Dakota Beacon

Think back in time. Remember when Vice President Dan Quayle committed a faux pas and misspelled “potato” using an “e”?

Then there was “Dubya.” George W. Bush was constantly portrayed by the media-generated narrative as really stupid. That he graduated from Yale (BA) and Harvard (MBA) didn’t matter. Nor did it matter that his analytical speed was lightning fast or that he enjoyed a superb memory.

With campaign season upon us it is time to spread the wealth around so to speak.

Yogi Berra—baseball legend, WW II veteran, and American icon—passed away on Tuesday at the age of 90. In this tribute, Dr. Mark Hendrickson recalls watching Berra play, recounts his numerous accomplishments, and applies many of Yogi’s famous sayings to economics. 

The crisis in world markets seems related not only to a sinking Chinese economy, but also to what Beijing is saying to the world; i.e., China will save herself first even if it means throwing others out of the life boat.

To Trump, the world is not Davos; it is the NFL. He is appalled at those mammoth container ships in West Coast ports bringing in Hondas and Toyotas. Those ships should be carrying American cars to Asia.

Whatever becomes of Trump the candidate, Trumpism, i.e., economic and foreign policy nationalism, appears ascendant.

DOWNTOWN FARGO; KLEINSASSER; THE SKEPTICS WERE RIGHT; WEAK LOONIE; IT’S EITHER BLACK OR WHITE; BREAK-EVEN OIL PRODUCTION COSTS; NOT PROMISING; BIG IRON; CORRECTIONS; WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?; DIVERSIFY THE DIVERSITY COMMISSION; BACKLASH; TAKE THAT; DAKTOIDS

Last month, Margaret Sanger—the founder of Planned Parenthood—made headlines because a group of concerned pastors were attempting to have her bust at the Smithsonian removed. At the time, Dr. Paul Kengor wrote an article supporting the pastors’ efforts. In this must-read follow-up article, Kengor—using Sanger’s own words—further examines her 1926 speech to the women’s chapter of the KKK in Silverlake, New Jersey. 

In late December 406 AD hundreds of thousands of starving men, women and children gathered on the east bank of the Rhine River in what is now Germany. This was the moment they had waited for. The Rhine had frozen solid providing a natural bridge into the Roman-held lands and the promise of food and a better life. Then the Vandals, as they were known, flooded accross the river.

For the United States, no immigration laws are being enforced. There is no protocol. Invaders flow into the United States through very porous borders. This is now our standing policy. The Obama Doctrine has been to suspend immigration law and enforcement of the immigration process. This is his legacy.

 We do not face an immigration crisis. Like the old Roman Empire, we face an invasion.

All eyes in the financial markets are focused on the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 16 and 17. Will the Federal Reserve Bank, after five years, begin the process of raising interest rates and/or signal a timetable for allowing its holdings of debt securities to mature without reinvesting the proceeds? In this fascinating article, investor Fred Kingery examines the current market and warns of a possible future “financial crisis that will dwarf the last one.” 

NOVEL, EVEN BRILLIANT!; ROLE REVERSAL; BAD INVESTMENT; NEW AMERICANS; FARGO IMMIGRANTS; CAN’T CHOOSE; GLUM FARMERS; BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE; MENARD’S; THE U.S. NEWS ANNUAL RANKING; MINNESOTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS; MINNESOTA JIHAD; IS THIS A WINNING MOVE?

NOVEL, EVEN BRILLIANT!; ROLE REVERSAL; BAD INVESTMENT; NEW AMERICANS; FARGO IMMIGRANTS; CAN’T CHOOSE; GLUM FARMERS; BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE; MENARD’S; THE U.S. NEWS ANNUAL RANKING; MINNESOTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS; MINNESOTA JIHAD; IS THIS A WINNING MOVE?

The big news out of San Francisco last week was that it would register another first: a city elementary school is going to switch to all “gender-neutral” bathrooms. The idea is, as the Daily Mail put it, to “accommodate young students who don’t fit into gender norms.” Of course, this apparently means that normal students who might like those supposedly antiquated single-sex bathrooms can just go to Hell (I mean, the Hell that isn’t San Francisco). 

I note that only one side is demanding that everyone else shut up.  In our culture, in our land, it is customary and expected to debate and discuss issues.  It is how we inform ourselves about each others’ views.  We discuss everything from umpires’ calls, to movies, to under-inflated footballs, to Planned Parenthood, to immigration, to the national debt, to the Iran nuclear deal.  We discuss here.  Those who cannot abide this are  only showing us that they are not ready to participate in American life.

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” – Barack Obama, Election Eve, October 30, 2008.

Manmade climate change holds less and less credibility. The use of manmade climate change to shape public policy has become scandalous. The collaborative snow job by global warming champions has been successfully challenged time and again over the past few years.

The next UN Climate Change Conference will be held December 2015 in Paris. The purpose is to achieve a legally binding universal agreement on climate from all the nations of the world. At that time President Obama will pledge $3 billion to the UN Green Climate Fund adding to our $18 trillion debt.

