The Monday Memo

I’m having salad for lunch so I can have three dozen Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups tonight. –Anonymous

Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:

  • Montana PSC
  • Jury Duty
  • Trump Reelect
  • One More Thing

MONTANA PSC:

These days the Republican-run Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) is a lot like watching clowns perform during a three-ring circus.

I wrote about a commissioner’s emails being obtained and posted on a conservative website. Some of them were personnel. Anyone who works for the government should know that government emails are not personal and can be obtained if someone wants to jump through some hoops.

MTN News is reporting Commissioner Roger Koopman’s emails were requested by fellow commissioner Randy Pinocci. All the PSC commissioners are Republicans. Pinocci contends he did not release the emails to the conservative website.

MTN News also reported this interesting piece of information:

Pinocci’s requests, dated Nov. 20 and Dec. 9, also were signed by Commission Chair Brad Johnson – but Johnson told MTN News Friday that it was a “signature stamp” and that he “had no prior knowledge of Pinocci’s request.”

The whole PSC is full of clowns. Thanks to MTN and others in the Montana media for exposing this circus.

JURY DUTY:

My continuing account of getting called for jury duty…

I know I must be getting old and cranky because little things piss me off. Maybe it’s the military in me that does not like dealing with idiots. I think if you have a job to do, you should do it to the best of your ability.

A few weeks ago I received a “Summons to Report for Jury Service” letter from Montana Eighth Judicial Court in Cascade County.

I get summoned for jury duty what seems several times a year.

The letter was postmarked on January 24. The return address on the envelope had the name Faye McWilliams Clerk of District Court listed. McWilliams resigned from that position on January 2. The actual summons was signed by a deputy clerk.

The “summons” is written like some third grader just discovered that in Microsoft Word you can make the words bold, underline words, and some words larger than others. It looks like they also discovered they can italicize words.

I may have written about this before, but a friend of mine received a summons to appear in Montana Eighth Judicial Court in Cascade County a few months back and the time listed to appear was 10:30 p.m. (For those of you from Iowa, that is at night)

Anyway, I had to call and let them know I received their letter. Then a couple of weeks later I had to call to find out if the trial was still happening. On that recording, they said the trial had been delayed and I must call back in two weeks.

I called again in two weeks and the District Court trial had been canceled. I was off the hook. It was party time!

I went to my mailbox right after that and guess what? I received a summons for jury duty in another freaking court.

I wish I was this lucky in the lottery. There is something wrong with this system.

TRUMP REELECT:

A new national CBS News poll that asked 10,000 registered voters their thoughts on the Presidential election found that whether or not they’re voting for him, 65% of registered voters nationwide think President Trump will definitely or probably be reelected, including more than a third of Democrats who think so. Republicans are especially optimistic: more than 9 in 10 expect him to win.

This is not good news for the Democrats. The Democrats have not come up with a candidate who people believe can beat Trump.

Check out the poll HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury is a badass. He is 6’9” and 273 pounds. He whipped Deontay Wilder (6’7” and 231 pounds) Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Fury said leading up to the fight that he wanted to “taste blood” during the fight.

He did exactly that. Fury won by TKO in the seventh round.

During the fight, Wilder was bleeding from the nose, mouth and even his ear. During a clinch cameras caught Fury sticking out his tongue and licking blood off the shoulder of Wilder.

I hope that Fury unifies all the belts in the heavyweight division. There are too many champions in the different weight classes in boxing.

##END##

6 thoughts on “The Monday Memo

  1. The markets all closed down by over 3 percentage points today.

    What’s it like in Trump’s alternative reality?

    The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  2. Jackie,know how you feel about jury duty. Last July received letter from 20th Judicial District I was on jury list for next year along with about 1200 others. Since I can’t win one dollar out of 25 dollars worth of scratch tickets I felt I was not going to get called. Well in September got called to jury. It was major case against County Sheriff for abuse of prisoner. Sheriff won but I can’t comment further. I thought I was off hook for the year. But lightning struck again as I am on jury again February 26. They claim draw is random by computer. I find it hard to believe that but since appears my luck has changed going to Reno after I am done with this trial with my big daily jury pay of $10 plus mileage which comes to $26 day.

    • Dennis – Thanks. Crazy stuff. Several years ago I was called for jury service in a lower court – several times in a year. Finally I called and asked why so many times. I was told the old man doing the notifications was not putting my card in the back of the box, but in the front so I was getting called more. -JmB

  3. Hi Jackie, If you received a summons from 2 different courts then one of them had to be federal court. You can’t be on the district list and also be on city or municipal courts at the same time. Not how the system is set up.
    As to Ms. McWilliams retiring, Ms. Henry, her replacement is working really hard but obviously hasn’t got everything set up yet. Give her time, it’s a huge job.

    • Rick – Thanks. With all the times I have been called to serve in the last 25+ years, I can honestly say the system sucks. I expect more as a taxpayer. -JmB

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