Staycation, schmacation!
Kristi Noem continues to spend more time working for Donald Trump than for the people of South Dakota. After with dropping her kids off at out-of-state Christian colleges down South, our apparently part-time Governor continued her aspirations for national prominence by campaigning for the Trump party in North Carolina and Pennsylvania:
Noem’s Pennsylvania campaign stop, Montgomery County, a Democratic-leaning jurisdiction encompassing suburbs northwest of Philadelphia, has one of the lowest coronavirus positivity rates in southeastern Pennsylvania, 2.9%, compared to South Dakota’s 10.8%. Montgomery County has also been getting really fast coronavirus test results by working with Mako Medical Laboratories, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, to repurpose that company’s nutritional DNA equipment. Dang—if Noem weren’t so busy campaigning for the anti-science, anti-public health party, she might actually gather some useful policy information.
But Noem travels heedless of local officials’ guidance on how to prevent the spread of coronavirus:
To keep the positivity rate below 5 percent, Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh stressed residents should continue to abide by all mask wearing, handwashing and social distancing recommendations. Arkoosh also urged residents to cooperate with contact tracers.
Acknowledging that neighboring counties currently have higher percent-positivity rates, Arkoosh urged county residents to be cautious when traveling to other counties for work or leisure activities.
“This virus doesn’t care about boundaries of counties or cities or townships and we do always need to be mindful of that,” Arkoosh said during a news briefing the week.
“I would remind everybody that you’re still safer at home. So if you are able to work from home, then that’s great and you should continue to do so, if that’s possible,” Arkoosh added.
For residents who cannot work from home, Arkoosh said hopefully, workplaces are being made as safe as possible.
“But if you don’t have to go somewhere, think twice about going. If you can avoid that trip or maybe skip a social gathering, just think twice,” Arkoosh said. “But if you do go, what’s so critically important is that you follow the guidelines of wearing a mask and staying six-feet away from people who aren’t in your household and that holds whether you’re indoors or outdoors” [Carl Hessler, Jr., “Montgomery County Has Lowest Coronavirus Percent-Positivity Rate in SE Pa.,” The Mercury (Exton, PA), 2020.08.10].
Dr. Arkoosh said this week that coronavirus spread is linked to social events:
While Montgomery County residents appear to be reducing the spread of COVID-19, officials said any spread that is occurring can be linked to social events.
“Most of the viral spread that we are seeing in Montgomery County continues to be through social events such as parties, family gatherings and vacations. And then what happens is the people that are exposed and infected at these gatherings go on to expose large groups of others through school, through day care, through sports and through work,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said during a news briefing this week [Carl Hessler, Jr., “Coronavirus Spread in Montgomery County Linked to Social Events,” The Times Herald (Swarthmore, PA), 2020.08.21].
Traveling the country, never social distancing, never wearing a mask—that’s our pandemic vector Kristi! If you don’t get coronavirus from Sturgis, Kristi will deliver the pandemic to you in person!
Hmmm… Tennessee Monday, Missouri Tuesday, North Carolina Wednesday, Pennsylvania Friday… could someone out in Pierre check the hangar for me and see if where the state plane is?
Meanwhile refuses to meet with Tribal leaders.
I’m guessing the people in these states don’t have a clue and don’t care who she is
Owen, a lot of people in our own state don’t have a clue or care who she is.
One of SD’s primary exports used to be beef. Now it seems to be mostly pasture droppings. :-(
I agree Tim. And Nick brings up a great point
Will she make it through her RNC speech without coughing?
251 new cases today, a new record, even more than back when it was hitting Smithfield hard. Good job, Governor Moron.
What is that phallic looking item on Noem Nothing’s hip in pic from Pennsylvania?
Certainly appears to be somebody’s “gun”.
Yep. 251 New cases in SD, 69 more in Sioux Falls. Sturgis jumped 14, and Pennington County jumped 30. Everything’s going great here, Kristi!
Funny one, chris@10:49.
251 cases! If the numbers keep spiking like that, even Kristi will be forced to require masks. But it’ll probably have to wait until after the Republican Covidention is over.
