Month: December 2020

by William Skink

You’ll get six hundred bucks.

They got a few trillion.

Why isn’t BLM burning down Wall Street?

Why is everyone moving to Texas?

Bernie is still a sheepdog and Jimmy Dore is exposing their Progressive charade.

(like a socialist commenting on Zoom while his wife runs the Pre-K program for United Way)

My kids are not your juicy new data markets and if you work for the parasitic predator class salivating over their GREAT RESET you are not my friend, not my ally, and not someone I can afford to spend energy on convincing you what they have planned for us.

They think they can credit default swap consciousness with their dark arts.

They are wrong.

by Travis Mateer

I’m posting this under my real name because I want it to be clear that this response to Susan Hay Patrick’s op-ed is coming from me, the former Homeless Outreach Coordinator of the Poverello Center.

In her Sunday guest column, Patrick begins by emphasizing the temporary nature of the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space, the federal funding it has received, and its placement on private land. The belief we are being asked to share is that this space has the potential to reduce demand on emergency service providers, our health care system, and law enforcement.

Instead of contextualizing the current demand on emergency service providers as it relates to homelessness in Missoula, Patrick quickly transitions in the next paragraph to taking a position of victimhood, claiming that she (and the non-profit world she is speaking for) are accustomed to being told we are ruining our community.

By taking this position of rhetorical victimhood, Patrick is negatively framing her critics before even addressing them. Even better, after claiming this victimhood, her next move is to brazenly declare the rightness of the actions being undertaken:

But we also know that this is the right thing — the safe, healthier thing — not only for the unhoused people who will have access to the space during this cold COVID winter, but for our community.

The fourth paragraph is where we finally get to Susan Hay Patrick getting it, and we waited all that time for this:

To those who oppose this project: We get it. You’re good people who care about and do a lot for your community. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. We know you’re angry and frustrated. We have that in common with you. Because we’re angry and frustrated, too.

Let’s pause for a moment to think about HOW Susan Hay Patrick is framing critics; she refers to them as those who OPPOSE this project.

Is that what is going on here? Are people simply OPPOSING this project, or are they ASKING QUESTIONS about this project? Because there’s a difference.

After some platitudes about why Patrick shares our anger and frustration (deflecting local failure by referencing our national one) we get this:

We’re not going to Poverello Center or United Way or Hope Rescue Mission our way to the end of homelessness, or by putting people up for temporary stays in cheap motels. The answer to homelessness is housing.

So, maybe we can BLUE LINE DEVELOPMENT our way to ending homelessness, is that what you’re saying, Susan Hay Patrick?

I know it would be easier to dismiss the critics if we were all just dumb haters who simply opposed this homeless camp because our small, little minds see dangerous sex offenders behind every bush, but the questions about funding, and zoning, and skipping public input, and intake processes, and the convenient tie-in to Blue Line Development, are valid, appropriate things for concerned citizens to be asking of their non-profit leaders and elected officials.

Near the end of the op-ed, the future success of our community is made conditional on critics not being angry. I am struggling to understand how this statement is JUST A FACT:

“…until everyone moves beyond anger, we’re going to be stuck in the same cycle we’ve been in for decades: cobbling together underfunded emergency projects instead of working on finding appropriate, sustainable homes for our very diverse population of people experiencing homelessness. That’s just a fact.”

What about the fact that, at the same time we cobble together underfunded emergency projects year after year, we are also funding a new library, and new schools, and new parks, and open spaces, and fairground improvements, and traffic-calming circles, and Spider McKnight crafted communication plans?

No, just ignore all that, because the problem isn’t how resources are prioritized and allocated, it’s angry critics who can’t move beyond their anger.

I think that’s a bunch of crap, and that’s NOT a fact, just one angry critic’s humble opinion.

by William Skink

Alison McDowell is a Philadelphia mom and her recent appearance on The Higherside Chat podcast is easily the most important podcast I listened to this year. The host of THC, Greg Carlwood, referred to McDowell as his “hail mary” suggestion to the family he hasn’t reached yet about what is coming. After listening to Alison, I can understand why.

McDowell’s research on human capital markets, predatory philanthropy and the gamified world that is coming (which you can check out at her blog, wrench in the gears), opened my eyes to what’s lurking behind the “evidence-based” language of the non-profit sector, and it’s not good.

I am already incorporating McDowell’s insights into the research I’m doing on homelessness in Missoula, and it is helping me better understand not just WHAT is happening, but, more importantly, WHY.

While that research continues, I’m also busy recording interviews for the podcast I’m going to launch next month.

Last week, for example, I spent 90 minutes talking with blogger Mark Tokarski. After years of taking shots at each other online (which resulted in my banning at his blog Piece of Mindful), I decided to reach out via email, and Mark graciously accepted my invitation to talk on the phone.

It was the first time we had ever spoken to each other in person and it was a fantastic conversation that I can’t wait to share.

Next week kicks off with a grand celestial conjunction and ends with Christmas. I will be posting daily, as usual, so stay tuned.

And thanks for reading.

by William Skink

Critics of the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) are not going to get anywhere with the illuminated braintrust if they make their concerns about people. Why? Because homeless people are more than homeless people to the braintrust; they also function as guilt shields and shame bludgeons for people like Susan Hay Patrick to hide behind and strike out at their critics with.

To see this strategy in action, yesterday County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier, showed critics how poor human pawns can be used to insulate local politicians from criticism when he lashed out at people exhibiting the gall to question the braintrust and their Covid emergency rubber stamp for the TSOS. From the link:

“We’ve heard a few times today the comments, ‘I’m not against the homeless, but…’ and I will be blunt with folks, I find some level of disingenuousness with that,” said Commissioner David Strohmaier. “That is followed by some comments that ‘I’m not against the homeless, but this type of people…'”

People made comments that the people seeking refuge at the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space weren’t “quality homeless,” as Strohmaier put it.

