Today is Flag Day! My flag will be flying proudly. Please join me.
Here are the topics that caught my eye this week:
- Great Falls Embarrassed
- Right to IVF Act
- SCOTUS Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act
- One More Thing
GREAT FALLS EMBARRASSED:
USA Today published a story about Great Falls Mayor Cory Reeves and his decision not to issue a proclamation recognizing Pride Month.
The article is pretty embarrassing for Great Falls.
The article mentions the Cowboys Bar and the February 2023 assault there that USA Today reports left a gay woman with a fractured pelvis possible internal bleeding and a severely punctured leg.
It also mentions the hate that some in the Great Falls LGBTQ+ have felt over the years and how not recognizing Pride Month was hurtful. There’s also a report about a homophobic message that was left on the back door of a local parish – just a few days after Reeves posted his Facebook message saying he would not honor Pride Month.
All in all, this is not a good look for Great Falls. But what is more concerning is the article is completely true.
Read the complete article HERE.
RIGHT TO IVF ACT:
It was good to see U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) vote to Safeguard IVF. Tester is the only member of Montana’s delegation to support the Right to IVF Act which would establish a legal right to access in-vitro fertilization.
Read the press release from Tester’s office HERE.
SUPREME COURT ETHICS, RECUSAL AND TRANSPARENCY ACT:
The Hill reported this week that U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other Republican senators on Wednesday blocked a bill requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct and create a mechanism to enforce it in the wake of several high-profile controversies.
So, the Senate Republicans don’t want the U.S. Supreme Court to have a code of conduct, or create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct, improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, and they don’t want to require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public. (Source)
People once had a lot of trust in the U.S. Supreme Court. Not these days.
ONE MORE THING:
When people ask me, “What do you do?” I say, “Whatever it takes.”
The Western Word 
It has to be even across the board if you are a government official.
You either proclaim for all, or proclaim for none.
Our elected officials should never be allowed the luxury of getting to pick and choose based on their own personal feelings.
Personal feelings cause all sorts of problems and are one of the major causes of division in a community.
In a public, non-private sphere, no one so-called special group is any better than any other so-called special group.
why do we even have a Mayor and Commissioners? We already have a City Manager and a Deputy City Manager. We could could combine their salaries and hire someone for that weed control problem we have.
The answer to the weed problem is hire some goats! 🐐🐐
Good Morning Jackie,
Enjoy your flag day. I am not sure if there are distress messages related to the Montana state flag but if there is it should be flown by all true Montanans after the hideous display of our disgrace of Senator named Steve Daines. He was the first of the group of Sedition supporting politicians welcome the felonious Seditionist in Chief back to the scene of the worst crime ever committed in the history of the United States. One would hope that this travesty would be sufficient to recall Daines. I know it won’t happen but it is obvious thatDaines’ main motivation is another tax cut or he and his billionaire friends and a greater budget deficit to blame on the Democrats.
How far we have fallen from Mansfield and Metcalf.
I saw video of Trump at the Capitol and Daines was as close to him as his shadow in several different shots. Sad deal.
Thanks, JmB
“I want government out of who we love,” Reeves said in an emailed response.
Great Falls resident Stacy Kony’s voice quivered as she spoke through tears to city commissioners.
“I don’t wear rainbow items to tell you who’s in my bed,” she said. “I wear rainbow and trans colors so the family across the street will feel a little safer in my neighborhood. So the couple in the restaurant knows they aren’t alone. So the boy who sees me notice him looking at dresses knows I won’t judge.
“Right now, here in Great Falls, there is a young person who believes that they’d be better off dead than trans or gay. I wear my pride because you would have them hide.”
Jerry Rubin said that, “The power to define the situation the ultimate power.” I thought of that quote as I watch the fiasco created by mayor Cory. He definitely does not hold the high ground here. He speaks with all the power of a lily white hetero dude who’s incapable of understanding the travails of the LBGTQ community. In other words, he’s farting in the wind. His attempt to rationalize his decision is nonsensical, weak, and pathetic. The only one he seemed to impress on the rest of the commission was the little MAGA bird who had to chirp in and call folks who disagree “ignorant.”
