The Robert Gopher Policy Institute: Where we go into 2022

Back from a well-deserved political sabbatical, wherein I sorted a great degree of treaty rights ready for the legal pipeline, I am reorganizing around the social vision of my late father, Ogemaw Robert Gopher (Andotaan Benesi), or Listening Thunder.  His vision is needed more than ever.  

In watching this political theatre from the back chairs of the auditorium, I gave myself time to absorb and soak in all that has transpired, from 2010 when I did run for the state of Montana Democratic Nomination for the U.S. House.  The progressive voices, which I am one; became loud, powerful, effective.

Mass political genocide began by an entrenched elite culture of white male patriarchy that is the establishment Democratic wing of the party.  This legion, who retained and regained, with the regime installation that is occurring with the Biden campaign.  I am no stranger to infighting.  It is a much aligned, but necessary function of the political system.  The progressives are a demonized political force, painted as to-be-loathed socialists, while Mitch McConnell brazenly packs federal courts where cronyism will linger for decades to come. The purpose of the monied elite is to ensure that socialism, and the government troughs will continue to exist for their exclusive benefit, to our exclusion.  Biden and his regime have no problem with this, they are ardent participants and benefactors.

In the nation of Canada, where I am admittedly a Trudeau supporter, this political infighting has actually worked, and reaped a greater social engagement as Trudeau clung to power whilst his base felt disengaged,  abandoned and betrayed, including the powerful indigenous voting bloc.  Under new leadership of Jagmeet Singh, the NDP captured enough seats in the Canadian Parliament to exert influence.  Trudeau must concede to the powerful NDP in a new powersharing arrangement that promises long sought social change to our neighbor to the north.  Trudeau is a young leader, a good leader, he had the instinct to accede to the better option, not fight it.  He knows how to win, and bring his nation forward.  He embraced inevitability.  

America's two party system is so corrupt and rotted, it threatens to turn our nation into a failed state, in many respects it already is a failed state with respect to the very irresponsible pandemic leadership.  We have had our two presidential candidates back away, and policy shame each other, by clinging to a failed for profit system that has abandoned its consumers during a deadly global pandemic.

In our opening salvo as I organized the long sought after goal of returning to my late father's legacy, the Robert Gopher Policy Institute will focus our goals on a political and social agenda that will move our nation forward, as it was always his goal for the advancement of every member of the human race.

CLIMATE CHANGE

He was an effective environmental leader:  he could see as members of the human family that, both red states and blue states needed clean drinking water.  He did not see red and blue states:  he saw and invader race that planted themselves here, and felt their goals of manifest destiny equated to wanton environmental destruction with impunity.  He set about his progressivism as man of vision and hope.  He set the environmental standard that was an example to the water protectors of Standing Rock.  He emboldened a generation of political and environmental leaders in Montana, a notorious red state.

He was an original water protector.  With his vision, I hope to address and influence national policy regarding climate change.  I hope to advance the work he started, to continue his optimism, his hope, his respect for Mother Earth, these are the values he instilled in us.

MEDICARE FOR ALL

The pandemic ripped off the mask of American independence and gumption.  It revealed hidden, broken, third world conditions devoid of basic health care; a system so broken it has cost the lives of over 200,000 of our fellow citizens.  Our political leaders tell us the for profit system will rise to the task of meeting health care needs as the world heads into the winter of 2021.  The pandemic is unfolding in front of us, we don't know what is coming this winter, but it promises to be bleak, deadly, and tragic.  

As the leader of the industrialized world, our lack of universal care is denegrating the nation into a third world cesspool, a failed state.  We are already here and the pandemic is just winding up. Our candidates tell us that they have effective plans to eliminate even more health care options, and strip millions of their already flawed insurance during this pandemic.  There is no one in either established party, that is advocating for the average citizens devastated by this disease.  We are unprepared, a nation caught with its collective pants down, for the world to see.  We are better than this.  As I hang on to my ballot, I wonder how many hundreds of thousands will die before whoever is the winner:  will concede universal care is needed?  How many deaths will convince our eventual president to fix this system?  We are unsafe, this is a national security issue.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

