The Pfizer vaccine is now fully approved by the CDC.  That should put to bed the argument some vaccine-hesitant people continue to use stating that the vaccine is experimental – but it won’t.  I got to thinking about this vaccine hesitancy and why there are now lawsuits against some businesses that have mandated all of their employees get vaccinated.  I really don’t understand this.  The people claim that it infringes upon their rights.  Don’t the businesses have any rights?  After all, in the court case Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission the Supreme Court essentially ruled that businesses have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to support political candidates through ‘SuperPacs’ as an expression of the First Amendment rights.

So, if businesses have First Amendment rights just like an individual, don’t they also have the right to run their business any way they like?  Many of the same people who are arguing against the vaccine and mask requirements imposed by businesses are the same people who, in the name of ‘religious liberty’ want businesses to be able to refuse to serve members of the LGBT community.  Once again, the hypocrisy is strikingly blatant and another example of how when these people talk about ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’ they only mean it in the context of what they personally believe. 

If anyone has ever had a dog and wanted to board that animal, most boarding facilities will demand that those pets be vaccinated before they will accept them.  The same is true when animals are transported on aircraft.  If a boarding kennel can require any pet under its care in its facility be fully vaccinated, why is it any different for businesses to require employees in its facility to be fully vaccinated.  Do we treat our pets better than we treat each other?  Likewise, it is fairly standard practice to vaccinate livestock against certain diseases.  Do we treat our livestock better than we treat each other?  I guess the answer is ‘yes’. 

It just boggles my mind that people are willing to play Russian roulette with their lives and the lives of their children because of politics.   There is virtually no scientifically backed reason why children in schools should not wear masks to help stop the spread of this insidious disease.  I can only surmise that politics and ‘making a statement’ are more important than a child’s health.  Seems pretty sad to me. 

People vaccinate their pets to protect them from diseases.  People vaccinate their livestock to protect them from diseases.  But somehow people are refusing to vaccinate themselves or wear masks to protect themselves, their families and their communities against this insidious COVID virus.  And humans are supposed to be the more intelligent species??  Really??

Imagine being a firefighter trying to put out a fire and there are a bunch of people standing around continuing to pour gasoline on that fire.  To most of us, that would seem almost impossible to imagine but the current situation with the COVID pandemic is essentially the same scenario.  There is a continuous stream of stories about health care workers who are getting burned out from both physical and emotional fatigue.  They are on the front lines of this pandemic and they must feel exactly like the firefighter trying to put out a fire with people standing around pouring gas on the fire they are trying to put out.

The ability to get this pandemic under control is within our grasp by undertaking a few simple actions – get vaccinated, wear masks in indoor and crowded settings, wash your hands, practice social distancing.  It’s not rocket science and yet a large segment of the population is refusing to do their part to get this thing under control.  At Trump’s rally in Alabama over the weekend, he talked about getting the vaccine and he got booed by some in the crowd.  The vaccination rate in Alabama is the lowest in the country, the COVID cases are skyrocketing, hospitals are full and in crisis – and people booed the idea of getting a vaccination!

Many of these people who are refusing to wear masks and get vaccinated yell loudly about their freedom to make those decisions.  The irony is that tens of thousands of men and women made huge sacrifices, sometimes with their lives, to provide those freedoms.  And these anti-mask and anti-vaccine people aren’t willing to make even a small sacrifice to honor the people who have sacrificed so much for them.  That certainly doesn’t strike me as ‘patriotic’.  Instead, it exudes an attitude of ‘screw you,’ this is all about me and I really don’t give a damn about my neighbors, my community or my country.  That is about as unpatriotic as you can get.  As they say, actions speak louder than words.

