Here come the jesters, one, two, three......

I'm tempted to invoke a third hour on today's edition of the Northern Alliance Radio Network given the heavy news week we just endured. But, to be honest, I don't have nearly that much clout, so the obligatory two-hour edition of The Closer will have to suffice. Well be getting started at 1:00 PM Central Time.

In the first hour I will discuss the fallout from the release of the Mueller Report, the latest in the Jussie Smollett saga, how "WOKE!" leftists are looking to torpedo 2020 runs for Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, etc. 

At 2:00 I will be chatting with Archway Defense founder Peter Johnson. An expert in firearms and crisis management, Peter will come to discuss "gun control" efforts at the Federal and MN state levels. 

So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Echo (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page.

Until then.....

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Still emerging from the 8-year slumber

Even though he has not officially declared he is running for President of the United States in 2020, Joe Biden is leading in some polls among Democrat candidates. Ah, but in this day where "progressives" judge their candidates not on accomplishments but how many boxes they check on the intersectionality scorecard, a white septuagenarian heterosexual male may well be persona non grata among the "WOKE!" left (commie Bernie Sanders appears to be an exception).

As such,what had been in plain sight in the eight years Biden was Vice President of the United States is now being shouted from the hills by leftists publications. 

Biden’s been caught on camera embracing a female reporter from behind and gripping her above her waist, just below her bust. At a swearing-in ceremony for Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Biden put his hands on the shoulders of Stephanie Carter, Carter’s wife, and then leaned in and whispered into her ear. (He’s whispered into many women’s ears.) He’s also touched women’s faces and necks during other photo ops. Once at a swearing-in ceremony for a US senator, he held the upper arm of the senator’s preteen daughter, leaned down and whispered into her ear, as she became visibly uncomfortable. Then he kissed the side of her forehead, a gesture that made the girl flinch.

It’s all out in the open. News outlets wrote about these incidents. But the stories ran under light-hearted headlines like, “Photo of famously friendly Joe Biden goes viral” or “Here’s Joe Biden being Joe Biden with Ash Carter’s wife” or “Joe Biden: Sex symbol?,” a piece that I edited and now regret.

Ideological media outlets did write some critical pieces during the Obama era. At the Federalist, Mollie Hemingway questioned whether liberals would tolerate the same conduct from a conservative. At Talking Points Memo, Alana Levinson criticized liberals for giving him a pass.

But, overall, Biden got a pass from the political media.

Yep. He sure did. But why was that the case? Maybe it was because Biden being named Barack Obama's running mate in 2008 gave "The One" the gravitas he needed given his woeful lack of accomplishments? Perhaps, though I'm hard pressed to envision a scenario where Obama would not have prevailed regardless of running mate. Truth be told, I was always baffled how Biden's seemingly lecherous behavior was dismissed as "Aw, that's just crazy Uncle Joe. He's harmless."

Even though some of Biden's verifiable actions occurred well into the second Obama term, it's apparently a different time in the era of Trump.

The Democratic Party is more than half women. More women than ever in history ran as Democrats in the 2018 elections — and won. They outperformed their male peers. They were central to Democrats retaking the House. Women are leading the sustained resistance to Trump. The party should be committed to making sure that women and girls participate in government and politics to their fullest potential. The party needs them.

Translation: Uncle Joe has got to go.

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Whiteness: problematic

Former Vice President and likely 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden feels the need to go on an apology tour before officially declaring his POTUS run. These days he's essentially apologizing for being a white guy.

Biden says he regrets he didn't give Anita Hill the "hearing she deserved" when she shared her story of sexual harassment in the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas three decades ago.

"I wish I could have done something," he said. "To this day I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved."

Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time of the hearing.

Later, the former vice president, citing cases of domestic violence in the early 1900s, said English Jurisprudential culture, "a white man's culture," has got to change.

"In the 1900s so many women were dying at the hands of their husbands because they were chattel, just like the cattle, or the sheep, that the court of Common Law decided they had to do something about the extent of the deaths. You know what they said? No man has a right to chastise his woman with a rod thicker than the circumference of his thumb. This is English Jurisprudential culture, a white man's culture. It's got to change. It's got to change," Biden demanded.

So not only are white guys being characterized as domestic abusers, apparently they also are expediting the demise of the entire planet.

