To: Minnetonkoids Concerned about Crime
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: The Bed You Made

Concerned CItizens of Minnetonka

I get it. Nobody likes to be told “I told you so”. And scolding people for dumb decisions puts them on the defensive. Nobody likes having the consequences of their agency questioned and mocked.

So I’ll try not to, and simply say that there’s a learning moment going on, if you are ready to do the learning:

Some of you might just be figuring it out:

The local TV stations sent cameras to the meeting to capture the emotional reaction of white suburban Minnetonka residents to a crime that’s happened to black Minneapolis residents hundreds of times this year. As our recent report showed, black Minnesotans in 2021 were 9.5 times more likely than white Minnesotans to be victims of serious crime (murder, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, and rape).

The DFL-led legislature did create a new crime category for carjacking this year but stopped short of assigning any penalty to the crime, leaving that to the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, appointed by DFL Gov. Tim Walz. Thankfully, American Experiment supporters flooded the commission with emails demanding carjacking receive a felony-level sentence. Without that effort, the crime of carjacking would have been treated like the existing robbery offense.

 While I sympathize for the Minnetonka citizens who took to the microphone last night to express their outrage at the situation and call for strong accountability, it needs to be said: they voted overwhelmingly for the people who caused this lawlessness and continue to allow it on a daily basis.

Of course, if you don’t see the connection between your votes and what’s happening in your city, then you are, in fact, choosing decline, blight, decay and disorder. They follow. The relationship is causal.

That is all.

Berg’s 8th Law is pretty clear on situations like this. Especially about situations like this:

American progressivism’s reaction to one of “their”constituents – women, gays or people of color – running for office or otherwise identifying as a conservative is indistinguishable from sociopathic disorder.

Two women in politics were involved in “sexual indiscretions” last week.

Naturally, the difference in the media and commentariat’s reaction to Lauren Boebert’s (whose indiscretions were really more social) and Susanna Gibson (a Democrat legislative candidate) couldn’t reinforce Berg’s 8th Law more:

Gibson started an OnlyFans page, for which she is being praised as “Courageous” and “Empowered” – two more words the feminist left has completely neutered.

In the meantime, Lauren Boebert got into a drunken make-out at a play (while being staked out by media with night vision cameras, and can I just say there’s nothing weird at all about that, nosireebob).

And the answer is giggle, Victorian misogyny:

And Katie Hill has built a prosperous career out of being a Democrat woman with a sex scandal.

Now, two things can be true; Boebert is a sitting Congresswoman who won re-election by under 1,000 votes. There’s literally no sense in giving anyone a reason not to vote for you under those circumstances.

Because two things can be true: it really wasn’t behavior becoming an elected Rep…:

…and a little hilarious that the Democrats are deflecting away from Genderqueer in elementary school libraries, R-rated drag shows at schools, guys in assless chaps simulating fellation at Pride parades and Hunter Biden shorting blow off of hookers buttocks (“Grow up! Adults have sex“) with Boebert’s pratfall.

…. Of modern blue city American progressivism Hass to be when they get eeeeeever so close to realizing their own policies are the problem.

I said “close“. Not that it will actually connect.

Democrats must have another raft of social spending initiatives in the queue. Suddenly child poverty is an issue again:

Here’s a radical idea; stop inflating working families’ money into worthlessness?

“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.

That might not be the result of this episode – at least, I but this past Tuesday Shivanthi Sathanandan, a Minnesota state DFL executive who advocated defunding the police gets the living crap beating out of her by carjackers.

And yep, she was one of those DFLers::

In her June 2020 post, Sathanandan thanked two Minneapolis City Council members for their “radical leadership” in working to “dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.”

“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me,” she wrote.

This past Tuesay, Sathanandan it was in her own yard when…:

“Four very young men, all carrying guns, beat me violently down to the ground in front of our kids. The young men held our neighbors up at gunpoint when they ran over and tried to help me. All in broad daylight,” DFL Second Vice Chair Shivanthi Sathanandan wrote in a public Facebook post, which included a picture of her face after the alleged assault.

