Month: March 2025

by Travis Mateer

Once upon a time Missoula had a vibrant music scene. Venues like Jay’s Upstairs were well-known on the circuit of traveling acts, like the young Jack White who performed a couple of months before I moved to town.

Imagine seeing a 24-year-old Jack White and a 25-year-old Meg White rocking faces in front of a giant banner advertising $1.25 pints of PBR during Happy Hour at Jay’s Upstairs, right here in Missoula. It’s not urban legend, it actually happened on June 15 of 2000.

Now, a quarter century later, the main stages for local audiences to see local bands are the VFW and the ZACC, the latter controlled by Nick and Robin Checota, the sellouts of Logjam Presents who inspired the reptile in the image above.

A recent Kaimin article got me thinking about this lack of local venues, and the trouble our musically-inclined youth get into when they just want to rock out. Here’s a little perspective from the college rag that reports on college culture (emphasis mine):

In addition to the closing of venues throughout the 2010s, such as Elk’s Lodge and an upstairs space in the Union, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into the local music scene.

“It made a problem that was already existing worse, because I feel like [now] there’s a greater disparity and disconnect between the professional big stages like the Top Hat and The Wilma and DIY, local music,” Lakatua said.

The Missoula bar scene, along with venues like Top Hat, The Wilma and KettleHouse Amphitheatre often prioritize touring acts. Venues operated by Logjam Presents, a subsidiary of Live Nation, recently hosted large-name acts like the Pixies, boygenius and Pearl Jam, among others. However, Daisy Chain co-founder Lakatua doesn’t think commercial venues accomplish the point of a show.

“Making [music] about bar culture and drink sales is counterintuitive to me, [and] to the core of why live music is so beautiful,” Lakatua said. “It’s a community-generating event, and I think that everybody should have access to that.” 

I think this is a great breakdown of the growing tension between local musicians and the people, like Nick and Robin Checota, who want to sell big name acts (and booze) to deeper pocketed people (tourists) than cash-strapped locals.

Here’s what THAT segment of the music scene had to say to a college reporter (emphasis mine):

The entertainment trade publication, Pollstar, listed Logjam as #26 of the top 100 promoters worldwide. The Kaimin reached out to Logjam for comment but did not hear back.

Later in the article the ugly phenomenon of empowering cancel babies is referenced as an added layer of pressure to local acts, like Florabelle, a GREAT group of talented musicians who got THIS kind of treatment recently.

It appears that responding to CANCEL pressure is ALSO not worthy of providing comments to a college newspaper about. Fucking wimps (emphasis mine):

The festival will feature popular acts, including headliners Hozier and Kasey Musgraves, who have 48 million and 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify, respectively. Additionally, the festival lineup boasts musicians from Los Angeles, Boston and London. 

“[The festival wants to] use this opportunity as a launchpad to bring in national touring artists,” Osburn said. “But at the same time, we also want [Zootown Festival] to be a platform for local, regional and statewide artists to be able to perform and grow on the festival as well.” 

It previously included Give It To ‘Em Florabelle, a blues-influenced local band, but it was removed from the lineup around the time it received community backlash for frontwoman Cara Schulz’s appropriation of Indigenous art and regalia in her performances. 

Representatives for Zootown Festival declined to comment on the decision to remove the band from the lineup. Without Give It To ‘Em Florabelle, the festival now includes performances from only two Montana-based groups, The Dead & Down and Cole & the Thorns, and only one Missoula-based group, Why We Went West, out of a lineup featuring 23 acts.

To highlight how this same college media platform is helping shoot creatives in the foot by proliferating a degree of cognitive impairment when it comes artist controversies, this piece about “art in an imperfect world” poses some troubling questions about how to navigate the cancelling of a beloved artist, like Neil Gaiman (emphasis mine):

Amidst all the turmoil and change right now, one thing has remained the same — new information continuously comes out about authors, creators and artists.

One comes to mind recently: formerly beloved sci-fi and fantasy author Neil Gaiman. The accusations of sexual abuse sparked controversy about the author. According to the BBC, eight women have accused Gaiman of sexual misconduct, some of which reportedly occurred in the presence of his five-year-old. 

Not only have questions arisen about Gaiman, but also about the consumption of art and problematic creators as a whole. Can you still buy their books? What if they’re second-hand? Is it okay to watch a television show or movie they helped create, since other people worked on it as well? 

