Month: September 2022

by Travis Mateer

A few months ago I started thinking of my focus with this blog as hyper-localism because, despite being a big picture thinker, I realized that larger scale forms of organization are more vulnerable to infiltration and co-optation. I also think it’s where one can have more impact.

This time last year I had to contend with an ideological crusade LARPing as a scientifically sound, medically necessary “health” protocol for my kids. The particulars of actual risk vs. actual harm got swept into a constantly morphing clusterfuck of strategies and interventions that pushed me, as a parent, into temporary alliances with institutions I had to reconsider out of necessity.

My initial hope in attending different churches in Missoula was to find new networks of support if I needed to remove my kids from the public school system. My abstention from box wine and other monumental changes in my personal life also fueled a need to connect to a spiritual support system.

Well, church in Missoula IS NOT THAT.

Instead of focusing on local threats, I’m reading a book called Rabbits, but it’s not about little furry animals. It’s about something sinister penetrating this world from somewhere else. And the churches aren’t spiritually prepared for what’s coming, just like the universities aren’t intellectually prepared.

Here’s a teaser about the plot:

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. The identity of these winners are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself.

But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past—and the body count is rising. And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K—a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts, or the whole world will pay the price.

If you understand that fiction can provide insights into how our world functions that other forms of writing can’t, and if you keep an open mind, this book might offer a glimpse into another world that exists alongside the supposedly “normal” world.

I’ll leave it there for today. Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

When I first heard that an obscure legal writ would be filed by a local Montana attorney, I knew two things: something big was brewing, and I don’t know shit about obscure legal filings.

While I’ve linked to a Wikipedia explanation of what a writ of Mandamus is, for this post I am consulting a sharp legal mind who enjoys bullet points and concise summaries. And here’s the gist. A writ of Mandamus protects the rights of citizens within a certain jurisdiction, ensuring due process and the rule of law, so a filing would generally be directed at those institutions tasked with upholding the rule of law.

Enter the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office AND the Mineral County Attorney’s Office.

That’s right, there are TWO writs of Mandamus that have been officially filed by Lance Jasper of Reep, Bell and Jasper making separate, but similar, claims of failure to protect Mineral County citizens and those passing through this mountainous County in Montana.

Before getting into the specific claims, I’d like to note what I DID NOT KNOW when I wrote this post on September 6th, and that’s WHO is claiming specific injury in the petition against the Mineral County Attorney, and that’s Sheriff candidate, Ryan Funke.

Here’s a screen-shot from the actual petition with the part naming Deputy Funke as a specific party:

Why is this important? I would ask Lance Jasper, but his law partner was pretty explicit about me NOT contacting them after I rang his Bell. I would also ask members of the Jasper family, since they are so prominent in Mineral County AND contributors to Ryan Funke’s political campaign, but I don’t feel like chasing down contact info for Carter, Frederick, Jacob, Kenneth and Pauline.

The claims being made in BOTH petitions are pretty worrisome, objectively speaking, like Sheriff Office hiring practices that omit things like background checks and mental health evaluations.

Even when the Sheriff’s Office DID know, how did they react? Here’s an example of what is being claimed on that front:

Now, we can REALLY get into the weeds on the allegations being made in these petitions, considering there are 26 pages and 32 pages, respectively, but I know attention spans for this kind of sausage making are short, so let’s cut to the chase on who might benefit from calling into question the ability of County Attorneys and the Sheriff’s Office to protect their taxpaying citizens.

But first, a quick aside. Killdeers are birds that have a fun tactic to keep their stash of eggs safe; they pretend to have an injured wing as they tweet sad little tweets to make themselves sound injured, then scurry away from their nest. Am I making a Sheriff candidate analogy? Maybe.

Now, here’s the scenario that could play out, were the injured Ryan Funke to somehow, inexplicably, LOSE a political race for Sheriff. It seems, to my non-legal mind, that the groundwork for crying election foul is being laid with the help of an attorney with deep family ties to this County. Could that be what’s happening here?

The original letter that made the rounds on official Reep, Bell and Jasper letterhead made NO mention of specific injuries to a political candidate. Since being filed, the email that went out from Jasper’s office offers to REMOVE names in an amended filing, since Jasper was in a BIG hurry to file these petitions, such a hurry that it had to be done without notifying petitioners of the specifics.

Why? Well, Jasper has a conspiracy theory that he’s about to be criminally charged by Mineral County for filing the petitions. Here’s the language Jasper uses to justify his rushed legal move:

Another scenario these petitions could make possible, were Funke to WIN his election for Sheriff, is the opportunity for a new Sheriff to clean house of those who may know how the OLD Sheriff’s Office was operating, an office Funke was a BIG part of, including carrying out Coroner duties and writing questionable death certificates.

Initially this Mandamus thing sounded really cool, like the sound of accountability rising before ballots go out in October, but SURPRISE! It’s more like a Ryan Funke campaign yard sign claiming his little wing got hurt before he could fly.

