I was a little disappointed that Joe didn’t have tougher questions and didn’t push Paul on some of his answers.
Some highlights;
Paul doesn’t know if he will run for a second term but did say that he wasn’t interested in running for Governor or Senate or Congress. He may be eating those words in two years.
Paul thinks it is individual’s personal responsibility to decide whether to go out to eat or not. The problem with that is, these same people may be spreading it to people who are NOT choosing to go out. That is the problem with the B.S. Libertarian attitude. It is a highly infectious/contagious virus that spreads without symptoms and kills. It is NOT like the Flu. He thinks the government shouldn’t be telling people what to do and commented that Smithfield is getting vilified and they ‘Did a lot of things right.’ WOW! Then contradicts himself by saying it spread in the plant due to high levels of moisture in the air, then follows that statement up with saying, it spread outside the plant. So which one is it? Well it is both, but it spread more rapidly at the plant, that is obvious.
When Joe asked him how Covid is affecting his personal life he said he hasn’t been able to attend any ‘Galas’. Oh, you poor baby. In the 29 years I have lived in Sioux Falls I have been to a total of about four galas, and I was a guest or got a free ticket. He also said he is having lower back problems due to stress that started when he became mayor. That’s funny, up until the floods occurred he had it pretty easy jet setting all over the country. I guess flying to cocktail parties and hob knobbing is ‘stressful’.
And when asked if he would have done anything different looking back on the Village on the River Bunker ramp disaster he said he ‘Would not have done anything different.’
WOW!
Joe should have hammered him on that response. While Bowlcut & Bucktooth started us down this disastrous path, PTH could have stopped it. It amazes me how NO elected officials want to take responsibility for this massive F’Up!
Well, the game has changed. Being mayor used to be about a golden shovel or a ribbon cutting, but increasingly it about issues stemming from climate change or the collapse of the American middle class.
Our mayor probably thought he was running to be the mayor of a proven 40 year old “Boom Town” classic automobile, or what classic owners call a “survivor,” but apparently he never looked under the chassis, or had heard of a roadblock, because as I mentioned earlier: The game has changed.
But why has it changed? It’s changed because of the collapse of the middle class in this town and this country. Heck, that’s why I obsess on the taupe stuff. 😉
Flooding, ice storms, emerald ash bore infestations, and three tornadoes at night, and in September, (the two times they generally don’t happen) might be about climate change themselves, but it’s the growing indifference, or enabling willingness by some in political leadership to not listen to science that is what will make this approach, attitude, or responses to these new found challenges even more dangerous for us in the future as citizens and more challenging for our political leaders in the future as well. And it is all of this, that our current mayor is actually beginning to witness and experience himself as he opines as a leader.
But what is most dangerous right now is that this indifference, or ignorance toward science due to Trump is actually due to the collapse of the American middle class and their frustrations that allowed them to believe in “Clean Coal,” de-regulation, and further de-centralization, which then barely put Trump over the top in the electoral college of 2016; and then in turn, now, with a virus, too, climate change or not, has allowed our political leadership from the top down to give us this challenge in greater proportions due to an scientific indifference or enabling willingness that has been emboldened by an anti-science Trump and his collapsing middle class supporters, and right of center politicians who know better but sit silent.
Because when our mayor ignores science to cave to Noem, then he has further fueled the legitimacy of Trump and Trump’s supporters with their emotional reactions, which are void of any scholastic understanding .
So, if the mayor thinks that social media has gotten uglier, or that “He didn’t sign up for this,” then he needs to realize that he not only signed up for this, but promotes this as long as he is a political leader who gives Trump a “B,” and looks the other way as our president continues to be a bully through social media and spreads ignorance about Lysol over science.
( and Woodstock adds: “Oh, and as far as all of my critics, well, you can just all go to hell!”… “Woodstock is needed now more than ever!”…. (“?”… “I should run for Prez”….))
There is another affliction which has struck posters to this blog – run-on sentence-itis.
Patient Zero for this epidemic on South Dacola offered the loquacious essay recapping the history of the Seney Island water channel.
Soon, likely the result of violating verbal distancing guidelines, VSG manifests symptoms of the affliction – an 11 line, single sentence paragraph.
For the later incident most certainly climate change has exacerbated his condition. Political climate change, that is.
Joe should have asked him about his travel schedule collecting money for his political future. The high dollar money begging trips PTH is making should have been brought up. Instead PTH is learning how to be a beggar and not a leader.
The Argus Leader had 26 minutes one-on-one with the Mayor.
As I was watching Joe Sneve interact with PTH, I thought I was viewing a therapy session….
Not the city’s only newspaper asking probing questions regarding the Mayor’s leadership or lack of during his two plus years in office……
The taupe has gotten TGFG. Try Lysol.
Maybe Joe was intimidated by the mayor or had instructions not to fo there. PTH back problems from setting uncomfortably in the airplane seats on all his flights!
He’s gonna need a red jacket if he wants to run for higher office in a republican state. He inherited lots of problems from or initiated by Huether. I’m wondering if he can keep bond payments current given the shortfall of sales tax due to retail closures from COVID. Huether initiated the parking ramp problem. TenHaken inherited it. Private TIF’s awarded by Huether is money that could have gone toward assisting reopening of restaurants and bars. Most of the current problems he didn’t sign on for. However, he needs fewer frequent flyer miles and more home town leadership.
He’s like the Pope. He makes a speech into a vacant square, watches the bank support war criminals, travels the world, and doesn’t set policy. He even had a pedophile director. Nostradamus predicted this would be the last pope. Maybe this is the end of Home Rule Charter. We need a City Manager, not a Pope Ten.
VSG,
Brief. Succinct. To the point. I love it!
Please pass along to MLF* the secret to the cure, especially if it was hydroxychloroquine.
* does not stand for My Little Friend.
“I think I am going to take up fishing”….
This rambling thread is point proof you are a blogger and not a reporter.
You know, LJL, you should start your own blog, so I can come over to it and anonymously point out your sack is the shape of a v-jay. Of course that would require you grew a sack.
“Say, are tractor parts recession proof?”…. “What about depression proof?”
No matter what way the mayor and his Lt., franken, want to spin this week’s covid data, the numbers do not lie:
May
1st—51
2nd–34
3rd–19
4th–28
5th–25
6th–36
7th–101
8th–203
At this morning’s news conference, ten haken was quick to blame Smithfield for the increase in the numbers for the past two days.
Interesting that he failed to breakout the numbers:
How many of the 304 confirmed cases for the past two days are actually related to Smithfield?
paul tenhaken:
“We anticipated this.”
“We expected this.”
“There will be deaths.”
“It doesn’t really make me nervous.”
When asked by the media if he and his family would be going out to eat at a restaurant this weekend, his response was
“No.”