Governor Walz, I have some questions.

In your press conference announcing the Stay Home order, you said the
Covid virus would kill 75,000 Minnesotans if we did nothing but only
50,000 if we implemented the strictest lock-down.  We needed to do that
to ‘flatten the curve’ so ICU rooms wouldn’t be overwhelmed.  Two weeks
later, you announced we had ramped up ICU rooms from 235 to 3,000 but we
still needed ventilators, which were on back-order.

Since then, we’ve been in continuous lock-down and now have the mask
mandate but ICU rooms are not overwhelmed with Covid cases; indeed,
hospitals are closing their doors for lack of patients.

Your administration gives daily briefings on the spread of Covid cases
and daily reported deaths as if these were bad things.  But weren’t they
part of the plan all along?  We locked down to Slow the spread, not to
Eliminate the spread.  We knew people would die, we just wanted them to
die more slowly.  Your plan is working perfectly.  Why aren’t you happy?

Which brings up the next point: when do you anticipate the lock-down
will end?  Right now, closings and quarantines seem to be based on case
rates, not ICU rates.  I understand that in theory, more cases could
lead to more ICU admissions which could overwhelm the system; but so
far, the statistics show that’s not happening.  We have plenty of excess
ICU bed capacity.

If all goes according to plan, eventually, everybody in the state will
have Covid but most of them will neither display symptoms nor require
hospitalization.  Is that what you’re waiting for?  If so, shouldn’t we
speed up the process by lifting all restrictions now?

Joe Doakes

It’s neither about science nor logic.

But Joe knows this.

Liberals are all excited about the number of Covid cases.  Not me. 
Cases don’t matter in a public policy discussion, only effects on the
public, i.e. hospitalizations and deaths.

Think of it this way: Covid is a virus, as is the rhinovirus, which
causes the common cold; influenza, which causes the flu; and herpes
simplex, which causes cold sores.  Those viruses are everywhere and
everybody has them lurking in their bodies all the time, but most of the
time they cause no symptoms so nobody cares that they have the viruses.

We don’t count cases of cold sore outbreaks because nobody dies of a
cold sore.  We don’t count cases of the common cold because nobody gets
hospitalized for it.

We do count cases of the flu because that does kill people – very young
and very old, mostly.  But not inactive cases.  We don’t go around
randomly testing people to see if they have influenza virus in their
bodies.  We only count cases that are bad enough for hospitalization or
result in death, because those are the cases that have a public impact. 
People walking around with virus in the body but no symptoms are ignored.

That’s how we should be handling Covid.  Count hospitalizations and
deaths, only.  By that measure, the epidemic is over.    125 people die
every day in Minnesota, from all sources.  The number of people being
hospitalized or dying from Covid is in the single digits.  If we weren’t
specifically searching for it, Covid would be indistinguishable from
statistical background noise.

The epidemic is over.  We won.  Open everything.

Joe Doakes

We have an entire generation – and on the left, probably more like two entire generations – who think “hardship” was “losing the 2016 election”. They hear people talking about the Spanish Flu, the breakdown of Europe, the Depression, World War 2, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Stagflation and the National Malaise, the Cold War and the Nuclear Arms race, and seem to feel left out of the Existential Dread sweepstakes.

And so Covid will serve as an existential crisis for a generation that doesn’t really know what existential crisis is.

I was 24th in line at Saint Paul Ward 4 Precinct 14 when the polls opened at 7AM this morning.

It was brisk, but a beautiful morning.

How did I vote? A straight second amendment ticket. The right to keep and bear arms is the canary in the human rights coal mine. A politician who holds your *God-given right* to defend yourself, your family, your property, your community and your freedom with contempt, will eventually show their spots on all the other liberties.

I voted for Jason Lewis, naturally.

