What was the quote from Animal House?

I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!

Well, take that, Chairman Wiik.  Because failed Congressional hopeful, and someone who was being investigated for a possible felony related to his petitions, Justin McNeal is taking his revenge against Real Republicans.  And he got us back good now! Because according to the FEC, he’s forming the “Bull Moose Party.”

BullMooseMcNeal-202405089645562384 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Not sure what he’s going to do with that.  Maybe he can raise a whole $10 by the end of the year, and by gosh, show us.

It kind of reminds me when Lora Hubbel went over to the Constitution party. And broke it.

Hot off the press from the Argus is one of the dumber releases from State Democrats that I’ve seen in a while.

Not that we’ve seen a lot of life from the other side of the aisle:

Party Chair Shane Merrill and Vice Chair Jessica Meyers called for Fury’s removal in a statement Tuesday, citing “negative national headlines” garnered during his time as Noem’s communications lead.

and..

“At a time when Gov. Noem once again lacks a chief of staff, action must be made to hold individuals accountable for what can only be described as an utter failure in doing the basics of a public relations job,” Merrill and Meyers wrote in the joint statement. “Fury should not have allowed the publication of the Governor’s recent book without proper fact-checking and review.”

and..

SDDP Executive Director Dan Ahlers told Argus Leader on Tuesday that while the recent negative publicity focused on South Dakota is tied to the dog-killing anecdote and inaccuracies included Noem’s book, Fury is responsible for the public relations “fumbles.”

Read the story here.

So, let’s get this straight. Democrats are demanding the ouster of a state employee, because he did not involve himself in the political aspect of what Governor Noem does? But they want to hold him accountable, because he “should not have allowed the publication of the Governor’s recent book.”

I’m pretty sure if there was information he was responsible for reviewing her book on the state’s dime, they would then be complaining he was doing so as a state employee.

I think Democrats can go back into their burrow for another 3-4 months, as they’ve managed to accomplish nothing once again.

Rounds Introduces Legislation to Prevent Mandatory Electronic Tagging of Livestock

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today introduced legislation that would prevent federal government overreach on the operations of South Dakota farmers and ranchers. The bill would prevent the Secretary of Agriculture from implementing any rule or regulation requiring the mandatory use of electronic identification tags, or RFID tags, on cattle and bison.

In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published a proposal to require cattle and bison to have visually and electronically readable tags. This proposed rule would also require records to be entered into a tribal, state or federal database, allowing the federal government to access this information.

“South Dakota cattle producers don’t need DC bureaucrats telling them how to manage and track their livestock,” said Rounds. “USDA’s proposed RFID mandate is federal government overreach, plain and simple. I’m pleased to be introducing this legislation to block the Secretary of Agriculture from mandating the use of electronic tags in cattle and bison herds. If farmers and ranchers want to use electronic tags, they can do so voluntarily.”

This legislation is endorsed by the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and R-CALF USA.

“The South Dakota Stockgrowers Association applauds the efforts of Senator Rounds in introducing this bill to allow livestock producers the right to choose what form of ID they wish to use,” said Doris Lauing, Executive Director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association. “Whereas we have had ample protection and means to trace any animal health issues in the past, the mandatory direction by the United States government to use electronic animal ID tags will be a violation of constitutional personal property rights and unnecessary expense.”

“It’s nonsensical for the Secretary of Agriculture to complain that America is losing too many farmers and ranchers while simultaneously forcing America’s farmers and ranchers to purchase and use the most expensive form of animal identification available today – electronic identification ear tags,” said Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA. “These ear tags will cost the industry tens of millions of dollars without any means of recovery from the marketplace. This is government overreach at its worst and we’re thankful Senator Rounds is taking decisive action to protect the freedoms and liberties of America’s cattle producers by allowing them to continue choosing how to manage their cattle operations.”

Click HERE for full bill text.

###

Following up to my post of a May 6 about not seeing any evidence of Rick Weible campaigning for District 8 State Senate, I did come across evidence of what the Minnesota transplant and election goofball is up to instead.

Yep. Not campaigning. He’s hanging out in his basement in Elkton, rappin’ with the pillow guy about crazy stuff.   Starting at about 20 minutes in..  You can hear his latest, how Rick is sending things over to the FBI to demand they investigate election machines because he says they’re breaking federal law…

Yeah..  Many years ago my dearly departed father was a FBI agent out of Pierre who came up during the J. Edgar Hoover years. (I’ve posted my letter before from J. Edgar congratulating him on my birth.)

He’d get calls from time to time in the 70’s and 80’s about weird stuff like “truckers are trying to extort my husband” and things like that.  I recall him relating someone in Pierre calling him at home and declaring that “there are communists in state government” and he needed to investigate.  I won’t say who said that, because she’s passed, was otherwise a nice lady, and it was probably awkward for him to see her in church.

I’m guessing for the agents, the Rick conspiracies have about as much priority as “the communists” call did for my dad in the face of AIM, death, murder, rape, kidnapping, and the plethora of crimes that the FBI investigates in South Dakota, since anything that happens on the reservation is federal.

