Dakota Beacon

I have a confession, I am really sick and tired of everyone trashing a good man by the name of Frederic Bastiat.

Bastiat was an advocate of classical economics and the economics of Adam Smith, he favored a free market and influenced the Austrian School.  (At the bottom of the article I have included Bastiat’s Broke Window Parable)

He argues we must protect all the rights of an individual, including private property and we ought not plunder other people’s property.

Bastiat said, "Each of us has a natural right – from God – to defend his person, his liberty, and his property."

It keeps slipping out, doesn't it?  We have been formally and pointedly assured that we will not see any "boots on the ground" in Ukraine.  And yet . . . weird things keep slipping out when Biden gets in front of a microphone.  He has been caught telling American troops in Europe about "what they will see when they get to Ukraine".  He has suggested that the US would pursue a "regime change" in Russia, that Putin "cannot remain in power", which would not seem to be his option.   He continually refers to Putin as a "war criminal", a "brutal dictator", terms he has avoided in the case of Xi Jin Ping.  They might easily apply to his friend Zelenskyy, but no.  They are reserved for Putin.  He has allowed his State Department to "leak" the idea that Putin is planning to use chemical warfare - a war crime - without any substance to the rumor.  This, coming from an admitted war criminal government - our own - that has promoted and built with official tax dollars labs in which biological weapons are being developed and produced.  Hard to make this stuff up.  But it is not pointless, although pointless it might appear.  It is the old smoke-and-mirrors, the sleight-of-hand of the music hall magician.  The administration's* thinking apparently is that if we are all revved up on jingoist war propaganda and we're all focused on rooting for the Ukrainian team we won't be concerned that our gas tanks, our grocery store shelves, our bank accounts and our businesses are all empty because of his toxic domestic policies.  Some of us thought that his tapping the Strategic Oil Reserves was an effort to ease the financial crisis he has created, but then we find that the oil is bound for Rotterdam instead.  Not Omaha.   Not Chicago.  Not Barstow.  Rotterdam.  He needs this war.  But we could be paying a terrible price for a card trick that could end up in a world war, a nuclear disaster of the greatest magnitude.  And at the very least, more lives lost.  There must be a limit to the cynicism - even in Washington.

Stupid and incompetent Vladimir Putin is not. Mean, Machiavellian, and malevolent more accurately describes him. For years Putin thwarted US energy independence. Here’s how it works. Russia provides dark money to environmental groups. Environmental groups fund propaganda, political campaigns, and candidates. Once elected, politicians support anti-fossil fuel legislation in favor of alternative “green” energy. The result brings devastating harm to the US oil and gas industry causing disruption to the US economy. No conspiracy theory here. Forbes, The UK Guardian, The UK Sun, The Hill, and NATO all have confirming stories.

Practical solutions to one of the most contentious issues of our time have been ignored by those who believe they alone know what’s best for the rest of us. These partisans have posited the choice as either a free market driven fossil fuel economy or a central planned replacement of fossil fuels by other energy sources. Generations of school children have been taught that fossil fuels are destroying the planet and mankind is to blame.

I have a confession to make; sometimes I am ready to quit and give up.

Some of you might ask why?

I have been reading the various media reports and comments from the Rockefeller Republicans. They are doing all they can to shut down the conservatives wanting answers and trying to participate in the process.

When I first got involved in the GOP 40 years ago it was all about involvement and firing up the grassroots.

No more!

Globally, the Covid-19 years have brought tragedy: death, isolation, anxiety, depression, and much more. Add to that a war in Ukraine and inflation nearing 10% in the United States. It all seems so challenging, but is there a silver lining? In this article, Dr. Gary Welton reflects on the current circumstances and examines data from a recent survey that queried people from 150 countries. Welton reports, “Thissurvey, conducted annually since 2006, includes three questions about altruistic behavior. Respondents are asked to indicate their behavior in donating to charity, helping a stranger, and volunteering. Answers to all three questions, across every part of the globe, increased by about 25%.”

