Note: You can relax – In the immortal words of Sir Elton John, “I’m still standing!” I know some were worried that some MAGA person took me out. My Spectrum internet was down for several hours last night and early this morning, so I did not post. Was it a conspiracy?

Quote for the day…

I suffer from that disorder where I speak the truth and it pisses people off. – Unknown

Today’s independent commentary deals with these issues:

• Levine vs Grubich
• More Political Hit Pieces
• Student Debt Cancellation
• One More Thing

LEVINE VS GRUBICH:

Over the weekend, Lee Newspapers reported about the only contested district court race in the state, which is between the former judge, Michele Levine, and current judge, David Grubich, here in Cascade County.

I don’t commend the press often, but this was a very good article from Seaborn Larson of Lee Newspapers.

By the way, I reside in Cascade County, so I get to vote in this contest.

Cascade County is void of decent district court judges except for Elizabeth Best. The rest of the judges I would not want to judge a pie-baking contest.

I think Levine would be a good judge like Best. That is why I will be voting for her. We need brains in the District Court bench, not a Greg Gianforte puppet, which I consider Grubich.

Larson shines a light on the partisan process in which Grubich came to power:

David Grubich, the incumbent judge in the race, came to the bench through that new process. His challenger, Michele Levine, was the appointee left by the previous Democratic governor who Republicans rejected amid that newly heightened scrutiny.

Larson goes on to report:

Levine, 42, was one of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s final judicial appointments in his last year in office, and appears to have been the only judicial appointment in the 50 years the Judicial Nomination Commission existed to be rejected by the state Senate during a confirmation process that has long been something of a formality.

Grubich said in the article, “I’m not politically connected; my support came from Cascade County.”

I call that statement bullshit. Has Grubich donated to candidates and received money from donors? Just tell the effing truth.

Open Secrets tells the facts.

Larson adds this:

…Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, a Republican, attended a fundraiser for Grubich earlier this year.

In my humble opinion, the whole process in which Grubich attained his present position was tainted by politics and partisanship. We can’t let the MAGA folks take over the courts in Montana or Montana will go further down the MAGA shitter.

Read the complete report from Lee Newspapers HERE.

MORE POLITICAL HIT PIECES:

Two weeks ago, I wrote that you can almost set your clocks to it. I was talking about the political hit pieces from the various groups arriving around the same time the ballots hit the mailbox.

Both sides do it and some of the fliers are pretty funny. Some are poorly written, and others are just plain dumb. I actually like them.

But we all know that many voters, especially the MAGA folks, are dumber than a box of hair, so they probably eat these lies up.

One of my favorite hit pieces arrived in my mailbox over the weekend. I define hit pieces as promoting one candidate on one side of the flier and on the other side, there are some negative things about their opponent.

I don’t care which way they lean. I am independent.

The latest one promotes State Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson and hits her opponent James Brown pretty hard.

Click HERE for the front. Click HERE for the back.

Brown (no relation) is a MAGA candidate promoted and endorsed by the extreme members of the Montana Republican Party.

I will be voting for Gustafson.

STUDENT DEBT CANCELLATION:

In Friday’s column, I wrote that Thursday was a good day for the Biden Administration and for people seeking relief through the student debt cancellation program.

Now there is a bump in the road.

The Washington Post (WaPo) reported late Friday evening that a federal appeals court on Friday evening blocked the imminent cancellation of federal student loans under President Biden’s debt relief program, days after millions of borrowers began applying for up to $20,000 in forgiveness.

WaPo added, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit granted an administrative stay while it considers a request for an injunction filed by a coalition of six Republican-led states seeking to block the forgiveness program.

I don’t have any student loans to forgive, but I am happy if people who do can get some relief. I saw a few comments praising the Appeals Court granting the administrative stay. These are bitter people who would have cheered the student debt plan if Trump had done it. They are probably uneducated.

I don’t think the states can stop it. It is a federal program. Full disclosure: I am not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV.

Check out the WaPo article HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

There’s a Facebook post making the rounds again that claims:

A new Facebook/Meta rule allows the company to use your photos without permission and posting a legal notice on your page will prevent it from doing so.

It’s false.

I wonder if the dummies who post things like that ever think about checking to see if it’s factual first.

Check out the report from Snopes HERE.

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##