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Super-Tough Dennis Daugaard: Go Ahead, Rub My Muscles

Nodding and smiling at Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s call for cutting occupational licensure requirements, Governor Dennis Daugaard says South Dakota should get rid of massage therapy licenses and provides the quote of the week:

“I honestly am not worried about somebody rubbing my muscles so hard that they’ll injure me or that they’ll need a license to protect me from them,” Daugaard continued [Dana Ferguson, “Daugaard: Massage Therapists Shouldn’t Need Licenses,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2017.08.03].

Dennis Daugaard, super-tough!

If I didn’t know better, I’d think the Governor trying to subtly signal San Francisco that he’d really like them to cancel their South Dakota travel ban.

Daugaard's masseur needs no license.
Is that all you’ve got? Come on—harder!

18 Comments

  1. Rorschach 2017-08-03 20:15

    Awesome!! The return of massage therapy at hunting lodges everywhere!

  2. grudznick 2017-08-03 20:22

    The Bonecracker Caucus is not going to take kindly to that kind of British fake news, Mr. Lansing.

  3. Curt 2017-08-03 22:16

    Returning to the topic of the post, there are multiple reasons and purposes for the state to require professional licenses. Probably chief among them is to function as a gatekeeper and minimize unwanted competition. That is who generally lobbies for establishing these criteria for admission into the various occupations – the people already in those occupations. The state also likes to have leverage over practitioners of the various professions so they can regulate personal conduct. More than one instance of questionable behavior has ended with someone surrendering a professional license in lieu of prosecution. But OK, Gov Daugaard ease up on the massage therapists – but I’m pretty sure that is not what is holding our state back.

  4. buckobear 2017-08-03 23:29

    Will they, at least, be required to wash their hands??

  5. leslie 2017-08-03 23:43

    Daugaard is an embarrassment on SDPB today, and is a lap dog who is not capable of thinking for himself. He said “i hate dependency, I wish the tribes would [quit buying sacred sites] and take care of grama”. He has spurned hundreds of millions of health care progress in SD and killed 30-90 citizens annually for the last several years who needed Medicaid expansion.

    LBJ said as much establishing “entitlements” –“we must take care of gramma!!” The dems have taken care of gramma for 50 years.

    SDPB by the way is an embarrassment too. The new talking head is an unqualified conservative and gets more air time than NPR in all its conservatively compromised programming.

    Trump is an embarrassment. He” Tells Australia Prime Minister That He ‘Hates Taking’ Refugees”. Prisoners of war. ‘Losers’ in general.
    He was wrong about key details of the deal he was disparaging too. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-refugees-australia_us_5983310ce4b06d4888748baf Also, http://www.salon.com/2017/08/03/susan-rice-didnt-do-anything-wrong-trump-administration-finds-report/ And then there is Sessions, doing more damage than an old southern racist lawyer should: https://www.thenation.com/article/what-is-the-future-of-affirmative-action-under-jeff-sessionss-department-of-justice/ And Scott Pruitt and the Republican Attorneys General Assoc (RAGA): http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/08/01/epa-doing-right-thing-not-possible-under-trump-says-protesting-official/xCydy5sgtIIHOMsUHOOgAP/story.html?event=event25&s_campaign=sm_gp&hl=en-US

    Democrats have a historic opportunity. They must not make the rich richer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/03/democrats-trump-better-deal-income-inequality

    We need to turn SD around and elect a dem to a major office.

  6. OldSarg 2017-08-04 05:52

    Democrats now only have full control of the legislative and executive branch in six states.

    Population of GOP-controlled states: 164,139,104

    Population of Dem-controlled states: 50,190,213

    http://www.atr.org/map

  7. mike from iowa 2017-08-04 08:14

    So Daugaard is going to allow perverts and child molesters to get their hands on your nekkid sons, daughters and wives and mist importantly mistresses.

    Is there a potential first lady in waiting wanting a job as an excort?

  8. Dave 2017-08-04 08:23

    Lets do away with the professional licences for civil engineering…. i want to build a dam… or a wall…

  9. Eve Fisher 2017-08-04 08:25

    As someone with severe osteoarthritis, this is what I wrote on the Argus Leader comments page:
    “Sorry, massage therapists should be licensed, because they are medical therapists. There really is a wrong way and a right way to treat various conditions like arthritis, MS, etc., and I want to know that my massage therapist has been trained to know what s/he is doing.”

  10. Donald Pay 2017-08-04 09:51

    Eve Fischer is right.

    The leisure class, ie., DD and well-heeled flunkies Trump puts into positions of power, are interested only in their comfort and low-cost services provided to them by minimum wage flunkies. They want to go to spas where they can pretend to “work out” then have warm stones place on their spine to ease their “pain.” Or, perhaps, all he cares about is a “happy ending.”

    Not having done a lick of real work in is life, DD probably does not have any work-related pain, though I suppose sitting on one’s ass all day can cause some lower back problems. But thousands of South Dakotans who actually do the work that DD disdains often end up with problems that massage therapists, one’s that actually know how nerves, muscle and bones interact, can help.

    My HMO is a leader in using massage and chiropractic manipulation to decrease pain in patients, to decrease medical costs through avoiding unnecessary surgeries and to decrease use of opioids for pain relief. They only hire certified massage therapists who know, in Trump’s words, “what the hell is going on,” something Acosta and Daugaard obviously don’t.

  11. Loren 2017-08-04 10:05

    I lived in Alaska during the early years of the oil boom. Lots of money and LOTS of unregulated “message parlors/practitioners”. Many advertised a “magic carpet ride”. I don’t even know what that means, but I’m sure it is NOT taught at message therapy school. Very “interesting” times! LOL! You do, Dudley!

  12. bearcreekbat 2017-08-04 10:52

    Eve and Don are absolutely correct. A well trained massage therapist is a godsend to people with bodily pain.

  13. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-08-04 11:06

    Well, Curt, maybe we should just consider the Governor’s comment as a sop to the White House, an empty statement on a nnon-controversial issue that won’t go anywhere when the Legislature convenes five months from now but which gives the Labor Secretary a warm fuzzy while he’s here and keeps him from feeling like he flew all the way to South Dakota for nothing.

    The requirements for a massage therapy license are 500 hours of training, $75 for the initial application, $45 each year for the license, and 8 hours of continuing education every two years. This August 2016 document from the Board of Massage Therapy indicates that in 2016, it licensed 820 massage therapists. The same document shows North Dakota charges $150 to apply and get one’s first license, then $100 to renew every two years. North Dakota had 730 licensed massage therapists. Despite higher application and licensing costs, North Dakota has a slightly higher ratio of massage therapists to population than South Dakota.

  14. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-08-04 11:08

    Bear, given the genuine health benefits that Don and Eve and the practitioners will assert, will their lobbyists in Pierre allow the Legislature to strip away the licensure process that gives them a competitive advantage against the casual back-rubbers who would cut into their business but lack the knowledge to provide those benefits?

  15. bearcreekbat 2017-08-04 11:47

    Cory, I sure hope not.

    Disclosure – I have a very close relative who is a licensed massage therapist. I cannot believe how much she has learned about the human anatomy. She also teaches new therapists the science of therapeutic massage and is a qualified provider for most insurance companies. She receives many referrals from MDs and chiropractors.

    At one point a few years ago I developed a stiffness in my neck such that I could not turn my head due to extreme neck pain. In two sessions she discovered that the problem was in my lower back and worked on loosening tightened lower back muscles that apparently connected to my neck muscles. Her efforts worked wonders and I haven’t had the problem return. Every single person I know that has used her services has reported experiencing similar positive results.

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