Don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus. -Unknown

Welcome to another exciting edition of Caught My Eye (CME) – the first of 2021!

CME is the once a week column that is posted 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.

There’s a lot to cover today, so buckle up!

Here are the topics that “Caught My Eye” this week:

• Donald J. Trump
• Knock, Knock
• Steve Daines
• MT Recreational Marijuana
• One More Thing

DONALD J. TRUMP:

President Donald J. Trump is holding on for his political life. After he fanned the flames that started the riots at the Capitol, he started losing staffers and members of his cabinet.

There are calls to invoke the 25th Amendment. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to impeach his ass in the last 13 days of his Presidency. Others are calling for him to resign.

To quell the attacks and maybe save his ass, Trump all of sudden announced that he was conceding to Joe Biden and there would be an orderly and seamless transition of power. He says at the end, “our incredible journey is only just beginning.” Watch the 2:41 video HERE.

So will Trump survive the next 13 days? I have no idea. I do hope someone watches him closely. He’s dangerous.

KNOCK, KNOCK:

I know several people who wholeheartedly support Donald J. Trump. Many are not too bright. The Trumpers rioting in the Capitol were dumb enough to film themselves destroying things and posting the video to their own social media sites.

On Thursday I tweeted:

For those who participated in the attempted coup in Washington, get ready! You were caught on camera, so the next knock on your door could be law enforcement. It’s only a matter of time.

It will happen. Federal sentences are often harsher than your state sentences, so these Trumpers will be going away for a long time.

Answer the door, you filthy bastards…

STEVE DAINES:

Lee Newspapers reported that U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) pushed back Thursday on the suggestion that his weeks of comments about the legitimacy of the 2020 general election stoked the “stop-the-steal” sentiment of pro-Trump rioters who assaulted the House and Senate disrupting the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s presidency.

Daines is not quite as low in the septic tank as U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), but he is in the shitter and he is responsible.

There are calls for Daines to resign. He won’t. There are too many Trump supporters in Montana for him to even think about it. The funny thing is that Daines is now the second-ranked Trump ass-kisser in Montana, behind U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale. Daines withdrew his objections when he saw it was hurting him. Rosendale was dumb enough to continue with his.

Robert Saldin, a professor of political science at the University of Montana., and David C.W. Parker, a professor of political science at Montana State University, penned a guest column that is making its way around to Montana newspapers. They contend that Daines should resign. They provide some compelling information:

Despite President Trump’s unprecedented behavior and rhetoric over the past four years, Senator Daines has consistently been among the most sycophantic and enabling of Trump’s congressional supporters. How do we know? This summer, we pored over Daines’ comments on the Senate floor, his press releases, and his Twitter posts and found zero instances of anything that could be construed as direct criticism of the president.

They add:

But far more alarming than his failures of leadership or inability to understand his role as a public servant in a co-equal branch of government, Daines’ support for overturning the election was nothing short of a traitorous act of disloyalty to American democracy and to the Constitution, which he swore to defend.

They professors close with:

The Trump era long ago revealed Daines as weak, ineffectual, and dishonest. His actions this week exposed him as incapable of upholding the democratic norms and institutions he pledged to defend. Daines has disgraced himself and betrayed the public trust. If he has any remaining dignity, he will resign his seat immediately.

I would add if his staffers have any dignity, they would resign, too.

Read the full column HERE.

MT RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA:

I had a feeling the Republican clowns in the Montana legislature were going to screw with the ballot initiative that overwhelmingly approved recreational marijuana.

Lee Newspapers is reporting that lawmakers turned down the revenue department’s $1.35 million funding request to get the licensing program off the ground.

The main culprit seems to be State Representative Bill Mercer (R-Billings):

But in executive action Wednesday on House Bill 3, which carried several other supplemental funding requests, Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, who called the request a “huge tranche of money,” submitted an amendment removing the department’s ask.

“I think the challenge for us is there are a number of different ideas people are beginning to think through in terms of how we need to take what the voters approved and decide how that’s actually going to work in terms of public policy,” Mercer said. 

Mercer is spewing bullshit. He was once a U.S. Attorney for Montana. It must suck to only be a lowly and not very well-respected state representative these days.

Many of my fellow veterans and I want to see recreational marijuana quickly implemented in Montana. I believe this is the first attempt to prevent it from being implemented.

Call your elected officials in Helena and tell them to implement what the voters overwhelmingly approved in November.

ONE MORE THING:

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte is best known across the nation as the candidate who pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault of a reporter in May 2017. (Source)

So I found it ironic that Gianforte tweeted the following short statement about the attempted coup in Washington:

Violence has no place in our civil society, and I categorically condemn what’s happening in the U.S. Capitol.

Beam me up, Scotty!

## DON’T BE A MASKHOLE ##