And even though I’m still sore for him somehow beating Sia Lo in the primary, and thought for a while about using CD4 as my write-in vote for a third party (there was a pot party candidate as well), I voted for Gene Rechtziegel for Congress, because while I have no idea where he got the money, he must have spent well into five figures in ads at the Pioneer Press in this past week That’s commitment. Here’s hoping Sia Lo comes back in 2022.

Finally – for MN Supreme Court, given a choice between a DFLer who makes Bernie Sanders look like Jim Nash, and a woman who I believe aided in someone kidnapping a father’s children (something I neither forgive nor *ever* forget, and hate with the heat of a thousand suns) and has been beclowning the GOP for years, I wrote in my cat, Pickle Berg.

I made the right call on that one.

Brad Carlson, Lee Michaels and me will be on the air from the Doubletree from 8PM until it makes no sense to go any later, on AM1280 The Patriot tonight. Hope you can join us.

It’s easy to wonder, if you’re a conservatve in Minnesota, whether voting matters. I’ve even heard that from some Third-Party and Never-Trumpers that “your GOP vote won’t matter in Minnesota, so why not vote third-party?

But while I, like all Minnesota conservatives, have had the Lucy Pulling the Football Away moment far too often, and I don’t really trust polls on either side of today’s questions, there are at least some indications that today’s vote does matter, a whole lot.

And if (as my pessimism tells me is unlikely) Trump is ahead tonight, look for them – the Democrats and media – to try to undercut it. They already are.

So if you’re a Conservative / Republican, get out and vote as if they’re going to be trying to lock us up if we lose. Which, it seems, they are.

See you at the polls.

Anyone remember “Julia”?

The Obama campaign’s infantiolization of the American voter?

This video from Kamala Harris makes “Julia” look like John Galt:

This is what Joe Biden is a delivery system for.

President Trump is so strong, so virile, so . . . hyper-masculine, just like a Vladimir Putin or  some Confederate general. 

MPR really misses Pajama Boy.

Joe Doakes

I’ve got friends…well, semi-professional acquaintances that haven’t gone completely mad with partisan rage, anyway – at MPR, so I’ll not comment on the locals.

But it seems to have been decreed from on high that male voices that aren’t audibly African-American must sound like most of America thinks Pajama Boy sounded.

I’ve been doing these since 2004. It’s a different list every time. More different than most, this year.

So without further ado – 101 Reasons I’m Voting GOP.

