{"id":87590,"date":"2024-05-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87590"},"modified":"2024-05-23T07:19:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T12:19:52","slug":"our-banana-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87590","title":{"rendered":"Our Banana Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The state legislature wrapped up on Sunday.   Behind their moral leaders &#8211; an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87569\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"87569\">accused felon<\/a> and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87549\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"87549\">not-very-closeted authoritarian<\/a> &#8211; they enacted one of the more shameful spectacles anyone has ever seen in the Minnesota state legislature:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WATCH: Chaos on the House floor as DFL leaders bring up a bill combining multiple bills on unrelated issues to beat midnight deadline. Republicans cry foul! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9OXanqli99\">pic.twitter.com\/9OXanqli99<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thauserkstp\/status\/1792410147030978988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 20, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The process &#8211; and all inconvenient parliamentary procedure &#8211; was ignored, as the DFL jammed down a <em>2,800 <\/em>page omnibus bill that the DFL had crammed together at the literal last minute, dropping a printed copy on the floor with a half hour remaining (as the online version &#8220;unexpectedly&#8221; went down).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative Engen put it well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">They said the quiet part out loud:<br><br>They never intended to represent Minnesotans. They intended to rule over them. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SP6dPFIqhB\">https:\/\/t.co\/SP6dPFIqhB<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Elliott Engen (@elliottengenMN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elliottengenMN\/status\/1792935301817491760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 21, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We did what we <em>had <\/em>to do&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How are people not seeing this is every bit as destructive as &#8220;January 6?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So &#8211; they continued squashing freedom and the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But <em>the accomplishments<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In Minnesota, we\u2019re eliminating hidden junk fees to lower the cost of everyday life for Minnesota families. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Igmvzkj9nT\">pic.twitter.com\/Igmvzkj9nT<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (@LtGovFlanagan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LtGovFlanagan\/status\/1792706414995202177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 20, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past two sessions, they squandered $19B in surpluses, jacked up taxes, set up a speech database and gun registration, turned on a firehose of funding for the fraud-prone non-profit\/industrial complex, and trashed the rideshare market, among many other sins.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But hey. Junk fees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s next session?  Banning &#8220;shrinkflation&#8221; in potato chips?<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state legislature wrapped up on Sunday. Behind their moral leaders &#8211; an accused felon and a not-very-closeted authoritarian &#8211; they enacted one of the more shameful spectacles anyone has ever seen in the Minnesota state legislature: The process &#8211; and all inconvenient parliamentary procedure &#8211; was ignored, as the DFL jammed down a 2,800 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87592,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87590\/revisions\/87592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}