To: Rep. Nathan Coulter (DFL 51B)
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous peasant and human ATM
Re: Congrats

Rep. Coulter

I was a little amazed to see that you are in fact a state representative.

Because the optics of a tweet like this are a little…

…well, bad:

If you haven’t already filed for your MN property tax refund, do it! Our tax bill this year will mean bigger refunds for folks, so it’s definitely worth doing.

I just filed for mine, and my eyes spun around and turned into dollar signs as “We’re in the Money” played. #mnleg

— Nathan Coulter (@NathanCoulter) August 7, 2023

Rep. Coulter: speaking as a middle-class empty nester who is getting not a f***ing penny from this so-called refund (let’s call it what it is – targeted vote buying), the idea that tax money is being “Refunded” to the needy – like, say, a State Representative from the mean streets of Eagan – maybe you might wanna stop your eyes spinning long enough to remember where the money came from.

You’re welcome, (REDACTED).

That is all,.

The Shutterfly warehouse in Shakopee is going to close.

A picture products and service company has decided to close its facility in Shakopee, costing around 250 employees their jobs.

Shutterfly said in a notice to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that it plans to permanently close its location on Deen Lakes Boulevard near the end of June 2024.

A friend of the blogs, right, saying the closing “couldn’t be the new laws just passed”, could it?

The list of possibilities is so rich:

• “Bidenomics” – three years of inflationary government spending combined with falling output as companies and capital consolidating with both fists.
• The end of the tax increment financing that Shakopee implemented to get the warehouse in the first place
• Minnesota’s owners, new laws and taxes.

Take your pick.

Why has the DFL been trying to portray itself, its candidates and its agenda as unstoppable and inevitable?

Because it’s neither, and it’s counting on finding lots of voters who can be convinced otherwise.

Duluth’s incumbent mayor – a woman right in the current DFL’s crypto-Maoist sweet spot – lost the city’s DFL mayoral primary.

And lost bad.

Now, this is just the primary. But it’s Duluth, where the DFL primary is in effect the election.

Former state lawmaker Roger Reinert made a bold statement in his return to local politics, easily outpacing incumbent Emily Larson in what was expected to be one of the most-competitive mayoral races the city has seen in the past 16 years.

Reinert was by far the top vote getter in Tuesday’s primary, winning 63% of ballots cast among the five-way field, according to complete but unofficial tallies. Larson also handily advanced to the Nov. 7 general election with 35%.

Now, Reinert is another DFLer.

But in a Duluth that’s kept its neo-Leninist patina even as the rest of CD8 has drifted toward center-right, he may as well be Jack Kemp:

But Reinert remains a well-known local political figure in his own right. The U.S. Naval Reserve officer was elected to the City Council in 2004 and went on to spend eight years in the state Legislature — first House of Representatives and then Senate — before stepping away in early 2017 to pursue a law degree.

Both candidates have been longtime members of the city’s DFL establishment, though Larson easily secured her party’s endorsement as Reinert opted not to participate in the process. In challenging the incumbent, he described himself as “more of a centrist” or “business Democrat.”

Larson has touted a progressive track record at the helm of the city, which includes overseeing development of some 1,700 new units of affordable housing and $19 million worth of renovations to existing units. She oversaw the creation of a dedicated street-repair fund, has pushed for sustainability and pollution-reduction measures and said crime has dropped 22% citywide since she first took office.

Reinert, in comparison, has pegged his campaign on “effective and efficient core city services” message. He has said property taxes and other proposed fees are proving to be a hardship on household budgets, promising to focus on improvements to streets and utilities, public safety, parks and libraries, tax-base development and housing.

I fully expect Ken Martin to take the DFL’s Rescue Wagon off Julie Blaha watch and deploy it, with bags of cash, to Duluth in the coming couple of months, to restore order and obedience.

But this is kind of huge.

If you havne’t seen the Barbie movie? The following review is submitted for your consideration. .

If you’re going to say “I have no intention of ever going to that movie, because it’s woke crap and I don’t care what you say”, that’s also fine. . If you want to leave a comment to that effect, I respectfully ask you to take it to, say, Fraters Libertas or Anti-Strib.

If you want to tell me I’m wrong about something to do with the movie, by all means, welcome.

---

Counterintuitive

I was probably inclined to dislike it, initially. Not because of any of its merits (Margot Robbie can do almost no wrong), or even any of what one might reasonably predict it’s flaws might be.

