This is a fight America cannot lose. . .

Montana has become a  microcosm of politics across the country. The rancid stench of the Grand Old Republican Party of Trump is permeating throughout our state legislature, the governor's office, and his highly obnoxious administration. The free-wheeling, take-no-prisoners attack on anyone who doesn't look and act like them is mind-boggling. They want us to believe that the only rights worth a bucket of warm spit are the rights they claim as theirs, alone. And they are kind of wishy-washy about those, too.

The Gianforte inner circle - especially the Attorney Generalissimo - has made it abundantly clear that those at the front of the line will definitely be on the "A-list of Montana Republicans" and will see justice first!

Numerous examples of the Montana Republican's raw sense of unfair play and jurisprudence is matched only by the deep dive into crime and insurrection by the former president, his crime family, and doting Republican office holders in Congress. 

The Montana model of the Trump Playbook is excruciatingly painful and familiar to watch and live through again. Just when we believe Trump is out of the picture, we learn that copy cats are living it up in his likeness in Helena. Other Republican-controlled states are suffering the same fate. 

The Republican Party is going through a political metamorphosis and their chances are excellent that it may not end well. It is, however, a change they feel they must take a gamble on doing. Their chances today of a long life are slim and none. Their disdain for anyone who doesn't look like them, think like them, or live like them puts them on a short dead-end road. The white majority in America is about to become the white minority in a little more than 20 short years from now!

If we can weather the right-wing storm of political upheaval for a short while longer, we can outlast them. It won't be easy and it won't be pleasant, but it will be worth it.  America does not want to give up its democracy and that is exactly what Republicans will need us to do for them to survive.

We have fought and defeated Nazi terror in Europe. Now we must fight white supremacy, QAnon, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Neo-Nazis, and a long list of others who would turn our constitution on its head right here at home!   

Here in Montana and across the country, this is a fight we cannot lose. 

We frogs are in the water and it's beginning to boil. . .

The Republican Party has been a pit of toxic waste for nearly five years.

Toxic: Very harmful or unpleasant in a pervasive or insidious way.

What can we do to get things the way they were before Jan. 20, 2017 - 10 am MST?

On Nov. 3, 2020,  the Republican Party of Trump decided they were going to be exceptionally violent losers and rip this nation and its democracy to shreds. They would do anything to retain power.  

On Jan. 6, 2021, the Republican Party of Trump and nearly every GOP member in the U.S. House and Senate made good on their threats to demolish our rule of law in an effort to overturn the presidential election. They did not succeed, but many in congress and across the country are still fighting the ridiculous fight.

The toxicity level in Republican politics is reaching a boiling point and when it blows it will render our nation unlivable. 

It has been a suspicion of mine for years that the reason so many Republican white supremacists have been stockpiling weapons and ammunition is to be prepared for what is known in biblical terms as "the rapture." They Republican Party of Trump is ready to "go out shootin'."  Their idea of the "rapture" is an end-time event when all Republican believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will "rise into the clouds, to meet Donald Trump into the air." Oh, what a joyous day it will be!

Yes, we have reduced ourselves to this kind of thinking.

Consider the "frog experiment," where a frog could conceivably be placed in a pan of cool water and remain stupefied as we slowly increase the heat to a boiling point. The frog would remain ignorant of what is happening to him, much as the majority in our society today. The poor frog would, of course, die not fully knowing what happened . If we placed the frog in a pan of boiling water, however, he would immediately jump out.  If we placed a Democrat into a vat of cool water and begin raising the heat, he would grumble about it getting warm, but would do nothing until it reached the boiling point.

So, what are we going to do, froggies? 

The water is getting pretty damn hot!

 

Attorney Generalissimo Knudsen. . .

Austin Knudsen, Attorney General for Montana, made a critical mistake when he entered office.

He assumed he was elected as the Attorney Generalissimo of our state. He has made numerous political missteps according to the general population, but he's squeaky clean according to Gov. Gianforte and the far-right Republican-controlled State Legislature. 

Knudsen's orders to "march on" Helena's St. Peter's hospital in order to protect a "patient who is on the Republican A-List" was bad enough, but his latest gestapo-style move on a small and innocent restaurant in Great Falls is nauseating. Read on.

