Pope schedules eclipse of Trump's fragile ego

Born in Omaha, Blase Cupich was raised in a catholic household, attended a Benedictine elementary school, a diocese high school then graduated the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. When this interested party lived in Rapid City in 1998 he was made bishop by John Paul II and was consecrated in a ceremony at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. In 2004 when some in the cult wanted to ban Senator Tom Daschle from the Eucharist because of his defense of reproductive rights Cupich called it "cherry picking" and in 2008 he called racism a sin and was named Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016. 

In 2018 Cupich's predecessor in a Pennsylvania diocese was accused of covering up sex crimes after a grand jury found the church hid predator priests from prosecution. 

Today, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago is pushing back on plans by the Trump Organization to raid churches and schools and will say Mass while the Draft Dodger in Chief holds a parade in his own honor the same day Pope Leo XIV appears via video stream.

Please join me on June 14 to celebrate Pope Leo XIV, a leader to the world and a native son to us. Witness firsthand a special video message that Pope Leo will offer to the young people of the world at Rate Field. https://t.co/bbXzHaBV3W

— Cardinal Cupich (@CardinalBCupich) May 30, 2025

Huether, Bengs running against South Dakota Democratic Party; Doeden, Hansen harmless

Rumor has it that former Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether is planning to run for governor as an unaffiliated candidate effectively ruining any Democrat's chance to win so go to his Faceberg page and convince him to run in the 2026 Democratic primary for the nomination instead. But honestly? It's really difficult to imagine any Democrat wanting to live in Pierre especially if it's in the Governor's Mansion near the swamp where even six-legged blood sucking mosquitos breed. 

Jon Hansen and Tubby Toby Doeden are completely harmless since the Earth hater gubernatorial primary is fixed for Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson so if Doeden or Hansen had any integrity whatsoever they'd run in the 2026 General Election as unaffiliated candidates. It's difficult to imagine interim Governor Larry Rhoden running in the upcoming very expensive primary especially for a party that's broken since he already looks exhausted and his Faceberg page currently has nearly no traffic.

Nobody is independent so Brian Bengs is running a vindictive race against the South Dakota Democratic Party because he's a jerk.

Trump driving economy into the shitter: WalletHub

Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO), gold's at $3,300 and WalletHub noticed.

Detailed Findings

Year-over-year, consumers felt less confident about their financial outlook in May 2025, with the value of the overall index registered being 27% lower than in May 2024. While this is the sharpest yearly decrease in consumer confidence recorded since December 2020, it’s worth noting that the magnitude of the decline is due partly to May 2024 having been the most optimistic month for consumers' financial outlook.

Decreasing financial optimism: In May 2025, consumers’ optimism about their finances recorded an increase (+4.2%) from the previous month. However, the level of optimism decreased by almost 10% over the past year.

Increasing stress: Consumers’ stress levels regarding money are higher (+1.8%) in May 2025 compared to the same period last year.

Decrease in optimism: In May 2025, consumers’ optimism about whether their finances will improve in the next six months is lower (-13.8%) than it was last year. This represents the most significant drop in financial outlook sentiment since December 2020.

Less new employment opportunities: The share of consumers who feel new employment opportunities are “abundant” is lower (-9.9%) in May 2025 compared to last year.

Weaker sense of job security: People’s confidence in having a job in the next six months is lower (-16.1%) in May 2025 compared to last year. This marks the steepest decline in job security sentiment since December 2020.

Real estate popularity drop: Home-buying interest among consumers decreased by nearly 30% in May 2025 compared to last year, marking the largest decrease recorded since December 2020.

Decreasing interest in auto purchases: The share of consumers who expect to buy a car in the next six months is over 32% lower in May 2025 compared to last year. This is the highest drop in auto purchase interest on record since December 2020.

Large purchases are not a priority: In May 2025, consumers’ likelihood of making a large purchase in the next six months is almost 22% lower than it was last year, the sharpest drop in consumers’ interest in large purchases since December 2020.

Decrease in debt-reduction confidence: The share of consumers who expect to have less debt after the next six months is lower (-3.6%) in May 2025 compared to last year.

Credit score insecurity: The share of consumers who expect their credit score to increase in the next six months is lower (-10.2%) in May 2025 compared to last year. At the same time, this represents the steepest decline in consumer confidence regarding their credit score outlook since December 2020.

