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Scott Ogan: Groundhog Day, another good election bill stripped by a Democrat in committee

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Scott Ogan: Groundhog Day, another good election bill stripped by a Democrat in committee

By SCOTT OGAN

You remember the movie “Groundhog Day,” where the main character wakes up to the same daily routine over and over. Welcome to Groundhog Day in Juneau.

Our Democrat-controlled Senate is once again killing popular election reform — this time by attempting to strip Rep. Sarah Vance’s election reform bill, House Bill 129, of its many popular provisions and to instead insert a kill-pill — same-day voter registration.   

This is called “bill stripping,” and is being performed on HB 129 by Sen. Scott Kawasaki, Democrat from Fairbanks and chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee. 

Kawasaki did the same thing in 2022 to an election reform bill authored by Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower, who intercepted his own Senate Bill 39 and said “no” to political manipulation of the public trust.

The vast majority of Alaskans do not believe same-day voter registration is necessary or even desirable in order to secure our basic freedoms and fair elections. In fact, most people believe such a provision encourages manipulation and fraud by any bad actor or party. 

The main advocates for same-day voter registration are those trying to undermine democracy. It’s more likely that any person not properly registered to vote on the day of an election in not civically engaged.  

There is nothing that makes our already weak election statutes more vulnerable to fraud than allowing anyone — legal citizen or not — to show up to the polls and register that same day to vote by signing a meaningless statement that they have lived in the district for 30 days, even without requiring a valid government ID or evidence of residency, then receive a ballot.

Grandstanding Democrats love to talk about ensuring everyone has the right to vote, and yet they fail to support reasonable safeguards against voting by those who do not have the right to vote. Nowhere is the undemocratic imposition of power over the will and interests of the people more present than in these last days of the legislative session.     

There is a valid public-interest reason Alaska statutes require a voter to be a 30-day resident of a district before they can vote and to register before the 30-day deadline.  It’s to disallow nefarious actors from suddenly showing up in districts where there are tight races and to claim to have moved there in the last 30 days so they can tip the scales in their candidate’s or party’s favor. With the weak provisions inserted into the latest version of the bill, there are no strong personal identification requirements and no language about it being a crime to misrepresent the date someone moved into a district.  

Kawasaki’s bill stripping makes it extremely easy to cheat. 

While Republicans favor tighter laws and rules securing our voting rights, Democrats seem to favor fewer rules, or rules that are easily bent or broken with no consequence. With Kawasaki’s stripping of Vance’s popular House bill, which passed 33-6 in the House, we see how sound, bi-partisan election law reform becomes self-serving — an effort to favor one party over another. In our Democat-led Senate, the ends justify any means necessary to win.  

This latest Groundhog Day version of election rigging is the Holy Grail for the Biden agenda to make Alaska poor again. 

I’m willing to bet that the complicit Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Senate will not even read the bill, let alone poll their constituents. Their priorities will be on power and money: getting money for their district and getting their pet bills passed.  It’s that point in the session where public trust gives way to the private trough. 

Biden’s no-border policy exists for a single reason: to flood our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens who will be steered to states with loose election laws — election laws like Sen. Kawasaki wants that allow same day registration with no proof of residency or citizenship.  

Kawasaki’s amendment is part of a nationwide agenda by Democrats to “stack the deck” in their favor to assure that their candidates get elected.  

Apparently, reason and public trust do not prevail with Sen. Kawasaki. Rep. Vance now has only one option: Kill her hard-earned election bill, like Sen. Shower had to do. And then, send a copy of the bill to every voter in Kawasaki’s district. 

Scott Ogan served as a legislator in the Alaska House and Senate and writes for Must Read Alaska.

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Biden has been coordinating with pro-Arab, anti-Israel group to isolate Jews living in West Bank: Report

Suzanne Downing
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Biden has been coordinating with pro-Arab, anti-Israel group to isolate Jews living in West Bank: Report

According to a new report from the Washington Free Beacon, the Biden Administration has been coordinating since as far back as early 2022 with an anti-Israel group called DAWN, with the purpose of isolating Jewish Israelis who live in the West Bank, an area that is home to more than 500,000 Israelis and 3 million Palestinians, with an additional 220,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem, a place Palestinians claim as the capital of their state. Israel annexed East Jerusalem and controls it under Israeli law.

Internal government emails reveal the collusion between Arab World Now (DAWN) and both the State Department and Defense Department. The group has lobbied the Biden Administration to cut military aid to Israel. On Sunday, Axios reported that the Biden Administration has, indeed, cut off shipments of ammunition to Israel, the first time since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that the United States has halted a shipment for the Israeli military, which is fighting for the release of hostages by the terrorist organization Hamas.

Read the Washington Free Beacon report at this link.

