Month: November 2022

by Travis Mateer

I avoid some of the divisive national narratives as much as possible because I’m not in the places where national news is usually being made, like the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. I avoid these narratives because I don’t necessarily see the value in adding my opinion to topics that unhinge so many minds on both sides.

Thinking about Federal Agents, for most people, conjures movies scenes or characters from tv shows. Is that what Steve Friend was thinking about when he went to Quantico to join the Bureau?

Here is a quote from the Taibbi piece worth considering:

“I love my job,” he said, sighing. “I was living my best life as an FBI agent. I was coming home every day, and my kids were my biggest fan club. Like, ‘Daddy, did you put the bad guy in jail?’ And I thought, ‘Man, this is it.’” 

It’s not the tone of a disgruntled malcontent, but someone who made a reluctant journey to whistleblower status, beginning with a whirlwind series of events that brought him and his family out of the Midwest to north Florida less than two years ago. He worked a child pornography detail before being transferred to the assignment that would upend his life: investigating J6. The FBI not only took Friend off vital work chasing child predators to pursue questionable investigations of people maybe connected with the Capitol riots (often in some misdemeanor fashion), they used dubious bureaucratic methods he felt put him in an impossible spot.

Essentially, the FBI made Friend a supervisory agent in cases actually being run by the Washington field office, a trick replicated across the country that made domestic terrorism numbers appear to balloon overnight. Instead of one investigation run out of Washington, the Bureau now had hundreds of “terrorism” cases “opening” in every field office in the country. As a way to manipulate statistics, it was ingenious, but Friend could see it was also trouble.

As a member of a dying breed of agent raised to focus on making cases and securing convictions, Friend knew putting him nominally in charge of a case he wasn’t really running was a gift to any good defense attorney, should a J6 case ever get to trial.

The Taibbi piece raises the question of whether or not conventional criminal justice outcomes, like securing convictions of bad guys, is even the point anymore when it comes to politicized national narratives, or if the PROCESS ITSELF, and the damage it does to people, is the point.

Before we get to Big Sky Country, it seems January 6th is everywhere I look. A recent Tin Foil Hat podcast episode with documentary film maker, Jason Rink, gave me a fascinating peek into national narrative control with the infamous Q-Shaman.

In the episode, Rink discusses meetings with higher-ups at major media platforms, like Netflix, but the spin they wanted to put on the Q-Shaman story was NOT representative of who this guy actually was, so Rink stood his narrative ground and refused to sell out. That means when Q Sent Me comes out, it will be something worth watching, and not just propaganda.

Another organization that got caught up in the January 6th crosshairs is the Oath Keepers, and this is where we get to Big Sky Country. Here’s a Daily Beast article that Brad Binkley from The Propaganda Report mentioned a few days ago. This one definitely got my interest, considering the “cop-connected gun shop” is just south of town, in Hamilton.

Here’s how the DB article begins:

In the days before the Nov. 3 election, the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers sent out an email warning: “No matter who wins, chaos is sure to follow.” Therefore, the missive said, die-hards should stock up on weapons and ammo at a cop-connected gun shop in Montana, which was offering a discount to members of the increasingly notorious militia group.

Further down in the article the owner of that gun shop, Greg McWhirter, is described like this:

The Oath Keepers openly recruit law enforcement and military types. According to an Atlantic report last year, the group’s internal membership logs revealed that “about two-thirds had a background in the military or law enforcement. About 10 percent of these members were active-duty.”

McWhirter has long been an open member of both worlds. In a 2016 video alongside the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, McWhirter described himself as an Oath Keepers board member. He also detailed a “call to action” for Oath Keepers to monitor polling locations during the 2016 presidential elections. Although he stressed that members should be unarmed and non-confrontational, he cautioned viewers to be on the lookout for “busloads” of suspicious voters and “someone walking around with stacks and stacks of mail-in ballots.”