“What do you do with an author who has been profoundly influential in literature, who has this dark background, problematic background?” Rob Browning, director of literature at the University of Montana, said about H.P. Lovecraft, a known poet and racist. 

Lovecraft was a fantasy and horror fiction writer in the early 20th century. He is credited with creating the Cthulhu mythos and wrote to the concept of cosmicism, meaning humanity is simply a small part of the whole universe. He was also a white supremacist who named his cat a racial slur and supported Adolf Hitler for part of his life.

With this “problem” identified by a college professor teaching college kids about the grown up world they are ostensibly being prepared to enter (funny, I know), what’s the solution? Find a black person who likes Lovecraft. Then it’s ok (emphasis mine):

Browning pointed to the work of fellow author Victor LaValle, a Black man who loved Lovecraft’s work when he was young, as a possible way to interact with problematic media. 

“He creates a kind of critique of the problematic aspects of Lovecraft, while at the same time engaging with his mythology and his aesthetics,” Browning said. The book in question, “The Ballad of Black Tom,” revisits a particularly racist short story of Lovecraft’s from the perspective of a Black man. 

I wish this was intended as humorous performance art, but it’s not. And, I would argue, it’s a contributing factor to why Missoula has too few stages and too many snakes and cancel babies. This does NOT make for a conducive environment for creatives. As someone getting his first amendment shredded, I’m trying to sympathize.

If you would like to support THIS artist and citizen journalist, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to do it. You can also buy one of my zines at the Loose Moose, or, if you see me with a contraption like this strapped to my chest, you can give me money directly:

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Over the weekend I discovered an interesting scene in a handicapped bathroom stall inside our trillion dollar library, the same library that wasted $365,000 dollars on a “DNA climber” that no one can climb. Since it was after hours (I was on the radio) the drug residue and paraphernalia I discovered had obviously NOT been discovered by the janitor, otherwise I assume it would have been cleaned up.

Here’s what I found:

Mocking the obvious failures of the Homeless Industrial Complex (HIC) is getting more difficult because our local homeless enablers are SO RETARDED that mockery can quickly become a reality. For example, I could try and make a joke about how sad it is that homeless drug addicts don’t have dollar bills to snort drugs with, then extend this joke to a fake program that would give dollar bills to addicts so that they can snort their drugs with dignity, but I’m worried organizations like the United Way might take a retarded idea like this seriously and actually implement it.

I mean, if they’re distributing NARCAN from machines like candy bars, how inconceivable is it that these idiots would give addicts dollar bills to snort drugs with?

This NARCAN program rolled out last March, as reported by the Montana Free Press. From the link (emphasis mine):

The United Way of Missoula County is facilitating the Dose of Hope project in partnership with the Missoula Drug Safety Coalition and Missoula Public Health in an effort to reduce the county’s opioid overdose deaths, which increased 83% from 2019 to 2022.  

“We want to see those fatalities go down, and if people have access to Narcan, we’re less likely to see more overdoses,” said Leah Fitch-Brody, substance use disorder prevention coordinator for Missoula Public Health. “Even if a more potent batch of drugs is coming in with fentanyl in them or opioids in them, this can address that.”  

Once installed in April, a free outdoor vending machine at the Mountain Line bus station will be accessible 24/7. People will have access to indoor machines at the Missoula Food Bank, the Johnson Street shelter and Hope Rescue Mission’s drop-in center during business hours. 

The United Way received about $43,000 from the Independent Emergency Room Physicians Trust to purchase and maintain the vending machines. Narcan nasal spray for the machines will be provided for free from the state through a federal grant. 

Despite new programs and more money being thrown at the crisis of addiction and homelessness, it just keeps getting worse. What do they say about people who do the same thing while expecting different results? They say those people are FUCKING CRAZY.

The bathroom where I found the drugs and paraphernalia has a special place to dispose of needles. This bathroom also has the conventional trash technology known as TRASH CANS. Both of these convenient receptacles were NOT USED by the drug addict. Go figure.

The following day, after doing the radio show with my friend, I walked downtown near the library and found the perfect bottle of empty wine left at the bus stop right across from the library. I don’t usually stage photo-ops, but I couldn’t help myself. I placed the empty bottle on the bench and took a picture before the walking across the street and putting the trash where it belongs.

