Minnesota Malevolence
With the greatest number of electoral votes, 525, in American presidential elections history, Ronald Reagan won the 1984 election being victorious in 49 of the 50 states. Minnesota was the lone, anomic voting block. In the 1998 mid-term elections, professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected the 38th governor of Minnesota. He served from 1999 to 2003.
Ventura ran as a Reform Party candidate and was the party's only nominee to win a major government office. One might remember that presidential candidate, the late entrepreneur Ross Perot and his “great big sucking sound” campaign slogan was once the foremost luminary of the Reform Party. Perot was active in the party from 1995 through to the year 2000. Comedian Al Franken of Saturday Night Live (SNL) fame served as a United States senator from Minnesota for 19 years from 2009 to 2018. Franken was forced to resign in embarrassment in January 2018 due to sexual misconduct.
This is not to say the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is altogether politically peculiar or completely offbeat, but some political connoisseurs suggest it is a little more politically disparate because of its large Scandinavian-American population which has hereditary ties to socialism. The name “Vikings” for the Minneapolis football team did not arrive happenstance.
Minnesota currently stands at second or third in the prodigious “coldest state” in the contiguous USA category. North Dakota holds that crown. International Falls, Minnesota calls itself the “Icebox of the Nation” and has recorded the coldest temperatures in the nation dozens of times over the past number of years.
The disparity in low and high temperatures in the state has been -60° in the winter and 115° in the summer. To further enhance summer heat, extreme humidity can be an oft-occurrence and air conditioning is a saving kindness for many. Wind chill or feel-like temperatures in the winter can be absolutely brutal. I can personally attest to these temperatures having lived for a time 170 air miles directly north of International Falls in Canada.
Yet despite these climatic conditions, the democrat-controlled senate passed Senate Bill SF-4 to have 100% “clean” electricity by the year 2040. The bill passed with a 134 to 133 vote. The bill was signed into law by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who said, “Climate change impacts lives and livelihoods in every corner of our state” when the reality is “Climate impacts lives and livelihoods in every corner of our state - keep the change”.
The population of Minnesota, estimated at 5.6 million represents .0006% of the world’s people. The entire state’s population is only 25% of that of the city of Beijing, China. I’m sure you can already envision the absolute insignificance of Minnesota’s asinine anti-emission efforts. But what has clearly been vacated for illusory political gain and progressive advancement is the danger now facing every Minnesotan, peculiar or not. With unreliable electricity looming in the not-too-distant future and with rates beginning to skyrocket, Minnesotans may be the next populace to depart their state in droves. Even if one is committed to the reduction of carbon emissions, which in itself is scientifically irrational, the effort by the Minnesota legislature is like fighting the People’s Republic of China with a pea shooter.
The bar chart below represents current energy sources used in Minnesota, so you know the utilities in the next 17 years, like Smokey and The Bandit, “have a long way to go but a short time to get there”.