Caucasian populations are disproportionately contributing to climate change through their eating habits, which uses up more food — and emits more greenhouse gases — than the typical diets of black and Latinx communities, according to a new report published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Researchers tracked information from multiple databases to identify foods considered “environmentally intense” by requiring more precious resources such as water, land and energy to produce — and, as a result, releasing more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide through production and distribution.

Potatoes, beef, apples and milk are some of the worst offenders.

The EPA provided data on per capita food consumption rates for more than 500 foods groups, including water, plus estimates from the NIH on individual diets. Data showed that whites produced an average of 680 kilograms of the CO2 each year, attributable to food and drink, whereas Latinx individuals produced 640 kilograms, and blacks 600.

They also found the diets of white people required 328,000 liters of water on average per year. Latinx used just 307,000 liters, and blacks 311,800. Both black and Latinx individuals used more land per capita with 1,770 and 1,710 square meters per year, respectively, than white people with just 1,550. Nevertheless, white people still made the greatest overall contribution to climate change.

At this rate, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that we will soon hear this from a political candidate on the campaign trail:





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To quote former FBI Director James Comey.......

So many questions. pic.twitter.com/66KaR52Kk8

— James Comey (@Comey) March 24, 2019

Of course this was in reference to the Mueller report indicating that neither President Donald Trump nor anyone associated with his presidential campaign colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election.

Frankly, Mr. Comey's statement is much more relevant to Tuesday's bombshell out of Chicago.

Less than two weeks after “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police about a hate crime, prosecutors have dropped charges in the case.

So the first question would be "Why?" Why were charges dropped? It appeared as though Chicago PD investigators had all their ducks in a row, thus were ready to testify that Smollett perpetrated a hoax. Nevertheless, prosecutors punted.

Smollett’s attorney, Patricia Brown Holmes, said there was no agreement with prosecutors, insisting the state’s attorney’s office dropped the charges on their own.Smollett’s attorney, Patricia Brown Holmes, said there was no agreement with prosecutors, insisting the state’s attorney’s office dropped the charges on their own.

“We believe that it was the correct result in this case. We’re very happy for this result, and we are very anxious for Jussie to get on with his career and his life, and to move forward,” Holmes said. “There is no deal. The state dismissed the charges.”

Holmes said Smollett volunteered to forfeit his $10,000 bail in the case.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office issued a statement after the hearing:

“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office stated in an email.

“We believe that it was the correct result in this case. We’re very happy for this result, and we are very anxious for Jussie to get on with his career and his life, and to move forward,” Holmes said. “There is no deal. The state dismissed the charges.”

Holmes said Smollett volunteered to forfeit his $10,000 bail in the case.

Another question I have is why would Smollett agree to forfeit the bail money if he's innocent? Why not stand trial and prove you did nothing wrong? Isn't your good name worth that, Jussie? Ah, but since his record is expunged in addition to a judge granting a motion to seal the case, Smollett pretty much has carte blanche to convey whatever tale he so desires.

In the end, I never thought I would be in situation where I agree with Obama-ites Rahm Emanuel & David Axelrod on the same day.

Video: Wolf Blitzer tries to push back on Rahm Emanuel on the Jussie Smollett case, wondering if something did change or that the evidence wasn't good enough and Rahm absolutely buries Wolf pic.twitter.com/Lh0mSHCAL5

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 26, 2019

Unless some better explanation surfaces, here’s the lesson of this weird turn in the Smollett case:
You can contrive a hate crime, make it a national news, get caught and-if you are a well-connected celebrity-get off for $10K and have your record expunged and files sealed.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 26, 2019

Hate crimes are loathsome. Faking them is insidious and shouldn’t be excused. Despite Smollett’s denials, nothing the prosecutor said in dismissing the case supports that. If prosecutors have evidence that contradicts the indictment THEY brought, they should share it today.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 26, 2019

Remember, folks. This is Chicago we're talking about. It's not far-fetched if one speculates that those who chose to drop the case had some incentive to do so. We may not have heard the last of this.

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Box Score of the Week

Technically the 2019 MLB regular season began last week in Japan, so it's time to get back to this weekly feature.

Let's take a look at an Opening Day matchup from two years ago when the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted the San Francisco Giants.

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Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner hit two home runs, making him the first starting pitcher in MLB history to homer twice on Opening Day. 

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NO COLLUSION

What Steve Deace said.

Attorney General Barr has released his summary of the Mueller report, and it's an exoneration and vindication of the president and his victorious 2016 campaign.

