Month: March 2019

by William Skink

For the past week corporate media has been utterly consumed with the conclusion of the Mueller investigation. One could assume this news story is the most consequential thing happenning in the country right now.

But it’s not.

The midwest, especially Nebraska, is in the midst of a historically unprcedented flooding event that has already significantly impacted beef and agricultural producers across the midwest. In Nebraska alone it’s being estimated that a million calves have been lost to flood waters. Is corporate media even trying to contextualize this cataclysmic disaster? It doesn’t seem so to me. From the link:

According to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue, there “may be as many as a million calves lost in Nebraska” due to the catastrophic flooding that has hit the state.

This is not a rumor, this is not an exaggeration, and this is not based on any sort of speculation. This number comes to us directly from the top agriculture official in the entire country, and it means that the economic toll from the recent floods is far greater than most of us had anticipated. You can watch Purdue make this quote on Fox Business right here, and it is important to remember that this number is just for one state. It is hard to imagine what the final numbers will look like when the livestock losses for all of the states affected by the flooding are tallied up. This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and the National Weather Service is telling us that there will be more catastrophic flooding throughout the middle portion of the nation for the next two months.

The significance of what’s happening in flyover country can’t be overstated, yet for the past week it’s been virtually nothing but Mueller, Trump and the Russiagate scam getting all the attention. This is indicative of corporate media’s focus not just for the last week, but for the last few years.

Maybe those in New York and Wasington DC will start paying attention to this when their filet mignon costs $100 dollars a plate. Until then it doesn’t appear the lives of agricultural producers means as much as the loss of the Russiagate cudgel corporate media has used to beat the notion of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign into our heads since before Trump’s inauguration.

If only corporate media assets like Rachel Maddow understood ignoring the struggles of non-coastal Americans is one significant reason why Trump was elected in the first place, maybe they could adjust their focus a bit, but I seriously doubt that will happen. The ratings and the book deals were just too lucrative to pass up.

Other worlds actually do exist outside of the Beltway. And the people who live there actually do important things for this country, like, you know, produce food for us to eat.

Maybe, just maybe, if the generously compensated media personalities who get paid to peddle bullshit saw these people as their fellow Americans, and not just dumb hicks who voted for Trump, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

by William Skink

The premier blog cheerleading for Democrats in Montana, The Montana Post, made an initial stab at damage control after Mueller’s investigation fizzled. Doing the heavy lifting is combat Veteran, Josh Manning.

Before getting to the post I want to highlight Manning’s updated bio:

Josh Manning is a combat veteran who lives in Helena. His writing has appeared in Newsweek and Foreign Policy and he has appeared on MSNBC and CNN. He was a primary researcher to the recently published New York Times bestseller “The Plot to Destroy Democracy” by MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance. He is part of a growing movement of progressive military veterans working to affect political change You can follow him on Twitter @joshuamanning23

I emphasized the part where Manning touts his role in a book by Malcolm Nance because I want to highlight how people like Manning and Nance have profited from peddling Russiagate. I’m assuming being a “primary researcher” comes with some kind of financial compensation. If Manning didn’t make any money, Nance surely did. And who is Malcolm Nance? Let’s see how Matt Taibbi describes him in his scathing acknowledgment of the Russiagate scam:

Failure to ask follow-up questions happened constantly with this story. One of the first reports that went sideways involved a similar dynamic: the contention that some leaked DNC emails were forgeries.

MSNBC’s “Intelligence commentator” Malcolm Nance, perhaps the most enthusiastic source of questionable #Russiagate news this side of Twitter conspiracist Louise Mensch, tweeted on October 11, 2016: “#PodestaEmails are already proving to be riddled with obvious forgeries & #blackpropaganda not even professionally done.”

As noted in The Intercept and elsewhere, this was re-reported by the likes of David Frum (a key member of the club that has now contributed to both the WMD and Russiagate panics) and MSNBC host Joy Reid. The reports didn’t stop until roughly October of 2016, among other things because the Clinton campaign kept suggesting to reporters the emails were fake. This could have been stopped sooner if examples of a forgery had been demanded from the Clinton campaign earlier.

I have written about Manning before because I think he represents a concerning trend of (former?) military intelligence operatives loudly and proudly entering politics to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election.

Here is an NBC piece about this trend:

They put their lives on the line in foreign war zones, conducted secret missions to collect valuable intelligence and made enormous sacrifices for their country — only to see their former colleagues disrespected by President Donald Trump.

Now, driven by the president’s conduct, they’re taking matters into their own hands and gearing up for a different challenge: running for Congress as Democrats.

Fed up with what they see as Trump’s disdain and distrust of the intelligence community — and his refusal to embrace fully the conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election — an unusually large number of former intelligence officers and operatives are campaigning for office as Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections, according to experts.

For many — like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s Richmond-area 7th Congressional District and Elissa Slotkin in Michigan’s Lansing-area 8th Congressional District — it’s a matter of restoring respect for the agencies they gave so much of themselves to.

It’s interesting to read this after the dud Mueller delivered on a Friday during March Madness. Instead of restoring respect, pillars of the intelligence community, like James Clapper and John Brennan, now look like the real treasonous operatives in this sad saga.

