Lets you wondered what Omar Fateh’s actual priorities might be: 

Not fixing potholes.  

Not making a city in economic freefall into a destination again. 

Protecting illegals from the boogeyman.  

Minneapolis is in the best of hands.  

…and maybe you can call me a cynic, but when I heard NPR and the BBC hyperventilating about the first female umpire in MLB history, I have to admit I wondered if a story like this…

…was pretty much iunevitable.

Patrick Hedger is with Netchoice.

Today’s music:

SCENE. It’s December, 1944.   Bastogne, Belgium.  The men of the 101st Airborne Division are surrounded, defending the vital road junction, as seven German divisions close in. 

Men of Company F, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment – just down the line from the famed “Easy Company”, not the same guys at all – are coming out of their foxholes after a German bombardment. 

PRIVATE JEB RANKIN (a farm boy from Alabama):  Hoooo-iiiie, that was something.  

TECH SERGEANT FOURTH CLASS ANDREW “ANDY” PILSNER (the platoon radioman):  I heard Lieutentant Ratchett in Third Platoon got blown up.  (The others shake their heads in that “glad it wasn’t me” manner). 

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS GUISEPPE “JOE” RANDAZZO (a former streetcar conductor from Southie in Boston):  Rattled my fillings.  

STAFF SERGEANT WILLIE BUXTON (a Montana rancher turned NCO, and the platoon sergeant):  Everyone OK? 

CORPORAL JAMES “JIMMY” STEVENS (a former rendering plant worker from Indiana):  Crissake.  Why do we do this.  

RANDAZZO (Sardonic):  To defend democracy.  

RANKIN (earnest):  To liberate Europe.  

SECOND LIEUTENANT LLOYD MOUNTEBANKE (A Yale Business School graduate who is the platoon leader):  That’s incorrect.  

RANDAZZO: Sir?

MOUNTEBANKE:  This is why we’re fighting:

RANKIN:  We’re sittin’ here thousands of miles from home, so…people can kill babies, sir?

RANDAZZO: Ma’Donn (crosses self). 

MOUNTEBANKE:  You heard the woman.   Carry on.  (Exits into the woods as suddenly as he appeared)

STEVENS: (Sotto Voce) That doesn’t seem right…

BUXTON:  OK, men, that’s enough jawing.   You heard the Lieutenant.  We’re fighting to kill babies. Now get some top cover on those foxholes.  

And SCENE

The good news:  Bloody Mary Moriarty is not running for re-election as Henco Attorney.  

The bad news? It’s so she can focus on “transforming the office” even further:

“I ran for this office to do the hard work; the work that desperately needed doing and the work the voters chose when I was elected in 2022 by 16 points,”Moriarty said in the release. “We’ve become accustomed to elected officials who don’t deliver results and end up more invested in clinging to power than doing the work of the people. That is not me. As I have weighed whether I wanted to spend the last year and a half of my term focused primarily on campaigning or continuing to transform this office, the choice became clear. I want to focus on running the office, rather than running for office.”

The worse news?

Remember – the Cano Corollary to Berg’s 21st Law is called a “law” for a reason:

In Blue city electoral politics, “blue” never gets “lighter” or less “progressive”.  There is only one electoral direction – more “progressive”. 

A symptom of this is when one sees people just barely to the left of a city’s Overton Window referring to the progressive politicidans and institutions in power as “Conservatives” or “Republicans”.  

When Alondra Cano seems like a sane, rational stateswoman, the Frey Corollary is in effect.

Worst – ergo most likely – scenario:  Moriarty spends the rest of her term gutting whatever vestiges of traditional law and order might remain her her office, turns it over to someone who will be subtly running to challenge Omar Fateh, Keith Ellison or Ilhan Omar from the left one day.  

