Category: Uncategorized

From SD Searchlight:

Public school districts in South Dakota would be required to set policies to allow chaplains to serve within school buildings under legislation approved in committee Monday.

Lawmakers in several other states are introducing similar bills this year, said Rep. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, the bill’s primary sponsor.

A chaplain is a certified member of a religious body, such as a Christian denomination, who provides spiritual care for people outside of a religious organization. Chaplains serve in prisons, hospitals, and the military. Novstrup told lawmakers school board policies would spell out the definition of “chaplain,” since neither state law nor the bill define the role.

Read that here.

And from Iowa, where a similar measure was introduced, here’s what they’re hearing in that state from their friends in the Satanic Temple:

Dressed in all black with the exception of his red-tinted sunglasses and red tie, Satanic Temple Minister Mortimer Adramelech said he and his organization would welcome the opportunity to participate in Iowa’s public school chaplain program.

“I personally oppose HF 2073 because I believe in the separation of church and state, but if the bill does pass, I’m excited for the opportunities it presents for the Satanic Temple to support services and programs to school children in our state,” Adramelech said.

and..

“Iowa has several ordained ministers of Satan and we would be happy to engage children,” Adramelech said. “Hail, Satan; hail, Iowa, and thank you for your time.”

Read that here.

South Dakota legislators should be careful what they wish for. They might just get it.

Senate Committee Approves Attorney General Jackley’s Government Accountability Internal Control Bill

 PIERRE, S.D. – Senate Bill 61, which would modify and strengthen the state Board of Internal Control, and which was introduced by Attorney General Marty Jackley and supported by State Auditor Rich Sattgast and Governor Larry Rhoden’s Office, was unanimously approved Monday by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

“This bill will help ensure state government agencies are held more accountable when using taxpayer dollars,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We appreciate the support of State Auditor Sattgast, the Governor, and the Legislature.”

Senate Bill 61, as amended in committee, now goes to the Senate floor for final Senate consideration.

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Gov. Rhoden Announces Josie Harms as Press Secretary 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden announced that Josie Harms will serve as Press Secretary in the Governor’s Office. Her first day in the office will be February 6, 2025. 

“Josie will bring a service mentality and a friendly demeanor to the Governor’s Office,” said Governor Rhoden. “She is a talented professional with a bright future.  I trust that she will fulfill my commitment to treat the press with openness and responsiveness.” 

Josie graduated from Bethel University with a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and is working on a Master of Business Administration from Bethel University. She interned in the South Dakota Governor’s Office for two summers. During that time, she excelled in writing projects and provided excellent constituent services. She served as a Resident Assistant and Teaching Assistant at Bethel. She served as Communications Chair for “The 25,” a program for women in leadership.

“Thank you to Governor Rhoden for trusting me with this responsibility. I am incredibly honored to serve alongside a team of dedicated individuals who are committed to keeping South Dakota strong, safe, and free,” said Josie Harms. “As Press Secretary, my goal is to ensure our administration remains transparent, accessible, and responsive to the needs of every South Dakotan.”

Josie was the team captain of the cross country and track & field team at Bethel University and holds the school record in the steeplechase event.

A photo of Josie Harms can be found here.

Based on the last two Dakota First Action PAC Campaign finance reports, I was curious to see in the aggregate how much individual legislators benefitted, so we can compare things to how they vote on the Doeden PAC issues.   I downloaded the last two campaign finance reports, did some adding, so we know exactly how beholding these elected officials are going to be beholding to an outside PAC as opposed to the voters in their districts.  And I made a chart.

Here’s the top ten list of how much current legislators owe their seat to a third party Political Action Committee:

All of this information is filed with the Secretary of State’s office, BTW.

Wow! No wonder Carl Perry does exactly as Toby Doeden/Dakota First Action PAC wants – he was the number two recipient of spending in the 2024 election cycle at almost $13,250.  And John “California” Carley was not far behind at nearly $10,000.

Of course, the Number 1 position of being bought and paid for by the PAC belongs to State Senator Tom Pischke at $13,442.88.

Here’s Tom with Doeden PAC’s lackey Brian Lewis.

Of course Pischke voted against SB 12.

Just as commanded.

