Addictive personality disease?
Ok. I had a cocaine problem, 22 years in recovery. Pete Hegseth is high. I remember that fidgeting, that sweating, all of it. He needs drug tested. https://t.co/dr3tDcMqa3
— Chef Joe Gera ๐ณ️๐๐ณ️⚧️๐ฎ๐น (@redhotnerd) August 12, 2026
Robert Burns is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Dean Emeritus of the Honors College at South Dakota State University. His column appears in the Brookings Beacon.
Much is being made of a progressive proposal for “Medicare for all” as we approach the 2026 midterm elections.
There are variations of exactly what the proposal entails but agreement exists among supporters that healthcare would continue to be delivered as a combination of private and public providers — but a single public payer system would be created to pay for the healthcare goods and services provided.
Critics argue the proposal is far too radical and expensive. Proponents argue it is a reasonable proposal in response to the healthcare issue which the American public identifies as the third-leading public issue in American politics.The American healthcare issue is identified by the public and policy makers as a multipart issue involving high cost, limited access and poor results.
Annual healthcare spending in the U.S. is nearly $5.3 trillion and accounts for approximately 18.5% of our nation’s GDP. The per capita spending is approximately $15,600.
Both the total spending and the per capita spending levels are nearly twice that of all other democratic industrialized nations, all of which provide some version of public, universal and comprehensive healthcare for the citizenry.
The high cost of healthcare in the U.S. is traceable to multiple factors including the fact that the industry employees state of the art expensive technology and high-salaried professionals. Other factors accounting for high costs include the lack of price visibility and regulations for drugs, devices and procedures, the fee for service practice and the high administrative costs associated with administering a tangled web of scores of private and public health insurance plans.
Our highest level of global healthcare spending fails to provide the highest level of access and the best healthcare results. Access is limited by several obstacles including lack of personal funds and insurance, rural medical provider shortages, insurance restrictions on care, and lingering social and racial disparities.
The most recent government reports identify nearly 9% of the American public or approximately 28 million persons lack healthcare insurance of any type and that number is expected to increase by nearly 3.5 million during this calendar year because of Affordable Care Act insurance premium subsides being eliminated and federal funding for Medicaid being reduced by $800 million due to the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The lack of coverage is not spread evenly across the public. Nearly 30% of households with incomes below $25,000 per year lack health insurance which explains in part why our low-income public suffer disproportionately worse health conditions. Children have a high level of health insurance coverage with approximately 5.6% being uninsured while nearly 12% of the adult public between 18 and 64 years old have no health insurance.
Our nation’s public, 65 years old and older, enjoy the highest level of coverage due to Medicare.
High costs and an inability to afford the high costs limits access to quality care which leads to poor healthcare results in the U.S. Our life expectancy, infant mortality rates, chronic illness rates and the number of avoidable deaths all compare unfavorably with statistics and rates found in other democratic industrialized nations. The American lifestyle and a lack of emphasis on preventive health along with limited access discussed above all contribute to our poor healthcare results.
Nothing discussed above is new to our list of public issues. We have been faced with these same healthcare realities for decades, yet our policy makers bring us only incremental change. We find some satisfaction in Medicaid and Medicare approved in the mid-1960s, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program that followed and the 2010 Affordable Care Act but the healthcare issues outlined in this essay persist. Under the current Trump Administration and the Republican controlled Congress, funding and regulation regression has been the direction of policy change in healthcare giving us even higher costs, more limited access and poorer results. Perhaps it is the right time for a leap beyond incremental change in the form of Medicare for all.
A single integrated, regulated and funded healthcare payer system promises universal access, more efficient spending of our healthcare dollars and results competitive with the rest of our democratic industrialized cohort nations. Over 30 modern democracies have proven public funded and regulated universal and comprehensive healthcare is a more efficient and effective use of healthcare spending.
Those who insist the proposal is a radical version of socialized medicine are invited to advance a better alternative model of healthcare that will address our current challenges of high cost, restricted access and poor results.
