Yes, I Agree.
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
March 14, 2022

I was going through mail the other day when I came across a letter from a high school student in Martin. The letter started out, “Dear Senator Rounds – I am going to be honest with you here, I don’t understand government very well nor do I have a burning passion to do so.” I think that’s relatable to lots of people, not just those in high school.

The student continued on to say: “I am going to have my own car soon and I am not quite sure how I am going to afford gas. It makes me apprehensive, especially since it costs so much to fill a little car even. If it’s out of your control I do understand, I just hope you will do what you can to help us all out.”

Her note took me back to a different time in my life and reminded me of the excitement of buying my first car. After my first year of college, I bought a 1964 Chevy Corvette Convertible with the money I saved up. While it was a convertible, it wasn’t fancy, and needed a paint job almost as badly as I needed a haircut at that time. I only had the car for about a year but I’ll never forget it. The memories. The music. The long drives down an endless open road. It’s amazing the power a few words have to take you back in time.

The challenges of adulthood unfortunately seem to cloud our perspective sometimes and make us forget what it’s like to be a kid. These days, it feels like kids are having to grow up a lot faster than they did in my day. While many things play into that, the fragile state of our economy certainly isn’t helping, with pocketbooks as tight for parents now as they’ve been in a long time.

Elections have consequences and our country is gaining an understanding of that right now, especially when it comes to the economy. Inflation is currently at a 40-year record high. While it’s easy to get into the weeds rather quickly talking about monetary policy and the tools the federal government has to address higher prices, to put it simply, there are two parts to inflation: supply and demand. Low supply and high demand lead to higher prices. The radical policies of the Biden administration have negatively impacted both factors through reckless spending and excessive regulations. This leaves folks in South Dakota and across the country to bear the costs. Inflation impacts everyone – kids going out to eat or the movies with friends, college students buying groceries, new parents paying for diapers, families trying to put food on the table, grandparents trying to spoil grandkids with toys and even high school students filling up their first cars.

As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to put forward policies that help our economy grow and create opportunities for businesses in our communities to thrive. Our country is deeply divided. The current administration is clearly focused on climate change to the detriment of our economy. They have limited the production of oil and gas by refusing to allow additional extractions from federal lands. They have made it more difficult through regulation to efficiently deliver oil and gas where it is needed, not just in our country but also in other parts of the world.

I believe that we should reduce inflation by reducing the cost of energy—including petroleum—everywhere that we can. This would not only reduce the cost of gas at the pump, but also reduce the cost of goods and services which are higher because of the price of fuel to get items and services to where they are needed by the American public. If we really want to address inflation, we need to address the supply side of energy.

As the student from Martin closed her letter to me, “We’ve gotta work on that.” Yes, I agree.

In case you’ve forgotten, there’s an independent candidate running for Governor.  At least until April 26th, when she doesn’t have enough signatures to be on the ballot. But we can derive amusement from her until this point.

So the indy running for Governor is the ever amusing Lora Hubbel, and she has a new campaign video posted on Rumble. Predictably, it’s full of her crackpot conspiracies …and of course, she has all the evidence… but the opener had me laughing out loud:

“I belong to a couple of groups in Sioux Falls. One is Unmask the Truth, which I’m on the board of. And another one is Patriot Ripple Effect….”

Lora is a member of Patriot Ripple Effect? Of course she is.

And why is that funny?

Now, I know Lora hates me, probably because I’ve been pointing out her bad, her brain eating nanobots, and absolutely bat-guano nuttiness for years.

But as much as she hates me, she also has it out pretty strongly for former Minnehaha GOP Chair Dave Roetman:

Now Dave Roetman hasn’t been what you’d consider a GOP insider for quite a while, as he’s spending his time trying to take out the elected officials he and his new group don’t think are conservative enough.

The name of his new outfit that he’s one of the organizers of? The Patriot Ripple Effect.

Literally, Lora Hubbel is out there telling everyone that she’s joined the Dave Roetman club as she runs to be the crackpot candidate for Governor.

At least it’s good for a laugh.

About a week ago I had a note from a legislator in the State Legislature who was noticing that when it came to voting on bills on the floor of the State House of Representatives, State Representative and Congressional wannabe Taffy Howard seemed to be more and more absent. As was noted to me “she is here today but seems to be nowhere to be found on occasion, specifically whenever we are voting on BOR issues.”

I’d also heard talk that she’d duck out to go do fundraising, etc. in connection with her Congressional campaign.

