Shot in the Dark

Category: Public Employees

  • The Inhumanity

    Governor Walz, throwing Saint Paul’s ailing downtown a much-needed bone, calls state employees back to the office… …a little:   Sure, much of the private sector never left the office (or work site), and much of the rest of the free market world has re-adapted. But not Minnesota’s oh-so special state government union employees: And…

  • Your Tax Dollars At Work

    I consider Dennis Prager, if not a friend in the classic sense, at least a good acquaintance. Most decent people wish him all the best in his apparently extended recovery.  If your worldview calls for prayers, they’re being welcomed. I specified “decent” people because… …well… Lakeville schools’ response was predictable enough: Now, I’m not one…

  • Annals Of Central Planning

    Minnesota “needs” 381 “cannabis dispensaries”, according to the same people who claimed that the state would have 20,000 Covid deaths, “best case”, by July of 2020. And if you think that’s a curious number to arrive at, you’re right: Now that recreational marijuana is legal, Minnesota will need nearly 400 dispensaries to comply with state law,…

  • Clearly They Need One Of Those “In This House…” Signs

    Staffer for conservative GOP Latina congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna discusses how loving and accepting the left is: Berg’s Eighth Law has no exceptions.

  • Opportunity Drifts

    A friend of the blog emails: With this most recent snowstorm, there has been lots of discussion about snow removal. Reasonable people look at the streets of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and say no wonder people are moving to suburbs-the cities are just incompetent. Leftist urbanists look at the state of the streets of Minneapolis…

  • Roll Model

    Henco Sheriff David Hutchinson continues to get concierge service from the “criminal justice” system. Minnesota’s Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) has suspended the license of Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson for 30 days, starting next month…The board voted to suspend his license for 180 days, however 150 days are stayed on the…

  • The First Law Of Leftist Governance…

    …is always, always, always be looking for more ways to transfer taxpayer money to the political class. And that is exactly what they are doing.

  • For The Children

    Less anyone wonder why the teachers unit in Minneapolis is out on strike – besides grabbing “their share“ of the “surplus“ – their union boss spells it out pretty clearly: At least she was honest-ish.

  • “Great Time For A Strike, Denise…”

    Minneapolis teachers will likely be walking off the job. The timing…doesn’t seem great, from their perspective: I think Majority Leader Gazelka got this one right:

  • The Hennepin County Way

    He drove with a .13 blood alcohol content (as of test time, hours later, indicating he had closer to a .17 at the time of the crash). He drove 126MPH down 94, up until he went off the road. He drove, thus hammered, carrying his service firearm (or at least a .357 magnum revolver in…

  • Panicky Elites, Resilient Normies

    “Government is all the things we do together – stupidly and ineffectively”. Government is ponderous and brittle. People, when acting in enlightened self-interest, usually make the right call. My favorite example: before 9/11, the official guidance for people in skyscraper offices in case of a major emergency was to wait for official instructions. The powers…

  • A Thought Experiment

    Let’s say you had a couple bumps at a bar – like, say, 8 to 12 of them. And then decided to drive home. You were carrying a gun, and a car full of loose ammunition. You drove down the freeway, until you didn’t – you swerved off the road, rolled your car, scattering ammunition…

  • Sheriff Hutchinson

    My question isn’t whether Sheriff Hutchinson drove impaired last weekend – though it seems likelyl. It’s not why – cops are prone to drinking, and it’s been a rough couple years. It’s not whether he drove in a county vehicle. It’s not whether he got favorable treatment from the State Patrol – which didn’t post…

  • “Gosh, Why Do People Distrust Our Public Health Messaging?”

    Uh, because they routinely lie to you, and we know it, but they keep on trying to deny it? Whistle blown on Bloomington public health director, lying to school parents about the effectiveness of masks: Emphasis added: At an August 2 “Return to School” webinar on the district’s proposed COVID plan, Kelley urged parents to…

  • The Praetorians

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Our last defense against liberal tyranny has always been the military. They won’t fire on us, they are us, the military think the way we do.Not anymore. In a couple of years, the new officers trained under the new regime will be in the field commanding troops. Either we…

  • Black Bag Operation

    A few weeks ago, when the “city of Minneapolis” first “tried” to “Clear” George Floyd Square, at 38th and Chicago, they spun it (with the willing connivance of our media) to try to make it appear that a community group had somehow gotten a bunch of city trucks and their unionized employees out to one…

  • Surprised Not Surprised

    I planned a vacation, leaving January 14 and returning January 21. Iwent on-line two weeks early, January 6, to request the Post Office holdmy mail. Had to create an on-line account to submit the request. Hadto verify my identity to create the on-line account using multi-factorauthentication. But not by email – not available – nor…

  • Pain

    My wife as a 40-year history of low back pain.  It’s been good lately,but she stumbled and fell the other day.  Now, she’s in intense pain,can barely move.  We’ve been icing and heating, ibuprofen and Tylenol,not helping. Because of the opioid crisis, she cannot get stronger pain medicinewithout a diagnosis.  She can’t get a diagnosis…

  • Timing

    A friend of the blog emails: Do I have this right? The pandemic has reduced commuter travel as employees and students work from home. The buses all say “essential travel only” and are not allowing the crowds they once had. Honestly, they probably don’t even have the crowds- fewer people are using the bus right now.…

  • Heroes Walking Among Us

    Went for a walk, saw this sign, having trouble identifying the symbol for “government bureaucrats.”   Hey, we’re essential, you know.  Those papers aren’t going to shuffle themselves.  Joe Doakes Sardonic as Joe is, he knows as well as anyone that government workers of all kinds are the most essential workers there are. They’re public employees union…

  • Government Is The Things We Do Together, Stupidly And Arbitrarily

    Califonia: Surf til your heart is content. But don’t you dare swim.

  • Surprising Nobody (Who’s Been Paying Attention At All)

    “Unexpectedly”, Minnesota’s neighbors – well, at least the ones run by people who came up through the world of business, rather than public employment or the non-profit/industrial complex – are kicking Minnesota’s passive-aggressive tush at dealing with Coronavirus. You could look at it in terms of deaths per million (South Dakota is 1/3 Minnesota’s rate;…

  • The Turning Point?

    The media and the Walz administration – pardon, largely, the redundancy – is waving around a bunch of polls by a bunch of left-leaning pollsters showing overwhelming support for keeping the state’s economy shut down until…um, they’ll get back to you on that. I’ve noticed that an awful lot of those supporting a vapor-tight lockdown…

  • Government Is The Things We Do Together – Stupidly And Arbitrarily

    A Long Lake restaurant tries to put on a drive in movie, complete with take-out food with all the socially-distance, plague-aware trimmings. The state shut them down: Birch’s On the Lake has lost around 70% of its regular revenue while doing take-out only during the stay at home order. The owner came up with a…

  • Science!

    King Walz the First angrily denounced right-wing kook websites speculating that the newest plan to placate the coronavirus involved sacrificing virgins. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “Our plan is simply to have Joe Biden sniff their hair. It has been amply demonstrated that no person has died from coronavirus while having…