Since they have spent so much time complaining, Erik and Bill decided to drive on the wet highway to Helena Thursday to talk about a solution.

That is where they found Jeff Mangan, the leader of The Montana Plan. Also known as the Transparent Election Initiative, The Montana Plan is a ballot initiative aimed at making the Citizens United Decision irrelevant and getting rid of dark money in Montana elections. Mangan is a former Montana legislator and Commissioner of Political Practices. He has been working on the Montana Project for about a year with the hope of getting it on the ballot in November of 2026.

The Montana Plan uses the state’s authority to define what powers corporations get and stops giving them the power to spend in Montana elections. It is not a partisan issue. It is not about red and blue. Rather, it is about green.

We are all tired of the endless election ads and smear campaigns that have defined politics in Montana and around the nation. We are tired of the commercials and the endless supply of election junk mail. The Montana Plan could be the solution to that headache and help us take our state back from out-of-state and even overseas corporations.

Listen in as Jeff talks about the whys and the hows of the plan and how you can join the fight by going to TheMontanaPlan.com. Listen in to hear why he is so confident that the Transparent Election Initiative will make it to the ballot and be passed by the voters of the Treasure State.

The people of Butte, America are pointing fingers and fighting with each other about the latest water disaster. This time, water from Montana Resources might have accidentally contaminated the potable water supply in the Mining City.

People are scared and angry, and they want answers. Erik and Bill suggest that those fingers should be pointed at Helena. They suggest that the Department of Environmental Quality and Gov. Greg Gianforte dropped the ball with their reckless deregulation campaign.

Where is Gianforte in this crisis? Where are Sen. Tim Sheehy and Sen. Steve Daines? Where is Rep. Ryan Zinke? Their silence on this matter is deafening.

Instead of pointing a finger and laughing at the Mining City and getting ready to chant “Dirty water” at the Bulldogs and Maroons, the rest of the state should be paying attention, too. If the DEQ can drop the ball when it comes to our drinking water, their water could be contaminated, too. Maybe it already has.

In the meantime, Erik and Bill suggest that we all chill out a little bit. They recommend catching a little comedy to help do that. Namely, they suggest you go see Sam Miller’s show Friday night at the Covellite Theater. Check out Uptown Comedy for more information.

The Mad About Montana Podcast took a road trip the StateCapitol Monday for an important conversation with Sheena Pesanti and Bert Tabor.

Pesanti, a Butte native, has been involved in a well-publicized fight to see her two children. She says the courts in Montana illegally stripped her of custody after her divorce. Sheena has not seen those children in a year and a half, and she says she has PSTD from the abuse she has received in court.

Sheena’s fight is the subject of a soon-to-be-released documentary, “Purpose In Pain: The Sheena Pesanti Story.” The movie documents Sheena’s journey and the lengths a mother will go to for a chance to be reunited with her children.

On Monday, Sheena visited Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office in her on going quest to have a face-to-face discussion with the governor. Again, she was denied the chance to talk with Gianforte or even schedule a meeting with him.

Sheena is traveling with Bert Tabor, a charismatic and passionate mover and shaker from Las Vegas. He is credited as being the man who brought the Raiders to Sin City. Together, Bert and Sheena have removed the gloves as they fight for her right to see her children. We discuss a few possible reforms to money and partisanship in court elections to start the change process.

Listen in to hear Sheena tell her story and see that she is absolutely fearless in her quest for justice. Listen as she talks about her plans to run for Governor in 2028. Listen as she says that might not be her last stop as she climbs the political later.

Listen in to hear the Sheena has an ally who will never back down in Mr. Tabor.

It was a Saturday night counseling session at the Bagger Vance Studio for Erik, and Bill is no Dr. Buddy Rydell.

Erik’s anger reached a boiling point as he talks about the hurt feelings of some so-called Montana Democrats, or the “Missoula Minions,” and no amount of Goosefraba could calm that fire in his belly as he watches his party continue to walk away from him.

