Category Archives: Democrat Party

Democrats, the Democratic Party, and the dumb things they do.

The North Loop Is Burning!, Part V: You Broke It, Strib. You Fix It.

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Last week, I wrote a bunch of pieces on an editorial that appeared in the Strib the weekend before last.

The Strib complained about the growing street crime – in particular about the consequences of some local and higher court rulings that make enforcement against crimes like public intoxication and panhandling harder without specific legislative intervention.  (They also proposed the same impotent diversions on gun control that every DFL metrocrat shill runs to when faced with a wave of violence).

All the problems come back to one thing – a mayor and city council that may or may not be unable to grapple with the issues, but are certainly unwilling to interrupt the consequence-free virtue-signaling – like strong-arming local businesses with minimum wage hikes and sick time benefits, and social justice warrior-mongering – that obsesses so many of them.

Betsy Hodges in “action”. Crime skyrockets – but Target “Raises its minimum wage”.  Of course, technology has led to them cutting thousands of entry-level jobs, already.  Just like we warned you.  More to come. 

And this is the city council that, in large part, the Strib has supported to a fine sheen for the past sixty years.

And the mayor they’ve supported all along as well; I take you back to October, 2013, when the Strib editorial board endorsed Hodges for mayor:

Hodges is aligned with this page on the need for improved transit, including streetcars and enhanced bus service, as a driver of economic development citywide. As mayor, she’d play a key role in deciding the future of the Southwest Corridor light-rail project.

Although the school board operates independently from City Hall, Hodges says that as mayor she would seek to build consensus around the increasingly desperate need to close the city’s achievement gap, and she puts the right emphasis on early childhood development and prenatal health programs with her proposed “Cradle-to-K” cabinet. She’s talked generally about longer school days, more flexibility for administrators in teacher labor agreements, and support for reforms proposed by Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson.

Hodges doesn’t promise lower property taxes, but her record suggests she’ll be a strong steward of city resources and taxpayer dollars.

Hodges also promises to be aggressive in using technology to enhance public safety and would seek more accountability in hiring, training and disciplining cops. In a recent meeting with the Editorial Board, she acknowledged that the police union contract makes it too difficult to fire bad cops.

Does any of this – which reflects the express wishes and position of the most influential editorial board / DFL PR firm in the state – sound like what’s actually happened since the voters gave the Strib, yet again, exactly what they wanted?

Own it, Strib.  You got your wishes in the North Loop, as you have throughout the city.  You did your best to break it.  You fix it.

 

Downfall

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Betsy Hodges’ campaign?

All is not going well:

Among those who have stepped away from the reelection effort are spokesperson Alida Tieberg and adviser Jim Niland, a former city council member who’s held in deep respect within DFL circles.

The news comes just five months after the resignations of Jorge Contreras, Hodges’ first campaign manager, and organizing director Kyrstin Schuette.

The reasons behind the resignations are described as a perfect storm of sorts, according to sources who spoke to City Pages on the condition of anonymity because the don’t want to ruffle feathers within the DFL.

The City Pages answers to the same DFL chain of command that that “whistleblowers” do.

The mayor’s campaign coffers are said to be running on fumes at around $6,000, according to a source who’d spoken with former staff. Hodges’ most recent disclosure from August showed it had a cash balance of about $58,000. However, it also showed the campaign still owed five vendors roughly $25,000.

The only question I have is “will Minneapolis go even further to the left and vote for Ray Dehn.

For Once, Allahpundit Is The Pollyanna

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Some critics say Hillary’s new blame-all autobio includes a “bizarre misreading” of George Orwell’s 1984.  Among them is Allahpundit, from Hot Air.

There are establishmentarians, there are big-government establishmentarians, and then there are people who read Orwell and see a parable about insufficient trust in authority:

Here’s the passage

I say they’re being pollyannaish.

Hillary’s a lot of things – I’ll skip the hour-long session of listing them all – but she’s not stupid, and she’s not illiterate.

We’ve noticed this with not a few figures on the left; they’re pretty much sure they can get away with saying anything; God knows the media will never call them on it. I’ve focused on it in particular as re Second Amendment policy – this blog has  a  large, well-populated tag documenting the Minnesota victim disarmament movement’s serial fabulism – but we’re really just scratching the surface.

