Rounds Discusses MCOOL and Ethanol with Ag Secretary Nominee

Rounds Discusses MCOOL and Ethanol with Ag Secretary Nominee

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) issued the following statement today following a discussion with Tom Vilsack, who President Biden recently nominated to be Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack previously served as Governor of Iowa and Secretary of Agriculture under President Barack Obama.

“South Dakota’s farm and ranch families are among the best producers in the world,” said Rounds. “They are great stewards of the land and need to be recognized for their efforts in feeding a growing population.

“Today, I had a productive conversation with Governor Vilsack. I expressed to him the need to re-engage in trade discussions so we can bring back Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) and other issues related to beef markets. For example, we must close a current loophole so that only beef born, raised and slaughtered in the United States should receive the “Product of the U.S.A.” label. He agreed with me that consumers have the right to know where their meat comes from.

“Additionally, we discussed the importance of ethanol, creating new markets for state-inspected meat processing facilities and the need to reform the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“I thank Governor Vilsack for taking the time to meet with me today and I look forward to working with him to address these issues critical to South Dakota should he be confirmed.”

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Governor Kristi Noem endorses Lederman, Rausch & others for SDGOP leadership election on Saturday

In e-mail correspondence sent to Republican county leaders today by SDGOP Vice Chair Linda Rausch, Governor Kristi Noem made it clear that she wants the SDGOP to stay the course as they prepare for the 2022 election cycle.

In the letter obtained this afternoon by dakotawarcollege.com, Governor Kristi Noem set out the mission of Republican leaders for the 2022 election; that they “will have brand new legislative districts to campaign in, and we have even more Republicans to elect to office. We will be defending a U.S. Senate seat, a U.S. House seat, the Governor’s Office, and several other statewide offices.

In the same letter, Governor Noem endorsed the current GOP Leadership team of Chairman Dan Lederman, Vice Chair Linda Rausch, Secretary Marilyn Oakes, and Treasurer Justin Bell to return for another term of office at the election that will be held at the State Republican Party Central Committee meeting this coming Saturday in Pierre.

The current team, led by Lederman, has managed to win a record number of legislative seats for the party, reducing Democrats to their slimmest number of elected seats in recent history.

Thune: Senate Democrats Must Leave Behind Partisan Agenda and Prioritize American People

Thune: Senate Democrats Must Leave Behind Partisan Agenda and Prioritize American People

“I still believe that we can come together in this Congress to address the challenges facing our country. But it’s going to require a lot more bipartisanship than we’ve seen from Senate Democrats.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch Thune’s speech.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed Senate Democrats’ partisan approach to additional COVID-19 relief funding, and noted that Senate Republicans continue to work to reach a bipartisan agreement. Thune also discussed Senate Democrats’ threats to abolish the Byrd rule, which was adopted to prevent abuse of the budget reconciliation process and to protect the rights of the minority in the Senate.

I see Dems are trying to talk Billie into running. Did they forget about why he lost?

I see Democrats are back on Facebook trying to encourage Billie Sutton to give it another go for Governor after the 2018 race:

But over the past 4 years, they seem to have selective amnesia as to why Sutton lost.

Part of it was leftover from a fairly divisive primary election for Republicans, which I don’t know will happen again.

And there was the other part.. where once you started looking at his record, Sutton just wasn’t anything that people proclaimed him to be:

Increased taxes, fairly wiggly on the life issue, and way too comfortable with the policies of Bernie Sanders.

I don’t know if a re-run of the race is going to go as well as some Democrats think it will be.

Thune, Schatz Reintroduce Bill to Make Annual Veteran Cost of Living Adjustment Automatic

Thune, Schatz Reintroduce Bill to Make Annual Veteran Cost of Living Adjustment Automatic

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today reintroduced the Veterans’ Disability Compensation Automatic Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the federal government to provide disabled veterans with an automatic COLA in years when there is an increase in benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act, which sets the requirements for disability insurance benefits.

“Our veterans have made immense sacrifices for our country, the least we can do is give them the peace of mind in knowing their benefits will increase as the cost of living does,” said Thune. “I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation with Senator Schatz to provide our disabled veterans the certainty they deserve.”

