Thursday, July 10, 2025
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D-Day: When America understood fascism — and fought for a righteous cause

The anniversary of D-Day reminds us that 76 years ago, America fought fascism, landing on the shores of Normandy, France, to beat back the aggressive German fascist forces who were invading neighboring countries, killing Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and disabled people.

America was on a righteous cause to save the world from the Nazis — from Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco.

Today, patriotic Americans are verbally assaulted by the radical Left, which is calling the president and those support him fascists.

This is another aspect of the “cancel culture” tactic to make him toxic in the minds of voters. The Left is now comparing President Trump to Hitler — a man who laid waste to the lives of millions of non-Aryan people, primarily Jews, for whom he harbored a special hatred.

Fascism is not a specific thing, historians say, but a collection of actions informed by beliefs.

Wikipedia calls fascism “a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.”

Definitions for fascism historically have been all over the map, but none of the definitions have any resemblance to President Donald Trump or his millions of supporters.

Trump, before he became president, was not considered at all a “fascist” by the Left. He was rather mainstream, giving equally to Democrats as he did to Republican candidates. He was a clever New York businessman with an eye for pretty European women.

The conservatives on the Right didn’t particularly care for him back then. Trump lived a little too fast, and was a bit too crass for them. They were not at all sure about his stance on the Second Amendment or whether he truly would support an unborn baby’s right to life.

But, as he talked to the nation throughout 2016, his message of economic growth and freedom from Chinese economic threats resonated. He convinced enough Americans that he would protect our borders.

Americans in 2016 wanted jobs back. Trump brought them back from overseas. Americans wanted the unrelenting flow of illegals across the southern border stopped. Trump promised to build a wall. Americans wanted less regulation, lower taxes, and energy independence. Trump wanted those things too.

Trump said he would drain the swamp of the ruling class in Washington, D.C. And Americans thought he was the one to do it, if anyone could. He was not one of them; but an outsider. They gave him the right to try. Most of all, he was not Hillary Clinton, and that pulled him over the finish line in 2016.

But the playbook of Saul Alinsky has been at work to destroy him since the day he won.

First came the vagina-hat women and the “nasty women,” and the women’s marches, even on Inauguration Day.

The movie stars raged on stage about how fascistic Trump was. The Democrat women of the House and Senate wore all white when they sat and sneered at Trump’s State of the Union remarks. Other women stood around protest sites in costumes straight from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, to show how horribly oppressed women are in our era.

Antifa got its legs under it during the Trump years. The drumbeat that “the president is a fascist” began at the fringes of the movement, and wasn’t taken seriously until it became the mantra for the socialist movement that is now the Democratic Party.

The women’s marches began with the heaping of hate on the president — in 2017, 2018, and 2019, only fizzling out in 2020 when the pandemic and the election cycle coincided to send women to the world of Zoom with everyone else.

Celebrities like Colin Kapaernick jumped in, and pretty soon the Betsy Ross flag was as racist as the Confederate battle flag.

Then, came the neck on the knee of George Floyd, and police brutality captured for all the world to see. It was horrific, a display of sadism that cannot be excused.

The pent-up tensions in the black community, combined with sudden joblessness due to disease-fearing shutdowns and an unfurling economic crisis were the kindling. The brutal murder of George Floyd was the match.

At the same time, the phrase “fascist” had become a synonym for a Trump supporter wearing a MAGA hat. In Fairbanks, a man was told to never come back to a coffee stand because of the MAGA hat he proudly wore. No shirt. No shoes. No fascists.

But long ago, America really knew what fascism was, stared it in the face, and killed it dead. This day in 1944, our young men stormed the beaches, with wave after wave of soldier dying in the surf, turning the sea red with their blood, so that the Allies could liberate the oppressed and put an end to the genocide in the Nazi concentration camps.

We cheapen the concept of fascism when we apply it to a lawfully elected president who has simply sought to govern in the way that he believes is best — a way to Make America Great Again.

