Remember “Journo-list?”  The top-secret, hush-hush chat room for “journalists” from fifteen years ago? 

If you don’t remember, that’s OK, because:

a) This bit here summarizes and parodies it pretty aptly, and

b) There’s no need to remember, because it’s happening today, again.

This time, it’s about the term “weird”. 

Every Democrat and media (ptr) figure has suddenly started using it.

This is intended to go viral among the clubby environs of local blue-city media – in this case, the Star-Tribune’s – what’s a good adjective – pointless Jennifer Brooks, whose column about the issue…:

…shows us what happened to those people who were writing all those “FIX INDIGESTION WITH THIS ONE WEIRD [!!!] TRICK” copywriters from ten years ago.

Did I say “clubby”?

We’ll unpack that statement in another post.

This is, of course, a classic instance of Berg’s Seventh Law .  They’re calling Republicans “weird” to deflect away from their very, very weird – no, bizarre – presidential candidate, at the head of a party that believes a lot of things that go way beyond “weird”. 

Once you understand that…

No matter how much you hate the mainstream media, you don’t hate them enough.

“Even the local ones?”

Especially the local ones:

I mean, it’s still right there online, for feck’s sake:

The theory is, democracy can not survive without an indepdendent media.

I’m starting to think that’s the point.

Socialism:   A system that has murdered 100 million people in the past century?

Or just another term for “Minnesota Nice?”

Governor Walz:

Klink, of course, has been practicing the rookie-league Beria handbook for years:

• Snitch Lines
• “Badthink” databases
• The relentless sorting and name-calling

Of course, Walz serves as governor solely at the sufference of the metro DFL establishment, which is increasingly dominated by actual socialists. He is nothing but their “moderate” beard.

But given Kamala Harris’s radicalism, will that be enough to get on the ticket?

I got this message the other day – presumably from the people who are frantically labeling “weird”:

“White Dudes for Harris”. 

I’m honestly torn.  Should I try to troll the “meeting”?   Probably won’t work – there are six digits of “attendees” in these zoom meetings. 

Or perhaps ignore completely?  Well, I’ve clearly not done that.

I guess that just leaves mockery.

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is whacking weeds along his alley.  He doesn’t notice Avery LIBRELLE, who appears to be inspecting peoples recycling bins for inappropriate material. 

LIBRELLE:  Merg!

BERG:  Oh, shiiiiiure as I live and breathe, it’s Aver…

LIBRELLE:  Shut up.   Republicans are the worst possible combination of Nazis, Fascists and slave-owning Confederate traitors!

BERG:  You don’t say.

LIBRELLE:  I do – and so does America’s best governor and fun uncle, Tim Walz!

BERG:  Huh.  So you’re saying a populist utopian movement that builds itself around a central mythology, that relentlessly sorts society into “in” and “out” groups, that co-opts or destroys the societal institutions to consolidate and uphold its power,that requires enemies either internal or external to divert attention away from the problems they cause, and tolerates, and even glorifies and fetishizes violence to intimidate and subdue opposition, is Fascist?

LIBRELLE:  Yep!

BERG:  Right.  And a “fascist” movement that obsesses over race to the point that it’s their fundamental motivation, screening mechanism and call to action resembles Naziism?

LIBRELLE:  Uh, yeah!

BERG:  Huh.  And a movement that exists within our Federalist system, but ignores or actively denigrates the parts of that system that inconveniences its pursuit of its political goals, and exists mainly to uphold the wealth and power of its key stakeholders, resembles the Confederacy?

LIBRELLE:  Er…yes.  And why do you put all the links in when you talk?  That’s just #weird. 

BERG:  So…sorting and denigration…

LIBRELLE:  (Plugs ears, runs away) Nananananana can’t hear you….

BERG:  (sotto voce) Oh, I think you can. 

And SCENE.

How it went, 16 days ago:

How it’s going:

So it seems there was a brief moment when DFLers thought actions had consequences. 

Oh, so brief.

Someone wanna explain how this isn’t a call to more violence?

To:  America
From:  Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant and American
Re:  Tim “Governor Klink” Walz

America,

Some of you – OK, most of you – may be getting your first introduction to Governor Tim Walz, as the noise machine frantically tries to position him as a viable VP candidate. 