And speaking of ‘patriotic’, the ongoing effort to repatriate Americans from Afghanistan along with those who helped the Americans during the 20 years war continues.   It is certainly chaotic but as was pointed out in Heather Cox Richardson’s latest blog post:

“Interestingly, much of the U.S. media is describing this scenario as a disaster for President Biden. Yet, on CNN this morning, Matthew Dowd, who was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004, noted that more than 20,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan without a single loss of an American life, while in the same period of time, 5000 Americans have died from Covid-19 and 500 have died from gunshots.”¹

A lot of the media coverage of what is going in Kabul centers around the rapidity with which the takeover of the Taliban occurred and the ensuing chaos to evacuate Americans.  However, anyone who thinks that this could ever be done in a 100 percent orderly fashion is deluding themselves for a couple of reasons.  First of all, there are no doubt a lot of Americans who were living in Afghanistan and felt that they had time to get out or perhaps thought that they might just stay.

Many years ago, when I was living in Kuwait, I set up and ran a data processing facility to support the project we were doing there.  At one point I had need for a data entry person and I hired an American lady who was the wife of a contractor there to support the Hawk missile batteries installed in the country at the time.  Prior to Kuwait, they had been living in Iran (the husband supporting US installed missile batteries there) for several years during the period when the Shah was in power.  They were very happy in Iran.  They had a beautiful villa filled with nice furniture and expensive rugs.  They had local Iranian friends.  Life was good.

When the political situation started to deteriorate because of the uprising against the Shah, they were warned by the US Embassy that they should think about leaving the country.  They chose to stay.  They were thinking they would be fine because they had many local friends and were well acclimated to the culture.  As you may recall, the Shah fell very quickly and the situation deteriorated overnight.  This lady and her family received a call from the US Embassy telling them they had two hours to get to the airport and they could each carry two suitcases.  That was it.  They left their entire life behind in the evacuation.

While there is no doubt there will be much after-action analysis of this whole troop withdrawal and evacuation of personnel in Afghanistan, I would argue, there was no way to do this without some level of chaos.  Part of that is that we have a long history of underestimating how fast the political situation can change.  And that holds true here in America as well as anywhere else. 

1. Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American (substack.com)

I wasn’t quite sure what to write about today and then I remembered a Letter to the Editor that I read in the paper yesterday.  Mr. Arnone, the author, is a regular contributor to the Chronicle, as am I (although not as frequently as he is).  Fortunately, the paper has a policy that only allows any individual to have one letter published every 30 days.  I have responded to one or two of Mr. Arnone’s diatribes in the past but finally realized that it was a waste of brain cells.  Facts are irrelevant to Mr. Arnone and his ilk and run off of him like water off of a duck.  His letters are so filled with vitriol and hate that I doubt that he could be in the same room with a Democrat without going off on them. 

If the country weren’t in this extremely polarized, radicalized environment in which our own FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued warnings about potential future violence driven by white supremacists and other right-wing groups, this letter would be almost comical because it is so over-the-top.  However, today there are a lot of Peter Arnones out there.  And some of those Peter Arnones are heavily armed and truly believe the nonsense being spouted below.  That should scare the hell out of anyone. 

If you don’t believe that, you should listen to the interview that CNN correspondent, Donnie O’Sullivan, had with a Trump supporter in the last couple of days.¹ In the most disturbing quote, this Trump supporter said, “It took 11 days for them to take over Afghanistan… How many days would it take the patriots to take over this country?” 

Mike Mansfield was a Montana Senator who was the longest serving Senate Majority Leader, 1961 – 1977.   He was, in fact, a Democrat but worked with people on both sides of the aisle.  He served under both Democratic and Republican presidents.   During the economic crisis in 1971, he said the following:

“What we’re in is not a Republican recession or a Democratic recession; both parties had much to do with bringing us where we are today. But we’re facing a national situation which calls for the best which all of us can produce, because we know the results will be something which we will regret.”

Given all of the crises facing this country today, it would seem like Mike Mansfield’s words are more important than ever.  Unfortunately, they have been relegated to the history books and we are dealing with a new environment in which tribal loyalties and retaining power at all costs seem more important than actually solving problems and making life better for all Americans.   Mr. Arnone’s letter is, unfortunately, symptomatic of where we are today and a frightening harbinger of things to come.

“Dems contemptuously think we’re all fools.

