Have you noticed this post in your facebook feed in the last few hours?

Where Rep. Karla Lems is going on about the Charles & Heather Maude matter?  It left me scratching my head wondering:

#1 – What exactly do state legislators think they are going to do in a federal matter? And

#2 – Where have they been for nearly the last year, while US Senator Mike Rounds has been working on this, communicating with the US Forest Service and introducing legislation?

In the article from August 28th, 2024:

The U.S. Forest Service is denying it overreacted by pursuing criminal charges against a South Dakota ranching couple rather than resolve a land dispute civilly.

and..

In an emailed response to questions about the case, however, the agency claims it originally notified the couple nearly four years ago that their plan to install an irrigation system would require trespassing onto the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. “Subsequently, the Forest Service observed crops had been planted and an irrigation system installed on National Forest System land without authorization, despite the Maudes having been informed that they were trespassing,” the agency said.

Contrary to allegations the indictments disrupted civil proceedings, the agency claims that it’d only referred the case to the U.S. Department of Justice after it was “unable to resolve the matter through administrative means.” The referral was “normal protocol” under such circumstances and it was ultimately the DOJ that decided to bring criminal indictments against the Maudes, according to the Forest Service. “At no point during this contact was anyone placed under arrest or taken into custody, nor did any officer utilize any tactical uniform, gear or assault weapons,” the agency said.

and..

The indictments prompted U.S. Sen. Michael Rounds, R-S.D., to request additional information about the case from the USDA, which oversees the Forest Service. His letter to USDA says the Maudes were “abruptly” indicted after they’d “cooperated in good faith with USDA to resolve a recently identified boundary discrepancy” after decades of working with the agency. “The criminal indictment appears unnecessary and conflicts with USDA’s stated good neighbor practices,” Rounds said in the letter.

Read that all here.

I’d also refer the publicity hungry legislators standing in a field to actual legislation that Rounds brought forth in December to address these kinds of federal land disputes..

“I won’t get into the specifics of that particular case, but I can tell you that other producers are also concerned about the possibility of facing the same type of aggression as the family in South Dakota already,” Rounds said. “We just want to get ahead of this.”

and..

Rounds introduced the Fence Line Fairness Act to try to mediate land disputes. This legislation would create a formal mediation process for land boundary disputes by forming a committee consisting of appointed producers from the state, two of whom would be appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and three of whom would be appointed by the state’s department of agriculture or natural resources.

“Rather than going directly into an aggressive move by the U.S. government, we think it’s more appropriate that we have the opportunity for the two sides to sit down and to reconcile their differences,” Rounds said.

Read that story here.

The Maudes do have a court date at the end of the month, which is why I’m sure there’s the push for publicity in the matter.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, as I point out chunks of the Representative Lems’ post being utter bullshit, such as when she’s trying to claim that “this looks like lawfare,”  there has been no due process, and that all of this just happened 6 weeks after a survey.

Despite the record of it being a matter that has drug out for 4 years administratively, BEFORE they moved it to a criminal matter, for these legislators to show up for a photo op and then try to claim that these representatives of state government are somehow able to do something in a federal land dispute being heard in federal court?

Well, I don’t know about you, but it just seems that these legislators are trying to mine publicity out of misery.

Misery arising out of a federal fence line dispute above their pay grade that’s drug on for years.

The Dakotas: North and South
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden
April 12, 2025

We have a friendly rivalry with our neighbors to the north in North Dakota. I’ve joked many times that I’d much rather have Mount Rushmore than oil – and we all know that South Dakota’s Badlands are far more stunning! But we’re a lot more similar to North Dakota than probably any other state in the Union.

My predecessor, Governor Noem, had a strong relationship with Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota. In fact, as the new Secretary of the Interior, Burgum is helping us get ready for the upcoming Mount Rushmore Fireworks over Independence Day in 2026! His successor, Governor Kelly Armstrong, is new to the role like me.

Governor Armstrong and I recently had the opportunity to share something pretty special: we visited the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe together. Standing Rock is one of two tribes with land on both sides of the South Dakota-North Dakota border. It was the first time in a decade that both governors have been on that reservation simultaneously.

We visited Chairwoman Janet Alkire and their tribal council leaders. We discussed several key topics affecting the tribe, including education, economic development, water permits, and the latest on federal funding.

After the great conversation, we took a driving tour of the reservation and stopped by a local school. I met with several bright students and faculty members and saw the kids hard at work, learning to shape their futures!

