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VIDEO: South Shore football teams BEST MOMENTS from 2021 Super Bowls

Best moments the South Shore had at the 2021 Super Bowls at Gillette Stadium

Jason Snow, The Patriot Ledger

In 2020, the MIAA opted not to host its statewide fall postseason tournament.

In 2021 with the return of the playoffs, the South Shore made up for lost time. Eight area teams walked away with state titles and a bunch of other teams went onpostseason runs and had standout seasons.

On the gridiron, half of the state champions hailed from the area. Scituate won Division 4, Rockland took Div. 6, Cohasset nabbed Div. 7 and Randolph rumbled to a Div. 8 crown.

More: FOLLOW LIVE: All the scores from the MIAA high school football Super Bowls (Division 1-8)

One town dominated the pitch. The Norwell boys and girls soccer teams pulled off the rare feat of one town winning both state titles (both in thrilling fashion). The Whitman-Hanson girlsalso joined the state title party.

More: STATE CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY: Follow all the MIAA finals, plus the South Shore highlights

Many teams came close, but only one team reigned supreme during the cross country season. The Marshfield girls nabbed their first Division 1 All-State title.

Let's take a look at all the All-Scholastics.

One-sentence season recap: Pound-for-pound, you can'tfind a better area for football than the South Shore in 2021.

More: Unforgettable stars from an unforgettable season: High School Football All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Will Baker (Cohasset), Jacob Coulstring (Rockland), Matt Craig (North Quincy), Mike Donahue (Cohasset), Drew Donovan (Abington), Matt Festa (Duxbury), Casious Johnson (Plymouth South), Lucas Leander (Rockland), Delby Lemieux (Duxbury), Michael Landolfi (Hanover), Eric Mann (Blue Hills), Amari Marsman (Milton), Owen Masterson (Marshfield), Aidan Murphy (Hull), Samson Okunlola (Thayer Academy), Samuel Okunlola (Thayer Academy), Jackson Smith (Milton Academy), Michael Sheskey (Scituate), Keegan Sullivan (Scituate), Chase Vaughan (Milton), Logan Verhaegen (Middleboro) Jason Wonodi (Brockton)

Second Team: Malcolm Alcorn-Crowder (Whitman-Hanson), Evans Appiah (Randolph), Brandon Baker (North Quincy),Andrew Bossey (Scituate), Ryan Breheny (Bridgewater-Raynham),Jacob Briggs (Middleboro), Leary Costa (Rockland), Jake Croke (Norwell), Jack Crowley (Milton Academy), Will DeLuca (West Bridgewater), John Gianibas (Hull), Will Griffin (Hingham), Aidan Keefe (Pembroke), Brady Madigan (Duxbury), Shea McClellan (Abington), Kevin McGurn (Braintree), Cameron Monteiro (Brockton), Dallas Murphy (Plymouth North), Ross Olinger (Marshfield), Brady Sheehan (Holbrook/Avon), Sam Sullivan (Marshfield), Tyler Sordillo (Hull), Jarod Walker (Quincy), Collin Williamson (Oliver Ames)

Honorable Mention: Nathan Anderson (West Bridgewater), Liam Appleton (Cohasset), Brett Armstrong (Rockland), Drew Boretti (Quincy), Ryan Carroll (Silver Lake), James Cannon (Scituate), Jack Duffy (Cardinal Spellman), Ben Evee (BC High), Mario Franciosa-Johnson (Braintree), Nicholas Freel (Hanover), Tindell Frick (Duxbury), Anthony Girolamo(Stoughton), Anthony Graziano (Blue Hills), Isaiah Hassell (Milton), Wesley Hilman (Plymouth North), Jon Hogrell (West Bridgewater), John Ierardi (Blue Hills), Matt Kowalski (Archbishop Williams), Kurtis Lucas-Summers (Abington), Jonah Ly (Stoughton), Bahsor Mahn (Canton), Pat Minihane (BC High), Lucas Najjar (Cohasset), Jason O'Keefe (Marshfield), Gabe Pinheiro(Rockland), Mauricio Powell (Brockton), Nick Resca (Weymouth), Owen Richards (Hingham), Jack Robbins (Abington), Daveon Scott (Holbrook/Avon), Dominic Silvia (Bridgewater-Raynham), Luke Thorbahn (Milton Academy), Nate Tullish (Middleboro), Malik White (Randolph)

One-sentence season recap: A stellar season ended with Norwell and Whitman-Hanson on top but a boatload of teams made state-title runs.