“They have neither shame not conscience.  They are lawless and flagrantly un-American.  Bullies of censorship and cancel-culture, Montana’s Sen. Jon tester would know.  He’s one of them.  He’s a Democrat.

How can anyone take seriously or trust anything proposed by Democrats? While threatening Americans with their heavy-handed mask mandates and COVID-19 “vaccine passports,” they have encouraged and financed thousands of COVID-19 infected illegal migrants to enter and disperse throughout the country without treatment.  At the same time, anti-Communist Cuban political refugees are turned away as they cross treacherous waters to Florida and freedom.  While Joe Biden has condemned crack cocaine users to harsh prison sentences, his son Hunter, with video evidence, escapes accountability for the same, and more.  Likewise, hundreds of criminals were released for burning and pillaging Democrat-controlled cities and government buildings last summer, while so-called Trump “insurrectionists” at the Jan. 20 Capitol riot languish in prison without due process.  While Democrats flaunt their hypocrisy and double-standards, the Democratic media remains silent.

America’s imperious Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and co-dictator, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, are the corrupt power behind the Washington political establishment.  Their absolute control represents the absolute abuse of power they are imposing on our country.  The perpetually befuddled Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are merely figureheads.

Democrats have insisted that voter ID is racist, only to later insist they’ve always been for it.  They’ve been vocal proponents of defunding the police, only to flip-flop and make the absurd accusation that Republicans have been anti-police.  They will say and do whatever is necessary not to advance what is good for Americans, but their anti-American, anti-freedom, godless socialist agenda.

Only Democrats would deny they’ve embraced Marxist ideology and tactics to undermine our country.  They contemptuously think we are all fools.  Concerned and awakened Americans see this ever so clearly.

Peter Arnone

Bozeman”

1. Donie O’Sullivan on Twitter: ““It took 11 days for them to take over Afghanistan… How many days would it take the patriots to take over this country?” Outside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s event in Iowa last night, talk quickly turned from Covid restrictions to this. https://t.co/s0Fmri40wq” / Twitter

I spent most of yesterday finalizing all my plans for Portugal.  I now have tickets, hotels (or Airbnbs), a rental car – all of which are refundable or able to be cancelled because of the shadow of COVID hanging over everything these days.   Interestingly, I noticed that almost all of my hotels require a negative COVID test to check in.  Europe is also instituting a digital vaccination app which can also be used.  That would be quite handy but since we have no such equivalent thing in the US, it appears that I will have to undergo a series of COVID tests just to be able to check into my various accommodations.  That’s a bit concerning because if I were to test positive, my entire trip could likely take a bad turn.  My question is, “If the European Union (EU) can implement a digital vaccination app, why the hell are we so far behind?”  That was a rhetorical question – I already know the answer – politics!!!  We’ll see what happens.  Part of me is leaning towards delaying the trip until after I get my booster shot but that probably won’t be until December.  Decisions. Decisions.

Back to reality.  Afghanistan is still very much in the news cycle and there are many news stories about the fear that has taken hold among women in Afghanistan due to the atrocious and barbaric treatment of women when the Taliban were previously in power.   There are those saying that the US must do something to protect the rights that women have gained in Afghanistan over the past twenty years.   When President Biden was asked about this issue, he responded that the US cannot use military power to enforce women’s rights around the world.  And as sympathetic as I am to the plight of women in Afghanistan, I have to agree with that statement.   I’m not sure what people would have us do.  However, it got me to thinking.

I find this outrage over women’s rights in Afghanistan somewhat ironic given the United States own track record on women’s rights.  Not to mention the fact that we have strong ties to countries around the world where women’s rights are very repressed, Saudi Arabia being the prime example.  I have worked in Saudi Arabia,  lived in Kuwait and I’ve seen this behavior first hand.  Very few people would agree with sending troops to Saudi Arabia because of their repressive behavior towards women.  But, back to the US.

The Equal Rights Amendment, which was written to guarantee equal legal rights regardless of sex, was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the States for ratification.  It requires 38 states to ratify it before it becomes part of the U.S. Constitution, and here we are, 49 years later and it has still not been ratified! 

