Gaia still targeting horrible red state

Update, 7 February: critical fire weather in overwhelmingly Republican counties again.

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Because of Republican failures Gaia is targeting parts of South Dakota.

Trump's popularity in the shitter

Trump job approval rating by news platform 🟢 Twitter/X: +9 🔴 Facebook: -7 🔴 Cable TV: -10 🔴 Podcasts/YouTube: -14 🔴 Local TV: -17 🔴 Instagram: -21 🔴 Broadcast TV: -28 🔴 TikTok: -28 🔴 Newspapers/news sites: -33 🔴 Reddit: -40 www.theargumentmag.com/p/twitter-is...

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— Poll Tracker 📊 (@polltracker.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 6:10 AM

Google AI on Epstein's South Dakota ties

Updated 6 February, 1624 MST. Minutes before he was driven from the White House Herr Trump in 2021 pardoned Maria Butina's lover, Paul Erickson after his conviction for wire fraud and money laundering likely at at Kristi Noem's request. Erickson's indictment, his relationship with Butina, his efforts to establish backchannel communications with the National Rifle Association and MAGA conservatives smothering the Epstein connection. Butina was deported for being a Russian agent.

Recent investigations and a massive Department of Justice (DOJ) document release in February 2026 have provided the most detailed look yet at Jeffrey Epstein’s secretive financial network.

South Dakota’s Role as a Financial Hub

South Dakota served as a critical domestic hub for Epstein due to its unique trust laws that prioritize secrecy and asset protection.  

High Concentration: Investigations revealed Epstein utilized the state to hold 81 different trusts, more than any other U.S. jurisdiction in his network.

Legal Shielding: These "SoDa" trusts allowed for high levels of privacy, no state income tax, and protection from creditors, effectively creating a "secret web" that made it difficult for victims to trace his domestic assets.

Perpetual Secrecy: South Dakota law mandates that court records regarding trusts are sealed forever, preventing public scrutiny.

Asset Protection: The state allows for "self-settled spendthrift trusts," which protect assets from creditors and legal judgments, making it exceptionally difficult for victims to trace or recover funds.

"Quiet" Trust Laws: These laws allow a grantor to withhold all information about a trust from its own beneficiaries, even after the grantor's death.

Tax Shielding: South Dakota has no state income tax, no capital gains tax, and has repealed the "rule against perpetuities," allowing for "dynasty trusts" that never expire.

Current Estate Status (2026)

Fluctuating Value: Initially valued at $630 million, the estate has dropped significantly due to legal fees, taxes, and restitution. As of late 2025, it held approximately $120 million to $131 million in assets, bolstered by a $112 million tax refund from the IRS. 

Victim Compensation: The estate has paid out $121 million to over 135 victims through a compensation fund, plus an additional $49 million in separate settlements.

Distribution Freeze: No funds from the 1953 Trust will be disbursed to beneficiaries until all creditor claims and victim compensation obligations are fully resolved.

The 1953 Trust & New Beneficiary Details

The "1953 Trust," named for Epstein's birth year, was a "pour-over" trust signed just 48 hours before his death to shield his assets from public view and legal claims. Newly unsealed records list 43 beneficiaries:

Karyna Shuliak (Primary Beneficiary): Epstein’s girlfriend at the time, a Belarus-born dentist, was allocated $100 million ($50 million in cash and a $50 million annuity). She was also designated to inherit his real estate holdings, including his private islands and Manhattan mansion, plus a 33-carat diamond ring given "in contemplation of marriage".

Ghislaine Maxwell & Mark Epstein: Both were designated to receive $10 million each.

Darren Indyke & Richard Kahn: His longtime lawyer and accountant, who serve as co-executors, were slated to receive $50 million and $25 million, respectively.

Other Associates: Harvard math professor Martin Nowak was listed for $5 million.

Outlaw obesity in South Dakota

If Republicans really want to end women's health care decisions state government should outlaw obesity and encourage businesses like airlines and taxi services to charge more for obese people. Food stores would have scales at tills that add surcharges according to body mass index, businesses with buffets would have scales, too and anyone with a BMI over 23 will pay an additional $1.00 for every whole number above that. Gas stations would have scales that determine price per gallon according to BMI unless you have documentation in your debit/credit card updated by your physician that you’re on a weight reduction regimen and Mr. Trump's health guru, Mr. Kennedy, apparently concurs.

Groups warn of ag sector collapse

Since at least 2017 Creighton University's Ernie Goss has been warning that the Trump Organization is bad for American agriculture.

Late 2025 marked the most severe three-month cost-price gap for U.S. agricultural producers since 2015, driven by soaring production costs and lower commodity returns.  

