Month: December 2020

by William Skink

Right before Thanksgiving, the incoming Gianforte administration announced that Montana’s top Federal prosecutor, Kurt Alme, would be joining the Governor’s team as the budget director.

While the reports I read about this appointment referenced Alme’s claim that his tenure saw a reduction of violent crime related to meth, no media outlet that reported on this story said a thing about Alme’s work to bring Project Safe Neighborhood money into Montana, not even the Montana Free Press (emphasis mine)

Alme, 54, led the Montana Department of Revenue between 2001 and 2003 under the administration of Gov. Judy Martz, the most recent Republican to serve as Montana governor.

More recently, he has served as U.S. Attorney for Montana, the top prosecutor in Montana’s wing of the federal court system. Alme was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to that role in 2017 after being nominated by President Donald Trump.

Alme announced Nov. 23 that he would resign as U.S. Attorney effective Dec. 2in a release that touted his efforts to reduce meth-related violent crime and improve how investigations of missing Native American residents are conducted.

Since the Montana Free Press and other Montana media outlets don’t seem all that curious about Project Safe Neighborhood and Alme’s role with this revived Federal initiative, I guess it will be up to a reluctant citizen journalist like myself to write about why I think this is important.

Around the same time Alme got tapped to be Gianforte’s budget director, a big chunk of money was announced to help study treatment options in Montana for meth. I wrote about this new placation plan being championed by United Way’s Susan Hay Patrick last month.

What could this mean for an incoming Republican administration? Allow me to speculate.

In recent years there has been a big Republican split between the nuttier extreme of the party and the more responsible members, dubbed by the media in 2019 as the solutions caucus. During the upcoming legislature, will the manifestation of this loose-nit caucus be taking on a LAW AND ORDER vibe?

Providing law and order is already a critical service that fosters bipartisan relationships. Let me provide an example to highlight what I am talking about.

When Missoula’s lead prosecuting attorney, Kristen Pabst, used the reasonable person standard to explain why Josh Paniagua would not be prosecuted for stabbing Ben Mousso to death in a drug deal gone bad, she deflected criticism for that decision by sending the case to Montana’s Attorney General, Tim Fox, for review, and Tim Fox, a Republican, backed up his Missoula attorney’s decision.

If law and order becomes a main focus of the Gianforte administration, it will be interesting to see how Missoula adapts.

The timing of United Way getting a $248,000 grant is pretty convenient. It strategically moves an influencer like Susan Hay Patrick into champion mode for meth treatment, and unofficially signals where bipartisan collaboration can happen (as long as there is money to do so, right Susan?).

Another factor that could influence law and order being a priority is the fact people in Missoula are being shot in the head and beaten to death in broad daylight. I doubt the useful idiots suggesting we DEFUND THE POLICE are going to get any traction in Missoula for their extreme approach to law and order now. Instead, a space is opening up for the prosecutor clique in Montana to further entrench their power.

With political changes afoot in Montana, I think it’s even MORE important to pay attention to a federal initiative like Project Safe Neighborhoods, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Stay tuned…

by William Skink

There is a lot one can learn from the fictional narratives we watch passively on screens if you know what you are looking at: sophisticated assemblages of images, language and ideas they call “programming” for a reason.

Warning: there be spoilers ahead.

When an idea pops up in more than one show, I know to pay attention. So when the reveal of West World, Season 3, episode 7, used the term “outlier” I immediately recalled the tv show Colony. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, let’s get a better idea of what these two shows are all about by consulting the Wikipedia. Here’s the introduction to the world of Westworld:

Westworld is an American science fiction Western and dystopian television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Produced by HBO, it is based on the 1973 film of the same name (written and directed by Michael Crichton) and, to a lesser extent, the film’s 1976 sequel Futureworld.

The story begins in Westworld, a fictional, technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populated by android “hosts”. The park caters to high-paying “guests” who may indulge their wildest fantasies within the park without fear of retaliation from the hosts, who are prevented by their programming from harming humans.

Later on, in the third season, the series’ plot expands to the real world, in the mid-21st century, where people’s lives are driven and controlled by a powerful artificial intelligence named Rehoboam.