SCENE:  It’s a typical weekday at the MNDFL headquarters.  Richard CARLBOM, the chair, is meeting with activist Avery LIBRELLE and Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK, party executive Inge “Lucky” CARROLL, as well as Betty Rae TORSTENGAARDSEN, from the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com“.  She was Lac Qui Parle County Dairy Princess in 1987, and voted “most likely to end up as a freelance political writer” by her sorority at U of M Morris in 1992.

LIBRELLE:  So polling is showing that Minnesotans are getting concerned about the amount of fraud in Minnesota government.  

CARROLL:   I say we do what we always do – bully voters into silence.  

BIRKENSTOCK:  It worked well during the Same Sex Marriage issue in 2012!

CARROLL: (Sotto voce) Brown noser…

CARLBOM: (Beamingˆ). Yeah, those were the days.  But I think we need something different.  The other side has given up the illusion that Minnesota is the same as the one Garrison Keillor talked about.  We need to step up the game. 

LIBRELLE:  How?

CARLBOM:  Hear me out.   We don’t just double down.  We dec-tuple down.  

CARROLL:  We make fraud…cool!

BIRKENSTOCK:  Sort of like “celebrate your abortion” for graft!

LIBRELLE:  How do we do that?

CARLBOM:   We run a campaign showing DFL pols, stakeholders, non-profiteers and the like, revelling in the wealth they’ve gained from…somewhere.  

BIRKENSTOCK:  Show Omar Fateh driving down the street in a Bentley!

CARROLL:  “Don’t you want to be like Omar?”

LIBRELLE:  So pitch defrauding the state as…

CARLBOM:  The ultimate social program.  

CARROLL:  I like it!

And SCENE

When Ilhan Omar says things like this:

…is she:

1. Telling a truth so broad that it is in effect a lie (white men are the second largest racial/gender group in the country; nearly all violence is intra-racial, and there are more of them to perpetrate and be victims, and hypothetically to become terrorisrts)
2. Lying (white men commit proportionally less violence against black men than vice versa)
3. Referring not to violence but to logic and honesty, in which case she’d best fear me?

Thoughts?

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

“Too many people cheated the program“

That’s not the best reason to shut it down

“It was a dumb idea in the first place”

That’s a much better reason

Joe Doakes

 

True.  

And when you don’t have DFL trifectas, you get fewer of these dumb ideas.  

Not “none”.  But lots, lots fewer.  

The news broke last week – the Department of Human Services tanked its “Housing Stabilization Services” program before the Feds could start digging into it.

Not that there’s not gonna be some digging anyway.  Joe Thompson, the acting US Attorney for Minnesota, is finding a prosecutorial “targret rich environment”:

We welcome today’s news. Fraud has been eating away at Minnesota’s public programs for years, costing taxpayers billions. Ending the Housing Stabilization Services program cuts off a major source of abuse, but this is just the beginning. The fight against fraud continues, and a broader reckoning is long overdue.

“What” your ELCU-haired sister in law might exclaim, “they’re taking housing from people?”

No, not really.  Bill Glahn explains:

Don’t be confused. HSS doesn’t provide actual housing or anything else that would be considered useful. Instead, the program, operated by the state Dept. of Human Services (DHS), offers counseling services to Medicaid program participants.

Actually, it doesn’t do that either, as Thompson has documented. The “vast majority” of the $100 million in annual spending (of taxpayer funds) goes to outright fraud.

Today, state DHS took the correct step to shut down the program entirely, you can read their letter to the U.S. Medicaid office here. The Minnesota Star Tribune has a report on this major development,

“Vast majority”.

Not a skim of fthe top. 

Not 10% for the big guy. 

Vast.  Majority. 

If Trump does nothing else in office, turning a firehose on the State of Minnesota will make this next 3.5 years a wonderful thing. 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0XTB4LuiLnnU9dBNVHPdqx?si=cPMzoBXzQAyeOoz9PDzDFQ

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Trump is trumpeting a trade deal with the EU.  I put no stock in trade deals, they don’t last and everybody cheats. I put more stock in the mindset that “you’ve been riding our coattails long enough, we’re cutting you loose.”  End of the free ride, end of the Marshall Plan, end of NATO riding piggyback on the US.

