Montana Articles

The Missoulian Cut Me Off, What’s Next?

9/30/2015

Today the Missoulian newspaper cut off my access.

Now, I could pay to get this back. I’m sure all of you are paying.

The thing is…I haven’t been paying for 6 months, at least.

That’s right – I got a pretty good deal from the Missoulian. I’ve only ever paid them $50, and that was back on March 5, 2014.

So…why did my subscription last this long, more than a year? After all, most people have to pay $12 a month for that crappy newspaper. Why did I get special treatment?

Because the Missoulian made money from me. They got linkbacks and article interest and increased readership because of me. They also got a ton more social media traffic because of me.

Yeah, that’s what happens when you write local news and use that newspaper as your main reference. It’s also what happens when you share their articles socially.

I suppose over the past year or more that paper has received more than 1,000 different links from me. This means people from all over the state are going to that paper at least once a month to get their information, all because of me, because of a link they click on in one of my articles – the reference.

I won't be modest about this.

Why else do you think I’d be allowed to read the online newspaper for free when everyone else has to pay $12 or more?

Let's look at the flip side.

Why do you think they cut that access off today, more than 6 months after my subscription ended, and not at some earlier time?

I asked that, both in email and on Twitter, but I got no reply.

I think those are good questions, but you know what, no one cares.

Most people don’t care about the news or issues or how they can make their life better. They care less about Montana news.

I write about these things, but what’s the point?

Well, that writing about issues won’t happen anymore. Yes, the Missoulian has done me in.

Big Sky Words
2013-2015
R.I.P.

The paper cut me off, and let me tell you, it is a significant blow.

Yes, this hurts.

However dismal the Missoulian’s efforts are, they are one of the few local sources that I can rely on.

They're consistent in their lack of quality, and I know that at 8 PM every night they’ll have something new for me (or at least new for them, as other sources often beat them).

Now I have to find other sources.

It’s not a death blow for my efforts, but it is a setback. Lesser setbacks have felled stronger and sturdier businesses than mine, but this one will not topple me. It might faze me a bit, but I’ll get over it.

It’s really a hassle more than anything.

It was easy and convenient to go to the Missoulian. I knew the site and how it worked. I knew the reporters and what their specialties were.

Now I have to start over, or at least better acquaint myself, with the Missoulian’s competition.

Yep, I’ll have to fall back on my strategy of getting news for free.

Oh yeah, don’t think I didn’t see this coming.

I wrote a post back in May called Tired of Paying for News? Get It Free Each Month with These 25 Montana Media Outlets because I knew one day the Missoulian would find me less useful.

And I’m sorry, but did you think I was going to pay for news?

Let me ask you this:

Would you pay for this site, Big Sky Words?

No, you wouldn’t.

At the same time you know full-well that the content I put here often dwarfs that which the Missoulian is capable of.

You pay for their content, you pay $12 a month for that, or similar in your neck of the woods.

How does that make you feel? Do you think you’re getting a good deal?

Newspapers are dying, their staff are becoming less talented, and you pay the price…in more ways than one.

Has the quality of the reporting you read each day gone up the same as the cost?

I don’t think so. And if that’s truly the case, why do you stand for this?

Because there’s nothing else you can do. You have no options. It’s take what they give you or get nothing at all.

I’m sure the Missoulian has always viewed me as a threat because I do quality reporting, you know, the stuff they gave up on some time ago.

I feel they made the decision to cut me off yesterday, when I wrote my post about the Missoula County jail problems. After that they decided that I wasn’t good for the political machine that gives them so much patronage.

It’s just corruption, and bad business. We’ve seen the stellar editorial skills that Matthew Bunk has brought to the fold. It consists of new advertising that interrupts your reading experience with annoying sounds and expanding videos, that’s about it.

Can the guy write? I’ve yet to see anything with his name on it. I suppose I won’t be now, as I’ll just be visiting the paper for 10 articles a month.

Oh well, no biggie – I can use other media sources without difficulty. There’s no point in me giving traffic to the competition. On top of this I was moving away from Montana politics anyway.

Hey, I left the Democratic Party – what else is there for me?

The GOP is hopeless because they only care about rich people and racism. Their idiocy about government shutdowns is also off-putting. Democrats are the same, however, just with better marketing.

Plus…why? Why write this stuff? No one reads it.

Alright, a few hundred people will read a post over 3 to 4 days. I get that in 3 hours when I write about business.

It’s clear – I need to do what’s best for me, not what’s best for Montana.

Maybe I can combine both – my John Colter books seem popular, and maybe one day this will boost tourism and interest in the state. That’s a lot more effective than me doing some 9 to 5 job in Helena in the tourism office.

I’m not at all guilty about expressing this sentiment that I’m more useful to the state than most. Hell, I finished a 500-page book about the state’s history a month ago that none of you bought.

We know what I’ve done for Montana…what have you done lately?

How about your representatives?

No, Montana can fend for itself, it has for some time.

These dumb-heads that are in control of the state right now will be gone one day. I and many other younger people will still be here.

And don’t forget how quickly those grade school kids turn into voters. The Montana Legislature is an inviting place for ambitious youth.

So there’s not much to get worked up about. The Missoulian did me a favor today – now I can focus on what’s good for me and my family.

What’s good for you and yours?

Well, go check out the Missoulian for that. I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for.

How Many People in Montana Read Newspapers? (Oct 8, 2014)

Looking at Montana Newspapers and Readership (Feb 1, 2015)

Quality Montana Reporters (May 9, 2015)

Troubles at the Missoulian (May 28, 2015)

Looking at Montana Newspapers and Media Strife (June 14, 2015)

Doing Research at the Montana Historical Society (August 20, 2015)

Montana Media Sources: The Good, Bad, and Worthless (August 26, 2015)

4 Comments

Missoula County’s Jail Problems: What Can Be Done?

9/29/2015

1 Comment

Bentley, Wolken, Rowley, and McDermott

Missoula County has a terrible situation with its jail.

These problems cause taxpayers unneeded duress and undue tax burden.

That’s why there was a meeting tonight at the Double Tree Inn here in Missoula. It happened at 6 PM and was put on by Emily Bentley of the Missoula City Council, Cola Rowley of the Missoula County Commission, and Sheriff T.J. McDermott.

The latter oversees the Missoula County Jail and all the problems pretty much drop in his lap. In other words, he’s responsible for the jail and its costs to taxpayers.

Right now those jail costs are through the roof. This is causing us to send inmates to other counties. We’re also discussing the idea of building a new jail.

Is that the answer?

One of the hot button topics around this issue is mental health, and how many of the Missoula County Jail inmates are there solely for mental health reasons.

Another issue is drugs. Many inmates are nonviolent and there only because of drugs. Should they be there or is there a better place for them?

Those are the questions, and they’ve been discussed.

The Missoulian Editorial

The Missoulian got things started off this week with its opinion on Sunday morning, July 27, in a piece called MISSOULIAN EDITORIAL: Let's keep more Missoulians out of jail: County should pursue alternatives to incarceration.

In the article the county’s problems with mental health are referenced right away. After all, many of those ending up in our jail are there because they have issues, not because they’re hardcore criminals.

Sadly, we don’t have the community resources to deal with this problem. “The only publicly operated acute psychiatric hospital in the state,” Warm Springs, “is 100 miles away from Missoula,” the article decries.

It’s not just a jail issue either. Because so many are in the jail our courts are backed up. They’re “asking for more public resources to handle a growing caseload,” and many times they’re calling in armchair-judges to oversee cases.

What’s particularly alarming to me is how so many of our elected legislative representatives from here in Missoula are taking part in this armchair-judging. Is there no conflict of interest concerning the various branches of government?

Let’s just sweep that issue under the rug for the time being and get back to the jails.

Cynthia Wolken, a current legislator from Missoula, is heading up the study to determine what needs to be done. She was also at the meeting tonight.

Many of you will remember that Wolken was chosen to lead up this study, and given the $40,000 grant we’d received as her salary to do that. Of course, she didn’t have any operating money after that so more grant money had to be secured.

Despite the vast resources we’ve given to this woman, her study won’t be done until “January at the latest.” I’m assuming that’s when Wolken’s $40,000 grant-salary runs out.

So far with the money thrown her way Wolken has been able to determine that crime rates are unchanging but the jail is still filling up.

Many people in the newspaper have mentioned the same over the past year. In fact, you can get just about all of this information from county and state jail reports. Alas, it cost us $40,000 to come up with gems like this:

“According to the statistics gathered by Wolken’s team, the prison population grew on a national level at a rate of 6 percent between 2004-2013. Meanwhile, Montana’s prison growth rate was 15 percent. General fund spending on corrections has also grown – by nearly 40 percent since 2006 – yet Montana is expected to be at 110 percent capacity within the next four years.”

Wolken has also determined that 83% of those booked into the Missoula County jail are put in for nonviolent offenses. Many of these are working poor, meaning they’re “held in jail for a month or two simply because they cannot afford to post bond.”

