Yep, that’s as long as I could go, as long as I could drag myself away from the massive shit storm we all must endure.
So what did we miss?
I hope you missed me and my one-of-a-kind style.
Eh, probably not that much.
Maybe you missed the news analysis that you just won’t get anywhere else.
I hope so.
I’d like to add that I was looking through the Book of Sirach in the Bible yesterday.
Sometimes they call this Ecclesiasticus as well.
I’ll sprinkle this post with some things that stood out to me.
Let’s get into it.
Battles Over Public Access
One story that got a lot of play was the Gianforte/Schweitzer public-access grab.
Dems trotted out the former governor to make a point about public access but then it really blew up in their face.
See, Schweitzer had limited access on his land in 2008.
GOP operatives had fun with that on anti-social media (Twitter & Facebook) and because they wanted to one-up each other, the Hell Creek angle came out.
Haven’t heard of it?
Scobey Senator John Brendan wrote a letter to the IR about limiting access to Hell Creek State Park on July 22 and there were some good comments.
One that caught my eye tries to pin the blame for the Hell Creek access closure on Schweitzer.
“Bullock is not the culprit. If the problem rests in the governor's office, the mess in our state parks system is a legacy of the Schweitzer administration and the ‘handiwork’ of Joe Maurier.”
We’re also told that the closure of Hell Creek State Park won’t happen until 2021.
But happen it will, and that’s why it’s become an election football.
FW&P approved this public access closure in December 2015.
What the hell were they thinking?
I guess they were thinking the same thing the Land Board was thinking in January when they voted to sell of millions of dollars in public cabin rentals for pennies on the dollar.
In other words, they weren’t thinking or they were thinking…but not about you.
They were thinking about the rich and the donors to their campaigns and just about anything else besides common, working people.
One caveat is that the overarching Chamber of Commerce could take over the site. Access will remain, but the money in your pocket likely won’t.
Yeah, fees.
Lots of rocks overturned with this weekend news debacle.
Clearly the former governor should have remained at Georgetown Lake and not entered the fray.
Troubled Finances and Priorities in Montana
I have a letter to the editor in the Missoulian today called Has city government lost touch with reality?
It’s about the city’s spending on things like studies and their handouts to developers.
I encourage you to read it, or to take a look at my comment on the article telling us that Missoula is America’s fourth best-run city.
The comment says about the same thing as the letter – we’re going down the wrong path.
All kinds of pet projects that we don’t need when things we do need get pushed to the wayside.
This is the story of America as well.
We have $3.6 trillion in infrastructure needs that we should be building before 2020.
We’re not even talking about this however.
In Montana we know from the passage of the 2015 Highway Bill that Montana has $10.5 billion in unfunded infrastructure projects.
Besides the money we get from the feds for infrastructure we also have money at the state level.
Republicans in the legislature typically try to block this, so Bullock goes around them and funds things like wastewater treatment facilities on his own.
Currently Whitefish, for example, is getting $506,000 from the State Revolving Fund loan program.
Yes, the city has to pay this money back instead of just getting it from the state or feds like it should.
It’s important to point out that Whitefish will pay an interest rate of up to 3% on that loan…even though interest rates for common citizens are 0.25%.
This is no surprise as our fiscal and monetary policies are set up to benefit the banks, not you.
Our Congressmen are bribed (campaign donations) by those banks to keep it that way.
What I find especially alarming is that Bullock reduced the amount of money a city needs in reserve in order to get a loan.
So now we’re offering loans with little or no collateral?
Another symptom of Wall Street's hold on the Democratic Party, nationally and in Montana.
This is all part of the Main Street Montana Project. It was designed to create new jobs – I thought the idea was private-sector jobs – but seems to be creating taxpayer funded jobs.
Well, again – it’s a loan so Whitefish will be paying this back for some time.
It’s a big mistake if you ask me.
Just give them the money as a grant and be thankful you’ve helped those people.
The Conventions
Alright, let’s talk about ‘em.
First of all, do you remember that plagiarism scandal of Melania Trump?
I didn’t think so.
After the massive debacle surrounding Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s emails, I think we knew which Party had the bigger problems.
