Among Big Left’s great crimes against history is the complete devaluation they have achieved against the term “Fascist”. To much of the parts of society that routinely use the word, it now means “anyone not on board with today’s left’s narrative”.

No, really:

And Big Left knows what it’s doing, since the other options have also been hijacked. Call someone a Nazi, and you’re overwrought. Call someone a Communist, and people start jabbering about the Red Scare.

“Authoritarian” works, but it doesn’t have quite the same emotional impact – and Big Left has been diluting that one by associating it with Trump – a demonstrably less authoritarian president than Obama or The Potato.

So given the options, what does one call a political figure or party that:

• Their ends justify their means – including the use of government force to secure compliance
• Tries to co-opt the institutions of society to further their political ends, starting with government and schools and ending with the family itself?
• Aggressively “sorts” society into “good guys” and, especially, “others” to use as scapegoats and deflections from one’s own actions – up to and including creating an official version of “reality” that may or may not have much in common with the real thing.

Let’s take a thoroughly educational look at a politician who seems to check off all the boxes for…well, the “A” word. And maybe some definitions of the “F” word.

The Real Authority

Maye Quade is a fully-fledged creation of leftist institutions – and pays obeisance to them:

But she certainly has no love lost for society’s actual institutions.

Like parenthood.

She wants to nullify parents trying to teach their children morality and ethics, so her side doesn’t have to work quite so hard to uproot them. j

This is, of course, on top of her very casual relationship with telling the truth if it’s not in her political interest.

Might Makes Right

Maye Quade may not actually have the executive power to sicc government and its monopoly in the use of force on her political (and finanncial?) enemies.

But she sure thinks about it:

“I would love to eminent domain all 98 of these crisis pregnancy centers and turn them into affordable housing for people who do have children,” said Sen. Maye Quade. “I would love to turn them into food banks and diaper banks and formula banks. Like, these are things that actually support people having children when they decide they would like to have children, and everything that crisis pregnancy centers are doing is not that. None of it is that.”

Aggressively Sorting

Maye Quade has a staffer who’s got a bit of a “virulent anti-Semite” vibe.

This is, of course, shocking in that the aide is more antisemitic than Maye Quade’s own equivocating weasel-word-larded antisemitism:

Your tax dollars are paying for this.

It should go without saying Senator Maye Quade, like all leftists, is more aggressively yet casually racist about “othering” apostates – in this case, Senator Tim Scott, a Republican and African-American:

…which is a perfect invocation of Berg’s 11th Law.

And, like every good gaslighting abusive partner, it’s all really your fault:

Hard to miss the fact that the “consequences” in her “culture” are entirely one-sided. But that’s the nature of the abusive gaslighter. But then, I did mention creating an alternate, “official” reality, didn’t I?

No, really – an actual alternate reality…

…deviance from which is considered heresy.

I mean, a Republican with a similiar record of shilling for naked authority, advocating the co-option of instutions and relentlessly cutting out “others” to use as enemies would be called an “authoritarian” at the very least.

And yet it’s Senator Maye Quade that walks the walk

Count the number of jump cuts in this 14 second long video:

Not cuts to B-Roll. Not special effects. Not pans or zooming.

This is the audio equivalent of one of those ransom notes pieced together from letters cut from magazines. (Kids, ask your parents)

The good news: Minnesota’s new paid family leave law will cost 25% more than originally budgeted:

Minnesota’s new paid family and medical leave program will launch in 2026 with a 25% higher payroll tax than originally anticipated when the bill was passed last session, an assistant commissioner with the Department of Employment and Economic Development told lawmakers on Monday. 

Because DEED has been given legislative authority to raise the tax, the agency can do so without requiring a new law. 

“Wait, Mitch – I thought you said that was the good news?”

I did.

The bad news? The program doesn’t start until 2026. Like the Southwest LIght Rail and every other DFL spending boondoggle, this program is going to get more expensive before anyone ends up using it.

At the beginning of this session, I’d have figured the DFL trifecta would get some portion of their gun grab agenda jammed down. Maybe not outright bans on semi-automatic firearms, or repeal of pre-emption – but most of the smart money said “safe storage” and “lost and stolen reporting” was going to get jammed down no matter what.

And yet here we are with a week to go, and there’s only one bill still on the table – the stupid binary trigger ban:

And this next week could be – and needs to be – a red zone stand for the ages:

Your phone calls matter. Grant Hauschild – DFL Senator from Tom Bakk’s old district – bailed on the “safe storage” bill, negating Nicole “The Ninja” Mitchell’s vote. It was a close call.

