Sunrise over Saint Mary Lake
I said I wouldn’t write on this blog today.
Then I get up around 8 this morning and this is the first thing I start doing.
It’ll be a long post, too – a 3-ad’er.
Most of the time I just do the basic formatting first, putting in my text blocks, images, and of course a couple ads.
Today we’ll do three ads, so that means I have to put in a lot of text to fill up the spaces between ‘em.
So…what is there to talk about?
I guess the main reason I thought about not writing today is the comment I got from Republicans for Bullock last night.
In the comment I was told to hold off on the governor’s scandal.
That’s probably a good idea, and it’s been suggested to me before that I do that.
Perhaps it’ll get done.
Later on I’m told that the only reason I’m “throwing a tantrum” on Bullock’s fuck-ups is because “the Democratic Party didn’t give you a lick of help.”
Well, that’s true – they did not help me at all.
The ‘help’ I got from them in 2014 was just a waste of money designed to funnel my campaign cash up to the more important races.
Now, I know that a lot of people in politics subscribe to this idea of sour grapes, but I’m not one.
I said well before my race this year that I hate Democrats. The reason for this? They do not work for common workers and common people anymore, they only work for the rich.
Then I get up around 8 this morning and this is the first thing I start doing.
It’ll be a long post, too – a 3-ad’er.
Most of the time I just do the basic formatting first, putting in my text blocks, images, and of course a couple ads.
Today we’ll do three ads, so that means I have to put in a lot of text to fill up the spaces between ‘em.
So…what is there to talk about?
I guess the main reason I thought about not writing today is the comment I got from Republicans for Bullock last night.
In the comment I was told to hold off on the governor’s scandal.
That’s probably a good idea, and it’s been suggested to me before that I do that.
Perhaps it’ll get done.
Later on I’m told that the only reason I’m “throwing a tantrum” on Bullock’s fuck-ups is because “the Democratic Party didn’t give you a lick of help.”
Well, that’s true – they did not help me at all.
The ‘help’ I got from them in 2014 was just a waste of money designed to funnel my campaign cash up to the more important races.
Now, I know that a lot of people in politics subscribe to this idea of sour grapes, but I’m not one.
I said well before my race this year that I hate Democrats. The reason for this? They do not work for common workers and common people anymore, they only work for the rich.
Thinking About the GOP
“Perhaps you’d have better luck running as a Republican. In 2 years, the system will be changing and I think you’d have a better shot.”
Well, thanks.
I don’t think I’d want to run as a Republican, however, and there are many reasons.
Those are just a few things off the top of my head.
The Republican Party doesn’t care about me and they don’t care about you. That goes doubly so for the Democrats.
These are corporate parties in a corporate America. They function to keep the money flowing from you to the rich man, or if that’s not possible, your labor flowing to the rich man.
When I lived in China it was more capitalist than America is now. Currently America is moving toward communism.
Our government and our corporate media are advocating a race war, which is just a smaller thing in a larger class war.
Class it the most important, with 1% owning about 90% of the country’s assets.
Yes, it is time to break out the pitchforks on those goons.
Since we hold so many in wage slavery in this country we have to continually give them handouts via foodstamps and free housing.
Sometimes we require they work to get this, and in that regard we distribute to them based on their abilities and needs.
That’s communism.
That’s the system we have now in America.
Many are trying to scare us, or at least were when Bernie was running, that the country could go socialist.
I don’t see this happening as very few means of production or distribution are actually owned by the community.
Maybe the farmer’s market in Missoula, but not much else.
It’s just better to have non-capitalist systems in place when it comes to getting your money and your labor to the rich man.
That’s America today.
You know what, though – I like a lot of Montana Republicans. Some of the young guys are pretty interesting, like Zolnikov and Hopkins and even ALEC-sell-out Seth Berglee.
I think I have a lot in common with these people, but I’m not ready to give up on Dems yet.
Right now the Dem barrel is still good, it’s just that it’s been filled with bad apples.
Get rid of those bad apples and we might have something.
Well, thanks.
I don’t think I’d want to run as a Republican, however, and there are many reasons.
- The Republicans hate most people that aren’t white and male.
- They have people like Art Wittich in their party, someone that actively engages in corruption.
