A tongue-in-cheek historical landmark dubbed “Brandon Falls” was briefly added to Google Maps on Tuesday.
That’s the spot in Delaware where President Joe Biden famously fell off his bike close to his home in Rehoboth Seaside in June. He had stopped his bike, but was unable to pull his foot out of the bike’s pedal strap, and keeled over in front of a gaggle of reporters.
While not an officially sanctioned historical location, Google allows users to create public landmarks, which someone did in order to have fun at the president’s expense. Google quickly deleted the historic designation, but not before the landmark had had over 80 public reviews.
Brandon is the popular nickname for Biden, launched by his critics last year after a NASCAR reporter mistakenly took a crowd’s chant of “F– Joe Biden” for “Let’s Go Brandon!” for the Sparks 300 race winner Brandon Brown at the Talladega Superspeedway, whom she was interviewing. The crowd was actually jeering Biden, and the reporter’s misinterpretation went viral on social media.
“Let’s Go Brandon!” hit popular culture in a big way over the past eight months. Now, the spot where Biden keeled over has become a local pilgrimage destination where people are doing the “Biden Bike Challenge” by taking pictures of themselves prone on the spot where Biden fell.
Sarah Palin claims she once had to “rebuff” me over a crush I had on her. She also says I “turned on her” as a result.
Here’s what Palin said on a local podcast this week:
“He was at my home, hanging out with me. It’s almost like he had a crush on me for many years, um huh. And then though, when he was kind of rebuffed, watch this, this is going to be the takeaway for Fagan, he kind of turned on me. Boo hoo. “
This is a serious accusation. In order to “rebuff” someone they would first have to make a move. The word rebuff is defined as rejecting someone in an abrupt manner.
Palin is accusing me of hitting on her, a married woman.
I know Palin knows she’s never “rebuffed” me over the imaginary crush she dreamed up.
Palin is a serial liar and a con artist. Her unhealthy political ambition and her lust for fame and fortune has seared her conscience.
I often wondered if Palin believed her own lies. The human heart is deceptive. After this rebuffing accusation, I now realize she knows she’s lying.
Palin owes it to me to say when and where this rebuffing happened. What exactly did I say that made her think I had a crush on her? What did she say to rebuff me?
It’s convenient for Palin to accuse me of hitting on a married woman and then blaming her rejection of me on my criticizing her dismal record as governor.
I’ve been a Palin critic for years. Especially after she went to war with Alaska’s oil and gas industry. She signed the largest tax increase in state history. Alaska’s budget is morbidly obese today because of the truck loads of cash her tax raising transferred out of the private sector and into government.
Why is Palin just now blaming my criticism of her on rebuffing my unrequited love?
Something else Palin says is telling. She pauses and interjects “…watch this, this is going to be the takeaway for Fagan.”
What did she mean by takeaway? It’s as though Palin is admitting, I’ve concocted this rebuffing narrative to discredit Fagan.
Maybe Senators Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy should blame unreciprocated love as a motivation of my criticism.
There’s no one I critique more than the tyrannically bent Anchorage Assemblyman Christopher Constant. Mr. Constant, I do not have a crush on you. No rebuffing needed.
Palin is known for often saying odd things. But this is a serious time in which we live, and we need sober leadership. Alaskans get only one representative in Congress.
We are at war. Marxists, swamp creatures, and media elites are firebombing all that is good about America. Now is not the time to vote for childish, stars in their eyes, kooky drama queens like Palin.
Dan Fagan hosts a morning drive talk show on Newsradio 650, KENI between 5:30 and 9 a.m.
On an Alaska podcast this week, congressional candidate Sarah Palin made an extraordinary accusation. She said talk show host Dan Fagan, who has the top-rated talk show in Alaska on 650 KENI, had a crush on her for many years and that he became a critic of hers after she rebuffed him.
