A majority of Americans believe that this prosecution of President Trump is political. So do I.
Murders and other major crimes have skyrocketed in NYC since Alvin Bragg took office. He should focus on his job: keeping people safe. He needs to get his priorities straight.
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 4, 2023
Rounds Issues Statement on Indictment of Former President
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) issued the following statement on the indictment of the former president:
“Regardless of your political position or perspective, this prosecution should concern everyone. The integrity of our justice system has been called into question because of a politically-motivated district attorney who is bringing charges that the Department of Justice declined to prosecute. The indictment includes 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegations of activity that occurred more than six years ago. Despite the fact these charges are normally misdemeanor charges, the district attorney, in his indictment, is attempting to bootstrap multiple underlying crimes in order to elevate these charges to a felony level. While everyone, including the former president, is subject to the laws of this country, no one should be singled out for political purposes. Unfortunately, this soap opera of a prosecution appears to be just that.”
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South Dakota News Watch has a story posted this afternoon about the disappearance of Serenity Dennard from the Children’s Home Society Facility in the Black Hills in 2019. And of particular interest to politicos is a notation from investigators how former State Senator Lynne DiSanto (who has changed her name since) caused problems that they say hurt the investigation, specifically noting that she “impeded investigation with conspiracy theories”:
Harrison, one of the investigators, said the immense social media attention on the case and frequency of uniformed posts caused pain for those involved in the case and may have actually slowed the investigation.
At one point, former state Republican legislator Lynne DiSanto interviewed people and created videos and a website devoted to conspiracy theories surrounding the case. DiSanto, who now lives in Montana under the name Lyndi Meyer, hurt the investigation, Harrison said.
“Social media can be very helpful … when people are doing it for the right reasons, which is to help the family out,” he said. “But she (DiSanto) didn’t do anything to make the case better. And she added confusion, so it was frustrating for us to go back and correct statements she made.”
The Brookings School Administrative offices should have been busy this last week, especially considering how much of the fallout they had to address as a result of the Superintendent.
If you recall, there was a bit of thing to do where the School District dropped the bomb on Superintendent Klint Willert, telling him he could resign or be terminated, with 20 supportive bullet points laying out why. And that was before the State Department of Education came out and out the School District on probation for accreditation.
I bring it back up as on March 10th, the South Dakota Department of Education had put the District on notice that…
BSD Letter – accreditation … by Pat Powers
The School District was commanded to have their “detailed plan of corrective action” postmarked to the Department of Education no later than March 31, 2023.
So what are we seeing since the letter went out on March 10?
According to the State Department of Education website, the two other districts on probation at the time the Brookings accreditation debacle came to light – Wall and Flandreau Indian School – have both been returned to good standing. The Canistota School District is now on probation, and it appears that Brookings is still on a probationary status as they work to get their act together.
We’ll see what happens this week. Those other districts seem to have gotten it pulled together quickly. Does the BSD have their act together as they claim, and at least got the plan in?
I’m sure we’ll find out.
BALTIC CITIZENS LAUNCH RECALL EFFORT AGAINST MAYOR MCISSAC
Baltic, SD – Today South Dakotans for Transparent Government, a political action committee founded in Baltic dedicated to the promotion of open and honest government, is launching an effort to recall the current mayor of Baltic, Deborah McIsaac. This effort comes after dozens of inquiries, strong community support, and a coalition of community leaders who want to better the Baltic community.
This recall effort comes after numerous community examples of malfeasance in office, misconduct in office, and gross partiality by Mayor McIsaac. Furthermore, the Mayor has demonstrated a clear pattern of bad and biased behavior that puts the residents of Baltic and the progress of the community at significant risk.
There is much more to the story of Mayor McIsaac’s administration than what is known to the citizens of Baltic. In the coming weeks, South Dakotans for Transparent Government will unveil witnesses, statements, evidence, and actions that show that she is not acting in the interest of the Baltic community of its residents. We hope that the citizens of Baltic will review this information carefully, and realize that they have been misled for months.
Under Mayor McIsaac’s tenure, a better Baltic cannot be built. To learn more about who Mayor Mcisaac really is, please visit www.recallmcisaac.com. For press inquiries, please contact info@recallmcisaac.com.
