Wednesday Morning Rant

With 2025 in the books and 2026 well underway, it is time for the pundits and wonks to start turning their thoughts to the various trappings of academic prestige afforded to the advanced civilizations they decry but to which they nonetheless belong. Their favored outlet, of course, is the award. There are countless awards. The Pulitzer for excellence in propaganda, the Emmy for excellence in propaganda, the Oscar for excellence in propaganda, The EU Prize for Literature for excellence in propaganda - the list goes on forever.

Of all the awards, however, none are more coveted than the various squishy Nobel Prizes. Economics. Peace. Literature. All are fraught with meaning. To earn such a prize means that one belongs, that one is firmly a part of the academic and cultural elite. In keeping with the true meaning of such prizes, there is a new nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. You might think it's Donald Trump, the most prolific peace negotiator in the postwar era - but you know, deep in your heart, that it isn't. He doesn't belong. Someone will surely nominate him, but not this week.

No, this week, the nomination comes from The Nation. For what may be the very first time, it is a nomination not for a person, but for a place. And that place is, of course, Minneapolis.

No, I'm not kidding.

Why did The Nation nominate the city that has stolen billions and launched an insurgency for the Nobel Peace Prize? In their own words:

The people of Minneapolis have suffered countless abuses, including harassment, detention, deportation, and injury. And, in incidents that shocked the world, federal agents have killed multiple residents, including poet and mother of three Renee Nicole Goode and intensive care nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti.

In response to these horrific developments, elected officials, clergy, and labor leaders in Minneapolis and Minnesota have called for nonviolent protest, in accordance with the US Constitution's promise that Americans have a right to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances. ...

Through countless acts of courage and solidarity, the people of Minneapolis have challenged the culture of fear, hate, and brutality that has gripped the United States and too many other countries. ...

The people of Minneapolis and their elected leaders have demonstrated an extraordinary and sustained commitment to human dignity and to the protection of vulnerable communities. They have exemplified the desire for democracy and equality and the celebration of difference.

Don't laugh. I mean it. The apparatchiks in Stockholm have bestowed this prize on so many equally deserving parties.

Yasser Arafat was an international terrorist. He won a Nobel Peace Prize.

Al Gore is a generational con artist. He won a Nobel Peace Prize. He shares it with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that systematically destroyed climatology as a legitimate science in order advance global authoritarianism.

Barack Obama destroyed domestic race relations, weaponized the US government and made a name for himself drone-striking American citizens and toppling Libya for no reason. He won a Nobel Peace Prize.

The UN's World Food Programme is a nexus of corruption that delivers food to warlords. It won a Nobel Peace Prize.

The European Union is an imperial superstate masquerading as a democratic organization that destroys the freedoms and economies of Europe. It won a Nobel Peace Prize.

I could go on, but I needn't bother.

Through its preposterous and hysterical nomination, The Nation has - purely by accident - nominated the single most deserving party for this prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been in the skin suit stage for generations, and the rotting flesh peeling off the shambling corpse of yet another irrelevant and unfit-for-purpose international organization might as well fall on the Twin Cities.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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