Those motifs would reappear in 2020 when supporters of Donald Trump falsely blamed his re-election loss on fraud. Ahead of the election, Rhodes warned that Oath Keepers would be standing guard outside voting sites to prevent fraud, and warned of bloodthirsty battles in the streets against the left, during which the Secret Service would “run out of bullets” slaughtering 20,000 leftists who would attack the White House. Rhodes, who also lived in Montana as of a 2018 domestic abuse allegation by his wife, was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but does not appear to have entered the building. (Rhodes denies the domestic violence allegations, and his wife’s petition for a restraining order was denied.)

Elsewhere, McWhirter has presented himself as an agent of law-enforcement. A Reveal News report that first disclosed his Oath Keepers membership in 2019 described him as “a sheriff’s deputy at the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office in Montana.” And McWhirter’s biography on the conspiratorial radio show Coast to Coast describes him as “a sheriff’s deputy in Indiana and Montana.”

The article indicates the gun shop was going to be sold by McWhirter in 2021, but that didn’t happen. Why? Is it because the FBI sees value in having an informant stay open for business? From the NYT:

An F.B.I. informant who was embedded for months in the inner circle of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, is likely to testify as a defense witness at the seditious conspiracy trial of Mr. Rhodes in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The informant, Greg McWhirter, served as the Oath Keepers’ vice president but was secretly reporting to the F.B.I. about the group’s activities in the weeks and months leading up to the Capitol attack, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Despite their relationship with Mr. McWhirter, federal prosecutors decided not to call him as a government witness at the trial of Mr. Rhodes and his four co-defendants, which is now unfolding in Federal District Court in Washington. The prosecution rested its case last week without calling other key cooperating witnesses, including three members of the Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges.

Mr. McWhirter, 40 and a former sheriff’s deputy in Montana, was expected to appear at the trial on Tuesday as a witness for Mr. Rhodes — an unusual move that suggests Mr. Rhodes’s lawyers believe he has information that could help their case.

The interaction between Federal Agents and Montana Sheriffs is getting pretty interesting. There have been recent headlines about Constitutional Sheriffs, like this story from up north about the Cascade County Sheriff, Jesse Slaughter, giving Federal agents, along with Canadian ones, the boot. From the link:

Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter on Saturday broke up an investigation carried out in apparent coordination between federal and Canadian authorities at a Great Falls gun show, saying those agencies had not contacted his office beforehand.

Although state law does not require federal investigators to obtain approval from local law enforcement to conduct operations, the agents left the fairgrounds “reluctantly” and without issue. Slaughter has positioned himself as a “constitutional sheriff,” which theorizes sheriffs are the ultimate authority in their county — above local, state and federal officials — raising questions in this incident about possible friction between layers of law enforcement.

According to a Sept. 24 report compiled by the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, Slaughter and a deputy responded to a complaint that a man at the Montana Expo Park was acting suspiciously by taking photographs of vehicles. According to the fairgrounds director, the man was driving around the property in a black SUV with Canadian license plates, but never entered the show.

Closer to home I know the FBI is involved, in some capacity, with the Rebekah Barsotti case, but where that involvement might lead is anyone’s guess. Since it appears Rebekah’s estranged husband, David Barsotti, likes to pal around with REAL white supremacists, I hope the FBI is taking this case seriously.

I also hope there isn’t something going on PREVIOUS to the disappearance and “river accident” death of Rebekah Barsotti. Something that might involve stuff like guns, Russians, and trafficking corridors.

One thing I do know is this: the priorities of law enforcement, from local jurisdictions to the Feds, CANNOT be assumed.

In terms of narrative control, the troubled history of the FBI–from the days of COINTELPRO to present day terrorism cases that smack of entrapment–is being overshadowed by fictionalized depictions in popular culture. I’m thinking specifically of the show Mindhunter on Netflix.

On the ground, it’s a different story. And that’s the one I’m chasing.

If you’d like to help my independent journalistic efforts, you can find the donation button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Before getting to the mill levy sore losers, I’m still reflecting on the hour-long conversation from T.J. McDermott earlier this week about his time running the Sheriff’s Office, which includes the jail.

Since McDermott is not stupid, he kept the Sheriff’s Office FAR AWAY from supporting the crisis mill levy. While yesterday’s post helps Zoom Chron readers understand the fall-out that occurred between McDermott and his former Democrat pals by illuminating the dynamics of what’s happening AROUND the jail, what’s happening INSIDE the jail is a different story.

