Miscellaneous

When Babbie and I arrived in Alaska in 1974, I had political ambitions.  I wanted to be a United States Senator, and incumbent Democrat Mike Gravel was my obvious target.  Gravel was a whack job.  He went to the Democratic Convention in 1972 and openly campaigned to get himself nominated as George McGovern’s Vice Presidential candidate.  He made a complete nuisance of himself, and actually cried on camera when his scheme went nowhere.

Gravel had no business being a United States Senator from Alaska.  Any decent Republican could take him out.  Half the Democrats in the state couldn’t stand him.  But in 1974 the Republicans nominated State Senator C. R. Lewis, a member of the national board of directors of the John Birch Society.  Lewis was nuttier than Gravel, and never had a chance.

Which brings me to Montana.  How is it that a phony lightweight like Jon Tester represents Montana in the United States Senate?  Pure luck.  In 2018 his Republican opponent was State Auditor Matt Rosendale, one of the worst senatorial candidates I have seen in my lifetime.  In the Republican primary he beat State Senator Al Olszewski, who would have kicked Tester’s butt.  Rosendale was only able to do that because he was the establishment pick, supported by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  McConnell knew he could count on Rosendale’s support, which wasn’t true of Olszewski.

But Tester’s luck is going to run out next time, in 2024.  Former Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen of Culbertson, Montana just won the Republican nomination for Attorney General.  Knudsen is a superstar  —  young, smart as hell, accomplished, principled, affable, and a natural politician.  Four years from now, Austin will, at last,  relieve Montana from the embarrassment of  having Jon Tester as their United States Senator.

Austin comes from good Danish stock.  His grandfather emigrated from Denmark to sparsely populated northeast Montana early in the 20th century, and then volunteered for service in World War I.  The Danes are good people.  Of all the people of Europe, no one hated the Nazis more than they did.  They’re pro-American to this day, because they remember well who it was that liberated them.

In a way, one of them was my father, F. S. Pettyjohn of the 82nd Airborne.  He jumped at Arnhem, just south of Denmark, in September of 1944.  This battle is better known as “The Bridge Too Far”, and was the bloodiest airborne operation of World War II.  In my office I have a memento of that battle that he gave me.  It’s a small parachute, and was dropped carrying the additional ammunition the troopers needed to fight off the Waffen SS, which had them surrounded.  He was a staff sergeant and a squad leader, and he wrote his name, and the names of his squad on the parachute, along with their status (KIA, MIA), and a list of the battles each of them had fought in.  He was badly wounded before the Canadians finally broke through the German lines to rescue them, and was sent back to the states to recuperate.  He got back to his unit in time to take part in the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Berlin.

23 years later,  in the early winter of 1967, someone in Copenhagen repaid the Pettyjohn family the favor.  On the trolley back to the youth hostel where I was staying , after a night on the town, I lost my wallet.  I was screwed.  It had what little money I carried, and my Eurail pass.  Without that pass, I’d have to go back to hitchhiking, which was very difficult.

On a hope and a prayer I went to the police station the next day to see if someone had turned it in.  Lo and behold, there it was.  I not only had my Eurail pass back,  but all the cash that it contained.  I’ve liked the Danish people ever since.  And when I look at that little parachute on my wall, I see the explanation of my good fortune.

 

 

Here’s what happens when you bring your BS to the wrong part of California.

It’s been a while since I’ve been exposed to the runaway convention arguments.  Watching the debate on HJR 809 in the Tennessee House this morning was both depressing and infuriating.  These old, familiar distortions coupled with rampant paranoia are all it took to force sponsor Kelly Keisling to pull the bill from the floor.  Not a happy day.

The tone of the first letter I sent to the Republican members was scornful and insulting to anyone who believes the runaway myth.  It probably did the cause no good at all.  I was always a terrible politician.  I told the plain, unvarnished truth, and it makes some people uncomfortable.

Our most powerful weapon is an informed public, and talk radio is an excellent medium to inform them.  Right now, with the virus and the riots, no one would be interested.  But down the road that’s what I’ll be trying.

Despite the wealth of Dr. Evil and the Stupid Brothers, I believe Article V will be used in my lifetime.  Who knows, someone with some serious money may take an interest.  I’ll try to do my part.

The Wolf-PAC bill is up in the House this evening.  They started their floor session at 5:00 pm local time, and they’ve got a monster calendar.  HJR 809 is ten bills down right now, so it will be quite a while before it comes up.  Link below to watch.

http://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?event_id=4890

The legislators in Tennessee are a hard working group.  They make $20,844 a year.  There are a few states that are be exceptions, but serving in most state legislatures is a personal sacrifice.  They’re good people, and I always enjoy my time with them.  And I may be seeing a lot more of them before long.

Fred C. Koch was run out of the United States in the late 1920’s for patent infringement.  So he set up shop in the Soviet Union, and built 15 modern oil refineries for Joseph Stalin.  He later constructed one of the largest refineries in Hitler’s Germany.  It was one of the very few capable of producing the high octane fuel needed for fighter planes.

I guess he felt he needed to atone for his sins, so in 1958 he cofounded the John Birch Society, dedicated to opposing communist subversion.  Somehow this deeply stupid man became convinced that Article V of the Constitution was a threat to the very Constitution that contained it.  The man had no political sense.  He was a fool.

In 1966 he retired and handed his business over to his son Charles.  Charles Koch is every bit as dumb as his father.  He, too, believes Article V must never be used.  His money helps fund most of the conservative think tanks in Washington, and he makes sure none of them have anything to do with Article V.

Not content with opposing any and all efforts for basic political reform, he’s now partnered with George Soros to undermine American foreign policy toward Communist China.  The Quincy Institute is a Koch/Soros joint enterprise, and it spouts propaganda that looks like it came straight from Beijing.  Here’s the story from a recent edition of the Washington Free Beacon.

This is what the Reagan Project, and all other Article V organizations, are up against.  Vast wealth, wielded by idiots, arrayed against a small band of patriotic Americans.  But we’ll prevail, in the end, because we’ll have the American people on our side, once we get the word out.

And Koch and Soros will have something in common with another great villain of American history, the physician who conspired with John Wilkes Booth.  His name was Mudd, and theirs will be too.