Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Yep, X Still Sucks
"The Will Stancil Show is all but impossible to explain to someone who is not addicted to The Website Formerly Known as Twitter," writes the Atlantic's Tyler Austin Harper in this horrifying dive into the new neo-Nazi web series. But hey, if you're a Racket reader, you already have some footing here...
So, assuming your relative familiarity with our "platonic pure form of the Trump-era liberal wonk" (Harper's description), we'll move onto the show itself, which was created by white nationalist cartoonist Emily Youcis and which, when its season premier debuted on Twitter/X, seemed to have accumulated 1.7 million views. To put that into context, as Harper does in his lede: The latest season premier of The Simpsons drew 1.1 million Americans to tune in. Then again, who knows if such numbers are any more trustworthy than anything else about that social media site.
Here's more from the Atlantic piece:
The show is racist and offensive. Episodes range from four to eight minutes each, and feature cruel gags about Black people in Minneapolis and Cartoon Stancil’s bumbling attempts to help them; extended jokes about a chatbot raping Stancil, based on a real incident in which Grok, X’s in-house AI, provided a user with instructions for sexually assaulting Stancil; and, in one, a scene in which Tel Aviv gets nuked. Unlike other AI-generated content disseminated by the right, however, it is not slop. The episodes have clear narrative arcs, and the animation, though at times clunky, is decent. The Will Stancil Show’s racism, combined with its relatively high production quality, makes it a concerning sign of what might be ahead. Youcis has demonstrated that far-right creators can use AI to make good-enough entertainment, without needing to go through any gatekeeping institutions. And she’s proved that even people who don’t see themselves as bigots will watch this content—and in some cases laugh along.
The Will Stancil Show uses Stancil's real name and likeness, and he tells the Atlantic that it's “extremely surreal to become a main character of the online Nazi phantasmagoria.” What's more, the content moderation tools that would have made it impossible to disseminate such a thing on Twitter pre-Elon's takeover have been dismantled, and Youcis says because she uses AI to animate the eps, they only cost between $100 and $250 to animate.
None of that sounds great, huh? Oh well!
MN Menswear Shop Leaves Faint Whisper on NYTimes List
The New York Times recently published an article titled “The 50 Best Clothing Stores in America” (gift link) and guess what? Minneapolis made the list! But not for the usual suspects like Martin Patrick 3, BlackBlue, or Heimie’s Haberdashery—it’s northeast Minneapolis shop Equipment that made the cut.
“Rather than call attention to themselves, they instead leave a faint trail of elegance—a shoulder that slopes just so, a button slightly more ornate than necessary—that rewards close looking,” the reviewer writes. “Equipment is a men’s wear store where nothing shouts too loudly.” If none of that makes sense to you: Equipment sells normcore basics (tees, khakis, old-man sneakers) in beige and navy hues, along with the occasional “dad on a golf vacation” button up. Most items fall in the $100-$400 range.
According to the Times, owner Erik Hamline focuses on bringing in items from European and Japanese brands. When selecting shops, NYT says that they focused on “inventory, curation, proprietorship, customer service, ambience, location and payoff—would going be worth it, even if nothing is bought?” But while the article says they intend to champion indie stores and old mall culture, it sure makes supporting local businesses feel like a luxury most of us can't afford.
MN Fraud Gets the NYT Treatment
In less flattering "MN makes the NYT" news, our state is also the subject of this deeply reported Ernesto Londoño piece (what the hell—have another gift link) about how "fraud swamped Minnesota’s social services system on Tim Walz’s watch."
There's really nothing new-new here to anyone who's followed MN's pandemic-era fraud schemes, but the Times story follows resurfaced (unsubstantiated) claims about how MN fraud is funding Somali terror cells from conservative activist Christopher Rufo, along with Trump's remarks about ending temporary legal status for Somali immigrants. It's a good lay of the land regarding how fraud became so rampant in the state—and under whose watch that fraud was able to proliferate—and as J. Patrick Coolican notes in today's Daily Reformer, some of the interviews are interesting. For example:
“Ryan Pacyga, who also has represented other defendants in the fraud cases, said that some involved became convinced that state agencies were tolerating, if not tacitly allowing, the fraud.
‘No one was doing anything about the red flags,’ he said. ‘It was like someone was stealing money from the cookie jar and they kept refilling it.’”
As Londoño writes, "Outrage has swelled among Minnesotans, and fraud has turned into a potent political issue in a competitive campaign season. Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch, providing Republicans, who hope to take back the governor’s office in 2026, with a powerful line of attack."
Another Day, Another GOP Candidate for Guv
A PowerPoint presentation stretching over an hour does not seem like the most effective way to announce that you’re running for office. (Honestly a half-hour PowerPoint presentation may not even be ideal.) But that’s how attorney Chris Madel told Minnesota that he was seeking the Republican nomination for governor today. There are now 11 Republican candidates for the state’s top slot—can we make it an even 12 by 2026?
If you’re trying to keep up, the major candidates so far are Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring), Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove), crackpot Dr. Scott Jensen, and health care exec Kendall Qualls.
Madel was in the news this year representing two high-profile dependents. One was Minnesota State Patrol trooper Ryan Londregan, who faced murder and manslaughter charges after shooting driver Rickey Cobb II at a traffic stop. Those charges were dismissed, yet Madel, who represents the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, “repeatedly pointed to the case as an example of disrespect to law enforcement,” MPR News reports. Very unfair to ever prosecute cops, yes.
Madel also successfully represented Alpha News and Liz Collin in a defamation suit brought by Assistant Minneapolis Police Chief Katie Blackwell, related to Collin’s propaganda flick The Fall of Minneapolis. Wait, cops can be wrong sometimes? I’m so confused.
“If you’re tired of losing, I’m your candidate,” is how Madel summed up his campaign, to which Jensen replied, “Buddy, I will never get tired of losing.” Wait, he didn’t say that? Ah well, Racket regrets the error etc.
