Dakota Posts is taking on Gubernatorial Candidate Lora Hubbel this AM. But I think something on how Hubbel has said “Pharmacy is Sorcery” or “Alcohol Consumption will allow you to be possessed by spirits” would be funnier. (maybe next time)
From Facebook:
I’m hearing that Lora Hubbel is not a happy tin-foil wearing candidate today, as per Facebook:
So…Her complaint is that apparently the State GOP Chairman did not contact her and personally send her a list of all the Republican Dinners in the state? Really?
Apparently she’s running for snowflake-in-chief instead of Governor. The problem with Lora’s latest attempt to be a professional victim? It’s a bucket that just doesn’t hold the nonsense she’s trying to fill it with.
The State Republican Party has NEVER sent information out to candidates about when the Republican dinners are. The South Dakota Republican Party maintains a calendar – which can pretty easily be found on the Internet here – but they don’t call candidates up to see if they’re attending. Maybe that’s how Hubbel ran the Constitution party when she was chair of the opposing party last year, but they didn’t have so many people to worry about.
In South Dakota at least, Republicans are responsible for themselves.
Just like when Lora ran for Governor as a Republican in 2014, the same is true in 2018. Each candidate is responsible for their own schedule. (In addition, each county party is responsible unto themselves for how they choose to run their annual fundraising event, and each county schedules them individually.)
If Hubbel has a complaint of somehow being uninformed and apparently incapable of typing www.southdakotagop.com, that would seem to be on her for being an unorganized candidate. Especially considering this is her second time around at the rodeo running for Governor.
But then again, that might explain a lot.
Update: At least Terry LaFleur isn’t claiming a conspiracy and trying to portray himself as a victim when faced with the same situation:
I see that Neal Tapio’s Statement of Candidacy has now been filed with the Federal Election Commission as of last week:
After being signed on 1/30, it was mailed to the FEC on 2/12.
Next filing due for Tapio should be the Financial Disclosure Statement due to the Clerk of the US House, due within 30 days of becoming a candidate.
As the sharing on the communication platform Facebook has turned into a love/hate relationship over the stream of clickbait and fake news we tend to see in our news feeds, we’re hearing that the Thune letter to Facebook before the 2016 election over the platform’s liberal bias and suppression of conservative news apparently got their attention:
But the bad press wasn’t what really rattled Facebook—it was the letter from John Thune, a Republican US senator from South Dakota, that followed the story’s publication. Thune chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which in turn oversees the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that has been especially active in investigating Facebook. The senator wanted Facebook’s answers to the allegations of bias, and he wanted them promptly.
The Thune letter put Facebook on high alert. The company promptly dispatched senior Washington staffers to meet with Thune’s team. Then it sent him a 12-page single-spaced letter explaining that it had conducted a thorough review of Trending Topics and determined that the allegations in the Gizmodo story were largely false.
And..
According to a Facebook employee involved in planning the meeting, part of the goal was to bring in a group of conservatives who were certain to fight with one another. They made sure to have libertarians who wouldn’t want to regulate the platform and partisans who would. Another goal, according to the employee, was to make sure the attendees were “bored to death” by a technical presentation after Zuckerberg and Sandberg had addressed the group.
The power went out, and the room got uncomfortably hot. But otherwise the meeting went according to plan. The guests did indeed fight, and they failed to unify in a way that was either threatening or coherent.
Bigger Paychecks and More Opportunities on the Way
By Sen. John Thune
Exactly two weeks after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, which represents the first major successful tax reform effort in a generation, business after business was lining up to announce they were awarding bonuses to more than 1 million workers around the country. More take-home pay for American workers means more opportunities for them and their families to succeed.
Now, just a few weeks later, less than two months after our pro-growth bill became law, more than 350 companies from all corners of the country, including South Dakota, have announced that more than 4.2 million American workers are receiving bonuses, higher wages, or expanded benefits thanks to tax reform.
The list of companies seems to grow by the day: Charter Communications, Inc., Walmart, Cigna Corporation, Capital One, Webster Financial Corporation, Humana, and of course, Great Western Bancorp and Aaladin Industries, Inc., right here in South Dakota, just to name a few.
And then there are all of the companies that are deciding to invest or reinvest in the United States as a result of tax reform becoming the law of the land.
For example, Apple announced it will bring home and invest nearly $250 billion – that’s billion with a “b” – in cash it has been keeping overseas because of our uncompetitive tax system. It also announced that it will create 20,000 new jobs, too. Fiat Chrysler announced that it will be adding 2,500 jobs in the United States to produce pickups that it has been making in Mexico. And JP Morgan Chase is adding 4,000 new jobs and opening 400 new branches.
In addition, companies are finding other ways to channel the benefits they are seeing from tax reform back into the economy. For instance, utility companies, like Black Hills Energy in South Dakota, are working with utility regulators to pass along tax savings to customers through rate reductions.
All of these examples, which only begin to scratch the surface of the positive tax reform stories that have been reported lately, are good news for the U.S. economy, but they’re even better news for the American workers and consumers who help support it.
