A strategy for Steve Daines....
Oppose TPP, cut military spending by half, close down NATO, and the Death Penalty for Monsanto, expand Medicaid to everyone who wants it
by Paul Stephens
My "tribe", such as it is, supports Steve Daines and is virulently anti-Baucus, and to a lesser extent, Tester - basically, anyone who answers to the Zionist-Bankster-Democrat-Machine, AKA the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Prison-Complex, AKA the National Security/Warfare State.
Since the Zionist-banksters.... already control Baucus and nearly every Democrat, they're focusing on his would-be replacement, Representative Steve Daines. And they're not liking what they see. He doesn't even seem to support the Conservative Christian take on the Middle East, let alone the Zionist policies for it. He probably even has some pro-Palestinian friends, and he listens to them. It isn't hard to convince a rural Montanan that the "Jewish Bankers" are responsible for most of our ills.
As someone who made $30 million developing a solid company in the intensely competitive internet markets, Daines is no fool (even though his advisers often make him sound like one). I mean, what were they thinking, having him vote to cut food stamps when people are literally starving in the streets? Does he KNOW anyone on food stamps? Or is he like Mitt Romney, who wouldn't want any poor people to vote for him in any case? I don't think he'll make that mistake again, or use the nonsensical, absurd ALEC arguments for such policies. ("We're punishing them for their own good, to make them self-reliant Jeffersonian Federalists.")
What, then, does Daines favor? He's obviously supporting more subsidies and "security" for the agribiz monopolies and corporate "family farms" (now that nearly all the smaller, non-corporate ones are gone. Hey, it's money isn't it?) Apparently, he thinks that government is just another business, and can't "lose money" on anything. Even Medicaid, I've found (Democrats?), forces you to sign an agreement to PAY BACK whatever your cut-rate services have cost if you come into some money, or happen to die with a house or other fungible assets (which you have to report, and they can only be minimal if you are accepted by Medicaid in the first place). This is the notorious "spending down" to even qualify for our wretched health care system for the poor.
He votes against Obamacare and Medicaid expansion (actually, it was the Supreme Court which struck the Medicaid expansion down, while approving the compulsory purchase of private insurance - something that is clearly illegal and unconstitutional) saying they are both "too expensive". The ACA certainly is, since it's mostly corporate welfare and bailing out the insurance and other bankster rackets, but Medicaid is the cheapest health care we can buy! Every person on Medicaid saves the taxpayers as well as insurance purchasers a ton of money. Yet, our "legislators" make it almost impossible to get, or actually use. You don't want those people in the insurance pool, or controlled by any other middlemen. You want to provide them with basic healthcare at the least cost. Aren't Republicans supposed to be in favor of this?
The answer is Single Payer or "Medicare for All" (who want it, anyway - if you want to pay 4 times more through an "insurance" scam, that's your business). It needn't even be as good as Medicare, although it easily could be. It seems we'll always have a "2-tier" (or multi-tier) health care system. Fine. But let's have something basic, useful, and necessary, easily accessible by anyone for any reason. That's what medicine is supposed to be, not an extortionist protection racket demanding not only everything you have, but everything you might earn in the future to pay for their usually poor and mis-directed treatments and prescriptions. And if you refuse to pay, you will be refused treatment.
The "official" Republican line has always been to protect the wealthy from the needs of the less fortunate or those otherwise incapable of providing for themselves, but somehow, they tricked the Democrats into actually implementing it as Pres. Obama's "signature" system - and then refused to support it, calling it "socialism". Daines won't win any popularity contests or elections by opposing Medicaid or any other sane, market-driven solutions for basic social problems, like SNAP benefits. The real libertarians like Milton Friedman have long supported a guaranteed annual (or monthly) income - that in place of all the other "services" which the Welfare State is supposed to provide. And vouchers for other "public goods" like health care and education. That's what Medicare is - a voucher system. But the Republicans only talk about giving people vouchers to buy "health insurance", which is a racket. It's not a real voucher system at all.
Perhaps Daines actually favors the real fascist solutions - a national mobilization WPA, guaranteed jobs and incomes for everyone, and a National Health Service (single-provider, instead of single-payer)? Although many Republicans talk about ending Single Provider public education, and replacing it with vouchers, they're reasons are always suspect (since Milton Friedman, anyway). They don't want more freedom, diversity, and choice. They want to minimize the amount of tax dollars spent on lower-income people. A really Dickensian view, derived from Original Sin and the need to discipline and control the "rabble."
If you really think the government can solve our problems, then fascism is the correct policy for a crisis like we are facing, now. And that goes along with the massive military budgets and perpetual foreign wars of ideology and conquest which Republicans seem to favor, except when they have to pay for them, not to mention the CIA, NSA, and a dozen other "National Security" agencies which together cost $100's of billions a year.
There are a lot of these folks in Montana, and they either vote Republican (pro-life, anti-welfare), or don't vote at all - especially after Tester, who proved to be an even more naive and cowardly corporate stooge than Baucus (but of course Baucus went to Stanford - which teaches character and perseverence, unlike the old College of Great Falls which was then an independent liberal arts school in the Catholic tradition). First, he promoted Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture (an ex-Monsanto guy) and then tricked the corporate "environmentalists" (Democrats all) into supporting his "compulsory logging" scheme (at a rate higher than anything the old "free market" loggers ever wanted to cut, or were able to sell at a profit), and to make further "partnerships" with any and every "resource company" which wants to pillage our treasures at a return to Montana of - literally - a penny or two on the dollar. That's Schweitzer, too. That's where he made his personal modest fortune (Saudis and Libya, working for a Swedish agri-biz company), and he's not going to turn on them, now.
Basically, they're all fighting over the loot, and as looters, they want to maximize that "pot" they're fighting over. But the "take" has fallen to half or less of what it used to be - except for those bribes categorized as "campaign contributions," which continue to increase at double-digit rates - even faster than inflation (which is running at well over 10%/year since 2008, which they don't tell us, either). They're all in on the corporate campaign to end constitutional government and the Rule of Law (the universal, timeless law - not the "laws" and "decisions" which our stupid and corrupt "legislators" and judges waste our time and resources passing at the behest and active participation of corporate lobbyists like ALEC). Worse, they take themselves seriously, and then insist on enforcing the unenforceable and harmful rules to benefit of the Prison Industry and the rest of the totalitarian, "liberal" state.
Welcome to Fascist America.
Perhaps the only reason that Democrats continue to be elected at all is that they have the support - usually - of the arts and entertainment community. Daines isn't the usual sort of Yahoo Republican, disdaining higher culture and favoring soft rock, country, violent movies and TV, soap operas, etc. Tester almost certainly won the first time because of Pearl Jam, and even though they gave him little support the second time, people still associate him with various liberal and progressive causes like AERO, food safety, etc. The margin is very slim, and with Democrats moving ever-further to the right, it seems logical for the Republicans to "re-brand" themselves as the party of hip culture mavens.
Here's a guide to the Democrat Stronghold in Missoula, and what those voters might be looking for in a Senator to replace Baucus - a summary of arts events in the Missoula area from the Missoula Independent. http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/time-of-our-lives/Content?oid=1919037
Obviously, no one is going to win the Senate without getting a larger share of the student and elderly votes, as well as the wealthy and "pro-business" voters in Missoula (which is actually surrounded by extreme right-wing majority districts, and is also home to the most Libertarians and people who would vote Green if we could find any good candidates willing to run).
Compare this to Great Falls, for example, which is certainly as much "Daines Country" as Bozeman or Billings. For the Electric City, all you have to do is be pro-coal and pro-nukes - weapons as well as power generation. And wrap it all in the flag of "national security" and "support the troops," right?
But Daines is at a real disadvantage, here, for not having been in the military, and he knows it. And that's why the Democrats first thought was Lt. Gov and Col. Walsh, who was in command of the whole Montana National Guard before being drafted by Gov. Bullock as his running mate. No matter how much of a war-hawk one might pretend to be, there's no substitute for actually having been there, and seen the atrocities and dehumanization which war necessitates.
It's not that we're the bad guys and they're the good, or vis versa. War, itself, is bad - self-perpetuating, and like a cancer in that it consumes all the healthy economy and resources around it. But until the war is fought on American soil, we have a hard time convincing anyone that we're the good guys - especially when we tend to start wars, and support the wealthiest and least-responsible elements in our "interventions," who are busy raping and killing nuns, peasants, labor unions, small business people, and other self-help development and welfare organizations. That stuff can only go on in secret, and Democrats and Republicans alike, with few exceptions. have supported it before Wikileaks and Snowden, who finally exposed the real dimensions and costs of these "foreign aid" programs promoted by the arms merchants and suppliers/contractors who feed on war and destruction.
It's time for major party candidates to come out in support, if not of Assange (that renegade Austrialian, lawless in his whole life experience), at least of American Citizens Manning and Snowden, who acted for the highest patriotic motives, and who just might have saved our country, and the kind of constitutional citizen government we have long wished for, if not actually experienced. The Democrats have been lined up from the start in actually suggesting outright assassination to "protect national security" from "spies" and "traitors" like Manning and Snowden. So it's a slam-dunk for Republicans - especially conservative ones - to lead the charge in defending these great patriots from the "godless liberals" who have no ethics or sense of higher law.
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Here's some more on this topic from Project Censored, one of the most respected investigative jounalist enterprises, using J-schools and students like we do at the UM Journalism School and other alternative media projects.
Trans-Pacific Partnership a Corporate Coup D’Etat
http://www.projectcensored.org/trans-pacific-partnership-corporate-coup-detat/
On November 13, 2013, Wikileaks published a section of a trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty, or TPP. On the surface, the treaty is meant to facilitate trade between the twelve potential member countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam. However, there are a number of red flags surrounding the agreement.
Eight hundred million people, and one-third of all world trade, stand to be affected by this treaty, and yet, only three people from each member nation have access to the entire document. Meanwhile, 600 “corporate advisers,” representing big oil, pharmaceutical, and entertainment companies, are involved in the writing and negotiations of the treaty.
The influence of these companies is clear, as large sections of the proposal involve corporate law and intellectual property rights, rather than free trade. Corporations could gain the ability to sue governments not only for loss, but prospective loss. At the same time, patents and copyrights would see more protection. This means longer patents, leading to less access to generic drugs, and a lockdown on Internet content.
Though the Wikileaks exposure was followed quickly by an anti-TPP push in Congress, what is perhaps the most disconcerting is lack of coverage in corporate U.S. media. Japan, Australia, and even Russian media discuss the TPP openly, while American news sources remain silent even as the Obama administration attempts to fast-track it through Congress.
Sources:
Zachary Keck, “Congress May Have Just Killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” The Diplomat, November 18, 2013, http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/congress-may-have-killed-the-trans-pacific-partnership/
John Robles, “The TPP Is a Corporate Coup D’état – Kristinn Hrafnsson,” Voice of Russia, November 15, 2013, http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_11_15/The-TPP-is-a-corporate-coup-d-tat-Kristinn-Hrafnsson-5798/
John Robles, “Trans Pacific Partnership is Like SOPA on Steroids – Kristinn Hrafnsson,” Voice of Russia, November 23, 2013, http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_11_23/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-is-like-SOPA-on-steroids-Kristinn-Hrafnsson-1552/
“Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP),” Wikileaks, November 13, 2013, https://wikileaks.org/tpp/
Shannon Tiezzi, “The TPP’s Not Dead Yet (But It’s Close),” The Diplomat, December 7, 2013, http://thediplomat.com/2013/12/the-tpps-not-dead-yet-but-its-close/
Student Researcher: Dylan Scherpf (Frostburg State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Duncan (Frostburg State University)
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Bankers Back on Wall Street Despite Major Crimes
http://www.projectcensored.org/bankers-back-wall-street-despite-major-crimes/
A story that spans a decade has come to an unfortunate, but not surprising, end. Three former General Electric bankers, Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm, had been convicted in 2012 for rigging auctions of municipal bonds, thus stealing from projects to build schools, hospitals, libraries and nursing homes in virtually every U.S. state.
However, in November 2013, those convictions were reversed on a technicality: basically, that federal prosecutors took so long to build the massive case that the statute of limitations ran out. The three men were released from prison the next day—just in time, as a defense attorney sanctimoniously noted, to be home for Thanksgiving dinner.
These men were part of a decade-long scheme that bilked cities and towns of funds for public-works projects by paying kickbacks to brokers and manipulating bids. Between August 1999 and November 2006, Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm participated in countless rigged bids via telephone. Like Mafiosi, they used a secret language and code words to keep their underground business low-key. Prosecutors accumulated over 570,000 recorded phone conversations that directly linked the men to fraudulent activity. Evidence at trial established that they cost municipalities around the country millions of dollars.
This type of white-collar immorality is a major issue because the money stolen could have been used by cash-strapped towns to provide essential services. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone called this fraud the equivalent of robbing a church fund to pay for lap dances. Taibbi, however, is one of the few reporters to consistently inform the public on these crimes and to point out the perhaps-insurmountable obstacles faced by even an activist U.S. Justice Department in getting convictions. “It really is hard to put these guys away,” Taibbi writes. “It’s even harder to keep them there.”
Sources:
Max Stendahl, “Former GE Execs Freed From Prison After Convictions Nixed,” Law360, November 27, 2013, http://www.law360.com/articles/492222/former-ge-execs-freed-from-prison-after-convictions-nixed.
Matt Taibbi, “Another Batch of Wall Street Villains Freed on Technicality,” Rolling Stone, December 4, 2013, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/another-batch-of-wall-street-villains-freed-on-technicality-20131204
Additional Sources:
Matt Taibbi, “The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia,” Rolling Stone, June 21, 2012, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620
Chad Bray, “Three Sentenced in Bid-Rigging Case,” The Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444734804578064903311016908
“Three Former Financial Services Executives Convicted for Roles in Conspiracies Involving Investment Contracts for the Proceeds of Municipal Bonds,” United States Department of Justice, May 11, 2012,
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/May/12-at-620.html
Bob Van Voris, “Ex-GE Bankers Win Reversal of Convictions for Bid-Rigging,” December 2, 2012, Bloomberg,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-02/ex-ge-bankers-win-reversal-of-convictions-for-bid-rigging.html
Student Researcher: Markisha Barber (Frostburg State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Andy Duncan (Frostburg State University)
Posted by Paul Stephens at 12:11 PM
Labels: Banksters, Baucus, Daines, Greens, Libertarians, Missoula arts, Project Censored, Senate race, TPP
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