6/30/18

Sherry Bea makes it official for District 31 senate

Lead girl Sherry Bea Smith has been on the South Dakota Secretary of State's candidate list for some time now running for the District 31 senate seat currently being warmed by Blob Bob Ewing.

She and her husband Dennis are personal friends of The Dakota Progressive. When she was Chief Operating Officer for Rapid City Regional's hospital in Deadwood I contracted the drywall finish and paint at the couple's home outside Nemo during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. She has served the Lawrence County Democratic Party in several capacities and on the board of the Homestake Opera House. I contracted some improvements there in 2005.
She points to the importance of education and a trained work force with wages and jobs to stop the migration of South Dakota’s bright and skilled residents to other states. “We all understand how special life is in South Dakota and especially the Black Hills,” Smith said in a news release, “and the leaders of our state should be working to make quality of life a priority, ensuring a healthy, productive society and open government that will drive economic growth and stability.” [Rapid City Journal]
Donate to her efforts here.
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6/29/18

John Fitzgerald seriously mulling Constitution Party run for attorney general

According to a source familiar Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald is nearing a decision to leave the South Dakota Republican Party and announce his intent to run for attorney general under the Constitution Party banner.

Lora Hubbel and Janette McIntyre have already defected from the SDGOP and others are expected to follow suit. Jason Ravnsborg could come in a distant third.

As an active member in the US Armed Forces how is Jason Ravnsborg not violating the Hatch Act by running for a constitutional office in South Dakota?

Watch this space.
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South Dakotans voicing frustration with medical industry oligopoly

Socialized agriculture, socialized cheese, socialized livestock production, a socialized timber industry, socialized air service and socialized freight rail but Kristi Noem and Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson insist single-payer medical insurance is socialism.

Despite extensive hype from South Dakota's First Lady child obesity and infant mortality rates have risen again in the chemical toilet yet Sanford, Avera and Rapid City Regional enjoy virtual medical industry monopolies in their markets making South Dakota the most lucrative state to practice medicine.

Democratic Congressional candidate Tim Bjorkman says he hears most often about rising medical costs from the people he meets in South Dakota. He says mental health issues and addiction are having a direct impact on the workforce blaming Governor Denny Daugaard for turning down Medicaid expansion in a state where voters are frustrated with the status quo.
Forty-three states and the District of Columbia require insurance commissioners to file some kind of personal financial disclosure report. All but two of those jurisdictions — Hawaii and Vermont — make the documents available for public inspection. Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have no such disclosure requirements. [Drinks, dinners, junkets and jobs: how the insurance industry courts state commissioners]
Republicans in the US Senate hate everything about Barack Obama but they hate American Indians even more. Mike Rounds, Steve Daines, John Thune, Mike Crapo and James Risch have introduced the so-called Tribal Employment and Jobs Protection Act to exempt white contractors working on reservations from a mandate enshrined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Two of South Dakota's earth hater delegation receive their medical benefits from Obamacare. Rep. Kristi Noem has a full ride and Sen. John Thune is on the DC HealthLink Obamacare exchange.

Mike Rounds is cutting a fat hog on insurance costs.
“We are obviously concerned about the impact that Wellmark’s decision will have on consumers,” South Dakota Insurance Director Larry Deiter told the Public Opinion this week. “The current environment under federal health care reform is causing companies to either raise premiums, narrow networks, or cease marketing of products.” Lonnie McKittrick, who heads up the Health Department at Fisher Rounds and Associates, echoed those comments. “ACA is just not working,” he said. “People are getting hammered. Everybody on the inside knew this is what could happen. You crossed your fingers and hoped it wouldn’t, but it did. It’s a system that was set up to fail, especially in a small state like ours.” [Looking for health insurance? Good luck]
If policy makers had any balls whatsoever they’d bring legislation that would compel the medical industry to post the costs for all procedures.

So if these hospitals are monopolies like utilities are, or even oligopolies in their markets, why isn't there a voter-elected public commission to regulate pricing?


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6/28/18

Disasters dovetail Daugaard's deeds


Governor Daugaard describes Melody Schopp's breast implants

Anthrax, suicides, flooding, drought, wildfires, hail, ecocide, crime, corruption, disease, destruction, distrust and dependence: these are the Daugaard years.

Denny Daugaard is presiding over some of the worst in South Dakota history. Like it will take Democrats decades to fix the damage the Trump Organization is doing to America deconstructing Daugaard's decadence will be daunting.

An infinity of thoughts and prayers won't be enough to make South Dakota anything other than a perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area.

This isn't self-reliance; it's moral hazard that rewards a red moocher state and its piss-poor planning.



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6/27/18

Ellsworth may have future in 'space force'


Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City was an alternative emergency landing site for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Transportation System.
In a message to all airmen sent Tuesday night, service brass including Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein confirmed that, as rumored, the new "space force" would be established as a military service inside the Air Force. [Air Force Issues First Guidance to Troops About Space Force]
A former US Representative from New Mexico's 1st District with nefarious ties to Sandia Labs and Gazprom, Dr. Wilson was defeated in the US Senate race by Martin Heinrich then in 2013 became president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City.