By the way – note that it’s the Gun Owners Caucus doing the work. Not “Minnesota Gun Rights”. If you’re not a member, you need to be. Get on it

Get on your phone. Kill the bills.

Brazil is going through an exaggerated version of the US’s current gyrations; between a “right wing” leader who, the expert class told us, “is going to destroy democracy“, to a left-wing oligarch who is actually destroying democracy in the name of “saving democracy”.

In particular, they – and their American, Democrat party (and American big-media allies) are trying to crush free speech, to, er…

…uh…

…”save” it.

Michael Shellenberger is on the front lines. Expand the tweet to read the whole thing:

Berg’s Seventh Law in action; the party that is (or was) the first to bleat about McCarthyism, is the McCarthyist party:

“Mr. Shellenberger,” [Rep. Kamlager-Dove, D-CA] said to me yes or no? Is it true that you have repeatedly published false information that defamed public figures who are dedicated to combating disinformation?”…

Long story short:

Remember this when NPR yaps about their “disinformation” efforts.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

US put a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel.

The United States is now objectively supporting terrorism. 

Joe Doakes

When you remember that:

• Biden’s biggest funders (other than sending 10% to the Big Guy) are people like George Soros, who detest Israel, and
• Biden needs that “Uncommitted” pro-genocide vote to “come home” by November…

…it all starts to make sense.

Trump is going to speak at the Lincoln/Reagan dinner – one of the MNGOP’s big annual fundraisers.

The DFL thinks they’re onto something.

It’s so cute that the DFL thinks that most Trump voters don’t know this – I know many who stopped holding their noses and switched to full-face respirators to vote for him.

But we – especially if “we” are working class Minnesotans whose paychecks are 20% smaller than they were five years ago, and whose food budgets have gone up by half – might be willing to give it another shot at this rate.

Why do Democrats have such problems with cognitive dissonance?

Today’s DFL:

1. They nominate a convicted stalker to run against his alleged (by his own video) victim.
2. They trot Nichole Mitchell’s animated political corpse into the Senate chamber to vote for their idiotic “safe storage”, which will get tossed in court, and which will literally create a presumption of guilt against a homeowner whose firearms are stolen via any means.
3. And then, when Rep Franson brings up an emendment to exempt current victims of active stalkers, tell the little ladies they shouldn’t worry their pretty little heads and leave the guns to the menfolk.

What? You thought I was kidding?

This would be called “mansplaining” anywhere else.

Which brings us to the female face of misogyny, Jamie Becker-Finn:

They are treating their moment in absolute power as a way to say “nya nya” to people they hate. No more.

…that Ilhan Omar is a truly reprehensible person:

But hey, if you live in CD5 [1], feel free to vote for her, whether you are pro-corruption, graft and antisemitism, or against it.

[1] Or are buried within the borders of CD5

Just a quick point before we get started.

The “I’m just asking questions’ school of opinion journalism – whether Rachel Maddow or Tucker Carlson or anyone in between – is a particularly toxic practice. “Asking questions” that aren’t intended to elicit the truth is pointless at best; doing it as a substitute for seeking the truth or, worse, to deny or obfuscate it, is much worse.

We’ll come back to that.

The Premise: I try not to attach too much news significance to “features” columns. It’s entirely possible that columns like this Strib article from MPR alum Laura Yuen has no ulterior motives.

But go ahead and read it, and tell lme – if the piece were part of a DFL attempt to curry sympathy for Mitchell, to soften public attitudes as the DFL heads into an election with their House majority on the line behind a raft of legislation that may or may not have enduring popularity in the third and fourth tier suburbs, how woulld it be any different?

What Nicole Mitchell did is bizarre, tragic and unlawful, if the police narrative of her breaking into her stepmother’s home prevails. The state senator’s apparent failed heist of her father’s ashes and other belongings likely spells the end of her political career.

But the emotions behind it? I understand them.

In case that opening graf left you in doubt about Yuen’s sympathies, she follows with this list of center-left dog-whistles and signaled virtues:

Trauma after losing a loved one can make a person act out of character, if not out of their mind. An Air National Guard officer, former meteorologist, lawyer, single mom and staunch defender of children’s rights, this promising first-term DFL legislator had everything to lose.