Here are the main highlights with my analysis:

1. NO EVIDENCE OF 'RUSSIAN COLLUSION'

Special Counsel Mueller found NO EVIDENCE of so-called Russian Collusion, despite multiple attempts by the Russians to engage the Trump campaign back in 2016, and other successful Russian attempts to impact the election outcome. Like successfully hacking Hillary Clinton and the DNC, for example. However, absolutely no American or anyone associated with the Trump campaign engaged the Russians in an effort to win the election.

That last point is repeated three times.

2. NO OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

Special Counsel Mueller made it clear he was neither charging nor exonerating the president of obstruction of justice, but referring any evidence to the DOJ. There's probably two reasons for this: 1) Mueller's original charge was to investigate collusion, 2) you have to have evidence of an underlying crime being committed to be guilty of obstruction of justice, and Mueller already cleared Trump of the underlying crime being alleged. Therefore, AG Barr and Deputy AG Rosenstein each reviewed the evidence submitted by Mueller, and decided against an obstruction of justice charge.

3. ROBERT MUELLER IS THE HERO HERE

It will now be fascinating to see some of the same people who trashed this man now use his report to exonerate the president. Just as it will be fascinating to see those who were convinced he would catch their conspiratorial hail Mary pass proceed to crush him.

In the end, though, Mueller lived up to his sterling resume as perhaps America's most decorated prosecutor.

He put bad people around the president behind bars (they ALL plead guilty and are not victims).

And he stood up to the Left/media attempt to acquire political power through the most cynical and self-destructive means possible -- pushing fantastical conspiracy theories to de-legitimize our entire election process in order to reverse an outcome they didn't like.

For goodness sake, even the former head of the CIA, once charged with our nation's most sensitive secrets, engaged in this publicly. Mueller's probe served a tremendous public service in that regard. It's the most definitive proof yet our media isn't biased, but hostile. They are the voice of the opposition, and cannot be trusted on any fundamental level. They aren't poor stewards of the First Amendment, they are enemies of our Constitution. And we saw last year this is not a one off for these people. Its the same wicked scam they tried on Brett Kavanaugh, remember.

Mueller is the first political figure in my lifetime who actually drained the swamp. For that, I thank him today. For restoring at least some of the faith we've lost in our system.

Finally, President Trump has been given one of the most public vindications ever granted to an American president. Let us pray he uses it to govern wise and well.

The news that a sitting President of the United States didn't collude with a foreign superpower in an effort to influence a U.S. election should bring, at minimum, a sigh of relief and at most much rejoicing. Ah, but leftists and their media cohorts don't see it that way. They once again have put themselves in a position where what's good for the country is bad for them, and vice versa. As such, I won't indulge in schadenfreude at their unhinged lunacy. No, I will continue to convey sympathy towards a collective who puts undue faith in big government.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

View this post on Instagram

This is hilarious.

A post shared by richardgrenell (@richardgrenell) on Mar 24, 2019 at 2:38pm PDT

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It was an early morning yesterday, I was up before the dawn....

Ahhh, spring is in the Minnesota air. As such, there will likely be a little extra bounce in my step for today's edition of my radio show The Closer. The two-hour extravaganza gets started at 1:00 PM Central Time.

At 1:15, MN state senator Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) will check in to discuss the myriad issues flying around this legislative session. Sen. Abeler himself was called out by Gov. Tim Walz this past week over Abeler's opposition to Walz's proposed 70% gas tax hike.

Then at 2:30 I will be joined by author Wilfred Reilly to discuss his book Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War. 

In the non-guest segments, I will weigh in on the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections, CNN's self-congratulations over receiving a Cronkite award for its sham "gun control" town hall last year, etc.


So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Echo (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page.

Until then.....

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Circling the drain

If you're part of a "progressive" organization like the Southern Poverty Law Center and you've lost The New Yorker........


From former SPLC employee Bob Moser:

In the decade or so before I’d arrived, the center’s reputation as a beacon of justice had taken some hits from reporters who’d peered behind the façade. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers’ allegations of racial discrimination within the organization. In Harper’s, Ken Silverstein had revealed that the center had accumulated an endowment topping a hundred and twenty million dollars while paying lavish salaries to its highest-ranking staffers and spending far less than most nonprofit groups on the work that it claimed to do. The great Southern journalist John Egerton, writing for The Progressive, had painted a damning portrait of Dees, the center’s longtime mastermind, as a “super-salesman and master fundraiser” who viewed civil-rights work mainly as a marketing tool for bilking gullible Northern liberals. “We just run our business like a business,” Dees told Egerton. “Whether you’re selling cakes or causes, it’s all the same.”

