…when Joe Biden was going to “restore the world’s faith in America.”

…is always, always, always be looking for more ways to transfer taxpayer money to the political class.

And that is exactly what they are doing.

After a few fairly quiet years, gun control is back in the MN Legislature.

Alice “The Phantom” Hausman (who isn’t any better about being seen in 66A today than she was in 66B fifteen years ago, and whose upcoming retirement from office is greeted by many with “I thought she already was…“) has introduced the House version of a bill unreeled a few weeks ago by Senator John Marty.  The only real question this time around is “which gun control activist is she going to pick to introduce her bill in committee this time?”

So – in a year where people have had enough of crime, where gun sales and carry permits have broken all previous records, and when gun control in general is polling the lowest it has since it became an issue, about 55 years ago, why is Minnesota’s radical left suddenly going long on it?

I’ts simple.  Science. 

We’ll come back to that. 

Fighting For His Life:  Redistricting has pitted Senator John Marty (DFL-Roseville) against Senator Jason Isaacson (DFL-Suburb Full Of The Un-Bright).  In the scramble to reorganize around the new boundaries, they both have roughly 6-8 weeks to appeal to their party’s base – insane “progressive” extremists – to get the nomination to go ahead.  

It is a race to the bottom in ever since.  And Marty, on the subject of “who’s craziest about guns”, jumps out to an early lead.  He wrote this op-ed on some astroturf radical-left blog a few weeks ago outlining the philosophy behind his bill:

The recent conviction of the killers of Ahmaud Arbery is welcome news; it has been described as “justice being served.” The convictions were appropriate for the three white men who followed a young black jogger in their cars, confronted him, and then shot him. But it cannot bring back Ahmaud Arbery. Convictions alone cannot be seen as justice.

Beware.  A “progressive” is going to start talking about what “Justice” really is.  

When people – and in many states, the laws – allow armed people to chase others they suspect might have committed theft, and if they get scared about their safety in the ensuing struggle, kill the person they are chasing, we have normalized lynching.

What Marty has done, here, is take a couple of facts, and turn them into a bald-faced, inflammatory lie. 

You are allowed to chase thieves.  Even alleged thieves.  

And if you reasonably and immediately fear death, use only the force needed to end that threat, are not the aggressor, and in many states make reasonable efforts to disengage, you can defend your life.  

A jury found that the Arbery’s killers didn’t meet – or come close to meeting – the standard for self-defense (even given the antiquated pre-Civil War law allowing whites to chase blacks, which the defense tried in its desperation to use).   

If the rules in Georgia “normalize lynching”, they’re sure going about it the long way, since all three men have been “normalized” into life terms in jail, at the very least.  

So Marty’s lying. 

The killers in the Arbery case, like the killer of Trayvon Martin in 2012, claimed that they were authorized by the law to make what they considered a citizen’s arrest. In both cases, when the young black men being hunted down, undoubtedly frightened, resisted their assault, the killers said that they became frightened and needed to shoot as a matter of self-defense. The people who provoked the incidents claimed self-defense.

And again, Marty’s lying about the Martin case.  I won’t go through all the details…

…because Massood Ayoob already did, and with a level fo detail that everyone should bring to the table in trying to debate gun grabbers like Marty and Hausman. 

Although the courts convicted the killers in the Arbery case, our laws are encouraging vigilantism. Multiple states have enacted the NRA-backed “stand your ground” laws, where a person can shoot someone based simply on their subjective feeling that they are at risk, even if walking away and avoiding the confrontation was a reasonable alternative. In Minnesota, there are currently at least three proposed bills to adopt a stand your ground provision here.

Marty is not only lying, here – self-defense involves the “subjective feeling”,  provided a jury agrees that the feeling was reasonable, the fear was immediate, the shooter wasn’t the aggressor, and the force used was reasonable. 

And he’s playing word games.  Years of abuse of “science” have trained ignorant people with big vocabularies that “subjective” is a synonym for “inferior”.  I’ve had at least one person – with a PhD in Education, no less – say this regarding “Stand your Ground” laws. 

To which I respond “what ‘objective’ standard “perceiving an imminent threat’ do you recommend?”

It was a short conversation.  

