Category Archives: Minnesota Politics

Posts about politics in Minnesota

Addiction?

Posted on by
9

Governor Klink apparently came to love the way he got to govern while he had “emergency powers” [1]:

Of course, none of it is “done”.

It’s mandated. It’s on paper.

Businesses have scarcely started paying for “Paid Leave”, or absorbing the impact of the unfunded mandate.

“Affordable Housing” is exquisitely unaffordable.

Public transportation? They’re throwing around plans for trains. That’s about it.

It’s the sort of performative posturing that we’d call “virtue signaling” if it were talking about social hot buttons.

Since it’s about spending and building, we’ll need a new term.

Bureauvirtue signalling?

[1] Or at least the twerp who handles his social media.

Just A Doggone Minute

Posted on by
11

Governor Klink, and Co-Governor Flanagan have been yapping nonstop about their “free lunch and breakfast for kids“ program.

So I was amazed to see this:

If kids are getting 10 of the weeks 21 meals at school, how are they going hungry?

Or is the school feeding program financed by the feds through the back door?

Lipstick On A Pig

Posted on by
13

“A Gaffe is what happens when a politician accidentally tells the truth.
— Michael Kinsley

Governor Walz may have committed a gaffe the other day:

He’s being too modest.

With its proposed ban on liquid fuel, the DFL is working to ensure that no matter where you grow up or go to school, you have to stay in your community.

No Free Lunch

Posted on by
14

With the advent of taxpayer paid school lunch for literally every student in the state of Minnesota, a friend of the blog emails:

So have you figured out the menu for the first bunch of rich folk’s kids you’ll be buying lunch. I think mine will be liver and onions and lutefisk so they’ll never ask again.

Not a bad idea, at least on the surface.

But remember Dash this is going to be government food.

I have a hunch lutefisk will look pretty good by the time they choke it down for a month or two.

One Day At DFL HQ: State Fair Edition

Posted on by
10

SCENE: MNDFL Headquarters. Two staffers – a communications person and a researcher who is also a bit of a prankster, are talking, sotto voce.

COMMS STAFFER: He’ll never go for it.

RESEARCHER: Betcha $20.

COMMS STAFFER: (Pulls out a 20). You’re on.

Just then, Ken MARTIN, generalissimo of the MNDFL, walks into the room.

MARTIN: “OK, whaddya got?

RESEARCHER (barely suppressing a snork): “OK, so, research shows that people loooooove (chokes back giggle) lots and lots of selfies of politicians gluttonously stuffing their faces”. (COMMS STAFFER has to turn away).

MARTIN: “Good stuff. I’ll put out a memo”.

MARTIN leaves the room.

COMMS STAFFER forks over the $20.

RESEARCHER: Like taking candy from a baby.

COMMS STAFFER: Shoulda know. But…shouldn’t we tell Generalissimo Martin?

RESEARCHER: Nah, he’ll figure it out. Nobody is that stupid.

MERE DAYS LATER:

Note: The giant bean came in second in the “Giant Vegetable” catetory. The winner was Rep. Andy Smith (DFL Rochester)

COMMUNICATIONS GUY: “Noooooooooooooooooo!

RESEARCHER (Burying head in hands) “What hsve I done?”

And SCENE

Dancing With The Ones That Brung ‘Em

Posted on by
16

With the upcoming retirement of Lori Gildea, Governor Klink yesterday promoted Justice Natalie Hudson to the Chief Justice slot.

Much more troublingly, he appointed Karl Procaccini to replace Hudson as associate justice.

And to my mind, Procaccini has all the makings of the very worst kind of judge (emphasis added by me):

Procaccini, 40, took a lead role in drafting the executive orders that Walz used to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Walz said Procaccini exhibited “steadiness, humility and an exceptional legal mind” during that difficult period. 

“There is no one more prepared for the rigors and challenges that come with this important position,” Walz said.

A justice who conjured up the rationale to make let Governors Klink and Flanagan play Mussolini and Evita for almost two years?

