Not sure what's going on in Minnesota?
Pffft. David Strom and I live here, and we're not entirely sure what's going on.
Well, other than four years of near-total DFL (motto: "We Were Like Zohran Mamdani Before You Heard Of Him") control.
I noted a story last week about a new policy at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) requiring hiring managers to have an explicit justification for hiring candates not from "under-represented communities".
It's logical to presume when one sees a policy exhibiting a trait - say, hypothetically, racism - that there might be a policymaker with the same trait.
Almost too conveniently, a possible example of such a policymaker may have elbowed his way into the news this past week. LaVon "Vonnie" Phillips, a Human Resources director at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) reacted to having seemingly racially-changed Facebook posts highlighted by AlphaNews, a Minnensota-based conservative news outlet:
EXCLUSIVE: Minnesota HR director now on leave after saying ‘white folk’ are ‘morally bankrupt’ and ‘liars’
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) July 10, 2025
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency HR Director Vonnie Phillips then called an Alpha News reporter a "f-cking rotten b-tch" from his official state email. pic.twitter.com/xxUjiL3vKe
It started with a tip about some "fiery but peaceful" rhetoric on Facebook:
It started after Alpha News received an email about LaVon “Vonnie” Phillips. A search of the state directory website shows Phillips listed as a “Human Resources Director 1” for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)...The tipster raised concerns about Phillips and claimed his social media page is “littered with racist comments about ‘white folk.’”
After reviewing a Facebook page under the name Vonnie Phillips — filled with the type of content described by the tipster and a video tagging a woman whose name matches Phillips’ wife in public records — Alpha News sent an inquiry to Phillips’ state email address.
In his response, Phillips confirmed the Facebook page was his and lashed out at Alpha News reporter Jenna Gloeb in a profanity-laced tirade defending his posts.
“Good luck,” he wrote. “My Facebook page is within the ‘protected concerted’ activity guidelines, therefore, do what you want; nowhere on my Facebook page lists my employer; and the person, the gutless, worthless coward that reported me, the hell with them, please tell them I said that fool.”
Phillips sent his response to Alpha's reporter, Jenna Gloeb, via his state email account, before apparently attempting to recall it several times and re-sending it from a Yahoo account.
And, let's just say, it wasn't the kind of language one uses around a lady:
A State of Minnesota Human Resources Director replied to my press inquiry about allegations of anti-white racism with: “F-ck you, Jenna… f-cking rotten bitch.”
— Jenna Gloeb (@Jenna_Gloeb) July 10, 2025
And he sent it from his state email. Full story 👇 https://t.co/qiQXRKeuSF
Not to say that Minnesotans aren't getting a little cynical about this sort of thing...
He will be named to the Walz cabinet within a week.
— Bill Glahn (@billglahn) July 11, 2025
...but this is the same state where a state employee caught committing a vandalism spree against Teslas was able to get away with an apology and paying for part of the damage he'd caused.
It's easy - and likely, appropriate and accurate under Minnesota's current regime - to say this episode will end with a sternly worded letter and some sensitivity training.
But as Dennis Prager says, "relationships can survive anything but contempt".
It's hard to see how the relationship between government and citizens survives when government officials (and, worse, the policies they drive) have such contempt for citizens - and the citizens, in this case quite rightly - pay that contempt back.
