Sturgis Rally® brings human trafficking, enrichment to medical industry monopoly

Suicide by violent means is epidemic especially in red states like South Dakota and Wyoming so Republicans just go pffft when bikers die during the Sturgis Rally. But, hypocrisy reigns supreme at the highest levels of power in South Dakota so residents endure another Rally where this year half a million attendees will spend an average of a thousand dollars each so the sitting governor can crow about his leadership and self-reliance while moral hazards pay the bills. 

Hotels, motels and campgrounds in the Hills jack up their rates and fill to capacity so a murder of fat, white Republican crows can swill alcohol, stuff their faces, buy Trump t-shirts and children for sex then kill themselves and each other with reckless abandon.

While the 85th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a time for friends to get together and ride their motorcycles, it’s unfortunately also a hot spot for human trafficking. Last year at the rally, 7 men were arrested for their crimes against minors. [KELO teevee]

The good news? Sure, bikers are just tools of the state but hospitals, bars and mortuaries cut a fat hog during the annual orgy and so does the law enforcement industry that hopes to seize hundreds of thousands through civil asset forfeiture and selective interdiction.

Monument Health’s business continuity coordinator, Dustin Calhoun, who works with federal and state agencies and first responders during the rally to help prepare the hospital, said they’re always on the lookout for challenges including rider safety and drugs that come into the area. [KOTA teevee]

Now Taffy Howard is lamenting overdevelopment in Rapid City

Led in part by Rapid City legislator, State Senator Taffy Howard there is a mass exodus underway from the center of the South Dakota Republican Party especially West River. Recall longtime Republican stalwarts like Phil Jensen, Charlie Hoffman, Betty Olson, Florence Thompson and at least fifteen others threw up their hands in desperation with Earth hater, US Representative Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson and backed Elizabeth Marty May in the Republican US House primary in 2020. 

In a related story, pathetic pig Pat Powers is devoting loads of his time to Toby Doeden's gubernatorial campaign.

Now, at her Faceberg page Sen. Howard is ripping Republican plans for "Liberty Land".

This is simply wrong:-(! Why does the Rapid City Council continue to subsidize developers at the expense of the average hardworking taxpayer?! Sadly, Rapid City is known statewide for being one of the biggest “abusers” of TIFs and this is another example of that abuse. If this is worth being built, then the folks developing it should have no problem getting investors to invest in it…STOP expecting hardworking taxpayers to involuntarily help pay for it. Do we or do we not want property tax relief? Because if we do, then it’s practices like this that must be stopped. 

I’m so tired of politicians and bureaucrats telling us what we do or don’t “need” and worse yet, using taxpayer dollars to aid them in their plans for our future! I’m all for private property rights and if a developer decides to do something like this without any government incentives or subsidies, fine. But I have major issues with those in power deciding the city “needs” this and then subsidizing it with a TIF without any ability for the public to weigh in. The city ought to refer this to a vote and not force the citizens to do it. With that being said though, there will be a group of folks collecting signatures to refer this to allow the citizens to have a say on this. I hope you will sign if given the opportunity.

May: Republicans are ruining the Black Hills

This interested party left the Black Hills because Republicans ruined the area.

Republican Liz May represents District 27 in the South Dakota Statehouse. What follows is posted at her open source Faceberg page.

This Isn’t Growth—It’s a Slow Displacement

Every time I drive into Rapid City or head out to Spearfish, Box Elder, or Summerset, I feel like I’ve taken a wrong turn.

The hills are still there—but the open sky, the sense of peace, the small‑town rhythm—it’s being swallowed by endless housing tracts, towering apartments, and polished master‑planned developments. Downtown feels more engineered than earned. Communities like Spearfish—once anchored in tight‑knit culture—are now overrun by developers chasing future profits.

