Billionaire Birthday Bash #6: An Open Letter to One of Mr. Friess' Assistants

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This is just one of several posts about my current conflict with vengeful billionaire hypocrite Foster Friess.  For an overview of the situation and chronology of posts go here...

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Dear Mr. ********* (One of Foster Friess' Assistants):

If you want to talk, please send me an email.  I don't like the phone.  I prefer less vaporous forms of communication so I know exactly where things stand.  My address is maxmogren@yahoo.com.

I have no personal problem with you.  I don't know you.  I see you as another guy like myself but doing your job as a representative of Foster Friess.

I'll tell you my personal gripe with FF, so you know exactly where I'm coming from.  Hopefully we can work to resolve this conflict.

I find it unethical and offensive when a powerful man attempts to cut off a working person's livelihood because they spoke their mind.  Your Boss did this to me.  I know FF didn't do the dirty work personally in pressuring both my employers to terminate me, but member(s) of his staff certainly did.  There is no doubt about that.

I find it shockingly offensive that FF's staff tried to pressure an employer who was in no way associated with the situation.  That direct and completely unjustifiable attack at my livelihood made things very personal for me.  Fortunately, only one of my employers buckled to FF's pressures.


The internet is full of criticism of public figures, so FF shouldn't feel entitled to squashing it.  That, Sir, is Un-American.

If FF has a problem with me and my opinions, it would serve his interests to deal with the situation in an up front manner instead of attempting to intimidate and bully me through underhanded attacks at my basic needs.

Tactics like that go completely against the public persona he wishes to convey.  They also fuel my discontentment, and leave me with only two options:

1) Submit and retract my opinions.

or

2) Keep coming up with creative ways to express my criticism of FF's ideology, hypocrisy, and personal attack on me.

I couldn't live with option 1, and it would take a bullet to stop me from embracing option 2. Frankly, I would prefer a situation with more options.

If FF acknowledged my right to Free Speech and apologized for attacking my livelihood, I would certainly pardon him for the personal offense.  That would take a lot of this fire out of my belly.

My original problem with FF was a lot less personal than this has become.  For the sake of clarity, I will explain my opinions that got me blogging about FF in the first place.

Foster Friess' outrageously expensive, four day long, 70th birthday celebration seemed grossly inappropriate to me at a time when most Americans are struggling to get by.  This disparity disgusted me, as did the conduct of some of his guests, so I wrote about it.

To a poor person like myself, the whole event reeked of hypocrisy because Mr. Friess had put together an elaborate (and expensive) four day celebration to showcase, his own generosity.

He capped off the celebration with a showy flourish by giving each party guest $70,000 to contribute to the charity of their choice.  At first glance this seems like a lot of money, but by my calculations the total amount donated comes to less than 1% of FF's considerable wealth.

To me, it looks more like a tax write-off than a sincere charitable event.  To me,  it looks more like a PR maneuver than a heartfelt attempt to make a positive difference in these exceptionally troubled times.  To me, it looks like FF's excuse to bring the good ol' boys together to plan their next global power play.

In my opinion, true philanthropists give a significant portion of their wealth to charity, and the most exemplary ones do so anonymously or at least with a minimal amount of showmanship.    A good example is once "Richest-Man-In-The World" Warren Buffett who has pledged 99% of his wealth to charity and, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, has started an initiative urging all American billionaires to commit at least 50% of their fortunes to the needs of this planet and it's people.

I urge you to read the story just linked to before continuing further.  Afterward, I'm sure you'll agree that Mr. Friess could learn a lot about true philanthropy from Mr. Buffett's example.


After studying FF's online personality, I find what I take to be a lot of partisan misinformation and fundamentalist quackery that he expects readers to swallow.  He washes it all down for them by promoting himself as a generous, caring, maverick defender of freedom.  I see through this facade and am calling him out on it because I think it is the right thing to do.

In my opinion, people like your Boss are flushing not only our Nation but the entire planet right down the crapper.  I, for one, am sick of it.


