The Golden Age Begins Now

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve never made bones about the fact I’ve been a Trump skeptic.  Eight years ago I voted for Scott Walker, and thought that Trump’s term would be a disaster, hopefully mitigated by a good SCOTUS pick.   I was wrong – mostlly, anyway.  His behavior in 2020 cost the GOP the Senate, and he had an uncanny habit of endorsing bad candidates.  But I held my nose and voted for him.

There was no holding my nose this time – although I make no bones about the fact that I’d really like to see more of the Focused Donald than the Twitter Donald. 

Yesterday was a good start.

Itwas the first inauguration I watched live since Jimmy Carter.  But I picked a good one.

Trump’s speech was the best I’ve seen him give. 

It clocked in at 29 minutes – and didn’t include (many of) the rhetorical tangents that make so many of this speeches feel like rhetorical slalom runs. 

It was by turns pugnacious and intensely optimistic.   I was glad I had a chance to see it.  I think it recapped the tone of his campaign – especially since the first assassination attempt – and laid out the agenda far more clearly than he ever did in his first time.  It was…bracing. 

Side issue – my father, a speech teacher, used to say that nobody in the modern world embodied classical oratory like Southern Baptist ministers.

Rev. Lorenzo Sprewell certainly made the case:

It was a genuine wonder and joy to behold. 

And as someone who grew up seeing “dead air” as the enemy, and believes taped backing tracks are a plague on society, Carrie Underwood did one of the most amazing things a performer can do – took a compete technical clusterf**k and. turned it into a triumph:

Let the metaphors fly. 

One Day On The Capitol Mall

Posted on by
Reply

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.

As Bad As Minnesota Has Gotten…

Posted on by
Reply

…we’ve seen no governnent-sanctioned display quite as bizarre at this address to the New York State Drag Queen Regulation Board.

Just kidding.  It’s…

…well, the tweet explains it:

On the other hand, had the DFL held the majority in the House this session, this would likely have been not only the State of the State, but how Senate votes were tabulated .

Past Is Prorogue

Posted on by
1

This week appears likely to bring a decision from the Minnesota Supreme Court on the issue of the quorum in the Minnesota House. 

There’ve been two interesting points of view on the subject.

U of M Law Professor Ilan Wurman wrote an op-ed in the Strib. Here’s the conclusion

Walz and the Democrats have, in short, effectively prorogued the Legislature, invoking one of the royal prerogative powers of King George III against which the American revolutionaries rebelled. For four years, Democrats have been accusing Republicans of attempting to thwart democracy. But who is the real threat?”

…but the whole thing is worth a read, and I urge you to do so.

And Professor Dave Schultz of Hamline University – who has replaced Larry Jacobs as the most. ubiquitously quoted person in Twin Cities media – points out that separation of powers means, y’know, separating powers:

In the disputes now between the Democrats and Republicans fighting over control of the House, the Minnesota Supreme Court should decide not to decide. While in the short term it might be expedient for the court to resolve the legal issues here, it sets a horrible precedent. It sets precedent for the court to intervene in future disputes in the Legislature. If today it is about quorum, tomorrow about committee structures or the selection of officers.

Additionally, were the court to intervene it would take the legislators off the hook to be responsible to themselves and the voters for their own behavior. Instead of working it out themselves, they would go to court to resolve their disputes. Letting the court resolve the disputes now only weakens the Legislature, while giving the court undue influence over the legislative process.

Left to their own, the House Democrats and Republicans will be forced to find a solution. Failure to do so could mean a government shutdown and punishment at the next election for their bad behavior. We elected them to do their job, not the Minnesota Supreme Court. This is what our state constitutional framers intended.

 

One thing has become obvious – the DFL’s position has nothing to do with the election litigation in House District 54A, or even 40B.  Its about stonewalling a GOP Speaker and committee chairs under any circumstances.  I’m presuming it’s to continue concealing the skeletons in the DFL’s closet. 

Day 1, Part 2

Posted on by
4

The last time I watched a Presidential inauguration live on TV was when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated.  I was in junior high, and they wheeled a TV into our history classroom. 

I missed Reagan’s (twice), Bush I, Clinton (twice), Dubya (twice), Trump’s first, and Obama (all three times). 

I may break my streak today.   Partly to see history.  Partly because I’ve become an accidental, skeptical Trump supporter.  Partly because, let’s be honest, I suspect some lefty is going to try something stupid.

And I don’t mean just this guy:

Speaking of danger:  remember when George W Bush took office?   And the departing Clinton staffers, in a fit of juvenility, pried the “W” keys off of all the computer keyboards in the west wing?

Biden’s pardons, and some of his other efforts to stymie Trump from the great political beyond, are like that – only actually damaging, as opposed to juvenile and spiteful.

 

So much so that even the elder statesman of “Never-Trump” is sounding off:

Side note:  “Incandescently stupid” is going into my quick-reference lexicon.

