One week later

 As things were happening last week, I wrote a post below that is likely wrong. We know more now. Two things have become clear this week:

1) The local apparat really, really wants to this story to follow an evil MAGA narrative. Julie Nelson, the anchor on the 10 p.m. news on KARE, made a point to call Boelter's activities "politically motivated" every night this week in the opening of the broadcast. It's an assertion, a mantra, and you should not question it. Boelter's letter, to the extent we understand its content, alters the narrative that's being constructed.

2) There's a barely concealed battle going on between the acting U.S. Attorney, Joe Thompson, and Mary Moriarty, the Soros-backed HennCo prosecutor. Moriarty is in trouble because she's been letting criminals loose in the usual Soros style, but she really, really wants to prosecute Boelter. The feds are taking the lead, as they have in the past, because she's feckless. 

An example of how this dynamic has played out: the previous U.S. Attorney under Biden, Andrew Luger, was the guy who actually did the heavy lifting in prosecuting the massive Feeding Our Future fraud cases, in which politically connected Somalis and their friends stole millions of dollars by claiming to feed millions of meals to kids during COVID. The locals let this go on for years. Luger is a loyal Democrat, but he's of the old-school sort and he wasn't willing to countenance the open corruption of this arrangement. These stories are not openly discussed, because they reflect badly on Walz, Keith Ellison (who took meetings with the criminals) and others within the DFL apparat.

It would be unlikely in the extreme that Walz ever communicated to Boelter except in passing; the boards that Boelter served on were advisory and weren't especially political. Having said that, there were some fairly heavy hitters on the boards, including a longtime DFL power player named Myron Frans, who has been a bigwig at the University of Minnesota and was the guy who ran the state government management office under Walz and his predecessor, Mark Dayton. As far as I know, no one has asked Frans what he thought of Boelter and his role. We'd rather not know, apparently.

I don't believe in conspiracies. Boelter has, from what we know, had an, ahem, interesting career. I'd personally like to know more about his work in Africa and whether the USAID cuts affected what he was doing. He seems to have acquired a lot of weapons and although his financial issues have been discussed, he seemed to have enough money to own a big house in the country and a lot of material possessions. Maybe the answers and statements are incoherent, but at a minimum he's a deeply weird dude. I'd prefer to simply follow the story wherever it leads, but you can see the narrative construction team straining mightily at the moment. From that you can draw your own conclusions.

Gotham on the Mississippi

 This amused me:

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Minneapolis has a “very detached, bourgeois liberal mentality,” according to a New York Post story posted Friday as the city this week approaches the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by police.

O’Hara said he became accustomed to a very Democratic city when he worked in Newark, N.J., but that nothing had prepared him for the “ultra-liberal orthodoxy,” as the Post put it, that he found in Minneapolis. O’Hara was Newark’s public safety director.

“Here it’s very, very ideological and a lot of times it’s like reality and facts can’t get through the filter. It’s a very detached, bourgeois liberal mentality … It’s bizarre," he is quoted as saying to the Post, a tabloid generally considered to be a conservative publication.

Yeah, but you're not supposed to talk about it, Chief O'Hara. I would have thought Commissioner Gordon would have told you that. 

Unsurprisingly, our betters were not amused:

O’Hara’s comments irritated some Minneapolis City Council members. Council President Elliott Payne said progressives in Minneapolis are not a monolith, which he said is hard for some “to wrap your head around, especially for people new to our city’s political ecosystem.”

“Some people come into their politics through a more academic process, others through solidarity, others through lived experience,” Payne said. “No matter how people develop their core values, one should have a deeper understanding of the diverse perspectives of our community before engaging in conversations with New York tabloids.”

Translation - you're not supposed to tell them we're a great herd of independent minds, capisce? 

The irritated members of the Minneapolis City Council are all grifters. They talk about "lived experience" and "solidarity," but that's all a ruse. They get rich from milking the taxpayers and it's a pretty good gig. Devotion to one's rice bowl is a perfectly understandable incentive - the vanguard guards the avant garde and being called bourgeois is an intolerable insult, especially when the audience is likely simps from Staten Island. Why should Payne have to explain his activities to anyone so utterly lacking in nuance? The sniffing is audible.

