"The class which has
the power to rob upon a large scale
has also the power to control the
government
and legalize their robbery."
~ Eugene Debs
There are a number
of Inconvenient Truths in this Newsletter…
Journalist Protection Act
On February 5, 2018, Rep. Swalwell (CA) introduced H.R. 4935, Journalist Protection Act, to provide a penalty for assault against journalists, and for other purposes. You can read the Text here. Concerned with the rising threats and assaults to journalists, I immediately contacted my Montana Representative's D.C. office, requesting that he support this bill. ;)
On February 5, 2018, Rep. Swalwell (CA) introduced H.R. 4935, Journalist Protection Act, to provide a penalty for assault against journalists, and for other purposes. You can read the Text here. Concerned with the rising threats and assaults to journalists, I immediately contacted my Montana Representative's D.C. office, requesting that he support this bill. ;)
Here is Rep.
Gianforte's contact information, should you share my concern for
protecting journalists from assault.
(202) 225-3211 D.C.
Office
Troy Downing
To begin, back in
Sept. 2017, I put out a Newsletter with some of the research I found
on Troy Downing, a Senate candidate, whose MT residency was being
questioned by writer Don Pogreba in August. I found there were also 9
FWP citations involving residency and transferring of a tag.
Shortly after, I
received a written notification from FWP (per their policy), that my
hunting & fishing license history had been requested, showing the
requester and the provided information. I wrote a Newsletter on this:
Nov. 3, 2017 - Opposition Research - Making Bullets In A War Against
Conservationists. The person requesting my hunting & fishing
license history is Naji Filali, a partner in Percipient Strategies
LLC. Percipient Strategies LLC is based in Washington D.C., a new
company whose website was registered in July 2016. Their website
states they are, "Started and run by rising political
researchers from the Republican National Committee…" They do
opposition research. I am not a candidate, so I was curious why
someone would be doing oppo research on me, an Independent voter,
general member of the public.
Then on Dec. 5,
2017, I wrote on Downing's California Property Tax record, showing
his current 2018 resident homeowner's exemption.
I was not able to
make it to Downing's rescheduled Omnibus Hearing on Feb. 14, 2018, so
I called a beautifully detail-oriented friend back in Bozeman, to see
if she could attend, providing details for me. Thank you, Nancy. A
jury trial date has been set for May 23, 24, and 25, 2018. Downing's
attorney asked for 30 jurors instead of the usual 16-25. The Senate
Primary Election is June 5, 2018.
I am wondering if
they are hoping to pull a Bundy with the jury trial. If convicted,
according to the FWP Uniform Bail Bond Schedule, Downing could lose
his MT hunting & fishing license for about 2 years minimum.
Montana is also a member state in the Interstate Wildlife Violator
Compact. “When a person has their hunting, fishing and/or trapping
privileges legally suspended in the Compact state where the
violation(s) occurred, the suspension may be recognized by all of the
member states of the Compact. Having your privileges suspended in
Montana means you may also be prevented from hunting, fishing and/or
trapping in all the Compact member states.” Downing could
potentially lose his hunting & fishing license privileges in 46
states, not just Montana.
So back to
Percipient Strategies, I have been waiting for Downing's newest
quarterly campaign filing to see if Percipient Strategies was hired
by him for opposition research. Guess what I found?
On
Nov. 21, 2017, $15,404.25 was paid out
to Percipient Strategies for
“research” by the Downing
campaign. Surely,
not all of that was for me, but hell, they could have paid me
directly to share my hunting license history and salacious details,
like my lying in 8th
grade about loosing a library book and paying for it; when the
reality was I couldn't find a copy to buy (it was out of print) and I
kept the book for myself. As a bibliophile, that lie has haunted and
shamed me my whole life.
Click image for full version
Crazy
Mountains
At
the last Environmental Quality Council meeting, Jan.
17 & 18th,
John Brenden, no longer a legislator, appointed as a Public Member,
passed out 2 newspaper clips. One was on an
access situation, including the Crazy Mountains and the other was by
Terry Anderson, PERC, his oped rebuttal.