Pre-Emptive

Posted on by
11

Biden, after promising to only pardon people who’d been convicted of something, and promptly pardoning his son not only for the allegations we knew about  but for anything else that happened in a years-long window, has issued pardons for a bunch of people whose actions we were told were completley above board:

As loathsome as Fauci was and remains, I’d have thought his actions were covered by qualfied immunity. 

Milley, on the other hand?  Divulging US military plans to foreign adversaries is, I’m  told, frowned upon in the military. 

So I guess we see whose side Biden was actually on…

Redux

Posted on by
2

So – AlphaNews and Liz Collin released Minneapolis has Fallen a little over a year ago.

One of the signal scenes in the movie happened when Assistant Chief Blackwell testified that the “Maximal Restraint Technique” – which a series of current and former MPD officers testified was part of MPD traininig, and which Chauvin’s mother pointed out in her son’s MPD training manual – was not part of MPD training.

Blackwell is suing Collin and Alpha over this claim. 

To wit:

I’m more against police brutality than most conservatives – but to a non-lawyer, it seems like the evidence pointing toward a new trial is approaching critical mass.

Yesterday At The Minnesota Supreme Court

Posted on by
5

SCENE:  The Minnesota Supreme Court.  The court, various court staff, and the plaintiff and respondent attorneys, are arguing the merits of the election-related business in front of them. Also present are the GOP’s attorney Ryan WILSON, and the DFL’s counsel,LEAKY THE BEAGLE. 

CHIEF JUSTICE HUDSON:  OK, counsel for the defense.  Your statement. 

WILSON:   Our case is clear and consistent, your honors. The Minnesota State Constitution is clear that:

  • Quorum is a majority of current members.   Given the overturning of the District 40B election, that means there were 133 members on January 14, the statutory date for convening the legislature.  That means a quorum is 67.
  • Furthermore, your honors, as the Constitution clearly gives the Legislature the duty to run its own affairs, the attempts by Secretary Simon, Governor Walz and, for that matter, any hypothetical attempt by the Supreme Court would be a violation of the separation of powers prescribed in both the US and Minnesota constitutions.

We therefore request the court dismiss this frivolous and anti-democratic claim with prejudice.

Thank you.

HUDSON : Thank you, Mr. Wilson.  Now, Mr…Beagel?

LEAKY THE BEAGLE :  (Slowly, ostentatiously waddles to the lectern).  (Pauses).   (Starts speaking in an atrocious German accent). Ladies und Chentelmenn of ze Zupreme Court…

JUSTICE THIESSEN:  I’m sorry to interrupt – whats with the accent?

LEAKY THE BEAGLE:  Nobody rrrrillly knowsss.  May it pleece ze court…

(Slowly, with all pretentious dramatic intent, lays out seven photographs)

LEAKY THE BEAGLE:  Nice houses zat you have.   It’d be a schame if there were to get…(pauses for sininster effect)…mostly peacefully protested. 

(There is silence). 

HUDSON:   We’ll – uh – take it under advisement.

LEAKY THE BEAGLE:  Zat’s rrrrright.  You vill.

And SCENE

 

 

The Bullets We Dodged

Posted on by
2

Berg’s Seventh Law has been getting a workout this week.

For starters – as I pointed out all through the run-up to the election – the Democrats and DFL jabbered relentlessly about voting to “save democracy”, while promising to gut free speech, freedom of conscience, the right to self-defense, privacy and separation of powers.

And perhaps it’s good news for 2026 that they seem to have learned nothing:

In the meantime, notwithstanding the 16 years of babbling about “impending waves of right-wing violence”, it is inevitably the left that leans into it:

I’ve been a Trump skeptic all along.  But if I’d known that Trump’s win eight years ago were going to bring out Big Left’s true inner nature this hard, I might have opened my mind up a little earlier. 

The Election Denier

Posted on by
4

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:

Restraint Called For

Posted on by
1

The dispute over Minnesota’s convoluted election issues has moved to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

It’s easy – and who knows, maybe correct – to say “they’re all DFL appointees, so it’s a foregone conclusion”.

It’s certainly easy – and, sometimes, justified – to feel cynical. 

But if the courts rule according to the MN Constitution, the conclusions should be pretty simple:

  • The Judicial Branch shouldn’t interfere in the Legislature’s enumerated powers.
  • The Governor violated the clear language of the law in scheduling the special elections in HD40B (and maybe the weirdly restrictive time frame of the SD60 special election, if you asked me, but nobody did).

Just saying – keep your fingers crossed. 

Hey, it’s only the legitimacy of the MSC and the integrity of the Minnesota Constitution at stake.

In Summary

Posted on by
7

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.

Bring Your Popcorn

Posted on by
8

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. 

 

A First

Posted on by
2

Today, for the first time in history, I can say “I’m looking forward to watching the first day of the new Legislative session”.   As in, watching the livestream to see the fireworks or even better lack of them as the DFL takes their toys and flees. 

Since Melissa Hortmans stunts…

…appear to be landing like the concept of “Vice President Walz”, and she doesn’t dare back down now, I have to figure she’s gotta find some way to double down and to avoid losing face.