The WalletHub Economic Index decreased by 27% between May 2024 and May 2025. This means consumers are less confident about their financial outlook this month than they were at the same time last year.

Powers apparently only semiliterate

Yo Semites! 

South Dakota's fattest blogger not struggles with his health he can barely write in English!

Public radio stations sue as First Amendment under threat

NPR, Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, KSUT sue over executive order defunding public media

May 27, 2025

Free press is not optional in a democracy—it is foundational. At a time when trust in American institutions is fragile and disinformation is rampant, the public’s access to independent, verified news and information is more essential than ever.

As nonprofit public media organizations, each of our stations exists to serve the people of our communities and Colorado with independent, fact-based journalism. We take our role very seriously. Our mission — and our responsibility—is grounded in the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press and protects our ability to hold those in power to account without interference. This includes protection against government interference in our editorial decisions as well as in purchasing, acquiring, producing, and broadcasting information.

Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, and KSUT Public Radio have joined this important lawsuit because we believe the recent executive order threatens that core constitutional protection. This is not about politics—it is about principle. When the government tries to limit press freedom or control the flow of information, we have not only the right, but the obligation, to speak out and defend our rights that make independent journalism possible.

These participating Colorado stations reflect the diversity of public radio across the country—we are each independent, nonprofit organizations that represent rural, mountain, and urban communities and together serve every district of Colorado. We also share a deep commitment to providing local, fact-based news and information without government interference.

We stand with NPR in invoking the First Amendment to protect the vital role that independent journalism plays in a healthy, functioning democracy.

This is active litigation. Therefore, no additional comment is available at this time. 

Statement from NPR CEO linked here.  Interview with the attorney for Aspen Public Radio linked here.

Olson: Trump, GOP toast

He's nothing if not blustery but according to South Dakota's favorite anarcho-capitalist teevee anchor Republican is not just another word for Earth hater it's another word for traitor. So as Shad Olson pines for the End Times his predictions are becoming more and more prophetic but Americans might have to wait until 2027 for the traitors to rid us of the Orange Plague.

Elon Musk is being given frontrow seat to why the Republican party is a worthless pile of political corruption even worse by false pretenses than the Demo-Communists who are at least honest about their aims and objectives. After risking his life, his fortune and his sacred honor by turning X into the free speech firehose that was pivotal to Trump's 2024 victory, milquetoast idiots in the GOP House and Senate can't even accomplish a durable memorialization of the DOGE cuts. Because they're all in on the graft and want it to continue. And Musk's rare skillset and infinite pockets have been squandered and left wanting.

Those of us who've tried to fight and been chewed up and spit out by the power structure know it all too well. A tale too bitter to tell.

Democrats, whether in or out of power are ruthlessly dedicated to destroying their enemies and insolubly unified in the accomplishing of their goals. This is why they will win and American patriots, the MAGA movement and America herself will likely lose, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

There is neither the moral will nor actual intention within Republican ranks to turn aside the ongoing globalist communist revolution on our soil. No arrests. No laws passed. No victory. If Musk's disillusionment with the GOP includes his financial withdrawal and personal retreat from the process, Republicans at every level absolutely deserve their inevitable defeats in 2026 and 2028.

The House flips in 26. Trump will be impeached by Congress and convicted by Tillis, Thune, Cornyn and the RINO U.S. Senate. Emboldened resistance stymies the rest of the Trump term. A return to reinstalled election fraud and MAGA infighting to fill Trump's absence engineers Democrat victory in 2028.

The uniparty wins. The demolition agenda resumes. The plot succeeds. Democrats wounded and discomfited by empty threats of justice suffer no similar pangs of inaction and protocol in exacting backlash revenge against MAGA. Mass arrests. Kangaroo courts. Life sentences for patriotism. And those bitching and moaning for years about lack of opportunity to avert fatalist prognostications of America's end absolutely deserve to lose. You had your chance and played patty-cake while leftists exerted every decisive action required to keep the swamp alive and thriving.

Utterly predictable.

I'll write Musk's demoralized farewell address to D.C. in eleven words and four sentences.

