Kim ✝️

@AlaskanRants @threadreaderapp unroll please

What do I mean when I when I say Alaska is a “gatekeeping work colony” that is exactly the right frame for Alaska’s deeper dysfunction. It’s not just a crowded 2026 gubernatorial field or a numerically Republican legislature that keeps failing conservatives, it’s the entire structure of state government operating like a managed outpost where the permanent class (bureaucrats, unions, contractors, regulators, and federal money pipelines) extracts value while ordinary Alaskans get the scraps. So, let’s drill into the mechanics of this colony and why a governor alone can’t dismantle it without a committed legislative majority. The Crowded Field Is Symptom, Not Strength. As of this mid-April, the nonpartisan top-four primary (August 18) already has 17-18 declared or active candidates, with a heavy Republican cluster Wilson, Dahlstrom, Bishop, Bronson, Crum, DeVries, Treg, Heilala, and others) alongside Democrats like Tom Begich and Matt Claman, plus independents like Destry. Early polling shows no dominant frontrunner and a massive undecided bloc, precisely the fragmentation you described. Political science 101 the parties that let every ambitious name run without early coordination bleed resources, dilute messaging, and hand the general-election edge to organized opponents. Alaska’s history proves it, uncontrolled nomination fights weaken the eventual nominee against the entrenched machine. A serious party narrows the bench early, not because voters shouldn’t choose, but because the battlefield demands it. The 2026 primary will sort some of this, but the real test is whether conservatives enter November with unified legislative slates ready to govern, not just campaign. The Musk Ox/Muskrat Coalition Legacy. Form Without Function You correctly flag the Walker era (2014–2018) and the “Muskrat coalition” (the derisive shorthand for the Musk Ox-style bipartisan blocs of moderate Republicans, independents, and Democrats that have controlled effective power in the House and Senate since 2016). Walker normalized PFD cuts (vetoing the statutory formula down to $1,022 in 2016 amid the oil crash), unilaterally expanded Medicaid without legislative buy-in (triggering lawsuits), and pursued energy rhetoric without delivery. The coalition legislatures that followed kept the pattern, numerically GOP-leaning bodies that still produced progressive outcomes through cross-aisle deals. Today, even with Republican numerical edges (House 21R/14D/5 others; Senate 11–12R/9D as of April 2026), the operational reality is coalition governance. Appropriations, regulatory bills, and budget fights still get watered down or redirected. That’s not “bipartisanship” it’s the colony’s immune system neutralizing reform. Gatekeeping Work Colony. How the Permanent Apparatus Actually Runs Alaska. This is the core you want to expand. Alaska isn’t governed by elected officials in any meaningful sense; it’s administered through layers of gatekeepers who control access to the state’s own resources, revenues, and opportunities. Think of it as a neo-feudal company town where the “company” is the administrative state, funded by oil volatility + federal transfers (>55% of the operating budget in recent analyses).

this is an excellent story efficiently delivered

Ron "Tater Salad" White at his finest. 🤣🤣🤣

Police bodycam footage from Louisville, KY: Officers respond to screams and discover a woman kidnapped, with a chain around her neck and bolted to the floor. She managed to break a window to call for help. This is horrifying!

🚨🚨🚨 Wow check out what went on here for him to ask his question at TPUSA‼️ No surprise

🚨 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent caught off guard on Venezuelan assets? The Trump Administration claims the U.S. Treasury now controls billions in Venezuelan oil proceeds. Congressman Sean Casten asked him directly: “The Trump Administration claims the Treasury has authority over Venezuelan assets. I asked Treasury Secretary Bessent directly what grants him this authority. He seemed to have no idea that he controlled these assets, let alone the authority behind them.”

Those tankers everyone is celebrating aren’t coming here for crude oil. They’re coming for diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline — refined products — and that distinction is everything. US distillate inventories dropped another 2.1 million barrels just last week. They’re already 3% below the five-year average. We are not flush. We are depleted. Meanwhile US refined product exports hit 6.3 million barrels/day in January — up ~10% from a year ago, near record highs. Diesel led the increase. More going to Europe. Less staying here. eia.gov/outlooks/steo/

Happy MARKET MANIPULATION Friday! Or is it "Pretend to temporarily fix a problem I created" Friday?

