Month: April 2022

by Travis Mateer

Over the weekend I binge-listened to the podcast STOLEN about the Jermain Charlo missing person case. I was aware of this podcast last April, when I participated in a homeless camp clean-up (where I found an ID of a young Native woman in the trash) and even tried reaching out to the journalist who parachuted in and out to do this story, Connie Walker, but never heard back.

Well, after listening to how DEEPLY INVOLVED Lowell Hochhalter was in the investigation of Jermain Charlo, I sent Connie Walker another email with the subject line “platforming Lowell Hochhalter”. From my email:

The reason I am asking these questions is because Lowell Hochhalter was allowed to sit-in on an official police interview of Jermain’s ex-boyfriend, Michael DeFrance, and even boasted about shaking this dude down, post interview, for additional information.

If that wasn’t odd enough, the family of Jermain Charlo gave Hochhalter access to Jermain’s diary. Why? So he could provide his “expert” analysis that Jermain was a good looking woman who knew how to apply her makeup, making her quite “marketable” to traffickers, in Lowell Hochhalter’s humble estimation?

As I listened to Lowell Hochhalter describe how his group swept in to augment the seemingly sparse resources of law enforcement, and the praise he received from desperate family members happy for ANY help–and knowing Hochhalter has AN OFFICIAL ROLE with the Sheriff’s Department–I kept thinking of narrative control and con-artistry.

So here’s my question: Did Connie Walker waltz in to Montana to get conned by narrative control gatekeepers?

Another narrative controller involved in this podcast is Guy Baker, the former Missoula detective who got national media attention for his central role in Jon Krakauer’s treatment of Missoula’s rape scandal. Baker seems VERY helpful at first, taking Connie Walker to Dixon Agency and introducing her to family members of Jermain himself. But is he?

While Walker does express some skepticism about what Baker might be omitting, the fact is, as an outsider, Connie Walker is somewhat beholden to official narrative controllers for her story. To get beyond that gatekeeper control, Walker would need to immerse herself for a longer period of time, but that wasn’t the scope of her media project.

If Connie Walker was still paying attention to the LifeGuards she provided some free marketing to as she made an exclusive media product for Spotify, I would ask her what she thought about this group’s no-show for Rebekah Barsotti.

Was this guy just too busy getting filmed by Lowell in an alleyway to bother doing the job the LifeGuard Group pays him to do?

This image of Joe Danzer comes from a very weird video uploaded by the LifeGuard Group in which Joe tells his origin story.

There he was, dressed all in black and full of hate, when he was plucked from McDonalds by a stranger who saw something more in young Joe, something promising.

Was Joe’s fast food savior Lowell Hochhalter? I don’t know, nor can I confirm that that is Lowell reflecting in Joe’s sunglass lenses, but based just on the slick hairstyle, I’d say it’s a match (from the follicle all the way down to the French fry, if you know what I mean).

Watch the video and judge for yourself what’s going on here.

Now, maybe I’m feeling a little too close to all this because I ALSO wear mostly all black and I ALSO find alleyways to be fascinating places where broken people lurk with their greasy haircuts and savior complexes.

In fact, to demonstrate how knowledgeable I am about alleyways, I can tell you this particular alleyway, where Joe is doing his thing for the camera, is a VERY NICE one, where pretty art from the Radius Gallery gives broken people something to aspire to. At one point you can see the Florence building in the background, where the LifeGuard Group has an office. So this alley is close to home.

If you go just one block north (alleyway-speaking) that is the stretch of alleyway where Jermain Charlo is filmed by Missoula Housing Authority cameras on the last night she is known to be alive and freely able to communicate with the outside world.

Her path that night, from bar to bar, took her from the Dark Horse, to the Golden Rose, to the Badlander, then gone.

I’m glad Connie Walker didn’t need finding by these LifeGuards and detectives who were SO SURE they were going to be successful finding Jermain…but, alas, Missoula County Sheriff dogs weren’t good enough, the Fed dogs Guy Baker ordered took four months to arrive, and therefore the lab results on the bloody clothes found somewhere only the authorities know about were inconclusive.

