…if the Walz administration would allow real journalists, like me, along on his entourage to junkets like this:

“Uh, yes, Governor Walz – do these farmers know that you signed a law that will ban all liquid fuel by 2040, including on farms? Meaning no gas or diesel to run tractors and combines, among other things?

What? You’re saying nobody asked that? 

Not even the farmer?

Or “farmer”?

So, it’s staged?

Like every godforsaken shot of  kids spontaneously hugging him?

It tracks.

Honestly, with some of these lefty s**tpost farms, I’m not sure why I bother fact-checking anything.  They don’t care, and they bank on their audience not caring as well. 

But there’s always the off chance that I’ll catch someone who hasn’t checked all of their brain in at the lefty claim check, who is looking for an honest answer to a stupid question.

To wit:

So let’s get this straight:  in the past 60 years, the United States has spent $22 Trillion dollars – more than the annual gross domestic product of China, or about 3/4 of a year’s GDP of the USA – to “eradicate poverty” and its effects. 

But, on top of all that spending (which is ongoing, and has accelerated well ahead of inflation), taking a small tax onto the small number of billionaires is what it’ll ackshyually take to fix the problem?

Huh.

We’ve been so close, all along!

OK.  Now let it sink in.  

Then press flush. 

I’ll allow that it’s possible that between David and I, Minnesota might get a little over-covered here at Hot Air.  

But I’ve got a theory:  national Democrats are trying out a lot of their national strategies and tactics in Minnesota; conservatives following Minnesota politics got a fair amount of deja vu during the ’24 presidential campaign, and that was even before Tim Walz got the (inexplicable but providential) nod to run for VP.   The accession of Minnesota DFL chair Ken Martin to the head of the DNC supports the theory.  So hear me out. 

The DFL in Minnesota has a bit of a crime problem:  their one vote majority in the State Senate (until Senator Eichorn is expelled for his arrest) hangs in the person of Sen. Nicole Mitchell, who is accused of multiple counts of burglary; the Walz administration is mired in a persistent series of non-profit fraud scandals, one of their elected representatives was tossed from office when it was revealed he didn’t live in his district (with the full knowledge of the DFL’s former Speaker of the House), and there’s the usual assortment of DUIs, not to mention the DFL taking the “20%” side of a lot of 80-20 issues (“stand your ground”, boys in girls sports, and so on).  

The response appears to be…

…slander all Republicans.  

State Senator Erin Maye Quade is a long-time progressive activist – think of her as a home-grown AOC.  Her terms as a state representative and state Senator from the south Twin Cities suburb of Apple Valley were interrupted by a brief run for Lieutenant Governer, along with current Minnesota Senate majority leader Erin Murphy – who, significantly standing next to Maye Quade outside the Senate chamber as she said (read the thread, via Tom Hauser at KSTP-TV):

She said this with the Majority Leader standing right there.  You can see it. 

That’s about as close as you can get to declaring all Republicans potential sex criminals in advance, just to save the trouble.  

So I’m going to go out on a short, sturdy limb and predict that Democrats nationwide are going to embark on a colossal campaign of name-calling.  

During his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial bids, Minnesota governor Tim Walz ran under the motto and hashtag “One Minnesota”.   Now, if you’re a student of certain problematic eras in European history, the hair on the back of your neck might stand up when leaders start talking about making the place they want to govern “One…” of anything.  It’s kind of hte opposite of “E Pluribus Unum”, if you think about it. 

Especially when you compare to the Harris/Walz 2024 Presidental campaign, where the candidates spent a few cycles calling Republicans “Fascists” and “Nazis”.  

The election results showed that the results, er, came up a little short. 

Or…did they?

I’m of two minds about this story. Either:

• Tim Walz only has one setting, “defamatory gaffe”, or
• someone in the Democratic brain trust running Walz’s none-too-subtle 2028 Presidential pre-bid knows something we don’t about the hunger swing voters have to demonize half of their fellow Americans, with a little election denialism thrown in for good measure.

