Tag: Montana

COVID: A Modern-day Hydra

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

COVID is over. At least, I thought it was over. In fact, I wrote an article and posted it here on August 15, 2021, in which I said that the tide of the war had turned and, from that point on, the battle was going to become increasingly desperate for those who were determined to ram the fraud down our throats and inject all of us with their favorite deadly toxin, while trying to shut our mouths with their stupid, silly dust mask mandates. At that time, I called it a “gut feeling” and I still think I was right.

Well, yes, but Adolf Hitler didn’t blow his brains out until the Soviet Army was only five hundred yards away from his bunker and closing fast. And COVID is like that, refusing to die peacefully, still wreaking havoc wherever it can, hanging on until the bitter end, i.e. until there is no more money to be made from it and no more foolish idiots to gull. The fact is that a lot of people still wear their stupid, silly dust masks, believing beyond credulity in the efficacy of a piece of fabric to keep them safe. Chain stores like Walgreen’s and RiteAid are still pushing the Pfizer and Moderna shots, often coupling them with more traditional “flu” shots to draw in customers. Not quite like “Buy one, get one at half price!”, but close enough.

Speaking of the mRNA shots (I will not call them vaccines), I became aware the other day (hat tip, Mr. B) of a bill, H.B 371, introduced into the Montana State House which would ban, literally outlaw, the use of mRNA injections for human “consumption” within the state. You can read the text here. It was just shot down by a sizable majority, with all the Democrats and a large percentage of the Republicans voting to kill it.

https://projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-tracker-2025/bills/hb-371/

https://bills.legmt.gov/#/laws/bill/2/LC1463?open_tab=status

If I was a swearing man, I’d ask “What the *&^%?” is the matter with these people? Are they not aware that the mRNA shots have probably killed more people than the virus itself, which was probably engineered in a Wuhan, China lab with the strong financial support of certain people in the US government? All paid for with your tax dollars and inflation, no less. Nice, neat, and tidy, wasn’t it? Well, maybe Elon Musk can sort it out. Maybe Anthony Fauci will go to jail, but I’m not holding my breath.

What is going on with the legislators in Helena, anyway? Why would they vote to turn down a ban on something which is strongly suspected (speaking graciously) of being a deliberate, orchestrated killing protocol unleashed on a trusting public? Why indeed, and I can only think of one answer: someone got to them and convinced them that it was in their best interest to bury this bill. Possibly, human nature being what it is, the convincing might have involved the transfer of a substantial number of Benjamins. Bribes, in other words, but then, I’m only speculating. Maybe promises were made to donate to the next campaign season, which every politician looks forward to. At any rate, looking out for the best interests of their constituents must have been the last thing on their minds.

Do you live in Montana? Do you want to see an end to this bullshit? Then I encourage you to find out which way your local representative voted and contact them with either a note of thanks for voting “Yes” or a fiery, blistering condemnation of their action if they voted “No”.

Click here, then scroll down to 2nd Reading, Show Full Vote Breakdown.

After all, this is your government, right? Didn’t you just participate in an election which sent these people to Helena as your “representatives”? If they are your representatives, then they are supposed to work for you, not an international corporation which enriches itself by keeping you sick. Or worse, making you dead.

Yes, yes, I know. Pure, blatant populist rabble-rousing, isn’t it? Well, maybe that’s what it takes to get you moving. If the shoe fits, wear it.

Thou Shalt Not Murder, except by Majority Vote

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

I’m looking at the early returns of the 2024 election. It appears that the state of Montana has gone decisively Republican and conservative, at least in the higher offices, most of which have been decided by wide margins. Some localized races have bucked the trend, ensuring that there will be plenty of contention in days to come. Donald Trump pulled out (estimated) an astounding victory of nearly 60%, with the Senate seat, both House seats, the Governor, and all state-wide offices running neck-and-neck with him.

What I find ironic is that CI-128, a ballot initiative which would enshrine the “right” to an abortion into the State Constitution, also passed by a wide margin, virtually identical with Trump’s drubbing of Kamala Harris in the state.

This tells me one of three things:

  1. There are a lot of hypocrites in the Republican/Conservative side of the Big Tent, which means the moral condition of the country will simply tend to worse and worse. But, then, this was already a given and has manifested itself in the past in myriad ways.
  2. This election was not about a “return to morality and Christian values”, but was probably more a judgment about the state of the economy, that is, money, and the voter’s own personal bankroll. If this is true, then America still has a long way to fall before it crashes hard.
  3. The voters of Montana have shifted from a position of welcoming and soliciting government intervention into their lives to one of telling the “rulers” to butt out. Not necessarily bad, in my opinion, but unfortunately, the weakest, most vulnerable persons among us will pay the price with their lives, all because we refuse to control ourselves.

