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The GOP Confederate group is having another secret SDGOP Chair forum tonight where they are purposefully excluding any state elected officials, legislators, county elected officials, etcetera, because.. well… because.

The forum will feature the currently announced candidates Ezra Hayes from Amendment H, Jim Eschenbaum who was Hand County GOP Chair for a couple of months, and “honest” Lee Qualm who lost his last two races, when he wasn’t busy being sued by family members.

Was that my outside voice? Sorry.

While they don’t mention it in their super-secret e-mail, Ezra Hays has left it to the Central Committee for whomever his VC will be.  Eschenbaum supposedly has Janet Jensen as his running mate, and Qualm’s is Marli Wiese.

If you had any curiosity, I would tell you they don’t want you to know about how to log into to their secret zoom meeting with the following codes..

Time: Feb 11, 2025 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Zoom Meeting – https://zoom.us/j/98211776523?pwd=qEgcDXkaqIgOuglXfBiH2tadaBbY7r.1 
Meeting ID: 982 1177 6523
Passcode: 029927

or via telephone.. 

One tap mobile
+16694449171,,98211776523#,,,,*029927# US
+16699009128,,98211776523#,,,,*029927# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location • +1 669 444 9171 US • +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) • +1 719 359 4580 US • +1 253 205 0468 US • +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) • +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) • +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) • +1 646 931 3860 US • +1 689 278 1000 US

• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) • +1 305 224 1968 US • +1 309 205 3325 US • +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) • +1 360 209 5623 US • +1 386 347 5053 US • +1 507 473 4847 US • +1 564 217 2000 US

If you’re the nosy type, I’d log in with just your phone. Tougher to tell if you’re not a part of the secret club. I would also venture there’s going to be some worthy soundbites, given the last one of these.

As the Republican Party continues to fall behind Democrats in fundraising and basic donor interest, and the confederate county GOP groups who are putting this meeting on have completely stopped contributing to the state GOP as bylaws require, they do offer in this secret e-mail they want to quiz the candidates about important items such as “Your leadership philosophy” and “The first three significant items/issues (not administrative) on which you will focus.”

However, at the bottom of the e-mail in a second list of possible questions, they do allude to the elephant in the room, as item #9 on a list of 10 more suggested questions asks “What are your fund-raising plans? How will the Party budget be spent? Who decides how the money will be spent?”  As in we didn’t contribute anything during the past two years, but we want to know how you’re going to raise money, and are we going to get to tell you how to spend the money we didn’t help you raise?

Oh my. It’s going to be a long two years.

Hot off the press, and I hadn’t heard about it until now. But apparently State Representative Brandei Schaefbauer was on Facebook praising former TV newsreader Shad Olson for his testimony for her bill HCR 6009:

 

(You can’t see it, but my jaw dropped when I read this, iIf you missed my earlier post on Shad today).   I have to find this audio, because for the life of me, I can’t imagine in what way, shape or form Shad Olson would be an expert on anything.  Was he testifying as an expert on how to read words off a teleprompter? Was he testifying as an expert on the conditions inside the Meade County Jail and what colors clash with jailhouse painted blue cinderblocks? Or might he have been an expert on how to have women bail him out of jail?

Or, maybe Brandei was seeking someone to testify on how to get charges reduced from a felony Domestic Abuse Aggravated Assault/Strangulation down to Class 1 misdemeanor Domestic Abuse Simple Assault/Recklessly Causes Bodily Injury?

Seriously, I would guess that Brandei hasn’t read the Argus Leader story on Shad if she’s praising him on facebook.

The victim expressed she felt lucky she was thrown on a carpeted floor, because the alleged assault did not leave her with broken bones.

“[The victim] said she was having a hard time breathing and its [sic] hard to talk as she touched the side of her stomach,” the report reads. “[The victim] said she was still aching and described the assault as an animal killing an animal and that Shad isn’t human.”

The victim then told the officer she “thought she was going to die,” but she was able to escape the house. The officer asked if Olson said anything during the alleged assault, but his girlfriend said he only repeated the “crazy [expletive] insult.”

and..

From there, the victim said Olson chased after her as she ran away from her home. They had been living together from some time, but she told the officer “she pays for everything in the home while Olson worries about the country,” the documents read.

The officer asked the victim if Olson had assaulted her before, with her replying “yes.”