Making the phrase “MAGA” into some kind of code language for fascism takes us down a dangerous road. While it’s not likely that the Left will tamp down the “fascist” rhetoric, they are sowing seeds that dishonor the hundreds of thousands of Americans who actually laid down their lives to create a free world and dismantle true fascism.

Bad cops: Who ya gonna call

By ART CHANCE

You have to be in your 60s or 70s to have any memory of events similar to the last week in America.  

I was a college sophomore when the country exploded in 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There have been other incidents of rioting, looting, and arson in the years that followed, but they have been localized. 

Protests that led to rioting, looting, arson, and murder in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have occurred all around the country, but they almost all have one thing in common: They have taken place in Democrat- controlled states or in Democrat-controlled cities in Republican-controlled states. Perhaps we can examine why that is.

Most of my readers have little doubt about how I feel about Democrat politicians and apparatchiks. Other than in public accommodations or at public events; I haven’t been in the same room with a Democrat public figure unless I was being paid to be there in over 20 years.   

I did have to understand them, if for no other reason than they kept promising the unions that they would not only fire me but make sure I never worked in Alaska again.  They never got to keep that promise, but they did succeed in getting me to quit the Executive Branch for awhile and go to work for the Republican-controlled Legislature with the Democrats/public unions’ misery as my main mission. The Democrats had to suck it up and hire me back to fix the mess they’d made.

For most of my time with the State, the departments of Public Safety and Corrections were in my labor relations portfolio. From the early Nineties until I retired in 2006, my name or the name of somebody I supervised was on the appearance line on behalf of the State for every contract, grievance response, and grievance or interest arbitration involving the unions that represented State law enforcement and corrections officers. I understand this business.

Two predicates of management problems in law enforcement and corrections are the turnover rates caused by 20-year retirement systems and the difficulty of recruiting people who are physically fit, at least somewhat, and who can pee in a bottle and pass a background check.   

Since the 1990s, public employers have been not only scraping the bottom of the barrel but digging in the dirt under the bottom of the barrel to try to recruit law enforcement and corrections employees. 

The United States standing up the Transportation Security Administration in the early ‘00s only exacerbated the problem, as that agency was recruiting from the same limited pool. 

Here in Alaska, our legalized marijuana and lasse faire attitude toward recreational drug use only makes it worse for recruiting. The reality is that in most of the country the most valuable skills you can have are the ability to pass a drug test and a background check.

I’m a supporter of 20-year retirement for cops and correctional officers; 20 years is a long time to deal with the people everybody else wants put away.

It’s less relevant here in Alaska because once you’re vested at five years, you can take your lump sum check whenever you choose, but most of the union states still have defined benefit 20-year retirement for law enforcement and corrections.   

The management problem is that 20 years is a pretty short time in terms of organizational culture. I know from my own experience that I was pretty good at the how to do part of my work almost from the outset and was really, really good after about five years.  

The “what to do” part of my work took a lot longer, and maybe after about 15 years I was a pretty reliable advisor about what to do.  The 20-year retirement cycle makes it very difficult to instill a continuous management culture in a law enforcement organization, and that brings us to why the question at hand is, “Who ya’ gonna’ call?”

The commonality in all of the insurrection is unionized police forces. Even in right-to-work states like Georgia and Texas, the Blue city police forces are unionized.   

The pretty smart people that drafted the National Labor Relations Act separated “guards” from other employees; the employees charged with the security of the employer’s property could not be a part of a union that represented other employees.   

No public employee bargaining law that I’m aware of observes this distinction. Some cop unions have maintained independence, but most have become a part of the large public employee unions that are essentially Socialist workers parties whose primary interest is politics.

The cop unions make endorsements and political contributions to mayoral and assembly candidates. Inevitably before long, they own the mayor and the assembly/council.  You can’t become a police lieutenant, captain, or chief without the approval of the union. Most of these cities that have been burning are examples of the worst case of how the cop union owns the government.   