The piece goes on to discuss the crazy things that follow from grief and, it needs to be said, family issues. It isn’t not worth a read, as far as that goes.

Stil – while nobody expects features columnists to be clinically detached – “journalistic” – about their subjects, I think it’s significant that Yuen buries the facts that Mitchell changed her story, not just under questioning but on social media, using her very large publid figure megaphone.

And then (emphasis added):

Until this point, Mitchell has always struck me as a superhuman, measured in both achievements and decency. (We both worked at MPR News, and I wrote a column about her and fellow meteorologist Rob Kupec after they were sworn into the Senate.) Mitchell might deserve a second chance in politics, but it would be easier to make that case if she apologized for the actions that led up to her arrest.

Hold onto that word, “Superhuman”.

Anyway – we’ve established grief can do crazy things to the psyche.

The Possible: And it’s not necessarily a features columnist’s job to examine all the other possibilities.

But since Yuen ends with a hypothetical…:

She could start by saying she’s in grief. That she’s embarrassed by what she’s done. That she’s going to step aside while she receives professional help to heal.

And as a culture, we need to allow for people to talk openly about debilitating grief, the kind that makes a hard-working, respected legislator risk it all when she acted on the worst decision of her life.

….so will I.

It’s possible that grief pushed Senator Mitchell past the bounds of normal behavior.

Also entirely possible: Yuen isn’t hte only one to think of Mitchell as “superhuman”.

Does Mitchell believe it herself?

I’m not “Just asking questions”, here.

Mitchell is a lawyer – who publicly contradicted her statements to the police, on Facebook:

Did she do this – violate a tenet of criminal defense that every first-year law student knows – because she was crazy with grief? Or because she figured she was superhuman and could do it?

It’s probably a little trite to say “I’ve suffered plenty of grief in my life, and I never burgled any relatives” – but that’s at least in part true because neither I nor most anyone else figures that’s the right thing to do, and nothing we’re grieving about is worth that kind of trouble.

Did grief make Senator Mitchell irrational? Or is Senator Mitchell’s version of “rational” different than yours, mine or Yuen’s?

I”m going to suggest the data supporting each conclusion are about equal.

Upshot: I’m not saying that Yuen’s piece is a part of the DFL’s PR effort, to try to pitch Mitchell’s alleged behavior as sympathetic as the DFL sneaks her into the Senate to finish jamming down their agenda.

But if it were, would it be any different?

Fearless prediction: Mitchell will appear on Esme Murphy for mimosas, toenail-painting and affirmation.

As predicted, Nicole Mitchell isn’t leaving the Senate until the DFL has squeezed every last possible vote out of her:

So Real Minnesotans should picket the Capitol, and to the extent possible the Senate chambers and hearing rooms, dressedin all black, carrying tupperware and basement storm windows.

Decades about, the Left used the term “Politically Correct” as a positive virtue; it referred to people, ideas and brands that, in 21st century parlance, signaled the correct virtues.

It took a few years of relentless grassroots conservative satire to turn “PC” into a cultural punchline.

Ditto “Woke”; it had an organic meaning among the black community, was appropriated and perverted into something akin to PC, and has since been pilloried to the point where white progressives have, uh, progressed from demanding conservatives “define woke”, to insisting it doesn’t exist.

And now…

Some of the most prominent figures in the Democratic Party have labeled themselves as progressives, but others, for various reasons, have put distance between them and the label recently.

Several Democrats have left the Congressional Progressive Caucus, with some leaving due to a rift over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. One of the most high-profile departures came when Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) confirmed he was no longer in the caucus and shied away from calling himself a progressive when speaking with NBC News this month…Another Democrat who has shed the progressive label is Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who told NBC News in December 2023 that he is “not a progressive.” He has strayed further from progressive Democrats, especially regarding immigration and Israel, than he was expected to when he was elected in 2022.

Minnesota Democrats, of course, are tripling down; “Progressive” may be too far to their center.

I’m going to do my level best to make sure it hurts them.

…the DFL is plagued with narcissistic ninnies.

The whole world is all about them.

Israel has always had a paternalistic but pragmatic view of civilian firearms. As a general rule, they are opposed – but there’ve been exceptions. After a series of school massacres fifty years ago, they liberalized teacher carry in the kibbutzim – until they turned the job over to security (successfully, so far, where “success” doesn’t include civil liberty).

