To:  “David Smalley”
From:  Mitch Berg, irascible peasant
Re:  Your article on, ahem, “Patheos”.

Mr. Smalley,

I”m not going to bother dispensing with the bulk of your “seminar caller”-stule, utterly and intensely illogical assault on “gun culture”.

But there is one line that I want to call out, by way of accelerating its demise from conversations among the smart people.  It’s this oldie-but-goodie:

So even today, with the 2nd Amendment in full effect, we don’t have the rights to be “armed as well as our government.”
Secondly, what if you were? I could hand you 50 M-16s, give you 1000 illegal bombs, steal you a couple of tanks, and smuggle in some bazookas, and even let you fully train 500 of your closest friends.
If the government wants your shit, they’re going to take it.
You still wouldn’t be a match for even a single battalion of the United States Marine Corps. Not to mention the Air Force, Army, Navy, National Guard, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, and Seals.
So stop acting like your little AR-15 is going to stop tyranny.

This makes perfect sense, Mr. “Smalley”, since as we know the military – especially the “combat arms” people – infantry, armor, artillery, combat engineers and cavalry,, as well as special forces – are drawn from families with two parents who have masters degrees in poli sci from Oberlin, work for social justice non-profits, shop at Whole Foods, drive Subarus, listen to NPR and practice vegan lifestyles.

Right?

Wrong.

The families – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins – of those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, and generally by extension those troops themselves – are drawn from the caste of our society that owns guns, for ideological as much as practical reasons.

It’s culturally almost impossible to separate the “gun culture” and our military.  :

Your little cultural genocide tale  only exists in lefty fantasy.

That is all.

The Times uses Chelsea Manning as a spokesperson for transgenders in the military.

Up Next:  NYTimes  runs op-ed by Martin Bormann on all the reasons to take your next vacation in Germany.

Pew study shows Democrats get more stressed out over cognitive dissonance over politics than Republicans:

Democrats feel more negatively about talking politics with people who have a different opinion of the president than do Republicans. A large majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents – nearly seven-in-ten (68%) – say they find it to be stressful and frustrating to talk to people with different opinions of Trump. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, fewer (52%) say they find this to be stressful and frustrating.

White Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely than black and Hispanic Democrats to say it is stressful and frustrating to talk to people with different opinions of Trump. About three quarters of white Democrats (74%) say it is frustrating, compared with 56% of black Democrats and 61% of Hispanic Democrats.

And if you thought the worst offenders were shrieking middle-aged single Whole-Foods-shopping Subaru-driving women with degrees in Political Science from Saint Olaf?

Of course you were right:

Overall, more women (64%) than men (54%) say talking to people with a different opinion of Trump is stressful and frustrating. And adults under 30 are more likely to say they find these discussions interesting and informative than do those 30 and older (42% vs. 33%).

Which proves that my anecdotal observations are just as accurate as science.

Well, no.  Not usually.

But this time, yes.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I’d love to lose weight on this new breakfast diet but I can’t make the math work.  6 plus 6 plus 18?  That’s a 30-hour day.  Where do these people live?

Joe Doakes

And do they get paid by the hour?

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

Today on show – I’m off on assignment, so Brad Carlson is hosting both today and his regular Sunday show.

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!

A bunch of journos are apparently getting ready to sue the President for blocking them from his Twitter account.

I’m about ready to send money to their plaintiff’s fund.

Wny?

Because the journos are right.  Why should pols get to decide whose speech to restrict, and from whom they can restrict access to their public speech?

It’s downright un-American.

And I’ve got quite a little list of DFL pols who’ve done exactly the same to me, and I’d guess most every conservative pundit in Minnesota.

In some cases – like Kim “Profile in Courage” Norton – it was because I publicly called out her lies over “criminal protection” laws.

And yes, I may have actually broken the story of Alondra “The Industrial Engineer” Cano distributing personal information on Twitter about people who’d criticized her privately  (or so they thought() on the City of Minneapolis website to try to bully them into silence.

Both of these politicians blocked me almost immediately after I publicly ate their lunches.  Waah waah waaah.

Likewise, the Twitter accounts of “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” and “Protect MN” have long since blocked me – because I crush them every time I turn my attention to them.

