Once again, you thought you had me.
Last time it was telling people about my Fat, Drunk and Stupid post about the mayor.
Boy, people liked that one a lot. I actually spent another $10 to promote it yesterday.
This time, though, Martin is accusing me of being a racist.
He doesn’t have my exact words to show people, however. He just implies that I’m a racist because my comments – and everyone else’s comments – were removed from a Facebook post.
Here's how he does that:
This came about because Missoula mayoral candidate, Lisa Triepke, decided to take down her post discussing recent Missoula City Council quitter, Ruth Ann Swaney.
Swaney, as you may know, was appointed to fill Harlan Wells’ heavily-conservative Ward 2 seat when he quit to go work for Corey Stapleton in Helena.
Wells had won that seat in an election, a seat that was formerly held by Adam Hertz – now in the legislature…and who’s also the son of Flathead legislator Greg Hertz.
So getting that seat back safely in Dem hands was a big deal for the Missoula City Council, and they thought they had that with Swaney.
Alas…she just couldn’t make a living here, I guess.
Even with $1,500 a month for meeting a few Mondays and Wednesdays – and the healthcare that comes with it – she could not make a living.
Having her university job cut probably didn’t help with that. But you know…lots of Missoulians lose jobs. It doesn’t mean they leave town.
But that’s her plan. And wow…now she knows how many of her constituents must feel. Her and her fellow Councilors’ disastrous policies have actually made the majority of people’s lives worse, not better.
So I’m glad she’s gone, and I said as much on Facebook.
But gosh darn, wouldn’t you know it? Swaney is a Native American.
So when you speak out against someone like that, it automatically becomes about their race.
Democrats love this tactic – it saves them from having to talk about the issues.
Mostly, Swaney is ticked-off that she can’t make it in Missoula, she’s ticked-off that people know this and speak of it, and she wants to get even.
All I can say to the Swaney’s is good luck to you.
So back to the “racism.”
Martin has a post up on his Facebook page for Missoula Current, and there are some comments. Also 13 likes and 1 share.
A few die-hards saying what they think.
Lisa Triepke has a sorry-post up on her Facebook page.
It’s sad to see how pliable she is to criticism.
Most politicians are exactly the same way.
One ‘disparaging’ comment on Facebook is all it takes to make them do a complete 180. I’ve seen this before, and it’s sad. Makes you realize how insecure they really are.
In Triepke’s case, she didn’t do anything.
But Martin saw a ‘gotcha’ moment and he took it. He tried to make a big deal out of it.
And maybe he would have succeeded…if he’d actually put up the screenshot of what these “racist” comments were.
But he didn’t. He wants us to trust him…and to help with that, he puts up a screenshot of a post I wrote on April 25.
The reason?
I used the word “cunt.”
Fuckin-A…stop the presses, call out the National Guard, start the air-raid sirens!
He used the word cunt!
Who gives a fuck?
What’s especially fun is that I’m calling Ivanka Trump a dumb cunt, so liberals are a little thrown by this one:
Golly…she really is…but that’s a no-no word so let’s chastise him a bit.
Get real.
You think I’m politically correct? Think again.
Martin can do all the ‘dumb cunt’ posts on me he likes, I don’t think most people in Missoula or Montana or America will care.
I don’t care. I aim to offend sensibilities. This country and this state and this city needs ‘em offended, and badly so.
It’s time to put this political correct atmosphere in the trash.
As you know, Martin doesn’t allow comments on his site.
“Earlier this year, members of Triepke’s campaign were critical of the Missoula Current’s own policy decision to discontinue commenting on its website, also due to the tone of some comments.”
The reason Martin suspended commenting on his site was because of me.
It wasn’t the tone he didn’t like, it was the substance.
I was quite good at collecting facts from the city budget, posting them in the comments, and letting Missoulians read them.
I was usually the only one commenting on any of the articles Martin wrote.
Alas, these comments were critical of Mayor Engen. Couldn’t have that, so Martin looked deep into the integrity of his journalistic soul and decided to remove those comments, and the ability of anyone to comment in the future.
He felt good about himself for doing this, and why not – his previous employer, The Missoulian, had done the same a few months before.
By doing this, it was easier for Martin and others to paint me as a troll. That’s a fun word we like to throw around today to describe anyone that has a different opinion than we do.
Now Martin thinks he’s gonna pull a ‘gotcha’ on me…though he fails to supply a single shred of evidence to back up his claims.
Let’s see if we can remedy that.
I used Martin’s contact form today to ask him for this screenshot of the “racist” comments, and I also called him up and left a message.
The ball’s in his court.
We’ll see if Martin can come through and tell us what these “racist” comments actually were, or if does nothing.
Either way, I’m confident that what I said wasn’t racist. I am confident that what I said offended Swaney and she wants you to think it’s racist.
I sure hope we can get these screenshots soon!
...
And we did.
I had to call Martin again in the afternoon, but he said he’d send them over. He also mentions that he wasn’t trying to say I was racist in his post.
Coulda fooled me.
So here’s the screenshot of the deleted post from Triepke’s page, the one Kidston wanted to cause a bunch of uproar about.
My comment reads: “Council took the better part of an hour to honor her, and now they'll choose another rubber-stamp to replace her. She hasn't raised a dime for her reelection 'efforts.' Now she's moving back out of state."
Here's what Martin told me in the email:
As I told you on the phone, the story does not say you posted a racist comment. It simply said you posted a comment on a thread that had taken a racist turn. It's a factual statement, as evidenced by the screen shot I've attached to this email.
The story did include a screenshot of one of your blog posts concerning Ivanka Trump and your choice of words in describing women.
I hope that answer your question and, as always, best of luck on your race for city office and other endeavors.
So there you have it, folks.
Be careful what you say on Facebook.
- If you’re running for office and Dems think you have a shot of winning, they’ll attack you.
- If you support someone they think is going to win, they’ll attack you.
In this instance, we had the Missoula Democratic Machine try to make it seem like I made racist comments. They offered no proof of this.
When they were asked to show proof, they waffled and said, ‘…well, that’s not quite the case.’
The lesson?
Don’t take shit from these fools. Call them out. Put them on the spot.
When you do you see that their whole narrative falls apart.