Last week I reported the Pennington County GOP’s sponsorship of two anti-Islamic fearmongers touring South Dakota this week. This week, South Dakota Republican Party chairman Dan Lederman expresses the state GOP’s official support for this cancerous hate:
A Pennington County GOP spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, but South Dakota Republican Party Chair Dan Lederman said the state party supports the Pennington County chapter’s sponsorship of the event.
“Unlike the Democrats who demand that the members of their party fall into lockstep, the Republican Party is a big tent party that allows our members to have different views,” Lederman told [that Sioux Falls paper]. “Many of our members believe that if we are able to concur or combat Islamic radicalism, we must understand the threat and that is exactly what we have helped with in Rapid City” [Dana Ferguson, “Muslim Group Asks GOP to Drop Ties to Controversial Speaker,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2017.06.15].
Lederman again plies his sham-inclusiveness. Sorry, Dan, but you don’t get to claim some tolerant superiority by promoting hate based on conspiracy theories and false generalizations about an entire group of Americans. Let’s look at the Rapid City Journal‘s summary of anti-Muslim speaker and adulterer John Guandolo’s claims:
At past speaking engagements, Guandolo has claimed that every major Islamic center and organization in the U.S. is part of a massive terrorist network, and that growth in Muslim communities is evidence of preparation for a jihad on U.S. soil.
“When they build a mosque they’re claiming territory, now all they have to do is occupy it,” Guandolo said at a conference in Colorado last August. “So they’re calling Muslims to occupy the land.”
“So when we look at the level of penetration that they’ve made from a military perspective,” he added, “this is an insurgency” [Mike Anderson, “Protests Planned at Event to Discuss ‘Threat of Global Islamic Movement’,” Rapid City Journal, 2017.06.15].
…and one prominent Muslim South Dakotan’s response:
The idea that all major Muslim organizations in the U.S. are part of an extremist conspiracy to destroy America is an example of “getting a little carried away,” said local developer Hani Shafai.
Shafai, who was born in Palestine and is a practicing Muslim, has lived in Rapid City for about 35 years.
“I love the people, I love the area,” Shafai said. “This is home. I’ll defend it against anybody, I don’t care if they’re Muslim, Jewish or Christians.”
“Every religion and every society has its bad apples and its radicals,” he added. “But there are a lot of good people in every society. There might be some radicals, but most Muslims, if not the majority of them, are just hardworking people who believe in God and believe in the books that God has sent” [Anderson, 2017.06.15].
It’s bad enough that Republican elected officials like Al Novstrup, Shantel Krebs and Marty Jackley have graced these anti-Muslim events with their presence. Now Lederman is shielding his party’s sponsorship of anti-Muslim rhetoric with a false reading of tolerance. Tolerance does not mean total moral relativism in which anything goes. We can tolerate difference—different religions, different races, different political views, different lifestyles—while rejecting harmful lies and bigotry, the way South Dakota Democrats do:
While reasonable people can disagree about immigration and refugee policy, conspiracy theories and bigotry targeting a minority population should have no place in our political debates. Republicans should denounce this type of hateful rhetoric, not embrace it. Since Mr. Lederman refused to take the lead in denouncing hate, I call Republican elected officials and candidates like John Thune, Mike Rounds, Kristi Noem, Marty Jackley, Shantel Krebs, and Dusty Johnson to show some important leadership and make it clear that this kind of hate does not belong in their party or our state [Ann Tornberg, South Dakota Democratic Party chair, press release, 2017.06.15].
Of course, if Tornberg and the press are mischaracterizing the true nature of the events the Republican Party is sponsoring, event organizers didn’t give the press a chance to correct that error:
KOTA Territory News was denied access into the event, but given a statement by ACT for America. It read in part:
“The Rapid City chapter of ACT for America has decided to keep the “Understanding the Threat” event private due to previous mis-characterization and inaccurate reporting by members of the media… Learning about Islamic extremism is relevant in this age of terrorism, and the media has used a specific and intentional agenda to depict our attendees as bigots.”
