Let me be one of the first to wish you a happy Independence Day! This will be my last column for the week, unless there’s breaking news.
Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Constitutional Initiative 128
- Big Beautiful Bill
- National Gas Prices
- The Drunk Pig
- One More Thing
CONSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVE 128:
The Montana Supreme Court declined (5-0) to take up the case to block Montana’s newly enacted constitutional abortion protection.
Constitutional Initiative 128 granted the right to an abortion up to fetal viability. The Initiative passed with 58% of the vote. I supported CI-128.
You can read more about the issue HERE.
This should be the end of the challenges, but I doubt it.
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL:
The U.S. Senate version of the “Big Beautiful Bill” is not being well-received in the U.S. House, at least that’s what I’m hearing.
I expect the bill to pass after some deals are made.
Roll Call is reporting that Republican opposition to the GOP’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill appeared to be softening Wednesday night after President Donald Trump and White House budget director Russ Vought spent hours meeting with party holdouts during procedural votes that party leaders held open.
House leaders have no desire to change the contents of the Senate-passed bill, which would force a second Senate vote and blow a self-imposed July Fourth deadline. But administration officials are hoping to ease the concerns of opponents by promising fixes that could be enacted either through executive actions or through a second reconciliation or appropriations bill later this year, lawmakers said.
NATIONAL GAS PRICES:
Here are the gas prices for July 2, 2025:
If you are traveling this holiday, please be careful!
THE DRUNK PIG:
In case you missed it, a pig stole and drank 18 beers from a campsite and then tried to start a fight with a cow.
You can read the whole story HERE.
Pigs should not be drinking if they cannot handle alcohol.
ONE MORE THING:
#whoremembers
If you read that wrong, we’re probably friends.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##
The Western Word 
The loudest voices, the most politically active on the far right have been working relentlessly for nearly a century now to restore the dominance they held in the so-called ‘gilded age.’ We’re into the 5th generation now of people enraged that women, minorities, and the working class don’t understand their proper place at the bottom of society and return to it.
The far right have fought ceaselessly against labor unions, civil rights, public understanding of actual democracy. They have lost an overwhelmingly large proportion of legislative and executive branch actions. They have lost elections beyond counting, so they try every illegal maneuver they can invent, and claim ‘it’s all rigged!’ when they can’t defeat the protections they claim aren’t there.
They’ve suffered so many litigation defeats, they’re currently hammering away at courts and jurists; trying desperately to change the rules they also claim aren’t there or shouldn’t apply to their edicts.
There has always been a fundamentalist tinge to the far right, since ‘true believers’ seem to feel a need for the majority to be faithfully, devotedly subservient to the ruling minority. We’re seeing possibly the ultimate expression of that in the idolatry focused on trumpsky. He is ‘the Chosen.’ He has received a mandate from on-high, to go forth to lie, cheat, and steal. To object to that is sacrilegious.