Month: September 2017

by William Skink

16 years ago America was attacked by terrorists and to this day we see the power of America’s propaganda machine at work to persuade us the terrorists were from mostly Saudi Arabia and they pulled it off without any state support.

How many Americans still believe 3 buildings collapsed as the result of two planes hitting the Twin Towers? Today I discovered one of my co-workers–who is more aware of foreign policy issues than many people I talk to–didn’t even know building 7 came down on 9/11.

16 years and the wars of occupation and humanitarian intervention rage on. What Bush started, and Obama continued, is now in the hands of Trump, who immediately gave immense latitude to the military after surrounding himself with Generals.

A Mother of All Bombs can be dropped and no one can conclusively say if Trump even knew it was going to be used in the field.

A lot has happened in 16 years. Many incremental steps have been taken. Not only have we allowed this to happen, in many ways we have demanded it.

With the political crisis that has resulted from the election of Trump, instead of seeing the continuum it’s like zero hour of a collective freakout from a resistance that isn’t actually addressing core realities lurking beneath a vast manipulation of competing narratives.

It was similar after 9/11. The collective freakout didn’t leave space for grasping concepts like blowback from poorly understood Cold War moves, like arming the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to bleed the Russians.

Three buildings did not fall 16 years ago as a result of two planes hitting two skyscrapers. The fact that that absurdity can still pass as the official story, while skeptics still get smeared as conspiracy theorists, makes me more than a little doubtful a real resistance will ever materialize.

I hope I’m wrong.

by William Skink

When I was putting together this video about violent fun balls, I had no idea how much fun the Chiefs were going to have beating the Patriots.

Go Chiefs!

by William Skink

When Trump declared more troops would be heading to America’s longest war in Afghanistan, the media did not flip out and the resistance did not march. There was more criticism directed at the first lady’s choice of footwear when Trump visited Texas than there was criticism of Trump’s flip-flop on deepening interventionists wars started by Bush and continued under Obama and Clinton.

There were marches for women’s rights and marches for truth and science, but with Trump unleashing the Generals and horrifically increasing civilian casualties, where the hell is the anti-war movement?

When Trump ordered the bombing of Syria, he was congratulated by the same media that continue, to this day, claiming Russia hacked our election like it’s a proven fact when the exact opposite is true. Russia didn’t hack our election. They may have influenced American minds with the help of Facebook, but they definitely didn’t hack the DNC.

With HRC out pimping her failure into more cash money, we, the people, will be subjected to another ride on the great blame carousel that just won’t stop spinning. Clinton actually claims to regret how she allowed her handlers to restrain her from more vigorous attacks on Bernie. Isn’t that funny?

Coming from a campaign that got caught rigging the primary process, I can’t imagine what more they could have done to mitigate the damage done by Bernie, who was a more preferable choice for a significant slice of the electorate.

There are many factors that contributed to HRC’s losses. Her well-known war-mongering helped sink her 2008 bid against Obama, then Trump came along and deceitfully positioned himself as being critical of the kind of US military interventions HRC supported throughout her political career.

Has the Democratic establishment effectively killed the anti-war movement? Why is there not more outrage being directed at Trump’s escalation of America’s killing machine? The time to oppose war is now. Once the nuclear genie is let out of the bottle it will be too late.

Wake up, America. We are the biggest impediment to a more peaceful world.

And the rest of the world knows it.

by William Skink

To combat the boredom of being stuck inside all Labor Day from hazardous air, I decided to show my kids how we could make our own Lego Movie. We positioned Lego figures in different scenes and took a bunch of pictures, then later, I wrote up a little script and recorded it with some sound effects.

Here is the result. Enjoy!

by William Skink

While Montana burns the state’s fiscal situation is turning into its own version of a dumpster fire. Will there be a special session to deal with the cataclysmic budget cuts triggered by Senate Bill 261 made worse by the cost of dealing with a state on fire?

The cost of fighting fires will get a lot of attention, which makes sense. Republicans and Democrats breathe the same air, as do their constituents, so the need to fund the state’s effort to respond to wild fire will be a top priority.

What won’t get a lot of attention is the hot air Steve Bullock expelled in order to placate his party ahead of the disastrous SB 261 compromise they allowed to pass with nary a peep of concern.

Without the attention from Logicosity (Buyer’s Remorse Part I, Part II and Part III) I would have no idea how stragetically incompetent the Bullock administration was during this year’s legislative session. Here’s a snippet from Part I:

In the final days of the 2017 legislative session, Governor Bullock and his crew convened a low-profile meeting of legislative D’s to line up support for an end-of-session “deal.”

Senate Bill 261 (SB 261) was a central topic. The chief executive assured the assembled at worst the bill would trigger only the first two levels (of four) of cuts called for in the proposed legislation.

Level 1 and Level 2 and that’s all, he said.

With that assurance, the D dutifully rolled over and let the bill pass. A short time late, Bullock affixed his signature.

After the session was over, and all four levels of cuts were triggered, lowly service providers were suddenly blindsided by news of the chainsaw about to enact havoc on their budgets. By then it was too late, Bullock had already signed SB 261 into law.

Montana’s many destructive fires producing real smoke will also produce a smoke screen for Montana’s economic woes. The story that won’t be told is how loyal Democrats allowed their Governor, Steve Bullock, to create a budget time bomb in collusion with Montana Republicans that is now blowing up the critical services so many vulnerable Montanans rely on.

If there is a special session, what leverage does Bullock have left? I’m sure the State’s ability to fight fires will have an attentive audience, since anyone who requires breathing to live will probably be curious about what can be done to keep our air from being unhealthy, but what about all the people impacted by the cuts Montana Democrats let pass without a fight?

Will Montana Democrats simply blame Republicans, hoping the real story of how SB 261 became law stays contained to blogs hardly anyone reads, or will they do the right thing and acknowledge they got taken for a ride?