2/27/18

Daugaard could drive more women out of state for medical care

Earth hater Tim Begalka is grousing at Betty Olson's Facebook page that if earth haters keep pressuring bimbo Lynne DiSanto into leaving South Dakota's extremist legislature Governor Denny Daugaard will appoint a RINO to replace her.

Begalka's ilk would no doubt boo Daugaard if Denny vetos Senate Bill 110 that asserts physicians at Sioux Falls' Planned Parenthood clinic violated informed consent laws.
In a statement Monday, Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota said the bill unfairly implied the Sioux Falls clinic was in violation of state law. Reports from the Department of Health show the clinic has complied with state law.
Read that here.

If Daugaard signs the bill into law he is risking another boycott that could cripple South Dakota's fragile economy even more.

Pro-life is simply code for white people breeding.

Even the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says evidence suggests there is no foetal pain until the third trimester begins at 27 weeks.

South Dakota State Representative Susan Wismer has signed on to the newly-created Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council just launched by the State Innovation Exchange.
The council’s objective is to put reproductive rights at the forefront of progressives’ — and the country’s — agenda. SiX categorically decries progressives who claim reproductive rights aren’t a necessary component to membership in the Democratic party. “Reproductive freedom is a central and necessary component of an inclusive progressive agenda,” reads the new council’s platform.
Read it all here.

Industrial chemicals from Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta abort foetuses all the time but few will hold their feet to the fire about it. Contact with the Big Sioux River as it flows outside Brookings can cause spontaneous abortions.

South Dakota Republicans love the foetus but hate actual non-white, non-christian children discarding them as collateral damage in the so-called War on Terror being prosecuted by South Dakota’s outposts for the military/industrial complex.

African-Americans terminate pregnancies at about the same per capita rate as white people do but don’t take their jobs. Latinos, however, have fewer abortions per capita but earth haters like Kristi Noem are saying white people are hemorrhaging jobs to Latinos.

Rich women have full reproductive freedom while women at middle and lower income levels experience chilling effects on their rights. Women in South Dakota who can afford it simply jump on a plane and fly to Santa Fe, Minneapolis or Denver for their procedures. Imagine a woman on the Standing Rock or Pine Ridge doing that. South Dakota’s repeated attempts to restrict access to medical care are not only mean-spirited, they're discriminatory anti-choice extremism.

But, applaud the nutball Republican efforts diverting attention from the party’s culture of corruption where murders and their covers up are commonplace by clogging the legislative session with christianic religionist argle-bargle.

Murder, Inc.: South Dakota's earth haters get loads of cash from the death industry

To perpetuate America's culture of gun violence John Thune has received nearly $50,000 for his silence on gun carnage, Kristi Noem got $5,000 for her service to the murder industry and Mike Rounds got nearly $5,000 for his dotage to the National Reactionary Association according to one study.

South Dakota's earth haters have received far more from the arms dealers to the world. Thune has a lifetime haul of some $226,000, just for example.

America has brought this on itself since radical christianity has murdered millions but you know what scares me?

Donald Trump has escalated his war on civilians and someone seeking retaliation could roll a truck bomb into Rapid City Central or Sioux Falls Lincoln High School after an Ellsworth-based drone pilot or some jock from the 114th Fighter Wing targets a wedding party or religious service.

Just say it: radical christianic terrorism.

2/26/18

Hopelessless is epidemic in South Dakota


Which parts of six month winters, rampant racism, chilling effects on civil rights and an extremist legislature escape you people?
Dr. Steve Manlove, a former Custer resident and practicing psychiatrist for 31 years, agrees that depression plays a big role in suicide, saying suicide attempts are almost always connected to depression and feelings of hopelessness.
Read more here.

A study recently published in the Journal of Rural Health found the suicide rate for farmers is not only the highest of any occupation in America, it's spiking because of a lack of ready access to mental health care services.

Still another study just concluded cannabis is an effective antidepressant therapy for some patients while keeping it illegal creates paranoia, anxiety and stigmatization. Cannabis is an effective treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Even the South Dakota State Medical Association contends that although "marijuana and dronabinol decreased pain" the fact that it is illegal makes it less effective as a therapy.
Although there are different schools of thought concerning the efficacy of marijuana to treat certain medical conditions and concerning whether its possession and use ought to be decriminalized altogether, the fact remains that it is a violation of federal law and South Dakota law to possess or distribute it for any purpose.
Read that here.

South Dakota is among the worst states for opioid abuse.

Meth use is a symptom of South Dakota's statewide hopelessness as the state's residents stare down another punishing, relentless, and unforgiving winter.


Democrat files for seat held by Box Elder bimbo

Bo Sistak has no chance to win in District 35 but he has filed to run for the seat Lynne DiSanto, a bimbo living in Box Elder, currently holds.

While she is representative of Republicans throughout West River the South Dakota Republican Party won't tolerate losing the seat to a Democrat. She has been whining about Pierre's predator culture.
The truth is Pierre is a male dominated environment, but I'm comfortable there holding my own. I'm not weak or a snowflake. I've engaged in hundreds of debates and heated battles with men and women. That is part of the job, and I'm equipped to battle anyone that way.
Read that here.

2/25/18

Deutsch will fleece District 4 again

Look at the guy: he's icky catholic creepy evil in the flesh.

Quack earth hater Fred Deutsch is praying over his decision to fleece his district and the South Dakota Legislature again.
“If the voters return me to Pierre, I will promote transparency and civility in government, and will always listen to the people. It was an honor to serve the people of District 4 and the state of South Dakota, and it would be my great honor to serve them again for the next two years.”
Yeah right, Fred.

