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Dusty Johnson, Masked Role Model

By Cory Allen Heidelberger on 2020-07-04

Young men and women put themselves in harm’s way before a battalion of heavily armored and armed police and soldiers yesterday just outside of Keystone on the road to Mount Rushmore to protest white treaty violations and colonization in the Black Hills.

So let’s not overstate the courage Congressman Dusty Johnson showed yesterday in wearing a mask to the Noem-Trump cuddle session at Mount Rushmore. Dusty still enjoys the privilege of being one of the whitest guys in South Dakota. He still votes with his party leaders and Donald Trump more often than any moral patriot should.

But as he submitted to the fast coronavirus testing that everyone near Trump gets…

…and even after he got his clean bill of health…

Dusty Johnson covid-free 2020.07.03
Confressman Dusty Johnson did not have coronavirus on July 3; Rep. Johnson, tweet from Mount Rushmore field clinic, 2020.07.03.

…Congressman Jonson still wore his mask in public, on national TV, on the same stage as Kristi Noem, Larry Rhoden, and other maskless, gutless wonders.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, masked Tweet from Mount Rushmore, 2020.07.03.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, masked Tweet from Mount Rushmore, 2020.07.03.
Dusty wears his mask
Rep. Dusty Johnson serves as a role model, wearing his coronavirus mask in public. The rest of the Trump gaggle at Mount Rushmore does not. KELO-TV tweet, 2020.07.03.

Dusty tested negative on the spot and still wore his mask, even though he wouldn’t be infecting anyone. Coronavirus has infected Donald Trump’s inner circle, and Donald still declined to do the people around him the courtesy of masking his blowhole.

We watched the news as a family last night. I pointed out two role models to my daughter: the young men and women who, like our forefathers, risked life, liberty, and property to defy imperial troopers and Tories, disrupt colonial commerce, and demand justice for their people; and Dusty Johnson, who had the good sense to wear a mask in an unwisely assembled crowd amidst a pandemic.

Published in South Dakota

16 Comments

  1. bearcreekbat 2020-07-04 10:29

    Senator Rounds, who reportedly told the RC Journal that he would wear a mask at the event, was actually filmed with mask on for a short time after Noem’s speech, but the mask disappeared almost immediately in the subsequent scenes showing Rounds in the Trump section. So much for what Rounds told the RC Journal was “good old South Dakota common sense.”

  2. mike from iowa 2020-07-04 10:49

    You expected moar/better, bcb?

  5. mike from iowa 2020-07-04 11:33

    Interesting song and the lyrics were easy enough to guess, the more I listened.

    This is just my humble opinion, but, the music sounds off key, similar to the Skynard intro of Free Bird. Maybe it is my hearing loss.

    Thanks for expanding my music horizon. Frankly, I am not a Stones fan.

  6. Curt 2020-07-04 11:52

    The decision by Rounds to remove the mask to better fit in with his pals is particularly curious. The Senator’s wife avoided the event – wisely – as she is still recovering from cancer treatment. Will the Senator now spend the next 14 days self-isolating from her?

  7. jerry 2020-07-04 13:38

    Curt, hope EB5 Rounds didn’t give Don Jr.’s girlfriend a hug, she might have given him a dose. yikes!

  8. Bob Newland 2020-07-04 14:10

    Was Dusty afraid we’d learn he’s not old enough to be out alone after dark?

  11. jerry 2020-07-04 17:35

    The cult got the Covid19. They can keep it.

  12. Curt 2020-07-04 18:37

    The viral pyros have moved on now, leaving those of us who call the Black Hills home to fend off COVID while hoping for the best. Oh look! Only about 4 weeks until the Rally comes to town!

  13. T 2020-07-04 20:35

    Mike from Iowa
    Then you haven’t experienced their gimme shelter song someone put to Vietnam shots on utube. I truly won’t hold it against u if you still are not a fan…but this perhaps will sway u……salute to buddies that were in nam on this day…

    Back on subject….gotta love the duster for “trying” (sigh)

  14. Debbo 2020-07-04 20:51

    Mike, I am not a Stones fan either, though I do like one song, “Paint it Black.” Jagger is not a good singer.

    It will be interesting to see how many of the Kristi-ans and trumpelstilskins get sick. I hope none have any serious issues, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them get sicker than a dog.

    I’m surprised by Dusty, but pleased. He gets a point. He’s still on the negative side though.

  15. jerry 2020-07-04 23:17

    War Children, is just a shot away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbmS3tQJ7Os Hauntingly awesome. I was medevaced out in late October 1969 and did not hear this until I was released from Fitzsimmons Hospital early 1970. Since then, the opening riffs along with the rest, still get my attention. Thanks for bringing it up.

  16. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2020-07-05 06:21

    SDPB posts the photo of Noem hugging Guilfoyle. That hug took place at the fundraiser I reported the GOP women were holding on Thursday. Noem tells SDPB she tested negative Friday and isn’t worried, but her office won’t say whether Noem will self-isolate.

    Harvard medical School has the following to say about false negatives and the need to self-isolate:

    If you get the nasal/throat swab or saliva test, you will get a false negative test result:

    • 100% of the time on the day you are exposed to the virus. (There are so few viral particles in your nose or saliva so soon after infection that the test cannot detect them.)
    • About 40% of the time if you are tested four days after exposure to the virus.
    • About 20% of the time if you develop symptoms and are tested three days after those symptoms started.

    This possibility of a false negative test result is why anyone who has symptoms that could be due to COVID-19, or has been exposed to someone known to be infected, must isolate even if they test negative for coronavirus [Harvard Medical School, “If You’ve Been Exposed to the Coronavirus,” updated 2020.07.02].

    Kristi, you need to stay the heck home for the next two weeks. Dusty, if you hugged Kristi or hung out backstage with her, you probably ought to do the same. And the both of you and everyone else who was hanging around Kim or Kristi should get tested again Monday morning.

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