The Wednesday Read

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

  • NorthWestern Energy
  • The Opening Ceremony
  • Homeland Security & Judiciary

NORTHWESTERN ENERGY:

Several sources, including ABC/Fox Montana, are reporting that NorthWestern Energy announced Tuesday they will be acquiring Energy West Montana from Hope Utilities once the transaction is approved by the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC).

It was also reported that the $39 million deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, when employees at Energy West will become employed by NWE.

I recently read that NorthWestern Energy has proposed interim rate increases that would be effective in October and new rates that would be implemented in April 2025. (Source)

I guess since I have natural gas through Energy West and electricity through NWE, I will probably get the double whammy when the deal is done. It seems the five-member PSC, all Republicans, approve almost every rate increase that NWE asks for.

Is this a great country or what?

THE OPENING CEREMONY:

The controversy over what some people thought was a “mockery of the Last Supper” gained the attention of the fact-checking website Snopes. 

Snopes reported that the scene, a fashion show involving dancers, drag queens and a DJ, featured camera shots that reminded many viewers of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” which depicts the last meal of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion.

Snopes states that the opening ceremony was choreographed and directed by the French theatre director Thomas Jolly. It was divided into 12 tableaux, each meant to express a different aspect of French culture. The controversial scene was part of Tableaux 8, called “Festivity,” and according to Jolly, the segment was referencing the pagan traditions of Ancient Greece, where the Olympic Games originated. So, at the end of the segment, when the top of a large serving platter rose to reveal a blue man (French singer Phillippe Katerine) wrapped in grapevines, Jolly was not referencing Jesus and “The Last Supper,” but rather Dionysus, the Greek God of wine and festivity. 

Did I ever tell you that I like wine and festivity?

Check out the full report from Snopes HERE. You can copy the link and send it to your friends who acted like they were shocked by it.

HOMELAND SECURITY & JUDICIARY COMMITTEES:

The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees held a joint hearing on Tuesday about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

As always, the most dangerous place to be in Washington is between a U.S. Senator and a microphone/camera. With the thought of the cable networks covering the event, Senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz delivered for the cameras while acting like total asses.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe testified and laid the blame on local law enforcement.

Reuters reported that Rowe told lawmakers that the Secret Service erred by assuming that local officials would cover the building and its roof, not the Secret Service. “We assumed that the state and locals had it,” Rowe replied. “I can assure you that we’re not going to make that mistake again.”

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal asked Rowe: “Ultimately, doesn’t the buck stop with the Secret Service?” “It stops with us, sir,” Rowe said. But Rowe added: “If they’d just held their post and looked left.”

During the U.S. House hearing, several members called for the resignation of the Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle. She resigned a day or so later.

I did not hear any Senator call for Rowe to resign.

I guess the good old boy network is alive and well.

## END ##

22 thoughts on “The Wednesday Read”

  1. ”Trump seems to have been raised to believe if he lost at anything then the winner must have cheated. The MAGA folks blindly follow his lead.”

    Jackie from comment below.

    Well, I can tell you exactly how Trump was raised, by one of the most vile, evil, hated, corrupt men this country has ever produced, Roy Cohn, and his pupil Trump learned the lessons well. This should be information everyone is aware of. Trump is mini Cohn.

    https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144

  2. Cure Cancer?

    I nearly fell off my chair when old Uncle Joe went on about curing Cancer.

    Cancer is a lot like Racism, in that as long as there’s money to be made from it .. it will continue to thrive …

  3. ouch

    It’s not germane even though I’m speaking of the same individual.

    I feel weird. Might be embarrassment. Would be odd as I really care about less & less & less & less as I age. Think I’ll give up voting even – unless I’m in Jane Weber’s district.

    City commissioners were advised to not answer to questions or comments. In the olde days when I was fighting city hall it got very heated with the back and forth. Folks were purposely trying to get Mayor Stebbins head to explode. Came close once or twice.

    • I understand the reason there might be not back and forth at the Commission meetings. They could last forever. And as you said, get heated.

      The state’s “open meeting law” format allows commissioners to hide behind that protocol and never address citizen questions or concerns claiming, “This time is only for comments. Thank you.” (You’ve said your comment, now sit down and shut up.) Have heard that numerous times when commenters have asked questions or demanded answers. The whole thing comes off as grudgingly allowing public comments only because the law requires it, but they’re sure not going to actually answer or consider them. Mayor Reeves can’t rush through them fast enough.