“With the departure of Justice Gildea, Governor Walz had an opportunity to select a pragmatic voice and ensure Minnesotans have a diverse set of views on the Minnesota Supreme Court,” said House Minority leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring. “Instead, he picked the chief architect of the 2020 lockdowns and mandates that destroyed businesses and kept our kids out of the classroom with zero judicial experience to serve on the state’s highest court.“

The last Republican appointee, G. Barry Anderson, will hit mandatory retirement age right in the middle of Klink/Flanagan’s current term.

Sweet dreams, all who care about limited government.

Tea Leaves

Posted on by
22

Every DFL politician’s social media feed is raving about this puff piece from HuffPo which christens Tina Smith “the Velvet Hammer”.

The Velvet Hammer?

I can think of lots of adjectives to add to Smith’s hamfistedness. Velvet ain’t one of them.

And what usually happens after you see DFLers posting “attagirls” over inexplicable media. puff pieces?

Some dirt comes out on them. .

For example – during the session, the DFL noise machine broke out into a round of praise for Rep. Finke. It went from zero to 60 in three seconds, as if the Representative had just pulled someone from a burning building Clearly something had happened.

That something was Finke had charged across the House floor at another representative over retweeting a trans-skeptic account.

So am I too cynical in asking “what dirt is coming out about Smith?”

With More “Victories” Like This…

Posted on by
15

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

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?

Amateur Hour

Posted on by
38

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.

Behold The Flood

Posted on by
18

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

“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…

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… –

Voting Via Feet

Posted on by
16

Borrowed with permission from a friend on social media:

When I moved to Minnesota in May 2010, I had just graduated college and taken a job offer in Edina. In the aftermath of the Great Recession jobs were scarce, especially in Milwaukee, and a young man trying to make it on his own had to be willing to uproot his life for greater opportunities.

I joined a local Christian urban mission and moved into a neighborhood filled with violence and poverty and beautiful people who God loves. I was enthralled by the vivid colors of Minneapolis, the hustle and bustle, the natural beauty of the city combined with over a century of human gardening that created a city of lakes and parks amidst neighborhoods and skyscrapers. I loved the breweries, the neighborhood pubs nestled between homes, the intimidating importance of people striding in the skyways, the spectacular events that brought everyone together like the Basilica block party, the way strangers would become neighbors when three feet of snow forced us all to work together to dig out city buses.

I told anyone who would listen that Minneapolis was my favorite city. That there was nowhere else I’d rather live. Especially compared to Milwaukee, it was difficult to make friends here – the old adage “if you want friends in Minnesota, go to kindergarten” was spot on. But I found some spectacular people who loved Jesus and wanted to see the city face its ignored injustices and thrive together. I wanted to spend the rest of my life here.

After dedicating my entire adult life to the city working in its worst neighborhoods to right its worst wrongs, 2020 came along and the air changed. When a governor illegally mandates you stay in your home, unable to even visit your parents next door while states like Florida are totally open, something about your trust in government breaks. When you realize your neighbors are going quietly along with this fundamental break from democracy, you look at them differently. They can’t be trusted either.

Somehow, the air tastes different. It smells different. It doesn’t refresh or enliven – it loses its life-giving potency.

When citizen journalists publish story after story of someone murdered by a violent criminal who prosecutors and judges had dead to rights but refused to imprison, the air changes.

When you realize that half of abortions in Minnesota are paid for by tax dollars and the state enables elective abortion until birth, the air changes.

When the legislature, with one vote majority, declares Christian parents abusive and threatens to take custody of their kids, the air feels downright poisonous. When the Star Tribune and KARE fail to even mention this in the news, it sinks on your chest like a weight that the fix is in.

After all that, things don’t feel the same. You don’t feel like you can enjoy even nature, the trees and lakes. Surely the leaves hold no responsibility for the great evil that has become Minnesota, but they become symbols, reminders of something dark.

Every breath you draw into your lungs feels tainted somehow. If you’ve ever inhaled a gas that stopped you halfway and forced you to cough instead, you know what I mean. You feel suffocated, every day. You yearn for true air, true breath, true freedom.

You shine your light in the darkness every day, but over time, you realize your batteries are fading, and the light is dimming. There is only so much darkness a human soul can take.