"I did my best. You all suck. Fu*k off. Don't call." [Shad Olson]

Olson on Noem

Looks like self-proclaimed patriot Shad Olson isn't holding back as his 5 June court date looms for the assault of a domestic partner.

If Kristi Noem were smart, much less an intellectual, she wouldn't hire people to produce badly written books with her name on them. She is and has always been a moron, as exposed by Tucker Carlson and others, who has compensated shallow plasticity with ruthless ambition and well chosen male beneficiaries of her feminine charms. John Boehner, Lewandowski, etc. 

And if you're among those now claiming 5D chess in her inability to define the most famous latin phrase in American jurisprudence, I'm crossing you off the list of sentient humanity. You've watched her from a distance, while apparently ignoring worse Congressional voting scores than Mitt Romney, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. 

Defend her all you want. It'll be more effective defense than she provides for the country, while running out the clock, inflicting constant optical damage on the MAGA brand and positioning herself and the Koch network neoconservatives for full takeover of MAGA in 2028. 

Noem supporters are more pitiable than Cricket and equally doomed.

Shad Olson

No doubt his scolding nips at the heels of a Faceberg post written by Libertarian Collin Duprel who ran in the 2022 General Election and got over 74,000 votes for South Dakota's At-large US House seat.

Veteran reporter and columnist, Tom Lawrence has his own critique of Mrs. Noem's ascension to MAGA World linked here.

Butte rail bypass makes sense

Amtrak service through Billings, Bozeman, Helena, Missoula always seemed like the best idea but commuter rail from Butte to Missoula in the I-90 median, to Helena through Basin over an existing I-15 right of way and even from Bozeman to Butte over Homestake Pass is not impossible.

Thoughts and prayers

 

NYT posts another relevant Wordle

Trump and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/u...

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— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt.bsky.social) May 25, 2025 at 9:11 AM

Garry Trudeau nails it

Link here.

 

Hating Zionism is not antisemitism

Jews fought alongside the Muslims against the Crusaders in Jerusalem in 1099 and Haifa in 1100 and the Ottoman Turks who conquered Palestine were Sunni Islam. The 1916 Sykes–Picot agreement allocated to the United Kingdom control of what is today southern Israel, Palestine, Jordan and southern Iraq plus the ports at Haifa and Acre.

Reminder that the modern state of Israel was colonized by Eastern European Jews from the ghettos of Imperial Russia who are all of Turkic (Khazar) descent. They are not Semites, which is why DNA tests are illegal in Israel. Ironically, most of them came from modern-day Ukraine, which is also where the Bolsheviks originated— another Jewish ethnic group. Hard truths to sort through.

In 1946, Hồ Chí Minh offered Polish future Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion a Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam but today the Jewish state is a rogue nation and longtime sponsor of global terrorism. Zionists, war criminals and now no Middle East leader is more unstable than Bibi Netanyahu.

“When there is a war, it doesn't matter who your enemy is - you need to destroy their offspring to prevent them from creating more offspring.” – Sofia Emuna, one of the Israelis working to block food and aid from entering Gaza, explicitly states that their goal is to exterminate Palestinian children.

Five of my great-grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews but President Harry Truman failed the world community by recognizing the illegal seizure of Palestine so it's no secret that this interested party would like to see Israel rolled back to 1917 borders and its settler inhabitants deported to Ukraine to defend their homelands.

Learn more at NPR.

In Gaza, hospitals have collapsed. Babies ran out of formula. Clean drinking water is gone. Meanwhile, trucks filled with aid are waiting idle by the border. Instead of trying to do a Gaza real estate deal, Trump should press the Netanyahu government to open aid routes & stop starving Palestinians.

— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) May 24, 2025 at 11:14 AM

Austin West: Texans are fleeing for the Land of Enchantment

The Lone Star State is in turmoil and it's not only a failed state it's the least free in America: from Spring wildfires to enriching New Mexico's cannabis retailers to gas pipeline explosions to hurricanes to over seven hundred cases of measles.

The Land of Enchantment has quietly become a blue refuge in the MAGA red West. So many Lone Star liberals are fleeing extreme summer heat, big-city sprawl and Texas MAGA-style politics that some folks have started calling Santa Fe "Austin West." New Mexico government is deep blue, which is unusual for a rural state dependent on oil and gas, farming and cattle. And, from the governor, to the congressional delegation, to the state legislature, women dominate elective office. In fact, New Mexico has the largest female legislative majority in the country. [Blue Land of Enchantment lures unhappy Texans]

New Mexico's flag has been named the coolest in America. The above image was captured at Mount Rushmore National Monument in the occupied Black Hills.

