On 6 January, will Rep-Elect Matt Rosendale vote to uphold America's decision to make Joe Biden our next president?

All decent, reality embracing, Montanans surely must expect their new representative in Congress will have the wit to embrace the result of the fair and free presidential election that Joe Biden won. They do not want him to take his cues from Rudy Giuliani, retired General Michael “I’ve been pardoned!” Flynn, Alabama’s Rep. Mo Brooks, and other wackadoodles who are besmirching their legacies by embracing Donald Trump’s lunatic claim that the election was a fraud; that he was robbed.

Rosendale, however, may be pressured by his peers to vote against affirming Biden’s win. CNN reported this evening that:

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Set a good example, but swing a big stick

Gov-Elect Gianforte should continue Montana’s mask-up mandate and other Covid-19 containment measures

Gov-Elect Greg Gianforte plans to get vaccinated against CV19 and to wear a face mask while working in Montana’s capitol, both for the protections masks provide and to set a good example for Montanans. That sets him apart from President Trump, whose derision of masks as proof of cowdardice undoubtedly led to many preventable infections and deaths.

Gianforte will leave some of Gov. Bullock’s coronavirus containment directives in place. According to the Kaiser Health News’ Matt Volz:

On masking-up, however, Gianforte is keeping his options open:

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Merry Christmas!

In 1719, inspired by Bible verses including Psalms 94-4, Isaac Watts, an English Congregationalist minister, wrote the lyrics to Joy to the World, perhaps the most published Christmas hymn in English speaking North America. According to the Wikipedia, “The tune usually used today is from an 1848 edition by Lowell Mason for The National Psalmist (Boston, 1848).” Joy to the World is one of my family’s favorites. It’s a fitting carole for a Christmas that needs an extra amount of joy.

This performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir features the Psalms’ call for trumpets that “…make a joyful noise before the LORD.”

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Mac Thornberry’s extraordinary plea to GOP

When it comes to stealing Christmas,
Scrooge and The Grinch are no match for Trump

President Trump jetted down to Mar-a-Lago today, where he will spend Christmas with Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney who also was hospitalized with Covid-19. Under the warm Florida sun, they’ll eat expensive food, play golf, and continue plotting to overthrow the fair and square election that Joe Biden won.

But before leaving Washington, D.C., Trump crammed coal down the nation’s Christmas stocking. He vetoed the defense appropriations bill because it (a) contained a provision to rename military bases now named for Confederate traitors, and (b) did not contain a provision to hamstring social media organizations used by his critics to criticize him. He also announced he might veto the pandemic stimulis bill because it appropriated funds for stimulus checks of $600 instead of $2,000.

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Hard cider will get harder if Rep. Mark Noland gets his way

Does Montana need — “want” may be a better word — hard apple cider with an alcohol content higher than 6.9 percent by volume? Apparently so. Rep. Mark Noland (HD-10, R-Bigfork) has introduced HB-79, Revising the definition of “malt beverage” to include alcoholic beverages made with malt substitutes; and amending section 16-1-106, MCA. Among its provisions, a clause increasing the amount of alcohol in hard cider:

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Rep-Elect Braxton Mitchell wants Montana’s
primaries to be closed and all its ballots hand counted

Mitchell, a Republican who decisively defeated appointed incumbent Democrat Debo Powers on 3 Nov, will represent House District 3 (Columbia Falls, map) in Montana’s 2021 legislative session. He’ll be the second youngest member. Mallerie Stromswold (R, HD-50, Billings)is a year or two younger.

Stromswold requested a bill (LC1330) on raw milk, so this is a good time to remind people that raw milk is a health hazard that never goes away.

Thus far, Mitchell has requested 12 bills, two of which, highlighted in the following table, are the primary subjects of this post. The legislature’s website has a list of the almost 3,000 bills requested thus far.

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Gianforte and Fox dishonor Montana and themselves
by backing Texas AG Paxton’s seditious lawsuit

Is Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton the only elected Republican under the Big Sky with the courage and wisdom not to indulge President Trump’s increasingly half-baked attempts to overthrow the decision of the voters so that he can “win” a second term?

He may be.

Earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — a man “currently under indictment for securities fraud and facing an FBI investigation over allegations of bribery and abuse of office,” according to the San Antonio Current — asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the federal elections in four states that voted for Joe Biden: Georgia, Michigan, Pennyslvania, and Wisconsin.

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Guest post

Responsible Conduct: A Constitutional Imperative

By James C. Nelson
Montana Supreme Court Justice (Ret.)

Montana’s Constitution guarantees each of us a number important rights. Among those are the right to: pursue safety and health in all lawful ways and to a clean and healthful environment (Article II, sec. 3); to peaceably assemble and petition for redress or peaceably protest governmental action (Article II, sec 6); to free speech and press (Article II, sec. 7); to participate in government (Article II, sec. 8); and to observe the deliberations of all public bodies (Article II, sec. 9).

With those constitutional rights in mind, it is dismaying, to say the least, to open the newspaper or watch the local evening news and to observe a vast majority of our legislators congregating without any regard for the common sense and scientifically based requests and recommendations of our public health agencies and our private health care providers to: wear face coverings, physically distance, and use opportunities for virtual meetings.

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Washington state NAACP accuses Denise Juneau of racism,
runs her out of Seattle schools superintendency

Edited 10 Nov. During her eight years (2009–2017) as head of Montanan’s Office of Public Instruction, Denise Juneau never was credibly accused of being a racist or of committing racist acts. That’s because she’s not a racist and the people of Montana know it.

The people of Washington state do not. They only know her as the seventh superintendent of Seattle’s public schools since 2000. After losing the 2018 election for Montana’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Juneau was hired as an outsider to try to straighten out an ethnically and racially complex district with a dysfunctional school board and factional hatreds and ambitions that eat superintendents alive.

But instead of straightening out the district, lit tied her in knots and dumped her in boiling oil. Last night, after months of being accused of racism, incompetence, and opacity, by the local NAACP, Juneau resigned effective at the end of the school year next June.

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Plus, the terrible cost of "natural" herd immunity

Stay healthy, legislators, and don’t infect your constituents

Montana’s legislative chambers were not designed for safety during a pandemic of a highly infectious and lethal disease such as Covid-19. Legislators sit close to each other for hours, more than enough time for the coronavirus to make its way into the airways of almost all legislators not wearing Level 3 or 4 biohazard protection suits.

Rooms in which hearing are held also feature dense pack seating arrangements, especially for people waiting to testify.

There’s no way to make it safe for legislators, staff, reporters, or the public.

At The Western Word, J.M. Brown laid out the consequences of trying to hold a normal legislative session during the CV19 pandemic:

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To corral Mr. Covid in the Flathead, Joe Russell must
find a way to corral Holmquist, Mitchell, and Brodehl

Former Flathead health department director Joe Russell, who retired in 2017 at age 58, has applied for his old job. He’ll be hired, replacing interim director Tamalee St. James Robinson, whose tenure ends at 2020’s end.

Russell’s return will rebuild morale in the overworked department, but for that improved morale to hold, he must find a way to persuade the Flathead County Commission and at least one of the health board’s four “We love Mr. Covid” members to support masking-up and other Covid confinement measures to protect the community until the vaccine produces herd immunity a year from now.

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Lawmakers, governors, and the president, should be
among the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine

Initially, the Covid-19 vaccine will be in short supply. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control recommends first vaccinating healthcare workers, especially physicians and nurses, and then nursing home and long term care facilities. I concur. These priorities are so obvious they should not be controversial.

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Active Covid-19 cases per 100,000
persons for Montana’s counties

The graph below, which plots the number of active Covid-19 cases per 100,000 persons, produces some surprises. Missoula and Gallatin, Montana’s second and third most populous counties, have an active case rate well below Montana’s 1,500 per 100K average, while Wilbaux, Prairie, and Judith Basin, three of Montana’s least populous counties, are above average.

The highest active cases per 100K counties are Yellowstone, Cascade, Silver Bow, Flathead, and Lewis and Clark.

I scraped the data off Montana’s Covid-19 website. The number of active cases (total cases minus the sum of recoveries and deaths), varies daily. Montana does not publish the historical record, but should, and should publish it at the county and zip code level.

Hit the double size link for an easier to read plot.

     Double size      PDF for printing      Download data

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