Month: March 2023

by Travis Mateer

The image above is a screenshot from the Missoulian and it nicely frames the insanity of Multi-Modal Zealots (MMZs) as they lobby to protect bicyclists on Beartracks Bridge by reducing the lanes for vehicles from FOUR to THREE. This Monday, at City Club, the lane reduction plan was the topic of discussion and you better believe I paid my $10 bucks to get my seat at the table!

Over the weekend–and after some more of that goddamn white stuff fell from the sky–I provided a moment of chivalry when my multi-modal walking partner saw a portion of sidewalk that had become a small pond due to snowmelt. After my piggy-back solution to this common obstruction one confronts in a Montana mountain town this time of year, I wondered how municipal policy could ever truly thwart things like winter to insulate multi-modal movers from potential harm.

City Council seems better situated to deal with abstract things, like ward boundaries, but even that can cause some consternation for City Council members like Gwen Jones. Before we get to WHY I think Jones’ frustration is significant, let’s take a look at another look at an AI rendering of our City Council leader.

Now, here’s the part of the article linked above that I find interesting (emphasis mine):

Jones took issue with the 11th hour lamentations.

“We should be doing the bulk of our work in committee, earlier on rather than later,” Jones said. “When it’s quiet in a committee meeting and something sits there for four weeks and all of a sudden on Monday night there’s all sorts of issues raised, that’s not an efficient use of our time and it’s not good government.”

The reason I’m highlighting this perception is because it tracks with what I’ve come to realize, and that’s the reality that YES INDEED the bulk of municipal work is being done in committee, and those committees are not easy things for the public to attend, since they are in the middle of the week and the middle of the work day, usually.

With this in mind, it was interesting to be sitting next to the Director of MRA, Ellen Buchanan, at City Club yesterday as the contentious Higgins Avenue Lane Reduction Scheme was discussed. The table also featured Aaron Wilson, the Infrastructure & Mobility Planning Manager for the city, along with a bunch of WGM staff. How would this independent journalist do with such a potentially weary audience for “table chat” time? Well, I think I did pretty good.

When it came around to table chat time, I wasted NO TIME being the first one to open my mouth, and what came out of it may have been surprising to my table. Why? Because I acknowledged MY direct chats with businesses downtown revealed MORE people were aware and supportive of the lane reduction than I had given them credit for. I also said the timeline for this idea truly does go back to 2009–so why are there angry businesses downtown who feel blindsided by this plan?

I talked to my table about the general sense of safety people have for the idea of coming downtown, and how unsafe behavior can take many forms. I also explained my theory that the perception of this unsafe behavior–and the enforcement piece, with cops/deputies/jailers/government attorneys–is one of the unspoken factors fueling frustration among the downtown business community.

When I started talking about holes in FedEx windows and meth dealers, I was told my framing of safety concerns was beyond the scope of the current conversation. I actually agreed, and allowed the conversation to develop without my domineering input, which meant listening to Ellen Buchanan ask the table, then the entire room, what more they (the city) could do to provide effective outreach to the business community.

The member of the business community who agreed to speak for the opposition on the panel surprised me because I didn’t think the owner of Bell Tobacco, Otis McCullough, was a fan of being out front, in public. My impression of Otis is he’s more inclined to make behind-the-scenes moves as a stealthy private investigator working in the shadows of the criminal justice system while making some side money selling cigarettes to people like David Barsotti.

I wish some of Otis’ pals in the criminal justice system were there yesterday to address the question that came after Ellen Buchanan’s question, but Fred Van Valkenburg is retired, and no one else in a law enforcement/County Attorney position was in attendance, so no one could address the woman from another table when she asked about safety, specifically stating that her female employees do not feel safe inside the parking structures after dark.

After this question was posed, and a non-answer answer given, one of the women at my table leaned in my direction and whispered “…is that what you were talking about?” to which I said, “Yes.”

