The Free Land Holders argued their ownership with local enforcement, saying they do not respect the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service. Their argument was based on esoteric interpretations of the U.S. Constitution, the Louisiana Purchase Treater [sic], and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Free Land Holders' methods align with the Sovereign Citizens movement, an extremist anti-government sentiment that believes the government is illegitimate. However, the Free Land Holders have claimed they are not part of the sovereign citizens movement or FLDS. [Community hosts celebration of public lands near Mancos in response to land grab attempt]Learn more at the Colorado Sun. Image: KUSA teevee.
12/20/24
Former SD FLDS compound owner sued after fencing public land in CO
12/19/24
Blogger's home town going through some things
“I have two officers over there today (Tuesday) visiting a school assembly to talk about how serious it is to say that they’re going to shoot up the school or — we take it serious,” Stanwick said. “I have zero tolerance for anything that’s said. We charge it with a terroristic threat and the paperwork goes to the state’s attorney’s office for follow through.” [Multiple Elkton school threats occupy sheriff's attention]The late South Dakota Democratic Governor Dick Kneip grew up in Elkton and my sister is a former Elkton-Lake Benton High School Spanish teacher who has been tutoring students in math with English as a second language.
12/18/24
Today in hypocrisy: GOP landowners say CO2 pipelines bad but DAPL good
A federal judge this week allowed 13 more Republican-led states to intervene as co-defendants in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s new lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “The Corps has failed to act and failed to protect the tribe,” Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire said in an October press conference announcing the lawsuit. In a separate federal court case, North Dakota seeks $38 million from the United States government for costs the state says it incurred responding to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. [13 more GOP states sign on to oppose Standing Rock Sioux in new lawsuit over DAPL]But wait, there's more!
Federal dollars are available to help Wyomingites recover from this year’s large, persistent wildfires. Some 850,000 acres burned in Wyoming this year – the majority on private lands. [State creates guide for navigating federal funds for wildfire recovery on private lands]
Irony is dead
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 18, 2024
12/17/24
EAFB propping up Mideast drug trade for Trump
In Syria, a single pill of the stimulant costs a few cents to produce. But that pill can be sold elsewhere in the Middle East—the only part of the world where captagon is a popular drug—for as much as twenty-five dollars, especially in wealthy cities such as Riyadh. Michael Kenney, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who researches the transnational drug trade, told [The New Yorker] that although the term “narco-state” is often misused, it describes Syria perfectly. Assad’s regime has become dependent on captagon, much the way Bolivia’s government relied on the cocaine trade in the early eighties, and the Taliban stayed afloat on opium revenue during the years that it was fighting U.S. forces for control of Afghanistan. Pills can be shipped overland through Jordan; sent north to Turkey, then taken by boat to their destination; or delivered to one of Syria’s ports, such as Latakia, and shipped to ports in the Red Sea. [How Syria Became the Middle East’s Drug Dealer]
Alex Gibney on "The Bibi Files," Netanyahu's Corruption Case & How Endless War Keeps Him in Power
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow.org) December 17, 2024 at 9:45 AM
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12/16/24
Today's intersection: SDLEG budget cuts and video lootery
“I think we’ve been blocked by the governor more than anything,” Erickson said. As of November 30, there were 1,398 establishments and 11,092 terminals, up from 1,363 and 10,666 the year before. State government’s general fund received $163.9 million from video lottery during the budget year that ended June 30. [Video lottery businesses plan to seek increases]Yes, the state that calls itself conservative depends on federal Social Security benefits to pay the property taxes that bankroll ecocide and pay the bulk of South Dakota's bills while video lootery drives poor residents even further into despair.
Our governor is proposing public tax dollars paid by us property owners to be used to pay for tuition at private Christian schools. This appears to “prefer religion over non-religion,” and should be challenged by our lawmakers in Pierre. However, if the government prefers to route our property tax dollars to Christian schools, those churches affiliated with these schools should be taxed. [Gov. Kristi Noem disregards constitutional principles]Mrs. Noem is presiding over spikes in childhood obesity, violent crime, record suicide rates, homelessness, acute hunger, mass incarceration, coverups and a poisoned environment. There are no checks on executive power, the governor's cronies routinely raid the state's general fund, teachers' salaries surf the bottom of the US, wage slavery is the state's biggest claim to fame so corruption and graft have become ordinary even as residents spend less forcing budget cuts.
Yes, the grassland fire danger index will reach the very high category again Monday for much of the red moocher state.