White guy Deutsch has been raising campaign cash gallivanting around South Dakota with a crusade calling Death with Dignity "Don't Eat Grandma" or something but won't spend a dime for mental health. Fred is a sectarian who attends anti-civil rights conferences featuring the Duck Dynasty philosophers.

You see this all the time with Talibangelicals: someone threatens to out one as a serial molester, he runs an op-ed in the paper then diverts some of the cash he raises from sermonizing wedge issues to shut up the people he's raped or groped.

Think of it as the Bill Cosby Effect: the more sanctimonious the speech the more cash gets raised to hide career criminal behavior.

It does make one wonder if all the chiropractors in South Dakota's earth hater-glutted lawgiving body are intellectually incompetent, thugs or just fucking nuts. Fred Deutsch and Jeff Monroe want to end women's civil rights, Scott Munsterman groped at least one teen and Allen Unruh wants to rewrite history by leaving Native genocide and human-caused climate change out of school curricula. These are "pro-life" people who rabidly embrace state-sponsored killing of persons convicted of capital crimes.

Anyone who believes Fred has never groped a teen of any gender is delusional.

Runoff from city exacerbating ag waste in Lake Mitchell

The City of Mitchell can't sue industrial agriculture for the pollution in Lake Mitchell because runoff from lawns and streets is contributing to the lake's death.

At least that's the conclusion of one city councilman.
Councilman Kevin McCardle is considering what impact dozens of storm runoff drains are having on Lake Mitchell. And according to documents provided to The Daily Republic by McCardle, there are about 40 outfalls that drain directly into the lake, most of them into bay areas. At the most recent Lake Mitchell Advisory Committee meeting, Mayor Jerry Toomey said Fyra Engineering is leaning toward a dredging plan that would include draining the lake. The plan, according to a document distributed at the Feb. 13 meeting, would restore the lake back to its original 1928 condition.
Read the rest here.

It's not just Lake Mitchell. Every body of water in eastern South Dakota is a shithole because Republican is just another name for earth hater.

Noem headed for a drubbing in earth hater gubernatorial primary

Stick a fork in Kristi Noem: she's done.

Kristi is so freaked out by Marty Jackley's strong support among South Dakota's earth haters she has donned camouflage, appealed for more federal cash and is suffering another eruption of severe acne.
"In fact, I personally know a few of them (YFPC inmates) and truly believe their time there (at the prison) has made them better persons," she said. "That’s what we need to perpetuate and not shut down."
Read the rest here. Gee, how personally do you know these convicts, Kristi?

Testing preferences on their primary choices Marty bitch-slapped Noem in the South Dakota earth hater party straw poll 1,019 to 716 at the State Fair over last year's Labor Day weekend. And last week he did it again smashing Kristi 60% to 23% in a poll conducted by South Dakota's Chamberpot of Commerce. South Dakota's earth haters nominate their candidate in June.

Remember when the earth haters blasted former First Lady Michelle Obama for baring her shoulders?

Noem: "hold my beer."

It's really hard not to slut-shame someone who's gone all out to be one.

Earth hater on earth hater violence: Johnson v. DiSanto

It's yet to be known what Rapid City earth hater David Johnson said to fellow earth hater Lynne DiSanto during the legislative session.
Members voted 45-13 to establish a special committee on discipline and expulsion to investigate Rep. David Johnson. He apologized publicly to Republican Rep. Lynne DiSanto before the vote, saying his emotions got the better of him.
Read the rest here.

Recall DiSanto supported the actions of the sleeper cell of armed christianic militants who held a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. While she is representative of Republicans throughout West River the South Dakota Republican Party won't tolerate losing the seat to a Democrat.

SDGOP says she won't be reprimanded for advocating vehicular homicide, either. If she leaves the legislature it will be her own choice (wink, wink). Story here.

Here's what DiSanto said to a barrel full of crackers during Saturday's legislative coffee in Rapid City: "I think the school sentinel program is a great thing. I think that we need good guys with guns and the best solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. And so I think it's great to see teachers that are properly trained, that are caring in the schools, and that we have that in place. Gun-free zones don't work."

It's just a guess but Johnson probably said something like, "Jesus F. Christ, Lynne, you are one stupid fucking cow."

2/23/18

Montana's cannabis opportunities are still evolving

Democrats in Montana's legislature worked to bring better testing for contaminants to better serve that state's therapeutic cannabis patients and providers.
There are rumblings of getting a measure on the 2020 Montana ballot, but marijuana advocates want to see new rules implemented on the existing medical marijuana law before focusing on recreational use. Stillwater Labs tests marijuana for contaminants, mold byproducts, potency and more. New rules include implementing mandatory licensing and inspections and allowing post-traumatic stress disorder as an eligible ailment. To see a full list of the new medical marijuana rules click here. [NBC Montana]
Democrats are keenly aware that to energize millennials and a jaded base radical times call for sensible approaches to reforms of civil liberties for all adults.

Today in gun control: tax the hell out of them.

Just say it: radical christianic terrorism.

Good guy with a gun=white guy; bad guy with a gun=brown guy. Just like Republicans use the Second Amendment as white privilege, "pro-life" is about white people breeding. Nickolas Cruz, Stephen Paddock, Timothy McVeigh, Dylann Roof, Adam Lanza, Robert Dear, James Holmes, Eric Rudolph, Jared Loughner, Wade Michael Page, Ted Kaczynski and Eric Frein all are or were christians.

Since the alleged jihadist attacks on September 11, 2001 homegrown terrorists have killed nearly twice as many people in the United States than foreign-influenced militants have. 60% of guns recovered in crimes in Chicago come from outside the state.

