Editor in chief, @MNReformer. Contact me if you wanna write for us. DMs open. Formerly @StarTribune, @LasVegasSun, @UMWallaceHouse. Go Irish.
Twin Cities
- Tweets 13,218
- Following 2,797
- Followers 6,542
- Likes 2,074
j. patrick coolican retweeted
WSJ Exclusive:
The Trump admin used federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security to finance those controversial pro-Trump ads that started airing on TV.
The taxpayer money used to fund the ads came from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. wsj.com/politics/policy/home…
57
1,029
2,435
157,316
Another argument for a Reformer sports section: Klobuchar’s knowledge of Midwest college sports comes in handy during hearing minnesotareformer.com/2026/0…
12
5
33
3,872
j. patrick coolican retweeted
GOP offices have a staffing problem, not enough folks who work in them understand sports. Cultural gap with most Americans.
A phenomenal moment in the Senate.
Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta.
Smith denies it.
Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury.
Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland.
Watch the whole thing:
56
176
1,747
202,949
Never been prouder of @amyklobuchar and her knowledge of Iowa and its Hawkeyes.
🤡 Eric Schmitt beclowns himself during Jack Smith hearing 🤡
Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory that Smith traveled to Atlanta to go to a Hawks game and collude with Fani Willis, and briefly displayed his "evidence" on a poster board before accusing Smith of perjury. There's just one problem -- Schmitt's facts were totally wrong. Smith was actually in Maryland at a Hawkeyes (not a Hawks) game and never met Willis. As Klobuchar told him, "You have your teams wrong."
Here's the whole deeply embarrassing sequence:
9
14
88
2,786
j. patrick coolican retweeted
“He really needs to sell all that and buy mutual funds if he’s going to be attorney general,” said U of M law professor Richard Painter minnesotareformer.com/2026/0…
19
12
35
4,479
Reformer's @maxnesterak digs through AG nominee Schutz's statement of economic interest and finds lots and lots of individual stocks, including a number involved in litigation with the state of Minnesota. Ethics experts say it's a no-brainer. He has to sell or recuse.
21
17
31
6,028
j. patrick coolican retweeted
I went through and watched Rufo's episode on "The Indian Question" so you don't have to. It's exactly as gross as you think it's going to be.
The typical exchange is something like this:
Rufo: But isn't there actually a sophisticated justification for hating Indians, isn't it secretly about this other factor?
The Other Freak: No, no, let me be very clear, we think they're gross and weird and disgusting on a personal racial level, that's the whole thing
Rufo: Chagrined smile, concedes the point, moves on
The other freak explicitly makes the arguments that:
* Even though they look assimilated, the Indian American Texas students aren't assimilated because he can notice that they're different. Basically "my racism against them is proof they haven't assimilated"
* Racism is actually good, it's good that immigrants should be subjected to "vulgar defamatory racism" (his words) as part of the 'hazing process' of becoming American
* It's bad when immigrant groups struggle or use welfare or are poor, but it's also bad when they succeed like Indians do because that's 'cutting in line' for jobs that should have gone to Appalachians
* "I don't want to live near non-white people" is a good and normal thing for white people to say and believe, and any attempts to discourage this are leftist shaming.
* By the way, I don't owe you an explanation for why I hate living near anyone with dark skin, I just do, so fuck off.
* "some of my best friends are indians"
* Rufo asks "Is this whole thing just a vehicle for white nationalism?" Other freak "No, that's unrealistic, but god I wish"
* At one point, Rufo turns against meritocracy because the Indians are too good at it.
* Vivek's tweet about hard work and doing extracurriculars was worse than Bo French's tweet because it criticizes America
It's honestly shocking how much of the conversation is just outright admitting it's a pure racial story and driven by nothing but race. They abandon the idea of high-skill immigrants, they abandon assimilation, they abandon meritocracy, they abandon the idea that we should strive for achievements or growth, all to service the baseline of "I feel icky when I have to see lots of Indians".
This week, @christopherrufo tackle the Indian Question.
Among other things, this episode cuts to the heart of longstanding foundational political disputes that are simply unreconcilable, but which can longer be brushed aside. Namely that some people (perhaps most people) prefer to live in a homogenous society, and as America tips toward a majority-minority country, that fundamental preference is under threat.
