Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The US government seized funds without notice or hearing and doesn’t plan to give the money back. It plans to spend the money.

“Good,” you say. “That person deserved it. He lives in a country we don’t like. He belongs to a religion we don’t like. He believes in medical treatments we don’t like. Glad they did it, ought to do more.”

But what about the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? “The Constitution is a living document which must be reinterpreted to fit changing circumstances. The Founders never meant a guarantee of property rights to shield enemies of society from just retribution. Merely by asking the question, you’ve lowered your Social Credit Score and put yourself on The Watch List.”

It’s the latest fad, all the Kool Kids are doing it. Last quarter, it was Canadian truckers’ money. This quarter it is Russian citizens’ money. How long before it is your money? No arrest, no conviction, no Summons, no hearing, no appeal – a click of a button and your life savings disappears, your ‘hoarded wealth’ redistributed to those more deserving. Welcome to the Digital Economy.

Joe Doakes

It’s one of those reasons, among many others, that “a cashless society” needs to be resisted.

At the battle of the Alamo in 1836, there were at least two Germans among the defenders, Henry Courtman and Henry Thomas. Why in the world, you may ask, were Germans at a battle in south Texas fighting Mexicans? Beginning just a few years before, and continuing over the next several decades, German immigrants came to Texas in increasingly large numbers, drawn by the prospects of farming and agriculture. Eventually Germans became one of the largest ethnic groups in Texas.

They brought with them their language and customs as well as the music they had listened to back home. One of the types of music they brought to Texas with them was a new sound, the polka.

There are various stories about the origin of the polka, but it seems to have originated as a Czech dance around 1830, and probably came out of the folk music of the region. The polka quickly spread in Europe, particularly in German-speaking lands, and especially in Poland, which all but made the polka its own. Polka even found a niche in Ukrainian folk music. The polka faded in popularity in the latter part of the 19th century, but the immigrants who went to North America brought it with them where it thrived. (It is the official state dance of Wisconsin, next door to SitD.)

The classic polka is in 2/4 time, and that contributes to the popularity of the dance. It is simple and fun. The 1-2-1-2-1-2 beat is easy to keep up with, and the typical oom-PAH oom-PAH in the bass line compels your feet to move. The accordion was probably invented in Germany in the 1820s, and it became a polka staple which the Germans brought with them to Texas.

Interaction among people across borders is part of the human condition. Languages typically influence each other across borders, but cultures also intermingle and music is a part of that. The polka music the Germans planted in Texas eventually made its way south across the border to northern Mexico, and from that Mexico’s Norteño music developed. This regional music retains the influence of the accordion and the polka beat. Here’s an example, a unique blending of Central European folk music and Mexican folk music.

During his 2018 campaign, Governor Klink used the slogan “One Minnesota”.

To those of us who study history, that caused a mirthless chuckile; German historians finished the slogan out: “One People, One Minnesota, One Leader”.

And those of us who remember history were right; when politicians yap about “unity” and “One” anything, it’s about making everyone equally miserable and straitened, not happy and prosperous.

Case in point: Minnetonka is being OneMInnesota’ed.

Elon Musk buying Twitter is generating some…exaggerated reactions from progs:

The idea that they are not, in fact, an inevitable force of history seems to confuse and frighten them.

More tragedy in Kabul, from the UN…

The United Nations has condemned the deadly bomb blasts at two educational institutions in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Wednesday, which killed at least six people and wounded nearly 20 others.

The explosions took place at the all-boys Abdul Rahim Shahid high school and the nearby Mumtaz Education Centre, both located in the Dasht-e-Barchi area, a predominantly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood in western Kabul.

The attack at the Abdul Rahim Shahid high school reportedly occurred as students were coming out of their morning classes, according to the UN in Afghanistan. The blasts at the Mumtaz Education Centre followed shortly afterwards.

This Dasht-e-Barchi area is on the west side of Kabul and is a Shiite neighborhood largely populated by Hazaras. A sizeable minority spread across Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Hazaras speak a dialect of Farsi and have been persecuted in the past by the Taliban.

Here’s some brief footage from Twitter from the area of the school, which is here in Google Maps.

Matt McNeil is a talk show host, of sorts, on AM950, the Twin Cities putative “progressive” talk station. [1]

Now, McNeil has a habit of blocking everyone on social media that can beat him in an open debate on logic, reasoning and facts – which is, to be fair, pretty much everyone.