Brenden said that
Terry Anderson was spot on and suggested he
come to the next EQC meeting in March, to
speak about these access issues. Brenden relayed,
“I know most of these ranchers over there
on that east side of the Crazy Mountains.” 
I
would say this is an understatement. During a discussion of this
meeting on a forum, when I posted Brenden's suggestion, one of the
posters mentioned that John Brenden and Chuck Rein (one of the
outfitting landowners and MOGA Vice President), were brothers-in-law.
I spent over 3 hours digging through an archive until I found the
familial proof. Charles (Chuck) M. Rein, of Melville, had a wedding
write up, which stated, “Parents of the groom are Mr. and Mrs.
Lloyd Rein of Melville...Carol and John Brenden of Scobey, sister and
brother-in-law of the groom...”
Brenden
is more than “knowing” of the ranchers on the east side, he is
married into one of their families, the
Rein family. Brenden also asked at the EQC,
in relation to the public's access, how would they like it if he went
right into their houses, then stated,
“My castle is my property.” That is not too far off this
situation in the Crazy Mountains, like
neo-feudalism marriages. In
looking for the familial proof of Rein and Brenden, I also saw the
other intermarriages between a number of the Crazy Mountain
landowners that have been involved in these
public access issues: Reins, Carroccias,
Andersons and Zimmermans.
Rein
had previously sought another type of forum for
his agenda, with a private meeting
set up in January. That meeting was technically a public meeting.
After announcing the private/public meeting in the Newsletter, the
meeting was canceled, days before this January EQC meeting.
The
upcoming EQC meeting is
scheduled for March
21-22, 2018, in Helena.
Their agenda is not finalized or posted
yet. At the point that it is, we will see if the Crazy Mountains
public access and Terry Anderson/PERC are on the agenda. Personally,
I don't think these people should be using our interim legislative
process and elected officials to forum shop for their private agenda.
*****
Sometimes,
when I do research, I often find what I am intuiting is there, but I
look at all the other
connectors just the same. Sometimes, I discover more, and occasionally, I
find something totally unexpected, even
shameful.
As
a result, I need to make it abundantly
clear, again,
that I do not advocate, condone or excuse trespass on private
property. I uphold private property rights.
We might have a difference of opinion about an unperfected
prescriptive easement trail, but I do not excuse trespassing off of a
trail, no matter who has done it. Even when
exhausted or injured, I have gone to great lengths to avoid
trespassing on private property. Additionally, I feel those that
publicly advocate for public access, public lands, public rights,
need to hold themselves to a higher ethical and legal standard,
otherwise, they put the whole conversation and work in jeopardy. We
should police ourselves and our own community.
David
Petersen wrote, “A minimal level of sportsman ethics afield is
mandated by written law. Beyond that, say, when an action is legal
but ethically questionable, or when (as Aldo Leopold long ago pointed
out) no one is watching, hunter ethics is an individual
responsibility. As the existentialists would have it, we
determine our own honor minute by minute, action by action, one
decision at a time.” More dealing with
this matter in
a future newsletter.
*****
As
a result of the Jan. 31st Crazy Mountain private
meeting planned awry, involving a landowner draft proposal to
relocate a historic FS trail #267, obliterating
the northern half of it, affecting
a number of other trails, some of us
decided enough was enough. The public needs to know what is going on,
and what is at stake
with their public lands and access. We have set up an open,
transparent PUBLIC meeting (agenda to be posted on the webpage as it
is finalized).
March
13, 2018, 6-8 PM
Please
come early, meeting will start promptly at 6 PM.
Yellowstone
Pioneer Lodge, Yellowstone Conference Room
1515
W. Park Street, Livingston, MT
406-579-7748,
Event Contact: Kathryn
If
you are coming from out of town, the Yellowstone Pioneer Lodge
(406-222-6110) is offering a special location event rate discount of
20%.
