I received some criticism down below of being too far down the “rabbit hole.” That’s fair – all criticism is fair if offered without an agenda. For instance, when I wrote about bison in another piece, I was set straight and brought up to speed by a couple of men of good will who simply know the issue better than I do. All I need do in that situation is get up to speed.

So understand, I do not mind criticism. It’s a healthy thing. But I do want to answer the rabbit hole remark, and in such a manner as to respect the integrity of my critic. He’s good and fair minded, the latter a rare quality among bloggers.

I wanted out of blogging a while back. I was tired of having the same conversation every day. Worse than that, I had seen too much of this world, this country, and had lost all respect for our institutions and leaders. I was tired of visiting the same issues and always arriving at the same conclusion – we are being lied to. I was tired of the extreme gullibility around me, how every lie is believed with utter credulity. That is still the case.

Knowing what I know, having spent 27 years of my life looking for answers, I can spot a lie fairly easily. For instance, every public word uttered by every politician is some form of a lie. They have to lie, as by definition they are serving two masters and cannot tell the truth to both. To survive in office, they have to be loyal to one and lie to the other. They always end up serving the one with the most power, and it is not the uniformed and gullible voter.

So I long ago lost interest in politics and politicians. It’s wasted energy, as election outcomes have no bearing on public policy. Representative government long ago took leave of this land. I can’t pin the date, but for my purposes, I will guess it was 4/12/45, the day FDR was murdered [or died naturally or faked his death], and his successor, Harry Truman, a corrupt and crooked man of little talent, took office. I like that date because it frames the events of my lifetime. I came along five years later. Before that time is probably just as corrupt, but I wasn’t around for it. Since our history is a lie too, there’s little point in going back too far.

We’ve not had real presidents in my life then. Just actors and aristocrats and intelligence operatives, as we have now. The news media was a joke even in the 1930’s, when General Smedley Butler was told not to worry about them in the 1933 coup attempt. It has not reformed itself, so that virtually nothing we see on TV or read in newspapers is true save perhaps the weather forecast. These days, with six companies owning just about everything, it’s a sad joke.

Some say the military runs the show behind the scenes, but I take it a step higher. The military serves at the behest of an even higher power, the oligarchy. And that force, our wealthiest families, our .1%, knows no end to its avarice and greed. The whole planet is on a platter before it, and the enormous wealth generated by this vast country is at its disposal. Our taxes are used primarily to fund wars, and when they run short of cash, they attack Social Security and Medicare, the only two government programs still functioning well.

It’s an endless quest. The American public is regarded as the domestic enemy, and so we are under constant attack, lied to, dumbed down by entertainment and sports, and kept barely literate by education (just enough to easily accept advertising and propaganda into our pretty little heads). We are now fed a steady stream of lies – easily unraveled by anyone with a functioning brain. And when there is need for a war, an attack on some still-unconquered and independent place, we are fed a false flag event to stir our silly little heads into a frenzy of support.

Thus did I know the Paris attacks to be fake. Where once they might shed real blood and do some real murdering (as with Operation Gladio), these days they don’t have to work that hard. They just set off some noisy firecrackers and call in the dogs of the media to spread lies. Soon enough we see Facebook filled with photographs covered with French flags, comedians offering solemn tributes to fake dead before they go back on script, and singers paying lofty tributes stirring our hearts to mourn for the fake dead. Your country is about to go on a another killing spree, real murders – not fake ones – and needs your support. Patriots, do not let them down!

Does that sound world weary? Probably, but I am not. I’ve never felt so alive as I do now. Truth is an energizer. It always thrills me.

I came to realize that the reality around me is fake, and that I would never get that point across to anyone, and so I decided to quit blogging and just tune it out. But that did not last long. I need to write. So I decided to stick closer to home and heart, and write about my home state, Montana. And to keep my wits about me, I decided to ban three men who bring me down into the depths of silliness and stupidity.

I may waver, but still intend to stick by my plan. As I saw Paris go down, and then saw all of the automatic Pavlonian credulity, I could not help but say “Folks, if everything before now was a lie, it is highly unlikely they decided to start telling the truth this time.” So I went off track and wrote about some obvious fakery there, an easily understood false flag event designed to lure the American and European public into support of yet another massacre. Can’t help myself.

But if you, dear reader, cannot help yourself but to fall for every fresh lie they put on your plate, who am I to stop you? Enjoy. It’s your brain. You can either use it or not.

Truth is not a “rabbit hole.” It is a source of solace, a calm port in a sea of turbulence. I will always find comfort there. I am my own man. Can you say as much?

I read one source years ago suggesting that the primary control mechanism of bison was the human population on this continent, as many as eighteen million at the arrival of the Europeans. Thus followed a human die-off, and the bison population exploded. Migrating settlers were confronted with millions upon millions of the beasts. The slaughter of that era had two purposes – to open range for cattle, and deprive natives of their primary food source. Both succeeded.

In the real power structure, the Montana Stockgrowers Association is the group that makes and enforces policy regarding bison in Montana. The Montana Department of Livestock holds titular authority, and underneath that is the governor, charged with grabbing a baton and leading the parade after it is moving.

In the early 1990’s, the Governor or Montana was Stan Stephens, and during his administration Montana became a nationwide laughing stock. The Yellowstone bison herd had overgrown and had to be culled. To do so, Stockgrowers invited a public harvest. The nation was shown images of “hunters” dressed in hunting garb standing fifty feet away from their trucks and prey and dropping them. It was disgusting to watch.

The next governor, Marc Racicot, had better advice. He built a wall, and did the slaughter away from cameras. No images, no outcry, no problem.

I was a writer for Writers in the West at that time, and reacting to the buffoons masquerading as hunters, wrote a column describing the cat-and-mouse game played by Racicot. I was ego-boosted when a friend of my daughter’s, in school in Wisconsin, said my WITW piece was a subject of discussion in one of her classes.

At issue are brucellosis, wolves, the real power structure, and the real effect of absence of apex predator on the landscape. Once it was humans. Now we rely on wolves and grizzly bears.

Brucellosis is a disease that causes abortion in elk and bison, and undulant fever in humans. It is under control in our cattle population, but the mere threat of species transmigration is enough to affect markets and cause quarantine. So the Stockgrowers watch it closely. Even the perception of threat to cattle will cause them to bring out the big guns. I get this, and given the unbridled power of the MSA, not much can be done to stop them.

There is not enough predation in Yellowstone national park to keep the bison herd down to a reasonable number. Wolves are great hunters, grizzlies less so, but in bison they both meet their match. Wolves prefer elk, and bears the carrion created by wolves. As a result, the bison population in Yellowstone regularly gets out of hand. Three methods of control are die-offs, migration, and culling.

Culling by humans is not allowed in the park. When food supply wanes, bison migrate into the greater ecosystem, and the Stockgrowers spring into action. These days, the killing is done out of sight, and the meat carted off to Native American reservations.

I do not know of a better solution. The effects of bison overpopulation on the landscape are devastating. Perhaps we could invite our Native American friends in each year to enjoy a harvest, as their ancestors did.

But culling is essential. There is no way around it. Nature is out of balance. Human management is essential. In my view. I invite others to set me straight.