Schweitzer: "throw 'em out!"

Democrat Brian Schweitzer was governor when this scrivener was last living in Montana but after leaving office he chose not to run for the US Senate allowing raving lunatic Steve Daines to sashay into the seat. 

The sometimes bombastic but widely-liked Schweitzer became chairman of the board of Stillwater Mining Company, Montana's largest revenue producer. Schweitzer isn't a progressive by any stretch of the imagination but his populist appeal makes him a regional favorite among Democrats even though he has promoted coal and the Keystone XL pipeline. In 2021 Schweitzer raked Montana Republicans for giving special treatment to South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy when the utility burned down the town of Denton calling it "a fine mix of Socialism and Crony Capitalism to match Russian President Vladimir Putin." 

Today, the Montana Legislature is at least as demented as South Dakota's and the state's Earth hating governor is bleeding taxpayers for disaster relief just like Kristi Noem is.

Montana has never had more elected Republicans than we do today. Republicans control all the branches of government. These tax increases were placed on your shoulders without the help or consent of any Democrat. The Montana Republican Party is now the party of higher taxes and more government spending. Montana’s largest two property taxpayers are Northwestern Energy and BNSF Railroad. They each got millions of dollars in tax cuts. Northwestern sent the loot to corporate headquarters in South Dakota and then raised your electric rates. BNSF sent the stash to Fort Worth, Texas and increased freight rates to ship Montana’s wheat crop to Portland. Refineries, pipelines, transmission lines and mines all got big tax breaks and did not invest more in Montana or hire more Montana workers. They just sent your money to their shareholders. You gave the Republicans a chance and they raised your taxes. Throw'em out! [Schweitzer, Republicans raised your property taxes]

In 2015, an email from a concerned Montanan alerted this blog to a move by the Park County Commission to redirect funds awarded in a lawsuit that were intended to clean up soil contamination now in repose within the city's unlined landfill resulting from decades of spills by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Empire Builder passengers blamed BNSF Railway for the derailment near Joplin in 2021 because in much of the Mountain West that railroad owns the track bed over which Amtrak operates and kills grizzlies in conflict with the Endangered Species Act. 

Now, wildfires are raking Republican-held property again in Montana where welfare ranchers are hoping to cash in on yet another disaster declaration while the governor refuses to debate his election challenger.

Does that AP image look familiar to you South Dakotans? That's because Mrs. Noem coopted it.

Learn more at the Daily Montanan.

“Montana GOP Senate candidate touts his business. It’s losing millions.” “Several directors have left, including 1 who flagged concerns about internal auditing, as an unusually slow wildfire season in 2023 put the company at risk of defaulting on its debt” https://t.co/FIePi4NMV3

— JD ✍️ 🇺🇸 (@JDawsonTweets) August 29, 2024