That’s what I was hoping Trump was going to say when Europe ignored his 2% defense spending demand during his first term, and is ignoring his 5% demand during this second term: “We’re done.” Same with Ukraine – don’t threaten more sanctions on Russia, threaten to pull every CIA officer out and cut off all funding, all intelligence sharing, all weapons transfers, until every nation in NATO either (a) steps up to declare war on Russia or (b) steps up to convince Ukraine to surrender.   Because that’s where it’s going to end up.  Ukraine is losing everything East of the river including Odessa.  Everybody knows it.  Nobody is willing to die for Ukraine, not even their own people.  So cut to the chase and surrender that territory now.  Ask for safe passage for Ukrainians who want to evacuate to the West.  Guarantee safe passage for those who wish to flee to the East.

If Trump wants to be the hero who ended the war, sanctions and bluster won’t work.  Walk away from the negotiating table.   Wait for them to come to their senses.  Then declare a victory, Mission Accomplished.

Joe Doakes

I’ve been supporting a free and independent Ukraine since most Democrats were saying the USSR was here to stay. 

But it’s time for Europe to show how much their own security really matters to them 

Somebody hacked the City of Saint Paul:

What is it about information technology that makes every level of Minnesota government so very very bad at it?

It would seem Mayor Carter could have diverted some time from setting up college funds and yakking about Universal Basic Income to make sure the city’s patching was up to date and tell city employees to stop answering scam emails. 

Speaking of bad ID, Governor Walz called out the 19 year old cooks:

This isn’t the “Hummers patrolling the streets” National Guard. The MN Guard actually has a cybersecurity unit.

And, knowing what we know now…

No, I mean knowing what we have evidence of, it’s not the dumbest idea. If MN IT responded, the fix would cost more than building the Rondo Land Bridge. And it’s a good, free training opportunity for a cyberwarfare unuit.

I’ll give it an 80, so far.  

Lieutenant Governor Flanagan [1], one of the MNDFL’s leading public intellectuals, on the economics of healthcare:

So much better to have some dude with a public employee union card, behind a desk at a for-corruption state agency, deciding it for you.  Amirite?

Former Senator Sean Nienow pointed out the inconvenient facts:

[1] Although have you noticed how the social media accounts of Governor Walz, Senator Smith, Lt. Governor Flanagan and, frequently, Senator Klobuchar sound like they’re written by the same person, or at least some people who sound like 20-something guys (I said what I said) interning in the DFL Comms office?

When Jim Smorada was teaching me how to write the news, he taught the same cliche every other journo student and cub reporter gets:  do the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story.

So I caught this yesterday:

And I thought – maybe it’s just the social media intern doing a terrible job of clubbing and burying the lede?

So I looked into the story proper:

Brooklyn Park Police said a crowd gathered for a cultural event had to be dispersed Saturday evening due to people trying to force their way into a stadium.

According to police, officers were working at Park Center Senior High on Brooklyn Boulevard, where a cultural event was taking place.

Police said a crowd had gathered outside the event, which then began to try and force their way into the school district’s facilities.

 

So let’s break it down:

Who:  A crowd, and “people”.  Who?  What people? 

What:  A “cultural event”.  What culture?  What event?

When: Saturday evening.  

Where:  Park Center High, in Brooklyn Park.   

Why: Uhh… 

How:  With…er, “force” apparently.   

And this is the Five – the  least PC-whipped of the local TV stations.  

(Hat tip to Bill Glahn, who had the same idea). 

It’s entirely possible that DNI Gabbard is making a mountain out of a molehill. 

But if she’s not…:

A president using national intelligence infrastructure fo try to jink the political order is not only an order of magnitude bigger than Watergate – it is the kind of thing that the system bent over backwards to correct, and overcorrect, in the wake of learning all the information J. Edgar Hoover had collected about Americans.  