In a recent article in the Front Page Magazine website, Robert Spencer expressed deep concern that if Russia wins in Ukraine (as they are almost certainly destined to do) that it would be the beginning of the end of US world "leadership".  Perhaps we should desire this.  Maybe what America needs most right now is a return to our roots, to our heritage - which was not to "lead the world" but to be as excellent an example of freedom at home as we could - to construct a society which enabled each of us to enjoy as much liberty as possible within the restraint that we not steal it from our neighbor.  This concept helped us to develop the greatest economy the world has ever known - built on that freedom and self-interest.  As with many fine things, however, excess has seemed to have corrupted our ideals.  We exchanged a good, strong, happy and prosperous society for "world leadership" - through the offices of people like Woodrow Wilson and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt and later the Bushes and others - people whose ideals were some kind of world domination instead of real freedom in our own country.  And as with many other overly ambitious goals, this robbed us of our essential American attributes and replaced them with a network of cunning and deception, bribery, sometimes force, to achieve our perceived ends.  It has been a disaster.  If Russia brings this experiment in world domination to an end it might be as welcome as when Gorbachev hoisted his white flag 30 years ago.  

Maybe we should hope for a return to concentration on our own ills - enforce our on border, balance our own books, restore our own freedom, fend off other internationalists plots and schemes and educate our own kids properly.  This might be a better goal to fix our sights on.

Illegal aliens pour across the US southern border by the tens of thousands with zero effort by the Biden administration to stop the flow. In a weird sort of way, the administration’s plan seems to be to welcome the aliens and then distribute them inland. When questioned about the open border, Biden’s administration stays mum. Call Biden’s transparency opaque at best.

Since at least the summer of 2021 (maybe earlier) border officials sent over 70 flights of migrants from the southern border to Florida and New York without disclosing any notification or information to state or local officials. “Secrecy” marks the operation. Why?

Corporate activism is nothing new. Corporations make donations to groups and/or make public statements on many issues such as: climate change, natural gas exploration, infrastructure, social justice, tax policy, etc. But, has one company taken activism to the next level? In this article, Dr. Richard Kocur examines The Walt Disney Company’s recent statements on Florida’s House Bill 1557. Kocur writes, “Disney’s activism is a bridge too far even in the current day of woke corporations. Making donations to activist groups or voicing support for social justice or climate change is one thing, but using platforms designed to provide entertainment for children—children—to promote alternative lifestyles is a new layer of the woke stratosphere.”

Our government's credibility is lost.  When this happens things are in a sort of free-fall.  We don't know what to believe - but most likely we won't believe what they tell us.  We were shamelessly lied to about every aspect of the Covid scandal and now we are being lied to about pretty much every aspect of the Russia-Ukraine war.  At this point, the very best thing we can possibly do is stay well out of it and our government stop commenting on it.  Russia is winning this and there is no reason to think they won't continue to do so.  All of the West's bluster has been proven to be exactly that - bluster, empty words.  Austria just sent its Chancellor to Moscow.  I don't think it is to deliver any stern message.  Meanwhile the cocky little fellow running the Ukraine for us - Zelenskyy - retracted all of his offers of peace.  What kind of leader is that?  Offer specific concessions that would certainly lead to Russian withdrawal and an end to the carnage and destruction, and then when it looks like an agreement is in the offing, succumb to what  appears to be pressure from the US and other western countries to take them all back, to pull the rug out from under the Russian negotiators.  OK, Zelenskyy - go it alone.  We should shun the Ukrainian government from here on (of course we won't - the Biden family is too heavily invested in it and far too compromised to let that happen).  

The proposed 2023 federal budget is a staggering $5.8 trillion. Where is the revenue coming from to pay for such a large budget? The plan includes a new type of tax called a wealth tax. In this article, economist Dr. Mark Hendrickson details the wealth tax and argues that it is unfair, inefficient, and unconstitutional.

