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

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

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

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

No, not really.  Bill Glahn explains:

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

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

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

“Vast majority”.

Not a skim of fthe top. 

Not 10% for the big guy. 

Vast.  Majority. 

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

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

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

Former Senator Sean Nienow pointed out the inconvenient facts:

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

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

It did not go well:

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

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

The wages of DFL control are languishing as a backwater.  

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

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

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

And 33 million in Minnesota:

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

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

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

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

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

To:  Lieutenant Governor Flanagan
From:  Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re:  I Have Questions.  Let’s Be Honest, You Just Don’t Do Answers.

Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, 

I caught this tweet over the weekend:

I’ve got two questions:

1.  Does This Mean You’re Cutting Taxes?  One of the main reasons families (who can’t afford to leave Minnesota) are “just scraping by” is Minnesota’s confiscatory taxes.  Sales taxes in the metro (when you add local to state taxes) are up over 10%. The overall tax burden, driving by state taxes, is among the heaviest in the nation, and affects people at every level.  

Given that the administration of which you were an aggressively co-equal part squandered an $18B surplus, I need to ask: does this mean you’re repenting of your wastrel ways?

2. Do You Share A Platitude Tech With Gov. Walz?. Your twitter feed is not just an endless series of banal platitudes, but “style”-istically they appear to be written by the same unimaginative pollyanna-for-hire. 

Example:

Perhaps endless streams of platitudes are going to sound the same no matter who the writer is, but it just seems too close to be a mere coincidence. 

3. You Know My First Question Was Sarcastic, Right?  There’s no way “cutting taxes” is ever going to be on the agenda, is there?  Ever?

Rarely do we mere mortals share a time and space with a person like Peggy Flanagan.  

A person who has led by example her entire public life – including her early turn on the Minneapolis School Board…:

…starting the Minneapolis Public Schools’ meteoric rise in achievement over the past 20 years, turning it into the beacon of exceptional learning that it is today.

Well, she’s not resting on her laurels:

Brilliant. 

Know what else are taxes, Madame Lieutenant Goverrnor? 

Taxes.  

Like the ones your administration and legislative “trifecta” jacked up, statewide, after squandering a $18 Billion surplus, accelerating Minnesota’s slide to “below average” in gross product per capita.  

She could be our next Senator.  Or Governor.  Or whatever the machine decides they want her to be.  

I got a quick laugh at this one from Matt Little, who’s running to try to replace Angie Craig in CD2:

I”d love to know what’s this “full range of vision” he’s talking about?

All seven of them voted in absolute lockstep on every single issue.  Not one of them broke ranks with the DFL majority on any vote.  Every last one of them voted to squander the “surplus”, to run up the state budget 40%, for a $6B deficit, for the thoughtcrime database and for healthcare and free tuition for illegals, for ignoring out of state custody orders when parents with Munchausens by Proxy brought their kids to Minnesota to get transed, for red flag gun confiscation and universal registration laws…

…for everything. 

There is not one degree of difference between the voting records of DSA radical Zaynab Mohammed and “moderate” Grand Hauschild.  

Or Matt Little, for that matter. 

The Piglet can’t be happy about this latest Star-Tribune poll:

Gov. Tim Walz’s approval rating has dipped below 50% since his failed run for vice president last year, and about half of Minnesotans say he shouldn’t run for a third consecutive term in 2026, according to a new poll. The results suggest the DFL governor could face headwinds if he runs for re-election again, particularly from voters in greater Minnesota and the suburbs outside Hennepin and Ramsey counties. He also faces opposition from a majority of independents who disapprove of his performance.

The new Star Tribune/Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Minnesota Poll found 49% approve of Walz’s performance and 50% disapprove. A previous Minnesota Poll conducted last September found 53% of Minnesotans approved of Walz’s performance while 44% disapproved.

It’s only the second time Walz’s approval rating has fallen below 50% in the Minnesota Poll.\

It’s hard to read much history into this “Minnesota” Poll; the poll has changed hands so many times since its heyday from 1989-2012.  

But this is not great news for Walz.  

I don’t expect him to go out without a fight, of course; he – or Gwen – palpably craves national office.  The question is, given:

• the extraordinary nature of a third term as governor
• Walz’s unpopularity (which I’m going to guess is worse than even this latest re-dressing of the MN Poll shows, becasue that’s never a bad bet)
• The emergence of other contenders in the DFL – radicals like Peggy Flanagan (who’s terribly overmatched in her Senate race against Angie Craig), and relative moderates like Dean Philips…

…will the Tim Walz brand support another run?

I suspect we’re going to see a huge reconstruction effort.  Which I frankly hope succeeds, at least through DFL convention season. 

