Six attorneys have reportedly resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota, with the New York Times reporting the departures are tied to the Justice Department’s approach to investigating the fatal shooting of Renee Macklin Good.
Author Archives: D Jeanne
Why go to Caucus?
Caucuses are the first major events of what will prove to be a very historic election year. Yes, there is some party business to do, but mainly it is a chance to meet DFL friends and get recharged for the coming campaign year. We need to do everything we can to prevent the GOP and ICE from taking over in Minnesota, and instead to strengthen our progressive influence on state and national politics.
Caucuses are the place and time where you can:
- meet your DFL neighbors— there are lots of us!
- start to get involved
- enhance your current involvement
- write a resolution to guide DFL policies and platform
- join a committee or local group to work at the grassroots level
- meet candidates
- become a delegate to upcoming conventions
- even consider running for a DFL position or as a candidate for office!
- OR: JUST COME TO MEET FRIENDS AND LEARN MORE!
This is our first reminder— please mark your calendars and plan to attend Caucus info events in January AND the Caucuses themselves on Feb 3. Read on for specifics.
Venezuela and Cuba?
Lawrence O’Donnell gave an enlightening explanation of the military action in Venezuela on his MSNOW show this evening (Jan 5, 2026). I’m discussing it because it surprised me, and yet, the scenario sounds truer than any other explanation.
The key point: Venezuela is a dry run for a planned takeover of Cuba. Think back to the Bay of Pigs, a CIA operation that was initiated under President Eisenhower. It was and remains the dream (“the fever dream” in O’Donnell’s words) of then Cuban refugees from Fidel Castro’s Revolution, who are now influential Cuban-Americans, to topple the Castro Revolution. These refugees were not impoverished. Many were wealthy and had just lost their business profits to Communism. The Bay of Pigs invasion wasn’t about U.S. national defense or the preservation of democracy. Not then, not now. It was an effort to reverse the Revolution and bring back capitalism.
The Missile Crisis confrontation with Russia came later. It was a wild year of headlines. As time went by, memories were conflated, confusing in the public mind the motivations of the earlier Bay of Pigs with a Cold War nuclear crisis instigated by Khrushchev who saw a huge advantage of a Soviet-influenced foothold so close to the U.S. During those months of strife over Cuba — its form of economy and its resources — the two actions were not the same. The Bay of Pigs was not a defensive action. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which Kennedy defused with a last moment private negotiation, could have been. (If that is not what you remember, check out the many new histories on the subject or Thirteen Days: A Memoir Of The Cuban Missile Crisis, with foreword by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., an account by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy).
Likewise, Venezuela is not a defensive action against drug traffickers, as we all know. Trump told us. It is about oil. Despite the dirty crude reported to come from Venezuela, multinational oil corporations are already entering the country. O’Donnell noted that Chevron (which never quite left Venezuela) is already reorganizing. Undoubtedly, Exxon is taking action, too, as well as others. They were part of the plan. Or were they? Do Chevron and Exxon believe that this arrangement will survive succeeding White House administrations in the U.S.? I’m not going there.
But why Cuba? O’Donnell points out that Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the Administration’s advocate and organizer of the Venezuela affair — is a Cuban-American. How likely is he also an advocate for regime change in Cuba? Very. Well, he’s already said it: “Cuba is next.” O’Donnell speculated that that Rubio might even hope to be the one put in charge of “running” Cuba. This administration will never understand that governing is not the same thing as running a business.
But according to O’Donnell, Denmark might take hope. O’Donnell is convinced that Trump’s threat to go after Greenland is just another Trump diversion so that we won’t pay attention to Cuba.
UPDATE (1/11/2026): https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-issues-takeover-warning-to-neighboring-country-in-morning-rant/
Not much needs to be said here. Compare the stock values and revenues of AI companies such as Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic with retailers and industries such as Amazon, Walmart, Exxon, McDonald’s, and Lockheed Martin. In all cases, AI companies currently have greater values than revenues. The retailers and industries, especially Walmart and Exxon, exhibit the opposite trend.