1. Because most of politics is local…
2. …and locally, the DFL has made a hash of both cities at every level.
3. And although I can’t vote in CD5, replacing Ilhan Omar with Lacy Johnson would shake Minneapolis’s smug, sclerotic establishment to its core.
4. Ditto, replacing Foung Hawj with Alexander Buster Deputie.
5. Double-ditto Diane Napper vs. Patricia Torres Rey in SD63. Torres Rey has benefitted from the sandbagging of her district for long enough.
6. Because Amy Wazlawik thinks she can just say “it’s not my job, man” when her party’s hateful inner id comes roiling out. Elliot Engen will actually represent District 37B.
7. Speaking of the DFL’s inner id – a good chunk of my neighborhood got burned, looted and covered in graffiti…
8. …and the drug store I’ve been doing to for decades, which has done business in my neighborhood for over 100 years, got burned to the ground…
9. …and because one of the shops I take my guitars to got burned and looted…
10. …and the powers that be in this city seem to be trying to benefit from it.
11. Because the two businesses in my neighborhood that actually decided to put on a show of force to try to deter the Democrat mob – one run by immigratns, the other by a black family, by the way – were more likely to get punished within an inch of their lives than anyone doing the actual burning and looting.
12. Because of March 4, 2017, when a bunch of “Anti”-Fa attacked a Republican rally.
13. And one of them turned out to be the son of Hillary’s VP nominee.
14. And they didn’t even whisper “slap” at his precious widdle wrist. There are two justice systems in Minnesota.
15. Because the Minneapolis City Council believes that “law and order” is racist, and “expecting the police to provide the public order that is local government’s one unambiguously valid reason to exist” is “privilege”.
16. And they’re right. It’s a “privilege” every single taxpayer and voter deserves to get, because they trade not only their tax dollars but a little bit of their inalienable freedom to get it. Government had %$#@ best deliver.
17. Becasue it is a fact that until the President started talking and tweeting about sending in the 82nd Airborne or the 10th Mountain Division, Governor Klink was playing passive-aggressive games with Mayor McDreamy with the Minnesota Guard. Suddenly, once the President started flexing, the Guard showed up.
18. Because Governor Klink plays passive aggressive games with every f****ng aspect of government…
19. …while Trump plays aggressive-aggressive games with government. I’ll take aggressive aggression every single time.
20. Because instead of peace and order, our tax dollars are getting us social engineering and city goverment as tinker toy set for the political class.
21. And I’m not a ^%$#@ tinker toy.
22. Because the DFL has had sixty years of unfettered control in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There is nobody to blame but them.
23. And because the only thing they do besides yap about “privilege” is call for bike lanes and trains.
24. Because you – whoever you are, whatever your ethnicity or gender or orientation or whatever – are being gaslit.
25. If you’re white, you’re being gaslit to try to get you to think you’re not only a racist, but that your “whiteness” is a pathology of which racism is only one of an endlessly growing litany of symptoms.
26. If you’re black, you’re being gaslit to believe the only way you can succeed is by exhibiting “unity” with your race…
27. …but only the parts of that race that vote Democrat. Because your contribution to Democrat power as part of your identity group is the only thing that matters about you.
28. Same for Latinos – provided, again, that you vote Democrat.
29. Same for Asians. Except the work ethic that makes up a big part of the cultural stereotype about you will be turned against you when it becomes inconvenient – say, when assessing who benefits from affirmative action.
30. Gays? Ditto.
31. And that gaslighting is being weaonized to not only minimize and dehumanize people, but to manipulate and control them.
32. Because my old neighborhood, South Minneapolis, looks like Beirut in 1982, but is probably not quite as safe for civilians…
33. …and people in Beirut in 1982 could at least defend themselves.
34. Because businesses in Minneaolis and Saint Paul are boarding up again, even as I write this…
35. …and it ain’t because they’re worried about Trump supporters rioting.
36. Because the DFL wants to take your guns.
37. Because I’d like to stop worrying about whether my mom is OK in a long term care center in Minnesota…
38. …and Governor Klink is worthless in that regard. Utterly worthless.
39. What Governor Klink is, is an arrogant little man who runs an executive branch that thinks peasants should know their place and not get all uppity about “checking the “experts” work” and all that smart-people stuff.
40. Because Governor Klink’s “health economist” thought the “Model” – which predicted 70 times as many deaths as happened by July – was too complicated for mere peasants to look at.
41. Because the Iron Range deserves to go back to work, in actual mines, making real money. Not stocking shelves and cashiering at casinos, to make metro environmentalists feel better.
42. Because Governor Klink (and, let’s be honest, the state’s real co-governors, Peggy Flanagan and Melissa Hortman) play relentless identity politics.
