Pepperidge Farm does.
But the DFL seems to have forgotten it:
The DFL has staked its electoral future on giving free healthcare and education to illegals, in a state where the middle class is having a hard time affording either.
Which is something one might expect them to do for their, er, voters.
Huh.
Minnesota schools failed during the pandemic. Some might say they collapsed.
Governor Klink isn’t gonna let that happen again:
Aside from trying to deal with the deficit he created, he’s trying to pay back his cronies in the Teachers Unions.
Rep. Emma Greenman – who seemed to have found her happy place being the DFL state rep who was most aggressive about shirking her job early in the legislative session, before the District 40B special election – sounded off on the ethics issues with Keith Ellison:
“Political and not very useful” is actually a great capsule summary of Rep. Greenman.
Is Nicole Mitchell the most self-unaware person between Chicago and the Sierra Madre?
Or is the Senate DFL’s social media intern in the dark about Minnesota news because she’s working in as boiler room in Manila?
State Rep. Maria Isa Perez-Vega wants to mow herself some of that fresh astroturf:
The DFLer, who enthusiastically participated in the orgy of spending that led to both tax hikes and a colossal deficit that has raised the cost of living, led to thousands of Minnesotans losing their jobs or moving their businesses out of state, piling unfunded mandates onto schools that are causing budget-tightening in the classroom, and cutting the very services the Representative is talking about, is going to try to deflect the whole mess over to Trump.
And she is going to do the brave, boss-lady thing and hold a town hall.
Where?
When?
So, you can find out where the “town hall” is after we vet you to make sure you’re not one of the “bad” ones?
Since this takes place during show-time on Saturday, Avery Librelle will have to sit it out.
But if any of you go, feel free to call in with a report.
America loves second acts.
The child star who disappeared under a mound of blow at age 15, coming back with a stellar performance.
The team that started the season in the cellar, going to the championship.
The 35 year old short reliever who started as an 18 year old prodigy before getting stuck in AAA ball for a decade and a half that pitches a shutout to get the save, and a little bit of immortality, in the big game.
The political party that squandered a $18B surplus to create a $6B deficit, while blowing up the budget 40% and jacking up taxes, rebranding itself as tax hawks for the children…
Wait. Wut?
And kudos to the social media intern for that clever job of editing all the facts out of the interchange, to make it look like Rep. Gomez was winning the discussion. It was…creative.
Suddenly, the DFL is stoked. Nikki the Ninja is no longer the juiciest (alleged) crime story in the MN State Senate.
For now, anyway. Sen. Justin Eichhorn got arrested for soliciting a “16 year old girl” who turned out to be a police decoy.
The Bloomington Police Department said Eichorn, 40, of Grand Rapids, solicited sex from a detective posing as a 17-year-old girl online. Eichorn and the detective arranged to meet near the 8300 block of Normandale Boulevard.
Eichorn was seen arriving in his pickup truck at the rendezvous point and was taken into custody just after 5:45 p.m., police said.
As of this publishing, Eichorn remained in the Bloomington Police Department’s custody awaiting transfer to the Hennepin County Jail. Formal charges have yet to be filed.
The DFL…well, they tried to have a field day with it. It didn’t end well:
So let’s recap: Republicans immediately demand their reprobate’s resignation. The DFL has been stalling on any meaningful action on Nicole “Nikki the Ninja” Mitchell for almost a year, now.
Which isn’t stopping them from try to deflect:
The DFLers are using this to deflect from their hypocrisy on Nikki the Ninja. The Repubulicans were clear, then and now: both both need to go. Stat.
KARE’s Jana Shortal, whose prospects of that MSNBC gig seems to be shrinking by the day, sounded off:
So apparently Democrats are going to take a break from burning Teslas to tell us “there’s no such thing as Trump Derangement”.
