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A
Yep.
B
This is the Weekly Scramble, a place where we chat about life over a cold one or two. It's time to belly up to the pod with Mike Fratelloni and your host, Chris Reivers.
A
That's right. It's time for the Weekly Scramble podcast. My name is Chris Reivers. With me as always. His name is Mike Fratelloni. Hello, Michael.
B
How you doing, Reavers?
A
You know, that's a loaded question. Is it? However, you know what? Doing good. Doing good. It's always fun to kind of turn.
B
The page in your neck of the woods, in your echo chamber, do I say, Happy January 6th?
A
You know, I did bust that out in the mayor a couple of times, because it always starts out the show with January 6th. My mic was off, of course. I go, happy anniversary.
B
Happy anniversary.
A
Yes. And then I did it again during the newscast. But, you know, to those who celebrate is how I say, Happy January 6th.
B
And those who celebrate the fact that they had something to pin on Donald Trump for the last five years, including.
A
The governor, that during both of his press conferences in which he announced he wasn't running again, he decided that he would take this opportunity to rip the administration for all their failed policies, while yet not willing to point at his own administration for their incompetence.
B
He made a huge error.
A
Governor Walz, I'm sorry, but yesterday. Yeah, okay, let me. Let me phrase this. I want to get back to why you think he made a huge error. So I didn't mean to cut you off.
B
No, that's fine.
A
But between yesterday and today, first of all, yesterday, I wish there had been a laugh track associated with his. Yes, with his press conference, because he is such a gutless clown show. And the fact that you wanna. And again, he's doing it because he knows it's gonna work. He's the king of gaslighting. He's the absolute king of gaslighting.
B
Trump is actually the king gaslighting.
A
And 50% of the SAPS in this state that voted for him, that would have voted for a third term, are gonna continue to lap this up. And the problem that I have is he's doing it for one reason. It works.
B
It works.
A
And that's why I have such an issue with it, because we're just morons. We're being tapped on the top of our head and being told what a good boy you are.
B
You're so smart.
A
You sit there, you chew on that tennis ball. You're such a good boy. Sorry.
B
So what? I think he made the mistake in reverse.
A
You made Me even more mad than I was about six minutes ago.
B
What he did wrong is he stopped if he's learned anything from the study of Trump, because he studies Trump all the way, right? He is a studier of Trump. Never apologize, never admit anything wrongdoing and always, always keep moving forward to the next big thing. Because someday Minnesota, like in one month, will not talk fraud anymore in the state. We'll have. We're done with it. We'll move on to something different.
A
Oh, this will. Fraud will be a talking point until the election.
B
It will kind of will be. Kind of will be. Is. Now it has.
A
Here's why. It will die off.
B
Reverse. It will die off because he's not running anymore. But even if he stayed in, it doesn't matter. He can always say it's not us. Why didn't you come and help us when we asked for help? We're a generous state. First of all, that absolutely pisses me off when he says we're a generous state. You're not shit.
A
You're generous with our money.
B
You're generous with my money, right? You can't be generous with my money. A hole my money. I get to pick what happens to it. You force me to to give it to the state and then you become generous with it. I should be generous with my money. You don't get to be generous with state ripped off taxes.
A
The reason that now you're pissing me off.
B
I'm pissed off.
A
Hey, you know what? This is gonna be a worked up episode of the weekly scramble podcast. Just trust me. It could get even a lot worse here in the next couple of minutes. But the reason why he's taking the mantra that he is is for two reasons. Number one, he got his marching orders from the puppeteer, the puppet master, the engine, that is.
B
Who's that?
A
The Democratic Party.
B
He doesn't give two craps about that.
A
Yes, he does. And here' he's getting his marching orders because we have to continue this machine rolling. Because if a Republican candidate does get elected, then the rock beneath the ground is gonna unearth the rest of the worms that are existing that we don't even know about.
B
That's a valid point.
A
So that's number one.
B
That's a valid point.
A
Number two, here's what's gonna happen. Amy Klobuchar is gonna get the nod to become the official runnery to seek governorship in the state of Minnesota under the Democratic platform. And she's going to win.
B
She's going to win.
A
She's going to Win hands down. We could run Ronald Reagan in his prime against Amy Klobuchar. She's going to win. Then what's going to happen, Mike? Amy Klobuchar, as the new governor of the state of Minnesota, is going to have Tim Walls replace her.
B
Not a chance.
A
I would bet a lot of.
B
I think Amy's going to happen. I think. And I think people like Amy. Sure. I think she's more. Has she been on our show? Not our show, the garagelogic podcast.
A
Well, she goes back a ways with Joel, but in my time she might have. But I don't recall that.
B
I think she has been. I might be totally making that up. She seems to be not always a lunatic. Can I say that?
A
Sure.
B
And maybe as a governor, she would not have to placate to the powers that be in the Democrat Party every day. And she could be a more moderate Democrat, kind of a Clinton Democrat or Reagan Democrat. I'm calling Reagan a Democrat now because the right's gone way to the right and the left's gone way to the left. And maybe Reagan and Clinton are almost the same thing nowadays.
A
The other problem that I have with how Governor Walz decided to conduct himself, oh, by the way, when he had the formal press conference yesterday, not the look at how great our Family Leave act is today. Yesterday, he took zero questions once he was done, even though they lied to the press and told them that he would be answering questions once he was done.
B
He doesn't have any answers.
A
But the reason why he's taking the stance he is is he's gonna spend the rest of his time as governor to fight fraud. I am gonna be here to oversee us tackling these evildoers. To which I would say, and Joe did such a great job of eloquently putting. Tim, you have been in charge.
B
You were the one currently are in charge.
A
That was supposed to be in place to oversee, to make sure that this didn't happen. And here's what's gonna happen. The voting public's gonna say, what a noble effort. He stood there and there might be a story here and a story there about how we tackled this and we tackled that and that's gonna be enough for some people. And that's the shame of the situation that we are in as a state. Again, I've lived here my entire life. I didn't sign up for this crap. I didn't sign up for the Quality Leering center, not the Quality Learning center, but the Quality Leering center to be handy. The video you watched by the Way, the video that you watch with the viral video of the woman that started to harass someone who went to the front door to merely ask, are there any. Are there any kids here? And that's how emboldened. And that's the audacity with what we are dealing with right now. And it leads me to believe, Michael. Okay, we scratched the surface. This fraud development is so much deeper than any one of us realizes because we're only at a billion or two. It's way deeper than that.
B
Nationally, it's. It's way, way, way.
A
I don't give a damn about nationally. But I know it's also problem. I know, but, but it's. But that's. I'm just talking about Minnesota because we're talking about walls.
B
I wonder. So I went to go buy the Domain Quality Leering Center. Right. Because I wanted to own that website because I want to make sure it's, you know, proud graduate of the Quality Leering Center.
A
Yes, right.
B
That would have been good. Someone already owns it, which is frustrating because I was like, that would have been a good one. People are passionate about this reverse. You know why? Because your boy Mike got some hate mail.
A
Oh, no, I did.
B
I got a little hate mail because they were so mad that I wouldn't throw every Somali under the bus. Right. Because I said, unlike your partner. Unlike you. Maybe you might. I'm not gonna do that. I believe the thieves that did it are the ones we should throw under the bus. Sure. If you're, if you're just a regular old Joe, we don't throw you under the bus. Just like the same thing. Like if my ancestors committed some crime, it's not my deal. I didn't do it. Right.
A
You weren't part of it.
B
I wasn't part of it. And I believe that wholeheartedly about that community. That many of them, the vast majority of them are just law abiding citizens trying to make their way in Minnesota.
A
Right.
B
Okay. You can give me a little air quote, whatever you want to do. But people were mad because I blamed the state and I think I must have not made this clear. If you owned a store and you had no doors on the front of your store and you had no cash registers and you had no employees and all you sold on your shelves was money, do you think people would steal from that store? Probably right. People would go in and say, oh, there's no one here. There's no doors, there's no cameras.
A
Try to figure out the mic for a little bit.
B
So here's Where I'm going is the state opened a store with no security, no employees, no doors, and they just put money on all the shelves.
A
No oversight, no enemies, no one's watching it.
B
So the first guy walks in and says, I'm gonna take $11. Then he walks out and says, hey, I just took $11 from there. No one stopped me. And the next guy goes in, takes $10,000. The next gu in and takes 10 million. You can blame the people who stole the money, but if the state didn't open the store the way they did, none of that would have happened. These were not masterminds. Reverse. Here's where I hope I made myself clear on that one.
A
Here's what the however comes in and we talked about this on the Garage Logic podcast today. I will personally never be convinced. In fact, I think one of the reasons that the likes of Walz and others have decided to whether it's Heather Mueller who decided to leave the Department of Education and suffered no consequences, even though they were supposed to be the oversight of this Feeding Our Future program. The likes of, and I'm just going to throw this name out there, the likes of Ilhan Omar. You are never going to convince me that they weren't the ones who by the way opened the legislation to pass this bill back in 2019. The fact that they didn't say, hey, here's how this is gonna work. You're gonna be able to go to the Safari restaurant, open up a business and then apply for all of these grants. That's gonna give you money to claim that you're feeding kids.
B
Sure.