My thesis:  Hillary thinks knows she can say anything she wants; the media will never check her; her supporters can’t stop jabbering about their credentials, intelligence and level of information (they watch Rachel Maddow, dammit!) to bother reading the damn book in the first place.

The Return Of Eddie Haskell

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When we last talked about Ryan WInkler, he was on his way to Belgium, in as much disgrace as the media ever allows a DFL golden child to face, after having called SCOTUS justice Clarence Thomas an “Uncle Tom”.   Winkler – who got a degree at Harvard – claimed he wasn’t aware of the history of the term.  But no matter; he took a break.

But he’s baaaaack, and running for Attorney General.

And this oughtta be a great campaign; he’s got the same Twitter smarts as the President seems to have:

Our old friend Chad the Elder of the late, great Fraters stepped up, with results that, if you know Winkler, are utterly predictable:

He wants to be attorney general.

This oughtta be a fun campaign.

(Via Gary Gross)

Pointlessly Enigmatic

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Senator Amy Klobuchar is withholding a blue slip to block the Senate from taking up consideration of President Trump’s nomination of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Why?

Yes, yes, Class Clown Al Franken is withholding his too, but we all know he’s a big, fat idiot.  Nobody cares what he does.

But Amy was Hennepin County Attorney, she knows prominent Minnesota lawyers including some on her side of the aisle who would approve of Stras, she has a better reputation for being sensible than her ‘colleague.’ So what’s her excuse?

Joe Doakes

Following orders.

Deep Thoughts From Minneapolis’ Next Mayor

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With Betsy Hodges’ administration rolling downhill faster than Creed’s career bell curve, Minneapolis looks likely to swerve hard left.

As hard left as Ray Dehn?  Maybe not – maybe Jacob Frey appears like a sensible moderate in comparison with the other frontrunner in the mayoral race.  Maybe.  This is Minneapolis.

But Dehn’s remarks in the wake of the Noor shooting, the resignation of chief Harteau, and the pandemonium at Hodges’ press conference gives Dehn a yuge platform, at least for now.  And he’s using it – for better or worse:

Crime is not a product of individual morality but the consequence of scarcity in our society. We must divest resources, disarm officers, and dismantle the inherent violence of our criminal justice system which continues to uphold white supremacy. Our approach to public safety must reflect a belief that our communities are safer when they have housing, clean air and water, access to education and employment, and quality healthcare.

“Like if you took away Thurgood Marshall’s bank account, you  think you’d see him selling crack at the Union Station bus terminal?”

– P. J. O’Rourke

Is Minneapolis anywhere close to hitting “Peak Left?”  A moment like the 1977 New York Blackout, prompting New Yorkers to stop the insanity?

I don’t think so.  Minneapolis’s DFL establishment is controlled by people who aren’t affected by the city’s collapse; people in Kenwood, Nicollet Island, Minnehaha Parkway and the like, who can and do remain above it all – or, like Alondra Cano, dabble in “it all” for effect.

Remember all the Democrats who rode Detroit, Camden, Oakland, Newark and New Orleans straight into the ground, bleating about peoples’ “best interests” all the way.

It’s gonna get worse before it gets better, Minneapolis. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

 

Today’s DFL: Never Waste A Crisis

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Tragic shooting in South Minneapolis;  woman from Australia killed by cop originally from Somalia.

Steve Cwodzinski – the teachers union foot soldier who “replaced” Dave Hann in the MN Senate seat representing Eden Prairie, follows Rahm Emanuel’s dictum to a fault:

“Two immigrants came to the United States searching for the American dream. One came to heal; the other, to protect. Now due to the fear and violence surrounding firearms, both have realized the American nightmare.”

The mission of today’s DFL:  Deflect the glare from:

  • the problem with police powers, especially qualified immunity
  • an apparent problem with officer training (Minneapolis cops, I’m told, are trained to keep their fingers on the trigger at all times, in and among any number of other issues in the incident)
  • suspicion about affirmative action hiring in police departments
  • the extent to which the mayor and council’s embrace of Black Lives Matter has caused the police to “stand down” – taking action only when they see a felony in progress
  • the social collapse of much of Minneapolis

…by jabbering about “fear and violence surrounding firearms” that were present only in the hands of the cop, whom the DFL would have us believe are the ones who can be “trusted” with that constitutional right.