Or maybe not:
Oh, DFL…
If you live in House District 40B – northern Roseville and southern Shoreview – and you’ve seen enough of how the DFL acts when it’s got all the power it wants, get out and vote for Paul Wikstrom today.
Drag your friends and family out to do it too.
Got kids who live there? They owe you. Twist that arm.
Elderly relatives? Get them to the polls.
Wikstrom has raised more money in this race than some CD4 Congressional candidates have in recent races – so there’s support and interest. This is at least in the running to be not a DFL walkover.
Destroy the trifecta!
What’s the saying? Oh, yeah.
Yes, we can.
(If “we” live in 40B).
…then governor Piglet and the DFL are lying about self-defense reform.
To recap: In Minnesota, if you’re outside your house, to use lethal force in self-defense you must:
House File 13 – a “Stand your Ground” bill – would remove only the last bullet.
And any smart person knows that.
But smart people aren’t the DFL’s niche:
BTW, the “Stand your Ground” bill was defeated on a straight party-line tie in the House last week.
That means votes are on record.
The last time the House DFL voted straight-line against a gun-rights bill that lost a floor vote was 2002, when “Shall Issue” permit reform was barely defeated.
The GOP went on to win every single one of those outstate DFL seats; every outstate DFLer that voted against gun rights lost that fall. And with a GOP House and Governor (and a few iron Range DFL senators voting “yes”), Shall Issue passed the following session.
Keep that anger going.
It can not be the only issue that the GOP rides on (and it won’t be), and the MN Gun Owners Caucus must not be the only functional, focused group working conservative causes (and I don’t think it will be).
This this can be, and must be, a potent part of the right’s approach in this next election.
The DFL’s strategy in the tied MN House appears to be “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”.
Case in point:
They’re certainly not dialing back the crazy.
While the fracas in the MN House is getting all the attention, the DFL is having to battle for their electoral lives in the Senate, where their one-vote rests on Senator Nicole Mitchell.
The reasoning is getting clearer and clearer:
Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald added a second burglary charge Monday against state Sen. Nicole Mitchell focusing on items she had with her when police encountered her stepmother’s home in April 2024 in Detroit Lakes….Mitchell’s case was supposed to go to trial in late January, but her defense team invoked a Minnesota law saying lawmakers cannot be required to attend court proceedings during a legislative session. That delayed Mitchell’s case until June and possibly later, depending on when the 2025 session wraps.
The new complaint includes more details about her alleged interaction with police. It says Mitchell told an officer “I’m just hoping this mistake won’t completely f*** up my life” and that she voiced alarm about affecting her military retirement.
She’s gonna leave the Senate, one way or another, and while two tied chambers isn’t any bigger of a hassle for the Governor and DFL and their agenda than one tied chamber, Woodbury isn’t so utterly safe that they can take anything for granted.
Melissa Hortman folded her hand yesterday, and said the House DFL would come back to work. Lisa Demuth is the Speaker, and the GOP controls the committees, at least until after the 40B Special on March 11.
There are a few Republicans – largely from the crowd that thinks “Minnesota Gun Rights” is an actual gun rights group in Minnesota – who think it was a defeat for the GOP.
Let’s let a DFLer address that:
For someone who’s gotten a little fatalistic about Minnesota Republicans screwing every pooch that can be screwed, it was a very good day. This is not your fathers House GOP Caucus.
More please.
So why is the DFL fighting everything so hard this year?
As we’ve noted in the past, the DFL has been in the minority before. And they never reacted like they are today.
So while acknowledging all the usual caveats – anonymous sources, citing even more anonymous connections, etc – read this entire thread anyway:
Presuming it’s true – it smacks of plausibility – then USAID is just a huge money-transfer machine, slapping altruistic facades onto over-the-top grifts to launder taxpayer money to the non-profit/industrial complex.
Looking at the freneticism and bile of the attacks on DOGE, Musk and the effort to tame USAID, it looks like it’s struck a nerve.
