According to WalletHub, gambling is a leading source of anguish and despair in South Dakota with a high suicide rate and few avenues for treatment. The state is tied for first in the number of casinos and machines and second in overall addiction to the poison. The reasoning is hardly mysterious. It’s all about the money video lootery, a too big to jail banking racket, a medical industry triopoly, prostitution, the Sturgis Rally, policing for profit, sex trafficking, hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the SDGOP destroying lives, depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule.
South Dakota ranks as the second-most gambling-addicted state, with some of the most casinos and gaming machines per capita. It also has a high prevalence of gambling through lottery tickets, with the 11th highest lottery sales per resident age 18+. South Dakota has legalized betting on fantasy sports, regular sports and horse races, and it allows gambling machines to be put in stores. With so many different legal ways to gamble, it makes sense that many residents have a problem. The grip that gambling has on the Mount Rushmore State is evident in the fact that it has a high number of Gamblers Anonymous meetings per capita.
I’m working on a big piece about the Albuquerque contractor that built the main house at Zorro Ranch. You know, the house that seems to have been designed to intentionally mimic George Washington’s Mt. Vernon plantation house, down to and including a parallel to Mt. Vernon’s slave quarters, with the Epstein outbuilding having a prison-like sally port and being the only structure on the 7,600-acre property with bars on the windows. That one. Yeah. We know now who the general contractor was. And they continued to be the GC after Epstein’s conviction. Buried in the DOJ files are communications between Epstein’s people and this contractor, in which the contractor reassures Epstein that minimal documentation is being recorded for new upgrades to the property, including sub-basement floors. Unsurprisingly, this same contractor held multiple contracts with Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and Kirtland Air Force Base. They were also sending heavy packages to Les Wexner’s company in Ohio, via private plane, on behalf, it seems, of Zorro Ranch. Including diskettes. One 12-pound package was labeled, simply, PRINCESS.
House Model Update:
🔵 DEM: 230 (+15)
🔴 GOP: 205 (-15)
- April 19, 2026 -
(Seat change with 2024 Election)
Full article available for Substack subscribers here - open.substack.com/pub/usapolli...
What are Trump/GOP even doing?!? Americans are in a stinking affordability crisis due to Trump/GOP’s illegal tariffs (taxes on consumers) increasing costs; a war of choice in Iran causing soaring gas prices that we’re paying for; inflation pushed from the high costs; & healthcare subsidies gutted!!!
As far back as 2015 a company representative told WNAX radio that the state's attractions, road conditions, nightlife options, scenic byways, tourist attractions, cost of traveling, hotel affordability, gas prices and camping all suck.
Today, a state that calls itself conservative depends on federal Social Security benefits to pay the property taxes that currently bankroll South Dakota's red state failure while video lootery drives poor residents even deeper into despair.
And, as the Trump Organization touts deregulation and tax cuts as keys to making life affordable critics and recent economic data suggest that because of the war on Iran costs for essentials like housing, gas, and groceries remain high. Just recently while apparently thumbing their noses at Herr Trump, Toby Doeden mentioned affordability at least three times during the Earth haters' gubernatorial debate and in a Dakota Town Hall discussion State Senator Casey Crabtree did, too. Crabtree cited the dysfunction in his own party as as part of his decision to end a run for congress.
“I think without a doubt, the number one issue across the state is affordability. It is strengthening the economy,” Crabtree said during the episode. He added that the candidate who best explains how to put “more money back in people’s pockets” will likely gain the edge in the final stretch before Election Day. For western South Dakota listeners, the affordability conversation may resonate especially strongly as Rapid City continues balancing growth, housing pressure and infrastructure demands, all of which tie directly into the larger statewide tax and economic development debate now taking shape ahead of November. [Affordability Dominates Dakota Town Hall Debate]
A Clinton era housing bill is awarding funds for tribal communities so there is that.
As of post time Doeden is leading Trump lover, Dusty Johnson at Polymarket.
The historical landscape of He Sapa (the Black Hills) was significantly different from its present-day appearance, with quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) playing a much more dominant role in the ecosystem, particularly in mesic (moist) areas, prior to European settlement.