Family Heritage Alliance Director of Political Operations Ed Randazzo had agreed to an interview, but later decided against it [Brenna Ramsden, “An ‘Understanding’ the Muslim Threat Event Draws Protests,” KOTA TV, updated 2017.06.16].
Indivisible Rapid City posts the full No Press Allowed statement from ACT for America, as well as pictures of the nice local folks who turned out to protest the Republican-sponsored hate fest at the Rapid City Civic Center yesterday evening:
“Hate is easy—it takes courage to love,” reads the sign. If that’s true, then it’s too bad Dan Lederman and the South Dakota Republican Party can’t find that kind of courage.
Little off topic, but….. Since the Muslim bans were supposed to be 90-120 days to allow time to construct a comprehensive plan to deal with safely bringing people into the country….
#1 Where is the plan?
#2 Hasn’t the window for a ban passed?
Yeah, off-topic, but this week the White House modified the ban start date to keep the court case alive.
Meanwhile, in the absence of a White House Muslim ban, and contrary to what all these Lederman-endorsed fearmongers make their livings telling scaredycats, I don’t think we have seen any major jihad perpetrated on U.S. soil since January 20. So much for the President’s and the bigots’ fantasy that national security depends on keeping Muslims out of America.
Dan Lederman’s a Jew. Jews don’t practice “turn the other cheek”. Jews practice “an eye for an eye”. Mischaracterizing, demonizing and lying about followers of Islam is understandable for a self-loather. He’s got a brass ring of hate through the noses of the ignorant and’s leading you on a path as far away from Jesus’ teaching as necessary, to profit from your fear. Shame on Republicans for following hate!!
Why is he even pushing for a ban anymore?? They’ve had more time than they said they needed to make a plan. According to them they weren’t proposing about a permanent ban. They just needed 90-120 days to sort things out. Maybe if they would have spent more time sorting and less time throwing a tantrum over not getting their ban, they would have had their plan ready. Assuming they ever had any intention of making a plan.
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, and Early Writings
Mr. Lansing and Mr. Lederman are alike on so many levels.
That said, Mr. Lederman’s GOP is turning off many Conservatives with Common Sense. If only the Libertarians weren’t insaner than most!
Sounds like Guandolo may have been talking about Warren Jeffs, occupy territory. So who protects us against radical Christianity?(not talking about St. Francis of Assisi radical either)
Happy Father’s Day, Grudzie … Hope you get to see your Granddaughter. 🎩 ……. 🐐
Thank you, Mr. Lansing. I, also, am hoping she lets me wear my hat to lunch. Sometimes she doesn’t care for my hats.
Lederman is just another cult republican. They do not belong to any organized religion and worship the God of Green Money. As long as they get paid by the bosses, it does not matter who or where it comes from so that eye for an eye thingy is just chatter. Follow the money to see what the grift is. trump raised hell with Qatar and called them terrorist supporters and then extorts them to by 12 billion in military hardware to make it all better. How much do you think the anti boneheads are demanding from the Muslims, what is the payoff?
Francis Schaffer, good point on Jeffs. Lederman of course knows about the abuse of the young girls this cult is noted for rape and several child brides. No one seems to be doing anything about that kind of trafficking in our state to Pringle. Why is that?
Lederman is exactly like Trump, he says one thing and does another.
He talks of a party of inclusiveness yet promotes hatred against a specific group of people.
Now, now, OldSarg, don’t try to turn my position and Lederman’s into something they aren’t.
I’m not calling for government to stifle these misinforming bigots’ speech.
Dan Lederman isn’t simply defending the principle of free speech; he is endorsing bigotry and his subsidiary party’s financial support thereof.
