Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants - May 4, 1975.
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This past Saturday, Josh Donaldson of the Minnesota Twins scored the 2,000,000th run in Major League Baseball history. The 1,000,000th run was scored by Houston's Bob Watson in the second inning of that May 1975 game I referenced. MLB.com had an interesting tidbit about how the Cincinnati Reds' Dave Concepcion almost scored that history making run.
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Blogging will be lite to non-existent for the rest of this month. However, there will be a lot to discuss come June, both here and on my Sunday radio show.
Talk to y'all next week!
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My friend and Northern Alliance Radio Network colleague Mitch Berg has begun to post his radio show's playlist upon conclusion of his Saturday broadcast.
I guess I'll follow suit.
Philadelphia Phillies at Boston Red Sox - June 12, 2010.
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Boston's Daniel Nava made his MLB debut this game. On the first pitch he ever saw in the big leagues he hit a grand slam home run, which made him the second player in MLB history to accomplish that feat.
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Another Sunday, yet another edition of my radio show The Closer. The 2-hour broadcast will get started at 1:00 PM Central Time.
Right out of the chute at 1:03, MN State Sen. Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake) will join the broadcast to discuss the end of the legislative session and what exactly the $52 billion state budget will entail.
At 2:30 I will be joined by Jason Dudash, who is the director of the Oregon chapter of Freedom Foundation. Jason will be on to discuss Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's support for "vaccine passports."
In the non-guest segments I will weigh in on the deafening silence regarding young black children being shot and killed in Minneapolis as well as the bigoted Mayor of Chicago.
Just in case you were wondering whether or not violent crime in Minneapolis has subsided over the past year.....it hasn't.
The grandmother of a Minneapolis boy shot in the head late last month gave an impassioned plea to the community Monday, asking why there wasn’t more outrage about shootings involving children in the city.
"I’m just trying to figure out why this community is not angry," said the grandmother of 10-year-old Ladavionne Garret, Jr., who is currently hospitalized at North Memorial Hospital after being shot in a vehicle with his parents.
According to data from the Minneapolis Police Department, 19 children have been injured by gunfire so far in 2021, far outpacing the seven that occurred during the same time period in 2020. The most recent case came over the weekend when an 8-year-old girl was shot while playing in her yard.
Ladavionne's grandmother, who identified herself as Sharrie Jennings, of north Minneapolis, asked, "Why is this community not angry?"
"We only march when it’s against the police, huh?" she asked. "We don’t march when it’s two kids, though."
Let's check out a game from earlier this season.
San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks - April 28, 2021.
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D'Backs veteran Asdrubal Cabrera faced Padres hurler Ryan Weathers in this game. As a second year player in 2008, Cabrera, then a member of the Cleveland Indians, faced Weathers' father David in a May game that season. As such, Cabrera became the first player in MLB history to face that particular father-son duo.
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Another Sunday, yet another edition of my radio show The Closer. The 2-hour blitz gets started at 1:00 PM Central Time.
The big news on the local scene is MN Gov. Tim Walz following the CDC's guidance of fully vaccinated people being free to not wear masks. However, there are some citizens still hesitant to be rid of their face diapers.
From a national standpoint, the Joe Biden presidency has many people flashing back to the 1970s when there was a gasoline shortage, hyperinflation and Iran being a bad actor.
Finally at 2:00, our technology wonk D. Greg Scott will stop by to discuss the cyberattack on the Colonial oil pipeline, one which resulted in the gas shortage throughout much of the southeast.
So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.
So is anyone in Minnesota hosting a burn party for face masks?
Gov. Tim Walz will end the state's mask mandate on Friday after federal health officials recommended that fully vaccinated people don't need to wear masks in most situations.
Businesses will be free to make their own decisions about whether to ask customers or employees to mask up, but Walz said that the time has come to discontinue the mask mandate that has stood since July 25.
"We know that masks were a critical tool in the early stage and still remain today in slowing or stopping the transmission of the coronavirus," Walz said.
Minnesota health officials will still encourage mask wearing among those who are not fully vaccinated, but that guidance will not have the legal force of a mandate.
Once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its guidance on vaccinated individuals not having to wear masks, Walz was in an untenable position. When he announced last week significant loosening of restrictions, the Governor indicated that once 70% of Minnesotans ages 16 and up received their first COVID shot (or July 1; whichever came first), he would lift the mask mandate. As of earlier this week, the vaccination rate in Minnesota indicated we wouldn't reach that 70% threshold until the third week of June. So on Thursday when the CDC issued its guidance for fully vaccinated individuals, the Walz administration basically conceded that their initial plan of ditching the state's mandate no later than July 1 would likely be ignored. As such, he and MN Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm urged non-vaccinated Minnesotans to continue to wear masks but stopped short of making it a requirement.
"Setting up a dual-tier system ... would prove more of a challenge and less efficient," Walz said.