The pay gap between women and men in this country still exists.  Women, in general, make 82 cents for every dollar a man earns.  There is no state in the union where the average salary of women is equal to or exceeds the average salary of men.  The state with the smallest pay gap between women and men is Vermont (9%) and the state with the largest pay gap between women and men is Wyoming (35%).¹ Here in Montana, the pay gap is 22% ranking us 39^th out of the 50 states.

There are several states that are enacting laws to restrict a woman’s right to control her own reproductive health and major efforts to fully overturn Roe v. Wade.   The United States has an abysmal maternity leave policy compared to most countries in Europe – 0 weeks of Federally funded paid maternity leave.   The number of weeks of paid maternity leave in Europe runs between 6 weeks (Ireland) to 52 weeks in Bulgaria!²

And who can forget the infamous photos showing the gross disparity between the men’s and women’s weight training facilities leading up to the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this past March.³   The women’s US soccer team got criticized for only bringing home a bronze metal this past Olympics when they were expected to win gold.⁴ Never mind that the US men’s soccer team has failed to even make the Olympics the last three times.  The fact is 60% of the medals won in the Tokyo Olympics were won by women.  Yet women in virtually all professional sports are still not paid the same as their male counterparts.

It was an historic moment in the US when we elected the first female vice president, Kamala Harris.  We have never had a female president.  In 1960, Sirivamo Bandaranaike, was elected Premier of Sri Lanka.  Golda Meir was prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974.  Benazir Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990.   There are currently more than 20 countries in the world headed by women including New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and Germany, Angela Merkel. 

I absolutely abhor the way the Taliban treat women.  However, before all of the politicians in this country start screaming loudly about women’s rights in Afghanistan, I think they would be wise to take a critical look here at home.  Yes, women here can drive.   They can walk around alone and dress however the like.  They can go to school.  But if anyone thinks the United States of America is the global standard for women’s rights, they are sadly mistaken.  It is a demonstrable falsehood.

1. The Gender Pay Gap Across the US in 2021 | Business.org
2. How Paid Maternity Leave Across the World Compares to the US | Business.org
3. NCAA apologizes for disparities between women’s and men’s facilities – CBS News
4. Trump Slams US Women’s Olympic Soccer Team After It Wins Bronze (businessinsider.com)

As I continue to make arrangements for my trip to Portugal, which is still very much up in the air due to everchanging COVID travel complications, I was discussing the trip with my daughter and I told her that I’m not sure I’ll be in any more danger there than in Montana with the surge in cases going on here.   That got me to thinking about this whole vaccination controversy.  If you look at the current data, only about 50% of the US population are fully vaccinated.  That is about the same percentage as here in Montana.   If you look at the percentage of people who are vaccinated in each of the 50 states, it forms somewhat of a normal probability distribution.  There are a few states on the low end – mostly in the South, and there are a few states like Vermont that are outliers on the high end.  But, for the most part, the percentage of the population fully vaccinated is normally distributed around 50%.

Think about that.  That means that when you go anywhere, roughly 50% of the people around you are not vaccinated – regardless of where you live.  And if you take into account the fact that no children under 12 are vaccinated, the odds are that fewer than 50% of the people around you wherever you go are vaccinated.  Here in Montana, given that mask mandates are against the law, whenever I go to the grocery store, it is a pretty sure bet that at least half the people in that store are unvaccinated and almost all of those people are not wearing masks.  Let that sink in.

Now the government is going to start recommending and making booster shots available due to the waning efficacy of the initial two shot regime.  It is looking more and more like the COVID virus will be an endemic for which we may need an annual shot just like for the flu.  Of course, less than 50% of the population normally get a flu shot annually even though somewhere between 22,000 and 61,000 people die from the flu every year.  Since COVID is even more virulent and deadly than the flu we can expect even more people to die unnecessarily due to the inability of the American people to step up and do the right thing.  It boggles my mind.

