Six Republican senators — including Sen. Lisa Murkowski — voted against an amendment on Tuesday that would have eliminated the position of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a job currently held by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul made the amendment that would replace NIAID with a trio of national research institutes.
In addition to a “no” vote from Murkowski, Republican Senators Richard Burr-N.C., Susan Collins-Maine, Bill Cassidy-La., Mitt Romney-Utah, and Jerry Moran-Kansas voted no.
Sen. Paul has been on a mission to get rid of Fauci, who has been the leading national expert on Covid-19 pandemic policy since he served in the Trump White House. He was retained under President Joe Biden and is deeply distrusted by conservatives.
Fauci has called for mask mandates, vaccine mandates, economic shutdowns, and the closing of schools due to the pandemic. At the same time, he was spotted mask-free at various public events and his pronouncements have been questioned by other experts.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed dictator-in-chief.’ No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans,” said Sen. Paul, who is an eye surgeon. “To ensure that ineffective, unscientific lockdowns and mandates are never foisted on the American people ever again, I’ve introduced this amendment to eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and divide his power into three separate new institutes. This will create accountability and oversight into a taxpayer funded position that has largely abused its power, and has been responsible for many failures and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Paul noted that as recently as 2012, Congress passed a law that eliminated the National Center for Research Resources and reassigned some of its programs to a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and assigned other NCRR functions to other institutes within NIH. His amendment follows that precedent of reorganization, and would immediately eliminate Dr. Fauci’s position and replace it with three new directors for:
National Institute of Allergic Diseases
National Institute of Infectious Diseases
National Institute of Immunologic Diseases
Each of these three institutes would be led by a director who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a 5-year term.
You can read the amendment, which failed, at this link.
On Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court has scheduled three hearings on disputes over the Alaska Redistricting Board maps as they pertain to Valdez’s inclusion in a Matanuska-Susitna Borough district; the position of Skagway as it relates to Juneau-centric House districts; and the disposition of a Muldoon-Anchorage neighborhood as part of a primarily Eagle River Senate district.
The hearings begin at 9 am at the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage. They can be watched on the public broadcasting website at this link.The Supreme Court will issue a decision no later than April 1.
9 am – The proceedings will begin with the Alaska Redistricting Board’s petition for review regarding Senate District K, which is wha the new Eagle-River district is named. 30 minutes will be allowed for each side — the Redistricting Board and East Anchorage plaintiffs who are surrogates for the Alaska Democratic Party’s far left wing.
10:15 am – The hearing will take up Alaska Redistricting Board’s petition for review of a decision regarding House District 3 and 4-Juneau, Skagway’s mayor and at least one business leader don’t want to have his city linked with the contiguous north Juneau district, but wants to jump over the Mendenhall Valley and Auke Bay and instead be tied to the hipper downtown Juneau, although other leaders in Skagway are fine with the way the lines are drawn. 30 minutes will be allowed per side: Redistricting Board and Municipality of Skagway.
11:30 am – Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s and City of Valdez’s petitions for review regarding House Districts 29, 30, and 36 will have 40 minutes total for the Borough and City of Valdez (20 min each, absent different agreement); 40 minutes total for Redistricting Board, Doyon Native Corporation intervenors, and Calista Native Corporation parties, to divide by agreement.
Every 10 years the political boundaries are shifted to even out the population that is represented in the Alaska House and Senate. The redistricting process follows the completion of the U.S. Census, which was done late in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and was not made final until August of 2021, when the Alaska Redistricting Board took up the task of redrawing the House and Senate boundaries.
Assemblyman Chris Constant snarked over the phone that it was “a rare political win” for Mayor Dave Bronson, when it became evident that Junior Aumavae had the votes and the support of the room.
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night voted unanimously to confirm Aumavae as chief equity officer for the Municipality.
This, after earlier this week the Assembly drafted resolution that would have postponed his confirmation until after the April Anchorage elections and until after a court case relating to the position was settled.
It was unclear what changed the mind of the Assembly’s leftist majority. Many of them were wearing Polynesian leis, which were passed out by members of the Polynesian community on Tuesday night at the regularly scheduled Assembly meeting. The Loussac Library Assembly Chambers were packed with Aumavae supporters, and it may have become clear to some on the Assembly that their very re-elections hung on whether they confirmed the man who has already held the position for five months.
