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Good Morning, friends.

It looks like we are having the election we’ve all been hoping for.

Minnesota has surpassed its previous record for early voting in a midterm election.

According to figures released Friday, October 30, by the Secretary of State’s Office, nearly 729,000 Minnesotans had already cast ballots in person or by mail.

That compares with approximately 282,000 ballots cast at the same point before the 2022 midterms.

If You Haven’t Yet Voted (Or Know Someone Who Hasn’t): VOTE!

Don’t let the rain and the positive polling numbers and the punditry lull you into thinking we’ve got this and your vote won’t make a difference. IT WILL.

The margins matter. We need to demonstrate to the Republican Party that the road Trump and MAGA have been traveling leads to a political dead end. We need to run up the score to make it impossible for Trump and Republicans to sow chaos after the results have been tallied.

So if you haven’t yet voted, please crawl through broken glass to do so. And if you know someone who hasn’t voted, drag their sorry ass to their polling location.

A Blue Wave Or A Blue Tsunami?

It does appear that we have every reason to be optimistic but we’ll wait till the results are in before we start patting ourselves on the back.

There are a lot of reasons it appears Trump and MAGA are in for a rebuke: The war against Iran driving up the cost of gas and diesel, the tariffs, the rampant and in-your-face corruption, and the cruelty.

This chart published by the Hopium Chronicles illustrates that last point; it shows the surge in vote count among Hispanics from 2022 to 2026. This is what Operation Metro Surge bought Republicans.

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Last Saturday was sunny and beautiful. The Carver County Republicans had put out a call to their supporters to show up with decorated cars and trucks for a rally to counterprotest ours. Two cars and one truck showed up, and they drove by us about four times. I felt embarrassed for them.

We have just a few days left until the election, and although many are looking at this as the end of our difficult time, I am not as optimistic. I feel that Trump will try anything to remain in power. I do not know what this will look like. I am trying to prepare myself mentally for the fight not being won yet.

I want to remind you, though, that the reason they are so scared is because of everything we have accomplished here in Minnesota and across the USA. Many of you, including me, had never protested before. We rallied around our neighbors, built rapid response networks, helped many stay out of ICE’s hands by donating so they could stay home, and showed up for each other. We will continue to do so.

I am hoping that you will be ready to protest in ways you never have before if needed in the next few weeks. Maybe everything will go smoothly, and I will feel silly writing these things. But just in case, prepare yourself.

Besides surrounding myself with friends and family, preparing for whatever may come, and cuddling with my dogs, I have found some sources that give me information and others that simply remind me how amazing nature and life are.

Besides following Aaron Parnas, Rachel Maddow, and the Politics Chicks, I have also learned a lot from Mr. Global, an oil and energy expert who has been explaining how oil prices work, what is really happening in the Strait of Hormuz, and so much more.

I also follow lawyer Liz Oyer, a former DOJ pardon attorney who looks at the legal angle of what is happening. For a comedic but clear explanation of some issues, I follow Cody Dahler, who is based in Great Britain.

Now for my palate cleansers, the ones I watch just to give me back some wonder and hope.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust raises orphaned elephants and other animals. Seeing tiny elephants get bottle-fed and play is magic.

NOAA Ocean Exploration, where scientists watch and sometimes discover deep-sea creatures. Their enthusiasm with every new organism and creature is infectious.

Lastly, I will recommend Poppy the prairie dog, whose little squeaks make me smile.

This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but I wanted to remind you to find some things that are fun, carefree, and remind you that there is a world outside of what is happening here.

We resist, we protect, and we persist.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Julia Coleman’s “Just A Mom” Charade

We’ve previously discussed Senator Julia Coleman’s ideological beginnings as the first hire by Charlie Kirk to found the Univeristy of Minnesota chapter of Turning Point USA, we’ve examined the political power and influence network the Coleman tribe represents, and we’ve looked at her silence in the wake of Donald Trump’s violent assault on our state and our communities.

Her next career moves after the Turning Point USA gig was as the first “reporter” hired by the local far-right MAGA media outlet, Alpha News. After that, she honed her skills as a spin doctor as a public relations manager for Medical Alley.

So, yeah, her “just a mom” tagline is doing a lot of work. No one disputes she’s a mother. What she’s hiding behind the word “just” is her MAGA movement credentials.

Then there’s her celebration of the election of Donald Trump on January 20, 2025 with a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. for the inaugural ceremonies and parties.

So play an upper-crust British accent in your head as we follow along on Julia’s great adventure to pay homage to her dear leader.

Lifestyles Of The Poweful & Well-Connected

MAGA wishes & Coleman connections: A tour of Minnesota State Senator Julia Coleman’s trip to Washington for Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.

Good evening, and do come along! Tonight we leave the everyday concerns of Minnesota for a world of gilded glassware, glorious gowns, and that most exquisite Washington luxury: Knowing someone who knows everyone.

Our leading lady is State Senator Julia Coleman, stepping into the capital’s inaugural festivities with a red wrap, a black evening dress, and an entrance that deserves its own orchestral arrangement.

There she is, poised in a lift. In Washington, even the machinery promises upward mobility.

But how does a state senator become a guest in this glittering national production? Stay with us, dear readers. The wardrobe is only the opening act. The supporting cast is where things become rather interesting.

Julia’s own first photo collection supplies our programme: A Cabinet reception, an American Action Network reception, a Republican Jewish Coalition gala, and a martini she says she did not drink.

An ambitious itinerary! Most holiday albums ask you to admire a sunset. This one asks you to admire the guest list.

And before anyone mistakes our heroine for a political ingenue, a little backstory. Coleman claims an early career trophy as one of Charlie Kirk’s early hires and said she founded Turning Point USA’s University of Minnesota chapter. She had been learning the conservative organising trade long before this inaugural curtain rose.

From a folding table on campus to the reception circuit in Washington. One must admire a career with such excellent table service.

Behold the Cabinet reception! The credential says Guest, which is reassuring. In a town where everyone appears to be auditioning for something, it is helpful to have one’s role printed around one’s neck.

The marble gleams. The crowd mingles. The camera records the essential fact: Julia is inside.

And here is her husband, Jacob Coleman, magnificently turned out beside a marble column. A proper introduction is in order: Jacob is Minnesota state director of Americans for Prosperity, as his own LinkedIn profile confirms.

Limited government, splendid surroundings. Happily, there appears to be no proposed limit on the family’s networking opportunities.

Now to the Republican Jewish Coalition backdrop and the Coleman family’s senior statesman, former Minnesota U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, Julia’s father-in-law.

Norm’s résumé extends well beyond his former Senate seat. The American Action Network lists him as its chairman and as national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Both organisations appear in Julia’s reception-and-gala account.

How marvellous to have a family tree that doubles as a guide to the evening’s institutions.

A Coleman family album requires rather more political footnotes than most.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders joins our parade of political celebrity, named in Julia’s gala caption. Arkansas’s governor previously served as Donald Trump’s White House press secretary.

A woman who once fawned over Trump professionally, now appearing in a setting where the assignment is simply to smile for the camera. What a blessed reduction in the difficulty of the briefing.

And the eveningwear! In this corner of Washington, even the small talk appears to have a dress code.

Next, Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota’s Sixth District, the House Majority Whip. His official job involves assembling Republican votes; his social calendar evidently accommodates assembling Republican photographs.

There is a particularly exquisite Washington backstory here. Emmer abandoned his 2023 bid for Speaker after Trump opposed him. By January 2025, his office was promoting Republican unity behind Trump’s agenda.

A splendid lesson for any aspiring politician: When one door closes, check whether the gentleman who closed it is hosting a reception.

And Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina! A former contender for the presidential nomination who went on to endorse Donald Trump.

Washington does so reward versatility. One season you audition for the leading role; the next, you discover the considerable advantages of an enthusiastic supporting performance.

For Julia’s album, another distinguished name. For our programme, another reminder that proximity is this town’s most photogenic currency.

The festivities even spill into the lift lobby, where another formal group photograph awaits. Once the evening has reached this level of documentation, even waiting for the lift becomes a red-carpet opportunity.

Do keep smiling, everyone. One never knows which photograph will make the inaugural collection.

And now, a quiet moment in black and white. Julia, a martini glass, linen, lamplight. The sort of photograph that practically arrives with a jazz trio.

She explicitly says she did not drink the martini. Quite right to preserve that detail. The cocktail may have been spared consumption, but it was certainly required to perform for the album.

In Washington, dear readers, even a drink can earn its place through appearances.

The second photo collection turns our attention to the inaugural occasion itself. Donald Trump’s second inauguration took place on January 20, 2025; the swearing-in was moved into the Capitol Rotunda because of the weather. Emancipation Hall also served as an inauguration-day venue.

After the oath in the Rotunda came the leaders’ appearance in Emancipation Hall, the setting of the lectern photographs in this collection. The star attraction came to the overflow audience afterwards.

Even a presidential spectacular has seating arrangements.

Here are Julia and Jacob Coleman beside a curved table and substantial chairs in a Senate setting. Flags, books, polished wood: The full vocabulary of institutional importance.

They pose at ease amid the furnishings. The photograph supplies no new appointment, of course. But as a souvenir of access, it is considerably more impressive than a refrigerator magnet and hints at higher ambitions.

Now look closely at the table setting. Gold-rimmed glasses. Patterned linen. An eagle embossed in gold. A place card bearing the words Ms. Coleman.

Why, even the water appears to have retained a lobbyist.

This is a political adventure with a very well-appointed dining room. Even the place card seems to understand the importance of the family name.

Photographs of a television screen brings us another layer of the souvenir: The Coleman Family captured in the broadcast, with Norm Coleman tagged in the post.

What a triumph of modern collecting! Attend the occasion, appear in the coverage, photograph the television, and preserve the appearance for everyone who missed the appearance.

The family album has acquired distribution.

For our final scene, picture Julia in the very front row, phone raised, taking the photographs herself.

And now, dear viewers, the summit of our glittering excursion. Donald Trump. Melania Trump. JD Vance. Usha Vance. All framed through our heroine’s own camera, from a position so splendidly close that the zoom can take the afternoon off.

These are Julia Coleman’s heroes at the end of the pilgrimage: The presidential idols around whom the receptions, the credentials and the photographs revolve.

Melania stands beneath her dramatic hat brim, every inch the first lady of the spectacle. Usha, in pink, supplies the poised vice-presidential counterpart. Trump and Vance complete the tableau: The leading men in the political production our heroine has travelled to celebrate.

Julia steadies her phone and takes the picture. For the album, a group photograph. For our breathless narrator, practically a royal portrait. How marvellous to have one’s political pantheon fit so neatly inside a camera roll.

From her front-row seat, Julia turns her phone towards JD Vance at the lectern and takes another photograph. A red tie, a microphone, the presidential seal: A supporting hero presented with the full furnishings of power. Our senator is collecting the complete set.

The event record also places House Speaker Mike Johnson on the platform. The man who actually acquired the Speaker’s gavel after Emmer’s failed bid. Washington has a remarkable talent for getting the successful applicant and the unsuccessful applicant into the same commemorative album.

Julia keeps her lens trained on the stars. There are countless policy documents in Washington. They rarely get this flattering a close-up.

Finally, Donald Trump himself takes the microphone. The President. The principal attraction. The man whose return to power has given this entire collection its occasion.

In the very front row, Julia raises her phone once more and takes the photograph herself. No need to wait for the official photographer, dear readers. Our heroine has secured her own souvenir of the leading man.

Here is the climax of Julia’s inaugural souvenir epic: The idol at the lectern, the seal before him, and Julia’s own camera preserving the moment.

What more could our television tour require? We have had the entrance, the gowns, the family connections, the grand institutions, the glittering table and, at last, the star.

Back To Minnesota

Our cameras must now make a less glamorous journey: Back to the people represented by the woman in these photographs.

