When I first saw the headline about $1.5 million dollars being spent by Missoula County to “help” the homeless, I wasn’t thinking about the letter T.J. McDermott sent to County Commissioners all the way back in September. Curious to see where this number came from, I clicked the headline (beneath the picture of the tent and the VRBO ad):
Something about the article seemed to trigger my recollection of accusations McDermott made in writing, serious sounding accusations that someone raided his coffers of “targeted funds” to the tune of over a half million dollars.
What in this article could have done that? Was it the part where the homeless need is used like a threat to extract inevitable funding from somewhere, DESPITE voter intent? Or was it the part right after that, where Commissioner Slotnick shows us the very narrow range of his fiscal imagination as he shames local residents to GIVE MORE? Here, judge for yourself (emphasis mine):
“You reached out with a question and we will do our very best to answer it,” he said. “I really also appreciate what you said about whether the levy passed or failed in this case, obviously it failed, but the problem doesn’t go away. And that’s because the supply of people, the folks who are homeless are experiencing homelessness, that hasn’t changed. We’re on the receiving end, and unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. We are basically attempting to make the situation better. It’s no good for anybody. If we have people living on the street, it’s not good for business owners, homeowners, people walking by, and especially no good for that (homeless) person.”
Slotnick said the only solution he sees is that Missoula residents themselves give generously to local nonprofits that will help the homeless because they are not going away.
While this public shame-game is playing out in conventional media, the accusation from Missoula County’s outgoing Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, has been lurking in the background since September, and includes quite a financial figure. Here’s a screenshot of a portion of the letter:
How often to we hear about collaboration? In fact, just earlier this week, we heard about a SPECIAL DISTRICT being made up between the County and the City specifically to acquire a Federal building. This is happening just months after our Sheriff complained about not being invited to a City Council meeting where inaccurate information was supposedly provided. That doesn’t sound very collaborative, now does it. From the letter:
I think this portion of the letter pairs nicely with the conclusion of the KGVO article. I’ll use a screenshot so you can appreciate the look (highlight emphasis mine):
Since our County Commissioner, Josh Slotnick, is exhibiting a concerning lack of fiscal imagination (strange, considering he’s also a poet), I’ll remind him that a foundation exists, a foundation suddenly in the headlines with a fun little coming-out party where once-upon-a-time subversive music played loudly.
Yes, that’s right, this foundation is one of the biggest in the state of Montana, so maybe there’s an opportunity here. Or competition? Because I think another influential non-profit had a party the same night. Hmmmm…
To answer the question posed in the title of the post, I think Commissioner Slotnick may have been the one to put his hand in McDermott’s cookie jar. But thanks to some serious investigative journalism, I have found a NEW SOURCE OF COOKIES! And let me tell you, not only can a $100 million dollar foundation make pretty cookies, they are also DELICIOUS!
I can’t make pretty cookies like these, but there will be treats for different tiers of support in a letter to be sent out soon. So stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
I’m glad I tuned in to Monday night’s City Council meeting because I found a gem buried in the extreme boringness of the lengthy consent agenda.
It’s actually quite difficult to keep one’s mind from being lulled into a semi-sleep state when listening to this stuff, but I somehow managed and was rewarded with the following piece of information regarding the Union Gospel Mission (UGM) signing a 3 year lease at 1835 North Ave W, which you can see on the map below in the upper right-hand corner:
Since UGM is a part of the Homeless Industrial Complex, I wasn’t surprised to see that this location is just to the east of the Johnson Street shelter. This is also the area where a recent SWAT incident, near Karl Tyler’s Express Lube, closed down the entire area for 8 hours.
I’ve held back writing about Missoula’s most recent SWAT situation, despite being on the ground at the time, because I’ve been waiting to get a better understanding of what actually preceded the barricaded standoff, but the local reporting has only confused me. Before we get to that, and my big picture theory about the role of violence in this area, here’s some footage of cops playing with SWAT toys:
Police say they received a report of a person shot on the 2100 block of South 13th Street West. The man reportedly fled the scene and was later reported to be at an address in the 2300 block of Johnson Street.
Officials obtained an arrest warrant for assault with a weapon against the barricaded man.
Police closed Johnson Street from North Avenue to South Avenue and South Avenue between Garfield and Kemp for much of the day Tuesday.
Officials took the suspect into custody around 7:30 p.m. Streets are expected to reopen.
Officials said the man who fired the shot on 13th Street was treated for a head injury, questioned and released.