Drug courts are then discussed in the Missoulian as these are seen as ways to punish without using jail. Many options are given, including writing essays and alcohol monitoring devices.

One option is also a “get out of jail free card” or a second chance. Really, this is the best option.

Why are we punishing people for using drugs? We need to get off our high horses and start embracing the freedoms we purport to support instead of just acting like we do.

If someone wants to use drugs, let them. We let people drink and smoke, but we can’t let someone do drugs? If they’re not hurting anyone but themselves, to hell with it!

Folks, we’re broke.

We don’t even have the money to pay Wolken’s salary – we have to borrow it from the feds (well, it’s a gift because we can’t pay it back). On top of this, the Feds are so broke they have to borrow it from the Chinese. My, what a mess we have.

Why are we not talking about legalizing marijuana? Democrats should be all over this. Alas, you can’t count on a Democrat for much these days.

Despite this, the governor is doling out some of the tax money of yours he kept all year, you know, that $455 million surplus we have?

Yep, a measly $1.8 million is being diverted to 16 counties to deal with overcrowding. That should buy them a couple weeks.

The Costs of Going to Jail: Another Take

It was also revealed on September 27 on Reptile Dysfunction that the Saturday night before the editorial there were at least 4 people booked into the jail, most on alcohol charges.

Why are we not raising taxes on alcohol since it’s clear it’s causing so many problems, and driving up costs for taxpayers? Why am I paying for this nonsense?

There were a few days of rest in the media on the issue of the jail until earlier this afternoon.

That’s when Eric Whitney, over on Montana Public Radio, had a post up where McDermott mentions how he’s frustrated that 20% to 30% of “the people he houses don’t really need to be there.”

My God man, let them out!

It’s also mentioned in the article that Wolken was responsible for getting a bill passed that created a “state sentencing committee,” whatever that is.

Whitney mentioned that there’d be eight different options up for debate at tonight’s meeting.

Then we get to costs.

It costs $108 per day to keep someone in the Missoula detention center. That adds up to:

$3,240 a month;
$19,440 for six months;
$39,420 a year.

Those amounts are despicable – the working poor, people struggling to support their families on two or even three jobs, are making less than that each year.

They’re lucky to scrape together the few hundred needed for the rent each month, and you’re telling me we’re spending $108 a day on these people in the jail?

Why does it cost so much? Even at the state prison it costs just $104 a day for a woman and $97 a day for a man.

Why is it costing $4 a day more in our county jail, and are other county jails the same way?

The Meeting Begins

I hoped those questions would be answered and 15 minutes into tonight’s meeting I was happy to see Cola Rowley mention the $108 a day cost.

What surprised me is that there were no gasps from the crowd over this. Oh yeah…the crowd.

By my count there were about 48 to 50 people there, though a few looked like they were from the media.

About 50 people showed up for the meeting

Besides that I saw quite a few city councilors. I only saw one state representative, and that was Willis Curdy.

Let me just say that I find it shameful that out of Missoula’s 15-strong legislative delegation, just one member deems it worth his time…though I will add that Wolken is also a legislator.

While talking about the “human costs” of this issue, Rowley mentioned that many of the people there tonight were involved in the trenches of this issue. I suspect that many in attendance were in the mental health profession. They stand to make a lot of money if we can get people out of jail and into their clinics.

Hey, maybe we can help them too, perhaps get their life back on track. Great, but I’m more interested in saving the taxpayer money while creating non-governmental jobs.

How much money is going to these mental health professionals? If we’re not building a new jail we’ll surely have to build or rent some community medical health centers.

Or are these already built, just waiting to be filled, and those in attendance sitting there to let it be known they’re ready for when they are?

Could be, could be…I dunno.

The 8 Options for Missoula’s Jail Overcrowding

At this point we’re about 22 minutes into the meeting and Sheriff McDermott took over to present the 8 options for Missoula’s jail overcrowding issue.

Option 1 – Expand Jail Programming: This currently consists of AA meetings and some church stuff. We’d like to get mentoring, drug/alcohol counseling, metal health work, and PTSD work. The proposed cost for this is $100,000 and that’s mainly for the staff.

Option 2 – Add Jail Service Providers: Currently we have one social worker for 4,223 inmates. We’d like one more social worker and two managers. They would primarily assist with reentering the community. It costs $140,000 to do this.

Option 3 – Chemical Detox Beds: This is where the drug addicts go cold turkey. There are 18 beds, always full, and they’d like 4 more beds. This might cut down on the legal liability of the jail, as you have more people to watch the detoxing inmates so they don’t die. Cost for this is unknown.

Option 4 – Drop-In Center & Safe House: There is no safe location for drunk people or detoxing people currently. They’d like to have this to relieve tension on the jail. There is no cost determination on this yet.

Option 5 – Emergency Detention Beds: Some hospital beds are all we’ve got. We’d like 6 to 8 beds for “people experiencing mental health crisis and unwilling or unable to voluntarily seek treatment.” Cost is undetermined.

Option 6 – Revising Bond Conditions: Many low-income people can’t afford the up to $500 bonds. Even $100 is too much for some people, especially those living on the street. No cost determination on this.

Option 7 – Increase Use of Electronic Monitoring: Here we’re talking about GPS monitoring, and we have little in that department right now. This cost is $10 to $15 a day and the inmate pays it.

Option 8 – Eliminating Jail for “Failure to Appear:” When people get petty crimes and don’t show up, the next time they’re spotted they’re arrested on a warrant. Many times these are vagrants and now the taxpayers are feeding and housing them for a few nights, maybe a few weeks. Cost is unknown.

The reason so many costs are unknown is that the state has to deal with some of these things, such as doing away with bond issues or “no appear” issues. We know that won’t happen until the spring of 2017, at the earliest. I doubt any interim committees will do anything until then.

At this point we moved on to some questions and comments.

The Pre-Release Center

Someone mentioned the prerelease center, but it was said that this study didn’t have the resources for that.

Someone mentioned cancelling the contract with the state that allows us to house 140 inmates for the Montana Department of Corrections. That’s money that the county gets, and I doubt they’ll want to give that up.

McDermott mentioned that this is an “assessment center,” so inmates are often behaved well as they want to go into convenient programs for them.

The benefit to Missoula County is $3.5 million a year for the budget. Without that money, the county says they couldn’t operate the jail without that money.

I can’t for the life of me understand why the county doesn’t have enough money without the state assistance in this.

But let’s be honest – it’s not assistance, there is none of that. Missoula has to work for that money by housing inmates that they have no room for. This drives up the chances for negligence lawsuits.

It’s time Missoula County thinks about kicking those lawsuits up to the state to deal with – their lack of funding created the problem.

Issues with Nursing Home Seniors in Jail

After that someone mentioned Lewistown and how they know about a problem with older people getting away from nursing homes. These people should be in homes but they don’t want to be. They also need critical services, such as prescription drugs.

They leave the nursing facilities without permission from staff. They end up in the jail sometimes because there is no other option for a cold night.

Lewistown is overcrowded, Warm Springs is overcrowded, and our current system is not working.

In answer we were told that a new facility is being created in Galen, on the governor’s orders just today.

Missoula’s Pre-Trial Population

It was then asked if there was any data to show us who these 80% of the population that’s pretrial is.

There’s some preliminary data going back to the new system that was installed in the jail in 2014. Right now they’re working to establish a baseline. In other words, there are no hard facts to go off of to determine where the base problems lie.

Later on in the meeting some numbers were revealed. We were given some harder facts on jail incarceration, based on 2013:

There were 4,423 unique individuals booked in 2013.

83% were in on assaultive charges.

66% men and 33% women.

75% of detainees are pre-sentenced.

12% had been sentenced to the detention facility for less than one year or into the DOC.

13% held on probation revocations, 62% of these felony issues.

Curbing Power

Someone mentioned that we should curb the powers of the judges. Another issue is having legislators go to Helena and get rid of laws instead of making so many.

Emily Bentley cut that man off, saying that we wouldn’t delve into the “weeds” of that issue.

One option is the cost that people have to endure in fines, counselling, and other issues. It was mentioned that judges should take this into account, it’s hoped.

The county has to foot the bill or match some of it for the homeless and other types. So that’s seen as an investment by the county to care for that person or pay their costs. The alternative is the $108 a day in the jail.

The Effect on Families

Extended families were then brought up.

How many people in the community at large are affected by this? Obviously thousands, so this is a serious issue.

Bentley mentioned that they needed to do a better job going forward on data gathering and tracking recidivism rates and all that jazz.

Probation Program Time Constraints

One person mentioned that many people on probation have to go to programs at 3:30 in the afternoon. That’s hard to do when the person has a 9 to 5 job.

Waiting Times for People in Jail

The average length of stay for people unable to post bond varies greatly according to the charge statute they were brought in under and the supervising court.

We were told that we had to wait a couple minutes…and it came back awhile later on 2014 stats.

Non-violent offenders stayed in jail 13.8 days pretrial, which means that costs $1,490.40.

Since they’re just sitting in jail and not getting treatment, you can almost guarantee that they’ll be back.

Native American men and women stay longer it was revealed.

I Decide to Talk

At this point there was a slight lull in the questioning so I asked my 4 questions. I had to call them questions even though they were points.

Emily Bentley rushed up and said, “well, are they questions?”

I said that they were, and then I was pretty much talked over while I asked these.

I went ahead and talked over Bentley and brought up the following points:

Legislature: The elephant in the room that we’re not mentioning. Funding laws…these guys do all this. We also have a $455 million surplus for the state.

Treatment Programs: How many councilors are in attendance tonight, how many of you will benefit from the massive windfall of funding that’s about to come your way.

Warm Springs: I brought up the closure of Warm Springs or the MDC or whatever you want to call it, and how we’ll soon have a huge influx of new inmates with mental health issues that we have no community clinics to deal with.

Substance Abuse: Can you be more specific? What drugs are we talking about, what problems are being caused by what? Should the downtown bars, the Montana Tavern Association even, should they shoulder some of this burden?

I got up and raised my 4 points, and I got once answer:

Alcohol was the major substance, meth, and prescriptions.

After that we continued on with questions, most in a more soft-spoken manner than I delivered mine.

I felt the meeting was a bit shaken up – they weren’t expecting anyone to ask any real questions.

Posters on the wall were pointed out, and I guess people were supposed to get into little groups to discuss things. I’m not sure this tactic works.

It was revealed at the end of the meeting that there will be another meeting on Thursday, October 15 at the Missoula City Council Chambers. It will discuss how we can better house some of these inmates in ways other than jail.

Conclusion

Attendees were coffee and caked

I was impressed by the coffee and cookies display at this event, and took two cookies home.

They were fresh, and good, wholesome and delightful – everything this problem is not.

It’s clear that Missoula County has serious jail issues, and so do other counties.

We have issues with old people going into jail in lieu of nursing homes on cold nights so they won’t die.

Fingers should be pointed at the Montana Legislature and particularly the Republican Party. They’re the majority yet they continuously withhold funding.

Still, it was a Democrat that decided to close the MDC mental health facility, one allied with the mental health industry. That’s what I meant when I mentioned Warm Springs, so I made a mistake there. The principle still stands, however, and the clinics and counselors still stand to profit.

We have nothing to fill the gap on this and those MDC-affiliated centers are closing, their “inmates” being turned loose. I’d rather we give money to mental health instead of jail. At least then people might get better.

The State of Montana has $455 million in the bank right now yet its infrastructure crumbles, its jails overflows and its old people die in the snow-covered streets.

What a shame, what a shame this is.

What can be done?

Well, we could fund these things with the cash we have. Fingers must be pointed at Governor Steve Bullock and his banker cronies. We could have had infrastructure, but he wanted to borrow the money.

There’s currently no plan for the 2017 Legislature to deal with these issues.

Legislators don’t think they’re issues because they weren’t at the meeting tonight. Most are no doubt out raising funds for their campaigns.

Don’t expect much to change on this.

The costs to Missoula taxpayers will continue to go up, either in the form of funds to deal with the problem or to fund studies to look at it.

Nope, nothing will be changing anytime soon. That’s a damn shame. Blame the legislature, blame the governor. Who else is responsible?

1 Comment

The Frustrations with Unions and Business as Usual

9/20/2015

0 Comments

I would love to support unions.

I’d love to support the Democratic Party.

I’d love to support UM.

But you know what? I can’t.

I can’t support those institutions and it’s extremely frustrating.

I will say that it’s a little easier to not support them, mainly because they’ve given me no reason to support them.

There was a great letter in the Missoulian today called Unions: Montana should follow WI’s example.

The Missoulian letter was written by Dennis Startin from Missoula and he was a union member for 25 years he says.

The frustration. God, it must be frustrating to have supported unions, to want to support unions still, but then they give you no reason to.

“Today's unions are nothing but money-grubbing outfits that help elect officials to push their agendas. With your money,” Startin writes.

I cannot agree with him more, as I’ve said. People like Eric Feaver will cling to their position by their fingernails should you try to pry them away from it.

I totally agree with this letter and said as much in the comments. I mentioned that at one point Butte had both of its street sweepers unionized, but now we’re lucky to get 1% of the state’s dishwasher unionized. I doubt it’s that.

Hell, I don’t know. I don’t know what union numbers in Montana are, and I made that clear when I wrote about the Montana AFL-CIO’s 2015 Convention in June.

Unions don’t seem to be friendly with the working man anymore, just the highly-skilled workers.

Yeah, plumbing and pipefitting – that’s damn skilled compared to cooking fries and cleaning toilets.

Unions don’t want to get their hands dirty with that kind of work, however. There’s no money in it.

Unions like their money, especially the top brass. In Montana that’s Eric Feaver for the MEA-MFT union of teachers and state workers and Al Ekblad for the AFL-CIO. I know Feaver makes six figures, not sure what Ekblad makes.

This just turns off the legislatures, this high pay – it makes them not want to fund education!

Royce Engstrom at UM is another fine example of how terrible leadership, inflated salaries, and large egos are destroying Montana’s ability to compete nationally when it comes to education.

And is that such a bad thing?

For unions it’s not. That means they can keep their same small membership levels. Furthermore, the people that have cemented themselves at the top – where the money trough is – can keep themselves there, without question, accountability, or any expectation of results.

Those are the results – keeping things just as they are, because gosh darn, that’s profitable for the select few.

We might as well add in the 52,000 unionized workers in Montana – I’m not sure they want to see more unionized workers added to the union rolls. That might take away from their benefits.

Ah, class conflict.

That’s the thing that’s most beneficial for the ruling classes in America – pitting workers against one another.

Union, non-union, high-skilled, low-skill, education or not – turn them against one another so they don’t band together and start asking for some real change, like no more 1%, period.

The world has that every few years, maybe every 70 years by some economic cycles I’ve seen, and I think we’re at that again.

It’s a complete turnover, and we’re in it. Incumbents will not be doing well politically, ideas will not be doing well culturally, and institutions will not be doing well when it comes to withstanding the overwhelming desire for change.

People are pissed.

Unions aren’t helping with that. They’re currently part of the problem, not the solution. Ass-clowns like Scott Walker have propelled themselves to the national stage, and changed the dialogue. It’s all because of that corrupt union leadership that Startin was talking about in his Missoulian letter.

Unions created Scott Walker! I never would have heard of the schmuck otherwise!

All you can really do is shake your head at the obvious incompetence that’s exhibited on a daily basis in this country and all over the world. Is it any wonder people just want to buy a home in the woods so they can get the hell away from all the crazy?

I think something that would help is if people just turned off the TV and the computer for a week, and left the damn phone at home too.

We have so much power yet we don’t even realize it! All we need to do is stop paying attention.

What would happen if the Donald gave a rally and no one came? What would happen if Hillary threw a press conference but no one watched?

They’d be powerless, utterly and completely powerless.

That’s how most local candidates are, and it’s why they knock on doors. Can you imagine the Donald or Hillary knocking on your door? Please.

We need to stop giving these fools so much power. We have the power, and they work for us. We pay their inflated salaries, and that goes for the union brass as well.

Start giving these people the level of respect they deserve – none.

What have they done for you lately?

Eric Feaver and Al Ekblad have given me nothing, and have probably made my life worse. I have no respect for them – and they have no respect for me.

See where we’re going here in America?

People are pissed. Change is coming, the real kind this time. I would not want to be one of the clowns currently “in power.”

What power? Oh how they cringe, fearful of this change that’s sweeping across the land. They speak out, lash out, but all to no avail.

What ever will they do?

Why, go the way of the dinosaurs, you fools – it’s what we’re trying to tell you.

It's not like your massive pay, benefits, and retirement packages are driving our jobs overseas - just the pens of the politicians you support, financially and otherwise.

The sooner we're rid of you the better.

What have you done for me lately?

It’s coming and they know it.

0 Comments

7 Reasons 2016 is Bob Brown’s Year

9/19/2015

1 Comment

No one wants to vote for Greg Gianforte or Brad Johnson.

Sure, some religious zealots and corporate cronies do, respectively, but few others in the state are lining up to.

Now, it is early, but the truth of the matter is that both Gianforte and Johnson are giving GOP donors the cringes.

It’s easy to cringe when Gianforte opens his mouth about religion or gay people or in-sourcing;

It’s easy to cringe when Johnson talks about his time in the Secretary of State’s office, or tries to explain away his last-minute money-grabs;

It’s easy to cringe when the opposition brings up bigotry for Gianforte or drinking and driving for Johnson.

So these are problems, big ones, the kind that require extra baggage to lug around.

You know who doesn’t have that baggage? Bob Brown.

Bob Brown’s had a long and distinguished political career in Montana.

The last time Brown ran for office was in 2004 and he was beat out by Schweitzer.

That must have hurt, but honestly, that was a tough contest. Schweitzer is a good talker, he’s interesting, and he has good ideas.

