Month: December 2022

by Travis Mateer

If you tried to travel this past week, you may have encountered a special realm of transportation hell that decimated the Christmas spirit, leaving chaos and rage in the wake of THOUSANDS of flight cancellations. Even Martin “Gomer” Kidston’s Missoula Current had to acknowledge the shit-show as Alaska Airlines produced similar results for its paying customers in the Pacific Northwest.

While weather was certainly a factor, it was by no means the ONLY factor, which is why Pete Buttigieg was assuring Americans on a late late show appearance that flying experiences would get better. From the link:

Southwest Airlines stranding thousands of Americans during the holiday season is not some unexpected crisis nor the normal consequence of inclement weather — and federal officials are not powerless bystanders. Before the debacle, attorneys general from both parties were sounding alarms about regulators’ lax oversight of the airline industry, imploring them and congressional lawmakers to crack down.

The warnings came just before Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on national television insisting travel would improve by the holidays, and before Southwest executives — flush with cash from a government bailout — announced new dividend payouts to shareholders, while paying themselves millions of dollars.

If this abysmal airline performance doesn’t get your blood boiling, remember that electrified bridge I wrote about a week ago? Well, the Missoulian has an even MORE in depth article about how the $47,000 dollar fix from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency (which got approved, by the way) is actually ON TOP OF a previous chunk of $30,000 dollars, which did NOT fix the problem.

And what’s the problem? Before getting to the hilarious technical explanation, let me explain what I think the REAL problem is: an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat by the name of Ellen Buchanan who spent $4.7 million dollars of PUBLIC money so Missoula could have America’s FIRST heated pedestrian bridge.

First, the technical explanation (emphasis mine):

“Over the last two winters, the bridge steel superstructure became energized through an electrical leak, and out of an abundance of caution, (the city’s parks and recreation department) has not operated the bridge deck heating system,” explained Tod Gass, a project manager with the MRA. “The source of the electrical leakage was unknown until recently when Jackson Contractor Group, the bridge construction contractor, and Jacobson Electric identified the source of the leakage and presented a solution to Parks.”

The proposed remedy, which is to install ground fault circuit interruption protection to the deck heating electrical system, is a requirement of the National Electric Code for fixed outdoor electric and snowmelting equipment.

“Somehow, through the complex chain of contractor/subcontractor/supplier designs and shop-drawing submittals to the city, this requirement was omitted in shop-drawing reviews and was not picked up on and so it wasn’t enforced during electrical inspection,” Gass explained. “Since the installation of GFCI protection would have been included in the cost of the MRA construction contract as a code requirement, (MRA staff) believes it is appropriate to incur that expense now in order to meet code and alleviate a potential public safety issue.”

While this jargon-rich pile of bullshit is fun and all, my favorite part is how Missoula was one of the first ones out of the gate to spend PUBLIC money on a bridge like this, and how THAT is used as some kind of excuse for this now $76,000 thousand dollar fuckup (emphasis mine):

Crews from Jackson Contractor Group built the bridge using a heated, fiber-reinforced polymer material. There are heated coils in the bridge that are supposed to prevent ice and snow from building up over the winter months, and a drainage system keeps the water off. It was one of the first heated FRP bridges in the country when it was built.

However, in 2020, the MRA’s board approved spending $30,000 on a different fix for the heating system, because it was malfunctioning in very cold weather.

“Being the first of its kind, the city and MRA have worked out some bugs in the operation of the heated deck,” Gass explained.

This Gass guy is a real laugh because he wants us to think it’s the innovation’s fault, and not the humans who decided to BUY the design innovation in the first place. But I assure you, dear readers, the problem is definitely the humans, both the public and private ones, who keep dancing this dance of dysfunction with other people’s money.

I hope this last chunk of public money is the last we hear about Missoula’s most expensive pedestrian bridge. As for the airlines, I’m sure FEDERAL Democrats will do so much better than our local ones on overseeing critical transportation infrastructure.

If you’d like to support my upcoming trip to Helena to keep an eye on public money addicts, like those shifty train junkies, then please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Doing journalistic stuff can be fun. Just the other week I was in the clerk’s office for district court learning from a knowledgeable source how to access court records. I was impressed that it only took a few clicks to ascertain why the follow up hearing in J.D. Partain’s case was vacated by the judge. Turns out the power to put a potential sexual predator back in the home with his victim now rests in the hands of his wife’s counselor. I printed out a hard copy of the document just to be on the safe side because things associated with cases like this tend to disappear, like a certain boxing club website that now reads PRIVATE SITE.

