Bluestem Prairie

Bird flu hits Meeker County commercial turkey flock; State Fair bird exhibition schedule okay

We were saddened to read a Minnesota Board of Animal Health press release this morning, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza confirmed in Meeker County:

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in a Meeker County commercial turkey flock. Samples were tested over the weekend at the Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory (MPTL) and were confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa Tuesday evening.

Poultry is safe to eat, and proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚ F is always advised. This strain of avian influenza is a low risk to the public.

A Meeker County commercial turkey flock reported an increase in bird mortality last weekend, which led to samples being collected and tested at the MPTL. After a presumptive positive result at the MPTL, the flock was immediately quarantined and has since been depopulated to stop the spread of disease. Poultry from the infected flock will not enter the food system.

“While the timing of this detection is a bit sooner than we anticipated, we have been preparing for a resurgence of the avian influenza we dealt with this spring,” said Senior Veterinarian Dr. Shauna Voss. “HPAI is here and biosecurity is the first line of defense to protect your birds.”

Biosecurity is paramount to stopping the spread of this and other viruses and disease. Flock owners large and small, from commercial operations to backyard flocks, should review their biosecurity measures to maintain the health of their birds. The Board established a 10 kilometer control area around the HPAI infected flock and animal health officials are identifying all premises with commercial or backyard poultry in this area. Commercial flocks will be quarantined and go through routine disease surveillance to make sure the virus isn’t spreading. . . .

A resurgence won't help with food prices as Thanksgiving draws near. 

At the West Central Tribune, Shelby Lindrud reports in Minnesota Board of Animal Health says avian flu confirmed in Meeker County turkey flock:

. . . This is the first reported positive case of the disease in Minnesota since May, according to the board. Prior to this Meeker County case, approximately 2.96 million birds had been impacted by the disease, either by infection or depopulation, in Minnesota. . . .

Given that the BAH temporarily banned sales and exhibitions of poultry during last spring's outbreak, we wondered whether this commonsense biosecurity measure would be imposed and impact the Minnesota State Fair. 

The Fair exhibitors will be fine due to the planned departure of the birds, Kirsti Marohn reports at Minnesota Public Radio:

. . . Officials for the Minnesota State Fair said they have veterinarians performing regular inspections of the birds who have been exhibiting.

“We continue to closely monitor any updates regarding the impact of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and will follow the recommendations of state officials,” they said in a statement. “Currently the birds who are exhibiting at the fair are only here through tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon and we will not have any more birds arriving because the last four days we exhibit rabbits.“

Let's hope Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 doesn't creep into the Fair. We love the animal barns most of anything at the fair.

Image: Domestic turkeys in a commercial turkey farm barn. Not a picture of the birds that were sick in Meeker County.

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South Dakota News Watch: Poll shows South Dakota voters support more gun restrictions, in contrast to some elected leaders

As we noted in Bummer! South Dakota News Watch poll shows referendum on recreational cannabis legalization in South Dakota could fail in November, we were surprised that support for legal adult cannabis appeared to have declined in the Rushmore State.

We're even more surprised by the latest results of a July 2022 statewide poll conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. Our neighbors here in Summit are most pro-Second Amendment, though the sample provided by the tiny town is rather small.

On the other hand, we don't know of any of our neighbors heading toward prairie dog habitat with an AR-15. 

In contrast to some elected leaders, poll shows S.D. voters support more gun restrictions
by Stu Whitney

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles based on a July 2022 statewide poll conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, and is the latest segment in the ongoing “South Dakota Matters” series of polls and panel discussions hosted by News Watch.

While the governor and Republican-led Legislature push to expand access to firearms in South Dakota, a majority of voters favors restrictions such as waiting periods and age limits for some gun purchases, according to a statewide poll co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch.

The poll of 500 registered voters showed that 60% of respondents support establishing a two-week waiting period to buy an AR-15 – a semi-automatic rifle originally designed for military use – and 54% support a minimum age of 21 for AR-15 purchases. There is less agreement on gun sales in general, with 41% saying South Dakota’s laws should be stricter and 47% saying that they should stay the same. Only 11% responded that laws governing gun sales in the state should make firearms easier to acquire.

The random telephone survey was conducted July 19-22, 2022, by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy and was co-sponsored by News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. The poll is part of the ongoing “South Dakota Matters” series of polls and panel discussions hosted by News Watch; the margin of error is plus or minus 4.5%.

Advocates of stiffer gun regulations have focused on the AR-15 because it has been used in several high-profile mass shootings, including the May 24, 2022 tragedy at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers before being killed by law enforcement officers, who were heavily criticized for their delayed response.

“We’ve had a series of mass shootings, and I think they’re still on people’s minds,” said Michael Card, an emeritus professor of political science at USD. “Especially when they involve children and other vulnerable people. That is more likely to send us as a society to think that maybe this is something we need to control a little bit more.”

Card added that the much-scrutinized law enforcement response in Uvalde – which led to the firing of the school district police chief on Aug. 25 – “cast doubt on the (National Rifle Association) maxim that the only way to fight a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. There were lots of good guys with guns who didn’t do anything that day.”

Emily Thomas, South Dakota chapter representative for Moms Demand Action, a national gun safety organization, volunteered with the group following a 2015 shooting incident at Harrisburg High School, where a 16-year-old student shot the principal in the arm with a handgun before being tackled and restrained. Thomas’ son was a student at the school at the time.

“That was the worst day of my life, not knowing if my son was alive,” she said. “You become a little numb, but then I realized that we can’t become numb. So many people have done that, thinking that dealing with gun violence and school shootings is just how it is, but this is not the way that any of us want to live. No one is pro-gun violence.”

The News Watch poll revealed a partisan divide, with Republicans more likely to be satisfied with the status quo. Of Democrats surveyed, more than three-fourths (76%) said laws surrounding firearms sales should be stricter, compared with 14% of Republicans. Most Republicans (67%) favored keeping the laws as they are, with only 18% saying gun laws should be less restrictive.

Of the Independent voters polled, a majority (55%) said gun sales laws should be stricter, while 40% wanted them to stay as they are and just 6% wanted to make them less strict.

Card said the poll results could reflect a reaction to legislation supported by Gov. Kristi Noem in recent years to make guns easier to purchase and carry in South Dakota. But he also acknowledged that conversations about gun control are different in some U.S. urban areas than in South Dakota, where sport hunting is part of the culture. An estimated 55% of South Dakota adults have guns in their homes, a percentage that ranks ninth highest among all states, according to the Pew Research Center.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, noted in June that the AR-15 – dubbed “America’s rifle” by the NRA for its modify-friendly design and minor recoil – is used by South Dakotans for shooting prairie dogs, a statement that drew ridicule in some circles while ringing true in others.

Card, who grew up in Timber Lake “with a shotgun and .22 rifle behind the seat of my pickup,” also spent five years in Ohio’s largest city, Columbus, where his neighbor was an emergency room doctor.

“She told me that if a shooting victim came in, they usually still had a gun on them,” he recalled. “It was a completely different world than rural South Dakota, where guns are typically used on varmints or for hunting. Growing up here, it was very clear that if you point your gun at something, you intend to kill it. That leads to a certain amount of respect for firearms.”

Noem, legislators make gun laws less stringent

South Dakota gun laws have become more lenient under Noem, whose Hamlin County ranch roots and support for Second Amendment rights are central to her political profile. Just weeks into her term in 2019, the governor signed a law that allowed people who can legally possess a firearm to carry concealed handguns without a concealed carry permit. That action was praised by the NRA but came despite concerns from law enforcement agencies such as the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association and South Dakota State’s Attorneys Association.

During the 2022 session in Pierre, Noem signed bills to eliminate fees for concealed carry permits (for use in other states or to expedite background checks) and to clarify the state’s “stand your ground” firearms law, providing greater burden-of-proof protections for those who use deadly force and claim self-defense.

Those actions helped elevate South Dakota from 29th in 2020 to 7th in 2022 on a ranking of “best states for gun owners” published by “Guns and Ammo Magazine,” which also praised the state’s “permissive NFA (National Firearms Act) environment.”

From the other perspective, Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit advocating for gun restrictions and against gun violence, ranks South Dakota 46th on its list of states with safe and effective gun policies, placing the Mount Rushmore State in its “national failures” category.

Noem, seeking re-election this November, continued to trumpet her support for gun rights in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, opting to speak at an NRA convention in Dallas just days after the mass shooting and calling South Dakota a “sanctuary” for the Second Amendment.

State Rep. Aaron Aylward, R-Harrisburg, said that renewed calls to regulate gun sales following high-profile shooting incidents are primarily a result of political posturing.

“Just look at Chicago, where shootings are a daily occurrence – do we hear about every one that happens?” said Aylward, 36, a former Libertarian candidate who changed his party affiliation to Republican and won office in 2020. “A lot of this is just the media or whoever is trying to get a story out and use certain situations to their advantage.”

Aylward sponsored a bill last session to allow state agencies to refuse to cooperate with federal gun regulations that would create a “chilling effect” on the local gun industry. Noem’s office didn’t offer support for the measure, which failed in the House after multiple amendments.

In the News Watch poll, women (61%) and people over 65 (61%) were significantly more likely to support banning the sale of AR-15s to people under 21. Federal law places the minimum age to purchase rifles or shotguns at 18, but state or local ordinances can raise that minimum age.

Six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the United States since 2018 were carried out by men 21 years old or younger, according to the Violence Project, which maintains a national database of mass shootings. Many of those shootings involved semi-automatic rifles.

Of the respondents polled in South Dakota, 76% percent of Democratic voters strongly support raising the age limit to 21, while 41% percent of Republicans strongly oppose such a change. Of Independents, 53% strongly support raising the age limit.

When presented with these results, Aylward countered by pointing out that Americans are allowed to join the military as young as 17 years old.

“It’s OK to sign up these men and women to go fight in these foreign lands at 17 or 18 and use those weapons, but they can’t obtain an AR-15 here at home?” he said. “I have a problem with that. Regardless of what city or state you’re in, what it really comes down to is proper training and teaching people how to safely handle and use firearms. In the end, I will always be against laws that restrict someone’s right to defend themselves and their property.”

South Dakotans support extreme risk protection orders

In late June 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan law to expand background checks for gun buyers under 21 and devote more federal money to mental health programs and drug courts. The law also provided funds to help states establish “red flag” laws, which allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily separate an individual from their firearm if they can prove the person is at risk of committing violence, including suicide. But Congress stopped short of adopting a federal framework for red flag systems, also known as extreme risk protection orders.

Supporters of stronger gun regulation criticized Congress for not going far enough, and the News Watch poll showed that a majority of respondents agreed. When asked whether they support or oppose extreme risk protection orders being issued in South Dakota, nearly seven in 10 (69%) said they would support such action, compared with 26% who would oppose. Nearly half of those polled (49.6%) said they would strongly support allowing extreme risk protection orders to be issued in the state.

Thomas said part of the challenge is to clear up misconceptions about how protection orders are carried out. “It’s not like Moms Demand Action volunteers would be knocking on doors and taking people’s guns away,” she said. “It’s family members and friends who are scared for themselves and others who then call law enforcement to save the person in crisis or themselves. It’s a temporary hold until the person gets back on track.”

Card drew a parallel between red flag laws and two-week waiting periods to purchase an AR-15, designed in part to allow for a “cooling off” period if someone is contemplating violence. The News Watch poll showed that 72% of females support the waiting period, compared with 47% of males, and respondents 65 and older were also more likely to support the regulation.

“It doesn’t surprise me that those groups (seniors and women) are more likely to favor limiting the sale of firearms, because they’re probably the people who feel most vulnerable to guns,” Card said. “In general, there are very few murders committed by a stranger in South Dakota. Most amount to domestic violence.”

Card added that Noem’s staunch support of gun rights is “part of how she sells herself to the public,” meaning no softening of her stance should be expected as November approaches. If she wins re-election, it’s reasonable to expect that she will work with GOP legislators to make firearms even more accessible in South Dakota, regardless of public polling.

“There’s research that shows elected politicians on average are about 30 percentage points off from where the public is, meaning they’re disconnected from where voters are,” Card said. “There’s a lot of talk about what constitutes real Americans or a real majority, and polling that’s anonymous is probably more likely to get us there. But we also know that, in some cases, people may be inclined to tell pollsters what they think the pollsters want to hear. In the end, the only polls that truly matter are those that occur at the ballot box.”

This article is used with the permission of South Dakota News Watch.

Related posts

• Bummer! South Dakota News Watch poll shows referendum on recreational cannabis legalization in South Dakota could fail in November
•  Abortion poll: Is South Dakota the next Kansas?

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"Why Does MN Lean So Far Left?" Wabasha Co GOP BPOU goes down Trevor Loudon path again

UPDATE2 Sept 2: This event will now be "nonpolitical" after local legislative candidates objected. More to come in a separate post. [end update]

UPDATE Sept. 1: Travis Dunn, Chair of the Wabasha County Republican, confirmed that this is a BPOU event. [end update]

Is the Wabasha County Republican BPOU back to its old ways?

The image at the top of this page is being circulated on Facebook by conservative activists in southeastern Minnesota. We saw the image above on the Facebook of FiveOh Seven, one of the names under which former Lisa Hanson for Senate campaign manager Keith Haskell posts on the platform.

Is it genuinely a Wabasha County Republican BPOU event? We've contacted the county chair by email to check on the authenticity of the image and we'll add his reply if we receive a reply. Update: Yes.

It's not the first time the Republican BPOU has hosted Trevor Loudon--or gotten attention for its activity. 

Back in April 2021, Matt Stolle reported for the Rochester Bulletin, Wabasha County GOP featured far-right conspiracy theorist at event:

A dinner hosted by the Wabasha County Republican Party last month featured keynote speaker Trevor Loudon, a far-right conspiracy theorist who told the GOP faithful that more than a hundred members of Congress should be investigated for espionage, that the killing of George Floyd and the unrest that followed "was planned since 2016," and suggested that voting machines were rigged in last year's presidential election.

Loudon spoke at a GOP "Wabasha County BPOU: Minnesota On the Rise" banquet held March 27 at the Zumbro Community Church. It was attended by an estimated 400 people, according to a YouTube comment beneath a video of Loudon's speech. . . .

