As it does each year, the Legislative Affairs Agency has updated the staff contact list for legislators for the 2022 session. Today is the 10th day of the 2022 legislative session and most of the staff are now onboarded, with just a few openings, such as House Minority Press Office, unfilled. Today is Day 10 of the legislative session.
Alaska North Slope crude tops $90 a barrel, and Alaskans wonder if they can now have their Permanent Fund dividends
For the first time since the price crash of 2014, oil from Alaska’s North Slope is selling for more than $90 a barrel. Today’s posted price is $90.51.
While commodities fluctuate with supply and demand cycles, the trend has been upward for a few years. Alaska oil hit a low point of about $30 a barrel in 2016, and had climbed to $55.56 in January of 2021.
The State’s fall forecast for the 2023 budget, which is the spending plan that starts in July, had a prediction of $71 a barrel.
In the January, 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, predicted crude oil prices will sag later in the year, although they show no sign of doing so.
“We forecast that the price of Brent will average $75/b in 2022 and $68/b in 2023,” the agency wrote on Jan. 12.
The predicted decline in prices will be driven by a shift from global inventory declines last year to inventory increases in 2022 and 2023.
The Alaska Legislature is keeping an eye on the price of oil, as it crafts the budget for the coming year and looks to balance the desire from special interests for higher spending on state projects and programs, with the looming requirement that the Constitutional Budget Reserve must be restored. The Legislature has been “borrowing” from that fund for several years, and is required by statute to pay it back.
Statute also requires a Permanent Fund dividend, to be paid by a lawful formula. There will also be pressure from Alaskans for the Legislature to return to the lawful formula and pay the Permanent Fund dividend in full this year.
The public may see the State of Alaska reaping all the benefit from the higher oil prices, while families watch their incomes being eroded in real time and not getting help from lawmakers to pay for heating oil and gas for their vehicles.
The Alaska Legislature also has to confront something it hasn’t done in a decade: How to handle having more money coming in than going out. When the money wasn’t there, legislators were able to lean on the argument that there is a structural deficit with a Permanent Fund dividend of any size, and therefore the lawful dividend was unsustainable.
Now, with a surplus of money, pro-dividend Alaskans wonder if they are getting the shaft, while the Legislature protects its profits during what will likely be an “up year” for oil prices.
Even with the high price of oil, income tax bills are being considered this year by Democrats, including Senate Bill 154.
Biden will make race and gender identity a top priority as he replaces Justice Breyer; Kamala Harris to advise him on the pick
President Joe BIden said today that he will choose a black woman to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, when Breyer retires this summer.
News of Breyer’s upcoming retirement was leaked to mainstream media on Wednesday, and made official by the White House on Thursday, when the president released Breyer’s letter of resignation.
Biden said today that Vice President Kamala Harris will advise him on the correct black woman to name to the Supreme Court. Two women now serving on the court are of Russian-Jewish and Puerto Rican heritage, although both Justice Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor are American-born.
Breyer has served on the court for 28 years and is now 83 years old. In an unusual move, he joined the president today in the official announcement of his retirement.
Biden said he will make his selection to replace Breyer by the end of February. It will be Biden’s first pick to the court, which had become more conservative during the Trump Administration.
The president’s choice must be confirmed by the Senate, which is now run by Democrats at a 50-50 split with Republicans. Harris has the tie-breaking vote to confirm executive and judicial appointments, which require a simple majority.
Alexander Dolitsky: U.S. and Russia relations, and the role of Ukraine
By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
Who was responsible for post-war tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.? Were they primarily a result of the Soviets’ mistrust of a perceived intent on the part of the Allies to establish a “New World Order” and act as policeman of the world?
The United States’ influence in Asia, Europe and North Africa at the end of the World War II was superior to that of any other nation. The U.S. government’s interest in creating a military coalition (i.e., NATO in 1949) and in establishing military bases in strategic locations all over the world obviously attracted Joseph Stalin’s attention.
Did President Harry Truman misunderstand Stalin’s psychological behavior at the end of the war? At the Potsdam conference in July and August of 1945, Truman informed Stalin of the U.S.’s intention to use nuclear weapons against Japan. In Truman’s view, he was just sharing this essential information with his closest war ally, but Stalin apparently interpreted this message as a potential threat to the Soviet state. Could termination of the Lend-Lease program to the U.S.S.R. and other countries in September 1945, and Truman’s approval of the Marshall Plan to assist Western Europe in 1947, have exacerbated Stalin’s fears regarding U.S. post-war military expansion?
