The Western Word is coming to you, STILL coronavirus free, from deep inside an underground bunker in Montana. The bunker also serves as the worldwide headquarters for The Western Word blog!

Quote of the day…

May your troubles be less and your blessings be more and nothing but happiness come through the door. – Unknown

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

• MT Politics & Coronavirus
• Trump & Coronavirus
• The Goat
• One More Thing

MT POLITICS & CORONAVIRUS:

A couple of politicians who have been helped by the coronavirus are U.S. Senator Steve Daines and U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte. Both are Republicans. Daines is running for reelection in the U.S. Senate and Gianforte is abandoning the U.S. House to run for governor.

Neither Daines nor Gianforte holds open in-person town hall meetings, so with the rules of not having crowds more than 10, this gives them another excuse not to hold in-person town hall meetings.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock has been handling the coronavirus issue in Montana well. He looks like a statesman. This should concern his opponent in November, Steve Daines.

The Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen (R) has been pretty silent about the school closures which were ordered by Governor Bullock.

Nonetheless, Bullock seems to be the leader and the face of the pandemic response in Montana, while others are taking a back seat.

TRUMP & CORONAVIRUS:

During Monday’s Coronavirus Task Force briefing President Trump seemed somewhat solemn when speaking. Of course, with Trump being Trump he did say a few strange things.

He was asked, “And on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis?”

Trump responded with, “I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job.”

All I can say is wow.

Trump was also asked, “What was it like taking the test?”

He responded with:

Not — not something I want to do every day, I can tell you that. It’s — you know, it’s a little bit of a — it’s a little bit of — of good doctors in the White House. But it’s a test. It’s a test. It’s a medical test. Nothing pleasant about it.

I’m sure that is not what the doctors wanted to hear him say.

On Friday Trump was boasting about how the stock market climbed when they were speaking. On Monday the stock market was in free fall and no matter what was said it continued to drop and closed down about 3,000 points.

Trump was asked, “The stock market took another hit today. Is the U.S. economy heading into a recession?” Trump responded with, “Well, it may be. We’re not thinking in terms of recession, we’re thinking in terms of the virus.”

You can read the full official White House transcript HERE.

THE GOAT:

This morning Quarterback Tom Brady announced that he would not be returning to the New England Patriots this year. He still wants to play and I bet he will. Someone will pay him big bucks.

I follow football closely. I had mixed emotions when Joe Montana left the 49ers to play two years with my Chiefs. He did get them to the AFC Championship game. Montana did lead the Chiefs to a victory over the 49ers.

I thought the Packers treated Brett Favre like shit when they let him go. Favre played for the Vikings. The Vikings did beat the Packers with Favre at the helm. That was sweet.

I have Brady listed as the best quarterback ever. Montana is a close second. Terry Bradshaw is third. Troy Aikman is fourth. There are a bunch of others, including the Manning brothers, who fill out the rest of the top ten.

One quarterback that would always get me to flip to the channel he was on was Brett Favre – the gunslinger.

ONE MORE THING:

This may be one for the record books. I subscribe to the electronic edition of the Great Falls Tribune. In today’s edition (Tuesday, March 17, 2020), there isn’t a sports section.

If my counting is correct, the whole paper was just 12 pages.

Yes, I know that most sporting events are canceled.

I have probably subscribed to the Tribune for 25 years and don’t remember ever not seeing a sports section.

There was not a “Dear Abby” either, but I can read that elsewhere.

These are troubling times in the kingdom…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

##END##