What remains a mystery is what Donk voters get out of the deal. I have lived in the Twin Cities for more than 30 years and I lived in Chicago before that, and most people in both places recognize that their rulers are scoundrels, but they continually return them to office anyway. I used a Batman reference early on; speaking of cartoonish individuals, Tim Walz and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker are Rocky and Bullwinkle villains, but they win almost by acclimation. And if you try to ask the question in polite circles, you are cast into the outer darkness.

Do you spot the real issue with O'Hara's remarks? The mentality in question isn't detached. It's unhinged. 

Thanks, King!

You may also pull his finger at 50% capacity

 This guy:

Indoor restaurants and bars will stay shut down, but fitness clubs and other venues will reopen under a new plan by Gov. Tim Walz to try to control the spread of COVID-19 and buy time for wide distribution of vaccine against the infectious disease.

But he has a generous offer for those restaurants under his boot:

One concession to the industry was the allowance of outdoor bar and restaurant service at 50% capacity, though that has limited benefit in the heart of Minnesota's winter. Closing time must be 10 p.m., and tables of no more than four people must be kept six feet apart.

Outdoor bar and restaurant service. Beginning on December Fucking 18th. No COVID, but hypothermia. In related news, King Walz is allowing Minnesotans to slide down bannisters at 50% capacity, as long as the bannisters have a razor blade attached on the bottom.

This Masquerade

Our benevolent governor finally pulled the trigger on his latest power grab:

Gov. Tim Walz has issued an executive order mandating mask use for indoor public spaces.

The mandate will take effect early Saturday morning, and requires Minnesotans to wear masks in public indoor gathering areas like stores and restaurants, as well as while using public transportation.

Exemptions are in place for people with medical or mental health conditions that make it "unreasonable for the individual to maintain a face covering."

Children under the age of five are also exempt from the order, though masks are still encouraged for children between the ages of two and five. The order states that "those who are under two years old should never wear a face covering due to the risk of suffocation."

A few thoughts:

• The whole thing is unreasonable. But you knew that.
• We hear incessantly that the "science" says wearing a mask works. But we don't know, really. We're still in the middle of this experience and most of what's proffered as evidence are really assertions. I suspect there are scientists galore who are actually studying these mandates and we'll eventually get the truth about mask efficacy. But we don't have it yet. 
• I don't believe mask mandates are about thought control or whatnot, but I do know the news media are still awfully good at thought control. People are scared to death of COVID and while certain populations have reason to be cautious, most people who actually encounter the virus will not be at serious risk. Wearing a mask will make no real difference either way.
• I struggle with wearing a mask myself, but I doubt my discomfort would constitute a condition that would exempt me from the order. In my mask-wearing experience thus far, my glasses are constantly fogged and I become quite conscious of my breathing, which causes me a significant amount of anxiety. I don't know how my discomfort benefits others, but my social media feed is full of people who believe it does. And you cannot convince them otherwise. And, for that matter, complaining reveals your selfishness.
• You will note, as with all Walz depredations, there is no end date or sunset provision. Walz will require you to modify your behavior for as long as he chooses, whether his requirements are necessary or proper, and he does not need to provide you with a rationale. While I don't imagine he will mandate all Minnesotans wear a ball gag by October, you can't necessarily rule that out.
• I have mentioned it before, but it's worth saying again. When we finally get past all this, the real damage will be to our ability to be neighbors. Fear is corrosive as hell and the notion that your fear justifies the use of force against your neighbors to assuage your fear is poison, flat out. And any mandate is force.

By the way, if the masks don't work, this may be next:

It's for your own good, and we've heard quite enough from you anyway

With all due respect

Given the way the George Floyd Revels essentially ignored all protocols, I would say Tim Walz can take his dials and place them in a location where the sun fails to reach.

Walz Between Church and State

Our overlords say no Church services with more than 10 people, even in a building as huge as the Cathedral. The bishops say "nuts":

The bishops’ decision to contravene a statewide executive order is the first made by U.S. bishops since the coronavirus pandemic began.

