I’m in Helena today.
I got here yesterday afternoon and headed to the Montana Historical Society to get some research work done. I’ll discuss that more later, when I can get back to Missoula and recharge my camera battery – I have some good campaign literature to show you.
Anyways, let’s talk about some issues around the state. My mom gets the IR and Great Falls Tribune in print format, so I’ll reference those today, and probably without links. Over at my dad’s house, they stopped getting the paper. It seems they rely more on the local TV news now. And why not? Newspapers in this state are rubbish.
Doing a quick look at 4&20 today, that Montana blog is about to undergo some changes. The regulars are all up in arms, fearful that their ability to comment endlessly will be taken away. One regular is threatening legal action. I’ve been threatened with legal action before – I have a business – so I know it’s always best to wait until the letter’s in your hand before you become a worry wart. I for one look forward to reading about issues that affect me, and maybe that site will begin producing such again.
Over at Flathead Memo, James Conner laments the drought. He complains about having to water plants twice a day, something I’ve been doing as well. Half the water runs out on the second time, but quite a few flowers have been baked alive.
I got here yesterday afternoon and headed to the Montana Historical Society to get some research work done. I’ll discuss that more later, when I can get back to Missoula and recharge my camera battery – I have some good campaign literature to show you.
Anyways, let’s talk about some issues around the state. My mom gets the IR and Great Falls Tribune in print format, so I’ll reference those today, and probably without links. Over at my dad’s house, they stopped getting the paper. It seems they rely more on the local TV news now. And why not? Newspapers in this state are rubbish.
Doing a quick look at 4&20 today, that Montana blog is about to undergo some changes. The regulars are all up in arms, fearful that their ability to comment endlessly will be taken away. One regular is threatening legal action. I’ve been threatened with legal action before – I have a business – so I know it’s always best to wait until the letter’s in your hand before you become a worry wart. I for one look forward to reading about issues that affect me, and maybe that site will begin producing such again.
Over at Flathead Memo, James Conner laments the drought. He complains about having to water plants twice a day, something I’ve been doing as well. Half the water runs out on the second time, but quite a few flowers have been baked alive.
Mike Batista
One of the first stories I noticed in the IR today was about prison rapes, and how Montana could lose 5% of its Justice Department funding if this vile practice continues. Most of the incidents are staff-on-inmate, as well, though Corrections Director Mike Batista “criticized the report” that tells us this, saying it’s “depending on a small sample of anonymous prisoners whose complaints can’t be verified.”
Mike Batista is a 53-year old Great Falls native that’s been in law enforcement for 30 years. With that level of experience, I’d expect him to keep his foot out of his mouth, but sadly, he failed to do that today. He made a mistake, a big one, with that comment.
I’m saddened to see that our state Department of Corrections is becoming as blind as our legal agencies in Missoula. They didn’t want to look into their problems, and they too ignored reports and shunted the blame elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice came in, and we’ve been paying for it ever since.
That’s what happens when you don’t clean house – someone else comes in and cleans it for you. It’s time that Mike Batista is removed and someone be brought in to clean his house, preferably before the feds do it for us. You can read about the job this man is doing on an interesting site called Montana Corruption.
Mike Batista is a 53-year old Great Falls native that’s been in law enforcement for 30 years. With that level of experience, I’d expect him to keep his foot out of his mouth, but sadly, he failed to do that today. He made a mistake, a big one, with that comment.
I’m saddened to see that our state Department of Corrections is becoming as blind as our legal agencies in Missoula. They didn’t want to look into their problems, and they too ignored reports and shunted the blame elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice came in, and we’ve been paying for it ever since.
That’s what happens when you don’t clean house – someone else comes in and cleans it for you. It’s time that Mike Batista is removed and someone be brought in to clean his house, preferably before the feds do it for us. You can read about the job this man is doing on an interesting site called Montana Corruption.
The Missoulian had a story about Montana jail overcrowding and how the county is getting an $80,000 grant to study this. I feel that money should be used to kickstart the program, not study solutions. But then we couldn’t shuffle paper around, looking busy.
Here’s the comment on put on the article:
Here’s the comment on put on the article:
I don’t expect we’ll see much in the way of collaboration between the Montana Association of Counties (MACo), mainly because they’re the kind of organization that charges $15 so you can learn the names of all the county officials. Yep, more concerned about their own asses – and their ability to keep them in those taxpayer-funded chairs – than actually solving problems. Again, $80,000 goes a long way in getting solutions up and running, not sitting around a conference table over coffee and donuts with other people who couldn’t cut it in the private sector, so they got into a cushy government job.
We could solve this jail mess, but it’s not profitable to do so. Yeah, counties like Missoula could stop hemorrhaging money by shipping inmates to other counties and then paying for their housing, but they don’t want to. Instead we’d rather apply for a bigger grant, this time for $150,000. Like I said, we could set up facilities around the state, but we don’t want to. We like to see the problem in the paper, so our officials can look stupid, incompetent, and like they can’t do a damn thing.
How’s that going for you, McDermott, Curtiss, and Rowley?
