Greetings! Today is Monday, September 18, 2023, and here are the topics for today’s commentary:
- Facts Not Rumors
- Chinese Spy Balloon
- Happy Birthday
- Monday Night Football
FACTS NOT RUMORS:
A faithful reader pointed out that Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon posted the following comment on his Facebook page about the Great Falls upcoming Public Safety Levy/Bond:
Let’s listen to the folks who know the facts, not rumors or misinformation, before making a decision on the public safety levy/bond.
He then showed a post from the Great Falls Police Chief about the “erosion of our services.”
I don’t think I would rely on the Police Chief or Fire Department Chief to give residents an unbiased opinion about the Public Safety Levy/Bond. These people, as with all department heads, always want more funding for their departments.
The fact is the City leaders have dropped the ball over the years and not asked for an increase since 1969. In 1969, voters passed a bond that constructed the current four fire stations. Now they want to make it up all at once by asking for the moon. In this case “the moon” will be a massive tax increase for city residents. The Public Safety Levy will cost approximately $280.11 a year for a home with an assessed market value for tax purposes of $200,000 if milled to the maximum. The Bond, if passed, will cost us even more. The County already increased our taxes with a levy and the Library levy passed. Then you have the fees and other things the city commission passed.
It’s just too much.
CHINESE SPY BALLOON:
The show, CBS Sunday Morning, had an update on the Chinese spy balloon that you might not have heard about:
It was surely the most bizarre crisis of the Biden administration: America’s top-of-the-line jet fighters being sent up to shoot down, of all things, a balloon – a Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the United States, which had the nation and its politicians in a tizzy.
Now, seven months later, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells “CBS News Sunday Morning” the balloon wasn’t spying. “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon,” he said.
There’s a part in the story that mentions the Billings, Montana, photographer who took the famous photo of the balloon over Montana.
Check out the full story HERE.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
Happy Birthday to the United States Air Force! The USAF was formed on September 18, 1947.
I served on active duty in the USAF from April 1981 until December 1992. Those years were some of the best in my life. I was on inactive reserves for several years after that.
Off we go into the wild blue yonder…
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL:
Heads-up, football fans!
There are two, I repeat, TWO, Monday Night Football games tonight. The Saints and the Panthers play at 5:15 Mountain time on ESPN, and the Browns and Steelers play at 6:15 Mountain time on ABC.
Is this a great country or what?
The Western Word 
I thought that our city commissioners and city staff were supposed to remain officially neutral on the tax levy questions, but Tryon sure veers into the boosterism lane on a regular basis. The GFPD Facebook page wanders close to that line a lot, too.
If there’s “rumors and misinformation” out there about the levy, Rick would be doing everyone a big favor by addressing it directly instead of just flinging the terms around to smear anyone who does not whole heartedly agree with him.
I feel the same way. When they decided they could use up to $150k of taxpayer money to promote the levy, I figured that stepping over the line was going to be a regular deal.
This crop of current commissioners don’t seem to have our interests at the forefront.
Thanks, JmB
I spent a lot of years working construction on the base, I really enjoyed meeting all those young people from all over the country. I learned “ air-men” was the proper term rather than the one I grew up using.
Haha. I think I remember that “term.” I am surprised airman/airmen has not been retired.
Thanks, JmB