Paul Thomas Richards SUPERCONGRESS–THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST,
CIRCA 21ST CENTURY:
“ACCIDENTAL DEMOCRAT” BAUCUS
RUNS THE PARTY AGROUND
AND BANKRUPTS THE COUNTRY
On June 7, 2001, as the Marine Corps Band played “Hail to the Chief,” President George W. Bush strutted into the White House East Room to sign the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001,” effectively robbing $1.35 trillion from governmental treasuries to hand out, reverse-Robin-Hood-style, to multimillionaires and billionaires.
The unelected president signed every letter in his name with a different pen, each given to key Congressional supporters as mementos. One of the first pens went to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (Corporate D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate’s powerful Finance Committee, who betrayed his own party by carrying Republican tax cuts for the UltraRich through the Senate, then split 50-50. It was the proudest and most significant achievement in Baucus’ then-27-year Congressional career.
IF PHOTO DOES NOT APPEAR ON THIS PAGE, PLEASE: CLICK HERE.
President George W. Bush signing the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001” in the White House East Room, June 7, 2001.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (Corporate Democrat-Mont.), smiling, is at far right.
(“Public domain” photo courtesy of “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States,” a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office)
“Every day it looks like a better and better decision,” Baucus said at the June 2001 White House ceremony, referring to the onslaught of class warfare that he, Bush, and Cheney had so successfully unleashed. “In many respects, I think, politically, I helped the party. We Democrats would have been in trouble in 2002 just saying ‘no’ to every one of the president’s proposals.”
Political observers cringed when Baucus, from a wealthy preeminent Republican family whose members heretofore had all run for state and federal offices as Republicans, claimed the Democratic Party as his own.
Never involved in the party before first attaining elected office, Baucus was an accidental Democrat at best, heeding advisors who bluntly told him he would not be elected to a state legislative seat in 1972 from Missoula, Montana’s most progressive city, unless he ran as a Democrat.
When the U.S. Supreme Court (zero percent jurisdiction over Florida’s state election laws) relied on John Ellis, George W. Bush’s cousin, paid by Fox (Faux) “News” to arbitrarily, but officially, “call” the election for Bush before votes had been counted; ordered the State of Florida (100 percent jurisdiction over Florida’s election law) to stop counting votes in the 2000 general election; forced the State of Florida to declare George W. Bush had somehow won in Florida, despite the wholesale absence of accurate vote tabulations; and then unConstitutionally appointed George W. Bush, the loser, as president, and Dick Cheney, the loser, as vice-president:
Most Americans hoped and prayed that, since Bush and Cheney were never elected, they would extend olive branches to Democrats, who held the evenly-divided Senate.
But, with Corporate Democrat Baucus–now the fourth most powerful person in Washington, D.C.–firmly in the Bush/Cheney camp, chopping Bush’s firewood, and carrying Bush’s tax subsidies for billionaires–those hopes were dashed.
“As President-elect (sic) Bush has made very clear, he ran on a particular platform that was very carefully developed,” said vice-president appointee Dick Cheney.
“It’s his program, it’s his agenda, and we have no intention at all of backing off of it. It’s why we got elected (sic). So, we’re going to aggressively pursue tax changes, tax reform, tax cuts, because it’s important to do so. The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs; I just think is silly,” Cheney concluded.
As non-Baucus Democrats predicted, the Bush/Cheney/Baucus tax cuts eviscerated budget surpluses from the Clinton era, eliminated the entire $5.6 trillion surplus predicted for the next eight years, and burgeoned the federal deficit by 51 percent.
In early 2007, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found tax rates for middle-income Americans climbed upwards in 2004, the most recent year for which data were available, while tax rates for higher-income Americans declined under the Bush/Baucus tax cuts.
“TOO BIG TO FAIL:”
With SO MANY massive taxpayer-funded “Bailouts” and “Subsidies”—ALL Paramountly Antithetical to “Free Market Capitalism”—so generously provided by low and middle income taxpayers to SO MANY “Too Big to Fail” Wall Street firms; bankers; insurers; inside traders; hedge funders; debt-to-equity leveragers; short-sellers; sub-prime mortgagers; GSE (“Government-Sponsored Enterprises,” such as “Fannie Mae” and “Freddie Mac” ) housing “bubblers” (bubble blowers and bubble bursters; sometimes in tandem, sometimes at each other’s throats); tax dodgers; collateralized-debt-obligation con artists; ill-informed boosters; speculating swindlers; corrupt loophole-creating lawyers and loophole-exploiting lobbyists; worthless “credit derivatives” promoters; toxic “assets” peddlers; default bettors; Ponzi schemers; offshore “investment” banksters; money launderers; amazingly creative and immoral bookkeepers with “accounting” pliable enough to fit any intent or circumstance; insurance, banking, savings and loans, and auto industry CEOs, CFOs, COOs; and unethical officers and board members that collectively comprise “The Richest One Percent Club:” What follows could be questioned.
But, careful review of data shows the Bush/Cheney/Baucus tax subsidies for the UltraRich as perhaps the greatest transfer of wealth and power in the shortest amount of time, from low-to-middle income Americans to multimillionaires and billionaires, ever accomplished in America; possibly excluding the Congressional land grants (giveaways) in the second half of the 1800s of 200 million acres of public land to railroads, the then-largest corporate powers with the most clout in Congress.
THE RICHEST ONE PERCENT GET RICHER:
Those earning more than $1 million a year saw their taxes drop the most, with the largest subsidies going to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, who reaped averages of $100,000 a year.
The rich clearly get richer, especially those lucky and so very elusive “Job Creators.” This carefully-chosen moniker is purposeful: Fundamentalists and Apocalyptic Christians now leading the Republican Party just LOVE iconic God-like imagery.
Far-right strategists understand that strong so-called “Christian values” messaging and consistent utilization of such “sanctified” language ultimately mean far less resistance from spineless Democrats.
WHILE 99 PERCENT GET POORER:
The fact that low and middle income taxpayers further subsidizing the richest one percent of Americans does NOT create ANY new jobs doesn’t matter a whit. What matters is public perception!
BUSH AND BAUCUS TANK THE NATION’S ECONOMY:
In 2010, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service projected 10-year revenue losses from the Bush/Cheney/Baucus tax subsidies to One Percenters at $2.9 trillion, with an additional $606 billion in interest, for a combined total of $3.5 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office in 2010 estimated extending the Bush/Baucus tax subsidies for the wealthy from 2011 to 2020 would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt, comprising of $2.65 trillion in foregone tax revenue plus another $660 billion for interest and debt service costs.
BAUCUS REAPS THE DIVIDENDS:
While the nation foundered under the enormous losses incurred by Bush’s, Cheney’s, and Baucus’ tax subsidies for multimillionaires and billionaires; Baucus’ gambit paid off handsomely for himself. The Senate isn’t called “The Millionaires’ Club” for nothing. Every Senator getting backdoor pay increases of $100,000 a year is peachy keen! That’s another hundred grand “spending around town” cash, about which taxpayers and other suckers will never know, into each Senator’s already-bulging wallet or purse.
Beyond personal enrichment, as the federal budget surplus began disappearing and the deficit steadily climbed, Baucus raked in more special-interest cash than any other senator, according to a 2006 Public Citizen report that reviewed the years 1999 to 2005.
“WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS”–BAUCUS SPENDS $34.46 PER VOTE!
For his 2008 reelection, Baucus extracted an astounding $12 million from K Street lobbyists for Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Finance, and other industries Baucus “regulates,” as chairman of the canonical U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Actual Montanans (remember them?) shelled out a full 5 percent of “their” U.S. Senate candidate’s funding. After all was said and done, Baucus had spent a mind-boggling $34.46 per vote!
Before the “batshit crazy” U.S. Supreme Court appointments of Bush and Cheney; Democrats represented people, while Republicans represented money. That all changed with Baucus, the raised-rich-and-Republican accidental Democrat holding the fourth most powerful position in Bush’s and Cheney’s Washington, D.C.
