Fish. Family. Freedom. And Pizza. Rep. Mary Peltola took to Twitter to urge pizza workers in Alaska to start a union “real fast,” because she has a hankering for some union-made pizza.
It’s one of myriad similar union-heavy messages from Alaska’s union-backed congressional representative. She urged Starbucks baristas to unionize. She’s pushed the screen actors strike. She wanted a railroad strike.
“Someone in an Alaskan pizzeria start a union real fast,’ she wrote, “because I’m ABSOLUTELY trying to eat a slice from a union shop.”
In November, Peltola wrote, “When workers unionize, they win. That’s why it’s critical unions have political leaders who will work with them, not against them, and expand the rights of union workers nationwide.”
She has not stopped ever since. In fact, unionizing is her most consistent message, although her staff is not unionized.
“A worker’s biggest strength is their ability to withhold their labor — to strike. To stand in the way of that undermines their ability to fight for better conditions, better pay, & better lives for themselves and their families. It’s time we are allies to workers, not obstacles,” she wrote in December.
“If we want to better the lives of Alaskans statewide, we need to bring good-paying, union jobs to communities across the state. Let’s get people the jobs, and pay, they deserve,” she wrote in July.
Now that a pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York has made the news for requesting a union vote, Peltola wants Alaska to follow suit.
It may cost Alaskans more, however, to share a pizza with Peltola.
Currently, a line cook at Moose’s Tooth in Anchorage starts at $16 an hour. No experience is needed, and it comes with an array of benefits, such as a 401(k) matching retirement plan, health and dental insurance, vision insurance employee discount on food, paid time off, and an energetic working environment. A sous chef at the Bear Tooth Grill, a sister establishment, gets paid $22 to $27 an hour. No degree is required, but two years of restaurant experience is requested.
Theaverage cost of a pizza nationally is $17.81, but in Alaska, that same pizza is going for $21.74, a 22% increase in cost for Alaskans over their fellow pizza eaters in the Lower 48.
The Graphite One Project, an owner-operated, year-round truck-and-shovel operation situated near Nome, has just received a major grant from the Department of Defense, which wants to source graphite materials from the U.S., rather than overseas.
The $37.5 million grant from the Department of Defense comes through the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization Office of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. This domestic supply is crucial for the production of large-capacity batteries used in various defense applications, the Defense Department said.
The agreement, which falls under the Defense Production Act Title III authorities, will enable Graphite One to establish an advanced graphite supply chain solution centered around the company’s Graphite Creek resource.
Graphite One plans to mine graphite from Graphite Creek and ship it to Washington State for processing.
One of the key aspects of Graphite One’s supply chain strategy is the establishment of a recycling facility for reclamation of graphite and other battery materials, fostering a circular economy approach, the Defense Department wrote in a press release on Monday.
Graphite One will now expedite its feasibility study by a full year for removal of 4 million tons annually of graphite from its site. It must still go through permitting by other federal agencies.
“This investment to increase domestic capabilities for graphite exemplifies Industrial Base Policy’s commitment to building a resilient industrial base to meet current and future national defense requirements,” said Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. “The agreement with Graphite One (Alaska) advances the Defense Department’s strategy for minerals and materials related to large-capacity batteries.”
Anthony Huston, founder and CEO of Graphite One Inc., said, “Graphite One is honored to receive this award from the Department of Defense, and we look forward to commencing the accelerated Feasibility Study program immediately. This Department of Defense grant underscores our confidence in our strategy to build a 100% U.S.-based advanced graphite supply chain — from mining to refining to recycling. The U.S. simply cannot maintain a 21st Century tech-driven economy without Critical Minerals like graphite.”
The grant from the Department of Defense will not only support Graphite One’s ambitious plans but also solidify the company’s position as a key player in the domestic graphite industry.
A little more than a year ago, former Department of Energy official Sam Brinton flew from Washington, D.C. to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. That day, the 35-year-old “nonbinary” transsexual government official was on his way to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site.
On the way, he was videotaped stealing luggage from the airport in Las Vegas.
The latest twist in the twisted life of Sam Brinton is that he was flying on taxpayer-funded trip when he allegedly committed the crime of taking a woman’s designer luggage from the carousel at the baggage claim area, and casually leaving the airport with it.
The Functional Government Initiative requested the travel records showing Brinton’s itinerary, and show that Brinton flew on a United Airlines flight from Washington, DC, to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on July 6, 2022. Police say the suitcase had estimated $3,500 value of jewelry, clothing, and makeup, when Brinton stole it. He is also accused of similar heists in other airports.
