Tag Archives: what is Dickinson North Dakota Like

A Reader Asked Why Don’t I Leave Dickinson North Dakota

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post article that described a bad experience that I had with a local bank in Dickinson, North Dakota.  This was the third time that I had had problems with this local bank.  This was the third time that I had written a blog post article complaining about this local bank.

When I write blog post articles criticizing things that happen in Dickinson, often times I receive comments from North Dakota readers disputing that anything wrong, unjust, or unfair happened.  When I get comments like this, it’s like the same incident happening all over again, because another person can’t see that they are in the wrong, and it also demonstrates even more clearly that North Dakotans do not know U.S. law, or what normal behavior is.

Inevitably, when I explain things that happen in Dickinson, North Dakota that are bad, I get comments from North Dakota readers saying, “Why don’t you just leave?”  One answer is, why should I leave, why don’t you North Dakotans start acting right, that would be a better solution for everyone.

I will give two examples of what I mean.  I wrote a blog post article about some undercover Police Officers in Dickinson asking to play a game of pool with me at a bar in 2011.  Before long, they were asking me again and again where they could buy drugs.  I am not, nor have I ever been, a drug user or a drug dealer.  I have never been charged with any crime.

There are all kinds of local people in Dickinson who are known, repeat offender drug users and dealers, who get arrested again and again, and are never kept in jail or sent to prison.  However, me not being from Dickinson, and having no involvement whatsoever in drug use or drug dealing, the Police were trying to set me up as being a drug dealer.

Prior to me moving to Dickinson, I had received an academic merit scholarship to go to college, I graduated with a degree in engineering , I had worked as an engineer and been successful in other occupations, and I had never been in any trouble.  But the Dickinson people wanted to try to ruin my life because they have this perverse hatred for people from somewhere else, especially educated people.

The second example I will give, is about a small young man from Nepal, who came to Dickinson to work his way through college to become an accountant.  After working in convenience stores and assisted living facilities while attending Dickinson State University, he graduated with a degree in accounting and he got a good job after graduation.

Once this young man was out of school and had a good job, he was lonely and tried to meet women.  There is a great shortage of women in Dickinson for a number of reasons, this is well known.  He eventually began searching dating sites and elsewhere on the internet in order to find a woman to date.

The Dickinson Police placed a fake advertisement or fake profile on the internet, posing as a woman who wanted to meet a man.  The Nepalese man began communicating with this woman, and out of the blue the Police made up the fact that this fake woman was under 18 years of age.  The Nepalese man stated that he would never have a relationship with a woman under 18.

The Police persisted in contacting this man, trying different ploys to get him to meet this supposedly minor fake female.  He never did show up to meet this fake female, but the Dickinson Police arrested him anyway, and charged him with Commercial Sex Trafficking of a Minor, which carries a twenty year prison sentence.

Like me, here was this educated professional person, from somewhere else, who had never been in any trouble, and the Dickinson Police were trying to set him up, to completely ruin this man’s life.  The local Dickinson people just love this, they hate people who are from someplace else, especially educated people.

These are just two examples.  I have written nearly 1,000 blog post articles that are full of bad things happening and being done in Dickinson.  So when North Dakotans ask me why don’t I just leave, I feel like a better solution would be for North Dakotans to stop doing wrong.

More Problems With Banks In Dickinson North Dakota

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It has come to the point, that I don’t even want to name this Bank in Dickinson, North Dakota where I keep having problems.  I have already written two previous blog post articles about this Bank.

At first, when I opened an account with this local Bank in Dickinson more than three years ago, I thought that the customer service was going to be superior to the nationwide Bank, Wells Fargo, that I had become frustrated with in Dickinson.  I was wrong.

My first blog post article complaining about this local Bank in Dickinson, was that they were treating me like criminal white-trash when I was trying to open an account.  They directly said to me, “We have to perform a credit check on you, before we will allow you to open an account at our Bank.”  And when I asked if a debit card came with this checking account, they said to me, “If you get denied for your checking account, you won’t get any debit card.”

I didn’t like hearing this kind of talk.  At the time, I had accounts at three different Banks.  I had never been overdrawn on an account in my life, never missed a credit card payment, never missed a car payment, never missed a rent payment.  Why was this person at this Bank treating me like this?

The second blog post article that I wrote complaining about this local Bank, was when this same person at this Bank told me, that their Bank was not liable for forged or stolen checks.  I explained to this person that my understanding was that Banks are liable for reimbursing account holders for forged or stolen checks, otherwise, why would anyone keep money in Banks, and that this is what the FDIC insurance on Bank accounts is for.

I had to spend a lot of my own time researching Banking laws, getting down to reading about the Office Of The Comptroller Of The Currency, which regulates Banks.  Yes, Banks are legally required to reimburse account holders for “improperly paid” checks, for such things as forged and stolen checks.  Why didn’t the person at this local Bank in Dickinson, even know the Banking law?  Is this entire Bank, and the Bank owner crooked?

After this, I went and opened an account with the nationwide Bank, US Bank, in Dickinson.  I asked the lady that was opening my new account, what was her understanding of the law regarding forged or stolen checks.  She replied with almost these exact words:

“At US Bank, if you report to us that there has been a forged or stolen check drawn against your account, we require that you file a Police report immediately about this check fraud and theft.  That way, the Police can begin investigating immediately.  US Bank will then reimburse you the money that was stolen from your account.  US Bank will conduct its own investigation, in addition to the Police investigation.  If we determine that there was no involvement or wrong-doing by the account holder in this theft, this matter is closed with the account holder.”

That is exactly what I wanted to hear.  The nationwide US Bank was following U.S. Law, whereas the other local Bank in Dickinson was not.

When my father died in April of this year, I was told by the representative of his estate, that I would be getting two large checks, and one smaller check.  The first check was to close out his savings account.  The second check was to close out his investments.  The third check was to close out his checking account, which would be done after all of his final bills had been paid.

I had four different Bank accounts that I could deposit these checks in, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be the Bank that said they were not responsible for forged and stolen checks.

When I did receive the first two checks settling the estate of my father, I called ahead to the Bank manager explaining what I had, and that I wanted to come inside the Bank to complete these deposits.  I said that I understood that there would be a seven to ten day hold on these checks.  I said to the Bank manager that I did not want any Bank teller asking me where I got these checks, what they were for, or treating these checks like they were fake checks, or stolen checks.  The Bank manager cut me off, saying, “No, no, no, no one here is going to do that to you.”

Today, I received in the mail unexpectedly, a check that was partially closing out my father’s checking account, as there were probably going to be no more bills.  This check was for a little over $10,000.  In order to spread the money out amongst my four different Bank accounts, I wanted to deposit this check into the local Bank in Dickinson that I had had bad experiences with.  This check wasn’t for that much money, there shouldn’t be any problem just making a deposit.

I had not expected to be making a Bank deposit today, so when I went to this local Dickinson Bank, I had to ask the Bank teller for a blank deposit slip.  I went over to a counter space, and completed the deposit slip for just a deposit of this one check, no money back.

I explained to the Bank teller that I had an account at this Bank, I just wanted to deposit this check, and I handed everything to her.  I wasn’t expecting any problems.

Within about one or two minutes of handing this deposit slip and check to this Bank teller, she was on the telephone beside her, saying to me, “I have to verify if funds are available.”

This was not good.  I am fifty-one years old now, a Bank teller does not need to make a phone call to determine if “funds are available” on a check that is being deposited.  I have never had this happen to me before in my life.  Either a check will clear the Bank that it is drawn upon within a period of a few days, or it won’t.  Her phone call was more to determine if this was a fraudulent, fake, or stolen check.

I was becoming angry, because this check was clearly printed with the full name of my father and “Attorney At Law”, with his address on the east coast, and it was made payable to me his son, with the exact same name and Jr.  My Bank account with this local Bank in Dickinson, has my full name, which is the same full name as my father, but I am a Jr.

The young lady Bank teller was on the phone for five minutes, but she received no response.  She asked me what this check was, and I said that it was from my father.

What I became concerned about, besides me being angry, was that this Bank teller was not very smart.  If I told her that my father had died, in her Sherlock Holmes detective mind, she would say, “Ah ha!  How could your father write this check, if he is dead?”

I would then try to explain, that my father didn’t write this check, it was the representative of his estate who wrote this check to me.  “Ah ha!” she would say, “You admit that this check has been forged!”

This young Bank teller went walking around the Bank in search of some kind of manager that could approve the deposit of this check.  I asked the nearest Bank employee if I could speak to the Bank manager, I was becoming very angry I said.

There was no Bank manager available.  The young Bank teller got back on the telephone, and I heard her say something like this check was suspicious, or that I was suspicious.  Meanwhile, the Bank lobby cleared of all employees, and I was expecting the Dickinson Police to arrive at any moment.

I looked at my cell phone, in order to retrieve the email that the representative of my father’s estate had sent to myself and my sister explaining the plans for the distribution of the estate, and the checks that he had planned to send out.

Eventually, an assistant manager was located, by the Bank employees who had evacuated the Bank lobby.  I walked back to the assistant manager’s office, and I explained to him that this transaction was just for a deposit of a check from my father.  I wasn’t trying to get any cash back, I was just making a deposit.  Your Bank teller was acting like this was a fake, fraudulent, or stolen check.

I explained that I knew that this check could take seven to ten days to clear.  I wasn’t trying to get any cash back, nor was I expecting for this money to be available.  Why was your Bank teller trying to call, supposedly to determine if “funds were available”?  You were treating this like it was a fake or stolen check, and I am very angry, and insulted.

The assistant bank manager explained that perhaps the Bank teller was trying to find a way to not have a seven to ten day hold on this check, but she should have explained that she was doing this, or explained that there would be a seven to ten day hold.

I said to the assistant Bank manager, that I shouldn’t have to explain to your Bank teller, and all of the other Bank tellers and people in your Bank lobby within in ear-shot, what this check is for, it is none of their business, but you can go ahead and read this explanation here on my phone, and I handed him my phone.

He walked back out to the Bank tellers with me, he told the Bank teller to process this deposit, it was for the estate of my father.  The check was deposited, I was handed the receipt, and I left the Bank.

I was angry and insulted, and this Bank deposit took about 20-30 minutes.

You might want to ask me, why didn’t I just explain all of this to the Bank teller in the first place?  For one thing, it is none of her business, and none of the business of everyone standing within forty feet of me who can hear.  Next, I realized that this young Bank teller was not very smart, if I had told her that my father had died, she would wonder who wrote this check and who signed it?

Then, since this Bank teller was on the path of being a detective, was she going to become a legal expert too and say, “Wait a minute, did this go through probate?”, “Wait a minute, does your father’s representative have legal power of attorney?”,  “Wait a minute, did you pay taxes on this?”

The God damn fucking problem of young Bank tellers asking questions, is that they shouldn’t be asking fucking questions!!!!  If a check is payable or processable, do it, don’t try to be a fucking detective!

The Jack-O’-Lantern Women Of Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have been feeling a little depressed for the past couple of weeks, as if there is something missing from my life.  It feels like I am missing some drive, motivation, inspiration, or purpose.  I was trying to think about what was wrong, and I realized what it was.

There is nothing to do in Dickinson, North Dakota, and I have hours upon hours of nothing to do but think and contemplate.  I realized, “Do you know, I haven’t seen an attractive woman for the past eight weeks.”

I thought about it, and thought about it, and tried to remember, the last attractive woman that I saw was eight weeks ago in a store.  There was a young lady of about 23 years, she was my height, slender build, long dark hair, and she said in a normal manner, “Can I help you, are you looking for something?”  That was the only attractive woman that I could remember seeing, and this was eight weeks ago.

It’s not like I don’t go anywhere.  I go to different grocery stores about four times per week, gas stations about four times per week, hardware stores about four times per week, fast-food restaurants twice per week, I pay some bills in-person, and I go to my job four days per week.  Yet I don’t ever see attractive women, anywhere.

This is not normal, this is what has been making me feel depressed, and even very angry sometimes.  Looking back upon my life, meeting and seeing attractive women has always been an important element of being alive.

When I was in elementary school, middle school, and high school in Florida, there were always at least two to four girls in each of my classes who were attractive and worthy of attention.  I would look forward to seeing these girls each day, what they would wear, how their hair would be, how they would act, what they might say and do.  It was a challenge and inspiration for me to come up with something to say or do that would get their attention.

