Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Washington DC based Punchbowl News, covering the decision makers at the US Capitol, has done some surveying of who might end up in charge when Mitch McConnell departs.

And currently favored appears to be South Dakota’s senior US Senator, John Thune:

Who will be the next Senate Republican leader? Just a little background here: There’s a lot of chatter about who will be the next Senate GOP leader: Sens. John Thune (S.D.), John Cornyn (Texas) or John Barrasso (Wyo.).

The Canvass shows that Thune is the slight favorite — 41% say he’ll be the next leader. 37% say Cornyn will be the next leader, and just 8% say it will be Barrasso. This was only asked of Republicans.

You can subscribe to the Punchbowl News here.

 

Remember this blaring headline a couple weeks back from the liberals declaring that a legislative joint resolution was subject to referendum:

Instead of pretend experts, people who went to law school and know a thing or two weighed in today on the topic. And they unanimously disagreed:

The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Dakotans for Health cannot refer House Joint Resolution 5003 for a vote of the people because it is not a law. South Dakotans have the ability to refer laws passed by the Legislature to a vote, but the resolution doesn’t qualify, the court ruled.

“HJR 5003 is not a law enacted by the Legislature,” wrote Chief Justice Steven Jensen. “It does not contain an enacting clause and was not submitted to the governor for signature or veto.”

and..

HJR 5003 is a proposed constitutional amendment that will go to voters during the primary election in June. If voters approve the measure, it would require that any future initiated measure or constitutional amendment that obligates the state to spend $10 million or more within five years require approval by three-fifths of all voters.

Read that all here.

Looks like we’re going to be voting on a constitutional amendment in the next primary, as affirmed by the State Supreme Court.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Passes Reps. Gallego, Johnson, O’Halleran, Cole Bill to Support Native Veterans Attending Tribal Colleges and Universities

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, the House Veterans Affairs Committee passed H.R. 2878, the Native VetSuccess at Tribal Colleges and Universities Pilot Program Act. The bipartisan bill was reintroduced last week by Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), and Tom Cole (R-OK) to connect Native veterans and their families to VA services and vocational support by expanding the VetSuccess on Campus (VSOC) program to Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).

The VSOC program places VA counselors on campus to help Veterans, Servicemembers, and their qualified dependents complete their education and prepare them for future employment and success. VSOC currently provides services to thousands of veterans at 104 institutions of higher education across the country. The Native VetSuccess at Tribal Colleges and Universities Pilot Program Act will establish this innovative and successful model at Tribal Colleges and Universities in order to provide Native veterans:

• Adjustment counseling to help veterans complete education programs and ultimately secure employment
• Vocational testing services
• Educational and career counseling
• Expedited veteran readiness and employment (VR&E) services
• Referrals through VA Medical Centers, Community-Based Outpatient Clinics, or Vet Centers

“Educational and career counseling programs are critical to the long-term success of our native veterans. There’s no reason the VetSuccess on Campus program shouldn’t include tribal colleges as well,” said Johnson. “Yesterday the Veterans Affairs Committee signed off on our bill, getting us one step closer to ensuring our Native veterans are able to take full advantage of the services they’ve earned.”

“Native veterans fought for our country in every war since the American Revolution and serve in our armed forces at higher rates than any other group.  However, they have the lowest utilization rate of VA services among veterans,” said Rep. Gallego, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.  “Today the Veterans Affairs Committee took an important step towards changing that by passing this bill to keep our promises to Native veterans no matter where they choose to receive higher education. I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle to sign this bill into law.”

“Tribal Colleges and Universities serve students from more than 230 federally recognized tribes across 16 states, including Arizona, and provide essential education, job, and skills training programs grounded in unique cultural traditions and values,” said O’Halleran. “As the representative for Arizona’s First Congressional District, a vast and diverse area that includes 12 Indian Nations and Tribes, I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure that Native American veterans have access to the highest quality education available; I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this important bill that will aid veterans and servicemembers finishing their degrees and give them the tools they need to succeed afterwards.”

“Native Americans lead all racial and ethnic groups in terms of enlisting for military service and we must continue to provide them with access to the quality education they truly deserve,” said Rep. Cole, Co-Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus. “By establishing a pilot program at Tribal Colleges and Universities, we can connect Native veterans to programs such as educational and career counseling, vocational testing and expedited veteran readiness and employment services. I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this important legislation that will provide them with the tools critical to their success after their service.”

The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) endorsed the bill.

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President Trump is back on the Internet on his own terms as the “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” website has been launched.

As you can read, President Trump is back with the former president hitting the Internet supporting his allies, attacking those he views as his enemies, and generally doing the same things he did via twitter, except this time on his own platform.

You can read the website at www.donaldjtrump.com.

SD Woki-Leaks strikes again in their latest article as they call for an investigation to determine if the Board of Regent’s policy on plagiarism was violated when a memorandum on “implicit bias” was written:

In this article, we will highlight another serious problem with the memorandum: It appears to violate South Dakota Board of Regents (BOR) policy on academic misconduct and plagiarism. The memorandum, which presents itself as being evidence-based, borrows a significant amount of content from a previously-published research brief written by “gender equity” activists. The Provost’s memorandum acknowledges this only with a fine-print disclaimer buried at the end, while misleadingly portraying the borrowed content as the author’s own research/writing in the rest of the document. This violates the spirit, and, possibly, the letter, of BOR policy on academic misconduct and plagiarism.

and..

