Senator Tester 'cutting through the gridlock'

Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and this blog follow each other on Twitter. As rail coal traffic dies Tester wants to restore the Hiawatha Line. He and his colleague, Tom Udall (D-NM) are leading efforts to improve the Indian Health Service.

Dear Larry,

For too long politics has forced Congress into a gridlock.

Today elected officials are more interested in scoring political points, than doing what is right for the folks they represent.

But last week, I helped lead a bipartisan group of Senators through that gridlock and we delivered for our state's energy future, outdoor economy, and transportation infrastructure.

A decade ago, America was a net importer of energy. Today, America is more energy secure than ever - thanks not only to oil and gas development, but also dramatic advances in wind and solar energy. This week, I joined my colleagues to pass a bill that builds on this success. The Energy Modernization Policy Act, invests in an all-of-the above energy strategy that includes wind, solar, geothermal, oil, gas, and coal.

This bill will cut red tape on the permitting process for renewable energy projects and it prioritizes clean coal research and development.

At a time when the coal industry is facing competition from low natural gas prices and changing consumer demand, this bill takes steps forward to protect our good-paying jobs and it addresses the bizarre changes in weather patterns that are threatening Montana's agriculture and outdoor industries.

Speaking of Montana's great outdoors, this bill permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

The LWCF is used to increase public access to public land for folks who love to hunt, fish, and hike.

Additionally, this bill helps establish more shooting ranges on our public lands, and it requires most BLM and Forest Service lands to be open for hunting, fishing, and shooting.

But the week of bipartisanship didn't stop when we passed the Energy Policy Modernization Act.

The Senate also made significant investments in Montana's airports by reauthorizating the Federal Aviation Administration.

I was able to successfully add several amendments to strengthen our national security to this bill, including requiring folks to look at the feasibility of installing the most up-to-date security equipment at all Montana airports.

I also was able to pass an amendment that doubles the number of security teams monitoring baggage claims and increases law enforcement training for active shooter situations.

These amendments will make traveling safer and invest in critical transportation infrastructure.

It was the a breath of fresh air in the Senate, and going forward I will continue to reach across the aisle and ensure that Congress is doing what's best for Montana.

It's an honor to serve you in the U.S. Senate,

Jon

Today we passed 4 bills out of the Indian Affairs Committee to increase education outcomes & reform criminal justice https://t.co/ulAKE1FTXi

— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) April 27, 2016

Stace Nelson running against SDGOP establishment

South Dakota voters have had it with single-party rule in the chemical toilet. Registration trends show that Democrats are signing up as earth haters and GOPers are leaving that party to become unaffiliated with any political organ. Joe Lowe has called South Dakota's current governor incompetent.

During South Dakota’s 2014 legislative session, HCR 1017 — a resolution urging the federal government to reconsider hemp’s status as a controlled substance and recognize its viability in agriculture — was introduced. District 19 Rep. Stace Nelson (R) co-authored the resolution along with primary sponsor Elizabeth May (R-27) and told the Press & Dakotan hemp is deeply rooted in American history. Despite the setback, Nelson said he believes the Farm Bill provision, plus time and increased education on the subject, could make it easier to enact legislation aimed at easing hemp restrictions in the coming years. “Next year, we’ll probably see another bill come forward,” he said. “As people get educated on it and understand more, I see it not being a problem in the future.” [Rob Nielsen, Yankton Press and Dakotan]

Establishment obese Republican Student Association President Caleb Finck has announced a run for the state senate from District 19.

We are witnessing corruption in South Dakota that is akin to Third World country corruption. We had politicians that happily sold out that state of South Dakota to get access to communist Chinese money. Wasted millions of taxpayer dollars to do so. I don't know of anybody in my field (military intelligence) that would think it was wise or prudent for any elected official to marry South Dakota taxpayer dollars with communist Chinese interests. [Rep. Stace Nelson, interview in Rapid City Journal]

As a CASA volunteer former state Representative Stace Nelson picked up the pieces shattered by the Rounds/Daugaard years. This reporter certainly doesn't agree with everything Nelson believes in but he is honest to a fault: a trait sorely lacking in any of the other candidates in South Dakota's Republican Party. The GOP D19 primary winner will face Democrat Russell Graeff of Scotland.