KLAN shares

It certainly is a red letter day for Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN).

In Noem’s defense, she doesn’t know a lot of words. After “shoot” and “puppy,” “suck,” and “it,” there are not many left, so she tries to get as much use of them as possible. apple.news/AUQBv5jzcRMS...

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— George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway.bsky.social) May 23, 2025 at 1:13 PM

It's her version of "this is going to be very BIG" and "the likes of which nobody has ever seen." One reward for Deb and me of spending a lot of time in South Dakota 2013-2016: We have mental image of her, as governor, before plastic surgery turned her into another Trump Stepford person. -James Fallows

Wismer on new prison

When this blog asked Susan Wismer to run for governor in 2014 she told me Cory Heidelberger and Madville Times were just too radical for her. Heidelberger supported Joe Lowe in the Democratic primary so that weblog never really got behind Wismer as a gubernatorial candidate but ultimately her choice of running mate sank her campaign. State Senator Wismer repeatedly warns about the risk of Earth haters holding supermajorities in the legislature and that the state is living in the "dark ages." 

Her reasoning is hardly mysterious. It’s all about the money a too big to jail banking racket, video lootery, a medical industry triopoly, prostitution, the Sturgis Rally, policing for profit, sex trafficking, hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the SDGOP destroying lives, depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule. So, instead of building a billion dollar prison the state should spend the money to house, feed and educate people. 

Former Senator Wismer is still speaking out.

The South Dakota Legislature, dominated as it has been for decades by the GOP, has known for decades that we needed a new state prison. What has saved the state from federal lawsuits over inhumane prisoner treatment I don't know: perhaps our powerful senators. In the meantime the state legislature worked on roads and education and nursing homes and tax cuts instead of a new prison. Then, when the Biden COVID money started flowing, it actually became possible to start planning for a new prison using that federal bonus money. Money was set aside in a savings account for a prison project, but rather than use her political capital to do an unpopular but necessary state project, Kristi put it off while she was off campaigning for other jobs.

And the slug of new legislators who came to Pierre this year had the hubris to think that legislators who came before them hadn't already considered and learned everything that the current committee is learning...again. If Kristi had been as determined to build a replacement penitentiary, which she knew is an emergency need of the state, as she was to build a west river gun range and fancy expensive one-stop office buildings in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, South Dakota would not be facing a $1 billion prison project today. We would already have had a project in process at a guaranteed price of much less than what we will end up paying now. But they didn't follow up with the investments in education and addiction treatment and child protection and sentencing reforms that would have reduced corrections system clients. They persisted in the typical GOP rhetoric of "these are not essential government services...we don't want to fund them."

16 years ago when I first came to Pierre, Chief Justice Gilbertson had finally convinced Pierre to invest in a trial drug court, which allows a defendant to avoid prison if they agreed to enter into an addiction treatment program and follow some very strict conditions. Before agreeing to fund more than one, Appropriations Committee demanded documentation that the drug court paid for itself, because addiction treatment wasn't an essential government service worthy of government funding. The committee was unwilling/unable to fathom, without such $ and cents proof, that it was a worthy investment.

So, the proof was enumerated in voluminous reports: e.g. child support paid by a working parent as opposed to one in jail, child protection services not required, judicial system fees paid by a working, not incarcerated, citizen. Of course, the only numbers that counted were the savings to the state budget...not the budgets of local governments, and certainly not the cost, pain and suffering that the state could have saved their citizens in the last 50 years, if our legislature had chosen long ago to invest in our most vulnerable populations. [Wismer, Faceberg post]

Cross-state pollution in reverse?

Wyoming dumps tons of mercury and other heavy metal oxides every year on South Dakota from coal burning power plants and researchers at the South Dakota School of Mines know most of the toxins in the state's lakes have precipitated from emissions released by plants in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. And, if South Dakota had a Democratic attorney general she'd sue those states for the poisoned legacy created by Colstrip, Basin Electric and Black Hills Energy. One of the most polluted reaches of the Belle Fourche River goes right through current Republican Attorney General Marty Jackley's boyhood ranch. 

