South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Corona Virus

Corona Virus Kristi Noem Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls South Dakotans

Have you ever heard of a Dutch Cowboy?

l3wis 8Comments
Yes, an actual Dutch Cowboy

I’m sure most of you have seen the infamous CBS story about South Dakota’s Covid cases spiking, in which a nurse serving in a Covid unit in Sioux Falls was about to walk into Tommy Jacks bar downtown Sioux Falls without a mask until the reporter talked her out of it.

But one of the strangest moments in the interview was when Mayor TenHaken said the reason people in South Dakota don’t want to wear masks is because of the ‘cowboy mentality’. Besides the fact a Dutch Evangelical from Worthington, Minnesota would know very little about ‘cowboy mentality’ I question how many cowboys we really have in South Dakota anymore, besides a handful in the Western part of the state.

Making a moronic (and kind of romantic) statement seems par for the course from Paul since this pandemic started. You know, like, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ And ‘I’m tired of it.’ So when he wanted to blame cattle ranchers for why people don’t wear masks, it didn’t surprise me. Next he will tell us the reason employers pay low wages here is because South Dakotans like to work for nothing (I’m starting to think they do).

So why do I think people don’t want to wear masks? The number one reason is because Noem, Trump and Right Wing Nutty radio told them they don’t have to. I also think most South Dakotans are ignorant of science. So ignorant, it seems they almost have a disdain for it. It’s easy to fear the unknown, and South Dakotans have ironically made a ‘science’ of it. I also think there is a lot of passive aggressive selfishness. The economy and low pay doesn’t help much either since most people live paycheck to paycheck, they don’t have a choice but to show up to work, with a mask or not. I have even witnessed people who got over Covid and didn’t have symptoms anymore return to work within a day of climbing out of bed. Yeah, a real genius move. I guess we are trying to create a herd immunity workforce. Funny, cowboys like herds.

And let’s clear up all the horse manure being spread by the supposed Constitutional scholars that have been showing up to council meetings and farting their Trumpy fartness on Facebook. Your civil rights are not being infringed upon by a private business asking you to wear a mask on their private property. It’s no different than your Grammy asking you to wipe your feet before coming into her house. Put that in your pipe and smoke it John George Jefferson Franklin.

As usual, it seems TenHaken is trying to point fingers at some mysterious phenomenon, this time called ‘cowboy mentality’ when in reality, as a leader, he should just ‘pony up’ and help inform people that not only is Rush, Trump and Noem wrong, that it is time we all ‘wear a dang mask’ whether you are shopping or wrangling cattle.

Covid seems to be sucking a lot of brain cells out of our state, that is, what’s left.

Christine Erickson Corona Virus Denny Sanford Sanford Hospital SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Erickson must be taking mask wearing advice from FORMER Sanford CEO

l3wis 16Comments

Yeah, you didn’t hear it here, but someone got the boot after writing strange Covid poetry to his employees, but we may never know;

Kelby Krabbenhoft and Sanford Health have agreed to part ways, Sanford announced in a news release at about 5:45 p.m. today.

This is no surprise, I have been hearing for months from Sanford employees that Kelby actually partially retired last Fall but was staying on basically for consulting for the transition to Intermountain Health. Not sure how much of that is true, but you will remember last Fall was when a lot of executives were leaving and an investigation into Denny Sanford was being done. No charges have been filed.

But as I was watching the Sioux Falls City Council Informational meeting tonight, I found it ironic that one of the city councilors who voted against a mask mandate and has admitted to having covid couldn’t even figure out how to wear a mask (you need to cover you mouth AND nose.)

Masks! We don’t need no stinking masks!

While she did pull it up a few times she kept pulling it down while talking. Scientists have said that masks actually do work, BUT you need to wear them properly and you have to have 100% compliance. Maybe Christine felt like Kelby that now that she has some kind of magical immunity she didn’t have to wear the mask?

Argus reporter Ellis said it best when talking about Sioux Falls City Government, “Amateur Hour.”