McDermott is acutely aware of the public’s perception that more and more violent people are roaming the streets of Missoula, and that our criminal justice system is not capable of keeping the public safe from their reckless drug use and broken brains.

What is McDermott’s response to this? For a man still exploring his future options, McDermott’s response makes sense: blame anyone and anything else for the problems we see on the streets, like why this guy is back in jail:

You won’t read about Virinder’s latest escapade at KGVO because THIS assault is just a misdemeanor, and KGVO only reports on FELONY cases, like when Virinder Brar got himself arrested FOUR TIMES in just 12 days last September.

Keeping a lovely citizen like Mr. Brar locked up is NOT what our elected braintrust has in mind, hence all those diversion programs we always hear about. Even McDermott discussed the benefits of diversion programs, but with one distinction: the Sheriff’s Office has legit diversion programs, apparently, while all those other pretenders, like judges and stuff, have NOT GOOD diversion programs.

Controlling the narrative for the enforcement arm of County power is no easy task. Is that why some of T.J.’s boys are seeking MORE influence in the criminal justice system, like the failed candidacy of former Missoula Sheriff Captain, Bill Burt?

While Burt’s loss was pretty bad, I still find it concerning that thousands of votes were cast for this guy, especially when I think about the weird emails Bill Burt likes to send to Angela Mastrovito, the mother of Rebekah Barsotti.

Here’s how bad Bill Burt lost his bid to become a Justice of the Peace:

If Bill Burt is looking for something to do, I’m sure the new Sheriff of Mineral County, Ryan Funke, is looking for a few good men warm bodies to help him with the REAL diversion program run by local Sheriff Office’s, and that’s NOT INVESTIGATING crimes in the first place, or doing such a subpar job of investigating, no charges can be brought by a County Prosecutor.

If this ever comes to light, like what’s happening under the legal hammer of Mandamus in Mineral County, all it will take is MORE TAXPAYER MONEY to create a process of criminal justice PR damage control that will ensure inside players, like lawyer Lance Jasper, maintain their access to the dumpster fire; a special kind of dumpster fire that only destroys SOME lives, while perversely providing a comfortable amount of warmth to those in privileged proximity to its flames.

In other boo-hoo news, the losers of the crisis mill levy are busy blaming things like inflation for the decisive loss their levy received at the ballot box. From the Gomer link:

Whether it was inflation, the stock market or a general malaise around taxes, voters in Missoula were clear on Tuesday night, saying they weren’t ready to fund any more projects or services, at least right now.

For the first time in recent memory, Missoula voters upended two funding initiatives, one being a $19 million bond to improve the county fairgrounds and the other being a levy that would have raised $5 million annually to support crisis services.

Further down in this “article”, the threat from United Way’s ED is made clear (emphasis mine):

Without the levy, the city and county have enough funding to operate the winter shelter for one more season next winter. Without the public sector at the table, it’s unknown where the city and county will find the funding to run such operations after that.

“I think Missoula is going to have some very tough decisions to make,” said Susan Hay Patrick, CEO of the United Way of Missoula County. “There aren’t any easily identifiable sources of funding for things like the mobile support team, the planned crisis receiving center or the temporary safe outdoor space.”

What a bunch of crap. I have been writing about the untapped potential of the MILLIONS held in trust by the Headwaters Foundation for years. If this isn’t “easily identifiable” I have two suggestions: get your eyes checked, or retire, because you don’t have Engen to protect your scheming anymore.

In a different article, County Commissioner Slotnick also blames external financial realities, like the stock market, before getting to his implicit threat.

“This bond, as did the fairgrounds bond, first pushed up against some pretty strong national economic headwinds that none of us could do anything about,” began Slotnick. “Over the last year we’ve seen the stock market plummet, so for people who are in retirement or approaching retirement and have money in the stock market, they lost up to 30 percent. Everybody who faces inflation has a tougher economic task to deal with now, in fact much harder than they did a year ago, and so looking towards voluntarily coming up with more money, well it’s a really hard thing to do right now.”