In his remarks to the 400 gathered at the GOP event, Loudon said that:

• More than 100 members of Congress should be investigated for espionage. "We need to investigate about 100 of your Democratic colleagues for working for foreign governments and the communist and Islamic movements."
• Offered a conspiracy theory that the killing of Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest was planned since 2016. "This was planned since 2016, folks. This was all organized by a group headquartered in Minnesota called the 'Freedom Road Socialist Organization.'"
• Pushed a conspiracy theory that the pandemic was a planned effort by the Chinese government so President Trump would lose the 2020 election. "The People's War (Chinese government) is biological weaponry. The COVID was deliberately spread to this country. It was timed for an election year to destroy your economy, destroy Trump and an even worse purpose."
• Suggested that voting machines were rigged despite an absence of evidence. "Second, no more voting machines. None. Now, there are probably voting machines out there that are perfectly reliable. There probably are. The fact is, most of our base doesn't trust them because we've been lied to and scammed."
• Advocated that conservative states and counties band together to defy legislation passed by a democratically elected government. He said he was not advocating secession, but his proposal would have the same effect. "I don't mean to leave the union. I want to go back to that people, so you can join together and you tell a federal government we will not implement any unconstitutional directives in our states."

While the GOP chairwoman declined to comment, the Wabasha County Republicans hailed the evening on its Facebook page as an "amazing night with so many of our conservative friends from across southeast Minnesota!"
"Trevor Loudon ... did an amazing job talking about the future of America and our Republican Party," it said.

The Wabasha County Republican BPOU has a reputation for going there, Stolle noted:

This isn't the first time the Wabasha GOP has cozied up to extremist views and has been used as a vehicle for incendiary statements.

Last year, the party was condemned by Jewish organizations after an image comparing mask mandates to Nazi Germany's persecution of Jewish people was posted on Wabasha County GOP's Facebook Page.

A Wabasha County GOP official initially claimed that its Facebook page had been hacked. But later, Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan said the picture was posted by a county GOP board member, who resigned at the party's request.

Loudon has likened Obama to Hitler and Stalin, saying that Obama loves his county "in the same way that Adolph Hitler loved Germany and Stalin loved Russia. You know, he wants to transform it into a new vision," Loudon said in a 2015 interview, according to Right Wing Watch. . . .

Yeah, that Republican county BPOU. 

The video of the event embedded in the Post Bulletin coverage is no longer available, with the note "This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Terms of Service." 

Stolle's article was published across the Forum News Service newspaper network and picked up by some online sites. National Zero focused on one of Loudon's claims in Speaker at Minnesota GOP event says Floyd murder was planned; Politzoom posted a similar headline: MN County GOP Event Headlined By Birther Who Claimed George Floyd’s Murder Was A Hoax.

Loudon wasn't cheap. According to the 2021 year-end campaign finance report filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Loudon was paid $1000.00 for the speaking gig. 

We're not sure what Loudon's price tag is in 2022, and it looks like a least some share of the proceeds will be shared. Those Republican candidates who decide to attend this stellar event will reap the benefits of the $10 donation at the door. Under Minnesota campaign finance regulations, party units are able to make contributions to candidate committees.

We'll keep an eye out to see if the event is genuine. And if it goes forward, which candidates show up in Zumbro Falls for the Republicans United Rally. Steve Drazkowski, now running for the Minnesota Senate, skipped the first one, Stolle reported.

Logo: An invitation being circulated on  Facebook by conservative activists in southeastern Minnesota.

Related posts:

• Wabasha County GOP Facebook post only latest offensive trope from Minnesota Republicans
• Commies, Muslims & terrorists, oh my: Loudon joins bush league in Little Falls & St. Cloud MN 
• Help Trevor Loudon, Central MN Tea Party Patriots speaker, fill in bios of dirty hippies 
• Foreign Conspiracy Theorist Urges Legislators to Pass Illegal Ban on Immigration to South Dakota [Dakota Free Press]
• Anti-Muslim Hate Sessions Add McCarthyite Strand to Republican Voter Suppression [Dakota Free Press]

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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MN Reformer: Scott Jensen’s education plan cuts funding for MN schools, promotes school choice

I'm getting socked in by the annual tomato harvest (as late as it is after a cold, wet spring), which limits my ability to delve into Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate and analogy failure Scott Jensen.

Fortunately, there's fine reporting available at the Minnesota Reformer.

Scott Jensen’s education plan cuts funding for Minnesota schools, promotes school choice
by Michelle Griffith

Republican nominee for Minnesota governor Scott Jensen wants to convert low-performing public schools to charter or private schools, ban so-called “critical race theory” and crack down on truancy with the help of law enforcement. 

Jensen unveiled his sweeping education plan at the State Fair on Tuesday, which would drastically alter Minnesota schools and reduce funding for the state’s Department of Education.  

“We want to make this all about the kids,” Jensen said at a press conference in the GOP State Fair booth. “This is not about indoctrination … this has got to be basic foundational education.”

Under Jensen’s proposal, students would also be able to use public dollars — or school vouchers — to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling. 

His proposal comes less than a week after Minnesota released education data showing fewer than half of Minnesota students are proficient in math and 51% are proficient in reading. Minnesota’s racial gaps in education — for years among the nation’s worst — continued to increase. Almost 60% of white students were proficient in reading compared to 31% of Black and Hispanic students. 

Jensen said he would turn low-performing schools into “charters, self-governed schools, nonpublic schools or other models for low-performing schools in their respective district.” 

When asked how he would “convert” low-performing schools, Jensen said the logistics would be left to the Department of Education commissioner.

Jensen did not specify how much money he would seek to cut from the Department of Education’s budget, but has already proposed significant tax cuts.

The Chaska family physician put forward a proposal to eliminate Minnesota’s individual income tax, which would create a $15 billion hole annually in the state’s budget. Jensen hasn’t provided specifics about how to balance the state’s budget if income tax were eliminated, but one way could be to cut education funding.

Jensen said he would ban so-called critical race theory, a term often erroneously used as a catch-all for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 schools. 

In addition, Jensen said he would also enact a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” and create a “portal” where parents can review school curricula. Senate Republicans put forward a package of education bills they called a “Parents Bill of Rights” earlier this year, but they failed to pass the DFL-controlled house. 

Democrats and the teachers union said the new laws were unnecessary because Minnesota law already allows parents to review classroom materials and request alternative instruction if they object to the content.

Education Minnesota, the state’s largest teachers’ union, deplored Jensen’s plan.

“This looks like a list of greatest hits of failed and discredited policies from the past 20 years of the billionaire-funded school privatization movement, with a few nods to the latest MAGA fads of book bans, whitewashing history lessons, harassing educators and generally making schools less welcoming, inclusive and effective for all our students,” said Education Minnesota President Denise Specht in a statement.

Gov. Tim Walz, a former educator, has made supporting public schools one of his top priorities. Earlier this month, Walz announced he will allocate the majority of Minnesota’s remaining $132 million in COVID-19 federal relief funds directly to public schools.

Jensen’s education plan also proposes creating scholarships and a state Education Savings Account, which allows parents to withdraw their children from public or charter schools and receive a deposit into government savings accounts to be used for private school or homeschooling.

If elected, Jensen said his administration would allow the funds to be invested in religious schools — aligning with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision which found that state and local governments must allow families to use taxpayer funds to pay for religious schools if they choose to subsidize private schools.

“There’s no question in my mind — teachers go into teaching to touch kids’ lives,” Jensen said. “We need to elevate teachers, but first and foremost we need to have quality choices for parents and students.”

The GOP nominee also wants to reign in school absences by potentially mobilizing law enforcement to ensure children are attending school regularly. Jensen’s campaign said there should be a minimum amount of in-person instruction to ensure students attend school.

Jensen said there’s bipartisan support for enforced truancy, citing Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s support for enforced truancy when she was Hennepin County Attorney. His campaign linked to a Jezebel article about Klobuchar’s previous on-the-record support for using the criminal justice system to reduce truancy. School districts reportedly were “referred to the county attorney’s office” for the prosecutors to consider charges.

That 2019 Jezebel article? Ashley Reese reports on the efficacy of the approach:

And while some schools noticed a drop in truancy rates, overall the numbers were negligible: 8.5 percent of students in Minneapolis Public Schools were chronically absent in the 1999-2000 school year. By the 2005-2006 school year, just prior to Klobuchar’s election to the Senate, 7.5 percent of students were chronically absent.

Yeah, that's very Jensen of him.

This article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 If you like the work being produced by the Minnesota Reformer, donate here.

Related posts:

• Pedagogy & the pandemic: student test scores in Minnesota & South Dakota aren't encouraging
• Scott Jensen’s proposal to eliminate income tax would benefit Minnesota’s wealthiest citizens
• Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit
• Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism
• From the Minnesota Reformer; Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism
•  Minnesota, kiss your herd immunity good-bye: Senator Scott Jensen cuddles up to anti-vaxxers
• Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally
• The headlines keep coming for MN vaccine skeptic gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen
• Small town MN freedom fighting restaurateur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy

Photo: GOP gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen and running mate Matt Birk hold a press conference at the Minnesota State Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 30. Photo by Michelle Griffith / Minnesota Reformer.

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Retiring state rep Miller to push unconstitutional local ordinances for new PLAM Action job

We last left anti-reproductive-freedom evangelist representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg at a tent meeting in Tall grass prairie? State representative Tim Miller goes to Moorhead for grassroots organizing.

Now he's center stage at Willmar Radio in the Learfield Wire Service report at Willmar Radio, Pro Life Action Ministries encouraging individual towns to reject abortion:

(Prinsburg, MN) -- A pro-life group is readying a different strategy to try to ban abortion in Minnesota. Retiring state Representative Tim Miller from Prinsburg, who now works for Pro Life Action Ministries, says the plan is to go community-by-community. Miller says they’re going to be attempting to pass pro-life ordinances in communities, saying ‘no abortions in this town’ -- which he’s calling a “grassroots effort.” . . .

That seems to be the PLAM Action press release part of the story. 

But there's more--what my high school journalism teacher called a "moral tag":

Hamline University analyst David Schultz says such local ordinances would be unconstitutional under the Minnesota Supreme Court decision in the Doe-V-Gomez case.

That pesky state constitution.

Related posts:

• Tall grass prairie? State representative Tim Miller goes to Moorhead for grassroots organizing
• Retiring Rep. Tim Miller will work for Brian Gibson at Pro-Life Action Ministries sister group
• We won't have Tim Miller to kick around anymore--at least as a MN House member
• New House Republican Tim Miller shares unique understanding of gas tax in legislative update
• State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups 

Screengrab: A Tim Miller Facebook post in 2014. Perhaps those lawn ornament voters are what Stop the Steal folks mean when they talk about fraud in elections.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Referee's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law: Torrey Westrom stays on MN12 ballot

We've been following the inquiry into the petition challenging Torrey Westrom's residence in the recently redistricted Senate District 12, most recently with Monday's post, Westrom residency: an account of the hearing before the Honorable Diane Bratvold.

Bratvold issued her ruling on Tuesday afternoon. The document, embedded below, concludes with the paragraph below:

In sum, the evidence Westrom presented to support his claim that he now resides in SD 12 is not overwhelming. Still, the evidence establishes by a preponderance that Westrom has resided at the Lake Mary property since May 7, 2022, given the short period of time he had to move after redistricting changed the boundaries for SD 12. Thus, Westrom has satisfied the residency requirement to run for senator in Senate District 12.

The ruling is embedded below:

Referee's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

We'll be curious how Republican and conservative voters respond to Klingbeil, who is running to the right of Westrom, following the unsuccessful challenge. 

Related Posts

• Westrom residency: an account of the hearing before the Honorable Diane Bratvold
• Westrom residency: Klingbeil thanks intervenor; referee's decision to come no later than Tuesday
• Another MN12 resident moves to intervene in challenge to Westrom residency in district
• MinnPost: if Klingbeil's petition on Westrom's residency prevails, still chance for GOP on ballot
• Swift County Monitor, Black Robe Regiment look into MN12 Westrom non-residency claims
• MN12 Westrom residency challenge: Supreme Court sets August 15 deadline for evidence
• MN12: "We The People" candidate Klingbeil follows through on Westrom residency challenge
• Via personal Facebook page: independent candidate vows to challenge Westrom residency
• MN12: Ashley Klingbeil to challenge Torrey and Dorry from the right for state senate seat
• Will 2020 redistricting plan boundary adjustment get snuck in to let Westrom live in lake house? 

Photo: Torrey Westrom's new real estate purchase on Lake Mary in Senate District 12.

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Westrom residency: an account of the hearing before the Honorable Diane Bratvold

Update 8/31: On Tuesday, August 30 the referee ruled in Westrom's favor, we reported in Referee's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law: Torrey Westrom stays on MN12 ballot.[end update]

Earlier on Monday (today), Bluestem posted Westrom residency: Klingbeil thanks intervenor; referee's decision to come no later than Tuesday.

Now we're embedding an "Account of the hearing/trial before the Honorable Diane Bratvold, by Brian Wojtalewicz, attorney for Petitioner Victoria Guillemard."

Wojtalewicz, a respected lawyer from Appleton, Minnesota, wrote the account of the two-day hearing; we've embedded it below.

Other documents related to the hearing--including statements by Senator Westrom and  his team--can be found via P-MACS - the case management system of the Minnesota Appellate Courts. Accept the terms and enter A22-1112 in the Case Number, thfirst upper left hand box. Click on the highlighted case number A22-1112, and a list of documents appears.

Wojtalewicz's account is not part of the documents filed in the case. We publish it with his permission.

Fischer, Guillemard v. Westrom Hearing posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd

Diane Bratvold will release her findings on Westrom's residency in his new district on Tuesday, August 30; we'll publish the document when it is available.

Related Posts

• Westrom residency: Klingbeil thanks intervenor; referee's decision to come no later than Tuesday
• Another MN12 resident moves to intervene in challenge to Westrom residency in district
• MinnPost: if Klingbeil's petition on Westrom's residency prevails, still chance for GOP on ballot
• Swift County Monitor, Black Robe Regiment look into MN12 Westrom non-residency claims
• MN12 Westrom residency challenge: Supreme Court sets August 15 deadline for evidence
• MN12: "We The People" candidate Klingbeil follows through on Westrom residency challenge
• Via personal Facebook page: independent candidate vows to challenge Westrom residency
• MN12: Ashley Klingbeil to challenge Torrey and Dorry from the right for state senate seat
• Will 2020 redistricting plan boundary adjustment get snuck in to let Westrom live in lake house? 