A
So it's absolutely foolish to think nobody on the inside, and I'm talking about elected officials, that nobody on the inside wasn't there to tip those people off about these programs existing in the first place.
B
Totally don't disagree with you. That was a double negative. I agree with you. Rehearsals.
A
Totally don't disagree with you. Got it right. Totally, totally don't disagree with you.
B
I agree with you. Some of that happened. That does not mean all Somalis are criminals. It just doesn't.
A
But that's okay. But that person that was tipped off was the first person that took took the $11 and then told five different.
B
People, Hey, I get it. But if the store wasn't there to rip off, you wouldn't be able to do it anyways.
A
Who passed the legislation to make the store open?
B
That's right. The state of Minnesota was so ill conceived and ill thought out on these programs and federal government programs that they left These gaping holes. They left a store with no cameras, no cash registers, no employees, no doors. Well, some. You might even take an honest person and not an honest person, a person on the edge of honesty. And they'd say, well, it seems like no one cares if you take money from this. I mean, it's wide open.
A
And the other part that I have a problem with is the like of Ilhan Omar went from a net worth of $100,000 to now $30 million.
B
Do we know that for sure?
A
Yes, we do.
B
I know that's on the Internet. She has refuted that claim dramatically.
A
But she's wrong. She's flat out wrong.
B
Do we have her tax returns? $30 million is a lot. A lot of money.
A
See, now you're gonna get even more.
B
A lot of money.
A
You're defending Elon Omar.
B
I mean, I don't think she has $30 million. $30 million makes her one of the richest people in Minnesota. But within the top 500 assets acquired.
A
You don't think that that's part of this?
B
I don't believe it. I mean, she has. Isn't her husband in the hedge fund business? Her second husband?
A
No, that's her brother.
B
That was first husband. Oh.
A
Oh, I'm sorry.
B
I don't know that I'm making that up. I don't know if that's true. See, the problem is we're sitting in this echo chamber that we hear and someone says that. And then my buddy says to me, did you hear? Ilhan Omar's first husband was her brother? And I said what?
A
I gotta tell you though, that's exactly why I'm so angry about all of this. I didn't sign up for this.
B
No, but it's here. It doesn't matter whether you did or not.
A
But that's the problem is I never voted for this. Do I want a kid to go hungry? Of course not. But I didn't sign up for this. I didn't agree. I did not agree to let the schools in the city of a once great city of Minneapolis and St. Paul to crumble to the point where 28% of kids can read at grade level. I didn't sign up for the fact that we've got billions and billions of dollars in fraud of which all of us pay for. I didn't sign up for that. And I didn't sign up for the fact that people are coming here in drove, committing immigration fraud, election fraud, integrity fraud, all of that stuff happening. I didn't sign up for that.
B
Who cares? Who cares whether you signed up for it or not? Why do you get to get what you want? We are a representative republic. You get one vote. So does everyone else in this state.
A
Yeah, that's here legally.
B
That's here legally. You get one vote.
A
Right.
B
And then our representatives that we pick.
A
People that aren't here legally also get that same. Right.
B
But I. Okay. The right leaning National Legal and Policy center is among those asking questions about Ilhan Omar's sudden net worth jump to between 6 and 30 million in 2024.
A
I'm sure it's pretty.
B
This is Newsweek. This is according to Newsweek. Omar has not directly addressed concerns of potential fraud, but has in the past said she is not a millionaire. How do we not know what her net worth is? How do we not. How are we not asking our politicians to say if you want to become one of the most powerful people in the world, congressman or senator, a member of the House of Representatives or a senator, you have to tell us exactly what your net worth is. We need to know if you went from having a net worth of 100,000 bucks to 30 million in a handful of years, something's dramatically wrong. Dramatically wrong.
A
I can tell you my net worth is about $0 right now. We are gonna be a little negative and we arenutsmn.com they are you and they are here for us in 2026. And we thank them and the entire family of the we are Nuts crew hand batch made snacks right here in the great state of Minnesota. A wonderful family owned operation. And you know what, you got to go to the website wearenutsmn.com and see their entire selection. The cashews, the maple bourbon toffee almonds, the cinnamon toffee peanuts, the wasabi trail mix. By the way, really, really good. I bought a jar of that the other day at. Where did I go? Oh, I went to Cub Foods and I bought a jar of that wonderful, wonderful snacks. And you know what? A great family owned operation. So you can go to Cub Foods, you can go to Kowalski's markets, you can go to any one of your fratolone's hardware and garden stores locations, Mac's Hardware, Kwik Trip, also at Coburn's. I gotta pick up some Hokey Pokey popcorn for the weekend by the way because my 14 year old and his buddies woofed those two bags down that I bought at the Cockburns and Bell plant a couple of days ago. Anyway, you can also place your order if you're not able to make it any one of those locations@wearenutsmn.com and please, when you do that, let them know that you heard about them here on the weekly Scramble podcast. Who doesn't love this time of year? Football playoffs are here and underdog is the best place to get in on all the action. Underdog is so easy, you just pick if your favorite players will go higher or lower on stats like touchdowns, rushing yards, receptions and more. If you get your picks right, you could win up to 5,000 times your cash. So many great players to choose from this time of season, but the way I look at it, I think Matthew Stafford to go higher on yards passing is always a good way for me to go. And Saquon Barkley's a nice pick to go higher on rushing yards. So what are you waiting for? Download the app today and use Promo Code garage to score $75 in bonus entries. When you play your first $5, that's promo code Garage. Underdog make picks win money must be.