Pre-Settlement Landscape: The area was characterized by a mosaic of diverse habitats, including open ponderosa pine parks, grass prairies, and dense stands of hardwoods, of which aspen was a significant component in moister, sheltered areas and lower valleys.
Role of Fire: Quaking aspen is a pioneer species that thrives following disturbances like fire. Historically, natural and indigenous-led fires maintained a diverse landscape that favored the regeneration of aspen.
Settlement and Environmental Change: Following settlement, fire suppression and changes in land management allowed conifers, particularly ponderosa pine, to encroach upon areas previously dominated by aspen and other hardwoods.
Ecological Significance: Before these landscape shifts, these mesic aspen habitats served as crucial biodiversity hotspots.
Today, the prevalence of aspen has been heavily influenced by logging and fire suppression, which have, in many parts of the region, increased the overall acreage of aspen but altered its historical distribution and competitive relationship with other tree species.
Recall that the late Jean Rounds pleaded with her husband not to run for the US Senate but Reich Mike Rounds knew he had to run to stall then-US Attorney for the District of South Dakota Brendan Johnson from opening an investigation of Rounds' role in Bendagate to the public.
Today, it's widely known that the relationship between short guy Rounds and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is primarily characterized by a long-standing, public political rivalry within South Dakota's party of Earth haters. While they have served together in various capacities for over at least a decade, their relationship has been marked with frequent snubbing and policy disagreements. Rounds even posted photos of a hemp harvest to intentionally counter Noem's opposition to industrial cannabis.
The title of “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas”—announced on March 5 by Trump, 79, as he publicly fired Noem from her role as DHS secretary—was effectively fabricated to ensure she missed the filing deadline for the South Dakota Senate race and would thus be unable to challenge incumbent Sen. Mike Rounds, according to multiple sources. [Trump Created Fake 'Shield' Job to Keep Noem Away From Senate Run]
Watching Mrs. Noem become a spoiler by running as an unaffiliated or third party candidate in November is not impossible.
Charles and Heather Maude, the West River lawbreakers just endorsed Jon Hansen for South Dakota's chief executive.
Recall that on January 6, 2021 the attack on the US Capitol was a climax of an anti-law enforcement movement emboldened by the 2014 Bundy standoff. So, it's hardly surprising that Earth haters like Cliven Bundy and Harriet Hageman are defending Charles and Heather Maude because they hate what they call the administrative state even as it benefits them.
In South Dakota members of the law enforcement industry enjoy qualified immunity from prosecution for the often lethal offenses they commit in the line of duty so the violence they visit on suspects is usually dismissed as justified.
The US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Supervisor Jack Isaacs (now retired), Special Agent Travis Lunders and District Ranger Julie Wheeler received death threats just for doing their jobs then were thrown under the bus by the Trump Organization's agriculture secretary. Extremists are screaming that Agent Lunders came unannounced to the Maude ranch in 2024 in full tactical gear to serve the summons to appear in district court because the Maudes blew off civil remedies after breaking federal law.
The Forest Service denies the agent was outfitted with "any tactical uniform, gear or assault weapons" even though it is widely known property owners in that part of South Dakota are militantly opposed to gubmint especially those of Democratic administrations but love all that subsidized crop and livestock insurance anyway. Heather Maude is a Wyoming native and her parents are Trump supporting Earth haters, too.
The charges have been dropped but the case is not resolved after the Maudes allegedly stole access to public land by claiming it as their own then after being advised of their crime flouted its repercussions because a Democrat was sitting in the White House. Blame lies with the State of South Dakota, Custer County and the lawyers who drafted the Maude Family Trust and neglected to order a survey. Maude Hog and Cattle has been providing product to Wall Meats which is heavily subsidized by the USDA and Charles Maude has received nearly $300,000 in ag subsidies since 1995.
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.
Is 100 million lost or missing from the SD pension fund???
Major whistleblower Alert for South Dakota. A South Dakota investment Council former employee came forward with a lot of evidence. The whistleblower complaint included the removing of trading safeguards. The State terminated the employee 30 min after reporting whistle blower protection laws to the boss. The state offered the whistleblower $72k to stay silent instead they came forward. Gunderson Palmer law firms Attorney appears to have recommended the whistleblower to take the money, yes that's where Jackley is/was a partner? State is in self protection mode and circling the wagons instead of opening investigations, the press has inquired and I am forwarding them everything. No more corruption no more corrupt establishment.