Francis, I don’t fear jihad by the Jeffs any more than I fear jihad by the Muslims who have moved to our country. But it is amusing to note that the Jeffs cult is the only group to create a “no-go” zone in South Dakota. The Muslims among us seem content to live in community and send their kids to schools like the rest of us.
Bingo, Roger. Trump and Lederman are masters of Newspeak. We need to clean some house in 2018 and leave Trump and Lederman with as little official power as possible by electing Democrats everywhere.
OldSarge needs to heed the words and actions of Trump in his threats to freedom of speech.
Trump has banned reputable news outlets from press briefing while allowing Breibart and low life like that Shanahan guy.
One of Trumps favorite thing to do on Twitter is to openly declare war on the media as they do the work of American people.
OldSarge is somewhat right in his comment, he just needs to apply it to Trump.
To Cory’s point about Muslim kids in public school. After the Vietnam War/Conflict, Colorado was blessed with a lot of SE Asian refugees. As you can imagine there were some haters. Those refugee’s kids now rule public school academic achievement and set a high bar for white kids.
Saturday Morning … You know it just irritates the heck out of Lederman and his haters when people like us talk about Muslim immigrants with the same respect we have for USA citizens. And you know that each and every one of the haters reads every word on FreePress, to see what’s being said about them. Too bad, here goes.
~ I read a food article today about how great and diverse the food in Toronto is. One point, that pertains here was that in USA, refugees and immigrants tend to live together in groups within a town. But, in Canada refugees and immigrants live among everyone else, happily. There is no suburb or part of Toronto that has more than 20% of any ethnic group. Besides being sociologically better blended it produces many neighborhoods with a wide variety of really great ethnic restaurants.
But anyway, why do ethnic groups in USA tend to live in enclaves of their same background?
Because of haters like Lederman and his ilk. Bullies in a hate group. Cowards who wouldn’t say the things they say face to face with their enemies. Groups of oppressed and despised people absolutely breed revenge. And besides, the hate is ruining our food opportunities.
To prove Lederman and his cult republicans are frauds, they are now deporting…wait for it…Christians! Holy buckets of blood, Cult republicans and ISIS are like peas and carrots with Lederman and crew, doing the planting. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/politics/detroit-ice-iraqi-christians/index.html While the other paid idiots are foaming at the mouth, their Christian brothers and sisters are being sent back to certain death. Do they give a damn? Of course not, there is money to be made doing the anti-Islam polka.
The hate oozes from these bloggings like mud between the toes of a fat man from Iowa in a cornfield flooded by a leaking pipeline. It does not bode well.
Roger, I think it applies to all of us. Those times you express your views I don’t demean you. I hear you and listen. I’ll weigh what you say and make my own decisions. I don’t believe you are violent, mean or ignorant. My point in the quote is when you post hate filled articles, yell over, disrupt, throw bottles, burn dumpsters and break windows to prevent the speech of others you are suppressing free speech.
I’ve spent too many years “thinking” I was protecting what rights God gave us just to see them trashed by the nazis of today. It’s a sad place we find ourselves in when those that speak out trying to preserve what “they” see as a civil society and simply don’t want to see it changed are attacked. No my fiend, this isn’t about Trump, Obama or you. This is about our culture, values, liberty and freedoms. I’m not saying to ban immigrants by any means. I like the idea of an open border. An open border to those who wish to contribute, work to understand and respect our culture. This is honestly the only country a farmer will still make a deal over a hand shake, people rush to help when they see a child hurt or in trouble, a police officer who doesn’t ask for cash and a court system that we can still expect a fair hearing in. We have given too much to make this country what it is today to simply turn our backs to it and accept those that promote a culture of hatred, slavery and abuse over a civil society. it’s sad we need to have this discussion at all. Here I am blathering on about all these societal norms I see as important to a crowd of followers. Wish you well Roger.
grudznick insists we all love each other. It is decided.
