It’s a fallacy to assume correlation means causation, so I won’t take credit for the departure of Missoulian editor Rob Chaney just days after I pointed out his glasses make him look like a pedophile. I’m sure the plan was already in place to have Steve Kiggins take over, and that plan was announced at the end of this week.
Here’s the handsome fellow with the last name that rhymes with the road that cuts through Downtown Missoula. Will he do a better job than his predecessor?
Will Steve Kiggins have some competition with The Pulp? Maybe, but so far I haven’t been all that impressed with this publication that finally emerged 5 years after the Independent was shuttered.
Here’s Montana’s poet laureate, Chris La Tray, bitching about a movie in the woke style I’ve become accustom to hearing from local artists:
Killers of the Flower Moon bills itself as based “on a true American Story.” That is right on point. Because it is a story based on murder, lies, corruption, and theft, all core elements to the founding and continuing evolution of this country. And even this story about what happened to the Osage, as important as it is that people know about it, is slanted toward the white gaze because it was made by a bunch of white people. Yes, they consulted with the Osage to “get things right” but still, is it really the story as told by the people who suffered? No. Would anyone even care about it if it weren’t based on a book by a white guy and made by a famous white filmmaker? Probably not, if only because it wouldn’t have gotten nearly the financial backing without these factors. And the white characters get the bulk of the screen time, and DiCaprio’s cowardly, despicable character in particular is held up as what … some kind of redemption story? Even the couple interviews featuring Leo and Lily I’ve endured watching focus on him with Lily as just a token beside him, which says a lot about where we still are culturally. Lily could be a white woman and she’d still be secondary to DiCaprio, even if she acted circles around him. At least she’s not barely half is age, which is the usual story.
Ah, yes, the problem of white people. Why is Chris La Tray so racist? I don’t know, I’m just some stupid white guy who has spent the last 3 years trying to get this caring, liberal community to care about some dead black men, but I guess I have the wrong skin color to be telling their story.
Despite being a despicable white person, I’ll continue doing this local journalism for a bit longer before hitting the road for less hostile locales. Here are the week’s links:
If you appreciate the perspective I’ve risked a lot to bring you, then consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or making a donation at my about page.
My answer to the question posed by the title of this post? Hell yes Montana is making a mistake by trusting the smiling Hochhalter family as they celebrate getting over $20,000 from our Governor to supposedly help victims of human trafficking at their “safe house” somewhere in the Bitterroot valley.
Does our local law enforcement trust Lowell Hochhalter, the chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, as he listens to the voice in his head he calls “God”? Bob Campbell, the former Missoula police officer who is now a City Council member, seems to trust these “LifeGuards” enough to publicly “like” the Facebook post announcing this nice gift.
If Bob Campbell had called me back BEFORE the municipal election, I would have told him some shit about the dynamics in this town, but he didn’t. I also haven’t received a call back from the Attorney General’s Office, so I guess they’re going to have to find out what I know when the information is published.
Maybe Penny Ronning will call me back? I spoke with her awhile ago, but that was before her failed bid to achieve higher political office. In any case, I sent her an email this morning. Here it is:
If I get a call back I’ll update Penny on what REAL journalism can produce locally. For an example of what real journalism does NOT look like, here’s KGVO “reporting” on the $20,000 dollar check gifted to the LifeGuard Group (emphasis mine):
As part of his ’12 Days of Giving’ effort, Governor Greg Gianforte and his wife, Susan, visited Missoula on Tuesday and donated a portion of his salary to help fund The Lifeguard Group, an organization that rescues human trafficking victims in Montana.
KGVO News spoke with the founder of The Lifeguard Group Lowell Hochhalter just before the Governor arrived at the Florence Hotel lobby. He described the important mission of his organization.
“At The Lifeguard Group we work with victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution, and we have a home safe house for adult victims of human trafficking here in Montana,” began Hochhalter. “The Life House (residence located somewhere in western Montana) has been set up and we’ve been open for the last six months, and it’s exciting, but challenging all at the same time.”
Yes, that’s right, KGVO is reporting the words coming out of Lowell’s mouth claiming this “safe house” has been open for the last six months, which puts its opening operation date around May of 2023. That’s kind of odd, considering this article from the Missoulian, published in February of 2022, was talking about this same safe house, and the buy/sell agreement signed a year previous. From the link (emphasis mine):
The property cost just over $1,000,000, Tami said, half of which was paid for via a donation from the Gianforte Family Foundation. She also mentioned the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation along with the Gallagher Foundation and Montana Beer and Wine Distributors Association as donors.
