Embarrassment of riches

A recap of the past week's activity among three of the men's pro sports teams here in the Twin Cities: 

- For the first time in franchise history, the Minnesota Vikings drafted a quarterback within the Top 10. While it's hard to gauge if indeed JJ McCarthy will be that elite franchise QB the Vikes have not had since the days of Daunte Culpepper, he definitely has the best possible supporting cast a rookie quarterback could ask for. 

- For the first time in literally 20 seasons (and for only the second time in the franchise's 35-year history), the Minnesota Timberwolves move on to the second round of the NBA playoffs after sweeping the Phoenix Suns in round one. Despite being dominated by Phoenix in the regular season (losing all three games by an average of 16 points), the Wolves completely flipped the script in the postseason. Also, the nation is now learning what we in the Twin Cities have known for a few seasons: Anthony Edwards is a superstar. 

- And for the first time since 2006, the Minnesota Twins have (as of Friday evening) won 11 consecutive games, all without arguably their most potent offensive weapon in Royce Lewis. The only buzzkill is now very few fans can even watch the games on TV or stream them online. The good news is the weather is getting better, so high time we get out to Target Field!

Yeah, I get it. Compared to the other metro areas which have a team representing each of the four professional men's sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL), these accomplishments likely elicit a yawn. However, me and my fellow Twin Cities sports enthusiasts are going to be excited about these latest developments until we're given a reason not to be. 

When the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers snapped their city's 52-year championship drought with a title in June 2016, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. were tied with the longest active dry spell (25 years) among cities with at least 3 of the 4 sports leagues. However, the NHL's Washington Capitals won a Stanley Cup in 2018, which then left Minny all alone with the longest run without a championship (now 32-1/2 years and counting). The problem there is you can't very well win a title if you're not even competing for one. 

I point you to this tweet from just over a year ago: 

The Twins won the 1991 WS.

Since then, Twin Cities teams have made the playoffs 50 times in MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL & have failed to reach the championship round every time.

No other metro area in MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL history has had even 30 straight playoff trips without making the finals.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) April 29, 2023

The Twins would go on to make the playoffs last October (and FINALLY win a postseason series for the first time since 2002), but did not reach the World Series. So that number now stands at 51 consecutive postseason appearances without reaching the championship round.

Will that streak be broken in 2024? I'm hard pressed to think of a year over the past three decades when not only one but multiple teams have a legit opportunity to end that suffering. 

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Quick Hits: Volume CCCXLVI

 - Minnesota State Senator (and admitted felon) Nicole Mitchell made her return to the Legislature this week. Upon doing so, the first order of business by the Senate was to take up a motion to call for the expulsion of legislators until they complete their scheduled ethics hearing. On a straight party line vote, this was rejected 34-33. This means Sen. Mitchell was essentially the deciding vote on a motion that would have determined her fate. 

My friend Sen. Julia Coleman gets to the heart of the matter. 

Democrats voted down our motion to have the senate request Sen. Mitchell resign. Sen. Mitchell was the deciding vote against this. They would rather protect a charged felon than work with Republicans for the remainder of session. It is clear they choose power over people. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/52YFLD9TOJ

— Julia Coleman (@JuliaEColeman) April 30, 2024

Yup. And the majority caucus is doing all they can to shield Sen. Mitchell from scrutiny. 

Senate Democrat leadership taking proactive steps to make it easier for their embattled Senator facing felony charges to participate in floor session and avoid scrutiny from the press.#mnleg https://t.co/lJ2cTi2eNd

— Andrew Wagner (@andrewwagner) April 29, 2024

Many are (correctly) pointing out how Dems are little more than power-hungry opportunists who are making a mockery of the legislative branch. And while I think that needs to be continually shouted from the hills, it's not going to have even a small impact on their behavior. Y'see, that would require the Senate Dems possessing even an ounce of shame. As we've witnessed over the past two Minnesota legislative sessions, that well is bone dry. 

- Drew Barrymore recently had on her TV talk show (yeah, I too didn't know she had one) VP Kamala Harris. And like many other vapid progressives, Drew basically turned into a slobbering kid when in the presence of an elected Dem. 

 

I'm dying man lmao pic.twitter.com/dChBDP3yYB

— harvard has fallen (@lib_crusher) April 29, 2024

This has the same cringy vibe of former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry (who once donned tampon earrings on her show) asking then US Attorney General Eric Holder to quack like a duck for her. 

It bears repeating: Progressivism is a mental disorder. 

- Y'know, there was a time when the state of California elected governors who wouldn't pander but rather speak the truth plainly, even if feelings were hurt. 

