South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

l3wis

Elections Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Is the Sioux Falls media going to give ‘Candidate’ TenHaken a FREE pass?

l3wis 8Comments

UPDATE: I see he had no trouble getting in front of the camera to talk about ice cream, just not controversial issues like panhandling. Nice mask by the way 🙁

Looks like they already have by letting his staff phone in his answer in a story last night about panhandling;

Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken’s office provided KELOLAND News the following statement from him on the topic:

I think this is unfair to his opponents for several reasons. This was clearly a story about what the ‘candidates’ think about the signs and Paul should have answered the question directly as a ‘candidate’ instead of tasking his paid by taxpayers staff and SFPD communications officer answering for him. This is ethically questionable since he is having paid city staff answer campaign questions. The only people who should have answered that question was Paul or someone from his campaign.

If the media doing this story had any integrity they would have NOT aired the story without a direct response from Paul and if they could not get one, run it with just his opponent’s response or NOT at all.

This was the little game he played when running last time, acting as though he didn’t have any competition and the media playing along and letting him sneak under the radar. In the future the media needs to start treating him like a candidate (since he does have 2 competitors now) especially when one of his opponents brings up a concern, and if he doesn’t want to respond as a candidate, then don’t run his canned response.

I also wonder if Stormland TV reached out to his other opponent for a response?

Paul is a declared candidate now and he has two declared opponents, he needs to be treated like a candidate and not a cruise control, phone in, part-time Mayor. If he has time to tell Dad jokes for 10 minutes on FB, he has time to answer an on camera question from the media.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I want to make it clear, this is NOT an attack on the journalist who did this story, just a critique of how this ONE article was handled. Overall I thought it was a good article, it was Paul’s lackluster response that tarnished it.

Republicans South Dakotans State Legislature

Is the SD GOP turning into the Party of Domestic Terrorism?

l3wis 41Comments

Nothing should surprise us anymore in the world of Trumplicanism. Just look reich here in Sioux Falls where we have city funded theocracy in our government, anywhere from snowplows to Sunday school classes (youth council).

But this past week we had a few eye openers when we found out members of our legislature were members of the Anti-Government group called the Oath Keepers, a right wing, militia, white nationalist, anti-government group. State legislators, Phil Jensen and Jim Stalzer have said very little about their involvement. But I will. Not only should they be removed from the legislature immediately, they should be sitting in Federal Prison for treason. It’s one thing to be upset that our tax dollars went to these obvious jackasses, it’s another thing to commit treason. Their membership was a violation of their oath they took while serving in the legislature. That is called treason, it doesn’t have any other definition.

Then there is the case of the AG Rumblestrips getting away with killing a man while playing with his phone, or the governor abusing her power when it comes to using state airplanes and helping her daughter pass a quiz (heard she flunked numerous times).

Oh, then we had this fantastic event at the SD State Fair where the opposing party, Fair security, the local police and the sheriff’s office refused to intervene on these terrorist like acts;

This year, pro-Trump idiots repeatedly invaded the South Dakota Democratic Party Building. They harassed and swore at volunteers, destroyed campaign material and tried to record and harass Democrats who were simply seeking to communicate with fellow South Dakotans.

I think we are beyond the ‘Basket of Deplorables’ at this point. Let’s call a spade a spade. This is an act of domestic terrorism being disguised as partisan politics and enabled by the kook bird krazies called the SD Republican Party.

Why aren’t party leaders denouncing this? Maybe because the party leader Iowa Dan is too busy trying to help his Iowan business buddies run a muck pipeline through our state.

How can we stop this madness? Stop electing these clowns would be the first step. But with the ones that still remain, we need to bring charges, arrest them and prosecute them. This is not just political bullying, these acts violate local, state and federal laws, punishable by fines, resignation and jail time.

While I tend to be a turn the other cheek when it comes to the violent nature of these ass clowns, we can fight them with FREE speech. Talk to your friends about how the SD GOP has become the party of domestic terrorism, and be genuine and very vocal about it. Let’s stop treating this like a partisan FB and Twitter fight and call it what it really is. Maybe voters who actually believe in peace and justice will step up and throw them to the curb. We can’t sustain 50 more years of this Authoritarian Fascist state in South Dakota. Something has got to give.

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken’s (FAKE) Youth Council Consists of Children of some of his Adult Friends

l3wis 8Comments

While I won’t list the names and the parents of some of the kids in this program, it is pretty easy to link some of them to children of Paul’s friends;

In the dozens of applications for the Council, it is abundantly clear that the young people of Sioux Falls are passionate about their community.

So was this a matter of providing an experience to some kids that are ‘connected’ or is it that they just didn’t have enough applicants? I would be curious how they were chosen? If I were the mayor I would have avoided picking any youth that are children of my friends or connected business people in town. But we know that isn’t how he operates. He has to feel some kind of security in his fake leadership.


Just look how one local TV station won’t touch Poops with a 10 Foot Pole with controversial news coverage due to his friendship with their lead reporter.

And how does it affect the kids in the group that ARE not connected? What will they learn from the experience? 


Why weren’t there any students from O’Gorman but there were ones from SF Christian? (Dutch Reform and the Minnow Munchers are not exactly BFFs)

So like most things Poops does, it’s all about image and very little about substance.

The next time he wants to have bible study with his friend’s kids, he can do it on his own time and call it what is really is, Sunday School.

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