I noted last month that Governor Kristi Noem misportrayed Oklahoma’s crash-implementation of medical marijuana as a mess when it really showed an example of what a state committed to the free market could do to make money. South Dakota News Watch thought the question of the merits of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program deserved a deeper look. Being good journalists, they asked the Governor’s office to supply more information. The Governor’s spokesboy, Ian Fury, who gets paid $112,200 a year to answer tough policy questions like this, responded like the lazy Tweeter he is:
Noem spokesman Ian Fury responded to an email from South Dakota News Watch seeking clarification of the governor’s views by providing only a link to a June 2020 news report by Oklahoma Watch, a nonprofit news organization. That article begins, “Welcome to the Wild West of weed,” and goes on to examine how fast Oklahoma started and has since expanded its medical marijuana program. Asked for further specifics of Noem’s concerns about Oklahoma’s program, Fury failed to respond [link added; Bart Pfankuch, “Medical Marijuana in Oklahoma: ‘A Mess’ or a Potential Model for South Dakota?” South Dakota News Watch, 2021.03.30].
Evidently our tax dollars aren’t paying for a gubernatorial spokesperson who can really engage the local press and help explain the Governor’s analysis of key public policy questions. They just pay to recruit a young out-of-state resume-builder with nothing better to do than to come camp in South Dakota for a while and stonewall for a gal who can’t keep qualified help.
But Fury probably doesn’t dare respond fully to this inquiry, because explaining why Governor Noem would cite Oklahoma as a reason to block the implementation of medical marijuana in South Dakota would require him to put all sorts of contradictory words in the Governor’s mouth: Oklahoma implemented medical marijuana in a way that respected the will of its voters and respected the free market. We don’t like voters, and we don’t like the free market: we prefer the heavy hand of government telling people what they can and cannot buy.
https://sdgoed.com/media-center/press-releases/south-dakota-leading-the-nation-in-gdp-growth/
Thought your readers may want to read this since this is only libtard biased complaint stories on this site.
It seems that republicans in SD like to just be told what to think and do, without the need for critical thinking or follow-up questions. And as long as they keep voting R, there will be no accountability for noem’s lack of leadership, communication, and understanding of democracy.
Real GDP growth from 2019 to 2020 was down in every state and DC, while all states increased in fourth quarter. Since Steve only wants to prime Noem’s pump everychance he gets with dubious stats, let’s rain on his parade, some moar.
SD GOED? Infamous EB5 $600 million fraud? That state government office? Reliable GDP reporter?
Libtard? Is that you Ann Coulter? Coulter’s father attended college on the GI Bill, and would later idolize Joseph McCarthy.[7]… received her Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.[14] At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.[15] Michigan, where Boogaloo Boys plotted assassination of Dem Gov Whitmer.
Far-right pundit Ann Coulter tweeted that she wanted the teenager murderer of two Antifa protesters “as my president”. White supremacist.
Yeah, that SDGOED GDP is right on the pulse of America. Heck w/ democracy though, eh?
I always liked little Stevie, but he plays in a Democratic band, has a great series in Norway and has nothing to do with his lying loser
Well…our Governor has a blind spot when it comes to pot. The mention of it gives her the heebie jeebies. The users are too hairy and are suspected of having bad hygiene. We bring about 3,000 of them to court every year but they just won’t learn their lesson.Decent people need to stand firmly on their principles. It doesn’t matter how the people vote. They’ve been misled.
They are hairy and dirty, Mr. Blundt, but let us all understand not all who are hairy and dirty are tokers of the demon weed.
Well its been awhile since I toked to Todd Rungren in a small bar in Vermillion grudz, but I’m still ok
I did not know one could toke at a person, Mr. Anderson, but I still have a great deal to learn about the users of the demon weed. This Rungren fellow, one must assume likely the owner of this bar, did not mind being toked at or he’d have probably poked you right in the snout, so I’m guessing he is also a toker.
well, grudz, you’re confused and disoriented, but don’t share your confusion with me, tell Kristi.
I apologize, it comes with age, Mr. Blundt. You’ll have it soon, I’m sure, and you’ll want my advice on how to manage it.
