Number 8: Flint’s Top Montana Posts for 2020

Over the next few days leading up to the New Year, I'll be sharing our top 10 stories from 2020. (Here's the full list for 2019) These are our top 10 stories based on local unique visitors from right here in Montana.

Coming in at number 8 is a story from July 21st, which was shortly after Montana's statewide mask directive went into effect. I should probably also provide a little context to this story. There had been news stories earlier in the year about many deaths being mislabeled as COVID-19 deaths, even though the deaths were due to other causes.

Number 8 from July 21, 2020: AS SEEN NEAR LIVINGSTON, MONTANA…”DIED OF COVID”

Alright. What's it looking like out there across Montana? What did you see over the weekend? Were people wearing masks? Were they not wearing masks? Did businesses allow people to shop anyway?

Those were some of the questions I threw out on the radio Monday morning. And we got a ton of great phone calls, emails, and messages. Here's one e-mail I got from Becky in Billings:

Hi Aaron, my husband and I were all over the Flathead and Helena the last few days,  the people there never said a word when we entered a business without a mask. My husband wore a shield a couple times, however it was a shied used for grinding metal, that was epic. We saw a dead deer on the side of the road when we were nearing Livingston, it had sign next to it that said died of covid 19, that too was epic!

Thanks,  Becky

 

Becky's report sounded similar to what I was hearing from a lot of people. Most of the businesses they went into without a mask on either didn't bother them, or simply allowed them to shop anyway- with or without a mask.

It's interesting that even a liberal blogger in the Flathead Valley noticed that only about half of the shoppers at a prominent grocery store in Kalispell were wearing masks.

As we've previously reported, members of Montana's law enforcement community have made it very clear: they swore an oath to the US Constitution, and to Montana's Constitution- so they cannot and will not enforce the governor's mandatory mask directive.