The Unmasked Avenger Strikes the Capitol!

TALL TALES from Juneau

Eyes on the Dunleavy Disaster

A WORLD-FAMOUS ALASKAN!

No, not Jewel or Tom Bodett or Jack London – not an Alaskan famous for talent and ability. No, just the Representative from Kenai, now famous for writing a bunch of ignorant stuff about the Holocaust and hitting “send.”

In case you missed it this week – first in the Alaska Landmine, and afterwards in media outletsaround the world – Rep. Carpenter email blasted all his colleagues comparing the coronavirus screening at the doors of the Capitol building this week, and the stickers that indicated you’d done it, to Jews forced to wear the yellow Star of David in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Just for good measure he followed up by claiming that Hitler was not a white supremacist – he just did bad things because he was scared of the ‘Jewish nation.’

After the epic and well-deserved international smack-down, Carpenter published a response in the right-wing Dunleavy propaganda blog Must Read Alaska (which had previously defended his comments as just being ‘sardonic’ and then gleefully pounced on the “leftists” for taking issue with them).

Sardonic. I don’t think that means what they think it means.

Carpenter said his words “have been perceived by many to be offensive.” And “The purpose for my word choice in my email was torpedoed by the analogy I chose to use and the inadequacy of a few sentences” << whatever that means. He went on to say he wrote the words “in haste” and didn’t have time to say what he really wanted to say… etc. Remember that his analogy torpedo came in an email, NOT on the spur of the moment in front of a microphone. He’s the one who hit send.

ANYWAY… for your purposes here, the most important takeaway is that Ben Carpenter, who equates health screening with marking an entire group of human beings for genocide – a lawmaker who thinks Hitler was NOT a white supremacist –  has a challenger in November! Paul Dale is a non-partisan fish guy with deep roots on the Kenai, who we’re pretty sure won’t be making Star of David cracks, or making excuses for Hitler to the media. You can check out Dale’s FB page HERE. Be sure to like it and share with friends.

MASK ALERT!

Here’s Senator Bill Wielechowski on the slippery slope to fascism, showing off his full three  covid screening stickers in the Capitol building, or as that Dunleavy blog calls them, “STICKERS OF COMPLIANCE.” [Insert scary music here]

The latest conspiracy theory from the right, if you haven’t heard it, is that “masks don’t do anything” and you’ll get poisoned and die from your own breath if you wear them. People who haven’t taken a science class since 7th grade are suddenly talking about the micron measurements of viruses and idiot-splaining that we’re all SHEEP. I suspect these people won’t be telling their surgeon to go face-naked when they have to have their gallbladder out. “It’s ok, Doc. Sneeze away! Makes no difference to me! You see, I did some research and it’s all about the microns!”

Thanks to all the members of the legislature for taking this very simple and non-lethal precaution to help keep their colleagues and Capitol workers safe.

Oh wait…

LORA REINBOLD: GET YOUR #FAKENEWS STRAIGHT!

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who reads her Facebook feed. Today a mask, tomorrow…

She also declined to wear a mask on the flight to Juneau, telling the flight attendant she was politely refusing because it made her uncomfortable. She is very special, you see. This post and others from the Senator have been deleted (which lawmakers are not supposed to do), but rules-shmules, right?

The amusing part came when the Lora Reinbold profile posted this on May 18:

Then the ADN reported that she was the only lawmaker who declined (see above). She didn’t like that and then tried to pull the old #FAKENEWS-because-I-got-caught trick. The “SENATOR Lora Reinbold” posted this:

Maybe the reporter assumed you didn’t do a health screening because you said you declined a health screening on your own Facebook page! Come on, Eagle River. You surely deserve better than this!

IT’S A FREE COUNTRY

Remember that phrase that playground jerks used when they were doing something jerky?

“Stop throwing dirt on my hopscotch board, Joey!”

“IT’S A FREE COUNTRY!”

