Dakota Beacon

In the end, we can’t blame the kids.  We must blame those who raised or failed to raise them.  We must blame the Boomers - the parents, grandparents and the institutions we have been so lazy as to have fallen back on rather than doing the lifting ourselves.    

We have had some real heroes in education - people who went against this tide of failure.  Marva Collins proved that poor black children in Chicago could learn to read, understand and appreciate Shakespeare.  Jaime Escalante proved that poor Latino kids in Los Angeles could master calculus.  Pierre Dulaine proved that underprivileged kids in New York could learn the social graces that make life beautiful and show us that we can live in a civil society.  It is only lack of interest on the part of those who should be most concerned and our misplaced values that are leaving our kids and our future and our country vulnerable to such an horrific aspect as a communist America.  It’s up to us.  We must stop right now and switch gears.  If we don’t, well, then, they have won.

The point is, we all need to get off of the JD Vance Express and look for better options.  Vance is revealing himself as more of a socialist than a conservative.  He sounds more like Bernie Sanders than like Ronald Reagan.  In fact, he has specifically discarded the strong economic policies of Reagan, preferring those of Sanders.  This is dangerous.  It is easy to get into a socialist economic system but difficult to extricate ourselves from it when it fails.  Too often we have to bottom out with it.  So let’s get off the bus, regain our equilibrium and look around at the vastly better options.

“I vote for the person, not the party,” people will proudly say. This is considered the enlightened position, taken by “free thinking” Americans unconstrained by partisan politics. Why, they’re fair-minded: They judge every politician as an individual. Here’s what no one says:

In general elections, this is often what demagogues want you to do. In practice, though, voting for “the person” may just mean being distracted by personality — like a woman falling for a serial killer’s charms. More on that later.

Envision Speaker of the House Donald J. Trump sitting behind any Democrat President as he or she delivers the State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress. Imagine Trump’s facial expressions each time that President uttered an incredibly false and stupid remark, committed a faux pas, or spoke untruths fed him by his staff. Would Trump’s antics be unbecoming? No more so than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up President Trump’s State of the Union remarks on the House dais.

What the swamp breeds, the swamp deserves – good and hard!

Independence Day is a time to celebrate our nation’s birth. For a deeper sense of pride and satisfaction, back away from the Mardi Gras atmosphere and reflect on the reason for our nation’s existence and ultimate success. Our experience is unique in the history of nations, and we must never forget it.

One British gentleman observed that his people had long ago lost their right to own guns and what a terrible mistake that was.  They now no longer feel free.  And the saddest thing he said was that now it’s too late.  There’s nothing they can do about it.  

What is birthright citizenship as currently understood? In a word, birthright citizenship grants US citizenship to every baby born on US soil, regardless of the citizenship, domicile, or legal status of its parents.

This interpretation derives from the US Constitution’s 14^th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” That sounds simple enough. What follows serves as a recap of Trump’s effort to clarify the 14^th Amendment as used by illegal immigrants to gain citizenship.

A solution can be simple - such as the common sense operation described above - but take some effort or you can just throw your freedom and your privacy out the window with the bath water and do the lazy thing, which is exactly what the leftist thinkers are licking their chops over.  Cloward-Piven works and we see it more and more and more.  It relies on human laziness, which is an abundant commodity.  And that means an intellectual laziness.  The SAVE Act will address some issues but not all.  We need to do something, but we don’t need to be reckless with our hard-won and hard-kept rights in order to restore legitimacy to our elections.  

I use “Halftime”, a sports reference, to both explain and accentuate the gravity of this fall’s election.

The Trump voter turnout this fall MUST be larger than the Presidential election of 2024. It MUST once again be Too Big to Rig. It must include the same coalition of Conservative Republicans, Independents, Democrats, Green Party, and Libertarians that elected Donald J. Trump to a second term of 4 YEARS, not 2 years. It must include all voters who were eligible citizens and who voted for President Trump in 2024.

Author Davidson believes we are well into post-Christian America, and what is happening is truly pagan. The gods may be different, but the worship and sacrifice to them are very much the same.

There is no hyperbole in "Pagan America." Davidson offers a review of how the influence of Christian values in American society are being eroded and replaced by a corrupt secularism. Change happens gradually -- until the results are suddenly clear.

Quite simply, this book is about Good versus Evil. Davidson sees Americans drowning in deception. When you leave truth behind, you are left with madness.

