Month: November 2022

by Travis Mateer

I’m glad to see the Missoula Redevelopment Agency wasted NO TIME gearing up for Missoula’s next boondoggle with the following RFP (request for proposal) put out on November 9th, just ONE DAY after voters said NO to a fairground bond and a crisis levy. Here’s the next round of madness targeting your pocket book for destruction (emphasis mine):

An effort to transform Brooks Street in Missoula into a multi-modal transportation corridor reached a milestone this month when the Missoula Redevelopment Agency began seeking a firm to bring the project to initial design.

The request for proposals (RFP) was issued on Nov. 9 and will close later this month. MRA and its partner, the Missoula Urban Transportation District, hope to select a qualified consultant to carry the work forward by the end of January.

How else might our undeterred gentrifiers signal their ZERO FUCK attitude toward the beleaguered public? How about send out this RFP without any formal ok from the federal agency one would need a formal ok from (emphasis mine):

“We don’t yet have a signed agreement with the Federal Transit Authority, but they told us to go ahead and issue our RFP so we can be in a position to have an identified consultant while we’re getting that agreement in place,” said Annette Marchesseault, who is heading the project for MRA.

The ambitious plan would create a transportation corridor suited for all modes of travel, including a center-running transit lane with 15-minute service.

The emphasis on the word AMBITIOUS is probably unnecessary, since anyone reading that quote understands government ambition is directly correlated to taxpayer ability to pay, but is anyone actually paying attention to our current financial situation? Because the image below makes me think these people have literally lost their minds.

Perhaps I need to stop being so critical all the time and just embrace the hope that progress leads inevitably to better things, like MORE AWESOME multi-modal transit systems!

The comment about this boondoggle coming from Ellen Buchanan should chill your bones worse the sub-zero lows we’ve had recently. From Gomer’s puff-piece (emphasis mine):

“It’s the most ambitious transportation project ever undertaken in the state of Montana, is fair to say. Except when they built the railroad,” said MRA Director Ellen Buchanan.

That’s quite a shot at the taxpayer going into the week of the turkey. I hope those alleged conservatives are paying attention as Montana’s legislative session approaches.

If you’d like to donate to my unofficial SEND TRAVIS TO HELENA fund, you can find the donate button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The lure in the KGVO headline is that NEW DATA is going to “reveal” something about homelessness in Montana, but when it comes to drilling down on the four main causes of homelessness, well, it kinda feels like something is missing.

Before we get to the four reasons, we must endure some commentary on the season. The only problem is the reporter makes struggling sound like a chic phenomenon. From the link (emphasis mine):

Winter is here and with it, we are experiencing sub-zero temperatures along with several inches of snow.

Winter can be harsh in Montana, and even harsher for those that don’t have sufficient housing or shelter. “Pop Up” neighborhoods have become popular over the last few years in places like Bozeman and Missoula, as people struggle to deal with the high cost of housing by living in RVs, campers, and personal vehicles.

Ok, so what are the reasons for homelessness according to the World Population Review? Here they are:

• Affordable Housing
• Unemployment
• Poverty
• Low Wages

While I don’t doubt these four things contribute to people living in “pop up” neighborhoods, the glaring omission of anything ADDICTION related makes this “reveal” nothing more than a headline-grabbing joke.

What’s NOT a joke is allowing people to live in meth-fueled outdoor hoarding pits, like what was going on around the Reserve Street bridge area before clean-up efforts this spring got serious about NOT allowing an environmental crisis to continue threatening the river and surrounding riparian habitat.

Last week the Authorized Camping Site near the Walmart on Mullan street officially closed. Will the illegal “pop up” encampments get reestablished in the same area? And what will the response from the NEW Sheriff be? This week I plan on taking a little stroll around the area to see what I can see.

If you appreciate this perspective, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Since plenty of people see a headline and surmise the content without reading it, it’s frustrating when the manipulation of a media article begins with its headline, like this Missoulian article, titled State rejects ethics complaint against city of Missoula.

Maybe I’m just nitpicking to think REJECTING something isn’t the same thing as playing jurisdictional dodgeball with the merits of mailer complaint filed by “the duo” (another odd word choice). From the link (emphasis mine):

Missoula City Councilmembers Sandra Vasecka and Daniel Carlino allege the city and county used taxpayer dollars to fund a mailer improperly supporting the crisis services levy on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The duo brought their complaint to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. It claims city and county officials used taxpayer dollars to fund a mailer with language “blatantly in support of the levy.”

But Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan said the complaints fall under the county attorney’s jurisdiction, not the Commissioner of Political Practices.

At issue is the neutrality of claiming people will die UNLESS voters support the mill levy. Is that a biased reading of this supposedly NON-biased language? (emphasis mine):

Vasecka and Carlino took specific issue with the sentence, “This November, voters will decide whether to fund a crisis services levy that would keep these crucial, life-saving programs moving forward.”

Their complaint states this language “impl(ies) that the voter would be risking lives if they voted in opposition, and thus, the mailer is obviously in support of the levy.”