Vote James Bialota For Congress fighting corruption now, no empty promises.
It's time for congressional oversight. This is why James Bialota for Congress should be elected.
#SouthDakota #Corruption #MissingMoney #100million #pension
Canada-based Clean Nuclear Energy Corporation wants to drill through the water-bearing Inyan Kara Group on School and Public Lands property in Fall River County. The project is less than a mile from Craven Canyon where pictographs and rock art of the Lakota, Cheyenne, Mandan, Hidatsa, Ponca, eastern Dakota, and other Native American cultures are protected on the Black Hills National Forest.
The postponed Chord Project hearing is intended to determine the fate of a permit application by the subsidiary of Nexus Uranium Corp and was moved from Pierre to Hot Springs after requests from local commissioners and tribal organizers.
The Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming are hardly the only public lands plundered by foreign companies under cover of the General Mining Law of 1872 enacted to settle Civil War debt and rob Indigenous peoples of their homes and human rights.
Until it closed in 1939 the Tererro Mine in the headwaters of the Pecos River took gold, lead and other metals then left piles of toxic waste rock in their place. After major flooding in 1991 when sulfuric acid, aluminum and zinc swept into the river miner Freeport-McMoRan was held responsible for the deaths of some 100,000 Rio Grande cutthroat trout and for the subsequent decades of acid mine drainage.
Despite opposition from Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Senator Martin Heinrich during the first Trump term in 2019 an American subsidiary of Australian company New World Cobalt, was granted twenty federal permits to drill test holes into the Sangre de Cristo mountain range on the Santa Fe National Forest in the Jones Hill area north of Pecos, New Mexico.
Federal officials announced the Upper Pecos Watershed, thousands of acres of forest service and public lands, will reopen next month for potential mining and geothermal extraction projects. “The Trump administration is putting foreign mining corporations and oil and gas interests ahead of New Mexico families, our water, our public lands, and our sacred tribal sites,” said U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández during a press conference. [Feds quash lawmakers’ effort to prevent new mining operations in Upper Pecos Watershed]
An increasing number of scientists believe the US Fish and Wildlife Service isn't doing enough to crack down on red states that flout or simply ignore protections for vulnerable species so now some 80% of original grassland ecosystems are gone.
Ag producers have destroyed shelter belts to plant industrial crops that deplete aquifers and now drought is blowing toxin-laden topsoil into downwind states. Another early spring wildfire season has begun in Nebraska, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma, Texas and other Republican-held areas where moral hazard and poor ranching practices routinely decimate the high plains. In the last 10 years alone, we have lost more than 50 million acres of grasslands.
Habitat loss from factors such as agricultural conversion and invasive species, compounded by climate change, threaten the health of grasslands. Agricultural cultivation, development, and invasive species have led to a loss of at least 80% of these grasslands, including a loss of 99% of tallgrass prairie. Of the 20% of Great Plains grasslands that remain undisturbed, 93% of it is unprotected and at risk of conversion. Conversion of grasslands to agriculture and forests is reducing biodiversity, and invasive grass species, which account for 13-30% of the grass species in the Great Plains, further influence biodiversity loss. When native grasslands disappear, so do the benefits they provide. [Grasslands are being lost at a far faster pace than they are being conserved.]
South Dakota's governor is a committed Earth hater and the legislature is dominated by Republicans who ignore the effects of the Anthropocene so lobbyists like the American Farm Bureau Federation and Americans for Prosperity are lining up again to stuff their pockets with cash.
Geoffrey Gray-Lobe is a county commissioner and board member with the Clay County Park, a few hundred acres along the Missouri River where South Dakotans can camp, boat, picnic and hike. He has led the effort to convert about 30 acres of the park into native prairie. The site is part of 125 acres the park has been renting to farmers for years. Gray-Lobe said he did some research and found the park could more than double the rent it charges on the land. [Most American prairies are gone. These people are working to bring them back]
The reasoning is hardly mysterious: it's all about the money hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the South Dakota Republican Party depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule. South Dakota's experiment introducing an exotic species has just not been able to keep up breeding a bird unable to adapt to the state's brutal weather and climate science-denying legislature.