The album establishes that Julia Coleman attended and celebrated this inaugural world. The question for constituents is what has she done with her public position and political access.

Has she lobbied for an end to the Iran War that is driving up the price of gas? Has she called for an end to the tariffs that have driven up the price of groceries? Has she demanded justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti?

No.

A senator’s guest credentials are lovely souvenirs. Her constituents are entitled to ask what her connections accomplish when the occasion calls for something more difficult than a photograph.

Until then, dear readers: MAGA wishes, caviar dreams, and perhaps a little constituent service between engagements.

Coleman’s Own Website Is Not Buying The Moderate Mom Brand

Again, Senator Julia Coleman is no moderate. But you don’t have to take my word for it. The girl seated in the photo of her own campaign website isn’t buying Julia Coleman’s moderate facade:

Also Read

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Yesterday the Star Tribune reported that the Trump administration never really intended to cooperate with Minnesota law enforcement authorities when they said they would share evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

That sound you hear is the truth being buried.

As of this writing, there is no statement, no media interview, no social media post from MAGA Republican Senator Julia Coleman demanding the feds turn over the evidence to our state investigators.

There is no demand for justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti from Senator Coleman.

Sadly, the senator’s silence is all too predictable.

Constituent Service?

Coleman had nothing to say when Renee Good was shot in the face by the senator’s constituent, Jonathan Ross. When questioned by reporter David Noriega about that silence, she defended herself by saying, “My hope was that was an isolated incident.”

That reads to me like she was hoping the news cycle would do its work and eventually some other story would wash Renee Good from the headlines.

Because then Coleman wouldn’t have to address the fact that the federal agent who killed Renee Good, called her a “fucking bitch” as she rolled to her death, and refused to come to her aid was Coleman’s constituent. And a massive Trump supporter, according to neighbors.

Coleman has not publicly demanded that Jonathan Ross be handed over to Minnesota officials for interrogation for his role in the death of Renee Good.

That’s some perverse definition of constituent service. Representing a constituent does not mean shielding that constituent from legal scrutiny.

It appears the only reason Coleman spoke out at all was that politics demanded a statement after the killing of Alex Pretti by Trump’s masked agents.

And what was her response? It wasn’t a demand that Trump withdraw his masked terrorists from the streets of Minnesota and Carver County and go the fuck home. It was a strongly worded letter of capitulation clothed in the language of compromise.

She’s running on “accountability” but refuses to demand accountablity for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.

This is not just a failure of leadership by Senator Coleman; it is a moral failure.

Actual Constituent Service

You know who was actively leading in Carver County’s moment of crisis? It wasn’t a politician deliberating what to say when, calculating the political pros and cons of whether to speak out or not.

It was neighbors understanding the need to act to protect our own. It was boots on the ground delivering groceries to those too frightened to set foot outside. It was individual citizens standing guard at bus stops to ensure children make it to school safely. It was constitutional observers bearing witness to violations of our constitutional rights.

It was Dan Kessler, Coleman’s challenger, performing the real constituent service Julia Coleman had abandoned. In the video below, Kessler reports on ICE activity while on patrol as a constitutional observer.

That is what constituent service looks like. Character is revealed most clearly when the stakes matter the most.

Also Read

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Racism On Display At Turning Point USA

You may have heard last Wednesday about the St. Thomas student who went viral for shouting “Go back to your own country, bitch” to a protester as she was entering a Turning Point USA event on the University of Minnesota campus.

Someone captured her racist vitriol on camera, the video went viral, and now, well, she’s suffering the consequences.

It should come as little surprise that our little racist felt perfectly comfortable shouting slurs at this particular organization’s event. Turning Point USA has yet to condemn the student’s behavior, by the way. And neither has Senator Julia Coleman, even though the incident occurred at the Turning Point USA campus affiliate she founded.

Shocking, I know.

Turning Point USA

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and its political affiliate, Turning Point Action (TPA), have grown into influential institutions within the Trump-aligned MAGA movement. Their record includes documented campaign-finance enforcement, criminal conduct by a former TPA leader involving his own candidacy, an election fraud-related indictment of another leader, deceptive social-media activity linked to a contractor, and controversies over founder Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric and the Professor Watchlist.

The organization’s early emphasis on free markets and limited government broadened into culture-war campaigning and close alignment with Donald Trump. Sociologists Jeffrey Kidder and Amy Binder describe a campus organizing style that emphasized provocation and viral political content.

The organization was created to produce a pipeline of young MAGA ideologues.

The Julia Coleman Connection

And you know who was numero uno MAGA ideologue in Minnesota’s Turning Point USA? None other than incumbent Republican District 48 Senator Julia Coleman.

So aside from founding Turning Point USA, indoctrinating young minds, and making gobs of money to support the MAGA movement, what exactly were Charlie Kirk’s views?

Let’s be absolutely clear: NO ONE should be assassinated for their views, no matter how vehemently one disagrees with them. And there’s a lot to disagree with here.

Quotes By Charlie Kirk

Race & Civil Rights

Black Pilots

If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.

Black Women

If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called the racist. But now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us. I’m only here because of affirmative action. Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.

Civil Rights Act

Once a week we talk about why the Civil Rights Act was a mistake.

Women, Marriage & Family

Taylor Swift

This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative. Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.

Western Women

They end up at 38 years old with a big flat in London and they’re miserable. We should tell them to stop freezing their eggs and start finding their partner earlier and have lots of babies.

Comparing Abortion To The Holocaust

Absolutely I am. In fact, it’s worse.

Gun Violence

I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.

Separation Of Church & State

Again, there is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication. It’s a fiction. It’s not in the Constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists. Of course we should have church and state mixed together.

“Charlie Kirk Was My Mentor”

Senator Coleman has proudly and fondly discussed her relationship with Charlie Kirk.

She presents herself as just a moderate suburban mom. There is no question she is a mom.

A moderate? No self-respecting moderate would so wholeheartedly embrace the likes of Charlie Kirk.

Julia Coleman claims Charlie Kirk as her ideological soulmate.

Hard pass.

Also Read

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Share

I know everyone wants to know the number of people who showed up on Saturday. 905! I do not know the total amount of food and necessities we collected yet, but we filled seven bins and collected $800! Thank you so much to everyone who donated!

This Tuesday, Ellie Krug will be our special guest at the Golden Kitchen starting at 6:30 p.m. Ellie is a national speaker and is running for reelection to the Carver County school board. The Republican Party has decided to come after Ellie for standing up against fascism. It’s amazing that they think standing up against fascism makes her unfit to be on the school board. Ellie is an amazing speaker and deserves our support. I hope to see you there.

We have a short amount of time left before November 3. I know that you all have either voted or have your plan ready to vote. We have one more protest left before the election. I do not know what will happen after the election or what this will look like, but I do know the regime will not give up power easily.

I hope you come to next week’s protest, as it will be my last one as an organizer. In the last year, you have kept my faith in humanity. Every week, as the news got worse and worse, I would show up on Saturday, and rain or shine, snowstorm or heatwave, you showed up. When asked to help with food drives, you showed up.

I would be walking down the line and get hugs, quick conversations about how things were insane, and so many smiles and words of encouragement. You kept me going! I am so thankful to all of you. You may still see me at a protest, but I will be there standing by your side.

I do not know yet how or if to proceed with the SW Protectors after that date. I need a few weeks to gather myself, but I will keep you posted. The next few weeks may require a recalibration of how we approach things. In the meantime, we need to keep building community and supporting each other.

The amazing volunteers at the protest will continue to be there. If you would like to help, please let them know!

Continue to fight and continue to love.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

Leave a comment

Share

Sad news.

At the last minute, the drop-off sites for Bountiful Baskets pulled out due to politics. Never mind that we are trying to help the community and make a positive difference. This means we will have one drop-off site, where we have done drop-off since day one.

Bountiful Baskets needs us, and we will show up for each other and the community.

Donation Drop-Off Opens At 11 a.m.

Please enter between Starbucks and McDonald’s, follow the curve of the road past Aldi, and then head to the dental office. There, our amazing volunteers will be ready to grab things out of your car. Then you can head out to wherever you would like to park for the protest.

The donation site will open at 11 a.m.! This way, I am hoping to alleviate some of the congestion right around protest time.

Are you one of our amazing volunteers? Show up at 11 with your vests, come talk to me, and then we will spread out.

Please read last week’s message from me on where not to park.

It Is Exhausting. I Get It.

Every time I think that the regime can’t go any lower, they take us down even further. Laws are ignored. People’s rights are trampled on.

To me, the biggest thing is the hypocrisy of it all. The same people who would scream about President Biden being too old or “sleepy” are not bothered by how Trump is falling asleep in every meeting. The people screaming about how Democrats waste money are not fighting against the ballroom from hell, the planes and statues, and all the other things, including a now-broken reflecting pool.

Those people who years ago had the big “Don’t Tread on Me” flags are now having their privacy taken away and are watching the Constitution being trampled on—and are doing nothing.

I keep pointing out that if you would not be happy if “the other side” made a law or decision, but you are for it when your party does, then that is hypocritical. I see a lot of that right now. People say that because Trump is doing something, it is okay, even though they would have been against it if Biden had done it.

It is exhausting. The last two years’ constant onslaught on our rights, values, and intelligence has been overwhelming, and we are all tired.

I get it. I am there with you. My brain goes WTH on a daily basis as I try to make sense of what is happening around me.

On Saturday, We Stand Together

On Saturday, let’s all get together with the people who do get it. The people who are also fighting. Let’s join as a community with people all over the USA who are not willing to let this be the new normal.

Medicare and Medicaid cuts are still coming. January and beyond is when many new laws will take effect that will hurt even more people. We are all going to need to help each other to get through this.

On Saturday, we get to help by giving food, diapers, and other necessities to our local community so that a parent can spend a little less on food that month and put that money toward the rising electrical bill or help pay a medical bill so that they can continue to get medications.

After dropping off donations, we then get to stand together as one, stand up against the cruelty of the regime, and stand next to each other in solidarity.

You can look around you and realize YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

We are not alone.

We are the resistance, and we will not stop.

See you Saturday.

Judith

Also Read

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Julia Coleman brought out the big guns in Carver County: Her father-in-law, former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.

If you remember Norm mainly as St. Paul’s party-switching mayor or the Republican who lost his Senate seat to Al Franken, there’s a lot to catch up on.

Since leaving the Senate, Coleman has helped build a national Republican fundraising operation and lobbied for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His son Jacob, Julia’s husband, leads the Minnesota arm of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-founded advocacy organization.

For those of us represented by Coleman in District 48, that family network deserves a closer look.

“We’ve got the one and only Norm Coleman out in Carver County today!”, Julia Coleman posted on her Instagram account.

She must be scared, bringing in such a high-powered power broker.

She’s not alone.

Republicans are freaking out over District 48, to the tune of $160,000. If you feel like you’ve been assaulted with a sledgehammer of MAGA rhetoric during the past few months, it’s because you have.

Minnesota Public Radio reports that a shadowy right-wing group called Advance Minnesota is flooding our screens and mailboxes with heroic Julia Coleman messaging and laughably absurd Dan Kessler (Coleman’s opponent) attack ads.

That compares to $10,000 spent by the DFL Senate Caucus in the district. Really, DFL?!? Maybe it’s time to open the checkbook a bit. Just a thought.

But let’s get back to Senators Coleman.

Norm Coleman, Party-Switcher

If you’ve been around as long as I have, you’ll remember Norm Coleman as the DFL mayor of St. Paul who bragged about his college days as a bullhorn-touting anti-Vietnam War Democrat who switched parties when he saw a clearer path to run for Governor in the Republican Party.

When he switched parties, Coleman said he didn’t intend to run for Governor and yet he did, against Skip Humphrey and Jesse Ventura in 1998 and we know how that turned out.

