At Wingnuts Lunch, Napoli Says Noem Doesn’t Respect Legislature, Tells Rhoden to Shut Up
Published 2019-05-08 by
Cory Allen Heidelberger
Governor Kristi Noem and Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden both attended yesterday’s meeting of the notorious Rapid City Wingnuts. Noem and Rhoden found that the Wingnuts’ radical anti-governmentism includes just a touch of personal anti-Noem-and-Rhoden-ism from its leader, former seven-term legislator Bill Napoli.
Napoli bans media from Wingnuts lunches, which are often riddled with elected officials. Nonetheless, an intrepid West River correspondent invited to the Wingnuts gathering sends this account of a meeting with the Governor that ran mostly like a church revival but ended with blunt insults:
Naked Mole Rat International News Notification, dateline Rapid City SD, 7 May 2019—South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was introduced to a fawning crowd at the regular Tuesday meeting of Rapid City Wing Nuts, a Black Hills para-brownshirt group, at the Eagles Aerie on East Centre Street in Rapid City today.
Head Winged Nut and retired 36-year (by his own claim) South Dakota legislator Bill Napoli, the sort of person who makes one appreciate term limits, moderated the meeting like he owns it. And, he does. Without him no one would bother to host a weekly meeting of deeply patriotic, eye-squinching evangelical, tears-at-the-mention-of-murdered-and-dismembered-unborn-babies, Trump-loving, “illegals”-hating, 2nd-Amendment-worshipping, voter-fraud-fearing, and otherwise decent everyday people.
Apparently Ed Randazzo, a Rapid City character of marginal notoriety, the principal anti-weed Wing Nut, with equally ill-informed anti-choice credentials, discovered Governor Noem was going to speak to the Black Hills Sportsman’s Club at BHSU in Spearfish. According to former Game Warden John Wrede, the format of the Spearfish appearance would be, “Same secluded venue. Small room, special interest group, no visitors or non-members and only questions that aren’t hard to answer.” I think Randazzo called her and put together a stop in Rapid City, the details of which were introduced to a few hundred people on the Wing Nuts email list by Bill Napoli yesterday.
This is the text of that email.
My fellow Wing Nuts.
Exciting day tomorrow at our weekly Tuesday Luncheon. Thanks to Ed Randazzo, who made this all possible. For a bald guy, he done good!!!!
Our special guest will be Governor Kristi Noem. We hope she shows up.
Since we have limited seating, our Loyal Wing Nuts will be seated first. SO, PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY.
No Media Will Be Allowed. This is our chance to be up and close with the Governor.
WE WILL START PROMPTLY AT 11:30am.
Governor Noem will speak for maybe 15-20 minutes, then questions.
REMEMBER!!!!! No LONG Speeches. And, if you ask a good question, you may be allowed a follow up. NO LONG SPEECHES PLEASE!!!
I would ask you all to keep your comments Short! Remember, give everyone a chance to ask a question.
I will gavel down anyone who thinks they are going to get into a verbal disagreement with Noem.
Also, respect your fellow Wing Nuts when they are speaking. Side bar comments are rude.
This should be a great fun. Let’s have an interesting meeting.
Today, Napoli gaveled the meeting into existence at 11:30, had people lead us in worship of the Flag and of God, then told us that Kristi would arrive in about half an hour. That half-hour was partially filled with introductions of the luminaries present, including South Dakota Wing Nut legislators from in and near Rapid City. These included Phil Jenson, Chris Johnson, Tim Goodwin, Blaine Campbell, Taffy Howard and at least one more.
Twenty more minutes were filled with a round-table discussion of our need for the NRA, the bible, god, no abortion, fewer “illegals,” Donald Trump and Kristi Noem. Then Lt.-Governor Larry Rhoden walked in. The Marlboro-man handsome, cowboy-hatted, boots-and-Wranglers-sporting Rhoden was announced by Napoli: “The lt.-governor just arrived.” That seemed a little chilly to me.
A few minutes later, Ed Randazzo entered the hall, having left to greet Gov. Noem in the parking lot; “Ladies and gentlemen! The governor of South Dakota!” Several men and women fainted. Tears welled in the eyes of the rest. Ms. Noem made brief contacts with Napoli and a few others whom she knew, then proceeded to the dais.
Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden watches Gov. Kristi Noem speak to the Rapid City Wingnuts, 2019.05.07.
Let me set the stage. The Eagles conference room is about 40×60. For today, at least, tables were arranged in a rectangle leaving 10 feet of walking space all around the tables. There were card tables lining the outside wall. The room might have comfortably seated 80, and it was about full. Napoli sat in the center of one end of the rectangle. The dais faced him, about 45 feet away.