When I went to college in Virginia, and later university in Florida, it was probably even more full of very attractive women.  Whether it was going to class, going to the gym, going to parties, or going to bars, it was so fun to see, meet, talk to, and try to seduce women.

As a young adult living and working in different cities in Florida, you could not help but see and interact with beautiful women, wherever you went:  Walmart, grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, hardware stores, work, government offices, post office, banks,…absolutely everywhere, every day, all day.

The existence of these beautiful women was an inspiration and motivation to me.  I tried to stay in good physical condition, have a clean and professional appearance, wear nice looking well-fitting clothes that were taken to the cleaners and pressed, have a new clean vehicle, and pay attention to all kinds of details about how things looked.  I looked forward to going shopping to buy clothes for work and for going out.

In Florida, everyone I knew, almost all people, looked forward to going out on Friday and Saturday night, to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, parties, movies, sporting events, concerts, road trips, and beach towns.  Of course, everyone would get dressed for whatever they were doing or wherever they were going.  It was fun and exciting to see and meet everyone who was out in the evening.

But let’s get back to Dickinson.  Like I have written before, Dickinson is like the movie “Deliverance”, “Planet Of The Apes”, or “The Grapes Of Wrath”.  God it makes me so fucking mad thinking about Dickinson, what it is like here.  It’s like being in a fucking God damn prison!  Ape creatures and land whales.

I thought about each of the places and everywhere that I routinely went in Dickinson, every place that I could think of, and all of the women in Dickinson looked exactly the same.  They were overweight, sloppily dressed, not groomed, with big fat misshapen heads, and unattractive faces.  They looked like Jack-o’-lanterns is what they looked like.

Jack-o’-lanterns with big fat misshapen heads and hideous faces, everywhere, all day, every day.  In Dickinson, I don’t like going to the grocery store, and I especially don’t like going to convenience stores and gas stations.  I hate going to Walmart, and I won’t go to bars.  There is no place that I like going, and there is almost no possibility or likelihood that I will see or meet any young lady or woman in Dickinson that is enjoyable.

To Understand Dickinson, You Need To Realize That It Is Not Even At The Blue-Collar Level Of People

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About a year ago, I realized that one of my problems in understanding people in Dickinson, North Dakota, their actions, behavior, beliefs, and habits, is that the people here aren’t even at the Blue-Collar level.

White-Collar people perform work that is clerical, administrative, or managerial.  I associate White-Collar people with those that went to college and work at a profession such as teachers, professors, accountants, lawyers, engineers, and doctors.  These people are typically in salaried positions.

Blue-Collar people are described as performing manual labor, and are typically paid an hourly wage rate.  However, I want to point out that the skilled trades that typically require vocational training or an apprenticeship such as electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, and heavy equipment operators are classified as Blue-Collar.

After living in Dickinson for about eight years now, I don’t usually see many White-Collar people in Dickinson.  At a store or restaurant in Dickinson, maybe 1 out of 15 people are White-Collar people, that’s about 7% of people.

But I also noticed during the past eight years of living in Dickinson, that when I am out in public, talking to people, meeting people, dealing with people, listening to what people say, watching what they do, only about 30% of the people in Dickinson are at the Blue-Collar level.

So who do I think is at the Blue-Collar level in Dickinson?  Mechanics who are able to keep their job at a car dealership service department;  Plumbers and Electricians who are able to keep their job doing residential and commercial work;  Welders who are able to stay steadily employed doing industrial work;  Pumpers who work in the oil field;  Tow truck drivers who are steadily employed and treat this as their profession.  UPS and FedEx drivers who keep their jobs.  Delivery drivers who are steadily employed and treat this as their profession.  These types of workers make up about 30% of the people in Dickinson.

But the majority of the people in Dickinson, North Dakota are not like the White-Collar workers and the Blue-Collar workers that I described above.  The majority of the people in Dickinson are what I can attempt to describe as:  Alcoholics, drug addicts, social security disability recipients, drifters, loiterers, unemployed, incompetent, criminals, low-class, white-trash, hill-billy, inbred, backwards, sleazy, slobs, naer-do-wells, liars, and con-artists.  Ask yourself, does this not constitute about 60% of the shoppers at WalMart in Dickinson?

In contrast, if you go to Menards in Dickinson, where people shop for tools, equipment, and building supplies in order to accomplish some useful work, build something, or do home improvement, haven’t you noticed that these people aren’t anywhere near as sleazy, low-class, and trashy as the people at WalMart in Dickinson?  These much less sleazy people are the 7% White-Collar and the 30% Blue-Collar people that are in Dickinson.

So what, am I just picking on people in Dickinson again?  No, I am trying to explain that you can’t understand the behavior and actions of people in Dickinson, until you realize that about 60% of the people in Dickinson are not even at the Blue-Collar level of people.

An important result of this, is how the Police in Dickinson handle crime.  When I was living in downtown Dickinson for the past three years, I experienced a great deal of theft, and attempted theft.  So did my neighbors.  When the Police finally did catch the person who stole my truck, to my surprise, they didn’t even charge him with the theft of my truck.  And, despite this thief being on parole and caught in the possession of other stolen property and drugs, he was not sent back to prison, and he only spent a couple of months in jail.

See, the Police in Dickinson can’t try to catch, jail, or imprison the people in Dickinson who steal, vandalize, use illegal drugs, or sell illegal drugs, because they would be catching, jailing, and imprisoning about half of the population of Dickinson.

Another consequence of 60% of the people in Dickinson not even being at the Blue-Collar level of people, is that if you go to a restaurant, fast-food restaurant, bar, convenience store, gas station, store, or other type of business in Dickinson, you will likely be dealing with someone who is low-class, white-trash, inbred, hill-billy, sleazy, naer-do-well, drug-addict, criminal, con-artist.

Why is Dickinson like this?  It’s a combination of several things.  The bright, talented, ambitious people who were born and grew up in Dickinson, most of them leave Dickinson after high school.  The dullard, untalented, unmotivated, drug addicts stayed in Dickinson after high school.

Then, because of the oil boom, Dickinson business people and the news media gave a Worldwide shout-out to all the unemployed and low-income people of the World to come to Dickinson, North Dakota, and they did come.  And they stayed.

Are Skunks Like The Black People Of The Animal Kingdom

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The industrial site where I work in North Dakota is out in the middle of nowhere.  The animals that we employees see at this site are, in alphabetical order:  badgers, bats, cats, coyote, deer, foxes, gophers, hawks, mice, owls, pheasants, rabbits, skunks, and occasionally a wolverine.

The corporation that operates this industrial site has a written policy that all employees and subcontractors are to not interfere with the wildlife at this site.  In particular, they do not want anyone feeding the animals, leaving food out for animals, or leaving garbage outside that would attract animals.

I have worked at this site for almost three years now.  What I noticed right away is that two to three different herds of deer like to stay on the site property during the day, because the deer realized that there is no hunting allowed on this property.  The deer just go and find some place quiet to sit down on site during the day, and they are accustomed to no one bothering them on site.

Likewise, cats, deer, foxes, pheasants, rabbits, and skunks like to hang around the site, not too far from the workers, because they realized that there was no hunting allowed on this property, and that larger predators like coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions do not want to come this close to people, so they feel more safe here.

In the early morning, evening, and at night, when there are very few people on site, some of the animals will stop by our office trailer and look inside, or come inside.  The animals that just come to look at us and see what we are doing are: badgers, deer, foxes, hawks, pheasants, rabbits, and occasionally coyotes.  Yes, they come right up to the door or window and look inside.

The animals which have actually come inside are bats, cats, and skunks, and probably some others which I have forgotten about.  Keep in mind, that it is site policy to not interfere with animals, to neither encourage them to become tame, nor chase them away.  If the animals become bored or curious and want to go look to see what people are doing, we are not supposed to interfere with the animals.

My co-workers usually enjoy seeing the particular individual animals which visit us regularly like the cats, or occasionally the badger.  My co-workers are suspicious of this one fox which is almost as big as a coyote, who sometimes acts like a mischievous domestic dog.  But my co-workers are currently all worked-up and outraged by this particular skunk which began visiting us this Spring.

My co-workers have all kinds of allegations and accusations against this skunk, and are constantly talking bad about him and saying mean things.  They yell at the skunk, and try to make him go away.  They talk about killing the skunk and shooting the skunk.

There is one woman co-worker who hates this skunk so much, you would think that it had killed one of her kids or something.  Me, I just walk by or around the skunk, and he continues to meander around sniffing the ground, and he doesn’t try to do anything to me.

What I am worried about, is this woman co-worker is so triggered and hysterical about this skunk, that she is going to start kicking and screaming at it and become so frantic that she will cause this skunk to spray.

I asked her, why do you hate this skunk so much?  She said that she grew up on a farm, and that skunks are nasty, they cause problems, they have rabies, everyone hates skunks, they are bad.  She got very upset, angry, anxious, and panicked even talking about the skunk.

I said to her, this particular skunk has never done anything to you.  Just because one skunk has done something bad, doesn’t make all skunks bad.  This is like being prejudiced against Black people.  Just because one Black person does something bad, doesn’t mean that all Black people are bad.

Her chest was heaving, she was breathing hard, her blood pressure was up, she was not persuaded in any way that this skunk was not bad.  She seemed even more resolved and determined to do something bad to this skunk.

In the following days, I had the door to the office trailer open when it was hot, and the skunk came inside several times per day, and I would tell him to get out, and he would go back outside.  Here is a photo of the skunk coming up to me when I was sitting in my chair:

Skunk at work

I sent a text message with this photo to my female co-worker who does not like this skunk, and she replied, “Tonight I am going to take care of this skunk once and for all.”

I feel sorry for this skunk.  He is a young skunk, he is just trying to find things to eat, and look around.  My co-workers do not like him, they conspire against him.  The cats do not like this skunk, they stand back and watch him with disgusted looks on their faces, then after a while they run at the skunk trying to make him leave.

This skunk hasn’t done anything wrong.  However, if people and the cats keep trying to do something to him, he probably will start spraying, then they will blame him.  If everyone would leave this skunk alone, he probably wouldn’t start spraying.

Property Line Disputes On All Sides At My New House In Dickinson, North Dakota

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If you the reader have seen more than ten of my blog post articles, you would conclude that I don’t like the Dickinson area, and you would wonder why did I buy a house here.  I will explain why.

Even though the oil boom in western North Dakota has been over since 2015 when the price of oil continued to stay below $50 per barrel, and many oil field jobs have gone away, there are still some oil field/industrial projects that are being completed.  The wage rate in western North Dakota remains much higher than in my home state of Idaho, because of the shortage of workers in western North Dakota, due to no one wanting to come to and live in North Dakota.

After living in a low-rent apartment in downtown Dickinson for the past three years, I became very, very tired of the drug dealing, drug addicts, theft of my truck, theft of my property, attempted thefts, living in the ghetto, and the Police trying to stop me all the time as if I was a criminal, on probation, or in possession of drugs.

I wanted to keep my job that I like and that pays well, for the next couple of years, even though Dickinson is a bad place, and the neighborhood that I was living in was terrible.  I was looking at small, low-priced homes, in order to be able to get out of the crime infested Dickinson ghetto, so that my life wouldn’t be so miserable.

In May when I purchased a small 3br/1ba home on multiple lots in the Dickinson area, it seemed so good, that it was too good to be true.  For me, it was like getting out of prison.  One of my friends who is in his sixties, he told me, “Don’t do it, don’t do it!  Those people will cause you so much trouble, you have no idea how much trouble they will cause you!”  Sounds crazy, right?

Initially, this move seemed too good to be true.  My own house, my own kitchen, my own bathroom, my own laundry room, my own yard.  What a relief.  Such a drop in tension, stress, and misery getting out of the downtown Dickinson meth-addict ghetto.

This new peace, tranquility, and happiness was short-lived.  It ended when two Police Officers arrived at my house to question me.  I have never been accused or charged with any crime in my life, and when the two Police Officers arrived at my house to question me, I had not committed any crime.

