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Sullivan: As world becomes more dangerous, Alaska’s strategic position more important than ever

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U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan released a statement after the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division announced the deployment of more than 100 soldiers to Shemya Island in the Aleutian Islands in response to increased Russian and Chinese warship activity near Alaska.

The U.S. military has also deployed a mobile guided missile destroyer to Shemya, and a Coast Guard cutter to the western region of Alaska, where warships were observed off Point Hope. On Sept. 10, Russia and China began the Ocean-24 military exercises in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans—Russia’s largest joint naval and air drill since the Cold War.

In the past week, Alaska-based forces detected and tracked four separate incursions of Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone and one incursion of Russian naval vessels in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone , which are believed to be part of the joint exercises. Similar Russia-China exercises occurred near Alaska in July as well which led to the first-ever air incursion into the Alaska ADIZ by a joint Russian-Chinese bomber task force.

“As the world becomes more dangerous, Alaska continues to be on the frontlines of authoritarian aggression,” Sullivan said. “Coordinated activity off Alaska’s shores by the Russians and Chinese is increasing: On five separate occasions in the past seven days, Russian military incursions into our ADIZ or EEZ have occurred – both naval and air. In the past two years, we’ve seen joint Russian-Chinese air and naval exercises off our shores and a Chinese spy balloon floating over our communities. These escalating incidents demonstrate the critical role the Arctic plays in great power competition between the U.S., Russia, and China.”  

Sullivan noted that authoritarian regimes appear to be testing the United States.

“Dictators like Vladimir Putin see through a lens of either strength or weakness, which is why I’ve long encouraged our senior military leaders to be ready and to respond with strength. While I was pleased with our military’s response which included sending troops to the Aleutians as well as a guided missile destroyer and Coast Guard Cutter, these actions should have more of a permanent basis – like reopening the Navy base at Adak, Alaska, which I have been pressing to be done for years,” said Sullivan, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Congress and the President should do more to deter further aggression. Chuck Schumer needs to hold a vote on the National Defense Authorization Act that was voted out of the Senate Armed Services Committee in June. In addition to rejecting the proposed Biden-Harris cuts on our military forces, the legislation authorizes an additional $790 million to help continue to build out our military in Alaska. We must continue to send a strong message to Xi Jinping and Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital interests in Alaska and beyond.”

Breaking: Sen. Dan Sullivan endorses Nick Begich for Congress

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Alaska’s Sen. Dan Sullivan has announced his endorsement of Republican Nick Begich for Congress.

Begich, who is in Washington, D.C. this week for meetings with House Speaker Mike Johnson and others, is the candidate who has also earned the support of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the Alaska Republican Party, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and a list of other House Republicans.

He also now has the support of the National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership Fund, both active in working for Republican wins around the country. Americans for Prosperity Action has endorsed him.

“My job is to work constructively with all members of Alaska’s congressional delegation to try to advance the interests of our state. The stakes in the upcoming November elections couldn’t be greater for Alaska. The national Democrats in Washington, D.C. – both in the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch – have clearly become the anti-Alaska, anti-resource development and anti-Alaska Native party,” Sullivan said.
 
“This is why I have always supported candidates at the national level who will empower Republican majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and it is why I’m supporting Nick Begich for the U.S. House,” Sen. Sullivan said. “Nick will play an important role in defending a Republican House Majority and fighting against harmful national Democratic policies that imperil our state. If national Democrats win back control of the U.S. House this Fall, it will empower some of the most radical lawmakers into key leadership positions with direct responsibility over resource development in Alaska, including putting the architect of the Green New Deal, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, in line to be the next Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. This would be a disaster for Alaska and America.”

Polling shows that Begich is now neck-and-neck with Democrat incumbent Mary Peltola, who has worked to stop energy projects in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Cook Political Report is now predicting that the state will vote for the Republican in this race, although ranked-choice voting still makes Alaska a wild card.

“I am honored to receive Sen. Sullivan’s endorsement in this all-important House race. The nation is counting on Alaska to send a commonsense conservative to Washington so we can grow the Republican House majority and move priorities through the Congress that are important to all Alaskans: Jobs, energy, security, and prosperity,” said Begich.

Linda Boyle: Why was early treatment of Covid given such a bad rap?

By LINDA BOYLE

First, let me be clear, I am not talking about the horse dewormer version of Ivermectin. But some people who could not get the human version of Ivermectin used the animal version, a paste, when faced with Covid-19. These individuals aren’t weirdos — they were sincerely looking for alternative treatment options in the early stages of Covid. 

Some were vaccinated, some were not. All were interested in saving themselves from being hospitalized. Most of us had seen the patients being admitted for Covid, being placed on ventilators, dying alone, and many leaving the hospital through the basement morgue.  