Tami said Lowell signed a buy-sell agreement on the property about a year ago. They originally had their sights set on another location, but were contacted by a family member who found the current parcel and they decided to go that route.
In terms of selection process for who will get to stay in the house, Tami said it will be based on initial need. The goal is not to have to turn anybody away.
Lowell Hochhalter and his trafficking-fighting family should be glad that local media is so pathetic that an obviously problematic timeline isn’t scrutinized or questioned at all, just regurgitated for an audience that doesn’t know any better because how could they?
If you appreciate the quality of information I’ve been providing to MY audience for years, then please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can use the donation button at my about page.
The woman who ran successfully to be Mayor of Missoula apparently doesn’t know how to do her job, so she recently attended some Harvard program put on by the Bloomberg Center for Cities. What will our newbie Mayor learn? Let’s take a look. From the link:
As new mayors prepare to take the reins in city halls across the country, 27 newly-elected U.S. mayors have been selected to participate in the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University’s Program for New Mayors: First 100 Days, delivered in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.
Mayors will receive world-class training from Harvard faculty, urban innovation and management experts, and other mayors on how to set strategic citywide priorities, build effective city hall organizations, and deliver for residents.
This is disappointing, but not surprising. If anyone thinks Mayors across America have their own minds, think again. Or, better yet, DON’T think, because thinking is dangerous, especially if you think critically about what Harvard and Bloomberg may have to teach a new Mayor like Andrea Davis.
I’m going to use a scary word to describe the ideology our new Mayor is being indoctrinated by, so get ready: GLOBALISM. Yes, that’s right, our Mayor wants to be a compliant little cog in the globalist agenda for America, so that’s what she’s doing. Here’s more from the link (emphasis mine):
As cities find themselves on the frontlines of addressing increasingly global challenges, the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard’s Program for New Mayors is designed to help new mayors make the most of their roles. Through the program, mayors gain strategic insights for strengthening critical leadership and management skills, leading teams to work across departments and sectors, and building out their city hall organizations in their first days and months in office.
What kind of GLOBAL challenges is Missoula facing? The supposed climate crisis is the big boogeyman, of course, along with saving global refugees and bringing them to Missoula so we can experience the joy of foreign damaged humans adding to our local problem of damaged humans in a glorious clusterfuck that will hopefully get bad enough so we beg global elites for a global government.
If you don’t understand the future path for this town and ALL towns, that’s probably because you accepted the bullshit 3 years ago and now don’t understand how Covid was the setup for ushering in a dystopia of globalist control. For those who DO understand, articles like this from Bloomberg were huge red flags when they started rolling out with social distancing and lockdowns. From the link:
The Covid-19 crisis in the U.S. has torn a hole in city budgets, decimating urban economies across the country even as infections continue to roar back and the specter of second-wave lockdowns loom. Las Vegas faces “the most serious fiscal crisis” it’s ever faced. The pandemic is hitting Houston’s finances harder than Hurricane Harvey, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner. Tallahassee, Florida, city officials are trying to “defuse a time bomb” due to $23.4 million in lost revenue this year. Local governments may face a cumulative shortfall of hundreds of billions of dollars, small businesses are closing at staggering rates, and when the temporary boost in unemployment benefits expires, municipal sales tax shortfalls may get even worse.
An international coalition of cities believes that the only path forward for mayors is funding green stimulus plans focused on job creation. The newly released Mayors’ Agenda for a Green and Just Recovery, released July 15 by C40 Cities, an international coalition of urban leaders focused on fighting climate change and promoting sustainable development, was developed by the organization’s Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force. The far-ranging series of plans offers a green prescription for financial stabilization that emphasizes several familiar pillars of progressive urbanism — renewable energy investment, energy-efficient buildings, improved mass transit, and spending on new parks and green space. One core idea: Cities are the “engines of the recovery,” and investing in their resilience is the best way to avoid economic disaster.