B
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A
I didn't mean to get you all that worked up.
B
Omar noted that she had income of between 5 and $15,000 from the winery that she invested in. She owns part of a winery?
A
Her husband does.
B
Yeah, but this was hers.
A
I thought they owned that together.
B
This shift in wealth in 2024 largely came from businesses tied to Omar's husband, Tim Minette, a former political consultant. Okay, political consultants are the world's richest people. The first is estcru, meaning wine. I don't know what that is. A California winery was listed as worth between 1 and 5 million. Why? Rose Lake Capital, a venture capital firm, was listed as worth between 5 and 25 million. So maybe she is worth this. She did send a disclosure to the House of Representatives in 2025 that stated that her net worth was as high as $30 million that she disclosed to the House of Representatives. If you're not pissed, if you're not pissed, something's wrong. You don't get to come Politicians Reivers did You know, this would come into politics and go bankrupt when they left because they had to pay for everything. If the president back 150 years ago had a state dinner, he had to take the money out of his poc, have a state dinner, they would file for bankruptcy when they finished. Now, Ilhan OMAR is worth $30 million.
A
May or may not be in this country legally, but that's a discussion for a different time.
B
If she's not kissing the ass of America.
A
No. In fact, she despises us.
B
She does?
A
Why?
B
Why doesn't she say things like, oh my God, with the right NGO and a couple of great people in a restaurant business, you too can become worth 30 million dol. I just don't get why she wouldn't keep her mouth shut and keep doing what she's doing. She's making an ungodly fortune. It is shocking. If this is true or. Or her husband is one of the best venture capitalists I've ever seen in my entire life.
A
Better than Buffett, better than everybody.
B
Better than Nancy Friggin Pelosi.
A
Can I ask you a question? Yeah, Can I ask you a question?
B
I shouldn't have had a Diet Coke.
A
No, it's okay. No, no, no. I'm glad you did. I like animated Mike Fratelloni. Is this the first you're hearing of this?
B
No, I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it because you know how hard it is to make $30 million. It takes lifetimes for 30 people to make $1 million each.
A
She must just be lucky. She must be really, really good and in tune with.
B
She probably is smart. I don't think she's a dope. I bet you she's not a dope. But how do you gain that sort of wealth making. What do they make, 190,000 bucks a year? Your husband was a political consultant. Political consultants could make anywhere from 12,500 to 100,000 bucks a year or whatever. You know, if you're a political consult, Donald Trump, you might make a little bit more. But if you were running the mayor's race in Brooklyn center, you probably weren't making that kind of money. Where did they get it? Why aren't citizen journalists crawling up the keisters of every politician, Republican and Democrat? Why?
A
I can help you.
B
Yeah, tell me.
A
They don't exist. I mean, look at the two newspapers in the state of Minnesota. You've got your Minneapolis Star Tribune and you've got your St. Paul Pioneer Press. And again, I'm not ripping anybody. I know a lot of people that have worked for both of those stations. The St. Paul Pioneer Press doesn't even have a building anymore. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is being printed in Des Moines. Freaking Iowa.
B
Wasn't the first one a little late because it was snowy?
A
No, it didn't make it.
B
Oh, it didn't even make it because.
A
The freeway was closed. Here's my point. My point is, that's why when people are ripping the likes of this Nick Shirley, and you could take umbrage with him as a commentator, as a journalist, and as a social media correspondent all you want. That's fine. My point is these other outlets don't exist to the degree that they once did. That's why they're getting away with this.
B
But I said citizen journalists. I said, guys like you and me, okay, why don't we just go to somebody.
A
Yeah, look at all the local newspapers. Just in my neck of the woods, they all closed up shop. Whether it's the Jordan Independent, the Chanhassen Villager, the Chaska Herald. They all shut down because they were losing money. So that's. I guess what I'm trying to say is those outlets don't exist anymore.
B
But citizen journalists, Reverse. Are you and I just guys that say, oh, I want to.