Read the Axios report at this link.

“DAWN is leveraging its clout with the Biden administration to push fresh sanctions on Israeli military units for alleged human rights crimes, having provided the State Department with a list of Israelis to punish. DAWN’s anti-Israel lobbying campaign traces back to at least 2022, with the internal government emails shining new light on the level of access and influence it peddles inside the Biden administration,” the Free Beacon reported.

Hamas fighters killed four Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint at Kerem Shalom crossing over the weekend. Israel has told Hamas to evacuate Rafah, a sign that a ground operation may be imminent.

“Hamas is aware that Israel has withdrawn from most of Gaza and that Hamas has achieved many of its war aims, basically getting an Israeli withdrawal from most areas and a kind of de facto ceasefire in some areas,” the Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

“However, Hamas regrouped quickly in northern Gaza in February and March. It also has regrouped in other areas. It has re-established some capabilities to fire rockets, often working with other terror groups in Gaza. This is not to say it has the extensive capabilities to manufacture long-range rockets and fire large barrages. However, it continued reference to the 114mm rocket, which is relatively short range, is a reference to a continued capability to position its munitions and projectiles around Gaza. It has also used these munitions to target the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post reported. Netzarim is an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip about 3 miles southwest of Gaza City.

Although President Joe Biden signed an appropriation for $26 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel last week, he is now is balking at sending munitions.

Door plug blowback: Boeing to give Alaska Airlines $61 million in credits for future purchases

Suzanne Downing
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Door plug blowback: Boeing to give Alaska Airlines $61 million in credits for future purchases

Alaska Airlines has received a promised additional $61 million in credits from Boeing, part of the compensation of the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX-9s after one of the new aircraft lost a door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January, while in flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.

The credits are in addition to a cash payment of $162 million that Boeing made to Alaska Airlines in the first quarter of 2024.

The “supplier credit memos” were tucked into a regulatory filing last week. It gives Alaska Airlines $61 million in credits toward future purchases of Boeing aircraft. The $61 million in credit will not quite pay for half of the $128.9 million that a single 737 MAX 9 typically sells for.

Alaska voluntarily grounded all 65 of its MAX-9s after the incident, and the Federal Aviation Administration subsequently grounded the rest in service with other air carriers. The jets were out of service while safety checks were performed and missing bolts were put onto the door plugs, which are covers for doors that are not in use.

Passengers reported a ‘whistling sound’ from door plug on prior flight of Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX

Alaska Airlines and Boeing are named in at least four lawsuits by passengers aboard Jan. 5’s Flight 1282. Both have told the court they are not responsible for the door plug blowout, which they say is the fault of Spirit AeroSystems, based in Wichita, Kansas, which builds the fuselages of the 737 MAX planes, andships them to Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.

Both Boeing and Alaska Airlines have had a rough first quarter of 2024 because of the incident, which brought into question the safety culture of Boeing. Alaska Airlines has a fleet made up of 230 Boeing 737 aircraft, with an average age of 10 years; and 85 Embraer 175 aircraft with an average age of 5.1 years.

Breaking: NTSB preliminary report says 737-9 MAX door plug bolts appear to have been missing
Boeing: CEO Calhoun to bounce at year’s end as woes weigh America’s top aircraft manufacturer

Western Caucus, Voice of the Arctic, and Sen. Dan Sullivan celebrate ‘Alaska’s Right to Produce Act,’ but ignore vote-dodging Rep. Peltola

Suzanne Downing
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Western Caucus, Voice of the Arctic, and Sen. Dan Sullivan celebrate ‘Alaska’s Right to Produce Act,’ but ignore vote-dodging Rep. Peltola

Rep. Mary Peltola may be a member of the Western Caucus, just like she’s a member of the Blue Dog Democrats, and the Women Democrats Caucus. It’s a club membership thing among like-minded lawmakers.

But when the Western Caucus heralded key legislation that passed the House to help Alaska’s energy-based economy, the “Alaska’s Right to Produce Act,” Peltola’s name was nowhere to be seen in the press release.

Peltola was also not mentioned by the Voice of the Arctic, which issued a press release expressing thanks to the House of Representatives for passing the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act.

“Quyanaqpak @RepPeteStauber and all those who voted today to support Indigenous self-determination on the North Slope by advancing HR 6285, or the ‘Alaska’s Right to Produce Act.’ The Senate must quickly take up and pass this bill,” said Voice of the Arctic on X/Twitter.

The Biden administration’s decisions are not aligned with the North Slope Iñupiat after it grossly mismanaged the public engagement process and cut local Indigenous elected officials out of policy discussions, said Voice of the Arctic.

“DOI Secretary Haaland herself has ignored or denied at least eight meeting requests by North Slope elected Indigenous leadership, including during her visit to Alaska in the fall of 2023,” the group said.