“Thou shalt not murder, except by majority vote.” History will record the repercussions of this decision.

And the Beat Goes On…

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

TikTok, TikTok, winding down our freedom’s clock…

This could easily be the Grinch’s refrain if he was as concerned about protecting people’s rights as he was about destroying them. If you’ve seen the movie as many times as I have, you will recognize the tune.

I have just become aware that TikTok, presumably at the behest of the Grinch, er, I mean, US government, has just permanently banned one of the world’s most famous journalists, Glenn Greenwald, for posting videos which “violated the community standards”. That is to say, Greenwald posted videos critical of the government’s incessant attack on this little matter of free speech and subsequently had his account shut down. Forever. Without recourse. Permanently. Such is the very real threat which every journalist has to consider when he posts anything which might be frowned upon by those who do not want to see it come to light and exposed.

Read this article for more information.

Ever since the State of Montana became the first in the country to outlaw TikTok within its borders (supposedly to protect the weak, stupid, and gutless citizens who were addicted to it and could not refrain from using it, you understand), I have been pounding the issue. I came out forcefully against the State’s action from the beginning and have not altered my stance. This is not a question of “protection” of the common person from the depredations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is, and has always been, about control of the flow of information which is available to the average prole.

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/19/montana-the-new-state-of-censorship/

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/23/tiktok-round-2/

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/26/tiktok-round-3/

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/05/22/the-end-of-the-world-and-tiktok/

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/12/01/the-saga-of-tiktok-montana-continues/

Commenting on Greenwald’s ban, Adam Dick writes this.

“Five years back, technology companies were hitting their stride with cracking down on alternative voices. That crackdown has continued over the ensuing years. Further, evidence has increasingly been revealed that fills out the story of how United States government agents have behind the scenes been pushing the crackdown.”

“Given this context, one is wise to be skeptical of politicians and bureaucrats of the US government, along with their media allies, clamoring that TikTok needs to be banned because it is spreading propaganda for the government of China. It sure sounds like a fox guarding the henhouse sort of situation. Is the US taking a break from its censorship fixation to defend Americans from censorship here? Isn’t a more likely explanation for this talk of banning TikTok that making this threat is part of an effort to further bring this social media company into the US propagandizing operation — that the US government is seeking to advance its own interests, not to protect users of the company’s social media platform?”

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/glenn-greenwald-explains-how-threats-to-ban-tiktok-are-part-of-the-effort-to-expand-us-censorship-through-tech-companies/

Did you get that? TikTok needs to be banned because it is spreading propaganda for the government of China. In Montana, the overriding reason was not so much that it was spreading propaganda as it was that the EVIL CCP was scooping up information about TikTok users and compiling a database to be used against them, eventually, at some undetermined time in the future. At least, that was the official story line, the narrative. Presumably, a male teenager from Havre, Wisdom, or Big Timber, who only has sex, drugs, and Grand Theft Auto on his mind is in grave danger because he also views content on TikTok whenever he is bored and has nothing else to do, which is most of the time.

Naaaahhhhh! I agree with Greenwald and Dick. TikTok is being folded into the mix of government coercion and censorship, eventually to be as compromised as Google, YouTube, Facebook, et al., all of which are more than willing to toe the government line, so long as they are allowed to stay in business. Of course, in that respect, TikTok is no different and it will inevitably cave and grovel under the statist boot because of it. Greenwald comments,

“…they care about profit. These are capitalists. They don’t care about giving the US government control over content moderation. They are happy to do it if that’s the condition they have to meet in order to keep access to the very lucrative US market.”

All of which goes to prove that there really is nothing new under the sun. The love of money IS the root of all evil.

The End of the World…and TikTok

Roger Mitchell4 Comments

Against my advice and counsel, Greg Gianforte, the governor of the State of Montana, signed the TikTok bill sent to him a few weeks ago by the Montana legislature. TikTok is now officially verboten within the boundaries of the state and as of Jan. 01, 2024, any app store (or the company itself) caught downloading the app to any device in Montana will be subject to onerous penalties, up to $10, 000/download, with every day of continuation considered a separate offense.

Section 1. Prohibition — penalty — enforcement — definitions. (1) Tiktok may not operate within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana. An entity violates this prohibition when any of the following occurs within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana:

(a)        the operation of tiktok by the company or users; or

(b)        the option to download the tiktok mobile application by a mobile application store.

