History doesn’t repeat – but it rhymes.
The world’s major powers are rattling their sabers as they spar in secondary theaters.
The economies are in the hands of people who love to tinker with the levers and buttons of the Big State.
And young intellectually over-stimulated but underendowed bobbleheads are romping and playing:
Everything old is new again.
Guy gets ambushed by girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend in a Minneapolis apartment hallway.
Gets shot 15 times.
At 5-12 foot range
With a .45 ACP.
And lives to return fire.
And then performs first aid on himself until the cops arrived.
And, three years later, tells his story:
And whatever your stance on self-defense, this is an amazing story.
Minnesota used to significantly outperform the rest of the US in germs of gross and per capita GDP growth.
[Since] 2019 — the last pre-COVID year — Minnesota’s real GDP growth has ranked 36th out of the fifty states, coming in at 4.0%, less than half the national rate of 8.1%.
The gross GDP growth comparison is bad. The per capita numbers, even worse:
Minnesota’s recent performance is relatively poor. As Figure 2 shows, between 2019 and 2023, Minnesota’s real, per capita GDP growth ranked 39th out of the fifty states. Again, with growth of 3.1%, Minnesota’s real, per capita GDP growth was less than half that of the United States, 6.6%.
The Walz regime will respond, no doubt, as it always does; with a selfie of “Lieutenant” Governor Flanagan feeding Governor Klink a pronto pup.
Capital, productive citizens and the college kids who are the productive citizens of the future are fleeing. Businesses have been moving their non-white-collar operations out of MInnesota for decades.
You may not win along with it, but that’s your fault for denying reality.
Speaking of denying reality: we warned MInneapolis about the inevitable end results of rent control, high taxes and onerous regulations (aka “everything the Met Council does re housing and transit policy”).
And yet every $%#$%$@# time their chickens come home to roost, they act surprised and angry:
The comments in that thread are lit, by the way; every metro housing advocate’s inner Lenin is showing.
“President” Biden, last Friday:
“I, Joseph R. Biden … do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility,” said the White House proclamation issued Friday and signed by Mr. Biden.
Biden, Sunday:
As he left the 144th annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Mr. Biden was quizzed by reporters about House Speaker Mike Johnson’s denunciation of the transgender proclamation as “outrageous and abhorrent.”
“Speaker Johnson called it ‘outrageous’ that Easter Sunday was Transgender Day of Visibility. What do you say to Speaker Johnson?” asked a reporter, according to the White House pool report.
Mr. Biden replied: “He’s thoroughly uninformed.”
When pressed for details, the president responded: “I didn’t do that.”
The “observance” has been on March 31 for about 15 years, now – it was going to coincide with Easter someday, one way or another.
Which, of course, doesnt’ explain why the White House gave it equal billing with the holiest day of the faith the President throws about as a prop when it suits him (or, more likely, his comms staff).
Now, if it coincided with Ramadan, or May Day? That’s a needle I look forward to seeing the “President” try to thread.
And I’m sure he will get his chance, as just about every other day is some sort of LGBTQ+ observance or another.
A significant chunk of the far-left clacque that runs politics in the metro are Marxists, either overtly or under the hood.
And an amazing number of them subscribe to the “Labor Theory of Value” – the idea that labor, as opposed to the other three factors (Capitol, Management and Land) is the dispositive factor of production.
I have been challenging adherents for years – test the theory by taking a group of fast food workers, plopping them on a vacant lot, and seeing if a Hardee’s springs up around them.
It’s an absurd test – exactly the one the theory deserves.
I used to say nobody had taken the challenge.
But it appears that, at least indirectly, someone just might.
One of the big quasi-empirical drivers to “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in the business world was a McKinsey consulting study from almost ten years ago, whose results claimed that diversity was strength, not just for virtue-signaling purposes, but in bottom line terms.