The victim said Olson, who runs his own far-right, eponymic podcast, is “stressed over politics,” which influences his drinking. She then told the officer Olson blames his political frustrations on her.

As Olson’s chase continued, the victim said her boyfriend began to tell her “not to ruin his reputation and continued to follow her,” the reports state.

Brandei should really read this story here.

I wasn’t thinking anything this legislative session would surprise me anymore.  But, here someone goes again and manages to come up with something crazier than I could imagine.

In House Education which picked up after session ended today, an amended form of House Bill 1201 which removed gay thought reporting and but retained having school employees as mandatory reporters – public or private – requiring that they notify parents if questions regarding “a student’s gender confusion or gender dysphoria are discussed with a student” come up and notes:

A school nurse, school counselor, teacher, administrator, or any other staff member employed by a school district or accredited nonpublic school may not:

(1) Provide any instruction or presentation to a student with the purpose of studying exploring, or informing the student about gender identity, gender expression, or the concept that a student’s gender may be inconsistent with the student’s biological sex at birth;
(2) Encourage or coerce a student to withhold from the student’s parent, legal guardian, or other custodian the fact that the student’s perception of the student’s gender or sex is inconsistent with the student’s sex; or
(3) Withhold from a student’s parent, legal guardian, or other custodian information related to a student’s perception that the student’s gender or sex is inconsistent with the student’s sex.

The measure passed to the House floor on a vote of 8-7 after amending.

Boom. The hammer was dropped on Senator John “California” Carley’s Senate Bill 51 to insert biblical teachings into public schools by posting the 10 commandments in all classrooms and forcing them to add it to school instruction.

The debate was long, and at one point, proponents wavered as a friendly amendment was offered by Rep. Liz May to almost completely water the bill down, by removing the posters from swim class and welding, and being satisfied with curriculum insertion and the 10 commandments just being “prominently posted” somewhere in the school.

But then they called for a vote. And proponents were completely owned:

The vote was a hard NO on a count of 31 to 37, even after being voted down.

In looking at the bills, Senator Carley is starting to rack up some noticeable losses for his first year at bat. And this was a big one.

Rounds Introduces Cybersecurity Bills to Strengthen Penalties for Cybercrimes, Incentivize Cyber Workforce

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Cybersecurity Subcommittee, introduced a pair of cybersecurity-related bills. The Cyber Conspiracy Modernization Act would strengthen penalties for cybercrimes. The Providing Individuals Various Opportunities for Technical Training to Build a Skills-Based Cyber Workforce Act of 2025 (Cyber PIVOTT Act) would provide scholarships to students and professionals training in cyber-related fields.

“As cyber technologies continue to rapidly evolve, we need more people working to secure cyberspace as well as harsher penalties for those perpetrating these crimes,” said Rounds. “As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, I am committed to working on policies that strengthen the United States’ ability to respond quickly and decisively to cyberattacks which have been on the rise.”

 The Cyber Conspiracy Modernization Act would amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to create a specific penalty for the crime of conspiracy under the CFAA. There is currently no crime of conspiracy that is specific to the CFAA, meaning the U.S. Department of Justice charges conspiracy to commit cybercrimes under a general statute rather than under the cyber-specific CFAA. While the general conspiracy statute has a maximum penalty of five years, a CFAA-specific conspiracy charge would be anywhere from ten years to life imprisonment depending on severity.

This legislation is cosponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

Click HERE for full text of the Cyber Conspiracy Modernization Act.

 The Cyber PIVOTT Act would establish a scholarship program for students looking to earn a degree in a cybersecurity-related field at a two-year technical school. In exchange for this scholarship, students would commit to working in a cybersecurity position within the federal, state, local or tribal government for two years following completion of the program.

Western Dakota Technical College in Rapid City, South Dakota, would be eligible to participate in this program.

“Western Dakota Technical College (WDTC) supports Sen. Mike Rounds’ legislation to expand the cybersecurity workforce through technical education scholarships for two-year cyber degrees,” said Christine Goldsmith, Acting President of Western Dakota Technical College. “Recognizing the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals, WDTC provides specialized training and has proudly earned two NSA Cyber Defense designations: a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) and a validated NSA Cyber Defense Program Study for its Computer Science – Information Technology Specialist Program.”

This legislation is cosponsored by Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.). A companion version of the Cyber PIVOTT Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Click HERE for full text of the Cyber PIVOTT Act.