Without going into the details at this time, I will say that this visit from the Police was because of the North Dakota law “You Are Not From Here”.  Because I have been in North Dakota for over seven years now, I realized that it doesn’t matter if you have not committed any crime in North Dakota, you will still be arrested, charged, prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned, and have your property stolen by corrupt asset forfeiture laws.

The Police could have caused me to lose my good job, my home, and all of my property through being incarcerated, legal defense fees, and asset forfeiture.  Please note, in North Dakota you don’t have to be convicted of any crime before your property is permanently seized, the Police can just take it from you immediately, and not ever give it back, even if you are never convicted of any crime.

Within a few days, I called my Dickinson ghetto apartment landlord to say that I wasn’t moving out of my apartment by the end of June, could I please keep renting my apartment through July and August.  I now wanted to keep my apartment in order to have a different place to stay if the Police were going to continue to try to harass me at my new house.  But this is a digression and going off on a tangent story, I just wanted to explain why I was no longer very happy anymore.

At my new house, I was aware that my neighbor to the south had built a fence that was approximately three feet onto my property, for the entire length of the property line.  This neighbor had done this, because his yard was so small in total, and this side of his house would not have had any usable yard.

My neighbor and his wife were very concerned that I was going to ask them to move their fence.  I told them that their fence was O.K. where it was.  ( I knew that there are laws concerning customary/established use of land, which could cause me to lose legal ownership of this three foot strip of land by allowing their fence to remain where it was.)

My neighbor to the east, he had become accustomed to planting a 50’x50′ garden on the northeast corner of my property.  He claimed that he had been doing this for the past thirty years.  I told him that he could continue to use this corner of my property for his garden.  ( I believed that this neighbor might have had a good chance of winning some kind of customary/established use of land legal action that could grant him use of this land if I tried to stop him.)

My neighbor to the north, she was an 85 year old widow who lived alone.  I was glad to have an enormous hedge along the entire length of my north property line which acted like a privacy fence, blocking visitors, sight, and noise.  When I realized that this 85 year old woman lived alone, with apparently no one to help her, I went onto her side of the hedge in order to trim it back away from her garage to create a six foot wide alley-way.

After more bad shit had happened, I was mowing my lawn today, which took about two hours because I had to stop to move things and deal with other distractions, when I heard some woman yelling, Hey!, Hey!  I looked up from mowing and saw some woman in her mid-fifties standing in my yard with the 85 year old widow woman.

I walked over to them, and the fifty-five year old woman was saying that she wanted me to look at the north property line with them.  She was asking me if I knew where the property line was.  ( The seller of the property had told me that it was approximately down the middle of this hedge.)  I knew from talking to the 85 year old woman previously, that she had lived in her house since 1955, her daughter had been born in this house, and she grew up in this house.  The property line is probably still in the same place that it has been for the past sixty-five years, I was thinking sarcastically.

Why did this fifty-five year old woman, who no longer lived in her mother’s house, now have such an interest in discussing with me exactly where the property line was located within this enormous, six foot wide hedge?  Neither myself, nor the 85 year old widow woman ever ventured into this hedge, or tried to build anything within this hedge, so why does this matter?

I knew what this fifty-five year old woman was trying to do, pretty much the same thing as my neighbors on the south who had their fence three feet onto my side of the property, and my neighbor to the east that wanted to use a 50’x50′ corner of my property, she wanted to try to get something from me.

I said to her, “This hedge has been growing here for the last twenty to twenty-five years.  I have been here for two months, are you trying to get me to now take all the responsibility for this hedge?”  The fifty-five year old woman did not answer this question of mine, she continued to act like she was interested in determining the location of the property line.  I knew that this did not really have anything to do with the property line, it was all about trying to get me to do something with this hedge.

Then, she began to complain about how the hedge had grown so close to her mother’s garage.  I explained to her, and I showed her, that I had cut this six foot wide alley-way beside her mother’s garage a month ago, because her mother was elderly, and because she lived alone, but I was not obligated to do this.  The fifty-five year old woman continued to say, “We have got to find out where this property line is?”  I said, “Why?”  She didn’t answer.

I knew what she was trying to do, and I was very angry about it.  She was trying to find some way to make me cut this hedge way back, hire someone else to cut this hedge way back, or she could hire someone herself and make me pay for it.

For the past twenty to twenty-five years she and her mother could have trimmed this hedge, or hired someone to trim this hedge on their side of the property, however they liked.  Now, since I bought the property next door, they were going to try to find some way to see if they could force me to pay for what they had neglected to do themselves for the past twenty years.

What this woman was trying to do, was trying to somehow get me to be legally responsible and obligated to perform or pay for having this hedge trimmed regularly to their liking.  I yelled at them, “I am so sick of you North Dakotans, just go ahead and take me to court!”  And I walked away.

After I talked to some people about this and calmed down quite a bit, I looked up and read the laws concerning hedges/trees on or near property lines, from more than half a dozen attorneys.  Here is a summary:

In general, for hedges/trees on or near a property line, each homeowner is responsible for what is on their property or over their property line, at their own expense.

In general, whatever limb, branch, root, or trunk that is located on their property or over their property line, they can trim it or remove it up to the property line, so long as it does not kill the hedge/tree on someone else’s property.

In general, it is the property owner’s responsibility to perform, hire, or pay for the trimming of limbs, branches, roots, trees on their property or over their property line.

Almost always, the owner of a tree or hedge is not responsible to perform, hire, or pay for trimming of a branch, limb, or root that crosses over onto someone else’s property.  The only exception is a dead or broken tree branch that is hanging over someone else’s home that is a danger.

I was so angry about this, because I felt like each of my neighbors was so obviously trying to take advantage of me, and I got tired of it.  I felt like and I thought about putting a “For Sale By Owner” sign in my front yard tomorrow.

These people in North Dakota are unashamedly nasty and primitive in their inability to distinguish or know basic right and wrong.

My Thoughts On George Floyd, Police, Protests, And Autonomous Zones

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For readers to have some frame of reference if they see this blog post a few years from now:

On Memorial Day Monday May 25, 2020, an employee of a Minneapolis grocery store telephoned 911 saying that a person who appeared to be either drunk or on drugs had used what appeared to be a counterfeit $20 bill.  When 44 year old White Police Officer Derek Chauvin arrived at the scene, several Police Officers were trying to get the handcuffed 46 year old Black suspect George Floyd into the Police car while he resisted saying that he was claustrophobic.  Police Officer Derek Chauvin restrained suspect George Floyd face down on the ground by placing his knee on his neck.  Due to a combination of the knee on his neck restricting his breathing and blood circulation, intoxicants, and heart problems, George Floyd died at the scene.

In the nights and days following George Floyd’s death, there were protests and riots which began in Minneapolis, but spread to many other cities in the U.S.  Four days later on Friday May 29, Police Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

On May 28 the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct was set on fire and destroyed by protesters.  Stores in Minneapolis such as Target and T.J. Maxx were looted and then set on fire.  “Officers continue to be hit with rocks and bottles thrown by people who are also breaking into buildings, looting and destroying property,” Police in neighboring St. Paul said on Twitter.

By May 30, twelve states had called up the National Guard to maintain order in cities.  It was reported that as of June 9th, “The Star Tribune estimated 570 businesses in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area had been vandalized or destroyed, including 67 destroyed by fire.”

At a June 7 rally, nine of the Minneapolis City Council’s thirteen members pledged to disband the city’s Police Department.  On June 8 protesters in Seattle, Washington took over a six city-block area claiming it to be an “Autonomous Zone” where Police are prohibited.

A few of my first thoughts about all of this should be obvious.  Police Officer Derek Chauvin had George Floyd pinned in a choke-hold for too long.  From the video recorded by witnesses at the scene, George Floyd was no longer struggling or resisting Police after being pinned for several minutes, he was having difficulty breathing, both bystanders and other Police Officers were advising Police Officer Derek Chauvin that he was excessively cutting off George Floyd’s breathing and circulation.

However, just because this White Police Officer used excessive force and caused the death of a Black suspect does not make it necessary or justify the looting and destruction of 600 businesses in Minneapolis, hundreds of other businesses in U.S. cities, and the assault of hundreds of Police Officers and civilians in other cities who had absolutely nothing to do with this.

There are two main reasons why the rioting, looting, destruction, fires, and assaults take place.  When a Black person is apparently wrongfully killed, the rioters want to cause so much property loss, damage, havoc, and chaos, that everyone is forced to see it, as many people as possible are affected, and there is a consensus that “We don’t want this to happen again.”, so let’s try to do something.

The second main reason for the rioting, looting, destruction, fires, and assaults it that the rioters are dissatisfied with their lives.  They are just acting out and misbehaving because they feel like they have nothing, no opportunity, no good employment, no money, no income, no good place to live, no automobile, and no way out.

But again, the Police, business owners, and citizens outside of Minneapolis did not have anything to do with the death of George Floyd, nor the fact that the rioters don’t have good jobs, good income, a nice place to live, a nice automobile, or opportunity.

My thoughts on the Police, one of my first thoughts is that Police Officers are just as tired of arresting Black people, as Black people are tired of being arrested.  Citizens and business owners in Black communities call the Police to request them to respond to assaults, shootings, robberies, burglaries, and drug dealing, and the Police have the expectation of getting shot, stabbed, hit, kicked, run over, resisted, verbally abused, and complained against when they respond to these calls.

If Black communities decide that they do not want Police in their communities anymore, do you know who will be the happiest of anyone?  Can you guess?  If the Police are banned from Black communities, do you think that the Firefighters, Paramedics, Hospitals, U.S. Post Office, FedEx, UPS, Telephone Company, Cable Television Company, Electric Company, Gas Company, and Water Department will operate in these communities?  Probably not if they believe that there is no Police response available in an emergency.

Altogether, the rioting, looting, fires, destruction of property, assaults on citizens, disbandment of Police, and “autonomous zones” will make the cities totally unlivable very quickly.  Many of the damaged or destroyed businesses will not re-open.  It will be more difficult to obtain goods, services, and employment.

The first people to leave the blighted city areas when the businesses leave, will be the people who have enough money to afford to leave.  What will remain is people with little or no money, in an area with more and more businesses shutting down, with less and less employment.

This has nothing to do with, and does not affect the people in North Dakota.  Until you realize that these masses of rioters, looters, dissatisfied people from the failed cities will be headed to live in the civilized towns of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho with no intention of working, fitting in, or obeying laws.  You just watch the influx of out-of-state licensed beater cars full of ghetto people that will begin arriving soon.

Women And The Meth Life In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In the beginning of May I bought a house in the Dickinson area.  For those of you who don’t know, Dickinson went through an oil boom from 2007 through 2015 where the housing prices quadrupled.  Though the oil boom has been over for five years, the real estate prices remain artificially and ridiculously high, way out of proportion to what the local economy is now and will be for the foreseeable future.

I recommend not buying a house in Dickinson at this time, because the real estate prices are too high and they are headed for a long downfall.  But, I bought a “For Sale By Owner” house that was not advertised, appraised, or handled by a realtor so I got it for about 30% of what houses here are being advertised.

I am kind of numb from everything that has been happening in my life recently, good and bad, ups and downs.  I can hardly believe that I have enough property now to park my vehicles and trailers without anyone bitching at me, wanting to charge me money, the Police wanting to Red Tag it for being parked on the street, or the Meth addict thieves trying to steal things every night.

The apartment building where I had lived in downtown Dickinson for the past three years, I can’t believe that I lived like that.  I try to make sense of it, 75% of the people who live in this building are just trying to live a normal, peaceful, stable, productive life, but there has always been this constant turnover of white-trash drug-addict short-term renters that have made this apartment building a ghetto flop-house.

Now that I think about it, moving out of this downtown apartment building is kind of like getting out of prison for me.   I’m not really sure if I’m free or not, and I’m not really sure if I can let my guard down from getting robbed, stabbed, stolen from, or conned by the low-life drug-addict thieves in downtown Dickinson.

During this past week, I have had to do a lot of shopping for my new home.  In one of the stores that I have been going to, I met who I thought was a nice, intelligent, friendly young lady.  No, I want to make it very clear, this was not some woman working at a convenience store, gas station, liquor store, restaurant, or bar.  She was more like a salesperson or manager at a furniture store, flooring store, or building supply store.

