In 2016, an Alaska domestic violence nonprofit posted an item on social media that classified the slogan “Make America Great Again” as “hate speech,” such as you might hear from the KKK or other white supremacy groups.
Must Read Alaska called out that characterization on these pages. It’s what we do here.
Every day we defend sensible policy and conservative viewpoints from the attacks by the Left.
It’s a lot of work, and the hits from the far left just keep coming. But we’re winning! As this election shows, the mainstream media had the biggest beatdown of all — caught collaborating with leftists one too many times, and the public is fed up. If you’re going to be biased, at least be honest about it — like Must Read Alaska is, telling everyone “we’re conservative here,” at every opportunity.
Many Alaskans — at least 20,000 a day — come by here for news, commentary, and the vibrant forum in the comment section — the best in Alaska. It’s a respite from the woke liberal media that dominates the state, and it has grown more important than ever over the years because of your support and because of the current state of our nation. On our social media accounts, even though the overlords on the dominant “site that shall not be named’ try to keep us down through shadow banning, we’re reaching tens of thousands of Alaskans a day.
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After the latest batch of ballots were counted by the Alaska Division of Elections on Tuesday, it still appears that ranked-choice voting may be going away in Alaska. But the margin is very thin, not that different from the vote that installed the messy voting scheme that frustrates voters.
As of Tuesday night, 142,511 Alaskans are in favor of repealing ranked-choice voting, and 139,670 are opposed. The split is along party lines, with Democrats favoring the novel system of choosing political leaders — a system that in Alaska favors Democrats.
Although about 20,000 early and absentee ballots are still to be counted, there’s a drop-off of voting toward the end of the ballot. While 295,806 ballots have been counted so far, some 282,181 people voted on this particular ballot measure, about a 5% drop in the votes on number of ballots received. In the Trump-Harris race, for example, 293,515 votes were cast, more than 11,000 more than were cast in Ballot Measure 2.
The No votes have gained slightly in the latest count released. In the Nov. 8 count, the Yes votes were ahead 50.83%, and have slipped a bit to 50.50%.
Just 2,841 votes separate the Yes and No ballots.
Ranked-choice voting was installed by allies of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was unable to compete in another Republican primary election after her work to defeat President Donald Trump.
With the use of Outside money from liberal billionaires, the proponents convinced Alaskans they would have more choice in elections. But voters haven’t enjoyed the new scheme and, in fact, elections seem to be less secure, with results not being announced for 15 days after all votes are cast, embarrassing the state, which doesn’t seem to be able to run elections efficiently.
The people who want to retain it — mostly Democrats — have had over $14 million in dark money this cycle to defeat the repeal. They have fought hard, even telling people that if they don’t pass Ballot Measure 2, they won’t be able to have an abortion.
Meanwhile the repeal proponents have had less than $100,000 to work with, and have had to fight off multiple lawsuits and threats from ranked-choice advocates like lawyer Scott Kendall.
With the Alaska Division of Elections having counted more than 38,000 more votes on Tuesday, there are a few slight changes to note in various Alaska races, specifically the tight race between Rep. Mary Peltola and Nick Begich for Alaska’s one congressional seat. Here are the current numbers from the division on that race, released late Tuesday night:
Congressional race
The data analyst known as @cinyc9 on X/Twitter ran the algorithm on the updated known results of this race. For the final count, it gives Nick Begich a solid win at over 52%, when all the second- and third-place votes are redistributed.
In this raw-data analysis of the ranked-choice process, Begich gained 19,470 votes, and Rep. Mary Peltola gained 21,488 votes. Begich still wins.
With possibly 20,000 more votes yet to be counted, Peltola would have to win by a margin of over 10,000 to overcome Begich’s lead. This is not what the trends are indicating; instead, they show that Begich unseats Peltola in Congress.
The ballots counted Tuesday include a mix of absentee ballots, early voting, and questioned ballots.
The Division of Elections, however, will have the final word since this privately done analysis of the raw data may have errors. The division released the raw data to the public after Must Read Alaska filed a public records request. The division will not run its analysis and announce the final winner until Nov. 20, making Alaska the last state in the nation to announce results.
President-elect Donald Trump has picked business leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk, who owns the social media site X.com, and Ramaswamy have been two highly influential people associated with Trump’s third run for office. They will assist Trump in cutting bureaucracy, slashing unneeded regulation, and eliminating government waste.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people,” Musk said.
“All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency. Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining,” Musk wrote on X.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long tie. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create and entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” Trump said.
“I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans. Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” Trump said.
John Ratcliffe will head up the Central Intelligence Agency in the Trump Administration, the president-elect announced Tuesday. Ratcliffe is a former Texas congressman and former Director of National Intelligence.
“When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People,” Trump said in a statement.
Ratcliffe is a co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Institute. He was the sixth director of National Intelligence under President Donald Trump and was the principal intelligence advisor to President Trump.