One of my top priorities during the tax reform debate was to help create a system that made it easier for businesses to increase investments here in the United States, hire new workers, and increase wages and benefits. At least in the short term, as evidenced by the growing list of companies that are citing tax reform as their reason to boost worker compensation or expand their operation, it’s working.
It’s working because we lowered tax rates across the board for owners of small and medium-sized businesses, farms, and ranches. We expanded business owners’ ability to recover investments they make in their businesses, which will free up cash that can be reinvested in their operations and their workers. We lowered our nation’s massive corporate tax rate, which up until January 1 was the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. And we finally brought our international tax system into the 21st century.
Aside from the bonuses, higher wages, and expanded benefits, a majority of American workers will soon see an additional boost in their paycheck thanks to lower individual tax rates, too, which is why I’m confident the good news we’re hearing today is just the beginning.
At the end of the day, tax reform is really about giving the American taxpayer greater control over the money they work so hard to earn. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act returned a lot of that control to taxpayers, which means they are the real winners here, and that is exactly the way it should be.
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With Border Security, I’m Focused on Results
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
When I was elected to represent you, I focused on getting results. South Dakotans, like many Americans, are tired of the same-old Washington politics that is more focused on political grandstanding than making lives better for the citizens we represent. I’m proud of the successes we’ve had lately – enacting historic tax reform, rebalancing the court system, undoing over 1600 burdensome regulations and repealing some of Obamacare’s most egregious mandates, just to name a few. But we still have work to do.
Most recently, we’ve been working on bipartisan legislation to enhance border security and provide a permanent solution to DACA recipients, paving the way for broader reforms on a fairer immigration system that is merit-based. Recognizing that strong bipartisan support is needed to pass anything out of the Senate, I have spent the past month meeting with a broad, bipartisan group of senators to find a solution to adequately address these vital issues. At times, upward of 30 members of the Senate– from all sides of the political spectrum – participated in these lively, spirited conversations. At the end of these discussions, after incorporating many ideas from a number of our colleagues, we introduced a bill with 16 original cosponsors, eight from each side of the aisle.
What became the Rounds-King bill included $25 billion in new funding for border security – a historic investment in our nation’s borders that would greatly strengthen our ability to keep bad actors out of the country and keep Americans safe. Additionally, we permanently and fairly addressed DACA recipients, so these young people – brought here through no fault of their own – can stop living in fear of being deported. These two issues have long enjoyed broad, bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle, the White House and the American people we represent.
We also for the first time began to undo what is known in D.C. as “chain migration,” in which citizens and legal residents can sponsor green cards for their families. Our bill breaks the chain by preventing DACA children from sponsoring their parents for legal status in the U.S. It also prohibits lawful permanent residents from sponsoring unmarried children over 21 years of age for family-sponsored immigrant visas. Another huge break in the chain.
Our proposal is a significant improvement from the status quo and likely the only framework capable of passing the Senate so that we can actually move the ball forward on comprehensive border security and immigration reform. Ultimately, our bill was not able to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. This is disappointing because opening debate on our bill would have allowed us to continue the dialogue as we seek to keep our borders safe and reform our immigration system to one that is merit-based.
But, that does not mean we give up in our efforts. The two issues of DACA and the president’s campaign promise to fund a border wall system still linger. When Congress returns to session toward the end of the month, I will continue to work with my colleagues to get results on pragmatic reforms to our border security and immigration systems, using our bill as the base, or another one if it can accomplish the same thing. Getting results is what you sent me here to do, and that’s what I intend to do.
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America’s Workhorses
By Rep. Kristi Noem
Mission after mission, whether we need to respond to terrorists in the Middle East or deter a tyrannical North Korean dictator, America turns to Ellsworth Air Force Base. I’m awfully proud of that.
Still, when I began representing South Dakota in the U.S. House, there was widespread concern that Ellsworth was on the Obama administration’s list of potential base closures. With our national security at stake, I couldn’t allow that to happen. We fought back and were able to make sure the option was taken off the table.
In the years since, we’ve only enhanced Ellsworth’s value to the U.S. military. The South Dakota Ellsworth Development Authority has done tremendous work building a community of support around the base, which is an important factor when the U.S. Defense Department looks at maintaining its bases.
We have also expanded the Powder River Training Complex, which is reserved air space near the base. Nothing can replace the value of air time for our airmen. Proper training and readiness are critical to our airmen’s safety and success in the field. With the expansion of air space at Powder River, Ellsworth and the U.S. Air Force now have critical access to one of the largest training ranges in the country. Moreover, by expanding the training facility near Ellsworth, taxpayers will save about $23 million in fuel costs every year.
Most recently, the U.S. Air Force announced existing bomber bases like Ellsworth will remain bomber bases when the new B-21 bomber comes online. For decades, Ellsworth has been home to the B-1 bomber, among other planes. The bomber helped us both win the Cold War in the 1980’s and keep North Korea at bay today. But with a bomber’s average age around 40 years old, the fleet must be modernized. That upgrade will come in the form of the B-21.