The problem city planners are having to deal with when it comes to a suspicious and increasingly angry business community downtown is partly a result of spillover from safety issues they have no control over, like that hole in the FedEx window I mentioned earlier. City planners aren’t cops, or Sheriff Deputies, or County Attorneys. So why can’t someone from the criminal justice system be at a public forum where safety seems to be of such central concern?

Here’s a picture of the plywood bandaid FedEx had to put up after the mentally unstable woman was seen on camera footage at 5:30 am throwing an object through the glass:

I got this account about what happened from an older woman behind the counter, who also just happened to be working on the day a guy with a machete tried attacking another man downtown. Apparently another FedEx staff got the door shut just in time, leaving machete guy to threaten another random motorist who thankfully was armed and held this guy at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived.

Here’s the account from the former Public Information Officer, Lydia Arnold:

“A preliminary investigation indicated that a 41-year-old male identified as Todd Deveny was involved in an argument with several persons when he produced a machete and began chasing one of the victims down the street,” Arnold said. “A legally armed citizen intervened, holding Deveny at gunpoint until the arrival of officers. Deveny is currently being held on several felony charges involving several victims and the investigation is ongoing. The citizen who intervened is cooperating fully with law enforcement and is not in custody.”

While city planners would like to keep the safety issue compartmentalized to what they think they can control, how their abstract plans play-out in the real world depends on things like the enforcers of laws being able to somewhat provide a semblance of order so that the almighty tourist (and anyone else who still has discretionary money to spend) feels safe enough to visit downtown, at least while we all pretend the banks are still solvent.

After finishing my $10 dollars worth of coffee and cookies, while everyone was getting up and preparing to leave, I asked Ellen if anyone from law enforcement was in attendance, and she said she didn’t think so. Then I told her about my theory why our former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, hadn’t officially announced his candidacy for Mayor yet. Good times.

If you appreciate my ability to endure and report on these events, please consider making a financial donation at my about page so I can cover coffee and cookie costs.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

so much depends
upon the white spyfucker
glazed in skyscrapers
beside the red chickens

-William Skink

If the poem above sounds familiar, that’s because it’s an adaptation of a poem by William Carlos Williams, a poem I have poetically abused here to draw attention to what I think this old spy movie actually represents, and trust me, it’s not good. I’ll reference this poem at the end of the post, because spyfucker is a term that’s actually used in the dialogue. But first…

Since this post is about a movie, I’ll provide the obligatory warning that there will be spoilers involved in my effort to explain why I think Three Days of the Condor is both a threat and a taunt by the CIA that a long fuse got lit in 1975 when this film was released to audiences across America. Let’s begin.

Watching this movie (directed by Sydney Pollack) correlated with the arrival of a book I ordered online by Frances Stonor Saunders, titled The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. Before getting filed in the “intelligence” sub-section of my library, I looked for some context to use for this post, and I found it in the epilogue; a lengthy excerpt updating readers about one of the people in the book and his more recent (relatively speaking) media involvement. Here’s the quote (emphasis mine):

Tom Braden went on to enjoy a successful career as a syndicated columnist and co-host of the CNN talkshow, Crossfire. In 1975, whilst a government committee was preparing the fullest ever review of U.S. intelligence activities Braden penned a swinging attack on a CIA subsumed by power, arrogance, and an obsession with lying. “It’s a shame what happened to the CIA,” he wrote. “It could have consisted of a few hundred scholars to analyze intelligence, a few hundred spies in key positions, and a few hundred operators ready to carry out rare tasks of derring-do. Instead, it became a gargantuan monster, owning property all over the world, running airplanes and newspapers and radio stations and banks and armies and navies, offering temptation to successive Secretaries of State, and giving at least one President [Nixon] a brilliant idea: since the machinery for deceit existed, why not use it?” Braden concluded by advocating the dissolution of the CIA and the transfer of its remaining functions (those few which could still be justified) to other departments. “I would turn the psychological warriors and propagandists over to the Voice of America. Psychological warriors and propagandists probably never did belong in a secret agency.”