43. Seirously – it’s literally the only message any of them have. Competence? Value for tax dollar? Check your privilege, peasant!
44. Because Ilhan Omar is so corrupt, Chicago called and said “dial it back, toots”.
45. Because if my stance helps deliver Lacy Johnson to Congress, it’ll be time well spent.
46. And if that helps Kendall Qualls beat Rotgut Dean, that’ll be almost as awesome.
47. And if Tyler Kistner sends Angie Craig back to Human Resources, where she blongs, so much the better.
48. Because there is no way CD 7 should be represented by a Pelosi-upsucking turncoat like Collin Peterson. The Dakotas chucked their Democrats; it’s time for CD7 to do it too.
49. And because I want to make Pete Stauber the first of what I hope to help turn into a safe GOP district for a few generations.
50. Because sending Jim Hagedorn back to Congress is not just right for southern Minnesota…
51. ..but would be q wonderous slap in the face for Kim Norton, mayoro of Rochester and a woman who would be more in place in some central American banana Republic.
52. Because the DFL has its crosshairs on gun rights in Minnesota.
53. And they work for the same people that’ve promised to use “red flag” laws to harass gun owners.
54. Because all of Joe Biden‘s “plans“ – curing the epidemic, create 5 million jobs – reek of unicorn farts.
55. And in normal times, government making vapid promises it can’t possibly deliver on isn’t a bad thing…
56. …but getting the Democrats into complete control of the wheels and levers of government at any level is going to be a disaster…
57. Because the Demorat party at all levels is talking about “Unity” – the dumbest, most facile cliche in an industry built on facile cliches…
58. …but it’s more toxic than just a cliche. The unspoken codecil to “Unity” is “behind our beliefs, only, peasant”.
59. Because the Democrats had a chance to exploit whatever anti-Trump sentiment is out there by meeting disaffected Republicans halfway…
60. …and stuck with tax hikes
61. …and gun control…
62. …and the destruction of healthcare…
63. …and abortion on demand up until birth…
64. …and even after…
65. …and the further dilution of whatever’s left o education…
66. …and “the Green New Deal” – aka “an untrammeled transfer of wealth and power”
67. …Because their “Unity” means your subjugation.
68. Because Joe Biden is a delivery system for Kamala Harris
69. And Kamala Harris is a delivery system for The Squad
70. And The Squad is a delivery system for Bernie Sanders and his pack of apparatchiks.
71. And Bernie is a delivery system for socialism.
72. Because of the Venezuelan restaurant owner that tossed Kamala Harris from his establishment.
73. And the reasons he did it.
74. Because I’m a Second Amendment activist – and whatever “progressives” are condescending cooing these days, they are coming for the second amendment.
75. Because while I’ve been a Trump skeptic, at best, for a generation – literally – the alternative is worse.
76. Because the “never Trump” movement, given a chance to provide a genuine conservatisve third way between Trumpism and (let’s be honest) Communism, chose to enable Communism.
77. Because the Lincoln Project is to “conservative principles” what Vox.com is to “Journalism”.
78. Indeed, because many of Trump’s enemies are people and organizations I respect far, far less even than Trump.
79. Because while I was juuuust this side of “Never Trump”-ism four years ago, and he’s got immense flaws as a conservative and as a President, he’s accomplished far more than I had hoped in the past four years.
80. And I’m a principles voter – and my principle is “screw up the country less than the opponent”. It’s a low bar. Biden doesn’t surmount it.
81. Because of Justice Gorsuch.
82. And Justice Kavanaugh.
83. And Justice Coney Barrett
84. And the possibility – admittedly slim – that yet another seat might come up for grabs in the next four years.
85. Because the Democrats have said plainly (or been quite plain in their selective silence) that they plan to pack the Supreme Court…
86. …and otherwise gut checks and balances on executive power.
87. Because our “elite” media, starting in December of 2016, dropped all pretense and went full in-the-bag for the Democrats…
88. …and they deserve to lose.
89. Because blue half of our country sees the red half of our country as a little less human, and that must not be rewarded…
90. …much less put in a position where they can give that attitude teeth.
91. Because Democrats are calling for a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” – in other words, they want to settle scores for the impudence of defeating Hillary.
92. Because of every smug little progressive prick who yaps about red voters “voting against their interests”…
93. …without how the policies and politics that gave us Newark, Detroit, Baltimore, NOLA, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Stockton, Camden and North Minneapolis are “in our best interests”.
94. And because every time I ask progs to answer that for me, they skip away in a cloud of deflection and ad homina.
95. Because of the Vietnamese, Cambodian, H’mong, Polish, Russian, Cuban and other immigrants who came her to escape communism, socialism, warlordism and all manner of other high-and-low-brow authoritarianism…
96. …and keeping it from happening here.