###

Thune: Tulsi Gabbard Will Protect All Americans, Safeguard Our National Interests

 “The intelligence community needs to refocus on its core mission – collecting intelligence and providing unbiased analysis of that information.”

Click here to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor.

Gov. Rhoden Signs 14 Bills into Law 

PIERRE, S.D. –  Today, Governor Larry Rhoden signed the following 14 bills into law: 

• SB 1 updates references to certain federal motor carrier regulations; 
• SB 2 increases civil penalties for commercial driver violations; 
• SB 5 permits a sheriff to charge a fee for service of process, whether service is completed or not; 
• SB 10 shortens the time before records of a Governor or a lieutenant governor are opened to the public; 
• SB 13 clarifies the enactment and effective date of a measure initiated or referred within a political subdivision; 
• SB 30 removes outdated provisions within the insurance code; 
• SB 36 repeals the oath requirement for an application for a lodging establishment, campground, food service establishment, or mobile food service establishment license; 
• SB 38 modifies requirements for a vehicle approaching a vehicle that is stopped or occupying the shoulder of the highway with warning lights flashing; 
• SB 39 revises the description of highways included in the state trunk highway system; 
• SB 40 revises Department of Transportation regulatory authority regarding aeronautics; 
• SB 41 clarifies the minimum age requirements for a hunting license; 
• HB 1011 revises provisions related to the stenographic recording of certain proceedings; 
• HB 1022 prohibits the misbranding of any cell-cultured protein product; and 
• HB 1049 updates the official code of laws.

Governor Rhoden has signed 15 bills into law this legislative session. 

 ### 

The ten commandments bill, Senate Bill 51,  which notes in part the following…

Section 1. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 13-24:

The board of a school district shall display the Ten Commandments in each classroom in each school located within the district. The display must be a poster or document that is at least eight inches by fourteen inches. The text of the Ten Commandments must be the focus of the poster or document and must be printed in large, easily readable font.

..proposing to post the ten commandments in every High School swim class and welding class is up for debate today, and I’m already listening to proponents try to pooh pooh the fact that they will have to teach this in every class.

We can hope they get rid of this nonsense and leave schools alone – via local control – to decide what’s in the curriculum of our local schools.

Someone had mentioned this in a prior post, but it brings up a good point about what legislators are doing in Pierre this year, versus how they talked about following the Republican Party platform in the last election:

4.0 Education and Cultural Affairs

4.2 Local Control – We support returning control of the school curriculum to the parents and communities that fund it. We support the elimination of all federally mandated requirements.

(From the SDGOP 2024 platform.)

So, when legislators are trying to force items on to local school districts such as posting the 10 commandments in every classroom, are they going to give themselves a de-merit for not giving community school boards local control?

The domestic abuse case against former Black Hills area TV news anchor and Neal Tapio campaign staffer Shad Olson appears to be winding to a close almost a year to the day after allegations first arose from his girlfriend who had called police:

If you recall when the arrest was first made, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

Olson, 51, was arrested last Sunday after an alleged altercation two days prior in Rapid City, where he “slammed” his girlfriend down on the ground multiple times and chased her around the house, a probable cause affidavit states.

Olson previously served as campaign counsel to Tapio, a Republican candidate who lost to U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and then-Secretary of State Shantel Krebs in a bid to win the incumbent congressman’s district during the state’s 2018 House of Representative’s election.

and..

The report continues that Olson then “flipped her over and picked her up and threw [her] down on the floor” four or five times.

The victim expressed she felt lucky she was thrown on a carpeted floor, because the alleged assault did not leave her with broken bones.

Read that entire story here.

Olson was charged with felony assault charges, and which left him unable to bond out of jail and petitioning for a court-appointed attorney on the basis of his inability to afford counsel. Until Olson was bailed out of jail on a $5000 cash bond by former District 34 State Legislative candidate Jodi Frye at the end of February.

Moving forward, in November of 2024  in a surprise move the Meade County State’s Attorney dropped the felony charges, leaving the former TV anchor facing two class 1 misdemeanor assault charges.

Olson had requested a jury trial on the misdemeanor charges which had been set for February 6th, however according to court records the hearing that was supposed to happen last week has now been changed to a Change of Plea/Sentencing hearing at the defendant’s request, set to take place on March 13th:

Set your calendars ahead to March 13th, which also happens to be the last day of the regular run of the legislative session.