The power of the head of law enforcement isn’t the ability to arrest you, but the power to not arrest you. That lower right desk drawer is the source of the head officer’s power; he has the pictures.

In these Democrat-run cities, there is no real discipline in their police force.   If the union backed the mayor, the only thing a cop can do wrong is become the lead story, maybe, or get cross-threaded with the administration.   

[Read: Head of Minneapolis police union says George Floyd had violent past]

If a union cop becomes the lead story, the mayor can noisily fire him, and then a few months later the mayor’s human resource people throw the arbitration and the cop is back to work with back pay; it happens all the time.  

In the George Floyd case, the Minneapolis mayor’s TV firing of the cops at issue is an almost absolute guarantee that their firing won’t survive arbitration and they’ll at least get back pay until there is a criminal conviction. The officer alleged to have murdered Floyd had 17 civilian complaints against him, none of which resulted in discipline.

Democrat-controlled governments simply will not enforce discipline on a police force that endorsed them. Likewise, they won’t enforce the law against constituencies that endorsed them. That’s why cities are burning and people are dying.   

If your job is enforcing the law or the rules, it is really hard to be a Democrat.

To bring it back to Alaska, AFSCME’s organization of the State Troopers’ union was a real coup for them; they made the legendary Alaska State Troopers the law enforcement arm of the Democrat Party, but then the fecklessness of a Democrat government made the Troopers’ union bolt the AFL-CIO’s endorsement of a Democrat and support the Republican for governor, last time around.   

Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. 

Burrito forgiveness: Trump supporter holds no malice against Fairbanks food stand

A man who received a spoiled burrito from a coffee stand in Fairbanks simply because he was wearing a MAGA hat wants to remain private and has chosen to forgive and forget the poor treatment he received at the Fairbanks Espresso stand.

The coffee stand owner publicized the man’s name on social media, however. It appears she scraped his name from his credit card receipt to “dox” him on Facebook. She also called him a fascist on social media because of his support for President Donald Trump.

MRAK wrote about the incident in two stories:

Coffee stand owner to MAGA hat wearer: Don’t come here

Coffee stand owner doubles down, calls customer a fascist on social media

The young man who received the defiled burrito has been approached by the mainstream media for interviews, but he says he just wants to forgive the woman and move on. He doesn’t think he can get fair treatment from the reporters.

Here, in his own words, is his decision:

“After careful consideration I believe that in this time of national pain, the appropriate thing for me to do is forgive. I have great confidence that the residents of the Golden Heart City, the GreatLand, and the home of the Brave know that bigoted discrimination is wrong. There is no where else I would rather live.

“I am choosing to put aside the lies that have been spread about me, my actions, my beliefs, and the beliefs of millions of Americans. This unprovoked and cowardly act has been widely criticized in the court of public opinion. I see no need to press this issue any further. I hope someday that this young lady will seek healing and when that day comes the good people of this nation will be willing to listen and care for her. 

“I am choosing to remain anonymous as this issue has never been about me nor was it of my choosing to be in the spotlight. This was about her intolerance and internal struggles. I am choosing to write to you because the other media outlets have lost my trust that they will be fair journalists.”


End or story? Or will the State Department of Law look into the misuse of credit card information? 

Meanwhile, a Black Lives Matter encampment has developed around the coffee stand, complete with food tent and several portable toilets, for supporters to stay on site ostensibly to protect the food stand from Trump supporters.

A Black Lives Matter encampment at Fairbanks Espresso.

The clientele has sorted itself out, with liberals bringing their business to Fairbanks Espresso, while Trump supporters are taking their business elsewhere, honoring the Fairbanks Espresso owner’s request.

Candidate Duplantis thinks ‘COVID is a hoax and George Floyd didn’t exist’

Stephen Duplantis believes the PFD belongs to Alaskans, “not greedy politicians who have no clue how to develop a responsible budget.”

He doesn’t believe in the “binding caucus rule,” which gives power to a select few and forces the rest of the caucus to vote one way, regardless of their conscience.