A
But we're not deemed credible in the likeness of the voting public?
B
We are. We have a podcast, reverse. I guess. I know you're talking about the general public, but can't we file FOIA request to say, hey, we want to see this, the paperwork, freedom of information stuff.
A
Did you read yesterday's article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about this Nick Shirley video that we talked about last week?
B
No.
A
You have to read it because it will answer your question. Here's a guy that went around to all of these places that thought that said that he was pointing out, well, there's nobody here. And watch the way he was attacked by a quote, unquote credible publication.
B
I didn't believe him, but that's the problem. But did you believe his video?
A
Of course I do.
B
Really? Why didn't he say what day he was there?
A
But I think we're almost in the point. What we decided to do. But what we decided to do, Mike, is we want to kill the messenger. We don't want to kill the message or we don't want to point out what the problem is. Well, we talk about citizen journalists.
B
Maybe he went to these places on January 1st, and maybe they were closed.
A
I'll go back to the story that Jay did J. Cole's KSTP Channel 5 a year ago, he walked to a place that was very similar to this, to why Tom Hauser got mad about this guy getting arrested.
B
Jay would have said what time and date he was there, because he's a real journalist.
A
Jay was there on a Wednesday in the middle of the week during when school should have been. And he said, well, where are all the kids? And the woman looked in the camera and said, they come here at night.
B
I get that. I get that.
A
Right.
B
That's J. Cole's. But Nick's piece, Nick Shirley's piece. I wasn't overly sure that his piece was being accurate. You know, he did.
A
He needed some time stamps. That would have helped.
B
It needed a. Hey, I'm here on Tuesday. Here's the newspaper from Tuesday. It's, hey, buddy, what day is it today? It's Tuesday. Okay, we're here Tuesday. It should be busy. Where is everybody? Right? He didn't do that. And that creeped me out a little bit. Cause I thought, well, but maybe he did. Maybe it's just poor journalism. I don't know. It just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.
A
But it was effective to the degree that it caused, number one, it caused a reaction. It caused a lot of people to go, well, wait a minute. What's going on here?
B
It potentially destroyed Governor Walz's reelection.
A
Could have. Yeah.
B
I mean it very. And I think Nick Shirley put up a post on X or YouTube saying, I took down the walls.
A
Oh, he did?
B
Yeah.
A
I missed that. Right.
B
Okay, who's got the biggest walls of them all? Nick Shirley does.
A
Goodness.
B
See what I did there?
A
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B
Best read ever.
A
Thank you. North American Banking company member FDIC is an equal housing lender. The weekly scramble. We will be right back. We got the alert at about 6 in the morning today.
B
Oh yeah, it was going to be.
A
Bad that the roads were not going to be good, that the school was delayed for two hours. And you do miss the joy of having just a delayed school day. Right. So I could play video games for another hour or two. And then subsequently our school in Jordan did end up calling off school for the day. But really I thought, man, the icy roads, like, I get it. Like where I was, I'm bad.
B
You coming up?
A
It was pretty much just wet, but to the east of us it was pretty icy. And then obviously northern, the northern part of the metro, I know, especially northeastern part of the metro was pretty bad. But the ice icy roads were. We dealt with it, but it was for the most part.
B
Okay, so maybe when the Department of Homeland Security tweeted this morning at 8:17, good morning Minneapolis, they knew we were all going through the ice struggle.
A
Right. It was a big ice storm.
B
It's an ice storm. That's what we should have said. It's an ice storm coming to Minnesota. Have you heard about this? Did you talk about this on GL?
A
Very briefly.
B
2000 ICE agents.
A
Yep.
B
That's a lot of ice agents. Yes, it is hitting the town.
A
Here's my main question. Here's what I want.
B
Christy Noem.
A
Where is she having dinner at tonight?
B
St. Paul Hotel. I almost promise you it's going to be the St. Paul Hotel.
A
Are you going to wander over there and just kind of figure out, I.
B
Mean, where else should the problem is she can't go to any restaurant.
A
But didn't they. I thought I saw a story this morning and again, it came from the Internet. So of course it's true that a bunch of hotel reservations were revoked that had some tie to Department of Homeland Security.
B
Yeah. You know what might be the problem is. Oh, a potential huge percentage of our workers can't work today because they're so afraid of ice being in the hotel.
A
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. What I'm trying to say is, Christy, if you need a spot to crash, you just give Reivers a call.
B
You got an extra bedroom in the basement right down. Comforter down there.
A
Oh, 100% king size. And by the way, Christy, just so you know, it never gets above 58 degrees in that basement. And we're nice and nestled in there.
B
You get a weird thing for her.
A
I'm getting real creepy.