Ratcliffe successfully deployed covert and clandestine intelligence assets to remove numerous designated terrorist leaders from the around the world and shift the U.S. intelligence community priorities to better position the U.S. for success in the great power competition with China. He designated space as a priority intelligence domain by adding the U.S. Space Force as a member of the intelligence community.
In recognition of his national security achievements, President Trump awarded Ratcliffe the National Security Medal, the nation’s highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence and national security.
Ratcliffe served in Congress for over five years as the U.S. representative for the 4th Congressional District of Texas, was a leading policymaker on national security issues as a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees and was Cybersecurity chairman on the Homeland Security Committee. He lives in Heath, Texas, where he was mayor for eight years.
Pete Hegseth was nominated to run the Department of Defense.
“I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense. Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” Trump said. Hegseth has been cohosting Fox & Friends Weekend at Fox News, and has been a regular contributor since 2014.
Donald Trump also named former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the incoming ambassador to Israel.
Other appointments induce William Joseph McGinley, who will serve as White House counsel and help Trump advance his America First agenda and will right against the weaponization of law enforcement. McGinley served in the first Trump Administration as White House Cabinet Secretary.
Earlier in the day, he announced that Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida will be national security adviser. Rep. Elise Stefanik will be the ambassador to the United Nations and South Dakota Gov. Kristie Noem will lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Tom Homan is the president-elect’s new border czar.
President Donald Trump named Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida’s Sixth Congressional District as his National Security Advisor. Waltz is the first Green Beret to have been elected to Congress, and previously served in the White House and Pentagon.
Waltz was in U.S. Special Forces for 27 years and was deployed multiple times in combat for which he was awarded four Bronze Stars, including two with Valor. He retired as a colonel and is a nationally recognized leader in national security, a bestselling author, and an expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran, and global terrorism. He serves as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Trump is expected to name South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Fox News Digital reported Tuesday.
Trump has poached two Republicans so far out of the U.S. House, thinning the Republican majority. He named Rep. Elise Stefanik as United Nations Ambassador. Both will need to be replaced in special elections, although both represent conservative districts.
He also named former Rep. Lee Zeldin to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.
While most of the western Alaska villages voted for Democrat nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris for president, there were some anomalies in the villages. A surprising number of rural Alaska precincts actually voted majority for Trump, not Harris, as this story details:
Kipnuk is one of those anomalies, but it didn’t go for Trump or Harris.
For president, Kamala Harris received only 2 votes from Kipnuk. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a registered independent, received 40 votes, and Cornel West, the radical Democrat Socialist running under the Aurora Party, also received 50 votes. Donald Trump received only 5 votes. Libertarian Chase Oliver received 5 votes. Green Party Jill Stein received one vote.
But in the U.S. House race, somehow Nick Begich won Kipnuk with 66 votes, while Rep. Mary Peltola, the area’s hometown hero, only got 11 votes, and incarcerated felon Democrat Eric Hafner received more than twice what Peltola got, at 29 votes.
Kipnuk, on the Kugkaktlik River, consists mostly Yupik-speaking Eskimos. Most people who work there are employed by government or government-funded tribal organizations.
The village had 113 ballots cast in the Nov. 5 election, out of 455 total registered voters. The turnout in Kipnuk, which is in Alaska House District 38, was 24.84%.
The high votes for West and Kennedy stand out. West is not exactly a household name in Alaska. Statewide, West only receive 913 votes and Kennedy received 4,348 votes.
That means 5.5% of West’s votes came from a village that represents .04% of the voters.
Compare that to the nearby village of Kwigillingok, where 81 votes were cast out of 237 registered voters.
In Kwig, Harris received 25 votes, Kennedy received no votes, Trump received 51 votes, and Oliver got 1 vote. Stein had no votes. In Kwig, Cornel West received no votes.
Another nearby village of Chefornak had 96 votes cast out of 321 registered voters. Harris received 66, Kennedy received 8, Trump received 17 votes. Again, in Chefornak, West got zero votes for president.
West, who has switched from various third parties over the years, stopped campaigning in August when his campaign announced it was $17,000 in debt, but he had already qualified for the Alaska ballot and did not withdraw. In other states, he is on ballots under the Justice for All Party, or other similar low-enrollment parties, such as in Vermont, where he appeared on the ballot under the Green Mountain Peace and Justice Party. Read more about Cornel West at Ballotpedia.
Why Kipnuk had just two votes for Harris, but 50 votes for West is one of those mysteries that can’t be easily explained to those who haven’t been around Alaska for long. In a deeply rural area, there is little oversight with voting and village officials can do all kinds of things to ballots without being detected. Rural Alaska voting has a checkered history of voting anomalies.
In Shungnak in 2016, there were 100 ballots cast in the primary election, even though there were only 50 registered voters in the village. Must Read Alaska was the first to identify the fraudulent voting. The voting clerk had given everyone two ballots.
In Buckland in 2016, there were more “personal representative” special-needs ballots cast than in all of Wasilla. The ballots did not even arrive in Nome until six days after the election and appeared to be fraudulent. Many other examples of likely voter fraud were identified in the 2016 election in rural Alaska.