Hey, Sargie … What makes you think you’re protecting anything? Just because it makes you feel valuable? Because you’re averse to new things and new ideas you want everyone to just twiddle their thumbs while you watch “things stay the same”? Our culture and values stagnate and stink when they’re not evolving. Liberty means contributing to the group and participating in growth. What you’re doing is standing in the way of better.
This is now the societal norm https://www.thenation.com/article/police-officer-who-killed-philando-castile-is-found-not-guilty/
Jerry … Who allowed a jury with only two Toms to try this case? Black Lives Matter needs money to hire voir dire consultants. Apparently the D.A. is incompetent.
True that Porter. The cop who murdered this man was fired by the department after the verdict. The money the money, speaking of cult republican money and who they are getting it from. The New York Times has this on how our democracy is being degraded by the Russians and how they will keep on doing it courtesy of cult republican who are aligned with them. The more diversions we see regarding this anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stuff, the more they launder the money to pay for the grand theft of this country.
“A former senior official said Mr. Mueller’s investigation was looking at money laundering by Trump associates. The suspicion is that any cooperation with Russian officials would most likely have been in exchange for some kind of financial payoff, and that there would have been an effort to hide the payments, probably by routing them through offshore banking centers.”
oldsarge, if my memory serves that is one the lengthiest posting I have seen you make and I don’t doubt your sincerity.
I came to adulthood in the 60’s and am familiar with the riots that occurred over Watergate, Vietnam, and in the Black communities. I have never condoned violence of any kind, including war, but I understand peoples frustrations when injustices happen.
It is sad that so many Americans have to constantly fight to gain or preserve their God given and Constitutional rights. The fight has consumed so much of my life in the past 70 years as I’m sure it has consumed yours.
The anti- Muslim hate is not new, it has happened with many other racial groups such as the Irish, Japanese, Italians and so on and guess what? All these groups have survived and flourished and made significant contributions to the American fabric.
Muslims have been in this country and immigrated here for years and only targeted for hate after 9/11.
Like you oldsarge, I hate violence, but I also hate radicals that attempt to inspire violence against Muslims by their hateful language.
I agree with Freed if he believes that several state’s voting machines were altered in favor of Trump and Trump knew it was happening. Here’s how it’s done.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/14/will-the-georgia-special-election-get-hacked-215255
Porter,
With any Crime, if it can be done, people are doing it now. No room for debate.
HAND COUNT SOUTH DAKOTA 2018
HAND RE-COUNT 2016
Porter, do you remember when Karl Rove went ballistic when Ohio went to President Obama in 2012? It was a beautiful thing because Rove thought the scheme worked again just like before when the tabulation was done with Ohio and then it mysteriously flipped to Bush. Kenneth Blackwell was Secretary of State and in charge of the voting for Ohio as well as a stockholder in Diebold, the computer voting system that made the “errors”. from Wiki “On April 4, 2006, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Blackwell “owned stock [83 shares, down from 178 shares purchased in January 2005] in Diebold, a voting-machine [and ATM] manufacturer, at the same time his office negotiated a deal” with the company. After discovering the stock ownership, Blackwell promptly sold the shares at a loss.[30] He attributed the purchase to an unidentified financial manager at Credit Suisse First Boston who he said had, without his knowledge, violated his instructions to avoid potential conflict of interest.[31]
Rove about had a stroke. Those same players are still in the game. It would not be a surprise to me to see his involvement in the Russian scheme to destabilize the United States more than what it has done presently.
Right, Jerry. Rove cheats, too. From the Politico article about Georgia, a software guy had an idea to see how hard it would be to invade voter rolls and many states are unprotected.
Election night didn’t pass the smell test.
I see a number of billboards around Madison, WI, touting South Dakota as a great place to visit. How does the Republican Party of Pennington County feel about Muslims from our fair town visiting and spending money in your hotels, campgrounds and tourist traps? Why bother to advertise your state as welcoming to tourists, when you put out messages that you hate them?
