If you can’t get the media to do anything but paint Democrats’ toenails on the air,  you have to get your own media to do it for you.

Of course, the conservative media that does exist – talk radio – largely reaches an echo chamber.  A smart, superlative echo chamber, but the proverbial choir nonetheless.

Doug Wardlow did something I’ve been dying for a Republican to do for years; put out an ad that tells the actual truth about Keith Ellison…

…that the likes of Esme Murphy or John Cronin will never, ever allow to cross their lips.

And it took money  – filthy lucre! – to get it on the air, to do the job the Twin Cities media will not.

And that’s why Democrats want campaign finance “reform”.

Is Michael Bloomberg going to become the Harold Stassen of the 21st century?

Pro:  So it seems.

Con:  At least Stassen didn’t have tens of billions of dollars to blow on mindless freedom-sucking political action.

Daniel McCarthy at American Spectator noticed the same thing about the Brett Kavanaugh hearings that I do about every single “Protect” Minnesota rally; Where are you ends, and the participants, or almost exclusively upper middle class Caucasians. The few African-Americans there are either from Allied political groups there for the optics, or people like Senator Kamala Harris, Who is political career is largely floated by… White liberals.

And according to McCarthy, the hearings are a sign that that breed of upper middle-class white liberalism is dying off.

But the Democratic voters out there yelling about Kavanaugh were as white as any country club gathering of Republicans. They looked like a line of Starbucks patrons — Caucasian, professional, largely millennial, with earth tones and earnest expressions aplenty. Men and women wore the same fashionable glasses and more or less the same clothes. It was a Pumpkin Spice Riot.

Where were the black Democrats? Where were the non-yuppies? Hillary Clinton could have asked the same questions on November 9, 2016, after she failed to get them to show up for her the way they’d showed up for Barack Obama. That election, like the Kavanaugh protest, showed that white liberalism has a problem: it’s too liberal for a majority of whites, yet too distant from the concerns of most non-whites. But its proponents enjoy so much cultural prestige as liberals and so much self-confidence as part of a historic white majority — however much they may disdain such a thing — that they failed to recognise alienated they are from everyone else. They see themselves as the natural moral arbiters of society. But nobody else sees them that way. Nothing says that a multiracial or multicultural society has to be politically centre-left, after all. India has a right-wing nationalist and religious fundamentalist government. Brazil looks set to elect a right-wing president in a runoff later this month. Yet white American liberals cling to the belief that demographic magic will rescue them from the insufficiency of their ideology appeal. White liberalism is in fact in more trouble in this country than conservatism is. The only places where white liberals values matter are in elite cultural institutions — which is why getting Kevin Williamson fired from The Atlantic is a lot easier than getting senators to vote against confirming Kavanaugh.

In of movement dominated by magical thinking, it’s no surprise that magical thinking about them selves would be part of the deal.

My usual disclaimer: I’m not a Trump fan, and have never been. The deficit and debt Numbers are intensely troubling, so it’s not like my dislike is completely unwarranted.

But you’ve got to hand it to Trump – he gets politics. Better, it seems, than most politicians. Certainly better than the press, or the late-night infotainment howler monkeys.

But the latest ABD/PP poll indicates his handling – and, perhaps, staging dash of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination might be one of the most brilliant political traps (whether that trap was sprung by the president or the opposition, I don’t know) of all time. I will add a bit of emphasis here and there:

The latest IBD/TIPP poll finds that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings made a strong rebound this month, with a four-point gain to 40%, reversing almost the entire loss he suffered the month before. His disapproval rating went from 56% last month to 54% now.

What’s more, the Democrats’ advantage on the generic ballot question plunged from 11 points last month to just 2 points this month.

… at the subject line of this email:

Well, no.

MoveOn.org was made for moments like 20 years ago, when an aging lothario was facing impeachment, and Democrats with deep pockets wanted to defend his administration and power from his own arrogant excess.

Glad we could settle that.

How much of our nation’s current political, social and moral impasse traces directly to the changes Barack Obama wrought on both policy and social levels, especially in his effect on the American Left?

It’s open to debate (a debate that’ll never happen in our nation’s media or academy), but the answer might appear to be “lots and lots”.

Ben Shapiro scored one:

I can’t wait until this week is over.

Of course, that’s why Democrats are always chanting “believe survivors” these days; Ted Kennedy was smart enough never to leave any.

