He’s gonna run for Governor again:
Of course, the little gnome will spend the next 18 months dodging debates. But his Veep bid last year, and his newfound rise to national prominence, have given people a whole lot more material.
As has the governor himself:
The little gnome never gets tired of “Nazi” references, does he?
I bet he does not see (badda boom) the problem with this…
There is no Berg’s Law I want more to repeal than the Fourth.
To wit:
A Minnesota sports team may be a contender until the moment the local media (and political class) actually believes they will be contenders. At that moment – be it spring training, late November in the NFL season, or week 72 of the NHL playoffs – the season will fall irredeemably apart.
But…well, you know where this is going, right?
For the past week, the Minnesota media has been yammering away, not merely that the Timberwolves had potential to go all the way to the NBA Championship, but that it seemed likely.
On top of that, sports pundits also predicted the Minnesota Frost women’s pro hockey team was likely to get a repeat championship.
Is anyone seeing a problem, here, yet? Anyone but me?
Yes, I know. They were just the first games of five game series. The Twolves and Frost can still pull it out.
Hypothetically.
And only if the entire Twin Cities media figures out that they’re dealing with forces they can not comprehend.
I don’t make the rules. Berg’s Law does.
Joe Doakes, formally of Como Park, emails:
I recently took a full flight from Fort Myers to Minneapolis with children crying and puppies whimpering. The only thing different from a converted South American school bus is the rooster.The puppy is not angry, it is frightened. I so wanted to confront the woman: “Why do you have a frightened puppy on this airplane? Because it’s your comfort animal? Really? It comforts you to terrify puppies? What kind of monster are you?”Joe Doakes
Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:
The voting public in Minnesota is almost equally divided between conservatives and liberals. To ensure our state government is ideologically reflective of its constituents, I propose all state employees in the Executive and Judicial Branches be required to respond to a short survey:
1. This nation was founded by pilgrims seeking religious freedom. The First Amendment is foremost among the Bill of Rights. Have you exercised that right by attending religious worship services within the last month?
2. This nation was secured by ordinary citizens overthrowing the British colonial government using personally owned firearms. The right to own firearms is second in the Bill of Rights. Have you exercised that right by firing a pistol, rifle or shotgun within the last month?
3. Should the Constitution be applied as the people who wrote it originally intended, or should the Constitution be reinterpreted by modern judges to suit the circumstances of individual cases and changing times?
4. Should criminal defendants be treated equally in arrest, charging, prosecution, and sentencing; or should some defendants be given special consideration based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, or political affiliation?
5. The laws and policies of our government affect everyone living within the United States. Should the right to vote be restricted to United States citizens, or should it extend to anyone living within the United States, whether here legally or not?
6. The state has a budget shortage. Without more tax revenue, some government programs must be reduced or eliminated. How much more are you, personally, willing to pay in state taxes to support a Better Minnesota?
I’m willing to bet a brand-new nickel the results would reveal state government employees are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats. We must replace half of them, to achieve an equitable ideological distribution. Where do we start?
Joe Doakes
By winning a governor’s race, for starters.
SCENE: It’s a Sunday morning on the patio a “Brunchily”, a breakfast place in Northeast Minneapolis. The usual crowd is settling in for mimosa brunch; 30-something SEO marketing managers in their man-buns, recruiters for ad agencies with their emotional support dogs, directors of local arts non-profits and DEI consultancies in their Lululemons and pajama bottoms all gather to nosh. Sitting amid, and indistinguishable from, them are Avery LIBRELLE, Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK, Edmund DUCHEY, Brian FURIOUS and Cat SCAT – local progressive social media luminaries and activists.
BIRKENSTOCK: So Ed? Do you still own a Tesla?
DUCHEY: God, no! I sold it to some redneck yahoo from Scandia for $500!
FURIOUS: Didn’t you pay $40,000 for it?
DUCHEY: No! I had a loan for $40,000 for it!
LIBRELLE: You sure owned her!
DUCHEY: IKR? I figure $3,950 is nothing to donate to tearing down the Elon Musk.
(LIBRELLE, BIRKENSTOCK and FURIOUS hiss theatrically).