This morning I woke up in our new home in Tennessee. Finally, I breathed deep, and was reminded of the example of my ancestors whose strength and determination brought them across the sea to become a political bloc whose American power ultimately put so much pressure on the UK that it had to relent and, after 700 years of tyranny, restore freedom in Ireland.

—–

“But if at last our colours should be torn from Ireland’s heart

Her sons with shame and sorrow from the dear old isle would part

I’ve heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea

Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom’s day

Oh Ireland, must we leave you, driven by a tyrant’s hand

And seek a mother’s blessing from a strange and distant land

Where the cruel cross of England shall never more be seen

And in that land we’ll live and die for the wearing of the green”

All reactions:

11

Oh, believe me – I understand the motivation.

I can’t imagine life without the fight – but I can imagine life elsewhere.

It’s Almost As If There’s A Theme

Posted on by
20

Attorney General Ellison compares Justice Thomas to a “house slave”:

Ellison – whose entire career is was financed by Alita Messinger and George Soros – accuses conservatives on the SCOTUS of being beholden to plutocrats.

And about 1:00 in, he says:

“Anyone who’s watched Django – Clarence Thomas is like Steven.

Ellison is being both a little more artful than Ryan Winkler’s ape-like response that Thomas is “Uncle Tom”. “Stephen” is a dog whistle reference from a Spike Lee movie – a coded reference to “someone all real black people should hold in contempt”.

Last year, with the aid of a 14:1 spending advantage, Ellison won by about a point.

He can be beaten.

Duck Duck Gray Duckspeak

Posted on by
75

Governor Klink was clearly not a writing teacher. And, for that matter, the social media interns from Macalester who apparently run his social media feed must have tested out of reading any actual good writing.

Long story short: The Governor’s social media feed is more cliché-ridden than Pointy Haired Boss, an Anthony Robbins seminar and your company’s marketing department all rolled together.

Examples:

So as a public service to the state of Minnesota, I’d like to run a contest to come up with more, better Tim Walz tweets.

I’d say “the more cliché-clogged the better”, but that goes without saying, doesn’t it.

Winners announced over the weekend.

LIfe Is Full Of Ironies, If You’re Not Smart

Posted on by
10

To. Governor Walz
From: Mitch Berg, obstreperous peasant
Re: SInce you put it that way…

Governor Klink. Er, Walz.

On Tuesday, you – or, let’s be honest, the chirpy little intern from Macalester who manages the flood of selfies and donut shots that is your Twitter feed – twote this:

You – either of you, I guess – are right. Freedom isn’t guaranteed.

For example, society might – just might – have a leader who:

  • Arbitrarily shuts down most social and business interaction
  • Sics the state’s law enforcement on dissenters
  • Tries to strong-arm people into complying with untested experimental procedures, on pain of losing their jobs, businesses and life’s savings.
  • Hides the evidence of your errors and, as time progressed, your error turning into downright perfidy
  • Lies to the people to panic the gullible into voting for them
  • Positions himself, with the aid of a compliant and docile media, in a position of complete opacity to the public .

So yeah. Gotta watch out for those tyrants.

That is all.

A Thousand Points Of Laser Focus

Posted on by
3

The DFL did so much damage this past session, it’s hard to track all of it.

Rep. Hudson did a pretty good job of cataloging it – and why it matters (expand the tweet to see it all).

I’ll be talking about this extensively on the show this Saturday.

Rocks And Cows Like Us

Posted on by
13

Governor Klink is all about the stolid rural individualism:

“It’s a very Midwestern value: mind your own dang business.”

This from the guy who gave us the snitch line.

Not For Turning

Posted on by
22

If you’re a conservative in Minnesota, you’ve got friends moving elsewhere. I personally have friends, including some of the regulars here, who’ve moved or are planning to move to any of the less-insane states; the Dakotas, Tennessee, Texas, Republican northwest Wisconsin, and of course Florida – a state where expats from Minnesota are almost as big a cliche as New Yorkers.

Not me.

And not John Phelan of the Center of the American Experiment.

Phelan gives his three reasons. I agree with ’em all – and I’ve got one of my own to add:

I’m going to start at the end of the list:

Finally, and most importantly, Minnesota is still a wonderful place to live. Its scenery is beautiful, its weather varied (or challenging, depending on your view), and its people decent, none of which, of course, depends on high taxes. When you have something good it is worth fighting for even when you feel the odds are against you. Perhaps especially then.

