Happy hump day! It’s Wednesday, October 4, 2023, and here are the topics I am providing commentary about today:
- Emergency Alert System
- WTF406 & E-City Beat
- Great Falls Public Library
- Goodbye Kevin McCarthy
- One More Thing
EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM:
FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) TODAY, Oct. 4. The national test will consist of two portions, testing WEA and EAS capabilities. Both tests are scheduled to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 4. (Source)
Of course, this brings out the conspiracies…
How do we know this isn’t a code to turn on the microchips that have been implanted in us when we received the COVID-19 shots? Did you know that the military placed microchips in their people when they received a tooth filling? The nationwide test may set them off.
Those are just two of the conspiracies I have actually heard about.
I hope to be back tomorrow, friends!
WTF406 & E-CITY BEAT:
It’s interesting to watch the back-and-forth between What the Funk 406 (WTF406) and the E-City Beat blogs. I happened to catch the following post by WTF406 on their Facebook page:
Just submitted an ethics complaint against Commissioner Rick Tryon to the City Commission and also presented a cease and desist to Tryon himself.
Turns out, despite making money off of paid advertising, E City Beat was NOT registered as a business in Montana. Don’t worry, we solved that.
What The Funk blog now owns both E City Beat and Electric City Beat. We’ve advised Tryon and Phil Faccenda that they are using OUR registered business name and must immediately desist.
Check out our new regularly occuring feature on What The Funk – E City Beat! Link in comments.
Ouch!
GREAT FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY:
The citizens of Great Falls and Cascade County owe The Electric a debt of gratitude for keeping us informed about the local governments.
The Electric reported about a recent city commission meeting during which the commission took on the task of appointing two library board members:
After 87 minutes of discussion and amending a motion twice, City Commissioners opted to take half of the Great Falls Public Library board’s recommendation for appointments to fill two vacancies.
In late September, the library board voted unanimously to appoint Anne Bulger to a second five-term and Jerry Hopkins to fill the remainder of a term through June 2024.
Hopkins did not make the final cut. The Electric reported that commissioners voted 3-2, with Kelly and Wolff opposed, to appoint Bulger and (Noelle) Johnson to the library board. Johnson was not recommended by the Library Board.
I think the Commissioners Tryon, Hinebauch, and McKenney were catering to the MAGA folks on their appointment of Johnson. All three are on the ballot in November. Tryon and Hinebauch are running for reelection and McKenney is running for Mayor.
This action on the appointment of Library Board members pretty much makes my decision of who not to vote for in the upcoming election pretty easy.
For the complete story that will make you shake your head, read The Electric HERE.
GOODBYE KEVIN MCCARTHY:
To become Speaker of the House, Kevin Mcarthy basically made a deal with the devil to get enough votes from fellow Republicans in the House to become Speaker. It took him 15 votes to make it.
There were about eight far-right MAGA Republicans who did not like how he handled those duties, so a resolution — titled a motion to vacate — from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., passed Tuesday with the support of eight Republicans and all the Democrats present and voting. The vote made McCarthy the first speaker in history to be removed from office, a bitter humiliation that came after less than nine months on the job. (Source)
The Republicans in the House can’t even govern themselves, let alone the federal government.
In case you were wondering, U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale (R-MT-02) is one of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy. U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT-01) voted for McCarthy to stay as Speaker.
There’s also some friction between Rosendale and Zinke. Check out this story HERE. You don’t see it much, but even Zinke’s Chief of Staff got in on the attack of Rosendale HERE.
Many of the attacks on Rosendale are coming from supporters of Tim Sheehy who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to take on incumbent Jon Tester (D-MT). Rosendale may run against Tester again.
ONE MORE THING:
I enjoy a glass of wine each night for its health benefits. The other glasses are for my witty comebacks and flawless dance moves…
The Western Word 
Great article. I too wonder why it’s necessary to have an election denying MAGA library hater on the library board! What the hell? People whose sole intention is the destruction of the very institution they’re appointed to oversee should NEVER be elevated to a position of oversight of said institution. It’s a bizarre and perverse concession to the most base and crude elements of our society. What were they thinking? Libraries are established to enlighten our society, not to pander to the most base and hateful segments of society.
https://wtf406.com/2023/10/quit-playing-games-with-my-town/?fbclid=IwAR21_XSstPxGEdEqtsuN-FwfDe989EvwIAnbW6pZqWU2ydQ6nGUDCV40xok
Both E-CityBeat and WTF406 are on my blogroll (among others) … I read both and frequently. One of the things that helps to make our community stronger is the opposing views and opinions.
I agree. Thanks, JmB
Not sure the actions regarding the registered business names will have much effect anyhow since the name of E-City Beat the blog has that dash in it.
Perhaps they could change it to
E-City Beat Down
Since it seems to happen so frequently.
It’s a hobby with WTF 406.
So to summarize, instead of appointing a qualified professional librarian to the library board, one that the library board had interviewed and recommended, Tryon McKenney and Hinebauch instead chose to appoint a political hack they did not interview simply off her very short application, someone championed by library haters and election deniers.
They claimed they wanted someone with a different perspective. Okay. But then somehow, out of all the applicants, many with far more impressive applications than Ms. Johnson (highlights: former elementary teacher, fitness business owner, Sunday school teacher, anti-library levy voter) these three commissioners somehow miraculously unanimously landed on one applicant, Johnson. And we are supposed to believe all public business is done out in the open and all ex-parte communications disclosed. Right.
Indeed it makes one shake their head, to think this is how these commissioners are governing our city, where actual qualifications mean little as far as the people they approve for appointments (and hires?), while political leanings mean all. Meanwhile they’re asking us to give them another $13.7 million per year of our tax money and trust them to do the right things and hire the best people with it. Not after this debacle, commissioners.
Amen to that. Thanks, JmB
I researched as best I could, and the only qualification that Noelle Johnson seems to posses to be appointed to the library board is that she’s a MAGA. And MAGA is the antithesis of what a library is all about. It’s shame that the commission is dense enough to believe that somehow appointing a MAGA represents diversity of opinion, for MAGA’s ultimate goal is to eliminate diversity. Appointments such as this represent a broader nationwide attempt to infiltrate all our established heretofore democratic institutions and destroy them from within. It’s their scorched earth policy for fascism.
“ Many who opposed the library board’s recommendation and supported Johnson’s appointment have been vocal in arguing that there was fraud in the local election process, have asked county commissioners to eliminate mail ballots and require hand counting of ballots. Many of them have been vocal supporters of Sandra Merchant, the current county clerk and recorder who oversees county elections. At least a few of them have vocally argued that there were flaws in the library levy election and contested the results. That election was run under Merchant.”
I enjoyed the KRTV interview of Mckenney where he infiltrated the homeless camp in disguise. Discovered they were mostly a social group and not really homeless!
Haha. I’ll have to check that out! Thanks, JmB
Joe’s oft-repeated story about going undercover to the homeless camp led to one of the best zingers in the recent mayoral debate. After he had told it, Casey Schreiner remarked something to the effect that he had gone down to work with those people many times, and he went as himself, not feeling it necessary to hide behind a disguise.
There was a recent meeting about homelessness in Great Falls with Mayor Kelly and a lot of the leaders of various local organizations that deal with the homeless. It was eye opening. The official estimate of local homeless numbers isn’t gigantic but the problems are big and real and require a lot of resources.
Mayoral candidate McKenney seems to be on a mission to convince voters that homelessness is mostly phony and no big deal, not worth any resources or attention. Except extra $104,000/yr police officers to crack down on the fakers and get them to move along, of course.