(DEVADIP ULYSSES PLOOBRADOR, mystic prophet and self-described wise man who also doubles as a UPS and Doordash driver, is sitting at the next table, nursing an egg white frittata)
PLOOBRADOR: I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but it’s actually $39,500.
DUCHEY: Are you sure about that? I was a staffer for the DFL’s budget committee, I know my numbers!
PLOOBRADOR: Quite. (He returns to his group).
LIBRELLE: So the DFL gave in on healthcare for undocumented pre-citizens.
DUCHEY: Ugh. Don’t get me started. Healthcare is a right.
BIRKENSTOCK: You forgot housing!
FURIOUS: And a Housing!
SCAT: And a living wage!
BIRKENSTOCK: And paid leave!
FURIOUS: And restorative justice for all!
DUCHEY: And rail transit!
SCAT: Subways!
LIBRELLE: To leave more room for bikes!
(The four take toasts from their mimosas, and signal for refills)
SCAT: Oh, can you believe the police chief?
FURIOUS: Pffft. He’s mansplaining.
BIRKENSTOCK: What a pig.
SCAT (to a passing waitress – Yselda MARINO – a young Latina who commuted in from Fridley to work the morning shift): HEY! Whan I ordered a mushroom frittata, you didn’t say these were button mushrooms?
MARINO: Sorry – I’ll take it back if you’d like.
SCAT: Damn straight!
MARINO (muttering in Spanish as she takes the 1/3 eaten plate) You never tip. You’re lucky I didn’t chew on them first.
FURIOUS: Wow. Is that guy out of touch or what?
DUCHEY: It’s like – has he even seen George Floyd Square?
LIBRELLE: Totally!
And SCENE
Joe Doakes, formally of Como Park, emails:
If Joe Biden was senile for his last year in office – as everyone now seems to agree – then some are wondering who was actually in charge and whether his presidential acts are valid.The real question is what happened to Kamala Harris? If Biden was incompetent and everybody knew it, why didn’t she move up to president? She could legitimately have been the first woman president, the first black president, the first Indian President, but she was denied her opportunity because of what… racism? Sexism? Jill Biden’s ego?Joe Doakes
I think it’s all going to come down to he said/Hur said.
Tony Snow dies.
Democrat “Influencers”: “Hah! Conservative puppet had it coming!
Ronald Reagan dies.
Democrat “Influencers”: “Hah! The only good thing he ever did was die!”
No, really:
Jerry Falwell dies.
Democrat “lnfluencers”: Although we believe in neither God nor Hell, he’s certainly going to one and not the other!
George HW Bush dies.
Democrat “lnfluencers”: Good riddance!
Steve Scalise almost dies.
Democrat “lnfluencers”: “OK, that’s one semi-automatic rifle we can make an exception for!”
Rush Limbaugh dies.
Democrat “lnfluencers”: “The world is a better place today!”
Trump survives two assassination attempts.
Democrat “lnfluencers”: “Maybe there’ll be a third try!
Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis revealed:
Conservatives: “He was a lousy president, but also a human. I pray for a recovery”.
Democrat “Influencers”: “Don’t you dare politicize this man’s illness!”
Literally, hundreds of them, mostly identical, in the past 24 hours.
But while I have no desire the politicize this, I would like to medicalize it:
If the medical staff actually missed this cancer., in one of the most examined people on earth for the past four years, then it’s pretty epic malpractice.
If they didn’t, then this is yet another coverup.
So why now?
To draw attention away from the utterly damning Hur recordings?
This was recorded shortly after 10/7 – a geopolitical moment when the western world needed a President, not an auto-pen.
As the legislature grinds toward a halt during the first session since the end of complete DFL control, there are two ways of looking at what just happened.
One of those ways, I discussed with Walter Hudson on my show on Saturday: Two years after DFL (and only the DFL, as they were not only proud to say, but as they made a part of Governor Walz’s vice-presidential bid) jacked up the state’s budget 40% even after spending an $18 billion surplus, thus creating biggest budget in state history by a wide freaking margin, GOP fights like hell to force an 8% cut – the greatest cut in state history, not only in absolute but inflation-weakened dollars, but in percentage terms.