I’m not saying Brown doesn’t, but gosh, it’s hard to go up against that.

It’s a lot easier to go up against someone that doesn’t quite have the oratorical gifts as our former governor, and Steve Bullock is that someone.

Could Bob Brown do it, could he beat Bullock and become Montana’s 25th governor?

I think he could. I think lots of people could, even a Democrat (I discussed this last December in a post called How Would Dirk Do It?).

Today it’s Bob Brown’s turn. He has a good chance to win and I’ll discuss how in this post.

#1 He Knows Montana Issues Like the Back of his Hand

Few people today have such a far-reaching appreciation of both Montana’s history and her politics. Bob Brown is one of those people.

Honestly, would you want to be in a debate with Bob Brown? I’d love it myself, but I doubt anyone on stage would like it.

Imagine the curveballs this guy could fling, the complete out-of-left-fielder’s that this man’s historical knowledge brings.

Hell, he was in the legislature in the 70s and remembers the state’s third Constitutional Convention. The number of political personalities from Montana’s past that he’s encountered must surely be mind-boggling.

Can you imagine the stories? This guy could really impress people in far, out of the way spots, you know, the rural areas Democrats abandoned two decades ago?

People like that stuff out there, the handshake, the look in the eye, the sitting across the table from you.

Over here in the west and in the cities that doesn’t go over so well. It makes us nervous, actually. We’re used to the TV or barring that, a big event where we don’t have to meet anyone. That face to face stuff is just not our way.

Is it Bob Brown’s way? It could be – he’s from Whitefish, has lived in Helena, is now in Missoula, and has ran for statewide office and won it and run again many times.

He knows this stuff! Does Montana know he knows his stuff?

I think so.

#2 Bob Brown Has a Long History in Montana

Montanans know Bob Brown, lots of ‘em.

Bob Brown was born on December 11, 1947. Bob Brown was born in Missoula but grew up in Whitefish on the family’s cattle and grain ranch.

Brown headed off to Bozeman for college and got his B.A. in History in 1970. After that Brown joined the Navy for two years. He was out in ’72 and in ’75 he married his wife, Susan Stoeckig.

Bob Brown ran for the Montana House at the ripe old age of 22. It was 1970 and he’d just graduated. He did two terms before making the switch to the Montana Senate in 1974. He stayed in that body until 1996 when term limits got him.

In 1988 had got a master’s degree in Education in Missoula. He spent 27 years teaching world history, American history and government to high school kids in Whitefish between his legislative stints.

After the legislature Brown started lobbying for “a telephone company, aluminum plant, and the Montana university system for four years.”

Does all that experience give him the knowledge he needs to help lead the state?

I think so.

#3 Bob Brown Can Win a Statewide Office Because He’s Done It Before

In 2000 Brown took a chance at Montana Secretary of State. Three other Republicans were seeking the office.

There was Paul Tuss, J.R. Myers, Russ Fillner, and of course Bob Brown. The primary was held on June 6 and Brown took it with 62,501 votes, or 50% of the vote.

In the general that year it was Brown against Democrat Hal Harper. In the primary Harper had run unopposed and had taken 51,969 votes.

When both men were pitted against each other it was Brown taking the race, 202,369 votes to 174,053, or 51% to 44% (the Libertarian and Reform candidates took about 5% between them).

Brown ran for governor in 2004 mainly because Judy Martz didn’t want to. Brown felt “a call of service” and entered the race.

At the time his wife was a teacher in Kalispell, one of his daughters was going to high school in Whitefish, and both of his parents were sick.

Despite this, Brown threw himself into the ring. He tapped Shelby-native Jason Thielman to be his campaign director. He’d need the help.

Eric Stern, New York-native and son of the NBA Commissioner, was managing the Schweitzer campaign that year. Furthermore, there were three other Republicans running.

The June 8 primary pitted Brown against Pat Davison, Tom Keating, and Ken Miller. Brown took it with 43,145 votes, or 39% of the vote.

What’s so impressive about this victory is that Davison spent $700,000 in the race and Brown only spent $390,000.

Brown was able to do this because he spent wisely and tapped his “deep Montana ties to set up campaign committees in nearly every county.” He was “issue-oriented” and focused on “the need to create and expand jobs.”

In the general that year it was Brown vs. Schweitzer and we all know what happened – Schweitzer took the race with 225,016 votes to Brown’s 205,313, or 50% to 46%.

Even if the Green and Libertarian candidates had not run, Brown still would have lost by 0.8%.

Brown might have won that race if he hadn’t run out of money.

By June he’d been down to $44,000 in cash and $53,000 in debts. Schweitzer, likely with help from Stern’s New York and New Jersey connections, had $440,000 at that point.

Did that loss hurt?

I think so.

**#4 Bob Brown is Not a Quitter**

What probably made the 2004 gubernatorial loss a little better was when Schweitzer appointed Brown to the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees. It only took 6 years, but hey – Brown was busy.

He’d been the senior fellow at the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Center at UM. After that he became a senior fellow at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West. In that capacity he conducted more than 70 interviews with old Montana figures.

He’s also “an amateur historian for most of his life and loves history, particularly Montana history.” This is what else Chuck Johnson had to say in 2010:

Schweitzer, a Democrat, said Brown had worked at UM and now has some time on his hands now that he's retired.

"He's a guy who has a keen interest in Montana history," Schweitzer said. "I've respected him over the years, in all the positions he's held in state government. He was one of the youngest legislators, president of the Senate, secretary of state. He has a lot of energy and talent, and I'm looking for people who will be contributing to Montana's future."

One of the things I like about Bob Brown is that he doesn’t quit.

Yeah, he lost his 2004 gubernatorial bid, but he kept at it. Another way he’s stayed relevant for the past decade is through the newspapers.

Brown writes some good letters to the Missoulian and other state papers. Whether he’s talking about the legacy of Charlie M. Russell or writing on the 2015 Montana Legislature’s end in a letter called Coalition and Compromise, he stays relevant, he doesn’t quit.

Is Bob Brown going to keep on going no matter what?

I think so.

#5 Bob Brown is More Exciting than Bullock

Wow, you don’t think of Bob Brown and ‘excitement’ in the same sentence much, huh?

That’s about to change, because Bob Brown has something that is hot right now – oldness and a curmudgeonly outlook.

Those are hot items right now, as we see with both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.

The beard is a nice touch as well, and makes him look a little more rugged, a little more mountain-man-y. Do not cut it.

We need that rugged individualism here in Montana again and a little less of that lawyerly sixpence. Lawyers are only ever thinking about money, but individuals think about people.

The people of Montana want to be thought of again, for they’re tired of the corporations and bankers and union bosses and utility heads getting all the attention.

Could Bob Brown harness that anger and frustration? Could he be the Mr. Magoo-like pol we’re looking for?

I think so.

#6 Bob Brown is Hungry, and So are Republicans

It’s really hard to pin down what Bob Brown can or cannot do. I don’t know the guy, I’m not that familiar with his service, and I don’t know how he feels on the issues.

But damn it – I know full well that if Gianforte or Johnson gets the nod, Republicans might as well not piss their money away on this gubernatorial cycle.

Yeah, it’s that bad.

Bob Brown has seen bad before, however. He’s eaten bitterness but he’s never quit.

That carpetbagger and ne’er do well VanDyke took his ass off to Nevada or someplace not a month after the 2014 election.

Pansies like that don’t hold a candle to the Bob Brown’s of the world. He’s from the Rankin school, the kind that realizes losing is something that may happen, not once, but again and again and again.

Both Wellington Rankin and Bob Brown held statewide office (Rankin was AG in the 20s), but only Rankin kept at it long after. He had a string of defeats going all the way up to the 50s.

That hurts, and it can jade you. Is Bob Brown jaded or is he ready for one more go, or two or three or more?

I think so.

#7 Bob Brown is a True Conservative

When I say true conservative I’m talking financials.

Cracking down on social issues, abortion, and even pushing for fossil fuels – all of that costs money.

To hell with that – let the businessmen handle that stuff. Taxpayers need their money to fund government and when that’s done they need to be given it back. The way interest rates are these days, we should be passing bills that always give the majority of our surplus back.

Being a true conservative is more than that, however – it’s about being a good steward.

Bob Brown knows what being a good steward of the land is like, for he’s lived here his whole life and his forebears worked it.

I feel people like Bob Brown will stand up for the state’s Indians, giving them the resources they need to compete in the 21st-century.

I feel he’d start leading us toward more sensible energy policies so we can, again, compete globally in today’s economy.

I feel he’ll do away with the continuous focus on marginal social issues by corralling his party into focusing on what’s most important – money.

I feel that as a teacher and university employee he’ll give a good talking to legislators of his own party, one that makes them realize funding education is in our best interest.

I guess what I’m saying is yes – throw the bones to the Democrats – they want all that gay marriage, abortion, and other stuff. Just give it to them so they’ll shut the hell up and do what you want.

