…but I figured I’d throw this out there for your reading pleasure, since it’s something that occurred to me pretty much every time I heard David Brooks on NPR over the past year.

I’m taking an exceedingly rare sick day today.

Given that there’s a Holiday weekend coming up, I may not do a lot of regular posting until Wednesday.

Enjoy the weekend!

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

You figure that if you are forced to shoot somebody and you’re up-front with the cops, the prosecutor will see that you’re a Good Guy and will drop the charges, right?   You can’t imagine the prosecutor will twist your words and play dirty tricks to cheat you out of your rights, all in a blind effort to appease a mob.  That wouldn’t happen in Minnesota, right?

“In the hour-long interview with Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) investigators, Yanez repeatedly used the pronoun “it” instead of “gun” or “firearm.” Prosecutors told jurors that the language proves Yanez never saw a gun. However, prosecutors never played the video during its case, thinking it more strategic to introduce the footage last Friday during the defense’s case. It is common practice to play a defendant’s interview with investigators during the state’s case.

“The rules of evidence clearly allow for the statement’s admission into evidence during cross examination,” said a written statement issued … by the Ramsey County attorney’s office. “Strategically, we felt the statement would be best used for impeachment purposes on cross examination when the defendant took the stand in his own defense.”

But the move backfired [at trial] when Ramsey County District Judge William H. Leary III criticized the prosecution’s timing and refused to allow the video. Defense attorney Thomas Kelly objected to the prosecution’s effort, calling it an “improper impeachment” of Yanez and asserting that the state allegedly withheld the video in order to compel Yanez’s testimony.”

Twisting words.  Dirty tricks.  Mob waiting outside.

Here’s the really fascinating question: is this merely local politicians and bureacrats doing their best to achieve justice, but their best isn’t very good?   Or is this part of a concerted effort at all levels to make gun ownership not only onerous, but even dangerous, for law-abiding citizens?  Defend yourself and we’ll bury you, to make sure nobody else defends themselves.

Joe Doakes

That’s the problem; when people stop trusting the “Justice” system, every manner of conspiracy becomes perfectly plausible.

What do you get when you combine:

• The “progressive” MO of transferring taxpayer money to other progressives
• “Progressives'” hatred of wealthy people (other than “progressive” plutocrats, naturally)
• The “progressive” party line on women’s issues
• The “progressive” drive to at least appear to bring a better life you’re bigger government?

I had to check this twice – but the City Pages actually has the story:   Governments, acting on “information” from “progressive” “feminist” groups  around the country,  are pouring money into sex trafficking enforcement based on absurd predictions about the nuimber of prostitutes supposedly showing up for Super Bowls:

He didn’t have to look hard for supporters. Dallas Police Sergeant Louis Felini told The Dallas Morning News that between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes were expected to come into town. The call for even more outrage was sounded by a study from the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which said the throng would include 38,000 underage prostitutes…Before Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona, Cindy McCain — wife of Sen. John McCain — declared the Super Bowl “the largest human-trafficking venue on the planet.” Glendale produced a lengthy public service video broadcasting the evils of the flesh trade.

But according to police, not one person was busted for prostitution-related crimes or sex trafficking in the days leading up to the game.

The results?  Nearly no arrests.

Deterrence?  Perhaps.

“Progressive” delusions about the habits, peccadillos and appetites of the wealthy (who are, let’s be honest, the only people who can ever afford to go to the Super Bowl)?  Definitely.

Oh, yeah.  Minnesota’s doing the same.  Bigly.

I’ve been working at home for a couple years now, for two different companies.  It’s been great; the “road construction” and “first snowfall of the year” and “thunderstorms” that make Twin Cities commuting such a nightmare are pretty much non-factors for me.

Knock wood.

In the previous couple of jobs, I worked in a combination of “Open Offices” – the “airplane hangar”-style office layout so in vogue these days, which is really just a throwback to the 1940s-stylie institutional office – and, worse, the “war room” concept that’s become the fad among those subscribing to this year’s model for software development, the creaky, plodding, dinosaur called with whimisical irony “Agile”.

The only thing I miss about working in an office is…well, people,  The right people, at the right time, anyway.  And even that’s OK.  I’ve had to get a lot more diligent about organizing a social life, which is also good.

