Month: October 2019

by William Skink

I’ve had a vague sense for awhile that something happened to academia, but I didn’t know what. I figured it had something to the systemic corruption creeping through all our once respected, trusted institutions.

The Treason of the Intellectuals by Roger Kimball offers a more detailed summation of the deleterious changes to the societal role of the intellectual. The article should be read in full, but here’s a taste:

More and more, intellectuals were abandoning their attachment to the traditional panoply of philosophical and scholarly ideals. One clear sign of the change was the attack on the Enlightenment ideal of universal humanity and the concomitant glorification of various particularisms. The attack on the universal went forward in social and political life as well as in the refined precincts of epistemology and metaphysics: “Those who for centuries had exhorted men, at least theoretically, to deaden the feeling of their differences … have now come to praise them, according to where the sermon is given, for their ‘fidelity to the French soul,’ ‘the immutability of their German consciousness,’ for the ‘fervor of their Italian hearts.’” In short, intellectuals began to immerse themselves in the unsettlingly practical and material world of political passions: precisely those passions, Benda observed, “owing to which men rise up against other men, the chief of which are racial passions, class passions and national passions.” The “rift” into which civilization had been wont to slip narrowed and threatened to close altogether.

Writing at a moment when ethnic and nationalistic hatreds were beginning to tear Europe asunder, Benda’s diagnosis assumed the lineaments of a prophecy—a prophecy that continues to have deep resonance today. “Our age is indeed the age of the intellectual organization of political hatreds,” he wrote near the beginning of the book. “It will be one of its chief claims to notice in the moral history of humanity.” There was no need to add that its place in moral history would be as a cautionary tale. In little more than a decade, Benda’s prediction that, because of the “great betrayal” of the intellectuals, humanity was “heading for the greatest and most perfect war ever seen in the world,” would achieve a terrifying corroboration.

by William Skink

UPDATE: Lord Nick Checota left a comment contesting receiving any financial support from daddy Joe. I responded to my Lord and added this update to ensure Lord Checota’s voice is heard.

Joseph Checota is a Milwaukee businessman who, in 1992, tried to become a US Senator. Joseph Checota is also Nick Checota’s dad. Here is how the AP described his Senate bid back then: 

Wisconsin, already represented by one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. Senate, now has another multimillionaire businessman who wants to pay his own way to Washington.

Joseph Checota is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat held by Republican Sen. Bob Kasten. He says he has spent $2 million of his own money on his campaign thus far, and expects to spend three times that by the fall elections.

″People don’t care that I’m a millionaire. I think people recognize that I can relate to them,″ said Checota, chairman of Universal Medical Buildings, which designs, builds, finances and leases medical buildings.

″And I think the voters of Wisconsin would rather have me finance my campaign with money I spent a lifetime earning than with contributions I received from special interests.″

Before getting to the results of that race, let’s take a look at some interesting scrutiny Joe Checota received over his business dealings:

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Checota’s companies have been scrutinized in at least four federal probes of alleged securities-law violations, including stock manipulation and insider trading, public records show, a copyright story in today’s Wisconsin State Journal said.

One of those Securities and Exchange Commission investigations remains open, and one directly targeted a Checota company, the agency confirmed.

Further in to the article we get this:

The State Journal June 4 reported on allegations that Checota misused company money while heading his first firm, American Medical Buildings, a medical office building developer. A secret investigation, conducted after Checota was ousted in 1983 as head of the firm, alleged the company improperly paid for expensive artwork and remodeling jobs at Checota’s lakeside home.

The findings were not made public as company officials negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Checota, who dropped a lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job.

For more on the SEC investigations (plural) read the whole article. 

Joseph Checota and one of his two political opponents ran such a nasty campaigns in the Democratic primary that a guy by the name of Russ Feingold ended up shocking the political establishment with his win. From the link:

Feingold ran an offbeat campaign with funky ads and promises posted on his garage door. But weeks out, he was a distant third behind two far better funded Democrats, businessman Joe Checota and U.S. Rep. Jim Moody. Then Checota and Moody astonished the good voters of Wisconsin with a violent volley of attack ads. People were appalled. (Such things were less common then).

Things got truly weird when Checota told supporters that if they didn’t vote for him, they should vote for Feingold (nothing like being endorsed by your opponent BEFORE the election).

Vastly outspent in a three-way primary, the dark horse won – with 70% of the vote.

“It completely blew their mind,” says Feingold, referring to pretty much the entire political world. “It blew my mind.”