These laws give people a sense of entitlement to bring high-powered weapons to public settings, ostensibly to protect themselves or other people or property. In the recent Kenosha case, Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who was acquitted, felt it was his right to bring a high powered, semi-automatic rifle to a protest. Rittenhouse’s lawyer said that he did “nothing wrong.”

Marty’s lying again.  Rittenhouse’s defense claimed his shooting was justified.  A jury agreed.  

Stand your ground laws promote vigilante justice, and guns in the hands of racist vigilantes lead to modern-day lynchings. We need to repeal those laws and take a comprehensive look at how we regulate guns.

Marty is lying and preying on his audience’s ignorance.  

“Stand your ground” wasn’t a factor in Rittenhouse’s defense; he may have tried harder to retreat than any self-defense defendant I’ve ever seen (with the possible exception of this guy).  

And it wasn’t part of the Arberry case, either.  

Practically anyone can purchase an arsenal of weaponry powerful enough to gun down dozens of victims in minutes, including semi-automatic rifles and large capacity ammunition magazines.

And yet practically nobody actually does it.  

In a nation with more guns than people, if law-abiding gun owners were a problem, you’d know it. 

After so many years in which the gun lobby dominated the political system, it is a hopeful sign that we are seeing the beginning of a national conversation about gun laws.

As we’ve noted countless times in the past, whenever leftists start talking about “conversations about giuns”, they mean “they lie, scream, defame, slander and insulit; you listen”. 

Which is what Marty is doing.

Up next, Big Left’s inevitable deflection to cars:

As we work to promote safer communities, consider how we regulate automobiles. There are lawful uses for both guns and cars, but both are deadly when misused.

With cars, we require the operator to be trained, licensed, and insured. We register the vehicle, and re-register it when transferring to a new owner.

Except literally nobody says owning and driving a car is a constitutional right – a mandated “Right of the People”, on par with free speech, assembly, worship and the press.

John Marty should propose training for people to be allowed to vote. 

Licensing for the news media (that may be redundant these days). 

Insurance before worshipping. 

Make that dog hunt, Senator.  Then we’ll talk.  

We don’t have a gun registration system because the gun lobby has used fear tactics to fight even modest regulation. They say, “First they’ll register your guns, then the next thing they’ll do is take ’em away.”

Right. Just like they did with cars…

Well, no.  Just like they did with guns, in New York. DC, Chicago, and like they tried to do in California, Virginia and New York State.  Not to mention the UK and Australia, in the past few decades.  

But keep talking about cars. 

So what is Marty proposing (with emphasis added by me):

Here are some reasonable changes that are long overdue:

– Licensing gun owners and registering firearms, requiring training and insurance.

Which takes us back to having to get permission from a state functionary to exercise a constitutional right, and requires trust that a future administration won’t revoke the licenses and send cops around to the registered addresses to round ’em up at their pleasure.  

Like they did in Chicago, DC, New York City, Australia, the UK, and like they tried to do in New York State, California and Virginia. 

– Prohibiting people without occupational need or personal safety risks from carrying weapons, whether concealed or openly brandished, around the community.

This is just pandering to “Karen”.   There is an extremely negative correlation between carry by the law abiding citizen, with or without a permit, and crime committed by those citizens.  

– Putting a lifetime ban on gun ownership for people convicted of violent crimes.

This is just pandering to the ignorant; these people are already banned from owning guns until their rights are restored by a judge.  Someone convicted of a violent crime will have a pretty steep burden of proof to get a judge to restore their rights – outside Hennepin and Ramsey counties of course.  

Perhaps Marty should propose registrations, licensing and lifetime bans on judges that catch and release violent criminals?

– Banning certain dangerous weaponry such as large capacity magazines.

Which are, again, not correlated in any way with the street crime that accounts for most gun homicides.  

These modest proposals do not punish responsible gun owners any more than vehicle registration punishes responsible car owners.

And again, this is mealy-mouthed double talk.  Marty is lying.  He proposes confiscation of guns – which only happens to those who are law-abiding and responsible. 

But these proposals will help stop the arms race on our streets where gang members are more heavily armed than the police and where anyone with a temper or a minor grudge can end up murdering someone in a road rage incident.

Wait – what?

Gang members aren’t “responsbile gun owners”, or even legal gun owners.  Ands they will not be getting licensed, buying insurfance, or registering their guns.  