People of Eden Prairie;  you sent him to Saint Paul.  Take him back.

Our Ignorant Totalitarian “Liberal” Overlords

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State Representative Alice Hausman, on Facebook:

Kommissar Hausman:  perhaps you’ve heard of the Fifth Amendment?  Nobody can be compelled to testify themselves?

Also – the “qualified immunity” laws that you, in the legislature, continually pass and expand to keep the DFL’s benefactors in the (are you ready for this) Police Union happy pretty much spell out how officers are treated after an officer-involved shooting.

Rep. Hausman:  it’s starting to occur to me that HD66A didn’t lose out on all that much expertise when you fobbed your job off on Heather Martens.

Narrative Check

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Trump claims John Podesta barred the FBI from looking at the DNC computer.

You remember that computer – not the one in Hillary’s bathroom that she wiped with a cloth, this is the DNC server that supposedly got “hacked” by the Russians to steal the Democrats’ emails, which the Russians then released to the public through their shill, Wikileaks, in an effort to make Hillary look bad so voters wouldn’t like her, all the while colluding with the Trump campaign to steal the election from Hillary.   Trump claims the FBI never saw it.

Naturally, the Liberal media is covering for the Democrats.  Politifact rated Trump’s claim a LIE:  John Podesta did NOT bar the FBI from looking at the DNC computer.  Somebody else did that.

Missing the point, people!  The essence of the claim remains true: the feds never saw the computer.

The only evidence the Russians had anything to do with the massive leak of embarrassing emails comes from the private IT firm hired by the Democrats.  The leak could just as easily have come from a disgruntled DNC employee, perhaps an IT specialist who downloaded the emails and offered them to Wikileaks right before he was murdered in a ‘robbery gone bad’ in which nothing was stolen, that the D.C. cops refuse to investigate.

Since when does the FBI out-source criminal investigations or national security breaches?  But the Democrats assured James Comey the Russians did it, and that’s good enough for old Jimbo. And the rest of the nation blindly follows the false trail down the rabbit hole.

Joe Doakes

If Democrats defended this nation like they defend their narrative, ISIS would be hiding under a rock in the Hejdaz.

The Slip That Reveals

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After a 14 hour convention that descended at one point into fisticuffs, the Minneapolis City DFL Convention reached no endorsement – but  Ray “The Kommissar” Dehn had a lead in the delegate count for mayor.

Further proof that the Minneapolis DFL is pushing too far left even for Betsy Hodges?  Sure.

But it’s the ephemera that tell us how far to the left.  This was one of Dehn’s congrats on Twitter:

“Comrade”.

This is Minneapolis today.

 

They Must Be Losing Their Minds Waiting On That “Tsunami” Of “Right Wing Violence”

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Ohio man indicted by a federal grand jury for threatening Republican congressman:

E. Stanley Hoff, 68, is accused of leaving a voice mail for the Upper Arlington Republican after the June 14 shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and four others at a GOP congressional baseball practice. The gunman was killed by police.

The voice mail stated: “I’ve seen the prayer ya’ll were saying at the baseball diamond. … I think ya’ll better hit your knees and pray for the people that you’re screwin’ up their lives.

“We’re coming to get every goddamn one of you and your families. Maybe the next one taken down will be your daughter. Huh? Or your wife. Or even you.”

It’s retaliation for…well, something that is sure to happen.  Someday.  Honest.

Range: “Enough”.

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The Mesabi News has been one of few newspapers in the state with an editorial board that bucks the DFL line.

And their editorial from last Tuesday – “” – might be exhibit A in the “Why Trump Won” museum, someday.

They’ve had enough of the Iron Range’s future being determined by Twin Cities environmentalists:

The Iron Range is done being paraded around in the three-ring circus of hearings, resolutions and comment periods, which are really nothing more than putting the everyday Iron Ranger on trial by a jury of its uniformed peers.

At 4 p.m. today at Virginia Carpenters Union Hall, the Iron Range unifies. Labor groups, businesses, politicians and unions — and supporters in the Twin Cities — are standing up and saying we’re done. They’re calling for a boycott of a Forest Service hearing on July 18 in St. Paul over a federal land withdrawal, and instead will protect the Range’s way of life — on the Iron Range — July 25 in Virginia.