We are at our strongest when we work together. At times, mutual trust with our Native American tribes has been tough to maintain. We are all neighbors, so part of keeping South Dakota strong, safe, and free means doing the same for our Native American people. I will continue to work hard to be a governor for all South Dakotans.

We may have friendly rivalries – or even legitimate debates or disagreements. I am committed to listening so that I can understand the concerns that our communities face. That goes for small towns, big cities, tribal reservations, and communities on both sides of the Missouri River.

I’ll say it again: we are strongest when we work together. I look forward to working with both our North Dakota neighbors and all nine South Dakota tribes to keep our communities strong, safe, and free.

###

In the South Dakota Searchlight article which is blowing up Republican in-boxes this morning, former Obama-voting Democrat and new Republican Party chairman Jim Eschenbaum rails on about removing the Republicans he does not deem as worthy from the party, calling them RINOs.

As part of the interview he did, Eschenbaum takes a direct, and completely low-class bum shot at outgoing Executive Director Reggie Rhoden, claiming:

He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don’t need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much.

Read that here.

Just a few moments ago, Reggie Rhoden, the outgoing Executive Director, offered his take on the one-ring circus that the Republican Party has turned into under RINO-hunter Eschenbaum:

I was getting paid $4,357.50 a month with no benefits.

I’m not perturbed, but it certainly seems a weird thing to lie about after begging me to stay on board until the next meeting. It’s especially odd when I’ve spent dozens of hours over the past few weeks trying to help his team with a smooth transition– A transition he should consider allowing his board to complete before speaking poorly of the only person genuinely trying to help them out.

He hasn’t even arranged for anyone to come to my office to pick up the files they so badly wanted to audit! I hate to think how that audit must be going thus far if the Chairman is publicly misrepresenting the only salary they have to keep track of. By proxy it must also be hard for the Chairman to imagine that the ED did much when the Chair doesn’t even know what the Chair does.

Read that here.

I would hope Reggie’s cooperation ends here and now, since what passes for a GOP chairman has decided to go scorched earth on the people who were trying to help in a smooth transition.

South Dakota Searchlight has done an extensive Q&A with the South Dakota Republican Party’s new chairman. And if you’re a South Dakota Republican, it does not bode well for the future of the party.

In fact, I believe I can argue with some merit that Jim Eschenbaum is actually the worst Republican Party chairman in South Dakota history. On to the story:

South Dakota’s new Republican Party chairman is a former Democrat, but he’s been a Republican for nine years. Now he’s concerned about “Republicans In Name Only,” or RINOs, and wants to weed them out. 

“RINOs are a real thing,” Jim Eschenbaum said. “People say, ‘Don’t call us RINOs.’ Well, If you’re supporting abortion or gun control in any way, or any kind of sequestering of First Amendment rights, well, that does not align with conservative principles.”

Eschenbaum is a 62-year-old Hand County commissioner and farmer. He was a registered Democrat for 32 years until he and his wife switched when Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. 

Read all of that and more here… and that’s just the start, as Eschenbaum tells the world that the Republican Party doesn’t need any money to do anything, while at the same time taking a nasty swipe at the Governor’s son, Reggie Rhoden, who was the outgoing executive director:

I agree that people are funding candidates now instead of just throwing all the money to the state or state party. And I am perfectly OK with that. We don’t need any more money thrown to the state GOP than what we need to operate.

And we’ve already taken $77,000 out of the annual operating costs of the state GOP. Reggie Rhoden, Governor Rhoden’s son, was executive director and he was being paid $5,400 a month. He resigned at the meeting on February 22, when we did the elections. And we have decided thus far that we don’t need an executive director. Nobody knows that he was doing much.

Read that in the article as well.

One politico who predates my 37-year involvement in the SDGOP, upon reading this article quipped that “the smack talking of Reggie — the only thing that outpaces Eschenbaum’s arrogance is his ignorance.” 

But that’s not all. Why would it be all? Because the fool in charge of the Republican party wants to see The Republican Party producing scorecards on candidates:

I have even proposed a South Dakota GOP scorecard. I don’t know if the state central committee will decide to do it, but it would be based on just those three principles, the two constitutions and the party platform.

Again.. read that here.

When asked about unifying Republicans, Eschenbaum’s response included this passage:

“..some of these politicians, they get elected to office, they get a fat head about what it is they want to do or who they want to benefit, or using government to do business, and that’s not what government is intended to be.”

Read that in the Searchlight article, you ‘fat-heads’.

