Dakota Beacon

Elections involve the right for citizens to choose, and we all know that choices have consequences! Through the democratic process, we elect our representatives. The same system gives us a chance to check those outcomes (or the lack of) with initiated measures.

This year North Dakotans have 5 ballot initiatives.

As I stated, elections have consequences not only who you elect to represent you in Bismarck, Washington, or Washburn but this election the people actually get to vote on some issues that have consequences in Constitution.

I would encourage all citizens to take a few moments away from the NFL, MLB, the harvesting of your garden or reality TV shows and get informed on the issues that are so consequential to our family’s future and get out and vote and let your voice be heard!

Some readers will recall their experiences with FEMA following the disastrous 1997 flood in the Red River Valley.  For many, FEMA left a bad taste.  We saw a lot of corruption at various levels.  Sadly, it looks like FEMA is, if anything, worse now that it was then.  As the champions of our Second Amendment observe, when you have seconds, help is only minutes away.  It's been a good long week now.  Where's FEMA?  

Tim Walz:  "I became friends with school shooters . . . "

I struggled over this piece.  On one hand, I hate to bring things down, to draw attention to the failure of a Republican candidate, but on the other, there are too many points left untouched by JD Vance in last night’s debate.  This was JD Vance's to win.  What happened?

Imagine for a moment a hypothetical situation. Envision Trump elected as President but unable to finish his term. Who then becomes President? J. D. Vance. Does anyone think for a nanosecond that attacks from the Ruling Class, both left and right, would halt? That they would proclaim “Mission Accomplished?” Don’t be silly! WE are the objects of their wrath. WE are the ones to be bullied, defeated, and silenced to the point that “we the people” will never again consider electing a rouge who threatens the establishment – the permanent political class.

If Trump goes down, we’re next. The Ruling Class will ensure there are no more Donald Trumps to upset their establishment apple cart -- ever again! “We the people” will be regulated into oblivion.

Political party nominating conventions are past, but the residue lingers. Parties typically adopt a platform in the process of nominating their presidential candidate. After receiving input from state conventions, a national platform committee puts pen to paper drafting the party’s platform.

Focusing on a vision for the nation, a political platform evolves as a formal statement of a party’s stand on various issues. As a metaphor, the position on issues comprises the “planks” that build the platform. These “planks” mirror the views of the party and its candidates. The idea is to communicate to the public what the party’s candidates would do if elected.

Duly elected delegates to the national convention must approve the platform. In a sense, the platform becomes the party’s manifesto. Once adopted, campaigning begins in earnest. But – and this is a big but – a candidate may ignore the platform.

A grave danger lurks in Kamala Harris's plans for our economy.

Finally, autumn has arrived. Well, almost. On September 22 it will officially, deliciously be autumn. Three cheers for the season! My time of year is here!

I have this ongoing love affair with autumn filled with special memories of good times and hope for the future. Finally. A magnificent autumn is here in all its glory.

This is for David Muir.

A look at one of the funniest and pithiest movies of the year.

How many ways has Trump’s opposition tried to stop him? He has been disparaged, vilified, and survived an assassination attempt. Why the opposition? Answer: He is an outsider representing Americans tired of a pompous, intrusive, and commanding bureaucratic state controlling their lives and sending their youth into endless and pointless conflicts.

The Ruling Class will do everything in its power to prevent a Trump presidency. So far nothing has worked. Certainly, the handwriting is on the wall. With a wealth of experience, Trump has every intent of gutting the deep state and freeing America from a growing authoritarianism.

What's the plan?

Weaponize (verb): To use to gain a powerful advantage; to develop for use as a weapon.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the government has weaponized federal agencies to intimidate, harass, and silence political opponents. Biden’s regime has intentionally weaponized the judicial system specifically to target political opponents while protecting deep-state friends. Retribution imposed on opponents characterizes the aim of weaponizing federal agencies.

I surmised, in my last article, that the 80% of women in the field of medicine and 58% of women in state governments were the likely “point of the spear” that skewed the results for women.  Since then, I have also come to believe that the ninth commandment’s use in referencing the “killing of the unborn” as “reproduction rights” may be part of the explanation. I would be curious to know what women think the reasons are for their skewed favoritism of socialism? Is it their envy of men themselves? That would not be very Christian… would it? And is that why Eternalists (the Marxist moniker for believers in an afterlife) are under increasing attack from seemingly all quarters?

