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Here’s the real issue with this, and it should concern every voter regardless of party or candidate preference. (My take)
Montana’s congressional seat is supposed to belong to Montanans—not billionaire-backed super PACs, not Silicon Valley executives, not national consultants trying to engineer outcomes from thousands of miles away. When outside groups pour millions into a primary election, they are not doing it out of charity or patriotism. They are investing in influence.That is what this is: an investment.They openly say they are backing candidates who support their preferred AI agenda, oppose stronger state-level regulation, and will help push a federal framework favorable to the industry. In plain English, they want candidates who will vote in ways that protect their profits,…
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Sam has been encouraging me to write book reports on the stories of my youth – and particularly the stories that I shared with her as she moved into the Sci-Fi that I passed on, then into her own. So I’m going to write about L. Sprague de Camp’s novelette – A Gun for Dinosaur.…
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One of the theorists I enjoyed reading was Pierre Bourdieu – a French sociologist whose world view was strongly influenced by growing up in occupied France during World War II, then as a young adult being drafted to achieve a second-place finish in the Algerian Revolution (1954 to 1962, when Algeria won independence from France.)…
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Here in north Lincoln County our electrical power provider was developed by neighbors working together after the end of the second world war. The cooperative has, over those 78+ years moved to having more in common with an Electric Company than a cooperative – but such is the progression of cooperative businesses. The cooperative roots…
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I picked up the mail this morning – two mailings from aspiring politicians. One has a photo where he has an amazing similarity to a glaring muskrat. The other promises to fight for me, and claims to be endorsed by Donald Trump. I wish he had told me who he intends to fight against –…
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When I went to get some repair work done, the person I was consulting advised fixing the structural issues and then putting the same ancient dilapidated siding back on the building. The rational? Property taxes. Last summer, we joked about how much the nice flowers my mother had on their porch raised their taxes. They…
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I spent most of a year away from the school after I finished my term. I attended a couple of board meetings because I was asked – on one hand, there was, at the least, the appearance of an unlawful board meeting . . . unlawful because it appeared to violate Montana’s open meeting law.…
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Historically, independent voters, and voters for minor third parties, do not get a large percentage of votes. Often, they’re considered “spoiler” candidates, who lose the election for someone by dra4wing critical support away during a close race. Or their thought of as simply “protest candidates” with no chance of winning. In Montana, for the presidential…
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Not many years ago, if you were faced with a cluster of unacceptable clowns on your ballot, you could write a name in and cast a protest vote. Hell, I guess you still can – the thing is, your write-in protest vote won’t be counted or reported. With the elimination of subsection 7 last year,…
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I’m having trouble summarizing this one, not least because I lost my notes. In short: The meeting did discuss prayer, but did not discuss a four day week. About prayer: The discussion was specifically with regards to having prayer on the agenda as a part of each school board meeting. The result- no. Community presence…
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The proposed library district has me looking at taxation again. One of the great things about Lincoln County is that, with three high school districts, it’s easy to figure out which communities provide the funds that keep our county going. Market Value Taxable Value Percentage Libby $1,687,186,708 $21,911,499 36.42% Troy $831,354,553 $10,966,329 18.23% Eureka $1,974,407,031…
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Now it takes a single click to get the data. So what does it mean? I measured the record lows back in 1977 – this chart, from the Grave Creek site, shows how the critical snowfall that brings us up to normal or above occurs between the February measurements and April 1. I don’t know…
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The USDA has updated plant hardiness zones, and despite last winter’s impressive cold, we’ve jumped up a zone (to 5a from 4b in 2012; the average low went up by 6 degrees) Hardiness zones are a (partial) climate description that’s been in existence for a bit over a century, though the government didn’t get involved…