Eighteen months ago, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg broke the law and killed a man. Over a year ago, state law enforcement declared they had no confidence in Ravnsborg’s ability to carry out his law enforcement duties. Six months ago, legislators started lurching toward convening a special session to consider impeaching Ravnsborg. But somehow, despite the crystal-clarity of Jason Ravnsborg unfitness for office, the only formal action of rebuke the House impeachment committee has mustered the courage to issue so far is a cease-and-desist letter… to the Governor, telling her to stop telling them to impeach Jason Ravnsborg:
…[Speaker Spencer] Gosch said Thursday a cease and desist order will be issued in the coming days in an attempt to compel the Noem administration to stop making public statements and press releases related to Boever’s death and the attorney general.
“I still stand on what she’s doing is inappropriate,” he said. “We have a job to do and we’ve asked her numerous times to stop. And we’re going to ask her one more time” [Joe Sneve, “Attorney General Impeachment Panel to Issue Cease and Desist Notice to Gov. Kristi Noem,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, updated 2022.03.11].
Jason Ravnsborg kills a man and can’t serve the public effectively, but you chew out Kristi Noem for saying so?
I’ve been making public statements calling for Ravnsborg’s resignation or impeachment since the week that Ravnsborg killed Joe Boever. Where’s my cease-and-desist letter?
The South Dakota Democratic Party has publicly declared Ravnsborg “unfit to serve the people of South Dakota.” Where’s their cease-and-desist letter?
Speaker Gosch, Democratic Minority Leader Jamie Smith, and the House impeachers appear to be wallowing in Critical Ravnsborg Theory. Governor Noem’s talk about the need to impeach Ravnsborg is causing them anguish and discomfort, so they want to ban the Governor from saying such divisive things.
The committee’s lack of focus on the real problem—the Attorney General broke the law and killed a man!—is obvious to almost everyone outside the impeachment committee, from level-headed journalists like Tom Lawrence:
However, state Rep. Jamie Smith, the likely Democratic challenger to Noem, said he also wants the governor to stay out of this. Why? She has a perfect right to express her opinion, and to use political pressure to try to remove a disgraced public official from office [Tom Lawrence, “Legislators More Worried About Noem Than the Fact That Attorney General Killed a Man and Hasn’t Been Honest About It,” South Dakota Standard, 2022.03.11].
…to rabid Republican attack dog Pat Powers:
So the biggest decision they’ve made is to try to squelch the Governor’s freedom of speech to pressure them to figure out what they’re doing? [Pat Powers, “After Months and Months, Impeachment Committee Finally Makes Decision.. to Tell Governor to Quit Putting Pressure on Them,” Dakota War College, 2022.03.11]
Speaker Gosch and the impeachment committee need to review the First Amendment and, once again, their own charter. The impeachment committee and the entire Second Special Session that was called to consider impeachment exist for the sole purpose of investigating and, if warranted, impeaching Jason Ravnsborg. 2021 House Resolution 7001i, the resolution empaneling the impeachment committee, restricts their authority to investigating the conduct of Jason Ravnsborg. Telling anyone—the Governor, the Democrats, me, anyone—not to talk about the conduct of Jason Ravnsborg exceeds the statutory bailiwick of the House Select Committee on Investigation not to mention the First Amendment.
Legislators, let’s stop looking for excuses to not talk about the deadly, law-breaking, irresponsible elephant in the room. Jason Ravnsborg is unfit for office. The Governor thinks so, and she has every right to say so. So does every other South Dakotan. Voters should say it right in the ear of Spencer Gosch and Jamie Smith and every other legislator they see back around town: Impeach Jason Ravnsborg. Impeach him NOW.
https://www.rawstory.com/jason-ravnsborg-2656916622/
Shortly after Joe Boever’s death by dumbass, magats sent disparaging messages about Joe and everyone under the sun. Need to read the article to get the full blast. Worse than disgusting or deplorable.
The SD and USA’s dearth of profiles in courage is stark. No wonder that Putin’s emboldened.
In what world does one branch of government have the right to order a separate and equal branch of government to shut up. Me thinks Speaker Gosch has an overinflated understanding of his authority.