Baucus lowered the bar to where pro-corporate alleged “Democrats” now represent money just as obsessively and venally as Republicans. Forget Democracy. Now, it’s strictly “Pay to Play.” Should they protest, The People be damned! Let them eat cake…
CAN YOU SAY: COUP D’ÉTAT?
To ensure deification of plutocracy, the increasingly “activist” U.S. Supreme Court pushed Democracy off the precipice: UnConstitutionally interfering with a state’s election laws; stopping that state from counting its votes for president; and, then, unilaterally appointing the loser of the 2000 election as president was as blatant as a brass knuckled sucker-punching groin-kicking coup d’état can get.
A truer gentleman, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, wrote, in mourning: “What must underlie petitioners’ entire federal assault on the Florida election procedures is an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions if the vote count were to proceed. Otherwise, their position is wholly without merit. The endorsement of that position by the majority of this Court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land.”
BUSH THE UNELECTED’S PERMANENT STATE OF WAR:
With the nonelected “chickenhawks” Bush, Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld, their erratic recycled “Cold Warrior” Secretary of Defense/War, promoting wars everywhere at all times against everybody, bills piled up big-time.
It costs a lot to train, install, and then continually bribe every dictator! Just ask our past carefully-recruited and extensively funded CIA “assets:” Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
As for American military forces occupying between 130 and 140 foreign countries; damn straight these countries have the oil and gas, pipelines, forests, water, minerals, and other amenities we need to pay for our eternally carrying the “White Man’s Burden”!
If you dared question the panicked Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Fox/Murdoch insanity/inanity of the day—If you dared represent Truth: The United States regularly recruits, hires, trains, funds, and arms the likes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden worldwide; there were no WMDs, no al-Qaeda links, and no enriched uranium in Iraq; Osama bin Laden was not in Afghanistan; the planned invasions of Columbia and Iran were as overtly stupid and unwinnable as invading and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan; you were harshly and publicly judged an “enemy,” even a “terrorist,” to be attacked, censored, censured, kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered; all with no arraignment, counsel or trial.
BUSH THE UNELECTED REPEALS 900 YEARS OF CIVILIZED LAW:
Bush the Unelected revoked civilized law, when he repealed habeas corpus, guaranteed by the Magna Carta 900 years ago: “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land.”
BUSH THE UNELECTED VIOLATES GENEVA CONVENTIONS.
BUSH THE UNELECTED PROMOTES WIDESPREAD TORTURE AND ABUSE OF WAR VICTIMS AND PRISONERS:
Bush the Uneleced desecrated nearly-unanimous worldwide sympathy extended to the United States after the tragedies of September 11, 2001; by authorizing routine torture and abuse of prisoners–most of them noncombatants–in direct violation of four Geneva Convention Treaties signed by the United States and of three other Geneva Protocols that govern treatment of war victims and prisoners.
BUSH THE UNELECTED REJECTS 235 YEARS OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE:
Bush the Unelected insulted every independent-thinking person in the World when, on September 20, 2001, he told a joint session of the U.S. Congress: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
Bush the Unelected shocked every man and woman in uniform by ordering the terrorists to “bring it on!”
NONELECTED “CHICKENHAWK” COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF INVITES ENEMIES TO ATTACK U.S. TROOPS!
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) said he couldn’t believe Bush’s “irresponsible and inciteful” (inciting) language.
“I am shaking my head in disbelief,” Lautenberg said. “When I served in the Army in Europe during World War II, I never heard any military commander—let alone the Commander-in-Chief—invite enemies to attack U.S. Troops!”
As for the closest chain of command, how could brave soldiers NOT be stirred into battle by Chickenhawk Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld’s inspirational, lucid, and motivational eloquence? “There are known knowns,” Rumsfeld carefully explained on February 12, 2002. “There are things we know we know,” he continued. “We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know, but there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don’t know, we don’t know.” 4
OBAMA AND DEMOCRATS EMBRACE BUSH’S AND CHENEY’S INFAMOUS “DARK SIDE”:
Aerial bombardments of anything; tortures and black ops everywhere; black budgets and black bases anywhere; targeted assassinations against whomever we don’t like at the moment; massive prisons out in the middle of nowhere holding thousands of people proven guilty of nothing; and other perversities conjured by Dick Cheney’s infamous “Dark Side” are now the norm.
The change in administrations from Bush/Cheney to Barack Obama/Joe Biden has meant nothing. Contrary to oft-declared and much-appreciated campaign promises; Guantanamo remains open, torture continues unabated worldwide, and wars, up a couple more in Africa, continue, with Afghanistan now the U.S.A.’s longest war, costing half a trillion dollars.5
President Obama’s Military/Industrial/Surveillance Complex now captures and stores two billion of Americans’ private e-mails and telephone calls a day, reports the New Yorker.
NO DEMOCRACY ABROAD EQUALS NO DEMOCRACY AT HOME:
Do Indigenous Peoples particularly enjoy being militarily occupied by ham-handed Americans determined to steal their resources?
If not, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Obama, and Baucus are right: To ensure resources for the One Percenters to maintain their coveted livestyle; low-to-middle income Americans must forever finance endless wars against infinite enemies abroad–Not only with their hard-earned money, but with their crimson blood; because military enlistment is the ONLY way most low-income and middle-income folks can get access to decent health care and post-high school educations.
As for the needy back in the “HomeLand”–Bush’s, Cheney’s, and Rumsfeld’s Nazi-esque jargon, so heartwarming for them, so heartrending for us—Obama, his henchmen Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina, Baucus, and other pro-Corporate weak-kneed “Democrats” apparently believe the public must quit “whining” (yes, that’s the word they use) and appreciate unAmerican Corporate personhood, ultimate Corporate dictatorships, and a domestic police state enforced by heavily-armed right-wing paramilitary “SWAT Teams” and clandestine “Drug Task Forces” controlling every American community.
EMPIRE AND DEMOCRACY ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
So, now we have a “SuperCongress”6 of dubious Constitutionality, comprised of “SuperPeople,” (aka: Severely-compromised out of touch “Entitled Aristocrats,” like Baucus and Congress’ many other multimillionaires), that is meeting in secret behind closed doors, cutting deals, and setting things right.
Will the “SuperCongress:”
1. Defund the Military/Industrial/Surveillance Complex’s endless countless overseas wars against civilian populations and infrastructures; and restore all of these so-very-desperately-needed funds back to domestic U.S. priorities, such as: Education, nutrition, health care, clean air, pure water, and mass transit?
2. Most importantly: Restore civilian rule back to the United States of America, by reasserting Congress’ Constitutional powers to stop illegal presidential and bureaucratic war-making and to impeach Big Money’s disastrous “bought-and-paid-for” “activist” U.S. Supreme Court for halting a general election; unConstitutionally appointing a favored family friend, far too stupid to earn the position, as President; subverting our Constitution and slogging ever-deeper into dead-end Corporate fascism; a paramilitary police state FAR more invasive than anything previously imagined by even the most paranoid?
Will Washington D.C. politicians “Do the Right Thing,” just as DC comics’ heroes or even stars in Spike Lee films? Does former Nazi and Inquisition leader, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, now calling himself Pope Benedict XVI, shit in the woods?
FEDERAL BUDGET/SUPERCONGRESS SPOILER ALERT:
FORGET ALL BIBLICAL NONSENSE ABOUT “PLOWSHARES!” 7
THE SMART MONEY IS INTO “SWORDS!” 7
The United States of America spend more money on war than all other countries combined.
Don’t expect Baucus, Obama, or any “SuperCongress”6 to address the two-thirds (66 percent) of our federal budget devoted to killing people; occupying their countries with 1,000 military bases; and protecting Big Oil, the rich Corporatocracy, Big Media, and their wholly-owned subsidiaries— Congress, Supreme Court, President, and their farcical Tweedledum-Tweedledee Democrat-Republican duopoly.