Assemblyman Felix Rivera pointed out that the sudden confirmation of Aumavae came without a confirmation hearing, but the sitting Assembly Chairwoman, Meg Zaletel, allowed the confirmation to proceed, against tradition and precedent. Rules were broken because it was a political decision to break them. Rivera, clearly unhappy to have to go along with the majority, asked that such a confirmation never happen again in that manner.
Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance did not rule over the meeting on Tuesday because she has isolated at home with a case of Covid. She called into the meeting, clearly feeling the effects of the virus. Also not attending in person was Assemblyman and Vice Chair Constant, who sounded inebriated, combative, and accusatory on the phone, calling in from Washington, D.C., where he is on a trip to advance his run for Congress. Assemblywomen Jamie Allard and Crystal Kennedy also called into the meeting.
The entire confirmation process took up at least an hour of the Assembly meeting, and Zaletel called for one five-minute break when people would not stop clapping for Aumavae.
The Assembly in 2020 created a position of chief equity officer, and the unelected Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson appointed Clifford Armstrong III just weeks before Bronson took over as mayor. By October, Bronson had fired Armstrong and hired Aumavae. That authority to fire someone on his staff is now being litigated, with the Assembly maintaining the mayor has no right to fire the person appointed to that position.
Recently propagated by Republican members of the Alaska Legislature are two narratives about which they should know better:
• First, that George Soros (Open Society Foundations) helped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy become president of Ukraine through massive propaganda campaign and he now backs the puppet regime he installed.
• Second, that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is tied to Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and other global elites.
According to the theory, the enemy (President Vladimir Putin) of my enemy (Soros) is my friend. Therefore, apparently, there should be a hesitation to support Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s resistance of the Russian invasion at this pivotal point in history.
Conservatives are justified for crucifying President Joe Biden for his weakness inviting the invasion itself while he continues to pander to green energy as prices skyrocket. Outrage is also warranted as Biden demands defense of Ukraine’s borders while he opens our own to massive illegal immigration. His son Hunter Biden’s sleaze with his suspicious Ukrainian gas company Burisma “no-show job” also is a justifiable cause for outrage.
But in pounding away on these points, things go off the rails when the rhetoric turns to, “There is no U.S. interest in Ukraine”, “Ukraine is a corrupt, undemocratic failed state,” concepts espoused by Fox News and Tucker Carlson.
That is wrong. The U.S. has an essential national interest in a Russia that stands down from authoritarianism, becomes a functioning democracy and reduced military threat. We would save trillions of dollars and live in a better world. The future of Ukraine is critical to that much larger objective.
Some opine that the West, and America in particular, is responsible for this invasion because the continued expansion of the NATO military alliance eastward to Russia’s borders threatens Russian national security. Is Ukraine then doomed to remain in a Russian sphere of influence as some sort of vassal state to Moscow, notwithstanding the desires of Ukrainians themselves to look to the West, the EU for their integration into a free market and democracy? It’s completely understandable that, feeling threatened by Russia, Ukraine would want to be a part of the NATO defense alliance.
Yes, Russia and Putin have been consistent for over two decades in saying NATO and Ukraine pose an unacceptable threat to Russia and regional security. They use the missiles in Cuba analogy. Maybe the West did push NATO too hard and too far East to the borders of Russia, but these expansions were popular and were wanted by the people in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
Maybe this invasion was avoidable with better, more adroit diplomacy that sought to probe the limits of Russia’s security concerns while not conceding our own principles. Maybe Russia President Putin and his proud countryman in mourning for the loss of the Soviet Empire should not have been insulted and embarrassed by a triumphant West after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
By no means does any of this excuse what Putin has unleashed. Thousands of innocent people have perished. All thinking and feeling people around the world are shocked and disgusted by the devastation and carnage being unleashed on that poor country. The sight of rows of apartment buildings, cars, factories, hospitals, schools, bridges, and public buildings being rocketed and bombed is disgusting and unacceptable for all civilized people.
Regarding NATO on its borders: As frightening to Putin and Russia’s Kremlin powerful elite is the tug and attraction of the West for Ukraine’s 50 million people.
Since the shock of losing Crimea and the Donbas to Russian occupation in 2014, Ukraine has been decisively turning away from Russia. Culturally both the Ukrainian speaking areas in Western Ukraine and the Russian speaking areas in Eastern Ukraine are reorienting from Moscow to the West — the European Union, the United Kingdom, and America. Russian speaking Ukrainians are so disgusted with Putin that they are even making the choice to reduce speaking their native language and switching to Ukrainian.
Russia feels the pain of losing its totalitarian empire and witnessing the success of its former vassals in building democratic and free societies. Putin sees the existential threat building in a thriving Ukraine — the size of Texas with 50 million people — that is increasingly bonded with the West. He will lose all 144 million people in the Russian Federation as they become aware of how much better off Ukrainians are becoming. There are close and intimate ties between Ukrainians across Russia, from St Petersburg to Magadan; these include family, friends, and business partners. It will not be possible to keep Ukrainian successes from them, so Putin instead is destroying Ukraine and slaughtering thousands.
As for President Zelenskyy being elected in 2019 with help from George Soros, that election is generally considered to be a free and fair election. Soros’ help may or may not have been significant. Even if it was, everything is changed after the living hell of the Russian invasion.
Zelenskyy has rallied his people to fight tyranny to the death like no one since Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle in the darkest days of World War II.
After the Russians are defeated, Zelenskyy can be expected to pivot away from any Soros and global elite forces that are incompatible with values now etched into the souls of Ukrainians.
Example: Ukraine’s Parliament last week just granted its citizens the right to bear arms—hours before Putin’s invasion. By now, we are seeing that their citizens slinging Kalashnikovs and AR-15’s are on their way to victory assisting the Ukrainian defense forces. Those citizens are not going to give these guns up and this is a lesson to the world. The Second Amendment means weapons like these. Soros and the one-worlders are not going to make any headway against this. Certainly not with President Zelenskyy.
As for strange bedfellows in war: Remember that in World War II, the West had to ally with mass murderer Joseph Stalin in order to defeat the common enemy, Hitler. Right here in Alaska, 8,000 U.S. planes were turned over to Soviet pilots who flew them on across Siberia as part of Lend-Lease Program. You do what you have to — to survive and win — and then later oppose your allies, if necessary, after the common foe is defeated.
Ukrainians are fighting the greatest battle for liberty the world has seen this century – maybe since World War II. Remember these names: Irpin, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mariupol, Hostomel, Kherson, Melitopol.
The courage of the Ukrainians (citizens and military) already has ensured that they will go down in history as famous battles for liberty — battles such as Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Alamo, and Yorktown. Ukraine is the front line of freedom in the world today.
We may not be in a “World War” yet. For now, it is one big bully invading a smaller neighbor. However, if Putin is allowed to take independent Ukraine after the abomination and war crimes he has vested on the world, an emboldened China can be expected to invade Taiwan. Then you do have an axis of Russia, China (and others) against the free world — World War III.
Finally, Ukrainian heroism and Russian miscalculations appear likely to result in failure of Putin’s reckless invasion and the end of his rule.
The media will then help Biden and the Democrats claim credit for defeating Vladimir Putin.
Conservatives who are soft on Zelenskyy and Putin need to get smart, pay attention, and grab this liberty narrative away from the Democrats. At least make sure you are on the stage and not a useful idiot for this new Hitler — Putin. Don’t be on the wrong side of history — it will give President Biden and the Democrats cover to evade their responsibility for the disasters they have brought down on America, Alaska, and the world.
Ray Kreig is an Anchorage civil engineer and is former president of Chugach Electric. His Russian experience includes extensive Siberian terrain assessment, pipeline routing, and infrastructure evaluation. Kreig was in the capital of Anadyr, Chukotka Province (adjoining Alaska, west of Nome) during the August, 1991 Soviet coup d’état attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev. He helped the deputy mayor with non-combat tasks opposing the coup. In 1994 Kreig briefed then-Vice President Al Gore at the White House on the Russian Komi Oil Spill and was appointed his representative for the on-site UN field investigation mission.