Jesse Watters on Fox PrimeTime publicized information on March 29. Americans' perception of reality does not align with the facts. Major policy makers accept what people perceive to be true which is far different than reality. Observe carefully the individuals and themes populating entertainment, news, and commercials and you may conclude that a large percentage of the US comprises persons of color and/or LGBTQ.

Viewing TV shows, commercials, movies, and blogs shape our beliefs. Our viewing habits fill us with questionable discernments – perceptions divorced from reality. On that basis, the public draws muddled conclusions. Politicians and bureaucrats assume these skewed perceptions qualify as fact and set policy based on this alternate reality.

Agendas of small obscure but vocal minorities have become public policy. Such questionable public policies were developed under the illusion of broad public support when in fact most of the public remained blissfully ignorant. This happens by design using the Delphi Technique (discussed a few times in The Passing Scene in years past).

There is a video linked here that you should watch.  We need to stop listening to the warmongers in Washington and Hollywood and at least try to find out what is really going on in Ukraine before we find ourselves under a mushroom cloud.  We are being lied to.

We often hear about "the fog of war".  It basically means that in the chaos there is uncertainty over who did what.  Often this is used as cover for a lot of evil deeds.  The good news is that a lot of our television celebrities like conservative darling Jeanine Pirro and her fellow members of Fox News' "The Five" have managed to see through it all so they can tell us exactly who did what.  At least close enough for them.  Unfortunately for some of us, we don't have this x-ray vision and feel uncertain, like we want more evidence or something, Maybe a motive would help.  Or maybe elimination of other explanations.  Anyway, SOMEONE left a number of citizens dead, executed, their hands bound behind their backs.  Trouble is, we don't know precisely where or when this tool place.  Was it in Kiev?  Or somewhere else?  Maybe Donetsk?  Maybe somewhere far away.  Was it this year or some other year?  Who did it and to whom did they do it?  Who are the victims?  Could the perpetrators possibly be someone else?  We know that the Zelenskyy government uses its civilians as human shields, we know he has ordered citizens to "take no prisoners", effectively giving permission and encouragement to shoot in cold blood rather than ask for surrender.  And we also know that a couple of weeks ago the mayor of a Ukrainian city was "arrested" by Ukrainian partisans at his home and shot in the street outside his door without a charge or a hearing, in front of his family.  So we can be sure that there is enough evil to go around in Ukraine, much of it home-grown.  Could Russians have done this?  Possibly.  Is it the most likely scenario?  It wouldn't seem so. 

First of all this is the first time in my memory that the convention was held in a single day. Second it should have started at 9 AM not 11 AM.

Why did they do it?

I can only speculate…perhaps it was to keep the debate to a minimum, silence the conservatives and/or send a message to get in line.

The convention is meant to be a deliberative body… it has become anything but.

I have a few take-aways from the ND GOP state convention:

What we have been doing in Ukraine for years is immoral.  It is not only harming Ukrainians and the rest of the world, it is harming America.  Our Founding Fathers wisely warned us against becoming entangled in foreign wars and governments and unnecessary treaties.  What these kinds of intrigues did to bring about World War I they will do again and keep doing.  It is time to take power away from our own neocon leaders of both parties, to demand that America be what it has been pretending to be and once was - a nation of free men and women.  Chronic war is robbing us of our own values.  Over and over these tactics and schemes have proven most harmful to America and our national interest.  It's time to stop.  No better time than right now.  

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” — James Madison

I have a confession to make:  I haven’t always been a Republican.  

It was my senior year in high school. The year was 1976.  Jimmy Carter was running for President. Being the democrat I was raised, and the bleeding heart that cries at movies, I began to listen more closely to the political rhetoric.