Put that way, it’s a win. No a huge win – but certainly the closest to a “W” anyone’s going to get with a tie in one chamber, a minority in the other, and a progressive loony for a governor. To loosely paraphrase what Winston Churchill said after Dunkirk, states are not saved by successful blocking actions. But after a decade and a half when being Republican at the statewide level felt completely futile, it was a great start.
Provided, of course, that you’re inclined to notice or opint out the wins.
Which brings us to the other point of view on the session, from “Action For Liberty” – as their headline breathlessly put it:
Uniparty Pushes 2nd Largest Budget in MN History
They elaborated a bit (I’ve added emphasis):
RINOs are selling this plan as the largest budget cut in Minnesota history, which only tells half of the story. When Democrats had total trifecta control in 2023 and passed a $71B budget which was about a $19B growth in government. Pre-covid spending levels would mean a return to (at least) a $52B budget. Having the largest cut means nothing if the budget is still the 2nd largest in MN history, only behind the budget passed in 2023. For an analogy, the Dems flooded Minnesota’s basement with 19 feet of water and the GOP is bragging that the basement will now only be flooded with 14 feet of water! See below:
That’s a little like saying “If I’d demanded a hot third date with Anna Kendrick on Saturday, I’d be in a much better mood today”. Action For Liberty pushed the notion that the GOP should have demanded rolling spending back to pre-Covid levels – which, when faced with a singularly arrogant DFL majority in the Senate and a progressive ninny for a Governor, may be less plausible than that date. Demanding a nearly 30% budget cut would have never gotten into, much less out of, committee in the Senate – which means all the strenuous demanding would have been useless and performative.
Which, as we talked about last week, is pretty much the entire point with groups that are, shall we say, like Minnesota Gun Rights.
Pepperidge Farm does.
But the DFL seems to have forgotten it:
The DFL has staked its electoral future on giving free healthcare and education to illegals, in a state where the middle class is having a hard time affording either.
Which is something one might expect them to do for their, er, voters.
Huh.
“Two weeks go stop the spread!”
“President Biden is sharp as a tack!”
And now…
Tim Walz’s statements have the half-life of an ice cream cone in a hot car.
For years – longer than just about anyone – I’ve been writing about “Minnesota Gun Rights”, a group from Iowa whose “business” model is to raise money on ignorance about gun control legislation.
The usual cycle is a little like this:
“Action For Liberty” seems to have a pretty similar business model. The group is a byproduct of the Tea Party, and started out as a fairly run of the mill conservative group.
But somewhere along the way, it started walking, talking and quacking like Minnesota Gun Rights.
The problem with the MNGOP, according to A4L, isn’t losing elections – it was “RINOs”. A Republican In Name Only – the definition of which is any Republican, elected, appointed or hired, who’s ever had to try to get anything done with Democrats.
Remember the old Reagan saying – someone who agrees with you 70% isn’t your 30% enemy? To A4L, being a 90% friend makes you a 100% enemy.
Because “betrayal” sells.
This has been the top story in intraparty politics this past few weeks. The last MNGOP State Central meeting elected a slate of leadership that are, if not A4L sympathizers, at least very amenable to rapprochement. (I just used a French word. Maybe that makes me a RINO?)
Case in point: over the past few weeks, A4L has been attacking Republicans for voting for the Health and Human Services Omnibus bill, which includes a contribution to Medicaid, which pays for abortions. Abortion is bad.
Stipulated in advance – Omnibus bills need to be banned. If we ever get a GOP trifecta, in fact, we need to demand it.
But that’s life. Omnibus bills are inevitably s**t sandwiches, full of “poison pills” to be lorded over the other party in the next election.
But in the case of the HHS omnibus bill, the problem would be the same if it were a clean single-subject bill; court decisions hamstring the state; the Medicaid money has to pay for abortions. States have no say in the matters.
But Action For Liberty knows as well as you do that that’s a pretty abstruse fact, and not hard at all to spin as “BETRAYAL!”.
And so we’ve been feted (there’s another French word. Maybe I’m turning into David French?) with the absurdity of A4L calling solid conservatives like Mary Franson, Walter Hudson, Jim Nash and Elliot Engen “RINOs”.
