Merry Christmas

By James Conner

Joy to the World is one of my family’s favorites. It’s a fitting carole for a Christmas for which there is much to be joyful.

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 The National Psalmist (Boston, 1848) by Lowell Mason.

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Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress
demonstrates the value of learning languages

By James Conner

Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress Wednesday evening, delivering his speech in competent, close to fluent, English. Had he spoken through a translator, his remarks, and their effect on his audience, would have been much less dramatic. He is fluent in Russian, his native tongue, and Ukrainian.

Wearing an army green tunic that reminded me of a Star Trek uniform, Zelensky referred to transformative moments in American history to make his case that world freedom, not just Ukraine’s, was at risk. He was shrewd, convincing, likable, and gracious.

I used the New York Times’ transcription of his address to determine the reading ease of his remarks. His Flesch-Kincaid scores were comparable to those for recent inaugural and state of the union speeches by Bush 43, Obama, and Biden.

…read the rest

Welcome to winter, legislators request record number
of bills, President Zelensky comes to Washington, D.C.

By James Conner

Welcome to winter, which is roaring in like a Lion. It’s -6°F at my place near Kalispell, downright balmy compared to Montana towns east of the mountains. Here, according to my handy smartphone app, SunSurveyor, the solstice is at 1449 MST.

Sunup to sundown lasts eight hours, 20 minutes, and 29 seconds. Solar noon is at 1235, when the sun’s altitude is 18.4° (its altitude at the summer solstice in June will be approximately 65°).

…read the rest

Blues by Kingfish, Caleb, and Reeb, to start a blue cold day

By James Conner

It’s three degrees at my place near Kalispell, Montana — and it’s a lot colder east of the mountains and in high bowls such as Butte’s. Mesonet shows Cut Bank at -20°F. Tomorrow will be colder, and Thursday colder yet.

There’s cold, and there’s cool. And few performances are cooler than this one by blues master Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and mandolin virtuoso Caleb Klauber and his sidekick Reeb Willms.

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There can be no debate that what we are doing
for gun safety in this country isn’t working

Guest essay by Bob Brown

A new year brings with it new hope for a new beginning. As the ancient saying goes, the old has died that the new may be tried. And so we celebrate the happy holiday time in the spirit that the year to come will bring more peace, good will, and good faith.

The outbreak of modern war in Europe will only end with the resolve or the existence of Putin, the war’s perpetrator. Our devout expectation is that more rational world leaders will contain the spread of this conflict.

Here in the traditionally peaceful and protected part of earth, though, there is great violence, too. Civilian perpetrated gun violence has been continuing here for decades, and is worsening. It is no longer even news to a numbed public unless it surfaces as a massive example. The mass murder weapon of choice is an assault style rifle with an extended clip that can equip killers to kill a dozen or a score or more, as fast as they can pull the trigger.

…read the rest

Jailing Viktor Bout did not stop arms dealing, but it
did give the U.S. a way to bring home Brittney Griner

By James Conner

Viktor Bout

Ten years ago, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison for, according to the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York, “…conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles and over 20,000 AK-47s to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the “FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia.” Now he is back in the arms of Mother Russia, given his freedom in exchange for Brittney Griner’s being given hers.

…read the rest

The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lie

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

Lawyers and judges understand and, hopefully, respect the rule of law. This is a very simple principle which informed the writing and adoption of the federal constitution. This principle was carried through into states’ constitutions. The rule of law is fundamental to our democracy. It is defined as “a principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, independently adjudicated, and consistent with international human rights principles”.(1)

Stated another way, the American Bar Association defines the rule of law as a set of principles, or ideals, for ensuring an orderly and just society.

Many countries throughout the world strive to uphold the rule of law—where no one is above the law; where everyone is treated equally under the law; where everyone is held accountable to the same laws; where there are clear and fair processes for enforcing laws; where there is an independent judiciary; and where human rights are guaranteed for all.(2)

At both the national and state levels our democracy is failing those criteria in many respects—systemic racism, misogyny, and demonization of LGBTQIA+ people, for a very short list.

…read the rest

National notes: Griner repatriated, Georgia has not
turned purple, Kyrsten Sinema’s empty independence

By James Conner

Brittney Griner

Joe Biden brings Britteny Griner home. Basketball star Britteny Griner, sentenced to nine years imprisonment in Russia for the parking ticket level offense of possessing less than a gram of cannabis oil, is back in the United States after serving nine months behind Russian bars. She landed in San Antonio yesterday after being exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in an American high security prison.

Griner is from Houston, which has excellent hospitals. But so does San Antonio, a major military center. I suspect she’s there for medical care, counseling, and an extensive debriefing by national security officials. In a practical sense, she’s not yet fully free.

…read the rest

Legislators should not use veterinary terms to describe
surgical procedures performed on human children

By James Conner

John Fuller

 Updated.  All of us are morally obliged to discuss issues with language that enlightens our understanding of the subject, to avoid language that inflames the passions while clouding one’s judgment, and above all, to not not use language that hurts people, especially fragile people.

In a letter to the Kalispell Daily InterLake last week, Rep. John Fuller (R-HD8, west Kalispell, map) failed to discharge those obligations. Instead, describing the reproductive consequences of “gender affirming surgery” on minors, he wrote:

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Let’s not make more stupid mistakes

Plan to triple the size of the lodge at Holland Lake
burned and crashed like the Hindenburg

Guest essay by Save Holland Lake members Bill Lombardi, Lucy Dayton, Pete Feigley, Jacole Johnson, Jim Morrison, David Roberts, Grace Siloti, Cheri Thornton, and Jack Wade

The rollout of a proposal by one of North America’s biggest ski developers to triple the size of Holland Lake Lodge and bring industrial tourism and commercial recreation to the rural, wildlife-rich Swan Valley in western Montana was a complete and utter disaster.

After two months of vehement public opposition, the expansion proposal by POWDR, the Utah-based ski developer that promotes “soulful” experiences through high-impact recreation, fell to earth in flames – like the 1937 Hindenburg dirigible disaster in New Jersey.