The economy, and small businesses were already stuggling as the economy began to cool, bigger retailers were going under.  The pandemic is disaster capitalism; the standard of living for the average person stagnating into the first of the year, we staggered into a catastrophe we are unprepared for.  All 50 states have housing economies that exceed the means of most working people.  Jobs are being lost to automation, and this is an ever growing trend, where are Americans supposed to live?  Are there enough bridges for all of us to live under?  Biden crowed about increasing the minimum wage to a paltry 15.00/hr.  While it is better than what it is now, it must be supplemented with UBI for those under a certain income threshold.  As we move to a high technology production society, we need UBI, so say the young academics in my family, and I agree--to keep the American economy afloat, to keep the youth afloat who have been robbed of their inheritance by fat cats of both parties since those "wonderful" Reagan years.  The Grim Reaper McConnell has allowed hundreds of bills to die on his desk, while Kentucky, a very red state, and also among the poorest, grapple as if they are losing someone great:  there is now where to go but UP, Kentucky!  You have hit rock bottom!

THE STUDENT DEBT CRISIS

The working class are already subsidizing the rich.  Educational costs only go up.  Our goal is to accomplish two things:

1.  Wipe out student debt, and tax credits for those who have paid back their student loans, going back a decade.

2.  Full ride tuition for all, this will apply to all universities.  We need to end Ivy League status, as the college scandals have illustrated, the rich simply bribe their way into good schools. 

GUARANTEED HOUSING FOR ALL/PUBLIC BANKING

This is the wealthiest nation on earth, the federal reserve exists to enrich the already rich.  Public banking is needed to ensure there is housing for all, especially those who suffer from mental health issues.  Tie their housing to their disability/disability benefit.  We are not so poor a nation that our mentally ill should suffer on the street on a park bench, or by a dumpster.  How well we care for our vulnerable should always be how strong we are.  The Trump contingent point to this as a nanny state, something to be ashamed of.  We are already a nanny state for the wealthy, the people that can already afford to pay their way.  Free market principles should not be the only factor in whether our citizens live in dignity; housing is a human right.

EXPAND THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

The current stasis of the SCOTUS is a throwback to the pre-Civil War years.  It is a backward anachronism to white supremacy, a bastion of racial superiority buttressed by the bald and naked abuse of power of Mitch McConnell.  This nation is bleeding for change, in every death of our melanin blessed brothers and sisters at the hands of police, and my own Native Americans, whose fatalities exceed those experienced by our counterparts.  A pre-civil war SCOTUS cannot meet modern realities.  The Republicans argued us out of Merrick Garland and appoint Barrett in a power grab.  We must unabashedly answer by expanding the court.  If the Democratic party ever want the minority support in future years, if there is even a party left, it must rise in meeting our life and death need to reform the Republican owned, busted out, redneck, lynch happy chickenshack that is the Supreme Court of the United States.  It is substandard institution and its brazen manipulation is a great shame on this nation.

I CARRY MY FATHERS MANTLE, NAME, AND LEGACY FORWARD

My goal in pushing for these social policies is in keeping with the wisdom of my late father.  He was a man who sang in our thirst lodges, highly qualified and knowledgable in these rites.  Yet, he was too humble to take on the role and run them himself.  He was a gifted political visionary, he challenged the puritan culture of Eurocentricism:  he denied manifest destiny and dominion, and exhorted to us, if the white race embraced our vision--the human race will go on much longer.  If not, the human race will perish.  He was environmentalist, policy maker, student of Chinese cuisine (no one beats his deep fried sweet and sour chicken, to this day), fisherman, photographer, gifted painter. 

He used to tell us:  "when I am gone, don't mourn me, don't get lonely. Do what I did when I lost my own father at the age of sixteen.  I would look at my hands and say "My father's blood flows through my veins. I am my father."

I do this often.  I am my father, and its good to be back in political life.  From my place, I urge a nation to embrace its inevitability, peacefully with hopeful eyes to the future, or be torn apart by Trump's divisive legacy. 

