Dakota Beacon

“Global warming! Climate Change!” cry the Chicken Littles on the left. “The sky is falling!”

Not so fast. Hundreds of years before the industrial revolution South American fishermen recognized the fluctuation of warm and cool waters along the coast of Peru and Ecuador. The pattern remains. Not until the 1920s did a British meteorologist, Sir Gilbert Walker, identify and record the fluctuations. He theorized that the association between water temperatures and atmospheric conditions created cyclical weather patterns leading him to conclude what he dubbed the ENSO.

The La Niña of winter and spring 2021 brought drought to the northern plains. Very little winter snow fell. Likewise, scant spring rain. This poses a substantial fire danger. With pasture grass scarce for cattle and crop planting delayed, agriculture takes a hit. The southern plains, on the other hand, experienced a reasonably moist winter continuing into spring 2021. All this thanks to La Niña.

I received my banned book today. Amazon banned it from its website so I went to Christianbooks.com. In February I ordered “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” by Ryan T. Anderson, 2018. Heavy demand delayed my backordered book.

Anderson, a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, took his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his PhD. from Notre Dame University. His research has been cited by two US Supreme Court justices in two different SCOTUS cases. Amazon banned his good work over woke.

Facebook recently removed a Wall Street Journal review of physicist Steven Koonin’s book “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn’t, and Why it Matters.” Flakey fact-checkers determined both book and review were misleading and ruled no one should see them.

DAPL STAYS OPEN; IT'S BISON WORLD; LEGACY FUND; GREEN CONSIDERATIONS; NEW SOYBEAN GAME; WILD RIDE ON THE EMPIRE BUILDER; THE MHA NATION; YELLOW BIRD; CANADIAN HAPPENINGS; MINNEAPOLIS CALMING; MORE VIOLENCE; DAKTOIDS

Many attempts were used to combat the spread of COVID-19: face masks, social distancing, and even lockdowns. Recently, a new proposal has emerged on the frontline of the COVID-19 battle. The World Trade Organization, with a statement of support from the Biden administration, has proposed a waiver of all intellectual property protections related to COVID-19 vaccines. In this article, Dr. Richard Kocur examines the proposal and argues that waiving patent protections could be troubling.

In an effort to get Minnesotans to give up their health and freedom, Governor Walz is offering free fishing licenses.  Flash:  the shots don't work.  If you are going to sacrifice your health, privacy and freedom at least hold out for more than a state park pass, a fishing license or ice cream.

A current book by Rob Dreher may prove to be a fascinating read for some Christians and conservatives. “Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents” (Sentinel, imprint of Penguin Random House, 2020) addresses “soft totalitarianism” enforced by progressives, corporations, and big tech. He adopted his book title from the last essay written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn before being exiled from Russia in 1974. Dreher carefully distinguishes between the hard totalitarianism of 20th century communism and the encroaching soft totalitarianism today. He cites many former political prisoners, survivors of communist persecution, who see early stages of tyranny in America today.

We and our children are being pushed, prodded, bullied and shamed in an effort to get "herd immunity", not through the normal way of catching and overcoming a sickness with our normal immune systems but rather through accepting a poisonous fake "vaccine".  We are ordered by Fauci to "just do as we are told", by Joe Biden that we will be punished by living our lives behind a biohazard mask until we get this.  The Betrayer in Chief, Donald Trump, is urging it on us, which is devastating.  Our children are being pressured at school to ask for it and consent to it - even without their parents' knowledge or permission.  Americans are being hoodwinked through deception and its bosom buddy, censorship.  Otherwise intelligent and rational Americans are lining up to be injected with a poison as sure to kill them as cyanide.  What should we do when we learn that someone close to us has unwittingly opted for slow suicide?  It is a dilemma of the worst sort.  

Today’s inflation is already problematical. A higher cost of living falls hardest on the poorest Americans. Given the present uncertainty about future prices, numerous businesses are struggling to determine how much to produce, and thus are more likely to over-produce or under-produce. Furthermore, if inflation causes foreigners to lose confidence in the dollar, there could be an exodus from the dollar that could end its status as the principal global reserve currency, thereby triggering an even steeper decline in the dollar’s purchasing power.

The quantity of dollars already has risen 32.9% in the last 17 months (mostly due to the federal government’s mind-boggling spending binge). It’s possible that we have passed a tipping point where prolonged inflation higher than the hoped-for and already-objectionable 2% is unavoidable.

Hang on tight, folks. We could be in for a rough ride in the months ahead.

GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE; HE'S FOR IT, BUT!; THE U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR; MARK'S IN THE MARKET AGAIN; FINAL DRUMBEAT; AN ABSURDITY IS ENDING; THE BALA SAGA; HOSPITAL DEAL FIZZLES; A SMALL LESSON; DICKEY COUNTY PANDEMIC; HOW ABOUT THAT NICKNAME?; DAKTOIDS

As the current conflict in Israel reaches the second week, Hamas has fired nearly 3,500 rockets into Israel. In this article, military historian Dr. Earl Tilford examines the strategies of Hamas and Israel in this long-standing conflict. He writes, “The current fighting in Gaza rapidly approaches total war intensity. Strategy for Hamas has always involved the total war objective of annihilating Israel. For Israel, fighting Hamas and Hezbollah involves a long, protracted but limited war of attrition. This may be changing.”

