While Alaska's Covid cases lead the nation and Governor Mike Dunleavy encourages Alaskans to rush to the beach to meet a tsunami, Mayor Dave Bronson's administration is in meltdown while ethical and legal issues swirl around them...also we offer a defense of a Halloween classic...feature a new show about a podcast on Hula...and we dissect analogies in the Covid era.
While Alaska's Covid cases lead the nation and Governor Mike Dunleavy encourages Alaskans to rush to the beach to meet a tsunami, Mayor Dave Bronson's administration is in meltdown while ethical and legal issues swirl around them...also we offer a defense of a Halloween classic...feature a new show about a podcast on Hula...and we dissect analogies in the Covid era.
Politics
Last week
…less than 48 hours after this podcast
…aired a number
…legal and ethical issues
…dogging the Bronson administration
…city manager amy demboski issued a terse memo to all departments
…forbidding any direct communication with assembly members
In Demboski’s memo
…she accused assembly members
…of quote “using informal back channels
…to access information”
Okay first
…it is the public’s business
…that Ms. Demboski and her staff get paid to do
So trying to limit access of information
…to assembly members
…whose existence is to
…provide essential check and balance
…is a clear warning sign from
…the Bronson administration
City Hall has become a fortress of
…very paranoid people
…who are quickly forgetting
…they work for the public
But why?
Why would it be necessary
…for Demboski to be the gatekeeper
…of information?
Because after 90 days of ethical lapses
…and questionable legal actions by Demboski and crew
…the Anchorage assembly members
…are asking a lot of questions
A significant amount of questions
Questions about
…the Marbut contract
…their opaque procurement process
…the questionable relationship between
…John Morris and Sprung
They’re asking questions
…about the administration’s
…political appointments
…like when can we expect them
…to be forwarded for approval
…as the law requires
They’re asking questions
…about the new public health director
…who not only less qualified
…than the last nominee
…but also
…wait for it
….has a potential conflict of interest
…like seemingly everyone Mayor Bronson hires
And now
…late last week it was discovered
…through freedom of information requests
…that 99 plus 1
…the company that the Bronson administration
…granted a huge shelter contract to
Well not only were they
…the least qualified bidder
…and their bid was the highest cost
…but it turns out the company’s owner
…was a big Bronson campaign donor
Ladies and Gentlemen
….there is absolutely no attempt here
…by the Bronson administration
…to avoid the appearance of impropriety
Now
…Demboski through her surrogates
…says it’s because the assembly is spying
…on the Bronson administration
Spying?
It’s local government
…it’s not called spying it’s called
…the system of checks and balances
…it’s called accountability
Look
…Nobody is spying
…nobody is impinging upon time of staff
This is the
…legislative branch asking questions
…of the executive branch
This is the
…legislative branch providing the check and balance
This is the
…legislative branch doing the job
…that voters and the charter
…require them to do
And maybe if Demboski
…stopped and looked in the mirror
…long enough she’d realize
…all of these questions are due
…to her working the most incestuous
…and ethically challenged
…administration in memory
But the truth is
…the campaign will never
…end for the Bronson administration
Even now that they are in charge
Last week at Mayor Bronson’s Covid pep rally
…Demboski took to the microphone
…and referenced Bronson’s campaign battle
…against Covid mandates
…and then proceeded to stoke
…the anti vaxx
… anti mask crowd
Amy Demboski has never been interested
…in solving real problems
…or making Anchorage better
…she’s always just been interested
…in grandstanding
Please allow me to prove my point.
Three years ago I was required to appear before the assembly in a work session
to justify ACDA’s purchase of the new police headquarters building downtown
For ninety minutes assembly members took turns grilling me
…why it was a good purchase for APD
…why it was a good purchase for local taxpayers
…how it would help public safety
For ninety minutes
…I answered question after question
But during that entire meeting
…assembly member Amy Demboski
…didn’t say anything
Not one question
…not one comment
…nothing.
…She just sat there quietly
…for ninety minutes
But then
…at the assembly meeting
…when she had a public stage
…Demboski found her voice
…and had all kinds of questions
…that had all been explained in the work session
Demboski’s act
…had nothing to do with the purchase
…She just wanted a public stage
…it’s always an act with her
…a bad act
Demboski like her protégé’ Jamie Allard
…are tirelessly predictable
It’s always a fight
…it’s always the
…desire for political friction
…and they’re always the victim
It’s the only way
…this administration knows how to
…communicate
…anger
…blame
…distort
This was an administration
…that got elected saying Covid was over
…but now that Alaska leads the nation
…in Covid cases
…with Anchorage as the epicenter
…and their response has been
…to lockdown city hall
…and blame the assembly
The numbers speak for themselves
…the Covid case rates since Bronson took office
…have reached global highs
But yet they still maintain the same course
They encourage their supporters
…to doubt science
…question the reality around them
…while being nothing less
…than thuggish
…and generally objectionable
Look at the vile
and hateful threats
levied against front line health care workers
Last week in an interview Dr. Anne Zink
…said health care workers
…had been screamed at
…harassed
…and even followed in stores
Imagine how horrible
…a person has to be
…to do this to a nurse
So where would this behavior be coming from?
I tell you exactly where it is coming from
…the Bronson administration
During last week’s Covid pep rally
…attended by the mayor and his staff
…Bronson’s human resources director
…Niki Tshibaka asked attendees
…to
…“Please stand and clap if they believed that
…local hospitals are lying about their capacity
…due to Covid patients”
…And then people stood and clapped
You might remember Tshibaka
…we did a bit on him awhile back
He is the husband of Kelly Tshibaka
…the carpetbagging
…Trump endorsed challenger
…to Alaska’s current
…U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
As we know..
Kelly Tshibaka
…and the mister
…moved to Alaska
…so she could run against Lisa
Both Kelly and Nikki were
…given sweet six figure state jobs by Governor Dunleavy
…which Kelly kept
…just long enough
…to get her $80,000
…in moving expenses
…paid for by taxpayers
Then after she formally announced her run
…he landed with the Bronson administration
Another conservative
…eating at the government trough
…they so dearly
…love to scorn
And Ladies and Gentlemen
…this is something you should
…keep in mind as the U.S. Senate
…race heats up
While Alaska’s U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
…was visiting
…local hospitals
…thanking health care workers
…and publicly pleading for Alaskans
…to get vaccinated
…Nikki Tshibaka
…the husband of her opponent
…was publicly questioning
…the honesty of hospitals
…at a time a record deaths
All of these people
…Bronson, Demboski, Tshibaka
…all of them are pathetic
…there are all complicit
…in Anchorage’s Covid tragedy
They have no substance
…they have no moral compass
…they ignore reality and ethics
…and they only know how to blame
These folks are the Kriners of politics
…Ignorant, thuggish, and brutish
But there is an old saying
…that should be remembered here…
Always be careful when you on top of the world
…because the earth turns over every 24 hours
Their actions come with a huge risk
…and I don’t believe they understand
…the electorate that put them into power
Bronson’s campaign pitch
…was he was going to fix it all
…Covid
…the economy
…government transparency
His campaign attracted new voters that
…weren’t engaged before
…and he won by a mere 1,300 votes
His razor thin margin of victory
….has left him with no room for error
He needs to be adding to his base
…he needs to be earning more supporters
…but he is doing the
…exact opposite with his
…negligent Covid response
Mayor Dave Bronson
…got elected by less than 1,200 votes
…out of 90,000 total votes cast in May
…he desperately needs
…to be adding
…not subtracting
…from his margins
But instead
…Mayor Bronson’s failure to control
…the surge of Covid cases in Anchorage
…is literally killing
…his slim margin
…of victory