy this holiday. ~~ Publius Jr.

66B Book Club, Action, HD66B

66Books Book Club: Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Action,” March 6th, 6pm

1 Comment

Simon Sinek’s book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Action,” will be our book club, 66Books, second book to be discussed on March 6, 2021

What:  66Books Book Club Discussion of Simon Sinek’s Book, “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Action.”

When: Saturday March 6, 2021, 6:00 pm

Where:  On Zoom

Cost:  FREE (though we take at will donations $20 and under)

Why do you do the activities you do?  Why do you think the way you do?

Once you know your Why Statement you can start to connect to people to inspire them to action.

So why do people keep doing the same activities over and over again expecting different results? The answer is they don’t know their why.

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle (Why How What) shows that if you communicate your why you grab your audience’s attention as you touch their emotions and the how and what will be heard fully.  Whereas if you lead with What and How your audience might not stick around for your why.  He uses Apple as an example on how they sell their computers and other devices.  They sell their why and after seeing their How they do it they entice you to What they are selling.

Why is powerful and it can break down barriers you’ve set up in your organization.  There is a follow up book called, “Find Your Why,” aimed at helping groups and organizations find out their Why, there are group activities in discovering the group’s Why.

Here is a resource to help you read the book:

Youtube Audiobook:

Sign Up For 66Books Book Club

Since we don’t currently have a list to send out to notify Book Club Members of the upcoming book, you’ll need to send an email to mnhd66brepublicans@gmail.com with the subject line of “66Books Sign Up List.” When we get a couple of days out from March 6th, an email will be sent out to those who sign up to confirm, and a link will be sent. Your email will be only used for the Book Club unless you opt-in to our other activities.

HD66B

Happy Women’s Suffrage Day, 100 yrs of Women’s Right to Vote, August 18, 1920 to Now

Leave a comment

Women’s Suffrage was borne out of the American Abolitionism Movement

On August 18, 1920 the State of Tennessee became the 36th state to pass the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteeing Women the Right to Vote.  Minnesota was the 15th State to pass it on September 8, 1919.

Seneca Falls Convention & Declaration of Sentiments

It wasn’t the first attempt at passing an amendment for women to be allowed to vote, in fact it started up about 72 years earlier in Seneca Falls, New York at a Women’s Rights Convention started by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They were abolitionists who turned to advocate for women’s rights.  At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention Mott, Stanton and other women put together a list modeled after the Declaration of Independence called the “The Declaration of Sentiments.” 

The Declaration of Sentiments offered examples of how men oppressed women such as:

  • preventing them from owning land or earning wages
  • preventing them from voting
  • compelling them to submit to laws created without their representation
  • giving men authority in divorce and child custody proceedings and decisions
  • preventing them from gaining a college education
  • preventing them from participating in most public church affairs
  • subjecting them to a different moral code than men
  • aiming to make them dependent and submissive to men

Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments at the convention and proposed women be given the right to vote, among other things. Sixty-eight women and 32 men signed the document—including prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass—but many withdrew their support later when it came under public scrutiny. (source History.com)

Post Civil War and Reconstruction Period

Following the Civil War the late President Abraham Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan had been altered as he was no longer around to over see it.  The 13th Amendment had been passed in 1865 ending slavery officially, the 14th and 15th Amendments had been passed to grant Civil Rights and Equal Protection under the law; and Voting Rights to former slaves respectively.

At the time Women thought they could register to vote with the passage of the 15th Amendment’s language allowing voting rights. The language of the article did not mention gender so it was vague, but since it wasn’t explicitly directing women to be able to vote, any woman who did was arrested.  This is when Susan B Anthony was arrested in 1872.

Susan B Anthony was an abolitionist who was also a member of the Temperance Movement.  The Temperance Movement was a social movement to curb alcohol consumption and eventually they succeeded to prevent the sale and production of alcohol.  So before you shout hooray for Susan B Anthony think of how she helped to organize crime in America in an indirect way by helping bootleggers to smuggle illegal alcohol in the early part of the 20th century.  The amount of misery heaped upon Americans not being able to have a drink of alcohol makes today’s social distancing and mask wearing pale in comparison.

Susan B Anthony died in 1906 at the age of 86, and 14 years later the 19th Amendment was named in her honor.

Split in Suffrage Movements

During Reconstruction the Suffrage for Black Men went one way and Women’s Suffrage went another way. There was a difference in the abolitionists.  Most advocated for Voting Rights for Black Men which resulted in the 15th Amendment.

One could question why this was so but the industrial revolution had not hit full stride yet,  which one could argue was the reason why it took so long for the cessation of slavery to occur.  During the industrial age it really didn’t matter who was pushing a button  on an assembly line. Also sentiments about what a woman’s place in the household was tied to family life and traditions held in the church.

World War 1 and Suffragette Parades

After World War 1 a lot of the old world had fallen away. You can see this in the period piece on PBS’ Downton Abbey.  Limited Automation, and women working in traditional men’s fields to produce war material for the war effort brought out a freedom women had not seen before. 

One of the ways in which women pushed their cause was to hold massive Suffragette Parades in some of the larger cities in the United States. Many women were arrested after these parades for demonstrating in public which was still illegal.

Suffragette Parade in NY City

Dr. Anna Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, lead an estimated 20,000 supporters in a women’s suffrage march on New York’s Fifth Ave. in 1915 . (AP Photo)

100 Years Later, Women on the Ballot is Common Place

Its been one hundred years since women were given the right to vote and it’s not a big deal as it was then.  There have been many women candidates, legislators, businesswomen, and even astronauts. Women have come a long way in this country.

Here are a list of current women legislators and candidates from the Republican Party:

Rep Mary Franson,  Senator Carrie Ruud,  Senator Julie Rosen,  Senator Carla Nelson,  Senator & Former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer,  Senator Karin Housley,  Rep Deb Kiel, Senator Michelle Benson, former Mayor of Woodbury Mary Stephens, Margaret Stokely, Georgia Dietz, Amy Anderson, Sharon Anderson, to name a few.

And our very own HD 66B Republican Candidate Mikki Murray.

Information for this article came from History.com, and from the Secretary of State of Minnesota’s Candidate Filing website.