Month: September 2021

by Travis Mateer

Wow.

What I’m about to describe just happened.

Around 11pm I was walking to a food truck in downtown Missoula when a young woman started yelling at a police car as it sped by. She was yelling because the back door on the driver’s side was cracked open as it sped south toward the Rhino.

I thought I was joking when I told the young woman to stop yelling because we might be witnessing a new police tactic.

Well…

I decided to follow the cop car and sure enough there were officers in the back of the cruiser cracking the door in anticipation of dismounting their steel steed.

The cruiser stopped at the entryway to Caras Park. Two other cruisers were parked further west, on Fronts street, near an empty car. One of the cruisers sped off, wheels screeching.

With the action seemingly moved elsewhere, I approached the crowd and spoke with an eye witness, who made a point to tell me he wasn’t drunk, since he just got off work. Apparently, according to this bearded man, some guy was belligerent and the cops were called to deal with him. In fact, the offending dude demanded that people call the cops on him.

That’s it.

I know it’s the eve of the greatest terrorist attack ever pulled off with boxcutters, but c’mon, boys in blue, that’s fucking ridiculous.

Also, I’m emailing the PIO to get a comment on whether or not what I witnessed tonight is an approved police tactic.

by Travis Mateer

While I work on a more formal essay about Synchro-Mysticism and non-traditional spiritual awakening, I wanted to share some insights today about how I approach the use of synchronicities.

An easy way for anyone to begin this kind of inquiry is to see the personal resonance of a seeming coincidence as a curiosity primer for further inquiry. Let me explain with an example.

A few months ago I drove to Spokane and on that drive I listened to every Aesop Rock album I own. One of those albums is from the Hail Mary Mallon collaborative.

The more I listened to that album the more I started wondering WHO IS THIS MARY MALLON? Then, while trying to locate an antique store, I turned onto MALLON street. Ok, I thought, time to use the search engine.

And that’s when I discovered Mary Mallon is the full name of the historical figure known as Typhoid Mary.

I won’t get into the insights this synchronicity produced because I want to shift to a recent focus of my local research: the chapel of the dove at the Wilma.

While I wait for a book I found online to arrive about the eccentric chapel in the bowels of the Wilma, I want to share a few tidbits from a conversation I had earlier today with a guy I ran into who ACTUALLY WORKED as the elevator operator.

I’m hoping to interview this guy because the history he has in his head isn’t documented anywhere yet. He recalls the eccentric Edward Sharp and the flow of the Clark Fork in such proximity to the Wilma that empty champagne bottles could be chucked from higher floors into the river.

I’ll leave it there for now. Have a great weekend!

by Travis Mateer

Uh oh, you might be thinking, this blogger is so excited to signal the NEVER FORGET two decade long commemoration moment that marked the global roll-out of the war on terrorism that he jumped the gun a day early.

Nope.

Today’s post is a reminder that 20 years ago today the poetically evasive shit-heel (who helped get Monsanto’s acquired poison eventually known as Aspartame to market) announced to the world that he his war machine couldn’t account for a few TRILLION dollars.

On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten.

The following day this existential poet of the English language had a NEW NORMAL to preside over, one that didn’t have time for a measly 2.3 TRILLION dollars unaccounted for.

If you’re confused about why I keep referring to Donald Rumsfeld as a poet, that’s probably because you don’t own a copy of his existential verses (compiled by Hart Seely) like I do.

So here’s a poem from Donald Rumsfeld, and not one of the more quoted ones, like the one about KNOWN KNOWNS.

BAD NEWS DAY

I'm not into the news business.
I'm into informing,
And developing,
Understanding,
Backgrounding,
And all of that.
I'm not into hard news.

by Travis Mateer

Because Republicans at the state level did NOTHING to address how “blight” is defined–the determining factor driving the use of Tax Increment Financing–the Missoula Redevelopment Agency is up to some new shenanigans.

The confusing reporting from the Missoula Current begins with the title of the article: City Council targets MRA for changes; strays from economic development to housing and daycare. From the link:

Members of the Missoula City Council on Wednesday tightened their grip around the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, introducing a resolution that would limit the amount of tax increment available within the city’s urban renewal districts.

The resolution would also appoint new ex-officio members from three large taxing jurisdictions and ensure all MRA projects are “consistent” with the goals of the city around infrastructure and housing. Supporters also added daycare as new priority worthy of MRA funding.

The language of this report is interesting. City Council is TARGETING the Missoula Redevelopment Agency in order to TIGHTEN THEIR GRIP on how public money can be used. But is the language accurately representing what is actually happening? Because it sounds to me like the potential uses of TIF is EXPANDING to include things that have nothing to do with blight, like daycare.

Here’s more from the article:

The resolution doesn’t mention job creation or economic development, and it marks a dramatic shift in the program’s original approach to boosting the local economy.

“This really gets to how we’re going to benefit the community,” said resolution co-sponsor Gwen Jones. “Our MRA has been investing in affordable housing for decades. This isn’t new.”

If Gwen Jones is a co-sponsor of this shift in the use of TIF, then Missoula citizens should REALLY be paying attention, especially considering how Jones got herself installed as the chair of the Finance Committee at the beginning of 2020.

The propaganda value of this Missoula Current reporting can be found in the depiction of criticism, which exists, says the Current, but no one is directly quoted. Instead of including the perspective of a TIF critic, like City Council member Jesse Ramos, we get this:

Advocates suggest the changes will strengthen the way the city allocates TIF funding and resources, though skeptics remain critical, seeing it as a sudden shift away from projects that create jobs and provide a return on the city’s taxable value.