97. Because I believe in the best of western civilization.

98. And while Donald Trump may not be the finest example of the western intellect at work, he at least respects Western Civilization, with all its imperfections and (this is important) incredible successes on behalf of humanity.

99. And modern progressivism repudiates it.
100. And western civilization is worth fighting for. Preferably peacefully – and voting against the death of western civilization is better than literally going to war.
101. And so I’m voting GOP.

Last week, Dictator-for-Life Walz assured us rising numbers of Covid cases was due to 18-35 year olds not following appropriate mask and social distance procedures. He issued Executive Order 20-96 which limited gatherings to 10 people for two weeks, then 50 people for two more weeks, then 25 people thereafter. That Order was based on SCIENCE.

This week, he changed it to zero. No gatherings for four weeks. This Order also was based on SCIENCE.

What changed about the SCIENCE? The Governor says:

“I recently issued Executive Order 20-96, which placed limits on the social gatherings and establishments that posed the most serious concern according to MDH data. In the week since, MDH has confirmed over 30 additional outbreaks connected to the gatherings, bars, and restaurants that were encompassed by Executive Order 20-96. Unfortunately, these numbers, our statewide cases, hospitalization rates, and our levels of community spread demonstrate that a temporary dial back on in-person social activity and restrictions on certain businesses are necessary.”

Okay, so we’ve identified the problem and it’s 18-35 year olds going to social gatherings in bars and restaurants. But then what does this mean:

“Minnesota’s rate of “community spread”—meaning those cases that MDH cannot link to another case or a source of exposure—is particularly concerning. At least one third of all new COVID-19 infections in Minnesota have no known source.”

and also:

“Minnesota is currently averaging over 100 cases per 100,000 residents each day. These numbers tell a troubling story. The virus is everywhere, meaning that every interaction we have with people outside of our households poses a risk of transmission. When we cannot effectively trace infections due to community spread, we cannot keep COVID-19 out of our businesses, our schools, or the congregate care facilities that house our most vulnerable residents.”

So . . . last week, we knew enough to leave everything open with some limits. Today we don’t know anything so we must lock down everything even though the virus is everywhere and nothing we’ve tried to stop it, has done anything.

The evidence does not support the conclusion.

I’m starting to get the impression Kevin Roche at Healthy Skeptic is right. The Dictator-for-Life is not a bold leader protecting us from certain disaster; he is an Incompetent Blowhard.

Joe Doakes

He’s a gym teacher, using the tools of his trade – yelling and putting people in corners.

December, 2016: “Perhaps “blue” America, especially its “celebrity” class, has learned its lesson – that gratuitously insulting half of the population, treating them like a bunch of cartoonish caricatures, wasn’t the best approach to winning an election”.

November 2020: Narrator: “They did not learn their lesson”.

However the election comes out, I need to print up a few hundred of these.

And, in my neighborhood, rub them down with poison ivy.

I have been confidently assured there is no ballot fraud.  I’m dubious.

The Minnesota Supreme Court issued an opinion in DSCC v. Simon, court
file A20-1017.  It’s eye-opening.

Minnesota law has long allowed a voter to have someone help them mark
their ballot.  It’s historically been used by the blind or disabled,
given by a friend or family member, and done inside the polling booth. 
The opportunity for fraud or mistake exists, but it’s a single vote. 
The law allows one person to help no more than three voters.

The Democrat party asserted they had the right under federal law to
“help” an unlimited number of voters mark their ballots off-site, and
then to deliver all those marked ballots to the polling place. 
Democrats asserted the Minnesota law that allows one person to “help” no
more than 3 voters, and to deliver the ballots of no more than 3 voters,
was a violation of federal voting rights law.

The Secretary of State disagreed (amazingly).  The Republican party
joined the suit to object. The trial court agreed with the Democrats and
issued a temporary order allowing the practice.  The Supreme Court
disagreed, slightly.

