Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Great Falls City Budget
- Flying in Private Jets
- The Presidential Debate
GREAT FALLS CITY BUDGET:
As I mentioned last week, the Great Falls City Commission is discussing a new budget that will probably include tax increases.
I wrote that I really doubt any of the five members of the commission have the guts to say “No” to tax increases. Great Falls residents can’t afford more taxes on top of fees being increased. I warned that residents of Great Falls should be ready to be screwed over again when the city budget is approved.
I think that Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon laid the groundwork for his vote to increase taxes with a post on his Facebook about the budget. One of his paragraphs caught my attention:
No one likes paying taxes. NO ONE.
But I will take my responsibility seriously to pay for the Great Falls streets I drive on every day, the fresh water in my faucet every day, the neighborhoods free of raw sewage and storm water flowing through the streets.
For the first responders who put their lives on the line in Great Falls every day. For our local courts and corrections people.
Water, sewer, trash, and other things are paid for monthly and the commission every so often raises the fees on those things to stick it to us. I think I speak for many when I say just because you can raise fees and taxes, does not mean you should.
If the MAGA folks on the commission are so sure Donald Trump will win in November and things will be so great, then wait and bet the house on him winning and sending you a pot of gold to pave our streets.
FLYING IN PRIVATE JETS:
Over the weekend, U.S. Senator Jon Tester (or his staff) posted on his @JonTester X account the following:
I doubt someone who flies private jets to out-of-state fundraisers cares about the price of a gallon of gas or a carton of eggs. Tim Sheehy won’t look out for Montana’s working families.
I don’t think that was a great attack. It kind of backfired. Private jets are used a lot in campaign season. The right-leaning Washington Examiner did a little research and wrote about it. It wasn’t pretty:
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) attacked his Republican challenger, Tim Sheehy, over his private plane usage, claiming Sheehy “won’t look out for Montana’s working families.” There’s just one problem: Tester has dropped donor funds over the years on exclusive travel with private jet companies, records show.
The Examiner continued with:
Tester has spent tens of thousands of dollars since 2006 in campaign money on charter flights through companies such as Exec Air Montana, Air Charter Team, and Charter Flight Group, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
This year alone, Tester paid almost $14,000 to Charter Flight Group, a private jet company “providing impeccable service from takeoff to touchdown,” filings show.
I doubt the undecided voters will make a decision on who to vote for based on who uses a private jet most, but the cost of a carton of eggs might hit home.
Now, about those eggs. I feel Sheehy is the guy who can afford a case of cage-free AA eggs and have them delivered. During a good month, I can afford to purchase a dozen eggs from Walmart.
I yearn for candidates who are Walmart shoppers…
THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE:
Are you getting tired of hearing about the Biden-Trump debate? I am. In case you need a reminder, the debate is tonight (Thursday). CNN has the debate, but other networks are simulcasting it.
I guess people do want to see if these old guys can string a coherent sentence or two together. Joe Biden is 81. Donald Trump is 78. My gosh, they are old!
I mentioned a few days ago that this may be like two old effers in a nursing home fighting over the last cup of applesauce. CNN says they will turn the candidates’ microphone off when it’s not their turn to speak. I wonder if they can actually hear very well at their age to know when the microphone is off.
I still hope Trump loses this election. He’s a felon. He’s a liar.
The Western Word 
Trump voter here. You guys are completely unglued.
Trumpsky voters – voting for the man who personifies the extreme right – greed, spite, and bigotry.
Kind of an interesting opinion from the conservative National Review in 2017 about Trump’s many character flaws and how the MAGAs embrace them because “all that matters is the punching”.
Ends
“A year ago, many conservatives said that ends justified means — and that the end was the implementation of conservative policies. Some conservatives still feel this way. But now that Trump isn’t actually implementing conservative policies, the truth is coming out: For most conservatives, the ends don’t just justify the means, the means are the ends. All that matters is the punching, even if the punching is both counterproductive and immoral.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/07/donald-trump-character-flaws-supporters-russia-collusion-investigation/
Very true. Thanks. I love the MAGA cry to “bring back mean tweets!”
I’ve never voted for Trump and I never will. I’m proud of that. -JmB
Mary, you brought the teacher in me out. I must insist that you show your work. In other words, anyone familiar with Trump’s bio knows that he’s been an evil, vile, odious, sexual pervert, degenerate and criminal his entire life since his apprenticeship with Roy Cohen. He learned well from the master. In other words, he’s exactly like Cohen! The man has absolutely no redeeming qualities. His only real skill is one he learned early on from Cohen, and that is not getting caught and thrown in jail. At that he’s been brilliant, up til now. But being a brilliant degenerate and criminal hardly qualifies him to be president.
But since I highly respect your opinion, Mary, I will gladly carefully exam your revised version of his life’s story that causes you support him. I submit there is none. And that is why he’s so hated by the people of New York. They know him well.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship
I knew the teacher would come out.
I also disliked him when I lived in NYC.
His opponent is Biden. His last opponent was a Clinton.
I still like you, Mary. 😎
I took a chance. Thanks Jackie.
It might be funny to see Trump getting all hot and bothered bellowing “EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!” with his mic off.
MAGAs are too stupid to understand where we’re headed with MAGA policies. That’s why Trump loves the uneducated (stupid) and they love him. And I’m not sure they would ever be able to figure it out. They are immune to facts and information. Facts are scary to them and a communistic, satanic plot. Look at our own library haters, some of the biggest simpletons around. And unfortunately they sometimes get elected to city and county government. They really do want to turn us into Montucky! And that will create a future that will be the end of Montana as we know it.
I never watch debates but I will tonight. Hopefully they will put our two possible futures in stark relief.
https://www.rawstory.com/the-old-south/
MAGAs are smart enough to know that Trump is against everyting they hate – black people, gay people, Asian people, brown people, any kind of policy that would promote or recognize equality of these people with even the lowliest white trailer trash … And that is all that matters.
As long as Trump is bashing their imagined enemies, they are all for him, no matter what Republican rich guy first policies do to their own fortunes. The billionaires and corporations that bankroll the Republican party know that hatred is something they can use to further their own agenda.
One word. Trump. It is beyond my meager human comprehension how a president of the United States could say something so unbelievably evil. And be cheered by “Christians.” How long can a country this evil exist without repercussions?
”Trump’s most recent hate-filled abomination was suggesting to a delighted white “Christian conservative” audience that the UFC should throw immigrants into locked cages with professional fighters for entertainment. The “Christian” crowd laughed and applauded when he said:
“I think the migrant guy might win. That’s how tough they are. … These are tough people. These people are tough, and they’re nasty. Mean. It’s incredible that they come [here to America] totally unchecked.”
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/thom-hartmann/110780/how-the-trump-and-rightwing-media-hate-virus-spreads