Gotta tell you something that bugs the bejeebers out of me.
Governor Walz’s campaign motto in both elections has been “One Minnesota”.
Now, if you’ve studied History *and* German, that slogan sounds all too close to “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” – “One People, One Empire, One Leader”. It was the motto of…uh, a regime 80 years ago that left behind some apocalyptic historical, social and political baggage.
In 2018, the slogan was merely annoying – one of those things the kids today refer to as “Microagressions”, which is another way of saying “something that people normally suck it up and chalk up to the cognitive dissonance of human communication”.
But after four years featuring the most incredible peacetime seizure of government power in history, and a long spate of politicized violence, not to mention a campaign of “othering” dissenters from the current ruling party as “Fascists” – the same, morally and personally, as the Godwins Law convicts in the second paragraph up above – it’s not hard to wonder if “One Minnesota” is a warm, fuzzy inclusive thing, or a warning that you’re either *with* “One Minnesota” or you’re against it; an invitation, as Elvis Costello put it, “shut up or get cut up”.
The President’s speech in September, referring to half the country as “Facists”, is exactly what regimes do when they want to draw a wide, exclusive “with us or against us” line through society.
I thought about that while reading this blood-curdling story about the Russian war crimes in Bucha – where they “cleansed” the city of Ukrainians accused by their regime of being “Nazis” and “Fascists”.
Today it’s Ukraine – but it’s the same dynamic that happened in Iraq in the 2000s, and Rwanda in the ’90s, Northern Ireland in the ’70s, China in the ’60s, Greece in the ’40s and ’50s, Finland (ffs?) in the 1920’s, even Kansas before the CIvil War; if you were on the wrong side of the “Us vs. Them” line when “Them” came through town, you and your family…died. Horribly. Then and there, bodies dumped in the street as a warning that we’re now living in One Iraq/Rwanda/Ulster/Greece/Finland/Kansas.
Given the rhetoric we are seeing today – I’ll charitable and say “on both sides”, but my heart’s not really in it – a slogan like “One Minnesota” is just too…redolent. That’s a good word.
You indiscriminately refer to your opposition – political, social, whatever – as “Fascists”, “Nazis” or whatever mortal enemy, against whom your society fought a life or death battle in living memory, that your culture recognizes.
Something causes the gloves to come off. Angry tweets – aimed at people who’ve had that label from that mortal enemy piled onto them – turn to angry words, to angry actions…
…and eventually, to mass murder.
But after the rhetoric of the past few years, escalated over the past few months, it’s not hard to see it happening in a place like
MPR/NPR used to be the background of my life. I woke up and commuted to “Morning Edition”, listened to classical music at work, drove home and cooked dinner to “All Things Considered”.
Now its constant blare of hard left bigotry is hard to keep on for more than five minutes.
A few years ago, I dubbed it for what it was, “Radio Rwanda”.
Still watch PBS, but NEWSHOUR is dead to me.
There is definitely a sinister vibe to the “One Minnesota” vision:
https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetings/Committees/Committee-of-the-Whole/2021/02-03-21/Info-Item-Building-Blocks.aspx
The implication is that all Minnesotans have the same interests.
It reminds me of Biden’s under-reported drive to implement “whole of government” equity policies. Biden did this via a series of executive orders, requiring that every cabinet department use its power to address “equity” in everything that it does.
The vision has not changed since former governor dayton, speaking in st cloud in 2015, told us that white, hard-working, law abiding, B+ american citizens who do not like seeing minnesota become mogadishu are not needed and should seek another state.
Did someone say Mogadishu?
I thought about that while reading this blood-curdling story about the Ukranians “cleansing” cities of civilians just for the crime of being “Russians”.
There, fixed it for you, Mitch, especially since the incident that curdled your blood is a propagandist’s dream. Of course, mine could be as well, but we all know EVETRYHTING AP, Reuters, CNN and the rest of the alphabet soup media says is true, so carry on… You were doing so well until you resorted to shilling propaganda, throwing shade on everything you say.
It’s not that the Media mistranscribes “Won Minnesota” as “One Minnesota.”
It’s not even that Walz uses both nearly interchangeably.
The issue is that Walz means BOTH every time he uses it.
I do often “joke” that One Minnesota sounds more guttural in the original German.
