Month: November 2020

by William Skink

On Saturday evening, as the country watched corporate media anoint Joe Biden as America’s Next Top President, Missoula police responded to a disturbance on Sherwood Lane, where a man with a knife allegedly attacked officers. The predictable result of this encounter with law enforcement was death.

At the risk of sounding insensitive, Missoula police picked a great time to shoot and kill someone. We are in a confusing transition period from bad orange man to the handsy Uncle everyone in the family has to make excuses for, so how we react to the same pattern of lethal force by law enforcement may be changing.

The first thing we need to do as a community is determine the man’s race because that will help us determine how much emotional energy we need to dedicate. If he’s just a white guy, the next thing to consider is mental health issues. I will note the location of this incident is close to the homeless encampment by Reserve Street.

After figuring out those data points, the next thing to do is pacify any local outrage that may bubble up. One way to do this is to point out how we have a NEW PRESIDENT now, and also a relatively new police chief, so let’s give them a chance.

And let’s be honest, Missoula, you are REALLY GOOD at giving people chances, like Seth Bodnar with the enrollment crisis, and Eran Pehan with the housing crisis, and Mayor Engen with the backroom deals and drunken Carlyle handshake that cost Missoula taxpayers over a hundred million dollars.

If that last number surprises you, that’s because it’s JUST NOW being reported by NBC Montana what exactly the water company lawsuit cost Missoula taxpayers, and this information is only coming out because NBC Montana LITIGATED for it. From the link:

Since 2017, the city of Missoula refused our numerous requests for a detailed accounting of more than $9 million in attorneys’ fees and other costs spent to take over Missoula’s privately owned water utility.

But even after our fight gained access to some of the information we wanted, critics say what happened is still far from transparent.

Missoula now owns its water system. You probably don’t think of that when you turn on the tap. But if you are a Missoula Water customer, you’re paying off a $91 million purchase of a private company called Mountain Water. That’s just for the company. By the time you total bills for improvements, add in some of the other side’s legal fees and financing charges, the total price is $112.6 million paid by Missoula Water customers.

In breaking down the legal fees (as much as the limited disclosures from the city allows), a Seattle law firm pulled in the most taxpayer loot, while two local law firms competed for the next biggest pay day. In the following excerpt, pay special attention to specifically who at Boone Karlberg billed the most hours:

Harry Schneider, a business litigation attorney and Perkins Coie partner, billed most of it.

Spreadsheets tally his bills from March 2014 through July 2020. He billed anywhere from $670 to $790 an hour for a total of $2,624,190 for 3,114 hours. If you break that down, Schneider billed for almost an entire year and a half of work, if he logged 40-hour weeks.

But Perkins Coie wasn’t the only law firm. The other two are right in downtown Missoula — Boone Karlberg and Datsopoulos, McDonald and Lind. Between those two, ratepayers spent over $2 million.

Boone Karlberg made the most. Natasha Jones billed over 2,600 hours. But there is a big difference between her firm and the Seattle one. Jones billed at $200 an hour. Add in the other top three most involved attorneys and paralegals and you get over twice as many hours at over $1 million less.

The third firm, Datsopolous, McDonald and Lind, made about $360,000.

I added the emphasis because Jones, after scoring big with this case, went on to be appointed by the Mayor to none other than the Missoula Redevelopment Agency:

On a unanimous vote, members of the Missoula City Council approved Mayor John Engen’s newest appointment to the Missoula Redevelopment Agency’s Board of Directors on Wednesday, one to replace longtime board member and former mayor Daniel Kemmis.

Reading further down in article quoted above, I discovered this fascinating tidbit (emphasis mine):

Engen described her as dedicated to her community and the right choice for the rare MRA board opening.

“She is extraordinarily bright, and is also extraordinarily interested in the future of our community,” said Engen. “She’s a shareholder in an office that was one of the first redevelopment projects in Missoula.

Isn’t that nice?

If you’re starting to get that itch of rage welling up inside you, please remember that we live in JOE BIDEN’S AMERICA now, where any problematic example of dirty dealings, or or influence peddling, or cracked-out child fucking, will be summarily shoved down the memory hole, and any complainer labeled a mentally ill Trumpster BEGGING to be sent to the Biden reeducation camps.

Unless, of course, Trump decides to not go gentle into that good night because Team Biden stole the election.

by William Skink

My Grandma passed away on November 5th at home surrounded by family. The reason she was able to die on her own terms is because she planned for the inevitability of her death. I wish more people had her courage.

After my Grandpa died, Grandma moved into a small, single story house. She didn’t call it “aging in place”, but that is what she set herself up to do. When she was hospitalized the last time to get fluid drained, she said no more hospital.

If my Grandma hadn’t faced up to her imminent death with the courage of acceptance she could have ended up dying alone in a nursing home, or watched over by a stranger at the hospital. I’m so happy that didn’t happen to her.

The for-profit medical industry had already done its damage to my Grandma many decades ago, when she was just starting her family. She experienced extreme nausea during her first pregnancy with my dad, so she took medication to “help” her during her next pregnancy. The medicine killed her baby.

I did some research and am fairly certain it was Thalidomide that caused my Grandma to have two miscarriages. The effect of this drug was a big scandal over half a century ago. From wikipedia:

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in pregnant women in 46 countries resulted in the “biggest man‐made medical disaster ever”, resulting in more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as phocomelia, as well as thousands of miscarriages.

Thalidomide was introduced in 1956 and was aggressively marketed by the German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal as a medication for anxiety, trouble sleeping, “tension”, and morning sickness.^[3][4] It was introduced as a sedative and medication for morning sickness without having been tested on pregnant women.^[5] While initially deemed to be safe in pregnancy, concerns regarding birth defects were noted in 1961, and the medication was removed from the market in Europe that year.