Going back to the retarded article about the retarded program run by retards, it’s always important to highlight how “marginal populations” are affected, like Indians (feathers, not dots). Here’s some numbers that show how caring our local media is when it comes to Indians doing drugs:

Montana’s Native American population is disproportionately affected by overdoses, Fitch-Brody said. In 2022, the drug overdose death rate among American Indian/Alaska Native residents was 67.9 per 100,000 people, compared to 15.6 per 100,000 among white Montanans, according to the health department. 

Lack of Narcan accessibility is one of various factors that play into the disparity, Fitch-Brody said. 

How many in-patient treatment beds exist across the state for drug addicts? This article doesn’t provide that information, but it should, because if more Montanans knew how little help there was for people, we would be less inclined to let retarded service providers coddle an entire sub-culture of drug users who move like water to the lowest places of least resistance.

If this retarded town and its kangaroo-run courts have their way, my criticism of non-profit HIC enablers will no longer be protected by the first amendment.

Why do I persist, you might be wondering. Am I just an angry former service provider trying to settle scores with my former colleagues?

On Sunday, after I cleaned up drugs INSIDE the library and the empty wine bottle outside it, my little girl went to the library to get books, and it’s for her and her brothers that I persist in exposing all the people who once appreciated and respected my role at the Poverello Center from 2008-2016, people like Ellie Boldman, the former director of the Pov.

If you appreciate the many sacrifices I’ve had to make to continue doing my local work, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Last week I learned that I had two choices regarding the lawfare against me: I could be right, or I could be smart, but I couldn’t be both. I chose to be smart.

When I wrote this blog post about a political event at Bonner park in support of Palestinians on July 7^th, 2024, I wasn’t thinking about the geographical limitation of my movement imposed on me by a substitute judge the previous August. When I saw the flyer for the event at a grocery store, what I thought about was Rupert, the pro-Israel dude who kept showing up at all the pro-Palestinian events with an Israeli flag and little bullhorn.

Was Rupert a local resident or a provocateur, like the guy during the Occupy Wall Street protest in Missoula who showed up from Oregon and quickly started talking about Jewish conspiracies? That’s what I was wondering as I approached Rupert, chatted him up, then took a picture for my post. I also took a picture of Legos.

When I was given my legal options a few weeks ago, they weren’t great. In my previous case, which dealt with similar dynamics, the slow speed of my departure from the parking lot of a public event helped the city make the case that I knowingly and purposefully violated the order of protection against me because, after being told my petitioner was going to attend the event by someone from the United Way, I didn’t immediately leave.

The items I had displayed for the people attending Missoula’s STATE OF THE COMMUNITY event were items I had removed from the riverbank during an urban camp cleanup, which I organized in response to the arrest of Ryan Tollefson. Why was Ryan arrested? Because the urban campers didn’t like how he cleaned up their disgusting presence on the riverbank, and the confrontation earned Ryan MORE legal trouble, which he had already been dealing with from previous interactions with the law.

Arresting Ryan worked. Despite some enthusiastic support for Ryan from a Facebook group supportive of trash cleanups, the reality of defending oneself from the snaking tentacles of the HIC (Homeless Industrial Complex) is more complicated and difficult than your average citizen has the capacity to understand, let alone help with. With spring almost here, though, I spotted Ryan making a comment about possibly engaging in more trash removal. Good luck with that, Ryan!

For my case there was no defense, I was told by my public defenders, to the violation of being technically within 1,500 feet of my petitioner’s residence. My sleep-deprived state of mind from becoming homeless myself, living in my box truck, had no bearing on the charge against me. Also, the legal pain that would rain down upon me were I to push my right to a jury trial, I was told, would be severe. 

How severe? Well, since my petitioner has generated over 100 pages of documentation on my activities in order to convince the County Attorney’s Office that my citizen journalism has suddenly morphed into a stalking campaign against her, I was told I would be charged with felony stalking and potentially other protective order violations, all felonies, if I said no to the plea offer. Since the previous trial ahead of me had suddenly settled, I had less than 48 hours to make my decision.

One of the conditions of this highly-coerced plea deal, which I will be contesting during sentencing later this month, is the condition I NOT write about United Way, the non-profit I’ve been exposing LONG before meeting and briefly dating my petitioner. 

