Month: February 2016

by William Skink

Don’t let the snow outside fool you. The political season is heating up and social media is hopping.

Now, this may come as a shock, but not all social media activity is constructive discourse grappling objectively with the big issues we face as a nation. Luckily for us–and for Democracy–bloggers can become virtual hall monitors in order to identify and shame online abusers. One particular blogger even provided a post on how to “Feel the Bern Without Feeding the Beast”. From the link:

Fight this fight on policy, on questions over which candidate is more likely to advance the progressive agenda, and which best represents your values. I’d ask the most enthusiastic supporters of Bernie to lay off the politics of personal destruction that Senator Sanders would certainly ask you to stop.

What kind of abhorrent behavior necessitated this reasonable plea? Alas, nothing specific is provided as evidence in the post (not even a link), just the assurance from the blogger that his Twitter timeline is all misogyny toward Hillary:

I’m troubled by the misogynistic tone of their attacks on Secretary Clinton, their troubling ageism (which makes no sense incidentally), and their willingness to engage in the same kind of tactics we’d decry from Ted Cruz. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are filled with unflattering photographs of Senator Clinton and accusations that are often not about the policy differences between the two candidates, but personal attacks that seem designed to obscure the real work Senator Clinton has done in her life on behalf of the disadvantaged.

Not wanting to just take one blogger’s word for this, I consulted another blogger, Indy columnist Dan Brooks, to see if he had anything to add and boy was I in luck. Dan had heard all about this bad behavior ascribed to a subset of Bernie Supporters known as “the Bernie Bro” so he went looking for evidence. You can read about what he discovered here.

Dan’s inquiry explores the political terrain Glenn Greenwald wrote about a week ago regarding the Bernie Bro smear campaign against Bernie Sanders. Why any self-proclaimed progressive blogger would want to waste time perpetuating this Sanders smear instead of pointing out why Hillary is NO GODDAMN PROGRESSIVE is beyond me.

Meanwhile, Madeleine Albright claims there is a special place in hell for women who don’t “help each other”:

Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright introduced Hillary Clinton at an event in New Hampshire on Saturday, telling the crowd and voters in general: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”

Look on the bright side ladies, at least you won’t have a half million Iraqi children asking you why they had to die because I’m pretty sure the children that die from economic sanctions are the least likely to have their souls condemned to fiery perdition.

Will the self-appointed hall monitor of political decorum follow up his perpetuating of the Bernie Bro smear with a condemnation of one woman condemning other women to hell? Probably not. Let’s just hope for better theatrics, like Fonzie jumping the shark.

by William Skink

her Phoenix on the screen looks great
an epic narrative, says Huffington Post
building from core-born myths
in Plato’s cave we love the most
in Plato’s cave we oo and ah
flapping arms like Mockingjay
outside, where bombs never fall,
smiling faces count the days

by William Skink

The Indy has a feature piece this week about the good ol’ days of the progressive Montana blogosphere worth checking out, cleverly titled Click Fate.

Apparently 2006-2009 were the heady years of blogging, when bloggers elected Senators like Jon Tester because disgust at war and corruption under Bush was rampant. Burns went down thanks to the Jack Abramoff scandal, and bloggers like Jay Stevens and Matt Singer basked in that warm, progressive glow of knowing who your enemies are.

When did that afterglow start fading away and why? Maybe more importantly, doest it matter?

I doubt this feature piece will appeal to people outside the blog bubble, but for those of us inside it (and still writing) there are obviously some eyebrow-raising omissions.

Here’s one glaring example: Jhwygirl’s time keeping 4&20 Blackbirds going isn’t mentioned once and that is a real shame. Jon Krakauer had the good sense to credit jhwygirl for capturing Kirsten Pabst’s online smear of the Missoulian’s reporting as the rape scandal was emerging. That’s a big deal, and leads me to wonder if this sentiment from the author is genuine:

A medium once commended for its power, influence and sense of community appears to have faded just as quickly as it emerged. The question entering a volatile 2016 election season isn’t just why this switch happened, but how those still engaged in local progressive politics are filling the void.

This timely piece turning back the clock ten years is to take advantage of the fact that being “progressive” is once again a raging topic of debate, especially with New Hampshire voting next week. Hillary is desperately trying to morph rhetorically into a progressive but the youth vote ain’t buying it.

And that’s where we are in 2016. After 2009 the progressive hope was slowly smothered by the Obama administration and pointing that out is not something that wins you extensive readership among those who prefer to keep their concept of political enemies simplistically focused on Republicans.

by William Skink

A recent anti-refugee protest in Missoula has brought the issue of resettling Syrian refugees back into the spotlight. The protestors appeared to be mostly scared-stupid old white people who came to Missoula from other parts of the Pacific Northwest to rail against Muslims and our negro president from Kenya.

That said, I think the efforts of the group Soft Landing to annually resettle 100 refugees in Missoula is equally ignorant. Let me explain why.

First, it should be a prerequisite for anyone entering this debate to be informed about why there is a refugee crisis in the first place: American foreign policy.

