Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Coming Soon? Gaslighting Lawsuits!
Sigh. Look, I don’t want to acknowledge the scary clown in the corner of the room anymore than the rest of us. But he is indeed real, so here we are. We all have eyes, we all know what the Sieg Heil salute looks like, and Elon Musk, who told a far-right audience in Germany that he thinks we’re ready to move on from the Holocaust, made that unmistakable gesture (more than once!) at Trump's recent inauguration. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz agrees. “We spent three days debating, or trying to debate, that ‘President Musk’ gave a Nazi salute. Of course he did,” Walz told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow earlier this week, during his first in-depth interview since his failed VP bid.
Musk fanboys on Twitter are now calling for him to sue the governor. When anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck posted that Musk should sue Walz “for all he’s worth,” Musk, the self-proclaimed beacon of free speech, responded to one post with a clown emoji and a, “I think I will.” Elon's mother, Maye Musk, has also been tweeting at her son to sue CNN. The closest Musk, a grown man, has gotten to addressing the salute? Shitposting bad Himmler, Goebbels, and Hess puns.
How’s That DEI Drop Working Out for You, Target?
Do the suits at Target Corp. understand how bonkers it is to publicly announce you’re no longer pledging to support diversity, equity, and inclusion? We’ve yet to see if the move will hurt or help the big-box retailer’s bottom line, but when folks in your hometown are calling for a national boycott, it’s never a good PR indicator.
That’s what happened this morning, as civil rights activists and leaders converged for a press conference outside Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. “For some reason Target didn’t understand that its decision was not only offensive, but bad for business,” says civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network. During the event, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities leader Chauntyll Allen cut her Target card in half with scissors, while CAIR-MN executive director Jaylani Hussein, local radio personality Sheletta Brundidge, and others pledged to not support Target.
Meanwhile, over at Huffington Post, frequent Racket contributor Deborah Copperund explains why she’s saying “goodbye to the bullseye,” where she spent over $6K last year. “As trans people are having their identities erased by our government and cruel (and likely illegal) roundups of immigrants are taking place," she writes, "how can I justify my continued use of the Circle App? Because it’s convenient?”
Dark Horse To Close On V-Day
Since 2015, Dark Horse has been offering a mix of world cuisines from its Lowertown St. Paul space. Think Thai curries, pulled pork sammies, and thin-crust pizzas. But don’t let that get you hungry, because owners Sarah Schrantz and Paddy Whelan announced today that their bar/restaurant will be closing up shop on February 14.
“Dark Horse means to be an underdog, someone who is not likely to win—but not here. We are a small dysfunctional family that has grown to love and support each other on a level that will forever be unmatched,’” the “Dark Horse Fam” writes via Instagram. “For anyone that has had the chance to come in and experience our staff—consider yourself lucky.”
Report: Unions Lead to Longer Lives
How about some happier news? A recent University of Minnesota study found that union members between the ages of 41 and 67 enjoy a 1.5% reduction in their mortality rates.
“In addition to higher wages, unions also provide a wide range of superior benefits to otherwise less powerful workers: health insurance, time off and a pension, occupational security, a path for upward attainment, and workplace safety, to name a few,” explains sociology professor Tom VanHeuvelen in the Minnesota Reformer. “Unions also tend to push for more egalitarian and protective policies which might have downstream health consequences.”
The not-so-good news? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. workforce is only 11% percent unionized, and the life expectancy gap between folks with college degrees and those without has risen to 8.5 years. Still, according to VanHeuvelen, these types of labor-focused studies can help us better understand emerging health disparities among older adults.