In January Earth hater Doug Burgum pulled the Bureau of Land Management leases from American Prairie. In February BLM and Forest Service bumped the Animal Unit Month or AUM lease to $1.69 from $1.35 for one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. Now, BLM and Forest Service have an app that locates unused grazing allotments.
Leaders from several government agencies and organizations joined together to discuss working together for improving cattle grazing opportunities, as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to launch the Grazing Action Plan. [MOU Signed to Expand Federal Grazing]
Instead, the United States should rewild the high plains by connecting the CM Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana along the Missouri River to Oacoma, South Dakota combined with corridors from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon in the north and south to the Canadian River through Nebraska, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.
Yes, the grassland fire danger index will reach the very high category again on Wednesday for most of the horrible red state of South Dakota.
Republican former South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs was driven from South Dakota politics for outing Kristi Noem as a philanderer and it's common knowledge that Krebs, Joni Cutler and other South Dakota legislators loathed Noem. In 2013 Noem's eldest daughter was slightly injured in a vehicle rollover apparently after having learned her driving skills from her mother.
Rapid City, South Dakota barker, Mike Sanborn began The Decorum Forum in 2009 which enjoyed a significant following for several years. Other local notables, Bill Fleming, a Democrat and Bob Newland, a Libertarian have been authors there. Mr. Sanborn is responsible for some of the most sexist and misogynistic Deadwood and Sturgis Rally billboards littering I-90 but perennial loser, Sanborn was destroyed in Rapid City's 2015 Ward 3 runoff election that kept incumbent Jerry Wright on the City Council.
Today, Earth hater Sanborn writes an occasional column for the Spearditch-based Black Hills Pioneer and like Pat Powers' Faceberg page Mike's is plastered with his own image likely signs of a deep narcissistic insecurity but hey—any issue that divides their party is progress.
The public did not elect him. South Dakota citizens elected his wife. South Dakota voters did not elect their children – they elected their mother.
However, when political commentary and satire move away from the officeholder and target the family, satirists, cartoonists and content providers go too far. That’s not always the case, but recent revelations about an unelected husband went too far.
The fallout that follows our former governor will inevitably reach her family. Late-night television and social media can be unforgiving. Lampooning comes with the territory of public office, and officials who behave poorly should expect sharp public ridicule. But integrity is measured by restraint — by knowing where the target ends, and having the discipline to leave private families out of the line of fire. [Sanborn, Scrutiny for the elected, not their families]
She is a tiny filly from the critter we call the grumpy black mare. The stallion is probably a grey sired by Alph before he was gelded and a sorrel mare at least three years ago.
Nice big foal from the Appaloosa we call Blanket. In the first image the gelding with the blonde tail is a three year old from Blanket and Alph.
In South Dakota infrastructure suffers partly because of the state's underperforming retirement system so the Platte-Winner bridge just received a $65 million federal handout for its upcoming renovation project.
South Dakota consistently ranks among states with the highest percentages of structurally deficient bridges, with approximately 16%–17% of its roughly 5,900 bridges in poor condition or nearly 1,000 bridges. A 1954 bridge on US 12 over Moccasin Creek in Brown County is rated among the most deficient as is the Grant Street bridge over Spearditch Creek.
And, the new John C. Waldron Memorial Bridge over the Missouri River between Fort Pierre and the cesspool on the east side, which was scheduled to open in 2023 but was completed significantly later than originally planned experienced over-budget issues for the Iowa-based contractor.
A collapse of the agriculture sector, $650 million plus cost overruns for a prison, $240 million plus cost overruns for the Platte-Winner Bridge rebuild, $150M plus cost overruns for a Capitol remodel, $70 million plus cost overruns for a computer update and at least $2 billion for a boondoggle West River water pipeline but just a $65 million surplus, the end of property taxes and TIFs galore?