Attendees at Tuesday’s Rapid City Wingnuts lunch, 2019.05.07.
Noem spoke from the dais, with Rhoden at her right. She gave us a brief narrative of her life as governor for four months. She briefly discussed the legislative session which dominated the first three of those four months. She asked for questions from the floor.
For about 45 minutes, various people raised their arms, and Napoli recognized them and permitted them to address Noem. A considerable amount of Noem’s talking time was consumed with the industrial hemp issue. She explained how the bill came from nowhere (at least as far as she could tell) and grew in popularity far beyond anyone’s expectations. She said she had spent the session trying to educate herself on all aspects of hemp and the politics, and that she had decided South Dakota wasn’t ready. “So, I vetoed it. And the veto was sustained.”
Opposite Kristi Noem—Bill Napoli (center, with grey whiskers) runs Tuesday’s Wingnuts meeting, 2019.05.07.
Napoli cut off questioning. He said, “I know Kristi has to leave pretty soon. But I have something I’d like to ask. Kristi, I watched the legislative system this year and it seemed like, for you, it was ‘My way or the highway.’ I spent 36 years in the Legislature and it seemed like you didn’t have much respect for the legislative process. I mean, you’re just Janklow with long hair.”
I swear that the important parts of that, and what follows, are true and very close to being verbatim. There was more said, but the important parts are here.
Noem responded with a second of silence, then said, “I’m not sure how to respond to that, Bill. I was in the Legislature, too. I was in leadership. I respect the legislative process. I’m not sure where you get, ‘My way or the highway.” She looked at Rhoden, as if to say, ‘You want to respond, Larry?’”
Rhoden stood and began to speak. Napoli said, “I didn’t come here to listen to the lieutenant-governor, I came to listen to the governor. Sit down and shut up. I mean it.” Rhoden tried again to speak, but Napoli shouted him down. Rhoden sat, cowed and seething. I suspect there is history between Napoli and Rhoden.
That pretty much ended the Wing Nuts meeting for May 7, 2019.
Again, I swear that the important events happened just about exactly as I have recounted.
Three things struck me above the rest. First, Napoli violated his own words of caution: “I will gavel down anyone who thinks they are going to get into a verbal disagreement with Noem.” Second, Governor Noem accepted an invitation to a small quasi-private meeting of radicals and officeholders in Rapid City, only to be attacked in a rather bizarre fashion by the invitor, albeit invited by way of one of Napoli’s sycophants, Randazzo. Third, Noem did not offer a single word of rebuke while witnessing her lieutenant governor being humiliated in a most ad-hominem fashion by the invitor.
Then, I remembered that Napoli, a few years ago, in a National Public Radio defense of his extreme anti-abortion bill, said, in defense of its escape clause that would allow abortion to save the life of the mother, “A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.” This quickly became known as “the sodomized religious virgin exception.” Little else need be said about Bill Napoli.
Oh, the northern plains have endured many pains, but the painfullest they ever did feel, was the day in the town when Napoli came down, and thought he owned the deal. And I guess he did.
“…sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated.” Don’t get much worse than that.
—special correspondent to Dakota Free Press, 2019.05.07
Janklow with long hair—Napoli didn’t mean that favorably, but Noem and many Republicans might take that as a compliment. The statement may be inaccurate in ascribing to Noem any of the vision and skill Janklow possessed, but in terms of authoritarian bent, Napoli is right on the money.
I eagerly await the non-denial denials about this meeting.
Four little takeaways from this intrepid reporter’s dispatch.
1. It seems that the current populist right worships guns more than they worship God.
2. Napoli’s outburst notwithstanding, the Cult of Kristi holds remains fervent.
3. Noem has no political loyalty and will throw anyone including her lt. governor under the bus.
4. Noem remains a political neophyte despite all of her years in Pierre and DC. There’s no way Janklow would have walked into this trap, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have begun his comeback with “I give respect to people worthy of it and that obviously not you.”
Nick Nemec
The Hemp bill “came out of no where”? Has she been paying attention? Tell that to the legislators who have been working on hemp legislation for years. I’m afraid she is suffering from some sort of reefer madness.
grudznick
Hilarious stuff, this. Now you can see why our group splintered off and have polite breakfasts instead of angry lunches.
Messrs. Randazzo and Napoli, the latter of junkyard fame, are Howites of Gordantic proportions.
geri mattern
As I read this I laughed and then cried when I realized how totally screwed this state is. It’s bad enough this group of people, a term I use loosely, exist but the fact that our fearless leader felt the need to attend speaks volumes. I had not heard of the “sodomized religious virgin exception rule” but damn it’s going to take a lot to make me forget it.
lrads1
“Came out of nowhere” is just code for “it wasn’t my idea” or “the prime sponsor wasn’t a GOP legislator.”