“There’s no reason that Congress shouldn’t guarantee an annual cost-of-living adjustment for our nation’s veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country,” said Schatz. “Our bill would make COLA benefit increases automatic so that our veterans have the certainty of knowing they’ll have enough to make rent and put food on the table.”

“MOAA is grateful for Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) for once again championing veterans and their families by introducing the Veterans’ Disability Compensation Automatic COLA Act of 2021,” said Lieutenant General Dana Atkins, president and CEO of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). “Each year veterans and their families must wait for Congress to approve annual cost-of-living adjustments for disability compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and rates for dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) for survivors, not knowing if lawmakers will pass the critically important measure so many rely on. This legislation will automatically provide the annual increase for disability compensation and DIC payments at the same percentage rate increase as Social Security, giving individuals the relief, they need to plan financially. MOAA thanks you for your continued commitment to serving our nation’s veterans by ensuring they receive the benefits they earned through service.”

The veterans’ COLA is usually, but not automatically, enacted each year and is already anticipated in the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline, which means this bill is budget-neutral and will provide disabled veterans additional certainty from year to year.

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Primary Thune facebook group promoting QAnon Congresswoman who claims Rothschild family uses secret space laser

The Primary John Thune facebook group has been getting some attention in recent days, a couple of months after the group founded by Julie Korth of Black Hawk, SD came to exist.

A recent Associated Press article brought up their efforts to find an opponent for John Thune. But… given what they’re using to fire up the group, what kind of candidate is the group trying to replace one of the top Republicans in the US Senate with?

If we’re to take the group’s founder and administrator Julie Korth’s postings to the group at face value, it seems like she wants someone just like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene:

The problem with Korth’s admiration and fealty to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene?  It seems that apparently the type of person Korth admires might be someone with a really, really loose grip on reality:

Greene’s views are just a bit more controversial. They include, but are by no means limited to, the following:

• The QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that Donald Trump is secretly fighting a worldwide child-sex-slavery ring that was supposed to culminate in the mass arrest of his political opposition, is “worth listening to.”

• Muslims don’t belong in government.

• 9/11 was an inside job.

• Shootings at ParklandSandy Hook, and Las Vegas were staged.

• “Zionist supremacists” are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people.

• Leading Democratic officials should be executed.

The most recent Greene view to be unearthed comes via Eric Hananoki. Just over two years ago, Greene suggested in a Facebook post that wildfires in California were not natural. Forests don’t just catch fire, you know. Rather, the blazes had been started by PG&E, in conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to clear room for a high-speed rail project. Here is Greene’s entire post, via Media Matters:

Read the entire story here.

You know, I think people are welcome to agree or disagree with Senator Thune. But I can’t see that the vast majority of South Dakotans would say that they want to replace him with someone even close to being a QAnon conspiracy nut. Especially someone who believes that the Rothschild family could be using secret space lasers to cause wildfires.

If that’s the kind of candidate Korth is selling, I suspect that the vast majority of Republicans are going to take a hard pass.

At least, in the past when given the choice of an incumbent versus a conspiracy goofball, that’s way GOP voters in South Dakota have rolled.

South Dakota War College celebrating 16 years in the blogosphere!

Recognizing that we’ve been kicking around for a while, South Dakota War College (or if you use the shorthand, dakotawarcollege) turns an incredible 16 years old on this coming Friday.   To celebrate, I’ll be writing, blogging, taking pictures, etc., from the State Capital Building in Pierre, the city where it all started.

When many political blogs fizzle out after a couple of years, somehow we’ve managed to stay active and relevant for more than a decade and 1/2 in the South Dakota political scene. While it’s not “Gold Watch” worthy, nowadays, I think keeping anything going for 16 years is a considerable amount of time.

It’s long enough to go from a 17 inch monitor on a PC I built myself to my Imac with a 27 inch screen. And long enough I find myself starting to use “office glasses” this year.

It’s really funny when I note my children who weren’t even in school/barely in school when I was starting to write the blog now relate that they run in to fellow college kids who find out their blog-related parentage and declare “that’s your dad, he’s awesome!”  To which they respond “Stop. No he’s not. He’s boring and spends all his time behind a computer.”