The status quo promises more of the same.
Two bikers died in separate crashes that occurred about 15 minutes apart on Monday. C'mon, South Dakota, you can send even more Republicans home to Jesus so just try harder!
Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said other states and tribal nations are looking to mirror its approach — including Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut and California, where tribal cannabis is restricted to reservation lands. Waabigwan Mashkiki, translating to “flower medicine” in Ojibwe, can barely keep up with demand as it expands operations in Mahnomen and opens retail stores across the state. Now seven tribally owned stores have opened outside of tribal land. The compacts allow each tribe to operate up to eight. [Minnesota Star-Tribune]The closest dispensaries to the horrible red state of South Dakota are in Pipestone and Luverne, Minnesota.
Sturgis has already killed twelve Republicans as the medical and law enforcement industries are cutting fat hogs!
Julian Beaudion became a statesman today so odds are the US Senate race in South Dakota just pegged from safe Earth hater to toss-up!
It looks like South Dakota's Earth hating governor will get another opportunity to beg the Trump Organization for more federal moola with the Bigly Fire is burning near Pactola Lake.
Yep, so what’s not to like about six or seven month winters, a year-round wildfire season, rampant racism, chilling effects on civil rights, an extremist legislature, a repressive law enforcement industry, living in a chemical toilet, sacrifice zone, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area?
Two adult black bears and two cubs were found dead Wednesday morning along Interstate 25 about five miles south of Santa Fe on Alamo Creek. A New Mexico Department of Wildlife conservation officer was dispatched to a site between La Cienega and La Bajada following a report to New Mexico State Police about the dead bears. The Los Alamos-based newsletter Boomtown documented 72 calls to county officials reporting nuisance bears in the first six months of 2026 before reporting bear break-ins earlier this month. [Santa Fe New Mexican]
On July 24, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened an unusually brief, 14-day public-comment period seeking information about how it manages agricultural drainage pipes—a type of perforated pipe called drain tile—installed near federally protected wetlands. Comments are due August 7. But the information request appears to be the opening move in a process that could weaken protections for more than 28,000 conservation easements covering over 1.5 million acres in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Simply put: drain tile installed too close to a prairie pothole would effectively drain that wetland and eliminate waterfowl and wildlife habitat.
If the government now permits drainage systems close enough to starve them of water, the easements may survive on paper while the wetlands themselves quietly vanish—and much of America’s migratory ducks, geese, and other water birds along with them. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering repealing the rule that protects the integrity of the Duck Stamp easements that have been purchased for generations.” [A Quiet Rule Review Could Drain the Prairie Pothole Region, America’s “Duck Factory”]Learn more at South Dakota Searchlight.
The Order of the Presentation opened St. Mary’s in Elkton where I attended grade school but the nuns were from the Dominican and Benedictine Orders, too. They were Commies who taught us Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Puff, the Magic Dragon.
The July RMI for South Dakota declined to 43.4 from 54.7 in June. The state’s farm and ranchland price index decreased to 55.0 from June’s 57.7. [Rural Mainstreet Index Plummets for July]
This interested party asked Taneeza Islam, Clint Sargent, Tim Rensch and Alison Ramsdell to run for South Dakota Attorney General. I also asked the Libertarian Party of South Dakota to reconvene and nominate Matt Kinney for SDAG. They have until 11 August to run someone against Earth hater Lance Russell.
The death penalty is always an inhumane and inappropriate punishment. I pray that South Dakota joins the many other states that respect the dignity of life by ending the death penalty — in particular for those with severe mental illnesses. [YOURS: Death row no place for mentally ill]A state-ordered lethal injection isn't criminal justice; it's suicide by cop but Hell is life in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
In the autumn of 2007, Piper was teaching himself Spanish and asked the priest who was doing prison ministry at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, where Piper was serving his sentence, if he knew anyone willing to practice the language with him by phone. The priest called Caminando Juntos, a ministry serving immigrants in Sioux Falls, and Presentation Sr. Gabriella Crowley volunteered. Court records show that Piper had sought to introduce new expert evidence concerning possible brain damage, extensive childhood trauma and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which he argued could have affected his reasoning, impulse control and ability to form intentions at the time of the crime, when he was 19. No execution date has been set yet, although South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said after the May ruling that an execution could take place in late 2026. [He pleaded guilty to murder. As he awaits execution, Catholic supporters say he's changed.]A federal judge in Minnesota just sentenced murderer Vance Boelter to two life sentences plus forty years for the assassinations of Melissa and Mark Hortman.
Due to the shifting ground, the Casey Tibbs Foundation says areas outside of designated pathways may present safety hazards. Public safety is their highest priority, so they ask that all visitors stay on designated sidewalks and walkways while on the property and visit only during normal business hours. Conditions are being monitored around the clock. [Sliding hillside poses potential problem to Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center in Fort Pierre; Foundation Board says it’s not an imminent threat at this time]Stretches of I-94 in North Dakota crossing directly through Pierre Shale subgrades routinely encounter severe buckling, specifically around Bismarck, Mandan, and Menoken.
In 2018 KSA Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi who was investigating the Trump Organization and Jared Kushner's blood money infusions.
A unanimous Brookings City Council vote to buy downtown land at 210 Front St. for $450,000 drew public skepticism during the council’s July 14 meeting, even as city leaders defended the purchase as a critical piece of a larger economic puzzle. The land in question is just southwest of the facility shared by the Brookings fire and police departments and is situated near the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern railroad tracks. A grain elevator is housed on the property and the city owns the land east of 210 Front St. as well. [City’s land purchase draws pushback in Brookings]
The subtext: ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ.Until recently the Lawrence County “Natural Resources Committee” was called the “timber committee”. To the best of our knowledge, since the name change a few years ago, they have not addressed any resource except timber.Since 2011, science has repeatedly shown that logging on the Black Hills National Forest is unsustainable.๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐พ๐ค๐ช๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐ก ๐๐๐จ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐๐๐จ ๐พ๐ค๐ข๐ข๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ค๐ง๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ช๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ฅ๐ง๐๐จ๐จ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐ฃ๐๐ง๐๐๐จ๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ "๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ง๐๐๐จ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐จ๐ฉ". In addition to the widely available information about the depletion trend of saw logs, the committee has disregarded the resulting consequences to aesthetics, habitat, wildfire risk, and how the pressure they exert on the Forest Service to cut down big trees will run the timber industry out of business for lack of suitable trees for logging.By our calculations, within 6 years at the current pace of logging, the Lawrence County Natural Resources Committee will likely have no more “expertise” to offer to the Forest Service. Maybe at that time they will move on to other resources.Concerned residents might consider a visit with Lawrence County Commissioners and/or Committee members about the influence the County is exerting on the Forest Service and management of the national forest lands within the county. [Norbeck Society]
In a request for comment on the status of the cooperative agency status and what it means for the Forest Service and the private timber industry, Cochran’s office said they felt the issue had been resolved and refused further comment. [Lawrence Co. regains cooperative agency status with Forest Service]
The Roosevelt Act of 1907 provided for reservation of a 60-mile-wide tract along the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent smuggling and enforce immigration laws. It came at the tail end of the 1906 Antiquities Act. Unhappy with one aspect of the Trump administration’s implementation of that law, a group of concerned ranchers and farmers met Thursday to voice their opposition to what they called “illegal drilling” along the border. “They’re drilling on my land right now,” said Bill Johnson, a multi-generational farmer and rancher along the border who said water is key to his family’s livelihood — and has been for more than a century of farming and ranching in Luna County. “If my well dries up, my land will be worth nothing, and my cattle and crops won’t have water.”New Mexico law requires a drilling permit for such projects. The Office of the State Engineer became aware of the drilling, and attempted to stop the company which began work near Hachita and is now drilling in Luna County. Catron County rancher Tom Paterson, the president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, urged citizens to reach out to state and federal lawmakers to voice their concerns about the well drilling along the border. [Border ranchers raise concerns about federal well drilling]
Larry Rhoden is a criminal.
