Month: August 2024

by Travis Mateer

Have you ever thought about all the amazing things you could do if ONLY you had more money? Guess what, so does local government! The only difference between you and local government is that local government has YOU to turn upside and shake for more money when they come up short, and every year it seems local government comes up short UNLESS they get more loot from YOU, the almighty taxpayer.

For the COUNTY, the “hope” was to keep the inevitable tax hike under the rate of inflation. At least, that was the propaganda we were getting from local media BEFORE the request for a tax levy. From the link:

Missoula County could place a $1.8 million mill levy on the November general election ballot to supplement its infrastructure money, which would raise taxes outside of the county’s general 2025 budget. 

The 5 mill levy, if approved by the commissioners at their Thursday meeting at 2 p.m., would focus on repaving county-maintained roads and providing local match funds for repairing aging bridges. 

Remember, this is the same county that bought a fucking mountain recently. When you read about how local officials can find money to buy a mountain, but struggle to pave roads, doesn’t that raise some SERIOUS questions about the quality of leadership? Especially when we get shit like this when budget season rolls around (emphasis mine):

Currently, the county has a $7.6 million budget for infrastructure needs, which comes from property taxes, state gas taxes and other state and federal funds. 

Of that, County Public Works Director Shane Stack said the county has roughly $600,000 for capital improvement projects, which he said is not enough to cover aging infrastructure. 

“Our needs are significantly greater than that,” Stack said.

I know it’s not polite to ask if these people running local government are retarded, but are they?

Moving on to the city’s financial woes, it’s clear our Mayor, Andrea Davis, took the Harvard class that teaches Mayors how to shift blame when reaching into your wallet for more money. Here’s how the article about the city tax hike begins (emphasis mine):

Saying she inherited a budget deficit on Day One, Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis on Monday night unveiled her first proposed executive budget, one that still relies on dwindling ARPA funding but also includes cuts she described as “difficult” to make.

What are these alleged CUTS to city services? Does the article specify that information, or do we get some other kind of bullshit instead? Let’s see how Martin “Gomer” Kidston continues his “news” article (emphasis mine):

As proposed, the budget pours additional dollars into social services and the public safety net, but it also finds savings by taking from the city’s primary tool to grow jobs and economic development at the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, and by changing the provider who handles the city’s worker’s compensation program.

Boiled down and Davis’s budget calls for a tax increase of 5.96%, or 11.08% when added to the fire levy approved by voters at the request of the city in June. A home with an assessed value of $450,000 – roughly the median price – will see a city-tax increase of $307 a year if the budget is adopted as is.

Ah, yes, it’s the old MRA shell game, a game I know well, having made a little documentary about Tax Increment Financing that details the negative impacts on this community from allowing a shadow government of unelected bureaucrats to throw around your tax money.

Don’t worry, Harvard has given our Mayor the tools necessary to USE WORDS in order to explain why this is not her fault, it’s the fault of things like REVENUE STRUCTURES. Goddamn those pesky REVENUE STRUCTURES!

“Running for office, I knew how important this budget discussion was, knowing some of the challenges that we face as a community, where we have increasing debts and requirements for delivering core services, and a challenge with our revenue structure,” Davis said. “We’re in a situation where I’ve inherited a very challenging budget structure. It’s inheriting a budget deficit, quite frankly.”

Writing this post almost gave me the sads, but that was before I read The Pulp’s pre-election profile on our Mayor and WOW, it’s almost like they knew I was going to watch a Superhero satire show (The Boys) and write some of the most interesting, synchronicity-driven analysis of our current predicament I’ve ever written.

From the link (emphasis mine):

The Missoula mayoral hopeful went on a “candi-date” with me to Lookout Throwing Co. to chuck axes at a wooden target and talk about how she aims to lead the city. 

This kind of date is bound to be, well, off the wall. But it became truly funny when The Pulp’s photographer, Andy Kemmis, had Davis pose holding two crossed axes in front of her body like a super heroine from a Marvel movie. She wore a green and black plaid button-down that nailed the lumberjill theme, with jeans and black boots that could have passed for real wood-chopping footwear if you didn’t notice they had a little heel. 

Kemmis gave her direction, took photos and reviewed them on his camera screen. Dissatisfied, but kinda laughing, he tried using different words to get at the same sentiment: look mad.