America’s imperial crusade to destroy any non-aligned nation is the primary factor in the refugee crisis. Under the sociopath of state, Hillary Clinton, the Libyan state was beheaded as a gleeful Clinton celebrated the execution of Gaddafi. Syria was supposed to be next in line for regime change, but those pesky Russians successfully stopped a Libya repeat in Syria.

If American foreign policy is primarily responsible for the crisis, then we have a responsibility to do something for the refugees, right?

The desire to do something and actual logistics of doing something are two entirely different creatures. While there is a solid argument that America should help the refugees that our disastrous foreign policy have created, I’m extremely skeptical about how the reality of this “help” is going to materialize.

Back in November, the Missoulian reported on these good intentions from Soft Landing. From the link:

Volunteer agencies work directly with the U.S. State Department to sponsor refugee families and individuals. They help refugees in a specific city connect with federal funding, housing, English classes and employment.

On Tuesday, a representative of one such agency, the International Rescue Committee, was in Missoula to get a feel for the community and to look at the resources available.

The initial visit went well and was well-received by community stakeholders, Poole said.

“The IRC was able to give a presentation to our group about the process of becoming a refugee who is placed in the United States, what our resettlement program looks like and an overview of the very rigorous security screenings that take place,” she said.

Unlike the scared-stupid old white people who think resettling refugees is a government-sponsored invasion, security is not something the concerns me about this issue. The reality of what Missoula is, though, does concern me.

Missoula is a beautiful mountain town where, simply put, wages just don’t pencil out with the high cost of rent for LOTS of people. Almost everyone I know from my college days 12 years ago moved away because they couldn’t afford to live here. The person making your fancy coffee drink probably has a Masters degree in biology. When I first moved to Missoula, I was shocked that I needed a resume for a dishwashing job.

But some Missoula moms saw a picture of a dead toddler washed up like trash on the beach and they vowed to do something. Great. Kids are in terrible situations all over the world, even here in Montana. Especially here in Montana.

People outside the crisis happening with Montana’s child protective services don’t know how bad it is, but it is. I had just one conversation with a social worker last week who knows she has several pregnant patients actively using meth, and people would be shocked how bad things have to get in order for a child to be removed. Adult Protective Services is no better–perpetually under staffed and under funded with a critical lack of infrastructure to safely place our increasing aging population.

But I guess there aren’t pictures to break your heart coming out of this crisis so it just simmers as a task force tries to figure out what the fuck to do. Maybe tap that fat rainy day fund, Governor. Or is that nest egg more important as good optics for your reelection effort?

If the well-intentioned Missoula moms want to help, they could be foster parents to help alleviate the quiet crisis happening in their own backyard.

At the very least, it would be nice if they educated themselves about why there is a refugee crisis happening in the first place. If Americans were more aware of what their tax dollars do when militarily directed, maybe they would question how effective quadrupling military efforts against “Russian aggression” will be when it comes to cooling off the war zones refugees are fleeing from.

by William Skink

Every year across the nation a point-in-time survey is administered to get a head count of homelessness in America. In Missoula the survey was administered from sundown last Thursday through Friday, and it occurred in tandem with something called Project Homeless Connect, a full day of bringing multiple service providers together to benefit homeless individuals in our community.

Locally the numbers have yet to be crunched. Nationally, especially in major American cities, homelessness is going up. Why? Because revitalizing downtown spaces, known as gentrification, is pushing out low-rent housing. From the link:

As once derelict or sleepy downtown districts in U.S. cities evolve into thriving hot spots, officials are grappling with what to do about homeless populations that have long inhabited them. The tension is “all over the country,” said James Wright, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida who has researched the issue. “Its major effect is just to displace them to other places in the city.”

In just the past five years, New York has seen a 42% increase in its homeless population. Los Angeles has seen a 24% increase, and San Francisco a 16% increase.

Seattle has also experienced an increase in homelessness. Last week, two people were shot to death and others injured in a Seattle homeless camp known as The Jungle. Three teenage boys–13, 16, and 17–have been arrested. Ironically, the Seattle’s mayor was giving a speech on the rise of homelessness in Seattle when the shootings happened:

“This violent crime shocked Seattle,” said Mayor Ed Murray, who thanked the police for their quick action, the Seattle Times reported. The mayor was giving a speech on Seattle’s growing problem of homelessness when the shootings occurred.

Missoula is not immune. Two years ago a brutal murder occurred under the Reserve Street bridge when Kevin Lino and his sidekick (who is out of jail) beat and tortured another homeless man, Jack Gilbert.

Being without stable housing is not just traumatic, it’s dangerous. Assaults happen with unfortunate regularity among people living on the streets, and much of this violence isn’t reported. Reporting assaults, for people on the streets, has the potential of making them targets of further violence.

Like many municipalities, Missoula has a 10 year plan to end homelessness, but the results have been lackluster so far. I guess helping people in need is just not as sexy as trying to save a few Syrian refugees.

But homelessness isn’t going away any time soon in America. And if current economic trends continue, it will probably get worse.