This piece appears to validate a long held assertion that the SPLC was made up of a bunch of virtue signalers engaging in projection.

Read the whole thing.

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Quick Hits: CLXXXV

- I used to believe there was nary a more smug, self-congratulatory industry then Hollywood, specifically when it comes to its award shows.

Ah, but these days the leftist media is rivaling such swooning.

CNN's Parkland Town Hall has been honored with a @CronkiteAward. Congrats to @jaketapper and team who helped "advance the national conversation on gun control and violence." @LearCenter https://t.co/fAnFnJEnnn

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) March 19, 2019

So in their minds, the Cronkite folks believe "advancing a national conversation" includes:

*A sitting sheriff overlooking his department's failures to intervene in a spree killing in an effort to throw the National Rifle Association under the bus.

*NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch being the target of threats and invective from the town hall audience.

*A high school student indicating he could hardly look at Sen. Marco Rubio because Rubio's pro second amendment stance causes the student to picture a mass murderer.


Again, I can't emphasize enough how much I disagree with President Donald Trump constantly referring to certain media outlets as the "enemy of the people." However, given the woeful lack of self-policing when it comes to shameful demagoguery like at the Parkland Town Hall, it's becoming a greater challenge to convey a rational defense of today's media elites.


- On Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz displayed a kind of petulance that would have made his predecessor proud.

(T)he Democratic governor gazed into a giant pothole on Highway 47 in Anoka – a construction flagger held up traffic so he could do it – and said the real problem on that road was one of Minnesota’s most dangerous railroad crossings.

Local officials said regular backups at the crossing cause car crashes, including a fatal one in 2003. It’s not clear why a proposed overpass has languished without funding for decades, but Walz said a gas tax increase would allow the state to finally do the job.

“I have brought it out here, out under the dome of the Capitol, because I am done trying to watch somebody jam an ideological peg into what is truly a practical situation that needs to be solved,” Walz said during a news conference in Anoka.

Hey, you know what else is a practical solution? Easing up the congestion of oil tankers on those tracks. And exactly how would one accomplish that? Oh, I don't know, maybe allowing construction of underground pipelines in order to transfer oil safer and more efficiently. Hmmm. I wonder what's inhibiting such activity to commence. 


- One of the more pervasive chanting points coming from "Never Trump" Republicans these days is how President Trump's "bull in a china shop" approach to his administration is a "destruction of norms." As such, the Tom Nichols, Bill Kristols and Charlie Sykes of the world vow to not cast another vote for a GOP candidate until the party rids itself of Trump. Nichols even goes so far as to say he will faithfully vote Democrat to ensure the GOP's thorough destruction. Only then, he contends, can the party be put back together.

The problem with that theory is there would likely be a point of no return if indeed today's Dems are ever able to obtain the absolute power they desire.

Even putting aside the radical policies they are proposing, Democrats want to make structural changes to the American system of government to benefit their own political agenda.

Just this week, leading 2020 Democratic candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachussetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Kamala Harris of California said they would be open to expanding the Supreme Court so they can pack it with liberal judges. Asked about this idea, their rival Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was open to exploring all options for changing the Supreme Court, including imposing term limits.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has been generating a lot of attention for his longshot presidential bid, has touted a plan to expand the Supreme Court to 15, with five Republican appointees, five Democratic appointees, and the remaining five to be appointed by a unanimous vote of the 10 judges — an idea also floated by former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas.

Liberal activist and former Hillary Clinton aide Brian Fallon tweeted, "There is no longer any debate about whether Democrats must reform the Supreme Court. The only discussion is about the how. Term limits are a good step but we also must expand the Court's size."

There were two ways that Democrats could have reacted to Trump.

One would have been to campaign on restoring norms, strengthening institutions, and returning to a more stable form of politics. The other was to use Trumpism as an excuse to embrace radicalism and tear down the institutions that they don't like. It's becoming increasingly clear in which direction they're heading.

Yep. Leftists decrying the "separation of children from their families at the Mexican border" rings hollow when abortion up to nine months is becoming a mainstream Dem position. Accusing Trump of embracing white supremacist viewpoints is stunningly hypocritical when anti-Semitism within Democrat ranks is not punished in any meaningful way.

