Sedition is the Name - Treason is their Game

Sedition:  Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state.  It is a serious felony, punishable by fine and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it.  Words that inspire a revolution that overthrows the government.  Insurrection, rebellion.  An activity or communication aimed at overthrowing governmental authority.  Sedition Act was passed in the United States as early as 17998 and as recent as World War I. The Brandenbuy vs. Ohio Supreme Court decision maintained that seditious speech is ONLY protected  by the First Amendment as long as it does not indicate an "imminent" threat.  

 

When does a threat become "imminent?" 

When Missouri Senator Josh Hawley (R) said he would object to the U. S. Senate's certification of the Electoral College's confirmation that Joe Biden would be America's next president, he willfully admitted his aim was to "overthrow governmental authority."  He intends to stand in the U.S. Senate and say, without evidence, that the 2020 Election was filled with fraud and should be investigated. That was, in my opinion, because he shows no evidence to detain the senate's certification of the Electoral College, an "imminent' threat.  

America is on the brink of allowing scurrilous Republicans who are opposed to the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden to do their best to decertify his election win.  They are defying the people's legal election that has been proven by all fifty states to be free from fraudulent ballot-casting.  There has been no courts in America that have found no unusual evidence of illegal voting.

We should be edging closer to bringing felons to justice as they incite and/or individually cause harm to our democracy and our nation's constitution.  Sedition is now active across our nation, it is serious, and it is being waged in plain sight!

We must stop it before it becomes a full-blown revolution against our rule of law!  

Why are we allowing this to happen?

It seems our legal system is either fatally damaged, or terribly biased in favor of those who are hell-bent on protecting the actions of those who are flirting with seditious acts against our government. 

There is an urgent need to beat back those who would do our nation harm.  And when one United States Senator from Missouri stands to object, causes great delays in the vote, and defies the wishes of American Voters, it has gone too far.  We are not forgetting the more than 125 known Republican U.S. House members who have also pledged to decertify the 2020 Election.  

This assault on our democracy has gone way too far! 

Can Anyone Resurrect The Grand Old Party?

One day, an over- achiever elephant with extreme narcissistic ills  and wrong-headed authority came into town and decided he was just what the rest of the herd needed.  He sat at the head of the table, gave all of the orders, demanded complete loyalty, and offered none.  The elephants cowered in obedience.  The rise of a revolt and the systemic actions of a coup began.  It was a takeover like no other in the history of the nation.  The first order was to take no prisoners.  There was to be only one further order:  Do as I say, not as I do.

Through four terror-plagued years, our nation lapsed into a period of disbelief and shock.  

Why couldn't the herd control him?  He was but one elephant and they were many.  Was he the Svengali of all pachyderms? 

But that was then.  January 21, 2021 is now.

Those elephants must decide what trail through the jungle they will follow now that he is gone.   They are awash in corruption from their behavior the past four years, and it may be a stain that will not wash off. They were warned - constantly - that they were wading too deeply into the swamp. It was changing their values, perhaps to the point of oblivion. Their national image was fading and the once-great name of the Grand Old Party was become ragged and tattered.  Once upon a time there were men named Hitler and Mussolini who were successful as the Svengalis of their countries as well.  People can be swayed by such disingenuous men with promises of something better. They eventually find out, however, that the "better" is only for those  false "leaders."

So, what do the elephants do now?  They have allowed themselves to become weaponized by the ragtag fringe groups who fly the flag of the Svengali.  Corrupt actions are being carried out in their name.  Bigots, racists, armed White Supremacists, and others are marching in the guise of elephants.  They will all be labeled of the same breed and the same side of the political spectrum.  They fall in with the same ilk and with scurrilous names such as right-wing radicals and far-right hate groups.  The elephants walked into this thicket with full knowledge of who - and what - they were joining.

Can they overcome the horrors of their collaboration with Svengali?  Will they be able to convince their voters of the grave mistakes they made?  Even more important, will their voters be able to disentangle themselves from the elephant herd that nearly took down our democracy, and resurrect the old Grand Old Party once again? 

