News hit last week that U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) is facing a “backlash” over his firm opposition to President Joe Biden’s Interior Secretary nominee, U.S. Rep. Debra A. Haaland, (D-New Mexico).
Backlash from whom, exactly? The stories were more about the full-page ads being bought in Montana’s daily papers, paid for by the Montana Wildlife Fund, with 2,500 signatures.
Ever heard of the Montana Wildlife Fund? Me neither. The Fund’s Fakebook page was stood up September 18, 2020 and has two whole “likes” with a whopping “20 talking about this.” Website montanawildlifefund.org was anonymously set up through Namecheap, Inc., the exact same day. The Fund’s Twitter page (joined December 2020) has seven whole tweets. Seven! But they got 2,500 signatures lickety-split and cash for a big ad buy? Wow, but how?
Well, the Guidestar non-profit database website shows that “Montana Wildlife Fund” (EIN 81-0504535) was ruled a tax-exempt 501(4) “social welfare” entity way back in 1996 – and it’s been dormant most of the 25 years since. The Fund’s most recent IRS filing, (for 2012, filed around a year late by then-president Stan Frazier) shows zero revenue, expenditures, basically zero everything.
So, because I HAVE heard of Mr. Frazier, I wasn’t surprised at all to see that this Fund has the exact same PO Box 1175, Helena mailing address as, yep, the Montana Wildlife Federation.
The Fund has a new president now, one Frank Szollosi, a brand-new resident of Montana who is also the Montana Wildlife Federation’s brand-new executive director as of June 2020, “after serving for over a decade on climate and water policy campaigns” for the National Wildlife Federation.
I’m left wondering why the Federation didn’t just put their name on the campaign, and worse, why Montana’s news media didn’t bother to, um, name-check? But this just goes to show the “backlash” against Steve Daines is yet more faked-up, dark-money deception.
What about Interior nominee Debra Haaland? Is she, as the environmentalist kabuki dancers claim, “right for Montana?” No, and not for America, either.
After last fall’s election, Representative Haaland told the Washington Post “If I had my way, it’d be great to stop all gas and oil leasing on federal and public lands.” Yes, she was referring to her dislike of methane releases from oil production, and her comment is actually a great fit with the Biden campaign’s promise to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” Still, consider that today, New Mexico produces 57 percent of oil produced from federal lands and the state government gets around a billion dollars a year from that production. Of course, New Mexico’s Democratic governor is now asking for an exemption to any ban.
How about her politics in general? Rep. Haaland introduced 51 bills in the last Congress (her first term), roughly half of those on Indian or social justice issues, including making “lunch shaming” illegal, with most of the rest “environmental.” None ever got a hearing. She did, however, pass three minor amendments into larger bills that became law, two on tribal matters and one on renewable energy.
But her most relevant, if unsuccessful, legislative effort is her lead sponsorship of House Resolution 835, in support of the so-called “30 by 30” initiative, joined by 43 other Democrats, many from New York and California.
HR 835 calls for a “national goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the land and ocean of the United States by 2030.” Yes, President Biden just signed an executive order naming the same goal. But that’s not the whole schmear. Further down, the bill clarifies “with a long-term goal of conserving 1⁄2 of the planet […]”
Sound familiar? Yep, if you know anything about the cult of “deep ecology,” Earth First!, the Wildlands Project and the totally-made up “science” of “conservation biology.” In a nutshell, half the world (wet, dry and airborne) needs to be locked away from humanity so that wildlife can evolve without interference, no matter the cost to mankind. That, my frenemies, is about as radical as it gets – and so is Interior nominee Deb Haaland.