Sincerely,

Max Mogren

Let's ALL Support TreeFight. Even Our Billionaires Can't Afford Not To.

There are much more important things going on in Jackson Hole than petty squabbles for personal pride.

Our Peaks. Our Plague. Together we can save a significant amount of the remaining forests.

If you've had the pleasure of enjoying a mountain vista in the Rockies this summer, you probably noticed large brown patches of dead and dying pine trees.

The forested flanks throughout the West – from Mexico through Canada – are dying as a plague of biblical proportions decimates one of our greatest natural and scenic resources:

OLD GROWTH PINE FORESTS.

Typical Colorado Beetle Kill

If you really make a point to look, you’ll notice dying pine trees on just about every mountain rimming Jackson Hole.

Thus far Colorado and other areas with milder winters have had it much worse than we have here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

But please don't fool yourself.

 The problem is very real here in the land that we love.  The longer we wait, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to successfully fight this plague.  The longer we wait, the more likely it becomes that we will suffer a total loss of our pine forests like they're seeing already in many parts of the West.

Photo by James Woodcock, Billings Gazette

Though the tiny Pine Beetle is doing the killing, climate change (whatever it's cause!) is at the root of this disaster.  A few degrees difference throws off the delicate balance of an ecosystem just like a slight fever leaves a person bedridden and bitchy.

Hotter summers weaken pine trees' natural defenses.  Milder winters fail to kill off an adequate number of pine beetles.  The beetles thrive and the forests succumb to their onslaught.  It’s as simple as that.

An exceptionally cold winter could buy us some time, but with temps on the rise worldwide, we can’t afford to place our hopes in Old Man Winter.  We can nip this problem before it gets out of hand, but it  must be done now.  Here's why:

Pine forests are a foundation of the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem. 

FACT: Without living pine forests, most of the animals would die from lack of food and habitat.  At least we wouldn't have a problem with wolves anymore, but we'd also lose the moose, elk, bear, and other forest dwellers that make this land wild and great.  No more hunting.  No more close encounters of any kind with the wildlife that defines this place.

FACT: Without the shade pine forests provide,  snowpack would melt much more quickly, causing flooding in the spring and water shortages throughout the summer and fall.  Over time this means increased erosion, dirty or dried up rivers, loss of species diversity, and the eventual collapse of the largest intact ecosystem in the Lower 48.

FACT: Dead pine trees are extremely flammable.  Inevitable lightning strikes throughout a land of dry, dead trees would cause catastrophic forest fires: uncontrollable, fast-moving blazes that would make the Yellowstone Fires of ‘88 look both tiny and tame.

Imagine a Jackson Hole rimmed entirely by mountains flanked with the black trunks left behind.  The thought is almost too much to bear.  A few years from now, this becomes a very real possibility.  If we do nothing, it is eventually inevitable.

Trying to fight these sorts of fires is a ridiculously expensive lost cause.  We need a preemptive strike.

Pine forests are also fundamental to the Rocky Mountain Economy. 

Without the aesthetic appeal of vibrant, living trees, once inspiring and priceless places become depressingly worthless.

Without the big mammals so many people come here to see, what gives them reason to continue coming?

Who wants to sip a beer on the roof deck at Dornan's if they're looking out across a sea of dead, red trees towards a desolate mountain range covered with the same?  No one.

Then what?

Our tourist economy flounders and real estate prices plummet.

The eventual burned out wasteland is even worse.  No one wants to live amidst a dead, haunted forest.  No one wants to vacation in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mountains of Mordor.

Like the female organ they're named after, the Tetons are most beautiful when brimming with life.

Skiing, biking, hiking, or horseback riding through a recent burn is, at present, an interesting and powerful novelty.  Imagine if that were the norm.  Imagine if you couldn't find a living pine tree to save your life.

Imagine a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort where the only green boughs adorn the cell phone tower near Apres Vous ski lift.  It would be like skiing through an environmental holocaust.  Few visitors would pay good money for that sort of experience.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

Don’t get hopelessly depressed just yet, however.  My goal is to leave people hopefully motivated. 

