Alaska Public Media has sideswiped “Save Anchorage” by allowing the mayor of Anchorage to label the growing community action group “astroturf.”
“Mayor Berkowitz went a step further than Dunbar, arguing that Save Anchorage isn’t purely grassroots, but the product of conservative political orchestration and calculated misinformation campaigns,” the public station wrote.
“There are people who genuinely disagree with what I’m doing. But a lot of the anger that’s been whipped up here has been done through some very orchestrated means and it is not genuine, grassroots but more astroturf in its nature.” – Ethan Berkowitz, mayor of Anchorage
According to Wikipedia, “astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source’s financial connection. The term astroturfing is derived from AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass, as a play on the word “grassroots”. The implication behind the use of the term is that instead of a “true” or “natural” grassroots effort behind the activity in question, there is a “fake” or “artificial” appearance of support.”
Save Anchorage began with a small group of Facebook users and has grown to nearly 9,000 members. The group grew quickly and organically and is now run by a loose knit group of a half dozen people. It is nonpartisan and many of the players have never been involved in politics at any level, according to some of its members. They are just community-minded people who have had enough of the poorly run city of Anchorage.
Save Anchorage has held a few rallies in front of the Loussac Library, where the Anchorage Assembly meets. In the history of Anchorage, no one remembers seeing anything like the activism now occurring in Anchorage in opposition to its Assembly and mayor.
The group formed in reaction to a massive plan to place homeless and drug services adjacent to neighborhoods around Anchorage. That plan has passed the Assembly, but Save Anchorage and others are trying to get it on the April ballot to repeal the action.
The story in Alaska Public Media allowed Assembly members Forrest Dunbar and Mayor Berkowitz to label the group as conservative, when in fact many involved are just fed up with the policies of the Assembly and mayor. Separately, there are small groups working to recall various members of the Assembly. A homeowners group called Alaskans for Real Cures for Homelessness has now incorporated as a nonprofit.
Yet another group known as Open Alaska has several members who overlap with the Save Anchorage Facebook group.
Bernadette Wilson, who has been outspoken on the mayor’s COVID mandates, said the story mischaracterized her involvement by saying she had spoken at several Save Anchorage events. In fact, she has never spoken at any of them.
Assembly member Dunbar also blamed Must Read Alaska for fomenting anger at the Assembly, and reiterated that the purchase of the Golden Lion Hotel is not for a homeless shelter, while blaming this publication for riling people up.
The Alaska Public Media reporter accurately reported this author saying that Dunbar was “splitting hairs” but did not quote the rest of that comment. The full comment was that the municipality can call it a “residential treatment center,” for addicts and alcoholics, but the impact on the local neighborhood is the same as a traditional homeless shelter, and will attract the same kinds of problems to the neighborhood.
Further, a building can be repurposed through time and become a homeless shelter, even if it starts out as a residential drug and alcohol treatment center, this author pointed out.
After more than 18 months of negotiations, the Matanuska-Susitna Education Association has voted to strike. Some 85 percent of the eligible members of the union authorized a strike, but the union must give the district 72 hours notice before calling for the strike.
Bargaining resumes today.
“As we head back to the bargaining table this morning our goal remains the same; to work collaboratively with the School Board to reach a tentative agreement that can be ratified by our members,” the MSEA noted in a press release. “If we cannot reach a compromise, our members have given us a mandate to exercise our legal authority to strike. We will exercise that right if need be.”
The current Anchorage Assembly majority is the perfect definition of an oligarchy in lock-step with Mayor Berkowitz.
I like Webster’s definition of an oligarchy – “a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”
Think I’m wrong? The normal checks and balance between the legislative and executive branches in Anchorage has all but been erased by an elitist group of liberal warriors intent on imposing their radical construct of government on all of us so they can retain political power.
They want to silence conservative views and replace civil discourse with autocratic authority that lacks diversity of thought. Their actions are not about making Anchorage a more inclusive, diverse, safe, and prosperous society. Not at all.
The sad part is, unless some of the current liberals are recalled, which is highly doubtful, no assembly member is up for re-election until 2022. They can do a lot of damage to our community over the next eighteen months.
I am not trying to be an alarmist. But I am sounding a warning that this assembly majority is hell bent on implementing their own monocratic agenda, which will result in the loss of representative government and an erosion of public input by an assembly that continually shows their disdain for the public that elected them to office.
Let me offer a few recent examples to confirm my allegation. Assembly member Meg Zaletel, while serving the Presiding Officer at an Assembly meeting illegally closed to the public, selectively invites just one member of the public to testify on Mayor Berkowitz’s very controversial proposal to purchase four buildings to address homelessness in Anchorage. Your thoughts really aren’t important.
This caused a recall effort against Assembly member Zaletel. But as with any oligarchy, the inner circle must protect their power, so the Clerk rejects the recall based on advice from the Municipal Attorney. Let me connect the dots.
The Clerk, who works for the Assembly, and the Municipal Attorney, who works for Mayor Berkowitz, cannot afford to have the nine member majority assembly disrupted. Regardless that the recall statement was legally sufficient, the bureaucrats must protect their bosses; the law be damned.
Usurping public testimony 5 to 1 against purchasing the buildings, the assembly majority approves the purchases, just as their ideological leader, Mayor Berkowitz, demanded. Then to replicate the Zaletel recall petition denial, the Clerk and Municipal Attorney denied a citizens petition request to repeal the ordinances to purchase buildings to house and treat the homeless. You have to give the ruling class credit for consistency.
Concurrently, the Assembly-Mayor Cabal is intentionally attacking the private sector to ensure we remain dependent on their munificent generosity. Look no further than their allocations under the CARES Act funding. Anchorage received $156.7 Million in CARES funding.
Of that, the Assembly only appropriated $33.0 Million for economic stimulus, while allocating $57.0 Million for homelessness, housing and family support. Of the economic stimulus funds, only $6.0 Million will be spent on small business and non-profit support, two of the sectors most negatively impacted by this pandemic.
That’s less than Kenai and Fairbanks provided to small business. This assembly should be ashamed. Instead, to address one of our city’s more serious problems, they carved out $3.0 Million to build trails, money that could have been used to help restaurants survive, but why should they do that?
Need I say more? Man, I’m going to miss the Perfect Cup Café.
Need more? OK, I will. To show us their blatant contempt of the law, they reserved $49,000 for the Assembly to retain consultant services for which Chair Rivera secretly and unethically solicited hiring on the Young Democrats Facebook, in violation of the Anchorage Municipal Code. This stuff has the makings of a Keystone Cops skit.
