Governor Noem Appoints Lynn Jensen to Transportation Commission

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem has appointed Lynn Jensen to serve on the South Dakota Transportation Commission.

“Lynn’s extensive experience has proven his ability to build consensus and work together towards a solution,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “He knows transportation from his business experience. And he has worked in agriculture, South Dakota’s most important industry, which our transportation industry supports.”

Jensen graduated with a degree in Agricultural Production from Lake Area Tech in 1982. He served as President and Co-CEO of the National Corn Growers association in 2000, State Director of USDA Rural Development from 2001 to 2005, and was appointed by President Bush to be the USDA’s liaison to FEMA during Hurricane Katrina recovery in 2005. He has served on the board of several non-profit and for-profit organizations and currently serves as the Vice President of the American Aronia Berry Association.

Jensen has been the owner and operator of several businesses, including Jensen Transportation, where he served as president from 1996 to 2010. Jensen owns and operates a farm that has been active since 1980.

A photograph of Jensen can be found here.

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Governor Kristi Noem continues to push out a message that she will not be mandating what individuals and businesses have to do during the COVID pandemic. late this morning, her Communications director Ian Fury underlined that with a message tot he state’s media:

Folks,

I wanted to make sure you saw this message from Governor Noem on the question of banning business vaccine mandates.

As President Biden plans to mandate vaccines for nursing homes and pressure businesses into mandating vaccines for their employees, Governor Noem is ready to fight back. If President Biden illegally mandates vaccines, she will take every action available under the law to protect South Dakotans from the federal government.

But some want her to push legislation that would ban businesses from mandating vaccines for their employees. At face value, it sounds like a nice idea. After all, Governor Noem would agree that businesses shouldn’t be instituting these policies for their employees. But it isn’t in her authority to tell businesses how to operate. Frankly, if such an action were in her authority, then it would be in Biden’s as well. It isn’t; thank God for that.

Conservatives know this conversation well. We had a very similar one regarding the Masterpiece Cakeshop case just a few years ago, when liberals tried to tell cake bakers how to run their business. We had another similar fight when liberals tried to tell nuns and Hobby Lobby that they must provide contraception for their employees.

It’s wrong when government oversteps its authorities to tell people how to do business. It’s wrong when the Left does it, and it’s wrong when the Right does it.

Governor Noem knows that people are frustrated — that they don’t want their employer telling them what to do. Frankly, she doesn’t think that businesses should be mandating their employees to be vaccinated, either. And if they do mandate vaccines to their employees, they should make religious and medical exemptions available.

But she doesn’t have the authority as Governor to tell them what to do.

Since the start of the pandemic, she has remained focused on what her authorities are — and what they are not.

South Dakota is in a strong position because she didn’t overstep her authority. She didn’t trample on the rights of our people. She was the only Governor in the country who never ordered a single business or church to close. And she’s not going to start now.

When leaders overstep their authority, that is how we break this country. If government starts acting unconstitutionally — even if it’s doing something that we like — that is a dangerous path to walk. It will lead to the destruction of our Constitution and our nation.

We must be a nation of laws. And government must be constrained by the Constitution.

It’s not conservative to grow government to tell businesses what to do and how to treat their employees. Remember what President Reagan said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Governor Noem’s focus will always be this: ensuring South Dakota remains a great place to live, work, raise a family, and do business. If she starts telling South Dakotans how to do business, it will destroy the Freedom that made South Dakota’s economy the strongest in the nation.

Best,

Ian Fury
Communications Director
Governor Kristi Noem (SD)

@IanTFury

What are your thoughts?

Think about this… if I have the ability to dictate vaccine policy to businesses, then so does @JoeBiden.

Thank God neither of us do.

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) August 25, 2021

A few years back, South Dakota Democrat Angelia Schultz was a candidate for State Senate..

and later, Schultz was South Dakota Democrats’ standard bearer in the 2014 race for Secretary of State against Shantel Krebs. In fact, after the election, she was even touted as “the future” of the Democrat Party in her ability to capture more votes that old Democrat war horses Susan Wismer or Rick Weiland:

Political newcomer and Democratic candidate for secretary of state Angelia Schultz received the second-most votes of any Democrat running for statewide office in Pierre. She also had more votes than Rick Weiland, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, though former congressman Larry Pressler certainly took votes away from Weiland. Pressler ran as an independent.

Schultz finished with some 13,500 more votes than did the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Susan Wismer of Britton. Statewide, 84,132 ballots were cast for Schultz. That was about 3,000 more than Weiland got.

and…

“She’s indicated that she wants to run again,” said Deb Knecht of Houghton, chairwoman of the South Dakota Democratic Party, of Schultz. “We look forward to having her run for something else whenever she decides that she’s ready for that.”

Schultz said that, while she doesn’t have any specific plans for the future, she doesn’t expect to fade into the political background anytime soon.

Read the entire story here.

What has Angelia been doing since the 2014 race? Apparently, cementing herself as the future of South Dakota Democrats.

The far, far future of the Democrat Party:

A woman named Angelia Schultz née Angelia Lynn Johnston, AKA Añjali, who claims to be a retired defense intelligence official, says she has first-hand knowledge of the location of an alien base in a mountain in the Mojave Desert.

and..

Schultz, AKA Añjali, laid it all out in a press conference that was live-streamed last week at the Lincoln Memorial.

During the press conference, Schultz said she was taken through tunnels to the alien base, where she met two aliens of different races who, she reports, communicated with her through her consciousness.

She went on to say that the aliens were aware of her conducting the press conference, approved of it, and that they are peaceful creatures.

Read it here.

