Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

This is where I plan to flee after the Zombie Apocalypse.  Because there’s nobody to stop me from moving there and living like a king.

 

 

The epitome of the European ideal: welfare for all, retirement at 42 after working a few hard years of 30 hour weeks, universal medical . . . but of course, none of it can be supported if you also defend the country.  So obviously . . .

 

Joe Doakes

Watching the disarmament of Europe – as if history really did end in 1991 – has been amazing; the typical continental European state, Germany and Norway and the Netherlands, has about 1/6 the military power it had in the Cold War.  Sweden (and Belgium) are worse; France and the UK, better.  Only Poland and Finland – Russia’s neighbor and enemy – and Greece and Turkey, who hate each other, are the exceptions.

It makes 1940 look positively stable.

Guy accused of shooting celebrity lion on private property on which he was contractually entitled to hunt, in Africa…

…treats his own private property here in Minnesota like…private property.

I wonder how many Strib reporters could find Iran on a map?

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is having a shish kebab at a Turkish restaurant.  Avery LIBRELLE walks in, starts to order, and then notices BERG. 

LIBRELLE:  Hey, Merg!  It’s time for Minnesota to legalize marijuana.

BERG:  There’s a case to be made.  But there’s the little matter of the federal law involved.

LIBRELLE:  Screw federal law!

BERG: Right.  Sort of how Saint Paul says “screw federal law” by being a sanctuary city?

LIBRELLE:   Exactly. What do the feds know that the states, the laboratories of government, don’t?

BERG:  Well, yeah. You’re a real paragon of federalism.

LIBRELLE:  Them founders knew they’re stuff.

BERG: You realize you misspelled “their”, even in your speaking voice?

LIBRELLE:  Huh?

BERG:  Never mind.  So – the states that are cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, because every single one of their non-abortion services is provided by other sources,a nd for cheaper…

LIBRELLE:  AAAAAAAAAAH!  (Jumps up from table in a position to repel an attack)

BERG:  What?

LIBRELLE:  You can’t!

BERG:  Why?

LIBRELLE:  Federal law is sacrosanct!

(And SCENE)

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Liberals in academia, government and tax-funded non-profit social agencies want everyone to live in rent-controlled apartments in densely populated cities, riding the train together and paying high taxes to support public expenses.  That’s what’s best for society so everyone should not only live that way, they should WANT to live that way: they should be Happy to Pay for a Better Minnesota.

 

So why do commercials stress the opposite?  Nobody advertises a new car by showing it stuck in traffic, it’s always sailing along an empty winding mountain road – zoom, zoom!  Travel companies stress the miles of open white beaches.  The slogan isn’t “Get Trampled In The Crowd” but instead is “Get Away From It All.”  Just you and possibly a loved one or two, enjoying the mountain streams, blue skies and wide open spaces by yourselves

 

I speculate that ad agencies who make a living selling products instead of extorting taxes understand that people do not want to live in hives, they want a little elbow room and are willing to pay for it, so that’s what they show in the ads.

 

Which is more likely to be wrong: millions of people deciding for themselves, or a few “experts” telling the rest of us how to live?

 

Now think about Hilary as President.

 

Joe Doakes

To a conservative, that’s a trick question.

To a liberal?  A grad school seminar.

The much-lauded California program that jacked up taxes on out-of-state corporations and devoted half the proceeds to “green” projects has apparently fallen short of expecations

90% short.  At least, as far as they can tell; the program isn’t actually releasing details, which – let’s be honest – means they actually did worse than 10% of projections.

Three years after California voters passed a ballot measure raise taxes on corporations and generate clean energy jobs by funding energy-efficiency projects in schools, barely one-tenth of the promised jobs have been created, and the state has no comprehensive list to show how much work has been done or how much energy has been saved.

Money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors. The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met, according to a review by The Associated Press.

In other words, the law didn’t repeal human behavior – corporations curtailed California operations to avoid the tax – and, most damningly, the whole thing turned into a wealth-transfer program, moving money from the productive class to the rent-seeking parasites.

This album, when it comes out.

(Via Fresch Fisch)

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Honoring Indians would be giving them their own day, maybe one that corresponds with an ancient traditional Indian festival or another.