He was, in fact, one of the people (in a large field, to be honest) who gave me the original impetus to the formulation of Berg’s Sixteenth Law. (“The percentage of “progressives” outside of academia who can make it to the second round of a debate without running out of “facts” and having to switch to deflection, ad hominem and straw man arguments is within the statistical margin of error”).

Anyway – in a move that isn’t a sign of insecurity, no way, no how, McNeil tweeted this the other day:

Not sure if this qualifies as “gaslighting”, or is a strawman, or if McNeil doth protest too much, but I’m pretty sure nobody who matters has ever said McNeil is “terrified” of “rightos” [2] like me.

To be clear, all I say is that McNeil does not pack the gear, either intellectually or as a talk host, to do much of anything but chant into an echo chamber over which he has complete control, and that if I were as bad at forming a coherent argument as he is, I would block all dissent as well.

I’m not – perhaps I am a legend in my own mind and should but, but I’m not – so I don’t. I block almost nobody. When I do, it’s not because they’re too good at debate, but are in fact so subject to Berg’s 16h Law as to deserve life in my rhetorical SuperMax.

[1] I’m as surprsied as you are that AM950 still exists. I check in every couple years or so to see if there’s still a signal there, much

[2] What he lacks in fact and intellectual rigor, he also seems to lack in the key talk radio skill of coming up with breezy terms to describe complex groups. But “bloom where you are planted”, I always say…

Paul Krugman on the end of the mask cult:

My two cents? I suspect Krugman, and many maskaholics desperately want this to be true.

Part of it is Berg’s Seventh Law – they need to project their behavior onto others.

Part of it is the need on the cultural left that’s become apparent in the past two years to, at best, feel they are part of some larger struggle; they are part of a generation that’s had no Omaha Beach, no Great Depression, no Civil Rights Movement. This is it for them, and they’re milking it for all they got.

At worst? They feel their sense of petty control slipping from their grasp, and they are not about to go gently.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

My car broke down Saturday evening, as I was coming home from St.
Cloud.  Well not “broke,” exactly.  The computer decided something was
wrong and threw me into “Limp Mode.”  Engine runs but can’t go over 15
mph.  It’s designed so you can limp to the nearest exit to get your car
off the freeway.  I limped to Clearwater Truck Stop, called the tow
truck to haul it to the dealership in St. Cloud and arranged for a ride
home to the Twin Cities.

This is what happens in a High Trust society.  I gave a $30,000 car to
the tow truck driver, gave him my credit card number to pay the
difference between what AAA would pay and the actual cost of the tow
when he gets the final total, and just assumed the car would make it to
the dealer who would give me an honest diagnosis and estimate of repair
costs.  I felt perfectly safe doing so. This isn’t some Third World
country where giving a stranger my vehicle and credit card number would
be insanity.  This is America; that’s how we do things, here.

Interestingly, when I called the dealership to alert them the car was
coming, they asked what model year and how many miles, then said, “Oh,
your 5-year 60,000 mile warranty expired last month.” Uh huh, of course
it did.  And the computer that controls the engine knows that date,
too.  How convenient that it waited until now to discover the problem on
my nickel, not theirs.  It’s like video blackjack at the casino.  The
machine is required to pay out 93% but no more, which is achieved by
software controlling which cards I am dealt.  Oh, you needed a seven? 
You got a nine. Bust.  You lose.  Uh huh, sure I did.

What, I don’t trust the billion-dollar car maker computer or the
scrupulously honest casino computer as much as I trust a greasy-faced
20-something kid in overhauls?  No, I don’t.  And don’t even get me
started on medical doctors with their ever-changing SCIENCE, corrupt
politicians selling influence, or economists who can’t figure out why
too many dollars chasing too few goods would result in price increases. 
I don’t trust any of those jokers.  They’re transforming America from a
High Trust society into a Low Trust Third World society and I hate it.

But not the kid.  Him, I trust.

Joe Doakes

 

And yet it can get so much worse.

The bad news? Reality may be worse.

I had Representative, and with any luck at all, next year, Senator Eric Lucero, on my show last weekend.

He talked about “ESG” – short for “Environmental Social Governance”, which is basically the plan, well underway, to impose “social credit” scores on businesses. These will inevitably trickle down to citizens.