Photo: Torrey Westrom's new real estate purchase. We The People candidate Ashley Klingbeil believes she has evidence to prove Westrom does not, indeed, live there.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Westrom residency: Klingbeil thanks intervenor; referee's decision to come no later than Tuesday

Update 8/31: On Tuesday, August 30 the referee ruled in Westrom's favor, we reported in Referee's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law: Torrey Westrom stays on MN12 ballot.[end update]

Bluestem's been covering the question of Torrey Westrom's residency in the new Minnesota Senate District 12 since our post Will 2020 redistricting plan boundary adjustment get snuck in to let Westrom live in lake house? to our most recent entry, Another MN12 resident moves to intervene in challenge to Westrom residency in district.

The hearing before the referee took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week. The referee's decision is due on Tuesday. 

In meantime, third party candidate Ashley Klingbeil posted about how her reaction to the intervenor changed from being blindsided to being appreciative. We'll have more on this later today. 

Here's the full post:

Captured this at 6pm yesterday leaving the Judicial Center in St. Paul where we fought pro se in #MNSupremeCourt to uphold the #Minnesota #Constitution. What an experience this has been! It was a 13 hour trial minus breaks. Turns out the co-petitioner I filed with, who happens to be my manager too, is quite talented in legal work. However, before any of this, she was just my friend.

We were blindsided and a little startled at first by a filing to intervene. The court granted a petition from Kandyohi County Public Defender, Victoria Guillemard, thus making her a co-petitioner with us. Even though we come from different sides of the political spectrum, we were still united in the belief of our Constitution in this case. Victoria was represented by an experienced trial attorney, Brian Wojtalewicz of Appleton, MN. We trustingly took his lead which ended up being our saving grace in the court room.

The assistant AG was present during the entire trial and he was fun, kind and informative. His primary responsibility was to ensure that the judge had all of the pertinent legal statutes available.

Life is very mysterious and full of wonder.

We were surprised to see Will 2020 redistricting plan boundary adjustment get snuck in to let Westrom live in lake house? as evidence by both the petitioners and the intervenor. This may be a first for this poor country blogger.

Related links:

• Another MN12 resident moves to intervene in challenge to Westrom residency in district
• MinnPost: if Klingbeil's petition on Westrom's residency prevails, still chance for GOP on ballot
• Swift County Monitor, Black Robe Regiment look into MN12 Westrom non-residency claims
• MN12 Westrom residency challenge: Supreme Court sets August 15 deadline for evidence
• MN12: "We The People" candidate Klingbeil follows through on Westrom residency challenge
• Via personal Facebook page: independent candidate vows to challenge Westrom residency
• MN12: Ashley Klingbeil to challenge Torrey and Dorry from the right for state senate seat
• Will 2020 redistricting plan boundary adjustment get snuck in to let Westrom live in lake house? 

Photo: Torrey Westrom's new real estate purchase. We The People candidate Ashley Klingbeil believes she has evidence to prove Westrom does not, indeed, live there.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Pedagogy & the pandemic: student test scores in Minnesota & South Dakota aren't encouraging

A Potluck article public published Friday in the Minnesota Reformer, Minnesota test scores down since pandemic; MDE pledges to do more by editor J. Patrick Coolican got us wondering how school children were doing in our new home in South Dakota.

It's not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, since while Governor Kristi Noem closed the schools for in-person learning in mid-March 2020, students returned in person the next fall. Nor has South Dakota released any data from 2022.

We've posted a screenshot of the South Dakota Department of Education State Report Card  2020-2021 at the top of this post.

Coolican reports about the Minnesota data:

Fewer than half of Minnesota students are proficient in math and 51% are proficient in reading, according to newly released results of standardized test scores.

The portion proficient in math decreased from 55% to 45% since  the last pre-pandemic round of tests.

Minnesota children proficient in reading decreased from 59% to 51%.

Just 41% of Minnesota students are proficient in science, down from 51% in 2019.

Seven percent of students didn’t take the tests, down from 20% in 2021. The tests weren’t given in 2020.

Minnesota’s racial gaps in education — for years among the nation’s worst — continued. Nearly 60% of white students were proficient in reading, compared to 31% of Black and Hispanic students, according to the Star Tribune.

The state Department of Education announced that 371 public schools — including 15 entire school districts — have been identified for varying levels of extra support through Minnesota’s “North Star accountability system.”

There's a lot more at the Star Tribune in Minnesota students' low math, reading test scores offer glimpse of pandemic challenges, by Eder Campuzano, MaryJo Webster and Mara Klecker.

And South Dakota? There's no data from 2022; the latest data on the South Dakota Department of Education is the State Report Card  2020-2021. Dig deeper on the page, and there's data by student population: gender, income, race and such, just as in Minnesota.

How did the pandemic affect South Dakota scores? At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Morgan Matzen reported in South Dakota schools' report card shows absences up, performance down amid COVID pandemic:

Last school year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 47% of students across the state were not proficient in English Language Arts assessments and 57% were not proficient in math assessments in grades 3-8 and 11.

These metrics are according to the 2020-2021 report card released Thursday by the South Dakota Department of Education.

The report card is produced annually and provides information about how students and schools across the state’s 149 districts and 688 schools performed.

Those reviewing the report card need to recognize the state’s public schools were committed to providing in-person instruction in “a year full of disruptions,” Secretary Tiffany Sanderson said in a statement. And they managed those challenges successfully, she said.

“While other parts of the country struggled to return to in-person instruction, South Dakota schools understood the importance of tending to a child’s full development – physical, academic, social, and emotional,” she said.

Some data from the report card are incomplete this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as far fewer students took state assessments than in previous years, the DOE reports. Indicators like per-pupil spending will be added to the report card later.

About 90% of students attended at least 90% of the school days, while 12% of students did not attend for more than 90% of the days. Annual attendance typically averages 92%, the DOE said.

This data suggests COVID-19 impacted school attendance, and those absences impacted student learning, the DOE said in a press release, reiterating findings from last summer’s COVID-19 Impact Report.

Reduced attendance occurred most frequently among economically disadvantaged students. 72% of those who missed 30 or more days of school were considered economically disadvantaged. Chronic absenteeism is at 18%. . . .

Again, the sets of data aren't exact, but it looks like the pandemic was hard on school kids, whether classes were remote or in person. We're not a fan of remote learning, after trying to learn the Dakota language via Zoom.

Let's hope both states can do better by the kiddoes.

Screengrab: South Dakota Department of Education's the State Report Card  2020-2021.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Associated Press: Gov. Noem weighs response to Government Accountability Board findings

Does South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem have the power to mute the consequences of the Government Accountability Board as it seeks “appropriate action” in a nepotism case?

We last left South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in this post, Associated Press News: Ethics board finds SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’:

Back in 2021, Stephen  Groves reported for the Associated Press, As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head. Groves reported her spokester stated:

“The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor’s daughter in order to attack the Governor politically – no wonder Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” spokesman Ian Fury said.

Still, government ethics experts who reviewed the series of events at the AP’s request said Noem’s decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed.

Apparently, Groves was on to something in tracking down the story.

Reporting for the Associated Press on Monday, August 22, 2022 Groves now reports in :Ethics board: SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, and it referred a separate complaint over her state airplane use to the state’s attorney general for investigation.

The three retired judges on the Government Accountability Board determined that “appropriate action” could be taken against Noem for her role in her daughter’s appraiser licensure, though it didn’t specify the action.

The board’s moves potentially escalate the ramifications of investigations into Noem. The Republican governor faces reelection this year and has also positioned herself as an aspirant to the White House in 2024. She is under scrutiny from the board after Jason Ravnsborg, the state’s former Republican attorney general, filed complaints that stemmed from media reports on Noem’s actions in office. She has denied any wrongdoing.

Groves reports in SD Gov. Kristi Noem weighs response to ethics complaints:

 A South Dakota ethics board’s finding that Gov. Kristi Noem may have engaged in misconduct by intervening in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license isn’t likely the last word on the matter. But exactly how much more comes out on the episode may be up to the Republican governor herself.

The state’s Government Accountability Board appears to be letting Noem decide whether to defend herself in a public hearing or simply accept an “appropriate action” that the board hasn’t detailed. It presents Noem with a choice: Stick to her defense that she has done nothing wrong and fight the allegations in a public hearing or let the matter quietly die while accepting the board’s action.

How Noem handles the matter may not dent her prospects for reelection this year in a race where she’s heavily favored to win a second term. But it may be important down the road for a politician who has methodically positioned herself to move up in national politics, including for a potential 2024 presidential run.

So far, Noem has chosen to fight — at least in the public sphere. Her reelection campaign spokesman, Ian Fury, lashed out at the board after it moved against her Monday, calling the board’s action “illegal” and portraying the complaints against her as the work of an embittered political enemy. They were filed last year by Jason Ravnsborg, the former Republican attorney general, as he faced pressure from Noem to resign after he struck and killed a pedestrian with his car in 2020.

But neither her office nor her campaign has answered questions on whether she will fight the allegations through a contested case hearing before the board, which was created in 2017 and has never handled a case like Noem’s. Such a proceeding would allow the board’s three retired judges to publicly scrutinize how she took a hands-on role in a state agency while it was evaluating her daughter’s application for an appraiser’s license. . . .

Cory Allan Heidelberger shares his take in Government Accountability Board Letting Noem Decide Its Action on Nepotism Complaint? at Dakota Free Press. Check it out.

Meanwhile, there's more. Dakota News Now's Austin Goss reports in Bipartisan group of lawmakers ask AG Vargo to recuse himself from Noem investigation:

A group of bipartisan South Dakota state lawmakers are asking Attorney General Mark Vargo to recuse himself from an investigation into whether Gov. Kristi Noem misused the state airplane.

Three lawmakers, including Noem’s Democratic gubernatorial opponent Jamie Smith (D, Sioux Falls) have asked Vargo to allow for a special prosecutor to investigate Noem’s potential abuse of the state airplane, which was referred back to his office Monday by the Government Accountability Board (GAB).

“I am asking that we have a special prosecutor assigned this,” Smith said during an interview with Dakota News Now/KOTA Territory. “As honorable as the appointed Attorney General is, this puts him in a bad spot, there is going to be an impropriety because he was appointed by the current governor who is being investigated.”

Noem appointed Vargo in June after former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was impeached over his role in a fatal crash where he struck and killed a pedestrian. Both complaints that the Government Accountability Board considered were filed originally by Ravnsborg.

Smith was joined in his calls for a special prosecutor by current Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch (R, Glenham) and Rep. Scott Odenbach (R, Spearfish). . . 

Related posts:

• Associated Press News: Ethics board finds SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’
• Jamie Smith will focus on South Dakota and shake hands with your dog while he's at it
• South Dakota ethics: Will lawmakers resolve Governor Noem's closed-door meeting with daughter violated public trust?
•  SD legislature's Government Operations & Audit Committee summons two for Noem ethics inquiry

Image: Swiped from Twitter.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Scott Jensen’s proposal to eliminate income tax would benefit Minnesota’s wealthiest citizens

Update: See Racket's take at the end of the post.

Earlier this week, Minnesota Public Radio's Brian Bakst reported As surplus sits, governor candidates diverge on taxes. Our favorite passage:

During his term, Walz has enacted a mix of targeted tax cuts with more spending on schools, health programs and other key priorities. Jensen, a former state senator, says Minnesota’s government spends too much, and the time is now to scrap the tax code as we know it.

“We're going to look hard at getting rid of the personal income tax,” Jensen told the Republican Party convention before nailing down the endorsement this May. “We have got to quit nibbling at the edges. We've got to be bold.”

It’s an idea he’s floated repeatedly without issuing a concrete plan for ditching the tax. 

In June, he put some more-restrained tax measures in writing, saying he would seek tax cuts of at least $5,000 for every family of four in Minnesota and fully repeal the state’s tax on Social Security benefits. At a press conference where he repeated his desire to go further, Jensen challenged a reporter who asked if dumping the income tax was realistic.

“Is it realistic to talk about eliminating Minnesota personal income tax? I think it’s as realistic as inventing a light bulb or a computer in my phone that used to take up a room this size with mainframes,” he said.

Walz counters that the approach would “decimate” the state’s finances.

“It's insane. It’s like offering your kids ice cream for three meals,” he said. “Of course, they may say yes. Minnesotans know better than that.”

Jensen is never at a loss for the awkward analogy.

Now the Minnesota Reformer is out with some fine analysis of the notion to eliminate Minnesota's personal income tax

Scott Jensen’s proposal to eliminate income tax would benefit Minnesota’s wealthiest
by Michelle Griffith

Republican nominee for governor Scott Jensen wants to eliminate the state income tax, which would create a $15 billion hole in the state budget every year. 

The income tax comprises a little more than half of state general fund revenue, which means eliminating it would require draconian cuts to programs like schools and Medical Assistance, or a steep increase in regressive levies like sales and property taxes — or some mix of both.

The GOP nominee has not provided specifics for how he would fill the $15 billion annual gap in the state’s general fund if he were to eliminate the income tax.

Jensen, whose campaign did not respond to interview requests, has said in social media posts and media interviews since floating the idea that he wants to put money back in people’s pockets.

Jensen, who is taking on DFL Gov. Tim Walz, says eliminating the income tax would keep people from leaving Minnesota while attracting new residents and businesses. Net migration out of the state in 2020 contributed to stagnant population growth, which worsens the labor shortage and can inhibit faster economic growth. 

The Chaska family physician argues scrapping the income tax would turn Minnesota into a Midwest tax haven and jump-start the state’s economy. 

Jensen has also made eliminating the income tax a centerpiece of his plan to help Minnesotans deal with inflation, which has soared to the highest level in 40 years. 

“In a time of crisis for the average Minnesota family, why wouldn’t we try to make sure people can keep every dollar they earn?!” tweeted Jensen, who served a single term in the state Senate.

Jensen was once asked if the plan is realistic, given the gaping hole it would create in the state budget. He used the question to compare himself to Thomas Edison. 

“When Thomas Edison created the lightbulb, his friends told him ‘That’s not realistic,’” Jensen said. “…Is it realistic to talk about eliminating Minnesota personal income tax? I think it’s as realistic as inventing a lightbulb or a computer in my phone that used to take up a room this size with mainframes.”