If I’m being consistent with my post on Walz and the team behind him from a week or so ago, I’d urge you not to rule out the second option too soon. 

This past Saturday, March 22, Walz spoke at a rally in Rochster, Minnesota – the largest city in the Minnesota First Congressional District, the district Walz represented in Washington from 2006 to 2018 (and which has, interestingly, voted for Walz’s opponents in two gubernatorial races and last year’s White House bid).   These…things, were found floating around the event.   As reported by Liz Collin, from Minnesota conservative outlet “Alpha News”:

On the one hand, “86” is a reference to the military (and bar industry) slang term for “permanently throw out”.   Which is the goal of politics.  Not a big deal.  

But “Bury Fascists?”

On top of all the other calls to violence, subtle and, er, not so subtle, in recent weeks?

And I did mention election denialism, didn’t I?

There are ways to not read that as denying the election results; delusion, magical thinking, or playing to a base that is more or less in intense denial about the Democratic party’s current state are the ones that jump to mind.  

Dean Phillips – former congressional representative and Democratic presidential candidate, and a Democrat who has found a niche as the Democrats’ and Minnesota DFL’s critical nagging conscience – is a little concerned about his former Minnesota political colleague:

Now, we don’t know who was handing them out, or how many were in circulation, or whether Walz was involved.

But this jibes with what Walz is saying, doing and, er, encouraging in his followers,

Before the inevitable half-assed walkback, anyway:

To: The MNDFL
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: Pick A Side

So, profiles in courage that you are, you’ve decided to take a bold stance against (checks notes) iopeople attracted to minors. https://x.com/MinnesotaDFL/status/1902478708142702817

Pretty icky.

But wait – it was just two years ago that the DFL-controlled legislature passed a law, signed by Piglet, that removed “Minor Attraction” from the list of exceptions to the MN Human Rights Act.

The media’s Democrat-fluffery industry breathlessly told everyone it didn’t “protect pedophilia“.

And that’s true – technically.   It doesn’t make sex with underage people legal.  

What it did was open the door to litigation the next time someone who is attracted to minors suffers any form of discrimination if their attraction becomes public knowledge. 

Which is, let’s be honest, where slippery slopes start.

So – the DFL is being hypocritical about this one two levels – they started paving the way to make this sort of behavior acceptable (in Democrats), and as the GOP leads the way to expelling Eichorn, Nicole Mitchell – equally accused of a couple of felonies – remains covered by the DFL’s code of omertá and the network of DFL judges.   

What does Tim Walz fantasize about?

Well, not in a debate, he can’t. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Governor Walz was an imaging disaster during the past presidential campaign…

…there seems to be a convenient – dare I say, too convenient groundswell of social media support for him this past few days.

So with that in mind, it’s well and good to remember the real Tim Walz.

Tim Walz appears to be doing more than exploring re a presidential run in 2028:

On the one hand – I’m not sure on what planet his national stock rose after his VP bid. He was an embarassment.

On the one hand – if he is delusional enough to think he’s got national legs after all that, maybe he’ll opt out of running for governor again?

Decisions.  Decisions. 

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

The auto-pen pardons look bad, but I’m certain they will be upheld.  It’s a matter of federal law but examples from Minnesota might be illustrative. 

A deed to convey real estate is not valid without the signature of the grantor.

A signature is any mark intended to authenticate an instrument.  Making your X on the deed is a “signature.”  The law does not discriminate against the illiterate.

And a signature may be made by the signer, or by rubber stamp bearing the signer’s name, or made by another at the direction of the signer.  The law does not discriminate against the handicapped.

Given the broadness of the concept in widely different areas of the law, I am confident the courts would have no trouble upholding everything Biden signed by autopen the same as if he personally signed every document.  

They have to – otherwise there’s no end to the chaos caused by acknowledging that he was mentally incompetent and somebody else was running the country.  Can’t admit that publicly even though everybody knows it. 