A Dutch court overturned a ruling ordering the energy company Shell to cut its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. Shell argued that requiring one company to reduce emissions will not reduce the demand for oil globally.
The Hague overturned the District Court of The Hague’s 2021 ruling in the case brought against Shell in 2019 by Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth Netherlands, ActionAid NL, Both ENDS, Fossielvrij NL, Greenpeace NL, Young Friends of the Earth NL, Waddenvereniging, and more than 17,000 citizen plaintiffs who sought a ruling that Shell must reduce its CO2 emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.
“As Shell has stated previously, a court ruling would not reduce overall customer demand for products such as petrol and diesel for cars, or for gas to heat and power homes and businesses. It would do little to reduce emissions, as customers would take their business elsewhere. We believe that smart policies from governments, along with investment and action across all sectors, will drive the progress towards net-zero emissions that we all want to see,” the company said in a statement.
Last Thursday, the Peninsula Oilers announced they will take a year to yearlong pause and not field a team in 2025. The Oilers are one of five teams in the Alaska Baseball League and, while their temporary departure is not a surprise, it exemplifies concern for the future of the league.
The league schedule was just about to be announced when the Oilers informed the other four teams – the Mat-Su Miners, Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks, Anchorage Glacier Pilots, and Anchorage Bucs – of their decision, but now that schedule will have to be revamped. The state’s sixth college summer team, the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks, has not been a part of the league since 2015, although team president John Lohrke was hoping his club could be readmitted.
Lohrke has done a tremendous job pulling the Goldpanners back from extinction. Attendance was dismal and the ballpark was in disarray, but now fans are filling the stands in Fairbanks and the team’s finances are in the black.
The four remaining ABL teams can go one of two ways. If they want to remain a prosperous league, one that is still among the top ten summer college leagues in the country, they need to act as a cohesive unit with a strong commissioner leading them. The second option is to essentially go their own ways, making their own team schedules and business arrangements.
As someone who has been intimately involved with the Chinooks for the better part of a decade, this writer is selfishly hoping the teams band together and form a strong league. The Chinooks are structured differently than the other teams and a strong, centralized league it is the best scenario for the fish as they don’t have the financial wherewithal to negotiate with Lower 48 teams when it comes to scheduling games and making the necessary travel arrangements to and from Alaska.
The major obstacle to a cohesive, unified league is getting the individual general managers to relinquish control and allow a commissioner to make decisions that are in the league’s best interests. There is an attitude that what works for their own team is what’s best for the other teams, especially when past success clouds the reality of the present.
The Oilers’ precarious financial situation has been known for several years. Just before the start of the 2024 season, the team let go of their general manager and issued a public notice that they faced a “significant financial challenge.” Their plan for 2025 is to find creative fundraising schemes that will put them in good enough shape to return in 2026. It will take hard work and serious negotiations, and perhaps some downright pleading, with sponsors and donors to be successful.
One seemingly untapped resource for the Oilers, as well as all the other teams, is their alumni. Many professional players spent summers up here, and quite a few of those made it to the Major League level where generous salaries are the norm. Most of the men who played in Alaska during their college years have fond memories of those years, and they seem to be an untapped resource, a veritable Prudhoe Bay income stream.
Another option is one that former ABL Commissioner Chip Dill was just beginning to negotiate: joining forces with Major League Baseball. The major leagues cut ties with many of their minor league affiliates a few years ago but made deals with summer college leagues, and those leagues are succeeding, if for no other reason than those college baseball players eyeing a shot at getting drafted have been flocking to the MLB-affiliated leagues because that is a way to be seen by professional scouts. The ABL used to hold scout weekends, during which a majority of major league teams sent scouts with radar guns and stat sheets in hand. During 2024’s scout weekend, it was difficult to spot any such creatures.
The second option for the remaining teams, that of foregoing a strong league in favor independent scheduling and finances, is the John Lohrke model: reinvigorate the community around the team as a wholesome and inexpensive form of family entertainment; find business leaders who are willing to help refurbish faded stadium infrastructure; use the lauded history of Alaska baseball to show continuity with the teams of today; and make it unabashedly fun to attend baseball games.
Both options will take dedicated efforts to succeed, especially the latter; but foregoing a centralized league does not mean the Alaska teams will not play each other. They absolute should, often and with great fanfare. Ironically, if the teams go their own ways but cooperate in bringing Lower 48 teams – and hopefully international teams, such as from Japan, Korea, or Australia – they will be helping out each other. Scheduling non-Alaska team to travel up here will make more financial sense if the teams can stay for more than just a short series against one team.
The Peninsula Oilers fielded baseball teams for 50 years, and it is sad to think that half century of community support and entertainment is coming to an end. It will be an even sadder development if Alaska loses its remaining teams.
Tim Barto is a regular contributor to Must Read Alaska, vice president of Alaska Family Council, and a diehard Chinooks fan who wants to see all the summer college teams in Alaska succeed.