Now imagine that most of the West loses their forests, but that here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem we exercise the foresight to save ours. Over the span of a few years, most Rocky Mountain resort towns will lose much of their appeal.  Meanwhile, here in the Tri-State Area, our forests are relatively healthy and we’re still sitting prettier than anywhere else in North America.

Visitors would flock to the last remaining pristine place in the Rocky Mountains!  Local business would boom at unprecedented levels, and only a small portion of that additional revenue would be needed to continue monitoring and combating this and future ecological (and therefore economic) threats.

By this logic, doing everything we can to save our pine forests makes perfect ECOLOGICAL and ECONOMIC sense.  Irregardless of our personal politics and other differences, taking up this cause is essential for anyone who truly loves Jackson Hole.

If we fund and support the proper organizations immediately, we can at the very least save the mountains that matter most to our collective economic and quality-of-life interests.  At best, we can save the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from devastation.

We can also, quite naturally, create a significant number of meaningful jobs in the process.

Our most precious natural resources are saved from a very real threat.

Our local economy thrives while mountain towns that lacked similar foresight are decimated.

Ski Bums like me get meaningful jobs saving something we love.

And a True Legacy is left for Future Generations.

Everybody (including Mother Nature) Wins!

Unfortunately, the Federales within the National Forest and National Park Service are doing next to nothing to combat this widely evident ecological nightmare.  While the forested flanks of the Teton Range's mightiest peaks are dying, GTNP Administrators are wasting $12.6 million on unnecessary upgrades to their administrative complex.

Many people I've met hold a hopeless attitude about the situation.  I say, if we have the resources to fight this plague, let's do it.  At the very least, we can save these irreplaceable and beautiful forests for a few more years.

If a PRIVATE SECTOR SOLUTION was ever OUR NEED,
NOW is DOUBTLESS the TIME.

The underfunded folks leading the charge to save our forests work through the local non-profit named TreeFight.  They’re not only using current techniques to combat the pine beetle plague but are also leading research into new methods that could be crucial to truly beating this threat.  They’re also doing more to creatively raise awareness of the situation than any other organization in the West.

Back in 2000 the founder of TreeFight, David Gonzalez, literally wrote the book on Jackson Hole.  You've doubtless seen it on coffee tables throughout the Valley.  Now he’s fighting to save the essential essence of the place we’ve all grown to love.

I’ve personally met with David and know that to this point it has been a complete labor of love on his part.  At the very least, we should all hope he sticks with it.  At our collective best, we should all support TreeFight wholeheartedly.  If we want a valley rimmed with healthy green forests instead of depressing blackened trunks, TreeFight offers our best hope.

I recently accompanied David and a few dozen Tree Fighters for a mission on Teton Pass.  Over the course of a pleasant hike, we saved several stands of scenic old-growth White Pine…. at least for one more year.  By dispersing hormone packets that deter beetles from attacking, we effectively outfitted a few acres with a beetle-repelling force field.  I found out later that David bought that day's hormone packets out of his own thin pockets.

My first impression that morning was, “DAMN, there are a lot of beautiful women getting into this thing.” After that initial shock wore off, I learned a great deal about the trees that David and crew are fighting to save.  If you like living trees and beautiful women, contact TreeFight and take part in one of their upcoming missions.  You’ll learn a lot about the threat and the solutions that TreeFight can offer.

The grass roots support is already there.  Folks are lining up to fight this thing.  The only factor really limiting TreeFight’s impact is a lack of funding.

Protecting healthy trees and eliminating dead trees hosting beetle nests on a scale as Grand as our landscape will be a costly endeavor.  Every little bit helps, but if the true financial powerhouses of our community took up the torch here, we’d all benefit greatly.

We, the People of Jackson Hole, as the stewards of this remarkable land have a responsibility to save it for  future generations.  By saving the trees here, we are also saving ourselves.

