Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Rounds: Ellsworth AFB Officially Named First Home of the B-21 Raider Bomber

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today announced that Ellsworth Air Force Base will officially be the Air Force’s first base to receive the new B-21 Raider bomber.

During a call this afternoon with Air Force Global Strike Commander General Timothy Ray, Sen. Rounds was informed that Ellsworth has been officially designated as the future home of the B-21.

“I am pleased that the U.S. Air Force has officially selected Ellsworth Air Force Base as the first home of the B-21 Raider bomber,” Rounds said. “This landmark decision makes certain that South Dakota will continue to play a critical role in our national defense. The selection of Ellsworth is a testament to the hard work of our Air Force personnel on the ground at Ellsworth and the communities of Box Elder and Rapid City that have worked hard to improve the long-term suitability of the base for this new state-of-the-art aircraft.

“As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I’ve worked actively to secure full funding for the B-21 program being developed by Northrup Grumman for the Air Force. I can tell you that this is one of the most advanced weapon systems to ever be developed. The B-21 will help deter our adversaries, especially China, thanks to its long-range, speed, stealth and payload. This weapon system will play a crucial role in the defense of our nation and have a huge economic impact on the Rapid City area for the next 50 years.”

Background:

In March 2019, the Air Force announced Ellsworth was the preferred location for the first home of the B-21 Raider bomber.

In January 2021, Rounds’ provision to address the Air Force’s bomber shortfall, which directly supports B-21 bomber program and Ellsworth Air Force Base, became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021.

In December 2019, Rounds secured full funding for the B-21 bomber program with the signing of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2020.

As governor, Rounds successfully advocated for the removal of Ellsworth from the Department of Defense’s proposed closure list during a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round in 2005. Following that effort, he led a legislative effort to establish the South Dakota Ellsworth Development Authority (SDEDA). Now a permanent fixture, the SDEDA’s mission is to protect, strengthen and promote the base.

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Newsmax, one of the top cable news channels was one of our very first commercial advertisers over a decade ago.

And out of the blue they reached out today, and are rejoining Advertiser’s Row here at South Dakota War College for a period of time as they inform TV viewers in South Dakota that MIDCO Cable TV doesn’t seem very amenable to adding them to the channel lineup.

Please take a moment, and click on their link, and find out the story behind MIDCO’s unwillingness to offer their channel to viewers.

And please also take a moment to visit our other advertisers including Marty Jackley, Jordan Youngberg, Americans for Prosperity – South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem, US Senator John Thune, Dusty Johnson for US Congress, and the South Dakota Republican Party!

Remember – SDWC has limited advertising opportunities available for reaching South Dakota’s opinion leaders as we move past the 2021 Legislative Session, including our #2 advertising position.

If someone is making laws, keeping up on the issues or what’s happening in campaigns, or promoting legislation, they’re stopping here to check South Dakota’s political climate. South Dakota War College provides candidates, companies, and organizations a unique opportunity to direct a targeted message at South Dakota’s politically active elected officials, and community opinion leaders.

Advertising on the Dakotwarcollege.com website is based on a first come, first serve basis for available positions.  Advertising slots may be either static image, animated .gif, or other, as long as the file size is within acceptable file parameters, does not impede the loading of the website, or interfere with existing code.  All ads run through-site, and are not rotated in their positions.

Information on ad prices, ad positions, and ad commitments may be directed to the webmaster by clicking here, and by dropping me a note today!

 

Thune: Biden Builds Back Big Government

“Under the Biden budget, in just a few short years working Americans could be facing thousands of dollars in higher taxes. All these hikes, of course, are an attempt to pay for the Biden administration’s new spending.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed President Biden’s budget, which would raise taxes by $3.6 trillion over 10 years. The budget would raise taxes on middle-class families by allowing the tax relief Republicans passed in 2017 to expire. It also proposes at least 30 separate tax increases, including a hike in the capital gains tax, a hike in the top income tax rate, and a new death tax.

This Saturday 6-12-2021 the Young Republicans of South Dakota will hold their Annual Convention from 1:00pm-3:00pm at Beal Distributing located at 4815 N. Northview Avenue Sioux Falls, SD 57107. The cost to attend the event is $10.

Please join them for updates from the SD YR’s and a National YR update. They will have guest speakers, including State Senators, Statewide Elected Officials and more! They will also be voting on an updated Constitution and Leadership positions. They are working diligently to engage the 18–40-year old voter base in the state and look forward to seeing people of all ages at the convention to showcase what they have been working on.