A noisy, rude, and obnoxious customer came into a restaurant in the Electric City that has signage clearly stating everyone must wear a mask.  This customer refused. When he was asked to put one on or leave, he knocked over glasses on the table, tried to knock over the table and opened his shirt, showing a gun in a holster, and threatening the owner of the restaurant.

Police were called and the incident was resolved by taking the miscreant into custody.  Normal charges were made and the entire thing was assumed to be handled.

However, enter Generalissimo Knudsen, who moved the judge aside and took charge of the case, himself. Knudsen's handling consisted of a "$50 fine and everybody move along - nothing more to see here, folks."  There is a pattern beginning with this administration and it stinks to high heaven. These rebellious, right-wing nuts are getting away with disrespecting our laws and they're getting help from right-wing "leaders" of our state.

We don't know if the culprit was another "friend of the Montana Republicans," like the St. Peter's case, but it sure smells like dead fish to me.

Is this how Gov. Gianforte, AG Knudsen, and other Montana Republicans-in-charge are going to overturn our rule of law? Worse, is this what we have to look forward to for the next three-plus years? Montanans need to step up and speak up...now!

This ain't right, folks!

Opinion by John Watson

 

What have we done to our Fourth Estate?

I proudly admit I am writing this as a retired 32-year member of the Montana Newspaper Association. I have been a publisher, President of the Montana Newspaper Association and six-year member of their Board of Directors, and proud recipient of the Master Editor/Publisher Award and a forty-year political cartoonist. I believe in the absolute importance of newspapers in our lives. It is for these reasons I am fearful of where the industry is headed.

Lee Newspapers, one of the largest chains in the country, is considering a sale to a ruthless hedge fund company. They own five newspapers in Montana: Billings, Helena, Butte, Missoula, and Hamilton. Subscriptions are drastically down, employees have been push out to save money, and advertising revenue is scant. All because people are turning away from their home delivery subscriptions, with some reading the much cheaper e-editions produced on line. 

The only ones who celebrate the deliberate destruction of America's Fourth Estate are the right-wing varmints of the Grand Old Party. Their battle to bring down the pillars of truth has raged for years as they undermined the foundations of America's newspapers.

It has always been their belief that if they could convince the people that newspapers were the carriers of all that is untrue, they would finally be able to set their own controls on what the people    should see, read, and hear.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."  Geo. Orwell "1984"

Many compared quotes from Former President Trump to the famous quote from "1984."  It was Trump and the Republican Party's words to the people of America. The people are only to believe that which comes directly from the "Party." Many of us returned to Orwell's book for a reminder of what he was laying out in front of our eyes and ears.

Sadly, too many of us ignored the lesson and fell headlong into the Trump & Company trap of deception and lies.

Today, it is faster, easier, and in some cases cheaper to get our information on hand-held devices, social media, and overtly biased talking heads on television and radio "shows."  While the information we get may be all of those things, we must take into account one important part that is woefully missing:  Absence of Truth!  Of what use to anyone is deceptive, misguided, and blatant lies?

The purveyors of these lies will tell us that there were endless untruths being delivered by newspapers from the beginning. Admittedly, there are some "gossip tabloid" and "illegitimate publications" in circulation around the country.  But long-standing and reliable publications work hard to give us the best of their work.  Stories are verified and re-verified before going into print. Sources are checked and re-checked for accuracy. Details are important to give the full story. Errors - not lies - happen and are quickly re-published as soon as possible.  

That is not the case from the fly-by-night social media sources that come from someone with an axe to grind or a bias to sell.

We are losing the Fourth Estate of America. The Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch. . . and the Fourth Estate: the Media.

What source do you rely on for the truth?

Is giving up your subscription to your hometown newspaper worth filling your head with half-truths, deceptions, and lies?

The world is passing you by.  You may have convinced yourself that your sources are accurate - but you really don't ever know for sure.

Let's put newspapers back in our lives.  

We need Lincoln's words today. . .

If President Lincoln were alive on Jan. 7, 2021 and found it necessary to give an "Insurrection Address" at the Capitol Building, it might go something like his Gettysburg Address of Nov. 19, 1863. America's democracy is once again in great peril, and we are once again a seriously divided nation. We find ourselves primarily a land of two tribal mentalities. One side is frantically trying to overthrow our present form of government and install an authoritarian rule, while the other is desperately holding on to  what we have had for 245 years.

