by Travis Mateer

As housing prices in Missoula and Bozeman continue to skyrocket, locals who are increasingly priced out of getting into this Zoom-crazed market might be getting desperate.

For those desperate people desperately looking for ANY sign that things might change, I think Pete Talbot has some unintentionally good news to share.

I say “unintentional” because the dire warning Talbot is giving to visitors coming to Montana isn’t supposed to be good at all. It’s supposed to be an interpretation, based on legislative actions, of how terrible Republicans will be making our beautiful BIG SKY state.

If we’re lucky, this might get a few people to think twice before relocating.

Here’s my rundown of Pete’s rundown, which you can go read at the above link if you want the fear porn direct from the jack-ass’ mouth.

Let’s get started.

HB 138 is going to murder and torture your dog.

HB 102 is going to turn bars into wild west shootout zones and Pete might not be able to drink his bourbon without getting shot.

SB 324 will pack your fish with selenium.

And HB 273 will result in some nuclear leak one day.

Think that’s bad? Don’t worry, there’s more.

But first, I’m a little confused about why we should be welcoming visitors to Montana at all. If the pandemic is so dangerous and deadly, forcing my kids to wear masks outside while they play with their pod-peers, then why allow people from all over the country to drive and fly to our Big Sky country for a visit in the first place?

Since we can’t stop tourists from flooding our state as the weather warms, Pete Talbot, with his kind, progressive heart, just wants those people to be safe while they spend money at the handful of local businesses that managed to survive the slaughter of 2020.

But our evil Governor has other plans, and that’s to allow maskless germ factories to go breath all over each other.

One of my favorite parts of Pete’s little tirade is where he laments how Republicans are trying to formally label ANTIFA as terrorists right before lamenting that Republicans REFUSE to label white supremacists as DOMESTIC TERRORISTS.

How much bourbon does one have to drink for this to make sense? Here’s the actual juxtaposition this wet-brained Democrat is making:

No need to worry about all the antifa radicals in Montana. A bill to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist threat is still alive. (HJ 11) It will “send a message that we as a state won’t tolerate a group like this coming into our state,” according to the sponsor.

A heads up if you’re Jewish or Muslim or a person of color or maybe just look a little weird: there was less support for a bill that would have declared Montana’s white supremacists and neo-Nazis as domestic terrorists. It died in committee. (HJ 12)

All this legislative talk is just partisan masturbation over abstractions. Pete Talbot is using fear of hypotheticals for political effect because Democrats in Montana don’t have much actual political power to wield. This is what happens when partisans are detached from the on-the-ground reality where real people work and live to survive.

While Pete Talbot writes about legislation dying in committees, the ACTUAL DEATHS of humans in his own backyard are dutifully ignored, like the death of Sean Stevenson at Missoula’s homeless shelter, the Poverello Center.

I guess if there isn’t a Republican-bashing angle to be played, then it’s best just to ignore how a “person of color” came to Missoula for a fresh start and instead ended up being fatally assaulted and removed from life support without his family being notified before pulling the plug.

Nope, that might take some actual introspection from a town that is much more comfortable with public relations campaigns than with reality.