Month: August 2020

by William Skink

When it rains, it pours is an idiom that means when something bad happens other bad things usually happen at the same time.

And what is an idiom? An idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.

What got me thinking about this idiom is the ironic fact that a literal downpour last summer has contributed to this idiom becoming true for Nick Checota who, according to NBC Montana, is being sued (along with the city of Missoula) by the owner of the Paddleheads.

If it wasn’t for that specially crafted Jon Tester umbrella, Checota would really be getting drenched right now.

From the first link:

Big Sky Professional Baseball (BSPB) is suing Logjam Presents, a concert promoter, and the city of Missoula over a muddy mess left from a concert and massive rain storm one year ago Tuesday.

August 8, 2019 a massive rainstorm almost canceled the Mumford and Sons concert.

The weather cleared in time and Logjam Productions continued with the show. Officials say 13,000 people attended that concert. Big Sky Professional Baseball claims the crowd was supposed to only top 10,000. And, in their lawsuit filed in Missoula County District Court, managers claim the club suffered severe financial loss.

After the Covid monkey wrench wrecked Checota’s Big D(rift) plans (plans that would have sucked up 16.5 million in public money so the public could own a parking garage), this year-old August downpour is still dumping, and since the city of Missoula is involved, so are we, the taxpayers.

With the event center’s groundbreaking still up in the air, it might be worth taking some time to look at the legal document about how the Engen and Checota show roll with the primary lease holder of the baseball stadium that was designed for baseball, not big music concerts.

You can read the whole document at the link. Here’s a peek:

14. BSPB was not meaningfully consulted by the City or Logjam prior to the execution of the Subordinate Lease Agreement in relation to considerations, specifications or limitations of the Civic Stadium in regard to its intended use by Logjam. In particular, BSPB was not given the opportunity to provide meaningfulinput regarding the use of the Civic Stadium for large concerts as Logjamannounced to the public it intended to hold at the Civic Stadium. BSPB was not given the opportunity to provide meaningful input regarding any matters relating to the carrying capacity of the playing field for equipment or crowds or appropriate limitations on the use of the Civic Stadium playing field by Logjam.

Later in the legal complaint we discover how Logjam and the City are trying to weasel out of accountability:

48. The City and Logjam now claim that BSPB saturated the field with its irrigation system before the concert set up and is responsible for the damage caused by the Mumford Concert.

49. In fact, the grass outfield was watered in the regular course of groundsupkeep on Tuesday, August 7, 2019, a day before the set up began in the CivicStadium for the Mumford Concert. It is a proper and accepted practice to water theoutfield grass before it is going to be covered for multiple days. The wateringcycle in advance of the concert set up was normal, one which allows for baseball to be played on the surface a short time later. Pictures taken at the time of the set up clearly demonstrate the playing field was not saturated as a result of the routine watering of the playing field by BSPB.

The document is 64 pages long and includes pictures taken of the field after the concert, the full text of the lease agreement, and quotes from local media, like the Missoula Current and the Missoulian. Here is another relevant excerpt:

73. BSPB has taken numerous steps in the year following the Mumford Concert to resolve the claims outlined in this Complaint with the City and Logjam. Notwithstanding their admission of liability and agreement to compensate BSPB for their clear damages, the positions of the City and Logjam have been inconsistent and fluid. At one point, the City and Logjam agreed to resolve the claims and BSPB compromised its significant loss in order to avoid litigation.After agreeing to a resolution, Logjam refused to proceed. This filing is a last resort by BSPB due to the severe economic damage it suffered at the hands of the City and Logjam.

If this is how the Engen and Checota show roll with lease-holding Paddleheads and the stadium the public was conned (see a pattern here?) into building, how do you think they’re going to roll with a big, sexy event center on the Clark Fork?

Is it too late for Tester to add a rider on that ENCORES bailout that bans any music venue owner tied up in litigation from receiving funds?

by William Skink

Ok, BLM protestors, they let you play at protesting long enough, and now the adults in the room are asserting themselves.

Our new police chief from California, who wants more money for police, is in perfect alignment with our Mayor, who also wants more money for police. And now the Missoulian is chiming in to declare editorial support for more money for police. This is my favorite part of the editorial:

Though it’s been viewed nationally as a liberal or progressive push, Missoula Mayor John Engen, A Democrat, is bucking that perception with his staunch support for increased funding for the Missoula Police Department. Missoula’s other elected officials should get behind him.

Earlier in the op-ed, the incident local activists were trying to exploit to achieve their policy demands got a single paragraph of acknowledgement (pay attention to the emphasis), and that after the editorial gave BIG KUDOS to police for keeping the peace relative to other, more violent expressions of solidarity with the violent killing of George Floyd across the nation.

Missoula police have had an especially careful line to walk regarding the protests downtown as counter-demonstrators showed up and sometimes heated exchanges threatened to erupt into violence. Thankfully, things were kept at a simmer, and our local police played a key role in that.

Many community members were upset, however, that prosecutors did not press more serious charges against a man who accosted a Black teenager ridings bike near the Black Lives Matter rally in early June. The man, who is white, was charged with unlawful restraint and operating as a private security guard without a license, both misdemeanors.

Do you see it? Do you see the big, BOLD uppercase “B”, whereas the oppressive W has been shrunk down to its lowercase form? How about that for some typographical justice?

This op-ed is signaling to the wishy-washy liberal fence-sitters (who may be conflicted about breaking with a national call to action) that summer is almost over, so it’s time to get back to business.

In a Missoula Current article about the budget and the BLM protestors persistence in calling for less funding for police, I caught an interesting detail regarding recent protests (emphasis mine):

They’ve taken aggressive actions to drive the debate, such as dismissing the opinions of police supports and picketing the mayor’s house at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

As one of the more vehement critics of our sitting mayor, going to his house at 5:30am is total bullshit.

