Theater of the absurd: Man creates new religion, invites all of Anchorage to join to stay exempt from Assembly mask ordinance

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Immediately after the Anchorage Assembly voted to override the mayor’s veto of the Assembly’s mask ordinance, a man stepped to the podium to address the body. He said he has created a new religion, and all who sign his roster can be part of that religion, and thus, since religious assemblies are exempted from having to adhere to the emergency ordinance mask mandate, all could be exempted from the law.

Jordan (we could not catch his last name) said the new religion is “The Assembly Doesn’t Speak for Anchorage” religion.

“One of our tenets is our church is the entire city. And you’ve made exceptions for religious assemblies. Anyone who wants to sign up can. I am the president of this new religion. Your masks are now moot.”

Directly after his remarks, Assemblywoman Jamie Allard moved to extend public testimony until 7:30 pm, since the Assembly majority had only set aside a half hour for the meeting. But that vote failed, with Pete Person, Felix Rivera, Chris Constant, Meg Zaletel, Forrest Dunbar, Austin Quinn-Davidson, and Kameron Perez-Verdia voting to curtail the public comment period.

Four members were present in the Assembly chambers during the half-hour meeting. Allard and Crystal Kennedy were quarantining, and several others rarely attend meetings in person anymore. Someone had placed numerous roses on the desk where Allard sits.

One of the final comments made by the public was from a woman who stood before the Assembly and showed people how to vote to recall Meg Zaletel, the Assembly member who gave birth to the mask ordinance last month during a semi-secretive Assembly meeting.

Mayor Dave Bronson issued a statement after his veto was overridden 9-2:

“The Assembly’s override of my veto on their misleading mask mandate that was done without public notice or testimony is deceitful and wrong. The nine members who voted for this mask mandate ignored the public process, shut down public testimony, shut out the people, and decided that they (not you or your healthcare provider) will make decisions about your personal health. It’s just another effort by our Assembly to force the citizens of Anchorage to do their will and silence those who desire to exercise their right to petition their government. The Anchorage Assembly continues to break the public’s trust.”

99 COMMENTS

  1. That’s great! Yep shopping at Costco is ALWAYS a religious experience for me and I like that better than my idea of “identifying as a temporary unpaid mayoral intern”

  2. More egregious cr@pping on the public by the assembly’s Marxist Nine. Their abiding and burning contempt for the residents of this city is utterly boundless.
    God the Marxist Nine are so utterly loathsome. No, so much worse than that! My vocabulary simply does not contain a word that can sufficiently describe the magnitude of their malevolence and evil. Perhaps no such word even exists.

      • Evan, if the rule of law only applies to one group, we no longer live in a representative republic. AQD as mayor enjoyed the privilege to issue emergency mandates and end the emergency declaration, she should know better. She and Meg also acknowledged that the emergency powers are vested with the mayor. Yet as soon as it is inconvenient, the kabal ignores the law and passed an edict that was not even open for discussion, in the dead of night. There are no words strong enough for this betrayal and deceit.

  3. So, let me get this straight. If I come to Anchorage and do not wear a mask into a business, they may ask me to either put one on or refuse me service(ask me to leave). But, there is no enforcement of the mask mandate coming from the Mayor, so there is no penalty involved for either the business or myself. Is that correct?
    Why would a business adhere to the mandate if they will not be penalized?
    This makes no sense. I hope Anchorage businesses will not be their own enforcers. The division only grows deeper with this latest attempt by the Assembly to dictatorially manage the lives of others.

    • Because, JC, despite being mask Nazis would of course hurt almost any business, there are more than a few business owners, and corporation boards of directors and CEOs, who nevertheless would gladly sacrifice profits for the sake of being meddling, ‘woke’, intolerant, nanny state petty tyrants and thugs who demand enforced compliance with their warped and lunatic dictates. Let them! Or challenge them at the door. Either way, it’s their loss, and freedom and tolerance’s gain.

        • That is a great idea, JC!
          .
          Maybe Suzanne would like to put up one here? We could then post the names of the mask-Nazi businesses as we find or see them.
          How about it, Suzanne?