If it seemed like a stretch – it was. A new study can’t reproduce McKinsey’s results:
However, when we revisit McKinsey’s tests using data for firms in the publicly observable S&P 500® as of 12/31/2019, we do not find statistically significant relations between McKinsey’s inverse normalized Herfindahl-Hirschman measures of executive racial/ethnic diversity at mid-2020 and either industry-adjusted earnings before interest and taxes margin or industry-adjusted sales growth, gross margin, return on assets, return on equity, and total shareholder return over the prior five years 2015–2019. Combined with the erroneous reverse-causality nature of McKinsey’s tests, our inability to quasi-replicate their results suggests that despite the imprimatur given to McKinsey’s studies, they should not be relied on to support the view that US publicly traded firms can expect to deliver improved financial performance if they increase the racial/ethnic diversity of their executives.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that corporate America is going to stuff the toothpaste back into the tube; that would be a free market response, and Human Resources is a little bit of government, with all the attendant hidebound inflexibility and mulishness, embedded into the market.
…what surprised me more – that a Catholic church in Manhattan has bouncers…
…or that they did this with some Palestine/Climate/[fill in the cause] protesters on Easter:
My only regret? No clubs were used.
Remember during the oil boom in North Dakota?
When the Strib and every prog pundit with a blog was patronizingly intoning how dangerous all that unseemly oil money was going to be for all the hayseeds out on the prairie? When our cultural elites prowled the prairie looking for the evil that lies at the intersection of rural, Christian and suddenly prosperous?
The boom has moved on.
Progressives have not. Whenever they see new energy, and new money, they are there to whiz in the cereal.
But someone, gloriously, pushed back. This is Ibraham Ali, President of Guyana (via Powerline). And he is not amused by a BBC hack’s by-the-woke-numbers first-world nattering:
I saw this mere moments after I read this piece below – Musa Al Garbi’s observations about the endemic racism of upper-middle-class honkies in Manhattan.
It’s not just Manhattan, and it’s not just race.
As you may recall, our “Lieutenant”/co-governor and state’s designated Karen, Peggy Flanagan, filled out her March Madness bracket based on the schools’ home state abortion laws.
She got well under half right in the first round. She was down to two of the Elite Eight, and one – UConn, seeded #1 in its quarter of the bracket – left in the Final Four.
So “abortions laws” might not be a great predictor of basketball success.
What is?
Carry permit laws and Contitutional Carry. Seven out of the “Elite Eight” were either shall-issue or Constitutional Carry, and Connecticut has always been the most liberal of the mid-Atlantic states as re issuing permits.
SCENE: A (probably) fictional meeting at the StarTribune editorial board. Servants bustle about, gathering cocktail glasses and the picked over remains of lobster from the table. Publisher Steve GROVE presides, as David BANKS, Jill BURCUM, Scott GILLESPIE, Denise JOHNSON, Patricia LOPEZ, John RASH, D.J. TICE and CEO Michael J. KLINGENSMITH slowly focus their attention.
GROVE: OK. So someone asked me – what is the current term to refer to an ill…er, to someone who has migrated to the United States without legal authorization?
TICE: It’s been “Undocumented Migrant” for about 20 years now.
KLINGENSMITH: The consensus is that’s too pejorative. We need a new one.
GROVE: No bad ideas, here, people.
BURCUM: How about “trans-national Americans”?
RASH: Oooh, I like that. “Trans-national Americans are real Americans”. (Murmurs of assent)
GILLESPIE: Border victims.
JOHNSON: Oooh, nice.
GROVE: OK. Good ideas, here. We’ll work on it. Now – we’ve had a question about the term “soldier”. Of course, soldiers have guarded this nation’s freedom…
LOPEZ: (hisses contemptuously)
GROVE: I know, I know, work with me, here. That’s the baggage – a lot of the F150 driving “big yard” set…
LOPEZ: ( hisses contempuously again)
GROVE: …think “Soldier” is an honorable term in our society.
BURCUM: ( giggles)
GROVE: So how about this piece here?
GROVE: Any problems using “Soldier” to refer both to someone defending this country…
LOPEZ: ( hisses contempuously yet again)
GROVE: …and a knee-buster for a cartel?
(Uncomprehending stares from the entire board, except for…)
TICE: Uh, that seems…
GILLESPIE: We’re good!
GROVE: OK. Moving right along…
And SCENE
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Clothing retailers send me junk mail promoting the Spring Collection of fashion designs, so I can run out and buy new clothes to match the season. I never do, but that doesn’t deter the junk mailers. There’s always hope that I might update my wardrobe. The Post Office sends me advertising emails promoting the Spring Collection of stamps. Seriously? Does ANYBODY run out and buy stamps to match the season?
