Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Campaign of "Joy" Turns Backstabby
Historically, Racket is tough on Gov. Tim Walz when warranted (like when he caves to industry or botches political appointments) and puffy with him when it feels right (analyzing strange regional foods, reviewing bison sandwiches). One of our most-read stories of 2024 fell into the former category: This insightful commentary from Anders J. Lee on how muzzling Walz—the once-feisty VP candidate who wouldn't shut up about populist economic issues he championed in Minnesota—helped doom the Democratic ticket last fall.
Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris seems to disagree with Lee. In her new memoir, 107 Days, the ex-VP doesn't exactly paint a flattering portrait of her running mate from Minnesota. Harris is making headlines for admitting that she felt Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg would've made the "ideal partner," yet he was simply too gay. (MSNBC host Rachel Maddow confronted her over that during a book tour interview.) After she settled for Walz, Harris "moaned" while watching her VP pick struggle in the debate against Trump's No. 2, JD Vance.
"When Tim fell for it and started nodding and smiling at J.D.’s fake bipartisanship, I moaned to Doug, ‘What is happening?'" she writes. "I told the television screen: ‘You’re not there to make friends with the guy who is attacking your running mate.’"
Noting that she didn't do a wine spit-take, she writes that the SNL account of her horror over that performance "was otherwise uncanny in its portrait of our evening." She concludes: "In choosing Tim, I thought that as a second-term governor and 12-year congressman he would know what he was getting into. In hindsight, how could anyone?"
Here's where we'll defend the guv, whose shaky debate performance might qualify for the footnotes section of why Dems lost. It is true that Harris faced a steep climb after Biden failed to step aside after, well, his first term. But her lecturing anyone about shortcomings when it comes to political instincts? Pretty rich.
In 107 Days, Harris writes that Biden "sending a message about Musk's anti-union stance" by not inviting the Nazi-saluting tech oligarch to the White House in 2021 was a "mistake." On Gaza, she writes now that she privately "pleaded with Joe" to show empathy toward Palestinian civilians, but on the campaign trail she pledged her “unwavering commitment to Israel” and scolded protesters. "Why did Kamala Harris lose the presidency? In 107 Days, her memoir of the election she inherited from Joe Biden, the answer is a series of mistakes, committed over years, mostly by other people," David Weigel writes in his review for Semafor.
This, of course, is the same candidate who spent the final weeks of the campaign touring the country with a Republican, Liz Cheney, and taking advice from her tech executive brother-in-law, Tony West. The very same candidate who, when asked by The View in 2024 what she would've done differently from Biden, told voters, "There is not a thing that comes to mind." (Harris just brushed this moment off during a book promo return to The View.)
“If there’s a political strategy [in 107 Days], it’s a bad one," former Obama advisor David Axelrod tells Politico. "There’s an awful lot of grievances and finger-pointing that really doesn’t serve a political agenda.”
Justice for the guy who's leading a state through dark times instead of selling a book.
What’s Up with That Statement from Free Geek’s Board of Directors?
Look, we love Free Geek Twin Cities over here at Racket. For the past 15 years, the nonprofit thrift store/recycling center on Minneapolis’s South Side has been a great place to donate electronics or pick up a charger for your (still beloved) dead media devices—Free Geek processed almost 100 tons of e-waste last year alone! Also cool: Shop workers voted to unionize in May.
But, based on a lengthy statement that appears on Free Geek's website, Instagram, and Facebook page (where commenting has been limited), not all is right in tech town. The post, signed “Board of Directors Free Geek Twin Cities,” denies any transphobia or union busting, while also confirming the removal of the shop’s free shelf due to “internal theft which did not represent our values.”
The board is no doubt reacting to accusations levied by commenters on a recent Reddit thread, who've suggested a variety of misdeeds have taken place at Free Geek. (We’ve contacted an employee but have yet to hear back.)
Vintage Music Company Rocks! Er, Maybe “Swings” Is a Better Word.
If you’ve never made a trip to Vintage Music Co. on 38th Street near Cedar Avenue in south Minneapolis, you should pop in one day. You never know what you’ll find mixed in with the ancient 78s and turntables amassed in the cluttered store. Among the prized treasures, as Matthew Alvarez and Lukas Levin of MPR News discovered when they spoke with owner Scott Holthus, is a 1944 recording of an American Red Cross WWII canteen service.
“[This] was recorded at St. Paul Union Depot, and they’re entertaining the troops before they get on the trains,” Holthus says of the recording of "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," which was broadcast live over KSTP. He initially discovered the disc in a box of busted-up records, and he carefully reassembled it until it could be transferred to cassette.
“It's a time capsule,” says Glenn Griffin, an archivist for Hubbard Broadcasting. “It's like going back in a time machine to hear people talking, breathing, living at the time.”
Goths: Can They Live in Pine River, Minnesota?
All-timer headline/dek combo on this story from the Pine and Lakes Echo Journal:
The Echo Journal's Travis G. Grimler has a noble goal, though. It seems recently, on a Pine River Facebook page, someone expressed their concern after seeing a pale young man dressed all in black, with white face makeup, while visiting the Pine River Dam. "Those who knew the person in question were quick to defend him and answer the big question: Who is the Goth photographer at the park?" Grimler writes, adorably.
The "goth photographer" is Allen Lefebvre, a lifetime Pine River resident who was adopted at a young age by Violet and Brad Lefebvre. And as for why he dresses that way? Folks, we've all met, and possibly been, goths at some point in our lives. He just likes it!
"It's like adding paint to a canvas. Some people put their artwork towards painting or photography like I do, but I also like to take it to myself," Lefebvre says. "We live only one life. Why not enjoy it by being yourself and having fun with it and experimenting with things like jewelry, outfits, shirts and layering."
