- The stock market disconnect
- Fun in Seattle
- Our cultural revolution
- The return of segregation
- Rewriting history
Alas, I’m sitting at home alone watching a baby, so I just can’t do it.
But maybe you have some thoughts. I hope so.
Wow, I’d love to write a bunch of stuff today, mainly on the following topics:
Alas, I’m sitting at home alone watching a baby, so I just can’t do it. But maybe you have some thoughts. I hope so.
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144 vs. 276
Which will have a bigger impact on your daily life? There are 144 days until City Council elections. Steve Bullock has 276 days to change his mind and file for Senate. March 16 is the filing deadline. The 2020 Election is 508 days away. I’m getting worn-out by our incessant culture wars here in America, which are mainly pitting postmodernists against the religious. Our corporate media is driving this. It’s quite funny, when you think about it - despite CBS having 222 reporters, NBC having 200 reporters, and ABC having 179...all three major corporate news networks give us the exact same stories each night. Rich global shareholders telling rich New York executives to tell rich reporters what to tell us, and we eat it up each night with dinner. Bon Appétit! I don’t think the message of those global shareholders is the same message this country was founded upon. Traditional American values like believing in God, the Bible, universal moral standards, sanctity of life, family values, marriage between a man and a woman, the Christian founding of America, and historic truth are under assault in this country. Seeking to take their place are the opposite values: the denial of God, belief in biological evolution, rejection of the Bible, faith in a relative moral code, abortion on demand, doing away with traditional family values, abolishing the idea of marriage as between a man and a woman, and denying our nation’s Christian heritage. I get a lot of emails from people telling me they don’t feel the Democratic Party represents them anymore. I can understand why. The only message the Dems seem to push today is one that stresses moral relativism, no absolutes, inclusion, evolution, collectivist/progressive ideology, environmentalism, feminism, abortion, pagan spirituality, transgenderism, gay rights, pacifism, social justice, and of course free stuff. The only people getting excited about the Democratic message are those that don’t work and think capitalism is evil. They’d rather complain than try to make things better. When confronted with obstacles, it’s not about overcoming them - they find ways to avoid them, or better yet, accommodate them. The idea of fighting for anything is against everything they stand for. Like I said, I’m getting worn out.
For those that don’t know, Collins is a Liberian refugee that came here around 30 years ago and was elected mayor of Helena last fall. Aside from plowing snow and chatting with voters, I’m not sure what his accomplishments are. I suspect Collins is just a placeholder candidate until Steve Bullock decides to ‘step down’ to this race next spring. Having Trent Bolger heading up your campaign makes that all the more likely to me. I do know Collins will need to raise a lot of money to keep the Wyoming-native on staff - the Dems paid him around $5,000 a month when he was still working for them. If I was Steve Daines I’d be incredibly happy if Collins turns out to be my general election opponent. A black man with an accent that wasn’t even born in America? A race like that’ll be a cakewalk for Daines. Another week has come and gone already. Feel free to comment on anything that’s happened.
Update: I saw this image on Twitter this afternoon, and just had to share it:
That image was sent out by Great Falls' Casey Schreiner. It's him speaking at a MDLCC event where he talked "about the importance of electing more Democrats up and down the ballot."
