Entries Tagged 'Dusty Johnson' ↓

The other day I heard Dusty Johnson talking about this issue, so I decided to email him the other day with my ideas;

Dusty,

I heard you talking the other day about the struggles with affordable housing in South Dakota.

We are in a crisis mode in Sioux Falls. I’m afraid the combination of developer and contractor handouts to build has caused this situation, plenty of businesses coming, not enough people to work those jobs. I’m afraid Amazon will have to build an RV Park/Campground to house the workers, because there will be no other place for them to live.

While we can’t go back in time, this all happened because we used taxpayer resources to incentivize the developers and contractors instead of the workers and housing buyers. We can do differently moving forward though. We need to end the welfare to big out of state businesses who pay below living wage salaries and start using Federal, State, County, and City programs to fix up our core neighborhoods where the affordable housing exists if the buyers are incentivized. We can do this through low interest or no interest loans, property tax rebates, fixing up infrastructure, etc. I call it starting from the bottom up. It also would prop up local contractors and businesses to fix up these homes. It also helps fight crime and neglect and it would be great for transferring slumlord neglected rental housing to first time homebuyers to fix up.

Trickle down has never worked, in fact it is proof that it has created this crisis. Instead we need to prop up residents to create more density in Sioux Falls and clean up these neighborhoods.

I know you are a Republican and may this agree with some of my suggestions, but the opposite just hasn’t worked, and never will. I told the planning commission and city council all these TIFS, tax rebates and breaks to big business and developers is just like pouring gasoline on a fire. We don’t have the workers, and even if they move here, we don’t have the housing. If we don’t do things completely opposite of what we have been doing, in five to ten years Sioux Falls is going to be a crime ridden dump.

Thanks for listening.

Scott L. Ehrisman

I figured since no one at city hall or in the state legislature is doing much about it except suggesting prisoners in Springfield work harder at building Governor houses, I would suggest to Dusty what is really going on here, is that we are failing, miserably, because of the bullcrap theory that if we give the rich developers and contractors at the top, somehow magically it would trickle down to us and solve our affordable housing issues. We also have to find a way to control rents in Sioux Falls and stop realtors from falsely inflating home prices in Sioux Falls. The value of my home changed very little over 17 years, usually 0-2% each year and then within two years it jumped up over 25%. Give me a break.

I would say he is. I received the card below today, and it clearly states on the front part that he ‘franked’ the card (we paid for the postage). He has that right as a representative of congress to give constituents important public information, and on the front he does that with how to get a vaccine (even though, unless you have been living in a cave in the Badlands over the past year, it’s pretty easy to figure out how to get a vaccine in South Dakota. Plus I am just imagining old ladies trying to scratch off the q-code to see if they won a vaccination shot or dinner with Duster).

The back side of the card is where I have my concerns in which it turns very political attacking the POTUS. While I certainly have my issues with Biden and some of the things he is doing, especially with the outrageous stimulus package, I don’t use tax dollars to send out postcards about it.

I’m not sure about all the rules surrounding ‘franking’ but just because 50% of this card followed the rules doesn’t mean the other 50% can break those rules, which I call the Janklow rule; as long as you do good things with your left hand, it’s okay to do crappy things with your right. Duster, don’t be a Bill.

Sorry, Duster, you can only get the sh!t so shiny when you polish a turd and this postcard was a real dull turd.

All I can say is ‘BRAVO’ to Dusty to have the courage to wear a mask and not be worried about being shamed. Of course he was in the back row and not sitting with Rounds and Thune on the president’s stage. I guess Rounds was wearing a mask to but took it off before the Great Pumpkin showed up.

A lot of people took notice also that the governor must have been hitting the weights, the tanning booth and popping the water pills in preparation for the big night. It’s funny how she had time to get her appearance perfect but couldn’t memorize a couple of minute speech. Oh, that’s right, it’s only about appearance with these folks, substance is for another day.

Wouldn’t this be a fun Christmas tree to have? It could catch all the great moments when your grandchildren open their gifts (or their frowning faces when you give them crap). **Note: The family mentioned is NO relation, they spell their last name different.

“The system was designed to be able to get daytime and nighttime video of people as they are coming across the border, in real time, to a dispatch person that would then be able to dispatch certain patrol people to that area,” Taylor said. “It gives them a great way to see how many people are coming, be able to track them as they are going, and it can allow U.S. Customs and Border personnel (CBP) to know how many people to send. If there’s a potential issue or concern with that group coming across, then maybe it can help identify that prior to them getting here.”

Ironic, isn’t it? A family business in Yankton, South Dakota, that probably has immigrant heritage from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is building fake trees to stop immigrants. I won’t bring up that other famous German that thought this was also good idea.

As you can see from the label, it already says ‘Plant-Based’. It’s actually a selling point to people who don’t want to eat meat, but Dusty doesn’t think it is enough;

Representative Dusty Johnson is co-sponsoring a bill aimed at labeling plant-based beef as “imitation” meat.

The Real Meat Act proposed that beef not made from cows, be labeled “imitation” before or after the name of on the front package.

In a statement, Rep. Johnson says, “a plant-based creation isn’t the same as South Dakota beef. It’s a benefit of consumers and producers alike when folks have a better understanding of where their food comes.”

I’m wondering when Congress is going to finally pass and implement country of origin labeling and make it stick for beef? (It was passed in 2013 and repealed in 2015/16). If COOL was still in effect it would have a HUGE impact on sales of SD Beef (they would sell MORE), but Dusty seems to be concerned that people that are eating plants shaped like burgers are being duped.

LMFAO!

I propose we start labeling our lone representative in DC as an ‘Imitation’ Congressman.

There is a story in the Argus today (I can’t read it because it is for subscribers) but the headline suggests that Rounds may not run for re-election due to his wife’s illness.

I have felt for awhile that he would NOT run anyway, even before his wife was diagnosed. I have heard from several Republican insiders that he doesn’t like Washington so much, and secondly, six years is a long term.

I have been suggesting for awhile that he will choose NOT to run and Dusty Johnson will run for the seat. This is the gossip going around, and one of the reasons he is so upset with Borglum.

As for money raised, both Rounds and Johnson can easily move those funds.

So who would run for Congress on the Republican side? I think it is Paul TenHaken, who I don’t think has the appetite for another term as Mayor.

I think this will open it up for a special election (if TenHaken wins) for Sioux Falls Mayor, which we will see Huether return, but I could also see other opportunists like Greg Neitzert looking at running.

This of course is all speculation, and just some early predictions.

In the Trumpist sphere, I agree with a letter writer Cory Heidelberg scrounged up. I have been thinking for awhile that the reason Romney is supporting impeachment is so he can be the GOP’s presidential candidate in 2020. Think about it, he has ran before, he has name recognition, and he is a moderate (more like a corporatist). He will still lose, once a loser always a loser. I’m still on the fence whether or not the Senate will kick the bum out of office, but that political circus changes by the day. If the polling is 55% or higher with American support for resignation, the Senate will remove him. Guaranteed. And our Nightmare maybe finally over with . . . for awhile anyway.

When I talk to people about impeachment and why I support it, I keep the answer short and to the point;

‘The president violated his constitutional authority and admitted to it on live television. With circumstances like that, if Congress doesn’t act, they are not upholding their constitutional authority if they choose not to impeach.’

JFK said it best, ‘. . . we do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard,’

It’s time for Congress to do the ‘hard’ thing no matter how taxing or messy it can be and impeach the president of the United States for violating his oath of office.

This editorial cartoon was submitted by unknown.

A reader sent me this gem. Not sure where he even found it?

Trump, Dusty, Butina and Erickson