Obama finally says something
l3wis 
May 2020
RIP Little Richard
I have always been a gigantic fan, he will be missed!
If SD would just tap into these trusts, we would never have to pay taxes again
Another ‘flattering’ story of how we allow Billionaires to take advantage of our laws in South Dakota;
South Dakota is fast becoming a mini-Switzerland for the world’s rich. Analysts and local politicians estimate that $250 billion to $900 billion is now stashed in South Dakota trusts by the likes of Chinese billionaires looking to keep their fortunes out of reach of the government, Europeans looking to avoid taxes and Americans looking to shield wealth from spouses.
I have argued for a long time that if we only put an annual .01% tax on these trusts the state could take in $90 million in tax revenue.
UPDATE: Why is the City of Sioux Falls waiting 2 weeks to open city buildings?
Notice in the video the Mayor said he will not being going out to eat. Good choice. But what I don’t understand is if this Mayor and City Council gave a green light to the rest of the city to reopen, why not the city buildings?
I will give you my best theory. They are using the citizens of Sioux Falls as Guinea pigs. Basically if this explodes over the next two weeks the city employees who work with the public will not be exposed, and likely not return on May 18. While I think it is a good idea for them to not return during the middle of peak why is it okay for the rest of us?
There seems to be a bit of hypocrisy going on here. You tell the people who receive their salaries from the tax payers, you don’t have to make a choice, you get to stay home, but you force the very people who pay those wages to make a difficult decision? Either go back to work, or lose my unemployment benefits, either way, I really don’t get to make a choice.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander Mayor. If you think it is okay to reopen hospitality and service industries in Sioux Falls why not direct the city employees back to the office? The Minnehaha Treasurer’s office has been operating this whole time.
I also think he fears what the repercussions would be if a city employee gets seriously ill or even dies. If he is thinking those things about his employees, why doesn’t he have the same fears for private employees?
It really shows who the mayor thinks really counts, and it’s not the people paying his wages.
UPDATE: I knew this was not going to work very well and be a nightmare for hospitality workers, I found this comment on FB from a bartender at a popular bar in DTSF;
I just worked my first shift and the guidelines they are having us follow are nearly impossible to maintain. It is so dumb to have a bar open up and expect us to make sure these drunk people don’t gather at a table with more than 6 people and making sure they stand 6 ft apart while serving them alcohol. Seriously why?! It just more reason for our guest to call us assholes because we have to tell them “you can’t stand next to your friend we have to enforce social distancing“.
People circulate at a bar and no matter how much we try to table serve they want to come to the rail. If more people come out I don’t know how we will ever be able to manage that even with a full staff. Thanks Crusty Gnome
Making this post for anyone who is curious how the first day of opening a popular downtown bar was like.
UPDATE: The choice to ‘not work’ was ripped from citizens today in Sioux Falls by the city council
I have been shaking my head quite a bit over the last couple of months with the response from the governor, our mayor and city council. They keep telling us that this is about ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘personal choice’. But that ‘choice’ was ripped from citizens today when the council voted 7-1 to lift restrictions on the hospitality industry and other similar businesses. Councilor Starr voted against the measure because they failed to pass an amendment that would sunset this on June 5th for review. That amendment was a tie vote with the Mayor voting to break the tie by voting NO.
Employees who get called back to work will have to give up their unemployment benefits. If they ‘choose’ to not return, those benefits will go away. So do they really have a ‘choice’? Nope. Because this state’s elected officials have set up a system of employment where the employer controls the employees lives and choices. Sure, you don’t have to return, but you now have no social net, so you only have one choice, the one your employer made for you. Go to work. Get sick. Hope you survive.
We have known for a long time that employees in this state have little rights. The only real right you have is that you can quit your job on a dime and their are NO repercussions from it, as well as no benefits.
I have been very fortunate that I have been able to go to work each day during this, and work from home. My choice. But I don’t work in hospitality. I also have an employer who has put a plan in place where we distance ourselves in the office, we also disinfect several times a day.
The difference from being in a secluded office setting and working in a restaurant is the points of contact. We have hand sanitizer everywhere in the office. We all have our personal stash on our desks, medical grade. And we don’t touch much except door handles. My experience as a server has thought me that you have thousands of points of contact within one shift. How can a server, a cook, a hostess or a bartender avoid that contact? It will be virtually impossible and people will get sick.
I could go on a rant about the stupidity of this, but I think that is obvious at this point. I have argued for a long time that these businesses are protected thru the Federal programs and their laid off employees are protected through unemployment benefits, now they want to f’ck that whole system up so people can go eat at Crapplebees. Completely insane. Your FREEDOM and LIBERTY ends when you endanger others knowingly. I think the Constitution is pretty clear.
ALL KINDS OF TESTING FOR PEOPLE WHO MAKE HOTDOGS
While I am all for Smithfield workers getting streamlined testing, what about the rest of us? If we can knock out 2,600 tests in a couple of days, why not continue the drive-thru testing for everyone? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that widespread testing is what will stop the spread. We have been told this every day for over 60 days!
This pandemic has drawn a clear line in the sand of who the ‘Haves’ are and who the ‘Have nots’ are. We are no longer the country our founding fathers concocted. If there has been anything through all this that has given me anxiety and distress is that the country I love is ran by a bunch of f’ing greedy morons! May they rot.
UPDATE: I also want to point out that while we are basically forcing hospitality workers back to work and off of unemployment benefits, many pencil pushers with the city will not have to be ‘phased’ back into work until May 18, as announced by the mayor today. My contention all along is if private industry has to go back to work, public employees must also. How can you say it is okay for us ‘worker bees’ to show up and shut up, but the people we pay thru our taxes can shelter in place? If you are concerned about their wellbeing (and you should be) what about the people who put food on their tables? I think a great amendment today would have been to direct ALL city employees to report to work on Monday in their offices. Oh, that’s right, it is unsafe.