But others – Rep. Melissa Hortmann, Senator Tina LIebling, as well as several DFL-xupporting non-profits – already had me blocked before I ever attempted to write/tweet about them.

I know that there are apps that can systematically block all social media from authors matching some lists or algorithms – which is why I suspect the blanket block from DFL pols.

But I don’t care.  If it’s fair for CNN, it’s fair for me.

Remember that in all cases, while I am a stone-cold purveyor of unassailable fact, I am also scrupulously polite to a fault.    Anyone who wants to claim otherwise is welcome to prove it – and yes, there I AM more than willing to file a test case.  I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, but I’m way smarter than that.

So yes, “journos”.  Sue Donald Trump.  I beg of you.  Indeed, there’s some legal grounding already starting to happen:

So let the courts court, and the juries jurr.

Then get it incorporated onto all the states.

And hurry.  Some MN Pols need some freaking free speech already.

And we’ve got some lost time to make up for.

In the wake of passing registration and magazine limits during the orgy of victim-disarmament legislation in 2013, Baltimore’s crime rate has steadily risen, and stands at twice Chicago’s catastrophic rate.

But when they finally “debate” a measure that can actually work – mandatory sentences for using guns in a crime –suddenly there’s an animated, even violent, debate?

When California secedes, maybe they can take everything on the east coast from DC through Massachusetts, too…

CalExit petitions can start gathering signatures.

To accelerate things. They should ask the rest of the country.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Journalists and actors and leaky politicians love to claim they’re part of The Resistance, as if Trump were Hitler and these schmucks were the French Underground.  So Brave.

Except members of The Resistance were summarily executed.  Lined up and shot.  That was the price they agreed to pay when they decided to join.

Trump should reinstitute the policy, for the sake of verisimilitude.  Put some skin in the game or drop your claim to stolen valor.

Joe Doakes

The number of “progressives” who know more about history than they learned in 11th grade would fit into a Prius with room for a load of (Whole Foods* groceries in the front seat.

“Police Reform” is suddenly the hot ticket in Minneapolis’ mayoral “race”:

State Rep. Ray Dehn has called for police to be “disarmed.”

Mayor Betsy Hodges just ousted her embattled police chief.

Nekima Levy-Pounds is demanding a “paradigm shift” in police culture in Minneapolis.

Police reform is suddenly moving to the forefront of the race for mayor in Minneapolis, propelled there most recently after an officer on July 15 shot and killed an unarmed woman, Justine Damond, who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. Candidates for mayor, a job directly responsible for the police department, are scrambling to explain to voters how they will change the Minneapolis Police Department and prevent civilian deaths at the hands of cops.

My two cents:  empty fairy-land gestures, “sending messages” and organization-speak are what they amount to now, and all they’ll ever amount to.   It’s DFL politics.  The message is the medium.

Keith Ellison may be a democratic – but, at least in a classical sense, he is far, far, far from a liberal.

The fifth district congressman says twitter should block President Trump:

"The problem is he’s been doing it and he’s never had to pay a price for it,” Ellison said. “I personally think that Twitter should treat him like any other social media harasser and snatch his account.”

If saying corrosively stupid things without consequence is actionable, Keith "The Germans bombed Pearl Harbor" Ellison is facing multiple life sentences. Including this statement.

I’m not sure what I like most about the proposed plan to save KFAI Radio – the long- running ‘Publicly-Supported” Pacifica affiliate in the west bank (where, I note in full disclosure, I was a volunteer news guy 25 years ago, trying to find a way to infiltrate the MPR Borg).

Is it the idea that a plucky underdog might survive against the MPR juggernaut (MPR’s former generalissimo, Bill Kling, spent decades trying to extinguish small community stations, the better to snarf up their funding sources)?

Could be.

But I think it’s the fact that the plan involves actual radio people bringing some actual radio programming common sense to the station, which endlessly cheeses off the sort of people who’ve been killing off these sorts of “community” stations.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

John Scalzi summed up Liberals’ worldview when he quipped “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is.”

 

The problem with any quip is that it contains a kernel of truth so it can’t be denied completely.  But only a kernel, meaning it should be denied in part.  The difficulty lies in determining which part.