One last example of our elitist’s leaders arrogance. Ignoring public testimony against (again by almost a 5 to 1 margin) an ordinance that prevents “licensed professionals – such as therapists or school counselors – from engaging in efforts to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” the oligarchy passed the ordinance.
Those opposed cited concerns about the ban encroaching on freedoms of speech and religion and parental rights. Some called it overreach of the Assembly’s powers.
Freedom of Speech? Civil liberties? Parental rights? Doesn’t matter to this assembly majority, they really believe they are smarter than you and me.
On Oct. 16, the current Anchorage COVID Emergency Order expires. I will wager with anyone that the Assembly will extend it yet again.
Why? Because that is what we all expect Mayor Berkowitz to request, they have the power, and continuing to cripple the Anchorage economy may just be enough for voters to put more radicals in office at the Nov. 3 election. Anybody want to challenge me on this one?
The Leftist Cabal is pushing to radically change our community into an ultra-liberal monocratic society based on their radical view of humanity. Remember, Assembly member Forrest Dunbar tells us the U.S. Constitution is filled with racism, while Assembly member Chris Constant says that Anchorage is a systemically racist city.
Dunbar is the same guy who is proud his sister and cousin are out in the Portland riots participating with the “Wall of Moms” to shield rioters against the police.
This is the Cabal working to take control of our city. Opposing viewpoints, shut up and color. Trust them, for they will lead us to a better place.
Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor. He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation. He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).
The Alaska State Chamber’s Fall Forum won’t include one big name. Donald Trump noticed that Sen. Lisa Murkowski was a keynote speaker and he tweeted out this morning, “No thanks!”
Murkowski will be on the virtual forum on Sept. 22 during a “Congressional Delegation Townhall Session” that the Alaska Chamber of Commerce is hosting.
On Saturday, Murkowski issued a statement saying she would not vote for a nominee from Trump for the Supreme Court until after the Nov. 3 election. Trump has said it’s his constitutional duty to act on the vacancy on the Supreme Court after the death of Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated the Senate should act on the nomination, even though the election is over in just over a month (people have already started voting in Minnesota).
The remark from Trump on Twitter will trigger some on the Left who support Murkowski, while Republicans on the right may give their nod of approval.
Murkowski’s ratings among Republicans is troubling for her if she plans to run again, but she has two years before she faces voters and some of her support base is counting on Ballot Measure 2, ranked choice voting, to pull her to victory.
Those close to the Trump Administration says he loves Alaska and always reaches out to help Gov. Mike Dunleavy, but his relationship with Murkowski is strained, as she has worked against him on several key issues, including the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Although the liberal news outlet Politico today reported that Murkowski voted against the confirmation of Kavanaugh, in fact she voted “present.”
A method that Alaska voters are being asked to approve — Ballot Measure 2 — is what will likely cost Sen. Susan Collins of Maine her seat in November.
Ranked choice voting and the expected flood of mail-in ballots from Democrats are a toxic combination to Collins and other Republicans in Maine this year.
With Maine’s new ranked choice voting, Collins will need a greater than 50 percent majority, rather than a plurality, to win her fifth term in office. That’s because there is not just a Democrat and Republican in the race, but also two independents.
Right now, Collins is trailing Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, a Democrat by over 6 percent, according to a compilation of polls at RealClearPolitics.
The ranked-choice voting has never been used in a Maine U.S. Senate race. It’s a complicated system that has voters vote for who they want most, second most, and so on, and it’s a system that relies on machines to count the “instant run-off.” When a candidate reaches more than 50 percent, the race is over.
Some have called it a race to the bottom; others say it simply favors Democrats.
It’s what is proposed for Alaska voters with Ballot Measure 2. Led by former Walker Chief of Staff Scott Kendall, Ballot Measure 2 is funded and pushed by the same groups that convinced Maine voters in 2016 to go for the new way of voting.
Maine Republicans are challenging the legality of it, but the ballots have now been printed. Maine’s Democrat Secretary of State had invalidated enough signatures on a repeal initiative to prevent Republicans from stopping the ranked-choice method from being used in this presidential cycle. Court challenges on that action were not enough to stop the Democrats from going forward.
This bodes poorly for Sen. Collins. Six years ago, she won with nearly 70 percent of the vote. But now, she is underwater with voters because President Donald Trump’s unpopularity with some Maine voters puts that state in the “leans Biden” category. Democrats have targeted this state as a “pick up” for them for the Senate seat.
Maine voters have one cycle of experience with the ranked-choice system, and Republicans have already been on the losing end because of the way Republicans vote — many of them won’t rank candidates.
In 2018, a Maine legislative race that was won by Bruce Poliquin with over 46 percent of the vote, ended up flipping to Democrats after the ranked choice tally was completed. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden didn’t have enough “first choice” votes but ended up with enough “second choice” votes to overtake Poliquin and get just over 50 percent of the vote. The “second choice” candidate won the race.
That is what is expected to happen on Nov. 3 in the U.S. Senate race.
One way the ranked-choice ballot disenfranchises Republican voters is because they are “values voters” who only select one candidate, giving Democrats and non-aligned voters who do play the ranking system a structural advantage.
For example, Republicans who are pro-life voters will not choose a pro-abortion candidate as their second or third choice. Therefore, they get just one shot at the ballot, while those who play the ballot with more choices have their votes counted more than once.
Alaskans will be asked in November by Outside interests to adopt the system in Alaska. Republicans — and also Democrats like former State Sen. Johnny Ellis and former U.S. Sen. Mark Begich — have come out in opposition to Ballot Measure 2.
Pebble Mine is just weeks away from clearing the last hurdle to a federal permit − after nearly two decades of scientific, engineering and environmental studies, and wading through the permitting process.
It reached this point despite well-organized and massively-funded opposition from Outside special interests that have done everything in their power to block the permit. Across the country, many believe that those behind the opposition are grassroots environmentalists, unbiased experts, local fishermen, and Native American Indians.
But virtually none of them are who they appear to be. Attempting to mislead the public with huge media campaigns repeating the same scary sounding claims and misinformation, and efforts to stop the mine permit with an army of lawyers, their goals have nothing to do with the mine itself or saving the environment.