Is this how Americans really want to live? Carry rifles and sidearms into every bar, church, and arena? A gun is like a lawyer: you carry one around long enough and sooner or later you're going to use it.

As white nationalists drive gun violence in the United Snakes South Dakota churches are bracing for the worst.
Organizers say nearly 60 people from churches as far away as North Dakota have signed up to attend the seminar, which will take place Friday and Saturday at Outreach Community Church in Box Elder. The Rev. Barry Young, who will lead the training, is vice president of Church Security Ministries for Strategos International, a Kansas City-based security training and consulting organization. The cost of the seminar is $99 for one day or $159 for both days.
Get the story here.

Red states are not going to fix their own problems.

Only We the People can slow these people down. Local law enforcement is only as effective as a legislature wants it to be.

Gun carrying people are saying they are being responsible (but won't be held liable) for our safety if the rest of us don’t, or refuse to, carry.

Thomas Jefferson believed a standing army and the right to bear arms are mutually exclusive.

Stand your ground has become vigilante justice because the courts are overwhelmed with suspects in the war on drugs, our communities are becoming armed camps and we’re barricaded in our homes afraid to let our kids go to school.

How many more people will be caught in or die from as yet uncounted crossfires?

Wyoming is most heavily armed state, South Dakota is number 22. The hypocrisy of Republicans wanting to arm teachers while systematically ending funding for public education is simply barefaced drunkenness.

American churches have brought this on themselves since radical christianity has murdered millions but you know what scares me?

Donald Trump has escalated his war on civilians and someone seeking retaliation could roll a truck bomb into Rapid City Central or Sioux Falls Lincoln High School after an Ellsworth-based drone pilot or some jock from the 114th Fighter Wing targets a wedding party or religious service.

Prohibition doesn't work: raise the age of possession, operation and ownership to 21, levy 100% excise taxes on the sales and gifting of the weapons on Senator Diane Feinstein's list then tag the revenue for Medicaid expansion.




Sicangu Oyate would remove white man's name from another South Dakota county

This blogger has been arguing for Lakota names on South Dakota's geological features for at least twenty years.

The South Dakota Board of Geographic Names spent more of their time on renaming the Squaw Humper Dam than on the proposal to change the name of a local jurisdiction to Oglala Lakota County.

Now, another tribal nation trapped in South Dakota wants to remove a wasicu's name from another county.
State Representative Shawn Bordeaux has begun a petition to change the name of Todd County to Sicangu Oyate County. Needing only 708 signatures at the time of the writing of this article, Representative Bordeaux hopes to use the county name change to educate both Natives and non-Natives in the state as to the history of the original naming of Todd County. Todd County was named after John Blair Smith Todd, a relative to President Abraham Lincoln, and a delegate in Dakota Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives and a general in the Union Army. According to Bordeaux, Todd was present at the Battle of Ash Hollow (Harney Massacre) near present day Garden County, Neb.
Read the rest here.

The Legion Lake Fire reminded America that Custer State Park is named for a war criminal.

During the Battle of Greasy Grass George Custer attacked the encampment where the elderly, women and children were hidden and during the Washita Massacre he held a similar contingent as hostages and human shields.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says that if Confederate monuments are taken down, there’s no telling how far America might go —Native Americans could call for the removal of statues commemorating leaders who orchestrated violence against their ancestors. [Huffington Post]
After successes by tribal nations renaming geographical features in Alaska and South Dakota Yellowstone National Park could see at least two name changes.

Hayden Valley memorializes Ferdinand V. Hayden who advocated for “extermination” of tribal people and Mount Doane is named for Lieutenant Gustavus Doane who led a massacre of the Piikani, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

According to US Geological Survey officials the Board on Geographic Names has received no official proposal to change the names to Buffalo Nations Valley and First Peoples Mountain.

Senator Lisa Murkowski and the US Park Service are doing what Alaskans are asking of Congress urging the body to approve a name change for North America's highest peak to Denali, an Athabascan name meaning “the high one.”

It is the opinion of this blog now that the mountain is named for Black Elk, named for a holy man who rejected the Roman Church, it should be in the Lakota language: loosely translated as Paha Heȟáka Sápa.

Tribal nations and pueblos in New Mexico are also mulling changes to events and geographical places that glorify Spanish colonizers.

US Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren drove thousands from their lands and to their deaths over the Trail of Tears yet Rapid City brazenly displays their likenesses in conspicuous locations downtown.

South Dakota is home to numerous sculptures that idolize genocide visited upon American Indians. Mount Rushmore is the state's premier example of racist ideology. Its sculptor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Sturgis in Meade County is home to Fort Meade: one of the last outposts supporting the US Army's war against Native forces. Samuel Sturgis and George Meade are both known for slaughtering American Indians.

The word 'squaw' is derived from Algonquin and Inyan Kara Peak in the Wyoming Black Hills is the bastardization of American Indian words; but, humper is simply wasicu for any man engaged in the act of copulation.

With the Oglala Lakota Nation as an interested party Chief Arvol Looking Horse has submitted a request to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names saying the words “Devils Tower” are a malapropism.

During the 2016 session South Dakota's Republican legislature voted to usurp the local control of the SD Board in favor of federal command over geographical names.

Meanwhile, another site named for a European known for exploiting American Indians is being upgraded.

Tribal members have sued to stop a Canadian company from drilling exploratory holes for a mine near a sacred site in the Black Hills. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe passed resolutions condemning what they say are abuses of the General Mining Law of 1872 that led to the Custer Expedition's discovery of gold in the Black Hills and to pay Civil War debt.