If true, it’s a greater threat to democracy than hundreds of riots at the Capitol, no matter who’s doing it on whom’s behalf.  

I may have to promote Berg’s Seventh Law to Berg’s First Law.  

Joe Doakes, once of Como Park, emails:

Liberals are protesting Donald Trump for exercising his authority as President. They don’t want our country to be ruled by a king.

 

But maybe by Lords?  

 

 There are so many examples of liberal Democrats thinking they are above the law, better than ordinary people, entitled to do as they please.

 

The governor going to a French restaurant while the rest of his state is locked down. A governor’s daughter spying for protesters burning down a city, a high official running a secret email server, a legislator getting rich from insider trading…….. the list goes on.

 

 Liberals don’t want Donald Trump to be King but they sure would like to be Lords and Ladies themselves. As for the rest of us peasants in flyover country, if we do not grovel sufficiently before the new nobility,  they will replace us with illegal immigrants who will. 

 

Joe Doakes 

 

Fads in bars:

• 1990:  every bar that could find three TVs was re-branding itself as a “sports bar”. 
• 2000s:  those same bars found a couple old church pews and a Guinness tap, and became “Irish Bars”.  
• 2010s:  Those same bars found themselves some brew vats and became “Microbreweries”. 

I don’t drink a lot of beer anymore – I think I’ve had less than half a dozen since 2018.  But as someone who didn’t start drinking ’til I went ot Europe, and so got kind of spoiled by really really good beer, I certainly enjoyed the rise of the microbrewery over the past decade or so.

But as microbreweries started opening on every corner in the North Loop, Northeast, Dinkytown, Lowertown, Downtown Minneapolis, Lowertown and the less blighted parts of University, I kind of thought a “market correction” had to be coming. 

Looks like we’re creeping up on it; Wild Mind Brewing, somewhere in South Minneapolis, has killed the keg: 

Wild Mind’s announcement comes less than two weeks after last call at another reputable beer maker, Alloy Brewing in Coon Rapids. Alloy’s team blamed their closure on “rising costs, supply chain hurdles and an incredible decrease in sales over the last three years.” That’s a common tale among breweries of late, with alcohol sales declining all across America as younger adults turn to nonalcoholic and/or THC drink options.

Among the other Minnesota breweries to cease operations over the past year are Minneapolis-founded Dangerous Man, Chanhassen Brewing Co., Mankato Brewery, Burning Brothers in St. Paul, Loons Landing in Savage and Finnegan’s in Minneapolis (whose beers are now brewed and on tap at Fulton Brewing).

The breweries are folding all over the place, so it’s not just “Minneapolis crime and taxes” – at least not entirely.

Now, Hudson does seem to be doing just fine…

Not sure if I’m getting tired of Trump winning – but I’ve had enough of Saint Paul losing.  

The Cub on University Avenue is closing after several decades:

The store at 1440 University Ave. W. will close its doors to the public on Aug. 2, and 96 store employees will be laid off starting on Sept. 22.

In a statement, a Cub spokesperson said the closure is part of an effort to “optimize our footprint.”

“We know the impact our stores have for the people who work in, shop in, and live in our communities. Like any food retailer, we’re constantly working to optimize our footprint, which includes investing in stores – like our newly remodeled Cub in Burnsville, MN – as well as closing stores where necessary so we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible,” the company said.

“Optimize our footprint” is apparently how corporations say “We’re tired of the shoplifting, vagrancy, panhandling, the lack of prosecution of anything that happens, and the fact that so many people who do shop at Cubs will go to Roseville because of less hassles and a lower sales tax”

I live less than a mile from that Cub – and I haven’t gone there in literally decades.   Back then, there were 3-4 big box groceries in that half=mile; Rainbow, Target and Walmart (although it wasn’t one of the Wallmarts with the big grocery sections, it was still a low-price option); Cub was never as cheap as Rainbow or as clean as Target.   

