Free Republic

This morning, Karen had a nice rundown of the allegations brought forth against Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson in a memo offered up by Montana Senator Jon Tester and what’s become of them since the shocking “revelations” first hit the news. Let’s just say that they don’t seem to be holding up well under initial scrutiny, to put it charitably. Not long after holes began appearing in these stories, President Trump jumped back into the fray on Twitter with a less than subtle solution to offer: Jon Tester should resign. (CNN) President Donald Trump on Saturday morning called for Montana Democratic...

Republicans think Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) overstepped in his opposition to President Trump’s Veterans Affairs pick, and that it could breathe new life into his Montana Senate race. Tester hasn’t been seen as a top target for Senate Republicans in a cycle where they have numerous pickup opportunities, but Republicans say that may have changed this week. Trump is vowing that Tester will pay a steep political price for his takedown of VA nominee Ronny Jackson, especially given the president’s 2016 victory in Montana by 20 points — and it’s an argument being echoed by Republicans.

Enzymatic liquid membrane design and mechanism of carbon dioxide capture and separation. The Sandia/University of New Mexico membrane is fabricated by formation of 8-nanometer diameter mesopores. Using atomic layer deposition and oxygen plasma processing, the silica mesopores are engineered to be hydrophobic except for an 18-nm-deep region at the pore surface which is hydrophilic. Through capillary condensation, carbonic anhydrase enzymes and water spontaneously fill the hydrophilic mesopores to form an array of stabilized enzymes with an effective concentration greater than 10 times of that achievable in solution. These catalyze the capture and dissolution of carbon dioxide at the upstream surface...

The parents of a U.S. engineer found dead in Singapore last year said on Wednesday they will not take part in the rest of a coroner’s inquiry into his death, which they say was linked to a project involving the transfer of sensitive technology to China. In a statement issued through their lawyers, Rick and Mary Todd said they had lost confidence in the system investigating the death of their 31-year-old son, Shane, who was found hanging in his Singapore apartment last June. The Todds did not appear in court on Wednesday, the day after a U.S. medical examiner they...

Is Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester running scared? That could be the case, or it could be that he just knows his state. His latest ad features him touting bills he co-sponsored that were signed into law by Trump. The Washington Post added that some of these bills are also not ones of great significance, like the tax bill for example. One of them named a mountain after a conservationist, but Trump’s name is attached to it. Still, any red state Democrat running this year knows he or she will be fighting for their political lives. Their states voted for...

Dear Montana Representatives:On February 13th, I had the opportunity to speak in Dennison Theater at the University of Montana (UM). Events leading to the speech as well as events occurring during the speech made it clear that the Montana legislature must act to restore respect for freedom of speech on its publicly funded university campuses. I write today to ask that you pass specific free speech legislation we have already adopted in my home State of North Carolina.Prior to my speech, in a bizarre statement to the entire university community, UM president Seth Bodnar stated, “Ours is a university driven...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

A new interview with Mitch McConnell this week showed the first cracks in the wall of his optimism about the midterms. While not going down a path of gloom and doom, he no longer sounds positive of breaking a long-standing trend of the party in power losing ground in such scenarios. He’s not coming out and saying the GOP’s majorities in both chambers are toast, but he seems to think they’ll be losing seats. (The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that he expects to see GOP majorities in the House and Senate shrink...

Todd Orr is the survivor of a double mauling by a grizzly bear on 1 October, 2016.  When the bear charged him, he used bear spray in an attempt to stop the attack. It did not work. Todd was taught that bear spray was superior to pistols for stopping charging bears. He took the use of bear spray seriously, kept an up to date can of spray in a holster, and had practiced quick drawing the spray and using it. He had used bear spray on a black bear twelve years previously. In that instance he surprised the sleeping...

A new study says that Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, the conservative in the race for the United States Senate, has an advantage in the primary contest because of name recognition. Nearly eight out of ten (78%) likely Republican primary voters have heard of him, and among those who have an image of Rosendale, forty-three percent (43%) have a favorable impression.

