Quote for the Day…
A strong leader accepts blame and gives the credit. A weak leader gives blame and accepts the credit. – John Wooden
In today’s column, I take a quick look at these people/issues:
- Montana Abortion Laws
- Afghanistan
- The Western Word Poll
- One More Thing
MONTANA ABORTION LAWS:
The Montana Free Press (MTFP) and others reported that a lawsuit filed Monday in Yellowstone District Court by Planned Parenthood of Montana challenges the constitutionality of four laws curbing access to abortion passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor earlier this year.
We knew it was going to happen.
According to the MTFP here are the bills:
HB 136 largely bans abortions after 20 weeks; HB 140 requires providers to offer patients an ultrasound before their procedure; HB 171 adds new restrictions on abortions early in pregnancy and prohibits the use of telemedicine and mail-delivered abortion medication; and HB 299 prohibits state health insurance plans sold through the federal exhange from including abortion coverage.
With the relationship soured between the Republicans in the State Legislature, including the Republican Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, and the State Supreme Court, I suggest we get our popcorn ready.
I have a feeling all four laws will be found unconstitutional. During this session, the Republicans acted like kids in a candy store since they had a Governor who would sign about any rightwing bill they placed on his desk. They did not do a good job of passing bills that would pass the constitutional test – in other words, they lacked attention to detail.
It is too bad Montana Republicans don’t care about school-age children as much as they do the unborn. If they did, they might want them to wear masks and, for those of age, to get vaccinated.
Read the story from MTFP by clicking HERE.
AFGHANISTAN:
I have a “News Mix” channel with my satellite subscription, so I was able to watch CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC cover the shitshow in Afghanistan.
It made me sick to my stomach to see Afghans trying to hold on to the planes as they taxied down the runway. I saw a couple of people fall from the planes to their death.
What was also sickening was the partisan shots being taken by both sides blaming former President Trump and current President Biden for the failures.
Could we all be Team USA instead of being Team Democrats or Team Republicans? Please! We should circle the wagons when it comes to international issues.
If you follow Democrats or Republicans on social media check their statements and see their team’s talking points. It’s disgusting.
For example, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) is very partisan and blames Biden for everything:
At a time when our country and world greatly needed leadership, President Biden is nowhere to be found. He withdrew our troops from Afghanistan with no strategy or plan, and it has endangered our armed forces, put American lives at risk, made America less safe and secure, weakened our allies and triggered a humanitarian crisis. This failure has empowered the very terrorists American forces fought for decades and will make future nations think twice before helping our troops. The 9/11 terrorist attack was first planned by terrorists in Afghanistan — we can’t let a similar tragedy ever happen again.(Source)
Come on Daines, there is never a time that a President “is nowhere to be found.” The downsizing started under Trump’s watch. He made the deal with the Taliban to get out by May 1, 2021. I doubt if Trump would have been re-elected that we would have seen much difference today.
Daines failed to mention that the new President of Afghanistan was in prison until 2018 when he was released after Trump requested it. (Source)
The only thing missing from Daines’ statement was him saying the Biden wasn’t elected legitimately like Trump says all the time. We all know Daines believes it, he just can’t bring himself to say it publicly.
Jim Messina, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Under Former President Barack Obama, maybe broke it down to the basics so that all could understand:
“We’ve been there 20 years. It’s America’s longest-running war, it is time to get out,” he said on Fox. “Why should American troops be fighting a civil war that Afghan troops this week refused to fight for themselves, it was time to get out.” (Reuters)
President Biden gave a speech and said, “I am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.” That was refreshing since the last President never admitted he was wrong about anything.
The bottom line is we never really had an exit strategy. Now we do and it may be nasty, but we’ll soon be done with Afghanistan. We should be happy that Biden is getting it done.
If you missed Biden’s speech, please read it HERE. It was one of his better speeches.
THE WESTERN WORD POLL:
Schools are opening across the nation in the next few weeks. There are different opinions about children in public schools wearing masks. This week’s poll question asks:
The results will be released Thursday.
ONE MORE THING:
From @middleageriot
JOE BIDEN: “The buck stops with me.”
DONALD TRUMP: “It’s the media’s fault. It’s the Democrats’ fault. It’s China’s fault. It’s Fauci’s fault. It’s Pelosi’s fault. It’s Obama’s fault. It’s Hillary’s fault. It’s the voters’ fault. It’s God’s fault. It’s your fault.”
The Western Word 
Omg. How can this guy be a chaplain in the Montana air guard? I missed that part first time around.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/montana-national-guard-chaplain-houses-anti-gov-militia-session-at-church
If only Two-Face Daines had been as vocal about the non-plan Trump had in place to get the troops out by his date of May 1. If there was any plan at all to make it by that date, it would have been an ongoing process before Trump left office.
Daines is not alone in his two-facedness. In addition to Trump’s own very public flip-flops, the RNC was busted for playing Winston Smith changing history, by quietly removing a gushing web page about Trump’s great peace deals including the “historic” one with the Taliban. Newsweek has the details.
https://tinyurl.com/ww8c2mts
But in one of the major surprises of the century Matt Rosendale sort of admits the failure was a bipartisan one, according to the story in the Trib. Though of course he can’t simply play it straight and takes some de rigueur shots at “elites” and potential Afghan refugees who Matt would apparently simply abandon. We don’t want no foreigners here, do we.
“‘The total collapse of the Afghan government is the result of decades of failure and deception by the bipartisan foreign policy elite, which is even now trying to reverse the correct decision to withdraw American troops. This withdrawal has been severely and catastrophically mismanaged, but this does not change the basic fact that it was the right decision embraced by both President Trump and Biden, and one that I have long publicly supported. The chaos we’re seeing is not an excuse to flood our country with refugees from Afghanistan,’ he said in a statement.”
https://tinyurl.com/cbjk5dkj
Terry – I heard about the RNC “cleanse.” As for old Matt, he was all over the place with his statement. Thanks, JmB
My nephew died clearing buildings in Fallujah at the ripe old age of nineteen. He tried unsuccessfully to get me to buy him and his buddies beer shortly before he deployed. This young man not old enough to buy a beer died in a country whose army behaved exactly as the Afghan army is now. We should have declared victory and bugged out years ago. His name was Nathan Wood.
Bill – I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing. God bless our military. -JmB
So, the top Montana Republican Daines wants to blame President Biden for the failure to continue fighting a “theocracy” in Afghanistan, apparently supported by the majority of Afghans.
Meanwhile, here in Montana and across the country the Republican majorities are trying to create a theocracy in state government to control the lives of women through abortion restriction, jeopardize lives by failing to address the pandemic in a safe and reasonable way all in the name of evangelical religious beliefs.
Cognitive Dissonance, anyone?