So, the person who barricaded himself had been involved in an altercation in which he was shot, and the shooter was apparently cleared of wrong-doing in the shooting. Ok. Later in the article, police indicate the altercation happened the previous day, on the 28th.
In KGVO’s weekly crime report, County Attorney, Kirsten Pabst, provides some additional information about this incident, but to say it clarifies things would be inaccurate. From the link:
“Three of those cases were drug cases,” Pabst said. “One was possession of meth, one involved meth and heroin, and a third involved meth, heroin, and some scheduled prescription medication. We charged two new theft cases and then four crimes against persons. Of those, one was a strangulation, one was an assault, and one was an aggravated burglary.”
In that aggravated burglary case, the defendant allegedly pulled a knife on someone at the Poverello Center. Pabst said her office also charged an assault with a weapon case that garnered quite a bit of attention this week.
“In that case, a man by the name of David Allen Dilley was charged with assault with a weapon,” Pabst said. “In the early morning hours of November 28th, he is alleged to have hit the victim over the head with a blunt instrument and fled the scene. The victim reported shooting the defendant after the blow to the head but before he escaped.”
According to Pabst, law enforcement searched for Dilley for a couple of days.
“When he was located, he allegedly barricaded himself in a residence for over eight hours, necessitating a SWAT response,” Pabst said. “This investigation is ongoing. This is a good time to reflect on the gratitude that we have for our law enforcement community who put themselves in harm’s way every single day to keep our families safe. We appreciate you very much.”
I wonder how long David Dilley will have to be in custody? And I wonder who shot him? And I wonder many other things, but I’ll leave those questions for another post. For now, here’s an image of the guy who allegedly spent a couple of days with a bullet in his abdomen:
Getting back to the urban topography, this part of town is known as “Midtown” and it’s finally getting the MASTER PLANNING treatment other, more desirable enclaves of Missoula have received. This process, which is just getting started, was reported on earlier this year. From the link:
Calling it a forgotten neighborhood that holds great potential for infill, redevelopment and housing, the Missoula City Council in February approved an agreement directing federal funding toward the completion of a master plan.
The area is bisected by Brooks Street, where a separate $850,000 federal RAISE Grant is being used to study and plan for a bus rapid transit system. Once realized, that effort will provide timely public transportation along the corridor and connect it with downtown Missoula.
It might seem like a big negative to have an up and coming area experience incidents of violence, but that’s not necessarily the case. Do local businesses and residents suffer? Sure, they may feel the short-term pain, but this shelter location–and the peripheral issues that come with it–won’t be forever, which means long-term prospects for developers could actually BENEFIT if property values can be temporarily depressed by violent social factors.
This isn’t a new concept, which the following video by The Coup will deftly illustrate. For the relevant part, skip to 3:22:
What will the Union Gospel Mission be doing with this building right next door to the Johnson Street Shelter? I’m not sure, but I’ll keep this on my radar.
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If you don’t know how the Montana World Affairs Council has been building a relationship with the apartheid state of Israel, then you won’t understand the propaganda value behind this recent headline in the Missoulian:
Because of the pervasive ignorance in America’s general population when it comes to how geopolitics functions through NGOs and other means of exerting influence via soft power, there are people in Missoula who think they’re actually being supportive of “women” when they buy into these manipulative western narratives about adversarial powers.
Closer to home, a woman claiming credit for bringing the production of Yellowstone to Montana is proud of her efforts because of how the show features strong female characters. After championing the MONEY benefits of hosting Yellowstone (aka the most important thing), the “Film Commissioner” for the Montana Film Office, Allison Whitmer, added this lovely “personal note” for KGVO:
On a personal note, Whitmer said producer Taylor Sheridan and the Yellowstone series has broken new ground in their portrayal of strong, independent women.
“I really enjoy watching the female characters that Taylor Sheridan has created,” she said. “As we know, Montana is a state that has been built on the labor of men and women, and to see a television show with a woman as governor, where a woman’s been elected senator, and of course, you know that Montana had the first woman in the House of Representatives in this country (Jeannette Rankin), where women aren’t afraid to run businesses and make decisions and they are pivotal story points in the show. I really feel that Taylor has captured all of this strength that comes to our state through all the women that live here.”
I don’t think Allison Whitmer had the brawl on last Sunday’s episode between Beth Dutton and the intentionally obnoxious “hippie”, Summer Higgins, in mind because the whole scene, including the vegan provocation around the Dutton dinner table, was so over-the-top, how anyone can be proud of this crap is beyond me, regardless of how much money the production is allegedly bringing to Missoula.