Because this woman was acting so friendly, which is not normal for Dickinson, I asked her where she was from.  She is from Montana.  The second day that I saw her and talked to her, she told me a little about what she had done in Montana, when she came to Dickinson back in 2009, and what she had done in Dickinson.   She came to Dickinson with her boyfriend that she had been living with, they got married, and now she is divorced.

The first time that I saw this woman, I got the impression that she was in her mid to late twenties.  I thought that she was plain looking, and I didn’t have any interest in her.  But, since she was friendly, which is so unusual in Dickinson, and I was able to talk to her, she seemed like she was a decent person and that she was wanting to make friends.

This woman seemed to be fairly intelligent, responsible, even-tempered, reasonable, and easy to get along with.  One of the reasons why I thought this about her, was because she was the manager of the business where she worked, and she said that she had paid off her own home.   She was in her early thirties, not her mid twenties like I had thought.

The third time that I went back to this store, I asked this woman if she would like to go with me to the Mexican restaurant tonight or tomorrow night.  She said that she couldn’t, that she had to work.  I thought that this was a stupid answer, because her store closes at 6:00 p.m.  I thought that she just didn’t want to go with me.

Out of politeness or guilt, she began explaining to me that her business was short-staffed, and that she had to work every day.  Then, she began explaining that she had sole custody of her eight year old daughter.  Then, that her ex-husband was a Meth addict who had destroyed all of the walls and windows in her home, that he had been No-Trespassed from her home, and that she had had to go stay at the women’s shelter for two weeks.  And, that her ex-husband lives a couple of blocks away from her.

Prior to asking this woman if she wanted to go out to dinner with me, I had thought that she liked me.  She seemed that she liked me.  Did she like me because she was lonely, bored, alone, wanted company, thought that I was different, thought that I had money,….. I don’t know.

Me, I thought that she would be or could be good company because she was friendly, intelligent, reasonable, responsible, and decent acting.

When she did not want to go out to dinner with me, I was surprised, and I wondered what had caused her to change her mind about acting friendly toward me.  It didn’t really matter at this point, because her mind appeared to be made up.  At first her explanation just seemed like a stupid excuse.  As she elaborated on her situation, I thought that she was just trying to make me lose interest in her and give up on ever asking her out again.

But, if I would have just stopped and listened to what she was telling me, that her ex-husband was a Meth addict who had destroyed all the walls and windows in her house, was No-Trespassed by the Police, that she had had to go stay in the women’s shelter, that her ex-husband lived a couple of blocks away from her and that they had an eight year old daughter together, why the fuck would I want to get involved in that situation?  I just got out of a Meth-addict hell-hole living in downtown Dickinson.

Something else that I thought about, what does this say about this woman’s character and judgment, that she dated, married, and had a child with a Meth-addict, white-trash hoodlum?

When I described meeting this woman, I said that she did not work at a convenience store, gas station, liquor store, bar, or restaurant, which is where you will usually find the Meth-addict women in Dickinson.  But I guess it doesn’t matter, the people in Dickinson aren’t even at the blue-collar level or low-class level of people, they are at the Meth-addict level.  See, I didn’t get out of prison after all, I’m still here in Dickinson with the Meth addicts.

Citizen’s Community Police In Dickinson North Dakota

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Ten days ago I came under attack from angry, hateful, bitter, vicious women in Dickinson, North Dakota.  But thankfully, not from any of the women on my “List Of Attractive Women In Dickinson, North Dakota”.

You see, the women on this list must meet certain requirements of attractiveness which include appearance, demeanor, bearing, dress, civility, and respectability.  Do you know, that in the over three years since publishing this list, I have never once had to remove a member from this list, or even issue a warning?

For reference, here is this list https://dickinson58601.com/2016/11/16/list-of-attractive-women-in-dickinson-north-dakota/  .  More than a year ago, I ran out of women in Dickinson to include on this list, because no one else met the minimum requirements.

Since coming under attack by the unattractive women in Dickinson ten days ago, I thought about how I might improve Dickinson and the women in Dickinson.  Part of the problem is that there are no standards, nor is there any enforcement of standards.  The women just do whatever they want, like savages, or wild animals.

What I have come up with, is the creation of the Citizen’s Community Police in Dickinson.  This organization will engage in the implementation and enforcement of standards and rules for women in Dickinson.  Just like it is the job of the Police in Dickinson to detect and deter crime, the job of the Citizen’s Community Police in Dickinson will be to detect and deter bad behavior by women.

Beginning now, the citizens of Dickinson can report bad behavior by individual women, a file will be created, the information will be recorded, an investigation will be conducted, and citations or arrest will follow as appropriate.

Citizens of Dickinson are asked to keep an eye open for suspicious or inappropriate behavior by women, and report it.  Here are some examples:

  • Driving too fast.
  • Texting while driving.
  • Leering and Sneering.
  • Causing problems.
  • Being a problem.
  • Causing trouble.
  • Wearing pajama pants outside the house.
  • Not getting dressed in the morning.
  • Talking like someone from the ghetto in a city.
  • Wearing leggings outside the house.
  • Not keeping house.
  • Causing trouble on Facebook.
  • Disrespecting their husband.
  • Disrespecting their boyfriend.
  • Disrespecting their parents.
  • Monkey branching.
  • Acting stupid.
  • Being rude.
  • Using bad language.
  • Excessive arguing.
  • Excessive complaining.
  • Not following instructions.
  • Bad check writing.
  • Using drugs.
  • Stealing.
  • Handling stolen goods.
  • Making false allegations.
  • Arriving late for work or appointments.
  • Not showing up for work or appointments.
  • Cutting their hair too short.
  • Coloring their hair an unnatural color.
  • Getting tattoos.
  • Growing dreadlocks.
  • Littering.
  • Being jail bait.
  • Bad hygiene.
  • Taking inappropriate selfies.
  • Not washing hands.
  • Sticking fingers in mouth in public.
  • Interfering with men’s weight training areas.
  • Being contentious.
  • Causing other people to have to do their job.

Once reports are received, and a file is created, a.k.a. “their jacket”, women will be assessed an ongoing demerit point total, which will result, in order of severity:  verbal warning, written warning, written citation, arrest, incarceration.

Following arrest or incarceration, women will be required to complete both community service and receive counseling as appropriate on topics such as “health”, “hygiene”, “home economics”, “manners”, “the proper care and feeding of husbands”, “how to find and keep a husband”, and so forth.

Women’s files or “their jackets”, will be kept confidential except for sharing with Law Enforcement, The Courts, Husbands, Fiancees, Boyfriends, Parents, Pastors, The Mormon Church, Colleges, Universities, Banks, Car Dealers, Employers, and Landlords.

Preliminary Overview Of Complaints On The Erik Odegaard Blog Post Article

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On February 28, 2020 I published an article titled, “What Happened To Erik Odegaard Is A Tragedy That Is Everyone’s Fault”.

I had met Erik Odegaard and his father Mike back in 2014 in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I worked with Erik and his father on many occasions in 2014, 2015, and 2016 while Erik was still in high school.  Erik had a very good attitude, he worked hard, didn’t complain, was always respectful to adults, he had many friends his own age, and he was generally well liked by everyone.

After Erik graduated from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and he eventually became an Army Medic.  Through some kind of program with the Army Reserves or Army National Guard, Erik was able to return to Dickinson to complete the final years of his enlistment.

I wish that Erik would not have returned to Dickinson.  Any normal, working, unmarried male could have told Erik that yes, it was slightly easier to get a job in Dickinson because of circumstances such as there still being a shortage of labor after the oil boom, but the Police in Dickinson don’t allow people to go out to bars at night, and there are no women.

But Erik did return to Dickinson, where there is a shortage of women, and nothing to do.  Erik, being a 19-20 year old male, he did seek out companionship, and he eventually did find it, with a girl who was still in high school.

I am so tired of trying to explain sex to the people in Dickinson.  If the ratio of men to women in Dickinson is 3:1, three men to every one woman, there are going to be problems.  How this type of problem is handled in the rest of the World is by houses of prostitution such as this one http://www.escortofitaly.com/Travel/Gallery .  Please look at and read this Escort of Italy website to understand that this is a normal thing in the rest of the World.

It is miraculous that Dickinson doesn’t have even worse problems due to the shortage of women, but then again it does, please read this Grand Forks Herald newspaper article about men in Dickinson having sex with horses and cows https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/2187378-dickinson-officials-investigate-sexual-assault-horse .  A quote from this article reads, “…an illegal act ranchers suggest happens all too often in this area, but rarely gets reported.”

Because Dickinson is cold, barren, desolate, uneducated, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, attractive women will not come here, and the attractive women who are born here try to leave as soon as they are able.  Historically, this created another problem, the men who were here mated with the women who were here, and now look at what you’ve got.

In my blog post article about Erik, I tried to explain that this was bound to happen, with the shortage of women here, and the unattractiveness of the women who are here. I also tried to explain that through the entire 15,000 year recorded history of mankind, 19-20 year old males have been having sex with and marrying teen-aged girls.  Why are the people in Dickinson trying to act like this is some kind of abomination, that a young man needs to be persecuted for?

But the purpose of this blog post article is to address the complaints, not re-argue the points of the article that I first wrote about Erik.

The complaints that I received about the Erik Odegaard blog post article are not what you think.  Something entirely different than what you think occurred.

On April 18, 19, 20, and 21 my blog website received a total of 43,000 views, which is much greater than normal.  Though there were many “shares”, “comments”, and “referrals” from Facebook, this high number of views was not likely caused by the casual or even angry discussion of my Erik Odegaard blog post article on Facebook or elsewhere.

To explain that there was something else going on to cause a high number of blog website views, take note that there were fewer than sixty actual complaint comments posted to the Erik Odegaard blog post article.  This means that only 1.4 viewers per thousand actually left a complaint comment about the Erik Odegaard blog post article.  This doesn’t mean that more viewers didn’t like this article, it does reflect that actual viewers were indifferent and not incensed by it.

The second thing to take note of, is that if someone were truly outraged and disgusted by the Erik Odegaard blog post article that I wrote, why would they make such a dedicated effort to get as many people as possible to visit my website?

A third thing to take note of, is that it is doubtful that just one person could have spontaneously decided to complain on April 17, and whoops, over the following four days they caused 43,000 views to my website.

In a future blog post I may discuss the main “haters” on Facebook that each hosted up to fifty “comments” and fifty “shares”, and some of the individual Facebook users, but I don’t want to lose sight of the big picture.  The big picture is, that the sudden large number of views to my blog website doesn’t appear to be caused by outrage at the Erik Odegaard article, nor was it spontaneous, nor was it caused by a group of angry readers, though the whole thing was disguised as if it were outrage at the Erik Odegaard article.

Keep in mind that my Erik Odegaard blog post article had been published for almost two months with very little comment or attention prior to this sudden “outrage”.

Altogether, it looks like someone or a group decided far in advance to try to find some way to launch an attack against me in order to keep me from continuing to write.  They wanted to attack me anonymously, instigate other people to do their work for them, and make it appear as though it was caused by something that I wrote.

Because of the level of planning, the implementation of “smart mob” tactics, and the outcome that was sought, there are only a few groups in North Dakota that would have this type of knowledge and experience.  These are: The Democrat Party; College professors with marketing/media/political experience; The Forum Communications Company.

I didn’t explain it yet, but the outcome that was sought was not to criticize any particular article of mine, or discredit my writing, but to arouse so much hatred and anger towards me, combined with the publication of what was supposed to be my name, photograph, phone number, and street address, that the threats, harassment, altercations, and possible physical attacks would force me to stop writing.

Again, this is not something that an individual angry over a blog post article would do or even could do.  An individual angry over a blog post article would not seek to or have the ability to drive 43,000 views to a website in a period of a few days, stir up as much anger as possible towards the writer, then post the writer’s name, photograph, phone number, and home address, in hopes that harassment and assaults would follow.  This is something that the Democratic Party does to someone like Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The Independent Mechanic That I Can No Longer Use In Dickinson, North Dakota

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In November of 2019, I wrote a blog post article about no longer being able to take my Toyotas to the Toyota dealership service department in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I had taken two different Toyotas to this Toyota dealership service department over the past six years, on at least six different occasions, and they had never tried to rip me off before.