I think that is important, too...but I can tell from the number of people in that room that few others care. Most of the people that are there are fellow Democratic legislators or staff of the MT Democratic Party. That's sad, as today we saw that we need more Democrats in the legislature if poor people want a chance. Right now we don't know if healthcare will pass again, and that'll have a big impact on our state. Sadly, Democrats and their message is so boring and so off-putting that few want to hear it. Schreiner's image makes that painfully clear. I wish Democrats in Montana would make politics exciting. Until then, they'll have to settle for near-empty rooms. Anyways, it's another Friday. What’s happened around the Treasure State and around the country this week? I’m sure the rich have enriched themselves a bit more at our expense. Lots of issues have probably been swept under the rug. And those running for office in 2020 have most likely raised a bunch of money off false promises that they’ll help you and I. Yep, business as usual! Care to comment on any of it? Be my guest. Thanks for visiting Big Sky Words. Feel free to comment on any recent stories happening across Montana. We had some success in the legislature this week; we had some failure. A big success was the defeat of the local option sales tax bill. This bill would hurt poor people while providing them absolutely no benefit whatsoever. Those paying property taxes might have seen a slight decrease in the amount of tax they pay each year. The rich would have made off like bandits. A big failure was the defeat of the legalization of marijuana bill. Montana lost tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues, all because of bunch of old white rich men don’t want people to have the personal freedom to decide what they can and can’t put into their bodies. Another failure was Ed Buttrey’s medicaid work requirements bill. I don’t mind the requirements - I have a job and work enough and can figure out how to report. What irks me are the millions of dollars we’ll piss away each year to create 84 new full-time positions to administer Buttrey’s big government program. It’s a shame people think he’s conservative. In other news, the Democrats need to get their shit together. I loved this line from Montana GOP operative Jake Eaton about Mike Cooney: “Being a 60-year old white male who’s lived in Helena and worked for government his whole life is not really compelling,” said Eaton. “He’s the guy who has managed to be around politics for 40 years, yet nobody knows who he is.” The biggest gift for the Montana GOP next year will be Mike Cooney running for governor. I can’t think of anyone under 40 that’s going to get excited to see this man give a speech. Since Democrats think they’re the Party of the young, this could become problematic. We already know Democrats can’t excite voters enough to turn them out to vote in this state, and Mike Cooney on the gubernatorial ticket next November won’t help. Then again, not much is going to help Democrats. Democrats in America have huge problems right now. It’s the same way in Montana. Voters around the country just aren’t voting for them anymore. Ten years ago, Democrats controlled twice as many state legislatures as Republicans, 24 to 14. Democrats haven’t had such lop-sided level of representation in legislatures since 1928. When it comes to governors, Democrats have 16 seats compared to the 33 that Republicans have. Dems haven’t had it this bad in the governor’s mansion since 1920, when they had 14 seats. I'm deeply ashamed that Democrats in America chose to talk about Russia and Trump for the past two years, and not the problems facing middle America. I'd talk about this more, but William Skink over at RD says it best. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone that shared my last post on social media, particularly Facebook. It wasn’t much - 25 shares or likes or whatnot - but it’s a lot more than I usually get. I don’t focus on social media anymore. I think it’s way too anti-social. We know that when you’re active on social media, you actually communicate 33% less with friends and parents and children. It’s been nearly 5 months now since I deleted my Facebook account. I don’t miss it, nor do I really think about it anymore. Clearly I never needed it in the first place. I think most Americans would be better off if they either deleted their social media accounts, or reduced their time on those accounts by 90% or more. Most in my age range agree with me. Last year we learned that 34% of millenials are deleting social media from their lives, while 34% were taking a break. And with that, I’ll be taking a break for the rest of the day, perhaps the weekend too. The legislature is back in session. I don’t blame you if you didn’t know they took a week off - they’ve done so little of consequence this session that it’s easy to forget they’re even ‘working.’ Steve Bullock continues to ignore Montana in favor of presidential primary states. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks his candidacy is a joke. Bob Brigham - who worked on Bohlinger’s 2014 Senate run - had this to say:
I think he nails it. I’m sure the MT Dems will ridicule anyone that agrees with him. Talk about head-in-the-sand syndrome. The 2020 Democratic pool of presidential candidates really is a clown car show. The National Review has an article titled just that. The only Democrat I’d vote for if the primaries were today would be Bernie Sanders. I wouldn’t waste a vote on any of the other people running, and if they somehow get the nomination, I’ll just vote third-party. I don’t think I’ll vote for Trump again. I’m getting tired of him. Over two years now he’s been in office and my life hasn’t changed at all. That tells me he’s not working for working Americans. I don’t think many of the Democratic candidates will work for working Americans either. And that’s all I have today. I’m going to continue to focus on Missoula issues over the coming weeks. I’ll also have some big news to share with you sometime next week. Cheers! I’m sorry I haven’t written much this week. I don’t have a lot of ideas and there hasn’t been anything in the news that’s really caught my eye. That said, I do plan on researching and writing about the new water line policy in Missoula soon. This policy has homeowners paying huge new costs. These costs haven’t adequately been reported, and I don’t feel they ever will be. You’re going to read a lot more about Missoula issues in the coming months on this site as I prepare for another City Council run. It only costs $150 to run. Honestly, though...I don’t think you care about water lines or Missoula issues in general. Anyways, here’s another open post Friday, where you can put your thoughts down. The last few of these posts have had no thoughts from you at all. February was a damn good month on this site, with some of the best articles I’ve written in months. Sadly, you either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Probably both. You know you didn’t comment. That’s frustrating for me, and it’s the main reason I’ll be writing a lot less in March. You can get your news and opinions from Montana Post and Missoula Current, Sinclair and Lee. Thanks for understanding. |
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