Rep. Omar, Her Daughter, and George Floyd Make Rubio’s Cuban Pinko Scare Report

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Report: Every Liberal American Is Under the Influence

After hosting a summit on political terrorism earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged with a shitlist calling out 43 people/organizations the current administration doesn’t like. The 100-page report, titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” reads like a paranoid stoner’s midnight missive in its attempt to prove that pretty much every major recent protest in the U.S. was brought on by Cuban operatives. 

“Many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history— from the George Floyd riots to the rise of Antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses—can be linked, in some way, shape, or form, to Cuban influence,” the report claims.

Groups and people supposedly under the influence of Cuba include Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler, Amazon’s labor union founders, and not just U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN), but also her daughter Isra Hirsi, who was suspended from Barnard College two years ago after organizing a pro-Palestine/anti-genocide encampment on campus.

And then, there’s the murder of George Floyd. The report notes that Cuba was in “gleeful support of” the protests and unrest that followed. “As protests and riots swept American cities in the summer of 2020, Cuban state media and officials issued daily commentary portraying the United States as a systemically racist country,” it continues. Hmm. Cuba might be onto something here. 

If this all sounds a lot like a revival of Red Scare/McCarthyism thinking, that’s because it is. Here's independent journalist Ken Klippenstein writing via his site:

The implication is clear: Secretary of State Marco Rubio thinks there should be a modern-day blacklist of the political left in America. In fact, the report explicitly mentions the “blacklists, McCarthy-era investigations and prosecutions” of the 1950s and their effectiveness at dismembering the Communist Party USA.

70+ New Ways to Get Lit at the Fair

There’s something magical about drinking a wine slushie or Grape Ape or olive beer while checking out award-winning scarecrows, pickled beets, and seed art. Folks who love their Minnesota State Fair with a little bit of a buzz will have even more options this summer, as the 2026 new drink roster was released Tuesday.

We’ve got some boozy ice creams, like Lulu’s sangria sundae and the return of Pryes’s raspberry soft-serve beer (now available with a peach twist). There’s pickle-flavored stuff, including a dill pickle seltzer at Swine & Spuds (it comes with meat and cheese) and a (potentially disgusting) pickle-flavored wine at the Hideaway. New beers range from curious to questionable; the Homer Black Pepper IPA at the Ball Park Cafe could be tasty, but the Old Ranch Hand, a ranch dressing-flavored cream ale found in the Coliseum, sounds like the stuff of creamy nightmares.

There’s also a list of new NA beverages, from a razzarita frozen mocktail to "patriotic boba lemonade," here.

Bauhaus Brew Labs Is Back… Sometime Soon!

Local drinkers were super bummed when Bauhaus announced its June closure after more than a decade slinging beer in northeast Minneapolis. But less than a month later, it looks like it might be getting a reprise, as St. Paul-based ABV Technology announced plans Tuesday to bring back the Bauhaus brand, brewery, and taproom. Founded in 2017, ABV works with beverage companies both local and national to adjust alcohol levels in drinks (read more about what they do in this Racket profile). 

“Bauhaus and ABV go way back,” ABV co-founder and CEO Ben Jordan says via press release. “When we launched our business lowering the alcohol content of craft beverages nine years ago, Bauhaus was our first customer, and its Nah brand was our first major success.” 

Though no date has been set for the grand reopening, Jordan says his company plans to bring back some of the brewery’s greatest hits, while also expanding offerings to include wine, cocktails, THC drinks, and seltzers at a variety of intoxication levels, showcasing what ABV can do for clients along the way.

Is this Minneapolis-filmed Montage "One of the Most Iconic Scenes in Cinematic History"?

Who are we to say? If you're an elder millennial who grew up in the Twin Cities, you might think this Mighty Ducks 2 rollerblade montage is the best thing ever. Hell, I’m a Gen Xer from Columbus, Ohio, and I think it’s pretty neat.

Racket film critic Keith Harris says, "Why would I have watched a children's movie that came out after I graduated college?"