Zoom Chron Blog

Over twenty years ago Thomas Siebel–the second cousin (once removed) to Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer–established the Montana Meth Project. Here’s how Stanford framed Siebel’s desire to help Montana, and America, deal with the newly minted national threat of amphetamine abuse (highlight emphasis mine):

With Jennifer Siebel Newsom in the crosshairs of the Feds, and hubby whining that friends and family are being questioned in a politically-motivated witch hunt, let’s remind ourselves who came to Montana for Gavin and Jennifer’s Big Sky wedding:

A description of the terrain, from P.C., a woman who used to have a vacation home in Hamilton: “It truly is beautiful Big Sky country. … The Stock Farm is on a hill and affords a magnificent view of the Bitterroot Mountains. … The people up there are unfazed by celebrity. A perfect place for the wedding.”

This weekend, in high summer, mountains in the distance still bore snowcaps. Mother Nature also provided sightings of bald eagles (the avian kind, but perhaps a few guests, too). Among those on hand: Helen and Chuck Schwab (who threw Friday night’s barn dance at the Lodge); Google founders/air transport providers Larry Page and Sergey Brin and spouses; movie producer and former eBay President Jeff Skoll; Willie Brown, whose remarks appeared in Sunday’s paper; Nancy and Paul Pelosi; Gina Moscone and Cal Shakespeare Director Jonathan Moscone; 7×7 Publisher Susie McCormick and Jeffrey Brody; Gordon and Betty Moore; Kathleen Alioto and Jim Meeker; Richard Goldman and Helen Hilton Raiser; Maurice Kanbar; Sandy and Jeanne Robertson; “Sex and the City” actor Jason Lewis; and Dick Blum, without his wife the Senator, said to be a-hankering for that Sacramento job the groom has set his exploratory committee sites on.

While showing up to a wedding is one thing, running a “non-profit” is quite another, so let’s see who is on the paperwork for the non-profit started by Jennifer’s second cousin (once removed):

When you go to the Montana Meth Project website, like I did, the brief bios spell out perfectly how narrative control works. Let’s start with the newspaper guy, Michael Gulledge:

Michael Gulledge is publisher of the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana, and also serves as a Publishing Vice President for Lee Enterprises, Inc., overseeing Lee newspapers in Butte, Helena, and Missoula Montana, Casper, Wyoming, Twin Falls, Idaho, Elko, Nevada, Albany and Corvallis, Oregon, Longview, Washington, Provo, Utah, Santa Maria, Napa and Hanford California, and Glens Falls and Auburn New York and Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Next up, John Parker. Pay special attention to his work expanding the definition of child porn:

As Cascade County Attorney in Great Falls, John Parker brings intricate knowledge of Montana’s criminal justice system to the Meth Project. He served three terms in the Montana House of Representatives, including posts as House minority leader and chairman of the Law and Justice Interim Committee. He helped pass legislation that increased penalties for Meth lab operators and established a jurisdictional basis for drug treatment courts.

Parker has won numerous trial convictions including operation of an unlawful clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, meth possession, in addition to winning convictions for a wide array of felony offenses. He supervises a team of 12 attorneys and 10 support staff.

In addition to his work on meth and other drug-related legislation, Parker helped pass legislation which expanded the definition of child pornography in order to protect more children from sexual predators, and creating the criminal offenses of money laundering and vehicular homicide while under the influence.

When I read the General’s bio (Gene Prendergast), his connection to Carroll College–and the Montana Meth Project’s expansion to Hawaii–made me think of the Alani Bankhead Op.

Gene Prendergast is Major General (retired) of the Montana National Guard.

Under his leadership, the Guard became very active in school anti-drug programs, with Guard/Reserve personnel visiting schools to educate students about the dangers of drugs. In addition, Gen. Prendergast helped create The Challenge Program at UM-Western, an alternative education program for at-risk youth.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1967, General Prendergast progressed through the ranks, serving as Deputy Commandant of the Montana Military Academy. In 1990, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Montana Army National Guard.

In addition to his military and defense-related honors, Gen. Prendergast has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the State of New York – Western Montana College and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Carroll College.