(2)        An entity that violates a provision of this section is liable in the amount of $10,000 for each discrete violation and is liable for an additional $10,000 each day thereafter that the violation continues.

(3)        It is an affirmative defense to this section if the violating entity could not have reasonably known that the violation occurred within the territorial jurisdiction of Montana.

(4)        Penalties under this section do not apply to law enforcement activities, national security interests and activities, security research activities, or essential government uses permitted by the governor on the information technology system of the state.

(5)        Penalties in this section do not apply to users of tiktok.

https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billhtml/SB0419.htm

[Note: It is interesting that Subsection (1a) says that a violation occurs when a user operates the app, yet the user is not liable for penalization, Subsection (5). Only TikTok or the app provider is, which tells me that this is all about money. The typical user probably has very little money and is not worth going after, but TikTok is fabulously wealthy.]

See here, here, and here for previously posted articles on this subject

I made the following comment on Western Montana News in response to an article by Breitbart which had been posted earlier. I do not retract anything.

Yes, Montana has become the First State of Censorship on the issue of determining what “free” citizens may or may not download from, upload to, view, share, and generally participate in. Montana, where censorship is hated if it is imposed ON conservative “values” and opinions, but welcomed with open arms if imposed BY those same conservative values. How hypocritical!

More to the point, how is Montana going to enforce this edict? Will it build an electronic “fence” around the border, supposedly capable of keeping TikTok out? How will this be done? If TikTok does not have a physical presence in Montana, then what can the state do to impose fines and penalties on it? If TikTok cannot operate legally, then why should it even attempt to do so, which means that it will operate illegally.

We have had generations of history showing that prohibitions of particular products do not work, i.e., alcohol, drugs, guns, etc. The banning of TikTok will not work either, but will create new and unforeseen consequences which will manifest themselves as time goes on, generating the inevitable “need” for government to find a “solution” for the problem it created the last time it imposed its will.

Greg Gianforte cited the need to “protect” Montanans from the depredations of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). My question is this. Why do I need to have GG watching out for me? Am I not capable of taking care of myself? If I want to download TikTok onto my smart phone and use it to entertain myself, then who is anyone to tell me that I am not allowed to do that? Am I responsible for myself, or not? Am I a free person, or not? Apparently not, according to the governor who thinks that he must interject himself into my life and impose his will on me, for my own protection, of course. In principle, this is no different than the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, telling everyone that they have to give up their guns and drive electric cars because of climate change and global warming.

Now that the state can ban entities from operating because of the potential for invasion of privacy, who is next? Pre-Mom?

The TikTok ban in Montana is a done deal…for now, that is. Considering the lawsuits that will (probably) erupt over this issue, it is quite possible that a court will find the state has overstepped its authority and strike down the bill, forcing the state to drop the bill or appeal it to a higher court in the hopes that the judgement can be overturned. Either way, the taxpayers will foot the bill.

What is more important, however, are the unseen consequences. TikTok is owned by ByteDance (a Chinese company presumably with powerful connections in the CCP), which is said to be funneling personal information and data to the CCP. More than likely, any attempt to shut TikTok down will be met with retaliation in some tit-for-tat fashion. What is to prevent the Chinese government from barring Facebook or another American social media platform from operating in any particular region within the country? What if the CCP decided to throttle back Google with the pronouncement that it was “stealing” the personal data of Chinese citizens and transferring that data to the US government? This could very easily be done under the guise of “protecting citizen’s rights”. Since the US considers China to be an adversary, an event of this nature would be seen negatively, inspiring calls to “punish” the CCP, thus ratcheting up the tensions between the two nations. Who knows? Perhaps the US government will decide to turn up the heat by sending more warships through the Taiwan Strait to enforce freedom of navigation rules. All in the name of defending the “free world”, of course.

If you think I have a few screws loose, then consider this.

“In retaliation over a sweeping US ban on selling advanced chip-making technology to China, Beijing is now banning major Chinese firms from doing business with Micron Technology, claiming that its products pose a ‘major national-security risk,’ the Wall Street Journal reports.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-bans-micron-over-major-national-security-risk

Actions have reactions. While they may not follow Newton’s Third Law exactly, there can be no doubt that what happens today will lead to events tomorrow. This is true everywhere and applies to everything. Adversarial relations which constantly push the envelope of provocation eventually end up in confrontation, very often violent. In today’s political climate, whether East or West, this confrontation might go nuclear and condemn all of us to a miserable future.

Or radioactive, incinerating, agonizing death from which there is no escape.