What annoys me is not just the two seconds it takes me to click “Delete,” it’s knowing that an advertising campaign doesn’t happen organically. They probably let bids to hire a firm of graphic artists. They no doubt had committee meetings to review the offerings for diversity and inclusiveness. They definitely tasked programmers to modify the on-line store to include the new products. I can’t even imagine how much it cost in total. I wish we could measure the response to see if the ad campaign worked. I hate to complain about the Post Office since it one of the very few Constitutional activities the federal government is authoritized to do, but this is beyond ridiculous.
Mitch, I see an opportunity for you, writing specialty books. Somebody got the contract to write “Mister Zip’s Windy Day” for the Post Office (scroll down). I know Smokey the Bear is the mascot for the US Forest Service but I wonder what the US Marshall’s mascot is? Do they need a Second Amendment Friendly kids book?
Joe Doakes, stampless, but at least not in Como Park
My first response – they do this for stamp collectors. How much of a market are philatelists? I have no idea.
I know that recording artists today make much of their actual profit from merchandise sold on tour. Is the USPS mining that same vein?
Or is this just another wealth transfer from taxpayers to favored advertisers and merch producers?
And, since Joe brought it up, how do I get my taste?
So last week, the DFL introduce this amendment to existing state statute on “reasonable force” self-defense in this bill.
And the amendment includes some curious bits of language:
A Kiss Is Just A Kiss
Minnesota law allows the use of “Reasonable” and non-lethal force (that’s another statute altogether) in some circumstances: when you’re:
So far so good.
But the DFL wants to add an exception to the law:
Subd. 4.
Use of force not authorized; reaction to victim’s sexual orientation.
Force may not be used against another based on the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, including gender identity and expression, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic or sexual advance towards the actor, or if the actor and victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship.
So if I read this right – lawyers in the house, please sound off – it sounds like someone who takes a non-forcible pass at someone is fair game for a good slap – but not if they are or are “perceived” to be transgender, in which case it’s off limits?
Again – not being lawyer, I’m unclear on this, but is it currently OK to slap someone who makes a pass at you, if they’re “cisgender?” Or merely gay?
And that’s just the beginning.
Liquored Up?
When booze is involved, things get a little weirder, at least to this non-lawyer: Booze is no defense, except as an aspect of crimes whose elements include a particular state of mind:
An act committed while in a state of voluntary intoxication is not less criminal by reason thereof, but when a particular intent or other state
of mind is a necessary element to constitute a particular crime, the fact of intoxication may be taken into consideration in determining such intent or state of mind
Unless that state of mind involves a crime against a transgender person:
It is not a defense to a crime that the defendant acted based on the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, including gender identity and expression, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic
or sexual advance towards the defendant, or if the defendant and victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship.
So, is there a crime, currently, where the state of mind is an element of the crime, where intoxication can be considered as part of the defendant’s state of mind, that would not be affected by a victim’s perceived gender?
Someone help me out here.
And finally:
If You’re Not A Biologist, Is It Really “Manslaughter?”
Among several other motivations, manslaughter is when one…:
intentionally causes the death of another person in the heat of passion provoked by such words or acts of another as would provoke a person of ordinary self-control under like circumstances, provided that…
That appears to this non-attorney to refer to someone reacting to some form of extreme stressor, like crying child, or…:
(ii) the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, including gender identity and expression, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic or sexual advance towards the actor, or if the actor and victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship
So – is killing someone in the heat of the moment a lesser grade of manslaughter than killing someone of ambiguous gender?
Is it just me, or is that really weird?
“Pregnancy Resource Centers” attempt – and succeed with gratifying regularity – at convincing women and couples considering abortion to carry their children to term. In many/most cases, they offer post-birth financial and emotional support.
It’s in stark contrast to Planned Parenthood, which aborts the fetuses, collects whatever money they can, and sends the patient on their way.
In other words, heretical desecration of the secular religion’s most holy sacrament, abortion.