It's time for the State of South Dakota to abandon Bear Butte State Park that it claimed through colonization and remand it to the tribes for governance so they can restore its name to Mato Paha and for the US Park Service to add the name Mahto Tipila to Devils Tower National Monument.

Custer’s name is on a peak in the Black Hills National Forest and should be removed. It's time to remove his name from the Custer National Forest, too.

2/21/18

SD wildfire boss: Legion Lake Fire a bargain


South Dakota is a perpetual welfare state and a permanent disaster area.
The state of South Dakota will pay about 35 percent of the $2.5 million cost to fight the Legion Lake Fire, thanks to a cost-sharing agreement with the National Park Service and a reimbursement declaration by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The FEMA declaration granted soon after allows for reimbursement of 75 percent of the state’s firefighting costs for the period from the first day that structures were threatened to the day they were no longer in jeopardy, according to South Dakota Wildland Fire Division Director Jay Esperance. He noted that the on a cost-per-acre basis, performing a prescribed burn can top $2,000 per acre, while the fire accomplished the same goal for only $46 an acre.
Read the rest here.

Wildland fire expert Joe Lowe has called South Dakota's current GOP governor, Dennis Daugaard, incompetent and uninterested in governing. Lowe obviously believes that South Dakota's governor is not taking the ecological collapse taking place on the Black Hills seriously enough. Daugaard is a climate science denier.

Cost to We the People for managing the Pautre Fire was about $1 million. No livestock were lost and there was minimal damage to fences. 3,519 acres of federal and 7,160 acres of private property were cleared of invasive grasses yet welfare ranchers in that area screamed for restitution from the US Forest Service after the fire escaped prescribed boundaries.

The human-caused Legion Lake Fire represents strategic failures by Black Hills Energy, the State of South Dakota, South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder and the South Dakota Republican Party. The absence of prescribed burns and the persistence of invasive cheatgrass in the park are just two more examples of poor planning by Game, Fish and Plunder. Instead of allowing native aspen to be restored stands of doghair ponderosa pine that grew after the Galena Fire fed the blaze.

Wildland fire conditions are already returning to South Dakota, most notably in southern Pennington County and at the mouth of the Big Sioux River. Harding County is shaping up to lead off the wildfire season in South Dakota any day now.

Just as the State of South Dakota sued Black Hills Power and Light after the Grizzly Gulch Fire Black Hills Energy should sue the shit out of South Dakota for the Legion Lake Fire.

2/20/18

New Mexico destined to legalize cannabis for all adults

Here in New Mexico Republicans are watching their 2018 chances going up in smoke as the state's governor drags her feet.
The number of Taos County residents who have a medical marijuana card grew in the last five years from 195 cardholders to 1,305, according to New Mexico Department of Health statistics. The growth mirrors what is happening elsewhere in the state, which now has nearly 48,000 people with medical marijuana cards. Santa Fe County saw a 43 percent jump in medical marijuana cardholders from January 2017 to January 2018; the number now tops 5,245 people. Medical marijuana patients and advocates think the burgeoning dispensary business puts New Mexico one step closer to legalizing marijuana for recreational use. People polled in the state consistently have strongly supported legalizing marijuana. [Taos News]
Democrats are keenly aware that to energize millennials and a jaded base radical times call for sensible approaches to reforms of civil liberties for all adults.

Lack of leadership dooming South Dakota Democrats

I have no regrets exposing Cory Heidelberger and the South Dakota Democratic Party as the flaccid political novices they are.

Without any leadership the entire group is doomed to ignominy. After allowing unaffiliated voters to influence their elections the South Dakota Democratic Party should abandon the primary process and nominate candidates at their state conventions.
In addition to Butte, Meade, Lawrence, Pennington, Custer and Fall River in the southwestern corner of the state, Union and Lincoln counties in the southeastern corner all show more no-party voters than Democrats, based on February numbers from the Secretary of State's office. And a handful of other counties show nearly a dead heat, like Brookings County, which tallied 5,112 Democrats to 5,105 who registered with no party affiliation. About the general downward trend in Democratic registrations Amanda Thronson, chairperson of the Hughes County Democrats, said it's a matter of "identity politics." She said Republicans went after pro-gun, pro-life and anti-LGBTQ issues that appealed to the evangelical Christian base.
Read the rest here.

Lawrence and Brookings Counties used to be Democratic strongholds but now the party can't field candidates in either locale.

Democrats are losing even more credibility with young people and American Indians. That South Dakota Republicans prop up illegal drug use and project an ethics black hole while ignoring a potential revenue source is just more evidence of red state collapse.

But, a red moocher state like South Dakota is powered by sin: video lootery, a loan shark industry that preys on the least fortunate, a massive gambling addiction and a too-big-to-jail banking racket fill in the gaps created by lobbyists who enjoy the protection of single-party tyranny. Fact is: the best way to a strong two party system in South Dakota is for arch-conservatives to launch a third party. South Dakota's most ardent earth haters are still looking for principled conservatives to run in statewide elections. Shad Olson, Stace Nelson, Neal Tapio and Lora Hubbel could be those candidates.

SDDP has exactly nothing to lose by being revolutionary. The North Dakota Dem-NPL "supports the decriminalization and regulation of cannabis."

The only prayer atheist Heidelberger has of influencing thought leaders in South Dakota is the one his pastor wife says to get him the hell out of the house and out of her hair.

Pass a corporate income tax, end video lootery, reduce the number of South Dakota counties to 25, turn Dakota State University into a community college, and adopt my cannabis template: the kurtz solution painted on a thumbnail.