She recently addressed the sparsely-attended conference of the Western Governors Association in Rapid.
A big challenge, she said, is modernizing the force’s aging fighter jets, bombers, helicopters and space assets while simultaneously modernizing its soldiers, too. [Wilson lays out modernization plans for Air Force]
But she neglected to mention (publicly anyway) the report that some 126 bases in the US have water supplies contaminated with potentially harmful levels of perfluorinated compounds.

Ellsworth is on the list and Denny Daugaard hosted the gala. Mountain Home AFB in Idaho is on the list and Gov. Butch Otter was in Rapid. Peterson AFB, Colorado is on the list and Gov. Hickenlooper was there. Hill AFB in Utah is on the list and Gov. Herbert was there. FE Warren in Wyoming is on the list and Gov. Mead heard Wilson's talk. Malmstrom in Montana and Minot in North Dakota aren't on the list but Govs. Bullock and Burgum were in Rapid. Ellsworth is home to a Superfund site so are the bases who participate in the Combat Raider exercises over most of those governors' states.

Republican Burgum just got dinged for inappropriate use of the state plane. He has committed troops to the Trump Organization at the southern border while Bullock has refused.

But how i do go on.

Donald Trump may be a career criminal, a crisis actor and this space force dealio is hardly his idea but it does make one wonder what intel he's seen that would make Heather Wilson want to accelerate it after she opposed it. The 45th Space Wing has been around since my dad's days in the USAF. Los Alamos and Sandia both do mountains of work for the Department of Defense.

I actually emailed Senator Hillary Clinton after the 9/11 events that an Astral Trade Center built around a space elevator constructed on the property once occupied by a center of world trade in New York City might have made a fitting memorial. Build a space port at Ellsworth instead of practice-bombing parts of four states and creating radicalized survivors by actually bombing them.

If Trump doesn't destroy the planet there will come a time when it will be routine to launch waste too hot for humans to handle into the sun and space cowboys will be living in western South Dakota like there are at Spaceport America in New Mexico.


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6/26/18

Peltier supporters petition Trump Organization for executive clemency

Aggravated under the fog of war on this day in 1975 Leonard Peltier and others defending a sovereign nation returned fire from hostile FBI forces.
He has denied being involved in the execution-style killing of the FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. But his accounts have varied and in his 1999 memoir, admits he shot his rifle during the shoot-out with the FBI agents while saying he didn't hit them. His son, Chauncey Peltier, said there is no evidence his father killed anyone. He has been exhibiting his father's paintings around the country to raise awareness about his father's attempt to gain a presidential pardon. [Pierre Capital Journal]
No one was convicted of killing an American Indian man killed during the battle. Calls of executive clemency for Peltier had been getting louder and a plea for his release sat at the tip of President Obama's pen.
Through 6 former Presidents and President Obama's 1st term in Office, Millions of Individuals world-wide (including Judges, Attorneys, Statesmen & Dignitaries) have rallied in support of Clemency for Wrongly Incarcerated Native American Human Rights/Environmental Rights Activist Leonard Peltier. [petition]
President Obama didn’t release him because he knows Peltier’s life is at risk on the outside. Only one American Indian was pardoned under Bush 43.
A letter written to the president by Peltier attorney David Frankel says Peltier "has been subjected to a vicious campaign of fake news by the FBI." The letter also says Peltier is in "very poor health" and says Peltier's only desire is to go home to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation to be with his family. [Supporters formally ask Trump to pardon Leonard Peltier]
If he is released Canada might be a sanctuary in his final days.

Is Peltier a prisoner of war, a criminal or an enemy combatant doomed to live out the consequences of being caught on the battlefield?
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Giago, TDP differ on American Indian participation in annual buffalo pageant


A South Dakota state park named for a war criminal keeps a drove of allegorical mooching donkeys as a slap in the face to the South Dakota Democratic Party and stages an annual mock bison roundup appropriated from the hunting practices of some indigenous peoples.
Imagine the pageantry and the inter-national interest if warriors of the Great Plains in full regalia rode on to the fields with the white cowboys to participate in the Buffalo Roundup. It would be a sight that would revive a religious and historic event right before the eyes of thousands. [Tim Giago]
Well maybe, Tim. Shall we niggle?

Sure, the Lakota acquired horses around 1742 then used them as weapons of mass destruction conquering most of the northern plains and the Black Hills region. But, likely with help from dogs for some ten thousand years before that the ancestors of the Crow, Arikara and others drove bison over cliffs and into sinkholes like the Vore site near Beulah, Wyoming.

It's difficult to imagine a spectacle like that before a herd of gawking tourists.

Besides, relations between the tribes trapped in South Dakota and the chemical toilet attendants in Pierre are at an all time slump as white people kill themselves and their families after stealing money meant for American Indian education.

Until Denny Daugaard is relieved of command Mr. Giago might be better served after Governor Billie Sutton takes the oath of office then offers real reconciliation and expands Medicaid.

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South Dakota's is the worst economy in the US

After South Dakota's governor signed a bill into law that discriminates against some couples who want to adopt a California-led boycott has queered Denny Daugaard's pitch.
South Dakota was only one of two states with negative GDP growth in Q4 2017, with the state's GDP declining by 0.5%. The state's April 2018 average weekly wage of $754 was fourth-lowest in the country, but its unemployment rate of 3.4% was lower than the average rate of 4.0% among the states and DC. [Business Insider]
Personal income growth in South Dakota was the slowest in the United States in the third quarter of 2017, too.
South Dakota’s disappointing performance was driven primarily by a 0.1% decline in earnings (wages and salaries, and proprietor’s income). Investment income rose 0.1%, and transfer receipts—payments under programs like Social Security—rose 0.4%. The state also experienced marginal declines in forestry, fishing and related activities (-0.54%), construction (-0.43%), retail trade (-0.23%), and arts, entertainment and recreation (-1.61%). [South Dakota Dashboard]
How bad is it?