Darn.

Better luck next time, guys!

by Travis Mateer

If it wasn’t for a recent Gomer story about Missoula PD seeking solutions to staffing challenges I would have thought Missoula PD was doing just fine, seeing as how I see police EVERYWHERE.

For example, the previous evening (which was absolutely LOVELY with the sun setting and temperature allowing for only a light jacket) I was walking back to my studio, enjoying a scoop of Cabin Fever, when I noticed THREE police officers arresting a man right outside Reds.

It was hard to miss them, with their sirens blazing, guns drawn and LOUD commands for the man to do this and that before they cuffed him. While this was happening, a fourth officer pulled up. I stood there watching the action until my ice cream was gone.

Later, after enough time passed where I assumed the person arrested would have been booked, I consulted the Missoula County Inmate Information Portal to see who police were so worried about arresting.

I went through the entire jail roster (since I’ve screwed this up before) and am pretty sure the young man taken into custody yesterday evening was Dakota Eyster, a dude who was acting pretty threatening last October with a sword and knives.

Here’s an excerpt from the article about his arrest last October:

“Dakota Eyster was taken into custody by Missoula Police Department officers and jailed on two counts of assault with a weapon following multiple citizen reports of him brandishing a knife in the commercial retail area of North Reserve Street,” Arnold said. “Eyster brandished a knife at citizens, and also approached cars asking for money and different items. When denied the items, Eyster would threaten to kill or shoot the person and showed them the knife.”

Eyster approached the initial caller’s car and stood next to her front driver’s side tire. She said Eyster was staring at her with a “sword” in his left hand and a knife in his right hand. Eyster began walking circles around the female’s car while she was in it. Another female exited a business into the parking lot and Eyster walked straight towards her. The first female watched as Eyster got within three feet of the other female. However, he passed by, holding the knife in his right hand behind his back.

Thank you, staffing-challenged Missoula PD, for taking this man back into custody if he was violating the terms of his release. That’s the kind of publicly-funded action no private security firm can provide.

Have a safe and fun weekend everyone!

by Travis Mateer

Because Americans are at their collective stupidest when it comes to geopolitics, propaganda spreaders, like UM professor Mehrdad Kia, can easily influence scores of people when he appears on KGVO to make claims of Russian atrocities in Ukraine:

On a special edition of KGVO’s Talk Back show called ‘Global Hot Spots’, University of Montana Professor Mehrdad Kia described what Ukrainian forces uncovered after regaining ground in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city.

“As Ukrainian forces are moving in, they are realizing what had happened during the Russian occupation of these towns,” said Kia. “And of course they are now discovering a large number of bodies, in which most of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs, and they have all been murdered. Some women have been raped.”

So what should happen, Mehrdad?

Kia said the discovery of such atrocities requires a powerful worldwide response.

“I think there will be some discussion in terms of how you define this mass murder,” he said. “Some have used the word genocide, but whatever you call it, it is a heinous crime committed by Putin and his army and his intelligence forces. Clearly, this requires a major response.”

Mehrdad Kia REALLY likes telling people in his adopted country how its elected leaders should behave on the global stage. That’s what this intellectual warmonger was doing 13 years ago when the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center allowed itself and the Waterwork Hill peace sign to be exploited by this democracy-loving Iranian American.

Here’s the comment I made as “lizard” on July 6th, 2009:

Yep, I stopped buying the bullshit A LONG TIME AGO after believing the Obama con in 2008 and committing my last vote as a youthfully naive Democrat for that bomb-dropping motherfucker.

I selected this mash-up image (making Obama’s smiling face go BOO over Vietnam) because a Democracy-loving editorial at John Talbot’s CIA-Missoulian recently invoked the phrase DESTROYING THE VILLAGE TO SAVE IT from the Vietnam era.

Why, you might be asking? Because of the local voting controversy this newspaper’s editorial team (and other local media) are trying desperately to put to bed.