The editors see how the game is being played.

These hearings, on the taxpayers’ dime, are a mockery of working government. Go to Duluth, go to St. Paul, Ely or Virginia and it’s the same group of people talking on both sides.

What more is there to hear? And what is there to learn about mining in St. Paul? The Forest Service says it seeks a wide opinion on the subject, so by that logic environmental hearings on the St. Croix Bridge or the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion project should have hearings on the Iron Range.

But it won’t happen because this is the playground for the Twin Cities, and they’ll get there “one funeral at a time,” as Becky Rom, the leader of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, has been quoted by The Progressive, a grassroots publication that champions progressive politics.

Remember this the next time some plushbottom fop from Kenwood or Crocus Hill calls themselves “the Resistance”.

 

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Headline in New York Times:

 

Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump‘

 

Of course, Democrats say the words but they don’t accept the implications.  The reason Democrats’ brand is worse than Trump is because their ideas are crap and no amount of public relations re-branding is going to make the crap sandwich more appetizing to voters.

When voters won’t do as Liberals desire, they rationalize their defeat:

1.     The voters didn’t understand.  We didn’t get our message out.  Our brand is tarnished.  If the voters had understood what we’re selling, they’d have gobbled it up. We need to raise more money to get our message out.

2.     The voters understood what we’re selling, but they’re too stupid to buy it.  They voted against their own best interest. They should be happy to pay more taxes for a better Minnesota.  They should be happy their kids will be bussed to a more diverse school, happy that low income apartments will be built in their neighborhood. They need to be educated to see that ours is the right policy, not their own short-sighted self-interest.

3.     The voters understood what we’re selling, and they tried to buy it, but some nefarious schemer deprived the voters of their desire.  Blacks were denied driver’s licenses.  Felons can’t vote.  The polls closed early or stayed open late.  There was a blizzard.  The Russians hacked the election.  We wuz robbed.

4.     The voters understood what we’re selling, they know it’s superior to their own ideas, everyone had a chance to vote, but the voters can’t stand the notion that the people being ground under their heels might somehow escape.  The voters are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, bigoted, deplorable haters, bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles.  We have no hope of persuading them to voluntarily accept our ideas; therefore, we must impose our ideas using administrative rulemaking, international agreements or liberal judges.

I’ve been watching politics since before the Reagan campaign, nearly 40 years ago.  It’s the same cycle, over and over.

Joe Doakes

Joe’s right.

Unfortunately, American voters aren’t a whole lot less flighty in the long term than French voters.  We shall see.

I Don’t Think That Word Means What They Think It Means

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Former ineffective DFL legislator Katie Knuth has been hired as the City of Minneapolis’ “Chief Resilience Officer“.

When I think “resilience”, I think “bouncing back from crises”, “being able to sustain a major human or natural disaster and keep functioning”, or “take a licking and keep on ticking”.

Well, no.  It’s described as:

…a new position that coordinates the city’s work on urban challenges from housing affordability to climate change.

Kate Knuth will join a network that includes dozens of chief resilience officers around the world, in cities that have joined the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities project.

Knuth, 36, previously served three terms in the state House as a DFLer representing New Brighton before leading the Institute on the Environment’s Boreas Leadership Program at the University of Minnesota. The City Council approved her hiring on Friday.

Put another way, it’s “providing a paycheck to people who are part of the political class”.

They take care of their own.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

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Illinois may very well go bankrupt.

What do to?

It’s time to break up Illinois:

…let’s finally admit that after decade upon decade of taxing and spending and borrowing, Illinois has finally run out of other people’s money.

Not a bad plan – although I’m not sure what Wisconsin did to deserve Chicago. Give Chicago to Massachusetts.

Those “other people” include taxpayers who’ve abandoned the state. And now Illinois faces doomsday.

So as the politicians meet in Springfield this week for another round of posturing and gesturing and blaming, we need a plan.

We just disappear. With no pain. That’s right. You heard me.

The whole satirical (?) thing is worth a read.

 

Brand New Bag Ban

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A friend of mine wrote this on social media earlier this week, in re the City of Minneapolis’ proposed plasstic bag ban.