In 2004 the Milwaukee Business Journal described how Joe Checota’s company, Landmark Healthcare Facilities LLC, shifted from building buildings to owning them:

Executives with Milwaukee-based developer Landmark Healthcare Facilities L.L.C. think a move toward increased property ownership will significantly grow their business.

Landmark Healthcare, led by former politician Joe Checota, has designed and built physician office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers and other non-hospital health care buildings since it was founded in 1995 as a successor to Checota’s Integrated Medical Buildings development company. The firm will now seek to own many of those structures in a shift from traditional real estate developer to developer and landlord.

The efforts are expected to boost Landmark’s revenue from its 2004 estimate of about $45 million, company officials said. Checota declined to give a specific revenue goal, but said the improved bottom line also will help the firm almost double its work force in the next 18 months, from 26 employees currently to near 50 by the summer of 2006.

“It’s a shift, but it’s a welcome shift,” said Nicholas Checota, Joe Checota’s son and Landmark’s chief operating officer.

If you want a peek into Checota’s operational mindset, this episode of Can Do (a MTPR podcast) is illuminating. Branding is a big thing for Checota’s venue empire, and his claim to local roots is his wife, a “4th generation Montanan”. Checota makes a point to describe their business partnership as 50/50. Smart branding.

While Missoula will be ground zero for Checota’s Logjam empire, don’t think this town is big enough for his aspirations. The Missoula Current last April reported on other projects in places like Bozeman in the works:

“We’re under design for a Bozeman venue the same size as The Wilma – a 1,500 capacity indoor venue,” Checota said Thursday. “My goal is to get (musical acts) from Denver to Seattle, or Salt Lake to Seattle, by giving them a Bozeman stop and a Missoula stop, and the other potential market I’m analyzing is Spokane.”

Why stop at spreading regionally? With Daddy’s billion dollar backing, the sky’s the limit for Lord Checota.

Growth in Missoula is going to happen, I get that. The two main problems I have with this particular project is how it’s being done, and who ultimately benefits.

Why does the Mayor feel the need to act all shady with moving up the City Council vote? And why does Lord Checota need to gobble up 16 million in public tax dollars? The citizens who will be impacted by this project deserve answers to these questions.

by William Skink

As a mountain town like Missoula gentrifies–prioritizing the public financing of out-of-state developers like Lord Checota over the economically disenfranchised–the political party that is supposed to care about this is the Democratic party.

If you stop laughing, I’ll continue.

Once upon a time Democrats gave more than vacuous rhetorical support for the poor and working classes. This was before the great neoliberal sellout exemplified by the Clinton dynasty.

A political potpourri post about Missoula from Democrat apologist, Pete Talbot, shows what a Democrat like Talbot pays attention to, and what he ignores.

Talbot laments the predictable outcome of the idiotic gun control ordinance and mentions Tax Increment Financing, but only because a conservative PAC mailer criticized the use of TIF money.

I guess Talbot doesn’t care about gentrification and its negative impacts on the economically disenfranchised, which includes older adults on fixed income. In a Missoula Current article about the winter shelter plan, here is a bit about what a working group formed last spring learned:

“We learned that a significant number of shelter guests were over the age of 65 and experienced mobility issues that made it nearly impossible for them to get on and off the floor to sleep on a sleeping mat.”

No one plans for their retirement years to be spent sleeping on a mat on the floor of an overcrowded homeless shelter, but here in our liberal utopia, that is increasingly what’s happening. And it’s being exacerbated by a Mayor that uses TIF money like his own personal slush fund.

There is a reason why Jesse Ramos and Team Liberty are getting political traction in Missoula. The reign of Engen and his rotating stable of rubber-stampers has seen the cost of housing explode while enrollment at UM has imploded. As the economic situation for many Missoulians stagnates or worsens, a building boom has enriched developers and bestowed upon Lord Checota a music venue monopoly he is exploiting for maximum financial gain.

None of this apparently interests a Democratic apologist like Pete Talbot.

by William Skink

I find the topic of homelessness in Missoula beyond maddening because after all this time implementing a 10 year plan to end homelessness, we are still getting mixed messages about a pretty basic aspect of this issue: are the numbers of homeless individuals going up or down?

In this Missoulian op-ed I linked to in another post, they repeat the claim that the number of people experiencing homelessness is going down:

Point-in-time surveys show that the number of homeless individuals in Missoula has been decreasing since reaching a peak of 585 in 2014. Similarly, the total number of homeless people in Montana has been on the decline.

And then there’s this from a recent Missoula Current article about the temporary ordinance that City Council voted on:

“Missoula lacks adequate services to address the increased need of our homeless and at-risk populations and our shelter system during extreme weather events,” said Jenn Gress of Development Services.