After the fight between these two women, the glimmers of a more friendly understanding between them emerges. So, for those familiar with this show, not only are women allowed to be cut-throat corporate raiders and sex-empowered power brokers, they also get to perpetuate the traditionally male-centric power-sharing caricature of bros fighting it out to become friends.
Isn’t this equality awesome!
Another BIG FAN of the show Yellowstone is Missoula’s new Clerk of District Court, Amy McGhee. Before getting to the obnoxious fandom, Amy does provide some usable information about the role of the clerk for district court.
“The clerk of court is the official record keeper for all filings in the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County,” she said. “So any of documents that are filed into any cases, we are the official record keeper. We also assist the judges. We have a deputy clerk in the courtroom each time there are judges on the bench. They keep the minutes of what goes on in the hearings. We also issue all of the marriage licenses for Missoula County, and I think we’re closing in on 1,000 so far this year.”
After this brief description of her civic role, McGhee proceeds to confess her excitement at the use of the Missoula County Courthouse for a backdrop to scenes from Yellowstone’s 5th season. Did she catch a glimpse of Costner? Yes she did. Does she appreciate strong women? The article doesn’t say, but it DOES end with a list of who those district court judges are, and they include judge Jason Marks.
Why is that significant? Let me explain.
Let’s say you’re the mother of a strong woman who made the dangerous (and, ultimately, fatal) decision to leave her piece of shit husband and during the long civil process of determining Personal Representative for your deceased daughter, a judge gives you the legal right to copy and/or review personal items before they are released to the husband, like a computer.
In this hypothetical scenario, if you wanted to prove that a County Attorney’s Office is in contempt of court because they IGNORED this order from a judge, and released the items to the POS husband without review, then you might want to get transcripts of the court hearing where the judge gave the mother this right, and the person to talk to about getting those court documents would be Amy McGhee.
Real court proceedings aren’t as fun and sexy as a tv show, or as exciting as supporting a freedom movement in some faraway land, so the stories of what’s happening to local women don’t get told, keeping our community mostly ignorant that western Montana appears to be the LAST BEST PLACE TO KILL YOUR WIFE.
If you find that depiction of western Montana upsetting, good. I’m not here to entertain you, I’m here to break the grip of the narrative controllers who prop up a show where an alcoholic daughter who uses any means of violence and manipulation to keep daddy happy and his land safe is some example of feminine strength, while a REAL woman who paid the ultimate price for leaving an abusive situation is disappeared from Montana’s criminal justice system.
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The list of artists who have become wimps and whiners is long, like Trent Reznor, the guy who once sang I WANT TO FUCK YOU LIKE AN ANIMAL and, more recently, scored the soundtrack to a “cannibal love story” called Bones And All. You would think someone like this might be able to handle the “toxic” environment of Twitter under Elon Musk, but no. From the link (emphasis mine):
“I’m about to depart,” Reznor told the Hollywood Reporter about his plans for his Twitter usage. “We don’t need the arrogance of the billionaire class to feel like they can just come in and solve everything. Even without him involved, I just find that it has become such a toxic environment. For my mental health, I need to tune out. I don’t feel good being there anymore.” He then deactivated his Twitter account not long after.
Yes, the irony of Reznor complaining about a “toxic environment” is pretty impressive. It makes me think about other famous rockers who have tried to use their influence to help out struggling industries, like Neil Young doing his part for Big Pharma after Spotify upset the narrative controllers by featuring the VERY DANGEROUS podcaster, Joe Rogan. From the link:
If you had been forced to predict which blue-chip Canadian-American rock legend was going to suddenly pull their music off Spotify in protest at the streaming site hosting a far-right-friendly podcast that spreads medical misinformation, Neil Young would have been a very safe bet.
Here in Missoula I’ve been thinking about our own rocker-royalty, like the Hickey brother. Here’s some old, fawning coverage of these brothers from the Missoulian:
It’s been a wild ride for three brothers who’ve shaped the Missoula indie-rock scene
Even among the pantheon of legendary shows that took place at Jay’s Upstairs during the twilight years of the last century, one performance stands singularly for those lucky enough to have been there.
It was December 1999 when five local guys took the dark, cramped stage of Jay’s, under the name the Spiders From Mars. Several of those guys had played together in various short-lived bands before; and two – Shane and Bryan Hickey – were brothers.
But that one gig, put together more or less as a one-time stunt, would change the local indie-rock music scene for years to come.