What exactly is the strategy behind an action like this? How is this supposed to further racial equity in our criminal injustice system?

If Engen delivers on not raising property taxes, and the extra money for police includes a hundred grand for “a new program aimed at bias and systemic racism“, then that’s it, BLM protestors, your window of opportunity has closed for influencing local policy.

by William Skink

Last week I had a negative, mask-related retail experience that highlights the stupidity of the mask mandate.

Did I try to enter a business without a mask, you ask?

No, I didn’t.

Did I remove my mask once getting past frontline gatekeepers?

No, I didn’t.

My big transgression was trying to enter the Good Food Store with this thing velcro’d to my face:

The woman stationed at the entrance with bandannas informed me I couldn’t enter the store with my mask on because it has those vent things (which were closed).

So, to be in compliance with the Good Food Store’s interpretation of what constitutes an acceptable mask, I took my mask off, removing the fabric barrier that provides psychological protection to those with diminished brain functioning, thus freely spraying spittle as I said “sure, whatever.”

The woman, who got no argument from me because she’s just doing her job, handed me a bandana, which I promptly tied around my face. Why is a flimsy bandana considered more protective than the mask I was wearing? Is there any science backing up this madness?

The customer service guy, who had moved into a support position in case I made a big problem, said “you understand the philosophy behind this, right?”

I looked at him and said “I understand many things” which was a nice way of saying I am doing what you asked so please just shut the fuck up now.

For anyone who hasn’t uncritically accepted the mask orthodoxy, Ryan Christian interviewed Ben Swann recently and it’s definitely worth checking out.

As a thought experiment, what if this ridiculous request to abandon my mask for their face bandana had been the straw that pushed me over the edge and I started acting aggressively, refusing to leave? Would this woke, liberally-loved, overpriced organic food store have called…THE POLICE?

If our enlightened braintrust have their way, 911 dispatch might one day have the tools to assess this kind of call as a person (me, losing my shit over mask idiocy) suffering a mental health crisis, and instead of police responding, social workers would appear to deescalate me and offer crisis stabilization services.

By this point, let’s assume the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has successfully conflated not wearing masks with being a psychopath. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, then you aren’t familiar with this research:

Two recent studies looked at the relationship between personality traits and reactions to restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. Researchers found that people possessing so-called “Dark Triad” traits—narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism—were less likely to comply with restrictions or engage in preventative measures against the pandemic. However, researchers also emphasized the small role personality traits have in the overall response to pandemic restrictions, like face-mask mandates and social-distancing requirements.

So, in this fictional scenario where I don’t comply, the social workers show up first, assess I’m a danger to myself and others, and if I don’t calm down, the police are called in to whisk me away for a 72 involuntary hold at St. Pats where I’m diagnosed with Anti-Mask Syndrome and forcibly medicated.

If you think this scenario sounds implausible in America, you clearly are not paying attention. This is where we are headed, aided and abetted by the kinds of good intentions paving paths to a totalitarian hell.

by William Skink

Last November I wrote a post about the growing trend of protecting one’s wealth by creating charitable foundations. The reason for the post, titled
By Pretending To Help You The Wealthy Are Really Helping Themselves, was to contextualize Nick Checota’s alleged altruism in Missoula.

With the pandemic and a looming depression on the horizon, Missoula’s Sultan of Sound has gone from donating tens of thousands of dollars to strategic causes to deploying a Senator to panhandle the federal government on his behalf. This might create the impression that the wealthy are also being negatively impacted by this pandemic, but are they?

Raul Diego, at Mintpress, has an article up that examines how the billionaire class is massively profiting during this pandemic while tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs. From the link:

A study released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) through its Program on Inequality and the Common Good, titled “Gilded Giving 2020: How Wealth Inequality Distorts Philanthropy and Imperils Democracy” examines the reality behind the ostensible charitableness of the billionaire donor class and the disturbing trend of charitable organizations and foundations relying more and more on fewer and fewer wealthy donors; funds which “end up in family foundations and donor-advised funds that could legally exist in perpetuity,” while donations from lower and middle-income sources are disappearing.

In particular, the paper looks at The Giving Pledge initiative started in 2010 by a few dozen U.S. billionaires and led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. The professed goal of the initiative was to have the wealthiest people in the world pledge to give at least half of their fortunes away to charitable causes before their death. The study found that contrary to the stated purpose of the philanthropic commitment of the organization, a full 75 percent of participants have actually increased their net worth in the ten years since they made their charitable vow.

More concerning is the finding that a growing share of “high-end” donations never ends up in organizations that do any kind of altruistic work. Rather, they go to tax-privileged private foundations designed to serve as tax shelters for the very wealthy, which then only disburse a small percentage of their assets to charitable non-profits; a particularly galling fact considering how much more wealthy the one-percenters have gotten over the course of the pandemic in contrast to the 54 million Americans who’ve filed for unemployment in that same span of time.

Why is there not more rage over this? How can we gloss over this rapacious greed? Is corporate media that good at brainwashing us? Are we satisfied with this obscene greed as long as corporate boards have a few token minorities and women on them?

As the real economy continues to decouple from Wall Street’s Neverland, will the proletariat get busy sharpening their pitchforks, or will they instead sharpen their pencils for Biden?

by William Skink

This poem comes from a new collection I’m working on, titled DEMOCKERY TIME IN COVAXICA. Enjoy!

AGENDA

this “public” police
let’s defund their guns
then hire security
to protect private fun

defund the precincts
abandon the posts
our gated communities
will pay out the most

no more cop unions
or body-cam scenes
just private security
to muffle the screams

their eyes will not see this
as rage pulls them down
while they swing at ghosts
we strengthen the crown