The “host” played by Rachel Evan Wood has escaped the amusement park in season 3 and is bringing her revolution to the human world. The viewer assumes she will be the one leading the charge against the humans, and it isn’t until the second to last episode that the role of her human sidekick, Caleb, is explained, and her plan to have this damaged, mind controlled soldier destroy humanity is revealed.

The quick explanation of this plot development is that this fictional future world is totally controlled by AI to the degree that all human agency has been replaced by AI control. The humans that most threaten to destabilize this artificial AI-imposed order are the “outliers”.

Caleb, once a soldier, is an outlier who was used to hunt down and kill other outliers. To obscure his role, Caleb is subjected to a sophisticated form of mind control. Delores exposes how Caleb was used and abused, knowing his rage will set in motion the fall of mankind.

And we watch this stuff for “entertainment”?

The idea of the “outlier” becomes central to Delores’ plan at the end of season 3. Similarly, in the show Colony, outliers emerge as a central focus of this fictional narrative’s plot development.

Here’s wikipedia’s summary of the show:

In a dystopian near-future Los Angeles, residents live under a regime of military occupation by an organization known as the Transitional Authority. The Authority serves an extraterrestrial group referred to as the “Hosts”, about whom little is known until later in the series (an alien robotic race finds themselves hunted, who came to Earth to use humans as allies and labor in their own battle).

The protagonist of this show, played by Josh Holloway, is an “outlier” and therefore can’t be killed by the Transitional Authority. Why? Because the occupying aliens NEED the outliers to fight THEIR enemies, so the outliers are preserved (after being identified with the help of Big Tech type guy who lives in Seattle).

The idea being explored here in both shows is how personality types impact social order. This is nothing new. In fact, you have probably been assessed at some point in your life by a personality test like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

The anxiety these narratives express is one of technology evolving from a tool to help humans that we can control, into an existential threat no longer within the control of human agency.

While we sit and passively watch this narrative programming on our screens, the idea that we have already set into motion the very phenomenon these stories anxiously mull over is still a bit too much for many viewers.

But we have, and if we don’t want to wake up to the realization that we now inhabit a Black Mirror world one day, then we might want to start taking our “entertainment” more seriously.

by William Skink

Wherever stress-lines exist in your relationships, whether it’s with people or institutions, I suspect Covid has greatly amplified those stress-lines to the point of breaking.

In some of my own conversations, and the ones I’m listening to via podcasts (like Sam Tripoli’s Tin Foil Hat) the sad realization that, at some point, we might have to leave behind (metaphorically or literally) friends and family who just can’t make the cognitive leap necessary to prepare for what’s coming is starting to set in.

I’ve been marinating on the epiphany these last few weeks that information is meaningless without relationships.

What do I mean by that?

Take my writing on the issue of homelessness in Missoula, for example. Seven years working at an emergency shelter means I speak from the knowledge of the relationships I used to have in the non-profit world during that time, as evidenced by the pic below of my handsome mug and the smiling face of United Way’s ED, Susan Hay Patrick.

I am using the past tense in referring to these relationships because I am no longer the insider given kudos for my work in the downtown core. Instead I am more akin to a whistleblower who decided to apply some accelerant to the brushfires I set to certain bridges I no longer care to maintain.

My personal relationships are a different story because bridge burning is not what I am trying to do, but when it comes to my own father, I’m no longer making any effort to hide my resentment at his lifetime inability to form emotional relationships with his family.

So nothing he says to me will have any impact, and nothing I say to him will mean anything because I’m too angry and disrespectful in my delivery of the information.

Since I’ve been told that I am a terrible listener by multiple members of my family when it comes to how I am communicating my concern over things like the totally not mandatory vaccine, I did my best on Sunday to hear my dad out on his thoughts about why the caring people in Big Pharma are needing to rush their efforts.

It didn’t go well.

For my parents and RD readers and anyone else who gives a shit about being as prepared as possible for what’s coming, I highly recommend episode #403 of Tin Foil Hat about the controlled demolition of the American Empire with Charlie Robinson.

