One odd note resounds in Attorney General Jason Ravnsnorg’s response to the public doubts about his assessment of the legal status of CBD oil in South Dakota. Our hapless AG alleges that unnamed critics are attacking Governor Kristi Noem:
“If you don’t like that position and you would like to make a change you need to contact your legislators, not attack the governor’s office, and talk to them about making change,” Ravnsborg said. “I am the enforcer of the law. I don’t get to pick and choose” [Nick Reagan, “Ravnsborg Weighs in on CBD,” KEVN-TV, updated 2019.04.19].
Attack seems a rather strong word, suggesting both a hypersensitivity and a strange interpretation of the independently elected AG’s job as flak for the Governor. And, as usual, Ravnsborg advice is misdirected. Citizens had already contacted their legislators and secured widespread agreement that legalizing industrial hemp and its many useful products was a good idea. Governor Noem was the only state official vocally and passionately opposing that sensible commercial and agricultural move. She single-handedly killed hemp (and by extension in Ravnsborg’s cramped mind, CBD oil) with her veto pen, so why would citizens not contact the governor and try to change her mind?
What is this, Trump in miniature? Now Kristi has her own “Roy Cohen”? Way to go, SD!
Ravnsnorg’s an alleged bigger laughing stock that one foresaw. Apparently neither the AG or the governor support SD farmers or common sense.
Thanks for sharing this.
@CAH You need to reassess your claim that Governor Noem was the only state official opposing hemp and “single handedly killed hemp.” Both statements are factually incorrect.
In the Senate, Senator Kris Langer (R-Dell Rapids) previously supported hemp efforts; however, this year she became a vocal opponent of hemp for the governor in the Senate. Additionally, my dear friend Senator Russell (R-Hot Springs) has long been a vocal opponent.
The 13 senators who voted against overriding her veto are actually the ones who are responsible for the bill failing: https://sdlegislature.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/RollCall.aspx?Vote=29387&Session=2019
Incidentally, 6 of those “Nay” votes flipped from their previous years support of hemp.
AG Ravnsborg is correct, the thirteen who voted “Nay” are the ones folks should address their angst to..
He needs a lesson on how the legislature works. 🙄
Sure sounds like this administration has learned the most essential lesson of governing South Dakota- pass the buck.
In 1977, a decade after the Federal Gun Control Act restricted firearms sales, activist board members seized control of the [NRA] and transformed it into an advocacy organization for gun owners’ rights. Officials knew that this new mission would require a more sophisticated approach to public relations….hiring Ackerman McQueen….
Court has recast the Constitution’s core principles of personal freedom, equality, and democratic accountability to entrench the power of employers and the wealthy.
1973, Powell wrote the opinion in which the Court ruled that there was no constitutional protection for the poor, and no violation of equal protection when school-funding schemes mandated wildly different levels of funding in rich and poor neighborhoods. In 1976, his fellow Nixon appointee Harry Blackmun wrote the first opinion using free speech to protect commercial advertising, setting up the Court’s later rulings protecting tobacco and pharmaceutical ads from regulation.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-bosses-constitution/
Aw, poor No Show got her fee fees hurt by all those SD folks calling her an idiot for her stance on hemp. Doesn’t matter that it’s true. Noem, like Trump, represents her base only and doesn’t much like it when faced with overwhelming dissent from the masses. If only those who so fervently defend the 2nd Amendment also believed in the First. Ravnsborg is such a good little lap dog defending his master, isn’t he?
Kristi is a militia tactical cap wearing authoritarian and “Ravsnorg” is just as confused about deadlines, hemp, sentencing and money as free speech.
Justice Elena Kagan accused the Court’s conservative majority of “weaponizing” the First Amendment. The same has happened with the 2d Amend. “A mass movement of those who will stand up and say that our founding document was wrong and needs to be changed. A mass movement of those who will thumb their nose at the NRA, an organization that is nothing more than the political wing of the country’s gun manufacturers, and say enough is enough. The Second Amendment must be repealed, and it is the essence of” democracy.https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/why-its-time-to-repeal-the-second-amendment-95622/
Sounds like the AG is a snowflake.
This show was just on earlier this week when U.S. Attorney General Barr acting as Trump’s personal attorney by protecting the president against charges in the Mueller report.
Are Ravnsborg and Barr the personal attorneys for Noem and Trump or do they represent the people of South Dakota and the United States?
Let’s assume your legislators supported your position, while the Governor didn’t. Who does Ravnesborg suggest they contact? Someone badly needs a civics class, don’t they?
In fact, it makes sense no matter what to contact the Governor because in a one party state, the Governor controls or has the ability to control a lot of legislative votes. If you can sway the Governor, you can often bring many of his or her party along. It’s surprising to me that an elected official at the state level, and the AG at that, wouldn’t know this basic civics.
Senator Nelson, I appreciate your reminder that a handful of Senators chose the Ravnsborg route and became craven Noemlackeys on this issue. However, it is still fair to say that Noem single-handedly blocked hemp: had she not raised her objections, HB 1191 would have sailed through the Legislature with little fuss.
As Donald aptly notes, swaying the Governor on this issue would have ended the debate. As Roger and Loren notice, Ravnsborg is taking his cues from Bill Barr. They probably discussed how to bow and scrape at their March 10 meeting:
OK I’m going to swallow hard before I say this.. gulp
I don’t think Ravnsborg is wrong
Ok I am still breathing…
If you listen to the tape he says he is the enforcer but if you don’t like the law to contact your legislators or the governor… which does not match the closed caption or what the reporter wrote done without checking.
So he may be wrong on many things but here he seems to have given the basic lesson if you don’t like it tell someone who can change it.
Listen to the story again
In the Strib’s Business section–
“From downtown Minneapolis to hundreds of rural Minnesota farms, millions of dollars is being invested in the budding Minnesota hemp industry, released to grow after several years of testing by the 2018 federal farm bill.”
Millions of dollars.
Ahhhh, SD. There but for Gov. Noem and the SDGOP goes you.
Maybe when Hemp can be insured thru Federal farm Insurance Noem will say OK…then her husband can sell farmers federal crop insurance, and he will make lots of $$$$$$
John, I appreciate your checking, but as I roll the tape (and thus have to listen to Ravnsborg’s whinging voice), at about 0:30, I hear the AG say “not attack the Governor’s office.” There’s an odd little hitch in his delivery in which he doesn’t enunciate the first syllable of “attack,” but the caption and transcription appear accurate.
I would like to hear the question the prompted this odd defense of the Governor.