Month: August 2016

The Article V movement is raising a toast tonight in honor of our woman in Arizona, Rep.  Kelly Townsend.  She’ll lead the fight for the Article V BBA in the 2017 Arizona Legislature, and was successful in assisting the take down of the chief spokesman of the John Birch opposition to it  — State Senate President Andy Biggs.  Singlehandedly Biggs stopped us cold in Arizona, and with him defeated and disgraced we should add Arizona to our 28 states.

Biggs was the anointed successor to retiring Congressman Matt Salmon, and was favored to win the Republican nomination, but lost.  His removal from elected office is a rebuke to all the whack jobs who buy into his conspiracy theories, as set out in his book, The Con of the Con-con.   Good riddance, you pest.  I found out today where Biggs got all his money.  He won a $10 million Publisher’s Clearing House prize.  How else would a man of his limited intelligence succeed, but through a windfall?

Even if we get no help, the BBA Task Force, led by Dave Biddulph and Bill Frith, should get to at least 32 next year.  We should get Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho and Wisconsin.  There are also Republican majorities in Virginia and South Carolina, but both will be very hard without major public pressure.  But if the Republicans take the Kentucky House, as they should, it could be our 33rd state, and at that point people have to wake up and take notice.  There are half a dozen Republican State Senators in Virginia who are afraid of Article V, and the kingfish of the South Carolina Legislature, Senate President Hugh Leatherman, will be very hard to move.  But it can be done.

Trump, if he won, could do it.  Biddulph was able to get our suggestion on the Article V BBA through to the highest level of the Trump campaign, and this idea will at least be considered.  Forget about the merits, the Balanced Budget Amendment, and Article V, are good politics. The people now running the Trump campaign understand politics, and we shall see.

George Soros, has a decision to make.  Should he try to disrupt Trump’s appearance at a black church in Detroit?   I say, go for it, Dr. Evil.  The more trouble you cause, the more you’re helping the Republican Party, and its nominee.  Black ghettos have degenerated into the urban equivalent of Indian reservations, islands of despair which blot our country.  They get their government handouts, and are expected to reward their votes to the people handing them out.  By taking this American tragedy  head on, Trump deserves credit.  Apparently he’s mentioning it in every rally.  Repetition is the way to get people to realize what you’re saying, and actually listen.  Blacks may wind up voting for Clinton; if nothing else, doing it for Obama.  But most Americans sympathize with the plight of of their black  fellow citizens, and know that they’re at a dead end, and new approaches need to be tried.  You can’t get elected as President if people think you’re a bigot.

The most extreme Never Trumpers, led by Mr. Smug, Bill Kristol, are running ads against him.  A desperate attempt to remain relevant by the neocons.  But they have been discarded.  Nobody represents them, and nobody wants them.  Sayonara, boys.  You had your big chance to show how smart you are in the Iraq War, and you revealed yourselves as dumber than stumps.  These people should never have any influence over American foreign policy again.

As a recent Never Trumper myself, I know they’re not all neocons.  It’s as though they said he couldn’t win, and so they, therefor, must not let him win.  But he could win.  It’s not even Labor Day, and he’s within striking distance, and is inching closer.  The immigration pivot is proof that he will listen. And the debates will decide the election.  Babbie was looking at a TV show I was watching where they were talking about Hillary’s embrace of American exceptionalism.  She didn’t know what they were talking about, and she’s a smart woman.   People have impressions of Trump, but they’re not written in stone.  They’ll watch the debates, and decide if he’s a bigot and a bully and can’t be trusted with the Presidency.  Who the hell knows how they’ll turn out?  Clinton is such an unlikable human being, practically anybody looks good next to her.

RP co-founder Darren changed the website, so that you can sign up to get it by email without having to scroll all the way to the bottom.  He’s getting married on Monday, and has lot to do, so I appreciate the help.

 

 

Not long ago Forks, Washington was a thriving logging community, and called itself “The Logging Capital of the World.”  The timber came from the Olympia National Forest, and Bill Clinton killed the town’s industry in order to protect the spotted owl, an endangered species.  He promised the devastated residents that they would make more money selling T shirts to tourists than they did logging.  It was all a lie.