Reading that and having heard those rumors, I thought it would be an interesting research project to figure out if that was just a fleeting and possibly unfair impression from the other residents of the State Capitol. Or if she was just not there when she was supposed to be.

And here’s what I found. According to House Journals, out of about 377 recorded roll count votes in the State House of Representatives, there were 53 votes where Taffy was marked as “Excused.” Calculating it out, Taffy Howard missed 14% of the floor votes she was sent to Pierre to represent her District on.

And what were those bills Representative Howard just couldn’t be there for, for one or more votes?  (In case you were wondering, I made a list):

If you weren’t there for 15% of your job, would your employer think it’s no big deal?

All this vote skipping might be even tougher to explain for someone who is jockeying for a promotion.

What do you think?

The Democrat opponent of incumbent Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, Taneeza Islam, also has a commercial out for the Sioux Falls Mayor’s race:

In case you’ve missed them on the evening news, Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken has two 60 second campaign commercials out encouraging his re-election:

I had a terrible server crash a week or so back, where I lost one of my e-mails and several websites for a time. As they were recovering things, I was going through what I had on-line, and I stumbled across this postcard that was produced in 2012 against former Senator Pam Merchant who was running for Senate again in Brookings. You know her after serving as Executive Director for the Democrat Party to be now running for Sioux Falls City Council as Pam Cole:

Suffice it to say, the voters didn’t invite her back to the State Legislature back in 2012.

The Free World Must Stand With Ukraine
By Sen. John Thune

As the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate, you may have seen the wrenching picture of a Ukrainian family killed by Russian shelling – a mom and her two innocent children, struck down as they attempted to flee along a main evacuation route – an evacuation route that Russia intentionally attacked. Or you may have seen the pictures of the devastation after a maternity hospital fell victim to a Russian airstrike. These pictures and videos are heartbreaking, and the people of Ukraine are in my thoughts and prayers. I know they’re in yours, too.

The scenes in Ukraine are unreal. They are scenes that we thought had finally been left behind in the dust of European history, and in two short weeks, Vladimir Putin has wrought an unimaginable amount of devastation. The damage he has done will take years, if not decades, to rebuild. More than 2 million people have fled their homes and their communities, making this the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. These have been dark days for Ukraine, but the devastation has been met with remarkable determination.

This is Ukrainians’ fight, and they are not shrinking from it. The Washington Post recently reported that more than 66,000 Ukrainians who were outside the country have returned to answer President Zelensky’s call to arms. That’s 66,000 Ukrainians who could have sat in safety outside Ukraine who have returned to help defend their country. Outnumbered as they are, the Ukrainian people are standing fast, and they are slowing down and, in many places, holding off the Russians. Soldiers and civilians alike have taken up arms to defend their nation, and it’s clear that the spirit of Ukraine, now roused, will not be extinguished.

But, no matter the resolve of the Ukrainian people, Ukraine cannot hold out alone. Without military, intelligence, and humanitarian support from other free nations, Ukraine may fall. We can’t sit by and let that happen. While I believe the Biden administration was too slow to send aid to Ukraine and sanction Putin in the lead-up to Russia’s attack, significant military resources are now flowing to Ukraine from the United States and NATO partners, and Ukraine is imposing a heavy cost on its invaders.

The United States did the right thing by banning American imports of Russian energy. Every dollar we send to Russia is a dollar that it can use to prosecute its war in Ukraine. Now we need to focus on developing our energy resources here at home – all of them, both conventional and alternative – to ensure that our nation never again has to depend on countries like Russia for essential energy supplies.

I recently heard directly from President Zelensky on a Zoom call, and he made a powerful appeal for help from the West.

We need to do everything we can to keep Ukraine in this fight – including helping to pave the way for Ukraine to get the air defense resources it needs.

After all that Ukraine has managed to do, it would be a tragedy to see the country lose its fight because the United States and other NATO countries could not agree on how to get the Ukrainians the defensive equipment they need. And, while we should be cautious about what Putin may choose to do as his losses grow and his off-ramps dwindle, the United States and NATO cannot allow Moscow to dictate our actions. To do would not only be to surrender Ukraine, but to give the green light to despotic governments the world over, from China to Iran.

Ukrainians are fighting to be a free people in a free country, and I think their fight is very close to the hearts of the American people. We must do whatever we can to support them.

