We often hear the phrase ‘existential threat’ applied to various entities in various situations, but the meaning of that phrase is sometimes vague and misunderstood.
The modern state of Israel faces an actual existential threat right now, today, and has faced that threat every moment of every day since its establishment in 1948, being surrounded by nations dedicated to the destruction of her and her people.
It’s always been clear who the haters of the Jewish state and people are in the Mideast, but now the veil has been removed and we see clearly who the haters are in our own country, on our college campuses, in our cities, and even in the halls of Congress.
Pray for Israel and our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Recently the local WTF406 blog attempted to silence E-City Beat. They failed.
WTF406 is a far left opinion blog run by Cascade County Democratic Central Committee Chair Helena Lovick and CCDCC former/current precinct committee person Jasmine Taylor.
Both are also failed Democrat candidates for state legislature.
Apparently Lovick and Taylor actually believe they can silence opinions and information with which they disagree by using dirty tricks like trying to co-opt an already in-use, copyrighted name.
Here’s a Facebook post dated 10/4/23 from the ‘Jasmine Taylor For Montana’ page:
No, WTF406 does not own this blog.
And this isn’t the first time these Democrats have tried to silence peoples voices in Great Falls – they deployed the same tactic against a local group called ‘Liberty And Values MT’ a few months ago because they didn’t like that groups message.
Someone should inform Lovick and Taylor that E-City Beat will not be silenced no matter how hard they try, and that an expensive and lengthy legal action may be forthcoming if they continue.
Someone should also inform the Cascade County Democratic Central Committee and their 2024 candidates that their official silence on these attacks by their Chair and officer against the First Amendment rights of Great Falls citizens is tantamount to complicity and will not go unanswered now or in the upcoming 2024 local campaigns.
Editors note – Today, October 9, 2023 is Columbus Day. Here is a re-post of a piece I wrote last year which contains my commentary on Columbus Day from 2021. E-City Beat✓ will neither cease nor desist from exercising our First Amendment rights no matter how hard the clowns at WTF406 (Democrat Jasmine Taylor and Cascade County Democratic Central Committee Chair Helena Lovick) try to squash freedom of speech.
‘Below is a re-post of an article I wrote last year for Columbus Day.
First, though, I want to comment on a recent post from the ‘Jasmine Taylor For Montana’ Facebook page.
Taylor is an current/former official with the Cascade County Democratic Central Committee, a current/former precinct captain and former failed Democrat candidate for state legislature and Great Falls city commission.
She is also a divisive, racist, extremist who is largely responsible for turning the local Democrat party into the laughingstock it has become. Why local Democrats would allow a loser like Taylor to represent their ideas and values is a baffling question indeed.
What is the purpose of a public Facebook post like this from a Democrat official (“…for Montana”, really?) other than to demonstrate to a tiny minority of kooky extremists how ‘woke’ she is?
One might as well insert “Great Falls voters” in place of “Christopher Columbus” on the picture below because that seems to be Taylor’s attitude towards this community.
Taylor and others like her think they’re edgy and oh so hip by posting garbage like this, but really they’re just dumb and totally out of touch with this community.’ – ECB 2022
Here’s the article from last year.
“Like many Italian Americans I recognize Columbus Day as a way to take pride in my Italian heritage.
Unfortunately, once again this year there are those would like to take Montana in the direction of other states like Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota, in the elimination of Columbus Day.
Those voices, including the usual state legislators and apparently everyone who works for the Great Falls Tribune, seem willfully ignorant of a couple of important facts.
First, Columbus never set one foot in what we now call America.
Secondly, history is replete with examples of indigenous peoples in America conquering and taking neighboring tribes as slaves, stealing their land, brutalizing and raping women, engaging in human sacrifice and torture as well as committing atrocities including acts of cannibalism.
No racial or ethnic group is pure and innocent when it comes to treating fellow human beings badly. Those who constantly single out white Europeans as monsters while ignoring the atrocities committed by other groups and individuals do so mostly for selfish political reasons.
Their hypocrisy is clear to anyone interested in the facts.
So I would ask the local Great Falls finger pointers and virtue signalers, like those at the Great Falls Tribune who make money on the Lewis and Clark advertising brand, how they feel about the fact that Clark himself held slaves and the Corps of Discovery helped open up the West to American expansion and the “exploitation” of indigenous peoples?
