by Helena Lovick | Feb 23, 2025 | E-City Beat Watch
Great Falls, Mont.
In our occasional E-City Beat Watch, recently Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon put up a post about a Facebook page called “The Montana Resistance”. In his blog post, Rick tried to conflate the page with the “Hate has no home here” movement, because some local activists liked the FB page’s dark humor memes. According to Rick, that FB page “is inciting violence and hate against folks in our community.”
Below are a few images from the Montana Resistance page that Rick’s blog post highlighted.
Oh, you don’t like “the armed left” Rick? How interesting…
Back in 2019, I organized a rally for some common-sense measures to reduce gun violence. I reserved the band shell at Gibson Park to speak up after a horrific August weekend of gun violence including 20 people murdered at a Walmart in Texas, and nine people killed in Dayton, Ohio. The rally’s focus was calling for strengthening of red flag laws and universal background checks on gun sales.
Well, Mr. “I don’t incite violence” Rick, who was running for the Great Falls City Commission at the time, saw an opportunity to strengthen his gun-humping brand. Rick organized a pro 2nd Amendment protest adjacent to our rally and posted whiny remarks all over his public Facebook wall trying to rally people to join him. How dare people try to reduce deaths and injuries from gun violence!?? The audacity to want less murder! Thanks to Rick’s efforts, dozens of people made intimidating comments about wanting to bring their ARs, and I even saw a comment that said, “We need executions” on one of Rick’s posts. Nice. Really peaceful. Rick, don’t you know that you can delete inappropriate comments like that on your posts? Or were you cool with it? Oh, and sure Rick made some weak ass comments on his posts to not bring firearms to the rally. Seems too little too fucking late. Only in good old Great Falls was the risk of violence enough to have plain clothes security at the event. Thanks Rick!
At the time, someone told me not to worry about Rick, because he is just a bully and a coward. And, yes, that’s accurate. Rick is just a bully and a coward. But he has a platform that he uses to stir people up. I wasn’t worried that Rick would shoot me. I was worried that someone he incited to chant about the 2nd Amendment would try to harm us.
As a public official, Rick should know better.
When you have a platform like that, you have a responsibility to consider the weight of your words. And I haven’t seen any tempering of Rick’s dumbfuckery. Rick is either too stupid to know the effects of his actions OR he doesn’t care and does it any way. So miss me with Rick’s whining about a FB page with some edgy anti-Nazi memes and his laughable efforts to connect it to the “Hate has no home here” crowd. These groups obviously aren’t related, but maybe Rick needs to introduce himself to the Paradox of Tolerance. Why are you so eager to protect Nazis, Rick?
by Helena Lovick | Jan 29, 2025 | Legislature
Cascade County, Montana
Can we fuck around with elections more? Asked no voter ever. But our joke of a state senator Jeremy Trebas can’t help but keep picking the wrong side of every issue.
Trebas’s latest dumbassery is Senate Bill 128, which has now been voted out of committee. SB 128 would prevent county government from removing “the election administration responsibilities from the county clerk and recorder during the county clerk and recorder’s current term in office. The governing body may remove the election administration responsibilities of the county clerk and recorder for future terms of office”.
Why is Trebas sponsoring this bill?
SB 128 is a response to the chaos Republican Sandra Merchant unleashed in the Cascade County Elections Office. As a reminder, when election denier Sandra Merchant was elected as the Cascade County Clerk and Recorder, she fumbled election after election costing taxpayers thousands in legal fees. The all-Republican Cascade County Commission realized Merchant was not able to adequately perform her election job duties, and the County Commission voted to place the election administration duties under their purview instead. Trebas whined about it before, because he hates local government, so his moronic bill attacking local government control is no surprise.
*Jeremy Trebas, basically
What are the effects of this bill?
The majority of Montana counties have election administration duties performed by the County Clerk and Recorder. A handful, for example, Missoula County, and now Cascade County, have a hired professional rather than the Clerk and Recorder handle the election duties.
SB 128 would be effective immediately if passed, which would be relevant to OTHER Montana counties where election administration is currently being performed by the County Clerk and Recorder. But since it’s not retroactive, it appears to have no effect on the change in election administration in Cascade County.
Why should we care?