We still have fifteen months of the Obama regime left for him to follow through on his pledge to fundamentally transform the United States of America.

“WELL DONE, MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT”; THUS SENATOR HEITKAMP HAS DEFINED HERSELF;  LOST PRESIDENCY; FOX GUARDING THE HEN HOUSE ; ARROGANCE?; IN MY JUDGMENT; IS THIS A PRELUDE?; THE 2015 ACT SCORES; THERE’S A CATCH; HOW NOT TO MAKE FRIENDS; A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN; SHARING FARM EQUIPMENT; FEAST OR FAMINE; THE DICKINSON STATE FOUNDATION; FEMINIST FACULTY AT NDSU; A SALARY BY ANY OTHER NAME; ONE THING ABOUT THIS LOSS; DAKTOIDS

Robert Conquest, a historian whose landmark studies of the Stalinist purges and the Ukraine famine of the 1930s documented the horrors perpetrated by the Soviet regime against its own citizens, has died at 98, having outlived the Soviet Union -- which came into being in the year of his birth, 1917 -- and which he helped to bring down with information.

It is hard for many today to believe, but there was a time when intellectuals in the West were enthralled with Communism and viewed Lenin and Stalin in heroic terms. 

Robert Conquest, born in England, graduated from Oxford and in his youth joined the Communist Party. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer in Bulgaria, and later remained as the press officer at the British Embassy in Sofia. Observing the reality of Communism, he emerged as a forceful and effective opponent. In 1977, he became a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. 

Barack Obama won’t be saying, “If I had a psycho son, he’d look like Vester Lee.” But he might as well. Because Vester Lee Flanagan II, the bigoted maniac who murdered the WDBJ reporter and cameraman Wednesday on live TV, was a philosophical offspring of the Left.

It all reminds me of the Satan character’s line in the film The Devil’s Advocate: “Vanity is my favorite sin.” “Pride” is probably even more accurate. But it all gets at the matter’s heart. We don’t need some hard and fast psychological diagnosis here. Whether Flanagan was most correctly characterized as a “narcissist” or just a self-centered, entitled jerk, the bottom line is that his state was attributable to a philosophical disease, a disordered way of thinking that masquerades under an ideological banner:

Liberalism. 

Opposition to bullying is the trendy “in” thing today. School systems treat it with the same seriousness as algebra and biology to convince students not to bully. Good luck with that in the real world. Bullying, in some quarters at least, is the accepted norm.

Countless numbers of Americans are afraid to voice their opinions publicly about the direction in which our country is headed for fear of retaliation. Too often the silent majority is intimidated by bullies. This is the reality. Amazingly, this form of bullying is seldom addressed even though public and private unions, race activists and leftist organizations practice bullying routinely.

You can never assuage the bullying left. They can never be appeased. These people of the marginal left do not want to engage in discussion. They want to clear the field of all opposition and will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

 Bottom line: Bullies are a reality we must learn to deal with.

Barring the unexpected, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 9, 2015, will become the longest reigning British monarch, overtaking Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 to 1901. In this interesting tribute article, Dr. Gary Welton examines the reigns of Elizabeth and Victoria and offers insight into a reality that we all share. 

GOV. JACK DALRYMPLE; SORRY ABOUT THAT; BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF . . . ; “THE WATERMELON KING” ; CAN YOU TOP THIS?; STATE OF EMERGENCY; LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES; AN OPPOSING ARGUMENT; DID HE OVERLOOK ANYTHING?; MORE FIGHTING SIOUX; BEARS VS. BISON; “WELCOME TO LEITH"; DAKTOIDS

News anchors and talk show hosts continue to obsess over celebrity superstar Donald Trump and frustrated conservatives and patriots continue to home into his orb like dragonflies seeking their ecstasy in an open flame. I am reminded - ominously - of the recall of California Governor Gray Davis in 2003 when celebrity superstar - Arnold Schwarzenegger, who brought to the game the added paradoxical Kennedy connection in addition to his Hollywood glitter.

Schwarzenegger quickly consumed the oxygen in the atmosphere and, what with a combination of low-information and establishment Republicans and star-struck independents, won the Republican nomination and, with the Party’s blessing and assistance, went on to win the governorship.

Today we have another celebrity superstar - Donald Trump- grandstanding with explosive bumptious declamations about “cleaning up the mess”. He has enormous appeal with voters who are beyond fed up with fake Republicans who take their votes as “conservatives” and are then led by Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to the slaughter, assisting Obama’s programs all the way down the line.

But, like Schwarzenegger, Trump’s “conservative” credentials are dubious, his commitment but skin-deep. He has publicly been on many sides of most issues, including abortion and immigration, two of the top issues today, with a glaring history of using government to expand his own wealth (as through aggressive use of eminent domain doctrine) and carries with him a record of enormous financial contributions to the very people who he tells us made the mess he wants to clean up. 