“If we can’t have that conversation we’re never going to solve the problems with big, bold ideas,” he said.

 

But economists and Democrats say the plan would be a radical departure from a system that has delivered valuable services like good schools, health care and infrastructure, a comparatively light burden on working class taxpayers and decades of relatively robust economic and income growth. 

Minnesota has a steeply progressive individual income tax, meaning households with higher incomes have a higher tax rate as a share of their income compared to lower income households. Eliminating individual income taxes would disproportionately burden low-income Minnesotans while giving huge tax cuts to the state’s wealthiest.

“Progressive income taxes are integral to having budgets that can meet the needs of all citizens, and they’re also really important in ensuring racial and socioeconomic equity,” said Neva Buktus, state policy analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Eliminating the personal income tax would completely throw that out the window.”

Each year, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy creates a ranking of state tax systems and how they foster income inequality.

The six least equitable in the U.S. are among the nine states with no individual income taxes. Minnesota’s progressive personal income tax makes it one of the least regressive in the country — 47th out of 50. That means our lowest income earners get a better deal than nearly every other American when it comes to state and local taxes. 

Minnesota’s progressive individual income tax has four rates, with those with the most taxable income paying the highest percentage.

“If you’re going to eliminate the income tax, there’s no way to spin it. It disproportionately benefits the wealthiest Minnesotans by a long shot,” Buktus said.

If Jensen were to successfully eliminate or phase out Minnesota’s individual income tax, he only has a few options to replace revenue: increase Minnesota’s business taxes — unlikely given his corporate allies — or regressive sales and property taxes.

After the individual income tax, the tax that generates the most revenue is Minnesota’s sales tax. Because lower income Minnesotans spend most of their income, sales taxes hit them hardest. Higher income households save more money, which means it’s not touched by the sales tax. The state’s sales tax is about 6.9%, and if this were to increase, lower-income households would feel the sharpest pain.

One way to make up for lost revenue would be to force local governments to take on more responsibility, which would mean higher property taxes or reduced services. 

The Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence recently cited this potential dynamic in a report on Jensen’s proposal. 

“Phasing out income taxation would ensure the end of ‘Minnesota Miracle’ — the state’s 50-year approach to advancing geographic equity and providing local property tax relief through state aids — and usher in a new era of local government fiscal self-reliance from property taxation, local sales taxation and related means.” 

To close the $15 billion hole, Jensen could also cut spending. In the past, Jensen decried general fund spending. 

“We’re not dedicating those dollars to things, to issues, to initiatives that could really make a difference in Minnesota lives — like infrastructure needs, things like this,” Jensen said in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page in April. “No, we’re dumping it into a general fund where the politicians can have at it.”

In fact, about 40% of the general fund goes to education. Taken together, more than 70% of the general fund goes toward education and health and human services. 

That means any effort to cut spending would almost certainly mean sharp reductions in money for school districts, hospitals and programs that help people with disabilities. 

Cynthia Bauerly, the former commissioner of the Department of Revenue under Govs. Tim Walz and Mark Dayton, told the Reformer that Jensen’s proposal to eliminate income taxes is only half of a plan.

“Minnesotans deserve detail on how Jensen would fill that hole, with either massive increases to sales taxes for everyday items or with significant cuts to education, health care for seniors and people with disabilities, training support for workers to meet businesses’ needs, infrastructure, and affordable housing,” Bauerly said.

Jensen’s plan’s closest recent corollary is Kansas, which enacted deep income tax cuts in 2012. After the tax cuts, which required sharp reductions in education and Medicaid spending, Kansas’ economic growth lagged behind neighboring states. 

A Republican controlled legislature later voted to raise taxes.

This story is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Update: As a student of analogies, we can't resist updating this post with Racket's Flyover mid-day email by Keith Harris and Jay Boller:

Scott Jensen Compares Eliminating Income Tax to Creating the Lightbulb

Metaphor-challenged gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen, under fire this week for tripling down on insisting that mask mandates are creeping Nazism, is continuing to demonstrate how his huge doctor brain works in ways beyond our feeble comprehension. Jensen wants to eliminate the Minnesota state income tax, the primary source of the state budget. Many of us who are not doctor-geniuses, using primitive tools like “math,” believe we can determine the effects of such an act. Rich people would be richer, public services would be gutted, and the GOP dream of a struggling populace dependent on the needs of financial elite would be realized. The Minnesota Reformer crunches the numbers here.

But that’s not what bold innovator Dr. Gov. Jensen thinks. The Reformer also surfaced an intriguing Jensen quote on this subject from June. “When Thomas Edison created the lightbulb, his friends told him ‘That’s not realistic,’” Jensen said. “Is it realistic to talk about eliminating Minnesota personal income tax? I think it’s as realistic as inventing a lightbulb or a computer in my phone that used to take up a room this size with mainframes.”

Well, when you put it that way! Comparing technological advances to reactionary boondoggles may not strike your fancy, that’s fine. But this is how he thinks and you don’t get to be his thought police person. Now if you excuse me I’m gonna go jump off my roof and learn to fly using my non-realistic bold innovative thinking

Bravo!

Related posts:

• Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit
• Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism
• From the Minnesota Reformer; Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism
•  Minnesota, kiss your herd immunity good-bye: Senator Scott Jensen cuddles up to anti-vaxxers
• Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally
• The headlines keep coming for MN vaccine skeptic gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen
• Small town MN freedom fighting restaurateur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy

Photo: Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at an Apple Valley rally in May. Bluestem would hope that with his track record of awful analogies, he might be a little less fingerpointy. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Triple down bad analogy news digest: Jensen stands by his metaphor

Some folks don't know how to apologize, unless it's about gun regulations. That what we're learning about Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen.

Readers may recall our posts From the Minnesota Reformer; Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism and Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism.

The story continues to have legs.

TCJewfolk's Lonny Goldsmith first broke the story in Watch: Jensen Says Mask Mandates Like Kristallnacht. on Wednesday afternoon, Goldsmith reported in Did Scott Jensen Triple Down On Holocaust Comparisons? You Betcha!:

Scott Jensen’s appearance at Tuesday night’s Republican Jewish Coalition was an opportunity to quell the controversy over the Republican gubernatorial candidate comparing masking requirements to the Kristallnacht and Nazi book burning. Jensen, however, decided to keep the story going.

In audio released Wednesday by Heartland Signal, Jensen said that the mandates placed by Gov. Tim Walz during the height of COVID-19 “has parallels” to the rise of the Nazis.

NEW: MN GOP Gov. nominee Scott Jensen (on Day 3 of blowback from comparing COVID policy to Nazism) says U.S. media complacency is akin to 1930s Germany and claims contact tracing is about "control."

"Minnesota like never before needs to lean into the Jewish tradition," he adds. pic.twitter.com/55CzJ4UlCS

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) August 24, 2022

...On Tuesday, in response to the initial blowback, he hosted a Facebook Live video where he defended the comments, saying in part:

“I want to speak to a little bit of a hubbub that’s been in the media lately about whether or not I was insensitive in regards to the Holocaust. I don’t believe I was,” Jensen said. “I was making a comparison between the incremental change that frequently occurs and is oftentimes missed by people living through it at the time. It’s oftentimes incremental change designed by government to effect sweeping societal changes, frequently centering on compliance and control.”

On Tuesday, in response to the initial blowback, he hosted a Facebook Live video where he defended the comments, saying in part:

“I want to speak to a little bit of a hubbub that’s been in the media lately about whether or not I was insensitive in regards to the Holocaust. I don’t believe I was,” Jensen said. “I was making a comparison between the incremental change that frequently occurs and is oftentimes missed by people living through it at the time. It’s oftentimes incremental change designed by government to effect sweeping societal changes, frequently centering on compliance and control.”  . . .

Ethan Roberts, the director of governmental affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, had invited Jensen to sit with the JCRC staff to hear why they feel the comparison is misguided.

“Since April of 2020, we have been saying, over and over, to the point where I’m feeling like no one is listening, that these comments are inflammatory and they trivialize the Holocaust,” Roberts said. “They just are wrong; so wrong. I understand he is trying to talk about incrementalism but why can’t Dr. Jensen find some other analogy that doesn’t involve, first, the dehumanization of my people? And the systemic murder and genocide of my people?”

Beth Gendler, the executive director of Jewish Community Action, is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and was incredulous at the comparison.

“Policies that are implemented to save lives and keep all of us safe are nothing like the policies in Nazi Germany that forced my grandparents out of their home, separated them from their children, and ultimately murdered them in Auschwitz,” Gendler said. “The false equivalence is not only damaging and wrong it is deeply hurtful, especially coming from someone who is running to represent all Minnesotans.” . . .

Read the whole hot mess at TCJewfolk. 

At the Star Tribune, Briana Bierschbach reports in Minnesota GOP governor nominee Scott Jensen triples down on comparing COVID policies to Nazi Germany.

Minnesota Republican candidate for governor Scott Jensen continues to stir controversy over recent comments likening mask mandates to measures in Nazi Germany, defending those remarks twice this week and drawing criticism from Democratic elected officials and some Jewish groups.

The comments, made to an anti-COVID mandate group in April and posted on Twitter this week by online media hub TC Jewfolk, are the latest from the physician and former state senator who rose to prominence in the party over his opposition to lockdown measures meant to slow the spread of the pandemic. But the remarks quickly drew criticism over his comparison of pandemic mandates such as masking to actions taken by Nazi Germany in the 1930s that helped Adolf Hitler rise to power.

"The little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht, the night of the breaking glass," Jensen said at an event with the group Mask Off Minnesota. "Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power. … In a way, I think that's why you're here today, is you sense that something is happening, and it's growing little by little."

Jensen doubled down on those comments in a video posted to Facebook on Tuesday and again at an event with the Republican Jewish Coalition, according to audio obtained by the DFL Party and provided to the Star Tribune. A reporter for the Star Tribune was told the event was closed to the press.

In the video posted on Facebook Tuesday, Jensen said he doesn't believe he was being insensitive about the Holocaust when he talked about "incremental change designed by government to effect sweeping societal changes."

"I think it's a legitimate comparison," he said, adding, "You don't get to be my thought police person."

Later in the evening, at the Jewish GOP event with other Republican statewide candidates for office, Jensen echoed those comparisons and said Democrats were trying to "demonize" him and distract voters from their party's record on issues such as crime and the economy.

"What's happened over the last two and a half years has parallels to what happened with the 1933 banning of books, banning of Jewish authors, burning of books, Kristallnacht in 1938," he said. "This was a sequence of events that should never have been happening. It should never have been turned away from. It should have been elevated, but the media wasn't there, and we're seeing the same thing in America today."

Some Jewish groups and elected officials have criticized Jensen for the remarks, including Minnesota DFL U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips.

"I believe in our freedom of speech," Phillips tweeted, "but comparing Nazi Kristallnacht, which murdered human beings, to the wearing of masks to reduce COVID transmission, which saved human beings — is repulsive and shameful." . . .

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Matt Birk defended Jensen at an event in Minneapolis on Wednesday, saying voters are more concerned with issues such as crime than comments like Jensen's.

"We know the game. I've been victim of it," said Birk, who has been criticized for past comments on abortion. "Scott's been a victim of it for a long time. You take 10-second sound clips … and it's the age of outrage on Twitter."

Oh. They're the victims here. I seem to remember learning something about this sort of rhetoric back in that "Reflections on Anti-Semitism in American Film" course I took at Hamline back before the world turned nasty,  

In an updated report, 'It's a legitimate comparison': MN GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen defends remarks about COVID, Nazism, KARE-11 reports how this played out in one state senator's closest circle:

Gov. Walz's campaign manager, Nichole Johnson, wrote in a statement from the governor's office that it views Jensen's comments as "outrageous" and "unacceptable."

“Scott Jensen’s decision to double down on his outrageous remarks about the Holocaust are unacceptable for anyone seeking the governor’s office,” she said.

Also on Tuesday, the wife of Minnesota Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), Barb Abeler, wrote a response to criticism of Jensen in a now-deleted tweet, reading: 

"Really????? You still don't get it?? Masks were proven not to work, yet like nazis they mandated them! What a joke! And all the sheep went along without question. Heil Hitler!"

Through the miracle of twitter, Bluestem was able to find a screenshot of the tweet:

The report continues:

On Wednesday, Abeler tweeted again, this time to "apologize" for the "inappropriate tweet."

I want to apologize for my inappropriate tweet and the people it hurt. I want to defend people’s rights & freedoms, but went too far. Too much hurt & division has gone on these past 2 years. Again, I truly apologize for hurting anyone.

— Barbara Abeler (@BarbAbeler) August 24, 2022

Well, that's something. Replies to the tweet question her sincerity.

As some of the related posts below illustrate, the use of these sort of bad analogies in Republican circles didn't start with Jensen. 

Related posts:

• Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit
• Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism
• From the Minnesota Reformer; Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism
• Jewish Community Action calls out GOP's Julie Buria for yet another Holocaust-themed meme
• Nazi namecalling: two Southern MN Republicans lose their wits about Warren, insulin critics
• Hagedorn campaign embraces NRCC's anti-semitic anti-Soros ad condemned by Jewish Community Relations Council
•  Hagedorn campaign changes tune on control of NRCC anti-Semitic ad, but still a-ok with content
• GOP SOS candidate we scolded for racism, incompetence gets antisemitism added
• MNGOP endorsed secretary of state candidate's election ignorance pairs well with past racism

Photo: Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at an Apple Valley rally in May. Bluestem would hope that with his track record of awful analogies, he might be a little less fingerpointy. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Bummer! South Dakota News Watch poll shows referendum on recreational cannabis legalization in South Dakota could fail in November

It is a fact universally acknowledged that Governor Kristi Noem is publicly anti-hemp and cannabis when left to her own devices. Nonetheless, she has bent to the forces of reality with regard to industrial hemp and medical cannabis.

And just Tuesday, the Aberdeen News reported If voters approve proper recreational pot measure, Noem says her job is to implement it.

That certainly was a turnaround from her response to the 2020 popular vote, wherein she backed efforts to snuff out legal weed, as we reported in SD Supreme Court strikes down legal cannabis; supporters vow to make the people rule.

On Wednesday, South Dakota News Watch released a surprising new poll. Bart Pfankuch reports in Statewide poll shows referendum on recreational marijuana legalization in S.D. could fail in November:

News Watch note: This is the second in a series of articles based on a July 2022 statewide poll conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, and is the latest segment in the ongoing “South Dakota Matters” series of polls and panel discussions hosted by News Watch.