And I’m gonna guess they’re going to call Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) “PLINOs” after this broadside:
I try to be “Switzerland” when it comes to intra-party politics – but if someone can make a case that Action For Liberty doesn’t run off of monetizing cynicism and ignorance, I’m doing to take some convincing.
Have your people call my people.
Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:
Democrats and WLs (Woke Lite Republicans) insist there is no valid justification for separating boys and girls, so long as the boys mouth the magic word “transgender.” Once the spell has been spoken, the laws of biology no longer apply. The former “boy” is now a “girl” for all purposes including tampons in the locker room and competition in sports.
So why do we still have Title IX? Why do we still have a 1972 federal law banning discrimination between the sexes if there is no difference between the sexes? We no longer have “separate but equal” facilities for Black and White (except then Blacks demand separate dorms and graduation ceremonies). So why not amend Title IX to say that all education, all sports, are co-educational?
Everybody who plays basketball, plays by the same rules on the same teams. The best players are Varsity, next best are Junior Varsity, then B-Squad, C-squad, and so on. Teams will be based solely on skill and ability. Yes, that might mean that Varsity is mostly Black boys, Junior Varsity is mostly White boys, the lesser ranks are mixed boys, girls and transgender students, but that doesn’t matter, right? No difference between the sexes.
Think how much money we’d save by eliminating girl’s sports which could then be put toward something important, like another train nobody will ride or higher welfare benefits for illegal aliens.
Joe Doakes
Prediction: high school sports will disappear in Blue areas.
Scene: David Hogg walks into meeting at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, with DNC market researchers:
Hogg: “So whadda we got?”
Researcher: “Focus groups say your angry androgynous hipster thing has low approval among male male voters”
Hogg: “Low? How low?”
Researcher: “0%”
Hogg: “That bad? Huh. So what do I need to do?”
Researcher: “Be more masculine”.
Hogg: “You mean, like Tim Walz?”
Researcher: “Er…sure. Like Tim Walz”. (Rolls eyes).
And SCENE
DIRECTOR’S NOTE: While most of these “dramatization” pieces are pretty fanciful satire, not all of them are.
(Link not working? OK – here’s another way)
Joe Doakes formerly of Como Park emails:
Hollywood keeps putting out Girl Boss movies with the lead role played by a good- looking female actress, like Angela Jolie as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.When are they going to make a Girl Boss movie with the lead role played by a transgender “female,” maybe Dylan Mulvaney of Bud Light fame?Why is Hollywood so full of haters?Joe Doakes
I’ve said it quite a few times; I support capital punishment for every reason but one – the inevitability that the state will execute the wrong person. And given that that is one of the ultimate wrongs – an innocent person dies, the guilty party goes forever free – that’s all the reason I need to oppose capital punishment.
And it’s not just an intellectual parlor game; we’re fairly certain one innocent guy was executed; there are suspicions about many other such cases. And the fact that well over 100 people have been freed from death row because their convictions were overturned, in most cases because they could not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death, usually after sitting on death row for many years, as some conservatives demand the curtailing of appeals, which would have led to several more executions of the innocent?
Color me unconvinced. Or, rather, utterly convinced.
So, with all that said: a “botched” firing squad execution in South Carolina left a convicted murderer not quite dead, for a while anyway:
There wasn’t much chance Mahdi didn’t commit his crime. Or, rather, crimes; he was convicted of three murders – the stabbing of Greg Jones in a drug deal gone bad, then shooting a convenience store clerk Christopher Jason Boggs in the face and finally shooting police officer James Myers 9 times. 3 to his head.
Any of which, but especially that last, might explain why three expert riflemen firing at fifteen feet missed a three inch target – a grouping I get with a handgun without a whole lot of ceremony at that range – leaving Mahdi in “excruciating pain” for about a minute.
I imagine there’s going to be an Eighth Amendment civil rights suit against the marksmen – if anyone has standing to take it to court.
Rumors of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline are greatly…
…er…
…oh, I can’t keep a straight face:
Nothing to see here, peasants.
Hey, look! The guy who banned family Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, limited the Cathedral of Saint Paul to ten worshippers (and Kissin’ Cousins’ Sports Bar in Newfolden to 50) and tried to get you fired for not getting vaccinated…:
…is suddenly a liberty hawk!