The unwavering record of Ted Cruz is there for all to see. He stood up for the Second Amendment. he stood almost alone in his effort to defund Obamacare and bring down other irresponsible spending. His record is virtually unblemished. He says what he will do and then he does it. He doesn’t lie to us. He doesn’t grandstand. He is forthright and honest and forceful. And he tells us the truth.

We’re told that prosperous countries have a moral responsibility to the world’s poorer nations. So why then are wealthy Asian Tigers never asked to absorb any “refugees”? Japan, in fact, has virtually no immigration whatsoever despite having an extremely low birthrate and shrinking population. Moreover, since many refugees are Muslim, why aren’t Saudi Arabia, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and the other oil-rich Arab nations taking them in? Wouldn’t it seem a natural fit? (Then they could stop importing the Filipinos and others they use for domestic help.) Maybe they know something we don’t.

In a sense, most of the world could be said to comprise would-be economic refugees. After all, how many people in Asia, Africa and Latin America wouldn’t want to emigrate to the West and enjoy the welfare state? And how many should, and can, the West absorb? One billion? Two billion? Three billion?

Recently, a group of African-American pastors asked for the removal of Margaret Sanger’s bust from the Smithsonian. Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is enshrined in the museum’s vaunted “Struggle for Justice” exhibit. But should she be? In this must-read article, Dr. Paul Kengor examines Sanger’s actions and words to argue that the African-American pastors are spot-on with their own claim for justice.

If two of the most notable disciples of Saul Alinsky are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, then it begs the question, “Who is Saul Alinsky?”

By his own admission, Alinsky developed his rules while in jail as a result of his lawbreaking activism.

The following list of Alinsky’s rules is not intended for analysis but rather to expose the reader briefly to the rules he or she may have heard so much about but never encountered. Naive folks who play nice and who go head-to-head against Alinskyites usually lose. Equally important to the rules are the issues which Alinskyites generate, especially when fomenting change at the national level. More on the issues will follow. Here are Alinsky’s rules.

Recently, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced a $350 billion plan to subsidize college attendance at public colleges and universities called the “New College Compact.” In this interesting article that first appeared at Forbes.com, Dr. Mark Hendrickson examines Mrs. Clinton’s plan and cautions that this may be a case of “buyer beware.” 

KEEPING SCORE; WHO ARE THE NEIGHBORS?; I FEE"; TRUCK BYPASSES; TRUMP; ONE MORE FEDERAL PROGRAM; ALL ABOARD; THE TAT TRIBAL COUNCIL; THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION; THE SIOUX WERE SILENCED; ARE THEY ALL PETULANT?; JENKINSON; NARCOTICS ARRESTS; WHAT WILL YOU HAVE?; DAKTOIDS

Most people are familiar with the “streets of gold” and “pearly gates” images of heaven. Those are nice pictures but being in the presence of God will cause everything else to pale by comparison. In this interesting article, Dr. Gary Welton discusses how a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park helped open eyes to a new analogy of heaven.

Donald Trump seems to be running not against his Republican and Democratic opponents in particular, but against the self-perpetuating Washington political class. This class, which includes both Democrats and Republicans, has an interest in ever expanding government. 

Talk of the dangers of big government and government deficits -- and porous borders -- do not ring true because, once in power, Republicans push forward with the very policies they opposed in the primaries. By pointing this out, Donald Trump has hit a nerve.

Republicans have become the advocates of what Jim DeMint called "corporatism." It is interesting to recall that Adam Smith once said that when two businessmen get together, the subject of discussion is how to keep the third out of the market. 

The New York Times notes that, "Mr. Trump is offering an unusual mixture of extreme language, moderate policy and rudeness, and so far it's connecting with Republican voters." 

CHS PULLS THE PLUG; ND MAY GO ALONE; CONTINENTAL RESOURCES; SEVERE TEACHER SHORTAGE; LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES; CONFLICT AMONG SOMALIS; MINNEAPOLIS TAKES A BOW; BLACK POWER IS THE SOLUTION; THE STURGIS MOTORCYCLE RALLY; THE FBI; HOPING FOR A MIRACLE; DOUBLE BAD; THE BUSIEST BEE; DAKTOIDS

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency released a definition of what constitutes waters of the United States. Some have argued that this new interpretation of U.S. waters will significantly expand federal control over land and water across the nation while others argue that the EPA acted in an attempt to provide clarity in order to better protect streams and wetlands. In this interesting article, Robert T. Smith examines the definition and argues that this may really not be anything new. 

Millions of Americans, including many Catholics, were stunned when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic Archbishop of New York, attacked opponents of illegal immigration as "nativists" in a recent and widely-circulated column in a liberal New York tabloid.

Unfortunately, Cardinal Dolan's outburst represents a long line of liberalism on the part of America's bishops -- a position based not only on their "Social Justice" leftism, but because the welfare state which they celebrate doles out over a billion dollars a year to their Non-Government Organizations (Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Migration and Refugee Services, and so on). 

It is unjust because the Cardinal implies that anyone who disagrees with him is nativist -- as though support of amnesty for illegal aliens were a requirement of Catholic Faith and Morals. This grievously overstates the matter.