“Small town regular Joe” is one of the costumes he puts on, complete with an ancient International Scout and an NRA cap…

…well, no.  He ditched the NRA cap when he had to power-suckup to the “progressive”/Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) wing of the party to beat back Erin Murphy and Erin Maye Quade in the primary in 2018.  He still puts on the costume on occasion – the DFL sends a social media intern with him for pictures at the lake, or driving the Scout, or having Peggy Flanagan feed him a corn dog. 

Anyway – if the news blitz is your first introduct5ion to Governor Klink, let’s go through some pros and cons of him and his administration.

Cons of Tim Walz

• Led the plundering of an $18B surplus, leaving the state with what will likely be at least a $2B deficit later this year.  Minimum.
• Turned a deaf ear to the most epic wave of corruption in Minnesota history, as DFL stakeholders from the DSA non-profit/industrial complex pillaged a bare minimum of a half billion dollars worth of funds “intended” to “feed hungry children” during the pandemic…
• …after having been equally incurious about at least $250M being piillaged by some of these same stakeholders from Health and Human Services budgets. 
• Like many governors, he assumed emergency powers in March 2020, when nobody knew muich about the pandemic.  He announced that, according to the model he’d gotten from the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota faced upward of 70,000 deaths in the next four months – perhaps 20,000 as a best case scenario if the state shut down completely and submitted to draconian control of society.   By May, it was clear that the model was wrong – at which time the administration declared the model double-dog top secret, because in the words of an MDH staffer at one of his press conferences, “people might reach different conclusions”.  Y’know – try to reproduce results.  Like actual scientists, as opposed to propagandists, do. 
• He created castes of “essential workers” – which included grocery store workers (but only at “big box” stores), liquor stores, “the World’s Largest Candy Store” (run by a campaign contributor, as luck would have it),
• In particular, he instituted rules in nursing homes that created absolute carnage among seniors.  Minnesota had among the worst death rates in the nation among people in long term care – up there with New York City.  For this alone, I’ve got beef with the little fella – this happened right as my stepfather died and I needed to move my mom to Minnesota.  There was a six month delay – which caused plenty of other problems. 
• Notwithstanding that the “emergency” was effectively over in three months – six if you want to be cautious to the point of paranoia – he held onto “emergency powers” for well over a year and a half. 
• After the death of George Floyd, he publicly sided with Floyd, long before any facts were known about the incident.  Which contributed to the 2020 Riots. 
• During those 2020 riots, he followed his bureaucratically-defined role to an anal-retentive “T” – even publicly chiding Mayor Frey for not submitting a cover sheet on his TPS form when requesting the National Guard.  But he ceded the “bully pulpit” to the rioters and their symps in state government .  And to his daughter, who served as a source of intel for the rioters regarding police and Guard movements. 
• He also coddled lawlessness within government; when “protesters” tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus on the State Capitol Mall as his Capitol police looked on, he giggled until his belly jiggled like a bowl of jello. 
• He has actively contributed to the tribalizing of Minnesota politics. 
• On his watch, crime in Minnesota in general is up by at least 50% since he assumed office.
• On the other hand, capital is leaving the state.  Movers and shakers, entrepreneurs (other than coffee shops, which along with small political consultancies are the only for-profit businesses DFLers even pretend to understand), retirees – they’re leaving the state and taking their money with them.  Minnesota’s net wealth is down by billions. 
• Young people are also leaving Minnesota, reversing decades of Minnesota as a destination for young people just getting started on careers and life.  I was one of them, once.  If I were me, today, and not seeking a career in government or the non-profit/industrial complex, I wouldn’t do it again. 

Pros of Tim Walz

He spends a lot of money at the State Fair.

That pretty much it.

(SCENE:  Mitch BERG is at a kitchen store, recycling some Nespresso pods.  Too late, he notices Avery Librelle.)

LIBRELLE:  Merg!

BERG:  Hey, Av…

LIBRELLE:  Shut up.   JD Vance’s real name is John David Bowman. 

BERG:  It was the name he was born with.  He changed his name to his maternal grandparents name, “Vance”, when he was married. 