The committee being referenced is clearly the Church Committee, named after Idaho Senator, Frank Church. This government effort at transparency became a fascinating window that briefly opened for the public to peek through, and it was shocking. What year did this committee convene, you ask? 1975, the same year this movie hit the theaters. A coincidence?

Watching this movie in 2023 is surreal because there’s a visual reference that smacks the viewer over and over again, especially a viewer watching this movie AFTER the date September 11th, 2001, and that’s the use of the Twin Towers. And it’s not just for scenery shots. No, the towers were used for actual inside scenes, like, you know, CIA offices. A coincidence?

I was surprised to see the towers featured so prominently in this film. I thought they had been completed in the 80’s, but no, it was 1973, just two years before this film was released. That is some VERY curious timing.

Another curious thing is the name of one of the rogue CIA agents who gets killed, and that’s the name WICKS. Why is that curious? Well, what’s a wick?

It’s funny that the word OIL is in the definition of the word WICK because our Condor, Robert Redford’s character (named Turner, who turns on the turncoats) is in the crosshairs precisely because of oil in the middle east, and the desire of US corporate interests to control it. Getting a war going in the middle east, to get at the oil, is what Turner comes to suspect is the goal of the rogue faction he’s spotted with his pattern-recognizing brain and a little help from the company computer, and he’s right!

The complete void where one might expect the semblance of a moral compass to exist is quite impressive. Turner gets a woman to help him (Faye Dunaway) after he kidnaps her at gunpoint, steals her car, gags her, ties her up in the bathroom…but he likes her photographs! No, really, it’s supposed to be some kind of touching moment, I guess, and you know in movies what eventually comes next–once the hands get untied, of course, because this ain’t no bondage porn!

The “relationship” between Turner and his Patty Hearst companion reaches peak-cringe at the following moment of the film. Here’s the dialogue with my emphasis:

No, Kathy, don’t sell yourself short in this commodified world of company men and mercenaries–you are SPARROW HAWK! And Turner wouldn’t have been able to talk to the boss guy without your guile and guts!

Does this movie end with a good guy beating the bad guy, getting the girl, and riding off into the sunset? No, there are no good guys, you can barely see the sky from the dingy streets of New York, and the girl doesn’t figure in to the calculations of the final scene between Turner and a CIA middle management guy by the name of Higgins.

The end of the film is remarkable for its bleakness. Turner thinks he has The Company because he gave the New York Times the story, but does he? Because the concluding question of the film, posed by Higgins, is this: will they print it? And how far can Turner get if they don’t? Here’s how the film ends:

END SCENE!

While I can’t say watching this film was enjoyable, I do enjoy critically examining the popular culture we’ve been consuming UNcritically for far too long.

Another movie that came up in this research is a movie called Godspell, based on the gospel of Mark. This movie actually filmed scenes on the uncompleted tower, which you can see here:

Isn’t this interesting? I think it’s interesting, but I’ll just leave it at that, for now.

If you appreciate this cultural decoding, please consider making a financial donation at my about page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Here is this week’s review of local headlines, I hope you enjoy. One thing I’ve been trying to avoid is the use of a certain word when recording these episodes, but I haven’t explained WHY. Well, here’s a little piece of micro-fiction I wrote this weekend for a local zine that might give you an interesting and totally fictional perspective.

*

A knock interrupts the cloaked engineer as he hunches over the final preparations. Annoyed, he turns to look over his shoulder before barking a quick command: “ENTER!”

“Has the chamber beneath the chamber reached completion? Council is demanding an update.” 

The mouse-man is the Placeholder’s intern and he squeaks the words more than speaks them.

“Yes, the coven has sealed the inner sanctum and given the spirit-yeast its final incantation. Now, every time the target word is spoken above, in the official Council chambers, the vibration will activate the nano-fibers and feed the material below until the essence of our leader solidifies to rejoin us here, in this realm.”

“Excellent, Gwanita will be most pleased! Do we need to transmit an internal memo so the faithful ones within his holy municipality know what the target word is?”