Revenues are the total income generated by the sale of goods or services, indicating a company’s operational success.
Stock values reflect the market’s perception of a company’s future growth potential and profitability. They are influenced by various factors beyond just current revenues.
Clearly, the markets see AI companies as having exceptional future growth potentional. But remember the Tech Bubble from 1995 to 2002? We should know by now that the markets are notoriously hopeful.
This is the market crash danger that you are hearing and reading about in the media.
Chart published at DailyKos
CAN THIS MEME BE TRUE?
Sadly, the answer is no. Although recurring often, this text and its variants (there is no known source) implies that (discounting ranked-choice voting) the more voters who vote in the U.S. two-party system, the greater the chance of a Democratic win. It sounds very encouraging, but consider the logic. The corollary assertion must be that most voters who don’t vote, are Democrats. It is impossible to collect any data on voters who don’t vote, and even if it could be done, the percentage of Democrats in that group would vary from region to region and from election to election.
Clearly, the inspiration for this meme comes from contrasting party policies. Democrats support voter inclusiveness while Republicans generally push for voter exclusion, under the assumption that those who would get excluded are Democrats. Although we may have a good intuitive idea of micro-voting patterns and voting lethargy on a local area basis, just about every state or national election holds big surprises after the final count. Simply put, both parties make too many assumptions about voter groups.
Turnout is great, but voter education, combined with reducing the unwise control of elections by party leaders, is what counts. If Democrats want more voters, they need to permit candidates to run who the voters want.
For more information, see: “Does High Voter Turnout Help One Party?”
Emergency Protest Tonight!
This is the message sent by email to our members yesterday. If you didn’t hear about it, you can learn more below.
As many of you are aware, our school board race in Anoka-Hennepin is seeing a huge amount of outside spending by groups who want to privatize our schools and turn them into culture war battlegrounds. Our friends at Indivisible are organizing an emergency protest tonight at the Coon Rapids Civic Center over a horrible speaker that the Parents Alliance has invited. Please see below and come support!
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Found in Mary L. Trump’s Substack column today (10/22/25). “There’s also been a lot of talk about the obscene, opulent, almost certainly to-be-gaudy ballroom that will be erected in place of the East Wing; a 90-thousand-square-foot monstrosity that will dwarf the rest of the White House. We were initially told that the project was going to cost $200 million, then $250 million; now it’s estimated to be $300 million. Donald has already told us he’s going to use some of the excess funds that have been raised from corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta (you get the idea) to build a triumphal arch in his own honor.”
I didn’t post the above quote because of the ballroom “renovation” and its reported cost (i.e., the East Wing demolition), which are disturbing in themselves. Instead, I posted it because the highlighted words in the last sentence enough to choke on. Apparently, the first mentions of this arch came out about a week ago (at the New York Times website and Syracuse.com, among other internet sources), but I had not noticed the story. Just in case you are likewise uninformed, you will find sufficient information in the above column and via any quick internet search. Perhaps he now thinks he is Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Maybe the arch is a substitute for the Nobel Peace Prize. Either way, readers here should know about this plan. After what we have already seen, there is no reason the arch wouldn’t happen.
On October 18th, many members came to our Saturday Coffee Meet at Starbucks to pick up packets with mailing materials. These have been sent out to many residents within Senate District 31 in advance of the November 4th School Board election. Find out more about the election and our candidates elsewhere on this home page. We wish the best luck and well-deserved success to each one of them.
Amazing crowd in the Twin Cities. About 100,000 people who care about the Constitution and Democracy.
Virginia voter gets election materials from polling station worker before voting in US presidential election, Nov. 8, 2016. Voice of America. Public Domain.
Things You Can To Help Americans Vote This November
Visit Mobilize.us for groups to join and activities you can do to assist the upcoming vote and other important issues.
From door knocking to phone banking and postcard writing to joining a meeting or podcast — there are many activities to choose from.