LIBRELLE:  Don’t care.  Republicans are so diligent about never using new identities, so you should make sure you “deadname” him. 

BERG:  Go ahead. Give it a try.

(SENATOR VANCE walks past, looking for a wok). 

BERG:  Go for it.

LIBRELLE:  (Mildly flustered).  Senator Bowman!

VANCE:  (Looks at LIBRELLE.  Then BERG.  BERG shrugs, rolls eyes.  VANCE nods, walks on).

BERG:  Nobody cares what someone wants us to call them.   It’s being berated about it out of nowhere.  Want to name yourself “Fido”, knock yourself out.  Just don’t yap at me for not assuming you’re a dog, or threaten to destroy my career for not affirming that you’re really a dog.  Seem reasonable?

LIBRELLE:  No.

BERG:  Because of course not.  Hey (hands LIBRELLE the bag of used capsules) don’t let these spill, OK?  For the good of the environment?

LIBRELLE: (reluctantly takes bag) Uh….

But BERG is already gone…

And SCENE. 

To:  Governor Tim “Wilhelm Klink” Walz
From:  Mitch Berg, former Rock, Cow
Re:  Your Heardland Credentials

Governor Klink, putatively a Veep candidate – is burnishing his “heartland” creds:

You know what it’s really not about?

Calling most of “your” state “nothing but rocks and cows”.   We’re really not about that. 

In theory, we’re not into being something different today than you were yesterday which was different than 2006…:

One thing you do still have is your “badthink” databvase. I bet I’m on it.

That is all.

Last week, our intrepid news media were falling all over themselves trying to find Donald Trump’s medical records, to verify that he’d almost been shot in the head. 

Today? 

President?  What President?

If it happened in Belarus, Burundi, or Myanmar, Joe Biden’s blitzkrieg withdrawal from the presidential race would have inspired eye rolls. We jettisoned an incumbent president’s re-election campaign with all the pomp of an NFL practice squad transaction, announcing the move via a blip of a social media post. Only in America is anyone tempted to take such head-scratching events at face value.

You think you hate the media – but it’s still not enough.

Joe Doakes, no longer of Como Park, emails:

Here we go again.

The fact that they need to rig and cheat to support an (in effect) incumbent tells you how nervous they are.

Biden is out.

Harris is in. – and is the presumptive nominee…

…maybe.   We’ll know in three-ish weeks. 

So how does Trump react?

My humble opinion – there’s no need to react to any of them differently, at least as individuals. they all different faces of the same machine; the same back-room figures who animated our current occupant in terms of policy will be pulling the levers and wires behind Harris, Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer.

There was, and may remain,  about of speculation that Tim Walz could wind up on one of the potential VP short lists.

My fearless predication:  if Walz oozes onto a ticket, it’ll be terrible news for Democrats, not merely because Walz is a chameleon who turns into whatever he needs to turn into for expediency’s sake – that’s no different than Harris, Newsom, Whitmer of any of them. 

But there are two reasons to pick a Veep candidate:

• Shore up a key state, region or constituency:  That’s why Mike Pence, George HW Bush, not to mention Biden and Harris themselves, got their nods; to shore up the POTUS candidates support respectively among evangelicals, moderates, moderates and progressives.
• To serve as the President’s political enforcer/”Bad Cop”:  That was the purpose LBJ served for Kennedy, in terms of legislative support.  I think it’s why Trump picked Vance.

HarrisNewsomWhitmer need the former; current polling shows them weak in all sorts of important states.  Governors Josh Sharpiro (PA) and Andy Bashear (KY) could buoy a Democrat campaign’s chances in some key swing states.

What does Walz bring? 

Minnesota.

A state the Democrats consider theirs as a birthright. 

If the pick Governor Walz for Veep, that’s a sign the DNC is “breaking the glass”. 

British climate protesters who blocked the London beltway get seriously slammed in court:

Obstructing a highway is not simple political expression, and it is far from “peaceful protest.” It involves the physical obstruction of others’ freedom of movement. It is also disruptive and potentially tortious conduct that can have severe consequences. In this case, those seeking to “just stop oil” have done little to advance their cause (traffic congestion results in worse fuel economy and increases emissions), but and managed to cause significant harm to others. From the BBC report:

The action resulted in chaos on the M25 over four successive days, causing nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays, the court heard. The protests closed parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.