Yet the government for years only preached one solution — mRNA-based “vaccinations”. Once these Covid jabs became available, that was the only thing that was going to save you, the government said.

It mattered little if one got the Covid jab. Those with the jabs and those without the jabs both died. Minimal research was conducted to determine if potential genetic makeup would lead to a worse outcome. Neither Vitamin D levels nor comorbidities were really considered. Get the jab — that was the only  answer.

How bad was it? 

In a 2020 study of 5,700 patients who had been hospitalized for Covid and placed on a ventilator, nearly nine out of 10 (88%) died. This study was done in one of the largest New York health care systems. Age did make a difference; around 76% of ventilated patients between the ages of 18 and 65 died, and 97% of ventilated patients over the age of 65 died. 

Granted this was in April 2020, well before the first Covid jab hit the scene. Yet other modalities for treating Covid were available, but were demonized and ridiculed by the mainstream media, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, and FDA, to name a few.  

As Sen. Rand Paul said in his book, “Deception,” “rather than try to perform studies with large numbers necessary to discover an improvement in early treatment, Fauci did what he could to stymie the discussion.”    

There was also a study planned using Hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid patients, but that was cancelled allegedly because of the “lack of enrollment.”  

Even after the jabs, the lockdowns, the masks, and social distancing, the U.S. had the largest number of Covid deaths among highly developed nations.  

Our preventive measures seem not to have worked at all.

Yes, we have a larger population than many countries, but when you normalize for that we still were number three in the world for Covid deaths. 

You may wonder why such drugs as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine were denounced.  

The answer is quite simple. If there had been a cheap, effective way to treat most people affected by this disease, then an Emergency Use Authorization could not be allowed. And without the EAU, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and CDC-funded researchers would have lost billions of dollars.    

Doctors who used early treatment with Ivermectin and/or Hydroxychloroquine have paid a price. Their patients overall did well because they were able to nip the disease in the bud — often before the cytokine release syndrome storm began.  This occurs when your immune system goes into overdrive to fight an infection and if not treated quickly, can lead to life-threatening complications.  

These same good doctors used steroids to stop or at least slow down this cytokine storm.

Dr. Fauci, the CDC, and mainstream media told you to stay home if sick with Covid until you couldn’t breathe, and then go to the hospital. That’s a bit late in the disease cycle of Covid, as far as I’m concerned. 

Dr. Marty Macary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, summed it up the best:  

“The greatest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic has been the U.S. government.  Misinformation that Covid was spread through surface transmission, that vaccinated immunity was better than natural immunity, that masks were effective.”  “We’ve seen something which is unforgiveable.  And that is the weaponization of medical research itself…public health officials were intellectually dishonest. They lied to the American People.”

You need to hear more truth and facts to be prepared for the future. 

Join us for the Alaska Covid Alliance event on Oct 26, 2024 at the Egan Center.  It’s titled Alaskans 4 Personal Freedom. For more information and tickets, click here. 

You will not be disappointed!

Linda Boyle, RN, MSN, DM, was formerly the chief nurse for the 3rd Medical Group, JBER, and was the interim director of the Alaska VA. Most recently, she served as Director for Central Alabama VA Healthcare System. She is the director of the Alaska Covid Alliance.

Peltola gets failing grade from pro-energy group

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Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola has a failing grade from the American Energy Alliance scorecard. The energy group gave Sen. Dan Sullivan a perfect score of 100, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski got a score of 75 this year. But Peltola was only given a 37 out of 100 points based on her record of voting, scoring far worse than the average member of Congress.

Peltola repeatedly voted with Biden-Harris and far-left eco-activists against Alaska, including refusing to even vote for the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, but simply marking herself “present.”

“Extreme Democrat Mary Peltola betrayed Alaska’s future to curry favor with San Francisco liberals. Peltola’s shameful F-minus grade underscores she’d rather cozy up to Biden, Harris and the radical Left than fight for Alaska jobs and energy freedom,” NRCC Spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement.

Peltola’s predecessor Congressman Don Young received a grade of 80 during his final year in office and an 89 during the 2010-2020 year.

The following core principles guide the American Energy Scorecard process as the group scores representatives and senators on their votes on different energy-related bills:

  • Promoting affordable, abundant, and reliable energy
  • Expanding economic opportunity and prosperity, particularly for working families and those on fixed incomes
  • Giving Americans, not Washington bureaucrats, the power to make their own energy choices
  • Encouraging private sector innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Advancing market-oriented energy and environment policies
  • Reducing the role of government in energy markets
  • Eliminating the subsidies, mandates, and special interest giveaways that lead to higher energy costs

Military makes show of force on Shemya Island

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The U.S. Army on Sept. 12 sent 130 paratroopers and portions of three Army units, along with a M142 mobile artillery rocket system to Shemya Island, a small island in the western Aleutians, as a show of force after several Russian and Chinese military jets patrolled the area.