…read the rest

GOP State Rep. Mallerie Stromswold
and Americans for Prosperity

By James Conner

Stromswold

Republican State Representative Mallerie Stromswold (HD-50, Billngs), at 21 the Montana Legislature’s youngest member, tried to resign her candidacy for re-election back in August — but, according to the Montana Free Press, botched the process by failing to submit her letter of resignation directly to Montana’s secretary of state by 15 August. Instead, she gave the letter to the local Republican central committee, which failed to file the letter on time. Left on the ballot, she won by 103 votes.

There’s more, so be sure to read the MTFP report. It’s a fascinating story that reflects well on no one. It also omits mention of the strange involvement of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch financed political action committee, in Stromswold’s primary election campaign.

Why strange? Because Stromswold had no primary opponent. She needed no help. Yet AFP reports spending more than $6,000 supporting her. Why?

…read the rest

Time to arm Ukraine with missiles that can hit Russia

Kyiv lies 5,300 miles east and slightly north of Kalispell — and thanks to Russian attacks on Kyiv’s electrical infrastructure, 150 years in the past. Russian missiles have so badly damaged powerlines and transformers, the system for distributing electricity, that residents of Ukraine’s capital city are without light, heat, and water. Putin, losing on the battlefield, is attacking civilians, hoping their howls of pain will convince their leaders to surrender.

Putin also is meddling in Moldova, a buffer nation between Ukraine and Romania. His war against Ukraine is expanding, threatening to become World War III. Will he next attack the Baltic states and Poland?

Meanwhile, reports Politico, Western Europe, alarmed by rising energy costs, is angry at the United States for problems made by Europe’s decision to become dependent on Russian natural gas because it was cheap, and may be losing its will to resist Russian aggression. One hears echoes of the belief in appeasement that led to the debacle of Munich.

There is no appeasing Putin. Helping Ukraine requires staying the course, providing military and economic aid. I now favor equipping Ukraine with precision guided missiles that can reach major Russian cities within 500 miles of Ukraine’s border. Let Ukraine blow up Russian powerlines and electric substations: bringing the war to Russia is the only hope of jolting Russians who do not war, but are not feeling the pain of war, to their senses and into action to force Putin to stop shooting.

Why we must return to civil discourse

Guest essay by Jim Smith
Helena Montana

Now that the recent elections are essentially completed, can we return to civil discourse in facing the challenges of our nation? And why is this important? Democracy depends on civil discourse between different groups of people and different points of view. It also depends on the discussion being based on “good faith” where the participants have an intention to abide by the facts, the truth, and the aim of reaching a decision that benefits the common good.

One of the problems in reaching these standards in the U.S. today is the toleration of the intolerable. Tolerance of oppressive ideas, actions, policies, laws, and positions serves to suppress democracy and basic rights (free speech, free assembly, opinion) while limiting access to influencing the course of direction of the community, region, state, or country.

…read the rest

Montana House and Senate election returns

By James Conner

Download this spreadsheet for a single sheet grouping of all Montana legislative seats on the 2022 general election ballot. This is not the final canvass. But it does include the provisional ballots.

This spreadsheet differs from the spreadsheets available at the Montana Secretary of State’s election returns website in that the votes for each political party (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green) and one Independent are in a single column.

Presumably, the major political parties have produced and distributed a similar spreadsheet or data set for their candidates and county central committees. And most major news organizations probably have produced a similar product. Therefore, I’m making this available to spare Jill and Joe Citizen the trouble of organizing the information in this user friendly format that I urge MT SecST to provide.

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Sourdough Slim’s inimitable performance of Red River Valley

By James Conner

Rick Crowder and Robert Anderson, performing as Sourdough Slim, a throwback to the Vaudeville era, perform Red River Valley after Sam opens with a bit of semi-adult humor. This is the cowboy version of the song, based on the Red River of the south. Many scholars of folk music, however, believe the song’s Red River is the Red River of the north that forms the border between Minnesota and the Dakotas, flowing north into Manitoba until its waters finally reach Hudson Bay.

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SCOTUS oral arguments on 7 December

Independent State Legislatures: The New Pitch-Black

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

It is always darkest—right before it gets pitch-black.

Sadly, that is also true in constitutional law. The case in point is Moore v. Harper, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That the Supreme Court even took this case begs a conclusion that the conservative fix is in and that the Court will decide before the summer of 2023 what J. Michael Luttig (former 4th Circuit Court Judge, appointed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush) has described as “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding.”

Moore involves whether the Election Clause (Article I, section 4 of the Federal Constitution) validates the Independent State Legislature (ISL) theory. Not surprisingly, ISL has been and is being promoted by Donald Trump as part of the Big Lie and his effort to subvert Joe Biden’s win of the 2020 presidential election (by both the popular and electoral college votes).

…read the rest

In the Flathead, most honk-n-wavers were Republicans

By James Conner

Late yesterday afternoon I stopped outside the Flathead County fairgrounds, where Kalispell’s polls are located, to talk to and photograph the sign waving partisans braving the 20°F weather to promote their candidates.

Although House District 7 Democrat Angela Kennedy parked a sign emblazoned truck across the street (photo below), no Democrat was there in the flesh. That’s because Democrats concentrate on getting out the vote, not on showing the flag.

But there were Republicans aplenty, undoubtedly because more Republicans than Democrats vote on election day. Democrats are encouraged to vote early, by mail, and most do so.

Using my little Nikon P310, I photographed the scene, which resembled a micro street fair.

…read the rest

The Bells of Rhymney

By James Conner

Welsh poet Idris Davies and Pete Seeger’s melody are combined in this lyrical ballad made famous by The Byrds. Here, original Byrds member Chris Hillman, and Herb Pedersen, who sang with Hillman in the Desert Rose Band, perform The Bells of Rhymney with Helen Forrester on eTown.

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Steering wheel slapping music for driving to the polls

By James Conner

From the French language notes on YouTube:

Below, Bayou Chicot performs Le Gros Guime A Sam (Sam’s Big Rooster), written by American Cajun accordionist and accordion maker Marc Savoy. You’ll love Bruno’s masterful impersonation of the rooster.

