Dakota Beacon

My daughter gave me a book - Sing for Your Life - the story of Ryan Speedo Green.  It turned out to be the most inspiring story I have seen in a very, very long time.  It is the story of a stormy childhood, poverty and the odds of a good life stacked against him.  Please take a few moments to read the brief introduction to Green and pleast listen to his magnificent voice.  I hope you find this as inspiring as I have!  It is a legend of what the determination to take hold of one's own life and make of it what he wanted it to be.  Along the way Green, too, was inspired.  Other singers, teachers, mentors, are all acknowleged by Green for helping him turn his life around.  Please share his story with others.  

Our entire system of laws, our very Constitution itself is being subverted by people's willingness to be manipulated.  What is scary is that the highest and mightiest among us are apparently trembling and coming under the control of those who want to deny us our most basic rights - the right of access to our legal system and our First Amendment rights.

Four years ago Democarts were very upset to think that Donald Trump could beat their candiate at the polls.  They had no allegations of any election fraud.  But they began immediately - before Trump was sworn in - to allege a Russian plot to get Trump elected.  Their game lasted for over three years, when it was finally ended in a total loss - the Grand Impeachment came to nought.  In other words, they were very sore losers.  They just had no excuse to call "foul" on the election.  This time around they weren't about to let Trump be re-elected.  It looked uphill in any case, after three seasons of economic shut-downs (controlled by mostly Democrat governors) and relentless violence and rioting (encouraged by Democrat mayors).  Despite this, Trump's popularity kept growing.  His rallies were incredible, with attendance in the tens of thousands across the nation.  His base includes nearly every conceivable minority - black Americans, Latino Americans from every background, Asian Amercans - again, of all backgrounds, working people, small business owners, police and people who dont' want the police defunded, farmers, unemployed, entrepreneurs.  The only way to win this - especially with the doddering candidate they offered - was to steal it.  So they did.  Now, as Republicans are attempting to hold America to some king of standard of election integrity, we are told to "suck it up".  Not bloody likely.

Today is both a proud and a somber day - Veterans' Day/Armistice Day.  My grandmother told me how she recalled, as a young girl, her own grandfather, a hotelier, running back from the train station, waving his arms and saying, "It's over!  The War is ended!"  She said she had never seen him excited like that before.  It became known as Armistie Day and later was dedicated to the memory and honor of our veterans, living and dead.  So it is both a remembrance (in Canada it is known as Remembrance Day and remains very tied to World War I, where hundred of thousands of Canadians died) and a celebration of courage and love of country - something we are now castigated for.  We need to return to the values that made America a great country and Americans a great people.

As the dust settles on the 2020 election, random thoughts gel. Here are a few of those thoughts.

Shenanigans in the post-election vote counting breed cynicism. Some of the antics during vote counting appear awfully suspicious. America has placed its election integrity in question. If “Dancing with the Stars” can count 130 million votes in 5 minutes, surely our several states can tally the vote in 24 hours – if they don’t take time to manufacture fraud. Democrats and Never-Trumpers worked hard for 3 ½ years to overthrow President Trump. Why should they halt the effort during the vote count? The biggest fraud, the phony Russian collusion scam, didn’t work. As treasonous as it was, no one was charged, much less sent to prison. No one gets caught or pays a price. So, why hold states’ election officials accountable?

Fifty years ago, on Veterans Day 1970, I was settling into my first assignment as an intelligence officer posted to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, a highly secret complex 50 miles south of the Laotian border. There I complied and delivered the morning intelligence briefing to the general in charge of the secret air war in northern Laos where we supported Hmong guerillas and Thai mercenaries who fought the North Vietnamese and their Communist Pathet Lao ally. Since American involvement was beyond top secret, I knew nothing about it before arriving. Fortunately, I had access to CIA documents and to the few books on Laos, and (despite 12-hour shifts) there was plenty of time to read. By June 1971, I had the New York Times edition of The Pentagon Papers.

