âIâm a pro-mining guy. I love hardrockâ mining,â Zinke said. âBut there are places to mine and places not to mine.â
âTake my home state, for example,â he added.
cognitive dissonance alert - is the maladministration actually doing the right thing here?
My God. Pleasant news. Itâs so odd. But it feels so good. More please.
Montana keeps getting a break from future candidate for US Senator from or Governor of MT.
Shorter Zinke: We want to only mine in Blue States.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Or:
Perhaps Lucky Minerals refused to play ball. Zinke is sending a message that failure to grease the right palms has serious consequences.
Or:
The payoff is just less obvious. Maybe a competitor is wielding govât to crush Lucky Minerals. Maybe Zinke has a stock position that benefits. Maybe Trump wants to build a hotel nearby and didnât want a loud, poisonous, unsightly open-pit mine to ruin the view. Or the GOP is prepping this as a bargaining chip for other legislation they want, like term limits on liberal judges.
If the public knew more about these actors, it would be a lot easier to determine whether their motives are good ones. But theyâre all shady business types who think that everything is bad that reduces their revenue, and that government is just a massive scam theyâre âfinallyâ getting a piece of.
Waiting for other shoe to dropâŚ
For Zinke, itâs probably more of a NIMBY issue. Yellowstone brings tourist money into the surrounding states, including Montana. If he was from Idaho, he might be more âmehâ on the deal.
More good news:
Donaldâs not going to like this.
It seems he is considering a run for governor in 2020 here in Montana.
Good, butâŚ
How close is this to any property he or any of his family owns?
How close is this to any property any of his major campaign contributors owns?
Youâre right, Zinke. Mining doesnât have a place next to national parks, like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase here in Utah. But I guess deserts and red rock have no meaning to you, a guy who wants to protect his home state parks, but no others. Go to hell.
One of the great adventures of my life began more than fifty years ago at the Old Saloon in Emigrant, where this event was held. Iâve been back many times. As a semi-professional adventurer when I was young and now having traveled the world and particularly the West and Alaska, the Paradise Valley between Livingston and Gardiner(Mammoth Hot Springs) Montana has to be among the most beautiful places on Planet Earth. With mountain peaks and rich basins on both sides of the valley where it enters Yellowstone NP, the area is the richest entrance to the temperate worldâs Serengeti.
While this is a positive decision, after a year and two thirds in office, his Montana home seems to be the only place Zinke cares about. The only worse Sec of Interior in the last half century was James Watt. Zinke is allowing if not encouraging severe environmental damage to many of the middle and lower ranked National protected lands. Intentional ignorance in the service of unmitigated greed is not a pretty sight.
Itâs more like the mining companies took Zinke for granted. He is not a principled environment spoiler, he is telegraphing that if the bribes arenât forthcoming, he can turn into a tree-hugger.
Mears was parked down the road from the site of Mondayâs event with a large sign propped against his truck that read, âSec. ZinkeâŚWhy wonât you meet with me?â
This very rude screamer must be a paid professional only looking to make Sec Zinke look bad. Donât fall for it! Also, look at the professionally made identical sign. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakerâ
(h/t DJTrump)
the amount of wealthy ranches in the river valleys around yellowstone (esp up into Montana) is incredible⌠this is indeed a NIMBY issue. If it was a desolate place with no estate âranchesâ like Eastern Oregon or rural Idaho, it would be allowed.
Somehow Sec. Zinke made a good decision despite his pro-mining tilt. I lived five years at the south end of Paradise Valley (Gardiner) and in various Yellowstone locations. I hiked Pine Creek, Mill Creek, and other trail systems in the affected region, then loafed at Chico Hot Springs. Beautiful mountain wilderness that shouldnât be trashed and poisoned.
That was our moment of sanity for today.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled crazytime!.