Postscript:  wouldn’t now be a great time for the MNGOP to suspend its circular firing squad and actually focus on fundraising and fighting a campaign?

We’ve had a week of gyrations and caterwauling about “right wing violence” after the ghastly shooting spree carried out by Vance Boulter, who is tenuously associated with the Republican Party.  

We now return to regular programming:

Now, you might think the fact that no party was mentioned is a sure sign that he was a Democrat. 

And you’d be right:

The “expletive” in question was alleged to have been Rep. Jim Nash of Waconia.

So, to borrow a phrase from David Byrne, “same as it ever was”.

And it’s time for one of the great new Minneapolis summer traditions (X thread): 

One apparently dead, five more shot, and one woman injured in the brawl that inevitably followed at Hennepini County Hospital.

Early reports say it was ELCA vs. Missouri Synod.  

Fearless prediction:  Minnesota isn’t done with corruption scandals:

We’re nowhere near the bottom of this barrel. 

When someone – the US DOJ, or a hypothetical future Republican governor – finally starts looking at where the bodies are buried in Minnesota’s non-profit/industrial complex, “Feeding Our Future” will just be the appetizer. 

SCENE:   At the state DFL headquarters in Saint Paul.   Richard CARLBOM, new chair of the DFL, is sitting at a conference table with Edmund DUCHEY, Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK and Inge “Lucky” CARROLL, all members of Amy KLOBUCHAR’s staff. 

CARLBOM:  So, we’ve got a real problem with white males in rural Minnesota.  That could be a big enough problem that the urban vote machine won’t be able to cover the difference next year.

So – no dumb ideas, people. 

(Thinking ensues).

DUCHEY:  I got it.  What do rural white guys like more than anything?

BIRKENSTOCK:  Racism!

CARROLL:  Misogyny…

DUCHEY:  Hockey!

CARLBOM:  Er…not exactly what we’re looking for…er, maybe we can expand on hockey.  What draws white rural men to hockey?

CARROLL: :  Misogyny!

DUCHEY: VIolence

BIRKENSTOCK:  Being drunk!

CARLBOM:  Bingo!   They lik4 drinking.  

We need to appeal to rural white male Minnesotans love of beer!

CARROLL: Boom! That’s exactly the look we want!

DUCHEY:  Empty glass!  Three sheets to the wind!

CARLBOM:  Er…

And SCENE

…votes down the proposed Inspector General’s office – not so much a “MN DOGE” as a someone empowered to go after things like systemic fraud – this happened:

They may not have been quite ready to file the next round of charges, but were forced into action Sunday when they learned one woman they are targeting had booked a sudden international flight. The FBI arrested Hibo Daar at MSP before she could board that flight to Dubai. 

Court records show Daar claimed to serve 1 million meals to children while operating out of an office in a business center on East Hennepin Avenue. She collected $2.4 million in taxpayer money, but federal investigators believe her meal site, “Northside Wellness,” was fake and that she actually spent less than $2,000 on food.

He’s gonna run for Governor again:

Of course, the little gnome will spend the next 18 months dodging debates.  But his Veep bid last year, and his newfound rise to national prominence, have given people a whole lot more material. 

As has the governor himself:

The little gnome never gets tired of “Nazi” references, does he?

I bet he does not see (badda boom) the problem with this…

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. 

“Two weeks go stop the spread!”

“President Biden is sharp as a tack!”

And now…

Tim Walz’s statements have the half-life of an ice cream cone in a hot car. 

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. 

Maybe I’m too used to kicking at the football Lucy proffers, having it taken away, and yelling “AAAAAARGH” as I sail into the bushes yet again.

But I saw this last week…

But hope springs eternal .

Maybe this is the time someone not working directly or indirectly for Ken Martin actually gets to start seeing where the bodies are buried in Minnesota politics.

This isn’t, of course, the part of the Minnesota bureaucracy that controls hundreds of millions in fraud, or the direct connection between the non-profit/industrial complex and the DFL and all the taxpayer money they’ve controlled for the past two decades. Or to Keith Ellison renting out seats in the AGO to Michael Bloomberg’s climate pimps. 

But it almost feels like it could be possible

If it’s a day ending in “Y”, there’s going to be another DFL fraud scam. 

The questions to ask at this point pretty much boil down to:

• What non-profit is behind it?
• How is that non-profit linked to the DFL?
• Which DFL executive branch staffer or legislator made the connections to make the deal happen?

Because there’ll be an answer to each of those questions.

And all of those answers will end up with Tim Walz trying to tapdance his way out of the buck stopping anywhere near him. 

The House Fraud committee got a chance to ask Attorney General Ellison two hours worth of questions yesterday.  

