Southern Montana
Let’s discuss some news today.
I have a bit on the special election and then we’ll get into foreign matters.
Mostly, we don’t need to go to war.
That’s what this post is about – please, let’s not go to war again.
I have a bit on the special election and then we’ll get into foreign matters.
Mostly, we don’t need to go to war.
That’s what this post is about – please, let’s not go to war again.
More Special Election Talk
James Conner pretty much nailed how the upcoming special election will go for Democrats in this comment on Intelligent Discontent this morning.
His main arguments?
Dem turnout is too low, Dems did terrible in just about every race last month, Dems have done terribly in the House race every cycle for 20 years, and they won’t have a good candidate.
“The Democrats, who need every legislative vote they have,” Conner says, “cannot [choose a current legislator], and may choose to nominate a former legislator as their sacrificial lamb.”
A couple days ago on Twitter he mentioned Pat Noonan as a possible candidate.
If that’s the case I’ll plan on voting for the GOP candidate even before that candidate is named.
In fact, I think I’ll be voting for the GOP candidate no matter who it is.
Well, that’s not quite true – if it’s Essman or Wittich or some other asshole with terrible policy ideas and no vision for the future, then I’ll just leave it blank.
Since this is the only race on the ballot for that special election, I just won’t vote at all.
Is that my fault?
As usual, I have no problem taking the blame for anything in Montana politics.
But at the end of the day, it’ll be the two parties and their nominating conventions that should draw the criticism.
If the Party brass can’t put up a viable candidate that gets people excited from the get-go, there’s no reason for donors to give that candidate money.
I haven’t given money to a political candidate since I gave Pat Noonan $25 in 2015.
Ever since then I’ve given my donations to charity, where it might do some good.
I’d love to vote for Daniel Zolnikov, bin Laden shooter Rob O’Neill, or even former Secretary of State Bob Brown.
I could see myself voting for Gianforte again, though I’m not sure how he’ll redo his Montana gubernatorial message into a Montana congressional/national message.
The only Democrat I see myself voting for is Brian Schweitzer, if he were to run.
I guess I’d vote for Curtis again, and I could vote for John Driscoll or Andrew Person.
Person would be a viable choice as he’s a combat veteran from Iraq, one who just lost his HD 96 race.
Everyone but Schweitzer would lose, however. So it's bench-building, I think it's already been decided.
Other than that, I can’t think of any Democrats I want to vote for. I can think of tons I don’t want to vote for.
The Democrats are just a dying party in Montana, with a dying message that no one really cares about anymore.
What is their message?
His main arguments?
Dem turnout is too low, Dems did terrible in just about every race last month, Dems have done terribly in the House race every cycle for 20 years, and they won’t have a good candidate.
“The Democrats, who need every legislative vote they have,” Conner says, “cannot [choose a current legislator], and may choose to nominate a former legislator as their sacrificial lamb.”
A couple days ago on Twitter he mentioned Pat Noonan as a possible candidate.
If that’s the case I’ll plan on voting for the GOP candidate even before that candidate is named.
In fact, I think I’ll be voting for the GOP candidate no matter who it is.
Well, that’s not quite true – if it’s Essman or Wittich or some other asshole with terrible policy ideas and no vision for the future, then I’ll just leave it blank.
Since this is the only race on the ballot for that special election, I just won’t vote at all.
Is that my fault?
As usual, I have no problem taking the blame for anything in Montana politics.
But at the end of the day, it’ll be the two parties and their nominating conventions that should draw the criticism.
If the Party brass can’t put up a viable candidate that gets people excited from the get-go, there’s no reason for donors to give that candidate money.
I haven’t given money to a political candidate since I gave Pat Noonan $25 in 2015.
Ever since then I’ve given my donations to charity, where it might do some good.
I’d love to vote for Daniel Zolnikov, bin Laden shooter Rob O’Neill, or even former Secretary of State Bob Brown.
I could see myself voting for Gianforte again, though I’m not sure how he’ll redo his Montana gubernatorial message into a Montana congressional/national message.
The only Democrat I see myself voting for is Brian Schweitzer, if he were to run.
I guess I’d vote for Curtis again, and I could vote for John Driscoll or Andrew Person.
Person would be a viable choice as he’s a combat veteran from Iraq, one who just lost his HD 96 race.
Everyone but Schweitzer would lose, however. So it's bench-building, I think it's already been decided.
Other than that, I can’t think of any Democrats I want to vote for. I can think of tons I don’t want to vote for.
The Democrats are just a dying party in Montana, with a dying message that no one really cares about anymore.
What is their message?
