Huh.
\u201cI\u2019m a pro-labor Republican,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the record is clear \nin history that the best jobs are union jobs with higher wages and \nbenefits.\u201d
When asked whether or not he would, as a state \nlegislator, support a \u201cRight-to-Work\u201d (RTW) law which would allow \nworkers in unionized industries to choose for themselves whether or not \nto join the union, Rose said that he goes \u201cback and forth\u201d on that \nissue, saying that he understands the desire to give workers the right \nto choose membership, though he say he worries that RTW laws only serve \nto \u201cempower corporate elites.\u201d
\u201cI lean \u2018no\u2019 on Right-to-Work,\u201d he \nsaid. \u201cHowever, I can\u2019t make a commitment yet, because every \nRight-to-Work bill is different.\u201d
Huh.
The realignment proceeds apace.
That\u2019s just outside of Whitefish. I wonder if Richard Spencer\u2019s got a hand in this. Of all alt-right types he always seemed the most likely to found a caucus and not just a mutual jerkoff society.
Course not sure I have the causalty right there. Could just be Montana. America still has a frontier and it is fucking wild.
Was in Missoula for a cousin\u2019s wedding one summer. The college, \u201cblue\u201d town of Montana. Honest to god grizzled prospector-looking guys in the bars getting into fights over real-money card games, people passing out drunk on the sidewalk in mid-stride, proud celebration of the town\u2019s founding bordellos. Wild west.
My Sandpoint story - it\u2019s good and telling but I\u2019m starting to get attached to it as my Noodle Incident. That was the Idaho panhandle but it was in coming back from Montana, the motorcycle fan/aircraft builder/missionary who really saved my bacon (and served great witness) was a Pacific Islander and at one point he mentioned in passing, with an eye roll, how sometimes when he\u2019d go into town those Aryan Nations guys come down from the hills would think he was Mexican and give him shit.
Like, boom, the fuckin\u2019 backstory you had to imagine to that.
Next day on my way west, passing through the farms with all the giant Ten Commandments signs that guy paid for, stopped in Post Falls to get some food. Some sort of festival in the parking lot across the way, I\u2019m like holy shit, are they doing a Jars of Clay cover?
Go inside, it\u2019s like a Denny\u2019s specializing in wild game almost. All sorts of homey signs, and taxidermied animals, and I\u2019m like \u201cyes, yes, the outdoors and Christianity, I get the concept by now\u201d Then\u2026 I forget if this was a sign like right behind the welcome counter or prominently on the menu, but I remember a line proudly being like \u201cGod may not be welcome in the SCHOOLS, but he sure has a place HERE\u201d
Like, boom.
At any given time about one in every 6000 Montana residents is a state legislator, term limited to a maximum of 8 years in each chamber. Standard sessions are a maximum of 90 days every other year and are paid $82.64/day, the equivalent of a daily worker making $10.33/hr. Per diems on top of this are $112.85, making the total payout just short of $17,600 per semiannual session.
The most prominent item on the front page of the Montana legislature\u2019s website is a link to this form soliciting Helena-area homeowners looking to rent rooms to legislators.