It didn’t go well for the Attorney General:

To recap – the top lawyers in the state was working against his client, on behalf of peole who were giving him and his son a ton of money.  This was in the lead-up to the “Defund the Police” vote in 2021, when Jeremiaih Ellison  barely held his seat, and four other anti-cop council members lost.  

I don’t think we’re done with revelations about Ellison’s activities on this issue.  Just a hunch. 

Bill Glahn at the Center of the American Experiment has a thread on the testimony. 

LIttle birts tell me there’s more to come.  Stay tuned. 

…could Tim Walz have just skipped the whole thing?

After squandering an $18B surplus and, by the way, governing like a dictator (and not even a competent one), Walz’s state of the state mostly tried to gaslight the viewer into thinking Donald Trump caused the state’s problems:

…not to mention trying to haul another bid for national office slowly, painfully off the ground.

Smart people were not fooled:

…but DFL messaging isn’t aimed at the smart people. 

Minnesota Star Tribune, April 17, 2027:

FEDS INDICT 20 IN WATER FRAUD SCANDAL

The US Attorney for Minnesota has announced indictments of 22 executives and board members ‘”Watering Our Future”, a Methodist-affiliated non-profit ostensibly dedicated to providing water at public events.

“WOF spent $230 million in state money”, said Assistant US Attorney Ashley Bouffant, “but we’ve found no evidence they ever provided any water to a single person at a public event”. 

The headline in 2025?   “Minnesota lawmakers push for free water access at public events“. 

The bill, introduced in February by Rep. Leigh Finke, (DFL-66A) has been added to a larger House commerce package. If passed, it would mandate that all qualifying events provide at least one of the following:

• Free bottled water

• Permission to bring in sealed water bottles

• Access to refill stations for those who bring empty bottles

• Exemptions: art galleries, museums and presentation spaces where beverages aren’t allowed

“This bill just kind of came to me last summer when I was having conversations with people about the heat,” Finke said. “There are numerous ways for this to be successful at very low stakes and with high rewards.”

Any government program opportunity, at best, for creating a new transfer of wealth from the real world to the political class; at worst, another opportunity for fraud and graft.

And under this version of the DFL, let’s just leave out the “at best” part.

I’m just waiting to see what special interest group can carve / has carved out a piece of the public water action.

Because you know there’s gotta be one.

Even as the “Feeding Our Future” scandal appears to shift into a new gear with the release of the recording of Keith Ellison appearing to:

• put the lie to several of his statements about when he did or didn’t know about the fraud scandal
• tell some future defendants that the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) could “chill” the ardor of other agencies to investigate them
• accept campaign donations for his son and himself,

…it appears we’re nowhere near done with scandals in DFL-run Minnesota:

And while Feeding Our Future is just pedestrian stuff like fraud, jury tampering and maybe racketeering, this one gets into TMZ-fodder:

Gabriel Adam Alexander Luthor (a.k.a. Langford), 39, and Elizabeth Christine Brown, 42, were arrested in Las Vegas, where they made their initial court appearances in U.S. District Court in the District of Nevada earlier this week.

The indictment alleges:

Luthor and Brown intentionally devised and carried out an overbilling scheme for medical services provided through their neurofeedback therapy business, Golden Victory Medical, LLC (GVM). Luthor and Brown were in a relationship and together founded GVM in 2018…In total, GVM submitted hundreds of thousands of false claims to insurers, many of which the insurers paid, resulting in an estimated loss of over $15 million. Millions of dollars in fraudulent proceeds were transferred from bank account to bank account and ultimately retained by Luthor and Brown. Luthor and Brown used the funds to purchase a 9000-square-foot mansion in Eden Prairie and to pay their living expenses and the living expenses of other girlfriends of Luthor’s, who lived with Luthor and Brown and assisted in the fraud scheme.

 

It’d sure be a great time to have a functional state GOP with an election coming up, wouldn’t it?

Saint Paul’s much-ballyhooed all-boss-lady City Council not only can’t do its job.

It breaks the law while doing it. 

Jane McClure is a long-time writer for the Highland Villager. 

And as she points out, it seems the Council is walking all over the state’s Open Meetings Law:

The Open Meeting Law prohibits serial meetings, or meeting one-on-one or in smaller groups to make decisions before a public meeting. Serial meetings can be seen as ways to avoid public discourse or to reach some kind of agreement in advance of an open meeting. This depends on the facts of each matter, of course.

Serial meetings can also occur through electronic or written communication, including phone conversations, emails, texts and social media.

City Council members contend that they have long discussed issues one-on-one before taking major votes. This practice predates the current council. That still doesn’t make it right.

Discussing is one thing. Making decisions in private is another. Making promises that lead to decisions is another.

 

The rule of law is the first casualty of all-“Blue” government – in city hall as well as on the street.