And finally, perhaps a moment of self-reflection given what he’s done to the Republican party to date:

Just because you’re elected to office currently does not guarantee you’re going to get reelected to office again.

(Well, no shit Sherlock Holmes.)

Go read this wide-ranging interview at SD Searchlight by Joshua Haiar

What did we learn about Jim Eschenbaum? He doesn’t feel he needs the Republican Party to raise money. He wants to institute purity tests via scorecards. He doesn’t think Reggie Rhoden did anything as executive director, and he wants to weed out the people HE THINKS are RINO’s – Republicans in Name Only.  I’m thinking this 32-year Democrat needs to look in the mirror and weed himself out.

A legislator, after reading this article pointed out:

Our new Chairman is basically Frank Kloucek with a mustache. The guy vaguely mentions abortion and guns, but otherwise can’t name a single Republican issue. What about limited government? What about free markets and prosperity?

Another long-time politico’s review, and maybe the most prophetic:

Great way to divide the party and burn it to the ground.

And I would agree. If anyone is giving to the party, they really need their heads examined at this point.  Political parties have one job – in our case it’s elect Republican candidates, and secondarily, raise money to help elect Republican candidates. Anything else is off task, and will only bring the party to ruin.

In my time, I had always considered former legislator Don Peterson, who had a 2 year stint as GOP Chair, as arguably as having the worst tenure as party chair. Nice guy, and he tried, but when you spend the last 2 weeks of the election golfing in Arizona… that’s not the sign of an engaged chairman. He passed away a number of years ago now, but those who remember him fondly can take solace in that he will no longer be considered by history as not being among the best as Chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party.

Because in his first two months, former Obama Democrat Jim Eschenbaum has swept the boards in being the absolute and utterly worst chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party to date in State History.

As he takes a wrecking ball to the organization that so many good Republicans took over a century to build, it may take the party decades to recover.

If it ever can.

Republicans Are Working to Make the Tax Cuts Permanent
By Sen. John Thune

It’s that time of year again: Tax Day. I don’t know anyone who looks forward to April 15th. Whether you’re getting a refund or you owe money to the IRS, I think most South Dakotans would rather they were keeping more of their money and sending less to Uncle Sam.

Republicans agree, which is why we worked so hard to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in 2017. As a result of these tax cuts, most Americans had a smaller tax bill. And while most Americans paid less in taxes, revenue was actually greater than expected, because our economy grew, businesses created jobs and poverty decreased.

These are significant gains, but they’re at risk next year if TCJA is allowed to expire. If these tax cuts aren’t extended, it would mean a $4 trillion tax hike on American families and small businesses, including farms and ranches. Republicans won’t let that happen. We’re working hard to make these tax cuts permanent and protect hardworking families from a bigger tax bill next year.

Without extending the tax cuts, a typical family of four would see a $1,700 tax hike next year. The child tax credit would go from $2,000 to $1,000 per child. The standard deduction, which is used by most tax filers, would drop from about $30,000 for a married couple to about $16,000. So it’s critical that these tax policies be extended to ensure South Dakota families don’t face smaller paychecks and bigger tax bills next year.

Extending the tax cuts is also critical for small businesses that would otherwise face a $600 billion tax hike. Most small businesses benefit from a 20 percent small business deduction that was included in TCJA. This deduction helped business owners invest in their operations and create jobs, and extending this tax policy will ensure they can continue to be an engine for growth.

Making TCJA permanent will also be good for our economy. In the years after the law first passed, the economy grew faster than expected. We saw a 50-year low in unemployment. Poverty fell to a record low. And there was a narrowing of the income disparity in our country. And by extending this tax policy we can bring in more revenue the right way – by growing the economy.

Of course, we can’t deny that our country has a deficit problem, a problem driven chiefly by out-of-control spending. Unfortunately, we saw an incredible growth in government spending under the Biden administration. Federal spending in 2024 was 54 percent higher than it was in 2019. And as part of our agenda, Republicans are going to take a good, hard look at how taxpayer dollars are being spent and work to return the nation to a more sustainable spending and fiscal trajectory.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a major success in President Trump’s first term. It delivered on its promise of lower taxes, greater growth, and a stronger America. We have an opportunity to make those gains permanent and to set our country on a course for a healthy economy for years to come. We plan to seize that opportunity and deliver permanent tax relief for the American people.