Where are the calls to eliminate the statues of Lewis and Clark in and around Great Falls?
Where are the demands to get rid of any mention of Lewis and Clark in our local celebrations or in the naming of local restaurants and other businesses and tourist sites?
Please, be consistent or be quiet.
Philip Faccenda – Proud First Generation Italian American“
POSTSCRIPT
Christopher Columbus wrote in his Lettera Rarissima, “Let those who are fond of blaming and finding fault, while they sit safely at home, ask, ‘Why did you not do thus and so?” “I wish they were on this voyage; I well believe that another voyage of a different kind awaits them, or our faith is naught.”
To quote a piece by John Hirschauer, Contrary to the simplistic picture painted by academics, the indigenous cultures Columbus encountered were as assorted as those of any other peoples in history. While it might be true that some such cultures fit the nomadic, tranquil image pushed by the revisionists, not even close to all of them did. Which leads to an inevitable follow-up to those who would eliminate Columbus Day in favor of “Indigenous People’s Day. Which “indigenous people” do you have in mind? Is it the Kalinago people, who ate roasted human flesh, with a particular affinity for the remains of babies and fetuses? Is it the Aztecs, who killed an estimated 84,000 people in four days in their consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan?
As historian Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book The Great Explorers noted, Columbus “had his flaws and his defects, but they were largely the defects of the qualities that made him great – his indomitable will, his superb faith in God and in his own mission. That will and faith make him a man worthy of this, the day on which we honor him.
Great Falls Public School Trustee Paige Turoski confirmed at the Monday, September 25 school board meeting that she didn’t see the letter from the school district to the county commissioners requesting a transfer of election duties away from the elections office until a member of the public sent it to her a few days before the meeting.
The September 7 letter was the subject of a previous E-City Beat article, The Letter That Speaks Volumes. Signed by Superintendent Tom Moore, Director of Business Operations Brian Patrick, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Gordon Johnson, the letter was sent “on behalf of Great Falls Public Schools to formally request the duties of Cascade County Elections Office be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Cascade County Commissioners.” The letter wasn’t specific to school elections.
“I only found out about this a couple hours ago. It was never brought before the board,” Turoski stated on the afternoon of Friday, September 22.
It became apparent at the board meeting that the other trustees were aware of the letter.
Superintendent Tom Moore apologized at the meeting for excluding Turoski. But this was not an isolated oversight.
Moore admitted that Turoski was not part of his email distribution list that included the other trustees. Turoski was elected as a school trustee back in May 2022.
Turoski also expressed surprise that this action was not brought before the board for a vote as had a similar action earlier this year. A search of board minutes confirm the September 7 letter was not discussed or voted on.
However, board minutes confirm that at the April 3 school board meeting, the board considered and voted on a formal request calling for the Cascade County Elections Office to comply with the a mail ballot election plan for the GFPS Trustee Election.
The September 7 letter sent by Moore, Patrick and Johnson was also deemed a formal request, yet it was not put before the school board for a vote.
The letter states twice that it is a request to transfer responsibilities of the elections office to the county commissioners despite Moore’s claims on Monday that the letter was merely a request to the county commissioners for help with communications with the elections office.
The school district’s request is mentioned early in the letter and reiterated toward the end of the letter. It states, “Great Falls Public Schools believes that transferring the responsibilities of the Elections Office to the Cascade County Commissioners would ensure greater accountability, transparency and competence in the administration of elections….We request that you consider this proposal earnestly and initiate the necessary steps to evaluate the feasibility of such a transition”
The county commissioners’ response was read at the meeting and there was no indication they would fulfill the district’s request in the immediate future. According to the Montana Code Annotated, the school district could run their own elections, rather than request removal of all election duties from the clerk and recorder’s office.
The letter, dated September 7, 2023, is signed by Superintendent Tom Moore; Brian Patrick, Director of Business Operations; and Gordon Johnson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (GFPS school board).
The letter states “We are writing on behalf of Great Falls Public Schools to formally request the duties of Cascade County Elections Office be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Cascade County Commissioners.” (Emphasis added)
What does this mean exactly? I am awaiting a response from Superintendent Moore. The specific questions I asked him:
1. On what date did GFPS Board of Trustees vote to approve and send this letter?
I asked this because I could find no record in a search of GFPS school board minutes that this letter was approved by the full school board. There’s also no disclaimer on the letter that these three district officials were acting on their own volition to send this letter. In fact, the letter claims to be written on behalf of the school district.