12/14/24
Pike with two heads reportedly caught in Black Hills lake
12/12/24
South Dakota 51st in elder protections: WalletHub
Congress and the Biden administration put enhanced federal #HealthInsurance subsidies in place in 2021. But that extra help is set to expire in 2025, potentially subjecting millions of people to higher premiums, reports @stateline.org of @statesnewsroom.com .
— South Dakota Searchlight (@southdakotasearchlight.com) December 12, 2024 at 8:15 AM
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12/11/24
Ikes trumped Noem after McCook Lake flooding
Renae Hansen, the Chapter’s caretaker, had been monitoring the weather and water levels. Once it became clear the flood was going to be catastrophic, she used Facebook Live to keep the community up to date. And she would continue to work at the hub of a makeshift—but effective—emergency response system in the absence of a state or local agency that could immediately help. Hansen says it was four days before the Red Cross provided assistance and five days before the South Dakota Office of Emergency Management got involved. [Ikes in Action: "A Beacon of Aid" in a Time of Crisis: McCook Lake Chapter Steps in to Help a Flood-Ravaged Community]My great-grandfather Ulysses Kretsinger donated about seven acres to the local Ikes chapter who built their clubhouse above Medary Creek about two hundred feet from our farmhouse near Elkton. Maybe the Ikes' most ambitious achievement was the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 that's now at risk to Kristi Noem's Earth hating political party.
By the way, this was from NOAA's critical Arctic Report Card, so here's a reminder of what the soon-to-be-running-the-government authors of Project 2025 want to do with that agency
— Dave Levitan (@davelevitan.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 12:34 PM
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12/9/24
Native kids still slipping through education cracks
Schools also must navigate distrust dating back to the U.S. government's campaign to break up Native American culture, language and identity by forcing children into abusive boarding schools. Algodones Elementary School, located about midway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, has made progress in earning some trust from families and students. The school serves a handful of Native American pueblos along New Mexico's Upper Rio Grande. About 95% of Algodones' students are Native American, and the school strives to affirm their identity. It doesn't open on four days set aside for Native American ceremonial gatherings, and students are excused for absences on other cultural days as designated by the nearby pueblos. One Algodones parent, Jennifer Tenorio, told the AP that one huge difference is that the school offers classes in the family’s native language of Keres. She said it’s helped her son to feel more connected to his tribal culture while simultaneously being more inspired at school. [Chronic Absenteeism at Indigenous Schools]Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish in South Dakota schools? Sure, that's cool; but learning where students are steeped in Native languages is giving the next generation of Indigenous people opportunities to preserve their heritage. And, in South Dakota white evangelicals steal money slated for American Indian education and murder their families when the jig is up then place a complicit attorney general at the head of the investigation.
In South Dakota, the chronic absenteeism rate for Indigenous students was 54% in 2022-23, significantly higher than the state average of 21%. That differential was the largest of the 34 states included in the AP data. State data shows that 68% of Native American public school students complete high school, compared to the state average of 91%. [Native absenteeism challenges SD educators: 'There's no silver bullet']In a related story, an Earth hating US Senator is blocking a bill that would preserve the Wounded Knee memorial so a tribe trapped in North Carolina can gain federal recognition and open a casino – but the irony is dizzying in its hypocrisy.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions and Historic Progress Supporting Tribal Nations and Native Communities Ahead of Fourth Annual White House Tribal Nations Summit. indianz.com/News/2024/12...
— IllumiNative (@illuminative.bsky.social) December 9, 2024 at 8:48 AM
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12/8/24
Gaia poised to cleanse parts of South Dakota?
12/7/24
Prairie pothole region doomed to Earth hating Republicans, socialized ag
The loss of wetlands is particularly concerning for waterfowl populations, especially in the Prairie Pothole Region, often referred to as North America’s “duck factory.” This region, which spans much of northeastern South Dakota, is one of the most important breeding grounds for ducks. The small, shallow, seasonal wetlands are critical nesting habitats teaming with the bugs ducklings consume. Yet, these same wetlands are among the most vulnerable to drainage for agricultural purposes. And pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can kill wetland bugs. [‘Wild places are worth fighting for’: Concern grows for receding South Dakota wetlands]It's not just the Northern Plains at risk to Republicans the Ogallala or High Plains Aquifer is being depleted six and a half times faster than its recharge rate and nearly all the groundwater sampled from it is contaminated with uranium and nitrates from industrial agriculture.
