Republican maga took an oath to support and uphold the U.S. Constitution but instead they obey Donald Trump

Montana leaders need to remember their oath to Constitution

Echo opinion letter published in the Montana Bozeman Daily Chronical newspaper:

Republicans Sen. Daines, Sen. Sheehy, Rep. Zinke, Rep. Downing and Governot Gianforte:

We Montanans are gravely concerned with your support for Donald Trump's authoritarianism, rejection of our U.S. Constitution, rule of law, and due process. The U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 (1789) states: "Treason against the U.S. shall consist only in lobbying War against them ..."

Trump's "Chipocalypse Now" threat against an American city Chicago is an act of treason, an act of a tyrant, an act of a dictator.

Two: Support the release of the full Epstein files. By not supporting the release of the Epstein files, you support sexual predators of young girls and women who deserve truth, justice, accountability, and closure.

Three: Stop supporting the economic destruction of Montana and America by supporting Trump's illegal tariff taxes on all Americans.

Four: Stop supporting Trump's/DOGE's/ (incompetent❗) Robert Kennedy Jr.'s (RFKjr) destruction of our American healthcare system. Today we could not get COVID vaccines because of Kennedy's policies.

You took an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and were elected to help Montanans not harm Montanans and destroy America.

From Catherine Legge in Bozeman Montana

Republican maga abandon their constitutional repsponsibility to provide executive branch oversight

Echo opinion letter publised in the Montana Bozeman Daily Chronicle: 

I’m angry about the half-truth responses our Montana senators send me (but GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke sends nothing- although his website has a pominent "contact us" icon).

Take the unconstitutional move sending federal troops into Washington, D.C. Sen. Sheehy wrote, Washington, D.C., is “riddled with crime” and has a homicide rate "six times higher than NYC”.

But it is a lie❗🤥 In fact, the crime rate in D.C. dropped over the last three years with 2024’s, crime rate the lowest in 30 years. 

Top 10 cities with highest murder rates include Jackson, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; St Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky — but NOT Washington, D.C. (or Chicago). Why not send troops there first (too Republican?)

Sheehy wrote further that D.C. Mayor Bowser in a MSNBC Aug 28, interview said she “greatly appreciates” the deployment of federal authorities — true. BUT, he did NOT say, she clarified further, that “having masked ICE agents in the streets has not worked,” “there has been a “break in trust between police and community”, the "use of national guards from other states has not been an efficient use of those resources” (like cleaning up national monuments?), and D.C. people are “devastated about people living in fear”.


Finally, both senators wrote me that cuts to Medicaid and SNAP only "cut out waste, fraud and abuse”, BUT with estimated cuts in Medicaid spending at $800 billion-plus over the next 10 years and SNAP funding by over $1 billion, this is hardly just “waste, fraud and abuse”.


Thousands of Montanans will suffer losing health insurance coverage, SNAP benefits, and even their rural hospitals — all to fund tax breaks for billionaire friends & donors!


Two points; 1) It’s on us to discover the truth — read widely. And 2), sadly, our current congressional delegation won’t stand up for most Montanans, instead they rubber stamp what Trump wants and gave up congressional oversight.

Well, folks, I guess "we the people" are the posse.

From Louise Davis in  Bozeman Montana

Donald Trump list of failed accomplishments in just 100 days has dismantled democracy as we know it

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, a Montana newspaper:

OK, 100 days into the horror of the Trumpzi administration so, let’s take a look at some numbers for Trump’s “accomplishments,” shall we?
• 39% approval rating – lowest of any new president ... ever.$6,400 expected increase in new car prices (tariffs).
• 60% rise in egg prices.
• $5.9B expected losses (annually!) in soybean farmers’ sales (tariffs)❗

• $81.65 billion in first-term farm bailouts. This will be worse!
• 200 “trade deals” he claims he has made- without any proof.
• Zero trade deals actually confirmed by any evidence.
• Zero plans to actually lower grocery prices.
• 121,000 fired dedicated federal workers – including 70,000 VA employees.
• $500B of lost tax revenue due to fired IRS workers, especially those who were working on the richest tax cheats (imagine that, huh!).

• $500 million funneled into Trump’s pockets from crypto schemes (Forbes). 24 days spent golfing (25% of his first 100 days!) costing the taxpayers $26 million.

• $6 billion cut from NIH medical research grants for cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc.