In 2014 I sent Nelson money for his US Senate campaign against the corrupt Mike Rounds. Now he needs our help for his District 19 primary run.

Please join me in sending Stace Nelson some money.

Cops' lives suck: South Dakota falling down on prison industry oversight

Draconian drug laws have effectively reduced the number of hires in South Dakota's mass incarceration businesses.

The six prisons in the South Dakota Department of Corrections are all feeling the pinch of staff shortages and high turnover of 18 to 20 percent. The Department of Corrections tells us there are reduced staffing levels at community work centers on the overnight shift because they are watching minimum-security inmates. [KELO teevee]

More than 5 million children in America are separated from a parent because of a prison sentence. Eight percent of South Dakota's kids or about 17,000 children are affected by the state's repressive law enforcement industry.

Scot Spencer, the Casey Foundation's associate director for advocacy and influence, said that can have long-term negative effects. "Having a parent incarcerated can be a lifelong experience," he said. "It has the same magnitude of impact as abuse, domestic violence and divorce." [Public News Service]

Conceding South Dakota's bleak history of incarcerating adolescents and young adults Marty Jackley's School to Prison Pipeline has gotten the shaft.

South Dakota's attorney general's office has a history of being more like a KGB unit, according to David Newquist at the Northern Valley Beacon. Jackley receives campaign contributions from the very people he is obligated to oversee.

Todd Epp has called Pierre a Reichstag.

Exacerbating prison population and hopelessness, personal income in South Dakota has plummeted under Republican Governor Denny Daugaard according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. The state is addicted to gambling creating staggering homelessness and despair.

Shootings in Sioux Falls are directly related to video lootery and residents are telling the press they don't want to live there anymore. School lockdowns are reaching epidemic levels in a state that grew up with open doors and optimism about the state's future is being dashed.

Even Kmart is leaving South Dakota as Main Streets in Yankton and Huron are being emptied by Walmart peddling poisonous plastic crap imported from China.

Instead of helping South Dakota's least fortunate, the state's Republican congressional delegation has moved to privatize hospitals in Indian Country enriching campaign donors like the Sanford and Rapid City Regional health care oligopolies.

Crony capitalists have been siphoning money from programs meant to fund Native education until an alleged murder/suicide exposed the corruption.

As hypocrisy reigns supreme at the highest levels of power in South Dakota residents endure Policing for Profit and civil forfeiture so the sitting governor can crow about his leadership and self-reliance while moral hazards pay the bills.

Attorney General Marty Jackley is not only a partisan twerp he's as dirty as the police forces he oversees. Jackley says he believes conflict of interest laws are too lax yet he is hoarding information on Bendagate that could put his political party in the legal cross hairs. He's struggling to raise enough campaign cash to run for governor.

Another Republican threatening to run for governor is sleaze ball, Mark Mickelson. A pale shadow of his father, the late Governor George Mickelson, Mark believes prosperity is more important than environmental protection and that Medicaid expansion for the state's least fortunate is inconsistent with South Dakota values.

There is no money for South Dakota education in medical or industrial cannabis and no video lootery revenue goes to the state's tribes. Cannabis prohibition is not protecting South Dakota kids any more than video lootery is.

This election year earth hater don Juan Thune is slithering back to the center hissing bipartisanism whilst getting squeezed by the pythons that brung him but his Democratic rival, Jay Williams is being revolutionary by adopting the kurtz template. Maybe Williams should be running for the state legislature instead.

The Tribal Marijuana Sovereignty Act has been introduced in the US House of Representatives. The five-page bill includes a section authorizing Indian Health Service medical professionals to make recommendations to their patients with regard to cannabis.

