Month: December 2016

by William Skink

One of the positive results of last month’s election was the righting of the legislative wrong done to medical marijuana patients. Those in the wrong weren’t just anti-business Republicans led by Billings zealot, Steve Zabawa. I would include in that category a Democrat Governor who could’t muster a veto, and our lovely local media, who sensationalized the cannabis crusader, Jason Christ, and his roving caravan of pot card enablers.

Many years ago at the old blog I used to write for I would sometimes sarcastically react to articles like this one. It was obvious, at least to me, that the fix was in to depict marijuana’s medial use and the efforts to establish that access as threatening and dangerous, mainly because it fanned the controversy— and how else will corporate media dinosaurs subsist without fanning controversies?

I was reminded of this media tendency on Christmas, when I saw this post on Facebook from Rachel Carroll Rivas of the Montana Human Rights Network:

I dont usually do this but I’ve had the worst journalist experience I’ve ever had with ABC Fox MT out of Missoula (& I do a lot of press work). They have been an immoral instigator in the current Whitefish white supremacist story. They only care about # of website visits. Boo to them. Please consider using other sources.

While stoking controversy to get clicks is a nasty business, the fawning puff piece schtick can sometimes be even worse. And honestly I haven’t seen a more appropriate example of that kind of reporting than this piece by Missoulian reporter, Keila Szpaller, celebrating legal drug dealers who peddle the destructive yet socially acceptable and very profitable drug, alcohol. From the link:

Alcohol sales have been brisk in Missoula this holiday season, and some proprietors are reporting “significant” increases over last season.

Overall, purchases from Agency Liquor Stores are up 4 percent this year from 2015, an average annual bump, according to the Montana Department of Revenue. Agency Liquor Stores sell to all taverns and establishments in Montana that have an all-beverage license.

“Whiskey continues to be a top seller for Montana,” said the agency’s LaNor Stigen, in an email.

Indeed, whiskey accounts for 34 percent of all the cases sold in 2016; vodka isn’t too far behind at 29 percent, according to agency data. This year, sales of whiskey crept up 4 percent compared to last year, and tequila took a leap at 7 percent.

I don’t want to misrepresent the intention of this quality reporting. Obviously this article is not just shameless cheerleading for booze peddlers. It’s also an opportunity for owners of booze peddling establishments to speculate on the social dynamics contributing to their stellar year of selling booze:

In Missoula, owners attribute some of the uptick to the election and the economy, with various customers nursing malaise and others optimistic about the guard change in Washington, D.C.

“It seems like money is not as tight this year as it was in the past, maybe,” said James Jones, owner of the Press Box.

Checking out the comments on this article, I like this one enough to put here:

What these Liquor store owners don’t say in this article is the bread and butter of their business is cheap plastic bottle bottom shelf booze and Steel Reserve Beer. How many times a day does the ambulance get called out due to the homeless drinking this garbage which makes these folks rich.

Another thing the liquor store owners and local media don’t say is what we pay for the result of alcohol abuse. Thankfully I’m not media, and I don’t own a liquor store, so here it is:

* Alcohol-treatment centers around the state – supporting detoxification services, inpatient and outpatient treatment, and long- and short-term residential services: $10.7 million;

* Medical care in hospitals and clinics, treating conditions either caused or complicated by alcohol abuse: $100.3 million;

* Loss of life – removing productive workers from the economy, often at a young age in the prime of their working lives: $296.8 million;

* Loss of worker productivity – from higher tardiness and absenteeism, lower productivity while on the job, more sick days, a shorter or a more restricted working career paid for by businesses, governments and families: $53.3 million;

* Crime and criminal behavior – the extra police, judges and prison cells needed to protect citizens and enforce the laws that are broken because of the impairing impacts of alcohol: $49.1 million.

What isn’t itemized in this list is the ongoing cost of local politicians impairing their judgment with alcohol abuse. This old 4&20 post by CarFreeStupidity references Pam Walzer’s DUI arrest and links to the above study. More recently Mayor Engen publicly announced receiving treatment for his alcoholism while also simultaneously announcing his intention seek reelection.

And that’s just the public stuff. The stories floating around, and a few things I’ve personally witnessed, would make for some good reading. Maybe I’ll slip it in to the piece of “fiction” I’m working on.

There are lots of stories not being told, and one of the more curious reactions to the Mayor’s acknowledgement of being an alcoholic is this little etc. admission from the Indy:

Engen’s drinking habits were far from a mystery. At least one Indy staffer has stood in line behind an obviously intoxicated Engen, and stories of the overindulged mayor out on the town aren’t hard to find. And yet local media—the Indy included—has looked the other way. Which says something about our respect for Engen’s privacy, our discomfort with wagging a hypocritical finger and, just perhaps, the community’s complicity in enabling the mayor’s self-destructive behavior.

As uncomfortable as that suggestion is, awkward questions remain. Did the mayor’s drinking problem affect city business? Was there a precipitating event—as is so often the case with substance abuse—that convinced the mayor of the need to seek help? City officials say Engen won’t discuss the matter further.

