Neutral corners, gentlemen

This tweet from Tuesday is what essentially started a high profile spat between one of the wealthiest men on planet Earth and the leader of the free world. 

I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.

This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.

Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025

The war of words really ramped up on Thursday with Musk flat out saying that Donald Trump's name is in the Jeffrey Epstein files, which is why his administration isn't making them public as they claimed they would. 

I'm not really interested in recapping the utter petulance on display because, as an American who has been gravely concerned over the nation's fiscal health for 3 decades, my disgust with Washington's dereliction of duty supersedes this my embarrassment with this nonsense.   

Multiple things can be true here. First, Elon Musk is correct in that the "Big Beautiful Bill" is an abomination and thus completely undermines the work put for by the DOGE folks. It would also add north of $2 trillion to an already incomprehensible $37 trillion national debt. On the other hand, Musk should have kept his powder dry. The fact is the Senate still has to vote on the measure, and it's been very clear that a few GOP Senators are not on board with this legislation in its current form. I get Musk's frustration with the process, but he's getting a firsthand look at how the sausage is made in the legislative process. It's just flat out messy. That and the fact Republicans have a scant 3-seat majority in the House means it's inevitable not all 220 GOP members would be on board with the massive cuts recommended by DOGE. Since there will be zero Democrat support for the BBB, there's very little wiggle room for Republicans. 

But even if the BBB passes in some similar form as to what the House OK'd, there is still a workaround to implementing cuts outside that legislation. Erick Erickson explains. 

Congress can draft legislation that rescinds spending found by DOGE. But doing so would go through the normal legislative process and risk a filibuster in the Senate.

Under the actual law governing rescission, the President can transmit a letter to Congress outlining spending he thinks should be rescinded. Congress can, within forty-five days, approve or reject the spending and the filibuster cannot be deployed.

As Elon Musk depart(ed) the White House with a presidential press conference (last week), the President’s team (sent) a rescission package to Congress. They might do it in batches, instead of one bill. My friend Wade Miller at the Center for Renewing America makes the the case for a pocket rescission.

Essentially, if the President transmits the rescission to Congress toward the end of the fiscal year with less than forty-five days for consideration before September 30th, the President can effectively rescind the spending on his own.

If indeed this is the way forward, you would think this would be palatable to Musk. As such, the war of words between he and Trump seems counterproductive. I get a sense Musk just doesn't understand there are parliamentary protocols in place. If indeed that's the crux of the matter, it sure woulda been nice for someone from the administration to convey that explanation as opposed to two egomaniacal men engaging in a Mean Girls reenactment. 

Anyhow, the clock's ticking here. 

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They still don't get it

We're approximately seven months removed from the 2024 presidential election and Democrats are still engaging in post mortems. And front and center is the Dem VP candidate  Nebraska Fats Tim Walz, who continues to show he is utterly clueless as to what caused he and Kamala Harris to lose the POTUS race. 

As podcast host and former Montana Sen. Jon Tester argued that the campaign didn't use Walz effectively, Walz said his argument spoke to a broader point about the Democratic Party not entering "every media environment," including podcasts and local media. He said, "My God, they're not watching ‘Meet the Press,’ they're listening to you guys, as they're going somewhere, listening."

The former Democratic vice presidential candidate spoke to Tester and journalist Maritsa Georgiou, hosts of the "Grounded" podcast, on Thursday about the 2024 campaign and the Democratic Party's next steps.

Though Harris did speak to some podcast hosts, she also visited traditional media outlets such as CNN and CBS' "60 Minutes," and waited weeks after her campaign launch to do media at all.

"I think you got to flood the zone," Walz said. "And I would argue we didn't see, you know, the vice president when she got in front of people, and I watch her talking to young people, she was magnetic with them. She was optimistic. She was hopeful. But in today's world, you got to have a lot of that, or it gets lost in the noise. And if you think you're just going to do a, you know, a '60 Minutes' interview, and that's going to get across, boy, that's not it."

The problem for Harris is people already knew who she was. She had the reputation of being painfully ill-informed on many policy issues, often answering questions as if she were giving an oral book report without having thoroughly read the book. And the fact she indicated on perhaps the most leftist friendly environment that is The View that she wouldn't change a thing from what the failed Biden administration had done its first 3-1/2 years was a critical (if not fatal) wound. Not sure how "flooding the zone" with a lackadaisical message would have made their electoral prospects any better. 

Also, as my former Northern Alliance Radio Network alum (and Hot Air chief) Ed Morrissey points out, Walz as the Veep pick was a catastrophic blunder. 