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MT voter registration up from 2018, down from 2020;
guns at the polls; freezing in the dark in Ukraine

By James Conner

It’s election eve — and in Kalispell, MT, it’s unseasonably cold: 19°F with a hard northeast wind that the weathermen expect to drive snow later today. Tomorrow will be colder. Indeed, for me it will be the coldest election day since I began voting in northern Minnesota in 1968.

Tomorrow, I will post county level Montana data on population, the voting eligible population, registered voters, and absentee voters. Meanwhile, here are the state level numbers for 2016–2022. Registered voters as a percentage of population is slightly ahead of 2018, and approximately twice as far behind 2020. This statistic does not predict turnout.

Meanwhile, here are state level numbers for those statistics.

…read the rest

Sunday short notes

By James Conner

Expect a slow vote count in the Flathead Tuesday. Jack Fallon is running a major write-in campaign for county commissioner. That will slow the count in Montana’s fourth most populous county, probably extending it well into Wednesday.

Why I rooted for the Phillies. I have family in the backyards of Philadelphia and Houston, and attended college in Houston, but I rooted for the Phillies in the World Series because Houston’s roster still includes cheaters from the 2017 team. That said, congratulations to the Astros. They had better pitchers and batters, and this time they played a clean game.

…read the rest

Prominent lawyer challenges Jennifer Fielder’s endorsement
of Ann Bukacek for the Montana Public Service Commission

Guest essay by Ann Brodsky

Ann Brodsky

I can’t sit quietly following Jennifer Fielder’s endorsement of Ann Bukacek for Montana’s Public Service Commission District 5 seat. The most important job of the PSC and what it’s best known for is setting utility rates. Bukacek’s opponent is John Repke, who promises to fight for the ratepayer after having retired from four decades of professional work in finance and business.

…read the rest

Snow damage in the Flathead

A short note to readers

During the past few days, the best laid plans of mice and this blogger got kicked into the ditch when unfriendly microbes and other opponents of good health made an uninvited and unwelcome visit. They’ve finally been evicted, but I’ll need some time to catch up with a backlog of guest essays and posts on turnout and the status of certain candidates and ballot issues.

My immediate task this morning is clearing my driveway of three or four inches of rather wet snow that fell overnight and is still falling.

 Update, 3 November.  When the snow finally stopped falling, which was around midnight, I measured nine inches of the heavy wet stuff. Below, the view to the southeast from my front porch.

…read the rest

Tap your toes, clap your hands…

Whoop, holler, stomp, and shout Cajun music

By James Conner

These musicians hail from France, but they would be right at home, and more than welcome, in a Louisiana dance hall on a foot stomping Saturday night. Here’s Google’s English translation of their story from YouTube.

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Sunday canvassing music by Bruce Daigrepont’s Cajun Band

By James Conner

Daigrepont’s band blasts out a big sound with just an electric base, drums, Daigrepont’s Cajun accordion, and a fiddle. The concluding, and by far the longer, number in this set is in a minor key and is both lively and dark. Daigrepont, incidentally, is a noted historian of Cajun music and the Acadian diaspora (song).

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Get out the vote music

Tap your toes to the Lake Arthur Stomp

By James Conner

In 12 days the voting stops and the counting begins. It’s get out the vote time — and that means it’s time for toe tappin’ music. Check in here each morning through election day for music that sets everyone a-dancing.

We’ll start with Eunice, Louisiana’s immensely talented Savoy family performing the Lake Arthur Stomp (starts at 43:18) during an hour-long Public Broadcasting System folkways concert. Meet chemical engineer Marc Savoy, legendary musician and maker of Cajun accordions, his wife, Ann, Cajun music historian who once sang with Linda Ronstadt, and their their fiddling sons, Joel and Wilson.

Tap your toes, move your feet, and get that vote out.

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The Fetterman-Oz debate, and notable
politicians who recovered from serious strokes

By James Conner

At 1800 MDT this evening, Pennsylvania candidates for the U.S. Senate, Democrat John Fetterman, PA’s lieutenant governor, and physician Mehmet Oz, the carpetbagging Republican from New Jersey, begam their first, and last, debate.

Because the six-foot-eight Fetterman is still recovering from a serious stroke he suffered just before the primary election in May — he’s still having trouble processing information from language he hears, but not from language he sees — the format may be the first of a kind for a political debate.

…read the rest

Updates on the election for Montana’s
western congressional district

By James Conner

On 17 October, I reported that according to an end of September poll by Victoria Research, Republican Ryan Zinke was leading Democrat Monica Tranel by a single percentage point, 41–40, with Libertarian John Lamb at eight percent and 11 percent undecided. The sampling margin of error for Zinke and Tranel was 3.3 percent, but 1.8 percent for Lamb. There was a 62 percent probability that Zinke was leading Tranel.

Since my 17 October post, more information on the closeness of the election was published at the Daily Montanan (Keila Szpaller, 19 October) and the Helena Independent Record (finance, by Sam Wilson; and the Libertarian candidate, by Holly Michels).

Earlier in October, the Huffington Post ran a story, There Are Too Many Snakes In This Montana Campaign, on Tranel’s grotesque television ads calling Zinke a snake.

…read the rest

GOP low roader Jake Eaton hurls a bucket of October
mud at nonpartisan MTSC Justice Ingrid Gustafson

By James Conner

Comparing Montana Republican operative Jake Eaton to Roger Stone would be unfair. He’s not as famous as Stone, and unlike Stone, he’s done nothing to earn a Presidential Pardon or the functional state level equivalent thereof. But some might fear he’s on his way to such an honor.

Jake took a step in that direction last week.

Mara Silvers, in an outstanding story at the Montana Free Press, reported yesterday that on Friday, Eaton sent to Montana’s news media copies of two ethics complaints against incumbent Montana Supreme Court Justice he filed with Montana’s Judicial Standards Commission. Eaton is connected with the campaign of James Brown, Gustafson’s Republican backed opponent on the November ballot.

Gustafson’s campaign argues that releasing the complaints violated Montana law.

…read the rest

Is Libertarian John Lamb really attracting 8 percent
of the vote in MT’s western congressional district?

By James Conner

That’s what a poll commissioned by Big Sky Voters, a liberal political action committee, found at the end of September. A poll commissioned by Democratic nominee Monica Tranel two weeks earlier found Lamb at three percent.

