Month: March 2018

by William Skink

As Trump continues firing and hiring, it would be easy to just focus on the instability of the current administration and the complicity of the GOP. Since it’s an election year, from the perspective of Democrats, it’s definitely preferable to maintain a partisan focus and ignore what the Democrats are up to.

On the firing front, David Shulkin at the VA is the latest casualty. The conventional wisdom is Shulklin was an impediment to the privatization of the VA. The money involved is staggering.

Aiding and abetting corporate plunder is standard operating procedure for the GOP, and privatizing the VA would be a very lucrative prospect for politically positioned providers to cash in on. But it’s not just Republicans Veterans should be worried about. According to Suzanne Gordon on Democracy Now, Montana’s very own Jon Tester is cited as a Democrat complicit in the effort to privatize the VA:

I think it’s up to the Senate and the veterans service organizations to oppose this. And it’s up to them to oppose privatization. And, Amy, the really frightening thing about all this is it’s not just the Republicans. I mean, there are many Democrats in the House and in the Senate who really are not standing tall enough about the issue of opposing what I call stealth privatization. You know, outsource this, outsource that, and pretty soon you have nothing left. And Democrats have to really stand firm on this issue. Jon Tester of Montana is the co-sponsor of a bill that would really increase the pace of privatization. They claim it’s not privatization, but it is creeping privatization. And we need people to say, “No, fix the VA.”

Suzanne Gordon is a award-winning journalist with an article in The American Prospect digging into why private sector providers are not ready to care for Veterans. Gordon knows what she is talking about, and Democrats like Tester, who are complicit in the stealth privatization of the VA, better take notice.

On the hiring front the big news is John “We know where your children live” Bolton. This mustached psychopath should be easy for Democrats to oppose, right? And the reason he should be opposed is because he is a warmonger on steroids. But is that what we are hearing from Democrats? Sadly no, says Caitlin Johnstone:

As so many of us have been dreading, PNAC’s favorite bloodthirsty child killer John Bolton has been added to the Trump administration. And as many half-jokingly predicted, Democrats seized on this opportunity to accuse Bolton of being a Kremlin agent.

That’s right, John Bolton, the guy who has been trying to start a war with Russia since long before the name Vladimir Putin meant anything to the average Democrat, is being accused of colluding with Russia. Count on Democrats to oppose the most virulent neocon in Washington by accusing him of not being hawkish enough.

“John Bolton once suggested Russian hack of DNC may have been a false flag operation by Obama Admin,” fretted lead Democratic Russiagater Adam Schiff, mistaking brazen partisan hackery for actual skepticism about a likely intelligence community false flag.

“Don’t forget the reason for H.R. McMaster’s departure: He criticized Russia,” added Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin. “McMaster said publicly that Russia needed to face serious consequences for what they’ve done in Syria & for the gas attack in the UK. John Bolton would never say anything like that.”

“Trump has outdone himself by selecting Bolton,” Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch tweeted with a link to a story about Bolton having appeared in a 2013 video for a Russian gun rights group. “In one appointment, he simultaneously increased the influence of the NRA in his Admin. & found another way to tie himself to Russia. Does he still claim he hires the best people? #TrumpRussia.”

“Bolton is *pre-indictment* for many crimes against America,” tweeted renowned professional intelligence LARPer Eric Garland.

Was he referring to Bolton’s unforgivable war crimes? Of course not.

“He’s owned by Russia,” Garland explained.

Is the Democratic obsession with Russia so pervasive they can’t even take a time-out to acknowledge that the true danger of Bolton is his lust for war, like calling for preemptive strikes on North Korea and Iran? Apparently so.

Domestically, the political season is moving into spring thaw mode, and Democrats are desperate to see the blue wave sweep them back into relevancy. Is that why the DCCC keeps injecting itself into Democrat primaries? Is that why the Montana Democratic establishment is hoping to boot Green candidates off the ballot?

by William Skink

I’ve been wanting to write about the revived effort to enact some measure of gun control after the school shooting in Florida, but it’s clear that any criticism of the noble teenagers who were immediately thrust into the spotlight will not be tolerated by the people hoping to use the survivors to enact their agenda.

My first problem is the laser focus on the weapon used by the killer. In all the noise that’s occurred since the shooting I have heard virtually nothing from corporate media about antidepressants.

After the Las Vegas shooting, Business Insider did mention psychotropic drugs:

As reports are now emerging of the Las Vegas country music festival shooter Stephen Paddock being prescribed the mind-altering sedative-hypnotic, diazepam, the mental health industry watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) said this should play a role in ongoing law enforcement investigations and government response to increasing acts of senseless violence in the country. Police have been baffled by the motive of 64-year-old Paddock, whose mass shooting on October 3, where he killed 59 and wounded more than 500, was the worst in U.S. history. But CCHR says that for the public’s protection governments need to ignore psychiatric-pharmaceutical interests and investigate the potential link between psychotropic drugs and both the Las Vegas shooting and similar acts of violence.