More: Reale deal: Hingham star Sophie Reale commits to UCLA women's soccer to join sister Lilly

First team: Meg Banzi (Plymouth North), Tess Barrett (Cohasset), Olivia Borgen (Whitman-Hanson), Erin Condon (East Bridgewater), Lauren Dwyer (Silver Lake), Ava Forbes-Smith (Bridgewater-Raynham), Rachael Geniuch (West Bridgewater), Giulianna Gianino (Norwell), Riley Grable (Weymouth), Catrina Herman (Cohasset), Anna Kirchner (Norwell), Ava Maguire (Hingham), Ava Melia (Whitman-Hanson), Molly McGlame (Hanover), Brooke Mulroney (Thayer), Claire Murray (Hingham), Camryn O'Connor (Oliver Ames), Jennah Quill (Bridgewater-Raynham), Sophie Reale (Hingham)

More: State champions and stellar seasons: Final Top 10 South Shore girls soccer rankings

Second Team: Bridgett Barrowman (Marshfield), Kylee Carafoli (Plymouth North), Kayla Cassidy (Whitman-Hanson), Sydney Commeau (Notre Dame Academy), Mary Cross (Oliver Ames), Maya Daryanani (Bridgewater-Raynham), Abigail Flynn (Pembroke), Shayla Ford (Stoughton), Arianna Georgantas (West Bridgewater), Emily Gibbons (Hingham), Shea Kelleher (Silver Lake), Sarah Kenney (Norwell), Chloe Kirchner (Norwell), Emily Lehane (Blue Hills), Gracyn Lord (Cohasset), Shea MacDougall (Rockland), Makenna Marshall (Whitman-Hanson), Emily McCabe (Canton), Mia Pongratz (Hanover), Jessica Pulsifer (Cardinal Spellman), Annie Renz (Milton Academy), Morgan Reed-Davis (Carver), Jarah Rodrigues (Brockton), Carly Schofield (Plymouth North), McKenna Sylvester (Silver Lake), Samantha Zaslaw (Marshfield)

More: 'It's like it's one big team': Norwell boys, girls soccer each wear Division 3 state crowns

Honorable Mention:Maddie Aughe (Hingham)Nadia Cassamajor (Thayer Academy),Melanie Chretien (North Quincy),Kelsea Doherty (Southeastern),Emilee Dunham (Rockland),Kendra Foley (Plymouth South),Lily Ford (Bridgewater-Raynham),Kathryn Gibson (Oliver Ames),Shannon Groom (Abington),Amanda Jacques (West Bridgewater),Nora Manning (Whitman-Hanson),Hayley McCarthy (Scituate),Caroline McCormack (East Bridgewater),Mallory McKenna (Middleboro),Loli Morales (Braintree),Olivia Mucci (Notre Dame Academy),Bella Prisco (Blue Hills),Olivia Sharkansky (Hingham),Bridget Shaw (Norwell),Nina Tiani (Hull).

One-sentence season recap: Norwell finally broke through to win its first state while Canton went on a Cinderella run as the No. 21 seed to the state championship.

More: Standout stars blossom this season: High School Boys Soccer All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Melvin Alves (Cardinal Spellman), Liam Conneely (Weymouth), Jaoa Faria (Rockland), Tommy Gallagher (Rockland), Angelot Jerome (Randolph), Alex Kuzmich (Cardinal Spellman), Donald Le (BC High), Jake McCabe (Canton), Jackson Palladino (Thayer), Anthony Patete (East Bridgewater), Alec Petit (Norwell), Jack Price (Hingham), Genaro Reynoso (Brockton), Mischa Spasic (Norwell), Ethan Sullivan (Pembroke), Mathias Taylor (Oliver Ames), Derek Thorburn (West Bridgewater), Luke Twomey (Marshfield), Ben Young (Plymouth North)

More: 'It's like it's one big team': Norwell boys, girls soccer each wear Division 3 state crowns