It's so bad that of nineteen state and three US territory governors only seven showed up at the Western Governors Association conference hosted by Denny in Rapid City.

Thoughts? Prayers?


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Judge Bjorkman sharpening message, crushing Howdy Doody Dusty in P&D poll

Former judge and Democratic US House hopeful, Tim Bjorkman, is running away with an online poll being conducted by the Yankton Press & Dakotan.
I am revisiting a topic, in three parts, that I posted early in the campaign. The issues these posts raise are at the core of the deepest problems we face in our state and nation: poverty, increased government aid, exploding healthcare costs, prison overcrowding, increases in violent crime, rural decline, stagnant economic growth, and a lack of workforce availability for business expansion. [Bjorkman for US House]
Provided sanctuary to the exodus from the South Dakota Republican Party a Constitution Party candidate is expected to announce for US House this week giving Bjorkman the cushion he needs to defeat earth hater Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson.

Terrified by the threat of violence wracking the Republican Party and bullied by the SDGOP establishment Lora Hubbel has fled and announced for South Dakota governor as a member of the Constitution Party. Many are saying SDGOP could lose 25% of their support to the Constitution Party in November and CP officials are reminding attendees to their upcoming convention to be sure to register.

Readers can vote at the P&D poll here.


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6/25/18

Poor ag practices driving East River drought


Lame duck Denny Daugaard's legacy is making South Dakota a perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster.

Geddes area welfare farmer Mark Sip has taken nearly $120,000 from the feds just for instance.
Abnormally dry conditions have expanded well south of Interstate 90 East River. D-1, Moderate drought now extends through all of Beadle County and into parts of Hand, Jerauld, Sanborn and Kingsbury Counties. D-2 Severe drought has taken over in parts of Brown, Spink, Faulk, Edmunds, Day and Clark Counties. In central South Dakota, abnormally dry conditions are found in eastern Hughes, Sully and Potter Counties, all of Hyde and most of Hand, Buffalo and Brule Counties. [KCCR]
Poor ag practices like tiling have made soils unable to absorb rainfall creating toxic runoff and flooding.

Your thoughts?
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6/24/18

South Dakota Democrats get breaks; Evans pulling 13% of SDGOP voters

Conservative christianist Libertarian Party nominee Kurt Evans could be a major spoiler for Kristi Noem's earth hater party in November.

In a newspaper poll being conducted by the Yankton Press & Dakotan Evans is pulling over 13 percent of Republican voters while Billie Sutton is beating Krusti Kristi Noem. Evans joined the LP after he left the Constitution Party which is poised to nominate a conservative white supremacist giving Democrat Billie Sutton the win in November.

Democratic attorney general candidate Randy Seiler just got a huge break in that race after the earth haters nominated judicial neophyte Jason Ravnsborg. A source inside the Constitution Party expects a big name to announce for the US House and a third candidate will announce for the gubernatorial race on Monday. They’re hoping former Republican attorney general candidate John Fitzgerald will defect and run for the CP nomination. Janette McIntyre defected from SDGOP.

With the petitions filed for an unaffiliated candidate, a Libertarian and the Constitution Party expected to field a contender South Dakota's lone US House seat is no longer safe Republican.

Having principled conservatives running outside the South Dakota Republican Party and eroding support for Noem, Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson and short, fat, white guy Ravnsborg the earth haters will lose every seat at the top of the November ticket!

Find the Press & Dakotan poll here.


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6/21/18

Trucano moves to save Deadwood


For a time in the 1970s and 80s, Lloyd West, Mike Trucano and Paul Miller owned Deadwood.
"If it wasn't for Mike I know many of us would probably be in a very scary position right now," said Louie Lalonde, co-owner of Saloon No. 10. When gaming first came to Deadwood a generation ago Trucano set out to help the little guy. And let's not forget Deadwood Historic Preservation. It stood to lose a $1.2 million dollar payment due July 1 if Trucano hadn't stepped in to save the company he founded. [KOTA teevee]
A labor strike against FW Thorpe took down West, cocaine and philandering took Paul down leaving Trucano to retire a rich Republican donating to the Governors Club and becoming a Future Fund recipient.

Paul's dad Dave, uncle Paul, and Gary Mule Deer's dad Bruce Miller built Twin City Fruit. They told stories about beating checks back to Deadwood driving rickety old trucks over dirt and gravel roads from Deadwood to Denver's Denargo Market peddling produce from Scottsbluff, Nebraska back to the Gulch. They owned the Scottsbluff market back-hauling beet sugar and Rockyford melons from the area. Denver-based competitor Nobel also distributed there until it was absorbed by Houston-based Sysco. That was the division that ultimately bought TCF. Behind the warehouse on Miller Street hundred pound sacks of Colorado and Nebraska potatoes were unloaded from the rail spur that is now home to the Mickelson Trail.

In a horsehair coat and hat, Paul seduced my former girlfriend in 1978 and prompted my move to Missoula, Montana.