I know this is asking a lot, but I would like environmental activists to think more than one step in front of their faces. Case in point: The City of Minneapolis wants to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores (fortunately, the state legislature ended that, but please keep reading). Consumers would have to pay to take their groceries home in a plastic bag. At the same time, a Minneapolis sanitation ordinance says pet waste must be double bagged — in plastic!

So, we’ve taken in 2 cats who needed a loving home. And when we scoop their poop, we’re supposed to put it in a plastic bag that goes into another plastic bag before it goes into the garbage for collection by the city. But instead of re-using the plastic bags we get for free (just by virtue of buying groceries), we’re supposed to pay for the manufacture of “designated” plastic bags for pet waste? The sheer number of people who walk their dogs in the neighborhoods and city parks who are “required by city Ordinance” to pick up and dispose of their pet waste in plastic bags” is staggering.

Are you freaking kidding me??? Are you pet/environmentally friendly or not? And if you think pets are good for low-income and elderly residents who benefit from the companionship, you are penalizing them for the benefit you champion. Look past your nose!!!

We’re lucky enough that the City Limit is less than 5 minutes by car from our house. We can drive outside of Minneapolis to a suburb to shop where we are not penalized for using plastic bags.

The people further inside the city, without vehicles, are the ones being harmed by this environmental activist masturbation.

What’s that old definition of totalitarian?  Everything that isn’t mandatory is banned?

PS: She also notes that while walking around one of Minneapolis’ lakes, they noticed a lot of garbage lying about.   I know – Minneapolis has Socialist trash collection, how can that be, right?   And so they took time out from their walking to bring gloves and (presumably) plastic, legal bags for picking it up.

Might need a lawyer to do that in Minneapolis, these days.

There’s One Born This Way Every Minute

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A friend sent me this – an email from “MoveOn.Org”, a group that was founded to get Americans to just shut up and “move on” and ignore the antics of an ageing lothario, 20 years ago (antics that including lying under oath repeatedly).

They’ve changed their tune…:

I just have to ask: is there anyone, even among the lefty herd, dumb enough to fall for this?

The GOP majority in Congress may not like Trump much, but barring some major crime that isn’t currently in evidence, they’re not going to vote to impeach, much less remove him from office.

No, contributors won’t be buying an “impeachment”; they’ll be paying for more political noise and lots of spiffy vacations for MoveOn execs.

What’s Hmong For “Money Pit?”

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Ramsey County proudly announced the opening of premier courts for a Hmong game called Tuj Lub at Keller Park in Maplewood.

Players need a piece of grass about the size of a tennis court.  But they can’t provide their own lawn, or form a club like the Curling Club on Selby Avenue, or get a business to sponsor them like the bocce ball courts in the basement of the Halftime Rec on Front Avenue.  They need Ramsey County government to subsidize their hobby.

I’m a shooter, an American competitive sport with a long and noble tradition.  When do I get a shooting range?

If we’re not going to subsidize all sports, then how do we pick and choose which?

For that matter, why subsidize ANY sports?  Is that the purpose of Ramsey County government?

In pioneer days, the County was the principal organizational unit of government statewide.  But Ramsey County is almost entirely contained within cities.  What is the purpose of Ramsey County government nowadays?

Joe Doakes

Why?

To provide an income for the Democrat oolitical classs.

Come on, Joe.  You’re not new to this.

The Racket

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Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Governor Dayton signed the budget bills, but vetoed funding for the legislature because he didn’t get the bills he wanted.

Some might think Dayton’s move was petty and vindictive.  I disagree.  It was genius.  In chess terms, he’s put the Republicans in a fork – agree to a special session to give the governor what he wants in exchange for funding the legislature, or take your complaint to a court packed with judges appointed by Democrats.  Both are losing moves.

Joe is absolutely right.

When all the moves are losing moves, refuse to play the game.  The Republican Speaker of the House should say “We convinced Governor Dayton to cut spending for a third of state government, which is a good start.  Since he’s defunded the Legislature, we won’t be coming back into session and that means the rest of the government will shut down when this current budget runs out in two years.  Meanwhile, I plan to enjoy a well-deserved vacation.”

And Joe is even more absolutely right.

Of course he wouldn’t mean it.  But it ups the ante.  Every time somebody says “but what about” you point them to the Governor and say “Sorry, the Governor shut us down.  Take it up with him.”

Joe Doakes

I dream of a world where Minnesota Republicans have that kind of political killer instinct.