It should be noted that, in their federal budget analyses, the fiercest Berserkers against government deficits and federal debt–Tea Partiers, Fox “News,” and other far right wingers–REFUSE to acknowledge paying off massive interest, continually accruing from expenditures on prior wars, killings, invasions, and occupations; as part of the federal budget.
So, their “heads-permanently-stuck-in-the-sand” figures run closer to 60 percent of the budget for present and future killings. The most dishonest, like Fox, cook the books even further, jimmying down the costs of so many wars-without-end, by tossing Social Security, an entirely separate budget, into the mix. (Adding unconceivable hypocrisy, the most Patriarchal right-wing Americans: War-demanding Apocalyptic Christians and war-loving Fundamentalist Christians consider themselves strongly “pro-life.”)
On the other hand, well-informed experts in the field peg war and military expenditures at about 70 percent of the total federal budget; when interest past due and “black operations” are factored.
In truth, there is no definitive percentage, as Congress is not informed on black operations and black operations’ costs are never exposed. The public never knows where we are building dozens of top secret black ops bases. These black ops bases never appear on maps and their budgets are never subjected to Congressional approval.
In general, once a country is occupied with covert black ops bases, the chances are minimal those bases will ever close and maximal that overt warfare against that country’s and/or adjacent countries’ civilian populations and infrastructures will soon commence.
THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES:
As for early-20th Century American labor organizers’ cries for “Bread and Roses,” both are most certainly “off the table,” to use the odious term with which “Big Pharma Baucus” Imperially and immediately dismissed public health care options preferred by most Americans.
Baucus’ years-long arrogance against the public; his so-extremely-painful-to-witness public fumbling and bungling of health care; his steadfast devotion to subsidizing billionaires and TOTAL public revulsion against Baucus’ last-second desperate attempts to force a 1,900-plus-page bill containing $1.27 trillion of pure adulterated “pork” (well, “lard,” actually) through the final days of the 2010 Democratic Congress were everything the Republicans needed to take over the U.S. House in 2011, capture the Democrats’ now- rudderless, meaningless, and dysfunctional U.S. Senate; and even the White House in the 2012 elections; with Baucus, the $12-million man himself, biting the dust in November 2014.
SO, GUNS GALORE “ARMAMENTS ‘R US” U.S.A. HAS NO BREAD AND NO ROSES.
Just bereaved pensioners; homeless vets; disabled and elderly Medicare and Medicaid patients; countless millions suffering from joblessness, depression and mental illness, poor education, no mass transit, no health care, minimal nutrition with 45 million Americans relying on Food Stamps (now called “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” or “SNAP”), and upon winter heating assistance for their very survival; desperately clawing and fighting amongst themselves for the crumbs from the One Percenters’ tables, as if their very lives depended upon it. For, they do.
EXPECT NO RELIEF FROM ACTIVIST U.S. SUPREME COURT:
Relief is nowhere in sight. The now alarmingly “activist” U.S. Supreme Court remains permanently stuck in “batshit crazy” mode, ruling that: Whoever has the most money has the most “ free speech;” Big Government owns and controls every female American’s womb; Big Government has the right to dictate IF fully-informed, consenting adult Americans can love, WHO we love, and HOW we love. Under the falangist Scalia Court, Big Government even proscribes if we marry and who we must choose as spouses!
According to today’s “activist” U.S. Supreme Court, the miracle of Life itself can now be patented, owned, and exploited by Big Corporations–taking both immorality and slavery to extremes not seen since 1857, when the Supreme Court ruled, seven-to-two, that Americans of discernible African descent were ineligible for citizenship in the United States of America, “the Land of the Free.”
To notorious One Percenters like Supreme Court Justices Scalia, Alito, Roberts, that creepy brain-dead black guy, and their ilk: Americans of color are not people; but Corporations of any stripe ARE people!
Yes, these decadent off-shores-based transnational unAmerican Corporations sucking the life’s blood from our dying American Empire and our own polluted, corrupted nation; are somehow actual living, breathing “people,” with all inherent Constitutional privileges of “personhood;” BUT―quite conveniently―NO accompanying unsavory liabilities of us mere mortals, such as paying taxes or dying!
BIG NEWS—DEMOCRATS HAVE GIVEN UP REPRESENTING THE PEOPLE!
It is hardly news that inmates have taken over the asylum on the Potomac.
But, it is indeed news that Democrats, so perfectly bovine in blissful and wholesale denial of the inevitable butchering sure to ensue, have now given up representing the People; instead preferring corpulence, so generously proffered at copious corporate feedlots.
CRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Robert Francis Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have no clue who these corporate-shilling so-called “Democrat” Pretenders are; spending an obscene $34.46 for every single vote!
FDR, JFK, RFK, and MLK would never believe their beloved America, in the greatly-anticipated 21st Century, is now a country where poor people starve, can’t get homes or jobs, can’t receive good educations or medical care, and ultimately die; due to so many, many, many resources diverted to endless overseas invasions, wars, and military occupations; all loyally facilitated by cheerleading and obfuscation from Big Media–directly owned by defense contractors or fully controlled through interlocking boards and staffs from the Military/Industrial/Surveillance Complex’s perpetual war machine.
BAUCUS DILIGENTLY MAINTAINS THE STATUS QUO:
But, hey, inside the Beltway, the rich are just fine, thank you very much.
U.S. Sen. Baucus (Corporate D-Mont.) is now ranked by GQ Magazine as the fourth most powerful person in Washington, D.C.
“He may represent a state populated by only 967,000 people,” writes GQ, “but as chairman of the committee that controls the money and as the recipient of very large amounts of lobbying dollars per citizen represented, Baucus controls the fate of every bill to affect all 300 million Americans.
“Health care? Cap and trade? Light rail? All roads lead through Baucus. Although he has a reputation for not playing nice with fellow senators, when the White House hires staff partly because of their close ties to him, he has all the friends he needs,” concluded GQ, referring to Jim Messina, who GQ ranked as 25th most powerful; served as Baucus’ Chief of Staff, President Barack Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and, ominously, is now campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.
In an “only-inside-the-Beltway” absurdity comparable to Obama’s hiring Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner to straighten out economic chaos they created; corporate Democrat Baucus, still doling out $3.3 trillion to $3.5 trillion of taxpayer-provided subsidies to America’s multimillionaires and billionaires, is now the key player in the 12-member “Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction,” or “SuperCongress,”6 charged with cutting at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY?
To date, Baucus has expressed no regrets or apologies for his pivotal role in defunding local, state, and federal governments; limitless funding for the One Percenters, with all their “Too Big to Fail” scams; and other lobbyists-concocted schemes that bankrupted the country and caused economic tailspins worldwide.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY?
As for public accountability for what Bush, Cheney, and Baucus did in 2001: Forget it. Experienced reporters with the prerequisite skills to handle this story were fired, laid off, or bought out years ago.
With extremely few exceptions; Corporate media, purposefully preoccupied with cheap, tawdry, mind-numbing “McNews,” “LifeStyles,” unbridled celebrity gossip, ad nauseam; have left this whole sordid story of the enormous costs of subsidizing the Wealthy and enforcing their Corporate Imperialism and dictatorships across the globe uncovered.
Why stir a hornet’s nest? It will just upset their Big Media/Big Military/Big Everything bosses; considerably enriched by and quite grateful for the grandiose “cover” provided by Bush’s, Cheney’s, and Baucus’ trillions in tax subsidies and resultant “Class Wars,” for which Corporate Media happily blame America’s 99 Percenters; hapless victims all.
BIG MEDIA ARE THE ONE PERCENTERS!
There is no more “news” in Big Corporate Media; just as there are no more “beats,” with no more well-informed “reporters” covering them.
Instead, “talking points” are established by Big Media, big advertisers, and the anti-democratic “military-industrial complex” so accurately described by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his phenomenally prescient “Farewell Address,” delivered January 17, 1961, during his final days as President.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex,” warned President Eisenhower, the only military general elected president during the 20th Century.
