TODAY THEY GET LAST FEW AT KRINER’S DINER

With a final push for signatures to recall Assemblyman Felix Rivera, sponsors are feeling confident they have enough to meet the threshold. They issued the following statement:

“Today, 300+ petition sponsors and 5,000 midtown residents are submitting the necessary signatures to initiate the recall vote of Assembly Chair Felix Rivera.

Over the last 9 months, these 5,000 Anchorage citizens have watched Felix Rivera and the majority of the Anchorage assembly divert nearly 50 million dollars of CARES act funds to pet projects like bike trails and homeless hotels.

These 5,000 citizens have watched hundreds of businesses fail while the majority of the assembly, chaired by Felix Rivera, voted consistently to prioritize cronyism and corruption over the economic needs of the thousands of Anchorage citizens losing their jobs.

These 5,000 citizens have also watched these same politicians abuse emergency mandates in an attempt to deny the public the right to fully participate in their government, and then show a stunningly callous disregard to those same mandates when it was convenient to their own political agenda. 

That agenda now includes Felix Rivera and the current political leadership of Midtown – Assemblymember Meg Zaletel, Senator Elvi Gray Jackson, Representative Berta Gardener, and Representative Andy Josephson among others, actively fundraising to block this legal recall petition via the courts, once again denying their own constituents a constitutional right guaranteed in the political process.  That should make every resident of Midtown both alarmed and angry.

Finally, and most importantly, we applaud the efforts of all of our neighbors who made this campaign successful.  Many, many people worked extremely diligently under the stresses of both a global pandemic and the worst of Alaskan winter weather to make their voice in democracy heard today.”

The petition sponsors will be collecting signatures today at Kriner’s Diner at 2409 C Street, from noon to 3 pm, and all day at Duane’s Antique Market, 1233 E 76th Ave, (907) 349-7078.

They must turn in the signatures to the Municipal Clerk by close of business on Tuesday, Jan. 5. The group needs to give the Clerk 2,735 signatures from those in Rivera’s district in order to get a recall question on the April 6 municipal ballot. Activists are certain the Clerk will be strict in her ruling on signatures, and so they want to be sure they have a large buffer to make up for those the Clerk will throw out.

Rivera is mounting a legal challenge to the recall and has been raising money for the court challenge.

Congressman Don Young, as Dean of the House, did what members of the minority caucus typically do in such circumstances: He called for the parties to work together in a spirit of bipartisanship. Young took a moment before swearing in Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who giggled at the dais during his remarks.

“Madam Speaker before I issue the oath, I’d like to take the privilege of the floor as the dean. I’ve been in this House longer than anybody else. I’ve served with you longer than anybody else has served with you. I love this institution. I will be honest, I do not like what I see. It’s time we hold hands and talk to one another,” Young said. The House Democrats stood and applauded, as House Republicans sat and applauded.

“And Madam Speaker, I say this with all sincerity. You will be the Speaker of the House. Not of a party. That may hurt some of you,” he said, referring to the members. “The job of our nation is for the House of Representatives to govern this nation. It was never meant to be the executive branch. It was never meant to be the judicial branch. It’s this House that raises the money and dedicates how it shall spend and we are representing the people, as we’re elected.

“And I say this with all sincerity, Madam Speaker, that when you do have a problem or if there’s something so contentious, let’s sit down and have a drink,” he said. The House broke out in laughter, “Here, Here” and applause.

“And solve those problems for the good of this nation, for this institution, and, as you said, for the future children of this great nation. We can do it as a body. I ask you that, as the Dean to the new Speaker. I ask you to try to attempt to do that with our leader. We can do it together.”

Young then administered the oath of office, where members swear to uphold and defend the Constitution “from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.”

Pelosi then began her remarks by saying, “Thank you, thank you, Dean. I’m honored to be sworn in by you, my friend of many years. Thank you for your guidance and, again, I don’t drink, but I’m happy to have ice cream with anybody, any time, uh, yeah, ice cream. Thank you.”

The new 117th U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a new set of rules Monday that take virtue signaling to the next level: The Federal government will no longer refer to the Founding Fathers.

Nor any fathers or mothers, for that matter.

Also, anything with the word “man” attached to it is neutered. In prayer, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver concluded the opening prayer for 117th Congress with “Amen and Awomen.” Cleaver, who is a pastor, evidently believes that “Amen” is a reference to men, when in fact it is derived from Greek and Hebrew and means “truly” or “it is so.” It was also used by ancient Egyptians as a name for the Egyptian god of the sun and air, who was Lord of all creation.