Despite lies from SDGOP, video lootery, payday loan sharks, domestic violence and homelessness are inextricably linked putting children at risk to more catastrophic consequences far more often than has happened in states that have legalized or lessened penalties for casual use of cannabis.

If people have forgotten cops are human, it's their own fault for allowing bad cops, systematic abuses and racism to go unchecked.

Cops' lives suck. Little wonder they abuse their families, alcohol, drugs, food, power, detainees and occasionally murder their wives.

Eisenhower was a socialist

South Dakota's porcine prevaricator, Pat Powers, may be an obese hypocrite; but, he is exactly right: the South Dakota Democratic Party, with less than 7k in the bank, is circling the drain without any chance of survival even as the national Republican Party is splintering.

Powers put up a post today saying no socialist has ever run for US President.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wouldn’t reveal just how high he’d raise income taxes on the rich during the Iowa presidential debate, but he guaranteed it wouldn’t be as much as it has been in the past. During the eight years of the Eisenhower presidency, from 1953 to 1961, the top marginal rate was 91 percent. (It was 92 percent the year he came into office.) For the duration of Eisenhower’s presidency, that rate affected individuals making $200,000 or more per year or couples making $400,000 and above per year. In 2015 dollars, that's roughly $1.7 million for an individual and $3.4 million for a couple. [PolitiFact]

Powers said he bought a T-shirt. Curious whether he had to pay extra for a 5X.

That would make John Thune a Communist by helping to empower the US military with tax and spend authority beyond President Eisenhower's wildest dreams.

Today, US infrastructure built under Eisenhower's direction is falling apart, especially in South Dakota, because of two disastrous wars waged by Bush Republicans costing at least $4 TRILLION.

SDDP has nothing to lose by being revolutionary yet blanches at the perception that the state party is run by pussies.

Napoli hinting SDGOP gubernatorial run

Personal income in South Dakota has plummeted under Governor Denny Daugaard.

Unfortunately, now that Bernie Hunhoff has abandoned statewide politics to spend more time with his, um...family, the South Dakota Democratic Party has nobody qualified to be governor.

But, earth haters abound in South Dakota's Republican gubernatorial primary so far. Embattled Attorney General Marty Jackley is mulling a go at it, so are ethics-neutral Mark Mickelson and scandal-plagued Avera lobbyist Lieutenant Governor Matt Michels. Career politician and Snow Queen Kristi Noem has all but ruled out a shot at South Dakota's chief executive.

Sovereign citizen Wendel Hiland has announced a third party run.

As South Dakota Governor I will stand with my fellow Citizens in defiance of unconstitutional overreach and abuses committed by the Federal, State and local Government. It's time WE remind Government who's in charge. [Facebook post]

GOP former Rapid City legislator and short guy, Bill Napoli is not so conciliatory.

Gov. Daugaard and his liberal Republicans have ripped off more than $200 million in tax increases in just two years from grandma and grandpa, the disabled, fixed income, veterans, families and low-income people. Now Daugaard wants us to believe it's OK for teenage boys to shower with your daughters at school. And we're told this is wonderful. Gov. Daugaard and his liberal Republicans are slapping each other on the back for the great liberal things they've done. Great? What are you going to do when that boy walks into your daughter's shower, strips and goes in to shower with your daughter? What happens when taxes are so high the elderly have to decide between food or medicine because they don’t have enough money for both? Now, Daugaard wants to spend $50 million to expand Medicaid. [LTE: Bill Napoli]

Bill Napoli is the guy who believes some medical procedures should be reserved for white christian women who have been saving themselves for future husbands but who were brutally impregnated by non-white men.

A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life. [Rapid City Journal]

Sorry, Bill, Denny may be a dictator and he ain't no humanist: Daugaard is a capitalist lock, stock and melody.

Hey, Bill: if you're so pissed why do don Juan Thune and Krusti Noem not have primary contenders?