Crabtree: South Dakota in recession, Pierre a shit hole

The #sdleg might be rushing to give #tax incentives to #datacenters but Deuel County residents are not convinced that rapid industrialization is the right move https://t.co/GgpiZPLs7O?

— Dakota Rural Action (@DakotaRural) January 19, 2026

Editor's note: Madison, South Dakota is being considered to host an intelligence gathering facility despite the fact that would cost millions and isn't needed. Four current and former officials familiar with the planning were granted anonymity for their insights due to fear of retribution from Kristi Noem so officials at Dakota State University did not respond to requests for comment either according to POLITICO.

Madison Earth hater Casey Crabtree wants to live in DC because South Dakota is a failed state. 

The 2026 Legislative kicked off in Pierre last week, and improving South Dakota’s economy needs to be the top issue for my colleagues and I, otherwise our economy will fall behind our neighbors, our kids will leave the state, and everyday South Dakotans will hurt. Getting South Dakota back on track requires bold leadership and vision, because the time is now to make an impact.

Moody’s has flagged South Dakota as a state in or near a recession. At home, sales tax revenue fell 0.6% last fiscal year—only the third time in 30 years for South Dakota. Families feel it. Roughly one in five South Dakotans is delinquent on a credit card payment. People are buying fewer groceries and cutting back. When South Dakotans are asked what matters most, inflation and affordability top the list.

That’s the backdrop for every debate in Pierre. Serious problems demand serious legislators and serious solutions.

Driving home through whiteout conditions Friday, I kept thinking about my kids and their future. I don’t want a South Dakota where the next generation has to leave to build a life because they can’t find opportunities here. We like to say we’re “open for opportunity” in South Dakota, but it can’t be just a slogan. It has to be a commitment shared by the governor, the Legislature, local leaders, and every South Dakotan. The status quo won’t keep our towns alive. Closing our doors won’t either.

That’s why I’ve been in the middle of the big fights—housing and infrastructure funding to keep housing costs low, standing up for biofuels so our farm families can compete globally, and pushing for opportunities that make a real impact across our state. I don’t shy away from a fight because it’s hard. I’d rather stand strong with courage on a hill than be found hiding in a bunker in fear.

The big fight of 2026 is economic development and data centers. South Dakota needs to strengthen its economy, and we can do so in a thoughtful way that benefits hard-working South Dakotans and carefully balances concerns. Data centers play a pivotal role in our national security, provide new high-paying jobs, generate a steady stream of property and sales tax revenue, diversify our economy, and give the state and local communities a more reliable, predictable revenue base. This will increase property tax revenue that can fund our schools and roads in the future and keep more money in your pockets. This discussion is taking place at the federal level as well, with President Trump championing these data centers, while folks like Bernie Sanders lead the opposition.

America First means securing our energy, building critical infrastructure here, and competing to win. South Dakota Always means doing it with clear rules, strong oversight, and built-in local benefits—no blank checks, no sweetheart deals, and no cost-shifting onto local families. If we get it right, we bring investment, expand the tax base, and create high-paying jobs for electricians, plumbers, HVAC workers, and cybersecurity grads who can live in places like Agar, Toronto, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and communities across the entire state.

As I always say: the best solutions aren’t found in Pierre, they come from folks at home that tackle real challenges every day. So, reach out with your ideas and solutions. If you’ll be in Pierre, let me know, I’d love to visit and recognize you on the Senate floor. Thank you. It’s an honor to serve District 8.

AI on Thune

John Thune sat on the board of this bank and made the deal between Faceberg and Sioux Falls-based MetaBank. #thunefacebook https://t.co/u3OH2yYRHb

— interested party (@larry_kurtz) January 4, 2022

John Thune is simply another career politician who uses projection to avoid the Dan Nelson and MetaBank scandals.