The potential side-effects of anti-depressants is unfortunately not a big part of the discussion after Florida. Instead, it’s “assault rifles” and whether or not assault rifles should available for purchase.

Another aspect of this story anyone should find extremely troubling is how many warnings authorities had that this kid was about to blow. There were direct warnings from people who knew the shooter. The FBI failed to follow up. There was explicit evidence the killer wanted to shoot up a school. He used his real name in a Youtube comment saying essentially I want to become a school shooter. But authorities failed.

And gun-control supporters want to give the authorities more authority to regulate guns?

One thing the kids in this tragedy are starting to learn is that tragedies are great opportunities for reducing rights. Most of the young people in the spotlight weren’t even alive in 2001 when America was attacked by Saudi Arabians. They probably have no idea why we take off our shoes at the airport.

But after Spring Break, when everyone at that school will be required to wear clear backpacks, they will start to understand. Even David Hogg is starting to understand, and he doesn’t like it:

“After we come back from Spring Break, they’re requiring us all to have clear backpacks…it’s unnecessary. It’s embarrassing for a lot of the students,” he said.

The way this was received on Twitter was essentially, “So, how does it feel to be have your rights limited by common sense?”

I agree with Hogg, clear backpacks aren’t the answer. But then again, I don’t think going after assault rifles is the answer, either.

by William Skink

The blog Moon of Alabama is one of the best blogs I have ever been turned on to (thanks Uncle $cam!) and it’s not just because of the monumental efforts of the host, Bernhard, to keep the lights on.

Somehow this blog has maintained a vibrant comment culture comprised of international perspectives (mostly western) that makes wading through a 60+ comment thread worth it.

For a little context, here’s a bit of the history from the About page:

This site’s purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon’s Whiskey Bar writings.

Some time ago, the commenting at Billmon’s Whiskey Bar became a bit excessive. Billmon therefore closed the comments at his place on June 29, 2004. The community of commentators was left behind to search for a new place.

Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community.

Many of the old regulars have moved on or just lurk these days, but the quality of the commentary continues to justify using my limited time to scroll through and scan for tidbits, like this comment about Capitalism from Allen:

“America” is the leading edge of history’s experiment in capitalism. This is it. This is the laboratory and the test model. If you don’t start the analysis from that framework, you won’t come up with the right answers.

The first thing to be jettisoned in capitalism is compassion. Compassion would be an extraneous cost, and has to be eliminated. Next is solidarity. Capitalism is the ultimate expression of individualism. Just check the pseudo intellectualism of a nut like Ayn Rand.

The machine you are sitting in is not what you think. This isn’t a “society” as the word is generally understood. You are part of a lab experiment. Your life satisfaction is unimportant, only your kinetic energy, which can be captured, is important. The effects you see around you are just theatrical.

Capitalism is a cold algorithm set loose on warm blooded people.

It is a measure of how successful capitalist propaganda has been that most people are unaware of the ongoing holocaust that attends the globalizing and the deepening of the capitalist system. Capitalist rationalization of the accumulation process (today called “austerity”) has always left a vast train of mortality and misery in its wake. This was true in 18th England, 19th century Ireland and in late 19th century Bengal, where millions died under the genius of British rule. It was true in Latin America after World War II, when the US state set out to “defend capitalism” from a whole hosts of evils. The Green Revolution in the 1950’s and beyond killed a fair number of people by destroying subsistence agriculture all throughout the global south. And the National Security State took up the slack and killed many more thousands. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s World Bank “structural adjustment” programs in the so-called “Third World,” sent countless indigents to an early grave. It’s worth noting that as “superimperialism” took hold through various financial mechanisms, countries of the global south began to experience rapid ecological devastation, as in order to exploit their “comparative advantage,” they had to capitalize their wealth of natural resources, including forests, minerals, oil, monocrops, etc. It was also about this time that epidemiologists began to notice the resurgence of old tropical diseases and the explosion of new ones (which probably had to do with the collapse of ecosystems). And now, in a world gone mad with poverty and war, the barbarian rulers propose “austerity,” which really means starvation and homelessness for some, and certainly unemployment, despair and hopelessness for many. But the barbarians couldn’t care less.

