An Apology Post

First of all, I’d like to apologize for making you wait a week between posts.
 
When it comes to the rest of it…boy, after this week…where to begin?
 
 

 
 
 
Trump & Russia
 
Who in the hell let Chicken Little loose this week? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the sky is falling!
 
But of course, I do know better…as do you.
 
What we’ve seen this week is so…well, let’s just say it makes us shake our head.
 
It all started up on Monday, with the Helsinki conference between Trump and Putin.
 
I guess Trump said a few things, the media had a heyday, and now the world is coming to an end.
 
I was very lucky this week to be out of town for a few days, and then to be working the next few. So I didn’t follow the ‘news’ much. In fact, 40% of America didn’t follow it. That’s 130 million people.
 
If I was following it, perhaps I’d be like one of these chickens running around with their head cut off, yelling to anyone that’ll listen that the shit has hit the fan.
 
Yep, this Russian shit is what Dems want to focus on. The media is complicit in their stupidity.
 
And what should we focus on, you might ask? Hell, I’d love it if the talking heads would spend a week talking about any or all of the following:
 

• Wages for American workers have grown by 0.2% a year since 1973, or “basically nothing.”

 

• Our government spends $610 billion a year on defense, despite not having been attacked by a foreign nation for decades.

 

• Many Americans “might be two checks, three checks, four checks away” from joining the 554,000 homeless people already living in this country.

 

• We choose to spend $80 billion a year to lock up 2.3 million people in our jails and prisons.

 
Just a few things we could talk about…but choose not to.
 
It’s interesting what gets us up in arms these days.
 
And when you put it into some real world perspective – not just the land of make-believe – you can really understand why it was such a bad week.
 
Talk about a meltdown week for Democrats.
 
Strangely, my life here in Montana hasn’t changed one bit since the week started.
 
Actually, my life hasn’t changed one bit since Trump took office.
 
That’s one of the things – the media and the hardcore Dems can shout to the winds about all that’s bad in the world…but I don’t see it here in my little world.
 
Maybe that’s because I do live in a little world, an insignificant speck that isn’t really important.
 
But my vote's sure important this fall!
 
I’m interested to see if the Dems will ever stop their campaign of stupidity and focus on our lives and our problems.
 
Mostly they seem to focus on things most of the country doesn’t care about.
 
 
 
MT Dems & Their Convention
 
The Montana Democratic Party can give itself a big pat on the back this week following their successful Party convention in Great Falls.
 
What did it accomplish?
 
I’m not sure anyone knows the answer to that one.
 
One thing we do know is that minority issues predominated.
 

• Yes – if you’re gay or an immigrant or an illegal…things are great!

 

• If you’re a six-figure-a-year union boss that wants to ensure non-union workers stay in their place, things are great!

 

• If you’re a healthcare exec profiting from Obamacare and our non-single-payer system, things are great!

 

• If you’re an energy person that doesn’t want to see an expansion of wind and solar, things are great!

 
Yes…each one of those issues was shot down by your Montana Democratic Party.
 
I think we need to congratulate Dems on having another good day in the world of make-believe.
 
In that world, nothing could be better: Trump is on the ropes, statewide and national Dems are ascendant, and the media is on our side.
 
Yep…riding their blue wave, fully expecting it to take them to congressional victories this fall.
 
What they don’t know is that this ‘riding the wave’ stage is the victory. We see this clearly with the oddball that beat out that swamp creature in New York a few weeks ago.
 
For Democrats, winning on principle in the primary is more important than winning a victory in the general. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will likely win her seat in New York, but Williams won’t win hers in Montana. It’s why the latter distanced herself from Pelosi this week.
 
 
Where did these thoughts of imminent victory come from, anyways?
 
The world of privilege, I think.
 
People that think something is going to change this fall are typically well-off financially.
 

• They don’t take out trash.

 

• They don’t make minimum wage.

 

• They don’t talk to common people with common ideas and common hopes and dreams.

 
Instead, they live in their own little world, with likeminded ‘idealists’…like those at the convention in Great Falls.
 
When they do go out, they stick with others from their own little world.
 
Hence the skewed worldview, this idea that they’re winning.
 
 

 
 
Marie & Her Court
 
I’m sorry for Marie Andersen here in Missoula.
 
I’m sorry no local media outlets thought this race important enough to talk about before the last election.
 
We see that a lot this year, too – Tester and Rosendale have taken all the air out of the room. Partisan hacks have no time for things like PSC or legislative races, let alone something as lowly as our courts.
 
Sometimes the partisan hack sites even spend time attacking politicians that aren’t even up for reelection this year, and won’t be until 2020.
 
Yes…priorities. And then they ask you for money to keep their attacks going.
 
Anyways, Andersen’s court has a huge problem with turnover right now. It’s such a problem that the county actually spent your tax money to hire a firm to do a report on how dysfunctional her court is.
 