When did they get away from kitchen table issues? When did they forget the real meaning of the term “bi-partisan?” How can they write off 132,000 poor Montanans getting kicked off Medicaid as an “administrative error?”

When did they stop fighting for the little man?

How can some Democrats claim victory as Montanans see their property taxes and property appraisals go through the roof? How can they “talk down” to the people and tell them the property tax scheme is somehow a good thing?

In this episode, Erik and Bill do not have the answers to thosequestions. They can only say that the people need to get involved to hold their representatives accountable. We must demand that we get rid of dark money and get a handle on the lobbyists who seem to be running the show in Helena.

We need to demand that the Montana Democratic Party regain its backbone and once again become the “Party of the People.”

In 2024, Steve Held ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District.

He is a fourth-generation Montanan who grew up in Broadus, in the south east corner of the state. While he ran as a Democrat, and will likely do the same for another office soon (at least we hope he does), Steve realizes that he is not that much different than his fellow ranchers who vote Republican. He realizes he can talk with people who identify as MAGA and find some common ground.

Whether we are talking about the environment, gender-neutral restrooms or the importance of agriculture in the Treasure State, Steve reminds us that the wants and the needs of the people are pretty much the same. Themedia, lobbyists and dark money, however, work to drive us apart.

Oh, and Steve is also an actor. His list of credits includesPatriot Games, Dallas, L.A. Law and Baywatch.

Listen in as Steve talks about the need for Montanans totalk to each other instead of playing the partisan games. Listen as Erik tries to recover after hearing Steve tell a story about an encounter with Pamela Anderson.

(Note:this episode is marked explicit because a few necessary f-bombs.)

In this episode of the Mad About Montana Podcast, Erik Nylund and Bill Foley discuss how great it is to see the pride flag flying high above the Butte-Silver Bow Courthouse. While hatemongers like Greg Gianforte and Braxton Mitchell call the flag “divisive,” Erik and Bill talk about the true meaning of the flag that stands for inclusivity. They talk about how they are extremely disappointed to see some members of the public and commission show that they do not get that when they spoke out against raising that flag at Wednesday’s meeting of the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners.

They also talk about how the flag would have been raised last week — if not earlier — if the chief executive was strong enough to stand up to the bigots. Two years ago, he hid behind the county attorney. This year, he hid behind the Council of Commissioners.

Erik dives into a personal story in response to officials with Butte-Silver Bow trying to paint us as bigots against the LGBTQ+ community, illustrating that nothing could be further from the truth. It is just another example of people getting attacked for asking questions. They discuss some of those previous attacks, mostly on scientists who reported inconvenient truths.

Finally, Sir Mick Ringsak joins the show to talk about the Natural Resource Damage Program and how some money might not exactly be being spent in the right way. He talks about the lack of transparency that is behind it all.

Listen in, and let’s get mad about Montana.

In this lucky episode of the Mad About Montana Podcast, Erik Nylund and Bill Foley dive into the open-mic scandal from Wednesday’s Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners Committee of the Whole meeting.

While the incident exposed the flippant attitude our local government has repeatedly shown toward our citizens, it did finally give us a moment of transparency. Accidental transparency, but transparency nonetheless.

The scene also gave Erik and Bill some insight as to why their April 4 Freed of Information Act request to see emails sent to or from the chief executive regarding House Bill 547 has not been fulfilled. They must have used the wrong font.

Also in this episode, Erik chooses former Carroll College football player Jim Kambich, the chief of staff to the chief executive, to a charity Sumo wrestling match.

They close by praising the chief executive for his efforts to help further the Engine 25 Restoration Project to restore the engine in front of the Butte Civic Center. Learn more about the project at engine25.org.

Erik is a little more salty than usual after spending fivedays not catching any fish on the Smith River.

So, he gets right after the legislators who sold their soulto lobbyists during the latest session of the Montana Legislature. He can only sit back and say “I told you so” after Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed many of the “deals” they sold out for.