We all need to look at the growing devastation around us.  Those patches of red dead trees are only going to grow until they blanket every hill and mountain in our little paradise.

We all need to dig a little deeper.  Support TreeFight.

Ohhh yeah, and the Lyric of the Day:

Billionaire Birthday Bash #5: First Round of Fallout

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This is just one of several posts about my current conflict with vengeful billionaire hypocrite Foster Friess.  For an overview of the situation and chronology of posts go here...

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Last night I got fired from my Bellman gig for writing about my experiences working at and opinions of Foster Friess' 70th Birthday Party.  I didn't have a chance to defend myself, my claims or my rights.  I just got canned over the phone.

Team Friess has also contacted my other employer and is putting pressure on them to fire me as well.  This seems exceptionally unethical as that job has absolutely nothing to do with the situation.

He's threatening my livelihood in an attempt to intimidate me.  He wants these posts down, and he's going against his declared ideals to shut me up.

I was also informed - not by Friess but rather a friend - that unless I remove the postings and apologize for my opinions, I'll be sued for everything I'm worth and blacklisted by most major employers in Jackson Hole.  Mr. Friess has obviously got financial sway in this valley, and a Billionaire's legal team can make mountains out of molehills, so I've got no doubt of Foster's ability to cause me oodles of trouble.

I face all this though I did nothing illegal or immoral.  Bellmen don't sign a confidentiality agreement.  We'd need to get paid a lot more than $8.50 an hour to voluntarily turn off our eyes, ears, hearts, and voices.

Near as I can tell, the only thing I said that could possibly be construed as slanderous is a caption under a picture of Friess that says "This cowboy fucks sheep.  You, dear reader, and I are unfortunately part of the flock."

The ironic thing is that Foster just fucked me by getting me fired, so I've got pretty compelling evidence the caption - though crude - rings true and is therefore legit.

Another irony is that Foster took out a full page ad in yesterday's Jackson Hole News and Guide to throw a twisted spin on a recent story by Todd Wilkinson called "Friess Implies Obama Welcomes Oil Disaster".  If this doesn't further establish him as a willful public figure open to criticism, I don't know what possibly could.  Thus the libel laws grow looser.

Yet another irony comes near the end of yesterday's "Open Letter to Todd Wilkinson" where Friess writes:

 "... let's you and I pledge to work together to see what we can accomplish for the good of those people who need help right now, particularly those without jobs."

The irony is that on the day he published those words Friess was actually conspiring to get a poor person fired from not one but two jobs.  And for what?

For speaking his mind in his small section of cyberspace.

For exercising his right to Free Speech.

For doing his Patriotic Duty by exposing the hypocrisy and wastefulness of some of the wealthiest, most-powerful, and two-faced Americans.  Let me explain...

The true "Judeo-Christian ethic undergirding our culture"  has deep roots in forgiveness and understanding.  More than by means of financial, political, or military power, the success of our culture is due to our ability to live and work together despite our differences.  It's the whole "melting pot" thing.  Remember?

From small service industry jobs where folks of many races and languages work side by side to the momentous meetings of international businessmen, our collective ability to let bygones be bygones is one hell of an asset.

If our Nation's strategy was to wage war on anyone who criticized or contradicted our prevailing ideology, we'd have suffered the Nazi's fate long ago: utter defeat and a place in the history books as the World's Greatest Assholes.

Right now, I'm having a war waged on me for documenting an honest experience and offering my opinions.  I have had my livelihood partially cut off and am being intimidated with additional threats.

My intent in writing what I did was raising awareness, ideally in the hearts and minds of those about whom I wrote.

I'll let you decide for yourself what Foster Friess' intentions are in dealing with me.

And now, the Lyric of the Day!  Here in America - thanks to the aforementioned diversity - we've got a song for just about any occasion.  Facing the threats before me, I'm embracing the wisdom of Muddy Waters:

You can't spend what you ain't got

You can't lose something you ain't never had.

Peace.