• $12 billion cut from state health services.
• $90 billion loss in tourism this year (Goldman Sachs estimate). Montana expected to be the No. 1 biggest loser.
• At least 288 people trafficked to El Salvador without due process, in defiance of court orders (and the Constitution!).
• 1,600 pardons for violent January 6th criminals, plus convicted fraudsters (hey, birds of a feather, right?).
• 21 Faux News personalities and six billionaires in his administration.
• 293 times Trump has with cruelty complained about Joe Biden (more than times a day!).
• Four threatened annexations of other countries: Greenland, Gaza, Panama, and ... Canada?!
• One commercial for Tesla on the White House lawn.

Well done, Trump MAGA cult Republican voters! 

Are you “tired of winning” yet❓ 

Enjoy your increased prices on pretty much everything, income losses, and maybe even your farms and tourism businesses.

Unfortunately, the rest of us will also suffer for your voting folly.

From Kevin Crawford in Bozeman, Montana

How much more disgusting behavior will Republicans tolerate before they finally impeach Donald Trump?

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Daily News, a Montana newspaper (#ImpeachTrumpNow❗):

Lack of morality or conscience from our president is appalling

After the election, I hoped that I had been wrong about Donald Trump. But I wasn’t.

As a Christian, I’m appalled by Trump’s total lack of morality or conscience, his insatiable greed, and his evident disdain for families — especially poor families, immigrant families, LGBTQ families, and families of color. His scorn for them is clear to anyone who has eyes that see and ears that hear.

As a patriot and the son of a World War II combat veteran, I’m outraged by Trump’s contempt for the Constitution, his contempt for our war dead, his contempt for our wounded and disabled. His actions undermine what they sacrificed to defend, and his actions threaten to resurrect what they fought to defeat.

As a student of history, I understand the extreme danger Trump poses to our country by weakening and offending America’s friends while sucking up to her enemies. His ignorance of history and its lessons is mind-blowing. The Founders had no patience for such ignorance, such admiration of tyrants.

As the descendant of impoverished immigrants who did the real work that actually made America great, I’m disgusted by Trump’s treatment of today’s families who also long to breathe free, who risk their lives to get here, who work hard and — yes — pay taxes, who start small businesses and take on some of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in America.

Finally, as one who grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, I am revolted by Trump’s dog-whistling of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, his denigration of women, his attacks on the right to vote, his eagerness to erase uncomfortable truths from our history and our schools, his blatant disregard for the rule of law and the separation of church and state.

From Thomas Schmidt in Bozeman, Montana

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/letters_to_editor/letter-to-the-editor-lack-of-morality-or-conscience-from-our-president-is-appalling/article_43096988-e8b0-11ef-8c26-1b2becaf1115.html

Democrats are over the top elated by candidate President Kamala Harris

Letters to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch: 

Kamala Harris should send Trump her birth certificate. Diversity is how life survives. Trump isn't normal (some would bump this description up to the concept of being "weird").👺💀👽

Echo opinion letter published in the Billings Gazette, a Montana newspaper:

So here is a letter I could never have imagined writing anytime these past six months or more. I am a baby boomer who, having loved my country my whole life, had finally thrown in the towel with the looming cloud of another Trump presidency on the horizon. I aged 100 years watching President Biden in what is now that infamous debate. I thought, oh my God, we are toast. Trump is going to win. But then ❗ came Sunday, with the seismic breaking news that President Biden was stepping aside and handing the baton to Vice President Harris. 😀😎

We the jury find the defendent Donald Trump guilty but Republicans cannot accept the rule of law

The Columbus Dispatch:  "After seven weeks and a heap of evidence, the verdict in the Donald Trump trial came down to fewer than 12 hours of deliberation and a single word uttered 34 times.
"Guilty❗", Amelia Robinson.

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle newspaper, in Bozeman Montana.

Republican reaction to Trump conviction is dangerous and sad.

Sadly.😙😢...no surprise that all Republicans currently running for state-wide offices in Montana have declared the conviction of Donald Trump in New York STATE court a “sham” orchestrated by the Biden administration. Hilarious — since they have no knowledge of, and cite no evidence of (1) any errors by the judge in conducting the trial; (2) any irregularities by the jury in deliberating or reaching its verdict; (3) any control or influence of President Biden or any other US official over a proceeding in NY STATE court brought by NY STATE prosecutors.