          • Jefferson, I’m not sure that’s as good idea as it might seem at first. I’ll tackle the reason why in a story. -sd

          • Fair enough, Suzanne, although I will be curious to read your reasons as to why this would not be a good idea, as on the face of it I can see no downside or potential legal repercussions for doing so.

          • You know Suzanne has a big Target on her back and while they may not want to go after individual people, they would relish taking her down. It would quickly turn this forum into something else. I think it’s best to do your own research and turn up the heat as you see fit. You can beat this with demonstrations, organization and steadfast determination.

          • Greg (and Suzanne), I have been thinking about this matter of potentially having a list here of all the mask-Nazi businesses, and not only can I NOT see anything wrong or bad about doing so, the more I think about it, the more I think it is a great idea.
            What could possibly be wrong, or attacked, by merely pointing out the PUBLICLY stated policy of a business? I fail to see the downside, any downside, in this.

  4. So you’re saying that it’s absurd for people to create religions that meet their perceived wants and needs? Interesting….

  5. In accordance with Roberts Rules of Order #64 a quorum is a Majority of the members present. The Assembly clearly has violated it with only 4 members present. Therfore the vote and overide vote are null and void. The State AG should step in and overide the Assembly for violation of rules.

  6. This mask hill is not the one you want to die on. Wearing a mask is a minor, temporary inconvenience, it probably helps, and it also demonstrates one’s willingness to help vanquish the Coronavirus.

    This whole Assembly thing is absurd, and it is seriously distracting both it and the Mayor, from other badly-needed work. It’s also further dividing an already divided population, and who can really say where that will lead?

    • No, Nom, this absurd, unscientific, and coercive mask ordinance IS very much a hill on which to fight! (I don’t know about you, but I don’t foresee the need, or the possibility, of dying over it, though). It is nonsensical and completely intrusive to have to be FORCED, by the gun of governmental power, to hide one’s face in public just to calm the irrational and exaggerated fears, hysteria and hyper-hypochondria of the corporate-media-terrorized sheep who have been led to believe that they are living in the midst of Black Death 2.0, instead of Bad Flu 13,484,601.0. Enforced mask wearing also inhibits and subverts communication between individuals, both auditory and expressionary, as well as just profoundly dehumanizing. It is perverse and simply stupid, and does virtually or literally NOTHING to prevent the spread of viral infection.
      .
      But there is one thing that enforced mask wearing DOES do, and does extremely well: it acts as an instantly visible symbol of conformity to leftist opinion, and as a badge of compliance to capricious and complete governmental power. THAT is why all the radical leftist extremists love their masks, and demand that everyone else wear them as well. It has NOTHING to do with public health, and everything to do with furthering the radical leftist extremist agenda.

      • Well, Jeff, there’s a saying, “Watch out for the molehills, and the mountains will take care of themselves.” The argument over the alleged assaults on the constitutionality and freedom of mask mandates are the molehills.
        In this case, Covid is the mountain.

        • Homo, you could not be more wrong.
          .
          There is no way, no possibility, that any disease could threaten my rights. But there is every reason for governments (and corporations, almost the same thing) to use a (mild) pandemic as a pretext to strip us of rights, and that is what is happening today.
          So you can continue to obsess neurotically and hysterically over a very mild pandemic disease that has an overall survival rate of 99.7%, and ignore everything else going on around you, or you could stand up for yourself and fight the sociopaths in power who see you as nothing more than an expendable serf, and who are always happy, and always ready, to strip you of your remaining rights and freedoms.

          • Jefferson: once again you’ve proven your skills at hyperbole. This is great: “There is no way, no possibility, that any disease could threaten my rights.”

            COVID isn’t threatening your rights, its threatening your health, maybe life and the health of your community.

            Your statement creates a picture in my mind of you suffocating of COVID, near death, but staying pureblood and free. And free from medical intervention.