It is Not Benghazi, Emails, or Politics: Media Industrial Complex Doubles Down for Clinton

In the mass media's over exuberance to defend Hillary Clinton through the daily onslaught to destroy the Republican House committee investigating Benghazi---a key point is lost.  It is not about the lunacy of out of control political stand offs, or partisan witch hunts.  Clearly, and the average person can deduce this for what it is, it is all partisan.  It may or may not be valid.  We are not morons and we understand the partisan hatred that fills our halls of governance.

What the public is weary of is the media attempting to force a flawed candidate on the voting mass. We can make up our own minds about Hillary Clinton.  It is not so much that she is under investigation by this House Committee as it is about whether or not she respected the stature of the Office of Secretary of State.  We question her swag in violating the high ethical standards to such a degree as to compromise national security.  As she acerbically stated on her snapchat use, "those messages disappear all by themselves."  This isn't at all funny.

Her supporters crow the argument, which we hear a lot of:  ' well the Republicans did it, so why is it wrong for her?'  This argument is a moral fallacy, and it allows the political class to lower the bar to the lowest point it can go, and keep it there.  I am surprised that is even a defense to her actions.

I urge Democratic voters to vindicate democracy by saying loud and clear:  We expect more from our Democratic leaders.  It is not acceptable when Sec. Clinton abuses the Office of Secretary of State, and her supporters justify her behavior in defense, by intimating, well Colin Powell did it.  This doesn't make it right.  We want to raise the bar.  The electorate has had enough of Washington DC shenanigans.

The Mass Media Lawyered Defense of Hillary Clinton

This daily barrage of articles is demeaning to the public intelligence.  The role of mass media has become a manipulative steamrolling force against the democratic principles of our elective system. The media industrial complex is compromised as the vaulted fourth estate in our society:  it is a mockery of the founders of a free press in this nation.  Go hide yourselves, those of you that put your economic agenda before democracy.  You are all guilty.

This is the key point, please take note, mass media:  I issue this challenge to mass media talking points.   Their whole money-hearted defense of Clinton doesn't make what she did right.  Nothing makes what she did right.  She stated she was sorry for using a home brew server, only after months of being antagonized to do so even by her own staff.  I reiterate, nothing makes what she did right. No amount of media manipulation can change the realities before us.  Mea culpa yes, and if her party had any integrity left, she would bow to it, and kiss her candidacy good bye.

The second key point is this nation's need to move forward.  Hillary Clinton lacks the leadership to take us where we need to go.  No amount of manipulating by the ever massive media industrial complex, because that's what you all look like from where I'm sitting--will make her what she is clearly not.

We need spirited debate on the issues facing this nation, and a spirited leader is needed.  We need to end Native American and African Americans dying at the hands of police, this is a hurt.  This is an issue right on the doorstep of the Democratic party, with racial minorities in one wing, and the powerful police unions in the other.

We need the political class to hear we are suffering out here without a realistic minimum wage increase.  We need to address the moral issues of climate change, and the moral sin of wealth inequality that we have handed to at least two generations of American youth.  These are just a few of the issues we need to address.

Raising the Bar to Respect Public Office:  The Electorate Must Take on the Media Industrial Complex

The Third and Final Point:  We demand the bar be raised.  The silence of the Democratic political party on this entire summer's email debacle is stunning.  Again, it is not so much what was found, it is that she went beyond her authority to compromise national security, to co mingle her private foundation objectives with her office, that she signed off on staffers to serve both her and former President Clinton's private foundation work, including garnering large speaker fees on behalf of foreign dictators, and failing to observe a line and respect for this office.  If we don't respect these public offices, why are we even running as a party?  Your voters can just stay home?

These people should demand Clinton exit stage left or they themselves resign en masse from their posts and political positions.  A new and invigorated party is needed.  Out with the old and in with the new. We have politicians in DC that will have to be scraped off their chairs, they are literally encrusted political decay.  This would be funny were it not so sad, and so true.

We cannot allow what has been going on to continue.  It took an Independent Democratic Socialist to drop his calling card on this supposed party of the people.  Had he not done that, the struggling average citizen would be SOL and going down the stream without a paddle.  The only people the Democrat political class love are their Wall Street donors.  We can thank Bernie Sanders for caring about those that cannot afford lobbyists, those that are working low paying jobs to feed their families.