The conversation should scare the crap out of you.

You don’t need conspiracy theories anymore. This is the real thing.

From the VOA, another sign that a troublesome group isn’t going away any time soon…

A regional affiliate of Islamic State on Monday said it had carried out a rocket attack on Uzbekistan from neighboring Afghanistan, the first strike by the terrorist group against the Central Asian nation.

Islamic State Khorasan Province fired 10 rockets at an Uzbek military base in the border town of Termez, the group said in a statement released Monday, according to Site Intelligence, which tracks terrorist propaganda.

IS Khorasan, first formed in 2015, is an affiliate of the Islamic State. Though the US and Afghan militaries did significant damage to IS Khorasan in the years following its formation, it has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including the bombing at the Kabul airport last August as the US was, uh, strategically advancing out of Afghanistan as fast as it could.

The site of this attack, Termez, is home to the Afghan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge. You may remember it as the bridge the last Soviet forces in Afghanistan used to exit the country.

The group even provided video footage to claim responsibility for the attack.

IS Khorasan has been openly hostile to the Taliban in the past and has clashed with them. The fact they can still operate within Afghanistan and now launch rockets at Uzbekistan does not bode well for peace in the region any time soon.

A Pakistani terror group, TTP, also operates within Afghanistan while launching attacks in Pakistan, such as an attack a few days ago that killed several troops. In response, the Pakistani military struck back inside Afghanistan.

The Taliban accused Pakistan on Saturday of launching cross-border military raids inside Afghanistan, which reportedly caused dozens of civilian casualties.

Local Taliban officials confirmed to VOA on condition of anonymity that Pakistani jets on Saturday bombed several villages in the border province of Khost, killing “at least 30 civilians, including women and children.”
…
Islamabad says the TTP, which is designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations, is plotting terrorism against the country from its Afghan sanctuaries.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged a recent spike in TTP attacks, particularly in northwestern districts on the Afghan border, which reportedly have killed and wounded dozens of soldiers.

The latest such attack took place Saturday when militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy in the volatile North Waziristan district opposite Khost, killing seven troops.

The Pakistan government has repeatedly urged the Taliban rulers to rein in TTP activities since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last August, days before U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after 20 years.

Afghanistan is a basket case, and it’s getting basketier.

You may recall this bit of footage; a woman, at last summer’s mini-riot in Uptown, seeing this rather chilling bit of footage; a woman with a pistol (and atrocious trigger discipline) wandering around on either Lagoon or Lake. 

As the TV cameras rolled, she fired a couple of shots in the air.    

Not just into the air; she reportedly shot at passing cars, full of people going to work, screaming “shoot all the white people”.  Something about that says “hate crime” to me, but what do I know

Perhaps unbelievably, the cops nabbed her.   Seems the Minneapolis administration was already getting nervous about mid-terms.  

So she went to jail…

…but if you follow Minneapolis politics, you know that’s not the end of the story.

Or, rather, more accurately, it’s the end of the criminal justice segment of the story. The “Minnesota Freedom Fund” bailed her out…

…and a Minneapolis judge gave her a stayed sentence that involved zero jail time. \

So to sum things up – a dangerous racist is out on the street, after attempting (if the reporting is correct, and the Twin Cities media will never let us know one way or the other) a spree shooting (and failing) of honkies, thanks fo the “Minnesota Freedom Fund” and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and judiciary.

Governor Klink likes to say we’re “One MInnesota”.

I’m not feeling very united, to tell you the truth.

Joe Doakes from Como park emails:

Mortgage interest rates just broke 5%. I predict a decline in home prices.

I start from the assumption that home buyers have an upper limit to their monthly payment, let’s say $1,000 for principal and interest (not counting taxes and insurance).

$1,000 per month P/I on a 3% mortgage gets you a $235,000 house.

$1,000 per month P/I on a 5% mortgage means you can only afford $185,000 house.

The seller must cut her asking price $50,000 to meet your budget. That’s a big chunk of her retirement fund, gone.

I’m sure Lesko Brandon will blame it on Putin’s invasion, or Donald Trump, or climate change, but let’s not kid ourselves. This financial disaster has the same cause as gas prices at the pump: He did that.

Heckova job, Democrats and Never-Trumpers. But hey, no mean tweets!

Joe Doakes

Rama Emanuels injunction to “never waste a crisis”is useful in the defensive as well as on the attack.

