Month: May 2016

by William Skink

While the University of Montana uses its budget woes to attack the humanities, the business program continues to expand with a brand new building in which to train executives, as reported by Missoula Current:

Notable alumni joined the University of Montana in commencing a new campus building on Thursday, one that’s expected to prepare future leaders for the world’s challenges and serve as a beacon for executive training.

UM President Royce Engstrom joined Priscilla and Harold Gilkey in cutting the ribbon to the new 31,000 square-foot facility, which now bears the Gilkey name and anchors the School of Business Administration and its growing footprint on campus.

“UM is focused on cultivating leaders who will thrive in the global 21st century,” said Engstrom. “Our executive education program will help business leaders build strong organizations and support economic vitality.”

How exciting! Here are some classes I hope the University of Montana offers executives to prepare them for the 21st century.

Stock Buy-Backs 101

Learn how to take advantage of zero-interest cash printed by the Fed to increase value for shareholders.

Golden Parachute Seminar

When short-term profits evaporate and your corporate house of cards collapses, this seminar will give you the skills to protect yourself while everyone else suffers the consequences.

Corporate Inversion 201

Worried your company’s taxes will be sucked up by useless eaters? This class will show you how to use a country’s low-tax status (like Ireland) to avoid paying pesky taxes.

Lobbying the 21st century

Money is influence (and also speech, wink-wink), so this class will be indispensable for any aspiring business executive. Learn the many creative ways in which lobbyists are deployed to influence politicians for sale (and they are all for sale)

National Sovereignty; a history

A nation’s sovereignty is so 20th century. For the 21st century executive, once the free trade agreements are in place, corporate interests will finally supersede national sovereignty.

Tax Shelters 101

Does the release of the Panama Papers worry you? Worry no longer, business executive. This class helps track new developments in wealth protection as old tax shelters become obsolete.

by William Skink

I may be cynical about what I suspect Bernie Sanders, the candidate, is going to do in the next few weeks, but I have to say it’s been damn impressive to see the relentlessness of his supporters smashing barriers intended to destroy any semblance of populism from threatening the corporate hold on the DNC.

One of those barriers has been cracking the cold shoulder of the corporate media. Just yesterday, for example, our very own Jon Tester got a well-placed quote in this piece by the Washinton Post (h/t Matthew Koehler):

“It’s the democratic process,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) of Sanders’s plans to stump in Montana ahead of its June 7 primary. “He’s got every right to do that, but it’s already over with, and it would definitely be over with by then.”

Hear that Montana Bernie supporters? It’s already over with. And really you should thank Tester for taking a break from his corporate fundraising to explain the reality of the situation: Bernie’s toast.

The political manipulation we’ve been seeing with media coverage has been fascinating. From big platforms to local blogs, the cold shoulder persists as partisans gird their loins and hold their noses in preparation to accept Hillary.

Brian Maier and the rest of Bernie’s Montana supporters should take note. Thousands show up in Missoula two days ago and so far nothing from the “progressive” writers at Intelligent Discontent. This scant post has been up since May 9th at Moogirl, and there are still zero comments. And now the folksy farmer Montana Democrats were so elated to elect ten years ago is trying to further deflate the populist momentum threatening the DNC’s Queen Bee.

Do liberals realize their ideology is facing an existential crisis? Some do, like Thomas Frank, but his words and the words of plenty other astute critics don’t seem to be having the intended impact.

Liberalism is absolutely facing an existential crisis, and with every new indication of corruption and manipulation–like the growing Facebook scandal–the extreme right will get stronger and stronger, especially after an entire generation of politically awakening young people experience the disillusionment of a political revolution destroyed by the very people who claim to be representing their interests in DC.

by William Skink

I’d like to thank Democrat supporter and RD troll, larry kurtz, for bringing me back to the topic of political emasculation when he made this comment:

Thank you, liz, for another shot at the Clinton battleship with your peashooter. Rock on, doods.

I initially stumbled into this arena of political discourse through Don Pogreba’s obsession with Ryan Zinke’s hyper-masculine political brand. But that was before Marco’s little hands. Now we have on full display the GOP’s version of the politics of emasculation:

In his book, Jackson Katz writes, “Presidential politics are the site of an ongoing cultural struggle over the meaning of American manhood.” For over two centuries, presidential candidates have worked to meet masculine credentials of the job, proving they are tough, strong, and “manly men.” More importantly, they have worked to emasculate their opponents, characterizing them as too weak, infantile, or feminine to be Commander-in-Chief. This politics of emasculation is on full display in the current GOP primary, where the top contenders are engaged in fights over who is man enough to be president.