Joe Doakes

The fact that Biden’s actions were protected by the same measures that protect illiterates and incompetents somehow takes a little sting off.

If you live in House District 40B – northern Roseville and southern Shoreview – and you’ve seen enough of how the DFL acts when it’s got all the power it wants, get out and vote for Paul Wikstrom today. 

Drag your friends and family out to do it too. 

Got kids who live there?  They owe you.  Twist that arm.

Elderly relatives?   Get them to the polls.  

Wikstrom has raised more money in this race than some CD4 Congressional candidates have in recent races – so there’s support and interest.  This is at least in the running to be not a DFL walkover.  

Destroy the trifecta!

What’s the saying?  Oh, yeah.

Yes, we can.

(If “we” live in 40B). 

…and called this number six to 12 months ago?

Do you even need to ask?

From 18B a head to 6B behind in two years.

Attaway, DFL.

But could it really have “been worser”?   

Because there’s no real chance the states ruling DFL clacque are going to do anything useful about it. 

Not to say they won’t do something…predictable:

Now, are there plenty of Minnesota voters stupid enough to believe that DFL spending under Biden spun the state’s budget wheel $24 Billion Dollars in the wrong direction in two years?

Well, they’re sure hoping so.

Of course, it’s not just Howard – who’s replaced Smith as the dumbest voice in the legislature:

To:  Smooth-brained DFL Social Media Smurfs
From:  Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: When Did You Stop Beating…

SBDFLSMS,

As we watch Governor Piglet – who staged a lockdown, seized 18 months of emergency power for a 3 month emergency, started a snitch line and a “badthink” database and has spent seven years relentlessly dividing Minnesotans under the slogan “One People, One State, One Minnesota [1] – flail around at having called half of his state’s people “Nazis” and “Fascists”, I urge you to take a moment for introspection about some basic logic and, yes, morality.

To wit:

And this person, a DFL thought-leader:

Here’s the thing; the burden of proof is on you to prove someone is a “Nazi” or “fascist”, with some sort of evidence.  It is not on your target – we’re not “victims” – to prove they are not. 

Otherwise, you’re just a mud-slinging coward. 

That is all. 

[1] OK, that wasn’t literally the slogan.  But nobody who studied European totalitarianism in the 20th century didn’t think that when they first heard the slogan “One Minnesota”.  I guarantee it. 

The Piglet isn’t running for Senate:

That leaves the field with:

• Lt. Governor Flanagan, the one-time extremist who has drifted toward the center-left, at least as compared to
• Ilhan Omar and
• Leigh Finke.
• Al Franken is also riumored to be thinking about wanting to go back to DC.  
• Angie Crag, who just keeps barely portraying herself as “moderate” in defending her always vulnerable House seat. 

The DFL’s big advantage is their chair has far more power to shape the election field than the GOP chair does.  I suspect the wrangling before, during and after the DFL convention will reflect the wishes of whomever is the MNDFL’s sitting char.   If it were still Ken Martin, I’d suspect a lot of push behind Rep. Craig – I can’t see that the other three contenders aren’t going to have problems outside 494/694.  Franken’s a wild card – but he’s also 73.  

There are mainstream (i.e. less overtly Maoist) DFLers who say they think Craig may have an inside shot.   Which would open up CD2, which has been vulnerable ever since Jason Lewis left the seat – provided the CD2 GOP can coalesce around a viable candidate, rather

As to Walz running for a third term?   That’s gotta be a big lift – but with seemingly every other contender for statewide office in the ring for Senate, it’s hard to see who in the DFL would oppose him, as the field looks now – or which of them would do better in a Governor race. 

The wildest card of all, of course, would be vintage DFL:  Senator Smith resigns early, Walz appoints either himself or whichever candidate has the current favor of the DFL (himself or Craig, I’d suspect), potentially leaving that choice and Lt. Gov. Flanagan as incumbents next year.  

At any rate – the opportunity is there for the MNGOP, if they can tame the circuilar firing squad for one lousy cycle. 