That’s right, I’ve been writing for YEARS about United Way’s failed leadership of the 10 year plan to end homelessness, and their strange obstruction of citizen-led camp cleanup efforts, and the nexus of Federal PSN money with the Sheriff’s Office, and connections to the Democratic Socialists of America, and how that leads to Zoom meeting narrative control, not to mention the role of the director, Susan Hay Patrick, in helping to groom and launch the political career of Ellie Boldman.

And then there’s the case of Sean Stevenson.

Without rehashing all the details, Sean’s situation might sound like the kind of situation I’m now highly critical of, which is someone coming from another state to use local services, but here’s the sad irony of what I’ve come to understand about Sean’s short time in Montana, and why his situation is actually the kind of situation the homeless services I helped deliver for 7 years (2008-2016) was intended for.

In slang terms, Sean was a “short-timer”, as opposed to the more predominant “lifers” who have, for a variety of reasons, permanently acclimated to their homeless lifestyles. Sean also wasn’t “on paper”, meaning stuck in the cog of the criminal justice system, like I might be after March 28^th. What Sean was doing was showing that, despite his drinking problem, which did persist as he used homeless services, Sean could still maintain employment, impressing his supervisor enough that his supervisor, Scott, did something he doesn’t usually do with his guys, and that was invite Sean out to a Griz football game.

I know this because I talked to Scott, just like I talked to the woman in Denver who helped Sean get into subsidized housing. That woman, Jereen Peterson, worked at the time for United Way. Interesting.

With the recent closure of the Johnson Street Shelter, the issue of homelessness in Missoula is back in the headlines, along with the predictable whining coming from the two socialists on Council (emphasis mine):

Expected or not, not all members of the council were on the same page about the move. Jordan in particular accused the city of making a “huge decision behind closed doors” in a statement to reporters. The decision to end funding for Johnson Street doesn’t require council approval, so there was no public hearing on the matter. 

“A small, select representation of decision makers have quietly done this,” Jordan said. “As a result, there are city councilors whose constituents will be affected by this decision but who had no representation.”

Davis characterized that criticism as evidence of sour grapes rather than failed communication. 

Does Kristen Jordan have sour grapes? I would ask this public figure, but Kristen Jordan is the Councilor who doesn’t seem to understand what SLANDER and DEFAMATION means, so instead of direct communication, I’ll quote Montana Code Annotated before showing the FULL text a supporter of mine received last September about me.

If you can’t read the small print, here’s the language:

Criminal defamation. (1) Defamatory matter is anything that exposes a person or a group, class, or association to hatred, contempt, ridicule, degradation, or disgrace in society or injury to the person’s or its business or occupation.

(2) Whoever, with knowledge of its defamatory character, orally, in writing, or by any other means, including by electronic communication, as defined in 45-8-213, communicates any defamatory matter to a third person without the consent of the person defamed commits the offense of criminal defamation and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 6 months in the county jail or a fine of not more than $500, or both.

And here’s the text making UNTRUE defamatory claims about my conduct toward my petitioner:

Since I don’t have the financial resources to initiate a more vigorous defense of my first amendment rights, my ability to continue doing citizen journalism, which I’ve been doing for 15 years, has never been more tenuous.

If the County Attorney’s Office wants to put me back in jail for exposing the United Way’s role in corrupting the Homeless Industrial Complex that’s fine by me. I was taken to jail last April for doing my work and, like Ryan Tollefson, I’m willing to go BACK to jail in order to highlight how constitutionally retarded Missoula’s judicial system is.

The arrival of spring means Missoula’s summer budget season is slowly approaching and this year it’s going to be ALL HANDS ON DECK for making excuses on why we’re facing a 4 million dollar deficit. Besides scapegoating EVERYONE by themselves, our pathetic leadership will once again ask CITIZENS to foot the bill our city claims they can’t afford. Also, it’s going to be the UNITED WAY gathering this money. Gee, I wonder why this “non-profit” would want to silence a VERY effective critic like myself? (emphasis mine):

“Because of the funding shortfall, it is time to lean into a new vision and a new way in which we are actually serving folks living in that shelter to get them connected to services and housing,” Davis said. “I am incredibly optimistic about this.”