The only basis for their wrongminded, false and totally unsupported statements is their desire to show their loyalty to Trump and his “base” (voters who will support him to the end, no matter what misdeeds, misstatements, and outright lies he has been proven to have done or stated). Ignore the fact that the justice system grants everyone the right to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (which the judge would have told the jury before they began their deliberations), and the right to an appeal to the STATE Supreme Court (and SCOTUS). However, since such appeals will not be filed and decided until long after the 2024, elections, the political calculus is to show blind allegiance to The Boss in the meantime, in order to guarantee election by those demonstrating allegiance.

When are Trump’s voting supporters going to wake up and realize that the only “FACTS” supporting Donald Trump are his continuous lies and misstatements, which are blindly re-stated by his supporters and political minions only out of their own self interest? Wake up and do your own research using unbiased sources of information. Rely on real FACTS to make up your minds — not biased statements of blind loyalty. 😠

From Mickey Smotherman, in Bozeman Montana

Trump is disqualified to "hold any office, civil or military" 14th Amendment is clear

Echo opinion letter published in the Missoulian newpaper in Missoula Montana:

January 6th insurrectionists in the U.S. Capitol

Claims that former President Trump is not convicted of insurrection or without due process in his 14th Amendment case don't hold water.

What is being appealed to SCOTUS from Colorado is Anderson v Griswold; a civil trial. 

Trump is accused of aiding an insurrection and found guilty in that case. He was represented by lawyers, and received due process. He appealed. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld that conviction and also ruled the Presidency IS covered by the 14th’s disqualification clause. And now it’s going to SCOTUS. Trump's lawyers were Scott E. Gessler and Geoffrey N. Blue of Gessler Blue LLC. Y'all can google this. I’m tired of ignorant misstatements and outright lies that Donald Trump has NOT been convicted OR had due process. His case is on a rocket sled to the Supreme Court. 

Trump is getting far more due process than any of us ever would!

The 14th Amendment is every bit as valid as the Second, or the 22nd, and that “hold any office, civil or military” eligibility and disqualification language of the 14th’s Section 3 seems very clear. What will the Supreme Court do? Who knows? 

From Addison Double in Bigfork Montana

Trump divided Americans by tapping into the worst of the human condition: GOP must dump Trump

Echo opinion letter published in the Billings Gazette, in Billings Montana:

Trumpism (definition):  "The quality of repeating lies so that eventually someone will believe the false statements over truth."

Look Trumpzi went off the rails with the 2022, midterm election losses, blaming, everyone even his poor wife.

Whining Republicans are crying fraud again. 

No surprise. When they win, it's a fair election, when they lose it's fraud. 

But, the red wave never happened because lots of us Republicans/Independents voted blue, not because we support Biden, but because we don't want the lunatic MAGA fringe in Congress.

Beginning in 2016, we watched how Trump divided the country by tapping into people's hatred, rage and fear and bringing it to a fever pitch. We watched his rallies where he not only condoned violence but instigated it by creating an us vs. them hostile mob mentality.

We don't believe the election was stolen because we don't believe much of what Trump says. We watched him cry fraud every time he didn't get the results he wanted. We also remember him crying fraud when his reality show, "The Apprentice" didn't win an Emmy and he then attacked the show that won. Who does that?

Look how he went off the rails with the midterm election losses, blaming, everyone even his poor wife.

Democrats, Republicans and Independents can make American great again! 
Trumpty-Dumpty! Dump the Trump.

Donald "I love myself" Trumpty is a full-blown malignant narcissist who will never accept defeat or accountability. 

It is time to dump Trump and all the MAGA/Qanon crazies.

From Molly Malone in Bozeman, Montana

Republicans are dismantling our Republic

An echo letter opinion writer is describing a political process going on in Montana to replace the experienced Justice Gustafson, appointed to the Montana Supreme Court, with an inexperienced lobbyist!  Is this trend indicating a trend to destroy our Republic? Letter published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

No one can argue democracy is perfect. Those who study history argue it is better than dictatorships like Putin’s and Hungary’s Orban.

For two hundred years Americans have expanded democracy. Now we have a #Republican political party working to limit voting by passing laws making it harder to vote and by putting extremists in charge of state and local elections who are not committed to fair elections.

These same extremists are even working to subvert Montana’s Supreme Court by supporting an industry lobbyist, James Brown. The fact he has no judicial experience is unimportant. 

What matters is he’s willing to ignore the Constitution and do the bidding of special interests in making judicial rulings and who could care less about hard working Montanans. 

Their target is Ingrid Gustafson an intelligent and hardworking incumbent justice who has a record of deciding cases without bias or a political agenda.

