SCENE: The year is 2028. Mitch BERG has just been sworn in as governor of Minnesota, via a series of happenstances too bizarre to go into. He is speaking to a press conference.

BERG: As the first phase of my plan, as promised, I’m directing the state Department of Education to begin mandatory instruction in grades K-12, and in state post-secondary schools, of “Critical Marksmanship Theory”.

“CMT” teaches a few tenets that are vital for a child’s moral and social development:

1. It teaches them the essentials of the Second Amendment – how it deters tyranny.
2. Children will learn, as part of that, that throughout American history, from the Revolution through the Civil Rights movement to the “Anti”-Fa War of 2026, those with firearms have been the ones able to defend their, and their neighbors’, freedom.
3. Kids will learn that, throughout our history, the right to keep and bear arms has been a bellwether for the state of liberty, and a key defining line between citizenship and subjection.
4. It teaches that societies that exalt and propagate marksmanship are superior, more free, more prosperous and more inclusive than those that don’t.
5. It teaches kids the essentials firearm safety, which should slash the number of accidental shootings of children.
6. Finallly, it teaches kids – all kids, from all backgrounds, races, creeds, genders – how to shoot, enabling them to participate in shooting sports, self-defense, and of course the main intent of the Second Amendment, deterring tyranny.

This will begin in the second semester of this school year, which starts (checks watch) tomorrow.

Questions?

MYLYSSA SILBERMAN (Reporter for National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau, covering the “Fake News” and “Diversity” beats): Yes, Mr. Berg…

BERG: Governor.

SILBERMAN (Winces): Right. Governor Berg. What if parents object to teaching kids how to shoot, and all this history about guns?

BERG: Teachers know better than parents. Next…you.

LEAKY THE BEAGLE (A dog, writing under a pseudonym for the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com“.  ) Govenah Burrrgk – vot is ze sense of forcink…

BERG: Was ist den mit deine fürchtbare Deutsche accent?

LEAKY THE BEAGLE: Huh?

BERG: That’s what I thought. Security!

(Security guards push LEAKY THE BEAGLE to the ground, stomp him into incoherence, throw him out).

Next.

CAT SCAT: (The designated “fact checker” at the (possibly fictional) progressive blog “”MinnesotaLiberalAlliance.Blogspot.com“, she is the office manager at a small phrenology practice. ) Why would you teach children…

BERG: Because parents in half of Metro households don’t actually teach their kids the reality of history – that unarmed people are basically meat on the hoof for dictators. We want our children to learn that history. Some people don’t. We have the power, so we don’t really care what they think. Yes, you?

MATT MCNEIL: (Rises,, face flushed, hands shaking. As a wet spot stains the front of his chinos, he runs fron the building.

BERG: Huh. OK. You.

Betty Rae TORSTENGAARDSEN (A writer at 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.): Yes, Governor Berg. “Critical Marksmanship Theory” seems like a massive incursion into parental rights.

BERG: You’ve seen the handout, right?

TORSTENGAARDSEN: Er…no?

BERG: Then it’s not CRM. We’re just teaching kids to shoot, as far as you know.

TORSTENGAARDSEN: What about parents who object to their kids being indoctrinated in the Second Amendment?

BERG: So you’re saying there are parents who want their kids to be ignorant of history, and ripe for the picking by criminals, tyrants and perverts?

TORSTENGAARDSEN: I’m not sure…

BERG. They sound like terrible, negligent parents to me.

TORSTENGAARDSEN: Uh…

BERG: But again, we’re not teaching kids about guns right this minute, as we stand here, so quit your whining.

(TORSTENGAARDSEN, SCAT and SILBERMAN confer, briefly).

SILBERMAN: He’s right. He’s got us there.

BERG: Good. Onward…

And SCENE

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

The results of a two-year-long nation-wide experiment are conclusive. We nay-sayers were right all along: mask mandates do not stop the spread of Covid.

I’m ready to accept my apology. Let the crow-eating begin.

Joe Doakes

Just as many of us were saying two years ago; masks make useful personal infection control in relatively controlled environments. As a public health measure, they are about as useful as, well, not wearing a mask.

Find out more about the plan to house homeless veterans here.

Dennis Smith is running for Attorney General.

The California Legislature is currently gestating a bill declaring the work week shall be 32 hours for companies with more than 500 employees. Worse, the bill would mandate that the pay rate remain what it was for 40 years, and cannot be reduced. But wait, there’s more!

If the beleaguered employer tries to get its employers to work more hours to make up for the lost productivity, they have to pay time and a half over 32 hours. Or, the beleaguered employer can take on the added expense of part-time works to make up the lost hours.

From the text of the bill:

Existing law defines and regulates the terms and conditions of employment. Existing law generally defines “workweek” for these purposes and requires that work in excess of 40 hours in a workweek be compensated at a rate of at least 1 1/2 times the employee’s regular rate of pay, subject to certain exceptions. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor.

This bill would instead require that work in excess of 32 hours in a workweek be compensated at the rate of no less than 1 1/2 times the employee’s regular rate of pay. The bill would require the compensation rate of pay at 32 hours to reflect the previous compensation rate of pay at 40 hours and would prohibit an employer from reducing an employee’s regular rate of pay as a result of this reduced hourly workweek requirement. The bill would exempt an employer with no more than 500 employees from the above provisions. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

What’s the worry, you say? A number of companies have experimented with a four-day work week.