The city’s extreme winter cold creates unsafe overcrowding at the Poverello Center, the city’s permanent homeless shelter. When the population there reaches 175, people are turned away.

How is it possible for the number of homeless people in Missoula to be going down while, at the same time, the need is increasing? Obviously one of these claims is inaccurate, and I don’t think it’s the one claiming that the need is increasing.

The optics of this incongruity are not good, which might be one reason our elected leaders are so defensive. After congratulating themselves for a temporary ordinance that enables churches to join the band-aid brigade, council members Gwen Jones and Jordan Hess defended all the hard work they’ve been doing:

The interim ordinance – work on which began last winter – drew praise this week from politicians and service providers alike.

“Good work by everybody,” said Jim Morton of the Human Resource Council.

Added City Councilwoman Gwen Jones: “I’m glad we are having these discussions now and appreciate all the work that went into this. There’s some misconception that because we are hearing it now, it just came across our desk. But it’s been months and months of work. It’s a hard problem to attack.”

“The misconception that this is coming at the last moment couldn’t be farther from true,” said Councilman Jordan Hess. “We’ve been working on a permanent solution since last year. I appreciate all the hard work. These legislation has the potential to save lives this winter.”

Well, I’m glad people like Jordan Hess have been working on this ordinance so hard for the past year, but I will remind him and anyone else reading this that we are moving into YEAR 8 of a 10 YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS. People are frustrated not because the scramble of the last year has produced so little, but because the past 7 years of a 10 year plan has produced so little.

If Missoula’s 10 year plan to end homelessness was an actual priority for our elected leaders, then we should be much farther along in plugging the gaping holes in the social safety net. From my direct experience, having worked at the Poverello Center from 2008-2016, I can say the plan has not been a priority, especially for Mayor Engen. There are always more important priorities, like acquiring the Water Company and gentrifying the valley.

No one in city government should be congratulating themselves over this ordinance. Churches and volunteers should not be asked to provide more band-aid fixes. There needs to be an appropriate facility with actual services and well-trained staff to address the kind of individuals who remain unsheltered during the winter months in Montana.

It’s also worth asking what 16 million dollars could do to help with all this.

The plan for this year, which is being unveiled today via press-release, is going to look a lot like last year’s plan, from what I know of it. I’ll wait to see what is reported before commenting further.

Stay tuned…

by William Skink

Missoulian reporter Matt Neuman does some incredible work for the Mayor’s office, providing cover for Engen’s shady move to plonk the City Council Riverfront Triangle vote on a Wednesday afternoon.

In a cutesy-fun piece titled Urban Scrawl: Iffy infill, the Checota-dome, and Missoula’s new flag Neuman buries this lame explanation for Engen’s move:

Because the deal involves quite a bit of overlap with the city, it all had to pass through the Missoula City Council. The news of a “special city council meeting,” on a Wednesday afternoon, not only caught reporters and the interested public off guard, but city council members as well.

A peek at the council’s public email page shows a scramble of council members rearranging plans, saying they had already rented a moving van, had travel plans, were caring for sick family members etc., showing it wasn’t just the public in the dark as Nick Checota worked with Engen on the project’s development. In the end, most were able to make it in last week, and they had a quorum.

However, the meeting was also limited to 50 minutes, as it was bookended by other meetings to be held in the council chambers. This greatly limited the amount of time for public comment, and even cut short the city councilors who were trying to do their duty of questioning the financing and city’s liability. Not ideal.

I talked to Engen on Friday about it, and he said time is money, especially on Checota’s expedited timeline. He added that considering the agreement had minimal changes from the one the council had already approved with the previous developers, he didn’t think it warranted a ton of time for additional scrutiny.

Also, he said he won’t be at Monday’s council meeting, and didn’t want to miss out on the action.

What a bunch of bullshit.

That last comment from Engen about not wanting to miss out on the action is a bit ironic considering there was action at last night’s Council meeting regarding the civic-center/hotel/condo project. Not only did Engen miss the action, anyone watching live on MCAT missed it as well after the live feed went down after 15 minutes.

In that time I did see two young men who brought explicit criticism against the city for using public money to help finance another venue that will be controlled by Checota, giving him near monopoly control on the music scene in Missoula.

So far this morning I see no mention in any local media about the public criticism against the project Checota has already named The Drift, although Neuman did spill some ink to explore whether it’s “the drift” or if it’s just DRIFT. Hard hitting reporting, that.

A more paranoid person might start thinking there is some kind of intentional effort by local media to ignore/suppress/downplay any criticism against Herr Engen and Lord Checota.