Is it just me, or is this post from last Friday by President Biden’s social media intern a little extra ordinary?
I don’t recall a president ever feeling the need to tell the American people “BECAUSE I’M DADDY, SO DON’T MAKE STOP THIS CAR”.
Not even Nixon had to remind people he was still in charge, IIRC.
Minneapolis introduces the Narcan vending machine:
Or, as it will be known by August of 2024, “A looted, empty, vandalized and broken vending machine”.
But it does bring up some other ideas for vending machines in MInneapolis – machines selling:
Keep giving us set-ups, MInneapolis. We’ll give you the punch-lines.
So the Strib is on the news like a Grateful Dead fan on that last bag of Fritos:
“Democrats in Minnesota and US ignored voter concerns about Biden’s age”.
That, they did.
But…
…but…
…isn’t there something missing?
Like, maybe the Star Tribune?
MPR News?
The Four, the Five, the Nine and the Eleven?
Did they not spend the last fuve years studiously ignoring Biden’s age, or attacking the messengers? “Fact-checking” any claims that an 81-year-old Biden wasn’t more physically imposing than a 40 year old Chuck Norris? Clobbering Big Blue at chess, while teaching a legion of celebrity chefs how it’s done in his spare time?
And this is nothing new. There’s a very long list of stories the media did their darnedest to squash, deplatform or defame until it was politically impossible to carry on – after which, straight out of Orwell, they abruptly reversed course?
There’s more. Leave additions in the comments.
Someone – I think it was Ayaan Hirsi Ali – said “don’t judge the Muslims you know by what Islam is, and don’t judge Islam according to the Muslims you know”.
I think that goes for MSM “journalists” as well. Some (Tom Hauser, Fred Melo) do a good, diligent job. But the media (as we showed them admitting almost eight years ago) not only don’t, but have no intention to .
Governor Klink’s various vacations from the truth are adding up.
“I’m a proud gun owner!”
“One Minnesota!”
“Minnesota will suffer 74,000 dead in the next three months unless I assume emergency powers – which will lead to a best case of 20,000 dead by then. And no, I will not show you my math”.
“Every Minnesotan (in an income quintile most likely to vote for me) will get $1,000 of the surplus back!”
“We need to reward the frontline workers!”
“We’re feeding hungry kids”
“We’ve got the most trustworthy election system in the country”.
And now:
I wonder what they promised him?
Using a ghost-writer today:
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
As I’ve noted in my “evergreen” broadcast on the Saturdays closest to the 4th, one can say most of the same things about the administrative state today as they did about George III in 1776.
While listening to the debate last week, I did hear one line that I fully expected Big Left’s chattering classes to try to exploit: Trump noted that illegal immigration would heavily impact “black jobs”.
And that brought out the heckling class:
Do you notice a pattern?
It’s a diverse crowd of hecklers. Some of them are upper middle-to-upper-class media figures:
Or parts of the political class, either those who’ve made it…
…or are working on breaking in:
And some who just won’t go away:
And more who are attached to the system like barnacles to a ship that needs a drydocking:
Or highly accomplished professionals:
Or upper-middle-class academics:
Etc, etc.
Of course, it’s as selective as every other lefty chanting point, both in terms of their own rhetoric…
…and the fact that none of them are part of the group whose jobs are being taken by illegals.
Henco attorney Mary Moriarty has established a “wrongful convictions” unit:
Moriarty – a former public defender – alleges that 5% of convictions in Henco are erroneous.
So – Hennepin County isn’t charging, or is grossly undercharging, all but the most egregiously, unavoidably and politically explosive cases, and is admitting that one out of every twenty convictions they did get were wrong?
Is there anything the Henco attorneys office does right?
Every Democrat, for the past 24 hours or so:
SCOTUS: You can’t just throw your rival in prison because you don’t like him.
DEMOCRATS: So you’re saying we can drop bombs on him?
SCOTUS: You really can’t even charge your rival with a crime because his presidency made you mad.
DEMOCRATS: Got it. So we can incinerate his house with him in it?
SCOTUS: The Constitution protects officials from being terrorized with lawfare for official actions they undertook while in office.
DEMOCRATS: Ah. Makes sense. So we can officially assassinate everyone we don’t like?