Troop Boondoggles
We waste too much money deploying troops overseas and I can’t think of a single way this is making our nation stronger.
I can think of many ways it’s making us weaker:
It's terrible.
That’s 97,000 troops stationed in those three countries.
That costs us $7 billion every year.
Now, Japan does give us $2 billion a year to protect them from China, and South Korea does give us $765 million a year to protect them from North Korea.
They do this because they can’t protect themselves.
Despite being nations, they can’t stand on their own two feet without you helping them.
Yes, it is you – you pay taxes, right? And that tax money is then funneled over to foreign countries.
We’ve been doing it for decades.
If we stopped doing it, and instead divided that $7 billion among our 50 states, each state would get $140 million.
Imagine what good Montana could do with that extra money, how many roads and bridges and sewer systems we could fix.
Instead we piss that money away on troops stationed overseas.
And when we say ‘stationed’ what we really mean is sitting there twiddling their thumbs.
That’s what deterrence is.
And that’s why I don’t support tax increases, only spending cuts or shuffling the money around.
It’s painfully obvious how much money we’re wasting, and it’s crystal clear how we could stop wasting it.
Bring those troops home.
I can think of many ways it’s making us weaker:
- We spend billions of dollars and have nothing to show for it.
- We create massive ill-will towards America in tons of countries.
- We ignore domestic problems in favor of ‘helping’ countries that we shouldn’t even care about.
It's terrible.
- We have over 34,000 troops in Germany, a hangover from the war we fought there 71 years ago.
- We have almost 39,000 troops in Japan, a hangover from the war we fought there 71 years ago.
- We have over 24,000 troops in South Korea, a hangover form the war we fought there 63 years ago.
That’s 97,000 troops stationed in those three countries.
That costs us $7 billion every year.
Now, Japan does give us $2 billion a year to protect them from China, and South Korea does give us $765 million a year to protect them from North Korea.
They do this because they can’t protect themselves.
Despite being nations, they can’t stand on their own two feet without you helping them.
Yes, it is you – you pay taxes, right? And that tax money is then funneled over to foreign countries.
We’ve been doing it for decades.
If we stopped doing it, and instead divided that $7 billion among our 50 states, each state would get $140 million.
Imagine what good Montana could do with that extra money, how many roads and bridges and sewer systems we could fix.
Instead we piss that money away on troops stationed overseas.
And when we say ‘stationed’ what we really mean is sitting there twiddling their thumbs.
That’s what deterrence is.
And that’s why I don’t support tax increases, only spending cuts or shuffling the money around.
It’s painfully obvious how much money we’re wasting, and it’s crystal clear how we could stop wasting it.
Bring those troops home.
Fuck Syria
Do you care about Syria or the Syrian people?
I don’t.
I don’t care about the people in Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, or Tunisia either.
Oh, didn’t you know…there are wars there too.
I guess the corporate media didn’t bother to tell you about those places, huh?
Why is that?
Probably because that might take attention away from the conflict you’re supposed to care about, which is Syria.
Hell, I wrote a short book about those 276 kidnapped school girls in Nigeria.
That was over 2 years ago.
But those are black Africans in a country with no resources, so we don’t care about them.
Syrians, however…boy, they’ve got some oil there. They’ve got good pipeline routes for natural gas too.
So we 'care' about those people.
Maybe you do, but I don’t. I just assume get the hell out of there and let them take care of themselves.
That’s what nation states do – they take care of themselves.
I don’t.
I don’t care about the people in Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, or Tunisia either.
Oh, didn’t you know…there are wars there too.
I guess the corporate media didn’t bother to tell you about those places, huh?
Why is that?
Probably because that might take attention away from the conflict you’re supposed to care about, which is Syria.
Hell, I wrote a short book about those 276 kidnapped school girls in Nigeria.
That was over 2 years ago.
But those are black Africans in a country with no resources, so we don’t care about them.
Syrians, however…boy, they’ve got some oil there. They’ve got good pipeline routes for natural gas too.
So we 'care' about those people.
Maybe you do, but I don’t. I just assume get the hell out of there and let them take care of themselves.
That’s what nation states do – they take care of themselves.
Russian Hacking
I don’t care.
I don’t care if the Russians hacked the election or not.
I didn’t care back on October 19 when CNN assured us that No, the presidential election can’t be hacked.
But maybe I’m just saying that because I don’t have sour-grapes-syndrome.
I voted for Trump and wanted him to win.
I’m happy with the election, as are many Americans.
I fully expect a lot of this hacking nonsense to go away come Monday when the electors from the Electoral College cast their votes.
I just don’t buy the idea that millions of Americans voted for Trump because the Russians made it so.
I think millions of Americans voted for him because they liked what he was saying.
Hillary could have come up with a viable message. She didn’t. She just attacked Trump all the time.
And she lost.
Get over it.
We lived 8 years under that fuck-up George W. and we’ve had 8 years of anti-hope from Obama.
If you’re really pissed off, leave.
I left the country for 5 years, not because Obama was elected, but because I wanted a job.
So I spent most of his term out of the country. It was great!
And as many say, the Russians didn’t force the DNC to cheat or supply debate questions. They sure didn’t force Hillary to use that secret email server or say “what difference does it make” about some dead Americans in Libya.
Those were her mistakes.
I don’t care if she learns from them or not – she’s done in American politics.
Now if we can just get rid of the disastrous Democratic policies that her husband forced on us 20 years ago.
It’s those policies that have torn the Democratic Party apart, with blue collar workers heading to the GOP.
I saw yesterday that even Joe Biden is wondering if the Democratic Party should continue to go after the working class or just forget about them.
They already have forgotten about them.
It’s why I and millions of other Democrats voted for Trump this year.
But Democrats haven’t figured that out yet, and honestly, I kind of hope they don’t.
Let them bumble about in their own little world. Maybe they’ll even break out the makeup and put their Whigs on while doing so.
I don’t care if the Russians hacked the election or not.
I didn’t care back on October 19 when CNN assured us that No, the presidential election can’t be hacked.
But maybe I’m just saying that because I don’t have sour-grapes-syndrome.
I voted for Trump and wanted him to win.
I’m happy with the election, as are many Americans.
I fully expect a lot of this hacking nonsense to go away come Monday when the electors from the Electoral College cast their votes.
I just don’t buy the idea that millions of Americans voted for Trump because the Russians made it so.
I think millions of Americans voted for him because they liked what he was saying.
Hillary could have come up with a viable message. She didn’t. She just attacked Trump all the time.
And she lost.
Get over it.
We lived 8 years under that fuck-up George W. and we’ve had 8 years of anti-hope from Obama.
If you’re really pissed off, leave.
I left the country for 5 years, not because Obama was elected, but because I wanted a job.
So I spent most of his term out of the country. It was great!
And as many say, the Russians didn’t force the DNC to cheat or supply debate questions. They sure didn’t force Hillary to use that secret email server or say “what difference does it make” about some dead Americans in Libya.
Those were her mistakes.
I don’t care if she learns from them or not – she’s done in American politics.
Now if we can just get rid of the disastrous Democratic policies that her husband forced on us 20 years ago.
It’s those policies that have torn the Democratic Party apart, with blue collar workers heading to the GOP.
I saw yesterday that even Joe Biden is wondering if the Democratic Party should continue to go after the working class or just forget about them.
They already have forgotten about them.
It’s why I and millions of other Democrats voted for Trump this year.
But Democrats haven’t figured that out yet, and honestly, I kind of hope they don’t.
Let them bumble about in their own little world. Maybe they’ll even break out the makeup and put their Whigs on while doing so.
Final Note
Please, do not allow yourself to be hoodwinked into going to war as you were in 2003.
It should be painfully clear that the American oligarchy wants us to go to war with Russia.
All the fake news sites – NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, and many more – are beating the drums of war.
Day after day there are headlines about troop deployments to the Baltic States, more US troops to Syria, and tensions with Russia.
This is the propaganda-arm of our country’s mobilization.
We’re mobilizing for war.
It should be painfully clear to you.
The question is…what are you going to do about it?
I think the answer is simple – nothing.
You’ll go home after that tiring day at work, turn on the TV, and forget about it.
Our politicians and warmongers love that.
So please don’t be surprised if in early-January we head to war, again.
How does this benefit you and your family?
It doesn’t.
So why are we doing it?
Because you…don’t…care.
It should be painfully clear that the American oligarchy wants us to go to war with Russia.
All the fake news sites – NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, and many more – are beating the drums of war.
Day after day there are headlines about troop deployments to the Baltic States, more US troops to Syria, and tensions with Russia.
This is the propaganda-arm of our country’s mobilization.
We’re mobilizing for war.
It should be painfully clear to you.
The question is…what are you going to do about it?
I think the answer is simple – nothing.
You’ll go home after that tiring day at work, turn on the TV, and forget about it.
Our politicians and warmongers love that.
So please don’t be surprised if in early-January we head to war, again.
How does this benefit you and your family?
It doesn’t.
So why are we doing it?
Because you…don’t…care.