The real power comes from the testimony of the gay members of our community who have experienced first hand the hatred and discrimination. They are the ones who are defining the situation. Their testimonies are incredibly powerful and convincing. They hold the ultimate power in this debate. And they should have been allowed to speak before this decision was made. Cory should rethink his decision for the good of our community. He’s causing divisiveness for no apparent reason. He’s simply out of his league on this matter. Stupid moves like this simply weaken his future leadership. Like it or not, some folks will judge him to be a bigot either rightly or wrongly.
https://www.losangelesblade.com/2024/06/10/great-falls-montana-mayor-no-pride-month-proclamation/
As pointed out in the USA Today story Jackie posted, Mayor Cory had no issue earlier this year with proclamations for two other historically marginalized groups, blacks and Jews. But when Pride month rolled around he said nope, not gonna do it for THESE people, and rationalized his decision by claiming LGBTQ is a lifestyle choice and government should not celebrate who people choose to love.
And there is the crux of the matter: Mayor Cory seems to believe LGBTQ is a conscious choice people make, not the way God made people like he made some other people black or Jewish. And presumably since they made a conscious choice to be the way they are, well too bad so sad they call down the discrimination, marginalization, and physical attacks like the one described outside Cowboys Bar on themselves. They are thus undeserving of the City recognition and acceptance given other historically marginalized groups of citizens.
Possibly, but I think it’s even simpler than that. Cory is still in cop mode, except that now he’s no longer allowed to wear a badge. So, what does he do? He goes rogue a la Dirty Harry. Cory knows what what needs to be done even if he has to do things extrajudicially. Legalities and the feelings of others are for wimps. Shape up, people. You’re in Cory’s jurisdiction now! It’s called being a constitutionalist mayor.
Cory knows the Lord hates homosexuality, and so Cory will do the Lord’s will. Bend a few laws and rules and established precedents along the way, and it’s all permissible if the end results is implementing Cory’s MAGA belief system. It’s for our own good.
Cory views his job not so much as a mayor, but as the chief protector and enforcer of the morals of our fair city. Why? He was called by God. And that’s really scary. Cory’s vision for Great Falls is one that most folks might find kooky and unacceptable. It definitely is not inclusive, and in fact tends towards hate. And this is not good.
From his KRTV interview.
“Great Falls is moving in the right direction, but there’s even some things that I, as a citizen, get frustrated about … I was sitting, reminiscing about things that I would like to change in the city, and something came over me. The lord said if you feel passionate about it, then you need to step up and run for mayor, and that’s exactly what I did.”
I think we now know what Cory feels passionate about. Gays. Wonder what other MAGA things Cory feels passionate about? It should be interesting now that he has the Lord’s blessing! Never a dull moment in MAGA world.
We read a lot into Cory’s words, but whatever Cory actually does personally believe or feel about LGBTQ, I guess we should congratulate him for provoking a public conversation about the topic. We’re having it now all over social media, and it turns out that right wing Great Falls is every bit as ugly and homophobic as many suspected all along.
Truth. Now the whole country knows it. -JmB
Terry, Cory’s part of a bigger trend than we know. But he’s sure doing his part. A little research shows how the hatred is ramping up nationwide. We’re marching backwards, and our MAGAs here love it. I fear for our gay communities. And I hate this anti gay trend.
A cursory look at German history shows that the very first group that Hitler went after were the gays. The famous picture of the huge pile of books burning were all the scientific books of the world’s leading researcher on gender studies, a Jewish doctor. Berlin was the world center for gender research at the time, and very liberal. Cutting edge research. All gone in one night.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/17/lgbtq-pride-violence/
Here’s the history. The world’s greatest transgender research library burned in one night. As I watch our MAGA legislators try to say something intelligent about gender issues, I can’t help but observe how stupid and uneducated they are. They revel in their ignorance and would prefer that everyone does the same. But they can’t burn down everything. The Nazis already tried that.
This article tells the fascinating history of that time period. Very similar to our own MAGAs whose new attack on free speech and LBGQT rights is called, “meet me at the library.” How apropos. BYOM, bring your own matches!
https://forward.com/culture/549587/trans-book-burning-library-gay-pride/
This must be Mayor Cory’s growth plan:
Demonstrate to all America that Great Falls is at best a “See No Evil” community, or at worst totally intolerant. Should sttract a real desirable class of new residents.
Very true. It will also hurt GF in attracting new business and visitors. In a few short months, Reeves has crippled the city. -JmB