Christine Erickson Corona Virus CVB SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Erickson’s suggestion about pausing Covid tourism is just a ruse

l3wis 3Comments
FF to 3:36:00

As I suspected after Christine brought this up in the council meeting Tuesday night, there really is no effort to pause the program called ‘Sioux Falls Alive’. Not only is the website still chugging away but I saw an electronic billboard today (you know the kind you can turn off like a light switch) promoting the program. I have also heard from DaCola Foot Soldiers that still blow their money on cable TV the ads are still playing.

To be fair, though it grinds me, Erickson said they wouldn’t pause the program until AFTER Thanksgiving (which just seems pointless).

So while we are flat out lying to the citizens about pausing this ungodly $250K taxpayer expenditure that got funneled to Mayor TenHaken’s former(?) ad agency Click Rain we are throwing $20K towards the health department to educate the public about what we shouldn’t be doing during this pandemic. Maybe they will wait to educate us after Thanksgiving so couple 100 more people could die first.

As suspected, it probably wasn’t that easy to turn off the faucet because contracts were signed. And I suspect even after turkey day, the website will still be rolling and the ads will still be running like gravy down your uncle’s mouth (or Rudy’s sideburns).

But this should have NEVER happened to begin with. This was just a Hail Mary to the CVB and it’s subsequent contractors and had little to do about doing the right thing. Once again, like most leadership from City Hall and Carnegie these days, it’s all about the Benjamins and little else.

Corona Virus Sioux Falls

Covid’s silent side affect; Madness

l3wis 6Comments

I’m come from the Gen X generation. When I graduated from High School the internet did not exist and while there were car phones, cell phones also did not exist. I didn’t grow up with these things.

On the farm where I lived from 4th grade to my sophomore year of HS and after a short stint in Seattle (2 years) I spent my senior year at this same farm. I explain to people we were wedged somewhere between Ethan/Dimock/Parkston and Milltown. It really was the middle of nowhere.

I know isolation. I have lived by myself in my home for 18 years and before that I lived for about 7 years by myself in various apartments. During the summer living on the farm the only time I got in a car or pickup was to go to church on Sunday. EVERY SUNDAY. I mostly spent my summers cleaning hog barns, doing chores, walking beans (SUCKS!) and bailing hay. But when I wasn’t working I went on hours long hikes with my various dogs exploring the prairie. I found old cars, old farmstead cellars, beaver dams and even explored a homestead house. Besides my dogs, and my brother, I mostly talked to myself and took in a great appreciation for nature and a great dislike for dumb farm animals.

I can count on a couple of fingers the things I have been missing because of Covid. Live music (I really missed Levitt this summer) eating out and traveling. Other than that I really haven’t experienced despair because of Covid.

But I think the isolation has been making people crazy. Just look at the state our country is in. We have a president who refuses to concede (though he lost the popular and electoral count and no amount of fraud could overturn this election) that is, if it even existed. We have a governor who doesn’t believe in science and goes along with the insanity. We have an AG who drove off of the road and killed a man and still walks free. We have local officials who don’t understand leadership and to top it all off this week a CEO of a major healthcare institution writing poems about Covid and how he won’t wear a mask while the 50,000 workers he manage languish in his institutions.

I call it Covid Madness.

While I have only been on this earth a little under a half century, I have never seen so much denial, craziness and despair. NEVER.

Does it worry me? No. Because I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and only the truth will save us.

But we have to continue to fight for those things that are important to us. Our health and wellbeing, our families and the ones we love, our livelihoods, justice, open government and most of all good craft beer.

So if you have the day off today, like I do, I implore you to turn off your phone, the internet and the TV and make a list of all the things that are important to you. Also make a second list of all the wonderful and positive things you are going to do when we come out of this pandemic.

Don’t become a victim of Covid Madness. We got this, but it is going to take a little effort and having common sense and peace of mind. Also, if you go shopping today, where a dang mask!

Corona Virus SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Erickson proposed ‘pausing’ Covid Tourism (and other council tidbits)

l3wis 6Comments

Just when you think Christine grew a brain, she pulled a Hannibal Lecter and ate half of it.