What are our cities, counties, and state agencies thinking as they fuel this with taxpayer dollars, federal COVID grants, and public subsidies like TIFs—diverting property taxes from schools, roads, and first responders for 20 years just to deliver. Who owns the risk here? Not the developers. Developers love to claim that without tax breaks, they won’t build—but let’s be honest: that’s more bluff than truth. If a project is truly viable, it doesn’t need a handout. What they really mean is: “We won’t build unless taxpayers help us maximize our profit and minimize our risk.” That’s not economic development—that’s exploitation. Real growth stands on its own two feet. If it only works by offloading the costs onto existing homeowners and small businesses, maybe it’s not the right project—or they’re not the right developer.

I own a small grocery store in one of the poorest areas in the country. No handouts. No favors. I scraped by, invested everything—and it took five years to finally break even.

That’s what real small business looks like. That’s what freedom looks like.

Meanwhile, developers walk in with Elevate Rapid City—the merged Chamber of Commerce and economic development arm—and secure public land and grants to outbid anyone in their way.

Take the case of the South Dakota Stock Growers Association (SDSGA). After 100 years in their downtown building, they tried to buy the adjacent vacant parking lot. They negotiated. They showed up. But, as their executive director put it—it was like the city's mind was already made up. In 2023, the city transferred the lot to Elevate, who then flipped it to 11 Main LLC ($900,000 real estate agreement) to develop a tech campus and retail project—effectively sidelining the long‑time local organization.

It’s not just about convenience—it’s about who gets a seat at the table. Elevate uses public financing and grants to reshape downtown, often pushing aside long‑standing local voices—like the state's largest ag‑industry group.

As Milton Friedman said: “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” Yet here, taxpayer dollars are used to elevate those with power—and silence those without.

This isn’t sustainable. If it continues, Rapid City won’t feel like Rapid City. Spearfish won’t feel like Spearfish. And the Black Hills will no longer feel like the Black Hills—it’ll feel like Denver feels to Colorado.

It’s time to face the truth: this isn’t growth—it’s displacement. And it’s time for South Dakota to restore accountability, respect property rights, and reclaim community before it disappears under someone else’s blueprint.

Olson on Michelle Powers

Editor's note: the rotund wife of South Dakota's most hateful blogger laments the threats to Medicaid while her husband advocates for its demise. Shad Olson notices it, too.

In a recent series of screenshots shared to various facebook pages, folks are taking aim at Dr. Michelle Powers, wife of illiterate South Dakota TMZ-style gossip blogger, Pat Powers, criticizing Mrs. Powers' performance as Director of the Northern Hills Training Center in Spearfish.

In both anonymous and attributed comments, people with knowledge and experience of the organization's past and present deficiencies have accused Dr. Powers' of fostering a toxic work environment, degrading the overall performance standard of client services and most troublingly, fostering an environment that allegedly protects pedophiles and other sex offenders and witholds criminal evidence of child pornography and other sex related crimes from police.

Long the domain of far leftist social justice activism and far leftist anti-Christian bigotry, it's no surprise that social workers firmly attached to the state and federal teat are reflexively dedicated to protecting their money spigot, regardless of unfulfillment of intended services to the special needs community or alleged favoritism and defensive interference on behalf of people who are sexually attracted to children and consume imagery depicting the indulgence of pedophilic depravity.

Interested citizens are riveted to the story and are asking for a broader investigation both of working conditions at the NHTC and of the allegations of a staff track record of leniency for "clients" allegedly found in possession of pedophilia, including what could be South Dakota's own version of the "Laptop from Hell," said to contain child pornography, returned to an NHTC client, rather than local police, as required by mandatory reporting laws.

If proven true, these allegations should result in the swift and summary expulsion of the demonstrably dysfunctional leadership of Dr. Powers as NHTC Director. Simple and true.

Whether true or not, Dr. Michelle Powers' status as a suckling sow at the social services trough provides definitive context for the deluge of disparagement against fiscal and social conservatives offererd by the equally attached and equally porcine Pat Powers in his doxing, defamation, slander and other assorted attempts at character assassination of people he sees as existential threat to his wife's generous compensation package.

Context makes clear.

Pat isn't an instinctual leftist twit out of any ideological principal or policy preference. Pat is impersonating a Republican, posting on far leftist social platforms like Reddit and BlueSky, and rallying leftist social media flashmobs against South Dakota's MAGA thought leaders, because admitting he's a far leftist shill would relegate his constant smear attacks of the conservative brand to the irrelevant discard pile of the Trump deranged lunatic fringe where they rightly belong.

