Thursday Thoughts

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Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:

  • Screen Door-Gate
  • Rate Increases
  • August Recess
  • Pass the Torch
  • One More Thing

SCREEN DOOR-GATE:

I’ve received a few emails from readers alerting me to an issue with the screen doors in the Great Falls Housing Authority homes.

On Monday, the Montana Free Press (MTFP) reported on an article from a local newsletter that stated maintenance workers would be removing all screen doors from Great Falls Housing Authority homes due to the high cost of maintenance and repair.

The word is finally getting out. I have seen comments from the mayor and a city commissioner about the issue. The information from the Housing Authority Summer Newsletter said if tenants have any questions they should contact their leasing managers.

I have a screen door that is handy to let a breeze go through my house. It also has a deadbolt for security.

I hope the Housing Authority allows those who want screen doors to have them.

RATE INCREASES:

We may get hit with another rate increase by the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC).

The Daily Montanan is reporting NorthWestern Energy and Montana-Dakota Utilities both are making rate requests that would increase customers’ power bills — following significant rate hikes approved last year.

The five-member PSC are all Republicans.

The Daily Montanan also reported that in August 2023, the Montana Public Service Commission approved additional revenue for MDU that meant a 9.1% increase for residential electric customers, although MDU wanted even more.
In October 2023, the Public Service Commission approved a settlement for NorthWestern Energy that pushed up rates 28% from August 2022 for residential electric customers — from $91.27 to $116.63, on average.

It does not seem that regular Montanans can get a break from tax, fees, and rate increases. They just continue to stick it to us. Sadly, most of the increases were approved by Republicans.

Read the complete article from the Daily Montanan HERE.

AUGUST RECESS:

The Hill reports that U.S. House Republicans are canceling votes next week and starting their August recess early as the party struggles to pass its remaining annual government funding bills.

The House is scheduled to return in early September. So, the “August recess” is starting in July and stretching into September.

Nothing makes members of Congress want to recess more than an election coming up.

I have not heard what the U.S. Senate August recess schedule is yet.

PASS THE TORCH:

President Joe Biden told the country Wednesday night that he “decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.”

Reuters reported that in a post on his Truth Social platform, former President Donald Trump said the speech was “barely understandable and sooo bad!” Reuters reported that hours earlier, Trump tried to quash some of that momentum in an aggressive speech at a campaign rally, his first since Harris’ emergence changed the race. “She is a radical Left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets elected,” he said.

As normal, Trump showed that he is morally and ethically bankrupt.

I’ve said many times that the greatest accomplishment for Biden was beating Trump and saving our country. Now it looks as though his Vice President could accomplish the same thing.

You can read the article from Reuters HERE.

ONE MORE THING: 

I think the following post on X should be the post of the week/month:

Trump has 5 kids by 3 different women.

Imagine what Republicans would say if Kamala had 5 kids with 3 different men.

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5 thoughts on “Thursday Thoughts”

  1. Sounds like the GFHA has a problem with serial trashing of screen doors that’s blowing up their budget.

    Maybe, after they are all taken down, they could allow residents who really want one to buy and hang their own. Then the screen is their property to worry about.

    Of course the danger there is that people might buy different models and/or colors of screen door and then the GFHA apartments would not all look exactly the same, and unknown if such a thing is allowed in Great Falls, Montana.

  3. If only MAGAs were smart enough to understand who’s gettin’ screwed and who’s doin’ the screwin’!

    “America is literally the only developed country in the world where families get wiped out and rendered homeless by medical bankruptcy simply because somebody got sick. 

    We’re the only developed country in the world with widespread college debt. 

    We’re the only developed country whose entire healthcare system rests on predatory for-profit health insurance companies, doctors’ offices and hospitals owned by hedge funds, and “pharmacy benefit managers.”

    http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/thom-hartmann/111061/jd-vances-elegy-grift

    • Just like schools, churches, grocery stores, and congressional basketball games getting shot up on a regular basis, that medical debt and student debt is “the price of freedom”. If you define freedom as randomly getting shot dead, and/or living with crushing debt. Ah the pursuit of happiness. Not a care in the world.

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