And in fact, you can watch it here in all it’s “Future of the Democrat Party” glory:

The Future of South Dakota Democrats.

Well,they are looking for a candidate to run against Senator Thune in the US Senate race.

(She probably can’t do worse than Jay Williams did.)

From Facebook, State Representative Scott Odenbach provides his side of why he is pressing for a special session to prevent employers from requiring vaccinations:

Governor Kristi Noem is saying we don’t need a bigger government with an ability to dictate to people & businesses what to do or not do on vaccinations, as she notes that the legislature doesn’t need her to call a special session:

Governor Noem Files Brief in Mount Rushmore Fireworks Appeal

PIERRE, S.D. – Yesterday, Governor Kristi Noem filed an initial brief in her appeal in the Mount Rushmore Fireworks litigation. The brief was filed with the United States 8^thCircuit Court of Appeals. You can read the filed brief here.

“The Biden Administration cancelled South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on completely arbitrary grounds. They’ve displayed their hypocrisy on this issue time and time again,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “We are appealing the District Court’s incorrect decision so that we can return the Fireworks Celebration to Mount Rushmore and honor our nation’s birthday at America’s Shrine to Democracy for next year and in the future.”

Previously, Governor Noem asked President Biden to uphold the Memorandum of Agreement between NPS and the State of South Dakota regarding the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration. Governor Noem responded to NPS’s reasons for cancelling the fireworks celebration. She also outlined the due diligence that the State of South Dakota and other entities undertook to ensure that last year’s celebration could be conducted safely and responsibly. You can read Governor Noem’s initial letter to President Biden here.

Following the Biden Administration’s announcement of fireworks in Washington D.C., which included an invitation to states “to join us by hosting your own events to honor our freedom, salute those who have been serving on the frontlines, and celebrate our progress in fighting this pandemic,” Governor Noem asked President Biden to intervene and allow the planned fireworks to go forward. You can find that subsequent letter to President Biden here.

America’s Founding Fathers knew that Independence Day should be celebrated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one [e]nd of this Continent to the other,” as stated by John Adams on July 3, 1776. And President Calvin Coolidge declared that Mount Rushmore was designed to be “a national shrine to which future generations will repair to declare their continuing allegiance to independence [and] self-government.”

Last year’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration was held safely and responsibly and had a huge positive impact on the South Dakota economy. You can find materials such as photographs and video of the 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration here.

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Don’t forget that Dakotawarcollege.com is now on Reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/dakotawarcollege/.

A social media and discussion website, Reddit is the 7th largest website in the US, so it’s a far better populated place than the barren social media venues of Gab or even worse, Parler, (which supposedly has gotten back up and running according to the e-mail I received today.)

Check it out and follow the discussion group.

Democratic blog author, and former press person for Tim Bjorkman, Tom Lawrence is writing today and lamenting South Dakota Democrats for having nothing when it comes to candidates for the 2022 election cycle:

Earlier this year, party chairman Randy Seiler told me he is optimistic about the future.

But in a little more than a year, voters will be casting ballots on three major races as well as numerous other ones. So far, no candidates have emerged for senator, Congress or governor.

I raised this point in February, and now, six months later, no one has stepped to the fore. The clock is ticking louder now.

and..

So, SDDP, just checking in. How goes the search for candidates? Are you ready for 2022?

Read it here.

The word most recently was that State Sen. Troy Heinert was telling colleagues a few weeks back that he was running for Governor, and rumors abounded that Remi Bald Eagle was going to be running for Congress.

Heinert remains the most likely sacrificial lamb.. er, democrat candidate for Governor. And I notice remibaldeagle.com is now off-line and parked via go daddy, as someone would do if reworking it. Or maybe it’s down to go away.

That still leaves Democrats hunting for someone to take on John Thune on their behalf. Which would be a problem, as that person realistically just doesn’t exist.

Moving on..

Rep. Fred Deutsch Pledges to Support Congressional Term Limits 

Watertown, SD – U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation. Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress. South Dakota state Rep. Fred Deutsch (district 4) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the U.S. Term Limits pledge.

USTL President, Philip Blumel, commented on Deutsch’s pledge saying, “Fred’s support of term limits shows that there are individuals who are willing to listen to the majority of voters who want term limits. America needs a Congress that will be served by citizen legislators, not career politicians.”

The U.S. Term Limits pledge is provided to candidates and members of state legislatures. It reads, “I pledge that, as a member of the state legislature, I will cosponsor, vote for, and defend the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the limited purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.”

In the 1995 case, Thornton v. U.S. Term Limits, the Supreme Court of the United States opined that only a Constitutional Amendment could limit the terms of U.S. Senators and House Representatives. According to Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of USTL, the best chance of imposing term limits on Congress is through an Article V Proposal Convention of state legislatures.

“The Constitution allows for amendments to be proposed by either 2/3 of Congress or 2/3 of the states. While we’d like for Congress to take the high road and propose term limits on itself, our goal is to trigger the latter, a national convention specifically for a term limits amendment,” claims Tomboulides. “That is why it is important to get buy-in from state legislators,” he added. Once proposed, the amendment must be ratified by 38 states.

Blumel noted, “More than 80% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership. The way to achieve that goal is through a congressional term limits amendment. Fred knows this and is willing to work to make sure we reach our goal.”

According to the last nationwide poll on term limits conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, term limits enjoys wide bipartisan support. McLaughlin’s analysis states, “Support for term limits is broad and strong across all political, geographic and demographic groups. An overwhelming 80% of voters approve of a Constitutional Amendment that will place term limits on members of Congress.”

View Deutsch’s signed pledge here.

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