Austin occupied the world most of us inhabit. It’s a place where, among other things, proportionate force is instinctively understood. Sure, boys and men, being boys and men, will sometimes have physical conflict, and we understand that part of manliness is standing up for yourself. But we also reflexively know that a shove is to be met with a shove, a swing with a swing. This norm, reflected in Queensberry rules, is necessary for preservation of life and civilization.

Anthony’s world is clearly different. Egos are as big there as virtue is small; touchy and prideful to the hilt, the instinct can be that if you feel “dissed,” you can smoke the other guy. This is why it isn’t unusual hearing about ghetto altercations in which an “offended” party departs, returns with a gun and shoots multiple people. It’s why so many rappers (e.g., Tupac) suffer violent deaths.

Over the years The Passing Scene discussed the El Niño – La Niña weather phenomenon and its effect on the US. This year the US will experience a Super El Niño.

A Super El Niño refers to a potentially strong warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which could trigger widespread global weather disruptions and record-high temperatures.

But first, “What is El Niño?”

Over the years The Passing Scene discussed the El Niño – La Niña weather phenomenon and its effect on the US. This year the US will experience a Super El Niño.

A Super El Niño refers to a potentially strong warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which could trigger widespread global weather disruptions and record-high temperatures.

But first, “What is El Niño?”

“In democracies the main alternative to majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets.” In markets, millions of people typically make rational choices, and the good choices significantly outweigh the bad ones. If Caplan is right that the rational voter is a myth, then he admits that a great deal of published research based on a rational voter is wrong. In any case, the best choice would be that ignorant people refrain from voting rather than voting and imperil the culture and the rest of us with foolish policies by incompetent elected officials.

I

t wasn’t that Mamdani was promising to rob Peter blind to pay Paul and then send both home to rent-frozen apartments on a free bus. It was that I understand the Luciferian Beauty Principle.

Now, you can take the following as metaphor if you’re not a theist. In Christian theology, Lucifer chose pride over God, rebelled and became the purest manifestation of evil: Satan. But he also was something else: As Lucifer, whose name means “light bringer,” he was known as the most beautiful of angels.

There is an all-important lesson there. It’s not just that evil doesn’t appear comic-book style, with a pitchfork and horns; it masquerades as something beautiful and impressive. Rather, it’s also that the malevolent know how easily humans are seduced by what pleases the eye and ear. We see this, for example, whenever a man is deceived by a comely gold-digger.

There is no question that the West could never be what it has become without mass migration from the third and fourth worlds - Morocco, Syria, Pakistan, subsaharan Africa and perhaps Afghanistan.  Without them where would we be?  Where would America be without Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, China?  Why, we’d be plodding along in the 50s, wouldn’t we?  Back in that staid era of front porches, trolleys, gazebos in the park, band concerts and Main Street shop windows.  Boring.  Thank God for our new cosmopolitan milieu.  Imagine people celebrating their team’s win with a cold beer and a brat on the patio or pub?  

In the end their is objectively classic beauty, there is objective valor.  Neither is appropriately represented here.

Clean-up week is past us but Edward Morris can nevertheless be seen taking the latest Christopher Nolan movie, The Odyssey, to the curb, and the sooner the City comes and hauls it off to the garbage dump where it belongs, the sooner we can all get on with the rest of our summer without its blight contaminating our eyeballs.

Walter Issaacson, born of a Jewish father and a mother with Christian roots, was baptized by evangelical aunts and received more Christian religious education than Jewish. He does not align with a specific faith, describes himself as secular and voices a humanist philosophy. He has stated that “Religion was at its best when it emphasized spiritual experiences rather than received dogma” and views different religions as “different doors to the same house”.

Past work as president of the left-leaning Aspen Institute (Kamala Harris, Gloria Estefan), chairman of CNN (Rachael Maddow), and managing editor of Time magazine (Time’s 2023 “person of the year” was Taylor Swift…) reveal a decidedly (self-described) secular humanist slant in his approach to his work.

Why work? Good question. When fifty percent of the American population pays no taxes and the other fifty percent support them, this begs the question: Why work? Why not live modestly and join the ranks of supported people? This choice offers free time for all.

Resourceful individuals with moderate tastes and a keen awareness of the social and economic environment figured it out long ago. These folks left the work force fleeing stress and hassle. Others will figure it out eventually.