For a long time, liberals, who have more cosmopolitan preferences, have been able to pathologize the desire for homogeneity and subdue any explicit political effort to maintain a white majority in the country.
A great many conservatives are no longer willing to be silent on this question. They are going to actively assert their preferences, and Indians, while relatively small in total number are nonetheless the fasting growing foreign born demographic in the country and the most conspicuous element of the 21st century mass immigration regime, and are therefore the inevitable flashpoint for this debate.
*This episode we also took input from our Indian/South Asian friends @balajis, @razibkhan, @Indian_Bronson, and a secret 4th Indian.
109
224
1,856
145,015
Alyssa Chen goes deep on a report on hospital costs that never got the attention it deserved but was lately the subject of a state govt affordability discussion.
minnesotareformer.com/2026/0…
1
4
4
457
j. patrick coolican retweeted
The U.S. Government is up on TV with this spot --
It aired nationally on FOX yesterday during Illinois at #7 Ohio State and also during Fox News Sunday this morning
689
377
1,646
4,583,609
Good reporting here from @michellemngriff on who would have influence in a Demuth administration. A GOP power player and lobbyist is a key advisor to House Speaker Lisa Demuth minnesotareformer.com/2026/0…
2
5
10
5,087
j. patrick coolican retweeted
September 24, 1991, 35 years ago today, was an absolutely insane day for music releases.
79
1,113
5,638
268,438
j. patrick coolican retweeted
"Together we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America. America will never be a communist country."
President Trump is front and center in this new ad airing nationally.
The ad's disclaimer reads, "Paid for by the U.S. Government."
25
21
79
23,810
In which @_cingraham may lose his premier place in the pantheon of cricket stories.
nytimes.com/2026/09/23/us/po…
1
7
605
j. patrick coolican retweeted
i’ve watched a lot of friends make unnecessarily costly decisions under the assumption that every element of one’s life must be a political expression — including:
staying in exploitative nonprofit jobs, forgoing kids bc of climate change guilt, hooking themselves up to an IV drip of political news when it makes them miserable, cutting off family with even slight political disagreements.
and i think very little of it redounds to any public benefit. it often impoverishes their life and by extension others’.
the most effective and resilient public interest advocates i know cut themselves and others a lot of slack, because life is hard enough.
A gift link, because this piece is indeed bracing and worth reading in its entirety: nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magaz…
29
314
3,658
304,707
Mamdani: “If you are staring at an example of social disorder or social inefficiency, and the left refuses to explain either why it has happened or how they will fix it, then the right gets to point at someone in the immediate area and say, ‘That’s who did it.’”
🚨 At the U20 Mayors Summit, Mamdani Says the Left Has Ceded “Quality of Life,” “Efficiency,” and “Fraud and Waste” to the Right
This was one of the more interesting arguments Zohran Mamdani made today at the U20 Mayors Summit, and a reminder that he can be genuinely sharp when he drops the “central casting” routine.
“In New York City, there are certain words that have taken on ideological associations.”
“Quality of life has come to be seen as somehow a right-wing concern. Efficiency… has been taken on as a right-wing concern, rooting out fraud and waste, a right-wing concern.”
Mamdani’s argument is that refusing to engage those issues actually helps the Right.
“If you are staring at an example of social disorder or social inefficiency, and the left refuses to explain either why it has happened or how they will fix it, then the right gets to point at someone in the immediate area and say, ‘That’s who did it.’”
The harder question is how much of the broader Left is actually prepared to follow the advice.
14
486
9,430
348,296
j. patrick coolican retweeted
If Michelle Tafoya wins Minnesota I will fly to Duluth in the dead of winter and stand outside on a street corner in boxers with a sign that says TAMPON TIM with an arrow pointing at me
🚨 BREAKING: Real Clear Politics just moved Minnesota to “TOSS UP” status.
I’ve been saying it since January. Minnesota is in play with Michele Tafoya.
347
240
5,604
803,083
Billionaire owner of newspaper can create fraught situations.
minnesotareformer.com/2026/0…
3
4
9
1,605