This week’s review begins with the topic garnering national attention for Montana, but it doesn’t end there because some other things HAVE actually happened, like homeless camp clean-ups! While Montana is getting negative attention for legislation dealing with trans-issues, check out what Oregon is trying to do:
Thankfully Democrats aren’t able to do anything this dumb in Montana because they don’t have any real power at the state level. If they did, would the REMOVAL of trash be criminalized if a homeless person felt it was a form of harassment?
Were this the case, a clean-up I assisted with on Friday might have netted us a lawsuit. Here is a picture of how much more trash was removed on Friday after the Earth Day clean-up nearly a week previous:
If you would like to help these efforts, consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can make a donation at my about page.
In the scramble to virtue-signal support for Zooey Zephry, my former employer, the Poverello Center, is eagerly joining the fray on social media.
I’m glad the Poverello Center decided to chime in, because it allows me to remind these non-profit hostages that some of their clients haven’s survived our community’s liberal generosity, like Sean Stevenson and Lee Nelson, two men who are dead because they mistakingly assumed the Poverello Center could manage their volatile clientele.
Here is MY signaling on social media pointing out the EMPTY virtue of a homeless shelter that has produced “leaders” in our community, like Ellie Boldman and her understudy, Eran Pehan.
Another non-profit that appears to be a hostage to Missoula’s elected leaders is Habitat for Humanity. I observed this first-hand in Helena, when Habitat’s Director, former Council person, Heather Harp, testified AGAINST SB 523. But she was NOT the only one from her organization who made comments. Nevin Graves ALSO added his two cents.
Who is Nevin Graves? Two years ago he was a brief candidate for the School Board, but withdrew his nomination after some pretty creepy accusations were made against him. I wrote about those accusations at the time, documenting the claims. Here is part of what I documented:
You can read more at my blog if you have the stomach, but I wouldn’t recommend ruining a perfectly nice Friday with this kind of ickiness.
If you appreciate the context I bring to controversial issues, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.
Have a great weekend, and stay tuned for the Week in Review on Sunday!
Two articles, posted back to back at the Rolling Stone, caught my attention in a big way this week, but not for reasons anyone but a few will understand. I’m going to try and change that by explaining the relevance of this screenshot:
What do I see in this screenshot? I see two competing approaches to the fearful uncertainty of death. One is known as Transhumanism, and the other is the more conventional belief in the divine role of Jesus Christ. This might seem like a stretch, but hear me out.
First, before I explain how Transhumanism connects to Montana’s now-famous legislator, Zooey Zephyr, I’d like to make what I hope is a non-controversial claim, and that’s the claim that we, in Montana, deserve to know WHO our legislators are.
It’s in that spirit I’m linking to a guest column by Jeremy Carl, from the Fremont Claremont Institute, because up to this point virtually NOTHING has been known about Zooey, pre-2019, like the given name of this activist, and the beliefs this activist holds. Carl is being swarmed on Twitter over this piece, and Zooey Zephyr’s partner, Erin Reed, is threatening to sue. There’s also sourcing from Kiwifarms, which is supposedly a nasty place, so take all this with a grain of salt.
Thanks to Carl, we now have some context to consider regarding this trans-activist making national headlines. I should probably offer a warning that this article uses Zooey Zephyr’s given name, which is Zachary Raasch. From the link (emphasis mine):
Raasch is intelligent and extremely interested in transhumanism (the melding of man and machine through “technological enhancement” of the human body)—the subject of an abandoned master’s thesis at the University of Montana, a subject that seems relevant to his decision to radically modify his own body.
What is Transhumanism, you might be wondering? In my humble opinion, it’s a deranged hope that a technological ladder to immortality exists, a ladder reserved for elite sociopaths afraid of karmic retribution for the evils they’ve committed against humanity with their endless lust for more power and control over ALL earthly life on this planet.
If Montana conservatives in Helena were more sophisticated, and capable of policing their own Christian-claimed backyards for the sexual predators running rampant within their own congregations, the spectacle sought by trans-activists wouldn’t be exploding right now, totally obliterating any other issues as the waning days of this legislative session tick down.
Now that Montana conservatives have given the activists what they want, here’s what the resulting fundraising opportunity looks like on Twitter:
Congratulations, Montana conservatives, not only are you losing the culture war, you have ALSO hurt Montana taxpayers by protecting the hole in the bucket leaking public money known as Tax Increment Financing. Maybe that’s because Montana conservatives are made up of self-interested, petty assholes crafting legislation for themselves and their friends instead of looking for principles to stand on.
