Month: April 2023

by Travis Mateer

As I prepare my final report for the Shanty-Shack/Meth-Den clean-up effort–which I started planning on Thursday, April 20th, and concluded on Tuesday, April 25th–I want to highlight some recent examples of shelter-resistant individuals exhibiting ZERO FUCKS about the laws that still have teeth for most citizens when WE violate them.

Let’s take stealing from a grocery store. Normally, once caught, there are consequences intended to curb the thieving behavior of the offender, but what happens when the consequences don’t have any discernible impact?

From the link (emphasis mine):

The officer noted that he has investigated Seminole previously and Seminole is well aware of his trespass order from the store, but continues to return and steal merchandise. According to court documents, another officer has also investigated Seminole and found that he has 14 current cases involving Seminole stealing from Albertsons, including 12 that meet the elements of burglary and one that could be considered a robbery. 

Another recent article from the local media source that consistently publishes information on higher level offenses in Missoula (KGVO) highlights this nice fella, Elwood Hall, and his little problem of being a non-compliant offender. I’m sure the “3 hots and a cot” he’ll get in jail will deter him from being non-compliant in the future.

From the link (emphasis mine):

Elwood told the officer that he has been staying outside the Poverello Center for approximately a month and a half. He also said that he was in Kalispell prior to that. He stated he doesn’t receive mail anywhere because he hasn’t opened a box yet.

Another officer asked Elwood what his duty to register was and Elwood advised it was every month, which is a mandate for transient offenders. Elwood advised that the last time he registered was 3 or 4 months ago in Great Falls. 

When asked what prevented him from registering in Missoula, he suggested it was because he was still traveling around town and finding out where he would be staying. According to court documents, he confirmed that he knew he needed to register every 30 days.

How long did this offender stay in jail? A day. Let me repeat that. On a FELONY failure to register charge, this man stayed in jail for JUST ONE DAY. Why?

My favorite example of giving ZERO FUCKS is from last month, and features the classic maneuver of squatting. I can’t think of a better way to express how little fucks one has to give than to enter an empty residential space and claim it for your own.

From the link (emphasis mine):

An officer asked Deutsch what he was doing in that apartment and Deutsch said that he had been staying at the Emergency Winter Shelter, but for the last week or so, he was placed on an “out,” which the officer knew generally meant that he is not allowed on the property and is refused services in the shelter. 

According to court documents, Deutsch said that he saw this apartment was up for rent on the Internet and he knew that nobody was currently living in it. He said he came to the apartment and saw that it appeared to be empty. He stated that the door was unlocked so he walked in and brought all of his belongings inside. 

Deutsch had quite a bit of personal belongings in the apartment including a flatscreen TV and surround sound speakers. He also taped blankets up to the windows. An officer noted that there was a dirty pan on the stove that Deutsch said he used to cook bacon. 

Is it the position of our County Attorney, our Police Chief, our Sheriff, and our judges that we, as squeezed citizens with a finite amount of patience, are supposed to accept the lawlessness many of these “shelter-resistant” individuals have internalized?

One way to handle difficult topics, like the drug epidemic and corresponding spike in crime, is to AVOID DISCUSSING IT. At a national level, that’s what the Democratic Party is apparently trying to do with primary debates. From the link (emphasis mine):

A Democratic National Committee (DNC) decision to forgo primary debates would serve as confirmation to American voters that the nation’s elections are “rigged,” according to Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“Debates and town halls are part of the democratic process,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek on April 24. “We’re living in a time when there’s a lot of Americans who believe our democracy is broken. And I think both political parties have to bend over backwards to start restoring faith in democracy and electional integrity.

“Americans think the entire system is rigged against them,” he added. “And if the DNC goes through with this—its plan to not have debate—I think that will serve as … an unfortunate confirmation to a lot of Americans that the system is indeed rigged.”

The title of the post is not just an equation that produces ZERO FUCKS, it’s an equation that will produce vigilante responses if our elected leaders want to keep playing games and fighting culture wars most of us don’t want to enlist in. I don’t just see this formulating in others, I’m feeling it brewing in my own responses to this bullshit.

While some of you might have been enjoying the sunset last evening, I took a little walk to the Russel bridge and a tent dweller by the name of Clayton made the mistake of asking me how my day was going. I told Clayton that it was pretty frustrating, since I spent most of it cleaning up Todd Spence’s trash from his little meth production shack on the river.

