Thoughts from Around the State

I’m a little tired from driving all day but I thought I’d discuss a few things.
 

​First, I was driving because I went to Helena today to visit my dad.
 
We started stamp collecting recently and were comparing collections.
 
One thing I noticed while driving into town was that the spa business which owns the Jon Tester sign is moving locations.
 
It’ll be over on Enterprise, right by the Dairy Queen on north Montana.
 
Will they take that sign with them? I highly doubt it.
 
Will they have to take down that damn Tester/Obama billboard that’s been there since 2012?
 
I hope so.
 
You can read more about the Tester billboard outside Helena here.
 

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Democratic Accomplishments
 
Alright, besides that, I thought I’d mention my comment on Logicosity today before I piss off more people.
 
The article is about Democratic stalwart Jim Keane from Butte.
 
My comment was,
 
“I’m sure a lot of people will jump on me for this, but I can’t think of one thing Jim Keane has done for me.
 
Is that my fault?”
 
 
I’m 34-years old. I don’t know much about Jim Keane…or any Democrats in Butte, really.
 
So you can pretty much take it as a given that anyone 34-years old and under in this state will not know who that man is.
 
They won’t know what his accomplishments were, or what he did in Butte, or for Butte.
 
I’ll go one step further and say they don’t know what the accomplishments of the Democrats have been for the past 34-years as well.
 
That’s a huge problem.
 
I mean, it’s not Jim Keane I’m griping about – it’s the fact that I can’t point to any Democratic accomplishments over the past 30 years that are helping me today.
 

• You can blame me for that, saying I’m stupid or misinformed.

 

• You can point out what the Democrats have done as well.

 

• You can even point out what you’ve done and think, ‘gosh, maybe if we did stuff but he doesn’t know, there’s other people out there and we need to get people to realize that we help.’

 
I’m not sure that will happen.
 
Following Slow Leaders
 
I was driving back from Helena tonight and the weather was terrible. I got over the pass before dark but from Garrison on it was pretty dark.
 
I saw one wreck and most people were going slow.
 
Some were going too slow.
 
You can’t really fault them on this – they’re nervous.
 
They’re worried about making a mistake and ending up in the ditch. So they go slow, playing it safe.
 
That’s fine, but when I come up on you and you’re going 35 on the highway, I’m going to pull into that extremely crappy passing lane and pass you.
 
I came onto a scene like that tonight, where 4 to 5 cars were behind a U-Haul that was pulling a small trailer.
 
I passed all of them and left them well behind, going about 55 while doing so.
 
A couple found their courage after that and pulled out and passed as well.
 
Had I not come along, however, they might have been following slowly for some time.
 
There was no need – the roads were perfectly safe in that passing lane – but they felt they had to go slow.
 
You see a lot of that in Montana politics.
 
Gianforte’s Message Machine
 
Greg Gianforte is going around the state.
 
He’s not just meeting voters and businessmen – he’s picking off media personalities and making them his own.
 
We saw this last year with Aaron Flint.
 
Just this week I found out that Ron Catlett of Montana Media Trackers had also joined up with Gianforte.
 
We already saw that he has a sizeable payroll of people working for him.
 
Going against him are a couple guys from the National Democrats that’ve been leased to Bullock.
 
I say National Democrats but I really mean a couple guys that mainly send out tweets.
 
That’s the team that will craft Bullock’s message and the other is the team that’ll craft Gianforte’s.
 
I guess both candidates could just hire out their TV ad writing and other content creation work.
 
That usually gets you headlines saying you hired out of state firms to craft your message.
 
Not what Montana voters want to hear.
 
That’s why Gianforte’s move to put together this media team is smart. Flint and Catlett both know how to write persuasively.
 
When you can write persuasively you can convince people that your message is the right message.
 
After that they vote for you.
 
We’ll see what the message machines of both candidates look like here when the officially declare.
 
Should be interesting.
 
Missoula Troubles
 
Two news stories out of Missoula caught my eye. One has to do with 6 people getting busted for hard drugs.
 
We have a serious hard drug problem in Missoula right now, one that’s not being adequately reported.
 
I fear the media is keeping quiet on it for fear it’ll hurt the profits of developers, drive down UM enrollment further, and generally staunch the money flow.
 
Sadly, this means more people get hooked on prescriptions and then move to heroin. Meth is also making a big comeback.
 
I hope we read more on this, and get some good stats on arrests for hard drugs in the state.
 
People need to know this.
 
The other story involves the South Gate Mall expansion and residents on Mary Avenue.
 
Those people will get screwed, just as residents on South Avenue got screwed a decade ago.
 
Hopefully something can be done, but I’m not optimistic. It’s a damn shame we care more about rich developers than hardworking residents.