A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

13–14 August 2016

Weekend roundup

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Happy Birthday!, Social Security. Franklin Roosevelt’s greatest accomplishment, and the most important social legislation in America’s history, is 81 today — and going strong. In this photograph of the signing ceremony, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, other than FDR the most important of the act’s architects, stands behind FDR’s right shoulder. The best way to keep Social Security going strong? Vote for Democrats.

Worried about terrorists shooting and/or blowing up the Flathead? Wondering how to respond? Worry not. Flathead Valley Community College has just the course for you: Emergency Management 200-90, Responding to Terrorism. Here’s the online description:

terrorism_course

There’s no syllabus online (nor does there seem to be an online syllabus for any of FVCC’s courses); just this blather. Neither is there a reading list. And the instructor is “staff.” Staff could be anyone from a Harvard Ph.D. in international security to the number two guy on the Flathead sheriff’s SWAT squad, or an itinerant Islamophobe who makes his living by lecturing local yokels on the alleged existential threat to western civilization posed by Syrian refugees.

The curious intersection of Bullock for Governor, the Montana Wilderness Association, and Salsa Lab. As reported by the Associated Press’s Matt Voltz yesterday, MWA and other conservation organizations have been running newspaper ads urging readers to send Gov. Bullock a thank you for his public lands agenda and support of public access to those lands. More ads ran today, and yet more may run tomorrow.

The ads I’ve seen direct readers to a website, www.mtgreatoutdoors.org, that urges supporters of public lands to send Gov. Bullock messages supporting his efforts to keep public lands public and to preserve access to public lands. He’s earned that praise, but www.mtgreatoutdoors.org, a domain registered by MWA on 6 April 2012, is where things get interesting. If you direct your browser to www.mtgreatoutdoors.org, it goes to:

Salsa is a Bethesda, MD, company that provides fundraising, online advocacy, and marketing, software to:

…help nonprofits achieve their mission. As your cause partner, we strive to create tools that make it easier for social good organizations to engage communities, raise funds, rally supporters and make their voices heard.

MWA uses Salsa’s Donor Pro platform to accept online contributions. On Bullock’s campaign website, www.stevebullock.com, the Join Our Campaign page is served by Salsa:

The common thread of Salsa could be coincidence, of course. But I find myself wondering why MWA redirected www.mtgreatoutdoors.org to Salsa when providing an email link to Gov. Bullock’s public lands operation would have been easy. Here’s one way to do it:

Send Gov. Bullock an email message praising his public lands positions:

mailto:keepitpublic@mt.gov

Go ahead, give the link a try. You can modify the subject line, and send the governor a unique message instead of the canned prose that MWA and its collaborators are suggesting.

That simple formulation eliminates the need to redirect the page to Salsa’s server, and eliminates, or at least tremendously reduces, the possibility that someone might put Salsa and Salsa together and come up with what might a false positive for coordination between Bullock’s campaign and the MWA et al. ads.

The least healthy Olympics ever? Probably. And given the reports of doping, also one of the dirtiest. Sailing events held on sewage contaminated waters. Swimming pools filled with water that’s green because Brazil has yet to master the science of keeping swimming pools clean. And, of course, the ever present threat of becoming infected with the Zika virus.

Should the summer games have been canceled, or moved to a safer venue? Of course. Did any of the people in charge have the courage to do the right thing? No. Will they ever? Of course not. There’s too much money involved. One last question: am I watching or following the athletic contests down in Stinkwaterville and Zikaland? No.