When that happens they’ll more that willingly go along with the needed economic measures the people of the state need. And since Bob Brown doesn’t let bankers keep his balls in their pocket, we know he won’t be short-changing future generations.

Yes, the Montana Historical Society will be built and we’ll get our infrastructure, debt-free, and with cash in the bank on top of it.

We could have had all that stuff last time, but for some reason we didn’t.

Bob Brown won’t let those snafus happen.

Could he be Montana’s next governor?

I think so.

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Bullock’s Dilemma: Lots of Dark Money, Little Popular Support

9/18/2015

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Steve Bullock isn’t going to get his second term.

The problem is his hypocrisy.

He raises dark money for himself and for other governors even though he said he wouldn’t.

I’m not voting for Steve Bullock and I’ll spend the next year convincing you not to vote for him either.

It’ll be pretty easy today – Bullock never defends himself.

He can’t – how do you defend yourself when you won’t give interviews, you won’t do campaign events, and you’re always in private homes for $50 suggested donation dark money events?

Bullock has no plans to defend himself.

Right now he doesn’t have to. While it’s true that Mike Dennison might do a detailed report on MTN about Bullock’s dark campaign contributions, the governor can just ignore him.

Keep hitting him, keep hitting him.

One of the best ways to hit Bullock is with the blogs. A clear winner here is 4&20.

You might remember that site getting shut down back in June. One more post went up and then I see today that 2 more posts have gone up in September.

What the hell happened?

I have no idea who Jay Stevens is and that goes for Montana as well, but gosh darn, something that the current/former writers were doing there really pissed that guy off.

You see, Stevens started that sight back in 2006 or so. I guess at some point he moved Back East and got involved in some dark money Democratic efforts. The Tester camp saw this and said, ‘gosh, we can finally have that thorn in our side removed.’

So they had Stevens shut the site down. Like I said, I have no idea who that person is nor do I really care, though I suspect some research on who’s paying his bills would tell you a lot.

Since then the site has been dormant. Well, go back and look at the last two months of posts and figure out what it was you did right.

Obviously you hit the Democrats where it hurt. Keep doing it.

James Conner has been hitting Democrats on his site and…that’s about it.

MT Cowturd totally ignores the Bullock dark money raising. To focus on it might distract from gay rights, flags, fountains, or some other minority issue that impresses the few while turning off the many.

Because Bullock and his corporate Democrats turn off so many voters they have to raise so much dark money.

Almost every weekend Bullock is out there.

God, they’re scared, aren’t they? You can smell the fear coming off them.

Well, what did you expect? What has Bullock done for you or your family?

I can’t name a single thing, myself. He acted like he wanted to do some times, but his leadership style proved wholly ineffective in that regard.

Bullock tried to shackle my son with $67 million in debt when we had cash to pay for infrastructure;

Bullock chose the incompetent John Walsh as both his running mate and his pick for Senator;

Bullock had some kind of shady forestry deal that sought no input from Montanans before selling off a lot of land.

I still remember my mom telling me how she took down the Bullock ’12 poster from her yard after he abandoned Barry Beach.

Lawyers.

Steve Bullock will bend anyway he needs to in order to get elected. He’s a loser, and Montana can’t afford more losers in Helena – half the legislature's full of ‘em already.

So it’s back to the dark money table.

Just keep hitting Democrats over this. Sow those seeds. Create that doubt.

Steve Bullock isn’t going to get his second term.

That should be obvious from his actions.

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The Financial and Political Malaise in America: It’s Gonna Get Worse

9/17/2015

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Lots in the news.

How about that debate last night?

I was sure the Donald would go after Fiorina in the debate last night over Hewlett Packard.

That company is a mess.

Well, it’s soon to be two companies now as Hewlett Packard is laying off up to 33,000 workers before splitting in two. I’m sure America would do much the same with that woman in charge.

Really, though, is her performance that bad?

Companies like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are doing much worse. JPMorgan was charged with a felony in May for market tampering.

Jamie Dimon has lost more than $6.2 billion since his messes have happened.

When you’re in finance, however, you don’t lose your job when you oversee a massive fuck-up. You get a bonus!

The real problem is that JPMorgan has about $3.5 trillion in assets.

These aren’t assets – they’re liabilities. That’s what debt that no one has the collateral to pay is called.

My God, they’re either have no idea what they’ve done or they do know and they’re rushing for the lifeboats.

Where are you rushing to? There’s nowhere to run.

People all over the world are running, mainly away from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

They’re running to Europe right now, and that’s great – let the EU handle this. For the life of me I can’t understand why Americans are falling all over themselves to get refugees here.

We had 578,424 homeless people in America last January according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. That’s a huge problem and illegal aliens from south of the border and Syrian refugees are the least of our concerns.

We can’t even take care of our own people for God’s sake!

Oh well, more money for the relief agencies, nonprofits, private prisons, healthcare industry and security contractors. If it adds to that $19 trillion national debt, so what?

This is big money, folks, taking care of people. That’s one of America’s biggest businesses – taking care of people that can’t take care of themselves.

What’s going to happen when America can’t take care of them?

Well, they’ll die.

They’ll die and lots of Americans will be dying as well. It’ll be the old and the infirm first, then the really young.

Of course, most will die when the guns come out. That’ll happen when the food gets scarce.

Yes, hand me my tinfoil hat – I’m talking societal collapse again!

When you’ve got a nation built on debt and you can no longer borrow on credit, how do you think the groceries are going to get to the store?

They’re not, because the guy that needs to use his credit card to buy gas in Seattle isn’t going to be able to. His boss won’t be able to buy the produce on credit. The banks have no money and people have no cash.

We’re a house built on collateral that doesn’t exist and it’s about to be called up.

Wow, you have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?

Hey, don’t feel bad – 90% of America has no idea what’s going on with the financial markets.

Let’s discuss what’s going on. There’s no shame in it. Just because the corporate news doesn’t discuss something doesn’t mean you can’t.

In fact, that probably means you should. Let’s do that.

Interest Rates, Collateral, Leverage and Earnings

Many people today are worried about interest rates. Well, they should be – China has liquidated $184 billion in US Treasuries this year and it’s likely they liquidated another $100 billion in August.

Quantitative easing (printing money) will take place by the Fed to stop this, and that means they won’t raise interest rates.

That’s sad because there’s no way they can absorb the shock that this incredible dumping of US bonds has on the world. It’s just kicking the can down the road.

We need interest rates at 1.6% by the end of 2016 according to the Federal Reserve, but that won’t happen.

Why?

They’re afraid the economy will collapse if they raise rates at all. Well, it’s collapsing now.

Don’t let the short-term-memory talking heads on the corporate networks fool you.

The Dow was at 16,599 on Tuesday, September 15. The Nasdaq saw 4,860 and the S&P was 1,978. All had climbed more than 1% that day as industrial stocks were bought up.

Despite the rallies and feel-good sentiment, the Dow was still nearly 1,000 points off its July 27 high. It was also 55 points below where it’d rallied back from after that disastrous dip at the end of August.

Yes, over the past 24 days we’ve gone nowhere.

Well, oil went somewhere. It climbed up from $38.60 at the end of August to $44.85, a nearly $6 gain.

We’ll see if quantitative easing (printing money) will be enough to forestall disaster. I doubt it. I mean, China has a credit bubble that’s $28 trillion.

The problem with the stock market is all the collateral that’s built up, just like in the 1930s. Back then we called it buying on margin, or with debt.

People are going to call in that debt, even if it’s 50 cents on the dollar. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and they’ll get real desperate for the 1% here real soon.

They don’t have any money!

Skilled jobs in America have fallen off precipitously. They made up 60% of our workforce in 1979 but by 2012 they were only 46%.

The idea is to ship all our jobs overseas. NAFT and CAFTA were designed to lower everyone’s pay to the lowest level currently, which was that of the Mexicans.

This needs to happen so that when the borders are eliminated everyone will be about the same. That’s what a flat world means – it’s good for the corporations that want to level everything, including your life.

America’s sovereignty will be leveled, that’s for sure.

At the same time we got rid of our skilled jobs lower-skilled jobs saw their pay fall up to 17%. Today American workers are making the same average incomes they were in 1989.

The median income in America today is $53,700, or $2,019 more than it was in 1989. Back then it was $51,681.

American workers have seen their wages go up $81 a year for a generation.

For the past 25 years, we’ve gone nowhere.

Interest rates are a problem right now – they need to go up.

Most people figure the rates will go up, because they have to go up. A lot figure this year, but the problem is, when do you want to crash the economy?

That’s what raising rates will do – cause a crash.

It’s bursting the bubble, and we need it. We can’t keep printing money.

Debt is not money, but we’ve been led to think it is.

When those notes are called, we’ll find out quite quickly that debt is a liability.

Accounting 101, folks – you know it but our government does not.

More money printing is simply not going to work. We can’t keep saying 6 months, 6 months…you can’t keep saying ‘wolf’ forever.

The largest drop in the stock market happened and we still have not recovered from our summer losses.