Neither Zinke nor the Republican Party nor conservative fellow travelers have released polls with different numbers. That may indicate their internal polls are returning similar results.

…read the rest

Reliable John Repke is a far better choice for Montana’s Public Service Commission than Loose Cannon Annie Bukacek

Guest essay by Bob Brown

Both candidates for the Public Service Commission are from the Flathead Valley and are probably better known there than in other parts of the PSC district.

The candidates, John Repke and Dr. Annie Bukacek, couldn’t be more opposite in qualifications or temperament.

Calm, competent John Repke has a deep business background. He has the financial management skills to readily analyze a utility rate request. He thoroughly understands the PSC’s purpose to keep utility services affordable, reliable and sustainable. Most importantly he has a clear concept of how to implement that responsibility. Repke has the skills and experience to do the job.

…read the rest

Dear Mr. Brown: Here’s why you’re not
qualified to sit on Montana’s Supreme Court

Guest essay by Erik B. Thueson

When Montana attorney, and ex-Marine, Erik Thueson received a “please send me money” letter from James Brown, candidate for the Montana Supreme Court, he examined Brown’s credentials for the job, found them wanting, and sent Brown this letter telling him so. Flathead Memo endorses Brown’s opponent, the eminently qualified incumbent, Justice Ingrid Gustafson.

…read the rest

Most Montana families and businesses are not interested
in making de facto loans to Northwestern Energy

Guest essay by John Repke
Democratic candidate for the Montana Public Service Commission

It was no surprise to open the paper last week and learn that the Public Service Commission had approved a $92 million interim rate increase for Northwestern Energy. In this case, “interim” means step one of the much larger requested increases amounting to 25.6% for electricity and 11.1% for gas. If I had to bet, I’d put money on the current members of the Commission approving that increase as well. That’s why we need a change. Beyond the sheer size of the increase, along with the short notice, other aspects of the Commission’s decision are also concerning.

In its Interim Order, the PSC describes the rate increases as “a reasonable means of providing interim relief to NorthWestern.” For 2021, NorthWestern reported net income of $187 million ($30 million more than 2020) and the 2021 compensation for its top six executives was a combined $9 million. These numbers do not strike me as consistent with a company needing relief. NorthWestern is “investor-owned.” If its investors gain when the company does well, then they also need to share the risk when the company trips up — even if that means just buying some time.

…read the rest

Montana’s Attorney General: All Hat, No Cows

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

In his recent guest view, Attorney General Austin Knudsen whines that the Montana Supreme Court deprived Montanans of a right to decide election methods. Specifically, electing supreme court justices by district, instead of in state-wide, non-partisan elections.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Supreme Court simply determined that placing an unconstitutional measure (HB-325) on the ballot would place an “unwarranted burden on the public by ‘putting voters to the task of deciding a ballot issue’ and ‘conveying the false appearance that a vote on the measure counts for something, when in fact the measure is invalid regardless of how the electors vote,’ thereby constituting a senseless ‘waste of time and money for all involved.’”

…read the rest

Is Monica Tranel really only two points behind Ryan Zinke?

By James Conner

Possibly. A poll of 400 likely voters conducted 14–19 September by Impact Research for Tranel, the Democratic candidate for Montana’s western congressional district, reports Republican Zinke leading Tranel 45–43 percent. Libertarian John Lamb was at three percent, and nine percent were undecided.

And that’s all we know about that poll.

We don’t know whether it was conducted by telephone, by text or email, by internet panel. We don’t know because Tranel did not release a description of the methodology, let alone the crosstabs. She didn’t even, insofar as I can determine, release the pollster’s estimate of the margin of error.

…read the rest

But a state senator gets hammered

Montana District Judge pays compliment to the
Montana Democratic Party’s data director

By James Conner

Yesterday, District Judge Michael Moses handed down his 199-page decision holding that three bills affecting Montana elections passed by the 2021 legislature were unconstitutional and permanently enjoined from being enforced. See Sam Wilson’s preliminary report at the Helena Independent Record for further details.

Moses’ decision, which surely will be appealed to Montana’s supreme court, establishes an extraordinarily detailed finding of fact. And it characterizes the quality of certain witnesses that testified in the bench trial.

…read the rest

John Repke is the only choice
for District 5 PSC Commissioner

Guest essay by Suzanne Daniell Hildner, M.D.

The role of the Public Service Commission is vital to our lives as Montana residents. Its duties include regulation of our utility rates, oversight of the safety of our railways and pipelines as well as participating in oversight of the transportation industry. We are fortunate, as voters, to have a say in the Commissioners who serve on the PSC.

John Repke will bring a strong finance and management skills to the PSC. He has a proven record in community involvement. I know John as a pragmatic, thoughtful and well versed individual who has no ulterior motive in his candidacy other than to give back to his community.

…read the rest

Yes, Ryan Zinke is a de facto dual citizen of Montana
and California: that won’t hurt him with most voters.

By James Conner

 Updated,  13 October 2023. Although approximately half of the people living in Montana were born in another state or country, a loud contingent of the native born believe they possess a political birthright conferred on them by their parents’ decision to bring them into the world under the Big Sky. And so, every two years, when elections are held, they piously proclaim their eternal moral and political superiority, denouncing politicians of the other party who were born elsewhere or who spent too much time elsewhere, perhaps with a very pretty woman.

Some of Montana’s Democrats have, in recent years, taken great exception to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s coming from New Jersey, and Rep. Matt Rosendale’s hailing from Maryland (and compounding that sin by retaining his Marylander accent). These Democrats are reduced to sputtering indignation by that son of Whitefish, former Secretary of the Interior, state legislator, and U.S. Representative, Ryan Zinke, whom they believe spends too much time in Santa Barbara, California, where his wife, Lola, owns a multi-million-dollar estate by the ocean.

And it’s true: Zinke does spend a lot of time in California. For years that has outraged Democrats, who argue he’s not a legitimate Montana resident, his ownership of property in his home town, Whitefish, notwithstanding. Every time Zinke is on the ballot, Democrats try to make his residence an issue — and every time he’s on the ballot, his de facto dual residency does not hurt him with the voters.