The plan will require $400,000 through nonprofit United Way of Missoula to individually fund the homeless housing options, reconnect people with family or find treatment options.

The goal is to house 30 people per month, starting in April. Davis did not say how much city money could be spent on the housing sprint, and instead directed residents to donate to or volunteer with United Way. 

I hate to break this difficult news to Mayor Davis but it’s hard to claim a NEW VISION exists to “lean into” when you’re relying on the SAME influencers who have overseen the absolute WORSENING of homelessness in this town. This is why I asserted last spring the state of our community is RETARDED!

If you would like to assist me in creating an alternative process I’m tempted to call my RETARDATION REDUCTION PLAN, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.

And, as always, thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I like public lands and because I like public lands I do NOT like urban camping.

Did any of the “roughly a thousand people” who showed up on Sunday feel the same way I did? I don’t know because my sign was NOT like all the other signs at McCormick park, so instead on enjoying some communal solidarity because orange man bad, I felt acutely alone in this large crowd.

(I’m calling this piece A TALE OF TWO DUIs)

Since I’m not a part of the resistance network to Trump I didn’t know Missoulians were being herded into a public turnout against reducing government. After seeing the size of the crowd my first thought was WHO IS DOING THE HERDING?

The posters for Sunday’s event were slick, the Instagram account is fresh, and the claims of organic support are out front for everyone to see and feel fuzzy about, but what, or who, is actually spending the money and time to do all this? It wasn’t until the KPAX article came out that I finally saw a name, and the name led me to an organization. Thanks KPAX!

The “March for Our Public Lands” protest began at 11 a.m. with several speakers — including several Democratic Missoula lawmakers — marking the start of the protest by addressing the crowd.

“By taking away the people who take care of the land, it’s going to open it up for potentially private sale or turning the land over to the states, which could then lead to private sale, which is not what we’re trying to do,” said march co-organizer Haley Gamertsfelder.

Here are some unpopular data points about the person and the organization involved with Sunday’s showing of public support. Haley is a “Mid-Atlantic” transplant who had the money to travel around Europe with her sister for 4 months before coming to Montana in 2018 for an internship with the Continental Divid Trail Coalition, a non-profit interested in telling states to fuck off so nature can be nature again for all the privileged hikers who like taking their Patagonia gear into the woods. If you think I’m exaggerating, go take a look for yourself.

The selection of “public lands” as the topic to rally around is, I suspect, a highly calculated move because public lands casts a wide net of support in Montana, which is why Democrats so often use it to turn out their voters. It’s also why these same advocates are incapable of dealing with “urban camping”, or the even more amusing phrase used by Missoula’s whiniest socialist, Kristen Jordan: SURVIVAL CAMPING.

In an article today at Western Montana News I’m quoted regarding the impending closure of the Johnson Street Shelter, a “low barrier” bandaid that would have become permanent had the neighborhood not organized against it. One of my answers addresses reducing homelessness in Missoula by better assessing who has genuine ties to this town because having genuine ties greatly increases the chances of getting into and STAYING IN housing.

The drunk man who hassled my friend and I for money near Flippers on Friday night, then asked to join us at the bar, does NOT have genuine ties to Missoula and he IS staying at the Johnson Street Shelter. He arrived from Colorado in May of last year and hopes to be moving from the Johnson Street Shelter to the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space soon. 

Later that night, at the same bar, a woman putting coins into a gambling machine wanted a cab ride back to the Poverello Center. She was old and VERY dirty, visibly scratching her head and skin like she had scabies or bed bugs or something. Without teeth, her speech was barely understandable, but the bartender managed to decipher enough to call this woman an Uber, since there were no other cab service, she said, at this time of night.

I helped this woman get to her walker and exit the bar to the parking lot where shortly her ride showed up. The black man with an accent I’ll hazard the assumption is a refugee took one look at this woman and sighed. I used my service-provider 6^th sense to ask him a question: “Have you had issues with her before?”

I asked out of ear-shot. He said yes, just the other night, and it was bad. He was VERY reluctant to even consider taking her on again, so I said that it wasn’t his job to and explained my former role as someone who dealt with this exact kind of thing.

After the refugee Uber driver canceled the ride, I updated the bartender. The old woman did a really good job pretending she was in a dire, intractable situation as I left her on the sidewalk. I didn’t feel bad because I knew this type of case from years of experience.