I had a nice little chat with Clayton, the fucked up Native girl sitting on a chair, and the tall creepy looking dude who I swear used to front the band Midnight Oil.

I told them about Todd, about his meth shack, about his history, then I showed them a picture to drive home the point I’m not fucking around. I think they got the point.

Tomorrow I hope to have the report, including a video, of the five day odyssey it took to obliterate Todd’s presence from the poor tree that gave him the framework to dig-in to the riverbank.

In the meantime, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) could use some monetary love, or you can use the donation button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

When Montana State Veterinarian, Martin Zaluski, answered his phone early Monday morning, I’m willing to bet the LAST thing he expected was a conversation about the consequences of feeding cows cannabis, much less all the other stuff he heard from me in that pre-9am phone call.

Marty works for the Montana Department of Livestock and seemed a little confused about the kind of roadside weed Wally Congdon, the Deputy County Attorney of Mineral County, supposedly fed his cows. Was it just weed growing in the wild? No, I told Marty, it was 200 pounds of commercially grown Cannabis found in a ruptured bag on I-90 by a “good samaritan”.

Last week I had a conversation with Wally Congdon after knocking on his door in Missoula. The reason I knocked on Wally’s door was because, earlier in the week, while driving back from Helena, I noticed that Wally’s cows (visible from the interstate) were milling about on the frontage road. Being such a big proponent of public safety, I wanted to let Wally know about my concern for his cows and any motorist who might come across them in the roadway.

Wally explained to me that a gate on his property has been purposefully damaged by locals ramming it. It wasn’t clear exactly why this would be done on purpose, but youth seems to be a factor. Then, unprompted, Wally Congdon started telling me about parties thrown on his land by locals, and the pot that USED TO BE growing in the hills, which his cows would munch on.

To confirm this part of the story I drove to Clinton yesterday to look at Wally’s damaged gate. Here it is:

Nope, Wally wasn’t lying about the condition of his gate, it looks pretty messed up. So what about the cows? Is Wally lying about his cows being the final destination for the weed he supposedly took from the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office with the help of a maintenance guy who assisted Wally in loading the weed into his personal truck?

Wally is a busy guy, so the caretaking of these bovine steaks-in-waiting is the responsibility of someone else, and that someone else is Tracie McMillan.

According to this article, Tracie McMillan has been managing Wally’s herd for quite some time. From the link:

The manager of the ranch is Tracie McMillan who has been there for eight years. She has known the owner of the ranch, Wally Congdon, since 1977 when he was her debate coach at Hellgate High School in Missoula. 

As with most livestock operations, McMillan has a Battlefield PhD in her type of cattle. 

“These are smaller than Angus or Herefords so they run anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 for bulls, and cows around 800-900 pounds. And we have every color they come in. Gray, silver white, red, brindle, orange and black.”

After taking a picture of the gate, I called the number for Big Sky Natural Beef Inc. and Tracie answered. I said my name was Travis, but that wasn’t good enough. Tracie wanted to know my last name, so I gave it to her and asked if she’d like me to spell it. “I know who you are,” she said. It was an honor to have my reputation proceed me.

I explained how Wally invited me out to see his damaged gate after telling me how much his cows like to munch weed, then I mentioned the court action that occurred on Friday. Tracie isn’t following this action, she said, and would only talk to me if Wally gave her the clearance to do so. I get it. Raising cows that look like hippies and eat accordingly must be a demanding job.

What kind of person does it take to raise Highlanders? Someone who knows how to treat people accordingly.

Am I intrigued by this Facebook post? Yes, since Yellowstone’s infamous character, Rip, is such a GET ‘ER DONE kind of guy, I’m definitely taking note. I also recall, from the show, how a meddlesome journalist is handled: she’s killed and it’s made to look like a river accident. Hmmm, for some reason that sounds familiar.

Anyway, it’s clear from scrolling through Facebook that Tracie truly cares for the cows, and I’m sure part of that is the MONEY that raising cattle for beef produces. Here’s more about the commercially consumable FOOD these cows are turned into:

This breed produces lean but well-marbled flesh that ensures tenderness and a very distinctive flavor. Highland beef is healthy and nutritious with lower levels of fat and cholesterol and a higher protein and iron content than other beef. The Scottish Highlander’s proven ability to produce top quality meat without the addition of expensive high-quality feeds makes this breed the perfect choice for those people who wish to produce beef with natural inputs. McMillan feeds around 3 each afternoon. 

