February 20, 2019
Wednesday PM

The main problem with a parrot is it does not understand that it is repeating words, let alone comprehending what they might mean. So whether you are a liar, a crook, or a murderer does not really matter, the parrot prattles your drivel not realizing even that it is a parrot. There is considerable parallel with the human parrot who prattles his or her drivel with the intent in mind of deceiving you.

So rather than thinking your way through a series of bad choices you voted for this obsessed ideologue Mike “Days of Misery” Dunleavy on the premise that he was promising to preserve the Permanent Fund Dividend. I am not going to hesitate to call this fool a liar and a fraud right now because he is owned by big oil, will not tax the oil, and has no cash reserves left with which to pay state government salaries. All that is left is the Permanent Fund, and “Days of Misery” will butcher it.

You really should think your way through a politician’s lies and deceptions before voting for him and letting him blow your dough. “Days of Misery” is about to leave you without a wallet, and a house that is worthless. Well done, parrots.

If you are under 40, get the hell out of this state now. Don’t plan on coming back unless a subsistence lifestyle suits you.

The Great Alaska Depression is now unavoidable. It is conceivable the economy will tank at the national and international level in 2019 or 2020, but that remains speculative with such as David Stockman expecting a 60% to 70% collapse, others a 30% to 40% “correction.” (In November and December we experienced a 20% “correction.”) There is nothing speculative about the Great Alaska Depression; it is inevitable, and when you put a fool like Dunleavy in charge it is only going to get a whole lot worse.

Bureaucrats are the backbone of the middle class, thus when you seek to destroy government bureaucracies you are in fact going a long way toward destroying the middle class. It is about as logical as blowing your brains out.

The problem with government bureaucracies is they are perceived as being inefficient, which is on occasion true, and the nature of departmental budgeting encourages the employment of a lot of dead weight. Government departments pare personnel, etc. when their budgets are cut, which happens, but generally they will employ to the extent of their budget in the course of which they will often over-employ, and unlike the private sector where lay-offs immediately occur if business declines, there is no such incentive in government bureaucracies until actual budget cuts transpire.

A greater problem exists with perceived inequalities, of which in fairness there are quite a few. Government employees currently get paid more, get far better medical packages, and also get a marvelous retirement which we in the private sector are expected to underwrite because at last glance the Alaska state retirement system was short $7 billion and counting.

Fifty years ago government workers were referred to as “feather merchants” and were otherwise disparaged because they did not make anywhere near as much money as was available in the private sector. It was a “cradle to grave” operation in which one opted for security over creativity and a lack of the moribund.

The big change since then is that government workers have effectively unionized while in the private sector management has succeeded in making unions “evil” in the minds of tens of millions of parrots who work for them for peanuts. In “right to work” states they all proudly parrot their right to work for $2.13 an hour to $12 an hour as something to die for. (Something to die from, yes, but for, not a chance.)

The consequence of this, of course, is that 50 years later government workers are getting paid a lot more than most of you. That in turn breeds resentment, and you start pointing fingers of blame at them, your neighbors, your spouse. So they divide you and split you up and make you hate each other while Dunleavy’s buddies run off with all the dough.

THIS TIME THERE IS NO BOTTOM TO THE FREE FALL.

A brief education. Under the provisions of SB21 no tax or any other fees of consequence is collected on the extraction of oil owned by the state until the price of oil exceeds $110 a barrel. This new SB26 does not do much more. The frauds who forced that through the state legislature knew then that such a price was unsustainable with what was coming on line in Canada, North Dakota, and Texas when they encouraged the passage of that legislation. The oil companies spent tens of millions of dollars to get you parrots to say go for it, and you did. (I sincerely suggest you start studying lemmings and the fable of the Pied Piper.)

WELL, NOW IT IS ALL COMING ON LINE, FOLKS, AND GUESS WHAT? YOU ARE SCREWED.

A year ago there were two major oil formations identified in Texas that were each estimated to exceed known Saudi reserves. Now there are three, another one, the biggest one yet up north of Midland. Last I looked a barrel of oil was down and going down further. So no tax whatsoever will be collected on all of our oil that we are giving away to these people who don’t even live here.