Three quarters of a century ago, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union joined forces to put on trial the doctors of Nazi Germany who had used captive human beings in horrific medical experiments under the reign of Adolf Hitler.  We were on somewhat shaky ground, by the way, in view of the unethical and cruel Tuskeegee experiments in which innocent black men were duped and killed by the medical "researchers".  However, we were right when we took on this evil with allies following the war.  It was another example of the "never again" spirit of the victors - we were going to see that from now on the world would be a better place.  Only we are now witnessing that we are really no better than the people we put on trial.  The fruit of that war and that trial was a document which set forth a code of ethics, a set of values which acknowledged the worth and dignity of human life.  "Due to Covid-19" those values, that dignity, are gone in America.  Apparently lessons last only about two generations and then must be learned all over again.  

Should we hate to lose? What happens when we do lose at something? In this article, Dr. James Thrasher examines the theology of losing through a God-centered worldview that is opposite of the cultural norm to despise losing. He argues that individuals, teams, and coaches who embrace the theology of losing will, “eliminate wasted time and distractions and will experience liberating freedom, unshakable on-task focus, governed passion, and a soul-satisfying, inspiring trust that all things work together for good.”

America is endowed with mineral riches, but we do not know their extent because we are not permitted to explore, map, and evaluate deposits. Even if we knew the precise location and composition of deposits, manmade mining prohibitions preclude extraction from these deposits. How sweet the irony. The anti-mining position denies to solar and wind power the very things needed for production – REE! We cavalierly declared off limits REE extraction for high-tech equipment alternatives to fossil fuel energy.

It is not a matter of not having resources. It is a matter of having excessive laws, land set-asides, federal withdrawal of land from use, and an interminable environmental permitting process that impose severe constraints on US production.

If we have a shortage of anything, it is not because it is missing within the US. It is because of lousy and inept political decision-making.

We became energy independent through exploration and technological innovation such as fracking (fracturing) to retrieve petroleum assets. Not only could we become REE independent if we follow the same course, we could make the US an REE exporting superpower!

The elderly in America are under assault.  This is not new.  It has been a feature of American life for some time now.  Some think that they became irrelevant to the "family" when they went into retirement homes and children were relegated to day care, Head Start and public schools as their parents pursued careers more important to them than the future generation.  Now they are seen by some as "useless eaters" - people who no longer contribute as much as they take from society.  It seems their investment in the future was a waste, at least if we are to believe those who think they can engineer society and the world better than God.

UNQUALIFIED ENTHUSIASM; TIME FOR CIRCUMSPCTION; ROB AND MELANI WALTON; DAPL NOT GOING TO SHUT DOWN; OMDAHL DOESN'T BUY IT; MARK KENNEDY; GET UP AND GO TO WORK; A DANGEROUS  PLACE TO WORK; JAMESTOWN; AG OUTLOOK IMPROVES; LOW-VALUE MEDICAL PROCEDURES; DAKTOIDS

In just six short years, Christian church attendance has dramatically dropped for Americans ages 18 to 44 years old. This decline has implications on the survival of many churches as well as the overall health of American society. In this article, sociologist Dr. David Ayers looks at the data and argues that the end is not here for Christian churches but that something must be done immediately.

Once your sheriff is an Antifa/BLM-sympathizing ideologue installed by D.C. (District of Communism) and hailing from 1,000 miles away — with no local community ties — he’ll happily “discipline” the white supremacists lurking around every corner.

If the Left can co-opt the military and police, it will have seized our country’s last two remaining (relatively) “conservative” institutions. It will also have what’s necessary to quash that impediment to total coast-to-coast hegemony: America’s framework and tradition of state and local control.

 Last week, in his National Day of Prayer proclamation President Joe Biden omitted the word God. Many media outlets were quick to criticize the president. In this article, presidential scholar Dr. Gary Scott Smith looks at the proclamation and the backlash and argues that there may be more to the story. Smith writes, “These issues and developments remind us that we should evaluate Biden by all his statements, actions, and political policies.”

Many people own stock in corporations. Every publicly traded company must host an annual shareholder meeting. At these meetings, investors cast votes for board members, their compensation package, and management proposals, -- and shareholder proposals. This last category the left has been especially adept at influencing. Unfortunately, conservative investors don’t bothered to show up in person, or by proxy, to vote. Everyone is busy. Kids, grandkids, work, pandemic – all consume time. Corporate proxy voting slides out of mind.

Liberal shareholders advance their agenda through proxy voting – an agenda they could not achieve through government legislation. Think of reactions by Jack Dorsey at Twitter, Tim Cook at Apple, and Brian Moynihan at Bank of America if enough conservatives voted to oust board members, disapprove the executive compensation packages, and turn down proposals.