But Minnesota’s bishops said the state’s prohibitions on religious gatherings of more than 10 people does not respect the right to the free exercise of religion.

“It is now permissible for an unspecified number of people to go to shopping malls and enter stores, so long as no more than 50 percent of the occupancy capacity is reached. Big-box stores have hundreds of people inside at any one time, and the number of goods that are being handled and distributed in one store by many people—stock staff, customers, cashiers—is astounding. Workers are present for many hours per day, often in close proximity. There is no state mandate that customers wear masks in those malls or stores, wash their hands consistently, or follow any specific cleaning protocol,” the bishops wrote.

“In these circumstances, and given the well-researched protocols that we have proposed (and that are being followed successfully elsewhere in our nation) how can reason require us any longer to keep our faithful from the Eucharist?”

In response, Governor Walz said the following:

It's on. And it needs to be.

Just a reminder

No matter the emergency or the pretext, the moment a government determines that the life and livelihood or any citizen is "non-essential," tyranny has arrived. And tyranny does not cease until it is forced to cease.

Evers says, "Balls to ya, Bob Burns"

There is a price to pay for the various lockdowns. Back in my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, Bob Burns is paying it:

Bob Burns enters his golf shop on a mobility scooter, his dog Hogan padding ahead of him. The door locks behind him. The lights are off. The parking lot is empty. There’s not a soul on the driving range. The police, in fact, have swung by a few times to make sure Burns is complying with Gov. Tony Evers’ order closing non-essential businesses, extended now to May 26.

Normally, April and May are busy months at Bob Burns Golf. People are itching to hit balls on the range, to get their clubs re-gripped, to purchase the newest equipment, to sign up for lessons.

This year, as we all know, is not normal. Burns owns a stand-alone driving range, one of thousands of businesses statewide shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic. Golf courses opened Friday and motorized carts are allowed starting Wednesday, but driving ranges must remain closed.

His competitors are also open:

Scheels, a huge sporting goods store in Appleton, is open. So are Menards and Walmart and Costco, all of which sell golf equipment.

But the police are checking the doors at Bob Burns Golf, just in case a golfer or two has sneaked onto the range to hit a few balls, not only socially distanced but practically isolated.

“Why pick on me?” Burns says, with more incredulity than anger in his voice. “Who does more for this community and golf? Why pick on me?”

There's more, lots more, at the link, including what Bob Burns has done for golf, in Appleton and beyond. Tony Evers doesn't care about any of that.

Tim Walz could decide to take a different path than Tony Evers. He will announce his decision shortly. There are businesses in Minnesota like the one Bob Burns runs in Wisconsin that will be out of business soon.

One request

Sure, stay at home, social distance, all that.  But don't be a fucking Stasi about it, mkay? Talk to your neighbors, don't rat them out. If we're going to have a world worth living in once this is over, and it will be over, we are going to have to be decent to one another and calling Tim Walz's hotline is not how you do it.

That is all.

Good news, bad news

The good news? After 14 days my daughter, recently returned from Spain, is out of quarantine with no sign of coronavirus.

The bad news? The state is shut down.

For the record, here is a county-by-county map of cases in Minnesota:

Metro? Yes. Western Minnesota? Not so much

Here's Wisconsin, which is operating under similar, if slightly more strict clampdown rules:

Stay on Highway 8 and you're good

Only 3 counties have a real problem at the moment -- Milwaukee, Dane, and to a much lesser extent Waukesha.

How about our neighbors in Iowa? They aren't currently doing a clampdown.

Not so good in Iowa City and Des Moines, but otherwise?

Then consider our friends in Illinois, now under a far more draconian clampdown thanks to their governor:

Lotta clear spaces here, especially in the southeast

So my question is this -- why are governors imposing one-size-fits-all solutions on their states? I'm assuming we can still ask the question for now in this forum -- not too many blue-check thought police read this feature. When this is all over, I will be curious to see if some of these counties are still free of the virus. If you believe the narrative, a plague is spreading across the land and it's everywhere. And perhaps it is. But I wonder, just a little bit.

Where are we?

