This Week In Sanity: "Pestilence"

In a March Q&A with Anchorage Press, Matt Hickman asked me what I thought Anchorage's future looked like. I suggested that should any Republican candidate for mayor win the election — the city would travel a bumpy road.

"I’ve sat and thought about what the pandemic might have looked like with Bronson as mayor and a far-right assembly at the helm. It’s likely our hospitals would have been overrun. Heck at one point Anchorage was down to just a few ICU beds, can you imagine having had an anti-masker as Mayor? Goodness."

Anchorage Press, March 2021

I never counted prophecy among my talents, and yet here we are.

Over the spring and summer, COVID numbers had tapered off due to the responsible leadership of former Acting Anchorage Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson and members of the assembly who didn't subscribe to a 'spread as much pestilence as you can' philosophy of running a city. In retrospect, Quinn-Davidson's leadership style reflects what "following the science" really looks like.

We shouldn't be surprised that "Save Anchorage" backed Bronson has abandoned his responsibility to protect public safety and health — this is after all the man who invoked the "deep state" at a Trump rally last year and whose supporters' spread misinformation related to election fraud, COVID, vaccines, and homelessness.

An ICU or hospital bed is not simply a physical room. They are nurses, techs, doctors, and cleaning staff. Without any one of these, the actual bed remains empty and useless.

As Anchorage's mayor permits the pandemic, and yes, it is a pandemic, to ravage Alaska's hospitals, healthcare workers, and residents — take care of yourself because as many of us have been saying for a year — Bronson simply doesn't care about public health and safety.

Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with —

https://thebluealaskan.com/a-year-of-bronson/

A special interest group has forced the city to hold an expensive special election that seeks to recall Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel from office just months before the Regular Election.

Clearly, this is an assemblymember Anchorage can't afford to lose, and much like the effort to recall Felix Rivera, I believe the recall effort will fail. In these politically perilous times, however, we ought not take anything for granted.

"We’ve had enough! Vote yes! Recall Zaletel" is the name of the registered ballot group seeking to recall her and whose acronym (WHE!VY!RZ) really rolls off the tongue!

No on Zaletel Recall is the group working to beat back the special interest group's attempt to recall her. The group listed three deputy treasurers on its recent filing with APOC in addition to Chair Carolyn Ramsey and the group’s APOC report preparer Austin Mahan.

Anyway, this whole thing goes down on October 26, so if you're in District 4, Zaletel will be asking you to vote no on political activist Russell Bigg's second pathetic recall attempt.

Alaska's whiniest toddler Sen. Lora Reinbold who was banned indefinitely by Alaska Airlines has propelled Alaska back into national news after she was excused from attending floor votes for the rest of the year, telling legislative leaders she has no way to fly to and from the state capital. This week on Facebook, Reinbold suggested the answer to her problem was moving Alaska's capital to the road system!

It's not like the idea of moving the Legislature hasn't been suggested before...right Mayor Bronson?

Reinbold, who is a member of the misinformation Facebook "Save Anchorage" group, promoted a ‘Worldwide Rally for Freedom’ and debunked conspiracy theories about CDC “camps” and “green zones” in August.

In a post made to the "Save Anchorage" group on Saturday, Reinbold wrote:

"Democrats Reps Snyder, Feilds, Zulkosky, Spohnholz just stripped personal choice for covid vax and protections for natural immunity out of HB3006."

Reinbold's post and subsequent comment were about what we've come to expect from the big believer in "natural immunity."

In an August 6, 2021, media statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that vaccinations offered a higher level of protection than natural immunity. The study conducted among previously infected people with SAR-CoV-2 demonstrated that unvaccinated individuals were more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus.

Reinbold has also come under fire over her sharing of a 'COVID treatment plan' at the beginning of September. You can read that below, but I strongly recommend against taking medical advice from any politician who wears a see-through Darth Vader mask.

Do all Alaska politicians have relatives who just happen to be doctors that promote Ivermectin or is it just the one? Ivermectin is a drug used to treat parasites. Parasites are not a virus...I just wanted to clear that up.

Members of certain social media groups began touting Ivermectin as a cure and treatment for COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 when Australian researchers observed that the medicine killed the virus in a laboratory setting. The findings had notable caveats, however. For one, the amount of the drug required to influence the virus was much higher than the amount approved for use in humans and could be fatal. Whoops!

https://thebluealaskan.com/alaska-state-senator-lqrq-rqqnbqld-has-gone-round-the-bend/

I don’t know about you, but I’m growing increasingly concerned about these Alaska politicians who belong to social media groups known for their conspiracy theories and who are…you know, in charge of running important things while they share unproven medical treatments with their constituents.

You should be concerned too. This is not normal behavior we should expect from our elected representatives.

Mark Anthony Cox, who ran for Anchorage School Board last year, signaled he’s making another run and has filed a letter of intent in August with APOC. Cox is running on a biblical value platform seeking to banish “gender-fluid” students to their own “single-stall bathrooms,” a policy move Cox said earlier this year in an Alaska Watchman questionnaire was “wise.” Cox double-downed on his statement last week. Cox's Facebook campaign page is filled with questionable scientific gobbledygook related to COVID-19 data and seems content to let parents choose whether their children should wear a mask during school hours — potentially infecting everyone which doesn't seem like a very pro-life position for someone to take.

Anyway, Cox's candidacy is already a hot mess filled with contradiction and interesting interpretations of COVID-19 data. Read the whole write-up below.

https://thebluealaskan.com/biblical-values-candidate-cox-signals-intent-to-run-for-school-board/

Assemblymembers Meg Zaletel and Pete Peterson will introduce another resolution at this week’s assembly meeting — once again asking Mayor Bronson to direct that masks or face coverings be required in public indoor areas of Municipal buildings and to promote COVID mitigation measures when the Municipality of Anchorage is at substantial or high alert levels for community transmission of COVID-19.

Eagle River's defender of Nazi-themed vanity license plates and who once deemed all transgender people as “mentally ill,” will also be introducing a resolution that’s so off the rails I’m not even posting it here…you can check it out for yourself if you feel so inclined. You’ve been warned. Who knew Allard was such a huge fan of equality?!

Earlier this week I shared a 2013 "article" David Bronson wrote for the Joe Miller website. As I hoped, it spread all over social media and while one person has written about it, nobody has done deep tissue on Bronson's deeply concerning written words.

I have no real interest in opining on this one, but I will say that Mayor Bronson should choose his words better, especially when speaking about Anchorage's unhoused population.