Day: February 23, 2022

by Travis Mateer

I’ve been thinking of writing this open letter for a few weeks now, but some recent factors have made the timing ideal to state, with cautious optimism, that I may have been wrong in my cynical assessment of Daniel Carlino.

When I see Mr. Carlino getting the Gomer treatment for his worrisome vote (aligned with the two remaining conservative votes) signaling the possible existence of an independent political spine, well, I’m willing to put aside my concern that this city council position is just a stepping stone to higher office.

Because a person like that has easy levers to pull, from the perspective of a skilled political operator like GREAT LEADER and his many enablers.

One lever that’s easily yanked by this cabal is the GUILT BY ASSOCIATION card. How would this work, you ask? I’ll provide an example.

Let’s say Daniel Carlino decided to finally give me a direct call on the old telephone. Would I openly acknowledge a call like that had been placed? Nope, I wouldn’t, and a recent comment from “kevin” (not J. Kevin Hunt) shows precisely how that guilt by association is being set up.

From the comment:

I loved your film covering the TIF issue and watched the whole thing. I’ve been reading your blog off and on over the years and love when you call out the shitty developers and corrupt government in Missoula. Then I see takes like this one that are so lost in the sauce that it’s no wonder no one wants to be associated with a film that carries your name. It makes me (and likely many other rational people) question the validity of all your other work, which is a real shame. 

Get your shit together and stop being such a reactionary whiner so you can be taken seriously enough in the broader community to have your good work shared with more people. And if you’re going to make claims stating that “covid vaccine bad!! mask bad!!” please link to some relevant research to back that shit up. Or stop calling yourself a “citizen journalist” and call yourself a “citizen reactionary blogger.”

Now, the coolest part of this much longer comment is the claim (not in this excerpt) that I’m trying to be a RED PILL EDGE LORD, so that is the part I chose to respond to. The other stuff is just concern trolling hoping for an unhinged response.

I offer this excerpt as evidence of the kind of mentality percolating out there in Zoom Town. IF Daniel Carlino called me on the phone, I would assume he already understands the risks associated due to this town’s political dynamics, and therefore that call would certainly give me EVEN MORE encouragement that his political spine is for real.

The documentary Engen’s Missoula is a film I am VERY proud of, and I would LOVE to take full credit for doing the heavy lifting, but, alas, I wasn’t the one bringing the Dawg Majik to the process, so already you can see the guilt by association risk being deployed by “kevin” as he pretends to compliment the moments my content align with his sense of “right think”.

I assume a hypothetical call from Daniel Carlino would entail a discussion about how to reign in the obvious Tax Increment Financing abuses so clearly on display for those paying attention. That discussion is already happening in the increasingly lively comment threads on posts about TIF, or the shitty “reporting” on TIF being spewed out by Martin “Gomer” Kidston.

I’m willing to consider any and all possibilities. For example, I attended the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival’s DocShop on art and activism, where I learned there is something called an Impact Campaign, so now I’m thinking about where I could make an appeal for funding so I can take Engen’s Missoula on a Montana road trip around this glorious state to politely shame Republicans for not doing more to take this sharp tool away from irresponsible toddlers.

Another idea that has been discussed is a citizen-led initiative to make sure the voting public is involved with ANY bonds that risk extending the tax-siphoning life of Urban Renewal Districts or, what I’m going to start calling the financial engines of Missoula’s shadow government.

If putting bonds to a vote is a solution being seriously considered, my question is this: do you REALLY trust the software? Because Republicans in Missoula DO NOT, and they have been bucking their own State leadership on this issue, and have been doing so IN SPITE OF winning big.

Weird. It’s almost like they’re legitimately worried about the actual integrity of our elections.

So, there it is. My open letter to Daniel Carlino. A young man I can only imagine having spoken with, perhaps after imbibing a strong strain of Sativa from Nick Checota’s GROOVY weed shop.

by Travis Mateer

Yesterday I attended, and made public comment at, the VIRTUAL Missoula County School Board meeting. Frustrated parents were relegated to making GENERAL public comments about the mask mandate because these condescending policy zealots REFUSED to even put the mask mandate on the agenda.

The Zoom meeting even conspicuously omitted the images of parents so that we couldn’t see each other, or how many of us were virtually lining up to make comments. This is by design, by “inclusive” school board members like these.

Two of my three kids listened to the charade, keeping track of how the comments were breaking down on a piece of paper. The total: 15 comments AGAINST the mandate, and 1 comment supporting the continued political enforcement of this harmful policy.

I will also note that 3 mothers got audibly upset. It sounded like they were crying, but since their faces were kept hidden, I can’t verify that.

One comment I especially appreciated came from a teacher, Sue Rowe. She talked about the sadness many of her students have expressed to her when she’s talking to them one-on-one.

Another parent, a dad, said he was directing his kids to just stop complying. Right on.

There is no longer any valid scientific justification showing that the benefit of masking out-weighs the risk of harm.

The school board election is May 3rd.

I assume most of the parents left the virtual Zoom meeting after making public comments. I decided to stick it out in order to see all the important stuff that warranted a higher priority than the mask policy.

Pat McHugh, the Executive Director of Operations for MCPS, gave a mind-numbing report on financials. As I forced myself to listen, I found a few moments that inspired my virtual hand to shoot up, but then it would be put down by whoever was running the meeting.

I kept at it, though, and eventually, when Pat was done, I got my chance to make ANOTHER public comment, and this one was a blast.

I first explained to Pat and the school board members that I had taken off my “parent hat” and put on my “citizen journalist hat”. Then I proceeded to ask Pat McHugh about the cost of running a shadow government called the Missoula Redevelopment Agency and if he’s crunched any numbers on the cost to the school board of NOT allowing Urban Renewal Districts to sunset, something Ellen Buchanan and Martin “Gomer” Kidston don’t want you knowing about.

It was fun using those fancy words to signal I wasn’t one of those dumb members of the public that can be summarily dismissed by Missoula’s elitists when engaging in their financial schemes and scams. Less fun was listening to the droning response of Pat McHugh as he “answered” my question with a heap of gobbledygook.

After the meeting I discovered the existence of a survey at Engage Missoula about MRA’s funding priorities. When I went to the website, I was assured Missoula’s TIF wizard, Ellen Buchanan, would be listening.

Since I already had an account set up (which is a requirement for filling out the survey), I gleefully ENGAGED in this survey, which had questions like this one:

And this one:

While I found it somewhat satisfying to respond to these “questions”, it was the last one that allowed me the freedom to actually express myself satisfactorily. And it will be this one I will conclude this post with. Here it is:

That is all for now. Thanks for reading!