Lolo National Forest
There’ll be no camping post this weekend.
I’m working at one of my odd jobs on Sunday so can’t do it.
Maybe next weekend. I’m thinking Lake Como in the Bitterroot this time.
And perhaps I’ll have some images up anyways, maybe of some river spots here in Missoula.
I should have taken my camera with me when I headed up to Polson last night.
Flathead Lake was looking pretty nice.
I might be heading up that way again tonight, however – again, another of the odd jobs.
Anyways, let’s take a few minutes to discuss some news bits I’ve seen recently.
I’m working at one of my odd jobs on Sunday so can’t do it.
Maybe next weekend. I’m thinking Lake Como in the Bitterroot this time.
And perhaps I’ll have some images up anyways, maybe of some river spots here in Missoula.
I should have taken my camera with me when I headed up to Polson last night.
Flathead Lake was looking pretty nice.
I might be heading up that way again tonight, however – again, another of the odd jobs.
Anyways, let’s take a few minutes to discuss some news bits I’ve seen recently.
I saw yesterday that the Missoulian reported on all the overtime pay the Sheriff’s Office is getting.
I saw today they’d sponsored that post on Facebook to get even more eyes on it.
Personally, I wonder why the paid reporters at the Missoulian took so long to report on a story that I’d told you about six months ago.
I left the link to that February article of mine on the Missoulian Facebook commenting section.
There was a huge uptick in social traffic to my site because of that, and Add This told me that 153 people clicked on my link.
So people are interested in this story.
That’s bad for the Sheriff’s Office, and I’m sure they’ll try to tamp-down on anymore of this kind of talk.
While we’re on the subject of social media commenting, the Great Falls Tribune had a story up today talking about all the ‘nasty’ comments their rape story got yesterday.
They mention that they can’t disable comments on their Facebook posts, so they’ll consider whether to post things like that in the future.
Just another form of censorship from our corporate media.
- On the one hand you don’t want a mosh pit in your comments, with people saying all kinds of terrible stuff.
- On the other hand you want to allow people to exercise their First Amendment rights to say what they want.
Or do you?
Both the Missoulian and the Trib disabled commenting on their own sites months ago.
I wonder if this increases or decreases readership for their online articles.
Just 40% of Americans read news online anyways.
On a related note, I saw this week that CNN was catching a lot of hell over their ratings.
Turns out that more people are interested in watching old episodes of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” than that news network.
I can’t help but think it’s their incessant coverage of Russia in the 2016 Elections.
We know that 73% of Americans feel this is a waste of Congress’s time, and actually preventing them from doing important stuff.
Personally, I kinda hope the liberal media and the Democrats continue to foam at the mouth over Russia.
Let them.
No one cares, and come 2018 that minority Party, and abysmally-rated-networks like CNN, will diminish even further in importance.
I have a feeling they’re not important to your life right now.
And while we’re on the subject of Democratic efficacy, let’s talk healthcare.
It’s a damn shame that Democrats are now ready to accept Obamacare and all its problems instead of finding something different…like Single Payer.
Obamacare sucks.
We discussed it a lot on this site in 2014.
It’s just not affordable.
Sure, people that are sick and in poverty do great under this plan.
But the rest of us do not.
It’s a big reason Trump got so many votes in so many states.
Now if Democrats manage to fend off the corporate Republicans we’ll be stuck with Obamacare, and I doubt the much-needed changes will come.
That could be a great gift to congressional Republicans come 2018.
Finally, I'm worried about the Lisa Triepke campaign.
She missed a speaking opportunity on Tuesday and seems to be slowing her social media posting as well.
Maybe she’s realizing what I realized in my 2014 race: you ain’t winnin’ this one.
Oh, she could win, but gosh…it seems like very big long-shot.
I just don’t think that many people care that their taxes are going up every year and that the city has serious amounts of debt.
But then maybe I’m just basing that opinion off the 40 or so hardcore Missoula Dems that were at that Tuesday speaking opportunity.
40 people out of 71,000 residents.
We know that in 2015 just 41% of registered voters turned out to vote, and in 2013 41% of people turned out.
In 2011, 50% of voters turned out.
In 2001 turnout was 28%. That was the year Engen first got elected to Ward 1.
Low turnout in Missoula ensures that incompetent people get elected.
In a lot of these races it’s only about 20,000 people voting in the whole city.
It’ll be a low turnout election this year too. I’m not certain whether people that are angry about their taxes will vote.
You’d think they would, and maybe they all will.
But will it be enough? I’m not sure, but with about 115 days until the election it won’t be too much longer until we find out.
And things will heat up starting around fall, especially with local media coverage.
That might change the discussion a bit.
Until then, I hope Triepke gets a bit more active and back into it.