So – imagine what’ll happen if a Republican gets into the executive branch in Minnesota ever again? Or gets enough power in the legislature to do some serious digging and publicizing?
If a Minnesota version of DOGE – perhaps the “Office of Minnesota Internal Graft, Abuse and Waste Detection” – were to get free reign to find where Governors Dayton and Walz and their non-profit/industrial complex handlers hid the bodies?
I suspect this list would get a lot bigger -and that that is why the DFL is squawking so hard this time
It must be a tough time to be Erin Maye Quade – Senator from Apple Valley, and Big Left’s attack poodle in the Senate.
In the past couple of years, she’s voted for a thoughtcrime data base, and openly fantasized about using government power to keep parents from teaching their kids about abstinence…
…and about “Eminent Domaining” and bulldozing the crisis pregnancy centers try to keep people out of the Planned Parenthood clinics that spend so much on her campaigns and will presumably be her post-politics career.
Because suddenly, she’d discovered that big powerful government can be scary, when you’re not at the controls.
Even if you have to conjure those threats out of thin air:
Further evidence of Berg’s Seventh Law; QAnon was a fantasy, but BlueAnon is very, very real.
It’s not like they’ve never been in the. minority before. As recently as (checks notes( 2021-2022 (somehow it seems longer), they had a one-vote minority in the Senate, and the DFL’s world didn’t end.
And yet being (when all the special elections and likely special election results are in) one vote up in the Senate and tied in the House has them out larping Norma Rae.
Why, oh why?
For those who don’t want to open “X” and scroll down:
Democrats would show up to work, the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee could hold official House committee hearings and dig in deeper. We are waiting.
And now it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
If you live in Senate District 60 – the U of M, Dinkytown, Marcy Holmes – get out and vote for Abigail Wolters for the MN Senate.
If you know someone who lives in the district and is sick and tired of DFL lawnessness, or especially of U of M student who’s looking at the life the DFL has mapped out for them – being a purposeless unit of consumption – then get them to get out and vote for Abby.
This’d be a great week to shock the world.
They’re not at work. Oh, no no. no.
But they are doing this (language not remotely safe for work):
And yes, it’s directly linked to the DFL’s walkout; the person with the megaphone was acting in conjunction with a “rally” being thrown by Leigh Finke
Which went about as well as you could expect on a day when it around four degrees with a stiff breeze:
But then, the action was always going to be indoors, wasn’t it?
By the way, we’ve run into the person with the megaphone before.
If the MNGOP doesn’t run this on an endless loop for the next two. years, they deserve to lose.
Continue readingAnonymous source, seemingly implausible conclusion – but Gary Gross at “Liberty and Prosperity” says there’s a rumor afoot at the Capitol – emphasis added:
This past Friday, a loyal reader to this blog informed me that there were rumors were swirling around the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul that 2 DFL legislators were thinking about switching from the DFL to the GOP.
At first, I thought that this type of talk is typical when margins are this close. This friend assured me this wasn’t typical gossip mill fodder. This friend told me that these DFL representatives are tired of the DFL’s win-at-all-costs stunts. I’d assume that this includes the Curtis Johnson fiasco in HD-40B.
Its fun to think about. I find it implausible (if you’re on top of this rumor, drop me a line), but then everything about this past six months in national politics, and two weeks in Minnesota, has been implausible as well.
Rep. Leigh Finke wanted to show “MAGA” who was boss.
Here’s how it started:
Here’s how it looked ten minutes into the…er, meeting?:
To be fair, it was a brisk-ish day by southern MInnesota standards; 5 degrees and Minnesota-windy.
But the optics just are not good, are they?
Finke might do better off just going back to work.
Governor Piglet added his calm voice of non-partisan statesmanly leadership to Minnesota’s constitutional crisis yesterday:
Just kidding. He’s doing exactly what the DFL in the House are doing.
What’s the term?
