Trump Organization targeting black-footed ferret for extermination

So, back in 2010 South Dakota's last Democratic Senator, Tim Johnson tried to make a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland adjacent to Badlands National Park part of the Tony Dean Wilderness Area. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) tried to revive it in 2011. Led by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit that began buying land there in 2007, sold some land in 2012 to Badlands National Park. Conata Basin is on the top ten ecotourism sites chosen by the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Center. 

The World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy teamed up with the National Park Foundation, Badlands Natural History Association, Badlands National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service Centennial Challenge fund to expand the bison range at Badlands National Park by nearly 35 square miles. Just 3 percent of the Earth’s land surface remains untouched by human development and a sixth mass extinction is underway. 

Habitat destruction, watershed ruination, native species extirpation, rampant ecocide, statewide corruption: this is today's South Dakota.

Senator Tester taking some heat after partnering with Bodnar and Palantir

After former National Security Advisor John Bolton exposed Trump as unfit Montana's Democratic former US Senator Jon Tester shared his horror at the march toward neofascism at the Grounded Podcast with Maritsa Georgiou. Tester has been a veterans advocate since before he even went to Congress but through sequestration the Earth hating Republican Party managed to cripple both the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service so GOP donors could push for privatization. 

Organic farmer Tester was instrumental in recruiting Seth Bodnar to run as an unaffiliated candidate for the US Senate and just recently accepted work as an advisor for Palantir.

"I wanted to do away with the Patriot Act because it was about privacy," Tester said. "It was about making sure that I am not being watched by anybody, including Big Brother. And by the way, I've talked to many people within Palantir. They believe the same way I do. This is an organization that believes in privacy." [NPR]

This is a pretty significant shift from just eight months ago, when the CEO appeared desperate to align his technology with GOP political strategy as a method to sap political capital away from the Trump administration’s enemies. https://mrf.lu/271ky

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— The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) November 11, 2026 at 2:16 PM

Another burn planned for BHNF

After a century of fire suppression, a decades-long moratorium on prescribed burns, a lack of environmental litigators and GOP retrenchment the Black Hills National Forest has been broken for decades. The collapse of the Black Hills hydrologic region was forecast in 2002 even as the mountain pine beetle raced to save Paha Sapa water supplies.

Look at Wyoming

It was a trouncing. Teton-area Democrats won all five partisan races on the 2026 county ballot. But leaders on both sides say there’s more to be learned from results than meets the eye. [State of Jackson: Where do Teton Republicans go from here?]

Democrats sweep more Earth haters from government in New Mexico

New Mexico GOP suffers another extinction level event as New Mexicans increasingly view it as the party of tech bros, data centers and drug traffickers. www.santafenewmexican.com/news/electio...

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— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) November 8, 2026 at 11:52 AM

Driven by a national blue wave and widespread local voter dissatisfaction with Donald Trump, New Mexico cemented its status as a Democratic stronghold. Democrats expanded their control of the New Mexico House of Representatives by ousting four incumbent Republicans, including the minority whip, successfully securing a two-thirds supermajority in the chamber. 

South Dakota will suffer brain drain for years to come and New Mexico has its own set of challenges but living where Earth haters are virtually meaningless and Democrats rule is well worth it.

Read it all here.