In November of 2019, when I took a Toyota 4-Runner to this dealership for an oil change, they wrote up a service estimate for leaking transmission pan, leaking oil pan, leaking main crankshaft seal, and leaking oil pressure sensor, totaling about $1,200 of work.  The problem is, that this Toyota 4-Runner doesn’t leak anything.  I check this Toyota where it is parked every day, and I look underneath it when it is running, and it doesn’t leak a drop of anything.

At that point, I realized that I could never take any of my vehicles to this Toyota dealership service department again, because I could no longer trust them, after they made recommendations for repairs that did not need to be done.

If you don’t think that this is a common problem at car dealership service departments, telling their customers about “leaks” that need to be repaired, here are two videos for you to watch from Scotty Kilmer of Houston, who is a third generation mechanic, who has been making a living working on cars for the past 52 years:

After this bad experience at a car dealership service department in Dickinson, that I could no longer trust, in December of 2019 I found what I thought was a good, inexpensive, independent mechanic in Dickinson.

At this independent mechanic on the north side of Dickinson, I took a Jeep there twice, and twice the owner made an extra effort and put in extra work to deal with repairs that turned out to have complications.  I took a Toyota there once for an oil change.  I took a Dodge there for an ignition switch replacement.

The Dodge ignition switch replacement cost about the same as what a dealership would charge, $183, but I felt that the owner had helped me twice in the past working on my Jeep, so I owed him.

My $400 Federal Income Tax refund, and my $1,200 coronavirus economic stimulus check that I would receive, I wanted to spend this money on vehicle repairs that I had been putting off.  About a month ago, this independent mechanic service writer began preparing an estimate to replace the front axle half-shaft and seal on the passenger side of my 1/2 ton pickup truck.  All the service writer needed was for me to bring this pickup truck in so that they could see what front axle it had, to order the correct half-shaft.

This pickup truck had been stolen in 2017.  While the thief had it, he replaced both of the front axle half-shafts with used ones from a junk yard, and when he did this, he damaged the passenger side front axle seal, to where it was leaking very bad.

I explained all of this to the service writer, and I asked him, is there any way to replace this passenger side front axle seal, without taking off the wheel, brake caliper, wheel bearing, and half-shaft.  He said no.  So I said then replace the front passenger half-shaft and seal, because everything will be taken apart at that point.

When I brought my 1/2 ton pickup truck in for this independent mechanic to look at the front axle in order to be able to buy the correct half-shaft, the owner of this garage came out to look at it.  The owner of the garage told me, that the front differential needed to be taken apart in order to replace the passenger side front axle seal, so could I replace both seals, and both half-shafts at the same time, because everything would be taken apart.  I said yes.

All along, I feared that there would be no way to replace just the passenger side front axle seal, without taking the half-shaft out and taking the front axle differential apart.  With everything taken apart to this extent, now would be the time to not only replace the passenger side seal, to not only replace the passenger side half-shaft, but to do both sides.

This was looking like it was going to be a $900 repair at this independent mechanic in Dickinson.  Whereas three years ago a car dealership service department in Dickinson had quoted me $750 for this whole job, and a car dealership service department in Montana had quoted me $550.  It was the car dealership service department in Montana that told me, “We don’t waste time trying to break down the half-shafts in order to replace the universal joints, due to labor costs, it’s cheaper just to buy whole new half-shafts.”

So I went back to this independent mechanic today, for the third time related to getting an estimate for this front axle half-shaft and seal replacement.  I went through the whole story again with the service writer about the truck being stolen, junk yard half-shafts being installed, the front axle passenger seal being damaged, the owner of the garage wanting to do both sides because the front axle differential would be taken apart.

The service writer said O.K., I have the estimate here, it looks like it will be just under $900, it’s a seven hour job, it’s like $770 in labor.  I said, wait a minute, what about the cost of the new half-shafts?  The service writer said, “You want the half-shafts replaced?”

God Damn It!  God Fucking Damn It! This is the third time coming here, and the third time explaining this entirely, about the truck being stolen, the used junk yard half-shafts being installed, and that there is no point in taking everything apart just to replace the seals, and not replacing the half-shafts.

In other words, I would be looking at paying $900 to get everything taken apart just to replace the two front axle seals.  Then, 10K-20K miles down the road, when the used junk yard half-shaft universal joints go bad, I would have to pay this $900 all over again a second time to get everything taken completely apart again, plus the cost of the new half-shafts.

Why is this repair going to cost $900 at this independent mechanic, without even including the cost of two new half-shafts?  This front axle work on an old American 1/2 ton pickup truck is not a $1,200 job.

That’s it. No more.  Because of going over, and over, and over this repair to replace the seals and half-shafts at the same time, and the service writer saying, “What, you wanted us to replace the half-shafts?”, and because the price quote was getting much higher than what a dealership service department would charge, I will never take another vehicle to this independent mechanic again.

A couple of hours later, when I took this pickup truck to the dealership service department, the service department manager gave me a quote for $290 to replace just the passenger side front axle seal, because there is an axle access port to reach it, everything does not need to be taken apart.  But this turned into another mess, which I will write about later.

Unintended Consequences Of The Dickinson Press Newspaper Going Online

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A couple of days ago I wrote a blog article expressing some complaints about the Dickinson Press newspaper becoming an online newspaper.  One of my complaints was that the online newspaper keeps showing the same old articles day after day, with very few new articles.

My main complaint was that the owner of the Dickinson Press now wants everyone to pay in order to read their online newspaper.  I am not about to pay to read the Dickinson Press online, because in my opinion it is no longer good enough to pay for, and I don’t want to pay for anything on the internet.

This past week, I was surprised to see that my blog website’s statistics show a doubling of views.  I was trying to figure out why, I didn’t think that any of my articles were better than what I usually write.  Then, I thought that maybe because people are stuck at home due to the coronavirus, they are bored and spending more time on the internet.

What has happened, is that people are staying home and using the internet more, and in trying to find things to read about news and current events in Dickinson, like me, the Dickinson Press newspaper online has blocked Dickinson residents from reading any more newspaper articles until they sign up for a paid subscription.

Because my blog website is one of the only other internet sites besides the Dickinson Press that writes stories about Dickinson daily, more and more people in Dickinson are reading my articles because they are free, and because they are blocked from reading Dickinson Press newspaper articles without a paid subscription.

The owners, managers, editors, reporters, and advertising people at the Dickinson Press newspaper would never intentionally try to send more and more viewers to my website, but that is what they have done.

There is something that I have not mentioned before regarding my blog website.  Business owners, politicians, the Chamber of Commerce, Catholics, the Catholic Church, and associations in Dickinson, several years ago they began trying to bury my website.

I recollect that back in 2015 or 2016, either the Chamber of Commerce, some association, or business organization in Dickinson was hosting a several day seminar about online media optimization.  How to make your business website rise to the top of the internet search results.

It was not long after one of these travelling internet optimization salesmen came to Dickinson, that I saw a deliberate attempt to bury my blog website articles, specifically the ones about the Catholic Church.

People in Dickinson began paying consultants to get my website articles to disappear.  I found out at least four separate ways that this was being done, which I am not about to tell these steps 1, 2, 3, and 4.

I will say that one of the things that a consultant explained to the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce, is that there are many internet marketing companies that have a generic template, that they use to fill in the blanks about a city or town, and can be used to pose as an actual knowledgeable authority or news source for the city or town.

For instance, beginning in about 2016 and 2017, niche.com, bestplaces.net, areavibes.com, city-data.com, livability.com, and homesnacks.net began using all of my website “tags” and internet search terms related to Dickinson, in order to get their website ahead of mine on the internet search results.

To be clear about this, when I first started my blog website “Living In Dickinson, North Dakota”, for a couple of years my blog website would appear at the top of the first page of Google search results on any day.  For a couple of years, there were no niche.com, bestplaces.net, areavibes.com, livability.com, or homesnacks.net internet articles about Dickinson.

It wasn’t until an internet search optimization consultant was asked for help, that it was pointed out that there are many internet marketing companies that can be hired to pose as a legitimate news source providing favorable information about a city or town, to counteract negative news stories and reports about a city or town.

If you have ever read one of these internet marketing websites that pretend to have accurate information about a city or town, you will see that a generic template is used, and only generic, general, non-specific, favorable statements are made, such as:  “good schools”, “low crime”, “many parks”, “opportunities for recreation”, “good employment”, “friendly people”, whether these statements are true or not.  The people who wrote this information have never even been to Dickinson.

Because the Dickinson Press newspaper online has blocked viewers who do not have a paid subscription from reading their articles, and internet users in Dickinson have begun to look elsewhere for news stories about Dickinson, they have now found out that all of the sites like bestplaces.net, areavibes.com, city-data.com, livability.com, and homesnacks.net are fake, bullshit sites, written by people who have never even been to Dickinson.

I now have a renewed feeling of enthusiasm and purpose in writing blog website articles.  Because of the sudden unexpected crisis caused by the coronavirus and OPEC flooding the market with cheap oil, people believe that they were misled, lied to, not told the truth, kept in the dark, and were used.  They are ready to hear and take a look at what actually might be going on, instead of listening to lies and bullshit from places like the Chamber of Commerce and business press releases given to the newspapers that are reported as facts.

Everyone In Dickinson Needs To Get Ready For A Huge Amount Of Theft

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For those of you who have never read my blog articles before, I have experienced a great deal of theft since moving to downtown Dickinson in the Spring of 2017.  In my almost 51 years of being alive, I had more theft in Dickinson during these past three years, than in the entirety of my previous 48 years, living in eight different states.

In 2017 I had my truck stolen, with $2,500 worth of tools, equipment, and valuables in it.  In 2018 I had a mountain bike stolen off the back of a different vehicle, by two people who used a rotary Dremel tool to cut through the cable lock, and a short time later someone cut through the cable lock on a different bicycle of mine parked in the apartment building bicycle rack.

In 2019 and 2020, one of my neighbors had a locked bicycle stolen on two different occasions, another neighbor had his vehicle luggage carrier stolen, one neighbor had his wallet with a week’s pay inside of it stolen from his vehicle parked in his driveway, an apartment neighbor had a revolver stolen from behind the backseat of his vehicle in the parking lot, another apartment neighbor had his stereo and speakers stolen from his vehicle in the parking lot.  There were more thefts than this, it’s hard to remember them all, and many attempted thefts.

In 2018, I installed two security cameras outside of my apartment that record continuously.  When I am home, I can usually see the video monitor that shows what is happening outside in the parking lot and out on the street beside my apartment building.  Do these cameras record these thefts and attempted thefts, and do I give the video to the Police?  Yes.

From watching the video monitor when I am home, from watching the video recordings of the thefts and attempted thefts, and being outside my apartment building, I can tell you what is happening and what to look for.

During the afternoon and evening, males between the ages of 17 to 30 walk the streets like they are trying to get somewhere, but if you watch them, watch what they are doing, and where they are going, you will see that the route that they are taking is not necessary or not getting them anywhere the quickest or most direct way.  Nor are they going to or coming from a place of employment, store, or business.

When I am walking, I don’t walk as close as possible to parked vehicles, within inches, when the roadway and sidewalk is 40 feet wide, but I am not checking to see which vehicles have the door lock buttons pressed down, and what items are inside of parked vehicles.  I also don’t walk holding my phone at chest height, video recording what is inside of parked vehicles on the street, but I am not planning on coming back late at night to steal things.

A few of my neighbors and myself, we have followed the people who have walked beside our vehicles recording what is inside of them, and we have called the Police.  One time the Police did catch and arrest one of these people a short time later, for fleeing, eluding, resisting arrest, and other charges.  Another time, by the time the Police arrived we couldn’t find the person, but a short while later another apartment resident caught this person in the fenced-off, utility corridor behind the apartment building, questioned them, and told them that they had to leave.

The thieving people are usually males between the ages of 17 to 30.  They are usually drug addicts and drug users.  They are unemployed, do not have steady employment, or do not have good employment.  They live in low-rent apartment buildings, subdivided houses made into low-rent apartments, with their mom, or with their grandmother.

If they lived with their father or grandfather, these older males would say, “Oh no, you’re not going out at 1:00 a.m. to steal things in this neighborhood and bringing it back here.”  But women, who knows, maybe they are either dumb or they play dumb, their little angel who has been arrested multiple times for theft and possession of drugs, he’s just going to visit his friends at 1:00 a.m., he’s not doing anything wrong.