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All the President’s Tax Hikes
By Sen. John Thune
President Reagan once quipped that, “Democrats believe every day is April 15,” and the Biden administration’s reckless tax-and-spend agenda proves that the Gipper’s words still ring true today. After two years of adding trillions to the debt, fueling a multi-year inflation crisis, and increasing taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars, the president recently proposed hiking taxes another $4.7 trillion. This is the wrong prescription for our economy and our country.
Anybody who looks at the federal budget can see the problem is spending too much, not taxing too little. Yet, three consecutive budgets from the president have proposed greater spending and higher taxes. The president’s latest plan would raise taxes on American workers and businesses, double down on the $80 billion already given to the IRS, and ultimately do little for working families. These proposed tax hikes would reverse the gains made by Republicans’ 2017 tax reform effort by making the American economy less competitive, and they would make our economy weaker by lowering wages, stifling job creation, and decreasing economic growth.
Republicans have had success preventing President Biden and Democrats from enacting much of their reckless tax agenda. Last year, the Senate adopted my amendment to protect small businesses from one of these ill-conceived tax plans. Another amendment I authored last Congress, which also passed the Senate, blocked President Biden’s proposal to subject family-run businesses to a tax on unrealized gains when the owner dies and passes it on to the next generation. This tax would have been devastating for family farms and ranches.
South Dakota farmers and ranchers often dream of passing their operations to the next generation in their family, but burdensome tax policy can make it untenable. I’m glad to have protected farmers and ranchers from the president’s tax hike proposal, but more needs to be done. One common-sense idea is to permanently repeal the death tax because it’s fundamentally flawed. The money left in an estate when a person dies has already been taxed at least once, but the death tax allows the federal government to take another cut.
The death tax impacts family farms, ranches, and small businesses, which are often cash-poor operations. A farm or ranch may be valued at several million dollars, but most of that could be tied up in equipment and land, not money in the bank. The result is that families may have to sell all or most of these assets just to cover their tax bill. I’ve supported repealing this unnecessary tax throughout my time in Congress, and I’m proud that my recently reintroduced bill to repeal it has support from nearly all Senate Republicans. One family farm lost to the death tax is one too many.
Neither higher taxes nor greater spending is the right approach, and together they would only prolong the economic headwinds that are straining family budgets today. I’ll continue working to protect South Dakota families, farmers, ranchers, and small businesses from burdensome taxes that get in the way of achieving the American dream.
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Vietnam Veterans Day
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
March 29th is a day for Americans to remember and commemorate the service and sacrifices made by nearly three million servicemembers who served in Vietnam.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the disestablishment of the United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, and the day the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam.
Our troops, many of them our fathers and grandfathers, came home from Vietnam but didn’t get the proper welcome they deserved. Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve had the opportunity to honor over 671 Vietnam Veterans through commemorative pinning ceremonies. While this welcome home is decades overdue, it’s never too late to say thank you to our veterans.
During the war era, nine million active duty served. At one point, over three million were in Vietnam at the same time, which was more than any time during World War II.
Today, there are still six million Vietnam veterans in America, and millions of families of those who served during the war. Our veterans and military families have made tremendous sacrifices to protect our freedoms.
There are over 54,000 veterans in the State of South Dakota, and although I didn’t serve in the Armed Forces, I work to represent them every day in Congress. Meeting with veterans, hearing their stories, taking their concerns, and understanding their needs has given me a deeper understanding of the tremendous sacrifice that our service members and their families, both past and present, have made to protect our freedoms.
I’ll be hosting our first Vietnam veterans pinning ceremony of 2023 in April. If you served in the Vietnam War or have a family member who served, please fill out the form here so they can be recognized and properly honored.
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Senator Mike Rounds is the keynote speaker for a Palm Sunday Brunch fundraiser, raising money for Catholic Family Services today.
Rounds’ address is noted as him speaking about Faith, Family and Leadership at the event being held at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center in Rapid City.
Currently, Rounds is the highest elected politician of the Catholic faith in South Dakota, followed by President pro-tem of the Senate, Lee Schoenbeck, and Attorney General Marty Jackley. (In order of succession)
As commentary is coming in on an article I posted yesterday, “Special interest groups seeking to push Republicans their way. But it’s a recipe for disaster” I came across an interesting article on-line today about how one leader of the very same “Coalition of Counties” group explains what the very purpose of their effort is.