After the SDYR Convention they invite you to a Pub Crawl in Downtown Sioux Falls.  They will be starting at Pave at 4 pm.  Here is the schedule:

4 pm – Pave
5 pm – Tommy Jacks
6 pm – Bin 201
7 pm – Lucky’s

The Argus Leader has an article on-line today where they’re speculating on who the Democrats could pick for Governor, and Argus political reporter Joe Sneve presents us with a list of six names, with several leaving us head scratching.  Now, Joe is arguably one of the best political reporters they’ve had since Dave Kranz… but I’m not sure where he came up with some of these picks speculating on who the Democrats might run:

South Dakota Democratic Party vice chair Nikki Gronli told the Argus Leader last week the party is working with a handful of potential candidates considering a 2022 run for the governor’s mansion in Pierre. But formal decisions likely won’t come until late summer or early fall.

“No one is ready to come out just yet,” she said, adding several party members from across the state are in the exploratory phase of a campaign, conducting behind-the-scenes polling to assess where they stand and waiting to see who else emerges.

Read that here.

From here, he comes up with a list of six names .. and as noted, some of them seem to be coming out of left field, as Joe tells us to look at Billie Sutton, Dan Ahlers, Bob Sutton, Troy Heinert, Brendan Johnson, Mike Huether, and Steve Hildebrand.

Er…..Maybe we can take a couple of those names seriously.  But there’s a number on the list that I just can’t.

Of the serious ones, all Democrats would kill to have Billie Sutton run again.. even though Kristi stripped him of his “he might be conservative aura” in the last election to show that he flip-flops on abortion, has mentioned exploring a state income tax, and the whole Bernie Sanders thing. So he’d be starting from that far behind.

Dan Ahlers would be one of the not serious ones, as evidenced from the abysmally bad campaign he ran for US Senate last election.

Avera CEO Bob Sutton switching parties and running? Where did Joe come up with this off-the-wall one? Bob has been Republican for years, and I don’t think that him dropping his position to get into politics is even conceivable.  Nobody says I’m in high position in one of the state’s top organizations, and I want to drop it all to get beat up for the next year running for office, and then if I win, I have to live in Pierre, and still get beat up.

Troy Heinert is noted as telling “the Argus Leader he’s eyeing a statewide run.”  I see that as one of the few serious possibilities, as I could see Heinert taking one for the team and running so Democrats have an opponent.

Brendan Johnson? I was just reading even today that he’s more interested in being an attorney and has no interest in running for office. He’d be on their wish list, but if he ran, I don’t think he’d want to be Governor.

Mike Huether running as a Democrat? Well, remember that time when he was their highest ranking elected Democrat, and the headline in the paper read “Huether Dumps Dems?” And he took inspiration from Donald Trump.   I’m sure that would play well with the Democrat Faithful.

I’ve heard rumors that Huether would only re-write a 1 year contract with KELO for his show because he might run for office within the next two years.. but Democrats seriously running him as a candidate?  I think that bridge was not just burned, but was blown up.

And rounding out the list is perpetual I-might-run Steve Hildebrand. Which is another one that can’t be taken seriously, since he’s been said to maybe-run for every race for the last decade.  That’s another dog that isn’t going to hunt.

So, on the list might be Heinert as the most serious candidate, followed closely by Sutton.. and it drops off quickly?

Democrat’s hopes for Governor are looking as bleak as their congressional chances.

Had a correspondent send me this postcard from out west, because they know that I love to point out the bad ones. And it really raises the question whether an endorsement is really an endorsement when most of the text is spent expounding on one’s own virtues?

I think we could probably call this an oversized ego-card versus an endorsement card.

Stan (or should I say, one of Stan’s many PAC’s) actually has his name larger on the card than the candidate he’s endorsing.  It literally only mentions the candidate’s full name once, but in smaller type than his own name on the front.  Where he rambles on at length about himself.

Definitely doesn’t pass the 15 second test – what can you read in the amount of time between the mailbox and the rubbish bin. Seeing the huge picture of an old man, most likely mistook it for a medicare supplement advertisement.

Stan’s endorsement has been the kiss of death in the past. So maybe the School Board candidate is ok with the fact that she hardly appears on it.

Although it could have been worse. At least there wasn’t a pentagram on this one.

There’s some chatter at ArgusLeader.com in a subscribers only article over the leadership of the State House and Senate removing State Rep. Shaun Bordeaux from the Chairmanship of the State-Tribal Relations Committee:

“To be frank, it’s his racist behavior that caused numerous conflicts, and because of his racist conduct, there needed to be different leadership without a doubt,” Schoenbeck Saturday said of Bordeaux, now the former chairman of the State-Tribal Relations Committee.

Schoenbeck said the beef with Bordeaux goes back to a 2019 committee meeting the Rosebud Sioux tribal member was chairing in which an apple was used to insult a Native American member of Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration. The term “apple,” Schoenbeck said, is used to insult Native Americans perceived to be “red on the outside and white on the inside.”

and..

Bordeaux countered, though, saying Schoenbeck and Gosch are “playing the race card” when their decision to pull the plug is actually retribution for him pointing out shortcomings between the state of South Dakota and the state’s tribes and to deny him the ability highlight them through the committee.

Read the entire article here.

