Both of my parents enlisted to fight fascism. “Teach your children well??” That’s one lesson they had right.

The DOJ’s press release:

15 Members of Direct Action Minnesota, a Minneapolis-Based Direct Action Group with Antifa Ties, Indicted

Antifa my fat ass… this is so disgusting, infuriating, disheartening, MOTIVATING!

DOJ claims against one of the 15 is a post where he urges folks to “Become Ungovernable.” DOJ seems not to know or care about Trump in 2024:

Anyone remember the Constitution? Here’s a refresher:

Constitution of the United States

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ACLU-MN Statement on DOJ’s Charges Against 15 Individuals Stemming from Operation Metro Surge

June 16, 2026 4:40 pm

This morning, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security announced charges against 15 individuals stemming from Operation Metro Surge.

The ACLU of Minnesota is monitoring and investigating the situation. While we do not yet have all of the information about these charges, the criminal prosecution of observers and protestors should be carefully scrutinized for retaliatory motives. Prosecution of a small number of people as punishment for exercising their First Amendment rights can chill people from exercising those same rights.

Given this administration’s history of misrepresenting the facts regarding their conduct toward observers and protestors during Operation Metro Surge, Minnesotans should demand transparency and reserve judgement until we fully understand the facts in this case.

“Minnesotans have the right to observe, document, and peacefully protest federal overreach into our state and abuses against our neighbors,” said ACLU-MN Staff Attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson. “We brought Tincher v. Mullin to halt the government’s unlawful policy of retaliation against observers and protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights. We will continue to use every available means to defend people whose liberties are threatened and whose voices are suppressed.”

“It’s critical that Minnesotans know and are prepared to exercise their rights,” said ACLU-MN Staff Attorney Alicia Granse. “You have a right to refuse to speak with federal law enforcement, to refuse them entry without a warrant, and to have an attorney present.”

And… considering DOJ is throwing around “antifa” is that an admission that it’s actually an anti-FASCISM conspiracy?

Protests follow after 15 Minnesotans charges with anti-ICE conspiracy

Read this all-inclusive Get Out of Jail Free card:

What a stunning admission of guilt!

White House: 202-456-1111 (good luck with that)

www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Call your Congresscritter:

www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Rules? Who needs ’em?

My rulemaking petition is before the Public Utilities Commission tomorrow:

There have been a few filings in this docket. In chronological order, starting at the beginning, oh, with the statute first and then filings (and note, the statute does say “may.”):

• Rulemaking Petition – Minn. R. ch. 7850 & 7849 April 13th, 2026
• Comment on 7849 and 7850 Rulemaking Petition April 16th, 2026
• 7850 Rulemaking – Reply Comments May 7th, 2026

And here we go — they say it won’t start before 12:30 pm — that’s appreciated!

Routing the most massive of transmission lines through Minnesota without rules?

Or is it time for an award:

Today the RW Chamber of Commerce held a “State of the City,” billed as Mayor Gary Iocco and Council Administrator Chris Heineman. At the most recent Council meeting it was billed as Iocco with two council members. ??

The planned part of this shindig was review by Chris Heineman, not exactly stimulating, and after he went through slides, which I’d guess from his comments that he’d done something similar last year, the baton was tossed to Iocco who improvised, and I didn’t get a lot of it down.

Here’s the recording: Nope can’t do it on phone, and can’t do it from the computer either, “Sorry, you are not allowed to upload this file type.” But I do have a recording — need to figure out how to post it.

Posting the recording wasn’t working at all on phone, but here’s what notes I’ve got, and I missed a LOT. Chris just pretty much read the slides, but it was hard to keep up with Iocco:

When I heard Mayor Iocco talking about his trip to North Dakota to tell legislators what it’s like to host a nuclear plant, my ears went up on alert. I quickly filed a Data Practices Act Request, because it sure looked stinky to me!

Particularly given who’s a “citizen” member of the committee Pam Gorman Prochaska, Xcel Energy Services. Excel Services Corporation is making a bid to be a conslutant to this Committee. Excel Services Corporation v. Xcel Energy Services??? What relation?

Here are a couple things that popped out. At the Council meeting, he said he’s been to North Dakota about nuclear three times.

First document, these missives from OCTOBER meeting, planning by Xcel, what to say:

And asking for his expenses to reimburse:

And dinner with the group:

Remember this post about a month ago? That was not long after Iocco had discussed his North Dakota trip at a Council meeting:

RW Mayor promoting nuclear in ND! April 21st, 2026

Per their minutes of the North Dakota committee, here’s what our Mayor said — compare it to the video and rough transcript below:

Well, that’s odd. “Most negative feedback from the community relates to having a power company in general, rather than to the nuclear nature of the facility.” Oh,right… he also had some bizarre things to say about comments by those opposing at the Public Utilities Commission meeting! “And some of the facts and figures from the opposing folks, those are not true facts, those are made up, how many people are dying every day in Red Wing because of the plant there.” Really, it’s on the video, toward the end.

And you’d think they’d have someone from Prairie Island Indian Community to talk about life next to the plant… but NOOOOOOO…. not mentioned by name, only that “the plant” is across the road from “Treasure Island Resort & Casino.” There are homes closer.

HERE’S THE VIDEO, Iocco’s March presentation starts at 11:04. And here’s what he had to say — accuracy is close but not quite 100%:

Once more with feeling — note that Iocco does not even know how many megawatts the Prairie Island nuclear reactors generate.

And Xcel loved it: