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Kelly Tshibaka: Joe Biden, worst president in history, brought to you by Lisa Murkowski

Guest Writer
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Kelly Tshibaka: Joe Biden, worst president in history, brought to you by Lisa Murkowski

By KELLY TSHIBAKA

Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of the United States. He could not have accomplished this humiliating “achievement,” though, without Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s consistent support.

Through his COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Mr. Biden intentionally violated the constitutional and civil rights of millions of Americans, imposing his will on their bodies by threatening their livelihoods. 

Mr. Biden previously pledged not to issue such a mandate, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki even conceded the federal government did not have that authority. White House chief of staff Ron Klain also publicly promoted the idea that the shot mandate was the “ultimate workaround” of the limitations on Mr. Biden’s executive power. Mr. Klain’s retweet of an MSNBC anchor was noted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the ruling that struck down the mandate.

Let’s remember that Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the majority to block Mr. Biden’s tyrannical power grab, would not be on the court if Ms. Murkowski had prevailed in opposing their nominations. Without Mr. Kavanaugh and Mrs. Barrett, the ruling could have gone the other way.

To knowingly violate the Constitution was a breach of Mr. Biden’s oath of office. To oppose the confirmation of justices who went on to block Mr. Biden’s shot mandate remains a stain on Ms. Murkowski’s record.

What’s more, by his own standards, Mr. Biden has been an abject failure in combatting COVID-19. When COVID-19 deaths reached 200,000 during former President Donald Trump’s time in office, Mr. Biden said, “anyone that is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president.” COVID-19 death totals now exceed 850,000. I’ve lost loved ones to COVID-19 this past year — I imagine others reading this are also grieving. 

Mr. Biden blasted Mr. Trump for the COVID-19 testing program during his campaign, promising he would do better. In fact, he has promised an improvement in testing availability month after month, but things still have not improved. Americans suffering from COVID-19 are waiting for hours, even days, to get tested and have access to critical treatment. 

In December 2021, Mr. Biden said he “wish [he] had thought” about expanding test availability. This was around the same time he renounced federal responsibility for COVID-19 and said it must be solved at the state level. Yet, he still imposes mandates that are debilitating health care systems, controls access to shots and provides inadequate allotments of monoclonal antibody treatments.

In a new CBS poll, Mr. Biden also gets failing grades for his handling of the economy — only 38% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, and a mere 30% approve of his approach to inflation.

In fact, under Mr. Biden, the U.S. dollar’s global position is at a 26-year low, with many wondering if the dollar will soon cease to be the world’s reserve currency.

Amidst all this economic turmoil, Ms. Murkowski stepped in to bail out Mr. Biden, siding with Democrats to permit a vote to raise the debt ceiling and authorize more government deficit spending.

Mr. Biden also has surrendered America’s energy independence, rendering the United States a supplicant for oil to Iran, Iraq and Russia, contributing to nearly 30% in increased energy costs over the past year. 

Ms. Murkowski championed Mr. Biden’s energy-annihilating agenda by casting the deciding vote to advance the confirmation of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who has since led Mr. Biden’s assault on Alaska’s energy workers and has crippled domestic fuel production. 

In fact, Ms. Murkowski has voted to confirm over 90% of Mr. Biden’s radical nominees, who are spearheading his failing agenda.

Those confirmations include DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose policies have resulted in nearly 2 million illegal immigrant encounters at our border. In contrast, DHS reported less than 500,000 illegal immigrant encounters in FY 2020. 

Ms. Murkowski did not join the dozens of Republican senators who visited the southern border in 2021 to demand immigration policy reform. She did, however, vote in 2013 to allow millions of illegal immigrants, including those who committed crimes, to remain in the U.S.

Perhaps the most tragic event on Mr. Biden’s record for the first year was his entirely avoidable blunder in Afghanistan. Before his botched troop withdrawal, Ms. Murkowski expressed confidence in Mr. Biden’s “viable plan.” 

Ultimately, his reckless and ill-fated military withdrawal left 13 American service members dead, stranded countless Americans, and handed the country and billions of dollars of American military hardware to the Taliban. Apparently, these are the kinds of plans Ms. Murkowski believed were “viable.”