It was 400 years ago this week when the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts. In this article, Dr. Gary Scott Smith looks at the history of the Pilgrims and argues that their quest to obtain religious freedom needs to be remembered. He writes, “As many promote a cancel culture, with numerous monuments honoring prominent leaders and historical events being torn down, and a ferocious debate raging over slavery, racism, and American exceptionalism, discussing the 400^th anniversary of the initial landing of the Mayflower is a daunting task.”

This election has been a watershed.  We need to fix this without delay.  The confidence of the American people in our elections is absolutely essential to restoring and maintaining our freedom and our republic.

ELECTION RESULTS IN ND; MIDWESTERN STATES LOW UNEMPLOYMENT; UNCOMFORTABLE AT NUMBER ONE; RELUCTANT COUNCIL; IT’S GOOD THEY ARE YOUNG; LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES; FARGO SCHOOL DISTRICT BALANCING ACT; THE HEADLINES LOOKED BAD; A SHARED STADIUM IN JAMESTOWN; RESETTING CARSON WENTZ; DAKTOIDS

Democrats have lamented how the Electoral College gives smaller states outsized influence over presidential elections. But consider what they’ve done via illegal means: given a handful of Democrat-run, major cities far greater influence over the current election.

That is, with vote-fraud being mainly a Democrat-big-city phenomenon, we now face the prospect that shenanigans in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta and some other leftist metropolises will be the deciding factor in who takes the White House next year.

We are prone to dismiss Hollywood stars as airheads and very shallow.  Today they are feeding that image - force-feeding it, in fact.  During the "golden age" of film, the 30s and 40s, Hollywood stars seemed glamorous beyond imagination, handsome and beautiful and almost from a different world . . . but we didn't really think of them as more than that.  Some, however, led fascinating ives totally apart from their film personas.  Some left behind the terror of Hitler's Europe to emerge as our most fabulous stars and celebrities.  Some, like Hedy Lamarr, were also exceptional in other ways as well.  

A massive betrayal has been perpetrated on the American people.  Gee.  Who saw that coming?  If someone in government foresaw this and if there is a plan to thwart fraud, great!  If not we are risking a real gutting of our republic.  We cannot carry on without real resolution of this issue and the sooner the better.   NO ONE SHOULD DESIRE A STOLEN ELECTION.

We can't go through this again if we are to survive as a free nation, a lawful republic.  First we saw our police told to stand down in favor of looters and arsonists and street thugs.  Now we are expected to swallow whole a vicious attempt to subvert our federal elections.  If we tolerate this we will get what we deserve - a hollow, phony "republic" - otherwise known as a tin-pot dictatorship.  Call your delegation - Congressmen and Senators - and insist that this be taken up immediately (assuming we can count on the legal  Trump victory).  We must do this or forfeit our republic - and this would be our last substantial election.  From here on they would be the kidn of sham we see in African backwaters and soviet systems.

If anyone should be held accountable for DST, Ben Franklin must accept the credit or take the blame -- the same Ben Franklin of kites-and-lightning fame. Mr. Franklin conceived the idea while in Paris. One morning, rudely awakened by a noise at 6:00 a.m., he was amazed to find his room filled with light. Even more amazing was the amount of daylight lost to those traditionally arising around noon. His idea struck him like a bolt of lightning, so to speak. Whimsically he wrote of his idea in “Journal de Paris” going so far as to calculate potential monetary savings if people arose earlier and capitalized on existing daylight.

Before the mid-eighteen hundreds most nations determined their own time. A nation based its time on a prime meridian that ran through its capitol city. Britain’s prime meridian ran through London, France’s ran through Paris, Russia’s through St. Petersburg and the United States’ through Washington, DC. As long as travel and communications maintained a slow pace and clocks remained notoriously inaccurate, relaxed time arrangements between countries were no bother.

Happy Election Day! We hope this day finds you and your friends and family safe and well.

To help mark the occasion, please enjoy this informative article from our Constitutional scholar Dr. John Sparks. In the op-ed, Sparks examines the reasons behind a recent call to “pack the court”—adding four more seats to the Supreme Court. Can this be done legally? What are the ramifications? What is the history of the high Court? Sparks argues, “Court packing is unnecessary and potentially destructive of the court’s dignity and high standing. It would undermine the delicate balance between the branches that the Founders labored to ensure.”