I know, how about our super heroine takes one of those axes and just CHOPS DOWN those goddamn revenue structures. I mean, isn’t that what a REAL superhero would do?

I have an idea forming for how I’d like to put out the synchronicity-driven writing I’m working on right now, and it’s old school, so stay tuned. If you’d like to help out MY budget, a donation to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is as easy as a few clicks, and any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

This is the first part of a series I’m writing that will cover some fascinating ideological terrain, like what might connect real white supremacists with Russian criminal networks in this part of the country. Are you ready for this? I sure hope so, because here we go!

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What does the FBI know about White Supremacists in Western Montana and their potential connection to Russian criminal networks? That’s a BIG question I’ve been mulling over these last few years, but until now I haven’t tried to articulate what I think the tips of the tentacles I’m looking at might actually lead to. Now, thanks to the curiosity of Monica Perez, I have a better framework to speculate on what might be in store for this country as the neoliberal project collapses in real time. Let’s begin.

What do we want and, more importantly, WHY do we want it?

Beyond the necessities of food, water and shelter, a theorist by the name of René Girard has argued that we determine our desires by MIMICRY, or copying those around us. Why should you care about this guy and what he claims about human behavior? You should care because, as Monica Perez has discovered, this somewhat obscure theorist has made a BIG impression on the tech-billionaire who is deeply tied to Trump’s pick for Vice President, JD Vance. With this meta-narrative of presidential politics in mind, I’m going to describe two situations in Montana that I believe the FBI is familiar with, and I say this based on VERY good sources.

The source I can name, Angela Mastrovito, told me directly about meeting with the FBI regarding the disappearance and subsequent death of her daughter, Rebekah Barsotti. In a recent op-ed, published by the Missoula Current, Mastrovito said this about the investigation:

The investigation into Rebekah’s disappearance and death remains open. The State Crime Lab faced challenges identifying her remains due to an inability to amplify DNA. Additionally, critical evidence, including some collected by a private pathologist hired by the family and some within the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office, was lost, raising questions regarding the chain of custody.

My proximity to this case allowed me to access and publish some of the evidence gathered by private individuals hired by the family, like the picture of Rebekah’s estranged husband, David Barsotti, with an individual the FBI should be VERY aware of, since he has his own profile page with the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding his ideological connection to Timothy McVeigh.

For those who aren’t familiar with my reporting on this case, here’s a small portion of what the Southern Poverty Law Center has to say about Steven Barry:

Eleven days after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, Sergeant First Class Steven M. Barry, a.k.a. “J.F.A. Davidson,” appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Questioned by reporter Steve Kroft, the Special Forces soldier — his face obscured and voice altered electronically to hide his identity — identified himself as the editor of an underground newsletter called The Resister. Introducing Barry’s “political warfare journal,” Kroft told his listeners that it used “the same inflammatory rhetoric espoused by the radical militia movement and portrays the U.S. government as the enemy.”

“The command says you don’t exist,” Kroft told Barry.

“That’s excellent,” replied Barry. “Great. Exactly.”

The other situation in Montana I’ve been told the FBI is aware of involves the chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Lowell Hochhalter, and his OTHER job presiding over his family-run non-profit, the LifeGuard Group.

What does this non-profit claim to do? Well, with the personal financial backing of Montana’s Governor, Greg Gianforte, this non-profit claims to “help” victims of human trafficking by providing education, a statewide HOTLINE, and a remote safe house in an undisclosed location somewhere in the Bitterroot valley. They also supposedly search for missing people, like Jermain Charlo, but, when I asked about their efforts regarding Rebekah Barsotti, I was told information about their alleged search that Rebekah’s mother, Angela, directly refuted.

According to my source, who knows Lowell Hochhalter VERY well, the former Sheriff of Missoula County, T.J. McDermott, was told by the FBI specific concern related to Lowell, like the existence of an open Adult Protective Services case, but McDermott ignored those concerns and continued employing Hochhalter anyways. Interesting.

And the Russians?

