…don’t you dare claim there’s intrinsic bias in Twin Cities media:

So many ways to word that:  “uphold federal immigraiton law”, “stop abuse of the healthcare system”, “drop non-qualified non-citizens from taxpayer-funded healthcare”, among others.

But they just have to imply malice.  

You think you hate the media enough?  You…well, you know where this goes, right?

MInnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon apparently shares a platitude writer with Tim Walz:

Same person? Different? hard to say – but they share a certain – uh…

…factual incoherence?

Melissa Hortman folded her hand yesterday, and said the House DFL would come back to work.   Lisa Demuth is the Speaker, and the GOP controls the committees, at least until after the 40B Special on March 11. 

There are a few Republicans – largely from the crowd that thinks “Minnesota Gun Rights” is an actual gun rights group in Minnesota – who think it was a defeat for the GOP. 

Let’s let a DFLer address that:

For someone who’s gotten a little fatalistic about Minnesota Republicans screwing every pooch that can be screwed, it was a very good day.   This is not your fathers House GOP Caucus. 

More please.

It must be a tough time to be Erin Maye Quade – Senator from Apple Valley, and Big Left’s attack poodle in the Senate.

In the past couple of years, she’s voted for a thoughtcrime data base, and openly fantasized about using government power to keep parents from teaching their kids about abstinence…

…and about “Eminent Domaining” and bulldozing the crisis pregnancy centers try to keep people out of the Planned Parenthood clinics that spend so much on her campaigns and will presumably be her post-politics career.

Because suddenly, she’d discovered that big powerful government can be scary, when you’re not at the controls.

Even if you have to conjure those threats out of thin air:

Further evidence of Berg’s Seventh Law; QAnon was a fantasy, but BlueAnon is very, very real. 

Yesterday, I was trying to remember – how long has it been since the inauguration?   Was it three weeks, or four?

Nope.  Two weeks. 

Seemed so much longer than that. 

If you live in Senate District 60 – the U of M, Dinkytown, Marcy Holmes – get out and vote for Abigail Wolters for the MN Senate.

If you know someone who lives in the district and is sick and tired of DFL lawnessness, or especially of U of M student who’s looking at the life the DFL has mapped out for them – being a purposeless unit of consumption – then get them to get out and vote for Abby. 

This’d be a great week to shock the world.

The last time I watched a Presidential inauguration live on TV was when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated.  I was in junior high, and they wheeled a TV into our history classroom. 

I missed Reagan’s (twice), Bush I, Clinton (twice), Dubya (twice), Trump’s first, and Obama (all three times). 

I may break my streak today.   Partly to see history.  Partly because I’ve become an accidental, skeptical Trump supporter.  Partly because, let’s be honest, I suspect some lefty is going to try something stupid.

And I don’t mean just this guy:

Speaking of danger:  remember when George W Bush took office?   And the departing Clinton staffers, in a fit of juvenility, pried the “W” keys off of all the computer keyboards in the west wing?

Biden’s pardons, and some of his other efforts to stymie Trump from the great political beyond, are like that – only actually damaging, as opposed to juvenile and spiteful.

So much so that even the elder statesman of “Never-Trump” is sounding off:

Side note:  “Incandescently stupid” is going into my quick-reference lexicon.

SCENE. Avery LIBRELLE is wandering the aisles at Barnes and Noble in Maplewood, when h…er, sh…er, Avery notices Mitch BERG poring over the German book aisle.  LIBRELLE pounces. 

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG:  Uh, Schoiße…, er, I mean, hey Avery…

LIBRELLE:  Shut up.   Why is Trump obsessed with taking over Canada, Greenland and Panama?

BERG:  What do you mean?

LIBRELLE:  I’ll turn it over to the world’s most courageous person to explain:

BERG:  Oh, yeah.  That.  Well, for starters, did you catch McBride’s last quote…

LIBRELLE:  Miss McBride’s quote.

BERG:  Representative McBride’s quote…:  “If this president is serious about an America first agenda, he should be focused on domestic economic issues, not some weird obsession with invading Greenland or Panama”

LIBRELLE:  Yeah.  So?

BERG:   So the Representative is talking about “Putting America First”, even if only sarcastically. 

LIBRELLE:  Cheap shot!

BERG:  Uh, right.  But tell me – what’s the latest news about Pete Hegseth?

LIBRELLE:  Who?

BERG:  Kash Patel?   RFK Junior?

LIBRELLE:   What did they have to do with invading Greenland. 

BERG:  Huh.  RIght.  I think it’s on The View right now.

LIBRELLE:  Oooh!  The View!  (Abruptly turns and scampers eagerly away).

BERG:  Huh.   Where what that trick when I needed it?

And SCENE

So, last week was a big week. A good one, by Minnesota Republican standards. For the DFL, less so.

