Peter Hall

I truly hope the dot ORG "The National Institue of Public Policy" is one of the dot ORG's that the Trump Administration eliminates. Watching the news and then reading "white papers" is okay if you have no historical perspective or opinions of your own based on personal experience. But if that is the case, you need to choose your source of reading materials wisely. People have two very different motivations for arguing on FB. Some are earnestly trying to find some truth and discuss it. I on the other hand, just want to expose "influencer-wanna-bees" that expound their half-baked ideas on the internet for personal gain or notoriety.

Insurance Fraud From the Inside: Using Value360 Estimator Software.

 All of the big insurance companies are in collusion using the valuation software "Value360".  It over inflates the cost of replacing or fixing your home, so they can justify rate increases.  

We had competitive quotes from 4 companies.  They all used Value360.  State Farm, Farm Bureau, Progressive and Farmers.  The quotes were all ridiculously high and within tens of dollars of each other.

I call it "Insurance Fraud From the Inside".

The Black Hills Forest Management

Old growth + new grown mix is good. Ever notice how the forest floor is dead in a completely old growth section?

The "progressive" trend is to want all old growth trees because tourists like big trees. Don't do a search on Google or AI. That info is all generated by a climate.org data set that is skewed to advocating old growth trees exclusively. That way when it does burn, it's catastrophic, proof of climate change. Don't believe it. It's propaganda.

Do real research. Don't believe the bogus hype.

Look at photos of the Black Hills from before the turn of the century. There were far less trees and more native prairie grass. The trees burned in great fires, but the forests were in balance because of it.

I have recently been reading some interesting books by Dan O'Brien a rancher for 30 years near Spearfish SD. The kicker is Dan is also an Author and an Endangered Species Biologist. My opinions lately have admittedly, been heavily influenced by Dan's writing.

Dan expounds on these theories base on 30 years of experimentation and observations on his own ranch in the Black Hills. He also switched from running cattle on his ranch to running native buffalo. The results were dramatic.

Allowing old growth trees to be harvested allows new growth to take it's place. The ensuing growth includes native prairie grasses (big bluestem, indian grass, switchgrass, little bluestem, sideoats grama, and blue grama) and low brush to grown, exposes bordering old growth stand to sunlight and encourages growth underneath those as well.

This undergrowth provides critical habitat for birds, small animals and young of every species. All good things.

I like to think about the fire burn area west of Custer from a fire maybe 20-years ago. That area is one of the only excellent areas to hunt native ruffed grouse in the Black Hills.

It's interesting the Lidar (airborne tree diameter) Study, conducted by the U.S. Forest Service Resource Managment group, collected data from the Black Hills Experimental Forest exclusively, nowhere else. This section of Black Hills National Forest was founded in 1908, and has been had experiments in forestry and silviculture done on it over the last 116 years or so. Not exactly a random sample or an unbiased population selection. Maybe they don't understand rational subgrouping to produced unbiased data?

I believe Dave Mertz of the Norbeck Society was a senior staff member of that Resource group at the time. Metz has a background as an intelligence officer in the US Army, then joined the US Forest Service

Geeze. Dave Mertz has been peddling this story for a few years now, all based on a costly 2012 "Airborne Lidar Survey" done by the US Forest Service, exclusively on a small "experimental" section of the Black Hills called ironically enough "The Black Hills Experimental Forest".  Note:  The 2023 LiDAR study data has not been analyzed yet, and probably won' be now until 2026.

I have personally hiked through that section of the BHNF and believe me, it is not a section of forest land that I would have selected. It's what engineers or statisticians would call a biased rational subgroup, selected to fit a pre-supposed opinion. That small area (just 0.3 % of the entire Black Hills forest region in area), has been experimented on since its inception in 1908. They intentionally selected and area whose mean tree diameter at the 4.5 foot level was less than 9" (the standard minimum for selection by the logging industry).

I believe Dave Mertz of the Norbeck Society was a senior staff member of the US Forest Service Resource group at the time they did the study. A bogus theory based on biased data.

Social Media Is Toxic Prayer

SOCIAL MEDIA IS TOXIC PRAYER

The need to always be right is toxic (probably me). 

The need to be heard can be toxic (me). 

Social media was better when it was just a way to connect with your friends (right?). 

The need to convince 71 million other people is toxic and impossibly ridiculous (me). 

Arguing with people you don't even know on Facebook is toxic (me).

And it's crazy where people are getting their news these days.  Podcasts are fun, but it's like cherry-picking your news that only fits your pre-conceived ideas and beliefs.  It makes sense, though, that people do listen to them.  Because there are no decent, unbiased journalists, reporters or new outlets anymore.  So, where are people (especially young people) supposed to go to get information? (No! Not Social Media, cringe!).

It's better to discuss things with your own little circle of friends (yes!). 

Weigh your own facts,and make up your own mind what the truth is for you.