96Tears
Thanks for the laughs! Next meetings ought to be video recorded and saved up for the campaign. Noem and Lt. Gov. What’shisname were idiots to walk into that one. One termers.
JW
I might personally call Napoli and congratulate him on his Rhoden management. There never was a bigger crook in SD.
TAG
Funny to read about our leaders being forced to face the bizarre consequences of allying with the nutty extreme ends of their party. Strange bedfellows. Strange times.
bearcreekbat
Strange times indeed! Not only nationally, but in one week the Governor of SD gets banned from one of our largest Naive American jurisdictions and dissed by her very own wingnut crazies. What next? Are we in some sort of time warp or movie/sci-fi/fantasy world?
Victoria Arch Caudill
😲 Wow! Wingnuts? Is the name a joke?
I never underestimate Noem’s ignorance
Nope, no joke, Victoria. They adopted the name themselves.
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
You can still find a lot of stuff on Napoli by googling “Napoli, sodomized religious virgin.”
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
A few years ago Bill Fleming’s ad agency in Rapid City demonized Sam Kooiker by creating an political pamphlet for his RC mayoral opponent Alan Hanks. The cover had a picture of a wing nut, and went on to let a reader know that it meant Kooiker.
Napoli started his little Tuesday lovefests about that time, and adopted the name with pride.
mike from iowa
ICYI, Sam Kooiker is city manager of Sheldon, iowa. He left my hometown of Cherokee to accept a job with moar responsibilities and closer to his hometown.
I went to Cherokee one day and walked in to his office and had a nice chat with him. He truly seems like a nice guy.
Grudzilla is prolly choking on bile now that we outsiders know wingnuts call themselves wingnuts. What’s in a name Grudzilla? A wingnut in denuial is still a wingnut, wingnut.
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
Kooiker is an extremely nice guy, who believes that a sperm that dies without an opportunity to meet an egg has been murdered.
mike from iowa
The Hemp bill “came out of no where”? Has she been paying attention?
Had Noem bothered to show up in DC on occasion she would likely have had some clews about the stuff. It was prominently displayed in the 2018 Farm bill debacle which all wingnuts voted for.
mike from iowa
Sam and I kept the convo light and breezy. His abortion beliefs are prolly from his Dutch church upbringing. I didn’t ask.
Donald Pay
I knew and loved Ben Munson. Most people knew him as “the doc who performed abortions in Rapid City.” In his younger days he was quite cantankerous, like Bill Napoli, but when I knew him he had mellowed into a gentle, funny soul. He was considered by many to be an outcast in Rapid City. In spite of performing abortions, Ben brought many babies into the world and fought for civil rights and fair housing for blacks and Indians in Rapid City. He wasn’t so much pro-abortion as he was for women’s rights to choose.
I was thinking about the difference between Ben Munson and Bill Napoli. Ben, in spite of being an atheist, had a very real ability to forgive. He didn’t hate people who were pro-life and gave him a hard time. He would go out and give them treats, if he saw them protesting. He said it was their right to protest. Bill is just the opposite. He proclaims to be Catholic, but he wants no part of actually living a Christian life. He likes to shut down and ridicule people who he disagrees with.
Then I thought of all the people Bill Napoli killed. Bill was pro-choice when it came to seat-belts and helmets, and that pro-choice attitude carried over into lobbying to make sure first responders got to clean up human entrails and brain splatter on South Dakota highways. Yes, I’d wager that Bill Napoli killed far more people than Ben Munson.
Jenny
It just hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Kristi.
Damm, I really miss you people. Your just as damm dumb now as when I was in Pierre. Some things never change. Your ability to understand the English language hasn’t improved either. The theatrics and drama has gotten much better.
jerry
More “God Fearing” from Falwell another fraud just like the ones pictured with wild Bill from vinegar hill.
“Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs — the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation.
According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf.
A special West River correspondent whom I could probably name writes:
Napoli said, “I didn’t come here to listen to the lieutenant-governor, I came to listen to the governor. Sit down and shut up. I mean it.” … I suspect there is history between Napoli and Rhoden.
Speaking of history, I think Bryon Noem unintentionally walked me in an American Legion baseball game at Bryant in 1987 or 1988, and I think Burt Tulson’s daughter Trish had walked over to watch the end of the game after she got off work at the swimming pool adjacent to the field. I’m pretty sure Bryant won.
I’d never made the connection between Kristi’s husband and the Bryant pitcher until several days after visiting with Bryon at the SDPB candidate forum last October.
