Time. It is precious, they say. It flies, they say. And former Republican Party Chair, former Dunleavy Chief of Staff, and now former University of Alaska Regent Tuckerman Babcock has none of it. Again. As Alaska Republican Party Chair, Babcock was the chief architect of the cannibalization of that Party. He loved the purity test, and if you were a Republican in the legislature and you weren’t far-right authoritarian enough, you were in his crosshairs and some extreme fringy candidate would be drummed up to run against you. And those monsters wasted no time destroying their makers. “RINO!” they cried….

Alaska has lost its longest serving member of Congress, Don Young, who took office in 1973. He was 88 years old and the majority of Alaskans have never known another Congressional Representative. He’s like the Queen Victoria or the Ramses II of the Great Land. Young has yet to be interred, awaiting March 29 when he will lie in state at the US Capitol, and guess who’s already willing to fill his “huge shoes” 72 hours after his death? Yep, the former half-governor has decided she’d like to un-quit politics now. After ditching the governor’s mansion permanently to skip off…

POLITICAL THEATER Oh, fantasy! I love that genre! This week’s big dose of live entertainment fiction was Governor Dunleavy’s State of the State address, and thank goodness we didn’t have to pay for a ticket. The state of the state, (often referred to as the SoS) was an SOS indeed, and was met by those who’ve been in the thick of the Dunleavy disaster with slack jaws and utter disbelief. Dunleavy apparently believes that Alaskans have the long-term memory of a goldfish and have completely forgotten the first three years of his administration and the vital state services he fought…

*unless they don’t Today, Donald Trump and whatever remains of his organization issued a proclamation/extortion notice to his BF(maybe forever) Governor Mike Dunleavy. He will completely and totally endorse Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s reelection campaign! Why? Because, the Florida retiree says, he’s a strong conservative. He hearts the Constitution, “including the second and tenth Amendments.” He says Alaska needs Mike Dunleavy “now more than ever” which has earned the Tall One his “Complete and Total Endorsement [sic].” UNLESS Dunleavy endorses Lisa Murkowski. That’s right. Even though Trump proudly endorsed Governor from Wasilla 2.0 the first time and thinks he’s done a…

You go for years without thinking about Thomas Van Flein, former Palin attorney and current Chief of Staff of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), and then wham – he’s everywhere. And in a very bad way. Van Flein’s boss was censured by Congress yesterday for posting an anti-immigrant anime video which depicted Gosar murdering Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and attacking President Biden. Censure doesn’t happen very often. The last time the body believed a member deserved that particular level of smack-down was in 1983. Two Republicans voted with Democrats in the mostly partisan vote. While censure doesn’t have legal teeth, it…

Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has declared that she’ll be running for a fourth term. She has alternately been a thorn in the side of Donald Trump, a thorn in the side of Democrats, a thorn in the side of women, and a thorn in the side of almost every stripe of Alaskan there is, at one time or another. Her “concern” about divisive issues has become a running joke. Nobody feels as “troubled” as Lisa Murkowski before she votes the wrong way, and nobody is as proud as Lisa when she makes a “tough vote” that didn’t matter. She…

SEVEN LEGISLATORS ATTEND COVID DISINFORMATION PARTY The site of the latest COVID disinformation campaign was not the Anchorage Assembly chambers this time. The usual crew of maskless testifiers, along with their de facto leader, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, migrated to Change Point, a local conservative mega-church, to listen to speakers who disagree with the vast majority of medical providers and science. The event had been hyped as featuring a “Mystery Guest” who turned out to be the Mayor himself. Greeted with cheers by those who’d arrived to hear about how vaccines are bioweapons designed to alter your genes, Bronson made the…

PROXY BATTLE WON, NOW LET’S WIN THE WAR The press called the special election attempting to recall Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel a “proxy battle” and it was – between those who support and respect good governance in the face of adversity, and the anti-science bullying mob that took over the Assembly chambers earlier this month.  An emergency mask mandate put forward by Zaletel enraged the anti-mask, anti-vax crowd. They tried, with the assistance of Eagle River Assembly member Jamie Allard to draw out testimony day after day, but ultimately failed. They tried Nazi arts and crafts in the Assembly…