Ms. Murkowski is running for reelection, and she’s trying to brand herself as “independent.” But, she is not.

She’s a dependable supporter of Mr. Biden, the worst president in U.S. history.

Kelly Tshibaka is a born-and-raised Alaskan and a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and the Alaska Republican Party. This opinion was first published by the Washington Times on Jan. 24, 2022.

Anchorage searches for superintendent who believes the school district is a racist institution

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Anchorage searches for superintendent who believes the school district is a racist institution

By DAVID BOYLE

The Anchorage School District is in the process of selecting a new superintendent to replace retiring Superintendent Deena Bishop.  The selection will impact the Anchorage community and students for the next few years. 

The superintendent sets the tone and helps the board set the policy priorities that will impact our students and parents.  Will the new superintendent emphasize best practices to improve student achievement? Or will that superintendent emphasize the dog-whistle diversion of diversity, inclusion, and equity?

The district has selected Ray & Associates, Inc. to help manage the selection process.  This firm was used in the past to select the current superintendent as well as the MatSu Borough and Juneau superintendents.  This was a sole source contract, which is permissible under ASD Board policy.

Ray & Associates has provided the district with a list of 31 qualities/characteristics that a superintendent should have.

Read: Your voice matters, public input on new search for school superintendent

Two of these qualities are, “Has a strong moral compass that is rooted in justice and equality” and “Is able to lead district diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.” This is a direct reference to Critical Race Theory and its tenets.

The contract has an entire page devoted to “Inclusion, Equity and Elimination of Institutional Racism.”  

The contract’s exact wording on this topic is:

“We recognize social injustice, systemic racism, socio-economic limitations and the disparities associated with the identification and placement of school district leadership personnel. Furthermore, this recognition has not only guided our recruitment and placement of school district leaders, it directly impacts our recruitment and selection of our search Associates and national office personnel.”

This is the only section of the contract that is bolded. These appear to be the most important criteria for selection. Note that the firm will use these criteria to “guide our recruitment and placement of school district leaders”. 

Ray & Associates continues with “We will recognize systemic racism as an equity problem for children’s access to a fair, thorough and effective public education.”

Believing “systemic racism” exists in our schools is apparently one of the most important qualities for the new superintendent.

Is that what the parents, teachers, and Anchorage citizens want? Are these the criteria most important to you in the education of your children?  

You can make a difference by voicing your opinions to the ASD Board. The Board is having virtual townhalls to get citizens’ input.  Here are the virtual townhalls:

Tuesday, January 25, noon -1:00 pm.

Thursday, January 27, 6-7 pm.

Click this link to join the webinar.

Webinar ID: 923 1591 8124,  Passcode: 117790

You can also contact all the Anchorage School Board members by emailing them: [email protected]

Parents and grandparents can let the school board know what it thinks about the Critical Race Theory priorities in the selection process.

MailChimp admits mistake on Must Read Alaska content, but MRAK already pulled the plug on the bad boys of bulk email

Suzanne Downing
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MailChimp admits mistake on Must Read Alaska content, but MRAK already pulled the plug on the bad boys of bulk email

The bulk email provider MailChimp on Monday admitted to Must Read Alaska that it had erred in suspending the political newsletter’s account.

On Friday, MailChimp notified MRAK that the Alaska newsletter was suspended and the Friday newsletter would not be sent to the 12,000 current subscribers. The company did not respond to our questions about what content had offended MailChimp, which has recently been sold to Intuit.

On Monday, MailChimp wrote a response that its provider, Omnivore, had discovered content in the Friday newsletter that was deemed harmful. MailChimp did not say what content had triggered the suspension but said upon human review, it was a mistake.

That was too late for Must Read Alaska. Editor Suzanne Downing had already switched to a different provider on Friday afternoon and published the Friday newsletter on the Constant Contact platform.

Must Read Alaska has been publishing a newsletter for Alaskans since April of 2015.

Palin tests positive for Covid, delaying defamation trial against New York Times

Suzanne Downing
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Palin tests positive for Covid, delaying defamation trial against New York Times

The judge who is presiding over the case that former Gov. Sarah Palin has brought against the New York Times announced in court today that Palin has tested positive for Covid.

