Month: April 2023

by Travis Mateer

On Wednesday I had my recorded chat with Monica Perez for her spin-off show, Deep Dives, and despite the stress of technology and the “soft” lockdown my kids were in, the conversation went pretty darn good, if I say so myself, and will be available soon.

If you listen to the podcast episode you will hear an aha moment I’ve already heard Monica reflect on in her most recent offering, and for me that’s very validating and MUCH appreciated. What’s the epiphany I can claim an assist on? It’s the gaslighting of the entire human decision making process in order to justify bringing in AI to fix the false problem of human fallibility.

I use the problem/crisis of human burnout within the criminal justice system for people like me AND Kirsten Pabst, our lead Missoula County Attorney. Pabst’s mission to raise the alarm about the impacts of vicarious trauma for prosecutors at the national level will, I’m asserting, contribute to a perceived need for a more objective force to help us messy humans, and that force will be the solution currently being considered for all kinds of applications: artificial intelligence.

Right after hearing Monica reference our conversation I read the latest piece by Jonathan Turley about being negatively impacted by erroneous claims MADE UP against him by ChatGPT. From the link (emphasis mine):

Yesterday, President Joe Biden declared that “it remains to be seen” whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) is “dangerous.” I would beg to differ. I have been writing about the threat of AI to free speech. Then recently I learned that ChatGPT falsely reported on a claim of sexual harassment that was never made against me on a trip that never occurred while I was on a faculty where I never taught. ChapGPT relied on a cited Post article that was never written and quotes a statement that was never made by the newspaper. When the Washington Post investigated the false story, it learned that another AI program “Microsoft’s Bing, which is powered by GPT-4, repeated the false claim about Turley.” It appears that I have now been adjudicated by an AI jury on something that never occurred.

When contacted by the Post, “Katy Asher, Senior Communications Director at Microsoft, said the company is taking steps to ensure search results are safe and accurate.” That is it and that is the problem. You can be defamed by AI and these companies merely shrug that they try to be accurate. In the meantime, their false accounts metastasize across the Internet. By the time you learn of a false story, the trail is often cold on its origins with an AI system. You are left with no clear avenue or author in seeking redress. You are left with the same question of Reagan’s Labor Secretary, Ray Donovan, who asked “Where do I go to get my reputation back?”

That last point of emphasis is the whole point. Whether we’re talking about a landlord by the name of Blackrock, or an AI judge using algorithms to prioritize caseloads within our bloated and inefficient criminal justice system, the removal of clear avenues for redress will further allow power to consolidate control as technocracy is embedded deeper and deeper into our cultural tissue.

The motivation to continue opposing these trends, at a local level, is being sustained one donation at a time by regular people, some of whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting recently. Which brings to mind the issue that some you readers may not be comfortable donating online, like the current options of supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or the donation button at my about page.

If you would like to send me a donation, drop me a line at my email address–willskink at yahoo dot com–and I’ll give you a physical address to send cash, check, or boxes of Legos. I take many different kinds of currency, including trade, so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for the support, and stay tuned for AA report number FOUR for my TIF. This one has a musical segment brought to you by Noise Complaint.

Happy Easter1

by Travis Mateer

While I ramp up my reporting efforts to keep up with all the action in Zoom Town (Missoula) AND in Helena, I’m wondering why the social media presence of the LifeGuard Group has been so sparse lately? I mean, aren’t there plenty of missing persons to pretend to look for?

The first post of April for the LifeGuard Group finally appeared after just four or five posts in March. Here it is:

What about HB 112 has Lowell Hochhalter celebrating? And, is the celebration a family affair, since the LifeGuard Group employs the majority of Lowell’s immediate family?

I clicked on the link to read the opinion piece promoting this bill to see what’s being claimed about the benefits of passing it. From the link (emphasis mine):

As the state’s foremost police organization representing nearly 800 municipal officers from 25 different agencies, we are proud to support Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Representative Jodee Echert’s legislation that strengthens our state’s human trafficking laws and increases penalties for those who participate in human trafficking.