A statewide poll conducted in late July shows that support for legalizing recreational marijuana for adult use in South Dakota has waned in the past two years and also appears to indicate that a referendum on legalization in November could fail.

The poll of 500 registered voters in July found that 43.8% of respondents support legalization of recreational marijuana, and that 54.4% oppose legalization.

South Dakota voters on Nov. 8, 2022, will go to the polls to vote on Initiated Measure 27, which would legalize recreational marijuana for adults. The ballot will also feature election of a governor, U.S. senator and U.S. representative, and other state and local officers.

Voters in 2020 passed Constitutional Amendment A, which would have legalized recreational marijuana, but the measure was overturned by the courts and never took effect.

IM 27 would pass with a simple majority of votes. The measure would legalize possession, use and distribution of marijuana by anyone at least 21 years of age in South Dakota. Adults could possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to three cannabis plants; home-grow would be allowed only in locations where retail recreational marijuana is not available.

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy of Florida from July 19-22, 2022, and was commissioned by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. Respondents were selected randomly and were representative of South Dakota voters overall in terms of age, gender, geographic location and political party. Respondents were called on cell phones and landlines; the margin of error is plus or minus 4.5%.

In the poll, 27.4% of respondents strongly supported legalization and 16.4% were somewhat supportive. Meanwhile, 39.4% strongly opposed legalization while 15.0% were somewhat in opposition, with 1.8% unsure.

Supporters of legalization were quick to question the poll results and point out that prior polls and the 2020 ballot measure to legalize adult use of recreational marijuana both indicated steady support for legalization.“When I look a little deeper, I found things that do not make sense to me,” said Matthew Schweich, campaign director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. “Some of the numbers don’t really make sense and conflict strongly with previous data that we’ve seen.”

In particular, Schweich pointed out that certain elements within the News Watch/USD poll do not jibe with past indicators of support for legalization in South Dakota. For example, the News Watch/USD poll showed 38.6% of poll respondents in the Sioux Falls metro area supported legalization, and 58.0% were opposed.

However, that population showed the highest level of support in the 2020 statewide vote on Constitutional Amendment A. Of the seven state Senate districts that comprise the Sioux Falls area, District 15 had the highest percentage of voters supporting Amendment A, with 72.7% in favor, and no district reporting lower than 57% support for legalization.

Furthermore, Schweich noted that the News Watch/USD poll showed the highest support for legalization was among voters ages 18-34 (54.2%), which follows prior polling and election results. However, the News Watch/USD poll showed the second highest level of support (44.4%) was among respondents age 65 and above, which contrasts with prior polling and election results that show older voters generally do not support marijuana legalization.

“I see this as a flawed poll, but one that I still need to keep in the back of my head as motivation to keep working hard,” Schweich said. “I’m not going to dismiss this poll entirely, and it’s a reminder that we have to work really hard and not take anything for granted because in recent times, it’s gotten harder and harder to predict what an electorate will look like.”

An opponent of legalization of recreational marijuana said he was heartened by the News Watch/USD poll results, but added that he and other opponents will continue to try to educate the public on the dangers of marijuana and the negative effects of legalization before the vote.

The only registered political committee to oppose IM 27 so far, formed in July 2022, is called Protecting South Dakota’s Kids. 

The group’s chairman is Jim Kinyon of Rapid City, a certified mental health counselor who also serves as executive director of Catholic Social Services. State Rep. Fred Deutsch, R-Florence, is the group’s treasurer, according to state records. The group has not yet filed a campaign finance report.

“South Dakota is coming to our senses; we’re starting to see that this isn’t going to make us free and happy,” Kinyon said.

Kinyon called the supporters of recreational marijuana “drug pushers” from out of state who are seeking to make big profits by making a harmful drug more widely available.

Kinyon added that if legalization of recreational marijuana does cause youth use of marijuana to rise, the state could see academic achievement fall and the risk of youth suicide rise.

“This stuff attacks the organ of the brain, and our kids and our young adults won’t be better citizens,” he said. “Our kids are struggling in our state, and we already don’t have adequate resources to help them. We have to defend our kids because they deserve better.”

Medical marijuana already legal

South Dakota is in the early stages of implementing its medical marijuana program, which was approved by 70% of voters who supported Initiated Measure 26 in November 2020. Marijuana for medical use became available in the state this summer, and several more dispensaries are in the process of obtaining marijuana products for sale in the near future.

South Dakota voters in the 2020 election also approved Constitutional Amendment A, which would have legalized recreational marijuana for adult use, with a margin of 54% in favor to 46% opposed, a difference of about 35,000 votes.

However, a subsequent legal challenge — supported by Gov. Kristi Noem — led first a circuit judge and then the state Supreme Court in November 2021 to overturn the ballot measure, with justices finding Amendment A too broad.

IM 27 was approved for the November 2022 election in May 2022 after supporters submitted about 25,000 valid signatures in support of the ballot measure. Supporters of IM 27 say it is more limited in scope than Amendment A, dropping references to medical marijuana and hemp, and avoiding language about taxation, licensing and local regulation of marijuana, potentially making it more resistant to court challenges should it pass. IM 27 also would not affect the state Constitution.

As of mid-2022, 19 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana for adult use. Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012; Montana is the only state bordering South Dakota where recreational marijuana is legal. Another 13 states have decriminalized possession of marijuana.

Close vote likely in November

Schweich noted that in midterm elections, including the one scheduled for November 2022, the party of the incumbent president typically suffers, in this case the Democratic Party of President Joe Biden. In the News Watch/USD poll, 72.5% of Democrats support legalization of recreational marijuana, compared with only 23.8% of Republicans in support.

As legalization spreads further across the U.S., Schweich said one of the main reasons to support legalization of recreational marijuana is to provide for regulation and safety in the sale and purchase of marijuana. 

“Part of the reason to legalize cannabis is to take it out of the black market, because black-market dealers don’t check IDs and they often have other drugs for sale,” Schweich said. “Everybody out there who buys alcohol, they go to the store and they buy alcohol and they’re not exposed to other drugs.”

Ned Horsted, executive director of the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota, said legalization would take money away from drug dealers and shift it instead to legitimate businesses and also to the state in the form of taxes and development of a new industry.

“When legalization does come, it will generate a lot of jobs and a lot of new tax revenue for the state,” he said.

Horsted said current marijuana laws in South Dakota are some of the strictest in the nation, and are leading to the necessary and costly imprisonment of people convicted of simple possession.

“I think South Dakotans are compassionate and fair people,” he said. “All this does is basically says we’re not going to arrest adults for possessing a small amount of marijuana. So, do we tax and regulate this, or do we allow this to be the Wild West as it has been in the past?”

Other recent polls by Mason-Dixon have proven to be accurate or at least consistent, including recent News Watch polls on abortion and others previously done in South Dakota on marijuana.

A Mason-Dixon poll commissioned by the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper and KELO-TV in October 2020 was prescient in capturing public sentiment about marijuana ballot measures that year. The poll of 625 registered voters proved to be remarkably accurate, showing that 74% of respondents supported IM 26 (to allow medical marijuana) and that 51% supported Amendment A (to allow recreational marijuana sales). The vote tally two months after the poll showed 70% of voters in favor of IM 26 and 54% in favor of Amendment A.

Schweich said that during signature collection, he was intrigued to note how many people said they would vote in favor of legalization in part because of the way Gov. Noem and two law enforcement officers intervened and had the vote overturned through legal challenge.

Horsted said the next few months could be critical in terms of people making up their minds on how to vote on recreational marijuana.

“If you look at the people who were undecided and those who were somewhat supportive or opposed to legalization, you’re looking at almost a third of the people who haven’t made up their minds yet,” he said. “There’s plenty of time for South Dakotans to talk about this and determine if indeed it is time to stop wasting taxpayer money on prosecuting small-level marijuana crimes.”

Rep. Mike Derby, R-Rapid City, is one of the leaders of the informal cannabis coalition in the state Legislature, and is knowledgeable about matters surrounding marijuana legislation.

Derby said he was somewhat surprised by the News Watch/USD poll results showing a majority in opposition to legalization of recreational marijuana. “I thought those numbers would have been reversed,” he said.

Derby theorized that since Amendment A in 2020 also had references in the ballot language to medical marijuana and hemp, perhaps some voters in 2020 supported the amendment because they believed it legalized medical marijuana.

“There’s always been the question of whether people were confused in 2020, that some people may have voted thinking it had to do with medical,” he said. “So, it begs the question, now that it is a single subject, will that lower the level of support?”

The News Watch/USD poll also indicated that respondents are unhappy with the pace of implementation of the state medical marijuana program. Results showed that while 34.6% of respondents were satisfied with the pace, 56.6% were dissatisfied, while 8.8% were unsure.

LATEST LEGALIZATION EFFORT MOSTLY LOCAL

Opponents of the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in South Dakota have been critical of what they say is an out-of-state lobbying and funding effort that is supporting legalization.

However, state campaign finance records show the most recent effort to promote Initiated Measure 27 to legalize recreational marijuana is funded largely by in-state sources and with local labor.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws is the primary political action committee in favor of IM 27; the group also played a large role in support of Amendment A in 2020.

In 2020, two groups supporting legalization of marijuana raised about $2.4 million and spent about $1.6 million, according to state records. Much of that funding came from out-of-state interests.

However, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws has raised far less money to support IM 27 and most of its donations in this campaign have come from within South Dakota.

The group did receive about $68,000 in donated services in 2022 from the New Approach Advocacy Fund in Washington, D.C., to fund the signature-collection drive, and roughly $40,000 in donated consulting services from the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

But so far in 2022, the group has reported only $47,300 in income — almost entirely from in-state sources — and reported expenses of about $26,000, roughly $22,000 of that in advertising, according to state records.

Matthew Schweich, campaign director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, said his group has four employees, including three who were born and raised in South Dakota. Schweich said he is not originally from South Dakota but now lives in Sioux Falls.

This story is republished with the permission of South Dakota News Watch. 

Charts: from Statewide poll shows referendum on recreational marijuana legalization in S.D. could fail in November

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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Nostalgia; or, New Republic article about a right-wing Christian sect takes us to our back pages

A friend sent us a tweet by the author of The Right-Wing Christian Sect Plotting a Political Takeover just posted at New Republic:

Ahead of the US midterms, I wrote a piece on the New Apostolic Reformation, a shadowy Christian movement gaining increasing influence in the Republican Party https://t.co/HBXnjVZgLo

— elle hardy (@ellehardy) August 23, 2022

It's a worthwhile piece about NAR, which has maintained a presence in Minnesota politics for many years, though media coverage of this movement has been slim.

Here is a sampling of some of our old posts about Minnesota activists, from an endorsed statewide Republican candidate to capitol hill chaplains to NAR prophets themselves. 

The friend who sent us the Elias article tweeted one of our articles from ten years ago:

The peculiar tale of Minnesota's voter restriction amendment & the New Apostolic Reformation https://t.co/dfZRA2p4xX Nov 2012 - @sallyjos @bspinmn

— /📷 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐱 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰 📷/ (@HongPong) August 23, 2022

Go to the original post if you wish to read the entire hot mess.

Moving up to 2014, there's Prophetic intercessor Cindy Jacobs promised Dan Severson that Jesus would make him Teflon. Severson was the endorsed Republican candidate for Minnesota Secretary of State in 2010 and 2014. Bluestem reported:

Was Dan Severson running for Minnesota Secretary of State in 2010--as he is in 2014--or to be God's own non-stick cookware?

Just months before he declared his candidacy in October 2009, self-proclaimed prophet and New Apostolic Reformation leader Cindy Jacobs delivered "prophetic words" at the Deborah Company Midwest Convocation in Bloomington on Saturday, July 25, 2009, promising the Minnesota Republican that he could "to be able to say outrageous things and still have favor. I'm going to give you favor - I'm going to make you Teflon."

While Severson said outrageous things about the separation of church and state in 2010, apparently God had moved on to using ceramic coatings, since the former state legislator lost the 2010 election to incumbent secretary of state Mark Ritchie, who is not seeking a third term in 2014. . . .

Jacobs is perhaps best known for claiming President Obama's repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” was possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands of blackbirds and fish in Arkansas.

And there's the November 2016 post, Are ties of new MN Senate majority leader with New Apostolic Reformation recipe for gridlock?. We reported:

In the Fargo Forum, veteran political reporter Don Davis reports Rural insurance man tapped as MN GOP Senate leader.

But there's so much more to state senator Paul Gazelka, R- Nisswa, than selling State Farm insurance in Baxter.

Take his appearance nearly a year ago at the Now is the Time! Now is the Season! Jubilee! Chuck Pierce and Dutch Sheets, Duluth MN in Duluth, at which the state senator joined other Christian dominionists to pray for the Zenith City. (For a quick look into the mind of Dutch Sheets, check out his Baal Teachings, which equate LGBTQ people with demons; someone should find out in Gazelka--who in 2010 grabbed the endorsement from the MNGOP's only openly gay legislator--if he agrees). . . .

This wasn't a sudden conversion for Gazelka, who has maintained ties with the New Apostolic Reformation movement for years. His book on extending Christianity into the second cultural "mountain"--business--of seven mountains was issued in 2003 by Creation House Press (which appears to be a co-publishing/self-publishing service, if this Christian author's experience is correct).

Creation House is part of Charisma Media. The book was blurbed by C. Peter Wagner, one of the architect of the NAR. Wagner believes that "Satan and his demons are literally in the world" according to Wikipedia. Wagner discusses the NAR in an article in Charisma here.

In addition to NAR leaders Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce, Generals International State Prayer General and Call to the Wall/Minnesota Apostolic Prayer Network organizer Karen Krueger was on the Jubilee agenda. She's published Sheets and Pierce's "prophecy" uttered at the jubilee on the site. The passage begins:

And the Lord would say, I have come to pierce your ear again in this state. I have come to realign you with Me, saith the Lord. I say that by the piercing of your ear, I am designating that you belong to me (and that is why they do it Biblically-Pierce the ear.) I say as a sign, I have realigned you and you are no longer slaves to the ruling forces that were controlling the people of this region, but now you will hear and become one that serves me and a state that serves me and impacts this nation.