Nick – Just saw the photo of Gosch in that Sioux Falls newspaper’s website. “Overinflated” pretty much describes all of Speaker Gosch. I don’t think I’ve seen a feedsack that huge above the beltline on a legislator since Republican Rep. Ted Klaudt. Pat Powers used to call ol’ Teddy the Kiddy Diddler a “rising star.”
https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2022/03/10/attorney-general-impeachment-panel-issue-cease-and-desist-notice-gov-noem/6991473001/
Don’t you just love one-party absolute rule?
Don’t you get the feeling the entire GQP would rather not talk about the AG in the closet?
From Tom Lawrence’s Standard piece: South Dakota Department of Public Safety Secretary Craig Price said Ravnsborg received a text message from an unnamed political consultant less than two days after the crash that commented on the political party of Boever, the 55-year-old man that Ravnsborg, a first-term Republican, had killed. “Well, at least the guy was a Democrat,” the message read.
Where else other than South Dakota is “at least the guy was a Democrat” an acceptable comment from a professional consultant or by a seated statewide elected official?
That level of contempt for an innocent homicide victim shows a complete lack of a moral compass among Republicans.
So, why is Public Safety Secretary Craig Price, a public employee, shielding the identities of not only the political consultant, but also the texts (which are public record!) in which Ravnsborg disparages with staff (also public employees) “other law enforcement officers, judges, a Supreme Court justice, a legislator, prosecutors, staff members, a former attorney general, and a United States senator”? Who are these public officials and what exactly was said about them on a public record by a public official? Why isn’t Randy Seiler banging down the door to find out?
Randy, you’re a lawyer. Why are you sitting this one out?
Continuing my whining about the terrible state of our state’s, and national governance – absence of reality, lacking vision.
First, SD should consider drafting plans and options for a special session to, of all things despite being over-subsidized, assisting the ag industry with the coming world hunger challenges. It’s appearing that Ukraine will mostly miss opportunities to plant, harvest, and ship grains – as may well parts of the Russian breadbasket. Putting weather aside for the moment — taking much of Ukraine’s grain off the market, for a year, perhaps longer . . . will likely have huge impacts. Fertilizer and seed prices are quickly rising. Perhaps temporarily SD could consider becoming a market participant for the purpose of being a cost-through seed, fertilizer, fuel source for SD farmers. History shows that sometimes blindly leaving things to market vulgarities leads to outrageous results, price gouging, preventable shortages.
Second, on a longer note, glance at Abramson’s considered thoughts. Summarizing:
1. US is now in a world war.
2. If trump becomes potus, the US will lose the war and likely its democracy.
3. Europe is beginning the start of the first genocide in the west since WWII.
4. No one in US govt, NATO, or EU think Ukraine can win. So it becomes self-fulfilling – giving Putin an ‘all-clear’ to take 9 nations into reconstituting a USSR. Global geopolitics can’t subsist on a crossed-fingers approach.
5. Russia can stay in Ukraine and weather sanctions long-term, contributing to re-shifting of global alliances.
6. Costs of the current world war may be more than Americans are willing to bear—and if a majority of Americans come to wrongly believe that it’s Biden’s rather than Putin’s and his allies (including Trump) who’ve brought the world to its current pass, they’ll punish the Democrats and reward the Republicans. Yet doing so plays into Putin’s hands. The US is fighting with one hand behind its back. Half of America receives a steady, daily stream of pro-Kremlin propaganda.
7. Putin has no exit strategy.
8. Biden administration is in denial of much of this, deliberately or negligently.
9. US republican’s “culture war”— a cynical rhetorical exercise in the 1990s, ultimately reified as a discrete, personally and politically profitable phenomenon—is relevant to the ongoing war in Europe.
10. Everything now happening is only the beginning.
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/the-ten-hardest-truths-about-the?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Speaker Gosch and the other fella who chairs appropriations are very large men who need to wear bigger clothes. Gosch is correct in that when you touch 300, one should forget light colors and wear black but he also needs to understand that off the rack suits aren’t tailored with his generous proportions in mind. In addition to his other problems, he needs professional help in the wardrobe department. Governor Noem is unable to control the input or outcome of the Special Investigations Committee and as titular head of the GOP finds the slow process, which may just grind to a halt, frustrating. She doesn’t do frustration well.