House Bill 112 will clarify the crime and make it easier for law enforcement, prosecutors, victims, and potential jurors to understand by simplifying the current statute into four clear, straight-forward categories. It will also increase punishments for offenders who encourage or compel a victim to engage in commercial sexual activity and those who patronize the system. Not only will the overall sentence be increased, but mandatory minimums will be put in place for the worst-of-the-worst offenders.

Sounds good to me. But where is the opportunity for this guy?

The opportunity I see in the opinion piece is the DESPERATION being communicated. Why is there desperation? Because there just aren’t enough resource, gosh darn it. So money, money, money (emphasis mine):

We are also in desperate need of more human trafficking agents on the streets to help our local agencies find these criminals and hold them accountable. Right now, the Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation only has two agents to assist the entire state in human trafficking investigations – that’s just not enough. In the last seven years, the number of cases they track has skyrocketed from seven to 106, an increase of 1,400 percent.

We also support the attorney general and governor’s proposal to increase the investment in public safety which would add four human trafficking agents to DCI’s current team that would be available to help us fight human trafficking in our communities and provide comprehensive coverage of the state. To help prosecute the increased caseload, the proposal would also fund an additional prosecutor.

What kind of additional resources will these state hires bring to our geographically immense state? And how will they integrate with the BEER TRUCK ARMY I wrote about last September? I will be curious to seek answers to these questions.

Moving from the desperate STATE of affairs combatting trafficking across Montana to some local issues, it seems our growing government is having some trouble staffing buses and opening gates. From the link:

Two key Missoula routes for Mountain Line are temporarily losing service as the public transit agency deals with another shortage of drivers.

Mountain Line announced Tuesday that, “due to an ongoing staffing shortage”, it is scaling back service on Routes 8 and 12, running buses hourly, instead of every 30 minutes. Those routes serve the University of Montana, 5th-6th, Community Medical Center, Southgate Mall as well as Downtown Missoula and the South Hills.

I guess this will be a problem until Mountain Line finds more trained bus drivers, or the robots get good enough to drive buses.

What about opening gates?

Why are the gates to the West Broadway island closed at 11:30am on a sunny Thursday morning? Ask Donna Gaukler, I was just trying to go for a bike ride while ignoring things like discarded chicken left to rot unopened in its plastic wrap.

I really don’t like stupid waste and burdensome infrastructure that can’t be properly managed by the bureaucrats who get decent paychecks while the world burns. And I’m not being rhetorical about that, it really is, and in some places that inferno is being directed at the proper targets.

Meanwhile, my former employer has this to say about the encampments popping up around Missoula:

During Thursday’s meeting, the Homeless Outreach Team noted they’re already seeing an uptick in outdoor camping in the city, adding so far people are keeping their camping areas clean.

Why do they utter this provably false bullshit about CLEAN camps? Because local media will publish it. Well, I publish things as well, and you can help by supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page. Here’s a video to conclude today’s post. Thanks for all the support!

https://vimeo.com/815536240

by Travis Mateer

Date: April 4th, 2023
Time: 2:30pm-5pm
Location: Kim Williams Trail and
          North Hellgate
Business contacts: 1
Government/community contacts: 3
Houseless contacts: 0

The sign above is obviously old, and the grass around it is the brittle remains of last fall’s growth. I took this picture on the south side of Hellgate canyon, where I saw 4 tents and some sporadic clusters of trash, probably from the warmer months last year. Here are some more images:

The sites I ran across seemed mostly inactive, and the trash accumulation was not terrible. Not like the location on the other side of the river.

One of the reasons the Kim Williams trail isn’t bad yet is ease of access, or lack thereof. I found this out the hard way with my bike on a trail where the snow has yet to fully melt on the south side of the canyon, so it’s a slog to get to the more remote spots where camps will blossom like trashy Rhododendrons as the weather warms.

The government/community contacts I logged were TWO pleasant conversations, and one message left with the Clark Fork Coalition. One conversation was with an adjunct professor on campus, and the other conversation was a phone call to Fish Wildlife & Parks. Normally calls with government agencies about homeless camps don’t go that well, but my style of honest, direct talking can be weirdly inspirational.