None of my audience needs to be told this.  And I suspect none of Marty’s audience gets the distinctionn

Regulation saves lives. Over the last 75 years, motor vehicle regulations have cut the traffic death toll by about 90 percent, based on the number of miles driven.

Logic isn’t a long suit of Marty, or anyone who votes for him.- but the distinction wouldn’t confuse a moderately bright fifth grader; the lawful, ordinary use of cars is prone to accidents.  Ensuring their safe use, and making cars themselves more accident. proof, will have an effect. 

Guns are designed to poke holes in targets, whatever that target is.  That’s their purpose. 

If gang members start running down crowds of people with cars, Marty’s analogy would be marginally less nonsensical. 

Speaking of nonsense, Marty is going to butcher the sainted memory of Justice Scalia:

Regulating firearms would reduce fatalities too. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment gives an individual right to bear arms in self-defense, but that is not an absolute right. The court says that reasonable restrictions may be placed on the possession of firearms.

Commenting on Scalia’s dicta on the Heller decision should only be allowed to people with licenses and insurance.  

“Reasonable regulation” incliudes keeping them out of felons hands – prudent restrictions against objective issues.  

Not the sort of Karen-baiting ninnyism that Marty and Hausman are yapping about.

Blindsided Them With Science: So – why are Marty and Hausman going long on gun-grabbing, at the tail end of a decade that saw the most radical turnaround in public opinion in the history of the gun rights debate?

Polling shows that the public isn’t smelling what the DFL’s been cooking. Crime is making the Twin Cities – once the pride of the upper midwest, and crown jewels in “progressivism’s” CV, gradually unlivable.. Schools are collapsing, and the teachers union seems hell-bent on accelerating the unfolding disaster.

But the DFL has dealt with all of that before.

But there’s one more challenge – one the DFL hasn’t had to face in the past.

Science.

Let me explain.

After two years of lockdowns, mask hysteria, Vaccine Summer followed by Omicron Winter, and mandates, it turns out that pure, unadulterated science has found a cure for Covid-19: war.

And with the end of Covid, comes the end of the sort of bullying, log-rolling and virtue-screaming that validates and affirms the self-esteem of today’s generation of “progressives”.

With the end of Covid, and of bullying, log-rolling, of snitch-lines and the hierarchy of officially-blessed paranoia atop which they sat for two glorious (to them) years, their reason for existence has been undercut.

Marty senses – out of self-preservation, but not incorrectly – that trying to logroll and bully and harp on law-abiding gun owners (not gang bangers, nosireebob) might provide the sense of mission that events have so cruelly yanked away from Marty’s base.

Show me where I’m wrong.

The curiously omnipresent Lt. Governor Flanagan:

Let’s translate:

“Empowering communities to lead with state support” = “transferring public funds to ‘community’ non-profits who do nothing bout crime, but who do serve as the DFL’s farm team and ‘enforcers’ in the community’.

“Be good partners” = keep transferring state money to that political class.

Once you understand the language, it gets so much easier.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

One thing I’ll say for Lesko Brandon, he’s been effective.

I used to trust my doctor. Nowadays, he preaches the Vaccine Gospel that HMO management requires him to give, which parrots the CDC party line, which is based on partial and incomplete data (the rest is intentionally being withheld) and completely ignores medical studies on effective medical treatments used in other countries. Lesko Brandon has effectively destroyed my faith in the medical profession.

I used to trust my banker. Nowadays, he assures me the bank has no intention of seizing my accounts as an unvaxxed customer, unless ordered to cease providing financial services to me as a biological suspected terrorist under Lesko Brandon’s extension of his Emergency Powers. Lesko Brandon has effectively destroyed my faith in the banking business.

I used to trust my military. Nowadays, the top brass assure me they would never abandon Americans left behind in a war zone (except Afghanistan) and would never get involved in a land war in Asia (except Ukraine, where US troops are already on the way). Lesko Brandon has effectively destroyed my faith in the military.

I used to trust the US economy to be the most productive, most secure economy in the world. Nowadays, inflation is running at Venezuela levels and the labor force participation rate is lower than the Carter Malaise years, with no discernible plan in sight, not even WIN buttons. Lesko Brandon has effectively destroyed my faith in the US economy.

Most effective President ever? Probably not – Lincoln destroyed more but Lincoln had five years in office. Give Brandon time.