Last night when the council discussed funding educating the public through our health department about Covid ($20K) she suggested we pause the ‘Sioux Falls Alive’ program, or as I call it ‘Covid Tourism’. I guess the CVB has said they would, but of course we have nothing in writing from the CVB they will do that, we also have nothing in writing from the contractors, TenHaken’s former(?) ad agency Click Rain that this program will be paused. As a person who has worked in marketing, I can tell you, once you sign advertising contracts, sometimes it is hard to turn off that faucet. I guess time will tell, but as of this morning, the website still exists. So in other words, like the mask mandate, it was just a strong ‘suggestion’. But what made Christine’s suggestion more ironic is that she voted against the health education funding as did Nutzert and another pup. Go figure. She really needs to put away her ugly pills.

What makes the irony even better is when the 1st reading for city employees vacation holdover to 2021 passed,  Nutzert said, “It has been hard to travel during this pandemic.” Who needs to travel to take a vacation? How about a Sioux Falls Alive ‘Staycation!’ Who says we can’t have fun in Sioux Falls during Covid? All the bars and restaurants are open, and if you don’t want to wear a mask? Who cares! The cops will not do anything anyway . . .

. . . speaking of that, it seems the SFPD has been listening to Detroit Lewis when it comes to mask mandates;

Sioux Falls Police spokesman Sam Clemens clarifies how the new mask ordinance will or won’t be enforced at Wednesday’s briefing.
“If the business owner or manager tells them, ‘you have to have a mask. It’s our policy.’ and if the people refuse, and they (the manager) says, ‘Well, you need to leave,” and they don’t, then it’s trespassing or causing a disturbance, according to Clemens. “If somebody leaves, then there’s no issue. There’s no problems. There’s no reason for police to be involved.”

Gee, what have I been saying for WEEKS about enforcing trespassing?!!!!! I may just be qualified to not only be the Chief of Police, but the City Attorney, an unlike the Fire Chief I live in Sioux Falls!

Speaking of eating out during your staycation, it just got easier, the lingering ordinance failed in a 5-4 vote (TenHaken, Neitzert, Erickson, Selberg, Jensen – NO). Erickson also attacked Brekke (who proposed this) claiming she is targeting certain businesses (uh duh). While I get the argument, I will tell you as a person who has worked in the hospitality industry this is the busiest time for them through the New Year, but not this year, and distancing tables at restaurants are not going to change their already dismal sales. Usually January-March restaurants are deader than a doornail. I would encourage restaurants to sell the crap out of gift cards right now, it may be the only thing that keeps you afloat. I warned months ago that the hospitality industry will be the hardest hit, especially when the patios have to be closed. If I owned the building my restaurant was in, January 1st, I would close my doors until April 1st and make sure all of my full-time employees get on unemployment. If restaurants right now are slow, it will be even worse January 1st. While I get restaurants wanting to make decisions on their own, this ordinance would not have harmed their business anymore than what Covid already has. I want to remind these business owners, if your customers are sick or dead, you are NOT going to have much business moving forward. We need to look over the horizon. This is temporary. Once the vaccine starts to get distributed, hopefully by late Spring, early Summer most people will be vaccinated and Covid virtually disappears, but until that happens, we need to get our sh*t together and take precautions.

I also found it a bit suspicious that suddenly SIRE* stopped working yesterday at 4 PM *(Meeting Agenda platform and Video) and the city cancelled the informational meeting. Shortly after that the city did a patch on the agenda page with a link to a PDF of the agenda and a YouTube Livestream for the regular meeting at 7 PM. First, the obvious, I have argued for years that the meetings be livestreamed on Youtube and replays be stored in YouTube. This costs taxpayers NOTHING. It has worked for the Sioux Falls school district of years and even the City of Omaha.

But I have a feeling this was done intentionally to save face from last week’s embarrassment of not having enough bandwidth in SIRE to watch the meeting. So this week I’m sure Mayor Stoneless and Chair Nutzert devised a plan to save face and not be embarrassed by people telling them the meeting wasn’t working in SIRE so they claim their was ‘technical problems’, yeah, sure, you betcha. Funny how the technical problems occur right at 4 PM, and once the regular city council meeting ended at about 12:07 AM, magically at 1:00 AM, SIRE started working again and the meeting popped up this morning.

Trust me, there wasn’t any technical issues just a couple of rats hiding cheese.

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