I can certainly understand people on the political right being hesitant to vote for Trump's reelection. However, it requires quite the mental gymnastics to vote for today's Democrats.

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Just stunned

This is a picture of Bridget Cronin and me at her birthday party 6-1/2 years ago (she dubbed it the 15th anniversary of her 29th birthday party):

I fondly recall that Friday night. As is custom in the 21st century, I even tweeted about it.

I hadn't seen much of Bridget since that evening as she had pretty much left grassroots politics (her ex-husband Tony Sutton was Republican Party of Minnesota chair 2009-2011) around that time frame to launch other endeavors. Thanks to social media, I was in tune to what she usually had going on.

Whether it was setting up an organization to assist aspiring entrepreneurs or providing support for military vets enduring PTSD, Bridget was downright relentless in her advocacy for others. And while her personal life wasn’t without adversities (i.e. her very public divorce from Sutton in 2013), she never let those circumstances dissuade her from being there for others.

On Monday morning I was absolutely stunned to learn that Bridget passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. My immediate thoughts went to her family (including four children, her oldest of whom has special needs) but also to those who were positively impacted by her genuine love and kindness. I will continue to pray for peace and comfort in the aftermath of this tremendous loss.

------------------------------

Guess who just got back today?

After a rare and well deserved break last week, I return to the Patriot bunker for my weekly radio program The Closer. The two-hour blitz begins at 1:00 PM Central Time.

At 1:15, I will be joined by political wonk Matt Mackowiak. We'll discuss Matt's fellow Texan Beto O'Rourke jumping into the 2020 race for President. We'll also discuss what's next with the National Emergency declaration now that President Trump vetoed Congress's resolution to thwart it.

In the non-guest segments I will weigh in on the horrific mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, Tucker Carlson's defiance of the leftist outrage mob and Minnesota's First Lady warning GOP senators on refusing to entertain "gun control" bills.


So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Echo (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page.

Until then.....

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Misplaced hope

For me it's simple. I don't give two squats what political ideology you claim to be a part of. If you detest someone based on their faith to the point you want to kill them, you likely have no soul. Obviously I'm referring to the horrifying events which took place at two separate mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Thursday. A total of 49 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on these groups, all while broadcasting it live via social media. 

Despite this tragedy not occurring in the U.S.A., knee-jerk leftists in this country still managed to lay blame on President Trump/conservatives/NRA the slaying of Muslims on the other side of the planet. And little more enrages leftist kooks than people offering genuine sympathy, thoughts and prayers to the survivors of such incidents. Now why is that? Seems to be some misplaced rage. Well I have a theory. I mean, the progressives' favorite retort to "thoughts and prayers" is "POLICY AND CHANGE!!," right? So it would appear that proggies' biggest problem with religion/faith is that they don't believe there should be any more revered movement than progressivism. As such, they are imploring people of faith to stop appealing to "false gods" and allow they the enlightened ones to eradicate hate and violence. 

Just an observation: Anyone who puts their hope for a better life in a body government definitely has more faith than I can possibly muster. 

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You Bet(o)

After stating he wouldn't run for President, failed U.S. Senate candidate Robert F. Beto O'Rourke officially threw his name in for the 2020 Democrat nomination.





After achieving rock star status despite his unsuccessful campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018, O'Rourke's presidential candidacy announcement was met with much fanfare.

National Review's Jim Geraghty via his Facebook page:

The last time we did this in 2007-2008, all of the hype and hoopla was for a once-obscure slender guy in his mid-to-late 40s who had been in the legislature for a while, hadn’t been able to get many pieces of legislation passed whether his party was in the majority or minority, who boasted about his across-the-aisle friendships but who had never really defied his party’s orthodoxy, who had little or no executive experience, who could do mundane tasks such as driving or sweating and have them described by political reporters like he was completing the 12 labors of Hercules, who was full of charisma but vague enough in his answers and agenda to be a blank slate to everyone looking for an ideal candidate. Same script, slightly different leading man.

As much as I loathe the hypothetical "if he were a Republican....." scenario, O'Rourke's background would be savaged mercilessly were he on the political right.

Back to Geraghty.