Where have all of you been, I ask?  Where is this party in this rancor, to drive out a divider?  It is incumbent on the political class to get this party divider out, and bring about a means of unification. Is this party capable of that?  Why can't this discussion be out in the open?  Do you all have something to hide?  What is with Biden's secrecy and calculation?  Why can't you all do this in the sunshine, get sunny ways like Canada?  Speak for yourselves?  Is that possible?

The ultimate arbiter on raising the bar in DC and in the election is: the voter.  We are sick of what appears to be the Democrats barreling toward rigged elections, and abuse of the system to achieve a desired end--the capitulation of its own principles after having been ginned up on Wall Street, for some, it has been most if not throughout your entire careers in DC.

Change has to happen.  The people demand it.

Tester's Own Abramoff Scandal Part I: Windy Boy Slams State Democrats into Brick Wall

Montana's Senator Jon Tester is the new Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He will be charged with running the campaign efforts of Senate Democrats from here on.  Senator Tester has a dark secret, as well as the Democratic Party regarding their continued allegiance to Montana State Senator Jonathan Windy Boy who is the Ward Churchill of tribal officialdom.

This emerging scandal may dwarf the Jack Abramoff scandal that brought down Senator Conrad Burns.  It is up to Senator Tester to fix the problems his neglect during his entire tenure has contributed to in the controversial manner Windy Boy interacts with Montana Democrats.  He is a man that likes to throw his weight around, and uses his Cree numbers to intimidate state officials. This matter stems from the federal government usurping the sovereignty of the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa, of which I am a descendant and of primary heritage.

Jonathan Windy Boy is an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe.  The Chippewa Cree is a euphemism created by the federal government to shield the massive enrollment fraud that has plagued the small band of Chippewa since the band emerged in Montana after having been driven out of Red Lake over a land dispute in the late 1800s, shortly after the creation of the Red Lake Indian Reservation.  The Chippewa Cree is a FAKE tribe; it is not a historic American tribe, only the Chippewa have treaty rights in the United States.

Jonathan is not a Chippewa, and only 10% of the enrollees in Rocky Boy are descendants of the original band, as it was enumerated in a 1908 census (Wheat Census).  Jonathan cannot even legitimately say his family are members of the Little Bear Band of Cree, who sought asylum in the U.S. after instigating the Frog Lake Massacre.  

Jonathan's predecessor swam across the Saskatchewan River and evaded the RCMP, and made his way to the Rocky Boy Reservation after it's creation in 1916.  Windyy Boy's ancestor was on the run and to evade prosecution--hid in a badger hole at one point to deceive the Mounties who were in hot pursuit.   (Oral History of the Robert Gopher Family).Windy Boy's first appear on the Rocky Boy roll in 1927. (Interior Department Records).

Jonathan is rumoured to be enrolled simultaneously in the Ft. Belknap Gros Ventres-Assiniboine tribes, being of Assiniboine heritage.  He is also Cree, and is enrolled in a Canadian First Nation, to my understanding.  Most of the Cree, who make up the majority enrollment in Rocky Boy are already enrolled in Canadian First Nations, and are subject to Canada's Indian Act, which is the source of the Indian Registry.  There is nothing wrong with that I suppose, Canada has much more progressive attitude in treating aboriginal people than the U.S.

So, Jonathan and his brother Alvin, have been prominent "tribal leaders in Rocky Boy" despite the lack of biological lineage in the Rocky Boy Band of Chippewa as recognized by the U.S. Congress in 1908 and 1916.  It is helpful to know that there are different points of origin, Rocky Boy's people are thought to originate in Wisconsin, while the Little Bear Band of Cree originate in Frog Lake, Saskatchewan.  Louis Riel, who led the Riel Rebellion--fled Canadian authorities from the point of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.

The realities of the three divergent groups will tell us there is no such thing as a Chippewa Cree Tribe, yet due to misunderstanding by white politicians, media and academics--this is a mythical creation that has persisted over time, much to the dismay of my own people who possess a sovereignty interest to address our grievances.