Today the spotted owl is more endangered than ever, but it’s not because old growth timber is being harvested.  A competing species, the barrel owl, is driving it to extinction.  A barrel owl is bigger and more aggressive than a spotted one, and they are driving their smaller cousins to extinction by outbreeding them.  The federal government’s solution?  Kill the barrel owl.  Forest Rangers go into the woods and hunt them.  These beautiful birds are too well adapted to their environment, and they must die.  If I was running for President I’d go there and raise hell about it.

99% of all the species that have ever lived on earth are extinct.  In nature, it’s survival of the fittest, and if a species can’t compete it dies.  It’s the cycle of life, and has been for billions of years.  But today earth worshipers insist on intervening in this process, and saving every damn worthless beast on the planet.  They’re playing God.  Sometimes it makes sense, as with the giant panda, a special kind of animal, beloved by all.  But a spotted owl?  If it can survive, we should leave it alone.  If it can’t, it will be replaced by a superior species.  And don’t get me started on the delta smelt of California.

I just read The Big Burn, by Timothy Egan, a marvelous account of the largest wildfire in American history, burning some three million acres, and killing hundreds of fire fighters.  It’s also a paean to the National Forest Service, and its creators, Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pynchon.  At the time, having a national forest system, and service, made sense.  Greedy timber barons were wreaking havoc on the land, and it needed protection.  Today things are different.  If the States owned and managed these forests, they would be in far better shape.  In Idaho, for instance, State forest land is well managed, producing revenue in an environmentally sensible way, and in a manner making forest fires less of a threat.  But the half of the State owned and managed by the federal government is mismanaged, and prone to disastrous wildfires.  The people of Idaho, and its political leadership are not going to allow the destruction of the beautiful environment they live in and near.  The Transfer of Public Lands is the best fire protection the Far West could have.

Today the Forest Service seems like it’s being run by acolytes of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.  He wasn’t a conservationist, he was a fanatic, who felt that the Far West and its forests should remain in a state of nature.  The only human presence that was appropriate in his Church of Nature would be people such as himself, who hiked in and made no disturbance.  Both Roosevelt and Pynchon rejected Muir’s approach, and wanted National Forests for multiple uses.  They just wanted things done in an environmentally responsible manner.

Trump seems less erratic lately, sticking to his script.  Everybody’s underestimated him for over a year, and everyone still does.  He’s such a jerk you really can’t root for him.  But if he manages to keep his temper in the debates, he could destroy Clinton.  Think of all the material he’s got to work with.  He may be a jerk, but she’s a crook, and everyone knows it.  You don’t need to be Clarence Darrow to cut her up.  But she’ll do the same to him, and she’s got a lot to work with as well.  Anybody could put the screws to Trump, and make him look bad.  How he handles himself while under assault may be the key to this election.

W Day is in less than a week, and the tension in my marriage mounts.  Babbie has assumed the role of wedding planner, and takes her responsibilities very seriously.  ATW is just six long days away.  I count the hours.

And it will all be Donald Trump’s fault.  He doesn’t care about the Constitution.  I doubt he’s read it.  He’s on an ego trip.  His refusal to apologize to the mother of fallen Capt. Khan is my evidence.  It’s his pride, and it will bring him down, and with him the Constitution and the country.  This society is coming apart at the seams, but there was still a good chance we could turn things around.  And then along came Trump.  And his ego, his passionate self love.  It borders on mental illness.

He’ll be in the history books, for sure.  As the man who gave the country to Hillary Clinton. I expect she will make us look longingly back to Barack Obama.  Trump may be the only man in America who is despised more than she is.  Quite an accomplishment.  The media Hive knew all along she needed a lot of help, and saw in Trump her only hope of victory.  It wasn’t just the ratings he brought.  Watching this ego crazed lounge act of a politician take out sixteen qualified Republican Presidential candidates was fun to watch, and to enable.  They must be feeling pretty proud of themselves right now.  When the Clinton Presidency, and the country, go down in flames, as they will, they can take the credit.   Notch up another win for George Soros.