 

In Rome in 400 AD, Straight White Male was undeniably the lowest difficulty setting.  Women and minorities had it tougher, no question.  In South Africa in 2017, Straight White Male is a death sentence.  The validity of the quip depends on Where you are.

 

Limiting the quip to the United States, it’s still not universally true.  In Virginia in 1800, sure.  In Minneapolis in 2017 with its commitment to diversity and affirmative action in education and employment, it’s definitely not so.  The validity of the quip depends on When you are.

 

Liberals continue to act as if today was November 1, 1959; as if Eisenhower was still the President; as if drinking fountains were still segregated, women had coat-hanger abortions, welfare was non-existent and the Klan enforced Jim Crow laws.

 

It takes a special kind of wilfull blindness to ignore the progress America has made, to continue to blame everything on the past, insisting on new and better solutions to problems that already have been solved.

 

Joe Doakes

“Willful Blindless” – or consistent strategy?

City comes up with an estimate of $65,000-$110,000 to build a stairway linking two levels of a city park, and replacing a rutted path with a steep incline that was causing injuries.

Citizen builds the stairway for $550.

Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbours fell down the steep path to a community garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. Astl says his neighbours chipped in on the project, which only ended up costing $550 – a far cry from the $65,000-$150,000 price tag the city had estimated for the job.

“I thought they were talking about an escalator,” Astl told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

Astl says he hired a homeless person to help him and built the eight steps in a matter of hours.

Problem solved, right?

Well, no.

Because boy, is the government mad:

City bylaw officers have taped off the stairs while officials make a decision on what to do with it. However, Astl has not been charged with any sort of violation.

Mayor John Tory acknowledged that the city estimate sounds “completely out of whack with reality” on Wednesday. [Noooooo! – Ed] However, he says that still doesn’t justify allowing private citizens to bypass city bylaws to build public structures themselves.

“I think everyone will understand that it will be more than $550,” he said on Wednesday. “We just can’t have people decide to go out to Home Depot and build a staircase in a park because that’s what they would like to have.”

Of course not.

There are consultants – members of the political class – to be paid to study the issue.  There are contractors – favored by the political class, frequently due to polices promulgated and administered by other members of the political class – to whom money must be funneled, usually via other members of the political class.

If people just made stuff work, the system would completely break down!

“But what about the handicapped?”

He pointed out that the park already has an accessible path for those who worry about falling down the incline, which is essentially a shortcut from the parking lot to the garden area.

It’s all about showing the peasants who’s boss.

“…why did you leave the Presbyterian Church of the USA?”

And I reply “I didn’t.  It left me“.

Just remember – when someone claims that a piece of “science” is “Peer Reviewed”, there is an unspoken assumption that the “peers” aren’t idiots.

Clearly, it’s not entirely accurate and can’t be taken for granted..

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The author proposes that conservatives begin to use shaming and shunning as a weapon against liberals, the way they have used them against us. I say it won’t work, because Liberals control all the institutions where shaming and shunning is enforced.

I can’t shame anybody on Facebook or Twitter, because my post will be blocked by the liberals who administer the website.

My complaints to HR will be disregarded because of the liberals who administer employee discipline programs. My complaints to the court will be dismissed  because of liberals who sit on the bench. And of course, God help anybody who attempts to shun gays by refusing to bake their wedding cake.

We can’t use character assassination against them because they already own the HR department.  To those people, claiming my boss harassed me on account of my political beliefs won’t get him disciplined, it’ll get him a raise: it’s good to harass a Nazi fascist, they deserve it.  And all the Liberal Democrats who work in HR believe that without question.

It is too late to attempt to use shaming and shunning to shut down liberals. So what’s the next weapon to use in the war of degenerating civil standards?  Either we undertake a decades-long sustained effort to take back the institutions, or we bypass the institutions that have been captured by social justice Warriors. And when you talk about bypassing the courts, you’re talking about Street Justice which is another word for Civil War. When reason is not available, violence is the last resort.

Perverting the institutions that ensure social order results in destroying social order.   Another application of Berg’s Law: Liberal Values Destroy Liberal Societies.

Joe Doakes

Leaving only power – those who have it, and those subject to it.

Which is really what it’s all about.