Or were post-war tensions a result of Soviet communist expansionist ideology, a stated component of the Marxist–Leninist agenda? Questions surrounding the causes of post-war tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are complex and must be studied objectively if we hope to elucidate the confrontational patterns between military powers in the past in order to avoid the resurgence of similar patterns in the future.
The history of Soviet–American relations has been quite short and somewhat intense. Evidently, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933, not out of any good will or political vision of peaceful cooperation with the Soviets, but for entirely pragmatic economic reasons. The Soviet Industrialization Plan required huge economic investments from the West, and in that Great Depression year of 1933, American manufacturers needed business wherever they could find it. In fact, in the 1930s, more than 200,000 unemployed Americans wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., asking for work, and some of them were actually hired and emigrated from the U.S. to work in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet government, in turn, hoped diplomatic ties would open doors for greater access to American bank loans and Western technology; and for greater export of socialist ideology at a time when membership in the U.S. Communist Party was growing.
The post-war history of Soviet–American relations, seen from an American perspective, can be summarized as a series of Cold War cycles. The first cycle (1945–55) might be called the Truman–Stalin duel. This period coincided with the division of Germany and Europe, the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, the Warsaw Treaty, and the Korean War.
The second cycle (1956–73) featured Khrushchev’s nuclear threat, the expansion of socialist ideology into developing countries, the development of Soviet space technology as demonstrated by Sputnik, and the Soviet–Egyptian arms deal.
The third cycle (1974–86) began with the self-destruction of an American president, Richard Nixon, via Watergate, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The United States then imposed a trade embargo and otherwise tried to isolate the U.S.S.R. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan and his administration challenged the Soviet government by enlarging the U.S. nuclear and conventional military arsenal. Attempts by the Soviets to compete with the military production of the United States eventually devastated the Soviet economy and severely impacted its physical environment and natural resources.
In spite of all of the mutual animosity of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged in direct military action, fighting, at worst, by proxy. In fact, both American and Soviet leaders did a fairly good job of preventing a “hot war” between these two great nations, thereby preserving mankind for subsequent global challenges.
Recently, diplomatic and military tensions between NATO and Russia over the situation in Ukraine escalated to a new and dangerous level, potentially leading to possible military conflicts around the globe and a revival of the Cold War. Below are selected key points from a recent article (“An Existential Threat to Europe’s Security Architecture,” in ForeignPolicy.com) by Russia’s ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, explaining Russia’s position regarding NATO’s expansion in Europe.
We have witnessed five waves of NATO expansion since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At various events at NATO headquarters in Brussels since 2005, Russian representatives have been told that the main threat to the alliance comes from the south—where Iran is located. To our simple question “Then why are you moving east toward Russia’s borders?” we have never received any clear answer.
Now NATO’s agenda is focused on drawing Ukraine and Georgia into its membership. With the “crawling” of the alliance into Ukraine’s territory, the threat to Russia’s security is increasing sharply, as missile systems with minimum flight time to our country and other destabilizing weapons can be deployed there.
In other words, U.S. policy toward our country looks like what is known as “compressing a spring.” Either it breaks or hits back. What should we do in such circumstances? Disregard them? Remove our troops deep into Russia, beyond the Urals?
The situation is extremely dangerous. No one should doubt our determination to defend our security. Everything has its limits. If our partners keep constructing military-strategic realities imperiling the existence of our country, we will be forced to create similar vulnerabilities for them. We have come to the point when we have no room to retreat. Military exploration of Ukraine by NATO member states is an existential threat for Russia.
Urgent action is needed. The principle of equal and indivisible security must be restored. This means that no single state has the right to strengthen its security at the expense of others. With political will, this can be achieved through the development of serious long-term and legally binding security guarantees.
We want to be confident in the future, and for this we need commitments from the United States and other NATO countries not to further expand the alliance and not to deploy weapons systems that pose a threat to Russia on the territories of neighboring countries, both members and nonmembers of NATO.
European security is now at a crossroads. The way in which events will develop further depends on the readiness of our Western colleagues for substantive dialogue, not delaying tactics and obfuscation. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said, we are not demanding any special exclusive terms for ourselves. The Russian initiative to conclude legally binding agreements on security guarantees is aimed at ensuring equal and reliable security for all.
In order to secure peaceful U.S.–Russia relationship, lessons must be learned from the patterns of the past. Historically, the Alaska–Siberia Lend–Lease Air Route during World War II (1942–1945) demonstrated the need for a dynamic rather than static approach toward foreign neighbors whose political and economic systems differ from ours.
The program demonstrated that two nations could compromise in their views and set aside conflicting cultural values and economic principles sufficient to achieve a common and mutually beneficial goal. A dynamic approach to dealing with potentially antagonistic neighbors, therefore, may help the United States government and United States citizens achieve favorable results in their exploration of new avenues for cultural, political, commercial, and military cooperation and exchanges with Russia and other former Soviet republics.
Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.
A few of Dolitsky’s past MRAK columns:
Read: Neo-Marxism and utopian Socialism in America
Read: Old believers preserving faith in the New World
Read: Duke Ellington and the effects of Cold War in Soviet Union on intellectual curiosity
Read: United we stand, divided we fall with race, ethnicity in America
Read: For American schools to succeed, they need this ingredient
Read: Nationalism in America, Alaska, around the world
Read: The case of the ‘delicious salad’
Read: White privilege is a troubling perspective
Read: Beware of activists who manipulate history for their own agenda
Read: Alaska Day remembrance of Russian transfer
Read: American leftism is true picture of true hypocrisy
Read: History does not repeat itself
Read: The only Ford Mustang in Kiev
Read: What is greed? Depends on the generation
Mayor Bronson vetoes unconstitutional ordinance passed by Assembly this week
Mayor Dave Bronson vetoed an ordinance passed by the leftist members of the Anchorage Assembly that infringes upon the public’s right to free speech, and also suppresses the public’s right to carry a firearm.
Anchorage Ordinance 2020-117 is the leftist Assembly’s way of trying to control public dissent in its meetings. In the past year of conservative activism, some members of the public have used their three minutes at the Assembly podium to conduct a silent protest during public testimony. The ordinance says that they may protest in silence all they like, but the next speaker will be heard during that silent protest. They don’t get to burn up the clock with their silence.
The mayor cited the Bill of Rights and said that the freedom to not speak or provide expression through a non-verbal means was protected. “The ordinance infringes upon a speaker’s ability to choose his or her own method of self-expression,” he wrote, defending the First Amendment.
Bronson also said that giving the chair of the Assembly the authority to prohibit the public from bringing their knives or guns into the Assembly chamber is an overreach of the Assembly’s authority. That authority is reserved to the State of Alaska, and is also protected by the U.S. Constitution, he said.
He also said that the Assembly was taking power from the Executive branch by grabbing for itself the contact with the private security company that keeps watch over Assembly meetings. That contract is with the Mayor’s Office, and “any attempt by the Assembly to exercise control over the contractor is inappropriate. Therefore, I must veto the ordinance,” Bronson said.
The Assembly will likely override the mayor’s veto, since there are only two conservative members out of the 11, and since the leftist nine have opposed the conservative mayor consistently since he took office.
Truckers close in on Canada’s capital
The Canadian truck-and-trailer convoy organizers say that protesting truckers across Canada, already part of the longest convey in world history, plan to arrive in Ottawa by Jan. 29.
According to some associated with the protest against Covid vaccine mandates, there are also 62,000 American truckers who have joined the protest, some who cannot cross the border, but are waiting at border crossings.
The convoy has created a groundswell of support across Canada and the USA, so much so that Facebook took one of the main organizing pages down from its social media site. The page had grown to nearly 600,000 followers, and has since moved to the Gab social media platform. Other support pages are still on Facebook.
A GoFundMe site raised nearly $6 million in just 10 days to support the truckers and their cause, and Canadians have come out by the thousands to stand along the roads in support of the truckers as they pass through their communities. GoFundMe has now frozen the account while it determines how the funds will be spent.
“Our goal is to protect the generosity of donors and ensure that every dollar donated on our platform reaches the right place,” a GoFundMe spokesperson said in a statement. “We require that fundraisers be transparent about the flow of funds and have a clear plan for how those funds will be spent.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has characterized the truckers as a fringe group of extremists and said that 90 percent of Canadian truckers have been vaccinated for Covid.
The rolling protest to Ottawa started after the Trudeau administration imposed a vaccine mandate on truckers crossing the border from the United States. The U.S. has also implemented a vaccine mandate for foreign truckers.
