by Travis Mateer
I only lasted 30 minutes at Tuesday’s first “doc-shop” because, I’m embarrassed to say, I was too triggered to remain in a library space built with public money and filled with obnoxiously self-righteous people who think what they’ve done to promote Missoula’s State Representative, Zooey Zephyr, is NOT propaganda.
If I had been able to remain in this publicly-funded spot where our Mayoral candidates yapped about their campaigns last August, I would have asked the SEAT 31 filmmaker, Kimberly Reed, a very specific question about the Zooey Zephyr supporters who MY SOURCES tell me threw gloves from the gallery, which is the REAL reason the gallery was cleared.
Did that come up yesterday at this event? Not in the 30 minutes I attended, but maybe I missed something, so I’ll ask around to see what I can discover.
I went online this morning to see if I could find any media outlets who reported on this important aspect of the Zephyr uprising and was surprised to see this article from IDAHO. From the link (emphasis mine):
Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, stood at her seat in the Montana House Chamber with her microphone in the air, while the other representatives evacuated the floor as shouts of “Let her speak!” echoed from protesters in the House gallery above.
Protesters threw gloves covered in fake blood on the House floor Monday as police with batons and helmets made arrests and cleared the House Gallery and dissenters continued to shout.
Zephyr, the first transgender woman elected to the Montana Statehouse, had punched in to speak, and Minority Leader Kim Abbott, D-Helena, stood up, along with fellow Democrats, to say Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, had not recognized Zephyr.
Why do I have to go to an IDAHO news outlet to get this detail? I’ll ask John Adams if he calls me back, which I doubt he’ll do, since my message yesterday to the Montana Free Press was pretty dismissive of their news-reporting abilities.
Here’s John Adams “Free” press promoting his friend, Kim, and her piece of political propaganda:
Montana Free Press readers may also recognize Reed, who grew up in Helena and now lives in New York, as the director of 2018’s “Dark Money,” which followed, in part, the origins of this publication. (Following a reprise screening this year of “Dark Money,” the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival will host a talk-back session with Reed and MTFP founder and “Dark Money” subject John Adams in conversation with Big Sky Film Institute Executive Director Rachel Gregg after the film’s 5 p.m. screening on Sunday Feb. 18.)
Read along as Reed offers insights into the process of making “Seat 31,” explains her goals when it comes to telling stories about trans people, and highlights some of the footage left on the cutting room floor.
I missed this talk-back session, so DARN! But if I had attended, and if I had been able to NOT get so damn triggered, I would have inquired about the projectiles that Montana’s media watchdogs didn’t find relevant to include in any of the coverage I saw regarding this legislative shit-show.
Since I’m a kick-ass journalist doing the work the peddlers of propaganda are making MORE difficult with their noise, I didn’t just leave the library in a huff, I did some INVESTIGATING on my way out, since this public asset required a cool HALF MILLION dollars in TIF loot to complete. From the link:
The city of Missoula is set to pay $500,000 toward a new public library downtown. The money is to ensure that the library has a fourth floor.
The Missoula Redevelopment Agency’s board of commissioners approved giving the library’s board of trustees $500,000 in tax increment financing.
…
“I think the public library is a great community asset, and in cases where bond measures went in front of the county, that’s the will of the people speaking. So this passed by a good margin, and that’s the voters saying, ‘This is an important thing to do. We want to do this, and we are authorizing for the funding for this,’” City Council Member Bryan von Lossberg said.
What did I investigate in the library yesterday? Well, I heard someone from the film festival complaining about the lack of coffee at the library because the cafe was closed and they didn’t know why. Interesting, I thought, maybe I should ASK about why this is the case, so I did, and this is what I was told.
The cafe in the library was run by a third-party vendor, and that vendor was NOT able to stay in business, so they closed. Was it a staffing issue? Or was it a homeless people sometimes throw chairs in the library issue?
Since I worked in homeless services for nearly a decade, my bias is toward crediting the challenging patrons of the library for creating a less-than-ideal environment to sell coffee and snacks. This is the same challenge that Subway and Ninja Mike’s experienced at the retail spot by the main bus transfer station downtown, so it’s a good thing Ninja Mike’s rebranded themselves for woke money to become the GOLDEN YOLK.
Yes, it really is this absurd in Zoom Town, but I will NOT embrace nothingness Lisa!
What the hell is this? Consider it an inside joke between me and the tricksters trolling me everywhere I look, so instead of staying annoyed at this sometimes obnoxious phenomenon, I use poetic alchemy to transform it into a more enjoyable form.
Tomorrow, like the song hints at, I’ll be tearing apart the social engineering project called True Detective: Night Country, and you better believe there will be spoilers, so you’ve been warned.
Thanks for reading!
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