This campaign has served to highlight the division among Americans - we have on the one hand fearful people who want someone to reassure them that all will be well, they will be somehow taken good care of.  On the other we have hard-working people who want nothing but to be left alone and allowed to live their lives, support their families, worship as they please and enjoy the fruits of their successes.  Trump has brought together an amazingly diverse army of supporters - we don't know if they will be enough to give him another term, but we can see how the success of each facet of this army lends success to the others.  Reagan's belief in a sort of organic wealth, a "trickle-down" economy was mis-named.  It does not really come from the top - it is mearely not capped.  Kennedy said a "rising tide lifts all boats", and we can see that it does.  Under the tax cuts, the sensible business deals with other nations and trading partners, the relaxing of onerous restriction, America has prospered, even in the wake of massive shutdowns due to COVD and to foreign-sponsored domestic terrorism in our cities for months.  It is interesting to take a look at why.

Biden does have a chance mainly because this isn’t about Biden. It’s about Trump. A man evoking strong feelings, there’s perhaps more than ever in American history a pro-incumbent and anti-incumbent vote. The love affair with Trump is reflected at his rallies. The antipathy for him is represented in the irrational, TDS “Orange Man Bad!” phenomenon and video-captured snowflake eruptions.

Those thus afflicted are voting against Trump and not for the NPC on the ballot’s other side. It wouldn’t matter who or what NPC was. He could be an irascible, wobbly and wizened codger (and he is). He could be catatonic (he’s getting there). It doesn’t matter that he never had a lick of principle even in the last millennium or that he now doesn’t remember what he was told to pretend his principles were last week. Not being Trump is enough.

I had to argue with a relative in Mississippi about the need to vote.  The person I was arguing with assured me that Mississippi was in the bag for Trump so one more vote would make no difference in that state's electoral college vote.  Sure, I said.  But what if everyone in Mississippi felt the same way?  What is different for you from thousands of other residents of Mississippi?  Well, I think it was not I but a few images of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris threatening more lockdowns, gun grabs, more indoctrination in the schoos, more stifling of our FIrst Amendment rights, court packing and hopeless and dangerous foreign policy, which convinced the person to vote.  This is the problem.  We hear about voter suppression.  This can happen with our cooperation - we listen to polls, we watch what appears to be so much apathy or so much enthusiasm by so many others as to render us feeling impotent.  One drop of water in the sea, after all, is not noticeabe.  But imagine a sea without a drop of water.  Please do your sacred duty today.  Vote.

PLEASANT SURPRISE; THEY DID IT!; THE WORST KEPT SECRET; SANFORD HEALTH; SAILING AGAINST THE WIND; A BIT SMUG?; THE BAD BOY LIST; SLOPPY NEIGHBORS; HOW DO THE DAKOTA TWINS COMPARE?; SKKYSKOPES; DAKTOIDS

Our world has become a narrow place, especially for those who are accustomed to thinking independently.  For years many Americans have voted out of familiar habit.  But times have changed.  The parties have changed.  the issues have become more intense.  In the video linked here Father Ed Meeks discusses this.  I think it is important not only for Catholics but for anyone who feels religious freedom must be protected, and for anyone who wants to live and vote with regard to a moral compass.  Fr. Meeks has shown great courage in his commitment to his beliefs - the Catholic Church is in turmoil because of a divide between a rogue Pope and the traditional church teachings.  Please listen and share his message.  

Yesterday we lost one of our most beloved and iconic film actors - Sean Connery died in his sleep in the early hours of October 31, following a periond in which he was in poor health.  It was sad news indeed for those of us who cherished his exciting and often whimsical portrayals.  He was especially known for his adventure/suspense characters, for most of us beginning with James Bond.  His more mature roles were every bit as action-filled and often increasingly whimsical.  It is rare to put those two characteristics together.  We can be thankful that so much of his work is available on dvd today.  Connery was 90.