Here’s how the Missoulian op-ed opens:

During the Battle of Ben Tre in the Vietnam War, an American Army major made the observation “it became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

It gets even better in the second paragraph, where our editorial team literally mocks those involved in questioning the election results as LARPers.

The live-action role players of the “Stop the Steal” movement might spend some time studying both historical and current war reports to gauge the impact of their attacks on the American election system. Last week, a group of local Republican Party members spent $5,000 and two days of their lives trying to restore faith in the Missoula County Elections Office.

No where in this trash editorial is the AMAZING DISCOVERY of TWO boxes of mail-in votes referenced. That’s right, two whole boxes of votes got added, somehow, to this Vondene Kopetski-funded recount effort. Where did these boxes come from? Is there chain-of-custody documentation for these two boxes?

Fuck those questions because Brad Tschida, a State Rep., probably worships Trump and Putin at his secret strongman altar, with candles that smell like gunpowder and pictures of shirtless Putin riding a bear.

That is the kind of imagery I imagine is haunting the fever-dreams of the Missoulian editorial staff as they conclude their propaganda Vietnam/voter mash-up “editorial” with this:

Tschida did find time to clap back at former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot, who editorialized that Montanans expect leaders to speak their minds, stick to the facts and remember that “drivel and deceit are quickly set aside as a waste of precious time.” Tschida preferred former President Donald Trump, declaring “As retired military, I have only one requirement: A leader is someone I would follow into hell, because I know he or she would find us a way out. Trump is that person.”

Racicot’s letter was prompted by Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and Trump’s strategic military advice to paint Chinese flags on NATO jets and “bomb the s*** out of Russia.”

That’s the kind of leadership that has got thousands of ill-prepared Russian conscript troops killed in Putin’s attempt to steal Ukrainian democratic independence. That’s the leadership that triggered January 6th rioters to attack their own police officers and sack their own United States Capitol to steal a constitutional change of administration.

That’s destroying a village in order to save it.

Yes, THAT is how the John Talbot CIA-Missoulian responds to a local effort to ensure our votes are counted by competent, non-partisan people.

People like his son, Pete Talbot.

You can’t make this shit up. Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Once again there’s a news story about Westridge Creative and the political office seekers who get tainted by this “consulting firm”, something I’ve written before, like this eloquently titled piece: Does Jim Parker’s Westridge Creative Give Zero Fucks About Campaign Laws?

How else should one interpret the chronic problems that seem to follow this firm?

Last fall, a volunteer for a competing judge candidate filed complaints with the commissioner accusing Jennifer Streano, Eli Parker and Jacob Coolidge of financially coordinating campaign efforts. The allegations say the judges raised contributions as individuals, then essentially pooled the money for management and coordination by Westridge Creative, a campaign consulting firm.

The question left unasked is whether Westridge Creative is an INCOMPETENT consulting firm, or a zero-fuck-giving one.

I’d say the latter, considering Westridge Creative helped Sheriff McDermott fall under similar scrutiny, which I wrote about around the same time Jim Parker was getting all peace signy for the peace center.

Back to the latest charge, here’s the skinny, although the process of providing a deterrent would only lead to a negotiated fine, if anything.

While the commissioner’s office concluded the trio did violate campaign laws, enforcement remains in limbo. The commissioner is only tasked with investigating campaign violation complaints and determining if evidence of law-breaking exists.

I added the emphasis because, man, I often times feel like ENFORCEMENT REMAINS IN LIMBO. Take, for example, oh, I don’t know, witness tampering. Maybe it’s not even known what constitutes witness tampering, so to be ever helpful, here’s what Montana Code Annotated says:

If that fine print is too small to read (maybe because one of your eyes is covered with an eyepatch) then I suggest going to the link.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, if there’s NO DETERRENT for doing things–like breaking campaign laws and calling the woman the state could have called in your PFA case (but didn’t) after the reckless PI outed her on a radio show–then why stop doing it?

