Month: October 2021

Can Missoula Build Back Better Without An EDA Strategy?

by Travis Mateer

The first question readers probably are asking themselves, after reading the title of this post, is this: what the hell is an EDA strategy?

To answer that question, here’s Grant Kier of the Missoula Economic Partnership explaining how Missoula has been WITHOUT this critical strategy for years now (emphasis mine):

“MEP has been focused on the income side of how to improve people’s live, but we do have to be mindful of the affordability side,” said Kier. “Part of our mission is to ensure that everyone has access to every opportunity they choose to seek in life and paths forward to make progress. But we also know there’s a lot of folks in Missoula who love where they are, love their job and lifestyle. They’re not looking for more income. So how can they continue to do well and afford to stay in the place they care about?”

To answer that question, MEP has worked over the past year to explore the conditions around economic recovery, and it’s developing a comprehensive economic development strategy to guide the way.

The strategy is prescribed by the Economic Development Administrations as a way to plan the economic future of a community. In the past, Missoula hasn’t had one, Kier said.

“We’ve been without one in Missoula County for the better part of seven or eight years,” Kier said. “We have been one of the only communities in the Western U.S. that didn’t have one of these plans in place, and because of that, we’ve been at a significant disadvantage, or even unqualified for some forms of funding from the Economic Development Administration that would help us form our goals around economic development.”

Now that you’ve read this excerpt you know that EDA stands for Economic Development Administration. But did you know the EDA is pushing the BUILD BACK BETTER messaging of the globalists?

To give readers a little more information on the BBB message, here’s some context from Wikipedia about how this term was first introduced to the world in 2015:

Building Back Better (BBB) is a strategy aimed at reducing the risk to the people of nations and communities in the wake of future disasters and shocks. The BBB approach integrates disaster risk reduction measures into the restoration of physical infrastructure, social systems and shelter, and the revitalization of livelihoods, economies and the environment.

BBB was first officially described in the United Nations’ Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction document, which was agreed on at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held on March 14–18, 2015, in Sendai, Japan. It was adopted by UN member states as one of four priorities in the Sendai Framework for disaster recovery, risk reduction and sustainable development. The UN General Assembly adopted this document on June 3, 2015.

And here is how the EDA is taking this messaging and putting it into practice with its funding opportunities:

The Build Back Better Regional Challenge is designed to assist communities nationwide in their efforts to build back better by accelerating the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks.

The $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge will provide a transformational investment to 20-30 regions across the country that want to revitalize their economies. These regions will have the opportunity to grow new regional industry clusters or scale existing ones through planning, infrastructure, innovation and entrepreneurship, workforce development, access to capital, and more.

Missoula is just a microcosm of a macro-effort by globally-obsessed central planners to radically reshape society, and they will be trying to accomplish this massive social engineering experiment with money infusions from entities like the Economic Development Administration.

This will be an important topic to remain aware of in the months to come, so stay tuned here for continued analysis of Missoula’s economic schemes.

Thanks for reading.

Mayor Engen Supports Medical Apartheid In Missoula

by Travis Mateer

Missoula’s 16 year mayoral incumbent, John Engen, was on KGVO yesterday discussing his hopes and dreams for Missoula, like how, if it was up to him, we’d be in full-blown medical apartheid by now, with only the vaccinated who show their papers allowed to participate in society.

One caller asked Engen if, in a perfect world, he had the power to mandate a vaccination card before being allowed to receive services at a local business, Engen responded.

“Thank you Alan,” he said. “It turns out that my job is to be on the spot and to make decisions. I try to make those decisions with lots of information and not in a vacuum. But I but I think the idea of having proof of vaccination to get service in public places is a good idea.”

While I DO NOT agree with creating a two-tiered society based on vaccination status, the idea of PROVING something does have some appeal to me. Let me explain.

Since John Engen is a self-admitted drunk who disappeared during his mayoral tenure to get treatment, and since his communication director, Ginny Merriam, is also personally tied to another dangerous drunk, maybe it would be a good idea to have John Engen PROVE his sobriety with daily breathalyzer tests. I suggest one test before the work day starts, and one at the end of the day to ensure no liquid lunches were imbibed.

During the KGVO interview, a caller brought up the alcohol question, and Engen had this to say about his addiction:

Wrapping up the conversation, one caller asked the Mayor about his personal journey through his treatment for alcoholism, and he did not shy away from answering.

“I will celebrate five years of sobriety on the 25th of this month, which is two days shy of my 57th birthday,” he said. “It’s tough, but there are so many folks who are affected by addiction. But I quickly discovered I was and that I’m not alone.”

No, Engen, you are not ALONE in being a drunk. But NO ONE ELSE in the past 16 years can claim to be a DRUNK MAYOR like you were.

Five years ago I wrote about our drunk-ass Mayor and included a quote from the Missoula Independent. This was before the Independent was bought and shuttered by Lee Enterprises. Very convenient for a Mayor with LOTS to hide.

Here’s the Indy excerpt I preserved for posterity:

Engen’s drinking habits were far from a mystery. At least one Indy staffer has stood in line behind an obviously intoxicated Engen, and stories of the overindulged mayor out on the town aren’t hard to find. And yet local media—the Indy included—has looked the other way. Which says something about our respect for Engen’s privacy, our discomfort with wagging a hypocritical finger and, just perhaps, the community’s complicity in enabling the mayor’s self-destructive behavior.

As uncomfortable as that suggestion is, awkward questions remain. Did the mayor’s drinking problem affect city business? Was there a precipitating event—as is so often the case with substance abuse—that convinced the mayor of the need to seek help? City officials say Engen won’t discuss the matter further.