Up next, Barbara Ranf:

Barbara Ranf is Executive Director of State Government Affairs for BNSF Railway Company for Montana and Idaho.

Prior to joining BNSF, Barbara worked with the Montana Chamber of Commerce as Government Relations Director. She served under Governor Judy Martz as Director of the Montana Department of Administration and Ex-Officio State Treasurer in 2001 and then as Chief of Staff through 2004.

Barbara spent 20 years with Qwest Communications (formerly USWEST/Mountain Bell) in Montana in various management positions which included public relations and government affairs responsibilities. Other prior work experience included the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Kansas Geological Survey and the Kansas University Affiliated Facility/Bureau of Child Research.

Former Governor, Judy Martz, for those who don’t know, was a Republican. Former Governor, Steve Bullock, and husband to Lisa Bullock (not officially listed on the website), is a Democrat. It’s nice to know that the scourge of meth, and now fentanyl (as of 2025), can bring our two political parties together.

The Montana Meth Project, a statewide organization, announced its campaign against fentanyl this week, in partnership with Red Ribbon, the nation’s largest drug-use-prevention campaign.

The campaign will consist of teacher and student contests, which will continue through Oct. 31.

Fentanyl isn’t the kind of drug used recreationally by a trillionaire, of which there is only one on the globe (his drug of choice, we are told by the NYT, is ketamine). That said, with California’s Governor and first lady in the news, and considering their Montana connection, isn’t it interesting that the trillionaire in the news for being a trillionaire has a jet that was recently spotted in Bozeman?

As I was goofing around on Google, I came across a website that follows Elon Musk’s jet. Not Elon Musk, but his jet. Now, you might ask yourself why am I sharing this with you? Well, that’s a great question. The reason I’m sharing it, is because according to the website, Elon Musk’s jet was recently in Bozeman.

Musk, who is the richest person in the world with just under a trillion dollars in wealth is an interesting character, but why was he or his jet in Bozeman?

Looking at property in the Yellowstone Club? Looking to buy the Yellowstone Club? Maybe thinking about buying a ranch here in Montana? I’m not real sure, but I do know that his jet landed at the Bozeman/Yellowstone International Airport and a day or so later, the jet was up and off to it’s next destination.

This is quite curious when you consider the apparent PayPal Mafia meetup at Paws Up Ranch, north of Missoula, last June.

Returning to the current scandal of the moment, Jennifer Siebel Newsom is being accused of using her non-profit, the California Partners Project, to take in money and buy documentaries from her FOR-profit LLC, Girl’s Club Entertainment. Here’s how PJ Media describes the scheme:

According to IRS Form 990 disclosures, her nonprofit frequently buys from Siebel Newsom’s for-profit film company—Girls Club Entertainment LLC—writer, producer and director services and the licensing and production rights for her documentaries. Then it sells the docs to the state and public schools.

IRS records show that her nonprofit has paid her Girls Club Entertainment LLC roughly $1.64 million for these production and licensing rights since 2012, which includes a steady annual contracting fee of $150,000 since 2018.

When I checked out the 990 form, like I did with the Montana Meth Project, here are the names I found associated with the California Partners Project:

Examining some of the names on the paperwork of Jennifer Newsom’s “non-profit”, like Carolyn Gan (who has her own family foundation), produced more curious connections to both Montana AND Hawaii. Hmmm.

Eileen Myles is a poet who spent time as a visiting writing professor at the University of Montana before throwing her support behind Hillary Clinton.

Beginning in 2002, Myles began a five-year stint as a professor of writing at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). UCSD funded the research and travel grant that enabled the creation of Inferno (2010), as well as Hell, an opera composed by Michael Webster, for which Myles wrote the libretto. Since leaving UCSD in 2007, Myles has been a Visiting Writer at Bard College, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Montana-Missoula, Columbia University School of the Arts, and New York University.

In 2016, Myles endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in a BuzzFeed piece entitled Hillary Clinton: The Leader You Want When The World Ends. Myles was also approached by Clinton’s campaign to write a poem, as part of “Artists for Hillary”, a mostly-female group which included Jenny Holzer and Maya Lin, whose creative statements were testament to their support for Clinton’s presidential bid. Myles’s poem was entitled MOMENTUM 2016.

