Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:

• Sheehy’s Campaign Staffer
• Noem’s Train Station
• Banning Gas Cars

SHEEHY’S CAMPAIGN STAFFER:

Over the weekend, The Daily Beast reported that Republican businessman Tim Sheehy, who is running for U.S. Senate in Montana, reportedly hired a staffer whose social media account liked and shared racist posts.

The info was shared in Montana via social media on @TheWesternWord’s X page.

The Daily Beast reported:

At first glance, Caleb Oriet’s social media accounts seem typical of a young member of the fringe, online right, featuring likes and reposts of far-right influencers and white nationalists expressing incendiary and bigoted views about racial and religious minorities.
The account belonging to the 21-year-old Montanan and self-proclaimed “Anglo-Saxon Protestant” and “menace to society” liked, for instance, a tweet that refers to Black Americans as “the most criminal, dependent, and socially destructive part of the population,” and attacks GOP efforts to connect with Black voters.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Oriet is being paid by the campaign of Tim Sheehy, who is running against Sen. Jon Tester (D) in Montana. Since January, he has collected five paychecks, totaling $8,313.
Reached for comment by The Daily Beast, the Sheehy campaign confirmed it employed Oriet as a field staffer.
Oriet did not respond to requests for comment sent to his social media accounts.
Within an hour of The Daily Beast reaching out to Oriet and Sheehy’s campaign for comment on Friday, every post on Oriet’s X account had been deleted. His X and Instagram biographies were also wiped.

Every week we find out new information about Sheehy and none of it is good. It’s not going away – it will only intensify. Even if he is elected, he will never be able to be effective with his spotted history. With Caleb Oriet’s information, we can assume that Sheehy does not check the background of those he employs.

If THIS IS the Caleb Oriet that Sheehy employs, people should take a few minutes to see who his friends are on social media. Interesting list. Check it out before he blocks it.

NOEM’S TRAIN STATION:

I learned over the weekend about South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem killing her bird dog named “Cricket” and that she uses the “gravel pit” like the people on the hit show “Yellowstone” use the “train station”

Noem has written a book to make her better known and become Donald Trump’s VP. But the part where she kills her 14-month-old birddog and then a goat at the gravel pit probably took her out of contention.

Cricket would not hunt properly and then killed some chickens. He bit Noem. That sealed Cricket’s fate.

I lived in a small town that was basically in the country. I owned a full-blooded Beagle (Bow) that would not hunt. Instead of killing him, as Noem did, the owners gave him to me and I taught him how to hunt.

Bow got into some chickens and killed several. My dad paid for the chickens killed and brought one home. He chained Bow up and hit him with the chicken a few times and Bow never attacked the chickens again.

Reaction was swift:

On Friday, reaction to news of Noem’s description of killing her dog and her goat included satire, the Barack Obama adviser turned podcaster Tommy Vietor calling the governor “Jeffrey Dahmer with veneers”, a reference to a famous serial killer and a recent scandal over Noem’s cosmetic dentistry treatment.
But most responses, particularly from dog lovers and people who hunt with dogs, simply expressed disgust.
Rick Wilson, of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, called Noem “deliberately cruel” and “trash”. Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for governor of Montana, said: “Anyone who has ever owned a birddog knows how disgusting, lazy and evil this is. Damn.”

Check out the article from The Guardian HERE.

BTW, if Kristi Noem invites you to the gravel pit, run.

BANNING GAS CARS:

VerifyThis.com is reporting:

No, the Biden administration is not banning gas cars in the U.S. An EPA proposal would require two-thirds of cars to be electric by 2032, but it won’t ban gas-powered cars entirely as ads airing in multiple states claim.

VerifyThis.com is reporting that in February, ads airing in multiple states claimed President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency is “rushing” to ban new gas-powered cars in the United States to force people to buy electric vehicles. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a trade association representing fuel manufacturers, paid for the ads.

The AFPM said on Feb. 12 that the ads were launched to inform people in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Montana, and the Washington, D.C. area about the Biden administration’s alleged efforts to ban new gas, diesel, traditional hybrid, and flex-fuel vehicles from the U.S. market.

Read the full article HERE.

The Western Word hates fake news and has been unfriended/unfollowed by many for correcting the record. That won’t stop me…

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##