Anyway – I’m very much hoping the trend continues.  And while any trend will get to Minnesota years after the coast, there is hope.

…that the Southern Poverty Law Center will call this a violent hate crime.  

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Trump tried to implement an anti-terrorist vetting law passed by Congress and initially implemented by President Obama.  The courts have struck it down repeatedly.
Even if we did have aggressive vetting, would it help? Europe has vetted thousands and many of the recent attacks were carried out by persons on the watch list.  The authorities don’t have enough manpower to watch all the suspects.
It seems to me the obvious solution is to limit the number of new potential terrorists entering the country, but that’s exactly what the court don’t let the President do.
So stop admitting anybody.  Moratorium.  Complete halt.  Equal to all.  Give us a cooling-off period, for recent immigrants to assimilate and for us to root out sleeper terrorists here at home.
Joe Doakes

(more…)

If it bleeds – or coughs, stings, goes “boom” or rots your insides out as you hack lungs out – it leads.

This? It’s a picture. Go to the link and see the actual animated graphic.

Animated infographic showing how media hysteria compares to actual deaths caused by the stories they were about.

I’m not saying I don’t trust the American mainstream media.

Because why stop with America?

While I cringe at some of what comes out on Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, I’ve often wondered if it isn’t cringe-y like a fox, if only because so much of the Mainstream Media runs chasing after rhetorical squirrels every time he sounds off.

I’m not the only one:

President Donald Trump frequently comes under criticism for tweeting, even from his own advisers.  But tweeting is probably the smartest thing he has done as president. He is able to speak directly to the American

The whole thing is worth a read.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

St. Paul Police Chief Axtell does not know what he’s talking about.

Gun violence is exploding in St. Paul.  The Chief says “ . . . basically it’s yesterday’s fistfights are today’s gun fights.”  But then he says it’s “ . . . a community health problem, this is a public health crisis.”

No.

A health problem is caused by disease.  The cure is quarantine and medical treatment for those infected, and sanitation to prevent spread of illness.  Americans know very well how to handle outbreaks of disease.  St. Paul does not have a public health problem.

St. Paul has a cultural problem.  Perfectly healthy people are choosing to shoot each other instead of fistfight.  We’re not willing to quarantine residents in Frogtown and there is no medical treatment, no vaccine that cures bad behavior.  Bad behavior is cured by deterrence and punishment, to make bad behavior unacceptably costly to the actors.

When Charles Napier wanted to end the Hindu practice of burning wives alive on their husband’s funeral pyre, he explained to the priests: “This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”  The practice of suttee ended abruptly.

In fairness, it may be that the Chief knows exactly what’s going on in his city, but he’s afraid to speak the truth because the City Council is a bunch of liberals more concerned with signaling their virtue by mouthing politically acceptable platitudes than with protecting their citizens by enacting effective law enforcement measures.  As long as the people dying are young Black men and poor children on the East Side, what’s the big deal?

Can we talk about adding another light rail line now? Because that’s a big deal. That’s something we care about.

Joe Doakes

I have to hope that there’s a lot of smart cops out there acting dumb because they want to keep their jobs.

The alternative?  Remember – today’s police forces didn’t exist when the Constitution was written.  I have a hunch they are more like the standing armies our forefathers feared than our current standing army is.

An American school district practices cultural appropriation, and lifts some culcha from Maoist Cnina:

At a May 8 school board meeting, parent Farran Wilkinson took to the podium to out one educator who recently forced white students to apologize to black students for their white privilege, according to the American Lens.

“I just want to share light on a situation that happened at Western Rockingham Middle School where a teacher caused some of her students to stand up and apologize to other students based on their unequal opportunities of education, so I would like to know how our schools can allow an educator to humiliate, bully and degrade students,” Wilkinson said. (60 minute mark in the YouTube video) “This is not a matter of race but a matter of a teacher using fear and the embarrassment of children to satisfy her own personal anger or beliefs.”

At this rate, Trump may win  a third term…

Mitch: “Firearm magazines with more than ten rounds…”

“Progressive”: “…should ONLY be used by the police and military, because society gives them some extra benefits because they defend and protect the rest of us.”