“Look at my face in the picture. This is the face of a mother who just had the sh$t beaten out of her. A mother whose only thought was, ‘let me run far enough and fight hard enough so that my kids have a chance to get away.’ This is the face of a mother who just listened to her four-year-old daughter screaming non-stop, her seven-year-old son wailing for someone to come help because bad guys are murdering his Mama in the backyard, her neighbors screaming in outrage … all while being beaten with guns and kicks and fists,” she said.

It’s not Sathanandan’s job to add that if any of those neighbors had responded with the kind of force that could have ended the assault, Mary Moriarty would likely have prosecuted them far more harshly than the carjackers themselves.

But unlike some previous victms, who’ve blamed “the system” and themselves, Sathanandan reaches a rational conclusion:

“And I have rage. These men knew what they were doing. I have NO DOUBT they have done this before. Yet they are still on OUR STREETS. Killing mothers. Giving babies psychological trauma that a lifetime of therapy cannot erase. With no hesitation and no remorse,” she said.

“We need to get illegal [!!! – Ed.] guns off of our streets, catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM,” she said. “Look at my face. REMEMBER ME when you are thinking about supporting letting juveniles and young people out of custody to roam our streets instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.”

.

It’s natural – and in some cases appropriate, and in Sathanandan’s case documentably true. The DFL does in fact own the situation. And I do pile schadenfreud on the

But I’m going to urge people to take the opportunity to see the opportunity, here. Sathanandan may never become a law-and order conservative – but Minneapolis got where it is incrementally, and any improvement will be at least as incremental.

And if you’re so inclined, pray for those kids. The fruits of the politics of the parents shouldn’t be visited on the kids.

Much less their neighbors.

UPDATE. There is speculation that this is staged. Some are make a plausible case. The blood doesn’t look like any head laceration usually looks (and believe me, I’ve had a few), and she takes a pretty composed-looking photo for someone with a broken leg.

OTOH: the hoax, if it is one, benefits conservatives, and even the Frey administration, against whom the Minneapolis DFL is mustering money and votes.

Not saying that’s not plausible – but why?

It’s amazing…

…how many descriptions of Communism apply to the modern DFL.

Hope you’re enjoying your long weekend dedicated to a movement that mistook “two decades of inflated wages when the US was the world’s only functional economy, while Japan and Germany and South Korea were bombed flat and India and China were busy with socialist noodling and starving themselves back to the 1800s and unable to manufacture anything more complicated than motor scooters” for an eternal entitlement.

And they still do:

Senator (gag) Smith: go ahead. Put a bunch of workers – with or without union cards – in an open field. See if a factory or a workshop or, since you’re a DFLer and it’s your only perspective of the private sector, a coffee shop springs up around them.

We’ll wait.

Well, tomorrow I’ll wait. I’ve got labor day plans.

I saw this tweet from Governor Klink, and it brought me back in time almost (cough cough) years, to when I was trying to decide what to do after college:

And I clearly remember my thought process when figuring out where to move, and why:

1. If a condom breaks, will my future nonexistent girlfriend be able to abort it even up until birth?
2. If we have a kid, and get divorced, and that kid decides to transition genders, will I be able to get the custody order ignored?
3. Can I afford the rent…not now, per se, but at some indeterminate point in the future, when a hodgepodge of government programs have some promised effect, whatever it is?
4. Can I get paid leave from the job I neither have nor, honestly, have really figured out what it’ll be, yet?
5. Will other kids coming after me be “prepared” for the jobs I’m trying to get?

Kudos, Governor Klink. Nailed it.

Is it just me, or was that tweet about coaxing young people to move to Minnesota – something they’re not doing – written by someone who’s never been a young person thinking about moving to another state?

When the left talks about gun control / “gun safety”, it’s talking about you.

Not them..

During the relevant time frame, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office rarely issued [carry permits]. Indeed, the office’s practice was to not even process an application for a CCW license absent a special instruction to do so…

…Thomas Moyer is Apple, Inc.’s head of global security. The company’s executive protection team is under his supervision. In 2016 and early 2017 the team began receiving more serious threats against Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and became concerned about its ability to respond to these threats. As a consequence, in early 2017, Apple decided its executive protection team should be armed and began taking steps to obtain CCW licenses for team members…

…two Apple officials—David Gullo, senior director of global security, and Eric Mueller, senior director of operations for the security team—met with Undersheriff Sung [whose boss was running for re-election] to discuss CCW licenses…On March 26, 2019, members of Apple’s executive protection team were told to pick up their CCW licenses, which they did at the Sheriff’s Office…

Government licensing is a wealth transfer – on the table, or under it.