From Sue Beland in Bozeman Montana

A former guy changed the American dream

Trump is a detriment to this country

Echo opinion published in the Billings Gazette:

Indeed, a couple of years ago, a Former Guy president was a clear and present danger detriment to America, and we are not the same nation as in the past.

There is a lot of turmoil and I’ve never seen such divisive friction as what we now have in America. There are politicians who are afraid to speak out as to how they feel, and to the contrary there are others who are too demanding and belligerent.

Some politicians profess that building a wall to keep out immigrants is the answer. The immigrants are struggling to enter this country to escape hardships, oppression, and to seek peace.

Protect America's immigrants! 

Robert Flanagan in Billings, Montana

Russians must learn the truth about the unprovoked Ukrainian atrocities

Not all Russians support the Ukraine invasion

Echo letter published in Bozeman Daily Chronicle in Montana:

Many Russians are appalled with the invasion into Ukraine. I have been communicating with Russian friends who want all of us outside of Russia to know that Putin alone is invading Ukraine. Russians are not invading Ukraine. They have friends in Ukraine. They have relatives in Ukraine. My friends are adamant that I spread the word that they do not support the actions of Putin and are fearing for their own liberties as social media is being shut down — Facebook, Instagram —news is being cut off — BBC, CNN and more. Protesters are being arrested and thrown in jail.

Those who can, are considering leaving Russia, so they do not have to live in the Russia of the past, which they fear is what is next. 

They fear that Putin will take the country backwards to a police state in which they have no freedom. The situation in Ukraine is nothing less than tragic. People in Ukraine are paying with their lives. 

As well, the Russian people will pay the price for Putin's egregious actions. Tragedy all around because of one man's demented aspirations for power.

From Kathryn Hiestand, in Bozeman, Montana

Trump is the root of the national emergency- Lock Him Up!

It’s difficult understanding why all the Trump people, and Trump himself, have not been taken to court. We’ve been told and shown for months, how Trump people lied in their attacking of the building, injuring 140-plus workers, terrifying thousands.

Why do we wait? We’re hearing often about various law firms spending months being certain about ultimately hostile actions of Trump’s “army.”

"Former President Donald Trump the seditionist is still on the loose instead of being in jail where he belongs. The Justice Department should have indicted him months ago...."  Richer Striner in The Capital Gazette.

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, a newspaper in Montana. 

Why, therefore, isn’t Trump in jail? Didn’t we think, and for some time, see, that it wouldn’t take this long? He is, for starters, the  defendant in 29 lawsuits. Many investors did criminal investigations in addition to those attorneys, obtaining the Trump tax returns. 

At the very least, there’s often mention of his own understanding that prison awaits him.

Richer Striner asks the question, disturbing many of us — plus millions all over the country: “Why is Trump, the seditionist, still on the loose, instead of in jail where he belongs? The Justice Department should have indicted him months ago! Look at the massive crimes Trump committed. What he’s doing to his Republican Party, is fascism!”

Bill Kennedy: “Our then supposed National Leader presided over, aided and abetted, the worst violent attack on...our government in more than 150 years, thus recommending Trump as President is quality of both Treason and Sedition!”

Jamelle Bouie: “As with the entire effort to overturn the result of the election, Trump’s behavior was as clumsy as it was in earnest.”

 Trump to Justice Department: “Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me.”

Trump being — as he was — an absurd figure, doesn’t mean we should treat his drives and desires as non-threatening; True when in office, and true now!

This Democrat in Montana, as I deal with Republican friends and strangers — will still delight in Trump’s knowingly eventual demise.

From Dan Lourie in Bozeman, Montana

Native Americans and First Nations share COVID-19 vaccine

"...this is about saving lives. We’re not going to turn anybody away."

Echo essay by Iris Samuels published in APNews:

United States Native American tribe shares the COVID vaccine with relatives and neighbors in Canada.

Thursday, April 29, 2021, Roberta Wagner, foreground, a health clinic administrator for the Blackfeet tribe, prepares COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered to Canadian residents at the Piegan-Carway border crossing, near Babb, Mont. In fact, the Blackfeet tribe gave out surplus vaccines in April to its First Nations relatives and others from across the border. (AP Photo/Iris Samuels)

BABB, Montana (Associated Press) — On a cloudy spring day, hundreds lined up in their cars on the Canadian side of the border crossing that separates Alberta and Montana. They had driven for hours and camped out in their vehicles in hopes of receiving the season’s hottest commodity — a COVID-19 vaccine — from a Native American tribe that was giving out its excess doses.