Many elected officials and health bureaucrats alike have conveyed disappointment over what they believe are subpar vaccination rates. However, the CDC seems unwilling to acknowledge their own role in that scenario. Once vaccines became available, the organization recommended that people continue wearing masks and practice social distancing even after becoming fully vaccinated. They never conveyed a coherent rationale as to why other than pointing to an infinitesimal chance of a vaccinated person still contracting the virus. Add to that Federal health officials pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after literally one in a million suffered significant side effects, we suddenly saw vaccination rates plummet. I'm guessing that part of the motivation behind the CDC's latest recommendations is to incentivize more people to get vaccinated. If so, then they have come full circle in their complete bungling of this pandemic.
While the state of MN is no longer mandating mask usage for vaccinated individuals, private businesses may exercise their discretion by continuing to require the practice. As such, I've seen more than a handful of the #MaskUpMN virtue signalers on social media encouraging others to extend grace to those store owners who desire their customers to wear masks. I wonder how many of these same scolds didn't exactly exercise that same compassion when in the presence of an unmasked (but vaccinated) person. I'm gonna guess that percentage is close to three digits.
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- A rather sobering tweet thread from MN Congressman Dean Phillips.
Our ~$30 trillion debt burdens us with >$300b in annual interest payments, which consumes ~9% of revenue, and exceeds what we invest in science, space, transportation, technology, and education COMBINED. 2/4
— Rep. Dean Phillips 🇺🇸 (@RepDeanPhillips) May 8, 2021
As we emerge from the pandemic and set our sights on the future, it’s time we begin investing more in America’s people and possibility while reducing our payments for the past. Please share your ideas about how we should consider doing so. 4/4
— Rep. Dean Phillips 🇺🇸 (@RepDeanPhillips) May 8, 2021
I've been lamenting for years how America's national debt continues to skyrocket annually while the only elected officials who even pay it lip service are Republicans when they're part of the minority party in Congress. Anyone who is elected to national office, yet doesn't hammer the issue regularly is committing a dereliction of duty. Full stop.
While I appreciate Congressman Phillips for at least broaching the issue, his request for ideas will be little more than a dog's breakfast of chants to tax the wealthy even more. Sadly, most (if not all) of Phillips' likely supporters view spending cuts in social programs as tantamount to government sanctioned murder, which is why our exploding debt won't be reined in anytime soon.
- When President Joe Biden was in close contact with former POTUS Jimmy Carter last week, he apparently caught something more damaging than COVID.
It took Jimmy Carter three years to give us massive inflation, gas lines and America being pissed on by the whole world.
— Rick Shaftan (@Shaftan) May 11, 2021
It took Joe Biden only three months.
I guess we should be grateful that Biden is compassionate and doesn't tweet mean things.
- I've often said that I have gotten way more out of blogging than I have ever put into it. Back when blogging really took off within the first five years of the new millennium, it kinda became its own subculture.
Of all the unexpected blessings I've received, the solid friendships are what I cherish most. My friend and Northern Alliance Radio Network colleague Mitch Berg is someone whose blog I've been reading regularly since 2004. And long before I started hosting my own show on AM 1280 The Patriot, I was a fan of Mitch and the other NARN hosts while getting to know them at various social endeavors. A few years after that, a friend pointed me to the family blog Mr. Dilettante’s Neighborhood, which also became a regular stop for me. I also got to know Mr D. and his fine family over the past decade-plus.
With all that said, I am thrilled that two of my closest pals in the blogosphere are teaming up to continue to churn out great content.
The post is up now, so I can now reveal that I am writing at Shot in the Dark, Mitch Berg's longtime blog. Mitch is one of the most prolific bloggers in Minnesota and he has been at the blogging game for almost 20 years. He has also hosted a weekend radio show at AM 1280 for about 16-17 years now. He also has a pretty big audience.
This is a great opportunity for me and I'm glad Mitch asked. I will not abandon this blog -- after over 15 years of writing here, there's way too much history to let it go away. However, I assume much of what you see here will be either (a) less political and (b) more about Benster's sports views. But we'll see.
While blogging has become more passé given the influx of social media, Mitch and Mark have remained steady in the game. This union is definitely the...ahem.....shot in the arm that local conservative commentary needs.
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Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson tosses a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves.
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At 40 years old, Randy Johnson was (and still is) the oldest pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game.
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Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! My bro and I took my mom out to dinner yesterday, so I'll be live for today's installment of my radio show The Closer. The 2-hour broadcast gets started at 1:00 PM Central Time.
Locally there was some big news regarding Gov. Tim Walz's COVID restrictions as well as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin officially appealing his guilty verdict in the killing of George Floyd.
At 2:00, political wonk Matt Mackowiak will check in to discuss his home city of Austin, TX overwhelmingly passing Prop B. I'll also get Matt's take on the Liz Cheney-GOP House Leadership drama as well as the way-too-early projections in the 2022 Congressional midterms.
So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.
A mask-wearing mandate for public indoor spaces will end no later than July 1 in Minnesota and COVID-19 restrictions on business capacities and gathering sizes will end by May 28 under a plan announced Thursday by Gov. Tim Walz.
