Shakespeare wrote that brevity is the soul of wit. Forum News Service South Dakota News Director Jeremy Fugelberg sums up South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's COVID record in a tweet:
SD Gov. Kristi Noem is touting herself as the COVID "no mandates" governor.
— Jeremy Fugleberg (@jayfug) July 15, 2021
However, she:
- Issued stay-home orders
- Demanded meat plant close
- Told people to avoid races
- Canceled state bball tourneys
- Closed schools
- Delineated critical employeeshttps://t.co/WfEweHL97Y
That's gist of Christopher Vondracek's article at the Mitchell Republic, A look at Gov. Noem's claims that SD 'never shut down' for COVID. The article begins:
Standing before a crowd of more than 100 midwestern legislators gathered in a Rapid City convention center this week, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem repeated a line she has dropped around the country, from cable news to conservative political conventions.
"In South Dakota, we got a little bit more attention... for not ever closing businesses,"said Noem, to light applause at the Midwestern Legislative Conference, a nonpartisan association of 11 states and 4 Canadian provinces.
For seasoned observers of the Republican governor, it's her "in South Dakota, we never shut down" speech.
As she has before, on Tuesday, July 13, Noem hit the highlights, delivering a postcard-sized version of her administration's pandemic response, boasting her team didn't engage in "defining what businesses were essential" and avoided "any shelter in place mandates."
It's a mantra, however, perhaps masking as a sales pitch for a potential presidential run that she has previously said she has no interest in, that is qualified by a spate of executive orders — nearly 30 in total — that Noem and her team issued throughout 2020 all dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Those were stay-at-home orders," Rep. Linda Duba, a Sioux Falls Democrat, told Forum News Service this week, "And she conveniently forgets that." . . .
Read the rest at the Mitchell Republic. Back in early March, Joe Sneve raised similar points at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in As Noem scores points for her pro-liberty approach to COVID-19, here's a look at what she's done. A taste:
. . . But to say she never issued any shelter-in-place orders and that she doesn't believe government has the authority to close businesses or make people wear masks doesn't entirely vibe with what's taken place in South Dakota during the last 12 months. . . .
Noem is also correct that she never formally ordered the closure of any businesses. But following an outbreak at the Smithfield meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls in April, she joined Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken in using their offices to apply pressure on the company to shut down.
Within days, the plant executives announced it was shutting down for two weeks.
For an entertaining report on another recent Noem whopper, check out Corey Allen Heidelberger's Pants on Fire: Noem Has Never Supported Medical Marijuana at Dakota Free Press:
. . . Noem opposed South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative a year before it went before the voters. She fought non-smokable, non-medicinal industrial hemp just because it looks like marijuana and because she thought it would lead to legalizing recreational marijuana. When Noem was campaigning for Governor in 2018, she said, “As governor, I will oppose all attempts to legalize marijuana.”
And in 2009, when Noem was serving the South Dakota Legislature, she had a chance to support two bills that would have given allows South Dakotans to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. 2009 House Bill 1127 would have created a cannabis cardholder system similar to what we enacted with Initiated Measure 26, while 2009 House Bill 1128 would have allowed individuals arrested for use or possession of marijuana to invoke medical reasons as a defense. Then-Representative Noem did not sponsor those bills.
Despite Governor Noem’s long-standing opposition, medical marijuana becomes legal in South Dakota on Thursday [july 1]. You probably won’t notice much more haze in the air, since Kristi is already smoking up the joint with her flaming pants.
Also worth your time at Dakota Free Press: Pot vs. Dope: SF Billboard Notes Marijuana Got More Votes Than Kristi Noem.
That would be adult cannabis, blocked by a court.
Photo: Noem at the 2020 press conference described in Governor Noem, Sioux Falls mayor ask Smithfield Foods to temporarily shutdown. Credit: Newscenter 1.
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