What is happening is that when you have a highly partisan chief executive (like Walz or Biden) you have the ability to extend your partisanship into every office that you control. Pushing an “equity” initiative through the legislature would be a lot of work and require compromise. But within the executive branch it is one man rule.
Look again at the One Minnesota strategic plan:
https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetings/Committees/Committee-of-the-Whole/2021/02-03-21/Info-Item-Building-Blocks.aspx
Doesn’t it look like law making?
The reference to “servant leadership” is diabolical. It means the leader “serves” by telling those he or she leads what their goals & priorities should be. “Servant leadership” is best exemplified by the way interns at an insane asylum “serve” the inmates. The leader judges the served, the leader is not judged by the served.
Kind of a thread-jack, don’t you think, Emery? – Ed.
All of this record low unemployment in Minnesota is Tim Walz’s fault.Jobs Report Shows Payrolls Grew 261,000 in Octoberhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/october-jobs-report-unemployment-rate-economy-growth-2022-11667516355
Is this data before Elon Musk bought Twitter? 🥳^ Well played. Got a good chuckle.
Democrats must be punished for this relentless onslaught of job creation.
Democrats should be punished for LYING about all of the jobs that CLAIMED to have created, when it was actually the rest of the work force returning after WuFlu.
There. Fixed it for you Emery!
By the way, my customers are manufacturers, fab shops, cabinet shops, foundries and various others. I guarantee you that those are not newly created jobs. The jobs have been there, they just haven’t been filled.
Health care led October’s job gains with 53,000. Professional and business services added 39,000; leisure and hospitality, 35,000, with hotels accounting for the bulk of the new positions; and manufacturing, 32,000.
Federal, state and local governments added 28,000 jobs.
IRS Agents, Diversity & Inclusion managers ($100k/yr), nursing home attendants ($12.hr) Hotel clerks and maids ($10- $12/hr) Solar panel assemblers ($17/hr subsidized)
Whooo Hoooo!
But by early next year, job growth will likely come to a standstill, says economist Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, expects such a stalling to occur in the second quarter.
Ohhhhh no. Damn you Trump!!
Let me posit a hypothetical: Feds have not “declared” recession yet even though all Econ 101 indicators show we are in it. And if they do not declare it, it does not exist – by definition. Now here comes red wave (maybe, if they can beat the steal, a big maybe). In January new congress is sworn in. In Q2 feds declare recession and blame it on the GOP because it happened on their watch. And they ride that all the way to 2024. This ain’t rhetoric, this is propaganda and doublespeak.
All the leading economists and money men are saying it’s already a recession, jpa.
Let Pedo Joe’s handlers swim against the current if they want.
BN, you are confusing reality with propaganda. Nobody listens to logic and reason and science anymore – it is all about what the recent WH mouthpiece tells you through an MSM/Big Tech megaphone. And as far as they are concerned, we are not in a recession. Recession will be when they say it is, and that will be after (and if) GOP takes the house (my hypothetical). Who are you to say otherwise? Factsd are for little people, pft…
Rhetoric or reality? They told you ER will be overwhelmed as a result of COVID, no? Just wait, they will activate those refrigerated warehouses yet because everything is going according to plan – One Minnesota!
An endless cycle of grief: Surge in shootings taking toll on ER staff in Minneapolis
Meanwhile, east of the Saint Croix River, the NY Times has noticed that the GOP may pick up enough seats in the Wisconsin legislature to have a veto-proof super majority.
WI GOP leaders say that if this happens they will reintroduce & pass every bill that Governor Tony Evers has vetoed in the last four years.
Was there any legislation that would actually help anyone, UMMP? Or was it just a pile of sharp sticks sent to poke your reprobate Governor in the eye?
Not that I’m opposed to that. Just wondering.
*shrugs* I live less than a mile from Minnesota. Wisconsin has more home rule than MN. What goes on in Madison and Milwaukee doesn’t affect me much.
Here is a list of the bills vetoed by Evers. It doesn’t mean that the WI GOP will be in a particular hurry to pass them, it’s not uncommon for legislators to vote for bills expecting or hoping that they will be vetoed.
https://www.wpr.org/gov-tony-evers-vetoed-these-bills-they-could-be-reconsidered-if-tim-michels-elected-governor