The engineer pauses, then cackles as he relishes the brilliance of his plan. “That won’t be necessary,” he tells the mouse-man, “because the target word is the most popular f-word currently used by anyone who chooses to enter the chambers.

Another pause stretches out as the intern blinks in oblivious anticipation. The engineer basks in the moment, then utters the word that will regenerate their GREAT LEADER to solidity:

“FOLKS! That is the word, Brendn. Now, go put the faithful ones at ease with the assurance that every utterance brings his sweet form closer to earthly existence once more. Then, we shall regain control of Zoom Town!

The intern emits a grateful sigh. “Thank you, engineer, I will go tell Council immediately!”

And with that, the interruption ceases, allowing the engineer to return to his most important work.

by Travis Mateer

I didn’t get to know my Grandpa on my mother’s side because he died in a plane crash in 1986. I also didn’t know, until just this week, that my Grandpa had several encounters with unidentified flying objects throughout his life. Even more difficult for me to believe, he and my Grandma even attended a UFO convention. My mind is having some difficulty adjusting to this new information.

Here’s an old newspaper clipping about my Grandpa’s plane crash:

The reason I learned this new information about my Grandpa is because I listened to an incredible story from an incredible man on Thursday, a man I won’t name in this post, but who lost a son here in Missoula. I’ll briefly recount the story here–since it’s an important part of my own family discovery–with the hope of getting into more details at a later date.

The man, who flew planes for big corporations, had received a call from a Christian broadcasting network because their signal wasn’t transmitting. Since this man is ALSO a well-known man of God, and since he knew the mountains in the area had been supposedly dedicated to Satan by Aleister Crowley, he decided to take to the air with a partner and sprinkle a gallon of holy water from the plane. Later, this man found out that the signal began transmitting again and the experience led to a long and fruitful collaboration with the broadcasting network.

I’m relating this story because planes and signals transmitting from mountain tops is what got me thinking about my Grandpa. You can see, from the article above, that Bob Ditton (Gramps) owned Mobilfone Northwest, and he was returning from “working on communications equipment” when his plane crashed 4.1 miles southeast of Pangborn Field. When I talked with my mother about all this, she said it was while working on communications equipment that my Grandpa saw things in the sky that he couldn’t explain. And remember, this man flew planes.

The connection to the space program was established when my Grandpa’s business, Mobilefone Northwest, got sold off to Motorola, a little company that allegedly transmitted the voices of astronauts from the moon. The sale of the business happened after my Grandpa died, and after my dad left the due to a difference of opinion about whether or not the business should grow (my dad found his cancerous-corporate payoff with Sprint).

This connection to the space program gives some fascinating context to the plastic plate I found in a box of belongings after my Grandma died.

I did a quick search online about Motorola’s growth and found an old NYT article that mentions competition with IBM, which is funny, because IBM is the corporation the pastor-pilot man was flying for when he sprinkled the mountains with holy water. It gets funnier when you realize that Aleister Crowley, the man who inspired the Babylon workings that Jack Parsons participated in at the beginning of 1946, drew the first image now associate with “aliens”.

Did I forget to mention this satanic Babylon magick precipitated the first UFO sighting in America made by Kenneth Arnold near Mt. Ranier in Washington state?

The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold’s description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.

And, of course, we have the fact that Jack was a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his magick partner was none other than L. Ron Hubbard, a real fun guy that leveraged his Naval intelligence job into establishing a science fiction religion.

Another facet of my research that just got even MORE weirdly personal involves David Lynch, the Navy, and the geographical location Lynch’s family moved to after Lynch was born at St. Pats in Missoula, Montana, and that’s the geography of Northern Idaho.

Here’s a portion of an interview Skylar Browning did with David Lynch where he talks about his family roots in the Pacific Northwest, including having a Grandpa who was a State Senator in Montana.

