Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Are businesses preparing for the impact of the perpetually-increasing minimum wage? Absolutely.  From the Argus Leader:

Sioux Falls McDonald’s customers will soon be able to order and pay for their meals from an app on their cell phone.

The technology will virtually eliminate the odds of some 16-year-old behind the counter messing up your order, checking “ketchup” when you wanted “mustard.”

As for that 16-year old, will their job be the next thing to go away?

Local restaurant owners insist the answer is no, but experts elsewhere predict a radical transformation is on the horizon for retail and restaurant workers as artificial intelligence, robots and other automation takes over many of the tasks humans perform today.

Read it all here.

Sorry local restaurant owners. If you disagree, you’re either kidding yourselves, or the article writer isn’t talking to many of them.  When it becomes cost neutral to install an automated system versus using a live employee, guess which one the employer is going to pick?

And as we experience the perpetually-increasing minimum wage for jobs that aren’t worth $10 or $15 an hour, that trend is only going to accelerate.

I just caught this on facebook, and thought it brought up a few items worthy of discussion, especially taking a contrarian viewpoint just for the sake of it.

There’s been a bit of hullabaloo over the group, and as you might notice by Steve Hickey’s comment below, some demonizing/dehumanizing (see “the industry is slime comment) going on.  But, are their actions worthy of the coverage that former Obama Campaign manager Steve Hildebrand is trying to whip up by calling his buddies in the media to cover?

Noting the post:

First, regarding Steve Hickey’s comment implying there’s something wrong that the group is “in front of Target today collecting signatures and their petitions haven’t been approved by the Secretary of State.”  I think my reply would be “so what?”

There are lots of groups who informally gather names on petitions, with some trying to gauge support on an issue so as to determine whether or not there is support for the change. And I mean lots. If there weren’t, then I suspect change.org wouldn’t exist.

From a political organization standpoint, if you’ve got a group of people hired, and are waiting for the AG and Secretary of State to complete their process, do you really want them sitting on their butts getting paid for doing nothing?  Why not send them out to get signatures of interested people that you can easily go back to.  The people who signed before are clearly identified supporters who signed a preliminary petition of support. It should be child’s play to send people back to them to get a signature on a real petition.

It’s not like they can use them otherwise. They’re signed and dated.

And then, there’s the other part where the Reverend Hickey tries to “raise” the level of discourse – “The industry is slime, and they don’t care about anything but staying in business.”

Pardon me, but how dare they try to stay in business!  Businesses: Steve Hickey believes you are now there to lose money and go bankrupt.  How dare you invest money, build buildings to house your company, hire and pay staff, and think you are allowed to earn a profit off of your efforts. What in the hell do you think this is, a society based on capitalism? We changed to socialism a long time ago, dammit!

And that’s the point. In our allegedly free society, you should be free to choose to patronize a legal business, and do business with them, Or, you’re free not to. No one is holding a gun to your head.

You know, there’s lots of things to get outraged about. Let’s save the shock and outrage for things such as a drug using parent (allegedly) killing their child. Or a government holding a pipeline project hostage for 7 years.

But someone signing up like minded people to support their cause? Or *gasp* thinking that the free enterprise system is alive and well in these United States?

I just can’t gin up the same level of umbrage that others with more time on their hands are able to.

Attorney General Explanation Released for Initiated Constitutional Amendment Establishing Nonpartisan Elections

PIERRE –South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today an Attorney General Explanation for a proposed Constitutional Amendment has been filed with the Secretary of State. This statement will appear on petitions that will be circulated by the sponsor of the proposed amendment. If the sponsor obtains a sufficient number of signatures on the petitions by November 9, 2015, as certified by the Secretary of State, the measure will be placed on the ballot for the November 2016 general election. This is a measure to change the Constitution, as opposed to changing state statutes (which requires 13,871), therefore the sponsor will need 27,741 signatures.

1. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing nonpartisan elections
2. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing nonpartisan elections and requiring secret ballot elections for certain legislative officers

Under South Dakota law, the Attorney General is responsible for preparing explanations for proposed initiated measures, referred laws, and South Dakota Constitutional Amendments. Specifically, the explanation includes a title, an objective, clear and simple summary of the purpose and effect of the proposed measure and a description of the legal consequences.

To view the Attorney General Explanation for the measure, as well as the final form of the measure submitted to this office, please click on the links:

http://atg.sd.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=4iP1eFfktCk%3d&tabid=442
http://atg.sd.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lnmHEaGmj7k%3d&tabid=442

Slick Rick Election Rewrite

(I can’t make it, because I have a different luncheon to attend, but if you’re in Sioux Falls, and are seeking some great conservative camaraderie tomorrow, check out the SD Conservatives Lunch at the W 41st St Pizza Ranch in Sioux Falls. – PP)

You are invited to attend the
South Dakota Conservatives Lunch
on the second Thursday of each month
from 12:00 to 1:00 P.M.
at the Pizza Ranch located at
2717 West 41st Street in Sioux Falls.

Please come share your opinions, voice your concerns, meet fellow conservatives, and learn about the efforts and events of various conservative organizations in South Dakota.

The cost of the buffet lunch and drink is $9.99. For more information, please contact Chad Krier
at (605) 370-2778.

“Thune said the Iran deal is the number one issue that concerns him for the upcoming year.

“You got leaders who are chanting death to America. Normally when somebody tells you they are going to kill you, it’s probably a good idea to believe them,” he said.”

Read it here.

Noem Urges Administration to Prioritize Sanford Lab Research

WASHINGTON D.C. – In a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren, Rep. Noem urged the administration to prioritize the Department of Energy’s Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) – a research project planned at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, along with other facilities across the country.

“The neutrino research to be conducted in South Dakota could lead to faster global communications, better nuclear weapons detection technologies, and a new understanding of how the world around us works,” said Noem.  “To accomplish any of this, however, the administration must see the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility experiment as imperative to our national interests and make the research a priority, as they have done in the past.  This is the future of scientific research.”

The Long Baseline Neutrino Facility experiment focuses on the study of neutrinos – one of the least understood particles in the universe.  It seeks to uncover their structure and behavior in the hopes of developing new technological advances as well as educating and training students.  To study the properties of neutrinos, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois would produce an intense beam of neutrinos, which would travel 800 miles across the United States to the deep underground lab at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

Earlier this year, the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) outlined the 10-year strategic plan for high-energy physics experiments in the U.S.  The report specifically recommends research into dark matter and neutrinos, both fields of study the Sanford Lab is recognized for.

The Sanford Underground Research Facility employs 125 individuals full-time at its facility in Lead.

To read a copy of the letter, please click here.

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From my mailbox comes a press release from Lisa Furlong on the reason behind their measure as reviewed by the Attorney General today:

South Dakotans for Fair Lending Press Release on Attorney General Explanation

People have a right to be treated fairly.  By supporting this constitutional amendment, we will bring fairness to the lending process, while protecting the people of South Dakota’s rights as consumers.

Our measure places a strict 18% cap on interest rates, far more stringent than that of other measures being proposed.  Additionally, our measure takes the extra step of amending the South Dakota constitution, which will ensure that the cap placed on interest rates is not later removed or weakened. Other measures being circulated simply make changes to statutes, which can be easily altered and undermined.

Our supporters and volunteers are ready to get to work collecting the needed signatures to have this common sense measure placed on the ballot and we appreciate the work of the Attorney General and his staff in issuing the explanation of our measure in a timely manner.”

Lisa Furlong
Chair
South Dakotans for Fair Lending