By LOUIS IMBRIANI
In case you missed Tuesday night’s Anchorage Assembly meeting, don’t worry, you didn’t miss much. It was business as usual, except with an added 200 people or so waiting in anticipation to give their testimony on two items that were added during a special Assembly meeting on Sept. 20. These items were AO 2021-91, which would bully Anchorage businesses into trying to enforce and require their patrons to wear a face covering in their businesses; and AO 2021-92 which is a retaliatory response regarding Mayor Dave Bronson’s appointments.
Read: Give me liberty or give me death, testimony continues
The public continued to file in and out of the Assembly chambers while they were conducting the beginning of meeting formalities, but an unforeseen technical glitch caused quite a stir.
The sound was temporarily lost in the Wilda Marsden Theater, which is the overflow room, and the video was completely out. This caused the large overflow crowd to come from the Wilda Marsden and demand entry into the Assembly chambers. With the chambers already well over capacity, security guards had to hold the line at the doors.
There was screaming and chanting while people waited to get into the Assembly chambers so they could watch what was happening. This caused numerous interruptions to the meeting facilitated by Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance. LaFrance even went as far as putting the public in “timeout” and pausing the meeting for five minutes on three separate occasions.
There were the comments from the crowd of onlookers during initial audience participation, which was, for the second meeting in a row, dominated by an administrative staff manager from Providence Alaska Medical Center and a doctor from Providence, edging out the time slot for other member of the public to give their testimony.
This was just a repeat of the last Assembly meeting where they continued to circle around the questions rather than answer them, or they would refer the Assembly to others who would know the answer.
Read: Anchorage Assembly stacks the deck with doctors, won’t let the public speak
The meeting was managed as business as usual. The members took up all the items of regular business on the agenda as planned. It wasn’t until almost 10:30 pm that Assemblywoman Jamie Allard made a motion to reorder the day. However, she was quickly shut down by Acting Chairman Chris Constant, who took over for Chair LaFrance for the item they had in front of them, due to a conflict that was, in fact, a minor technicality. They finished the item and a motion was made to reorder the day, but it still put the most anticipated item (AO2021-91, the universal masking ordinance) third in line. A motion was also made to extend the meeting from 11 pm to midnight.
A zoning change then took up almost the entirety of the remainder of the evening with the public hearing of the masking ordinance starting at 11:45 pm. This hearing was continued Wednesday starting at 6 pm in the assembly chambers. That meeting also went until midnight, and is continued to Thursday at 6 pm. They will hear everyone in the chambers and on the phone. So please show up early so you can speak.
The actions taken by the Assembly on Tuesday just proved that this ordinance, which originally was littered with the word “emergency,” is actually just another attempt at restricting the rights of over 300,000 Anchorage residents. They called a Special Assembly meeting eight days prior to get it on the agenda for Tuesday, and then rather than taking it up right a way because it is was so important it just couldn’t wait, they continued on like “business as usual.” This illustrates why the power to act in an emergency rests with the executive branch, not the legislative branch.
The reactions from the crowd Tuesday and Wednesday, while disruptive, were well justified. The way the Anchorage Assembly conducts business is abhorrent. They continue on with business as usual because “that is the way we have always done it.” The Anchorage Assembly’s poor time management, disregard for the public and blatant disrespect for people’s time has led to the situation we saw develop in the chambers.
Many of the members and the body as a whole have lost the respect of the people of Anchorage over the past 19 months. That was further proven Monday and Tuesday by the display of the crowd.
The only reasonable action that can be taken by the assembly now is to postpone AO 2021-91 indefinitely. They have proven that this AO is really not all emergency. Their willingness to filibuster the night away reinforced this point.
Louis Imbriani is an Anchorage resident and civic activist.
Who actually believes these actions were not deliberate? Anyone? Anyone?
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Like the toddlers they are, the leftists on the Assembly actually think they are fooling people with their actions. Catch a five year old eating that chocolate cake he was forbidden from tasting before dinner (with it all over his face) and he will look at you, surprised that you question his integrity. He never even glanced at that cake, and ignore the crumbs and chocolate all over his face.
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This Assembly reminds me of that. For some reason, they actually think people will believe this agenda item was put last on the agenda for an innocent reason. They seem to think that the public will ignore their shenanigans.
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They act like children, and the time has come to treat them like children.
The radical extremist authoritarian majority on the municipal ass-embly did not simply “disrespect” the public by playing games with the ordering of business items, knowing damned well that most of the attending public was there to speak out on the proposed mask mandate, the ass-embly clearly showed their utter CONTEMPT for the people of Anchorage by acting as the power-mad bullies and petty tyrants that they truly are, by forcing all those who attended on Tuesday to sit through many hours of tedium, only to have to return on Wednesday or Thursday.
The Fascists are in control of the Anchorage Assembly!
You don’t say? They’re also can control the traffic lights. How dare they make us stop at a red light. Wear seat belts. Show an ID when I want to fly on a plane. The people have picked a hell of an item to stand their ground on. I personally had I still been up there would have picketed those transgenders when they put them in the library reading to the kids rather than over a stupid mask that I was wearing anyway until I got sick and recovered and that I still have to wear every time I go into the doctor’s office. People got up funny way of prioritizing stuff.
Greg, once again you put your ignorance on display. Traffic lights are not controlled by the Assembly, Federal Highway Engineers have this kind of thing covered…
Keep living in your little fear room Greg. Believe everything your masters tell you and repeat it back like the little programed Myna bird that you are.
C’mon Assembly, the world is watching a classic example of what happens when you go against the will of the people, morons.
If this passes, who is going to enforce it..? Whoever it is- you could be the good guys or the bad guys. Your choice…
Sad that people need to use anti-semitic symbols to demonstrate their disdain for public safety
What is anti-semitic about the Star of David?
There’s nothing wrong with the Star of David, but when it’s used in the same context as the Nazis used it then it’s a little distasteful.
It was not being used in the same context as the Nazis used it.
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There is a difference between the Nazis forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David and people willingly wearing the Star of David. One is an act of repression, the other an act of defiance.
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Never again.
If you don’t know history go back and study it..
Sue, plz delete this statement.
Exactly.
Sad that people cannot clear see the parallels between the dehumanization and then persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, and the similar dehumanization and growing persecution of those who refuse to receive an experimental and dangerous injection (cannot call it a “vaccine”) that is being hysterically and coercively forced on more and more of us.
The symbolism is accurate. Jews were scapegoated by society. Blamed for all the failings of a bankrupt state. The were forced out of homes, jobs, segregated, and eventually literally removed from said society.
Anyone who can’t see the linkage deliberately doesn’t want to.
Just real sensitive up there about Nazi stuff. License plates and stuff.
You also have to consider the Context when a Nazi-German symbol is used. How I see the context is it’s been used by the Americans here to get the attention and wake-up these Sleepy 9 Assembly Members. They are, I think the nine are unintentionally, I giving them the benefit of doubt, are following the same steps a small minority in Nazi-Germany took creating policies that led up to the Holocaust and destruction agianst the Jewish people, German supporters of Jewish Neighbors, and anyone else who wasn’t Aryan by the Nazi-German opinion.
If anything, the Star of David shows solidarity, not anti-semitism.
You should contact your history teacher and get a refund. Your understanding of world events is staggeringly pathetic.
But I suspect you know that.
Seems a reasonable deduction to me. If it was truly an emergency, it would have been the first order of business.
If it were truly an emergency, the Assembly would be reviving the Declaration of Emergency that was in place during the previous Mayoral Administration. After all, they continued to extend that declaration because “it kept the hospitals from being overrun.”
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Which, per this masking mandate, the hospitals ARE overrun. Can’t imagine any reason why the Assembly does not reinstitute the measures that kept us safe until June/July 2021. I just cannot imagine any reason at all.
Kept us safe from what?
I don’t have any idea. But every time the Assembly extended the EO, they claimed it kept the hospitals from being overwhelmed, and COVID cases low.
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So, if the previous EO, per the Assembly’s own ordinances, kept us safe, they should put it back in effect.
Yes, it would be enlightening, as well as entertaining, to publicly ask the nine Marxists on the municipal assembly why they have not already declared a “health emergency” in Anchorage if they believe the situation is so bad as to warrant a mask mandate. Oh, that’s right, because doing so would put all the power into the mayor’s hands instead of their own. Which was fine when Marxist Berkowitz, and then (Illegally) Acting Mayor Quinn-Davidson were at the helm, but God forbid when we have Dave Bronson as mayor instead.
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Hypocrisy, thy name is radical leftist authoritarian.
Go Louis….