Second Team: Liam Blaisdell (Plymouth South), Colby Carey (Archbishop Williams), Harry Cooley (Marshfield), Griffin Coppola (Hingham), Declan Crowley (Pembroke), Bruno Desouza (Weymouth), Aidan Doyle (Thayer), Aiden Dunphy (Silver Lake), Kevin Federle (Cohasset), Mathias Floeck (East Bridgewater), Michael Haikal (Oliver Ames), Will Haney (Holbrook), Nathan Monterio (Cardinal Spellman), Gracian Moreira (Brockton), Colby Mullen (Scituate), Clide Neau (Oliver Ames), Gavin Norton (Rockland), Christopher Rhoden (Milton), Giovanni Ruggerio (Canton), Chase Ryan (West Bridgewater), Connor Smith (Scituate), Jayden Stafford (Whitman-Hanson), Evan Thompson (Norwell), Sam Wolf (BC High).

More: Title town and postseason heroes: Final high school boys soccer rankings

Honorable Mention:Hector Bucio (Oliver Ames),Sean Catino (Bridgewater-Raynham),Lucas Federle (Cohasset), Izaldir Fernandes (Brockton),Zackariah Foster (Brockton),Ben Fuller (West Bridgewater),Alex Geagea (Norwell),Justin Gomes (Milton),Zach Higgins (East Bridgewater),Cody Holbert (Marshfield),Tristan McDonough (Cardinal Spellman),Ryan McGrath (West Bridgewater)Tetor Ngheim (Hingham),Alex Norgeot (Cohasset),Darrell Quist (Bridgewater-Raynham),Ethan Thompson (Norwell),Sam Wong (North Quincy)

One-sentence season recap: Nine locals earned spots on the prestigiousdivisional All-State teams by the Massachusetts Volleyball Coaches Association.

More: From liberos to hitters: Patriot Ledger/Enterprise Girls Volleyball All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Grace Burgoyne (Notre Dame Academy), JuliaElie (Rockland), Emma Glavin (Quincy), Maddie Homer (Oliver Ames), Elizabeth Hurm (Cardinal Spellman), Mona Ly (Quincy), Darcy McGuirk (Rockland), Mackenzie Proukou (Duxbury), Taylor Reynolds (Canton), Hadley Rhodes (Oliver Ames), Carly Ryan (Norwell), Lilly Steiner (Hingham), Anna Verille (Canton), Lizzy Wagner (Notre Dame Academy), Lily Welch (Whitman-Hanson)

More: VIDEO: Quincy and North Quincy High girls volleyball battle in five-set thriller

Second Team: Sonia Abdel-Fattah (Plymouth South), Katie Eckardt (Milton), Shannon Esperon (Holbrook), Gemma Geisler (South Shore Tech), Sarah Hilliard (Oliver Ames), Ashley Jacques (Bridgewater-Raynham), Ava Loud (Cardinal Spellman), Kathryn Lysko (Cardinal Spellman), Julia Mortarelli (Bridgewater-Raynham), Lauren Salvas (Hanover), Annika Schmitt (Quincy), Nora Schulze (Hingham), Molly Shea (Milton), Jordan Stec (Rockland), Brianna Sullivan (Holbrook)

Honorable Mention: Mya Brady (Cardinal Spellman), Gianna Clapp (South Shore Christian Academy), Kara Cronin (Bridgewater-Raynham), Elle Doherty (Middleboro), Ashley Gavin (Plymouth South), Ethan Guarachi (Norwell), Sophia Manning (Milton), Abigail Martin (Whitman-Hanson), Haley Murphy (East Bridgewater), Julia Shearstone (Bridgewater-Raynham)

One-sentence season recap: No area teams made deep tournament runs, but there were plenty of all-stars and MVPs to celebrate.

More: The best of the best 2021 field hockey players - the All-Scholastics

First Team:Hailey Beatrice (Silver Lake), Celia Benson (Thayer Academy), Ellie Bohane (Canton), Erin Boyd (Marshfield), Maggie Burchill (Braintree), Georgia Costello (Oliver Ames), Carly Fitzgerald (Canton), Hannah Gillis (Scituate), Megan Hanna (Plymouth North), Abbey Kennedy (Hingham), Erin Lane (Canton), Maddie Miller (Cohasset), Izzy Mosley (Middleboro), Katie Radzik (Hanover), Rachel Smith (West Bridgewater), Molly Stephens (Cohasset), Reilly Walsh (Notre Dame Academy), Kyle Wilson (Hingham)