But do you want to know a little secret? I’m tired of popular culture bashing men. 

And no, it’s not just a parochial, knee-jerk, gender, politics response; I hate laziness and clichés, whether Amos and Andy, or speedy Gonzalez, or every villain on “Law and Order: SVU“ (hint: it’s always the Christian conservative.)

It’s become a cliché of modern screen writing and advertising; men in popular entertainment are pretty much, either:

• – Neutered halfwits
• – Safe Buffoons (think Fred Flintstone) 
• – BroDudes, with undercurrents of stupidity, malevolence, or both.
• – villains with no more subtlety than a cad in a melodrama, tying the heroine to the railroad tracks
• – Actors with enough star power (Matt Damon, George Clooney, Harrison Ford) to avoid the clichés.

One typical example: from two years ago, a dramedy, called “Single Drunk Female“, a fairly promising concept  about a 20 something advertising exec who drinks herself out of a career and into supervised probation.  A fascinating premise.…

… that apparently couldn’t survive without turning every male in the cast into an impotent, helpless, hopeless buffoon, a one dimensional droog, a villain, or in the case of one and only one characterl, a supernaturally wise voice of reason.

Oops – I just checked my notes, and it turns out that that character, the closest thing to a three dimensional male character, was  actually a transgender woman.

I’d rhetorically ask “imagine what a steady diet of popular culture consistently painting men (who aren’t stars) as buffoons, douche bags and villains does to boys” – but you don’t really have to imagine it, do you? Sometimes it seems boys are living down to the example that popular culture has laid out for them for the past generation.

So yeah. I wasn’t inclined to see the movie, and I started the whole proces with a bit of a chip on my shoulder.

And as I noted this morning, I’d seen a couple of great movies on the previous two weekends – Sound of Freedom and No Hard Feelings. Why harsh the buzz?

I figured I’d do like I’ve done for the last 20 installments of X-Men, 49 Fast and Furiousers and 16 Avengers and Justice Leagues, and let someone else have my seat.

---

But my NARN colleague Jack Tomczak said it was worth a watch – emphatically .

So I figured – why not?

To keep an open mind, I tried to avoid the reviews – but I got sucked into at least part of Ben Shapiro’s scathing reaction. I will brook no babble about Shapiro, by the way; he’s a very sharp guy, really good at most everything he does. Literally, nobody in the media is covering the Hunter Biden scandal like Shapiro. I don’t get the hate some conservatives have for Shapiro, and I don’t have to worry about it.

And I did read one other, extremely positive review, from someone who’s probably closer to my side of the cultural divide than most.

So with a few misgivings, I went to the movie.

---

People on the right side of the cultural fence who’ve never seen the movie can be forgiven for assuming a couple of things:

• It’s “woke”. It’s from Hollywood, which has been destroying lots of beloved franchises lately, so it’s not an *unreasonable* default guess.
• It trashes men. As I noted above, it’s pretty much the ultimate lazy Millennial screenwriter trick. And on the sufr the surface, sure.

————

“Woke”

Michael Knowles isn’t my favorite commentator, but he nailed this point. If you look at the story behind the story – as the director, Greta Gerwig, urges the viewer to do – it’s a very sly *critique* of “woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” feminism and the collapse of social traditions.

There are so many pointers to this – without giving out any spoilers, I’ll point you to America Ferrera’s [2] understated but brilliant “Harried Mom” character, and her interaction with Rhea Perlman’s character, presented as the woman who invented Barbie and put Mattel on the map, but who I think actually represents…well, I’ll let you figure that out on your own [3], and on and on.

But here’s the connection that sneaks up on you, that is so brilliant and shuts the whole “woke” thing down.

The movie starts in a stylized prehistoric era [4] with little girls playing with dolls – which, narrator Helen Mirren tells us, were always babies, which always left the girls always playing Mommy.

And “then came Barbie”. The little girls then smash their baby dolls and tea sets, as the scene dissolves to perfect, pink, plastic Barbie World, with women doing everything that matters and men demoted to, well, Ken.

There’s even a sly aside to the modern world’s attempt to repeal biology when Helen Mirren notes that “Midge”, the pregnant Barbie, was discontinued.

A bunch of other stuff happens, and we fast forward to the final scene, the final *line* of the movie.