It’s been 17 years since this article was published, so A LOT has changed, like the infamous venue, Jay’s Upstairs. Here’s a tweet that recently reminded me of that stanky gem of rocking:
So, what are the Hickey’s up to now? Well, one of ’em sits on the board of the Zootown Arts Community Center, where I’m currently renting a space (for a few more weeks). I think Colin made a smart move by “retiring” from booking shows, leaving that work to Nick Checota’s monopoly-esque hold on the local music scene. Did I mention that Checota helped the ZACC buy the building where I’m currently a tenant?
Another brother (Bryan) is the owner of Big Dipper, an ice cream shop currently getting some college newspaper scrutiny for how staff have been treated. Did Bryan close down his Higgins location because the youngsters were getting too uppity? After reading this excellent article, it’s hard to see it any other way. From the link:
Big Dipper is closing down its Higgins Avenue location for the winter for the first time since its opening 30 years ago. University of Montana student employees said the seasonal layoff caught them off guard.
According to names former employees shared with the Kaimin, at least eight UM students are losing their jobs. Some employees called the closure a calculated move in response to demands for better working conditions and a pay raise.
Big Dipper President Bryan Hickey declined to sit down with the Kaimin for an interview, but sent a statement. “This closure has no relationship to the recent concerns expressed by a small group of employees,” the statement said. “Big Dipper deeply values all of its employees.”
If there’s a lesson in any of this, maybe it’s for the fans of rock and rollers to be more discerning in the favor they bestow on the fallible humans who make the music they love, especially when those humans abandon the rebellious pretenses of their youth for typical money/status considerations.
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Are you a victim of sexual violence? Do you have kids? And have you ever worked in a field where you have more contact with sexual predators than the average person? If you answered NO to all three questions, you might be susceptible to the notion that “grooming” is anything other than a tactic used by sexual predators to lower the defenses of their targets.
While I have NOT experienced sexual violence, I DO have kids, and I have definitely worked in a field (social services) that put me in contact with plenty of sexual predators. Usually it was the clients I was serving, but sometimes it was a psychologist who worked with vulnerable populations.
A Missoula psychologist has been charged with one count of sexual abuse of children, for allegedly possessing child porn.
Dr. Jay Palmatier faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. According to court documents, investigators were able to trace a child porn image to an email address belonging to Palmatier.
It’s curious that an online search for an image of Jay Palmatier turns up NOTHING. I remember the arrest being kept pretty quiet at the time, but to have NO image of being booked in the county jail is a definite nod from the criminal justice system that SOME offenders will get a special kind of protection from community backlash.
The politicization of the tactic known as “grooming” is ONLY happening right now because conservatives are applying the word to drag queens, but here’s the ugly reality: grooming is done by ALL KINDS of sexual predators, and is situationally unique to the individual, since factors like social status and opportunity are important to how the tactic is deployed.
The fact that grooming is a tactic seems to be getting lost in the social upheaval being pushed on communities that might not be ready for “Drag Queen Story Hour” coming to minors. The question of age-appropriate material is being handled where I currently have my art studio by the proprietor putting an age restriction on the drag show happening, which I applaud.
I don’t know the exact thinking behind the AGES 18 AND UP designation for the “Holiday Drag Show”, but fear of riling up opposition very well might be a motivating factor.
Is spreading fear the motivation behind Darrel Ehrlick’s recent garbage op-ed at Daily Montanan, garbage that includes this? From the link:
Colorado Springs isn’t so far away. Not by mileage and not by attitude.
What happened there – God forbid – could happen here. And this is not just pearl clutching by some scared snowflake. I saw it firsthand.
What did Ehrlick see first hand? Did he see the predictable reaction to inviting adults who choose to sexualize themselves in particular ways to read to school children? Here is Ehrlick’s harrowing account of what he saw:
When I covered the “Drag Queen Story Hour” at ZooMontana in Billings in June, I ignored plenty of the heckling and some of the worst comments directed at the LGBTQ community, figuring that showcasing the worst of the sentiments of protesters at the event tarred all of them with the same hateful brush, and that those horrible-but-deeply-held beliefs didn’t need amplification. It’s not novel to say that drag queens are pedophiles. It’s a tired talking point that continues to be conjured up as a scare tactic, despite the overwhelming research that drag queens are not molesters.
The danger for Billings – and really all of Montana – is that we believe a Colorado-style shooting could not happen here. Or even worse, we don’t believe that the protesters who lined the entrance and exit to the Zoo during the story hour give license to those who might believe they can treat the LGBTQ community as citizens to be mocked, despised or killed.
In case you’re not afraid, the image at the Daily Montanan for this op-ed let’s you know that these dangerous protestors have GROOMING on their mind. How terrible!
