The Extreme

While I left North Dakota for a lot of reasons, I feel a certain fondness for my homestate; a certain homer pride at its economic success (and not just the oil boom, mind you – the state rode out the recession in pretty good shape before the oil boom really started)…

…and doing it all the conservative way.  Not as conservative, perhaps, as Utah or Wyoming or even South Dakota – there’s a certain Scandinavian communitarianism in NoDak that makes it a little more Minnesota-ish than some of its fellow red states – but for all that, its government is tiny and unobtrusive.  And it works – but not too much.

As a result, the North Dakota Democrat/Non-Partisan League (Dem/NPL), the local term for Democrat Party, has gone from contending for power two decades ago, to nearly extinct today;  their 2016 State Convention was held at the Kroll’s Diner in Minot1.   They had to twist arms to put a warm body on the ballot for Governor.

And as happens when party units hit their death spirals – like American Communists, or Klansmen – the North Dakota Dem/NPL has become dominated by its hard-core lunatic fringe.

How fringe-y?   They’re too far left for Senator Heidi Heidtkamp:

[13 of the 22 National] North Dakota elected delegates crafted a harsh resolution criticizing Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for endorsing Hillary Clinton.
The resolution claims Heitkamp is being “disrespectful to the people of our great state … (and) the political process” by not endorsing the Vermont senator as a superdelegate at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Sanders carried North Dakota in the state’s primary election in June, earning more than 64 percent of the vote.

Sending 22 people to Philly, as well as Heidtkamp to DC, may have left the ND/DNPL with nobody left in the state2.

[1] Not really, but it’s fun to say.

[2] No, not that either, really.  But again, fun to say, and not as inaccurate as you might think.

20 thoughts on “The Extreme

  1. Reminds me of Wisconsin 3rd CD (which covers the lower half of the area boarding Minnesota). Seat is safely held by Ron Kind. Kind is a solidly liberal Democrat. He gets 100%, or very close to it, ratings by groups like the ACLU, abortion rights groups, homosexual rights people, etc.
    But he still isn’t leftwing enough for many in that party, so he has a serious challenger in next month’s primary. A BernBot. It’s not good enough to be a hardcore liberal if you aren’t outright socialist.

  2. And yet Heidi won and the Republican lost. Guess there were enough Dems around to make a difference, given how small the total population is.

    North Dakota is a hell hole since the pollution that the right permitted without regulation or inspection. They are now paying the price for being raped by big oil.
    And NoDak has had a big bust after their boom, from which they have no remaining money apparently. Not such a great source of pride, what conservatives have done to the state — very poor management, and a lot of exploding oil cars and oil pipeline spills.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427150617.htm

    http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/02/news/economy/oil-bust-north-dakota-budget/

    http://billingsgazette.com/business/features/state-sides-with-oil-companies-in-lawsuit-by-landowner-over/article_e8d8efdc-be98-5790-a8d2-999b428922b9.html

  3. DG,

    Do you ever NOT talk out your ass?

    Heidkamp won by racing to the right, and won by a whisker. She’s voted well to the left of her campaign positions. SHe’s going to face a tough re-election.

    North Dakota is a hell hole since the pollution that the right permitted without regulation or inspection.

    WRONG. ND has the same exact inspections that every other state has. The pollution in North Dakota is exactly in proportion to the industry in any other state. The “Sources” you cite have been pretty well debunked by Rob Port.

    And NoDak has had a big bust after their boom,

    Again, DG, WRONG. ND’s unemployment rate was 3.2% in June 2016 – a third below the national rate, and waaaay lower than Minnesota’s 3.8%. The “minimum wage” argument is moot in ND – even in my hometown, night-shift work at Walmart pays $14+ an hour, with retention bonuses, in a place with a cost of living 20% lower than the Twin Cities.

    North Dakota’s “big bust” is better than Minnesota’s “prosperity”.

    You think you can just make up bullshit here?

    from which they have no remaining money apparently.

    Revenue dropped. Fortunately – unlike Minnesota’s DFL-addled government – they didn’t commit to excessive permanent spending with the windfall they got. ND will do just fine.

    DG, you are always out of your depth in a debate with me – never more so than when the subject is my home state.

  4. DG,

    I’m not going to ask nicely again.

    Go back and respond to some of the previous threads, where your “facts” and “arguments” have been flushed thither, or I’ll have to get serious again.

  5. The frackers are starting to drill again. Oil will need to stabilize at $50-$75. That’s the price level where fracking is profitable.

  6. Idiot. Fracking is profitable WELL below that point for majors. And yes, I speak from my own professional experience on the subject. So in this case, shut the fuck up and dig a bigger hole in your anus, cause the shit you come up with ain’t sticking.

  7. Heitkamp won by making a lot of promises that Nordakotans aren’t likely to believe again, as she broke all of them. She’s simply been a reliable vote for the Obama agenda who talks a different talk.

  8. JPA
    my brother roughnecked Bakken and Powder River (chainhand then pit watcher) until 2006 he said that the break even for fracking was somewhere in the mid-high twenties. I imagine the technology has improved since then.

  9. This discussion is largely meaningless because there is no single break-even price for any play

    And yet you made a definitive statement earlier. You have just proven that my judgment that you are an idiot is correct. This makes you a double-dog idiot.

  10. No, seriously, which word sent my post to the moderation purgatory this time?

  11. And remember: Always look to anonymous people on the Internet for investment advice.

  12. Mitch has my credentials. Yours on the other hand stop at being an anti-Semitic soci@list troll.

  13. /Mitch has my credentials. Yours on the other hand stop at being an anti-Semitic soci@list troll./
    I’m the Principal Process Engineer at a specialty chemicals firm. I design, build, and operate plants similar in scale to power plants. I’ve just spent 4 months (part time) with 2 other professionals writing a 130 page functional specification of the automation of a small part of a chemical plant that makes one product, with one reactor and 3 distillation columns. That now goes to a team of 2-3 contractors who will code for 2 months ($150K). That code will still only handle normal operations and safety situations. It won’t handle machines that don’t work right, lab results that are hard to interpret, or sensors and actuators that stop working.

  14. And that makes you an expert on the price of crude? I bet you also slept at Holiday Inn Express once.

  15. In other words, neighbors. Why don’t you ask them about discounts and premiums applied to different types of crude based on their location and a difference between overleveraged wildcatters and majors. You made a definitive statement, which was wrong. But in your world, you are never wrong, no matter how wrong you actually are.

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