Monday is the final day of Hanukkah; this year so much of the eight-day celebration has been marred by fear among Americans of Jewish faith and heritage — and disturbing attacks on Jews in New York and Jersey City.
The most recent involved a knife attack at a rabbi’s house by a man politicians say is a terrorist. The man’s family says he is mentally ill.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, while interviewing Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League Center, remarked on Sunday that the anti-Semitic attacks carried out in New York City are largely not being committed by white supremacists, but by “people of color.” The attackers do not fit the liberal narrative that dominates the media these days.
What does not advance the public dialogue is when liberals make every crime or every insult into a “hate crime.” We’re seeing more of that tactic used in the public realm, where people are claiming anti-Semitism for every imagined slight, and then they call for the “cancel culture” to slice and dice the target, usually a conservative, such as Ben Shapiro, who is a practicing Jew and who doesn’t suffer fools on the Left.
It becomes more difficult to judge which crimes are hate crimes, and which are just crimes, when the Left uses these incidents for political gain.
Yet religious and ethnic intolerance cannot be ignored by conservatives.
It was good to see Gov. Mike Dunleavy at the Hanukkah menorah lighting in Palmer at the Depot on Sunday night, where they lit the giant menorah and observed traditions such as potato latkes, and Hanukkah crafts.
Christians must stand in solidarity with Jews — and people of all faiths — in rebuking hatred and violence of any sort. And they should do so with urgency from the pulpit when it comes to defending people of other faiths.
Also on Sunday, Christians were attacked as they worshiped in a Fort Worth suburb. The parishioners were armed, of course, and they took down the gunman. Two parishioners died, and the attacker died as well, shot by the church security detail. This was not described as a hate crime by the media; the perpetrator was described as a transient. We don’t know his motive and it is too dead to tell us.
But the incident reminds us of what presidential candidate Joe Biden said, just this past September, about the Texas law that allows gun owners to carry in places of worship: He said it is “irrational.”
New York doesn’t allow churches and synagogues to protect themselves against armed intruders. In fact, New York doesn’t allow citizens to protect themselves at all. That’s what Joe Biden calls rational.
MILLENNIALS ARE IN CHARGE, WILL SHAPE THE GENERATIONS TO FOLLOW
In 1920, the Greatest Generation was coming into the world squalling and kicking, as babies do. They had no idea what was ahead of them.
The generation that earned the name “Greatest” grew up during a time when soldiers came home from World War I. The kids went to school during the Roaring Twenties, felt hunger during the Great Depression, went to war in World War II, and some returned home to rebuild the nation.
They are all but gone now; the average lifespan for a male born in 1920 was 58.8 years, for a female it was 60.6 years.
On Wednesday, Jan. 1, the calendar turns to the next decade — the 2020s, and a very different generation will emerge.
Millennials? No, those are yesterday’s kids who are now heading into their 40s and shaping public policy and life as they become grandparents and hit their career stride during a time of unprecedented national prosperity.
The children being born now don’t have a code-name identifier, such as the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, or Gen Z. Today’s generational personality won’t be settled upon until marketers observe how events unfold for these youngsters, and how they typically respond.
What we can predict about the babies born today is they are emerging into a world light years away from that of the Greatest Generation, and even far from that of their Millennial grandparents.
They will be a diverse lot. The babies born today already represent no clear racial or ethnic majority, according to Census Bureau population estimates.
These children will navigate a complicated world. They’ll be taught that climate change is settled science, but gender is choice. They’ll compete in the workforce against robots and automation.
There are similarities, of course. As it was in 1920, America is starting out this decade with an economic boom unlike any other, a time of immense prosperity and growth. These newbie Americans inherit that promise of prosperity.
Under the presidency of Donald Trump, America has gone from being one-fifth of the world’s economy to one-fourth — in three short years.
Back in 1920, fascism was on the rise in Germany and Italy. And, in spite of capitalism driving innovation and wealth accumulation in the United States, socialism was beginning to be fashionable. A robust manufacturing sector in America gave rise to unions, and unions hitched their wagons to communism.
Socialism, the experiment that stifled progress and resulted in the deaths of millions, had all but faded as a fashion by the 1980s. Few talked about it as a viable economic model for America.
But today, Socialism has become part of everyday dialogue in post-Obama America, a time when Democrats long for an even bigger government footprint in their lives. A declared socialist — Bernie Sanders — could very well be the Democrats’ nominee for president.
Those who lived through the Roaring Twenties saw the economy come tumbling down around them in a stock market crash, and resulting Depression. The sudden reversal of fortunes was a result of unregulated markets, when people borrowed money to invest it.
Today’s newborns are entering an America where markets are soaring more and more people are coming off of welfare. Nearly everyone who wants a job can get one. Hispanics, African Americans, women, and blue-collar workers are thriving under the policies of the Trump presidency in ways they have never before succeeded.
Economic events of today’s Trump economy will shape the perceptions of today’s newest Americans:
The economy has added 6 million jobs in the past three years.
Unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent, the lowest level in 50 years.
Economic growth rate is 2.1 percent. The ideal growth rate is between 2-3 percent.
Median household income has reached $65,976 – an all-time high and up more than 8 percent in 2019 dollars under the Trump presidency
Middle-class incomes, after adjusting for inflation, have surged by $5,003 since Donald Trump became president in January 2017.
The poverty rate and food stamp rolls declined 15 percent.
Stock prices rose: The S&P 500 index was up 29.8 percent.
The number of murders dropped 6.9%.
The FBI’s annual crime report, shows violent crime rate dropping 4.6 percent since President Trump took office, reversing an uptick in violent crime that occurred under the last two years of President Barack Obama.
Making America Safe Again.
The 1920s was also a decade of technological advancements. By the end of the decade, there was one car for every household in America, and families had radios and telephones.
Today, the pace of technological change happens so fast that babies born into this 2020 generation will experience reality in a way unimaginable to the Greatest Generation. Artificial intelligence is baked into their every transaction and surveillance tracks their movements from the moment their parents put a crib monitor on the wall of the nursery.
Just as likely, the children born today will not be able to easily distinguish what is real from what is fake, as information and the warping of it comes at them more quickly than their human brains can assimilate.
Will peace prevail during these children’s formative years during the 2020s? Will lifespans increase for today’s toddlers, who are predicted to live until past the year 2100? Will prosperity continue to lift up the poor?
America has yet to see the end of the current Trump economic expansion. It could go another five years, or it could come to a screeching halt in November, 2020. Much of it will depend on the biggest voting bloc: Millennials.
Thus, 2020 and the decades that follow will be the era Millennials fully shape and control. The 71-million-and-aging Baby Boom generation is handing over the reins to the 76 million Millennials. Boomers are transferring wealth to them, some $30 trillion in personal wealth in these next few years, likely be the greatest wealth transfer in history.
Whether Millennials lean toward free markets or embrace Socialism will shape the world for babies born into the New Roaring Twenties. And how Millennials vote this coming election cycle will say a lot about the future of the American experiment. It will be an election year for the ages.
Haines and Homer bans on single-use plastic bags start New Years Day, 2020.
Homer city voters approved Proposition 1 in the Oct. 1 General Election. That mandated that, with just a few weeks to prepare, retailers will not provide single-use plastic bags for shoppers starting Wednesday. The ban affects grocery stores, convenience stores, general merchandise, liquor stores, restaurants, and temporary retailers such as farmers market and fair vendors.
Homer enacted a bag ban via ordinance in 2012, but it was repealed the next year by a ballot initiative from rebellious voters. This time, it passed the vote with 946 in favor, 497 opposed.
Haines Borough enacted a bag ban by ordinance in May, to go into effect Jan. 1, 2020, when it will be illegal for businesses to provide single-use plastic shopping bags.
Haines and Homer join other Alaska communities so far to ban carryout bags that are less than 2.5 mils thick:
Anchorage, September 15, 2019
Unalaska, January 1, 2019
Palmer, January 1, 2019
Soldotna, November 1, 2018
Wasilla, July 1, 2018
Kodiak, April 22, 2018
Cordova, October 1, 2016
Hooper Bay, September 1, 2010
Bethel, September 1, 2010
Are cotton tote bags actually better for the environment? The jury is undecided, but the evidence doesn’t look good for cotton bags.
From American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark J. Perry, and his economics blog “Carpe Diem,” comes this analysis showing that boys and men have much higher rates of suicide, murder, violent crimes, incarceration, job fatalities, and homelessness. But despite these risk factors and outcomes, girls and women continue to receive disproportionate attention, resources, and financial support. Women’s commissions, women’s resource centers, and women’s studies programs flourish on campuses across the country, but no similar men’s commissions, resource centers or men’s studies programs exist, he writes.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has created an oversight committee relating to the sale of BP assets in Alaska to Hilcorp. The committee is made up of seven senior level members of the Dunleavy cabinet, including:
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Natural Resources (Chair)
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Environmental Conservation
Attorney General or designee of the Department of Law
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Fish & Game
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
Commissioner or designee of the Department of Revenue
Governor’s Office Director of Policy & Communications
The committee will advise the governor on whether regulatory and statutory requirements are being satisfied, inform him on comments from the public and the Alaska Legislature, and brief the governor on proceedings related to the transfer in the state’s quasi-judicial agencies.
CANDIDATES ARE LOOKING FOR THOSE 2019 CONTIBUTIONS
All candidates in Alaska are hoping people will shake loose a bit of help or them before the calendar turns over. Alaska law says individuals may give no more than $500 to a candidate in a single year.
That means $500 this year, and $500 next year, if you are really getting behind a candidate, for a grand total of $1,000 for an election cycle.
Most use the cut-and-paste templates that come with payment software, but not Sen. Josh Revak. He’s got donation categories that show a bit more of his personality, his generation, and his military history — categories that include the “MORE COWBELL” level of $250, which refers to a classic Saturday Night Live skit, and the “I’M BROKE, BUT I LOVE REVAK!” level for $20.