“Feeding this late in the day has proven there is less chance of them calving overnight.”

If marijuana is being fed to these cows, what could happen? When it comes to milk from cow, this article from the New York Times might provide some insight. From the link:

Do cows that consume cannabis act goofy, get the munchies and spend more time lolling about with their stoned buddies?

It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but German researchers seeking to understand the effects of feeding dairy cows THC, the psychoactive compound found in industrial hemp, made a few intriguing discoveries, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature Food.

…

The German study provides both hope for growers and reasons for caution. Researchers discovered that the naturally occurring but limited levels of THC in most industrial hemp had no effect on the 10 cows in the experiment. But when they fed the animals flower buds and leaves — parts of the hemp plant that contain higher concentrations of the THC — researchers found that the cows ate less and that milk production dropped significantly.

I poked around online to see what else I could find. Could a college paper called “Pharmacokinetics of single feeding of cannabidiol in cattle” help answer the pressing question of what happens if you get your Highlander cows, you know, high? Here’s a screenshot:

If there’s work being done at college Ag programs, and if there’s New York Times articles being written, then I think the question of whether or not cows in Clinton, Montana, are consuming Cannabis before getting plated as Porterhouse steaks is an important one.

Or maybe it’s a STUPID question. Maybe a better question to be asking is this: what is the street value of 200 pounds of marijuana? 200 pounds breaks down to 3,200 ounces, and ounces generally go for $200 bucks. According to my calculator that means the weed Sheriff Funke has accused Deputy County Attorney, Wally Congdon, of taking from the Sheriff’s Office could fetch $640,000 dollars if sold by the ounce.

Who would feed money like that to cows?

There is no good explanation for what happened to that Mineral County Cannabis that puts Wally Congdon in a positive light, and I should note Congdon said NOTHING to contest these accusations made by Sheriff Funke in sworn testimony from the stand, something I would have a hard time believing if I wasn’t in that courtroom myself watching this bizarre disclosure.

The implications of what’s happening here extend much farther than the sparsely populated County, especially considering last November Wally Congdon was leading a public meeting in the controversial CSKT water compact issue.

From the link (emphasis mine):

As the deadline approaches to file objections to water rights claims set out in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes-Montana Water Compact, some local officials are considering the effects of the landmark deal.

Mineral County Deputy Attorney Wally Congdon, for one, believes there is reason to object.

Congdon, an attorney with a history working on water rights cases, led a public meeting Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Sanders County commissioners chambers, where he advocated for individuals, and the county itself, to file objections. The meeting brought together several dozen people, as attendees lined the walls and watched from the doorway.

The compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the state of Montana and the United States settled water rights claims in Western Montana. Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines in 2019 introduced the Montana Water Rights Protection Act in Congress, and a year later it was signed into law by former President Donald Trump.

What else could emerge from this Writ of Mandamus process? I don’t know, but you won’t find the context I’m bringing to this fascinating process anywhere else.

If you’d like to support my efforts, the donation button is at my about page, and Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is DESPERATE for some monetary attention as I wrap up the shanty-shack/meth-den clean-up today.

Thank you for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The politically acceptable risk that’s OK to talk about when it comes to the Clark Fork River is the industrial footprint left by Smurfit-Stone, a defunct paper mill our County would like help cleaning up. This risk has been ALL OVER local media thanks to a national environmental group designating the Clark Fork as the 5th most endangered river in America.

From the link:

National environmental nonprofit American Rivers has included an iconic western Montana river in its 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers, citing its proximity to the site of a former 1,000-acre pulp mill still rife with contaminants.

The river is the Clark Fork, which flows from the Continental Divide before running through Missoula, Alberton, St. Regis and Thompson Falls on its journey to Lake Pend Oreille in the panhandle of Idaho. The pulp mill operated northwest of Missoula for more than 50 years before Smurfit-Stone declared bankruptcy in 2010 and walked away from the sprawling site, which includes hundreds of acres of unlined ponds that were used to store wastewater — some of it untreated — as well as landfills and sludge ponds.