The Rocky Boy Reservation was created in the fall after Rocky Boy's death in 1916.  For lack of a better term, one can say Chief Little Bear (Cree) was only too eager to "take over."  The U.S. government was eager to end the "Cree problem" it had in Montana and wanted resolution.  The Crees took over the establishment of the newly created reservation--even though it lacked a treaty with the U.S. government, and is not considered a historic American tribe.  (The U.S. treaty making era ended in 1870).  The Chippewa began to assert their sovereignty.  Chief Rocky Boy's last words were "Little Bear is trying to let (Riel's mixed bloods) in, it is for my people (Chippewa) to decide if they want to let them (Crees and Riel's band) in."

No one heeded Chief Rocky Boy's dying words.  Instead, his people were subjected to a sinister plot by the Cree, one of Chief Big Rock's (Rocky Boy's legitimate Chippewa successor) son's was poisoned in the Ft. Assiniboine camp.  The federal government, failing to protect the band, fled under cover of night, to Chief Mountain on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.  They stayed there until the early 1920s.  The Chippewa had suspicions about the untimely death of Chief Rocky Boy, who took ill unexpectedly in the Ft. Assiniboine camp.

These suspicions persist to this day among the Chief's lateral descendants.  It was later found out that Little Bear did possess knowledge on poisons, (Sweetgrass First Nations research) Where a similar death is believed to have occurred at the hands of Little Bear.  It is the opinion of the Chippewa people that Chief Rocky Boy was assassinated in the critical months when word was received the reservation was to be established.  He died in April 1916.  Following these two deaths, the Chippewa lost favor with the federal government, who seemed more intent on pleasing Montana residents who had grown weary of the "Cree problem."

THE CREE PROBLEM CONTINUES TO HAUNT MONTANA

Only the federally tecognized tribal body can determine its members.   In 1917 the federal government established its own roll that became the basis of the "Chippewa Cree tribe."  While this has proven convenient for the federal government, it is contrary to standing federal doctrine on tribal sovereignty.  It would have been wise to heed the wise Chief's words and respect the Chippewa.  Now this recklessness is something the Chippewa people toil to correct.

It is his words Rocky Boy's people cling to.  Only the Chippewa people can decide their membership, like every other tribe in the United States.  It is not the place of the federal government, the Cree or Metis.  The federal government used a band-aid approach since 1935 under the Chippewa Cree constitution created under the auspices of the Indian Reorganization Act.

The Chippewa people are at the present time challenging this constitution as illegal 1) It created an at large voting schema that favors Cree and Metis, who are the majority on the reservation (they were allowed to refer to themselves as "adoptees" by the Interior Department.  2) The Cree and Metis led Business Committee established by the IRA constitution adopted discriminatory enrollment provisions and did not provide for lineal descent in the original Chippewa band recognized by Congress.  The basis of membership criteria is illegal and violates the sovereignty of the original Chippewa band. This effected a near paper- genocide of Rocky Boy's original band.

Near being the operative word.  The Interior Department does not have authority to alter a tribe's identity, nor can it terminate a tribe.  Nor can it determine a tribe's membership.  The Rocky Boy band is fighting back.  Given the spate of numerous criminal convictions in federal court of "Chippewa Cree tribal officials"  the latest being John Chance Houle, a former Chairman who pled guilty to fraud, and embezzlement, the Chippewa people want to be heard loud and clear.  These criminals are NOT Chippewa of the original band recognized by Congress.  They are all without exception, self proclaimed adoptees.

There is a problem of entrenched fraud that was sanctioned by former Senator Baucus, who used Jonathan Windy Boy as his campaign poster child.  Now the trend seems to be continuing with Senator Tester.  He was asked on Friday to include $1,000,000,00 in the crominbus legislation to direct the Billings Area Office of the BIA to address the Chippewa demand for an enrollment audit, and to designate legal fees to the Chippewa people to begin to reverse the course of this massive defrauding of Chippewa identity and loss of our land and finanical resources.

Jonathan's Cree faction have skillfully hid behind immunity as a "sovereign nation."  However, the Interior is not immune from voting rights claims, this appears to be a voting rights issue, even though the federal act has been gutted, we are studying and believe we can proceed under the intact sections of the law.