ICE Shootings Follow my cartoons and accompanying written commentary on Substack: nickanderson.substack.com
— Nick Anderson - political cartoonist (@andertoon.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 12:48 PM
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New Mexico is erasing Cesar Chavez' name because of his predatory past so South Dakota should do the right thing, too.
Doral Renewables has much of the land it needs for a proposed 1,000-megawatt solar farm near Elkton in Richland and Elkton townships. “We’re at an endpoint regarding acquiring enough acreage to host the construction of the entire project,” Curtis Nordick, a senior development manager with Doral, told The Brookings Register in a recent interview. The proposed project has a lot of hoops to jump through at the state and local levels, including permitting processes, before it can even hope to break ground. But if it does, it’ll provide jobs for 200 to 300 workers during its multi-year construction phase that would start in early 2029 and continue into at least 2031. “We’re not taking the land out of production, necessarily; we’re just changing the use to be kind of an accommodation regarding the solar project,” Nordick said. [Proposed solar farm near Elkton reaches land milestone]Utilities are not your friends so don’t tie your photovoltaic system to the grid but if you use it as a backup keep your own electricity completely separate from the utility that reads your meter.
In 2025 WalletHub's surveys revealed South Dakota was 40th in innovation but 50th in its share of technology companies and 48th in R&D spending per capita. Today, the horrible red state is 41st in innovation, 45th in human capital rank, 47th in innovation environment and 50th in share of technology companies.
On Sunday, as the Northern Arapaho Sundance ceremony was in its final day, Foundations For Nations Pastor Sarah Lucas stood before her congregation on the Wind River Reservation and suggested Native people should turn away from their traditional ways, calling them a false “idol.” As the video began circulating on social media on Wednesday, several hundred Native community members moved swiftly to protest, to demand that Foundations For Nations leave the reservation. The Lucas family fled, citing death threats. The church’s related food shelf closed its doors. But the backlash has continued, with calls for the tribes to invoke the “bad man” clause in their treaty with the U.S. government, which empowers the tribes to ban people from reservation land. [Sermon faces backlash]The Bad Man Clause has been applied in other actions.
The "bad man" legal argument was successfully used by Lavetta Elk, another Oglala Sioux, in a lawsuit alleging that a U.S. Army recruiter had violated the "bad man" clause when he sexually molested her while transporting her to a military recruiting appointment. Elk recently won a $650,000 settlement that left intact a federal judge's ruling that said the treaty language requires the government to reimburse Sioux tribe members who are injured by "any wrong" done by "bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States."Tribal nations are recognized by the federal government as political sovereigns, not a racial group. Ahead of the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit and as part of the Cobell settlement the Interior Department's Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, some three million acres in fifteen states are being returned to Tribal trust ownership. So, a plan by the US Bureau of Reclamation to remand some 60,000 acres on the Wind River Reservation to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes is long overdue.
Even though rangeland management experts say overgrazing has degraded public lands, the new rules being drafted by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management — the first overhaul since 1995 — would instead expand the practice. The proposed rules would also ratchet back public participation in the agency’s decisions to allow grazing on federal public lands. The BLM’s proposed updates would strictly limit who has a say and when they can object, eliminating many steps where the public has been able to observe and comment on decisions to issue or renew permits. Other groups working on rangeland management say the regulations go too far in the opposite direction, tipping the scales toward ranchers. They point to proposals allowing ranchers to continue business as usual if they appeal agency decisions limiting grazing, threatening Native American tribes’ ability to graze bison and enshrining highly subsidized grazing fees. [First major overhaul of public lands grazing rule in a generation looks to cut out the public]
If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 3, 2016
Deeply blue cities Santa Fe, New Mexico and Missoula, Montana are about the same population.
New Mexico's capital city ranks exceptionally high for cannabis retail density, with roughly 43 to 45 active licensed dispensaries serving a population of about 89,000 residents. This translates to an estimated 48 to 50 dispensaries per 100,000 residents, or roughly 1 shop for every 2,000 people. A year ago 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 31% THC as competition weeds out the weak.
Missoula also maintains one of the highest concentrations of cannabis dispensaries per capita in the United States, peaking at a reported 30.7 dispensaries per 50,000 residents. State statistics confirm there are 54 active dispensaries operating within Missoula city limits so in February the city council mandated that any new dispensary be at least 1,000 feet away from another dispensary keeping additional location restrictions in place but assured existing dispensaries are grandfathered in under the new rules. Just recently, Missoula enacted a prohibition on new cannabis licenses to address a range of concerns while public health officials suggest the city should have no more than twelve dispensaries based on current population.
They've taken over former sandwich shops, coffee shops and other small retail outlets in nearly all corners of Missoula. [Missoula Current]Signed into law by Governor Tina Kotek in March, 2024 after lawmakers passed House Bill 4121 Oregon established a strict, permanent population-based cap on new cannabis licenses or a maximum of one license per 7,500 residents.
Washington State has a 37% excise tax on cannabis sales so it is struggling to compete with a burgeoning black market.
Trump's net approval of -25 also is lower than Joe Biden's net approval at this stage of his presidency (-14) , and lower than Biden ever reached (-23, on several occasions in his final year in office). Majorities of Americans object to how Trump is handling important issues including the economy (-31 net approval) and inflation (-40). Many also have concerns about Trump's personal behavior. 60% of Americans say Trump is using his office for personal gain and only 27% say he isn't. [David Montgomery]
NEW Economist/YouGov Jul 3-6 % who approve | disapprove of Donald Trump U.S. adult citizens 35% | 61% (-25) Last week 38% | 58% (-20) Start of term 49% | 43% (+6) Dem 3% | 96% Ind 21% | 71% Rep 83% | 15% 18-29: 25% | 67% 65+: 40% | 56% yougov.com/en-us/articl...
— YouGov America (@today.yougov.com) July 7, 2026 at 7:12 AM
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NEW Economist/YouGov % of U.S. adult citizens who approve | disapprove of Donald Trump's job performance This week 35% | 61% (-25) Last week 38% | 58% (-20) Start of term 49% | 43% (+6) yougov.com/en-us/articl...
— YouGov America (@today.yougov.com) July 7, 2026 at 7:15 AM
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NEW Economist/YouGov Net job approval for Donald Trump [at the start of his second term | now] among... U.S. adult citizens +6 | -25 Men +17 | -16 Women -5 | -34* *New second-term low d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec... d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
— YouGov America (@today.yougov.com) July 7, 2026 at 7:18 AM
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State Senator Tom Pischke of Dell Rapids is charged with two counts of Offering a False or Forged Instrument for Filing, according to the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office. The charges relate to potentially fraudulent election forms submitted to the Minnehaha County Auditor’s office. Pischke is also a Republican precinct committeeman, and would typically be eligible to vote at the Republican party’s state convention later this week. Jim Eschenbaum is the Chair of the South Dakota Republican Party. He said Pischke told him he wouldn’t be attending the convention Monday evening, but Eschenbaum didn’t learn about the charges until Tuesday. [Bill Janklow's idea of public radio]
There are 1,320 words in the document and it takes five to ten minutes to read. The document is not our nation’s legal instrument for governance, that is the US Constitution, but the Declaration of Independence is our spiritual ethos. It may be as important to assert the spiritual ethos of the Declaration of Independent today as it was in 1776 if voting rights for all citizens are to be secured. The quest for equality needs renewed energy and it is up to us to provide that energy through a level of political activism that would make our revolutionary patriots proud. [Bob Burns, Declaration worth reading, reflecting]
๐บ๐ธ๐บ๐ธ
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) July 4, 2026 at 8:22 AM
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Hello Larry,
My name is Mike Miller. I worked with you at TCF in Deadwood. I left in 1987 to work for American Airlines in Tulsa, retired in 2021, and moved to Olympia, WA. I’m sending you this in case you would be able to help my Dad out. He’s 85 and still fighting for the Black Hills at every opportunity. What we are trying to do is get as many people as we can to submit comments to Mark Malone of the SDDOT. Their plan is to widen and straighten highway 85 from Cheyenne Crossing to the Wyoming border. We know what that means. We recently got an extension on the comment period to September 4th. If you, or anyone you know could send a message to Mark, it would help a lot. A comment from you would carry a lot of weight.