If Beto had an R after his name instead of a D, you’d hear he was boarding-school-attending judge’s son who dodged serious charges for the DUI & burglary, used eminent domain to gentrify poor Latino neighborhoods & married into a billionaire’s family. https://t.co/s46ildgFnB pic.twitter.com/mG1TpXjVqw

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) March 14, 2019

Given the past two presidents were essentially elected via cults of personality, dismissing O'Rourke as a legitimate contender would be a mistake. And if he is the nominee in 2020, this puts O'Rourke's home state of Texas in play. Even if President Trump won every single solitary state he captured in 2016, excluding Texas, he loses reelection if the Lone Star state goes Democrat for the first time since 1976.

It's going to be interesting to hear how the other Dem candidates frame their lines of attack toward the very formidable O'Rourke.

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Out of the office

The fetching Mrs. Carlson and I have been on vacation since Friday, so posting will likely be scant until later this week. 

Try to cope. 

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On assignment

My friend and Northern Alliance Radio Network colleague Mitch Berg will be filling in for me on today's edition of The Closer from 1:00 until 3:00 PM Central Time.

So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics Mitch plans on addressing.

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Echo (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). 

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page.

Until then.....

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"I'm just askin' y'all to give a damn."

Rev. Tim Christopher of Minneapolis pulled no punches Wednesday evening when testifying before the Minnesota House Judiciary Committee regarding "gun control" bills (House Files 8 & 9).

One of many truth bombs launched toward the gun grabbers on the committee: 

See, we can sit here all night and come up with statistics. But when I get a call from a mother looking for her 16-year old daughter and I gotta go on James Avenue to a drug house and everybody in there got guns bigger than my gun, we got a problem. But it's not your problem. See, while y'all wanna sit here and y'all wanna come up with all these data and all these statistics, I'm livin' real life everyday down there.

That's why the anti gunners wearing their dreamsicle colored t-shirts when protesting gun violence never go where the violence is pervasive. Classic symbolism over substance.

Anyhow, watch Rev. Christopher lay the smackdown.

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Justification for bigotry

If today's Democrat party is going to embrace members who are openly antisemitic, I'm grateful they're basically coming out and admitting it.

My head is spinning from all pretzel logic employed by Dems and their allies in defending Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), so here's just a few samples:


- House Speaker (in name only these days) Nancy Pelosi says Omar was not "intentionally anti-Semitic."

- House Majority Whip James Clyburn essentially tells Holocaust survivors to check their privilege.

- New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says all antisemitism is not created equal. Take a guess as to which kind doesn't bother him.


It takes a lot of work to cede the moral high ground to President Donald Trump, but these people have managed to do it.

Congrats to Democrats for lighting their legitimacy on fighting bigotry on fire this week. One of their best tools against Donald Trump. Hope it was worth it.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 7, 2019

Democrats rightly condemned Trump for winking at the alt-right during the 2016 election for political convenience. Now they're openly kowtowing to the anti-Semitic portion of their base in hopes of generating an intersectional socialist coalition. https://t.co/xDAuCzIeUG

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 6, 2019

All Dems had to do to ensure they'd regain complete power in Washington by 2020 is not come off as complete kooks. But they just can't do it. Astonishing.

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Over the past 48 hours,.....

.....I've found myself agreeing with progressive Minnesota legislators Ryan Winkler.....

Supporting the existence of a Jewish state is not “allegiance to a foreign country.” By continuing to use that language you are suggesting that Jews who support Israel have a divided loyalty. That is why your words are offensive to so many. https://t.co/0otU47cqUo

— Ryan Winkler (@_RyanWinkler) March 3, 2019

....and Ron Latz.

(2/7)... and killing Jews in their home countries. Where, I ask, is this coming from? Rep. Omar has used up the reservoir of good will generally granted to those who begin new jobs by repeatedly insulting the Jewish people even after being told that her words are dangerous and...

— Ron Latz (@SenRonLatz) March 4, 2019

(4/7)... objections are motivated by anti-Muslim bias. She is trying to shut down her critics and the conversation by hiding behind that strawman. To be sure, Rep. Omar has herself been targeted for hate by Islamophobes. I also strongly and unequivocally condemn those...

— Ron Latz (@SenRonLatz) March 4, 2019

(6/7)... There are ways to have serious policy discussions and disagreements – even on fraught subjects - without using anti-Semitic tropes. It is my hope that Rep. Omar will desist from future anti-Semitic comments and instead work to build bridges between communities...

