Donald Trump’s intervention (AKA invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of Venezuelan president/dictator Maduro) is likely not going to turn out well. Historically, we have done the same or similar things many times and they never turn out well. Inevitably it leads to loss of lives, many of them American soldiers, and years of being mired down in expensive military actions which last for decades. The United States has a long history of failure with regime change, especially when we do it all on our own. This is a list of the countries where we have attempted regime change directly and indirectly and have failed since 1950:
Iran — 1953
Guatemala — 1954
Cuba — 1961
Congo (DRC) — 1960–1965
Dominican Republic — 1965
Laos — 1960s–1975
Cambodia — 1969–1975
Vietnam — 1955–1975
Chile — 1973
Nicaragua — 1980s
Guatemala — 1954–1996
Haiti — 1994–present
Afghanistan — 2001–2021
Iraq — 2003–present
Libya — 2011–present
Syria — 2011–present
Yemen — 2015–present
For a more complete list of United States foreign interventions follow this link.
Tired of slick pundits telling us how the economy works? Looking for economics for people who wear “boots not suits?” Well, here it is. From their Facebook Page . . .
“We’re done letting billionaires and lobbyists write the story. Roughcut tells it straight – how every policy, every deal, every dollar really lands on working folks. Loud. Gritty. Unfiltered. Forever working class, and never kissing ass.”
This is a video featuring Lee Calvin, a country musician and “folk economist” from Red Lodge Montana. Calvin talks about people criticizing farmers because so many of them voted for Trump. It’s just three minutes long and well worth a listen.
Welcome to the new Republican Party under the leadership of Art Wittich and its newly formed “Conservative Governance Committee.” The internal war within the state GOP continues to rage.
Back in August, Republican legislative incumbents received a questionnaire signed by Rep. Keith Regier, probing their loyalty to a slate of far-right positions. When questioned about the questionnaire, newly elected State GOP Chairman Art Wittich defended it, saying, “Republicans from across the state elected me as chair in June with a mandate to achieve conservative policies that reflect how much redder Montana has become,” according to an email statement.
Like A Bad Penny, Lola Just Keeps Coming Back
The initial questionnaire did not identify the members of the Conservative Governance Committee. However, the Montana State News Bureau reports that the committee includes Regier; Rep. Tracy Sharp of Polson; Rep. Mike Vinton of Billings; perennial statewide candidate Al Olszewski, who also chairs the Flathead County Republican Central Committee; and former Great Falls Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway. The MTGOP declined to confirm the remaining members when asked about other rumored names.
Candidate questionnaire responses were collected, analyzed, and forwarded to party leadership. Those answers reportedly helped determine which candidates were invited to a campaign-skills training held in Helena in late October. According to the News Bureau, Wittich refused to answer questions about who funded the training, whether MTGOP funds were used to cover costs (the event was free to non-incumbents), or how the consulting firm running the training was selected.
Wittich, of course, comes with a long and sleazy history in Montana politics.
Ordinarily I‘d say, ”You can‘t make this stuff up.“ But with Montana‘s Public Service Commission, over-the-topness — and making stuff up — has become de rigeur.
Remember the Koopman controversy five years ago? “Someone” at the PSC acquired Commissioner Roger Koopman’s work emails, among which were personal communications with his family, and leaked them to a right-wing news website. Koopman sued the PSC for $2.2 million for defaming him and invading his family’s privacy.
Why was Koopman using a public email account for personal communications? Nobody asked.
And who leaked the emails? Ah, the bobbing and weaving. Although the website publisher embraced Montanans’ right to know when it came to posting the emails, he eschewed our right to know who leaked them
The records request suggested Commissioner Randy Pinocci was the leaker, but apparently his cell phone suffered a crickets infestation. And when PSC Chairman Brad Johnson was asked why he signed the request, he said “someone” must have used his stamp. Sheesh.
Ultimately, the PSC and Koopman settled the claim out of court for $155,000. Your taxes and mine picked up the tab.
In 2023, Commissioner Pinocci was back in the headlines. After an altercation with a renter’s brother, Pinocci was charged with disorderly conduct — specifically, challenging to fight or fighting the brother by getting in his face, bumping chests, and yelling.
Pinocci’s defense? He’s too chubby to chest-bump. Criminy
And this year, the Molnar melodrama. Having served on the PSC earlier in the century, Brad Molnar seemed like a good choice for chairman upon re-election. Minds and hearts changed quickly. In July, he himself announced that the PSC was investigating him for professional misconduct.
