The news hit of another murder by ICE/CBP in Minneapolis on January 24th, 2026, just days after the murder of Renee Good. The victim was an ICU nurse without a criminal record, Alex Pretti, 37 years old. A video of the incident shows Pretti recording activities with his cell phone before he is forced to the ground by federal agents and shot.
Immediately, without providing any evidenceand certainly not based on video evidence,the White House is pushing lies that Jeffrey Pretti was a “would-be assassin” and “trying to murder federal agents.” Never show restraint and wait for the truth to come out of an investigation if you can make up lies to attack a left-wing person instead, am I right?
This is the textbook right-wing response we keep seeing. When reality doesn’t fit your narrative,photoshop it so it does. And in the case of dTrump, when your documented pedophilia might come back to haunt you, obscure attention from the Epstein files by starting a war on the American people in blue states.
Please let me lick your boots! – MAGA
Like clockwork, the MAGA faction just accepts every lie and talking point fed to them by Daddy dTrump. They can’t possibly be wrong about him; it must be the rest of the world that is wrong!
Hey MAGAs, instead of twisting yourselves into a pretzel to justify every shitty, illegal, and straight up evil thing done by the dTrump administration. Consider. Maybe. Just maybe. The orange menace and his cronies are the baddies.
Yes, yes you are!
And no, it’s not about immigration enforcement. If they were truly worried about dangerous undocumented immigrants running amuck, why aren’t they focused on Texas and Florida where manymore undocumented immigrants reside? Oh right, because that’s bullshit. We know it is retaliation.
Well, we can’t work with them. So how can we resist this?
What can Great Falls Residents Do?
SHOW UP. There are now daily protests on the Central Ave West bridge in Great Falls. At noon on the weekends and at 4 PM on the weekdays, weather permitting. For your own safety at protests,do not engage with counter protesters. You have a first amendment right to film public activities. But maintain space between yourself and dangerous situations.
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. In Montana, our current Congressional delegation (Zinke, Downing, Daines and Sheehy) are all Trumpers, but make it uncomfortable for them. Make them have to hear our opinions. Tell them to stop funding ICE.
If you don’t know where to start, KEEP SHOWING UP. Go to rallies, go to meetings, go to community educational events. Ask questions, be loud, be a voice for empathy and humanity.
Find out where you can help and do it. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait to be told. If you see a need, fill it.
I read anarticle by a journalist observing the resistance to ICE that is taking place in Minneapolis. And one of the things she talked about was the widespread push back people are doing there and that there is no “central” leader, but several decentralized leaders are organizing throughout the city. Be that leader or find one to work with.
We all are needed and if everyone that is as concerned as me about the direction of this country steps up, we will win. We can do this. Don’t be discouraged. Keep Going.
Politico obtained 2,900 pages of internal chats between leaders of national republican youth groups. They reveal a culture filled with bigotry, hatred and references to violence directed at their political opponents. No matter what you think of Politico’s reporting (which is left leaning and generally rated as accurate by media watchdogs) these comments stand on their own. Whatever happened to the Grand Old Party?!?
The Montana Democratic Party hosted their party convention this month in Livingston and it seemed business as usual. Because of the threats of violence that Montana Democrats faced after the Kirk assassination [despite right wing accusations – no one was celebrating his murder], the convention had increased safety measures in place. Luckily, the convention itself went smoothly without any violence orstripping of the voting rights of delegates like we saw at the Montana Republican Party convention held earlier this year.
The convention was held to amend Montana Democratic Party bylaws and also to elect new party leadership. Despite running two separate candidates, the Cascade County Democrats failed to gain a spot on the Executive Board. Instead, the 20-person board is 30% members from Missoula. Huh. I joke that Cascade County is the ugly stepchild of politics as we keep getting overlooked as the state has slid towards red.
The party was all about unity at the convention. Change was inevitable when former Chair Robyn Driscoll stepped down from her role after six years. But then we go and have possibly the shortest term for an elected political party Executive Board Member ever.
Who was the Vice Chair?
The short-term Vice Chair was Max Johansen, a leader in the Park County Democratic party. I didn’t get a chance to meet with Max one-on-one, but he ran unopposed for Vice Chair and was elected by acclamation.
What happened?
After Johansen won his spot, he went out and spoke to reporters. And here’s what he said:
Johansen criticized Tester for failing to adapt to the changing political environment the past several years, calling him part of the “old guard” that “represents a philosophy that no longer serves the interest of the party,” saying he had not adapted over the years to face a candidate as well-sharpened by the GOP as Tim Sheehy was during last year’s campaign.
“We’re tired of hearing from people who feel like they know everything because they’ve been at the top of the heap for so long,” Johansen said. “That is actually how parties get stale and that’s exactly how parties lose ground.”
That was a surprisingly aggressive position to take against a hugely popular figure in the Montana Democratic Party. When you are given such a large platform, there needs to be some delicacy around public comments. Instead, Max came in with a sledgehammer. And the old guard he dissed had some grave concerns about him continuing in the role. On Tuesday, September 16th, Tester spoke about Johansen on his “Grounded” podcast andsaid Johansen was seeking to tear down the party rather than build it up.
Three. Days. Later.
Johansen resigned “after acknowledging that certain comments he made following the convention were disruptive and inconsistent with the direction of the executive board,” according to the Democratic Party press release.
Wow. I think we saw that coming.
What’s Next?
