by Travis Mateer

Before I was blocked on Facebook by the people who’ve been blocked on Facebook by Mayoral candidate Jacob Elder, I was interacting with an old blogger from the 4&20 Blackbirds days, “problembear”.

Apparently “problembear” has a secret source telling him about the STEALTH RIGHT-WINGEDNESS of candidate Jacob Elder. If you’re wondering who problembear is, he’s the guy in the screen-shot referring to me by my old pseudonym, “lizard”:

I’m glad I got a screen-shot of this once problematic bear sitting on his source a week out from the closing of the filing period for municipal office. This will only benefit the neoliberal politics of Missoula’s political establishment, something problembear once had the ability to see clearly:

i have been thinking lately that voting for republicans or democrats is simply not enough to save this country anymore. we need to get back to the basics again. corporate money and lobbies dominate our elected representatives so much these days that electing one over the other doesn’t make much difference. once they take office, they ignore us and pander to the wealthy elite, the special interests and the corporate lobbyists who provide them with the money to keep winning future campaigns. there are not enough real statesmen and women in congress anymore to make even a dent in the juggernaut of corporate takeover of this country’s politics.

Those words were written over a decade ago, well before problembear accepted his muzzle and used his white priviledge when the neoliberals sent him a letter about the cost of replacing his sidewalks.

While problembear used his connections to protect his housing, Ward 3 candidate Danny Carlino is still facing eviction by Barbara Koostra. Sadly, there are no longer any Missoula problembears around to call out this former art museum director and wife of a Stockman’s Bank banker, just a former lizard making people on social media feel uncomfortable.

I miss the problembear of a decade ago, maybe because those were simpler times, long before Trump Derangement Syndrome destroyed the cognitive abilities of so many formerly perceptive Americans.

In the spirit of those olden days, I’ll paste a solution-oriented idea from the once feisty bear that should still resonate with rational people who understand the corrupting influence of money cares nothing about which political party a candidate is LARPing for:

i think if we pass enough good citizens initiatives in montana we could solve many of our own problems without even darkening the doorway of corrupt politicians or their bribing special interests and corporate lobbyists.

they don’t want anything to do with the people who work for a living anyway. what do we have to offer them besides our one stinking vote on one day every 2 or 4 or 6 years. the rest of the year, they ignore us anyway. so let’s get creative shall we?

Yes, I think it’s time to get creative.

Stay tuned…