This episode also points out how the DEQ is possibly lettingus all down by ignoring a serious issue with the Big Hole River and the crazinessvof hardly anyone saying a word about billionaires taking over the Crazy Mountains. When will the “Out of my cold, dead hands” crowd realize that theselling off public lands is also a major threat to their gun rights? Why don’t people get as upset about the DEQ’s failure to protect the Big Hole as they did over the few people who drove their Side-by-Sides into the water last summer?

Also, Erik and Bill point out the irony of some of thoseopposed to building a women’s prison in Butte because it will hurt the quality of life and business in town. Weren’t some of these people just willing to sell off the Silver Bow Drive-In, all in the name of jobs, to build gas station next door? Their argument might have some validity, but their hypocrisy islaughable.

All this and more as the Mad About Montana Podcast reachesthe dirty dozen. Happy Memorial Day.

For episode 11 of the Mad About Montana Podcast, Erik andBill took a road trip to Bozeman to talk to one of the good guys.

John Meyer is not one of the lawyers in the jokes. Rather, heis a crusader who fights for what is right. He puts people, wildlife and the environment above contingency fees and retainers.

John is the founder and executive director of Cottonwood Environmental Law. The mission statement of the group stats, “Cottonwood is a group of free-thinking rabble rousers dedicated to protecting the people, forests, water, and the wildlife of the American West, and having fun doing it.”

Cottonwood filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit against theultra-rich Yellowstone Club for knowingly discharging its treated sewage into the South-West Fork of the Gallatin River without a permit. For his efforts, John was arrested in 2023 for criminal trespass. His “crime” was legally walkingup the Gallatin to accompany a contractor who collected water samples coming from Yellowstone Club property.

After the court dismissed the silly charge against John,Cottonwood relied on the samples to file the lawsuit against the club.

So, if you drive around Bozeman today, you just might see one of John’s bumper stickers. “I went FISHING on the GALLATIN and all I caught was a LAWSUIT from the YELLOWSTONE CLUB.”

Earlier this year, a federal court allowed Cottonwood tointervene on behalf of the National Park Service to defend a legal challenge to the 2024 Yellowstone Bison Management Plan brought by the State of Montana.

Cottonwood also fought to defend the people against a senate bill that unlawfully infringed upon all Montanans’ constitutional right to propose ballot initiatives.

John is not afraid to speak out and fight for what is right —even if that means running for mayor of Bozeman in 2024 or confronting Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) about the importance of townhalls, the EndangeredSpecies Act and the senator’s honesty, or lack thereof.

Listen in to hear John tell his story, and visit cottonwoodlaw.org to learn more and join in on the rabble rousing.

The podcast is labeled “explicit” because of a few justifiedF bombs.

In today’s episode of the Mad About Montana Podcast, Erikshows how big of a nerd he actually is by making Star Wars references on “May The Fourth.”

In the end, though, his analogy to today’s political scene makes complete sense since we recently watched the Montana Legislature and United States Congress gradually cede power to Gov. Greg Gianforte and President Donald Trump, much like the Galactic Senate did to the Emperor. Orsomething nerdy like that.

Listen in as Erik and Bill talk about how today’s DemocraticParty is acting more like Jar Jar Binks instead of the Democratic Party of yesteryear. They desperately want to do something good, but they just don’t know how to. Thatis obvious as the Montana Senate Democrats Facebook page bragged about Montana’s envious Medicaid model, even after Gianforte shattered that model like Luke Skywalker did with the Death Star.

Listen as they take on the cult of the right and, moreimportantly, the very-real cult of the left.

Listen as Erik offers praise for the handful of Democrats whoconsistently showed that they were voting based on their values instead of making deals that are setting themselves up for future failure.

Then, listen as Bill encourages everyone to attend a meetingat 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Butte School District Administration Building (111 N. Montana St.) to see Mike Foley and Sid DeBarathy make a presentation about their complaint of discrimination against female athletes in the Mining City.

May The Fourth be with you.