Sunday morning here in Missoula.
We’re protest and riot free. I can’t say the same for Atlanta, which is getting burned.
The Wendy’s where that black guy was shot Friday night? It’s been burned to the ground.
My oh my...what a year.
I’d like to gather together bits and pieces of posts, odds and ends...half-stories, if you will.
I’ll sparse in thoughts on current events as well, perhaps even put in some oldies and goodies.
It’ll be a long post, one you might want to revisit to read later.
Enjoy.
The Weakest Statewide
Shane Morigeau is the weakest candidate running for statewide office today.
He has just $27,000 in the bank.
He’s lucky that Troy Downing only has $13,000.
But Troy has something that Shane does not - national backing.
There will be no national PACs coming to the rescue for Shane. Why would they waste money on a low-tier race like this?
They wouldn’t, and they won’t.
But Troy?
I bet he’ll get some national money. And if he doesn’t he’ll just loan money to his campaign. He already gave himself $8,000 just before the primary.
Shane doesn’t have the ability to self-finance because he never made a success of himself in the real world like Troy did.
Montana Dems will ignore Shane’s campaign, giving him neither time nor money. The state’s two Dem propaganda blogs - MT Post and Missoula Current - will ignore Shane.
They know he has no chance of winning.
Five years already.
It was May 21, 2015, when we learned that Lee Enterprises was firing Mike Dennison and Chuck Johnson.
Mike moved on to MTN where he continues to do a great job, perhaps the best in the state.
Chuck was going to write a book about his political experiences, but hasn’t done so. This is a monumental loss for the state and future generations.
Chuck typically only sends out tweets on election days or when some old-time politician dies. We’re incredibly lucky when he makes these rare appearances. I encourage you to read the tweets he sent out on primary day.
I spent 15 minutes one morning going through the June 2 tweets on #mtpol. There were a lot, and I just couldn’t find the one I was looking for.
I’m sure someone mentioned the tribes and the tribal counties and their turnout. Hardly anyone else has.
Why Work?
I don’t think I’ll work again this year.
We’ve got a lot of the year left, too - 206 days, or 29 weeks. If I was making the minimum wage at 40 hours a week, I’d make over $9,000 in those 29 weeks.
But I’m not making the minimum wage. I’m on unemployment.
So far this year I’ve made nearly $6,900 on unemployment. And I’m not done. I have 7 more weeks left, meaning I’ll make another $5,300.
When it’s all said and done, the government will have given me over $12,000.
In 2017, I only made $17,000 in income. This year I’ve already made over $17,000.
No, I don’t think I’ll work again this year. Mainly, it's childcare.
What about our other characters?
We only have 4-5 main blogs, and each person is different with different perspectives and outlooks on life.
- Don: In Helena, Pogreba works for the school district. He’s been paid through all this, and will be paid in summer when he’s not working. He did the remote learning, and should be commended for that. Don't forget he gets health care and a guaranteed pension.
- Skink: Here in Missoula, William Skink at RD is in a bit of a tough spot...one millions of others are in. He quit his job a couple months before this all started. There is no unemployment for him. That’s gotta be tough, and I’m sure he’s kicked himself a few times for that. The bright spot is his wife still has a job, and with him home and taking care of the kids, they save mega-bucks on childcare.
- James: Up in the Flathead, James Conner is on retirement and Social Security. His biggest concern at this point is just taking it day-by-day, what with the kidney dialysis. I have an aunt in Helena with the same problem, one brought on through years of side-effect prescription drug damage. She decided to not do dialysis. Doctors gave her up to a year to live, and she’s on about month five. Could she live longer if she did the weekly/near-daily procedure? Yes. But my God...is it worth it? I dunno. James’ politics have changed. Fear guides his daily life now. He sees the grim reaper around every corner, and wants someone to take care of him and tell him that everything will be alright. The politics of fear; the politics of the Dems.
Freedom
Most people aren’t as lucky as I am. Most people have to work - they can’t simply choose.
But I’m not like most people.
I have zero debt. When my power and internet bills come, I usually pay more than what I should.
I have no mortgage. I’ve already paid rent months in advance.
I own my car. I don’t use credit cards. I pay for everything in cash.
On top of this, I have thousands of dollars in savings, a big pile of silver coins, and an emergency fund of cash sitting within reach.