The Pebble Mine project, proposed decades ago, is located in the remote tundra around the Iliamna region of southwest Alaska. The land is flat and barren and there’s not a single tree in 20 square miles. James M. Taylor, wrote a graphic description of the location when he was invited to visit the proposed mine site while managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
Most closely impacted by the proposed mine are the indigenous villages of Iliamna, Newhalen, and Nondalton in the Lake and Peninsula Borough, followed by the Bristol Bay Borough. This area is home to about 2,500 people, whose voices, drowned out by outsiders, have seldom been heard by the general public.
A small mine with extraordinary consequences, the Pebble Mine story is the people’s story. In this series, we’ll search for the real story, not the ones others may want us to believe.
AN ISSUE FOR ALL AMERICANS
Understanding Pebble Mine is critically important for each and every American. Why? One very big reason is our national security and independence from foreign suppliers.
Pebble Mine is one of the largest undeveloped reserves of copper, molybdenum and gold in the world, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys. Pebble’s mineral deposits also include silver and other critical metallic minerals such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, bornite, covellite, chalcocite, digenite and magnetite.
Pebble’s copper production is expected to average 318 million pounds a year. Its deposits could supply as much as 25% of our country’s entire copper needs over the next century, said Ned Mamula, a geologist and former mineral resource specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey. It’s also expected to produce 14 million pounds of molybdenum, 362,000 ounces of gold, and 1.8 million ounces of silver per year.
Pebble holds billions of pounds of rare earth elements. Pebble is rich in two strategically important and rare minerals, palladium, and rhenium. Pebble holds enough to supply the entire world’s needs for rhenium for nearly half a century
Today, the United States is 100% dependent on foreign countries for 20 critical and strategic necessary minerals, including rare earth elements. Our country relies 50% to 99% on foreign imports for another 30 key minerals. Our reliance on foreign mineral imports has increased 250% in the past 60 years, according to USGS National Minerals Information Center.
In fact, at no other time in U.S. history for over half a century has our country been so dependent on foreign imports to meet its domestic needs,according to a R Street Policy Study.
Yet, no country on earth has a greater abundance of critical and rare earth elements than the U.S. The estimated $6 trillion in undeveloped mineral resources could add up to $100 billion a year to our GDP, if our country supported responsible mining, according to the National Mineral Association.
America once recognized that mineral wealth is a major driver of economic growth, military effectiveness, and healthy trade balance. For the first 150 years of our nation’s history, the U.S. was self-sufficient in mineral needs and even had a surplus until the late 1920s.
The sharp rise in dependency on foreign suppliers is directly traced to a permitting process that hinders mining development, organized environmental opposition with litigation delays and burdensome regulations, and environmental movements that have closed vast areas of the West to any development, Mamula said. The permitting process is partly responsible for putting our country at risk.
America’s natural resources development policies have abandoned the conservationist ethic, “which balances environmental protection and unwise, careless resource exploitation, preserving the usefulness and productivity of our natural resources over the long term for the benefit” of the country and people, explained the R Street Policy Study. Instead, it’s adopted a “no use at all” stance.
By 2011, the federal Bureau of Land Management already controlled the natural resources on one third of the country’s entire landmass, putting much of it off limits to any development.
By 1994, mining experts had already alerted Congress that 62% of all public land had been made unavailable to exploration and mining development, and that the federal government owned nearly 60% of all land with known metallic mineral deposits − nearly all of it in the western states and Alaska. The situation is far worse today.
“America has rarely been in such a vulnerable position,” Mamula said. Our heavy reliance on foreign imports for minerals vital to everything our country needs and uses every day, including for military defense systems, is finally being recognized as a national vulnerability.
A 2017 Presidential Executive Order called for increased development and streamlined permitting in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. This wasn’t just a feel-good, political move. This is a much bigger issue.
Copper. Over a third of the copper we need is imported. The U.S. now imports over $37.6 billion a month in copper from China,according to Trade Economics. Only 6% of the world’s copper is produced in the U.S. as of 2018, according to the latest World Mining Data, and the U.S. lags behind at sixth in the world’s production.
Copper is essential for almost everything we use in modern life: electrical wiring, cables, electronic devices, motors, telecommunications, microwaves, batteries, and electric vehicles. The average single-family home in North America alone uses over 439 pounds of copper.
With mandated initiatives for a green renewable energy future, the need for copper will skyrocket because four to six times more copper is needed in the generation of green energy than in fossil fuel counterparts. Solar panels use 5.5 tons of copper per MW, a single 3 MW wind turbine uses about 4.7 tons of copper, a hybrid car needs nearly 90 pounds, and an electric bus can require up to 812 pounds of copper.
Molybdenum. China has the largest reserves of molybdenumin the world. Most of the world’s molybdenum comes from China − 98,420metric tons(MT) in 2018 − 36% of the entire world’s production,according to World Mining Data 2020. The U.S. produces only 15% of the world’s supply, by comparison.
Molybdenum is essential in steel, cast iron and superalloys for hardening, strength, durability, temperature stability, and corrosion resistance. Industrial technologies need it for materials under high stress and in highly corrosive environments, as well as chemical applications including catalysts, lubricants, and pigments, according to the USGS. Its properties also make it needed for a range of electrical and semiconductor applications, as well as medical and agricultural fertilizer uses.
Rhenium and palladium.The U.S.imports 82% of the rhenium and 32% of the palladium our country needs each year.
Rhenium is used in jet engines, military applications, and in the production of high octane fuels. Palladium is an exceedingly rare metal and one of the six platinum group of metals known as super catalysts essential in catalytic converters enabling vehicles to meet modern emissions standards. It’s alsousedin hydrogen storage, electronics, dentistry, medical instruments, groundwater treatments, and carbon monoxide detectors.
Rare earth elements. According to USGS, rare earth elements(metals) are essential for more than 200 products, especially in high tech industries, computer technologies, monitors, electronics, communications, medical uses, renewable energy systems, significant defense applications, radar and sonar systems, satellites, guidance systems, and lasers. Like copper, renewable green energies couldn’t exist without rare earth elements. A single 3 MW wind turbine, for example, uses two tons of rare earth elements, according to Northwest Mining Association. Needs for rare earth elements are expected to increase as much as 2600% over the next 25 years, as renewable energy initiatives grow.
Until the 1980s, the U.S. was self-sufficient in rare earth elements and was even the global leader in production from the 1960s to 1980s. But since the late 1990s, China has dominated, supplying about 95% of the global market by 2014,according to the USGS. It also controls more than 85% of rare earth’s costly and time consuming processing. China was first in the world in rare element production, at 120,000 MT in 2018, according to the latest statistics from World Mining Data.