This weekend Toby Doeden doubled down on showing what a questionable player he is, as his Political Action Committee, Dakota First Action, filed their year end report showing that Doeden, South Dakota’s version of George Soros, donated loaned his Political Action Committee another $115,000, on top of the $105,000 reported in the previous 2 reports:

TobyDoedenPAC_sdcfdisclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

That brings the total to around $220,000 that he’s dumped into his PAC to try to buy South Dakota elections.

Another item that caught my attention was all the expenses that he incurred on this report.. that don’t seem that they should be on this report. Why? Look at the dates:

Why is $5,668.28 in mail that he claims to have spent on Lee Qualm’s primary race on 5/22/2024 or $4,131.25 that he used to mail Carl Perry‘s race on 6/3/24 showing up on the year end report over 6 months after the fact, when it should have at least been reported in the pre-general report for the Political Action Committee?  There’s even a $1200 donation of text messaging (MMS) for Tom Pischke on 5/7 that should have been reported on the pre-primary report!?!   The thing is, most businesses are cash up front for political business. So, it’s not like they didn’t know about them.

Not that anyone is policing these things in South Dakota, but clearly, no one is policing these things in South Dakota.

I’m not sure why we have rules that the rest have to follow when this kind of thing is allowed to slide.

But that goes to show you how the bad guys like to play it.  Rules for thee, but not for me.

Looks like some politicians don’t want you to vote, if you’re part of a group that at times approaches 30% of those voting.

Because as led by Senators Blanc (prime), California Carley, and sleepy Carl Perry and joined by brain trust Representatives Mulally, Baxter, Ismay, and Jensen (Phil), they want to take away your right to vote at anytime in the 45 days leading up to the election.

Senator Blanc wants to limit the Right to vote SB188 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Early Absentee Voting (a.k.a., early voting) for a number of years has allowed people to visit the auditor’s office as they are available, in addition to voting absentee by mail and in some counties, the numbers have been well in access of 20% and has approached 30%.

But, as led by these anti-democracy Senators, some people want to make it tougher to vote, unless you are sick, disabled, or it has something to do with Jesus.

Ugh. Why are these people going to Pierre and thinking they have a mandate to make it tougher to vote, and to drive down voter turnout?

In-person absentee has worked just fine for a number of years, and I really doubt that they can point to a group of people in their legislative district who are demanding less access to the ability to vote.

Reach out to your Representatives and Senators, and tell them to quit trying to make it tougher to vote in South Dakota, and to vote NO on Senate Bill 188.

Gov. Rhoden Invites President Trump to Mount Rushmore Fireworks 

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Larry Rhoden invited President Donald J. Trump “to come to Mount Rushmore for Independence Day in 2026 to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday with fireworks.” He made this invitation in a letter to the President, which you can find here. 

“We are ready to throw the biggest birthday party ever for the United States of America. And there is no better place to do it than Mount Rushmore,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “I trust that you will work closely with us to make it happen, and we cannot wait to see you there.” 

Governor Rhoden pointed to President Trump’s recent announcement of the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday (Task Force 250) and the confirmation of former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior as positive developments that will help make this event happen.

“We relish the opportunity to work with both Secretary Burgum and Task Force 250 to plan a celebration that will draw the attention of the entire nation and the world,” continued Governor Rhoden.

In 2020, former-Governor Kristi Noem and President Trump restored the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration for the first time in more than a decade. The Biden Administration rejected any requests to hold the event in subsequent years.

Governor Rhoden looks forward to working with the Trump Administration once again to restore this fantastic celebration. 

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Senate Bill 12 took an interesting turn this morning.

House State Affairs was discussing the bill to ban million dollar loans to state campaigns from people like South Dakota’s Soros, Toby Doeden, who had to change his $100k donation to a loan after it was pointed out that you can’t do that just because you have money.

The bill had Sponsor Michael Rohl testify in favor, and Brian Lewis was sent from Dakota Action PAC (Toby Doeden’s PAC) to do his master’s bidding.

Unexpectedly, an amendment was brought forward came up from Rep. Spencer Gosch, which requested that legislators do the following:

A candidate with a federally authorized committee, as defined in 52 U.S.C. § 14 30101, et seq., (January 1, 2025), may not transfer more than ten thousand dollars per year, to any political committee organized pursuant to this chapter.

They added the amendment without much discussion, and sent it to the House floor on a 12-1 vote. The one vote against the bill – after putting her hands on her head because thinking is hard – was State Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer. She is apparently too far in Toby Doeden’s pocket to extricate herself, so she did what Toby wanted.

So, on a 12-1 vote, the measure is passed.  It remains to go to the floor and back to the Senate in concurrence. But do they really know what they did?  Here’s where we can see the chaos they just wrought.

• The poison pill measure seems to go after Congressman Dusty Johnson transferring money to a state committee (adding a second subject on to the bill).  But it goes after not just Dusty, Gosch’s amendment swipes at Senator Thune, Senator Rounds, and KristiPAC.
• The bill would shut down donations from Senators Thune or Rounds to the State GOP in amounts over $10k annually. So, SDGOP ready to collapse financially?  Sorry. You’re capped.   SDDP taking $15-20k or more monthly from National Dem Party candidates from time to time?  Well, that’s going to take attorneys to figure out whether they can take it, and if so, whether they could send any to their state account.
• Remember Governor Kristi Noem’s KRISTIPAC $35k donation to the No on G Committee? That will definitely be “No Go” for any future support, past the 10k cap.
• Presidential candidates rolling cash through, and allowing state party organizations to take some off the top for their trouble? That’s over.

I’m kind of wondering whether they really thought things through.  But given that it came from our taxpayer-funded Hawaiian cliff-diving Representative.. I tend not to think so.

A New Direction in Washington
By Sen. John Thune

 In the first two weeks since President Trump took the oath of office, the U.S. Senate has moved to confirm his Cabinet as swiftly as possible. Despite Democrats’ obstruction, we have been able to confirm eight nominees within 10 days of President Trump’s inauguration. These individuals are on the job, and the Senate is hard at work to get more of President Trump’s team into place.

The first order of business was the president’s national security team. At a time of global instability, President Trump’s promise of restoring peace through strength is a needed change in direction from the last four years.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made it clear that every decision he makes will be rooted in advancing America’s interests. Under Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, our borders will be secure. The Pentagon is once again focused on warfighting, not woke distractions, under the leadership of Secretary Pete Hegseth. And Director John Ratcliffe is intent on returning the CIA to its core mission.

Energy is another top priority for the Trump administration. On his first day in office, President Trump took a number of actions to restore American energy dominance and put a stop to the anti-energy policies of his predecessor. America has the resources to be energy dominant, but we have to start saying “yes” to American energy.

President Trump has assembled a team committed to removing unnecessary barriers to American energy production. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will restore a multiple-use approach to public lands management and leverage America’s resources for a safe and more prosperous future. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin shares the president’s commitment to easing regulations, and he brings a collaborative approach to an agency that has often lacked it in the last four years.

President Trump has brought a new direction to Washington. It’s needed. The Biden administration demonstrated weakness around the world, and its open-border policies led to years of crisis at the southern border and in many communities across the country. The Biden administration’s hostility toward conventional energy set our energy security on a dangerous path, and we were already beginning to see the warning signs of a future energy crisis.

President Trump and his team have a lot of work to do, and I look forward to working with them toward a more secure and prosperous America.

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There is more work to be done
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
January 31, 2025 

BIG Update

Earlier this week, President Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act which makes it easier to deport illegal immigrants with a criminal record. This was the first bill Trump signed into law during his second term which had broad support from Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate.

We’ve seen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) off to a strong start implementing strengthened border and immigration policies. Working together, we can and will secure the border and make our communities safe.

BIG Idea

Schools on reservations are in disrepair. Many are outdated and deteriorating, with leaky roofs and walls, mold, and signs of asbestos. Tribal educators and students are desperate for relief.

A recent Office of Inspector General report from the Department of Interior showed the Bureau of Indian Education’s systemic mismanagement and noted a backlog of more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Some schools have waited years for their maintenance requests to be completed. This is simply unacceptable.

I called on the House Committees on Natural Resources and Education & Workforce to hold an oversight hearing on the Bureau of Indian Education to highlight these disparities and identify ways to improve the education environment. Our students and teachers deserve better.

BIG News

On Wednesday night, a military Blackhawk helicopter tragically collided with a passenger flight from Kansas as it was landing in Washington, D.C. With no survivors, this is the deadliest aircraft accident in 23 years.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who passed and the first responders who have worked tirelessly to recover the remains. My office and I will continue to monitor the situation as it develops. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I am hopeful we can work together to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

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