 

Imagine if California’s governor spoke like this. pic.twitter.com/eFaknuOOka

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) April 29, 2024

 Yeah, back in those days, "protests" would have never escalated to this point: 

The moment a Jewısh student is blocked by Pro-PaIestine students (or paid agitators) from getting to his class.

Notice who is masked and who is not?

This moment led to everything that transpired at UCLA last night.

Along with American Flags being ripped down and replaced with… pic.twitter.com/BaWDmOXR3o

— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) May 1, 2024

 

A Jewish student at UCLA was reportedly sent to the hospital after being beaten unconscious by pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. pic.twitter.com/9uHqIi1Jx1

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 1, 2024

And of course you have most media outlets framing this as mostly peaceful protests standing in solidarity with Palestinians while conveniently omitting these same protesters threatening Jewish students or committing violent acts. I guess the WaPo was right. Democracy does indeed die in darkness. 

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Box Score of the Week

Oakland Athletics at Arizona Diamondbacks - April 13, 2021.

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Diamondbacks outfielder Tim Locastro began his career with 29 consecutive stolen base attempts without having been caught, which still stands as an MLB record. In this game, he recorded career SB number 29. 

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The NARN Closer's playlist - 4/28/2024

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Whenever I'm wrong, just tell me the song and I'll sing it......

I'll be back in the Patriot bunker today for today's edition of my radio show The Closer. The 2-hour broadcast gets started at 1:00 PM Central Time. 

In the first hour I'll talk local issues, including the bizarre burglary (allegedly) committed by Sen. Nicole Mitchell (DFL-Woodbury) and how her public statement doesn't square with what she told police upon her arrest. Also, is downtown Minneapolis "vibrant" again? 

Then in the second hour I'll weigh in on the absolute moral cowardice displayed by the White House's current occupant in regards to rampant antisemitism on college campuses. 

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 Alexa (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, where we also conduct a "Live Stream" of the broadcast.

Until then.....

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Get out and touch some grass

Word to the wise: Instead of consuming the rhetoric from an agenda-driven media, perhaps you might wanna get out and hear from people who are actually living in the real world. 

Exhibit A: 

All it takes is 1 date with Miss Universe, Noa Cochva, to learn what's happening between Israel and Hamas. #FactsForPeace pic.twitter.com/zfgKwZWyX4

— FactsForPeace (@Facts_For_Peace) April 24, 2024

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How bizarre (UPDATE: Sen. Mitchell releases statement)

Some rather disturbing allegations in the arrest of a Minnesota legislator. 

Sen. Nicole Mitchell, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker, was arrested early Monday morning after police found her inside the home, according to charging documents filed Tuesday in Becker County District Court.

Charges say the senator told arresting officers her father had recently died and her stepmother had stopped communicating with family members, and that she wanted her late father’s ashes, and belongings including pictures, a flannel shirt, and other items of sentimental value.

Public records and an obituary posted by a Detroit Lakes funeral home show that Mitchell’s father, who died last month, and stepmother lived on the same block of the same road in Detroit Lakes as where the senator was arrested.

When first hearing of the details of this burglary, it sounded disturbingly similar to someone who was having a mental health episode. Please understand I don't say that to be flip. It's just that too many high profile individuals have had their inner demons play out in the public and it hasn't ended particularly well. 

However, the list of charges indicate that this incident was very much premeditated. 

At around 4:45 a.m. Monday, Detroit Lakes police responded to a 911 call from a woman reporting a burglary of her home in the 700 block of Granger Road in Detroit Lakes. When officers arrived, they searched the house and found a person inside.

Officers then arrested Mitchell, 49, who while being detained told the stepmother “something to the effect of” she was “just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore.”

The senator was dressed in all-black clothing and was wearing a black hat. Officers also discovered a flashlight in a sock covering which court documents said appeared to be a modification to reduce the amount of light that it would emit.

Mitchell told police she had made the roughly 200-mile drive from Woodbury to Detroit Lakes starting at around 1 a.m. early Sunday morning, court documents said. She admitted to entering her stepmother’s home through a basement window where she had left a backpack containing her drivers’ license, two laptop computers and a cell phone.

Given Sen. Mitchell's position, there are obvious political ramifications to this. 

 

DFLers have 34 seats in the Senate, compared with the 33 held by Republicans. If Mitchell can’t return to the Capitol, Democrats may have trouble passing partisan legislation between now and the end of session later next month.

Considering the untold damage the Dem trifecta caused with their "buffet of lunacy" last year as well as additional draconian proposals being floated this session, it would be a dereliction of duty if the Senate Republicans even entertain working with DFLers on anything as long as Ms. Mitchell remains absent. It is literally the only leverage they have in the remaining few weeks of the legislative session. I say they use it. 

