SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today: A plan to sell $30 “in advance’ tickets for entrance to the still partly-closed Glacier National Park.  (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

Massive boulders fall, extending Highway 95 closure in Central Idaho

o  o  o

Reader Cathy N. sent this: Gov. Little pushes for in-person instruction in Idaho schools this fall. Cathy’s comment: “Does it not seem that the feds and state governors are getting quite worried about getting kids back to school? They must have figured out that parents have woken up and realized that they can do the teaching themselves.”

o  o  o

Why Idaho Hasn’t Stopped Shaking Since March 31. (Thanks to W.W. for the link.)

Montana

Glacier National Park mulls decision over ticketing at West Glacier entrance. The Q2 News story  begins:

“Glacier National Park officials are looking at starting a ticketed entrance at West Glacier.

Park spokeswoman Gina Kerzman told MTN News that traffic congestion this year in the park has been difficult to manage.

She explained that because COVID-19 concerns closed the east entrance to Glacier National Park, all visitors are now concentrated on the west side of the park.

Kerzman said that because of this congestion, officials are looking to potentially require tickets at the West Glacier entrance. The tickets would be purchased per car, not per person.

“That guests would have to make advanced reservations online to be able to enter the park on the day they would want to enter. There would be a couple of different options,” Kerzman explained.

“We would provide a ticketed option about 30 days in advance. About half of them would be available about thirty days in advance and then, we would have some available two days in advance.”

Kerzman says if the park moves forward with a ticketing system, the tickets would cost $30 — equivalent to a seven-day park pass — and would be offered from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.”

o  o  o

Race for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat heating up

Eastern Oregon

Another Hate Hoax: Oregon Politician Admits He Wrote Racist Letter to Himself. JWR’s Comment:  Will the surname Smollett become a noun or a verb? This has happened before, with the origin of the words Gerrymander, Quisling, and Machiavellian.  I’d suggest the terms Smolletry, Smolleting, or Smolletizing.

o  o  o

Three arrested in connection to Malheur County shooting death

o  o  o

Bend woman continues to battle COVID-19 after 18 weeks

Eastern Washington

The Richland Fire Department believes fireworks were involved in a house fire Saturday night

o  o  o

Decision to jail man with COVID-19 could set ‘dangerous precedent,’ observers say

o  o  o

Kennewick Man sentenced to 14 years in federal prison

Wyoming

Wyomingites looking to build cautioned about abandoned mines

o  o  o

A Guide’s Life

o  o  o

Dubois’ $100 Million Military Museum Plans For Soft Opening In August

o  o  o

Armed robbery is uncommon in the American Redoubt, so this caught my eye: Cheyenne Police Still Asking for Help Identifying Robbery Suspects

Send Your News Tips

Please send your American Redoubt region news tips and event announcements to JWR. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.




33 Comments

  1. Wait wait wait…. I thought we were letting CONVICTED CRIMINALS go free from jail, “in the interest of public health.” Oh that was last month? Now this article from Washington says that we’re incarcerating someone who’s been neither accused nor convicted, without due process, IN A JAIL, “in the interest of public health.” I just can’t keep up anymore! *shaking my dang head*

    We’ve ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia…………

    1. “We’ve ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia…………”

      Hey Bear, not to worry, the chocolate ration has just been increased and so have stimulus checks. All is good!

      1. Oh thank you St. Funogas! What a relief! More chocolate! I just knew it was all going to be okay somehow. “They” really do have our best interests at heart. 😉
        “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

        Now, i’ll just plop myself back down on the couch, munching on my bread, tuned into the circuses 24/7….

      2. I thought everyone understood one should never get into a ground war in southeast Asia.

        Since this applies twice over for SW Asia, I guess we could say “never engage in a ground war in Asia.”

        Regardless, its coming. It’ll make WWII look like amateur hour.

  2. Somebody help me understand how the park “service” closing an entrance helps with covid?
    Does it make me “feel” safer knowing the park “service” is protecting me in a open air setting of 1,012,837 Acres or 1,583 Square miles from a cough or sneeze.

    1. CORD7: The admission tickets at GNP have nothing to do with the virus directly. The east
      side entrance/exit has been closed by the Blackfeet Nation which has caused a
      horrendous gridlock inside the park.
      Bumper to bumper traffic,no where to park at scenic overlooks or trailheads,and
      very limited rest rooms.
      The shuttle buses and red cars are not running this year,and there is a record
      number of tourists entering the west side but unable to exit at the east side.
      Anyone who has driven the alpine section of the Going To The Sun Road knows
      that it can be dangerous even in light traffic.

      So there you go. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Cousin Eddie wouldn’t even like it.

  3. Thats one of the most dangerous things I’ve heard yet. Imprisonment for nothing. Funny thing is it ain’t FEMA like everyone says it’s LOCAL

    1. Hey Matt in in Oklahoma, please give us a heads up before you change your name to “Matt on the Reservation” so we’ll know it’s still you!

      1. LOL
        No home in the err reservation, wrong color to be right about anything, Straight and married 33 yrs, working man so I’m a bad person for that, wrong job to even be on here posting
        Yup it’s awesome LOL

    2. I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think a health officer is an elected position. If so, that means any old person in a position of power can jail anyone they want for whatever reason. If this is so horrible as dome commissioners stated, then why are they not fighting to release this person instead of just talking? He should be in an infectious ward in a hospital, not a jail.

  4. Parents figuring out they can homeschool their kids themselves… This will probably become a theme in the next few months, that the state will put a lot of effort into convincing people that they need the state for this or that. But I am curious how effective it will be, given that revenues are down and will continue to be down the more the economy collapses. Decentralization is the logical solution to a pandemic, even if it was an orchestrated pandemic. It’s pretty hard to get around that. They must not have thought that through.

    1. I’m not sending my kid back to the public school. I saw what they call education with their at-home program this spring.

      I had already set up a curriculum for my kid. It was far more engaging than the drivel they forced us to comply with. On the bright side he made honor roll for the first time.

      I always knew it (non-gendered for maximum confusion) was smart, but didn’t realize that all of the “lowest common denominator” education was boring it. When I challenged it to learn a computer language, it blew me away by building a computer network out of spare parts laying around the office to do the programming on, then proceeding to blaze through one of the better programming books I purchased.

      Before the school system figured out what they were going to do for “education” after sending all the kids home, it decided we needed a google classroom for subjects and assignments. It built the goog stuff on my computer, tied itself into as the student, and I wound up providing guidance to the school district on how to engage students remotely.

      We worked on basic astrophysics, calculus, computer programming, archeology, history, and composition. Then the school district came out with their garbage. There was zero intellectual development in their assignments. It was all busy work. If you did the work, you got good grades.

      Now, I’m set to home school. I just haven’t found an approved program that allows me to push its boundaries. The few home school programs I’ve looked through are not much different than the boring, slow public school programs. Now that we both know its boundaries are unconstrained, I don’t want to be chained to a set piece, module based program that constrains our work.

  5. Another hate crime hoax. Makes you wonder how many others have used this illegal ploy and not been caught. I have to wonder about the legality of hate crime laws in general, as they create a special class of crimes that discriminate and undermine the concept of equal protection for all. I wonder why this has never been challenged in the Supreme Court to my knowledge.

  6. At one point several months ago, a Scandinavian country decided that schools had to be fully functioning before parents returned to work. I may be wrong, but, it seems administration(President) seems economy focused. Hence, is pursuing under same thought process. It think this home schooling idea is off base.

  7. “‘Does it not seem that the feds and state governors are getting quite worried about getting kids back to school? They must have figured out that parents have woken up and realized that they can do the teaching themselves.”’

    I like this comment, and I think it brings up an interesting question. At what point, if at all, will people start to consider the idea that certain state services, and or social norms are actually not as good as we had thought under “normal” life. Rather, certain aspects of this pandemic may be better for local culture and real world people?

    1. We can’t forget that many if not most of these kids had parents who were ordered to stay home from work as well. Many households in the US are two income households. When (if) the parents are called back to work, the kids will still need to be educated. If both parents are back at work, when would the homeschooling occur? In the evenings? An eight year old kid shouldn’t be left home all day while mom and dad are at work.
      I do agree that homeschooling would be much better for the kids if for one reason alone they will be getting away from the forced Marxist/socialist indoctrination in the schools.

  8. Re the precedent for quarantine and social isolation orders: Leviticus Chapter 13

    “1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,

    2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:

    3And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.

    4If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

    5And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:

    6And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

    7But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again:

    And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a leprosy.”

    ******************************

    45And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

    46All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be. “

    1. I’ve read those verses many times. But this is the 1st time I noticed that his clothes to be rent, his head bare, and A COVERING UPON HIS UPPER LIP….wow.

  9. If the supreme court ruling holds, GNP will end up being Blackfeet property.

    The Patriot act is one of several laws that allow the govt to imprison someone without any legal process. But then again, Lincoln did that during the civil war, so the precedent has been around a long time.

    “Them what has the gold, makes the rules”

    1. In Montana a number of federal grants,loans,and subsidies given to various tribes for education,health care,infrastructure,nutrition,and safety have been embezzled by reservation leaders. A lot are in federal prison.
      They wouldn’t know what to do with GNP if they had it. It’s to hard to manage anything when
      your hand is always out for a freebie.

  10. I don’t know the answers. If I did no one would listen anyway.
    I have read where one of the European countries is sending students back to the classrooms if they do not have the equipment to learn remotely. Elementary school students are prioritized.
    This makes sense if the new workplace will include working from home.

    My opinions,

    The truth is if the “economy” is going to come roaring back parents need their state provided day care. That is all this is about. Public schools are only as good as the parents in the community make them. Most parents are no longer engaged.

    Imprisonment for nothing is as scary as POTUS saying take the guns first, do due process later.

    Politicians at all levels are simply the same crooks in different suits.

    Hang on, it is getting weird. Be careful which falling star you hitch your wagon to.

  11. Let’s see…Sabrina is worried about fascism when this poor guy is thrown into jail but perfectly fine with dragging him to a hospital against his will and handcuffing him to the bed! I’m confused. With multiple states now requiring face masks in order to buy or sell, it makes me think that I’ve heard about this scenario before.

    1. We’ve been traveling today, and just returned to the ranch. Sorry that we didn’t have a chance to moderate comments for about 12 hours.

    2. Once your comments are accepted/moderated by us directly a certain number of times and then afterwards, are only a few sentences long, they will post automatically. I think the number is ten times…

      If comments are very long no matter if the writer has automatic posting status the comments, will sit in the moderator queue until we get to it and post it. Also those who include links in their comments will sit in the Moderator queue until we post it.

      I hope that explains your posting dilemma. Days that we both are traveling together or separately, and are out of wifi range or days when we are working on big projects, a few hours may go by until we get a chance to check the comments and moderate them. We’re sorry if this delay upsets you, but the Comment section is actually just cream on the Survival Blog Cake and is not our biggest priority.

      May you have a blessed evening,

      Lily

  12. PLEASE remember that JWR and family are a WORKING family. This blog is something that they get to when the chores are done, fences are mended, etc. They don’t employ a full time moderator. So, in that sense, remember that whoever makes a comment, they are first reviewed before being posted. That review may be fairly quick or multiple hours depending on what they have going on in their lives that particular day, no different than the rest of us.

    Thank you and you many now go back to your regularly scheduled Survivalblog reading.

    1. Dear Mongo Bailey,

      😉 Thank You for your support and defense of us.

      Well SurvivalBlog, itself, is Jim’s biggest priority. It gets his attention for the first four hours of the day most of the time, at least four hours and often many many more. After that, the ranch work gets done, though in the heat of summer, that schedule switches around sometimes, outside work done earlier, computer work done in the afternoon in the heat of the day. That includes the Blog, the Elk Creek antique gun business which entails a lot of searching for guns at auctions and gun importers, etc. and researching, news watching, writing our own articles and editing other folk’s articles. The girls and I, do the gardening, cleaning, cooking, food preserving, animal care, etc. The summertime is crunch time for us. This week we, ourselves, will be getting our baled hay in from off the fields of a local farmer. It will take a serious chunk of our time over the next week.

      Anyhow, life is good and we enjoy interacting with you all.

      May you have a blessed evening and again thank you for you support.

      Lily

Comments are closed.