People missed flights, medical appointments and exams. Two lorries collided, and a police motorcyclist came off his bike during one of the protests on 9 November 2022 while trying to bring traffic to a halt in a “rolling road block”.

Prosecutors alleged the protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was put at more than £1.1m.

The activsits and their allies also sought to disrupt the trial, but to no avail.

Wonder if Mary Moriarty is paying attention?

Gabriela Kroetsch is running for MN House in district 55A – Savage and parts of Burnsville.  

And here’s today’s music list:

“Frumming (Verb):  To compare two radically different things as if they were the same, by leaving out dispositively vital context. 

Example:

Variations: Frummery:  (Noun):  “It was pure frummery to compare the records of the two presidents by dishonestly leaving out the pandemic”. 

The party that thinks women dressing in the ketchup bottle costumes from Handmaid’s Tale is utterly profoundly meaningful and not a little bit mawkish or cloying or hyperdramatic…

…has suddenly developed scruples about costume accessories?

There are better people to comment on the ups and downs of JD Vance’s selection for Veep.

He’s got my paleocon friends riled up, and the left are certainly in a lather (which they’d have been no matter who Trump picked, so no matter).

But I’ll say this:

Vance is going to bludgeon Harris in a debate.

Is it just me, or is Joe Biden throwing everything he can find at the wall to see what buys votes?

First, its “national rent control”:

President Joe Biden is ready to propose a 5% cap on annual rent increases for tenants of major landlords as he tries to show he’s doing something about the high cost of housing, according to a person familiar with the plan.

The proposal, to be announced while the president visits Nevada on Tuesday, is being championed by Biden in the middle of a tense presidential campaign and a time when housing costs have been a major driver of overall inflation.

Because that did so much good for “affordable housing” in New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Saint Paul..

But that’s just retail Democrat pettifoggery.  Next, he goes big:

This is a play for the “ignorant low-information emotion-driven” voter bloc, which elections since 2000 show is between 48-52% of the electorate. 

The “rent control”, like his “student loan forgiveness”, is a violation of the Takings clause.  Expanding the court without a very solid congressional majority, merely a delusion.

…when the left comes to realize that it was a, er, tactical error to pick people like these as their public face:

But it sure hasn’t been this election cycle.

To:  Rep. McCollum
From:  Mitch Berg, Obstreporous peasant
Re:   Civil RIghts

Your Highness,

Yesterday, you criticized the federal appeals court ruling that said Minnesota could not deny carry permits to qualfied adults between ages 18 and 20. 

Please list the other civil rights from which adults ages 18-20 should be excluded.

Thanks in advance.

That is all. 

Chaya Raichik, of the account “Libs of TikTok”, and her seven-digit collection of followers, have gone scorched earth on social media accounts that cheered last weekend’s assassination attempt on former president Trump:

I get the urge. Perhaps more than most. I’ve had at least one job get tanked because some (very “progressive”) management found out about my alter ego life (which I have never, not once in 20 years, mentoined in a workplace. I don’t talk about politics at work – and yet I know of one contract job that didn’t get extended, notwithstanding the fact that I saved the project I was working on (long story for another time) because someone googled up some portion of my shadowy talk-radio existence and complained.

And that’s just the once I know about.  I have suspicions about other jobs. 

It was fine as far as it went – I found better jobs.  But I’m not going to say I was never angry about it. 

I never had the time, bandwidth or following to act on it like Raichik even if I had.   And Raichik has certainly endured plenty of harassment herself.  And the two of us aren’t alone.

Of course, on the right the “cultural memory” of the left’s social oppression is pretty hot and current; “cancellation”, including losing jobs, having professional license challenged, and other active harassment over quesitoning and refusing the Covid vaccine; losing jobs over photos in MAGA caps, having kids harassed because their parents were open conservatives. 

And it is a little disturbing to see some people – doctors, nurses, teachers – not only cheering on the assassination, but actively wishing the same on half the population.   It’d be great to help them recognize how stupid and evil they are being.