Why does South Dakota politics always have to be so personal?
grudznick
Mr. Evans writes:
I think Bryon Noem unintentionally walked me in an American Legion baseball game at Bryant in 1987 or 1988, and I think Burt Tulson’s daughter Trish had walked over to watch the end of the game after she got off work at the swimming pool adjacent to the field.
Did you score a run after that free pass by the young Mr. Noem, were you put out on base, or were you left stranded, dangling in the wind with your pants still clean?
And, Mr. Evans, I recommend staying away from the Aerie over there, Mr. Evans. It is filled with overgodders and in a nasty part of town.
The real question Kurt prompts is what swimming pool does Trish Tulson work at today?
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
I have had several conversations with Bill Napoli.
He may still have political aspirations, but I think he realizes that wielding a gavel in room containing 20–50 people is about as close as he will ever be to power again.
His moment of political apex was when he jammed a helmet on the head of a middle- aged woman legislator to show her how uncomfortable and hearing-restricted they were. As a result, helmets are not mandatory for motorcycle riders.
His tenure in the legislature was not a thing of historical merit. On the other hand, compared to, say, Gordon Howie or Lance Russell, he was downright centrist.
From what I gather from the mystery correspondent’s description, Bill found a way to establish that he “told truth to power,” in a manner similar to what twitterpate45 did to his primary contest opponents early in 2016. (I placed sarcastic quote marks around the truth to power phrase.)
The commenters on this thread so far seem to think he was right in his dissing of the guv and the lt-guv. They’re probably happy, generally, to see a nominal republican tear the throat out of another nominal republican.
At its base, what I can make out of the description of what happened— reported by an obviously-biased “correspondent”—this was a rather sudden and gratuitous exchange among three egos. And it appears Napoli won. For whatever that’s worth.
Debbo
“They’re probably happy, generally, to see a nominal republican tear the throat out of another nominal republican.”
I am CIRD. It makes me happy and improves my mood. However, I’m not sending any thank you notes.
I am grateful to the intrepid reporter though. His article is a hoot!
Charlene Lund
Came out of nowhere… – meaning it came from the Democrats!
The Blindman
“Janklow with long hair.”
Its always nice to come back to Madville. I like to set om the park bench looking north on main street. The people are still the same here. If they started out on the left side of the street, that is the sise they stay on. If they started o the right side, then that is where you will find em. Nobody ever crosses the street in Madville, that just isn’t done. They kick tires on other peoples cars and throw dirty looks.
As much as I disliked Bill Janklow, there are three things that you could have counted on with him.
1. He would have never put himself in the posistion Kristi did.
2. When Napoli started in on Janklow and his second in command, wild Bill would have verbally castrated Napoli, and no amountof gavel banging or shouting could have prevented him from doing so..
3. Retribution would comes Bill Napoli’s way. Wild Bill was never a fan of redemtion, he was a firm believer in retaliation.
Where Janklow was evil smart, Kristi is just Kristi.
Always nice having you visit, Blindman! How go things in your neck of the woods?
Blindman is right: Janklow would have walked out of that meeting with scalps hanging from his belt. Noem has to wait for her managers to tell her how to respond to a challenge to her authority. The Governor of South Dakota is not currently the woman we elected; it is the influence peddlers behind her.
mike from iowa
I trapped a ground hog today, Blindman. That is how I knew you’d be checking in. You still won’t get sensible marijuana/hemp laws from wingnuts in South Dakota. Here’s to your health and much , much more life.
T
When she visited out town before election, she was more interested in her cue lady than the people in the room. I swear they had hand signals ….
BTW …CH that was a friendly honk on olive drive, if that was u
Handing out literature yesterday.
Keep on keeping on!
(Not me, T! I wonder who’s handing stuff out, and what that stuff is!)
Debbo
If that was Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, either would have had their say as well, and walked out slipping their eyeshades on, a tiny smile playing at the corners of the mouth.
Noem is not in the same league as any of them. It’s a pity– for SD. But the voters got their R behind the governor’s desk, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too sorry for them.
Porter Lansing
The blog has suffered without “Blindman”. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hugh Hagel
Sounds like a real old fashioned Okay Coral, shoot out, Wing Nuts need to do this more often, very healthy for the Republican Party .
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
Check out Bill Napoli’s Facebook page.
The best line I saw was Ed Randazzo accusing Napoli of “soiling the Wing Nuts.”
I mean, how would one know when a group of self-parodying weirdos has been “soiled?”