High oil prices are helping state coffers at the same time they are hurting everyday Alaskans. The additional revenue to the State has created a projected $3.6 billion increase to the revenue forecast over this year and the next, according to the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Spring 2022 Revenue Forecast, which was released today.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy requested the Legislature to use some of the surplus to get immediate relief to Alaskans who are facing high fuel costs and 40-year record inflation hikes, and to secure the remainder in savings. He did not ask for spending expansion on government programs.
“Rising oil prices are benefiting government finances and hurting Alaskans,” said Gov. Dunleavy. “I’m asking the Legislature to help alleviate economic hardship for Alaskans now, by paying every eligible resident a PFD this year of at least $3,700. We must get funds into the hands of Alaskans now when the bills are due, not in a month’s time.”
Deputy Commissioner of Revenue Brian Fechter spoke to reporters at today’s news conference. “Due to current market conditions, we are presented with a tremendous opportunity to use this additional revenue to provide relief to Alaskans currently grappling with high inflation all while putting billions into savings to deal with future price volatility,” Fechter said.
The Revenue Forecast includes the Department’s spring forecast of oil price, oil production, and state revenue. The Spring 2022 Revenue Forecast can be found here: www.tax.alaska.gov
The Unrestricted General Fund (UGF) revenue forecast has been increased by $1.2 billion for FY 2022 and $2.4 billion for FY 2023. Forecasts for revenue have also been increased for all years beyond FY 2023.
“Under the 10-year outlook, we can have surpluses while paying the PFD,” Dunleavy said. “We can also rebuild our savings with these surpluses in the range of $11 billion over ten years, based on a conservative forecast of $70 plus per barrel to 2031.”
The transmittal letter presenting the Spring 2022 Revenue Forecast states, “in terms of petroleum revenue, the revenue forecast is based on ANS (Alaska North Slope crude) oil prices of $91.68 for FY 2022 and $101.00 for FY 2023, stabilizing at $77.00 by FY 2031. The oil price forecast is based on futures market prices through FY 2029, followed by an assumption that prices will increase with inflation thereafter. Based on the higher forecasted oil prices, petroleum is once again expected to be the largest source of UGF revenue for FY 2022 and FY 2023, contributing over 50% of expected UGF in each of those two years.”
As for oil production, “for FY 2021, ANS oil production averaged 486,100 barrels per day. ANS oil production is expected to average 481,800 barrels per day in FY 2022 and 502,300 barrels per day in FY 2023, before climbing to 576,600 barrels per day by FY 2031,” the transmittal letter states.
“As your Governor, I can’t choose the amount of the PFD. I wish the law gave me such authority, but it doesn’t. Only the Legislature can make this happen,” Governor Dunleavy said. “We have the resources. We have the duty to do something to help now. Alaskans are paying the price in these uncertain times. Rural Alaska is about to see the highest fuel contracts ever. Gas prices have gone up nearly a $1/gallon in a month in Southcentral. The consumer price index rose 7.9 percent, the fastest pace in 40 years. I urge the Legislature to offer relief to Alaskans now.”
The news conference can be viewed on Governor Dunleavy’s facebook page.
Congressman Don Young and his Republican challenger Nick Begich are holding fundraisers at the same time on March 23.
The Don Young fundraiser will be held at the Petroleum Club in Anchorage, while the fundraiser for Begich, dubbed “The People’s Fundraiser,” is taking place in the New Horizon aircraft hangar in Palmer.
Both fundraisers boast lists of dozens of co-hosts, with the Anchorage fundraiser having more names from Anchorage and Washington, D.C., and the Valley fundraiser more oriented toward the Mat-Su supporters of Begich.
The State Department of Transportation is negotiating the sale of the mothballed state ferry M/V Malaspina. A new company formed by John Binkley and Dave Spokely, owners of a tourism enterprise in Ketchikan, wants to buy the state’s first ferry and turn it into a museum and tourist attraction.
The department says M/V Malaspina, LLC’s proposal fulfills a state goal of preserving the historic ship, which was constructed in 1963 and was the first ferry to enter service for the Alaska Marine Highway System. It has been moored at Ward Cove in Ketchikan since 2019. The cost of repairing it and making it serviceable have risen over the years. Initially, repairs were estimated to cost about $16 million, but since being in Ketchikan, more work has been identified, including replacing much more steel than previously estimated and a need for new or refurbished engines, reduction gears, and propellors.
