by Travis Mateer
The Pulp republished a conversation with the candidate for Secretary of State, Jesse James Mullen, and his desire for RADICAL TRANSPARENCY, a desire I will be mercilessly mocking in this post while simultaneously showing Jesse why NO politician actually wants this.
Who is this guy running for SOS? According to the article, he’s a newspaper guy who thinks the current SOS is terrible. While I don’t think he’s wrong about Christi Jacobsen, the alternative is to vote for that other worthless party, and the LAST thing Democrats want is someone snooping into their narrative control tactics, and I say that from personal experience.
Before we get to Jesse’s spiel, let’s take a look at MY local exposure of the Democrat cabal that runs Missoula, including this post about a damage control Zoom meeting where the same woman who took the picture of Jesse above, Sue Orr, made the first comment to help out her pal, Susan Hay Patrick. Here’s a screenshot from that post (go to the original post for working links):
Seeing Sue Orr’s name under Jesse’s image isn’t a good start, especially since her last name is part of the law firm that employs the lawyer who acted as the substitute judge in my order of protection case, but let’s continue anyway, since this owner of newspapers seems so earnest in his desire to help us citizens of Montana with his radical transparency. Here’s the answer where radical transparency gets explained:
It’s funny that Jesse is mentioning public requests for information because I was just discussing this process with someone recently, as it pertains to public transportation, and let me just say that it sounds like public requests for public information are NOT being processed in a manner that supports the public’s right to know about what’s being done with their tax dollars.
This image of a Mountain Line bus comes from the website of Cushing Terrell, which I find VERY interesting, since I wrote about this company receiving TIF money in 2021. Here’s what Cushing Terrell is up to with Mountain Line buses:
Cushing Terrell provided electrical construction documents, cost estimates, and construction administration services to upgrade the electrical service at the Mountain Line Bus Depot to accommodate new electric bus chargers. Mountain Line Bus is replacing its existing diesel bus fleet with new, emissions-free, electric buses. The project required the installation of a new electric service at the main bus barn building and a new electrical service in a detached bus storage canopy.
Cushing Terrell is currently conducting a feasibility study to install a battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Mountain Line Bus Depot to help offset the peak electrical demand created from the electric bus chargers. The proposed BESS batteries will be charged with grid power when buses are dispatched; the BESS stored energy will then be utilized to charge bus batteries at night. The system will reduce peak utility demand charges by 90% and can be utilized for charging bus batteries in the event of a grid power outage.
For more local perspective on public buses, check out theses posts:
Hostile Architecture In Missoula And The Deafening Silence Of Local Media (January 8th, 2019)
A Customer Complaint Against Mountain Line And Revisiting The Controversial “Leaning Benches” Installed In 2019 Because Homeless People (May 27th, 2021)
Removing Park Benches Isn’t Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, It’s The Legacy Of Engen’s Leadership On Homelessness (December 9th, 2021)
Does One’s Life Expectancy Shorten The Closer One Gets To The Bus Transfer Station In Downtown Missoula? (March 2nd, 2022)
Supporting Multi-Modal Sexual Abuse With Missoula’s Free Bus Service (February 15th, 2023)
Are Sexual Deviants Helping Mountain Line Get A New Home For Public Buses? (June 27th, 2023)
You aren’t reading this kind of criticism of a public service in any local newspapers because they SUCK, and they suck by design. I call it NARRATIVE CONTROL, and if Jesse James Mullen owns newspapers, then I consider him a BIG part of the problem.
But don’t worry, Jesse has STEPPED DOWN as CEO from his newspaper biz so that he can be unsullied in his bid to get a new job as a politician.
Yes, Jesse, politics is a nasty business, but so is narrative control. For an example of the latter, here’s the pro-law enforcement effort of KGVO to soften a report that it sucks to be law enforcement in Montana:
From the link:
Before we get into the meat of this study, let me say we respect and love what our police officers do. Both the Missoula Police Department and the Montana Sheriff’s Department deserve their praise.
Thanks for all you do.
It’s pathetic to read this framing of a “news” article, but I’ve come to expect nothing less from the “media” outlet that pimps mugshots while covering for a Sheriff’s Office that couldn’t arrest a suspect in the ONE MURDER CASE they had in 2023.
Radical transparency? Yeah, right. Maybe Jesse James Mullen should use his EXISTING business, which is media, to do a BETTER FUCKING JOB of informing the public about what’s happening instead of attempting to morph into a politician.
If you’d like to fund a journalist (me) who is actually bringing a level of unwanted transparency to the citizens of this town, then donate today to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) and I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole REALLY goes.
Thanks for reading!