Pat's clear animus against outsider quantities like Aberdeen businessman and candidate for governor, Toby Doeden are not motivated by any real policy opposition or even political difference. A Trump-style South Dakota DOGE audit, long promised by the Doeden campaign could end Pat's personal gravy train with the stroke of a pen. Lips to God's ears.

With his incessantly shallow analysis that's forever light on substance, but odiferously heavy on the anal, Pat is just using his idiot mutterings and badly parsed articles as frontline protection of the household paycheck. Nothing more.

We should however, extend a compassionately congratulatory dose of sympathy in Pat's general direction for going at least five whole days without writing an article about his favorite legislative target, District 3 Representative Brandei Schaefbauer. Sources say that in the unlikely event that Pat can keep his understandable blonde obsession at bay for a successive week, Schaefbauer may once again feel comfortable removing the recently installed padlocks, logging chains and laser security system from her panty drawer.

In the wake of Pat's July publication of the Aberdeen legislator's home address, which came just five days before the tragic assassinations and attempt of same against mutliple Minnesota lawmakers, I still say Schaefbauer should have dusted for Pat's fingerprints just to be safe.

Sometimes installing security cameras just isn't enough.

Lynn KnappGood Neighbors of Spearfish

July 17 at 10:12 PM · 

Looking for people who have had experience with Northern Hills Traing Center disregarding state guardians and conservatorship court orders?? NhTC is showing some pretty shady colors and folks need to be aware of the goings on.

Christine Borninkhof Coolley

I'm going to jump on this post again and add some more interesting facts that have been occurring this week. Since this post seems to be getting under the skin of the administration for NHTC. 

The staffing are chosing to ignore history's of the folks they are helping, soliciting of sex,child porn off of social media, extortion, and exploitation. All have been heavily documented over the past 5 years,including police reports for verification. Staff, as of today has handed over a lap top computer with no supervision. All under the wording of "they have rights too". Last I checked none of those activities are even legal. And at what point do we prevent the protected people from harming them selves and the community around them?? Only if it doesn't directly effect you?? That seems to be the wrong answer for me. 

When does the madness stop?

Christine Borninkhof Coolley

I have had a protected person at NHTC for 7 plus years now.

How many horror stories would you like?? 

One the most wtf?? 

1. Sitting in a "team meeting" in a NHTC meeting room, the case manager, 2 department heads and myself, one of the department heads looks me right in the eye, and says "it's nice when we can pi$$ of the guardians enough to make them step back and not be a bother to us" then laughed. She was serious.

2. If you question anything that disagrees with their agenda, you will be labeled "difficult " "unprofessional" " vindictive ". 

3. NHTC has as of today violated a court order (State guardianship and conservator) twice in less then 30 days. 

4. Has put my protected person at risk of exploitation, extortion, there are safety issues,medical issues. 

I could go on and on.

Anna P. Marrs

It's a long shot, but nothing is impossible with God. Perhaps it's time for the NHTC, as an institution, be transfered to a church-based ministry. 

"Lukewarm Christianity has become so normal that Biblical Christianity seems radical."~Lon Solomon Ministry

Brian Bengs needs to suspend his campaign

This interested party has been asking Professor Bengs to suspend his campaign for US Senate and stand for SDAG at the 2026 Democratic State Convention. If all South Dakota Democrats do that maybe it will sink in.

SDGOP civil war: SD Sen. Tobin taking on Liz May and the extreme white wing

Editor's note: Republican is just another word for Earth hater but it looks like South Dakota State Senator Erin Tobin hates the Earth even more than SD Representative Liz May does. Tobin responded to May at the latter's Faceberg page where their exchange punctuated the fact that East River and West River are not the same.

[I]t doesn’t touch the permitting process. Something like 47 states are already doing this. America and SD need infrastructure to innovate. You throw up smoke and mirrors in your lengthy posts that are meant to put fear into people. 