This didn’t happen by accident.
Chinese Communist officials actively set out to achieve world dominance in mineral mining − buying mines and equity in mines and forging agreements to take over mining companies.
The South China Morning Postreported last year that China is “ready to use its dominance in the industry as a weapon in the country’s year-long trade war with their customers in the United States.”
A July 2020 Power The Future report revealed that environmental activists are knowingly fueling Communist China’s dominance and threat to U.S. national security.
By opposing U.S. mine development, while pushing for a complete renewable future, they are helping ensure U.S. dependence on Communist China. “Going green” means dependency on Communist China.
To corner the rare earth market and to advance its own technologies, China has also aggressively used the stringent regulations in the U.S. that environmental groups have successfully driven. Its hegemony over rare earth elements was used to tighten exports, forcing U.S. manufacturing companies to move to China, where they are required to partner with Chinese companies, all for purposes of intellectual property theft, according to the Center for Strategic and International studies.
IP theft has cost the U.S. an estimated $180-$540 billion in losses a year, according to the National Bureau of Asian Research. “This technique has allowed China to skip generations of technology development” to advance its economic competitiveness over the U.S., said a 2108 ALG Research Foundation report.
But China’s strategy toward its goal of global supremacy has a much more ominous significance. China is waging an unconventional war against the U.S. for military power.
“The Communist regime has employed a total warfare strategy the likes of which the U.S. has never seen before,” wrote ALG’s author, Printus LeBlanc. Unfortunately, only a few politicians and policy makers are “starting to realize the danger China poses and the staggering breadth of the Chinese assault.”
“The U.S. was so unprepared for the type of warfare waged by China, it actually helped it achieve its current status,” LeBlanc reported. U.S. Army Special Operations Command described Communist China leadership’s planned offensive using: economics and trade warfare, cultural infiltration, technological warfare, resource warfare, diplomatic mediation, drug warfare, international rules and UN resolutions, and media propaganda.
Cultural warfare proved easy. American universities opened Chinese cultural institutes, fertile teaching grounds to groom academics and students and provide a voice for Chinese propaganda and global socialism. But China is especially adept at applying Russian-style strategies to manipulate U.S. and international law for its goals.
An especially insightful understanding of how China works to spread its influence and covertly gain an edge was written in the New York Times by Yi-Zheng Lian, former chief editor of the Hong Kong Economic Journal. “China manipulates, preferring to act in moral and legal gray areas,” he wrote.
“It masks its political motives behind laudable human-interest or cultural projects, blurring the battle line with its adversaries. When the job is done, the other side may not realize it was gamed, or that a strategic game was even going on.” – Yi-Zheng Lian
One of its key allies in its goal of global mining dominance is the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
It is no coincidence that NRDC is also the leader of opposition against Pebble and a central organizer and funder in every anti-Pebble coalition. Its unusually close relationships, access and influence with the Chinese Communist government had raised concerns that NRDC’s political activities in the U.S. had been influenced to the detriment of our national interests. Its activities led to a 2018 Congressional investigation by the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Communist China State-owned mining corporations have been noticeably active this year in acquiring and commissioning gold, copper and molybdenum mines, expanding its global production. A few examples:
In June, China’s Zijin Mining rushed to commission the largest copper mine in China, the Quolong copper mine, opening next year. The open pit mine is expected to produce 165,000 MT of copper and 6,200 MT of molybdenum a year.
Zijin Mining is reportedly expecting to complete its Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the Congo next year with an estimated annual copper production of 382,000 MT over the first ten years, with a planned increase in twelve years to 740,000 MT. Just the Quolong and Kamoa-Kakula copper mine acquisitions will initially increase China’s entire global production by 4%.
Zijin Mining already has significant mining investment projectsin 14 provinces and 11 countries and is also in the process of permitting the Rongmucola and Zhibula copper mines. By 2022, Zijin Mining’s copper mine output is expected to reach 670,000-740,000 MT a year, making the top ten across the globe.
Last month, Zijin Mining completed the takeover purchase of Canadian-owned Guyana Goldfield, with an all-cash offer. It fell just below Canada’s review threshold level under new toughened takeover rules introduced by the Canadian government in April. Guyana Goldfields have estimated gold reserves of 2.24 million ounces. In March, Zijin Mning completed itspurchase of Canadian-owned Continental Gold, which owns the Buritica gold project in Columbia, expected to produce 250,000 ounces of gold every year for the next fourteen years.
Shandong Gold Mining Co Ltd, the largest of China’s State-owned gold mining companies with gold mines around the world,boughtCanadian TMAC Resources in May. TMAC operates Hope Bay gold project in Canada with a 2,000 MT/day capacity plant, along with Doris Mine going into production this year. Shandong’s takeoveroffer for Australia’s Cardinal Resources, beating out a Russian contender, was accepted last Wednesday. Cardinal owns projects in Ghana and West Africa. Its Namdini project, for example, goes into production in 2023, producing an average of 280,000 ounces of gold a year.
China is clearly working to secure its global mineral standing. It’s little wonder globalist supporters would not want Pebble mine permitted, given its renowned reserves could help the U.S. break from its dependency on China.
National security experts in Canada and the U.S. have been concerned over Communist China’s dominance on supplies of minerals that are so absolutely critical to our free Nations.
Richard Fadden, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service director, reported of growing worries within Canada’s national security agencies about China’s concerted investing in Canadian mines, all carefully done so to be just under regulatory thresholds.
“Chinese seemed to be very knowledgeable about regulatory thresholds,” he said. China could instantly consolidate its interest into a takeover and “there would not be very much anyone could do about it,” he said.
“Canada should assume every Chinese State-owned investment in Canada is in part a strategic purchase for Beijing,” said military, security and strategic expert Rob Huebert. “It’s all part and parcel of the Silk Road initiative, which is ultimately the Chinese effort to become a global power,” he said.
The U.S. and Canada also recently worked toward a joint strategy to rebalance global metal supply chains to reduce all of North America’s reliance on China. It has especially “moved aggressively to control rare earth minerals that are critical to high tech and military products,” Fadden said.
With growing concerns that China may again limit critically needed mineral exports, the White House issued a memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of Defense in July, noting that domestic production is essential for national defense.
Pebble’s mineral reserves are among the largest known in world and will be crucial not just for our national defense, manufacturing and agriculture, standard of living, and energy technology success, but will keep all of North America in a healthier trade balance and all of us safer.
Given its critical importance, why has Pebble mine not been permitted after two decades?