”Ms. Palin had tested positive for coronavirus. She is, of course, unvaccinated,” said Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff to reporters in the courtroom, who then reported it out on Twitter.

Palin is suing the New York Times for defamation after it wrote that she, through her political action committee, put a visual target on lawmakers around the country.

The public statement about her vaccination status by the judge may show bias and is a violation of her privacy rights. Palin’s lawyers may choose to ask for a new judge, or may be able to use the judge’s statement as grounds for an appeal.

Monday: Sarah Palin vs. New York Times

Monday: Sarah Palin vs. New York Times

Suzanne Downing
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Monday: Sarah Palin vs. New York Times

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gets her day in court vs. the “Gray Lady” on Monday, when her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times will be heard by a Manhattan jury.

In 2008, Palin was chosen by Sen. John McCain as his running mate in his bid for president. In 2017, the New York Times in an editorial directly linked Palin to the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona, when a gunman opened up fire on Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, wounding her and several others, killing six.

The editorial “falsely stated as a matter of fact to millions of people that Mrs. Palin incited Jared Loughner’s January 8, 2011, shooting rampage at a political event in Tucson, Arizona,” according to the complaint against the New York Times. The Times said that a Palin ad had depicted lawmakers with a gun target on them.

The Times later made a correction and even acknowledged that it had mischaracterized an ad run by a political action committee, which had shown various congressional districts around the country underneath target crosshairs.

Because The New York Times has admitted the error and called it an honest mistake, the Palin defamation case is a bit harder, and the newspaper has tried mightily to get the case dismissed. But Palin is alleging the newspaper acted in malice against her, and that is one of the tests of a libel suit.

“At issue is the elasticity of the protections that allow news organizations to present tough coverage of public figures,” Erik Wemple wrote on Friday in the Washington Post. “Or, to put things a bit more sharply, the case will help demarcate the line between really bad journalism and libelous journalism.”

According to the Freedom Forum Institute, “a public figure has to prove that the publisher of the false statements acted with ‘actual malice.’ Actual malice means that the publisher either knew that the statements were false, or acted with reckless disregard for whether they were true or false.”

The trial week will start with jury selection; prospective jurors will be asked if they know who Sarah Palin is, if they have opinions about her, the media, and the New York Times.

As the public discourse has become more harsh in recent years, it’s impossible to predict what the jury will decide in the Palin case, but her willingness to sue puts the New York Times on notice that it can’t abuse the truth to destroy reputations without consequence.

State Department urges Americans: Get out of Ukraine, Crimea

Suzanne Downing
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State Department urges Americans: Get out of Ukraine, Crimea

The U.S. State Department has issued advisories for Ukraine and Crimea due to the increasing likelihood that Russia will invade Ukraine.

State authorized the voluntary departure of all U.S. direct hire employees and ordered the departure of eligible family members from the American Embassy in Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action.

“U.S. citizens in Ukraine should consider departing now using commercial or other privately available transportation options,” the State Department advised.

There are reports Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine. The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice.  Demonstrations, which have turned violent at times, regularly occur throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv,” State said.

“U.S. citizens in Ukraine should be aware that Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine would severely impact the U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide consular services, including assistance to U.S. citizens in departing Ukraine,” the agency said.

For those Alaskans with relatives in Ukraine, review what the U.S. government can and cannot do to assist you in a crisis overseas.The Department asks all U.S. citizens in Ukraine to complete an online form so that the agency may better communicate with them, especially if they intend to remain in Ukraine. The phone numbers dedicated for Ukraine-related calls are at this link.

The State Department also advised Americans to not travel to the Crimean peninsula, as there is extensive Russian military presence. The Russians are abusing and imprisoning foreigners and locals alike, especially those who are seen as opposing Russian occupiers. The U.S. government prohibits U.S. employees from traveling to Crimea and is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Crimea.

Russia-led forces also control areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where the ongoing armed conflict has resulted in more than 14,000 deaths.

Individuals, including U.S. citizens, have been threatened, detained, or kidnapped for hours or days after being stopped at checkpoints controlled by Russia-led forces. The U.S. government restricts USDH from traveling to the eastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and adjacent regions, which limits the ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in these regions.

In Europe and Eastern Europe, Ukraine is second only in size to Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. It was absorbed by the USSR after World War II and gained its independence in 1991. It has been the site of numerous bloody conflicts across many centuries.

Ukraine is deeply corrupt and is a center for human trafficking. Crimes targeting foreigners is common. Politically targeted assassinations and bombings have also occurred. There are reports of violent attacks on minority groups and police by radical groups, the State Department said.

On CNN on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned, “If a single additional Russian force goes into Ukraine in an aggressive way, as I said, that would trigger a swift, a severe and a united response from us and from Europe.”

Keep on trucking? The U.S. and Canada vaccine mandates may slow Alaska’s freight

Suzanne Downing
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Keep on trucking? The U.S. and Canada vaccine mandates may slow Alaska’s freight

A pair of vaccine mandates for truckers in and out of Canada and the U.S. may worsen the supply chain problems in Alaska.

While much of Alaska’s consumer goods come to the state via barges and shipping containers at the Port of Alaska, there are still goods being trucked up the Alaska Highway, entering the state at the Tok border crossing. There is no one organization that knows just what is coming through near Tok, Alaska and how the lack of drivers will impact Alaska families and businesses.

The Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers went into effect on Saturday. Canada enacted new trucker vaccine Covid regulations that went into effect on Jan. 15.

The vaccine mandates represent a stare-down between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada’s mandate was in reaction to the U.S. mandate, which was announced first, but went into effect a few days after Canada’s.

In protest, some truckers have created blockades at U.S.-Canada border crossings, making already long waits into bottlenecks for everyone trying to traverse the border. Right now, a trucker convoy is crossing Canada toward the capital of Ottawa to stage a major protest.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, non-U.S. citizens  seeking to enter the United States via land ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada  borders must be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and provide proof of vaccination. No booster is required by the DHS.

The rules from the Biden Administration apply to all non-citizens, even those traveling in essential capacities, which includes truckers moving critical medical goods to combat the pandemic.

Empty shelves at the Northern Lights Carrs grocery store on Saturday, Jan. 22, 20222.

Trucking and logistics groups have said this new set of rules will negatively impact supply chains already in crisis, according to Heavy Duty Trucking, a trade group.

What comes to Alaska via highway in the winter? A lot of construction equipment, including oil and gas machinery, comes up the highway, as well as all the household goods that belong to military families being reassigned to Alaska, and other household moves. Anything too big to move in a Conex or cargo container comes up the highway.

It’s estimated that 40 percent of the U.S. trucking workforce is now unable to traverse the U.S.-Canada border. The same holds true for the U.S.-Mexico border, where produce, medicine, and manufactured goods are sourced for much of the U.S.

U.S. auto part imports from Canada were $14 billion last year, while its auto part imports from Mexico were $51.6 billion, according to the Auto Care Association, as reported by NBC News.

The American Trucking Association joined the lawsuit against the Biden Administration over the vaccine mandates and issued a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court put a stay on the Biden vaccine-or-test mandate:

“Today, ATA has won a tremendous victory on behalf of the trucking industry and workers and employers everywhere. Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court validates our claim that OSHA far overstepped its authority in issuing an emergency temporary standard that would interfere with individuals’ private health care decisions,” ATA said in its statement.

“Trucking has been on the front lines throughout the pandemic – delivering PPE, medical supplies, food, clothing, fuel, and even the vaccines themselves. Thanks to this ruling, our industry will continue to deliver critical goods, as our nation recovers from the pandemic and we move our economy forward,” the organization said on Jan. 13.

But the lawsuit didn’t touch the Department of Homeland Security’s cross-border vaccine mandate.

Last week on Fox News, American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear said that the trucking industry is “on the edge of a cliff.:

“I think a year of policies that have led us there generally stem from rewarding people not to return to work,” he said. Spears added the trucking field is still short 81,000 drivers.

As for the trucker protests, the Canadian Trucking Alliance said it disapproves of them.