“The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
“We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together,” concluded Eisenhower in his final statement as president. 8
GENERAL ELECTRIC’S NEWS DIVISION:
For example, do you really think General Electric’s Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, or any other interchangeable GE Talking Head (GE’s first prominent Talking Head was a washed-up 1930s broadcaster and 1940s B movie actor named Ronald Reagan, who morphed into GE’s highly-paid bunkum huckster from 1954 to 1962), is going to tell you that GE, a principle “defense” contractor, nuclear weapons builder, and arms exporter that receives billions from our government, paid NO taxes in 2010 on $5 billion in U.S. profits and $14.2 billion in worldwide profits?
How about GE/NBC flacks Brokaw or Williams disclosing that, even though it paid no taxes, GE milked $4.7 billion in tax subsidies in 2008, 2009, and 2010; from actual U.S. taxpayers. Attention 99 Percenters: That’s US!
Or, can we count on GE’s “news” sycophants letting us know that five top GE executives paid themselves annual salaries totaling $75.9 million in 2010? Or, will GE’s “news” division even let us know how much it pays Williams to spin the news (approximated at $10 million annually)?
Some news outlets (not GE’s NBC, of course) did point out that, more than 40 years ago, GE was alerted by its own in-house engineers about severe dangers posed by the six nuclear power plants GE designed for the coastline of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. As experts so accurately predicted, in March 2011, the Fukushima nuclear reactors exploded and experienced core meltdowns, in the world’s greatest nuclear power disaster since the spring 1986 fires, explosions, and reactor meltdowns at Chernobyl, Ukraine.
To summarize: Can you say the word: “Meltdown”? Brokaw and Williams can’t. Or, won’t. You get the idea.
TALKING HEADS’ TALKING POINTS:
President Eisenhower’s stern warnings notwithstanding, Big Media’s “talking point” edicts are sent down the food chain to poorly-paid and badly-treated minions, with strict orders to stay “on message.” Those that don’t or who occasionally lapse into vestigial ethics are summarily fired.
As a result, the young and preciously naïve MBAs now running corporate newsrooms actually consider nuclear power safe. They are one in believing, as the delusional Cheney (refer to above quotes), that Bush and Cheney were actually elected or that Afghanistan can actually be conquered.
VELVEETA NEWS:
These purposefully ill-informed publishers and editors quaintly refer to their totally-demoralized and highly-transient reporters-converted-into-stenographers as: “content providers.”
Instead of working what-used-to-be-their “beats,” Big Media’s absurdly few surviving “content providers” haunt increasingly smaller and ever-more-cloistered newsrooms; cynically keeping each other “on message;” eternally copying, cutting, pasting, and “processing” their corporate “product,” “content,” “filler,” or whatever other trash is so generously tossed their way by extravagantly-compensated corporate flacks; back-stabbing pundits; other Beltway insiders and lobbyists; Big Media’s soothsayers; Big Military’s current and retired Top Brass; “embedded” (in-bedded) so-called “journalists;” unAmerican Corporations with whom Big Media and Big Military incestuously merge; celebrities’ public relations personnel; and politicians’ myriad spin doctors.
DEMOCRATS FRAUDULENTLY BLAME “TEA PARTY” FOR ECONOMIC DISASTER―NOT BAUCUS!
Democrats now fraudulently blame the nascent Big Oil-f unded “Tea Party,” which didn’t even exist when Baucus carried Bush’s tax subsidies for billionaires through the U.S. Senate, for the country’s financial meltdown and resultant downgrading of the U.S.A.’s credit rating!
In a September 26, 2011, fund-raising letter that fails entirely to mention the radical economic shifts and exponential rippling that Bush and Baucus are bringing down upon us all with their 2001 tax breaks for billionaires, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), reproves: “The recent ‘Tea Party downgrade’ of our credit rating is the last straw!”
“No matter what they say, the Republican plan is just George W. Bush all over again,” claims Reid, as he asks for even more money from loyal but ever-so-ignorant Democrats to stop “the GOP’s radical agenda. More wasteful tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, more special giveaways to special interests, and still no help for working families.”
BIG MEDIA’S ECHO CHAMBER:
Media stenographers, sans Fox of course, dutifully report Democrats’ false allegations that everything is the “Tea Party’s” fault, with no reference to corporate Democrat Baucus’ seminal persona.
After work, Corporate Media’s ever-diminishing staffers, clinging by their very fingernails to miserable always-on-the-chopping-block corporate jobs, partake in enough alcohol or THC to temporarily anesthetize their complicities.
If it were only 20 years earlier, they could tune into The Tonight Show on NBC and watch Johnny Carson’s late night comedic character “Carnac the Magnificent,” who answered questions before even seeing or hearing them, utilize his amazing psychic abilities to predict the following, come late-November:
LOOT AND BOUNTY APLENTY SPELL MUNIFICENT THANKSGIVINGS FOR BILLIONAIRES AND, OF COURSE, CONGRESS;
LUMPS OF COAL FOR THE LUCKIEST YOUNG, JOBLESS, POOR, SICK, HOMELESS, ELDERLY, AND DISABLED AMERICANS;
NADA FOR THE REST; AND
EVERMORE BLANK CHECKS FOR WARS, BOMBS, INVASIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND KILLINGS.
Baucus’ “SuperCongress”6 must report to both House and Senate by November 23, 2011, with both houses constrained to “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” and no filibusters or amendments allowed.
©2011, Paul Thomas Richards
EDITOR’S NOTES:
1. Please stay tuned for future installments of “The Best and the Brightest, Circa 21st Century” and Dispatches from the Wildlands™, when we begin exploring Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ favorite “pork.” Having undergone 11 surgeries in recent years, I need financial help to conduct this needed research. I welcome any and all support from inquisitive fans and readers, editors, agents, and publishers committed to accountability for public officials and government. Please contact me at: Paul@PRMediaConsultants.com .
2. RE: “The Best and the Brightest.” In 2001, Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter David Halberstam (1934 – 2007) said he named his 1972 classic about the United States’ wars against Southeast Asia, “The Best and the Brightest,” to refer to military, industry, and political insiders who, instead of diplomacy, insisted on “brilliant policies that defied common sense.” (These policies included: Massacres; “carpet bombings;” killing entire forests, forest inhabitants, and watersheds throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos with deadly toxins; destroying most agricultural, civilian and religious infrastructures, including vital dikes and waterways thousands of years in the making; draining and mining rice paddies and other agricultural lands; slaughtering water buffaloes (the Vietnamese “tractors”); forcing farmers and other rural Vietnamese into concentration camps (or, in CIA-speak: “strategic hamlets”); drug running; tortures; assassinations; and other terrorism against civilian populations).
3. A significantly shorter version of this piece appeared in the monthly news magazine, In These Times.
4. Slate has compiled a collection of what Slate calls Rumsfeld’s “Poems,” containing Rumsfeld’s exact quotes, every bit as lucid as the above, from official transcripts. Political masochists CLICK HERE for more of Rumsfeld’s imaginative wisdom.
5. For up-to-the-minute costs of American wars since 2001, go to: http://costofwar.com/en/.
6. Since no amendments will be allowed and all other publicly-elected senators and congressional representatives are excluded from all decision-making; this possibly unConstitutional, or, at the very least, extraConstitutional “SuperCongress,” or “Super Congress” is far more powerful than any type of Congressional “committee,” “SuperCommittee,” or “Super Committee” —All terms preferred by Big Corporate Media, since their use of “Committee” conveys false impressions of public participation and accountability.
7. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah II: Verse IV).
8. Not only were Gen. Eisenhower’s January 17, 1961, “Farewell Address” forewarnings about the Military/Industrial Complex prescient, they were extremely significant historically.
Almost 166 years earlier, America’s first great military leader, General George Washington, named President by unanimous consent from both the Constitutional Convention and Electoral College, had also warned Congress against “Pretended Patriotism,” Foreign Wars, and “Mischiefs of Foreign Intrigue.”
