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Tester playing politics with budget, DACA?

Democrats touted how they wanted a “clean” DACA bill. But then they shut down the government by not approving interim funding in order to blackmail the citizens of this county with D.A.C.A.

Sen. Tester voted against the tax cuts that 90 percent of Montanans will benefit from (our state median wage is $47k per household) and then voted for the shutdown. If the shutdown had not been quickly reversed, the military would not get paid, so active duty families would be left hanging. Sen. Tester cares more about his caucus and illegals than us.

Congress has not passed a budget since 2009 and it is nothing but partisan fake anger that he tweets outrage over no budget in the first 111 days. He touts all he has done for veterans. How about dealing with the problems? Veterans are getting collection notices for bills not paid by Veterans Choice. Doctors are still spending more time doing paperwork to try and get care for their patients than they do treating them. They are still assigned thousands of patients, causing huge wait times. Vets still fighting for months and years for disability claims to be approved.

Tester’s most recent fake outrage is over handwritten additions on the tax bill, yet he voted for Obamacare without reading it. Obviously, Sen. Tester thinks we are ignorant and not paying attention. I’m tired of the name calling, disrespect for the president, paying senators that do nothing (yes they get paid during a shutdown) and being ignored. Call it the Schumer/Tester Shutdown —Madeline Steeley, Kalispell

Editor wrong about law and sanctuary cities

My thought was the premise of the editor’s “2 cents” column on Jan. 21 was plain off the mark. Whether or not one agrees with sanctuary cities and states (California), violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause on the part of local and state entities doesn’t seem part of issue. There’s a reason the federal government has not brought the case before the court. Especially a more conservative judge would in all probability rule against it.

What those local and state jurisdictions are saying is they are exercising their authority whether or not to assist federal immigration officials as they see fit. They’re not saying they’re going to impede immigration authority as it goes about its function. In effect, the current administration wants local and state jurisdictional authority to act as if they were federal agents. Some are exercising their right not to do so. If they were to prevent ICE from performing duties, there would be clear violation.

Would this administration carry out its threat to withhold funding to such places, there would be a federal case brought involving coercion used to exceed authority. Notice they haven’t carried out that threat either. As a conservative, the managing editor you should be in favor of local and states rights when it comes to such things.

There is an interesting case in Texas, where the state passed a law mandating local authority to assist ICE, under penalty of law. That one is being challenged.

It’s always best to first identify details about what the issue actually is. Despite political leanings, it’s also prudent to remain cautious when it comes to ideologically motivated false premise. In effect, fake news.

(As disclaimer: I am an acquaintance of editor. He is a good fellow who I almost always disagree with when it comes to opinion. There is a sharp difference between news pages and editorial (opinion) pages in our local paper and elsewhere. With the limited resources, the editor, in my opinion, does a pretty good job given limited resources, at separating the difference.) —James How, Kalispell

How do they know the temperature in 1717 anyway?

A Friday Jan. 19 AP article said “2017 was not hottest year ever.” I might accept that — if these climate-change experts could tell us what the world temperature was in 1817 or maybe 1717.

To my knowledge there were very few thermometers 300 years ago or before. Much less distributed throughout the world. Thermometers were invented in 1714 by a German engineer. These experts have no idea what the world temperature was 500 years ago or 2,000 years ago. The only thing we know is that it was acceptable for mankind and living things to survive.

Manmade global warming (and now climate change) is nothing but a big lie, to try and spend the USA into oblivion and make Al Gore rich. —Dexter Hamilton, Kalispell

Women’s march got short shrift

Recently, I decided to look through the Daily Inter Lake’s website in order to catch up on news from the valley. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a page dedicated to the recent women’s march in Kalispell. This quickly turned to a sort of resigned frustration when I realized that the coverage of the women’s march wasn’t coverage at all, but rather a small slideshow of photos taken at the march.

I don’t really know what I expected from this paper, which is prone to posting racist and sexist diatribes from members of the community and pays only lip service to actual activism. Never mind how courageous the folks who participated in the march in Kalispell were, showing up in such a closed-minded, male-dominated, Bible-thumping state right across from where the weekly Nazi meetings are held.

The world is changing and Montanans need to change with it or be left behind. It takes courage to stand up and make noise when something is wrong — especially in a state that is so lax in its prosecution of sexual assault charges. Rape gets swept under the rug all the time, because God forbid we actually punish the scumbags who think that other people are theirs to have. Women have been speaking up and acting out about the issues in Montana for decades, but it only gets attention when John Krakauer writes a book about it.

And yet when all these brave people come out in force to protest the established way of things, there’s barely any ripple, and most of the response from the community is disgust and scripture. The media has a duty to expose the truth and pay attention to the stirrings of protest. Women deserve more than a footnote, so give it to them. —Rosalie Lander, Bigfork

Will we act to protect innocent?

As I watched on television the evil inflicted on 13 innocent children by their own parents, I wonder, did anyone know? If so, why didn’t they do anything to help?

Then I read in the Inter Lake of a new abortion clinic opening in Whitefish. While quick to point out a few health benefits they will provide, they seem most proud to announce they will be performing abortions.

In both cases the most innocent and vulnerable among us are affected. Innocent children harmed; innocent babies slaughtered.

I wonder how many people know, how many care, how many will do something? —Linda Flinchbaugh, Kalispell

Libertarian Party is party of hope

Thank you, Inter Lake, for fairly reporting freedom issues, and an editorial page that encourages public participation.

I am running, for HD 10 to restore conscience to Montana politics.

I am fascinated by the legislative party-line votes, frightened when all vote the same to erode freedom, and troubled that party leaderships’ use coercion to destroy conscience.

Today the best option, for conscience, is the Libertarian Party.

I offer campaign advice, for a cup of coffee, to any candidate who supports restoring conscience to their party and believes in “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” —Bill Jones, Bigfork