When you go to the 990 form for the Gan Family Foundation you see donations going to the University of Hawaii Foundation and a Chinese hospital on Masonic Avenue in California. Hilarious.

Another name, Norah Weinstein, brings in that lovely orthodox community in the Bronx before describing Weinstein’s rise, through an internship with Bill Clinton, to delivering baby formula for FEMA. Totally normal.

Weinstein’s father is an Orthodox Jew from The Bronx, while her mother is from Memphis, Tennessee. Weinstein was raised attending Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor at the University of Southern California.

She interned for Bill Clinton during his presidency and went on to work as a corporate lawyer.

Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof are the Co-CEOS of the Los-Angeles nonprofit Baby2Baby. The nonprofit was founded in 2011, and provides a “wide range of necessities” for families with newborns. It gained attention for producing diapers for 80% cheaper than the retail price.

…

In 2020, Baby2Baby worked with FEMA to distribute baby formula, which was undergoing a shortage in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were recognized as one of the 10 most innovative nonprofits by Fast Company and made Fast Company’s World-Changing Idea List.

And then there’s Lisa Ling, the “special correspondent” for Oprah (who lives in Hawaii) covering issues, like the drug war in Columbia, gang rapes in the Congo, and child trafficking in Ghana. Hmmm.

Ling accepted an offer to host National Geographic Ultimate Explorer. In 2005, the show moved to the National Geographic Channel and returned to its original name, National Geographic Explorer. Ling has covered the drug war in Colombia, investigated the notorious MS-13 gang, and explored the culture of U.S. prisons. She also was allowed to travel into North Korea as part of a medical missionary group, where she and a film team were able to document a rare look into North Korea. The trip was documented in the 2007 National Geographic documentary “Inside North Korea”.

She then became a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show which has featured many of Ling’s investigative pieces, including a report on North Korea. Ling’s title is “Oprah Show Investigative Reporter.” She also has reported on bride burning in India, gang rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, child trafficking in Ghana, under cover investigation of Pennsylvanian puppy mills with Main Line Animal Rescue, the immediate aftermath of the hurricane in New Orleans, and the April 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre.

While I’m sure there’s more to discover by poking around the names running the non-profits getting temporary media attention before that attention shifts to the next shiny thing, what’s the point? This is just the game money plays, and this money game has essentially corrupted EVERYTHING around us, especially the world of “non-profits”.

Thankfully, without money to cover even my basic costs of living, I don’t have to worry about the corrupting influence of donor dollars, I’m still figuring out how to raise $355 to buy court transcripts. Stay tuned tomorrow for info on where I’ll be in Missoula if you’re interested in helping me out.

Thanks for reading!

Yes, I really do have a Council of Lego Karens set up in my apartment because I believe every divorced heterosexual male should never be free, for even one second, of the powerful force reshaping society: aging liberal white women.

Today I want readers to behold the new leadership that my Karen Council has appointed to lead us all into the amazing future we deserve, and that’s Queen Koostra!

All hail Queen Koostra!!!

Thanks to Alani Bankhead’s discrimination lawsuit revival show on Monday, I’m reviving my interest in Barbara Koostra’s role as one of the three original plaintiffs of that discrimination lawsuit, along with her highbrow taste in art and propensity to make a man homeless when he breaks his leash and acts like a bad boy who refuses to do what he’s told.

Let’s begin.

On a warm July morning last year, a truck completed its journey from Washington, D.C, arriving in Missoula at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture carrying several nondescript pine boxes.

Inside those boxes lay the treasured art collection of copper baron William A. Clark. Their arrival – met with great anticipation – capped a milestone in museum director Barbara Koostra’s long career.

“Some of Clark’s vast art collection coming to Montana permanently, nearly a century after his death, is a profound and important moment in our state’s long, historic relationship with the Copper Kings,” Koostra quipped that morning.

This article from former Democrat spokesperson, Martin Kidston, frames the quipping Koostra as an accomplished art guru seeking to preserve Montana’s history through art. Later in the article we get a hint at the Koostra shit-storm brewing:

Given the prominence of that collection and the achievement it represented, it came as a surprise when five months later, the University of Montana announced that Koostra would be leaving the museum.

