Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, backed by a majority hard-left leaning Assembly, has launched his assault on small businesses. The Berkeley, California native is leveraging the fear caused by COVID-19 to annihilate the private sector.
Why wouldn’t he? That’s what leftist do. The stronger the economy, the weaker their movement. The feebler and more anemic the economy, their power grows. It’s all about shrinking the private sector and growing government. This is their end game. The irrational frenzied terror over COVID-19 is a gift for Berkowitz and his quest to transform Anchorage into Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Everything, and I mean everything Leftists propose weakens the private sector and strengthens government. Closing and destroying businesses is not about protecting people from COVID-19. It’s about showing power, authority and displaying the full force of government. It’s a signal to the Andy Kriners of the world: Refuse to bow, obey, and submit or we will destroy you. You won’t know what hit you.
The resistance has begun. Several restaurants — Kriner’s Diner, Jackie’s Place, Little Dipper, and Wings and Things — are defying the mayor’s tyranny.
The Red Chair Restaurant will also soon open in defiance. Others will surely join the rebellion. Courage is contagious. Soon, Berkowitz will run out of lawyers to take down these strong and brave patriots. Soon, he’ll be outnumbered. He will not win this fight.
Andy Kriner said the decision to open was an easy one for him. I had no choice, he said. It was either open or go out of business. He said after the last shutdown almost wiped him out, another month of it would have meant he’d have to close for good. For Kriner this is not about politics. It’s about survival. It’s about watching what he spent a lifetime working to build destroyed in a moment by a power-hungry mayor.
A woman named Madeline called my radio show Thursday. She says at the end of the day on Wednesday she stopped in to see Kriner. He was sitting back in his office. Madeline said he looked exhausted. Kriner was going through papers stacked high on his desk just delivered to him from the city. Kriner told Madeline he didn’t know what any of this means. Madeline says her heart broke for Kriner.
Kriner is not a lawyer with a fancy law degree like Berkowitz. He’s just a regular American providing a good product and service. He’s a typical hard-working small business owner providing jobs for his town. Kriner is in first and often last to leave. He’s also the last to get paid. Kriner is the very backbone of this country.
On Facebook this week someone posted a photo of a woman aged 105, standing with others in front of Kriner’s Diner protesting the tyrant mayor. She was aided by a walker. She held a sign reading, “This is not California.”
The outpouring for Kriner and other brave hearts has been nothing short of spectacular. Alaskans are a special bunch. This type of tyranny may play well in Berkowitz’s home state of California but not in the Last Frontier.
I know Kriner well and have eaten at his place often. He’s a tender-hearted guy who so very much loves his country. His food is great but visiting with him while you eat is what makes eating at Kriners unique and special.
What the media won’t tell you as they support Berkowitz’s abuse of power and bullying of small business owners is this: Alaska is the safest state in the nation when it comes to COVID-19.
Media types love — and I do mean love — to hype the growing number of positive coronavirus tests in the state. They don’t mention Alaska tests more per capita than any other state.
Alaska tests 34,260 per 100,000. Compare that to Hawaii where they test 9,202 per 100,000, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
The fear-mongering media also rarely report Alaska has the fewest number of COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 in the country. Alaska currently has close to 4 deaths per 100,000. Compare that to New York with a COVID-19 death rate of 167 per 100,000 or Louisiana with a death rate of 87 per 100,000.
You are more than 40 times as likely to die of the coronavirus if you live in New York than in Alaska.
So why is Berkowitz stubbornly and intentionally trying to destroy businesses like Kriner’s Diner? Could it be ego? Is it too late for him to admit he screwed up by shutting down the city in such a devastating and drastic way? Like most politicians, Berkowitz isn’t known for his humility and ability to admit when he was wrong. So, the war continues.
Hopefully more will join the resistance and defeat this tyrant forcing him to stand down. This is a war Berkowitz can’t win. But the longer he waits to stand down, the greater economic carnage he’ll leave behind.
Dan Fagan hosts a radio show weekday mornings on Newsradio 650 KENI.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Rise up, Anchorage, and fight this wicked mayor and his liberal cronies.
You are not alone!
Anchorage has literally gone to Hell in a Handbag!
Our Mayor has done nothing for Anchorage except push getting the homeless in nice living quarters!
And now he’s wanting to destroy our Restaurants. People have to make a living! Like I said a Chimp could do a better job!
What has this good ole Mayor done for our City? He is literally a Joke! In the lower 48!
Let us hope the tiny tyrant loses so bad in court that he takes his Napoleonic a– all the way back to California. There is no room in this Great State for a low life like Berkowitz.
Common sense and less fear mongering. I agree. If the restaurants want to stay open, so be it. It should be up to the regular citizen if they want to go to an open establishment. I know my health risks and how to take care of myself. If I get COVID, its on me to deal with it. I won’t be visiting nursing homes or the elderly. I won’t be holding any newborn babies. I wear my mask and maintain distance. I wash my hands more frequently. Its not up to the city administration to protect me. Its up to me. They’re not doing such a great job with the homeless population. They should go back to corralling the street walkers.
Exactly my sentiment Camad!
That’s right nice Job telling the truth?
Kriner has a good point. It is not necessarily political like we could easily gather. It is survival. Either you go out of business by…wait for it, not conducting business. OR you go out of business because our little elected dicktator puts you out. You go down doing what you do best or you roll over years later tell stories about a business you once had and gave away because of one man’s words.
What did Braveheart say? “Yes!, Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!!!”
Anchorage freedom lovers will support those who step boldly in the face of a bully.
No they won’t. Mostly they are blowhards with all blow and no sand.
You are free to move to Mississippi or Brazil that are suffering the consequences of ignoring CDC recommendations. Berkowitz is using the rule of law to protect the community. He wil be vindicated by the Judicial system. Meanwhile you are free to spew your nonsense.
Frank, you must be feeling guilty about voting for this Frankenstein Berkowitz. Now be a good little boy and go back to mommy’s basement.
Frank if you need a mask wear one. The rest of us are not responsible for YOU. If you think this ridiculous mandate means anything your wrong. They have been masked in Anchorage. While the rest of the state have not. Explain why their numbers are going up every day if the mask mania is working?? It’s not, and this is a power grab for the Tyrant. Wake up!
Yes, Frank, I’m sure Berkowitz will be vindicated because the CDC is a supreme being that has never given bad advice, is always right, and is never political…it always has the very best interests of its citizens at heart.
We bow to the advice of this one politically motivated health organization despite the fact that its recommendations go against multiple other studies and recommendations. Yep, any other place having issues is due to the single factor of ignoring the CDC.
And you are free to voice your opinion, and you can also move if you don’t like it.
…and you or anyone else who doesn’t want to live in freedom can move to NY, CA, WA, etc. where you can trade your safety for freedom of choice. Feel free to start packing your bags and don’t let the door hit you on your good side on the way out of the state…
Hi Frank:
Please share with the group, what exactly is so horrific about this virus that any of these measures are warranted?
Anything?
Waiting…
I am so hoping that all the restaurant owners will gather the courage to stand up and be counted. There is power in numbers and it’s important to protect individual rights. Looks like the Alaska courts is not the place to seek common sense protections.
The Mayor needs to stop listening to Thomas Hennessy at UAA and his totally inaccurate forecasts as concerns this virus to determine courses of action for the Muni.
And YOU are free to move to China, Venezuela, Russia, or the Muslim country of your choice where tyrants rule and the little people cower in fear as you seem to prefer to do. Just go away.
You are free to move to Wuhan since you feel your superior understanding of CDC guidelines lends to your self righteous opinion to bash small businesses in Anchorage for making the only choice they have! Fight back!
Please feel free to move back down to the chaos in the lower 48 and take your liberal ideas with you.
We need massive disobedience by every business against this tyranical corrupt mayor. Everyone needs to open and give Berkowitz the big middle finger. Protest his businesses and boycott them all.
Why doesn’t the mayor shut down all of the street people gathering on street corners, not wearing masks, not social distancing? Why shut down the people who are paying property taxes, trying to make a living, and trying to survive, many of which donate to charities that help the homeless. If the people gathering on street corners are OK, then certainly restaurants and bars, who have been sanitizing the heck out of their places, should be OK too.
Because you can’t fine the homeless.
No, his wife’s car hit and killed one years back, and the only witness was never questioned. Now they are trying to make it right.
Berkowitz used the pseudo-science generated by those who knew better, to claim that there is a second wave to deal with. He knew the masks wouldn’t work. He knows the lockdown will not work. This is truly all about doing as much damage to the U.S. economy and our way of life as the Globalists can… This is the face of modern warfare… We have been infiltrated by a Leftist Agenda… Our schools are not opening, our churches have been shutdown, and now more businesses will be forced to close… Need I recount the 150,000 who have died needlessly while the cure to COVID was known ? Will the Courts understand what is going on? or will they continue the leftist coup d’etat… The media is as guilty as the globalist-left coalition in playing the COVID “plandemic” to the hilt…Americans are beset by a bad press, a mainstream media that appears to be so far gone, that no one with any sense trusts their propaganda any more. I wish I could see a way out… A way to turn this thing around. Most people think we are fighting a Virus. We are fighting a much more serious infection, the disease of socialist-totalitarian control. Some have called it the greatest threat our nation has ever faced… The enemy is within, and so far they are winning..
Thomas Hennessy at UAA…since this whole thing started UAA has been wrong on everything they’ve forecasted.
It makes me sad to see private businesses such as Kriner’s Diner struggle so hard to stay in business due to government overreach. The insanity from government officials during this current health related issue is shocking and sickening. The differential treatment of businesses is unconscionable.
I want to know how many State and Local government employees have been furloughed without pay, or permanently laid off due to this government crisis? If private businesses are forced to close or reduce their level of service due to this issue, then government should also be reduced or eliminated.
Ask that Dan. Has a single permanent employee in the city lost their job or been furloughed without pay?
How about State employees? I doubt a single permanent employee has lost their job or their pay.
Private sector employees are expendable in the eyes of government, regardless of party affiliation.
