Speaking Of Shots In The Dark: Welcome To the New Design!
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Heard On Social Media, 1938
SCENE: A group of people are sitting in a cafe in south Minneapolis. Harland BERG and a few other people sit around tables, absently drinking coffee and reading the Minneapolis Star when Oscar KJEDELIG walks into the room. KJEDELIG: We need to prevent Germans from caucusing at the Farmer-Labor Party caucuses next week. BERG: Er…Germans? KJEDELIG: …
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Land Of 10,000 Money Pits
MInnesota’s motor vehicle licenseing and registration system – MNLARS – is years behind schedule, cost nearly 50 million dollars to unsuccessfully build… …and will need nearly that much to get working. Maybe: The system dubbed MNLARS was already years behind schedule and nearly twice its original $48 million budget when it launched this summer. But…
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We’ve Done So Much Winning, We’re Tired Of It
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: The US unemployment rate is the lowest in 45 years. The US Black unemployment rate is the lowest ever. Trump has invigorated the “animal spirits” to turn around the economy. America is headed in the right direction. Therefore . . . Obama is getting back into politics. You didn’t…
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Let’s Call It A “Super Bowl Break”
Things sort of caught up with me this week: it’s been crushingly busy. Posting will be light to nonexistent today, and maybe tomorrow. But I’ll be back. Oh, yes, I will.
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Dirty Jobs
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Note to St. Paul city government: when people say St. Paul should be a Sanctuary City for Snowflakes, they mean a safe space for students at Macalester College where they will not be disturbed by unfamiliar thoughts, not actual, you know, snowflakes. I was out of town for a…
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Jihad?
There’s been a plea in re the stabbling at the Mall of America back in November: Mahad Abdiaziz Abdiraham pleaded guilty last week to two counts of first-degree assault in connection with the Nov. 12 knife attack that injured two brothers in a dressing room at the mall’s Macy’s store. The brothers, ages 19 and…
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I Suppose It’s Better Than “Beaten-Down Passive-Aggressive Lemmings”
The media tells us we’ll l be hearing a lot of the motto “Bold North“: From billboards to merchandise to the utterances of the international media that has descended on the Twin Cities, “Bold North,” the tagline of Super Bowl LII, will be everywhere. And, yeah, that’s us: Minnesota. We’re the Bold North. Not the…
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Attention, Visitors To The Twin Cities
Welcome to Minnesota. It gets cold here. We’re kind of famous for it. Oh, the weather this week? This isn’t cold. This is pretty middle of the road for the middle of winter. Not especially notable. “Boston Strong” my ass. Suck it up, buttercups. Only a week to go. Do a polar plunge.
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Karla Bigham Nailed Down The Oldies Radio And Bored Cable Surfer Vote
That noted political analysts Bette Miller and Chelsea “The Drearily Unfunny Comic” Handker sounded off on the Senate District 56 special election on Twitter yesterday: The funny part? Endorsements from hothouse flower/has-been celebs really matter to Democrats. Remember this when some DFLer sniffs down their nose about the influence of Fox News.
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Shades Of Things Past
2013: “The IRS Scandal is just fake news!” 2018: The IRS apologizes for turning its weaponized power on the Tea Party. Submitted without comment. For now.
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A Good Guy With A Gun – So Far
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Concealed carry permit holder shoots a man dead, to stop him from beating a liquor store employee to death. I love a story with a happy ending. Joe Doakes We’ll see how this shakes out – I don’t think John Choi wants Ramco residents feeling too empowered. But so…
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Culture Police Blotter
While smoking the happy weed is the latest libertarian distraction, the term “Marijuana” is suddenly on the outs: Today “cannabis” and “marijuana” are terms used more or less interchangeably in the industry, but a vocal contingent prefers the less historically fraught “cannabis”. At a time of intense interest in past injustices, some say “marijuana” is…
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Cognitive Assonance
When Donald Trump was elected, Big Thinkers with Bylines predicted that he – and the BREXIT movement often associated with him and his rise – would gut US markets. Apparently not. They also said that his intransigence would make American foreign policy even more fraught than it had been. I’n not exactly “tired of winning”…
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Eternal Opposite Day
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: A child’s job is to rebel against societal rules, customs and norms. A parent’s job is to enforce the rules, customs and norms so the child has something to rebel against. Eventually, we expect the child to grow up and begin to enforce the rules, customs and norms on…
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Ordnance
SCENE: Waikiki, January, 2019. Mitch BERG is taking a rare vacation. Improbably, while standing at the hotel desk, he notices that Avery LIBRELLE has checked into the hotel just ahead of him. Worse, BERG notices LIBRELLE has just noticed him, and his about to strike up one of LIBRELLE’s usual “conversations”… …when a text message…
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If Doug Baker’s Doing It…
A different friend of the blog writes: Damn your lying eyes. The Trump Tax Cut was only for the rich. Don’t believe anything else. It’s almost like people and companies do know how to use their money better than government does.
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Chris Coleman Whistles Past The Clogged Street
A friend of the blog writes As I was helping my Congolese neighbor out of the alley this morning, we talked more about the roads in DRC versus here. He told me that being buried in snow here is not as bad as being buried in mud there because at least you can dig out…
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State Of The World
Sometimes, no matter what “side” of American politics one is on, it can seem like there is no good news to be had. It’s most prevalent among people on the left, these days, of course – but even conservatives can fall prey to the idea that it’s never been worse. And with that in mind,…
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Just Take My Money
Seriously. Do it. Now.
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Forget March Madness. We’ve Got February Fanaticism.
With the mathematical elimination of the Chicago Bears for the NFL playoff scene back in early September, and Carson Wentz’s injury leaving him out of the Philadelphia Eagles lineup at the Super Bowl, I officially have exactly the same reason to care about the Super Bowl that I always do; none whatsoever. And try as…
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Dave’s Not Here
Norway votes to follow Portugal in decriminalizing drug use. A key factoid in this decision; it seems to have worked in Portugal – where “worked” is “reduced not only the harmful effects of the Drug War, but actually led indirectly to lower drug use overall”, provided you believe the numbers: A 2014 report from Transform Drug…
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Training For Life In Any Democrat-Run City
There was a bit of a blizzard in the Twin Cities on Monday night. Which is apparently a brand new thing to Saint Paul schools: St. Paul schoolchildren were still on buses or remained at a handful of public schools at 9 p.m. Monday, a district spokesperson said. Toya Stewart Downey did not say how many…
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Cultural Depropriation
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right. Joe Doakes Maybe one of the most essential reads on sociology you will encounter this year, .
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“You Guys Are Lucky I Don’t Know How To Build A Bomb”
I haven’t talked much about the case of Tnuza Hassan, the woman accused of setting fires at Saint Kate’s last week. If the allegations in the press are true, she couldn’t have been more clear about her motives if she’d hired a Madison Avenue ad firm: Tnuza J. Hassan, of Minneapolis, allegedly told police that…
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End Up Like A Dog That’s Been Beat Too Much
As a Republican for over 30 years, I’m sometimes guilty of succumbing to the idea that the GOP in Saint Paul and DC are “The Stupid Party”. It’s learned behavior; they’ve fulfilled the prophecy all too often. There are times that the GOP, at least in legislative bodies, feels like the Minnesota Vikings; great in…
Got any book recommendations?