And he also apparently believes George Floyd wasn’t real and the coronavirus is a hoax. “Change my mind,” he challenged people of Facebook.

Duplantis is taking on the most well-funded state senator of them all — Natasha von Imhof, who represents District L. The two will meet in the primary election on Aug. 18, and whoever wins will head to the General Election to face Jeff Landfield, who is running as a no-party candidate.

That person who will advance to the General Election will almost certainly be von Imhof, especially after the comments Duplantis has made on current events.

Duplantis mixed it up with his friends on Facebook this week over the George Floyd statement, and several Republicans told him he is off-base, but he seems determined to stick with his talking points.

Must Read Alaska talked with Duplantis, and he explained it this way: He doesn’t think George Floyd deserved to die, but he also thinks Floyd was not the hero the media and Black Lives Matter has made him out to be.

In fact, Floyd had a violent criminal past, something the Minneapolis Police Union head has pointed out on Twitter.

“What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this,” police union president Bob Kroll wrote in a letter posted Monday on Twitter.

But in Duplantis’ perspective, this is really more about the media and the movement working together to create chaos.

On coronavirus, “The shutting down of the world economy for the numbers we had was a fear reaction,” he said.

Duplantis, a pastor, was deeply offended that churches were shut down because “millions of people were predicted to die.”

“We were told to stay in our houses. Now, two weeks into the George Floyd protests, no social distancing is fine,” he said.

Duplantis says he is unapologetic for his remarks and has no intention of dropping out of the Republican primary, although he acknowledges it will take divine intervention for him to win.

Eagle River targeted for broken windows, vandalism

BLACK LIVES MATTER TOOK OVER ‘YELLOW ROCK’ BRIEFLY

Some in Eagle River are saying that when their “Yellow Rock” was painted all in black with a “Black Lives Matter in white letters this week, it was an affront to the community, which uses the rock to congratulate people on their birthdays and graduations.

Yellow Rock has never been a political rock — until this week. Black Lives Matter is a controversial group that wants to defund the police and has been prominent in national protests and riots over the past 10 days.

It’s painted all silver now. Someone from the neighborhood went in and covered up what felt to many as an angry act of vandalism in this suburb of Anchorage.

The fact that during the same 24-hour period, glass was shattered at two Eagle River businesses seemed oddly coincidental to some residents who commented on Facebook that it may have been part of the nationwide unrest. Others said it was just regular vandalism, not politically motivated.

Damage at the Focus nonprofit, from social media.

At Focus, a nonprofit that helps disabled children, at least seven windows were smashed, while the glass door of the U.S. Post Office was also destroyed by a large rock that was thrown through the glass.

Damage at the Eagle River Post Office.

Assemblywoman Jamie Allard was to attend an Assembly work session on Friday, but said instead she would be meeting with people in the community and assessing and discussing the damage. Allard has been subjected to online harassment by activists associated with a recent Black Lives Matter protest in Anchorage, and she removed her official page from Facebook because of the acceleration of the attacks on her by the activists.

There’s no certainty that the Black Lives Matter group painted the celebration rock with the #BLM; and there’s no law saying that Black Lives Matter can’t paint its initials on the rock. The use of the Yellow Rock for art projects and well-wishes is more of a friendly understanding in the community; there are no hard-and-fast rules.

But the community wasted no time in erasing the politically charged message. By Friday morning, the entire rock was plain silver and looked remarkably like a silver hog resting at the corner of Eagle River Road and Wren Lane.

The rock has been restored by unknown rock artists.

Juneau budget crunch looms

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WILL THE CITY ADD AN EXPENSIVE CHILD CARE PROGRAM?

By WIN GRUENING

Alaska communities are facing municipal budget deadlines while coronavirus concerns and uncertainty surrounding their economies continue to frustrate their efforts to cobble together sustainable financial plans.

A massive amount of federal aid under the Federal CARES Act is available, but it won’t offset all the immediate or long-term losses communities will experience.  $568.6 million in federal spending for communities and local governments impacted by COVID-19 was recently ratified by the Alaska Legislature. 