I say to you I have brought you to Duluth because I am giving you an authority in this city to stop the move of the blowing of the witchcraft that has blown across this state. I say beginning this weekend I am capturing the structure of witchcraft that has operated through my people and stopped my movement and I say because you have gathered; witchcraft will have no longer rule in this state.

I say to you the witching winds of the past now will not have the authority to control the movement of my people.

And I say to you the treasures that have fallen and been hidden over the last 40 years, I say to you tonight I start causing those treasures and those resources that have been held up to rise up, and I say out of Minnesota there will come effecting change that will affect the resource of this entire nation. I say to you this is the beginning of my glory coming in and beginning to be the band around the waist of this state. I say the belt of truth now that has longed to rise up and be seen in Minnesota will now rise up and be seen.

And here Bluestem thought what made Duluth special was the craft breweries. Now we learn it's witchcraft. Readers can savor more of this at the site.

We've written about Minnesota's NAR prayer warriors in the past in posts such as Prophetic intercessor Cindy Jacobs promised Dan Severson that Jesus would make him Teflon (Jacobs is the nice lady from Generals international who thought the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell caused birds to drop dead from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas).

There's also The peculiar tale of Minnesota's voter restriction amendment & the New Apostolic Reformation and Giants in the earth: Carrie Ruud, Paul Bunyan, Hermann the German and other leviathans.

These prayer warriors are the spiritual running buddies of Minnesota's new state senate Majority Leader. We'll look further into these connections as the session approaches. Let us pray that no common loons fall from the sky.

Back to the New Republic article. Hardy writes of the Gazelka blurber, C. Peter Wagner:

. . . Wagner, who coined the term New Apostolic Reformation, was intent on pushing boundaries, proclaiming that “we are currently witnessing the most radical change in the way of ‘doing church’ since the Protestant Reformation.” So while authority and structure is critical to Wagner and his disciples in establishing the hierarchy of the NAR, two key concepts central to the movement are where we see its leaders exert their authority.

The first is “spiritual warfare,” the emphasis on demonology over which Wimber and Wagner split, which holds that demons and evil spirits are present and intervening in our daily lives. Seemingly bizarre utterances, from Paula White Cain urging the  termination of “all satanic pregnancies” and anti-vax doctor Stella Immanuel calling Covid “demon sperm,” are spiritual warfare terms, intended to highlight a spiritual conception of the world that is meaningful in global NAR circles and beyond. Here, sickness and poverty aren’t physical, they are the result of being possessed by demons.

Among adherents, there’s a real valence to this idea during bad times, but Wagner and his acolytes have added a more important “level” of spiritual warfare on top of these preexisting beliefs. They have introduced the concept of “territorial spirits,” demons who occupy places and institutions “strategically”—think abortion clinics, the LGBT community, or the Democratic Party. These malevolent forces don’t simply advocate for things that believers oppose—they are evil personified, and need to be cleansed. . . .

Update: Hardy also mentions the Jericho March movement prior to the uproar in DC on January 6, 2021. Here's a Minnesota episode:  MN07 fake DFL candidate attended Dec. 20, 2020 Jericho March, took selfie with Kim Crockett.

Be on the lookout for that lovely rhetoric on the social media postings by Minnesota Republican candidates and that of their family and followers.

Photo: Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

From the Minnesota Reformer; Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism

On Monday, Bluestem posted a Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism.

On Tuesday, he's back at it again, the Minnesota Reformer's Michelle Griffith reports in Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism.

For many months, I believed that the nincompoopery of our governor here in South Dakota was unrivalled, but now believe Scott Jensen takes the prize.

Here's the Minnesota Reformer article:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen on Tuesday said his past comparison of COVID-19 public health policies to Nazism was “legitimate.”

Back in April, Jensen said the steps taken to curb COVID-19 spread were comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, citing Kristallnacht — two nights in November when violent mobs destroyed synagogues, businesses and homes. Likening COVID-19 policies to a repeat of Nazism were justifiable, Jensen said in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page on Tuesday.

“I want to speak to a little bit of a hubbub that’s been in the media lately about whether or not I was insensitive in regards to the Holocaust. I don’t believe I was,” Jensen said.

Jensen and his running mate Matt Birk are scheduled to speak at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening.

“I think it’s a legitimate comparison. It may not strike your fancy — that’s fine — but this is how I think, and you don’t get to be my thought police person,” Jensen said.

Jensen made his April remarks at a MaskOffMN event. The group has called the government’s response to COVID-19 “a fraud,” and falsely claims vaccines are not safe.

At the event, Jensen explained why it was important to question government officials.

​​“If you look at the 1930s and you look at it carefully, we could see something’s happening. Little things that people chose to push aside. ‘It’s going to be okay.’ And then the little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht. The night of the breaking glass,” said Jensen, whose comments were also reported Monday by TCJewfolk. 

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas has stated in the past that “Contemporary comparisons to Nazis, coming from anywhere on the political spectrum, are almost always historically inaccurate, insult the memory of the Holocaust’s victims and survivors, and are deeply hurtful to most Jews and others whose communities were victimized.”

The group invited Jensen to a discussion about why they find the analogy offensive. 

Jensen ended his Tuesday video by saying he’s allowed to analyze and think about things how he sees fit.

“I’m passionate in my support of the state of Israel, as well as the Jewish people,” Jensen said.

A tweet of his Facebook video:

Scott Jensen just doubled down on equating covid mask rules with kristallnacht as a “legitimate comparison” because “this is how I think” and, ooooooooh buddy, we know. That’s the whole problem, my good garbage dude! pic.twitter.com/l0OMTXhDZT

— Rafi Schwartz (@TheJewishDream) August 23, 2022

Some representative responses on Twitter to Jensen's new video:

"Outrageous." "Extremely wrong." "Profoundly Hurtful."

Not my words. That's what Jewish orgs say about #ScottJensen calling Tim Walz's efforts to save Minnesota lives the same as Nazi Germany's yellow star, persecution and murder of Jews.https://t.co/rYrcqN2jRl

— Jeremy Kalin (@JeremyKalin) August 23, 2022

When Scott Jensen doubles down on his Holocaust analogies in spite of the Jewish community’s repeated pleas to stop, it’s because he knows his supporters are eating it up. He knows it’s wrong, he doesn’t care because it excites his base. pic.twitter.com/cBKAwNRCDh

— hodel in the streets, chava in the sheets (@mrotzie) August 23, 2022

I called a high-level Republican operative and asked them what they thought of @drscottjensen’s latest comments. They said, “this is a [expletive] disaster.” https://t.co/qJDroAsTYx

— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 23, 2022

And one of my own:

Jensen's nincompoopery about analogies makes me glad I spent a few years in Fayetteville AR having "Big Jim" Whitehead pound his head against the wall & yell, "God damn it, Sally Jo" whenever I wrote dumb ones. #OzarkFamousWritersSchool https://t.co/LWCb3sQwF5

— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) August 23, 2022

Yes, there are those who care about language and metaphor. They're not "thought police," but people whose communities are at the heart of Jensen's oafish cruelty.

Photo: Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at an Apple Valley rally in May. Bluestem would hope that with his track record of awful analogies, he might be a little less fingerpointy. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Associated Press News: Ethics board finds SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’

 

Back in 2021, Stephen  Groves reported for the Associated Press, As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head. Groves reported her spokester stated:

“The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor’s daughter in order to attack the Governor politically – no wonder Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” spokesman Ian Fury said.

Still, government ethics experts who reviewed the series of events at the AP’s request said Noem’s decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed.

Apparently, Groves was on to something in tracking down the story.

Reporting for the Associated Press on Monday, August 22, 2022 Groves now reports in :Ethics board: SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, and it referred a separate complaint over her state airplane use to the state’s attorney general for investigation.

The three retired judges on the Government Accountability Board determined that “appropriate action” could be taken against Noem for her role in her daughter’s appraiser licensure, though it didn’t specify the action.

The board’s moves potentially escalate the ramifications of investigations into Noem. The Republican governor faces reelection this year and has also positioned herself as an aspirant to the White House in 2024. She is under scrutiny from the board after Jason Ravnsborg, the state’s former Republican attorney general, filed complaints that stemmed from media reports on Noem’s actions in office. She has denied any wrongdoing.

After meeting in a closed-door session for one hour Monday, the board voted unanimously to invoke procedures that allow for a contested case hearing to give Noem, who has denied wrongdoing, a chance to publicly defend herself against allegations of “misconduct” related to “conflicts of interest” and “malfeasance.” The board also dismissed Ravnsborg’s allegations that Noem misused state funds in the episode.

However, the retired judges left it unclear how they will proceed. Lori Wilbur, the board chair, said the complaint was “partially dismissed and partially closed,” but added that the complaint could be reopened. She declined to discuss what would cause the board to reopen the complaint.

The board can issue a public or private reprimand or direct an official to do community service. It can also make recommendations to the governor — though that option seems unlikely since the complaints are leveled against Noem.

The AP first reported that the governor took a hands-on role in a state agency soon after it had moved to deny her daughter’s application for an appraiser license in 2020. Noem had called a meeting with her daughter, the labor secretary and the then-director of the appraiser certification program where a plan was discussed to give the governor’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, another chance to show she could meet federal standards in her appraiser work.

Read the rest of the story at the Associated Press's link on the South Dakota Hub.

Related posts

• Jamie Smith will focus on South Dakota and shake hands with your dog while he's at it
• South Dakota ethics: Will lawmakers resolve Governor Noem's closed-door meeting with daughter violated public trust?
•  SD legislature's Government Operations & Audit Committee summons two for Noem ethics inquiry

Photo: Kristi Noem, in a Michele Bachmann eyes phase. Her official congressional portrait, back before the world turned nasty.

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Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism

Bluestem isn't surprised to see more oafish remarks from endorsed Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen. Unfortunately, the latest oafishness goes beyond mere clodhopping, to flirt with the worst barbarism of the 20th century.

At TCJewfolk, Lonny Goldsmith reports in Jensen Says Mask Mandates Like Kristallnacht:

Scott Jensen, Minnesota’s Republican nominee for governor, likened mask mandates to Kristallnacht and Nazi book burnings at an event sponsored by Mask Off Minnesota this past spring, more than two years into COVID. 

“As is the case with so many powerful initiatives like MaskOff, it starts with one thing, but it becomes another and another and it expands. If you remember, go back to World War II. If you look at the 1930s and you look at it carefully, we could see some things happening. Little things that people chose to push aside. ‘It’s going to be okay,’” Jensen said. “And then the little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht. The night of the breaking glass. Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power, and World War II came about. Well, in a way, I think that’s why you’re here today. You sense that something’s happening, and it’s growing little by little.”

Mask Off Minnesota is an interest group peddling in COVID-19 misinformation, claiming that masking and the covid vaccines don’t work. In fact, the vaccines dramatically reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, and face masks are proven to prevent infection. More than one million Americans have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Jeepers, that take would seem to make Mask Off Minnesota kindred to the Scott Jensen who appeared on Bluestem Prairie in Saturday's post, Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit.

Goldsmith reports on the reaction from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas and the Anti-Defamation League :

Jensen, along with other Republican candidates Matt Birk (lieutenant governor), Kim Crockett (secretary of state), Jim Schultz (attorney general), Ryan Wilson (auditor), and all four candidates challenging the DFL members of congress, will be featured at a Republican Jewish Coalition forum on Tuesday night at the Barry Family Campus.

“Such comparisons are extremely wrong for all the reasons we’ve stated in the past,” said Ethan Roberts, the director of government affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, which has made at least two different statements on the issue. “We invite Dr. Jensen to meet with the JCRC to discuss why such comparisons are so damaging.”

The Anti-Defamation League said that comparisons like Jensen’s are “generally not indications of antisemitic animus; however, they are often used to further a political agenda. Such references are outrageous and may be profoundly hurtful to Jews, many of whom lost family members or carry memories of the trauma suffered by their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents during the destruction of European Jewry.”

Officials from the Jensen campaign and the RJC did not return emails seeking comment.

“Scott Jensen’s remarks are outrageous and offensive, but what’s just as disturbing is the fact that they’re part of a pattern. Dangerous rhetoric and conspiracy theories define who Scott Jensen is,” a spokesperson from Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign said. “Governor Walz can always be counted on to reject extremism and antisemitism.”

This isn’t the first time Minnesota Republicans have used Holocaust imagery in their opposition to masking and other COVID-related restrictions. 

In July 2020, St. Cloud City Councilmember Paul Brandmire said at a city council meeting that COVID-positive individuals should be marked with a yellow star on their lapel. City council positions are non-partisan, but Brandmire was the GOP nominee for state house in District 14B in 2020.

That wasn't the only local Republican leader with state legislative ambitions to draw from the Holocaust meme well. Bluestem reported in Jewish Community Action calls out GOP's Julie Buria for yet another Holocaust-themed meme:

 The Mesabi Tribune reported back in July, GOP-endorsed House candidate compares COVID-19 response to the Holocaust.  She's retracted her apology, the paper reported on Tuesday, August 4:‘I was forced to’: GOP-endorsed candidate retracts apology. There's this gem: "Buria said multiple times in the meeting that “Jews are not offended,” " in the article. Peculiar, given the objection from Jewish Community Action.

Goldsmith continues:

A week later, the Facebook page of the Wabasha County Republican Party shared a photo of a Nazi officer speaking to a man wearing a Star of David pinned to his jacket. The text above the photo said “Just put on the star and quit complaining, it’s really not that hard,” and below the photo: “Just put on the mask and quit complaining.” The person who originally posted the photo did so with the comment: “History is repeating!” Jennifer Carnahan, then the chair of the Minnesota GOP, claimed that the group’s Facebook had been hacked.

This wasn’t the first time Jensen, a one-term former state senator and family physician from Chaska, publicly made analogies between COVID and Nazis. In 2021, he signed on to an affidavit for a court petition from an organization called America’s Frontline Doctors, which opposed children being vaccinated against COVID-19. The petition compared the nationwide vaccination effort to Nazi doctors convicted at Nuremberg for experimenting on imprisoned Jews, Poles, and Russians without their consent, but Jensen told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he read 10 of the 80 pages of the petition, and that it wasn’t finished when he signed it.

Jensen and Crockett have also had other issues this year. Jensen hosted Royce White, a former pro basketball player and GOP candidate in the fifth congressional district primary, on his podcast. White is a self-described antisemite, and is also a regular on the Blaze TV show of former sportswriter-turned-conservative commentator Jason Whitlock, where he has decried the “globalist agenda,” and in January complained of a “Jewish elite,” and that it’s a problem when it’s suggested that there is a Jewish elite, there are cries of antisemitism. 