2/18/18

Pheasant phorecast: phowl phucked



Do you see those dead fuels at the mouth of the Big Sioux River and the lack of snow in northeastern South Dakota?
In fact, Roberts, Grant, and Codington counties have received less than half normal amounts of moisture this winter. And this lack of moisture has caused the moderate drought category to cover all of northeast South Dakota. Parts of western South Dakota is still under the severe drought. And these dry conditions are really causing problems. The latest Crop Progress and Condition report rated 21 percent of winter wheat at poor or very poor. Rivers and streams were at or below normal levels. And if the dry conditions continue, the fire danger season may creep up soon than usual.
Read the rest here.

Kristi Noem and Marty Jackley have both panicked outlining radical steps to preserve habitat for the Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant, an invasive species that crowds out native wild turkeys.
“Get the youth involved, that’s a big part of it. This is the year my daughter shot her first pheasant at age 11; we should do everything we can to get our youth involved in this tradition,” Jackley said. [KSFY teevee]
They're just employing magical thinking. That dead zone at the mouth of the Big Sioux River is an indication that the basin is beyond fixing.
Last year, South Dakota landowners applied to enroll more than 42,000 acres during the regular sign-up for CRP, but only two landowners and 101 acres were accepted. That’s right, only two landowners.
Read the rest here.

Which part of ecocide don't you understand?
“Even the good habitat is lacking in birds,” said Eric Rasmussen, a soil conservationist for the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Ipswich. “It’s one of the first years when guys like Tony Julik are seeing it.” Signs of distress are everywhere: dried-out swamps, a sickly corn crop, cattle grazing on the thinnest of stubble and baby pheasant hens so small they look like doves.
Read the rest here.

As this species is wiped out by industrial agriculture revenues in South Dakota continue to slide.
So far this year, about 4,600 fewer people have purchased South Dakota non-resident, small- game hunting licenses, which allow people to hunt ring-necked pheasants in the state. That represents a roughly 9 percent decline in non-resident license sales in the state. It also means a $556,000 revenue shortfall for the state’s Game, Fish and Parks Department. That’s a big deal because the department largely is funded by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
Read more about red state collapse here.

Robert Schneiders is the author of two books on the environmental history of the Missouri River.
As for pheasants, they don’t stand a chance. Although the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department claims pheasant numbers rebounded somewhat in 2014 and 2015, because of two back-to-back warm winters, the overall trend looks bleak. Why? Because urbanization and industrialization of rural Dakota isn’t slowing, it’s accelerating. Consequently, habitat is going to continue to fall under the plow, bulldozer and backhoe. And there is nothing, and no one, who is going to stop it, especially not Gov. Dennis Daugaard and his lame pheasant recovery task-force. [op-ed, Robert Schneiders]
During the flooding of 2011 Schneiders appeared on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio where he forecast the death of the Missouri River as a living ecosystem.
According to Pheasants Forever Biologist Brian Teeter, this lack of fire has resulted in negative consequences in the health and diversity of our prairies and forests which are critical to our wildlife and agricultural economy. “You don’t have to travel very far to see that the eastern red cedar is rapidly expanding and is negatively affecting our grazing lands but there is also less obvious benefits that range from improving wildlife habitat to increasing forage quality.” Teeter noted.
Read the rest here.
Imagine a dumpster full of pheasant carcasses with just the breasts cut out. That’s what my friend found after the governor’s hunt back in October, behind the processing place in Fort Pierre that handles the birds. [Kevin Woster, Outdoors in Keloland]
The bird is not wildlife but it is a canary in a chemically and genetically engineered coal mine.

Your thoughts?


2/16/18

Hickey goes off on military, Nelson

Former Republican legislator and pastor emeritus, Steve Hickey let his feelings known about the world as he sees it and about current South Dakota legislator, Senator Stace Nelson of Fulton.

Ph.D candidate Hickey has advocated for the shuttering of Ellsworth Air Force Base outside Rapid City, for a truth/reconciliation commission to study the extirpation of American Indians from their homelands and for ending video lootery. His draft for reconciliation has been sent to this blog but permission has yet to be given for its publication.

Hickey's essay spoke to the military brat in me, to my revulsion of the Vietnam War and of all war since.

The following comment appeared at a Brookings, South Dakota-based website.

I’ll get to Stace in a moment. Some context.

I’m a military brat. The Vietnam War ruined my dad. There is a book called Vietnam Wives which describes what it was like to grow up in our home. I loved my dad, he was faithful to my mom, good to my brother and I, and he grew to hate the military and the government. I never saw him so mad as when he heard me talk about enlisting during the first Gulf War because the government offered me a $25000 sign-on bonus because they needed chaplains so bad. My dad was mad because he lost all faith in any military operation of the US Government. He refused to lose a son to someone else’s ill-conceived war – he had come to believe all wars were bankers wars (that phrase coming from a book by that title written by a highly decorated war vet). Enough on all that, now to Stace.

My dad would ask the Bull Marine if he has ever had in income that wasn’t a government check. He would tell the Bull Marine he’s not impressed with his incessant military boasting and bravado, having only a career cop job in the military no doubt being a bully, walking secure bases, and doing less in harms way than any Sioux Falls cop does every night. Mostly as a fiscal conservative he would question retirement for anyone, in any career, at year 20. He would challenge, as others are – see link, this unsustainable spending program that has become career military retirement.

My dad fought for VA benefits for decades. I support vet benefits. But, this retirement thing Stace is cashing in on, it does need to be revisited.

I view the Bull Marine as a career government employee who now has a cash stream for life. Meanwhile, people like my dad grovelled to stay employed, war having so messed them up they are quite unemployable.

And Stace vilifies me for my views, he’s heard me voice these before. I wonder if I’m the only military brat he belittles. Certainly he has no regard for the price a military brat like myself paid growing up in war. Unless we honour the Bull Marine with Kim Jong-un-like salutes as we parade by his ruddy rotund greatness every morning we are to be crushed beneath him, investigated, and threatened with a bodily confrontation.

2/14/18

John Thune fingered in Facebook/Russia conspiracy


9 May, 2016: former Facebook workers allegedly told Gizmodo they routinely suppressed news from conservative sources.

10 May, 2016: Senator John Thune (earth hater-SD) or somebody hoisted upon his staff wrote a letter to Facebook then he, other earth haters and Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus teamed up to threaten Facebook. "Senator Thune (R) once opposed the FCC's Fairness Doctrine now wants Q&A with Facebook about its trending topics."
But the bad press wasn’t what really rattled Facebook—it was the letter from John Thune, a Republican US senator from South Dakota, that followed the story’s publication. Thune chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which in turn oversees the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that has been especially active in investigating Facebook. The senator wanted Facebook’s answers to the allegations of bias, and he wanted them promptly. The Thune letter put Facebook on high alert. The company promptly dispatched senior Washington staffers to meet with Thune’s team. Then it sent him a 12-page single-spaced letter explaining that it had conducted a thorough review of Trending Topics and determined that the allegations in the Gizmodo story were largely false. [WIRED]
11 May, 2016: John Thune accused Facebook of bias. Jim Comey admitted to combing Hillary Clinton's correspondence.

13 May, 2016: Thune asked Facebook to make space for all viewpoints.

18 May, 2016: Thune met with Mark Zuckerberg and a bank of lawyers. "Just about nobody, Sen. Thune included, wants the feds to police how Facebook displays news."

19 May, 2016: "The first step forward is for Facebook, and anyone who uses algorithms in subjective decision making, to drop the pretense that they are neutral. If I am reading their letter to Thune right, Facebook's response is to gut a perfectly defensible part of the process. Why? PR concerns atm (at the moment)."

23 May, 2016, in the name of "net neutrality" Thune and the Senate GOP said they won't regulate Facebook.

24 May, 2016: Facebook's 12 page response to Thune.

26 May, 2016: Trump clinches GOP primary.

31 May, 2016: Thune backs Trump.

3 June, 2016: Trump twitter bots began urging then-Senator Jeff Sessions to investigate censorship.

9 June, 2016: Trump, Jr. and Russian intermediaries met at Trump Tower to trade for dirt on Sec. Clinton.

5 July, 2016: Jim Comey recommended no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.

27 July, 2016: dezinformatsiya, "Russian internet trolls were being hired to pose as pro-Trump Americans."

August and September: Clinton's correspondence on a private server became a Trump bot meme and somebody goaded the husband of Clinton's closest advisor to share inappropriate correspondence with an alleged minor.

8 October, 2016: Thune condemns Trump.

12 October, 2016: Thune flips again and backs Trump.

25 October, 2016: Rudy Giuliani on Fox News said that the campaign had an upcoming "surprise."

28 October, 2016: Jim Comey said he's going to reopen the FBI investigation into Sec. Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. In an interview Clinton blamed Guiliani "and others" of leaning on Comey.

7 November, 2016: despite accusing Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing Comey said hours before the election there actually was none.

8 November, 2016: the end of the world as we know it.
Nine days after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as “crazy” the idea that fake news on his company’s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, President Barack Obama pulled the youthful tech billionaire aside and delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call. [Washington Post]
18 November, 2016: Thune: "Russia is constantly looking for ways to undermine and disrupt our democratic systems." Thune knows this because he plays basketball with James Comey. Comey and Obama didn't play basketball together nor did Obama and Thune.

Thune's rejection of Trump was a ruse. He already knew Donald Trump was a sleaze from his basketball buddy Jim Comey.

That's right: the vast wrong-wing conspiracy was going to beat Hillary Clinton at any cost even if it meant colluding with a sworn enemy of the United States, destroying the presidency and taking down the republic.

Thune can't ever seek any higher office than he has now and unless he's indicted his term doesn't end until 2023. There are no media in his home state that aren't beholden to the Republican Party and although he went to DC without much money he's got at least $12 million now.

Facebook is malware. 3,000 ads with Russian links may be “the tip of the iceberg,” supported Sanders, Stein and Trump.

The paper trail is clear: John Thune made Congress look the other way as Russia infiltrated Facebook.

Not just the Dan Nelson scandal, Thune had a long-time affair with Nancy Naeve formerly of KSFY teevee but who knows who he's hooked with up now. He's a sleaze who was handpicked by his fellow sleazes for "public life." Frank Farrar, Denny Sanford and Ted Hustead of Wall Drug pull Thune's strings. He's the perfect stooge to pull this off.




2/13/18

Santa Claus, Sani Flush, Drāno

Today in relativism:

Ellsworth Air Force Base will be the home of the next generation of world killers thanks to Heather Wilson, a former South Dakota School of Mines president: KELO teevee.

A Canadian company is drilling exploration holes after receiving a permit to mine stolen treaty lands in the Black Hills: Rapid City Journal.

50 percent of American Indian students in the Rapid City school district drop out yet a South Dakota legislative panel rejected teaching their history: Rapid City Journal.

Thoughts? Prayers?




2/12/18

Missouri basin snowpack on 2011 track


One image shows why President Thomas Jefferson used an executive order to defy the US Constitution, to begin the Native American Genocide and to purchase the Louisiana Territory from a country that didn't even own it.

The upper Missouri River basin snow pack water equivalent is at 114%. Looks bleak for parts of northeastern South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and the Nebraska panhandle but the rest looks pretty good. 2011 was a La Niña year (El Nino Southern Oscillation), too.
If indeed this research is being confirmed, it suggests that on average — allowing for yearly variations due to ENSO — the West is going to become hotter and drier faster than people had expected.
Read that here.