No, the Mayor doesn’t have to discuss his personal struggle with alcohol abuse any further. But he does have to discuss how Missoula is going to deal with all the problems alcohol and drug abuse have contributed to, like chronic homelessness, sexual assaults on campus, domestic abuse in general, jail overcrowding and high suicide rates.

Because that’s what a politician running for reelection is supposed to be talking about.

By JC

Thus spoke President Obama in his outgoing way. Actually and literally going out, as in leaving office in less than a month. So let’s all remember that the politics of fear is being ingrained into the populace by our dearly departing Democrat administration and all of its neocon/liberal interventionists as a way to poison future relations with Russia and other countries.

It is tantamount to throwing a temper tantrum in the West Wing — burning the furniture, scattering files, and scrambling contact info in an attempt to muddy the waters the incoming foreign policy and national security teams will have to wallow in. And that is dangerous for all of us who have to live through the next 4 years with a foreign policy that has yet to take any form, other than a few twittered one-liners.

George W. Bush applied these fear-based tactics right after he entered office, and used them to lie his way into starting a needless war, and to coast through 8 years of horrendous foreign policy: you’re either with us or you’re with the enemy.

Hillary Clinton would have continued to use similar tactics (can you say “no fly zone in Syria”) to ice another 8 years of Clintonism. This would have brought the total to potentially 32 years of interventionist foreign policy, as Bush’s foreign policy (Doctrine of Preemption) was but a continuation of the path that Bill Clinton set forth (building on Reagan and G.H.W. Bush’s return to publicly acceptable warfare after the Vietnam debacle), and that Barack Obama was afraid to derail as he tiptoed into office.

Of course people will say, but there is evidence! Well, to quote the DHS, there is a hefty “as is” disclaimer on the accompanying report:

This report is provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within. DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service referenced in this advisory or otherwise.

In other words, buyer beware. Evidence not included. Propaganda alert! Here is a link to the full DHS report. Have at it. Couple of caveats, this report will undoubtedly be used by Russia as reason to illuminate our cyber espionage on other countries and elections in retaliation.

It used to be that when you heard words like “for informational purposes only” it was associated with a game not intended to be taken seriously (i.e. “for entertainment purposes only”). So we are led to believe that our sanctions and actions are publicly legitimized by a nebulous “for informational purposes only” document, yet behind the scenes are real actions of state, or declarations of cyber war that are based on what evidential fact?

The chasm between evidence and material provided “for informational purposes only” is vast. I am reminded of Colin Powell selling Bush’s lies to the U.N. in preparation for going to war on Iraq. And the hypocrisy here is breathtaking — surely the exceptional country is the only one allowed to engage in cyber electoral warfare or regime change!

But undoubtedly Obama’s actions are intended to hamstring Trump, and give the official “conspiracy theory” about how and why Hillary Clinton lost the election the White House’s seal of approval. The “facts” have been created or mangled, stories have been planted in the mainstream media, and the Ministry of Truth’s paid op-ed writers are getting to work churning out the pablum dictated by the new “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act” that snuck through Obama’s office on Christmas Eve (now there’s a lump of coal for you!).

And as to there still being almost 4 weeks till Trump’s inauguration, many more land mines will be laid in the fields of opportunity that we call “foreign policy.” The trip wires are being installed, invisible red lines drawn, threats uttered behind closed doors, and covert actions taken. Unfortunately, many of these will only be discovered when they are leaked by whistleblowers, extracted by hackers, or have been actualized and set irreversible and public actions in motion.

Obama has turned his sham interventionist foreign policy into a nuclear hot potato for an incompetent Commander in Chief CEO and board of execs and generals to handle. The tools of fascism handed to Obama by Bush, Cheney & Co, and Bill Clinton have been carefully nurtured and expanded. Now we get to see what the real crazies get to do with them.

by William Skink

Amidst all the high-profile deaths of musicians, cultural icons and film stars that have marked this abysmal year, the passing of Dan Gallagher saddens me the most.

Dan was a Vietnam vet and ardent advocate for veterans. I didn’t know him well, but I got a chance to see his advocacy in action when he tried to help a war widow keep her housing as she was being evicted from her apartment for hoarding.

The Missoulian has a good article reflecting on Dan’s life and work, which you can read here. Even the comments are positive.

Rest in peace, Dan.

by William Skink

I have no doubt that the social safety net will suffer under the Trump regime. One difference hopefully will be a more strident opposition to those efforts since Trump is a Republican, which means Democrats will suddenly remember paying lip service to protecting the social safety net is actually palatable when it entails fighting a Republican president.

Well, being the contrarian blogger that I am (thanks for the mention, Dave) I feel obliged to remind readers that attacking impoverished Americans is not some proprietary modus operendi of the Republican mindset. Democrat politicians can be just as callous in their efforts to disappear people, especially when urban gentrification is at stake.

The latest example of this phenomenon is brought to us by Democrat Mayor of St. Louis, Francis Slay. The target is a shelter of last resort called New Life. Here is an excerpt from the article:

As rents went up, property values around New Life soared. To realize their investments, downtown landowners sought out friendly politicians.