SCOTUS: Prosecuting a politician because you don’t like his politics would destroy our country, and we’re not going to allow it.
DEMOCRATS: Roger that. So what you’re saying is: we are officially allowed to eliminate Trump and the Supreme Court as long as we, like, say it’s official and stuff?
While I wish I could claim it, it’s actually Sean Davis’s bit.
And it’s been all over social media this past day or so.
At first blush, the question might seem to be “why do so many Democrat chanting heads have so much trouble with the phrase ‘”‘presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that are within the ambit of their executive authority'”?
But of course it’s not. The “elite” among the chanting heads know perfectly well that the SCOTUS just made a fairly moderate decision, remanding the case back to the lower court to sort out what behavior is public and what is private.
But that interpretation – the correct one – is too pollyannaish.
The Democrats, now that they’re committed to running the senile, doddering Biden – need to come up with some way of dragging the corpse across the line.
Panicking people by claiming this ruling gives a president absolute power, in a cycle where the Democrats only campaign hook is “ORANGE MAN LITERALLY HITLER” is the purpose.
“BUT!”, Democrats respond, “this lays the groundwork for unquestioned power!”
George Washington was offered a crown and the ground floor in a hereditary aristocracy.
Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus.
Woodrow Wilson used the “Sedition Act” to imprison political foes.
FDR trampled the Constitution in pursuit of socializing swathes of the American economy, and unilaterally imprisoned innocent Japanese-American citizens.
FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK, LBJ and Nixon to various degrees all used the FBI and CIA to spy on domestic opponents.
Obama used the military to extrajudicially murder an American citizen, used Federal law enforcement to try to discredit American gun stores and owners (leading to the death of an American border patrol agent and many Mexicans), sicced the IRS on the Tea Party, and used the FBI to spy on the Trump campaign.
And, oh yeah, Biden has set a politicized DOJ on his own political opponent – part of a pattern of corruption in the institutions that those institutions aren’t even being coy about.
The “roadmap” has always been there; the President already has unlimited power, if they want to use it – especially with the logarithmic growth in executive-branch power since the Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson administrations.
A president needs power to do the job to which they’ve been elected; deciding how much power, and keeping that power in check, has always been the job of a free people and its institutions.
The Democrats apparently believe Biden is the lesser of the various available evils:
Expect that the folks who want to be convinced will feel relief, even get a sugar high from Biden’s best moments. Biden supporters will be on an emotional rollercoaster. Until the roller coaster pulls back into the boarding station, it will appear that the campaign is moving fast along the track.
Yes. It really will take a while for Biden’s poll numbers to show that his campaign cannot recover. And even more surprising, expect that many Democrats will commit to voting for him no matter what, even were he in a coma…[and speaking of which] The professional Democrats all know that this is a disaster, and all of us should, too. Short-term ups and downs mean nothing for one simple reason: no number of good moments or days will be able to hide the fact that the number of bad moments, hours, and days will only increase as time goes on.
That is how dementia works. It is inexorable and an ugly process.
My schadenfreud at the Dems being committed to a sinking ship is tempered by what should be human compassion. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Biden appears to be suffering from the early stages of some kind of dementia. I lost my Mom to Alzheimers two years ago, and it is a merciless, remorseless bitch. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone short of Kim Jong Un.
The bad – or worse – news? Expect the social gaslighting to become intolerable.
Indeed – we only needed to wait til mid-day yesterday for it to symphonically swell.
More on that mid-day today.
Apparently, Hamas doesn’t want support from “Queers for Palestine”:
Still waiting to see how “white supremacy” is to blame.
We were told that Joe Biden is so on top of things, he can type in different languages on different iPhones at the same time.
Remember this?
The most credible people ever – dare I say, our “best and brightest” – assured us that Joe Biden at 82 is like Chuck Norris at 40:
And then came Thursday night:
And it took about four hours for all of that “Joe Biden is a modern titan!” to vanish down the memory hole:
Bear in mind, that the Democrat establishment is panicked about their candidate’s electoral viability.
Not the fact that he’s the guy with “the football”.