And now, as of last week…:

Israel Police will allow civilians to come armed to performances at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, Army Radio reported Monday morning. 

This decision comes as huge concert events are set to return to venues, with the first being Israeli star Omer Adam’s upcoming show. The return of these large events brings the need for increased security. Security forces decided to allow civilians to attend events with personal firearms, rather than increasing the amount of security personnel, Army Radio report noted.

Can’t say I didn’t try to warn them, where “them” = everyone that treats self-defense as a privilege.

Last week, the SD12 DFL Committee [1] endorsed convicted felon Judd Hoff, who has been credibly implicated in stalking his opponent, Rep. Mary Franson, by none other than Judd Hoff himself.

 “The Senate District 12 DFL Central Committee is sticking with its decision to endorse Judd Hoff of Alexandria, a convicted felon, to run against the Republican incumbent, Mary Franson of Alexandria, in the House 12B election. On Sunday, April 21, the committee met to review the Hoff endorsement. It has since issued a statement saying ‘the Senate District 12 Central Committee did not find sufficient cause to take action.’ BINA: ‘We encouraged Mr. Hoff to raise the civility of the campaign for all involved,’ Bonnie Bina, DFL chair for Douglas County, said in an email on Tuesday. ‘SD12 recognizes our responsibility to continue to monitor the candidate’s campaign.’ … The committee’s initial endorsement was opposed by DFL and Republican leaders at the Legislature. Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin issued a news release saying Hoff was unfit to run for elected office…[and] the Minnesota DFL will not spend any of its resources on behalf of Hoff.”

This comes amid the hubbub over Senator Nicole Mitchell’s arrest on felony burglary charges.

The DFL’s PR machine – in this case, the “Reformer” – sprang into action, saying “both sides do it so let’s just let it drop…”

Notice the language the “Reformer” uses to describe the various crimes involved.

Also worthy of note – neither DFL Chair Ken Martin nor Governor Klink have said anything about Mitchell yet.

It’s also worth noting that while I advocated cashiering Mitchell from public life for this bit of verbal diarrhea alone…

…she also voted for the DFL’s red flag gun confiscation and universal registration laws, and for the “safe storage” bill.

Perhaps we need a safe storage law for DFL legislators.

[1] Don’t any Democrats see a term like “Central Committee” and note the historical baggage the term has on their side of the aisle? Sort of like naming their chairperson a “Grand Wizard”, only more current?

Senator Mitchell (DFL Woodbury) was arraigned for First Degree Burglary in Becker County yesterday.

I’ll cop to the fact that I honestly hope someone who has attitudes about civil liberties and rights like she has, has a short political career.

Now, I really need to follow my. own counsel here; Berg’s 18th Law applies. We don’t know all the facts, and our media will be pretty worthless at getting those to us accurately anyway, especiallly since she’s one of their own – both as a media person and a Democrat.

So I’m jumping to no conclusions, here. Pinky swear.

Still – it’s been in the news. I’m gonna talk about it.

You Have The Right To Remain Silent: She doesn’t seem to have done herself many favors before arraignment; for someone with a JD, she seems to have missed the whole “don’t talk to the cops without an attorney present” thing:

I’m nothing if not a pollyanna: It all could be a huge misunderstanding. It’s a crazy world.

But, while I am no attorney, that seems to be a dumb thing to say to cops, when dressed in black, outside a place you have allegedly entered without authorization, dressed in black, before 5AM.

We’ll come back to that.

Anything You Say Can And Will Be Used Against You: Now, she was represented by counsel at her hearing. After which she (or someone claiming to e her) posted this on social media:

Now, I lost my mother to Alzheimers two years ago this week – after years of adventures including a ten hour drive to try to find her (long story). I’m nothing but sympathetic to relatives of Alzheimers patients.

But, uh…

• “Prompted me to check on the family member” – at 4:45 AM? Dressed in all black? And telling the cops you know you did something wrong after you were Mirandized?
• “have come and gone from countless times” – at 4:45 AM? Through, it is alleged, a basement window?
• “Startled this close relative” – at 4:45 AM, while allegedly dressed in black and entering the home through something other than a door? I don’t wonder.

Did her defense counsel know she was posting this? It seems…ill-advised, but again, I am no expert.

Speaking of the close relative:

The stepmother said in an interview that she’s afraid of her stepdaughter and applied for a restraining order against her. She also said that while most of her husband’s ashes were buried, she sent Mitchell a miniature container with some of them.