Shemya is about 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage and is one of the farthest west islands in the Aleutian chain; it is on HDT — Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight Time. The windswept tundra island is 2.73 miles long and 4.32 miles wide. A U.S. Air force radar, surveillant, weather station, and 10,000-foot runway opened on Shemya during World War II and is still in operation as Eareckson Air Station, mostly as a refueling stopover for the military. In 2018 a Delta Airlines flight made an emergency landing there en route from Beijing to Seattle after encountering mechanical troubles.

Troops with the 11th Airborne Division and the 1st and 3rd Multi Domain Task Forces, were deployed to Shemya Island during this September military activity after increased presence of Chinese and Russian war ships over the summer.

“As the number of adversarial exercises increases around Alaska and throughout the region, including June’s joint Russian-Chinese bomber patrol, the operation to Shemya Island demonstrates the division’s ability to respond to events in the Indo-Pacific or across the globe, with a ready, lethal force within hours,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division. 

The division, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Fort Wainwright, defends the northern- and western-most reaches of the U.S., as well as the Arctic.

In addition, the 11th Airborne Division is also assigned to U.S. INDOPACIFIC Command, the Department of Defense’s priority theater and an area representing more than 50% of the world’s population. 

“Testing ourselves with this operation and others like it is critical to our nation’s defense and the preservation of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Hilbert. “Our ability to deploy combat-credible forces quickly and effectively to any location, no matter how remote, is critical to supporting the nation and our strong relationships with allies and partner nations.”

Fairbanks elections: Which candidates said property rights is a ‘fringe’ topic?

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With early voting now underway in Fairbanks for local elections, the League of Woman Voters of Tanana Valley held its candidate forum for the School Board, Borough Assembly, and mayoral candidates on Friday.

The candidate forum can be heard on KUAC here.

The “hot button issues” that were notable for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly candidates involved fiscal issues, public testimony, and property rights. 

Miguel Ramirez, Tammie Wilson, and Jimi Cash kept the focus on supporting the tax revenue cap, and also mentioned the lack of decorum by some current Assembly members during public testimony, and the importance of private property rights. 

The decorum issue has been raised by current members of the FNSB assembly and school board earlier.  At the heart of the matter is that citizens come into the Assembly or School Board chamber and spend hours testifying to on issues of the day, only to have members of the elected bodies ignore them. One member — Kristen Kelly — uses Assembly time to badger and argue with the public member who is testifying.

During the candidate forum, Assembly members David Guttenberg, Kristen Kelly, and candidate Garret Armstrong favored eliminating the Assembly time set aside for asking questions of testifiers.  All three lauded the assemblies in Anchorage and Juneau for putting strict sideboards on public testimony.

In contrast, Ramirez and Wilson said that people in the borough felt their testimony was routinely ignored and that they were made to feel like criminals by certain Assembly members, such as Kristen Kelly.  

Ramirez, Wilson, and Cash highlighted that the Assembly has repeatedly ignored public testimony. 

For instance, there had been extensive testimony against the recent special election to raise taxes, yet the Assembly voted to hold the election anyway.

There had also been significant testimony by veterinarians and animal rights activists on the cost and actually harmful elements of the animal shelter replacement project (aka puppy palace), and yet more money was allocated to the project. 

Three Assembly meetings were dominated by public testimony opposing forming a committee to study mail-in voting. Finally, the Assembly voted down the resolution, pushed by Assembly Presiding Office Savannah Fletcher, after key members of the community made it clear the public was tired of being ignored. 

Ramirez, Wilson, and Cash also took the current Assembly to task over fiscal matters.  All three emphasized the bloated budget for the $33 million animal shelter replacement project, a facility they say will not meet the needs of the community and which has been opposed by both fiscal conservatives and animal rights groups. 

Jimi Cash, who is in commercial construction, stated the cost of the proposed project is ridiculous, and Ramirez agreed the animal shelter price tag is excessive.

Kristen Kelly, David Guttenberg, and Garret Armstrong support the project. Armstrong talked about how his friend’s driveway was expensive and that costs may be escalating for the animal shelter if it doesn’t get built soon. Kelly supported expansion of borough services into pickleball courts, trails, and other leisure activities. 

Kelly, Guttenberg, and Armstrong are not supportive of private property rights. In her closing statements, Kelly specifically stated that property rights are “fringe politics.”

Guttenberg, in his closing statements, repeated Kelly’s points, stating that borough governments should not be operating on political ideologies.

Armstrong echoed their sentiments and mentioned his support for running trail easements through private property. Under the current policies in the FNSB, trail easements are required for those who wish to subdivide, even if there is no demand for a trail in the area. 