Our debt is $19 trillion and the Chinese have $28 trillion. You think Europe’s got problems right now, wait until millions of people in America and China go out of work.

It’s worse than that, however, as the collateral crunch starts. If you have a house it’ll be gone, unless you own it. And if you’re on a government pension that’s unfunded? Wow, you’re fucked.

The IMF is warning the Fed not to raise rates even 0.25%. The G20 countries simply are not sound enough financially to take that shock.

But considering their head is about to step down, well…derivatives lawyers – can’t trust ‘em.

While Christine Lagarde might be fine, it’s likely you won’t be.

The bad debts are unknown. The debt market is just a mess. We’ve got about a quintillion in debt around the world. Yeah, that’s $1,000,000,000,000,000,000 – 18 zeroes.

It’s all about controlling the crash. When is it easiest to control? Probably after the harvest comes in, perhaps after the busy holiday season. Some still remember 1907 and how agriculture is so tied up in these things.

God may not agree with that, however, and the earthquakes in Chile kinda point to that.

Something’s coming, folks, it’s coming.

Our economy is based on fraud. Money laundering for drugs, robo-signing for mortgages, accounting standards that have been thrown out the window.

We’re in a much worse situation than we were in 2008.

It’s pretty clear that nations are losing their sovereignty to the central banking system of Europe.

Just yesterdayDavid Cameron quietly paid a £1.7 billion payment that’s he’d previously said was ridiculous.

It’s for the privilege of being in the EU, an economic-political body that’s about to break up. Talk about pissing away money, huh?

In Iran the drumbeats to war still drone on. Isreal is a large part of this problem, as is America giving them the bomb.

The capital of Iceland yesterday began boycotting all Israeli goods, calling the Middle Eastern country a “volcano of hatred.”

In Iran children are taught to say “death to America” from a very early age. They usually say it in school three times a day on top of it.

Hey, sounds strange, but we had eye exercises for 10 minutes each afternoon when I was teaching in China.

It’s not the Iran deal, let’s stop calling it that now – it’s the Iran capitulation.

Iran has no intention of going through with anything after 10 years. We got nothing in this deal – not even our hostages back (which the media never talked about anyways).

Iran will go ahead and do what they want to do just as soon as they get that money back that they’re also begin promised. As if a nuke wasn’t enough.

Do you think that money’s going into the central banking system where it can be seized again? Ha!

Thankfully here in America we have the dog and pony show to distract us from things like this.

People love Trump, though it seemed a few of the other nincompoops stole some of his limelight last night.

Ben Carson wasn’t one – he kind of mumbled himself into donation decrease if you ask me.

The thing with Ben Carson is that the GOP likes him, sees value in him. He’ll be allowed to pick what state he wants for a Senate run and the Party will back him financially – yep, another one in the pocket.

Who’s pocket are we talking about?

Well, to understand that, I think we need to understand the mentality of the businessman that controls the discontent.

“There is no Democracy, there is no America.”

The newsroom scene from Network gets all the attention, but the real meat and potatoes happens in the boardroom.

Trump said it himself during the debate – CNN made a lot of advertising money last night. They bumped the debate from 2 to 3 hours to make even more.

It’s all money for the corporations. Don’t be surprised when you hear some stories (Syrian refugees) but not another (American hostages in Iran). And no one wants to talk about our homeless, especially the vets.

The media wants to keep their narrative going.

Right now it’s good to show refugees as this will drum up support that the US has to do something. If we do, that means we can go in and topple another dictator. Our military industrial complex loves that.

We certainly won’t talk about Iran hostages as we want to paint Iran as our friend right now.

The reason for this is so they’ll begin buying up arms from the nuclear arms dealers. Then they can have a war with Israel. Even more money!

Thankfully Hillary will come riding in to save us all.

Ha, what a joke!

Hillary is toast, as she’s got some serious espionage problems. Yep, that damn email server!

What’s so hard for Hillary is how much Obama hates her and how always sends Valerie Jarret out to do her in.

Gosh, General David Patreaus got taken down for having a few papers in his desk. He got a felony, a $100,000 fine and barely escaped jail.

Remember when we thought he could be president?

Hillary did far worse than that. Her computer files are on Google now.

What issues of national security did she violate? She’s in touch with the White House, the NSA, the CIA, the State Department, and countless embassies around the world not to mention Congress.

You’re telling me that emails are the only issue here?

We know her server was hacked. Why is this woman still on the campaign trail, still scheduled to debate?

Put the cuffs on her the next time she steps out in public, or better yet, do a raid and drag her from her home.

My God, folks, she’s violated countless laws!

I can only think that Obama is holding the Justice Department off so that she’ll stay in the race a bit longer, distracting things, keeping the fundraisers in Obama’s pocket.

It’s all about the money, and control. Obama does not want to lose his relevance after leaving Washington. Hawaii is a long way and several time zones away. If he can keep those fundraisers, he’s got leverage.

Conclusion

Well, things are pretty messy right now.

It all comes down to the Fed announcement at 2 PM (EDT) today. Yep, 2.5 hours from now.

Will today be the day it goes to hell? I hope not – I still have money in the bank and not enough cans of food built up.

Oh, that’s right…all I really need is my tinfoil hat.

You keep thinking that, you go right ahead and keep thinking that.

Is the World Heading Toward Financial Collapse? These 10 Signs Say Yes

Girding Against the Economic Collapse

A Quick Look at the Depression

What was the Great Depression Like?

The Iran Nuclear Deal: How Does it Benefit You?

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Greg Gianforte: Turning the Negatives into Positives

9/16/2015

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Greg Gianforte would probably make a good governor if he wasn’t so fucking stupid.

Yeah, the guy’s got issues, lots of ‘em, and anonymous Democratic mouthpiece MT Cowturd will continually point these out (when they’re not pointing out minority issues like flags, fountains, and gay people).

It’s that issue on gay people that’s really got Cowturd tying itself in knots.

The way it’s going, I don’t think we’ll be reading anything but Gianforte attacks and gays are wonderful posts on that site.

Oh well, if Democrats want to remain in the minority of state government, let ‘em.

I honestly hope that Cowturd and other such sites, as well as the corporate media in the state, keep attacking Gianforte.

Yeah, Montanans don’t like that shit, these continual attacks against people. It rubs them the wrong way.

Will continual Democratic attacks against Gianforte work?

I think they’ll work really well at exciting the small group of people that follow Montana politics year-round.

I don’t think it’ll have much effect on swing and stay-at-home voters. In fact, I think it’ll turn many away.

Oh well, that’s what they wanted.

I just shake my head at them. I’m not sure what Nancy Keenan is thinking, but in all probability she’s not.

Personally, I loved the attacks Keenan had her Democratic machine make against Corey Stapleton when he announced for Secretary of State last week.

They pointed out how many elections the man has lost.

Yep, when you try to make the world a better place, you often get shot down by others that want to keep it a shitty place.

Many times these attacks will come from people that lost their U.S. House race before fleeing to Washington lobbying firms for 10 years.

Just flip the Democratic attacks around. Oftentimes you’ll laugh, for they sure are funny.

Silly’s another word that comes to mind when I see Democrats and their attacks. It’s the silliness I’d expect from one of my old 6-year-old students. Cute, aren't they?

Alright, although this rambling has been enjoyable for you, I think it’s time to get into the real issues of this post.

Let’s go.

Gianforte: Making the Bad Good

Greg Gianforte would probably make a good governor if he wasn’t so fucking stupid.

One of the stupidest things he does is continually speak out against gay people.

Gosh, Greg – that’s not a winning issue.

You know what might be a winning issue, however? Something like this:

“How do I feel about gay people, that’s what you’re asking right? Well, it’s a tough question and I’ll try to answer it as honestly as I can.

I’m not a big fan of homosexuality – there, I said it.

I was raised a Christian, went to Sunday School each week, and read from the family Bible. It was quite clear that homosexuality was wrong, that God didn’t like it, and that we as human beings were not supposed to take that route.

Alright, that’s my personal belief. Now, how does that mesh with the world we’re living in today? Well, it doesn’t.

I’m going to be completely honest with you – I don’t like that.

But you know what? We have laws in this land, we have a Supreme Court, and we have respect.

I’m going to respect the Supreme Court’s decision on this issue. I may not agree with it, but there’s a lot of federal policy I don’t agree with.

This is how I feel. I know that I’ll be attacked over my beliefs, but I won’t be changing them.”

Hmm, what do you think? Do you think that might get the anonymous Democratic attackers off his ass?

I doubt it, but it’ll cause a lot of heads to nod. A lot of those Silent Majority folks will like what they hear.

Let’s move on.

“My campaign contributions to Rob Natelson? Alright, let’s discuss that.

First of all, I think Rob Natelson is a great Montanan and one that has done a lot of good for this state. I especially like his ideas on a state’s convention, as we have too many problems in this country that the federal government is simply ignoring.

Now, about my kids. You’re probably referring to the donations that my son Richard and daughter NAME made when they were 4 and 12-years old.