Yes, there are a lot of great PLACES to see in South Dakota, but the FACES on the people there in Pennington County have scowls of hate. I know that’s a generalization, but so is the hate directed at Muslims. Time to fight back with something everyone understands: MONEY.
I have tended to tone down my letter-to-the-editor writing since moving to Wisconsin, but I’m going write one advocating a tourist boycott of South Dakota. I don’t know how much impact one person can have, but I’m going to try to reach some people here with the message to STAY AWAY FROM HATE.
Make sure to send it to the Cap Times so I can read it, Mr Pay.
Thanks Donald for the message and you’re absolutely correct, hate will take the money away when it comes to SD tourism.
It’s South Dakota nice only if you’re white and Christian.
Darn it, Cory. You’re way more famous on the Lederman Hate Speech Blog than I am. Of course, you posted over there and I don’t. I’ve never been called anti-Semitic before (my Great Grandfather was a Polish Jew) but it was by Lederman’s employees so that’s not even a valid insult. Try again, Pat and Troy.
@Pat Powers … Your boss is Jewish and he’s trying to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to South Dakota by using false fears of jihad and terrorism. What’s hard to understand? It’s been going on since Jews took Palestinian land in 1948. Lederman’s got the SoDak GOP fighting the middle east conflict in America’s heartland? He’s a regular David Ben-Gurion, isn’t he?
@Saturday Night Miranda and Lynn … About the predominate German immigrant heritage in South Dakota. “It’s how we’re going to beat you, sweeties. SoDak social conservatives think with a German immigrant’s personality. It’s cold, taciturn, stubborn, selfish and mean. You’re very predictable.”
>”To understand the opponent you must know why the opponent thinks as they do. Once you can think like your opponent, you can predict your opponent’s next move. Then you can be on the high ground before them and your tactical advantage is highly superior.” ~ Sun Tzu
@DWC … It’s already in motion. Out of 53 posts after a very sad tragedy, among your ranks, half were about Cory and me. Obviously, we know where you’re headed before you even analyze and we know how to get there first. (PS … Your repeal of the peoples will is still fresh in the minds of voters and we’ll make sure they don’t forget.)
So, what are South Dakotans going to do? Anyone there contacted the banking industry there to find out what their position is on South Dakota adopting hate as a business model? Is the banking industry ready to step up an say, “We are thinking about pulling our business out of South Dakota if the governing party in the state adopts hate as a governing principle? Wells Fargo has a call center, I believe, in Sioux Falls. And, of course City is still there, aren’t they? If hate is rampant in the governing party, are they going exert some leadership? Are they going to leave the state? Time for some journalistm.
Donald, if you’re inclined, forward a copy of that letter to this blog—I’ll be happy to post. Oh, and if you can, include photos of those SD billboards around Madison, WI!
Like Roger and OldSarg, I love the Constitution and free speech and oppose violence. None of the protests against the GOP-sponsored anti-Muslim program appear to have involved violence. The only violence I’ve witnessed at the Aberdeen events was that time when the anti-Muslim crowd tried to physically intimidate me. The anti-Muslim speakers use the rhetoric of exclusion and war. We do not.
Again, I believe Americans are free to stand up and say they fear and hate Muslims, Catholics, Arabs, Irish, whomever. Dan Lederman and the GOP are free to spend their money promoting such statements. Such speakers and sponsors should face no punishment by the state. However, they should be held accountable in the court of public opinion. It should be known that Dan Lederman and the Republican Party support spreading hatred and lies, and voters should respond accordingly by electing more sensible, honest candidates committed to American principles of pluralistic democracy.
I’ll see if I can snap a pic or two or the SD billboards in Madison, WI. The two that I’ve seen are on what we call “The Beltline,” a fast moving, often congested roadway, so those are probably not good candidates for photos. They also, by the way, aren’t a real good placement for tourism ads. Traffic does come to a crawl sometimes, but people are always looking ahead, not to the side. There may be some billboards elsewhere, so I’ll keep my eyes open. Last year we heard a lot of TV spots by SD Tourism in the Madison market., not as many yet this year.