- They take tons of money from corporations (Dems do this too).
- They want to keep marijuana illegal.
- Nothing is more important than abortion (Dems are just as bad here).
- Military spending is seen as ideal, the more the merrier.
- They started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- They don’t care about me.
Those are just a few things off the top of my head.
The Republican Party doesn’t care about me and they don’t care about you. That goes doubly so for the Democrats.
These are corporate parties in a corporate America. They function to keep the money flowing from you to the rich man, or if that’s not possible, your labor flowing to the rich man.
When I lived in China it was more capitalist than America is now. Currently America is moving toward communism.
Our government and our corporate media are advocating a race war, which is just a smaller thing in a larger class war.
Class it the most important, with 1% owning about 90% of the country’s assets.
Yes, it is time to break out the pitchforks on those goons.
Since we hold so many in wage slavery in this country we have to continually give them handouts via foodstamps and free housing.
Sometimes we require they work to get this, and in that regard we distribute to them based on their abilities and needs.
That’s communism.
That’s the system we have now in America.
Many are trying to scare us, or at least were when Bernie was running, that the country could go socialist.
I don’t see this happening as very few means of production or distribution are actually owned by the community.
Maybe the farmer’s market in Missoula, but not much else.
It’s just better to have non-capitalist systems in place when it comes to getting your money and your labor to the rich man.
That’s America today.
You know what, though – I like a lot of Montana Republicans. Some of the young guys are pretty interesting, like Zolnikov and Hopkins and even ALEC-sell-out Seth Berglee.
I think I have a lot in common with these people, but I’m not ready to give up on Dems yet.
Right now the Dem barrel is still good, it’s just that it’s been filled with bad apples.
Get rid of those bad apples and we might have something.
Why the Love Affair with Zinke?
Is Don Pogreba in love with Ryan Zinke?
The guy seems to hate Zinke so much that I have to wonder.
I mean, just go check out ID.
The site has 4 of the top 5 posts talking about Zinke. When you go to the homepage, all you see are images of Zinke.
Seems kinda dumb to me.
Wouldn’t tons of images of Denise Juneau be better?
And why is it almost always Zinke?
Why not Gianforte, Daines, Arntzen, Stapleton, Fox, Rosendale, Juras, or any of the GOPers running for PSC or the legislature?
Surely there’s something to bitch about when it comes to a race besides Zinke’s.
Alas, all we get on that site is anti-Zinke tirades day in and day out.
Pretty boring, and when you go to that site and see a new Zinke post, your heart immediately drops and you say to yourself, ‘well, no reason to read anything here today.’
But that’s just me.
The guy seems to hate Zinke so much that I have to wonder.
I mean, just go check out ID.
The site has 4 of the top 5 posts talking about Zinke. When you go to the homepage, all you see are images of Zinke.
Seems kinda dumb to me.
Wouldn’t tons of images of Denise Juneau be better?
And why is it almost always Zinke?
Why not Gianforte, Daines, Arntzen, Stapleton, Fox, Rosendale, Juras, or any of the GOPers running for PSC or the legislature?
Surely there’s something to bitch about when it comes to a race besides Zinke’s.
Alas, all we get on that site is anti-Zinke tirades day in and day out.
Pretty boring, and when you go to that site and see a new Zinke post, your heart immediately drops and you say to yourself, ‘well, no reason to read anything here today.’
But that’s just me.
Why are Cowturd Commenters So Dumb?
Why is Cowturd linking to me?
Why are they linking to my Bullock scandal articles?
You’d think they’d want to ignore that, but no, the commenters on the site continually link to me.
Frank N Furter did this yesterday, though I have no idea why.
I guess he was trying to prove something, like I was spamming the site with my comments.
That’s just not possible as I was banned from that site a year ago. They track IP Addresses so they know I can’t comment.
That’s how they discovered the commenter – MT Cowboy – was in fact not me but someone from Utah.
Personally, I feel the site needs to do a better job at moderating than MT Temperance is currently doing.
I’d never allow a link to a site that talks about how much of a fuck-head-in-the-pants my governor is.
I’d never allow that.
But Cowturd does.
It’s because the people running that site are idiots without any kind of political sense.