Gen. Washington, the American Colonies’ most prominent leader in their successful Revolution against the monopolistic and dictatorial “British East India Company,” then one of the world’s largest “mega-corporations,” knew, from a lifetime of first-hand experiences, the extreme dangers of war.
So, on September 19, 1796, as the new United States of America’s first retiring President, Gen. Washington, in his own seminal “Farewell Address” also cautioned Congress about ill-advised foreign wars:
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican Government.
“But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it.
“Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other.
“Real Patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
“Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world;—so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it;—for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements.
“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.—I repeat it therefore let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense.—But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
“In offering to you, my Countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression, I could wish,—that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our Nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of Nations.
“But if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit; some occasional good, that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism, this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.”
9. A journalist with more than 44 years’ experience, Paul Thomas Richards has covered politics and resource issues in the American West since 1968, serving as editor or co-editor of three newspapers, newsman and editor for The Associated Press, and elections manager for The AP, UPI, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. Richards founded and produced a successful radio news network; founded and hosted a political television interview program; founded and managed a news service for weekly newspapers; and authored a syndicated political column.
Richards owns a leading consulting firm for nonprofit organizations and Indigenous Peoples, PR Media Consultants®, Public Interest Media Since 1968™, near the community of Boulder, Mont.; works as a professional writer and editor; and contributes Dispatches from the Wildlands™, located on-line at: http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/ to AlterNet.
More Dispatches from the Wildlands™ at: http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/
Biographical information at: http://www.PRMediaConsultants.com
More biographical information at: http://www.Richards2006.us
COMING SOON! Watch for: http://www.DispatchesfromtheWildlands.info
“In Wildness is the Preservation of the World.”
Henry David Thoreau
April 23, 1851; Concord, Massachusetts
Paul Thomas Richards Legendary American Folksinger, Backcountry Traveler,
and Wilderness Advocate
James “Walkin’ Jim” Stoltz
Returns to Earth
Legendary American folksinger, backcountry traveler, and wilderness advocate James “Walkin’ Jim” Stoltz passed late Friday night, September 3, 2010, at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, Montana.
Stoltz, age 57, a veteran performer for 35 years with 12 CDs, one DVD and several books to his credit, earned his nickname “Walkin’ Jim,” by hiking more than 28,000 miles through wild country in North America. Packing a guitar and penning extraordinary lyrics along the trails, Walkin’ Jim’s always-humble-yet-strikingly-powerful songs voiced enormous respect and appreciation for the Earth, its wild places, and the wild critters that he carefully studied and truly adored.
A one-of-a-kind performer known for his powerful baritone timbre, stunning photography, humorous and elucidative stories, inspirational poetry, literally awesome lyrics, and emotion-packed vocals, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz toured extensively throughout North America for more than 35 years. His last public performance in Montana, where he lived, was on March 6, 2010, in Missoula, where he played a benefit concert and celebration for the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign and Wilderness Watch.
In addition to being a co-founder of the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz co-founded Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) to raise funds for designating unprotected public roadless wildlands as official Wilderness, award grants to grassroots conservation organizations, and to “utilize music to promote environmental awareness and protection of wild lands, wild waters, and wild lives. We are particularly interested in efforts to protect endangered or threatened species, protection of our nation’s waters, and preserving and restoring wildland habitats. Environmental education for our young — the soon-to-be stewards of our natural heritage – is also very important to us,” Walkin’ Jim wrote when he founded the group with Craig Wagner in 1998. Walkin’ Jim staffed Musicians United to Sustain the Environment until his death.
Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) features such luminaries as Dakota Sid Clifford, Craig Wagner, Joanne Rand, Magpie, Libby Roderick, Paul Winter, Dana Lyons, Susan Grace, Karen Goldberg, Alice Di Micele, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz, David Elias, Joyce Rouse, Peter and Lou Berryman, Lydia Adams Davis, John McCutcheon, Larry Long, Country Joe McDonald, Casey Neill, Jez Lowe, Kate Bennett, Katherine Archer, Keith Hammer, Leah Wolfsong, Pete Seeger, Steve Schuch, Kat Eggleston, Bill Oliver, Tom Vincent, Betty and the Baby Boomers, Dean Stevens, Cindy Kallet, Tom Paxton, Tish Hinojosa, Gordon Bok, Emma’s Revolution, Bob Zentz, Josh White, Jr., and Paul Todd.
Grassroots conservation groups that have received grants from MUSE include: Hells Canyon Preservation Council, Friends of the Clearwater, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Swan View Coalition, Center for Environmental Equity, Friends of the Bitterroot, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance (now called Conservation Northwest), Native Forest Network, Wild Things Unlimited, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, Predator Conservation Alliance (now called Keystone Conservation), American Wildlands, RESTORE The North Woods, Big Sky Wildcare, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Conservation Leader’s Network, Western Watersheds Project, Endangered Species Coalition, The Heartwood Forest Council, and Forever Wild.
In 2006, beset by cancer, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz organized a 45-state outreach tour with other musicians and authors (many from MUSE), and worked with hundreds of community organizations to support clean water and to protect all public roadless wildlands and their dependent wildlife species. In tribute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored Stoltz with its “Outstanding Achievement Award” for his advocacy for nature and Wilderness across America.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz was featured on radio and television shows and syndicated programs throughout North America, including National Public Radio in the United States and CBC/Radio-Canada.
CDs, DVDs, Books, Gift Cards, Free Songs, Chords, and Lyrics:
Click HERE to listen to full versions of some of Walkin’ Jim’s songs about North American Wildlands.
Click HERE to download up to 14 free songs, straight from the heart of Walkin’ Jim.
Click HERE for one-minute-long clips from many more Walkin’ Jim songs.
Click HERE for lyrics and chords of Walkin’ Jim’s songs.
Children are encouraged to visit “Walkin’ Jim’s Kid’s Corner” by clicking HERE. Click HERE to read TRUE animal stories written by Walkin’ Jim’s many kid fans. Click HERE for the CD that Walkin’ Jim wrote especially for kids (includes the classics: Manfred the Mopey Moose, Slugs and Bugs, It Ain’t Easy Being An Ol’ Grizzly Bear, Pika, Pika , and Wild Things Need Wild Places).
After you are tantalized by the above, click HERE to purchase Walkin’ Jim’s CDs, DVDs, Books, and Gift Cards.
Other Information and Resources:
Wildlands advocates recently dedicated The Walkin’ Jim Hiking Trail, close to Arizona’s Hells Canyon Wilderness and the Center for Biological Diversity featured Walkin’ Jim on its Web site.
Visit Walkin’ Jim’s “Keeping it Wild” Web page in which Jim helps Americans take action to protect their endangered public roadless wildlands legacy.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz was a co-author and dedicated proponent of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) , the “wildest bill on Capitol Hill,” which, when enacted, will designate 24 million acres of our roadless public wildlands legacy in Montana, Idaho, northwestern Wyoming, eastern Washington, and eastern Oregon as Wilderness.
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem is the LAST remaining functioning ecosystem in the lower 49 states where all native species still reside!
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), now co-sponsored by more than 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives (for list, click HERE) and tirelessly promoted by Idaho resident and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carole King, will protect essential habitats for many at-risk species that characterize the Wild Nature of the northern Rockies, such as the gray wolf, bull trout, cutthroat trout (Montana’s official state fish), otter, mountain goat, mountain sheep, elk, arctic grayling, northern goshawk, boreal owl, pileated woodpecker, ferruginous hawk, Montana vole, sage thrasher, wild bison, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, pine marten, fisher, lynx, wolverine, grizzly bear (Montana’s official state animal), and, perhaps Walkin’ Jim’s favorite animal, the pika, an extremely rare species, now endangered by global climate change, that lives only at high altitude rocky mountainsides.
(Many are the parents who have been driven to varying states of joy and madness by their kids’ singing Jim’s “Pika, Pika” song, from his much-loved “A Kid for the Wild” CD, over and over and over and over again.)