All of us should be concerned about this bill, because yet again the legislature is mucking around in a local issue and trying to decide what is best for a county over duly elected, LOCAL officials. Trebas likes this bill, because he doesn’t like local government being run by local people. Jeremy said during the committee hearing on SB 128 that the bill is about “giving voters what they wanted.” Yeah, fucking right. Unless the voters don’t vote how he wants or if the people that are elected like county commissioners don’t do what he wants.
by Helena Lovick | Dec 3, 2024 | Elections
The majority of the American electorate voted for Donald Trump for President, a conman with 34 felonies, a rapist, and a Hitler admirer. Wow. I will admit that I was surprised that he won the popular vote. This is some scary but also fucking embarrassing shit. Embarrassing on an international scale. Here is our leader! He can’t string a sentence together unless it’s talking about how big his rallies are.
But How Bad Is It?
Really fucking bad.
The sickening truth is, it’s going to be as bad or worse than we saw in the first Trump administration. Many people are going to suffer under the upcoming regressive policies.
Republicans hold all three branches of the federal government in America. From the stacked right-wing judges in the Supreme Court, both chambers of Congress and the Presidency, they hold them all. In Montana, our State Supreme Court is in slightly better shape with a majority of moderate judges, but our State Legislature still has a Republican majority, and our Republican Governor Gianforte is an ultra rich religious extremist who thinks the earth is only 6,000 years old. As a treat, Gianforte gave people record high property tax hikes while cutting his own taxes.
WHAT CAN WE DO??
Before I get into a closer look at the election results for Montana, I want to speak briefly about my hope and determination for the future.
If you are scared and worried about our country, the solution is civic engagement. We need to be building local community, talking to our elected officials, holding our politicians accountable and continuing to bend the path of this country towards justice. It took them 40 years to dismantle Roe v. Wade. and it’s going to take time for us to change the right-wing capture of our government. And unless you want to live under a dictatorship, it’s going to take some work to dig us out of this hole. FIND YOUR PEOPLE. Go to community meetings. Show up. Volunteer. Talk to your friends and family and get them involved, too. Register voters that understand the danger we are in. You can make things better.
So What Happened in Montana?
Sadly, the red trend continued. Not surprisingly, we saw a growing right-wing slant in Montana over the past decade, because from October 2008 through May 2024, for every two Democrats moving to Montana, slightly more than three Republicans did the same.
All Statewide Seats are now held by Republicans
As we saw in 2020 and 2022, all statewide Democratic candidates lost in 2024. With the ouster of Montana’s last statewide Democratic official, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Republicans hold every statewide seat. Dismantling of our public services such as Medicaid, access to public lands, tax cuts for the rich, and rising property taxes are all on the table.
How did the vote breakdown?
Jon Tester lost his senate seat to newcomer Tim Sheehy (45% to 53%). Montanans voted against a Senator who has continually proven his support of rural hospitals, abortion rights, infrastructure funding that directly helped Montana, and elected a man who is adamantly anti-abortion and will likely align with an effort to pass a national abortion ban. At the same time, voters passed the abortion rights measure of CI-128 to enshrine abortion rights in our state constitution, 58% Yes to 42% No. That is completely wild. I’m not sure if people know that federal law supersedes state law. If there is an abortion ban on the federal level, then there is an abortion ban in Montana no matter what our state constitution says.
But the happy outcome for CI-128 is a promising sign that Montanans still support women’s rights to their own healthcare decisions. There is space to have a discussion on the disconnect of who is being elected and what the voters and Montanans actually want.
Things are not all bad.
As mentioned above, CI-128 won handily. Democrats broke the supermajority in the Montana State Legislature, and Democrat Jane Weber won her election bid for a Montana House seat in Great Falls. Jane Weber’s win marks the first Democratic legislator elected in Cascade County since 2018.
Map of Montana’s 2024 Legislative Seats. Blue for Democratic seats, Red for Republican seats.
Even in the flood of other bad election news, we did have promising wins for Democratic policies in Montana. Things are not hopeless. Let’s build on that and do the local organizing work to fight for a better future.
by Helena Lovick | Nov 19, 2024 | Abortion Rights
-Great Falls, Mont.
In the summer of 2018, Trump paid a visit to Great Falls in an effort to bolster the Senate campaign of Matt Rosendale. The rally was accompanied by a group of about four hundred anti-Trump protesters. As the rally attendees and protestors shouted back and forth, the MAGA crowd was joined by neo-nazis waving white supremacist flags, including the “national flag of Kekistan.” In a disturbing foreshadowing of the insurrectionists of January 6th, it was clear the white supremacists were aligned with Trump.