After Rainbow and Walmart disappeared?  It was easier and cheaper to go to Roseville.  

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

D0GE identified $100 billion in fraud, waste and inefficiency

The recession bill cut $9 billion.

 

What happened to the rest?

 

Joe Doakes, ready for more winning

“Less losing” was good for starters.

But yes.  More, faster. 

Omar Fateh won the the DFL – let’s be honest, DSA – endorsement for Mayor of Minneapolis:

Well – probably won:

Anyway, close enough for city work.

Anyway, the whole thing is further proof of Berg’s 21st Law.

And at least he knows what the real problems are:

This fall will become known as the moment when Minneapolis’s decay graduated from organic to institutional.

Merely rejoice that he is gone.  

Colbert – the unctuous and desperately un-funny little man who replaced David Letterman and became the standard-bearer for the collapse of late-night TV – is leaving the air after this season.  

Oh no.  

Pass the beer nuts. 

Never watched the guy for more than a couple minutes live, and maybe a few clips – and when I did, I almost couldn’t tell if it was Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers or pretty much anyone on late night but Craig Ferguson – who was funny – and Greg Gutfeld, who is flensing the Big Three in late night.  

My interest is lessin the departure of…oh, look, I/ve already forgotten his name, and more in the way Big Left is trying to spin this. 

Elizabeth Warren:

And for a completely different perspective, here’s Pramila Jayapal:

And now for something completely different; Adam Schiff:

Anyway – I’m not so much going to ask why he’s gone.

I’m merely going to celebrate the fact that he is gone. 

Adios, un-funny man. You shall live forever in Dog Gone’s heart.

I’m not sure whose bright idea it was to put Sen. Nicole Mitchell (DFL – Woodbury) on the stand yesterday. 

It did not go well:

Maybe the defence was hoping the sheer overkill would spawn a sympathy vote in the jury?

The ones who truly don’t deserve a sympathy vote – her DFL enablers::

Joe Doakes, once of Como Park, emails:

It’s good to know that all the other problems in the state have been solved, leaving legislators free to take up this important question.

 

Joe Doakes

After two years of “trifecta”, this sort of frippery is almost a relief. 

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

What SHOULD a person do in that situation?  

 

 I’m curious to know what SITD readers think the result would be in Minneapolis versus Greater Minnesota?  Charges or no?

 

Joe Doakes

Joe asked for thoughts. 

Mine:   This is one case for which Mary Moriarty could be stirred from her stupor.  

Greater MN?   Depends on the county, but there’s a decent chance of actual justice. 

The wages of DFL control are languishing as a backwater.  

Count the zeros: that’s 90 billion in Pennsylvania…:

Google said it would invest $25 billion in the region in AI and data center infrastructure over the next two years, while investment firm Brookfield said it had signed contracts to provide more than $3 billion of power to Google from two hydroelectric dams on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.

That’s $90 billion, with a “b.” One thing these projects all have in common is that none of them are being built in Minnesota. Instead, this is what we get: from KAAL-TV:

And 33 million in Minnesota:

As KAAL reports, “This new funding is expected to reach 225 new and developing businesses.” That works out to about $147,000 per business. Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania:

The list of participating CEOs includes leaders from global behemoths like Blackstone, Bridgewater, SoftBank, Amazon Web Services, BlackRock and ExxonMobil and local companies such as the Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, which deploys AI to bolster energy capacity. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, will also attend.

Some of this investment would have surely come to Minnesota if not for the many taxes, laws and policies enacted in the past three years to discourage private investment and weaken our electrical grid.

Other than the number of zeros, the big difference is that the big, Pennsylvania number comes from private investors. Ripe marks…er, taxpayers covered it in Minnesota.

So yeah – while I’m not tired of winning at the national level, I’m over it here locally.