I can’t blame the Never Trumpers, or at least some of them.  He’s a vile man, unworthy of high office.  Voting for him is endorsing him, somehow, and it makes you feel dirty.  It will be the worst vote I’ve ever made in my life, but I’m going to do it.  Watching this clown sworn into office would be impossible for me.  I’ll read about it.  There’s only one thing worse, and that’s Hillary Clinton heading back to the White House that she and her husband disgraced.  It’s the one and only reason to vote for him, and it’s enough for me.

The Bush Republicans are, in the end, responsible for the Republican Party as it exists today.  They laid the groundwork for Trumpism.  Their disdain for the common man, all the lies they told, all the principles they betrayed.  Kinder, gentler, compassionate conservatism  is just a code for a half assed liberal.  If they think they’re going to be the ones who rebuild the Party they’re idiots.  We’ve had our fill with them.  Regular people, the kind that support Trump, are the majority of the Party.  If it’s to arise from the ashes it will be led be people who understand the appeal of Trump’s message, which is distorted by his warped personality.  It’s not complicated.  It’s America first, foremost and always.  Take the Trump out of Trumpism and you can see the future.

I somehow convinced myself that 2016 was the year we were going to start turning this big ship around.  And it could have been.  Instead we’ve got a crap sandwich.

Hillary is lazy, and stupid, as shown by letting herself get caught up in the email controversy.  It could still bring her down.  Those erased 33,000 emails were sent to somebody.  If you can hack Hillary, you can hack her email correspondents.

When I was ten I was given an oral intelligence test.  They asked me to explain what was meant by a man grasping at straws.  I couldn’t figure it out.  Why in the hell would any body grasp at a straw?  Now I know.

 

 

 

I spend a lot of time thinking about my life, and the things I’ve done.   I’ve decided to make one more run at getting a book published.  If you’re going to write a book you should write about something you know, and I know what happened to Alaska in the last forty years.  It’s not the place I knew when I first got there in 1969.  Then it was poor, and then it got rich, and now it’s in tough shape.  The pipeline is running at 25% of capacity, and three fourths of the State of Alaska’s bloated operating budget is now coming from reserves.  They’ve cut the Permanent Fund Dividend back to $1,000, and in two years they’ll run out of reserves.  The people want their dividends, but they can’t last much longer.   Unless Alaska is allowed to develop its resources, and generate new streams of revenue to the State, they’ll need revenue from the Permanent Fund, and they may even have to start drawing down its principal.

I’ve written three books, none of which was published, so I’m a little reluctant to do another one.  So I’ve decided to write a couple chapters and send it off to a literary agent.  If they encourage me to keep going, I will.  Otherwise I don’t think I will.

Babbie and I were in Hawaii on a family vacation in 1986 and she asked me why I didn’t go out and make some money.  I thought about it, and she had a point, so I decided to write a book and make some money that way.  It was easier than going out and actually earning money, which can take a lot of work.  I liked Alan Drury’s books, like Advice and Consent, and so I wrote a cold war thriller, titled Brinkman.  It’s about a United States Senator from Alaska named Herman Merculieff, who was part Aleut, part Indian, and part white.  I don’t have any Indian blood, but other than that it was about what I’d do if I was a Senator.  Kick ass, mainly.   Make the Russkies blink.

I sent copies to a bunch of literary agents and got a letter back from an agent named Jay Garon.  He thought he could get it published.  He said I reminded him of another client of his who had served in the state legislature of Mississippi.  A guy named John Grisham.  He assigned an editor to work with me, to polish it up.  Then the Berlin Wall came down, and the entire premise of the book was obsolete.

I was in Juneau serving my final term in the State House when it happened.  I was watching it happen on TV with my buddy Bob Clarke, who let me stay with him for free.  Talk about having mixed feelings.   Reagan, and America, had won the Cold War, thanks to a Polish Pope.  What a story.  Bob didn’t know too much about the Pope, and when I explained the things he’d done he got all fired up.  Bob was a writer himself, and a good one.  He said  I needed to write all that down in a book, which he would edit, professionally.  So I did, but there was really nothing new in the book.  I liked it a lot, but nobody was interested in it.

I tried one more time, with Senator Merculieff stealing a Presidential election.  But it was all politics, and no one but a political junkie would be interested in it.  Down at the bottom of this website is a link to it.  I called it The Eskimo, because the title character is called that by some people, even though he’s Aleut and Indian, not Eskimo.