Sand Point, Idaho, is the area where the Navy has a very interesting training facility, interesting because Northern Idaho isn’t all that close to sea water, but the LAKE water this training station is on is VERY deep. From the link:

Farragut Naval Training Station was a U.S. Navy training center during World War II in the Western United States. It was located in Northern Idaho at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview, between Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint.[1][2] The base was named after David Farragut (1801–1870), the first admiral in the U.S. Navy and the leading naval officer during the Civil War. The site became Farragut State Park 57 years ago in 1966.

Some of my occult research has taken me into this geographic area, but I had no idea my Grandpa’s father lived on Lake Pend Oreille, near Ponderay. I also had never heard my mother speak about the stories she remembers hearing as a kid about people disappearing in this area, specifically a pastor who supposedly walked into the lake and never came out.

David Lynch’s biographical information also indicates that his father spent time in Hamilton, Montana, a town in the Bitterroot known for being the location of a Bio-Security Level 4 lab called Rocky Mountain Laboratories. From the link:

Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) is part of the NIH Intramural Research Program and is located in Hamilton, Montana. Operated by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, RML conducts research on maximum containment pathogens such as Ebola as well as research on prions and intracellular pathogens such as Coxiella burnetti and Francisella tularensis.[2][3][4] RML operates one of the few Biosafety level 4 laboratories in the United States, as well as Biosafety level 3 and ABSL3/4 laboratories.[5]

In February 2020, electron microscope images of SARS-CoV-2 were collected at RML.[6]

So, what exactly did David Lynch’s daddy do? Well, he worked for the government, of course. Here’s some wikipedia info on Lynch’s early movements, thanks to his dad’s government work:

David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 1946.[7]: 1  His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina “Sunny” Lynch (née Sundberg; 1919–2004), was an English language tutor. Two of Lynch’s maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century.[16] He was raised as a Presbyterian.[17][18] The Lynches often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald. Because of this, Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch’s sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia.

If you think I’m done piling curious references and connections for this post, think again. I have a few more crazy cherries to plop on top before finishing up.

I’ve already marveled at how my run-ins with people, even “street people”, can lead to fascinating connections, like how Doug told me last July his Grandpa was Norris Bradbury. Who is Norris Bradbury? This is Norris Bradbury:

Well, just a few weeks ago I was on the phone with the most dangerous woman in Montana and she absolutely blew my mind by casually dropping how she once worked with Josef Allen Hynek when she was a student astronomy librarian at the University where Hynek taught. Who is Josef Allen Hynek? This is Josef Allen Hynek:

Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 – April 27, 1986) was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist.[1] He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three projects: Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1951) and Project Blue Book (1952–1969).

In later years, he conducted his own independent UFO research, developing the “Close Encounter” classification system. He was among the first people to conduct scientific analysis of reports and especially of trace evidence purportedly left by UFOs.

What sparked this casual disclosure from Jane is the fact the skies of Montana have become ground zero for a new interest in unexplained aerial phenomenon, which I wrote about in this post connecting Project Blue Beam with David Lynch’s fucked up tv series, Twin Peaks. Can things get any weirder?

That’s an unnecessary question. Because yes, yes they can. And some future posts and/or interviews concerning cartel behavior will help make that point.

If you appreciate these kinds of connections, please consider making a financial donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: I received a cool pic of Hynek’s business card from Jane, which I’ll include a screen-shot of–enjoy the weekend!

One more update: unfortunately, the information from mother regarding Motorola isn’t accurate. The company that snatched up Grandpa’s communication company was later absorbed by AT&T.

by Travis Mateer

While poking around agenda items for different municipal committees I discovered that Mayoral candidate, Sean McCoy, is on the Planning Board. This position is a County appointment, so now I’m wondering who appointed McCoy to this board. I’m also wondering why there’s nothing in his application for Mayor that acknowledges his youthful mistake when he attached and repelled from a logging truck idling on the Madison street bridge (pictured above) in a dangerous stunt here in Missoula.