I don’t worry too much about the flu these days.  I get my annual shot and take reasonable precautions.  I really don’t worry about getting the flu when I go to the grocery store nor do I care about whether people have their flu shot or not.  If the COVID virus was similar in characteristics to the flu and we could get annual shots against it, then we could probably get on with our lives.  However, the Delta variant of the COVID virus is much more contagious than the flu and it is more deadly.    So now, since 50% of the population refuse to do their part to try to stop the spread of this virus, I will be concerned when I go to the grocery store.  I will certainly take precautions but it just seems ridiculous that 50% of the American population can put the other half of the population at risk due to their selfish and ignorant decisions.

Yesterday I talked about the collapse of Afghanistan and how there is widespread criticism of Biden’s decision to continue the withdrawal of troops that was agreed to and negotiated by Trump.  Many people are talking about how we have ‘abandoned’ Afghanistan, implying that we should have stayed there to fight this unwinnable war forever.  Certainly, some of the loudest critics are the Republicans.

I find this extremely ironic when we see what is going on in our own country with respect to COVID.   The largest number of cases of COVID are occurring in those areas of the country where there are low vaccination rates and governors and Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted laws stripping public health officials of the power to take steps to save lives.  If you want to talk about ‘abandonment’ I would argue that the Republican politicians in this country have abandoned the American people.

We are, after all, at war.  The Afghans were fighting a war against the Taliban Islamists in their country.  We are fighting a war against a deadly virus.  And while the combatants may use different weapons and the battle strategies are different, they are both violent wars.  If the Republicans are so damned vocal about Biden’s decision to ‘abandon’ the Afghans I don’t understand how they can completely overlook the abandonment of their own US citizens.

There have been less than 10,000 deaths of US troops in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.  More than 630,000 Americans have died in the last two years due to COVID.  In a ‘normal war’ (excuse the term because I understand there is really no such thing as a ‘normal war’) commanders would use all available resources to win that war.   We have everything we need to stem the tide in this COVID war in the United States – vaccinations, wearing masks, social distancing, etc. – and yet many Republicans have chosen to not use those tools and have actively campaigned against them.  If that is not ‘abandonment’ I don’t know what is. 

So, the next time someone starts screaming about how Biden abandoned the Afghans, remind them that many here at home have abandoned the citizens of the US in the fight against COVID.  As they say, people in glass houses …..

The collapse of the Afghanistan government and the ensuing chaos in Kabul is one of the stories dominating the news cycle.  There is no shortage of finger-pointing and political rhetoric, most of it aimed at President Biden.  I don’t think anyone would disagree with the assessment that the rapidity with which the Taliban overran the country was a huge intelligence failure.  However, I think it just shows the fragility of the military and government that the US has propped up for the last 20 years.  And, if it was that fragile, it is apparent to me that we could have stayed there for another 20 years and the outcome would have been exactly the same.

Whether or not you agree with the decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, one of the major takeaways for me was Biden’s willingness to step up and take full responsibility for the decision.  As you recall, Trump never took responsibility for anything – unless it was good, and then, it really didn’t matter whether or not he had anything to do with the actual decision.  Trump was the original ‘blamer-in-chief’.   Biden, by contrast, accepts responsibility for his decisions.  I, for one, would much prefer a leader who accepts responsibility than one who just lies and finds others to blame.

For a while, the Republican National Committee had a blurb on their website about how Trump had successfully negotiated directly with the Taliban (without the participation of the Afghan government, I might add) to end America’s involvement in the country.  Interestingly, any reference to Trump’s involvement with Afghanistan and his negotiations with the Taliban resulting in the agreement to withdraw US troops have been completely erased from the RNC website!  This is just another example of the revisionist history that is becoming the hallmark of the Republicans.

The Republicans and Trump will likely also forget that Trump insisted on negotiating with Kim-Jong Un of North Korea who is perhaps the most brutal dictator on the planet.  North Korea is every bit as repressive and brutal as the previous incarnations of the Taliban.  That whole effort was clearly a colossal failure as virtually nothing has changed. 