Fagan, on his daily show on Tuesday, took strong exception to that statement, saying it was outlandish. Fagan has been a harsh critic of Palin, focusing on her lies, her calculated political and entertainment careers, and her overall poor understanding of policy.
But having an unrequited crush? That’s what she said on the podcast:
“He was at my home hanging out with me. It’s almost like he had a crush on me for many years … mmmm hmmm????” she said to the podcast host. Then her voice took a different tone: “And then, though, when he was kind of rebuffed … Watch this, this is gonna be the takeaway for Fagan, he kind of turned on me. Boo hoo.”
Listen to the statement here:
It’s a matter of character for Fagan. Palin was accusing him of making overtures toward her when she was a married woman. Todd Palin filed for divorce in 2019 after 31 years of marriage and she is now dating a former NHL hockey player, Ron Duguay.
Fagan has issued a statement:
“Sarah Palin is hyper-ambitious, do-whatever-it-takes-to-win con artist and a serial liar. It’s not surprising she would claim she ‘rebuffed’ my unrequited crush and I ‘turned on her’ as a result,” Fagan said. “I’ve had no romantic feelings for Palin. She knows it. She just made this up to discredit me because I had the audacity to criticize her dismal record as governor.”
Fagan has also been a harsh critic of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, while during Dunleavy’s first run for governor, Fagan had higher hopes for the former school teacher from Wasilla. He has harshly criticized former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Assemblyman Chris Constant. He criticizes Sen. Lisa Murkowski routinely, and also expresses his disappointment in Sen. Dan Sullivan at times.
Palin is not the first to make the “he had a crush on me” accusation against a critic. New York Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that Republicans are “sexually frustrated” and critics “want to date her,” after she was mocked for partying with her boyfriend in Florida without a mask, after supporting mask mandates back in her home state.
Palin is running against Nick Begich, a Republican who had announced he was running for Congress in October. Palin filed on Aril 1, two weeks after the death of Congressman Don Young. Forty-seven other candidates also filed to run for the spot, but the final candidates to finish out Don Young’s term in office are Palin, Begich, and Democrat Mary Peltola, who will appear on the special general election ballot on the reverse side of the regular primary ballot on Aug. 16.
Last week, Must Read Alaska ran a story based on 2008 documentation of Sarah Palin’s views on vouchers that would allow parents to move children to private schools, if they so chose.
The Palin of 2008 was a candidate for vice president and her record showed that, as governor of Alaska, she not only opposed school vouchers but also opposed changing the Alaska Constitution to allow for them. She said they are unconstitutional.
Today, as a candidate for Congress, Palin supports vouchers, according to her website.
Her opposition to vouchers was well-documented in 2008 and was written about extensively by the media, leading the National Education Association to praise her track record, not only for vouchers but for making big funding increases to public education while serving as Alaska’s governor from 2007 to 2009.
Nick Begich, who is Palin’s Republican opponent, has long supported school vouchers. He is a product of a private Christian school education, through 12th grade, but his family did not use vouchers, as they were not available when he was in school. Vouchers allow families to move their children to non-government schools and have the money follow the child.
Begich believes that school funding should follow the child and be able to be used for both faith-based or private education.
The Municipality of Anchorage has accepted help from the Salvation Army to provide services at Centennial Campground, where about 200 people who are currently homeless are living in established campsites, complete with running water, toilets, garbage services, security, and municipal staff helping solve problems as they arise.
A small number of those living at Centennial Campground were previously housed in the Sullivan Arena, which had been commandeered by former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, who converted it into a congregate shelter that was to assist with physical distancing in the nonprofit shelters, when Covid was raging through the state.
Salvation Army will be providing on-site client care coordination. Over the next couple of days, the Salvation Army will begin working with other nonprofits to coordinate the many services being offered there, such as meals, case management, donations, supplies, and more. Anchorage Parks and Recreation will continue to provide security and a team of on-site staff to ensure coordination with the municipality.