STATE GOVERNMENT LAY-OFFS WILL BE JAW-DROPPING IN THEIR MAGNITUDE, AND THESE WILL COMMENCE VERY SOON.

The Devil’s deal these stupid bastards in the Anchorage/Fairbanks corridor have been willing to accept is not going to save them, and will take the whole state down with them. Instead of taxes the oil companies will give Anchorage and Fairbanks gobs of jobs. They will maintain the status quo at the total cost of any rational future. Because the day will arrive when they will cap their operations, or they will run out of oil to steal. And because the state has not taken a fair cut of this revenue in the form of taxes that could be and should have been converted into future hospitals, roads, and schools, etc., the state and its citizenry will be left with nothing but a muddy rut in what once was a road.

Without a capital budget and with massive state government lay-offs the inevitable oil depression in the Anchorage/Fairbanks corridor will be shattering in its consequence. Everyone else in the state will be expected to pay for it as much as possible, and that will not be anywhere near enough.

Here are some things where we might be able to save some if we force the issue. The question is do you have the guts to do so, or are you content being fleeced?

Whodathunk you can murder one reporter and the price of gas goes down 50 cents and more? Now there’s a deal. The price of gasoline has now dropped to $1.88 a gallon, but, of course, folks in Southeast Alaska do not ever get any benefit from so-called “free enterprise.” Instead we have a gouging jerk, an outright thief, who makes excuses while he rips every one of you off just to move down the street.

In real America as the price of oil goes up or down on the markets that shows up immediately at the pump. The price trickles down, and the price goes down a nickel or a dime, or vice versa and up a nickel or a dime as the price goes up. Those changes occur sometimes three times a week. When the market crashes, the price goes down right along with the crash, and the price of gasoline has gone down $.57 in three weeks. It will keep going down because gasoline reserves are very high at this time.

But will you see any benefit from all of that? Hell no. The state of Alaska is a major producer of oil, but instead of benefitting from this treasure the corrupt entity called the state government long since opted to collect little to no tax on this oil extraction, to in effect give it all away for free on the condition that they maintained employment levels in the Anchorage/Fairbanks corridor. Now they have run out of state cash reserves, and “Days of Misery” Dunleavy will in short order be expecting you to pay for Anchorage and Fairbanks to have their way. Dunleavy will impoverish you to benefit them.

SO FOR ALL THIS FANTASTIC OIL WEALTH YOU AND I ARE PAYING OUT THE NOSE!!!!! You watch. “Days of Misery” will be demanding even more from you in very short order.

For Southeasterners this dirty Devil’s Triangle game that is being played is rotten as hell. There is no conceivable pleasure to be derived from this shafting in both directions simultaneously. We get jammed to finance Anchorage, and we get it from the other end when the gougers jack up their prices because they have a monopoly, and because the government just did.

So it is not in the least unreasonable to insist, to demand that these monopolies be regulated stridently. Particularly in regard to price. You are planning to shaft us to benefit Anchorage, so at the very least you can get these vicious, thieving dogs off our backs so there is something there for you to shaft.

Put gas prices on the list with freight right behind it, or should it be first? Mike Painter is correct; this freight monopoly needs to be crushed. This goddamned Seattle operation is milking us dry, and freight prices have gone up 500% in a bit more than ten years. I don’t know why Mike Painter did not do something about this when he was an elected local official; it is the kind of initiative local government should be aggressively undertaking; but he is right that this outright thievery needs to be stopped. We don’t need highwaymen or stage coach robbers, oh no. Our freight operation is even more efficient at stealing us blind.

Contributing substantially to that price increase are the actions of our very own Alaska Marine Highway System that has seen fit to jack its prices sky high. What three years ago was $772 to ferry a 2-door sedan and one senior citizen from Bellingham to Ketchikan is now $1600. For any of you under 65 it is a hell of a lot more than that. For a day-and-a-half boat ride. That, of course, was William Walker’s way, to gouge bejesus out of us while daydreaming about a natural gas pipeline, i.e. more temporary extractive industry. I would not be surprised that with “Days of Misery” he just shuts the ferry system down; he is after all an anarchist who hates government. (For Valentine’s Day he announced a 68.3% reduction in the AMHS budget.)