###

The South Dakota Republican Party has apparently spent some of their remaining few pennies on a new website. And this afternoon at 4:00 PM they sent out notice to the central committee so they could review the site – posted at sdgop.lifelightdev.com for suggestions.  Of course, that meant I had it in my hands by 4:05.

Nothing too earth-shattering, as much of the information had been there before in prior iterations of SDGOP websites, except they’ve added phone numbers so everyone can be endlessly called by robo-calling marketers & spammed. But there was one interesting noteworthy item.  The new page for the SDGOP’s e-board includes a section for “appointments and volunteers,” a.k.a. the new SDGOP staff.

According to the website, the staff consists of a Kelly Brack, Tanna Brummett, and Debra Elliot.

Kelly Brack, a realtor from Sioux Falls is the new Finance/Fundraiser Director. This was a really weird choice, as from a quick search of followthemoney.org, I’m not seeing right off where she’s ever made a donation to the Republican Party or it’s candidates. Also, she’s President of Siouxland Republican Women, and in the public records for the last year, she doesn’t appear to have donated to even her own group.

Which brings up the question how someone who has never had any skin in the game is going to approach Republican donors and get them to part with their coin?  Oh! But she does appears to be an election truther. And she was part of Eschenbaum’s anti-pipeline group:

Given her prior work working with Eschenbaum to oppose the continued success of ethanol in South Dakota, I suspect the chairman was willing to overlook the whole “job experience” thing for one of his minions for the one position he’s allowed to appoint without any board oversight.

Next, a “special appointee” is chairman’s assistant Tanna Brummett, who some may recognize as the former Minnehaha GOP County Secretary, who along with Tornow had a “vote of no confidence” directed at her. Hers was on the basis of being accused of “recording a closed-door session of a South Dakota Republican Party State Central Committee meeting,” according to a Dakota Scout Story.

Finally is the website administrator/IT person, Debra Elliot, who was another person moved over from the anti-pipeline efforts of Chair Eschenbaum to be in charge of data and website for the SDGOP.

As I always find myself saying.. more and more often.. I’m sure this will all go well.

Cutting the Pork
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
April 11, 2025 

BIG Update

The House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to strengthen election security. The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and requires states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls. Only U.S. citizens should be voting in U.S. elections.

For too long, the federal government has been spending money we do not have. Continuing on this road is not an option. On Thursday, the House took a significant step to reduce out-of-control spending by passing a budget resolution, which is a key step in the reconciliation process to extend the Trump tax cuts, unleash American energy, and keep our borders secure.

BIG Idea

I met with the South Dakota Pork Producers this week to discuss fixes to California’s Proposition 12 policy (livestock housing regulations), potential tariff impacts, and more. Consistency and clarity are important for our pork producers as they make decisions about their operations. Prop 12 has resulted in higher costs for consumers and has the potential to price out small farms. I’m committed to supporting our pork producers and using my position on the Ag Committee to reverse Prop 12 – protecting producers and lowering pork prices across the country.

Johnson and South Dakota Pork Producers

BIG News

After more than 70 countries reached out to the White House to negotiate down their tariffs, President Trump announced a 90-day pause on many reciprocal tariffs. As I’ve said in the past, I do not support high tariffs across the board, especially for a prolonged period of time. However, tariffs targeted to key strategic industries can be good policy, and tariffs can also be an effective negotiating tool.

China, however, has not initiated a negotiation but has raised the bar by implementing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. China now faces a 145% tariff on imported American goods. Let me be clear – China is not our friend. Not only has China evaded our shipping laws and customs enforcement to make a buck, but they have employed slave/forced labor, smuggled fentanyl and illicit vapes into America, purchased farmland near U.S. military bases, and consistently hacked U.S. Agencies and telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T.

President Trump is sending a strong signal to China – don’t take advantage of the U.S. I urge President Trump and China’s President Xi to come to the negotiating table quickly and agree on a trade policy that protects American producers and consumers – a deal that China must uphold.

###

Just had this sent over to me..

Even the Libertarians think wanting to shoot down airplanes over make believe chemtrails is nuts.

And also a good reminder that Anthony – Arch Beal’s favorite object to cane-poke – who fronts for libertarian group Young Americans for Liberty is not a Republican.  From another post:

Yeah. That’s not code for Republican.

From Facebook:

From Facebook, West-river conservative group South Dakota Strong is announcing their schedule of upcoming events, including Congressman Dusty Johnson addressing the group, as well as hosting a series on economic development in the Black Hills:

(No word on whether Rep. Odenbach is planning a protest at the Black Hills development events.)