…read the rest

Le Gombo de Maman Roulaille
FESTIVAL DE PONTCHARTRAIN 2014

By James Conner

A bright, relaxed performance that waltzes us out of September.

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https://www.savehollandlake.com

Let’s not despoil rustic Holland Lake
with industrial tourism development

Guest essay by Bill Lombardi

In autumn, that mournful season that stifles the lighthearted sounds of summer, larch turn golden-yellow and, against the dark-green shade of Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine, light up the Seeley-Swan Valley like a votive-filled cathedral in Rome.

It’s something to behold in October as you stand in awe of the magic wand of nature, whose invisible hand has crafted an infrastructure that rapacious men and women want to harness, market and sell to a public hungry for natural experiences touted on television and Instagram and by Hollywood.

Photo by Amy Keinath

…read the rest

County commissioner candidate Jack Fallon
gives Flathead voters a second bite at the apple

By James Conner

Primary election voters rarely get a second chance to vote for a defeated candidate, but Jack Fallon, who lost the recounted Republican primary for Flathead county commissioner to incumbent Pam Holmquist by 42 votes, is giving them one. He’s running for commissioner as a write-in candidate, having filed the paperwork in early September after dithering all summer whether to do so.

He faces daunting, but not impossible, odds against winning. After reviewing his biography, his platform, and why he believes the voters should fire Holmquist, this post looks at those odds and how me might overcome them.

…read the rest

Putin’s war hurts Montanans’ pocketbooks

The Russian invasion of Ukraine will end when
Zelensky surrenders or Putin loses power or dies

By James Conner

The 5,500-mile great circle route from Helena, Montana, to Kyiv, Ukraine crosses the ice of northern Greenland. The route to peace may be infinitely longer, is far from clear, and many of the possible outcomes of the war chill one’s spine, Ukraine’s recent recapture of territory east of Kharkiv notwithstanding.

This is not of abstract interest to Montanans. The economic impacts of the war contribute to the increased costs of food, fuel, and strategic minerals and commodities. Our homes are not getting blown away, but our budgets are.

…read the rest

Retired justice James Nelson urges Montanans
to keep Justice Gustafson on MT’s supreme court

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

Justice Ingrid Gustafson

Justice Ingrid Gustafson’s retention race is the most important Montana Supreme Court race in Montana’s history.

Montanan’s choice to reelect Justice Gustafson will be monumental. Our vote will be nothing less than We the People’s reaffirmation the we value — indeed, demand—that our judges demonstrate the sort of proven competence, integrity, fairness, impartiality, independence and commitment to Montana’s Constitution that will ensure that ours are courts of justice, grounded in the rule of law, and dedicated to equal justice for all.

We have all witnessed what rank partisanship, cronyism and cult-mentality can do to the judiciary. Judges who vote the party line, who ignore and overrule long-standing precedent and settled law, who violate the separation of church and state by grounding court decisions in religion and who violate, with impunity, their oaths to support, protect and defend our Constitutions in favor of trashing our Constitutional rights with which they disagree.

…read the rest

Morning music: Banks of the Ohio Slovenian style

By James Conner

One of many American murder ballads, Banks of the Ohio’s immense and international popularity derives as much from its haunting yet pleasant, easy to sing, melody, as from its lyrics. Two groups, Okustični, which translates as Acoustic, and the New Swing Quartet, combined to deliver this sophisticated, lively, yet relaxed performance.

Unlike most contemporary folk arrangements, this one features neither an instrumental solo nor traditional folk and bluegrass instruments such as the fiddle or mandolin. And an American folk group likely would costume the singer in a long sleeved, floor length dress. But those a cultural differences, not criticisms. This performance meets the high musical standards of the Grand Ole Opry. I enjoyed it so much that I looped the playback and let the music sing me to sleep.

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Aaron Judge’s extraordinary 2022 baseball season

By James Conner

Before the steroid era that almost ruined the game, the third rarest feat in Major League Baseball was the 50-homer season. From 1920, when Babe Ruth hit 54, through 1961, when Roger Maris hit 61, there were only 16 such seasons, only eight players that had them, and just five who had more than one.

The second rarest feat from 1900–1961? Perfect games. Just four were thrown, all in the American league: Cy Young, 1904; Addie Joss, 1908; Charlie Robertson, 1922; and Don Larson in the 1956 World Series. Source.

The rarest big time MLB hitting feat? Combining the triple crown — batting average, home runs, runs batted in — with a 50-home run season, done only once in MLB history. The player? New York’s Mickey Mantle in 1956. He also batted .353 that year, the last time a player in any era hit .350 or higher while hitting 50 or more home runs. Mantle’s .705 Slugging mark led MLB, but was 15 points behind Ted Williams in On Base Percentage (Williams hit 24 home runs and drove in 82 run, playing in 14 fewer games).

Now another Yankee, Aaron Judge, who hit 52 homers in 2017, his official rookie season, is closing in on Maris’ non-steroid record of 61 home runs.

…read the rest

John Repke would bring competence to the Montana PSC

Guest essay by Carol and John Santa

Until recently we had no knowledge about the complex work of the Montana Public Service Commission and now understand why we must elect competent people to serve on the Commission. The PSC regulates the rates of investor owned electric, natural gas, waste water utilities as well as overseeing the safety of our railroads and intra-state pipelines. It also has some oversight over the transportation industry including garbage trucks, taxis and limousines. Proper regulation involves competent analysis of the financial expenses and concerns of businesses vs the need of Montana citizens to be protected from potential abuse and profiteering by monopolistic businesses.

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Updated

The accession of Charles III, Trump and the DOJ,
Biden’s speech, flawed Brown and Racicot scheme

By James Conner

Queen Elizabeth II’s death yesterday pushed the rest of the news below the fold, and will continue to do so for the next few days. Some of that news was of great importance.

The accession of Charles, now King Charles III, to the throne (and its great wealth) occurs at a time of significant political instability and economic turmoil in the United Kingdom. But it will not further destabilize his nation, of which he serves as the ceremonial head of state while the prime minister, chosen by Parliament, serves as the head of government. If anything, the long anticipated, carefully planned, peaceful accession will calm troubled waters.