“And I find that somewhat offensive,” Strohmaier said.

See? If you make it about people, this is the kind of reaction you’re gonna get from the braintrust.

Instead of people, I suggest focusing on money, process and policy because that is where these disingenuous influencers can be exposed as the self-serving fraudsters that they are.

I’m doing my part by exposing the involvement of Blue Line Development in the TSOS. I find it very significant that the president and CEO of this affordable housing developer owns the land on which this temporary encampment is being built, just like I thought it was significant that the daughter of the director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency is the project manager for Blue Line Development’s Trinity Apartment Complex.

By focusing criticism on money and process, virtue-signaling politicians like Dave Strohmaier can’t use their homeless-people-shame-bludgeons on you.

If the types of people who might be staying at a temporary location like the TSOS is of genuine concern to you, then I suggest using policy as way to indirectly address those concerns. Let me explain.

Missoula’s Coordinated Entry System–one of the first accomplishments of the 10 year plan to end homelessness (launched in 2012)–is supposed to input homeless client information into the HMIS system, but if points of entry, like the Poverello Center, are chronically understaffed, then the question becomes HOW LONG IS IT TAKING to assess client needs?

The majority of humans across the socio-economic spectrum are not bad, violent people. But some are, and Missoula residents shouldn’t be shamed for worrying about that fact.

Do I need to remind readers that a sweet, old man by the name of Lee Nelson had his skull bashed in last month because he and the monster who senselessly murdered him were both staying at the Poverello Center?

The policy questions for that horrific incident should include things like when did Charles Michael Covey arrive in Missoula? How long was he at the shelter? Did he have to produce an ID to get shelter? Did he give a false name? Did he get his coordinated entry assessment done? Were there any behavior incidents before this sociopath wheeled Lee to the river, pushed him out of his chair, then beat the life out of him over…cigarettes?

So yes, I understand the concern about “who our new neighbors are”, but I also understand how the illuminated braintrust operates, and they will hide behind their homeless-people-guilt-shields all day long if critics wade into this area of criticism without the constructive focus on policy.

If anyone wants to speak with me about these issues, please contact me at willskink at yahoo dot com. I am happy to talk to anyone, especially if you’re open to recording an interview.

I’m also considering going back on KGVO to talk about this issue because the braintrust can’t smear me the same way they are trying to smear their other community critics right now.

So stay tuned…

by William Skink

The Zoom meeting about the new homeless camp featured all the old platitudes I remember from my days working at the homeless shelter, but with a NEW NORMAL Covid twist that alleviates public officials from having to take the normal steps of apprising the public of what they’re up to.

After the various spiels were given (which I’ve heard a hundred times before) the first comment came from a resident of Orchard Homes by the name of “Susie” who thanked everyone profusely. Here is how NBC Montana reported Susie’s contribution:

“I just want to say thank you for all your doing a lot of people think homeless people are homeless because they want to be homeless and all I can say is walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you think that,” Orchard Homes resident, Susie said.

Who is this Susie without a last name who set the tone by making the first comment? NBC Montana doesn’t provide her last name, but those tuning into the meeting know it was Susie Orr, an Orchard Homes resident and (it was pointed out to me by a more astute observer) someone who is on the Executive Board of the Missoula County Democrats.

What fun is doing a damage control Zoom meeting if you can’t seed the audience with a few friendly commenters?

Eventually there were some critical comments, but the critics are just stupid and hateful and ignorant and their small minds rely on stereotypes, which makes it very difficult for the illuminated braintrust to feign interest in what they have to say about their concerns.

There was some talk on whether or not this camp will truly be “temporary”. Don’t worry, Susan Hay Patrick assured listeners, there are no plans to make this camp permanent.

As for the emergency funding, I thought I heard that the money will dry up at the end of December, but the plan is to run the camp until March. NBC Montana is reporting that the Covid money will flow until March, so maybe I heard it wrong.

Regardless of when the money runs out, it WILL RUN OUT, and other funding sources are being applied for.

One welcome dose of reality came from Josh Decker, a self-described socialist who reminded the braintrust that massive evictions are looming; millions nationwide, and thousands in Missoula. Susan Hay Patrick did her best to respond to Decker by expressing her wonderfully simplistic mantra that the answer to homelessness is housing.

Another thing claimed by this United Way member of the braintrust is that THEY ARE FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY AS WELL. Also, Susan Hay Patrick is angry at the accusation that they are wasting money. The problem, claimed Patrick, is that we are not providing ENOUGH money to help people.

Wrapping up this summary of a wasted hour of my life, Susan Hay Patrick declared we need to move from fixing blame to fixing problems, and she further claimed that Missoula is farther along in addressing this societal problem than other communities.

If that were true, Missoula would have adopted inclusionary zoning years ago. So, once again, I am left with two options in assessing the statements of this community influencer: ignorance or deceit.

Having seen this show many times before, I think I know which one we’re dealing with.

The stuff I was interested to hear about, like who owns this land, and what is the connection to Blue Line Development, didn’t come up, so I spent a few minutes doing the legwork online and figured it out.

The land is owned by Spencer Properties LLC and the mailing address is to a residential property in the University district. That home is owned by Nathan Richmond, the president and CEO of Blue Line Development.

So there you have it.

For anyone interested in this line of inquiry, which leads to an incestuous money nexus of influence, stay tuned here for further exposure of these influences, because I’m doing what other, more traditional media sources either won’t do, or can’t.

Thanks for reading, and donate here if you’re able.