Oh, yeah – election denialism:
I’ve had people ask me “what in the flaming hootie-hoo is going on with the Minnesota Legislature (mostly the House today, but the Senate is also happening)”? There are plenty of actual House members with great explanations. Some (@WalterHudson, @HarryNiska, @PamAltendorf) are dead on. Others (any DFLer) are…not. But here’s my attempt to explain it in laypersons terms.
1. On election night, the MN House was tied, 67-67.
2. Two of the races, 14B in Saint Cloud and 54A in Shakopee, were close enough to qualify for a statutory recount. The DFLer won in 14B – being caught on video guzzling vodka and getting in your car is practically a rite of passage in Saint Cloud. But the one in 54A, held by incumbent DFLer Brad Tabke – well, we’ll come back to that. Either way – the House was tied.
3. The procedure for a tied chamber (it’s happened) is the two parties come up with a “power sharing agreement” – splitting committee assignments, alternating Speakers of the House, etc. Discussions on this “agreement” started.
4. Before anything was formalized, the election of Curtis Johnson in House District 40B – north Roseville, south Shoreview – was nullified in district court when his GOP opponent, Paul Wikstrom [1], found enough evidence that Johnson didn’t live in the district. At all. The election was nullified, and Governor Walz called a special election for 1/28 [2]. That left the house 67 GOP/66 DFL.
5. Notwithstanding the fact that the conditions have changed, the DFL spent about a week claiming the GOP had “reneged on a powersharing agreement”. That’s an absurd claim – tantamount to saying the DFL needed a mulligan for its incompetence in the Johnson election.
6. For the past week, the two sides have been arguing about what the quorum is to allow the house to meet. The DFL says it’s a majority of the full chamber – 68 out of 134 seats. The GOP – citing the MN Constitution, and the very text of the debate that led to the original quorum provision in 1858, said it was a majority of the seats actually filled – specifically because the framers of the MN Constitution foresaw a situation like this, with a party boycotting the Legislature to prevent any business.
7. The DFL has spent the past week or two saying the GOP is “grabbing power” because they (correctly) say they have enough votes to create a quorum right now.
8. Sunday, the DFL caucus snuck into the History Center, after hours, and got “sworn in” by a retired MN Supreme Court judge, even though the Constitution says that the swearing in is done after a roll call in the House itself on the day of convening (today at noon). This was presumably so they can claim they should be paid.
9. This morning, hours before the House convened, the court rendered an opinion on the 54A race, saying it was not an invalid result.
10. The GOP countered that the MN Constitution, not a district court judge, determines whose elections are valid, not the courts. The house’s ability to determine what elections are valid is not an arbitrary thing – there are rules, and a process. The DFL is trying to deflect away form that, too, since the actual rules don’t favor their interpretation.
That brings us to yesterday noon.
11. The House is newly sworn in every two years. None of the officer elections, like Speaker, apply until they convene and vote. The Secretary of State convenes the House to, as the Constitution says, gavel them into session, call the role, swear them in, and recognize the clerk.
12. Simon tried to adjourn the House saying there was no quorum – basically, he tried to gavel-and-run, as if he were a teenager leaving a bag of burning poop on a doorstep. Republican Majority Leader Harry Niska pointed out that this was a violation of the separation of powers, and the House re-took control of the proceedings. Also – “adjournment” requires a motion, discussion, and a vote. Even if hs role weren’t purely ceremonial, he did it wrong.
13. They proceeded to vote to accept that they’d met the quorum specified in the Constiution (a majority of the certified legislators – 67 of 133), and then elect Rep. Demuth as Speaker of the House.
14 – So why does it matter? Today’s results mean that Speaker Demuth will control who heads committees. That is vital – since committee chairs have a lot of power, especially in re scheduling public hearings. Say, over MASSIVE FLAGRANT SYSTEMATIC DFL FRAUD.