The school, working to trim costs and restructure its faculty and staff, opted not to renew her contract after 14 years, The announcement came as a surprise to the art community, as well as to Koostra.

“On the heels of obtaining the Clark collection, it took my breath away that that would be a response to adding so richly to the collection and its value,” Koostra told the Missoula Current. “I don’t know where the genesis of this change even began. There was never any input solicited from me or my staff as to how to reposition the museum within the structure of the university.”

For more Koostra context, here’s the pedigree that I believe fueled this art influencer’s brazen entitlement that going UP UP UP was the only direction for her to be moving on the status ladder:

Before returning to Missoula, Koostra spent 17 years performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After earning her MBA from the University of Montana, she stepped in as director of the Missoula Cultural Council before serving the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

As someone keenly aware of narrative control and the critical role that MONEY plays, like funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, it’s obvious that Barbara Koostra got VERY comfortable in her influential position picking artistic winners to promote with Federal dollars.

For an alternative take on the role of Uncle Sam subsidizing national art, here’s a little history from an institute that would like to END the National Endowment for the Arts:

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was born in 1965 out of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society agenda, under the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. Its founding objectives in subsidizing art were sweeping but vague; they included supporting artistic excellence, increasing access, strengthening the country’s cultural infrastructure, and boosting national heritage.

The overarching principle was clear: Art matters, and as such, taxpayers should be forced to pay for it. As Johnson put it, “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage.… Where there is no vision, the people perish.”2

Art is undoubtedly important to human well-being. Yet the power to subsidize art cannot be found clearly within the powers enumerated to the federal government under the Constitution. What’s more, none of the arguments for direct government art subsidies hold up under basic scrutiny.

Any agency with such amorphous and ill-defined goals was bound to spark controversy. Over time, political pressure has seen the NEA’s priorities change. In the 1980s and 1990s, outrage over provocative taxpayer-funded art led to funding cuts and a ban on direct grants to most individual artists.3 After increases in real terms, the rate of growth of the NEA’s budget stagnated and then declined.4

By the 2000s, the NEA’s focus shifted toward community-based and educational programs, with less support for avant-garde experimental work. More recently, the NEA has supported projects that ostensibly advance economic development and diversity and inclusion goals, through public-private funding models whereby “experts” select projects for grants matched by the private sector.

After being summarily dismissed from her influential perch over Missoula’s art scene, Barbara Koostra continued doing community-based education by trying to educate Daniel Carlino about what kind of political pet the Council of Karens considered him to be.

When Daniel Carlino faced eviction in 2021, and the added conundrum that an eviction could de-qualify him from running in the ward he had been living in, Carlino didn’t specify WHO his landlord was at the time when KPAX reported on the plight of renters, including Carlino:

Renters across Missoula are facing eviction.

“We just got a notice to leave from our landlord, without a reason, just kind of unexpected,” said Daniel Carlino who is running for Missoula City Council in Ward 3.

“You have to live in the ward to run,” he said and if Carlino can’t find a new place in his Ward, he might have to withdraw.

“Either run in another city council ward, and restart, or I might just have to postpone the campaign for a later time,” Carlino told MTN News.

When I did what Carlino couldn’t do, and named Koostra as the landlord in my post, Daniel’s own girlfriend (handler?) came at ME for digging into this story.

Here’s the response I gave Bornstein about her strange comment at the time:

To answer Bornstein’s question: no, I did not consider that doing this investigative work, which started with comments made to the media by Candidate Carlino himself, would make it harder for him to find a place to live.

Because why would that be?

Is there some kind of entrenched political establishment with operatives in the housing market capable of using their residential gatekeeper powers to deny this young candidate the stability of housing just because he has the temerity to challenge them?

Is that what you’re saying Maggie Bornstein?

Well, the Council of Karens (including Mike Nugent?) finally got what they wanted, and they ousted Carlino after complaints to Montana’s Commission on Political Practices flew from both sides amidst the shady ward-hopping of Jennifer Savage’s musical-chair-move, as reported by The Pulp:

Savage resigned her seat because she moved to Ward 3, where she’s now running against Councilmember Daniel Carlino, a democratic socialist who isn’t afraid to tangle with the council majority. According to Savage, it’s not that she moved in order to primary Carlino, but I can say anecdotally that some Carlino supporters — and at least one Missoulian letter-to-the-editor writer — certainly feel that way, especially given Savage’s many endorsements from other members of the council, including the mayor. In other words, the decision of how to replace Savage is suffused in the tightly wound politics of the moment.