I would put the Weible election conspiracies right up there on the list of things they’ll look at when they have time.

This is all a good example why we don’t want to elect goofballs with an election fetish.

Liar, liar, Toby Doeden’s dumpster is on fire. 

Coming off of the heels of the Toby Doeden PAC endorsements yesterday, his Political Action Committee blasted out text messages of endorsement to several candidates that didn’t exactly ring true, including this one about the things that Tom Pischke fights for in Pierre which is peppered with an unbelievable amount of complete fabrications:

“Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats from outside of South Dakota are attempting to take out one of the greatest and most conservative members of our South Dakota State Senate, Thomas Pischke!

We need every single Conservative Republican in South Dakota to join the fight to defend Tom and protect our beautiful state from those who are trying to destroy it.

Who wrote this utterly unbelievable nonsense?  “Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats from outside of South Dakota are attempting to take out one of the greatest and most conservative members of our South Dakota State Senate.”  Do they mean greatest as in his ability to get kicked out of caucus, or kicked out of the House of Representatives? Or greatest as in his inability to pass legislation?

Even more unbelievable. who exactly are these “Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats” trying to take him out?   In fact, one of the recipients of the ridiculous text message asked that very question, and called Toby out on what they described as a “straight up lie, very sad.:”

The response after asking for the list of “dark money special interest groups backed by liberal democrats?”

Well, it was crickets. Proving that it’s just meaningless puffery for puffery’s sake.

This comes as a surprise. On their website today, the newspaper for the Pierre/Ft. Pierre area has announced that it’s changing to a once a week publication :

South Dakota Cannabis Legalization Campaign Submits 29,030 Signatures to South Dakota Secretary of State 

The group is seeking to place an initiated measure on the November 2024 ballot that would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older 

Pierre, SD – Today, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the political group that led the 2020 and 2022 campaigns to legalize cannabis in South Dakota, submitted petitions containing 29,030 signatures in support of its proposed ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older.

“Today is the culmination of seven months of hard work by advocates and volunteers across South Dakota,” said Matthew Schweich, executive director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. “We are very confident that we have collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for this November’s ballot.”

In South Dakota, an initiated measure requires 17,508 signatures from registered voters in order to qualify for the ballot. Today is the deadline for submitting petitions to South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson.

“Things all seem to be moving in the right direction for South Dakota to finally win the freedom they voted for a few years ago,” said Deb Peters, President of the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota. “At the federal level, things are moving towards a responsible rescheduling and dozens of states are seeing the tax benefits of recreational cannabis legalization. It’s inspiring to see this industry come together and work so hard. We’re looking forward to Election Day. “

In 2020, South Dakota became the first state in the country to legalize medical cannabis and adult-use cannabis in the same election. Following the 2020 election, Governor Noem orchestrated a lawsuit that ultimately repealed the legalization law approved by 54% of voters in a highly controversial ruling. At the same time, advocates were able to defeat Governor Noem’s legislative attempt to delay implementation of the medical cannabis policy.

“The effects of Governor Noem’s actions, including leading the lawsuit against Amendment A, have left a lot of South Dakotans feeling as though their votes do not matter,” said Quincy Hanzen, deputy director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. “If this initiative qualifies for the ballot, we hope South Dakota voters will show up on November 5th and make their voice heard.”

Having received the petitions, South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson will now oversee a review of the signatures and determine whether the proposed initiated measure has qualified for the ballot. A decision is expected in the next several weeks.

To read the full text of the initiative, visit: https://sdbml.org/text

# # #

Oh wow.

District 17 Republican Legislative candidate Robin Schiro was just at the Vermillion Area Chamber & Development Company’s Legislative forum today and claims that while she was in jail for 4 1/2 days, she was tortured with electricity, and raped while in jail.

But don’t take my word for it. Starting at about 8:30 in the video, you can watch and listen for yourself:

Wow. Just wow.

It’s a jungle out there. Or, it looks like the jungle primary might be moving towards trying to get on the ballot as after backing from out-of-state interests, as the group has managed to pull together enough petition signatures on their 3rd, 4th? run at it to get on the ballot for another try:

Backers of each ballot measure said they’re turning in petitions this week, bringing the number of measures on the ballot or pending for addition to the ballot to six, with potential remaining for more. The deadline to submit petitions for a new law or law change is Tuesday. The deadline to refer a law passed by the Legislature to the ballot is June 25.

and..

He said the group (SD Open Primaries) is submitting about 46,000 signatures to the secretary of state, surpassing the 35,017 signatures required for a proposed constitutional amendment.

and..

The initiative to legalize adult recreational marijuana use in the state has more than enough signatures and will be submitted around noon Tuesday, according to Matthew Schweich, who is leading the effort. He said the group has yet to count its signatures, but it has a “good, healthy buffer,” beyond the 17,508 needed for proposed laws not amending the state constitution.

Read that here.

From a read of the article, the anti-ethanol group trying to repeal the landowner bill of rights also claim to be “confident they will collect the 17,508 it needs.”  But that’s assuming a lot.

