Welcome to September! This is where the rubber meets the road in the political world with about 63 days left in the campaign season.
The Western Word will be here through it all, so tell your friends and tell your enemies to stop by!
Here are the topics for today’s column:
- GF Public Library
- Good to Know
- Cease-and-Desist Letter
- Sheehy – Racially Tinged Comments
- One More Thing
GF Public Library:
There will be a “Rally for our Library” today (Tuesday) at 6:30 p.m. on the steps of the civic center. More information can be found HERE.
The Great Falls Public Library is under attack by the city commission. The Electric is reporting that the Great Falls Public Library board has called a special meeting for Sept. 5 to consider the renegotiation of its agreement with the City of Great Falls. The city and library have been operating under a 1993 agreement that includes seven mills of funding for the library.
The Electric also reports that in January, Commissioner Rick Tryon proposed taking those seven mills from the library to be used toward public safety after the city’s public safety levy failed in November.
If the commission takes any of the seven mills from the library, I will never vote for any levies for public safety. I will also use my social media accounts to urge others to vote against the public safety levies.
What the Funk 406 (WTF406.com) has additional information HERE.
Good to Know:
MTN News in Great Falls reported last week that contrary to a rumor being spread on social media, North Middle School in Great Falls has not “installed” cat litter boxes in bathrooms.
This is good news. Read more about the rumor HERE.
Meow…
Cease-and-Desist Letter:
The Montana Free Press (MTFP) is reporting that the Montana attorney general’s office issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Daily Montanan after it published a 381-page internal survey earlier this month about workplace culture and leadership at the Montana Highway Patrol, a division of the state Department of Justice overseen by Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
You can read the article from the Daily Montanan HERE.
If Knudsen is reelected, I imagine we will see more of these actions against the Montana press. I think he needs a refresher on the U.S. and Montana Constitutions – especially the parts about freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Sheehy’s Racially Tinged Comments:
The Char-Koosta News reports that Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), who is running against Jon Tester (D-Mont.) during this election cycle, made questionable racially tinged comments about the Crow Reservation at fundraisers last year. In audio clips obtained by Char-Koosta News, Sheehy can be heard at a November 6, 2023, campaign fundraiser in Shelby commenting on his relationship with tribal members on the Crow Reservation.
The Char-Kossta News says that in the clip, Sheehy says he ropes and brands with Crow members, and that it’s “a great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8:00 A.M.” This was said after stating that one of his ranching partners is a Crow member.
In another fundraiser, they report that Sheehy made similar comments at a Hamilton campaign event on November 10, telling audience members that he rode in the Crow Fair parade. “They’ll let you know when they like you or not, if Coors Light cans flying by your head… They respect that.”
It was also reported that in separate events in Superior and Helena, Sheehy mimicked Crow tribal members calling him ‘white boy,’ and throwing Coors cans at his head when he misses a ‘double-heel’ shot at their rodeo.
So far, this report is not getting the attention it deserves. His remarks are not OK. This is just another side of Sheehy that we’ve discovered and he is not a person who should represent Montana in the U.S. Senate.
You can read the article and listen to the clips HERE.
One More Thing:
Fun Fact: Tim Walz could serve 8 years as Vice President, run in 2032, win, serve 8 years as President, leave office in 2041 — and still be younger than Donald Trump is today.
Wow!
Trump is too old.
## THE END ##
The Western Word 
Don’t think I’ll make it to the library rally tonight, but I’ll be thinking of them. I usually have a couple of beers before six, and even though I live close by, I never drive after drinking even a couple. A dooey will ruin your life, and the BAC is now so low that I can sniff a beer and fail the breath test! Not like the old days for sure.
But this is for the rally goers and the little Nazi boy on the commission. Listen up, lil Ricky. This old lady is talking directly to mental defectives like you! She’s got your number. Zero!
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/stephen-king-florida-book-bans-2024-b2605978.html
Oh man – I right there with you. Happy hour starts around 2:00 pm for me!
Ain‘t retirement grand!?
Heck yes!
Its truly disturbing how the Columbine school district’s decision to provide teachers “go buckets” with cat litter in the event of another mass shooting is somehow contorted into schools allowing children to identify as animals. Does anyone actually think our school teachers would be ok cleaning these litter boxes? Does anyone really think the teachers union would ever allow their members to clean litter boxes? How gullible can you be to automatically believe in this stuff? How bad must you want this to be true?
https://time.com/5658266/colorado-district-kitty-litter-buckets-lockdowns/
Thanks. Good points! I had not heard about that. -JmB
Waltz is now saying mind your own business after doing this during Covid.
