Are you familiar with Black Hills Advocate, LLC? Black Hills Advocate is noted as the first company of its kind in the state to provide services to vulnerable adults in the areas of advocacy, guardianship, conservatorship, shared decision making and elder care planning.

Recently, they had to haul Republican District 30 State House Candidate Matthew Monfore to court to help protect a senior who owned the House Monfore was living in.  Was.

In May of  2023, BHA had applied for and in June been appointed as the guardian and conservator of the person –  a relative I believe – that Monfore had been residing with.  June of 2023.  And nine months later, Monfore found himself hauled into court to forcibly be dislodged.. because it took that long for him to figure out that someone else was in charge by court order?

According to the Findings of fact, in October, they gave Monfore a 30-day notice to hit the road. But like a lot of squatters nowadays, Monfore actually went to court to try to continue his “rent free” arrangement, and the legal guardians of the home’s owner had to go to court to force him to get out.

MonFore Evicted by Pat Powers on Scribd

It literally took them months to boot out Monfore, after a first order to tell him to move on down the road.

Here’s how it applies to our review of what’s going on – even after the court order on March 11……

—

…he filed with that residence on his candidacy paperwork to run for office on March 26.  And a month after his forcible eviction, he was still filing paperwork claiming the home he was evicted from as his address:

But even worse than Monfore saying he lives at someplace he doesn’t, and Black Hills Advocate having to go to court to evict said District 30 rent-free candidate Matthew Monfore are some implications over the care being provided for not just the at-risk adult BHA went to court to assume responsibility for, but the other person  in the residence. In the court papers, it’s noted that the other resident is Monfore’s father who the court findings describe as suffering from dementia and unable to care for himself.

With BHA having to step in on one person, it brings up a question whether someone needs to ask some questions about whether the other person is safe and being cared for with dignity. That didn’t escape the court’s attention either:

Right now in the case, the latest action is that there was an order to show cause that was filed yesterday (Case 23CIV24-000005). What was that for?  Monfore has actually filed an appeal after being evicted from his rent-free arrangement. The court doesn’t really seem to be going along with it, as it looks like they’ve put the onus on Monfore at this point to put up, or quit trying to weasel his way back into the house he was booted from:

23civ24-000005_order to Show Cause by Pat Powers on Scribd

While I didn’t think Monfore’s candidacy was going anywhere to begin with, I don’t think him spending time standing up for his own “squatter rights” are going to endear him to the voters of District 30.

South Dakota Joins Lawsuit Against U.S. Department of Education over Egregious Title IX Revisions

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem and Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that South Dakota has joined five other states in challenging President Biden’s attempt to dismantle Title IX, which would deny opportunities for women and girls.

“We will not accept the Biden Administration’s infringement on the rights of women,” said Governor Noem. “South Dakota has led the nation in defending Title IX and ensuring fairness for women – we certainly aren’t going to stop now.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s recently released Final Rule disregards biological sex in favor of gender identity in education programs or activities. It is an insult to the women Title IX was designed to protect.

Governor Noem has been a staunch defender of the original purpose of Title IX. In 2022, the Governor signed the strongest bill in America to protect girls’ and women’s sports. She followed that action by leading a letter with 15 Republican governors urging the Biden Administration not to take this action. And, more than five months ago, Governor Noem led eight of her fellow Republican governors in urging the NCAA to rewrite its Transgender Student Athlete Policy.

Last week, South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Dr. Joe Graves advised South Dakota school districts not to comply with the revised Title IX Rule or change their policy pending this legal challenge.

“This rule dismantles more than 50 years of protecting and promoting opportunities for women in education and sports,” said Attorney General Marty Jackley. “The rule being challenged by the States which are part of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals requires schools and universities to allow men into women’s sports teams—robbing those women athletes of their own opportunities.”

South Dakota joins Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and North Dakota in filing this lawsuit. At least 21 other states across the country have now filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education.

The Complaint summarizes the radical impact this Final Rule would have on the education system as we know it:

“[This Rule] requires States, schools, and universities to ignore biological sex in favor of self-professed ‘gender identity.’ Indeed, if allowed to take effect, that rule will gut the very athletic opportunities that Title IX was designed to provide; destroy the privacy protections women and girls currently enjoy in restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, and overnight accommodations; preempt numerous State laws; silence and threaten with investigation any student, faculty member, or administrator who doesn’t share the Department’s view of sex; and deny federal funding to any school or university that doesn’t adhere to those views.”

The lawsuit argues this Final Rule is contrary to the plain text of Title IX by redefining sex discrimination beyond the ordinary meaning of “on the basis of sex.” The lawsuit also asserts that the Final Rule violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment, and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution, among other arguments.

This Final Rule is unlawful, unconstitutional, and must be enjoined.

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This came out recently, and it’s kind of interesting how well some people did… or didn’t do.