Thanks for reading.

by Travis Mateer

Because of technology problems and time constraints from a new job, I’m taking a little break from putting out new episodes of my podcast, Zoom Chron. Instead I’ll highlight some past episodes and provide relevant updates.

I published my conversation with Geoff Roach on November 7th, 2021. At that time Geoff was staying at the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) just off highway 93 on the way to Lolo.

Since recording this conversation, Geoff was told to leave the TSOS. According to Geoff, this was because he kept smoking cigarettes in his tent. Another development is that this entire community is moving locations. Here’s some bullshit reasoning about WHY the TSOS is moving from the link:

The Temporary Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) that was erected on private property near US Highway 93 south of Missoula one year ago and has been operating in a temporary emergency capacity since that time. But now, officials say it’s been so successful in helping people get into permanent housing, that they want to keep it going – but in a new location.

So, if the EXTREME SUCCESS of the TSOS is not the real reason for relocation, then what is? To answer that question, one has to first answer the question: who owns this private land. And that answer is the Richmond’s of Blue Line Development, the same company that’s building the Trinity Apartment complex by the jail.

And wouldn’t you know, that is EXACTLY where the TSOS is hoping to move, next to the Trinity build.

The new potential spot is just behind the jail and Trinity Apartments — near Broadway and Mullan. When officials decide on a new location, they’ll put up infrastructure and hard-sided shelters.

Project coordinator Casey Gannon says prioritizing new homeless shelter locations — in the city and county’s Operation Shelter Project — is Missoula’s attempt to keep offering services for those experiencing homelessness.

“I think there’s no perfect site for a situation like this, it’s not a situation anyone wants to have in their city, but we can’t do nothing,” Gannon said. “This is our attempt to hopefully at least put a dent in the problem and keep improving as we go.”

Is this reasoning, provided to the media by local officials, the ACTUAL reason for the move? I don’t think so. Here’s my theory: Blue Line failed to achieve their Larchmont Golf Course land swap scheme and that is the REAL reason to vacate the property still owned by Blue Line off highway 93. They get to free up the property to sell or develop, while consolidating the TSOS with the MUCH BIGGER Trinity project.

While this move is happening, the seasonal transition in homeless visibility is ALSO happening, spurred by the closure of the Johnson Street Shelter later this month, April 18th to be specific. Where will they go? That’s a great question, especially since this year law enforcement is pretending to be serious about enforcing laws around illegal encampments. From the second link:

There will be more homeless persons looking for places to stay as spring and summer weather arrives, and the city and county have made it abundantly clear that urban camping is illegal.

The Missoula Police Department has been tasked with enforcing that ban, however, even though urban camping is illegal, it is not an ‘arrestable offense’.

The article doesn’t explain that private security is ALSO being tasked with keeping homeless people from camping illegally in no-go zones, like the sprawling terrain around the Reserve Street bridge.

And guess what? Both law enforcement AND private security AND the Montana Department of Transportation are doing a PISS-POOR JOB of managing the Reserve Street area, despite literally hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on staffing private security and building that idiotic fence, which actually makes clean-up efforts in this area MORE DIFFICULT.

To wrap this up, I began today’s post with my interview with Geoff because I saw him passed out downtown by his walker on Sunday. Two drunk Natives were “watching over him”, they assured me. I talked with the man and the woman for a bit after telling the woman an emphatic NO when she tried panhandling me.

The woman asked if I could help her get back into the Poverello Center. She was on a 30 day loss of services, she told me, because she had punched a man in the face, an act of violence she didn’t recall, since she was blacked out.

If only there were ACTUAL treatment options that were ACTUALLY available to a person like this, maybe she wouldn’t be slowly killing herself and hurting others in the process, but there aren’t. There are so few in-patient programs in this state, and so little funding for anyone without private insurance, that addicts are left to languish on the streets until they die, or commit crimes serious enough to incarcerate them.

And, for the record, killing a black man at a homeless shelter in Missoula is NOT CONSIDERED serious enough to warrant prosecution and prison.

Thanks for reading.