I have what most Americans do not - I have freedom.
Freedom from worry. The freedom to do what you want, when you want, no matter what anyone else says.
No one’s bossing me around.
Alarm clocks? They have no place in my world.
Why don’t more people live like this? I don’t know. I guess they like being slaves to the lender. They like lives of worry.
Why else would they do it?
It’s so easy to change, and yet so many Americans are either unable or unwilling to do so.
Don’t forget we’re the strongest country in the world.
Montana Banks, A Century Ago
The Federal Reserve played havoc in Montana. Over six years from 1920 to 1926 there were 214 banks in Montana that went under, half of all in the state, and more than anywhere else in the country.
On top of this there were 20,000 mortgage foreclosures in Montana from 1919 to 1925 and that meant half of the people in the state lost their land, and often homes.
The problem was that Montana had too many banks, plain and simple, and the reason for this was the Federal Reserve, the third Rothschild-controlled bank the country had seen, and the one that would do more damage than the other two combined. In 1917 alone forty-one new national banks came to Montana, often competing with state banks in towns of just a few hundred people.
Those on the East Coast saw the writing on the wall and took their money out fast. About $30 million fled the state as investors back East took what they could before losing it all. Montanans weren’t so lucky, and 11,000 farms failed as mortgage debt soared to $175 million. Montana had more bankruptcies than anywhere else in the country.
The Federal Reserve never forgot its mission to help Americans because that was never its mission. Its mission was to take as much wealth from the American people as possible to benefit the Rothschild family and their cronies.
Moneyed interests back East took a ‘rape-and-pillage’ attitude toward Montana, something they’d developed in the booming mining days of the 1880s and 1890s and one they’d continue to push in the 20th-century and on into the 21st.
The Powers That Be
The other day I told you about the coup around the corner, and I think that scenario could happen.
Here’s an interesting article about previous coup attempts. It starts like so:
“Five times in the last ninety years, elements of the U.S. power structure have tried to oust a sitting president without an election.
The efforts were aimed at Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump.”
Dead and Gone
The curse of getting old is remembering more...and in the later years, remembering less, perhaps nothing.
I remember when John Denver died…’97.
JFK, Jr. was the year before.
Sinatra went in ‘93 - excuse me, this is all from memory.
Joe DiMiaggio went in ‘99, can you believe that? God he was a loner. Put roses on Marilyns grave on her birthday until the day he died. What an American.
Robin Williams killing himself. Can you believe it’s already been six years?
I remember when Hunter S. Thompson offed-himself in 2005.
We lost Tim Russert in ‘08.
Podcasts Don’t Work
So much for the Montana Values Podcast.
I knew this would happen - burn out. When you’ve been doing this stuff for as long as I have, you can just tell.
Tammi Fisher started this podcast on May 6.
She was full of grit and hellfire and put up 5 podcast episodes on that day.
Out of the gates strong and then…
A new podcast on May 14, and then another one on May 28. The latest came out on June 10.
Burn out.
Tammi has spent time in the media, mainly as a morning local TV news host. She even got elected as Kalispell’s mayor for a time.
Now she plays around on Twitter all the time, together with her sidekick Gary Krueger...a former Kalispell county commissioner.
These folks want to mold your thinking. They take to Twitter each and every day to convince you their way of seeing things is right.
Sadly, they reach no one.
Montana’s political Twitter community is an insulated bubble, a land of make-believe where paid staffers, has-beens and never-were’s go to make hay, thinking that this makes them winners, this makes them important.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Missoula’s Coming Implosion
It’s going to be fun to watch Missoula implode, and the elected officials’ reaction to that. I suspect most will blame each other as they run around, trying to figure out what to do.
It mostly comes down to money, or the lack thereof.
The city has $250 million in debt and just $35 million in their MRA slush fund.
On top of this, we have an out-of-control health official that’s forced most small businesses to close, and when she does allow them to reopen, it’s just at 25% or 50% capacity.
Say goodbye to yesteryear's tax revenues. The days of wine and roses are over.
Despite crowds in the hundreds if not thousands gathering in all Montana cities to protest police, Montana’s small businesses cannot open to 100% capacity.
- Crowds of thousands with no social distancing = good
- Small groups gathering together in local businesses = bad
The hypocrisy is astounding and it’s not falling on deaf ears.