Democrats can “help” an unlimited number of people mark their ballots,
but no one person can deliver more than three of the marked ballots to
the polling place.  No more bringing in boxes full of marked ballots
from the trunk of your car.  Instead, Democrats must recruit more
runners to deliver all the marked ballots.

It’s probably just me, but if I were of a mind to cheat the vote, I
could think of a way to do it under this system.  Able marks hundreds of
ballots in the names of blind, disabled, elderly, dead, and non-English
speaking voters.  Baker, Charlie, David, Emily, Frank and many more,
earn a few bucks delivering three ballots to each of Ramsey, Hennepin,
Dakota, Carver, Wright, Sherburne, Anoka, Isanti and Washington
counties.  Better still, they earn no money, they get class
participation credit for their college Political Science course.  The
odds of counties comparing names is nil.  Multiply by 86 counties and
the chance to influence the results is . . . significant.

Good thing there is no ballot fraud.

Joe Doakes

Strap in. This next two months may well make us pine for the good times back in 2000.

Dave Osmek is running for MN Senate in SD33.

Doug Willetts is running for MN Senate in SD51.

That’s the sound of DFLers realizing they’re going to have to jam ten days worth of fraud into one evening.

And they’re not happy about it.

The 8th Circuit returned a decision in Carson v. Simon yesterday. The presser from the Minnesota Voters Alliance explains:

 The 8th Circuit reversed a lower court decision which authorized the Minnesota Secretary of State to accept ballots seven days after the election, and required an injunction against Simon for extending the statutory deadline for election day for receipt of absentee ballots. 

In our view, this was a scheme concocted by Secretary Simon in the first place, where he identified and encouraged his allies to file a lawsuit against him, knowing all along that he would enter into a consent decree with them just to circumvent the legislature and the will of the people.  We can not prove that of course, but in our view, that is exactly what happened.  

To sum it up:

1. “Progressive” “group” “files” a “suit” against a “progressive” Secretary of State.
2. The SOS “settles out of court”, signing a consent decree with his allies signed off on by a “progressive” judge.

Presto change-o. Law changed by executive fiat (under cover of a convenient bit of “litigation”), without any pesky “checks and balances” or “legislatures” getting in the way.

It’s an end-run around state law, and due process.

And it’s a foreword to what we can expect – well, expect much more of – if the Democrats win on Tuesday, or whenever the actual decision is announced.

The DFL PR nomenklatura are doing their best to obscure the facts:

Could Murphy have gotten anything about the story less right?

The problem isnt that Trump hasn’t condemned racism and “white supremacy”.

In fact, here we see him do it 38 times:

The problem is that it isn’t literally the first and last thing out of his mouth whenever he speaks, which Democrat messaging seems to assume puts it outside the attention span of the typical Democrat voter.

Which the partisan media is counting on.

And yes, the media is partisan.

Dear Governor Wallz.

Follow the science!

Joe Doakes

Joe is mistaking “science” – means of focused questioning, observation and analysis – with “science”, a set of memes and commandments designed to exhort compliance.

Common mistake.

I do “get” nostalgia.

My first radio station – KEYJ, which became KQDJ during my senior year of high school – was one of the formative experiences of my life. 

But sometime around 2000, it changed from a local middle-of-the-road station to a “computer in a closet” station relaying ESPN Sportsradio and the occasional high school sports event.  They moved the studio from above the drugstore on mainstreet to a nondescript suite in a strip mall downwind from a Walmart.  I don’t drop by to visit, because it’s not the station it was when I was 16.  It’s not a radio station anyone in 1980 would have recognized at all. 

The past is a keen, formative memory.  The present is a 10 year old PC passing along people jabbering about the NBA.   

If it disappeared tomorrow, the memory would remain.  The present wouldn’t be lamented at all. 