No facts presented in this feature -- let's face it, in 2018 politics, facts are difficult to get. Opinions are everywhere, though. Here are mine:

• I suspect the long knives will be out for Keith Ellison after this election. I've never thought he could win statewide office and his campaign for attorney general has demonstrated that nicely. The larger question is whether or not he'll hurt the other DFL candidates. Doug Wardlow could be a very useful fellow in the AG's office.
• While it would be wonderful if Jeff Johnson could pull of the upset and win the governor's race, my guess is he falls short. Tim Walz is not a particularly strong candidate and nothing about him suggests he'll be any good at being a governor, but the DFL machine in the metro will likely be enough to get him elected. 
• You know what would give us a better Minnesota? The demise of Alliance for a Better Minnesota, that's what. Their latest attack ad, in which they exploit a handicapped young man, is beyond the pale. Every ad they run is filled with lies and yet somehow KSTP's "Truth Test" and WCCO's "Reality Check" never get around to vetting them. Wonder why that is? No, you don't, because you know the reason why already.
• Lately some Wisconsin ads have been airing here. The Dem candidate for governor, Tony Evers, has the personality of lint and is frankly creepy, but he's running neck and neck with two-term Scott Walker, one of the most consequential politicians of his generation. I know that people get fatigued with politicians over time, but it's astonishing to me that Evers is even close.
• Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, and Tammy Baldwin are all up for election. They are all dismal, but all are likely to return to Washington. There's a chance that Karin Housley might beat Smith, who has never won a statewide election, but I'm not confident that Housley will get there.
• We may flip four Congressional seats in Minnesota. It's almost certain that Pete Stauber is going to Washington in the 8th, and it's quite possible that Jim Hagedorn is finally going to get elected in the 1st. But it's also looking likely that Erik Paulsen is going down in the 3rd, and Jason Lewis will be fortunate if he is reelected in the 2nd. I knew Paulsen a little bit when we worked together at Target and he's a good guy, but he's run a poor campaign against Dean Phillips, who has more money than King Canute and came up with a good shtick. Lewis went to Washington and actually did some useful things, but his district is turning left and the odious Angie Craig has an excellent chance to beat Lewis. If Lewis loses, we'll miss him more than most people realize.

What do you think?

Ellison in the spotlight

Keith Ellison may be about to get Torricellied:

“I was listening to my podcast and he walked in, he said, ‘I need you to take the trash out.’ And I kept, I was on my stomach, I heard him and I … shook my head [in acknowledgement]. And he looked at me [and] goes, ‘Hey! You f—— hear me?’ And then he looked at me, he goes, ‘B—-, get the f— out of my house!’ and he started trying to drag me off the bed. That’s when I put my camera on to video him,” Monahan said.

That's Karen Monahan, the former girlfriend of Ellison, looking right at the camera. And there's more:

The two broke up, but Monahan claims they met before he announced his attorney general run in June. He was allegedly concerned she would go public about the incident that she says happened in 2016.

“At this point in time, I’m grounded and I know who I am. I have healed for a year and a half. I looked straight at him, I said, ‘I never ruined your career, I didn’t choose to do the things you did, I didn’t choose for you to drag me off the bed, call me a b—-, tell me you hate me. I didn’t choose that,'” Monahan said.

She has chosen to come forward and tell her story, and the DFL apparat is nervous:

With just 82 days left until the November election, DFL party leaders say they are still looking for answers from their candidate.

“The DFL party takes any allegation of domestic abuse seriously. It’s a fluid situation, it’s still developing,” said Minnesota DFL party chair Ken Martin. “We believe that Keith Ellison should answer the questions that have been posed to him, and he should address those questions head on.”

It's worth remembering there are earlier allegations against Ellison from another woman. Could a third woman be out there? If so, that would be the end of him.

The DFL has held the AG's office for over 50 years. Ellison could lose the election and damage the entire ticket. Do you think Tim Walz wants to spend his time talking about Ellison? How about Tina Smith? Watch what happens at the DFL central committee meeting this weekend.