 When we hear it from Kclaus Schwab it strikes terror in peoples' hearts.  Now we are hearing it from Kamala Harris.  We know she means it - after all, she picked the communist dictator of Minnesota, Tim Walz, as her running mate.

President Joe Biden, displeased by recent Supreme Court decisions, is proposing several changes to the court. This vexation with the court is reminiscent of Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California’s Berkeley Law School, when he said that changing the court was “the only way to keep there from being a very conservative court for the next 10-20 years.” These calls for change are for the most part simply born of political dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, proposals and assertions about the need for court change deserve to be addressed.

It isn't easy to give up on the hope that we could actually break away from the same old misgovernment.  I have a hope, however, that this time better advice will prevail and lessons may have finally been learned.  So I must support Trump in 2024.

Who is Timothy Snyder?

Snyder is the Levin professor of history at Yale University.

What is a Levin professor?

Richard Charles Levin, and American economist, was the President of Yale from 1993 to 2013. Although described in Who’s Who as a Democrat, he was one of the first guests of President George W. Bush in the White House and the president stayed at Levin’s house when he received an honorary degree from Yale in 2001. In March 2014, Levin became the CEO of Couresa, a global online course provider. We can be confident that Levin is a “globalist” from his biography and thus Timothy Snyder would be suspect of the same globalist worldview until his writing proves otherwise.

"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."  - Mark Twain

I feel like a commentator on cultural decline. Let’s talk “hate.”

Infamous today for its far-left bias, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) originally gained its notoriety by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy. Eventually it compiled a “hate” map to monitor groups it speciously claimed were racist and white supremacist. Their “hate map” now includes many mainstream conservative and Christian groups that have nothing to do with “hate.” Think of the SPLC as the armed wing of the Democrat Party in the same way legacy media is the Party propaganda arm.

Enter the New Tolerance Campaign (NTC), a nonprofit group dedicated to balancing the Left’s cancel culture with its own “hate” monitoring map countering the SPLC narrative. The NTC states, “All of the organizations and individuals listed have promoted, inspired, or directly engaged in physical violence against those with whom they disagree. This list was compiled through an extensive review of extremist group publications and materials, and reports by the public, law enforcement, field sources and the news media.” The NTC Hate Map may be found at https://newtolerance.org/hatemap/ and includes 192 leftist organizations and individuals. Some organizations and individuals are listed below. Consult NTC Hate Map for a complete list, their offenses, and discussion of why they are included.

The many challenges of running a campaign.

A Book Review by Lynn Bergman

Nature vs Nurture (Heredity vs Environment)

The author’s goal in writing this book was not to argue that “genes (heredity) are everything and culture (environment) is nothing” (no one believes that), but to explore why the extreme position (that culture is everything and genes are nothing) is so often seen as “moderate” and the moderate position (that genes are everything and culture is nothing) is seen as extreme.

Why is it important to sort this all out? Because acknowledging human nature does not have the political implications so many fear. The author does not try to advocate policies or to advance the agenda of the political left or right.

Imaging is important.

School days, school days, good old golden rule days. Ahhh, such memories. Good memories. Unfortunately, those days are long gone, not to be experienced by our younger generations.

Parents enter the new school year with their eyes wide open. Those who can afford it have pulled their children from government schools in search of quality education in a wholesome environment. Alternative schools include home school, private school, and on-line school. Much to their chagrin parents still pay taxes to fund public schools. A few government schools may still offer opportunity. Nevertheless, as they are tied to federal dollars, so must schools abide by federal policy. So much for local control of schools.

At the end of the day, even Tucker Carlson sounded different.  His unscripted message to the audience seemed real at the time—I quote: “After Butler, everything was different.  Trump was different.   We were different…”

For a few moments, Republicans seemed more willing to enlist Reagan’s 80-20 rule—we didn’t have to agree on everything to be a united front against the opposition.  

While the democrats appear to be in the midst of their own revival; time will tell if it is as real as the Republicans.  

I believe this is the most significant and consequential election of my lifetime.  I may have said this before, but this time I really mean it.