B
I like Kristi Noem as a person, give or take. The dog killing. I found that kind of creepy.
A
That was kind of weird.
B
A little creepy. I don't like the jeans with the pockets that have the embroidery on the bottom. I know. It's a northern Minnesota thing.
A
You are so wrong about that.
B
And the jeans with a little sparkle butt. I like my girls jeans. My ladies jeans. Not girls, ladies jeans. Just to have a flat. Not a flat, but a rounded, plain part.
A
Like the ones you're wearing right now. Yeah.
B
Like, here, let me show everybody. Like that. I want it to be like that. Right. So when I'm hitting it like that.
A
Do you know my Christy Noem story? Have I ever shared this with you publicly?
B
I thought that was just a dream.
A
So I kind of started a thing for her, I would say, going back to 2020. And it was that weird time where Covid hit. We're all scared. I got two young kids that are distance learning, including a kid who's now in fifth grade, that was in kindergarten. Very first time in most of his school year. He wasn't even in school. Right. So it was just that odd time. And we're pent up. We can't go anywhere. We can't do anything. And we're all frustrated. Well, then spring came around and. Okay, now we can kind of go outside and we can kind of do.
B
Some stuff with masks on.
A
Yeah. But there was really nothing we could do. And I remember saying, you know what? Let's go out to South Dakota. Let's just get out of here for just a couple of days. Fourth of July. Let's just do it.
B
Wife's got family out there.
A
Yeah. She originally went to high school out there. And I thought, let's just do this. And of course, this was a 2020, was a reelection campaign trail for President Trump.
B
You were going out to Wall Drug to get your Ivermectin. Yes, exactly.
A
So we went out there and we stopped at this place, and we wanted to go to see Mount Rushmore and do all that stuff. And I remember we had received word from one of the spots outside of Keystone. I went to get gas, and they said, hey, just so you know, everything around Mount Rushmore is closed because they're gonna host a campaign rally for President Trump tonight. And just don't get caught up in that. Cause you'll be stuck there for hours. So, basically, if you turn down the wrong highway to try to get to, like, Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse or any of those national monuments. There's so many roads shut down by federal agents, not just South Dakota law enforcement, that you might get caught up in it. So this guy was super awesome, and he was letting us know, like, just, just be careful. Right? And so we're heading westbound toward Rapid City.
B
Ooh.
A
So just past Keystone. And I remember, and we had heard that Trump was flying in, so all the airspace was off limits and blah, blah, blah.
B
He needed to see what head. Where his head would fit. On Mount Rushmore.
A
On Mount Rushmore, exactly. So I remember we were driving down the freeway, and you know how the freeways in South Dakota have those massive. Not just a regular U turn like you'd see on 35, but the huge ones for semis to be able to turn around just in case it's weather or whatever. Right. And I remember we were kind of coming down this pass and I saw a plane and I pointed. The boys were in the backseat. Go, oh, my God, look. And of course she goes, it's an airplane. I go, you're lucky you're pretty. No, I said, what airplane do you think that that is? And she said, oh, my God, it's Air Force One. So I pulled into one of those massive U turn deals, and I remember tweeting this out. I should pull it up for you. It was Air Force One flying right over the top of our vehicle. So the boys had their heads sticking out of the car. It was awesome. It was super, super cool. Anyway, so I said, well, the protesters are lined up. And I went, okay, nothing's really going to be accomplished by us staying here. Let's get to our hotel so the boys can go swim and we could just kind of chill, right? So the best was everyone thought he was going to land at the military base just outside of Keystone. I can't remember what. What city that that is in, but he was gonna land at the air. I think it's Air Force, but he's gonna land at the military base. And then they all thought there was gonna be a motorcade taking him to Mount Rushmore, but this guy in the ultimate form of trolling, and I'm not joking. Miles and miles of protesters lined up along the freeway because they all wanted a bad mouth.
B
Trump.
A
They land at the Air Force base. He got into a helicopter and flew above everybody else over.
B
He wasn't motorcading around a bunch of naysayers.
A
So anyway, so we get to our hotel, and I promise there's a Christy Noma angle to this. So we get to the hotel, we get Checked in. We get settled in. Dad pours himself a nice tall glass of harmony. Spirits and Christine Ulm opened the ceremony, or somebody might have, but she spoke before President Trump. Let me just tell you something right now. She was in this red dress with the red lipstick, talking about how America is the greatest place to live. And that's pretty much all I heard.
B
That's all you. You had kind of blacked out after that.
A
And I just. I. I just kept nodding, like, whatever she's saying, I agree with completely. And that was a good date for Chris Reavers, that.
B
So ever since then, you've had a crush on her a little bit.
A
You know what it is?