The business contact was, funnily enough, the WGM Group, a well-known player on the MRA-enabled development scene. I popped in to inquire about camps along the riverbank because this nasty camp is close to their location on East Broadway.

Will volunteers, during an Earth Day cleanup, really be able to address this monstrosity? That’s what I’m hoping to talk to the Clark Fork Coalition about. I’m also going to tell them about my TIF, like how an outing like this one only cost my fund a mere $72.65 for 2.5 hours of outreach, 1 hour of report-writing, and $2.65 to park my van on campus for 90 minutes.

Here is the video of my outing:

https://vimeo.com/814850734

As a reminder, the main reason I’m doing this is to promote REAL public safety by assessing what’s actually happening in our community before April 10th, including the revolving door of the criminal justice system. A recent example of this dangerous revolving door that puts dangerous people back on the streets occurred recently with a houseless man by the name of Michael Sorlie.

Here is the jail roster showing Sorlie AND another dangerous man, Todd Spence, getting released from jail in a short amount of time.

How can Sorlie already be out of jail after a FELONY assault with a weapon charge?

For additional proof that this person is NOT someone who should be immediately released from jail, here is what Michael Sorlie was up to in 2015. From the link:

A Missoula transient who allegedly threatened to “gut” a woman who was reading in her car near the Northside pedestrian bridge has been deemed incompetent to proceed by a psychologist and will undergo another independent psychological evaluation at the Montana State Hospital. 

Michael Sorlie was slated to enter a plea Thursday in Missoula County District Court before Standing Master Brenda Desmond, but instead state prosecutors and his defense counsel, Neil Leitch, discussed the man’s mental health.

Leitch said Sorlie has been in isolation for the nearly 50 days since his arrest and he is concerned about the amount of time it will take the state to place him in the mental hospital. The waiting time is currently three to eight months, he said. 

If you appreciate the work I’m doing to promote public safety in Missoula, consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). You can also make a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

After making a public comment about public safety at the Public Safety Committee, I returned to a more pressing matter of concern: the threat that led to Missoula County Public Schools system to go on FULL lockdown at Hellgate High School, and SOFT lockdowns in every other school, including the two schools my three kids attend.

You’re probably wondering, what the hell does the Easter Bunny has to do with this threat to public safety? I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s take a look at what was reported yesterday:

Active shooter threats sent Hellgate High School into a multi-hour lockdown on Wednesday, prompting three female juveniles to be detained as persons of interests in connection to the threats. 

There is no longer an active threat to the public, according to a press release from the Missoula Police Department, and officers are no longer seeking anyone else after the three people of interest were detained.

Calls came in to dispatch about the threats just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday

“The reporting party advised the threat was sent over a social media platform, where a firearm was involved and was confirmed through a credible source,” the police press release stated. Missoula police along with law enforcement from other agencies and Missoula fire and medical officials surrounded the block, setting a perimeter and canvassing the school that sits along South Higgins Avenue.

This article contains the most recent LANGUAGE update about what happened, and by that I mean the the word CUSTODY was updated to the word DETAINED. Isn’t that nice? How about next we get some helpful details, like WHERE these girls were when they were “detained”?

This is where the Easter Bunny enters the story. Or, to be more specific, the PERSON wearing the Easter Bunny costume and getting paid not nearly enough money to be a furry springtime Santa with chocolate eggs.

I approached the Easter Bunny inside Southgate Mall because I couldn’t find the kiosk where mall security usually posted up, but that damn bunny didn’t break character for a second. Thankfully, a short, older woman (not an elf) came over and told me the security kiosk is no longer there, but she would be happy to call the security person.

The mall is where that local newswire known as “the grapevine” said a SWAT vehicle was seen earlier in the day. Did I confirm those three persons of interest were “detained” at the mall? Not yet, but I did call the manager of the mall and left a message. So far, I haven’t heard anything back.

Some other noteworthy things worth mentioning include the noon walk out students at Hellgate High School were organizing yesterday for students who don’t feel safe, and the introduction of the term “soft lockdown” to my kids vocabulary of institutionalized fear.