So pick your poison, Republicans.

Tubbos tangling?

Portly and patently paunchy Pat Powers is tussling with tubby Toby in a name calling frenzy over the 2026 Earth hater gubernatorial primary!

Earth hater SD gubernatorial primary will be lit

Remember that the SDGOP is broke so if you are a South Dakota conservative with the fire in the belly who can get on the General Election ballot in 2026 and intends to run as an unaffiliated or third party candidate for any statewide office or for the legislature from your district I will support your efforts both with money and in print.

 

Truth

Funny that the Second Amendment and all of the guns in our closets aren't stopping Donald Trump's dictatorship.

— Cory Allen Heidelberger (@coralhei.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM

South Dakota Earth haters failing to thrive

 Obese Brookings blogger, Pat Powers is fuming over his political party's inability to raise money. 

Alternative headline: Earth hater visits mercenaries in another failed red state

Gnomons

How it started.

How it's going.

Farmer suicides spiking under Trump

In 2018 the Rapid City Journal blamed the South Dakota Republican Party for spikes in suicides and depression then a Sanford Health executive did the same in 2019. That year South Dakota ranked 6th highest in the nation for suicides reporting more than 22 self-administered terminations per 100,000 people or an increase of 59% since 1999 and the 11th highest increase in any state. But, during the Biden years even employment in the red moocher state improved and suicides decreased dramatically. 

So, a cynical observer might suspect bankers provided gloomy outlooks to the Rural Mainstreet Index in 2024 especially in midwestern swing states to sink Democratic Party prospects just as Republicans in congress stalled immigration reform because it makes sense to Earth haters that after he was elected again the Orange Julius would run America into the dirt so banks can foreclose on the whole dealio then massage auction price points.

Now, even in Utah where the Church of Latter-Day Saints is more a social contract than a religion, suicide rates are an increasing concern after Trump's agriculture department ended support for the Farm Ranch Stress Assistance Program. And, with the Trump Organization blowing up health care farmers are taking themselves out at much higher rates again and even the Earth hating American Farm Bureau Federation is panicking. In eastern Colorado where Trump won big farmers have been cut from mental health resources, too.

Agricultural producers have endured several years of very low commodity prices, inflation on things like fertilizer and pesticides, rising consolidation in the marketplace, avian flu and the mounting effects of climate change. And if that weren’t enough, now the Trump administration is imposing on-again, off-again tariffs (which did serious damage to farms during his first term), cancelling food aid programs and energy project payouts, targeting immigrant farm workers and firing federal employees who deliver critical services, from pest research to weather information. The situation is primed for another rash of mental health emergencies in the rural US. [Farmers face one of the highest rates of suicide. This social worker believes the solution is buried in their land]

Learn more at NPR.

Horse slaughter sealed

In Wyoming the Trump Organization plans to remove then auction off all of the nearly three thousand free roaming horses from public and private land and most will be shipped to Mexico for slaughter. These moves are happening as land managers have lost control of the invasive grasses that drive mega-fires. 

Liz May on the "Big Beautiful Bill"

Koch Industries' relationship with the late Republican Kansas Senator Bob Dole not only helped to delegitimize the issue of oil theft it allowed the company to build an ecoterrorism empire. Charles Koch was a member of the John Birch Society and Koch Industries has given loads of cash to Mike Rounds, Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson and John Thune. And, as the South Dakota Republican Party is flying apart Shad Olson is dissing the Koch's Americans for Prosperity for endorsing RINO Dusty for governor. 

Now Trump is in trouble with his base since it looks like Republican Liz May believes ethanol is ecocide, too.

If Ethanol Can’t Stand on Its Own, It Shouldn’t Stand at All

Summit Carbon and Big Ethanol couldn’t buy enough politicians in South Dakota—so now they’ve packed up their lobbyists and checkbooks and headed to Washington, D.C.

Buried in the “Big Beautiful Bill” is a federal land grab:

Grants eminent domain for carbon pipelines

Overrides South Dakota law and strips local control

Backs it with the 45Q tax credit—a taxpayer-funded bailout that's already drained us for BILLIONS

$85–$180 per ton of carbon captured

$30+ billion projected cost to taxpayers

$900 million claimed without proof of permanent storage

This isn’t about climate—it’s about corporate control.