The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana provided about 1,000 surplus vaccines last month to its First Nations relatives and others from across the border, in an illustration of the disparity in speed at which the United States and Canada are distributing doses. While more than 30% of adults in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, in Canada that figure is about 3%.

Among those who received the vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing were Sherry Cross Child and Shane Little Bear, of Stand Off, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the border.

They recited a prayer in the Blackfoot language, before nurses began administering shots, with Chief Mountain — sacred to the Blackfoot people — rising in the distance. The prayer was dedicated to people seeking refuge from the virus, Cross Child said.

Cross Child and her husband have family and friends in Montana but have not been able to visit them since the border closed last spring to all but essential travel.

“It’s been stressful because we had some deaths in the family, and they couldn’t come,” she said. “Just for the support – they rely on us, and we rely on them. It’s been tough.”

More than 95% of the Blackfeet reservation’s roughly 10,000 residents who are eligible for the vaccine are fully immunized, after the state prioritized Native American communities — among the most vulnerable U.S. populations — in the early stages of its vaccination campaign.

The tribe received vaccine allotments both from the Montana health department and the federal Indian Health Service, leaving some doses unused. With an expiration date fast approaching, it turned to other nations in the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Blackfeet and three tribes in southern Alberta that share a language and culture.

“The idea was to get to our brothers and sisters that live in Canada,” said Robert DesRosier, emergency services manager for the Blackfeet tribe. “And then the question came up – what if a nontribal member wants a vaccine? Well, this is about saving lives. We’re not going to turn anybody away.”

The tribe distributed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over four days in late April at the remote Piegan Port of Entry, amid a backdrop of rolling grasslands to the east and Glacier National Park’s snow-covered peaks to the west.

As news of the effort spread in Canada, first by word of mouth, then through social platforms and media reports, people traveled from farther away. Some drove five hours from the city of Edmonton.

The effort was particularly timely, as Alberta sees a surge in new cases of the respiratory virus, with a caseload record reached this month.

Bonnie Healy, Blackfoot Confederacy health administrator, said she was glad the vaccination effort reached both First Nations and other communities in the province.

“We have family members that live in those areas,” she said. “If we can get these places safe, then it’s safe for our children to go to school there. It’s safe for our elders to go shopping in their stores.”

Canadians who got the vaccines were not allowed to linger in the U.S. They returned home with letters from health officials exempting them from the mandatory 14-day quarantine imposed on all those entering the country.

April 29, 2021, Sherry Cross Child, a Canadian resident of Stand Off, Alberta, receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing near Babb, Montana. The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana gave out surplus vaccines in April, to its First Nations relatives and others from across the border. (AP Photo/Iris Samuels)

The tribe’s initiative is one of a few partnerships that have cropped up between communities in the U.S. and Canada, where residents might otherwise have to wait weeks or months for a shot.

Canada has lagged in vaccinating its population because it lacks the ability to manufacture the vaccine and like many countries has had to rely on the global supply chain for the lifesaving shots. Although Canada’s economy is tightly interconnected with the U.S., Washington hasn’t allowed the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses made in America to be exported until very recently, and Canada has had to turn to Europe and Asia.

But vaccinations have ramped up in recent months, and the Canadian government expects to receive at least 10 million vaccines this month and millions more in June. First Nations have been prioritized from the start.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has offered COVID-19 vaccines to residents of Stewart, British Columbia, with hopes it could lead the Canadian government to ease restrictions between that town and the Alaska border community of Hyder, a couple of miles away. In North Dakota, Gov. Doug Burgum and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister unveiled a plan last month to administer vaccinations to Manitoba-based truck drivers transporting goods to and from the U.S.

On the Montana side of the border, vaccine recipients were often emotional, shedding tears, shouting words of gratitude through car windows as they drove away, and handing the nurses gifts such as chocolate and clothing. Some shared stories about what the vaccine meant to them – the possibility of safely caring for vulnerable loved ones, reuniting with grandparents or traveling again.

Recipients included 17-year-olds who are low on the country’s priority list and parents who camped out with their young children in the backseat.

Maxwell Stein, 25, who plays the horn with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, arrived at the border crossing at 6 p.m. Wednesday and spent the night in his car, finally reaching the front of the line around 10 a.m. Thursday.

“It wasn’t awesome, but you do what you need to to get a vaccine,” he said. He predicted that if he had waited in Canada, he’d likely get his first dose sometime in late June, and it would be months before he would be fully vaccinated.