When making money is more important than human life, this is the kind of shit that happens.

And now you expect these profit-driven pharmaceutical companies to save you from the Covid?

There is not much in our society that is more obscene than how the profit motive interacts with death. From the hospital to the nursing home, the process of aging and dying hoovers up money so fast, only the very wealthy can afford a drawn-out period of decline.

The best thing for an old person to do in our late-stage capitalist system is to die quickly.

While the systemic goal of profiting massively from death feels like a serious problem to the humans navigating this inhumane system, it’s actually working as intended, and as long as the corporations that hoover up these death-profits donate liberally to both corporate political parties, their profits will be safe and secure.

This is just one of the societal atrocities that will continue regardless of which sexual predator is living in the White House.

by William Skink

Amazing job, Democrats.

After the dossier and Russiagate and Ukrainegate and Impeachment and the bulk of legacy media censoring a relevant news story, you finally got rid of Trump.

Your spite and disdain and piles of mail-in votes inched that wrinkled husk with cottage cheese brains over the electoral college finish line. Yippee!

Now we can all await the inevitable stroke that will give us President Copmala, putting the white fist of fascism back in its smooth, brown-suede glove.

Congrats.

by William Skink

A few weeks ago I stopped in Alberton on my way back from Spokane. Since I was without screaming kids and a wife telling me to JUST GET US HOME, I had time to actually browse the dusty shelves at the Montana Valley Book Store.

In the basement of the store, where you are directed to flip on light switches if you want to proceed further into the depths, I found an old, tattered book by the wife of Bishop James Pike, the man who inspired Philip K. Dick’s book The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

I have found all kinds of incredible books and other curiosities at used books stores, thrift shops, flea markets and antique malls, but how can many of these places survive the fear that now permeates our lives, making in-person shopping seem to some more risk than it’s worth?

For my own selfish reasons, I don’t want to see stores like this disappear in Missoula. That’s why my book of poems, WELCOME TO THE COVAXICON, can now be found at the Loose Moose, located at 219 N. Higgins in Missoula.

The proprietors of the Loose Moose took over the space formerly known as The Bird’s Nest and have done a fantastic job keeping the spirit of the place alive while greatly improving the range of stuff being offered. Now, in addition to books, you can find vintage clothes, toys, old games and many other odds and ends.

The headwinds against a store like this are significant right now, especially in downtown Missoula, where construction on Higgins bridge is well underway. Without paying customers, stores like this will disappear, and who knows what will replace them.

To give you an example of what I am talking about, the vultures of capitalism are already circling the music venue industry, ready to “save” them from pandemic-related lockdowns. Here’s how one dude envisions keeping music venues from closing indefinitely:

With federal funding looking all but certain to not come in time to save these venues, Marc Geiger sees an opportunity to pitch his solution. Geiger, who formerly served as global head of the William Morris Endeavor Music Division from 2003 until 2020 and co-founded the music festival Lollapalooza, has formed what he calls SaveLive to essentially bail out struggling music venues.

SaveLive, which Geiger founded with former WME colleague John Fogelman, has landed $75 million in an initial investment round to invest in venues across the country by acquiring at least a 51% stake in each. SaveLive’s plan is to invest in dozens of clubs across the U.S. to create a network of venues that will be prepared for live entertainment to hopefully return in 2022 by their estimates.

“One of my favorite things in the world is to go to a club, be treated well and see an incredible band,” Geiger said. “So I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to raise a bunch of money and I’m going to backstop all these clubs. I’m going to be a bailout solution for them, and I’m going to call the company SaveLive.”

This is what vultures do, they see OPPORTUNITY in other people’s misfortunes and, with enough money and the right timing, they can really sink their talons into their prey.

Now, here’s some skepticism about Geiger’s savior option from the same article:

“Geiger’s solution on some level scares me,” Frank Riley of High Road Touring told the New York Times. “He is going to buy distressed properties for money on the dollar and end up owning 51 percent of their business. Is that independent? I don’t know. But it does save the platforms on which things grow and where artists are sustained.”

As an artist myself, one who would like to do poetry readings to a live audience, or have people stumble across my book in a funky store like the Loose Moose, it’s a scary and uncertain time, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to just roll over and let the vultures have at it.

Are you?

by William Skink

It’s the year 2036, and in order to optimize efficiencies and align visionary goals, Missoula has created a new department called THE DEPARTMENT OF EVERYTHING.

The DOE will help integrate the national standards movement developed by our AI president, The Elon Consensus, named after the man who established the first mining colony on Mars.

To oversee the DOE, Missoula’s Grand Priestess, Gwen Bones, selected Eran Pawn to run the department. Pawn is no stranger to local government, having overseen the Coastal Refugee Replacement Program during the Great Reset.

Now that non-efficient Missoula residents have been replaced with optimized coastal refugees, the next step is for the DOE to implement the 2040 plan, outfitting all residential units with Smart Grid Butler Cubes, the cutting-edge tech from The Elon Consensus that will ensure all Missoula residents will be in LOCKSTEP with the values of the 2040 plan.

With our utopian ideals finally within reach, let us give thanks to the last male leader Missoula had, Mayor Ogen, who, having realized the deficiencies of his gender and leadership role, self-immolated via Zoom, paving the way for the Grand Priestess to ascend.

Blessed be to Priestess Bones and the Great Reset that made our optimized future a reality!

*this post is a parody of the creation of Missoula’s new Department of Community Planning, Development and Innovation.