Blogging South Dakota Still Matters

Last updated on 2025-08-10

A conversation with new acquaintances reminds me why this work matters.

I’ve been writing other things for over a year and a half. Yet I still get occasional inquiries from folks researching the Legislature, initiative and referendum, prominent South Dakota public officials, topics that regularly lead interested parties to Dakota Free Press. Those researchers ask me questions, and I’m able to answer them from the knowledge and insight I gained from spending 18 years writing mostly reasonable and accurate blog posts about mostly South Dakota politics.

Other writers—Seth Tupper and the South Dakota Searchlight crew, Bart Pfankuch and South Dakota News Watch, Bob Mercer (who produces more than 50% of the articles worth reading on KELO-TV’s website), Todd Epp (even though he’s using AI to generate content and paying money to the Republican bullshit machine that bows to Trump tyranny)—crank out good journalism that helps voters understand the mostly destructive consequences of their choices in South Dakota. I understand that big picture better when I read and process that journalism, explain it to myself and other readers in blog posts, and contribute my own occasional bits of original reporting.

Spending every day slogging through the tide of muck spewed by the likes of Jon Hansen and Logan Manhart nauseates me. But I still feel compelled to understand this fetid swamp from which, among other things, Cruella DeNoem has crawled to lead Trump’s new Gestapo. Dispatching these menaces requires understanding their origins, documenting their actions, and stacking against their false propaganda clear declarations of truth and determination to preserve democracy and human dignity.

That’s a long way of saying these fucknuts must be fought, and we fight them best with forthright facts.

(I will drop f-bombs. I will tell Trump, Noem, vaccine-hating RFK and their minions in South Dakota to stop fucking America and go fuck themselves, because cussing them out is part of a broader effort to cut through their noise, alert the public, and avert the Dark Age into which the Trump cult is driving America. There’s no sense in worrying that swear words might hurt my Google Search results; the AI/SEO train has long run away in different Internet-wrecking directions, and Musk and other toady tech-oligarchs already rig their algorithms in favor of the ruling regime; a heartfelt “Fuck you, Kristi!” won’t impact my search ranking one whit.)

I’m not saying I’ll blog every day, or multiple times each day. I’ll continue to write what I want when I want. Facebook/Twitter/Instagram killed most of the blogosphere years ago, and social media has turned away from its promise of liberation and instead has damaged our psyches and civic affairs, but South Dakota and I need some good blogging. That good blogging helps me understand South Dakota and helps me help others who are working to preserve democracy, the rule of law, and a common commitment to plain truth.

More to come…