Win Gruening

The Alaska Municipal League, however, estimates in many communities that won’t be enough to cover total unanticipated spending and lost revenue, leaving a shortfall of roughly $500 million through the end of 2020.

Additionally, there are strings attached to this financial assistance and, even with another possible round of CARES funding, this assistance will inevitably end long before the effects of the pandemic have subsided.

If the resultant widespread layoffs and loss of revenues weren’t enough of a challenge for communities to deal with, stay-at-home advisories along with the shuttering of schools and many businesses due to Covid-19 health mandates have further stretched the social and economic fabric of our communities.

Fortunately, Alaska has suffered least of all 50 states in terms of the health effects of this pandemic and, recognizing this, Gov. Dunleavy has taken steps to re-open our economy – allowing most mandates to expire and businesses to start back up while following recommended social-distancing and health guidelines.

It’s not clear that all businesses are ready to re-open or that some business models can co-exist with current social-distancing guidelines.

With this as a backdrop, elected community leaders must balance the challenge of keeping citizens safe while actively encouraging economic recovery.  This will require judicious use of available funding today while planning for unknowns in the future.

In Juneau, CBJ Mayor Beth Weldon established an Economic Stabilization Task Force (ESTF) comprised primarily of local business leaders.  The ESTF has been meeting regularly and recently presented some recommendations to the CBJ Assembly.  These recommendations would be funded solely from CARES Act monies and fall under two areas:

  • Business Sustainability Grants and Utility Rebates – $12,000,000*
  • COVID Related Childcare Funding – $1,057,000

*This includes 3 rounds of funding through 2020. Initial round totals $3.5 million.

Some assembly members have questioned the large investment in helping businesses and childcare providers in contrast to directly supporting workers.  While recommendations for other programs are forthcoming, passing these initial recommendations are critical if local businesses and childcare services are to survive.  Individual employees have been helped through the Payroll Protection Program and extended/expanded unemployment benefits, but small businesses have received little support to date.  Many businesses are on the brink of closing permanently and without additional support will not make it through this year.

What good will temporary employee assistance be if workers don’t have jobs to return to or access to childcare as the economy recovers?

Alaska’s U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski are co-sponsoring legislation that would permit existing CARES Act money to be used to replace revenue shortfalls resulting from the pandemic.  

This would be a game changer, allowing municipal governments to mitigate large budget deficits. So far, CBJ staff has only been able to identify $18 million of other COVID-related expenses qualifying for CARES Act funding. Added to ESTF recommendations, this represents barely half of CARES Act funding allocated to Juneau.

However, even if funding guidelines are liberalized and all CARES Act monies are utilized, these funds are temporary. The temptation to use them to kickstart new or expanded social programs that require on-going funding will be irresistible. This would be short-sighted. 

Case in point: The Assembly’s current effort to fund a brand-new childcare program (not to be confused with one-time COVID-related childcare funding needed to stabilize currently licensed childcare slots). 

The new childcare program envisions ramping up to $1.7 million annually in just a few years.  How will we pay for that when the CARES Act money expires?  Eventually, the result would be higher property taxes – a non-starter in a depressed economy.

With all the questions remaining, our community is best served focusing on economic recovery efforts, maintaining budget discipline, and responsibly conserving resources to deal with unknowns in the future.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

President Trump says he will campaign against Murkowski in 2022

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and President Donald Trump have had an uneasy relationship, but now it’s officially on the rocks.

Trump wrote on Twitter today that he intends to campaign against Murkowski in two years when she is up for reelection.

The very public slam came after Murkowski said today that she had doubts about being able to support the president, and added that comments made by Gen. James Mattis had given her the courage to speak up.

“When I saw General Mattis’ comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally. And have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” Murkowski was quoted.

Murkowski has long held Trump at arm’s length, and politicos have remarked that she shows distaste for the president. But voted to acquit him during the impeachment trial this winter.

