Month: August 2021

by Travis Mateer

The University of Montana is once again in the spotlight due to allegations of sex-based discrimination. For a University that has experienced one of the worst enrollment implosions of any public university in the nation over the past decade, this latest scandal just adds more fuel to the never-ending enrollment conflagration.

Here is what’s being alleged:

Describing a “good ol’ boys” mentality, four female plaintiffs — one current and three former employees of the University of Montana — allege the flagship created a “discriminatory and hostile educational environment,” and that UM President Seth Bodnar allowed a “retaliatory culture” against women, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

“University of Montana-Missoula (UM) has long fostered and encouraged a culture, and the resulting actions, that ‘on the basis of sex’ denied female employees the benefits of their long dedication to UM’s educational programs,” the lawsuit said. “UM did not create a glass ceiling for these women’s careers. UM created a brick wall for these women’s careers.”

The plaintiffs are former vice president of enrollment management and strategic communications Catherine “Cathy” Cole; former director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture Barbara Koostra; current tenured associate professor Mary-Ann Sontag Bowman; and former Dean of Students Rhondie Voorhees. The lawsuit said the plaintiffs suspect other women have similar experiences and reserve the right to amend the complaint to include class allegations.

I bolded the name of Barbara Koostra because I want to remind RD readers of what I discovered about this privileged landlord who suddenly and without warning terminated the month-to-month lease of City Council candidate Daniel Carlino.

When Barbara Koostra used her privileged position as a landlord to make a council candidate temporarily homeless, no one in the media (other than me) reported on it.

But now that THE KOOSTRA is joining forces with other women to litigate their alleged discrimination at the hands of THE BODNAR, who supposedly prefers to surround himself with fit hotties, there will be LOTS of headlines.

And some of them will be featured on this humble blog, so stay tuned.

by Travis Mateer

On August 3rd a 28 year old man by the name of Naoise McMahon was arrested on felony charges for holding a machete to a woman’s throat at the Poverello Center. From the link:

The male, later identified as 28-year-old Naoise McMahon, was detained by other officers after initially refusing multiple commands to stop running and get down on the ground.

“Officers were able to catch up to McMahon and take him into custody,” Arnold said. “Officers were able to retrace McMahon’s running path and they gathered evidence of the incident. The victim wasn’t physically injured by the machete being held up to them. However, while McMahon was seen holding the machete to the victim, he was making comments about causing severe bodily injury or death to the victim.”

The victim said McMahon stole her wallet the night before and she went to the Poverello Center to get it back. McMahon refused to give the victim her property back and put a machete up against her throat. At one point, McMahon said, “you don’t’ want to mess with me. I know where you live.” He also said, “I am going to kill you. I will start with your hands and end at your feet.”

In Missoula, through our 10 YEAR PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS, we are supposed to have the ability to screen people in order to identify their needs.

Maybe we should ALSO be screening people for being dangerous fucking psychopaths. I mean, we keep creating MORE government positions to deal with homelessness, like this one at the County, but no one seems capable of using Google to take a quick look at the background of some of these poor homeless people in need.

If they had with this asshole they would have discovered some interesting things, like how he and his buddy, Kevin Ward, like to roll:

Two probation officers ended up in a life-and-death struggle recently when they encountered a wanted man in a local motel.

Kevin James Ward, 30, was charged with felony assault on a peace officer after he allegedly attacked both officers and tried to grab one of their sidearms.

Ward, who was booked into jail Dec. 2, pleaded not guilty Dec. 10 in Flathead County District Court. He is being held on $200,000 bail.

According to a charging document, motel staff reported suspicious comings and goings from one of the rooms. The officers ordered two men, Naoise McMahon and William Hughes, out of the room.

This incident occurred in December of 2019. Last month, this dude was booked in Flathead County. How did he get released and find himself in Missoula?

What a pleasant “homeless” man. I’m sure glad he can find a safe space in Missoula to threaten to kill a local Missoula woman with his little machete. I’m sure this instills much confidence among homeless women in Missoula that the Poverello is a safe space for them to stay.

And please, Pov, NEVER consider doing anything rationale and preventative, like installing metal detectors, because that would unfairly stigmatize homeless people, creating the inaccurate impression that sometimes psychos exist among this population, like the guy who beat Lee Nelson to death in the middle of the day in downtown Missoula.

For me, this is further proof that community members need to take a more active role in creating the public safety we want for our community, because when we leave it to the cops and homeless service providers, this is what happens.

Thanks for reading.

by Travis Mateer

Thank you for tuning in to this week’s episode of Zoom Town. I am happy to finally share a portion of my interview with Monica Perez and Brad Binkley of The Prop Report.

When it comes to anticipating what’s lurking behind the headlines, no one is doing better work (in my opinion) than these two troublemakers.

Next week Tim Adams and myself will be back doing our thing as primary ballots get closer to the mail-out date.

Thanks for listening.

by Travis Mateer

I probably shouldn’t write while miffed, but I got a double-whammy yesterday from a reader/commenter AND a mayoral candidate that I’d like to address.