It’s a long story, but to understand how we got into this regulatory mess, it’s an important human story to read.
EARLY YEARS
The Pebble Mine story began with the first discovery of the mineral deposit in 1988 by Comico Alaska. It was later acquired by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd in 2001.
Over the next six years, the company did extensive environmental data collection, and geotechnical and engineering studies. The project was then placed under the Pebble Limited Partnership in 2007, which continued resource development exploration and studies.
The first CEO of the Pebble Partnership, John Shively, first came to Alaska in the 1960s as a VISTA volunteer. He worked with Native villages on land rights and health issues, before working with the Rural Alaskan Community Action Program and the Alaska Federation of Natives, which awarded him the Denali Award for his contributions to the native community in 1992.
Shively later held various government positions, including commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. He got his start in mining with the Native-owned NANA Regional Corp and helped it develop the Red Dog Mine, the world’s top zinc producer, northwestern Alaska.
Red Dog Mine exemplifies successful mining on Native lands, founded on principles of consensus, cooperation and mutual respect between the native people and mine operators, according to NANA.
Rural residents have benefited with well paying jobs and valuable skills training, while the mine has excelled in environmental excellence. The villagers and mine representatives work together to prioritize subsistence and environmental protection, through the Red Dog Mine Subsistence Committee.
Rose Dunleavy, Alaska’s First Lady, wrote of her father who was the first chairman of the NANA Board of Directors. He helped lead NANA for 17 years and was the former mayor of her home village of Noorvik.
As she wrote, the Native people of Alaska “share the value of education and the value of hard work….We all know the dignity and the self respect that jobs provide.”
Her father “committed the mission of NANA to provide economic opportunities for the more than 14,300 Inupiat shareholders and to protect and enhance NANA lands,” she said.
“We and other Native peoples throughout Alaska have taken our traditional values and used them to develop successful businesses throughout this great State and to partner with others….while preserving and protecting our lands and our traditional way of life.” – Rose Dunleavy
During the early exploration and study phase of the Pebble Mine project, Pebble Partnership likewise reached out to the local villages, businesses, tribal elders, and others.
By 2013, it had held hundreds of meetings in the communities to provide open forums and foster public input in the planning of the mine project and identify concerns, such as protecting fisheries and subsistence resources. “Our work with the Elders of the region remains among the high points of my time with Pebble,” wrote Shively.
They met with everyone, including those who opposed the project. “We progressed from an initial meeting full of fear and suspicion to later meetings full of constructive conversations,” he said.
“My interest in Pebble is what we can do for people who live in the region…I knew the importance of jobs for rural residences and the economic benefits the project could bring to the area from my time with NANA working on the Red Dog Mine,” said Shively. “I have seen the science and knew we could develop a mine that would not harm the fishery.”
Long before the permitting process began, Pebble Partnership had spent more than $750 million by 2015 in exploratory and environmental studies, and as the significance of the mine grew increasingly stronger, it focused towards a responsible mine development plan.
While the project is portrayed by outside interests as lacking objective scientific analysis or public input, that certainly isn’t the case. The Pebble Environmental Baseline Documentanalyzed the physical, biological and social environments of potentially impacted mine areas within the Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet regions, including hydrology, fish, wildlife, seismic and wetland examinations, using data compiled from 2004 and 2008.
It was written by third-party independent authors, more than 40 of the most widely recognized and respected independent research firms, and included over 100 scientific experts, engineering groups, laboratories and others with specific areas of expertise and Alaskan experience. This “scoping” documentis approximately 20,000 pages, with 53 chapters plus appendices, and updates.
It is one of the most comprehensive environmental studies ever done for a natural resource project in Alaska.
Yet, how many Americans – including those eagerly weighing in on Pebble − have even heard about it, let alone read it?
Tomorrow, we’ll reveal the facts the opposition doesn’t want you to know. We’ll also look at how the permitting process was corrupted and federal environmental acts are attempting to overtake Alaska’s Statehood rights.
Sandy Szwarc, BSN, RN is a researcher and writer on health and science issues for more than 30 years, published in national and regional publications and public policy institutes. Her work focuses on the scientific process and critical investigations of research and evidence, as well as the belief that people deserve the most credible information available, and that public policies should be based on sound science and reasoned risk-benefit analyses, not politics, junk science, greed or fear.
(Pebble Partnership did not contribute to or have any role in this series.)
After a decade and unprecedented amounts of effort, Pebble Mine was ready to file for a permit. The hardest work was yet to come.
Another six years would pass before it was finally able to file its permit application. When the dust settled and all the science was finally done, the real evidence came to light, facts that opponents are hoping no one sees.
UNHELPFUL MINE PERMITTING PROCESS
Pebble Partnership faced a U.S. mine permitting process that is notoriously arduous, burdensome and costly for mining companies, taking an average of up to 10 years − five times longer than in other countries with equally stringent environmental regulations, such as Canada and Australia.
They moved forward, making a long-term commitment and investment in the mine, knowing the science and feasibility of the project were solid and the benefits for Alaska’s people were substantial.
The mine permitting process in the U.S. involves more than 30 government regulatory programs and multiple permits. After the mining company completes its years of exploration, data collection, feasibility and scientific studies, project development and a scoping document, it enters the federal permitting phase.
After extensive scientific review, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues a draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is followed by public comments. A Final EIS follows and the public comment period is repeated. Finally, the Record of Decision is issued by the Corps, giving the project the “go or no-go” to proceed to State permitting.
A study for the National Mining Association foundthe permitting process in the U.S. is extremely inefficient, confusing, with a lack of agency coordination, combined with unconstrained timeframes and duplication of efforts, and it has bottlenecked mineral production in this country.
While the U.S. has abundant mineral resources and growing demands for minerals, it accounts for only 7% of worldwide spending on mineral exploration and mining project development.
Permitting delays also needlessly raise the costs of mining projects for the company and taxpayers, and raise the cost of goods and services for consumers and businesses.
Alaska is known for the cleanest and most rigorously-regulated mining and natural resource industries in the country. Every permitted mine meets or exceeds modern standards, according to the Alaska State Department of Natural Resources.
Alaska as several mines successfully operating side-by-side with wildlife and local cultures, including Red Dog, Fort Knox, Greens Creek, Kensington, Usibelli and Pogo Mine.
But the permitting process at the State level has also grown massively large and cumbersome with environmental regulations. The mining coordinator for Alaska’s DNR described in detail the process and requirements for large mine permit applications in Alaska.