The obligatory recap

So what happened yesterday? A few thoughts:

• I was surprised Jeff Johnson won, but in retrospect I should have seen his victory over Tim Pawlenty coming a mile away. Johnson was the GOP nominee in 2014, so he's hardly a newcomer. Pawlenty had a lot of money behind him, but little rationale behind his campaign. In important respects, the dynamic was the same as what happened to Tommy Thompson when he lost to Tammy Baldwin in the senate race in Wisconsin in 2012; the brand name is rarely enough and the politician with the name still has to make the sale. The business about Pawlenty's dissing of Trump was a factor, but Pawlenty's evident disdain in dealing with the state party (he blew off the nominating process and the convention) was far more important. Johnson has been campaigning hard all year. The party activists were out in force and they voted for Johnson. Other than an ad attacking Johnson, Pawlenty was barely visible. Pawlenty thought he was invincible. Guess not.
• On the DFL side, Tim Walz will be hard to beat. He has a dozen years of experience pretending to be a moderate and he'll tack to the center now that he has the DFL nomination, but operationally he's no different than Erin Murphy. Johnson's task will be to demonstrate that Walz is a phony. As for Lori Swanson, good riddance. We can also hope that Mike Hatch, the éminence grise behind Swanson, is finally gone as well.
• I wonder how Alliance for a Better Minnesota is going to play things now. They were clearly planning to carpet-bomb T-Paw, but he's gone. Let's see what the big brains do.
• Keith Ellison is a dumpster fire, but he won the Attorney General's race easily. Can he make the sale statewide? I suspect Doug Wardlow, the GOP nominee, will get some help. Ellison is a deeply corrupt individual and the notion that he should be attorney general is preposterous, but those three letters after his name carry a lot of weight.
• Ilhan Omar is a fraud, too, but she's almost certainly going to Congress. The good news is she'll be a nonentity backbencher. Betty McCollum will save a seat for her.

Game on!

One week out

Primaries are next week in Minnesota. I haven't written about them yet. Probably should. Quick synopsis, starting with the governor's race:

Governor: I'm not particularly impressed with any of the DFL candidates, but it may not matter because this election is shaping up as a test of the overall strength of the DFL machine and its support system, especially Education Minnesota and the Alliance for a Better Minnesota. If you've been watching the ads on television, most of the portside messaging is attacking Tim Pawlenty, who apparently was governor a long time ago, maybe succeeding Karl Rolvaag, but one can't be sure. I would guess Tim Walz will prevail, but there's very little to recommend him. He has spent six terms in Washington as a backbencher, but he's less frightening than Betty McCollum, so he has the institutional support. Lori Swanson must be gaining, because there was a big hit piece in the Intercept about her. This is largely being ignored in the local media, of course, but I suspect Walz will make use of it in the next week. The earlier attacks on Swanson's running mate, crusty old Rick Nolan, were designed to help the endorsed DFL candidates, Erin Murphy and Erin Maye Quade, who appear to be running a distant third, despite (or perhaps because of) the DFL endorsement. The Erins are a little loony, frankly, and while they carry the DFL endorsement, the party apparat would prefer Walz or Swanson sotto voce, because they (theoretically) wouldn't get destroyed on the Iron Range. The best news about this lineup is Walz giving up his congressional seat, which should be good pickup possibility for the Republicans in November. Advantage: Walz, for no particular reason.

On the Republican side, we have Jeff Johnson, who I personally like quite a lot, against the aforementioned Pawlenty. Pawlenty is probably going to win, but Johnson, who got chloroformed by Mark Dayton in the 2014 election, is giving it a go despite an obvious lack of resources. Pawlenty wasn't a terrible governor, but I'm not sure he deserves another go. Either of these two fellows would be a big improvement over Mark Dayton or the collection of nasties on the other side, but I'm not sure either has what it takes to win an election when ABM and the teacher's union are done with them. Johnson is trying to get nastier, but I'm not sure he's going to be tough enough to stand up to the onslaught. If Pawlenty wins, he'll have all the money he needs, but he'll have a muddled message and an indifferent record to defend, making him the de facto embattled incumbent. Pawlenty barely won in 2006 over the sputtering Mike Hatch, who didn't have the trained assassins of ABM working for him. If Johnson prevails, I'm guessing the big money folks behind T-Paw will take their bankrolls and go home. Advantage: Pawlenty.