Is the stepmother genuinely afraid of Mitchell? Or suffering from delusions while suffering from dementia? Experience notwithstanding, I’m no expert – but either way, it seems that entering the woman’s house (allegedly) at 4:45AM, dressed like a ninja, through a window, might not be an optimal choice.

Senator Mitchell is of course innocent until proven guilty. But it is difficult to see how a DFL with any integrity, as opposed to lust for power in a Senate where Mitchell is the margin, keeps her in office. While she won her seat by a 18 point margin, having her in office is a problem.

MInnesotans: “Judd Hoff. Matt Roznowski. Julie Blaha. John Thompson. Dan Wolgamott. Brion Curran. Andy Smith. Can the DFL get any more depraved?”

Minnesota DFL: “Hold our Kombucha”.

Why, yes – that’s the relentlessly smug Nicole Mitchell – DFL senator from Woodbury, and apparently the DFL’s designated civil liberties expert.

Jeff Kolb ran through the facts we know (Twitter thread):

The incident took place at the home of her late father’s wife. Fill in further details at your own peril, but that might suggest a few answers.

It goes without saying Berg’s 18th Law is in force, and of course Michell is innocent until proven guilty.

In the wake of three episodes of pro-Palestine protesters burning themselves to death, the sixties – the radical-chic version – called to tell the left of the 2020s to dial back the crazy:

I mean, if “interests of power” = weeding out the most insane elements of the crowd that also wants to self-immolate Western Civilization, she may have a point.

On the other hand, it’s a teeeeeny little step from this to “not immolating other ‘serves the interests of power'”.

The worst part about last week’s news about long-time National Public Radio (NPR) editor Uri Berliner’s tell all about the network’s, uh, systemic bias toward the left isn’t the bias itself (and if you haven’t read Berliner’s entire article, you should). We all knew that; it was obvious on issue after issue:

• Tripling down on the “Russia Hoax”, treating it as divine revealed truth until it all fell apart, followed by a half-hearted and oh-so-quiet walkback.
• Participating in the DNC (and RNC’s) defamation of the Tea Party, the last serious conservative threat to Democrat hegemony (which led, pretty directly, to Donald Trump, for better or worse; to Donald Trump; to quote Glenn Reynolds, ““I’m increasingly concerned that the neutralization of the Tea Party movement — an effort by both major parties — may have convinced a lot of people that civics-book style polite political participation is for chumps.”
• Went full-bore Mao on Covid, not only unskeptically carrying the party line on the lab leak theory, vaccination, lockdowns and treatments, but actively attacking any departures from the Administration’s narrative, even as the narrative fell apart.
• Actively participated in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.
• Buying modern “Woke”-ism and portraying it as the revealed absolute truth – serving more like a religious broadcaster than a news organization, serving America’s modern, upper-to-upper-middle class progressive faith.
• Reporting on every other issue imaginable – climate, guns, faith, abortion, you name it.

It’s not that the network has lied about it for decades; as recently as a couple years ago, Ira Glass and Bob Garfield dismissed the allegations, saying “multiple studies” proved it was untrue – conveniently without showing the “studies” for serious examination.

It’s not that they went full-bore “woke”:

Race and identity became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace. Journalists were required to ask everyone we interviewed their race, gender, and ethnicity (among other questions), and had to enter it in a centralized tracking system. We were given unconscious bias training sessions. A growing DEI staff offered regular meetings imploring us to “start talking about race.” Monthly dialogues were offered for “women of color” and “men of color.” Nonbinary people of color were included, too. 

These initiatives, bolstered by a $1 million grant from the NPR Foundation, came from management, from the top down. Crucially, they were in sync culturally with what was happening at the grassroots—among producers, reporters, and other staffers. Most visible was a burgeoning number of employee resource (or affinity) groups based on identity.

It’s not even that NPR actively denies they have a problem – “my weaknesses are actually my strengths”, as Michael Scott put it in a similar situation – and septupled down, suspending Berliner for doing business against the family and hiring a new CEO, Katherine Maher, who reads like a Babylon Bee caricature of a Prius-driving “In This House” sign-wielding upper-middle-class credentialist Karen.