More: HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOCKEY: 'It was a sister thing.' Costello twins salvage OA's season

Second Team:Ainsley Allen (Cohasset), Zofia Bangs (Stoughton), Francis Brisbane (Cohasset), Joelle Cameron (West Bridgewater), Elizabeth Clancy (Duxbury), Ava Costello (Oliver Ames), Erin Cottam (Oliver Ames), Emily Coughlin (Notre Dame Academy), Sarah Cunningham (Canton), Carolyn Durand (Canton), Ashleigh Johnson (Carver), Bridget Lee (Braintree), Rosie MacKinnon (Whitman-Hanson), Brooke McCloy (Thayer Academy), Camryn Tingdahl (Middleboro), Mary Kate Vermette (Hanover), Isabelle Waldron (West Bridgewater), Nora Walsh (Milton)

Honorable Mention:Maren Boyle (Thayer Academy), Catherine Brisbane (Cohasset), Kate Bulger (Stoughton), Lauren Dunn (Whitman-Hanson), Sydney LeClair (Duxbury), Julia Maclaine (Oliver Ames), Lauren Monahan (Bridgewater-Raynham), May Munro (Southeastern), Olivia Phelps (Whitman-Hanson), Nora Williamson (Middleboro)

One-sentence season recap: The Oliver Ames boys won the Div. 1C title but the Tigers were far from the only standout runners.

More: Rising runners and senior stars: High School Boys Cross Country All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Madsen Anderson (West Bridgewater), Hatim Boukhtam (North Quincy), Alec Carew (Milton), Robert Cannon (Quincy), Ben Ford (Cohasset), Will Locke (BC High), David Manfredi (Weymouth), Owen McMorrow (Oliver Ames), Nick O'Connell (Brockton), Drew Pesko (Marshfield), Connor Reidy (Norwell), Ryan Sarney (Oliver Ames), Nathan Tassey (Whitman-Hanson), Nicolas Uzzo (East Bridgewater)

More: Marshfield's Drew Pesko ran a long path back to cross country glory

Second Team: Jake Boudreau (Duxbury), Dylan Brilliant (Plymouth South), Gemsley Cajuste (BC High), Thomas Corbett (Norwell), Gabby Guerrero (Milton Academy), Colin Hingston (Archbishop Williams), Luke Holden (Carver), Donovan Murray (Milton), Colin Ozturk (Stoughton), Ross Tejeda (Thayer), Brendan Thomas (Oliver Ames), Christian Wetzel (Cardinal Spellman),

Honorable Mention: Kameron Christ (Rockland), Aaron Corlette (Brockton), Gordon Johnson (Whitman-Hanson), Chris Larnard (BC High), Steve McDougall (Hingham), Joseph Montal (Southeastern), Lekan Sotonwa (Middleboro), Jack Wilczewski (Bridgewater-Raynham)

One-season sentence recap: Marshfield won its first All-State title thanks to a deep lineup while Weymouth won the Div. 1A title (OA lost a tiebreaker for the Div. 1C crown).

More: Decorated champs and personal bests: High School Girls Cross Country All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Eleanor Angeles-Whitfield (Marshfield), Ella Bates (Weymouth), Salma Boukhtam (North Quincy), Chloe Clifford (Thayer Academy), Aluna Coogan-Coyne (North Quincy), Casey Curran (Archbishop Williams), Ella Dunbury (West Bridgewater), Jackie Earner (Abington), Victoria Fawcett (Milton Academy), Alison Glavin (Weymouth), Paige Joyce (Notre Dame Academy), Ava LoVuolo (Marshfield), Grace Richard (Weymouth), Macey Shriner (Plymouth North), Katie Sobieraj (Oliver Ames), Christina Sullivan (Milton)

More: Breakfast of champions: Marshfield High girls cross country claims Div. 1 All-State crown

Second Team: Norah Affanato (Milton), Ava Brunswick (Marshfield), Emma Daley (Weymouth), Emma Doran (Weymouth), Hannah Dupill (Oliver Ames), Maggie Flaherty (Rockland), Leesil Gilbert (Cohasset), Charlotte Henning (Marshfield), Jojo Holmes (Oliver Ames), Lauren Joyce (Notre Dame Academy), Phoebe Katilus (East Bridgewater), Myah Kamperides (Whitman-Hanson), Ally Kirkpatrick (Middleboro), Olivia Langlan (Marshfield), Stella Spaulding (Scituate)

Honorable Mention: Liz Blanchard(Cohasset), Jillian Farrell(Hanover), Adison Hohengasser (Southeastern), Catherine Moyes (Brockton), Melanie Perkson (Plymouth North), Selena Wood (Abington)

One-sentence season recap: Duxbury, Hingham and Scituate starred in the Patriot League and Canton won its first sectional title.