Or better yet, the questioner’s eyes get narrow, and my child gets a terse “So, your dad is Pat Powers who writes the blog.  Hmmph.”  One daughter usually smiles and replies in her pollyanish manner “Well, if you hate my dad, my mom is liked by a lot of people.”

Apparently you can’t please everyone. (As I check my back for tire tracks after all that rolling under the bus by my children.)

And maybe, one of they keys to my being around for as long as I have is that I haven’t really worried too much about pleasing people. I’m going to write about what I choose. Whether people are enthused about that or not.

When I started this back 16 years ago, I was working for State Government, and I actually had pressure from a high ranking staff member in offices on the 2nd floor that they didn’t want me writing it.  Blogs were new, and a lot of people were … uneasy with citizen journalism.  They actually went to my cabinet level boss at the time and told them they didn’t want me writing it.  To my boss’ eternal credit, as he related to me, “I told them it’s on your own time, and you have a first amendment right.”  (I believe he might have used the words “f.o.” if you know what the abbreviation is for.)

In my first year or two, I also get kicked out of a Republican Central Committee meeting, with the pronouncement to the crowd “There is a blogger in the room, and we have to ask him to leave.”

In the intervening years, the newness of citizen journalism has worn off, and people’s comfort level has improved somewhat, as you can tell from the Republican candidates and groups who now advertise here.  For the GOP, I’ve gone from getting kicked out of their meetings to a recognition that there’s a lot of the GOP opinion leaders who actively read the website, and it’s a good way to communicate their message to the people they want to read it.

With 16 years under my belt and looking towards the future, there have been times I’ve gotten bored with it. I even turned it over to others for a period for job purposes. But just when you think you’re out…. they pull you back in.

This blog has always and ultimately been about getting elected. When this started way back in 2005, my inaugural message noted “There are tons of good Republican candidates out there, but many of them lack someone to show them the way. Hopefully, this weblog can serve as a reference for campaign “newbies” and those with some experience to use as something to get them pointed in the right direction.”

Since then, I’ve gone far, far beyond that to talk more about what’s going on in the South Dakota political world, but I think the base message still resonates to those who have an interest in running for office.

If I can communicate anything to candidates, it’s to remind them to try to avoid doing foolish (or offensive) things. You’re running to convince not the 20% of people who are with you, but the 80% of people who are not, that you represent their best opportunity for a better future.  Be inspirational and aspirational.

Hopefully, that’s good advice.  Here’s to 16 more years, and we’ll see you in Pierre on Friday.

(I’ll try not to get kicked out of any more Republican Central Committee meetings. But no guarantees on that one.)

Change in Legislative vacancy appointments (that no one was asking for) crushed on House floor 2-1

House Joint Resolution 5002 met such a swift execution on the House Floor yesterday that Senator Rusch might bring a bill to make the consideration of its demise more merciful.

(Okay, that’s a death penalty legislation joke, but you get my point.)

House Joint Resolution 5002, a measure that no one had asked for it, proposed a Constitutional Amendment to strip the power of legislative appointment from the Governor, and hand it over to the state legislature or their designee, despite the language in the constitution giving that authority to the governor.

Suffice it to say that it didn’t go well.

While it passed out of committee, the House of Representatives took the measure to the woodshed and beat it badly on a 23-46 basis.

Part of the reason House members rejected it was that it was poorly conceived, just as it had been when it was introduced in a past session. According to the Argus Leader:

Dennert suggested the legislature craft rules around vacancy appointments similar to the process of replacing candidates on a ballot. In the latter instance, ranking members of a political party within the open legislative district would make the selection.

Read that here.

And that was that. However, if you’re a fan of bad legislation, take heart. The sponsor of the measure is already threatening us with it’s return:

Dennert told the Argus Leader on Thursday on the House floor he will not attempt to revive the resolution during this session but will potentially reintroduce it in future years.

Read that in the same place.

Given the measure’s track record.. I suspect I’ll be able to reprint the arguments against it at a future date.

Again.