US Senate

Norm Coleman’s next step up the political power ladder was a run for US Senate in 2002 against Senator Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash while campaigning, along with his wife Sheila, their daughter Marcia, two pilots and three staffers.

The memorial service that followed was held at Williams Arena and featured political speeches and partisan rhetoric. In his grief, Wellstone’s campaign treasurer Rick Kahn had some pointed comments directed at Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad, who was in attendance and who extended grace to Wellstone’s grieving friend. (Ramstad is the type of Republican we need to return to, by the way.)

But what I remember most about that race is how right-wing media ruthlessly weaponized that memorial service to help Norm Coleman, who ultimately defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale (who entered the race in the wake of Wellstone’s death).

Coleman served as Minnesota’s Senator till 2008, when he was defeated for re-election by Al Franken.

National Power, Dark Money & Campaign Finance Apparatus

Following his Senate departure, Coleman transitioned into national political fundraising and outside-expenditure management. In 2009 and 2010, Coleman co-founded and became chairman of the American Action Network (AAN), organized as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt social welfare organization. In October 2011, Coleman partnered with senior Republican strategists aligned with House leadership to launch the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a Super PAC focused on the U.S. House of Representatives. Coleman has served as Chairman of the Board of both organizations and retains Chairman status.

These twin organizations function in coordination as the dominant outside-spending apparatus for House Republicans. AAN functions as a policy and issue-advocacy group that runs targeted broadcast and digital advertisements, produces research, and is not legally required to disclose its financial contributors. CLF operates as an independent expenditure-only committee registered with the Federal Election Commission, capable of accepting unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, and labor unions. AAN frequently directs multimillion-dollar operational grants into CLF to support its activities.

Under executive leadership including former President Daniel Conston, CLF and AAN collectively raised $871 million over multiple election cycles. In the 2023–2024 cycle alone, CLF raised $243.24 million and disbursed $242.60 million, of which $216.79 million was dedicated to federal independent expenditures. These outlays included large advertising reservations across competitive suburban and exurban battleground seats nationwide.

Coleman’s fundraising reach is reinforced by his position as National Chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), a role he assumed in February 2017. The RJC promotes ties between the American Jewish community and Republican officials, advocating for strong U.S.-Israel diplomatic alignment. Through this leadership role, Coleman helped cultivate ties between high-net-worth conservative donors and national party leadership.

Coleman’s fundraising activities through AAN, CLF, and the RJC rely on relationships with major financiers, including hedge fund managers, the late homebuilder Bob J. Perry, and corporate donors such as Chevron. Internal Revenue Service records indicate that AAN has received organizational grants from major trade associations, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the American Natural Gas Alliance.

Lobbyist For The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

In April 2011, Coleman joined the multinational law firm Hogan Lovells US LLP (reorganized as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader US LLP in July 2026) as Senior Counsel. Coleman utilized his relationships in both the legislative and executive branches to advise corporate, industrial, and institutional clients on federal matters.

Coleman's international government affairs practice registered under FARA has focused on strategic foreign interests. His primary representation has been for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Under this engagement, Hogan Lovells maintained a retainer to represent the Saudi government before the U.S. Congress, the executive branch, and the media.

Coleman’s work on behalf of Saudi Arabia spanned notable geopolitical moments. During negotiations surrounding the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, Coleman lobbied lawmakers against the agreement, aligning Riyadh's opposition with RJC priorities. Amid international criticism regarding civilian casualties during the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, Coleman distributed materials to congressional offices highlighting Riyadh’s humanitarian assistance and commitment to regional stability. Following the October 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Coleman continued working to maintain U.S.-Saudi relations.

Coleman cheered Trump’s idiotic withdrawl from the deal Obama had in place with Iran and now we have Trump’s profoundly stupid war against Iran that has shut down the Strait of Hormuz and for which we are all directly paying for.

Coleman was also instrumental in securing the approval of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.

Chevron. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Those are some powerful relationships tied up in the oil industry.

Jacob Coleman

Norm Coleman’s son Jacob started his career in 2012 as District Coordinator for Erik Paulsen in the US Congress. In 2015 he ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat and the following year became the outreach director for the state affiliate of Norm Coleman’s American Action Network organization.

He followed that with an account executive position at the Hayes Companies for five years, during which he married Julia Schliesing (now Coleman) on September 18, 2018.

Since 2022, Jacob has been the state director for Americans for Prosperity, a sophisticated, multi-layered integrated influence engine. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a libertarian-conservative advocacy organization founded by Charles and David Koch.

Jacob Coleman also serves as a Senior Advisor for AFP Action Minnesota.

In this leadership capacity, his responsibilities include:

• Statewide Leadership & Strategy: Managing AFP-MN’s grassroots organizing, public campaigns, and legislative priorities at the Minnesota State Capitol.

• Policy & Advocacy Focus: Leading campaigns centered on tax and regulatory reform, spending accountability, housing deregulation, and education freedom (read: Private schools).

• Media & Public Commentary: Acting as the organization’s primary spokesperson in Minnesota, regularly authoring op-eds, delivering media commentary, and representing AFP-MN in public policy debates.

• Political Action: Helping direct candidate endorsements and grassroots election mobilization through AFP Action’s state-level operations.

Oh, he’s also a Waconia city council member.

A Family Political Power Network

Hm…A former US Senator, international lobbyist and Republican political power broker; his son, a statewide political power broker and city council member; and his daughter-in-law, a state Senator who has enjoyed meteoric rise to Assistant Minority Leader at the tender age of 34.

Smells like a family business to me, built on power and influence. I mean, we’ve seen this movie before.

It’s fair to ask just whose interests Senator Julia Coleman is serving: Ours or hers?

David

Also Read

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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November 3 is getting closer, and the pressure is building. I was lucky enough to attend a meeting with Ellie Krug and Attorney General Keith Ellison. The next day, I attended the League of Women Voters forum for people running for school board. Both meetings showed me again how pivotal these elections are. Keith Ellison talked about fraud, election integrity, and holding people accountable.

We are preparing for the October 17 No Kings protest. It will be from 1 to 2:30 at our usual spot, and I really hope this will be the last time we need to do this. We are also having a food drive, and I hope we surpass last year’s donations. As you all know, everything is expensive, and people are not able to make ends meet anymore.

I am firming up the locations where you can drop off food that day and will post them as soon as I know. I have added the list of items most needed by Bountiful Baskets.

Parking: Do not park in the Hazeltine Center parking lot. They have made it very clear that if any of us do, they will call the towing company immediately.

If you are not aware, there are Flock cameras in Chaska. Four of them are in the Home Depot parking lot, and they also look into the parking lots of surrounding businesses. The image below shows you where they are. If you want to avoid them, I suggest you park far away. Or you can do what I do and just drive by them and give them the finger.

Doug Chapin, Dan Kessler, Joe Brothers, Chrissy Ahola, and others will be at the protest. They have worked long and hard, and this final stretch is brutal. The GOP is pulling out all the stops, even here in Carver County, to try to stop any of them from winning. When you see our amazing candidates, let them know we believe in them!

If you volunteered at one of our protests before, please come early with your vest on the big day! We need people at each food drive collection point to help get donations out of cars and into the bins. We also need volunteers to greet people, watch for any issues, and help anyone who is not familiar with our protest know what’s what.

Want to help but haven’t before? Come this Saturday to grab a vest and talk to us!

I want to take a moment and tell you that you are all so amazing. Some of you have not missed a single protest. The team has shown up rain or shine, even in a windchill of -20. Kim has provided everything from water to coffee to snacks. Max and Joel have kept up our spirits with the cowbell and singing. Charlie, Al, Scott, and Dan have done security and made sure all of us are safe. Jen and Dave have greeted each person, and Dave and his sons have been taking care of the sign library for many months now. Paul and Jen also take great pictures, and I love seeing them!

They are not the only volunteers, and none of this can happen without all of you. You are the heart and soul of this movement. Please remember in the next few weeks and months what you have accomplished. We have built a community, donated food and money, and stood up for others. I just want to point out that I have not seen the regime do this. They are not having food drives or building anything except maybe gold statues.

See you Saturday, and please help spread the word about the 17th. Let’s make this one the biggest, and hopefully the last big one!

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 29, Axios reported that Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt had grown close to Vice President JD Vance and was being floated as a possible 2028 running mate.

By lunchtime, Schmitt was a meme.

What happened in between is one of the most complete political embarassments I’ve seen in my life. It’s also a surprisingly clear window into what Republicans think their job is right now.

The Trap

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Republicans convened to relitigate his investigations of Donald Trump. When Schmitt’s turn came, he asked a very specific question: Did Smith attend an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?

The date was the whole theory. One day earlier, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had acknowledged her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. If Smith was in Atlanta that weekend, the insinuation went, maybe he was there to coordinate with the Georgia team prosecuting Trump.

Smith said no. He didn’t recall being in Atlanta, allowed that he might have flown through the airport on the way to Florida, and was certain about one thing: “I definitely did not go to a Hawks game.”

That’s when Schmitt sprang it. He held up a poster board of text messages from Smith’s team referring to a “Hawks game” and, per C-SPAN’s footage, told Smith: “I don’t think you know that we have this stuff. So I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.”

Watch what happens next, because it’s the tell.

Smith said the board had come down too fast to read and asked to see it again. Ranking Member Dick Durbin asked that the witness be given a copy. Schmitt declined (”We’ll put it in a follow-up”), announced “I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” moved on to other questions, and closed his time by telling Smith, “You will go down as a total dirtbag.”

A prosecutor who is confident in his evidence hands it to the witness. Schmitt is a former Missouri attorney general. He knows that.

“I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself.” The exchange between Sen. Eric Schmitt, Jack Smith and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept. 29, 2026. Source: C-SPAN.

The Hawks Are Not The Hawkeyes

Once other senators insisted that Smith actually be allowed to look at the board, he didn’t need long. He recalled going to a University of Maryland women’s basketball game right around that time, when Caitlin Clark and Iowa came to College Park. The U.S. Marshals Service, which protected him, was there with him.

Then Minnesota’s own Amy Klobuchar asked the question that ended the gambit: “Could it then be that University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes?”

It could. The “Hawks game” in those texts was the Iowa Hawkeyes, playing at Maryland, roughly 700 miles from Atlanta. Clark scored 38 points that night.

Schmitt complained that Klobuchar was trying to “rehabilitate the witness” on his time. Klobuchar answered that people “should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong.” Schmitt said he stood by the statement.

“You had the teams wrong, sir,” Klobuchar said.

Within hours, MeidasTouch turned up the broadcast footage of the game showing Smith in the stands, and MS NOW confirmed it.

The receipts: Jack Smith at Iowa vs. Maryland, Feb. 3, 2024. Broadcast footage from the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md. Source: MeidasTouch, as confirmed by MS NOW.

And then there’s Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, seated right beside Schmitt. Her expression as Smith explained the Hawkeyes went viral almost immediately, and it’s easy to see why. It’s the face of someone doing the math on how this is going to look in the afternoon news cycle.

Sen. Katie Britt watches it unravel. Source: MS NOW, Sept. 29, 2026.

No Apology, Just A Pivot

Schmitt hasn’t apologized. He posted, “Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?” and told TMZ that “Jack Smith is not credible,” KCUR reported. In a later interview he insisted he had only asked whether Smith was in Atlanta, noting that Warriors-Hawks was “the only NBA game with a tip-off at 7:30 that night.”

Which is a very precise defense of a question nobody needed answered.

Others were less generous. Durbin said Smith “deserves an apology for these baseless and FALSE accusations.” And Fox News’ own Brit Hume wrote that Schmitt “brought this on himself and deserves the obloquy.” When you’ve lost Brit Hume, you’ve lost the room.

The Clip Was The Point

The mistake itself is almost ordinary. A staffer skims a text thread, sees “Hawks,” and builds a theory around a word. People make that kind of error.