In 2008, its Large Mine Permitting Team included seven State agencies, each with multiple divisions and offices. Some 14 different State permits and authorizations were required as part of a mining permit.
Likewise, seven federal agencies and at least 14 different federal permits and authorizations were also part of the process.
In 2008, the typical timeframe for this entire permitting process for large mine projects was around three years.
Times have changed. By 2018, the State required environmental permits and agencies had grown by 50%.
READY AND SET FOR A PERMIT
Pebble had completed itsEnvironmental Baseline Document in 2011 and would have proceeded to permitting. But before Pebble could even apply for a permit or begin the federal permitting process, it became the target of endless efforts by outside environmental activists, the Obama Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block the permitting process and the Corps scientific reviews.
Opponents even tried toillegally pre-emptively deny the project using the first-ever such veto in the 43-year history of the Clean Water Act.
An unbelievable saga ensued with reports of EPA illegal collusions and countless closed door meetings with anti-mine activists, EPA staff leaving the country, missinghome emails and records, creation of a faulty ecological assessment using a fictitious mine and antiquated science to try to discredit the project, and endless lawsuits.
A 2015 large independent review of the EPA’s actions found the agency has not been following the normal permit review process, which has been used for decades and even widely endorsed by environmental groups.
Local Native village residents closest to the proposed mine had also been left out, as EPA officials had even refused to meet or talk with them. They were the people open to the mine and wanting a fair and objective review and permitting process.
The U.S. House of Representatives even wrote aletter to the EPA Administrator urging the EPA to allow the normal scientific review and legal permitting process.
Permitting Finally Begins
Pebble was finally able to submit its permit application and the Corps began its review process on Dec. 22, 2017. The application was posted on Alaska District’s website for the public. The Corps invited 35 Alaska Native Tribes to consult throughout the decision making process. In preparing its EIS, the Corps released its developing materials,EIS Scoping Report, to the public.
That was followed by public meetings held in communities across the State that spring, which were attended by thousands of residents. The time period for the public to give input (verbally, on paper, and electronically) was extended to 90 days and went on through June, 2018.
After issuing its draft EIS, the process of public meetings and extended input was repeated in 2019 with 94,363 comments submitted.
As Must Read Alaska reported, most of those comments were petitions and form letters prompted by outside environmental groups in the Lower 48.
The locals knew that opponents’ claims were false when they said the process had been rushed and the Corps hadn’t allowed the Native communities sufficient input.. They’d been there. The company had also listened to their concerns, feedback and suggestions, and improved the mine plan in response, a plan which exceeds industry safeguards in a number of areas.
After 2½ years of scientific review of the evidence, and public input, the Corps published itsFinal Environmental Impact Statementon July 23, 2020. With this EIS, the Pebble project successfully cleared the last steps in the permitting process before the Corps issues its Record of Decision clearing the federal government permit.
The final EIS determined the scientific facts show:
The Pebble Mine project can successfully meet all strict federal regulatory and environmental standards. Mining and safeguarding the environment can go together.
The project would have no discernable impact on returning salmon and no affect on commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.
The site is not at the headwaters of Bristol Bay – as is often wrongly portrayed in photographs. It’s 230 miles away by river, or 100 miles by air, from Bristol Bay, and only touches three very small tributaries at the uppermost reaches, of the more than 50,000 tributaries.
The proposed mine is on State land Alaska specifically set aside for natural resource development in 1974. The State of Alaska had also developed a comprehensive land use plan for the region in 1985, which was updated in 2005 with extensive public input.
Pebble is not the largest mine in Alaska and its footprint (5.3 square miles) is a miniscule 0.013% of the entire Bristol Bay area.
But it is rich in mineral deposits, copper and gold, and numerous other critical minerals; and is the largest undevelopedcopper and gold resource in the world; and when developed will be the 9th largest copper resource and 2nd largest gold reserve in the world.
No cyanide is used in the mineral processing, as modern new clean mining technology uses safer nontoxic reagents and eliminates the risks associated with large tailing dams of the past. The tailings are not toxic, as widely claimed, but are natural byproducts that will be kept in a lined facility before returned to the earth after closure.
The tailings present no failure risk or threat to downstream habitat. The Corps had received several commenters concerned about potential tailing dam failures and effects on downstream ecosystems. Thus, the Corps focused on these concerns in their scientific review, as well as held a specific Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) workshop to study every potential failure scenario.
The Corps found“no relevant comparison” between dam failures cited in media and the proposed Pebble design. The Pebble design is especially distinct compared to mines experiencing large failures, they noted. The bedrock foundation, dry storage, and construction methods secure the tailings.
An earlier EPA model was based on a hypothetical mine with several incorrect assumptions and obsolete data, and did not use Pebble’s mine specifics. The Corps also reviewed the flaws in a Lynker model created for the Nature Conservancy and its use of misleading data inconsistent with historic data and inappropriate analysis methods leading to conclusions that greatly overstated risks.
Seismic danger is extremely unlikely, less than one in 10,000 risk, according to the EIS. There has been no seismicity along the Lake Clark Fault for 11,000 years (since the last Ice Age) and there is no evidence a fault even exists at the mine site. Still, the Pebble project is designed to withstand the largest possible earthquake.
MITIGATION IS MATH
Mitigation is a normal established part of the EIS and permitting process. Pebble had submitted comprehensive draft mitigation plans for minimizing and avoiding impacts to wetlands, air, wildlife and aquatic habitat, areas of cultural significance and local use, and restoring areas temporarily impacted by mining activities.
These proposed mitigation plans were incorporated into Pebble Mine’s project design and application, and were discussed inthe Final EIS, and outlined in Table 5-2, pages 6 – 52.
As is part of the permitting process, after an EIS is issued and the project is moving forward, a final mitigation plan is submitted for the potentially impacted areas identified in the USACE’s EIS. The Corps determined that the project would have no real environmental impact on salmon or commercial fisheries. But it identified 2,825 acres of wetlands and 129.5 miles of streams at the mine site with potential direct and indirect impacts for Pebble to include in its final mitigation plan. It sent a letter to that effect on Aug. 20.
To put these nearly 3,000 acres into perspective – they represent 0.0017% of Alaska’s wetlands, which are incredibly vast, covering about 43% of the surface of the entire State.
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Alaska Wetland Program Plan for sustainably managing wetlands, states that Alaska’s wetlands cover about 174 million acres.
How is it that an area 0.0017% this size will have “devastating environmental impacts”? There is no science to support such a fear.