The fact, however, is that the freight lines are using the ferry system price increases to justify their own gouging. By his actions and his philosophy “Days of Misery” can only encourage that gouging, so the demands for regulation of these monopolies need to be loud, shrill, and persisting.

For those of you who forgot (or never knew) during the 2008 crash the Permanent Fund lost $10 billion in value in 7 days. Seven days!!! This looming crash could be much worse. But “Days of Misery” and his crooked cohorts in the state legislature have established that, henceforth, the earnings of the Permanent Fund will finance both state government and the PFD.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE ARE NO EARNINGS??? In desperation they will drain the Permanent Fund itself. That actually is what the oil companies and this oil lackey want. They don’t think they should ever have to pay a dime in taxes to extract oil belonging to all the citizens of this state; they are privileged individuals and we are so much shit. To them the Permanent Fund represents the rip-off of funds that they would otherwise have to build their filthy mansions in Dallas, Houston, Okie City, Tulsa. They are multi-national oil outfits, and they are all laws unto themselves, and they are having a wonderful time stealing the Alaska hicks blind.

“DAYS OF MISERY” IS NOT JUST OWNED BY THESE PEOPLE; HE IS THEIR LAP DOG.

In the fall of 2017 a road construction crew came along and fixed this relatively short stretch of road between Shoup Drive and the 30mph speed limit sign on the south end of Saxman, a piece of road that had been quite the disaster for a long time. Come spring another construction crew came along laying pipe and tore this brand new stretch of road to pieces. What for four months was a wonderful drive returned to the patched, crudded-up mess that it has been for so many years.

The supervisors on these projects need to be summarily fired. We cannot afford this kind of incompetence anymore. Get your flow charts straight and lay the pipe first, idiots. None of these people are qualified to manage a heavy construction project; they have proven that by their conduct. How much did this road-shredding project waste in limited capital funds to re-patch (poorly) this stretch of road. My guess is $200,000 to $400,000, and it could be considerably more.

WHATEVER THAT NUMBER IS IT REPRESENTS TOTAL WASTE THAT WILL RETURN TO US IN THE FORM OF MUCH LONGER UNEMPLOYMENT LINES.

Fire these folks first. Not only do they deserve it, but it is another immediate way to save money locally.

“Oil Company” Walker first doubled, then tripled the price of a ferry boat ride, yet to everyone’s surprise use of the ferries declined. (It is, of course, no surprise that when a gouger triples its prices consumers will immediately seek alternatives.) The mere fact of this gouging is being used by the freight company to enhance its already incredible level of gouging.

Let’s do a price comparative with prices from down south:

Gasoline: $1.88 a gallon in San Antonio, $2.65 in Seattle. Here $3.69.
Romaine lettuce: 3 heads for $2.48, here one for $4.49.
Broccoli: $1.38 to $1.73 a pound, here $4.69.
Cucumber: 33 cents, here 99 cents.

Just to eat we are being hammered, and not for our benefit. Some damned gouger who in most instances does not even live in this state is wrecking all of us.

AND YOU JUST ELECTED A GOVERNOR WHO WILL ENHANCE THIS TREND RATHER THAN ELIMINATE IT.

I encourage you all to find imaginative ways to get the money to stay here, and I would like to see something besides cowering when it comes to dealing with the gougers.

Hell is on its way, folks, and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it, so prepare. Whether “Days of Misery” or Governor “Crude,” you just bought into one black slimy mess that will do nothing but cover you with sickening goo.

David G Hanger
Ketchikan, Alaska

(With the exception of two parenthetical phrases this article was written shortly
before Christmas 2018. It was not published at that time because I thought the
predictions too negative for an unsophisticated audience. With the release of
Governor “Crude’s” budget proposals the audience is now much more sophisti-
cated about the subjects at hand.)

Editor's Note:

The text of this letter was NOT edited by the SitNews Editor.

Received February 20, 2019 - Published February 20, 2019

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