They didn’t make those donations, I made those donations. There was nothing wrong with that. If there was, why have I not been investigated by the Commissioner of Political Practices?

I made them under the kids’ names because I couldn’t give anymore to Rob Natelson. I wanted to, because it was clear if I didn’t this state was going to continue to go down the drains.

Well, Rob lost and the state did go down the drains. It’s been going down the drains ever since then, and that’s why I’m running for governor.”

That’s going to be a tough issue for Gianforte to get around. I don’t think voters will care about it, however, and the Democratic machine will waste a few weeks spinning its wheels before it realizes this.

Let’s move on.

“Ah, you’re no doubt asking about my comments about retirement earlier this year. <laughs> Let me just say that I wish I wouldn’t have said what I said – I had no idea the anonymous Democratic mouthpieces of the state were going to twist my words around so much.

Well, there’s no sense in getting angry over that – I’m proud that those mouthpieces can say what they want without fear of consequences or recriminations.

That’s one of the things that makes this country great – that anyone, anywhere, can say whatever the hell they want to anyone. If the emperor’s got no clothes, you tell ‘em! <laughs>

Alright, now, what did I mean when I talked about retirement. Do I mean that when you reach 65 or 67 or whatever the number is that the feds keep telling us we have to wait to, do I mean you have to keep working?

Not at all.

<pause> <hesitation>

I don’t often get personal, but I’d like to talk about my own parents for a few moments.

My dad worked until he couldn’t work anymore and my mom did the same. Now, I’d like to be perfectly clear – my mom never had a real job, unless you want to call raising us kids and making sure the home was in order a real job. I think many of you will realize it is.

She worked hard and my dad worked hard and they never had the kinds of jobs that gave retirement. But they did get Social Security and thank God for that.

I want people to use their God-given skills in life. When I talk about retirement I really think that people should keep working.

Work around the house, find some volunteer position, help out with some at-risk youth. The point is, work is life. We’ve all heard those stories or maybe knew a neighbor that retired and BOOM – three or six months later they’re dead.

I truly believe that work gives us purpose. I love working! I love my job and the career I’ve chosen!

I know not everyone’s as excited about work as I am, and that’s fine – we have retirement and thank God for that – you’ve earned it. But think about what else you’ve earned – the ability to give so much back now.

Never stop working, never stop working for change, never stop working to make this world and the State of Montana a better place.”

I think that’ll get the job done, myself.

Let’s move on.

“Ah, the Montana Family Foundation – they’re a great group of people, aren’t they?

<pause, sigh>

Family is the most important thing in my life. It’s what I get up for each morning and it’s what I think about while lying in bed at night. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my family.

<heartfelt look at family>

Now, what about the Family Foundation? Democrats in Montana hate this organization, and I think that’s because we’re doing the job that they’ve always prided themselves on doing. Unfortunately, Democrats feel that family issues aren’t as important as saddling your family with debt or raising your taxes or helping their union members more than your family.

I fund the Family Foundation, that’s true. I’ve given hundreds of thousands of dollars to health clinics around the state. Many of these are in rural areas where the lack of care is telling.

Now, do these clinics encourage women not to get abortions? Yes, and I’m proud of that.

I don’t like abortions, and I think that has something to do with my Christian upbringing. I think it has something to do with my own wonderful children. They’ve been a blessing to me, and I thank God each day for His allowing them in my life.

Other women should have that blessing as well, and if I can talk just one woman out of getting an abortion, and allowing that blessing into her life, then I feel I’ve done a lot of good in this world.”

When Democrats decry something it’s a good bet that most of the state supports it. Remember, Democrats are in the minority here and have been for some time. They like it that way.

Don’t bend to their anonymous attacks.

Don’t change your tune.

You’re not defensive, they are.

Democrats are scared. Keep them that way.

0 Comments

Hillary the Spy

9/15/2015

3 Comments

Put a fork in her…she’s done.

No, I’m not talking about Hillary’s 29-point drop in the polls since mid-summer.

Hillary will not be our next president. Hillary will not be our Democratic nominee.

Hillary will most likely be going to prison, if she doesn’t flee the country or commit suicide first.

What on earth could I be talking about?

I’m talking about the email server.

Let’s get into this debacle today, as well as some other stories that slip through the cracks.

Buckle up, folks, this ride’s bumpy.

We all know that the Clintons are money whores.

The Clinton Foundation may have been set up to help people around the world, it’s true.

Now, however, it’s being used solely to funnel money to the Clintons in the guise of charitable donations so they don’t have to pay taxes on their income.

These people are slime, and I regret having a fondness for Bill’s policies and outlook in my younger days. Boy was I stupid!

Hey, this guy shipped most of our jobs overseas or to Mexico. He doesn’t care about me or my family, or yours.

His wife only cares about enriching herself. Gaining the presidency is a great way to do that.

That’ll be all but impossible when she’s charged with espionage under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq.

Let’s get into this story at its beginning, Benghazi.

The only reason we know that Hillary had a private email server in her home was because congressional Republicans hounded her over the incident that killed an American ambassador.

Hillary hates talking about that event, as she should – it makes her look bad. She cares more about her appearance than she does about America.

It came to light that Hillary had the server, that it wasn’t secure, and that any hacker could access the unprotected sub-domain. Many people did hack into it and that’s why the Russian Times had several of her files.

It’s recently been revealed that State Department official Bryan Pagliano was hired by the Clintons to install the server.

He’s taking the 5th, meaning he’s not talking. Does that seem a little strange to you?

It seems strange to a lot of Americans, and that’s why support for Hillary is eroding faster than a California hillside after a wildfire.

And because that support is eroding, Hillary is sending out her PAC attack dogs against Bernie Sanders:

She’s desperate.

Hillary will not be president, she will not be the nominee, she will be brought up on perjury charges and then espionage and she will be thrown in prison, if she doesn’t flee the country or kill herself first.

Wow, what a fall from grace huh?

This is what’s coming for establishment politicians, incumbents, and just about anyone else that’s currently in power.

People are sick of that. They’re sick of those people. They're sick of being lied to.

They’re sick of their lives getting worse all the time while those in power continually lie to them, telling them it’ll get better.

Stop. Just stop.

We’re done with you, whether you’re a Bullock running in Montana, an incumbent Democratic or Republican legislator in Helena, or one of those clowns in Congress.

We’re voting all of you out because you haven’t helped us at all.

You hurt us.

It’s important that we remember what happened in 1996.

We’re talking about Taiwanese-born Charlie Trie, who came to the US in 1974 and eventually co-owned a restaurant in Little Rock. That’s how he met Governor Clinton.

That’s why his family gave $220,000 to the man before the DNC made him give it back.

Yeah, maybe that’s not much – just corruption.

It established the China connection, however, which allowed Bill and Hillary to raise tons of money. Al Gore benefited too, as you might remember the Buddhist nuns donating to him.

The Clinton-China connection eventually allowed Bill to sell the country missile secrets. I feel the Cox Report Controversy is tied up in this. I’m not sure Bill is innocent.

The Loral connection comes in around this point.

That’s when Bill loosened restrictions on sharing missile technology. That allowed him to give the secrets to China. This was nothing more than back-rubbing for all the donations he was given for his 1996 campaign.

Because Bill did it and got away with it, Hillary is doing it too.

One of the saddest things about the whole China-missile-sharing deal was the fact that it emboldened these tyrants in Washington to start up the games again.

Just like the CIA’s glory days, politicians were eager to use America’s institutional muscle and financial power to ruin the lives of people all over the world.

That’s how the Stuxnet virus got out.

Yeah, that was the computer virus that came on the world scene in 2010. It was created by America and most likely Israel so that Iran could be crippled.

Oh, don’t you remember that at that time we’d just had an unsuccessful coup attempt against Iran’s President Ahmedinejad?

What we did was infect their computers with the 500-kilobyte virus so it’d attack the software at 14 of their largest industrial sites, including a uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz.

We tried the same thing in 2009 in North Korea.

Sadly, the virus spread from that Natanz plant to Asia, where it eventually got into most of the Siemans computer systems.

That’s how the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan got infected, something that weakened their Siemans systems and led to a Biblical-style natural disaster.

Those computer viruses are quite the plagues on mankind, aren’t they?

So we have a terrible series of events here.

They begin with Bill Clinton needing money to get reelected in 1996.

We have missile deals with the Chinese so that Clinton get raise dark money.

Because Bill is never caught, he and Hillary are emboldened to flout the law more.

The idea for the Clinton Foundation is put out, and it’s clear that if you can fool America once, you can fool them again.

All kinds of charitable donations are raised by Bill from all kinds of countries over the next few years. Having Hillary be a New York Senator helps with this.

Things get a lot better for Bill’s fundraising when Hillary becomes Secretary of State. She begins selling off secrets with her un-secure server so that they can enrich themselves further.

Everything would have gone according to plan if a few “guys out for a walk one night” didn’t get it into their heads to “go kill some Americans.”

The biggest problem at this point for Hillary is how she handled the classified documents.