In case you’re wondering about the 1st amendment, don’t worry, Darrell Ehrlick is totally down with the 1st amendment, but it’s not a “vaccine” against criticism, he says. No, I’m serious, the guy who wrote this bullshit last year about masks (because the little ones couldn’t get their jabs yet) is now inserting the word VACCINE into his commentary fear porn (emphasis mine):
I am happy to stand up for our First Amendment, and to welcome their protest as part of the civic discourse and discussion. I would defend their right to be there, to make the signs, whatever the message. However, exercising the First Amendment is not a vaccine against criticism or responsibility. Those thoughts and ideas writ large on posters suggest deeply held beliefs in our communities across Montana.
Huh? Did the spike proteins pass this guy’s blood/brain barrier? Also, if conservatives are new to the notion of “grooming”, how can this new concept suggest a deeply held belief?
To further exemplify how the media is constructing a false narrative around the conservative use of the word grooming, here’s a Vox article from earlier this year, titled The right’s moral panic over “grooming” invokes age-old homophobia. From the link (emphasis mine):
A renewed moral panic, stoked by the far right and trickling into mainstream conservatism, has come on the heels of an abrupt shift in the fight for gay rights in America. Following the recent passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and a wave of other homophobic and transphobic legislation throughout the country, current right-wing rhetoric has focused on accusations of “grooming.” The term — which describes the actions an adult takes to make a child vulnerable to sexual abuse — is taking on a conspiracy-theory tone as conservatives use it to imply that the LGBTQ community, their allies, and liberals more generally are pedophiles or pedophile-enablers.
Attempting to reframe the controversial Florida law, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s press secretary Christina Pushaw described it as “the Anti-Grooming Bill” in early March, tweeting that if you’re against it, “you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.” Those familiar with QAnon will recognize this bizarre leap in logic. Pushaw adopted language that QAnon conspiracy theory believers and the related #SaveTheChildren crusaders have used to imply that liberals are, if not pedophiles themselves, advocates of pedophilia.
Getting back to Ehrlick’s op-ed, I’m going to shift from criticism to agreement in one sense: Montana conservatives should tread cautiously toward this front of the culture war, considering the shaky ground many churches have when it comes to protecting their own congregations from predators. That said, this op-ed is still mostly trash, and it concludes like this:
Lawmakers preparing to come back to Helena in just a little more than a month have an opportunity to send a different message. Sexuality and gender doesn’t have to be a partisan issue.
I can hope the events of Colorado Springs afford these same lawmakers who have a supermajority the opportunity of reconsideration: The notion that maybe our laws, our rhetoric and positions were too extreme and went too far.
Montana has struggled mightily to tell the world that we’re open for business. The governor has championed a campaign that asks Montana kids who left for college and careers to come back home.
Now, we need to send the message that there’s plenty of room in the state for all types of people, or run the risk of becoming a haven for bigots.
Trust me, Colorado Springs is a lot closer than we’d like to think.
Trust? Yeah, I don’t think so, Darrell, but thanks for the garbage op-ed anyway. It’s instructive to see what woke propagandists are willing to commit to print to push an agenda of cultural transformation.
The reason I feel comfortable making the above assertion about Ehrlick’s agenda-driven outrage over the shooting in Colorado Springs is because of another shooting that happened less than 48 hours later, at a Virginia Walmart.
Why did this shooting drop from the headlines faster than brands dropping Kanye West? Is it because the dynamics of skin color and forewarning don’t serve a relevant cultural agenda?
When you see something concerning, you’re supposed to say something, right? That’s what a Walmart employee did more than two months before Bing went on his rampage, but the warnings were ignored. From the link:
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, a Walmart employee accused the company of being negligent by continuing to employ suspected shooter Andre Bing despite a written complaint the employee submitted about Bing’s alleged disturbing behavior more than two months before the shooting.
Donya Prioleau, an employee who had worked at Walmart for more than a year and was in the room during the shooting, alleged Walmart knew or should have known about Bing’s “violent propensities” and accused the company of failing to “enact any preventative measures to keep Walmart customers and employees safe,” according to the suit.
Darrell Ehrlick didn’t see a tragedy in Colorado Springs; he saw an opportunity to serve a political agenda, and he took it. Actually keeping communities safe is an entirely different creature because the risks aren’t what the propaganda and the stereotypes are telling you they are.
For a hint on what I’ll be writing about next week, here’s a screenshot of a film I started watching last night that’s more relevant now than ever, even for those of us in Big Sky country.
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