I won’t spoil it. But there is no way to put the opening – the literal and figurative smashing of traditions and expectations dating back to the beginning of time – and the closing together and *not* see that this movie is a *critique* of “third wave feminism”, and the changes in social norms that they have been about for the past few generations – throughout “Barbie’s” commercial life.

I won’t spoil it. Put on your critical hat, watch it, and tell me where I’m wrong.

———–

“Men / Ken”.

As far as how it treats men – via “Ken”, singular and plural? Yep. Men are vapid, ineffectual, impotent, pointless.

And *that’s the point*. [5] And it may be even more brilliant than the critique of third wave feminism. [6]

Let’s step outside the movie and look at sociology, 2020s style.

What does every sociologist, especially on the right, identify as the problem with young men today? Lack of purpose, goals, meaning?

And that those young men fill in the gap left by the lack of *purpose* to masculinity by asserting it via mindless, deflecting hedonism and pointless violence? [7]

Because society sees them as being about as useful to the world as a bike is to a trout?

Again – no spoilers. But *that* – flopping around without purpose, and then wondering what that purpose *should* be – and its parallels with young mens struggles today, is the point of Ken (singular and plural). When you watch the movie, and see the arc of “Ken’s” behavior throughout, keep that in mind.

———-

So what did the other reviewers miss, that I caught?

To me, the big theme was how very important *purpose* is to life. “Barbieworld” reflects “Modern” society in that everyone has all their material wants met (in fact, to a city full of dolls, they are irrelevant), and all the affirmation they need…

…but there is no purpose.

And it’s when, and how, Barbie and Ken discover that humans (not dolls, literally or figuratively [8]), women *and* men, need *purpose* in their lives that made me sit up in my seat and whisper “holy crap, this is good”.

————

Oh, yeah. The movie is a visual joy.

And not just the Barbieland sets – which are everything you heard they are. They look just like the little Barbieworlds that the girls in the neighborhood would put together out on Mrs. Goehner’s patio, only perfect.

But there are two other visual moments that are much, much better.

The visual change when Barbie meets Rhea Perlman is jarring – and a huge cue as to what lies ahead.

And there’s a scene, near the end of the show, where Ken and Barbie realize what’s missing in both of their lives – neither in Barbie World nor the Real World, but a place that has no visual definition but slowly, subtly shifting lights that are characters in their own right – one of the most striking bits of cinemetography I’ve ever seen. I may watch it again just for that.

————-

Think that review was long? You should see the first one I wrote.

I don’t often urge people to go see movies – but I urge you ignore all the hype on BOTH sides, put on your critical hat, and check it out.

[1] Well, we did. Not sure if they do anymore.

[2] An actress I hate to love, but I love anyway.

[3] Hint: it’s a name the Sixth Commandment advises one not to take in vain.

[4] It’s borrowed from the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

[5] This is one of several parts Ben Shapiro got hung up on. Shapiro’s brilliant – I push back hard on the conservative hate he gets – but he totally c**pped the bed in his review. Which I *really* don’t get – it’s not like he’s too uneducated to see subtext, allusion and symbolism, especially when it’s *right there on the screen*. Very much the opposite. It’s almost like he c**pped the bed on purpose. Why would he do that? No freaking clue.

[6] Seriously. I may go see the movie again just to put together all the pieces of this subplot.

[7] No spoilers – but there’s a scene I’ll just describe as “Omaha Beach In Saving Private Ryan via Barbieworld” that made me double over laughing, and wince, out loud.

[8] Without getting into politics, much of modern society treats humans as interchangeable widgets whose meaning is to consume. I could write a piece ten times as long as this already huge review on the horrors of that subject alone.

This is todays DFL.

May 2023: Leave the possibility of throwing grandma out on the street very pointedly open.

Gov. Walz says the quiet part out loud: Democrats used nursing homes on the brink of closure as leverage at the end of session.

Democrat budget proposals would have resulted in dozens of nursing home closures.

Immoral. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/6QioFfe4Ms

— Andrew Wagner (@andrewwagner) August 9, 2023

August, 2023: Pat selves vigorously on the back for not doing it.

Movies are pretty streaky to me.