More: These stars aced the course: High School Boys Golf All-Scholastic Team

First Team: Wade Bailey (Plymouth North), Ben Catudal (Milton), Quinn Cesarz (Archbishop Williams), Carson Erick (Hingham), Joseph Gaultier (Oliver Ames), Will Gefteas (Canton), Dylan Green (Quincy),Owen Hamilton (Duxbury), John Kinsley (Scituate), Nick McCabe (BC High), Luke Merlan (Pembroke), Justin Peters (Bridgewater-Raynham), Jake Redder (East Bridgewater), Austin Ryan (Scituate), Owen Talbot (Brockton)

Second Team: Tyler Bisbee (West Bridgewater), Anthony Choukas (Weymouth), Jimmy Dragonetti (Brockton), JD Flynn (Hingham),Devin Kennealy (Duxbury), James Lopes (Plymouth South), Nate O'Brien (Marshfield), Connor Powers (Braintree), Devon Reagan (BC High), Cole Redder (East Bridgewater),Thomas Sheedy (West Bridgewater), Richie Thayer (Bridgewater-Raynham), Ryan Tobin (Abington), Richie Thayer (Bridgewater-Raynham)

Honorable Mention: Andrew Curley (Duxbury), Jake Kaplan (Oliver Ames), Jack Kaster (BC High), Sean Kearns (Oliver Ames), Andrew Marcotte (Archbishop Williams), Pat McBroom (Whitman-Hanson), Ryan Sherwood (Duxbury)

Read more:
AN AWESOME AUTUMN: Find all of our Fall 2021 All-Scholastics here - The Patriot Ledger

But then comes the complicating factor, the part of my experience that turned me more right-wing. Because in the second phase of my illness, once I knew roughly what was wrong with me and the problem was how to treat it, I very quickly entered a world where the official medical consensus had little to offer me. It was only outside that consensus, among Lyme disease doctors whose approach to treatment lacked any C.D.C. or F.D.A. imprimatur, that I found real help and real hope.

And this experience made me more libertarian in various ways, more skeptical not just of our own medical bureaucracy, but of any centralized approach to health care policy and medical treatment.

This was true even though the help I found was often expensive and it generally wasnt covered by insurance; like many patients with chronic Lyme, I had to pay in cash. But if I couldnt trust the C.D.C. to recognize the effectiveness of these treatments, why would I trust a more socialized system to cover them? After all, in socialized systems cost control often depends on some centralized authority like Britains National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or the controversial, stillborn Independent Payment Advisory Board envisioned by Obamacare setting rules or guidelines for the system as a whole. And if youre seeking a treatment that official expertise does not endorse, I wouldnt expect such an authority to be particularly flexible and open-minded about paying for it.

Quite the reverse, in fact, given the trade-off that often shows up in health policy, where more free-market systems yield more inequalities but also more experiments, while more socialist systems tend to achieve their egalitarian advantages at some cost to innovation. Thus many European countries have cheaper prescription drugs than we do, but at a meaningful cost to drug development. Americans spend obscene, unnecessary-seeming amounts of money on our system; America also produces an outsize share of medical innovations.

And if being mysteriously sick made me more appreciative of the value of an equalizing floor of health-insurance coverage, it also made me aware of the incredible value of those breakthroughs and discoveries, the importance of having incentives that lead researchers down unexpected paths, even the value of the unusual personality types that become doctors in the first place. (Are American doctors overpaid relative to their developed-world peers? Maybe. Am I glad that American medicine is remunerative enough to attract weird Type A egomaniacs who like to buck consensus? Definitely.)

Whatever everyday health insurance coverage is worth to the sick person, a cure for a heretofore-incurable disease is worth more. The cancer patient has more to gain from a single drug that sends the disease into remission than a single-payer plan that covers a hundred drugs that dont. Or to take an example from the realm of chronic illness, just last week researchers reported strong evidence that multiple sclerosis, a disease once commonly dismissed as a species of hysteria, is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. If that discovery someday yields an actual cure for MS, it will be worth more to people suffering from the disease than any insurance coverage a government might currently offer them.