This isn’t about clean energy—it’s about stealing land and lining pockets.

If you can’t own property, you ARE property.

No more ethanol bailouts.

No more carbon boondoggles.

No more federal overreach in South Dakota.

86 47: Trump is unwell. It's time for him to go

47's aides prop him up daily so it's difficult to imagine him dying a natural death since nothing about him is natural and if he doesn't die in office he'll die under house arrest so someone should relieve him of duty.

It's bad that the president is a crazy person who will in the middle of the night name a new set of Bad People and demand an investigation into them based on bullshit pretexts. Also bad that his DOJ/FBI appointees were picked because they'd say yes to such demands.

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— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 6:44 AM

 

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [sic]^{[note 2][7]} or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Dems storm Spearditch

Olson on Piersol, Native empowerment

Editor's note: what follows is more from a vocal victim of the South Dakota Republican Party and our favorite kamikaze teevee anchor man, Shad Olson as he prays for the End Times.

A Rapid City Federal District Judge, long criticized for exhibiting leftist judicial bias and with decades of family ties to leftist USAID-NGO foundations and political leaders announced his impending retirement today from the Federal bench, with potential implications for several high profile lawsuits involving radical leftist NGO, NDN Collective and their local targets.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol announced his retirement decision in communications received by litigants in those pending legal actions, including Rapid City's Uhre family, Grand Gateway Hotel and Retsel Corporation, targets of a racial smear campaign by NDN Collective and a subsequent racial discrimination lawsuit by the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights, which had been set for trial in early June. An email notice of Piersol's retirement decision notified parties on both sides of that lawsuit and others that those trials are now postponed indefinitely, pending judicial reassignment by the court.

Judge Piersol had been presiding federal justice in two pending civil actions between NDN Collective and Rapid City's Retsel Corporation, the ownership group of Grand Gateway Hotel that became the target of a national boycott after a native-on-native shooting death sparked a racial controversy.

Retsel Corporation and Grand Gateway Hotel became embroiled in a racial smear campaign and social media boycott after a native-on-native shooting death inside the hotel in March 2022. NDN Collective employees and associates then undertook a "racial testing" operation, storming the hotel lobby demanding room rental while streaming the altercation to social media platforms, and claiming "racial discrimination" after they were denied service, despite dozens of Native American employees and customers lodged at the hotel at the time of the incident.

NDN Collective disingenuously concealed their ongoing hostilities against hotel ownership and intentions for inflicted law fare and viral media attacks against the business, couching their denial of room rental as "innocent victims of racial discrimination," a stance Judge Lawrence Piersol upheld and allowed in court filings.

Local and national media outlets made no effort to investigate, explore or report the actual chain of events in context, adding to the firestorm of leftist outrage against hotel ownership.

Three weeks ago, Judge Piersol issued what would be his final evidentiary ruling in the case, refusing defendants to allow characterization of the NDN Collective room rental event inside the hotel as a "racial testing" operation, despite mounting pressure from critics amid evidence previously and purposefully concealed from the general public.

Judge Piersol, Pennington County, and the pro-Marxist non-governmental organization, NDN Collective have mutual longstanding financial and, or, family ties to the Bush Foundation, and the Macarthur Foundation, the same far leftist organizations that have dominated DOGE headlines in recent months, creating obvious conflicts of interest in multiple criminal and civil cases involving NDN Collective and their leadership that have been ignored by both federal and state courts. The Uhres believe MacArthur and Bush Foundation political influence have been instrumental in violation of their rights to due process at both the county and federal court levels.

Members of the Uhre family had demanded an investigation of those shared ties, openly questioning Judge Lawrence Piersol's ability to maintain judicial impartiality in ongoing legal matters and whether Pennington County's grant relationships have also influenced an inequitable dispensation of justice in other cases.

In 2019, Piersol sided with native protesters in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's NODAPL blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline, blocking a riot boosting law as unconstitutional that would have enhanced penalties for organizing riots and encouraging out-of-state participation.