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Ex Flathead health board chairman Bill Burg explains
why he supports John Repke for the Montana PSC

Guest essay by Bill Burg

I don’t know John Repke. I do know Dr Annie Bukacek.

I served on the Flathead County Board of Health as a member for three appointed terms, as a member, chair of multiple committees, Vice Chair and Chair. Dr Annie and I overlapped in my last two years. I understand that she tendered her resignation early in her 3rd year.

During my nine years on the Board, there were probably a dozen or more volunteers who were appointed by the County Commissioners to serve as well. Their backgrounds ranged from medicine, nursing, public health, healthcare management, veterinary medicine, fire chief, engineering, business, and elected municipal officials. The primary function of the Board is to perform a semi-judicial function as a jury, or appellate panel for issues within the purview of the Flathead Health Department. In 2020-21, the primary issue was Covid and how to protect the public.

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Dealing with bullet riddled books, choosing a new trustee

An open letter to the staff and trustees
of Flathead County's Imagine If Library

By James Conner

Dear Board Chairman Adams, Library Director Cummins, et al:

Please allow a critic of the library to offer a few observations, and some advice, on two major tasks on which you should make decisions sooner than later: recommending a new trustee, and addressing security concerns that have arisen from recent controversies over the library’s management and direction.

Choosing a new trustee. The key issue is whether you will recommend appointing someone who largely agrees with the current members and who will not make waves, or recommend appointing a fully qualified person with a keen intellect, advanced debating skills, and a willingness to challenge the wisdom of the other trustees.

I urge you to recommend a trustee who will challenge the rest of you, a trustee who will do what is necessary to ensure that all issues are raised and thoroughly discussed. Please recommend a trustee who will make you intellectually uncomfortable, a trustee who will not defer to the conventional wisdom, a trustee who will ensure that the issues before the board are tested in the marketplace of ideas.

Security concerns. According to the Daily InterLake and the Flathead Beacon, two employees resigned after someone placed bullet riddled books in the library’s overnight depository.

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The Best Defense …

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

The storm clouds are gathering; readying a downpour of attacks on women’s right to reproductive self-determination.

Prime time, and obviously well-funded, television ads have, for months, been proclaiming the value and humanness of children of all ages, whether “planned” or not. Viewers are being assaulted with barely-understandable, baby-talking fetuses saying the same thing — ”I wasn’t planned, but I am human and I have value.” Billboards are sending the same message.

Sadly, missing from these gimmicky TV spots is the self-evident truth that women who become pregnant — whether they plan to or not — are also human and have value. Women are not simply baby-makers whose reproductive functions need to be controlled by patriarchal politicians and self-appointed religious busy bodies. Importantly, pregnant women have the constitutional right to determine for themselves whether or not to bear a child.

…read the rest

As Colorado River Dries, the U.S. Teeters
on the Brink of Larger Water Crisis

by Abrahm Lustgarten, for ProPublica

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

The western United States is, famously, in the grips of its worst megadrought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million Americans and supports food production for the rest of the country, is in imminent peril. The levels in the nation’s largest freshwater reservoir, Lake Mead, behind the Hoover Dam and a fulcrum of the Colorado River basin, have dropped to around 25% of capacity. The Bureau of Reclamation, which governs lakes Mead and Powell and water distribution for the southern end of the river, has issued an ultimatum: The seven states that draw from the Colorado must find ways to cut their consumption — by as much as 40% — or the federal government will do it for them. Last week those states failed to agree on new conservation measures by deadline. Meanwhile, next door, California, which draws from the Colorado, faces its own additional crises, with snowpack and water levels in both its reservoirs and aquifers all experiencing a steady, historic and climate-driven decline. It’s a national emergency, but not a surprise, as scientists and leaders have been warning for a generation that warming plus overuse of water in a fast-growing West would lead those states to run out.

…read the rest

Republican stalwarts Derek and Ronalee Skees are
pulling up their Flathead stakes and moving to Billings

By James Conner

The Skees at the April, 2014, Oathkeepers rally in Kalispell. J. Conner photo.

By now it’s no secret. State Rep. Derek Skees (R, HD-11, SW Kalispell and Lakeside) and his wife, Ronalee, both powerhouses in the Flathead’s Republican Party, are moving to Billings.

Ronalee’s last day here is Friday. She’ll be working in the development sector of the Yellowstone County area’s healthcare industry, where she can make more money than in the Flathead and live for less. Derek, who must live in Flathead County to represent his legislative district, will stay in Kalispell until January, when his fourth and last term expires. His plans for Billings are in the development stage.

Derek has represented HD-11 since 2016. He served his first term representing HD-4 (Whitefish) when he won a surprise 85-vote victory over Democrat Will Hammerquist in 2010, a year of electoral disaster for Democrats.

…read the rest

It’s fair week in the Flathead — and
that means live big name country music

By James Conner

It’s county fair week in the Flathead — and that means country music; this year, South Carolinian Lee Brice’s country music. Example: One of Them Girls. He’s a competent musician, but had I booked the fair’s county music performer, I would have signed up Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms Country Band, shown here performing a number made famous by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. It’s a relaxed performance, featuring classic riffs on the fiddle, pedal steel guitar, and mandoline.

Democrats who want to better understand rural culture should spend time at their county’s fair, and they should study country music and country music’s relationship to folk music (see Why Republicans Listen to Country Music and Democrats Don’t). Will Flathead County’s Democrats have a booth at the fair? Yes. The Flathead’s Democrats are rural Democrats, not, as the Republican propagandists would have us believe, those apocryphal all too woke city Democrats with strange colored skins who allegedly live on taxes taken from white people.

According to Rolling Stone, Lee Brice performed at the 2016 Republican National Convention. If his pickin’ and grinnin’and singin’ there was more than just another gig, he should feel right at home in Kalispell.

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Sunday thoughts about Friday’s dark news

By James Conner

Dark news dominated Friday.

• An award winning author was gravely injured by a knife weilding assailant who may have been trying to execute a decades old fatwa and collect a seven figure bounty.
• FBI agents investigating possible violations of the Espionage Act seized from erstwhile President Trump 11 boxes of documents, including documents marked Top Secret and documents related to nuclear matters.
• Ten legislators filed with Montana’s secretary of state a document requiring a poll of the legislature to determine whether there should be a special session that would consider using a revenue surplus not for the common good but to put a thousands dollars or so in the accounts of taxpayers just before the election in November.

