JohnBoik

Hello BlueSky! My introduction. Say hello if we have similar research interests. coda.io/@active-infe...

I'm so old I remember Reagan telling people government was their enemy. I remember Thatcher telling people there is no such thing as society. The neolineral message was people banding together & helping each other (democracy) was bad. This left people unprotected against the wealthy and powerful.

missoulacurrent.com/viewpoint-am... #mtpol

dailymontanan.com/2026/10/20/a...

russdoty.substack.com/p/15-montana... This is great as well.

I'm glad it's coming out that the real reason Shannon O'brien resigned was not some "noble" stand to support Seth Bodnar, but rather b/c she'd siphoned $30k of Democrat funds to pay a friend a big severance package (& then lied about it). Good riddance! The Dems should root out every leech & crook.

BELIEVE WOMEN!

Alani Bankhead wants to impeach Trump Seth Bodnar wants to have coffee with him bsky.app/profile/blue...

Yeah that needs to go, but the damage is done. The govt used & abused surveillance. A holdover from post-9/11 response including DHS w no clear training or procedures which is how we got here. We need way stronger privacy protections & limits on govt surveillance that infringe on civil liberties

Me, my family, and friends are all voting for Alani because of her integrity, experience, impressive military service, and her dedication to work on the affordability issues that plaque Montanans. She's the better candidate, by far. So no, we've never wished for Alani to "drop out", it's insulting.

Also they distributed her underage daughter's phone # in a document of her family's contact information for the pressure campaign to force her out. So no, she will not drop out: bsky.app/profile/toxi...

This from Missoula Dem Rep Zooey Zephyr on Tester. We don’t need a Manchin Senator. You can judge Bodnar by the company he keeps.

Billionaire families have spent $1.7 BILLION on the 2026 midterms so far — a 5,200% increase since the 2010 midterms. Citizens United is among the worst decisions in history. It corrupts our system every day. Big Money is the root of our dysfunction.

Posted this 'cause I am weary of people (incl close friends) smearing this woman over her religious background and as some mysterious, suspicious newcomer. Both are very well addressed in this article. Yep, people grow up in religious traditions they later reject. Yep, good people retire to Montana

Good for Alani Bankhead. She was set up by donors to drop out of the race the moment she won the primary, and she refused to. Bodnar should have run as a Dem. Glad Bankhead has a spine. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Join me in a campaign to bring Montanan values back to the U.S. Senate. Vote ALANI BANKHEAD for U.S. Senate on NOVEMBER 3rd: www.alaniformt.com

Vote Alani Bankhead for U.S. Senate on November 3! Find out more at www.alaniformt.com

Ballot measures in Missouri and Montana would declare that people have a fundamental right to popular initiatives. This would give initiatives “the highest level of constitutional protection,” says a legal scholar.

It’s the 1% vs the rest of us #mtpol [AAUW Candidate Forum • 9.10]

If candidates are judged for validity, solely on the amount of money they’ve raised - rather than on the policies they support - I fear our elections have lost all integrity I’m voting for the candidate that wants universal healthcare, to abolish ICE, and ban data centers - that’s not Bodnar

But I think that’s the thing that everyone is so fed up with, and the reason why The Montana Plan is on the ballot. People are tired of elections being dictated by who has the most money - because that money comes with obligations and ulterior motives.

I had a chance to meet @samforstag.bsky.social and he’s got a real shot in this race. Most of the cattle ranchers are out east in the other district, but affordability has been an acute problem in Montana since COVID. It would be nice to have a rep in Congress I’m not ashamed of.

There are four overlapping scandals here: 1. Fundraising spam tactics are hallmarks of elder financial exploitation 2. The Dem establishment is in on it 3. Most of what is raised goes to fundraising consultants 4. Capitulation to legal threats by NYT and The Bulwark on a fully vetted story 🧵👇

Scandal #3: The money doesn't go to help Democrats win elections Upwards of 70-75% of what's raised via fundraising spam is plowed back into more fundraising. The consultants profit whether Democrats win or lose. As the DNC's autopsy warned, these consultants are getting generationally wealthy.

Seth Bodnar's team spends fuckton of money trying to get her to beat Rielly Neill, then when she did they & DNC & DSCC pulled the rug immediately & said 'You can't win!' Yah, it's supect alright... adriajawort.substack.com/p/top-dnc-of...

Montana Democratic Party statement on Alani Bankhead @alanib.bsky.social

Montana is selling more state trust land than it’s buying #mtpol montanafreepress.org/2026/07/21/m...

This is good, but we need to get politics out of billionaires. The ultra-rich control vast swaths of media, industry, think tanks, churches, and countless other pieces of hegemonic power. Their existence is an illiberal, toxic force.

"A billionaire death cult has its fingers around humanity’s throat. It both causes and downplays our existential crisis. The oligarchs are not just a class enemy but, as they have always been, a societal enemy: a few thousand people can destroy civilisations." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Cool perspective on statistical learning!

an oligarchy virus “was embedded in America’s economic DNA... waiting for the appropriate conditions to reveal itself,” “And then we created those conditions, unleashing it to infect our institutions... and democracy, replicate, and burst forth to infect anew.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

My painting TWO RED CHAIRS

The nice thing about a $10 million wealth cap and not having poor people or insanely wealthy people: - no concentrated poverty - no concentrated wealth - no means testing - hard to marginalize groups - hard for capital to capture government - capital is democratized - *all* labor is honored

The reality is that those with everything bought the media and convinced the rubes to vote for people who would help them keep everything. So, we don’t tax the wealthy. Instead, we worship capitalism and funnel our wealth upward to them. We don’t support each other because that would be “socialism”

NO MORE BILLIONAIRES PERIOD

Rooting for Russell Cleveland for Montana US House District 1 @russellcleveland.org

This is my collection of #NoKings events from around Montana. The huge crowds across the country are amazing, of course, but the people who showed up in their local parks and on their hometown sidewalks are my heroes. They deserve to be seen and counted. I was proud to stand among them. 1/n #MtPol

Protesters line the streets in Hamilton, MT for the latest No Kings demonstration. Hamilton, a town of around 5,000 residents, is in Ravalli County, which favored Trump by a 41-point margin in 2024.

Love to see this in deep red Montana.

The collapse of systems of domination & extraction is an inside job in that the worldview of strength through force, safety through extraction, and avoidance of sharing through growth has always held the seeds of its own destruction within itself. It can't be otherwise in an interconnected system.

If every top Democrat doesn’t immediately condemn this threat of war crimes and collective punishment, without any ‘process’ BS complaints, then they should be primaried instantly. They’ll be complicit in this crime if they don’t speak out. Tainted forever.

We will need 60 senators to impeach him, Montana. Who do you trust to do that? My money is on Reilly Neill or Michael Black Wolf….. #DefeatGOP2026 #DefeatBodnar