So if the weakness of the libertarian perspective on health insurance is its tendency to minimize the strange distinctiveness of illness, to treat patients too much like consumers and medical coverage too much like any other benefit, the weakness of the liberal focus on equalizing cost and coverage is the implicit sense that medical care is a fixed pie in need of careful divvying, rather than a zone where vast benefits await outside the realm of whats already available.

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Opinion | How Being Sick Changed My Health Care Views - The New York Times

MINOT, N.D. Wednesday evening I got word from my sources in legislative District 7 that state Rep. Rick Becker, the founder of the Bastiat Caucus wing of the North Dakota Republican Party, wouldn't be seeking re-election to his seat this cycle.

I was told he wouldn't be on the ballot at all for any race.

Later in the evening, Becker made that news official with an announcement to the dozens tuning into his local television show.

The activists in the Bastiat wing of the NDGOP, who have been fanning the flames of division in North Dakota's dominant political party for some time, will insist that they have the momentum. That they represent true Republicanism, as opposed to all those Republicans In Name Only, and are poised to take over.

Becker's decision to retire from elected office tells us a different story.

I can't say I'm surprised at the development.

I argued that the writing was on the wall for Becker's political career two weeks ago.

Let's consider the situation he finds himself in.

This spring the Bastiats attempted to organize a takeover of the NDGOP's district-level leadership. They threw everything they had at the effort, and got almost nothing for it .

Redistricting wasn't kind to Bastiat lawmakers. People such as Sen. Jason Heitkamp, Rep. Mike Schatz, Rep. Terry Jones, Rep, Gary Paur, Rep. Kathy Skroch, Rep. Sebastian Ertelt and Rep. Jeff Magrum saw their district lines redrawn in ways that diminish their chances of re-election.

The Bastiat ranks will almost certainly be diminished when the Legislature's 2023 session convenes.

A publicity stunt at a recent meeting of the NDGOP's state leadership fizzled when some Bastiat-aligned district chairs marched out of the room in protest of proposed rule changes to the party's endorsement process. Few joined them , and the Bastiats ended up standing outside the meeting in the cold while the rest of the party went about its business inside.

When the NDGOP picked a new chair last year, they didn't choose Bob Wheeler , an outspoken anti-vaxxer and Facebook keyboard warrior who had the backing of the Bastiat wing.

Meanwhile, Becker was facing a challenge to his endorsement for re-election on the NDGOP ticket by a leader of his own district party. Retha Mattern, the vice-chair of the District 7 Republican Party, announced a campaign for the House before Becker , the incumbent.

I don't have to tell you, dear readers, that a party leader challenging their own incumbent is not something that happens very often.

On a professional level Becker, a plastic surgeon by trade, is now facing calls for action against his medical license because of his pandering to anti-vaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. While I think such an action would be a mistake , there's little doubt in my mind that the criticism factored into Becker's decision to give up his political career.

Photo by Will Kincaid / Bismarck Tribune

Becker was left with few good options. The ranks of his allies have been thinned, he's alienated vast swaths of his own political party, he's earned the enmity of leaders in the state's medical community, and the Trump-driven political shift that fueled his metamorphosis from thoughtful libertarian into a populist culture warrior isn't aging well .

Who can blame him for opting out?

As for what's next, I've had many speculate that Becker will attempt to lead his movement as a political pundit.

Color me dubious.

The ratings for his television show are so low they're difficult to measure through the traditional surveys, and his digital audience doesn't seem much larger. On Facebook, his videos garner maybe a few hundred views per episode . The last episode he put on the show's YouTube channel garnered seven views after more than a week online.

You read that right.

Seven.

There's a video of a guy farting on a snare drum that has almost 9,000 views.

I'd be surprised if Becker was still doing his television show a year from now.

It would shock me if he were a relevant figure in North Dakota politics at all.

We have a long way to go yet, but I suspect his decision not to run for the Legislature is the first sign that the Trump-era of politics in North Dakota, for all its sound and fury, is coming to an end.