Several leftist members of the Anchorage Assembly have called the conditions at the campground a “humanitarian crisis.” They have blamed the Bronson Administration for what they say is an all-time high number of people living on the streets.
The Bronson Administration differed in its views of the situation: “As someone who has visited Centennial almost every day since the Sullivan closed, the tremendous improvements over other unsanctioned sites in Anchorage are obvious. I truly believe we are at our best when we set aside politics and work together, and I’m grateful for the many stakeholders who share that vision,” Bronson said.
About 60 of the people at Centennial Campground came from the Sullivan Arena, which closed as an overnight mass shelter on July 1. The remainder came from camp sites tucked around in fire-prone areas around the wooded areas in Anchorage. The illegal campers in the greenbelts and forests were all given other options, such as the Aviator Hotel, Gospel Rescue Mission, and other shelters, but they all chose to go to the Centennial Campground, rather than traditional shelters, officials said.
Assembly members Kameron Perez-Verdia, Felix Rivera and Daniel Volland have proposed even more expenditures than the tens of millions already spent by the Assembly on failed projects like the Golden Lion Hotel, which the Assembly helped former Mayor Berkowitz buy, to be used as a drug rehabilitation center. That controversial purchase put children at a daycare at the nearby Lubavitch Jewish Center in danger.
The new proposed Assembly expenditures include $20 million for these items:
1) $500K to remodel and immediately open up 60 rental units
2) $2M to fund emergency shelter needs through the end of 2022
3) $1.5M for outreach services
4) $3.4M to complete capital funding for the Guest House opening up 130 units
5) $12.6M for purchase of another hotel to open up to 120 units.
According to Assembly Member Kameron Perez-Verdia, “Our plan to address to the current crisis is informed by years of community work to develop a comprehensive approach to address homelessness, known as the Anchored Home plan. Our proposal leverages public-private partnerships to address the immediate crisis and build for the future so we don’t end up in this untenable situation again.”
Must Read Alaska flew a drone camera through the campground to ground-truth the claims of a “humanitarian crisis” and provide this picture of what the campground looked like on Monday:
Mayor Dave Bronson vetoed AO 60, the ordinance designed by leftist members of the Assembly to give themselves a fast-track way to get rid of the mayor if he crosses an indeterminate line they define as “breach of the public trust.”
“Since its adoption in 1975, the Anchorage Charter largely preserves to the voters the power to install and remove government officials who serve in the highest levels of Municipal government. A very narrow carve-out from that retained power is found in Charter Section 7.01, which provides that an elective office holder may be removed from office, by means other than the ballot box, if that office holder has breached the public trust,” the mayor’s press release said.
When drafting the Charter, the Charter Commission recognized that there needs to be a procedure through which a determination can be made as to whether a “breach of the public trust” has occurred.
Consequently, the Charter requires the Assembly to develop such a procedure “including provision for notice, a complete statement of the charge, a public hearing conducted by an impartial hearing officer, and judicial review.”
The Charter does not authorize the Assembly to create additional substantive offenses for which an elected official may be removed from office. Nor does it authorize the Assembly to violate other Charter provisions or otherwise act unconstitutionally, the mayor said in his veto message.
Almost certainly the Assembly leftist leadership has the votes to override the veto and this matter will end up in court to determine if there has been an overreach of power by the Assembly into the authority of the Executive Branch and the people themselves, who elect the mayor.
“I am aware that Assembly members have used this Ordinance as a vehicle to try to send chills through the current administration, and that some members have publicly acknowledged that the Ordinance was introduced as a means to erect boundaries intended to circumscribe the legitimate exercise of executive power. I have heard the arguments and discussions that were presented for and against the ordinance, and well understand the disdain that was repeatedly expressed during public testimony. I sympathize with the public’s frustration, however, this is not a reason for my decision to veto this legislation. Nor do I veto this Ordinance because the optics are bad or because other elected officials sometimes act in bad faith. I do not veto because the Ordinance arises from a partisan effort to attack the executive branch and certain policies with which various Assembly members disagree. To the contrary, I veto AO 2022-60(S), As Amended because it creates specific conflicts with the Municipal Charter, and is therefore unconstitutional.”