In the proud tradition of Montana’s famous conservationist and U.S. Senator, the late Lee Metcalf; NREPA will protect the public’s wildlands, wild animals, big game, pristine watersheds, and fisheries that make living in Montana and the Northern Rockies such a special and rare privilege.
To honor his legacy, Walkin’ Jim’s many friends and fans are already lobbying to name one of the first Wilderness Areas to be created by NREPA the “Walkin’ Jim Wilderness Area.” They contend it doesn’t really matter whether the future “Walkin’ Jim Wilderness Area” is in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, or Oregon as, since Walkin’ Jim hiked through public roadless wildlands in all five states that comprise the Northern Rockies Ecosystem. Although Montana was his home base, Walkin’ Jim was equally loyal to all North American roadless areas, no matter in what state or province they were located.
Observations, Memorials, Tributes, Wakes, Celebrations, and Funeral:
Walkin’ Jim’s family and supportive friends assembled in Helena, Montana, during the first ten days of September 2010. A celebration of Jim’s life was held on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, at the Big Sky Ranch, near the town of Unionville, just southwest of Helena.
For the latest news about this observation, funeral details, memorial funds, tributes, and, possibly sometime in 2011, a celebration of Walkin’ Jim’s life, go to the Walkin’ Jim Web site or click HERE.
To converse and share stories with Walkin’ Jim Stoltz’s friends, family, and fans, go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walkin-Jim-Stoltz/113598525318345?v=desc or: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walkin-Jim-Stoltz/113598525318345?v=stream.
During his prolonged medical care, Walkin’ Jim incurred high bills. Please help Jim’s family defray these extensive medical bills! Click HERE, to make tax-deductible memorial tributes with your credit card to Walkin’ Jim’s Medical Fund. Or, please snail-mail your tax-deductible contributions, accompanied with brief notes explaining your checks are meant to help pay down Walkin’ Jim’s medical expenses, to Musicians United to Sustain the Environment at:
M.U.S.E.
P.O. Box 1512
Helena, MT 59624
Should you require further information, please call Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) at 406-449-6252, or please click HERE to e-mail MUSE. THANK YOU!
Personal Note About A Dear, Dear Friend:
Walkin’ Jim’s life was his ministry. Jim walked the talk and he certainly walked the walk!
Jim consistently lived his life with grace and kindness. Jim reached so many people with his wonderfully creative, courageous, positive, gracious and loving energy! Watching him enthrall elementary school kids about with his stories, tall tales, and intimate knowledge about Wild country and its wild inhabitants is an experience never to be forgotten.
Walkin’ Jim will always be a vital wellspring for humans trying their best to live in symbiosis with Earth. Although we may feel pain with Walkin’ Jim’s passing, his legacy—already pure and luminous—will only grow more compelling, as subsequent generations take up Walkin’ Jim’s vocation and become vigorous spokespersons, musicians, poets, writers, lyricists, guitar players, harmonica players, and singers for our pubic roadless wildlands and Wilderness.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz will always remain our steadfast and true friend. We hold dear so many treasured memories from our time spent with Walkin’ Jim! His sincere, bone-crushing hugs will be forever felt. Our hearts will be continually warmed, every time we experience the Wild that Jim so loved, every time we defend our priceless public wildlands legacy to which Jim devoted his life, every time we ponder Jim’s brilliant poetry and lyrics, every time we hum or sing Jim’s catchy tunes, and every time we again listen to his marvelous voice and heartfelt songs.
Health Complications:
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz had a successful kidney transplant, donated by John Giacalone, on March 16, 2004. In the fall of 2007, Walkin’ Jim learned that he had cancer in his tonsil chords and lymph nodes of his neck. Jim underwent surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The winter of 2007-2008 was a tough one, as expenses piled up and medical bills consumed most of Jim’s financial resources.
In the summer of 2008, with his characteristic indomitability, Walkin’ Jim underwent his own self-prescribed “Wilderness Therapy” and walked 460 miles through the mountains of Idaho and Montana. In 2009, Jim walked an incredible 500-mile loop through the remote mountain ranges of eastern Nevada.
In 2009 and early 2010, Walkin’ Jim toured unwaveringly with his ever-popular “Forever Wild” show, combining live music, story-telling, and poetry with stunning, multi-image slideshows to create a stirring celebration of the natural world.
Photos, taken by Janet Zimmerman and others, from Walkin’ Jim’s March 6, 2010, benefit concert and celebration in Missoula, Montana, for the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign and Wilderness Watch are available upon request.
Walkin’ Jim’s aplomb was such that most of those attending his final Montana concert were unaware of his throat cancer, ensuing surgery, and extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
After Walkin’ Jim returned from his spring 2010 concert tour, doctors in Seattle and Billings found that his cancer has spread. Jim’s bills for hospitals, doctors, tests, high-cost pharmaceuticals, and medical-related travel grew exponentially.
In years past, Walkin’ Jim chose to raise funds to help pay for his kidney transplant through the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF). Thanks to the generosity of Jim’s many friends and fans, those transplant-related expenses have largely been addressed.
Resolving Current Medical Expenses and Bills:
Now, Walkin’ Jim’s family urgently needs Jim’s friends and fans to again help defray extensive medical bills; these costs incurred from Jim’s cancer treatments.
Ways You Can Help:
1. Please click HERE, to make tax-deductible donations with your credit card to Walkin’ Jim’s Medical Fund. Or, snail-mail your tax-deductible contributions to: Musicians United to Sustain the Environment; M.U.S.E.; P.O. Box 1512; Helena, MT 59624. Should you require further information, please call MUSE at 406-449-6252, or please click HERE to e-mail MUSE.
2. Please click HERE to purchase Walkin’ Jim’s CDs, DVDs, Books, and Gift Cards. In addition to enriching your life and spreading Jim’s message to friends, family, and loved ones; your buying Jim’s CDs, DVDs, books, and gift cards will help his family resolve Jim’s high medical bills.
3. Walkin’ Jim’s family may designate other nonprofit organizations to receive donations, tributes, memorials, and contributions to continue Walkin’ Jim’s legacy. Click HERE to keep informed concerning Jim’s family’s decisions and please contribute generously in Jim’s name.
4. If you want to learn more about the general mission of the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF), that helped Walkin’ Jim in the past, click HERE. Through 26 years of service, NTAF has helped more than 4,000 patients raise $64 million for uninsured medical expenses. If you want to contribute to NTAF in Walkin’ Jim’s name, please click HERE. (Please note: These contributions will NOT help pay Walkin’ Jim’s current cancer treatment bills–They will go directly into NTAF’s general fund to help pay medical bills for OTHER uninsured transplant patients who need transplants.) If you want to keep posted about NTAF, subscribe to the organization’s bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, by clicking HERE.
His Spirit is Still on the Run:
As I write this, I listen to Walkin’ Jim’s seminal “Spirit is Still on the Run,” the original classic vinyl album, complete with Jim’s kind personal note inscribed when he gave me the album 26 years ago. The album’s incredible title track describes a young person’s plaintive queries—“What Happened?”
Spirit Is Still On The Run
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Daddy, what ever happened to the old buffalo,
I know they don’t roam here no more,
Because at school today, they say they’ve gone away,
But no one ever says just what for.
Well now listen my son, I’ll tell you how the West was won,
How the herds fell to the big needle guns,
But, the ghosts of them herds still pound o’er the earth,
And, their Spirit is still on the run.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
Daddy, what ever happened to the ol’ grizzly bear,
I know he once roamed the west wide,
But at school today they say he’s pushed back to stay,
In the mountains where he has to hide.
Well, now listen my son, I’ll tell you about these proud ones,
Where they stalk, all others walk small,
But man to his shame, can’t stand the untamed,
And there’s some that wouldn’t have him at all.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
Daddy, what ever happened to the big piney forests,
And the prairies that stretched out like seas,
Because the schoolbooks they say, these were all in the way,
When the settlers come a-swarmin’ like bees,
Now, listen my son, yes, all these have gone,
It’s sad, but it’s not been in vain
Their life’s blood was bought and with the Spirit it brought,
A whole country was born into fame.