The Canadian government has recommended extending the interval between the two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines from around three weeks to four months, with the goal of quickly inoculating more people amid the shortage. 

Some who attended the Blackfeet clinics had already gotten their first shot in Canada. More than 34% of Canada’s population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, but around 3% have received both doses recommended by the drug manufacturers to reach full immunity. Canadian officials say partial immunity is better than none.

“With vaccines, I think it’s really important to get the correct dosage in the right time period, so your body builds up the full resistance,” Stein said.

When Stein heard about the vaccine clinic on the border, he didn’t hesitate about the long drive, particularly as a professional musician who has a lot of free time with many concerts canceled.

“Really, I have no excuse. If I had to drive 10 hours to get the Pfizer or Moderna, I probably would have done it,” he said.

Samuels is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Donald Trump failed Middle East policy pours "gasoline" on Iran

Dear U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Senator Steve Daines and U.S. Congressman Greg Gianforte:

Opinion letter echo published in the Missoulian, a Montana newspaper"

"Trump poured gasoline on Iran and the Middle East when he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal..."

Dear Editor - I just read the president's latest insane tweet notifying Congress of future actions against Iran in a "disproportionate manner" after threatening to violate the Geneva Convention by declaring he had 52 sites in Iran in mind, including cultural sites.

Donald Trump poured gasoline on Iran and the Middle East when he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was a brilliant stabilizer, and Iran, by all accounts, was abiding by their end of the deal.

Now, Trump has assassinated General Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran's national heroes, effectively throwing a match* onto his already smoldering fire. I understand that Trump was given multiple choices and he chose the most extreme measure. Other presidents also had this choice and were wise enough not to use it.

I can't take this anymore; governing our country by tweet. This is insane and highly dangerous. Almost four years of chaos, daily pathological lies, insulting our allies, attacking people personally, betraying the Kurds, ad nauseam.

I demand that you (Senators and Congressman) do everything in your power to stop this madness. It is your responsibility and duty to our republic, to our democracy, to America.

Rose Davis,  Missoula Montana

*Iran Fired Missiles at the U.S. Forces in Iraq
More than a dozen missiles targeted two bases where U.S. troops are stationed, in the attack Tehran says was vengeance for killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani- reported in the Wall Street Journal.  

Echo opinion published in the Missoulian- NRA and Russia

Opinion letter published in a letter from Corvallis Montana....in the Missoulian news

America is in serious trouble with the continuing shutdown by a "president" who cares not about the people, who was born with a silver spoon, who appears to have conspired with the Russians and Saudi Arabs against our democracy.

The wall issue isn't important to Donald Trump; he didn't even want to go look at the border.

Do we remember that when people in the United States were slaughtered in mass shootings here, there was no mention of any of the many shootings, because of his connection with the NRA? He would say nothing. 

The NRA, which now has members who are Russian oligarchs and even Russian spies.

We have more to fear from this dictatorial president and the overreach of the Russians, Saudis and an organization such as the NRA.

We used to belong to the NRA,because we respected the organization and what they stood for. They are no longer this organization for the American people who have guns and like to hunt; they are supporters of a foreign threat to our democracy and corruption in our country.

Joseph Gervais,
Corvallis, Montana

Donald Trump - words have consequences

Frankly, it's depressing to realize how un-inspiring are the words (unquotable quotes) from Donald Trump's incendiary vocabulary. 

Donald Trump uses incendiary words- an "unquotable" vocabulary, with consequences

Now, as the world witnesses the consequences of his miserable behavior, we are more fearful about what crazy people are out there, reacting with violence, to his endless rants against his political enemies list. This echo opinion was published on October 25, 2018, in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, in Nevada.

Although it wasn’t immediately known (at the time this editorial was published) who was responsible for the bomb delivered to the home of George Soros, or the suspicious packages addressed to former President Barack Obama, the Clintons and CNN’s New York offices- one thing was clear: The terror that has played out this week is an inevitable outcome of President Donald Trump’s vicious rhetoric. Twelves bomb threat packages were mailed by an individual (now apparently arrested according to CNN news).

Words have consequences, and we’re seeing them now. 

Trump, by demonizing his political opponents and the media, has emboldened extremists to take action and spread fear.
In the three-plus years since he announced his candidacy in June 2015, Trump has repeatedly encouraged violence. 