Minneapolis deputy police chief Katie Blackwell’s defamation suit was thrown out, and she’s been ordered to pay back part of Liz Collin’s legal fees:
This may be the biggest backfire I’ve seen in a defamation suit – and the subject is by no means academic to me.
In a move that finally brings truth to the matter, Blackwell also signed a written declaration, stating:
“I, Katie Blackwell, acknowledge, agree, and affirm that everything in the Honorable Edward T. Wahl’s Order Regarding Special Motion for Expedited Relief Under Minn. Stat. § 554.09 and for Fees and Costs Under Minn. Stat. § 554.16 dated April 8, 2025 is accurate, true, and correct.”
So, despite her initial claims, Blackwell has now affirmed that all of Judge Wahl’s findings are “accurate, true, and correct.”
So this brings up all sorts of questions about Blackwell’s testimony in the Chauvin trial – including her assertions that the restraint technique Chauvin used on Floyd, which appeared to have been straight out of the department’s training manual as affirmed by several Minneapolis cops interviewed in Collin’s movie, was no-how, no-way, ever part of the MPD’s training canon.
Read the whole article. And buckle up. This next year or two is going be a doozie in Minnesota courts.
Minnesota schools failed during the pandemic. Some might say they collapsed.
Governor Klink isn’t gonna let that happen again:
Aside from trying to deal with the deficit he created, he’s trying to pay back his cronies in the Teachers Unions.
So, the Saint Paul City Council appears to be rolling back its stupid, ruinous “rent control” ordinance…
…sort of.
But – only the buildings built after 2004?
I’m no expert, but this sounds to me like it’s a plan to:
Saint Paul is basically Chicago on the Mississippi.
Rep. Emma Greenman – who seemed to have found her happy place being the DFL state rep who was most aggressive about shirking her job early in the legislative session, before the District 40B special election – sounded off on the ethics issues with Keith Ellison:
“Political and not very useful” is actually a great capsule summary of Rep. Greenman.
“…I believe the children are our greatest probleeeeeeemmmmm”.
Hope Walz uncorks on the most insidious form of “privilege”:
Forget for a moment that barefoot running is kind of a fad these days:
Forget the corn-fed American runners. Let’s talk about Abebe Bikila, the legendary Olympic marathoner who…grew up dirt poor, trained barefoot, and was one of the greatest marathon runners ever.
Look, nobody’s ever accused Hope Walz of being an intellectual titan. Nobody expects it. Seeing her parents, one would be mad to even think about it.
But you just know she’s going to be running for office soon, don’t you?
Maybe I’m too used to kicking at the football Lucy proffers, having it taken away, and yelling “AAAAAARGH” as I sail into the bushes yet again.
But I saw this last week…
But hope springs eternal .
Maybe this is the time someone not working directly or indirectly for Ken Martin actually gets to start seeing where the bodies are buried in Minnesota politics.
This isn’t, of course, the part of the Minnesota bureaucracy that controls hundreds of millions in fraud, or the direct connection between the non-profit/industrial complex and the DFL and all the taxpayer money they’ve controlled for the past two decades. Or to Keith Ellison renting out seats in the AGO to Michael Bloomberg’s climate pimps.
But it almost feels like it could be possible
SCENE: Mitch BERG is parking on the street to go to a private event. He’s trying to wrangle with the stupid newfangle parking meter when Avery LIBRELLE rolls around the corner on a recumbent bike.
LIBRELLE: Merg!
BERG: Uh…
LIBRELLE: Shut up. The “party of faith” is embracing blasphemy!
BERG: I’m not actually Catholic, but I’m pretty sure you can’t commit “blasphemy” against a human, being that Christ was the only human who’s ever also been deific…
LIBRELLE: Republicans clearly hate Christians!
BERG: Right. So do you remember this…:
(But LIBRELLE has already left)
And SCENE.
If it’s a day ending in “Y”, there’s going to be another DFL fraud scam.
The questions to ask at this point pretty much boil down to:
Because there’ll be an answer to each of those questions.
And all of those answers will end up with Tim Walz trying to tapdance his way out of the buck stopping anywhere near him.
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