Checota-ism
If you’re not following the taxpayer handout to a multi-millionaire, take a look at RD.
They’re doing a good job at that site of calling this man out, and the city that’s just handing him our money.
Soon we’ll see that site get into the news about the Checota family’s Wisconsin wealth and a 1992 story about securities fraud.
I doubt this will do anything to stop Checota from financially assaulting Missoulians for their money.
Nothing is going to bring Checota down...except his own greed.
He’s currently in the process of overextending himself. When the next market correction comes, he’ll be in a world of hurt (Oh...and it’ won’t be a correction. 2008 was just the warm-up for the big one).
I actually worked for Checota for two years out at the amphitheater. He would of course never remember me, as I was a very low man on the totem pole.
I did get Checota's 'living wage,' however, which was $10 an hour. Everyone who works out there knows it's a part-time job, and an extremely boring one at that. All of the old co-workers I've talked to tell me they didn't work out there this past summer because of how boring it is.
In 2017 I made $366 working for Checota, and in 2018 I made $573. People working the sporadic event schedule at the new Riverfront Triangle site will make about the same. I hope they have two or three other jobs, like I did when I worked for Checota.
One thing that’s always struck me, however, is how little appeal the Checota music monopoly has for average Missoulians.
Many of the people coming to these concerts are out-of-towners. Here in Missoula, I see people get done with those concerts and head downtown. These are the affluent people, the kind that can afford to take a night off and buy a ticket for $45 and then spend $8 on a beer in the venue, $12 for a can of wine.
Those days of wine and roses are great...but they won’t last forever.
It’s the economy, stupid. It’ll take until 2021 or 2022, but that ‘correction’ is coming.
My how it’ll feel like a crash.
Hey, I don’t like it anymore than you do. I’ve got most of my money in Baby Boomer stocks. That’ll all be wiped out.
Cycles.
Jesse’s Fall
I’ll write more about this in two weeks, but it was clear on September 10 that Team Liberty was going to lose, and lose big.
Jesse Ramos is done in Missoula.
He’ll take the route of Harlan Wells and Adam Hertz after him - either heading to Helena to work in some statewide’s office or filing to run for the legislature.
When I knocked on 1,100 doors this summer and fall, a lot of people told me how much they liked Ramos.
Those likes did not translate into success as the ballot box.
Funny how that works...kinda like Facebook - it’s just so much easier to move your finger and click that mouse than it is to get your fat ass up off that couch and vote.
And Missoula made it so easy, spending $51,000 to ensure that every voter could keep their fat ass right on that couch, simply filling out their mail ballot and sending it in.
And the results were amazing - Team Liberty got half the votes of the Dems...if even that.
Missoulians get what they want, and they’ll get what they deserve.
2021...2022...it’ll be a year or two more, but when that crash comes...boy, it’s gonna hurt the Berkeley of the North.
We have $300 million in debt, we pay $16 million a year to service that debt, and each year we run a budget deficit.
Yep, we’re broke...have been for years.
Engen will probably get his fifth term in 2021, and I’m glad for that. I want a Democrat in charge when the ‘correction’ comes. They’ll get the blame, they’ll get it for years and years and years.
As they should.
RD put it best last week:
“For the period of time Engen has been in charge, the affordable housing crisis has exploded, University enrollment has collapsed, the homeless problem has worsened and the criminal justice system continues to be broken. Yet with all these problems, who gets the financial help from the city? The baseball stadium got a bailout, and the library project got a bailout, and the art park got a bailout. Those who are politically connected get the help, and the public gets the shaft.”
Why Vote Dem?
Why are people voting for Democrats?
I just don’t get it.
When I was younger, I used to vote Democrat. As late as 2015, I actually thought I was still a Democrat.
It took until the 2016 Election for me to finally realize that Democrats do not care about me or my problems.
Like many Americans, I didn't leave the Democratic Party - the Democratic Party left me.
Now I favor the Republicans, though I feel most people that are elected as Republicans are terrible human beings.
Steve Daines is a fine example.
This guy made his money working for a company that fired thousands of American workers, shut down the factories they worked in, and shipped their jobs to China.
Daines’ main job was setting up those old American jobs in China for Chinese people.
Some new poll has Daines losing the Senate race to Bullock.
I’m worried about this poll. I’m worried the desperate Bullock - who can clearly tell his presidential campaign is going nowhere (something the rest of us knew a year ago) - will switch and get into the Senate race.
That’s the only way that race will be close. None of the current candidates will get more than 40% of the vote against Daines.
That means Daines won’t need to run again until the off-year of 2026. He’ll be 64-years-old then.
Odds are good that a Dem will be elected in 2024 after Trump’s second term. I don’t see a blue wave in the off-year 2026 elections.
And let’s be honest - the state is only going to get redder.
Why?
Because the liberal, tax-hungry governments in states like California, Oregon, Washington, and elsewhere are driving people with money away.
Those people are coming to Montana.
The cities are getting larger because these people are coming. For these out-of-state city folk, our ‘cities’ are like living in the countryside.
Dems aren’t going to get votes from these people. They’re not going to get votes from the workers that are brought in to cater to these rich people. Hell, many of these workers are from Jamaica and can’t vote anyways.
Rankings
This is my site. I’ve been doing this for over six years. I treat the site like a journal that’s been left on the nightstand. These are my own thoughts. They’re sitting out there, ready for you to read them...if you want.
If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’ll keep doing it anyways.
It’s been 13 months since we last looked at the Montana website rankings.
Back then, the most popular blog was the Missoula Current, followed by Big Sky Words.
The Current was actually the 11th most popular media site in the state, way behind a bunch of the newspapers and TV news sites.
So what’s changed?
Well, the Current managed to lose three quarters of its traffic. Most other blogs did the same.
Here’s where things stand:
- Missoulian: #121,316
- NBC Montana: #307,967
- Missoula Current: #465,177
- Big Sky Words: #3,282,821
- MT Free Press: #3,373,292
- MT Post: #5,021,566
- Flathead Memo: No Rank
- Reptile Dysfunction: No Rank
A year ago the Missoulian had a ranking of #17,000.
As we become more divided as a society, and our discourse becomes more divisive, I feel more and more people are simply getting their news off of social media.
Social media rots our souls.
I left Facebook a year ago and I haven’t missed it. My addiction to that site was very low compared to others.
I went back to Facebook this week to look at the Missoula Current’s page. I wanted to see public reaction to the story about anti-liberal mailers sent out for our city council races.
I wish I wouldn’t have done that.
These people are animals...vicious, vicious animals. I’ve seen schoolyard bullies that are kinder than these social media commenters.
And what exactly are they trying to accomplish?
Please don’t tell me it’s to change minds, because no one gets their mind changed on social media. It’s just too anti-social for that to happen.
I’m so glad I left Facebook, and I’m so glad I know longer look at Twitter.
Social media is making America weak while making Americans crazy. Years from now we’ll look back on this time, wondering why we were so stupid.