Both chambers of of the Minnesota legislature flipped to “tied” last week – one by via human tragedy, and one by hubris and stupidity.

Let’s talk stupidity and hubris first.

The House

As we noted last week, the election in House District 40B got thrown out by a Ramco Judge – DFLer Julian Castro – because the DFL winner, Curtis Johnson, hadn’t lived in the district the required six months.

Naturally, it took his GOP opponent and his supporters to dig up the information that went to trial – God knows the media isn’t going to do it. But the locals did prevail. Johnson is out.

Which, including the still-disputed 54A race, leaves the GOP one vote ahead as the session looms. Which means a GOP speaker of the House – a much better speedbump on DFL control than the “shared power” arrangement people were talking about last week.

Or it will, if the DFL can’t figure out a way to juke the rules in their favor. Which is exactly what they’re going to try to do.

On Friday, Johnson A DFL state representative-elect said Friday he will not appeal a judge’s ruling that he is ineligible to hold the office because he did not meet residency requirements for the district.

On Friday, Johnson announced he was opening the way to a special election to fill the 40B seat by “resigning“:

A DFL state representative-elect said Friday he will not appeal a judge’s ruling that he is ineligible to hold the office because he did not meet residency requirements for the district.

In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, Curtis Johnson said he has “made the difficult decision not to accept my seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives and to resign from the Office of State Representative effective immediately and irrevocably.”

Which is great – except the couldn’t resign. He was never in the office – it’s still Becker-Finn’s seat, and Johnson’s election was voided by the court.

Pretty Vacant

And the word “vacancy” has a statutory definition:

Which didn’t stop Governor Walz from declaring a special election on January 24.

Now, I’m no lawyer, but Johnson’s not the incumbent – Becker-Finn is.

So trying to jam down a special election is against the law:

But there is no vacancy, so (as I, and I suspect Mr. Hansen, and presumptive-Speaker Demuth) see it), the governor doesn’t get to call the special election until 22 days after Johnson isn’t sworn in, on January 14, the first day of session.

So with the House tied at 67-67 after the election, and the 54A seat in Shakopee still in court, this gives the GOP a 67-66 lead in the House, and the potential of picking up the 54A (and refusing to seat Brad Tabke until the issue is resolved in court).

I say it’s time for some intransigence.

Let’s talk about the Senate later today. 

NPR’s token Aztlani, Maria Hinojosa, yelling “SLAY, QUEEN GIRLBOSS!” as Mexico’s socialist female president briefly flexed on Trump’s border plans:

How it’s going:

Yep. The whole world witnessed it:

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Thank you to everyone who Voted as Hard as They Could.  It paid off.  The election was not stolen. 

I have a parenthetical thought that doesn’t pertain to Joe. I don’t want to interrupt the flow, so I’ll hit that at the bottom of the post.

Back to Joe, who has the same question I had the day after the election:

But I still have a lingering question or two.  What happened to those 81 million 2020 Biden voters?  They didn’t go to Trump – he got fewer votes this time than last.  They didn’t stay home – Kamala got as many votes as Hillary.  

Did they ever exist?  Or is this graphic proof of a stolen election after all? 

My first principle is to never assume malice when stupidity and sloth are equally possible. The drop in Trump voters indicates that it’s at least partly the expiration of Covid-era voting rules that allowed people to submit ballots via their DoorDash driver, or by blinking three times during a Zoom meeting.

But that is a lot of disappeared Democrat voters. Which may speak just as well to the “sloth” thing.

OK.  Discuss.

Deferred Parenthetical Thought: And again, pinky swear, isn’t aimed at Joe – I get the point he’s going for (or at least the one he will go for when I’m done interrupting), but could we retire the phrase “Vote Harder?” Smug anarcho libertarians have beaten that one to death.

We get it. You’re splendidly above the muggles and our quaint delusions. 

Berating voters didn’t work well for Royce White.

And not finishing thoughts didn’t do Giggles a lot of favors (you’ll have to hunker down and get to the “end” of the video to get the reference, and I can’t blame you if you don’t).

But…

…maybe this time it’ll work.

PS:  What is the “Right to be Happy?”

Are Brzezinsky and Scarborough trying to save their jobs?

Or are they trying to belatedly act like “journalists?”

It’s a coin toss as far as I can tell. 

But one things’ for sure – while good deeds might not go unpunished, failing to “denormalize” the “Literal Hitler” certainly won’t:

(Side question: Why is it that everyone who comes to leftist punditry after a career of yapping about grown men chasing balls around fields and courts inevitably such an idiot?)

But there are some – what do I say – “leaks” on the left:

But their purity police never sleep.

Watching today’s Left self-immolate is the perfect Christmas gift

To:  Brian Stelter, CNN
From:  MItch Berg, obstreporous peasant
Re:   Brendan Carr

Mr. Stelter,

You tweeted this about Brendan Carr, President-Elect Trump’s pick to head the FCC:

Just curious – what is it you think Carr is wrong about?