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
Janklow rarely missed an opportunity to embarrass or humiliate Napoli.
bearcreekbat
If you follow CIRD’s recommendation to look at Napoli’s facebook page be sure to find the correct Bill Napoli – the first one I found from just typing “Bill Napoli facebook” on Google search was for an anti-Trump person with photos that looked nothing like Rapid City’s Bill. A little deeper searching uncovered this link, which appears to be correct:
Someone else who reads Facebook tells me that there is a hilarious exchange going. Napoli, as he did here, is throwing insults but not actually denying any of the plain facts laid out in the above account (and we all can recognize that the fainting was a rhetorical flourish and not journalism). Meanwhile, Randazzo is suggesting that Napoli and are conspiring to make the Noem Administration look bad.
Together, Napoli and Randazzo represent the denial of simple reality and reason that forms the rotten core of Trumpism.
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
The “fainting” was “rhetorical flourish and not journalism?” I vividly imagined the scene: fat, hailed-out repentant trailer trash overcome at the Presence of Trump’s Stand-in, the vividly worshipful Servant of God, sent to deliver South Dakota from the socialistic grasp of felonious socialists who advocate a woman’s right to own herself.
So, you’re telling me no one actually fainted?
Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices
Currently, Bill Napoli and Ed Randazzo, both truly execrable humans, are arguing over whom is more christian.
“Bill Napoli ‘Ed Randazzo has finally come clean with the truth.Aint no way you can call him a conservative. and I am so glad he did not get elected. and judging by the hate, lies, and slander he is spreading he is not a christian either.'”
What has happened is, that within the syphilitic little world of the Wing Nuts, who exist only as a Tuesday lunch club which usually has a speaker they can idolize or humiliate, Ed Randazzo was getting a little too much ink, while Napoli, who used to get lots of ink, was getting less and less.
These are petty, oblivious, pitiful examples of a particular sort of simian.
CIRD, “rhetorical flourish” seems a more likely interpretation of the passage in question that “strictly factual reportage.”
Nonetheless, the report of fainting is not what provoked the scrap between Napoli and Randazzo. The report of Sodomized-Virgin Bill’s challenge to La Duce and the Marlboro Man, facts not contested by any of the principal players, shows how sensitive the Wingnuts are to be showing in their true light in public… and shows how we need more journalists of all stripes to seek out these stories and show the public what kind of brutes and petty squabblers the conservatives trying to control our state and our public discourse really are.
grudznick
If Messrs. Napoli and Randazzo would agree to be locked in a shipping container for a period lot less than it takes for both to be bloodied by the flurry of each other’s tiny fists, the winner could deliver the Opening Rant at the Campbell Street Cafe this morning.
The real question Kurt prompts is what swimming pool does Trish Tulson work at today?
I’m pretty sure Trish acquired a new last name at some point, but a question this prompts for me is whether her 32-year-old sister is still single. That woman is next-level holy, like a female version of Christ.
Trish actually agreed to meet me for lunch at Jacks’ Place when we were juniors at SDSU. (Is that just a pizza place now?) My attempts at conversation were so lame that I feel bad to this day about putting her through it, but it didn’t stop her from befriending me and even initiating a goodbye hug at the end of the school year. She was, and presumably still is, an extraordinarily kind individual.
But I refuse to let Cory Heidelberger drag this discussion any farther off topic (ha ha).
Cory writes:
Together, Napoli and Randazzo represent the denial of simple reality and reason that forms the rotten core of Trumpism.
I think I understand and mostly agree with the criticisms I’ve seen of Bill Napoli, but what’s your beef with Ed? Is it a matter of character flaws like those attributed to Bill, or is it mainly an objection to Ed’s political views?
Randazzo peddles gun fanaticism, pro-life absolutism, Islamophobia, and other culture-war props that distract the electorate from voting on substantive public policy issues that have far greater impact on our daily lives. Randazzo’s politics distract voters from recognizing, for instance, the basic unfitness for office or public service of impious Manhattan billionaire Donald Trump.
Debbo
What Cory said, referring to not only Randazzo, but most of the SDGOP and GOP leadership, such as it is, and the “Christians” like Falwell, Graham, Dobson, Perkins, Jeffress, White, etc. They are a truly shameful, but undeservedly shameless bunch.
Debbo
Oh, and their funders like Kochs, Waltons, Greens, Mercers, Scaifs, etc. Also truly shameful, but undeservedly shameless.
I think I understand and mostly agree with the criticisms I’ve seen of Bill Napoli, but what’s your beef with Ed?
Cory writes:
… Randazzo’s politics distract voters from recognizing, for instance, the basic unfitness for office or public service of impious Manhattan billionaire Donald Trump.
Thanks, Cory. I appreciate a response that’s both complete and concise.
I eagerly await the non-denial denials about this meeting.
Four little takeaways from this intrepid reporter’s dispatch.