Before Gran Torino came out I think I’d gone something like 3-4 years without seeing a movie in a theater. No big deal – I scarcely noticed it, and had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

After the “lockdown” ended, I went to a couple of films just to throw a throbbing middle fingers at the Karens of the world. I don’t even remember the movies – just how good throwing. that finger fels. Also how much room I had. I literally was the only person in the theater more than once. #ThaanksGovernorWalz

But I’ve been light on movies again, for a while now. I didn’t grow up with comic books (other than “Flaming Carrot” and, later, “King and Country”), so I have no nostalgia for the endless Marvel and DC franchises. For that matters, I lost all interest in Star Wars after “Attack of the Clones or whatever it was called. I literally haven’t seen a single one after the third episode/sixth movie. When asked which universe I prefer, Star Trek or Star Wars, I reply “Firefly“.

And I try to avoid going to movies I reasonably believe are going to be a waste of time and money. I’ve literally walked out of one movie in my life (The Burbs with Tom Hanks).

But I’ve been on a bit of a tear lately. I’ve seen movies four weekends in a row. And – unbelievably – they’ve all been good.

• Sound of Freedom. Amazing film. . Unbelievably intense. Its critics say “it manipulates the audience ZOMG”. Right . So did “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, “Oliver Twist” and “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”. That’s art, especially art for a cause, for you. .
• No Hard Feelings. Yep ,a Jennifer Lawrence film. “But she’s a lefty”. I don’t care – it’s a movie with a fundamentally conservative message. One reviewer called it “a sex comedy without the sex”, and it’s not wrong – especially given that the one nude scene is hilarious and diametrically not erotic in the least.
• Oppenheimer. I love the fact that a director trusts and audience to be able to follow a complex, non-sequential plot.

Aaaaaaaand Barbie.

“Wait – wut”

Yep. Barbie. And I’d do it again – entirely on conservative social criticism grounds .

More tomorrow .

Senator Erin Maye Quade continues to confirm my thesis that DFL politicians count on their voters being – let’s be diplomatic – smug, but uninformed and uncritical.

SW is being required to attend a training by a literal, designated hate group for firing an employee who was harassing her co-worker. Apparently, harassing a co-worker is now protected religious liberty? I can't even https://t.co/Zf6mV68eTk

— Erin Maye Quade (@ErinMayeQuade) August 8, 2023

The Alliance Defending Freedom is “literally” “designated” as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is – and I know 95% of your readers know this – paid to defame conservative groups, leaders and thought.

It’s high time this behavior be commemorated in a Berg’s Law.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is getting canning supplies at Fleet Farm, when Avery LIBRELLE walks round the corner.

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG: Fuc…crying out loud, Avery, how are you?

LIBRELLE: Shut up. We figured out how to get white ammosexuals like you to support common sense gun safety regulations.

BERG: I can’t wait.

LIBRELLE: Give guns to black men!

BERG: Like this guy…

https://twitter.com/jeffcharlesjr/status/1688653967499079680?s=46&t=NQICV0vfnJ7ol-tsbeTj-A

…who’s been getting universal, comprehensive praise from gun owners of all ethnicities?

LIBRELLE: No, no. I mean if we gave stereotypical black men guns and got reactions from stereotypical white ammosexuals.

BERG: That…is, uh, ,probably factual. and uncommonly frank of you. Did you just have a wisdom tooth pulled?

LIBRELLE: They did just legalize weed in Minnesota.

BERG: Aaaaah ,yeah. Hey, look!

(BERG points at…something, LIBRELLE slowly ambles around in the other direction, at which point BERG makes his escape).

And SCENE

No – not the Canadian Football League. That still exists, believe it or not.

No – does a nyone out there remember the “compact fluorescent light”, or CFL?It seems like just yesterday when the green mafia wheedled the government into mandating the replacement of the incandescent bulb with the CFL – a miniature fluorescent tube that screws into a light socket and resembles the “poop“ emoji.

People resisted them. They were much more expensive than incandescent bulbs, the light (being a fluorescent tube), gave people, headaches, and they were hazardous to dispose of in landfills.

It wasn’t long after that the free market came up with the “LED bulb“ – an adaptation of “light emitting diode“ technology that had been around for decades. it used very little power, it created a much more pleasant brand of light, and it wasn’t toxic waste.

The federal mandate was apparently forgotten. As has been, near as I can tell, the compact fluorescent.

I’m reminded of that when I see how clumsy and ill thought out the governments, current mandate Ridge, the electric vehicle“ is, compared with a potentially much more palatable option, the hydrogen powered car.

Government may have learned something from the CFL fiasco, of course; and that “something“ is most likely not “listen to the free market“. As the Covid lockdowns show us, “strong arming the media and big tech into helping jam acquiescence down” also works.

