Weight Watchers

I almost found myself with a hernia Sunday, while trying to haul in the catch of the day. The Anchorage Daily Stool I’m talking about. The paper weighed in at an astounding 4-pounds or more, with 99% of the weight contributing to “buy, buy, buy” campaigns. What economic slowdown? Sure, why not continue with a subscription, if not for the news, the entertainment provides laughter - still the best medicine. No, I do not read the “Entertainment” section, as the news’ section itself provides its own side of comedy. I wonder, is this paper just a testing grounds for would be journalists? Bottom-line, I just can’t wait for the paper to arrive, so I can turn to the last page and see not Paul Jenkins mug shot anymore, long time commentator and editor for the Voice of VECO. See, for 15-years, the Voice had a page dedicated to the “other” side. So even though Anchorage was a one-paper town, the Voice had a distribution vehicle, surviving like a leech. How this guy supported Bill Allen’s agenda after all those years, it is mind-boggling. See, many of us in the oil patch realized early on - ca. 1980 - that Allen was a crock. He made his fame and fortune by undermining true Alaskans out there in the wilderness trying to make a living, that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness thing. His greed was in turn the workers detriment with respect to wages and benefits, as Allen was dead set on providing “cheap” labor - which went over well with foreign oil companies operating in Alaska, like British Petroleum. Allen had a tough time at first, trying to infiltrate the workforce that had so far made the Alaskan oil scene safe, efficient and profitable. At a cost we did so, because good labor wasn’t cheap, and the sentiment “you get what you pay for” was the driving force. At first, Big Oil was bent on doing it right, so didn’t mind paying top wages for the “Best of the Best”, Alyeska’s one time motto that testified who and what we stood for. It was a give and take relationship that worked well. But it was only a matter of time, wherein VECO hardhats started showing up, for small jobs in and around the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline pumping stations. Some of the early-on jobs went to routine station help, like trash hauling and burning, shit-bag duty, things that the directs frowned upon. And when such infiltration by Allen started to make history, when his posse of underpaid and under-educated made a show, they were branded, “Scumbag Contractors”. It went hand and hand, as Allen was just that, a scumbag. I remember times when a VECO “scumbag” was denied a work permit, because those of us in the know realized that what was happening in the oil patch was not healthy. There is nothing worse then unqualified help in a hazardous environment. But VECO made inroads, first taking the crap jobs, by employing desperadoes, enticing them with low paying jobs and maybe a future. When break-room talk commenced to compare wages and benefits, the VECO hands became nauseated. I once watched a few VECO workers clean up a mercury spill. What PPE? That means personal protection equipment, like gloves and facemasks. The sentiment, if we complain and don’t get the job done….. I felt sorry for one guy, so gave him a pair of gloves. So it wasn’t just the behind closed doors political wheeling and dealing that we should remember Bill Allen upon, but how he imagined greed as a way to undermine our livelihoods. Wages in the oil patch have suffered, due Allen’s work. And like I have said many a time before, who was the force behind Allen? So we survived “Black Friday”, the Saturday after, and made it through another week, only to find “Monday” upon us and the gears in motion, as the Holiday season is here again. Allen is in jail, happier Holidays! And honestly, today was a record breaker. The Stool weighed in at a whooping 2.75-ounces! The cost of today’s paper topped gold! But there was a noteworthy opinion in “Our View”, about “Black Friday”. It was indeed a disgrace that Mayor Dan Sullivan decided to be the Grinch and Scrooge all on the same day and cut out the Muni, on the biggest shopping day of the year! He has to be sick, confused and delirious to the point of lobotomized, to think of such a stupid move. But he knows he can get away with it, just like Allen did in his early years. Bottom-line, to undermine the public trust was at one time not a good scene. It could get one on the chopping block, that “impeachment” thing. But we let it slide, as with only a one-paper town and all the other 1st Amendment protectors wasting time following around Sarah the beauty pageant queen, well we are getting robbed, lock, stock and barrel. Look, Sarah is no different then Bill, on the selfish agenda scale. No different then Ted, Don, MoanaLisa, Frank or Shefield or….. They are all “greedsters” trying to take advantage of Alaska’s once great name wherein the citizens suffer when they gain. For anybody living here today, can with honesty and without laughter continue to say that our representatives have done good for Alaska, just look around and you’ll see still a failed infrastructure that cannot sustain a stable jobs market. But the “crocks” succeed in their endeavors, because we let them, thinking they are looking out for our own good when all the time it is the same old thing, more of the same “snake oil” medicine. It may sound good, but that stench should be the giveaway! If it sounds too good to be true… it is, as it is “trust me” in disguise of political blasphemy.