Do You Understand The Coming Stormfront?

by Travis Mateer

I started watching the not-so-subtle Super Hero satire, The Boys, and OH BOY do we have an interesting piece of programming to consider as Trump’s pick for Vice President gets scrutinized.

Here in Missoula, we are still dealing with the fallout from a REAL storm that hit Wednesday and utterly decimated trees across the valley. The two geographical locations hit hardest are the part of town where I work (Southside of town) and the part of town where my kids live (Mullan area). Here’s a picture of the house I once called home covered by the line of Cottonwoods that blew over ON TOP of the house.

The propaganda we often hear during times of crisis like these is that neighbors help neighbors and isn’t it great that people in this town are so wonderful. The reality, though, can be quite different, like the guy that started shooting at first responders DURING the storm.

The shooting was reported Thursday at 2:17 a.m. on the 100 block of River Pines Road, according to a press release from sheriff’s office spokesperson Jeannette Smith. The location is just west of the Bitterroot River, between Maclay Bridge and Blue Mountain Road.

“A vehicle drove through the downed trees in the roadway and crashed into a nearby tree” where energy crews were responding to hazards caused by the thunderstorm, Smith wrote in a press release Thursday morning.

The driver allegedly left the scene, and “seconds later reports of shots fired and bullets near the location of the energy crews were reported, with at least one bullet striking the responders’ vehicle,” Smith wrote. “Due to video taken at the scene, the male suspect has been identified and taken into custody.”

The type of shooting one of my kids got upset about involves cameras and the Missoulians who keep driving by his house, stopping, and taking pictures. The damage caused by this storm was TRAUMATIC for my kids, so it would be great if the assholes taking pictures of their house, you know, fucking STOPPED doing that shit.

Another way to assess a community’s response to a natural disaster is by checking out the unscripted reactions from local citizens on social media. Here’s an example:

Since we’re talking about managed narratives, there are two other articles that caught my attention. The first is a NBC Montana piece that claims small, local businesses do better in a tough economy than big businesses. This claim accompanies the headline Growth outpaces closures in latest Downtown Missoula report. From the link (emphasis mine):

The openings come despite challenges like high interest rates, which caused many in the marketplace to pause their projects, McCarthy said. Local companies are opening, growing and thriving despite the different hurdles.

The larger economic picture is a bit questionable, McCarthy told NBC Montana, saying local businesses navigate the ups and downs of the economy better.

“What’s really nice is in downtown Missoula we’re a very localized economy,” she said. “We have many locally owned businesses as compared to national brands, so we tend to ride the waves of the economy a little bit better in a more healthy way in our community.”

Is this true? Well, according to this Investopedia piece about how recessions impact businesses, not really. Here’s a screenshot:

The other article that caught my attention promotes the idea that Montana has well-trained individuals capable of using forensics to solve crimes, and that the new class offerings from the University of Montana will only improve the quality of those individuals and their CSI skills. There’s even pictures of students wearing lab coats and using microscopes. Wow!

From the link (emphasis mine):

The course weaves in elements of both forensics and criminology.

“It gives them a good breadth of exposure to everything,” Marko said.

Last week, students visited the Montana Crime State Crime Lab in Missoula. They also listened to a presentation from a Missoula Police Department detective, who fielded questions from the group about what they might expect if they chose a career in law enforcement and how criminal investigations work.

I have a lot of questions after reading this article, but my first question is WHICH Detective from Missoula PD fielded questions for theses students? If it was Detective Guy Baker, well, I’ve seen his skills critically examined ON THE STAND during the Lee Nelson murder trial and I was NOT impressed. In fact, it was that trial that inspired me to develop my shit-talking echo-location methodology for assessing the depths of corruption our famous Detective might be influenced by.

The article continues by describing how these students will be working a case modeled after Missoula’s serial killer, Wayne Nance. This is a particularly HILARIOUS case to use, considering Nance’s reign of terror was stopped by a CITIZEN and NOT law enforcement, since law enforcement couldn’t think beyond their own jurisdictional demarcation lines to see the pattern of violence and understand what they were dealing with.

I tried making this point about law enforcement, Missoula’s serial killer, and jurisdictional barriers last November, but, thanks to a particularly insidious form of political retaliation, I was barred from making my public comment in person.

Tangentially, our serial killer had a name, and that name–the Missoula Mauler–became the name of the junior hockey team started by Michael Burks, a fascinating guy connected to our Sheriff’s Office before running for political office, losing, then later getting ousted from the gym company he ran amidst odd claims, made to me, about drug trafficking.

For those who want to better understand the coming STORMFRONT, I’ll be publishing something this coming week examining Trump’s pick for Veep in order to expose the REAL influence behind the Vance decision, so stay tuned. If you appreciate my perspective, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I lost two days of work because of the storm, and it’s been 25 days since the last donation, so now would be a GREAT time to donate. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!