This speculation about what Engen may have done, while drunk, to impact city business, is no longer a big concern for local media, despite the fact Missoula taxpayers may STILL BE PAYING for Engen’s drunkenness.

What do I mean by that?

I would like to know how drunk our Mayor was before, during, and after dragging the city into the water company litigation that we were told was going to be about $800,000 dollars. Remember that?

At first, both the city and Carlyle said the city would pick up the tab for all parties, and the city estimated a worst-case scenario would be $800,000 total. Later, when the legal bills grew, the city argued it might not be responsible for all the defense costs.

According to statute, the city will pay the “necessary expenses of litigation” the court awards to defendants, and the city believes some of the legal activity by the defense is far from “necessary.”

Either way, the city will pay its own bill, some $1.9 million as of last week. A recent estimate of the total for all parties hit $5 million.

That quote is from a Montana Standard article published March 14th, 2015. Now, here’s an excerpt from a November, 2020, NBC Montana article about the costs of this litigation:

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.

It’s impossible to quantify the impact of our Mayor’s alcoholism on city business during his long tenure because our most critical voice of investigative journalism, the Missoula Independent, explicitly admitted ignoring what they knew about Engen.

What else do people know about Engen that is being kept from the public?

What does Ginny Merriam know? What does Ellie Boldman know? What does Susan Hay Patrick know? What does Eran Pehan know? What does Mike Brady know? What does T.J. McDermott know? What does Jim Strauss know? What does Martin Kidston know?

If YOU know something and would like to share it, hit me up at willskink at yahoo dot com.

And thanks for reading!

Of Course The Mask Mandate Was Extended Last Night

by Travis Mateer

In a move that surprised no one, the Missoula County school board voted to extend the mask mandate for school kids. When will this end? When every kid gets jabbed, that’s when.

All Missoula County Public Schools will continue to require masks, and the board of trustees will revisit the requirement again at next month’s meeting.

The board and the public are in discussions about a possible metrics involving cases and the availability of vaccines for young people that could determine an end point for the district requiring masks.

The COVID-19 task force is going to meet one more time to finalize a possible ending metrics to present to the next board meeting.

The sick joke of requiring masks isn’t stopping transmission, just like the vaccine isn’t stopping people from getting sick and going to the hospital.

Did you know you can get a jab and STILL BE CONSIDERED UNVAXXED? Did you know Sweden and Denmark “paused” their Moderna jabs because young people are developing heart problems?

Sweden and Denmark said on Wednesday they are pausing the use of Moderna’s (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine for younger age groups after reports of possible rare cardiovascular side effects.

The Swedish health agency said it would pause using the shot for people born in 1991 and later as data pointed to an increase of myocarditis and pericarditis among youths and young adults that had been vaccinated. Those conditions involve an inflammation of the heart or its lining.

Four more weeks of mask mandates because well-intentioned health professionals think the only solution to get out of this is sticking my kids with Big Pharma’s final solution.

Fuck that.

Too bad there aren’t vaccines against poverty. If there were, maybe the families being kicked out of the YWCA’s new family shelter could get inoculated. Instead, all the mom, Jessica, can do is go to the media to describe the impact on her children:

Jessica, and her three kids, have until the end of the month to pack up. “We have to leave there on the 29th of this month — that’s only a couple more weeks. And it’s right before winter, it’s supposed to snow next week, and there’s just nowhere to go.”

The YWCA operates the shelter and said the Meadowlark is intended to be same-day, emergency housing and for families like Jessica’s, escaping an abusive situation, that can be a Godsend.

Former Communications Coordinator Becky Margolis said the goal is to “work with families, provide resources that we can.” But she added, “there’s so many families needing our services.”

Now, too many families need these services. The YWCA is asking all residents who have stayed at the Meadowlark for more than 90 days, to leave.

“People will lose kids, or will have to go back to abusive relationships because there s nowhere else safe to go,” Jessica said.”

The YWCA says it just can’t meet the community’s need.

Sorry, Jessica, but your Anaconda origin story is just not as sexy as refugees fleeing Afghanistan. I know last May, when the 12 million dollar family shelter opened, advocates were saying lots of positive things about what they were going to be able to do, but that’s because those people don’t live in reality.

Here’s a little reminder about what was being said in May:

“No child or parent should go without a home,” said Missoula Interfaith Collaborative executive director Casey Dunning. “If a family loses their housing, or needs to get out of a domestic violence situation, they’re going to have a safe place to go.”

“Thirty-eight private sleeping rooms, for families and survivors of domestic violence, health care, and legal clinics, shared living and dining areas, youth play spaces,” explained YWCA Missoula executive director Cindy Weese.

During Thursday’s ribbon-cutting, Weese said the facility will offer new hope for Missoula children that grow up witnessing violence.

“We can impact a generation of kids so that they can grow up and live healthy, productive lives so that they aren’t impacted long term by their experience as a child,” Weese said.

Unless they can’t find permanent housing in 90 days, in which case they’re fucked.

If that sounds harsh, well, that’s what reality does to people who don’t have passive income to fall back on.

Not only do they get fucked by reality, they also get ignored by the supposed helpers who claim to be improving the economy for EVERYONE because those people are too busy working with piece of shit corporations like Blackstone to pay attention to the socio-economic impacts of the long transferring of wealth that kicked off in earnest when the global economy blew up in 2008.

Blackstone and Big Pharma are the ultimate beneficiaries of local policies that purposefully avoid the root causes of poor health and economic insecurity. It doesn’t matter what the local braintrust says to justify and rationalize their actions, the results of what they’ve done for the last 16 years should be VERY OBVIOUS to anyone with more than a dozen functioning brain cells.