15. Also – while the special election will likely bring the legislature back to a tie, the Speaker and Committee chairs will have been chosen – and any legislative attempt to change that will fail; “tie” votes automatically lose.
16. With those facts in place: if the DFL comes back, they won’t be able to pass any legislation, even though they control the Governor and Senate (remember – tie votes all lose). And the committees will become a vehicle for exposing the DFL’s misdeeds.
17. The DFL’s strategy atm is to try to delegitimize the House.
18. IN THE MEANTIME, the Senate is also tied, after the death of former Majority Leader Keri Dziedzic. Since it’s a tie, the Senate entered into power sharing agreement yesterday, and we’ll see what happens after the special election, which is on January 28.
19. Now, conventional wisdom is the DFL should win easily – it’s the U of M and Marcy-Holmes. But there’ve been some interesting dynamics. The GOP’s candidate, Abby Wolters, got 30% of the vote at the U of M, outperforming Trump last November. If the unthinkable happens, the GOP will control the whole legislature. It’s unlikely, of course.
20. BUT!!! Senator Nicole “The Ninja” Mitchell is going to be going on trial on her burglary charges. If convicted (and she said some things in her statement to cops that make me wonder if she got her law degree from the Croatian Internet School Of Law), I’m not sure how she isn’t forced to resign. The district is pretty blue, but one can hope people are getting fed up with all the DFL’s BS.
21. Speaking of being fed up with BS – recall petitions are being collected against the “striking” DFL House members all over the state. Recalls are not easy – nor should they be – and they are called by the governor, and our governor’s respect for the law makes Huey Long look like Rand Paul; you can expect him to interfere with that process, just as he tried to jink the processes in the special elections, and he’s trying to use his bully pulpit on the House.
What it all means: So for the next two weeks, Governor Walz has no power, and after the Special Elections he’ll have…
…still no power, and a House full of pissed off Republicans, with subpoena power, representing people who are pissed off about squandered surpluses, gathering catastropic deficits, decaying schools, rampant fraud, Covid destitution, snitch lines, badthink databases, a DFL that governed like an episode of Sweet Sixteen or Bridezilla, and a Federal government controlled by a Republican if (and, let’s be honest, when) systematic irregularities get discovered. Hope that helps.
If I got something wrong – meaning “factually in error”, not “not the way I want it” – leave a comment.
[1] Not the media. Good lord, no. Side note: you don’t hate the media enough.
[2] Also illegal – the seat wasn’t vacant until, legally, today. That’s when the clock is supposed to start. But to the DFL, laws are for peasants.
MN House livestream:
What do you suppose the odd are – a bunch of people chanting in the hallway.
UPDATE 12:30PM: Simon adjourned the house – and the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches.
12: 31 PM. The House just ruled the Secretary of State out of order, and is re-convening.
Stipulated: the DFL is Minnesota’s abusive spouse. I
It’s in the phase of spousal abuse where the first round of resistance has led to an amping-up of the gaslighting and projection:
That, and their messaging can not be intended to influence anyone but the stupid, the ill-informed and the uncritical, can it?
“Losing the popular vote for the house?” There is no “popular vote for the house”. There 134 district elections – nothing more.
And in one of those districts, neither the state DFL, nor the HD40B committee, nor the voters did their due diligence to find that their candidate was lying about living in the district.
The DFL wants to use their “mistake” to deny representation to half the state.
“Minnesotans voted for a tied house?” No – but if you want to look at it that way, half of Minnesota voted for a GOP House. And just under half of the state voted for a DFL House. And one district voted for a liar, either with the connivance or via the incompetence of the state DFL.
Why not “Share power”?
To paraphrase the great political sage Tim Walz, “when you have political capital, you use it”
The giggly fratboys of the DFL said that two years ago. Today, the line has apparently changed to “we dont’ have any capital, and if you don’t lend us some ’til payday, we’re going to throw a tantrum”.