It's better to sit around with friends discussing stuff, maybe over a cup of coffee or maybe a few beers, because you can just lean back and say "Yeah". You're probably right...". 

It's toxic to want to be an influencer (not me). 

It's toxic to want to be "liked" by everyone (not me). 

It's toxic to take Facebook polls of your friends, to see what they would do, where they would go, what they would buy (not me).

It's toxic to post your feelings on Facebook with a red background and big white capital letters (not me, that's just wrong).

Here's an activist social movement for you:  Delete all your political comments. 

Everyone's truth is based on their own experience and their own environment. Let them have their opinion.

Just my reality, not yours.  Was keeping me up at night.  Hate stuff that messes with my sleep.

I remember my Dad talking about National news on the TV and I said "I don't care about national news, never watch it".  I was like 20 years old.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I just want to go back to THAT mindset!

David A. Shogren

r opinion.

WW3: Ukraine, Zelensky and NATO

David Shogren

Anybody recall the Lend-Lease Agreement Roosevelt made with Churchill before WW2? Roosevelt was a dyed-in-the-wool Socialist, but he knew that the American public popular opinion did not want to get into a world war. So, he resisted giving England arms or financial aid to fight Germany.   Finally, Roosevelt, in a stroke of genius, came up with the Lend-Lease Agreement. Allowing arms to be shipped to England as a "Lease" agreement. NOT free -- a lease agreement paid by Englund. That was the genius part. Placate the public while providing aid for hire (in the Ukraine case mineral rights). Then wait and see if public opinion changed. That's probably what Zelenskyy was ambiguously referring to by ..."you have a nice ocean and don't feel [it] now, but you will feel it in the future.". 

Finally, the American public's opinion shifted after Pearl Harbor. A lot of parallels here. Especially if you study history. Make no mistake, Zelensky wants WW3. So ask yourself honestly. do you want to sacrifice another 407,000 American soldiers for the Donbas region of Ukraine?

The question came up: [Marc Morrison] What's your evidence that Zelensky wants a world war?

He (Zelenskyy) wants to join NATO and pull every associated nation into the fight. That's the first step. He knows he doesn't have the resources to fight on his own. If you don't learn from history, you are destined to repeat it. Ironically, when Biden was in the white house, I asked myself if he had the wherewithal to do what Roosevelt did. The intuitive answer was a resounding no. This administration seems to have that wherewithal.

Okay, so suppose we are at the precipice of a world war. We already know China is sending arms to support Russia. Would China make a move to gain world dominance? Another Pearl Harbor? In the words of Yamamoto, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant". No, they would not. They know, like the Japanese did back then, that there are 330,000,000 American citizens armed to the teeth, who would be ready to die for Democracy and their homeland, if you wake them up.

So then the next question is, "Well what would it take to convince 71,000,000 voting Americans that Ukraine is more important than $12 carton of eggs and $300 weekly grocery bills"? The answer is this.

It is well known that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world (why do you think Biden was doing business there?). It's also probably the money laundering capital of the planet. So, before you are going to convince those 71M people to send money to Ukraine, they're going to need to know the money isn't just going to be laundered back to the DNC national convention server or to a Treasury slush fund then back to the DNC. Or, who knows where? Some Ukrainian oligarch cosplay soldier-presidents' personal bank account?

No more sending pallets of money, like Obama did to Iran so it can end up who knows where? There has to be assurances that our tax money is actually going to the cause. That's what Trump is trying to do. With Ukraine and within our country.

You have to sway public opinion. Biden didn't think he had to. The academic elite always think they know best for the unwashed masses. Remember Hillary Clintons remark "The Basket of Deplorables?. But Roosevelt knew this.  The only way to wake up and galvanize the sleeping giant is direct war on our land, or change public opinion.

Create government transparency and accountability.

If Ukraine actually has skin in the game -- the rights to Ukraine's mineral wealth -- then we're sure it's not going back into someone's pocket. Zelensky refuses.

The Nature Conservancy the second largest land owner in the United States!

The Nature Conservancy is the second largest land owner (119,000,000 acres, yes 119 million acres!!) in the United States, right behind the U. S. Federal Government. More than all native indian tribes. Way more than the largest private land owner (~ 2.0M acres). Why is that? Their charter is to buy and turn it over to the Feds so the public can use it, but that rarely happens. Recently a scandal with The Nature Conservancy had them selling land to trustees and supporters. We've personally seen that happen in South Dakota. In Fall River County, they won't let the public on their land, claiming they are keeping the land pristine. Except they have a bunkhouse on the premises that trustees and donors frequently use as their private playground.

Haiku's

Fall haiku:   

White stuff is coming.

Carbs are clean and snowmobile is running. 

Life is good.

Snowboard haiku:

Last day of the season.

Sixty degrees is sweet.

Endless winter is a myth.

h.