          • And here you are again, Evan, with the irrational and context-free appeal to emotion over reason.
            .
            Yes, the Wuhan Virus threatens me (well, not anymore, as I just had it). But so do an almost infinite number of OTHER risks in life, many of them presenting significantly more danger than this mild pandemic virus. There is NOTHING unique about this virus, nothing. Yet you irrational and hysterical Covidians act as if it is unique — THE most dangerous threat to all humanity! But it is absolutely nothing of the sort. Your chances of dying are vastly greater from heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, just to name three — so where is your all-consuming hysteria about those?
            Crickets.
            .
            Again, you fail to place the risk of contracting the Wuhan Virus into any sort of context, or to view it with any kind of rational perspective. It’s all about appeals to exaggerated fears and hysteria from you Covidians, with never any logic behind it.

        • …only 60 days…

          reminder:
          not that long ago there was an ever changing time factor given to flatten the curve.

          Lockdowns, closed businesses, ‘social’ distancing, breathing through cloth or paper masks, no hand shakes, hugs, human contact, forced shots that are (still) experimental.

          Where are we now?
          Anchorage government is forcing selected residents of Anchorage to mask up,
          ONLY FOR 60 DAYS.
          If we do so we will be set free!!!

          Only 60 days…just comply.

          If you wear a 60 day mask, you will be doing something for everyone – love thy neighbor…

          AND you will be help all health care workers and hospitals get a much needed break. **(see aside below)

          If we all play along – all do our parts we can end covid19. (LMAO)

          BUT beware: If adult children of Anchorage don’t comply, Mama Meg will apply more time to the discipline she on her sick and disobedient children.
          .

          Come on Erector – there is none so blind as those who will not see.
          SO
          Mask on Homo.
          The beauty of it really is, you make it your choice, and leave me my choice –
          I ask for this because I am and always, and will be, a Constitution loving American.

          **AS an aside:
          Anchorage hospitals have a two tiered (and expensive) care system.
          Fact: You don’t want to disclose you are not vac’d.
          Ask any honest nurse what he or she is witnessing from those caring overworked ‘healthcare’ workers who can’t stand the unvac’d. Pfffft.
          If you’re not vac’d it is dangerous place to be – There are disgusting and criminal abuses happening under the guise of ‘healthcare’.

          Beware and be scared.

    • Feather,
      I agree that this is all a distraction taking valuable time from other important business of the city. I would say that each and every thread of the Lilliputians was in itself but a minor inconvenience. Together they held Gulliver down.

    • The mask thing is behavior modification. One step towards other things. When you understand the psychological implications of the mask demand, you will know that is it not a minor thing.

      As far as showing that I care, my ego does not need artificial fulfilment my the pleasing of others sense of virtue. Or my own.

    • The mask is not the issue.
      .
      What is being fought for is public representation, process, and a rejection of minor elected officials lording over us.
      .
      Over the last two years, the Assembly has made it abundantly clear that they are there to implement “their” vision for Anchorage. Not the taxpayers, not the residents’ vision, theirs. And, when the public disagrees with their plans, they shut them out of the proceedings.
      .
      Now that Anchorage has a Mayor that is not in agreement with the Assembly’s ideals, they are taking every action they can to limit or remove authority and power from the Mayor’s office. Several ordinances introduced since July have the effect of taking authority from the Executive branch and moving it to the Assembly. Add to that the Homeless Council, the Assembly’s first veto override, and this veto override.
      .
      The leftists on the assembly are acting like all leftists do. They are refusing to hear contrary opinions, they are manipulating the rules to their benefit when they can, and they are changing the rules when they cannot work within them. Oh… and they are engaging in lawfare as well.
      .
      That is the a pattern seen multiple times throughout history, and the result is never an increase in personal freedoms or economic wealth.
      .
      And, that is the hill I am willing to die on.

    • Respectfully disagree.
      .
      Mask bill seems like the Assembly’s test of how much, how many freedoms Anchorage-Americans will sacrifice to “demonstrate willingness to help vanquish the Coronavirus”.
      .
      Might be too late to worry about Mask Hill after minor, temporary inconvenience morphs into major, permanent restriction.
      .
      Can’t happen here? Wouldn’t recommend betting the farm on it.
      .
      Seems like an utterly revolting concept, forcing Americans into “demonstrating” willingness to help vanquish the Coronavirus, no?
      .
      You’re right… who can really say where it’ll lead?
      .
      What keeps us divided, thankfully, is more than a few productive Anchorage residents firmly believe they don’t have to go down, won’t go down, with their Assembly Titanic to find out where it winds up.