“Progressive” woman risks all to tell the world what used to be screechingly obvious:

I asked why as a woman who was born with woman parts it is now considered transphobic to want to have conversations about the distinct and unquestionable differences in life experience between cis and trans women. I asked why when women have faced systematic violence at the hands of men and 1 in six women is raped, is it wrong for cis women to have some spaces just for them to feel safe in a world where they don’t? And I was immediately threatened, labeled as transphobic, and left to feel as if my voice was nothing.

I am angry. Angry because now even questioning these issues is seen as an act of hate, discrimination, or intolerance. Angry because wanting to have open conversations is now considered hate speech. I am angry that as a woman who has constantly had to be careful of my language and behavior around men to ensure my own safety, I am now being forced to police my language even more, around and for trans women who had entirely

different experiences and anatomy. Female language around female issues is important to many cis women because we have struggled to even have our identities and issues seen as valid.

All these liberals reading 1984,and nobody gets it; it’s not about solving anything.  It’s about destroying the will to be free by making it too exhausting, fraught, and dangerous.

As good an article as I’ve seen (hard to believe it’s from the MinnPost) about the people who keep showing up to try to make the GOP work in places like Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

When a Democrat makes an allegation against a Republican

BROADCASTER:  “Democrat Don Key has accused Republican Allie Funt of wearing army boots.  In other news..,”

When a Republican makes an allegation against a Democrat

BROADCASTER:  “Republican Gia Piey alleges that Democrat Dawn Quie wears army boots.   A spokesperson for the Quie campaign denies this, noting that  there is no evidence supporting the allegations”.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails;

There are two kinds of proof: prima facie and conclusive.  Prima facie means “on its face” which allows the possibility it could be rebutted.  Conclusive is final – there can be no rebuttal, it is proof beyond doubt.

Her complaint described in this article is conclusive evidence that Jerroll Sanders is an idiot.

Wherever women wear tights – at yoga, at work, in the mall – men look at their bottoms.  We can’t openly stare because that’s impolite and will get us smacked by our wives.  But we peek. It’s natural, automatic, and inevitable.

The message printed on the waitress’ bottom does not draw the peek, we were going to peek anyway, it simply takes advantage of the pre-existing condition to slip in some marketing.  It’s the same logic behind putting a logo on a NASCAR racer – we were already looking at it before you put your logo on it.

Joe Doakes

The world is coming to an end.

With Betsy Hodges’ administration rolling downhill faster than Creed’s career bell curve, Minneapolis looks likely to swerve hard left.

As hard left as Ray Dehn?  Maybe not – maybe Jacob Frey appears like a sensible moderate in comparison with the other frontrunner in the mayoral race.  Maybe.  This is Minneapolis.

But Dehn’s remarks in the wake of the Noor shooting, the resignation of chief Harteau, and the pandemonium at Hodges’ press conference gives Dehn a yuge platform, at least for now.  And he’s using it – for better or worse:

Crime is not a product of individual morality but the consequence of scarcity in our society. We must divest resources, disarm officers, and dismantle the inherent violence of our criminal justice system which continues to uphold white supremacy. Our approach to public safety must reflect a belief that our communities are safer when they have housing, clean air and water, access to education and employment, and quality healthcare.

“Like if you took away Thurgood Marshall’s bank account, you  think you’d see him selling crack at the Union Station bus terminal?”

– P. J. O’Rourke

Is Minneapolis anywhere close to hitting “Peak Left?”  A moment like the 1977 New York Blackout, prompting New Yorkers to stop the insanity?

I don’t think so.  Minneapolis’s DFL establishment is controlled by people who aren’t affected by the city’s collapse; people in Kenwood, Nicollet Island, Minnehaha Parkway and the like, who can and do remain above it all – or, like Alondra Cano, dabble in “it all” for effect.

Remember all the Democrats who rode Detroit, Camden, Oakland, Newark and New Orleans straight into the ground, bleating about peoples’ “best interests” all the way.

It’s gonna get worse before it gets better, Minneapolis. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.

This news should open things up for you-know-who. 

For more info on the 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate)’s upcoming event at Camp Ripley, go to their Facebook page, their website, or call 202 670 1088

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

Today on the show:

• Col. Eric Kerska  joins me to talk about the event on August 12th commemorating the 99th Independent “Viking” infantry battalion, up at Camp Ripley.
• Minneapolis’ “Best Interests”?

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!