Bordeaux has a documented record of saying some fairly horrible things, as we noted here in 2019 when he was speaking to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in his position as State Representative…

My daughter is a typical teenager. I know this doesn’t fit democrat leadership’s narrative, but I love my adopted children the same as my biological. It’s unfortunate that racism is alive and well in 2019 in SD. pic.twitter.com/3PT8gFKSTe

— Joel Koskan (@joelkoskan) May 22, 2019

“I’ll be up there in Pierre, and there will be some old wasichu guy, and I hate to paint this picture, but I see a little indian girl, and I’m thinking gee that poor girl might come from a dysfunctional home, was taken out of it, and she’s probably cleaning in their home, and keeping the place tidy, and he gets $300 a month for his little indentured servant or whatever.”    – State Representative Shawn Bordeaux (26A – D)

Read that, and watch the video of him saying that here.

And let’s also not forget when he referred to Italian-americans as “guidos” and inferred they’re in the mafia.

Bordeaux also drew a parallel with casinos on Indian lands. When they first came, people feared the worst.

“When gaming first came out, they said there’s going to be mafia, and all the Indians are going to have all this crime. It’s going to be all over the reservations,” he said. “I ain’t seen one Guido yet … those folks who are supposed to be the mafia folks haven’t showed up.”

Read that here.

So House and Senate leadership removed Bordeaux as chair of the State-Tribal Relations Committee?

Too bad it took them this long. It was well past time.

A Tale of Two Pipelines
By Sen. John Thune

The recent Colonial Pipeline hack was a stark reminder of the importance of American energy independence and security. Americans should never have to question whether they will have reliable and affordable access to energy and fuel, but lines at gas pumps across the northeast hearkened back to the 1970s, when conflict in the Middle East resulted in serious shortages in the United States.

Over the last several decades, Republicans have prioritized efforts to ensure that our country can rely almost entirely on North American energy sources instead of imports from overseas – and we’ve made great strides. But for America to maintain its competitive energy posture, we cannot hamstring industries that have helped reduce our dependency on foreign energy. Unfortunately, President Biden has already begun to do just that, starting when he halted construction of the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of his presidency.

The pipeline, which was already under construction, would have run through nine counties in South Dakota and brought economic growth to small towns like Philip and Murdo. Its cancellation will rob 11,000 Americans of good-paying jobs – all because of exaggerated concerns over the environmental impact and an unrealistic and costly agenda to end the use of fossil fuels.

Pipelines are the most environmentally responsible way of transporting oil, and even the Obama administration agreed that Keystone XL was the most environmentally sensitive approach compared to using rail or trucks. The project’s emissions would also be entirely offset with a $1.7 billion investment in renewable energy. President Biden’s decision to cancel this infrastructure project was shortsighted and entirely counterproductive. The oil in question needs to be transported whether Keystone XL is built or not, especially as consumer demand for fuel rebounds.

Given President Biden’s firm position on the Keystone XL pipeline, I find it particularly troubling that he took a notably different position on a pipeline being built from Russia to Germany – the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. His administration recently decided not to sanction the builders of the Russian pipeline because, as the president said, “It’s almost completely finished.” Allowing the successful construction of Nord Stream 2 will make our European allies more dependent on Russia’s energy monopoly for their energy supplies and serve an economic blow to Ukraine as it fends off Russian aggression. The president has talked aggressively about countering Russian President Vladimir Putin and his destabilizing agenda, but now, with a chance to do something about halting construction of the pipeline, President Biden is taking the pressure off.

It’s a tale of two pipelines: our president has decided to allow the construction of Nord Stream 2, a Russian pipeline that will leave our European allies more vulnerable to Russia, and halted construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would create 11,000 American jobs and transport Canadian and American crude oil in the most environmentally safe way. Unfortunately, it feels like the president is picking Russia’s energy monopoly, to the detriment of America and South Dakota’s energy independence, and putting politics over practicality.

It’s not just President Biden who is pushing these kinds of left-wing energy policies. I’ve spoken out against the Democrats’ $259 billion “Clean Energy for America Act” because of its expansive wish list of new government spending. I’ve argued that if we want to make meaningful, fiscally responsible investments in American energy, it will require a real “all-the-above” approach.

Since being elected to Congress, I have promoted the use of home-grown biofuels to help reduce carbon emissions from transportation, and many people may be surprised to learn that due to robust hydroelectric and wind energy, approximately 70 percent of South Dakota’s energy production is renewable. Still, President Biden and Democrats are wrong to increasingly minimize the critical role oil and natural gas play in ensuring affordable and reliable energy for all Americans.

While I’m a longtime advocate of clean energy and clean fuels, the fact of the matter is that our economy is still going to need traditional sources of energy – namely oil and natural gas – for a long time to come. I hope Democrats change course and work with Republicans on delivering affordable and reliable energy to consumers, creating and expanding good-paying jobs for American workers, and securing American energy independence – all while lowering our emissions.

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