His response? If you don‘t like me, don‘t re-elect me. “[People] knew what they were getting when they got me … a redneck from Laurel that’ll stand up and fight back.”
Had he sexually harassed Commissioner Annie Bukacek? A reporter asked. “My wife is a hottie,” he responded, displaying her photograph. “I don’t know why I would.” Egad.
And now, what we hope is rock bottom: redneck retribution. Ousted from leadership last week, Molnar is fighting back. He filed an ethics complaint against Bukacek, who kept her job as a physician when she assumed her job as a commissioner. Molnar alleges she’s using PSC office equipment to do that medical work. And he can prove it: He’s amassed a ream’s worth of her documents from the PSC trash.
“I’m not a dumpster diver,” he claims. All appearances are to the contrary.
If this were “The Real Housewives of the PSC” or “The Amazing Disgrace,” we might be amused, if not enthralled, by getting to watch this series without subscribing to Pluto TV Reality. But these pension-padders run a government agency promising Montanans “continued access to utility services that are affordable, reliable, and sustainable for the long-term [sic].” That access has never been more imperiled.
Commissioners, you should be ensuring our investments in clean energy keep us on the path toward low-cost, renewable, and sustainable power. You’re not. While you sneak in and out of copy rooms and email servers and trash bins, NorthWestern Energy’s investments in renewable energy are steadily declining.
You should be ensuring that NWE makes sound investments, both monetarily and environmentally. You’re not. While you chest-bump and -thump, our utility monopoly has built a methane-fired power plant with alarming cost overruns and is throwing good money after bad at the nation’s dirtiest coal plant.
You should be protecting us from a monopoly more interested in increasing corporate profits than decreasing our utility costs. You’re not. You approved a 28% electricity rate increase last year, and should be battling an additional 26% increase this year instead of collecting ammo on one another.
You should be protecting us from further risky ventures — like investing in data centers that will wreak havoc on our water supply, our power grid, and our rates. You’re not. Let me guess your excuse: Having a hottie for a spouse is too distracting?
Enough spy vs. spy. Do the job we elected you to do … and ONLY that job.
Mary Moe is an educator, former Montana Legislator and former City Commissioner in Great Falls. Her editorials appear regularly in Lee Papers.
I have been more focused on national and international affairs lately, but this is LGBTQ History Month, so I’m going to weigh in on an issue in the Great Falls mayoral race.
There is a meme circulating on social media about kids looking at a Halloween costume labelled “Homophobic Mayor of Great Falls” which is clearly intended to represent our current Mayor, Cory Reeves. Cory is offended and disappointed, asserting he has never been homophobic, period.
But here’s the deal. Prejudice occurs on a spectrum, or slider, from mild, unconscious biases to intense, hostile attitudes. Prejudice against LGBTQ people is called homophobia. People like Cory consciously or unconsciously push the slider in their mind so that only the most egregious and open conduct qualifies as homophobia to them.
Granted, if you narrowly define homophobia that way, Cory is not homophobic. I believe he would never gratuitously physically attack an LGBTQ person, he would never call someone the “F” word, he would never join in bullying or making crude, hurtful jokes about LGBTQ people or fire someone just because of their sexual orientation.
But his definition of homophobia is too narrow. It’s wrong and misleading. Homophobia at the low end of the spectrum is still homophobia and is still hurtful.
When you take official action as Mayor out of a desire for LGBTQ people to remain invisible in the public eye and the public record, that’s homophobic.
When you change the City’s longstanding policy or practice of issuing proclamations or flying celebratory flags to avoid having to make a Pride Month Declaration or to avoid hanging a Pride flag on public property or to avoid publicly acknowledging the history of oppression and harm LGBTQ people have suffered, that’s homophobic.
When you assert governmental neutrality between oppressed LGBTQ people and the people who would oppress us, that’s homophobic. We see it. We know it for what it is. And we remember it.
I have always had polite communications with Mayor Reeves. He is generally friendly and accessible. I recognize that he has done positive things in his private and his public life. But homophobia doesn’t change its nature because it’s manifested in subtle ways by genteel people. And polite regard for one’s friends and family members who are part of an oppressed group does not excuse actions taken to further that oppression, even small ones.
So yes, if you judge Mayor Cory Reeves by his mayoral actions on LGBTQ issues, he is homophobic, despite his protestations. It’s fair to describe him as mildly homophobic. But it is not truthful or fair to allow him to slide himself out of the label entirely. Obviously, this is but one aspect of this race. But if that is an important issue to you, and it should be, remember that when you vote.
