Minnesota governor Mark Dayton this morning offered the Republicans controlling the Minnesota Legislature a choice: He’d accept their June 30 proposal, which delays school payments and doesn’t tax the rich, on these three conditions …

Last night, I briefly touched on the shutting down of Minnesota’s state government by an intransigent Republican legislature that values keeping the upper 2% from having to pull their own weight tax-wise over the public good. I also mentioned another factor that led to the breakdown of state budget talks: The state Republicans’ obsession with sticking their noses in our private lives, and especially our bedrooms.

It’s been a busy week in Lake Wobegon and the rest of the Upper Midwest. Here’s some of what happened …

Because we could all use a bit of good news:

– The local Chambers of Commerce agree with Minnesota’s most powerful functioning adult, Governor Mark Dayton, and a majority of Minnesotans that revenue increases, particularly tax increases, must be part of any state budget compromise. This puts them squarely at odds with the hyperactive frat-boy Republicans running the Minnesota state legislature. Can the state Republicans live solely off the support of out-of-state far-right Koch front groups like ALEC? I wouldn’t bet on it, especially with the next news item:

– The IRS is telling big donors to political campaigns that their donations could be subject to gift taxes, something that might put a cramp in the notoriously tax-averse Koch brothers’ style.

As state representative Steve Simon puts it: “How many more gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether or not God actually wants them around?”

In this day and age, it’s a common thing for Democratic executive-branch leaders, be they governors or presidents, to cower at the sight of Republicans — and this is doubly true when the Republicans actually have official control of one or houses of a state or Federal legislature. Which is why it’s so refreshing to see Governor Dayton, politely yet fearlessly, go toe-to-toe with Republicans and their patrons.

In the first few days after the election, the Republican Party of Minnesota, or RPM for short, had a little “good cop, bad cop” game going. Tony Sutton took for himself the role of Bad Cop, whereas gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was cast as the Good Cop. But lately the Good Cop’s hood has fallen back to reveal a not-so-good face.

Being the Good Cop meant promising not to sue or contest the election further if he lost the recount, and letting Tony Sutton be the one to rant and rave and attack elections officials. But in the past week, the Emmer team has pulled back the hood a touch:

As we settle into our Turkey Day here in the Great White North, I’m thankful for some comedy relief on the part of Norm “Pot Kettle Black” Coleman giving failed Alaska teabagger Republican Joe Miller some friendly advice.

There seems to have been twin outbreaks of bullshittery and dipshittery in the North Star State last week. The first involves a dumbass James O’Keefe wannabee named Pierre “Pete” Arnold III, also known as “The Pete” and “Zeeboid”. The second involves a dumbass faux-Mexican restaurant mogul wannabee and Republican Party of Minnesota Chair named Tony Sutton and a dumbass Republican consultant named Diana Bratlie, the person Sutton thought would make a good witness for his latest nuisance lawsuit in the Dayton-Emmer governor’s race recount.

I have a special guest today — Jay Weiner of MinnPost, who will be hanging out in the comments section waiting to take your questions about what’s happening in the recount of the Minnesota governor’s race.