by Travis Mateer
The big houses we build for money commonly known as BANKS are apparently not immune to the spreading insanity of wokeness currently colonizing the minds of liberally-inclined humans in this slowly collapsing nation commonly known as AMERICA. Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
Despite bank runs and larger solvency concerns within the financial system, and despite local headlines tracking the continued stratospheric rise of home prices, Ellen Buchanan and Company think NOW is a GREAT time to give over $700,000 in Tax Increment Funding to First Security Bank. From the second link:
The Missoula Redevelopment Agency’s board of commissioners on Thursday approved $700,000 in tax increment to make a number of public improvements alongside the bank’s private investment.
That includes $380,000 to deconstruct rather demolish two old buildings, allowing for materials to be salvaged and reused. It also includes $140,000 in right of way improvements such as public sidewalks, landscaping and the burying of power lines.
Once the project is finished, taxes on the property will more than doubled to around $280,000 annually. That funding will be further reinvested into other public projects throughout the Midtown area.
If you haven’t detected the sarcasm yet, let me clearly state I think the amount and timing of this handout of public money to a private bank is fucking nuts. In fact, I think it’s so fucking nuts that I virtually joined the board meeting on Thursday to make public comment. Was I successful? Nope, despite trying BOTH the video link AND the livestream link, I was NOT able to provide public comment, so instead I recorded my comment while the bullshit justification for this handout droned on in the background:
Earlier in the week I actually had the pleasure of sitting next to Ellen Buchanan at City Club, where the land reduction scheme for Higgins Avenue was being discussed. While I covered this in my illumination of multi-modal insanity article, I didn’t fully understand at the time WHY the owner of Betty’s Divine was so aligned with the city’s plan. Well, this article about her husband’s business makes it MUCH clearer what her motivation is.
If you want to puke in your mouth a little bit, here’s another article obnoxiously describing Missoula in the most insufferable way possible, since it smacks so obviously of gentrification (emphasis mine):
[I]t was at the party of a mutual friend where Matt McQuilkin and Jim Chapman first saw a hole in the Missoula coffee market and had the idea to start their own coffee roastery together. “It was one of the few plans made over beers that actually comes to fruition,” says McQuilkin.
“I always pulled coffee from out of town because I couldn’t find what I wanted in town,” says Chapman. “I knew I wanted to have a part in the flavor development and not just sell what other people did.”
Chapman and McQuilkin hatched their plan in the fall of 2009, and by the following summer, Black Coffee Roasting Company was born, offering organic coffees to Missoula’s burgeoning coffee connoisseur community. The city is a prime contender for a quality coffee scene. Missoula is a liberal, artsy, outdoorsy, university town of 60,000 nestled in a Rocky Mountain valley. Subarus and Toyotas line the streets, wielding bumper stickers proclaiming “Keep Missoula Weird” and “Know Your Farmer.” Some people joke that Missoula isn’t really part of Montana at all.
If you want a silver lining (to hedge against inflation), today is a day our totally healthy and well-adjusted culture promotes a greater-than-normal intake of alcohol because nothing screams coerced happiness like getting fall-down drunk! Do ya feel me, Butte?
Anyway, if you enjoy the consistent articles every week day at 7am, and the weekly podcast, and the occasional song about Jesus, then please consider making a donation at my about page. You can also take a look at what’s coming by clicking this link.
Thanks for reading!
JC
Haven’t the Democrats given enough of our money to the Banksters already? This bloodletting is becoming an annual sacrifice. I’m also wondering what variety of tree costs $700K. Hopefully it’s the type that blooms $$$.
Did you see that Ellen even got an award last week for her tireless efforts to milk us dry. Only in Missoula would that be heralded as an accomplishment.
Thank you for reminding me about that award, I’ve included it in Sunday’s podcast post. Monday should be interesting.
Well, darn it, I hate saying this to one of such intellect and insight — but you’ve utterly failed in your effort to categorize these various happenings as having one fucking thing to do with “woke.” Perhaps you might — without resorting to Google — provide readers with a definition of “woke.”