 

Renaming Columbus Day is an intentional insult.

 

On the other hand, I’m glad to see the City Council got the roads all fixed, crime is at zero, welfare has licked poverty, so the City Council didn’t have anything more important to do.  That’s good to know.

 

Oh, and it being the St. Paul City Council, of course it not only has the legal authority to override an act of Congress to re-name a holiday, it also has the moral authority to disregard the racial and religious basis of the city’s own name.

 

Joe Doakes

Further proof that, in the name of the Establishment Clause, we need to rename the city “Reagan”.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Donald Trump isn’t the only one talking about the dangers of unlimited immigration.  Everything Britain’s Foreign Secretary says about immigration applies equally to the US, where even the Department of Labor admits that since the start of the recession in 2007, all net job gains for women have gone to immigrants.

 

Britain is trying to stop legal immigrants at the border.  The Obama Administration assists illegal immigrants to resettle across America. Who is trying to save their country, and who to destroy it?

 

Joe Doakes

Salvation is destruction, Winston.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

This is disturbing.  These people are delusional.  And nobody is calling them on it, which is the same as encouraging them to it.

 

“We’re ready for war!”

 

No, you’re not.  Unarmed looters are not ready for war.  Teenagers shooting pistols sideways, are not ready for war.  You’re ready for a “war” like the War on Poverty, where somebody hands you free stuff.  You’re ready for a “war” like the Palestinians, where you stage fake outrages for sympathetic media.

 

You’re not ready for the kind of war you’re likely to get if you stop shooting each other in the ghetto and come out to the suburbs where the hunters live, where a 9mm pistol is not a terror weapon but an object of derision, where even liberal Democrats own a shotgun and deer rifle with ammo on hand and experience using it.  Your weapons are useless beyond a city block, you have no food supplies for extended conflict or medical supplies to treat wounded.  Your communications are cell phones until the authorities shut off the towers.  Your tricked-out Buicks have limited transport load and no off-road maneuvering capability.  Your enemy won’t be wearing uniforms for easy identification, they’ll be in makeshift blinds, wearing camouflage, using 3x scopes and defending their own turf.

 

The government would no doubt call out the military to preserve order, attempting to disarm the suburbanites while providing asafe space for rioters.  Might work.  Or some hothead homeowner might shoot some National Guardsmen and then all bets are off.

 

Chant all you want, in the ghetto.  Shoot each other, rob your own stores, burn the entire thing down, if that’s what makes you happy.  Just don’t start believing your own fantasies.  That would get real ugly, real quickly, with no winner in sight and no clear path to victory.

 

Joe Doakes

This blog eschews big, bloody-minded talk, no matter who it’s from.

Which puts me 50% ahead of the Department of Homeland Security.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Hard-line Muslim clergy require women to cover themselves so they don’t tempt men to sin by displaying their feminine wares.  The implication is that women are wicked temptresses willing use their looks to ensnare souls.  That may be true, but what’s the further implication?  That Muslim men have such little self-control, such poor judgment, such short-range vision that glimpsing an ankle or a smile will destroy their will and with it, their society.  Therefore, to protect these defenseless, helpless, socially retarded men from the consequences of their own vain stupidity, women must remain hidden.

 

Thinking about the photos we see of Muslim men celebrating – chanting slogans, burning flags, shooting guns in the air, I concede the mullahs are correct:  given the slightest excuse, Muslim men will act like exuberant children with an attention-deficit disorder. Therefore, President Obama is wrong to say the only alternative to the Iran Deal is war.  The United States doesn’t need to go to war to defeat Iran, we need to stage the world’s largest panty raid.  Steal all their women’s clothes and the regime will fall overnight.

 

Joe Doakes

“That’s illogical!”, you might respond.

But in the world of Obama foreign policy, illogic is logic.

It all makes sense, if you stop thinking too hard.

Details of the station event with Mark Walters at Osseo Gun Club on August 31.

Details on Oakdale Gun Club, where the Suppressor event is happening in two weeks.

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! I will be on from 1-3PM today!

Today on the show,

• Mark Walter of Armed American Radio joins us to talk about his upcoming visit
• Mark Rust of Oakdale Gun Club joins us to talk about their “Suppressor” event.

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1570, and Brad Carlson has “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 1-3PM.