California was one of the least populated regions of our country before European colonizers spread across the continent. Research shows that droughts in the region have on occasion lasted on the order of 100 years; evidence also suggests that massive wildfires regularly swept through the region in the past.

A 2007 paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management found that prior to European colonization in the 1800s, more than 4.4 million acres of California forest and shrub land burned annually, far more than the area of California that has burned since year 2000, which ranges from 0.09 million acres to 1.59 million acres per year.

Fossil fuels having been the key driver of our country’s rapid economic development over the past 160 years. Fracking, however, has become one of the hot-button issues in this year’s presidential campaign. In this article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson examines the importance of fossil fuels to the American economy. He writes, “I will not wade into the political debate, but I do want to clarify some basic economic facts about the fracking industry. I share these as an economist who has long lived in western Pennsylvania and taught and lectured on energy.”

We are approaching the finish line of the most important election of our lifetimes.  At the last moments, when it appears that things are not going all that well for Biden in Minnesota, some interesting and dangerous things are beginning to take shape.  Minnesota may look placid, but its people have allowed some very dangerous people to assume positions of power.  It is now a powder keg about to blow.  If you live in Minnesota GET TO THE POLLS EARLY AND VOTE.   If you can help a (sane) Minnesota resident get out to vote please do so.  When dangerous animals are cornered and feel threatened they become more dangerous.  This could be lethal.  Let us all work furiously and pray for a good result.

The world has become a pretty scary place.  In times like these - in any time - it is essential if we are to survive that we know who our enemies are and as much about them and what makes them tick as we can learn.  We are fortunate that we have a few experts who have unique insight into the various activities and motivations of China, our country's Number One enemy.  Not Number One Rival, not Number One competitor.  Our Number One Enemy.  China does not want to compete with the United States.  China wants to destroy the United States.  They, like Hitler and Stalin before them, have visions of conquering the world.  They want to obliterate freedom and human rights because these get in their way.  They want to have the power to silence critics, to weld people into homes, to utiize slave labor, to harvest organs from living involuntary donors.  They cannot coexist with a free people.  On the eve of an all-important election we need to be aware of its importance to them and to us.

In the hideous death of some literary figures may be found a semblance of the ghastly, the grisly, and the gruesomeness of Halloween. But, in the modern day, in a weird way, death takes on a carnival atmosphere. Beyond the writings for which some literary figures are known, consider their tragic fate.

In 1931, as the Great Deression deepened across America, then President Herbert Hoover reacted to the devastating free-fall in farm prices by destroying livestock and produce.  This would seem to be the very last thing anyone would want to see at a time of poverty and desperation.  It was an horrific response.  In 2020, we have seen a crisis which we hope will be short-term, but no less severe in the moment.  The reaction of the Trump administration, however, is quite different and more creative.  Maybe we should forever avoid people who have spent their careers in government.  Maybe that shoudl be a deal-breaker for us.  Today's story also has a chapter about a small-time career guy in New Jersey.  His is not a pretty picture.  

At the time of this compilation, Sunday, October 25^th, 2020, the daily high deaths in our country for each month of the attack by the CCP Virus is as follows:

WORST OF THE WORST; RURAL COUNTIES HIT HARDEST; A RISKY JAMESTOWN NOTION; OIL PRODUCTION LEVELING OFF; THE LINE 3 PIPELINE; INTERMODAL; BONANZA MAN; AN UNHAPPY SCENE; SUPER SUNFLOWER YEAR; BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW; SID HARTMAN; “I WAS NAIVE"

Something occurred to me recently while watching a post-debate Frank Luntz focus group. Comprising undecided voters who liked neither Trump nor Biden, the participants nonetheless believed the president won the debate and most said they’d probably vote for him as “the lesser of two evils.” Their preference for him on policy overrode their higher estimation of Biden’s character.

If they were to read what follows, however, I think they might change that estimation. No, this won’t be about Burisma and the Ukraine and China and Russia and Hunter. It’s about something almost universally missed.