Why are they linking to my Bullock scandal articles?
You’d think they’d want to ignore that, but no, the commenters on the site continually link to me.
Frank N Furter did this yesterday, though I have no idea why.
I guess he was trying to prove something, like I was spamming the site with my comments.
That’s just not possible as I was banned from that site a year ago. They track IP Addresses so they know I can’t comment.
That’s how they discovered the commenter – MT Cowboy – was in fact not me but someone from Utah.
Personally, I feel the site needs to do a better job at moderating than MT Temperance is currently doing.
I’d never allow a link to a site that talks about how much of a fuck-head-in-the-pants my governor is.
I’d never allow that.
But Cowturd does.
It’s because the people running that site are idiots without any kind of political sense.
How About that Kathy Best?
It’s been about a month now since Kathy Best took over as editor of the Missoulian.
What a failure she’s been.
Oh, alright…maybe we should give her more than a month to learn the ropes, figure out Montana, maybe do some work.
Or maybe not.
I mean, the woman is getting paid.
So…where is my Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism?
I’m not seeing it. What I am seeing are tons of shitty articles about subjects I don’t care about, and even more advertising.
The paper is doing very bad, and the amount of full-page and pop-up advertising they bombard you with proves that.
Most of the time I have a hard time even using up my 10 free articles a month anymore.
Yeah, the stories are so uninteresting that I’m not even clicking on 10 a month!
I click on letters to the editor most of all, for at least there we’ll get a bit of truth, a glimmer of what’s really happening out there.
The Missoulian staff just gives us bullshit.
Why can’t the paper write hard-hitting and interesting news? Why is it so focused on old people and foreign tourism and click-bait?
I thought Kathy Best was supposed to change that.
I guess I was wrong.
What a failure she’s been.
Oh, alright…maybe we should give her more than a month to learn the ropes, figure out Montana, maybe do some work.
Or maybe not.
I mean, the woman is getting paid.
So…where is my Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism?
I’m not seeing it. What I am seeing are tons of shitty articles about subjects I don’t care about, and even more advertising.
The paper is doing very bad, and the amount of full-page and pop-up advertising they bombard you with proves that.
Most of the time I have a hard time even using up my 10 free articles a month anymore.
Yeah, the stories are so uninteresting that I’m not even clicking on 10 a month!
I click on letters to the editor most of all, for at least there we’ll get a bit of truth, a glimmer of what’s really happening out there.
The Missoulian staff just gives us bullshit.
Why can’t the paper write hard-hitting and interesting news? Why is it so focused on old people and foreign tourism and click-bait?
I thought Kathy Best was supposed to change that.
I guess I was wrong.
Fucking Congress
Jon Tester shared this image yesterday on Twitter.
What a joke.
We pay congressmen and women $175,000 a year, give them vacation, benefits, healthcare, and retirement and this is how they repay us.
- 6 days of working in July
- 3 days of working in October
- 0 days of working in August
Don’t give me that constituent services bullshit of these fools needing time to go out and meet who they serve.
They serve the corporations that pay them to get elected. Don’t think for one second that any of the 535 people in Congress care about your or your family.
It’s quite simple – they’re not paid to.
You pay them to work those 116 days, or 32% of the year.
The corporations pay them to not work.
It’s better that way, as there are few questions about all the shoddy legislation getting through that does nothing to help you or I.
But those rich people though, my, they’re doing well for themselves.
We call them the 1%, and these three idiots work for them exclusively while giving lip service to you.
These men don’t care about you…why should they?
You let them work just 116 days a year and you don’t raise a fuss.
I don’t blame you – ever try and call one of these idiots?
I tried getting Tester on the phone a few times, ended up talking to interns in D.C.
These three fools are too busy pushing the corporate agenda to get rid of America as we know it so it can be replaced by a pseudo-communist, consumer-driven society that relies on people continuously living on the dole to get by.
Tester might send out a tweet about the lackluster congressional work schedule, but that’s all he’ll do.
Daines and Zinke don’t even give enough of a shit to do that.
The Water Lawsuit
More money is going down the drain in the Missoula water company lawsuit, $191,000 last night alone.
Legal fees for that lawsuit are now $6.2 million.