I am hopeful that Biden’s decision, in the long run, will prove to be the right one.   If, after 20 years of US military support and spending $1 trillion, the Afghan military and government is not yet capable of defending itself and fighting for their country, it was never going to happen.   The ending in this conflict was a foregone conclusion and anyone thinking anything different is simply deluding themselves and forgetting history.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and were at war with the Muslim guerillas until 1989.  It only took them 10 years to figure out they were never going to win this war.  It took us 20 years.  We were in Vietnam for 20 years – 1955 to 1975.  And despite all of the ominous warning about what would happen when the US pulled out of Vietnam, it now has a vibrant economy and a growing expat community of US citizens who have retired there. 

I don’t think any of us agree with the oppressive and brutal nature of the Taliban view of the law under their strict Islamic view of the Koran.  However, we are perfectly willing to do business with Saudi Arabia where women were only recently allowed to drive.  Saudi is an extremely oppressive government, particularly for women.   No doubt if Afghanistan were rich in oil, we’d figure out a way to work with the Taliban.  In fact, the Chinese are doing exactly that because Afghanistan is a source of rare metals.  This is nothing short of hypocrisy on the part of the United States.

If a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan once again becomes a haven for terrorists who target the US, we will have to take action.  However, at some point, we are going to have to let the Afghan people determine the fate of their own country.  And the fact is, it may be more effective in the long run to use aid dollars and/or economic sanctions than tanks and planes.  The Soviets tried tanks and planes and failed.  We have tried tanks and planes and failed.  Perhaps its time to try another approach.

I think it will be a rocky road in Afghanistan for a while just like it was a rocky road in Vietnam after Vietnam unified following the US pullout.  That said, I think it will prove to be the correct decision in the long run and, like I said, at a minimum, I am thankful to have a president who is willing to make hard decisions and take full responsibility for those decisions.   That, in and of itself, is a welcome change.

I took Jordan to the airport this morning for her 6 a.m. flight!  So, after getting up at 3:30 a.m., even though I am a ‘morning person,’ I don’t think I’m in any position to write anything requiring any kind of deep thought.  Jordan and I had a great time while she was here.  We went golfing.  We took an ATV into the backcountry near Big Sky.  We spent one afternoon making homemade pasta. I took her for a ride on the Harley!   We sampled CRUMBL cookies here in Bozeman.  Jordan bought me a wonderful early birthday dinner at Blacksmith, a local Italian restaurant.   And every evening around ‘deer o’clock’, we took a drive to watch the deer around the area.  It was a great time.

She’s headed back to Boston to start graduate school and I need to get back to figuring out if a trip to Portugal is still in the plans for October or if I need to delay the plan for next year.  But, for today, a little rest and perhaps a nap are in order.

There was an opinion piece in the Bozeman Chronicle yesterday morning regarding the inability of Montana State University to mandate that staff and students be vaccinated due to a state law that was passed earlier by the Republican controlled state legislature banning any vaccine/mask mandates.  Never mind that over 600 universities in the country have already mandated vaccines or frequent testing for all faculty and students.   Governor Gianforte and the Republican-controlled legislature enacted this law to defend ‘individual rights’.

Therein lies the problem.  During this same legislative session, they also passed laws to restrict the rights of transgender people, restrict the rights of people trying to vote, and are pushing hard to restrict the rights of women to have access to abortion if they so choose.  The simple fact is, the Governor and the GOP here, as in so many other states, are not really interested in protecting ‘individual rights.’  They are simply using those words to push their own agenda.  When they talk about ‘individual rights’ they are really talking about the rights they wish to extend to people.  That is why their ‘patriotic’ rants about freedom and protecting individual rights rings so hollow.  It’s bullshit, plain and simple.

COVID cases are surging in Montana like almost everywhere else in the nation and since the legislature and the governor have taken away most of the power of the public health officials, we are going to be in for a long fall and winter.   I’m still concerned about my trip to Portugal but I’m wondering if I’ll be in any more danger there than I am here.   Mask mandates are against the law here in Montana but are currently in place for all inside spaces in Portugal.  How does this make any sense whatsoever in the face of a major public health crisis that is ravaging this country? 