The convoy protest was announced Jan. 15 in a press release, which set the start date for the convoy as Jan. 23:
“On January 15th a small team of Alberta truckers, their family members and friends, came to the decision that the Government of Canada has crossed a line with implementing Covid-19 vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. As of today, we now have the support of millions of Canadians from across the country. it is time for these vaccine mandates and surveillance tracking software to end,” the group wrote in its press release.
“Our goal remains the same, to encourage the government of Canada to repeal its cross border Covid tracking passport, phone app, and ALL Covid-19 vaccine mandates,” the group wrote.
The initial convoy was to be just 1,600 trucks, but the number now estimated to be taking part is close to 50,000 the group said. Many of the trucks have more than one person in the cabs.
“Any statements made indicating that we are in some way ‘separatism’ or ‘terrorists’ are categorically false and an attempt to smear this movement. It is saddening that this kind of rhetoric is coming from Prime Minister Trudeau and his government instead of protecting our basic freedoms outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a document that was ironically signed into law by Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Justin and his government seeks to do the opposite. He is continually issuing defamatory comments and maligning large segments of the population. If history has taught us anything, these are actions that cannot be ignored. We are peaceful, hard-working Canadians who love our country and want the betterment for all Canadians,” the group said.
Due to the massive participation and support from Canadians, the group says that it realizes people are going to be inconvenienced by the convoy.
“For that, we are truly sorry, and we will do our very best to limit the disruptions to your lives. We ask that Canadians remember we are fighting for everyone’s freedoms and it’s the political class that has abandoned us all,” they wrote.
Bilious in Bethel: Mayor in Western Alaska dropping F-bombs all over Twitter
Bethel Mayor Mark Springer has been getting nasty on his perceived opponents: Springer has been dropping F-bombs all over Twitter. And not just recently — he has been doing this since long before he was elected mayor.
The Facebook group, Reclaim Midtown, a politically conservative Anchorage account, collected a set of them and posted them with a question about whether the City of Bethel has a social media policy that applies to its mayor. But the group said they stopped counting at 47 instances of Springer using the F word in some context on Twitter.
The city does have a social media policy as it pertains to the official Facebook Page of the City of Bethel, at least. Whether there is another policy that would apply to employees of the city is another matter. Springer is using his own Twitter account, while identifying himself as the mayor of Bethel. And mayors have the ability to say what they want, if the Left approves.
Springer is a former Bethel City Council member and former member of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board.
Anchorage superintendent tells Senate Finance that ‘universal pre-K’ spending will improve Alaska’s low reading scores
By DAVID BOYLE
The Alaska Senate is hearing a bill, SB 111, that is touted as being able to increase student achievement in reading. The legislation also includes universal pre-K which is supported by the education industry stakeholders to get more funding. Some version of universal pre-K has been around for about three years.
The Legislature has failed to improve reading academics since 2003, even though K-12 spending has increased more than 90 percent since that time.
Concurrently, Alaska fourth graders went from 49th to 51st among the states in the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading scores.
Our 4th graders have been behind most of the nation even prior to Covid. This chart shows the trends in 4th grade reading in Alaska:
Now only 25 percent of Alaska students are proficient in reading. More money has not and will not improve student achievement unless school districts are held accountable for results.
The education community is banking on establishing pre-K as a solution to the reading problem. But if Alabama is any indication this will be just another effort at throwing money at a problem.
Alabama has had the highest quality pre-K program in the nation for the past 13 years according to the National Institute of Early Education Research. Today, Alabama ranks 48th in the 2019 4th grade reading scores.
The education community wants to increase funding by putting the pre-K students into the Foundation Funding formula. We do know that once it is put into the formula, it is near impossible to pull it back.
Anchorage Superintendent Bishop testified that former Superintendent Jim Browder changed the early reading requirement to 90 minutes per day: “He made it happen with no extra funding.” It’s clear districts do have the authority to emphasize reading within current funding.
Superintendent Bishop stated that because we have constant change in leadership and school boards kids lose ground. And she stated there are no policies in place to require accountability from districts. The State Board of Education needs to put these accountability requirements in place now. She also stated they had sufficient funds. A simple “read-by-nine” policy would hold districts accountable and teachers as well. The effective classroom teachers should welcome this.
Teachers who are effective in teaching reading should be identified and their best practices implemented. Why can’t we make that happen?