One of the charges that the South Dakota GOP used against Tom Daschle was that as the Senate majority leader, he was giving too much attention to national business and was neglecting his home state. Now we have Noem who is supposed to occupy the governor’s chair out campaigning throughout the U.S. for a throne next to the King of Liars. (He issued more than 20,000 falsehoods by this summer from the Oval Office. )
Detestable as Trump and Noem make politics, it shouldn’t shift attention away from the real problem: the people who put them and keep them in office.
Sheila Kennedy has written a couple blog posts about the problem that Kruel Kristi illustrates and Dr. Newquist mentions, “the people who put them and keep them in office.”
She argues, along with her sources, that Liar-in-Chief didn’t create today’s iteration of the GOP. He met them where they are. It’s really worth reading her posts to learn more.
“The GOP is not only unlikely to moderate in the wake of a defeat, it is likely to turn to reactionary politicians like Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. (You will remember Cotton for his despicable attempt to sabotage President Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran.) If Trump loses, Cotton is evidently seen–along with Tucker Carlson(!)– as a leading contender for the 2024 Republican nomination.”
is.gd/dHDAju
Yup to Debbo’s post. Hillary said it best. There are a basket of deplorables—neo-fascists, racists, wife beaters, child molesters and conspiracy theorists. That basket now holds nearly the majority of Republicans, including the President, who fits all five of those categories. There are some corporate and billionaire socialists who fit in their own basket.
They put up with the deplorables as long as they get paid off. Basically, it’s patterned after the NAZIs
If you are never in Pierre, do you really need a security fence?
Noem, like Thune, are merely soap opera looking politicians, who fit the image that the GOP wants to project, while people suffer due to COVID and its economic aftermath.
That’s because the GOP is about imagine and not substance. If they were about substance, then they wouldn’t be sending a governor, who said “No” to further unemployment insurance stimulus, to states like North Carolina, which lost all of its mill jobs to China, or Pennsylvania, whose steel industry has been raged by free trade as well.
Many Democrats, too, have been enablers to the whimsical dreams of free trade over the last few decades, I must admit, but unlike the GOP, Democrats in general know suffering, when they see it, and mere imagine, when it’s all the other side has to truly offer.
“We did, in fact, we according to the national experts, did everything wrong,” Kristi Noem said about the Covid-19 crisis. “We aggressively addressed those situations, and came out better for it.” (FoxNews Interview July 17, 2020)
Well, now it’s mid-August. Where reckless meets reality.
Oh, these people in the Trump cult definitely know who she is. She is Krystal Kristi of Hannity fame, fairy godmother of the mythical land of South Dakota where the citizens are responsible and roam like buffalo, free from government interference of any kind. She rides her horse in the rodeo and holds high the Trump banner which proclaims that Trump is “the only thing standing between the American Dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos.”
May our disdain take active form.
I’ve been ev’rywhere, man.
Stripped the coffers bare, man.
Breathed the Covid air, man.
Spread virus here and there, man.
Of craziness I’ve dealt my share, man.
I’ve been ev’rywhere.
Bob the Bard.
Trump said this yesterday: “Where Joe Biden sees American darkness, I see American greatness.”
Yikes. You gotta let that one sink in.
What are the chances NOem is abusing a state plane for her gallivanting? Inquiring minds want to know. Oh, if South Dakota only had an inquisitive legislature, one that was a co-equal branch of government and a check on executive abuse of power.
I believe that to be a bard, one must at least present the facade of originality. At that, I shine dimly.
I’ve never glimpsed your original facade and that’s okay by me.
I think noem is a Republican point of the spear offensive these last 75 days. A pretty face to distract.
“Trust your people. Don’t lay down mandates…” Noem said in her FoxNews interview.
Medical and recreational marijuana? What is her position, again?
Right on, James! Oh, the incongruity of it all, eh?
who’s paying for her trips? Trump campaign?
Our Governor, who is a darling of Trumpworld because she has proudly and loudly done absolutely nothing to contain the corona virus in our state (since when did doing nothing become a bold governmental policy?) will be giving her speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, positive corona cases are zooming upward in Pennington County and Meade County and the Black Hills. Let’s see… the Sturgis Rally ended after ten days of fun just a week ago last Sunday. Must be a coincidence.
(since when did doing nothing become a bold governmental policy?)
