The Supreme Court of the United States, hijacked by an extreme right-wing majority, continues to attack our long-standing rights and laws. Just last week they overturned affirmative action, limited LGBTQ rights, and struck down Biden’s initial student loan relief plan.
You hear all these stupid arguments to the effect of “if you sign a contract, you have to follow the terms.” As if student loans aren’t predatory as fuck, and they CANNOT BE DISCHARGED IN BANKRUPTCY. That’s right, unlike almost all other business and consumer debt in this country, student loans aren’t typically eligible for discharge in bankruptcy. (You can thank a Republican for that). Let’s get real. Student loans are designed to trap people in a vicious debt cycle for decades if not a lifetime. We are saddling 18-year-olds with near lifetime debt. How is that fair? How is that just?
New York Timescolumnist, Tressie McMillan Cottom astutely stated on twitter, “Student loan debt cancellation is not righting the borrower’s wrong but admitting the State’s wrong.” Our country has permitted predatory financial practices against students who are simply working towards the American dream. This student loan forgiveness would have righted some of that injustice.
Meanwhile in Montana
On Friday, our dumbass governor tweeted this out after the student loan judgment was handed down:
Ok, cool, cool Mr. Hypocrite. You have a net worth of $205 million, but I’m sure you just work 2000 times harder than the average Montanan.
Meanwhile hypocritical Republicans pretend they are somehow not stealing from working Montanans.
For example, we’ve got a new multi-millionaire in the U.S. Senate race attempting to unseat Senator Jon Tester. Tim Sheehy is the CEO and founder of Bridger Aerospace Group in Belgrade, MT. What does Tim think of PPP loan forgiveness?
Shocked Pikachu face, Bridger Aerospace had a $781,985 loan forgiven!
But we can’t forgive student loans? Give me a break.
This past week, I received a sickening postcard from Great Falls Republican Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway. I’m assuming her message was in response to public comment I sent to the legislature about their continued attacks on LBGTQ+ Montanans. You can see an image of the bigoted, disturbing shit she is telling Montanans here:
In her postcard message, Lola stated, “In our confusing WOKE Culture defining sex is necessary to clarify GOD’S Truth – GOD created male + female in HIS IMAGE! I will continue to STAND for this ETERNAL TRUTH!”
Good grief, who are we letting create the laws in our state?
I’m not going to dive deeply into the logical fallacies of Lola’s statement. But I will point out that those are her personal religious beliefs, not eternal truths. “Christians” like Lola Sheldon-Galloway are openly comfortable claiming that they have a biblical mandate to occupy and control secular institutions. (Ironically, many evangelicals do not consider Lola Sheldon Galloway and her husband Steven to be Christian because they are Mormons. A fact that is apparently completely lost on the Galloways as they claim to represent the Christian perspective.)
Besides her evidenced lack of scientific knowledge, Lola apparently also lacks basic knowledge of our government’s founding principles. Because of their overt worship of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, I assume Republicans are also aware of our First Amendment.
The First Amendment prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion and protects citizens’ right to practice their religion as they please. The United States was founded as a SECULAR nation. That means the separation of church and state is fundamental to our nation.
But our GOP-majority State Legislature and Republican Governor Greg Gianforte don’t give a shit about your religious beliefs if they aren’t in line with their White Christian Nationalism.
How is the religious extremism of our GOP government impacting Montana?
One way is via the Republican majority’s attacks on LGBTQ+ Montanans. Our Republican “leaders” have pursued a slate of anti- LGBTQ+ bills throughout this legislative session. When their relentless, hate-filled bills were called out for the death sentence they are to LGBTQ+ children, Republicans silenced their colleague Representative Zooey Zephyr.The Republican Speaker of the House has refused to let Representative Zephyr speak on the floor until she apologizes for her correct assessment of the harmful impacts of their hate. Representative Zephyr is a trans woman, which is relevant because of how her bullies are acting. In their public comments, numerous Republicans have misgendered her just to emphasize their cruel bigotry.
What is up with the Montana GOP’s slate of hate-filled anti-LGBTQ+ bills?
Sadly, many of these bills are close to being signed into law by our equally extreme governor. Our Great Falls legislators are doing nothing to slow these attacks. Instead they are all voting FOR this hate over and over again. Several active bills attacking LGBTQ+ Montanans are listed below.
These are shameful days for our state. Goodbye Montanan attitude of “live and let live.” Not any more. Not when representatives like Lola Sheldon-Galloway feel emboldened to let their religious beliefs lead their legislative actions.
Update: This story is still in progress. There have been reports of a broad title strike amendment to HB 774 to bring this primary proposal back to life. Stay tuned for the next round of partisan power grabs from our GOP legislators.
SB 566 would have required that the two candidates who receive the most votes in a primary election for a U.S. Senate seat advance to the general election irrespective of party affiliation. That would mean that, if two Republican candidates got more votes than a Democrat or Libertarian in the primary elections, then whoops-a-daisy – no Democrat nor Libertarian can be on the ballot in the general election.
Just a reminder, EVERY GREAT FALLS SENATOR VOTED FOR THIS PARTISAN POWER GRAB: Emrich, Fitzpatrick, McKamey, and Trebas.