However, her remarks today came during a particularly divisive time in the nation, when rioters have torn cities apart over the perception of police brutality, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd. And leftists have blamed Trump for creating division in the nation, rather than knitting it together.

When asked if she would be supporting Trump, Murkowski waffled:

“I am struggling with it,” she said. “I have struggled with it for a long time.”

There’s no certainty that Murkowski will actually run in 2022, or that Trump will be president then and have the political muscle to use against her.

Murkowski became a senator in 2002, after her father, Sen. Frank Murkowski, won the office of governor of Alaska and then appointed her to fill out his term. She is among the more senior of senators and could become chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee next year, depending on the outcome of elections and the fortunes of other senators such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing a tough reelection battle this year and ranks at the bottom of popularity for senators facing reelection. Murkowski ranks eighth in seniority among Republican senators.

The Al and Alyse show: A pretender duo trying to pass red-face-test

ALASKA’S SHAPE-SHIFTER CANDIDATES FOR HOUSE, SENATE

Alaska Democrats are still beta testing the use of “great pretender” candidates – ones who say they are independent of a party, but who have only Democrat backing and are using Democrat campaign resources — and who will appear on the Democratic primary ballot.

The Democrats have been working the “fake independent” strategy with some success at the legislative level. They’ve got State Rep. Daniel Ortiz, an indie-Democrat, representing them in Ketchikan, which is normally a deep-red community. Ortiz is a popular retired school teacher, and although has no party, has been a reliable vote for the Democratic caucus. A dozen other stealth Democrats are making a run for state office across Alaska this year under the guise of “independent.”

Now, they’re also making a bold run for U.S. Senate and U.S. House with these shape-shifter candidates who declare to some voters that they are nonpartisan, while feasting at the table of the Democratic fundraising machine, and toeing the Democratic platform line.

Al Gross is the shape-shifter for Alaska Democrats for one of two Senate seats in a state where a large majority of voters are fiercely independent, but also prone to thinking that an independent-labeled candidate must be just like them – not actually tied to a party.

Gross is trying to game the voters. But when he appears on the ballot in November, it will be clear that he is a Democrat, as the ballot will tell voters how he managed to advance to the General Election — on the Democratic Party ticket.

Gross is a millionaire doctor who is able to self-fund his campaign, but has convinced the Democratic Party to give him access to the Democrats’ tools, such as the Act Blue fundraising app, and lists of donors and voters. They’ve inked a deal, that much is clear.

It’s going to be tough for Al Gross to beat Sen. Dan Sullivan, however. Sullivan is known as a hard-working Republican and Marine reservist with a sharp legal mind and good political instincts. He commits few unforced errors.

Gross, on the other hand, comes out of the far left as a small-town doctor who made a fortune as an orthopedic surgeon in the government stronghold of Juneau. He’s a gentleman fisherman, which means he has a commercial fishing permit and a nearly pristine gill netter that he takes out now and then from his idyllic Norwegian-burg port of Petersburg. Gross supports the expansion of Obamacare under the “Medicare for all” banner, and he is not shy about his complete distain for Republicans. He’s promised to “flip the Senate blue.”

Gross hired David Keith as his campaign manager last year; Keith is a political operative with a trail of behavioral problems serious enough that the Alaska Young Democrats wrote a letter to party leadership expressing dismay about his “inappropriate conduct and abusive behavior” while he worked for the Congressional Progressive Caucus Political Action Committee. 

[Read: The David Keith chronicles]

The Alaska Young Democrats demanded to know “details on the hiring process of the campaign manager, with a justification for the hiring decision in the wake of such serious and public allegations.” They also wanted to see “a copy of the Progressive Caucus PAC Human Resources Investigation Report on said allegations.” To date, there has been no satisfactory answer given to the public.

As for the other Al — Alyse Galvin — she’s the shape-shifter independent who is also endorsed by Democrats, who uses the same Democrat talking points, and the same Democrat fundraising tools on her second attempt to unseat Dean of the House Don Young.