Those landfills, wastewater ponds and sludge heaps are dangerously close to western Montana’s largest-volume river and leach toxins into the groundwater, according to environmental nonprofit Clark Fork Coalition, which has long called for federal intervention. More specifically, it would like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the contaminated material and remove the nearly four miles of unengineered berms holding back the river from its historic flood plain.

Upstream from this ticking time-bomb, a shanty-shack/meth-den posed a much more immediate threat to the river, so I scrambled last week to get a dumpster placed in the parking lot of Missoula College for a major clean-up. Not only is the shant-shack gone, I even met some new friends!

Since there isn’t much media interest in covering this politically sensitive risk to the river, too many members of the public remain ignorant about how nasty a homeless encampment can get. The video I will post later this week about the clean-up should help alleviate some of that ignorance, like the ignorance it takes to make a comment like this:

Where is baer? Not cleaning up this:

Or this:

Or this:

This wasn’t the only homeless site that got cleaned up this weekend. My new friend said, despite being told NOT to clean-up the West Broadway Island, it got LOTS of attention from people who care more about ACTUAL cleaning than the POLITICS of cleaning.

If we had waited around for the politics to align with the need to clean some shit, then this particular spot, right across from the University of Montana, wouldn’t look like this:

I am very proud of what you NO LONGER SEE here, and that’s a toxic meth den. It took a lot of hard work, a big chunk of money for the dumpster, and a refusal to be paralyzed by politics to get done.

Here’s what it looks like to be paralyzed by politics:

The Clark Fork Coalition, which started in the mid-1980s amid concerns associated with the pulp mill, says the pairing of topography and carcinogenic chemicals result in a “catastrophe waiting to happen.”

“Every spring since the mill shut down in 2010, we’ve had to keep our fingers crossed that nature will take it easy with spring run-off and won’t throw too much at these flimsy berms,” Clark Fork Coalition Executive Director Karen Knudsen told Montana Free Press. “It’s been 13 years. EPA has yet to tackle the problem despite compelling evidence that cleanup should start immediately. We think our river and our communities can’t wait.”

…

She notes that the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers, upstream of the Smurfit-Stone site, has a similar legacy of industrial pollution, but the removal of the Milltown Dam and remediation of the site has helped Missoula become “River City,” with a vibrant recreational economy.

“It’s just pulsing with nature and it’s a place of community connection and civic pride, so to be stripped of that by a four-mile swath of languishing industrial wasteland [downstream] is just a shame,” Knudsen said. 

All this posturing for the media sounds great, but would it have gotten the meth-den cleaned up? No, since homeless encampments are still being systematically ignored by influencers and the media who stenograph for them, it’s taking angry citizen direct action to get things done.

If you want to be a part of the solution, but breathing in particles of meth dirt isn’t for you, then I suggest supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Are things getting weird? Yes, things are getting weird. Does that entail cows eating weed? Yes, it includes cows eating weed. Did I hear about Highlander cows and their ability to eat weed BEFORE it was discussed in open court? Yep. And all this right around the notorious stoner holiday, 4-20.

The question posed in the ridiculous image above actually came up in court, and it was determined that Wally’s cows ate weed, not “hemp”, because Wally told the Sheriff that, quote, “the geese were freaking out”.

I am not making this up.

What weed? Well, the 200 pounds of weed found on Interstate 90 and reported by a “good samaritan”. Again, this is real, as evidenced by a real news article.

From the link:

A large bag of marijuana found on the side of I-90 was turned over to Mineral County law enforcement on Friday evening. 

A Good Samaritan called it in on Friday night around 11 p.m., Mineral County Sheriff Mike Toth said. He estimates the bag weighs about 200 pounds.

The bag had no markings and was lying on the side of the freeway, torn open, near the Henderson exit when the individual found it. 

Toth said if no one claims it in the next week, it will be destroyed. Its contents tested positive for THC. 

Well, there you have it. And what happened to this weed? I guess you’ll have to listen to the podcast, because I haven’t had a chance to write about this craziness yet. And that’s because I’ve been VERY busy deconstructing a shanty-shack/meth-den.

More on that later, so stay tuned. And don’t forget Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or the donation button at my about page, is waiting for your support.