To that end, we are negotiating with the NAACP to bring suit on behalf of the Chippewa.  We remain hopeful the Democrats will back down, the Obama administration take some corrective action and work in a spirit of cooperation.  If we must fight in court, we will.  We will seek an injunction on the validity of the Chippewa Cree constitution and have it suspended by a federal court.  We will seek tribal funds be frozen pending the outcome of an enrollment audit.

Jon Tester does not hear his constituents in Montana; he did ensure his lawyers for the DSCC increased campaign contribution limits of wealthy donors from over 90,000 to well over 775,000.  He aided Wall Street to override key provisions of Dodd Frank.  In fact, it was his law firm that denuded what was left of McCain Feingold campaign finance reform.

There is a problem here, of credibility, sincerity and competence, this has been a consistent theme in dealing with Democrats on this issue going back to 2000.  While Senator Baucus was deflecting for Jonathan and Alvin Windy Boy to remain entrenched in Rocky Boy, Jonathan was breaking the law. Did Senator Baucus or his staff deflect for Sen. Windy Boy with regard to tax evasion, and unaddressed charges of rape and sexual abuse of minors?

Still more troubling, at least one Montana Democrat is alleging then-Attorney General Steve Bullock, now our Governor; shut the MT ICAC investigation of Windy Boy down as a political favor to him. If this did occur, should Bullock be in the Governor's office?  Why are investigations of Windy Boy being shut down, (his victims are told by FBI agents that at least two federal FBI investigations have been ordered closed by powers in DC)?

 One uninvestigated allegation stems from a period Jonathan was tribal chairman, that would be 2008 to 2010.  This would mean while Jonathan was strutting around, as a member of Obama's campaign tribal chairman's circle, he was covering up a rape allegation made by the parents of a minor child on the Rocky Boy reservation.  It was his own nephew, the tribal police chief, that shut down the investigation before it could reach the federal level, according to reservation residents knowledgeable with the matter.  This is a continued tactic of the state party at the present time to deny and deflect.  This ends this week.

In the coming days I will be taking these matters in their entirety to the state party chairman, I am in contact with the Democratic National Committee Vice Chairwoman Donna Brazile, and I will be contacting the other members of the DSCC.   I most certainly will be contacting the man who rammed through the provisions of the CRomnibus, Marc Elias.  Given Tester's refusal to address these matters over seven years running, I have to question whether he is fit to lead the DSCC.

WindyBoyGate is a scandal of or exceeding the scale of the Abramoff debacle that ended Burns' Senate career.  We will not let this go, I will not let this go.  I expect Senator Tester and the Montana Democrats to have answers and to begin a process of correction of all these related matters because when someone denies our right to exist, we have no choice but to challenge that.

I want to make it clear I expect Sen. Tester to act prudently and quickly on this matter.  I am personally pissed off at him because we asked for his help back in 2007. That is an awfully long time to wait for action.  I will be forcing action by the Senator and I am dragging this out in the public for all to see because there has been enough secrecy.  This is just the tip of the iceberg in the manner the state democratic party elites have abused their power, state party resources and have misled the public.  It is clear the party will continue to rack up losses unless we all commit to a spirit of reform.

I am calling for reform of the state party at this time.  This week, we are asking the state party chair and the Senate minority leader to begin the effort to push Windy Boy out and to seek his resignation from the state senate.  I am asking the state party leaders to back a long sought criminal investigation of Windy Boy.  We are asking the state party to back out of court mediation of the Rocky Boy tribal issues, a corrective Executive Order by President Obama and federal settlement legislation compensating the Chippewa people for 98 years the federal government allowed squatters on our land.  Most important we are asking for an enrollment audit, and a path forward by the Billings Area Office to enroll all of the lawful biological descendants of the Rocky Boy Chippewa band who have previously been denied enrollment.

In essence the Montana Democratic party have been duped into dealing with and now doing the criminal bidding of a FAKE tribal official.  This is egg on their faces, it makes them look stupid and hungry for votes that on the face of it really are not there.