The first step on Friday will include an immediate expansion on the sizes of indoor and outdoor gatherings, and an end to early closing times for bars and restaurants, but all such limits will be eliminated by May 28 ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
The mask-wearing requirement could be lifted before July 1 if the state can increase the rate of Minnesotans who have received COVID-19 vaccine from 59% to 70%.
"As cases recede, more people get vaccinated every day, and vaccines are readily available to all who want it," Walz said. "We can now confidently and safely set out our path back to normal."
I'm guessing Gov. Walz hasn't been out and about much otherwise he'd know that Minnesotans decided earlier this year that they wanted a sense of normalcy, thus they charted their own path. There's been no clearer evidence than people swarming to many Twin Cities bars and restaurants given this is one area Walz has consistently bungled during the pandemic. Giving such venues 2-3 days notice on how long they can be open and with how many people hinders their ability to adequately prepare. They need a heckuva lot more lead time to order supplies, schedule employees for shifts, etc. As such, many of these establishments took matters into their own hands.
As for the mask mandate, that should, at minimum, be immediately lifted for people who are already vaccinated. During Walz's presser, he acquiesced to the fact that a fully vaccinated person has little chance to contract COVID. But even if a vaxxed individual does get the virus, he/she likely will not be hospitalized, with the chance of death being zero. I'm not certain why they're made to heed these silly mandates if they've done absolutely everything to protect themselves.
With things soon getting back to the way they were before the pandemic, it'll be interesting how this will impact the 2022 elections when Gov. Walz, all constitutional offices and the entire Legislature will be up for election. There's no doubt that Walz and his fellow progs will try to play up the fact that their handling of the virus "allowed" people to get back to doing things they enjoy. Meanwhile, those on the right have plenty of evidence to show how the adverse impact of the mandates (i.e. closed businesses, kids' educations suffering, etc.) will be felt well into the future.
Here's to the next 18 months!
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- It has been learned that Brandon Mitchell, a juror in the Derek Chauvin trial, participated in a rally for "social justice" in Washington, D.C. last year. Why is this important?
During the jury selection process, the AP noted, all jurors were asked two questions as part of a jury selection questionnaire.
“Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?” the first asked, with the second asking: “Other than what you have already described above, have you, or anyone close to you, participated in protests about police use of force or police brutality?”
Mitchell reportedly answered "no" to both questions.
Mitchell insisted that rally he attended had more to do with the commemoration of the march in D.C. led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. than with protesting police brutality specifically. Semantics? Perhaps. But this definitely adds to the proverbial ammo the Chauvin defense team already has when/if they appeal the sentencing.
If indeed an appeal is successful, I'll wager one of Mitch Berg's shiny new quarters that "white privilege" will be cited as the culprit as opposed to the ill advised actions of Mr. Mitchell.
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and wife Melinda are calling it quits after 27 years of marriage.
All I could picture was a newly single Bill hitting the town with his equally nerdy single pals.
Ah, but let's be honest. Bill isn't going to have much time for carousing given that his passion for social engineering is an around-the-clock endeavor.
- I will be getting my second COVID-19 shot next week. Once I do that, I'm done wearing a facemask since the science will be on my side.
However, as we've long suspected, wearing a mask has long ceased being about science in the minds of many.
This morning, Biden said it’s your “patriotic responsibility” to wear a mask, even if you’re fully vaccinated.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 30, 2021
Hours later… pic.twitter.com/WTPBzV9kGY
So then why when visiting former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn (who are both in their mid 90s with Mr. Carter having recently had brain cancer) did the President and First Lady decline to wear masks when indoors and much closer than six feet to elderly individuals?
We’re pleased to share this wonderful photo from the @POTUS and @FLOTUS visit to see the Carters in Plains, Ga.!
— The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) May 4, 2021
Thank you President and Mrs. Biden! pic.twitter.com/QcA33iUev4
This seems neither rooted in science nor patriotic.
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Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs - May 7, 1940.
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In their game last Friday against the New York Mets, the Phillies scored their only two runs of the game when two runners crossed the plate a passed ball upon hitter Brad Miller striking out. The last time that occurred for the Phils was that 1940 game against the Chicago Cubs when the only run of the game scored after a strikeout of Philly batter Ike Pearson.
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The first Sunday in May (but not May Day), so we're here for another installment of my 2-hour broadcast of The Closer. We'll get things kicked of at 1:00 PM Central Time.
Right at 1:00, I will welcome to the Patriot bunker MN State Senator Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake). Sen. Benson will discuss how emails among Minnesota Dept of Health officials seemed to suggest that tying youth sports to COVID deaths in long-term care facilities would help mitigate political damage to the DFL. We'll also get an update on the latest budget talks as the current legislative session draws to a close.
At 2:00 PM I will be joined via phone by Danielle Butcher - Executive VP of American Conservation Coalition, which is a conservative group proactively addressing climate change (and no, they do NOT support the Green New Deal).
So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.