UPDATE: Via her Facebook page, Sen. Mitchell releases a statement which seems to contradict what she told police. 

Rob Doar put together an informative Tweet thread which summarized Mitchell's statements to police upon her arrest. 

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Joe Biden's Charlottesville(s)

About three months before he was elected President (and on the third anniversary of the Charlotteville, VA white supremacist rally), Joe Biden conveyed the following: 

Three years ago today, the world watched in horror as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and far-right extremists with torches in hand descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, spewing the same anti-Semitic bile that was heard in Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s. It was a moment of testing for our country, and a wake-up call to the fact that hate never dies — it only hides. And when our leaders give it oxygen, it can come roaring back to life.

What happened next is seared in all our memories — a violent clash between the white nationalists and those who came together to stand against hate. Tragically, a brave young woman lost her life.

And then our president claimed that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Donald Trump had the audacity to assign moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those who stood against it.

I knew then that we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. And I knew then that I could not stand by and let Donald Trump destroy the core values of this nation. Now, three years later, we can see even more clearly that everything that has made America, America, is at stake.

Despite our imperfections as a nation, the American people have never given up or walked away from the founding ideals of our nation: that everyone is entitled to be treated equally and with dignity and respect. That is who we are. And together, we are far more powerful than the hatred we saw on that dark day three years ago, and in so many acts of hatred and violence since.

Perhaps the person who occupies the Oval Office today needs to read this statement in the light of there having been daily Charlottesville-like events over the past half year. 

As despicable as the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacist rally was, peoples' ability to perform normal everyday tasks (i.e. student and faculty at Columbia University attending class) were not in danger. 

 

Reporter: "Do you condemn the anti-Semitic protests on college campuses?"

Biden: “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians."

Reporter: "Should the… pic.twitter.com/bW5j9Nde0v

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 22, 2024

Kinda of the same vibe as "fine people on both sides," no? 

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson throws down a challenge to Biden. 

You know as well as I that Biden absolutely will not do this simply because it would cost him a key swing state like Michigan where the heavily Muslim city of Dearborn is threatening to sit it out this November. 

As Seth Mandel at Commentary points out, the white supremacists and the Jew-hating progs are basically two sides of the same coin. 

“Jews will not replace us” was the favored chant in Charlottesville. At the progressive campus rallies and beyond, “From the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab” has made quite the comeback. In the past, the second half of that line was often “Palestine will be free,” a slightly more politically savvy version of the slogan that calls for the murder and enslavement of all Jews in the land of Israel. “Palestine is Arab” is even more openly violent than “Jews will not replace us,” a white nationalist chant that seeks to hide its bloodlust behind anti-immigration euphemisms. (It does not hide it well; a man radicalized by these theories massacred Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.)

“From the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab” establishes as its baseline a Nazi-like racial hierarchy. What that means is that regardless of political or governmental structures and constitutions, that racial hierarchy is baked into society: Jews would be treated this way even if they no longer had a state, just as they were treated this way in the 20th century before Israeli sovereignty was established. Put simply, ethnic cleansing of the Jews would be the goal in a one-state solution as well.

Because this racial hierarchy is fundamental to its proponents’ worldview, opposition to coexistence with Jews is global. The skinheads in Charlottesville weren’t deterred from their version of this ideology just because they live outside of Germany. Similarly, those who chant “Palestine is Arab” subscribe to this racial hierarchy wherever they are. That this chant was delivered outside the White House, for example, is not a protest of Israeli policy but rather a challenge to the foundational ideas and values of the United States.

Although the expression of this worldview isn’t limited to college campuses, those campuses are the main reason we are now witnessing three Charlottesvilles a day. After all, it means students are paying attention in class.

Yup. These profs are literally telling us who they are at this point (WARNING: an f-bomb or two): 

 

🚨 HAPPENING NOW: Teacher’s Rant Promotes Anarchy.

⚠️ “Don’t work, don’t go to class, don’t research. Act out your Marxist and post-colonial ideas!”

📢 This is out of control.

Is there just complete lawlessness at @Columbia?

👉 FOLLOW @ShirionOrg for more exposure of the… pic.twitter.com/QDdhdf96wG

— Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg) April 22, 2024

I honestly don't know if America can be salvaged at this point. 

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Box Score of the Week

Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals - April 13, 1980.

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Royals pitcher Dan Quisenberry entered the game in the 7th inning. Catching for KC was Jamie Quirk. As such, this was the first battery in MLB history with both last names beginning with "Q."

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