Fill in the usual “Can you imagine what’d happen if, say, Ron DeSantis were to take a cheesecake photo with a group of swimsuit models?” boilerplate.

You can pretty much fill in the stock responses from memory.

So here’s Senator Klobuchar at the State Fair:

And “The Velvet Hammer”

Has the feminism correspondent at MPR seen this yet?

“Democrats get ‘the job’ done” has been the latest affectation from the Big Left noise machine.

They added an intersectional twist over the weekend, as the Democrat “selfie offensive” continues:

The responses were likely not what “The Democrats” expected:

I’d go so far as to say the only female governors who’ve gotten “jobs done” were Republican women.

Senator Erin May Quade assumes DFL voters aren’t that bright, critical or well-informed.

She was commenting about the GOP Debate from Wednesday:

Now, if you haven’t been in a coma or getting your news from the Strib for the past 20 years, you know:

• It’s families of color that use most vouchers, because they want them, because public schools most often fail their kids, and b)
• it’s the Left that’s re-segregating society – including with public schools.

Maye Quade is counting on reaching “voters” know don’t know and wouldn’t care if they did.

Wait just a doggone minute.

I read this earlier today:

Now, wasn’t it just 2-3 months ago that Ken Martin, Governor Klink and Co-Governor Flanigan, the brodudes in the MNDFL Communications office and the chattering hamsters of the DFL Legislative caucuses telling us they’d “fully funded” education?

Why yes.. It was:

And yet they never actually defining what “full funding” meant…

…oh. Yeah. Now it makes sense.

With redistricting, former senate minority leader With the “party of women“, Melissa Lopez Franzen, got pushed out to make sure Ron Latz didn’t wind up unemployed

But no worries about Melissa. She’s DFL. Once they are elected to something, the system takes care of them:

The University of Minnesota on Wednesday announced it has hired former Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen as its next chief lobbyist at the State Capitol.

Beginning Aug. 28, López Franzen will be the U’s executive director of government and community relations, where she will oversee lobbying efforts for all five of the U’s campuses and lobby her former colleagues.

I did say they take care of their own, right?

With her new role with the U, she will join a growing list of former Minnesota lawmakers turned lobbyists, including former Sens. Tom Bakk, Patricia Torres Ray, Chuck Wiger and Jeff Hayden.

By the way, – go ahead and read the story, in the “Minnesota, Reformer”, yet another publication, sponsored by progressives with deep pockets.

See if party affiliation is mentioned even once.

UPDATE: but I will give this to the reformer: some of the inconvenient facts did make it in:

Nothing weird there at all.

Remember – it’s the most transparent regime in history.

Mike Norton the vice chair (and maybe acting chair, after this fiasco) tweeted this yesterday:

Mayor Mompants and the “Ban the Cops” City Council are “Conservative”, according to Mr. Norton.

Well, no .

“Less Communistic” works.

I pride myself in being able to turn DFL English into Honest English.

Example:

Translated into “Honest”

While other states are getting agenda-porn out of middle schools, MN is writing a different story.  

And by “writing”, we don’t mean the actual kids. They can’t write for s**t now, and it’s not gonna get any better.

And by “story”, we mean “checks that shovel more money into the greedy maw of an unaccountable Dept of Education that’s already made countless corrupt DFL-linked nonprofiteers wealthy.”

I’m happy, as alwatys, to help.

“
“

Even the mainland media is covering the complaints about Hawaii’s government’s response to the wildfires that, as this is written, have killed nearly 100 people:

Residents of Lahaina, the historic former Hawaiian capital that became an inferno, criticized what they called inadequate warnings of the sudden firestorm and said they are now being left to fend for themselves in its wake.

“I feel like the citizens of this island have been called upon, maybe by a higher power, to actually help because no one else is helping,” said Kai Lenny, a professional surfer.

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) said her department will launch “a comprehensive review of critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires.”

One thing government did do was prevent people from deterring the worst among us.

