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South Dakota Voice's avatar

Prison. Very interesting and well done video by Sen. Kevin Jensen. Should we also be talking about out of state prisoners? How many do we really have in the system (numbers range from 45 - 100+, people are having challenges getting firm numbers from Kellie Wasko) and why are we allowing them to be here if we have space issues.

Moms Justice Alerts's avatar

Do you back RFK Jr. in his effort to BAN all pharmaceutical companys commercials on national TV?

Lawsuit Alpha's avatar

🚨BREAKING

RFK Jr is preparing to ban Pharmaceutical Ads on TV..

What are your thoughts?

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The Spearfish Speakeasy's avatar
The Power of Grassroots: Building a Liberty-Minded Future from the Ground Up
Toni Shuppe's avatar

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Jason Lewis's avatar

Oh no, the Trump administration is actually looking at challenging the tax-exempt status of non-profits—the largest of whom operate as businesses and so many of the rest are activist political operations. It’s about time!!

George A. Polisner's avatar

Thank you Heather.

It's important for all to understand that this has been a multi-generational fight for the soul of America. I earlier published that I, among many, tracked it back to the Lewis Powell memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in August of 1971 -a memorandum that everyone should be familiar with at this point. The Powell memo defined the roadmap for a right-wing takeover of the United States. With that as a starting point, the pardoning of Nixon, Reagan's implementation of economics…

Swbv's avatar

We need our own Project 2025. I fear the Republican's have somehow figured out the long game better than the Democrats. Even when the leaders are like Reagan and Trump, there's a vast ground game beneath their wings. The Courts have been very effectively converted to overt partisanship under the gentle hand of the Federalist Society. They use the "Christian Right" for their own purposes and the "Christian Right" has gone along with it. But, at its core, its a program to make sure that the world…

George A. Polisner's avatar

Interestingly -I wrote about this twenty years ago. I warned that the far right had developed something analogous to a centralized machine that had the capability to distribute common messaging using political linguistics well-described by George Lakoff.

From the progressive side, while we had many great organizations and people, we remained heavily siloed. If you were working on gun violence prevention -you were heads down focused on that. Women's reproductive freedom -again heads down on that …

Swbv's avatar

I also find it interesting that the hard right's ground game has enabled so many truly venal creatures to bubble to the surface. It's beyond me to explain how it is possible that a Clarence Thomas survives on the Supreme Court unchallenged. or how, of all things, a Marjorie Taylor Greene can be a thought leader and actually help bring down a Speaker of the House. or how a Ron Johnson can be a lie spewing machine for years on end and still be re-elected. This tells me that the rot runs deep. And…

George A. Polisner's avatar

Yes, it's why my mantra has been ...

Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. Because a well-educated society doesn't elevate the incompetent, the corrupt, and/or sociopathic to lead.

Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC)'s avatar

I am following all you say here, George. I do get stuck on the word "educated" as a requirement for maintaining a democracy. To me, that word connotes those who have attained the heights of a formal education, something of a turnoff for many who do not belong to that club.

I personally belong to and am proud of being a member of the "woke" club, meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination...a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights." Just my two cents!

George A. Polisner's avatar

A good point Lynell. When I think of "educated" it is not as a graduate or post-graduate level individual. I think of a fundamental education that facilitates being able to process information and distinguish between propaganda, disinformation, and lies versus information with a basis in fact.

For example, someone who might question if someone with multiple bankruptcies and massive debt is a shrewd businessperson who should lead the United States.

If we just elect people on the basis of who has t…

Mary Hardt's avatar

George, a good example of non-post-graduate education is the Yukon High School (Yukon Oklahoma) Reality Check for 9th grade students. Each student is randomly given a yearly salary and then goes to booths for banking, groceries, housing, childcare, transportation, entertainment, charity, insurance, etc. to see the impact of not having enough money to pay bills and choices to be made. Perhaps something like that about choosing which parts of the constitution/amendments to keep or discard?

That sounds like an excellent program. There's probably too much memorization and not enough pragmatic application of knowledge in terms of real world responsibility.

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Mar 28, 2024
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