One of its recommendations has a more novel ring to it. The agenda recommends that “all residents will live in ‘15-minute cities.’” That term echoes the transformative ambitions of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has doubled down on car-free transit and pedestrian infrastructure in the French capital. Hidalgo made the idea that Parisians should be able to meet their shopping, work, recreational and cultural needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride a centerpiece of her recent reelection campaign. The C40 proposal suggests that following such a model would help global cities live up to the document’s promise of equitable access to jobs and city services for all, and rebuild areas economically hard-hit by the pandemic.
“Fifteen-minute cities, micromobility, and more space for walking and biking are innovative solutions that will help our cities rebuild and restore our economy while protecting lives and cutting dangerous pollution,” Carol M. Browner, former EPA administrator and board chair of the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement supporting the agenda.
If this sounds great then Andrea Davis is your ideal Mayor, Missoula. I’m sure you’ll love your digital dollars and car-less streets and social credits for being a compliant prisoner in this new order the psychopath class has been preparing for the world.
And what better University to be teaching our Mayor how to be a NWO Mayor than Harvard, the place where Ted Kaczynski learned how to be a people person.
Harvard also turned out some anthropologists, like Charles Bohannan, who weaponized their field to more effectively terrorize foreign populations in places like the Philippines. Isn’t that cool?
This town, like many other towns, will now be on track for the globalist transformation into open-air prisons. Soon we’ll all be living in Gaza with psychopaths tracking our every movement, including caloric intake. Is that what you want, Missoula?
If you don’t support the psychopath class attaining global control over all of humanity, then please wake the fuck up and realize that this path to hell really is paved by the “good intentions” of useful idiots who truly believe it’s necessary to trash the American project to save the planet.
Are you going to sit back and let this happen, Missoula? Staying in denial is much easier than waking up and realizing individual autonomy will only be preserved if enough individuals stand up and assert that autonomy in the face of this collectivist bullshit peddled by the psychopath class. So, how many will choose the easy path of less resistance?
I think 2024 is the year we’re going to find out the answer to that question.
If you appreciate the work THIS individual has accomplished by stepping up and challenging the power structure in this town, then consider directing some inflating currency to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can use the donation button at my about page.
When law enforcement does something good, like contribute to a decline in violent crime numbers, don’t you think they’d want to talk about it? Well, violent crimes numbers are supposedly down, but Jeremiah Petersen doesn’t want to discuss this with local media. My question is simple: why not? (emphasis mine):
Numbers from the Montana Board of Crime Control show a spike in violent crime during 2021 and 2022, but now things are ticking back down.
Here’s how the Missoula County data breaks down since 2021:
Aggravated assault dropped from 522 in 2021 to 496 in 2022 and 351 in 2023.
Forcible rapes decreased from 67 to 56 to 37.
Robberies fell from 62 to 51 to 40.
Negligent manslaughter and murder dropped from two to one, then zero.
We reached out to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office to ask what might be driving the downward trend. The department declined an interview and referred us to the Missoula County attorney.
Why did Sheriff Petersen decline the interview? Perhaps the agency he referred local media to offers us a clue about Petersen’s reluctance. After all, who charges and prosecutes the cases that ultimately become part of Montana’s crime statistics? That’s right, the County Attorney’s Office.
The crimes that get charged, or NOT charged, can make it confusing for those outside the criminal justice system. For example, in the summer of 2020 I wrote about how Kirsten Pabst justified NOT prosecuting a drug dealer who stabbed his customer to death in a bathroom over a drug deal gone bad.
Now, three years later, it looks like I might be writing about the County Attorney’s Office potentially charging a young woman for using a knife to defend herself. Here’s the comment the young woman made on the blog post I wrote up in July:
The one you are talking about in this post that defended themselves is me. I cannot express enough how spot-on “anon” was for this incident. I am unfortunately being charged for this and my court date is pending. I was in-fact fearing for mine, my friend, and my boyfriends safety during this night due to the girls. I appreciate everyone who was or is taking their time to really understand what happened and why it did. I was in-fact defending myself. I am currently fighting lies in my said court case. It was indeed a four on two or more specifically a 1-1 and a 3-1, and if not for me defending myself it could’ve been more. I am happy to answer questions about this to an extent, and a huge thank you to the author of this post for bringing attention to the case. I already tried to comment on this once so I’m not sure if they have to be approved but hopefully this gets out there. Thank you again.