Who are the skeptics? The article doesn’t say, though I guess it’s nice that Martin Kidston included the fact the unnamed critics “remain critical”.

I think our illuminated braintrust is hoping, with the help of propaganda like this article, that Missoula citizens will be bamboozled by the notion that the use of TIF is being restricted in some new way. But is it?

The resolution covers three policy areas, including a limitation on the amount of TIF available within the city’s six urban renewal districts. It would also ensure comments from all taxing jurisdictions are “considered” as part of MRA decisions.

Is limiting the amount of TIF available within URDs a way of appeasing those angry citizen that rose up in outrage at the end of 2019 as Missoula was poised to give Nick Checota over 16 million dollars for a convention center? I’m sure that’s the impression MRA is hoping we take away from this, but I suspect something else is afoot, like merging County redevelopment efforts with City ones. That’s the reason, I believe, for changes to who is appointed to MRA’s board.

The resolution would appoint the chair of the City Council’s own Administration and Finance Committee to the MRA board, along with a representative from Missoula County and Missoula County Public Schools, the latter representing the single largest portion of a property owner’s tax bill.

“This is an area where we’ve done a lot of work, and there’s a good opportunity to formalize those relationships,” said city CAO Dale Bickell. “It would ensure comments from local taxing jurisdictions are part of comments around MRA deliberations.”

One thing I can safely say is that our illuminated braintrust doesn’t give two shits about public comments, so ensuring comments from local taxing jurisdictions is NOT the goal of this resolution; the “formalizing” of relationships is.

While I don’t think “caring” what the public thinks is a big priority, our illuminated braintrust is definitely AWARE of how criticism can derail their gentrification dreams, which is why they are shifting TIF in a new direction. This is explicitly stated in the article:

Throughout its history, tax increment has in principle recognized areas of the city in need of redevelopment, including those with a stagnant or declining tax base. The incentives offered by TIF were intended to fuel private investment, which in effect lifts taxable values and grows the city’s general fund once a TIF district expires.

City Council members once described it as one of the most powerful economic development tools available to municipalities in Montana. But the changes appear to take a different tact, inspired by what some on City Council described as targeted opposition to the program in general.

I added the emphasis because this blog has been a big part of that TARGETED OPPOSITION and will continue to be, regardless of changes and tweaks to the Engen slush fund.

My position is TIF should be ABOLISHED. No more slush fund for ANY politician or pet project. Let ALL the Urban Renewal Districts sunset and return the millions and millions of taxable skim to the general fund where it belongs.

The daycare fig leaf being developed here is something I’m very curious about because daycare seems like a major deviation from how the state of Montana directs the use of TIF. But using TIF for daycare DOES align quite conveniently with the ZERO TO FIVE ambitions of the United Way, where Missoula County School Board Member and zero to five coordinator, Grace Decker, works.

Isn’t that nice?

I hope this new direction for MRA is something our municipal candidates are paying attention to. It’s a big deal, and propagandists like Martin Kidston aren’t going to be reporting honestly on the power dynamics at play, so read his rag with discerning eyes.

And keep tuning in here, because I’m not shy about calling it how I see it.

Thanks for reading.

by Travis Mateer

Last Wednesday one of my kids tested positive. He had been feeling cruddy since the previous Sunday, so I made some calls.

I wasn’t interested in getting him a PCR test, especially when the person I spoke with had no idea what the cycle threshold meant. I opted for rapid testing at a walk-in clinic instead.

It didn’t take long, and the nurse who administered the swab was nice enough, though she asked me if my kid gets the flu shot. Why is this question being asked? Are they trying to gauge my potential hesitancy?

With the positive test confirmed it was clear what had to happen. The kid was going to wear FIVE masks and we would seal him in his room, only feeding him protein bars that could fit beneath his door.

Just kidding, we didn’t do anything special to sequester him from the rest of the family because we are very stupid people who like to live dangerously.

So, how quickly did this virulent illness spread amongst our family? Did we, the unvaxxed parents, get deathly ill and add to the hospital surge? Remember, our illuminated braintrust is trying to COUNT people like me because of this bullshit:

While Missoula County leads Montana in vaccination rates at around 63% of the eligible population, nearly 40% remain unvaccinated, and local officials are trying to do the math to determine the future costs they’ll possibly incur as unvaccinated individuals get sick.

Well, I’m sorry to report to the Covidians that neither my wife, nor myself, got sick. We are annoyed about cancelling weekend plans, and not happy that our two other kids can’t go to school until 9-18, but other than that, we’re doing just fine.

Keeping my other two kids out of school until 9-18 is the real kicker, but thankfully my family is a financially privileged, two-parent household. How are less privileged families dealing with these ridiculous quarantines?

Helping families deal with this insanity is not a big priority for our illuminated braintrust, especially if they are operating on the faulty assumption that THE UNVAXXED are the biggest threat to our “health” care system.

A threat described like this:

With a population of more than 110,000 people and 40% of it still unvaccinated, tens of thousands remain at risk of contracting Covid. A percent of them will require hospitalization, and some of them will die.

This is such disingenuous crap. Do you know who else is at risk of contracting Covid? People who are vaccinated. Yes, even stupid people like me realize the efficacy of the jab was NEVER about stopping transmission, but reducing the severity of symptoms.

How’s that working for you, vaxxers? Are you excited for the never-ending booster shots? Is it fun being a guinea pigs for Big Pharma?

Don’t worry, haters, there’s still a chance I could get sick and die. And if I do, please, dance upon my grave.

Because life is too precious to waste it living in fear.

Thanks for reading.