…

“One of the big things that really makes me nervous is that in order to provide enforcement on ‘no illegal camping on public land’, we need to create legal places for people to camp,” he said. “That’s part of the deal according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and we’re going to really have to struggle to come up with the resources to keep places like the Emergency Winter Shelter and the temporary safe outdoor space open.”

The economic scapegoats of inflation and a weak stock market are being trotted out by mill levy losers because a County that voted heavily for Monica Tranel AND against the mill levy points to their own people telling them NO in numbers big enough they can’t ignore (this was pointed out to me by a more astute political observer than myself).

Now that the giving season is upon us, the Executive Director of United Way should probably chill out for a bit, because energy put into getting language changed in online news articles COULD be better spent preparing to pander to marginalized populations, like the United Way’s support of the Black Collective.

What the hell is the Montana Black Collective, you ask? Good question. From the link:

Formed in the spring of 2020 during the racial tension that was gripping the nation, our members sought to find ways of reaching out and connecting to the black population in Missoula with an eye toward developing a sense of community and a defined support network.

To that end we met and determined that in order to move forward, we had to build a structured organization aimed at developing the community we desire alongside creating a sustainable platform to dismantle racism in our community

The Missoula Black Collective seeks to engage and empower people of African ancestry living in the Missoula community.  We are committed to stimulating intellectual, political, spiritual and social growth among our members.  And to the deconstruction of racism of all forms throughout the larger community.

If you click the link you will find a webform you can fill out. This is a screenshot of mine:

If you don’t feel like donating to the United Way this holiday season, may I suggest a contribution to an independent journalist instead?

With the weekend almost here, I hope those that worked hard to acquire other people’s money take some time to gather their energy, because 2023 is gonna be here before they know it.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Wow. I mean, just WOW! I know Montana’s state legislature is one of our elected leaders FAVORITE scapegoats, but how can the state be blamed for what happened under Bradley Seaman’s watchful eye?

Enter Gomer, who doesn’t want me to see his trash-rag’s links on the Twitter because I’m so seasoned in identifying his wily methods.

All the other media reports I’ve seen have rightfully identified the error in Tuesday’s failure as human. Meaning, it was a HUMAN who didn’t clear the test results. Which human? It doesn’t matter, the buck should stop at Seaman.

But did you know the difficult task of running a test on the machines that tabulate your votes was FORCED on poor Seaman by the legislature? And did you know a type of tabulator wasn’t allowed? Did this add to delays? That’s not Gomer’s point, the point is to protect Brad from accountability, and it starts with some disinformation in the title about TECHNICAL GLITCHES. From the link (emphasis mine):

A few unusual circumstances caused a few of Montana’s larger counties to issue their election results a little later than in past years.

Missoula County is often one of the earlier counties to post its initial report. But the Elections Office was unable to issue its 8:30 p.m. report due to a technical problem.

Um, no. It was a HUMAN error, something I reported on yesterday, in the snow, where no Gomer could be seen.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/769558233?h=fecb19fefa&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

After misrepresenting the nature of the error, Gomer provides this state-centric perspective:

The 2021 Legislature passed Senate Bill 351, which requires county election offices to test their voting tabulation machines a day prior to the election. The Missoula County office had run that test on Monday.

Then the Elections Office processed all the absentee ballots it had already received. Although many voters had already mailed their ballots in, many dropped their absentee ballots off at the Elections Center on Tuesday because there was reportedly a line of cars extending about three blocks about midday.

Missoula County elections administrator Bradley Seaman said the workers were double-checking the initial report they produced at 8 p.m. and noticed some numbers from the tabulators didn’t match those from the reporting software.

Some trouble-shooting revealed that some numbers that had been used for testing the day before hadn’t been cleared from the software.

“We cleared that out and updated those reports before the midnight run of reports so it was an accurate and clear report,” Seaman said.

Missoula County also used to use M100 tabulators to count ballots and votes at several precincts. In 2022, the state of Montana no longer certified the M100 machines, so now all ballots are processed at the elections office. It’s not known whether that adds to the delay.

