Gov. Kristi Noem Issues Statement on Attacks in Afghanistan

Today Governor Kristi Noem released the following statement in response to the attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan:

“Like many South Dakotans, I have seen the reports of the terrible attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan. We are still learning the full scope of the damage, and the number of those injured or killed, but the Pentagon has confirmed Americans are among the casualties.

“Let me first say that my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Afghanistan – Americans and Afghans alike. My heart breaks for the families who lost loved ones and friends today and those who were injured in these attacks.

“As we learn more details over the next 24 hours, one thing will be clear: these attacks are a result of the Biden Administration’s reckless failure to secure the situation before withdrawing troops. How we respond will come to define the Biden-Harris Administration for a generation. The world is looking to America for its leadership in the face of a cowardly attack on our military and allied forces helping evacuate refugees from the Hamid Karzai Airport.

“To those South Dakotans who served in Afghanistan, I want to say thank you.  To the families of the seven South Dakotans who died serving in Afghanistan – and the 36 total who were killed fighting the War on Terror – I want to say that your sacrifice in service to our country was worth it. America is safer because of you. Afghan women and children have an example of freedom because of you. We stand with you and thank you for your service. And we are here to serve you.”

Information about the Veteran’s Affairs Department and services to veterans is available atvetaffairs.sd.gov or call 605-773-3269. Veterans in crisis can call the hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or send a text to 838255 to receive free, confidential support.

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The news this morning is dominated by the court case involving South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, and the traffic accident which cost the life of Joe Boever.

Through his attorney Tim Rensch, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg has reached a plea agreement with the prosecution and has pled “No Contest” to 2 misdemeanor traffic violations, for using a mobile device while driving east of Highmore, and for driving out of his lane. The third charge, of Careless Driving, was dropped by the state.

For these violations, Judge John Brown imposed a sentence of $500 for each of the two counts, plus court costs, as well as imposed investigation fees of $3750 in the matter.

The Judge also remarked that he wanted to impose a duty of making a public service event at or near the day of Boever’s death for the next 5 years, but Ravnsborg’s attorney Rensch contested the legality of this requirement as it extends beyond any potential probation time. The determination on this part of the sentence will be coming later and will be made public as part of Judge Brown’s written decision.

The family of Boever has already signaled their intention to pursue the matter in civil court in a wrongful death lawsuit.

From Facebook:

If you haven’t been vaccinated against COVID yet…. Just saying.

Might not be the worst idea in the world.

Governor Noem Appoints Lynn Jensen to Transportation Commission

PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem has appointed Lynn Jensen to serve on the South Dakota Transportation Commission.

“Lynn’s extensive experience has proven his ability to build consensus and work together towards a solution,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “He knows transportation from his business experience. And he has worked in agriculture, South Dakota’s most important industry, which our transportation industry supports.”

Jensen graduated with a degree in Agricultural Production from Lake Area Tech in 1982. He served as President and Co-CEO of the National Corn Growers association in 2000, State Director of USDA Rural Development from 2001 to 2005, and was appointed by President Bush to be the USDA’s liaison to FEMA during Hurricane Katrina recovery in 2005. He has served on the board of several non-profit and for-profit organizations and currently serves as the Vice President of the American Aronia Berry Association.

Jensen has been the owner and operator of several businesses, including Jensen Transportation, where he served as president from 1996 to 2010. Jensen owns and operates a farm that has been active since 1980.

A photograph of Jensen can be found here.

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Governor Kristi Noem continues to push out a message that she will not be mandating what individuals and businesses have to do during the COVID pandemic. late this morning, her Communications director Ian Fury underlined that with a message tot he state’s media:

Folks,

I wanted to make sure you saw this message from Governor Noem on the question of banning business vaccine mandates.

As President Biden plans to mandate vaccines for nursing homes and pressure businesses into mandating vaccines for their employees, Governor Noem is ready to fight back. If President Biden illegally mandates vaccines, she will take every action available under the law to protect South Dakotans from the federal government.

But some want her to push legislation that would ban businesses from mandating vaccines for their employees. At face value, it sounds like a nice idea. After all, Governor Noem would agree that businesses shouldn’t be instituting these policies for their employees. But it isn’t in her authority to tell businesses how to operate. Frankly, if such an action were in her authority, then it would be in Biden’s as well. It isn’t; thank God for that.

Conservatives know this conversation well. We had a very similar one regarding the Masterpiece Cakeshop case just a few years ago, when liberals tried to tell cake bakers how to run their business. We had another similar fight when liberals tried to tell nuns and Hobby Lobby that they must provide contraception for their employees.

It’s wrong when government oversteps its authorities to tell people how to do business. It’s wrong when the Left does it, and it’s wrong when the Right does it.

Governor Noem knows that people are frustrated — that they don’t want their employer telling them what to do. Frankly, she doesn’t think that businesses should be mandating their employees to be vaccinated, either. And if they do mandate vaccines to their employees, they should make religious and medical exemptions available.

But she doesn’t have the authority as Governor to tell them what to do.

Since the start of the pandemic, she has remained focused on what her authorities are — and what they are not.

South Dakota is in a strong position because she didn’t overstep her authority. She didn’t trample on the rights of our people. She was the only Governor in the country who never ordered a single business or church to close. And she’s not going to start now.