(Naturally, the real crime is “pouncing” on Maher)

As great a service as Berliner has given the world of journalism, the biggest problem isn’t even that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Berliner’s observations about NPR appear to apply, to one degree or another, at every mainstream media newsroom, particularly here in the Twin Cities. All four local TV news stations, to say nothing of the Strib, are reliable DFL mouthpieces. While some reporters are modestly diligent about getting a variety of points of view, that appears to be much less a priority than it used to be..

In particular, Minnesota Public Radio seems to have abandoned their long-time drive for, if not “balance”, at least trying to include more perspectives. Not so long ago, NPR reporters would reach out to the state’s opposition – not just in the legislature, but opposition advocacy groups for their groups points of view on issues. When the DFL would float one of their gun control bills, for example, you’d hear Bryan Strawser or Rob Doar along with the usual suspects from Everytown or “Protect” MN.

When was the last time you heard any of that?

And while I try not to conflate Human Resources with news, it can’t possible escape notice that while MPR is famously hostile to hiring anyone to the right of Paul Wellstone, and is an actively hostile workplace to any that might leak through, they hired a meteorologist who’d gotten whacked for rhetoric too extreme for KARE, had a political reporter who dated and eventually married the state’s sitting ultraprogressive Lieutenant Governor, and another newsroom figure who we are assured no-way no-how frothed with hatred for conservatives and all they stood for before he retired.

No. The worst thing is, all of this systemic bias not only guts the media’s ability to do it’s most important job – holding government accountable – but eradicates any real reason to trust the media to do that job. It erodes the trust among people and institutions that a society needs to make “democracy” work.

And the worst part still? Either they are too cloistered in their class bubble to see the problem, or they think their class’s interests are what society actually needs.

The fact that NPR has become “Religious Radio” for the secular faith of the modern left hasn’t been even a serious debate outside prog journo circles in over a decade.

The perception that the rest of the media is the same thing in a lower-gloss format? That’s the part that needs to sink in.

Judd Hoff has allegedly been stalking Minnesota State Representative Mary Franson for a while now.

“Stalking”, you say?

Yep.

He’s got kind of a colorful past (emphasis added), which has been recognized:

“Defendant approached Mr. Cornett with a machete pointed at him to instill fear so that he would comply with defendant’s command to return the flag,” she wrote. “As Mr. Cornett retreated, defendant approached. Defendant continued to keep pace with Mr. Cornett’s retreat all around his vehicle, into the street and back onto the sidewalk. Mr. Cornett felt sufficient fear of being stabbed or killed by defendant’s dangerous weapon, a machete, that he pulled his handgun. Even then, defendant did not stop.”

Oh, yeah – and he’s now the DFL-endorsed candidate running against Franson:

Not just endorsed. Endorsed unanimously.

This is today’s DFL .

Oh, yeah – I suspect that if the GOP endorsed a felon and someone very credibly alleged (with, say, footage they shot themselves, and a loooong social media record) to have stalked his female MNDFL opponent, the media would be humping the story’s leg.

UPDATE: Ken Martin, to his credit, at least rhetorically tried to distance himself from Hoff.

On the one hand, I don’t suspect the DFL is going to spend any money in 12B no matter who gets endorsed; Franson hasn’t faced a serious challenge since 2012, and she’s going to win the district by a 2:1 margin no matter who the DFL runs; with Hoff, it might be close to a three digit margin. .

But kudos to Martin; there is a bottom to the barrel below which the DFL won’t dig. John Thompson taught ’em something.

Well, some of them, anyway. Other DFLers, including this endorsed candidate, doubled down:

Which DFL will show up?

A “plan” for a “masjid [mosque]-centered development” in Lino Lakes dropped into the chat this week.

And it’s generating the usual clouds of ire from the usual suspects.

I’ve got my suspicions. We’ll come back to that. First (with emphasis added):

Construction on the project is allegedly “expected to begin Fall of 2025.” However, the City of Lino Lakes released a statement on the project saying they have “not received a land use application for this development at this time. No review has been undertaken and no approvals have been granted.”

Should Madinah Lakes be constructed, it would be located “approximately 1.5 miles east of Lexington Ave on the south side of Main Street” in Lino Lakes, with Olson’s Market to the north and The Tavern on Main to the west.

In other words, like a lot of big real estate development proposals, it’s vapor.

In fact, very vapoeous:

Zikar Holdings, the corporation reportedly developing Madinah Lakes, is registered with the Office of the Secretary of State (OSS).

The website for Zikar Holdings states that the corporation specializes “in transforming land into sustainable and inviting spaces where families can flourish and individuals can thrive.” The corporation also says it has “a proven track record spanning over 10 years.”

