Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s common sense commentary:

• Town Hall in Bozeman
• Montana Legislature & Abortion
• Opinion: Badly Misled
• One More Thing

TOWN HALL IN BOZEMAN:

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that a town hall inviting Montana’s congressional delegation is scheduled for Friday in Bozeman, but it’s unlikely any of the three invitees will show up. Hosted by Bozeman Indivisible, a “grassroots organizing group focused on fighting for progressive democracy issues,” the town hall is to be from 12:45–1:45 p.m. at the Bozeman Public Library.

U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy both declined to attend with their excuses being that “Bozeman Indivisible” is a “far-left group” or that the event was a “left-wing political rally.”

In other words, Daines and Sheehy are cowards. 

It appears they only want to meet with people who agree with them. As for U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke, he did not answer a request for comment. I did see that Zinke attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, which is good. 

The winner here is Bozeman Indivisible for trying to get our elected officials to answer questions and meet constituents. They will go ahead and have the town hall meeting and pass along their comments to the delegation even if the three stooges don’t show up. I suggest they keep scheduling these town hall meetings and invite the congressional delegation to show Montana what kind of chickenshits they elected. 

MONTANA LEGISLATURE & ABORTION: 

Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan has blocked several 2023 laws and a state health department rule that restricted abortion care and access in Montana. There were four bills blocked, according to Lee Newspapers. (Source)

Lee Newspapers also reported that Montana voters passed Constitutional Initiative 128 in November by a 16% margin; it will enshrine abortion protections in the Montana Constitution when it goes into effect July 1. But that has not stopped lawmakers at the Montana Legislature from advancing bills seeking to implement more abortion restrictions despite them consistently being struck down by the courts.

I voted for CI 128. 

I believe we need to let people make their own healthcare decisions. While I hope that there are fewer and fewer abortions in our country, I don’t think a bunch of grumpy old men in the Montana Legislature should be making those decisions, especially the very private decision about abortion.  

OPINION: BADLY MISLED:

Some of the MAGA folks are claiming that a columnist for the New York Times writing an opinion piece means the whole newspaper agrees with her opinion.

That’s grasping at straws. The MAGAs love the media when they agree with them, but hate them all other times. This is one of those cases. 

The opinion piece is by Zeynep Tufekci and was titled:

We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives

It is about COVID.

Some gentleman on X posted the following:

Five years after labeling anyone who said covid came from a Chinese lab a racist conspiracy theorist, @nytimes now says “we were badly misled about the event that changed our lives” and covid almost certainly came from a Chinese lab. 

First, the New York Times did not say it. That would probably fall under the heading “New York Times Editorial.”

A columnist had her opinion published in the NY Times. The author, Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, the author of “Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest” and a New York Times Opinion columnist.

The Times states at the end of the opinion:

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. 

I know it is hard for many MAGAs to comprehend what they read, especially when it’s in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Try harder. Read a book or two. Improve your reading comprehension. 

Meanwhile, the MAGA world should remember the botched COVID response from the first Trump administration. Now, he should be devoting more time to the measles outbreak instead of golf. 

ONE MORE THING:

Supporting Trump is no longer a political choice. It is a statement that you don’t care about morality, legality, or the truth. 

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