Isn’t this impressive? What else would you expect from a guy (Martin Kidston) who used to be a literal spokesperson for Democrats in Montana.

Tomorrow I’ll continue looking at the BLAME OTHERS campaign being waged by two separate interests.

So stay tuned, and thanks for reading this special election report!

by Travis Mateer

I had meant to write more specifically about the hour long conversation T.J. McDermott had earlier this week, on election day, with the public Facebook group that focuses on Reserve Street issues, but I think it’s more important to ask the question posed in the title of this post.

Before getting to why I think you need to know who is behind Spencer Properties LLC, the controversy developing over the Sheriff-said/city-said accusations about what’s being built by the jail is important to understand first, so here’s Jean Curtiss taking her shot (on behalf of T.J. McDermott?) against the city and its partners behind the Trinity Apartment Complex by the jail (emphasis mine):

Sheriff McDermott was asked what he needed to protect the detention center and his officers. He had two, very clear, requests. He needed a new, dedicated access to the back side of the detention center as the project would cut off his current access. His second request was for a secure, fenced parking lot for the officers in that same area.

The City and HomeWord agreed to those reasonable requests. But apparently, nothing was put in writing with the transfer of the land.

Now, HomeWord and Blue Line have backed out of those promises saying they do not have enough money to meet those promises because the cost of the project went up. If you google Trinity Project Missoula MT, the website clearly states there will be no local tax dollars used to fund this project.

Not true.

While costs for construction have surely gone up, Curtiss is correct–that is NOT the reason why the supposed promises can’t be honored.

Jean Curtiss’ op-ed garnered a response signed by County Commissioners, the city of Missoula, Homeword and BlueLine Development. Here they are essentially calling Jean Curtiss a liar:

Curtiss claimed Homeword, BlueLine and the City made promises regarding the construction of Trinity that were not kept. She alleged that the partners agreed to construct a new, dedicated road to access the back side of the Missoula County Detention Center and build a secured fenced parking lot in the same area. This is not true.

What is true is that when the Trinity development partners – the Missoula Housing Authority, BlueLine Development and Homeword – were asked to move from the northwest corner to the south, we committed to ensuring land would remain available for the construction of an access road. We also agreed to changes to our entrance and access to ensure the parking lot off Mullan had a drive-over curb so the Sheriff’s Office could have a second access from Mullan Road via the Trinity site. All of that is done, and promises kept.

So, what the hell is ACTUALLY going on here?

Back in September, the Missoula Current “reported” on the relocation of the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space. There’s just one problem with this article–there is no explanation WHY the TSOS had to move, just this (emphasis mine):

With stories of transformation coming from several past residents of a homeless camp poised on the south side of Missoula – and with winter closing in – the city and county are now looking to relocate one camp to a more accessible area of the city.

That requires a public hearing by the City Council, though it has no vote in a plan to move the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) from Highway 93, where it now sits on private land, to a new location off West Broadway near the Missoula County Detention Center.

This is where Spencer Properties comes in.

As you can see below, the publicly available information via the Montana Cadastral site shows the primary owner of 4285 HWY 93 S is Spencer Properties. This is the address of the first location of the TSOS.

I cut off the screenshot because the address associated with Spencer Properties turns out to be the residential address of Miriam Richmond, the same residential address associated with Nate Richmond, CEO of BlueLine Development.

On Tuesday, T.J. McDermott shed light on why the TSOS had to be relocated. Apparently, according to McDermott, the TSOS lost their lease (I can sympathize). And why would that kind of decision be made, a decision to end the lease of a Transitional Safe Outdoor Space?

I feel like mentioning a golf course development scheme might start overloading readers at this point, but longtime readers of this blog will recall my coverage of the plan–cooked up by the crisis mill levy losers–to build thousands of housing units where Larchmont currently sits. While that plan imploded, the time for the TSOS at its original location was never meant to be long term, since it was being funded with short-term ARPA funds.