We need common sense moving forward. Not people on your team who want to use our national guard as pawns to shoot down airliners with “chem trails” and tie the hands of our SD national air guard so they can’t protect us against invasion into foreign airspace. 

The people I talk to want to become energy independent and grow our economy. President Trump gets it. You don’t. Look at your team in the freedom caucus.

Read it all here.

Olson handicaps SD Earth hater gubernatorial primary

Editor's note: South Dakota's favorite former teevee anchor, Shad Olson has seized the bullhorn.

In the deepening grassroots divide fostered by the 2026 South Dakota Governor's race, new polling data should signal a rightful end of conservative infighting and a reunifying of the Trump-DeSantis style schism between the Doeden and Hansen-Lems camps that remains the unpopular RINO establishment GOP's only pathway to a Dusty Johnson victory. Should rightfully be. Common sense pending. Fingers and rosaries crossed.

A new Dakota First Action poll shows Dusty Johnson clinging to a small (fitting) lead over Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden, 24 to 20%. Interim Governor Larry Rhoden is tied with Doeden at 20%, while the nearly single issue "property rights" ticket of Jon Hansen and Karla Lems tallies just 4%. Hansen draws only 1% support among voters West River, a region crucial to the grassroots given the disproportionate concentration of conservative MAGA voters out west.

As I've written previously, campaign funding disparities alone made Jon Hansen's gubernatorial bid a longshot at best and perhaps a prematurely timed first run for an executive seat he still might win at some date future tense, assuming animosities, bad organizational bedfellows (AFP) and self-inflicted legislative wounds from the disappointingly unproductive 2025 legislative session are quick to heal.

Best case scenario, Jon Hansen and his better known lieutenant governor choice, Karla Lems, agree on a graceful exit from the Governor's race, including a public condemnation for the petty sniping and frankly, ugly leftist cancel proclivities exhibited by some Hansen-Lems backers, the conservative base unifies splendidly and delivers a rightfully crushing body blow to the dying aristocracy of the establishment RINO turds, perhaps allowing Hansen a chance for Attorney General in a Governor Toby Doeden cabinet.

Worst case, heels are planted, scars are inflicted, and Hansen-Lems persist to the bitter end, likely with significant help from the Dusty-Thune-Rounds cheering section at Americans for Prosperity, terminally splitting the grassroots all the way to the ballot box and allowing tiny Dusty to inexplicably and undeservedly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

If defeating the South Dakota swamp is truly the priority of both grassroots camps in this spirited election cycle, calmer heads and altruism will win the day, keeping a comparatively deep grassroots bench fresh and unsullied by things like circular firing squads and self-inflicted defeat.

Time, tide, and a tidal wave of conservative political cash are still on the side of the populist political realignment both in America and here at home. It's time to put minute differences and teapot tempests aside and make the names on the deskplates, policies and priorities actually match all the ideological platitudes long emenating from ivory towers and cosemtically [sic] altered lips in Pierre. People who rack up the state credit cards with cosmetic procedures and Valentine's Day soirees, and nearly double the state budget in eight years before jetting off for adjacent condominiums with their 2028 Presidential campaign advisors.

We're all hoping and praying for the same thing: A Dusty Johnson defeat, and a state senate and chief executive that actually resemble the conservative house supermajority and the will of the people long ignored in South Dakota politics.

The numbers tell the time:

Dusty Johnson 24%

Toby Doeden 20%

Larry Rhoden. 20%

Jon Hansen 4%

NM Rep. suggests another name for the Gulf

Just going to leave this right here.

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— Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM-01) (@repstansbury.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 11:29 AM

SD Earth haters are in financial freefall

While the South Dakota Democratic Party is flush with cash the SDGOP is being flushed.

Response to McCook Lake flood testing local GOP loyalty

Recall that an Earth hating former governor of South Dakota built a house in a swamp that flooded resulting in a generous self-reimbursement from insurance coverage underwritten by his own company then blamed the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

That happened in 2011 to McCook Lake, too and everybody in the area knew it was going to happen again so it did in 2022. In 2022 South Dakota was tied for first place with three other horrible red states where the loss amounts from disasters likely caused with human influence a billion+ dollars in damage since 1980. North Dakota had 45 billion-dollar climate disasters since 1980 and my home state had suffered 38 and is still getting pounded. 

Despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency not having finalized flood risk the State of South Dakota aimed floodwaters at McCook Lake because Republicans know moral hazard pays the bills. Many residents lacked flood insurance when then-Governor Kristi Noem diverted the polluted Big Sioux River to McCook Lake in June then went to a campaign event in Tennessee. Now, because FEMA did not classify the area a floodplain even the mayor of North Sioux City is considering buying out people who lost their homes and the State has a $15.4 million plan to make some of that a reality.

Union County is overwhelmingly Republican but there is an exceptional amount of resentment among voters so how has county government escaped scrutiny for permitting homes around an oxbow lake with a history of flooding? 

The Ikes own most of the south end of the lake.

In the wake of the disaster, residents petitioned to overhaul the North Sioux City government. Voters replaced the eight-member alderman system with a new mayor-commission format. That allowed voters to elect an entirely new commission and mayor in one election. And in April, a new mayor and commissioners were sworn in. The state Department of Game, Fish and Parks awarded a $1 million contract to Three Oaks Inc. to remove debris and sediment from the lake, said the department’s Kip Rounds. [‘Like we don’t exist’: One year after the flood, a sense of abandonment lingers in McCook Lake]

Barker Realty updates clients on market trends

ip image: a full moon rises over Santa Fe County.

Santa Fe was just named the number one destination in the country. That is no small thing. It reflects what we already know: this is a place people want to be.

Sales activity remains strong overall, but the market is shifting beneath the surface. We are seeing clear bifurcation between high end and more affordable price points, along with increased sensitivity to pricing across the board. Homes that are well priced and well presented are still moving. Homes that are testing the market are sitting.

We do not expect demand to slow, especially with Santa Fe’s continued national visibility and lifestyle appeal. But we may see modest price adjustments as the market seeks balance.

This remains a highly sought after destination, even with all the quirks and challenges that make Santa Fe what it is. Our job, and yours, is to stay informed, stay realistic, and help clients navigate it with clarity.

Trump states are hurting

Texas and Florida truly are failed states according to WalletHub. Learn more at ProPublica.

Source: WalletHub

Civil war within SDGOP turns on Mike Rounds

Sturm und Drang have overtaken the South Dakota Republican Party and the state's junior US Senator is now a target. So delicious!

Solid SD unaffiliated conservative gubernatorial candidate would elect Sutton

ip photo: Jason Frehrichs and Heck On Wheels, Billie Sutton review the script for a skit during the 2014 Democratic SD State Convention.

It seems unlikely that interim South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden will stand for nomination in a contested primary splitting the "moderate" vote with Howdy Doody Dusty Johnson and giving the nod to Tubby Toby Doeden.

And, if the SD Earth hater state convention delegates are mostly made up of the extreme white wing of that party and forsake Marty Jackley and Lance Russell, Jon Hansen would do well as a nominee for attorney general or he could enter the governor's race as an unaffiliated candidate. 

But, veteran reporter and columnist, Kevin Woster sees hope for the South Dakota Democratic Party in the 2026 governor's race if Billie Sutton is our nominee.

A friend of mine got what he called a lengthy phone survey the other night asking if he would prefer Dusty Johnson or Billie Sutton in the 2026 governor's race. My friend said there was also a "slight mention" of Toby Doeden, basically just whether my friend would consider voting for him. The focus, though, seemed to Johnson vs. Sutton. Then, of course, there's the state of the Republican Party these days and the hard right's oversized influence come primary time. That always adds a dose of crazy to the proceedings. But if Johnson does win the primary, a Billie Sutton candidacy would certainly get Johnson's attention in the way that no other Democratic challenger could or would. [Woster, Faceberg post]

Image right: Billie Sutton and SDDP Chair Shane Merrill at McGovern Day. 

Don't forget that the SDGOP is broke and broken 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.