But this? 

This is pretty much the definition of “punching down”.

I’ve had a policy on this blog from the beginning; I don’t go after peoples (non-elective) day jobs – and I am absolutely hands-off their families. 

Does that make me a better person than those that don’t have those scruples?

Yes.  Absolutely.

Has it deterred people going after me, my job and family?  Well, not all of them.  I don’t have the means to scorched-earth them all.  WIth some, its irrelevant.  With others?  Karma’s a bitch.  But I’m the one that has to live with myself. 

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is trimming weeds while listening to “Office Ladies” on headphones.  He doesn’t notice Avery LIBRELLE has come up the sidewalk, looking for evidence of herbicide use.

LIBRELLE:  Merg!

BERG:  (Oblivious)

LIBRELLE:  The so-called “assassination attempt” was pretty much a fake.

BERG:  (No response, as he continues to listen to his podcast)

LIBRELLE:  It looks like his ear was cut by a piece of glass!  What a drama queen!

BERG:  (Nothin’)

GUY RIDING PAST ON BIKE:  So what do you think it was that accelerated this supposed piece of glass to a speed capable of taking a chunk out of the President’s ear?

WOMAN WAITING AT BUS STOP ACROSS THE STREET:  Yeah!  Perhaps magic?

GUY TRIMMING HEDGES DOWN THE BLOCK:  Maybe the kids from Slytherin playing around with their wands again?

LADY IN  KITCHEN, LISTENING THROUGH WINDOW:  Maybe it was Umbrella Man?

BUS DRIVER (Picking up the woman across the street):  Couldn’t have possibly been a bullet aimed at the candidate’s head, could it?

LIBRELLE:  (Looks around, sheepishly slinks away as BERG continues along, undisturbed)

And SCENE

Apologists for the government of the City of Minneapolis have pivoted to talking about crime dropping, we are told, from the three year average.

There’s a reason for that, naturally:

Here’s the city crime dashboard as of today:

The three year average is indeed high – it includes the tail end of the Walz/Covid crime wave of 2021.

But over the past year, to date?

• Murder is up.
• Robbery is up – sharply.

You’ll note that Minneapolis is now at 32 non-negligent homicides for the year so far. That’s up from 30 homicides in 2016. For the whole year.

It’s a shame the city doesn’t include a ten-year average space. It’d be interesting to see how the DSA/DFL coalition that runs the city would spin that.

Give the NYTImes points for consistency, I guess.

They committed to this eight years ago.

President Biden, in his remarkably dilatory and perfunctory statement about the murder of a Trump supporter and the attempt to murder his rival, called for “Unity”.

It was a chanting point that a lot of Democrats took a break for claiming Republicans were “threats to democracy” to gravely intone.

Let’s talk about it.

Back before they called online talk shows “podcasts”, I appeared on one. There was a panel of guests talking politics. There were online “phone callers”. It was sort of like a talk show, only without the radio.

The host introduced a caller. He identified himself as from Detroit. He had a very African-American accent; I say this to describe the sound, not to caricature the person.

He said “What this country needs is unity“.

Eventually, I asked the caller “So, let’s talk about this ‘unity’. True unity has to be consensual. That means everyone is going to compromise a little bit to achieve this ‘unity’. So tell me – what Republican principles are you willing to accept to achieve the ‘unity’ you’re talking about?”

“Oh”, he responded. “Republicans are BUUUUUL-shit”.

Democrat calls for “unity” seem about as perfunctory as someone who’s said the Lord’s Prayer so many times they’ve disconnected their brain from the act. Unity good. Disunity bad.

It’s empty. There is no effort behind it. It has no meaning.

As usual, Walter Hudson puts it better than most:

Until they give on something, it’s all just words.

And they don’t have to give on much. Like, “all that yapping about ‘threats to democracy’ and ‘literally Hitler’ and ‘this could be our last election’ was a little overheated. We’re all on the same team. Let’s have a solid American-style election, here”.

You’d be crazy to hold your breath, of course. Dennis Prager says “being a leftist means never needing to apologize”. It’ll never occur to them.