Month: September 2019

The Dark Crystal, An Analogy

by William Skink

There’s this post I’ve been trying to write for awhile now, but every time I start it I get a few sentences in, then trash it. I can’t seem to find a way to articulate the direction my recent reading has taken me.

Instead of jumping in to the books I’ve been consuming, I’m going to start with The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance, a prequel to the 1982 movie currently running on Netflix.

For those unfamiliar with Jim Henson’s puppet wizardry, here’s a brief description of the world Henson created–called Thra–and the creatures that inhabit it:

The native species of Thra include a multitude of critters and beasts, giant worms and flying stingrays, adorable Podlings and, most important of all, the Gelfling. These vaguely humanoid creatures are the primary species of Thra. Seven clans of Gelfling exist, scattered about the world—in its deserts and caves, its deep forests and shining cities, even out on its glimmering seas.

But then, two thousand trine ago, the Skeksis came to Thra. This bird-like alien species fled their own planet and came to Thra, where they tricked its guardian, Aughra (Donna Kimball) to leave the Crystal of Truth under their protection. They gave her a device that allowed her to send her spirit out into the universe, to travel the stars while she slept. And while she slept, they began to draw upon the power of the Crystal of Truth, slowly corrupting it until it became . . . The Dark Crystal.

They also subjugated the Gelfling and other species of Thra, bending them to their will and titling themselves the Lords of the Crystal. By the time the story picks up, pretty much all the Gelfling revere and worship the Skeksis as something akin to gods. They serve as their guards and pay inordinate tithes. The Podlings do the more menial labor, and so a sort of caste system exists, with the deplorable, hideous, disgusting Skeksis at the very top, led by their cruel Emperor.

One of the main protagonists, Rian, witnesses his friend drained of her very essence at the beginning of the series. The Skeksis eagerly consume this essence to maintain their supposed immortality. This incident is such an atrocious contradiction of everything the Gelfling have been taught to believe about their lords that the initial struggle for Rian is to survive long enough for him to directly communicate what he witnessed through a sharing of memories called dreamfasting.

Right now I feel exactly like Rian, but without the ability to effectively share what I think is happening in the world today, in part because I can’t find language that avoids figurative landmines. You’ll know what I mean by that by the end of this.

In Thra the planetary imbalance created by the Skeksis is called the darkening. Deep down I feel something like that is happening here, but terms like climate change don’t come anywhere close to getting at the underlying imbalance and how to address it.

The language problem I am having is echoed in the strategy of 1984:

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by eactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. . . . The process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller.”

An oppressive power structure doesn’t need to disappear words to maintain control, some words and terms can be so loaded with baggage that they become weaponized. Obviously the term conspiracy theory comes to mind.

A term that keeps coming up in the books I’m reading, books like Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry and Rabbit Hole by survivor David Shurter, is Satantic Ritual Abuse. That term alone will get most people to shut down, stop listening, walk away. Keep talking about this kind of stuff, and you’ll just look like a crank.

Even if people do accept the possibility of SRA being a real thing, the scope that starts coming into focus the more one researches this topic is incredibly difficult to accept. To go further and assert that Luciferianism is a commonly shared spiritual belief among the 1%, and that it produces actual results in terms of acquiring power, well…are YOU still reading?

Is Homelessness In Missoula Getting Better Or Worse?

by William Skink

After the second sewage-line failure at Western Montana’s largest emergency shelter and soup kitchen, the Poverello Center, and nearly a quarter million in renovation costs, the men’s dorm is set to reopen later this week.

What guests of the shelter and staff have had to deal with this summer–with mattresses on the floor and a host of other disruptions and aggravations–reminds me of how the old shelter use to function. I worked at both locations and can remember how incredibly unsafe the old location became as the need increased.

Back then it was widely understood that we were sleeping too many people at the old facility. There are codes to follow, and yet to close down the old Pov, especially during winter, would mean someone else would have to step up and deal with the population the Pov was serving.

So, what happened when we were beyond the number of people we could safely sleep? Well, we’d get helpful feedback from the authorities, like a person sitting in a chair is not considered someone sleeping, thus we could exceed the maximum occupancy number.

When the new Poverello Center was designed, if I remember correctly, it was designed to serve, at maximum, 120-140 people. We quickly exceeded those numbers because, unlike the messaging from the Mayor’s office, the Pov is dealing with on-the-ground reality, and that reality is the persistent worsening of homelessness.

The Poverello Center has gone above and beyond its capacity to address multiple, chronic, systemic societal ills in ways that people without direct experience working there will never understand. The Pov staff make due, and they deserve massive credit for continuing to serve people through out this crisis.