I will send you a copy of the letter(s) after they run them, if that’s OK. I’m going to tailor each letter to the publication.
That’s fine, Donald. And hey, don’t worry about taking pictures on a busy commuter road—folks have places to go!
In doing a little research for my letter-to-the-editor campaign against hate in South Dakota I came across this from the SD Tourism website: “We want people to feel at home in our state and we go out of our way to welcome visitors as they explore our world-class attractions and phenomenal outdoor opportunities. That’s just one of the many privileges and responsibilities of the South Dakota Department of Tourism. We are here to serve the people of South Dakota and all who come to meet our Great Faces and explore our Great Places.”
“In South Dakota, we like to think that we are best known for our friendly people, the great faces that welcome you to our state full of great places….”
Nice words, but they ring hollow placed next to the governing Republican Party’s turn toward public hate fests that rival Hitler’s in the early 1930s.
Saudi foreign agent Lederman turning on his masters? They’re going to dock his allowance.
Hater’s gionna hate. Lookee here- http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/germany-gets-liberal-mosque-open-to-lgbt-muslims/
Boy, Donald, don’t go asking SD Tourism to deal in reality. Marketing is a separate world….
Jerry,
Are you too, frustrated that our hacked Opti-scans are ignored by ALL politicians and news media? Vegas would go bankrupt in a day if they had our ballot security.
People I talk with believe Auditors when they claim the tabulators are not directly connected to the Internet, no hacking is possible and no further thought is needed. Might be too abstract for Americans to understand that the Auditors’ laptops are hacked when on the Internet, and in turn pass the hack to counting machines when they are prepared for voting day.
“Hand count 2018”
Not related, but I just learned, if you get ticks stuck on you, kill them and save them in the freezer with the date they were removed so if you get sick, they can be analyzed.
Mr. Freed, what concerns me is the lack of concern in that we have dumbed down to the point of almost being like herd animals regarding auditors and how the vote count is done. Some states have done a very good job of allowing a paper trail that can be used to confirm the tabulations while the ones that we call the “battleground states” for the most part, have not. When there is thievery regarding elections, we have no democracy. It is that simple. Auditors have sold out their positions to their party literally. This is not about anything other than the age old reason for treason, money. For a couple hundred thousand in the states that use electronic voting machines, the voting machines could be upgraded with a paper trail that could show the vote is accurate, if those auditors wanted that transparency. No money in that for them, so they keep the lie that all is well.
What the Russians found was that they could in fact put the candidate of their choices in office for the highest office in the land, this, there can be no dispute. State wide elections in these areas, produce like minded officials that want to keep it the same. State wide gerrymandering insurers that the people who get elected are the ones that want the status quo to be undisturbed. Look at a very low populated state like South Dakota for example, plain to see the effects of gerrymandering right here, Jensen district. Now think of a more populated state and you can see how the districts are works of art. When we see this, we should all come to the realization that we are no longer the land of the free, we are the land of the corporate buy out, both by foreign government and domestic oil and energy. Resist
Russian interference in our elections poses far more danger to the U.S. than civilization jihad or anything else Dan Lederman is talking about. I am prepared to advocate slow hand-counted paper ballots everywhere. No networking, no software, no scanning. It’s Battlestar Galactica time.
While Lederman blathers, good jobs are leaving the US. Carrier, remember them, moves to Mexico. Ford moves Focus to China. Boeing cuts back some 3,000 jobs and now we find that Lockheed is moving to India to build war planes. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3274216-lockheed-make-fminus-16-planes-india Lederman blathers to keep the eye off the ball of how we here are being robbed by the cult republican. Soon we will be making red hats that say “Make Russia Great Again” thanks Lederman, thanks trump.