      This is particularly what it seems like with Ben. I am embarrassed for our City when watching that.

  4. Think about this, Terry and Scary, Trump’s going to abolish the tax on SS. Which means you’ll have lots of money for anti-Vance yard signs.

  5. Off today’s topics but what the hey.

    Last night I was catching up on the last GF City Commission meeting video.

    There’s an older guy named Ben who comments before almost every Commission work session or main meeting on the topic of the alleged dangers of marijuana, and how the City should pass a law to limit its potency. Maybe you disagree with what he is saying and proposing, but he is passionate about it and comes prepared with research etc. that he has obviously spent a lot of time collecting and writing up.

    Meeting after meeting he appears and pleads with or harangues the commission to do something and hands out his literature, and meeting after meeting the mayor says, “Thank you for your comments”. And that’s it.

    No feedback to the guy why they cannot or will not do what he proposes, no acknowledgement of any kind that they read the literature from last time and agree or disagree or have any questions, no nothing. Just sit there stone faced and watch, meeting after meeting as the poor guy gets up and pleads his emotional case into the void.

    You would think they could at least ask the City attorney to maybe prepare some legal position paper that would explain to Ben (and everyone in the audience who has heard this so many times) that these are State issues not City, or whatever reasons they have for not considering this. Treat this Great Falls taxpayer with some dignity and at least make a showing that they do consider citizen comments and the effort behind them seriously. But no. On and on it goes, meeting after meeting, just doing the absolute minimum of saying “Thank you for your comments” before moving on.

    Maybe some commissioner has met privately with him about this, no way of us knowing. But just letting it go on with the poor guy twisting in the wind is one of the cruelest things I think I have ever seen.

    • I know there have been many people bring up their concerns at the commission meetings over the years and received no response.
      Good constituent service would be at least acting as though you care.
      It always seemed to me the commissioners acted like they were in a hurry to get somewhere. Thanks, JmB

    • Ben is an obnoxious jerk. I once, in regards to a personal matter, told him they would need a paint scraper to gather his remains from the sidewalk if he ever again told outright lies about a dearly departed loved one. He had a different cause then. Campaigning against casinos.

      • To the best of my recollection Ben has said nothing about any person in any of his comments about marijuana, so that’s probably not real germane to whether or not the City commission should at least favor citizen commenters with some sort of answer.

        I also don’t know what he said about casinos, but I do know this is quite a bit sadder and less vibrant town now than the one I grew up in when we had no casinos, thanks to the one armed bandits sucking so much of the disposable cash out of the local economy. IMO.

      • I don’t care for the casinos. People make fun of how many there are in GF. I know they contribute a lot in taxes and since we’re dependent on them, we’re stuck.
        I was disappointed when I moved to Montana in 1989 and found the casinos were nothing like those in Las Vegas. -JmB

  6. At seventy-three years of age, I remember quite well all the bogey men the republicans said were destroying the country over the years. Commies, hippies, unions, teachers, and of course, black welfare mothers, my personal favorite. But by God in my wildest imagination I couldn’t have ever conceived of childless cat ladies as being the greatest existential threat to America! I mean, who could?

    Calling these MAGAs and all their fervent supporters including Daines, Zinke, Sheehy, et al weird doesn’t even begin to cover it. Weird simply implies different but still within the range of normal. They are bizarre! Like Trump, mentally unfit freaks of nature! And the policies they propose are in keeping with their mental unfitness. Christian fascism and 2025? They cannot be allowed to govern a diverse democratic country like ours. I dunno. Maybe give them their own state where they can test out their theories. Texas for example!

    https://www.rawstory.com/news/did-they-not-vet-this-guy-ex-lawmaker-stunned-by-newly-unearthed-jd-vance-faceplant/

    • From the article’s Vance quote:

      “After watching a clip of Vance on a 2020 podcast tell host Chris Buskirk, “I worry that it makes people more sociopathic and ultimately our whole country a little bit less, less mentally stable. And of course, you talk about going on Twitter. Final point I’ll make is you go on Twitter and almost always the people who are most deranged and most psychotic are people who don’t have kids at home”

      Right there is proof positive Vance has no idea what he is talking about. The most deranged and psychotic person on Twitter is Trump, and he has kids. Elon Musk would be another example. Boobert another. Etc.

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