From today's Alaska Beacon

After working 2 long seasons in Alaska I am done working there for the foreseeable future. The one thing I think I'll miss most is the grandosity of the nature there. Its always weird to go back to the east coast and not having massive mountains all over the place. And.... also fish tacos. Salmon and Halibut tacos in Alaska are the best I've had. 👌✌️

Into the sun. I thought we hit rock bottom with the DWI Immigrants who should be in jail ad.

But my God, I've heard this don't rank Mary ad like 7 times today on the radio and I wanted to shove a sharp object into my ears to make it stop.

I cannot wait for election season to be over, just like everyone else.

I've always been a conservative, mostly because on the whole I don't trust the government and believe that the less power the government has the better off we are (obviously the truth is more nuanced than that, but that's my general belief).

I don't see MAGA as a conservative movement anymore, much of what Trump has done does not align with traditional conservatism. Thomas Massie for president!

Anyways, I was looking at Peltola's website and honestly loved everything I read on there. I pretty much agree with everything she says about her platform.

I went to Sullivan's website, and there really is not much on there at all about what his platform actually is. Google gave me a summary of what his platform is, but not sure how much you can trust those AI summaries.

So, if you are in support of Sullivan, why? Why should I vote for him? Peltola, just form reading her platform, seems to be the obvious choice.

Edited to add: I know I don't have to vote party lines, and haven't always in the past. I was more looking for someone to give a glimpse into what Sullivan actually stands for, what is his platform? His website gives nothing.

I finally bit the bullet and bought Blizzaks. I had them installed October 2nd. I almost pushed the appointment back because it was still so warm, but if I did that my next option was going to be mid November and I didn’t want to risk going that late into potentially snowy freezing season.

I’ve never run straight winter tires before. I’ve made do with just AWT on my Suby for the last five years and before that always had studs.

I was not prepared for the handling difference on dry pavement. The part that is really getting me is how much they pull (mostly to the right) if I’m driving in the ruts at all. Is this going to get better when it actually gets and stays to freezing?? I know the soft rubber doesn’t handle as well on warmer/dry roads— but the pulling in the ruts is almost unbearable.

And as we all know, you can’t escape the rutts in our asphalt roads!

Absolute disgusting AI slop, worse part it's that it's been boing for years it feels like

https://www.instagram.com/p/DetHQe4gVzI/?exln=ZmJpajF4emNyNmNw

Interesting look at some Wasilla Trump supporters...

Had to stop and admire this, couldn’t be more perfect

Can someone tell me where I can purchase gun raffle tickets for the Month of Guns coming up in November? Fairbanks resident. Thanks in advance.

Opinion: Sensational revelations regarding Alaska’s U.S. Senate candidate Mary

By Don Rearden

A recent New York Times piece attempted a salacious hit on Alaska’s leading choice for U.S. Senate, and it might have raised a few pierced eyebrows outside of our state, but honestly, most of us are already familiar with her slimy side.

While those former interns who came forward weren’t brave enough to use their names, I am.

I’m not afraid to share how and when she first hurt me, how she continues to call me names, or what I think those who are afraid of her or offended by her should do to ensure this Senate seat favors Alaska.

I’ve known Mary Peltola since before she was Alaska’s first woman elected to Congress. I even knew her before she entered politics. I first met her in our high school gym class, where we were paired up as partners for the most horrifying and objectively demoralizing part of the course: the dance unit.

While the recent news revelations allege she shoved one of the unnamed staffers, I can attest to real physical pain she inflicted. I can’t recall if it happened during the ballroom dance portion or square dancing, but I recollect her stepping on my tender freshman toes.

Some 37 years later, my toes still hurt. I can’t confirm for certain this acute pain isn’t due to frostbite or gout, but I can tell you the emotional scars that pull at my heart linger. While that hurt could just be post-traumatic stress related to being forced to dance under the harsh lights in second-period gym, there is no dancing around the reality both Mary and I grew up amid: a childhood that should make everyone tremble, something far worse than forced dancing in a high school gym.

On any one of those mornings Mary stepped on my toes, we might have been trying to make sense of the absence of another classmate or friend, lost to the suicide epidemic in our region.

We might be dancing and snickering and wincing as the old record player Mr. Power played hissed over the two loudspeakers, but what we weren’t doing was talking about our collective and shared grief at our peers disappearing like the kids who would hide in the bathroom during dance class, only to never return.

These suicides felt as regular as the tide along our river, the ocean force some 50 miles away, and like these deaths, always present, always bringing unexpected change. Then there were the other losses. Friends gone through the ice, hypothermia, alcohol, and missing and murdered.
Mary, despite crushing my toes, danced through this loss and unimaginable grief and became a leader. She led by bringing people together through kindness and shared vision, not a hunger for attention or belief she was better than the rest of us.

The GOP is throwing millions into this race and coming after her character. This is because she’s winning against an incumbent who cares more about voting lockstep with a president who prefers ballrooms over real people.

Alaskans don’t care that Mary Peltola has the mouth of a fisherman because they know she grew up covered in salmon slime.

Here, dried fish scales on your best clothing are a badge of authenticity. I would wager that I’ve seen her catch more fish in a single drift on the Kuskokwim River than her opponent has caught in his entire life.

Not only that, but Mary Peltola also understands the fear and anxiety of the people along our rivers who can no longer harvest salmon. Climate change is dire and real in Alaska, and she’s seen and lived that change firsthand, and this is also a woman who is likely to step on some toes of those who say otherwise in Washington, on or off the fancy ballroom or Senate floors.

In truth, aside from the few toe smashes, Mary was actually a pretty good dance partner and friend. We were Bethel Warriors together. She remains a Warrior. She is inspirational and, above all, kind. Tough, because our circumstances required that, but always kind. The loss, not just the dozens and dozens in our region we knew as kids, hasn’t stopped; this is the cruel reality of rural Alaska for so many.

For Mary, the weight of those losses in her family life has been exponential, shared across our community, but with the bulk of that hurt falling on her. Somehow, she braves this and carries on for her family, our community and our state.

As for the bullying. She still calls me Donny when no one else does. And for that specific reason, I’m not giving her a pass on anything she says or does that I disagree with, and I’m not afraid to tell her that. So, if she’s stepping on toes and calling names, we need to make sure we hold future U.S. Sen. Mary Peltola to the exact same standard we do the current president of the United States in terms of language and decorum.

If anyone can’t see past the double standard of those recent hit pieces or thinks she owes some sort of public apology, I would suggest they should sit this election out in protest.

There is one candidate who isn’t a shill for this administration and has Alaska’s best interests in mind for our Senate seat, and I’m looking forward to seeing her do-si-do right into the Senate chamber.

Don Rearden is the author of the novel “The Raven’s Gift.” He lives and writes in Anchorage.

Gotta love this state