Erin Maye Quade, DFL Senator from Apple Valley, wants only to feed more flesh into the maw of the One True Faith:
“I would love to eminent domain all 98 of these crisis pregnancy centers and turn them into affordable housing for people who do have children,” said Sen. Maye Quade. “I would love to turn them into food banks and diaper banks and formula banks. Like, these are things that actually support people having children when they decide they would like to have children, and everything that crisis pregnancy centers are doing is not that. None of it is that.”
It’s downright disturbing, the hatred the pro-infanticide mob feels for these centers:
Honestly, Apple Valley – what’s your problem?
Hennepin County’s population – which is mostly Minneapolis – is down. And while that is not the only factor depressing home values for the first time since the 2008 recession.
This is affecting the funding of (what we will still refer to as) public services in Minnesota’s largest county and city.
In fact, the demographics of Minnesota as a whole are a little troublesome.
The annual “natural change” in Minnesota’s population (births minus deaths) is not enough to compensate for the number of people moving out of the state. In the little over three years from the last census (April 1, 2020) to July 1, 2023, Minnesota saw a natural increase in residents of about 40,400. These gains were wiped out by the net domestic outmigration (people leaving Minnesota for other states) of 46,000. If not for the net “international migration” of 34,600, Minnesota’s overall population would have fallen over this period.
Young people are leaving the state – which is a huge change from when I first moved here, when the Twin Cities were a destination to a lot of recent grads stepping out into adult live.
But hey, maybe protecting criminals while jamming people into ticky-tack multi unit boxes will fix the problem:
That’s the problem with progressive politics. Reality always wins.
The Governor’s “State of the State” was last night. And Berg’s 24th Law was in full effect:
Progressive politicians can, and routinely do, say anything they want, regardless of honesty or even factuality, confident that their audience, while theoretically “educated”, has no capacity for critical thought”.
The gaslighting was, as with all things Walz, pretty ovewhelming:
Better schools.
Safer streets.
Governor Klink says this with a straight face, counting on “his” voters being too gullible and uncritical to know he’s whizzing on their legs and calling it “rain”.
Saint Louis Park Public Schools is looking for a new Assistant Superintendent.
But not just any Assistant Super. Nosirreebob.
This one is going to have some extra special administrator-fu (emphasis added):
The first sentence of the position’s summary says, “the Assistant Superintendent proactively supports the Superintendent to create and communicate anti-racist structures and systems, works to interrupt systems of oppression, and serves as a role model for culturally relevant pedagogy.”
The school district continues its summary of the position by saying the assistant superintendent must be “unwaveringly committed to anti-racist actions and use data to adapt and sustain their efforts towards racial equity to plan, direct, and coordinate action to achieve the mission and strategic objectives.”
The job description continues by saying the school district is seeking an assistant superintendent who can “examine the presence and role of ‘Whiteness’ in systems and structures,” and is “open to feedback regarding their own racial blind spots.”
The job will pay between $130-200K.
I think we finally found out what “fully funding education” means.
“A Bar Of Their Own” has apparently had a good first month, according to this cheerleading press release.
Since its inception, enthusiasm has only grown for the tavern with the radical concept of playing only women’s sports on its multiple TVs. The idea was overwhelmingly embraced, from a successful crowdfunding campaign to an opening day met with cheers and a line of fans stretched around the block.
We spoke with owner Jillian Hiscock, who said the lines have calmed a bit since the March 1 opening, but haven’t dissipated. She shared a few of the stats from the history-making bar’s first 14 days.
The bar’s PR person is doing bang-up work, leading the cheering for their client, and…
…uh…
…hang on just a dog-gone minute. It’s not a PR flak’s press release. It’s a “news” story from the Star Tribune. Y’know – journalists who tell you the who, what, when, where, why and how of a story, remaining detached from…
…(sknzxxx)…
…detached and objective and…
…oh, I can’t keep a straight face.
The “journalist”, Joy Summers, is credited as “a St. Paul-based food reporter who has been covering Twin Cities restaurants since 2010”.
To be fair, Esme Murphy is still more embarassingly effusive talking about Amy Klobuchar than this.
Seriously, though – new businesses are good. More power to A Bar Of Their Own.
But they’ve had effusive – let’s say “fawning”, even “embarassingly brown-nosing” – media coverage ever since the idea first went public.
