All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. – Mark Twain
Welcome to the big show to end the week “Caught My Eye” (CME)!
A special shout-out goes to the “paid professional agitators/protesters” who are reading CME today!
If you are a first-time visitor, CME is posted right here every Friday morning. This is when I take a look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week. I often throw in a touch of sarcasm to make you smile – or to irritate you just a little – maybe both.
Topics that I am providing commentary on today include The Western Word town hall poll, mail-in ballots & pot, Planned Parenthood, WH Press Briefing & KECI, Trump & Nukes, one more thing, and much more!
TWW POLL – Town Hall Meetings:
Take The Western Word poll: “Would you like to see Montana’s U.S. Senators hold town hall meetings (in person) across Montana?”
Thanks for participating!
Mail-In Ballots & Pot:
On Wednesday I was one of the first to write about Montana GOP Chairman Jeff Essmann and his stand against mail-in ballots. I also said that I was for the mail-in ballots for every election.
A funny thing happened when Montana Secretary of State Cory Stapleton spoke about the all mail-in ballots. Although he would not tell legislators how to vote, he did leave this gem of a statement when interviewed by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
“If you look at the three states that have done it, you can see that populism and direct democracy at its best, all three states — Oregon, Washington and Colorado — they do all-mail-in ballots and they’re all marijuana-all-the-time states too,” Stapleton said. “Is that what you want? Because that’s what you’re going to get.”
Cory, Cory, Cory – are you afraid there might be a little reefer madness in Montana?
So if Stapleton is saying we can have recreational marijuana approved in Montana if we have all mail-in ballots, all I can say is, “Cool, dude, sign me up!”
I imagine Oregon, Washington, and Colorado might not be in the budget crunch that Montana finds itself in. That’s mostly because of recreational marijuana sales and taxes on those sales.
Planned Parenthood:
I happened to catch the story from MTN News about the Cascade County (Montana) Commission voting in favor of Planned Parenthood Montana providing medical care for the Cascade County Adult Detention Center. Planned Parenthood Montana has provided medical services for the correctional facility in Yellowstone County for the last two years.
Wait just a Montana minute here – Planned Parenthood Montana is providing medical care for the Cascade County Adult Detention Center? Are they providing abortions to the adults in the detention center? The reason I ask is because most conservatives believe and spread the rumor that Planned Parenthood does nothing but abortions and then sells baby parts out the back door.
Seriously, most people who have more than an eighth-grade education know that Planned Parenthood provides valuable healthcare services for many people. It’s good to see them get some positive press. Someone should tell Steve Daines…
WH Press Briefing & KECI:
There are a couple things I check each day. First I check to see what President Donald Trump has tweeted overnight, and then I look forward to the White House Press Briefing by Sean Spicer.
Since the new administration has taken over, they are allowing some of the press from outside the beltway to be on Skype and ask questions.
Thursday’s press briefing featured a reporter (NBC Montana’s Laurel Staples of KECI in Missoula) asking a question via Skype. Of all the questions that could have been asked, Staples asked:
“Montana shares hundreds of miles of border with Canada. According to the US Department of Transportation, almost 1 million people come across that border into Montana each year. What are the administration’s plans to increase security on the Canadian border and does the administration have any plans to build a wall there?”
The question was met with laughter in the press room and even Sean Spicer giggled at the question. You can see the video and the story from KECI HERE.
You had one job…
Trump & Nukes:
After eight years of wondering if President Barack Obama would cut more nuclear weapons from our country’s arsenal, things may be changing.
President Donald J. Trump recently talked to Reuters about nukes:
In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.”
“I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.
“It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” Trump said.
This is good news for bases like Malmstrom AFB (near Great Falls, MT) which has 150 minuteman nuclear missiles. Malmstrom once had 200 missiles, but 50 missiles were removed in 2007 under the watch of U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus, and U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg.
One More Thing:
The Western Word (TWW) world headquarters is located deep within a bunker in an undisclosed location and far from civilization. TWW operates completely off the grid except for electricity, natural gas, city water/sewer, cable TV, cell phone, and cable internet…
Merica!
The Western Word 
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Greg: Did you not see who was behind the never-was-gonna-happen white supremacyst march in Whitefish? Did you not hear about the Pepe loving Trump supporters who launch their trollery from DS, as well at Bannon’s former property, Breitbart? C’mon Greg, you can do better.
Doug, I guess you’ll just have to put me in your racist/white supremacy crowd then.
Mail in Ballots — I know a woman who loves to vote “absentee”. She voted her mother’s also when she was alive. She votes her husband’s (slightly legal??). She also votes her handicapped son’s absentee ballot. Oh, yes, she votes her grandson’s also because what he says about the politics of state and national elections is “I don’t give a S*%^”. Then occasionally her granddaughter doesn’t give a care either. Finally she votes her own.
I think absentee ballots should only be for those who are actually absent on election day. All this is happening in Montana. I could tell you a whole other story about mail-in balloting in Oregon, where my elderly father and his elderly sister lived. Dad was legally blind and had to have (a later convicted thief) care giver vote his ballot….she also voted my aunt’s ballot and more than likely most of the other elderly who she provided “care”.
It is time for American to get its head out of the sand and take care of this very special privilege we have guaranteed through our U.S.Constitiution. I should have shared these stories with Corey in my conversations with him during his campaign and before so that he has more ammunition to ward off this silly idea of mail in balloting.
I can also tell you great stories about same day registration. Fair and equal??? What is fair and equal about all of this and what I have observed (and it has been ignored) as a poll watcher? Get real!
Careful, talk like that will get you labeled a kook. At least you didn’t go so far as to suggest we actually make people show an ID when they vote, an unpardonable sin in Democratic circles.
Prairiegram: Interesting. Thanks for sharing. The signatures on the absentee ballots from the voter are supposed to checked with the signature on file at the election office to verify.Although there are stories like you shared from others, I still like the mail-in ballots. Thanks, -JmB
I read that jaw-dropping question from Laurel Staples and assumed she was yet another one of the revolving door TV reporters that we are continually assaulted with. You’ll imagine my surprise, therefore, to learn she’s a Polson-native and got a degree from UM way back in ’88. It was in drama and dance, which might explain a lot. She even won an award a few years back for covering the Dem’s annual shindig dinner.
http://www.nbcmontana.com/meet-the-team/laurel-staples/5393824
I did find the story about the Africans fleeing America for Canada interesting, however. They lost their fingers.
http://www.dailystormer.com/haha-africans-lose-fingers-trying-to-flee-us-to-canada/
For those who don’t know, DailyStormer .com is THE leading website for the racist, anti-Semite White Supremacyst crowd.
Not exactly a highly credible source. Why do you pay any attention to them, Greg? Let alone cite them.
Because it’s the first link that comes up on Google when I type in “africans lose fingers fleeing to canada”
After that one comes links from:
Telegram
Metro News
NY Times
The Guardian
Winnipeg Free Press
Ghana Business News
CNN…and a couple more.
I guess I should have picked the Telegram. I certainly wouldn’t pick the NY Times as I’d use up one of my free articles.
But I went with the top one. I wasn’t aware that it was “THE leading website for the racist, anti-Semite White Supremacyst crowd.”
Why do you know?