It’s falling on the ears of Americans that worked hard all their lives. Many of these folks were Democrats.
They certainly won’t be voting Democrat this fall.
Here in Missoula I suspect they will continue to do so, and I’m happy for that.
I want Democrats holding the bag. I’m so thankful we have a Democrat mayor, City Council and county commission.
These people have absolutely no idea what to do. They’ll have even fewer ideas when the money runs out.
Grab the popcorn - it’s gonna be a show.
Love the Riots
I love the cities that have had protesters take over areas.
These people are so clueless, and so unable to take care of themselves, that the ending of this will be comical.
For instance, in the newly-created country of CHAZ, they had a dumpster fire on Thursday night and were simply unable to put it out by themselves.
So they called the country of America, which dispatched fire-fighting units from the city of Seattle.
Dumpster fire started just outside the boundary of the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.” pic.twitter.com/YhHQYqjXDX
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 11, 2020
Yep, a newly created country that can’t take care of itself.
How long do you think CHAZ is going to last?
A week...maybe two?
I can’t wait to see this place blow-up. My money’s on the fact that they’ll simple implode, turn on themselves, and blame everyone else for ruining their idyllic existence.
I can’t wait.
On Your Own
Truck Drivers refuse to deliver goods to cities that are disbanding their police.
I’m glad we still have smart Americans...not just the kids of assholes.
For years we’ve been hoodwinked into believing that broken homes are the problem, that these are where child protective services needs to go to save America.
In reality, they should have gone to the wealthy, liberal suburbs and taken those kids away.
Those parents ruined an entire generation, filling them with anti-American thoughts.
Now those kids have taken to the streets, kicking in Nike windows with their Nike shoes.
They’re changing the world, one broken small business window at a time.
Comments No More
It seems clear now that Don Pogreba over at Montana Post is going to disable comments for good.
Instead he’ll rely on Facebook.
It’s safe. It’s secure. It’s free of scorn.
Don doesn’t want people to burst the bubble he’s living in...you know, the one where Democrats are actually going to take back Congress and the White House and just about everything else.
Ah...Facebook. Where the average user is 40-years-old and fewer than 10% of kids under the age of 18 even use the damn thing.
We all know the Russians use it to steal our elections.
And now Don is using it to massage his ego, to get those ‘agreeable’ comments that he always wanted.
And if a red gets a comment in?
Ha - don’t be silly! This is Facebook! Don has already vetted the users, ensuring they meet quality-control.
No, there will be no dissent. The bubble is secure.
The Duke’s Visits
Montana in 1822-24. That’s when Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg, toured the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
Wurttemberg was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918. Wilhelm was born there in 1797 and he had a naturalist’s heart. At the age of 25 he started his scientific observations in Cuba in 1822 and then continued to America. He arrived in New Orleans in December 1822 and headed up the Mississippi to St. Louis. There he met William Clark, who granted him a license to head up the Missouri.
He met Jean Baptiste Charbonneau – Sacagawea’s son – in 1823 when he was near the Kansas River. After that Toussaint Charboneau guided him north through the Great Plains, the same guide that had helped Lewis and Clark fifteen years earlier.
Wilhelm spent five months on the Upper Missouri, visiting forts and Indians and recording all he saw. When he came back downriver he took Jean Baptiste with him to Europe for six years.
Wilhelm would return to America again in 1829, returning Jean Baptiste and also embarking on another Upper Missouri expedition as well as a trip to Mexico. He came back one more time to look at the California gold fields, in 1849. He died back home in Wurttemberg in 1860, just four months after a successful Australian expedition. He died in 1860 at the age of 63.
The Ruskies
Putin thinks America is weak right now.
Can you think of a world leader that’s stronger than Putin? I can’t.
I remember watching Yeltsin hand over the reins of power to Putin on New Year’s Eve, 1999/2000.
20 years.
That’s an amazing thing, to hold on to power for that long. What kinds of things would you have to do to stay in power that long? We probably don’t want to know.
Putin’s rise was spectacular, and no one saw it coming.
His downfall will be equally spectacular, and no one will see that coming, either.
Will death take him in his sleep...or will it be at the hands of the mob?
I’m hoping for the latter, but it’ll probably be the former.
But one thing I do know - go he will. Time comes for us all in the end, usually when we least expect it.
How long will Russians put up with this man?
How long will God?