First, I comment on John’s comment: 1. is simply not true, yet. 4. is not true. Russia has proved to be far weaker than all the experts believed, and Ukraine far more adept. Ukraine will never give up, so it may turn into a long war of attrition. In that case, the US may get involved, but it will be on the real down low. 6. Russia is a basket case economically. It can afford the sanctions for about a month and a half. Maybe a couple months more for the people to usher Putin out the door or into a casket. 7. is correct, but that doesn’t mean the other Russians don’t. 8. is probably partly true, because it’s not in line with rational thinking. Putin is not rational, so we have to assume the worst could happen and plan for it, but not do anything to bring it on. 9. absolutely true. Fascism is here, too, not just in Russia and parts of Europe. 10. Pretty much a tautology. Think about the last line in Casablanca: “This could the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Now, what I see is typical of the SD Legislature. They can’t do a goddamn thing right. If they don’t like what Noem is doing, impeach her, but get on with the subject at hand.
Impeach Noem? That would be the logical next step, if the committee really believed that Noem was improperly interfering with the Legislature’s functions. But the House couldn’t even work up a majority to deem the Governor’s nepotism in the Kassidy-Bren-appraiser affair unacceptable in a mere toothless resolution.
Besides, as Nick points out, the Legislature has zero authority to control the public statements of the Governor.
Well Trump was right on this one, he could have shot someone on fifth Ave and not lose a voter. He said it in Iowa, so maybe Ravnsborg was paying attention. He was reading this blog so maybe it’s your fault Cory? Anybody but Ravnsborg, the lying, cowardly killer that he is.
So, if the state legislature impeaches Noem, does that hurt or help her in the GQP presidential primaries? A Trump-Noem ticket would Uber-impeachy!
Impeach Kristi Noem t-shirt? Okay.
https://handmade6.com/impeach-kristi-noem-t-shirt/
Well, I saw the Gosch-Karr interview on the Argus webpage…the socks are in the fan so to speak…Gosch lambasts the Governor for “calling good South Dakota citizens (his committee) “corrupt”. According to Gosch, “It sounds like something coming out of Washington. That’s how they talk”…My goodness, the Governor has succumb to the evil that is Washington. Gosch for Governor at the Republican convention?? Gosch was evasive when speaking of the Ravensborg impeachment other than to say the Special Investigation Committee is acting as a Grand Jury and the Governor and Mr. Price’s comments are interfering with a Grand Jury proceeding. Ravensborg is now closer to walking? Gosch speaks in complimentary way about our killer AG’s testimony behind closed doors about his budget. Gosch claims (how, why?) that it was an open meeting but the committee was discussing confidential information with the AG?? It gets stranger and stranger, but neither Gosch or Karr will say the controversy with the Governor is over….its obviously going to be carried over to the convention. My take away: The Governor should not be condescending to large men like Gosch and Karr. They’ve been left feeling diminished and inadequate by women like Kristi, all their lives
So is my thinking too simple – again/still.
So Speaker Gosch, is following the Constitution of South Dakota, the laws of South Dakota and the directive of the Special session the House of Representatives for investigating if there exists just cause for the Impeachment of the Attorney General of South Dakota for driving off the allotted portion of Road hit a man walking on the non driving portion, killing him. So are tax dollars being used in the House investigation? Well it seems any and all tax payers, voters or citizens are entitled to ask questions, make statements of fact and confront those entrusted with this duty.
Donald Pay
IS Putin irrational?
“It is a mistake to assume that a nonsensible opponent necessarily suffers from some diagnosable psychopathology. Autocratic rulers like Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un have incentives so different from those of an ordinary person as to warp their “rational” goals. They tend to conflate the continuation of their rule with their personal survival, with good reason. Perpetuating their own rule at any cost or risk of nuclear war is insensible to everyone else, but rational for them.
