by Travis Mateer
A line in a local fluff piece about booze got my attention because it shows how the phrase BLACK LIVES MATTER is nothing more than bullshit marketing.
For context, this particular marketing comes in the form of a coin that a booze brand developed in 2013 for bartenders to signal to each other with. This type of booze, called Fernet, apparently found a San Francisco entry-point into bar culture. And, because Missoula is full of stupid transplants trying to make this place as hip as their favorite collapsing coastal city, this booze coin-culture provided the “reporter”, Kate Whittle, a chance to color her piece with a little empty virtue-signaling (emphasis mine):
Italian distiller Fratelli Branca is one of the major producers, offering Fernet Branca and Brancamenta (the minty version). In the U.S., Fratelli Branca is a popular end-of-shift shot and often referred to as “the bartenders’ handshake.” Buying one for your bartender signals an in-group affinity. The company doles out swag to service industry staff; Plonk bartender Barry Fawler carries a Fratelli Branca specialty coin that says “Black Lives Matter” on the back.
To verify the San Francisco provenance of this bullshit marketing schtick, here’s a quote from the source I imagine Whittle used for her “research”—the company’s own promotional content (emphasis mine):
The first ever Fernet-Branca coin was created in 2013 to consolidate what had long since been a common habit in the bartender community of San Francisco.
Bartenders were accustomed to having a shot of Fernet-Branca when they changed shifts and it became known as the ‘bartender handshake’ whose purpose was to mark the moment in which bartending duty was passed over to a colleague.
Before I get to the black life that didn’t matter enough to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office to stop them from ending it, I’ll note that Plonk is the restaurant where Rebekah Barsotti worked before she disappeared and showed up “accidentally drowned” in the river. Having seen body-cam footage during a criminal proceeding that showed her husband, David Barsotti, drunkenly talking to a Mineral County Sheriff Deputy during an alleged domestic violence incident, I can say that alcohol was DEFINITELY a factor in the abusive relationship Rebekah had ended before she died.
Alcohol was also a factor in the death of Sean Stevenson, that once-alive black man who long-time readers of this blog might be tired of hearing me write about, but it wasn’t just the personal struggles with this substance that contributed to Sean’s death, it was ALSO the deliberate policy decision of the homeless shelter where Sean was assaulted–a “low barrier” policy approach to serving people under the influence–that contributed to the unsafe environment that gave a person (or persons) the opportunity to kill Sean for what he knew.
This policy choice by the Poverello Center led the Fire Chief at the time to restrict first responders from responding to incidents inside the shelter until AFTER the scene had been secured by law enforcement. How many extra minutes expired because of this policy? If the Stevenson family had sued the shelter, maybe there would have an answer to a question like that, but so far that lawsuit hasn’t happened (though I think it should).
Alcohol sales popped up in yesterday’s critical look at the decline of Missoula’s music scene, alcohol was the main factor in the dangerous nap Missoula’s State Senator took behind the wheel after a political event, and alcohol was the soothing substance Pete Talbot was drinking at 3:45pm on a Monday afternoon at the Union Club.
Gee, I’m beginning to think this town might have a drinking problem!
I took my last drink on July 4th, 2020, so it wasn’t booze that brought me to the Rhino on St. Paddy’s day, but my calling to educate this retarded town in the hopes of making it less retarded. The two zines I am currently offering are quite something, and my intention is to cultivate a unique direct-sales approach. You can think of me like the flower lady who used to make the rounds so that men could increase their chances of getting laid by buying some drooping gesture of their desire for a well-lubricated lady.
Was I well-received at the bar? No, I was not. In fact, I got the distinct impression that, had I persisted in telling my “Tale of Two DUIs”, I would have been told emphatically to leave this popular watering hole. Kind of like the MAGA hat wearing woman recently kicked out of a bar for wearing her MAGA hat.
Mass Ave’s Chatterbox Jazz Club is in the national spotlight after a video of a bartender telling a woman wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat to leave the establishment went viral.
In the days since the video posted, the decades-old live music haunt and Indianapolis resident Elise Hensley, the woman asked to leave, have offered conflicting versions of what transpired Friday before Hensley recorded the 35-second clip.
The video, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views and reactions across social media platforms, features Hensley asking from behind the camera why she is being asked to leave the bar. A Chatterbox bartender replies, “Because you’re a (President Donald) Trump supporter.”
The double standard with this incident is impressive when you recall how this same political tribe freaked out after a gay couple wasn’t allowed to buy a fucking cake. Considering how the torching of ELONmobiles is being treated versus THE INSURRECTION, the double standard is not unexpected.
Anyway, now that I know some bartenders might have cool booze coins in their pockets, I’ll make sure to educate them about how other sub-cultures, like cops and soldiers, ALSO enjoy carrying around coins. I even have some examples, which I keep in my very serious looking handmade wallet along with my CRIME STOPPER badge.
The bottom coin with the skull and black cowboy hat is carried by those involved with the Association of Montana Violent Crime Investigators, like Detective Smith, the Missoula cop I talked to when I had concerns about what certain graffiti in Missoula might indicate. Before becoming a cop, Detective Smith was in the media, which I find to quite interesting.
As I expose the Homeless Industrial Complex and ALL the narrative controllers in this town who have contributed to suppressing the story of the Missoula Sheriff’s Office and their ability to literally kill a black man in a private hospital room, conventional media is SO BAD when it comes to the topic of homelessness, they can’t even get the names of people and organizations correct in their abysmally shitty reporting.
Here’s KGVO’s “article” about “impactful ways to support Missoula’s homeless community” (emphasis mine):
In this brief quote the “reporter”, Peter Christian, gets three things wrong. First, it’s Casey DUNNING, not Gunning. And it’s the ZACC, not the Zac. And the address is 216 Main, not 316 West. Was Peter Christian drunk when we wrote this?
The deplorable media environment in this town is a big reason why I decided to drop the pseudonym and take my direct knowledge about local corruption straight to their stupid fucking faces, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing.
If you’d like to help out my no-filter approach to local Gonzo journalism, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to help.
Thanks for reading!