But this was an unmistakably staged moment.

According to MS NOW’s reporting, right-wing influencers were ready to amplify it the instant it happened; podcaster Benny Johnson posted the exchange claiming Schmitt had “just caught Jack Smith perjuring himself,” and Sean Hannity shared it too. Both posts were later deleted.

The Axios item about Schmitt’s VP prospects landed the same morning. The poster board went up just long enough for the cameras and came down before the witness could read it.

When a hearing is designed to produce a clip, the incentives run backward. The goal is a moment goes viral, so the evidence only has to survive long enough to be screenshotted. Nobody double-checks a text thread that will be on screen for four seconds. Showing the witness the board is a risk, because the witness might explain it.

And, as Schmitt discovered, he might.

Meanwhile, At The Pump

Now consider what was happening outside that hearing room the same week.

Diesel in Minnesota crossed $6 a gallon in mid-September, MPR News reported, up about $2.50 from a year earlier. Regular gas averaged $4.23, up roughly $1.19. The driver is the war with Iran, which has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the channel that normally carries about a fifth of the world’s traded oil. As of Sept. 30, the national diesel average sat at $6.38, negotiations were stalled, and President Trump had publicly rejected Iran’s latest proposal.

Diesel is the price hiding inside every other price. It moves grain off farms in Carver and Scott counties, keeps grocery shelves stocked in Chaska and Shakopee, and runs the trucks that bring everything you order online to your front step. When it jumps $2.50 a gallon, you pay for that at the checkout line whether or not you’ve ever owned a diesel vehicle.

Then stack the tariffs on top. August’s consumer price index rose 0.4% in a single month, the biggest jump since January, with coffee up nearly 22% from a year ago, according to the latest report.

Minnesota has a particular stake in one of these fights. The trade war with Canada escalated again on Sept. 8, when Canada added new tariffs on U.S. goods. That isn’t abstract here.

Canada bought more than $5 billion in Minnesota exports last year, Canadian-owned companies employ about 30,000 Minnesotans, and nearly half of everything Minnesota imports comes from Canada. “As a border state we feel this more acutely,” said Matt Varilek of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Ending a war, unwinding a trade fight with our largest neighbor, doing something (anything) about grocery bills: These are the jobs Minnesotans are demanding of their leaders. None of them produces a viral clip.

And none of them was on the agenda when Senate Republicans gaveled in on Sept. 29.

It’s not just that Republicans are staging political stunts designed to distract us from the reality we can see with our own damn eyes, it’s that they refuse to object to the war against Iran, they refuse to object to the destructive tariffs, they remain silent on the policies that are driving up the costs of everything.

What It Adds Up To

This was not a random blunder. It’s what a governing majority does when it has nothing to show voters on the things voters actually care about, so it decides the next best product is a villain.

It comes from the exact same playbook Republicans drew from when they tried to smear Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Jack Smith’s cases against Trump were dismissed after the 2024 election. Re-prosecuting the prosecutor two years later isn’t oversight. It’s base maintenance: Keep the grievance warm, keep the audience angry, and hope nobody looks up at the price of gas while they’re at the pump.

The trouble with a distraction strategy is that it only works if the distraction lands. When it doesn’t, you’re left with a United States senator who called a man a dirtbag over a women’s college basketball game, while the people pay $6 for diesel.

Schmitt wanted a clip. He got one.

It just wasn’t the one he planned.

The Fish Rots From The Head

You can dismiss all this as national politics that has nothing to do with us here in the Southwest Metro, but I’d think again.

When the culture of an entire political party is set from the top—in this case the Republican Party under Donald Trump—that culture seeps down to the localest levels. When power is the only thing and the rules and public service don’t matter, this is what you get.

Here state Senator Alice Mann describes her experience serving with Minnesota GOP candidate for governor, Lisa Demuth:

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Last Saturday it rained, and still 90 of us showed up with umbrellas and persistence. What an amazing group of people!

On Saturday, October 17th, we are doing one more BIG protest: No Kings, Vote Early. It will be from 1–2:30 p.m., and it is, besides going to the polls, our last time to show the nation that this regime will not stand.

All over the United States, we will stand up and say no to golden ballrooms and war, the militarization of our streets, mass surveillance, and the taking away of rights and protections from people.

On the 17th of October, we are also going to say yes. Yes to building relationships and communities, yes to protecting all people, yes to making sure that all people can afford to live, work, and have fulfilling lives.

To help with this, we are also holding a food drive. Last year’s food drive was the largest one-day collection Bountiful Baskets ever had, and I hope to surpass that this year. There will be donation drop-off sites in 3–4 different areas where you can drive up, drop off your donations, and then go protest. I will be posting further instructions closer to the event.

October is my birthday month, so we are calling it Judith’s Birthday Food Drive.

If you have volunteered before, you will be getting an email from me asking if you can do it again. If you never have, please consider volunteering!

On Tuesday, please come to the SW Protectors meeting at the Golden Kitchen at 6:30 to meet with Senate District 48 candidate Dan Kessler. I will be talking about the resurgence of ICE and plans to continue to make a difference.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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The Emmers Have A New Family Business

In 1910, Tom Emmer’s great-grandfather and two of his brothers opened a lumber company. Emmer Brothers Lumber is still around, employee-owned now and doing business as Viking Forest Products.

The family has a different line of work these days.

It’s Congress.

Start with the man at the top. Tom Emmer has represented Minnesota’s 6th District since 2015. He ran the House Republicans’ campaign arm for two cycles, and since January 2023 he’s been House Majority Whip, the third-ranking Republican in the chamber. His job is counting votes and making sure his members cast them the way leadership wants.

Then there’s his son. Jack Emmer started on Capitol Hill in 2017 as a staff assistant to a Florida congressman, at about $33,000 a year. In February 2023, a few weeks after his father became whip, he was hired as counsel on the House Oversight Committee. In 2025 he took a short detour to the U.S. Department of Transportation, working in the general counsel’s office under Secretary Sean Duffy. By November 2025 he was back at Oversight as chief counsel for investigations. Congressional salary records show the committee paid him $108,000 in the first six months of 2026.

Then there’s his daughter-in-law. Kelsey Emmer, who married Jack in 2023, is communications director for Rep. Pete Stauber, the Republican who represents northeastern Minnesota’s 8th District.

One family. Three offices. All of them driving in the same direction.

Watch How The Pieces Fit

In March, Tom Emmer was temporarily added to the Oversight Committee so he could question Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison about fraud in Minnesota’s safety-net programs.

In June, the committee’s Republican majority staff released a 205-page report on the fraud. The transcripts show Jack Emmer questioning Minnesota officials and sitting in on interviews with other state officials. His father called the report a “BOMBSHELL investigation” and promoted it relentlessly. According to The Politics Chicks, he never once mentioned his son had been in the room.

After the report came out, Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber and two other Minnesota Republicans signed a letter calling on Walz and Ellison to resign. Stauber’s communications director is Kelsey Emmer. The report mentions none of these relationships.

Three members of one family. Three talking points in one investigation.

The same committee, with the same chief investigator, has also been working through the Jeffrey Epstein files. Jack Emmer opened and conducted the transcribed interview of former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, and he was among the staff handling Bill Clinton’s deposition. On that investigation, as a Minnesota Reformer commentary pointed out, his father has had nothing to say at all.

To be fair, nothing here appears to violate the federal anti-nepotism rule. It bars members of Congress from hiring relatives onto their own staffs or onto committees they chair, and Tom Emmer doesn’t chair Oversight. The committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer, is the one who signs Jack’s paychecks. And nothing in the public record shows anyone put a thumb on the scale.

The rules were written for a cruder kind of nepotism, the congressman who puts his kid on the payroll. They weren’t written for a House where committee chairs depend on leadership for their budgets, their floor time and their futures. In that world, the whip’s son doesn’t need his father to hire him. Everyone already knows whose son he is.

When politics becomes the family business, the question isn’t whether the paperwork is in order. It’s who the business serves.

Moving “Principles”

Politicians change their minds. That’s allowed; sometimes it’s even admirable. What stands out about Tom Emmer is the direction of travel. Over three decades, his positions have drifted toward wherever the power happened to be sitting at the time.

The St. Paul Years

Emmer got a DWI-related ticket at 20. In 1991, he pleaded guilty to careless driving after two DWI charges were dropped. As a state legislator, he later sponsored bills to shorten license revocations for people accused of drunk driving. When that history came up during his 2010 run for governor, he called it a matter of due process.

In isolation, it’s a fair argument that people shouldn’t have their license revoked absent a guilty verdict. In context, well, you can judge for yourself.

That same year, he floated a “tip credit” that would have let restaurants pay servers less than the minimum wage. His reasoning: With tips, some servers were “earning over $100,000 a year.” Minnesota servers answered at a town hall, where a protester dumped a bag of pennies on his table. “I have a tip for you too, Emmer!”

He also backed a state constitutional amendment that would have let Minnesota block federal laws the Legislature hadn’t approved. That’s nullification, an idea the courts buried long before any of us were born. Remember it; it’ll matter in a minute.

The Campaign Chief

As chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Emmer signed a 2019 fundraising letter claiming that George Soros, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg had “essentially BOUGHT control of Congress for the Democrats.” Jewish community leaders here in Minnesota pointed out the obvious problem with a story about rich Jewish financiers secretly purchasing a government. Emmer didn’t retract it.

In October 2022, he posted a video of himself firing a gun at a shooting range, captioned “13 days to make history. Let’s #FirePelosi.” Days later, a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and fractured her 82-year-old husband’s skull with a hammer. On Face the Nation, anchor Margaret Brennan asked Emmer the obvious question: “Wouldn’t a pink slip be more fitting if it’s about firing her? Why a gun?” He kept the video up.

Then there’s crypto. In December 2021, Emmer praised FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried at a hearing: “Sounds like you’re doing a lot to make sure there is no fraud or other manipulation.” In March 2022, he led eight House members in pushing back on the SEC’s informal inquiries into crypto firms, which were “stifling innovation.”

FTX was one of the firms receiving those inquiries. FTX employees gave Emmer’s campaign $11,600, and FTX money sent another $2.75 million to the House Republican leadership super PAC while he ran the party’s House campaigns. When FTX collapsed into one of the biggest frauds in American history, Emmer blamed the SEC.

The man who now says he’s fighting fraud once complimented one of the century’s great fraudsters on his fraud prevention.

The Loyalty Test

After the 2020 election, Emmer signed a brief supporting Texas’ lawsuit to throw out the results in four swing states. Then, on January 6, he voted to certify those same results, explaining that Congress had no authority to discard electors certified by a state. He was right. It was also the opposite of the position he’d signed his name to a few weeks earlier.

That vote cost him. In October 2023, House Republicans nominated Emmer for Speaker. Donald Trump went on Truth Social and called him a “Globalist RINO” who “never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA.” Emmer withdrew the same day.

What came next is the most revealing part of his career. Within months, he was holding a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser with Trump and serving as Trump’s Minnesota campaign chair. By October 2024, Trump’s spokeswoman was calling him “a great man and a great ally to President Trump.”

Remember the nullification amendment? Where were his states rights principles when ICE came to terrorize his constituents and kill Minnesotans? He wasn’t merely silent, he egged them on.

The man who once wanted Minnesota to be able to veto federal law now spends his days making sure federal law says exactly what Trump wants it to say.

The Rhetoric Follows

A decade ago, Emmer called Somali Minnesotans one of “the fastest-assimilating populations” in the country. In June, at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event on Capitol Hill, he said this: “They don’t assimilate. And if they don’t assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from.” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s reply was hard to improve on: “I assimilated all the way to Congress and this idiot still tells me to go back where I came from.”