1. It seems that the current populist right worships guns more than they worship God.
2. Napoli’s outburst notwithstanding, the Cult of Kristi holds remains fervent.
3. Noem has no political loyalty and will throw anyone including her lt. governor under the bus.
4. Noem remains a political neophyte despite all of her years in Pierre and DC. There’s no way Janklow would have walked into this trap, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have begun his comeback with “I give respect to people worthy of it and that obviously not you.”
The Hemp bill “came out of no where”? Has she been paying attention? Tell that to the legislators who have been working on hemp legislation for years. I’m afraid she is suffering from some sort of reefer madness.
Hilarious stuff, this. Now you can see why our group splintered off and have polite breakfasts instead of angry lunches.
Messrs. Randazzo and Napoli, the latter of junkyard fame, are Howites of Gordantic proportions.
As I read this I laughed and then cried when I realized how totally screwed this state is. It’s bad enough this group of people, a term I use loosely, exist but the fact that our fearless leader felt the need to attend speaks volumes. I had not heard of the “sodomized religious virgin exception rule” but damn it’s going to take a lot to make me forget it.
“Came out of nowhere” is just code for “it wasn’t my idea” or “the prime sponsor wasn’t a GOP legislator.”
Thanks for the laughs! Next meetings ought to be video recorded and saved up for the campaign. Noem and Lt. Gov. What’shisname were idiots to walk into that one. One termers.
I might personally call Napoli and congratulate him on his Rhoden management. There never was a bigger crook in SD.
Funny to read about our leaders being forced to face the bizarre consequences of allying with the nutty extreme ends of their party. Strange bedfellows. Strange times.
Strange times indeed! Not only nationally, but in one week the Governor of SD gets banned from one of our largest Naive American jurisdictions and dissed by her very own wingnut crazies. What next? Are we in some sort of time warp or movie/sci-fi/fantasy world?
😲 Wow! Wingnuts? Is the name a joke?
I never underestimate Noem’s ignorance
Nope, no joke, Victoria. They adopted the name themselves.
You can still find a lot of stuff on Napoli by googling “Napoli, sodomized religious virgin.”
A few years ago Bill Fleming’s ad agency in Rapid City demonized Sam Kooiker by creating an political pamphlet for his RC mayoral opponent Alan Hanks. The cover had a picture of a wing nut, and went on to let a reader know that it meant Kooiker.
Napoli started his little Tuesday lovefests about that time, and adopted the name with pride.
ICYI, Sam Kooiker is city manager of Sheldon, iowa. He left my hometown of Cherokee to accept a job with moar responsibilities and closer to his hometown.
I went to Cherokee one day and walked in to his office and had a nice chat with him. He truly seems like a nice guy.
Grudzilla is prolly choking on bile now that we outsiders know wingnuts call themselves wingnuts. What’s in a name Grudzilla? A wingnut in denuial is still a wingnut, wingnut.
Kooiker is an extremely nice guy, who believes that a sperm that dies without an opportunity to meet an egg has been murdered.
The Hemp bill “came out of no where”? Has she been paying attention?
Had Noem bothered to show up in DC on occasion she would likely have had some clews about the stuff. It was prominently displayed in the 2018 Farm bill debacle which all wingnuts voted for.
Sam and I kept the convo light and breezy. His abortion beliefs are prolly from his Dutch church upbringing. I didn’t ask.
I knew and loved Ben Munson. Most people knew him as “the doc who performed abortions in Rapid City.” In his younger days he was quite cantankerous, like Bill Napoli, but when I knew him he had mellowed into a gentle, funny soul. He was considered by many to be an outcast in Rapid City. In spite of performing abortions, Ben brought many babies into the world and fought for civil rights and fair housing for blacks and Indians in Rapid City. He wasn’t so much pro-abortion as he was for women’s rights to choose.
I was thinking about the difference between Ben Munson and Bill Napoli. Ben, in spite of being an atheist, had a very real ability to forgive. He didn’t hate people who were pro-life and gave him a hard time. He would go out and give them treats, if he saw them protesting. He said it was their right to protest. Bill is just the opposite. He proclaims to be Catholic, but he wants no part of actually living a Christian life. He likes to shut down and ridicule people who he disagrees with.
Then I thought of all the people Bill Napoli killed. Bill was pro-choice when it came to seat-belts and helmets, and that pro-choice attitude carried over into lobbying to make sure first responders got to clean up human entrails and brain splatter on South Dakota highways. Yes, I’d wager that Bill Napoli killed far more people than Ben Munson.
It just hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Kristi.
From the white, God fearing citizens of Rock Ridge to the Governor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On73aHpgdSQ
Damm, I really miss you people. Your just as damm dumb now as when I was in Pierre. Some things never change. Your ability to understand the English language hasn’t improved either. The theatrics and drama has gotten much better.