There’s also the awkward timing. Savage has been running for Ward 3 for months, but only officially vacated her seat in Ward 1 earlier this month.

In a disgusting op-ed to ensure that the vile Council of Karens got the Karen bat-signal that Daniel Carlino HAD to be politically destroyed, Queen Koostra outed herself as Carlino’s landlord in order to write this about him:

OMG! This is AWFUL! What other indignities did Queen Koostra suffer at the hands of this BAD, BAD man?

Ten hours of cleaning were needed to return the home close to its move-in condition. A curtain was missing; glass door panes, the garbage disposal and ceiling tiles were broken. Dishes and personal items were abandoned. Their 2020 Christmas tree was left in the yard, rotting — in July 2021.

Carlino failed to acknowledge the two-way street of respectfulness that should exist between tenants and landlords.

Carlino and his roommates relinquished their deposit to remunerate me for these offenses, but the time and effort required to make the home livable again I will never get back.

I’d like to thank Queen Koostra for not being afraid to show the cunt side of being queen. Honestly, you almost have to ADMIRE the dogged persistence and self-destructive vindictiveness of Karens and their mighty powers, enshrined by the church of WOKE, and ratified by those squeamish bitches across the pond:

Calling someone a “Karen” is “borderline racist, sexist and ageist”, a tribunal judge has said.

Employment judge George Alliott said the term, typically targeted at middle-aged white women, was pejorative.

The remarks came in the case of Sylvia Constance, 74, who had brought claims of unfair dismissal, direct race and age discrimination and victimisation against Harpenden Mencap, a charity that provides support to adults with learning disabilities.

Forcing an organization to spend its helping-retard money on this “victim” is pure Karen, and a good place to end this post before my Karen Council demands I get a good pegging.

Thanks for reading!

For Montana Democrats who want to beat Kurt Alme, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, their hope for a clean Bankhead bow-out disappeared on Monday. If Alani Bankhead stays the course, Alme should have an easy path to the Senate.

Is that the plan?

When I saw this social media assertion from the Bankhead campaign post a few days before her Monday announcement, I had a feeling a Democrat gender skirmish was brewing. The tell was how Bankhead refused to criticize prosecutors and law enforcement in her statement, instead gushing that THEY WERE AMAZING and FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

Victim LARP incoming, I speculated on X?

Was I right? Yep!

After the press conference, Montana Democrats tried building on the media attention by immediately going on Facebook to spread misinformation about Bodnar:

Sexual HARASSMENT allegations? Nope. It was actually sexual DISCRIMINATION allegations, and those allegations were settled two years ago.

Or were they?

A University of Montana lawsuit that began in 2021, involving 18 plaintiffs who alleged sex-based discrimination, ended on Jan. 9 with UM agreeing to pay a $350,000 settlement and provide “universally available” Title IX training to employees.

“This settlement provides UM and (the Office of Commissioner of Higher Education) with this opportunity to learn, grow, and improve,” Hillary Carls, lead legal counsel of the plaintiffs, said in a statement on Jan. 9. “With two hands, Montanans can build institutions of higher education for all.”

The lawsuit, first filed in August 2021, accused the University of mistreating female employees. The original four plaintiffs were Catherine Cole, former vice president of enrollment management and strategic communications; Barbara Koostra, once the director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture; Mary-Ann Sontag Bowman, a tenured professor in the School of Social Work; and Rhondie Voorhees, the former dean of students. Cole, Koostra and Voorhees left the University since Bodnar became president in 2018. Bowman currently works at the University as a tenured professor.

Re-litigating a settled case with inaccurate rhetoric? What does Alani Bankhead think she’s doing?

She’s apparently doing something that she said those in her sensitive line of work should NOT be doing, and that’s pivoting from ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) to politics.

