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

• Judging Montana Judges
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
• Donald Trump’s MRI
• One More Thing

JUDGING MONTANA JUDGES:

In case you missed it, there is a new bureaucracy in Montana called the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission. 

According to MTN News, the commission includes 11 members: four nominated by the governor, three by the chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, and one each by the Republican and Democratic leaders in the Montana House and Senate.

According to Montana Public Radio, the members of the Montana Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission are:

• Keith Regier, former Republican state senator and retired teacher
• Henry Kriegel, deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity Montana
• Nels Swandal, former district court judge and Republican state senator
• Jeff Laszloffy, president of the Montana Family Foundation
• Mike Wheat, former Montana Supreme Court Justice
• James Rigby, retired attorney
• Ed Eck, former dean of the University of Montana School of Law
• Karen Fagg, former president and majority owner of HKM Engineering
• Bryan Lockerby, retired administrator of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation
• Alan Doane, legislative liaison for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and a former Republican state representative
• Elizabeth Albers, Missoula Civil Deputy County Attorney

Let’s face it, the real reason for the Commission is to make sure more Republicans are elected to the judiciary.  

The way campaigns are run these days, voters get plenty of information about the candidates, pro and con, without the help of a partisan commission. 

DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH:

The Hill is reporting that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September, following a bombshell Washington Post report that claimed he ordered the military to “kill everybody.”

I don’t think the confirmation came across as intended. 

The Washington Post is reporting that Officials in Congress and the Pentagon said Monday they are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer who directed U.S. forces to kill two survivors of a targeted strike on suspected drug smugglers in Latin America, as lawmakers made initial moves to investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime.

I am not surprised that Trump and company will try to pin the blame on a person in uniform. The Trump Administration has little respect for the military. 

Hegseth is in over his head. This is not a video game; this is real life. He should be relieved of his duties. 

DONALD TRUMP’S MRI:

We are so fortunate in the country to have elected a man who is very transparent with his health and physical condition. Donald Trump is as close to a perfect human specimen as there ever has been. 

I did not mean anything I said in the last paragraph. 

NBC News is reporting that the White House on Monday released a summary of the results of a magnetic resonance imaging scan President Donald Trump underwent in what had been described as a “routine” physical in October, with the president’s doctor saying he’s in “excellent” health.

Excellent health! Way to go, Mr. President. If only all our Presidents were 6’3 and weighed 215 lbs, as Trump claims he is. 

Not that Trump ever boasts, but he did say right after the results of the MRI came back:

I think they gave you a very conclusive — nobody has ever given you reports like I gave you. And if I didn’t think it was going to be good, either I would let you know negatively, I wouldn’t run, I’d do something. But the doctors said some of the best reports for the age, some of the best reports they’ve ever seen.

Trump is just so honest. We are lucky to have a President this honest! 

(I didn’t mean that)

ONE MORE THING:

Don’t make me repeat myself. -History 

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