Speaking of animals, if you’re craving an on-the-ground report, here’s a quick one I did yesterday near a bear trap. The threat of bears is REAL, people, so please take precautions and protect yourself, especially if you live in Mineral County!

https://player.vimeo.com/video/752825002?h=7bb87a67d3&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

by Travis Mateer

If you are wondering why mentally ill homeless people don’t face the same kind of consequences for their criminal actions in Montana, you might want to listen to Matt Jennings, a Missoula County Attorney, because he has a scapegoat he would like to tell you about.

Here’s Jennings on KGVO helping out his boss, Kirsten Pabst, by telling the listening audience about those judges who don’t hold mentally ill homeless people accountable (emphasis mine):

If there is one topic that comes up more often than most when it comes to the criminal justice system, it is why the same names seem to be appearing in court accused of various crimes that are not being kept in jail.

We spoke to Missoula County Attorney’s Office Chief Deputy County Attorney Matt Jennings when he did the weekly crime report on Friday about why certain individuals are arrested and released rather than being incarcerated.

“I wish it was more unusual than it is,” began Jennings. “We have a lot of people in this community that commit crimes again and again and again. In fact, what we see is that there are really several hundred people in this community that are responsible for a vast majority of the crime. Most people are good and they’re going about their lives, being respectful of others, and not really breaking the law. However, we get the same people, and we call them frequent fliers or repeat offenders, and we do our best to make recommendations to the judges on what we think should be imposed as far as bail or conditions of release or whether they should be monitored. But ultimately, it’s always up to the judges on whether they hold somebody in jail or being released.”

Yep, it’s the judges fault, but simply blaming judges won’t make Jennings’ job any easier, so he continues providing excuses for mentally ill homeless people by reminding the audience they are HOMELESS and Montana just doesn’t have viable services to help them with their psychological struggles (emphasis mine):

Jennings proposed a possible solution to the problem of such repeat offenders, or ‘frequent fliers’.

“One of the things that we’re really lacking in our criminal justice system is sufficient help for people that are struggling with mental illnesses,” he said. “Right now, it’s basically jail or nothing because we often don’t have many opportunities to send somebody to (The Montana) State Hospital (in Warm Springs) for more than a day or two, and so we end up with a hole in our criminal justice system where some of the people that need help staying law abiding citizens don’t actually have services unless we put them in jail.”

Yep, Matt Jennings is absolutely correct that we, as a community, seriously lack adequate help for those struggling with mental illnesses, and it’s been that way for a VERY LONG TIME.

I am pretty knowledgeable about this issue, having worked at a homeless shelter in Missoula from 2008-2016, and I’ve been writing about Missoula’s LACK of services for those already here for a LONG time, like this post from February, 2016, titled Do Montana Kids Deserve A Soft Landing?

I wrote that post because Missoula do-gooders, like Mary Poole, are dangerously naive about local services, but that didn’t stop her from imposing her do-gooding dreams on this community, a dream that STILL requires media stories about needing MORE help for these traumatized people relocating to Missoula.

Just three days ago, for example, NBC Montana posted an article about many refugees dealing with trauma and the obstacles they are facing. From the link:

For refugees dealing with the effects of stress and adversity, resettlement agencies like the International Rescue Committee provide support.

“Some folks will come in and immediately request services, and some won’t need it for a few years until they feel fully safe, and their body has adjusted, and the trauma response has started to dissipate a little bit,” said Mackinley Gwinner, the mental health navigator for the IRC in Missoula, Montana.

Unlike Bahige’s adopted state of Wyoming, which has no refugee resettlement services, IRC Missoula has placed refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Ukraine in Montana in recent years. A major challenge in accessing mental health services in rural areas is that very few providers speak the languages of those countries.

When I read shit like this my blood boils because I’ve been raising the alarm FOR YEARS about this state’s lack of services, yet my warnings get ignored, and they get ignored while out-of-state political transplants like Danny Tenenbaum move here, get elected, then act HORRIFIED at the conditions inside the Warm Springs state hospital.

A Montana lawmaker shared his experience after an inside tour of the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

State Rep. Danny Tenenbaum (D-Missoula), along with others toured the Spratt Unit, where elderly patients with dementia and severe mental illness are housed.

Man, fuck this guy. And while I’m at it, fuck the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, fuck the Westridge Creative judges, fuck the Sheriff’s Office, and fuck ALL the political enablers LARPing like they give a shit while our societal fabric frays before our eyes in real time.

If something doesn’t change with the attitudes of our elected leaders, then I pray they get what they deserve from the cosmic forces of karma.

And if these gutless cowards find that statement threatening, remember, the chaplain for the Sheriff’s Office and head of the LifeGuard Group, Lowell Hochhalter gets to confess how he begs God to literally kill the people who make his life hard.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/749826840?h=5e5b96a580&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

The chaplain for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, ladies and gentlemen.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I’m probably getting ahead of myself with this post because here I am talking about something MORE than just a road controversy before anyone even knows there’s a road controversy. So let’s back up and begin with what seems to be a fairly innocuous sounding question put forward by a public Facebook group. Here it is:

For a visual aid, the image below was provided along with the question above. The area within the dotted-line is where the Trinity Apartment Complex (TAC?) is now nearly finished being built.