The following joke beautifully illustrates the insane infliction of woke culture on society. A guy walks into a bar and wagers a patron for a drink. “How many legs would a dog have, if we called the dog’s tail, a leg?” Through a slightly inebriated haze the patron confidently replies, “Five, obviously.” The truth is, calling a dog’s tail a leg does not make it a leg.

Funny. We laugh while being asked, no -- required – to pretend a man is a woman. Non-compliance with this idiocy of pretending will get you “cancelled,” or worse.

When I read the last fundraising piece that came from the NDGOP, something hit me after the first sentence.  I gave into this strategy once. That it is all about winning—no matter the cost. 

Another thing that struck me was that the message was canned—it had nothing to do with what is going on here or the gravity of what’s at stake at the convention in ND this weekend.

This isn’t about winning.  The Democrats are not even fieldling serious candidates.   This is about the very essence of who we are as Republicans in North Dakota.  This is far more about what we stand to lose if we face this challenge sitting down.

Is America on the path to return to the stagflationary economic conditions of the late 1970s and early 1980s? What are some helpful economic policies to navigate through this tough time? In this article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson examines the situation and writes, “A big part of the inflation problem is as much psychological as economic.”

There is method in this madness.  Why else would the US be contemplating a WWIII nuclear disaster over the border crossing of a country half-way around the world when we are totally unconcerned about a massive invasion going on across our own border?  Why, when we are still reeling from the covid scandal would we put further pressure on our economy by making war on Russia?  We don't make war on Mexico.  Is it because we have such close ties with Ukraine in corruption perhaps?  Our First Family* is deeply invested there in corrupt business ventures, some of them very hazardous to the human population.  Or is this just a conveniently scheduled event to distract us from our own serious problems?  In any case, our military is in no condition to be thrown into the breach in Ukraine to prop up the boy dictator, Zelenskyy.  There are few, if any, left in our military who have not ben injected with the poison - you know, the stuff that causes young, healthy men in peak condition to keel over with heart attacks.  We are in no position to go to war with anyone and we are in no position to dictate to other countries what they must do.  Or not do.  Last week President* Biden called for a change in leadership in Russia.  This comes very close to a declaration of war.  "For one brief, shining moment" Biden is in complete agreement with Lindsay Graham.  Only a couple of years ago we were hearing false claims that Trump was put in office through "Russian collusion".  Back then foreign interference was painted as a "bad thing".  Now we have a president* who is advocating we do exactly this in Russia!  But when we abandon the concept of any kind of rules other than "what I want" this is where it goes.  A Democrat administration* does this.  I remember the smear ads of Lyndon Johnson where he implied that Barry Goldwater would start a nuclear war with Russia.  Can they make up their minds what they want? 

For many of us there is so much "going on" in Ukraine that we have ignored what is going on at home - continuation of forced vaccinations, the never-ending flood of illegals across our border, our record inflation, the scarcity of food and other products on our shelves, the shocking price of filling a gas tank, revelations relating to Hunter Biden, to election fraud, to other scandals and not least of all, the nomination of another candidate to the US Supreme Court.  We aren't supposed to be paying attention to this.  After all - Ukraine.  We're all guilty to some extent of having ignored these important issues.  But no more.  After all, long after Zelenskyy's war subsides we will be saddled with the person who takes Justice Breyer's place on the bench and it could profoundly change our own country.