The CIty Pages – which was the last survivor of an endless stream of “alternative” weekly tabloids (Twin Cities Reader, Nightbeat, Cake, Buzz, and no doubt others) that used to sit in bins outside record stores, co-ops and cafes all over town – has closed, effective whoah, that was fast:

“Since City Pages revenue is 100% driven by advertisers and events—and those investments have dropped precipitously—there’s no reasonable financial scenario that would enable us to continue operations in the face of this pandemic,” Star Tribune Chief Revenue Office Paul Kasbohm said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we foresee no meaningful recovery of these sectors or their advertising investments in the near future, leaving us no other options than to close City Pages.”

City Pages will stop publishing in print and online immediately, according to a news release. The last print edition of City Pages will be distributed this week.
The closure eliminates all City Pages positions.

I come not to praise the City Pages, but to bury it. But fairness demands a little clarity.

The City Pages were the last survivor of what used to be a bumper crop of freebie tabloids that popped up in bins outside restaurants, co-ops, record stores and bars. There were a bunch – Nightbeat in the eighties, Twin Cities Reader in the eighties and nineties, joined by Cake and Buzz and a few others in the nineties. The field winnowed down to just the City Pages by about 2000.

In the eighties, it was where writers like David Brauer, Brian Lambert and James Lileks got their starts – indeed, it was where Lileks gave me my first legit-media plug, 33 years ago.

And for a few years, in the ’90s and early 2000s, City Pages did some great journalism. They did more, better long-form and investigative reporting than the Strib or PiPress, at their best, under editor Steve “Don’t even think about singing ‘Oh Sherry’ around me” Perry. It was biased to the left to a fault. But beneath all that, the reporting was otherwise generally solid. And Perry could go off the reservation; in about 1997, Perry was the first journo in the Twin Cities to write that the swelling push for carry permit reform in Minnesota hadn’t brought blood to the streets of a couple dozen other states, wasn’t going to bring it to Minnesota, either.

When Perry left in 2005-ish (to return as editor of the Soros-funded attack-PR site Minnesota Monitor, which became the Minnesota Independent, and distinguished itself in journalistic glory under neither guise), the City Pages slid and slid hard. For most of the past 10-15 years, the paper’s “journalism” has been at best risible hackery, or incompetent hackery, self-parodying hackery, or sloppy gurgitations of DFL chanting points or, when female conservative politicians were involved, creepy panty-sniffing.

If the City Pages had been its 1998 self, its collapse would have been something to mourn, maybe, for some reason other than the nostalgia local establishment journos have been venting about.

But the City Pages of the 21st Century has been not a shadow, but a mockery, of anything of real value that it may once have been.

Late pot party candidate left recording saying he was recruited by GOP to pull votes away from Angie Craig:

Y’know – sorta like the DFL did with Tom Horner in 2010.

OK, Strib – now do Ilhan Omar.

Q: “How far left will the radicals push Biden if he’s elected?”

A: As far as they need to. And then they invoke the 25th Amendment.

Governor Walz’ team of experts confidently predicted a Surge of Covid cases so large it would overwhelm hospitals. Patients would die on gurneys in hallways and parking lots, untreated. Bodies would lie in streets, uncollected. Everyone was at risk, from 6-month-old infants to 91-year-old seniors. 75,000 people would die, unless we ‘flattened the curve.’

To prevent that, the Governor declared a Peacetime Emergency and issued a Stay Home order which effectively suspended the United States Constitution, an act never before attempted in this country. Religious worship was banned. Political assemblies were banned. Jury trials were banned. Non-essential travel was banned. And non-emergency medical treatments were also banned, to keep hospital beds open for the Surge of Covid cases.

