Flathead Memo

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I have been vacationing and posting very little. I am back now and wanted to use my first post to tell my faithful readers that the Montana blogging world lost a giant. James R. Conner, who ran the Flathead Memo, passed away on July 24.  

I noticed that James was not posting, so I investigated and found his blog was gone. I did some checking and sadly saw what I thought was his obituary. Then I saw some friends on X post about his death. 

I never personally met James, but we communicated from time to time via email. I will miss his writing. He could make polling and crosstabs make sense and his writing about elections and turnout was second to none. 

James will be missed, not only in the blogging world but all across Montana.   

Rest in Peace…

20 thoughts on “Flathead Memo”

  1. For you guys my age, (73), did you ever think that you’d see people in this country vote for a POS like this? How far we’ve fallen. You kind of expect this behavior from the former confederates of the south, but not from the rest of the country. Hatred, misogyny and racism are apparently still potent motivators and making a comeback through the ultimate con man. Unbelievable.

    ”Trump also “re-truthed” a post featuring images of Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the words: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both of their careers differently.”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-goes-full-fascist-truth-163712070.html

    • Politics has gone into the sewer and Trump and his MAGA followers are the reason.

    • The tales grow taller on down the line…
      This is on my radar for tomorrow’s column.

      • If you are looking for additional material:

        There’s an interesting entry at wtf406 about everyone’s favorite local scofflaw RP. With extra rumors.

        There’s also very funny national stock market news today about a certain sucker stock with symbol DJT.

        And everyone’s favorite local tax-and-spend commissioner had an epic meltdown in last week’s commission tax-raising meeting, attacking commenters that led to a shouting match with one local citizen wherein said commissioner was begging mayor pro tem Wolff to save him when he was getting some of his own medicine. On the video starting at about :51.20 with a citizen’s fairly innocuous comments, and quickly escalates off and on up through about 1:25+ when it finally ends with the commish offering one final blustering apologia wherein he puts all blame for property tax increases on the State, even while he’s been sitting up there all evening voting yay or nay (always yay) on tax hikes. Brilliant. Absolutely awesome stuff.

        Glad to have you back hope you had a great trip.

  3. Two observations about James’s passing.

    Was his death Covid related, cause James was a mask nazi. Meaning of course his constant criticism of non-wearers. Plus he rushed himself to the local clinic every time a new booster was released while chiding non-vaxers.

    Secondly, the Obit is kinda sad. For a guy that was detail orientated it’s kinda like a homeless guy expiring on the street. No family mentioned, no past employment, no kudos for his efforts to change NW MT?

    • I don’t know the cause of death. I know he had health issues not long ago.
      I don’t remember the mask issue with him.
      I was pro-mask in public indoor places and I have received four Covid shots so far. I had a mild Covid attack once.
      As for his obit, I found it interesting, also. I hope someone writes a full one, but it’s been over a month. Maybe he has no close family. That’s sad. -JmB

      • Very sad.

        What you could do is go to his twitter/X address (not on it) and track his last posts.

      • Your source from The NKF was posted late in 2021 before you could evaluate excess deaths of kidney failure as it correlates to the shot.

        “After analyzing official state government data for excess deaths, Beaudoin calculated that there have been 155,000 excess deaths caused by acute kidney injury (AKI) since late 2020 in the United States alone.”

      • I have personally had kidney issues that started before Covid and I have received four shots and will get the next round. My kidneys are doing well. So I’ve been keeping up with the issue over the past few years. -JmB

      • I’ll tell what I read, on X formerly Twitter the source of all that is true and holy, is that the last 4 times Jennifer Aniston was dumped was due to Covid vaccine shots. Mmm hmm. True that.

  4. I, too, will miss James. He was an amazing man. He was a true intellectual with a gift of tremendous political insight and outstanding writing skills. And, to top it all off, he was writing from the belly of the beast, the militia headquarters of Montana, the Kalispell region were the opinions James expressed on a daily basis can get one killed. Literally. The area is littered with violence prone wackos. Hence, I admired his courage.

    I used to correspond with him regularly. I don’t know if there’s anyone up that way that can replace his voice. I seriously doubt it. He was that exceptional.

  5. Welcome Back Jackie,

    I agree with your sentiment regarding James Connor. Back in the day, I did a little verbal sparring with James on his site. He was a bit of a curmudgeon who didnt like to be challenged, but deep down aren’t we all.

    I think we all will be poorer for the loss of his voice from the Flathead.

    On a side note, I thought it was interesting that yor post from Winslow garnered so many comments. I think it reflects the importance your readers put on being able to comment on current political events in an accepting environment.

    Keep it up.

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