#EricGarner #MikeBrown #JohnTWilliams #MistyUpham, et. al. countless victims

REQUEST TO MEDIA TO RESPECT THE MEMORY OF THOSE LOST

This is a request to all media to respect the memory of the deceased individuals whose premature and untimely deaths have transfixed the nation in recent weeks.  They are human beings who are missed by their families, the voids they leave can never be filled.

In their memory, please refrain from covering stories about Joe Scarborough's early morning rants on Morning Joe, or Peter King's cruel comments.  I am asking the media to boycott those that inflame the passions and will vie for airtime on major networks to display their white arrogance in the wake of these numerous deaths at the hands of police, and who are otherwise dead due to police misconduct and negligence.

This plea is being made to all media organizations to focus on the proactive efforts of the millions who have demonstrated throughout the nation,.  Even in hard hit places like the war-stricken city of Gaza, many have expressed their solidarity with the victim's families, and honored the memory of the fallen.

This plea to the media is to boycott from the airwaves those that fan the flames of hatred, commentators such as former NYC mayor Guiliani who contribute nothing to the advancement of equality in this country.  We do not need voices that tear down and destroy at this time.

The media should be covering the largely peaceful demonstrations and giving voice to the proactive; and not those that seek to further divide this nation at this difficult time.  Please be responsible in the coverage of this particular subject.  For all of those that want to hear commentary dripping in and marinated in racial hatred, there is a whole network devoted to that, it is called Fox News.

I am pleading for responsible journalism to cover this continuing unfolding struggle to achieve human dignity for us all.

Melinda Gopher,
Political Activist, Screenwriter
Former Democratic Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from MT

OPINION: Blue Dogs Desperate KXL Strategy to Appease Big Oil

The Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats already lost the U.S. Senate after an election cycle where they ran from their own president and party leader.  Their latest attempt to appeal to Big Oil, to show what a bunch of bootlickers they are; back losing Blue Dog Senator from Louisiana Mary Landrieu to bring the Keystone XL to a vote in the senate.

This is the most backward thinking way to turn the vote out in 2016, and reveals a deep betrayal yet again by the corporate wing of the party.  Our senator Jon Tester has already told the Huffington Post he will back the Landrieu sponsored bill to approve the KXL.  The issue of pipeline approvals are not only political fodder in the USA but Canada as well.

The leading contender for the post as the next Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau is leading in polls while NDP Tom Mulcair is close behind nipping at his heels.  Trudeau supports KXL, while Mulcair is in opposition.  The aboriginal vote in Canada is much more influential than the tribal vote in the United States, comprising up to 15% of the population.

Most tribes in Montana oppose the KXL for an array of reasons.  The pipelines will carry tar sands oil, already the dirtiest and inefficient method of oil extraction.  The pipelines pose environmental threats to lands some of which transects tribal lands.  The pipelines will remain in the ground after their useful lives; leaving billions of gallons in the pipe to pose environmental threats for generations to come.

The Senator from Montana in attempting to support Landrieu reflects a blue dog coalition shows a party off task in the six years they controlled the US Senate and instead were busy with wealthy, big oil and Wall Street interests.  Senator Tester appears tone deaf to the concerns expressed by multiple tribes in the great plains region who express their disapproval of the pipeline.  In the interim he has done next to nothing to address climate change and bringing clean energy to the state of Montana.

MONTANA ELECTS CORPORATE WELFARE KING STEVE DAINES AS CURTIS RUNS FROM OBAMA

By an overwhelming margin, Montana elected Republican corporate socialist Steve Daines as our representative in the U.S. Senate.  Daines' wealth stems from Right Now Technologies, holding several million dollars in federal contracts.  Daine's company once paid a lobby firm 90,000.00 dollars to secure federal contracts, securing a grand total of $23,000,000.00 in federal contracts.

Unabashedly, Daines ran on a platform of MORE JOBS, LESS GOVERNMENT.  One has to question less government for whom?  It seems Daine's firm has had substantial dealings with Wal Mart, another corporate welfare queen; taxpayers shell out 6.2 billion annually in public assistance to Walmart employees so the company can continue to artificially depress wages of its low wage work force.  In addition, taxpayers also subsidize Walmart's executive bonuses about 298 million over six years.