And I have a hunch “losing face” is the most charitable interpretation; I have a hunch the DFL’s panic has more to do with “GOP control of committees and the power to hold public hearings when they start investigating DFL fraud” than quora. 

Anyway – I’ll be tuning in.

Courting Collapse

Posted on by
3

A bit of trivia, here. 

In 2003, when the Legislature passed “Shall Issue” reform, the law required the state to honor carry permits in all state and municipal government buildings. 

But there was one big exception.

The Minnesota Judicial Branch chimed in and said, in effect, that the Legislature couldn’t tell the Judicial Branch how to run its facilities.  It was part of the separation of powers in state, as well as federal, government. 

And so being caught with a permitted firearm in a building with a courtroom or Judicial Branch facility, no matter how deviously concealed, can still get you rung up for a felony in Minnesota. 

Because Judicial Branch.

One of the predicates for the state’s current constitutional crisis is the contested election in House District 54A between Republican Aaron Paul and DFL incumbent Brad Tabke.  Tabke won the initial round of voting by a 14 vote margin – but 20 ballots were “inadvertently” destroyed, and 30 more were duplicates, and you know f****ng well who those “mistakes” benefitted.

Now, Tabke was one of the DFL legislators “sworn in” at the covert “ceremony” at the History Center over the weekend. Which is getting a bit ahead of Judge Perzel.

And Aaron Paul knows it:

This is certainly a challenge to the authority of the Judicial Branch.

Here’s hoping Judge Perzell knows it as well as the rest of us do. 

This Is Today’s DFL

Posted on by
8

Retired judge. 

Illegal “swearing in” (according to statute)

At the MN History Center – after hours.   So somehow they got into a closed building to have an extralegal ceremony with an inactive judge, former SCOM DFL steno Kevin Burke. 

And not a single DFLer has had the integrity to publicly go “uhhhh, let’s think about this, here…”

Half this state is governed by spoiled junior high kids with delusions of tyranny.

Coup

Posted on by
3

WCCO-TV “political reporter” Caroline Cummings appears to be setting up to replace Esme Murphy one day. 

Her reporting on the constitutional crisis brewing tomorrow might be a little more curious than your typical Esme Murphy tongue-bath for Democrats.

But not by much.

Of course, Steve Simon’s opinion is about as useful as being able to tie a cherry stem with h is tongue – Minnesota statute is modestly clear about what the actual quorum is.

When your Democrat friends ask what the GOP thinks their legal leg to stand on is, send them this:

Or, in the words of Minnesota’s last good SOS:

And the constitutions of both Minnesota and the United States are pretty clear about the notion of separation of powers. The executive branch doesn’t control the legislative branch.

And I have a hunch the DFL knows it.

So – why is the DFL working so hard to trash the separation of powers?

I’ll drop a theory tomorrow morning. 

The GOP is showing up.

Le’ts see if the DFL can read the room.

UPDATE:  So, I started writing this piece on Saturday.

On Sunday, the DFL answered my final question:

 

No, they can not. 

The party that two months ago claimed “January 6” – a riot by a bunch of unelected civilians – was a threat to democracy.  Today, it’s an actual party, trying to act in its official capacity.

For my money, that’s a lot worse.

Your Fault

Posted on by
5

I have this annoying tendency to presume that people aren’t generallly trying to be as*holes.

So when this LA firefighter says (at :14) that she “might not be able to carry someone’s husband out of a fire” because he “got himself into the wrong place…”

…I’m going to presume she means someone in the middle of an actual pool of flame might be out of luck.

Now, the whole idea that people want someone who looks like they do to save them?  

(Sound of Mitch stifling an uncharitable juvenile snark)

And with that I have no more to say…

The One-Two Punch

Posted on by
1

Ken Martin is running for DNC Chair.

And on the surface, it’d appear that this tweet is peak irony:

But wait. 

As you read the thread, it becomes clear that it’s really more a matter of the Democrat leadership class being oblivious to the results of their own policies. 

Place Your Bets

Posted on by
12

Along with Ken Martin, the current candidates for chair of the Democrat National Committee are:

  • Ben Wikler,  chair of the Wisconsin Democrat Party
  • Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland 
  • Marianne Williamson, self-help loonie.
  • Robert Houton, non-profiteer and sorta Senate candidate.
  • Nate Snyder, bureaucrat
  • James Skoufis, a York State senator.
  • Jason Paul, of the (checks notes) Newton, Massachusetts Democratic City Committee.

And I have to think one of those last seven…

…had to have commissioned putting this tweet out. Maybe under a fake Tim Walz account?

It seems improbable.

But this seems to be a bit of a…tactical error on Martin’s part.

I Was Reliably Informed…

Posted on by
5

…that Donald Trump was literally Adolf Hitler.

Why is Barack “The Lightworker” Obama have a seemingly civil, even amiable, discussion with Adolf Hitler’s reincarnation…

…rather than trying to eliminate, literally, Adolf Hitler?

(To be fair, it looks like Giggles and Mr. Nannynoodler would like to…)