Elsie Arntzen

Recent Posts

‘Lyin’ King’ featured at ‘SNL Helena’

With a tempting target in the White House and budget cuts looming, the “Saturday Night Live Helena” show took on added urgency this year. Helena thespians, singers and dancers put the show on every two years when the Montana Legislature is in session. The aim is to battle the perceived failings of state and national politics with one of the oldest of weapons: satire. This year’s show was reeled off in a snappy two hours, and if not every joke worked, no problem; another followed within seconds. Periodic news updates (Grizzly bears are reported fleeing public schools since the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos) and parodied beer commercials for Goose Kill and Berkeley Pit IPA help held the disparate parts together. Continue Reading →

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Montana Chamber of Commerce releases endorsements

Zinke

The Montana Chamber of Commerce has come out with its endorsements in statewide races, and the only surprise is the total lack of surprise. There’s the usual heavy bias toward Republicans, the usual focus on the candidates’ perceived tilt toward business interests, the one token Democrat endorsement (Jesse Laslovich for state auditor). To which one might make the usual complaints: There really isn’t much evidence that picking Republicans helps the economy. In fact, the evidence at the presidential level since World War II has been quite the opposite, for reasons that are very much open to debate. In Montana, the evidence is no more convincing. Continue Reading →

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