Because the Police can’t be everywhere at once, and it is technically not illegal for unemployed, drug-addict, criminal record males to be walking the streets between midnight and 3:00 a.m., the Police have a hard time preventing or catching these thieves.  And because mothers and grandmothers are either dumb or are playing dumb about the five bicycles, five car stereos, five laptop computers, and five mobile phones stashed in their garage or basement by their unemployed, drug addict son, the thieving continues.

In the past two days, I was out working on my vehicles during the afternoon and evening, and never ever before have I seen so many young males between the ages of 17 to 30 wearing hoodies, walking down the streets and sidewalks getting as close as they can to parked vehicles, and looking in parked vehicles.  They were like moths or insects buzzing around and bumping into a porch light as far as cars parked out on the street.

This neighborhood that I live in is a bad neighborhood.  It is mostly a blue-collar, lower-middle-class, poor, drug addict neighborhood.  It’s the very low rent apartments, high number of subdivided homes made into low-rent apartments, poor single mothers and poor single grandmothers, that provide the habitat for these unemployed, drug addict, criminal record, thieving young males.

What can you do?  Whenever you see a male between the ages of 17 to 30 walking down the street or riding a little BMX bicycle down the street in Dickinson, don’t try to think that they are going to or from work, going to the store, or going to visit a friend.  They don’t have a job, they don’t have any money, and if they are going to visit someone’s house it is drug related.  Watch what they do, watch where they are going, try to figure out where they are going or where they are coming from.  They are out looking for anything that they can steal.

Make sure that every window and every door in your house or apartment is closed and locked.  Before you go anywhere, and before you go to bed at night, make sure that all ground-floor doors and windows are closed and locked, especially in the basement, and the garage.

Install flood lights and motion activated lights to illuminate your front yard, back yard, and vehicle parking areas.  Try to reduce the amount of possible concealment around your house, such as overgrown hedges, bushes, and shrubs.  Do not leave anything outside during the day or night that would attract thieves, such as bicycles, lawn mowers, snow blowers, air compressors, chain saws, welders, motorcycles, fishing poles, golf clubs, ice chests, etc.

Apartment building owners and home owners need to install fencing not just to keep people who don’t belong from accessing their property, but to block off the backyard cut-throughs that neighborhood children create, but end up getting used by vagrants and thieves at 1:00 a.m.

Most importantly, start watching what passersby are doing in your neighborhood, and ask yourself what are they doing, do they belong here, do they have a reason for being here, do they look like they are actually trying to get somewhere, or do they seem to be here for some other purpose?  If you see someone acting suspicious, let your neighbors know, so that they can watch too, put away their belongings, lock their vehicle doors, and start being more careful about locking up their house.

These young adults that you see walking around the streets in Dickinson, do not give them the benefit of the doubt anymore.  You don’t have to stop and question them, just recognize that they are a threat, because so many people in Dickinson are drug addict thieves.

Everyone In Dickinson Needs To Start Reading Google News Stories

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For the past eight years I have struggled to understand the mechanisms at work which cause things to happen in Dickinson, North Dakota.  It has been difficult for me to read what is reported in the Dickinson Press newspaper, and try to figure out the origin of these events well enough to be able to have an overall understanding of what is happening, and why.  My goal was to know what was going to happen, ahead of time.

I mentioned a month or two ago that I realized that I had relied too much on the Dickinson Press newspaper for my information.  There was so much more being reported elsewhere that the people in Dickinson really needed to know.  They could have been much better prepared for what was to come.

For instance, it was never pointed out to me by the Dickinson Press that one of the largest locally operating oil companies, Whiting Petroleum, had a stock price decline from $370/share in 2014 to $1.37/share recently in 2020.  This was something that we all needed to know in Dickinson.  Whiting Petroleum is one of the biggest employers in Dickinson, and many people in Dickinson receive oil revenue payments from Whiting Petroleum oil wells located on their property.

This morning I read on Google News Stories, that Whiting Petroleum has just declared bankruptcy, and their stock price went down to 37 cents/share:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/whiting-petroleum-files-for-bankruptcy-amid-oil-price-collapse

https://www.barrons.com/articles/whiting-petroleum-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-51585753208

Google, especially on people’s mobile phones, provides the top five or six news stories of the moment, that are most relevant to where you are located.  For me, a dozen times per day, when I look at Google on my mobile phone, they have oil industry news stories from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, and many other oil industry journals.

Every day in this past month of March 2020, I have been reading in-depth expert analysis of international events, OPEC, Texas oil associations, Canadian oil industry and transport, U.S. legislation, Canadian legislation, oil company stock market price trends, oil company financial statements and loan debt, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, etcetera.  All of their indicators and predictions have foretold what eventually happened a few days or a few weeks later.

These very large news agencies have the budgets to allow highly intelligent journalists/investigators/analysts to devote all of their time to focusing solely on the energy industry, stock market trends, government legislation, and so forth.

Sometimes this is not easy reading, it is too complicated or incorrectly supposes some expertise on the part of the reader.  Fortunately, there are usually several different news agencies or industry journals that cover the exact same topic on the same day.

For at least two months, oil industry analysts have been pointing out that Whiting Petroleum had a huge loan debt, something like $2.2 billion, that was way out of proportion to both the revenue and the net worth of Whiting.  Much of this debt was becoming due in 2020, this was one of the main reasons why the stock price of Whiting dropped to $1.37 per share in March, that plus the price of oil dropping to $20 per barrel, and the coronavirus shut down of the economy.

The oil industry analysts have been going through the financial statements of all of the large and small oil companies.  It turns out, that nearly all of the oil companies involved in fracking over the last ten years, have spent and borrowed way more money than they have earned.  All of the oil companies involved in fracking had the belief that as long as they kept drilling new wells, eventually they would have a large enough revenue stream to pay off all of their debt, but that never actually happened for any of these companies, they all made this same mistake.

The price of oil dropping to $20 per barrel, the oversupply of oil that exists, the coronavirus shutting down the economy, has made everyone in the oil industry stop and look at what they are doing.  It is now universally realized, that the oil companies can’t continue doing what they have been doing.  Because of this, the stock price of two of the largest oil companies operating in this area, Continental Resources and Marathon Oil, have also dropped greatly.

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/T052-S001-7-oil-and-gas-stocks-dangerous-waters/index.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-shale-borrowers-fast-track-100000698.html

What only a few journalists/investigators/analysts are writing about, is the oil company disaster that is coming if and when the Democrats ever win the Presidency, and a majority in the House or Senate.  The Democrats have said that they want to ban fracking, which is the only way to retrieve North Dakota oil.  Additionally, the Democrats may even initiate gigantic lawsuits seeking damages and reparations for supposed environmental damage caused by the fracking oil companies such as Continental Resources, Marathon Oil, Whiting Petroleum, and many others. How could all of these oil companies not go bankrupt with a ban on fracking and these lawsuits?

The future of Dickinson, North Dakota is being told by these daily Google News Stories.  The people here don’t have to be in the dark about what is going to happen.

How Dickinson Works, And What Is Going To Happen, Part II

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Although this blog post is a continuation from Part I, here is where I begin explaining the basis for understanding how Dickinson, North Dakota works.

If anyone wants or expects to be successful in Dickinson, they must first understand how Dickinson works.  I am going to start off with the simplest, most important facts first.

Foremost, Dickinson is the regional center for shopping, supplies, and services for the geographical areas consisting of Medora, Belfield, South Heart, New Hradec, Manning, Killdeer, Halliday, Dodge, Gladstone, Taylor, Richardton, Lefor, Regent, and New England.  No matter what else happens, Dickinson being the supply center for these aforementioned towns is not likely to change for a long time.  The next largest city, Bismarck, the state capital, is 100 miles to the east.  Here is a map of the Dickinson area
https://images.app.goo.gl/su98oCKBHxrKd3pNA

Geographically, there is nothing special or unique about Dickinson.  It sits on a rolling, nearly tree-less prairie, just like all of the other towns in this area.  Dickinson got its start the same way as all of the other towns in western North Dakota, it was settled by land-grant homesteaders after the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act.  The homesteaders in the Dickinson area were primarily immigrants from Ukraine, Germany, and Scandinavia.

The fourteen towns that I mentioned earlier, Medora, Belfield, South Heart, New Hradec, Manning, Killdeer, Halliday, Dodge, Gladstone, Taylor, Richardton, Lefor, Regent, and New England, by the early 1900s each of these towns had their own general store, school house, and churches.  Before the invention and widespread use of the automobile, it took much more time to travel, it was done by horse, buggy, wagon, or on foot.  Even small communities had to have some local businesses, a school house, and churches.

Some of the factors or circumstances that caused Dickinson to grow more than the surrounding towns were:  the Northern Pacific railroad was built through Dickinson in the 1880s;  the 40-room St. Josephs Hospital was built in Dickinson in 1911;  Dickinson  State University was founded in 1918;  the Dickinson Municipal Airport began airline service in 1959;  Interstate 94 was completed through Dickinson in the 1960s.

As Dickinson grew, gained more businesses, provided more services, and its infrastructure grew, the surrounding towns began to rely more and more on Dickinson for supplies and services.  Unfortunately, as time went on, the surrounding towns began to lose many of their own local businesses and services, because of Dickinson.

For instance, the towns of Medora, Belfield, South Heart, New Hradec, Manning, Halliday, Dodge, Gladstone, Lefor, Regent, and New England no longer have a grocery store, family clothing store, appliance store, drug store, pharmacy, clinic, or doctor.  Most of the surrounding towns do not have an automobile dealer, an automobile repair shop, a tire dealer, or barber shop.

The following are the essential businesses in Dickinson, the type of businesses that this area can not go without:

Four grocery stores, five hardware stores, two farm/ranch supply stores, three building supply stores, five tire stores, nine automobile dealers, nine auto repair shops, four automobile tow companies, four pharmacies, two funeral homes, five liquor stores, and Walmart.

The following businesses in Dickinson are almost essential to this area:

Three truck stops, two tractor truck repair/parts centers, several heavy equipment/farm equipment dealer/repair/parts centers, three heavy equipment rental yards, several industrial/electrical/welding supply warehouses, three utility/livestock trailer dealer/repair centers, ten fast food restaurants, half a dozen furniture stores, and eleven banks.

These aforementioned businesses in Dickinson are either essential or very nearly essential to this area.  Because of these businesses, this is what brings people to Dickinson, brings money to Dickinson, and provides employment for people in Dickinson.  Without these businesses, there would be no people coming to Dickinson, no money coming into Dickinson, no employment in Dickinson, and very few people able to live in Dickinson.

When I start to list the essential services in Dickinson below, such as the schools and hospitals, the reader must remember, if it were not for the large number of essential businesses in Dickinson that bring people to Dickinson, there would not be enough people living in Dickinson to have schools and hospitals.  The services are here, because of the number of people here, and the number of people here, are the result of the large number of essential businesses in Dickinson.

The following are the essential services in Dickinson, the services that this area can not go without:

Two public utility companies, two public phone service companies, one ambulance service, two medium size hospitals, half a dozen medical clinics, half a dozen dentists, several optometrists, police department, sheriff department, regional jail, several fire stations, highway patrol office, city maintenance department, department of transportation office, driver’s license office, regional court house, one post office, two high schools, middle school, several elementary schools, and several veterinarians.

The following services in Dickinson are very nearly essential to this area:

One regional airport with private airplane and commercial airline service, one bus service, several car rental services, half a dozen taxi services, a dozen motels/hotels, many beauticians and barbers, two dozen attorneys, a dozen CPAs, many residential and commercial contractors in plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, home construction, concrete, and excavation.

I spent some time trying to specifically identify the essential businesses and essential services in Dickinson, to make everyone completely aware, that many of the other types of businesses and services in Dickinson are just supplemental, they are not critical.

Some of the supplemental, non-critical types of businesses and services in Dickinson are:

Traditional restaurants, pizza delivery, ice cream parlors, coffee shops, bars, sports bars, bicycle shops, guns stores, sporting goods stores, movie theaters, motorcycle dealers, snow mobile dealers, UTV dealers, travel trailer dealers, tattoo parlors, vehicle accessory dealers, jewelry stores, dance studios, fitness centers, tanning salons, pawn shops, daycare centers, insurance agencies, real estate agencies.