The rest is here:
Port: Nobody wants to be the king of the clowns - The Dickinson Press

Sam Bright unravels the ties between Conservative leadership hopeful Liz Truss and Westminsters network of opaque libertarian think tanks

Boris Johnsons premiership of the Conservative Party is dying. It is currently unclear how slowly or quickly the rot is taking hold, but there is little doubt that his political career is on a steep, downward trajectory.

His Downing Street team held multiple parties in breach of lockdown rules both this year and last, some of which were attended by the Prime Minister. The public backlash has been fierce, with focus groups telling former Downing Street pollster James Johnson that the Prime Minister is a coward.

There was something about him that made him a bit more personable to me, one voter in the focus group said, who backed the Conservatives for the first time in 2019. Its gone now, because weve lost that trust in him. Now hes just a buffoon He cant be trusted.

Scenting an opportunity, rivals to Johnsons throne are now encircling the Prime Minister preparing their campaigns for the moment when his leadership begins its final descent. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is a front-runner in this pack, by virtue of her popularity among Conservative Party members.

But Truss also has another crucial constituency of support that may bolster her efforts to seize control of the Conservative Party: for years, she has developed close ties to the Tufton Street network a group of libertarian think tanks and lobbying groups, many of which are opaquely funded, that for years have exerted considerable influence on the policy decisions and the operation of the Tories.

Several of the groups are currently or were formerly based in brick-clad offices along Tufton Street in Londons Westminster, creating an association between a political ideology and the address as well as suspicions that these libertarian organisations closely coordinate their work.

Tufton Street is much like Fleet Street the former habitat of the newspaper industry. While the titles that were once based there have now scattered across London, Fleet Street is still used as a shorthand phrase for the industry much like Tufton Street and the world of libertarian politics.

Indeed, Shahmir Sanni, a Brexit whistleblower who formerly worked within the Tufton Street network, says that these groups regularly held meetings at 55 Tufton Street to agree on a single set of right-wing talking points and to [secure] more exposure to thepublic.

These organisations are bound by their support for Brexit the Vote Leave campaign was originally registered at 55 Tufton Street and their vigour for low taxes, laissez faire economics, a smaller state, and seemingly close relationship with Liz Truss.

Attempting to institutionalise a right-wing political ideology, the Conservative Party has deployed the public appointments system to install sympathetic individuals in prominent government roles.

This strategy has been adopted by Truss, seen actively during her time as International Trade Secretary from July 2019 to September 2021, which involved the awarding of public positions to Tufton Street insiders.

In October 2020, for example, the radical, right-wing website Guido Fawkes gleefully reported that Truss had appointed a swathe of free market think tankers to her refreshed Strategic Trade Advisory Group a forum of businesses and academics, which meets regularly to consider the UKs international trade policies.

These appointments included:

Lord Hannan himself was also appointed as an advisor to the Board of Trade a commercial body within the Department for International Trade in September 2020. His Initiative for Free Trade was formerly based at 57 Tufton Street, sharing an office with Colviles Centre for Policy Studies, based around the corner from the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Following these appointments to the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, former Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake wrote to Truss, asking whether proper due diligence had taken place in the recruitment process. Brake asked her to explain what additional checks had been carried out on the organisations that employ these individuals which have a history of failing to declare their donors to ensure that they are not funded by those who might be deemed to be agents of a foreign principal.

Core members of Truss own team have also been drawn from the Tufton Street network.

Sophie Jarvis who previously worked as head of government affairs at the Adam Smith Institute has been a special advisor to Truss at the Department for International Trade and now the Foreign Office. Nerissa Chesterfield, former head of communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs, was also employed as a special advisor to Truss from August 2019 to February 2020 leaving to work for Rishi Sunak, one of Trusss main competitors for the Conservative leadership.

Truss has also recently been given responsibility for post-Brexit negotiations with the EU tasked with ensuring a diplomatic resolutions to various trade disputes. Assisting Truss in this task is Minister of State for Europe Chris Heaton-Harris who chaired the European Research Group, a network of hard-right Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, from 2010 to 2016.

In August 2019, Truss appointed eight advisors to recommend locations for new, post-Brexit freeports ports where normal tax and customs rules do not apply two of whom were senior members of Tufton Street think tanks. One was Tom Clougherty head of tax at the Centre for Policy Studies. Clougherty was previously executive director of theAdam Smith Institute, managingeditor at the libertarian Reason Foundation, and senior editor at the CatoInstitute co-founded and part-funded by the Koch brothers, two radical, right-wing American billionaires.