Scientists still do not know how many wetlands lost protection in last year’s crippling of the Clean Water Act by #SCOTUS. A study in @ScienceMagazine said the range of possible protection loss is between a fifth of nontidal wetlands to nearly all of them. https://t.co/b6yd9rkGpb
— Union of Concerned Scientists (@UCSUSA) October 26, 2024
In a recent episode of "This American Land" from @PBS, John Devney, Chief Policy Officer of Delta Waterfowl, discusses the importance of preserving shallow wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region for waterfowl populations.https://t.co/nPt84Ij2OX
— Delta Waterfowl (@DeltaWaterfowl) October 17, 2024
12/5/24
Bill Janklow's idea of public broadcasting in Noem's crosshairs
The per capita rate for South Dakota can be higher because the population is lower in South Dakota than other states. It’s also more costly to provide service in rural areas and much of South Dakota is rural, Howlett said. The $5.5 million from the state covers the engineers and infrastructure needed to operate and maintain the 23 TV and radio stations as well as the towers, Howlett said. Also in danger is the daily coverage of meetings during each legislative session. Howlett said then-Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard established this program to provide media coverage independent of any state agency to serve as a watchdog. [SDPB says Noem’s cut would put programming at risk]Within the New Apostolic Reformation, dominion theology supposes christians must control the seven “mountains” of government, education, media, arts and entertainment, religion, family, and business in order to establish a global christianic theocracy and prepare the world for Jesus’ return.
Pages 246–248 of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership outline its scheme to end the status of NPR and Pacifica radio stations as “noncommercial education stations,” moving them from the desirable low end of the radio spectrum so religious programming can replace the prime 88 to 92 FM frequencies. [Project 2025’s threat to public media must be resisted]Mrs. Noem is up to her areolae in this stuff. Recall that in 2022 she refused an invitation to debate Democratic contender Jamie Smith on SDPB because it appeals to smart voters instead of to her base of boorish boneheads.
The Governor's budget address has recommended what amounts to deep cuts to South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s budget, amounting to a 65% decrease in our state budget allocation.https://t.co/N7ZPT85aT2
— SDPB (@SoDakPB) December 4, 2024
12/4/24
He Sapa Restoration Act could be introduced next year
The bill would not affect the titles of private lands. Though those lands would be cataloged as part of the land identification process, they would remain in possession of the title holders. As drafted, the act does not relinquish any existing claims for treaty land and seeks to establish a pathway for land return to tribes. The group will fine-tune the draft over the next few months and seek sponsors. Philimon Two Eagle, Sicangu Lakota, attended on behalf of the Sicangu Treaty Council. Two Eagle, the council’s executive director, said the treaty council decided not to support the legislation over concerns it would diminish the original treaties and be dead on arrival. “We want these people to vacate our land. There is no such thing as land back. Vacate these lands,” Two Eagle said. [Native leaders draft bill to regain some of sacred Black Hills]Colorado's mineral extraction industries have effectively stolen over $500 billion from the Apache of Oklahoma, Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Comanche, Kiowa, Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, Shoshone, Ute Tribe of Utah, Southern Ute, and Ute Mountain Ute. Under the 1906 Antiquities Act and the America the Beautiful initiative President Joe Biden has moved to create the 400,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Country National Monument in Mesa and Montrose counties in Colorado but imagine the blowback if Pres. Biden remands that land back to the Ute Nation.
Last month I caught up with leaders from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe about their 8 year battle against DAPL https://t.co/L3yT0SdzXT
— Amelia Schafer (@ameliaschafers) December 4, 2024
12/2/24
Better late than never Bidenomics producing results
The region’s overall reading for November climbed to a soft 50.2 from October’s very weak 35.2. It was the highest reading since July of last year. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with a reading of 50.0 representing growth neutral. According to trade data from the International Trade Association, regional exports of agriculture goods and livestock for 2024 year-to-date climbed to $8.73 billion from $8.64 billion from the same period in 2023, for growth of 1.1%. Goss and Bill McQuillan, former Chairman of the Independent Community Banks of America, created the monthly economic survey and launched it in January 2006. [Rural Mainstreet Economy Soars to Highest Level in 15 Months]A cynical observer might suspect bankers provided gloomy outlooks to the Index for at least five months 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 to massage auction price points.