    • I think there is a problem with perception and perspective:
      Out of 733,0000 Alaskans there are 202 in the hospital today with Covid, 22 of those are on ventilators
      Out of 282,958 Anchorage Residents 96 are in the hospital with Covid, 11 of those on ventilators.
      So our Anchorage hospitals can’t handle 96 extra patients?? Every man woman and child in Anchorage is forced to wear a face covering because of 96 patients???
      If our hospitals can handle that, we are in more trouble than just Covid. Jamie Allard rightfully questions what they have done with all the funds to prepare for surges and frankly this is not a surge!

  7. Thank you for the coverage and up-to-date articles, Suzanne. It is apparent you write with the conviction of a true calling.

    • Actually I thought that once, and that’s not the reason that I left. Recently I’ve seen a glimmer of light at the far end of the tunnel suggesting that Anchorage and Alaska is on the right track. The first thing that needs to be done is to take back Anchorage. And then take down the State House and that starts in dillingham.

  8. When I heard Constant say “because it is the right thing to do” i could hear him shaming us. As if he had some superior morality.

    What an elitist.

    • History is abundantly clear on this point. The people who are compelling others into compliance are never the good guys.

          • Oh JHCOAB Jefferson. CBMTTEK said, “The people who are compelling others into compliance are never the good guys.”

            Troopers compel you to comply. I assume you support law enforcement. I do.

        • Evan, we are not attempting to burn buildings or feed our hungry children with Nikes and Reeboks. We are keeping what is rightfully ours.

          It is apparent you have already given up to the system. Try to stay out of the way, Agent Smith.

          • Oh JHCOAB Common Peasant. CBMTTEK said, “The people who are compelling others into compliance are never the good guys.”

            Troopers compel you to comply. I assume you support law enforcement. I do.

        • Check out a book called Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. It provides a lot of insight into the troopers, how and why the followed orders.

  9. We will never get to the bottom of this unless we understand and confront the weaponized victimhood ideology that is the LGBTQXYZ movement. These people take advantage of the natural instincts of people to look after those who are disadvantaged. The Marxist-inspired LGBT knows this. So they get extreme victims into government who do things like this but, you can’t say anything about them because they have more rights than you. They also understand life less and have no business being in a position of authority over normal hard working people. That is our situation in a nutshell.

    • Yes, if more understood this, we would not be in this pickle. That crew did not hate TRUMP as much as that picture perfect drug free straight Trump family. Now we have a inept deranged and senile joke of a president and his druggie son. Just what the Covid doctor ordered and just what the left is and stands for.

      • Trump’s drugs are money and power; they go hand in hand. He is hooked on them and he will walk over anyone and everyone to get them.

        • And Pretendent Biden’s drugs of choice are ice cream, sniffing women’s hair, and the weekly paycheck he receives from Xi Jinping, not necessarily in that order.

  10. Or you could just claim to be an athlete exercising at the store. Who are the mask Nazis to say otherwise?

  11. Or I can just not wear a mask when around gatherings where everyone is cool and liberal with everyone unmasked. I never thought I be a Hippy living free without following the current culture’s conventions

    • Who has the power to shut off power/gas/water? And when did they do it before? And to whom did they do it?Just wondering as I am not aware of this, but I don’t know much:/ I do not doubt you, just have not seen or heard of it.

      • Kriners Diner.
        Not sure if Berkowitz carried through with the threat, but the utilities were ready to cut off power and water.

  12. Trust me. These self anointed emperors have already Crayola Crayoned an extension to their attempt at tyranny. One after another leading up to the next election to illuminate a possibility of in-person voting.

  13. My Religious exemption is found in Revelation 13:16-17. Therefore I don’t wear the Mask of the Beast, I won’t take the Injection of the Beast, and I will not take the Mark of the Beast. I don’t need a piece a paper with someone’s approval either.