News articles we see as regularly as the rising and falling of the tide:

The spring of every election year: “Evangelicals swinging toward the left! (when a poll shows the Democrat vote among Evangelicans rose from 22% to 23%)

Every decade, during “festival” season: “Country music is moving to the left!” (when some flavor of the month singer goes on “The View” instead of the NASCAR pre-race show”

No big secret here – I literally care about international cricket more than soccer – men’s or women’s.

Nothing against the sport – it has just never grabbed me in any way, mentally or emotionally. It takes time away from baseball.

Of course, if you think the NFL is corrupt, wait’ll you get a load of FIFA. But that’s another whole issue.

Of course, the US Women’s team has squandered a lot of iti’s Mia Hamm-era goodwill by wrapping itself around a lot of social third rails – but that, in and of itself, has little to do with my ennoi about the “most popular sport in the world”.

I will confess to feeling no suspense whatsoever about the World Cup, men’s or womens.

Oh, I do know the US has won the event several times. Twice. Four times? A bunch. Yay US.

Now, chalk it up to a rural Scandinavian-American upbringing, where “don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, and assume you won’t wind up with any chickens” is pretty much part of life from as early as you can comprehend eggs, chickens and Janteloven.

But when I saw this particular ad campaign and the hubris that had to have been behind it…

…I knew that the US was going to get upset.

Not going to say I “predicted” it, but I sure felt it.

Wish I’da gone to the sports book.

Speaking for myself?

I”d go back and try to show…

…well, not “the idiots who shut down nuclear power”, so much as the mushy minds that believed them, how much trouble and misery they would eventually cause around the world.

“I don't see any limit in terms of a cornucopian world if we have freedom, and I think we'd be way far ahead on nuclear had we not had the anti-nuclear movement of the last 50 years.”

With @peterthiel pic.twitter.com/1dGPpZMA5p

— Alex Epstein (@AlexEpstein) July 28, 2023

Of course, destroying cornucopia in general is a goal of the totalitarian left. Poor people don’t solve problems – but they do demand strongmen to solve the problems for them.

Want to find out more about Rep Hudson’s and Sen. Lucero’s carry permit fundraiser? Here you go!

And you can find out more about the Frederick Douglass Foundation. And here’s the

SCENE: Ari SHAPIRO is interviewing Yvette SMITH, who runs a popcorn stand in Milwaukee, Wisconsin .

SHAPIRO: So Yvette – tell us the secret of making great popcorn outdoors?

SMITH: I only use peanut oil, but with a little dash of coconut oil thrown in to keep the smoke level down. That way I get enough heat to keep the flavor sealed in.

SHAPIRO: Sounds delicious.

SMITH: It is! Thanks!

SHAPIRO: Tell us about your clientele?

SMITH: Just a cross section of everyone in the area. Bankers, college students, workers from Harley Davidson, families on their way home from school. Pretty much everyone.

SHAPIRO: So – you are a genderqueer woman of color. Tell us about the impact that has on running a popcorn stand?

SMITH: Well, Ari…

Minnesota has developed some horrifying personality tics in recent years. Especially this past year.

But one that’s a groaner, year in, year out, is Minnesota’s crippling inferiority complex. It was manifested most plainly in the ’80s, when Minneapolis adopted the marketing hook “The MinneApple” – and continues every time the local media finds the most absurd possible local angles to every national story.

But this story which got headlines in most Twin Cities media on Tuesday – may be the most pathetic of all.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Lady Gaga dined at Café and Bar Lurcat in Minneapolis Sunday night, according to a tweet from the restaurant. 

The tweet on Monday said, “When an iconic restaurant hosts an icon. Last night, we were delighted to have Lady Gaga join us for dinner. On behalf of our staff, we thank Lady Gaga — one of the most beloved and influential singers, songwriters and performance actors — for choosing our Mpls restaurant.”

No word on whether the food was locally sourced, or from what provider; this link to someone from somewhere else should certainly rate a story of their own.

… how iconic brands in Minneapolis never find buyers? They always go from humming along to closing up shop for good?

Psycho Suzies tiki lounge may have been one of the most distinctive bars/restaurants in the city, that, for its many faults, as always been pretty creative on the food front.

