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Poor Pat Powers Pained over Press’s Pissing on Patrons’ Poor Performance

For more holiday hypocrisy, let’s turn to Pat Powers.

Last week that Sioux Falls paper reported on the failure of the South Dakota Department of Health to keep up with contact tracing in schools, leaving parents without the information they need to keep their kids safe from coronavirus. The story, alas, is locked behind their paywall, so I can’t link it for you, but we know from numerous other sources that the Noem Administration has failed to provide the resources necessary to provide effective contact tracing.

Naturally, such news reveals the failure of the Noem Administration’s distract-and-do-nothing approach to the pandemic. Thus, Pat Powers has to jump to his sponsor’s defense… not with any analysis of the DOH’s contract tracing program (which the SDGOP spin blogger could certainly get from his insider cronies in Pierre) but with the typically Noem/Trumpist distraction and delegitimization of the press—in this case, a scatty swipe at the newspaper’s use of the word pissed in its headline:

Pat Powers attacking the press to shield his GOP sponsors, Dakota War College, screen cap 2020.10.08.
Pat Powers attacking the press to shield his GOP sponsors, Dakota War College, screen cap 2020.10.08.

Pat can’t say that he’s seen “pissed” being used in major media headlines? Pat must not read much media:

Nancy Cook and Meridith McGraw, "'I'd Be Pretty Pissed Off': Meadows Angers Staff as He Cozies up to Trump," Politico, 2020.10.08
Nancy Cook and Meridith McGraw, “‘I’d Be Pretty Pissed Off’: Meadows Angers Staff as He Cozies up to Trump,” Politico, 2020.10.08.
Kyle Meinke, "Detroit Lions 'Pissed Off' Heading into Bye, Searching for Answers to Woeful Defense," MLive.com, 2020.10.05.
Kyle Meinke, “Detroit Lions ‘Pissed Off’ Heading into Bye, Searching for Answers to Woeful Defense,” MLive.com, 2020.10.05.
Ashwin Rodrigues, "Lewis Black Is Still Pissed Off," Vice, 2020.10.06.
Ashwin Rodrigues, “Lewis Black Is Still Pissed Off,” Vice, 2020.10.06.
Ryan Gaydos, "Charles Barkley Was 'Pissed' at Kenny Smith for Walking Off Set as NBA Players Portested Jacob Blake Shooting," Fox News, 2020.09.25.
Ryan Gaydos, “Charles Barkley Was ‘Pissed’ at Kenny Smith for Walking Off Set as NBA Players Portested Jacob Blake Shooting,” Fox News, 2020.09.25.
Matt Shuham, "Hydroxychloroquine Advocates Are Pissed Trump's Not Taking It for Covid," Talking Points Memo, 2020.10.06.
Matt Shuham, “Hydroxychloroquine Advocates Are Pissed Trump’s Not Taking It for Covid,” Talking Points Memo, 2020.10.06.
MG Siegler, "So Much for Those Pissed Off Canadian Phone Buyers," New York Times, 2008.10.29.
MG Siegler, “So Much for Those Pissed Off Canadian Phone Buyers,” New York Times, 2008.10.29.

Boy, those big-city newshounds use a lot of barnyard language.

Now remember, the main point here should be that Powers is offering no rebuttal to the main thesis of the article. DOH is falling down on the job, failing to inform South Dakotans and keep them safe, and all Pat’s got is prudish whining about the press’s use of a blunt term that is coming from many parents in response to the failure of the Noem Administration.

But for those observing the Republican propaganda machine at work, it is important to note that Pat Powers only purses his prudish lips over press that pokes his patrons.

And of course, any blog or party that throws its support behind the boorishly scatalogical Donald Trump has thrown away any moral authority to criticize others’ coarse language. Just last week, Donald Trump went on live radio and made this less-than-Presidential declaration toward Iran:

President Donald Trump had some choice words for Iran Friday, warning the Islamic Republic: “If you f— around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.”

Trump dropped the F-bomb on conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s live radio show while discussing Iranian support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups. While the word was censored on the slightly delayed radio broadcast, footage of Limbaugh in the studio kept the language intact. The FCC prohibits profanity during daylight hours when “there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience” [Matthew Choi, “Trump Drops the F-Bomb on Iran,” Politico, 2020.10.09].