I mean, you’re going to go after Sanders because he’s not Jewish enough?
Wow.
It filled my heart with joy to see Debbie booed from the stage on Monday and I was glad we got rid of her.
Hopefully she’ll lose her August 30 primary race in Florida too.
Don’t expect her to go away, however – she’s already been hired by Team Hillary as “honorary chair.”
She’ll probably get a cushy cabinet post or chief advisor position should Hillary win.
My, if that’s not corruption I don’t know what is.
I have to say that I’m ashamed of Bernie for rolling over like he has. I’m ashamed of our Montana delegates walking out out of the convention but saying on Facebook that they’ll vote for Hillary in November.
It just leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I plan to vote for Trump.
I watched almost all of Trump’s long convention speech and I liked what I heard.
He took most of the Democratic issues and made them his own, and he’s smart to do that.
I’ve been saying for months that Montana Democrats need to do the same in red areas of the state so they can take back the legislature.
At this point, I don’t really care that much about Montana Democrats.
I don't think I am a Democrat and I don't think I'll run as one again.
Hell, even Bernie is calling himself an Independent again.
When you see what 'our' Party is capable of, it's not hard to turn away from them.
As the election ramps up we’ll just hear how good Bullock is, how good Hillary is.
Neither of those individuals appeal to me.
I feel Hillary is wildly corrupt and I’m happy to see that the IRS opened investigations into the Clinton Foundation.
The deals with Russia alone show how corrupt she is.
Between 2009 and 2013 the Clinton Foundation worked to get Russia uranium.
Putin wanted it but the State Department knew that was a bad idea.
So Putin invites Bill to Moscow and gives him $500,000 ‘for a speech.’
My, Clinton favors come cheap, don’t they?
A few months later Hillary, despite continued State Department objections, approves the deal to give uranium to Russia.
This is selling political favors, plain and simple.
Now Bill and Hillary can take their corruption back to the White House.
I don’t know what happened to these people.
They say they left the White House broke and I guess that’s where they got their money-grubbing tendencies.
I still find it odd that Hillary had a $14 million book deal when she left the White House, and a $7 million advance on that book.
It used to be that the Clintons wanted money to get power, but now they just want power to get money.
So I hope Trump wins.
I’ll be supporting him on this site and I’ll encourage you to vote for him too.
- Yep, he’s rich.
- He probably doesn’t care about me personally or millions of people just like me.
- But hot damn, he’s saying what needs to be said!
I fully expect Montana will go to Trump anyways, and I put a detailed comment on RD last night discussing this.
The third parties can’t even get 3% of the vote in any year, so there’s no point in going that route.
And frankly, I don’t want to.
I like what Trump is saying and I feel he could be one of our truly great presidents.
I feel that way because he’s got the money, the influence, and the will to change our system for the better.
Hillary will just give us another 4 years of the same, and we don’t need that.
The country is in terrible shape, the corporations and private banks have taken over, and there is no sign of this ending.
So I hope Trump wins and I hope he shakes things up.
August will be slow but then September will heat up.
In October we’ll get our surprise, and I feel this will go against Hillary.
And if it doesn’t and Hillary wins, I’ll continue to live.
Millions of Americans will do the same, but a large percentage of them will be frustrated, disgruntled, and more convinced than ever that their government is no longer theirs.
In that regard, a Hillary presidency would be a smashing success.
Her continued failures in the Middle East and continued lap-dogging to the banks and corporations will convince even more Americans that our system is rotten.
It’ll be a good day.
The country will start to change.
Your life will get better.
The lives of the controlling class will get worse.
I cannot wait.
A rich person does wrong, and even adds insults; a poor person suffers wrong, and must add apologies.
A rich person will exploit you if you can be of use to him, but if you are in need he will abandon you.
If you won something, he will live with you; he will drain your resources without a qualm.
When he needs you he will deceive you, and will smile at you and encourage you; he will speak to you kindly and say, “What do you need?”
He will embarrass you with his delicacies, until he has drained you two or three times, and finally he will laugh at you.
Should he see you afterwards, he will pass you by and shake his head at you. (13, 1)