There was no Surge. Hospitals had on-going expenses for heat and lights, payroll, benefits and insurance amounting to nearly $1 million A DAY for the state’s largest medical providers, but no patients to pay those expenses. Medical providers are still scrambling to catch up.
Fairview Health is closing two hospitals in St. Paul – Bethesda (two blocks North of the Capital) and St. Josephs (downtown). The move will save the company money but it will cost the community hundreds of hospital beds and the entire psychiatric care unit. The company also is closing 14 primary care clinics in Minnesota and two in Wisconsin, a total of 900 jobs in all, hoping to slash expenses fast enough to keep the company alive.

Ramsey County is helping out. It’s leasing Bethesda Hospital for $1.2 million to use as a homeless shelter, December through May. Room, board, staffing and security for 100 homeless people will run about $66 per person per day, which is a pretty good rate (slightly cheaper than staying at the Motel 6 on I-94 and White Bear Avenue). The Board of Commissioners didn’t mention where that money was coming from.

To date, rounded to the nearest whole number, Covid has killed Zero percent of Minnesotans. The long-term costs of the Stay Home order have yet to be totaled up.

Joe Doakes

It’s a crisis not to waste. They’re doing a fine job of it – or so the polls tell us.

The Star-Tribune “Minnesota” poll coming out on Sunday will show Biden with an absurdly large lead in Minnesota.

12 points?

18 points?

Eleventy-Teen Points?

Doesn’t matter. The poll will make Minnesota look like a dead lock for Biden and the DFL.

Because as I’ve shown in the past, the closer a race actually is, the bigger the margin the Strib always shows for the DFL right before the election. It creates – accidentally or by design (you know where my money is) it creates a “bandwagon effect”, causing less-zealously partisan voters to stay home if they think “their” candidate has no chance.

So – how do we know the race in Minnesota actually is close?

Here’s how.

Some say Minnesota is Trump’s “great white whale” – his ego would be fed by flipping Minnesota for the first time in almost fifty years.

Perhaps. I don’t think there’s any reason ego and opportunity aren’t at work, here.

…it’s great to find Minnesota is the champion at something again.

Well, not “good”…:

More “notable”, I guess.

Read the whole thread.

The problem with democracy today is that just about half the voters are incredulous herd cattle who believe whatever they’re told, and one party makes damn sure they take advantage of it.

Biden says millions have died of covid.

OK, so he’s a guy with some early onset dementia.

What’s Kamala Harris’s excuse?

Poker players look for the other guys’ “tell,” a facial tic or mannerism that indicates the bid is a bluff. When they see the tell, they know he’s faking.

The security precautions to get into the doctor’s office include standing in line 6 feet apart wearing a mask and answering a bunch of questions. But they’re self-reported answers, unverified. No, I haven’t been out of the country, I don’t have a fever, I haven’t been in contact with anybody who has the deadliest virus known to man. What if I’m lying?

It reminds me of the pre 9-11 security precaution. The airlines used to ask did you pack your own bag? Did anyone ask you to carry anything on board? Has your bag been out of your control? No. But what if I’m lying?

Self-reported security. That’s the tell. It’s all fake. And they know it. So do you. So why do we put up with it?

Joe Doakes

Because you need the damn appointment or the load of groceries, and you just wanna get home and get back to work without a pack of murder hornets…er, Karens descending on you.

Standing on principle is time consuming and emotionally wrenching. Having no boundless supply of either, I pick my battles. I suspect we all do.

In a shocking late-breaking story, Roseville – a first-tier northern suburb of Saint Paul – has broken with its long-standing tradition of embracing and upholding racism, and has undertaken a bold stance:

It’s good to see cities swim against the current.

Courage.

Of course, I drove further, and on seeing the single coolest jungle gym I’ve ever seen in my life, something that actually made me want to be six years old again, I had to wonder…

…if their next bold stance would be against militarism, and phallocentric patriarchy.

Because you just know one of the Karens that’s taken the suburb over is going to go there, don’t you?

The media:

“The week before the election, Mike Pence is coming to a state that our polling says is supposed to be a blowout for Biden AND HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO COVID!