- Guest Speakers, Presentations, Video Tour, Prescriptive Easements overview, recent landowner draft trail #267 relocation proposal and upcoming southern Crazy Mountains land exchange.
- Q & A, open mic
- Informational resources, including maps, history, topography, Forest Service contacts
- Crazy Mountains User Survey will be available to the public.
- Media, elected officials and legislators welcome.
- Coffee, tea & refreshments will be provided.
Event
sponsored by Friends of the Crazy Mountains and Enhancing Montana's
Wildlife & Habitat.
For
more information contact:
Brad
Wilson, FOCM, friendsofthecrazymountains@gmail.com
Kathryn
QannaYahu, EMWH, kathryn@emwh.org
“The
fringe element that wants to steal our shared national heritage –
the lands and waters and fish and wildlife owned by us, the American
people – is coming to Montana.
This
Saturday, Jan. 20, public lands abuser Cliven Bundy will be speaking
at an anti-public lands gathering in Paradise. A group with ties to
the region, The Coalition of Western Property Owners, is promoting
the event, which they’re calling 'Freedom and Property.' Neither is
applicable to Mr. Bundy: He wants to divest us of the freedom
represented by our public lands, and he’s already been stealing our
property by illegally grazing his cattle.”
“Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) sent a complaint to
the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General on Monday
arguing that the department is misusing and abusing the roles of at
least three temporary acting directors…
All
three employees currently are meant to temporarily fill vacancies at
the Department of the Interior. However, President Trump has yet to
nominate anyone to permanently fill the posts.
That
has seemingly indefinitely left the employees in the position of
acting directors and PEER says that's unlawful…
A
portion of the Vacancy Act reads that actions taken by acting
directors who violate the act 'shall have no force or effect.'
'These
legal infirmities give rise to an additional basis for challenging
actions taken by these agencies during the past few months in court.
For example, Greg Sheehan at [the Fish and Wildlife Service] has
changed Endangered Species Act procedures, among other actions —
all of which are void and vulnerable to lawsuits,' PEER's director
Jeff Ruch said Monday in a statement.”
“A
group of 19 governors of Western states are protesting Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke's plan to overhaul the department, saying he has
not sought their recommendations.
The
bipartisan Western Governors Association sent a letter to Zinke on
Feb. 1 asking for a delay on the plan, according to The Associated
Press on Thursday.”
Dark Money Movie (I
have been so anxious for this)
“New York-based
documentary filmmaker and Helena native Kimberly Reed debuts her
latest film, Dark Money. What began as a chronicling of Montana’s
legal challenge against the landmark campaign-finance case Citizens
United now serves as an in-depth look at how a network of
right-to-work organizations and corporate cash sought to swing
numerous Republican legislative primaries, spearheaded by the
notorious subject of a 2012 Frontline investigation: the nonprofit
American Tradition Partnership.
With the film’s
debut just days away—and a Montana premiere slated for the Big Sky
Documentary Film Festival on Feb. 16—the Indy spoke with Reed about
her motivation for making the film, the challenges of conveying such
a complex topic and how Montana became, as Reed puts it, the canary
in the nation’s dark-money coal mine. The interview has been edited
for length and clarity.”
“The Helena native
was following the state of Montana's defense of its ban on corporate
spending in election campaigns in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in
2012.
She thought it would
be a 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' story, centered on then-Attorney
General Steve Bullock.
After the justices
struck down Montana's law and opened the elections to so-called 'dark
money,' she kept returning to her home state from New York City for
six years.
Her feature-length
movie, 'Dark Money,' delves into Montana history with the passage of
the 1912 Corrupt Practices Act; then moves to Citizens United and
ends with the passage of a stronger state law and a civil case
against a state senator for coordinating with those groups…
It makes its
home-state premiere on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Big Sky Documentary
Film Festival, with two more screenings scheduled.”
Click to be a Contributor or Subscriber to
Enhancing Montana's Wildlife & Habitat
Thank you,
Kathryn QannaYahu
406-579-7748
www.EMWH.org
Helena, MT
