Mike Weland has been reporting local news in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, the heart of Trump Country, since 1991. Unfortunately, despite being a moderate Republican since he could vote, he never fell for Trump. Instead, almost since Trump came down the golden elevator, he's used his online news sites to sound warning, drawing considerable ire from the local populace who are so proudly MAGA. Having given his news site away to the next carrier of the torch and now semi-retired, he launched this site on the eve of Donald John Trump's second term as president both to share what he's written and in anticipation of much more news to come in the interesting times ahead. All commentary on this site is Creative Commons, so if you feel anything here worthy, feel free to share, and please share the site with your friends.
While a good many MAGA are still stomping, clapping their hands and cheering themselves hoarse on this second day of Donald J. Trump’s second stint in the oval office, I’m sure at least a few are saying to themselves, “uh oh.” Fortified by over $60-billion from the sale of an imaginary meme-coin in the days…
Monday, January 20, 2025, will be a day of pomp and celebration for many. Not for honoring the legacy of a man who’d done so much to bring the United States a small step closer to the ideal of a nation whose citizens are all equal, but for the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump,…
Former president and now proclaimed 2024 presidential candidate Donald J. Trump continues to proclaim his strong advocacy for the rule of law, a stance long a cornerstone of the GOP ethos. But as only only Trump can, his advocacy is so twisted in application that his supposed support; believed, lauded and mimicked by far too…
Despite what those of the righteous far right proclaim, the most egregious offenders of grooming and abuse aren’t the marginalized so easily blamed, but the upright stalwarts we tend to hold in esteem; those we respect and tend to believe over the pleas of the abused. The pious, the wealthy … the powerful. The ones…
All candidates have the right to challenge the results and request a recount, especially in close races. That goes without saying. But I suspect the reaction to this mid-term election will be different, a continuation and expansion of the MAGA contention that the presidential election of 2020 was stolen from former president Donald J. Trump,…
“Your gross generalizations, pot stirring and slanderous comments are no different than what you are supposedly taking a stance against. And, at least one group above shouldn’t be included with the others anyway,” a reader said in response to an editorial I posted recently on Facebook, reprinted here. “Instead, why not use your platform to…
I don’t know how old I was, three? Four? It was at edge of my first memories, having screamed in an airplane for the first time. Transitioning from the gentle acceleration of many propeller driven flights to the scream of the jet engine. Scared me … I thought I would die. Flying from Germany to…
There is considerable argument these days as to what this grand experiment in the governance of our nation, these United States of America, is. Is it a democracy? A republic? A Democratic Republic? Constitutional? Yes, to all. A democracy is a a system of government by the people and for the people. In a republic,…
“Any chance of slowing down on the Trump stuff for a while?” a dear Republican friend wrote me the other day. “Just a suggestion, but we need to get local issues taken care of.” I was later invited, by Republicans, to attend last night’s Republican Central Committee meeting, but I didn’t see the message until…
“I have noticed the ‘write in Tim Bertling’ signs all over the county,” a Boundary County Republican Central Committeeman wrote today on the Boundary County Politics Facebook page. “One thing that I noticed, is that most of the signs are placed on the properties of people who are members of the corrupt families that have…
NOTE: As a result of ongoing controversy, Boundary County Library Director Kimber Glidden, after just nine months in the job, tendered her resignation. Her last day was yesterday, but it wasn’t only she who left, three librarians left as well, leaving just three to keep the library open. But it likely won’t be open for…
In my years covering news in Boundary County, one thing I’ve learned is that all who land here and want to be accepted as neighbors are. We can bicker, we can argue, we can fight. But when troubles come, as they always do in a rough and unforgiving land, we distinguish ourselves, born here or…
We live in interesting times, and they are going to get far more interesting, as MAGA Republican leaders, still led by former president Donald Trump and their “conservative” propaganda press continue to lie blatantly to their constituents, vilify the left and Democrats and even moderate members of their own party, fomenting anger and divisiveness. Their…
This crowd that now attends each Boundary County library board meeting to assert its holy righteousness and call down the wrath of heaven upon the sinners and infidels who don’t quite share the same righteous fervor have every right … and I think they should be credited for taking part in the process. Their voices…
Photo by Seth Wenig/The Associated Press In legal proceedings and congressional hearings, Donald J. Trump’s big lie is clearly starting to unravel, but believers of the lie are clearly not hearing the truth, preferring instead to get their “news” from outlets that pander to a liar. That’s evident in the fact that Republican voters across…
Thanks to my opinion pieces of late, I have been identified by local “true conservatives,” many of whom were friends before 2016, as a born again left wing socialist liberal commie pedophile. In light of the idiocy touted by the extremist conservatives, I will embrace being a liberal, but I will not abide being slandered…
Photo copywrite Getty Images “Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this. Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. It is a stain on our…
“Our Mission is to protect children from explicit materials and grooming,” say those seeking the recall of four of five members of the Boundary County Free Library Board, sparing the only member who voted “their way.” Their arguments appear plausible to some, but they are wrong. It is time for those in our community who…
Before 2016, I would never have imagined seeing so many people in our communities, our region, clinging so firmly to such clear lies and false assertions as the Make America Great Again rhetoric of Donald John Trump and his merry band of misfits. I thought we were more logical, more intelligent. We aren’t and it…
A fool is defined as a person who acts unwisely or imprudently, and a good way to identify a fool is to prove that he or she denies the existence or validity of a thing that is real, true or valid … refusing to see truth. An undeniable aspect of a fool is that rather…