“Since the Biden administration announced this decision in September, our voices, which overwhelmingly reject the federal government’s decisions, have been consistently drowned out and ignored,” Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat President Nagruk Harcharek wrote. “This administration has not followed its well-documented promises to work with Indigenous people when crafting policies affecting their lands and people. We are grateful to Congress for exercising its legislative authority to correct the federal government’s hypocrisy and advance Iñupiaq self-determination in our ancestral homelands.”

The Western Caucus statement effusively praised Rep. DanNewhouse and Rep. Pete Stauber, as defenders of Alaska, ignoring Peltola, who had reversed her support of the bill at the last minute.

H.R. 6285, Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, overturns the Biden Administration’s anti-energy restrictions in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The legislation, introduced by Rep. Stauber, passed by a bipartisan vote of 214 – 199 – 2,” the Western Caucus announced, without mentioning the only Alaska representative in Congress sat out the vote and just marked herself “present.”

Peltola, meanwhile, had instructed Democrats in Congress to vote “no” when the bill came up for a vote last week.

Two faces of Peltola: Told colleagues to vote ‘no’ on Alaska’s Right to Produce, while she voted ‘present’

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan also thanked the House for passing the resolution, again without mentioning Peltola:

“I want to thank my House colleagues for passing Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, a bill to reverse the Biden administration’s lock-up of more than half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), and to undo the illegal decisions by the administration to cancel lawfully awarded leases in the non-wilderness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I want to give a special shout-out to my friend @RepPeteStauber, a fierce advocate for energy dominance and for the Alaska Native people on the North Slope, who overwhelmingly oppose the Biden administration’s lock-up of their lands and whose voices have been silenced and cancelled by this administration. I’ve sponsored an identical bill in the Senate, and am hoping that the passage in the House gives us momentum. Alaska has a right to produce our own energy for the sake of quality economic opportunities and good-paying jobs, and for the energy security of the entire nation.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been in the Senate since 2002, stayed silent about the House passage of Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, which has a companion bill in the Senate that Sullivan and Murkowski introduced in November.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, former President Donald Trump established an oil and gas leasing program in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in an area long ago set aside for oil and gas. The restricted energy development in the Coastal Plain of ANWR to 2,000 acres, and production could mean development of an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil.

On Sept. 6, 2023, the Biden Department of Interior announced plans to cancel all seven remaining oil and gas leases issued under the Trump administration in ANWR and at the same time locked up 13 million of acres within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Both actions were taken without notice to the Alaska Native communities most impacted by these decisions.

Read the full text of the bill here.

Murkowski last week introduced legislation last week. that would add millions of dollars to research menopause.

Murkowski introduces menopause research bill

Bob Bird: Alaska’s judicial branch needs to be put back in its box

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Bob Bird: Alaska’s judicial branch needs to be put back in its box

By BOB BIRD

Alaska is no different than the other states in one regard: We have constitutional dolts running our governments, on the state and federal level. They have not read their history, the Federalist Papers, the conditions on which the individual states accepted the U.S. Constitution, nor the plain texts of our own flawed Alaska Constitution, rendered (with important modifications) by a socialist think-tank from the University of Chicago. 

“The Constitution means whatever the Supreme Court says,” is how most congressional and state legislators think the system operates. It is absolute B.S., but the momentum of this theft has centuries of jurisprudence behind it. Thus, when legislative lawyers are asked if court interpretations should be obeyed, guess whose side they take? They have been drilled in law school that case law trumps all others, when the opposite is true.

In the latest crisis of the courts here in the 49th (there have been so many it would take five columns to list and explain them), we are told that correspondence courses cannot be reimbursed by the state. Why? Because a judge says so!

In the meantime, we are told that democracy is under threat from the conservative side of the spectrum, because the lamestream media says so. 

An Alaska judge just destroyed correspondence education in Alaska. What else did Judge Adolf Zeman destroy?

So … it must be true? All other voices have been suppressed and ignored, ridiculed and banished, despite the fact that in the last four years, time and time again “conspiracy theory” has turned into “conspiracy fact”. This is true from not just the Covid Hoax but also in Jan. 6, the stolen election of 2020 and the various shades of the colossal lie called the “climate crisis.”

All Gov. Mike Dunleavy needs to do is the following: “Empowered by the state constitution  with the enforcement powers granted to me, I will continue to permit the reimbursement of correspondence courses for students in this state, and recommend that impeachment articles be drawn up by the state senate for any and all judges who believe that they have enforcement powers.”

Even liberals have been known to say, “Our state constitution empowers our governor with immense authority, and is quite unique in this regard.” It may or may not be a good thing, but when there is likely a consensus from both sides of the aisle, for heaven’s sake, Mr. Dunleavy — use it! 

