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Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

280 followers 110 following 88 posts

he/him, Redneck Riviera permanent exile, Corcoran cat daddy, U Asianist & film nerd, Lynx devotee, radical left lunatic

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Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

headline: "More rest is in works for the [blank]"

November 9, 2025 at 5:19 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

Looks like the @startribune.com
is getting Richard Hell to write its headlines again

DFL spirits lifted by last week's (blank)

November 9, 2025 at 5:14 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

I thought of sending this reaction to the Star Tribune's latest scaremongering about Omar Fateh as a letter to the @startribune.com, but they wouldn't even publish my online comments calling out their puff piece on Frey a few days ago, so I just made it a social media post instead.

To Minneapolis residents:
Only days after publishing a front-page puff piece on Mayor Jacob Frey that literally devoted three paragraphs just to describing how cute his kids are, the Minnesota Star Tribune followed up today with a column by Eric Roper on the "slate for change" strategy in the mayoral race, in which Omar Fateh is described as an un-"palatable" "far-left candidate."
Is even a single actual policy position of Fateh's described or analyzed? Of course not. There's just the name calling, using words that are only slightly more Minnesota nice than Trump's descriptions of anyone who opposes him as "nasty" and a "far left lunatic."

Why does this kind of branding of candidates like Fateh always vaguely conjure a Cold-War era socialist boogeyman but so rarely engage the actual policies the candidates propose? Can it be because those policies in fact have broad support from ordinary people, so it's better not to tell readers what they are but instead to just go through the usual red-baiting routine? Roper's discussion was ostensibly about the more "palatable" challengers to Mayor Frey who are part of the "slate for change" alliance, DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton, so what exactly separates them from Fateh in terms of policy (setting aside the very obvious other factors that may make them more "palatable" to some voters in terms of religion or skin tone)?

At the recent debate hosted by the Star Tribune, the only thing that came up as a very clear policy difference was a $20 minimum wage, which only Fateh supports. Well, in summer 2017 Minneapolis passed an ordinance to raise the minimum wage to $15, which then City Council member Jacob Frey voted for. If you run $15 in July 2017 through an inflation calculator, guess how much that is today? $19.83. So does the difference between an ostensible "far-left" radical and a more "palatable" candidate amount to just 17 cents?

I will not only follow the "don't rank Frey" strategy on my ranked choice ballot; I will enthusiastically rank Sen. Omar Fateh #1 for the very simple reason that he is the one most focused on making a real material difference in people's lives and also BY FAR the one with the strongest record of concrete political accomplishments (free college tuition for families making less than $80K, a living wage for rideshare drivers, now widely available lifesaving fentanyl test strips, etc. – all statewide laws passed that he spearheaded).
Frey has the developers' and landlords' money and the Republican-owned Star Tribune solidly behind him, but Fateh has the support of the people because he has the policies that will make a difference and a strong record of political effectiveness.

November 1, 2025 at 12:36 AM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

MAGA to white South Africans: “You lost apartheid there, come help us rebuild it in America!”

Foreign Policy
Headline: Trump refugee plan seeks 7,000 Afrikaners - and virtually no one else
The administration's rush to process thousands of White South Africans coincides with plans for overall admissions set as low as 7,500.
photo: South African refugees arrive at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in May.

October 21, 2025 at 9:01 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

your daily StudBud

photo of 2 sports section front pages, 1 featuring photo of Courtney Williams and 1 featuring photo of Natasha Hiedeman

September 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

Willie be Willieing

September 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

Since October 7, 2023, more journalists have been killed in Gaza than all these wars combined:
U.S. Civil War, World War I and Il, Korean War, Vietnam War, wars in Yugoslavia (1990s & 2000s) and the Afghanistan War.
Brown University Watson School of International and Public Affairs

August 12, 2025 at 3:37 AM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

LTE in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune

MINNEAPOLIS MAYORAL RACE
Fateh's accomplishments far outstrip Frey's Julius Hernandez, shilling for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, says not to vote for DF L-endorsed mayoral candidate state Sen.
Omar Fateh because "the DFL Party was built by people who believed in results" ("Democratic socialism isn't the future of the DFL Party," Strib Voices, Aug. 8).
OK, here's a test for Minneapolis voters: Off the top of your head, name a single major accomplishment achieved by Frey in his 7½ years as mayor. I'll wait. Finding it difficult?
If someone asked me the same of Fateh's recent tenure as state senator, I'd have to decide between the North Star Promise Act, which made higher education feasible for thousands of lower-income Minnesotans; the legalization of fentanyl test strips, which saves the lives of people who could otherwise potentially die of a fentanyl overdose without even knowing what they were taking (as did my own brother-in-law in the very month before the act was passed); and the bill to ensure that Uber and Lyft drivers were paid a living wage. Fateh led on all those initiatives, and they were based on the desire to make a real difference in his constituents' lives, not to serve any ideological agenda.
If you want "results" rather than showboating, vote DFL-endorsed Fateh for mayor.
JASON McGRATH, Minneapolis

August 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

Can we just pause to appreciate the irony of this moment, when Trump’s habitual ass-kissers dare to defy him because they feel they must pander to the MAGA base?

screen shot of newspaper headline saying “Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans break with Trump on Epstein”

July 16, 2025 at 3:51 AM

Jason McGrath

@jasonmcgrath.bsky.social

"just something to note as Craig throws her hat into the ring to replace Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)"
(screen shot of Racket article also linked in comment below)