The people who professed to be self declared as among the most conservative in the legislature, the members of the Freedom (a.k.a. Freedumb) caucus were among the lower scoring of Republicans on the 2-year survey. Aaron Aylward, the chair of the group received an 83% vote. So did Vice-Chairman Tony Randolph, who claims on his freedom bio that he’s “A” rated by SDRTL. He probably needs to drop that to a B after 2024.

Tina Mulally, the Freedom Caucus’ Secretary Treasurer was actually the lowest scoring Republican in the entire survey, voting with South Dakota Right to Life only 67% of the time. How did Tina Mulally get away without a primary with that terrible voting record? Might as well move her over to the RINO caucus, because she certainly doesn’t walk the walk as one of the leaders of a group that claims to be the “standard bearers for our shared Conservative values.”  Again, she can take that claim of an A rating from SDRTL and give herself a D.

Who else kind of whiffed it?  Carl Perry at 83% Which leads me to believe that he must have had his phone off for one of those votes, and Al Novstrup couldn’t tell him which button to push.  Phil Jensen muddied his conservative blood, and was also at an 83%.

It’s just kind of interesting that those who are among the most concerned with how conservative people are or are not are part of the group scoring the worst among Republicans.

What was the quote from Animal House?

I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!

Well, take that, Chairman Wiik.  Because failed Congressional hopeful, and someone who was being investigated for a possible felony related to his petitions, Justin McNeal is taking his revenge against Real Republicans.  And he got us back good now! Because according to the FEC, he’s forming the “Bull Moose Party.”

BullMooseMcNeal-202405089645562384 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Not sure what he’s going to do with that.  Maybe he can raise a whole $10 by the end of the year, and by gosh, show us.

It kind of reminds me when Lora Hubbel went over to the Constitution party. And broke it.

Hot off the press from the Argus is one of the dumber releases from State Democrats that I’ve seen in a while.

Not that we’ve seen a lot of life from the other side of the aisle:

Party Chair Shane Merrill and Vice Chair Jessica Meyers called for Fury’s removal in a statement Tuesday, citing “negative national headlines” garnered during his time as Noem’s communications lead.

and..

“At a time when Gov. Noem once again lacks a chief of staff, action must be made to hold individuals accountable for what can only be described as an utter failure in doing the basics of a public relations job,” Merrill and Meyers wrote in the joint statement. “Fury should not have allowed the publication of the Governor’s recent book without proper fact-checking and review.”

and..

SDDP Executive Director Dan Ahlers told Argus Leader on Tuesday that while the recent negative publicity focused on South Dakota is tied to the dog-killing anecdote and inaccuracies included Noem’s book, Fury is responsible for the public relations “fumbles.”

Read the story here.

So, let’s get this straight. Democrats are demanding the ouster of a state employee, because he did not involve himself in the political aspect of what Governor Noem does? But they want to hold him accountable, because he “should not have allowed the publication of the Governor’s recent book.”

I’m pretty sure if there was information he was responsible for reviewing her book on the state’s dime, they would then be complaining he was doing so as a state employee.

I think Democrats can go back into their burrow for another 3-4 months, as they’ve managed to accomplish nothing once again.

Rounds Introduces Legislation to Prevent Mandatory Electronic Tagging of Livestock

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today introduced legislation that would prevent federal government overreach on the operations of South Dakota farmers and ranchers. The bill would prevent the Secretary of Agriculture from implementing any rule or regulation requiring the mandatory use of electronic identification tags, or RFID tags, on cattle and bison.

In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published a proposal to require cattle and bison to have visually and electronically readable tags. This proposed rule would also require records to be entered into a tribal, state or federal database, allowing the federal government to access this information.

“South Dakota cattle producers don’t need DC bureaucrats telling them how to manage and track their livestock,” said Rounds. “USDA’s proposed RFID mandate is federal government overreach, plain and simple. I’m pleased to be introducing this legislation to block the Secretary of Agriculture from mandating the use of electronic tags in cattle and bison herds. If farmers and ranchers want to use electronic tags, they can do so voluntarily.”

This legislation is endorsed by the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and R-CALF USA.

“The South Dakota Stockgrowers Association applauds the efforts of Senator Rounds in introducing this bill to allow livestock producers the right to choose what form of ID they wish to use,” said Doris Lauing, Executive Director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association. “Whereas we have had ample protection and means to trace any animal health issues in the past, the mandatory direction by the United States government to use electronic animal ID tags will be a violation of constitutional personal property rights and unnecessary expense.”

“It’s nonsensical for the Secretary of Agriculture to complain that America is losing too many farmers and ranchers while simultaneously forcing America’s farmers and ranchers to purchase and use the most expensive form of animal identification available today – electronic identification ear tags,” said Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA. “These ear tags will cost the industry tens of millions of dollars without any means of recovery from the marketplace. This is government overreach at its worst and we’re thankful Senator Rounds is taking decisive action to protect the freedoms and liberties of America’s cattle producers by allowing them to continue choosing how to manage their cattle operations.”