The comments from TC, while a little harsh, seem to come from a place of total frustration with the desolate media landscape in Zoom Town, something I can certainly sympathize with.

For example, in this brief interview with mayoral candidate Shawn Knopp, Martin Kidston had to acknowledge that HALF the candidates for Mayor refused an interview with MC. Ouch.

Now, here’s the one/two from TC about the non-Missoula material he’s assuming has no bearing on our humble little valley:

Hey Trav,
I could be completely talking out of my ass here but I think you are losing (not loosing) focus.
I know you have many interests and a global (ie 30,000 ft view). But know what – no one gives two shits.
You are a citizen journalist. Those of us who care read you and Greg to have a greater inside on local affairs.
If most people that come here for local news read about bitcoin/aliens/etc – guess what – they will stop visiting. No one local struggling with local issues gives two shots about some East Coast blogger.
Sorry to be blunt. I love what you do – when you stay in your lane. We have a huge election coming up locally that will direct our community. That has real impact on real people right here in River City.
So talk/blog meaningless bitcoin bullshit that no blue collar in Missoula cares about or step up and journalistically make a difference in you adopted hometown!0

And this one:

Yahweh Man – you could talk report about so much. There is a Cop running for Council in Ward 5. He has amazing insight. There is a conservative running in Ward 4.
There is a conservative woman (a CONSERVATIVE WOMAN!!!) running in the Rattlesnake. Unheard of 🤯
You could interview Mayor Engen, or Ellen Buchanan, or Erin Pehan, or Donna Gaukler, or Jim Nugent about nepotism. You have a whole cornucopia of local topics to delve into.
A whole array of topics that matter to locals.
I get the feeling that you want to be Joe Rogan 2.0 – awesome! Like Joe, earn you bona fides locally. No one here struggling gives a shit about some privileged East Coaster angst about the make believe.
Just thoughts -do as you Larping will.

I get the frustration. I am experiencing it quite frequently as I try to get people to step up and join me in exposing what’s happening here, but a lot of people DO NOT WANT to make waves, or risk whatever it is they imagine they are risking.

Like having to do deal with a mayoral candidate trolling you at 9pm on FB while you’re trying to put your daughter down to bed.

I’m not sure it’s a great campaign move to be trolling some blogger at 9:06pm about a post he wrote, but what the hell do I know? I’m just some schmuck writing free content waiting for the not-free business cards to arrive so Biden’s STRIKE TEAM knows where to find me with the anal swabs.

Such is the life of a citizen journalist in his adopted hometown of 21 years.

This week’s episode of Zoom Town (which I’ll post later today) is a truncated interview with Monica Perez and Brad Binkley of The Prop Report that I recorded on June 23rd. I had to edit it down substantially, post-interview, because I disclosed some things about the Sean Stevenson case I’m not ready to publicize quite yet.

Thanks for reading, and check out ways to support the work I do here at my about page.

by Travis Mateer

When I interviewed Alison McDowell in January of this year it was because her appearance on the Higherside Chat podcast was so eye-opening, I felt compelled to have a conversation with her about how I saw technocracy developing in Zoom Town (Missoula).

Four months later, in April, I wrote this post about the conflicted role of blockchain technology and the rift that emerged between the purist position, as represented by Alison McDowell, and other activists, like Derrick Broze of the Conscience Resistance network.

McDowell made an appearance in the comment thread of that post to inform me that, due to my critical writing on the purist position, we are not “on the same page”. I was quite disappointed with her attitude toward this rift, and the speed in which an ally (myself) was written off for discussing it.

In June, an interview Whitney Webb did put this whole rift into context when she painfully recounted how a personal relationship with a man by the name of Raul Diego turned into a manipulative, toxic dumpster fire that seemingly pulled Alison McDowell (through Diego) into this conflagration. I wrote another post about this evolving situation.

The reason I’m going through this brief history is because Alison McDowell is back on The Higherside Chat podcast with another mind-blowing interview about the Graphene World Order. As I’ve consistently maintained, McDowell’s research is VERY important, which is why the manner in which she has allowed division to seep into the crypto-space has been so damn frustrating.

Near the end of the interview, McDowell talks about how to build resistance to the schemes of the predator class, but her discourse, at least for me, is no longer something I can just take at face value. I can still appreciate her research, but the damage to the social cohesion this rift has caused is not going to just disappear overnight.

One of the researchers McDowell mentioned in the THC interview is “Stephers”, a contributor to Mark Tokarski’s blog, Piece of Mindful. Here is a recent post she wrote about graphene.

While all this research is absolutely critical to furthering our understanding of the predator class’ movements to gaslight our cognitive functioning while herding us into a global, technocratic control grid, our understanding won’t mean a damn thing if we are wasting time and energy fighting each other over personal mitigation strategies that may or may not include using crypto-currencies as a tool.

All that said, I STRONGLY encourage RD readers to listen to McDowell on The Higherside Chat. The information is important and shouldn’t be discounted just because the messenger, McDowell, has negatively impacted the cohesion of the resistance movement with her anti-cypto purist stance.