Only time will tell.

 

 

 

Man's Inhumanity to Man. . .

Where Montana GOP
 Legislative Ideas Are Born

An exercise in futility would be like trying to find your way through the crowded and delusional mind of a Montana Republican Legislator. It is a desolate and forbidding wasteland of unimaginable selfishness and arrogant attitudes toward those who they claim to represent.

To anticipate the slightest empathy from any of them would be a bridge too far.  To ask for bilateral understanding would fly miles above their heads.  It is amazing to understand that their "man's inhumanity to man" even includes inhumanity to their fellow Republicans.

Perhaps the best illustration of the inner workings of these geniuses comes from Sen. Jason Ellsworth, a Republican from Hamilton.  "I would imagine that we are going to have members who get sick," Ellsworth said, adding "it's possible lawmakers will die from holding the session with in-person participation, but it's also possible we could die at home, too."

Well, I would agree, senator, especially since a refusal to even wear a mask is ingrained in the circuitry of your grey matter.  You can't let a few deaths get in the way of a good time with the State Senate and House Bullies.

So just what does make these elephants tick?  Are they juiced up on the "big win" on November 3rd?  Are they just flexing their political muscles to ward off any serious opposition? Are they gearing up to put our public lands on the auction block with minimum fighting?  Are they going to tear into such "socialist" programs as Medicaid Expansion again?  Are they going to demand drug tests for unemployment participants?  Are they going to attack our mail-in balloting program?  Are they going to curtail or actually cut off our Food Stamp Program?  Are they going to ignore any bills that may try to come from the opposition side?

Maybe they are going to hunt down and imprison all liberal, left-leaning, socialists who have become a fly in their ointment.  While they most likely will all benefit from most of those pesky socialist programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Affordable Care Act, and a million others, it is not something decent card-carrying Republicans will ever openly talk about. Socialism Bad.  Capitalism Good.  Corrupt Rich Better. 

We're in for a hell of a fight, Montana.

 

The "Charge of the Not-So-Bright Brigade"

 The Charge of the "Not So-Bright" Brigade" of the Montana GOP

is about to stampede our friendly little hamlet of Helena, Montana with no masks, no social distancing, no manners, and no brains.

At least the bullies warned us they were on their way.  That's what bullies do best - they always warn you they're walking into your space and yelling into your face.

They have let everyone know that they are the "king of the hill" now, and we best heed their 'new political order' that this is now their state and we are now their subjects.  Masks are for losers and sissies and social distancing is not the real cowboy way, pilgrim.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Unless those thousands and thousands of fraudulent votes that the current president talks about have showed up in Montana, I think we'll need to assume the bullies won. 

But right out of the chute, they proclaim an in-person legislature will be seated.  The GOP Members have graciously allowed, of course,  that anyone may participate remotely should they wish. (They are hoping, of course, the loud-mouthed Democrats will stay at home.) Democrats have asked for what they called minimum precautions like wearing face coverings, but nearly all Republicans are refusing to do so.

With more than 17,100,000 cases of covid-19 in America, more than 309,000 deaths, (for those of you who are mathematically illiterate, that's  a fatality rate of about 1 death in every 55 cases) and with the numbers crashing through the ceiling, if these numbers don't turn on their headlights, nothing we can do will light their bulbs.

We are fighting a political war and our enemy has nothing but an arsenal of asinine  remarks, lies, misguided statements, and more lies. 

They haven't even taken their seats yet and they are causing great consternation among Montanans, such as their complete disregard for common etiquette, legislative decorum, and disrespect for anyone but their own wants and demands.

These elephants are a selfish herd.

They, like their counterparts

in the national scene,

are only in it for themselves.

They consider we Montanans

observers who must

stand by and await orders.

 

 

 

RED STATE, DEAD STATE...

Just as we saw the GOP mega-rich and power crawl out of the swamp
and ravage our nation for the past four years
we now see a microcosm of that same GOP evil rise up in our beloved Montana

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of these Republicans?

Some of us do.

It was a fairly nice day for a November 3rd.  Just a normal stroll to the voting booth.  Nothing special about this election.  Everything was supposed to go the same as any other Montana Election.

And then, KAPOW!  Right in the kisser.  And a punch to the gut.  And a two-by-four clobber to the back of the head from somewhere behind us.  It was curtain time, folks.

We always knew we were a fairly red state, but we woke up this time to the news we were a flaming, red-hot, bright enough to light up the Western Hemisphere skies, Super Nova RED STATE!  There were zombie Democrats shuffling around in a trance.  What had happened?  This was the year Montana was going to go blue. Everyone was supposed to be sick of the president.

How did Trump carry Montana?   Are these people crazy?  The guy is a corrupt and bald-faced liar!  He's on his way to political oblivion and yet, they wanted to give him another four years to completely finish off our democracy.

Why did they elect a man with anger management issues?  Why did they elect a man who only came home to Montana when he wanted to give us the last best lies from his idol, the president?  Why did they re-elect a lady to the Office of Public Information who has zero qualifications to do the job?  And that guy who's going to the U.S. House...Where did they find him?

Why?  Why?  Why?

The answer is easy.  They were outraged at the shoddy way we have treated their president.  We saw him as a crook and we told him so.  We saw him as a pathological liar and we told him so.  We saw him as the most corrupt man to ever invade the Oval Office and we told him so.  They didn't take that very well.  They see him as all of those things, too, but they decided he was their crook, their liar, and their corrupt guy, and they didn't care one damn bit!

And thinking like that is a big deal with them.

So we level-headed Montanans have to suffer the slings and arrows of their "big guy's" defeat by getting the likes of Gianforte, Daines, Arntzen, and Rosendale dumped into our laps.  The Governor-Elect has anger management issues, the Senator has issues of arrogant superiority,  the Superintendent of Public Instruction has issues with our public school system, and the U.S. House Representative-Elect just has wishy-washy milk toast issues.

I would call that winning the "trifecta +1 of losers."

Plus, a stampeding herd of like-minded elephants filled up the State Legislature.  It's like a convergence of the "Perfect Storm of Evil" that we've always heard about but never expected to see in our lifetime.  The wicked clouds are gathering on the horizon and we can do little to stop it.  

If there is much left of the Last Best Place when they leave town, we can hope to reassemble it, but there is a sure bet we will have  scant few acres of public lands for Montanans and their descendants to enjoy after they're gone!  All of that beautiful land will be in the ownership of their rich friends.

That's why they spent mega-millions to buy those offices!

 

  

   

After You-Know-Who Is Gone...

"I will no longer acknowledge that the man even existed.  I will not let him ruin even one minute of my day.   He will, hopefully, disappear into the dust bin of history.  I feel that if we never read about his foolishness, speak of his atrocities, dwell on his stupidity, that we, as a nation, will heal and take every ounce of his power away.  I pray that I'll have the strength to ask, "who was that?" when his name is spoken."

Those words came to me from a longtime friend of mine.  I could come up with no better words and I believe she speaks for the majority of Americans.  We are about to exit that long and torturous four years of his unprecedented corruption.  So, let's celebrate the dawning of a new day.  No one promises it will be warm and comfy sailing, but, for today at least, it will be a promise of hope - and a time to forget the past!

There are urgent changes that must happen or we will lose our democracy, and there are lesser changes that will simply make our lives better.  Both of these cannot happen unless we become more involved in the careful nurturing of our government. Americans must realize that the past four-year- nightmare could only have happened when they were not paying attention.

Paramount to regaining a firm grasp on the reins will be bringing the American Dream back to a normalcy.  When we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything.   A few items on my "hope list" for 2021 are as follows:

Bring truth back into fashion.  Lies are contagious and soon become the political norm. (This is my greatest wish!)

Chose experience over cronyism when nominating top-level people.  Paying off donors who are unqualified for cabinet-level jobs is absurd. 

Nepotism has always been taboo, in both private and political landscapes.  There have always been violators, but it is still a wrong way to lead.