Perhaps Lincoln would speak words such as these. . . 

Twelve score and five years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in the beginning of another great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can still endure. We are met on a great battlefield of two opposing kinds of government. One, to continue our great experiment of democracy, and the other, to begin an evil authoritarian rule.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who might give their lives in pursuit of democracy, that the hopes of that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The fighting men who will struggle here, will have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will greatly note, and long remember what we do here, and it must never forget the democracy that may be lost here. It is for us the patriotic, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who will fight here have thus far so nobly tried to advance. It is rather for us, the saviors of democracy, to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us. And that from the  honored dead we will take increased devotion to that cause for which they will give the last full measure of devotion to our nation - that we here highly resolve that those who fought to hold on to our constitution shall not have died in vain, and  that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government shall remain of the people, by the people, and  for the people; and that it shall not perish from the earth.

                                                                                     

It is imperative that in today's America, we understand the gravity of the situation when President Lincoln gave his speech and how close, today, this nation is to facing another great war with itself.

This tribalism in our nation must stop!

Are we not all Americans?

Do we not all bleed the same color of blood?

Can we not all enjoy the same fruits of our democracy?

 

Violence is the new norm. . .

 

The U.S. House censured Rep. Paul Gosar, from Arizona's 4th congressional district since 2013, for posting an animated cartoon about "killing" another House Representative, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and attacking President Biden. I thought of the terrible wrong that can happen with violent messages some politicians use.

Consider what happened on Jan. 9, 2011:

"In the stunned aftermath of the Tucson shooting, Sarah Palin found herself in the crosshairs of the ensuing political debate with opponents suggesting she may have fueled the gunman's rage that resulted in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona."

Although Palin later denied she meant the graphic of a gun sight in an ad, it is part of the hunting lexicon that critics say she prefers. 

Comedian Frank Conniff tweeted: " Hey, Sarah Palin, hows that hatey, killy, reloady, crosshairsy thing working out for ya?"

Words and graphics make a difference and in some cases can be deadly serious. Palin and other Republicans didn't learn the lesson that day, and now more than ten years later, they still haven't. What is it going to take to teach them?

House Minority Leader Keven McCarthy went on a tirade to accuse the Democrats of making too much of what Gosar did.  Really?

Rep. McCarthy is on his bandwagon to become the next Speaker of the House and he is making outright threats of retribution for what the mean Democrats have done to Gosar and Taylor-Greene.  He said he will immediately renew the committee assignments that were taken from them. 

If you still thinks we Americans are still a kind-hearted clump of people, you just ain't payin' attention!

 

In the beginning of redistricting, there were cheaters and crooks. . .

 Montana's Redistricting Map

Funny how it worked out that way, isn't it?

Now that we're over the shock, we should settle down and decide what we can do about it. 

Since Montana will soon have two Representatives for the U. S. House, the five-member panel arrived at a final two-district breakdown. The two Democrats voted for something entirely different and the two Republicans and the chairperson decided on the above map.

The worst lie made by someone was the lie that the chairperson was independent. But, let's move on. 

This is happening around the country.  The Republicans have jury-rigged the process from the beginning and we all knew they would. It is the only way they can win elections. To say we are in a world of hurt is a gigantic understatement!

The real problem is this: The Republican Party doesn't care how unethical and wrong the system is.  Good vs. Bad, Right vs. wrong, Legal vs. illegal. . .it makes no difference to them any more. Winning is the only option. This must now be our "rules of engagement" as we look for solutions. 

As I understand it, if we disagree, the only option we have is to pick up our guns and go to war. We are all living under a new America today.  We have become a nation that has quietly slipped into an authoritarian form of governing that has shed its rule of law and constitutional responsibilities. All of this has been done in an effort to further the political cause of the Republican Party of Trump. They admit that they can never win another election under the present circumstances. Voters are watching the right's capitalistic drive reduce the size of the middle class, and enlarge the size of the lower class, while it greatly increases the upper class in numbers and dollar amounts.

When power and greed are first and foremost on one's mind, the guardrails must be cast aside. The laws we are all to live under have also become dim in their minds. Those laws interfere with their wants and needs and nothing will deter their fight. Nothing!

Because of the highly-criticized re-districting in Montana and America, it is a near lead-pipe cinch that the Republican Party will rule the U.S. House and Senate in the 2022 mid-term elections.

We do, however,  still outnumber them. . . if we have the gumption to go vote!

 

Thinking is hard for Montana Republicans. . .

 Montana AG Knudsen's Police State

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has slipped a brand new department into the Montana Republican Party's playbook when no one was looking. Apparently, we are now under the control of the MSP (Montana State Police).

We have all read about the Republican dream of "big brother" pounding on some hapless resident's front door late at night with handcuffs ready and no explanation as to why they are being rousted out of bed. That, my friends, is how a police state operates. 

That is not, however, how Montana operates - under normal times.

A patient in St. Peter's hospital in Helena was denied an unapproved and deemed unethical medication (Ivermectin - a de-wormer for horses) for Covid-19, and a call went out to Republican Headquarters for help. It is reported that the patient was on the "A-List" of the Republican Party of Montana. Attorney General Knudsen sprang into action and dispatched a State Trooper and others to the hospital for some arm twisting.  Doctors and nurses were "hassled and threatened" to give the patient what she wanted. The doctors prevailed, however, stating it would be against hospital protocol to give the medication.

This is but one more strong-armed tactic by the state's Republican takeover. The 2021 Legislature's slash and burn of normal governing in Montana is still smoldering from the GOP's horrendous laws that were passed in the dead of night.

We can assume Knudsen's high-handed march on St. Peter's hospital came from higher up. We're guessing the call from the patient's family member probably went to State Republican headquarters first and the governor second.  That probably triggered the call that unleashed the Attorney General.

Montana is not ready for a "Police State."  Such a move would certainly come from the people first.

But these days, Republicans assume they can decide, act, and rule for all of us. It's just how they think.

And most times, they think wrong!

"Losers" are Democrats who play by the rules. . .

There are still two political parties in America, 

but one of them is not at all like the other!

It is no longer a choice between a Democrat and a Republican. It is now a choice between right and wrong.

It is simply a fact that one political party has flatly stated they are in favor of demolishing our democracy and forming an authoritarian form of government.  The Republican Party of Trump has shown by their actions that manipulating state election results is perfectly within their rights. They have removed long-term election officials from their jobs and replaced them with loyal Republicans - whether they have experience or not.  The end game, of course, is to win by any means. 

The Republican approach to any election or any manner of governing seems to be to do "whatever works and whatever feels good."  Right and wrong is passé as far as they are concerned. In their new plan book, winning is definitely the only option. Losing is for Democrats who play by the rules.

Republicans like Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Michael Flynn, and current elected congressional members such as Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor-Green, Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Kevin McCarthy, and others are flagrantly thumbing their noses at House and Senate rules. They know it, their fellow Senators and Representatives know it, and the people of America also know of their traitorous actions.

Benedict Arnold showed his disdain for his country and paid the price for it. Today, when a Republican member of our congress does it, not so much! It says we have so much to apologize to Arnold for what was done to him because, according to Republican rule, there is no such thing as treason and no such people as traitors.

So, why have we allowed this destruction of our democracy and rule of law to continue? Our Department of Justice is about as effective as Marshall Matt Dillon when a worn out and thirsty bunch of  Texas drovers  invade his town of Dodge City, Kansas on a hot and dusty night. Kansas rules were meant for Kansans, not Texans. And today, Republican rules are meant for Republicans, not the rest of us. If you don't like it, grab yer guns, pardner!

We had best get our act together before the next election. If the tactics coming from the plan book of Republicans comes to fruition, we will lose everything.

Because they say they ain't aimin' to lose another election. . . come hell or fake elections!

 

There's election trouble brewing in the Montana Secretary of State's office. . .

Christi Jacobsen, Montana Secretary of State, is a Helena native and a member of the Republican Party. She graduated from the University of Montana 1997 - 2000 and from Carroll College 1993-1997. 

"Election officials in Montana are ringing alarm bells that the Secretary of State's plan to move forward with new election software at the start of 2022 cold leave them with a largely untested, unworkable system for next year's federal elections.

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen is planning to replace a statewide election database system that tracks voter registrations and interacts with nearly all levels of running elections, from updating precincts to printing and accepting ballots, by January 2022. 

But during a meeting of the Legislature's State Administration and Veterans Affairs Interim Committee last week, the top county election officials from Cascade and Ravalli counties said that months of delays and a missed deadline for a major test during this year's general elections has created the need to push back that switch-over date. They also indicated Jacobsen's office has been unresponsive to their concerns."                                                                         from Helena Independent Record

Folks would be less concerned if the Gianforte administration was considered more trustworthy about the future of Montana elections. During the 2021 Legislative Session, they took pages from the Trump Playbook of Voter Suppression and  passed laws to make voting more difficult here in Montana.

Now we have another election crisis to worry about. This system is brand new and has already shown some unreliable quirks in primary testing.  That brought the problem to the surface. 

Montanans need to get fired up. This could be one more Republican plot to manipulate our election results!

 

Who is Removing the Guardrails of Democracy?

 

We have always depended on the "guardrails of democracy" to be in place and keeping us on the straight and narrow. Today, however, they seem to be missing. Thanks, almost completely, to the former president and his gaggle of minions.

"The insurrection was not only an attack on our Capitol  - it was an attack on American democracy. It punctuated a period that has been marked by constant violations of democratic and constitutional norms. And it has underscored the need to not only hold elected officials accountable, but also reckon with long-term threats to the nation's democratic institutions and restore the guardrails that have eroded in recent years. Congress can enact legislation such as the Protecting Our Democracy Act that would mark concrete progress toward strengthening government accountability and preventing the abuse of power, including the president's emergency powers."                                                            Brennan Center For Justice

The Atlantic wrote, "The American republic was long safeguarded by settled norms, now shattered by the rise of Donald Trump."

A long time ago, more than 20 years in fact, the Wall Street Journal published a powerful, eloquent editorial, simply headlined: "No Guardrails."

"In our time, the United States suffers every day of the week because there are now so many marginalized people among us who don't understand the rules, who don't think that rules of personal or civil conduct apply to them, who have no notion of self-control."

The Wall Street Journal continued, "Twenty years later, that same newspaper is edging toward open advocacy in favor of Donald Trump, the least self-controlled major-party candidate for high office in the history of the republic. And as Trump forged his path to the nomination, he snapped through seven different guardrails, revealing how brittle the norms that safeguard the American republic had grown."

"Here's the part of the 2016 story that will be hardest to explain after it's all over: Trump did not deceive anyone. He appeared before the electorate in his own clothes, speaking his own words. When he issued a promise, he instantly contradicted it. If you chose to accept the promise anyway, you did so with abundant notice of its worthlessness. For all the times Trump said believe me and trust me in his salesman patter, he communicated constantly and in every medium that there was only one thing you could believe and trust: If you voted for Donald Trump, you'd get Donald Trump, all all his Trumpery and Trumpiness."                                           - The Atlantic

The guardrails were removed by Trump, the "new Republican Party," and anyone else who decided they would be proud to drive in the ditch with him.

While he is gone, he is far from being forgotten. He still has his minions - too many of whom are still holding elected offices in our government -  and making sure the guardrails are not reinstalled! After all, to reinstall the guardrails would certainly destroy their political party in a heartbeat. They are unable to win an election without the absurd voter suppression laws they have unacted around the country. Prominent Republican politicians have stated bluntly, "If we ever allow certain segments of the country to vote, we will never win another election."

And that utterance would quite possibly be the only truth we will ever hear from them. 

                    

The Rape of Lady Liberty. . .

Is There Still Justice In America?

Me and a bunch of my ordinary American friends met for coffee in my home and decided we didn't like the way the last election ended. We're pretty sure there was hanky-panky and it's time someone did something about it. So, we began by blanketing social media with messages of our thoughts and started recruiting the country's ne'er-do-wells to meet at the country's headquarters and turn this stolen election around. We urge them to bring guns and come ready to fight.  While me and my friends watch from an undisclosed location, the ne'er-do-well insurrectionists storm the headquarters and caused injuries, death, and severe damage to the headquarters.

The FBI is hot on our trail and it takes but a few hours to find us. Other law enforcement, with the help of FBI, round up many of the ne'er-do-wells, slap them on the wrists, and send  a few of them to the pokey.

Me and my friends, however, have our identities exposed and at 10:23 AM EST the next day the FBI is knocking on our doors with handcuffs dangling in our faces when we open up. We are eating prison food by dinner time. . . the same day!

Meanwhile, there is another side of America - the side where me and my friends would be if we were "well heeled and enjoying great political power."  We would be able to not only tell the cops we don't feel like answering questions right now, so they can put their handcuffs away.  We have the best lawyers money can buy, and they can keep us out of jail, still eating in our favorite restaurants, enjoying the good life, and thumbing our noses at America's Department of Justice. . . for months, maybe even for years!

Americans are told the wheels of justice turns slow.

That, too, is a capitalistic and political lie. They can turn as slow as they want them to turn. 

I am predicting that many of us will never live to see the true villain's who planned, orchestrated, and even participated in the Jan. 6th Insurrection sent to the "big house." Most of those who are now elected officials will even be allowed to run for office again, even though they worked to overthrow a presidential election of the United States of America, prosecute a coup on our government, and nearly decapitated our democracy!

This has never been done in the history of our country.

And, as of today, it is slightly more than ten months since it happened and the criminals are still on the loose and living the good life.

Think about the outcome if it was done by me and my ordinary friends. We would have been sentenced to life in federal prison, deported, or executed as traitors to our country.

Does anyone think about what the heck we are allowing to happen here?

 

Just who is on the Montana Republican "A-List?"

Montana Attorney General Knudsen was among three yet-to-be-identified "state officials" who harassed doctors and nurses at the Helena St. Peter's hospital. There was an eighty-year old female patient with Covid and the family wanted her to be given a medication called Ivermectin that veterinarians use on livestock as a de-wormer. FDA does not approve of this drug for humans and the doctors of St. Peter's could not legally or ethically administer it to this patient.

Little did the doctors know, however, that this patient is on the "A-list" of noted Montana Republicans, according to retired Montana Supreme Court Justice James C. Nelson.

I guess, however, when someone is on the "A-list" of Montana Republicans, you can summon the state's top elephants to fly into action and show the hospital just who's boss. 

It is presumed the Attorney General commanded a Montana State Trooper to rush to the hospital and proclaim that the "Party" had spoken and this lady was to be "de-wormed" post- haste!

Sadly, the de-worming was not to be. What to do, what to do?

The identity of the other "state officials" remains a "state secret." When the media tried to inquire further, the word came down that the Governor cannot - according to his heavy schedule -  possible address this issue for at least six months. So much for Montanan's Freedom of Information!

Meanwhile, the poor lady succumbed to Covid-19. 

AG Knudsen is hiding, the governor is muttering "what hospital was that again," and the event is buried in the muck and mire of Montana's Republican swamp for at least six months. 

That should be enough time for Montanans to forget about it - they hope.

Just another sunny day in Montana GOP politics!

My memory may be getting a little dim, but I've got a whole wall in my office full of sticky notes reminding me of this fiasco  in six months.

Opinion by John Watson

 

I opened my eyes this morning. . . and it was "wokeness."

There is a word that has become prominent in mainstream:  "wokeness." Many in our political and media world struggle to get a handle on its true meaning and placement in our present chaotic world.

Olivia Montes, editor of Lifestyle wrote, "The term itself - which became recognized in 2014 following the police-related murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri - originated in the early 20th century as a catchword for Black Americans to be watchful of threats to their communities and identity. From there, it became a statement meaning being politically and socially conscious of the events and actions of those around them." 

James Carville, noted Democratic strategist, recently said he knows exactly why his party lost badly on Tuesday: "Stupid wokeness."

That's the blunt diagnosis of the man who famously guided Bill Clinton to the White House in early 1990s."Don't just look at Virginia and New Jersey," Carville told PBS' Judy Woodruff. "Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this 'defund the police' lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln's name off of schools. I mean that  - people see that."

Back in July, in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Carville said the party's emphasis on "woke" issues was endangering its ability to keep its House and Senate majorities. "We're letting a noisy wing of our party define the rest of us. And my point is we can't do that," Carville told Cuomo. "I think these people are all kind of nice people. I think they're very naïve, and they're all into language and identity. And that's all right. They're not storming the Capitol. But they're not winning elections, either."