No reporting was done on the costs to you of that report.
 
There are other problems.
 

• Supposedly Andersen is skipping out of work.

 

• She won’t let workers ask for help.

 

• And particularly strange…Andersen actually made her court workers take care of her pets.

 
WTF?!?
 
You actually think that getting elected gives you the right to tell me – as an office worker – to feed your cat or clean up your dog shit?
 
Lady…what gives you the right?
 
We know that Andersen’s office manager was fired for shady reasons. From court documents, it sounds like she was retaliated against. Worked there for 13 years.
 
Many other workers have quit, because of Andersen’s pets and absences and her terrible attitude.
 
And I feel partly responsible for this snafu. You see… back in 2014 I wrote a bit about Anderson in a blog post.
 
I told people that Andersen “repeatedly failed to use the new computer tracking system” and “pretty much stood in the way when other workers tried to ask her questions or figure out what was going on.”
 
We know that before she was kicked out of the court in 2012, she actually made court workers pay for her parking tickets…even though she had a reserved space set out for her.
 
A month before the election, that post shot up on my website, getting hundreds of views.
 
Sadly, this was one of the only bits of info that voters could find on Andersen.
 
And they voted her in.
 
As far as we can tell in the media, Andersen is doing a terrible job, and the county commissioners wouldn’t mind seeing her go.
 
But…it’s critically important that we remember the Missoula Democratic Machine, and how it pulls people down that it doesn’t agree with. If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that you can’t trust a Democrat. Nationally, Democrats actually rig elections and hack their opponents so they can win.
 
They’ll do anything to stay in ‘power.’
 
So far we’ve only heard one side of this story – the anti-Andersen side.
 
We’ve heard that side a lot before, as I told you four years ago.
 
I hope we hear more about this story. Right now I’m sickened by the news from the court. Andersen should resign or be recalled.
 
But if this isn’t the whole story, now’s the time to get it out.
 
 
 
Courts & Corruption
 
The Greens just won’t go away.
 
It’s not really the Greens, however, but those that are playing a tug-of-rope between them.
 
Yep…Dems and the GOP.
 
Both Parties view the Greens in a certain way. Dems see them as spoilers and want them gone. Republicans see them as white knights serving it up, and want them to stay.
 
For Democrats, Greens are no different than Republicans here in the Treasure State. Democrats despise them in a curl-of-the-lip kind of way.
 
Both Parties are spending serious money in the courts to get their way. For Dems, it’s upwards of $1 million in political donations to hire two in-state and one out-of-state firms. For the GOP, it’s spending an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars to yet again challenge the case.
 
We know that the MT Supreme Court and all their staff costs a lot of money in payroll and healthcare and taxes and all the rest of it.
 
Now their time will be wasted on this as well.
 
All after the Greens got 2,000 signatures more than they needed to in Montana…just coming up a few short in a couple districts.
 
That’s democracy in action.
 
And today, democracy takes money.
 
Like whatever Thai Nguyen was paid to testify against the Green Party.
 
You see, he’s on the payroll of the Montana Democratic Party, specifically as a regional manager for their Blue Bench group.
 
While you and I might find it laughable for a recent immigrant with a funny-sounding name to think they can help Dems win back the Montana legislature this year, for the brass at Helena’s Dem HQ…it makes perfect sense.
 
Where do these people come from?
 
Well…sadly we know all too well where they come from.
 
One of the Montana Democratic Party’s superdelegates is Jorge Quintana, a Cuban immigrant that settled in New York before coming to Montana in 1995 to insinuate himself with the Dems’ power behind the scenes.
 
God…I’m getting damn tired of New Yorkers coming here and making our state like theirs. Dems have a huge problem with this, with people like Quintana and Eric Stern.
 
“I’m disappointed and I don’t even know what to do”, Nancy Keenan recently said about the Missoula Democratic Party.
 
I don’t know what we’re going to do about her and these nincompoops like Nguyen and Quintana and Stern that’ve somehow weaseled their way into the woodwork of Montana politics.
 
My God it’ll be hell to get rid of them, and the commotion will be heard a few states over when it finally does happen.
 
It’s all about identity issues this year.
 
I think the Montana Democratic Party has lost its.
 
 
 
The GOP & Winning
 
“I went over to the GOP because I got tired of losing.”
 
I heard that comment in jest last night while working downtown, but there’s a lot of truth in it.
 
Democrats just can’t win in Montana.
 
Sure, they can take a seat or two…but that’s not winning.
 
Just ask Steve Bullock. If you don’t have at least one chamber of the legislature in your hand, you’ve got nothing.
 
Well, you can come in #7 for presidential hopefuls. I think that tells you how sorry of a position Dems are doing nationally at the moment.
 