Click HERE for full bill text.

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Following up to my post of a May 6 about not seeing any evidence of Rick Weible campaigning for District 8 State Senate, I did come across evidence of what the Minnesota transplant and election goofball is up to instead.

Yep. Not campaigning. He’s hanging out in his basement in Elkton, rappin’ with the pillow guy about crazy stuff.   Starting at about 20 minutes in..  You can hear his latest, how Rick is sending things over to the FBI to demand they investigate election machines because he says they’re breaking federal law…

Yeah..  Many years ago my dearly departed father was a FBI agent out of Pierre who came up during the J. Edgar Hoover years. (I’ve posted my letter before from J. Edgar congratulating him on my birth.)

He’d get calls from time to time in the 70’s and 80’s about weird stuff like “truckers are trying to extort my husband” and things like that.  I recall him relating someone in Pierre calling him at home and declaring that “there are communists in state government” and he needed to investigate.  I won’t say who said that, because she’s passed, was otherwise a nice lady, and it was probably awkward for him to see her in church.

I’m guessing for the agents, the Rick conspiracies have about as much priority as “the communists” call did for my dad in the face of AIM, death, murder, rape, kidnapping, and the plethora of crimes that the FBI investigates in South Dakota, since anything that happens on the reservation is federal.

I would put the Weible election conspiracies right up there on the list of things they’ll look at when they have time.

This is all a good example why we don’t want to elect goofballs with an election fetish.

Liar, liar, Toby Doeden’s dumpster is on fire. 

Coming off of the heels of the Toby Doeden PAC endorsements yesterday, his Political Action Committee blasted out text messages of endorsement to several candidates that didn’t exactly ring true, including this one about the things that Tom Pischke fights for in Pierre which is peppered with an unbelievable amount of complete fabrications:

“Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats from outside of South Dakota are attempting to take out one of the greatest and most conservative members of our South Dakota State Senate, Thomas Pischke!

We need every single Conservative Republican in South Dakota to join the fight to defend Tom and protect our beautiful state from those who are trying to destroy it.

Who wrote this utterly unbelievable nonsense?  “Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats from outside of South Dakota are attempting to take out one of the greatest and most conservative members of our South Dakota State Senate.”  Do they mean greatest as in his ability to get kicked out of caucus, or kicked out of the House of Representatives? Or greatest as in his inability to pass legislation?

Even more unbelievable. who exactly are these “Dark money special interest groups backed by liberal Democrats” trying to take him out?   In fact, one of the recipients of the ridiculous text message asked that very question, and called Toby out on what they described as a “straight up lie, very sad.:”

The response after asking for the list of “dark money special interest groups backed by liberal democrats?”

Well, it was crickets. Proving that it’s just meaningless puffery for puffery’s sake.

This comes as a surprise. On their website today, the newspaper for the Pierre/Ft. Pierre area has announced that it’s changing to a once a week publication :

South Dakota Cannabis Legalization Campaign Submits 29,030 Signatures to South Dakota Secretary of State 

The group is seeking to place an initiated measure on the November 2024 ballot that would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older 

Pierre, SD – Today, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the political group that led the 2020 and 2022 campaigns to legalize cannabis in South Dakota, submitted petitions containing 29,030 signatures in support of its proposed ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older.

“Today is the culmination of seven months of hard work by advocates and volunteers across South Dakota,” said Matthew Schweich, executive director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. “We are very confident that we have collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for this November’s ballot.”

In South Dakota, an initiated measure requires 17,508 signatures from registered voters in order to qualify for the ballot. Today is the deadline for submitting petitions to South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson.

“Things all seem to be moving in the right direction for South Dakota to finally win the freedom they voted for a few years ago,” said Deb Peters, President of the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota. “At the federal level, things are moving towards a responsible rescheduling and dozens of states are seeing the tax benefits of recreational cannabis legalization. It’s inspiring to see this industry come together and work so hard. We’re looking forward to Election Day. “

In 2020, South Dakota became the first state in the country to legalize medical cannabis and adult-use cannabis in the same election. Following the 2020 election, Governor Noem orchestrated a lawsuit that ultimately repealed the legalization law approved by 54% of voters in a highly controversial ruling. At the same time, advocates were able to defeat Governor Noem’s legislative attempt to delay implementation of the medical cannabis policy.

“The effects of Governor Noem’s actions, including leading the lawsuit against Amendment A, have left a lot of South Dakotans feeling as though their votes do not matter,” said Quincy Hanzen, deputy director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. “If this initiative qualifies for the ballot, we hope South Dakota voters will show up on November 5th and make their voice heard.”

Having received the petitions, South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson will now oversee a review of the signatures and determine whether the proposed initiated measure has qualified for the ballot. A decision is expected in the next several weeks.

To read the full text of the initiative, visit: https://sdbml.org/text

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