Here is an article from 2002 about the consequences of that direct action. From the link:

Earth First! members vow to continue efforts

Their climbing ropes and harnesses exchanged for jail-orange jumpsuits, a pair of Earth First! protesters answered to charges of felony criminal endangerment in Missoula Justice Court on Thursday, insisting they are innocent and should not have to post $70,000 each in bail money.

But Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech granted a prosecutor’s request and told Sean McCoy and Stephanie Valle that they’ll stay in jail until they come up with the money.

And if they do make bail, she said, they cannot have any contact with one another or with five other Earth Firsters arrested during an anti-logging protest on the Madison Street Bridge on Wednesday.

Valle, 19, told the judge she is from McCall, Idaho, and moved to Missoula 10 months ago. She’s not a criminal, she said. “I got a smoking ticket when I was 16 and a drinking ticket when I was 17. I don’t have a criminal record, and this crime was nonviolent.”

Isn’t Stephanie Valle adorable? Maybe she thinks this is just a game, but I assure you the first responders who literally risked their lives to UN-attach these activists didn’t share that perspective. For some details on what responders faced in this situation, here’s more from the article:

The idea was to protest the logging of burned trees in the Bitterroot National Forest. In doing so, though, the protesters commanded the attention of three fire stations “and left the city of Missoula without fire protection,” said Deputy Missoula County Attorney Jennifer Johnson.

Throughout the rescue, firefighters were at great risk, Johnson said. The Clark Fork was just 3 feet below flood stage and was so muddy that firefighters could not see what was below them. McCoy and Valle not only endangered themselves, she said, they endangered everyone in town.

How did the dude who wants to be Mayor respond to the judge 11 years ago? He responded like this:

McCoy, 27, told the judge that he was born and raised in Pocatello, Idaho, and worked most recently as a smokejumper based in Redmond, Ore. He’s been in Missoula for the past six or eight months, he said, and should be trusted to stick around while he awaits trial.

“I am a nonviolent person,” he said. “I served in the military for four years. I am going to appear. I have supported the community for a few years, and have been a part of the Missoula smokejumpers as well. I don’t feel $70,000 is quite right.”

Before getting to McCoy’s credentials, as stated in his application, here’s a tweet that got me thinking about how an ends-justifying-means rationale can put someone who should know better, like a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, in jail for allegedly participating in a coordinated attack against a police training center in Atlanta.

Since the Montanan Human Rights Network LOVES to reference the SPLC, I asked them about the ends justifying the means in this case on Twitter:

Back to Sean McCoy and his Mayoral application, here are his credentials with my emphasis on the only reference I could find that hinted at his run-in with the law in Missoula:

After doing his rebellious activism thing in 2002, McCoy settled down and got to farming, something he got attention for in the Missoulian 20 years later.

From the link:

Sean McCoy, along with his family, owns and runs an urban vegetable and fruit operation called Frank’s Little Farm (named after a legendary Butte union organizer who was murdered in 1917). He said he’s looking forward to selling tomato plants and other starts.

“I’m not going to do food this go around,” he said. “Things are a little uncertain right now.”

The markets are a big revenue source for local farmers, he said, and because the market was supposed to open May 2, there’s been a few weeks of lost income for many.

However, McCoy said there’s an immense amount of interest in home gardening right now, much like the “victory garden” eras during World Wars I and II.

“There’s huge, unprecedented interest in local products and food,” he said. “We’re gonna try and take as many precautions as we can. As farmers, we’re really isolated anyway so we aren’t really necessarily concerned about our own welfare as much as we are about the community, so we need to take precautions seriously.”

I’m glad Sean McCoy is concerned about the welfare of our community because 20 years ago all he was doing was complaining about the high bond he faced for endangering the lives of first responders.

Do I think McCoy has a chance in hell at becoming Mayor? No, I don’t, but his candidacy could siphon off votes from another, more serious candidate, so THAT is what makes me very curious about McCoy’s candidacy.

If you appreciate content about local candidates that you won’t find anywhere else, please consider making a financial donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!