Unfortunately, the most recent instance came just last week, when at a rally in Montana he referenced Rep. Greg Gianforte’s 2017, attack on a reporter by saying that “any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!” The next day, Trump said he did not regret making the remark.

No surprise there. Trump has expressed no remorse for a string of similar remarks he’s made, including when he said he’d like to punch a heckler at a rally in Las Vegas and encouraged a group of police officers to rough up suspects in their custody.

Meanwhile, his incendiary attacks on Hillary Clinton, Obama and others he perceives as threats have made prominent Democrats targets for extremists. That list now also includes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former CIA director John Brennan and Obama-era attorney general Eric Holder, whose names were on suspicious packages delivered.

Trump and his loyalists will deny that he has any influence over any of these cowardly attacks, of course. But they also will go to any lengths to convince Americans that Trump’s continuous stoking of violence hasn’t happened.

“The president does not support violence against anyone or anything,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in August.

That’s a lie worthy of an Iron Curtain apparatchik.

What’s really happening is that Trump is turning Americans against each other and doing his best to obliterate our standards of civility and mutual respect, which in turn has given rise to the ugliness we’re seeing this week.

Keep in mind that while the White House issued a statement condemning the rash of terrorism this week, Trump has been vilifying Democrats on the campaign trail in recent weeks with his “Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs” message.

This comes despite Charlottesville. Despite Christine Blasey Ford being forced from her home by death threats from Trump’s followers. Despite Nancy Pelosi nearly being trapped in an alley entering an event in Miami when members of the alt-right group Proud Boys threatened her.

And now comes this week, when less than 48 hours after the device sent to Soros was detonated in the woods near his home, more Americans were targeted in what appeared to be a coordinated attack.

This must stop.
And voters have the power to do something about it.
Although no one can cure Trump’s moral bankruptcy or force him to become a leader for all Americans and not just his supporters, we can elect moderate leaders who will work to hold him accountable and provide a check on his authority.

Election Day is a week from this coming Tuesday. Meanwhile, early voting centers are open throughout the Las Vegas Valley. To see a list of those sites, click here.

Please vote. Send a message to Trump that Americans won’t allow him to make enemies of each other.

Republic conservatism has abandoned government - opinion letter from Montana

Bozeman Montana echo opinion letter to the editor:  Republicans have abandoned conservatism and have abandoned their working class base.  This letter was published in the Montana newspaper on line edition of the Missoulian, in Missoula Montana.  

I don't know why the letter isn't in the print edition, but I'll try to spread the message through this blog, on Twitter and other on line platforms.

Republicans like Lindsey Graham were once conservatives but now they've caved to Trumpzism. What happened? (A New York Magazine graphic)

In my 44 years, I have never been so disgusted with politics. In the last presidential election, I could not bring myself to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Both were so obviously disconnected from the typical working American’s needs, although Trump and his crony-capitalist and hyper-nationalistic promoters played the better con game. 

Complete Republican control of our federal government has clearly revealed that this incredulously hypocritical party has lost all connection to its purported conservative roots. (We somehow cannot afford socialized medicine, but don’t you dare touch the corporate welfare state.) Beyond coddling the 1 percent, disaffected white males, overt racists, Saudi princes and the military industrial complex, all the Republicans really offer to the struggling white working class is victim-shaming and the fear and hatred of others. This is a convenient distraction as their disconnected, authoritarian and downright incompetent governance bankrupts the country morally and financially.

It’s sadly comical how the Republicans actively undermine the functioning of government, then turn around and claim that we cannot trust our government because it’s so dysfunctional. 

While I may still have my concerns about the corporate Democrats, this fall I will wholeheartedly vote for Jon Tester and Kathleen Williams.

Mark Campanelli,
Bozeman

Montana poetry - rhymes with "chump"

Delighted to find this poem published in the Montana on line news Missoulian

American standards; Have always been high; 

So why do we change; Just for one guy?

Let's resolve as a nation; To go back to our roots; And kick out this guy; With both of our boots.

Who is this guy? What is his name? It rhymes with the word 'chump'; And they are one in the same.

But I won't speak the name; And I don't even care; How loudly some use it; As their trumpets do blare.

Bob McClellan, Polson Montana

Billings Montana "echo" opinion - stop accusing the mentally ill!

Another mass shooting in the United States -  17 people were killed at a high school Parkland, Florida ~ BBC News

"gun-nut narcissists" ~ James Nelson opinion

Mentally ill are not responsible for gun violence ~ (Judge)  James Nelson, published in the Billings Gazette, Montana

BILLINGS, Montana- I am sick and tired of politicians’ knee-jerk, go-to excuse for mass murders — i.e. that the perpetrator is “mentally ill” or “mentally disturbed.”