That’s gotta be worth a lot of free advertising.
Which is what an awful lot of Twin Cities “journalism” is, these days.
Lieutenant Governor Flanagan has a unique (?) approach to sports gambling:
I might just have to take enough interest in college hoops to keep track of how her bracket does.
When I saw Angie Craig jamming Mary Moriarty into the wood chipper last week…
…. I figured there was a reason.
And MPR apparently thinks so as well:
Most congressional districts in the nation and in Minnesota are considered either firmly Republican or Democratic. That’s not the case in the 2nd District, which comprises much of the south metro area, but also stretches deep into rural south-central Minnesota.
The combination of near-urban, suburban and rural voters makes the district viable ground for both parties.
The district’s Republican Party Chair, Joseph Ditto, said 2024 is his party’s best opportunity in years to defeat Craig, who won the prior three elections by close margins.
Of course, the DFL money and media machines will be working overtime to put lipstick on the metaphorical progressive pig that Craig is once she goes to DC:
Craig has a massive fund-raising advantage. Craig has raked in more than $3 million for this race so far. That’s more than five times as much as her Republican challengers raised combined.
Craig had more than $2 million in the bank to start the year.
Outside groups have also indicated plans to play heavily in the district, one of relatively few targeted races in the country.
In a district where independent voters will prove pivotal, Craig is promoting efforts to reach agreement with Republicans on issues ranging from combatting fentanyl smuggling to stopping congressional pay raises. Five press releases in March alone use “bipartisan” in the headline.
We’ve been used to Craig rolling out TV ads driving offroad in a Jeep, to try to burnish her “not like those DFLers” cred.
I fully expect to see a new one with her at the range with matching AK47s in each hand.
What’s the term all the urbanist fanboys are using these days?
Oh, yeah – “vibrant”.
Here’s another example of blue city “vibrancy”, this time from San Francisco:
Any bets as to whether the Minneapolis City Council will consider “desolation” a bug, or a counter-capitalist feature?
Interested in pushing back on HF4444, which will increase the cost of building contracting by 50-75%? Contact Bill Gshwind at MNCLS.com, or 651-484-4412. And if you need a roof, give Dan Lillestol at 952-479-7131.
And here’s today’s song list:
To: The Mall Of America
From: Mitch Berg, Guy Who’s Never So Much As Stolen a Candy Bar, Ever
Re: Adios
Dear Mall of America,
There’ve been muggings in your parking ramps.
I had a friend get her catalytic converter stolen in your ramp.
And of course, crime has become endemic all around the Mall, starting when the Blue Line started almost 20 years ago, and growing ever since.
And of course, there’ve been shootings (and, let’s be honest, worse).
So, this is your response?:
After several high-profile shootings in the past two years, the mall has added its first gun-sniffing dog. For about 20 years, MOA has used K9s to sniff out explosives, but now they’re training all eight of their dogs to detect firearms, a fairly new concept in the canine world.
Kenny McDonough, the mall’s Canine Lt., says the dogs undergo an extensive eight-week training in-house. They learn to smell every component of a firearm to detect who may have a gun on them.
Of course, I could have told you the result:
Mall officials say most of their finds have been conceal and carry people who weren’t aware that the mall is private property and doesn’t allow firearms.
Which, of course, violates state law – but as the late great Joel Rosenberg taught us, “test cases are for other people”.
The only shame is that, like so many other products, services and companies that people who care about freedom are boycotting, I haven’t patronized the MOA for a couple of years now. It’s just not fun anymore.
But you’re making it clear that people like me – people who care about protecting the lives of the innocent – are your real enemies.
So thanks for the memories, MOA. I’m done with you.
That is all.
The NYTimes embraces the Deep State…
…that just doesn’t exist.
Given the way the MSM obsesses over the “happiness” of countries like Finland and Denmark, I have to confess I’m a little surprised that the US was in the Top 20 for happiness in the first place. Serves me right for believing any MSM narrative, really.
My bad. I’m working on it.
But this is the news today:
So after teaching an entire generation that:
I’m even more amazed.
And remembering the effect Jimmy Carter’s “Malaise” speech had on me, I have to think that either:
Not sure which is true – maybe both?
But that question is the basis of a project I’ve been mulling for a bit.