B
What's that? Where is she?
A
It's a. Obviously she's a very attractive woman.
B
Is she okay, but.
A
I think so.
B
Sparkle pants, those little jeans.
A
But she gives a damn about the jeans. She's an attractive woman. However, it's the. Oh, my God. She's in charge.
B
She's powerful.
A
She's running the show. And you know what? I kind of want her to arrest me a little bit.
B
You could have headed down to Payne Avenue today because they were doing a ice raid on Payne Avenue in St. Paul, and she was there to have her little ice. She had her little ice vest on probably.
A
I don't know.
B
Think that out. You know where she should go? You know where she should go to eat tonight? Because she's in St. Paul.
A
Carbonis.
B
No, The Happy Gnome.
A
Son of a bitch. You're a genius.
B
See what I did? See what I did? The Happy Gnome. Christie and Happy Gnome, they have a new place. I'm gonna just throw this out there for the Happy Gnome people. By the way, one of my favorite restaurants of all time.
A
You do love that place.
B
I was there many, many times. In fact, when the other place closed.
A
Didn'T you live like 10 seconds from there? Yep.
B
A couple blocks away. It was my bar. It was my bar. I bought the sign. When the other place closed, Chang o', Hara's, I bought the sign. It was in my house. I loved it. They have a new restaurant upstairs called Antlers, I think it's called. And it's high end food of like deer and stag and like all this really cool stuff. So it's a little high end. So she could go to the Happy Gnome, they could rename it for her, just for the day, right? And then she could go upstairs because she's used to killing crap in South Dakota, right? Just randomly killing animals. And she could eat some of that. I doubt they'd do that for her, but I don't know.
A
She could say I brought my own.
B
But that's gonna be. Where do they go? What restaurant do they go to? What hotel do they stay in that.
A
Doesn'T have you nailed it? The Happy Gnome.
B
They have to go there. I would be happy if I saw her there. I don't know if she's the one. That right for me? Be careful for these ICE raids. Stay out of their way. You don't want to be part of this.
A
Yeah. You know what? Public service announcement from Uncle Reivers and Uncle Fratelloni. Stop interfering. There's. There might be a very good reason that. That. But let the judist. Let the judicial system play itself out, all right? You're not. You're not being a hero. You're being a jackass. Because you have no role in that particular investigation.
B
I appreciate people on that side. Right. Someone has that argument. If you have that argument, there's gotta be a better way than chasing them down. I don't think that's a safe way to do it.
A
Don't ram your car into an ICE agent. No. All you're doing is now you're going to get arrested.
B
I don't like the fact that ICE agents are wearing masks. Or.
A
That I also have an issue with.
B
Yeah, I mean, I get that when the world is doxing them and their kids can't go to school, that. That's unfair, too. Don't get me wrong. I don't like any of it, but I don't like the military coming in. The only time I like the military wearing masks is when they flew down to Caracas, Venezuela, and they went and grabbed Maduro, which. The more you learn about that, the more you learn about that reverse.
A
It was kind of a badass operation.
B
What an impressive operation. What an impressive operation. I don't know if that was his Nike jumpsuit, but those things are selling out real well. Did you see that Nike jumpsuit?
A
Yes.
B
I want to get one of those. And I want to.
A
No, you're not.
B
Yes, I do. I want to get the headphones. I want to get those blackout goggles. I want the whole thing for a Halloween. That's what I'm going to go as. I'm 90% sure. All right, I do know. So, I only seem to get sick on weekdays.
A
Is that true?
B
Yeah. I think I have a weekend. Immune System Reavers. You are the best.
A
Let's give us a quick. Or give our buddies a quick plug at masters Maples and mastersmaples.com, also available at all of your Fratelloni's hardware and garden stores locations. And you know what? It is the best 100% pure maple syrup that Minnesota has to offer. And they've been such a great addition to us here on the Weekly Scramble. And of course the garagelogic podcast. It's our buddy Ben. He is the brains behind the operation based out of Cohasset, Minnesota. It's wonderful stuff. And you know what, go online to mastersmaples.com and you can order any of their products. There's some gift packs available as well, but you know what, the sweet and savory seasonings and rubs are also available. The 100% pure maple sugar for the Bakers in youn Life are available as well. And it's a wonderful product. It makes a great gift too as well. I know the gift giving season is done right now, but you know what, it's a wonderful product and it's a great family run operation. Doug. Like I said, go to mastersmaples.com and you can also taste the difference for Mike Fratelloni. My name is Chris Reivers. Thank you so very much for listening to the Weekly Scramble Podcast. We will talk again next time. Until then, cheers.