So why did the Montana House vote so decisively to table the bill, when every Great Falls senator was on board? One of the Republicans on the House committee who voted to table the bill, Rep. Gregory Frazer, spoke to the press. “I have had a lot of my folks from back home reach out to me and ask me to vote no on this – a lot more than what I thought.”
There you have it! Thank you, public backlash! Shaming people into doing the right thing can work.
How much more contempt can the GOP show the voters of Montana?
A new shitty bill passing through the Montana legislature has come to our attention. Senate Bill 566 revises our election laws to provide for a top two primary for the U.S. Senate office. SB 566 has just passed out of the Montana Senate will be sent over to the Montana House this week.
What fresh hell is this?
SB 566 requires that the two candidates who receive the most votes in a primary election for a U.S. Senate seat advance to the general election irrespective of party affiliation. That would mean that if two Republican candidates get more votes than a Democrat or Libertarian in the primary elections, then whoops-a-daisy – no Democrat nor Libertarian can be on the ballot in the general election.
If you didn’t know, a lot of voters don’t vote in primaries. The majority of voters vote in general elections. Also, Republicans tend to vote more reliably in primaries than Democrats.
Clearly this bill is targeted right at U.S. Senator Jon Tester
Tester has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2024. It’s especially telling that SB 566 has an immediate effective date and termination date. That means the bill will be (1) in force as soon as it’s passed and approved and (2) no longer in force after June 30, 2025. Conveniently, that’s right after the 2024 election!
What are Great Falls legislators doing to stand up for Montana voters? SB 566 just passed through the Montana Senate. Let’s take a look. EVERY GREAT FALLS SENATOR VOTED FOR THIS PARTISAN POWER GRAB: Emrich, Fitzpatrick, McKamey, and Trebas
The third reading of SB 566 before it passed over to the Montana House.
Our current GOP government in Montana is just a bunch of ghouls trying to silence the voice of the voters. Disgusting.
Question the Montana GOP needs to ask themselves. (And the answer is Yes!)
While Cascade County residents are watching in horror the complete trainwreck of elections under newly elected Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, how are things going in the Montana Legislature?
First the good news.
Ha! I kid, there is no good news. We elected clowns so now we get clownery.
Ok, fine I take that back. There is some good news. A big thank you to the people speaking up and testifying against hateful legislation. Democrats and members of the public are still pointing out illegal and thoughtless aspects of these bills. I’m thankful that people are trying to defend Montana’s citizens from our extremist Republicans legislators.
The latest stupidity from our Great Falls Legislators
The good news is that thanks to the efforts of passionate testimony, we have managed to reject some ultra stupid bills by Great Falls legislators. Like SB 235 by Senator Daniel Emrich — an effort to ban teachers from teaching scientific theory and SB 497 by Senator Steve Fitzpatrick — an effort to destroy stream access for Montana anglers. Buh-bye bad bills.
Well. I’m sorry. It continues to be very bad. Shocking no one, Republicans continue to attack abortion rights, LGBTQ rights and pass bills to benefit the uber rich.
I can’t list all of the bad bills here, so I’ll just mention some of the worst and point out where our Great Falls delegation is failing us.
Abortion Rights
Great Falls Representative Lola Sheldon Galloway, our local delegation’s best handmaiden to the patriarchy, has two disgusting bills to highlight. The bills both passed out of committee based solely on Republican votes. HB 937 forces more onerous licenses for providers and facilities that perform abortions. HB 786 adds more burdens on abortion medication providers. The goal of this legislation is not to protect people with uteruses or keep us safer. (Despite the gibberish Lola likes to spout.) The real goal is to dissuade patients and medical providers from providing necessary healthcare. Wow Lola, why do you hate people with uteruses so much?
Lola Sheldon-Galloways’s bitterly ironic campaign bench ads from 2022
More Stupidity on Healthcare
Senator Daniel Emrich, R-Great Falls continues to fight established medical knowledge and try to stop immunization requirements with his SB 450. SB 450 has now passed from the Montana Senate to the Montana House. Before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. But who cares if your child catches a preventable and potentially fatal disease? Isn’t it better to be them to be immunization-free and dead?
LGBTQ+ Bigotry
Even though our Great Falls delegation aren’t the primary sponsors on several hateful anti-LGBTQ+ bills, they sure are fine voting for them.
But why listen to an expert when you can listen to your bigoted impulses, right Montana Republicans? It has passed though the legislature and these Great Falls legislators voted for it:
Fred Anderson
Ed Buttrey
Steve Galloway
Steve Gist
Scot Kerns
George Nikolakakos
Lola Sheldon-Galloway
Daniel Emrich
Steve Fitzpatrick
Jeremy Trebas
Thank you to Senator Wendy McKamey for voting no on SB 99. Senator McKamey was the ONLY Great Falls legislator that didn’t vote to pass this hate.
Knowing the homophobia of our governor, SB 99 will be signed into law and then the taxpayers get to pay for the lawsuits. Meanwhile trans youth are treated as punching bags.
Where does that leave us?
I wish I could end on a lighter note, but our Great Falls delegation and other Montana Republicans continues to let down Montana’s citizens. Keep speaking up and let them know we are watching and disagree with their hateful attacks on our rights. You can send a message to a legislator using this form: https://leg.mt.gov/web-messaging/ or give them a call, they love it. The general switchboard is (406) 444-4800 and your message will be delivered to a legislator