When leaders overstep their authority, that is how we break this country. If government starts acting unconstitutionally — even if it’s doing something that we like — that is a dangerous path to walk. It will lead to the destruction of our Constitution and our nation.

We must be a nation of laws. And government must be constrained by the Constitution.

It’s not conservative to grow government to tell businesses what to do and how to treat their employees. Remember what President Reagan said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Governor Noem’s focus will always be this: ensuring South Dakota remains a great place to live, work, raise a family, and do business. If she starts telling South Dakotans how to do business, it will destroy the Freedom that made South Dakota’s economy the strongest in the nation.

Best,

Ian Fury
Communications Director
Governor Kristi Noem (SD)

@IanTFury

What are your thoughts?

Think about this… if I have the ability to dictate vaccine policy to businesses, then so does @JoeBiden.

Thank God neither of us do.

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) August 25, 2021

A few years back, South Dakota Democrat Angelia Schultz was a candidate for State Senate..

and later, Schultz was South Dakota Democrats’ standard bearer in the 2014 race for Secretary of State against Shantel Krebs. In fact, after the election, she was even touted as “the future” of the Democrat Party in her ability to capture more votes that old Democrat war horses Susan Wismer or Rick Weiland:

Political newcomer and Democratic candidate for secretary of state Angelia Schultz received the second-most votes of any Democrat running for statewide office in Pierre. She also had more votes than Rick Weiland, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate, though former congressman Larry Pressler certainly took votes away from Weiland. Pressler ran as an independent.

Schultz finished with some 13,500 more votes than did the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Susan Wismer of Britton. Statewide, 84,132 ballots were cast for Schultz. That was about 3,000 more than Weiland got.

and…

“She’s indicated that she wants to run again,” said Deb Knecht of Houghton, chairwoman of the South Dakota Democratic Party, of Schultz. “We look forward to having her run for something else whenever she decides that she’s ready for that.”

Schultz said that, while she doesn’t have any specific plans for the future, she doesn’t expect to fade into the political background anytime soon.

Read the entire story here.

What has Angelia been doing since the 2014 race? Apparently, cementing herself as the future of South Dakota Democrats.

The far, far future of the Democrat Party:

A woman named Angelia Schultz née Angelia Lynn Johnston, AKA Añjali, who claims to be a retired defense intelligence official, says she has first-hand knowledge of the location of an alien base in a mountain in the Mojave Desert.

and..

Schultz, AKA Añjali, laid it all out in a press conference that was live-streamed last week at the Lincoln Memorial.

During the press conference, Schultz said she was taken through tunnels to the alien base, where she met two aliens of different races who, she reports, communicated with her through her consciousness.

She went on to say that the aliens were aware of her conducting the press conference, approved of it, and that they are peaceful creatures.

Read it here.

And in fact, you can watch it here in all it’s “Future of the Democrat Party” glory:

The Future of South Dakota Democrats.

Well,they are looking for a candidate to run against Senator Thune in the US Senate race.

(She probably can’t do worse than Jay Williams did.)

From Facebook, State Representative Scott Odenbach provides his side of why he is pressing for a special session to prevent employers from requiring vaccinations:

Governor Kristi Noem is saying we don’t need a bigger government with an ability to dictate to people & businesses what to do or not do on vaccinations, as she notes that the legislature doesn’t need her to call a special session:

Governor Noem Files Brief in Mount Rushmore Fireworks Appeal

PIERRE, S.D. – Yesterday, Governor Kristi Noem filed an initial brief in her appeal in the Mount Rushmore Fireworks litigation. The brief was filed with the United States 8^thCircuit Court of Appeals. You can read the filed brief here.

“The Biden Administration cancelled South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on completely arbitrary grounds. They’ve displayed their hypocrisy on this issue time and time again,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “We are appealing the District Court’s incorrect decision so that we can return the Fireworks Celebration to Mount Rushmore and honor our nation’s birthday at America’s Shrine to Democracy for next year and in the future.”

Previously, Governor Noem asked President Biden to uphold the Memorandum of Agreement between NPS and the State of South Dakota regarding the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration. Governor Noem responded to NPS’s reasons for cancelling the fireworks celebration. She also outlined the due diligence that the State of South Dakota and other entities undertook to ensure that last year’s celebration could be conducted safely and responsibly. You can read Governor Noem’s initial letter to President Biden here.

Following the Biden Administration’s announcement of fireworks in Washington D.C., which included an invitation to states “to join us by hosting your own events to honor our freedom, salute those who have been serving on the frontlines, and celebrate our progress in fighting this pandemic,” Governor Noem asked President Biden to intervene and allow the planned fireworks to go forward. You can find that subsequent letter to President Biden here.

America’s Founding Fathers knew that Independence Day should be celebrated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one [e]nd of this Continent to the other,” as stated by John Adams on July 3, 1776. And President Calvin Coolidge declared that Mount Rushmore was designed to be “a national shrine to which future generations will repair to declare their continuing allegiance to independence [and] self-government.”

Last year’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration was held safely and responsibly and had a huge positive impact on the South Dakota economy. You can find materials such as photographs and video of the 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration here.

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