Day: December 5, 2019

by William Skink

UPDATE: I was incorrect when I said the Missoulian did not cover this, an article did appear on December 4th.

If Democrats want to win back the OPI office after Melissa Romano lost to the barely literate Republican, Elsie Arntzen, in 2016, then they might want to find a candidate without a drug abusing husband who was arrested for possession of multiple illicit drugs, including meth and LSD, last August.

There are lots of questions raised by the report that Melissa Romano’s husband, Eric Lehman, is facing criminal charges for drug possession. Here is some of that reporting:

The charges against Eric Lehman, who resigned his teaching post at Hawthorne Elementary School as of Nov. 1, said the drugs were found in a bag in his vehicle after a traffic stop and vehicle impoundment in late August in Helena.

Prosecutors told MTN News they’ve been negotiating a plea deal with Lehman, who is expected to plead guilty. An arraignment is scheduled next week in District Court in Helena.

In a statement to MTN News, Romano said Tuesday that it’s been “a very difficult time for our family,” but that Lehman is “taking responsibility for his actions, seeking treatment and making amends.”

The first big question is why the hell was this drug abuser allowed to continue teaching kids after being caught with a smorgosbord of drugs? He was busted in August, but only resigned November 1st? Really? If my kid had this guy as their teacher I would be livid with the school district for keeping him in the classroom.

The second question is how this incident was kept quiet for so long, especially when newspapers are so quick to plaster mugshots of alleged criminals every day on their flimsy corporate pages. Is there some special treatment going on for the husband of a political candidate? The optics aren’t good.

The report I linked to came from KBCK in Bozeman. The Missoulian STILL has not reported on this, though the Missoula Current did, but not at the top of their webpage, where most new news stories appear before dropping down.

What remains of the blogosphere has shown interest because this is a significant story. James Conner has a post up about it, as does Strandberg. Not surprisingly the partisan Montana Post is so far mum on their candidate’s PR problem, probably because they are too busy promoting anti-Russian xenophobia as a cudgel against Gianforte. Pathetic.

Personally, I don’t think Romano has all that much to worry about here. Missoula’s Mayor Engen had a literal intervention due to his alcoholism, and he was able to turn his personal troubles into a successful reelection campaign.

The more troubling part of this story is the seeming cover-up that happened for months to keep it out of the public eye. Poor people charged with crimes don’t seem to have the same consideration given to them that this hubby of a candidate did since his bust in August.

The apparent cover-up could be more problematic for Romano than the actual charges her husband is facing. Regardless, this will now be a very convenient line of attack for her opponents, and will make winning the election next November incredibly difficult.

by William Skink

If you aren’t following the work of Aaron Maté, you should be. His latest piece at The Nation is definitely worth reading. I was interested in this part:

The very fact that Ukrainegate now has Democrats advocating a policy that Obama rejected should be enough to spark consideration of whether briefly not arming Ukraine is really the issue on which to pin removing a president from office. Moving toward impeachment over Ukraine policy also has potential electoral consequences: In 2016, voters rejected the neoconservative worldview that national security bureaucrats like Taylor, Vindman, and Morrison now espouse. Trump, after all, campaigned on improving ties with Russia and falsely presented himself as an opponent of the hawkish legacy that these star impeachment witnesses embody. On this note, the fact that John Bolton may become the Democrats’ next star witness might also hasten some reflection.

The Cold War mindset that liberals have embraced threatens not just their own political fortunes but also global peace. Lost in the outrage over Trump’s potential—and ultimately unrealized—interruption of US military assistance to Ukraine is that Zelensky, the new Ukrainian president, openly campaigned on ending the war with Russia that this military assistance fuels. Zelensky is now under heavy pressure from Ukraine’s far right to abandon his pledge to make peace with Moscow. It does not bode well for Zelensky’s chances if the official opposition party of his US patron is effectively joining hands with his country’s own right-wing forces to continue the war.

How did establishment Democrats turn into hawkish Neocons without hardly anyone noticing? It boggles the mind. And the prospect of John Bolton becoming the Democrats’ next star witness? WTF?!?

These impeachment hearings continue to go off the rails for Democrats, as evidenced by Pamela Karlan’s snark blowback after she said this:

“Contrary to what President Trump has said, Article 2 [of the Constitution] does not give him the power to do anything he wants,” testified Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School. “The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.”

While Democrats are busy trying to impeach a president in order to keep their Cold War against Russia proceeding toward mutually assured destruction, Trump is planning to cut food assistance for hundreds of thousands of Americans:

The Trump administration is set to announce a plan that would cut food stamp benefits for approximately 750,000 people, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

The plan, which is scheduled to be announced Wednesday, will make it more difficult for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries of food stamps work or are enrolled in a vocational training program, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter.

If there was any class consciousness left in the Democratic party, Trump’s move to cut food assistance would be met with a vigorous response. Will there be a response? I don’t know. Did Democrats make a big deal about Trump’s tax cuts? Not that I can recall.

And remember, Trump’s tax cut legislation included the establishment of “opportunity zones”, which Missoula’s local officials are promoting as a tool for economic development. For more on that, read my post connecting Engen to Trump and Margaret Thatcher.

No, Democrats gave up class consciousness in preference to identity politics a long time ago. They retreated to the coasts where their elitist donor-base resides because they think fly-over country is full of worthless deplorables who are too ignorant and economically squeezed to be of any value to their political ambitions.

So food stamps will get cut and Democrats will keep self-destructing because they’re more invested in attacking Trump over withholding lethal military aid to a corrupt nation than they are with helping the disenfranchised citizens in their own country.

For an example of the delusional thinking reflected in this sham impeachment, here is a sliver of Pamela Karlan’s testimony:

“America is not just ‘the last best hope,’ as Mr. Jefferies said, but it’s also the shining city on a hill. We can’t be the shining city on a hill and promote democracy around the world if we’re not promoting it here at home.” –Karlan

Yeah, promoting Democracy. Is that what Obama was doing in Ukraine, promoting Democracy? And were Democrats promoting Democracy when they rigged the primary against Bernie Sanders? Were they being supportive of Democracy when they argued in court they have every right TO rig the primary? Yep, that is what DNC lawyers were arguing, and they won. From the link:

“People paid money in reliance on the understanding that the primary elections for the Democratic nominee—nominating process in 2016 were fair and impartial,” Beck said. “And that’s not just a bedrock assumption that we would assume just by virtue of the fact that we live in a democracy, and we assume that our elections are run in a fair and impartial manner. But that’s what the Democratic National Committee’s own charter says. It says it in black and white. And they can’t deny that.” He added, “Not only is it in the charter, but it was stated over and over again in the media by the Democratic National Committee’s employees, including Congresswoman Wassermann Schultz, that they were, in fact, acting in compliance with the charter. And they said it again and again, and we’ve cited several instances of that in the case.”

Later in the hearing, attorneys representing the DNC claim that the Democratic National Committee would be well within their rights to “go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way.” By pushing the argument throughout the proceedings of this class action lawsuit, the Democratic National Committee is telling voters in a court of law that they see no enforceable obligation in having to run a fair and impartial primary election.

There’s your Democracy-loving Democrats, America.