Uncle Fritz claimed the Pettyjohns had Indian blood.  That was complete B.S, but he insisted on it.  His wife, and first cousin, Helen Mary, was a quarter Oglala Sioux, but we weren’t.  He had a portrait painted of himself, all decked out in Indian gear, looking like Sitting Bull or something.  He was very proud of that.

Uncle Fritz never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I don’t need to tell you who I’m talking about.  When he was elected Governor of Arkansas, the salary was something like $35,000 a year, chump change.  It wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right, so Billy Jeff decided to make his bitchy, homely wife his bag lady.  If you needed to do business with the Governor, you put the Rose Law Firm on retainer.  Hillary didn’t really practice law, she laundered money for her husband.  When they wanted a little extra cash they’d come up with some scheme or another, cattle futures, land deals, whatever worked.

The nation’s First Crime Family wasn’t able to operate full steam while in the White House.  Everybody was watching.   But on the way out they showed their true colors, pardoning financial criminal Marc Rich for a tidy sum.  Hillary became a President-in-waiting, and if you wanted to be her friend (and, really, who could resist such a charming woman) it would cost you.  And what are friends for, if not to take advantage of?

To my eye it looks like the AP story, showing a majority of non-governmental visitors to Secretary of State Clinton were, just coincidentally, Foundation donors, is the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Forget about your politics, do you have any little bit of personal integrity, so that you won’t refuse to see what is staring you in the face?  The Clintons are political criminals, who have used public office to amass great wealth.  If you can’t see that you’re blind.  And if you don’t admit it you’re a coward.

I’ve never met Jonah Goldberg, and have no particular desire to do so.  But I feel a sort of kinship with him, because of how he writes.  His “newsletter”  goes over some of what I’ve been talking about.  Jonah hates the Clintons almost as much as I do, but I’ve had more practice.  I’ve had my come to Jesus moment with our “Presidential” candidate.  Jonah has not, and I don’t envy him.  To keep the Clintons out of the White House I’d vote for the devil himself, because there’s only one of him.  The two of them, together, you double your pain, and you double your misery.  There’s only one Trump.  There’s two Clintons.

Think about it, Jonah.  Billy Jeff, alone at night in the White House, with Hillary on the road.  Doing it in the Oval Office is really special.  I’ll bet he’d like to pull that off one more time.  A kind of a personal challenge.

The thieves who ran the Alaska State Senate when I arrived were Senators Bill Ray and Jalmar Kertulla.  But they really weren’t criminals, they only did petty theft.  Ray was a union boss from Juneau, while Kettulla was from one those Finnish socialist families that settled the MatSu  Valley in the 30’s.  He would have been a communist if he was bright enough.  I actually wound up getting along with Bill Ray, on a personal level.  Kertulla was just an ugly man, with a shitty attitude.

Alaska State Legislators made around $40,000 a year, with $28,000 salary and $12,000 per diem.  Kertulla and Ray were going to get retirement money from the State of Alaska when they left office, and their checks would be very small, because they were based on a $28,000 salary.  So they decided to cut back on per diem, and increase their salary to about $53,000, as I recall.  Doubling the salary of state legislators is not politically popular, and would be easily overturned by an initiative.  But it would take three years to mount a petition drive, get it on the ballot, and have it passed.  So for the requisite three years of employment at $53,000 a year, Kertulla and Ray doubled their retirement income.

Chump change.  These guys had their hands on tidal waves of revenue flowing into Juneau from Prudhoe Bay.  As far as I know, they never actually stole any of it.  They weren’t Clintons, for God’s sake.

Looking back to those days, I am glad I was there.  Jay Hammond stood up to the most corrupt bastards in the State, and faced down every one of them.  It was a joy to behold.   Hammond was more of a man than any man I’ve ever met.  And I got to help him do it.

Hammond kept his distance from me, personally.  The chemistry wasn’t right between us, for some reason.  But his best friend in politics, the guy he liked to travel with, was my buddy Bob Clarke.  He loved telling me stories about Hammond.  Just one time, after I’d been out of the legislature for quite a few years, Hammond came by my office to chat.  I’d done a lot for him, and he knew it.  He was a decent enough man to show me his respects.