For one thing, he was clearly the He's Not a Jew choice by Harris, who was widely expected to pick Josh Shapiro to bolster her strength in Pennsylvania, but that isn't Walz' fault. Instead, Walz tried to make a campaign slogan out of calling Republicans "weird" while strutting across stages like Freddie Mercury on a coke binge. Walz also talked a lot about "freedom" and "Mind Your Own Damn Business" from a governor who established a literal snitch line for Minnesotans to rat out family and friends for supposed pandemic sins -- a Stasi-esque operation that ran for more than two years in Minnesota. Harris supposedly picked Walz as a masculine role model to attract younger male voters, which speaks largely to Harris' lack of intellectual capacity.

CNN host Jake Tapper's anecdote about leftists' reactions to his football-playing, aspiring cop son encapsulates the Dems' issues with male voters (caution: strong language).  

 

"This is why you fuckers are losing elections."

CNN's Jake Tapper says left-wing podcast hosts assumed his teen son is racist because he wants to be a police officer.

"That's how the democratic party talks to men." pic.twitter.com/1Dj0drIYsO

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 28, 2025

I don't see this as something that gets fixed over one or two election cycles. 

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Left wing terror

Leftists would have you believe that violent incidents like the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA and the 1/6/2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol occur on a regular basis. Why they push such a narrative is rather simple: the people who instigated those events were supporters of Donald J. Trump. As such, progs and their media allies use them as a cudgel to perpetuate their "oRaNgE mAn BaD" worldview. 

Heck, even when Trump wasn't President of the United States, you had President Joe Biden in 2023 declare that white supremacy is the #1 domestic terror threat we Americans face. It's clear that the Biden administration thought the best way to advance an anti-Trump narrative was to completely fabricate a crisis since the demand for white supremacist terror vastly outweighed the supply. 

But when violent incidents occur where a case can be made that they were inspired by prog rhetoric or misinformation peddled by a agenda-driven media, we get the ol' reactionary chanting point of "We just don't know what the perpetrator's motivation could be" despite said perpetrators shouting "ALLAHU AKBAR" or "FREE PALESTINE." 

Erick Erickson breaks it down. 

A progressive techie gunned down an insurance company executive in New York. Many on the left cheered him on.

One progressive activist attempted to burn down the Governor’s Mansion in Pennsylvania with the Governor and his family inside.

Another just murdered two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C.

A Muslim man in Michigan has been arrested for a plot to attack a military base on behalf of ISIS.

A Defense Intelligence Agency employee has been arrested for attempting to sell secrets to another nation because the employee is upset Donald Trump won the election.

(On Sunday) in Boulder, CO, an Egyptian man attempted to set on fire a number of Jews. A Holocaust survivor is a victim. The man chanted about Palestine as he Molotov Cocktailed the Jews.

The attack (Sunday) came after American media outlets amplified a story about Israelis killing Palestinians in Gaza that turned out not to be true.

Along those lines, the Washington Post announced they were deleting a post containing such disinformation. 

Correction: We’ve deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.

The background: Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the… pic.twitter.com/KseRXgJn6A

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 3, 2025

Remember it was the WaPo that declared "Democracy dies in darkness" when the first Trump term began in 2017. I wonder what they believe happens to democracy when reporters engage in "narrative journalism" as opposed to, y'know, REPORTING FACTS?!?!?!

And while leftists reject "lone wolf" arguments for when a mentally unstable person commits a spree killing with a firearm, they'd have us believe that the myriad incidents Erick laid out in his post are merely one-offs. 

Just a string of "lone wolf" attacks aimed at the same group using the same rhetoric based on the same ideology. https://t.co/fqSJuXz5zD

— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) June 3, 2025

Tragically, democracy is not the only thing dying in darkness. 

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Box Score of the Week

Let's go with a game from this past weekend: Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners - May 31, 2025.

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After this past Saturday's game, Mariners' backstop Cal Raleigh had 22 home runs on the season. That is a MLB record for most home runs hit by a catcher before the month of June. In fact, no catcher had even hit 20 within the first two months of a season. 

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On assignment

Given we're on the brink of summer, I will be absent from a good number of Sunday radio shows over the next few months, starting today. 

Community Solutions MN co-founder Andrew Richter will be filling in on the today's broadcast, 1-3 PM Central Time. 

You can listen 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.

Until then.....

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Happy June 1

Just a friendly reminder as we enter the month of June. 

Pride is a devastating sin and is complex. Most sins turn us away from God, but pride directly attacks God. It lifts us above and against God, seeking to dethrone Him by enthroning ourselves.
- Joel Beeke

— Brandon Scalf (@brandonmscalf) December 22, 2024

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