No show summer: Rep. Mary Peltola has missed 40% of congressional votes since June

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Over the past 100 votes taken in the U.S. House of Representatives, Alaska often has had no one present to represent them. Alaska has been unrepresented for 40 of the last 100 votes taken, as Rep. Mary Peltola has gone missing. She was absent for votes on everything from protecting America from foreign adversaries to finding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress.

Last week she said she would be gone all week to abide by a Yup’ik tradition of spending a whole week celebrating the life of her late husband on the one-year anniversary of his death. It was cultural. However, she was actually campaigning much of the week, according to her subsequent social media posts.

In July, she was not voting because cutting and smoking fish with her family — again, saying this is a cultural tradition that required her to be there to feed her family, which is made up of mostly able-bodied people. She gets $174,000 per year salary for being a member of Congress and all her travel is free.

Her congressional colleagues were voting on issues like the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which strengthens voting security. They voted on the Refrigerator Freedom Act, which places limits on the authority of the Department of Energy to enforce onerous energy standards for refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers unless the standards are technologically feasible and economically justified.

She missed votes on the Department of Homeland Security’s “DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.” She also missed other votes relating to China.

Her voting record this summer is nothing to write home about. It looks a lot like this:

Although Peltola told Alaskans she was using the week for cultural traditions, she posted numerous photos of herself on social media at fundraisers, including photos of fundraisers posted on Sept. 12, the exact one year anniversary of Gene Peltola Jr.’s death.

House Rule III, clause 1, “Voting” reads: “Every Member shall be present within the Hall of the House during its sitting, unless excused or necessarily prevented, and shall vote on each question put, unless having a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the event of such question.”

Statute (2 USC 5306) permits the chief administrative officer to deduct from members’ monthly salaries “for each day that [s]he has been absent from the House,” unless the member “assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some family member.” None of that seems to apply to Rep. Peltola, who just has not shown up to the office for 40% of the time the entire summer.

Anchorage School District cautions parents to not share unverified threats on social media

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After a social media threat incident gave a scare to families with students who attend Bartlett High School, the Anchorage School District has sent a note to families in the district, imploring them to not share potential threats online.

The threat was perceived to pertain to Bartlett, but may have originated from out of state and may have related to a different school. It also may have been a false threat. Whichever the case, it caused the principal of Bartlett to call for more safety officer presence on Monday.

“In recent weeks, school districts across the country, including the Anchorage School District (ASD), have faced an alarming number of false threats that have disrupted school operations and caused unnecessary fear within our communities. ASD and our partners in local law enforcement are committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff, and we take all threats seriously. We are urging parents and students to be vigilant and mindful of how they handle potential threats,” the school district wrote to parents.

If you come across a potential threat, please include the following information when you report it to your school or the Anchorage Police Department, the district said:

  • Identify the social media platform where the threat was posted.
  • Record the date, time, and account name.
  • Capture screenshots if available and note any witnesses.
  • Detail the date of the alleged threat, the nature of the threat, and any specific schools or individuals mentioned.

The school district asked people to not repost the threat-related content on social media but to notify authorities so they can see if the threat has credibility.

How to Report Threats:

  • Contact APD immediately for urgent or imminent threats by calling 9-1-1.
  • Use STOPiT, the district’s anonymous reporting tool.
  • Students and parents are encouraged to report concerns to their teachers or principals.

“In order to effectively utilize school district and law enforcement resources, we ask parents to monitor their children’s social media accounts to ensure that students report concerns directly to the school or to law enforcement and not repost them on social media or share with classmates,” the district’s letter to parents stated.

Parents were also encouraged to have ongoing conversations with their children about responsible use of social media, including:

  • The importance of not sharing or reposting unverified information.
  • Reporting any concerning content directly to adults, school officials, or law enforcement.
  • Understanding that threats, even those made in jest, are serious and can have severe legal consequences.

Four dead in St. Mary’s air commuter crash, third fatal plane crash in three days in Alaska

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Four people on a Yute Commuter Service plane from Bethel to St. Mary’s went down on Sunday night, killing all aboard, just short of the St. Mary’s runway.

The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center contacted the Alaska State Troopers about the overdue aircraft. St. Mary’s-based Alaska State Troopers responded to the last known location of the aircraft and located the crashed Cessna T207 and four deceased adult males at the wreckage site approximately ½  mile from the runway.

Wildlife Troopers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Officers responded to assist with transporting the men’s bodies to the roadway so that they could be transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. The identities of the deceased men will be released once they have been positively identified and next of kin have been notified, the Troopers said in a statement.

It was the third fatal air crash in three days in the state. On Friday, two died when their plane crashed into Tustemena Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, and on Saturday a man piloting an experimental aircraft crashed in Wasilla. The National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating all three crashes.