Mitch: “Benefits like qualified immunity from prosecution for killings and injuries they inflict while they reasonably believe they’re doing the job we hire them for?”

“Progressive”: “No! Never! They should be *just like every other citizen!”.

Mitch: “Only with 30 round magazines”.

Progressive: “Yes. Why?”

…of tinhorn, cronyistic Democrat politics in safe blue areas.

But I can’t keep up with this story, which appears to be un-parodyable.

Golf clap, White Plains New York.  From one intentional satirist to an unwitting one, well done.

The new retro craze among the kids these days would seem to be The Cultural Revolution.

Especially the forced self-denunciations.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Some experts believe the policies that led to the 2008 real estate collapse are still in place leaving us as vulnerable to a real estate bubble as before. They are mistaken.  We’re worse off than before because now we have newer and even stupider ideas to help preferred minorities qualify for home loans such as counting all incomes in the household toward the loan.

The problem was explained in 2010 by Glenn Reynolds:

“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

And that’s the best-case scenario, when the government isn’t actively working to destroy middle-class values by subsidizing bad decisions and penalizing good (but politically incorrect) decisions.

The divide between the wealthy and the wretched ever widens and Liberals cannot fathom why.  It’s because of Berg’s 21st Law: Liberal Policies Destroy Liberal Values.

Joe Doakes

That one’s almost beyond mere “law.

From the New York Times’ piece on the left eating itself at “progressive” Evergreen State:

For expressing his view, Mr. Weinstein was confronted outside his classroom last week by a group of some 50 students insisting he was a racist. The video of that exchange — “You’re supporting white supremacy” is one of the more milquetoast quotes — must be seen to be believed. It will make anyone who believes in the liberalizing promise of higher education quickly lose heart. When a calm Mr. Weinstein tries to explain that his only agenda is “the truth,” the students chortle.

I include the video link in the text.  You can click on it.  It won’t work.

The video – showing students bulling, shouting down and threatening Weinstein and other Evergreen staff has been “removed for violating Youtube’s bullying policy”.

Of course, it chronicled bullying; it documented the Evergreen Social Justice sturmabteilung trying to bully Professor Weinstein.

The left and their friends in social media are actively shutting down anything in their power that challenges the narrative.

At the “Pride” Parade in Minneapolis yesterday, the processijon got delayed 20 or so minutes by a BLM group that apparently couldn’t find the freeway.

After they’d had their die-in, they got up and spent the rest of the parade marching a block or two ahead of the rest of the procession.

But not before issuing a list of demands…to the Pride organizers.

Here they are – direct and unedited:

LIST OF OUR DEMANDS

1. We demand that Twin Cities Pride honors the legacy and life of trans women of color and recognize Pride as the byproduct of their resistance of police brutality and repression

2.  We demand Twin Cities Pride combats State violence with the total elimination of police and law enforcement

I’m sure that’ll go over well.

3. We demand Twin Cities Pride is accountable for their perpetuation of white supremacy and homonormativity and that they eradicate their normalization of these violent systems

“Homonormativity”.

I’m just gonna let that sit there like a big glob of goo.

4. We demand Twin Cities Pride provide an exclusive healing space at future events for indigenous and people of color to process, rest, and restorative justice

“Process, rest and restorative justice” – Verb, Verb, Noun phrase?

Apparently grammar is an agent of white supremacy.

5. We demand Twin Cities Pride divests from all corporations as they promote the marginalization, exploitation, and criminalization of marginalized communities

6. We demand Twin Cities Pride funds and organizes a Town Hall alongside members from marginalized communities including but not limited to Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Native Lives Matter, and Justice4MarcusGolden

7. We demand Twin Cities Pride provide radical reparations via redistribution of resources and monetary compensation to grassroots organizations of the coalition’s choice

And there we are;  good old-fashioned extortion.

My big question:  will the left manage to eat itself before it eats everything of worth in our society?

During the many years when Representative Heather Martens ran “Protect” Minnesota, the organization developed a reputation as being dodderingly, genially incompetent – like a neighborhood garden circle where everyone forgot to bring gloves.

In the year or so since the Reverend Nancy Nord Bence took over at “”Protect” Minnesota, the image has morphed into a form of more aggressive, turbocharged incompetence.

