by Travis Mateer

On Friday, the Missoulian article you see me holding up for the camera posted online and, after the shock of seeing a story I’ve spent over two years laying the foundation for wore off, I compiled all the coverage from Zoom Chron I could find and unleashed this post, which officially kicked off the I TOLD YOU SO TOUR.

The sting of paying EIGHT DOLLARS for two hard copies of the Missoulian was offset by a generous donation I recently received of $60 dollars at my GoFundMe page. Besides the occasional donation, my local reporting efforts have been entirely self-funded since I left the non-profit sector 4 years ago to pursue creating content full time. Is this sustainable? My bank account says no, so I will continue asking readers to help out, when possible, because things are REALLY starting to heat up.

Obtaining copies of the Missoulian turned out to be more difficult than I expected. Wordens downtown no longer carries our local newspaper, nor does the Good Food Store. The guy behind the counter of the GFS said delivery had become too inconsistent, so they just stopped. Great job, Lee Enterprises!

While I was at the grocery store I noticed a delivery truck picking up food, so I went over to include these good Christians from RIVER OF LIFE in my tour. Did they appreciate knowing my unfiltered opinion on the type of man I think Lowell Hocchalter is? Is sure hope they did!

The Missoula County Sheriff’s connection to River of Life is Jason Johnson, the former under-Sheriff who got the litigation party started about a decade ago with his use of the VICTIM CARD when he and pal, T.J., decided to go political. From the link:

County Sheriff Carl Ibsen discriminated against former public information officer Jason Johnson for his political beliefs.

Investigator Dennis Unsworth completed his report Thursday, affirming Johnson’s complaint that he was demoted from the PIO position after Detective Sgt. T.J. McDermott and Johnson announced their plans to run as sheriff and undersheriff, respectively.

It also upholds Johnson’s belief that Ibsen retaliated against him after he complained of the discrimination.

Johnson, now a detective, alleged he lost part of his pay, was required to use his own vacation time to attend official grievance meetings and was forced to work in a noisy area commonly called “the pit.”

This law enforcement drama that arrived in force with the ascendency of former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe this image will help focus my thinking:

If you think I’m being unfair with this characterization, well, let me offer a video clip of Lowell Hochhalter, the chaplain of the Sheriff’s Office, begging God to kill his enemies. Should Lowell win some kind of award for this performance?

Are you beginning to see why I’m wearing a clown nose up top? This is clearly a fucking clown show, so putting on a round red nose feels more than appropriate.

My tour on Friday took me to campus, where the photo-ops were more plentiful than the conversations, but I expect that to change next week when I return to all the fancy places in academia where some education is needed about the recent developments in our failed state of Montana.

Also, I’ve got a fundraiser event I’m trying to put together for next month, so stay tuned for details about a fun way to support my work. This fundraiser will feature me reading some poems I’ve been working on, like my O Chaplain! My Chaplain! ode to Lowell Hochhalter, modeled after the famous poem by Walt Whitman. Will the University of Montana come to regret the education I received? I hope so!

I think that will do it for today’s SPRING FORWARD Sunday post. Now I need more coffee because last night was a LATE night, and the shit I learned from the streets was significant.

Thanks for reading!