The alarm bells are getting louder every day, but the fear fog is still preventing many from hearing them. That will only be getting worse as we are pumped full of fear in order to get us to accept their solution.

by William Skink

Charles Michael Covey appeared in District Court today on a charge of deliberate homicide in the brutal beating death of Lee Nelson, pictured below. He faces a total of 4 charges and entered pleas of not guilty to all of them.

Covey will be represented by two public defenders; Robin Hammond was the PD who appeared at the hearing, and she requested six weeks for the omnibus hearing, which was scheduled for January 21st at 1:30pm.

Charles Covey’s own father has been making the media rounds, apologizing for his son’s heinous actions, and expressing a hope his son faces capital punishment. From the link:

“I won’t except anything then what needs to be done, I’m standing 100 percent with prosecution on this,” said Michael Covey.

“I don’t want him to live anymore, I want him done. Because this can’t happen again.”

Michael said he thinks the death penalty may be the only way to prevent his son from doing more harm: 

“If they sentence him to life in prison, they are going to release him into the population, and he’s going to do it again, to someone’s father or grandfather, and I don’t want that,” said Michael Covey.

I will be covering this case as it proceeds. Please stay tuned…

by William Skink

Montana’s new Governor is saying Governor-type things about protecting vulnerable populations while reopening the state’s economy. Sure he will. Here’s our new Gov:

Gianforte held a news conference through Zoom, his first since the transition began. In it, he made clear COVID-19 will still have to be a major focus of his administration.

“We have to recognize we’re in the midst of a public health crisis,” he said. “The trends right now are alarming, and it’s clear we need to get a better handle on this virus.”

Gianforte said he will wait for recommendations from his COVID-19 Task Force before providing more details about his plans for state action on the coronavirus.

However, he again emphasized his priority will be protecting people in vulnerable populations…

Yes, we are definitely in a public health crisis, and it’s so serious our airports are adding flights. How are we going to get a handle on this, especially for vulnerable populations?

The only path being discussed by Gianforte is the almighty vaccine, and the only problem with the vaccine being discussed is how long we might have to wait to get our poke (and, if you listen to liberal media, how equitable the distribution of the vaccine will be). From the link:

He said he is optimistic about the progress toward vaccines, but that people should realize it will be some time before they’re widely available in the state.

“In the meantime, I encourage Montanans to take care of their loved ones and neighbors, and to protect their health and well-being,” he said. “I trust Montanans to do what’s right. I choose to wear a mask, and I encourage others to do the same.”

I wish there was a real conversation happening about what it actually means to protect vulnerable populations, but that’s not happening. Instead there is an assumption that everything hinges on a vaccine.

Even with all the vaccine talk happening, there is little attention being paid to the convenient set-up Big Pharma got for itself called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The subtitle to this Atlantic article reads as follows: A little-known deal protects drug companies in the U.S. from being sued—and feeds conspiracy theories in the process.

Here’s more from the link:

For most drugs—actually, every type of drug other than vaccines—the manufacturer can be legally liable for harm that results from a product it sells. Vaccines are produced by privately held pharmaceutical companies, but they have a unique arrangement with the U.S. government: When a person reports harm that could feasibly be related to a vaccine, a government program—not a pharmaceutical company—pays compensation.

Am I perpetrating “vaccine hesitancy” by referencing this FACTUAL LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY for harm done by vaccines by Big Pharma? Does the concept of INFORMED CONSENT mean a damn thing anymore?

If you’re not sure what “informed consent” means, it’s one of those foundational concepts you really should be familiar with. From the American Medical Association:

Informed consent to medical treatment is fundamental in both ethics and law. Patients have the right to receive information and ask questions about recommended treatments so that they can make well-considered decisions about care. Successful communication in the patient-physician relationship fosters trust and supports shared decision making.

People who are asking questions about the rush to vaccinate the world against Covid are simply invoking their right to be informed about a vaccine before providing consent. Is this critical concept going to be just discarded, and any dissenters labeled and smeared as ANTI-VAXXERS?

It sure looks like it.