The conflicts with Municipal Charter include the following, as described by the Bronson Administration:
Inconsistent Assertions/Definitions with the use of “breach of public trust”
The Ordinance crosses the line by stating that a breach of the public trust could happen regardless if the failure to execute a directive is substantial or insubstantial or if the directive for the theoretical mayor to follow is unconstitutional.
The Ordinance states that different conduct is determined for different officials which reveals that it is impractical, and not merely just for of breaches of the public trust. The threshold for the theoretical mayor is not the same for an Assembly member or member of the School Board.
The Ordinance is illogical and impulsive when it defines specific conduct as a breach of the public trust only when committed by specified elected officials but not others. The constitutional requirements of equal protection cannot be ignored.
Delegation of Power Conflict with Municipal Attorney
The Ordinance goes against Municipal Charter that states that the municipal attorney “shall advise and assist the municipal government on legal matters”. This Ordinance is in conflict with Charter Section 5.04 and the separation of powers doctrine.
I have no doubt that the Assembly may hire its own counsel to provide it with advice when it is carrying out its own duties. What it may not do is require that the Municipal Attorney stand aside while some outside counsel is arbitrarily substituted for the Municipal Attorney for the purpose of reviewing an accusation prepared by either the Board of Ethics or the Assembly.
It might be argued that some procedures are needed to address situations in which a Municipal Attorney has a conflict of interest. However, the Ordinance does not deal with instances in which there is a conflict of interest, but rather merely assigns to the Assembly the power to hire an attorney of its choosing to substitute for the Municipal Attorney. That delegation of power is in conflict with Charter Section 5.04.
Inconsistent Amendments
Heightened due process considerations introduced by Assembly members in this Ordinance are inconsistent with the Assembly amending current Code to reduce the vote to submit an accusation from two-thirds to a simple majority.
The Assembly has ignored its obligation under Charter Section 7.01 for 47 years. Clearly, where the Assembly leadership continually reports to the press that they have no intention to actually use this Ordinance any time soon, there is no basis upon which the Assembly can assert that there is a pressing need to get this legislation into Code, or to continue to be divisive in the process. The Assembly needs to step back and critically examine their effort, taking whatever additional time may be necessary to develop an ordinance that fully complies with the Charter. After 47 years, that amount of time will be insignificant by comparison.
Americans trust armed citizens more than law enforcement to stop mass shooters, according to a new poll.
Convention of States Action, along with the Trafalgar Group, released the poll Monday, which showed that 41.8% of surveyed voters “believe that an armed citizen would be their best protection if they were caught in a mass shooting event.”
Only 25.1% say local police would be their best protection while 10.3% said federal agents. About a quarter of those surveyed said “none of the above.”
The poll found that 62.2% of those surveyed “are not confident their local law enforcement and government officials could identify and and stop a violent person before they started a mass shooting.”
The survey comes on the heels of the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where law enforcement has been heavily criticized for taking more than an hour to confront the shooter inside an elementary school.
“Americans watched in horror as an active shooter was permitted to rampage through a school while the police stood outside and did absolutely nothing,” said Mark Meckler, president of Convention of States Action. “Over and over again, citizens are given the clear message that – when it comes to protecting loved ones – you’re on your own. At the same time, we’re told guns are the problem and we should give up our right to self-defense.”
The survey queried more than 1,000 likely 2022 voter July 7-10.
Meanwhile, a shooting at an Indiana shopping mall over the weekend left at least three dead and 2 wounded but was cut short when what authorities called an armed “good samaritan” killed the gunman. Other instances like these have also ended mass shootings around the country.
