Month: August 2015

by William Skink

An Israeli Consul General by the name of Andy David is in Missoula today to propagandize against the Iran deal. He was brought to Montana by the Montana World Affairs Council, an organization that is allegedly dedicated to fostering global understanding and awareness in Montana’s classrooms and communities.

Andy David talked to the Missoulian in a nice long article intended to spread Israeli lies across Montana and directly to the ears of Ryan Zinke. From the link:

“The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is strong and unbreakable, but there is this issue that we disagree on,” he said. “To us, this looks like a gamble, one we’d not like to take, and we don’t think it’s for the American interests to take.”

David said negotiations set out to create a dismantle-for-dismantle agreement. If Iran dismantled its nuclear program, the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia and France would follow by dismantling sanctions that have all but crippled Iran over the past nine years.

While the agreement was well-intended, David said, it missed the mark.

“What we got was a partial dismantling of a nuclear program – very partial – for full dismantling of the sanctions,” David said. “On this particular issue, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Emirates, we see things the same way. We see Iran with expansionist intentions.”

Where to start.

Israel, an apartheid state that fosters racism and believes in collective punishment, a state that launches wars against its neighbors and harbors extremists who enjoy burning Palestinian babies and stabbing to death teenagers who express solidarity for LGBT rights, has no credibility in its desperate depiction of Iran as expansionist.

The Montana World Affairs Council can’t be serious about fostering global understanding. Instead it’s providing a platform for this Israeli diplomat to go spewing dangerous propaganda. Shame on them.

When it comes to the sectarian divisions in the Middle East, America and Israel are aligned with nations that have contributed directly to jihadists movements, like ISIS and the Al Qaeda branch in Syria known as the al-Nusra Front. Unfortunately Americans don’t have an understanding of that global reality because our media is also full of propaganda.

I hope this sickening media campaign to denigrate Iran and undermine American diplomacy doesn’t persuade Congress to kill this deal. Bashing Iran and the attempt to alleviate the collective punishment of its people through economic sanctions can only be accomplished by a complicit media that ignores the true reality of the region, which is this: America and its allies are the ones perpetuating terrorism across the Middle East, and when the blowback comes we have only ourselves to blame.

by William Skink

August means hot weather, smoky skies, and prep for college football. Don’t worry, Griz fans, the program you idolize still appears to be the top priority for UM administrators, thanks to the deep, deep pockets of UM donors funneling millions into athletic projects on campus.

You see, it doesn’t matter that enrollment keeps going down which can be ascribed, at least in part, to the continued fall-out from Missoula’s rape scandal that emerged three years ago. And it doesn’t matter that UM had to absorb a 5.7 million dollar budget short-fall.

Nope, despite all that, a 2.5 million dollar student-athlete academic center broke ground last year and should be complete this fall. And if that’s not enough, last October it was announced that a 7 million dollar donation from Dennis Washington’s sons will help the University build a 14 million dollar “Champion Center”.

While students saddle themselves with debt to get a diminished academic product (accomplished by increasingly exploiting adjunct labor) it’s nice to know athletics are insulated from the economic reality facing academic departments as they struggle to implement budget cuts.

Why do athletes need an academic center? Here’s the reasoning from athletic director Kent Haslam:

“For us it’s really about providing the tools and providing the facilities that support student-athletes,” Haslam said. “We need to make sure we do all we can to make sure they are successful on the court and in the classroom.”

Maybe Haslam should look into providing some classes at this academic center about how to avoid getting arrested, and once getting arrested, how to appear IN court to be accountable for the behavior that continues getting football players in trouble:

Two Montana Grizzly football players had minor scrapes with the law late this week, just days before the opening of fall football practices.

Linebackers Herbert E. Gamboa, 21, and Jeremiah P. Kose, 22, were each booked into Missoula County jail on misdemeanor charges. Gamboa was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct early Friday morning while Kose was booked Wednesday evening for failing to appear in court on an original misdemeanor charge.

Gamboa, a starting outside linebacker and senior on the Grizzly football team, was picked up by officer Eric Weber in the early hours of Friday morning. Gamboa was booked at 1:34 a.m. and released a little more than an hour later on a bond of $185.

He appeared in Missoula City Municipal Court on Friday morning.

Kose was booked on Wednesday at 6:41 p.m. by officer Timothy Harrington. The Grizzlies’ senior starting middle linebacker posted his own bond of $310 and was released less than an hour later.

It makes sense that both football players arrested were linebackers when you consider their coach, Ty Gregorak, is the kind of guy who did this:

First-year UNLV assistant football coach Ty Gregorak was arrested in Boulder, Colo., after an incident last week outside of a strip club.

Gregorak, 31, was turned away this past weekend from the Nitro Club — located in the downtown Pearl Street Mall — by bouncer Joseph Benedetto after he determined Gregorak was too intoxicated to enter, according to Boulder police.

According to Gregorak’s Denver-based attorney, David Beller, Benedetto said that he contacted Gregorak while walking in an alley next to the club rather than trying to enter it.

A police report obtained by the Sun states that Gregorak then walked to a nearby parking garage and approached Benedetto’s Nissan Sentra, removing the man’s wallet from the center console and a loaded .45-caliber Glock 36 handgun from the glove compartment.

With a coach like this, is it any wonder his linebackers are already getting arrested before the season even starts.

GO GRIZ!!!