The United States, arguably the wealthiest country in the world, with access to millions of doses of COVID vaccines, has one of the highest rates of daily cases of anywhere in the world!!  Think about that.  This whole pandemic has become a demonstration of national insanity.  I think we can all agree that we’d like things to get back to ‘normal’.  We’d like businesses to stay open and be able to attend crowded venues that we once did without a second thought.  In order to do that, we need to stop the spread of the virus.  All it takes to significantly slow or stop the spread of this deadly virus is for people to take basic, simple, public health measures – wear masks and get a vaccination.  It’s a proven, effective solution.

Here in Montana, only 49% of the people are fully vaccinated, the state has outlawed mask mandates, and schoolboard meetings have turned into virtual free-for-alls because of parents who scream bloody murder when a district tries to make masks mandatory in an effort to protect all students and faculty.   The real irony is that the people who scream the loudest that they are sick and tired of COVID restrictions and want their lives back are, in large part, the same people who are willing to do nothing to help solve the problem.

Perhaps all of these people who are screaming about their ‘rights’ should take a quick trip over to Afghanistan and talk to the people there whose ‘rights’ are being significantly crushed due to the Taliban takeover of the country.  Women here are simply being asked to wear a small mask, whereas in Afghanistan, women are being required to wear a full burqa!  And in many rural areas of the country, girls aren’t even allowed to attend school regardless of what they wear and would give anything to be able to attend any school even if they had to wear a small mask.  

Politics, polarization and the flood of misinformation being spewed by right wing media channels is the only explanation for this complete breakdown in common sense and logic.  My feeling is, if people want an end to this pandemic and they are unwilling to do their part to help – they should just shut the hell up!  It’s obvious that the only thing that will get their attention and possibly change their minds is when they or one of their loved ones is hospitalized, possibly dies or suffers from long term consequences from COVID. 

It kind of reminds me of a job I had between undergrad and graduate school years ago.  I spent some time working for a private fire fighting company in Billings, MT.  At the time, we were one of only two such companies in the US.  We had responsibility for everything in Yellowstone County outside of the city limits of Billings.  The service worked on a subscription basis.  Property owners would pay a monthly or annual fee for fire protection but it was completely optional so, of course, some property owners felt like since they had never had a fire, and the odds were pretty small they would suffer from a fire, they chose not to pay for fire protection.

You can see what’s coming.  Some times we would get a call and roll on a fire at a property that was not a subscriber.  We would ensure no lives were threatened and contain the fire to the subject property but, other than that, we’d let it burn – even if that meant that the structure burned down.  And the same way that people now get COVID, are rushed to the hospital and beg for the vaccine, it was too late.  Protecting their property from fire was a simple act of paying a small fee just the same way that getting a small vaccine and use of masks can protect against COVID, but some people are so stubborn that until their house was on fire, they would do nothing.  We’re in a very similar situation with COVID – accept now, people’s decisions to not do their part to stop the spread of this virus, is impacting all of the rest of us.  Insanity and stupidity are the only words that come to mind.

Note:  We could not fight a structure fire on the property of a non-subscriber because if we did, they could (and did) turn around and sue the fire company for water damage, even if we were able to save the structure!

Jordan and I had a blast yesterday with our rented ATV.  The trail head was down Gallatin Canyon about 6 miles past the turn off to Big Sky.   Everything was all ready to go when we got there.  We rented the ATV from Summit Motor Sports near Bozeman and they were great.  We got our five-minute orientation, a map and off we went.  Needless to say, it’s a quick way to get into the backcountry.  We stopped counting after passing the 5-mile marker but we were way off the beaten path. 

They require you stay on the trail and the trail varies from fairly smooth to ‘hang on to your kidneys!’  In the upper portions they only allow ATVs less than 50 inches wide since the trail is quite narrow in places.  In any case, we had a blast.  We took turns driving.  There were a few other ATVs on the trail but not enough to make it irritating.  We were actually by ourselves most of the time. 