I returned to Deadwood in '81 and was hired as a truck driver by Paul, a mad genius, who ran the transportation. Brother David, Jr., now a local historian, ran the staff and warehouse until selling his share to Paul while Dave, Sr. ran purchasing. A college friend, Art Young, with whom I had logged, started working on his doctorate in economics as a truck driver for the family and told Paul about my expertise with heavy equipment.

Operating with a ramshackle fleet earned Paul both moxie and derision for his cutthroat approach to guarding the local Black Hills market. The owners of rival Manor House in Rapid City hated Paul; they failed in the 80s.

Paul put me into sales in '83 then sold me to Sysco during the Sturgis Rally in 1990. Yearly receipts for the company had peaked at about $22 million at the time of the sale. Territories had expanded to Greybull, Wyoming, into North Dakota, and east to Pierre. After gambling he actively sought to buy up the air space in the Gulch believing cable cars would span it.

Some of us called him the Anti-Christ of Architecture for his Goldbergian approach to improvisation. He had two salvage mobile homes lifted to the top of the warehouse that served as office space for at least three decades. Before the dawn of historic preservation he bought the Fish & Hunter building and built a three story freezer in the middle of it. After gambling he sold it to the City of Deadwood for a dollar; it is now part of the City/County complex.

The years working for Paul were among the best of my life but the Deadwood before 1989 is lost forever.

Deadwood is still studying ways to advance its economic development plan even examining second stories in historic properties.
Deadwood had a large chunk of respondents (more than 60 percent) rate employment opportunities, educational opportunities, activities for youth, services for seniors, and as a place to conduct business as “fair” to “poor.” Seventy-three percent of respondents said that the city should develop more trails in and around Deadwood. Respondents listed the top three most important things for strengthening Deadwood’s economy as creating more and better year-round job opportunities, diversifying the economy to incorporate more activity from other economic sectors, and attracting new businesses to Deadwood. [Black Hills Pioneer]
Another opportunity is the Grateful Deadwood High Cannabusiness Institute. The building that has been home to the Deadwood High School Bears now Lead-Deadwood Elementary came to mind at my conclusion to make Deadwood an adult destination. This building is perfect for Deadwood's cannabis experiment. Under a compact with tribal nations and Black Hills State University with oversight from the South Dakota Gaming Commission create a campus with degrees in cannabusiness and tourism. Train casino workers and poker dealers.

The Dakota Progressive is currently lobbying Trucano, State Representative Tim Johns and Lead Mayor Ron Everett to turn the Open Cut into an ice climbing park.
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6/19/18

Heartland Expressway gets infrastructure grant while Amtrak scrambles

Construction on the estimated half-billion dollar Heartland Expressway connecting Rapid City with I-80 in Nebraska and I-25 in Wyoming or Colorado is not completely stalled but it is glacial.

The Nebraska Department of Transportation will receive some $18.3 million from a federal infrastructure grant to convert about 14.6 miles of US 385 between Chadron and Alliance from an existing two-lane into a four-lane divided highway.

The speed limit on Nebraska 71 is 60 miles per hour on the 75 miles of bone-dry high prairie grassland south of Hot Springs between Crawford and Scottsbluff. It's potentially deadly during a blizzard. US18/US85 between Maverick Junction, South Dakota and Lusk, Wyoming is no better; besides, I-25, especially through the Denver metro, sucks at biblical proportions so does flying through DIA with its likelihood of a strip or body cavity search.

In 1921 my maternal grandparents honeymooned in Hot Springs riding the train from Humphrey, Nebraska and my grandfather was a career conductor for the Union Pacific Railroad. I have at least one vague memory from my toddlerhood going over the Continental Divide in Colorado while riding the California Zephyr between Omaha and Emeryville, California near Castle AFB where my dad was stationed and the place of my birth.

Now, growth on the Front Range is driving planners to pick up the pace on passenger rail.
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, there have been many ideas to connect Cheyenne all the way down to Albuquerque, New Mexico with a commuter rail line. But getting the public, local and state governments all on the same page with the details has proved difficult. In December, the commission also requested nearly $9 million dollars from the state to conduct a 2-year public engagement campaign on the premise of a Front Range passenger rail along I-25. It was granted that money in this year’s Senate Bill 1, a large transportation funding measure. [KUNC]
Meanwhile the Trump Organization is pledging to kill passenger rail service while traffic between the Black Hills and Denver continues to increase as does the volume between Denver and Santa Fe.
The group, the local chapter for Americans for Prosperity, which is financed by the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch to advance conservative causes, fanned out and began strategically knocking on doors. Their targets: voters most likely to oppose a local plan to build light-rail trains, a traffic-easing tunnel and new bus routes. [How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country]
Legal cannabis for New Mexico's adults could help foot the bill for Positive Train Control. Equip the Rail Runner to connect with Amtrak farther south in New Mexico and to El Paso. Put the Rail Runner into downtown Denver to connect with the California Zephyr, maybe even into Cheyenne, Wyoming.

I get the idea of a future I-25E but now is the time to connect the Southwest Chief to the Empire Builder at Shelby, Montana through Denver, too.
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Is Linda Daugaard okay?