Yes, socialized agriculture, socialized dairies, socialized cheese, socialized livestock production, a socialized timber industry, socialized air service, socialized freight rail, a socialized nursing home industry, socialized water systems, a socialized internet and socialized infrastructure are all fine with Republicans in South Dakota but then they insist single-payer medical insurance is socialized medicine.
Just before Christmas in 2013 Brady Folkens of Brookings died in state custody after a medical attendant likely administered a lethal dose of the antibiotic minocycline to the teen at the former State Treatment and Rehabilitation (STAR) Academy in a South Dakota county named for a war criminal.
But in a 2014 phone interview, Brady's mom, Dawn Van Ballegooyen told this blog he never had a previous acne condition that required an antibiotic and in 2016 Jonathan Ellis formerly of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader called out the State of South Dakota for covering up the truth in Brady's death.
After a public whimper petered out the death camp was shuttered and the sprawling property carved from the heart of Indian Country put up for auction. The stigmatized site was sold four times at sequentially reduced prices after the first buyer bounced a check to the state, the financing was unworkable or the scope of work proved too great.
Avera McKennan Hospital pathologist, Raed A. Sulaiman ruled Brady’s ultimately fatal lymphocytic myocarditis was caused by Parvovirus B19 despite clinical evidence that anaphylaxis often induces an infarct and Parvovirus can produce a rash that looks like acne.
Before he died, guardianship was also transferred back to her. And then the medical bills totaling up to $200,000 started coming in. She fought the debt collectors off, telling them to go directly to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office. The state ended up paying her son’s medical fees, but she was left with questions that she didn’t know how to find answers to. [Brady Folkens died a ward of the state. His mother seeks answers a decade later.]
To provide the most current context as of April 2026, here are the key points regarding the status of this case:
Ongoing Advocacy: Dawn Van Ballegooyen remains a central figure in South Dakota’s juvenile justice reform discussions. Her push for "Brady’s Law"—which would require parental notification for all medications prescribed to minors in state custody—continues to be a focal point for legislative advocacy in Pierre [1, 2].
Medical Debate: The core dispute remains unchanged: the state maintains the parvovirus B19 (lymphocytic myocarditis) finding, while independent experts cited by the family point to Drug-Induced Hypersensitivity Syndrome (DIHS) or DRESS syndrome caused by minocycline [2, 3].
Media Coverage: Recent retrospectives by local outlets like the Mitchell Republic and Sioux Falls Live have used Brady’s case to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2016 juvenile justice reforms and the subsequent closure of the STAR Academy [4, 5].
Legal Standing: Following the withdrawal of her 2018 lawsuit, the legal path has remained difficult due to the complexities of suing state-contracted medical providers and the statutes of limitation, though the family continues to explore civil rights avenues [2, 6].
Preservation is a weak spot in the Republican agenda and if enough people believe forest and rangeland resilience is a bankable position the South Dakota Democratic Party needs to exploit it by fielding candidates who can convince voters to reject politicians like John Thune, Marty Jackley, Mike Rounds and Dusty Johnson who work for the grazing, mining and logging profiteers at the expense of public lands.
In 2024 South Dakota dropped to 49th in financial literacy and 50th in financial knowledge and education despite the Republican former governor's pathological Pollyannaism. The state was the 43rd best economy in the US, 51st in percentage of businesses owned by women and 50th in innovation potential.
Today, the horrible red state has dropped to 50th in financial literacy and 51st in financial knowledge and education rank, 41st in innovation, 45th in human capital rank, 47th in innovation environment and 50th in share of technology companies.
Creighton University's Ernie Goss has been warning that the Trump Organization is bad for American agriculture and follows the economies of several breadbasket states including South Dakota's. Banksters are freaking out because the March Rural Mainstreet Index dropped to its lowest level since October 2025 and loan delinquency rates increased. Goss says it’s the 13th time since January of last year that the rural economy reading fell below the growth neutral threshold.
The March RMI for South Dakota sank to 40.3 from February’s 47.2. According to trade data from the [International Trade Association], South Dakota exports of agriculture goods and livestock for the first month of 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, fell by 82.2%. Compared to the first month of 2024, the South Dakota exports of agriculture and livestock for the first month of 2026 sank by 39.9%. [Mainstreet Economy]
