Awkwardly Awesome Podcast
l3wis This was recorded a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t talk about politics.
Our Constitutionally Inept Govnah got a lesson in the 1st Amendment today
“At this stage, defendants have failed to put on evidence that Hook’s ‘speech had an adverse impact on the efficiency of the [University’s] operations,'” Schreier ruled. “…Defendants have not demonstrated that there was any disruption to on-campus activities, Hook’s teaching lessons, or the University’s operations… Such ‘vague and conclusory’ concerns . . . runs the risk of constitutionalizing aheckler’s veto.”
What baffles me is that I thought conservatives like Larry Buck were Free Speech Advocates, guess not, another conservative value thrown out like the trash, but what do you expect from a party that has a manure spreader as their leader?
Some advice to the professor; your definition of Kirk was woefully incorrect. Nobody uses ‘Nazi’ anymore, the NEW, DEI, WOKE version is White Christian Nationalist. Nevermind, I’m sure DEI programs were canceled on campus so you are required to use the proper definition of Nazi.
1st Amendment
Christine Erickson
David ZoKaites
Elections
Greg Jamison
Joe Batcheller
Mike Huether
SF City Council
Sierra Broussard
Sioux Falls
Zach DeBoer
Who is all in on City Election?
That’s a great question, we are still slow to have a full docket with NO ONE yet announcing for the SE District (Barranco is NOT running for a 2nd term as he is running for State Auditor instead).
AT-Large; Rich Merkouris will likely run for a 2nd term. No challengers have announced yet.
AT-Large; Cole is NOT running for a 2nd term and is actually unethically chairing a replacement candidate’s campaign, whose name we will not speak. No other challengers have announced.
Central; This is my district and I am excited to say there are a full slate of candidates;
Zak Okuwe (Nurse, Non-Profit founder, immigrant activist)
Thomas Werner
Matt McKinley (landlord)
Sierra Broussard (she may run for at-large)
Bob Trzynka (attorney)
Zach DeBoer (hasn’t announced yet) (artist)
Mayor;
Mike Huether (Maybe)
Marshall ‘Illegally living out of district’ Selberg (Big f’ing Maybe)
Greg Jamison (Maybe)
Christine Erickson
Jamie Smith
Joe Batcheller
David Zoikaites
I think Erickson will make the runoff no matter who runs, BUT, I couldn’t tell you who will be up against her since half of the challengers could do it. Some argue it will be Erickson vs. Smith because it will be the conservative candidate vs. the progressive candidate and they will be the top two vote getters since we are a purple town, or at least 7% of us are 🙁 I’m not buying it because I think Jamison and Batcheller have Smith beat on city government knowledge and there may still be some morons out there that think MMM is still great, so yes, he has a chance of being in the runoff 🙁
Local Government participation has been bad for decades
Well, it only took a few days, but a local politician had to go there;
“We are finding it very hard to get people who want to put their hand in the air and serve,” TenHaken said. “Who would want to serve? Who would want to step up and lead, especially when you see things like what happened in the last 24 hours? Who would want to be bold and be a leader? And what that’s creating is a big leadership gap that we have right now.”
Participation by young folks in local politics has been bad for decades and I am not sure what the answer is. I know that trying to eliminate the city workforce of anyone over 50 in the union ranks may not be the best approach, or trying to compare the recent murder of a political activist as to why people shy away from local politics, or maybe it is because we have a closed government that can’t even be transparent about a mural!
I have ran many campaigns for council, some Repugs, some Dems, each election cycle presents new challenges as to WHO is paying attention and how to reach out to those folks. If there is one constant in political races, it is constant change and you need to adapt. I don’t think young people are as concerned about their safety as older people are at political events. I think what keeps participation low in local government is our low unemployment rate. Why do we have such a low rate? Because most people have 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, and when you are constantly working, you don’t have time for much else, and in your free time, it is highly unlikely you will be watching city council meetings or attending a protest. Because as a right to work state with little rights to organize for better wages and a terrible social safety net from the state, people are forced to work whether it is good for them or not.
Local government participation is low, that has been obvious for decades, but I’m not sure recent events sparked this disinterest, this cake has been baking for quite awhile, and Poops is one of the original chefs.
Charter Revision Commission returns this Wednesday
The CRC starts meeting this week. The first meeting is just to set ground rules for the upcoming meetings. It will be interesting to see what initiatives the citizens will bring forward and what will come from the government. The current membership doesn’t give me much hope things will go smoothly for citizen initiatives.