So, the TSOS had to find a new home, and we all know how easy it is to find a location for serving homeless clients (that’s sarcasm). With options limited, and political capital all directed at passing the mill levy, plopping the TSOS where the Sheriff wanted his access road probably seemed like the only feasible solution.

The public has no idea about this because no one is supposed to say the quiet part out loud (Spencer Properties LLC), not even the media. How do I know this? Because I spoke with a certain former NBC Montana reporter and was told about the blowback she received for looking into this two years ago. Part of that blowback entailed a certain ED of a certain non-profit saying defamatory things about me, but that’s a post for another day.

At the time I didn’t know about the proposed land-swap idea being cooked up, targeting Larchmont in a deal that would have placed a NEW golf course where the homeless camp now sits. This land is not suitable for other forms of development because it’s in a floodplain and not hooked up to city sewer. I found this out after a chat with a former Health Department contact of mine who used to work in the Water Quality District.

All this Public/Private scheming has been transpiring outside the public’s view because an LLC shroud has effectively kept Nate Richmond’s company’s incestuous local connections from being exposed. Those connections include temporarily employing the daughter of the director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency as the project manager of the Trinity project (2021). From the link (emphasis mine):

The facility will also include an on-site navigation center to provide 24-hour resources, from food security to medication support.

“It’ll have a multitude of resources within that building to help this population be successful,” Keenan Whitt, the project manager with BlueLine Development, said last year. “It’s an opportunity for us to partner with area nonprofits and service providers and create a model that doesn’t duplicate current services in the community.”

The project is owned 50-50 between Homeword and the Missoula Housing Authority and has emerged as a potential model on how to cull resources to help construct affordable housing.

What does this mean for the political player who is NO LONGER playing ball with his former political collaborators, Mr. outgoing Sheriff, T.J. McDermott?

We’ll get to that in another post. I think this is enough, for now.

To ensure I can continue doing my independent journalism thing, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I’m writing this piece on the morning after the election, which means there is no clear winner yet in Montana’s newly created Congressional district between the Democrat, Monica Tranel, and the Republican, Ryan Zinke.

I am NOT shocked by the pathetic electoral performance of the Ryan Zinke machine last night. An astute observer of local politics sent me the picture below, pointing out the ironic location Zinke chose to spend his face-time awaiting election results last night:

Why is this bar in Whitefish significant? Because I think it signifies the ZERO FUCK attitude Ryan Zinke has when it comes to mingling with money, like the money that runs this bar and a lot more in Whitefish.

To see how Casey’s allegedly fit into a pattern of sexual exploitation by a tech billionaire, check out this article. From the link (emphasis mine):

Goguen also allegedly gave Eric Payne, who did construction for Goguen, an office in the basement of Casey’s Bar, an establishment that he owns in Whitefish.

The office ‘was passcode protected, had a built-in full size stripper pole, and commonly referred to as the “boom boom” room where he and Payne could procure young women to engage in sexual acts with them for money, drugs or other items of value as part of the Goguen Sexual Enterprise.’

To bolster my impression of on-the-ground Republican sentiment among ACTUAL MONTANANS, I attended a central committee meeting here in Missoula, and a few other events around election integrity, and I can tell you Ryan Zinke was NOT selling well. I remember one comment at that central committee meeting hinting that Zinke was having problems drumming up support in the Bitterroot valley.

That’s not good, Montana Republicans. But are you listening?

Later today, after Missoula County election workers get BACK to work at 10am, I’m going to delve into an hour of outgoing Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, discussing his time and what he learned over the last 8 years. You can expect a write up on that conversation tomorrow or Friday.

I’ll also be watching the bond/levy outcomes very closely, and will write something about that as well, hopefully with fewer “Seaman” innuendos.

If you want to make our local cabal nervous and my mom happy, consider making a donation at my about page. My 2023 plans are really beginning to shape up, and I’m excited to kick things up a notch. Your support will be critical to my next steps, which I’d like to direct toward Helena and the legislature next year.

For all the support I’ve received thus far, THANK YOU! It’s greatly appreciated, and helps keep this REAL grassroots independent journalism thing going forward, regardless of new shit thrown my way.

Stay tuned for more local coverage you won’t find anywhere else.