So let me get this straight – Keith Ellison wants his domestic abuse allegations “investigated” by a group with no criminal jurisdiction, composed of his peers, which has a long history of giving out whiffleball “consequences” for just about any crime or misemeanory, on behalf of a body that he’ll be leaving in January?

Sounds fair and just…

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Republicans keep warning Democrats they shouldn’t use vicious tactics against Kavanaugh because Democrats won’t like living under the new rules.  Nonsense, Democrats use vicious tactics because they know the new rules won’t apply to them.

There are stronger allegations against Keith Ellison than Brett Kavanaugh, but Democrats choose to believe Ellison, not the accusers.  The official Democrat Party line is those women are lying.  It’s the same line they took with Bill Clinton’s accusers.  The media won’t call out Democrats for hypocrisy, the media is complicit. From this, we can conclude Democrats will continue to use vicious tactics because THEY WORK.

Democrats are different from Republicans on a fundamental level.  Democrats don’t have principles, they are partisans.  They don’t care about victims, they care about victory.  They do not have morals, they have mobs.  They don’t have scruples, they have Screw You.  With a complicit mainstream media aided by SJW dominated social media who are careful to hide stories that make Democrats look bad while ceaselessly trumpeting stories that make Republicans look bad – even news stories they have investigated and know are false – Democrats only need a couple of useful idiots to derail any Republican plan.

I’m looking at you, Jeff Flake of Arizona, you, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and you, Susan Collins of Maine.

When Lindsay Graham loses his cool with the Dems, you know things are getting ugly.

Caron Monahan – the ex-girlfriend of anti-somatic DFL congressman Keith Ellison, who is running for state auditor this fall – reports that the big social media platforms appear to be engaging in shenanigans.

Since the big social media platform is our plan I’d like to make sure the actual record gets out:

Pass it along.

A few years ago, when the city of Minneapolis jumped on the “raise the minimum wage to $15 and mandatory benefits“ bandwagon, the owners of popular downtown eatery “Hell’s Kitchen” led the way in virtue-signaling how very OK they were with it.

And they stuck to their guns (their owners would not be OK with me using that phrase, but it’s still a free country) as a wave of other restaurants shut down around the metro, many of them explicitly citing the City mandated bludgeoning of their bottom line. No, seriously – one of them, “Ward 6“ in Saint Paul – pops up in the story, although the article never really connects the dots.

The star Tribune assures us that the owners saw they had a problem – they don’t specify which problem, although they hinted at it in a few places – but, for the moment, the bleeding is stanched.

Incredibly, the article points out in almost as many words that the owners of the restaurant almost geometrically match the stereotype every conservative has of restaurantears who virtue signal their approval of laws that, historically, shred through restaurant jobs like wood chippers through particleboard end tables: they spent years really not paying much attention to their financials, floating on a wave of profits from a thriving business and a good location (and, let’s be honest, really good food – I haven’t been there in years, but I did love it) until almost literally waking up one morning and realizing they were in serious trouble.

And you have to go about 2/3 of the way down the article to get to this bit here:

“The restaurant’s staff of 180 was trimmed to 160, chiefly through attrition and by adjusting start times to better match the flow of customers, producing a wage savings of $170,000. “

I am sure that most of the cuts were “through attrition” – not only does the restaurant industry have famously high turnover, but so does any business when the owners start frantically slashing expenses – but let’s break the story’s numbers down: that’s $170,000 in wages – the equivalent of 11 part time, 20 hours a week jobs at the new city of Minneapolis $15 an hour minimum wage – that don’t exist anymore.

So underneath all of the restaurant management‘s and started being as happy talk, what’s happening is…

…Exactly what conservatives, business people and anyone who passed economics 101 and said would happen: the Minneapolis city council’s wage and benefit laws are not just killing businesses, they’re killing jobs.

Of course, the virtue signaling Minneapolis city counselors and the bureaucrats who work for them don’t work in restaurants (or any private sector or entrepreneurial business, for that matter); Minneapolis’s restaurant industry has been one of the service industry’s “it“ sectors for decades, now, so I suspect they figure they’ll always be another.

By the way – I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that Hell’s Kitchen’s current owners furtively start looking for a buyer in the near future, that the expenses continue getting slashed, the Yelp reviews start spiraling, and the place quietly closes within five years. And if that happens – heaven forfend – the last thing the city, the Star Tribune or the restaurant’s compliant DFL management will do is blame the city’s policies for it.

I hope not – I genuinely like eating there, although I actually can’t eat there anymore – but I wouldn’t bet against me on it, either.