When you realize that the dominant religion in the Capitalist Dictatorship of America is Business Enterprise and the Holy Grail is Profit, then actions like these which steal from the poor and give to the rich become clear. People who have succeeded at Business Enterprise and have made a lot of Profit are the Blessed, and they deserve all the good things that our labor can provide. People who are poor and elderly are today’s equivalent of heretics and sinners. Congress is the Inquisition, and its function is to damn, condemn, and punish the poor and elderly for their sins and heresies. Denial of food (Meals on Wheels) and medical care is the modern equivalent of being burned at the stake. An early death is the inevitable outcome. Whereas the Inquisitors wore ecclesiastical garb, Congress, today’s Inquisitors, wear suits, ties, and flag pins.

What a gem of a comment. Thank you, Allen, and thank you, Bernhard, for over-seeing one of the last quality online communities to persist amidst the commonplace toxicity of most online discourse.

by William Skink

The Green Party was already in defense mode from last year’s election cycle because Jill Stein is clearly a Kremlin cutout puppet-fingered by Putin. If it’s not obvious anything will be used to denigrate political alternatives in order to keep us herded into the self-defeating sham of America’s political duopoly, it should be.

In James Conner’s piece pondering if right wing mischief makers are trying to hijack MT’s Green Party he covers the initial controversy that put the Green Party on the defensive, specifically the political antithesis of Green Party ideology, John Gibney of Hamilton.

While it’s obvious why right-wingers would want to co-opt third party opportunities, it should be equally as obvious why the Democrat establishment will be keen on finding ways to attack Green Party candidates.

In Conner’s post he states that the Green bonafides of Green Party candidate for Senate, Steve Kelly, are rock solid. I don’t dispute that notion at all. But in today’s political arena anything that can used by your opponent should be anticipated.

Guilt by association is an easy tactic to pull, as is smearing someone as a conspiracy theorist. One would have to be politically naive to think this won’t come up if it appears at all a third party candidate could move the margins in a Senatorial race.

by William Skink

I think Tom Bensen and the organization he directs, Arts Missoula, need their own sensitivity training after asking (and then receiving) over $30,000 dollars for a global and cultural affairs director. From the link:

Arts Missoula will hire a director of global and cultural affairs to help the city become more welcoming to refugees who resettle here.

In a 9-2 vote Monday night, City Council members amended the city’s fiscal 2018 budget to provide $34,424 for the immediate hire. In fiscal 2019, the full-year budget implication will be $79,000.

As described by Arts Missoula executive director Tom Bensen, the new global and cultural affairs director will develop programs in sensitivity training for local schools, city and county employees, and other public or private groups.

Maybe Bensen doesn’t know that the budget cuts are just now starting to be felt by thousands of vulnerable Montanans.  Maybe he doesn’t know Missoula County’s plan in the face of these cuts is to raise property taxes.

Maybe Bensen doesn’t know 40 families have vouchers for housing, but no willing landlords/property management companies willing to rent to them.

Maybe he doesn’t know that there is only one person working as a housing navigator to assist hundreds of homeless people trying to find housing, and that one person only works half time.

Maybe he doesn’t know dozens of people face imminent eviction from Skyview Trailer park.

If he doesn’t know, I’d be more than willing to help develop a sensitivity training program to help raise awareness. Hell, I’d even do it for free.

One particularly galling factor of this budget ask is that it’s apparently not even the appropriate time of year to be making new budget requests, a little fact I’m glad Councilperson Michelle Cares pointed out:

Two council members objected to the amendment on procedural grounds, saying the city should not add a position mid-stream, thereby setting up an expectation for the next budget cycle.

Debate over the merits of a new position should come in the context of all the other requests that come before City Council during its budget hearings, said Councilwoman Michelle Cares.

“I don’t think we should add staff outside of the normal budget process,” she said. “Every year, we make many difficult decisions during that process – and this request should be one of those we consider.”

 
If Tom Bensen was sensitive to the dire need that exists under the utopian facade of Missoula–a need made more desperate by the cruel budget cuts–and if he realized that lots of agencies would like more funding to make critical hires for their programs, maybe he would understand that this request is more than a little tone deaf.

I think there is a growing non-racist, non-xenophobic frustration in the social service sector about Missoula’s priorities. At least it seems that way to me from the conversations I’m having.

City Council voted 9-2 to amend the budget for this request, just like that. While jail diversion programs go unfunded and state cuts shift the cost of services onto property owners (who will pass them down to everyone else), it appears that if you say you’re helping refugees, you’ll get money, no problem.

Without my Sensitivity Program for Privileged White People (SPFPWP), I’m afraid privileged white people will keep doing things that will provide financially insecure Montanans further evidence that bringing refugees to Missoula is more important than mitigating the suffering of the poor and vulnerable already here.