Crockett, at the Minnesota Republican Party Convention in May, showed a video that featured an image of Hungarian Jewish philanthropist George Soros manipulating strings attached to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Marc Elias, a noted voting rights attorney.

The Anti-Defamation League has said attacks against Soros use “longstanding antisemitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events.”

While these are the most recent attacks on Jews in regional politics, Bluestem has chronicled other examples. Here in South Dakota, there was that time in 2019 when SD Gov Noem blamed Soros' money for pipeline protests; cuts tribes out of anti-protest bills talk as she promoted her "riot boosting" laws, which were later laughed out of court.

Noem's Soros fearmongering echoed 2018 posts, Hagedorn campaign embraces NRCC's anti-semitic anti-Soros ad condemned by Jewish Community Relations Council and  Hagedorn campaign changes tune on control of NRCC anti-Semitic ad, but still a-ok with content.

And there was that time when state representative Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal and the late first congressional district congressmen Jim Hagedorn were called out in our post Nazi namecalling: two Southern MN Republicans lose their wits about Warren, insulin critics.

Iffy analogies seem to have been a norm for some Minnesota Republicans.

But we digress. At the Minnesota Reformer, Michelle Griffith reports in Scott Jensen likens COVID-19 public health policies to Kristallnacht, Nazism:

Republican nominee for governor Scott Jensen is set to appear Tuesday at a Republican Jewish Coalition event. 

He may want to clarify to the group some remarks he made in April in which he off-handedly compared recent public health policies to Hitler’s rise. 

Jensen was speaking to a group called MaskOffMN, which calls the government’s response to COVID-19 “a fraud.” The group also alleges the COVID-19 vaccines are not proven safe nor effective and warns that “A Peacetime Emergency could still be reinstated in Minnesota at any time, with all its mask mandates, lockdowns, and tyranny.”

Jensen was among like-minded people at the event — as of earlier this year Jensen was not vaccinated and once referred to COVID-19 as a “mild four day respiratory illness.”

Jensen sought to explain why it was important to ask questions of our government, and he seemed to imply that groups like MaskOffMN that resist government public health policies would help prevent a repeat of Nazism. 

“If you look at the 1930’s and you look at it carefully, we could see something’s happening. Little things that people chose to push aside. ‘It’s going to be okay.’ And then the little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht. The night of the breaking glass,” said Jensen, whose comments were also reported Monday by TCJewfolk. 

He’s referring to two nights in November 1938 when violent mobs destroyed synagogues and plundered Jewish homes and businesses. 

Jensen traced more history: “Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power, and World War II came about.” 

He concluded by telling the group, which was meeting at Tobies in Hinckley, that they are a bulwark: “Well, in a way, I think that’s why you’re here today. You sense that something’s happening, and it’s growing little by little.”

Officials from Jensen’s campaign and the Republican Jewish Coalition did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s requests for comment.

Ethan Roberts, the director of government affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said in an email to the Reformer, “Such comparisons are extremely wrong for all the reasons we’ve stated in the past.” 

(The inappropriate comparisons have been a staple of pandemic-era right wing discourse.) 

In April of 2020, after protestors compared Gov. Tim Walz to Hitler, the JCRC said, “Contemporary comparisons to Nazis, coming from anywhere on the political spectrum, are almost always historically inaccurate, insult the memory of the Holocaust’s victims and survivors, and are deeply hurtful to most Jews and others whose communities were victimized.” 

Roberts concluded: “We invite Dr. Jensen to meet with the JCRC to discuss why such comparisons are so damaging.”

And at Racket's Flyover, there's the succinct Man Who Thinks COVID Regs = Nazism Could Be Your Governor, subtitle Still Hot Garbage: Scott Jensen Compared Mask Mandates to Kristallnacht:

When those on the right aren’t getting their way, they sure love to compare what they’re going through to Nazi Germany. Last April, GOP governor candidate Scott Jensen decided to invoke Hitler while speaking at a MaskOffMN meeting, making the dumb argument that mask mandates are a slippery slope toward another Holocaust. TC Jewfolk dug up and shared the Jensen clip this morning: “If you look at the 1930s and you look at it carefully, we could see some things happening. Little things that people chose to push aside. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht.” (Kristallnacht was a multi-day coordinated wave of violence in which the Nazi party tore through Jewish homes, religious sites, and businesses.) “Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power, and World War II came about,” Jensen continued.

Basically, Jensen is making the argument that mask mandates during a pandemic are akin the things that lead to actual atrocities against humanity. Gotcha. Jensen, who is also a practicing physician, has been known to say dumb shit in the past, including dismissing Covid as a “mild four-day respiratory illness,” saying he plans to gut the medical board if elected (because he is frequently under investigation), and claiming that most of the folks who’ve died of Covid only had a couple years left in them anyway. 

Jensen is scheduled to appear at a Republican Jewish Coalition event tomorrow. We sure hope they school him on that “guy named Hitler.”

We concur.

Photo: Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at an Apple Valley rally in May. Bluestem would hope that with his track record of awful analogies, he might be a little less fingerpointy. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.

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Regulatory capture or new top cop? MNBOH appoints Marion Garcia state veterinarian

A press release just in from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health announces the appointment of Dr. Marion Garcia as Executive Director. The state agency has the mission to "protect the health of the state’s domestic animals through education and cooperation with veterinarians, producers, owners and communities."  

Dr. Marion Garcia's experience is in the poultry industry, as well as an impressive career in the U.S. Army Reserve.

"Domestic animals" include livestock and poultry but also commercial pet as covered the Board's response to Chronic Wasting Disease, which afflicts all cervidae, whether farmed or wild; the Board has concurrent authority with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources over farmed cervidae. We mostly recently reported on CWD in Minnesota in On Facebook, operator of CWD doomed Winona County deer farm wears Miller Scrap hat and MN Board of Animal Health: CWD confirmed in quarantined Winona County captive deer herd.

The press release:

Board appoints new executive director:

The six-member Minnesota Board of Animal Health has named Dr. Marion Garcia as its new executive director and state veterinarian. The Board selected Dr. Garcia to succeed Dr. Beth Thompson, who left the agency in May of this year and served the agency since 2016. Dr. Linda Glaser served in the interim while the Board went through the hiring process. Dr. Garcia will officially start at the end of September.

Dr. Garcia has been a livestock veterinarian in the poultry industry for more than 20 years. She worked for a commercial poultry operation in veterinary school and continued in the industry until accepting her new position with the Board. Prior to veterinary school, she served as a member of the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve until retiring from service in 2020. Dr. Garcia also holds a Master of Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. She is active in the National Poultry Improvement Plan and was recently elected to represent the Midwest at the national meeting.

“I’m excited to be joining the team at the Board of Animal Health. I have practiced in Minnesota for several years and have a high respect for the state’s producers and industry,” said State Veterinarian and Executive Director, Dr. Marion Garcia. “I look forward to working with the talented staff at the Board, our partner agencies at the State of Minnesota, and serving the people of this great state.”

Dr. Garcia is the tenth executive director to hold the position in the Board’s 119-year history. Executive directors are appointed annually by the Board members unless a vacancy occurs, and the position needs to be filled mid-term. For details about other news and events at the Board of Animal Health, visit www.bah.state.mn.us.

Dr. Garcia's LinkedIn profile names her last employer in the poultry industry, Hybrid Turkeys, a Canadian company which operates a hatchery in Beresford, South Dakota. Though dated, a 2018 Atlantic article, Moneyball for Turkeys, illustrates the scope of the operation. 

The Hybrid website published Biosecurity and Health: A Conversation with Dr. Marion Garcia, in 2021. :

Dr. Marion Garcia is the lead for Hybrid customer veterinary support in the USA and has a wealth of experience in the turkey industry. This Q&A explores some key takeaways for growers looking to develop their farm’s biosecurity program and learn more about the connection between biosecurity and health.

What areas of biosecurity do you see are most often overlooked?

To put a slightly different spin on the answer, I would say the one area that’s looked at too much is people movement. I think we're pretty good at tracking people, asking people to shower and change clothes and understand clean and dirty zones. We're very good at all of that, but we tend to forget about the rodents who find a way into the barns. Wild birds love to nest underneath the eaves. Insects can invade and get into the feed. If and when birds, rodents, and insects get in, they can infect our birds.

I think that we, as an industry, are focused primarily on people and then on equipment as a close second. After that, we forget about the other pathogen carriers that are part of biosecurity best practices. If you look at the risk factor of someone bringing a cell phone into the barn versus a gap where a rodent can get in, #2 is a much bigger risk than #1. So, we need to remember that biosecurity is about a whole system, rather than just tracking people and their movements.

How can turkey growers better safeguard their farm? What are the areas to look at?

A great place to start is to set aside once a week where growers walk around the outside of their barns and take a critical look. Ask yourself, “Where are my gaps? Where could something get in? Is that a hole in the curtain? Or are those weeds too close to the barn? Let’s take a look under the rafters.” Just start doing this once a week and you will have a much better understanding of your gaps. Once you know where the weak areas are, you can create a plan to make improvements.

What's the connection between biosecurity and health of the flock?

It’s all about population health. When one child goes to school with a cold, likely there will be transmission and the rest of the class can get sick. Another part of biosecurity connected to health is that a little bit of preventative maintenance can go a long way. You can wait until there are obvious health issues in the barn that need to be fixed, but this is a more reactive approach. Strong biosecurity programs with attention to detail save us from having to fix things that are already broken. When you bring your car in for an oil change and tire rotation, these are regularly scheduled appointments that are important to avoiding breakdowns and long-term issues. Biosecurity is much like this kind of regular, preventative maintenance for overall better health. . . .

A turkey vet? The Minnesota Turkey Association's website notes: "Minnesota is the number one producer of turkeys in the nation and is home to 600 turkey farms around the state." In the spring of 2022, according to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Response page on the BAH website, HPAI hit Minnesota, with 2,963,744 birds being afflicted, mostly at commercial turkey farms. The Rochester Post Bulletin reported in June:

As of June 16, 2022, Minnesota has had 2.99 million birds infected over a three month period since the first case was detected. The first case detected in Minnesota was also the largest discovery to date. The case was identified on March 25 in Meeker County at a commercial turkey farm where 287,507 turkey’s became infected with the avian flu.

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has been tracking cases and data within the state. As of June 16, 2022, there have been 80 total cases, 51 of which commercial turkey farms in Minnesota have had infections and needed to shut down to quarantine. Only one case has been reported in the Rochester area, on a commercial turkey farm in Dodge County on April 3, where 20,971 birds were infected by the flu.

When we look at Garcia's other career, Bluestem doesn't think her specialization in turkeys will limit her ability to lead at BOH to helping out the poultry industry.

On the U.S. Army Reserve website, we read in the Maj. Gen. Marion Garcia Army Reserve Chief of Staff profile:

 . . . MG Garcia graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1987 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Military Police Corps. Her military education includes the Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Combined Arms Service Staff School, the Command and General Staff College, the United States Army War College, and the Advanced Joint Professional Military Education School. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Science from the United States Military Academy, a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, a Master of Science in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health from the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University. 

Her civilian professional background includes working as a production veterinarian in the poultry industry, ensuring animals are healthy and free of diseases to provide a safe and wholesome consumer product.  She also provided agricultural expertise in support of the United States forces in Iraq and assisted the Republic of Georgia national veterinary services with best practices utilizing laboratory assets and implementing animal disease surveillance programs. . . . 

In “A visionary leader”...“a training management guru”, at the Department of Defense's Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website, we read:

FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO--An experienced leader of soldiers and a tough-as-nails trailblazer, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Marion Garcia has earned induction into the Military Police Regimental Association Hall of Fame.

A child of hard work and ambition, Maj. Gen. Garcia is the daughter of a Marine officer and an au pair-turned-travel agent, Lt. Col. (U.S. Marine Corps, Ret.) Lou Garcia and Ms. Vivian Piaget, respectively. Lou Garcia entered the Marine Corps as a private, received his commission in Vietnam, and retired as a lieutenant colonel after 33 years of service. Vivian Piaget speaks three languages fluently. While working as an au pair for an embassy family in Poland, she met Lou Garcia when he was a young Marine, stationed in Poland on embassy duty. Seeing her parents’ examples as bearers of high standards, Marion Garcia knew her calling in life--military service.

Young Marion Garcia entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1983, a school which first graduated women in 1980. When Garcia graduated from West Point in 1987, women were not allowed to branch into combat arms.

“As a woman commissioning in 1987, the Military Police Corps, which at the time was focused on combat support, was the closest thing to combat arms that I could get,” said Garcia. “I wanted to be where the action was, so I asked for Military Police and was fortunate enough to get it.“

As a second lieutenant in Korea, Garcia earned recognition as the top platoon leader within her battalion. She acknowledged “there was some shock” when her battalion commander chose her, a woman, as the best platoon leader to represent the Military Police in the Second Infantry Division’s Team Spirit exercise, an annual exercise combining the efforts of both Republic of Korea and United States soldiers.

“I was part of a command structure which valued me as an individual and did not prejudge me based on superficial circumstances,” said Garcia. “The MP Corps was ahead of its time, and I always knew that I was part of a team of professionals.”

Maj. Gen. Garcia has seen the entire spectrum of the MP world. She served as a platoon leader in both Germany and in Korea; commanded the Fort Hood-based Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 720th Military Police Battalion which deployed for Operation Provide Comfort in Somalia; commanded the Pennsylvania-based 324th Military Police Battalion which deployed to Baghdad, Iraq; commanded the Illinois-based 3rd Brigade/3rd Division/75th Training Command; served as Deputy Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and commanded the 200th Military Police Command, headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Garcia credits active listening as one of her leadership tools.

“The best ideas came from the soldiers,” said Garcia, reminiscing on her days as a battalion commander running a detention facility in Iraq. “All I had to do was listen, challenge the staff to fill out the details, and resource their ideas. To work with motivated, creative young people is a blessing.”

Through deployment after deployment, Maj. Gen. Garcia has seen the military police branch accomplish its multi-focal mission set.

