21 December 2022 — 0944 mst
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°).
According to the National Weather Service, Kalispell may bottom out at -31°F. I’m running a 5,000 Btu heater in my crawl space as added insurance against frozen pipes.
Stay warm, and keep your batteries charged.
Legislative watch — record number of bill requests. Montana’s blessings in the legislature have requested more than 4,000 bills for the legislative session that commences on 3 January 2023. That’s a record by hundreds of bills. Approximately half of the bills have short titles beginning “Generally revise.” These bills are placeholders, requested for mischief later in the session.
Rep. Caleb Hinkle (R, HD-68, Belgrade), has requested 169. He may not be the bill requests leader.
The legislature meets for 90 legislative days. There are 100 members in the state house, 50 in the state senate. They have neither the time nor the help to responsibly scrutinize more than a fraction of the requests, not even with the committee system.
The number of bills requested has doubled in the last couple of decades. The number of bills introduced has stayed pretty much the same. So has the number of bill adopted.
What’s going on here? Quipped a friend, “So many evil plans. So little time.” There’s that, for sure. There’s also virtue signaling by some legislators. And there’s a failure of leadership, which is not surprising because some of the leaders are the worst offenders.
Those who yawn “What’s the big deal? This is the way it’s always been.” need to set aside their cynicism. This is not the way it’s always been, let alone the way it needs to be. It’s to the benefit of no one save lobbyists and corrupt people trying to sneak into law bad bills that escape scrutiny because there are more bills than eyes to examine them thoroughly.
Updated. Zelensky comes to Washington, D.C. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with President Joe Biden today, and addresses Congress in person this evening (story, Washington Post). He speaks passable English, so it will be interesting whether he delivers his speech in English or speaks Ukrainian for the benefit of his people. Update. He delivered his speech in English (transcript)
This will be the most important address to Congress by a leader of an European nation at war since Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress on 26 December 1941 (transcript).
Zelensky comes to American with a tin cup, begging for more weapons. He’s getting more, but he’s apt to be disappointed. I hope he has the wisdom and grace not to bit the hand that arms his soldiers. Update. He was gracious, not scolding.
There’s no word on how Zelensky is traveling to the United States. But it would not surprise me to learn he was flown here aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft, possibly a C-17 equipped for hauling VIPs.