Quote for the Day…
Strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others. ― Suzy Kassem
In today’s column, I take a quick look at these people/issues:
- Primaries
- Constitutional Sheriff
- Southern Baptists
- The Western Word Poll
PRIMARIES:
If it’s Tuesday, then there’s a primary somewhere! According to FiveThirtyEight there are 11 primaries today:
Tuesday brings the next big batch of primaries, as voters head to the polls in Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia — plus we get a little bonus electoral action thanks to several runoffs in Texas and a special election in Minnesota. And thanks to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to dislodge multiple incumbents who refused to overturn the 2020 election, Georgia is the election on everyone’s mind this week, but there are even more races of note in the other four states — 11, to be exact.
Click HERE to review each one.
CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFF:
It took MTN News about two weeks after the story was first reported, but they are now reporting about Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter being an extremist.
KRTV anchor Tim McGonigal did the story. He seems to have a right-leaning slant to his reporting.
I provided my thoughts about Slaughter’s extremist views HERE on May 12.
You can read the report from MTN News HERE.
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS:
I am ashamed that I was once a member of a Southern Baptist Church. I have not been a member of the Baptist Church for 40 years, but I am still ashamed of what is happening in that church.
The Associated Press (AP) and other news organizations are reporting that a blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel known to be abusers.
They better do it and do it quickly.
People are losing their faith in churches and religious leaders. Churches are veering into territory where they should not be involved, like in politics. Churches should encourage their members to vote and then encourage their members to pray for those who were elected. That is it.
You can read the report from the AP HERE.
You can read a report from Reuters HERE.
THE WESTERN WORD POLL:
Back in March, I asked readers to pick which statewide elected official in Montana had embarrassed them the most. (Results)
Now we are almost to June and a lot has happened, so it’s time to ask the question again:
WHICH STATEWIDE ELECTED OFFICIAL IN MONTANA HAS EMBARRASSED YOU THE MOST? (May Edition)
Thanks for participating.
The Western Word 
Not in today’s topics but has been discussed here previously. From an email:
“Signature gatherers [FOR GARY BUCHANAN] will be available in front of the Great Falls Public Library tomorrow (Tuesday) through Saturday, May 28th. Please stop by and sign the petition during those days from 10 am to noon and from 4 pm to 6 pm each day. Thank you.”
I dropped by the library this morning and signed the petition.
Mr. Slaughter seems to be no subscriber to the “where there is smoke there is fire” theory.
“Oh sure, I hang out with these extremists, belong to their organizations, consume their literature then repeat what was in that literature, go to their meetings, teach school kids their interpretation of the Constitution, take pictures buddying up with them, etc., but it means nothing. Trust me. I’m just a little radical right curious.”
Learned nothing from the “extremist” pillorying Barack Obama got from the right for his friendship with William Ayers. Like Barack and Ayers, at the very least It just looks bad.
Terry is absolutely right. Jesse did indeed slice the baloney mighty thick in that interview. Unbelievable that he thought we in Great Falls wouldn’t notice his antics. A cursory google search will tell you all you need to know about Richard Mack and his constitutionalist sheriff organization. They’re bad news. And their views have already got Jesse in trouble when he tried to bully our local judges. They finally had to threaten him with contempt for him to do his job. Unbelievable. Unprecedented. But just par for the course when one thinks they’re above the law. We can only imagine what other laws Jesse decides are unconstitutional and refuses to enforce, and others he decides to bully. And this remarkable interpretation of the Constitution is what Jesse is now tea in the schools.
The interview left out one other important influence in Jesse’s cosmos, pastor Jordan Hall, a guy Jesse admires so much that he gave him a medal. Go figure. Up until his recent arrest, Hall regularly called for violence against folks he doesn’t like, including judges, lawyers, gays, democrats, atheists, etc. That’s bad enough. But the really striking thing about the pastor is that he loves to commemorate the Jan. 6 uprising in the capital to overthrow the government. To him, it was simply “unauthorized tourism.”
So, apparently we now have a sheriff that approves of militant attempts to overthrow our duly elected government. Is this a guy we really want teaching in our classrooms? Enough with his baloney. We need to get him out. If the primary doesn’t do it, we can do it with a write in in the general.
https://dailymontanan.com/2022/01/06/conservative-pastor-j-d-hall-leads-january-6-rally-at-capitol/
I think there’s some momentum for Groskreutz lately, but will it be enough?
A write-in on the November ballot will fail.
If Slaughter is re-elected, he may not last the full term due to his extreme views and connections. The Democrats should have found someone to take him on. That’s their job. -JmB
I’m outta the loop with democratic politics any more, but I’d sure like to know why they didn’t field a candidate. Doesn’t make since. But what I’ve seen around the area is that Jay has tremendous support from the labor union crowd, and that is not insignificant. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the jail is hemorrhaging workers because of dissatisfaction. I view this as a contest between labor and the tin foil hat crowd. Hard to say how many tin foils have moved into the area, but I think it’s significant. My neighborhood is loaded with signs for Jay, and none for Slaughter.