Trump, competing technologies are dooming Earth, oil and gas downwind states
Laura Swiler, a senior scientist at Sandia, developed an algorithm that could take an observed aerosol plume from any source — say, a volcanic eruption, or a large wildfire — and look backward in time to estimate its size and point of origin. It’s a hard problem, Dr. Swiler said, because “the aerosol plume is moving.” [The U.S. Is Building an Early Warning System to Detect Geoengineering]In New Mexico's Second Congressional District the oil and gas industry operators in the Permian Basin just abandon hundreds of orphan wells leaving the state and feds to do the work to cap them. Some eighty percent of the world's oil transactions are priced in dollars subject to enforcement actions by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. But we all know Texas is a failed state. From wildfires to being the 50th freest state to enriching New Mexico's cannabis retailers to gas pipeline explosions to hurricanes: the Lone Star State is in turmoil.
The wind carries the faint perfume of hydrocarbons — hints of plastic, hints of glue, hints of gasoline — picked up as it crosses the most productive portion of the most productive oilfield in the country, the Permian Basin. As the wind blows north, the dust and chemicals turn the morning sky from a light blue to a hazy white. In a couple of hours the air will carry the sizzling tang of ozone, eyes will burn, lungs will ache, and distant landmarks will lose their detail and filter into shades of light gray. It envelops passing cars with a potent vapor that smells like a mix of fingernail polish and paint thinner. The resident of the nearest house, which sits about 1,000 feet away, wouldn’t talk about the oil well next door. [The EPA Stalled and Then a Fix for New Mexico Oil and Gas Pollution Evaporated]Disadvantaged populations have been subject to environmental racism for decades and in 2014 Nobel Prize winner, Professor Paul Krugman warned Americans that Earth haters want to destroy America.
12/1/24
Forest Service, BLM about to revisit Trump's bad old days
The woman who headed the Santa Fe National Forest during the largest wildfire in New Mexico history and was given a temporary assignment in the aftermath of the devastating blaze will remain in Washington, D.C. Former supervisor Debbie Cress, who headed the Santa Fe National Forest for about a year and a half, has taken a permanent position with the U.S. Forest Service office in Washington, D.C. [Santa Fe National Forest supervisor not coming back to N.M.]Some New Mexico ski areas opened after recent heavy snows and the aspen bowl above Santa Fe was white while everything that is covered in pine and spruce was dark.
When the Rio Gallinas flooded this June, a deluge of ash and chemicals used in fire retardants ran down Hermit’s Peak into the Rio Gallinas watershed, causing high turbidity in the drinking water in Las Vegas, New Mexico. In fact, the dreaded words “historic” and “unprecedented” were used to describe the wind in the spring of 2022 — which is to say, the Forest Service fucked up very specifically. Setting the stage were decades of settler-colonizer fire suppression practices, along with the rapid warming of the planet, creating a tinderbox of trees and undergrowth dead or brittle from disease, bark beetles, not enough water and too much heat. [The aftermath of the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Fires]Current BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning was selected as President of The Wilderness Society as the incoming administration threatens the agency's health again.
11/29/24
Donald Trump scares the hell out of Gary Johnson, too
"Half of what Trump does is good, the other half is crazy. Sure, I've got concerns just like everybody else does. He's gonna get elected, he's gonna be in office. He's that same [age.] I mean, here it is—this is what we're talking about, and there are legitimate concerns. I didn't vote for him. I think Trump has alienated a lot of Republicans, I'm one of them. Having been governor for two terms, what I recognize is, [when] you're the party nominee, you control the party." [Who's Gary Johnson Voting For?]In a related story, failed and pathetically old like Trump, NMGOP chairman Steve Pearce is not running for reelection.
The fight for the legalization of marijuana continues this election.https://t.co/3sD76Z2qnE
— Gov. Gary Johnson (@GovGaryJohnson) November 1, 2024
11/27/24
Today's intersection: Hag, sheriff sideways over constitution
“It’s just scary how this misinformation can be put out there,” he said. Hageman painted a different picture in her newsletter. “My team learned just last week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently conducted an operation in Teton County,” Hageman said in an email sent out to constituents. But Carr said his office does cooperate with ICE and pointed to ICE’s procedures — particularly skipping a judge’s signature — as a key problem with “detainer” requests. “If they get a judge’s signature, I will hold them all day, every day,” Carr said. “We still operate under the Constitution of the United States of America, and I think that’s something that should resonate with Hageman’s office.” [Hageman alleges Teton County sheriff's 'foiling ICE's efforts']Red states should be careful what they're wishing for.
“Perhaps someone owns a painting company .. They’ve got a competitor they hate. Simply call up your local ‘Constitutional Sheriff,’ .. let them know that your opponent is employing migrants. In comes the Army .. Even if it’s all fake.” @fpwellman.bsky.social fpwellman.substack.com/p/mass-depor...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 12:12 PM
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11/26/24
All dressed up but now what?