Another source, who owns a local pawn shop and once worked as a Reserve Deputy for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, told me an interesting story a few years ago about a family member who had a car stolen. To understand the subtext of this story, you have to understand that the used car market in this region has chop-shop connections that are well-known to be influenced by Russian criminal elements. I’ve brought this up and received positive confirmation from so many casual conversations over the years, I feel quite comfortable making this general claim.

According to my source, the man’s family member had a car stolen, and the investigator on the case was T.J. McDermott. The stolen vehicle was actually recovered, but the strange thing that stood out to the man telling me the story was how McDermott supposedly DISCOURAGED his family member from pursuing criminal charges against the thieves, almost like McDermott was PROTECTING them. If this story is true, it raises the obvious question WHY someone with a badge would be protecting car thieves.

I’m going to pull back the lens now and introduce another character to our little story, a Russian thinker and provocateur by the name of Aleksandr Dugin. For a quick summary, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about him:

Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the 1980s. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Dugin co-founded the National Bolshevik Party with Eduard Limonov, a party which espoused National Bolshevism, which he later left. In 1997, he published Foundations of Geopolitics, in which he outlined his worldview, calling for Russia to rebuild its influence through alliances and conquest, and to challenge the rival Atlanticist empire led by the United States. Dugin continued to further develop his ideology of neo-Eurasianism, founding the Eurasia Party in 2002 and writing further books including The Fourth Political Theory (2009). His political views have been characterized as fascist or neo-fascist.

Dugin is given further context by a very insightful occult researcher and author, Gary Lachman, in his book Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump. The connective tissue between a thinker like Dugin, and the occult rationale for Aryan supremacy, is definitely there, and, like a muscle getting regular exercise, the strength of these connections appears to be growing in places like the fertile dirt of online meme culture.

Do we need to talk about Super Heroes with laser eyes now? Yes. Yes we do.

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Ok, that concludes the first part of this series, which I’ll be adding to in the coming weeks. If you appreciate my content, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).

I’d like to give a special thank you to all the nice people I spoke with last night as I displayed my weapon of mass instruction in front of the Top Hat. I wasn’t even trying to solicit funds, but somehow managed to raise $82 dollars. Wow and thank you, the money is sorely needed, and one of the conversations I had helped expand my sense of the Russian presence in this part of the country, so it will be included in part 3 of this series.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Is it possible to do no harm while ALSO taking no shit? When it comes to narrative control, I don’t think so. Taking no shit from narrative controllers is NOT something they’re accustomed to dealing with, so it might seem harmful–so harmful, in fact, that BLOCKING me ability to send email inquiries is the next step being taken.

Before I get to Becky’s email, make sure you check out my article at Western Montana News this week about the rumor of a program for homeless car campers that would open up church parking lots for safe car camping.

Now, here’s the email I saw late last night that makes INACCURATE claims that I’ve created an alias in order to email Becky, the Communications Specialist from Parks and Rec.

I contacted Becky after emailing Ginny Merriam and getting an automatic reply that Ginny is out of the office until August 4th. I contacted these COMMUNICATION specialists because I wanted to confirm a rumor that Mayor Davis was out of town at a Harvard training on July 24th, the night of the storm (no, said Becky, she was not). The email address I used–willskink at yahoo dot com–is the SAME email address I’ve used for years. I’ve also NEVER been told to stop contacting these communication people, so why is Becky making it seem like I’ve already been blocked? And, while I’m asking questions, what constitutes an UNREASONABLE INFORMATION REQUEST?

Asking Becky if she was hit on the head by a falling tree branch seems like an unreasonable information request, but trying to confirm a rumor about the Mayor’s whereabouts before writing about it seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe Becky regrets putting so many words together regarding NEEDLE traps and why, unlike BOOBY traps, they are not intended to harm or kill anyone.

If you didn’t catch that post, here’s the definition:

Instead of consulting with her superiors, perhaps Becky should consult the Constitution. I think that maybe the first amendment could have a relevant application here.

In Russia, no first amendment exists, so doing investigative journalism is MUCH more dangerous than anything I’ve experienced during the last 4 years of retaliatory behavior from our local narrative controllers. I’m referencing the Russian relationship to journalism because that’s Matt Taibbi’s frame of reference for answering a question about bravery. Here’s part of his response (emphasis mine):

On the recommendation of one of my readers, I first asked Matt how he finds the courage to do what he does. He told me: “I guess the sincere answer to that is I started my journalism career overseas in post-communist Russia. Some of my first mentors in journalism were actually Russian investigative journalists. They had just been given freedom of the press, free speech, sort of. But it was a very hazardous environment where if you wrote the wrong thing, people were getting blown up by exploding suitcases shot in their doorways, people jumping through windows with crowbars, that kind of thing.”