Lastly, I need to name some of the large companies that operate in Dickinson, that have not been covered yet because they are not an essential business or service in Dickinson, but they do employ many people in Dickinson.  These are companies that perform work or sell products outside of the Dickinson area:

Halliburton, Schlumberger, BJ Services, Marathon Oil, Continental Resources, Philips Conoco, Whiting Petroleum, Key Energy, MBI, Nuverra, Lufkin, Fisher Industries, General Steel, Medora Corporation, Steffes, TMI cabinets, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, Martin Construction, Northern Improvement, Baranko Brothers, Tooz Construction, and Winn Construction.

There are several reasons why I separated the businesses and services in Dickinson into separate categories. One reason was to provide clarity on what types of businesses and services there are in Dickinson; Second, I wanted to differentiate between essential/non-essential businesses and services; and Third, I wanted to be able to show how the end of the oil boom in Dickinson is going to affect businesses, services, and employment in Dickinson based on the role of the business or service in the economy.

The most recent oil boom in North Dakota lasted from 2007 through 2015.  Due to the price of oil dropping from over $100 per barrel to less than $50 per barrel in 2015, the oil companies decreased drilling operations.

The number of operating oil drill rigs in North Dakota went from over 200 to less than 50 currently.  Less drilling meant less well sites being developed, less drill rigs operating, less drill rigs being transported, less hydraulic fracturing, less sand and water hauling, less work-over rig completions, less pump jacks being installed, less cranes being rented, less tractor truck and hot shot transportation of material and equipment to the oil field.

The number of workers employed in the oil field decreased.  Many of the oil field workers who lost their job left the Dickinson area.  Consequently, there were fewer purchases and less money spent at local businesses such as auto dealers, auto repair shops, tire stores, furniture stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, restaurants, bars, sporting goods stores, movie theaters, etcetera.

Many workers leaving Dickinson caused there to be a decreased demand for housing.  The number of new and existing homes and apartments available for occupancy, exceeded the demand.  This was a signal that new homes, new apartments, new businesses, new shopping centers, new roads, and new infrastructure might not need to be constructed.

The residential and commercial construction industries slowed down in the Dickinson area.  This meant even more unemployed workers leaving the Dickinson area.  Less heavy equipment was being purchased, less heavy equipment was being rented, less building supplies were being purchased, local businesses had fewer customers and fewer purchases, less services were being used, more homes and apartments became vacated.

Near the beginning of March 2020, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and Russia did not agree to reduce the amount of oil that they were producing.  This caused an oversupply of oil on the World market, and the price of oil in the U.S. dropped to $31 per barrel after the first week of March.  This oil price drop is predicted to start a whole new oil industry slow down, with even less oil well sites being developed and drilled.

The oil field work in Dickinson is expected to decrease even further now, with more oil field workers losing their jobs and leaving Dickinson.  There will be even fewer customers and less money spent at local businesses and services in Dickinson.

The essential businesses in Dickinson, such as grocery stores, hardware stores, automobile dealers, and tire stores, they will have fewer customers, they will be less busy, and some of these businesses will reduce their number of employees.

The nearly essential business such as heavy equipment dealers, heavy equipment repair, trailer dealers, furniture stores, and banks will reduce their number of employees.

The essential service providers such as medical clinics and schools will eventually reduce some of their staff as there are fewer people in Dickinson.

The nearly essential service providers such as beauticians, attorneys, plumbers, electricians, and HVAC will have less work.

Supplemental non-critical businesses and services in Dickinson that will have less work, and require fewer workers are restaurants, coffee shops, tattoo parlors, recreational vehicle dealers, daycare centers, insurance agencies, and real estate agencies.

Some of the large employers in Dickinson who will have less work, and could reduce their workforce are:  Halliburton, Schlumberger, BJ Services, Marathon Oil, Continental Resources, Conoco Philips, Whiting Petroleum, MBI, Nuverra, Lufkin, Steffes, Martin Construction, Northern Improvement, Baranko Brothers, Tooz Construction, and Winn Construction.

Once essential businesses, essential service providers, supplemental business and services, and some of the largest employers in Dickinson have let some of their workers go, these unemployed workers and their families may have to leave the Dickinson area.  This in turn will make Dickinson even smaller, with even less consumers.

Dickinson will continue to be the regional supplier of goods and services for this area, because there are fourteen smaller towns surrounding Dickinson that rely on it.  I estimate that the population of Dickinson right now is approximately 24,000 people.  By the year 2022, I believe that the population of Dickinson will have decreased to about 21,000 people.

The reason for the expected decline in population, is because of the reduced work in the oil field.  Unemployed oil field workers will leave Dickinson, local businesses and services will become less busy, these local businesses and services will lay off some of their workers.  These unemployed workers and their families will leave Dickinson.

How Dickinson Works, And What Is Going To Happen, Part I

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When I became an adult, and was living on my own, whatever town or city that I was living in, I tried to figure out what was going on, what was happening, and what were the causes and reasons for what was happening.

Whether it was my hometown, a college town like Gainesville, a city like Tampa, or a mountain destination town like Flagstaff, I took an interest in the nicest, largest homes, the wealthiest neighborhoods, and I wondered who were the people who lived there, what did they do for a living, and how did they make their money?

The people who were able to afford very nice homes, nice automobiles, and enjoyed a high standard of living, I believed that if I could learn some of the things that they had done to become successful, maybe I could copy them or adapt some of the things that they had done, in order to become successful too.

Successful people who won the lottery or inherited a large amount of money from their relatives, you obviously can’t just copy that.  Medical doctors who became wealthy as they got older, most people aren’t able to become a doctor in the first place.  Wealthy real estate brokers, insurance company owners, car dealership owners, manufacturing company owners, and other business owners, these people caused me to wonder how they got started.

When I had the chance to talk to and get to know wealthy, successful business owners, it turned out that their success had a lot to do with being in the right place, at the right time, with the right idea, and a willingness to take risks at that time.  There was some “dumb luck”, or “blind luck”, but these people also had an understanding or belief that their idea would work at that particular time and place, that came from their understanding of what was going on in the World, and the place that they were.

What I am trying to explain, is that if you want to be successful, you first have to understand where you are, what is going on, and what is happening where you are.  You, the reader, are probably thinking that I am pointing out the obvious, thinking, “Of course people try to understand what is happening around them.”  But, no, they don’t, not really.  Most people just get an impression or idea in their head, and that is their conclusion.  They don’t think any further, to test, challenge, examine, or validate their conclusions.

In Dickinson, North Dakota, where I am currently living, most of the people here form their opinion about reality from listening to their neighbors, friends, relatives, local politicians, community leaders, and Chamber of Commerce; from watching television news stations out of Bismarck and Fargo; from reading the Bismarck Tribune or Dickinson Press newspaper; or from what they see on Facebook or hear on the radio.  These sources that I just mentioned are O.K. to get information from, but the impression that local people get from these sources, is their conclusion, they don’t think any further to examine, analyze, test, check, or question their immediate conclusions.

Concerning Dickinson, what the newscasters in Bismarck or Fargo said on the nightly news, what nationwide newscasters said, what local politicians, community leaders, company owners, business managers, and Chamber of Commerce representatives said in newspaper, radio, or television interviews, when their statements didn’t seem to match what was actually happening in Dickinson, I was angry about it, because people in Dickinson formed their understanding of reality and made their life decisions based on incorrect information that was being reported, written, said, and spread.

Questioning what newscasters in Bismarck, Fargo, or New York said about Dickinson, had they ever even been to Dickinson?  It turns out, that most news reporters and writers for television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and journals were getting their information from local politicians, community leaders, company owners, business managers, and Chamber of Commerce representatives, a group of people who can’t or won’t ever say anything other than positive outlook statements.

The following misinformation was reported so often and repeated so often that most of the people in Dickinson still to this day, think that this is reality:  One, “This oil boom is going to last for the next twenty years.” and Two, “Everyone working in the oil field is making $100,000 per year.”

The oil boom in North Dakota lasted from 2007 through 2015.  This oil boom began once the price of oil was over $100 per barrel, it became profitable to extract North Dakota oil through the process of hydraulic fracturing.  Once the price of oil dropped below $50 per barrel in 2015, it was no longer profitable for oil companies to drill and use hydraulic fracturing to produce oil.

The number of operating oil drill rigs in North Dakota went from over 200, to less than 50 currently.  From 2015 through the present, residents in Dickinson still express the belief, “It’s going to come back.” and “It’s starting to pick back up again.”  In the history of the World, there has never been an oil boom that lasted more than ten years in one place, but the people in Dickinson do not believe this reality.

One of the largest oil companies operating in the Dickinson area, is Whiting Petroleum.  The stock price of Whiting Petroleum reached an all-time high of $370 per share in 2014.  Last week, Whiting Petroleum stock was trading at $1.28 per share.  In the past year, Whiting Petroleum laid off one-third of its workforce in order to cut costs.

Many people in Dickinson have believed for years that, “Everyone working in the oil field is making $100,000 per year.”  This has never been true, and it certainly is not true now.  This belief, and the belief that “It’s starting to pick back up again” has misguided many of the people in Dickinson, causing them to make bad life decisions.

Instead of realizing that the oil boom in North Dakota was a once-in-a-lifetime, short-lived deal, most of the people in Dickinson acted like there was no end to it.  The sudden dramatic increase in local business, the sudden increase in demand for goods, services, and housing, allowed many local people to make windfall money, especially land owners and people who owned the mineral rights on land.

What did the local people in Dickinson do with their windfall money?  Most of them purchased the most expensive, over-priced, top-of-the-line pickup truck, travel trailer, UTV, toy hauler, or snow mobile.  Now, looking back on these purchases made in 2008-2014, roughly ten years later, all of these things are worth less than half of what they originally cost, and they are continuing to decline in value until they are nearly worthless.

Had the people in Dickinson known the truth, that this North Dakota oil boom would last from 2007-2015, they may not have spent their windfall money so carelessly and frivolously, and instead saved and invested their money so that it would last them for the remainder of their lives.

Another thing that happened in Dickinson during the oil boom, the housing prices doubled, then quadrupled.  A house in Dickinson that might have sold for $75,000 in 2006, the asking price in 2012-2014 might have been $300,000.  Some local people, and some out-of-state workers, bought houses in Dickinson at the peak of the oil boom real estate market.  They did this, because they believed that the oil boom would continue, they had better buy a house now, the house prices would only continue to increase.

Now that the oil boom is over in Dickinson, a house that was purchased for $300,000 in 2012-2014, it might only sell for $200,000 now, or it might not even sell at $150,000.  Most of the people in Dickinson are not making very much money now, many people have left Dickinson, and many people have job uncertainty.

Everyone in Dickinson needs to start over on assessing what reality is in Dickinson, what is going on, what is happening, what are the reasons and causes for what is happening.  In my next blog post, Part II, I will start with the basic essential businesses, services, and employees in Dickinson, that which everything else is built upon, so that people can see and understand what is happening, and what is going to happen.

What Happened To Erik Odegaard Is A Tragedy That Is Everyone’s Fault

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What happened to Erik Odegaard in Dickinson, North Dakota is a tragedy that is everyone’s fault.  It was bound to happen to someone, and this same thing is going to keep happening in Dickinson unless something is done to prevent it.

For a long time, ever since the first homesteaders came to Dickinson in the late 1800s, attractive women will not come here, they will not stay here, and the attractive girls who are born here, leave as soon as they are able.

It probably has to do with Dickinson being poor, hard, barren, desolate, cold, bleak, inhospitable, ignorant, and uneducated that makes attractive women want to leave Dickinson and go elsewhere, or never come here in the first place.

The result, the only women who will stay in Dickinson are unattractive and mean.  With no other choice, low standards, no standards, and low expectations in life, the men in this area went ahead and had sex with these ugly, mean women, and their offspring were even uglier and meaner.  If by chance there was ever an attractive girl who was born here, she got out of here as soon as possible.

Dickinson has by far the ugliest women of anywhere that I have ever been.  The women here are unattractive, overweight, disfigured, sloven, mean, scowling, glaring, sneering, and leering.  This is mostly a result of poor breeding and genetics, but the environment, culture, and education here has a lot to do with the ugliness of the women.

