Here are the topics for today:

• Montana Supreme Court
• Wildfire Smoke
• Veterans & Pickleball
• One More Thing

MONTANA SUPREME COURT:

The 2024 election season just got a little more interesting!

The Montana Free Press (MTFP) is reporting that neither Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath nor Justice Dirk Sandefur will run for re-election in 2024.

The balance of the state Supreme Court will mostly depend on who wins the open races to replace McGrath and Sandefur. In many ways, the only thing standing in the way of the MAGA folks running wild in the state has been the Montana Supreme Court That could change in 2024.

The liberals did a great job of helping Justice Ingrid Gustafson win her seat against ultra-conservative James Brown. I wonder if Brown will jump into the 2024 race since his name recognition is already pretty high.

The 2024 election in Montana will have the President, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, State Supreme Court, State House, and Senate, plus many other statewide elected officials on the ballot. This should be a great time!

Read the complete story from MTFP HERE.

WILDFIRE SMOKE IN THE EAST:

Almost every year, the western United States is covered with smoke from wildfires. Already this season, Montana was breathing thick smoke from fires in Canada. We hardly heard a word about it from the national media.

Now the smoke from Canadian wildfires is hitting the larger cities on the east coast and all we hear on the news is how bad it is. Poor babies – welcome to our world!

U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) had this to say via Twitter about the smoke:

The smoke that’s filling the skies might be new to New Yorkers, but it’s no stranger to Montanans.
Every summer Montanans watch our skies fill with smoke from catastrophic wildfires.
We need to manage our forests before the [sic] manage us.

I mostly agree with Daines. I believe that we need to manage our forests better, but the smoke affecting the east coast is from Canada and we can’t dictate how they manage their forests.

It’s good to see that Daines is devoting time to real issues instead of fighting Drag Queens.

I saw that some dipshits are upset that N95 masks are recommended to help alleviate the breathing of the smoke from wildfires. I guess it’s part of their anti-government (or dumbass) stance. The fact is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says people who must be outside for extended periods of time in smoky air or an ash-covered area may benefit from using a tightfitting N95 or P100 respirator to reduce their exposure. (Source).

VETERANS & PICKLEBALL:

This is a little old, but the Montana VA Health Care System is partnering with Military Adaptive Court Sports (militaryadaptivecourtsports.org) to offer Adaptive Pickleball clinics to Veterans across Montana.

The press release from the Montana VA Health Care System says these Adaptive Pickleball clinics provide a venue, equipment, and instructions to Veterans of all ages and mobility levels. Veterans utilizing mobility aides are welcomed and encouraged to register.

More information can be found HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

You are not a real patriot if you are angrier about rainbows at Target than an insurrection. -@MiddleAgeRiot

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