It’s particularly troubling that Johnson signed this letter as board chair, because it implies school board approval when apparently that did not happen.
2. What is the legal justification for GFPS officials and the GFPS Board of Trustees to make such a request?
In other words, where is the authority through the Montana Code Annotated for public school officials to request that a duly elected county official be stripped of part of her duties?
I could find no such authority. Instead, I’d like to know whether the three district officials authoring and sending this letter violated any part of Montana Code Annotated §2-2 Standards of Conduct, specifically §2-2-121. Rules of Conduct for Public Officers and Public Employees, which provides restrictions on public officers and employees political activities on public’s time and dollar. Might this letter be considered a political activity?
3. County commissioners supervise the official conduct of all county officials, but they aren’t election administrators. What does GFPS specifically hope to accomplish through this letter?
It seems possible that Moore, Patrick and Johnson wish to subvert the will of the voters of Cascade County, who elected merchant as Clerk, Recorder AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATOR and are asking the commissioners to appoint another person to serve as election administrator separate from the county clerk and recorder’s office.
Yes, Montana Code Annotated makes this a possibly, in MCA § 13-1-301.Election administrator.
(1) The county clerk and recorder of each county is the election administrator UNLESS THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE COUNTY DESIGNATES ANOTHER OFFICIAL OR APPOINTS AN ELECTION ADMINISTRATOR. (EMPHASIS ADDED)
So though it appears legal for county commissioners to do what GFPS is requesting — is it just? We all know that when Merchant was elected, election administration was part of the job. How can these GFPS officials think their request is more valid than the will of Cascade County voters?
There is an opportunity for the public to express their opinions on this action by school officials. The next GFPS school board meeting is 5:30 pm, September 25 in the Aspen Meeting Room at the District Office Building. The District Office Building is located at 1100 4th Street South.
The county commissioners haven’t yet taken action on this request and comments can be shared with them through email or by phone:
A question that is frequently asked of local candidates running for non-partisan seats for mayor and city commission is, “What political party do you belong to?”.
Party designation is not required for commission/mayor candidates and there will be no ‘D’ or ‘R’ by their names on the upcoming November ballot. Nevertheless, many voters consider party affiliation and history as a factor in their decision even when voting for non-partisan offices.
The following is a rundown of on-record political party affiliation for the Great Falls city commission candidates. Our previous installment took a look at Great Falls mayoral candidates.
Party associated campaign donors: Unknown. Has not filed required C1 or any Campaign Finance Reports with the Montana Office of Political Practices.
Eric Hinebauch
Past political party experience: GOP precinct Committeeman, precinct 26A.
Party associated campaign donors:
George Nikolakakos, GOP state representative.
Micaela Stroop
Past political party experience: Unknown.
Party associated campaign donors: Unknown. Has not filed required C1 or any Campaign Finance Reports with the Montana Office of Political Practices.
Rick Tryon
Past political party experience: Ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for state legislature twice in general elections and once in primary election, also ran unsuccessfully in GOP primary for Cascade County Commission. Former Vice Chair for Cascade County Republican Central Committee.
Party associated campaign donors: None.
Shannon Wilson
Past political party experience: Founding Member #6 of Big Sky 55+, a liberal Democrat candidate and issue advocacy group. Secretary, Board Member for Great Falls Rising, a local ‘progressive’ group.
Party associated campaign donors:
Don Ryan, former Democrat state representative and senator, former Democrat appointee to Cascade County Commission.
Great Falls Democrat Barbara Bessette recently posted on her Twitter page that she was dropping out of the 2024 race for state legislature in HD 20, a seat she previously held, losing reelection in 2020 then failing to win back the seat again in 2022.
Here are some excerpts from Bessette’s full statement which can be read on her Twitter page, linked above.
“It has been harder and harder for a lot of us here to make ends meet due to the failed policies enacted by the current rich white ruling class in power.”
“…I have been told that my outspoken advocacy for issues important to me and my community are at odds with the current message and direction the Montana Democratic Party leadership wishes to portray.”
“…We need structural change in both the Montana Democratic Party and state government.”
“…Too much is on the line for us to let political elites lose even more ground to the authoritarian bigots seeking to dismantle the state government whose first duty is to protect all of its citizens.”