Joe Doakes

Our cities are a little like Charlie Brown.

Every time Lucy puts the ball on the ground, Charlie remembers all the times she’s pulled the ball away. And yet, he has faith; maybe this will be the first time.

Lucy’s back:

Let’s make sure we’re clear on this – the only “fans” of this idea are the members of the non-profit/industrial complex and the consultant class, who’ll benefit handsomely from it.

As they did from light rail, and the “urban reimagining” of which it is a part.

As they did from the Saint Paul Port Authority’s grandiose, costly, failed urban utopian visionmongering.

As they did from “Urban Renewal”, which did the opposite of renew urban life, replacing old downtowns with sterile, brutalist concrete canyons (see also – Downtown Saint Paul, from Minnesota to Jackson).

A friend of the blog emailed:

I94 was built to “revitalize” middle class Black neighborhood and poor white neighborhood. Historically, it is now said to have destroyed the Rondo neighborhood businesses. 
But, people were not defeated. Black businesses persisted. Businesses by Immigrants from Asian countries also moved in. Perhaps I94 worked. It revitalized!
How dare they. So the Green Line was built to “revitalize” marginalized neighborhoods of working class Americans (of all races, ethnicities).
It kind of worked-businesses closed or left to areas that were no longer on Green Line. Many Black owned, Asian American owned, and immigrant owned businesses left.
Any hope of retail that appealed to work class neighbors was squashed by Allianz Field construction. It was further solidified once the remaining businesses were allowed to be destroyed in the 2020 riots.
Yet, our elites must believe there are still too many of the wrong people lurking around the neighborhood. We need to be further revitalized out of the community. Maybe Bill McGuire and his soccer fans are scared of us. Thus, people like Councilmember Mitra Jalali and urbanist activists propose to once again destroy what communities have built around. 

In a city destroyed, over and over, by urban planning dilettantes, this is yet another fun project for the urban wonk class, which will be paid for literally by taxpayers, and figuratively by generations of the urban miserable yet unborn.

During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden said the key to controlling inflation is for businesses to “control costshttps://”:for businesses to “control costs”

“We have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer. I think I have a better idea to fight inflation: Lower your costs, not your wages. Make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America.”

No word if the department of labor has reclassified “wages“ as “not a cost“ yet.

I will await Paul Krugman‘s word on the costs thst can be lowered by CEO degree.

Melisa Lopez Franzen is one of the most powerful women in the Senate DFL caucus, and the highest ranking Latin American woman in the history of the Senate.

But when redistricting led her into the same district as Senator Ron “I went to Harvard, you know“ Latz, who do you think was going to win?But when redistricting lead her into the same district as Senator Ron “I went to Harvard, you know“ lats, who did you think was going to win?

Keith Ellison and John Thompson’s allegations of sexual abuse.

The jarring allegations of sexual abuse from Senator Jason Isaacson‘s relative and key Senste staffer.

Why, I’m starting to think that all of this “party of women” blather is just campaign posturing…

“So, Mitch – why do you say that the democratic party in United States is the party of authoritarianism? “

Because they tell us they are. Strong majority of Democrats approve of Justin Trudeaucescu‘s treatment of civil disobedience:treatment of civil civil disobedience:

35 percent overall approved of Trudeau’s crackdown, while 10 percent said they were unaware of what’s happening to the US’ northern neighbor.

Looking at Democrat likely voters alone, 65 percent said they favored Trudeau’s crackdown on the protestors, and 17 percent said they disapproved.

I mean, even the rhetoric is becoming too obvious to avoid; Orwell’s villains declared that freedom was slavery; today, democrat thinkers closer and closer to the main stream say freedom is “white supremacist“.

Tomato, tomahto.

Y’know, if I were really feeling the snark today, the metaphor count could jump into double digits, here.

“Nice state youse got here. It’d be a shame if it…broke, for not respecting and paying us…”

1936: Jesse Owens, running in the Olympics, humiliates Adolf Hitler.

1948: Jackie Robinson humiliates bigots.

1980: US Hockey team humiliates the USSR.