SCENE: Mitch BERG is standing in line at Kramarczuk’s Deli in Northeast Minneapolis, checking his email on his phone as he waits for an order. Distracted, he doesn’t notice Avery LIBRELLE walking in the door.

LIBRELLE: Merg!

BERG: Aaaaah, sssssschto Novovo, Aver…

LIBRELLE: Why are you here?

BERG: I’ve been coming here for 30-plus years.

LIBRELLE: What? You support the right of a beleaguered people who are surrounded on three sides by an authoritarian regime who has tried to murder them all in the past, who’ve launched yet another campaign of terror, and is carrying on a plucky campaign of resistance against overwhelming odds, tapping immense civil spirit to fight back against an authoritarian invader who vows genocide against them?

BERG: You’re referring to Israel?

LIBRELLE: (Mouth flaps open like a trout)

CLERK: (To BERG). Order up. (Puts wrapped sausage on counter. Turns to LIBRELLE). Er, your order sir…er, ma…(Looks at BERG, in a visible panic. BERG shrugs.)

LIBRELLE: (Mouth continues to flap)

BERG: Have a great day.

(BERG walks out. And SCENE).

During World War 2 in the Pacific, American GIs famously used verbal call-and-answer passwords with the letter “L” – “Calla Lillies” was a famous one – because the Japanese language has no such sound in it; it’s hard for Japanese-born speakers, even those relatively fluent in English, to make that sound.

Likewise, an easy way to tell if someone is from Western Europe is to see how they pronounce a phrase like “Think Through The Thoughts Thurman Thought Thirty-Three Times”. A German will work hard not to say “Tink Tru Da Tots Turman Tot Turty-Three Times”; a French native, “Zink Zru Ze Zots Surman Sot Zurty-sree times”. Neither language has the “th” sound like American English does.

But if America comes, heaven forbid, to blows over our social and cultural differences, the social and cultural divides don’t really break along linguistic lines.

So as a substitute, perhaps we’d have to try this; tell someone a bit of news like this, and see if they regard it as good news or terrible news.

That should tell you what you need.

Glenn Greenwald – the good liberal columnist – on Big Left’s response to Musk trying to buy Twitter:

“Liberals” promoting censorship? The heck you say?

The GOP may win the mid-terms. Maybe even the presidency in 2024.

But I’m increasinly wondering how this society keeps living together, and decreasingly hopeful that the answer is anything but “we can’t”.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The comment embargo period under Berg’s 18th Law of Media Latency has expired. My comment:

Six people were killed and 12 others injured in a mass shooting on a street of bars and nightclubs in Sacramento, California, at 2:00 in the morning on April 3, 2022. Law enforcement sources say a man drove a car up 10th Streetnear the K Street Mall and shot from the car. Another man also fired shots. The shooting may have been intended for rivals but by-standers were struck as well. Smiley Martin and his brother Dandrae Martin have been arrested.

Smiley was charged with Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person and Possession of a Machine Gun (a pistol recovered at the scene had been converted to fully-automatic fire). He was released from state prison in February on probation despite a 2017 felony assault along with convictions for possessing an assault weapon and thefts. Prosecutors said Martin has displayed a pattern of criminal behavior from the time he was 18.

Dandrae Martin, who was held without bail, was freed from an Arizona prison in 2020 after serving just over 1 1/2 years for violating probation in separate cases involving marijuana and aggravated assault. He is charged with Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person and Assault with a Firearm.

“President” Lesko Brandon, in response to the shooting, declared: “Ban ghost guns. Require background checks for all gun sales. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. Pass my budget proposal, which would give cities more of the funding they need to fund the police and fund the crime prevention and intervention strategies that can make our cities safer. These are just a few of the steps Congress urgently needs to take to save lives.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said: “Too many families and communities across the nation have been shattered by the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our nation, which steals more than 100 beautiful souls each day. Moved by the tireless activism of survivors and advocates, House Democrats have passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and the Enhanced Background Checks Act: commonsense and urgent action that will help end the bloodshed. Democrats will not relent until we enshrine this life-saving legislation into law, because inaction is not an option.”

NBA Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr spoke out: “It’s just mindboggling to me that we can just continue to cater to the very small minority in this country,” he said. “Again, 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, support background checks. We go through drivers’ school and drivers’ safety. And we have to apply for a license to drive a car. Nothing like that with a gun? … A lot of us are just angry.”