Mayor Slay became their knight in shining armor as he intensified efforts to drive the homeless from the streets of downtown. In May 2015 the mayor’s political machine revoked the shelter’s occupancy permit. Fighting back, attorney’s for New Life were able to keep it open. Then, on November 9, 2016, the St. Louis Building Commission sent Rice a cease-and-desist order giving him 30 days to shut down.

Homeless shelters are one chapter in a long story of depriving people of a place to live. Being shoved off of land when its value goes up is a recurring theme in the history of this hemisphere. For centuries, indigenous peoples have suffered the “extraction curse” when their homes are discovered to be located atop gold, silver, tin, lead or adjacent to a potential hydroelectric dam.

This is precisely what happened to the Poverello Center in Missoula. It’s presence downtown was despised by the business community, so when the conversation on where to build the new shelter was happening, that interest group made sure rebuilding downtown wouldn’t happen.

This, of course, after trying to criminalize sitting on sidewalks to disappear the intoxicated contingent of downtown street people. That effort came courtesy of “progressive” city council member Caitlin Copple (who introduced the ordinance at a behest of our Mayor), a move that shocked and disgusted many of her supporters.

While a new shelter was ultimately built in Missoula, it’s by no means a shelter of last resort. Like other shelters in St. Louis, the Pov’s funding for specialized populations–in this case, Veterans–comes with conditions, and one of those conditions entails maintaining a clean, sober environment. People actively using drugs and alcohol are therefore relegated to the expensive bottlenecking happening at the ER and jail.

The effort to close down New Life is eerily similar to the effort to relocate the Pov. There is a demonizing campaign carried out by the media and an even more callous effort to stop donations. Here’s more from the link:

While the legal offensive has been the most visible, multiple Democratic Party politicians have joined in painting negative images of New Life. Slay has been the most successful at pulling corporate media under his umbrella. Stories of good work done by New Life have almost disappeared from TV and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as they are replaced by reports confirming what the Democratic Party mayor wants the public to believe. The newspeak includes charges that New Life …

1/ must be shut down because it does not comply with codes for building permits;
2/ is responsible for a wave of K-2 (synthetic marijuana) overdoses; and,
3/ can easily be eliminated because other shelters are able to handle all of the area homeless.

Each of these allegations is a bit problematic. As the New Life attorney notes, building codes and ordinances “are so vague and ambiguous that it is impossible to comply.” The Board of Public Services, which revoked New Life’s occupancy permit had no jurisdiction because New Life is not a hotel as it claimed. Additionally, the city told New Life that it had to obtain signatures of approval by those living nearby in order to stay open, which was highly discriminatory. When the city opened the $2.5 million Biddle House in August 2016, it met with opposition from neighbors. But it is a model program of the city and was not required to obtain signatures from neighbors as was New Life.

The charge that New Life is somehow responsible for K-2 overdoses is the most recent in a string of accusations that the shelter is responsible for drinking, fighting and public urination. Though these activities occur throughout downtown St. Louis, corporate politicians spend zero time demanding the closure of bars and sports stadiums. The idea that public urination could be greatly reduced if there were public bathrooms seems to have never occurred to them.

As the mayor’s charges against New Life became more shrill, the press sensationalized K-2 overdoses. TV and print media painted lurid pictures that “people started to drop,” they were “staggering, nearly passed out on their feet,” and some “slipped into zombie-like states of near catatonia.” Report after report gave exclusive attention to overdoses in front of New Life, as if the 67 year old Rice was the devil himself, enticing people to come to the shelter so he could drug them into oblivion.

Yep, I remember the days of demonizing the Pov for the alcohol-related behavior of the chronic homeless population that, for the most part, were banned from accessing services. That distinction didn’t stop the media, like the Missoulian, from conflating the two issues. Oddly the media never made a big deal about hypocrites like Tim France, the owner of Wordens, loudly complaining about drunk homeless people while quietly refusing to stop selling certain alcoholic products to them at the request of city leaders.

What’s happening in St. Louis is a good reminder that it doesn’t take an evil Republican boogeyman to attack homeless people and the organizations struggling to meet their needs. When it comes to sanitizing urban spaces for gentrification, Democrats can be just as effective in carrying out the wishes of developers and real estate parasites eager to cash in on displacing poor people for hip loft dwellers.

This is one of the major reasons I scoff when I hear liberal-leaning do-gooders braying about how welcoming and inclusive Missoula is. Sometimes the harsh realities of marginalized people intrude, like when the cold of winter sets in, but mostly it seems the fantasy of Missoula’s inclusiveness is well insulated from the harsh reality of what people suffering from addictions and mental illness are actually experiencing in our community.

by William Skink

If you’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas then get ready for the foot and then some that’s accumulated over the last 24 hours.

While the real life me will be having an idyllic snowy Christmas feast of abundance with family, the artist me offers some poetry and music from the upside down.

Merry Christmas!