And we may not be done:
Mohamed Jama, a potential top contender in a crowded special election to represent the safely Democratic district in northeast Minneapolis and Cedar-Riverside, likely does not meet the residency requirements according to state voter data.
Sonia Neculescu, a former DFL House candidate and resident of the district, filed a challenge to his candidacy with the state Supreme Court on Monday alleging Jama registered to vote on Election Day in neighboring Senate District 63 in November.
Under state law, candidates must live in the district they’re running to represent for at least six months prior to the election.
Jama did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment.
Abby Wolters is running in 60B on the GOP side, after winning 30% of the vote at the U of M last November. She could use your support.
Earlier today we talked about the change in leads, and maybe fortunes, in the Minnesota House, thrown into chaos by the DFL’s hubris in Distict 40A.
Today, let’s look at the Senate.
The Senate wasn’t up for election this year – so they held on to the same one-vote lead they’ve had for the past two years – by the solitary dint of Nicole “The Ninja” Mitchell not leaving office after her arrest for burglary at the end of the last session.
And it’s no surprise – the DFL would ignore Ted Bundy if he was their whole lead, especially given the DFL’s losses in the House.
But then Senator Dziedzic died, last week.
Which leaves the Senate tied at 33-33, as long as Mitchell remains in office.
Mitchell will get forced out once her vote no longer matters, of course – and the DFL will likely win both special elections, barring a very unlikely swerve in either district. And Governor Klink will be able to veto anything a temporary majority in both chambers sends to his desk.
But this opportunity, such as it is, must not go to waste.
So, last week was a big week. A good one, by Minnesota Republican standards. For the DFL, less so.
Both chambers of of the Minnesota legislature flipped to “tied” last week – one by via human tragedy, and one by hubris and stupidity.
Let’s talk stupidity and hubris first.
The House
As we noted last week, the election in House District 40B got thrown out by a Ramco Judge – DFLer Julian Castro – because the DFL winner, Curtis Johnson, hadn’t lived in the district the required six months.
Naturally, it took his GOP opponent and his supporters to dig up the information that went to trial – God knows the media isn’t going to do it. But the locals did prevail. Johnson is out.
Which, including the still-disputed 54A race, leaves the GOP one vote ahead as the session looms. Which means a GOP speaker of the House – a much better speedbump on DFL control than the “shared power” arrangement people were talking about last week.
Or it will, if the DFL can’t figure out a way to juke the rules in their favor. Which is exactly what they’re going to try to do.
On Friday, Johnson A DFL state representative-elect said Friday he will not appeal a judge’s ruling that he is ineligible to hold the office because he did not meet residency requirements for the district.
On Friday, Johnson announced he was opening the way to a special election to fill the 40B seat by “resigning“:
A DFL state representative-elect said Friday he will not appeal a judge’s ruling that he is ineligible to hold the office because he did not meet residency requirements for the district.
In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, Curtis Johnson said he has “made the difficult decision not to accept my seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives and to resign from the Office of State Representative effective immediately and irrevocably.”
Which is great – except the couldn’t resign. He was never in the office – it’s still Becker-Finn’s seat, and Johnson’s election was voided by the court.
Pretty Vacant
And the word “vacancy” has a statutory definition:
Which didn’t stop Governor Walz from declaring a special election on January 24.
Now, I’m no lawyer, but Johnson’s not the incumbent – Becker-Finn is.
So trying to jam down a special election is against the law:
But there is no vacancy, so (as I, and I suspect Mr. Hansen, and presumptive-Speaker Demuth) see it), the governor doesn’t get to call the special election until 22 days after Johnson isn’t sworn in, on January 14, the first day of session.
So with the House tied at 67-67 after the election, and the 54A seat in Shakopee still in court, this gives the GOP a 67-66 lead in the House, and the potential of picking up the 54A (and refusing to seat Brad Tabke until the issue is resolved in court).
I say it’s time for some intransigence.
Let’s talk about the Senate later today.