First Lady Linda Daugaard is not well.
In South Dakota, in 2015, just over nine percent of people were diagnosed with type two diabetes, with another thirty five percent in the pre-diabetes category. Avera Health Chief Medical Officer Dr Tad Jacobs says those rates have been rising. The states obesity rate is now just under thirty percent, up from eighteen percent in 2000. Obesity is directly related to the rate of diabetes. [WNAX]
Earth hater State Senator Brock Greenfield is recovering from an obesity-related surgery.

Thoughts? Prayers?

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Jackley joins Fox, Balderas in EPA suit

South Dakota has joined twelve other mostly western states in a lawsuit against the Trump Organization's Environmental Prostitution Agency.

Six environmental groups sued EPA last month for failing to promote a rule that would have forced hard rock mines to meet federal financial bond rules passed during the Obama years. If EPA actually enforced federal bonding requirements federal rules could supersede state regulations.

Attorneys General Marty Jackley, Tim Fox of Montana and Hector Balderas of New Mexico have signed onto the suit.
Close to a decade ago EPA considered, by court order, establishing nationwide minimum bonding requirements for hard rock mining under Superfund law. That process was also due to a lawsuit brought against EPA in 2009 by environmental groups. The Sierra Club and the Idaho Conservation League and other environmental groups filed suit in federal court, challenging EPA’s decision not to establish national minimum bonding requirements. [Montana Standard]
On the heels of failures by mining companies like Brohm, Peabody and in the wake of the Gold King spill the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) issued a warning against the use of self-bonding. South Dakota has a significant stake in Peabody and wants to open the Gilt Edge Mine to another Canadian firm.
The Gilt Edge gold mine in the northern Black Hills closed in 1999. Among other problems the mine was polluted with contaminated water. The company’s bond was valued at about $8.2 million. Regulators also received another $9.8 million in settlement payments and interest. However the EPA reports that cleanup costs, likely in excess of $200 million, will be primarily funded through the EPA’s Superfund. [David Ganje]
Donald Trump wants to dismantle sanctions on self-bonding because they're a burden on his self-interests.
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6/18/18

Sutton, Wismer hope to lift South Dakota from 'dark ages'

Democratic hopeful for South Dakota governor, Billie Sutton, has agreed with a fellow state legislator.
"We have to get out of the dark ages as it relates to transparency and accountability in government." [KSFY teevee]
Former South Dakota Democratic gubernatorial nominee Susan Wismer acknowledged the risk of earth haters holding supermajorities in the Legislature and has also warned the state is living in the "dark ages."
“Running as a woman carries a special responsibility,” Wismer said. “Because women assume that you are going to work in their interests. When I see a woman running for office who I feel is not working in the best interest of women, I get really disappointed. We can’t just use our position on the ballot as a woman to get elected, we have to use it to work for our families.” She recently won the Democratic primary for District 1’s Senate seat and is unopposed in the general election. [Watertown Public Opinion]
Wismer has called out Kristi Noem for being a spoiled brat.
But what really gets my goat is this whole “death tax” conspiracy. Rep. Kristi Noem's old family story is outdated, misleading, and abusive considering how the current law has evolved. I’m impressed that Sen. Rounds had the decency and bravery to say out loud that complete repeal of the tax is NOT smart policy. Once more…unless you are worth more than $5 million ($10 million if you’re married) ($20 million or more if you want to pass on an ACTIVE trade or business to family)…and have done ZERO planning, you won’t owe a penny in estate tax. [Facebook post]
Like Donald Trump Kristi IS a pathological liar. Only twenty GOP donors in South Dakota would benefit from the repeal of the estate tax.

Wismer is concerned Republicans have abandoned nursing homes and quality of education in small towns, too. South Dakota is graying fast and nursing beds represent economic development. The Janklow-owned Riverside Manor in Flandreau is overwhelmingly staffed by Filipinos and Filipinas as are most facilities for the elderly in South Dakota.

Democrats aren't going to return to my home state to be repressed, oppressed and depressed: South Dakota is doomed to be a shithole for Republicans forever.

The real story is that the conservative, christianist Libertarian Party nominee Kurt Evans will pull 6% of Republican voters and the Constitution Party nominee could pull 6% of Republican voters then Billie Sutton will win.

Thoughts? Prayers?

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6/16/18

Daugaard digs disasters

It's like the christian god hates South Dakota.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard has requested a Presidential Disaster Declaration to help three northern South Dakota counties recover from spring flooding that did more than $3.1 million in damage to public property. Gov. Daugaard stated in his letter that the state has responded to seven previous Presidential Disaster Declarations since 2013. The Governor said the state still is working through the recovery process from four of those disasters with FEMA. [KELO]
Like wipin' yer ass with a hula hoop: it's endless.

South Dakota truly is a perpetual welfare state and a permanent disaster area. Daugaard and the state's entire earth hater congressional delegation just snubbed the Trump Organization's US Environmental Prostitution Agency administrator yet Denny has the balls to ask for a handout from a dictator.

In South Dakota conservative means fucking up the planet then billing the other guy for it. Evangelicals like Denny Daugaard don't believe the climate scientists warning humanity about rising oceans because scripture says their god won't flood the Earth like "He" did in Noah's time.

Your thoughts?


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6/14/18

Trump Organization sandbagging environmental projects in Dakotas


Yesterday the earth hater-led US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on oversight of the Army Corps’ regulation of surplus water and the role of states’ rights.