Here is the citation from Article III, Sec. 16:

He may, by appropriate court action or proceeding brought in the name of the State, enforce compliance with any constitutional or legislative mandate, or restrain violation of any constitutional or legislative power, duty, or right by any officer, department, or agency of the State or any of its political subdivisions. This authority shall not be construed to authorize any action or proceeding against the legislature.

With the phrase, “or proceeding brought in the name of the state,” he need not utilize the courts, who in this case are the guilty party. He needs to “enforce compliance with the state and legislative mandate” to reimburse correspondence courses. He needs to “restrain violation of any constitutional or legislative power by any officer, department, or agency of the state”, which in this case is the tyrannical judiciary.

And you will notice that there is only one exception — the legislative branch.

Not the judicial branch.

Wake up, citizens. We do not have “three co-equal branches of government” like you are always told. The judiciary branch is the bottom feeder, followed by the executive, with the legislative branch being supreme.

In the end, this may be the reason for the hesitancy of the executive and legislative branches — it will begin an unraveling of the corrupt judicial branch, and relegate them to the corner of the machinations of state government, hopefully with an enormous dunce cap.

But as the late Vic Fisher said, “Liberals will always control the judiciary,” and it is the judicial branch that has suppressed the grand juries, warped the privacy clause, and have wrapped our beleaguered state around their little fingers for so long, we are like Gulliver being tied down by Lilliputians.

Yes, all branches of government can make constitutional mistakes. For too long, however, we have viewed the judiciary as gurus and gods, and have surrendered our republic to their individual piques and political biases.

Here is the opportunity to end it.

Bob Bird is chair of the Alaskan Independence Party and the host of a talk show on KSRM radio, Kenai.

Not so fast: Dunleavy appeals to Alaska Supreme Court, requests postponement of Alaska judge’s ruling against correspondence, home school funding
Bob Bird: The RFK interview on ‘Talk of the Kenai’

Trump hosts Rep. Byron Donalds, Vivek Ramaswamy at Mar-a-Lago, where Nick Begich was spotted

Suzanne Downing
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Trump hosts Rep. Byron Donalds, Vivek Ramaswamy at Mar-a-Lago, where Nick Begich was spotted

MAR-A-LAGO – On Saturday afternoon in the Grand Ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, more than 400 people gathered to hear former President Donald Trump, along with supporters Congressman Byron Donalds, Congressman Wesley Hunt, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The event raised $2 million for Trump’s presidential campaign.

Spotted at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday was Alaska congressional candidate Nick Begich, running against Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat who now represents Alaska. Begich endorsed Trump in the fall, far before the Iowa primary.

President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday.

Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump introduced Trump, who was greeted by an enthusiastic standing ovation as he strode to the stage. She presented Trump with a Billboard Music award for the No. 1 song “Justice for All.”
 
Trump spoke about the new RNC leadership and asked Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump to join him on stage, where he talked about the America First Agenda and the newly invigorated RNC fundraising operation.

Begich is an “America First” candidate endorsed by Reps. Bryon Donalds of Florida and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, as well as Ramaswamy.
 
Trump held forth without notes for approximately 90 minutes on a range of topics from the state of the presidential campaign, election integrity, the economy, the border, and the Biden protests at college campuses around the nation.
 
Trump cataloged Biden’s failures, including his weakness and dishonesty, and touched on the the weaponized, justice system, although not specifically about his current court case in Manhattan.
 
He highlighted poll after poll showing steady and consistent campaign trail dominance, and reminisced with the crowd about the Election Night in 2016 and the joy in proving the pundits and media wrong.
 
Trump brought featured speakers up on stage, including Rep. Jim Banks, Rep. Donalds, Rep. Hunt, and Rep. Michael Waltz. He also brought to the stage, Senators Marsha Blackburn, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott. JD Vance, and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota.
 
President Trump closed the event by thanking Republican leaders and donors, and raising an additional $2 million right from the podium at the event.

The event then turned into a birthday party for Dr. and Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas, who was the White House physician in the Obama and Trump administrations. In March of 2018, Trump nominated him as secretary of Veterans Affairs, and later as chief medical advisor and assistant to the president.

Spoken token: House Bill 26 makes three dead languages into ‘official’ languages of the state

Suzanne Downing
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Spoken token: House Bill 26 makes three dead languages into ‘official’ languages of the state

A bill by Democrat Rep. Andi Story of Juneau adds three more Native languages to the list of official languages of Alaska.

All three of them are dead languages.

House Bill 26, set for a third reading and vote on Monday in the Alaska Senate, would also change the name of the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council to the shorter “Council for Alaska Native Languages.”

“This change would shorten the Council’s name while emphasizing the Council’s broader focus, which includes more than just language preservation, but involves language restoration. The statute establishing the Council, AS 44.33.520, states the purpose of the Council is to recommend ‘the establishment or reorganization of programs to support the preservation, restoration, and revitalization of Alaska Native languages.'”

The bill would also increase membership of the council from five to seven members.

The languages added to the list of official languages would be: Wetał (Ts’etsa’ut), Cup’ig, Benhti Kokhwt’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana) and Sahcheeg xut’een xneege’ (Middle Tanana).

“This would change the total number of official languages in Alaska from 20 to 23,” the sponsor statement said. More correctly, there are 20 Alaska Native languages that are considered “official.” And then there is English, for a total of 21 official languages.

The state spends more than $13 million a year on the language preservation program, which is currently housed in the Alaska Department of Commerce at this link. The bill seeks to move the program to the Department of Education, however.

Of the new languages to be made official, the First Alaskans Institute Magazine says there are no fluent speakers of Wetal, there’s no data available on Cup’ig (originating from Nunivak Island, population 200), 1 fluent speaker of Benhti, and no fluent speakers of Sahcheeg. In reality, the last known speaker of Benhti died in 2019 at the age of 94.

The official languages of Alaska are English, Ahtna, Unangam Tunuu / Aleut, Alutiiq / Sugpiaq, Dena’ina, Deg Xinag, Eyak, Gwich’in, Haida, Han, Holikachuk, Inupiaq, Koyukon, Tanana, Tanacross, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Upper Kuskokwim, Upper Tanana, Central Alaskan Yup’ik and Siberian Yupik.

According to the 2022 report (in English) by the Alaska Native language council, a main goal of the group is to “decolonize” education in Alaska: “Recognize that Alaska Native people have a right to be educated in Alaska Native Languages, forge pathways to education through Alaska Native languages, & decolonize education throughout Alaska.” The council wants a standing committee in the Legislature dedicated to Alaska Native languages, and place Alaska Native languages “into the regular work of Alaska’s government.”

Read the 2022 Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council report and policy recommendations at this link.

Read the 2024 report here:

AYARUQ-languages-of-alaska-2024Download

According to the Alaska Department of Commerce, Alaska Native languages and numbers of proficient speakers, as of 2020, are as follows:

INUIT-UNANGAN LANGUAGE FAMILY

Inupiatun (Inupiaq): Estimated <2,500 highly proficient speakers in Alaska
Yupigestun / Akuzipigestun (St. Lawrence Island Yupik): Estimated < 1,000 highly proficient speakers.
Yugtun/Cugtun (Central Alaskan Yup’ik / Cup’ik): Estimated <10,000 highly proficient speakers.
Cup’ig (Nunivak Island [Yupik]): Data unavailable
Unangam Tunuu (UnangaX Aleut): <80 highly proficient speakers
Sugt’stun / Alutiit’stun (Sugpiaq/Alutiiq [Yupik]): About ~80 highly proficient speakers

NA-DENE LANGUAGE FAMILY

Dena’inaq’ (Dena’ina): 5 highly proficient speakers.
Denaakk’e (Koyukon): Data unavailable
Holikachuk: 0 highly proficient speakers.
Deg Xinag: 2 highly proficient speakers
Dinak’i (Upper Kuskokwim): <5 highly proficient speakers—perhaps as few as one or none.
Benhti Kokhwt’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana): 1 highly proficient speaker (referenced above as deceased)
Sahcheeg xut’een xneege’ (Middle Tanana): 0 highly proficient speakers.
Dinjii Zhuh K’yaa (Gwich’in): <250 highly proficient speakers
Hän: 2 highly proficient speakers in Alaska
Dihthaad Xt’een Iin Aandeeg’ (Tanacross): <10 highly proficient speakers?
Nee’aanèegn’ (Upper Tanana): ~7 highly proficient speakers; about 25 proficient second-language speakers in Alaska
Koht’aene kenaege’ (Ahtna): ~25 highly proficient speakers.
dAxhunhyuuga’ (Eyak): 0 highly proficient speakers.
Lingít (Tlingit): ~50 highly proficient, first-language speakers plus ~20 highly proficient second-language speakers.
Wetał (Ts’etsa’ut): 0 highly proficient speakers.

HAIDA LANGUAGE FAMILY

Xaad Kíl (Haida): 3 fluent speakers in Alaska plus perhaps 2 highly proficient second-language speakers

TSHIMSHIANIC

Sm’algyax: 4 highly proficient speakers in Alaska

In Alaska, there are more speakers of Russian, Spanish, and Tagalog than all of the Native languages combined: Spanish speakers total 23,629, or about 3.45% of the population. Tagalog (including Filipino) is spoken by around 18,273; there are also 4,097 speakers of Hmong, and 3,811 speakers of Russian.