For covering Montana’s 2023 Legislative session I assumed there would be a process for media to get credentialed and I was RIGHT, there definitely are guidelines, and a form to fill out, and a $10 dollar fee for the press badge, so I clicked on the form and that’s when I saw my first snag:

Well shit, I thought, there goes my cool press badge and exclusive floor access. At least I hadn’t ordered my special head gear for covering a Capitol where a BIG MAN GOVERNOR could tackle me at any moment.

Since I have a condition known as WHITE PRIVILEGE, the criteria on the form HAS NOT deterred me from my intention to be in Helena on January 2nd. I will drive, I will observe and engage, then I shall report back what I find out.

If you would like to help this uncredentialed blogger cover the cost of gas and caffeine, donations can be made at my about page.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more to come!

by Travis Mateer

If you watched the documentary I released on January 5th of this year, titled Engen’s Missoula, then you learned quite a lot about Tax Increment Financing at the beginning of 2022, and that’s a good thing because PROTECTING this TIF tool is one of the big priorities for our illuminated leaders during the upcoming legislative session. From the link (emphasis mine):

Other city priorities include protecting Tax Increment Financing and aligning it with the state’s new definition of workforce housing. Renewable energy also is included, as the city looks to tap into the resources offered by the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill from Congress.

After releasing my documentary in January, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency responded the following month with a MAKE ELLEN BUCHANAN SPEAK GOODER campaign. I’m not sure how one measures the results of the THOUSANDS of dollars that have been spent on just developing communication plans for MRA, but I can tell you how I measure MY results, and that’s with the stats function on my wordpress dashboard.

Before getting to the numbers, allow me to share the one-word strategy that I credit with producing my results: consistency. Sure, it helps to be a talented writer with a unique perspective derived from actual experiences, but the thing that actually expands an audience is doing something consistently, which is something I’ve heard Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast say numerous times, most recently on a Grimerica episode.

The following graphs show what can happen when you post content consistently, Monday through Friday, at 7am, and Sundays at 8am. The first graph is the numbers for 2021:

And here are the numbers for 2022:

If these numbers are getting you excited to toss some monetary numbers in my direction, then my about page is the place to make donations. That’s another thing I learned from Adam Curry: you have to ASK if you want the chance to receive. Simple shit, but it works.

While every donation is deeply appreciated–like the recent $50 dollar donation that came at a time I was feeling particularly dejected about the personal costs of being a truth teller–the sporadic nature of the donations isn’t a sustainable model for me. What that means for 2023, I can’t say for sure, but some things I DO know for sure are costs are going up for me like they are for everyone.

The victory of defeating the poorly planned Crisis Mill Levy at the polls in November accelerated my departure from an affordable lease, so I’m looking at a higher rent, in addition to other costs. I really don’t like doing the bellyaching over money issues, but it IS an important part of how we fight back against the narrative control of authoritarians and predators.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, in the middle of writing this post I got a text from the mother of Rebekah Barsotti because today is her daughter’s birthday, a day of celebration that has been transformed into a day of unimaginable grief because her daughter is dead, and the narrative controllers within the criminal injustice system have worked VERY HARD from the very beginning to make sure her abusive husband was never investigated as a suspect in her “river accident”.

Another case that could see some light soon is so explosive, it could reverberate all the way up to the Governor’s office. That case, and the one that started it for me (the death of Sean Stevenson) are a few reasons it’s going to be important for me to have a presence in Helena when the Legislative session begins on January 2nd.

I’m excited for what’s on the horizon for 2023, even though the opportunities are emerging from some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with in my 44 years of living. For those who have stuck with me during this tumultuous time, thank you.

And stay tuned, because there is SO MUCH MORE to come!

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

For some reason I feel the need to preface what I’m about to say regarding the value of the Twitter file drops with this: I don’t own a Tesla, I’m not rejoicing at Elon Musk’s latest business venture, and I trust him (Elon) about as far as I can throw an Emerald mine in South Africa. All that said, there is definitely value in what is being disclosed, and the value can be boiled down to this: the “conspiracy theorists” were right (again).

For those paying attention, the drops have moved far beyond the mechanics of suppression that kept the Hunter laptop story from sinking the Biden campaign. We are now in the BUT THEY ARE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS!!! phase of this growing scandal, and that reaction came from the FBI itself.

Jonathan Turley, writing for The Hill, put it this way in a Christmas Eve opinion piece:

“Conspiracy theorists…feeding the American public misinformation” is a familiar attack line for anyone raising free-speech concerns over the FBI’s role in social media censorship. What is different is that this attack came from the country’s largest law enforcement agency, the FBI—and, since the FBI has made combatting “disinformation” a major focus of its work, the labeling of its critics is particularly menacing.