For his part in the resistence, Josh Manning tried to get a foothold in electoral politics in 2016, running to represent district 40 in Montana’s State Senate, but he lost his primary race to Hal Jacobson. Will he try again?

If Josh Manning does make another political run I would like to know exactly how much he has benefited from promoting Russiagate. I am also curious how the resistence is planning to pivot into the next stage of distraction. Here’s a peek into Manning’s pathetic pivot:

As many have noted for a year or more, Mueller or any one man or woman, will not save us. Our institutions will help but ultimately may crumble from pressure above. Only we can save ourselves by holding our representatives in DC accountable and demand that we, the voting public, get the best and clearest version of how Trump became president in 2016 and what he has done with his power since then. It is not “Mueller Time” it is “Our Time.” If we abandon the sacrifice and effort the founding fathers made to protect this nation from a threat like Trump then we deserve the fate that awaits us.

Seriously, Manning, give it up. You and the rest of the deluded resistence have actually increased the chances of Trump winning reelection in 2020. And the media platforms you reference contributing to–MSNBC and CNN–won’ be seen as credible by half the country for at least a generation.

by William Skink

I just took an online survey about local media that indicates former staff of the shuttered Indy are still looking at the feasability of resurrecting the alt-weekly in some form.

If the Indy was still around I wonder if columnist and free-lance writer, Dan Brooks, would have used his column space to reply to Martin Kidston’s hollow mea culpa over the embarrasing twitter battle that ensued when Brooks pointed out a Missoula Current article seemed to be a re-printed press release with a by-line slapped on.

Here is a portion of Kidston’s damage control:

Growing up, I was told more than once to “not let my alligator mouth outsize my canary ass.” It was an odd way of urging me to think before I speak, or not bite off more than I could chew. I’ve gotten better over the years, tempering my words and my response to things that deserve a response. Anymore, I usually let it slide, knowing there will come another day, and with each new day, a new beginning.

But last week, I violated my own rule when a social media troll called the Missoula Current out on Twitter. It had been a long day and I responded poorly, breaking my standards of social media conduct. It led to a torrent of replies from our cross-town competitor and by the end of the night, we all looked rather foolish.

I’ve since apologized to said competitor for the part I played in allowing the conversation to escalate the way it did in full view of the Twitter universe. While I’m sure the troll and those like him who enjoy instigating such conversations will reappear, my response next time will be more measured.

Guess what, Martin Kidston, you still look foolish and also petty for calling Brooks an internet troll. Brooks is not a troll, he’s an accomplished, talented writer with pieces that have been in the NYT. Thanks to the corporate competition you apologized to, his local platform is gone, which means he can’t correct your unfair depiction of him.

I so so miss the Indy. The Missoula Current is absolutely no substitute. That point was driven home when I saw this non-news “article” written by County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier, about his health scare last year.

This is not news. What this looks like to me is a nice fluff piece that allows Strohmaier to garner some sympathy after accusations that he has a conflict of interest over the Maclay bridge controversy.

Is the Missoula Current an online news journal or a PR platform for local political personalities like nanny-state Dave? I can’t tell with this piece, and that is a problem.

The news I care about is how arrogant politicians like Dave Strohmaier think they can moonlight for a special interest group and get away with it.

I guess without any adversarial media platforms to hold them accountable, maybe they can.

by William Skink

I am traveling with the fam this week, so I’ll make this short.

Trump did not collude with Russia to get into the White House. That is the most important takeaway from Mueller’s 22 month investigation. The skeptics were right, and the Russiagaters were very, very wrong.

If you read just one article about this media clusterfuck, it should be Matt Taibbi’s piece, titled it’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD.

If you just want to watch a skeptic smack around, rhetorically, a true believer, then this clip from Democracy Now featuring Greenwald is worth watching:

I would like to say more, but finger-pecking this post in my phone is obnoxious, so that’s it for now.

by William Skink

ON EDIT: the tweet from Dan Brooks was directed at Missoula Current, not Missoulian. Also, Strandberg has the screenshots I was too lazy to grab last night, which you can read here.

I am a consumer of local media, and a critic of local media. I read the best efforts of the Missoulian to help Major Bodner perception-manage “incremental” improvements at UM, and I read Missoula Current’s fawning coverage of tech and gentrification. I read what I can to best understand what the luminaries in government and private sector development have up their sleeves for Missoula because, you know, I like live here and stuff.

I made that last part sound adolescent because tonight, as the now waning full moon rises over our fair valley, an epic Twitter battle has exploded between a number of notable Missoula media people. I’m not going to take the time to do a bunch of screen shots, but I will give my impressions of this Battle Royale.

I think it started when Dan Brooks made an observation that a Missoulian article sounded a lot like the press release. Then Gwen Florio, local author and Missoulian reporter, did the caught your (not you’re) bad grammar thing. Then Martin J. Kidston entered the fray. Then Missoulian editor Kathy Best tried to defend the shit (and getting shittier) product that is the Missoulian.

A tweet from former Indy reporter Derek Brouwer brought this shit-show to my attention. Brouwer found greener grass in Vermont, and accurately describes this scorched earth Twitter battle as “sad”.

Yes, it is sad. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in my two decades of adulting, it’s this: we never actually leave high school.