In her first comments to local media as Mayor, Andrea Davis expressed gratitude for the “cross-section” of voters who elected her. Here’s her comment, as reported by KGVO:
Davis told KGVO that she was excited to see a cross-section of Missoulians vote her into office.
“We have Missoulians from young to old from just a whole cross section of this community here celebrating together,” began Davis. “People feel hopeful; people feel excited. We’re having a good time, and I feel wonderful, too. The (city) council has postponed the urban camping ordinance and that will be one of the major decisions as a city and community that we come together and come up with a solution for people that are living unsheltered as well as for residents in the community that have been seeking a solution. I’m going to say right now that we’re going to be working on this issue for some time.”
How many people cast a vote for Davis? The tally thus far is 14,736 votes for Davis compared to Nugent, who grabbed 9,674 votes. What does this mean? For a political cynic like myself, the numbers tell me a MAJORITY of eligible voters in Missoula continue signaling their disgust with the ENTIRE political process by NOT VOTING AT ALL.
Because of this clear public disgust and/or apathy, our new Mayor does NOT have some broad popular mandate to bring her non-profit/female/victim mentality into the realm of public policy development, though I doubt that will stop this political new-comer from assuming that fourteen thousand votes means the rest of this town is excited to continue being told that “urban campers” are all just poor victims of circumstance who deserve subsidized housing while the rest of the town is squeezed by reckless tax policies.
The Engen cabal, who primarily aligned behind Jordan Hess, should be satisfied to have a new vagina-shield to hide behind. If you find that assessment crude, I’m NOT sorry–this is simply how identity politics works, and it’s quite effective. Having a Mayoral vagina-shield means that ANY criticism of Mayor Davis coming from an ideologically divergent man can easily be dismissed as misogyny.
The signaling from Davis regarding the “urban camping ordinance” indicates, at least to me, that the “cross-section” of voters who worship their victim status like a god will be more than enthusiastic to consider every single person without conventional housing as helpless victims, gobbling up meth and fentanyl because our Federal and State governments haven’t given our non-profit organizations enough tax money yet to save addicts from the daily work of staying high.
Personally, I think it would be sexist to treat a female Mayor any differently than one would treat a male Mayor, so in the spirit of equality I’m NOT going to pull ANY metaphorical punches with our newly elected promoter of Zoom Town. I’m sure the response will be a sophisticated debate on the merits of policy and not just claims that I’m a misogynist, right?
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I hurriedly took this image as I was driving because it exemplifies perfectly why I don’t think the Mayor’s race matters much when it comes to the Municipal playbook, which I can sum up in six words: scapegoat the state, panhandle the Feds.
Let me explain how I read this image, since it won’t be apparent to the casual observer. What I see is dependency (Mountain Line), energy (Electrical Wholesale), and the only escape that exists from the burden of paying the taxman, which is death (Garden City Funeral Home).
While the last two are fairly self-explanatory, you might be scratching your head about the “dependency” I’m referring to when I see our local public bus system. Maybe that’s because you don’t notice the dependency created by Federal dollars until those dollars are at risk of going away. From the link (emphasis mine):
An amendment added to a transportation bill in the U.S. House of Representatives could cut federal funding to transportation agencies that provide zero fare service, including Mountain Line in Missoula.
Mountain Line officials on Thursday expressed concern that the so-call “Perry amendment,” offered by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, could end crucial federal funding that’s vital to Missoula’s transit agency and others like it around the country.
If Perry’s amendment is successful, then the progressive agenda of providing free bus rides to people who can’t always keep their dicks in their pants won’t be sustainable. Does anyone else see a problem with this? The funding I mean–hopefully EVERYONE sees the problem with public masturbation on public buses.
Here’s a Mountain Line board member explaining how local progressive transportation policy can’t exist without Federal handouts:
“Mountain Line has universal free fare, and that jeopardizes any federal funding, which is extremely concerning given that a lot of funding comes from the federal government, and that’s what allows us to do a lot of the progressive and innovative things we do here in Missoula,” said Mountain Line board member Josephine Hazelton-Boyle.
Mountain Line switched to zero fare service in 2015 and has seen ridership swell in recent years. The agency also is moving to an electric fleet of busses and is building a new transit center to accommodate growth and changing technology.
How much energy (which of course takes money) will be needed to accommodate all the changing technology we lucky humans can expect from our betters? I don’t know, ask the successful pork man who doesn’t need 10 fingers to haul home the pork, like this Biden support announced last month to help Montana’s TECH HUB dreams come true. I’m sure this has nothing to do with Tester’s dream of winning reelection.
As part of his continued push to bring a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub to Montana, U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced today that Montana has been selected as a Regional Tech Hub by the Economic Development Administration. The highly competitive designation follows a years-long push by Tester to secure a rural Tech Hub in Montana and opens the door for the state to compete for millions of dollars in new private and federal investment. With Senator Tester’s backing, Montana was selected from nearly 200 applicants to receive one of roughly 30 new Tech Hub designations.
Cool, what does this mean? It means that problems created by piece of shit corporations will get money to create solutions for the problems they helped create in the first place.
What am I talking about? I’m taking about a fucking Fentanyl vaccine. Isn’t that hilarious?
From the link:
Opioid overdoses could become less likely thanks in part to new research being done at the University of Montana. In early 2024, a fentanyl vaccine, designed by University researchers in collaboration with Inimmune, a Missoula-based biotech company, will undergo phase one of human clinical trials.
During this early phase, the drug will be tested for its effectiveness at varying doses. Researchers are looking at what dose of the drug safely prevents fentanyl from crossing the blood-brain barrier — the main purpose of the vaccine. The $33 million needed to push the drug through phase one is being funded by the National Institute of Health.
Will either Mayor Penis or Mayor Vagina ever think to criticize the public/private partnerships that local governments are increasingly pimping themselves out for? Doubtful. Mayors are promoters, not criticizers, so it’s up to the media to cast a critical eye on business and government singing kumbaya together.
Since I know how shitty our local media is, here’s my reporting on how this hilarious biomedical breakthrough is being achieved:
Whoever wins the Mayoral race, they should consider taking this new vaccine technology that makes drugs like Fentanyl and Heroin no fun and apply it to local law enforcement. This isn’t MY idea, it’s what I discovered is one potential use of this new vaccine technology (emphasis mine):
Jay Evans, director of the UM Center for Translational Medicine, said he can see this vaccine being given to addicts who are entering rehabilitative programs and to people who may be at high risk of accidental exposures, such as Drug Enforcement Agency officers or soldiers in areas of the world where the use of fentanyl as a weapon of chemical warfare is a concern.
Are you beginning to see why I’m amused by this? Or do you accept the premise of this article and assume the only problem with law enforcement and drugs is “accidental” exposure?
So, in summation, congrats Mike or Andrea on your victory. The ambivalence bordering on cynicism I have for your respective campaigns is more a result of the office your seeking than it is my estimation of your ability to actually do anything beyond the simple promotion of Missoula as a place to live, visit and/or do business.
If either of you get a wild hair up your ass, I’m totally available to take over the reigns from Ellen at the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. I have some visionary ideas that could truly transform that agency from a slush fund into a tool for Montana homeowners to protect what little remains as the RUSH to snatch up property continues to outpace local ability to buy-in to this crazy market.
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