It’s been a while since I’ve been there – although one of my most treasured memories is cleaning Bridget Cronin‘s vomit off my shoes during one of her birthday parties there. But every time I was ever there, it was packed, especially on gorgeous summer nights, where you could sit and look across the Mississippi River at the sparkling of gunfire from North Minneapolis.

You think it would be a hot property, including its branding, for someone.

But nooooo…

Psycho Suzie’s Motor Lounge announced it will permanently close on Aug. 19.

“For the past two decades we’ve welcomed you through our tiki laden jungle to enjoy tropical drinks, pizza pies, waterfront seating, and the company of new and old friends… but all good things must come to an end and this Psycho Suzi is ready to hang it up and put on her retirement hat,” said owner Leslie Bock, in a Facebook post.

So what Minneapolis social tradition will be next? City government has drawn a line in the Sand around the first Avenue, clearly – that place is escaped the apathy of the market. Thanks to city intervention a number of times.

The Dakota? God forbid.

The moral of the story? I think there are two:

Bout damn time store owners FIGHT BACK… pic.twitter.com/mzQpGuvWLr

— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) August 2, 2023

First: Sikhs people with a millennia of warrior tradition. I don’t know if “adept at smashing things“ is a genetic trait, but if it is, it runs in that particular ethnic bloodline.

Second: when people know they can’t count on law enforcement to enforce order, they will enforce it themselves. That enforcement will frequently be very ugly.

Third: I love a happy ending. This is a happy ending.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is sitting in a Chicago-style Viking restaurant in Richfield, perusing the menu. Devadip Ulysses PLOOBRADOR is escorted in and sits at a table next to BERG. PLOOBRADOR is a mystic prophet and self-described wise man who also doubles as a UPS and Doordash driver.

BERG: Mr. Ploobrador.

PLOOBRADOR: Mr. Berg. So what’s been keeping you busy?

BERG: The usual, Collapse of civil society, mostly.

PLOOBRADOR: The tribalism is truly suffocating.

BERG: Yeah, but it goes beyond that. As Dennis Prager notes, in 1861, when the US split into two nations, and provided you leave out slavery and some of the erosions of federalism that’s happened by that point, they were virtual mirror images of each other, at least in terms of structure and process.

And there is just no way that if this nation split up today that’d be the case. If the US split into two nations, one would largely reflect the Constitution as it is, and the other would likely resemble the French Republic with a little dash of Scandinavian parliamentarianism.

PLOOBRADOR: You are not wrong.

BERG: And of course, the way around that is to renew our commitment to federalism, limited government and checks and balances.

But the GOP is killing those institutions with neglect, and the Democrats are killing them very deliberately.

PLOOBRADOR: I can not argue. Decline and collapse is something that requires a great deal of acquiescence.

BERG: Right. So I’m wondering – at this point, barring a serious “coming to Jesus” re federalism at some point, which seems improbable at best…

PLOOBRADOR: …agreed…

BERG: …that some sort of “National Divorce” is inevitable.

PLOOBRADOR: Which would be the most horrible of all things. It wouldn’t be like the American Civil War, with two sides lining up on opposite sides of the Mason Dixon line. It would be more like Bosnia in the ’90s, with ideological “ethnic” cleansing expelling or removing the “infidels” reds from blue territory and vice versa.

BERG: I keep hearing that from people, saying that massive, eliminationist bloodshed is inevitable. And I have to ask – why?

At the best, it’s a matter of choice. People have to choose to be violent. And as we’ve seen, Big Left has no problem getting violent when they think the ends justify the means.

PLOOBRADOR: Hmmmm.

BERG: And at worst? Well, the notion that populations are so very intermingled means there’s a certain amount of balance of terror involved; would Big Left actually go full-bore Rwanda on conservatives in San Francisco and Chicago while “blues” are stranded in Miami, Austin and Boise?

PLOOBRADOR: That seems like an odd thing to be pollyannaish about.

BERG: I know. I just think ruling out a national divorce on relatively peaceful, if far from “good” terms, is really premature.

PLOOBRADOR: Hm. Interesting.

(WAITER, dressed in a bearskin vest and a horned helmet, approaches the tables).

WAITER: Welcome to Skraeliings Viking Restaurant. Can I take your order

BERG: I’ll have the Chicago Dog with a side of onion rings.

WAITER: Very good. And you, sir?

PLOOBRADOR: Make me one with everything.

(WAITER looks at both BERG and PLOOBRADOR, confused).

BERG: I think he’s talking about a hot dog .