I might be hairy but I’m not dirty. And you would be surprised how many older people, including professionals who indulge. Hairy and Dirty like to drink light beer, paper wrapped wine, and other things that need to be sifted. They’d be healthier if they smoked weed. Who knows, Mary Jane may be our cure to cancer when they finally research all those chemicals.
Let us be clear, here. Hairy is not a choice. Dirty and fiendish on the demon weed are choices. Do not confuse them.
There are statistics showing weed tokers engage in far more crime than people who are just hairy.
Hey, Steve, how does South Dakota’s current reported GDP growth affect either the lazy stonewalling of the Governor’s spokesperson or the merits of the Governor’s arguments against Oklahoma’s implementation of medical marijuana? I know you just enjoy a chance to yell “Libt—-!” at your neighbors, but does your invocation of that insult imply that a government spokesperson not doing his job somehow embodies conservative values? Does it imply that you favor government restriction of the free market and that you think Oklahoma is a liberal state failing to exert a sufficiently heavy government hand on commerce and medicine? Just what are you saying, Steve?
As we who follow this site (except maybe grudz & steve) so well know, many things in Pierre are not well. Paying an ex-trump sycophant $122,000/year to ‘speak’ for the governor who seems too busy flying out of state to do the state’s business in Pierre is one of those things. He all too often doesn’t even answer questions from state media. Why are we paying him $122,000 anyway? Is she not capable of speaking for herself?
Well, Jake.
Your Governor is quite capable of speaking for herself.
Problem being, she’s chosen not to think for herself.
In short,
“Kristi Noem Lies Like A Trump”
PS …
Listen to Grudz when he chooses to share his vast, personal knowledge of dirty, hairy, weed huffers.
He only has Colorado’s billion dollar, marijuana economy’s interests, at heart.
Well, Jake.
Your Governor is quite capable of speaking for herself.
Problem being, she’s chosen not to think for herself.
In short,
“Kristi Noem Lies Like A Trump”
PS …
Listen to Grudz when he chooses to share his vast, personal knowledge of dirty, hairy, weed huffers.
He only has Colorado’s billion dollar, marijuana economy’s interests, at heart.
Some of my best friends are demon weed users.
grudz smokes hella budz – you heard it here first. He’s just a really good troll that works you people up into a frenzie with half-truths and one liners that are sometimes hilarious and sometimes not. He just keeps his personal opinions separate from his public persona for a little extra inside joke.
Hey grudz. “There are statistics showing weed tokers engage in far more crime…..” only reflects that toking is a crime. It’s circular logic. You gronk what that is – no?
Dear Grudz,
Hairy is a choice. I was fired from the Argus Leader in 1972 for long (touched my collar) hair and haven’t been to a barber or shaved since then. Cut a half a foot or so off my braid per year and trim my whiskers when they get caught in the zipper of my insulated coveralls. As for dirty, well, this is South Dakota where getting dirty is an occupational probability for many ( farmers, construction workers, etc.) When I worked in the mine the ONLY clean person I ever saw emerge from the depths of that hole in the ground was Ray Davis, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for physics (maybe it was for working all day a mile underground in white coveralls which were still white at the end of the day). There is a difference between dirty and filthy. So, to be clean must one bathe once a day or twice, or is once a week like my parents and maybe yours when they lived on the farm and had to haul water (they were clean people)?
As for Grudz, I do not know him…he may be one of those hairy guys that, if given a Mohawk, might have a hairy streak from his forehead to and even past the elastic of his clean tidy-whiteys.
Virginia is not only for lovers. Virginia just legalized marijuana. How about that? A southern state on top of it.
“RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia became the first Southern state to legalize marijuana Wednesday, as lawmakers voted to approve Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposed changes to a bill that will allow adults to possess and cultivate small amounts starting in July.
Northam sent the bill back to lawmakers substantially changed from the version they sent him in February. The amendments lawmakers agreed to Wednesday would accelerate the timeline of legalization by about three years, well before retail sales would begin, a move that’s been cheered by racial justice advocates.”