And the size of that “if” seems to defy physics. 

To:  Mayor Melvin Carter, Saint Paul
From:  Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant and Human ATM
Re:  Election Denier?

Mayor,

You said this yesterday:

Quick point of order, yerroner – the rest of us pay taxes, too.  Lots and lots of them.

And we won the election.  In an electoral-college landslide, in fact. 

Aren’t you glad the Senate still has a filibuster?

That is all.

I’m old enough to remember when Rolling Stone was vividly counter-culture.

But only barely .

Read this piece on Amy Klobuchar.

Pressed for a message to viewers, the Democratic senator cited her own disenfranchised feelings since the inauguration, saying it’s important, “To not give up, to not look down [and] to not end up in The Container Store like I did for three weekends in a row cause I decided I wanted to bring order to my life.”

Klobuchar added that one interaction in particular at The Container Store made her feel less alone in her frustrations. “This constituent comes up and says, ‘I know why you’re here,’ the senator reccounted. “It’s cause you feel like everything’s out of control and you’re trying to control it.”

Klobuchar told a similar story in a recent podcast interview with The Daily Beast. As the publication notes, the four-term senator “was on the hunt for baskets to organize her coffee and tea collection—and, in retrospect, the broader sense of satisfaction that comes with things being the way they’re supposed to be.”

 

Am I the only one who thinks is reads like an ad for the Container store woven not-all-that-cleverly into a piece on Klobuchar’s (checks notes) stunnng courageous boss-lady journey over the past month?

Does she need to moisturize, with all the tongue-baths she gets from BIg Media?

So, somewhere, in some market research or PR firm, once upon a time, apparently some political marketing executive figured out that…

…an eternal diet of photos of politicians was all DFLers needed to provide to keep winning elecitons.

Not giving press conferences.

Not debating.

Not engaging with voters. 

Not actually solving problems or, y’know, doing anything but taking pictures of themselves with food. 

“Now, wait”, you might say.  “What about those photos Republican politicians do, with the swimsuits…

…and the shooting…

OK, sure!   The GOP is to self-defense and flirtatious PG-rated sexuality that seems borderline prudish on TV today, as the DFL is to stuffing their faces. 

I’m good with that. 

The real question is – how is Tim Walz going to raise the steaks?

Er, stakes…

No, wait…

Up next in “profiles in courage”:  LA Mayor Karen Bass takes the firm moral stance that her people…

…er…

They, the people of Los Angeles pay good taxpayer money for that fortune teller who reads the future for good or bad auguries.  

Dunking on the MNDFL’s social media intern isn’t “punching down”.  It’s “squishing something with my foot”. 

But this one tells us a lot about the DFL. 

The intern is looking at something in the GOP platform:

Forget for a moment that they deflected from the GOP’s correct assertion that the DFL calls post-partum care “anti-abortion” – the crisis pregnancy center may be as noir of a béte to the MNDFL as Trump himself.

But look at the bit the intern highlighted:   it’ll show you how depraved the DFL is. The highlighted bit in the GOP platform asserts that *fathers should have rights* as well as obligations”.  

The DFL’s position is that not just the fetus, but the father, is just a clump of cells.  

Every time I think I hate the DFL enough, I find out I’m not even close.

Tina Smith is retiring from the Senate, citing health.

So – who’s turn is it in DC?

Tim Walz has made noises about running – and clearly lusts after DC real estate.  More on that maybe next week.

Peggy Flanagan came right out of the gate, though, and announced yesterday. 

No huge surprise there. 

Of course, some of her support rates a grim chuckle:

Her “lived experience” is entirely as part of the non-profit/DFL/industrial complex; she has never not been a first or second-tier government employee.

As to “proven leadership?” The only issue I can recall about her actually leading, as opposed to posturing…

…was when as chair of the Capitol Architecture Committee she let a group of her cronies tear down the statue of Christopher Columbus on the Capitol mall, and then made sure their leader and token arrestee was “sentenced” to teach kids about the evils of Christopher Columbus.