Recall that after having built a house in a swamp that flooded a Republican former governor of South Dakota received a generous self-reimbursement from insurance coverage underwritten by his own company knowing Lake Sharpe is filling with silt.

The US Army Corps of Engineers have planned a sandbar project for the Missouri River above the Garrison Dam despite studies that disprove their effectiveness for the piping plover.
A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications takes advantage of a natural experiment created by the region's 2011 floods, demonstrating that the engineered habitat doesn't provide the benefits of sandbars created by nature.
Read that here.

The main stem dams have all but killed the Missouri River.

Click on any image for a better look.




2/11/18

Pressure mounts on South Dakota Legislature to proscribe predator priests

The South Dakota Legislature is considering the Catholic Church as a sinister force.

Senate Bill 196 would remove the statute of limitations for bringing a civil action for certain cases of child sexual abuse. It's scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.

In 2013 the Order of Saint Benedict sold the Blue Cloud Abbey near Watertown to settle lawsuits for years of sex abuse at the hands of catholic clergy.
Two Abbey of the Hills leaders are wondering if people think the former Blue Cloud Abbey is still associated with the Catholic Church. The Dakota monks, led by Bishop Martin Marty, settled into Native American reservations in Dakota Territory. Their purpose was to teach the gospel and to educate the natives. Mount Marty College of Yankton, which also has a satellite campus in Watertown, is named for Bishop Marty.
Get the story here.

Bernie v. Blue Cloud Abbey was one of several cases that ended up before the South Dakota Supreme Court alleging church officials at the time covered up serial sexual abuse taking place at the compound.

After helping to broker the sale of the abbey Watertown member of the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers, Lee Schoenbeck forced the South Dakota Legislature to pass laws covering up countless crimes committed by his sect.





Republicans scrambling to catch Democrats on legal cannabis

So, I’m a cannabis advocate for five western states and don’t know anybody who actually has to buy it.

Democrats in blue states already understand the added value to their campaigns but a red state Indianan gets it, too.
“We don’t need to give him another ounce of our brain-space,” Dan Canon told the crowd of 40 people, hitting the TV mute as President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech began. Students seem drawn to Canon in part because he was one of the plaintiff attorneys in the lawsuit that became Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage. They like his stances on raising the federal minimum wage and providing Medicare for all. But it’s his full-throated support for legalizing medical marijuana at the federal level that has distinguished him in the eyes of many young voters, who consider it a threshold for taking any politician seriously.
Read that here.

West Virginia is another red state where Democrats favor legal cannabis, so is Tennessee.
Voters would have another chance to weigh in on legalizing marijuana in Arizona under a proposal in the state House. The proposal from Republican Rep. Todd Clodfelter of Tucson and Democratic Rep. Mark Cardenas of Phoenix was announced Thursday. If approved by the House and Senate, it would be on November's ballot. [KNAU]
Legal cannabis has become a favorite in Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party gubernatorial primary, too. Even so-called 'moderate Democrats' are on board.

Democrats in Montana's legislature want better testing for contaminants in cannabis to better serve that state's 18,953 registered therapeutic cannabis patients and 616 providers.

In Nevada, Tribal Cannabis Consulting has established cannabis compacts with Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office and the Yerington Paiute, Ely Shoshone and Pyramid Lake Paiute tribes.

And in California tribal nations want compacts with the state.

Red state Alaska has a thriving cannabis industry.

North Dakota has adopted therapeutic cannabis.

A Kansas gubernatorial candidate's leading plank is legal cannabis.
Calling himself an anti-establishment candidate, 17-year-old Bergeson is pursuing the Democratic nomination, advocating for a $12 minimum wage, legalization of medical marijuana, and high-speed rail for major cities in the region. [NPR]
Here in New Mexico Republicans are watching their 2018 chances going up in smoke as the state's governor drags her feet.

Democrats are keenly aware that to energize millennials and a jaded base radical times call for sensible approaches to reforms of civil liberties for all adults.

Indian casinos are small banks. It's time for states to enter cannabis compacts with tribal nations.








2/10/18

Letter: Jackley a Soros dupe

Marty Jackley is a closeted liberal? Who knew?
Candidate Marty Jackley, current attorney general, bears watching with extreme prejudice. Mr. Jackley's infamous reputation letting fellow elected and appointed officials skate on felonious conduct should raise red flags. The EB-5, GEAR UP and Redfield Sunflower plant scams are documented proof of red flag cases that cost our state over a hundred million, no criminals brought to justice. Ultimate red flag however and little known fact is, Mr. Jackley's acceptance to the Aspen Institute Rodel Fellowship class of 2011. Why should this be of concern you are wondering? The Aspen Institute is an ultra liberal think tank based in Washington, D.C., that promotes radical environmentalism and views America as a nation plagued by deep-seated "structural racism." The Aspen Institute is directly funded by none other than George Soros and his Open Society Foundations.
Read the rest here.

Marty was freaked out by white nationalists arrested in Brandon after an arsenal was discovered in their basement bunker. Jackley's not only a partisan twerp he's as dirty as the police forces he oversees. Jackley says he believes conflict of interest laws are too lax yet he is hoarding information on Bendagate and the death of Brady Folkens that could put his political party in the legal cross hairs.

Marty is pimping his gorgeous sister in a campaign advert, too. Kristi Noem routinely pimps her family in campaign commercials.

Steve Novotny is exactly the kind of principled conservative who should run a third party or unaffiliated race for South Dakota governor.