SoDak Dems score big win in Sioux Falls

Earth hater Diedrich croaks

Well, there's one less Republican lawyer in South Dakota. Mike Diedrich's reputation for boinking staff at Sodak Gaming was an open secret and his wife Connie suffers from the same malady as nutball, RFJ, Jr. — spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological condition that affects their voices. Mike rolled his eyes when trying to describe it to an interested party working on their ski cabin at Terry Peak.

Earth haters seem bent on crippling the People's media

When this interested party studied The White Rabbit Lantern, Jim’s Tap, The Last Step and Horatio’s at South Dakota State University in the 70s, post-Kent State and Vietnam, public radio became a loyal traveling companion and powerful vehicle for lifelong learning. But these days Brookings is simply a place where intellect goes to die because it's infested with Earth haters gutting public media in a rural red state that's depriving people living on reservations of vital links in news deserts. 

Public television and radio were created in part to be government watchdogs so a cynical observer might suspect politicians like South Dakota's junior US Senator desperately want to hide NPR's coverage of the tumult and turmoil in the Trump White House.

Another SD Earth hater announces for US House

Casey Crabtree admits that the cases of criminal trespass at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations don't even exist but ignores the fact that those operations are in fact agro-terrorists themselves but the Earth hating South Dakota legislator from Madison wants to allow eminent domain and trespass for some pipeline operators but also wants to protect CAFOs from scrutiny. 

Now he and Marty Jackley want to live in DC.

NM cannabis tax hike no big deal so far

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

Yes, with overwhelming support from Texans cannabis sales in New Mexico are nearing $2 billion since legalization and some $87 million added to the General Fund. On July 1 the NM cannabis excise tax reached 13% and will increase 1% each year until July 2030 when it will hit 18% as set in state statute.

On Tuesday an interested party paid $65 in Santa Fe for an ounce of flower containing almost 24% THC as competition weeds out the weak but a quick glance at the Native Nations Cannabis website on the Flandreau Santee Sioux Nation revealed prices four times higher than that.

According to Tax Foundation, a research think tank that tracks state and federal tax policy, the tax on gross receipts in California is 15%, 15% in Colorado and 20% in Montana. The Tax Policy Center, another think tank based in Washington, D.C., notes the state of Washington levies a 37% excise tax on cannabis sales that is paid by consumers and remitted by retailers. In Arizona, cannabis at state-regulated dispensaries is subject to a 16% excise tax. [Tax hike to squeeze New Mexico cannabis dispensaries, buyers, owners say]

In a related story, Santa Fe is ranked the best US travel destination for its natural beauty, food, and culture according to Travel + Leisure Magazine.

As readers are likely aware ip hasn't been straining under the weight of A LOT people coming here amid record traffic so thank YOU for your readership and for caring enough to follow the politics of the environment and cannabis in the Mountain West and beyond!

Pictures > words

🤬 pic.twitter.com/Oe9jPGoQRR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2025

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— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 11:23 AM

Coulter's confession is merciless

SD Earth haters lining up for primary bloodbath

And why do Earth haters like Pat Powers insist on using apostrophes (and ellipses) where they don't belong? 

Remember when SDGOP Chairman (& former 32-year Obama Democrat) Jim Eschenbaum claimed "We don’t need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate?" (..[sic] at the same time he noted they wanted to weed out RINO's [sic] from the party). I'm thinking that the party might be having some second thoughts about their chairman declaring they don't need any money. Because it appears that things are looking bad at the SDGOP in terms of what they're seeing in donations. How bad are they getting? Had this note sent to me the other day by the party through an intermediary not long after they filed receiving no donations that month other than from the treasurer on their FEC Report: Things are so bad that the party actually came crawling to me for something the party put out 2-3 years ago? That's funny! (You can about guess my reply). [Powers]

Florida man on left-wing stuff

Florida's Republican governor DeSantis on why he voted against FEMA and climate resilient infrastructure funding: “When they start talking about things like global warming, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things. We’re not doing any left-wing stuff.” #TexasFlood

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— Mindcite💥 (@mindcite.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM