The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska Alaska Public Media: Alaska’s warming waters could slow coral growth, impacting fish The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said warming ocean temperatures, due to climate change, could slow the growth of some Alaska coral. In a study released Thursday, scientists warned about the potential impact to fish, which take refuge in thickets of coral. NY Times: A Rampage in Florida Shines a Light on Alaska A deadly shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport this month has focused attention on the interconnection of public safety and mental illness and raised questions, especially here in Alaska, about one of the thorniest…
Photos: Trump Lands in Kinston, North Carolina
Donald Trump landed his plane in Hurricane Matthew slammed Kinston, North Carolina Wednesday night to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters that numbered in the thousands. It was a smaller audience than i was used to seeing at Trump rallies but still a surprising crowd for a 7pm rally in a town that just a week ago had been evacuated. Trump gave his stump speech of calling for Secretary Clinton to be jailed but didn’t tell the crowd that the election would be rigged.
Fact Check of a ‘Fact Check’: Bill Clinton and NAFTA
I know it’s the last two weeks of the Presidential campaign, so truth and facts have a tendency to go by the wayside for political expediency. As a child of the 90’s, one of my earliest political memories was the advent of NAFTA. It was then I decided that I could never go into electoral politics as this was touted as an example of the two political parties working together. Supposedly liberal President Bill Clinton worked with the Republican Party, and passed the agreement that the Republican’s could have never dreamed to actually get passed and signed alone. In response to the…
LIVE BLOG: The FINAL (Ever?) Presidential Debate
So here we go. The final debate of this insane election year. All times are Eastern. 9:03: Apologies, we’re watching on Fox, as that’s who’s moderating. 9:05 – Chris Wallace is live in Las Vegas… because what better city to decide our democracy. Hillary’s rocking a white pantsuit and Trump is shockingly wearing a suit. 9:06 – Question is on supreme court and the constitution. This should be fun. Hillary: SCOTUS needs to stand up for the people, women and against Citizen’s United. Not reverse marriage equality… Supreme court should represent all of us. She asks the Senate to confirm…
Driving To Alaska’s Political Madness
My parents first came to Alaska in the ’60s, driving a red and white Volkswagen bus. They came from Virginia and like so many Alaskans, they came for one year – that was almost 50 years ago and they never left. I’m happy to report I’m making the trip they did, though by a more northerly route. It’s a bit of a shock to my Alaskan mind to drive through four states in a day without going through a foreign country. There is so much to take in on open road and border crossings. You can drive for days on…
Daughter of Murdered Honduran Activist Speaks Out
Three months ago, Laura was about to get on a plane. Her mother hugged her one last time and said, “If something happens to me, don’t be scared.” The next day Laura’s mother was murdered by men with guns. [originally published in NationofChange.org] Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world – but Laura’s mom’s shooting wasn’t random. She wasn’t connected to narcos or coyotes or any of the other vaguely racist assumptions that the media connects to all deaths in Central America. Laura’s mom was the environmental activist, Berta Cáceres. She won the Goldman Environmental Prize and she…
Seeing a Temporary Fix In Hillary
The best summers of my childhood were spent on the west side of Cook Inlet at my family’s fish site. It’s quite possible they were my favorite of my entire life. We would do a food shop for 10 weeks, pack boxes of books and batteries, rain gear and bug dope, work gloves and the La Choy double decker cans for special exotic meals when we weren’t eating what we caught. At one point my little sister asked if we could just have one day without razor clams at a meal. What? My parents figured out we were on day…
Are you suffering from political nostalgia?
Are you suffering from political nostalgia? Was your dipnetting or berry picking interrupted this week by the Republican Convention? Do you long for the days where the inexperienced candidate with narcissistic qualities and a private email problem was wrapped into one person — Sarah Palin? Does it seem strange to you that David Duke, a white nationalist, Holocaust-denying, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan thinks the time is perfect for him to run for U.S. Senate instead of secretly folding white hoods and watching episodes of Archie Bunker in an actual bunker? Are you still saying “All Lives…
Blood Sport Politics is Bringing Us All Down
I’ve always had a thing about grouchy old men. Most of them happen to be conservative. It might be because of a few favorite uncles, and friends of my pop. Even in politics, I’ve been moved by more conservatives than liberals — you could attribute this to the vastly outnumbered progressives in our state, but I think there’s more to it. They are a challenge to charm and usually make for more interesting conversation. (Oh, there are exceptions. For example, the new chair for the Alaska for Trump campaign.) I recently met an antique stove savant. He knows more about…
Caucus Chaos in Anchorage
Even though it was eight years ago, the chaos of the 2008 Alaska Democratic Caucus was still fresh in my mind as I approached West High School this morning to attend the caucus that would take part in delivering Bernie Sanders a dominating victory in Alaska over Hillary Clinton. Early signs of trouble arose as I drove north past Romig Middle School, with lines of cars pouring in there to park as I headed naively north in the hopes of finding parking closer to the caucus site. We ended up parking about five blocks away from the school, arriving at…