Not the fact that America’s enemies, who’ve been feasting on America’s diminishing potency, have got to be looking at the fact that America is led by a senile man, his power-mad Edith Wilson-style wife, and a coterie of useless Ivy League political staffers and grifters, and seeing that the shelf date might just end in 2025, not 2029. And maybe planning accordingly:
U.S. military bases in Europe were put on a heightened state of alert over the weekend as installations urged vigilance among their members. At U.S. European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, the Army garrison on Sunday issued a communitywide alert that the force protection threat level was elevated to condition “Charlie” until further notice. Similar directives were sent to other bases in Germany, including the Army’s Rheinland-Pfalz and Ramstein Air Base, which together form the largest U.S. military community overseas. The Rheinland-Pfalz garrison alert includes Baumholder and outlying installations in Romania and Bulgaria. Aviano Air Base in Italy also rose its condition level to Charlie, and other installations in Italy introduced enhanced security measures. The Charlie threat level “applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely,” according to the Army’s website.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2024-06-30/us-military-bases-germany-terrorism-threat-14342506.html
Source – Stars and Stripes
I have a sneaking suspicion Iran and its proxies, and Red China and theirs, are seeing a six month opening to make hummus or kimchi while the sun shines on a world where the keepers of Pax Americana have taken an ice cream break.
Some are saying “I told you so”:
And they – we – are right, because that same media that ran interference and told us not to believe our lying eyes, is trying to gaslight us in the other direction:
So what options do they have?
Pulling the plug on Biden may not be as simple as just having him step aside, even if he releases the 99% of the convention delegates currently committed to him:
That brings us back to [Bill Maher’s proposal, in the post linked] of simply handing the nomination to the nearest white male while overlooking Biden’s current running mate, the black woman Biden selected to be the next in line. The center-Left part of the party might — might — go along with that idea out of desperation. The progressive Left, as Matthews astutely points out, would go into an utter meltdown. Harris’ allies don’t want to win by giving up any power at all.
And in a real sense, they’d be correct to oppose it. Harris may not have been on the primary ballots this year, but Biden won 99% of the delegates with Harris explicitly remaining on the ticket. Newsom never even bothered to enter the race. If Biden pulls out, those delegates may be released in a legal sense, but Harris and her progressive allies have a very good argument that primary voters endorsed her as well as Biden. And you’d better believe that the same progressives that are conducting Occupy operations on college campuses and highways to support radical jihadi terrorists in Gaza will show up in much more force if Democrats pull a back-room switcheroo that leaves Harris without a seat when the music ends.
And you’d better believe the center-Left knows it, too…having anointed her as capable of being One Heartbeat Away in not one but two presidential cycles now, Democrats can’t just toss her into the garbage now. How do they explain her being competent enough to be Biden’s backup but not to run in his place?
Long story short – the Dems may have no choice but to triple down on gaslighting the public. They can count on it working with 33% of the population, anyway.
“Why does music today suck?”
It’s been a cultural punch line ever since music started splitting on generational lines (which is actually a fairly new thing).
But today, it’s actually true, in economic and sociological terms.
Rick Beato explains a lot of things in the world of music very well, and he gets this one right:
It’s not only easier to produce, it’s much easier – almost trivial – to consume.
I’m not sure how to even explain to a Zoomer the contortions we – or some of us – had to go through to hear the music in the first place. It was a particular experience growing up in rural North Dakota – where getting great music on the radio wasn’t easy in the late ’70s and early ’80s, frequently involving staying up late to tune in WLS in Chcago, until I got an FM boombox that could get Q98 in Fargo.
In even more economic terms? I talked about my experience discovering Tom Petty; staying up late to watch SNL (my parents had given up trying to get me to go to bed on Saturday nights), then racing to White Drug to buy a copy of Damn the Torpedoes between sunday school and church. That record cost $7.98 before tax – which, with taxes, came to two and a half hours working at KEYJ.
For eight songs.
Today a month of AppleMusic costs me a fraction of one hour’s pay – knock wood – and I use free Spotify (sorry, artists). Which is one thing for people who cut their teeth with the experiences Beato, and I, list.
But for people who have access to a constant Amazon River of music (the metaphor cuts both ways), at a time when music is not only trivially easy to access, but to produce (even for curmudgeons like myself – I did most of the recording of my album at home on GarageBand, only doing the vocals and mixing in an actual studio)?
It’s worth a watch.
This is as concise a riposte as I’ve seen:
I’m a little saltier about this: I think abolishing the Electoral College is ample grounds for dissolving the Republic.
To: All of Congress
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant with kids, grandkids
Re: Your (pl) Cowardice
Political Weasel Class (Democrat and GOP)
So I’ll start with the low-hanging rotten fruit: Eric Swalwell continues to pay dividends on China’s investment:
We’re headed toward a $50 Trillion debt. Already our debt service costs more than defense, and will soon start to suck money way from it. No matter – soon it will outstrip Social Security and Medicare.
No system can survive this. This is Venezuela-level irresonsibility.
And none of you Democrats, and precious few Republicans, are taking this seriously.
Swalwell is a cartoon – but no better than most of you, when you get right down to it.
Someone’s gotta be the first to tackle this thing, because it’s definitely going to tackle us.
That is all.
Jamaal Bowman, perhaps the dumbest member of a dumb “Squad”, is on his way to his non-profit reward:
Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., suffered a primary defeat Tuesday to a moderate challenger who was backed by pro-Israel groups, NBC News projected, following a bitter and expensive race that exposed the party’s divisions over the war in Gaza.
The race between Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer in New York’s 16th District drew more ad spending — $25 million, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact — than any other House primary in history. Nearly $15 million of that spending came from the United Democracy Project, a super PAC linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, which backed Latimer.
With 84% of the vote in as of Wednesday morning, Latimer led Bowman by a wide margin, 58.4% to 41.6%.
Don’t get too excited – Bowman “represents” (for now) a very Jewish district. His approach to the Gaza war may have been the most tone deaf in history.
Still, it’s good to see him gone.
Joe Doakes, once from Como Park, emails:
We all know that Minnesota is run by the DFL; has been, for years. Legislative session just ended. What critical problems did the DFL solve?
Drug dealer licensing. Put zoning above environment. Raise rates for Uber/Lyft rides. Increase penalties for gun crimes which DFL county attorneys will decline to prosecute. State takeover of rural ambulance service but only 10% of the funding funding to run it. Ticket prices (House File 1989, apparently a reference to Taylor Swift, which shows you the level of silliness). Deadbeats over doctors. ATV trails. Raise the price of broadband.
I also heard from Ramsey County management. They got $1 million for Union Depot; more money to subsidize homelessness, justice-impacted residents re-entering the community; digital literacy resources; an anaerobic digester to convert organic food waste into renewable natural gas; support services for youth suspected of juvenile offenses or delinquent acts; and packaging waste (reuse, recycling and composting).
But nothing for problems like this one, which is arguably one of the most important jobs we collectively hire government to do, since we can’t do it alone.
Nobody can say they haven’t made their priorities clear…
Electric Vehicle (EV) owners are not especially satisfied customers:
The consulting firm surveyed consumers in multiple countries: the U.S., China, Germany, Norway, Australia, France, Italy, Japan and Brazil. Between all of those countries, 29% of electric car owners want to return to driving internal combustion cars, with 46% of surveyed American electric car owners wanting to do so.
This surprised the consulting firm, cutting against received wisdom about people’s switch to electric.
But what’s not to like about a vehicle that costs more per unit of performance than a gas car, is the subject of arbitrary mandates notwithstanding the fact that the power grid can’t handle them, and is completely unsuitable for the type of long-distance driving that many Americans between the Mississippi River and the Sierra Madre do fairly routinely?
Among the owners surveyed who are planning to switch back, 35% cited the lack of charging infrastructure, 34% said the costs were too high, 32% said planning long driving trips was too difficult, 24% said they could not currently charge at home, 21% said worrying about charging was too stressful and 13% said they did not enjoy how the cars felt while driving.
Only 9% of drivers across all countries surveyed said that current charging infrastructure was sufficient to meet their needs. While some electric car drivers want to switch back, 38% of internal combustion car drivers surveyed said they are considering buying a battery-powered or plug-in hybrid electric car as their next vehicle.
I know when I was considering renting a car for a significant drive, I looked at the charging network and ended up opting for a hybrid.