Functional Government Initiative is a group that sets its sights on government waste and abuse.
“It’s outrageous that tax dollars transported Brinton to and from the scene of a crime, putting the American public unwittingly at the wheel of the getaway car,” Functional Government Initiative spokesperson Peter McGinnis told Fox News. “The federal government obviously needs a more stringent vetting process for senior-level positions. Senior officials committing petty crime while on the clock is a clear indication that something is dysfunctional in the personnel procedures.”
The story was first reported by Fox News.
Brinton, before being named to the Department of Energy by the Biden Administration, who put him in charge of spent nuclear fuel, founded the Trevor Project, which has been accused of grooming children online for sexual purposes, such as gender surgeries.
The Trevor Project advised the gay-aligned majority of the Anchorage Assembly to pass an ordinance that prohibits therapists from talking to children about how they might not want to change genders or how they might not be gay. The only way therapists in Anchorage can approach the topic of “gay” and “gender” is to affirm whatever the child says, or the therapists will be arrested and subject to massive fines.
Brinton’s purpose for traveling to the the Nevada National Security Site is unclear, but the secure site “help ensure the security of the United States and its allies by: supporting the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear deterrent; providing nuclear and radiological emergency response capabilities and training; contributing to key nonproliferation and arms control initiatives; executing national-level experiments in support of the National Laboratories; working with national security customers and other federal agencies on important national security activities; and providing long-term environmental stewardship of the NNSS’s Cold War legacy, according to the National Security Site website.
For his four-day trip, Brinton charged $1,951.50 to taxpayers on his expense report, according to Fox.
Brinton has an extensive social media history that includes his many passions. He is a founder of the controversial, anti-Christian Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and has given classes on kink sex.
Meanwhile, the American Nuclear Society has scrubbed a 2016 talkby Brinton from its website. Back in 2016, the scientists proudly invited him to speak about “his passion, nuclear waste policy and changing the outdated images of nuclear advocates.” In that year, the scientists referred to Brinton as a “he,” but Brinton now says he cannot be defined by gender.
The Republican candidates for president, when combined, raised more than the campaign of President Joe Biden in the second quarter of 2023.
Leading the fundraising pack for Republicans is former President Donald Trump.
Although Trump shows $17.7 million raised in the second quarter, he also has about that much still sitting in his joint fundraising committees that has not been transferred to his campaign, but could be transferred if needed, and so it’s not accounted for. He is believed to have raised about $35 million in the second quarter, much from small donors, who are key for any campaign because they represent actual votes. Since Trump announced his run for president in November, this amount represents the full second quarter of April through June.
That is less than half of the $72 million that Biden raised in his campaign, and the Democratic National Committee and the joint fundraising committees associated with Biden.
The Biden camp announced the money for his campaign came from 394,000 donors and that 97% of all the donations were under $200.
The period covered for Biden’s fundraising total is about nine weeks, since he announced his bid to run for reelection on April 25.
Biden has been conserving cash and campaigning mainly from the White House, rather than setting up separate campaign headquarters. He’s also been lean on staff, instead using government officials to do his campaigning for him, such as Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Vice President Kamala Harris. He is campaigning on taxpayer dollars.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis raised $20 million during the second quarter, but he had not launched his campaign until May 24, and so that total only covers five weeks. He raised the most of any Republican during that period, it appears.
DeSantis also has a Never Back Down political action committee that is working parallel to him to get his message out. It had raised $130 million since launching in March.
The DeSantis campaign, realizing it was burning through cash, has laid off about 10% of its large staff, which was 92 before a few of the event planning staff were laid off last week.
DeSantis’s total for the first five weeks is more than what Trump raised during that timeframe in 2022, when he first launched. And it was more than Trump raised in his first few weeks of his campaign plus his first quarter of 2023.
Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy donated $5 million to his own campaign, and had a total of $7.7 million to report for the second quarter. He announced in February, and so he’s only raised $2.7 million from others during the full quarter of April through June.
After those three, the numbers drop off, but still add to the Republican field having raised more money than Biden.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, brought in $5.8 million since launching his campaign in late May. But he has significant cash on hand of $21 million, more than DeSantis or Ramaswamy. Polling has Scott in fifth place at 1%, according to Morning Consult.
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley had announced a week ago that she would be reporting $7.3 million raised in the second quarter. That puts her with $15.6 million since launching her campaign. Her campaign said she had 160,000 donations from all 50 states.
She also has a super PAC working parallel to her campaign, and it has raised $18.7 million, for a total of $34.3 million. Her campaign has campaign has $9.3 million cash on hand and the super PAC has $17 million.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign raised $1.65 million in the second quarter, and for him that represents just 25 days of fundraising.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and his super PAC raised $3.85 million. That represents just four weeks of fundraising.
Scrappy Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reported bringing in more than $6 million since launching his campaign on April 19. He is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination.
Democrat self-help guru Marianne Williamson raised $920,000, but she has $270,000 in unpaid bills, and only $105,000 cash on hand with which to pay them.
In a Morning Consultpoll published last month, Trump had edged ahead of Biden. When voters were asked who they would vote for between the two men, 44 percent said they would cast their support for Trump, while 41 percent of those said they would choose Biden.
Morning Consult puts Trump in first at 57%, with DeSantis polling 17% among Republican-leaning voters.
A group of bipartisan senators introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act last week, aiming to force government disclosure of unidentified anomalous phenomena records, which includes alien life forms and unidentified flying objects.
The proposed legislation, titled the “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023,” seeks to preserve and centralize all federal government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, ultimately enabling public access to comprehensive information on the subject.
Led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, the amendment has support from Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-N.Y.), Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).
The amendment is a step toward increasing transparency and accountability surrounding unidentified anomalous phenomena, also commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).
Sen. Rubio has made this a priority for years. In 2021, when he was vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he spearheaded a similar measure with Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Ruben Gallego, (D-Ariz.)
“UAPs pose a significant challenge to our national security, appearing in sensitive U.S. airspace and around military personnel. The amendment would establish an office that would replace the current Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and would have access to Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community data related to UAPs,” Rubio’s office said in 2021. “By doing so, the office will have the authority to establish a coordinated effort to report and respond to UAPs, significantly improve data-sharing between agencies on UAP sightings, address national security concerns, and report health effects people may experience in relation to UAP events.
The revived proposed amendment now has Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as the key sponsor, as Rubio is in the Republican minority. Having the leader in the Senate as the key sponsor bodes well for the amendment.
It begins by emphasizing the importance of preserving and centralizing all federal government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. These records should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure and eventually be made available to the public to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the government’s knowledge and involvement in such phenomena.
The amendment highlights the necessity for legislation to create an enforceable, independent, and accountable process for the public disclosure of UAP records.Existing provisions, such as the Freedom of Information Act, have proven inadequate in achieving timely disclosure of records.
The legislation acknowledges the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomena records that have not been declassified or subjected to mandatory declassification review due to exemptions under existing provisions of law. It emphasizes the need to restore proper oversight over these records by elected officials in both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.
Among the key provisions of the proposed legislation is the establishment of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration. This collection would serve as a centralized repository for all records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena.
The amendment also calls for creation of an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Review Board. This board would be responsible for overseeing the collection, review, and release of the records, working in collaboration with relevant government offices and agencies.
Proponents like Rubio argue that increased transparency surrounding unidentified anomalous phenomena is essential for scientific research, national security, and public interest. Critics may express concerns about potential national security implications and the credibility of unidentified phenomena reports.
The introduction of the “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023” underscores the growing interest and recognition of unidentified aerial phenomena and the need for a comprehensive approach to studying and disclosing these phenomena, especially after the U.S. military shot down an unidentified flying object over the Arctic Ocean, and has yet to describe what it was or provide the public with any photographic evidence of the object.
The 64-page amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act is at this link.
Budget groups continue to release dire forecasts for the explosive growth of the U.S. national debt.
The U.S. Treasury reported a $1.4 trillion deficit so far nine months into fiscal year 2023.
“Three-quarters into the fiscal year and we’re borrowing an astounding $5.1 billion per day,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “If that isn’t a sign that we need a wake-up call, maybe it should be the fact that the deficit for this fiscal year is now larger than all of last year’s deficit – and there’s still three months to go.
The U.S. Congressional Budget Office released a report earlier this year projecting the national debt will be nearly twice as large as the U.S. economy in 30 years.
“By the end of 2023, federal debt held by the public equals 98 percent of GDP,” the report said. “Debt then rises in relation to GDP: It surpasses its historical high in 2029, when it reaches 107 percent of GDP, and climbs to 181 percent of GDP by 2053.”
CBO also reports that deficits will likely rise as well.
“In CBO’s projections, the deficit equals 5.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, declines to 5.0 percent by 2027, and then grows in every year, reaching 10.0 percent of GDP in 2053,” the report said. “Over the past century, that level has been exceeded only during World War II and the coronavirus pandemic.”
As The Center Square previously reported, the cost of interest payments on the national debt will exceed the cost of U.S. funding for national defense within a decade.
In fact, federal spending trends show interest payments on the national debt will soon be the largest expense of the federal government.
The CRFB said in a report released last week that “by 2051, spending on interest will be the single largest line item in the federal budget, surpassing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other mandatory and discretionary spending programs.”
Lawmakers have raised concerns about this issue but a dramatic cut in spending to pay down the debt is far from getting traction.
“The federal government borrowed $2 trillion over the past 12 months. That’s $63,000 per second,” said Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz. “It’s delusional to think our debt doesn’t matter when America’s working class suffers the consequences.”
MacGuineas also said that the trust funds for Medicare, Social Security and highways “will face insolvency” within a decade.
“With unsustainable borrowing, rising interest costs, and looming insolvency of the trust funds that support some of our nation’s most valued programs, the outlook for our fiscal health has been in decline for far too long,” she said. “We need to turn the tide and work towards further reducing deficits and putting the national debt on a downward, sustainable course.”
In a region accustomed to seismic activity, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocked the offshore Alaska Peninsula on July 15 at 10:48 p.m. Alaska time.
The earthquake occurred three years to the month after the magnitude 7.8 Simeonof Earthquake that struck the same area.
The epicenter of the 7.2 earthquake was 50 miles south of Sand Point, approximately 100 miles southeast of the 7.8 event in 2020, and at a depth of around 20 miles.
Shortly after the earthquake struck, a tsunami warning was issued as a precautionary measure on Saturday night. It was downgraded the warning to an advisory level about an hour later, and ultimately canceled it just before 1 a.m. The recorded tsunami waves reached a maximum height of only 0.5 feet in King Cove and Sand Point, posing no significant threat to coastal communities.
Alaska had a 7.2 magnitude earthquake early this morning, tsunami warning issued. pic.twitter.com/nsG5PbDiNV
— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) July 16, 2023
The ground shaking resulting from the earthquake was felt across multiple communities on the Alaska Peninsula and the eastern Aleutian Islands, with an intensity reaching level V, considered moderate on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale.
The Alaska Earthquake Center anticipates the earthquake will generate its own aftershock sequence, following the pattern of previous moderate-sized earthquakes in the region. As of now, the largest aftershock, measuring a magnitude 5.0, occurred three minutes after the main shock.
At the beginning of an Anchorage Assembly work session Friday on the proposed repeal of the “scofflaw” ordinance, Anchorage Police Chief Michael Kerle took a moment to express what many in the community have already seen:
“It is my opinion and the opinion of others in the police department that the Assembly and the Police Department have a very adversarial relationship right now,” he said.
Kerle said he had lost sleep the night before in anticipation of the meeting with the Assembly.
“It’s been confusing to me,” Kerle added. “I don’t understand why. I’m not a political figure, my department is not a political department. We have the same goals as the Assembly. I mean my two goals are the safety of the citizens of Anchorage and the safety of my department, those are my main goals.”
The Assembly, under the radical leadership of the past 18 months, has grown increasingly hostile to the police in general. The Assembly was not hostile when Ken McCoy was police chief of Anchorage, but then he was one of them — a hardline political operative who dressed left.
Kerle, a U.S. Marine veteran, has been with the department since joining APD as a recruit in the Academy in 1996. He became chief on Feb. 1, 2022.
“I look at the experience of my command staff alone … over 110 years of police experience. You might say we’re experts. We’ve been trained by the F.B.I., and every other other federal agency, the Southern Police Institute [Louisville, KY], which is a police training facility, Northwestern University,” he said, and added more.
“We know the law, we’re use-of-force experts, traffic experts, we go to a lot of training. We are the public safety experts,” Kerle said.
He reminded the Assembly that the police force also has very diverse backgrounds, and that while he had 11 years as a military commissioned officer, others have worked in the past as managers at Sears and Carrs, or were former police officers with other agencies.
“It seems as of late that we’ve been left out of a lot of the initial – and this is one of them — a lot of the initial drafting of these ordinances or changes that are proposed,” Kerle said.
In the case of the repeal of the scofflaw ordinance, it’s being offered by hard-left Assemblyman Felix Rivera, who is demonstrably more interested in gay and Black Lives Matter issues than actual community safety.
Kerl said that the Assembly members’ minds are already made up by the time he or his department has a chance to comment on the proposals that affect public safety.
When Public Safety is not involved, and then minds are made up, it’s hard for the department to have any reasonable input, he said.
Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who was chairing the meeting, moved into a defensive vocal fry as she responded, saying that maybe the Assembly would “look into greater collaboration.”
A vocal fry is a growl at the end of sentences thatsome younger women use to try to sound more authoritative.
The current scofflaw program in Anchorage allows police to impound a vehicle owned by someone with at least $1,000 in delinquent traffic fines.
At the June 6 Assembly meeting, Rivera introduced an ordinance to fully repeal what he calls the “regressive Scofflaw program. This program serves no true public safety purpose and is an effective tax on poverty.”
As the documentary movie “Sound of Freedom” turned out to be the surprise box-office hit of the summer, liberals and the media that represent them are calling child trafficking, as represented by the film, a “QAnon-worthy theory.”
Even the Anchorage Daily News had to sideswipe the movie as a “faith-based child trafficking film,” instead of saying it is a film exposing crimes against children.
The ADN also gave a stink-eye to Attorney General Treg Taylor for offering to buy tickets for anyone on his staff to see the film. Instead of pursuing the success of the film, the newspaper focused on insinuating that Taylor made an ethical blunder.
The blunder? The state’s top law officer offering movie tickets for his employees to see a film about …. wait for it … law and justice.
This, from a newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the difficulty of justice in rural Alaska, which it labeled “Lawless.”
Rural Alaskan Native girls are known to betargets of sex traffickers in Anchorage and the world beyond, because they can be marketed as various races to pedophiles. But the newspaper finds fault with the film because it is faith-based.
Mexican Eduardo Verástegui is the producer and Jim Caviezel plays the lead character in “Sound of Freedom,” which tells of the real-life story of Tim Ballard, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who is credited with saving numerous children from traffickers who control prostitution rings that service pedophiles. Most of these children were rescued in other countries, where child trafficking is known to be lucrative. The storyline in “Sound of Freedom” involves a rescue in the jungle of Colombia.
Thousands of Alaskans have seen this non-Hollywood movie that reaped $19.7 million last weekend, according to tracking site Box Office Mojo, and has now crossed over the $50 million mark. It’s the third-most popular movie in the country currently, after “Insidious: The Red Door,” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
But many in the media have targeted the film and labeled it QAnon, a conspiracy theory dreamed up by conspiracy theorists on the Left.
The media doesn’t just say it’s a “conspiracy theory,” but decides for viewers that the film is “controversial.”
“The anti-child sex trafficking film that’s faced criticism over its QAnon ties has grossed more than $50 million at the domestic box office, Deadline reported, making it one of the top 25 highest grossing domestic films of 2023 so far,” Forbes wrote.
“The idea that elite cabals of child sex traffickers lurk everywhere is a core QAnon idea. But the company behind the film denies it’s fueling conspiratorial thinking,” wrote the BBC.
“It should be noted that the real-life Ballard has been accused of exaggerating his rescue narratives,” wrote the New York Times, quoting the aptly-named “Vice” publication.
“A partially crowdfunded religious drama has become an unlikely summer hit among moviegoers (at least, among those who can contend with its ingrained QAnon conspiracies),” wrote the culture reporter for The Daily Beast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyyyKcfJRGQ
Why does the Left and the media hate the movie so much?
Ballard, who started Operation Underground Railroad, was an informal advisor on sex-trafficking issues to President Donald Trump in 2019. Ballard’s organization has been targeted by left-stream media, which had taken no notice of Operation Underground Railroad before, ever since Ballard advised Trump.
On Fox News, Ballard addressed the multiple instances of the media linking the film to QAnon:
“I can’t explain, and neither can they. They just like to throw the word out, QAnon. They make zero connection to the actual story. It’s very difficult to make that connection when it’s actually based on a true story.”
The filmmaker Verástegui says that child trafficking is the fastest growing illegal trade in the world: “You can sell a bag of cocaine one time, but a child five to 10 times a day.”
“Sound of Freedom,” which premiered on July 4, is showing in several places in Alaska this week, including multiple showings at Cinemark Century Anchorage on 36th Avenue, Regal Totem on Muldoon Road, and Valley Cinema in Wasilla.
In Juneau, it’s playing at Glacier Cinema on Cinema Drive, in Kenai it’s still listed at the Kenai Cinema, and in Fairbanks it is on the screen at the Regal Goldstream.
Angel Studios, the production company behind “Sound of Freedom,” reports that more than 450 new theaters would screen “Sound of Freedom” starting July 14.