This is corporate welfare KING status on a gargantuan scale, it is mind-boggling.  As a result of the federally contracted, propped up Right Now Technologies, Daines' and his partners unloaded this software firm for a cool 1.8 billion to Oracle in 2012, making Daines a very savvy corporate welfare king.

The colossal hypocrisy is in itself mind-boggling for a party that scared and rallied its base by screaming and smearing the Democratic party as socialist, communistic and envious of people who make it.  It is also incredibly hypocritical for a party that has held the minimum wage hostage for decades, a policy that has eviscerated the middle class and downright brutalizes the working poor.

Welcome to the Senate to the newbie Daines, a socialist of colossal scale.  I think the term socialist may be too good of a label.  Let's say, corporate welfare king.  Meanwhile, even a candidate with nothing to lose at all, ran from a President who by all definition, helped out the wealthy, stabilized the economy, mitigated a 2008 economic crash, enacted the Lily Ledbetter Act, and lessened the unemployment rate.  With absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain, Amanda Curtis failed to turn on the Indian vote by engaging the President, and lost by a large margin. It would be foolhardy for Ms. Curtis to run again.

The Damaged Brand of the Democrats and Other Big Media Myths

I don't trust the narrative of big and mostly white media; that is the recipient of all the cash flowing as the result of Citizens United, mixed with low voter turnout--that drones this election was something out of the ordinary.  It is conventional wisdom that Republican voters tend to turn out in greater numbers in mid-terms.  The narrative that the Democratic party brand is damaged is a slap in the face of the minority vote who consistently carry party candidates.

DEMOCRATS ALWAYS BOUNCE BACK

Take aways:

The party rhetoric as the voice of women has not translated into putting money behind women candidates, or even making sure that the right women candidates are backed.  This needs to change.

(Take Montana, the MEA-MFT propped up Amanda Curtis 80 days before the election after Walsh dropped out.  Aside from personal issues I have with this--I can say for certain the MEA-MFT has a real problem with the native vote that must be fixed.  But I digress here).

To my point of bouncing back, the bounce is always provided by a coalition of youth, women and minority voters.  There is no reason to believe the next cycle won't be any different.  There are institutional issues the Democrats must learn going forward.

• The party must defeat historic patterns;  conventional wisdom holds the party in power loses seats during midterms.  The party must learn to gap this problem of midterms.  It is doable and it is something every county, state party, and the DNC must learn to plan for.
• Routing Citizens United:  We know this is a factor.  It is a given.  It is not likely that CU will be addressed in the next two years--therefore; we must learn to organize around it to get the vote out.
• Social networking is free;  this is perhaps the greatest counter balance to CU and it is instantaneous.  (We can expect the Republicans to attack net neutrality).
• We know CU worked for low tech elderly voters who still are predominantly TV-broadcast-dependent to get their information.  It was the elderly vote that turned out last night benefiting Republicans.
• There must be a stated policy of corporate Democrat entrenchment.  In Louisiana, Landrieu, noted as a centrist and corporate Democrat--will face a run off in the coming weeks.  Corporate Democrats are endangered in a party where progressives have held out their vote since 2010.
• Corporate Democrats make the party institutionally weak; they have been divisive, and viewed as betraying the party base.  They also do not respect the will of the party base.
• Racism;  minority voters should not have to fight a civil rights war in the party to be respected. White party leaders get control of the party resources and shut the door.  They only share the resources when they are desperate to win.  
• To this end; as an example, minority leaders called for a second stimulus in 2010 to benefit their distressed communities.  The view was the 2009 ARRA aided Wall Street.  Their pleas fell on deaf ears in their own party.  
• Democratic party leaders must realize they can no longer get something for nothing from minorities.  These past two years should indicate to Democratic party leaders;  If you dont deliver to your constituents, we don't deliver the votes.  It is that simple.

We the Native American vote in Montana will be tackling some tough issues here in this state and it is our hope that what we voice, and our organization will be a national model of success going toward 2016.  

COMING UP..... OPEN STATEMENT TO THE DNC