That is all.

Progressives – in this case, a guy who was telling us Joe Biden was stronger and more with it than Chuck Norris in his prime until two hours before Giggle defenestrated him – are not cool with RFK Junior running the DHHS:

So – RFK Jr. is driving his uncle’s car off the bridge and leaving the NIH and Medicaid to drown slowly?

I can’t be the only one to think that, can I?

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Biden administration undercounting murders, revising history, setting the stage for a “murder surge” when Trump takes office and murders are honestly reported.

Joe Doakes

 

Let’s not think for a moment that Big Left is giving up after the November 5 landslide.

So, among Trump’s current Cabinet nominees:

• I’ve interviewed designated Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth 2-3 times.
• The wife of Doug Burgum (who by some reports has the inside track for Secretary of Energy) is a high school classmate.
• One of my dad’s students in Rugby, ND was an incredibly ambitious young guy named “Donnie” Gaetz.   He won the state debate championship, went on to win the national championship in college, moved to Florida and became a Republican mover and shaker and eventually president of the State Senate, and was a somewhat frequent guest at my parents’ house through the seventies and into the eighties, and who went on to have a son you may have heard of. 

So, Matt Gaetz for AG. 

As happy as I am with all the other nominees, the only upside I can see to this nomination is it’ll get him out of the House, in time for him not to get confirmed…?

He’d be a reliable Trump ally, and he’d likely go at the DOJ with a blowtorch.   Surely we’ve got better people for both jobs?

I’m not the only one with questions.

After a senseless tragedy, people – almost invariably conservatives – are told to never, ever dare to “politicize” it [1]

46 year old Anthony Nephew of Duluth apparently politicized his family’s tragedy for us over the weekend, murdering his wife and son, his ex-partner and son, and checking himself out afterward.

According to the London Daily Mail (far and away the best rouce for Minnesota news that doesn’t kiss the DFL’s ass):

[Nepohew] also appeared increasingly concerned about the prospect of a Trump-led government.

‘My mental health and the world can no longer peacefully coexist, and a lot of the reason is religion,’ he said in July.

‘I am terrified of religious zealots inflicting their misguided beliefs on me and my family. I have intrusive thoughts of being burned at the stake as a witch, or crucified on a burning cross.

‘Having people actually believe that I or my child are Satan or, the anti-Christ or whatever their favorite color of boogie man they are afraid are this week.’

He had also accused Republicans of ‘making it harder for women to leave’ domestic violence relationships, writing ‘Gilead here we come.’ 

Gilead is an apparent reference to the Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian republic which overthew the United States and stripped away women’s rights.

 

Huh. So you mean a decade of saying a political candidate is the plague makes the least stable among us think he’s…a plague?

[1] Spurious references to Naziism and Fascism apparently excepted.

Governor Walz came back to Minnesota late last week. 

And at a rally – is that the right word? – in Eagan, he started the process of…

Speaking for myself?

Govenor, you called me and half this state “Nazis”. 

You will never be my “neighbor”.  There will be no forgiveness.

More generally?  Call me cynical, but no, he’s not extending an olve branch. He’s rebooting – from two years of absolute power (“When you have political capital, you use it!” was his line when the trifecta started its ravages) to trying to set the stage for having to convince Repblicans to work with him.

And, if I may be even more cynical, to set himself up as the plucky, peace-seeking victim when they shoot down his agenda in total.

And just to be clear – the MN GOP had better shoot down the Walz/DFL agenda like Capone’s guys bouncing the rubble of Bugsy Moran’s crew at the Valentine’s Day Massacre.  We’ve waited a long time to be shown an alternative.  It’s time. 

After being called a “Nazi”, a “misogynist”, a “fascist” and a “Racist”, it’s hard not to indulge in a little schadenfreud. 

Maybe a lot.

And when God throws an opportunity like this in your way, who am I to argue?

A licenced “poiltical analyst”, last Tuesday before the results started rolling in:

I asked the universe – there has to be an “after” video.

And the universe answered:

In addition to misogyny and racism, she blamed “Republicans moving to urban areas” .

That’s right – she’s the only “expert” in the US who hasn’t heard of the “Great Sort”. 

Election Week Bonus:  Other progs predictions, saved for posterity (click for a very long thread):

Trump won. Perhaps you saw it in the papers.

So now what?

David Strom’s got the prescription at HotAir. One of a huge list of pullquotes:

Trump didn’t run to be a modest correction to the status quo, and he didn’t win because of any particular policy proposal. He won because a majority of Americans are disgusted by our establishment and how it has abused us. 

Trump has a mandate. He must use it to remake the power structure in society. 

Squishy Republicans in the House and Senate will hem and haw, squirm and squeal, and they will speak of caution and the midterms. 