If conservatives were capable of seeing past their own empty righteousness, maybe they’d see one of the possible connections between Kevin Smith, a Hollywood movie maker trying to heal from past sexual abuse, and Montana’s new star legislator, who seemed to feel some level of regret for a gamer scandal. From the link (emphasis mine):
He was also a video gaming champion in a game called Super Smash Brothers– some pre-transition performances of his tournament videogaming can be seen online. In 2020, a huge scandal erupted in the Super Smash Brothers community involving mass sexual harassment and abuse of minors during in-person gaming meetups. Raasch publicly expressed regret that he may have put children at risk in taking them to these events. It may be just a coincidence that serious child sexual abuse broke out in a community with which Raasch was heavily involved, or it is possible that he been a perpetrator or a victim of such abuse, but we don’t know, as none of the puff piece legacy media has bothered to investigate Raasch’s background. What can be said is that childhood experiences of abuse, such as those that were going on around him, are often precursors to those involved developing non-standard sexual identities.
Raasch is also a noted fan of Manga and anime, a hobby enjoyed by many perfectly healthy people, but also a favorite of transgender individuals, such as Chris Tyson, an important member of Mr. Beast, the world’s most popular YouTube channel, who announced a love of anime involving sexualized children in the years before he came out as trans. Raasch has posted disturbing sexualized anime images such as the one below that as of this writing—still on his official Twitter account.
And the tweet mentioned in the article? Here it is:
Am I being a prude here? No, I’d argue I’m being a FATHER who is VERY worried about the culture my kids are being neurologically bathed in. Fuck with my ability to be a protective father to my children, and we’ll see who has blood on their hands.
I can say stuff like that now because violence is such a normalized facet of modern life, right? Or are there double standards at play? Maybe I should proceed with even MORE caution, as the movement to get at children gets aggressive in Montana.
Beyond Montana, other famous people are trying to deal with their own histories of sexual trauma, and that’s what Kevin Smith opened up about to Rolling Stone. I’d find an interesting quote, but I’m not a subscriber.
Maybe I should become one, since Rolling Stone is all over my personal synchronicity map. What do I mean by that? I mean the man who allowed Kevin Smith to film scenes of Dogma in his church, Dr. Kenneth Stevenson, had an article published in the Rolling Stone about a little project he was working on called the Shroud of Turin.
If exploring my personal synchronicity map sounds interesting, then my Southland Tales post is important context to consider. I would also recommend listening to my conversation with Jasun Horsely, and checking out this post about some insights I got regarding my family history.
The underlying synchronicity that makes Kevin Smith and Montana resonate for me is still, as of now, occluded from nearly everyone. When will that change? That is not my place to say, but when the synchronicities give me more clues, I’ll let you know.
If you appreciate my on-the-ground and sometimes off-the-beaten-path perspective from Zoom Town (Missoula), please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can make a donation at my about page.
Today I made public comment at the County Commissioners meeting about Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) and the KICK BUTT action my fund took to address an atrocious meth den behind Missoula College, right on the bank of the Clark Fork river. The additional cost I experienced was in the final removal fee, which was around $340 dollars. Since I don’t have MRA to bail me out, like they did recently with the Sleepy Inn cost overrun, I’ll be looking to other sources of assistance.
Here’s the cost overrun MRA recently helped out with. Isn’t this nice of our shadow government?
“(The City) Council in the Missoula Redevelopment Agency board approved in February a contract amount of $283,665,” she said. “With the additional materials and labor and testing, the total contract amount is likely to be increased to $318 828, so we’re looking at just about a little over $40,000 in increased costs.”
When government subsidized projects go over, they REALLY go over. Makes what I put together seem like a pretty big BANG for the bucks I forked out. Remember, there’s also the donation button at my about page if you want to pitch in (looking at you, Greg 😉
Without further adieu, here’s the 30 minute video (and change) that features footage from not just ONE homeless camp clean up, but TWO. That’s right, I had to find something other than Mayor Jordan Hess for my audience to watch. Just hearing his words is more than enough.
Date: April 22nd-April 26th, 2023
Time: 8:30am-6pm; 9am-4pm; 10am-2:30pm
plus additional house coordinating
Location: 1205 East Broadway, behind Missoula College
Business contacts: 2
Government/community contacts: 37
Houseless contacts: 5
Last Thursday, when I decided to bite the bullet and spend nearly $1,000 dollars of my own money to rent a dumpster for a meth den clean-up, I had no idea I would be wrapping up loose ends nearly a week later, which took me on a Wednesday morning quest that led me from a homeless tent, to the City Attorney’s Office, and onward, to a press conference I had no idea about until Jim Nugent suggested I attend.
The video for this project is epic, coming in at just under 35 minutes and covering the span of time from Earth Day to Press Conference. I even used a bunch of footage from the Reserve Street camps from last year to provide some nice imagery to look at while our placeholder Mayor, Jordan Hess, drones on about what cities across the nation CANNOT DO regarding homeless camps.
City and county officials joined homeless advocates on Wednesday in painting a dire picture of Missoula’s lack of indoor shelter and the growing presence of outdoor encampments in public places.
A recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit placed limitations on the ability of cities to deal with such encampments. As a result, cities cannot criminalize homelessness, nor can they ticket, arrest or remove people from camping in public places unless there are shelter beds available for those individuals.
Ok, so is there anything our hamstrung leaders CAN do? Yes, they can blame the state, which they always do. And they can beg the public to give more money to enablers, like my former employer, the Poverello Center. Again, this is the standard response, and it’s WAY beyond tiring to listen to this shit.
But listen I did, and I even asked a question (which always seems to put some people on edge). My question was about lines of communication with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), since some encampments are within their jurisdiction. Mayor Hess assured me those lines are open, and then had a city attorney, Ryan Sudbury, continue answering my jurisdictional question.
When you look at the quantitative data above, that BIG 37 number includes all the research it took to figure out that Todd Spence’s meth den was (note the past tense!) in DNRC territory, since it was so proximal to the flow of the Clark Fork river.
There is so much fascinating QUALITATIVE data within the numbers I tallied over the last few days, it’s hard to put this project into a coherent linear narrative, so instead I’ll try to make note of some highlights, like the fact I forwarded images of the chemicals we came across to Missoula Police. For a fun peek at meth chemicals, this website is helpful (thanks Oregon!).
One of the guys who helped clean this disaster up on Saturday is himself currently homeless, and it was his positive identification of Todd’s mugshot, which I showed him on my phone, that has me so confident this is, or WAS, Todd Spence’s shanty-shack/meth-den. That, and craftsmanship like this:
Since I was actually at the press conference on Tuesday, I know I heard our Mayor say stuff like HEALTH HAZARDS should still be actionable, but that didn’t seem to be prominent in the local reporting. It was mostly just BOO-HOO from service providers and BOISE DECISION from everyone else. From the link (emphasis mine):
“… They have nowhere else to go,” Hess said Wednesday morning at a press conference outside the Missoula County Courthouse. “The reality is we do not have enough indoor shelter in our community for everybody.”
The collective decision results from Martin v. Boise, a 2018 verdict by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which prohibits the criminalization of homelessness in places where there is insufficient shelter.
“Since we don’t have shelter beds, we cannot remove someone from an encampment in a public space,” Hess added.
Because of the Martin ruling, the Missoula Police Department does not cite people strictly for camping in public spaces, although the police do respond to threats to public health and safety. Instead of ticketing people camped outside, MPD makes contact with individuals sleeping on streets and sidewalks, encouraging them to move frequently and keep their encampments clean, Captain Jake Rosling said.
Ok, so police “respond” to threats to public health and safety. What does that mean? Because Todd’s meth den was the epitome of a public health threat, and the only response that proved effective was MY response, which begs the following question: what would have happened if I HAD NOT ACTED, at great personal cost and no small health risk, to ensure there was at least a chance of addressing this disgusting hazmat situation?
Accolades are great, money to recoup costs would be fantastic, but EVEN BETTER would be a preventative protocol to STOP people like Todd Spence from doing shit like this in the first place, right next to the river that runs through our ZOOMING community.
Or is it our BROKE ASS community? I get really confused, because some restaurants, banks, and art galleries seem to have no problem getting PUBLIC money from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, but when it comes to the blackhole of need being primed by our homeless industrial complex, it’s everyone’s else’s fault for having NO MONEY LEFT. It’s beyond galling to hear these people continually reference a failed crisis mill levy that has yet to hit the funding levels of current services as one of many points of strategic deflection. From one of those links (emphasis mine):
Pehan, who heads the city’s office of Community Planning, Development and Innovation, cited the city’s efforts to get ahead of the problem in recent years. Along with funding for the winter shelter, it also helped fund the Homeless Outreach Team while advocating for other programs.
But the Covid funding is gone and Missoula voters shot down a crisis services levy last November, which would have provided around $5 million annually to fund a number of programs. Without a new source of funding, many programs launched during the pandemic are at risk of ending.
I am so tired of this bullshit. Are we, as a community, going to be held hostage by these petulant tax addicts who can’t achieve their transformative utopia without squeezing every spare penny from taxpayers while complaining all the way to the bank that it’s never enough when evidence of their failure becomes too obvious for the narrative controllers to hide?
The answer to that long question should be a short NO!
If I had just waited around for our elected leaders to act then this obnoxiously sturdy structure…
Wouldn’t now look like this:
I don’t want to speculate on the cost of NOT getting this area cleaned up, but I’ll definitely be stopping by to document how far the water levels rise during spring run-off in order to show what might have happened if the stuff hadn’t been scooped, bagged and hauled off.
The video of this clean-up will be done uploading later today, so I’ll post it when it’s ready. Stay tuned. And if you want to support my work, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to do that, using the donation button at my about page is another.