  14. What I love about religious exemptions. It’s your beliefs. You don’t have to prove it or have it approved and qualified by someone else. By law. There is much abuse and lack of understanding on religion beliefs and exemptions.

  15. Why is anyone recognizing the mask “mandate” as valid? The Assembly does not have the authority to issue such a mandate. They have said so themselves.

    Mayor, the ball is in your court.

    City attorneys, sharpen your pencils and get to work.

  16. Hey Suzanne, just a suggestion, but for things like this, can we get a breakdown of who voted? At a minimum, who were the two that voted against overriding the veto?
    .
    I “know” who they are, but want to confirm.

  17. So that’s it?? Bronson is giving up?? I thought none of this could pass without his ok?? Apparently all rules are null and void now… Wow I really thought he was going to do something… So what we let the children with the crayons continue their assault on the people? Just like that??? Their mandate is illegal the way they went about it. It’s the mayors JOB to fix this!

    • I understand your frustration and righteous anger, ARU, but bear in mind that it has only been 16 hours (as I write this) since the Marxist Nine on the ass-embly overrode Mayor’s Bronson veto of it. I hope, and suspect, that he and his attorneys have just been waiting, and have needed to wait, for the ass-embly’s official override of his veto of the ordinance before addressing the matter officially and via other avenues.

    • Civics 101. Crack a book sometime.

      The mayor tried to fix it. He was overruled. That’s how the system works (when the left allows it to).

      Stop looking to others to solve the problems created by lazy voters. Get involved. Campaign. Canvas. Locate and support two Assembly candidates who support Bronson. So the legwork necessary to effect change.

      Conservatives love to whine, but they hate to do actual work. Most can’t be bothered to vote.

    • Few real social conservatives in Alaska only fiscal ones descended from Dour Scottish traders at Hudson Bay Trading Posts in the Far North and Gold Fever miners.

  18. How the left would deal with an Illegal Mask Ordinance *voluntarily enforced by a WOKE store* if they weren’t WOKE mask wearers themselves.
    ______________________________________________

    1. They’d don the Mask, enter the WOKE store, take a cart, fill it with many-many items, and abandon it in an isle. Then leave the store.
    .
    Dealing with abandoned carts filled with merchandise is terribly time-consuming for any business.
    .
    That’s how the left think and operate, and as long as it’s legal, well, good luck to them I say!

  19. Oh, and I forgot, every member of the Anchorage assembly is white!
    Therefore, the Anchorage assembly is RACIST!!!
    Social Justice demands their immediate disbandment!

  20. If Anchorage businesses go along with this unlawful mandate and begin enforcing mask wear, when they didn’t before, I will just take my business somewhere that doesn’t request mask wear or enforce the mask mandate. I am also FREE to take my shopping and dining business to the valley… and will probably fill-up with gas while I am there so Anchorage doesn’t get my 10+ cents of gas tax. The lawless 9 can POUND SAND.

  21. City attorney take some action for their illegal actions. Clean up the election process. Stop Mail in voting. Audit the last election. Override rank choice voting republican party or quit asking me for donations, because I won’t give you a dime unless you get to work. Do your job Kevin Meyer. Governor Dunleavy stand tall, step up and get off your behind! Fix our corrupt election process your silence speaks volumes! Vote the Marxists out Anchorage!

  22. We’ve had a full mask mandate in Juneau for over a year and a half (we had it lifted for a few months earlier this year but it was quickly put back in place). I have noticed this though, many don’t wear masks and merchants are not bothering them. I put one on but keep it below my nose so I can breath in fresh air to avoid triggering my asthma. Everyone is tired of the Biden Burka and the will to enforce has lost all steam.

  23. The stunning lack of basic civics on this board is a gigantic indictment of Alaska’s education system and the attention span of most people

    Bronson has done everything he legally can to point. The spoke out against it. He vetoed it. He will probably not enforce it. There is a good chance he will sue. He will certainly continue to speak out about it.

    All far more than that failure of a governor, Dunleavy has ever done.