The tough work of fighting heinous crime through the ICAC network took Alani Bankhead to Hawaii. Before I get to why I think that’s relevant, let’s see what other people on Facebook are saying about yesterday’s press conference from this relatively unknown candidate:

To help provide the type of info Diane Sands is looking for, let’s consult this brief biography:

Mighty Sparrow Coaching is Bankhead’s current business, and it entails dealing with “imposter syndrome“, a pathological version of self-doubt that grifters see as opportunities to make money. I wonder how much money Bankhead charged the state of Montana last year when her “coaching” company did its thing for the Montana Board of Crime Control:

I find it interesting that Alani Bankhead is already connected to the Gianforte administration through her coaching work with the state. If she stays in this race and successfully takes out Bodnar for Alme, my hunch is that Bankhead will get a nice job “protecting children” in Montana.

Teaching kids is what a political blogger by the name of Don Pogreba did in Helena before he quit and moved to Hawaii for a new teaching opportunity. When “Pogie” closed down his blog, I wrote this farewell piece in 2021 which made an interesting connection between the school in Hawaii, where Pogreba went to teach, and a board member of that school:

Here’s more on Roy Simperman from the Carroll College website:

In 1965, Roy married Diane Corette (now late), daughter of Jack and Sallie Corette, whose tireless efforts and personal donations led to the building of the Corette Library. The couple moved to Seattle, where Simperman went to work for Boeing, coding and calculating trajectories for NASA lunar orbiter computer simulations, creating software for NASA mission navigation and guidance control, and working on a fusing system for a nuclear warhead in a missile. He later worked at Weyerhaeuser Timber, where he initially designed and developed a computer simulation to model the forestry program from genetics to timber harvest, making the company more profitable. At just 35 years of age, Roy was then placed in charge of the largest division of its kind in the world with 29 facilities in seven states including all of Weyerhaeuser’s nurseries, greenhouses, orchards, seed plants, and their genetics program. In 1985, he purchased Audio Control, a manufacturer of equalizers and signal processors for audiophiles. He also bought a stock photography company which sold photos online before the Internet was widely known. Simperman’s work at the stock photo company led to the creation of his company, Semaphore, in 1994. In 2001, Simperman began dating Frances Rogers, owner of a successful printing business in Seattle; she and Roy co-designed their home in Hawaii and married in 2004.

When I checked the donor data I found that Roy Simperman financially supported Greg Gianforte for Governor in 2020. Interesting.

While nothing directly connects Alani Bankhead to the Simperman fortune, the geography and timing definitely has me wondering IF there might not be something more direct lurking in the dark money shadows that helped catapult Bankhead to her primary win as a relative unknown:

Alani Bankhead came from financial nowhere to win the Democratic Senate primary. She had $23,884 to campaign with, including a $5,000 loan.

Only 30% of voters knew who she was until a pop-up PAC spent $3.3 million on ads and even phone banking to get out the vote for Bankhead.

That kind of election lightning is unlikely to strike again in November, when the retired Air Force special agent goes up against two far-better-funded candidates. Independent Seth Bodnar and Republican Kurt Alme have each raised $2 million. The entire Democratic primary field combined had raised less than $325,000.

And the PAC that came to Bankhead’s rescue in the primary? Progressive Vet PAC has given no indication it will be supporting a Democratic candidate for Senate in the general election.

While Alani Bankhead downplayed this explosion of PAC money yesterday, flanked by women holding handmade signs promoting their political currency as victims, it remains to be seen if liberal women in Montana will emerge as the angry, vindictive spoilers Bankhead wants them to be. If they do, I hope they take Bodnar’s hot dog and mount it on the wall of their sexist clubhouse.

One final note before I end this post. Since Alani Bankhead said we’re in the “Epstein era” yesterday, I was prepared to ask her a question about whether or not she’s used the Epstein DOJ search bar function online to look up Montana connections, and my follow up was going to be whether or not she thought local media have done an adequate job bringing Epstein’s Big Sky connections to the surface.

Instead of posing my question to this controversial candidate, I had to quickly pack up my stuff and leave because, if I didn’t, the continued fallout from this toxic relationship means I would have risked being arrested.

As I’ve said before, lawfare is a real bitch.

Thanks for reading!