Why work? As a society, we’ve finally arrived at the glory of a one-party system -- the Government Party – replete with a Democrat wing and Republican wing.

On Memorial Day we honor our men and women who served their country in the military and who have passed on to their final reward.

Following September 11, 2001, a new era was ushered in, and another generation of veterans were recognized for making the ultimate sacrifice. We are in a protracted conflict like no other that has continued for centuries. Islamic fanatics from many nations wish to harm the West in general and the United States in particular.

We need to be extremely careful about whom we allow to enter the US and be brutally honest about the threat to our own country and culture if we fail in this.

populations. It focuses on measuring and analyzing characteristics such as population size, age structure, distribution, and changes over time, especially through births, deaths, and migration.

Second comes an introduction to Mark Steyn, a polarizing public figure widely read by supporters for his critiques of Western culture and demographics. Mark Steyn is a Canadian author, columnist, and broadcast commentator best known for his work in political and cultural commentary. He was born in 1959 in Toronto, Canada and has worked primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Steyn began his career as a music, theater, and film critic. He is the author of several books, including America Alone, After America and Lights Out. He has been a frequent guest host and commentator on various media programs including The Rush Limbaugh Show and Fox News.

Try these challenges --

Name the famous jazz artist kidnapped at gun point and forced to play music at Al Capone’s birthday party.

Name the composer who wrote a new piece of music each year for his dog’s birthday.

Which music critic incurred the threat of physical violence from a US President?

Each of these little known but interesting anecdotes -- and more -- make up a remarkably unique devotional book assembled by Dr. Patrick (d. 2018) and Barbara Kavanaugh titled appropriately “Devotions from the World of Music” (Cook, 2000).

This “technology” that we are told to worship at the expense of common sense is a tool.  Look at one of the most popular programs - “Grammarly”.  This wonderful little app will not just clean up your minor errors, put commas and semi-colons in the right places and check your spelling.  It will rephrase your sentences.  It will make them “better”, more “professional”.  It will re-write what you tried to write.  In the end, Grammarly just wrote your paper, your report, maybe your book or article.  And students and parents think this is a great help.  It is helping its users to dependency and basic illiteracy. 

In 2026, Artemis II carried the first crewed mission beyond low earth orbit to the moon since Apollo 11 landed astronauts on the moon in 1969.

Fifty-seven years elapsed on the space frontier between Apollo 11 and Artemis II. There have been other Apollo moon landings (12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 ) and 12 astronauts have walked on the moon. The first space station was placed in orbit (Skylab, 1973) followed by the orbiting of the International Space Station in 1998.

Humans extended their presence among the stars in the last century and glimpsed where no eye had seen before. We stared like spectators into unknown corners of the universe from the vantage point of the Hubble Space Telescope. Exciting times, these.

May Day! News brings stories of Marxist rioting and hooliganism in cities around the world. Cities like Moscow where Communism found its roots still hold massive celebrations. Communist leaders wanted to structurally change the foundation of society – and then export the revolution to the rest of the world.

A century later, who wants to structurally change the foundation of America? Activist groups with ties to No Kings protests, deadly Antifa, and an array of leftist organizations seek a political revolution and an overhaul of the American system.

What better way to make their point than on May Day – the day Marxists and Communists claim as their own.

Americans have become too inclined to seek the easiest one-move kind of verification but it comes at way too high a cost.  

Over the years Judicial Watch performed a valuable service to America in part by bringing lawsuits against states over their failure to keep correct voter registration lists. The lawsuits and other legal actions have been filed under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). As a result, nearly 6 million ineligible registrations were removed from the voter rolls in 8 cities and states.

These are the principles Judicial Watch runs under. Only eligible American citizens should be allowed to vote in US elections. It supports state efforts to require the use of voter ID and opposes efforts to weaken or abolish traditional honest-election safeguards. It employs the NVRA to compel states to follow federal law by keeping voter rolls free of ineligible voters. The Act also allows private groups like Judicial Watch to review voter registration lists for poor maintenance and voter fraud.

What follows are opponents of the Judicial Watch support for the NVRA.

Here is a little gem from A-I:

“The Law of Cause and Effect states that every action (cause) produces a specific reaction (effect) and every effect has a specific cause.  Often called the “Iron Law” of human action, it posits that nothing happens by chance; rather, success, failure and circumstances are directly created by previous choices and actions.”