I realize that when classroom instruction time is taken up with inculcating little Brandon and Ashley Snowflake on the nuances of gender bending there is less time to spend on basic economics. But, there is a difference between a private company choosing the hours their workers put in and what they get paid, and the government mandating that an employee can work 20% less for the same pay, and that the employer must bear the added cost.

While I would love to see this bill pass in California, as it would only hasten the demise of that state, and perhaps something useful could be rebuilt from the rubble, a Democrat Congressman has introduced a similar bill at the federal level. (Co-sponsored by Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.)

Prices are often described as signals because they convey information to both producer and consumer who can make rational decisions based on that information. Producers make decisions on whether to produce more or less. Consumers make decisions about consuming more or less.

The price of labor is no different. It conveys information that employers take into account when deciding how many employers it can afford, and employees decided if it is worth it for them to work at a given pay rate, or if they can find a better rate elsewhere.

When the government interferes in markets, and things like minimum wages and rent control are interferences, it introduces distortions. Distortions lead to bad information, and with bad information, producers and consumers make decisions they wouldn’t have made otherwise had they had good information.

These distortions have ripple effects. Employers cannot just absorb 20% less work for the same pay, and so these costs are passed on either in higher prices for goods, or fewer employees.

Do the people behind these bills care about the distortions they would introduce? One problem is they can’t know all the distortions they would cause. Prices are the signals that imbalances are present, and the prices would be wrong. The authors of these bills think they bribe voters by giving them other people’s money. Only a simpleton would think such a bribe wouldn’t cause problems, and only a fool wouldn’t worry that these problems can’t be completely known.

One completely predictable outcome is when you elect socialists, you wind up living under socialism.

Kevin Williamson put it this way:

We want to simplify the complex. And we want to bring down that which is high to a lower level where it’s easy to understand. So if the thing that’s wrong with the country is there are people we don’t like, and they’re getting rich by screwing us. And by messing everything up behind the scenes. That’s a pretty comforting story. If the actual story is “wow, the world is complex and we can’t actually accomplish a lot of the things that we want to. And the government can’t necessarily do the right thing even if we all agree on what it is because there are information problems and there are problems of incentives and problems having to do with complexity, that make things come out not the way we intended, and that all of our best intentions and our purest motives can produce horrifying results as they as they have over the years.” You see this in the really extreme political outcomes.

You know, the people who fought the Russian Revolution, didn’t want to build a nightmare state of gulags, but that’s where they ended up. I don’t think most of the people around the Chinese Communists in Mao’s era wanted to inflict the kind of nightmare on their people that they did. But they did. Now our situation isn’t that extreme, obviously. But it’s the same principle in the sense that nobody wants the current situation. Nobody really wants these outcomes. No one wants our healthcare system to look the way it does. No one wants K through 12 education to suck as hard as it does around the country. No one wants police who are irresponsible and trigger happy. But this is the system we’ve nonetheless managed to build for ourselves out of the interaction of our conflicting motives and incentives and information.

Every guy’s got a first love.

Sometimes it’s tragic, sometimes comic, often wistful or bittersweet – but it lurks in the background, occasionally sliding into the back, occasionally the front, of the mind, whispering “think about what might have been”.

Sometimes its a girl – a misty memory of a smile, a glint from her eyes, a wisp of hair that accents a charged ocnversation over school desks or across a bar or over a counter bookshelf or endcap at a store, a bit of vocal tone that drills into your memory and, on occasion, giggles at your joke across the years.

Sometimes it’s a guitar – to a non-guitaraist, an inert assembly of wood and wire and metal that looks cool; to you, a heft and a tone and a feel that drills into your brain and gives what’s in there a direct path straight out through your fingers, in ways you’d thought were just verbal unicorn-farts from other guitar players, but that you suddenly understand – and, deterred by timing and budget and your current reality, go back up on the stand, to remain in your mind, whspering “what if”.

It can be a job – a time or place where you felt all the things that humans seek and, in our modern world, miss all too often; accomplishment and compensation, sure, but companionship and respect and common goals, a time in your working life when earning a living, enjoying your day and feeling fulfilled in your life weren’t mutually exclusive.

A car? Sure – one that fit your life and your self-image so perfectly people remember you and that car in the same breath to this day?

Sure!

And sometimes?

A friend of the blog emails:

This is the 2nd time this year that a driver has driven into a utility pole on St Anthony Ave in Saint Paul and has caused power outages in the city. St Anthony Ave is a street that has been “traffic calmed”- bike lanes added, parking removed in some places, speed limit “reduced”.

It’s funny, because before we started calming traffic, I don’t recall things like this happening with as much frequency.

Yet, I am seeing people on social media asking for more traffic calming, speed bumps, bump outs, etc and I am seeing CM Jalali agreeing.

What are they not asking for? More traffic violation enforcement, more enforcement of impaired driving violations, more enforcement of drug and crime laws- you know, things that would actually help solve problems like these.

“Traffic calming“ is to “calm”, what a straitjacket is to “sane”.

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.