Documents obtained independently to the scrutiny of the Elon Musk, DOGE corruption investigation of USAID and other federal departments show Judge Piersol and NDN Collective have both family and financial affiliations with the Bush Foundation, a Democrat leftist NGO that has given upwards of $100-million to NDN Collective. Judge Lawrence Piersol's wife Catherine served on the Bush Foundation's Board of Directors until at least 2014, according to visible foundation records and has been an advocate for social justice programming at the University of South Dakota School of Law, involved in the cultivation and early identification of future public servants under the guise of philanthropic interest.

In September 2024, the Uhre family's Retsel Corporation filed a six-count federal civil RICO lawsuit against NDN Collective and other defendants, alleging a coordinated malicious campaign to destroy their business through defamation, injurious falsehoods spread on social media and by circulating a doctored email to create an illusion of a "Native Ban," from the hotel and to destroy community reputation. As part of the Retsel lawsuit, NDN now faces federal complaints for wire fraud and forgery in the production and circulation of that doctored email. Judge Piersol was also presiding over that litigation.

"We are frankly pleased about Judge Piersol's decision to step down from the federal court and the timing of a continuance for our mother's failing health that should preclude Piersol's ability to preside over pending trials. Given his consistent favoritism toward NDN in court rulings, his retirement offers our family renewed hope for a restoration of impartial due process, unbiased judicial rulings on legal motions moving forward and ultimately, a greater chance for fair trial in these matters, which have taken a devastating toll on our livelihood and lives over the past three years," a Uhre family spokesman said.

The Uhre family and attorneys had previously requested a health continuance to the June trial date as former Retsel Corporation CEO Connie Uhre, diagnosed with lung cancer and hospitalized for the past several weeks for a lung infection, was too unwell to participate in a proceeding that could force a damages liquidation of her own assets. Piersol granted that continuance in conjunction with the notice of his expected retirement date of August 15th.

To date, the Uhres and family company, Retsel Corporation, have faced a total of 10 lawsuits since the 2020 George Floyd riots and the beginning of NDN Collective's pile-on racial smear operation, an ordeal they believe is directly responsible for Connie Uhre's physical distress and rapid decline in health.

Olson on Comey

Most readers know that back in 2018 this interested party declared that with the help of James Comey Hillary Clinton threw the 2016 election so Donald Trump could destroy the Republican Party. I believe she knew that had she won, the Republican House would have impeached her over her husband's connection to Jeffrey Epstein and the US Senate removed her before the 2018 midterms, a President Tim Kaine would have met an untimely end before naming a Veep and Paul Ryan would become POTUS. 

If Trump doesn't die in office he most certainly will die in jail or under house arrest but racist anarcho-capitalist, domestic abuser and likely incel Shad Olson is calling for the ultimate retaliation against those who want Donald Trump to earn his eternal reward even earlier than that. Olson simply wants to blow it all up since such is today's Republican Party.

 

but seashells!

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 16, 2025 at 7:56 PM

Is Mrs. Noem even sane?

Remember when the Earth haters descended on former First Lady Michelle Obama for baring her shoulders? There has been nary a murmur about Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN) doing it let alone calling out Melania Trump for her past as a hooker. Anyone who believes Mrs. Noem has never been a victim of sexual harassment or unwanted touching is delusional so it's really hard not to slut-shame someone who's gone all out to be one.

She's been called 'ICE Barbie' for treating her Cabinet position like a TV production, but now Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for an actual reality show pitting immigrants against each other 'for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship.' Noem is even offering up officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to tally votes for the made-for-TV contest. [Daily Mail]

Surprise! Earth haters turn against law enforcement in Maude case

In South Dakota members of the law enforcement industry enjoy qualified immunity from prosecution for the often lethal offenses they commit in the line of duty so the violence they visit on suspects is simply dismissed as justified. 

But, on January 6, 2021 the attack on the US Capitol was a climax of an anti-law enforcement movement emboldened by the 2014 Bundy standoff. So, it's hardly surprising that Earth haters like Cliven Bundy and Harriet Hageman are defending Charles and Heather Maude because they hate what they call the administrative state even as it benefits them. 