Key findings from the USDA data and analysis:

• Deepening Deficit: October 2025 was the worst month in over a decade for the cost-price spread.
• Worst 3-Month Period: The final quarter of 2025 saw record-breaking gaps, with October (-34.1), December (-32.2), and November (-27.9) being the most severe.
• Long-term Trend: This is not a new issue; farmers have faced a cost-price deficit in every single month since at least January 2015.
• Production Costs vs. Revenue: In late 2025, production costs reached a point where they were 50% higher than in 2011, while prices received for crops and livestock were only 21% higher.
• Contributing Factors: High input costs (fuel, fertilizer,, labor) combined with reduced commodity prices (e.g., corn falling from $7 to closer to $4 per bushel) are forcing difficult financial decisions for farmers.

So, a cynical observer might suspect bankers provided gloomy outlooks to the Rural Mainstreet Index for the last five months of the Biden administration especially in midwestern swing states to sink Democratic Party prospects in 2024 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 to massage auction price points. 

Data from December 2024 indicated that the average South Dakota household needed to spend approximately $191 more per month to maintain the same standard of living as the previous year, with cumulative costs since January 2021 being significantly higher, particularly for transportation, shelter, and food. Factors like tariffs have complicated anti-inflation efforts, and some sectors, such as the cattle industry, are experiencing higher costs. South Dakota experienced a 2.8% headline inflation rate in August 2025, with core inflation (excluding food and energy) at 3.0%.

A bipartisan group of former leaders of America's major agricultural commodity associations and biofuels organizations, farmer leaders, and former senior USDA officials sent congressional ag leaders a letter on Tuesday warning about the deteriorating state of the farm economy, stating there is a risk of "widespread collapse of American agriculture." The letter comes as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer (AEB) Index fell in January. [DTN/Progressive Farmer]

Yes, the grassland fire danger index will reach the very high category again Thursday for much of the horrible red state of South Dakota.

Earth hater Johnson breaks with Trump Organization

South Dakota Republican Party 

20h · 

Rep. Dusty Johnson is spot on with this one. “The reality is we’re $38 trillion in debt,” Johnson said. “We are in the process of going bankrupt. Now is not the time for us to borrow more money from the Chinese so we can send out $2,000 checks to every American.”

Absolutely agree, Congressman. We're already drowning in debt—over $38 trillion and climbing fast—and adding more borrowing (especially from China, our biggest foreign creditor) to fund another round of checks is fiscal insanity.

Tariff revenue should go toward paying down the debt or reducing deficits, not handing out short-term "dividends" that just kick the can further down the road. We need real spending restraint and growth-focused policies, not more stimulus that fuels inflation and piles on interest payments crushing future generations.

Thanks for speaking plain truth on this, Rep. Dusty Johnson. Time to get serious about the debt before it's too late.

Gaia targets Republican ranch country...again

Eastern Fall River-
Including the cities of Oral, Oelrichs, and Smithwick
327 AM MST Sun Feb 1 2026

...HIGH FIRE DANGER...

The grassland fire danger index will reach the high category this
afternoon. Unfavorable weather conditions and low moisture 
content of grasses, and other dry organic material on the ground,
indicate that there is high potential for a fire to spread. 
Outdoor burning should be restricted to early morning 
or evening hours when wind speeds are usually lower and the 
relative humidity is higher.

The outlook for Monday afternoon, The grassland fire danger index
will reach the very high category. 

Public lands management at risk to Trump's Earth haters

In 2002 Tracy Stone-Manning lectured on the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act or NREPA at the University of Montana where she earned her Masters of Science in Environmental Studies. In 2007 she became an aide to Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) then ran the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and in 2014 became chief of staff for Montana Governor Steve Bullock. As Director of the Clark Fork Coalition she guided dam removal and river cleanup and has been co-chair of Missoula's Open Space, Rivers and Farmland. 

After serving as Director of the US Bureau of Land Management she is now president of The Wilderness Society as the Trump Organization ruins the BLM and the US Forest Service faces the collapse of morale and preparedness.

The management structure itself is a tangle. Interior manages parks, refuges, and BLM lands. The Forest Service sits in Agriculture. Marine sanctuaries fall under Commerce. Energy authority is split across agencies. This fragmentation leaves land managers trying to solve twenty-first century problems with twentieth- and even nineteenth-century machinery. That kind of gridlock still plagues decisions across the West. Layer climate change on top of all this—megafires, water scarcity, shifting wildlife corridors—and the mismatch between current laws and present realities becomes even sharper. When the smoke clears, much of the architecture underpinning public-lands management will be in ruins. [Stone-Manning, What I Learned Running the BLM]

Democratic former South Dakota lawmaker Troy Heinert is currently serving as the Chief of Bison Management at Interior focusing on tribal buffalo restoration, returning the National Mammal to the land and working with tribal leadership and conservation groups who are advancing buffalo stewardship. 

In vindictive retribution and a slap at Native America Trump has nominated New Mexico Earth hater, Steve Pearce to run the BLM but his confirmation is hung up in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee because of bipartisan concern that he's a destructive industry apparatchik.

Rewild the West.