The people who commit the redundant massacres in America’s schools, workplaces, and entertainment venues have, time and time again, proven to be, fundamentally, gun-nut narcissists, often, evidencing white-supremacist beliefs. 

While most would conclude that any person who would commit such a crime must be crazy, these murderers have shown themselves to be cold, calculating, architects of violence and mayhem. They plan their crime; they buy their guns; they execute their plan — and their intended victims; and they do it for the thrill of the kill, the publicity and the glory. Blaming this conduct on mental health issues is a cowardly, sanctimonious, and hypocritical way out.

If our elected officials — from the president on down — sincerely believe that mental health problems are at the root of this epidemic of bloodshed, then they would surely devote whatever resources and money are necessary to excise this societal cancer. But they don’t.  Rather, actual mental health problems are kicked to the curb and down the road along with homelessness, hunger, poverty, and inadequate health care — as just so much social detritus.

Indeed, if this country’s elected and appointed public officers and jurists truly want to do something positive and effective to stanch the recurrent slaughter of innocent children and other citizens, they would name the problem, they would own it, and they would act, instead of pontificate.

To begin with they would agree that the Second Amendment was never intended to be absolute. And, they would recognize that the First Amendment was not written to guarantee an absolute right of free political free speech grounded in the fallacy that money and speech are one and the same. They would accept that the President and the Congress are in the pockets of the 1/10th of 1 percent of super-wealthy. They would attest to the fact that not a single one of them has the guts to stand up to the NRA. They would acknowledge that they are ovine, partisan sycophants, who talk the talk, but refuse to walk the walk.

Then these politicians and jurists would approve and adopt effective laws and procedures to keep weapons of mass destruction and military-grade weapons designed only to kill people out the market. They would quit groveling before the altar of the NRA and big money. They would spend what is necessary to make our society and its institutions secure and safe from the glory-seeking gun nuts that kill for the fun of it. And, they would spend what is required to adequately fund mental health programs and start to cure the multitude of other real ills of our society. If our “leaders” were truly serious about this carnage, they would start acting, instead of just blabbering self-righteous drivel

And, if they don’t (they won’t), then we the voters must act and kick them to the curb.

Jim Nelson, of Helena, is retired after serving as a Montana Supreme Court justice.

Montana: Bozeman Daily Chronicla letter- Disgraceful president

Montana resident writes with visceral passion about Donald Trump.  This "echo" from Bozeman Daily Chronicle, letter to the editor, is posted here because of the depth of emotion emanating from such a beautiful place in America.  I've been to the Yellowstone Gateway region. This letter rises out of what appears to be a natural haven, where the beauty of God's creation rests.

How can I forgive this disgrace of a president?

By Mirna Osterberg  Jul 6, 2017
Gallatin Gateway, Montana*- How am I supposed to forgive this, this—I won’t say “man”—this gross thing disgracing the White House, humiliating our nation, pointing his little fingers, making foul sounds at everybody and everything?

Can you forgive a criminal who feels no remorse—and actually believes himself to be good?

How can I forgive someone who wants the rich to get richer—as usual, by making the poor suffer more? Who wants to take away my Medicaid? Who wants public lands to be given over to private developers—like himself?

This foul-mouthed bully, who wants more pollution to fill our air and soils and waterways? Why should I forgive him? I know I will never ever support him. How do I forgive the people who voted for him?

This fiend who gives moral and military support to repressive foreign powers? Who makes women suffer and wants to take away their right to abortion? Who doesn’t believe in global warming?

This traitor to democracy who wants to suppress voting among poor and colored people? Remember, we’re all frauds and losers in his mind—we, the people who oppose his viciousness to our cores!

How can I forgive a person who spends his time pressing keypads with his thumbs to make vile digital blurts that belittle, berate, harass and harangue anyone who dares oppose his noxious policy ideas? Instead of doing his job?

How can I show compassion for someone who claims anything said, written or broadcast in opposition to his sociopathic purposes is fake news?

This tyrant, this hateful usurper with no regard for democracy!

May Jesus forgive him and you who voted for him. Because I can’t forgive him or you.

*Gallatin Gateway is twelve miles southwest of Bozeman on the Gallatin River. It is located at the mouth of the canyon on the road leading to Yellowstone National Park.