(WAITER and PLOOBRADOR both nod).

And SCENE.

A friend of the blog emails:

ATF Form 4473 question 21.g reads:

“g. Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized
for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside

Yes No”

If your neighbor routinely sees you setting on your deck smoking weed and you come home one day with a terrifying AR-15 does the inference that you lied on your Form 4473 justify them invoking one of Minnesota’s Red Flag laws to have the authorities take away all your guns?

I am no lawyer – I will await input from one of them – but I suspect “It depends on how much your county attorney hates law abiding gun owners” is at least part of any correct answer.

I’m sure Senator Hauschild – or the DFL comms goon managing his account – thinks this story looks like a victory:

https://twitter.com/mitchpberg/status/1685290028849623040?s=46&t=NQICV0vfnJ7ol-tsbeTj-A

Minnesota: the state where you need to have a state senator in your bullpen to rebuild a business that burned down.

Not even starting a new business.

Wonder what that’d take?

As cannabis becomes legal in Minnesota today ,it’s become fairly clear that the DFL didn’t read the bill they’d copied and pasted from some advocate’s model legislation file.

Cities around the state are frantically passing legislation to treat public consumption the same as cigarettes, vaping and alcohol – things the state didn’t bother to do.

And they’ve thoughtfully left the door wide open for the black marketeers:

But even though growing, possessing and using weed will be legal for people 21 and older on Aug. 1, you still won’t be able to buy marijuana from a licensed dealer in most of the state. It will likely be more than a year before dispensaries begin opening. Democrats say they framed their bill that way so regulators would have enough time to develop rules for recreational marijuana sales.

Critics say allowing possession of so much marijuana without also allowing its sale will be a boon for unlawful and unregulated black market sellers.

Not to mention the tax rate – which, at 10%, is roughly 100% higher than the black market tax rate of absolutely nil.

So – we’ll have all the black-market crime, plus a disproportionally baked population.

It’s the DFL’s dream.

Anheuser Busch, reeling from its epic self-inflicted shot in the foot, is laying off workers.

And they’ve belatedly learned…well, something (emphasis added):

In a statement to The Associated Press, the beer maker said the layoffs will impact less than 2% of its workforce. Anheuser-Busch’s website says the company employs 19,000 employees nationwide. Warehouse staff, drivers and other frontline employees will not be affected, the company said.

After throwing their key, blue-collar clientele under the bus in the first place, it’s probably a relief to know someone at InBev knew better than to make the working stiffs pay for their suits’ hubrus.

Well, at least pay first for it…

The Strib is trying to wag the state’s proverbial dog:

"What's life like in Minnesota?" On the social media site Reddit, the questions have been flooding in lately from people pondering a move. In some circles, at least, Minnesota is having a moment. https://t.co/8ukTIyoIVr

— The Minnesota Star Tribune (@StarTribune) July 30, 2023

“Flooding in” to a Reddit thread?

Why, it sounds good, doesn’t it?

The kind of good news that an undistinguished meat puppet of a governor can’t be expected not to try to make hay of it…

The good life in Minnesota.https://t.co/4Wv5sjVEMr

— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) July 31, 2023

That stupid 1971 headline is set to pass “…on a stick!” as the ultimate Minnesota cliche, by the way.

So what’s the truth?

Why, let’s see:

240 comments and 36 upvotes, in a month.

This blog has many posts with much more activity than that in a day.

So – why all the ado about that modest little, uh, flood?

Oh:

https://twitter.com/PatGarofalo/status/1685793865280757760

Minnesota has the eight-worst net outmigration among the productive class in the country. One suspects the “flood” comprises a lot of people looking for taxpayer-funded abortion and chemical castration of minors.

And while it’s hard to believe it’s not by design, one has to think the DFL doesn’t want the news to get too big, too fast… –

Minnesota Enviromaists: “We’ve never had a summer like this! This is proof the climate is…

History:

Minnesota Enviromaoists: “Why are you such a racist?”

Why, no, stupid peasants. Nobody is taking your guns.

I mean, nobody is taking your gas stoves.

Ooos. Nobody is going to convert all cars to electric.

Whoopsie. I mean nobody is going to surreptitiously convert the power grid to something that can’t sustain life in any place where the temperature gets below 40.

D’oh! I mean, nobody is…

…er, what’s nobody doing?

Oh, yeah. The bug thing. That’s what hobody ever said anything about.

Your bad.