Well, now we’re hearing it from the Governor. Now it applies to being reckless with personal hygiene and the lives of Alaskans. Alaska is totally open for business again. Sure some people will die, but “it’s a free country,” Dunleavy says. What does Dr. Anne Zink say, you may wonder? Well, it looks like she got “Fauci-ed” by the Tall One, and is now couching her words to please her boss while still trying to tell people not to be stupid or to stop social distancing. “I’m making the choice to not be in those large [Memorial Day Weekend] gatherings, but it’s really up to individual Alaskans to make those choices and that responsibility themselves,” Zink said. “I hope that people choose to keep their friends and loved ones safe and healthy over this holiday weekend.” In other words, don’t be a reckless idiot.

But as of Friday, May 22, “It’ll all be open, just like it was prior to the virus,” Dunleavy said. Exceptit isn’t prior to the virus. Stay safe, Alaskans, because many of the loudest voices to open Alaska, are the same ones who can’t be bothered to keep their droplets to themselves.

WHO CARE$?

The distribution of the CARES money from the federal government for COVID-19 relief is interesting. First, despite there being no restrictions for doing so, none of the $1.1 BILLION went to individual Alaskans, but instead went to businesses. Not that there’s anything wrong with supporting businesses, but when it comes to supporting their actual constituents, the people who work at those businesses, Republicans are having none of it. Let’s not kid ourselves about what their first and only priority is.

Second, there was zero public testimony for how this $1.25 BILLION should be spent, which is pretty remarkable if you think about it.

Third, the original method of disbursement bypassed the legislature entirely and was blatantly unconstitutional. Apparently this did not bother Republicans. A conscientious Alaskan filed a lawsuit to make sure the law was followed, and once that happened, back all the legislators went. It’s good that they actually decided to meet in person to vote, but they still didn’t follow the proper process entirely. The bad news is that it still may be unconstitutional, but we’ll have to see how that plays out.

[TruthBomb: Republican legislators and the governor fundamentally agree with bailing out businesses before constituents. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they’re really not that into you. Or the Constitution for that matter.]

DUNLEAVY WANTS MONEY IN POCKETS, UNTIL HE DOESN’T.

The governor also announced that the truncated $1000 PFD will come in July rather than October. Maybe he’s hoping that this will distract people from the fact that there’s been a gigantic disbursement of federal cash into the state, and none of it went for relief to individual Alaskans. If that was his strategy, let’s call it a failure. As we know, the PFD issue really doesn’t follow party lines. But the PFD supporters on the right tend to be more visible and also support the governor. They voted for him because he promised that $6700 super-sized PFD, remember? So it’s interesting to note that there is bubbling disapproval coming from his usually loyal right-wing crowd. This is from a very pro-Dunleavy FB group.

It’s almost like they figured out they’ve been duped and if Mike Dunleavy was really so concerned about putting cash in pockets he would have actually done something about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But, the legislature voted on the CARES funds, it passed, and the 31st legislature is officially over and done. Now Lora Reinbold can go home and run free and maskless, sneezing all over Eagle River.

SUPPRESS FOR SUCCESS – THE GOP MOTTO

Republican Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer announced last week that Alaska will NOT switch to a vote-by-mail system for the state primary election this August 20. If you remember, the Alaska Democratic Party was able to convert our presidential primary to an all-mail system with no notice in the middle of a pandemic and delay our vote by only one week. There is NO good reason the State of Alaska cannot support the health and safety of all its residents during elections with months to prepare.

**If you are concerned about your health, the health of volunteer poll workers, and the health of Alaskans in general, you CAN vote by mail no matter what Lt. Gov. Meyer says, but you will have to take an extra step. You can apply for an absentee ballot, and vote safely from home without waiting in line.***

>>CLICK THIS LINK TO APPLY FOR ABSENTEE VOTING!

There’s also a conspiracy theory about vote by mail (because these days there’s a conspiracy theory about everything) which says it’s unsafe or fraud or something. This is being parroted from President Trump by right-wing media, their lackeys, and Republican officeholders. Reminder that Trump has voted by mail himself, absentee voting happens ALL the time in every state, military folks have been voting by mail for decades, and whole states like Oregon have been doing all vote by mail for years. So has the Municipality of Anchorage for that matter! The reason Republicans don’t want it to be easy is because the more people who vote, the more likely Republicans are to lose – which should really tell you something.

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