More “God Fearing” from Falwell another fraud just like the ones pictured with wild Bill from vinegar hill.
“Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs — the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation.
According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf.
The Falwells, through a lawyer, declined to comment for this article.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-falwell-exclusive/exclusive-trump-fixer-cohen-says-he-helped-falwell-handle-racy-photos-idUSKCN1SD2JG
These folks are frauds, simple as that and they know they are.
A special West River correspondent whom I could probably name writes:
Speaking of history, I think Bryon Noem unintentionally walked me in an American Legion baseball game at Bryant in 1987 or 1988, and I think Burt Tulson’s daughter Trish had walked over to watch the end of the game after she got off work at the swimming pool adjacent to the field. I’m pretty sure Bryant won.
I’d never made the connection between Kristi’s husband and the Bryant pitcher until several days after visiting with Bryon at the SDPB candidate forum last October.
Why does South Dakota politics always have to be so personal?
Mr. Evans writes:
Did you score a run after that free pass by the young Mr. Noem, were you put out on base, or were you left stranded, dangling in the wind with your pants still clean?
And, Mr. Evans, I recommend staying away from the Aerie over there, Mr. Evans. It is filled with overgodders and in a nasty part of town.
The real question Kurt prompts is what swimming pool does Trish Tulson work at today?
I have had several conversations with Bill Napoli.
He may still have political aspirations, but I think he realizes that wielding a gavel in room containing 20–50 people is about as close as he will ever be to power again.
His moment of political apex was when he jammed a helmet on the head of a middle- aged woman legislator to show her how uncomfortable and hearing-restricted they were. As a result, helmets are not mandatory for motorcycle riders.
His tenure in the legislature was not a thing of historical merit. On the other hand, compared to, say, Gordon Howie or Lance Russell, he was downright centrist.
From what I gather from the mystery correspondent’s description, Bill found a way to establish that he “told truth to power,” in a manner similar to what twitterpate45 did to his primary contest opponents early in 2016. (I placed sarcastic quote marks around the truth to power phrase.)
The commenters on this thread so far seem to think he was right in his dissing of the guv and the lt-guv. They’re probably happy, generally, to see a nominal republican tear the throat out of another nominal republican.
At its base, what I can make out of the description of what happened— reported by an obviously-biased “correspondent”—this was a rather sudden and gratuitous exchange among three egos. And it appears Napoli won. For whatever that’s worth.
“They’re probably happy, generally, to see a nominal republican tear the throat out of another nominal republican.”
I am CIRD. It makes me happy and improves my mood. However, I’m not sending any thank you notes.
I am grateful to the intrepid reporter though. His article is a hoot!
Came out of nowhere… – meaning it came from the Democrats!
“Janklow with long hair.”
Its always nice to come back to Madville. I like to set om the park bench looking north on main street. The people are still the same here. If they started out on the left side of the street, that is the sise they stay on. If they started o the right side, then that is where you will find em. Nobody ever crosses the street in Madville, that just isn’t done. They kick tires on other peoples cars and throw dirty looks.
As much as I disliked Bill Janklow, there are three things that you could have counted on with him.
1. He would have never put himself in the posistion Kristi did.
2. When Napoli started in on Janklow and his second in command, wild Bill would have verbally castrated Napoli, and no amountof gavel banging or shouting could have prevented him from doing so..
3. Retribution would comes Bill Napoli’s way. Wild Bill was never a fan of redemtion, he was a firm believer in retaliation.
Where Janklow was evil smart, Kristi is just Kristi.
Always nice coming back to Madville.
Always nice having you visit, Blindman! How go things in your neck of the woods?
Blindman is right: Janklow would have walked out of that meeting with scalps hanging from his belt. Noem has to wait for her managers to tell her how to respond to a challenge to her authority. The Governor of South Dakota is not currently the woman we elected; it is the influence peddlers behind her.
I trapped a ground hog today, Blindman. That is how I knew you’d be checking in. You still won’t get sensible marijuana/hemp laws from wingnuts in South Dakota. Here’s to your health and much , much more life.
When she visited out town before election, she was more interested in her cue lady than the people in the room. I swear they had hand signals ….
BTW …CH that was a friendly honk on olive drive, if that was u
Handing out literature yesterday.
Keep on keeping on!
(Not me, T! I wonder who’s handing stuff out, and what that stuff is!)
If that was Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters, either would have had their say as well, and walked out slipping their eyeshades on, a tiny smile playing at the corners of the mouth.
Noem is not in the same league as any of them. It’s a pity– for SD. But the voters got their R behind the governor’s desk, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too sorry for them.
The blog has suffered without “Blindman”. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Sounds like a real old fashioned Okay Coral, shoot out, Wing Nuts need to do this more often, very healthy for the Republican Party .