…read the rest

Northwestern Energy’s proposed rate increases
would ratchet up inflation for its ratepayers

Guest essay by John Repke
Democratic candidate for Montana’s Public Service Commission

I woke up to news this week that the US inflation rate is moderating. Good news – unless you are a customer of Northwestern Energy. NWE has just announced that it is seeking rate increases of 15.9% for electricity and 2.3% for gas – effective Oct 1. But that’s not all. After the first of the year NWE will request increases of 25.6% and 11.1%, respectively. And these increases are in addition to the spike in natural gas prices that have been showing up in our utility bills already. On top of that, businesses will have no choice but to work the new rates into their prices, which means more inflation for folks in Montana.

Here in Montana, NWE is regulated by the Public Service Commission, so you have to wonder how it got to this point. Well, in the week prior to the rate announcement, some of your commissioners were working on their proposed rule change to limit public participation in the rate setting process while others were crafting (I use that word lightly) a political piece they called an urgent press release. So, they are busy! It’s just that they are busy playing politics while your utility costs are on the verge of skyrocketing.

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The Immorality of Greg Gianforte and the “New GOP”

Guest essay by Jim Smith

Since the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs, v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Republican politicians throughout the country have moved to impose whatever abortion restrictions their legislatures can come up with. The Republican dominated 2021 Montana Legislature passed a bundle of laws aimed at restricting access to abortion. Three of those laws are blocked for now by a lawsuit challenging their legality.

Now, the Republican Governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, is asking the state’s high court to consider his arguments that the Justices should reverse a previous decision upholding the right to an abortion (Armstrong v. the State of Montana) and instead put the matter in state legislators’ hands. Gianforte wrote in a tweet “It’s the Legislature’s prerogative to set policy regarding life, as it was for over a century until 1999.” Do Montanans really agree that the Legislature is the final word on who lives and who dies? These are deeply moral decisions and, frankly, beyond the scope of a group people elected to run the state, not to make personal moral decisions which intervene in citizens personal lives.

…read the rest

Raiding Trump’s hacienda probably was
the last thing the FBI wanted to do

By James Conner

We know the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Trump’s Florida home, Mar A Lago. We don’t know what the FBI searched for or found because the FBI has neither released the warrant nor provided a list of what was seized. That has not prevented members of the mainstream news media from claiming the FBI was after presidential records that should have been turned over to the national archives when Trump left office.

Neither sitting nor former Presidents are above the law. As Justice Douglas observed during Watergate, everyone has to turn over evidence.

We can conclude, reasonably, that either the FBI conducted a reckless, utterly unnecessary search or was after bigger things than a few memoranda that should have gone to the national archives. That we can conclude because the FBI knew that serving a warrant on a former President would ignite a firestorm. Therefore, we also can conclude that serving the warrant was the last thing the FBI wanted to do.

Trump, on the other hand, may have welcomed the search because he could cite it as proof he’s being persecuted by the Deep State. Which of course is what he and his sycophants are doing, employing strident rhetoric that may endanger the safety of public officials and their families, in an attempt to obscure the legal issues with a cloud of accusations that the FBI is conducting a political persecution.

Meanwhile, today Trump is being deposed by New York’s attorney general. He will provide straight answers only by mistake.

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The predicament of Montana’s Democrats

The Thin Blue Decline in the Last Best Place

Introduction, By James Conner. Fourteen years ago, Democrats held seven of Montana’s eight statewide partisan policy making offices. The exception: Montana’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, held by Billings Republican Denny Rehberg. Today, after winning all statewide races on the 2020 ballot, Republicans hold all those offices except for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Big Sandy farmer Jon Tester.

What happened? Bill Lombardi, former communications director for Sen. Max Baucus, former aide to Jon Tester, gave the question hard thought, arriving at answers many Democrats won’t like but should ponder. Here, in the longest and most important essay ever published by Flathead Memo, is his analysis.

…read the rest

Senate passes better than nothing bill with
modest health care and global warming benefits

By James Conner

 Updated and rewritten.  Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed, on a 51–50 party line vote, the Inflation Reduction Act, which now goes to the U.S. House where it will be approved later this week. Montana’s senior senator, Democrat Jon Tester voted for the bill. Montana’s junior senator, Republican Steve Daines, voted against it.

According to the Washington Post, the bill “…caps seniors’ out-of-pockets costs for drugs at $2,000 annually and imposes a $35 limit on how much they’d pay per month for insulin.” An attempt to extend the insulin cap to private health insurance plans was blocked by Republicans. The bill also allows the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices.

But, according to The Lever, not much negotiating will take place, and it won’t take place anytime soon.

…read the rest

Time to guard Biden’s back instead of stabbing it

Is there a time when a political party should take
the keys to the White House from its sitting President?

By James Conner

President Joe Biden is 79. Except for a slight hitch in his step, he’s hale, hearty, and fitter than a good many couch potatoes half his age. Still, he’s the oldest man elected President (the median age for election to the presidency since 1900 is 51 for Democrats, 55 for Republicans) — and that has a few nervous Democrats, and a few mischief making pundits trying to bootstrap a “Should Joe go?” debate, wondering aloud, and much too loudly, whether he should announce he’s not running for re-election.

Republicans, of course, especially Republicans who would like to win back the White House in 2024, have alleged for years that Biden is over the hill, ready for the rocking chair and the Alzheimer’s ward. Donald Trump, the narcissistic sociopath he trounced on 3 November 2020, and Trump’s sycophants, call him “Sleepy Joe,” trying to portray him as a senile old fool who’s being manipulated by Machiavellian aides. They’re having fun, but they’re the only ones taking their insults seriously.

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Another good reason to elect John Repke to the PSC

By James Conner

If you need another good reason to elect John Repke to the Montana Public Service Commission — and if you’re up to date on the PSC and your choices in District 5, you don’t — you’ll find it in Tom Lutey’s story on the fact free, fear mongering statement on blackouts that PSC commissioners Randy Pinocci and Tony O’Donnell recently released under the PSC letterhead.