California already has the nation’s strictest gun laws, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The suspects are felons who are prohibited by state and federal from purchasing or possessing firearms. 100 spent casings were recovered from the scene. Prosecutors have not said how the brothers acquired the pistol or ammunition, both of which require identification and a background check prior to purchase, in California.

None of the people calling for more gun control laws explained how their proposals would have prevented the Sacramento tragedy.

None of the people calling for more gun control laws called for longer prison sentences or tougher parole standards to keep dangerous offenders off the streets.

None of the people calling for more gun control laws are serious about crime prevention, only virtue-signaling, which is a shame because America does indeed have a problem with gun violence. But the problem isn’t the guns, it’s the people using them to commit violence, a very small, distinct, readily identifiable minority of the population but one that simply cannot be criticized in polite society. So the violence continues, more innocents die, other innocents are stripped of rights, to avoid committing the gravest offense of all: speaking the truth.

Joe Doakes

Rahm Emanuel told Democrats to “never waste a crisis“.

It’s one rule they follow to the hilt.

Shawn Holster is running for the MN Senate in SD63.

Jerry Silver is seeking the GOP nomination to run against Betty McCollum in CD4.

And here’s the music list:

SCENE: The studio at the National Public Radio Twin Cities bureau. Mitch BERG is sitting, in headphones, in front of a microphone. Around the corner of the table is Cat SCAT, designated “fact checker” at the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “”MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com“, she is the office manager at a small phrenology practice. Through the glass, an engineer, an assistant engineer, an editor, an editorial assistant, two associate producers, a producer, a digital producer and an executive producer sit, listening intently. Across the table from SCAT and BERG sits MyLyssa SILBERMAN, reporter for National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau, covering the “Fake News” and “Diversity” beats.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER 1: “Aaand we’re rolling”.

SILBERMAN: (Reading from a script). Thanks, Kathy. That dress is adorable, by the way. Now, we look at America’s large and growing political divide. With us today are Cat Scat, Executive Fact-Checker at the journalism site “”MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com”, a source of journalism and news for Minnesotans since 2008.

SCAT: Hello. Is this thing on?

SILBERMAN: And Mitch Berg, blogger and talk radio host.

BERG: Uh…yeah, hi.

SILBERMAN (Still reading from script) Since 2016, concerns about the rise of authoritarianism have swept the nation…

BERG: Er, MylLyssa? That’s not true – on either side. People on the left were concerned about a rise in populism in Europe in the early 20`0s, when, rightly or wrongly, they fretted about the rise of the Volkspartei in Germany, and Victor Orban’s Fideš party in Hungary, as well as some pretty potent Polish nationalism. In the meantime, conservatives in the US have been concerned about the politicization of the state bureaucracy, with Barack Obama weaponizing some of the tools of excessive power that George W Bush instituted during his administration’s control over the War on Terror…

(BERG stops, noticing that SILBERMAN and SCAT are glaring at him).

ASSOCIATE ENGINEER: Take two?

SILBERMAN: Yep

LEAD ENGINEER: Rolling.

SILBERMAN (Still reading from script) Since 2016, concerns about the rise of authoritarianism have swept the nation. As right-wing anti-science theocrats took charge, fomenting boog bang… (stops). we’ll cut that in the edit. (deep breath) book bans, restrictions on saying “gay”, bans on reproductive rights, and a rise in hate from the right…

PRODUCER: (breaking in on the talkback): MyLyssa – read that as “skyrocketing racial hatred from red America directed at people of color and LGBTQ+ Americans.

EDITOR: …and “women and their children”.

PRODUCER: Love it. Got that, MyLyssa?

SILBERMAN: (scribbline on script) Got it.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Take it from “As right wing…” (SILBERMAN nods)

ASSOCIATE ENGINEER: Three, two, one…

SILBERMAN: As right-wing anti-science theocrats took charge, fomenting book bans, restridctions on saying “gay”, and skyrocketing racial hatred from red America directed at people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans and women and their children, we want to get the views of our guests – Cat Scat, progressive journalist and activist, and Mitch Berg, right wing hatemonger.

BERG: Uhhhhh

SILBERMAN: Ms. Scat, what’s your take?