###

Fighting for our Veterans
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
March 11, 2022

Last week, I was informed by Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 23 Director Robert McDivitt and the Biden Administration of recommended in-patient service closures that follow a multi-year nationwide review of (Veterans Affairs) VA services.

The recent recommendations call for the following:

SIOUX FALLS Recommendations

• Reduce ER capacity to an urgent care
• Continue expansion of outpatient services
• Add 30 nursing home beds
• Close the Wagner Community-Based Outpatient

BLACK HILLS Recommendation

• Invest in the Rapid City market with a new VA Medical Center and Community Living Center
• Relocate psycho-social rehab from Hot Springs to Rapid City
• Existing Hot Springs and Fort Meade campuses would be limited to out-patient care.
• Close all in-patient services at Hot Springs and Fort Meade and re-locate to Rapid City.

Over the past week, I conducted a Facebook and email survey asking people if they support the recommended closures. The results are an overwhelming no – that’s no surprise. More than 94% of South Dakotans that responded to the poll voted to KEEP the VA services as they are now and not reduce in-patient services like the recommendation calls for.

I want you to know I do not support the recommended closures and service reductions.

This is not the first time the VA in Hot Springs has been recommended to close or reduce services. In 2017, the VA signed a Record of Decision to vastly reduce services at the facility. However, that decision was rescinded by then-VA Secretary Robert Wilkie in March 2020. Nearly two years ago to the day, I appeared with then-VA Secretary Robert Wilkie when he came to the Hot Springs VA to announce the VA would remain open and there would be no reduction in services for veterans.

South Dakota has been fighting to keep the VA services for over ten years. Our veterans deserve better than policies and recommendations that create uncertainty every couple of years. In South Dakota, promises mean something. This is a betrayal to the Hot Springs, Wagner, and Fort Meade communities and their veterans. If the commission is going to move forward with reducing services, they should face the people of Hot Springs, Wagner, Fort Meade, and Sioux Falls and explain why they believe these services should be scaled back.

The Hot Springs VA has served veterans for more than 100 years. Since opening its doors, the name on the door has changed, the government branch has changed, and the leadership has changed, but service to veterans has remained constant. I will continue to work with the rest of the South Dakota delegation and the community to save our VAs. Our veterans deserve high-quality, accessible health care.

So, I had mentioned in a prior post where I ran down the races, that in District 12, one of the Candidates, Minnehaha County GOP Vice-Chair Cole Heisey might have to reckon with some things he’s written in the past..

Young Republican and 2020 D15 Candidate Cole Heisey may find himself challenged by his time spent helping the Proud Boys with their rally after the last election, as well as some statements he’s made regarding women. 

..where I linked to a column he had written in the USD Volante back in 2013 where he apparently found monogamy inconvenient and called it “outdated,” noting:

I especially would like to make the case that monogamous relationships are outdated.

and..

People evolve at different rates, and because of this, at some point one needs to let go of people to meet others at their own level of maturity. It is futile to try to change others.

Read that column by District 12 Candidate Cole Heisey here.

And apparently, I struck a  nerve, because Cole decided to unload on me on facebook, noting in part:

“It has recently come to my attention that Dakota War College, the blog authored by Pat Powers, has again made a dig at me by associating me with a decade old article I wrote back in early college for the school newspaper.”

And he devoted about 4 more pages deriding me, and complaining that he doesn’t like it when people point out his own words.

But the best part of his complaint was when he said “I suppose he can’t find much fault in where I stand now.”

(Okay, I can’t resist.) Hold my beer. 

Here are two examples of where I might find fault with where he stands now.

First, I can say I find fault where he was standing at the “stop the steal” rally in Sioux Falls on January 2, 2021, surrounded by the state chapter of the Proud Boys who worked with him on the rally:

Yes. I can say that I have a problem with that.

Or, I might find fault with more recent words..

I also have a problem with someone who wants to run as a Republican candidate to represent constituents, some of whom who have intellectual disabilities, calling things “retarded.”

So there. Hopefully I have answered Cole’s concerns over finding fault with not just things he’d written a few years ago, but there are things he’s done in more recent months that I can find an equal amount of fault with.

And Cole Heisey, candidate for District 12 House, can take comfort in the fact that I’ll be sure to continue to be diligent in pointing out the things he says or does that are valuable to find fault with.

Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions Launches Billboard Campaign

Pierre, SD – Today, the Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions (DakotaInstitute.net) purchased placements on digital billboards regarding the ongoing impeachment hearings involving the Attorney General.