Weeks earlier, delegates at the Minnesota GOP convention in Duluth had held a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd. Emmer defended them: “It’s a sad day in the State of Minnesota when it’s so-called ‘news’ that hundreds of patriotic Minnesotans came together to peacefully and respectfully recognize a member of law enforcement.”

A member of law enforcement. That’s what the party of law and order’s highest-ranking Minnesotan chose to call a man a Minnesota jury convicted of murder.

Put it all together and a pattern shows up. The principles aren’t the fixed point. The power is.

We Are Paying For His Loyalty

If you want to know what that loyalty is worth, look at the Big Ugly Bill.

A whip’s job is to deliver the votes, and Emmer delivered. The House passed the bill by the narrowest of margins, and Trump signed it on July 4, 2025. Emmer sold it the whole way. The bill was “all about making government actually perform for the people,” he said on ABC. A few weeks after it became law, he and the rest of Minnesota’s GOP delegation promised us that “nothing in our bill takes away health care” from single mothers, children, seniors or the disabled. Anyone who said otherwise, they wrote, was telling “lies to stoke fear.”

A year later, we don’t have to guess. We can count.

Health Care

The Minnesota Department of Human Services expects about 140,000 Minnesotans to lose Medicaid eligibility. Another 60,000 are likely to drop marketplace coverage as costs climb. The state stands to lose more than $2 billion in federal health care funding in fiscal year 2028 alone.

Those losses don’t come from a single dramatic cut. They come from paperwork. The law requires work reporting for adults without children, eligibility checks every six months instead of every year, new cost-sharing, and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. This spring, the Minnesota House had to pass a bill rewriting state law to match, on a 69-63 vote, because refusing would have put $3.5 billion to $4 billion a year in federal money at risk.

That’s the trick. Nobody sends a letter saying “your health care is canceled.” A mother working two part-time jobs misses a reporting deadline, or her hours dip one month, or the renewal form goes to an old address. She’s off the rolls. Multiply that by a hundred thousand and you get the number DHS is projecting.

It lands hardest where Emmer’s own voters live. Nearly half of Minnesota’s Medicaid enrollees live outside the Twin Cities metro. Rural hospitals depend on those Medicaid dollars to keep their doors open. The law’s consolation prize, a Rural Health Transformation fund, sent Minnesota $193 million in its first year, and hospitals are still waiting to see much of it. “It’s sort of like they’re in a boat that’s full of water, and somebody throws them an oar,” said Joe Schindler of the Minnesota Hospital Association. Rachelle Schultz, who runs Winona Health, put it more simply: The fund “doesn’t even come close.”

Groceries

More than 400,000 Minnesotans get SNAP benefits each month. Most are children, seniors and people with disabilities. The average benefit is about $6 a day.

Since the bill was signed, 18,000 Minnesotans have lost those benefits. The law also shifts costs onto the state: Minnesota now pays 75% of the program’s administrative costs instead of half, and it faces new penalties tied to its payment error rate. The Minnesota Reformer puts the new cost to the state at roughly $250 million over two years.

That money has to come from somewhere. It’ll come out of the next state budget, which means OUR schools, OUR roads, or OUR property taxes. Meanwhile, county workers are drowning in the new reporting rules. “They’re struggling to keep up,” State Auditor Julie Blaha said.

So here’s the math of the family business. A congressman from central Minnesota rose to the third-highest job in the House by learning to give Donald Trump whatever he wants. What Trump wanted was this bill. And the people paying for it are Minnesotans: the rural hospital, the county caseworker, the kid whose family lost its grocery help.

The Emmer Business Has A Customer. It’s us.

Tom Emmer isn’t some distant Washington figure to the southwest metro. For a lot of Southwest Crier readers, he’s our congressman. He’s mine. On November 3, voters in the 6th District will choose between Emmer and DFL nominee Doug Chapin of Hanover. Not sure which district you’re in? Look up your address at mnvotes.gov/pollfinder.

But here’s the thing about the whip’s job: It only exists in the majority. Emmer is whip because Republicans control the House. So even if you live outside the 6th, your vote matters here. Every House seat in Minnesota helps decide whether that stays true in January.

So does every seat in every state. A Congress that has to answer to someone other than Donald Trump is a Congress that can reopen the health care and food assistance cuts Minnesotans are living with right now.

The family business depends on one thing: Us not paying attention. So pay attention.

• Vote early. In-person absentee voting is open now through November 2 at your county or city elections office. Find hours and locations at mnvotes.gov.

• Register by October 13 to skip the line on Election Day. Missed it? Minnesota lets you register at your polling place with proof of residence.

• Voting by mail? Apply at mnvotes.gov/absentee, get your witness, and send it back early. Then track your ballot to make sure it counted.

• On Election Day, polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find yours at mnvotes.gov/pollfinder.

Then do one more thing. Call someone else who lives in the 6th District. A cousin in Buffalo, a friend in Elk River, a former coworker in St. Cloud. Ask whether they’ve made a plan to vote. Tell them about the rural hospitals. Tell them about the 18,000 Minnesotans who lost their grocery help.

The Emmers have spent a long time building their family business. It took more than a century to get from a lumberyard to the House leadership suite.

It only takes one election to remind them who they work for.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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At the Minnesota State Fair last month, WCCO Radio host Jason DeRusha asked Michele Tafoya whether she’d ever said she was embarrassed to live here.

Her answer was about as clean as a denial gets: “If I were embarrassed to be from Minnesota, would I be running for the United States to represent Minnesota? … I have never said that.” Notice how vehemently she said that? She sounded offended.

But she had said she was embarrassed to be from Minnesota. In writing. More than once.

On Wednesday, CNN’s KFile laid out the deleted posts, and Courier Minnesota followed with the archive links.

Catching a candidate in a lie is a one-day story, though. The more interesting thing is what happens when you line her statements up next to her résumé. Put the two on the same timeline and a pattern shows up that the denial was meant to hide.

The Timeline

1994: Tafoya, a California native, moves to Minnesota for a sports broadcasting job. Over the following decades she builds a local following through WCCO-TV, WCCO-AM and KQRS, while her national career climbs through CBS, ABC and ESPN.

2011–2022: She becomes the sideline reporter for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, one of the most visible jobs in sports media. Her last broadcast is Super Bowl LVI in February 2022.

2022: She leaves NBC and pivots to politics and conservative commentary. She launches a podcast on the Salem Podcast Network and becomes a MAGA influencer in a media ecosystem where Minnesota is a reliable villain.

March 16, 2023: “I’m embarrassed to say I live in Minnesota.” When a user replies “You can leave,” she answers, “That’s the plan! Have a great day!” Asked if she promises, she says yes, to make the user “and your 35 followers happy.” Offered a home in Tennessee: “TN is under consideration!”

August 2024: Agreeing that Minnesota is the “California Midwest”: “As a native Californian who moved to Minnesota in 1994, I know. Fleeing soon.”

October 2024: She describes herself as a “future former-Minnesotan.”

August 2025: Replying to Gov. Gavin Newsom, she writes that she was born in California and left, then “moved to Minnesota and will be leaving.” CNN also surfaced audio of her saying she expected to be one of the people leaving the state “in the near future.”

2026: She runs for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat and wins the Republican nomination in August.

August 2026: On Fox News, she says Minnesotans are “quite frankly … embarrassed.” Days later, at the State Fair, she tells WCCO she never said she was.

September 23, 2026: CNN publishes the deleted posts. Her campaign’s response: Minnesotans are fed up, and she loves the state.

And in August, on C-SPAN, she said it more directly than any tweet: “The last people I’m going to answer to are the Minnesotans who send me there.” She followed up with something about bringing “Minnesota common sense” to Washington, which didn’t really clarify anything.

So Un-Minnesotan

In response to Tafoya’s tweets expressing her embarrassment of being from Minnesota, Minnesotan’s took to Threads and elsewhere to publish hilarious posts about how “un-Minnesotan” Tafoya is.

The Michele Tafoya is so Un-Minnesotan meme was so popular, it was trending for a couple days. I pulled the 45 most popular posts; here are the stats:

So, of course, I created a song using the memes.

The Stepping Stone

But seriously, here’s where the timeline stops being a list of embarrassing posts and starts explaining something.

Sideline reporting gave Tafoya a national face. Leaving NBC let her turn that face into a political brand. And the conservative media economy she stepped into runs on a particular kind of content: The blue-state refugee. Complaining about Minnesota, promising to flee to Florida or Tennessee, sparring with Gavin Newsom. That material performs. It builds an audience, and an audience is the currency of the MAGA influencer business (see Alex Jones & Charlie Kirk).

A Senate campaign is the next rung on that same ladder. It’s the biggest platform available to someone in her position, and it pays off in attention whether she wins or loses. (Racket has already asked the obvious follow-up: Will Michele Tafoya leave Minnesota if she loses?)

The trouble is that the two jobs want opposite things. The podcast rewards contempt for Minnesota. The Senate race requires affection for it. For three years she was paid, in followers and bookings, to tell a national audience this state was beyond saving.

Now she needs three million Minnesotans to ignore the contempt she’s show us and to believe she’s in it for us and not for herself.

As the So Un-Minnesotan memes demonstrate, we’re not buying it.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

Leave a comment

The rank corruption of Donald Trump, his family, and his associates is clear for anyone with eyes to see. Trump has figured out how to turn politics and ultimately public policy into the family business.

Politics should be about public service, not self enrichment and personal power. But, you know, the fish rots from the head.

As if this isn’t bad enough, this deep and abiding corruption is an actual clear and present danger to the country we all love.

Look at any failed state, and you’ll find deep corrpution.

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Corruption & Failed States

You don’t have to take my word for it. Foreign policy experts have known this for many years.

• Sarah Chayes and Thieves of State: On her official site detailing her book Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, Chayes explicitly outlines how kleptocratic governments operate as criminal syndicates, driving populations toward extremism.

  • Afghanistan: She documents how the predatory corruption of the US-backed government pushed Afghans to return to the Taliban.

  • Nigeria: She directly links the rise of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram to populations reacting against systemic, unpunished state corruption.

  • Egypt: She cites Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government as a primary example of public outrage over elite economic exploitation leading to a systemic uprising.

• Robert H. Bates: In his analysis of political economy and state collapse (most notably in his book When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa), Bates famously described state failure as the “implosion of the state,” diagnosing that it occurs when the state transforms into an “instrument of predation” rather than a provider of public goods.

• Robert I. Rotberg: In his seminal text When States Fail: Causes and Consequences, Rotberg establishes the framework for how states collapse, explicitly noting that as a state weakens, levels of “venal corruption are embarrassingly high and escalating”.

44 Instances Where Trump, His Family, or His Associates Have Exploited His Presidency For Financial Gain

Until yesterday, when Republican Senator John Curtis requested an investigation into Donald Trump, Jr., you would have barely heard a peep from Republicans about Trump’s glaring corruption.

Better late than never, I guess?

1. Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations were financed by Umar Kremlev. The Russian businessman and International Boxing Association president reportedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for celebrations in the Bahamas, including private-island expenses and fireworks. Trump Jr. and his wife acknowledged that Kremlev hosted two nights of celebrations, describing them as a wedding gift. This represents a personal financial benefit through expenses paid on their behalf. Republican Sen. John Curtis subsequently requested a Senate Judiciary investigation and a subpoena for Trump Jr., seeking scrutiny of whether presidential family relationships were used for private financial benefit.

   President Trump said his son had repaid (or was repaying) Kremlev. ABC reported that neither the president nor the Trump Organization had provided evidence of repayment. We’ve seen this movie before.

2. World Liberty Financial token sales. Trump and his family receive proceeds from sales of the venture’s cryptocurrency tokens. His disclosure reported approximately $526 million from token sales in 2025. The venture also financially involves the family of Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff.

