Part 4: “OIL COMPANY” WALKER, “OIL CAN” ORTIZ, AND OIL COMPANY SOCIALISMBy David G Hanger April 08, 2016
By 2012 the key issue in that election cycle was to eliminate the tax on oil companies in order to facilitate that specific purpose. This was glossed over, of course, and the sloganeering was the need to increase the volume of oil production for the purpose of maintaining jobs. By 2012 also the gerrymandering of election districts had proven effective in destroying all consequential political opposition, and this bunch of crooks now ensconced in perpetuity in Juneau, at least so they think, caucused as a group and established an iron wall of silence behind which they sold out the state government and the citizens of this state with unhesitating alacrity. “Oil Company” Walker is really not running anything. Having forfeited any possibility of political maneuverability by pledging not to interfere with SB21 and thereby giving away for nothing tens of billions of dollars of our oil to the oil companies, the Governor of this state has nothing to govern. We do not have representative democracy in Alaska at this time. “Oil Can” Dan Ortiz’s silly nonsense about “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” ignores the fundamental fact that our government is at this moment a dictatorship controlled by the oil companies, and it is this dictatorship that is telling “Oil Can” Dan what he can and cannot do. Then he is coming down here and trying to sell this to us. He ought know better. We have had plenty of experience with “gangs of four” on our councils and assemblies down here, and we have had plenty of experience with various types of “crazies” elected to public office. Getting rid of “gangs of four” on a seven-member council or assembly is usually not all that difficult. Fire one or two guys, and it is done; and as often as not these “good old boys” cliques sow the seeds of their own self-destruction in relatively short order. It takes a year or two, a little tactical thinking and organization, and we await the emergence of the next pain in the rear “gang of four.” Getting rid of three dozen or so corrupt state politicians is not going to be anywhere near as easy. These people think they have gerrymandered themselves into perfectly protected districts, and it is quite conceivable they have, thus they believe they have plenty of time to conclude their agenda, and let there be no doubt what that agenda is: SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT, THE INTENTIONAL DE-FUNDING AND DESTRUCTION OF STATE GOVERNMENT, THE INTENTIONAL DE-POPULATING OF THE STATE OF ALASKA TO THE EXTENT OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF PRESERVING ECONOMIC, GEOGRAPHIC, AND POLITICAL POWER FOR THEMSELVES AND FOR THEIR MASTERS. THIS IS THE PERFECT DICTATORSHIP THE OIL COMPANIES HAVE BEEN SEEKING FOR A LONG TIME. NOTHING CAN NOW BE DONE IN THIS STATE WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Hiding behind this “iron wall of silence” are a bunch of oil company employees, all of whom are serving their oil company masters, and a handful of tea partiers, all of whom don’t give a damned about the other people in this state or about the state government. At first glance they seem a rather ordinary bunch, these folks who are our state representatives and state senators; not much different in composition from any state legislature out there. One local politician of long-standing made (once again) the observation that he never quite understood how a group of reasonably intelligent individuals could get around a meeting table and make so many damned stupid decisions. That is a little easier to discern with our current state legislative dictatorship because instead of dumbing down, what they have done is “dumbed up.” By which I mean very simply and very succinctly the leadership of both the state house and the state senate are all grade schoolers but one, and that one is a day-in day-out lifetime employee and lackey of the oil companies. They are all oil company shills, every one of them; but worse is the fact that none of them is capable of true independent thought. The “Chief Bully” is one John B. Coghill of the North Star Borough, the current state Senate Majority Leader, a perfect example of why you never elect religious nuts to public office. He thinks he is the big guy on the block, but actually he’s just the bulldog the oil companies have turned loose on the chicken run to keep the chickens in line. Ketchikan has had experience with boneheads like this guy, too. It wasn’t all that long ago we had this guy “Funny Hat” who got elected to local office before anyone bothered to notice that he had an IQ of about 85; but the bigger problem was that he had found Jesus, and Jesus had found him, and he has been touched by the divine; thus anything and everything that comes as product from the mush between this guy’s ears is divine, and anything that anyone else thinks is not. ADD ABOUT 30 IQ POINTS AND YOU HAVE JOHN B. COGHILL. His epitaph: “The oil companies have already paid enough in taxes.” COGHILL, ET. AL HAVE EFFECTED A COUP AND THINK THEY ARE IN SOLE CHARGE OF THE STATE. He actually is just a parrot for the oil companies who do his thinking for him. He has a high school diploma, that’s all; so it’s God, Jesus, and the oil companies that do his thinking for him. The Alaska Senate President is Kevin Meyer, a long-time executive employee of Conoco-Phillips for whom no price is too high for someone else to pay for the sake of his true masters. Then there is House Majority Leader, former airline stewardess Charisse Millett who claims a few college courses to her credit. Her only apparent current private sector involvement is as a board member of an oil company operation, her big claim to fame “the woman on top” in this love tryst that got Kyle Johannsen fired a few years back. Speaker of the House Mike Chenault is another oil company shill who thinks the well-being of his construction company is tied to the oil industry. He’s a provincial hick from the Kenai with a high school diploma. When we in Ketchikan discover that we have inadvertently elected a fool to public office, which is possible for anyone to do and which happens sooner or later in all jurisdictions, we have sense enough to fire them promptly. Perhaps from our experience we have something to teach the rest of the state. These people think they have us by the neck. They think we cannot touch them, that they have gerrymandered themselves into perpetuity; thus they can dismantle the state government and the state to their satisfaction without interference from any of us. I hope they are wrong about their electoral prospects, but there is something that can be done to begin to curtail some of the worst excesses and abuses of our very corrupt state legislators. The first thing to do is to make it illegal for any state legislator to vote money for his employer, or to vote money that will directly or indirectly benefit them financially. THEY AUTHORIZED BY THEIR OWN VOTE THE LEGAL ABILITY TO SELL OUT THE STATE FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR EMPLOYERS. Former State Representative Ray Metcalfe, Retired Judge Thomas Schulz, and others are sponsoring a referendum that accomplishes precisely that purpose. They have thousands of signatures already, and about $25,000 cash is needed to finish the endeavor, plus the concentrated energy of a few hundred younger people to get this petition concluded. They want to get it done by 2018. I want to get it done now. But there is a second referendum that is also necessary to curtail financial abuse by elected officials. No currently serving elected official should ever be a board member of any private or public sector entity while in office or for a period of two to five years after leaving office. Both private and public sector entities have business before the government, and elected officials do not belong on any of those boards. Ever. With these let us begin to restore common sense and integrity to our economy, to our state government, and to our state. END “COGHILL’S ABOMINATION” NOW. In Part 5, an analysis of political philosophy and proposed solutions. Stay tuned. And as always forward to as many others as possible. David G Hanger Received April 08, 2016 - Published April 08, 2016
Related Viewpoints:
Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
Representations of fact and opinions in letters are solely those of the author. E-mail your letters
& opinions to editor@sitnews.us Published letters become the property of SitNews.
|
||