Thank you Larry.
Sincerely, Mike Miller
"When we look at what we're selling with agricultural goods and livestock in China, it's still down about 68% as compared to the same period in 2024," said Goss. "We've improved over 2025 numbers, but again, when you compare it with 2024, we've still got a long way to go, particularly on soybean and pork--pork would be a number-two product there." Goss says more than 26% named passage of a five-year farm bill as the number-two answer. Like members of Iowa's congressional delegation, he says farmers and bankers are frustrated with Congress' inability to pass an expanded farm bill. "This has been going on for a couple of years now," he said, "trying to get a five-year farm bill instead of these one-year bills. Farmers are facing so much volatility out there. There's no reason, in my judgment, for farmers having to deal with a one-year plan instead of a five-year plan." [Survey says tariffs still a top banker issue in KMAland]
While South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa saw significant decline in the first quarter New Mexico's output increased 3.1%
Read it all here.Some legislators, including Billings Democratic Rep. Denise Baum and Missoula Democratic Sen. Andrea Olsen, have pushed for increased access to passenger rail alongside some of their Republican counterparts, including Glasgow Sen. Gregg Hunter. Many transit agencies around the state are interested in this conversation too, as adding train lines could be an opportunity for bus services to expand offerings. One question in the survey asked what type of public transportation would be used if it was offered. Trains were the most popular answer, followed by buses. [Survey shows Montanans interested in more public transit]
South Dakota's favorite former teevee anchor, Shad Olson notices Bruner's misogyny, too.
I've said for years that in national conservative political circles, South Dakota has long been a laughingstock of RINO incompetence, dominated by the most corrupt, talentless, self-aggrandized band of mediocre people anywhere in politics.It's nice when they're generous enough to prove it in viral fashion.Pretty rough night for the Thune, Rhoden, AFP wing of the club.These are NOT Republicans... and never have been. And they've been holding this gullible state hostage for decades under false pretense that everyone in America now sees through.John Thune could be doing anything, anywhere come January 2029. But I promise you, after blocking the SAVE Act, punctuated by Matt Bruner's clown show denial of Scott Presler's attendance at the state GOP convention, Thune will NOT be the U.S. Senator from South Dakota.
Matt Bruner, the "bouncer" who's now ticked the national radar for kicking MAGA superstar Scott Presler out of the SDGOP state convention has no idea the mercy that's already been extended him over the past year. It'd be a shame if Matt's DM's [sic] and his pathetic, equally awkward attempts to woo a certain blonde South Dakota lawmaker were added to the public bonfire of his idiotic, Democrat-operative shitshow that's now made the national scene.He sent her pictures of porn stars and other scantily clad women, comparing her anatomy to theirs, complimenting her admittedly luxurious feminine figure... and expressing his ardent desires to take her out to dinner. I guess this sort of thing constitutes high romance for a guy who drinks Bud Light out of cans inscribed with John Thune's name.I never considered him a contender. She found him repulsive. His political stupidity and clear devotion to the neocons were my only concern.She mostly ignored him, she and I shared a few laughs over his antics, but she was too nice to say the things that I will, and I never felt need to respond to a guy who looks like Yosemite Sam after ingesting a basketball... life clearly dealt him a tough set of genetics out of the box. But Karma arrives in interesting ways.Couldn't happen to a nicer illiterate.Typical Hansen/Rhoden supporter.