3. Selling a World Liberty stake to UAE-connected investors. An investment vehicle backed by UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon agreed to purchase 49% for $500 million shortly before the 2025 inauguration. Reporting identified $187 million for Trump-family entities and at least $31 million for Witkoff-family entities from the initial payment. The company and White House denied that the deal influenced policy. Heh.

4. World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin. The business earns income connected to reserves backing its dollar-linked cryptocurrency. Reuters estimated approximately $50 million for the Trump family through June 2026. UAE-backed MGX’s use of USD1 for its Binance investment helped expand the product.

5. The $TRUMP meme coin. Trump’s disclosure reported a $635 million licensing agreement for 2025 associated with the coin. This directly commercializes his name and political following.

6. ALT5 Sigma, subsequently renamed AI Financial Corp. This public company raised money and bought World Liberty tokens. Reuters estimated that more than $500 million from its purchases flowed to the Trump family. This overlaps with World Liberty token income and should not be counted twice.

7. American Bitcoin. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. obtained interests in the bitcoin-mining venture. Reuters reported that Eric’s restricted shares were worth more than $70 million at the end of April 2026, despite substantial declines.

8. Trump and Melania digital collectibles/NFTs. Their licensed digital collections generated disclosed income. For 2024, Trump reported approximately $1.16 million, and Melania approximately $216,700.

9. Trump Media & Technology Group/Truth Social. The public listing created a valuable, highly volatile ownership stake for Trump. Transferring shares into his revocable trust did not eliminate his beneficial interest.

10. Gulf real-estate licensing. Trump-branded projects in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar generate licensing income. Reporting on his 2025 disclosure identified $38 million in fees from Gulf projects. Some developments involve government-owned land or government-linked partners.

11. Other overseas property deals. His 2024 disclosure included $5 million from a Vietnam development and $10 million in development fees from an Indian project.

12. Foreign-government spending at Trump properties. House Oversight Democrats, using accounting records, documented at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his first presidency. Payments included hotel stays and property-related expenditures.

13. Secret Service spending at Trump properties. Protecting Trump and his family generated payments to his businesses for accommodations and related services. CREW’s records-based investigation identified roughly $1.75 million, while noting incomplete records. These are YOUR TAX DOLLARS going into Trump’s pocket.

14. Campaign and Republican political spending at his businesses. Campaign committees, fundraising organizations, and the RNC paid Trump businesses for aircraft, lodging, rent, catering, and events. FEC-based reporting documents millions in such payments across election cycles.

15. Mar-a-Lago membership and hospitality. The club monetizes memberships, events, and accommodations at a location closely associated with presidential access. Reported revenue rose from approximately $50 million in 2024 to $77 million in 2025.

16. Saudi-backed LIV Golf events. Trump courses receive money for hosting LIV tournaments. An income statement examined by Forbes showed approximately $800,000 for one 2022 tournament; that is not a total for the relationship.

17. Sale of the Washington hotel lease. The Trump Organization sold its leasehold interest for $375 million in 2022. Reporting before closing estimated a potential profit around $100 million.

18. Branded merchandise and publishing. Bibles, watches, sneakers, fragrances, books, and other licensed products generate royalties. His 2024 disclosure included $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible, $2.8 million from watches, and $2.5 million from sneakers and fragrances.

19. Melania Trump’s Amazon documentary deal. Amazon agreed to pay $40 million for documentary and related project rights.

20. Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund committed $2 billion to the firm. Senate investigators reported approximately $157 million in management fees from foreign clients through the period examined in 2024, including $87 million from Saudi Arabia.

21. The Kushner family’s 666 Fifth Avenue lease transaction. Brookfield took a 99-year lease on the troubled property, providing a major financial rescue for the family’s investment. Congressional documentation identifies approximately $1.1 billion in prepaid rent.

22. Donald Trump Jr.’s Executive Branch private club. The Washington membership business commercializes an exclusive social environment associated with administration insiders. Memberships were advertised at prices reaching $500,000.

23. Political fundraising used to pay legal expenses. Trump-aligned committees paid extensive legal bills for Trump and associates, reducing expenses they otherwise might have needed to fund. Save America had spent more than $55 million on legal bills since early 2023 by March 2024.

24. Vulcan Elements and Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital. After 1789 invested, the magnet manufacturer received a $620 million conditional federal loan commitment, alongside a proposed $50 million Commerce incentive.

25. Other 1789 Capital defense investments. A Senate inquiry identified awards to portfolio companies including Cerebras Systems, $45 million; PsiQuantum, $10.8 million; and Firehawk Aerospace, $4.9 million.

26. Unusual Machines. Trump Jr. became an adviser to this drone-component company. It subsequently received Army orders for motors and other components. Its business also benefits from policies favoring domestic drone supply chains.

27. Powerus and related Trump-son investments. Donald Jr. and Eric have financial connections to the drone venture through the announced corporate combination and investment vehicles. By September 2026, reporting documented a Pakistan military agreement and an initial order.

28. Polymarket and 1789 Capital. Trump Jr.’s investment firm acquired a stake in the prediction-market company, which benefited from the closing of a federal investigation and regulatory developments reopening U.S. access. Congressional investigators are examining the relationship.

29. Vaping Company Juul and 1789 Capital. Congressional investigators reported that 1789 acquired a stake before the FDA authorized five Juul products for marketing.

30. World Liberty’s banking authorization. In August 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved a bank charter for the Trump-connected business. This is a direct regulatory advantage enabling its operations.

31. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and military-space spending. SpaceX received a $4.16 billion satellite award in May 2026, following another $2.29 billion communications-network contract that week. These support Musk’s business, including capabilities relevant to Golden Dome.

32. Peter Thiel’s Palantir and expanded government software procurement. Palantir benefits from military and other federal contracts. The Army’s 2025 enterprise agreement established a $10 billion ceiling, consolidating existing procurement arrangements.

33. Larry Ellison’s Oracle and the TikTok restructuring. The administration-supported arrangement gave Oracle a 15% interest in the new U.S. venture, plus a central security and data role.

34. Howard Lutnick’s family and Cantor Fitzgerald’s cryptocurrency businesses. Cantor’s Tether relationship and subsequent crypto ventures provide business opportunities for the firm now led by his sons. Lutnick transferred his Cantor interest as he entered government.

35. Trump-connected lobbying firms. Brian Ballard’s firm reported approximately $88.3 million in lobbying revenue in 2025. Clients sought help navigating the administration’s tax, trade, regulatory, and other decisions.

36. Pass-through business tax deductions. The 2017 tax law created a deduction of up to 20% of qualifying business income, relevant to the kinds of entities used by Trump and other wealthy business owners.

37. Estate and gift-tax advantages. Higher exemptions favor wealthy families transferring assets. The 2025 legislation established a $15 million estate-tax exclusion for 2026. This is a potential wealth-transfer benefit to Trump-family members and wealthy associates.

38. Opportunity Zone tax incentives. The 2017 law created preferential capital-gains treatment for qualifying investments. Cadre, the real-estate investment business co-founded by Kushner, pursued investments using the program.

39. Crypto-friendly legislation and reduced enforcement. The administration’s regulatory changes and the GENIUS Act’s stablecoin framework benefited the industry in which the Trump and Witkoff families operate. The policy overlap is documented.

40. The $MELANIA meme coin. The venture generated substantial trading activity and revenue, but its ownership and revenue-sharing arrangements do not establish how much Melania personally received.

41. Chinese trademarks for Donald and Ivanka Trump. China granted valuable intellectual-property protections while they held office. .

42. Media-company settlements. Paramount’s $16 million settlement and substantial portions of other settlements were designated for Trump’s presidential library or other purposes. YouTube’s settlement directed $22 million toward the White House ballroom through the Trust for the National Mall.

43. Qatar’s aircraft. The aircraft was accepted by the U.S. government. As of August 2026, the White House said no final decision had been made about its post-presidency disposition. Whatever.

44. Kushner’s additional acquisitions and development projects. Affinity’s participation in the Electronic Arts acquisition is confirmed.

As I argued in the article below, the only way to end this corruption is to reject Republicans up and down the ballot. From the top to the bottom. From the bottom to the top.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

Leave a comment

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In 1974, Republican senators walked across the White House lawn and told a Republican president his time was up.

Not because Nixon was inconvenient. Because he’d broken the law, obstructed the investigation into it, and the leaders of his own party decided that mattered more than keeping him in office. Barry Goldwater, about as conservative as it got in that era, was one of the men who delivered the message.

That was a version of the Republican Party that would discipline its own president over the rule of law. That version doesn’t exist anymore, and understanding how it disappeared tells you more about where we are than any headline from this week will.

Start further back, though, because the origin story matters..

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 around opposition to slavery and, especially, its expansion into the territories. Not as a minor issue tucked into a broader platform: It was the reason the party existed.

Its first president ended slavery and held the Union together through a civil war that killed roughly two percent of our entire country’s population.

The party that followed him wrote the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments into the Constitution. For decades after that, it was, imperfectly but genuinely, the party more associated with civil rights than the opposition.

President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to desegregate Little Rock Central High in 1957. Republican votes were essential to passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when a meaningful chunk of Southern Democrats voted against it.

I want that party back. Not because I’m a Republican (never been but at one time I called myself an independent), but because I don’t think American democracy works with only one party that’s still tethered to reality.

We need two parties competing over how to govern, not one party trying to govern and another treating the whole exercise as illegitimate. Right now we have the second thing, and it didn’t happen overnight. It happened through a specific, traceable sequence of decisions, each one making the next one easier.

Nixon’s fall is where the old discipline shows up for the last time. What comes after is the mechanism working in reverse: Each cycle making party loyalty matter more than the thing loyalty is supposed to protect.

Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign leaned on the image of a “welfare queen” driving a Cadillac and collecting fraudulent checks under 80 aliases. It wasn’t a real person. It was a composite built to do a specific job: Let voters feel a racial grievance without anyone having to say the racial part out loud.

This is the Southern strategy in practice. It’s a mechanism rather than just a slur, because the mechanism is what kept working long after the specific phrase went stale. Find language that signals “these people are taking what’s yours” to one audience while sounding like neutral policy talk to another, and you’ve built a message that can’t be fact checked. You can’t disprove a dog whistle. That’s the design.

Newt Gingrich pushed the next lever, and this one is more structural than rhetorical. In the early 1990s, Gingrich’s political action committee, GOPAC, distributed a memo to Republican candidates called “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.”

It suggested specific words to use about opponents: Sick, traitors, corrupt, radical. Not as insults thrown in the heat of a debate. As a deliberate communications strategy, handed down from party leadership, designed to make the idea of a legitimate opposing party feel implausible.

Once your opponents are traitors rather than colleagues with different priorities, compromise stops being a governing tool and starts looking like treason. Congress has never fully recovered the working relationships that framing destroyed.

I’ve spent more than 30 years thinking about media and distribution and I can tell you, none of this scales without an information ecosystem designed to promote it.

Talk radio gave Rush Limbaugh a national platform in the late 1980s, and Limbaugh proved that political grievance, delivered as entertainment, could hold an audience for three hours a day, five days a week. Fox News launched in 1996 promising to be “fair and balanced,” which turned out to mean neither, and didn’t need to, because the actual product wasn’t balance. It was identity confirmation, and identity confirmation is a better retention mechanic than journalism ever was.

In the 90s, I was invited by a conservative friend of mine to a local gathering of Federalist Society members. I remember having a conversation with one of them where I pointed out a weakness in their argument with the line “facts are stubborn things.” To which he replied, “facts are stupid things.” That dismissal struck me at the time and has stayed with me since.

Once that conservative media ecosystem existed, a Republican politician didn’t need to convince a skeptical public anymore. They needed to hold an audience that had already opted into the story.

That’s the infrastructure Donald Trump found waiting for him in 2015. He didn’t build the machine. He just understood, better than anyone who came before him, exactly what it had been built to do.