I’m from North Dakota. The weather in southern Minnesota is like a 12 month vacation (at least since I got AC in my car and bedroom).

The larger point? I was here first.

Second, even while its economy splutters, crime rises, test scores fall, the lights go out, and residents flee in numbers not seen in at least three decades, Minnesota’s government is being lauded as an example by progressives around the country. NBC News, the Daily Beast, and the New York Times have all run pieces lately praising the state government and Gov. Walz in particular. It matters to the entire country that the sad truth about Minnesota gets out.

Because whether you live in Orono or Orlando, they are coming for you, like it or not. Might be next election cycle, it might be when your grandkids are married and having kids of their own, but they’re playiing the long game.

And here’s the big one (I’m adding emphasis):

First, the liberal grip on Minnesota is not as tight as it seems. In 2022, the DFL’s party unit took in nearly $24 million from all sources while the state Republican Party took in a paltry $1.3 million. Even so, and with the built-in advantage of a friendly media, the DFL took the state Senate by just one seat and that by just 321 votes. The DFL is governing like a party that just scored 60 percent of the vote, not because they did, but precisely because they didn’t, and they want to ram their agenda through before Minnesotans cotton on to what they’re up to.

Minnesota has eight congressional districts (for nine more years, anyway).

  • Two (4 and 5) will be hard blue until some future apocalypse makes everyone a conservative.
  • One (3) appears to have slid off the rais.
  • Two (6 and 7) will never vote DFL again.
  • Two (1 and 8) are getting redder by the year. If you’d told me 15 years ago I’d never say that about CD8, I’d have said you were nuts).
  • One (CD2) might be redeemable.

That’s 4-4 – and with the right candidate in the right year, 5-3.

Yes, the DFL balllot-harvesting machine gives the DFL a huge lift with the metro vote – but if the legislature stays in play, that gives us gridlock. Not the eternal blue nightmare. And given how many Republicans stayed home last year, and how close the GOP candidates came in the Attorney General and State Auditor races, despair is premature.

They can’t overturn Roe again, after all.

And the DFL knows it.

The DFL’s awareness of this weakness is evident, too, in its attack on democracy by making it practically impossible for third parties to get on the ballot in Minnesota. Not a single reporter asked a single legislator a single question about this.

Last week, President Obama tweeted, “If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out what’s happening in Minnesota.” He is exactly right. Our state is about to move from the “fool around” to the “find out” stage of voting for ever higher taxes, ever higher government spending, and ever bigger government. Minnesota needs its conservatives now more than ever.

Which brings us to Reason #4. The fight is worth fighting.

My ancestry is half Viking and 1/4 lowland Scots white trash. We fight just to stay awake, ffs.

What the hell is there to do in this life but fight?

I was here first. I’m not going anywhere.

Pronouns

Posted on by
28

Minnesota is transferring his first transgender female to the Shakopee women’s prison.

But I’m not here to talk about the obvious issue.

No – there are two issues that go way beyond putting (deep breath) bio-men into women’s prisons.

Stay In Your Lane: Shakopee is referred to as a “women’s. prison”.

Is the MN Department of Corrections a bunch of biologists?

Do are they experts in what “women” are? Like this PhD?

Which leads us to another, inarguably more serious problem.

Pronouns Pronouns Pronouns: What’s in the world “Prison?”

The word “Son”.

Since we don’t know the genders of the incarcerated (indeed, the incarcerated themselves may not know at any given time), it’s time to change the name of the facility to “Shakopee Prixyn”.

Continue reading →

Notes To Self Re 2023 Session: Part 1

Posted on by
27

I made a series of notes to myself at the beginning of the session, re all the promises the DFL made in the wake of their “trifecta”

There were a lot of them.

Some of them won’t matter for a while, or won’t be measurable for quite some time. (Is the DFL really going to cut child poverty by 1/3 in the next year/)

But one can be tested today: “Did the DFL legalize Cannabis?”

And they did.