If Pat Powers really wants to claim some moral high ground and dismiss statements from any source that uses certain four-letter words, then I welcome him to apply that standard consistently and dismiss the words of his Dear Leader, the doggedly foul-mouthed Donald Trump.

15 Comments

  1. Mike Livingston

    Civility, honesty, personal responsibility, integrity, have been replaced by greed, dishonesty,deception,deflection, and selfishness. Ain’t it grand that American has been made great again?
    Once again science has been trumped and trampled on, the question is how can we afford not to test and trace?
    Throw the bums out and take back our beloved country.

  2. Dicta

    You don’t need to look any further than Pat’s colleague Troy and his increasingly personal and incoherent attacks on other commenters on that site to see that Pat has a very selective application of his demand for civility and proper language.

  3. Indeed, Dicta. The Trumpistanis and Noemistas have chosen leaders who make it impossible to appeal to evidence, reason, and norms to defend their positions. They are thus reduced to distractions, insults, and situational ethics (which is code for no ethics).

  4. Indeed, Owen, no outrage from Powers over a Trump advisor using a misogynist slur directly against a female Senator and our next Vice-President, but he’ll hyperventilate all day about a mild vulgarity expressing the feeling of parents unsatisfied with Gov. Noem’s policies but not expressed as a direct personal insult toward anyone.

  5. mike from iowa

    On Owen’s link there is a mention of the “p” word that has PP in palpable,poignant, pitiless pain.

  6. Jebediah

    Pat is a complete partisan hack. He has deleted many of my comments this year without any single bit of explanation to me or other commenters. Before that, I just thought he was steeped in dogma. Now I see he’s more of a PR operative than anything – Bernays would be proud. If only I had taken such a close, consistent look at his blog before this year…

  7. grudznick

    Mr. Jebediah, do not fault young Mr. PP for deleting comments. Why, Mr. PP has deleted many of grudznick’s comments and bloggings, but upon reflection I have found on occasion he was right to do so. These complaints about Mr. PP’s right to do what he wants, when coming from a blog filled with hate and direct personal insults usually from out-of-state name-callers, seem to cement in the right. No pun intended, as Mr. PP is more of a moderate fellow and not catering to those insaner than most.

  8. Clyde

    First things first….its been known as the Argus Liar in my circle for a very long time. Unbiased media doesn’t exist in that rag.

  9. Jebediah

    grudz, would you expound on your comments justifying his deleting your comments? I fully understand he can do whatever he wants with his blog, but have no reason to believe he was “in the right” for deleting any of my comments, nor that any of my comments were hateful. I don’t understand how you consider Pat a moderate, though, because he clearly skews things to the right.

  10. Debbo

    We know the GOP is filled with hypocritical liars, top to bottom. The issue is Kruel Kristi is letting teachers, cooks, custodians, aides, bus drivers, children, their siblings, parents, grandparents others all get sick because she doesn’t care enough to ensure that the state uses the $ available to keep them safe as possible.

    As a result some people will become very ill. Some will develop lingering C-19 conditions that will last for weeks or more. Some will be stuck with lifelong disabilities. Others will die.

    The GOP legislature had a chance to remedy Kruel Kristi’s abject failures. They didn’t.

    The suffering of hundreds of South Dakotans is due to the heartlessness of the SDGOP.

    The SDGOP. Guilty.

  11. james

    I imagine that it is very difficult for hospitals to prepare for what’s ahead. Not just the room availability, but the staffing and all of the precautions necessary to protect everyone. It has to be daunting with cases rising so quickly.

    They can cut off non-essential procedures, move patients to nursing homes or hospice care and they still might be short-handed. According to a KELO TV article (Covid – Beyond the Numbers…) that I saw this morning, it appears that many are now being sent to hospice.

    The governor will have to act. It’s just a matter of how bad it gets, before she does.

  12. james

    Kristi will spend over a billion dollars in Covid relief and you won’t get any of it. That is enough for about $1,300 per person in South Dakota. Each!

    And, I repeat, you won’t get any of it. That is, if you’re the average South Dakota resident. Am I right? Did you get a check? Expecting one?

    If you filled out endless forms and begged for months, like my brother did, you may have gotten some unemployment benefits that the state gets reimbursed, with this money.

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