— Ron Latz (@SenRonLatz) March 4, 2019

(7/7)... discuss policy without inflaming religious conflict, and be a productive member of Congress rather than become a pariah in Congress.

— Ron Latz (@SenRonLatz) March 4, 2019

Sure, the latest criticisms of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are legitimate. Nevertheless, be prepared for the "Winkler and Latz are racist misogynists merely doing the right wing's bidding" hot takes.

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Problematic

I don't know about you, but all too often I find myself viewing movies made more than 20 years earlier through a prism of "Could such a film be made today?" What I mean by that is the dialogue in some of these pre-21st century films would not only be deemed offensive were it made in today's hypersensitive culture but the movie producers, directors, etc. might be blackballed from future productions unless they participated in reeducation sensitivity training.

With that in mind, perhaps the most protected class in American society today are transsexuals (just ask Martina Navratilova or Scarlett Johansson). As such, podcaster extraordinaire Joe Rogan engaged in what almost sounded like mockery of the thought police while simultaneously providing a scenario which sounds all too plausible today (NSFW).





Yep. A slapstick, screwball comedy like Ace Venture: Pet Detective (released in 1994) would be considered "problematic" today. Stupid times, indeed.

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There was no use talking, there was nothing to say.....

The temperature may not get above single digits in the Twin Cities, so I better bring the heat on today's edition of The Closer. The 2-hour blitz begins at 1:00 PM Central Time.

We'll definitely discuss the Democrats' shockingly heartless narrative when voting against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. I will also look back on the good, bad and ugly of President Trump's performance at the latest nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On the local scene, MN House Dems are poised to bring to the floor anti gun bills which adversely impact law abiding gun owners as well as subverts due process. On the presidential front, Amy Klobuchar is finally being exposed as the non-moderate many Minnesotans have known her to be.


So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Echo (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page.

Until then.....

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Beneath our low expectations

The latest nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, thankfully, yielded no results. I say "thankfully" because while I felt there was little to no chance a substantive denuclearization agreement would be reached, I still had a slight concern that Trump would be so eager to claim a foreign policy success that he would be tempted to partake in a veritable crap sandwich. No, Trump merely walking away when it was determined this summit would not yield a favorable agreement was the second most desired result.

However, the post-summit press conference brought us perhaps one of the lowest moments of Trump's presidency (and that's saying something).

President Trump said Thursday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told him that he did not know about Otto Warmbier's condition and Mr. Trump said "I will take him at his word." The American college student was imprisoned and sentenced to 15 years hard labor in 2016, but was returned to the U.S. in June 2017 in a coma after suffering severe brain damage. He died one week after returning to Ohio.

At a press conference after the Hanoi summit abruptly ended, Mr. Trump said he spoke to Kim about Warmbier.

"I don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen," Mr. Trump said. "Just wasn't to his advantage to allow that to happen. Those prisons are rough. They're rough places. And bad things happen. But I really don't believe he knew about it."

So if we're keeping score at home, Trump took the word of a brutal dictator, who (allegedly) ordered his own brother be killed, about the death of an American citizen as well as deferred to former KGB agent (and now Russian leader Vladimir Putin) over his own country's intelligence agencies regarding Russia's role in hacking the 2016 U.S. elections. Utterly outrageous and indefensible.

As you might expect, Otto's parents were less than enthused at Trump's delusion regarding their son's ordeal.

The parents of Otto Warmbier, who died of injuries sustained in prison in North Korea, issued a stinging rebuke to President Donald Trump for saying he believed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's claim that he was unaware of the brutal conditions under which their son was being held, or the abuse he suffered during his captivity.

"We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto," Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement Friday. "Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that."

Keep in mind this is a little more than a year later after Trump acknowledged the Warmbiers while in attendance at his first State of the Union address. I can't even fathom the betrayal they must have felt when Trump essentially gave Kim a pass this week.

A common retort I've heard from Trumpkins regarding the President's perceived deference to Kim and Putin is "Well, what did you expect him to do? Cause an international incident by punching their lights out?!?!?!" Honestly, such a sentiment is junior high level intellect. We need to look no further than President Ronald Reagan, who was routinely critical of then Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his commitment to communism. However, Reagan certainly didn't back away from his criticisms of certain regimes and yet was able to present a diplomatic demeanor while in summit meetings with world leaders.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear such a balance is in Trump's DNA. Sad!

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