Check out Bill Napoli’s Facebook page.
The best line I saw was Ed Randazzo accusing Napoli of “soiling the Wing Nuts.”
I mean, how would one know when a group of self-parodying weirdos has been “soiled?”
Janklow rarely missed an opportunity to embarrass or humiliate Napoli.
If you follow CIRD’s recommendation to look at Napoli’s facebook page be sure to find the correct Bill Napoli – the first one I found from just typing “Bill Napoli facebook” on Google search was for an anti-Trump person with photos that looked nothing like Rapid City’s Bill. A little deeper searching uncovered this link, which appears to be correct:
https://www.facebook.com/bill.napoli.984
Someone else who reads Facebook tells me that there is a hilarious exchange going. Napoli, as he did here, is throwing insults but not actually denying any of the plain facts laid out in the above account (and we all can recognize that the fainting was a rhetorical flourish and not journalism). Meanwhile, Randazzo is suggesting that Napoli and are conspiring to make the Noem Administration look bad.
Together, Napoli and Randazzo represent the denial of simple reality and reason that forms the rotten core of Trumpism.
The “fainting” was “rhetorical flourish and not journalism?” I vividly imagined the scene: fat, hailed-out repentant trailer trash overcome at the Presence of Trump’s Stand-in, the vividly worshipful Servant of God, sent to deliver South Dakota from the socialistic grasp of felonious socialists who advocate a woman’s right to own herself.
So, you’re telling me no one actually fainted?
Currently, Bill Napoli and Ed Randazzo, both truly execrable humans, are arguing over whom is more christian.
“Bill Napoli ‘Ed Randazzo has finally come clean with the truth.Aint no way you can call him a conservative. and I am so glad he did not get elected. and judging by the hate, lies, and slander he is spreading he is not a christian either.'”
What has happened is, that within the syphilitic little world of the Wing Nuts, who exist only as a Tuesday lunch club which usually has a speaker they can idolize or humiliate, Ed Randazzo was getting a little too much ink, while Napoli, who used to get lots of ink, was getting less and less.
These are petty, oblivious, pitiful examples of a particular sort of simian.
CIRD, “rhetorical flourish” seems a more likely interpretation of the passage in question that “strictly factual reportage.”
Nonetheless, the report of fainting is not what provoked the scrap between Napoli and Randazzo. The report of Sodomized-Virgin Bill’s challenge to La Duce and the Marlboro Man, facts not contested by any of the principal players, shows how sensitive the Wingnuts are to be showing in their true light in public… and shows how we need more journalists of all stripes to seek out these stories and show the public what kind of brutes and petty squabblers the conservatives trying to control our state and our public discourse really are.
If Messrs. Napoli and Randazzo would agree to be locked in a shipping container for a period lot less than it takes for both to be bloodied by the flurry of each other’s tiny fists, the winner could deliver the Opening Rant at the Campbell Street Cafe this morning.
Cory writes:
I’m pretty sure Trish acquired a new last name at some point, but a question this prompts for me is whether her 32-year-old sister is still single. That woman is next-level holy, like a female version of Christ.
Trish actually agreed to meet me for lunch at Jacks’ Place when we were juniors at SDSU. (Is that just a pizza place now?) My attempts at conversation were so lame that I feel bad to this day about putting her through it, but it didn’t stop her from befriending me and even initiating a goodbye hug at the end of the school year. She was, and presumably still is, an extraordinarily kind individual.
But I refuse to let Cory Heidelberger drag this discussion any farther off topic (ha ha).
Cory writes:
I think I understand and mostly agree with the criticisms I’ve seen of Bill Napoli, but what’s your beef with Ed? Is it a matter of character flaws like those attributed to Bill, or is it mainly an objection to Ed’s political views?
Randazzo peddles gun fanaticism, pro-life absolutism, Islamophobia, and other culture-war props that distract the electorate from voting on substantive public policy issues that have far greater impact on our daily lives. Randazzo’s politics distract voters from recognizing, for instance, the basic unfitness for office or public service of impious Manhattan billionaire Donald Trump.
What Cory said, referring to not only Randazzo, but most of the SDGOP and GOP leadership, such as it is, and the “Christians” like Falwell, Graham, Dobson, Perkins, Jeffress, White, etc. They are a truly shameful, but undeservedly shameless bunch.
Oh, and their funders like Kochs, Waltons, Greens, Mercers, Scaifs, etc. Also truly shameful, but undeservedly shameless.
I’d written to Cory:
Cory writes:
Thanks, Cory. I appreciate a response that’s both complete and concise.
Glad to help. Kurt. Sometimes I discover my concise side.