The Monday Memo

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Happy Holidays! Here are the topics for today’s commentary:

  • Cascade County Elections
  • Montana Department of Commerce
  • Montana Grizzlies Football
  • Rudy, Rudy, Rudy
  • One More Thing

CASCADE COUNTY ELECTIONS:

The Daily Montanan is reporting that supporters of Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant asked the Cascade County Commission on Friday to reverse its decision to remove election duties from her, saying they may sue the county for making the change. The report was published in the Great Falls Tribune (HERE).

In case you missed it, the Cascade County Commissioners, all Republicans, voted 2-1 to strip Merchant, who is also a Republican, of her duties of overseeing county elections. It’s created turmoil in the local Republican Party.

My favorite part of the report was this quote:

“We’re gonna have to pay a lot of money to sue you, so thank you for making me sue my county,” said Julie Bass, who has worked closely with the Elections Office during Merchant’s tenure. “This was a communist move, to take our right to vote away.”

I don’t think Bass has any idea what “a communist move” is. Good grief.

The circus will continue this week. On Tuesday, the commissioners and county attorney will meet to discuss the move. (Source)

MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE:

I read in the Montana Free Press (MTFP) that Montana Department of Commerce Director Scott Osterman resigned this week after an internal probe found that he racked up more than $26,000 in disallowed government expenses in possible violation of state law and policy.

The MTFP reports Osterman spent the majority of that sum — almost $18,000 — on vehicle and lodging expenses for travel between his home in Kalispell and his office in Helena. The probe also flagged thousands of dollars in disallowed meal expenses and questioned an additional roughly $4,500 of Osterman’s reported vehicle maintenance costs, bringing the total sum of potentially improperly spent funds to more than $30,000 since Osterman took office in 2021.

I’ve filled out hundreds of travel expenses in my life. I cannot understand why these problems were not caught before he racked up close to $30k. He has paid back $29,700. The state should probably take a look at the process to see if anyone else has violated the law and policy.

Read the complete report from the MTFP HERE.

MONTANA GRIZZLIES FOOTBALL:

It was one of the best college football games I have watched. It took the Montana Grizzlies two overtimes to beat North Dakota State Bison 31-29 in the FCS semifinals.

The crowd of 26,544 in Missoula was loud and great. They caused the Bison to commit six false starts. (Source)

The Grizzlies will play South Dakota State on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at noon in Frisco, Texas, for the FCS National Championship.

Congratulations to the Griz!

RUDY, RUDY, RUDY:

A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment. (AP)

After 9/11, Giuliani was looked upon very favorably. Soon afterward he started his decline in popularity. He ran for President but got few votes. He then hitched his wagon to Donald Trump, which further destroyed his reputation. He seemed to be very loyal to Trump, but I don’t think the loyalty went both ways.

Now he is faced with paying these damages. He says he will appeal. There are other bills he owes, too. He may file for bankruptcy, which may start a whole new set of issues. Giuliani is 79 years old.

I doubt the former election workers will see much of the damages and that is too bad.

ONE MORE THING:

There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
“In My Life” is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
(Video)

## HAPPY HOLIDAYS ##

10 thoughts on “The Monday Memo”

  1. Speaking of keys, I worked for the City twenty years ago and just last week turned my keys in. I wonder if Tryon has his eyes on Larson’s job. Better paying and he could still busk tip on the side.

    • I’m glad you turned your keys in!
      I’m sure the MAGAs are lining up to run for the Larson and Briggs seats.

      • Ms. Dodd pointedly failed to mention that if there was a bucket of keys just sitting around the elections office, all those keys including elections equipment storage were ripe for the pickin’s of all the nutcases both employee and non-employee who floated in and out of that office to “help”.

        The real Bucketgate investigation should start with why were all these keys of varying importance just kept in a common bucket. And who all had access to it. And how were various keys signed out and in. Etc.

        We shall see what the county maintenance department comes back with. But I would not be surprised if it turns out the person who picked up that bucket was not a county employee at all, but rather some confederate of the local far right election conspiracists.

      • Thanks, Terry. You have provided some “key” points about bucketgate for all of us to consider. -JmB

  3. How about “When I’m Sixty-four.” from Sgt. Pepper? I still like it even if I’ve blown by it! Merry Christmas Jackie!

  4. Probably my favorite character in Brave Heart was Steven, “It’s MY island,” Steven, the crazy Irishman that wants only to kill the English. And I thought of Steven when I read the comment of Julie Bass who was outraged that she now has to sue HER county. “Thank you for making me sue MY county!” That’s about as Steven as it gets. It’s YOUR county, Julie? “Yes, it’s MY county. I own it.”

    I had no idea who Julie Bass is, so I had to google. She looks to be MAGA all the way. She fought like hell to get recreational marijuana banned in Great Falls among other things in spite of the fact that the voters overwhelmingly voted to allow it. Apparently she continues in this campaign to this day. Typical MAGA stuff. Since it’s HER county, she, like Merchant and Grulkowski, get to impose their will on the rest of us in spite of the fact that they won by the slimmest of margins, and the election office is a giant disaster! Most folks would agree that instead destroying the entire system, we need to work together to insure we have integrity in our electoral process again, that being essential to democracy. MAGA priorities need to take second place to good governance. Interesting that Ms. Merchant thought enough of Julie to bring her in to run the office. As Briggs and co. search for a replacement, they might want to examine what qualifications Ms. Bass had that Merchant found valuable. And then ignore them.

    I didn’t watch the entire meeting at the fairgrounds, but I caught the clips on the news. Jeremy Trebas has gone off the MAGA deep end screaming and calling Joe and Jim “cucks.” I had to google that one. Suffice it to say that that says a lot about Jer. He’s apparently become the MAGA enforcer in town, or at least he thinks he is.

    But to see Julie in action in case you missed the action at the fairgrounds, here’s a news clip in this story which shows her “testifying.” I simply can’t imagine the harassment that Rina had to put up with from these MAGAs when she was in office. Thank God Joe and Jim are cool heads and a moderating force on the commission. What will it be like if we get another MAGA on there? Maybe Ms. Bass will decide to run since it’s HER county anyway!

    https://www.montanarightnow.com/great-falls/cascade-co-commissioners-talk-about-search-for-interim-elections-administrator/article_17908200-9b9f-11ee-bf21-875aa769aff7.html

  5. Great tune, especially now that I’m old. There is no way them ladies are going to pull the sleds back up that hill though.

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