Revak is running for Senate Seat M, Anchorage hillside, which he won by appointment this fall after Sen. Chris Birch passed away. He previously served as a representative for District 25, a seat he won in 2018.
Alaskans have until midnight on Dec. 31 to make that 2019 contribution.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is also a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, decided to burn off some Christmas calories by going for a run on a brisk Fairbanks day, an experience which he describes in this video as “magic”.
Criminal charges have been filed against Dr. John Zipperer, Jr. MD and his corporation Zipperer Medical Group for fraud against the state Medicaid program.
The State Department of Law alleges that Dr. Zipperer filed millions of dollars worth of claims for fraudulent laboratory urine tests performed from August of 2013 to August of 2015 and that his company, ZMG, performed over one million medically unnecessary laboratory tests on patients’ samples at a Tennessee lab he owned, billing Medicaid for those tests.
Zipperer practices “interventional pain” medicine. He is a graduate of Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine and specializes in pain and addiction treatment.
He opened a clinic in Wasilla in 2012 and expanded clinics across the state in Anchorage, Eagle River, and Fairbanks. In 2013, he opened a testing facility in Tennessee.
The State alleges ZMG would see patients as often as once every three day and would often require them to submit urine samples for testing, which would be done at the lab he owned.
The State says Zipperer would order dozens of unnecessary and duplicative tests on each urine sample and then bill Medicaid, private insurance companies, or cash-paying patients personally, at rates ranging from $3,000-$8,000 per urine sample.
The red flag came after Zipperer was reimbursed about $9 million for laboratory testing between August 2013 and September 2015, an amount 10 times greater than the combined total of all other providers in the Alaska Medicaid system for laboratory test codes billed during the time period, according to the Law Department.
The case triggered a formal state audit review in 2018. Throughout 2019, the state says Zipperer “failed to respond to repeated requests for supporting documentation for the millions of dollars worth of claims he submitted in response to agency requests. This refusal itself is a criminal offense under Alaska law.”
In 2015, Zipperer closed his methadone clinic in Wasilla after saying he was unable to adequately staff the clinic, in part because of an FBI investigation into the clinic practices. Methadone is a replacement to narcotics that suppresses withdrawal symptoms and helps wean people off of opioids. Treatment with methadone can last for years.
The charging document may be found on the State of Alaska, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The charges against Zipperer carry a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $100,000 and restitution to the State of Alaska Medicaid program. The charges of medical assistance fraud against the corporation carry a possible maximum sentence of up to $5 million, and a potential restitution order.
Any person who may have information about Dr. Zipperer or facts related to this case are encouraged to contact the State of Alaska, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at (907) 269-6279.
IT ALL STARTED WHEN GOV. WALKER MADE BROOKS RANGE A DEAL
The State-owned Alaska Industrial Development Authority to the list of creditors for Caracol/Brooks Range Petroleum, which owes AIDEA tens of millions of dollars on a loan for the Mustang Project.
Although the exact amount owed to Alaska’s publicly owned development agency is hard to calculate from the outside, what is known is that since October, the company hasn’t paid the $3.1 payment due on the note. It’s in default. Brooks Range is supposed to pay $3.1 million per quarter.
Brooks Range has produced a small amount oil from the project — about $500,000 worth. But there are creditors to the tune of $15 million that it took to produce that bit of oil. The company is now in “warm storage,” and if the creditors don’t get some money, they won’t likely keep the small crew on staff that monitors the generators. Creditors, if not paid by end of 2019, could very well put the company into bankruptcy.
HOW AIDEA GOT THERE
A series of missteps by former Gov. Bill Walker relate to Brooks Range Petroleum’s financial peril:
Misstep one: Walker ordered a conversion of AIDEA’s equity position in the project to a loan in 2018. The company never made a payment.
Misstep two: Walker vetoed the tax credits and ordered the Department of Revenue to essentially lend money to Brooks Range, while all other players suffered (i.e. Furie going bankrupt), as they were counting on those tax credits.
Misstep three: The loan from the Department of Revenue was paid off by AIDEA, during the restructuring of the equity deal.
Under Gov. Bill Walker, AIDEA sold off its interests in the holding companies and road and pad infrastructure associated with the Mustang field. The state-owned agency instead financed the purchase by Caracol for $52.5 million for the Mustang processing facilities and $8.5 million for the road and pad operating company, and other associated costs.
Under the restructuring, there were no payments due until Oct. 1, and there was a 30-day grace period for Caracol, which has also passed. In the loan agreement, that means AIDEA could call in the entire note as due.
Decisions made during the Walker Administration were done behind closed doors with consultants to Walker, such as Mark Gardiner, the Portland consultant paid $400,000 a year, who met with Walker in Juneau behind closed doors without anyone from AIDEA present.
Unfortunately, the chickens are coming home to roost under AIDEA now that Walker is no longer in charge and the board must decide what to do with a Walker loan agreement that appears to have gone bad.