The Mayor is entirely within his rights to protect the public against a pandemic that is spread through social contact. I predict next week MRAK will be attacking our Judicial System for upholding the rule of law that Mayor Berkowitz is using to keep us safe from reckless behavior.
Frank it is you that needs to abdicate Alaska. We do not need mentalities like yours and little Tyrant Berk destroying the state I have lived in for over fifty years. Your type are only interested in control and being taken care of. True Alaskans fight for their rights. We do not need Government to tell us what to do. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Just in case you haven’t realized reckless behavior is not just in the restaurants and bars white cherry pick businesses if you want to get the virus under control close the city down and start with the city employees and state employees then let’s see who cries first
I don’t need the little Mayor to protect me. I am fully capable of taking care of myself and my family. If you need the Mayor to protect you, then stay huddled in your house or better yet under the Mayors skirt… maybe you could even where a mask, gloves and a full face shield while you are at it..
Oh, look. Another California Commie! LOL.
The pandemic spread through social contact. Got it. Sounds like the seasonal flu. Oh, and pretty much every other disease known to man.
The question isn’t how it is spread, or what it is. The point is there is no emergency, the medical system is not in danger of being overrun, and the survival rate of COVID-19 is better than 99.9%.
Berkowitz does not care about safety only power. You have to look at the numbers to see this is not about safety. When you compare the number of test performed against positive rates it is .9 percent yes less than 1. Number of hospitalizations versus postive test and eqiates to 1.7 percent. So yes follow science and it shows the need for any lockdown to be Nile
All she does is tee it up. The rest is up for discussion. You aren’t suggesting censoring the media are you?
Government has been ruling private business for a long time. Bars are a private business but Government won’t allow smoking. If you don’t want to work or drink in a smoke fill room go to one that is smoke free. This is another over reach of government. The homeless on the streets we see every day ,,,, who don’t social distance,, not wearing masks, are not being held to the mayor’s mandates. you can gather on street corners and openly share a bottle of booze,,, urinate and crap in front of the public, but you can’t keep you business open to pay the bills.
Frank, go back to mommy’s basement, and stop listening to CNN.
Ethan Berkowitz is a Demon and worse than Satin. When he attacks peoples livelihoods, and his only objective is to watch people suffer at the stoke of his pen. Berkowitz is so mentally unstable he thrives on destroying others.
Stand up Anchorage and throw Satin (Berkowitz) out of Alaska!!
Mayor B is so bad that Satan would kick him out of hell!!!
In my opinion, it is not government’s role to force people to protect themselves. Would you apply your same logic if the Mayor mandated that every Anchorage resident open carry?
People seem to forget that they have the right, and ability, to not patronize those businesses whose virus response does not fall into alignment with their own personal standards, based upon their own risk factors. Business does not need the government here, simply allow the public to “vote with its pocketbook”.
Great idea! Let’s defund the police and everyone carry. If everyone carried guns into stores, around homes and in parks, the little thieves would go away. Now, since everyone is homeschooling let’s put the homeless in the schools till the pandemic goes away then we don’t have to buy property to house them. The tax payers won’t be stuck forever paying for these properties
Frank for your information reckless behavior is just not in the bars and restaurants it’s an every business and every gathering if you want to stop the virus shut the city down starting with the city and state employees without pay or benefits and let’s see who wins first
All Mr. Kriner has to do is state that his hours of operation are to provide support services for a daily Leftist protest in his parking lot. The Mayor will call off the heat and probably show up to compliment the comrades.
The short story is that he is readying himself for Don Young’s position. He has proven his willingness to do all the things good Democrat’s are known and loved for – being deceitful, dishonest, deceptive as well as willing to follow the lead of others he admires so well. A follower of Pelosi, Schumer, Harris, Biden, et. al. I am amazed that other are amazed at his handling of this situation. Absolutely text book Democrat.
Frank you must be independently wealthy to say such a privileged statement. Stop worshiping Jim Jones the mayor.
Tell that to the people in Portland who are being “saved” by their mayor.
I would like to see the contact tracing data that suggests or concludes bars and dine have resulted in more cases. Where is the science. Is this info available. Also, let’s close C street so Kriners can open outside, let every restaurant close the street in front for now, not just cherry pick streets to close
This is ludicrous. I have been around viruses for 50 years with million-dollar thoroughbred horses. Let get it straight, a virus is a virus, you can’t medicate out of it. There’s not a vaccine for any of it. Sars, H1N1, Swine flu etc. They all have one thing in common they just burn out after a period of time and go away. Today the numbers you here are complete BS. If someone falls off a cliff it’s because of Covid. One case, in particular, a guy gets killed on a motorcycle but its blamed on Covid. another case 300 testing stations in Florida had 100% positives,, which would be trillions to one against. They make no distinction of dieing with COVID or died from Covid . One thing is a fact it will go away after Nov 4th
Follow the money
Since March 16, 2020 the politicans of this state have caused me more financial hardships than I can take. I have lost my 2019 Hyundai Elantra due to repossession because I haven’t made a payment since March. Been laid off four of the last five months. Been denied unemployment benefits. Barely making rent. And I have lost over half of my yearly income. What’s next??
Comments are closed.