The following night I stopped at the same bar and the guy gave me an update on the welfare check they called as they closed up. When the cops came the woman who said her legs barely worked SPRINTED away from the cops and hid somewhere, apparently hiding good enough to elude law enforcement. Impressive.

This type of case would normally fall under an agency like “Adult Protective Services” in a functioning state, but Montana is NOT a functioning state. I watched the decay up close and in real time, which is why I’m so damn effective at showing readers how the gears of the HIC con operates. HIC, of course, stands for the HOMELESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.

While Los Angeles tries to account for BILLIONS of unaccounted money for homeless services, a comment on X reminded me that even those in EXPOSURE positions on social media can turn out to be less-than-credible grifters, which is the category I’m tempted to put Kevin Dahlgren in after finding out about his fraud case.

A former homeless services specialist for the city of Gresham who was accused in 2023 of abusing his official position and committing multiple counts of theft has pleaded guilty. 

On Monday, Kevin Dahlgren pleaded guilty to one felony count of first-degree theft and one felony count of aggravated identity theft, as well as one count of first-degree general misconduct, which is a misdemeanor, according to Multnomah County court documents. 

…

Dahlgren was arrested that fall, accused of stealing thousands of dollars and committing identity theft as a city employee. A Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office investigation had centered around his use of a city-issued procurement card, an official source told The Oregonian/OregonLive. A grand jury then approved an indictment on Oct. 26, after hearing testimony from witnesses.

At the time, Dahlgren had 25,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he posted videos of homeless people, often accompanied by his own opinions on “empowering not enabling” them. He now has nearly 56,000 followers and continues to post the same brand of content, referring to himself as an independent journalist.

Another potential grifter posting CRITICAL content I would normally be sympathetic to about homelessness stopped responding to me for an interview I was trying to set up with him at the time.

Determining what’s genuine and what’s grift is nearly impossible these days, so I recommend staying vigilant, including ME. Of course, since I have such a public proclivity for Lego play, I don’t think I’m at risk for being taken too seriously.

If you would like to support my citizen journalism, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to do it (thanks you Mr. Warrent!). I’m still working on those alternatives.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

On November 19^th, 2020, the United States Attorney’s Office issued a press release regarding a grant. What did this $248,000 grant do? It gave a non-profit influencer an opportunity to get a headline for her and her friend, the Sheriff, who wanted to be a politician just like Ellie did, the former director of the Poverello Center who was recently arrested and found guilty of a DUI in Helena.

From the first link (emphasis mine):

Missoula Substance Abuse Connect, a coalition created to develop a comprehensive community plan to reduce substance abuse, including methamphetamine-related violent crime, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

…

“Drug enforcement is more effective if done in partnership with prevention and treatment programs that reduce demand. An epidemic of substance abuse—particularly meth use—is overwhelming local courts, jail and hospitals and is ravaging families. We must break this terrible cycle by providing greater access to effective prevention and treatment programs and support for people in recovery,” said Susan Hay Patrick, chief executive officer of United Way of Missoula County.

…

“The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office looks forward to this partnership with the United Way to provide assistance through Missoula Substance Abuse Connect to those in our community who are dealing with addictions and substance abuse issues. I’d also like to thank United Way of Missoula CEO Susan Hay Patrick for her efforts on this project,” Missoula County Sheriff TJ McDermott said.

While McDermott’s political ambitions mysteriously stalled before an official run for Mayor, Ellie’s blasted off like your brain does when you snort a line of quality cocaine. Despite all the rumors swirling around about Ellie in her adopted hometown of Missoula–rumors I visited local bars to investigate yesterday–Ellie had been doing just fine, politically speaking.

For example, Missoula’s State Senator had her nose far up Gianforte’s ass for being allowed on the housing task force and, just a few days ago, she gave Greg Hertz the false impression that a political blast after amending a tax bill would get her to support it. Unsurprisingly, it turned out Ellie was full of shit.

Regarding WHY Hertz blasted the tax bill, this quote from The Pulp is helpful (emphasis mine):

“I’ve had a number of individuals who would like to have further discussion on this,” Hertz said on the Senate floor.

One of these individuals came from an unlikely corner of the Legislature: Ellie Boldman, a Democratic senator from Missoula.