The results of the Corps’ watershed analysis in its final EIS concluded that threats to aquatic resources in the affected watersheds are minimal.
Still, its letter made an unusual request for in-kind mitigation for the Koktuli River watershed, falling upon the Clean Water Act.
Alaska senatorsremindedthe Corps of the Alaska’s Statehood Act, which gives the State all rights to its minerals and natural resources and the power to guide and direct their development. These powers cannot be hampered by the Federal government or any agency, they reiterated.
“The U.S. Corp of Engineers and EPA have a long history of misinterpreting the Clean Water Act to give themselves more and more power,” wrote Gov. Michael Dunleavy in a March 1, 2019 letter to the Administration. He emphasized that the Clean Water Act applies to waters of the United States, not wetlands. “Lands are not waters.”
Nevertheless, Pebble had anticipated a mitigation letter and was prepared. It had already planned to preserve wetlands several times larger than what might be disturbed. Pebble said the company was already well into their mitigation plans that will comply with the letter.
Pebble Mine is nearing three years from its permit application – when most mines in 2008 were done − and still has to complete the State’s permitting process. Currently, Alaska’s large mine permitting webpage for Pebble Mine provides a glimpse of the overwhelming maze and numbers of permits, approvals and authorizations the mine has already gone through.
Just between 2017 and 2013, for example, Pebble needed 53 Fish Habitat Permits alone. But with the Final EIS, the USACE permitting process is moving forward.
A LAST WILD ATTEMPT TO BLOCK FEDERAL PERMIT
One might logically expect that after more than two decades, a final USACE EIS determination, the proven science, and the company’s adherence to addressing every possible environmental concern, opposition would end.
Instead, another disinformation campaign swiftly ensued, falsely claiming the demise of the mine permit and repeating the same, now disproven, claims that outside opposition has used for decades. This time, celebrity and politically-connected billionaires became spokespersons, hoping to convince the President of the United States to interfere with the Federal permitting process, override years of scientific research and analysis and public input, overrule the Corps, and block the permit.
Leading this latest opposition media blitz was Nick Ayers, a young globalist leaderwith the World Economic Forum and with a net worth between $12 – $60 million.
He was joined by his friend Tucker Carlson of Fox Media, who is worth $30 million with an annual salary of $6 million; and John Morris,worth $4 billion and owner of Bass Pro Shops, who admits to working with StopPebbleMine. And they garnered the help of their most politically connected friend, young Donald Trump, Jr, with a net worth of $300 million.
With $4.4 billion between them and an obliging media, the four hoped the public would believe that science, facts and the law don’t apply. And that it wouldn’t matter to the president of the United States.
But it certainly mattered to the people at the epicenter of the mine permitting debate in the remote indigenous Alaskan villages.
“After vacationing in some luxury resort after sport fishing in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay,” wrote one Bristol Bay mother to Trump, Jr, he decided to have an opinion about Pebble. “If you got off your chartered jet and went downtown Dillingham,” he would see there is nothing for kids to do, no place to gather when it’s ten below in the middle of winter, and the community loses youth lost to suicide, heroin overdose or abuse.
“I do love children and worry about their future in the Bristol Bay region,” she wrote.
“The fallout from this outside meddling in the Pebble process extends far beyond Alaska,” a Forbes article reported. It would set a terrible precedent that could jeopardize important resource development projects across the country. Allowing “outside influences to change a project without going through the normal regulatory process and without allowing science, facts and the truth to dictate” could jeopardize future resource development across the country.
This especially concerned Minnesota Congressman Pete Stauber, who noted that mining projects “continue to be delayed by outside well-funded political machines.”
It appears, however, the president of the United States didn’t take too kindly at attempts of being railroaded. In a now-famous Twitter message on Sept. 17, he wrote: “Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!”
The opposition made one last desperate effort to block the permit taking another route. Incredibly and unprecedented, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives quietly slipped a provision in the 2021 appropriations bill HR 7617 (Section 610) that prohibits the USACE from using its funding to publish a Record of Decision on Pebble mine! The bill passed the House bill and went to the Senate on Aug. 12 and is at the Committee on Appropriations. Did they think U.S. Senators wouldn’t notice?
VOICES OF ALASKA
Alaska’s Gov. Dunleavy wrotethat Alaska has seen concerted efforts to misinform the public on the Pebble project. Outside interests have tried to preemptively terminate any analysis, he said, and environmental extremists out of Washington with $400,000 executive director salaries have blasted media with overblown claims.
“The shameless profiteering from the economic suffering of Alaskan knows no bounds,” he wrote. “The hypocrisy is palpable. Those forced to suffer are often our most vulnerable. Outside groups love to tout the opposition of Alaska Native groups while ignoring the many Alaska Natives who support the jobs and prosperity these projects provide.
“The simple truth is that for every Alaskan project unceremoniously cancelled by mob rule, the resources in question will continue to be sourced from suppliers that generate more greenhouse gases, pollution and human suffering,” said Dunleavy.
For more than a decade, locals have watched EPA officials and activists swarm their State, “like ants,” refusing to meet or talk with them, and working against them. Outsiders’ cries of “climate justice” ring hollow as Alaska’s first peoples are prevented from earning a paycheck,” Dunleavy added.
Alaska Congressman Don Young is among the Alaskans speaking out against activist forces from Outside who want to “lock away our lands forever.”
The permitting process has failed to serve the people. The voices of the local people actually affected by the mine are seldom heard.
“National special interest groups are running ads that claim to speak for us regarding the proposed Pebble project. Bristol Bay is a national treasure. It is also our home. It is where our ancestors’ ancestors lived. We have proud traditions: fishing, hunting, and subsistence living.
But times have changed and so has our ability to subsist… We have the highest cost of living in the nation. Milk costs $8 per gallon. Fuel costs $9 per gallon. Sadly, commercial fishing no longer sustains us. Yet there are no jobs or economic opportunities to make it possible for us to survive.
In one generation, locally-owned fishing permits have dropped 50%. Corporate fish processing plants bring in foreign workers on visas for just a few months each year. The luxury fishing lodges hire few natives. Dwindling populations are killing our communities and with them our schools, where it takes 10 students for them to remain open. We are losing our cultural identity.
That is our reality. The Pebble Mine is one of the largest mineral deposits ever discovered. It’s in our backyard. And it could save our communities.“− Bill and Martha Trefon on May 29, 2013.