Next: Attorney General.

Calliope -- the Race for Governor

We're back from celebrating graduation ceremonies for Benster and Fearless Maria. These were joyful events and we're all proud of their accomplishments. It was also good to get away from writing about politics for a few days.

As we left town for Benster's graduation, the nominating conventions for the DFL and the Republicans took place. As it happens, a party endorsement doesn't mean much these days, as we're clearly headed for primaries in most races. And it's going to be a circus. I'm going to run the races down, but it's going to take multiple posts. We'll start with the governor's race:

Governor: On the Republican side, no surprises. Jeff Johnson, who is a very nice man, won the endorsement over what turned out to be token opposition. His actual opponent is former governor Tim Pawlenty, who is back in the game after making his pile in the lobbying biz. No one in the party really likes Pawlenty, but he's won statewide office twice, a claim no other active Republican can make, and he's got more financial backing than King Canute. I've met Jeff Johnson and, as I said, he's a very nice man. But Mark Dayton kicked his butt in 2014 and there's no evidence Johnson is any more formidable now than he was four years ago. Advantage: Tim Pawlenty.

Meanwhile, the DFL race is going to be entertaining as hell. Somehow Tim Walz, who had all the advantages going in, lost the endorsement to Erin Murphy, a gun grabbing state rep who was Majority Leader of the House at one point. She picked another gun-grabbing Erin, the publicity-hungry state rep Erin Maye Quade, as her running mate. Meanwhile, Walz, who gave up his seat in Congress to run for governor, finds himself in a tough spot, because the outstate support he was counting on may not be forthcoming, since he had to go all-in with the gun grabbers to seek the nomination. And to make it even more amusing, Attorney General Lori Swanson threw her hat into the ring after she lost her AG endorsement to something called Matt Pelikan. Swanson has the charisma of lint, but she's a cagey operator and made a smart pick for a running mate in Rick Nolan, the crusty old congressman who is retiring from CD-8. There's a significant advantage in having the endorsement for Murphy/Quade, but they will be a hard sell anywhere outside of the 494/694 loop. From what I can tell, Walz is screwed -- he's not going to get enough votes from the activists to get through. If the DFL were smart, they'd probably pick Swanson, but I'm guessing they'll be erring with the Erins. Advantage: Erin Murphy.

I expect we'll be hearing a lot about guns in the general election. The gun grabbers have been highly visible in the run-up to the election, but there are a lot of Second Amendment stalwarts in this state, as former DFL candidates such as Mike Hatch discovered to their pain. I also expect we'll hear a lot about the bizarre and petulant performance of outgoing governor Mark Dayton in the election. Dayton is not on the ballot, but his crazytown performance in office over the last two years is going to be a problem for the DFL, especially outside the 494/694 loop. There will be significant appetite not to reward the DFL for their perfidy, but Pawlenty has a lot of baggage. It's going to get interesting, and certainly it's going to be expensive.

Walz comes tumbling down

Can you contain your excitement?

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz said Monday he is running for governor in 2018.

Walz said in a phone interview that he brings a "passion for Minnesota" and a "proven ability to get things done working with other folks."

A Mankato DFLer representing the First Congressional District, Walz was elected in 2006. DFL powerbrokers have been hoping Walz would run, given his ability to garner votes in greater Minnesota. Walz has been re-elected in tough Democratic years like 2010 but barely squeaked by in 2016 despite facing weak opposition. Walz ran ahead of DFL presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost the district by 15 points. 

From what I can tell, Walz hasn't proven he can win votes anywhere but Mankato and Rochester. That's a start, but he's going to be a tough sell in the metro. Given what happened in 2016, there was a good chance he was going down in the next election cycle in his congressional district, so he might as well give it a go for governor, especially given the announced competition:

He joins State Auditor Rebecca Otto, Rep. Erin Murphy and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman in the DFL race. Others considering a run are U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, Rep. Paul Thissen and Attorney General Lori Swanson. 

If you can find a compelling candidate out of that gaggle, let Ken Martin know.