Every time I’ve challenged someone using the term in the way you have, to do that, the person has been unable to do so, either by responding with an inaccurate definition based on personal biases, or because the person never really had a definition other than a vague, amorphous reference to liberals, Democrats, socialists, atheists, environmentalists, etc., etc. …which is 100% bullshit.
I’m disappointed that you’ve fallen in line with the ultra-right zealots who have weaponized a word that comes from African American Vernacular English. “Woke” in AAVE (a kind of creole or dialect resulting from the importation of African slaves to a continent in which their native language was not spoken and in which they were denied education) was a synonym for “awake.” As with the English “awake,” it also may connote being “aware.” Specific to the latter connotation, “woke” meant an awareness on the part of descendants of black slaves, of the racism of dominant society. Being “woke” implied a transformation from passive acceptance of one’s station, to recognition of the systemic unjust racial oppression, belief in one’s dignity and worth, and being disposed to rising above and actively seeking liberation from said oppression.
DeSantis, who struggled several days ago to define “woke,” now explains that it refers to progressive political ideology and positions, commensurate with the bastardization of the term by RWNJs into “woke culture,” etc., etc.
This movement of “woke” into mainstream English by RWNJs under a bullshit definition translating to “anything contrary to my white nationalist, conservative, fascist or bigoted agenda” is not unlike the 70s distortion, appropriation and transformation of “politically correct” from a left/liberal shibboleth into an epithet, much as the RWNJs — spearheaded by Rush Limbaugh — converted the respectable political ideological descriptor “liberal” into a vile epithet connoting all manner of evil. That was responsible for the resurrection of the term “progressive” in order to evade the wrath of ditto-heads who railed that “liberals hate America, hate Santa Claus, hate Our Savior Jesus Christ,” etc. etc.
What I’m getting to, is that invoking “woke,” “woke-ism,” “woke culture,” etc. in the manner you have, does not impress anyone outside of the RWNJ echo chamber, and damages a person’s credibility. It’s little different from the very sort of vacuous “hipness” which critical thinkers of all stripes mockingly deride. It’s the distortion, bastardization, and weaponized appropriation of a word in order to castigate and vilify opponents of one’s extreme sociopolitical agenda, and it’s racist, to boot.
-jkh
John Kevin Hunt: I agree. Using labels or meme’s to stereotype or disparage another is counter productive, and it’s just another diversionary tactic by the Billionaire propagandists to keep us all divided so we won’t unite and strip them of there power and wealth.
It’s for the reason you stated so clearly, because these labels don’t have a concrete definition, aside from being used to attack someone you don’t like. Like meme’s they also cause reason to be thrown out, and emotion to take over, so that people won’t try to communicate further or seek the truth. In short they are a propaganda technique to keep us all fighting eachother and not the puppet masters at the top.
I’m always fascinated when my word choice is more problematic to certain readers than the topic at hand. Can I get an alternative word suggestion to the word “woke” then? I mean, if the language police want to call a tune, I certainly enjoy dancing. Once upon a time this notion of “wokeness” was encapsulated by the term “politically correct”, but it has obviously evolved, and I should evolve with it. What’s the new word I can use so we can get on with our societal madness in all its various forms?
While I agree with both webdoodle and John Kevin Hunt — an unusual situation — about the use of the word “woke,” what concerns me more is this post’s source: Summit News. Mateer says, “Here’s the proof” while linking to Summit News and “woke videos” as the reason for Signature Bank’s collapse. Here’s what Media Source/Fact Check says about Summit News:
Reasoning: Conspiracies, Misleading/Unproven Information, Lack of Transparency
Bias Rating: EXTREME RIGHT
Factual Reporting: LOW
Country: USA (45/180 Press Freedom)
Media Type: Website
Traffic/Popularity: Medium Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY
The report also goes on to say that, “The primary writer appears to be Paul Joseph Watson, who is a former editor for the conspiracy website Infowars.”
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/summit-news/
Thanks for the comment, Pete.
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