In just the past three days, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have worked to paint each other as “girly men,” whether in traits, behavior, or appearance. A quick review of Donald Trump’s Twitter timeline in the past 72 hours reveals at least ten references to Rubio as “little” or “lightweight.” While Trump’s rhetoric implies that he is the “heavyweight” in the boxing match currently taking place in the Republican primary, Rubio countered on Friday that Trump has “never punched anyone in the face,” adding, “Donald Trump is the first guy who begged for Secret Service protection, the first guy.” Rubio’s rebuttal buys into the politics of manhood and emasculation, suggesting that seeking Secret Service protection is a sign of weakness; tough guys don’t need protection, Rubio implies, especially if they throw the first punch.

In both kurtz’s comment and Pogreba’s copious Zinke postings, the stereotype of masculine strength (and its opposite, feminine weakness) is validated through their efforts to tarnish their political opponents. What they are missing in their ends-justify-the-means political calculation is the evolving dynamic of what it means to “Be A Man” in the 21st century.

The political exploitation of gender roles is going to be an ongoing topic of inquiry here for the duration of this political cycle. I just hope my little peashooter is up to the challenge.

by William Skink

The sun broke through the clouds as I neared downtown. Throngs of people swarmed the sidewalks, joining the line that snaked from Caras Park all the way to the Orange Street bridge.

I wasn’t on foot, and I wasn’t planning on joining the line. I got my fill of “watching history” in 2008, when I allowed myself to puff on that sweet, sweet hopium Obama was peddling. So instead of attending the Bernie rally, I drove home to do a few practical things, like give my dog a bath

In a few weeks we’ll find out if the cynics were right. Was feeling the Bern nothing more than a clever sheepdog strategy to corral progressives into eventually supporting the Neocon Hillary Clinton?

A few days ago Bernie sparked speculation that he was preparing his followers for The Big Sellout when he responded to Wolf Blitzer on CNN with this:

“Right now, we are focused on the next five weeks of winning the Democratic nomination. If that does not happen, we are going to fight as hard as we can on the floor of the Democratic convention to make sure that we have a progressive platform that the American people will support,” Sanders said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer broadcast on “The Situation Room.”

“Then, after that, certainly Secretary Clinton and I can sit down and talk and see where we go from there.”

A progressive platform at the convention? What a joke. The platform means nothing. I think it’s fair to translate “making sure we have a progressive platform” to “making sure I don’t lose my senatorial perks and/or ability to breathe air as a living human not crushed by the likes of the Clinton machine”.

I’m still going to vote for Bernie in the Montana primary next month, but mostly as a fuck you to the establishment Democrats and various sycophants who expect thinking people to support a party that wants to destroy what meager safeguards have been put in place to protect us from the financial rapists on Wall Street. I’m talking specifically about DNC Debbie trying to gut the Consumer Protection Agency:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, has joined the Republican assault on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren helped create the bureau in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis in order to protect Americans from the malicious practices of the financial industry — particularly banks, toxic mortgage lenders, debt collectors and payday loan companies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has created pending new regulations in order to protect Americans from payday loan sharks, companies that make enormous profits off of predatory lending, exploiting the poor and uneducated by advertising quick and convenient loans while downplaying the concomitant skyrocketing interest. The bureau hopes to rein in the industry.

Not if the DNC can stop it, however. For Wasserman Schultz has thrown her weight behind the Republican effort to sabotage the bureau’s proposed regulations of the out-of-control predatory lending.

The DNC executive is co-sponsoring a new bill that would effectively “gut the CFPB’s forthcoming payday loan regulations,” the Huffington Post reports.

Wasserman Schultz — a close ally of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who co-chaired her 2008 presidential campaign — is also trying to get fellow Democrats to support the anti-regulation legislation, a memo obtained by the Huffington Post shows.

I wonder what Jenny Eck thinks of DNC Debbie’s maneuvering and collusion with the evil Republicans who are allegedly more evil than corporate/banking shills like Debbie and Hillary? These people are trying to fuck us over again, Jenny, and you are helping them. Shame on you.

If Bernie sells out his supporters like it appears he’s about to do, it will be interesting to see where his momentum goes, if anywhere. If it bleeds into the streets, remember how the Federal government under Obama coordinated the crackdown of the Occupy movement and prepare accordingly.

 

do what you’re told
adhere to the mold
moo when we tell you to
buy what is sold
upward mobility?
a good paying job?
sorry, kid
that shit is gone
but your data is priceless
and we get it for free
the device is your life
and we can see everything
so do what we tell you to
our program is bold
the sheepdog will herd you
then the sheepdog will fold

-William Skink