Where’s the controversy? The hint that something controversial is brewing comes from a comment by “Smith Fam” which seems to come unsolicited to the conversation. Curious.

So the controversy about the road lane, according to this comment, is that it was removed as a part of the land transfer?

After giving up this lane, it appears that vehicular access will now be off Mullan, instead of Maple Street, so what’s the problem? I don’t think this is about a road, or lane, at all. Or even the land transfer.

Maybe “Smith Fam” is triggering the Streisand Effect. From the link:

The Streisand effect is a phenomenon that occurs when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information, often via the Internet. It is named after American singer and actress Barbra Streisand, whose attempt to suppress the California Coastal Records Project’s photograph of her cliff-top residence in Malibu, California, taken to document California coastal erosion, inadvertently drew greater attention to the photograph in 2003.[1]

Another comment, this one from Keith Koprivica, gives historical context that’s worth considering. Here’s the commented pasted in its entirety:

In the Nov. 5, 1996 general election, 65% of Missoula County voters authorized the Missoula County Board of Commissioners to issue general obligation bonds in the amount of $17.1 million for a very specific purpose: to acquire land for designing, constructing, installing, equipping and furnishing permanent adult and juvenile detention facilities, and to pay costs associated with the sale and issuance of the bonds.

The exact ballot language stated: “Shall the Board of County Commissioners (The Board) of Missoula County, Montana be authorized to sell general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed Seventeen Million One Hundred Thousand and NO/100 Dollars ($17,100,000) bearing interest at a rate to be determined by the Board of County Commissioners, payable semiannually, during a period of not more than 20 years, and redeemable on any interest payment date after one-half the term, for the purpose of acquiring land for designing, constructing, installing, equipping and furnishing permanent adult and juvenile detention facilities, and paying costs associated with the sale and issuance of the bonds?”

All three current Missoula County commissioners acknowledged reading this ballot language, yet Commissioners Dave Strohmaier, Josh Slotnick and Juanita Vero unanimously approved a resolution to donate a portion of the land acquired with that bond (4 acres) for the development of a low income and supportive housing project. 

With this action, the commissioners ignored the intent of Missoula County voters who overwhelmingly approved the land purchase for a different reason than what it is now being used for. Intent is not just a buzzword. Missoula County taxpayers bought this land for a specific public use. The commissioners should not have just given it away for a different use.

Ironically, just two days before approving the resolution for this donation, the commissioners approved an increase of 8% in property taxes for Missoula County for fiscal year 2020. 

When the commissioners determined that a portion of the land purchased by taxpayers is no longer needed for the purpose it was intended, that land should be sold, not donated. At the time of the donation, real estate professionals estimated the value of the 4 acres of land to be $2.5 million. The income from the sale of that land could have substantially reduced or even eliminated an increase in Missoula County property taxes in fiscal year 2020.

If this develops into an actual controversy, one of the questions that might help illuminate what’s going on is this: why now?

I’ll be curious to continue watching this develop. Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

My first thought upon reading about the plans for the former Missoulian site is what happened to Aaron Wagner and the Wags Capital role in this development? Was his margarita fueled rant enough to disinvest him from this project, or is he just a silent partner now?

A silent partner to build buildings with names like “The Archie”.

Here is some of the wisdom gleaned by this former Griz football player from the previous public roll-out process that got a good portion of this town pissed off (emphasis mine):

Bergquist said that there will be four months of public input process, noting that “he understands the sensitivity around redeveloping this special site and values community involvement.”

“Public opinion, public input is going to make this project better,” Bergquist said on Monday. “It’s going to make it better for me as the developer, our partners, our investors and Missoula residents. So this is the time to speak up to tell us what they’d like to see there.”

You don’t have to tell ME twice, Cole Bergquist. And I’m sure many Missoulians who recall last year’s attempt to promote this project–which saw the main investors get really defensive then REALLY quiet–feel the same way.

Last year this development project had Mayor Engen to remind everyone how limited his magic wand was. That’s right, no one could give a strategic shrug of the civic shoulders like our departed Mayor. From the link:

“I certainly hear the upset and appreciate that folks reach out,” Engen said before the public comment portion of the city council meeting. “Despite what you may have read on social media, my magic wand does not allow me to pick and choose who buys and sells unless we (the city) are a property owner, and in this case we are not.”

Engen was referring to brothers Aaron and Jadon Wagner, who, along with developer Cole Bergquist, have purchased the Missoulian site at 500 S. Higgins. The developers are proposing a mix of high-end condos and retail spaces, but Aaron Wagner had to apologize last week for his insulting comments online.

“There’s considerable ado associated with a person that is apparently among the investors in a project that is slated for the old Missoulian property,” Engen said. “I have only heard those comments. I try my best to avoid the toxicity of social media, but I do read your emails and listen to voicemails.”

It’s sad this deflective ability is gone. How will our NEW Mayor handle this? How magically limited is HIS wand?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading!