Quote for the Day…
Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. – German Proverb
Caught My Eye (CME) is the once-a-week column that is posted every Friday morning. This is when I look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week.
Here are some of the things that “Caught My Eye” this week:
- Montana VA Clinics
- They’re Coming to Take…
- Virginia Thomas
- Brittney Griner
- Ketanji Brown Jackson
- Virtue Signaling
MONTANA VA CLINICS:
I remember working for U.S. Senator Conrad Burns and his push to open VA clinics across Montana. That work has continued by U.S. Senator Jon Tester.
MTN News reported that there may be some changes coming to the VA Clinics in Montana:
The Montana VA currently operates 19 locations across the state. The federal recommendations call for closing four of them: rural clinics in Browning, Glasgow, and Plentywood, as well as the Miles City Community Living Center, a nursing home. They also suggest other changes, like shifting the emergency department at the Fort Harrison VA Medical Center to an urgent care center and discontinuing outpatient surgical services at a Billings health care center.
I do not think we should have a VA clinic in every town, but Montana is a little different than most states – the towns are few and it’s far between them. If there is not a VA clinic in your town, the local private hospital should handle your healthcare needs. The key thing is easy access to care.
With Tester chairing the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, I doubt we see Montana’s clinics touched at all – and we shouldn’t.
THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE…
MTN News reported this week that according to SafeHome, 2021 saw the second-highest year for gun sales since the year 2000 nationwide, with almost 150,000 guns in Montana sold last year.
I thought I saw Joe Biden on my street taking guns the other day – Just kidding.
Obama, Clinton, and Biden were all supposed to take my guns, but I still have as many as I had when Reagan was President.
Read the complete report from MTN by clicking HERE.
VIRGINIA THOMAS:
I can only imagine the conversations going on in the household of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia, today.
From the Associated Press:
Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent weeks of text messages imploring White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to act to overturn the 2020 presidential election — furthering then-President Donald Trump’s lies that the free and fair vote was marred by nonexistent fraud, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
It was also reported that the 29 messages the pair exchanged came in the weeks after the vote in November 2020, when Trump and his top allies were still saying they planned to go to the Supreme Court to have its results voided.
This appears to be a nothingburger.
If Ms. Thomas has a phone number for the Chief of Staff for the President of the United States, she can contact him anytime she wants to voice her concerns, share jokes, or recipes. Freedom!
When this is all over, we may find out that Clarence and Virginia Thomas were running the whole darn country during the Trump years…
BRITTNEY GRINER:
In case you missed it, WNBA player Brittney Griner was detained at a Moscow airport on February 17 after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges allegedly containing hashish oil, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Just this week she was able to meet with U.S. officials for the first time. (Source)
I have followed Griner since I watched her play basketball for Baylor University. She stands 6 ft 9 in. She’s won two gold medals in the Olympics, an NCAA championship, as well as a WNBA championship.
I know Russia and the USA are at odds over Ukraine, but I can’t help but think if this was someone like Tom Brady or LeBron James, the USA would be doing more to bring her home.
KETANJI BROWN JACKSON:
The Associated Press reported that after more than 30 hours of hearings, the Senate is on track to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
We (all of us) should be ashamed of how these hearings for U.S. Supreme Court have gone into the toilet. This time it was Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Marsha Blackburn who were asses.
The Democrats have also been asses when a nominee came from a Republican President.
Jackson should be confirmed in the Senate by mid-April.
VIRTUE SIGNALING:
I noticed in the past few months, several folks on the extreme right have learned a couple of new words: virtue signaling.
I think they need some help to understand the meaning.
Supposedly the phrase has only been around since 2004. (Source)
The folks at Urban Dictionary have this definition:
A term that is far too often used to dismiss an opposing opinion that is based on morals, ethics, or ideals, when the introduction of such into a debate could critically undermine one’s stance.
Dictionary.com defines it as:
The sharing of one’s point of view on a social or political issue, often on social media, in order to garner praise or acknowledgment of one’s righteousness from others who share that point of view, or to passively rebuke those who do not: The virtue signaling of solidarity with the victims can be a comforting affirmation of community. Their outraged virtue signaling comes across as contrived.
I’m glad I could help…
The Western Word 
I had an exchange with one of the local gun goofs about far-right hunters apparently needing semi-auto combat arms to confront ferocious herbivores. He got very indignant and accused me of “wanting to take everyone’s guns.” I reassured him, “Not everyone’s – just yours!” I also observed that there are a fair number of people, himself in particular, who shouldn’t have access even to metal utensils at the dinner table. I may have caught him with a spork in hand, because he dropped out of the exchange at that point.
Fred – Funny! You’re fighting the good fight! Thanks, JmB
I generally find that the right’s appeal to the virtue signaling argument comes when they are trying to promote or defend a position that has no morals, ethics, or basic human decency and might even be illegal … in emulation of their fearless leader Trump, who has never let morals, ethics, basic human decency, or legality get in the way of him “winning”. It’s why they all admire Putin.
And speaking of basic human decency and Putin, I note that President Biden says he will allow 100,000 Ukrainian refugees come to the U.S., presumably mostly white and Christian. I can’t wait to see how our Republican Montana elected officials bluster and spit about that, like they did about the refugees from Afghanistan and Syria. I’ll guess it will sound a lot like crickets.
Terry – Good commentary. The “virtue signaling” phrase is right down there with “It is what it is” to me. Cheap answers both.
I saw one of our elected officials said something along the line that he has been working on the homeless issue and crime. I think he’s failing.
-JmB
Our constitutionalist sheriff is terribly worried that some libs are gonna take his guns so we can’t defend ourselves against antifa and BLM. Could happen I suppose, in another reality!
https://myevent.com/FGOMT