US Forest Service Supervisor Jack Isaacs (now retired), Special Agent Travis Lunders and District Ranger Julie Wheeler are receiving death threats just for doing their jobs then thrown under the bus by the Trump Organization's agriculture secretary. Extremists are screaming that Agent Lunders came unannounced to the Maude ranch in 2024 in full tactical gear to serve the summons to appear in district court because the Maudes blew off civil remedies after breaking federal law. The Forest Service denies the agent was outfitted with "any tactical uniform, gear or assault weapons" even though it is widely known property owners in that part of South Dakota are militantly opposed to gubmint especially those of Democratic administrations but love all that subsidized crop and livestock insurance anyway. 

Jon Haber spent a career in the Forest Service and is now a Missoula, Montana attorney who specializes in environmental litigation.

I was watching this case develop, and then stopped when it got quashed – thanks, Dave [Mertz] for digging into it. I think you quite likely nailed it with: “I would imagine that any similar event in the future would certainly make a Forest Service Line Officer wonder whether the Secretary of Agriculture would have their back.” You have the more traditional “don’t mess with anyone politically connected to the administration, with the addition of an administration that likes to make examples of people as a tool for intimidation. And they especially seem to like to promote stories that make government agencies look bad. Dave’s words, but maybe more to the point in this case as “not interested in the facts.” [comment, Haber, Theft of Government Property or an Innocent Mistake?]

Heather Maude is a Wyoming native and her parents are Trump supporting Earth haters, too.

The case in South Dakota takes place against a backdrop of federal agencies frequently struggling with the way they’re perceived among rural people. [Federal Fence Line Fight With Ranchers Is ‘Odd,’ Wyoming Attorney Says]

But public servants who arrest people of color for trespass in Madison are qualified immune because selective enforcement is nothing new in South Dakota.

ICE action in Madison is really domestic terrorism

Who would Jesus deport? This is NAZI style shit. So, now Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN) is all about retribution for protests just like her boss. Are raids on Twin City Fan, the dairies in Elkton or the turkey plant in Huron next? What about Bel Brands in Brookings?

 

Olson on Leo XIV

Editor's note: Shad Olson is clearly plugged in.

Reich Mike poses with FSST President Reider who is sporting a jacket with a cannabis emblem

Recall that in 2015 President Tony Reider and officials of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Nation advanced an adults-only cannabis initiative after an Iowa casino on the border cut into the tribe's gaming business but destroyed their crop after threats from South Dakota's former/current attorney general. The State of South Dakota receives revenue from the FSST through a compact with the 423 member Isanti Dakota Oyate but disputes over cannabis, liquor and gaming have been ongoing for decades.

South Dakota's junior senator (he's the one wearing a necktie in image below) is a short guy and will always be a short guy.

Nice jacket, Mr. President; looks like counting coup from here!
 

The Maudes are criminals: it's just that simple

The Nebraska-based US Forest Service supervisor who managed the Buffalo Gap National Grassland has since retired likely under pressure from the Trump Organization and probably still gets death threats from the MAGAs.

The Maudes blew off a civil remedy for at least four years without remorse and be sure to read the comments at Heather Maude's Faceberg page which reek of red state failure. 

 

Dates set for Minnesota cannabis lottery

Several Tribal Nations have already signed compacts with Minnesota and lead retail cannabis growth where the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is hoping to become a billion dollar enterprise after completing construction of a 50,000-square-foot cultivation facility that dwarfs any non-tribal operations which are capped at 30,000 square feet. The White Earth Nation was the first of Minnesota’s eleven Nations to open an off-reservation dispensary.

Non-Native municipalities have their own rules and policies but sales aren't expected to begin until late Fall in 2025 after the winners of license lotteries are determined and no doubt the dispensaries near the border with the horrible red state of South Dakota will be the most lucrative.

The license lottery will be June 5 for cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and “mezzobusinesses” — those are essentially all-in-one operations that can grow and buy cannabis, and make and sell cannabis products. There’ll also be a June 5 lottery for cannabis retailer licenses for social equity applicants, including veterans, people who live in high-poverty areas and people historically harmed by the war on drugs. A second lottery of cannabis retailer licenses — for general applicants as well as social equity applicants not selected in the June 5 lottery — will be held in July. 

95 applicants for 50 available cannabis cultivator licenses 

80 applicants for 24 available cannabis manufacturer licenses 

267 applicants for 100 available cannabis mezzobusiness licenses 

724 applicants for 150 available cannabis retailer licenses 

Date set for lottery to determine Minnesota cannabis business licenses