Thank you!

by Travis Mateer

As it currently stands, SB 523 was tabled this week on a 13-8 vote, but not after the director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, Ellen Buchanan, freaked out in an article claiming people like me have been CRIMINAL in our use of “disinformation”.

Here is a taste of the FEAR these addicts to public money experienced at the mere THOUGHT their access could be reduced in any way. From the second link (emphasis mine):

A group of Missoula Redevelopment Agency staff members and board members lashed out on Thursday at a bill that they say would “destroy” Tax Increment Financing in Montana, saying that there’s been a “criminal” amount of disinformation spread about TIF.

During a regularly scheduled board meeting, MRA director Ellen Buchanan didn’t hold back in criticizing Senate Bill 523 and its sponsor, Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson.

“The one that absolutely just destroys Tax Increment Financing in the state of Montana is a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Hertz and it just puts us out of business,” Buchanan said. “There’s no way to amend it that makes it functional or even just less efficient. It just destroys Tax Increment Financing.”

Buchanan devolves as this “article” continues, barely making sense as she lashes out at former City Council member, Jesse Ramos. Here is another excerpt that highlights how unhinged the possibility of reform has made these addicts (emphasis mine):

Buchanan said it’s a complicated, elaborate bill and she doesn’t think many lawmakers will be able to fully have time to figure out what exactly it would do. She believes it has a chance to become law simply because lawmakers don’t know its full ramifications.

“It’s pretty scary,” Buchanan said. “It’s frightening for staff. It’s frightening for me and it’s frightening to city administration. So not to be a Debbie Downer, but it’s been a tough couple weeks around here.”

She said Tax Increment Financing is one of the only tools that cities and towns have in the state to incentivize the construction of housing for people with moderate incomes.

“This is just a tragic state of affairs,” said board member Tasha Jones.

“You watch what’s going on in Helena and it’s just terrifying,” Buchanan said. “It’s just a microcosm for what went on in D.C.”

In between the YOU’RE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND schtick, and the oblique January 6th reference, I count FIVE fearful adjectives deployed by Ellen Buchanan in this hilarious attempt to STOP any chance at reform before her favorite TOOL is blunted beyond recognition. Did it work?

Yes, it appears the behind-the-scenes efforts of the addicts were successful. So how’d they do it? Simple, they successfully depicted supporters of this bill as Missoula-centric complainers posing a dire risk to the GOOD users of public money in every other municipality across the state. From the first link (emphasis mine):

As the bill was debated this session, it became clear to many observers that the Tax Increment Financing methods used in Missoula were the main target of the bill. Many proponents and opponents of the bill came from Missoula.

On Friday, Rep. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, said he didn’t want a bill aimed at Missoula to affect communities around the entire state.

“My problem (was) with the way this occurred, because it seemed like we were dealing mainly with one community,” he said. “And my perception of this is I felt like I was sitting at a town hall meeting for the city of Missoula, hearing grievances and why some of the grievances were worthy of attention. We also heard comments, electronic correspondence from communities where this policy is working very well. And we’ve heard more of that than we did from the aggrieved community.”

Fern said he thinks it’s bad policy to change a statewide statute based on a particular community.

19 years ago Ellen Buchanan was salivating over her new role leading Missoula’s shadow government. This quote certainly looks different in 2023 than it did when the article was published in 2004. From the link (emphasis mine):

Buchanan said she was looking forward to the MRA’s semi-independent political environment. The board is appointed by the city government, but has a fair amount of autonomy in spending its tax-increment financing funds. In Johnson City, she reported directly to the city manager and found many issues to be caught “on the raw edge of politics.”

Yes, Ellen, when you’re spending OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY there will always be a raw edge to those decisions because it’s the politics that determines WHO is making them.

Getting SB 523 over the finish line was always a long shot, so just the fact it was drafted and made it as far as it did is a HUGE success in my book. And I’m going to build on that success.

For example, yesterday Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) took on the shanty-shack/meth-den and by 6pm we had the structure completely GONE from the river bank. I’ll have a full report covering this cleanup on Monday, so stay tuned.

I’ll also be posting the Week in Review podcast episode later today, after finishing the clean up this morning. If you want to come help, I’ll be on site at Missoula College starting around 9am.

Another way to help my efforts is to use the donation button at my about page. Any little bit helps, especially as I figure out how to get the $900 bucks for the dumpster covered.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!