Although elected to an agency that’s supposed to protect ratepayers from predatory utility monopolies, Republicans Pinocci and O’Donnell are, of course, hauling water for Northwestern Energy and the folks who would keep the aging, dirty Colstrip coal generating stations operating forever.

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Is Montana’s Republican Party more committed
to majority rule than Montana’s Democratic Party?

By James Conner

One might draw that conclusion after comparing the platforms of the two parties. The 2022 Montana Republican platform explicitly states that elections should be won by a majority of the votes cast.

The Montana GOP’s 2018 platform contained identical language. And the party’s 2016 platform contained that language and more.

…read the rest

Public Service Commission candidate John Repke challenges
his opponent, Ann Bukacek, to debate Montana energy issues

By James Conner

John Repke, the Democratic candidate to represent District 5 (Flathead, Lake, Lewis and Clark, and Teton Counties) on Montana’s Public Service Commission this week released a statement challenging his Republican opponent, Ann Bukacek, M.D., to debate energy issues and their qualifications for the job.

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Denial of Reality Run Amok

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

Forget Covid, it appears that a malevolent mental condition has now reached epidemic in two Montana counties.

On July 5 and 11 the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee and the Lewis Clark County Montana Republican Party, respectively, passed resolutions rejecting the results of the 2020 presidential election and formerly declared the President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected by a majority of the people in the United States.

This, notwithstanding, that the certified results of the 2020 election show that President Biden won the popular vote by over seven million votes as well as the Electoral College votes (306 (51.3%) for Biden to 232 (46.9%) for Trump). And this notwithstanding that in over 65 lawsuits in state and federal courts, including three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court, neither Trump nor any members of his cult were able to produce one scintilla of actual evidence that any election fraud or intervention of foreign powers caused the election to be stolen from the former president. Indeed, even though he lost the popular vote when he won the 2016 election, with the same Electoral College vote counts, Trump declared his victory to be a landslide.

Moreover, in Montana, Secretary of State and Chief Election Officer Christi Jacobsen has defended the security of our States election processes. No election fraud her on her watch, by golly!

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Idaho GOP adopts platform plank opposing
abortions that would save the lives of women

By James Conner

Religious fundamentalists and right wing ideologues of Talibanic rigidity and intensity now control Idaho’s Republican Party. At their convention this weekend, they replaced their incumbent leaders with the likes of their new head honcho, Dorothy Moon, daughter of Missouri, former teacher, former Idaho legislator, and gold miner who, the Idaho Statesman reports, said :

Lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down.

Actually, Moon misspoke. As the platform that was adopted proves, she meant to say “…ready to keep this state free for men.” Here, courtesy of Ruth Brown at Idaho Reports, is the lowdown on the abortion plank:

…read the rest

Should defeated GOP primary candidate Jack Fallon
run a write-in campaign for Flathead county commissioner?

By James Conner

Kalispell resident Bill Cox, writing in the Flathead Beacon, thinks Fallon, who lost the GOP county commissioner nomination by 40 votes, should mount a write-in effort.

A Fallon for Commissioner write-in campaign would not be a trivial undertaking. If he got going today, he would have only twelve weeks to raise a lot of money — I think he would need at least $250,000 — and build an organization to deliver to voters in September and early October the case for electing him and the instructions and aids for writing in his name.

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Montana GOP central committees adopt reality rejecting
resolutions alleging Biden was not elected legitimately

By James Conner

An excellent story at the Montana Free Press reports that the Republican Party’s central committees in Ravalli and Lewis and Clark Counties recently declared that Joe Biden is not a legitimately elected president. A report in the Western Montana News (not the newspaper in Libby) tells the story from the MAGA point of view.

Across the nation Republicans are adopting similar resolutions, all premised on delusions and proven falsehoods about election irregularities. This willingness to ignore and reject is the mass psychosis of cult behavior; in this case, the personality cult of former President Donald Trump, a proven liar and a full blown sociopath.

Republicans not yet committed to passing these resolutions may want to read two reports on the 2020 election written by Republicans, one in January, one recently.

…read the rest

One-third of the Flathead’s Democrats
probably voted in the 2022 GOP primary

By James Conner

class="update2"> Updated.  Montana does not register voters by party. Voters are not legally compelled to vote in their party’s primary, but except in special circumstances most do.

Flathead County’s 2022 Republican primary was a special circumstance — and an analysis of the last four primaries strongly suggests that approximately one of three Democrats cast Republican ballots in an effort to nominate moderate Republicans.

Here are the numbers for the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 Flathead primaries for the U.S. House.

Download Excel spreadsheet

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Stare Decisis? Nope!

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

The United States Supreme Court is out of control — hell-bent on overruling established precedents and facilitating the creation of an authoritarian theocratic state.

Bear in mind that in their various confirmation hearings the, now, justices all genuflected at the altar of stare decisis, which means “to stand by things decided.” Basically, if a previous court has ruled on the same or a closely related issue, then the court will make its decision in alignment with the previous court’s decision.

Space does not permit discussing the Court’s opinions in detail, but the following examples give one the idea about where the Court is heading.

In its June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson the Court refused to follow 50 years of precedent and overruled Roe v. Wade. The Court’s six conservative justices summarily nullified women’s fundamental right to seek safe abortion services in consultation with their health care providers free from government interference and, instead, turned control of women’s reproductive rights over to politicians, vigilantes and right-wing religious state legislatures. The decision also sets the stage for challenges to LGBTQ+ community rights, contraception rights and the right to interracial marriage.

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Flathead County’s library board now is a de facto
subcommittee of the Flathead GOP’s central committee

By James Conner

The Flathead County Library before it became the Imagine If Library. Larger image.

Yesterday, retired librarian Marsha Sultz, the last non-right wing ideologue on Flathead County’s library board, resigned from the board following the Flathead County Commission’s decision to appoint Carmen Cuthbertson to the board to replace Connie Leistiko, a former law school dean. At the Flathead Beacon, Micah Drew has the details.

Last year Cuthbertson asked the board to remove the book Gender Queer from the library, arguing it was erotica without redeeming literary merit that had no place on the shelves of a public library. Hundreds of public libraries across the country have received similar requests.

…read the rest