“We are unique in our supporting role. In peacetime the law enforcement role is critical to good order and discipline across the force,” said Garcia, through a lens influenced by multinational and multi-deployment experience. “In transitioning to hostilities, we ensure orderly movements. In wartime, we support the smooth flow of logistics and manage the enemy prisoners as well as the civilian population flow, allowing the warfighters to move forward. Then we transition back in phases.”

Proud of her pro-MP bias, Garcia articulated, “We don’t need to be the main effort. We are the best effort.”

Maj. Gen. John F. Hussey succeeded Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia as commander of the 200th Military Police Command, a 14,000-strong unit headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland with brigades and battalions throughout the United States.

“Maj. Gen. Garcia is one of the most knowledgeable officers on Military Police doctrine that the Regiment has ever produced,” said Hussey. “She was a training management guru who was second to none in demanding training excellence of herself and her troops.”

Lt. Col. John Mullaney served as a Deputy Operations Officer (G-3) in the 200th Military Police Command for three years and then, directly reporting to Maj. Gen. Garcia from 2015 to 2017, as the Headquarters and Headquarters Company Commander for three more years.

“Maj. Gen. Garcia is a visionary leader who understood the need for military police to be prepared to be able to conduct operations under austere conditions and with imperfect or non-functioning technology,” said Mullaney. “She challenged subordinate leaders to live up to their full potential and to be worthy of leading America’s sons and daughters into combat”

How Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia has been able to serve as a leader of Military Police soldiers and as a leader in the veterinary sciences field is, at least in part, due to her passion for education. Education is a major foundation of her progression in both her military and civilian careers. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Garcia earned her Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987; Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University in 1998; a Masters Degree in Military Strategic Studies from the Army War College in 2010; and a Master’s Degree in Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 2015. Today, she is the Director of Veterinary Services at Hybrid Turkeys. . . . 

Will this appointment prove to be an example of regulatory capture by the turkey industry or educated public interest policing by a smart, disciplined retired military top cop? Worth watching.

Photo: Maj. Gen. Marion Garcia, commanding general of the 200th Military Police Command listens to staff providing her the battle update during an annual training exercise at Fort Knox, Kentucky, April 27, 2018. On order, the 200th MP Command can deploy as the theater enabling commander for military police operations in support of combatant or joint task force commanders, providing mission command for all MP assets and synchronizing all MP operational planning and support. During such operations, the 200th MP Command is designated as the theater provost marshal and commander of detainee operations. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Sgt. Elizabeth Taylor).

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Scott Jensen to speak--again--at "vaccine awareness" Global Health Freedom Summit

 

Update: The image at the top of this post has been changed to the invitation shared on Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's Facebook page. [endupdate]

Back in January 2019, we posted  Minnesota, kiss your herd immunity good-bye: Senator Scott Jensen cuddles up to anti-vaxxers, before the COVID pandemic, before COVID vaccines, and before Jensen announced his intention to run for Minnesota governor.

We followed up that with mentions of Jensen's presence as a speaker at one of Minnesota's premiere "vaccine awareness" annual event There are his speaking engagements at the 2020 Vaccine Awareness Event - Minnesota and its successor.

And now he's speaking again at an anti-vaccine/"vaccine awareness" forum in Alexandria that's getting to be an annual event under one name or the other.

And then there's that 2021 fundraiser hosted by Wellness My Way yearly event organizer. My, my.

We noted the 2020 speakers in a December post written after the fact:

The 2020 Vaccine Awareness Event - Minnesota in Alexandria . . . some of the stars of the anti-vaxxer world, described on the gathering's Eventbrite page:

This will truly be a once in a lifetime educational event to hear these amazing speakers speak on vaccine awareness and our health freedoms!

 

About this Event

Join us for our Fall 2020 event on Saturday October 24th 9am-5pm as we welcome Del Bigtree, Dr. Bob Zajac, Shelia Ealey, Leah Wilson, Dr. Joel Bohemier, Senator Scott Jensen and Andrew Wakefield! This will truly be a once in a lifetime educational event to hear these amazing speakers present on vaccine awareness and our health freedoms! We anticipate this event will sell out so grab your tickets now!

And Jensen was on the bill for 2121, we noted in Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally:

BigTree will in the Loon State that weekend for the Saturday, September 25 Global Health Freedom Summit in Alexandria, Minnesota, where he'll share the stage with other leading figures in the anti-vax movement, as well as Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen. Jensen began establishing his anti-vaxx ties while serving in the state senate. though Salon reported in July that he denies he's an anti-vaxxer — he's just anti-vax-curious.

The State DFL Party reacted to the event with a press release Scott Jensen to Speak at Anti-Vax Summit This Weekend.

 

Curiously, the  Saturday, September 25 Global Health Freedom Summit link  in our post and the DFL statement is now directed to the Global Health Freedom Summit, Saturday, October 1st, 2022. Jensen is there again--along with a rogue's gallery of anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics: Peter McCullough, Sherri Tenpenny, Del Bigtree, Joel Bohémier, Dr. Robert (Bob) Zajac and Dr. Larry Palevsky.   Jensen'sbio:

Dr. Scott Jensen has practiced family medicine in Carver County, Minnesota for more than 30 years, and this is where he and his wife, Mary, a small animal veterinarian, raised their three children – Cristy, an anesthesiologist, Matt, an estate attorney, and Jackie, a family doctor.

Dr. Jensen served in the Senate from 2017-2021 and was vice-chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. He has served many organizations as a board member or chair including Waconia school board, Rotary and Lions clubs, several Chambers of Commerce, bank boards and audit committees.

Dr. Jensen is an avid pilot and writer, publishing his first book in 2015, “Relationship Matters” and another book due to be published in the late summer of 2021. In 2001 he founded Catalyst Medical Clinic which now has offices located in Watertown and Chaska. In 2016 Dr. Jensen received the prestigious award, Minnesota Family Physician of the Year,

from the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians and was elected to the Minnesota State Senate. Dr. Jensen understands that we need to move forward from covid and address rehabilitation of our economy, businesses, schools, and communities.

Jeepers: who knew that Dr. Jensen was running for governor. There's certainly nothing in that biography which mentions it, nor a word about vaccines of any sort.

Not that Alexandria "vaccine awareness" event sponsor Wellness My Way didn't host a 2021 Lunch with Dr. Scott Jensen. As the Eventbrite invite to the fundraiser states:

About this event

In recognition of the people, businesses and leaders of Minnesota, we are pleased to announce a fundraiser for Dr. Scott Jensen, and we would like to warmly invite you to join us for this extra-special event. Please join us on Friday, September 24th at the Legacy of the Lakes Museum in Alexandria, MN.

The event will be held in the boathouse attached to the museum from Noon - 1:30p.m. You will enjoy lunch and a discussion with Dr. Jensen. Dr. Scott and his team are ready to answer the call and your questions. It is sure to be a meaningful and enjoyable noon hour!

Cost is open and all donations excepted with a suggested donation of $150.

Thanks in advance for your support, and we look forward to seeing you on September 24th at noon!.

Please register today as seats are limited (100). This event is first come first serve and you must have a ticket to enter. Thank you once again for attending our event!

In gratitude,

Dr. Jerod Ochsendorf

We're not sure how Jensen's campaign committee accounted for that fundraiser (we're not seeing anything in his year-end report), but perhaps such an organization's generosity doesn't need to accounted for under Minnesota's campaign finance rules. Dr. Ochsendorf didn't donate enough in 2021 to be included among the itemized contributors.

Related posts:

• Minnesota anti-mandate effort promotes national anti-vaxxer at September 26 state capitol rally
• The headlines keep coming for MN vaccine skeptic gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen
• Small town MN freedom fighting restaurateur's anti-vaxx pals make us pause about her savvy
• Minnesota, kiss your herd immunity good-bye: Senator Scott Jensen cuddles up to anti-vaxxers

Image:  The invitation shared on Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's Facebook page.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

The State DFL Party reacted to the event with a press release Scott Jensen to Speak at Anti-Vax Summit This Weekend.

 

Curiously, the  Saturday, September 25 Global Health Freedom Summit link  in our post and the DFL statement is now directed to the Global Health Freedom Summit, Saturday, October 1st, 2022. Jensen is there again--along with a rogue's gallery of anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics: Peter McCullough, Sherri Tenpenny, Del Bigtree, Joel Bohémier, Dr. Robert (Bob) Zajac and Dr. Larry Palevsky.   Jensen'sbio:

Tall grass prairie? State representative Tim Miller goes to Moorhead for grassroots organizing

Once upon a time, parts of Minnesota were covered by millions of acres of tallgrass prairie. As child I was told the grass could be as tall as a rider on a horse, and the roots were even longer.

Nonetheless, we doubt those grassroots ever reached from Prinsburg in Kandiyohi County to Moorhead, 185 miles on the shortest route in the map above.

It's a good thing retiring Minnesota state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, realized that natural history. In the Fargo Forum, Melissa Van Der Stad reports in Anti-abortion group holds rally near Red River Women's Clinic in Moorhead:

“I’m not from Moorhead. In the end I am here to give leadership, to assist, but in the end this is meant to be a grassroots effort, a community effort, to say that we don’t want (abortion) in our community.” Miller said.

The guest speaker Friday was David Berit, founder and CEO of 40 Days for Life, who flew in from Washington D.C.

According to its website, 40 Days for Life is an organization that aims to end abortion through prayer and fasting, community outreach and a peaceful all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses [sic].

That's a start, though the article begins with another non-grassrooty marker for Miller's employer:

An anti-abortion group held an event just across the street from the Red River Women's Clinic at its new Moorhead location on Friday, Aug. 19.

The event was hosted by Pro-Life Action Ministries, or PLAM Action, an anti-abortion group based out of St. Paul.

Minnesota state Rep. Tim Miller and executive director of PLAM Action said that the group's primary work is, "the sidewalk counseling outside of abortion clinics in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth and Rochester.”

There were roughly 120 people gathered under a large tent Friday night, set up on the lawn of local Moorhead business CB & Sons Electric.

Bluestem had reported in February,  Retiring Rep. Tim Miller will work for Brian Gibson at Pro-Life Action Ministries sister group. According to Gibson's LinkedIn profile, he serves as Executive Director of Pro-Life Action Ministries.

On August 2, Nick Broadway reported for the Forum in Coalition aims to hinder Red River Women's Clinic's move to Moorhead:

With a recent court battle adding time to the clock, the North Dakota trigger ban on abortion will take hold in 24 days. Anyone seeking abortion care after those 24 days will have to cross state lines into Moorhead, where the Red River Women's Clinic plans to move from its downtown Fargo location.

PLAM Action, a newly formed opposition group which stands for Pro-Life Action Ministries, is publicly pledging to keep the clinic from opening in Moorhead.

Minnesota state representative Tim Miller, a Republican, is one of the people in charge of PLAM Action. He said their options are limited.

"We did investigate to see if we had any sort of legal pathway to stop them," he explained. "We don't."

"Minnesota is becoming an abortion destination for other states, and Moorhead is going to be the tip of that spear," Miller said.

When WDAY News last spoke with Red River Women's Clinic Director Tammi Kromenaker, she said they're not saying where the new clinic will be relocated to ahead of moving — an effort to keep the place safe.

Kromenaker said in response to the opposition group that they are used to, "bullies trying to harass and intimidate" them and their patients, adding they are doing what they can to ensure safety and security at the new site.

Supporters of the Red River Women's Clinic are just shy of raising $1 million on GoFundMe , 39 days after their fundraiser started. Kromenaker has said in the past this money will help them move to Moorhead, make improvements to the new site and install more security features. . . .

To get an idea of the financial resources behind PLAM, check out its 990 filings to the IRS at ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. The latest 990 on file is for the year ending June 2021.

Meanwhile in North Dakota, James MacPherson and David Kolpack report for the Associated Press in Lawyers argue to delay North Dakota law banning abortion:

Lawyers for North Dakota’s only abortion clinic asked a judge Friday to delay a trigger law set to ban abortion starting next week, while they pursue a lawsuit challenging the ban on constitutional grounds.

The abortion ban is set to go into effect on Aug. 26. The Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo is seeking a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit that says the ban violates the state constitution.

Burleigh County District Judge Bruce Romanick said he would make a decision on the motion by the end of next week. He did not say how they would proceed with the lawsuit.

Romanick put the trigger ban on hold last month when he ruled that Attorney General Drew Wrigley was premature in setting a July 28 closing date. The judge issued a temporary restraining order that in effect gave the Fargo clinic time to transition to a new location in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion remains legal, even as it seeks to block the ban.

The clinic has been offering services at the new location for the past two weeks.

The clinic’s lawsuit argues that the state constitution’s guarantees of rights to life, liberty, safety and happiness effectively guarantee a right to abortion. Lauren Bernstein, an attorney for the clinic, said the ban would not only violate the constitution, it would remove 50 years of abortion access in the state.

We're curious how the PLAM Action tent might rally women voters in both Moorhead and North Dakota.

UPDATE: In an August 2 Business Insider article, The Kansas abortion victory shatters a losing streak for reproductive rights in the ballot box that goes back years in red states, Madison Hall noted:

The last time abortion rights emerged victorious at the ballot box in a Republican-leaning state was in North Dakota in 2014, four election cycles ago. That streak was broken on Tuesday night in Kansas when voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have eliminated a right to abortion from the state constitution.

What did North Dakota voters reject? In 2014 Politico's Rachana Pradhan and Jennifer Haberkorn reported in Personhood movement loses twice:

The anti-abortion personhood movement failed key tests Tuesday in North Dakota and Colorado, with voters rejecting amendments to grant the unborn constitutional rights.

In North Dakota — a strongly anti-abortion state considered the personhood movement’s best chance of victory — the proposed ballot measure would have amended the state constitution to say the “inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” The Associated Press reported that with 91 percent of precincts reporting, it was losing by about a 2 to 1 margin.

Personhood supporters had hoped a victory in North Dakota would give the movement its first win and galvanize other states to act. Opponents of the measure — Measure 1 — warned that the new language could restrict access to abortion even before viability, criminalize in-vitro fertilization or limit end-of-life treatment choices. Planned Parenthood, which backed the opponents, poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race. The Catholic bishops did the same for the supporters.

In a statement on the North Dakota results, Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup said, “The voters have sent a loud and clear message: Women know what’s best for their lives, their health, and their futures. It’s time for North Dakota politicians to remember that message when they return to the capital for a new session in January.” . . .

[End update]

Screengrab: Heckova commute for a grassroots effort.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6