(Bridge):
And all that have died or been swept to the side,
They still give us hope every one,
They give us dreams of the free, what has been and can be,
And their Spirit is still on the run.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their Spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
©1984 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz and Lone Coyote Records
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
For those who are not old-timers enamored with bulky turntables and the good ol’ days of vinyl with absolutely gorgeous record jackets that were actually readable, Jim’s “Spirit is Still on the Run” album has been combined with his equally-great “Forever Wild” album into one CD, so you can now buy BOTH albums for only $14 by clicking HERE. In addition to “Spirit is Still on the Run,” this combined CD also includes the Jim’s indispensible sage counsel contained within “I Walk With the Old Ones” and “Follow Your Heart.”
Follow Your Heart:
For an even greater version of “Follow Your Heart,” guaranteed to give you goose bumps, purchase Walkin’ Jim’s “Oh, What A Life” CD, a remarkable live concert recorded before an enraptured audience at Jim’s beloved Lone Mountain Ranch, where, for decades, Jim hosted popular winter sleigh rides and sing-alongs. For an-all-too-brief snippet from this incredible live performance; once again to feel, hear, and touch Jim, click HERE.
Follow Your Heart
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
(VERSE):
In this life that we’re all living with all its twists and turns,
It’s so easy to lose our way, forget the lessons that we learned,
But, the road that leads us on will always bring us back,
Once you’ve walked your own trail, and stepped in your own tracks.
(AUDIENCE HELPS JIM SING THE FOLLOWING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
(VERSE):
Truth is a word, but it’s so often hard to find,
Searchin’ through the mirrors offered up by time
To face it on your own, and to look it in the eye
Will take all you have to give, but ain’t it worth the try.
(AUDIENCE AGAIN HELPS JIM SING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
(VERSE):
Listen to the song of the Earth as she turns,
Bask in the life of the sun as she burns,
Seek out the power in your own minds eye,
Listen to your heart, it’ll teach you by and by.
(AUDIENCE, ONE MORE TIME, HELPS JIM SING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
©1997 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
Forever Wild:
In conclusion, there’s little to say that Walkin’ Jim Stoltz hasn’t already beautifully articulated. Perhaps we should conclude with Walkin’ Jim’s best known anthem, “Forever Wild.”
In 1986, we closed each of our touring “Wild West Exposition” pro-wildlands, pro-Wilderness road shows with this sacred composition. Audiences everywhere always joined the cast of the Wild West Exposition in singing the pleas of Walkin’ Jim’s chorus. At song’s end, as Jim’s final guitar chord resonated and then gradually receded into the absolute stillness of entire crowds held breathless, there were no dry eyes.
Forever Wild
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
There’s a magic in the air, that I feel when I am there,
It plays straight to my heart, and lays it all a’bare,
It’s in the cry of the eagle and the deer so meek and mild,
It’s in the rise of a mountain, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
It’s in all that is not tame, and some that can’t be named,
It’s in the fog down in the valley, and the scent of summer rain,
It’s in the scream of a lion when she’s soundin’ like a child,
It’s in the song of a river, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
Now the Earth it holds the key to all that shall be free,
It’s in the peace of the desert and the wisdom of the trees,
It’s in the grace of a swan’s wing and the grizzly when she’s riled
It’s in all the love I bear it, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
There are those of my own kind, they’re runnin’ fast, but goin’ blind
And the only thing they worship, is their God, the dollar sign
We must fight* them with our Spirit, with our might, and with our guile
We must show them that the answer: It must be Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz on Wild Wind Records
©1986 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music BMI
* Editor’s Note: In his most recent concerts, Walkin’ Jim substituted the word “teach” for “fight.”
Just How Big Is the Heart of Humankind?
Now it is time for us to pause, take deep breaths, say prayers for our dear friend, lovingly and respectfully listen to Walkin’ Jim’s “Oh, What a Life,” downloadable HERE for free, weep, and gratefully allow this magnificent gentle soul to return to Mother Earth.
Oh, What A Life We Could Live
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
There’s an old owl flyin’ free, and he’s callin’ out to me.
What can I tell him as the big trees fall?
And he slips on through the cracks. Oh, I can’t turn my back,
For his kind is our kind, and the writing’s on the wall.
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
There’s a salmon swimmin’ deep, her destiny to keep,
How can I tell her, she’s the last of her kind?
Oh, a thousand times around, from the sea to the spawning ground,
What a cost! What a loss! To all memory, and all Time!
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Bridge):
She wolf howling in the night,
She knows there’s a lesson comin’ soon.
Just how big is the heart of humankind?
Won’t you stand back and give her room?
(Audience now joins Walkin’ Jim on chorus)
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Audience again joins Walkin’ Jim on chorus):
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Just Walkin’ Jim):
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
©1997 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
Legendary Folksinger Walkin' Jim Stoltz Happily Returns to Mother Earth
Jim, thank you for being…..
With the deepest possible love and appreciation,
Your Forever Friend,
Paul Richards
30 Brown’s Gulch Road
Boulder, MT 59632
406-225-4235
Dispatches from the Wildlands:
http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/
(All Walkin’ Jim Stoltz’s Copyrights Accompany His Above Lyrics)
Excepting All of Walkin’ Jim’s Copyrights Above, This Memorial
©201o, Paul Richards, Dispatches from the Wildlands™
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
Henry David Thoreau
Editor’s Note: This eulogy utilizes colored underlined “hyperlinks” known as “Uniform Resource Locators” or “URLs.” A URL is also known as a “domain name” or an “Internet address.” To fully activate and utilize these URLs, just go to the hyperlink and push down on your “Ctrl” or “Control” button on our keyboard and left click your mouse.
Walkin' Jim at Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign Celebration in Missoula, MT, on March 6, 2010. Brett Haverstick, Larry Campbell, Walkin' Jim Stoltz, and Paul Richards. (Photo by Janet Zimmerman).
Paul Thomas Richards Proposed High-Speed Freeway Threatens
Northern Rockies’ Wildlife Linkages from
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to
Greater Glacier/Bob Marshall Ecosystem
By Paul Richards
Many westerners are familiar with Highway 69, the scenic rural route that runs alongside the Boulder River, between the Elkhorn Mountains and Bull Mountain from Boulder to Cardwell. The Boulder Valley is one of Montana’s most beautiful drives, filled with abundant wildlife and breathtaking scenery.
This pastoral scene is gradually turning into a nightmare. Canadian truckers, fully aware that law enforcement on Highway 69 is minimal at best, drive in convoys at speeds up to 85 mph, endangering all local traffic.
For almost 10 years, Boulder Valley residents have petitioned the Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) for a safer Highway 69. We have asked for:
* A pedestrian walkway and bicycle path along the highway’s current route;
* Safe crosswalks at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, Boulder Hot Springs, and other frequently utilized junctions;
* Retention of the valley’s lush aspen and cottonwood;
* Underpasses or overpasses for elk, deer, moose, bear, pronghorn and other wildlife;
* A full-time truck weighing station;
* Lower speed limits for the safety of vehicles, trucks, pedestrians, ranchers and their equipment, bicycles, wildlife and livestock, and
* Strict enforcement of these lower speed limits.
In early 2005, we submitted an official “Citizens’ Alternative” to MDOT Director Jim Lynch and MDOT Butte Division Administrator Jeff Ebert. “MDOT is legally bound to offer a wide range of alternatives,” we wrote. “Any public meetings to discuss alternatives need to have the above alternative before it for consideration.”
MDOT’s response was swift and deadly. At a June 1, 2005, hearing, MDOT presented its “nuclear option” — a new high-speed freeway to be built on the river’s east bench — a stake right through the hearts of all Boulder Valley ranches.