Here’s something you have to understand about Mr. ‘Mind your own damn business’. As Governor, he effectively shut in the entire population of his state with nothing more than an uneducated guess about something he knew nothing about, using nothing more than the stroke of a pen.
Along with putting in place mask mandates, the governor also instituted a hotline number for people to report those violating social distancing guidelines. Violations carried penalties of up to a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail. They did, in fact arrest and jail people for going outside their homes. Does that sound familiar to you at all?
Source?
Most of the arrests occurred during criminal activity that was already going on –
“The Legal Rights Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota have criticized the practice of tacking COVID-19 violations onto other alleged crimes.”
cite – https://www.startribune.com/88-cases-charged-for-violating-walz-s-covid-19-executive-orders/570602742
The hotline that was set up was handled differently by different orgs –
cite – https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/coronavirus-in-minnesota-where-to-call-if-you-see-people-arent-social-distancing/
“The owner of a bar in Albert Lea was found guilty of six criminal misdemeanor charges and sentenced to 90 days in jail for defying Gov. Tim Walz’s executive orders.”
cite – https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/bar-owner-who-defied-covid-orders-sentenced-to-90-days-in-jail/
Not a real big fan of Minnesota these days. As the land of story tellers and fables, it’s produced some whoppers this year on the political scene — Two men, Sheehy and Walz, that don’t have any business running for public office being chief among those whoppers.
Cheers
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. It’s funny how states handled the pandemic differently and how it became political.
As for Sheehy, I agree. Walz has been elected several times in Minnesota and I think that speaks volumes about his electability. He has not handled everything well, but compared to Trump he’s an angel. – JmB
And to Alan, “Most the arrests occurred during criminal activity”, what about arrests that occured with out?
Of course after signing EO 2020 outside your house was a criminal activity.
Swede, how long you gonna live in the past? Glad that covid wasn’t real for you, but you must now be home bound! Sorry to hear that. You’re only about my age. But my friend who survived the ventilator knows it was real. My wife the nurse knows it was real. Only in MAGA reality was covid not a thing. BTW, I trust the Mayo Clinic more than whatever sources you might have. Did you happen to try Trump’s bleach cocktail? Or horse paste?
“Like many Democratic governors, Walz put in place a stay-at-home order at the beginning of the pandemic, and later an indoor mask mandate and restrictions on public events at the urging of public health authorities and institutions like the Mayo Clinic.
Walz enlisted former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the last Republican to win statewide office in Minnesota, in a public show of their COVID-19 vaccination. He required state workers to be vaccinated before they could return to the workplace.
The pandemic decisions were polarizing and at times faced legal challenges. By the time the worst of the pandemic was over, Minnesota had lower COVID-19 death rates than most other states.”
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/08/07/heres-what-tim-walz-has-done-as-governor-of-minnesota/
Any Gov who would sign a Executive Order confining people to their homes over a flu virus shows he’ll stop at nothing to be a controlling anti-freedom president.
I disagree and don’t give me the BS about Covid being a flu virus. -JmB
By that impeccable logic, there sure were a lot of governors with (R) behind their names aspiring to be all controlling anti-freedom guys and gals, too. Governors all over the country were issuing those orders right and left. Even noted Republican blowhards like DeSantis and Abbott and DeWine.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/us/coronavirus-which-states-stay-at-home-order-trnd/index.html
The litter box rumor is not cute, harmless, nor funny. It is hate, pure unadulterated hate directed specifically at the transgender community. Of course it’s in code, MAGA code. But the MAGAs know exactly what it means. That’s why it’s particularly distressing when we have an idiot like Elsie Arntzen, our superintendent of schools, endlessly repeating this accusation even though she knows it’s false. She legitimizes the rumor to the point where the mentally defectives in the district threaten to home school their children even though they probably already are. It’s simply another strategy in the MAGA war on public education.
The school district needs to get tough with these folks. If they ever do identify themselves, they need to be called out as haters in the public sphere, for that is what they are. They are engendering hate and inciting violence. They deserve no free passes for being idiots. All kids regardless of gender deserve to feel safe at school. When adults legitimize hate, it makes it that much more difficult to protect kids. The schools need to adopt a zero tolerance for hate speech. Not sure how you’d design a consequence for someone as stupid and hateful as an adult spreading hate, but I would definitely let them know they weren’t welcome in our public schooling while expressing their hateful rhetoric.
https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/icymi-nbc-20-politicians-promote-bizarre-claim-that-youth-are-identifying-as-cats
It’s truly hard to believe there are people out there who would buy that catbox/kitty litter in schools nonsense. But whoever started that story sure does know the intelligence level of their intended audience. No doubt the self-styled “critical thinker” crowd.