“I voted no for this bill yesterday,” Boldman told lawmakers. “The good senator did exclude schools. This amendment will also now exclude fire and police — public safety. With that, it’s a good bill.

“I say to my friends on my side of the aisle that our people that vote for us, they’re hurting, property taxes are hurting.”

At first I thought this was just your normal political grandstanding, but after the weekend excitement Ellie had, I’m beginning to think she may legislate while drunk.

The vote on the motion split both parties — a rare occurrence — but ultimately passed 29-20. The next day, Saturday, the Senate approved Hertz’s amendments and the bill itself following debate that included Hertz calling out city governments and their lobbyists for “beating up on” lawmakers like Boldman for supporting the bill. Those lobbyists are using tax dollars to advocate against the taxpayer, he said, even with his amendments. Incidentally — or perhaps not — Boldman voted against the bill in its amended form, despite having all but twisted Hertz’s arm to bring the bill back, as he put it. 

The reason I emphasized SATURDAY is because I believe this is the same Saturday that Ellie was arrested passed out in her car “waiting for a ride” from a friend. Someone who responded on X felt a little differently about Ellie’s narrative damage control:

Since I’m not sure how capable Missoula’s Democratic State Senator is at actually accepting accountability for her reckless, criminal action, I decided to get some impressions from local bartenders about how they would approach serving a politician ordered by the courts to NOT be in establishments that serve alcohol. I’m happy to report there will be several locations in Missoula that will HAPPILY continue enabling our State Senator, were she to come to their respective establishments.

The person I spoke with at Flippers suspected I was suggesting they engage in SNITCH behavior when I explained the sad plight of our State Senator, which is funny when you consider how a few years ago it was Ellie’s political team that thought snitching on NON-mask wearing citizens was a good use of their time. Much of that snitching, if you recall, focused on restaurants that didn’t want to be financially strangled out of existence.

For those who may have forgot how our brave State Senator misrepresented reality back then, here’s a Ellie imploring that you DON’T EVER GODDAMN FORGET!

Another local bar, one that succumbed to the obnoxious control of Nick Checota, was MORE than happy to keep serving Ellie. At least that was the impression the bartender gave me when I suggested she call 911 if Ellie enters their establishment.

I won’t specify which bar I got some sensitive intel regarding a creative payment scheme in lieu of conventional money a supposed former legal client of Ellie Boldman’s was offered, but I WILL specify who I saw drinking his signature bourbon all by himself at 3:45pm at the Union Club yesterday: PETE TALBOT!

Pete wasn’t very talkative yesterday, and only used his tired-looking eyes to communicate how enthusiastic he was to see me. I let him know about his political ally’s plight, then offered my sincere hope that he wasn’t going to operate a motor vehicle if he felt over the legal limit for doing so.

Before seeing Pete at the bar, my conversation with the bartender at the Union Club, and a patron who spent time slinging booze, was a good gauge of how UNLIKELY it would be that Ellie would face any actual consequences if she were to continue her known activities upon returning from legislating in Helena. I hope my on-the-ground reporting alleviates any anxiety our troubled Senator may be feeling.

Before I wrap up this post, here’s a recent story about the influence of BIG TOBACCO. If you don’t think this nefarious influence is worth paying attention to, that’s probably because you aren’t familiar with the proliferation of VAPELIFE.

From the link (emphasis mine):

A Republican lawmaker and vape shop owner has announced his resignation from the Montana Legislature, alleging political favoritism toward major tobacco companies and unscrupulous decision-making by fellow members of the GOP.

Rep. Ron Marshall, R-Hamilton, has served in the Montana House of Representatives since 2021. An owner of two vape shops in the state, Marshall has become an outspoken critic of national tobacco companies.

Marshall framed his resignation, which comes as the Legislature nears its midway point, not as an act of protest, but as a type of surrender after two months of bruising battles over vape and tobacco bills.

“I don’t want to swim in this swamp anymore. Why do I want to stay? I’m not a corrupt person. Why do I want to stay around a bunch of corrupt people?” Marshall told reporters on Monday. “I’m not going to play this game anymore.”

Right on, Ron! I think a certain computer program from the 80’s would agree!

Unfortunately, not all of us have the option to quit the game-playing, which brings me to my constant plug for monetary support–Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) if you can afford it, though who really can these days?

Thanks for reading!