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!

Remember when the DFL said “if we just increase Local Government Aid”, property taxes will fall?”

No?

That’s OK – either does the DFL.

On August 14th, 1945, the Second World War had but hours to go.

Since the atomic bombings and Soviet invasion of Manchuria just days earlier, Japan had begun secret communications through the neutral powers of Switzerland and Sweden to accept the Allies’ demands for unconditional surrender.  Unbeknownst to all but a few within the government and military, Emperor Hirohito had already recorded a radio address to accept the Potsdam Declaration.  The recording would be played on August 15th and subject Japan to an unknown fate in the hands of the Allied powers.

Major Kenji Hatanaka knew of the Emperor’s recording on the night of August 14th as he and a group of fellow officers entered the Imperial Palace.  Hatanaka burst into the office of Lt. General Takeshi Mori, the commanding general of the 1st Imperial Guards Division whose troops were responsible for defending the Palace and royal family.  Hatanaka made his intentions plainly known – he and his co-conspirators intended to stop the Emperor’s broadcast and continue the war.  Mori was horrified; Hatanaka and his men were violating an explicit order from their superiors.  Mori immediately demanded that Hatanaka return to his barracks.

But Kenji Hatanaka was not going to be following orders on this night – he was going to be giving them.  Hatanaka and his officers quickly shot Mori and Mori’s visiting brother-in-law.  Using Mori’s official stamp, Hatanaka forged Strategic Order No. 584 – an order to surround the Palace and prevent anyone from coming or going.  The 1st Imperial Guards Division was now at Hatanaka’s disposal and the Emperor was, in essence, his prisoner.

The end of World War II rested upon Japan’s ability to withstand a coup.

—

Major Kenji Hatanaka – the mastermind of the August 14th coup. He was only 33 years old and managed to convince older, higher-ranking officials to take his orders

Just days earlier, Tokyo had seen two different conferences attempt to address the end of war – each with very different conclusions.    Read the rest of this entry »

The GOP field, expressed in the form of Taylor Swift songs. 

Bernie Sanders can have Red. 

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Wow, that’s kind of impressive.
Obama sets immigration policy  – immigrants get 100% of jobs for women
American women end up unemployed, barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen.
But its the Republicans who wage war on women.
Damn that Bush!
Joe Doakes

I’m detecting a pattern, here.

I predicted in June, 2014 that the “Green Line” – the light-rail between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul – would kill three people and account for a dozen vehicle accidents in its first year.  It turned out to be two dead, I’m not sure how many vehicle accidents – and even more injured pedestrians than I’d figured.

Partly because the pedestrian “interface” for the Green Line stations and right of way is a complete joke.

And now, a reporter is talking about it – and I suspect the PiPress’ Maja Beckstrom is thankful she can talk about it.  She relates the story of a recent close call, at University and Raymond:

Until now, I’d assumed that the people who have been hit by light rail in the Twin Cities were wearing ear buds and spacing out. I figured they were the kind of people who strolled straight down the rails and on the shoulders of busy streets, who crossed against red lights and took chances. Now I wonder if they were just like me, a bit confused and in a very wrong place at the wrong time.

I’m a regular bus commuter and no stranger to public transit, but I’d ridden light rail only once before. I decided at the last minute to catch it to work in downtown St. Paul. I was by Raymond Avenue dropping off a kid at summer camp, so I parked my car on a side street and walked down to University Avenue, where I could see the Raymond Avenue Station to my left halfway down the block. The pedestrian light turned green, and I walked across University’s westbound traffic lane. I figured there would be a sidewalk running up the middle of the street from the intersection to the station. Makes sense, right?

And I’m not the only one:

[The Transit cops who yelled at her after her close call] told me about the two people who have been hit and killed on the Green Line. They told me about a woman who was standing between train lines who was knocked by one train toward another oncoming train and who survived only because the fast-thinking driver of the oncoming train sped up so she fell into the side of the train rather than into its path. I later looked up the statistics. Eight pedestrians have been struck since testing began in January 2014 on the Green Line between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“In your defense, that intersection isn’t well designed,” one cop finally conceded, as he mellowed in the face of my contrite confession. “People get confused.”