He needs to hook up with Newell SovCit Wendel Hiland as his running mate.


2/8/18

Kelley: out of state money greases South Dakota Republicans

Don Kelley is a cool guy: as a fellow Kucinich watcher on a western South Dakota burro, windmills often become mutually quixotic destinations.

With nurse and partner, Kim, the Vietnam-era former pathologist has built a small farm along one Black Hills elk migration route within prime mushroom habitat just off the Merritt Estes Road between US385 and the Nemo Road on the border of Pennington and Lawrence Counties. They have been part of Dakota Rural Action, Solarize South Dakota and off-grid builders for at least two decades.
There’s an unfortunate trend in the actions of recent S.D. Legislatures. Many lawmakers seem wary of too much democracy, claiming that we voters can be easily swayed by outside influences (justifying the Legislature’s repeal of last year’s initiated measure which aimed to reduce the influence of money in politics). There’s an irony here: many S.D. legislators attend sessions organized by ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), where large corporations provide model legislation favorable to big business, encouraging attendees to introduce these bills in state legislatures. This sounds a lot like outside influence. ALEC’s stamp can be clearly seen on S.D. laws, including reductions in the power of workers’ unions, preservation of the monopoly power of energy utilities, and the encouragement of a siege mentality regarding peaceful protests against certain corporate projects, such as pipelines. In this last example, we’ve seen attempts to restrict the right of assembly and militarization of law enforcement’s response to demonstrations. The fact that much funding for the ALEC organization comes from fossil-fuel energy companies owned by the Koch brothers may explain the emphasis in these areas. We elect legislators to represent us, not to overrule us in favor of their corporate backers. [LTE, Don Kelley, Rapid City Journal]
South Dakota's extremist legislature is a hate group.

Rapid City-based Chiesman Center for Democracy chronicles South Dakotans' voter fatigue and disgust plaguing democracy in the red moocher state.
We all tend to agree that we want our legislative body to be the best it can be, with the very best and brightest at the helm. We can also agree that we want our legislature to be comprised of members who reflect the very demographics of South Dakota. If that is true, then instead of retirees and the self-employed we need to create a legislature that allows for and encourages diversity.
Read that here.

South Dakota's GOP legislators and candidates have enjoyed millions in lobbyist benefits from the Kochs' contribution arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council; the state's junior senator was elected with cash from ALEC-backed National Federation of Independent Business.
Common Cause filed a supplement to its three-year-old tax whistleblower complaint against ALEC, and the two groups sent a joint letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen demanding an investigation, collection of fines and back taxes, and the revocation of ALEC’s status as a tax-exempt charity.
Read more here.

Pierre is a shithole where hypocrisy is simply a day to day occurrence and Republican earth haters conspire to occlude their pay to play existence while passing legislation to prevent Democrats from changing the status quo.

So-called 'Americans for Prosperity' a Koch-funded group with a lobbyist based in Sioux Falls signaled to legislators that they will lose campaign funding from the Kochs unless they act to reverse the progress the US Environmental Protection Agency has made in South Dakota.

Little wonder South Dakota voters are disgusted.




2/7/18

Even red state Democrats are embracing legal cannabis

So, I’m a cannabis advocate for five western states and don’t know anybody who actually has to buy it.

Democrats in blue states already understand the added value to their campaigns but a red state Indianan gets it, too.
“We don’t need to give him another ounce of our brain-space,” Dan Canon told the crowd of 40 people, hitting the TV mute as President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech began. Students seem drawn to Canon in part because he was one of the plaintiff attorneys in the lawsuit that became Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage. They like his stances on raising the federal minimum wage and providing Medicare for all. But it’s his full-throated support for legalizing medical marijuana at the federal level that has distinguished him in the eyes of many young voters, who consider it a threshold for taking any politician seriously.
Read that here.

West Virginia is another red state where Democrats favor legal cannabis, so is Tennessee.

Legal cannabis has become a favorite in Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party gubernatorial primary, too. Even so-called 'moderate Democrats' are on board.

Democrats in Montana's legislature want better testing for contaminants in cannabis to better serve that state's 18,953 registered therapeutic cannabis patients and 616 providers.

In Nevada, Tribal Cannabis Consulting has established cannabis compacts with Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office and the Yerington Paiute, Ely Shoshone and Pyramid Lake Paiute tribes.

And in California tribal nations want compacts with the state.

Red state Alaska has a thriving cannabis industry.

North Dakota has adopted therapeutic cannabis.

Not really South, not really Dakota: the state represents everything that is wrong with America and 2018 could be the year the South Dakota Democratic Party dies in a whimpering puddle.

Democrats are fleeing South Dakota, voters are disgusted and anti-cannabis Democrat Cory Heidelberger lost his District 3 statehouse bid to earth hater Al Novstrup.
So, legalization initiatives have a clear Democratic benefit. Democratic-leaning voters, who otherwise might have stayed home, could turn out to vote on marijuana reform. Some may leave other parts of the ballot blank, but Democrats could see a meaningful benefit overall. In a race that is close, a few thousand votes here or there could force an incumbent Republican Senator to pack up his office or shift a state’s electoral votes from red to blue. [Brookings Institution]
Since Heidelberger began blogging Democratic registration numbers have gone right down the toilet.

Primaries are expensive and allow far too much mischief: since turnout is so pathetic especially during midterms the drain-circling South Dakota Democratic Party should end them and choose candidates at the state conventions.

Indian casinos are small banks. It's time for states to enter cannabis compacts with tribal nations.

Democrats are keenly aware that to energize millennials and a jaded base radical times call for sensible approaches to reforms of civil liberties for all adults.