The City of Pierre has been denied access to surplus water from the Missouri River after a former Republican governor and the state sued the Corps for 2011 flooding. The suit forces We the People to pay for the clean up of a century of mine tailings and organic effluent that have saturated the banks of the Belle Fourche/Cheyenne River system depositing many tons of toxic silt into Lake Oahe and the other downstream dams after 1962. Sediment from decades of industrial agriculture would make up half of Lewis and Clark Lake's capacity by 2045 according the Corps.

More silt means less hydropower. In 2013 crews removed an estimated 34,000 cubic yards of toxic sediment accumulated over 45 years from a portion of the channel in front of the emergency spillway structure for Oahe Dam. That's remediation of surplus water and not simply greenwashing a century of abuses perpetrated by the extractive and agriculture industries.

Rivers often disperse the extra sediment from behind a dam within weeks or months of dam removal. Removal of the Fort Edward Dam on New York’s Hudson River released so much contaminated sediment that the river was later named a Superfund site. A similar fate would befall the Missouri River if dams were not dredged before being decertified; but, migratory fish would recolonize newly accessible habitat within a matter of days.

Last year a US District Court ordered the US Army Corps of Engineers to finish a review of the Dakota Excess pipeline's impact on tribal interests and how a spill under the Oahe Dam would impact water rights for the Standing Rock, Cheyenne, Yankton and Oglala Lakota nations.

Justice Department attorney Matthew Marinelli said in a status report to Judge James Boasberg the Corps has met with representatives of each tribe and has made progress on their concerns. Standing Rock still isn't satisfied and the Cheyenne River Tribe has created a website to raise funding and awareness for the dispossession of treaty land, natural resources and to provide information about the nation's battles against the Dakota Excess and Keystone XL Pipelines.

The Army Corps of Engineers have cancelled Spring Pulses on the Missouri River not because of low flows but because the silt is so poisonous it would kill the very species it says it's trying to preserve. Drawing down Lake Oahe means more bottom scouring that causes incidents like the Silvertip spill on the Yellowstone River during regional flooding in 2011.

As silt fills irrigation diversion dams lower quality water with higher salinity enters the system ultimately rendering soils incapable of supporting life. Displacing many acre-feet of water Lewis and Clark is over thirty percent full of toxic sediment. The Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition is blaming the sand hills of Nebraska for the silt in Lewis and Clark Lake and is saying they might sell recovered sediment as fracking sand to the oilfields of North Dakota to pump more oil for the Dakota Excess pipeline. Snow and rainwater capture provide much higher quality water for irrigation likely making the beleaguered Lewis and Clark boondoggle obsolete before it's finished or even fully funded.

A lawyer for the Corps said they will "finish its consideration and analysis of the information submitted by the tribes and consider issues identified at the meetings with the tribes" by 10 August.

In a related story, South Dakota's entire earth hater congressional delegation and its lame duck, climate science-denying governor snubbed denatured US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt during his visit to the state.


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6/13/18

Cannabis-curious Lower Brule endorse Randy Seiler

The Kul Wicasa Oyate could be the next tribe trapped inside South Dakota to legalize cannabis.
Vice-Chairman Kevin Wright says it's a matter that's crossed the minds of members in the community. “What I gathered from a small group of people is that they want it legalized and they're asking us what we're going to do about it,” said Wright. [KDLT teevee]
The Lower Brule Nation has off-reservation property in Fort Pierre where Randy Seiler lives and they could test their sovereignty.

Tribes are the 51st State to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It just awarded the Lower Brule $200,000 to clean up contamination in their community.

Standing Rock, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Oglala Lakota Nation are also mulling cannabis projects.

Black market cannabis not tested or subject to inspection makes America and South Dakota less safe. Legalizing and regulating a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy aligned with life/safety concerns. Lower Brule has struggled with synthetic marijuana.

If nominated by the South Dakota Democrats Seiler will be a strong contender against whomever the earth haters pick especially if the Constitution Party names a candidate to siphon conservative support in November.

Legislators and other stakeholders should use my model as a roadmap to legalization.
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Trump plan bolsters Rapid City-based earth hater


Black Hills Energy and the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission lubricate each other regularly and after priming the election pumps, the firm achieves multiple happy endings at the hands of Chris Nelson, Chairman Gary Hanson and Kristie Fiegen.

Black Hills Energy is just one of many companies based in South Dakota because of the state's regressive tax structure.
Black Hills Energy, of Rapid City, S.D., is preparing to build a 35-mile, $54 million natural gas pipeline in Converse County, east-central Wyoming. The Natural Bridge Pipeline will begin at the Wyoming Interstate Co. compressor station interconnect in east Douglas, Wyo. From there, it will track west, terminating at Black Hills Energy’s facilities in Casper, Wyo. Black Hills hopes to break ground on the project in April 2019, and have the pipeline operational that winter. [Kallenish Energy]
Wyoming receives nearly half of all federal mineral receipts.

