Okay, wow, WordPress decided to make me learn a new editing interface. I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS, WORDPRESS. Anyway, if the result is that screw up some incredibly obvious trivial formatting task, I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT IT’S WORDPRESS’S FAULT. Also if there’s some app or extension that will just make WordPress act like it used to, please let me know; this new setup is obnoxious. 

Today’s post is on the Supreme Court race, which should be pretty quick and easy as it’s a perfectly fine incumbent and an astonishingly awful challenger.

Paul Thissen (incumbent)
Michelle MacDonald

Paul Thissen is a perfectly fine State Supreme Court Justice who was nominated in 2018 by Governor Dayton. Before that, he was a perfectly fine State Legislator for 16 years. You should vote for him.

I’ve done deep dives on Michelle MacDonald before, which if you’re unfamiliar with her you should probably go read for context.

Part 1 (2014)
Part 2 (2016)
Part 3 (2018) 

So the recent developments with Michelle: I think the 2018 post mentions that she had filed a lawsuit against blogger/writer Michael Brodkarb because she didn’t like his website/book about the Grazzini-Rucki case. That lawsuit was dismissed in 2019. Filing the lawsuit may have been a violation of the terms of her professional probation and she’s got a disciplinary hearing next week. In general I recommend Michael Brodkarb’s website for all your “what is Michelle MacDonald up to these days?” needs.

The fact that Michelle MacDonald is a right-wing Christian conservative and a literal Bible thumper would be sufficient reason to vote against her but if you’re unfamiliar with her, previous years’ posts include details about her drunk driving arrest, the time she basically threw a tantrum in court that escalated to the point where she wound up in a jail cell, her lawsuit against the judge involved, the time she filmed kidnapper Sandra Grazzini-Rucki sitting on Santa’s lap and saying for Christmas she wanted her girls back, and I think I’m forgetting some of her greatest hits. She’s also the sort of asshole who sues bloggers for saying mean things about her. Fun times! I strongly recommend voting against her for any office she runs for.

If you’ve read all the way to the bottom: I took the time to look over on Donors Choose for some Minneapolis public school teachers who could use some financial help during These Difficult Times and in particularly with distance learning.

(Edited to update with a fundraiser that hasn’t funded yet!) Ms. Aram is a teacher at North High. She is trying to raise funds for a system to allow her students to return books (contact-free) during the pandemic — so that the books can circulate during distance learning. She’s currently about 2/5ths of the way there.

(Previous fundraiser — Ms. Stone is a teacher at Cityview Elementary in North Minneapolis. She will be teaching third graders this year, and to help them succeed with distance learning, she was requesting a set of Chromebooks for her class. This is now fully funded!)

(I don’t have a patreon or a ko-fi but I take a lot of satisfaction from seeing projects fund after I point people at them. Please donate!)