Truss has surrounded herself with Tufton Street figures, with her departments often relying on their policy advice. She and her ministers held a swathe of official meetings with representatives of Tufton Street think tanks and lobbying groups during her time at the Department for International Trade, departmental records show.

Controversially, two meetings between the Institute of Economic Affairs and Truss were removed from departmental records in August 2020 justified on the basis that they were personal rather than official meetings. Labour accused Truss of appearing to be evading rules designed to ensure integrity, transparency and honesty in public office, and the records were subsequently reinstated.

It was also revealed in December 2018 that Truss met with five American libertarian groups during a visit to Washington D.C. that cost taxpayers more than 5,000. The organisations included:

The majority of these organisations have been closely associated with climate change denial or policies that obstruct efforts to address climate change and its effects.

Americans for Tax Reform belongs to aninternational coalition of anti-tax, free-market campaign groups called the World Taxpayers Associations, according to DeSmog. This includes the TaxPayers Alliance an influential UK libertarian pressure group founded by Matthew Elliot, who was the CEO of the Vote Leave EU Referendum campaign.

Elliott, an authoritative figure on the right, reserved special praise for Truss after an event hosted by Policy Exchange in September 2021, in which they both participated. Truss was on great form, he said, outlining a bold, exciting vision for how boosting international trade benefits UK consumers and workers across the country.

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Truss, along with a number of her colleagues, recently signed up as a parliamentary supporter of the Free Market Forum a new free market project launched by the Institute of Economic Affairs and advised by Elliott.

The MP for South West Norfolk since 2010, she is viewed widely as a political chameleon a former Liberal Democrat and a supporter of the Remain campaign in 2016 but her libertarian convictions have been evident since entering Parliament in 2010.

At the September 2021 Policy Exchange event, the Oxford University graduate emphasised her desire to [champion] open markets and free enterprise, saying that protectionism is no way to protect peoples living standards. This could well have been a veiled swipe at her boss, Boris Johnson, who has been seen as an interventionist Prime Minister using state spending and powers to achieve his political objectives, and raising taxes as a result.

At this critical time, we need trade to curb any rise in the cost of living through the power of economic openness, Truss added.

These sentiments chime with the attitudes of the Tufton Street network, establishing Truss as the Thatcherite contender in the upcoming Conservative leadership contest whenever it may take place.

Johnson has authoritarian instincts, and is certainly not a moderate Prime Minister. However, whichever direction the Conservative Party takes in the post-Johnson era, it seems likely to be more radical particularly in relation to economics. Truss, as the Tufton Street candidate, represents the sharp end of this spear.

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Liz Truss: The Tufton Street Candidate Byline Times - Byline Times

Staff Report| The Reporter Times

The following individuals have signed up for the upcoming primary elections in Morgan County scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 3.

This list of candidates was provided to the Reporter-Times on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

'A rare opportunity': Martinsville partners with global company to develop fiber network.

Candidates must file by noon on Friday, Feb. 4.

Richard Myers (Republican)

Kenny Hale (Republican)

Randy Mitchell(Republican)

Stephanie Elliott(Republican)

Tammy Parker(Republican)

Julie Brittain-Minton(Republican)

Chip Keller (District 1) (Republican)

Melissa Green (District 2)(Republican)

Kelly Alcala (District 3)(Republican)

Pam MItchell(Republican)

Charlie Haynes (independent)

Duane Stanley (independent)

Walter Worley (independent)

Danny Chenault(Republican)

Loren Moore (District 2)(Republican)

Philip Fowler (District 3)(Republican)

Sharon McIntosh(Republican)

Lester Duncan (District 1)(Republican)

David Hermann(Republican)

William Snyder(Republican)

Bill Mitchell(Republican)

Charlene Pugh(Republican)

Jon Fletcher(Republican)

Billy Abraham(Republican)

John Phillips(Republican)

Tom Carter(Republican)

Jim Lankford(Republican)

Larry Ellis(Republican)

Denise McClure(Republican)

Kristin Alexander (Libertarian)

James Johnson(Republican)

Ronald Burnett(Republican)

Francie Zoller-Teeters(Republican)

Continued here:
Here are the candidates who have filed to run in the upcoming election by Tuesday, Jan. 18 - Reporter-Times