Carville's argument is that by focusing on removing statues or defunding the police or on proper pronouns for transgender students, Democrats are talking too much about issues that matter less to a broad swath of Americans than, say, the economy.

Catch words and phrases have an ugly way of catching up with people. Let's stick to what is important instead of what sounds good at the moment.

I woke up this morning, and that's good enough for me.

 An Opinion by John Watson

". . . Fed by far-right extremism!"

cartoon by john watson

 
"Today, we hit 750,000 Americans lost to Covid-19. Vaccines were widely available, but they chose not to get vaccinated, sometimes even defiantly. They were killed by anti-science aggression, fed by far-right extremism."  Dr. Peter Hotez, Director, Center for Vaccine Development, Texas Children's Hospital.

What did American society do to these far-right extremists that caused them to start another civil war and commit suicide? The messages from hundreds of American doctors and medical scientists told us to wear a mask, practice distancing, and get the vaccination. However, these people decided it did not pertain to them.

Their political party and most of their leaders told them it wasn't necessary. They decided to stand their ground. They said, "It's my body - my choice." They said it to the television cameras. the grocery store clerks and shoppers, they said it to the restaurant staff and customers, they said it while they were pulling down your mask and coughing in your face!

Why?

Is their politics worth dying for?  Is this all America means to them? 

There have been many stories of Covid patient begging the nurse or doctor for a vaccination when they are told they weren't going to make it. These people are the real victims of their crazy political party.  They are the ones who are taking one for the grim Republican reaper. The political brass has received their shots. They are giggling all the way back to their offices.

But the minions - the ones who are torching the landscape - they are filling our hospitals and morgues! They are the proud men and women who are "taking one for the ultra-grifters!"

It is beyond understanding. It is reckless and needless aggression at its worst! It is unrecognizable extremism by a political party that is hell-bent on the destruction of itself.

It is suicide - plain and simple! And in too many cases, it is also the murder of innocent bystanders who are following the rules of a deadly pandemic.

It is the deadliest thing to happen to America in a hundred years and it is being handled by these extremists like their predecessors did in 1861 - one hundred and sixty years ago!

And it didn't have to be this way.

 

Eenie, Meenie, Miney. . . and we don't want no Moe!

 

Eenie ( Sen. Daines), Meanie (the Gov.) Miney (Rep. Rosendale) and we don't want no Moe (Zinke).

The Montana Republican Party of Trump wants to once again bring back the third member of the infamous "Three Amigos," Ryan Zinke, to mess with Montana!  There are actually four of them, including Rep. Matt Rosendale, but he is so out of step with our state that he's hardly worth mentioning. We elected him, but it is believed it was only to send him back where he came from.

According to Zinke's own Federal Elections Commission report, he's raised almost $700,000, but he still hasn't filed a financial disclosure statement like all of the other candidates. According to a Dec. 15, 2018 report in the Washington Post, even Trump had concerns about Zinke's ethics when he pressured him to step down after investigations began into whether he was using the Interior Department to make deals that benefitted only him. Perhaps he is displaying the same arrogance as Trump did when he refused to release his tax returns.  Those rules are evidently for others to follow...or maybe he really does have something to hide.

Doesn't the public deserve the right to see what he's obviously hiding?

It's only been about three years since he resigned as Secretary of the Interior amid a series of ethics scandals and federal investigations, some of which were referred to the Department of Justice.  Back here in Montana, the biggest question regarding his run for the U.S. House of Representatives is, "Where the hell does he live?"  He has a wife, a home, and a yacht in Santa Barbara, California! For all intents and purposes, this man is a former Montanan and not entitled to run for our political offices. 

We don't want or need a man who couldn't keep himself from ethics scandals and referrals to the Department of Justice last time he went to Washington. Why would we give him a second bite of the apple?

What is Montana. . . a jumping off point for rich, pointy-headed little three-piece-suited, corrupt Republicans?  We have a governor that fits that description now.  Please don't elect Zinke. 

Montana has gone overboard on political right-wing mistakes we've made. Let's regroup and set things right again!

SAY "NO" TO STINKY ZINKE!

"When can we start killing people?"

An obviously radicalized young man ask the television host of a right-wing talk show, "When do we start shooting?  I mean, when do we get to start killing people who don't believe the election was stolen?" 

More than three out of ten Americans have said they believe the 2020 Presidential election was stolen.  Most - if not all - of them are armed and presumed to be dangerous.  Their right-wing beliefs in any conspiracy theory that comes down the pike has radicalized them to the point of murdering their fellow Americans!

This is not just a pipe dream.  This is how many of them manage to get through the day.  They are anti-immigration, anti-liberal, anti-democracy, anti-racial, and anti any kind of person who is not white like them!

And now we are to believe they want to start killing.

Many of us see another civil war on the horizon, but I see evidence that it has already begun. We have not pulled on our grey or blue uniforms yet, and we have not clearly stated our demands, but some of us have definitely told the country that most of our democratic freedoms must go. The only freedoms these rebels will recognize are the ones they choose for themselves. They seem to be charting a clear pathway to an authoritarian rule of government. Our democracy and rule of law is too passé for their wants and needs.

When they are chomping at the bit to start killing liberals, we need to pay attention - real close attention! Our Department of Justice had best get their act together and start handing out some serious consequences. Slaps on the wrists of supremacists who have "killing on their minds" will do nothing to stop the catastrophic visions we see on the horizon!

These people mean business and too many of us just don't seem to grasp the warning bells that are sounding.

The World Stood Still for 187 minutes. . .

"The President stood by for 187 minutes."

January 6, 2021 - The beginning of the Insurrection on our Capitol. Messages went out to the insurrectionists,  "Come to the Capitol. We will need to kill a few and the rest will flee. Are you up for that?"

They were baiting law enforcement to shoot so they could have a "Boston-style massacre."  They were armed and ready to shoot it out with the police.  The Pentagon was in fear that Trump would use our military to escalate the battle.  His goal was to overturn the election results of the Electoral College. Trump watched the insurrection play out on television from his office while he communicated with members of his staff.

Senator Lindsay Graham told the police, "You have guns, use them," in what appears to have been an attempt to urge them to conduct a gun battle with the extremists.  The orders from police command was to not engage with gun fire and that saved many lives that day. 

What went on in the mind of the president during those 187 minutes? It is believed the novices he sent to the Pentagon days prior to January 6, 2021 were somewhat successful in refusing to send military help to the Capitol. But what did he do during those minutes, and who did he talk with from the security of his office? His goal was clear: Stop the certification of the Electoral College's presidential election.  Declare it a fraudulent election result and send it to the U.S. House of Representatives to ratify Donald J. Trump as the winner. 

The tragedy has come into clearer focus since Jan. 6th, and the special House committee is bringing many facts to the surface.  The Washington Post has produced many salient news stories that are opening the eyes of Americans.

 "An event of the magnitude of the Capitol attack demands deep and revelatory reporting," said Matea Gold, national political enterprise and investigation editor of The Washington Post. "This news room-wide collaboration provides our readers with a definitive account of Jan. 6 and its lasting impact on American democracy."

"The Attack: Before, During and After" lays out striking new details about the cascade of warnings law enforcement officials received before Jan. 6 and uses social media posts, text messages, videos and photographs to show how Trump radicalized his supporters and mobilized them to action. The project also features voicemails of threats made against election officials around the country, and includes intimate reporting about six individuals whos lives were affected by Jan. 6.

More than 75 journalists in The Post newsroom contributed to The Attack, including more than 25 reporters. The findings are based on interviews with more than 230 people and thousands of pages of court documents and internal law enforcement reports, along with hundreds of videos, photographs, and audio recordings."

The critically shocking news of the day from The Post was: "For 187 minutes, the commander in chief stands back and allows an attack on a branch of the U. S. Government."

This was the greatest attack on our Capitol and our democracy in history. Of equal tragedy was the  beginning of the Civil War in 1861 which  began four years of Americans killing Americans, but Jan. 6th was an attack on the Capitol Building, our democracy, and the intent to overturn a presidential election, which would have obliterated our rule of law!

Go online and read this three-part series on "The Attack: Before, During and After" by The Washington Post!