Bill Trefon served as the village tribal chief, city mayor, president of the tribal council, and board member of Kijik Corporation in the tiny Native Village of Nondalton. He devoted his life to preserving and passing down the Dena’ina culture and traditional subsistence lifestyle. He wanted local people to learn the facts about Pebble and be able to decide for themselves if it was right, not special interest groups.
He never lived to see Pebble help his people. Trefon passed away in 2016. But his teachings may have become his legacy as local villagers and businesses have continued his efforts.
Wednesday, we’ll hear from more local people to learn what they’ve had to say about Pebble.
Sandy Szwarc, BSN, RN is a researcher and writer on health and science issues for more than 30 years, published in national and regional publications and public policy institutes. Her work focuses on the scientific process and critical investigations of research and evidence, as well as the belief that people deserve the most credible information available, and that public policies should be based on sound science and reasoned risk-benefit analyses, not politics, junk science, greed or fear.
(Pebble Partnership did not contribute to or have any role in this series.)
The Alaska Energy Authority has been awarded a $21 million grant from the United States Department of Transportation to jumpstart construction of a massive cargo storage and warehouse facility at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
The entire project is expected to cost as much as $270 million and will ultimately be a 715,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility.
When completed, will be a cornerstone of the airport’s evolution into a leading global logistics hub that receives, stores, and ships fresh food and critical, temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals in the U.S. and globally.
The project is known as “Alaska Cargo and Cold Storage” and is a business partnership with McKinley Capital Management of Anchorage, and Rocky Mountain Resources.
The grant, coming from USDOT’s BUILD program, will fund AEA’s participation in Phase 1.
“AEA’s role in the project calls upon its expertise to assure that the best of, cutting-edge technology will make the building a showpiece in energy-efficiency,” said AEA Executive Director Curtis W. Thayer. “The BUILD grant program is highly competitive and this award is recognition of AEA’s in-depth knowledge of innovative design, engineering, and project delivery.”
Thayer thanked Alaska’s congressional delegation and the governor for their strong support of the application by advocating for the grant, which he said will greatly enhance ANC’s shipping infrastructure, improve Alaska’s supply chain security, and create jobs for Alaskans.
Phase I construction is anticipated to generate 830 jobs, $56.9 million in labor income, and $147.6 million in Alaska expenditures.
Phase 2 construction is projected to generate an additional 1,245 jobs, $75.6 million in labor income, and $220.5 million in Alaska expenditures.
Once operational, ACCS expects to employ approximately 120 full-time employees and generate $9.1 million in labor income.
The Alaska Energy Authority is a public corporation of the state and is run by the same board that oversees the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
A majority of the public members of AEA/AIDEA’s board of directors that were appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy are serving in terms that expired this summer and are awaiting reappointment: Julie Sande, Bill Kendig, and Al Fogle all are riding on expired terms.
“Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'”
It was the dog whistle to the Left.
NPR, which got the copy of the statement from Spera, was quick on the draw to publish the last wish of the 87-year-old Supreme Court justice, who on her deathbed committed her final nakedly partisan act, throwing the replacement of her seat deep into the 2020 campaign cycle. Her politics was her final word: It’s her seat, and she wants a Democrat in it.
COVID-19 is so- last-week. National mask mandates are in the rearview mirror. And nobody is talking about Joe Biden’s dementia today.
Now, the presidential candidates and their surrogates will be fighting for the holy grail — that key seat on the Supreme Court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have said, essentially, it’s full steam ahead for nomination and confirmation. But McConnell, while he said there will be a vote on the president’s nominee, has not said when that vote would come. The election looms bigly in both these leaders’ minds.
Any campaign polls that were published before Friday night can be thrown out the window. All bets are off. For many on the left, Bader-Ginsburg was a cult hero. Although her death could not have come as a total surprise, for the Left, this is like Mahatma Ghandi’s death was for India. Bader-Ginsburg is revered that much. They are weeping, wailing, and rending their yoga pants.
But the fact is that Ginsberg became enchanted with her own image. She could have retired during the Obama years and ensured that she had a liberal replacement. She was 81 and had a window to get her liberal, woke replacement. But she missed that window because of her own narcissistic tendencies. It was bad succession planning on her part.
The battle for the Supreme Court may reignite the Antifa-Black Lives Matter riots across America, and will certainly reshape the thinking of every federal campaign, from the President to the U.S. House, which has no role in the confirmation process, but will feel the heat of the argument nonetheless. Joe Biden has already said he will appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court, fueling the racist rage of the Left.
One reason the President wants his choice on the high court is that it’s expected by Republicans that Democrats will try to steal the election through unsecured mail-in ballots across several key states, such as Pennsylvania, where officials have already said that mail-in ballots need to be counted even if the signatures don’t match the voter. They describe it as the “red mirage,” where Trump wins on Election Day, but then loses as the mail-in ballots arrive.
Litigation this year is likely to drag on for weeks. The Supreme Court may be pulled into the political realm to decide the outcome of the presidential election, as it was in 2000, when Florida hung in the balance with its “hanging chads” from well-used voting machines.
If the Supreme Court has only eight justices and lacks a tie-breaking vote, the nation could face a constitutional crisis, with no resolution to the election, and no president sworn in. A 4-4 split on the Court is not a good thing for either party.
The rioting that will ensue before and after the elections is almost a given at this point, as evidenced by the raging of the Left in recent weeks. The riots of this summer were just spring training for the main game. Unreported by the mainstream media, nightly riots continue in Portland, and sporadically elsewhere.
Rioting in Portland on Friday night.
Senate campaigns across the country are gearing up for the epic battle, which has become suddenly laser focused. Seats like Susan Collins in Maine, Corey Gardner in Colorado, and Martha McSally in Arizona will suck all the political oxygen out of the room, as Democrats fight to flip the Senate and put New York’s Chuck Schumer in charge.
Friday was a pivot in the campaign. Many a bottle of liquor was consumed by political operatives on the Left and the Right late into the night, as the consequence of Bader-Ginsberg’s death sunk in, and the demonstrations from the Left are beginning today here in Alaska and across the country.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski has already boxed herself in with her statement that she will not vote on a nominee until after Nov. 3. That gets the demonstrators out of her office and down the hall at Dan Sullivan’s.
And the Democrats activated immediately: Democratic donors shattered records last night on the ActBlue donor site, contributing $6.2 million in the 9 pm hour. A lot of that money will be spent to take out Republicans like Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gardner, Collins, and McSally. If they lose, it would leave Murkowski in the minority in November at a time when she would otherwise be in line to run the Appropriations Committee.
