Stan had this response today on FB;
Has the Governor answered my open letter.
The answer is NO.
A better question that was raised in a call to me today.
When did the Governor first know about the 80 cases at Smithfield? And even more, why did she not report it on the daily State page — that many of us follow carefully? Surely all of these did not occur in ONE day!
Then a final question is from me. Does Kristi Noem care about the health of South Dakotans? Why were the people of Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties NOT warned of the danger of 80 new cases –
Eighty!! Is she lacking in the knowledge that one case – as widely discussed in the news, TV and radio — that one case usually is spread to 10 people???
Why, indeed was NO ONE warned? What about people from the Hills that have visited Sioux Falls, or even planning to go there, where UNLIKE Rapid City there are numerous restaurants and bars open
The Mayor of Sioux Falls just announced (almost proudly) that his community has 182.2 infections per 100 thousand people.
And, strangely he almost boasted “more than Seattle!”
Why, oh why has he not done what Mayor Steve Allender and our Council have done. After his exclamation it occurred to my ridiculous engineer mind we have less than 8 infections per hundred thousand.
In fact last night, looking at the US Census county population count, Lincoln and Minnehaha have a population of 192 thousand to Pennington’s 112 thousand. 2.24 times more, that means at 10 infection spreaders 174 more chances of someone getting pain, suffering or death.
And this was hidden?? For how long?? And WHY for G-d”s name????
Some surprise holiday gift from the Mayor and Governor, I suppose.
Stan Adelstein – finish my third week in isolation in Keystone yesterday.
Both the Governor of South Dakota and the Mayor of South Dakota’s largest city have been lying to the public for days.
Yesterday, Paul Ten Haken said he had reached out (obviously for the first time) to the federal government regarding closure of Smithfield.
Ten Haken: We found out the USDA CANNOT stop us from closing Smithfield.
This is SEVENTEEN days after the first confirmed case at the meatpacking plant. In addition, for many recent days in their daily press conferences both the Governor and the Mayor have made the statement that the federal would NOT ALLOW THEM TO CLOSE DOWN Smithfield.
The public now knows the truth about the Governor and the Mayor’s outright lies and lack of leadership during a worldwide pandemic.
Yah, well, I sound like a broken record, but I’ll say it again. Political leaders like Noem see politics as a game of personal accomplishment and not one of duty.
But how did we end up with these Noem, Thune, and Ten Haken political leaders? In my estimation, they are a by-product of the pragmatism of Daschle and Johnson, who through their period of political success blurred the distinction between the left and right in this state, and in so doing, opened up widely an avenue for conservatives in this state to take political advantage of our states politics, because a true distinction was no longer made as a a result of the politics of Tom and Tim, which allowed pretty conservatives in time to offer the politics of crocodile tears to South Dakotans and further emboldened their monopoly of our state politics by allowing soap opera looking political characters to acquire our greatest state political offices, but unfortunately with empty suits in hand.
November, 2022
Gubernatorial Election
April, 2022
Mayoral Election
Stan hit the nail on the head here.
Took Stan’s class at SDSMT. Knowledgeable guy. Bit of a quack.
I think our Mayor and Governor did fine, they have been informing us everyday as to the number of cases! The people that let us down was the people from Smithfield hat were not responsible to their employees in directing them to seek medical help and to self quarantine! If you hire a mass of people that do not understand or speak English, it is your responsibility to inform them. And also Lutheran Social Services that bring these people into our community should have informed them what to do when a pandemic hit their homes! These two organizations are the two to question why?
Karel, why did Huron city officials know what was going on at their local meat packing plant some three weeks ago, but not our local city officials at Smithfield?
I think you have a mistake in your figure Lincoln & Minnehaha has a population of about 250,000
While Kristi Noem’s own family is safely tucked away in Hamlin County where there is NO community spread, the residents of the State’s largest city are watching the confirmed cases of covid-19 double every 3 to 4 days (as demonstrated by the dramatic SPIKE shown on the chart at the mayor’s press conference today).
The Mayor of South Dakota’s largest city asked the State’s governor for help yesterday, saying, WE NEED HELP TODAY WITH A SHELTER IN PLACE ORDER.
Avera Health backed the Mayor in his request. They are the employer-based healthcare for Smithfield. Obviously, they understand the surge of patients their healthcare system will soon be facing.
Kristi Noem’s continuous response, “We are in discussions.”
How unfortunate for Sioux Falls residents that they must face this crisis WITHOUT a strong leader in the Governor’s office.
Where was the AFL-CIO at the beginning of all this? No, not the clowns running around after all the cases with signs on their cars, etc. The union obviously has people that can speak many languages, were they informing the workers to stay home if they were sick or had a fever? Did they buy a few hand held thermometers to test employees going into Smithfield, telling those with temps to go home. What? NO?! Then what are they doing with all the $$$$ they are taking from all these immigrants that can’t afford to take a day off. We are at what over 500 cases now? What did the union do to protect their members after case #1? WHAt? NOTHING? Just kept lining their pockets you say? Huh, who woulda thunk it.