However, Zikar Holdings only registered with the Secretary of State in December of 2023, and no completed projects are listed on Zikar Holdings’ website. Instead, the company promotes the pending Lino Lakes development and references future projects in Rochester and St. Cloud.

So – let’s recap:

1. Vaporware development…
2. …with an Islam-centered vibe
3. …in the north suburbs.

I’ve got suspicions.

Development Of Convenience: As we noted last week, Democrats are nervous about their polling heading to the fall election. They are particularly concerned about holding onto:

• The various suburban seats that went for Trump in 2016, that they won by paper-thin margins in 2022.
• A Muslim voter base that is not happy about President Potato trying to split the baby on Gaza, and a far left base that is using that to leverage the larger Democrat party.

If you’re Ken Martin, you have to be thinking that they can’t overturn Roe again, the Biden Administration isn’t going to cough up any positive surprises, Trump’s personality is a stranger to nobody, that if he didn’t suspend the Constitution and declare himself dictator in 2020 he’s not going to do it in 2025, and that most people outside the NPR class are keenly aware they’re not doing better than they were in 2019.

So what’s the wedge that’ll logroll gullible Democrat-susceptible voters to the polls?

Lots of “They’ll BAN ABORTION” for the white progs. And lots of “LOOK HOW MUCH THEY HATE YOU” to the Muslims.

And nothing shores up Democrat wall like trafficking in intersectional victimhood.

The Middle East is sliding into World War III.

Inflation is gutting working families’ budgets – but illegal immigration is gutting their paychecks, so the budgets are becoming irrelevant.

The exploding national debt is unsustainable, in ways that could very well make our society unrecognizable sooner or later.

And since “tall tales” are the issue here, we are of cours, led by a President who, on top of being demonstrably senile and corrupt to the bone, is a serial fabulist – about his childhood, education, his first wife and child’s car accident, his career, “civil rights work”, and Beau’s death.

But this is what Tina “The Giggly Butcher” Smith is yapping about.

Not to mention the media.

So – why did the ever-so-decisive Minneapolis City Council delay its “minimum wage” hike against Uber and Lyft to July?

To help the soon-to-be-unemployed drivers?

To give the companies a reasonable chance to adjust?

HAH. Naïve peasant!

It’s to save the DFL from itself!

The Minneapolis City Council, in voting unanimously on Thursday to delay enactment of minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers for two months, offered a lifeline for Democratic legislators embroiled in their own divisions over the issue.

Legislative leaders, who are trying to craft their own compromise that would increase driver earnings but keep Uber and Lyft in the Twin Cities metro, are increasingly concerned that the polarizing ride hailing issue could upend the remainder of the legislative session, which hangs on a one-vote majority in the Senate.

The council has come under immense pressure to reconsider their minimum rates since the wide-ranging effects of Uber and Lyft pulling out have become more clear: some 10,000 drivers likely losing income without unemployment benefits and tens of thousands of convention-goers, commuters, bar hoppers and people with disabilities needing to find different transportation.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, and House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, met recently with a half dozen members of the City Council to request the delay and remind them of the stakes of a deal, as well as the city’s significant legislative agenda at the Capitol, according to several people present or briefed on the conversation.

So they found an issue where out-radicaling each other isn’t bringing them votes.

Weird. It can be done.

BTW, if I were the CEOs of Lyft or Uber, I’d tell the CIty Council to go pound sand unless they all came to my headquarters on their knees to kiss my butt on live television.

For all the effort the Dems have expended on trying to get Trump off ballots, it appears Team Potato may have some work to do, too:

The law requires nominees to be certified at least 90 days before the general election, and Biden won’t become the official nominee until the Democrats hold their convention in Chicago — less than 90 days before the general election. Biden will miss the deadline by 12 days. 

So, apparently when Democrats say that their voters are too stupid to follow things like Voter ID laws, they might just be projecting.

Easy. Lie about how the pig has always had bright red lips.

That’s the tactic CD8 DFL candidate Jen Schultz is using to try to convince voters President Potato is somewhere north of worthless.

By picking numbers from the beginning of Reagan’s era, rather than, say, 1985, and assuming that people susceptible to voting for Jen Schultz either don’t remember the truth or are too intellectually bovine to question her.

As Berg’s 24th Law notes, it’s not a bad assumption.