“The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges. CTA believes such actions – especially those that interfere with public safety – are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed. Members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill or contact their local MP. What is not acceptable is disrupting the motoring public on highways and commerce at the border,” the organization said in a statement on Saturday.

UPenn transgender swimmer wins two more events at meet with Harvard women

Suzanne Downing
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UPenn transgender swimmer wins two more events at meet with Harvard women

Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who until 2019 was competing as a man, won two races at the University of Pennsylvania meet with Harvard University on Saturday.

Thomas finished first in the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Harvard won the overall meet, however, 187-113.

Thomas is a senior from Austin, Texas who took a year off of swimming competitively to chemically and surgically transition from being a man to appearing and competing as a woman in college swimming..

“The most heated issue in swimming this year only emerged in the last two months of the year as University of Pennsylvania senior Lia Thomas recorded the fastest times in college swimming in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle as well as an elite performance in the 1650 freestyle. Those performances caused a stir because of Thomas’ stauts as a transgender athlete. She competed for the Penn men’s team for three years before completing the required one year of ‘testosterone suppression treatment’ in order to be eligible to compete as a female,” writes Swimming World Magazine.

Thomas ranks first in the NCAA among women in the 200 and 500 freestyles this year. Thomas’ best time in the 500-yard freestyle is 4:34.06, about 10 seconds behind Katie Ledecky’s record set in 2017.

Thomas posted record-setting times that qualified her for the NCAA championships in early December. Since then, the NCAA has posted a revision to its policy on transgender athletes, but Thomas continues to be allowed to compete against biological women.

Her win on Friday in the 50-yard freestyle is nearly five seconds faster at 50.55 than Alaska Olympian Lydia Jacoby swam in 2019, when she posted a time of 56.51.

NCAA tweaks its transgender athlete policy

Secret meetings by three Palmer City Council members has led to a recall petition, and question will now go to voters

Suzanne Downing
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Secret meetings by three Palmer City Council members has led to a recall petition, and question will now go to voters

The City Clerk of Palmer on Friday certified the signatures on a recall petition against three City Council members, who violated the Open Meetings Act, according to the petitioners who favor the recall.

The group calling for the removal of Council members Sabrena Combs, Brian Daniels, and Jill Valerius, say they have proof the three elected officials were discussing official city business in a private Facebook group called Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice. The discussions were about mask mandates, getting rid of the police chief, and setting up a police oversight council — all matters that were also being discussed in council meetings. This amounts to collusion.

It is illegal for elected officials to have private group discussions that involve more than three of them, just as it is illegal for them to conduct the public’s business in other secretive ways, such as chain phone calls between two, and then having one of the two call a third member and relay the information or agreements.

According to the Alaska Open Meetings Act,

According to the ‘State Policy Regarding Meetings’ (AS 44.62.312):
– The government exists to aid in conducting the people’s business.
– Government units should act and deliberate openly.
– The people do not yield sovereignty to government agencies that serve them.
– People should remain informed so they may retain control over the government they created.
– Public servants have not been given the right to decide what is good or not good for the people to know. – The use of teleconferences is for the convenience of the parties, public, and government.
– The Open Meetings Act should be narrowly construed to effectuate these policies and avoid unnecessary exemptions.

The Palmer City Council will meet next on Jan. 25 at 6 pm, and the Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice members are planning to be there to support the three members who will be facing recall, Must Read Alaska has learned. Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice was founded during the tumultuous election-year killing of serial criminal George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck until he died. That led to riots across the country.

Palmer residents Cindy Hudgins and Kristi Mercer led the recall petition efforts against the three Council members and filed the petitions with the clerk on Friday. They needed to have 169 legal signatures from Palmer voters and say the cleared the hurdle with many to spare. It’s unclear when the results will be announced to the council by the City Clerk Shelly Acteson, but it may not be until the regular Feb. 8 meeting. The matter has not been added to the Jan. 25 meeting agenda.

They will be listed individually on the recall ballot, which means one or all of them could be recalled.

After the results are presented to the city council, a special election must be held in a 45-75 day timeframe, which pushes a special election into spring or summer.

The Open Meetings Act summary is at this link.

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