Given that students are not allowed to plagiarize or engage in academic misconduct, and may be sanctioned for doing so, it seems quite fair and appropriate that USD – preferably in conjunction with the BOR – initiate an investigation into Provost Hackemer’s “Implicit Bias” memorandum, to assess whether it indeed violates BOR policy.

Read the entire article here.

It looks like Rapid City drew the short straw, and will be the home of this year’s “Red Pill Expo” on June 5th & 6th.

What exactly is the Red Pill expo? One article about the 2020’s version of the event noted:

The second annual Red Pill Expo, a creation of conspiracy theorist and author G. Edward Griffin, expects to attract about 400 attendees, who paid between $400 and $420 each to listen to a long list of speakers warn them against the dangers of college, the deep state, vaccines, globalism, a rigged banking system and false reports of global warming.

and..

The speakers are “far-right extremists, who employ a plethora of conspiracy theories to explain things,” Lenz said. “It’s a marketplace for conspiracy theories. It can be everything from the truth behind chemtrails, to realizing the Federal Reserve is a system to keep poor people poor and rich people rich.”

The second annual event is led by Griffin, who according to published reports, believes cancer is a nutritional deficiency that can be cured by taking a certain compound, and that HIV does not cause AIDS. He is a longtime member of the conservative John Birch Society.

Read it all here.

The founder has a video speaking about this years’ event on their website:

And you can watch and read all about it yourself here.

I’d never heard of this event, so I clicked on the section on their website that goes into their beliefs, particularly on 9/11:

There are four theories to explain the cause of building collapse on 9/11: (1) Fires weakened the steel structure; (2) Controlled demolition severed the support columns with high heat and explosives; (3) A directed-energy weapon destroyed the support columns and just about everything else; and (4) Controlled demolition and directed energy were used together.

and..

However, the most important aspect of this issue is not which theory we favor, but that all theories – other than the bizarre theory of fire – lead to the mind-crushing conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job.

Oh my.

If you look at the speaker list on the main page, you’re treated to optics such as Anti-vaxxers, Anti-maskers, COVID conspiracies, 9-11 conspiracies, someone who claims the US Capitol insurrection was fake, and much more.

I think I’ll pass. I get the feeling this convention would be too much like reading Lora Hubbel’s facebook page.

A South Dakota Republican Women’s group is apparently hosting a zoom conference with US Representative Lauren Boebert later this month on May 27th.

Boebert has been somewhat of a controversial figure in politics, including her latest act as she unfurled a space blanket at the State of the State Address in protest of the caged children at the border.

The event is scheduled for May 27th, and interested parties can register to participate in the zoom call by clicking here.

In a subscribers only article today on the Argus Leader website, the South Dakota University system whistleblower Woki-Leaks takes center stage as the article discusses the after-effects of when university faculty engage in name-calling:

“The professors yapping about us being racists wasn’t the place to go,” said May, who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation and whose husband and children are enrolled members of the tribe.

and..

Maher, a Republican who lives in Isabel on the Cheyenne River Reservation, said he employs Native Americans. He criticized academics who hurl insults from the ivory tower of academia who don’t have an understanding of what life is like on the reservation.

“If you’re going to talk smack, at least get your ass out here and see what life is like,” he said.

and..

For his part, Brian Maher said he doesn’t think the differences between the campus and Capitol ideologies are irreconcilable, but he said the name-calling makes his job harder.

Read it all here.

And there’s much more. Go check it out.

I had a note this AM that Governor Kristi Noem is on the front page of the New York Times this morning in a speculative article about the possibility of her running for President in 2024.

Predictably, there was manufactured silliness (I.e., claims that Kristi “has an increasingly awkward relationship with John Thune”). The article does give a glimpse on those in South Dakota Politics who are fans, and those who seem to actively oppose her in the SDGOP:

Russell Olson, a former South Dakota lawmaker who was elected to the Legislature alongside Ms. Noem in 2006, said Ms. Noem is “a conservative woman and can talk without regurgitating talking points, so she rises to easy consideration in my book.”

and..

“Love her or hate her, she’s the best resource South Dakota has going for it right now,” said Lee Schoenbeck, the leader of the State Senate. “She’s got such a platform.”

and..

“She says whatever she thinks she needs to say,” said Taffy Howard, a state lawmaker who has pressed Ms. Noem to disclose the details of state money she has been using for security on her frequent trips. “This was all about keeping her donors happy.”

Read the article here.

The article does come from The NY Times (as written by a CNN Analyst) so take those biases into account.

However, it leaves little doubt that Kristi is a favorite for many, and could quite possibly be a candidate for President in the future.

(For now – let’s make sure we re-elect Governor Noem in 2022!)

South Dakota’s far left political blog Dakota Free Press has apparently been off the air since yesterday.

But even more curious is that author Cory Heidelberger’s original website Madville Times is also off the air with an identical “Error establishing a database connection.”

I imagine there are some notions that are so nutty that even our computer overlords have to say “Oh Hell No.”

*Update*

Looks like Cory resolved his technical issues. However, I’m sure the errors in his hard-left writing will continue to plague him.