…when the main stream media went nearly bugeyed shrieking about Melania Trump, Sarah Palin, and for that matter Nancy Reagan and their respective wardrobes?

Of course you do.

And I am just amazed that nobody in the mainstream media seems to find this remotely worth comment. It’s a wardrobe day in the life of the Democrat party is flavor of the month, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

Now, I for one don’t necessarily begrudge Socialist Barbie a little fun with her, admittedly, patrician wardrobe choices.

I mean, clearly she made a ton of money off of gratuities working as a bartender.

That must’ve been it, right?

I didn’t write it…

…but I wish I had.

My favorite swing at Corey Booker.  And the runner-up.

2010: Democrats, impatient to pass a 2000 page bill that would nationalize (in effect) a sixth of the United States economy, give Americans the bum’s rush, saying “we will have to pass the bill to see what’s in it”.

2018: Democrats, frantic to stop Donald Trump from empaneling a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court, claim to have plenty of time to read a purported million pages of documents about Brett Kavanaugh.

The Boston Glob comes to praise Elizabeth Warren’s “Native American ancestry”...

The Boston Globe ran a massive 3,000 word lead article this morning trying to excuse away Elizabeth Warren’s claim during her professional career to be minority and a woman of color based on supposed Native American ancestry.

The story, which had the cooperation of the Warren campaign, comes just days before the first debate in Massachusetts’ Senate race. Clearly, the Warren campaign is worried after even Native Americans who are Democrats criticized Warren at the DNC in Charlotte, and is attempting to put its story out there through a friendly source.

…and ends up burying it.

Too much stuff to pullquote.  Give it a read.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Al Franken hasn’t ruled out running for office again.  Why not?  In Minnesota, he’s guaranteed 40% of the vote, from people who reflexively vote Democrat regardless of who’s running.  And Name Identification will get him another 5% from the Undecided-Uninformed crowd who look at the ballot and say: “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of him.”  A couple more boxes of ballots from the trunk of the car and he’s back in office.

 

It’s sad, really.  The American political system was intended for citizen-legislators to briefly meet to handle problems, then resume their daily lives.  Professional politicians have no daily lives.  When they’re forced out of office, they’re like those 70’s bands that routinely filled the stadium in their heyday but now hope to get booked at the Medina Ballroom.

Joe Doakes

Watching the Attorney General primary on the GOP side – where perennial candidate and, er, colorful personality Sharon Anderson, who is not the former Channel 5 personality got over 30% of the vote – I hate to say, this isn’t just a Democrat phenomenon.

Although with Sharon Anderson it’s a laughing matter.  With Stuart…

.

A friend of the blog writes:

It used to be people would go out for a night of fun and one person would have to be the designated driver. A majority didn’t even think to use cabs and public transit would often not run regularly enough at bar close.

Now that we have Uber and Lyft, I have heard many, many stories of people using those services when going out. I know some people who no longer drive under the influence because of the affordability of Uber.

So, of course, when people get real options that are reliable and affordable, those in the government who think their jobs are as social engineers have a problem.

Of interest locally, I found this link through a Tweet that declared Minneapolis/St Paul should consider this next. Why?

They can try to limit all they want, but there will still be people in cars and ride sharing will still happen. For example, the other day, I was approached by a man on the street who was trying to start his own ride share business, offering lower rates than Uber by about $2. I also have the number of a taxi driver who moonlights as a personal driver for those of us with his business card. He pretty much places himself on call for us.

So, yes, there will be options, which makes it even more aggravating that city governments get involved in private business that actually works for the people.

In a system built on rent-seeking, people will seek rent.

And for the government permission racket to survive, it’s gotta deliver the rent.

… on Donald Trump for saying the things about the late Senator John McCain…

… That they were saying about him 10 years ago.

Minnesota Democrats and the media that work for them will be and to some on natural angles to justify the behavior of Democrat politicians – especially virtue signal sponges like Keith “Thumper” Ellison.

But once in a while, you get surprised:

If the allegations are true, Keith Ellison has no right to serve as the state’s chief legal officer. And he had no right to run under false pretenses, as a man standing wrongly accused. Voters had only his word on that claim, and the investigation is ongoing.

In the meantime, Keith Ellison must withdraw from the race and not put Minnesotans through another cycle of political scandal. They’ve been through enough.

It’s very simple. We believe survivors.

Politics doesn’t matter. We believe survivors.

Keith Ellison says he wants to protect women from domestic violence and sexual assault. That starts by believing survivors.