When she ran against Young in 2018 as a Democrat, Galvin famously scolded Young for shaking her hand too hard after a debate, a moment in Alaska political history that has became iconic — at least in Republican circles.

Now, she’s going the independent-Democrat route, hoping that something will happen to Don Young, who turns 87 this week. If lightning strikes, and voters forgive her liberal gaffs, the second time could be a charm.

Galvin’s campaign manager is Malcolm Phelan, another hired gun from out of state who for a short time was the campaign manager for a far-left Democrat running for Congress: Wendy Davis of Texas, who is a nationally famous abortion advocate trying to unseat Republican Rep. Chip Roy.

Both Senator Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, on the other hand, hired lifelong Alaskans as their campaign managers — people who know and understand Alaskans. For Sullivan, it’s his former press secretary Matt Shuckerow, and for Young, it’s Truman Reed.

Black Lives Matter demands defunding of police, but is it an actual hate group?

PALMER TOP COP’S ‘HATE GROUP’ COMMENT DIDN’T AGE WELL

Black Lives Matter, a leftwing organization that has risen to national prominence over the past half decade, is now calling for the defunding of the police. The demand is unequivocal:

“We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive. If you’re with us, add your name to the petition right now and help us spread the word,” the group posted on its website on Thursday.

The #BlackLivesMatter group has been front and center in raising the conscience of the nation as it pertains to the treatment of African-Americans in the criminal justice system. The group characterizes police killing of blacks as “genocide.”

Tucker Carlson, conservative commentator on Fox, begs to differ. He says that in 2019, only 10 unarmed African-Americans were shot and killed by police in the United States, far fewer than unarmed whites.

According to the Washington Post’s data, 2019 was the safest year for black suspects in police custody since the Post began tracking the data.

On the other hand, the number of police officers killed last year was 48.

PALMER POLICE CHIEF IS UNDER THE GUN

The “defund the police” campaign comes at a time in Alaska when the police chief of Palmer, in the heart of the Mat-Su Valley, is in hot water over comments he made on Facebook two years ago, when he referred to Black Lives Matter as a hate group. Chief Dwayne Shelton wasn’t the police chief back then, but was a uniformed officer on the force who had risen through the ranks.

Chief Shelton was placed on leave this and the City of Palmer issued a statement on Facebook: “The City of Palmer (City) rejects the ideas contained in the past inappropriate social media postings by Palmer Police Chief Shelton who is currently on administrative leave with pay. Instead the City recognizes and respects the diversity of our society and promotes the principles of tolerance and equality embedded in the Constitutional underpinnings of our Nation.”

RIGHTEOUS CAUSE OR HATE GROUP?

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies groups as hate groups, says that Black Lives Matter is not a hate group. The SPLC has, however, also said that Antifa is not a terrorist group.

According to Influence Watch, Black Lives Matter is a group that is funded by George Soros through a group known as the Democracy Alliance. The group has connections to radical left-wing organizations.

“It is estimated that groups associated with the BLM Movement have taken in $133 million since 2013. Organizations associated with liberal billionaire George Soros are said to have provided at least $33 million to various BLM movement groups since 2016,” Influence Watch says.

“In 2015, the fundraising club Democracy Alliance, led by liberal donors like George Soros and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay, recommended “its donors step up check writing to a handful of endorsed groups that have supported the Black Lives Matter movement.” BLM Movement groups which received support from the Democracy Alliance were the Black Youth Project 100, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Black Civic Engagement Fund, Color of Change and the Advancement Project.

Ford Foundation and the Borealis Philanthropy created the Black-led Movement Fund, a funding vehicle for the Movement for Black Lives, the coalition of groups responsible for the extremist “Vision 4 Black Lives.” The fund has received “pledges of more than 100 million dollars from liberal foundations and others eager to contribute,” Influence Watch says.

Read the Influence Watch report on Black Lives Matter at this link.