Now that’s leadership.

Besides Walz (ahem), we’ve Ilhan Omar, Jacob Frey, and we’ve got late-breaking rumors that Leigh Finke is mulling throwintg Leigh Finke’s hat into the ring:

The DFL’s strategy in the tied MN House appears to be “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”.

Case in point:

They’re certainly not dialing back the crazy.

While the fracas in the MN House is getting all the attention, the DFL is having to battle for their electoral lives in the Senate, where their one-vote rests on Senator Nicole Mitchell.

The reasoning is getting clearer and clearer:

Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald added a second burglary charge Monday against state Sen. Nicole Mitchell focusing on items she had with her when police encountered her stepmother’s home in April 2024 in Detroit Lakes….Mitchell’s case was supposed to go to trial in late January, but her defense team invoked a Minnesota law saying lawmakers cannot be required to attend court proceedings during a legislative session. That delayed Mitchell’s case until June and possibly later, depending on when the 2025 session wraps.

The new complaint includes more details about her alleged interaction with police. It says Mitchell told an officer “I’m just hoping this mistake won’t completely f*** up my life” and that she voiced alarm about affecting her military retirement.

She’s gonna leave the Senate, one way or another, and while two tied chambers isn’t any bigger of a hassle for the Governor and DFL and their agenda than one tied chamber, Woodbury isn’t so utterly safe that they can take anything for granted. 

Just in time for Christmas – and President’s Day [1] – the Governor Walz action figure!

Pull the string on his back to hear ten realistic-sounding phrases! –

• “One Minnesota!”
• “While billionaires feed their greed, we’re feeding kids!”

…and, like 6-8 more! [2]

Also – realistic “deer in the headlights” look when you ask him a question!

Corn dog, smart phone and DFL Comms Brodude sold separately.

[1] Too soon?

[2] Updates may be required.

So why is the DFL fighting everything so hard this year?

As we’ve noted in the past, the DFL has been in the minority before.  And they never reacted like they are today. 

So while acknowledging all the usual caveats – anonymous sources, citing even more anonymous connections, etc – read this entire thread anyway:

Presuming it’s true – it smacks of plausibility – then USAID is just a huge money-transfer machine, slapping altruistic facades onto over-the-top grifts to launder taxpayer money to the non-profit/industrial complex.

Looking at the freneticism and bile of the attacks on DOGE, Musk and the effort to tame USAID, it looks like it’s struck a nerve.

So – imagine what’ll happen if a Republican gets into the executive branch in Minnesota ever again?   Or gets enough power in the legislature to do some serious digging and publicizing?

If a Minnesota version of DOGE – perhaps the “Office of Minnesota Internal Graft, Abuse and Waste Detection” – were to get free reign to find where Governors Dayton and Walz and their non-profit/industrial complex handlers hid the bodies?

I suspect this list would get a lot bigger -and that that is why the DFL is squawking so hard this time

It must be a tough time to be Erin Maye Quade – Senator from Apple Valley, and Big Left’s attack poodle in the Senate.

In the past couple of years, she’s voted for a thoughtcrime data base, and openly fantasized about using government power to keep parents from teaching their kids about abstinence…

…and about “Eminent Domaining” and bulldozing the crisis pregnancy centers try to keep people out of the Planned Parenthood clinics that spend so much on her campaigns and will presumably be her post-politics career.

Because suddenly, she’d discovered that big powerful government can be scary, when you’re not at the controls.

Even if you have to conjure those threats out of thin air:

Further evidence of Berg’s Seventh Law; QAnon was a fantasy, but BlueAnon is very, very real. 

MN Rep. Leigh Finké (DFL-66A) apparently thinks that if hospitals can’t chemically neuter and surgically maim children, they shouldn’t offer care at all:

Nationwide, the Democrats failure to not look crazy harmed them immeasurably last November. 

I’m mildly gratified to see they’re not backing off one iota.