We could solve this jail mess, but it’s not profitable to do so. Yeah, counties like Missoula could stop hemorrhaging money by shipping inmates to other counties and then paying for their housing, but they don’t want to. Instead we’d rather apply for a bigger grant, this time for $150,000. Like I said, we could set up facilities around the state, but we don’t want to. We like to see the problem in the paper, so our officials can look stupid, incompetent, and like they can’t do a damn thing.
How’s that going for you, McDermott, Curtiss, and Rowley?
Obama was sure desperate yesterday, heading into Congress to beg the House to pass his Trans Pacific Partnership. He was just at the G7 meeting in Austria a few days before, drinking beer in the morning and chatting it up with the top 0.001% of the world. They made it clear he had to sell out American workers and the American environment so that global corporations and banks can maximize their profits, and he jumped right to it. Senator Daines voted for TPP, while Senator Tester voted against it. Ryan Zinke flip-flopped all over the issue, as is his way, and finally voted for it, as his corporate controllers (campaign donors) want.
This was a terrible trade deal, but Obama is already saying he’ll try to ram another version through next month. He’s gotten nothing through since Obamacare about three years ago, and the American people can be thankful for that. If this is the kind of legislation he’s giving us, it’s clear he’s a sell-out and a failure. I’m ashamed of him, and I’m ashamed of what he’s done to this country. His highbrow attitude and flagrant lack of concern for common Americans is overwhelming, and frankly, despicable. Montana Democrats should be ashamed of this man.
Speaking of despicable, form International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been “cleared of pimping,” the Great Falls Tribune headline says today. He had massive sex parties from 2008 to 2011, or as he called them, “much needed recreational sessions at a time of intense pressure to steer the world through economic peril.”
I of course can’t help but think of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This is the guy that went onto islands with underage girls and did who knows what. Bill Clinton was at some of those islands, it’s been documented, and it was one of the main reasons why Hillary waited so long to declare.
I’m not surprised to see this sordid story on a Saturday. They don’t want you to know about this, and when I say ‘they’ I mean the Clintons. As for the IMF guy…is anyone surprised? These people are the decadent and depraved, the Sodom and Gomorrah’s of our time. They bring God’s wrath down on the world, and we all suffer for it. How long will we endure this needless burden? How long will we allow them to defile us?
How long will we live with the fallacy that their two hands are more capable than our own?
This was a terrible trade deal, but Obama is already saying he’ll try to ram another version through next month. He’s gotten nothing through since Obamacare about three years ago, and the American people can be thankful for that. If this is the kind of legislation he’s giving us, it’s clear he’s a sell-out and a failure. I’m ashamed of him, and I’m ashamed of what he’s done to this country. His highbrow attitude and flagrant lack of concern for common Americans is overwhelming, and frankly, despicable. Montana Democrats should be ashamed of this man.
Speaking of despicable, form International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been “cleared of pimping,” the Great Falls Tribune headline says today. He had massive sex parties from 2008 to 2011, or as he called them, “much needed recreational sessions at a time of intense pressure to steer the world through economic peril.”
I of course can’t help but think of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This is the guy that went onto islands with underage girls and did who knows what. Bill Clinton was at some of those islands, it’s been documented, and it was one of the main reasons why Hillary waited so long to declare.
I’m not surprised to see this sordid story on a Saturday. They don’t want you to know about this, and when I say ‘they’ I mean the Clintons. As for the IMF guy…is anyone surprised? These people are the decadent and depraved, the Sodom and Gomorrah’s of our time. They bring God’s wrath down on the world, and we all suffer for it. How long will we endure this needless burden? How long will we allow them to defile us?
How long will we live with the fallacy that their two hands are more capable than our own?
I noticed that former Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown had a guest column in the Great Falls Tribune today called “Montana’s media’s quiet giant.” It’s a story about William Marcus, who many will know as the “Back Roads of Montana” guy.
He’s been working at Montana PBS for 40 years, but it’s time to go. For one, funding for PBS is being cut substantially, by $200 million. Brown laments this trend in the media business, and how it causes departures, as we know all too well.
Lot of bad news today, like always. There’s not much good to say, and few good things are pointed out. Look outside for that – you still have a good environment. That won’t always be the case, however. Our president doesn’t care about us in that regard, and our parties in Congress are all but hopeless now. Local politics isn’t much better, with control cemented in the hands of a few, a nice coterie of officials that stifle anything that might cut into their racket.
The good news is that we’ve seen this all before, at the national and local level. Something always comes around and shakes things up, either a war or an economic downturn or even a serious catastrophe of some sort. Sometimes it’s even a person.
People wake up…happens all the time.
He’s been working at Montana PBS for 40 years, but it’s time to go. For one, funding for PBS is being cut substantially, by $200 million. Brown laments this trend in the media business, and how it causes departures, as we know all too well.
Lot of bad news today, like always. There’s not much good to say, and few good things are pointed out. Look outside for that – you still have a good environment. That won’t always be the case, however. Our president doesn’t care about us in that regard, and our parties in Congress are all but hopeless now. Local politics isn’t much better, with control cemented in the hands of a few, a nice coterie of officials that stifle anything that might cut into their racket.
The good news is that we’ve seen this all before, at the national and local level. Something always comes around and shakes things up, either a war or an economic downturn or even a serious catastrophe of some sort. Sometimes it’s even a person.
People wake up…happens all the time.