We know that people grew alarmed when they saw she was not using her secure State Department email address. That’s how the server came to light.

Now the question is the documents.

Hillary knew she had classified documents. She didn’t want anyone else to know. That’s why she likely removed the word “classified” from them.

That’s a felony.

That’s why Hillary is so defensive. She was trained as a lawyer, she knows what’s coming.

It’s clear from the 40 emails of Hillary’s alleged 30,000 emails that they say “Top Secret” and “classified.” Check them out yourself.

Hillary needed to remove those “top secret” and “classified” designations for one key reason – she wouldn’t be able to send them over email if she didn’t.

Secret Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) documents can only be sent over un-secured servers.

She needed to send them over email so that the Clinton Foundation would profit.

Remember, Bill got away with selling state secrets to the Chinese in 1996. Why wouldn’t Hillary get away with it 20 years later?

Folks, the Clinton’s are corrupt.

This will all come to light and she’ll be prosecuted. Anyone supporting her will look mighty dumb.

Montana Democrats support her 110%.

We know that because James Carville came to the Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner earlier this year.

Jim Messina will be at a Bullock fundraiser in Missoula tomorrow.

What will these people do when the shit hits the fan?

Supporting a plagiarist is one thing, but boy, they’re gonna look really bad when it becomes clear they were supporting a traitor.

3 Comments

The Anti-Engstrom Social Media Campaign Results

9/15/2015

0 Comments

Perhaps you were on Twitter’s Montana political group #mtpol yesterday.

If so you no doubt saw my Tweets mentioning University of Montana President Royce Engstrom.

Well, if you weren’t you’ll see it all right here.

Let’s get started.

I decided to go after Engstrom because the man has got to be stopped.

I honestly don’t know how his level of incompetence has managed to hang on so long.

I personally believe that he’s cozy with Bullock, and that’s what’s allowing the man to keep his job.

What else could it be?

I mean, the University of Montana has been driven into the ground under this man.

That’s what I tried to make clear yesterday on Twitter. I did that through very simple images, some facts, and some fun commentary.

Here’s what that looked like

This Royce Engstrom image tells how much he's paid

Engstrom is fro North Dakota

He's real chummy with Admin

The arrogance

There's Engstrom, always trying to get away with something

Images like this are great

This one sucks, I'll admit it

Effective

Kinda scary

Classic

Why was this photographer not awarded a Pulitzer?

The Missoulian took this article down

Leverage

Cockiness

Entitlement

As you can see, I really went after the guy.

I posted one of those about every hour, though sometimes every 30 minutes.

My goal was to go all day, staying on message and using discipline. I wanted to send out the last Tweet just before people went home at 5 o’clock.

So what were the results?

Here are some of the analytics:

I went ahead and captured those screenshots around 10 PM the evening of the campaign. I figured that was about the time most Montana political types would be hitting the hay.

Clearly, some posts did better than others.

The posts that required someone to click to see the full text were the posts that got the most engagement.

There were no favorites or shares, nor did I expect there to be – people are afraid.

Yeah, people are afraid. They know full-well that if they’re not a tenured professor and they speak out against the crook in Main Hall, they’ll lose their job.

I have no doubt about that at all.

I know no one on #mtpol will favorite anything I put out – they might be lowered in the eyes of whomever’s paying their salary.

I have no doubt about that at all.

The only one that’s ever challenged Engstrom is the History Department’s Mehrdad Kia and that was back in 2013.

I took Iranian history from Kia and Central Asian history from his brother. We need more professors that aren’t afraid to speak out against injustice where they see it.

Few others do that, and it’s a shame.

Can you blame ‘em, though? Right now the University of Montana is a tough place to be.

Anyways, those were the analytics.

What I can’t measure are the head nods, the smiles, the laughs, the shaking of heads and all the other things that people do when they’re at their computer alone and no one’s watching.

See, it’s quite the intimate encounter, and that’s how you make the sale, do the convincing, and get the job done.

Sow those seeds.

I did yesterday, and I’ll do so again.

That’s what social media marketing is all about – getting your message out there, and in a better way than your competitors. That means you win.

We’ll see if Royce Engstrom continues to “win.” He’s sure raking in the dough.

The University of Montana continues to suffer as a result.

Does anyone care? No one in Helena does, except GOP legislators. They hold the carrot and the stick and they’ll cut funding to UM.

I see no reason why they shouldn’t.

If we’re going to have corrupt and incompetent “leadership” at UM then there’s simply no reason to fund that institution.

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0 Comments

New Montana Blog Categories

9/15/2015

0 Comments

Have you noticed the new sidebar categories?

Yeah, I finally decided to go through those and get ‘em cleaned up.

Here’s what they look like now:

Right away you can see the decades there, all 21 of them.

I suppose the 1700s aren’t really a decade, but the truth is that nothing much was going on in Montana at that time.

Or was there?

We know that in April 1794 Joseph Garreau reached the Arikara Indian villages on the Upper Missouri and sends his man Loison further upriver to the Hidatsa.

On June 7 of that year Jean Baptiste Truteau left St. Louis and reached the Teton Sioux in today’s South Dakota where he winters with them.

The North West Company controlled 93% of the Canada trade at that time. The population of St. Louis was 1,200.

That’s just a little of what happened in one year on the Upper Missouri.

When it comes to that period, when the Louisiana Purchase hadn’t even been made yet and that was all uncharted territory, you can’t really use “Montana.”

That’s the Upper Missouri country, Indian country, or whatever else you want to call the wilderness.

Anyways, we’ll probably have more posts discussing this stuff soon. Many of those decades are a bit thin.

Here’s how many posts each decade currently has:

1700s: 12
1800s: 10
1810s: 1
1820s:10
1830s: 5
1840s: 10
1850s: 7
1860s: 12
1870s: 5
1880s: 3
1890s: 5
1900s: 3
1910s: 9
1920s: 9
1930s: 5
1940s: 4
1950s: 6
1960s: 6
1970s: 3
1980s: 3
1990s: 4

I have to say, some of those have overlapping posts. Mountain man Jim Bridger, for instance, appears in the 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, 1850s and again in the 1860s.

Yeah, he really got around.

The 1700s is also a century, though we might slice of a few decades here and there, likely starting with the 1790s (the 1730s and 1740s were also an active time).

What I’m trying to do is make this blog a useful historical resource for researchers, students, and just those interested about Montana history.

I get a lot of visitors to old articles, just people wandering in off of Google because of something they typed in.

There’s a lot of interest in Montana history, though not that much in buying it.

My Montana books don’t do that well, or at least my non-fiction. The novels do very well.

That’s why I’m writing more, and that’s why I started organizing this blog. I need to get things straight, and I’ve been doing a lot of work besides this.

What I’m getting at is this big fur trapping timeline I’m working on. It’s currently 40 pages or so and dwarves anything else I’ve seen, including the very short timeline DeVoto put together in the 50s.

I’ll include it in the second edition of Tribes and Trappers.

Oh, didn’t I tell you?

I’m updating that book with about 100 new pages. I just didn’t profile the 1810s through the 1830s enough. I know a lot more now, and readers will get that.

The book won’t go up in price, and perhaps I’ll even lower it a dollar. I’ll have the new edition ready for the Christmas buying season.

There are plenty of other Montana categories besides historical posts. We discuss a lot of the following on this site, and I’ll flesh these categories out even further with new posts:

That’s really the meat and potatoes of our Montana Political topics.

Besides that, we have some far-reaching posts that appeal to people all over the world. Those categories include:

I encourage you the check them all out, share your favorites on social media, and get the word out that Montana is a great place to come and spend money.

Well, that’s about it. I hope you’ll discover a bit more about Montana’s rich history. Thanks for reading!

0 Comments

<<Previous

The Missoulian Cut Me Off, What’s Next?

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#1 He Knows Montana Issues Like the Back of his Hand

#2 Bob Brown Has a Long History in Montana

#3 Bob Brown Can Win a Statewide Office Because He’s Done It Before

**#4 Bob Brown is Not a Quitter**

#5 Bob Brown is More Exciting than Bullock

#6 Bob Brown is Hungry, and So are Republicans

#7 Bob Brown is a True Conservative

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The Financial and Political Malaise in America: It’s Gonna Get Worse

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Greg Gianforte: Turning the Negatives into Positives

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Hillary the Spy

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Categories

Archives

My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

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Conclusion

#1 He Knows Montana Issues Like the Back of his Hand

#2 Bob Brown Has a Long History in Montana

#3 Bob Brown Can Win a Statewide Office Because He’s Done It Before

#4 Bob Brown is Not a Quitter

#5 Bob Brown is More Exciting than Bullock

#6 Bob Brown is Hungry, and So are Republicans

#7 Bob Brown is a True Conservative

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Gianforte: Making the Bad Good

MT Book 7

​Montana Blog

​Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

​My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

My Montana Short Fiction

**#4 Bob Brown is Not a Quitter**

Montana Blog

Popular Posts

My MT History Books