I guess I forgot to mention the trip was in Norway – the most EV-friendly country in the world. And while you could find charging stations up in the mountains of rural Trøndelag, it looked like I’d be sitting and charging a loooong time to get where I needed to go. I went with a hybrid – and I loved it (when gas is $9 a gallon, regenerative braking is a fine thing).
And as I predicted 15 years ago, I’m counting the hours until the market overrides the government mandates and chooses hydrogen.
Snopes finally admits something conservative media has been saying for seven years and change:
Not sure what it was that prompted them to cough up the truth.
Perhaps because, at least among the opinion-making class, the damage is done and irrecoverable; in this case, “Journalist” Christopher Ingraham of the MN Reformer:
He’s one of the “gatekeepers”, doncha know.
From the U of M, one of our society’s future leaders:
Rumors that it’s a DFL representative remain unconfirmed at press time.
There’s really no other word to describe what happened in Los Angeles on Sunday:
Nothing small or isolated about it.
I’m old enough to remember when Jews feared the right in America. But barely.
This guy…
…looks like a skinhead reliving his “glory days” from the ’80s. That the modern “Palestinian” movement allies with them tells you something.
And the mayor of Berlin…er, Los Angeles had a predictable response:
Of course, that’s scarcely worse than what POTATUS is doing.
The closest thing to good news?
Apparently The New Kristallnacht isn’t polling well outside LA, Dearborn and, probably, south Minneapolis.
To: Hypothetical Attorney General (Federal or State)
From: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re: Opportunity
Mr./Ms. Hypothetical Future Attorney General,
Looking at this:
…and this:
I’ve got to ask – what’s it going to take to get the MNDFL into a RICO investigation?
If they’re not racketeering, I’m not sure who is.
That is all.
Governor Klink, Melissa Hortman and the Urban DFL clacque squandered a $19 billion surplus paying off the DFL’s special interests, and all we got was a broken dam.
Unexpectedly? No. Not a bit. The century-old Rapidan Dam on the Blue Earth River – a tributary to the Minnesota, and eventually the Mississippi – has been a problem for a long time.
And everyone who gave a, er, damn knew it:
In 2021, a study was conducted that identified two feasible solutions for the dam’s state of disrepair: repair or remove the dam. Both options have significant costs, and each has its opportunities, trade-offs, and timeframes. The purpose of the Future of Rapidan Dam project is to identify the community’s needs and concerns and use their input on the options to help the County make the best decision for all impacted by the Dam’s future.
You can’t buy any urban non-profit allegiances with a dam. You sure can’t carry a dam in a suitcase to Kenya.
It’s bad.
If there’s a better way of depicting the results of the DFL’s priorities, I’m open to suggestions.
To: Jason Chavez, Minneapolis DSA/DFL councilbeing
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: Punching
Councilbeing Chavez,
You tweeted this on Wednesday:
Let’s talk about the term “uprising”.
It usually connotes a group of subjugated, beaten-down people, “rising up” against their oppressors.
Good examples of uprisings that fit some variant of that definition:
Each of these uprisings have a few things in common: the people doing the uprising were being actively oppressed by those up against whom they rose; the targets of their attacks were the actual oppressors; tax authorities, the SS, the monarchy.
In May of 2020, people who considered themselves oppressed (we’ll accept that for sake of argument) “rose up” and destroyed…
…hundreds of businesses, extremely disproportionately owned by immigrants, people of color, people in the neighborhood. Oh, the Third Precinct got destroyed – after a couple of days of generalized looting and arson, seemingly almost as an afterthought, to give the “uprising” some window-dressing sense of political virtue other than “looting and burning cafes owned by first-generation Americans”.
I may be just an obstreporous peasant, but I think “downrising” might be a better term.
That is all.
Other generations crossed oceans, built the impossible, decoded the indecipherable, flew to the moon.
But never let anyone say the frontiers have all been surmounted:
All glory to the heroes!
Massachusetts spends tax money to support its racket with Planned Parenthood – no doubt making Senator Erin Maye Quade’s little authoritarian heart sing.
Support the AM Radio For Every Vehicle act by texting “AM” to 52886, or just go to “Depend On AM“.
Today’s music list:
You are currently browsing the Shot in the Dark weblog archives.