Podcast: Garage Logic
Host: Chris Reivers (with Mike Fratelloni)
Episode: SCRAMBLE: Mike has a few restaurant recommendations for Kristi Noem and the ICE team in town today!!
Date: January 7, 2026
This episode of Weekly Scramble dives deep into Minnesota's political landscape, touching on recent controversies involving Governor Walz, the ongoing fallout of the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, Ilhan Omar’s alleged net worth, and the political future with Amy Klobuchar. The hosts, Chris Reivers and Mike Fratelloni, bring their trademark humor and sardonic perspective to these heavy topics, peppered with personal anecdotes and a lively discussion about Kristi Noem’s visit (and possible dinner plans) amid a massive ICE operation in the Twin Cities.
Walz’s press conferences lambasted as “gutless clown show.”
Accusations that Walz is “the king of gaslighting” for blaming others and failing to accept responsibility ([01:34]).
Quote: "He's the king of gaslighting. He's the absolute king of gaslighting." – Chris Reivers ([01:34])
Discussion on Walz’s strategy: Never apologize or accept wrongdoing, modelled after Trump.
Fratelloni and Reivers criticize the narrative of Minnesota being “generous”:
Quote: “You're generous with my money, right? You can't be generous with my money.” – Mike ([03:37])
The “store with no doors” analogy to describe lack of oversight in state programs: Quote: “The state opened a store with no security, no employees, no doors, and they just put money on all the shelves.” – Mike ([09:45])
Reivers asserts Omar’s net worth echoes broader legitimate concerns (“$100,000 to $30 million” jump), while Fratelloni questions accuracy but admits disclosures indicate significant growth ([12:50], [13:03], [18:16]).
Quote: “How do we not know what her net worth is?... If you went from having a net worth of 100,000 bucks to 30 million in a handful of years, something's dramatically wrong.” – Mike ([15:04])
Discussion about lack of journalistic scrutiny and “citizen journalists” (particularly in Minnesota, with collapsing local news) ([22:24]).
Fratelloni addresses hate mail for not blaming the Somali community collectively: Quote: “I believe the thieves that did it are the ones we should throw under the bus. ... It just doesn't mean all Somalis are criminals.” ([08:36], [11:49])
Reflection that insider knowledge and legislative decisions made the fraud possible: Quote: “It's absolutely foolish to think nobody on the inside, and I'm talking about elected officials, ... wasn't there to tip those people off about these programs existing in the first place.” – Chris ([11:24])
2,000 ICE agents in Minneapolis; playful speculations about Noem’s dinner plans. Quote: “Where is she having dinner at tonight?” – Chris ([28:05])
Banter about local restaurant recommendations, riffing on “The Happy Gnome” as both a clever and personal suggestion for Noem ([35:27]).
Quote: "You know where she should go to eat tonight? ... The Happy Gnome." – Mike ([35:27])
Reivers shares a personal/crush story about Kristi Noem, tied to a 2020 Trump rally at Mount Rushmore ([30:22]–[34:41]), furthering the lighter tone.
Both hosts advise listeners not to interfere with federal operations, warning against dangerous heroics: Quote: "You're not being a hero. You're being a jackass. Because you have no role in that particular investigation." – Chris ([37:06])
Brief critique on ICE agents masking identities—balancing their safety with the optics of militarization ([37:23]).
On accountability:
“Tim, you have been in charge... That was supposed to be in place to oversee, to make sure that this didn't happen.” – Chris ([06:46])
On the erosion of trust:
“Again, I've lived here my entire life. I didn't sign up for this crap.” – Chris ([06:48])
On Omar’s fortune:
“If you're not pissed, something's wrong. You don't get to come, politicians ... Ilhan Omar is worth $30 million.” – Mike ([19:52])
On the local journalism crisis:
“The St. Paul Pioneer Press doesn't even have a building anymore. The Minneapolis Star Tribune is being printed in Des Moines.” – Chris ([21:35])
On Kristi Noem:
“Let me just tell you something right now. She was in this red dress ... talking about how America is the greatest place to live. And that's pretty much all I heard.” – Chris ([34:27])
Humor highlight:
“You could eat some of that. I doubt they'd do that for her, but I don't know. She could say I brought my own.” – Mike ([36:24])
This episode epitomizes Garage Logic’s unique blend of political commentary, local pride, skepticism toward authority, and irreverent humor. The hosts challenge Minnesota’s mainstream narratives, vent their frustrations, and offer listeners a mix of serious concern and tongue-in-cheek asides. Their playful banter—especially about restaurant recommendations and Noem’s visit—offsets the weightier arguments about fraud, accountability, and the integrity of state institutions.
Listeners leave with both a sense of the issues at stake in Minnesota’s politics and an appreciation of the local flavor that makes Garage Logic a fan favorite.