I like to point out that Marc Racicot started out as a Democrat. He was smart enough to see how the winds were blowing and switched and the rest is history.
 
Hell, Ronald Reagan was even a Democrat.
 
Sometimes you have to walk down the wrong path before you come to your senses, backtrack, and get on the right path.
 
 
 
 
Drugs & Reasons
 
“Meth is causing our jails to fill, overwhelming our foster care system, overcrowding our treatment facilities, burdening our hospitals, and leaving many in our community with little more than addiction,” Fox said in the news conference.
 
Finally, I have to apologize for Tim Fox’s drug press conference here in Missoula yesterday.
 
Like I reported early last year, no time was spent discussing why people are using these hard drugs.
 
So more time will be spent chasing the tail, and more of your tax money will go down the drain.
 
Nothing will be done to address the issues that lead people to use drugs.
 
And why would folks like Fox want that?
 
These are rich people…people that got that way off the back of the poor man.
 
It’s common knowledge that Fox is a slum lord in Helena. I wonder how many of his tenants have been busted for meth-related offenses.
 
But Fox needs that money in his pocket.
 
We discussed the top reasons people turn to meth after the legislative conference on the subject.
 
I wonder if our non-living wages, our cuts to social services, and our shunning of the working poor contribute to the meth problem?
 
But if I start that line of thought, perhaps we’d be able to cut down on the problem. Lots of jails would lose money. Rich people might have to pay more in taxes.
 
Sure, that’d mean less money in the rich man’s pocket, and probably fewer budget allocations to justice agencies like Fox’s…but I think we can live with it.
 
If the drug problem in Montana is really that bad, Fox should begin looking at causes of that problem, not just effects.
 
If he can’t do that, I feel he has no vision.
 
If you lack vision, why should you represent me?
 
 

​ 
Notes
 
Cillizza Chris and Enten, Harry. “The definitive ranking of 2020 Democrats.” CNN. 19 July 2018. http://www.kpax.com/story/38686826/the-definitive-ranking-of-2020-democrats
 
Conner, James. “Green Party ballot access case heads to Montana Supreme Court.” Flathead Memo. 18 July 2018. http://www.flatheadmemo.com/archives_2018/july_2018/2018-07-18_gp.html

​“Does the U.S. Spend $80 Billion a Year on Incarceration?” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 23 December 2015. http://www.crfb.org/blogs/us-spends-80-billion-year-incarceration
 
Georgiou, Maritsa. “New initiative launched to combat violent and drug-related crimes in Missoula.” NBC Montana. 19 July 2018. http://nbcmontana.com/news/local/new-initiative-launched-to-combat-violent-and-drug-related-crimes-in-missoula
 
“How many people are locked up in the United States?” Prison Policy Initiative. Retrieved 20 July 2018. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/pie2018.html
 
McCauley, Connor. “Missoula Co. judge under fire after report ordered by administrators.” KPAX. 18 July 2018. http://www.kpax.com/story/38677865/judge-marie-anderson-under-fire-after-report-ordered-by-administrators
 
Nicolaci da Costa, Pedro. “Here’s why millions of Americans feel left behind by the economic recovery.” Business Insider. 28 September 2017. http://www.businessinsider.com/inequality-near-historic-highs-wages-stagnant
 
Pogreba, Don. “The Least Aggressive Fundraising Appeal You’ll Get This Year: Support the Montana Post!”. The Montana Post. 20 July 2018. https://themontanapost.com/2018/07/20/the-least-aggressive-fundraising-appeal-youll-get-this-year-support-the-montana-post/
 
Shepard, Susan Elizabeth. “Points of disorder for Missoula County Dems.” Independent. 19 July 2018. https://missoulanews.com/news/points-of-disorder-for-missoula-county-dems/article_bccaaace-8ac6-11e8-981d-5b365205b7ad.html
 
Strandberg, Greg. “The Funny Business in Missoula’s Municipal Court.” Big Sky Words. 28 October 2014. http://www.bigskywords.com/2014-montana-election-blog/the-funny-business-in-missoulas-municipal-court
 
Strandberg, Greg. “Who is Montana’s Jorge Quintana?” Big Sky Words. 17 July 2016. http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/who-is-montanas-jorge-quintana
 
Strandberg, Greg. “Montana’s Meth Problem.” Big Sky Words. 18 February 2017. http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/montanas-meth-problem
 
Talbot, Pete. “Montana Democratic Party platform convention.” The Montana Post. 18 July 2018. https://themontanapost.com/2018/07/18/montana-democratic-party-platform-convention/
 
“The United States spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation. 7 May 2018. https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison
 
Weber, Christopher and Mulvihill, Geoff. “America’s Homeless Population Rises for First Time in Years.” U.S. News & World Report. 6 December 2017. https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-12-06/us-homeless-count-rises-pushed-by-crisis-on-the-west-coast