So why did the crisis happen in the first place?

It was the design of the building that ultimately created this catastrophe.

In the Missoula Current article I linked to the use of the facility has increased because the need has increased. While the pipes were to code, the 4 inch sewage pipes were ultimately not able to handle the number of people using the facility:

“Our building was built with a certain amount of growth in the homeless population in mind,” said Thompson. “But in recent years, that growth has exploded well beyond what anyone who was involved with developing this building expected. This was especially true after 2016, when cuts were made to case management services across Montana. Suddenly we had people who were stably housed with case management services coming through our door because they could not maintain housing.”

The cost of repairs came to $240,000, and included increasing the size of some sewer lines, replacing all 90-degree turns in the plumbing line with 45-degree turns, and adding a sewer line back-up detection system along with an emergency shut off. Insurance paid $60,000. The rest was raised via community donations.

While the director describes the growth of homelessness in Missoula as explosive over the last few years, that’s not the message coming from the Mayor’s office. For example, in January of last year this is what we were being told:

The city’s Reaching Home coordinator Theresa Williams and Eran Pehan, the director of the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development, gave an update of the progress over the last five years and outlined plans for the future. They were joined by Jill Bonny, who manages veterans’ programs for the Poverello Center homeless shelter.

“We have seen homeless numbers go down by 350 people since 2011,” Pehan said. “We are seeing a decline, which tells us some of those efforts are working.”

I have been harping on this idea that the amount of homeless people has been going down because the numbers being referenced come from an annual point-in-time survey that DOES NOT provide an accurate portrayal of homelessness in Missoula.

To back up my assertion, I ran across some meeting notes where this point was made by none other than the director of the 10 year plan to end homelessness:

Concerning the Point in Time survey, Theresa explained they are also examining the question of how the homeless element can be measured. Current systems do not accurately capture this. Missoula receives 50% of statewide allocation for NOPA funds, of which The Point in Time count is a required condition. It takes place during the last week of January, and it is a literal headcount of the homeless population. The addition of real-time tech solutions greatly enhanced the logistical aspects of the count this past January. Despite program efforts which has led to a 10-20% reduction in homelessness in Missoula over the past several decades, Missoula still has the highest homeless population in the state, 27% by count, followed by Kalispell, Billings, and Great Falls. This is likely due in part to the availability of services in the Missoula area. Point in Time is a winter count, and the count is estimated to double in July, but despite any inaccuracies, the count satisfies HUD requirements.

So, by their own admission, the Point-in-Time survey is not an accurate measure of homelessness in Missoula.

After the last few winters and literal casualties from exposure, there is something that resembles a plan to get through the next few years until a more permanent solution is developed, although details are still not being provided. Here is the outline of the plan:

“We began meeting very early this year to ensure we were prepared for the upcoming winter season, “Pehan said. “We wanted to ensure we had a program in place, the funding and a facility to meet that need this year.”

Pecan said the necessary funding is now secured and the Poverello will serve as the lead provider. A host location has been identified for the season. No further details were available on the funding amount or the location.

I am eagerly awaiting those further details.

18 Years Ago Today…

by William Skink

Today is the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It’s important to continue accepting the official story of what happened that day. To do otherwise is to become a conspiracy theorist–a label the authorities are doing their best to criminalize.

So, dear citizens, keep ignoring any evidence that contradicts the claim that two airplanes caused 3 buildings to collapse into their own foot prints, especially if it’s some kind of study that finds that something other than fire caused building 7 to totally collapse:

Today, we at Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth are pleased to partner with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in releasing the draft report of a four-year computer modeling study of WTC 7’s collapse conducted by researchers in the university’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The UAF WTC 7 report concludes that the collapse of WTC 7 on 9/11 was caused not by fire but rather by the near-simultaneous failure of every column in the building.

Ignore this report, good American citizens, because if you go down this rabbit hole you might discover who the real terrorists are. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?

Missoula Bridges, Man

by William Skink

Last month I wrote about a bridge to no where in Missoula. There has been no media about this $500,000 Missoula Redevelopment Agency investment since February, when work stopped because of “increment weather”.

Since last month’s blog post, the chainlink barring the public from enjoying their new bridge has come down and people are beginning to use it.

I assume there will be media attention at some point because bridges are a pretty big deal in Missoula. The shilling by County Commissioner Dave Strohmeier for anti-bridge property owners on South St. comes to mind, as does the big pedestrian bridge that conveniently extends the life of the URD to keep the cash flow to MRA going.

Missoula bridges, man. Scandalous!