I don’t write on this site to make friends; I write to make lives better.
And that bothers a lot of people.
It won’t bother future generations. They’ll be damn thankful someone was there reporting the truth.
So let’s begin.
And that bothers a lot of people.
It won’t bother future generations. They’ll be damn thankful someone was there reporting the truth.
So let’s begin.
I went to Lisa Triepke’s campaign event last night.
It was sad sauce.
The only thing sadder is if I would have thrown a campaign event. Then you know that no one would show up.
With Lisa last night we had about 15, which roughly came to:
- 5 people she was paying
- 3 candidates
- 2 city council members
- 5 friends
I thought it was a pretty good event. They had good food, good drinks, and a good location.
They just didn’t have the people.
That must be frustrating from Lisa’s perspective. Another frustration must be the $22,600 she’s raised compared to the $57,300 that Engen has raised.
Lisa has $7,500 in the bank compared to the nearly $17,000 that Engen has.
A bright spot is that Engen only raised about $3,000 for the last half of August, and he’s raised nothing in September…unless he’s simply chosen not to file another C5, as required by law every 48 hours when you get a contribution.
“We’re up against a cult of personality,” Lisa said when referring to Engen.
I totally agree...but I just don't think Lisa can beat him.
For the most part, Lisa doesn’t have what it takes, and it pains me to say that.
I want her to win!
But I know she won’t.
Hey – that’s why you come to this site…for the honesty.
Just 5 people at a rally that aren’t tied-into their campaign or yours?
No, she ain’t gonna do it.
I was saddened to see that nearly 6 months after she’s started her campaign and she still can’t talk with confidence.
The vast majority of people are like this. Public speaking is America's biggest fear, with 25% of people listing it...according to a 2014 Washington Post survey.
We fear public speaking more than we fear death.
With Lisa I feel she relies too much on notecards…and the looking down…and the questioning of herself that that pertains.
She can’t speak from the heart.
She doesn’t have the confidence, she doesn’t have the passion.
If there is anger, I’m not seeing it.
She can’t vent her frustrations or express her passions or excite the electorate.
So she’ll lose, and big time, and Engen will get his 4th term, and big time.
And all of our lives will get worse as a result.
I see that Grant Kier had his campaign kick-off last night at the Bonner Amphitheatre.
So it’s him and Billings’ Heenan.
There were some false alarms earlier this week that Dan West might jump in…but the Bozeman Daily Chronicle quickly fixed that error (which it had made).
So still...nothing to get excited about.
I just don’t see Gianforte losing this seat, even when/if Zeno Baucus jumps in.
And then there’s the tumult in the Democratic Party. Some Dems say Kier is a foil, a corporate hack. James Conner hints at this in his latest post.
At this point, I can’t tell the difference between Heenan and Kier.
Mostly, they and their family will benefit should they get elected. You and your family won’t notice a damn thing.
Sadly, millions of dollars will be spent over the coming year to make you think otherwise.
Just a quick aside:
There are 47 American arms dealers making up the Top 100 most profitable in the $235 billion a year arms industry.
American companies earned $72.8 billion in arms sales income. American companies earned about $13 to $15 billion in oil export income.
America has over 160,000 soldiers stationed in 74 different countries.
In Germany alone, we have 179 military bases.
It costs us $10 billion a year to keep our forces overseas, and Germany alone accounts for $7 billion of that (sounds like a lot, but at the height of the Iraq War we were spending $10 billion a month).
Just a quick question:
How does this benefit you and your family?
I’m sorry…but I’ve got to mention it.
In January Mary Sheehy Moe quit the legislature.
The whole rationale was that she needed to help her daughter raise her premature daughters.
Great.
But then why jump into the Great Falls City Commission race?
The primary was last night and Moe got the most votes, by over 1,600 votes.
Perhaps her recent appointment to the Parks Board helped with that.
You know how I feel. More of the Good ‘ol Boys Club in action.
If we’re lucky we might get LK to give us a comment about what he thinks of Moe.
I can’t help but think it’ll be the truth.
Just a quick aside:
The Flathead Beacon has an interview up with Marc Racicot.
I can’t think of a worse Montana governor in the 20th century than Racicot.
Thankfully, I write history books so future generations will have the same idea (I’m sorry…did you think they were going to seek out the dry, university-written texts or the fun books I write?)
I went ahead and took the time to collect a bit of information from my upcoming, and final, history book on the state.
Here it is:
Marc Racicot helped ruin Montana
Just a day after that article went up, the Flathead Beacon removed it from the homepage...not even a link.
It's because of my comment, and Racicot's reaction to it.
He doesn't want people to know the truth.
The piece of shit is living up in Swan Lake now. Good for him.
If I ever run into him I’m going to look him right in the eye and tell him ‘fuck you’ for selling our state-owned power companies to out-of-state and then out-of-country corporations.
I really do think the man has evil in his soul. His past actions attest to this. Just dig into all the corporate money he took after leaving the governor’s office.
He justifies this with religion, claiming to be a man of God.
If God ever met Marc Racicot, He’d never stop throwing up.
Marc Racicot is a man that does the devil’s work in Montana. His actions ruin lives for the majority while profiting the rich minority.
Marc Racicot – a true Montana villain.
One of the things that angers us the most is the hypocrisy.
For instance, Dems in Montana have been pissing themselves for months now about Daines and/or Gianforte and/or Zinke not showing up to townhalls.
They point to Tester, who does…oh, maybe one a month.
What they won’t point out is how Bullock was out of town on Monday when all those soon-to-be-cut-off-from-Medicaid folks showed up at the Capitol.
Whether it’s being out of town when something’s happening or having a closed-door policy during the last week of the legislature, Bullock continuously shows us how terrible of a governor he is.
He finally got his state plane problems taken care of this month…nearly a year after the election. And let’s not forget his national ambitions.
What we can’t forget – because we’re forced to live through it – are his terrible fiscal policies.
What in the hell ever happened to that $250 million surplus he had such a hard-on for?
Oh, I guess oil prices took care of that. The boom-and-bust cycle all over again.
Montana needs to get over this with reliable revenue sources.
Marijuana.
Legalize it. Make millions each year. Fund schools with it. End voter bond fatigue.
But the GOP won’t allow that and citizens won’t get the chance to vote on it until 2020 because the legal pot groups in Montana don’t believe 2018 is their year.
Oh…I’m sorry – did you have other revenue-raising ideas?
Maybe a sales tax, huh?
Besides that…what else is there?
Raising taxes on the rich? Hey, I’m fine with that…but guess who’s not? The rich. And the rich control the legislature.
Any other ideas?
Any at all?