    By law, that is what he is allowed and able to do. Bronson can’t override a majority of Assembly who overrode his veto.

    It’s not allowed and is de facto illegal.
    Who do you think he is, Berkowitz? He must follow the law.

    Stop whining and do something. Get out in the streets. Refuse the mandate. Make Constant and Company’s POLITICAL life a living hell.

    Bronson can’t save a lazy, politically illiterate population from itself.

    • If Mayor Bronson is going to sue, or if he has had any intention of suing, the assembly for their multiple violations of the municipal charter in pushing and passing this idiotic and intrusive mask ordinance, then he and his team should have been ready to pounce, having seen the writing on the wall regarding this ordinance for many weeks now, and should have already issued a public statement of such this morning, immediately after the overriding of his veto by the assembly yesterday evening. I am disappointed in not having already heard as much from the mayor or his administration today, not even a peep on the matter.
      .
      Please tell me that we do not have jellyfish Dunleavy as mayor here, as well as governor.

    • I don’t live in a city and so I am unfamiliar with how things work regarding cities, does the governor have the authority to over-rule the local government without breaking the law to do so? I know that I’ve seen it said that it can’t legally be done and I guess that Article X Section 1 “The purpose of this article is to provide for maximum local self-government” might support that. So are you saying that mayor Bronson is doing everything he can do legally but then decrying governor Dunleavy for doing everything he can do legally? I wholly agree with you in regards to mayor Bronson, but I fail to understand what you want governor Dunleavy to do in regards to Los Anchorage. I am one of the those lacking a basic civic understanding when it comes to this, please inform me.

      • Jefferson, Steve-O, Forkner, and several others: I’m new to this site, but do you guys spend your entire day (life?) commenting on this website? I see hundreds of comments from you all, and on almost every story. Don’t you work or have any other hobbies? I know winter’s coming here, but why not get out and enjoy some nice fall weather?

        Get a life!

        • Nom, I work from home, and I have just been popping in here lately a couple or a few times a day, while eating or taking a break. And I am a speed reader and can type very fast, so I don’t actually have to spend much time catching up on the threads here or while posting comments. So no, I do NOT spend all day on MRAK.
          .
          If you had been around here long enough (the past year or more), you would have noticed very long gaps, many weeks at times, in my participation here. Those were due to my being very busy with work, and not having the luxury that I do right now to participate to any extent here.

        • Nom,
          Just out of curiosity, if you have time to read every story and every comment, should you really be making the comment you are making? From your comment it seems like you must spend more time here than I do…perhaps you should take your own advice?

  24. Join me in worship of the Costco Hot Dog. Unlike other religions, the Dog’s inherent goodness is about to become clear as He allows us all to circumvent the Anchorage Assembly who was also attempting to slip us a dog of a different sort. All hail your pending exception.

    Your tithe covers the cost of worship and those properly anointed may also baptist themselves in a soda, gratis.

  25. Just got back from running some errands. The compliance with this masking law is… well… I am pretty sure the same percentage of people who wore masks has remained the same. Fred Meyer had about 20-25% of the shoppers maskless, about the same as before the mandate. And in Home Depot, I think there were less masks than normal. About 50% compliance.
    .
    I carried a mask in my pocket, and if I was asked by a store employee to put on one, I would do so rather than give a poor minimum wager a hard time. No employee asked me, and several helped me out without any notice.

    • Thanks for the observations and update, CBMTTEK.
      .
      You must live in Anchorage proper, though — in the Eagle River Fred Meyer, I have rarely if ever seen more than 50% of customers wearing masks this summer and fall. But of course the mind-rot gets worse as one moves towards Los Anchorage.

  26. The Assembly is using this virus as an excuse to mount an assault on the freedoms of the people and implement a new world order at the same time.

  27. So many commenters on this site are professed right-wing Christians, for whom religion is a sacred thing, indeed the most important thing in their lives. Yet here they cheer on some dude for creating one out of thin air for the sole purpose of protesting a mask ordinance. I guess they’re not as serious about it as they pretend to be after all!

    But on second thought, I guess all religions are created out of thin air anyways…

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