Just weeks before Donald Trump led his attempted autogolpe Stewart Rhodes was inciting the Oath Keepers to civil war. Rhodes formed the white supremacist militia in 2009 after Barack Obama was elected POTUS but is now serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy for his role in Trump's insurrection.Not that anyone’s going to do anything about it, but it might be good to remember that, as an adjudicated oath-breaking insurrectionist, Mr.Trump is constitutionally disqualified under Sec. 3 of 14th Am from taking the oath as president on 1/20/25 unless 2/3 of both houses lift the disqualification
— Laurence H. Tribe (@tribelaw.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 4:46 AM
"If we have 50 members, where are they?" a woman named Cathy asked the group. The disappointment that night has been expressed in interviews over the past six months with current and former Tactical Civics members who spoke to the Montana State News Bureau for this series. Travis McAdam, with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said historically such groups have lost momentum during Republican presidential terms. After Jan. 6 and the resulting prosecutions, those networks were decimated, sending mobilization efforts back to the local and regional levels with plans to rebrand themselves as forces for good, McAdam said. ['The Heat’s Off': Will Trump's next presidency stall Tactical Civics growth in Montana?]In Wyoming members of the so-called Freedom Caucus are preparing to crash the legislative session in Cheyenne so maybe that's the next storm front of the End Times.
11/25/24
Today's intersection: the Corps, the courts and property rights under Trump's Project 2025
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday sided with Summit Carbon Solutions in an appeal filed by a Hardin County landowner who has fought the company from gaining access to his property to conduct a survey ahead of the construction of a carbon pipeline. The South Dakota Supreme Court recently ruled that surveys or examinations of property that included more than minimal soil disturbance were not allowed. [Iowa Supreme Court Sides With Summit]Yes, the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife Service are within the Executive Branch and as Commander in Chief the president could simply order the Corps and all to stand down with or without involving an activist Supreme Court of the United States dooming private property rights to utilities that aren't your friends.
After the Trumpians take power and begin to break things, when everyday people start to notice disruptions and negative impacts, will the propaganda machines ensure that the blame is placed not on the current admin, but on liberals and leftists, trans people and immigrants, academics and activists?
— Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 5:00 PM
11/24/24
Today's intersection is the last best continental divide
Tactical Civics, founded in Texas by retired engineer David Zuniga, seeks to establish so-called citizen grand juries in each county across the United States, telling its followers that they have the power, ordained by God through the U.S. Constitution, to initiate criminal charges against government officials they deem corrupt. In his book, "Grand Jury Awake," Zuniga deems the official story of 9/11 attack as "ludicrous" and past Democratic presidents to be "conductors" for Satan in a spiritual war against Americans. In the sequel title calling for members to form county militias, Zuniga writes that Tactical Civics will develop a training program, to prepare them to act as law enforcement for the county grand jury and, eventually, dispatch them to observe ballot counting. [Rewind: How Tactical Civics ideology traces the Montana Freemen blueprint]Since this interested party left Montana in 2011 three Earth haters have moved into the state for every two Democrats making it ripe for another Copper King era.
It’s not quite the same as the Copper Kings — who at their peak controlled elected officials from both major parties — but Democrats see parallels. “What do they say — history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes,” said Monica Tranel, the defeated Democratic candidate in a western Montana House district. “It is very evocative of what happened in the early 1900s. It’s very much a time of change and turmoil and who has a voice.” Driving the growth are transplants from western states dominated by Democrats, especially California, where more than 85,000 Montana residents originated, or about 7.5% of the population, Census data shows. Almost half of Montana residents were born out of state. [An influx of outsiders and money turns Montana Republican, culminating in a Senate triumph]
11/21/24
Commercial teevee created Trump: part n
Television has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of rational public discourse and reasoned public affairs. In this eloquent, persuasive book, Neil Postman alerts us to the real and present dangers of this state of affairs, and offers compelling suggestions as to how to withstand the media onslaught. Before we hand over politics, education, religion, and journalism to the show business demands of the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media shape our lives and the ways we can, in turn, shape them to serve out highest goals. [Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business]College graduates make up 43% of the electorate and 55% voted for Vice President Harris while 56% of voters without degrees voted for Trump because Generation X is a disease.
When anyone over 45 stops to ask themselves how TF did we get to a point where a cancelled TV game show host, who is wildly unfit for the office of dog catcher, much less a SECOND term as president got elected, Neil Postman tried to warn us decades ago.
— Darick (@darickr.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:14 AM
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