SCAT: The problem entirely started in 2016, when hatemongers took over the White House, ushering in an era of hatred for people of color, for LGBTQ+, for women’s reproductive choice, for transgender and queer folk, for demoracy itself, and replacing it with a paranoid neo-nazi ammosexual delusions of a bunch of red-state trailer-park dwelling cousin-f**king high school dropouts, which studies show the majority of red America are…

BERG: I’m gonna break in, here. Your statement is the kind of lie that gets legs of its own if you let it fester. It’s a preposterous slander of tens of millions of millions of Americans; we almost invariably are motivated not by hate, but by concern over the trashing of the parts of Western Civilization that have made us not only the free-est and most prosperous society in history – one where for the firs time ever, obesity is a bigger problem than starving to death – but more humane, especially for gays, people of color, LGBTQ+ and whomever you’re concerned about, and don’t support authoritarians, ever, in any way.

PRODUCER: What can we do with that last bit.

ENGINEER: Wait one…

(freantic computer editing)

ENGINEER: OK, here’s what we got:

(BERG’s voice, edited, in the playback): “I’m gonna break…Your…legs …we… hate… the trash…of Western Civilization…obesi…gays, people of color, LGBTQ+ and whomever you’re concerned about and…support authoritarians…in any way.

SILBERMAN: So you hate people of weight as well as POC, LGBTQ+ and Latinx people…

SCAT: You’ve been fact-cjhecked!

BERG: I did in fact record the original unedited exchange on my phone and this digital recorder.

SILBERMAN: Unfair!

PRODUCER: Chilling effect on journalism!

EDITOR: Why do you hate the free press?

And SCENE

Based, loosely but not nearly loosely enough, on an MPR piece I caught last week.

An Inigo Montoya moment:

Democracy. They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

Of course, what frightens Max Boot is having anything he says face a challenge. Content moderation is especially cool if it means you don’t have to face any discontent. Boot’s preferred usage is a Boot on the throat.

I am not sure what I think about Elon Musk generally. One could argue he’s built his fortune by using government subsidies and cronyism, as he clearly has, but it’s also undeniable he’s building useful things. And it’s absolutely undeniable that he has all the right enemies. And the cognitive dissonance is off the damned charts:

Does Musk want to take over Twitter? I don’t think so. The company’s financials aren’t great, and running social media companies is hard. The car crash that is former President Donald Trump’s social media experiment, Truth Social, is a cautionary tale for Musk. Does Musk want to name some people to Twitter’s board of directors? Maybe. That would allow him to have some say over its affairs without spending too much time or money.

That’s worrisome, because it’s not ideal to have a free speech absolutist who isn’t absolutely in favor of free speech at the helm of — or even close to — a media company.

So where is Timothy O’Brien making this argument? Bloomberg. Who runs Bloomberg? A billionaire who happened to be a presidential candidate in the last cycle. We live in an unserious world.

While the Biden Administration continues to install express check-in kiosks all across the southern border, this article from the Wilson Center points out there are other implications beyond just importing what the Democrats hope will be a compliant voting bloc and dependent class.

Russian aggression against Ukraine may jeopardize Mexico’s relationship with the United States. This is the opinion of many Mexican commentators, who are generally critical of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). It is a war (a word forbidden by the Russian government) that has universal repercussions, something that does not seem to be understood by a president who has not shown any personal interest in international relations, unless it is to complain to Spain, to the European deputies, or to Antony Blinken for his judgment on the murders of journalists.
…
That is why the organization Morena Youth (Juventudes de Morena) of the State of Mexico supports Russia and receives the gratitude of the Russian ambassador; that is why certain deputies of the government majority form a Mexico/Russia Friendship Group and invite the Russian ambassador to Congress (March 23, 2022). Mexico’s former ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan expressed that this, “portrays full-length the stale, rancid and aimless left that Mexico does not deserve.”

On March 24, the commander of the United States Northern Command Gen. Glen VanHerck appeared before the US Senate Committee on Armed Services Committee, and he made this comment regarding Russian agents in Mexico (transcript here, comment from page 54, bold is mine)

General VanHerck: There are actors who are very aggressive and active all across the NORTHCOM AOR, to including the Bahamas and Mexico, China and Russia. I would point out that the largest portion of GRE members in the world is in Mexico right now. Those are Russian intelligence personnel, and they keep an eye very closely on their opportunities to have influence on U.S. opportunities
and access.

(The GRU is Russian military intelligence.)

A porous border unguarded by a feckless Administration will attract malignant operators. Increasingly, migrants crossing the US border come from outside Mexico and Central America, including, ahem, this from BusinessInsider… Do we know who they are?

In December, over 2,000 Russians and 300 Ukrainians made their way to the border. Axios reported most of them had either arrived or were found at a legal port of entry in San Diego, California.

By comparison, only 53 Russians were found at the US-Mexico border in December of the previous year.

The aforementioned Arturo Sarukhan writing at Brookings a couple days ago had a few pointed comments, shockingly so for a diplomat, on Mexico’s coy game of footsie with Moscow.

Now, with the president’s MORENA party and its allies in the lower house of Congress having unconscionably launched in late March a Mexico-Russia friendship caucus — inviting Moscow’s ambassador and providing him with a bully pulpit to disseminate lies and disinformation — Mexico is blindly playing with fire. López Obrador apparently believes he can have his cake and it eat too when it comes to ties with the United States and the EU, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) framework, and Mexico’s global and multilateral diplomatic footprint.
…
Over the years, a combination of navel-gazing and lack of purpose, ambition, budget, and overarching grand strategy have all meant that when it comes to global or even hemispheric affairs, Mexico’s diplomatic payload tends to be woefully puny, particularly compared with other emerging economies and regional powers. Now, with López Obrador’s disdain for foreign policy and his general austerity drive eviscerating Mexico’s foreign service corps and its footprint abroad, the nation is punching even further below its weight in global affairs. Not even the best-funded diplomacy could make up for decisionmaking like López Obrador’s.

Fatherhood is high on Big Left’s hit list – especially Big Feminism and Big Intersectionality. Without strong fathers, families are missing half of the behavioral background the children need to grow to be strong people.

Debasing fatherhood is key to Big Left’s crusade to “reinvent” – i.e. destroy – the nuclear family.

Ron DeSantis signed a bill designed to rehabilitate fathers in Florida. And there’s a Minnesota connection:

DeSantis signed the bill at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training facility in Tampa, according to WTSP, noting that he put pen to paper at the team’s AdventHealth Training Center alongside former Bucs head coach Tony Dungy, who is also the spokesperson of and contributor to All Pro Dad, a national fatherhood nonprofit program that will be provided funding via grant opportunities by the bill. DeSantis said the organization uses “evidence-based parenting education.”

Dungy gave an impassioned speech as he backed the bill, saying that it will “be such a big help to fathers in Florida agencies that support fathers in Florida.” He commended DeSantis for bringing his children with him.

The program is designed to rehab fathers who’ve gotten out of jail, and whose kids are in the social-services system.

I’m waiting for Big Feminism to start with the gaslighting.

I’m also waiting for DeSantis to make them look like the yawping psychopaths they are.

DeSantis is pulling waaaay out front in my personal 2024 poll. .

Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky produced a sobering report for Chapman University on the plight of California and its prospects for the future. It might be more accurate to refer to “the Californias”, plural, as the report describes two Californias.

The state is blessed with immense natural resources and generates riches that make Croesus seem a pauper. Yet, the wealth is far from evenly distributed.

According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, 20% of state wealth is held within 30 zip codes that account for just 2% of the population. Less than 33% of state wealth is held within 1,350 zip codes that house 75% of Californians. Since the 1970s, California middle-class incomes, once ebullient, have stagnated.

Even before the pandemic, California experienced lower growth than the other states it competes with for business and people. The most glaring losses have been in well-paying blue collar jobs. Even without adjusting for costs, no California metro ranks in the
US top ten of well-paying blue-collar jobs. But four—Ventura, Los Angeles, San Jose, and San Diego—sit among the bottom ten.

You might think that being a tech center would make California immune to disruption at the higher end of the scale, but that may be changing.

There is much controversy over the extent and importance of business flight from California, but the most recent evidence reveals that the tide of business headquarters leaving the state is accelerating. A 2021 Hoover Institution report presents a compelling set of data about recent business behavior. From January 1, 2018, to June 30, 2021, 265 companies moved their headquarters
out of the state, an average rate of 6.3 per month. The speed of exodus accelerated significantly (to 12.3 per month) in the six months from January through June of 2021.