Allowing people to spread hate against our American values and  march against our democracy in a destructive manner is the most sinister evil a leader can allow to happen. A leader must never turn a blind eye from the hate these people spread.  It must be addressed and handled within our rule of law.

Rewarding our adversaries and bullying our allies is never the way we conduct our foreign affairs.  

Renew our conflict of interest issues with leaders before we allow them to take office.  We must always know if our leader will be compromised by a foreign nation.

 

You must have other hopes for our next administration.  Don't keep them to yourselves.  Get involved this time!

A Nation In Peril...

 

Sedition:  Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.

Coup:  An overthrow, takeover, removal of an existing government from power.

America's time has come to begin cleaning its house.  This flawed man who has ravaged our nation, our constitution, our legislature, our courts, and our dignity is nearly out the door.  We now must look to the future, and there is much we must do to restore our government and the political landscape of our people.  No one has escaped the terror of the past four years.  

Steve Schmidt, Republican Analyst and co-founder of The Lincoln Project said, "America is one election away from losing our democracy."  He has further stated, "When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile, an idiot, and I don't use those words to name call.  I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior.  His comportment.  His actions.  We've never seen a level of incompetence,  level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibility."

Schmidt has even harsher words for the Republican Party.  He believes they have "exacted an outright coup on the American Government to further their own goals."

It is very hard to fathom the depths of madness the Republicans have sunk to in our nation.  It is entirely reasonable, by any measure, to call their actions a coup that has been perpetrated on our government, the presidency, our constitution, and our very soul.  

Many have also considered the possibility that Republicans are guilty of sedition by their very words and deeds.  In order to even visit the seriousness of such a heinous  action by them, is to recall there was a time in our nation's history when such a crime carried a death penalty.  

We can all agree, however, that we are teetering on the brink of a place where we don't want to be.  We are fighting with close friends and relatives about a huge fire that was built by the president, lit by the president, and continually stoked by the president. Worst of all, the president and his congressional enablers have done absolutely nothing to put it out or to caution the people of it horrendous damage.

While there is no judicial evidence of sedition yet, it is safe to say that it has reached the outer banks.  We are also seeing the obvious warning signs of a major coup by those who refuse to accept an election loss.  Their various threats are adding fuel to that damnable fire that they started and is still burning white hot!

Let's hope for cooler heads to prevail. . . both in leadership and with their supporters across the country!

 

Same Trump Song, Second Verse; Can't Get Better, Will Get Worse

The Gianforte Reign has not even begun, and yet he and his herd are trumpeting like young bulls on a warm moonlit evening in the beer gardens of Bozeman.

There appears to be a contest to see who can find the most sacrosanct of Montana laws to overturn first.  There will also be no rules too consequential for ordinary citizens that can't be plowed under, as well. 

Montana is about to become a microcosm of what the greater elephant herd in Washington D.C. foisted upon all Americans.  When the herd's leader, Donald J. Trump, came in power, he loosed the hounds of hell onto all creation.  By his example, he showed every elephant in America that if you want power, you simply take it.  There will be no time to ask politely, no time to bother with the truth, and no time to look back.  Our democracy be damned!  You can have rule of law and rights for all, or you can have an authoritarian reign where all power is held by the leader and the political party -  in his absolute dominion. 

The Governor-Elect, the Junior U.S. Senator, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and various Chairs of the Montana Legislator are well versed in the workings of a corrupt political clique.  They have witnessed it first hand and they are chomping at the bits to tear things apart.

The first sign of dust on the horizon was from the stampeding elephants as they headed to Helena and the book of legislative rules. They were hell-bent on giving more power to their committee chairs, not just to get bills passed that are to their liking, but to control the opposition from even an opportunity to submit bills.  In other words, the elephant's assault on the Montana way of life has already begun before they even get sworn in.

To add insult to injury, the Gov.-Elect, the junior U.S. Senator, and the current Attorney General have all thrown in with the national bulls of the herd and want the results of the Biden win tossed out.  And they can say that with a very straight face.

Montanans, I know you voted them in, but I just don't believe they are really what you had in mind.  

It's going to be a re-run of the "Terrible Trump Years" right here at home.

 

Hold my reins, I'm gettin' a whiskey...

Montana politics just took a Right turn of disastrously evil proportions and we can either go along for the ride,  "get the hell outta Dodge," or do something about it.

But first, let's get to know our newly elected governor a little better.

Gregory Richard Gianforte, was born April 17, 1961 in San Diego, CA. After the age of three, he was raised in Valley Forge and King of Prussia  suburbs northeast of Philadelphia, PA.  He began his career at Bell Laboratories in 1983 and in 1985 moved to Bozeman, MT where he began RightNow Technologies.  One of his executive employees was the future Senator Steve Daines.  Gianforte sold his company to Oracle Corp. for $1.5 Billion in 2011.

Gianforte believes in Young Earth creationism despite scientific evidence to the contrary.  He has donated at least $290,000 to the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum, which teaches visitors that the theory of evolution is false, that the Earth is about 6,00o-6,400 years old, and that humans and dinosaurs coexisted during the same period of time. He claims dinosaurs were aboard Noah's Ark, and that they likely went extinct 4,300 years ago during the great flood. Paleontologist Jack Horner calls the Glendive Dinosaur "not a museum at all."

Gianforte indicated in 2017 that he owns $150,000 worth of shares in VanEck Vectors Russia ETF and $92,400 in the IShares MSCF Russia ETF, totaling just under $250,000 in funds focused on investments in Russia. Some are raising eyebrows because they are included in holdings which are subject to U.S. sanctions imposed after the Russian invasion of Crimea.

One note that seems rather important to me is this:  On the eve of the election in 2017, Gianforte didn't appreciate a reporter named Ben Jacobs with The Guardian asking him a straight-forward question about his take on the Affordable Healthcare Act, so he body-slammed him to the ground.  He was fined, sentenced to community service, and ordered to attend anger management therapy. It was later reported that he lied to the judge at his sentencing.

I don't know about you, but he is beginning to remind me of someone.  Someone with the initials of DJT, maybe.  

We can't take our eyes off of Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte.  And we need to be closely watching Sen. Daines and OPI Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, as well.  They are all from the same political incubator, and they are up to no good for Montana!

There will be much more to write about, and what our "last best place" is in for, when these three are sworn in.  My guess is it will be the moment of that "perfect storm" when these three gas giants make their alignment in the firmament.

MONTANA...High, wide, and about to be pounced on!

 

Montana, the Americans for Prosperity nitwits are here and their grand entrance onto the Opinion Page of the Helena Independent Record Dec. 2, 2020 tells us they are flexing their muscles.  The election must have given them some sort of mandate to run roughshod over all of us.  

Their mission statement sounds harmless enough with words like "every person has unique gifts that enable them to realize their American dream."  They are also in favor of "eliminating burdensome regulations."  

Their educational planning is perhaps the most worrisome.  They insist the Public funding of our school system is old and not working.  They would prefer we send our tax dollars to their religious/charter/private schools(?) to educate children the right way.  Of course, they are a tax-free kind of group:  We don't pay taxes but we'd love to have some of yours.

Americans for Prosperity, founded in 2004, is a libertarian-conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by David Koch and Charles Koch.  As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations.  It's president is Tim Phillips and reports to have a membership of 2.3 million (2013).  Americans for Prosperity reports its founders as David and Charles Koch.  It's legal status is 501(c)(4).  They show expenses for 2014 at $90,412,075.

It is said to be a right-wing political advocacy group founded by the Koch Brothers as their "grassroots" operation, also known as astroturf.  Their mission is to work for a "free and Open Society."

I am sure the Guest View jabber in today's Helena newspaper is an open salvo of much to come.  We are in for a battle, Montanans, and we had best be ready.  

The Montana state director for AFP is David Herbst.

Remember that name.  You'll be hearing a lot of noise out of him.

And I'll be making a few squeaks myself.