Last Monday two media guys made themselves available for City Club. Since I’m not allowed to cover City Club in person, or to even to write about the catering service they use, I guess I’ll just post the video for readers of this blog so you can see for yourself why local media is in such a deplorable state of SUCKING.

Matthew Frank told the audience that his publication, The Pulp, has eschewed political op-eds because they want to cover the kind of quirky stories that won’t make powerful people uncomfortable. That’s how I interpreted Frank’s proud reference to one of The Pulp’s most popular stories, a 2024 article about a man who picks up dog shit.

Since Matthew Frank and his colleague, Erika Fredrickson, do everything themselves, the picture of dog shit in a bright pink bag accompanying this hard-hitting piece of journalism was taken by Frank himself. Amazing!

After the City Club event, one of the “social media” platforms the two media guys scapegoated for their contracting industry posted about Missoula’s need for investigative journalism.

Here’s one of the comments I found worth highlighting:

According to “Rocky Missoula” there is no investigative journalist in town “worth mentioning” and any future reporter, says Rocky, should be an outsider who should “only intend to live here a short period” because, the assertion goes, only an aggressive outsider will lack the fear that holds back local reporters from asking the “hard questions”.

Ok. But would an outsider be able to put a seemingly random commenter on Facebook into the narrative-control context she deserves?

Who is Sue Reber Orr? Six years ago, during a tense Zoom meeting about homelessness, Sue acted like she was just an average resident of Orchard Homes instead of what she REALLY was at the time: a Democrat operative helping people like United Way’s Susan Hay Patrick do narrative damage control.

Sue Orr’s husband is ALSO someone I’ve become familiar with, since his law firm, Orr McDonnell Law, employed the substitute judge who helped kick-off the years of lawfare I’ve been dealing with ever since ending a toxic relationship that nearly ended me.

In a Democrat document available online, Sue Orr’s name is listed along with another name I’ve written about, Lisa Davey, who works at a non-profit called “Common Good Missoula”. I guess Common Good Missoula isn’t too worried about that pesky IRS restriction on non-profits engaging in political activity.

Considering Lisa Davey’s political role with Missoula County Democrats, her other work exploiting teens for the climate agenda, for example, appears even more shady and legally dubious, but saying anything more about THAT topic could put ME in legal jeopardy because of who is involved.

Does Lisa Davey and Susan Orr really want an aggressive investigative journalist asking tough questions about serious issues, like openly wondering if there’s something connecting all the clumsy women in Missoula who “accidentally” drown, including my co-worker, Leah Hartley?

No, I don’t think they do, and I have the figurative legal scars and empty bank account that proves (at least to me) how much this town DOES NOT WANT their own biases and narrative blindspots challenged.

To further make my case about what Missoula needs and doesn’t need regarding information and transparency, it should be noted that investigative journalists have come to Missoula in order to make media products for wider public consumption. Too bad both Jon Krakauer’s Rape book and Connie Walker’s Stolen podcast relied heavily on THIS Guy for their narrative.

Asking tough questions at this point in our country’s 250 year history means taking information that’s already available about the Epstein class and using that information, like I have done, to make uncomfortable connections regardless of what those connections indicate, which is that BOTH political parties and almost ALL our criminal justice jurisdictions are deeply compromised.

If you’d like to help support THIS investigative citizen journalist, I’ll be at a brewery this Friday for an informal meet and greet where I will be able to explain some of the stuff I’m currently working on and NOT able to write about yet, so stay tuned!

And, as always, thanks for reading.

on day fourteen of Galactic June 
behold the rise of claw and gate 
who left the womb upon a blood moon?
what rough beast ripped open fate?

life is like a box of rockets 
on polymarket, where you make your bet 
will it blow or hit sky water?
you never know if it's hot or wet 

should I worry about James Franco?
and the code for monster/child?
on day twelve the 'Berg goes bingo!
disclosure boners sure make them smile 

Yeats, my mate, we have an answer 
a wormhole, butthole, Grey named Lam
prancing like a killer Unicorn 
born from a cut of Kosher ham 

O, dear God, a praying mantis 
from Atlantis will referee 
I'm no fan of Galactic showdowns 
but I'd like to get to day fifteen!