Road Agent Bait and Switch

You can’t take your bird dog hunting on lands being mined or filled with oil rigs, even if they are “public” lands, by Hedges, in The Daily Montanan.

While Montanans were right to celebrate removing the sale of public lands from the recent Congressional budget bill, some may not know that our representatives still voted to put millions of acres of public lands on the chopping block. Selling public lands was just one of a dozen different ways that the billionaires’ budget bill privatized our public lands. Just try big game hunting, bird-watching, camping, hiking, or biking on public lands mined or fracked for corporate profit, and see how quickly you’re escorted away. This is the bait-and-switch our elected representatives pulled on Montanans. They crowed about removing provisions requiring the sale of public lands, but the new law mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales on public lands, regardless of whether it makes economic sense. It slashes royalty rates, guaranteeing that the public does not receive the compensation it is due for public resources. It lets industry decide which land needs to be offered for oil and gas leasing – regardless of who else uses that land and for what purpose. It increases the duration of drilling permits so that companies can retain leases and tie up public lands for longer periods of time. And, appallingly, it reinstates the practice of allowing noncompetitive leases on public lands, ensuring that the public will not receive the true value of the public resources that are being given up. But it gets worse. We know that coal mining has devastated huge swaths of public lands and waters that agricultural users depend on. However, instead of helping communities transition away from expensive, dirty coal towards cleaner energy, it incentivizes even more coal mining on public lands and slashes royalty payments for mining corporations. It expedites new coal leases and mining permits on public lands, even though coal mining is at historic lows and projected to continue declining. For example, the bill allows the notoriously corrupt Signal Peak mining company to mine more than 50 million tons of coal without consideration for the surface landowners whose water has been lost due to the mine’s operations. And finally, the bill mandates the opening of four million acres of federal land to coal mining, without providing details about where those lands are, what resources they hold, or what the impacts may be. In short, it’s a firesale, thanks to our bait-and-switch congressional delegation. If they repeat the tired trope that they are trying to increase jobs or support “all-of-the-above energy,” I say hogwash. If that was true, they wouldn’t have gutted incentives that help create thousands of good-paying solar and wind jobs in Montana and across the country. And while our congressmen hide behind press releases hyping this new law, keep in mind that it will result in not only lost and destroyed public lands, but higher energy bills, increased wildfires, increased drought, more flash floods, and more intense heat waves. A changing climate isn’t a conspiracy theory or a partisan issue; it’s a fact that we can and need to deal with. Heat waves are worsening, extreme weather is killing more people, and drought is reducing rivers such as the Dearborn to a trickle in June. This bill will set us back decades, so remember who to thank for making those problems worse now and in the future. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing, you’ve given us higher deficits, less public land, lower revenues, higher electric bills and more heat, wildfire and drought. You have jeopardized our public lands and our future for your rich friends’ profits. We are definitely less safe thanks to you.

One Big Sweetheart Deal

The fix was in by Valentine’s Day when President Trump received Montana Senator Steve Daines’ letter of support “that the expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act must be made permanent and not sunset.” The love note came at the end of the most intense period of tax policy lobbying in the history of our United States’ Congress, and seven weeks before the bipartisan Congressional Research Service reported that after reviewing seven different studies of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act it found limited evidence of positive economic effects. Another noticeable finding was that the wealthy owners of private corporations pocketed over half their company’s Tax Cuts.

Daines’s Valentine to Trump means now, instead of costing $1.9 trillion over a ten-year period, extending the expiring provisions will cost $3.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion over the next decade. Of course huge volumes of political contributions will continue pouring into the campaigns of those who vote for this permanent reward for being wealthy and well-connected.

It is illegal under federal bribery laws to give or receive anything of value in exchange for an official act. ProPublica, The New York Times and OpenSecrets have documented how large donors and Corporate PACs financially support candidates who back tax policies favorable to them, and the Koch Brothers, focusing $20 million of their Americans for Prosperity independent expenditures on extending the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, are already positively advertising for their Tax Cut Sweetheart: Montana’s very own U.S. Senator Steve Daines.

Non-Violent Direct Action

Whatever happens over the next couple of months please try not to forget that on this poster Montana’s Gary Cooper is carrying a ballot, not a gun. I’ve decided to fuss around to severely reduce and fade my internet presence. You’ll be able to know about future Electric Bison episodes as a (secure) free subscriber, or by once in a while checking the YouTube Channel: Earthwarrior7. If both Substack and YouTube are silenced, check the Telegram Channel: Electric Bison. 

Tap ‘er light.

Recognizing Courage

Our “old smokejumpers” coffee group always met at the Red Atlas on Tuesday’s at 10AM. At one meeting, sometime before the Covid pandemic caused us to stop meeting out of care for each other, Jack Atkins told us he wouldn’t be coming the following week for personal reasons. Then on national television, most of the rest of us saw Jack, with his wife Elaine, accept a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump for their son Travis who was killed in action in Iraq on June 1, 2007. When he got back the next week, we didn’t say much about it, except to ask, “Did President Trump treat you respectfully?” With the answer, “Yes,” we went back to entertaining each other with smokejumper stories.

This Monday, November 18, 2024, Colonel Ray Read, Director of the Montana Military Museum, called and asked me to arrange placement of Army Staff Sergeant Travis A Atkins citation into Montana’s Congressional Medal of Honor Grove west of Helena, at Fort Harrison, home of the First Special Service Force, the Devil’s Brigade. This morning I received word from Jack that he and his wife will have no objection.

                      OFFICIAL CITATION

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of the Congressional Medal of Honor to

STAFF SERGEANT TRAVIS W. ATKINS United States Army 

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

“While manning a static observation post in the town of Abu Samak, Iraq, Staff Sergeant Atkins, was notified that four suspicious individuals, walking in two pairs, were crossing an intersection not far from his position. Staff Sergeant Atkins immediately moved his squad to interdict the individuals. One of the individuals began behaving erratically, prompting Staff Sergeant Atkins to disembark from his patrol vehicle and approach to conduct a search. Both individuals responded belligerently toward Staff Sergeant Atkins, who then engaged the individual he had intended to search in hand-to-hand combat. Staff Sergeant Atkins tried to wrestle the insurgent’s arms behind his back. When he noticed the insurgent was reaching for something under his clothes, Staff Sergeant Atkins immediately wrapped him in a bear hug and threw him to the ground, away from his fellow soldiers. Staff Sergeant Atkins maintained his hold on the insurgent, placing his body on top of him, further sheltering his patrol. With Staff Sergeant Atkins on top of him, the insurgent detonated a bomb strapped to his body, killing Staff Sergeant Atkins. Staff Sergeant Atkins acted with complete disregard for his own safety. In this critical and selfless act of valor, Staff Sergeant Atkins saved the lives of the three other soldiers who were with him and gallantly gave his life for his country. Staff Sergeant Atkins' undaunted courage, warrior spirit, and steadfast devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the 2d Brigade Combat Team, and the United States Army.”

Precision Engagement

That’s SGT Frank Vukasin of Great Falls, Montana, bundled in his winter coat, while using his frozen fingers to jam another eight-round clip into his M-1 rifle and kneeling for the ages. Next to him lie two dead white-clad German soldiers. In 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, this was precision engagement. As soon as he reloaded, he’d be back on his feet maneuvering again through the Ardennes Forest on this flat battle-field, rather than remaining stationary as would have been the case in the trench of a WWI battle-line. He could pour out a 30 to 40 rounds-per-minute rate of fire in place of the slower rate WWI infantry rifle, the more accurate M1903 Springfield with its single-shot bolt-action.

A history of Black Eagle, Montana, families says Vukasin had been working in the Anaconda Company Refinery when he got drafted. After surviving the war and returning  home, he and his brother traded up through a couple of Black Eagle saloons. He once got a gig as an actor with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges in that poolroom scene of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. In the years after his wife passed he made his living as a gambler. He died in January 1995 and is buried in Highland Cemetery among hundreds of fellow veterans, not too far from Charlie Russell.

Since 1996, the word battle-field has been replaced by the word battle-space, a multi-dimension civilian and military sphere ranged by every kind of weapon, including weaponized lying and demeaning of truth-telling. Battle-space can be fully ranged with doctored images, honey trap pornography, destructive and instructive movies, and bad or good art and writing, using targeted new media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and hundreds of variations being sought and linked by like-minded groups.  

The iconic photo of Vukasin in The Bulge serves as an early example of weaponizing images in battle-space. Eight years after Vukasin died, his photograph taken by a U.S. Army Signal Corps cameraman and preserved by our National Archives, was used by the NRA to narrate its firearms oriented point of view. The picture, properly sourced and credited, belongs to all of us, each for our own reasons, as I am using it here to ask a question: “Did anyone care then or now whether SGT Vukasin was a Republican or a Democrat? No! We cared that he was a calm and courageous American soldier who could shoot straight.

That’s because during WWII our leaders did everything possible to bring us together, instead of doing everything possible to aggravate divisions that split us from each other to  disempower us. Fear is being used to harden our hearts. Whether or not we order Pizza with anchovies and who we talk to on FaceBook help to precisely target messages to our minds, which is far better than an enemy’s bullet to our brains. Now we are where we’ve come to be, and only by learning and relearning in our best respective ways will we recover from the November 5, 2024, battle-space defeat of our country.

On the cold winter night we were making inquiries in Black Eagle the waitress in “Borres” told my friend Magoo and I, “The name’s pronounced ‘Vukaaasin.’ When my father was alive, he could tell you everything. He knew all those guys. There were a lot of bars around here. When they came back from the war they all hit the bars. Sorry, I can’t help you more!”

MT 2 Concession Statement

 

Commissioner Downing, congratulations on a clean win. I did my effort in the best way I knew how and have no regrets. Tough job ahead of you. Good luck. Sincerely, John B Driscoll

In the Primary Election 100,411 votes were cast for the nine Republican Candidates and 40,290 (or 28.6%) were cast for the four Democrats. 129,315 more Eastern Montanans voted in the General Election, and 91,631 (or 33.9%) voted for me.

U.S. Military Readiness

 

4:00 PM, 11/03/2024: Completed the first 84 pages of this book. Decided to read it because Darrell Valance thought I should read it. A young former infantryman (8 years) in Hobson was trying to tell me something but I could tell he thought it wise to tip-toe around all that he wanted to say because I’m a Democrat, but he told me enough. We were having the conversation because I am trying as hard as I can to understand why former officers like Sheehy, Zinke and Downing, sworn to protect our U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, support so clearly a threat to our constitution as Trump. The movie War Games, starring Steve Bullock, was produced in part by a group called VetVoice, and, when they were interviewed I could see that they are concerned about the radicalization of some of their fellow soldiers and marines. And, the military is facing a recruiting problem. I am familiar with readiness issues because I used to be the officer responsible for monitoring the readiness of our army guard units. The challenge of meeting readiness standards so that fighting units go off to war ready to fight is HARD. This book is bringing me up to date on the additional challenges.

I easily agreed with the authors criticism of the shuffle of general officers to the board rooms of military industry’s with which they used to deal. Though I sense a little male whining at having to make cultural changes, it’s not so much. I think it’s a helpful book and I’m looking forward to finishing the last 144 pages. We need to get every branch of our armed forces into tip top fighting condition while never again wasting them on wars of choice like Iraq.