2022: Nancy Pelosi humiliates the US and freedeom-loving people everywhere:

Nancy Pelosi urged U.S. Olympic athletes not to speak out against the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses while in Beijing, saying the athletes shouldn’t risk “incurring the anger” of the “ruthless” CCP…“Make no mistake — our athletes should participate,” Pelosi said. “They’ve trained, they’re disciplined, they’ve dreamed, they’ve aspired, they’ve worked hard. But this year we must celebrate them from home as they compete in China.”

But Pelosi also indicated that she believes U.S. athletes should keep quiet in China to avoid the Chinese government’s wrath.

If we’re worried about a government’s “wrath” – particularly that of a regime that is historically among the most murderous in history, and one that is currently engaging in genocide – why are they over there, anyway?

I write this, not because I think my audience needs to see it, but because it illustrates something that’s right on the verge of being a Berg’s Law.

To something like wit: Democrats can tell their audience anything they want, because they know that their voting base – whether they have a Masters in Education or are non-profiteers from Linden Hills – are ignorant, devoid of facility in critical thinking, and basically intellectual herd animals.

The White House is crowing about the “economic growth” under Brandon:

You know as well as I do – it’s a dead cat bounce, up from the government-induced trough at the end of the Trump term:

If American public education taught critical thought, the Democrats would poll somewhere below the Legal Marijuana party.

This is just your periodic reminder that Joe Biden blocked a black woman from the SCOTUS, and a wise Latino from the Federal bench, because they were black and Latino and not progressive.

Berg’s Eighth Law is universal and omnipresent.

…neither Spotify nor at least some current research need him around anyhow.

The DFL is waking up to the fact that people don’t like crime, and they don’t see law and order as a “privilege”.

I was going to write out the last couple years of history, but the Twitter embed seems to have added that for me.

DFL policies pretty much negate the DFL’s proposals:

You can boil these “proposals” down to “trying to fix the damage they’ve wrought into a couple of categories:

Transferring more taxpayer money to the state’s political class and the non-profit/industrial complex.

“Innovation” and “Local Community Policing” grants might be well described as “greasing the right palms”.

Paying to undo the DFL’s damage

Body cameras? Training investigators?

We had investigators. They quit when the county attorneys stopped prosecuting repeat criminals.

Trying to blame Republicans

Which, as long as the DFL runs both cities, is really what it’s all about.

I shudder to imagine who’s convinced by this.

He drove with a .13 blood alcohol content (as of test time, hours later, indicating he had closer to a .17 at the time of the crash).

He drove 126MPH down 94, up until he went off the road.

He drove, thus hammered, carrying his service firearm (or at least a .357 magnum revolver in a holster), at a blood alcohol level 3-4 times the level at which a civilian would lose their permit.

He lied to officers about the crash; he didn’t invoke his 5th Amendment right to remain silent (which is legal, constitutionally protected, and good); he actually lied.

The story of Sheriff Hutchinson’s DUI and crash just keeps getting worse and worse:

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor asked for his resignation.

But that’ll be the end of it.

Not because the DFL is out to protect Hutchinson; the “progressives” have a hand-picked candidate even more “progressive” than Hutchinson waiting for November. The DFL will endorse her, and Hutchinson will be shunted aside like last year’s model.

But until then? If the DFL let it he known that driving drunk was a real problem, they’d endanger the prospects of one of their candidates, in a year when the DFL expects to have enough problems.

That’s how life, and politics, in a one-party autocracy works.

Is delegitimizing elections the greatest crime one can commit against the republican form of government?

Or just when some people do it?

So why are the Democrats hammering on January 6?

To draw attention away from their own hatred of self-government, of course:

Anyone say “it’s not about science, it’s about power?” Perish the thought:

– Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters would oppose a proposal for federal or state governments to fine Americans who choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine. However, 55% of Democratic voters would support such a proposal, compared to just 19% of Republicans and 25% of unaffiliated voters.

Who are those 19% of Republicans, anyway?

Of course, that’s benign compared to some of the other things Dems favor:

– Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a proposal is opposed by 61% of all likely voters, including 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters.

Forget about the First Amendment…:

– Nearly half (48%) of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications. Only 27% of all voters – including just 14% of Republicans and 18% of unaffiliated voters – favor criminal punishment of vaccine critics.

Hey, if reason and messaging don’t work, you can just ship ’em off to southern Idaho:

– Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”

Remember when people said comparing vaccinations to the Holocaust was abhorrent? Well, it still is – but a lot less so, in view of that graf.