The rules will penalize House members or employees of the House for passing along on social media anything that the leadership deems to be “fake news.” That would include, quite likely, memes or items from the comic site Babylon Bee, which traffics in funny fake political and social commentary news.

The House will prohibit reference to “seamen” for sailors or seafarers, and abbreviate “chairman” to chair.

The body will also prohibit legal references in federal code to family roles and genders, such as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in- law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, step- mother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, etc.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern announced new rules for the 117th Congress, which will be introduced and voted on during regular session on Monday.

The House will establish an Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The proposed changes are to reflect “the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority,” Pelosi said in a joint statement with Rules Chairman McGovern.

The new rules would also remove floor privileges for any former members convicted of crimes related to their House service or election and make it a violation of the Code of Official Conduct for a member, officer, or employee of the House to disclose the identity of a whistleblower.

The sectional analysis of the bill is at this link.

A group of officers from the Alaska Republican Party Central Committee are calling on the Alaska Republican Party to make a statement regarding integrity of the presidential elections.

Over 30 of them signed a letter requesting the party issue the following statement, or a similar statement:

“Millions of Americans across the country are concerned about the integrity of our elections. They believe that significant voter fraud occurred in the 2020 Presidential election. They have held protests in states across the country as a result. Thousands of Alaskans agree with them. 

“There are too many allegations of fraud, too many affidavits, too many unanswered questions about legitimacy. Congress should do their due diligence and conduct their own review before approving disputed electors.

The Alaska Republican Party is concerned that the fraud that has been exposed so far may have influenced the presidential election.” 

The signers say they don’t want to call out any members of the congressional delegation by name, but want to support the position taken by thousands of Alaska Republicans who believe the election was rife with fraud in some of the key battleground. The signers of the letter to Alaska Republican Party Chairman Glenn Clary include former party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock, several regional representatives and district chairs :

• Ron Johnson – Region 2 Representative
• Spencer Moore – Region 3 Representative
• Steve Strait – Region 4 Representative
• Christine Hill – Region 5 Representative
• Christine Hutchinson – Region 6 Representative
• Judy Eledge – President Anchorage Republican Women’s Club
• Michele Hartline – President Republican Women of the Kenai
• Sarah Hetemi – President Young Republicans
• Tuckerman Babcock – Previous ARP Chair
• John Rathbun – District 1 Chair
• Barbara Tyndall – District 3 Chair
• Joe Kurber – District 4 Chair
• Hank Smith – District 5 Chair
• Loy Thurman – District 8 Chair
• Carol Carman – District 9 Chair
• Todd Smoldon – District 10 Chair
• Joe Wright – District 14 Chair
• Connor Parker – District 16 Chair
• Richard Shafer – District 20 Chair
• Christy Strutz – District 22 Chair
• Bruce Schulte – District 24 Chair
• Grover Johnson – District 25 Chair
• Wayne Ogle – District 29 Chair
• Randy Daly – District 30 Chair
• Jon Faulkner – District 31 Chair
• Rich Thorne – District 40 Chair
• Elizabeth Holm – District 3 Bonus Vote
• Vicki Wallner – District 9 Bonus Vote
• Michael Tavoliero – District 14 Bonus Vote
• Barbara Blakeley – District 29 Bonus Vote
• Charlene Tautfest – District 30 Bonus Vote
• William Deaton – District 32 Bonus Vote

Must Read Alaska was not able to connect with Alaska Republican Party Chairman Glenn Clary for comment.

William Deaton, a Republican in Cordova, Alaska, has penned an open letter to the congressional delegation, asking Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young to not certify the vote of the Electoral College, due to widespread instances of suspected election fraud. He wants other Alaskans to sign the letter, which he will send to the delegation offices on Monday evening.

Deaton is a precinct leader in the Republican Party but has written the letter in his own capacity. He said it can by signed by anyone, and in the one hour that he made the Google document available, he saw that over 30 had already signed it.

The letter points out that hearings held subsequent to Election Day have highlighted hundreds of instances where election fraud was suspected, and that the Democrats put forth “a concerted effort to steal this election from President Trump and Vice President Pence.”

The open letter can be signed at this link.

Sen. Murkowski has already reiterated that she will be voting to certify the Electoral College vote, while Sen. Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young have not yet signaled their intentions. Congress meets in joint session on Jan. 6 to accept or reject the Electoral College vote, and several senators, led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have organized to announce they will reject it.

“Right now, in our nation’s history, we are at a turning point. We will either stand courageously for election integrity or we will fall to the theft that will occur in future elections,” Deaton wrote.