What’s going on here? Is this a numbers game to the County Attorney’s Office? Multiple assailants would mean multiple charges, right? Of course there’s a lot I don’t know, but I think asking questions is important.
Another act of collective violence happened recently when six young men allegedly lured their victim into a house where a savage beat down occurred.
From the link:
On December 4, 2023, the Missoula Police Department announced that they are investigating a vicious assault that occurred on the night of December 1st in the 1400 block of Van Buren St. According to Public Information Officer Whitney Bennett, a male juvenile victim was lured into a home where he was subjected to a brutal assault by six suspect juvenile males.
“Videos of the assault have been circulating on social media platforms,” Bennett said. “We strongly urge the public to refrain from participating in the dissemination of these videos. Instead, we ask for your cooperation in preserving the victim’s dignity and privacy. If you possess reliable information relevant to the investigation, we implore you to come forward and contact our Detective Captain Eddie McClean (406) 552-6332.”
When I first saw this headline I was impressed that law enforcement was actually investigating this crime, then I read that video of the violence was circulating online, so OF COURSE law enforcement had to get involved, and part of that involvement is trying to SUPPRESS the evidence that concerning acts of violence are happening in our caring, liberal community.
This morning, while writing up today’s post, I ran across another act of violence being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office. Here’s the request on Facebook for help in identifying the suspect who allegedly shot someone yesterday:
It sure seems like a lot of violence is happening despite what the numbers are supposedly telling us about crime in Missoula. Who stands to benefit from the impression that crime numbers are going DOWN? The guy who wants to be reelected Attorney General, that’s who.
I put in a call to the Attorney General’s office on Monday, but so far no one has called me back. I sure hope they do before I publish what I’m about to publish regarding the grief industry and the Rebekah Barsotti case.
If you appreciate what real journalism can accomplish in a corrupt town like Missoula, then consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can use the donation button at my about page.
I’m trying to assess which part of my public comment was the most offensive. Was it calling our local media terrible a half dozen times? Or was it failing to address our new Mayor, or her Regent, when I finally got myself unmuted and was able to speak via my phone? Or maybe it was inquiring about whether or not our City Council uses “Indian Time” when they don’t want to interrupt certain commenters who go on and on and on?
Indian time is an actual phenomenon, if you’re not aware, and this is one way of defining it:
A notional /cultural system of time which others sometimes derogatorily ascribe to Indians (Native American Culture), and which they sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be leisurely, not rigorous about scheduling, and often very early or very tardy.
If I went over my 3 minutes (I didn’t) too fucking bad, because enduring all the comments bitching and moaning about the camping ban was VERY triggering. Now it seems our local homeless complainers want to complain about multiples shelters, and the beds in those shelters, NOT being enough. Ok, so what is this Missoula community supposed to do about it? Isn’t MRA dropping a couple hundred thousand dollars on a expansing the Johnson Street bathroom infrastructure?
Here’s my comment, for what it’s worth (probably not much):
The candidate who had a chance to become a member of the City Council “horseshoe” last night also commented, and it was pathetic. Thankfully our elected Council members decided a coin flip wasn’t an adequate method for determining who will represent Ward 6, and made the choice themselves to stick with Sandra Vasecka. From the link:
Sandra Vasecka finally prevailed over Sean McCoy in the finale of a convoluted, weeks-long process to select the Missoula City Council Ward 6 representative Monday night.
Votes were 7-5 in favor of Vasecka Monday night, as the current council took up the selection process following a tie in the general election. The tie only emerged after a recount, which Vasecka requested when she appeared to come up short by just five votes to McCoy.
“I think this is an important decision in front of us,” said Council President and Ward 3 Representative Gwen Jones. “Our America is becoming a highly partisan, polarized place.”
Jones, along with Vasecka, Mike Nugent, Heidi West, John Contos, Jennifer Savage and Stacie Anderson went for Vasecka. Meanwhile, Sierra Farmer, Amber Sherrill, Kristen Jordan, Mirtha Becerra and Daniel Carlino backed McCoy. Nugent changed his vote from McCoy to Vasecka in the fourth round of voting Monday.
In my comment I mentioned crime statistics going down. Are they? I don’t doubt that they are, but I’ll be examining WHY I think crime statistics are going down, and it’s NOT because there are less crimes being committed.
If you appreciate my unfiltered perspective, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to support me, or you can make a donation at my about page.