Rancher and state auditor Matt Rosendale leads his Montana Senate Republican primary opponents by double digits, according to a poll released Thursday. “Montanans elected me to reduce spending, reduce regulations and defend our freedoms–and I did. The voters of our state support me because they know I mean business and have always served the way I said I would,” Rosendale said in a press release. Rosendale has a two-to-one advantage over fellow GOP competitors; 28 percent of Republican primary voters would vote for him, compared to 12 percent for Troy Downing, while 11 percent would vote for Russell Fagg.

New Jersey on Monday became the latest state to implement its own net neutrality rules following the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the Obama-era consumer protections. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order prohibiting all internet service providers that do business with the state from blocking, throttling or favoring web content. “We may not agree with everything we see online, but that does not give us a justifiable reason to block the free, uninterrupted, and indiscriminate flow of information,” Murphy said in a statement. “And, it certainly doesn’t give certain companies or individuals a right to pay their way...

...in December, the FCC rolled back Obama-era legislation aimed at regulating Internet service providers, meaning providers don't have to treat all online sites equally. ...On Monday, Montana Governor Steve Bullock went a step further and became the first state official to sign an executive order imposing net neutrality in Montana.... ...Governor Bullock is here with me now to talk more... ...tell us about your thought process in deciding to issue this executive order? And I'd particularly like to know why you think this is an important issue... BULLOCK: Well, I think it's an important issue for Montana and, indeed, our...

A West Virginia bill that would end taxpayer funding for abortions in the state is slated for a public hearing Monday in the state House. West Virginia is one of 17 states that funds elective abortions for low-income women through Medicaid. State House Bill 4012 would end taxpayer funding for abortions except when medically necessary to save the mother’s life, the AP reports. Since 1977, state taxpayers have been forced to pay millions of dollars for tens of thousands unborn babies’ abortion deaths, according to West Virginians for Life. “The federal government limits tax funding of abortions to cases of...

Though federal employees won’t get a paycheck during the governmment shutdown, members of Congress will — unless they specify otherwise. Ten Democratic senators on Friday introduced a bill that would withhold pay for members of Congress during the government shutdown. The legislation comes from Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), along with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.). “It’s wrong that members of Congress would still get paid in...

Sen. Jon Tester’s tweet about the passage of the Tax Reconciliation Act has gone viral, with more than 42,000 retweets, The Great Falls Tribune reported Saturday.... “I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote,” Tester said in the video. “One page literally has hand-scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read.” “I want you to take a look at this, folks. This is your government at work,” Tester said as he brought the page with the side notations....

Senate Republicans were confident that they had the votes needed Friday to pass their tax plan as last-minute changes brought more GOP lawmakers on board. Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., earlier Friday said they would back the bill after securing further tax relief for pass-through businesses. Then, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., committed to supporting the plan, leaving Republican leaders confident that they had the support. On Friday morning, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, called holdout Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the last two senators who need to get on board. The GOP can...

A hunter who was tracking a wounded elk was attacked by a grizzly. The bear chomped on his hand, then retreated. The hunter had a rifle, but chose to use bear spray instead. He got ready for the bear with the bear spray. The bear came back.The hunter sprayed the bear and himself. The bear retreated. The bear came back. The bear spray was empty. They hunter threw the empty can at the bear.  The bear retreated.Having expended the potential for bear spray defense, the hunter readied his rifle.They bear did not come back. From krtv.com: He put up...

From Mississippi to Ontario, adults and children alike are being fed the most grotesque of lies. It's happening all over North America – including places you might think were too remote to even conceive of such activities. Take Missoula, Montana, where the local newspaper, the Missoula Current, reported last April on a group called Standing Alongside America's Muslims (SALAM), formed a year earlier “to push back against a rising tide of Islamophobia.” The Current report on SALAM, as it happened, appeared two weeks to the day after the deadly suicide bombing in the St. Petersburg, Russia, Metro, by an affiliate...

11 year old Elliot Clark killed this charging grizzly with a shotgun in Alaska in July of 2017.  He used a 12 gauge shotgun. The first shot was ineffective, with bird shot. The second shot was a perfectly placed slug in middle of the nose. The third shot was to the shoulder. It is likely both would have been fatal. There were powder burns on the bears mouth from the third shot. The fourth shot was an insurance shot after the bear was down.In Montana, a few days ago, in early November, 2017, a 60-year-old pheasant hunter shot and...