What Trump and the MAGA movement represent isn’t a policy disagreement with the old Republican Party. It’s something closer to a hostile takeover, using the party’s ballot line and donor infrastructure to run something else entirely: An authoritarian movement wrapped around a financial grift.

Both halves matter, and they reinforce each other. The grift (the fraudulent university, the properties that turned a presidency into a revenue stream, the shell companies, Turning Point USA) keeps the movement funded.

The authoritarianism (the attempt to overturn a lawful election on January 6, the open talk of jailing opponents and deploying troops domestically, the demand for loyalty to one man over loyalty to the Constitution every officeholder swore to protect) keeps it in power. Neither one is the disguise for the other. They’re the same operation, running on two tracks at once.

So the party of Lincoln has been captured. Not by conservatives, whatever you think of conservative policy. By a faction that spent roughly 15 years purging anyone who wouldn’t go along, one primary at a time, until “Republican” stopped describing a set of policy positions and started describing loyalty to a person.

If you used to be a Republican, or still technically are one and you’ve been quietly sick about all of this: I believe you that this isn’t what you signed up for. I think that grief is real and specific, and it deserves more than a lecture about how you should have seen it coming. Most people don’t experience their party’s capture in real time. They experience it the way you experience a slow leak, which is to say they don’t notice until the tire’s already flat.

But I’m not going to pretend there’s a comfortable resolution here, because I don’t think there is one.

A two-party system only functions if both parties are operating inside the same set of facts and the same respect for the rules; otherwise you’re not negotiating policy differences, you’re negotiating with a party that’s decided the referee doesn’t apply to it. You can’t split the difference with an argument that elections are only legitimate when your side wins, or that a federal court’s ruling only counts when it goes your way. There’s no moderate position between “the rule of law applies to everyone” and “it doesn’t.”

Which leads to the uncomfortable conclusion: The path back to a functioning two-party system and a brighter future runs through a decisive loss for this version of the Republican Party, from the bottom of the ballot all the way to the top.

Every officeholder who stayed quiet while the party embraced conspiracy theories and political violence made a choice, whether or not they’d admit to making one. The way a party changes course isn’t an open letter or a primary challenge that gets crushed by 40 points. It’s losses specific enough, large enough, and repeated enough, that staying the course costs more than changing it.

That’s not a call to abandon the two-party system. It’s the opposite. It’s a bet that the only way to get a second, sane, fact-based conservative party back is to make the current version unelectable long enough that something better has room to grow in its place.

I don’t know if I’ll see that happen. But the alternative, a democracy with one party still playing by the rules and one that’s opted out entirely, isn’t a stable equilibrium. Something has to give. I’d rather it be an election than anything worse.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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If you live in Chanhassen and want to vote early, you’re driving to Chaska. If you live in Savage, you’re driving to Jordan. If you live in Eden Prairie, you can walk into City Center today. And if you live in Waconia, your city hall will open for voting in about four weeks.

Same election. Same state law. Four different experiences.

That tells you something about how Minnesota elections actually work, and it determines what “voting early” means for you this fall.

First, the basics

Absentee voting for the Nov. 3 general election opened Friday, Sept. 18, and runs through Monday, Nov. 2. Any eligible Minnesota voter can vote early, for any reason, in person or by mail.

But there’s a wrinkle this year that you may not have noticed. “Voting early” now comes in two flavors, and they open on different dates.

Starting Sept. 18: In-person absentee. You fill out an absentee application (you’ll need your Minnesota driver’s license or ID number, or the last four digits of your Social Security number), vote your ballot on the spot, put it in your sealed envelope, and hand it back. A ballot board reviews it later. Functionally, it’s a mail ballot without the mail.

Starting Oct. 16: Early In-Person Voting. This is new in 2026, according to the Secretary of State. You sign a short certificate, get a ballot, and feed it into the ballot counter yourself, exactly like on Election Day. As Bloomington’s election office explains it, voters get to watch their ballot get tabulated and find out right away if the machine catches an error.

So which should you do? If you want it done, go now. If you want the satisfaction (and the error check) of seeing your ballot go through the machine, wait until Oct. 16. Either way, your vote counts the same.

The second date matters for another reason: It’s when a lot of city halls open their doors.

Why the map looks like a patchwork

Minnesota doesn’t run elections from St. Paul. Secretary of State Steve Simon put it plainly at a Clean Elections Minnesota forum in January: His office publishes what townships, cities and counties count; it never touches ballots. It’s a bottom-up system.

That’s a strength when people claim someone is rigging votes in a warehouse. It also means the convenience of voting near home is a local decision, with a local price tag.

Chanhassen is a good example. In August 2025, at Carver County’s request, the Chanhassen City Council looked at offering in-person absentee voting at City Hall starting in 2026. Staff estimated it would cost the city about $31,000 in 2026 and $45,000 in 2028, with the county helping with training and some first-year costs. Council members said they liked the idea of making voting more accessible, but wanted the county’s financial support to be firmer and more substantial.

This fall, the city’s own announcement sends Chanhassen voters to the Carver County Government Center in Chaska. Waconia, meanwhile, pays to run its own site.

Neither choice is scandalous. But it’s a useful reminder that “access to voting” isn’t an abstraction. It’s staff hours, election judges and a line in a budget.

Where to vote early in the Southwest Metro

Most early voting sites keep regular weekday business hours (usually 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), then add extra hours as Election Day gets closer:

• Saturday, Oct. 24: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Tuesday, Oct. 27: Open late, until 7 p.m.

• Saturday, Oct. 31: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Sunday, Nov. 1: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Monday, Nov. 2: Open until 5 p.m. This is the last day to vote early.

These extra hours apply at the county sites listed below. Some city halls set their own schedules, so check with your city before you go.

The full statewide list lives on the Secretary of State’s site.

Carver County

• Carver County Government Center (Administration Building), 600 East Fourth Street, Chaska. Open to every Carver County voter, including Chanhassen, Chaska, Victoria, Carver and the townships. Regular hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, plus the extended hours above. Details on the county elections page.

• Waconia City Hall, 201 South Vine Street. Waconia residents only, opening Oct. 16, Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Fridays 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Until then, Waconia voters can use the Government Center in Chaska.

Scott County

• Scott County Public Works Facility, 600 Country Trail East, Jordan. For 2026, the county moved in-person absentee voting exclusively to this Jordan facility, starting 46 days before the election. All Scott County voters can use it, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

• Jordan and Belle Plaine city halls are open now for their own residents.

• Shakopee, Prior Lake, Savage, New Prague and Elko New Market city halls open Oct. 16 for their own residents, weekdays through Oct. 30. Jackson and Louisville township residents vote at Shakopee City Hall; Spring Lake Township residents vote at Prior Lake City Hall. See the county’s location list.

Southwest Hennepin County

• Eden Prairie City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road. Open now for Eden Prairie residents, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, with extended hours on the dates above (Eden Prairie Local News has the rundown).

• Deephaven City Hall is open now for Deephaven and Woodland residents.

• Minnetonka Community Center, Excelsior (Old Excelsior schoolhouse), Shorewood, Hopkins, Minnetrista, St. Bonifacius and Tonka Bay all open Oct. 16 for their own residents. Note that Excelsior and Tonka Bay are closed Fridays.

• Any Hennepin County voter can also use the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, starting now.

Voting by mail: The deadline is receipt, not postmark

Apply at mnvotes.gov/absentee. The state recommends applying by Friday, Oct. 2. You’ll need a witness when you fill out your ballot: Any U.S. citizen 18 or older, or a notary. If you aren’t registered, your witness has to see your ID and mark which one you showed.

Your ballot has to be received by Election Day. A postmark doesn’t save it. The Secretary of State’s advice is to mail it right away, and if Election Day is less than a week out, drop it off instead.

Dropping it off has its own rules:

• Return it to the office that sent it. For Carver County, that’s the Government Center in Chaska. Waconia’s city FAQ says completed mail ballots can’t be dropped off at Waconia City Hall.

• Your own ballot must be in by 5 p.m. on Election Day. You can drop off ballots for up to three other people, with ID.

• Do not bring your absentee ballot to your polling place on Election Day. They can’t take it.

• Scott County posts a list of staffed ballot drop sites for the general election. None of our three counties currently shows a 24-hour drop box on the state’s list.

Deadlines to hand-deliver your absentee ballot on Election Day vary wildly across city lines. Carver County enforces a strict 5:00 p.m. cut-off at the Government Center in Chaska. While Eden Prairie's website lists an 8:00 p.m. deadline for City Center drop-offs, Hennepin County generally advises 5:00 p.m.

To guarantee your vote is counted, assume the 5:00 p.m. deadline applies to you, and remember that you can never drop an absentee ballot at a regular neighborhood polling place.

Then track it at mnvotes.gov/track. And if you’d rather never apply again, the state now has a permanent absentee list that mails you a ballot every election.

Registration: Oct. 13 is a soft deadline, not a hard one

You can register online through Oct. 13. After that, you register in person, either at an early voting site or at your polling place on Election Day, with proof of residence. If you’ve moved or changed your name, you need to re-register.

If you’re waiting for Nov. 3

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you’re in line by 8 p.m., don’t leave, you can still vote.

Check your polling place with the state’s Polling Place Finder, even if you’ve voted at the same church gym for a decade. Waconia, for instance, dropped its ward system and now has four precincts, and the city warns that your polling location has likely changed.

Your rights, briefly

A few worth knowing before you go:

• Time off work. You can take paid time off to vote at any point in the 46-day absentee period, not just Election Day. Your employer can’t make you use vacation or PTO. That makes a Tuesday-lunch trip to Chaska or Jordan a legally protected errand.

• The 100-foot rule. Secretary Simon has been explicit that state law keeps everyone but voters, election workers, people who work in the building and one challenger per party away from a polling place entrance. Minnesota law also bars law enforcement from being preemptively posted at polling places. Given the past year in this state, that’s worth remembering.

• No campaign gear. Shirts, hats and buttons for a candidate or party on the ballot aren’t allowed. Issue messages that do not directly correlate to a ballot question or candidateare fine.

• Help and do-overs. You can bring your kids, ask for help, and get a new ballot if you make a mistake.

One place where skipping isn’t neutral

You don’t have to vote in every race. Leave a race blank and the rest of your ballot still counts.

Except for one question.

This year’s ballot includes a constitutional amendment about how much money the Permanent School Fund sends to school districts. Minnesota constitutional amendments need “yes” votes from a majority of everyone who votes in the election, so leaving the question blank has the same practical effect as voting no.

Whatever you think of the amendment, make that choice on purpose.

The short version

The state sets the rules. Your county and city decide how close to home you can follow them. That’s why a Waconia voter and a Chanhassen voter, living a few miles apart, have different options this fall.

So pick your method this week. Request the mail ballot, circle Oct. 16 if you want to feed the machine yourself, or plan the Election Day trip. The ballots are ready.

We should be too.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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The weather is turning colder, and we are now in the countdown to the midterms. These midterms may be the most important in the history of the USA, and we need all hands on deck.

Numbers at our weekly protest have fallen, and when it was summer and people were on vacations, going to cabins, and recharging, that made sense. But it is time to come back. We need you.

The more people who stand along that hill, the more we show the outside world that this is real and important and that there are people fighting. It is important that people who are afraid, or who are thinking that they are the only ones who do not agree with this regime, see that they are not alone.

I can tell you how people in other countries viewed the USA up until recently. It was a place where you could make amazing strides in science and research. The media was open, and freedom of speech was a real thing. Not that there was no free speech or laws such as the Constitution in other countries, but there was a trust here. There was trust in the voting system. The Supreme Court may have given decisions we did not always agree with, but there was, again, a trust.

This is all gone. All of it.

Countries have seen how fast everything is being dismantled, and they are forging other bonds. They are making other trade and protection partners and cutting out the USA.

Gas prices are at an all-time high. The care that people with disabilities need is being cut with no alternatives given. In the next few months, more cuts are coming that will affect each and every one of us negatively. We are stuck in a war that is only getting worse, and experts are warning that AI advancements need to slow down so we can do them safely, while the Trump administration has pushed to accelerate AI development and remove regulatory barriers. CNN, CBS, and others have been censored.

There is strength in numbers, and it is time we show that again.

Come back. Come fight.

While you are with us, pick up a lawn sign to give a neighbor. Volunteer to help our candidates or learn more about them. Come see Kim at the refreshments table and listen to Joel ring his cowbell. Talk to Dave and Jen, and wave your signs to the honks and cheers. Sign up to help bring people to the polls.

We need you. The USA needs you.

SW Protectors

This Tuesday at 6:30 at the Golden Kitchen in downtown Chaska (details below) come listen to Chrissy and Kai as they tell us about what commissioners do and how that affects our cities.

Coming up: At the end of October, there will be a food drive, and we have speakers lined up for every SW Protectors meeting.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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Important update!

Last year, The Bellows was kind enough to open their doors to us for free and let the SW Protectors hold our meetings there. Twice a month, they provided us with a safe and inclusive space, great food and ever-changing décor.

We had contacted other places, but the prices to rent a room were astronomical, especially since we have no money. The Bellows and their gaming store, The Forge, have grown over the last year, and they now need the space for their business. I am so thankful to them, and I hope you will continue to visit. They have an ever-changing menu of delicious food and are locally owned.

This change does mean we need to find a new home, and we did!

The Golden Kitchen, just down the road in downtown Chaska, is locally owned by immigrants, and the food and drinks are always great. We’ll also have better acoustics!

At our next meeting on September 15, we will have our own Chrissy and Kai, who are both running for commissioner in Carver County. Let’s talk about what commissioners can and can’t do, how data centers fit into the picture and so much more. We will also talk about what to do in these last few weeks before the election to make sure your vote gets counted.

On October 6, Dan Kessler, who is running for the Minnesota Senate, will come talk with us. And on October 20, we will have Ellie Krug, who is running for school board, to talk about how important that role is.

If you have not joined us before, I invite you to come and meet with us.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Golden Kitchen and is located at 207 N Chestnut Street #110 in Chaska. [Map]

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180 people showed up on Saturday to continue our weekly tradition of gathering together and supporting each other. I want to point out that so many of you have formed real bonds over the last year and then some while standing on that hill.

You stand or sit near the same people, talk about family or about whatever crazy thing Trump has come up with this last week. You support each other through illness and surgery and cheer when a big truck drives by honking its horn.

As hard as the last many months have been with ICE murdering people, kidnapping our neighbors, Trump causing prices to skyrocket, and destabilizing the entire world, I want to point out the amazing things that have happened.

Minnesota and all of you fought back so well and so hard that we have been awarded the JFK Profiles in Courage Award. We thwarted ICE at every opportunity. We then supported those most vulnerable by donating supplies and making deliveries so they did not have to leave their homes.

Our protest alone made one of the largest food donations collected in one day EVER to Bountiful Baskets! But this was happening all over. In cities from Minneapolis to Shakopee, we made connections with each other and created vast networks of mutual aid.

Bruce Springsteen (the Boss himself) wrote a song about us!

If you went to the State Fair and visited the crop art exhibit, or went to look at the quilts or any other art and craft exhibit, you saw Minnesotans standing proud and making it known that we are not going to give up or give in. I never thought I would see resistance crop art, but here we are, and it is amazing!

On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Joe Brothers will be with us at the SW Protectors meeting, and that is the start of the countdown to the elections. I hope to see you at the Bellows at 6:30 as Joe talks to us, and as we also talk about fighting the data center and our next steps.

Judith

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Bellows restaurant and it’s located at 232 Pioneer Trail in Chaska.

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been innundated with phone calls and text messages asking me to participate in polling lately. It would seem there is a lot of interest in the Southwest Metro this season.

Election season always brings an avalanche of polls.

One day your preferred candidate is surging. The next day they’re collapsing. Headlines declare races “effectively over,” while social media insists the numbers prove one side has all the momentum.

It’s enough to make anyone wonder whether the polls are measuring public opinion—or trying to shape it.

The truth is that both things can happen.

Most professional political polls are legitimate attempts to understand what voters are thinking. They are an important tool for campaigns, journalists, and the public. But alongside those legitimate polls are push polls, partisan polls, and low-quality surveys that can distort the public conversation.

Understanding the difference has become an essential civic skill.

Polling Infographics

What Is a Poll?

At its best, a poll is nothing more than a carefully designed survey.

Researchers contact a representative sample of voters, ask them neutral questions, and use statistical methods to estimate how the broader population is likely to feel.

Think of it like taking the temperature outside.

A thermometer doesn’t change the weather. It simply measures it.

A legitimate poll should do the same.

Professional polling organizations are transparent about their methods. They publish who conducted the survey, who paid for it, how respondents were selected, the dates the interviews were conducted, the sample size, the margin of error, and often the exact wording of every question.

No poll is perfect, but a good poll allows others to judge its quality.

What Is a Push Poll?

Despite the name, a push poll isn’t really a poll at all.

Its primary purpose isn’t to measure public opinion.

It’s to change it.

Imagine receiving a phone call that asks:

“Would you be more or less likely to vote for Candidate Smith if you learned she voted to raise taxes on seniors?”

The caller isn’t simply collecting information.

They’re planting an idea.

Whether the claim is true, misleading, or completely false, you’ve now heard it.

That’s the point.

Push polls often ask a series of emotionally loaded questions about one candidate while asking few (or no) comparable questions about the other. They may never publish results because gathering accurate data was never the objective.

The poll itself is the message.

Why Push Polls Can Work

Human psychology makes push polls surprisingly effective.

Researchers have found that simply hearing a claim—even one that’s later corrected—can make it feel more familiar. Our brains often confuse familiarity with truth.

Other psychological effects come into play as well:

• Priming: Certain information becomes more prominent in your thinking.

• Framing: The wording of a question changes how people evaluate an issue.

• Availability heuristic: Dramatic or memorable claims feel more common than they really are.

That’s why professional pollsters work hard to write neutral questions. Even small wording changes can influence responses.

How to Spot a Questionable Poll

Before accepting the results of any poll, ask a few simple questions.

• Who paid for it?

• Who conducted it?

• How many people were interviewed?

• When was it conducted?

• How were respondents selected?

• Was it conducted by live interview, text, online panel, or automated calls?

• What’s the margin of error?

• Are the complete questions available?

• Are the detailed results available?

If none of that information is public, be skeptical. Transparency is one of the hallmarks of quality polling.

Understanding the Margin of Error

One of the most misunderstood numbers in polling is the margin of error.

Suppose a poll finds:

• Candidate A: 48%

• Candidate B: 46%

• Margin of error: ±3%

Many people would conclude Candidate A is ahead. Not necessarily.

Because of the margin of error, Candidate A’s actual support could reasonably be anywhere from 45% to 51%, while Candidate B’s could be anywhere from 43% to 49%.

Those ranges overlap. Statistically speaking, that’s a very close race.

That’s why responsible pollsters rarely describe small leads as definitive.

Why Polls Often Disagree

People are often surprised when two polls conducted around the same time produce different results.

That doesn’t automatically mean one is wrong.

Different organizations may:

• Interview different populations.

• Define “likely voters” differently.

• Weight age, education, race, or geography differently.

• Conduct interviews on different days.

• Ask questions in different orders.

Each of those decisions can produce slightly different results. That’s why experienced analysts rarely focus on a single poll. They look for patterns across many polls.

Why Polling Averages Matter

Because every poll contains some random error, many organizations publish polling averages rather than relying on a single survey.

This is usually a smart approach.

Imagine asking ten neighbors whether they think tomorrow will be warm. One person’s guess may be off. But averaging many independent opinions often produces a better estimate than relying on just one.

Polling averages work the same way.

When multiple high-quality polls point in the same direction, confidence in the overall trend increases.

When Polling Averages Can Be Misleading

Here’s where things become more complicated.

Polling averages are only as good as the polls included.

Imagine averaging the grades of ten students. If nine scored around 90 but one fake score of 20 is added to the pile, the class average suddenly drops even though nothing changed about the other nine students.

Polling averages can be influenced in a similar way.

If numerous low-quality or heavily partisan polls are released within a short period, they can pull an average in one direction. Whether those polls deserve the same weight as long-established, highly accurate pollsters depends on how the averaging organization builds its model.

Some polling aggregators treat most public polls similarly. Others adjust for pollster quality, historical accuracy, methodology, recency, and each firm’s historical tendency to lean toward one party or the other.

Not all polling averages are created equal.

Fake Polls & Junk Polls

You may have heard last week about a fake poll, the “results” of which spread surprisingly fast across the internet and was widely cited as a credible poll. PBS reports:

Locked in a competitive reelection race, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared on social media last week that a new poll was evidence that her campaign was “gaining momentum.”

Just a few days later, the truth emerged: The poll was fabricated.

The California results were among at least three “polls” across three states posted online this month by Median Strategies, a previously unknown organization that admitted to the Los Angeles Times on Monday that the purported results were fake. The company wrote before shuttering its website this week that it “was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

In recent election cycles, a growing number of election analysts—including Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg and election analyst Tom Bonier—have discussed a noticeable increase in Republican-aligned polling firms releasing large numbers of polls late in campaigns.

Rosenberg and Bonier have argued that some of these polls appear intended not only to measure public opinion but also to influence polling averages, media narratives, fundraising, and voter perceptions of momentum.

Polling averages are not magic. They are mathematical summaries of the polls included.

If low-quality polls enter the system, they can influence some averages more than others. That’s one reason many professional analysts evaluate the quality of each poll, not just the topline numbers.

Polls Don’t Predict Elections

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is this: Polls do not predict the future.

They measure what a particular group of people said at one particular moment under one particular set of circumstances.

People change their minds. New events happen. Turnout differs from expectations. Late-deciding voters make choices.

The only poll that ultimately counts is the one conducted on Election Day.

Before You Share a Poll, Ask Yourself…

Before reposting the latest poll on social media, take a moment to ask:

1. Who paid for it?

2. Who conducted it?

3. Is the methodology public?

4. How large was the sample?

5. What’s the margin of error?

6. When was it conducted?

7. Is it consistent with other reputable polls?

8. Has the pollster been accurate in previous elections?

9. Is this poll trying to measure opinion or influence it?

10. What do multiple high-quality polls say?

You don’t need to be a statistician to become a smarter consumer of polling. You just need to ask a few good questions.

Because in a healthy democracy, understanding the numbers is just as important as knowing the candidates.

Polling Resources

There are a couple of Substacks I follow that regularly address polls and polling.

• Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles

• Lincoln Square - This Lincoln Square interview with Simon Rosenberg is really important for understanding how Republicans are deliberately trying to manipulate public percpetion by polluting polling data.

• Dan Pfeiffer’s Message Box

• G.Elliot Morris’ Strength in Numbers - This one is really good if you want to get into the weeds on interpreting polls and understanding the science of polling

Pew Research Center: A premier nonpartisan “fact tank” that studies social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends without doing political candidate “horse-race” polling.

Gallup Poll: The pioneer of modern scientific polling, now focusing on long-term social, economic, and political issues rather than daily elections.

Quinnipiac University Poll: An independent university poll widely respected as a gold standard for tracking voter sentiment on national and state elections and public policy.

Ipsos: A global market research and public opinion firm that frequently partners with major news outlets like ABC News and the Washington Post.

YouGov: A major data analytics and research organization conducting reliable scientific public opinion surveys, often in partnership with CBS News and The Economist.

AP-NORC Center: A collaboration between the Associated Press and the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

• Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Bellows restaurant and it’s located at 232 Pioneer Trail in Chaska.

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