The COVID Caucus Out on the Town
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE Let’s start off with a little Facebook gem from Rep. Steve Thompson (R-Fairbanks). It takes a look at the sunny side of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey, you guys… Don’t think of it as 168,000 dead Americans – think of how many Americans are still alive! Considering that any day now, COVID-19 is going to be the third leading cause of death in the United States, it’s hard not to wonder when Rep. Thompson will stop thinking that the “panic is out of control.” And if you google Rep. Steve Thompson, here’s his weirdly ironic…
Primary Post Mortem
Alaska’s primary election night is over, but the election itself is not quite done. About 14,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, and the final results will not be known for days. That said, it will be a tough hill to climb for the passage of Ballot Measure 1, which would reinstate the ACES oil tax system put in place by former Governor Sarah Palin and a bipartisan coalition in the Alaska legislature. Sean Parnell, former ConocoPhillips lawyer and lobbyist, and Palin’s former Lt. Governor dismantled ACES with Senate Bill 21 which would give billions from Alaska’s treasury to the…
Mudflats Chats: Sen Candidate Mark Fish (L)
Mark Fish is one of three Libertarian candidates running for the U.S Senate seat currently held by Democrat Mark Begich. We sat down and talked about libertarianism, the Republican field, the Republican field, abortion, mining, and corporate personhood among other things. Grab a cup of coffee, and sit in! Libertarian Philosophy JEANNE DEVON: I guess I’ll start off with a philosophical question because sometimes I think it’s difficult, especially in today’s world where everything and everyone is so interconnected, to make a case for libertarianism. MARK FISH: It is difficult. DEVON: Because we’re interconnected people, and the actions of an individual…
Alaska GOP Candidates Go to Extremes
We all know that guy. You know, the one who no matter what story is being told, he’s got one up on it. If you got a mosquito bite he punched a bear. I’m watching the Republican primary for U.S. Senate closely and they all seem like that guy. Who can out-crazy whom? Case in point this week was the questionnaire filled out by the candidates for an organization that raises money on hating gays and trying to control the reproductive choices of women. The group claims to work for Alaskan family values but doesn’t weigh in on minimum wage…
Sullivan Waffles on Eggs – One of Them May Be Yours.
Back in April, Alaska Republican Senate primary voters got to listen to their three candidates try to figure out who the lifey-est candidate of all actually was. It’s been a gigantic run to the right on pro-life issues by the three men running for the office, each trying to be more hard core than the others. They were asked whether they would support a so-called “personhood bill” called the Life at Conception Act introduced by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) that defines life as beginning the moment that little swimmer cracks the eggshell. The bottom line of this bill is that it…
Eric Cantor Got “Joe Millered” by Tea Party
Anyone in Alaska watching Tuesday’s primary shocker in Virginia unfold couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Senate race in 2010. That year, Tea Party candidate Joe Miller set the Republican establishment back on its heels with a victory shocker over incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski. Democrats scrambled while institutional Republicans, mouths agape, tried to comprehend what had just happened. On Tuesday in Virginia, Dave Brat, an underfunded Tea Party candidate cleaned the clock of the 7-term Republican incumbent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by double digits. Brat had been predicted to lose by a wide margin. By many accounts Cantor…
Hashtag Mead Treadwell Staff Fail
It’s one of the most important and highly watched Senate races in the nation. Alaska is one of five states that went for Mitt Romney in 2012, and for which there is a Democratic Senator up for re-election next year. It’s a power seat, with the potential to tip the balance and change the country. Despite that fact, the Republicans who have lined up to take on incumbent Democrat Mark Begich seem a bit lackluster. And the one lacking the most luster seems to be the one who would be most likely to pose a real challenge to Begich in…
Parnell Targets Former First Lady
Obama is a socialist. Health care is communism. Closed parks are fascism. It’s weird the way words and labels get thrown around these days. Apparently dictionaries are one of the things some people no longer believe in. Here’s a word that doesn’t get thrown around but should: corporatocracy. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations.” I joke about living in a resource colony but it isn’t actually funny. When the Corrupt Bastards Club was running the Legislature, then-Gov. Frank Murkowski asked them to effectively strip Alaskans of the right to…