The Progressive Midwesterner

Far-right political commentator Laura Ingraham, the host of the far-right Fox News program The Ingraham Angle who grew up in Glastonbury, Connecticut, openly criticized U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who was born in Somalia and immigrated to the United States when she was 12 years old, for the way that she talks : On Thursday’s episode of her show — which became a podcast earlier this month — Ingraham mocked the accent of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who couldn’t speak English when she came to the U.S. at the age of 12 after living in a refugee camp during Somalia’s civil war. Ingraham claimed that one of the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress “sounds like Rizzo on Grease ” and “doesn’t sound like Minnesota.” Spoiler alert...not everyone from the Upper Midwest sounds like Amy Klobuchar. I don't sound like what a lot of people would consider a typical Illinoisan, so I'm not going to criticize Omar or anyone else for the way they speak the English language. Also, for I...

At a League of Women Voters (LWV) forum for Minnesota State House District 25A (district map here ), which includes northwestern Olmsted County and portions of Dodge County in southern Minnesota, Republican incumbent Duane Quam and Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) challenger Jamie Mahlberg were required to share a microphone. While that was a well-intentioned idea on the part of the local LWV chapter in that part of Minnesota (I assume they didn't want the candidates talking over each other, which is a common occurrence in political debates/forums where each candidate has a dedicated microphone), it didn't work out well. That's because Quam, at one point in the forum, ripped the microphone out of Mahlberg's hands, and, after giving a rebuttal to Mahlberg's response to a question about education funding in Minnesota in, threw the microphone down in front of Mahlberg: It's inherently clear that Representative Quam has zero respect for women. I seriously doubt th...

As I am writing this blog post, Minnesota State Representative Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley) is leading a sit in on the Minnesota House of Representatives floor in an effort to convince the Republican-controlled state house to bring up proposed gun control legislation for votes: 18 hours later, @ErinMayeQuade is still on the House floor #mnleg #SitInSpeakOut #wcco @WCCO pic.twitter.com/hFZEO0esOq — Mary McGuire (@mcguirereports) April 25, 2018 Like Americans all across the country, Minnesotans are demanding common-sense gun control and gun safety measures. I applaud Maye Quade for her courageous act of leadership , although I can't really write a blog post about the sit-in without mentioning how Maye Quade has done a fantastic job using social media to promote her cause. Maye Quade posted several gun violence stories on Twitter, and here's a few of them: Stephen A. Starr Killed 12/30/1994 His daughters abuser/stalker/rapist broke into the house when she was...