Thursday Thoughts

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Hello June – You beautiful thing!

Here are the topics I’m writing about today:

  • Election Court Hearing
  • GF Library Levy
  • Debt Ceiling
  • Department of Veteran Affairs

ELECTION COURT HEARING:

The Election Protection Committee notified The Western Word (TWW) yesterday afternoon that District Court Judge Brenda Gilbert, the judge who assigned a monitor (Lynn DeRoche) to observe and report election office irregularities to the court, called a hearing for Thursday (TODAY) at 9:30 a.m. in the Cascade County courthouse.

The reason for the hearing is uncertain at this time. As soon as TWW has further information it will be reported via Twitter or TWW’s Facebook page.

GF LIBRARY LEVY:

I am supporting the Great Falls Public Library levy. It’s a shame how much false information is floating around social media about this election. If passed the levy will increase the taxes on a $100,000 home by about $20 ANNUALLY. That’s cheaper than a new hardcover book at a bookstore!

The best information about the levy can be found HERE.

Some of the information recently posted on social media is pretty typical for the drive-by MAGA folks in Cascade County. They want to raise doubts.

One post acted like someone was saying that taxpayers would not be paying for the election, but the bright person writing the column discovered that taxpayers were actually paying for it. Duh. That’s not earth-shattering.

Another hit piece was telling folks that the money raised was being used to hire a company out of state that does campaign strategy. I doubt any of the MAGA campaign strategy folks in Montana wanted to help. That’s a nothingburger.

Still, another column said that Pride Events were canceled at the Library. The fact is it was not because of the tantrum thrown by the MAGA crowd, but because of the new law signed by the governor that forbids drag performances in taxpayer-funded locations. The Library even removed the Mister Sister video from their YouTube channel due to the new law, not because the Cascade County MAGA crowd threw a fit.

We still don’t know how the candidates for Mayor and commissioner of Great Falls stand on the library levy issue. It seems they are waiting to see which way the wind blows before they tell us. Chickens! My email address is western_word@yahoo.com.

DEBT CEILING:

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3746) by a vote of 314-117. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate for debate and vote.

After the successful vote in the U.S. House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said:

“Tonight we all made history because this is the biggest cut in savings this Congress has ever voted for.” (Source)

Guess who VOTED AGAINST the “biggest cut in savings this Congress has ever voted for?” That would be U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale (MT-02) and U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke (MT-01). Both are Republicans. (Source)

They will try to spin their “No” votes, but the fact is they voted against the USA.

DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS:

The long “nightmare” is over and leaves me wondering what the MAGA folks will find to bitch about now.

According to a May 30 press release from the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has relaxed the masking requirement at VA medical facilities. VA facilities will no longer universally require masks in most clinical areas.

“Now that the public health emergency has ended, we are updating our masking policies to reflect our new reality while still ensuring the safety of the Veterans we serve,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal. “Except for the highest-risk areas and situations, masking will be greatly relaxed for Veterans and clinicians at VA health care facilities.”

You can read the complete press release HERE.

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9 thoughts on “Thursday Thoughts”

  1. I find it interesting that we are into June and the Montana GOP hasn’t announced their secret weapon candidate against Senator Tester. Zinke isn’t going to run as that’s alot of work running all over this huge state. He is basically a lazy guy and knows he will be a heavy favorite in western district to retain his seat. Zinke really had no choice but to vote against the debt limit bill,to fall in line with the crazy MEGA crowd in Montana so he wouldn’t be primared. As he barely won in last primary. Rosendale probably won’t run either,as his seat is safe as the Montana Democrats have no plan or desire to win back rural Montana voters. So Daines wants Tim Sheehy,Bozeman millionaire businessman to run. Sheehy was a former Navy Seal who moved to Montana only 9 years ago. He started a company to do with surveillance for defense sold it for $350 million in 2020. Owns 30,000 acre ranch near Snowy Mountains , recently purchased $10 million dollar home on Flathead Lake,also owns chalet in Big Sky,valued at 7.7 million. Sheehy reportedly lived in a tent when moved here about 10 years ago. Very interesting that a former Navy Seal who made about $60,000 year is now a multi millionaire, I’m sure a good reporter will be able to dig up who no doubt was the money behind this rags to richest “want be cowboy .”That was 3 months ago Daines almost guaranteed Sheehy would run. I wonder if Sheehy really wants all that publicity. He is a certified Trump Mega guy, but Rosendale is more MEGA if he gets in race. Tester helped his standing with Montana Republicans today voting against Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness program. Tester has Montana Veterans vote tied up already . There are alot of Republican farmers in Eastern and Central Montana that remember Tester getting them drought relief,they aren’t putting signs up for him but will vote for him. I disagree with New York Times and the likes that Tester will have a tough reelection, no one will beat him. As a side note Zooey Zephyr was the main guess on the View today. She did a great job.

    • I wonder about your statement that Democrats “have no plan or desire to win back rural Montana voters” On what do you base this statement? I could agree that they don’t have a very good plan but there is no way that they don’t want to win these voters back. The problem it seems to me is the wall to wall conservative AM radio that these folks listen to when out working and the stuff they are fed on FOX and RFD cable channels.
      I really don’t understand why so many rural Montanans have gone full MAGA but it makes it tough to reason with them, particularly in an election campaign. What is yoir plan to bring these folks back, if not to the Democratic side, to at least sanity?

    • There’s all we need, another carpet bagger politician representing us.

      The reason this state barely resembles – and for the worse – the one I grew up in is carpetbaggers, in the big offices as well as small. Particularly the imported nuts in the legislature.

      The Dem party or the Libertarians or some new “Sanity Party” needs to find some good traditional Montanans to run on the platform of “Make Montana Great Again”, or like that. The carpetbaggers are busy making it only great for the very rich.

  3. The debt ceiling deal also exempted veterans from the SNAP benefits work requirements. So Rosendale and Zinke voted against helping veterans yet again.

    That’s in addition to the original radical budget cuts the GOP passed in the House that would have seriously cut back veterans’ services, and the danger of U.S. default they’re trying to precipitate which would have affected vets as well as active military (along with everyone else).

    One can only conclude that Rosendale and Zinke really don’t care about vets, or any regular folks, but only about serving the rich “Cut my taxes! The hell with revenues!” masters who own them and pull their strings.

    SNAP benefits story:
    https://www.fox4news.com/news/debt-ceiling-deal-includes-new-work-requirements-for-snap-how-they-work

    And is there any more useless and ineffective Congressman than Matt Rosendale? We never read about him accomplishing anything on the floor or in committee or getting bills passed or taking constructive part in any kind of negotiations or deals. Apparently he is incapable of functioning effectively in a legislative body that has two parties and has to make compromises on legislation. All he does is vote “no” on everything, even deals his own party leaders work out, and try to burn the whole country down. It’s the livelihoods and families of regular people/voters he’s using as throwaway pawns in his radical right (would-be) power games, but he seems not to care.

    We really need to elect someone who can actually get something done for Montana within the system as it exists instead of living in his own little my-way-or-the-highway make-believe world. I don’t care if that’s another Republican or whatever. Because the one hitting the highway and being sidelined into meaninglessness is constantly Montana’s current eastern district rep.

    • I heard Zinke on the radio this morning defending his vote. Rosendale did it the day before.
      It’s basically indefensible. Thanks, JmB

  4. Election Protection Committee learned that today’s hearing is in a very small courtroom that will not accommodate many people. We contacted the District Court and were advised of the following Zoom link information:

    Zoom link #: 2111862085
    Password: 402294

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