As a matter of fact, I believe that people are innocent until proven guilty.

Given that representative Allison as often supported policy is (especially on domestic violence and gun control) that repudiate that idea, I don’t feel a lot of sympathy for him.

Ben Shapiro challenged prog flavor of the month Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to a debate – something she’s never had in her “political career”.

Now, there’s no requirement that a pol debate anyone, ever – even their opponents for office, much less pundits.   Of course, it can be used against you – not that it matters in a one-party town like Ocasio-Cortez’ district.

And there are so many ways to decline a debate request like this:

• “Sorry – I’m getting ready for a general election (coronation?), and I’m too busy”.
• “Debating you will be of no consequence to serving (koff koff) my constituents and my district.  Why would either of us waste our time?”
• “I’ve got drapes to measure that evening”
• “I gotta wash my hair”.
• Or the old reliable “<silence>”.

That’s not what Ocasio-Cortez did, though:

Asking for a debate is “like catcalling” – sexist, intrusive, unwanted, arrogant.

A response that is, itself, sexist and arrogant, and a sign of a mind that can think on no other plane than the politics of identity and outrage.

Congratuations, New York.  You got another winner here.  (Not that Minnesota has anything to brag about, since the equally risible Alondra Cano  Alondra Cano, Ray Dehn and Keith Ellison remain in office).

SIDE NOTE:   Remember when the same people who are raving about Ocasio-Cortez today were calling Sarah Palin  an ignorant dumbass?

This is the sound of “the bar” in freefall.

When Democrats whinge about “right wing violence”…

…well, you know what comes next, don’t you?

DFL-endrosed gubernatorial candidate Erin Murphy commented on the Thurman Blevins shooting on Facebook.

Other-peoples-money quote:

He ran, yes. He was armed, yes. He reportedly was drunk and had fired shots, yes. All of those things might have led to his death, but none of them had to. I don’t understand why calmly starting a conversation wasn’t an option or wouldn’t have been a better course.

There is something about the whole “Shots Fired” thing that tends to make cops a little edgy.  Also everyone else – provided they’re in the real world, and not on Facebook, opining for a tame, partisan crowd.

(And am I the only one thinking “so why isn’t ‘starting a calm conversation with gun owners, rather than advocating confiscations and wholesale crushing of civil liberties, not an option for you, Miss

Just a few days ago in South St. Paul a mentally ill man was reported to be threatening people at a group home. Officers arrived and engaged with the man. He too had a gun, he actually fired it at and shot the officers, injuring two of them. They subdued him not with a hail of bullets but with other tools, their words, their determination to find a better solution. Those officers— Todd Waters, Derek Kruse, Dennis Brom and Julie Bishop, are heroes who found humanity in what must have been the worst and scariest situation in their lives.

The message?   Cops should be willing to get shot first, then ask questions.

Is there a conversation to be had about use of police force?   About the limits or shape of qualified immunity?  Absolutely.

Is Erin Murphy the one to be lecturing the cops about it?

I don’t know much about Thurman Blevins. Had the officers approached the situation differently he might be in jail right now for firing his weapon into the sky and ground, or could be sitting on that curb with his family enjoying a morning off. I don’t know.

I’m no cop fanboy – but this may be the dumbest bunch of monday-morning quarterbacking I’ve ever seen.

Remember when the media was crawling over every square foot of wind-ravaged Puerto Rican soil looking for examples of Trump administration incompetence and corruption, making a hero out of San Juan’s idiot Democrat mayor in the process, if only briefly?

Where is the media now?

A mayor and two former government officials in Puerto Rico face public corruption charges in separate cases that involve a total of $8 million in federal and local funds, authorities said Thursday. The suspects are the mayor of the southwest town of Sabana Grande and the former directors of finance for the northern town of Toa Baja, which has struggled to pay its employees amid an 11-year recession.

U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez told reporters that the former officials from Toa Baja are accused of using nearly $5 million worth of federal funds to pay the town’s public employees and municipal contractors.

“Not only is that illegal, it’s immoral,” she said.

Puerto Rico – aka “A Warm Minneapolis” – would be considered a “Failed State” if it weren’t a US territory.

But unless the “news” can “denormalize” Trump, they really don’t care.

It is your moral duty to pay any price, bear any burden, to make sure this happens.

A friend of the blog writes:

I notice this is getting a lot of attention on the FB pages of my progressive acquaintances.

The campaign to urge Democrats to “walk away” from the party – well, it’s just crazy enough to work, around the margins anyway.