The more you read, the. more you realize: Orwell underestimated Democrats:

– While about two-thirds (66%) of likely voters would be against governments using digital devices to track unvaccinated people to ensure that they are quarantined or socially distancing from others, 47% of Democrats favor a government tracking program for those who won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine.

I swear, sometimes – if AOC called her next campaign “the Great Leap Forward”, not a single Dem would get the irony:

How far are Democrats willing to go in punishing the unvaccinated? Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Democratic voters would support temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s much more than twice the level of support in the rest of the electorate – seven percent (7%) of Republicans and 11% of unaffiliated voters – for such a policy.

Whenever someone chants “there’s no difference between the parties”, reference this poll.

…her career.

To: All of you who were condemning Trump for undermining the legitimacy of our elections
From: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re: Unity!

So – we can all agree to condemn this scabrous attack on our elections, then?

That is all.

While it’s always worth casting a cold eye on polling numbers, it’s striking how poorly the Leader of the Free World is doing these days across the board. Real Clear Politics has the numbers and they aren’t pretty:

RCP Average                            12/17 – 1/11 —           41.9               53.1               -11.2
Quinnipiac                                 1/7 – 1/10 1178 RV    35                  54                  -19
Politico/Morning Consult           1/8 – 1/9 2000 RV      44                  53                  -9
Rasmussen Reports                 1/9 – 1/11 1500 LV     40                  58                  -18
Economist/YouGov                   1/8 – 1/11 1258 RV     45                 51                   -6
IBD/TIPP                                   1/5 – 1/8 1308 A         44                 45                   -1
Reuters/Ipsos                            1/5 – 1/6 1000 A         45                 51                   -6
Economist/YouGov                    1/2 – 1/4 1201 RV      43                 51                   -8

It’s one thing if Rasmussen, a pollster generally favorable to the GOP, posts ugly numbers for Joe Biden. What’s truly eye-opening are the results from Quinnipiac, a poll historically gentle with the portsiders. If their numbers are accurate, Biden’s disapproval rating is a whopping -19, and that’s from a poll conducted after the recent Pelosi-produced passion play of 1/6.

So what are the larger implications? A few thoughts:

• If you’re Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema, do you fear the political wrath of the leader of your party? Apostasy has rarely been safer.
• If you’re Xi or Putin, do you concern yourself with anything Joe Biden says? Or, for that matter, with anything he does? I doubt the citizenry of Ukraine or Taiwan is particularly sanguine at the moment.
• If you’re Mitch McConnell, do you sleep well? Never better, I would guess, and certainly better than your average Ukranian.
• If you’re Stacey Abrams, do you see any value in hanging with Grandpa Joe?

While there’s certainly entertainment value in watching Uncle Joe moving kinda slow, we’re not headed for Petticoat Junction at the moment.

If a Republican wins in 2024, I suspect there will be a bonfire of dox at the FBI headquarters. 

Maybe they’ll make s’mores. 

And then there were six, again: Kendall Qualls has jumped into the MNGOP Governors race.

And the MNDFL’s Ken Martin’s response?

So…for the 2022 Governor’s race, Ken Martin is still running against…

…Trump?

Which is interesting, because it wasn’t so long that his party’s line was completely different:

Why yes. Indeed.

I suppose it beats trying to run on the DFL’s record…

The house DFL caucus is starting to “take a crime seriously”.

Or at least that’s what the headlines are intended to say: “In response, we are already drafting bills based on the input of all stakeholders”

All?

Well, not all the stakeholders. Not the party that currently holds the minority in the Minnesota house.

There’s a reason for that, of course; this has nothing to do with fighting crime, and everything to do with fighting the perception that the majority party in the Minnesota house is nothing but a pack of feckless felon coddlers.

In other words, a public relations stunt to pray on a news media that serves as little but a bunch of feckless DFL coddlers.

…of a Midwestern state that’s been wracked by skyrocketing crime, cataclysmic racial strife, a collapsing education system, and an economy that is showing the strain of nearly two years of ham-fisted and largely ineffective government responses to Covid.

Whatcha gonna do?

“I’m gonna go to Disneyworld” might have been a better idea.

And that “interview” sounds more like a slumber party.