With Trump’s win this November, the far right crowd is energized again.
In a skin crawling rallying cry, trolls are posting “your body, my choice” and other misogynistic attacks on social media. The likely originator of the “your body, my choice” slogan, Nick Fuentes, reportedly claims it was a ‘joke’. Hahahahhaa. So funny that men love rape jokes. As Nicky gets to deal with the consequences of his actions, what the hell is wrong with people cheering this on?
As explained in a Vox Op-Ed:
“The spike in sexist hate is a reflection of one of the dominant narratives of the election: that it was essentially a triumph of men over women. Trump tailored much of his campaign to disaffected American men — especially young men, many of whom feel they are victims of discrimination and who have expressed resentment against feminist movements like Me Too. For a lot of these men, the election feels like vindication, and for some, it’s more than that: a chance to put women back in their place.”
Nothing screams “protecting women” like letting them know they have no control over their own bodies.
As disturbing as the post-election joyous celebration by the worst people is, it’s not a surprise.
In addition to the anti-feminist backlash, we have seen a rise in the visibility of white supremacists, anti-immigrant sentiments, anti-LGBTQ attacks, and the list goes on. And Montana is certainly not immune. White supremacists have plastered their stickers all over Great Falls multiple times as we’ve previously reported here and here. The Republican majorities that Montanans keep electing, love passing laws to restrict women, the LGBTQ community, more! All of these flavors of hate, just part of the shit sandwich emboldened by electing bigots.
Sometimes the worst people win.
Sometimes the bullies don’t get the comeuppance they deserve. But our push back makes a difference. I was at that 2018 Trump protest. I remember my disgust when I saw those flags and I started shouting and pointing at them, “nazis, nazis!” And when other protesters joined in shouting down those white supremacists, do you know what those cowards did? They quickly rolled up their flags. With Trump returning to office they think they can come out of the shadows. We don’t have to accept that. Hate has no home here.
by Helena Lovick | Sep 4, 2024 | Abortion Rights
On the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, women took the stage to share their devastating experiences of abortion access in America.
Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old who became pregnant as a child after she was raped by her stepfather, has called for exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion ban for sexual assault survivors.
“At age 12, I took my first pregnancy test, and it was positive,” Duvall told the DNC crowd. “That was the first time I was ever told, ‘You have options.’ I can’t imagine not having a choice, but today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.”
Kaitlyn Joshua spoke about being denied miscarriage treatment when she was pregnant with her second child. “Two emergency rooms sent me away. Because of Louisiana’s abortion ban, no one would confirm that I was miscarrying,” she said.
Appearing alongside her husband, Zurawski said delayed pregnancy care threatened her life. “Every time I share our story, my heart breaks for the baby girl we wanted so desperately, for the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver safely, for Josh who feared he’d lose me too,” she said.
This is post-Roe America.
How are we doing in Montana?
In Montana, abortion access remains legal. But our GOP majority legislature is filled with extremists that work hand in hand with our Republican Governor. These anti-abortion creeps want to control women so badly. The Montana GOP has repeatedly put the squeeze on our rights with invasive anti-choice bill after bill. As we mentioned in an earlier blog post, our excellent State Constitution and impartial State Supreme Court continue to work in our favor. Even though it costs Montana taxpayers ridiculous sums of money to defend the unconstitutional bills passed by the legislature, for now Montana courts continue to impartially and fairly interpret our State Constitution and throw out these unconstitutional laws (see here and here).
But what if our court is overtaken by right-wing wing extremists?
Dark money groups and our right-wing right wing extremist legislators are working tirelessly to undermine and infiltrate our court with justices that will approve their unconstitutional laws. In reality, we are one bad election away from losing our rights.
Vote Yes on CI-128 to Protect Our Rights
The risk to our rights based on a bad election cycle is why I support CI-128. This constitutional initiative would amend our State Constitution to preserve Montanans rights to abortion care. You can see the ballot language below. As the Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights group supporting and informing citizens about this constitutional initiative have stated “decisions around pregnancy are deeply personal and should be made between us, our families, and our health care providers. Not the government. Voting “Yes” ensures that right.”