While rescue crews make their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops are being diverted and anguished residents are taking matters into their own hands.

“There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint,” Matt Robb, co-owner of a Lahaina bar called The Dirty Monkey, said.

“People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they’re going through houses – and then by day it’s hunky dory. So where is the support? I don’t think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do.”

Reports of gunpoint robberies and supplies being hijacked are filtering out – which just can not be, as Hawaii has “comprehensive gun safety laws”.

To: Rep. Nathan Coulter (DFL 51B)
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous peasant and human ATM
Re: Congrats

Rep. Coulter

I was a little amazed to see that you are in fact a state representative.

Because the optics of a tweet like this are a little…

…well, bad:

Rep. Coulter: speaking as a middle-class empty nester who is getting not a f***ing penny from this so-called refund (let’s call it what it is – targeted vote buying), the idea that tax money is being “Refunded” to the needy – like, say, a State Representative from the mean streets of Eagan – maybe you might wanna stop your eyes spinning long enough to remember where the money came from.

You’re welcome, (REDACTED).

That is all,.

This is todays DFL.

May 2023: Leave the possibility of throwing grandma out on the street very pointedly open.

August, 2023: Pat selves vigorously on the back for not doing it.

… how iconic brands in Minneapolis never find buyers? They always go from humming along to closing up shop for good?

Psycho Suzies tiki lounge may have been one of the most distinctive bars/restaurants in the city, that, for its many faults, as always been pretty creative on the food front.

It’s been a while since I’ve been there – although one of my most treasured memories is cleaning Bridget Cronin‘s vomit off my shoes during one of her birthday parties there. But every time I was ever there, it was packed, especially on gorgeous summer nights, where you could sit and look across the Mississippi River at the sparkling of gunfire from North Minneapolis.

You think it would be a hot property, including its branding, for someone.

But nooooo…

Psycho Suzie’s Motor Lounge announced it will permanently close on Aug. 19.

“For the past two decades we’ve welcomed you through our tiki laden jungle to enjoy tropical drinks, pizza pies, waterfront seating, and the company of new and old friends… but all good things must come to an end and this Psycho Suzi is ready to hang it up and put on her retirement hat,” said owner Leslie Bock, in a Facebook post.

So what Minneapolis social tradition will be next? City government has drawn a line in the Sand around the first Avenue, clearly – that place is escaped the apathy of the market. Thanks to city intervention a number of times.

The Dakota? God forbid.

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.

…that Democrats not only assume “their” voters are stupid and uncritical, but they they count on it.

If you thought MTG’s evidence show was bad, I bet a rape trial would really freak you out.

It’s this blog’s considered position that DFL politicians can say pretty much anything they want; they know that the typical DFL voter, while invincibly smug about their education, is incredibly badly informed and, being a trained regurgitator of dogma, has no capacity for critical thought. They also know that the Twin Cities’ subservient news media – being mostly from that same population – won’t do anything to fix that.

Which is why Melvin Carter can write bilge like this:

Now, you know gun store owners aren’t clairvoyant. And I know it.

And so does Melvin Carter.

He knows that a “straw buyer” is someone who:

1. Uses his or her clean criminal record – with no indication they might be a probem, and
2. Knowingly sells or gives guns to criminals.

And Mayor Carter also knows that neither the Hennepin nor Ramsey County attorneys, going back decades, is especially enthusiastic about going after straw buyers. Nobody ever got elected Senator by putting a gang-banger’s girlfriend in jail.

But they typical DFL voter? Someone who learned their law enforcement from a video game or an episode of “Criminal Minds?” They likely do think there’s some way for a gun store worker to tell if the person showing their ID is one of the 99.999% of gun buyers who are legit, or that other one who’ll sell a gun to a ne’er do well who goes on to shoot up a bar in Saint Paul.

And they just don’t care that much anyway.

During the session: the DFL said that their “child tax credit” would reduce child poverty by a Third.

Now that we are waiting for the taxes to kick in:

“Good“ reduce child poverty.

Like Homer Simpson, slowly disappearing into the hedge behind him, the DFL is walking their absurd claim back, confident that nobody in the Twin Cities media will call them on it.

I’m going to check back periodically, just to see how child poverty has, well, “fallen”.

Any bets?