Three years ago, two babies in China were born with a gene-edited trait for HIV resistance. It was done with relatively new technology—CRISPR gene-editing—to genetically program the embryos by altering the gene CCR5. The new genetic condition became part of their genetic identity and will be passed on in some measure to their offspring. In this article, Dr. Jan Dudt discusses the new technology and warns that misuse could be dangerous to humanity.

ND 2021 LEGISLATURE ENDS; THE ND LEGACY FUND; A NOTE OF DISSENT; HELP FOR COAL; ADVANTAGE DAPL; OMDAHL'S MINORTIY VIEW; T.R. LIBRARY BECOMING A REALITY; MAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY; THE MID-AMERICA BUSINESS CONDITIONS INDEX; COOL-DOWN IN FARGO; SITTNG BULL INITIATED; PROBLEMS PILING UP FOR SD AG; DAKTOIDS

Many of us remember the Canada we used to visit - Winnipeg's English Gardes, ballet in the park, charming restaurants, world class music, festivals, sports, shopping - a vibrant and varied cultural world.  Today, under the leaden boot of its government this is all destroyed.  You see, where freedom dies, culture really cannot flourish.  Canada has succumbed to the Covid death cult.  Covid has been, more than anything, a pretext to destroy our freedom, impoverish our people and kill our culture.  It is a hoax in the sense that it has been used for this.  Sure - you may know someone who fell ill or even died allegedly of Covid.  But we all know people who have died of cancer, of heart disease, of organ failure, bacterial pneumonia and other things.  But we are allowing the possibility of death deprive us of life.  Canada, our twin up north, with whom we share so much of our heritage and culture - has become a fascist tyranny.  We need to learn from this - we need to fight back hard NOW.  The longer we allow bullies and tyrants to pursue their ends, the longer we go along to get along, the stronger they beome.  The harder it will be to win back what we have lost, the more we will have lost.  We need to start now.  Say no to masks, stop "social distancing", say no to forced vaccines, get together again with friends.  Stop trying to get along with people who would steal your freedom.

Some are telling us that the covid vaccines are "experimental".  The people who take these vaccines are the "subjects".  I disagree.

Wokeism is a full-on attack on Western Society. It is everywhere and is now threatening to end freedom of speech and thought. It has become impossible to speak out without fear of damaging a career or incurring physical harm.

The objective of this piece is to encourage the reader to put the brakes on the stupidity and false narrative of wokeism. Second, the background offered here should provide some ammunition with which to confront wokeism in conversation. Third, this piece should encourage the reader to undertake some research of their own. Keep notes, observe inconsistencies, and identify lies.

Our culture and country are at stake.

ND SCHOOLS STILL IN THE RACE; TREY LANCE DRAFTED; ND POPULATION LARGER THAN THOUGHT; OIL PATCH DRIVES GROWTH; NOT A JAMESTOWN SLAM DUNK; RUDE RECEPTION OF BUFFALOW CITY PARK; OTHER PARK CRITICS; ND STUBBORNLY OBSTINATE; DAPL KICKED TO CORPS; CORONAVIRUS DEATHS IN ND LEVELING OFF; LOW RETIREMENT SAVINGS; RELIEF IS IN SIGHT; DAKTOIDS

Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Rev. Raphael Warnock told Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, “The early church was a socialist church.” In this article that first appeared in Crisis Magazine, Dr. Paul Kengor examines Warnock’s statement and argues that the early church was not socialist. Kengor writes, “Let’s start with indeed the most basic principle, which is this: this passage from Acts is not socialism. Socialism/communism does not bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, or to belief of God.”

Can the United States Congress constitutionally change the size of the Supreme Court? Or, better yet, should the United States Congress constitutionally change the size of the Supreme Court? Proposed legislation argues for an increase of four new justices. In this article, legal scholar Dr. John Sparks looks at the debate and offers a compelling argument why court packing could be a dangerous endeavor.

Science has provided many benefits for humanity: health, nutrition, and technology. In fact, science has driven many responses to the COVID-19 crisis. But are there other variables and definitions that we are missing? In this article, Dr. Jan Dudt explores this question and challenges Christians to wisely balance what we have discovered about the natural world with what we know to be true from Biblical definitions. Dudt writes, “when considering the equation of life, Christians are wise when we realize there are other variables in life’s equation in addition to science. Biblical definitions and variables must also be brought to bear along with the science.”

As of April 1, 2021, 47 states have entered 361 bills in their respective legislatures. A review of voting laws has been long overdue. Having found enough fraud to warrant concern, these legislatures are taking corrective action to reform election laws. As of December 2020 the Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database topped 1300 cases collected over years and is growing.

Among the principle opponents leading the naysayers over voter integrity measures is the liberal Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center is one of the loudest opponents of measures to curb election fraud. Voter “suppression” and “discrimination” they squeal. And, oh, by the way, the center received millions in funding from George Soros.

There is hope for the Republic. With updated election laws and states controlling their implementation, the 2024 Presidential election should be a lot cleaner, more transparent, and less disorganized than the 2020 election – as long as the feds keep their hands off.