While the FBI did its weak-ass deflection dance that notably included NO denials of anything that’s been disclosed, the drops continued, expanding on OTHER government agencies intrusive relationships with Twitter, and OTHER topics deeply manipulated, like a little pandemic that has caused a few lasting disruptions in all our lives.

The disclosures about the manipulation of the Covid conversation should shock the TRUST THE SCIENCE crowd, but it won’t—and I won’t try to untangle the psychological Gordian knot that keeps them from admitting science that needs this level of censorship isn’t science. Instead, I’ll point out that BOTH the Trump and Biden administrations don’t look good as the drip-drops keep coming. From the link:

The United States government pressured Twitter to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19 and the pandemic. Internal emails that I viewed at Twitter showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s content according to their wishes. 

At the onset of the pandemic, the Trump administration was especially concerned about panic buying, and sought “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation,” according to emails sent by Twitter employees in the wake of meetings with the White House. One area of so-called misinformation: “runs on grocery stores.” The trouble is that it wasn’t misinformation: There actually were runs on goods. 

And it wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.

When the Biden administration took over, its agenda for the American people can be summed up as: Be very afraid of Covid and do exactly what we say to stay safe. 

Yes, censorship and fear are great factors for authoritarians, and Twitter offered the former as a tailored service for political power-brokers who clearly value BIG PHARMA’s bottomline over the actual health of the American people.

The question now is what are YOU going to do with these disclosures? Will you be more discerning on the information you are being presented but authority? Will you stop pretending there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to authoritarianism? And will you apologize to that “conspiracy theorist” in your life who you belittled and shamed for standing against this onslaught of deceit?

The choice is yours, just like the choice to help ensure this independent voice is able to continue providing content six days a week. To help out this effort, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The brutal murder of Lee Nelson on November 20h, 2020, is one of those types of murders that challenges how a town like Missoula sees itself.

In some ways the upcoming trial next month is more a defense of Missoula’s handling of homelessness than it is the prosecution of an accused killer. I say this for two reasons. The first is the talking point about how no homeless person has died of winter weather these past two years. This talking point featured heavily in the crisis mill levy campaign that failed at that ballot machines last month, and conveniently omits other forms of death, like violent murder.

The second reason I’m getting the feeling the trial will showcase Missoula’s compassionate spirit is the handling I got from the investigating detective, Ethan Smith, when I spoke to him last week about information I had that might be helpful to the prosecution.

As the former Crime Prevention Officer for the Missoula Police Department, Ethan Smith is good at interfacing with the public, so I appreciated the tidbit he shared about one of Lee Nelson’s last interactions with a member of the public before his life was allegedly ended by this nice fellow who had recently relocated for Idaho.

Since Lee was wheelchair-bound, the man he knew from the Poverello Center, Charles Covey, was having a difficult time pushing him down the sidewalk. This was caught on camera footage, probably from St. Pat’s hospital across the street. According to Detective Smith, Lee’s wheelchair got stuck in the snow and a “good Samaritan” stopped his/her vehicle to help out.

Unfortunately getting the chair back on track led to Lee’s brutal beating death in broad daylight, and right in the location that infamous “performing arts center”, or something like it, is one day going to be built (or so we are told).

The rumor about WHY Covey allegedly murdered Nelson is something I heard in June of 2021, from a recently-discharged inmate of the detention facility who claimed to be on the same cell-block as Covey. I’ll keep the details of that rumor under wraps for the time being, in case my involvement in the trial becomes necessary.

I knew Lee quite well, and even made a few comments at his memorial, which the Missoulian documented.

As I reread the article from 2020, I caught a story I had never heard Lee tell, and that’s his literal 15 seconds of fame on Live PD. From the link:

At the bar, Love would bring Nelson old coats or a new pair of boots that had been too small for her husband. 

Love heaved a good laugh at the memory from nearly a year ago, when a few people were sitting around the TV at the bar watching “Live PD,” a reality-TV program that followed the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office for several months in 2019. The deputy had been speaking with someone on camera when Nelson went rolling by in the background, capturing the cameraman’s attention for a few moments. 

“Everybody was sitting around the TV and we yelled out, ‘Oh my God, that’s Lee!” she said. 

Nelson was proud of his 15 seconds of fame and talked about it when Love would see him around East Missoula and give him rides into town.

When I attend this trial next month, there are some things I’d like to know more about, but we’ll have to see what the prosecutors bring, and how the defense defends their client.

If you’d like to help me continue my independent journalism, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!