According to a 41-page memo acquired by Bloomberg News the Trump Organization is planning to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants that were planning to retire.
Travis Deti, head of the Wyoming Mining Association, said he doesn’t see this as a bailout, but as government intervention. And he doesn’t like that. He said it’s the kind of tactic that’s propped up renewable and natural gas. "I would prefer to see the government back off and prefer to see them back off where they’ve been so influential,” Deti said. [Wyoming Public Media]
During a public hearing Fall River County Commissioners took advantage of an Obama-era initiative and approved a 700-acre parcel in the Minnekahta Valley between Hot Springs and Edgemont paving the way for a new utility scale solar energy project. Korea-based Hanwa Group is expected to begin construction soon.
With a capacity of 40 MW, the company has already put into place power purchases with Black Hills Energy for delivery in 2018 and 2019, generating enough power for 45,000 homes – assuming 200kWHS per month. [Rapid City Journal]
Regulators and market forces in Colorado are driving Black Hills Energy from coal-fired electricity generation yet the firm remains focused on its substantial oil and natural gas holdings in the Mancos Shale within the San Juan and Piceance basins. The firm is bankrolling water diversions, too. The power oligopoly just moved into a $70 million facility in Rapid City financed mainly on the backs of subscribers without choices.

The South Dakota Republican Party owns the state's public utilities commission so this is how red states finance infrastructure improvements while bitching about Big Government.
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6/12/18

Trump is blackmailing America

It’s impossible the Obama Administration didn’t know Donald Trump was being installed by a hostile government.

The tarmac meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton was about the Steele dossier and that Vlad the Impaler has dox on Barack Obama or Michelle Obama. When Obama ridiculed Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner that was the last straw so Trump got even by blackmailing the Obama Administration, the CIA and the FBI who were laundering money through the Trump Organization.

Hillary Clinton was muzzled by the Obama White House so was Jim Comey. Now Trump and the Mob have their eyes on dox about every single American.

The Deep State put Trump in the White House because they're the Mob, too and he’s leveling the other guys’ poppy fields and heroin distribution with bombers from South Dakota while leaving the friendly opiate trade to flourish. The US is still in Afghanistan because of its heroin trade that finances the Deep State. The Trump Organization is an equal opportunity money launderer doing it for CIA and other Deep State actors for decades.

North Korea doles out meth like it was candy. Trump is simply seeking a direct route to Kim’s North Korean narcotics manufacturing and distribution networks. Ending some military exercises frees Kim to distribute over a wider market and launder the proceeds through the Trump Organization.

Trump hasn’t released his financials because they show the paper trail leading to every White House since probably Eisenhower. Fred Trump is a JFK assassination conspirator hence those dox are being held up, too.

Frankly, America can’t handle the truth.

No higher being will ever be anything but predatory. After painting Barack Obama as the antichrist we're watching evangelicals fawn over Trump as their Righter of Wrongs. It's horrifying in its duplicity. The End Times fulfill a prophesy and welcome a supernatural extraterrestrial to create a one-world government. It's dystopian fantasy run amok.

Putin and Mossad have dox on every GOPer in Congress. Trump has ordered a plan to declare martial law and suspend elections. Expect another October Surprise.









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6/6/18

Noem reaches for brass balls

Kristi Noem sez, "hold my beer."

Remember when the earth haters descended on former First Lady Michelle Obama for baring her shoulders? There has been nary a murmur about Kristi Noem doing it let alone calling out Melania Trump for her past as a hooker. Anyone who believes Kristi's never been a victim of sexual harassment or unwanted touching is delusional.

It's really hard not to slut-shame someone who's gone all out to be one. Noem has never supported the Violence Against Women Act and if her abusers were Democrats she'd be singing like a cardinal. Kristi Noem is a MILF. Is she compliant, infidelitous, or simply a jaded career politician who's used to trading her favors for advancement?

A medical professional viewed a multitude of videos with this blog. The following is paraphrased from her assessment of Noem's psychological profile and medical history.

She presents with symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder (now likely treated at taxpayer expense). Lately, her speech is laconic, measured: as if being she is being treated with psychotropics. Sometimes she seems to doubt her abilities (likely the outcome of meeting people towering above her intellectual limitations). At times, she seems exasperated or visibly annoyed.

Her sometimes uncorrected shrillness reveals palling insecurities; but, she can quickly rein in her emotions (again likely from the benefit of extensive coaching and/or therapy at taxpayer expense).

It's been obvious in recent photo ops that Kristi is suffering a rather severe acne eruption yet she and John Thune receive their medical benefits from Obamacare. Noem has a full ride and Sen. Thune is on the DC HealthLink Obamacare exchange.

There is evidence of collagen injections, botox, and JUVÉDERM® (at an approximate cost to taxpayers in the five figures).

Absences in committee meetings might be evidence of some surgery: her hairline has been lowered possibly to mask scarring. There is evidence of cryosurgery especially around her lips; and, her gums and teeth show some signs of reconstruction.

Besides Democrat Billie Sutton Noem will also face a Libertarian and a Constitution Party candidate in November. If Noem doesn't choose Neal Tapio for Lt. Governor it’s likely he will jump the SDGOP ship and run for the Constitution Party nomination for South Dakota’s governor.

The South Dakota governor's race has been moved from Safe Republican to Likely Republican. Expect many more white guy's happy endings before Kristi reaches her climax from crashing the chemical toilet's glass ceiling.

Of course Marty Jackley will be nominated at the earth hater convention for Lt. Gov. but why would he accept it?



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6/5/18

Former priest joins earth hater donnybrook in Wyoming

In 2012 Wyoming Public Media's News Director Bob Beck began an interview with Senator John Bare Asso (earth hater-WY) asking the question, "Senator, why do you hate the environment?"

Now, Charlie Hardy is one of five candidates who have joined the earth hater party to fill the primary field in a race to unseat Wyoming's junior US Senator.
Hardy, a former Catholic priest and substitute teacher in Cheyenne, is making his fourth run for Congress since his first campaign in 2012. In looking at the Republican Party’s 1956 platform, Hardy said he believes it simultaneously embodies the values of being socially progressive and fiscally conservative. That platform included expanding Social Security, broadening coverage and unemployment insurance, better housing and health protection. [Wyoming Tribune Eagle]
Gary Trauner of Wilson is the lone Democratic gubernatorial candidate and will face the winner of the earth hater primary in the November general election.


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6/4/18

Public Integrity: FOIA lawsuit says Heather Wilson guided 'fraudulent scheme'

The Office of the Inspector General found that Sandia had illegally used taxpayer money to hire former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and two other consultants as part of its efforts to lobby the Obama administration and key members of Congress for an extension of its management contract. Sandia in August 2015 agreed to repay the federal government $4.79 million to settle the allegations. In May 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. [Public Integrity]






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USAF mercenaries making country less safe



Just say it: radical christianic terrorism.

In 2013 Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, an important figure in national security and commander of the 20th Air Force based at FE Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming was fired.

Overall, Carey was responsible for three wings of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles: 9,600 people and 450 missiles. FE Warren AFB is a participant in the Combat Raider exercise just concluding in the Powder River Training Complex.
Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico. The service members accused of involvement in the LSD ring were from the 90th Missile Wing, which operates one-third of the 400 Minuteman 3 missiles that stand “on alert” 24/7 in underground silos scattered across the northern Great Plains. [Security troops at Wyoming's F.E. Warren nuclear missile base used LSD]
i drove by this incident on CO71 caused by the 320th Missile Squadron of the 90th Missile Wing based at FE Warren.
The accident happened May 17, 2014, but the Air Force only explained the consequences on Friday after repeated inquiries by the AP starting in January 2015. The Air Force said the accident caused no injuries and did not risk public safety. The damaged missile was removed from its silo. The launch site is operated by the 320th Missile Squadron of the 90th Missile Wing in a remote area of northeastern Colorado. [Air Force: Human Error Damaged Nuclear-Armed Missile in Silo]
Thomas Jefferson wrote that a standing army would lead to military adventurism and ultimately turn on its own citizens; now, America has become the Hamiltonian empire Jefferson warned us about. Anyone who believes America is safer because ending the draft leading to a service filled with mercenaries is delusional.
The Office of the Inspector General found that Sandia had illegally used taxpayer money to hire former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and two other consultants as part of its efforts to lobby the Obama administration and key members of Congress for an extension of its management contract. Sandia in August 2015 agreed to repay the federal government $4.79 million to settle the allegations. In May 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. [Public Integrity]
On Trump Organization orders bombers from Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota are targeting alleged Taliban drug facilities to prevent harm to "innocent Afghan civilians" all the while escalating its war on civilians. Anyone seeking retaliation could roll a truck bomb into any soft target after a drone or B-1 or some jock stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico targets a wedding party or religious service.

Service members are no longer serving their country: they're serving a despot, a death industry and themselves.
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Future of Cannabis in South Dakota Scheduled for Sioux Falls

Siouxland Libraries at 200 N Dakota Ave, Sioux Falls will host a Town Hall discussion on the future of cannabis in South Dakota Sunday, June 10 at 3 PM - 5 PM in Meeting Rooms A & B.

Agenda-
Update on 2017 Campaign

 Moving Forward into 2020

 Starting from scratch-This is YOUR opportunity to weigh in on what the language for ballot initiative 3.0 will look like. We will NOT be using the previous language.

 Volunteer Sign Up & Information

 Events for Summer 2018

 Lets talk about moving forward as a community & work towards smart cannabis reform.

 We anticipate a large crowd so please come early to ensure a good seat. Please invite friends and family to this event the guest list is hidden to protect the privacy of attendees.

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6/3/18

White nose syndrome moves closer to endangered Black Hills bat

In 2016 despite protestations from South Dakota's earth hater congressional delegation the US Fish and Wildlife Service extended Endangered Species Act protection for the northern long-eared bat.

In some caves in the Northeast, northern long-eared bat populations have declined by up to 99%. Senator don Juan Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem have tossed bones to their campaign contributors by railing against the protection of endangered species like the northern long-eared bat and for more money for the Neiman family to log the old growth ponderosa pine essential to preserving Black Hills habitat.
A fungus that causes white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly disease of bats, has been detected on bats in South Dakota for the first time. The fungus was detected on one western smallfooted bat (Myotis ciliolabrum) and four big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) in Jackson County at Badlands National Park on May 10, 2018, during proactive WNS testing conducted by the National Park Service Northern Great Plains Network in collaboration with the University of Wyoming. This is also the first known detection of the fungus on a western small-footed bat. [press release]
The fungus has also been found at a Wyoming location.

Greedy Old Party donors pressure South Dakota Republicans to resist habitat protection for the black-backed woodpecker, a bird that feeds on the mountain pine beetle. Thanks to Republicans Douglas fir, lodgepole and limber pine have been extirpated from the Black Hills.

Cougars and the American Dipper are next.
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