What we need to watch for this election is a higher likelihood of change coming at us with regards to the measures that were turned in this week.

The Jungle Primary ballot measure has a significant infusions of out-of-state cash into the effort which means that they may – emphasis on may – be able to run a competent campaign this year, unlike in the past. But while the State Republican Party is directly expressing their opposition to the effort, one boost the jungle primary may find they have is the schism within the Republican party itself.

Despite promises that the Republican party would find internal solutions as opposed to legislative solutions to issues during the last couple of elections with how the Lt. Governor and some constitutional officers were chosen, and the lack of representative governing by precinct people as South Dakota one of the last outliers of the nominees for those positions being chosen by a handful of activists at convention; solutions just have not happened.

With the rejection of the proposed legislative fix of all, or a few constitutional offices being elected among all Republicans in the state, there is a weariness among a number of Republicans to keep fighting the fight against the jungle primary measure. While they aren’t willing to be active supporters, there are those Republicans who have watched promises of internal party fixes pass on by enough that they just simply aren’t going to fight the jungle primary anymore, and are just as happy to vote for it because it does something to shake up a system that seems broken, but lacks sufficient momentum for reforms.

I’ve spoken with more than one solid long-time Republican who have told me privately that they’re going to vote for it, because nothing else seems to have worked. It might be the confluence between cash and internal strife that could put it over.

Recreational Marijuana also seems to also have added momentum this year. With South Dakota a couple years in on the legalization of Medical Marijuana, and the earth hasn’t ended, it may be pot’s year. What’s different?  The spotlight is off of the Bob Newland’s and Melissa Mentele’s of the legalization movement and on the Deb Peters’, Kittrich Jeffries, Jeremiah Murphy’s and Dan Lederman’s of the business world who invest in it. It’s not about using. It’s about making money.

With legislators forming a framework under which the industry operates – and it is an industry now – outside of the open fields around Belle Fourche there has not been strong opposition, and despite further modification of the laws which brought it into effect, the medical industry survives, and they are hungry for the opportunities that expanding to fully legal would provide.

With South Dakota nestled between legalization states Minnesota and Montana, which are 2 of 24 that are legal, and North Dakota and Nebraska having decriminalized it to a point. Not to mention the US moving to allow it to be dispensed by prescription, and further relaxation of generational opposition as years go by, it may or may not be the year that South Dakota goes fully legal.

But they may stand a better chance now than in the past.

Keep your eyes on the ballot box. The election is growing more interesting as days pass.

Blink-and-you-missed-him Congressional explorer Toby Doeden might have sprinted away from challenging Dusty Johnson (can he sprint?) once it was revealed that he had never voted in a Republican primary over the last couple of decades, but it hasn’t put a damper on his sense of self-importance.

I had heard that he had actually attended his first Lincoln Day Dinner in Brown County a few weeks back where he was treated to listening to current Congressman and Republican Nominee Dusty Johnson give a rousing speech that energized the whole crowd. Doeden had a table, but for some reason he kept pacing and hovering by the back door. Apparently he must have been uncomfortable in a room with actual Republicans.

Anyway, if you recall, back in February, Doeden had declared he was going to endorse candidates, and had started with Fred Deutsch, who had quickly noped out of that one.  After that false start, it looks like Doeden is back pretending to be Republican by declaring his love for specific candidates running in the Republican Primary.

Since Doeden’s political activity has continued to be a dumpster fire, I think we can refer to these newly endorsed candidates as “Doeden’s Dumpster Divers,” since I’m sure they’re all going to be looking for a check from Aberdeen’s Covid welfare king.

Who are Doeden’s Dumpster Divers?  After going through a “vigorous vetting process to ensure they are bold conservatives,” included among their numbers are..

Did they say “bold,” when they meant “old?”  Well of course Carl Perry is there. I suspect that he’s included among the dumpster diver endorsees because Toby recognizes a good “yes man” when he sees one. Although, Carl might have to ask Al if it’s ok.

If there is one candidate running in the state who embodies the values of Toby Doeden, that would be Tom Pischke.  I’m told Tom may have left his position at esurance and is a full-time landlord now, which would endear him to Doeden. Plus, Tom’s embracing of xenobiotic electromagnetism and chemtrail conspiracies, and committee vote to keep those with rape convictions in the classroom, help fuel the dumpster fire to greater heights.

Where do I start with former Neal Tapio campaign worker Cole Heisey? It’s such a long list. Whether it’s rallying with the proud boys, Or telling the world that monogamy is outdated and declaring:

Out of millions of souls, one is bound to one only?  When so many have so much to offer?  Don’t we restrict ourselves by combining only two?  And not three and four?

Read that here.

I’ll just stop there, because any more and we might need to be hosed down with penicillin.

Who are the other endorsees?  You’ll also find D23 Senate Candidate Mark Lapka, as well as D1 House Candidates Logan Manhart and Christopher Reder.  Although, they might want to reconsider and not just walk, but run away from being another endangered raccoon in the flaming dumpster.

That’s the view from driving by the dumpster fire.  Best not to linger too long.