But, But...I'm the boss here...

Strange things are done in the midnight sun

by the men who "dig for gold."

The Republican trails have their secret tales

that would make your blood run cold.

 

The northern lights have seen strange sights,

but the strangest they ever did see

was the night on the shore (according to lore)

they "roasted" ol' Ryan Zinke.

 

With apologies to Robert W. Service's poem:

"The cremation of Sam McGee"
(shamefully reworked by me)

 

 

   Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior, has been up to his neck in trouble ever since his hero, the troublemaker-in-chief, President Trump hired him.

 

   To define his to-date brief moment is history, you could say it is chaotic, at best.  To put a finer point on it, however, would be to say it is bumbling, inept, and arrogance, at worst.

 

   There is only one Donald Trump - and one is quite enough.  But leave it to Zinke to try to master the ways of "The Donald," and most would say his report card indicates he is failing miserably.

 

   Nine of the twelve members of his National Parks Advisory Council at the Interior recently got up from their chairs and stomped out of the room.  Their beef?   The boss!  All nine pointed their fingers at Zinke as the reason for leaving. Arrogance and my-way-or-the-highway were high on the list of dislikes.

 

   But, let's face it...he's just one more Trump Nominee who can't properly handle the job.  The President has a track record of selecting Cabinet-level "no-nothings" and "do-nothings" to do his bidding, but they do know plenty about how to dismantle necessary regulations  and perform "corporate raids" on their assigned departments.

 

   Zinke is a blight on America's Interior Department, and an embarrassment to all of us in Montana who have to quietly admit "he is one of us,"  although there is a lot of talk about his  "legal residence" being in a city in California...even when he was a U.S. Representative from Montana.

  


 

 

 

"Make American Corporations Richer"

 

 

 

 

   President Trump told a gathering of world leaders, "America is open for business and competitive again."

 

   So, let's think about that for a minute.  Since the Trump Administration took the reins of power, nearly every step they have taken has been exclusively for the benefit of Corporate America, the millionaires, and the billionaires.

 

   There is no secret "Trump Formula" to the rise in the stock market.  Corporate America saw pesky business regulations lifted,  tax cuts for the richest, and bills passed that will take from the middle class and give to the rich.  What stock market couldn't benefit from all of that?  However, we are mostly talking about only the one-percenters and a handful of small investors.  

 

  We need to stop measuring the success of America's business climate by how much richer America's wealthiest have become.  The entire thrust of the Trump Administration has been to "Make American Corporations Richer."  (A new baseball cap, please, that reads MACR) 

   And that drive for the gold doesn't necessarily include our small business owners, and it doesn't include you and me, either!

   More money is the goal, gigantic greed is the driver, and corrupt politicians make it all happen.

   Yes, Virginia...there is a Santa Claus for the rich...and his real name is Donald J. Trump.





      

The Fight: To Defend the Indefensible...

 

 

 

   We know the obvious reasons why the president attacks the media, but what is not so obvious is how well it is working with the American people.  

 

   Our opinion tends to believe that riling the media is an incidental benefit for Trump, compared to the real purpose of his "media-bashing" rants.  Whatever we may think of his style, we must give him credit for governing by way of thick and continuous smoke screens that are designed to misdirect his more egregious  - and indefensible - miscues.

 

   One of my favorite actors, George C. Scott, portrayed a "flim- flam man" in a movie years ago.  He considered himself a "real businessman," but in the persona of a bumbling buffoon.  He was a master of deceit, aided by the smoke and mirrors that misdirected his prey's attention to another, more unimportant, matter.

 

   The media's participation in the twists and turns of President Trump is akin to herding birds.  It is difficult for the media to defend itself against outrageous charges of "most dishonest human beings in the country" and, of course, the ever-humorous "fake news."

 

   When the President of the United States makes such shocking statements on national television and in his twitter rants, how many of us will grab hold of them as the "gospel truth" and, worse yet, decide to take the law into their own hands and act on them?

 

   Case in point:  a young man in Michigan decided this week to do just that.  He called the CNN switchboard in Atlanta and said he was on his way to kill as many of their employees as possible.  He was coming after those "fake news" guys!  CNN has been reporting for months that since Trump's charges against the media, many journalists have been receiving death threats!

 

   And, once Trump opened Pandora's Box, he is completely unable to close it.  It is as impossible as trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube, and he has now "loosed the hounds of Hell" as the saying goes.

 

   Only you, the people, can sort out his misstatements and clear up this doom and gloom that has a death grip on our country.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

  

 

     

So simple, even a "Twit" could think of it

   Since I can remember, there has been a practice in the United States House and Senate that mystifies most every American:  Multiple issues jammed into one bill.

   Worse yet, the "secondary issues" in those bills usually stink to high heaven because they are "pet projects" of political twits who are either looking for votes or money to line their own coffers, and will seldom have a chance of passing on their own.

   Why have we allowed this to continue?

   Piggy-backing proposals are a waste of time, muddles up the efforts, and makes it extremely hard to pass good, necessary bills.

   The term "clean bill" is seldom requested, hardly ever given, and I find it unfathomable that our Founding Fathers would have chosen this as the best way to govern. My thought is that if I chose to research the matter, I would find that it was a "congressional twit" of fairly recent history who introduced the technique.

   The present - and corrupt - way of doing things is to find a bill that is very acceptable to both parties and then hold it back for attachment to another bill down the road.  It makes for great political leverage, you see. 

   So, if we should happen upon a thought that would benefit the American people instead of individual politicians or political parties, maybe we could suggest a bill that makes it unlawful for anything but "single issue bills only."

   Gee, what an idea.  And it would be so simple.

   Why didn't THEY think of it?   (surely, you jest!)





     


  

It's your country now, kiddo...

 

 

 

A gigantic problem has taken shape in America, and it will take a monstrous effort to bring it under control.  Technically, we have out-smarted ourselves with a device that is small enough to hold in your hand and heinous enough to be rightfully diagnosed by our officials as

 addictive!

 

   We have trouble, I say trouble my friends.  And that starts with "T" and rhymes with "C" and stands for "Click, Click, Click."

 

   In 1972, Fifty percent of our 18 to 24-year olds who were registered to vote, actually made it to the ballot boxes.

 

   In 2008, Forty-Four percent of that same age group voted.

 

   In 2012, Thirty-eight percent put down their cell phones and took the time to vote.

 

   In 2018...We are afraid to even guess!

 

   What we are talking about here is "cell phones."  We must first accept, however, that there will always be good uses for these devices.  And that will always be so.  But with our young, it has gone way beyond that. It is no longer just a threat that these machines are hard to put down...Licensed experts have gone to our government officials to work with social media companies to eliminate the emerging problem of addiction!  

 

   We have created a society of real-life "zombies" who need to be entertained with the screen in that little flat box  that has pulled them into its all-knowing universe.  Many of them are called "smart phones," and have the magnetic force to jerk the brain of a five to fifty-five year old right out of their skull.

 

   Vote in an elections?  Are you kidding me?  They hardly have time to go to the bathroom or pop the cork on bottle of winey-poo!  We could probably get ninety to ninety-five percent turnout if they could vote on that clickety-click, click thingy...but until then - forget it!

 

   We need these young people to get involved in the mess they are inheriting.  We need them to care about what kind of world they want to live in.  We need them to look up and see what's going on around them.  Real, honest-to-goodness communication between people - eyeball to eyeball - is not found in the instruction book of those little screens.

 

   But, when they are standing right next to the little blonde-haired girl and find the need to text to ask for a date....well, we've pretty much sunk our chances of a rosy, American-Dream future.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

   

The Dangerous Game They Play

   There are allegations of political hi jinks bouncing off the walls of the U.S. House and Senate "gladiator arena."  Rumors of  whips, swords, shields, axes, hatchets, chains, nets, and various other weapons are strewn across the floor and up the aisles.

   But, don't believe a word of it.  The real fight going on today has nothing to do with politics.  While it is hard to believe, we must now accept the fact that there is something much uglier than politics being foisted upon this once-great country. The need to "win" at all cost has transcended any political battle.  And, it's need get that "win" has brought America to its knees.  Anyone who questions the ugliness will find themselves the topic of the "tweet of the hour" and banished to the garbage dump of humanity.

   "The Uncivil War" of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Freedom Caucus Members, Tea Party Members, Conservative Republicans, Liberal Democrats, Socialists, White Supremacists,  Authoritarians, and rich old white guys in funny three-piece suits with ten-gallon hats are fighting to be "king of the mountain," and they seem to be fighting to the death.

   Instead of accusing their fellow congressional members of being head-strong members of the opposition party, they are now going for the grand coup de grace.  They are going for the most insane personal character assignation's of all time.  While knowing full-well that the television cameras are rolling, they throw caution to the wind and make the most obscene, underhanded, truth-shredding statements America has ever heard by their " supposed leaders."

   Make no mistake, there is also an outright war by the president to muzzle America's media and decertify their right to report the dirty and untruthful shenanigans of the day.  There is ONLY one truth...no "fake news" and no "alternative facts."   
   Can America get back to arguing the ideologies of our mainstream political parties?  We are very worried.  It is hard get the toothpaste back into the tube and it is harder to gather the evil and get it back into Pandora's Box.

   We believe we have crossed the line and slimmed our way into the twilight zone of something much, much worse than political in-fighting. 

   We have a president who has become the maestro who orchestrated the dangerous division among Americans by his overtly bigoted tweets and the constant delivery of so many outlandish lies!

   This president is pushing us closer to moral bankruptcy every day.  The world is watching...and the world is appalled.

Public Meetings? They're for Losers...

Caricature of Daines from the internet

   Everything you ever needed to know about Montana's U.S. Senator Steve Daines is revealed in the opening remarks by John Connelly, Ryan Holm, and Dan Vermillion in today's Helena Independent Record Opinion...

   "Recently, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines introduced a bill that would strip protection from 450,000 acres of the wildest, most pristine public lands in Montana.  He concocted the bill in Washington, D.C., without holding a single public meeting or town hall to find out how Montanans would like these public lands managed in the future."

   The Junior Senator is reported to be a good friend of Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, who is also an "alleged" Montana resident of questionable standing.  Together, it our opinion, they do not have the best interest of Montana in their hearts...only in their wallets.

   We also know that Daines does not like to be questioned in Montana Town Hall Meetings.  Thus, it is said by some that he holds them from a safe distance - like about two thousand miles away in the closet of his Washington D.C. office, with the lights out.

   Our best advice would be to yank this guy out of office at his next scheduled election.  (We understand he can do considerably more damage in the meantime, but we have few options.)  Montana does not need a senator who only does the bidding of those back east.  We don't know what he and Zinke have in mind for those 450,000 acres, but it can't be good for Montana.

   Get 'er done, Montana!



   

  
  
   

Our worst enemy is us...

  

 

   Here in Montana, we don't have to look far

to find our worst enemy. 

 

   And that is because my comic strip friend, Pogo, knew what he was talking about when he said "we have met the enemy, and he is us."

 

   We have a U.S. House of Representative  member that was elected and subsequently found guilty of body-slamming a member of the press to the ground and roughing him up just prior to election day...because he was asked a question he didn't want to answer!  

 

   We have a U.S. Senator who turned his back on his Montana constituents because of some deplorable votes he cast,  and then sheepishly hid in the weeds and held a "Montana Town Hall Meeting" ...from Washington D.C.! 

 

   Of course, most of us are screaming bloody murder about these two guys, but that does about as much good as spittin' into the wind.  They voted for some of the most deplorable bills that will hound America for decades.

 

   Montanans who voted for the Party instead of the man now look into the mirror and recognize who the enemy really is.  When will we learn?  Who are we waiting for that will tell us what a bunch of twits we really are?

 

   Fortunately, there is always another election.

 

   November 2018 is fast approaching and there is a better than even chance we can take control of the U.S. House and Senate.  Maybe we can soon take control of the Montana Legislature, too.

 

   It's up to us.  We only need to get off our backsides and do it.  Of course, I know many of you will need several reminders about the upcoming election this year...and how important it will be to America.

 

   And, I will be just the guy to do those reminders, too!

 

 

 

 

    

 

       

 

  

  

A Tale of Two Faces

 

 

   Montana's "Rubber Stamp Steve" Daines, U.S. Senator extraordinaire, has a tendency to (1) turn one of his faces toward the eastern Congressional Republican crowd, and (2) turn his other face (backside) to the Montana crowd that elected him.

 

   We all remember the time he, as Montana's lone U. S. Representative, voted to shut down the government if the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) wasn't repealed. 

 

   Now, as Montana's very junior U.S. Senator, he has a chance to get his GOP Membership Card punched and validated once again.

 

   We normally don't pay much attention to what he is doing back in Washington, but the shutting down of the U.S. Government is a big thing to most Montanans.  And, we know Daines keeps pretty busy counting his money instead of his constituents.  His report card on how many times he voted with the party is very important to him, too.

 

   In the end, we need to do two things as we inventory the voting of Senator Daines:  (1) Watch the tally of this important vote to either "shut down the government or build that damnable "wall" next week...and (2) Watch and see if our Junior Senator hide in the weeds after he votes.

 

   Will he be looking to Montana when he votes, or will he be looking to his Trump/GOP Congressional Crowd?

 

   "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of  (a) man....the Shadow does."