Welcome to the wingnut wonderfully weird world of alternative reality, where down is up and nothing is the best something.
Jake and James,
Well we aren’t all, ‘her people’.
Yes, Francis, ‘her’ people would believe in Breitbart, Steve Bannum’s lies and the rest of Trump’s chaotic 3 1/2 yrs and now embraces Q-Anon’s conspiracies. She or ‘her’ law enforcement wall supporters only fear one thing-us. Same mentality of people want more and more bigger bombs and machines of terror to intimidate the masses and show their power.
grudznick, for one, hopes this fence is tall and ugly, as it will entertain me for months listing to people who having nothing to do but whine about a fence. I hope it’s a full-on wall, with search lights and concertina wire to keep the hooligans out. I hope there are pictures of it on the news.
Grudz, as occasionally happens, you are correct – you certainly are “listing”.
Grudz, for one of many, has no qualms about wasting taxpayer’s money on the vain-glories of clueless politicians with their hands in our pockets.
Mr. Jake, are you not reading how The Wall will not be using taxpayer money? Are you not paying attention? That is one of the symptoms of Noem Derangement Syndrome. NDS has been proven to spread through the bloggings of some, and I’m sure you have it.
grudznick may indeed contributed to The Wall, especially if they let me have my name on it. I bet I can get a lot of other fellows I know to join me.
Best save some gravy money ,Grudz, as you as well as I know that ‘donations’ aren’t going to cover the cost. Taxpayer $$$ will be used, and remember, those ‘donations’ usually largely come from those who grift most from taxpayer $$$.
An interesting thought, worth entertaining, Mr. Jake. I can always use a few more fancy meals out, or at least entertain a few more groups of friends with some of that hard earned cash. I suspect I can manage my donations to The Wall better than you, or those people crying about not getting all that extra money for just sitting at home on the dole. I, along with you, recommend they not donate to The Wall and get up off their rumps and get a job.
Grudznick, as always, is a coward. It produces nothing of mental value, unlike the least of the rest of us.
Can a South Dakota Governor be recalled?
Just (another) quick Grudznick fact check: as of the beginning of the year, the President spent $11 Billion and counting of U.S. taxpayer money on his border wall. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797319968/-11-billion-and-counting-trumps-border-wall-would-be-the-world-s-most-costly
To be clear, Mexico has/is not paying that cost — not even “indirectly.” https://www.factcheck.org/2018/12/is-mexico-paying-for-the-wall-through-usmca/
ok, a little fantasizing here…. but if our governor accepts the GOP VP nomination, does she have to give up the governor position to run? and if she looses can she pick up the governor spot again or is she out in the cold?
Dave, no resignation necessary: she can run for VP and remain Governor. If she loses in November, she can remain Governor.
Maybe Kruel Kristi should be spending her time finding $ to fix the state’s roads. They’re 4th worst in the nation.
From Numlock News by Walt Hickey.
Roads
Mean streets are getting meaner, and more than 700 cities have said they may cut infrastructure spending due to budget shortfalls. Potholes caused $15 billion in damages to cars over five years, and some states are in a particularly rough stretch of road: in Rhode Island, 48 percent of urban streets are in poor condition according to the Federal Highway Administration, followed by California (46 percent), New Jersey (42 percent), and South Dakota and Hawaii (36 percent each). In some metropolitan areas in particular, most roads are bad: San Francisco-Oakland (71 percent of streets are poor), San Jose (63 percent) and Los Angeles (63 percent).
Breanna T Bradham, Bloomberg
There she is the subsidy queen Governor of South Dakota.Worried about her self and the emperor she serves.It is a sad thing in South Dakota with our numbers going up, that she again has failed the task of of slowing down the Covid.South Dakota deserves better than the speed queen.
Noem will be busily speaking tonight at the RNC. Here’s what the AP had to say about it:
“From the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump called on governors to ‘liberate’ residents, reopen schools and get businesses back to normal.
“No governor followed that advice more closely — and with more attention-seeking fervor — than South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.”
That pretty much sums her up.
The queen of fencing is going to tell you tonight how great it is.Maybe she will say minimum wage is a high wage for South Dakota, and it needs to be repealed.