Legally, according to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this was a “scoping” hearing, where MDOT was supposed to receive public comments concerning features we wanted for Highway 69.
But, there was no “hearing.” MDOT never asked what we wanted. And, MDOT never mentioned our “Citizens’ Alternative.”
Instead, MDOT told us that its already-approved “preferred alternative” for a new high-speed international highway corridor was a fait accompli.
Needless to say, MDOT’s circumvention of NEPA, its premature and illegal designation of a “preferred alternative” without any public input; the agency’s violation of state and federal public participation and environmental protection mandates; and its devastating “nuclear option” did not go over particularly well.
More than 100 Boulder Valley residents at the 2005 “hearing” unanimously shouted “NO!”
Now, flash ahead five years to MDOT’s March 23, 2010, hearing. Due to steadfast community opposition, MDOT finally announced it was abandoning its “nuclear option.”
However, in the years between the 2005 and 2010 hearings, NONE of the concerns expressed by area residents have been addressed!
Even though more than 200 residents signed petitions requesting the pedestrian walkway and bike path and even though MDOT promised us in writing in 2008 they would explore this proposal, MDOT did not mention it.
MDOT did not mention safe crosswalks, truck weighing station, lower speed limits, and enforcement of speed limits. On questioning, MDOT said it would take an act of the Legislature to lower vehicular speeds to make our neighborhood safer. That is absolute nonsense.
Instead of strictly-enforced lower speed limits, MDOT actually told us it wants to “speed up” Highway 69, so Canadian truckers can drive faster and get home sooner to spend more time with their wives and kids!
MDOT did not mention wildlife collisions, although the agency’s own in-house data are overwhelming. MDOT refused to discuss underpasses and overpasses, even though studies have deemed them biologically critical to maintain existing wildlife corridors and linkages from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Greater Glacier/Bob Marshall Ecosystem.
MDOT told us “we have to design this highway for morons” who drive too fast for road conditions!
Montana’s magnificent Boulder Valley and the priceless wildlife corridors it provides need your help!
Using the contact information provided below, please tell MDOT that:
1. You support the bicycle and pedestrian path, with well-marked crossings;
2. You support wildlife underpasses and overpasses;
3. Flashing signs alerting motorists to crossings and reduced speed limits have proven effective in Montana’s wildlife-rich Bitterroot Valley on Highway 93, Gallatin Valley on Highway 191, Clark Fork Valley on Highway 200, and Mission Valley on Highway 93 — MDOT must do this in the Boulder Valley on Highway 69;
4. Since the Boulder River is officially “impaired,” MDOT cannot contribute further to its “Total Maximum Daily Loads” or “TMDLs.”
5. Highway 69 is a rural state route, not a U.S. Highway or an Interstate Highway;
6. Highway 69 is not designed for high-speed truck traffic, nor should it be;
7. Nearby and parallel Interstate 15 is the north-south freeway specifically designed for high-speed truck traffic;
8. If MDOT continues its misguided, NAFTA-driven efforts to convert Highway 69 from a pastoral rural route into a high-speed freeway for international truck traffic, the agency must first prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement.
9. The Boulder Valley is a community of sane people that doesn’t need “morons” driving through it at unsafe speeds; and
10. Give Boulder Valley residents, ranchers, kids, pedestrians, bicyclists, and wildlife a brake!
To comment, title your comments “Boulder South EA,” submit them on-line at: http://www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml and http://governor.mt.gov/contact/commentsform.asp ; e-mail them to jebert@mt.gov ; dwambach@mt.gov ; snicolai@dowlhkm.com ; jilynch@mt.gov ; and bbrosten@mt.gov ; and/or snail-mail them to:
Boulder South EA
DOWL HKM
P.O. Box 1009
Helena, MT 59624.
Provide your contact information and ask MDOT to keep you posted concerning all stages of this project and all subsequent projects concerning the Boulder Valley and Highway 69 .
Thank you!
____________________________________________________________________
Dispatches from the Wildlands™ ©2010, Paul Richards
Paul Richards is a Helena native, Boulder area businessman, former member of the Montana House of Representatives, and former candidate for U.S. Senate. For further information, contact him at: 30 Brown’s Gulch Road, Boulder, MT 59632, or by e-mail at: Paul@PRMediaConsultants.com .
Editor’s Note:
Different versions of this piece have appeared in the:
1. (Butte) Montana Standard, located at: http://www.mtstandard.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_50f70b0e-49a6-11df-9d2c-001cc4c03286.html
2. (Helena, MT) Queen City News, located at: http://www.queencitynews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=11387&mode=flat&order=0&thold=0
3. Boulder (MT ) Monitor. No Internet posting–no URL.
Paul Thomas Richards
PAUL THOMAS RICHARDS
A journalist with more than 43 years’ experience in Western politics and resource issues, Paul Thomas Richards has served as editor or co-editor of three newspapers; newsman and editor for The Associated Press; and elections manager for The AP, UPI, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC.
Richards founded and produced a successful radio news network; founded and hosted a political television interview program; founded and managed a news service for weekly newspapers, and authored a syndicated statewide political column.
Richards is a voluntarily-retired member of the Montana House of Representatives and a former candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Richards owns a leading consulting firm for nonprofit organizations and Indigenous Peoples, PR Media Consultants®, Public Interest Media Since 1968™, www.PRMediaConsultants.com , in the Boulder Valley, near the community of Boulder, Montana; works as a professional writer and editor; and contributes Dispatches from the Wildlands™, located at: http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/ to AlterNet.
Paul Thomas Richards, Dispatches from the Wildlands™
DISPATCHES FROM THE WILDLANDS™
Every day, more Americans realize what the Corporatocracy and its puppet media and corporate-funded nonprofit organizations tell us to believe is usually a very far cry from reality.
As a reporter with more than 43 years’ experience in Montana politics and Western resource issues, through Dispatches from the Wildlands™, I bring viewpoints and information otherwise unavailable to readers, listeners, and viewers of corporate media in Montana; the Northern Rockies Ecosystem; and the West.
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem, comprised of northwestern Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington, is the LAST surviving ecosystem in the lower 49 states with all its Native species.
My Maxim as an Investigative Reporter, Journalist, and Editor:
“Obscenely overpaid corporate CEOs, CFOs, apologists, PR flacks, lobbyists, and their ilk are fleet-footed enough to dash in and steal what we let them from our national treasury; environmental commons of air, land, and water; or our Nation’s priceless public lands Legacy.
But, Democracy is a Marathon, not a sprint! My job as a writing professional is to help farsightedness prevail against short-term greed. I’ve been on this beat for 43 years, and I’m hoping for another 43.”
My Maxim as an Organism on a Living, Breathing Planet:
“Stupid parasites kill their hosts. As we become smarter, or as we recognize and adhere to the inherent intelligence of Indigenous Peoples, and of our host planet; we can again coevolve with our living Mother Earth in cooperative, respectful, and reverent symbiosis.”
My Maxim as an Activist:
“Water Wears Away Stone. This is the undisputed, irrefutable LAW of NATURE. If you (or, “Water”) are tired from recurrently encountering “Stone”―The lies, deceit, and pile after pile after pile of steaming fresh bullshit from the same transnational corporations, thieves, banksters, con artists, promoters, lobbyists, cronies, and self-serving politicians of the Corporatocracy; simply visit Hell’s Canyon or the Grand Canyon.
“Just stand on the edges and look down. Take all the time you need: Hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, or eons.
Gaze far, far down and appreciate every one of these 8,000 feet of pure Truth. Look down upon 8,000 feet that precisely chronicle Nature’s Law: Water Wears Away Stone! Then: Celebrate! We Can Do This!”
More Information about Paul Thomas Richards:
For more information about Paul Richards, go to: www.PRMediaConsultants.com® (Business Web Site) and www.Richards2006.us (U.S. Senate Campaign Web Site).
Dispatches from the Wildlands™ ©2010, Paul Thomas Richards
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