Lessons learned:  It can get very dusty when people pass you or there are multiple vehicles around – have a bandana handy to cover your nose and mouth.  I no longer wear contacts so I didn’t have any problems with my eyes but Jordan said her contacts were getting pretty dried out and a bit gritty.  Goggles might be a consideration.   And, of course, standard equipment when you go into the back country – water, bear spray, etc.  Given the noise from the engines, surprising a bear or moose is extremely unlikely.  That said, it’s getting towards fall when bears will be fattening up for the winter so it’s always best to be prepared. 

And to add a little icing on the cake, I had another letter published in the Chronicle this morning.  The text is at the end of this post.

The good news is that the golfing yesterday was a great success.  The golf pro that gave Jordan her lesson was a young guy who had to be 6’6” to 6’7”.  Not many people make me feel short but he certainly did.  He was a nice guy and Jordan had fun.  We spent over an hour on the driving range and whacked a lot of golf balls.  I haven’t swung a golf club in at least two decades but didn’t embarrass myself too badly.   In any case, we had fun and I’m sure there will be more rounds of golf and time spent on the driving range in our future, regardless of where I live.

Today we are going ATVing down around Big Sky.  That should be fun.  I rented a 2-seat side-by-side ATV and we’ll head up the trail to see what we find.   I’m sure the engine noise will scare away any bears, moose, etc. but will be properly equipped just in case.  Frankly, I’m more concerned about other humans driving fast and recklessly than I am about the wildlife!

There was an article in the Bozeman Chronicle this morning discussing the latest census results.  Bozeman’s population now exceeds 50,000 and is stated to be just over 53,000.  The population here has increased by 16,000 people since 2010 and there are no signs that it will slow down any time soon.  Bozeman is one of the fastest ‘micropolitan’ areas of the country.   I’m not sure how this area will be able to sustain this kind of growth as it is already putting a huge strain on the housing market and the ability of businesses to find and retain staff.  The ‘locals’ are getting priced out of the market. 

The contractor who installed my flooring lives in Big Timber, 60 miles away, and commutes into Bozeman for jobs.  My piano teacher lives in Manhattan, 20 miles away, and commutes into her studio in Bozeman.  The pandemic just helped to accelerate this trend.  Real estate prices in Bozeman increased 50% in a little over a year, if you can find a house to buy.  Apartment rentals are few and far between and prices have increased significantly. 

For me personally, one of the big concerns I have is water.  I live just outside of the city.  I have a septic tank and I get my water from a well on my property.  Almost all of the properties outside of the city depend upon private wells.  Right now, there are many, many houses being built within a five-mile radius of my property.  Each and every one of those houses is drilling a new well and tapping into the aquifer.  Given the current and what is likely to be ongoing drought, one wonders how long this is sustainable.  Will there come a time when I go to turn on my kitchen faucet and nothing comes out? 

Most of the locals I talk to are hoping for a really hard winter this year in hopes that it might cause some of the people moving here from out of state to rethink their plans.  The first winter after I moved back to Bozeman was more like a real Montana winter with stretches of below zero temperatures and significant snowfall.  The last couple of winters were pretty mild.  Last year during the ‘great migration’ into Bozeman, the winter was particularly mild.  It will be interesting to see what happens if we have a really hard winter for a change. (Other than an increase in automobile accidents because people don’t know how to drive in winter conditions!)

The other interesting thing about the census report was the change in demographics across the country showing the population is becoming less ‘white’ and more diverse.  As I have stated in this blog previously, all of the efforts to suppress voting by people of color are doomed to failure in the long term.  Biology will ultimately win.  Unfortunately, the right-wing media and politicians will use the results of the census to fan the flames of ‘white fear’ resulting in even more radicalization and potential violence leading into the elections in 2022 and 2024. 

The fact is, the GOP is shrinking rapidly and they have a choice.  They can either try to be more inclusive and alter their policy positions to appeal to a greater segment of the population or they can try to retain power through fear, intimidation and using authoritarian tactics.  Unfortunately, they appear to have already made that choice which is why the road ahead is likely to be very bumpy.

But for today, Jordan and I will take the bumpy road into the back country!!