The Native language council has a list of demands, which include:

Declaration of an annual Alaska Native Languages Day.
Reconfirmation of the Linguistic State of Emergency (A.O. 300) that was declared by campaigning-for-reelection Gov. Bill Walker in September of 2018, just before he lost re-election.
Funding for more ANLPAC positions, and for more council travel.
Establishing “Alaska Native Languages” as standing committees within the State House and State Senate.

Rep. Story represents the northern part of Juneau — Upper Mendenhall Valley, Haines, Klukwan, Gustavus, and Skagway. Cosponsors of the bill are almost all Democrats. They are: Representatives Alyse Galvin, Sara Hannan, Genevieve Mina, CJ McCormick, Maxine Dibert, Jennie Armstrong, Cliff Groh, Andy Josephson, Calvin Schrage, Andrew Gray, Zack Fields, Daniel Ortiz, Rebecca Himschoot, Bryce Edgmon, Will Stapp, Mike Cronk, Craig Johnson, and Donna Mears. Senate sponsors include Jesse Kiehl, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Forrest Dunbar, and Loki Tobin.

The fiscal note on the bill adds $10,000 to the state budget to cover the cost of two additional members that are being added to the language council as they travel for the council’s meetings.

Michael Shevock: Coast Guard Academy is making a big mistake with DEI indoctrination

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Michael Shevock: Coast Guard Academy is making a big mistake with DEI indoctrination

By MICHAEL SHEVOCK

DEI is a bad idea. It is divisive, racist, and anti-meritocratic. Coleman Hughes, Ayaan Hirsi Ali , Elon Musk, and a host of other first-rate minds have vigorously come out against it.  Yet, our Coast Guard leadership continues to promote it without discussion or debate. For an objective observer, that should be the first clue that something is very, very wrong.

Supporters of this ideology are fond of the term ‘cultural competence,’ which they seem to believe is obtainable in a seminar or a classroom, but there are other paths to knowledge. For example, I enjoyed twenty-eight years in federal law enforcement, which, among other things, afforded me familiarity with the inside of a crack-house. Here are are some things I learned first-hand:

(1) Underclass black America is indeed suffering unacceptable levels of violence and generational poverty;

(2) Malcolm X was absolutely correct when he identified white liberals as an impediment to the progress of black America;

(3) the most pernicious condition afflicting underclass black America, yielding drug use, poverty and crime, is the lack of fathers in the home; and

(4) the dominance of the progressive/postmodern agenda, of which DEI is a cornerstone, is almost solely to blame for the pitiful state of our urban poor.

For the first hundred years after the Civil War, black America made the astonishing transition from chattel slavery to the beginning of a thriving middle class. This amazing achievement hit a stone wall, concurrent with the advent of Lyndon Johnson’s welfare state. Eminent economist Dr. Thomas Sowell documents how, after a century of black families remaining basically intact, the 1960s saw a sharp (and continuing) decline in the number of black, two parent families.  Dr. Sowell could not put it more clearly when he says, “The welfare state is no favor to the blacks.”

Tragic fact #1:

The original manifesto of Black Lives Matter specifically stated, “We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages.’”

Our credentialed DEI experts, products all of the grievance studies pipeline in academia, are promoting a deeply flawed narrative.  The bedrock assumption upon which all their ideas rest is that certain communities of color are being held back (oppressed) by patriarchal white supremacy. As per philosopher Eric Hoffer, a movement can succeed without a god, but not without a devil.

As it turns out, their guiding belief melts in the presence of the little-known fact that black immigrants from Nigeria are outperforming the U.S. national average both in terms of education and earned income.  There are also compelling claims that they’re underrepresented in the prison system.

Additionally, using the same criteria of educational achievement and earned income, of the six main ethnic/racial groups in the U.S.: whites, Hispanics, blacks, East Asians, West Asians (Indians & Pakistanis), and Native Americans, whites do not even land in the top two.

One would expect so-called advocates for underclass black America to trumpet these facts from the mountaintops, as they clearly and thoroughly destroy any suggestion of racial superiority of whites, but that would only apply if said advocates were actually interested in the welfare of the people they claim to care about. The boogey-man of white supremacy is a terrific gravy-train.

Tragic fact #2:

At the University of Virginia in 2023, the Chief Diversity Officer and the VP for DEI both received annual compensation packages valued in excess of at $520,000. 

To demonstrate the degree of scholarly rigor in the DEI community, I draw on the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association.  It maintains a website with a DEI section.  Despite my repeated complaints over a period of years about factual and grammatical failings in said website, one can still find the following definitions:

“Systemic Racism: Systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantages (sic) African Americans(.)”

“Minoritized:  …  As used by the Coast Guard Academy, an adverb (sic) deliberately used to describe cadets of color or underrepresented minorities (URM) that refers to the actions (intended or unintended) taken by institutions that lead to the socially constructed minoritization of racial and gender and other groups that make up our diverse community.”

“Race: A social construct, meaning the notion of race was created by people. As a scientific tool for categorizing different types of human beings’ “race” has no value (sic). …”

Tragic fact #3

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the sickle cell anemia trait is inherited, and is present in babies born of Sub-Saharan African heritage (i.e. black) at a rate over ten times higher than babies of Hispanic heritage, over twenty times higher than babies born of European (white) heritage, and over thirty times greater than babies born of Asian heritage.  Apparently, our DEI experts do not know medical research qualifies as science.

(And, finally, this nugget that our social justice experts mysteriously believe belongs on the DEI portion of the website.) 

“Intrusive Leadership:  A leadership style that is not about analyzing your direct reports and reading them and jumping to conclusions. It is simply about getting to know them. This is a skill but can be developed with practice. It is important to be patient because you are also establishing trust and rapport with them. Intrusive leadership is not about analyzing your direct reports and reading them and jumping to conclusions. It is simply about getting to know them (sic).”

These examples are not offered merely to show that many of our social justice experts could not pass for competent fourth graders, but also to highlight how the magical stamp of ‘DEI’ inoculates flawed scholarship from being challenged. Cue the Coast Guard Academy’s new initiative, the CGA Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan 2024-2026.  It runs the gamut from cringe-comedy to disturbing.

A line edit would have helped – there are instances of inconsistent spelling and capitalization. Small ideas are camouflaged with academic buzzwords such as, “effective modalities” and “robust pedagogies.”

The real humor, however, is how too much DEI is never enough. Every conceivable component of the academy is relentlessly tasked with making DEI a prime objective. Finally, we’ll have an “Athletic Cultural Competence Initiative.”  In addition to mysteriously demanding input from academy components not directly involved in sports, it will require coaches to hold “Cultural Competence sessions.”   No, really: in the plural. I’m trying to picture how this would go. “Hey guys, I mean, ‘team,’ I’ve been noticing how some of you come in different colors, which is okay because we’re inclusively inclusive, and diverse diversity is our strength, and also really diverse, which we all know is an imperative for victory.  And equity. We’re all about equity. Lots and lots of equity. Any questions?”  One thing for certain, it won’t be awkward.

Just kidding. It’s going to be awful. Only someone pitifully disconnected from reality could think this is a good idea. Much of private industry is already backing away from ad nauseum diversity training because it has been shown they make interracial relations worse, not better.

The CGA initiative is suffering from a common failing among the over-educated, and that is confusing quantifiable effort with progress.

But amidst the clown-like silliness, the plan turns dark. In addition to setting a goal of attracting prospective cadets who are “DEI-mature” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), it states that candidates for prospective faculty positions shall be assessed “on cultural competence including their diversity, equity & inclusion philosophy.”

Stalin and Mao would laughingly recognize this demand for intellectual conformity, and it is evil. Reasonable minds must be allowed to disagree, at least privately. Mandating that faculty candidates provide in advance a declaration of mental obedience absolutely guarantees we’ll be hiring liars. Lying is poison to the soul. It’s a one-way door, through which one surrenders his or her capacity to stand up for principle. Is this the type of officer we’re hoping will populate the service? I fear we’re already halfway there.

Perhaps the worst thing about the Coast Guard’s position on DEI is how it does not allow for discussion or examination. I wholly appreciate the sentiment behind the movement, but the idea breaks down and turns sour when we assign the absurd goal of massaging standards to immediately yield proportional representation of all ethnic/racial groups.

Tragic fact #4:

According to the Brookings Institute, on the SAT math exams in 2019, only 7% of black test-takers scored at least 600, contrasted with 11%, 31%, and 62% of Hispanic, white, and Asian test-takers, respectively.

What this means, is that for every black high school senior with at least minimal academic qualifications, there will be at least three Hispanics, four Asians, and eighteen whites. To expect the Coast Guard Academy to attract proportional-to-population numbers of black high school students (i.e. 13%) who are also qualified to be admitted in the immediate short term would require individual members from the qualified pool of black candidates to apply with a greater proportional frequency than the other groups by a factor of three.  This will never happen.

The service academies are competing with all the other elite institutions for qualified applicants, especially those that improve their optics. There are simply not enough qualified black and brown minorities to satisfy the demand. It’s tempting to bend entry standards, but, contrary to the fashionable myth, performance on the SAT exams is the best indictor of academic success in college.

Aside from degrading the effectiveness of the service, dropping standards for minority cadets will yield the perverse effect of casting doubt on the capability of all minority officers, increasing resentment on both sides, guaranteeing the opposite overall result of what DEI was originally supposed to accomplish.

By making a commitment to DEI a career imperative, the Coast Guard has disincentivized both honesty and common sense. The collective and damning absence of those qualities can be found in the Coast Guard’s reprehensible and ongoing Fouled Anchor scandal.  God help us.

To erase the glaring disparities in achievement of certain groups, America needs to honestly address the root causes of dysfunction and failure, and that will require our leaders in academia and government to acknowledge that the current set of assumptions is bogus. Any objective examination of the numbers bears that out. Instead of studying grifters like Ibram X. Kendi, leaders of every stripe would be well-served to read the life story of Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery in the Civil War and, through amazing heroism, became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy.  After the war, he opened a school for former slaves, got elected as a state senator, and worked to make free education available to all South Carolina children. He earned the rank of major general in the state militia and was elected 3to five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. His monument in the Beaufort cemetery bears this quote which he spoke to the South Carolina legislature:

“My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.”

The sons and daughters of Africa have already performed amazing feats, with many more to come. DEI is a counter-productive insult to everyone.

Michael R. Shevock is a 1976 of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Following graduation, he served three years afloat in the Bering Sea, and four years with Coast Guard Intelligence. From there, he worked as a criminal investigator/special agent with the Naval Investigative Service, the U.S. Customs Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. This column first appeared at Real Clear Wire.

Passing: Legendary pilot Dick Rutan, whose plane once broke through the ice at the North Pole

Suzanne Downing
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Passing: Legendary pilot Dick Rutan, whose plane once broke through the ice at the North Pole

The saying is “There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.”

There are still a few “old, bold pilots” around Alaska (you know who you are). But on May 3, 2024 there was one fewer of the legends of aviation. Dick Rutan, who with fellow aviator Ron Sheardown once landed a plane at the North Pole and became stranded after it broke through the ice, “flew west” Friday in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho at the age of 85, his family wrote.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Richard Glenn Rutan was born July 1, 1938 in Loma Linda, Calif. He was a retired United States Air Force officer and Vietnam War fighter pilot who flew 325 missions in Vietnam, ejecting once after his plane was hit by a rocket.

“During his time in the skies over Vietnam, Dick was a member of an elite group of Fast Forward Air Controllers, often loitering over enemy anti-aircraft positions for six hours or more in a single sortie. These extremely hazardous missions had the call sign ‘Misty,’ Dick Rutan was, and will forever be, Misty Four-Zero,” his family wrote.

He was a test pilot, and record-breaking aviator, and was awarded the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals, and a Purple Heart. (His brother, Burt Rutan, is a legendary aircraft engineer and spacecraft designer and entrepreneur who is known for SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first privately crewed spacecraft.)

“Besides the records Rutan set while flying the XCOR EZ-Rocket (which consisted of a point-to-point distance record and being the first official delivery of U.S. Mail by a rocket-powered aircraft) and while flying Voyager (which consisted of multiple absolute distance records, an airspeed record, and being the first plane to fly non-stop and unnrefueled around the world, more than doubling the old distance record set by a Boeing B-52 strategic bomber in 1962), he has also set a number in his personal Rutan VariEze and Long-EZ,” Wikipedia noted.

After the Vietnam War, Rutan became an F-100 pilot with the 492nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (“Madhatters”) and as a flight test maintenance officer with the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England. Rutan had to eject a second time in his Air Force career when an engine failed over England. He retired from the Air Force in 1978 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The many world records Rutan set can be seen at this link.

Among his firsts was a flight from Anchorage, Alaska to Grand Turk Island, in July, 1981, when Rutan again set a record, flying 4,563.35 miles in a straight line.

In 1986, Rutan piloted the Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world.

It was in 2000 when Rutan and Alaska aviation legend Ron Sheardown flew from Anchorage to the North Pole, and on to an island in northern Norway. It was on their return that the two landed on thin ice and the Polish-built AN-2 biplane nosed through the ice up to its wings. They were eventually rescued but the plane has never been found.

May Day: The AN-2 biplane with its nose in the ice at the North Pole this month in 2000. It has never been found, but the souls on board lived to tell the tale.

In 1992 Rutan ran as a Republican against Democratic congressman George Brown, Jr. in California’s 42nd congressional district, in the San Bernardino area, but lost in a close race.

“He spent his last day in the company of friends and family, including his brother, Burt, and passed away peacefully at Kootenai Health Hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in the company of his loving wife of 25 years, Kris Rutan,” said the news release from the family. “He is survived by daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman, and his four grandchildren, Jack, Sean, Noelle, and Haley. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Read more about Dick Rutan and his brother Burt Rutan at Disciples of Flight.

Read the story about breaking though the ice at the North Pole at this link. Or at this one.

Passing: Legendary aviator Orin Seybert
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