In my day job, I try to design things to make sense for real people.  And the design of the Central Corridor’s stations astounds me.

Yet again – big government at work.

1) The idea that I’ll go to a Twins game and wind up sitting behind a couple of very drunk men in Packers jerseys, who try to pick a fight with me.

2) The chance of going to Walmart and seeing a woman bellowing at her children.

3) The odds of this actually collecting millions from the Obama Administration.

Conservative talk radio takes a huge chunk out of liberal/Democrat politicians.

Democratic Party:  “We need to shut up and/or discredit talk radio”.

The Libertarian frat party, three months later:  “Talk radio is teh short bus radio for dummies!”

Republican candidate for President promise, in an election where foreign policy figures to have a significant impact, a policy of confronting and attacking terror.

Democratic Party:  “They are going to eat our feckless party’s lunch on foreign policy, and there’s nothing our Sanders-loving base will let us do about it”

The Libertarian frat party, three months later:  “Warvangelicals!  They just want to kill brown people!”

Benghazi threatens the reputation of the Secretary of State and heir-apparent to the Presidency.

Democratic Party:  “We need to defuse this Benghzi thing”.

The Libertarian frat party, three months later:  “Hey!  Faux News wants a new war, and they’ll chant Benghazi ’til they get one!  You’re paranoid!”

Obama signs a feckless, stupid deal with the Iranians – one that is not only provoking Neville Chamberlain to scream “No!” from the grave, but is making George McGovern angry.

Democratic Party:  “We need to marginalize the opposition to this deal”.

The Libertarian frat party:  “Republicans just want waaaaaaar!”

Hillary Clinton’s email servers may violate the law in the same way David Petraeus’ emails did, only possibly much, much worse.

Democratic Party:  “We need to defuse the email server situation”

The Libertarian frat party, a month later:  “Email server is the new Benghazi!”

No, correlation doesn’t equal causation.

Of course not.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Some of us right-wing kooks think the media has jumped on the Dentist Killed National Treasure Cecil the Lion story as a way to distract Americans from the baby-butcher videos.  As proof, I offer . . .

Imagine if instead of Planned Parenthood it was some puppy mill and the workers were joking over the puppy parts, talking about using them for something and how much money they can make for kidneys or something.  Those workers would be in jail facing major prison time.
Joe Doakes

I have a hunch puppy mills are going to become a big story again, in about 3…2…1…

If you follow Great Britain at all, after a while you start to realize that if there’s one thing they’re short of, it’s enough alcohol in their lives.

And you wonder; if there was only a way Brits could only get more booze, faster.

Well, fear not.  While Britain may be a shadow of its former political, military, industrial and social self, when it comes to finding ways to ingest alcohol, Britannia still rules the waves.

North Dakota finally recognizes Minnesota carry permits.

They didn’t, of course, because Minnesota didn’t grant reciprocity to North Dakota permits, because of a decade of pissy DFL and bureaucratic (but I repeat myself) stonewalling on carry permit reciprocity.  The GOP-controlled legislature changed that, finally, in the past session.

This is, of course, of hypothetical importance to people utterly unknown to me, who now have no reason whatsoever to stop in Moorhead anymore.

…I most often dream of a day, near the end of my life, when the last “child-free” millennial has died, alone, unlamented, but free of the sound of any f******g pesky children!

Not sure why that comes to mind.

But while we’re on the subject of “banning kids from restaurants”, perhaps we can come up with a “Millennial-Free” restaurant?  No tacky tattoos, beards that cost more to maintain than a family of two, unwashed denim or arguments about which is, like, totally more amazeballs, Buzzfeed or Gawker.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Justice Department says Justice Department did no wrong in targeting payday lenders and gun shops.  Well that’s good to know.

Next time the IRS calls me about my tax returns, I’ll tell them I’ve carefully investigated myself and found no problem at all.  I’m sure that’ll clear it right up.

Joe Doakes

Government never lies to protect government…

A longtime friend of this blog (and a different one than this morning) writes:

How bout an blog post asking Al or Amy why no town halls to discuss the Iran deal?  Just thinking…

While it’s no doubt a fine idea, it’ll take away from their time investigating the death of Cecil the Lion.

I think the only town hall meeting we get on Iran will be when they appear at the State Fair.