For example, in most states, the owner of a bar or restaurant would not seek out the ugliest, meanest, nastiest women to be a bartender or waitress.  In other states, when an employer does hire an ugly, overweight, mean, nasty woman, she is required to stay in the back of the business, and stay out of sight of the customers.  But in Dickinson, fat, ugly, mean, sneering ogre women work as bartenders and waitresses, at the front of the house, probably because that’s the only women that they can get in Dickinson.

In Dickinson, women from wealthy families who have the advantage of access to good healthcare, good food, education, travel, and more exposure to culture, ….  there aren’t any women like this in Dickinson.  Women from middle-class families in Dickinson, who have access to healthcare, food, education, and beauty products, ….there are very few of these women in Dickinson.

The Skank-class of women in Dickinson, women who grew up in single-parent households, with not a lot of food, not a lot of clothes, no encouragement in school, and low expectations in life,…..there are not even very many of these Skank women in Dickinson, they get up and leave, or won’t come to Dickinson in the first place.

The women who are here in Dickinson, are the battle-axe, ogre, troll, ham-fisted, hog-head, no-neck, cankle-calf, overweight, mean, hostile, glaring, sneering, leering, scowling, disfigured women.

Erik Odegaard grew up in Dickinson, the son of a fairly normal mother and father who both worked.  Erik was a nice looking young man, who was polite, courteous, helpful, and respectful.  Erik was well-liked by his classmates, peers, teachers, adults, and employers because of his good behavior and positive attitude.

After graduating from high school in Dickinson, Erik joined the U.S. Army, and he later became an Army Medic.  After his enlistment was over, or transferring to the Army Reserves, Erik returned to Dickinson.

Upon arriving back in Dickinson, now at the age of 20 years, Erik found that many of his high school classmates had left Dickinson.  Especially, most of the nice looking, attractive, pleasant young women from high school had left Dickinson and moved far away to places like Denver, Billings, and Miami.

There is very little to do in Dickinson, and Erik became lonely, especially because the nice looking, attractive young women who graduated from high school had moved away.  Out and about in Dickinson, there were no nice young women, only the most wretched, disgusting, nasty, mean, troll-ogre, disfigured women.

Normally, in most towns, a lonely young man would soon find a nice Skank girl, working in a restaurant, bank, or hair salon, who would gladly go on dates with such a nice young man, recently out of the military like Erik.  But in Dickinson, there aren’t even any Skank women.

The only pleasant, feminine, attractive young girl that Erik could find for companionship, was still in high school.  For the whole history of mankind, twenty year old men have been in romantic relationships or marriage with teen-aged girls, but the evil people in Dickinson wanted to persecute Erik for this, and so they did.

Erik, who was such a nice looking, helpful, courteous, respectful, positive, well-liked, promising young man, has just been convicted of a Class A Felony, and sentenced to spend the next 2-1/2 years in prison.

This is everyone’s fault in Dickinson.  For over a hundred years, the people in Dickinson have been breeding and in-breeding, the ugliest women imaginable, to produce these hairy-faced Heidi Heitkamp looking things, which nobody in their right mind would touch with even a ten-foot pole.

Everyone here knows that the attractive girls leave here right after they get out of high school, they won’t come back, and no attractive women will come here.  There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a scarcity of attractive women.

How this is handled in other parts of the World, when there is a scarcity of women, is with prostitution, such as EscortOfItaly.com, which operates in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Bologna.  Here is a link to the women available http://www.escortofitaly.com/Milan/Gallery

However, in Dickinson, where there is a great shortage of women, prostitution is not allowed.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is 3:1, the women who are here, are overweight, disfigured, and grotesque, and prostitution is not allowed.  So what the people in Dickinson are doing, is deliberately setting a trap, because they are sinister, malevolent, and evil.

There was a poor, small young man from Nepal, who came to Dickinson to work and go to school.  This young man named Manish, he worked in convenience stores, and as a cook, while he attended Dickinson State University to study accounting.  Finally, after years of hard work, struggle, and sacrifice, Manish graduated from DSU with a degree in accounting.

Life changed for the better for Manish, soon he became employed at a reputable, well-known local business as an accountant.  But like young men do, Manish become lonely for company.  Being small, being from a foreign country, and there being a great shortage of women in Dickinson, Manish had difficulty meeting any women.  Finally, Manish met a woman on the internet in Dickinson.

But unbeknownst to Manish, the woman that he met on the internet, she did not exist, she was made up by the Dickinson Police, in an elaborate trap that they had set up.  Soon, the Dickinson Police sprung their trap on Manish, and they tried to frame him for a twenty year prison sentence.  The same kind of twenty year prison sentence that Erik Odegaard was faced with.

Manish, instead of finding companionship, he was forced to spend probably $10,000 for an attorney, in order to not go to prison for twenty years.  The same thing for Erik, Erik was forced to spend probably $10,000 or more for an attorney, in order to not go to prison for twenty years.

The cost to tax payers to prosecute and incarcerate Erik Odegaard for 2-1/2 years is approximately $120,000.   The cost of one of these prostitutes shown here, http://www.escortofitaly.com/Milan/Gallery, is only $250 per hour.  The State of North Dakota could have paid for 480 hours of prostitutes, and not made Erik a Felon.

The people in Dickinson have bred these hideous monsters that are good for nothing, these disfigured disgusting terrible beasts, that make it impossible to go out to bars and restaurants in Dickinson, and then when normal young men try to find a mate, these same sick evil people in Dickinson try to lay different kinds of traps leading to twenty years in prison.

This whole thing is very little Erik’s fault, the people in Dickinson set this up, this was bound to happen to someone.

Someone Men And Women In Dickinson Can Learn From

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This winter in Dickinson I have been more depressed than ever before in my life.  I can’t believe I’m here, living like this, it’s so barren, bleak, and hopeless.  Dickinson is so ugly, it’s ugly through and through.

Here is someone that the men and women in Dickinson can learn from:

The nice looking, polished, well-spoken woman in the video shown above, is not actually a woman, she is a man, named John Maclean.  John Maclean is a professional makeup artist.  Part of the point of John dressing, looking, and acting like a woman, is because he likes to be a woman, but he is also pointing out that if he can look like and act like an attractive, desirable woman, if women made the effort, they could be attractive and desirable as well.

I am trying to point out, if John Maclean, who is a man, can diet, take care of his hair, apply makeup carefully, and practice how he speaks and acts, if he can be an attractive woman, then fat, lazy, pig women can get off their ass and pull themselves together so that they aren’t so repulsive.

Some women can see and learn from John how to apply makeup more effectively and professionally.

I Finally Heard Enough About Single Mothers

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This winter in North Dakota I have been staying inside and watching a lot of YouTube videos for entertainment.  Some of my favorite YouTubers are Hammerhand, Terrence Popp, and occasionally Prepper Princess.

Hammerhand tells a few stories from his childhood, but mostly he talks about his current situation battling his ex-wife over child support and child custody.  Terrence Popp tells stories from throughout his life, including his childhood, military career, and divorce from his ex-wife.  Prepper Princess usually ends up talking about her mother, how she was raised, and how she inherited her home which she is now selling for $720K.

I have heard Hammerhand talk about how his mother was single, and how he and his brother grew up poor.  I have heard Terrence Popp talk about how his mother was single, and how he and his sister grew up poor.  And today, Prepper Princess was going on and on about how poor she was growing up with a single mom.

I really had enough of hearing how poor Prepper Princess was growing up, and the context of it, her mother was single and she didn’t make enough money to provide food, clothing, heat, or any recreational activities for her family.

A little from Hammerhand, a little from Terrence Popp, and a lot from Prepper Princess, I get the impression that they feel that they are worthy of some sympathy for how they grew up.  A little from Hammerhand, a little from Terrence Popp, and a lot from Prepper Princess, it’s like they feel that everyone else is responsible for how they grew up, and that their mother is blameless.

A person who was my best friend for about twenty years, Doug, his mother left his father when he was about five years old, and his little brother was three years old.  I listened to Doug re-tell about the landlord coming to collect the rent and they didn’t have it, having nothing to eat but eggs sometimes, not being able to play sports in school because his mother wouldn’t pay for it, and his grandfather coming to live with them in order to help out.

My friend Doug, he had anger and resentment towards his classmates in school, towards other kids in the neighborhood, towards his relatives, anyone who had both a mom and a dad, and a normal life with birthday parties, presents for Christmas, family cook outs, and family vacations.  These other people had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Doug’s mother left her husband, and that she didn’t make enough money to provide hardly anything for Doug and his brother.

In response to Prepper Princess’s YouTube video today, most of the commentors were talking about how poor they were growing up, how they had a single mom, and how they had seven or nine brothers and sisters.  I had enough, I got sick of hearing it, I couldn’t believe it.  Why the fuck did your stupid bitch mother have seven to nine children and she couldn’t support them?  Why the fuck is this everyone else’s fault that you grew up poor and not your mother’s fault?

Prepper Princess and her commentors talking about having only one tomato and one onion in the refrigerator to eat, only having one meal per day that they got in school as free lunch, getting spoiled food from the food bank, being cold and not being able to turn on the heat, the fact that you were miserable and had a fucked up childhood is not heroic, commendable, or admirable, and it was not other people’s fault, it was solely your mother’s fault.

Men Only Barber Shop In Dickinson, North Dakota

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When I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011, I got my hair cut once with “Ted the Barber”, Ted Kostelecky, when he was still charging $5 per haircut.  When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, I began getting my hair cut with “Ted the Barber” again, and then he began charging $8 per haircut.

I noticed that when Ted Kostelecky cut my hair, it seemed like if another customer got him talking, Ted would forget what he was doing, and keep cutting, and cutting, and cutting, even though I had told Ted that I just wanted 1/4″ to 1/2″ cut off the length, just a trim.

In 2015 I began getting my hair cut with Matt Ellerkamp and Paul Ellerkamp at the “Big Sky Barber Shop” on the north side of Dickinson.  Matt and Paul were so fully booked with appointments, that you could just about never get a “walk-in” hair cut, you had to make an appointment.

Matt and Paul at the Big Sky Barber Shop were good barbers, but sometimes I wanted to get a haircut without making plans in advance.  When I went to the “Queen City Barber Shop” in downtown Dickinson, there was never, ever anyone waiting for a haircut, and I kind of learned why.

When Luke Simons opened the “Gentlemen’s Barber Shop” on the north side of Dickinson in 2018, I was wary of getting my hair cut by Luke, because I didn’t know that he had been a barber before.  To my surprise, Luke turned out to be a better barber than Matt Ellerkamp and Paul Ellerkamp who had owned the Big Sky Barber Shop.

Unfortunately for me, beginning in 2019, more, and more, and more women began taking their children to the Gentlemen’s Barber Shop.  In my entire 50 year life, I had never seen so many women and children in a barber shop, as in Luke Simons’ Gentlemen’s Barber Shop.

I can finally put it into words now, what I think many of these women were doing by going to the Gentlemen’s Barber Shop, there is actually a term for it, it’s called “Monkey Branching”.  Monkey Branching is when women who are married or are in a relationship with a man, go in search of a higher or more stable income earner, and attempt to “Monkey Branch” to a new man.

“Gentlemen’s Barber Shop” is a misnomer now, it should be called “Luke Simons’ Family Fun Center”, or “Luke Simons’ Women’s Monkey Branching Shop”.  Again, I have never seen so many women and children in barber shop in my life.

I had tried going to Matt and Paul Ellerkamp’s new barber shop, “De Porres House of Barbering”, but a more fitting name for this would be “The Catholic Shop” or the “The Catholic Club”, and I never even got my hair cut there or will ever go back there.

A couple of months ago, I found a barber shop where there are no women and children, just a man cutting hair, paying attention to what he is doing, and not charging a lot of money.  Too bad I can’t tell anyone, lest it get ruined by some whore trying to drag her kids there.

Here is a video explaining my thoughts about this, so that I don’t have to:

 

If there was a strip bar in Dickinson, I could picture some housewives coming there with their children, and giving their kids $1 bills to stuff in the strippers’ thongs, because men liked to go there to get away from their wives and children.