The Delaware Dummy has laid some eggs….and the socialists have hatched in the Anchorage assembly…
“Interesting” that Zaletel and her co sponsor of this proposed mandate have chosen not to show up at the meetings dealing specifically with their proposed mandates. Pretty obvious that they already know they are going against the majority of the citizen of Anchorage to try to force this on us….
I predict that they will wait through the public testimony, push their agenda forward, even if they know the public is against it, and continue to do whatever it is they whim because they believe they were elected as our emperors. I know.. you’re thinking I am a genius for figuring out their next move before they make it, aren’t you?! Yes…. thank you, I am!
It’s amazing how 300,000 people allow just a few to control them.
The tyrants in those assembly seats are counting on their subjects to obey the laws, to observe the constraints that we created to control our baser instincts in order to have a civil society.
These people are expert at working the system while pushing the limits that we’ll tolerate without violent resistance.
Conservatives are law abiding by nature while liberals have no natural boundaries because they lack fundamental moral or ethical beliefs.
Hedonism is their god and they’ll do whatever they think they can get away with to pursue their own personal goals.
It’s why they’ll kill a baby right up to the moment of birth…they see nothing wrong with that.
It why they’ll violate your natural human rights…they see nothing wrong with that either because they think they’re superior to you…that they know what’s best.
It’s why we’ll never reach common ground with them…it’s all their way, either all at once or slowly over time through bipartisanship or compromise.
Working with a liberal simply means giving up less than they’re demanding.
Once enough people understand the true nature of the other side we can drop the pretense that we can all coexist and maybe finally solve the problem of liberalism in America.
Don’t hold your breath though because our side has plenty of excuses to justify doing nothing more than whining and complaining while the liberals steal our way of life.
The Assembly clearly wants a fight with the public. Let’s give them one! And make it a good one!
Actually, they are picking yet another fight with Mayor Bronson. They will pass this, regardless of the amount of public outcry, then override Bronson’s veto.
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It is all about a … measuring contest.
Quote from American Frontline Doctors – When you put politicians and bureaucrats in charge of public health, you get neither health nor safety. They are following profits, not science.
So the question with the tyrannical Anchorage Assembly member is who(m) is paying them to be such tyrants? Let’s scrutinize their APOC reports! Dark Agenda will fail. Enough is Enough! Time for recalls on all of the tyrants.
Great insight Louis. Shameful Assembly conduct!
Where’s the petition to recall THE ENTIRE ASSEMBLY?
I’ll sign. I’ll crawl across broken glass on hands and knees to sign.
I am nowhere NEAR alone, and that should give the Assembly food for thought.
I’d be proud to sign one!!!!
Unfortunately, this loud minority is more like the German Nazi oppressor’s, they were actually just a small percentage of hateful bigoted loudmouth and angry vocal people, and IMO, the red shirt, star of David crowd we have should just keep waving the Nazi and confederate flags just like their progenitors, and some who proudly park at ABT . This would be a much more accurate representation of the ugliness and rage boiling around in their hearts.
To Nate :
OR….. and hear me out – you could take your insults and judgments, roll them up into a tight ball and use them to simply pound sand.
So, how is life in the Bizarro World, Nate?
You have things exactly backward. If you want to see true hate, it rests in the bitter, intolerant and power-mad eyes of the nine radical extremist authoritarians on the Anchorage Ass-embly.
Nate:
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“…of the ugliness and rage boiling around in their hearts.”
That is probably the main reason why the conservatives and liberals are having such a hard time communicating. This is a trend I have seen for years now.
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Every time someone on the right side of the political aisle says or does something that goes against the narrative presented by the left side of the aisle, they are accused of hating. If you think the borders should be secured, and only those without criminal records and who support the ideals this country were founded on? The left will accuse you of hating immigrants. If you cannot find a single thing that George Floyd did that is honorable in any way, you are accused of hating all blacks.
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If you think economic crushing government regulations on the energy sector are overreach, you hate the environment.
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And, if you co-opt a symbol of oppression and use it as a badge of pride, or as a reminder of “Never Again!” you are accused of ugliness and rage.
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It is easy to be a mind reader, Nate, but your lack of imagination and willingness to assign motives without any evidence supporting them is indicative of an undeveloped intellect.
Yep.
And, the testimony against the mask mandate is continuing to a 4th night. Coincidentally, the ADN reports there are 1200 new “cases” and 10 new COVID deaths.
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Bet the Assembly decides it is just too dangerous to allow in person testimony any more, and they will lock the public out of the chambers.
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