Here are the details regarding the allegations mentioned:

• MetaBank/Dan Nelson Scandal Context: Reports indicate that in 2005, Thune, while in the private sector between campaigns, served on the board of MetaBank. Critics alleged he was on the audit committee when a significant loan was made to Dan Nelson, a former staffer for Thune, which was later described as a problematic, high-risk, or large loan. At the time, representatives for Thune stated he did not use his position to influence bank decisions.
• "Career Politician" Criticism: Critics in 2026 have characterized Thune as a "rino" (Republican in Name Only) or "spineless" for being part of the Washington establishment, with some commentators arguing he has not held a "true" private-sector job.
• Projection Accusation: Recent political commentary has accused Thune of using "projection"—blaming others for behaviors he is accused of—to deflect from his past, specifically regarding the 2005 MetaBank issues.
• 2025/2026 Controversies: In his capacity as Senate Majority Leader, Thune faced recent scrutiny in November 2025 for a provision he supported that could have provided $500,000 in payouts to senators whose records were seized, drawing bipartisan backlash.

As a Senator, Thune has held a complex relationship with the tech giant. He has chaired hearings questioning Mark Zuckerberg on issues such as data privacy and political bias, while also being noted as a significant recipient of campaign donations from the company.

Rounds' Senate primary opponent touting biochar, sustainability

Biochar is produced by cooking organic biomass from agricultural and forestry wastes in the absence of oxygen in a process called pyrolysis. Biochar sequesters carbon and got a boost during the Obama Administration so more applications for it are still being advanced by the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. According to a 2013 Argonne National Lab study the Black Hills National Forest is highly suitable for biochar harvest.

Justin McNeal grew up in Rapid City and is running against Earth hating Trump whore Reich Mike Rounds in their June Senate primary. But, 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.

Olson: Pat Powers fat, illiterate

Return to Sender: common sense conservative Shad Olson is taking fat Pat to the woodshed again and it looks like Katie Hoffman could stand to lose a few pounds herself. -- ed.

South Dakota's most famous living brain donor and vaccine recipient, Katie Hoffmann, now says that her unbridaled admiration and alliance with South Dakota's RINO doxxing and assassination blogger, Pat Powers, resides fully in his courageous slandering, smearing and defamatory attacks against yours truly. Heart emojis and subpar Starbucks bean juice all around.

In a single oxymoronic breath, Katie praises RINO felatio artist Pat Powers for outing me for my "harassment and verbal abuse," against her and her subsequent gaslighting fantasies of me or any other biological male engaging in literal cannibalism of her corpulent flaccid physiognomy rather than what was my obvious and colorfully chosen metaphor for debate evisceration.

I have eaten and do eat some women. Just not in the way Katie fantasizes for character distortion and expansion of social media presence aside from waistline. No cannibalism implied, nor indulged.

Yes. Pat Powers. The same fat illiterate leftist blaggard who repeatedly doxxes South Dakota conservative female lawmakers to subject them to harassment, intimidation, property damage and threats of violence, is in Katie's world, a white-knighted champion of feminine empowerment. Chortle.

Pat Powers. The same guy who published Brandei Schaefbauer's home address and the address of her AirBnB property in Lawrence County just four short days before the assassinations of Minnesota lawmakers prompted South Dakota leaders to put lawmaker metadata behind a firewall. That's Katie's paragon of moral virtue and chivalrous comportment in the treatment of "women."

Katie is perfectly fine to target, besmirch, smear, slander and yes, endanger, anyone who doesn't supplicate to the altar of her idiotically chosen political idols, her chemical romance with AFP, or her amateurish description of South Dakota's hapless RINO preserve.

Perhaps our hyperscale datacenter overlords will arrive shortly with requisite enlightenment to make cognitive dissonance and simultaneous contradictory beliefs evaporate with all the sizzle of a finite water supply pumped into a server farm.

Thankfully, badly needed enhancements to South Dakota's online harassment laws will turn the Katie-Pat consortium's favored intimidation tactic into a felony offense. Instinctual leftists who use cancel culture, doxxing and online harassment to ameliorate their paucity of intellect will soon suffer rightful consequences for upholding their favorite targets to unhinged leftist violence and the constancy of an increasingly stupid electorate.

And word has it, other things will happen long before the new law takes effect.

Gaia still punishing horrible red state

Yes, the grassland fire danger index will reach the extreme category again Sunday for much of the chemical toilet, sacrifice zone, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area that South Dakota is today.