Now we wait to see who will fill the board vacancy and smooth over this situation. Honestly, we don’t have time to mess around. Thanks to the trump Party and his ilk, fascism is here in America. The Democratic Party has to get its shit together and rise to this moment.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki switched his party affiliation last week from Democrat to Republican. The county attorney released a reaaaallly believable statement about why he switched parties. (Somehow, he forgot to mention that he made the switch because he was worried about re-election…hmmmmm.) The rumor is a Republican was going to run against him and Racki wanted to hold on to his position during next year’s election.
In his statement, Racki said:
For the past several years, we have watched the Democratic party change its stance on law enforcement. Movements to ‘defund the police,’ attacks on law enforcement officials and officers, and putting criminals before victims has gone too far. The Republican Party puts the safety and freedom of law-abiding citizens first by standing with law enforcement.
Huh.
Did Josh memory hole the Republican riot on January 6, 2021? Democrats weren’t the ones beating a police officer with a flag pole, tasing, pepper spraying, and trampling officers at the U.S. Capitol. If Racki doesn’t remember that, then I have some questions about his mental ability to serve as the county attorney.
The Cascade County Democrats are dedicated to safer communities not only through law enforcement but also supporting first responders, prevention programs, recovery programs, education, access to quality healthcare for all, a growing economy and lowering the cost of living. The Republican party is currently dismantling all of these systems at the local level all the way up to the federal level…. the Cascade County Democrats will continue to do the hard work of building a future that is better for ALL Montanans.
Josh Racki Is Finally Honest With Voters
Yeah, we saw it coming
To be honest with you, the majority of active local organizers and Cascade County Democrats saw this coming from a mile away. One obvious sign is Racki is good friends with Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, also a party flipper for political gain. Hang around with clowns become a clown.
At least now he’s being honest with the voters. Maybe some memes will help explain the situation Josh is in:
How diD you kNow he’S RePublicaN?
Josh Racki last week, probably. Living his authentic truth.
An illustration in two parts
Now, enough talking about that loser. We don’t have time for the complicit enablers. We’ve got a fascist movement to turn around in this country.
Let’s talk about “moderate” Republicans. I’ve been hearing about this perspective for years. Some political “experts” think we should support moderate Republicans when they run for districts that are an uphill battle for Democrats. This is different from the calls for voting in a Republican primary to help ensure a more reasonable politician is elected as the blog previously discussed here. Instead, the moderate Republican strategy I’m talking about includes: not investing in Democrats, not supporting Democrats in general elections, not endorsing Democratic candidates, even all the way up to voting for a Republican in a general election.
Rather than recruiting a strong Democrat and trying to put it all on the field, some people believe it is a winning strategy to not even put up a fight, roll over and give the win to a moderate. “At least we can elect someone that is easy to work with!” So….does that strategy payoff? Do these Republicans vote more moderately? Is it preferable to throw support behind a moderate Republican rather than trying to help a Democrat in a lop-sided race?
I’m going to have to say HELL NO. There’s a reason why Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” If you want to make in-roads in a district, you actually have to work on building relationships with the voters in that district.
But another aspect of “at least we elected a moderate” is that THEY AREN’T MODERATE. Over and over again we have seen that the people who are willing to run for office as a Republican in these times are extremists. Sure, they might throw you a bone and help Medicaid expansion get across the finish line (as they did in 2025), but they throw working people and marginalized groups under the bus every day. We’ve written about GOP bigotry of the moderates and MAGA in 2023, but here we are again!
I mean just take a look at how our Great Falls area Republicans voted during the 2025 Legislative Session.
Great Falls Area Republican Legislators
First, here is your list of Great Falls area Republican Legislators with their moderate or MAGA label. The Moderate descriptor is based on participation in the Solutions Caucus, support by the Conservatives4MT PAC, and/or community perspective.
How did they vote? (Shocker – Against us and our future)
In the following table, some key votes of moderate Great Falls area Republicans are listed. Bill descriptions are listed on the left. State Senators Trebas and Emrich are consistently MAGA bigots, and they voted the wrong way on every one of the following bills. Their votes are not shown in the table. Votes are coded with a green color when they are bipartisan and pro-working people.
As you can see in the table, in the vast majority of cases, so-called moderate Republicans vote with the Republican caucus and against the people. If you’re looking for more data on how these clowns voted, you can check out the deeper dive by the Daily Montanan here.
Any Good News? What about the Democrats?
It’s worth noting that our lone Democratic legislator in the Great Falls area, Jane Weber, voted the kind, forward-thinking way on all of these bills. I also give some credit to Republican Senator Wendy McKamey for voting against her caucus significantly more frequently than any other Great Falls area Republican.
It was good to see that Medicaid Expansion in Montana lived another day with the 2025 legislature. But the Big Ugly Bill passed by our federal government (also run by Republicans) just made giant cuts to Medicaid. So what is the benefit to electing moderates when we expect nearly 40,000 Montanans to lose insurance? Sure doesn’t seem like the payoff for ditching Democrats to support Republican Lite is worth it.
What should I do to help turn things around?
Inform yourself when politicians ask for your vote. Is the way they vote kind to you or your neighbors? Is it kind to attack our environment and attack our freedoms to be who we are and to have bodily autonomy? Is that the future you want? I sure don’t.
It is a lot easier to sleep at night when you know that your elected representatives have your back. (Rather than have a knife in your back.) Let’s put up a left leaning candidate in every district and try to build some real momentum away from the rightward slide of Montana and our country. And whoever gets elected, let’s continue to pressure them to do the right thing.