Therefore, while Putin’s apocalyptic rhetoric might be alarming, it is not necessarily a symptom of a deranged mind. For instance, Putin declared in a 2018 interview that “if someone decides to annihilate Russia, we have the legal right to retaliate. Yes, it will be a catastrophe for humanity and for the world…but we will ascend to heaven as martyrs, while they will just croak before they know what hit them.” On another occasion, the Russian president asked, “What use to us is a world without Russia?” ”
https://www.rand.org/blog/2022/03/is-putin-irrational-what-nuclear-strategic-theory-says.html
Putin is supremely rational:
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/putin-is-many-things-but-he-is-not-irrational-20220130-p59sbw
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/is-putin-irrational/
Spencer Gosch was on the news tonight complaining that the governor has been having lots of meetings on various issues to find information. While he has not succeeded in making a decision whether or not to impeach. He should get started doing his job rather than complain about others trying to do their job. One point in the campaign when Ravnsborg was running for AG was that he had no experience doing a trial. Well Gosch does not seem to know how to do a trial either. So now they have one incomptent legislator covering for an incompetent AG and both wondering why the governor is trying. When republicans want less government, should not mean ‘no government’.
DaveFN, I look at it that if someone makes a rational decision within an irrational environment that they have created irrationally, they are irrational. To a paranoid person it makes rational sense to take precautions against the monster under the bed. The fact that there is no monster under the bed sort of makes that rationality irrational.
Cory and Nick, Noem is right on Ravnesborg, but the Legislature is so effed up it could impeach Noem because she’s right. If they think she’s overstepping her authority unconstitutionally by interfering in the Legislature’s impeachment process, they should impeach her. But in my opinion they can take care of Ravnesborg first, then go on to Noem. But, let’s face it, the Legislature is incapable of doing anything worthwhile, so expect nothing to happen.
Donald…I get the feeling that certain Legislators, maybe the majority of Legislators like Ravensborg personally and believe he was involved in an auto accident (Gosch is referring to it as a crash), that unfortunately resulted in the death of a man walking along a dark highway. I think the believe “Were it not for the grace of God, there go I. They’ve all gotten absorbed by their cell phones while driving at night. They believe Noem’s is a personal issue (Gosch said “She just doesn’t like that guy). Many of the Legislators were delegates at the last convention and made Ravesborgh their candidate. He still is.
Donald Pay
What you say founders on what is considered paranoid or not. As the irrational to some is not lacking in any way as far as its reasons from the standpoint of others, similarly what some consider paranoid is not without its reason whether we accept that reason or not. That my perspective should in any way be yours is nothing but problematic, the human flaw of an imaginary mirroring of ourselves and thus bypassing the symbolic register altogether notwithstanding.
It seems the queen bee/American’s governor/bully gov/no weed in my state/pink is for some girls/don’t swallow that pill leader is being told by large men like Gosch and Kar to shut her nonsense noise maker.
Maybe they will find out, if they don’t already know, the spurs are real but the hat holder is empty. Watching the inept inbred Republicans fight one another is like a pack of dogs during reproductive time. They all fight one another to be the on top producer, when done, next. At the end the litter is mixed and the donors move on to the next conquest.
Impeachment is just another word if you have nothing to lose. And feelin’ good was easy, Noemie, when Gosch and Kar sang their blues. You know feelin’ good was good enough for Gosch and Kar. Yea. XXX-Large size guys like Gosch and Kar will not suffer when their meaningless mouthful word actions are unsuccessful, which they will be. The inept inbred Republicans cannot find their backbones to raise enough hands to do the right thing in many, most and all instances.
Soon 45 or Putin will be telling the large inept inbred Republicans to shut their bark holes allowing national SD Gov candidate to bop from conference to conference in her new plane spilling out all the knowledge running around the empty space under the cowboy hat in a 3 minute sound bit. Thank goodness the gov candidate has that sauna in her 1 house gated community to unclench her overworked mind and body.
Campaigning in 2022 will be entertaining on the inept inbred Republicans side. Sad situation on the Democratic side. And, possibly enlightening on the Independent side.
November 2022 could bring silliness governance to an end. Let the sparrow fly.
JR has a point that on appeal we’d need to dig-into the psychological medical records of the “victim”.
Due process requires that to establish motive.
JR may be guilty of how he reacted to the circumstances, but perhaps not of the death itself.
Calling him a killer is irresponsible and weaponized without operating from a more informed collection of facts.
Conservative Republicans should operate on principle.
During election time, look for substantive critiques to inform the vote.
Once victorious, hopefully you haven’t burned bridges, and can still get ideas into the fray for the winner.
But in a circumstance with widespread el3ction frAud, all bets are off.