The City of Missoula budget surplus for 2014 was $11 million. Total legal fees are expected to be $14 million.
A big reason for the water lawsuit costs are the “huge legal fees for expert witnesses that were never used” and “using 88-different attorneys at rates double what’s charged in Missoula.”
Another $80,000 had to be spent because the water company can’t decipher the documents that were sent as they “were nearly impossible to search.”
If I was a private company and a government was trying to steal my company using the courts, I’d make it as expensive for them as well.
It’s the same level of animosity directed toward the city that Sam Wheeler directed to them in the 70s.
Because of these costs, the mayor is raising taxes 4.9% this year, and that after a 4.9% increase last year.
Older residents are worried.
“I was born in Missoula; I went to school here and my grandparents lived here and paid property taxes,” one older woman said to the City Council last night. “But I don’t know if I will be able to stay in my house any longer.”
She’s talking about the rising taxes, something Mayor Engen doesn’t care about, nor his rubber-stamp City Council.
They want to force old people from their homes.
It makes way for rich transplants that can afford 5% tax increases each year, and won’t have the audacity to come down to the council chambers to bitch about it.
Legal fees for that lawsuit are now $6.2 million.
The City of Missoula budget surplus for 2014 was $11 million. Total legal fees are expected to be $14 million.
A big reason for the water lawsuit costs are the “huge legal fees for expert witnesses that were never used” and “using 88-different attorneys at rates double what’s charged in Missoula.”
Another $80,000 had to be spent because the water company can’t decipher the documents that were sent as they “were nearly impossible to search.”
If I was a private company and a government was trying to steal my company using the courts, I’d make it as expensive for them as well.
It’s the same level of animosity directed toward the city that Sam Wheeler directed to them in the 70s.
Because of these costs, the mayor is raising taxes 4.9% this year, and that after a 4.9% increase last year.
Older residents are worried.
“I was born in Missoula; I went to school here and my grandparents lived here and paid property taxes,” one older woman said to the City Council last night. “But I don’t know if I will be able to stay in my house any longer.”
She’s talking about the rising taxes, something Mayor Engen doesn’t care about, nor his rubber-stamp City Council.
They want to force old people from their homes.
It makes way for rich transplants that can afford 5% tax increases each year, and won’t have the audacity to come down to the council chambers to bitch about it.
Final Thoughts
Well hot damn – I could have probably made this post a 4-ad’er!
And I haven’t even gotten into what’s in the blogs today or in the news.
Let’s take a bit of time to do that now.
Last Best News seems to be exclusively for old people these days, although they sometimes speculate on issues affecting the young…though in a clinical, behind-the-glass-at-the-zoo kind of way.
That’s what Montana wants, for the most part.
The state is aging and the young people mostly leave.
When young people do stay we wonder why…when we’re not feeling sorry for them.
Oh, it could be different…but the rich 1% need their money so we won’t pay shit for wages here in Montana.
We won’t bring in factory jobs because those go to Asia and we won’t bring in resource jobs because it’s better to have workers and enviros at each others’ throats all the time.
Yes, Montana is a place to come and retire, to get away from it all, to unwind.
Why worry about anything that I’ve just written at all?
That might take away from the serenity of your day, and all that you worked for during all those years to make this country what it is today.
Good job you did there, damn good job.
And I haven’t even gotten into what’s in the blogs today or in the news.
Let’s take a bit of time to do that now.
Last Best News seems to be exclusively for old people these days, although they sometimes speculate on issues affecting the young…though in a clinical, behind-the-glass-at-the-zoo kind of way.
That’s what Montana wants, for the most part.
The state is aging and the young people mostly leave.
When young people do stay we wonder why…when we’re not feeling sorry for them.
Oh, it could be different…but the rich 1% need their money so we won’t pay shit for wages here in Montana.
We won’t bring in factory jobs because those go to Asia and we won’t bring in resource jobs because it’s better to have workers and enviros at each others’ throats all the time.
Yes, Montana is a place to come and retire, to get away from it all, to unwind.
Why worry about anything that I’ve just written at all?
That might take away from the serenity of your day, and all that you worked for during all those years to make this country what it is today.
Good job you did there, damn good job.