I received a newsletter today from Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN).  I was disappointed to hear his mindless praise and support of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the puppet president of Ukraine.  It is unfortunate that members of the United States Congress seem to be willing to be led around by someone such as this without regard as to how this developed, what part the United States has played in bringing about this disaster for the people of Ukraine.  Emmer is facilitating supply of ammunition to the Ukraine government.  Sadly, the history is that their government has been shelling their own people for the past eight years or so - the people of Donbas.  Maybe we should ask them why.  Maybe we should assure ourselves that we are not enabling something worse than Putin in Ukraine.  It has never been my position that Russia should invade anyone.  But we made it possible by Biden being sworn into office.  He made Putin all-powerful by stopping our own energy production and opening the way for Russia to export its gas and oil.  We gave Putin reason to feel his interests were best served by invading Ukraine.  We have refused to listen to him or communicate in a civil way.  Maybe that would have prevented it.  Instead, we teased him, goaded him, basically dared him.  What did we think would happen?  And Emmer and his colleagues refuse to think about this open-mindedly and critically.  We should not support Putin, but we have no reason at all to support the un-democratic tyrant, Zelenskyy either.  Zelenskyy is up to his neck in war crimes, but we are silent as to that, maybe because of our own war crimes in establishing bio weapons labs in that country.  I will post Mr. Emmer's newsletter entry and my response, sent to him via email.  wou

It should not be lost upon us either that it is believed by some to be in Biden's and the Democrats' best interest vis-a-vis the 2022 elections that this war should continue until November, regardless of how many more Ukrainian people suffer and die.  It would be much to be desired by some that we do not turn our focus from Zelenskyy's war to the issues that really should concern us and really are our business.

Lastly I would offer a word of caution here:  when we sent ammunition and military equipment to countries here and there to oppose our foe-of-the-moment, as we did in Afghanistan, in Iran and other places, we have a funny way of finding the same bullets in our own fallen soldiers at a later date.  We need to learn not to do this.  We should vet very carefully the people to whom we supply arms.  I would not say that Zelenskyy would be a good candidate.   And the chances are very, very good that our current "most hated foe", Putin, will end up in possession of them.  This is stupid.  

Between Valentine’s Day and Easter lies St. Patrick’s Day breaking the “winter blues.”

This good-natured celebration holds fun for all. But there is more to St. Paddy’s Day than fun. This occasion celebrates Scots-Irish descendants and their ethnic heritage -- political correctness and “white privilege” be damned.

Who are the Scots-Irish? Where did they come from and how did they influence American history and culture? Good questions deserve good answers.

Earlier this week, the world lost a prolific journalist, speaker, freedom fighter, and family man. Charles Wiley passed away in his sleep at age 95. Wiley visited Grove City College many times to speak to students and was a long-time friend of professor and IFF scholar Dr. David Ayers. In this tribute, Ayers remembers his friend and mentor. He writes, “Charlie revolutionized the way that I think, the way I analyze things. I have read incredible books, had amazing professors, met some real geniuses, but no one like him.”

A little-reported story of the Ukraine conflict involves a clandestine unit of a Kremlin-backed private military organization which allegedly helped lay the groundwork for the invasion of eastern Ukraine. In 2014, the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic broke away from Ukraine after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. Fighting continued there ever since with an estimated death toll of more than 14,000. Then, several months ago a group of Russian operatives from the shadowy Wagner Group arrived in the separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine dressed as civilians.

While details of the group’s specific mission remain unclear, Wagner’s paramilitary soldiers, comprised of former Russian soldiers, are increasingly involved in some of the bloodiest conflicts in the world where Russia has an interest. The Wagner Group is linked to serious human rights abuses not only in Ukraine but also in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mozambique. In accomplishing their mission the Wagner Group employs gruesome atrocities.

It’s hard finding an American, anywhere, who believes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a good thing. I’m no exception. War is ugly, and innocent people suffer as the pseudo-elites play their geopolitical chess games driven by power-lust, pocketbook and politics. This also isn’t about rooting for the “good guys.” For Vladimir Putin cannot be counted among them, and, for that matter, neither can ex-actor and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy or our globalist “leaders.” Rather, this concerns something else.

I have a confession to make… I was a leader in two campaigns using the primary to defeat the NDGOP state convention endorsed candidate in the primary.

The years were 2012 when Kevin Cramer skipped the convention went straight to the primary.  He won the primary for Congress and who now serves as a U.S. Senator.  The other was 2016 when Doug Burgum defeated Wayne Stenehjem.