He continued: “So I watched those people work for like eight years. So anytime anybody talks about people like me being brave, I always kind of feel like rolling my eyes a little bit because, you know, in other parts of the world, journalists go through much tougher things and take much bigger risks. So the least we can do is what the job is. And I think, you know, journalists mostly, we’re not rocket scientists or doctors. The main job requirement is being, you know, willing to say obnoxious things to powerful people. I think, you know, that’s kind of the job baseline.”

I hope this post is helpful for bureaucratic locals who might not appreciate the power they wield regarding access and official responses to citizen inquiries. Luckily, for them, there doesn’t appear to be a lawyer in this part of Montana with the COJONES necessary to put truth ahead of the money and time it would take to address the official effort to marginalize and slander me as I report on things NO OTHER MEDIA in this town is willing to report on.

To conclude this post, here’s a little tune I wrote for the Reddit critics trying to add RACISM and TRANSPHOBIA to the litany of alleged conditions I’m apparently suffering from. But first, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) if you appreciate what I’m going through to produce citizen journalism that matters.

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone!

by Travis Mateer

What will a million dollars do next year that $359,000 dollars couldn’t do during fiscal year 2024? That’s a GREAT question, and the former director of the Poverello Center, Eran Pehan, has some answers for you, and one of those answers is STAFFING! From the link (emphasis mine):

City officials said roughly $359,000 was budgeted for the program in the current fiscal year. But next year, the cost of the program is set to double as various departments seek the resources they need to carry out the demands of the ordinance.

“When we look at both budgets combined, it’s about $1 million in expenses to begin those implementation tasks in the ordinance, and continue doing what we’ve been doing throughout our encampment response in FY 24,” said Eran Pehan, the city’s director of development. “Some of these programs are quite staff intensive.”

Yes, Eran Pehan, I’m sure it will be quite intensive to expand local government in order to track homeless people like me who have NO INTEREST in signing up for your little car camping program. That’s because you want to coerce me into keeping my house on wheels in ONE place for 30 days, and in proximity to other car campers who I have no desire to be in proximity to. That’s not going to happen.

Here’s more from the article about what’s being planned by the city (emphasis mine):

The city’s new ordinance also permits camping in vehicles in the public right of way, so long as the camper has secured the proper permit and follows the rules within the ordinance. But ensuring that happens also carries a cost, the city said.

To manage the vehicle camping program, the city is seeking $152,000 to hire two additional employees. It’s an ongoing expense that covers the cost of educating, permitting, cleaning and ensuring camping compliance.

The request also includes $11,000 for protective gear, fuel and office supplies, and $73,000 to contract cleanup, garbage and towing assistance, Pehan said.

“There are quite a few conditions those campers need to meet that requires staff to physically go to each site or location,” Pehan said. “We check back to ensure they move within 30 days to another site. There’s a lot of in-the-field work for our team, and implementation on the back end.”

It’s going to be FUN watching our city officials try to deal with my car camping status while simultaneously hoping the criminal justice system crushes my ability to report on reality, as I experience it, on the streets of this retarded town. I hope reality doesn’t smack them in the face like a biological male kicking a woman’s ass at the Olympics.

This woman is upset that the culture war landed VERY hard blows to her face, brutally ending her Olympic ambitions. I guess she didn’t realize what kind of Olympics this was.

If Missoula’s virtue-signalers want to show me they care about marginalized populations, like homeless people, then they should help me understand how the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office can euthanize a black man, then shoot the other black man allegedly involved in the altercation that put the first black man in the hospital, where the plug was pulled on his life support. Explain how this can happen in a LIBERAL town like Missoula, and I’ll gladly permit my Bowie and Booty wheels for your adorable effort at “helping” the homeless.

If you appreciate what I’ve sacrificed to find answers about what’s happening in my community, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is waiting to receive your financial generosity. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!