As an example:  since Bence took over the group, I think I can count the number of email blasts on the mailing list that haven’t required additions, retractions, or correctioons of mistakes on one hand with a few fingers in change, up to and including erroneous announcements of major grants.

But this past Sunday was the best of all.

The “Pink Pistols” – a group of gays and their allies who promote self-defense under the rubric “Armed Gays don’t get bashed” 0- had a booth at the Minneapolis “Pride” festival, in Loring Park.  The Pistols’ booth usually gets a steady stream of interest – but it’s fair to say the Pistols’ name recognition among gays isn’t a whole lot higher than among the general population.

Enter “Protect” Minnesota.

According to a source in the booth, “P”M was passing around a survey asking if attendees had heard of Pink Pistols.

Which apparently drove a steady stream of curious passersby to the booth for their first introduction to the idea of not being a defenseless victim.

So what you say but “thanks?”

Johnny Deep wants to know when the last time a President was shot by an actor.

My question; does Depp know when the last time an actor was chased into a barn and died in a hail of gunfire?

But I”ll take it easy on Mr. Depp.  He’s been too busy assassinating his own career for the last few years.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Headline in New York Times:

 

Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump‘

 

Of course, Democrats say the words but they don’t accept the implications.  The reason Democrats’ brand is worse than Trump is because their ideas are crap and no amount of public relations re-branding is going to make the crap sandwich more appetizing to voters.

When voters won’t do as Liberals desire, they rationalize their defeat:

1.     The voters didn’t understand.  We didn’t get our message out.  Our brand is tarnished.  If the voters had understood what we’re selling, they’d have gobbled it up. We need to raise more money to get our message out.

2.     The voters understood what we’re selling, but they’re too stupid to buy it.  They voted against their own best interest. They should be happy to pay more taxes for a better Minnesota.  They should be happy their kids will be bussed to a more diverse school, happy that low income apartments will be built in their neighborhood. They need to be educated to see that ours is the right policy, not their own short-sighted self-interest.

3.     The voters understood what we’re selling, and they tried to buy it, but some nefarious schemer deprived the voters of their desire.  Blacks were denied driver’s licenses.  Felons can’t vote.  The polls closed early or stayed open late.  There was a blizzard.  The Russians hacked the election.  We wuz robbed.

4.     The voters understood what we’re selling, they know it’s superior to their own ideas, everyone had a chance to vote, but the voters can’t stand the notion that the people being ground under their heels might somehow escape.  The voters are racist, homophobic, misogynistic, bigoted, deplorable haters, bitterly clinging to their guns and Bibles.  We have no hope of persuading them to voluntarily accept our ideas; therefore, we must impose our ideas using administrative rulemaking, international agreements or liberal judges.

I’ve been watching politics since before the Reagan campaign, nearly 40 years ago.  It’s the same cycle, over and over.

Joe Doakes

Joe’s right.

Unfortunately, American voters aren’t a whole lot less flighty in the long term than French voters.  We shall see.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air!

Brad Carlson is off on assignment today, so I’ll be filling in from 2-3PM.

Today on the show:

• Everything I didn’t get to talk about yesterday!

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is  on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• Streaming at AM1280’s Website
• Streaming on IHeartRadio
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• Via my UStream video and chat channel.
• Send us an SMS text message – 651-243-0390
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488
• Podcasts are now available; for my show and for Brad’s
• And make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page!

Join us!

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air!

Today on the show:

• Armchair Quarterbacks and the Yanez verdict
• When Liberals Turn On Liberals
• Resilience!

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is  on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• Streaming at AM1280’s Website
• Streaming on IHeartRadio
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• Via my UStream video and chat channel.
• Send us an SMS text message – 651-243-0390
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488
• Podcasts are now available; for my show and for Brad’s
• And make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page!

Join us!

I”m just sure George Clooney will be donating his billion dollars worth of proceeds to the IRS.

(Or, who knows, the Canadian Reveniue Department).

…in the same numbers as conservatives, the NYTimes posits, “American politics would look very different”.

Unless you’re in Chicago, Flint, Detroit, North Minneapolis, Stockton or Baltimore.  Then it’d look just about the same.