Kind of like a cartoon or a movie villain, where they have to provide an overly long monologue explaining their nefarious plan on how they are going to take over the world, he goes on at length about what they’re intentions are.
Except there are no sharks with laser beams in this version, as so far as we know. Just some people involved with county GOP groups that seem to have gotten a little big for their britches.
In an article by Stu Cvrk of the Bon Homme County Republican Party, after you get through three pages of overly long monologuing, he finally gets to the point of what their ultimate intention is. To throw Republicans out of office:
The goals of the precinct strategy are to: (1) influence the policies and direction of the Republican Party, (2) decide who represents the party when running for office, and (3) elect representatives to the party who will “truly represent the people.” In short, to replace “establishment Republicans” with grassroots conservatives who reflect the concerns of the Republican base.
You can read the overly long article here.
Ugh. Haven’t we heard this same schtick before? Convention of States throws money around and wants to replace Republicans. The Free-dumb caucus spends their time attacking Republicans. The Ripple Effect group was set up to recruit people to throw out incumbents. Same thing with the idiots organizing the Primary John Thune and Primary Dusty Johnson groups.
Those external groups are focused on attacking Republicans and throwing out incumbents. And that’s certainly their right. But there’s a problem with this newest group doing so. A big one. Because the Coalition of Counties, or as I would call them, the Coalition of Confederates, is not people acting independently, they are a cancer from within and have expressly identified themselves in past correspondence as:
Several Republican “Executive Boards” are identifying themselves as belonging to this group which Stu Cvrk pointed out includes among their goals “deciding who represents the party when running for office,” and telling everyone they intend to “replace establishment Republicans” they decide they don’t like.
It begs the question.. the “prospective executive board for the Hand County GOP” wants to throw out House Majority Leader Will Mortenson before they even become formalized? Same with the prospective Buffalo County group – once they become a real county organization, is it their intent to throw out Rep. Rebecca Reimer because she has been in leadership?
What about the Minnehaha or Pennington County GOP Groups? Which legislators do they consider “establishment” and they are going to work to replace them?
I think the elected officials at least deserve that much courtesy from these groups who have identified their mission as such. Nevermind the fact, I can’t find that in their job duties?
And I can’t help but continue harping on the whole job duty thing.
I don’t see where “decide who represents the party when running for office” or “replace establishment Republicans” is in the chair or vice-chair’s job description. And somehow, I don’t think the Republican Party Chairman’s goals – which county groups are directed to carry out – include throwing Republican elected officials out of office!
So, what do these people think they are doing when their expressly declared intent is to “replace establishment Republicans?”
Republican elected officials in these counties, as well as statewide, need to have a serious come-to-Jesus chat with these County GOP organizations, and find out if they are on their hit-list to be taken out because they feel they are ‘establishment.’
Because they at least deserve the courtesy to know if these same county groups who come to them with hat-in-hand every year asking them to buy a table or buy an ad in their Lincoln Day Dinner program are going to turn around and use the funds they raise against them when they’re running for election next year.
Have you been following the news about former President Trump’s indictment in New York? Here’s the 30 second overhead on it from the Associated Press:
Read that here.The grand jury in Manhattan had been probing hush money payments at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, one of the witnesses who testified, says he orchestrated payments totaling $280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments. Federal prosecutors said the payments amounted to illegal, unreported assistance to Trump’s campaign. But they declined to file charges against Trump himself.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office appeared to be investigating whether anyone committed crimes in arranging the payments, or in the way they accounted for them internally at the Trump Organization. But the specific charges remained under seal late Thursday.
From everything ‘m hearing about it, the misreporting of the funds might be a misdemeanor, unless they can tie it to another crime. Here’s where they’re stretching, as from reports, they’re trying to tie the state charge to a federal violation.
To me, trying to twist this into a felony seems to be a stretch in the case of the popular ex-president. If his detractors wanted to hang their hat on something to go after him, I don’t think this dog is going to hunt.
But that’s just my opinion. The floor is yours.