This NBC Montana piece does a little more with details by describing a location where the persons of interest were NOT found (emphasis mine):

The search of a private residence was executed where the individual of interest was not located.

A little further in the article we get closer to that elusive “where”, but, still, nothing (emphasis mine):

The Missoula Police Department acted on information provided from the public, located, and detained three juvenile females as persons of interest regarding the threat at Hellgate HS. The Missoula Police Department is no longer seeking a person of interest as previously stated.

Is there an actual reason for law enforcement to be withholding the location? I can’t think of one, as it pertains to public SAFETY. But if we’re talking about public RELATIONS, well, that’s something else.

I know the Southgate Mall once feared the future POSSIBILITY of blight, since I was talking to Monica Perez yesterday about it during our recorded podcast conversation, but now I’m starting to wonder if the Ohio investment group that now owns our mall might ALSO be afraid of bad publicity.

Before this incident I was already weary of how the mall is used by wayward youth, but now I’m VERY weary, especially if it turns out the mall is where these girls were detained yesterday.

And maybe THAT is why this little detail is being left out of local news reports about a threatening girl expressing lethal intentions and pictured here with a smiley face on her forehead:

I feel absolutely terrible about what our culture is doing to our kids. I have a lot of thoughts on this that I’m going to withhold for now, but I’ll be watching how this particular threat plays out, and what kind of information the authorities deem appropriate to tell the public about.

If you appreciate my independent journalism, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page. Speaking of my TIF, report #3 will be posting later this morning, so stay tuned and, as always, thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

By the end of the legislative session in Montana, which will be early next month, the information in this post could be useless. But for now I’d like some reader feedback on the probably NOT very good idea of featuring a local Cannabis dispensary as a one-time, or reoccurring, sponsor of the Week in Review podcast.

After talking to a lobbyist and the Montana eduction guy with the Cannabis Control Division, which is housed under Montana’s Department of Revenue, I am armed with the information I need to craft a podcast/Cannabis sponsorship advertisement, but should I?

Since I’m so damn generous with all the information I give away for FREE with five FREE articles a week and a FREE podcast every Sunday, I’ll just explain what ANYONE can do if they want to court a Cannabis business operating in the over-saturated, wild-west Cannabis market here in Montana.

The first thing to understand is any prospective ad can say NOTHING about the product being sold. Can you offer a promo code, I asked the education guy? No. Can I say anything about deals? No. Can I even say this business sells Cannabis? Yes, I was told. Ok, so what else can I say?

If you want go down the thorny road of monetizing the existence of a recreational Cannabis market in Montana, essentially what you can say is the name of the business, the location of the business, and its hours of operation. There are a few more things, but I’m not gonna show ALL my cards just yet.

Maybe I should reach out to local developer/music-venue-owner/weed-dealer, Nick Checota, and ask him how HE navigates owning Groove and promoting this weed business at his other businesses (if he does), like his music-promoting business, Logjam Presents, which features shows at Checota-owned venues, like the Wilma and the Top Hat Lounge.

It’s kinda funny to see ALL Checota’s Missoula businesses signing on to the downtown uprising against City/MRA redesign plans like they’re separate entities and NOT the tentacles of a local oligarch still smarting from getting his TIF scheme destroyed by wily locals.

Anyway, without this market able to, you know, directly MARKET ITSELF, what exists is a lot of fear and misinformation among the dispensaries I communicate with about what they can and CANNOT do. Ostensibly this is to keep a strict leash on products that could harm children, unlike other products that you might be hearing about right now because of…marketing?

Later this morning I’ll be having a conversation with a podcaster who doesn’t peddle Blue Chew or push crypto, and I’ll be excited to share the successes of my strategy to keep my focus local. Just don’t measure my success against the numbers inside my bank account, because that shit is running on fumes!

If you’d like to put figurative and/or literal gas in my tank, I’m currently accepting all monetary denominations at Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) and the donation button at my about page.

Thank you for supporting independent journalism!