Don’t let them betray the millions of Americans who genuinely voted for the Trump Vance Musk Kennedy Shanahan Ramaswamy team. You don’t assemble a dream team to play T-ball. 

 Bureaucrats must be fired. The military leadership must be changed. The Department of Education should be axed. The FBI should be moved out of Washington. Entire agencies should be ejected from Washington and dispersed to the states. Anthony Fauci should be investigated, and when it is proven he committed perjury before Congress he should be jailed. 

It’s time to clean the Augean stables, drain the swamp, or whatever metaphor you like to use for cleaning up a huge mess. It’s not just the policies that were bad; the entire system has been corrupted and must be replaced. If a #resistance exists, as it did in Trump’s first term, it must be rooted out and destroyed. 

 

Trump’s first win reminded me of Jesse Ventura – nobody, least of all he, expected it. He governed creditably – even estimably – but there was the impression he was winging it.

Not this time. It can’t go that way. 

Burn the swamp. 

Because to borrow a phrase – I’m not going back.

Elliot Engen is a young hotshot on the MNGOP bench. He just won his second term representing HD36A.

It wasn’t long ago that the DFL was trying to get a jump start on his political obituary:

He deleted the tweet – like, in the last hour or so – but the internet never sleeps:f

Tuesday’s results:

• Engen:  54.07%
• Janelle Calhoun (shouldn’t that be Janelle Mka Ska?):  45.83%

I don’t get to spike a lot of balls, but I’m spiking the ball. 

While I don’t endorse Bono’s threat to “drive a car off a cliff” after a Trump election, nor Rob Reiner’s to “set himself on fire” (and doubt Cher get a bullet into her head with all her various, uh, augmentation), I do believe that if Trump plans to be a “dictator”, one useful act would be to make sure the celebs who promised to “move to Canada” and/or “leave the US” if Donald Trump were elected to actually deliver on it. 

To wit:

• Alec Baldwin
• Whoopi Goldberg
• John Legend
• Chrissy Teigen
• Rob Reiner
• Barbara Streisand
• Cher
• Nancy Pelosi
• Hillary Clinton
• Megan Rapinoe
• Tom Hanks
• Amy Schumer
• AOC
• Lady Gaga
• Bill Gates
• Jane Fonda
• Madonna
• Mark Ruffalo
• Kim Kardashian
• George Clooney
• Hunter Biden
• Oprah
• Robert De Niro
• Samuel L Jackson
• Miley Cyrus
• Travis Kelce
• Bobbi Althoff
• Rashida Talib
• Stormy Daniels
• George Soros
• Diddy
• Eminem
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Sean Penn
• Sharon Stone
• Ashley Judd
• Tommy Lee
• Bryan Cranston
• Billie Joe Armstrong

Furthermore?  I’ll volunteer to serve a cabinet-level (albeit temporary) “Undersecretary of Transportation fo Relocation”

One of my biggest beeves with Donald Trump over the past four years has been the cult of personality around him – the wave of Scaramuccis and Loomers and other camp followers more partial to chanting points than issues.

But the Democrats tried to out-cult the cult.  Kamala Harris was a terrible candidate who ran a vapid campaign wrapped round brat vibes, Instagram moments and “Joy”. 

It was the Trump camp that ran on issues:

But this election, despite how the propaganda press tried to frame it, was not mostly about Donald Trump. The New York Times is at it again this morning, talking about Trump’s “cult of personality.” But Trump didn’t run on personality, he ran on the issues. He talked relentlessly and effectively about inflation, the border, and war and peace. True, he digressed more than some of us would have preferred, but his policy messages came through loud and clear.

It was the Democrats who tried to run on the cult of personality. The record of the Biden/Harris administration was indefensible, so they didn’t try to defend it. Harris avoided talking about the issues as much as possible, going so far, on multiple occasions, as to refuse to say what her position on an issue is. She was, as one pundit put it, the “no comment” candidate.

Instead of substance, the Democrats chose to run on personality and identity politics. Vote for Kamala because she is “kind” and “joyful”–never mind that she is such an obnoxious autocrat that she can’t keep a staff together. Also, vote for Kamala because she will be the first woman of color to be president. Whoopee. And most of all, of course, the Democrats tried to run against the personality of Donald Trump.

 

The fact that Trump is in a second term should mean – I hope – that he spikes the ball on those issues over the next four years.

Gotta confess, I didn’t see this coming:

But knowing some of the people involved, and even some recent history, perhaps I should have expected at least some Somali to take umbrage at the sense of entitlement the DFL feels re their votes.

Of course, I’d have to wonder if this endorsement happened after the vast majority of the local Somali population voted early.

Still – if the 5th CD and Minneapolis GOPs can keep this dynamic going – and I have confidence that they can – this could make the municipal elections next year a lot more interesting.