Most of these firms departed from the Bay Area and Southern California, the state’s premier urban areas. Where did they go? Five states—Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado… Since the beginning of 2018, some 107 companies have moved their headquarters to Texas from the Golden State.

While the über-wealthy bunker down in their coastal, leafy enclaves, the people the Left claims to care oh so much about are sinking.

…but in this case, “going where late night TV and Saturday Night Live apparently don’t dare go anymore”: Saudi TV lampoons Lesko Brandon:

I’m old enough to remember when all presidents were fair game on American TV.

Years and years ago, on a NARN broadcast at the “Back to the Fifties’ car show at the Fairgrounds, James Lileks made a point that summed up why “progressivism” is so noxious to so many people; there would, and could, never be an electric equivalent of the 1965 Ford Mustang.

Progressivism isn’t about muscle, happiness, abundance. It’s about shared misery – spreading it, virtue-signaling it (and, if you’re one of the “Big Guys”, quietly and flagrantly avoiding it). It’s no accident that it’s the “progressives” that are still wearing masks as they walk their dogs, alone, down empty streets.

The problem is, poor societies don’t solve problems. It takes prosperity to innovate. Leftists never get that.

Not everyone on the left believes in the virtue of wallowing in privation for “the common good”. Ruy Texeira – author, TED talker and public radio regular guest, who describes himself as a committed liberal – writes an excellent piece in the National Review about all the things the Democrats are getting wrong. It’s a longish and excellent read (and might require a subscription, i dunno)…

…and makes a similar point; Democrat disdain for prosperity (among the proles, at least – nobody’s coming for Zuckerberg’s spare yacht) is hurting them among the normies,

Energy is a big fault line:

Closely related to Democrats’ relative indifference to economic growth is their lack of optimism that a rapid advance and application of technology can produce an abundant future. More common is fear that a dystopian future might await us thanks to AI and other technologies. This is odd, given that almost everything ordinary people like about the modern world, including relatively high living standards, is traceable to technological advances and the knowledge embedded in them. From smartphones, flat-screen TVs, and the Internet to air and auto travel to central heating and air-conditioning to the medical devices and drugs that cure disease and extend life to electric lights and the mundane flush toilet, technology has dramatically transformed people’s lives for the better. It is difficult to argue that the average person today is not far, far better off than her counterpart in the past. “The good old days were old but not good,” as the Northwestern University economic historian Joel Mokyr puts it.

Doesn’t the Left want to make people happy? One has to wonder. They show more interest in figuring out what people should stop doing and consuming than in figuring out how people can have more to do and consume. They rarely discuss the idea of abundance, except to disparage it.

Texeira may never do lunch on Nob Hill again, but it’s worth a read.

Joe Doakes from Como park emails:

One of the most frustrating things about the Ukraine situation is sorting truth from lies, made harder ever-changing lies.

For example, Russia initially claimed it was invading because the US secretly funded bio-weapons research labs in Ukraine, a charge the US hotly denied as Russian propaganda. Until Saturday, when the US admitted it secretly funded bio-weapons research labs in Ukraine but they were not Offensive bio-weapons, only Defensive bio-weapons, so plainly Russia’s claims were mere propaganda.

For another example, Russia claimed it was invading to ‘de-Nazify’ the break-away provinces of eastern Ukraine, a charge the Ukrainians hotly denied as Russian propaganda. Until Saturday, when President Zelenskyy was asked about the Azov Battalion being Nazi-affiliated and shooting Russian prisoners, and he admitted “they are what they are” and justified their actions because they were defending Ukraine, so plainly Russia’s claims were mere propaganda.

The lies keep changing but not on Russia’s side. Doesn’t prove the invasion is legally or morally justified but it justifies asking hard questions of the liars. What else are they lying about?

Joe Doakes

The fact that the Azov Battalion was of European far right white supremacists sympathy was an open secret. The fact that they’ve been in action for eight years, and have been pressed into service by an initially fairly desperate Ukrainian military, is not a huge surprise, unfortunate as the fact is.

It’s also been, if not an open secret, at least not a complete shock that the US farmed out a lot of less savory activities – including CIA “black sites“ for interrogating terrorist suspects Dash to Eastern Europe, taking advantage of the lax or nonexistent laws on the subject.

Both are certainly moral defects that are easily turned into pretexts by even less above board regimes.Or at least that’s what it smells like to me…