By Bob Williams, Stevensville
This letter offers information to voters of all ages about subjects usually avoided by most media in Montana.
What follows are nothing but focused observations of one person.
The Koch brothers got a huge benefit of a one billion dollar plus tax cut from the 115th Congress, in the tax cut they helped pass.
They got hands working to privatize segments of the Veteran’s Administration.
They got huge benefits from Scott Pruitt’s hand heavy on levers of power, making radical cuts and changes in our Environmental Protection Agency.
They got many of the radical changes they wanted in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Less affordable with higher premiums. Some plans not covering pre-existing conditions.
The K brothers network got some poly-ticians thinking deficits don’t matter and wealth care is more important than health care. Thinking it’s OK to cut Medicare to help pay for the tax cut. OK if nine major drug companies are using their $50 billion tax cut to buy back stocks, ratcheting up stock value of shareholders and those holding stock options. While increasing drug prices!
And the K Bros network kept the biggest benefit of all. Still no charge for dumping greenhouse gases into an already warmed climate above already warmed oceans.
What was it last year in the USA? About one third of a trillion dollars of claimed property losses resulted from record breaking hurricanes and wildfires.
What was it last year in Montana? Some $400 million of drought related crop losses. No estimate on lost productive acreage.
An additional $400 million was expended in 2017 to suppress wildfires in Montana. Reportedly, in 2017 wildfires likely reduced Montana tourism and outdoor recreation spending by $240 million. No estimate on lost forest habitat or how much lost merchantable timber.
An already warmed climate may have caused a billion dollars of costs and losses in Montana in 2017.
Let’s think local. What was it last year in local forests? Unusually dry, warm timber above 6,000 feet elevation waiting for the lightning strike below Lolo Peak. Remember how the Lolo Peak Fire ran four miles in a few hours at night along high, hot, dry Carlton Ridge. Ran to above the Mormon Creek drainage. Then turned and headed south into the Bitterroot Valley.
Please remember that the USFS had to do a large advance burn near Bass Creek. And later warned that advance burns will be more and more necessary to stop the advance of forest fires approaching residential areas.
Please remember conditions the first day of the 2016 Roaring Lion Fire when 16 homes were destroyed, and five and a half square miles of forest burned. Unusually dry forest plus unusually high sustained winds. The result was fast moving fire that could not be stopped. Homes that could not be protected.
When you recall last year’s unhealthy smoky air please remember that the Koch brothers are the dominating influence on the Montana legislators.
Like last year, we’re having a wet spring making for lots of vegetation growth. Check Yahoo weather, soon comes a dry, warm summer. In July we usually have storms, winds and lightning strikes. Forest fires then started will again be allowed to burn and burn.
Let’s think big. What’s coming down? There’s a 50% chance that El Nino is returning. Your kids and their kids are stuck with paying for consequences of already warmed climate and oceans. Plus interest on a hugely increased federal deficit that financed the tax cut.
Guess what? This year’s projected federal deficit of one trillion dollars will be even worse than expected by Congress.
Who in Montana benefited from the tax cut? There are 20,000 households in Montana with investable assets of one million dollars or more. One study has it that the tax cut will save about a quarter of a billion dollars for very wealthy people in Montana in 2019.
Given all they got, how much have the Koch brothers and the tax cut privileged given back? Please do carefully consider context of Luke 17:20-1 and 12:48.
Do read up about the Koch brothers donor network and how their i360 data bank will be used to make personalized direct mail, also social media contacts, in spring and summer of 2018.
Given their power, finances, plus broad support in Congress, how did the Koch brothers donors network respond to 2016 USA election manipulation by Robert L. Mercer?
“Coal, oil and gas magnates formed the nucleus of the Koch brothers donor network . . . (the) majority were private, independent operators who had either made or inherited enormous fortunes in ‘extractive energy’ without having to answer to public shareholders…”
Also USA election manipulation by the Kremlin dominated by Putin, oligarchs, ruble laundering banking, and organized crime syndicates? One example being the 3,400 ads placed in Fbook by paid Russian trolls. Ads designed to make you doubt, even distrust targeted politicians. Reportedly, about one half the ads were designed to agitate race relations.
The K brothers know the 2016 federal election in the USA was not fair. How sure are you that the 2016 election was open and fair?
Members of the K Bros donors network, also the Donor’s Trust, know full well all the benefits they got from the 2016 election. And are still laughing on the way to the bank. Laughing at how their man Marc Short became a top aide to President Trump and pushed thru the tax cut. Laughing as they power past crowds focused on resistance to the Trump Administration.
Still laughing while regulations on methane are cut as global CO2 levels ramp upwards. While CO2 standards for power plants are cut. While fracking is protected. While fuel efficiency standards are lowered.
Still laughing at how cross-check eliminated enough voters to cause Hillary Rodham Clinton to lose the election.
Still laughing how Kremlin information warfare trained people to hate HRC.
Still laughing when they anticipate our 2018 Primary and General Elections, influenced by themselves, plus Robert L. Mercer, plus the Kremlin.
Imagine what it would it be like if fair elections did not happen in the USA while the oceans continued to warm. While deficit spending continued to balloon. While pharmaceuticals get more expensive while the Affordable Care Act is yearly sabotaged by the Koch brothers network.
Do not vote to tax yourself and your kids with consequences of record breaking warmed climate and oceans. Do not vote for candidates who think tax cuts for the wealthy should be paid for by increasing the federal debt.
Do not vote for corruption.
Get informed. Discuss issues with family and friends older and younger than you.
Try to find out how much of the $.4 billion dollars the K brothers network will spend in the 2018 elections will be spent in Montana.
Where will it be spent in Montana, is a deep, intentionally darkened subject.
Search and find out which Montana and USA election candidates support the legislative purposes of the Koch brothers donor network.