I’m a little surprised. While on the one hand a buzzed, stuporous electorate is a perfect DFL audience, I figured the issue was worth more to the DFL as a social wedge.

Of course, the law is full of gimmies to Big Pharma, and handouts to well-connected political insiders, and will benefit small producers not one iota. And as Colorado discovered, the taxes and regulation won’t actually affect the black market criminal sale:

Instead, in 2023, Colorado’s cannabis entrepreneurs face a perfect storm of problems: too much supply, not enough demand, plunging prices, heightened competition in other states, the allure of black market weed, a lack of cannabis tourism and more. That’s on top of the shaky economic forecast for the rest of the year, even though inflation is steadily slowing….Earlier this year, marijuana giant Curaleaf shuttered its operations in Colorado, along with California and Oregon. “We believe these states will represent opportunities in the future, but the current price compression caused by a lack of meaningful enforcement of the illicit market prevent us from generating an acceptable return on our investments,” CEO Matt Darin said.

There is ample evidence the DFL spent even less time thinking about unintended consequences than Colorado did:

Note to KARE: This might have been a good question during the session…

The greatest effect is likely to get rid of the Marijuana parties that’ve sapped DFL votes in recent years.

There were so many promises. This’ll keep us busy for a while.

If At First History Doesn’t Go Your Way? Rewrite It Again!

Posted on by
13

Good thing Rep. Phillips grew up with a silver foot in his mouth. If he’d had to succeed on his merits, he’d be living in a homeless camp by the Quarry.

Example:

Show the world you know nothing about history by bellowing on social media you’re utterly ignorant.

Uh,, no. You got 1 out of 4. Roosevelt – the president who set the stage for Wilson’s “progressive” orgy – probably qualifies.

Lincoln didn’t promote slavery, so morally-consistent modern Democrats would not know what to do with him.

Jefferson would be a Libertarian; he’d hang out with Justin Amash and Rand Paul.

Washington? Someone who was given the chance at unfettered power, even declaring himself king, and demurred in favor of a constitutional Republic? Not a chance. He’d be a proto-Reagan conservative.

And JFK would get kicked out of today’s DFL. HHH was all but kicked out of the DFL of the 1970s, for crying out loud.

CD3 – please do better.

Law School

Posted on by
28

If there are two bright spots in this current legislative session, it is the emergence of Harry Niska and Walter Hudson, as two of the best state legislators in the United States.

Here, Walter finishes the job Harry started, giving the single best explanation of why the DFL, and the StarTribune, are lying about the removal of language, regarding pedophilia from state statute.

Pass this around, like it’s hot.

Irrelevant

Posted on by
5

Members of the House of Representatives routinely vote for each other.

The Minnesota House’s hours-long floor sessions are often mundane and monotonous, the chamber regularly half full at best. But when members get to voting on an amendment or a bill, the chamber suddenly looks as bustling as a bee hive.

Members press the green and red voting buttons at their desks to cast a “yes” or “no” vote. But some of them aren’t just recording their own vote. Many stretch, lean over and press the voting buttons for their seatmates, who are gone.

Then, a handful get out of their seats to make sure all the empty seats around them have a vote cast.

Where are the missing members? And why are they surrendering their vote to their seatmates?

Which is technically a violation of the rules, but hey, rules are for peasants.

The reps involved have their, er, reasons:

House members say voting for one another is a longstanding practice and no cause for alarm — though it’s technically against the rules.

House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, doesn’t believe the practice compromises the legitimacy of the vote.

Walter Hudson goes into the reason behind the reason:

This – the serious work being argued out behind closed doors by the Governor, Speaker and Senate Majority leader, has been a problem since at least the early years of the Dayton regime, if not longer.

The Pandemic made it worse; the state was in effect run by a junta, and the Legislature was of no more use than the Supreme Soviet.

That’s something for a future, good government to fix, if we ever get one.

Its Time

Posted on by
57

To: MN Democrat Something Something Labor Party

From: Mitch Berg, Stochastic Moderate

Re: Truth In Advertising

All,

Many of us have been talking with you for years about removing the “farmer“ from your official party name.

With this speech by Rep. Lucy Rehm?

“Solar panels are the new corn?”

Its time. Lose it.

That is all.