When you’re a conflicted local official willing to do sketchy things for your agenda, like spending taxpayer money to convince voters to allow conflicted officials to take MORE MONEY from them, it must be nice to have a local media outlet willing to misrepresent the actions taken toward accountability while the jurisdictional shell-game is played by cowardly protectors of the system.

While the story of the mill levy is basically over (unless the “duo” want to waste their time with the Missoula County Attorney’s Office), the “fictional” story of dead Yellowstone wolves is just getting started after last Sunday’s premier of Yellowstone’s season 5, which I wrote about here.

To better understand the national perspective on Yellowstone wolves, I did some online surfing and ran across a very in-depth article by The Intercept.

While I think the article is worth reading, I also think one should be aware of the money behind entities like “The Intercept”, which was started by billionaire Pierre Omidyar and saw one of its star journalists, Glen Greenwald, resign in disgust over The Intercepts downplaying of Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal before the 2020 election.

A more recent admission from The Intercept acknowledges its FTX financial connection, which I find hilarious.

Isn’t it funny to see a “crusading independent” news platform started by a billionaire panhandle its audience because one of its funders’ immense Ponzi scheme fell apart?

If you would like to help fund an independent journalist who DOESN’T rely on philanthropic billionaires to investigate local corruption, consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I recently moved the search function from its obscure location at the bottom of the main-scroll to the upper right corner, just beneath my about page (where you can donate if you feel so inclined).

I’m hoping a more prominent spot for the search function will mean more curious readers searching the archives of Zoom Chron (formerly Reptile Dysfunction). I did the math and there are 1,913 posts to peruse, going back to 2015, so have at it!

The other quickie that has me chuckling has to do with the community focus group I participated in this week, put on by JG Research as a part of their effort to assess Missoula’s 10 year plan to end homelessness.

I was delighted that the entire session was going to be documented, because I had A LOT to say about what’s transpired over the past decade.

Did I get a robust opportunity to share my unique insights about where the figurative bodies are buried? You betchya! And did the phone recording the session stay in record-mode for the after-session chat? Yep!

I hope my unfiltered opinion about our Sheriff’s Office, and the synchronicity they participated in when they euthanized Sean Stevenson with their coroner death powers, is fully appreciated by the researchers.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned. There is SO MUCH MORE to come!

by Travis Mateer

For this speculative post about a near-future I see forming, I suggest suspending your disbelief like you would when entering a movie theater.

Done? Ok, let’s go.

When I set my fictional narrative, Zula, in a collapsed, post-America future, I didn’t expect world events to make my fiction look like prophecy. A pacific northwest region known as New Cascadia run by white supremacists and new age Nazis? Outlandish, especially considering I started writing this narrative in 2015, before Trump was elected.

The Nazi element, which America invited into its body politic under the watchful eye of Allen Dulles, was able to gain power in my fictional narrative because they kept supply lines functional for the invading hordes. And what were the supply lines? Trains, of course.

Shifting from fiction to the real world, Missoula County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier, simply LOVES trains. He loves trains so much that he is spearheading the push to bring back passenger rail, and his efforts are picking up steam (pun intended).

To chug-along these efforts, the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority was created. These efforts make Dave Strohmaier VERY happy, almost as happy as getting a blanket from an Indigenous person.

I’m not just including this screenshot to be snarky. The Indigenous person, who is pictured above giving Dave a blanket during the Bear Tracks Bridge dedication ceremony, is Martin Charlo. And who is Martin Charlo? Just a former board member of the BSPRA:

The evolution of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority gets even MORE interesting when you factor in Dave Strohmaier’s comment in a Zoom presentation earlier this week. Here is the quote that caught my eye (emphasis mine):

“We even had the CEO of Ukrainian Railways, uh, Zoom in for a meeting with us, which was pretty amazing given the fact that they are in the middle of a war there.” -Dave Strohmaier

Yes, Dave was quite excited to share this information, seemingly oblivious to any concerns about the growing suspicion Americans might have about anything connected to an insane war-zone.

Speaking of insane war zones, Ukrainian Railways is now offering symbolic tickets to fun, de-occupied areas formerly held by Russia. Wow.

Ukrainian railways, celebrating the liberation of the southern city of Kherson, on Sunday offered symbolic tickets to the cities that remain under Russian control, promising that tickets can be used after they are liberated.

And here’s how the defiance of Ukrainian Railways was depicted in October. The emphasis in the screenshot is mine:

For some additional context on Ukrainian Railways, this is from Wikipedia:

And, finally, for a video of what the Ukrainian Railways spokesperson had to say, here’s a video of Billings Summit where the Zoom appearance took place:

I definitely suggest watching this video. Around the 12 minute mark a guy by the name of Alex Khalfin, who was born in Odessa, makes some comments worth listening to and considering. Here’s Khalfin’s Twitter info:

If you enjoy my content and want to see it continue, please consider making a donation to my about page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!