The Monday Memo

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I’m back! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! There were a lot of news-worthy items over the past few weeks – here are the topics that made today’s column:

  • FCS National Championship
  • AG Knudsen Admonished
  • Venezuela – the 51st State?
  • One More Thing

FCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP:

Don’t forget – the 2026 FCS National Championship game is tonight (Monday, January 5) in Nashville, Tennessee. 

The Montana State Bobcats take on the Illinois State Redbirds. 

The game starts at 5:30 in Montana and is being televised on ESPN. 

Go Cats Go! 

AG KNUDSEN ADMONISHED:

One of the major news stories in Montana over the holidays was the Montana Supreme Court’s dismissal of a misconduct case against Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen after he defied court orders in a dispute over a law that gave the governor more power over the judiciary. (Source)

However, Knudsen did not escape completely without being publicly admonished by the court.

Justices agreed in their ruling that Knudsen had violated the rules of professional conduct for attorneys. But the court said the panel that handled the case violated Knudsen’s due process rights by excluding his expert witness and failing to adequately explain its decision against him. (Source)

The MAGAs in Montana were giddy about the court almost clearing Knudsen. They are always claiming that the “liberal” courts rule against them.

Just about all the statewide officeholders and other elected officials paid homage to Knudsen on social media. He sure is well-liked! 

So now Knudsen can concentrate on more important things, like running for Governor. 

VENEZUELA – THE 51ST STATE?

Just about everyone has an opinion about the action taken by the Trump Administration in Venezuela a few days ago. The United States sent troops into Venezuela and captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife. 

Maduro and his wife are now in the United States and will reportedly be in court today.

The further I dive into the issue, the more it looks like it was done over oil. 

There are always arguments about whether a President can do things like take military action without congressional approval. The President can. Almost everyone thinks that Maduro is a bad person and should be removed. 

What bothered me most about the action is what Trump said afterwards. He said that the United States would be running Venezuela and that the people on the stage behind him would be the key people running it. The people on stage were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. 

Trump also said he was not afraid of “boots on the ground” in Venezuela. People will not like that if it happens. 

Trump and his administration want to take over Greenland, and Rubio has his sights set on Cuba. (Source) We are just at the end of year one of the Trump Administration. Beam me up, Scotty. 

ONE MORE THING:

Happy Birthday to all my friends who have birthdays in 2026. 

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##

14 thoughts on “The Monday Memo”

  1. Regarding Cuba.

    Alas, Communist Cuba is about to expire of strangulation. Cuba has depended on Señor Maduro’s oil since the Soviet Union dissolved, and now that the supply is cut off, the island nation enjoys only a few hours-a-day of electricity. Soon it will be dark there. . . and things political start stirring and moiling in the dark. Odds are they won’t shake out so well for los communistas. So, that’ll be two down with a few more to go. Anyway, the Castro brothers are long gone and the old charisma with them. The current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is a nobody.-via James Kunstler.

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  5. So the court “publicly admonished” Knudsen. Would that be like a sternly worded letter?

    Maduro’s arrest wasn’t solely about oil. Ever since we’ve been blowing up drug boats drug deaths have decreased.

    Plus you can’t deny China and Russia’s influence gaining traction. If China was to reconstruct Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, increasing production while demanding exclusivity in purchase contracts those actions would be deemed ok.

    But I’m agreeing with several others, this was also about the stolen election in 2020. Trump is after bigger fish, I’m predicting a plea bargain in Maduro’s future.

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    • Thanks for your comments. As for Knudsen, “The court’s order served as a public reprimand…”

      I think as the Venezuela issue plays out, we’ll see that it was mostly about oil.

      As for the “stolen” election of 2020, the Republicans should pay attention to 2026. It’s not looking good for them.
      -JmB

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    • “Ever since we’ve been blowing up drug boats drug deaths have decreased”?

      Is the claim that they have decreased more than they were already decreasing?

      Because drug overdose deaths were already on a serious downward trajectory, having fallen nearly 27% in 2024 and continuing in 2025 well before the first boat was blown on Sept 2.

      Are there statistics from a reliable source to indicate the drug boat strikes have caused a meaningful decrease since that first boat strike, bending the existing downward trajectory down even further?

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/releases/20250514.html

      The official CDC site’s running tally window doesn’t yet seem to have 2025 stats later than September 7th.

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm

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      • Actually the CDC had a poor record of telling the truth.
        I believe this Administration more that a biased CDC.

    • So in other words, no reliable statistics (or for that matter statistics at all) from any reliable source to back that claim up, just some self-serving statement somewhere from this administration?

      And if their own CDC’s numbers can’t be trusted where are the alleged underlying statistics for the claim coming from?

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What do you think?