“We do know that someone we are calling the “Good Samaritan” was able to shoot the assailant and stop further bloodshed,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Meyers said. “This person saved lives tonight. On behalf of the city of Greenwood, I am grateful for his quick action and heroism in this situation.”
This story appeared first at The Center Square, a conservative news service, and is used with permission.
In a newly uncovered video of a meeting with Alaska Democratic leaders, Rep. Cal Schrage had harsh words for the governor’s management of the Covid-19 viral outbreak in Alaska.
The event was an online meeting of the Democrat Bartlett Club. Schrage is a non-party candidate who aligns with Democrats and is part of the Democrat-led caucus in Juneau.
Schrage criticized the governor for not enacting a statewide mask mandate and said this was an example of the need to elect strong progressives leaders who would take more stringent measures.
“We’re trying to think of something we can do to force the governor to take action,” said Rep. Harriet Drummond, who was interviewing Schrage for the Bartlett Club. “And there really isn’t anything. That’s the tough part.”
Schrage responded:
“Yeah, and there are certain things that are under the purview of the Legislature, and governor,” Schrage said. “I don’t know that I have an immediate solution to that other than just to be strong advocate for common sense public health and safety measures like wearing a mask. How hard is it? You know we really should have a mask mandate from the governor. We know that it’s effective in stopping the spread of the virus and so there is absolutely no reason we should not have a statewide mask mandate. From the start the governor bungled this entire situation.”
There have been about 280,000 reported cases of Covid-19 in Alaska, but an unknown number of people have had Covid, but have not had it catalogued by the government. Some 1,280 deaths of Alaskans have been attributed to the illness. Alaska has one of the lowest death rates from Covid, with only Washington, Utah, Hawaii, and Vermont having fewer Covid-attributed deaths.
Schrage, shown above without a mask with Democrat Rep. Grier Hopkins just two months after the video was recorded, is running for reelection for what is now called House District 12, where he is challenged from the Republican side by Jay McDonald. This is the district formerly known as D-25.
A 77-page report released Sunday by a special Texas House of Representatives committee tells the story of total failure by law enforcement to protect children and staff of Robb Elementary School when they were attacked by a lone gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24.
Some 376 officers responded when the gunman walked through the school doors, yet 77 minutes passed before a small group of officers finally confronted the man and killed him.
It was “a force larger than the garrison that defended the Alamo — descended upon the school in a chaotic, uncoordinated scene that lasted for more than an hour. The group was devoid of clear leadership, basic communications and sufficient urgency to take down the gunman, the report says,” wrote the Texas Tribune on Sunday.
No one at the scene would take charge, the report says, as the gunman picked off the innocent children one by one.
State Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock was one of the lawmakers who called for the investigation. “This committee is a fact-finding committee. Our job was essentially to figure out what the facts were and to report it,” he said. “Today is not the day that we are going to share what our feelings and convictions are.”
“If there’s only one thing that I can tell you is, there were multiple systemic failures. Several officers in the hallway or in that building knew or should have known there was dying in that classroom, and they should have done more, acted with urgency,” he said during a press conference on Sunday.
“Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde C.I.S.D. chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance,” the report says.
The report says police “failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.”
On surveillance tape released last week, it’s clear that police officers arrived within minutes but would not go down the hallway to confront the gunman. More and more officers arrived, but still none would attempt to get to the gunman for over an hour.
Families of the Robb Elementary victims were shown the video on Sunday
The report also shows that existing gun laws would not have stopped Salvador Ramos from obtaining the weapon he used, and the expanded background checks passed by Congress would also not have prevented Ramos from obtaining the gun, as he had no documented history of gun violence. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted in favor of that gun control bill.
Accounts of what occurred that day had shifted over time. The report shows that the lieutenant who was supposed to brief Gov. Greg Abbott on the day following the shooting had “literally passed out while waiting in the hallway before hand.” The job of briefing the governor went to an officer who only had secondhand information.