When I first arrived in Congress, a modernized bomber wasn’t a guarantee. Months into my first term, an amendment was made on the House floor to delay the B-21’s development by a decade. Once again, I fought back, and the amendment was defeated.
In the years since, I’ve continued to push for a 21st Century upgrade to the Air Force’s bomber fleets. Finally, that looks to be around the corner. We expect the B-21 to begin arriving on bases in the mid-2020’s and Ellsworth is on the list. Over time, the B-21 will fully replace the B-1 and B-2 bombers: a much-needed modernization.
Our men and women in uniform serve with bravery, courage and patriotism, so we have an indisputable responsibility to provide them with the skills, training and equipment needed to win on modern-day battlefields. Ellsworth has long played an important role in that mission. With the Air Force’s most recent announcement, I’m thrilled Ellsworth will continue to serve a mission-critical role as home to America’s next-generation workhorse: the B-21 bomber.
The Perseverance Of Our Largest Industry
A column by Gov. Dennis Daugaard:
Last year was another tough year for agriculture. After seeing a lack of moisture in the spring, we declared a statewide emergency in June. The drought persisted throughout the summer, and even today, as I write this, over 90 percent of the ground in the state is abnormally dry with almost 60 percent of the state in moderate to severe drought.
The drought conditions have exacerbated the impact farmers and ranchers were already feeling from low prices over the last few years, making 2017 a near low in terms of farm income. Our economists anticipate some marginal improvement this year if normal production levels return, but this will depend on the weather and federal trade policy.
Even though we don’t know what this year will bring, there is still reason to be hopeful.
During the good times our farmers and ranchers invested in themselves. Farmers adopted new technologies and upgraded their equipment, added grain storage, and other new facilities while our ranchers also invested in new equipment, fencing and corrals, along with better genetics. Those investments have positioned them to seize opportunities when times are good again.
Even in times like these, young people are still finding a way to get back to the family farm. I recently heard a story about a young man named Greg who found a way to come back home to Hutchinson County and work with his dad on the farm. Greg knew he would need to supplement his income, so he built a hog finishing facility. The facility provides a guaranteed revenue stream and the manure has benefited the soil health and fertility of their land – which means increased yields and profit for the farm. Greg says he doesn’t always accept things as they are . He challenges the norm, but also knows his costs and where the biggest risks are.
We can be encouraged by Greg’s story and the stories of others like him. They’re a testament of the adaptiveness and determination of South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers, and a sign of the industry’s promising future.
Agriculture is our largest industry and it’s been that way since statehood. It’s an industry peopled with generations of resilient individuals who gave their all working the land – combining until dark, checking for calves at two in the morning, getting up before dawn to milk the cows or feed the hogs, and moving livestock in subzero temperatures. Through hard work and determination, agriculture grew to what it is today. And that’s how we’ll make it through the next year and the years to come.
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From Facebook:
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION COSTING STATE $32 MILLION
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT BILL SET FOR HEARING
ABERDEEN, S.D. (Feb. 16, 2017) – “Illegal immigration according to estimates is costing South Dakota taxpayers over $32 million dollars annually, and people in affected areas are burdened by the dramatically increasing violent crime” said South Dakota Senator and Attorney General candidate Lance Russell.
At a press conference today in Aberdeen, Russell announced his Immigration Enforcement Bill, Senate Bill 193, which has been set for hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Thursday, Feb. 22.
Aberdeen has seen an influx of immigration and a significant increase in their crime rate over the past few years, which today outpaces the state in property and violent crimes, with a crime rate that is 12% higher than the state’s average. In 2009, South Dakota saw one of its largest increases in its’ immigrant and refugee population, totaling 1,811 people settling in the state, with a number being relocated to Aberdeen. During the same time period, from 2009 to 2010, Aberdeen saw a spike in crime, with a 39% increase in the crimes investigated year-over-year.
“We welcome all who legally come to this country to find a better life. This is the American Dream,” said Senator Russell. “We should not be inviting law-breakers into our state, with over 5,000 estimated illegal immigrants here today who are statistically proven more likely to commit serious crimes.”
This is an issue Senator Russell says he dealt with in his years as the Fall River and Shannon County State’s Attorney, where he says he prosecuted a number of illegal aliens for serious crimes, but found it difficult to do so at times without the tools to enforce the laws in place, something he plans to address as Attorney General.
“It’s right at our door-step,” said Senator Russell, noting that the announcement of the Immigration Enforcement Bill’s hearing comes at the one-year anniversary of the passage of a sanctuary campus resolution by the University of South Dakota’s Student Government Association. Passed on Feb. 14, 2017, it was an open invitation to those who would enter illegally, and who have a track record of further lawless behavior. Senator Russell’s Immigration Enforcement Bill would curb such actions by any authorities of South Dakota’s institutions of higher education or local governments.
Senator Russell is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the position of Attorney General. Candidates will be nominated during the Republican Party’s State Convention this year in June.