Sen. Natasha Von Imhof asked “How will pre-K improve reading?” She asked about Head Start students who go to public school: “Where are the Head Start students in K-3 reading?”
Commissioner Michael Johnson did not know but said he will try to track it down.
It would seem if the department is asking for more money and an expanded pre-K program, the department would have that information. Those Head Start students should be followed to see the impact of a current pre-K program on reading achievement prior to funding for all.
The U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services study of Head Start showed that there were short-term gains in cognitive skills, but these gains diminished by the time the children entered elementary school.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski asked Commissioner Johnson, “Why is Alaska worst in the Nation in 4th grade reading?”
“In Alaska, we may not always attach policy to funding like other states do. We send funding to districts out in bulk,” Johnson answered.
Funding school districts and allowing them to do as they want with the money does not focus them on measurable outcomes.
“Other states send out funding programmatically and ask for certain things from districts for that funding,” Johnson said. They require accountability for results.
Regarding accountability, Sen. Von Imhof asked if we cannot meet our current standards, what guarantee do we have we can meet these new standards?
Bishop said that the accountability built in to SB111 will make that happen.
But the reports mentioned in the bill do not specify accountability. The only real accountability is to defund the program by district if inadequate progress is made.
The bill sunsets in 2034 and a final report is due in 10 years.
The Senate Finance hearing was an admission that all past “fixes” have failed. Alaska does not have policies nor accountability in place. And yet proponents of universal pre-K want to wait until 2034 to tell us if this newest approach is effective.
By that time, thousands of students may still not be able to read at grade level.
David Boye is former executive director of Alaska Policy Forum and is Must Read Alaska’s education writer.
Dunleavy joins lawsuit to defend National Guard members’ medical freedom
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined the state of Texas in federal court to stop the federal government from requiring National Guard members to obtain COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of their service to the state of the Alaska and its people.
Gov. Dunleavy and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are plaintiffs in the case against President Joe Biden and Department of Defense officials. The governors contend the unconstitutional vaccine mandate usurps state sovereignty and illegally undermines their authorities as commanders of state National Guard units.
“Our Alaska National Guard has recently responded to winter storm disasters in Yakutat, the Interior, and the Mat-Su. What happens in the next disaster if Guard members can’t be activated because they chose not to get a federally-mandated COVID vaccine?” Dunleavy said.
“Protecting the freedom and liberty of National Guard members has fallen on responsible governors. The federal government has no authority to make health decisions for National Guard members who are at work under state authority. I pledge to protect that medical freedom and to challenge the trampling of our state’s rights under the 10th Amendment.” – Gov. Mike Dunleavy
The Alaska Constitution states that the governor is the “commander-in-chief” of the armed forces of the State, and it empowers the governor to order Guard members into state active duty.
The Department of Defense demand to members of the Alaska Army National Guard and Alaska Air National Guard is an improper assertion of federal authority, the lawsuit maintains. Because the National Guard has not been placed into federal service, authority over the Guard falls to the states’ governors. The Pentagon has no legal authority to dictate actions or discipline on state Guard members, the complaint states.
“This is not a case demanding a position of pro- or anti-vaccine, nor is it a case that challenges any aspect of the federal government’s authority over National Guardsmen once federal authority has been properly established,” the lawsuit states. Rather, the Constitution is clear about the National Guard’s dual role of service to the United States and as a state militia. When not in federal service, authority to command the National Guard rests with state governors.
The lawsuit stated that Governors Dunleavy and Abbott ensured Guard members met military readiness standards “without compulsion, threat or micromanagement” from the federal government for more than 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In late August 2021, the Secretary of Defense ordered all military members, including the Guard, to take COVID-19 shots. In November, the Secretary directed the Department of Defense to withhold salaries of unvaccinated, non-federalized, Guard members or deprive them of credit for drills and training.
“We rely on our National Guard to deploy during natural disasters and perform search-and-rescue operations. They keep Alaska safe and they are integral to protecting our state,” said Attorney General Treg Taylor, whose office represents Governor Dunleavy in the lawsuit. “The federal government’s mandate puts public safety and emergency response in jeopardy, while ignoring the Governor’s authority.”
In addition to the National Guard mandate lawsuit, Attorney General Taylor is participating in several other suits against the federal government’s overreaching vaccine requirements. Alaska has asked the courts to strike down illegal mandates for employees of large, private businesses, federal contractors, healthcare workers, and Head Start employees and volunteers.