The newly formed company is a venture between Fairbanks-based Binkley, owner of the Anchorage Daily News and other businesses in Alaska, and Spokely, a longtime Ketchikan resident who has had several businesses in Southeast Alaska, primarily Ketchikan, where he is the developer of Ward Cove, a former pulp mill site that the Spokely and Binkley families are turning into a tourism facility that includes docks. They have invested more than $50 million into that project. Their company, Ward Cove Dock Group, is the actual owner of the M/V Malaspina, LLC.
The massive funding bill that passed with the votes of Alaska Congressman Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski contain two anti-Second Amendment provisions, according to the Gun Owners of America, a pro-Second Amendment organization.
One provision allows the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency to deputize local police as ATF agents in states that are considered Second Amendment Sanctuaries. The ATF agents would enforce federal gun laws, allowing the federal government to override sanctuary protections.
The other provision funds criminal investigations into people who have been denied the ability to purchase a gun because of a faulty National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) report. Less than 1 out of 100 NICS checks are denied, usually due to a felony record, but in many cases the denial is due to faulty information in the NICS database. Those who fail the NICS check would be criminally investigated by the FBI or ATF for having attempted to purchase a firearm.
President Biden signed the spending bill into law on Tuesday.
The 2,700+ bill contains $1.5 trillion in spending, and contains the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act (VAWA), a priority of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and the NICS Denial Notification Act. The bill was introduced at 1:30 am last Wednesday, and had passed the House on Wednesday night, with the support of all Democrats and 39 Republican representatives, including Congressman Young.
By Thursday, the bill had passed the Senate with the support of all Democrat senators and 18 Republicans, including Murkowski, but not including Sen. Dan Sullivan, who said he had not had time to read the bill, as it was being hurried through.
Gun Owners of America analyzed the bill and broadcast action alerts to its members, but congressional leaders had already struck the anti-gun deal, Gun Owners of America reported.
“Sadly, the bill could have been stopped entirely had Republicans opposed the bill in unison, because anti-gunners were short a Senator,” the group said.
Four gun control sections were removed from the Violence Against Women Act:
Sections 101 and 102: grant funding programs to train police to executive “red flag” gun confiscation orders.
Section 801: an expansion of the Lautenberg Misdemeanor Gun Ban (a.k.a. Biden’s “Boyfriend Loophole”).
Section 802: funding to turn state-level stalking laws into “red flag” gun confiscation laws.
These gun control provisions remained:
Sections 1101-1102: the NICS Denial Notification Act to launch criminal investigations into firearm transfer background check denials—even though 9 out of 10 times the system falsely denies a law-abiding citizen who is attempting to purchase a firearm.
Section 1103: funding for ATF to deputize local police to enforce federal gun laws, especially to undermine Second Amendment Protection Act (SAPA) states.
It’s not just in Alaska: Soaring fuel prices have caused a majority of Americans to drive less and reduce spending in other areas of their lives, according to a national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports.
The survey found 81 percent of American Adults say rising gasoline prices are a serious problem for their personal budget, including 56% who say higher gas prices are a very serious problem.
Only 18 percent don’t consider the rising cost of gasoline a serious problem for their budget.
The survey of 1,000 Americans was conducted March 9-10. Those who identify as Republicans are more likely to say that rising gas prices are a very serious problem for their personal budget (68%). Fewer Democrats (47%) said that rising prices are a serious problem for their budget.
Republicans and black adults also were more likely to say rising gas prices are a very serious problem, (68 and 63% respectively). Whites and Democrats were less concerned, (57 and 47% respectively).
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed are driving less because of rising gasoline prices, while 39% haven’t cut back on driving.
Sixty-one percent say the rising price of gasoline has caused them to reduce spending on other purchases or activities, while 35% have not reduced other spending. Also, more private sector workers (59%) than government employees (48%) said rising gas prices are a very serious problem for their personal budget.
Among those who say rising gasoline prices are a very serious problem for their budget, 75% are driving less. Among those who are driving less, 84% have also reduced spending on other purchases or activities because of higher gas prices.