Wow. A former US Treasury Secretary suggested US authorities prepare a back-up plan in case of a collapse in demand for Treasuries. This is the same guy who served during the Great Financial Crisis. Nothing to see here...

IRAN MUST NOT AGREE TO A DEAL Iranian Academic joins in 10 mins youtube.com/live/9j4y1nt-5…

@WhiteHouse @BlueLightDiet He’s cooked alright He has lost everyone I know personally and many in my housing plan

LET HIM COOK.

Life advice: When a U.S. Advisor on the Prevention and Response to Mass Killings tells you that a specific group has planned, practiced, and executed a biowarfare attack intended to kill you, believe him.

JD Who???

One of the most brutal scenes in human history was captured live on broadcast. Paramedics tried to rescue the journalists who were targeted inside the hospital. As soon as the rescue operation began, an Israeli soldier targeted them again. A moment the world must never forget.

The Board amd management team didn’t know anything, right? Imagine your father or mother sits on the board of Netflix for 4 years. Four years, 48 meetings and dinners cooperating with, supporting and funding a sexual predator named hundred of times in the Epstein files! You thought your dad was a banking champion, top of the food chain, part of the elite, only to realize he is a total scum ball, spineless cuck who supports and funds parasites like Hastings. Visa / Mastercard I thought you guys had brand to protect and strict rules that do not support bad actors? Why do you allow predators to use your rails? They were just fined 250mill by EU for identity violations, yet you process their transactions! Your dad supports men like Hastings, cool. Fuck Hastings, Netflix, its entire Board, shareholders and subscribers, you are supporting bad behavior! Cancel Netflix. Send a signal! #boycottnetflix

@SneakerPeach @Ric_RTP x.com/Ryanmatta/stat… x.com/Ryanmatta/stat…

@Ric_RTP This is so fucked .. there are US citizens that are not allowed to have passports due to fines they’re still paying … that have a ridiculous amount of interest tacked onto them … even though they’ve been straightened out and by the book for the last 14 years.

Trump is about to lock 157 million Americans out of their own bank accounts. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed an executive order forcing every US bank to collect proof of citizenship is "in process." And he just doubled down: "If Treasury and the banking regulators say it's their job, it's their job." This sounds irrelevant but here's what this really means: Per the Congressional Research Service, only 48% of Americans hold a US passport. That leaves over 170 million Americans without one. REAL IDs don't count. Driver's licenses don't count. Social Security cards don't count. Per Wall Street Journal reporting, banks will need a passport or birth certificate. The Brennan Center found 21.3 million voting-age US citizens don't have documents proving their citizenship easily available. These are Americans who are about to lose access to their own bank accounts. And here's the thing: The order applies to new AND existing customers. Banks could be forced to close accounts of people who can't produce documents. Your 78-year-old grandmother born at home in 1948. Your naturalized dad who lost his papers 30 years ago. Your cousin mid-passport renewal. The official story is that this stops illegal immigrants from accessing banking. But the actual reality: Illegal immigrants can't open US bank accounts anyway. Know Your Customer rules already require SSNs or ITINs. The existing system ALREADY blocks what this order claims to block. So who does this actually target? The half of Americans without a passport. Rural Americans. Elderly Americans born before centralized record-keeping. Black Americans in Southern states where birth records were historically unreliable. Low-income Americans who can't afford $225 for an expedited passport. The American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, estimates this adds 33 to 73 million paperwork hours and $2.6 to $5.6 billion in compliance costs. Guess who pays those costs? You do. Through fees. Through closed accounts. Through denied loans. Bessent's defense quote: "I have a place in the UK, they want to know who lives in every apartment." Bessent's net worth: $600 million. He has a "place in the UK." He will not be affected by this. So this isn't really about immigration. For the first time in American history, access to the banking system would be conditioned on proving citizenship to the federal government. That creates a permanent database linking every American's finances to their citizenship status. Once that database exists, it gets used by ICE, voting enforcement, tax enforcement, Social Security, and future administrations for purposes nobody has announced yet. Every future government gets the keys to decide who has a bank account based on paperwork. And Wall Street's reaction tells you everything: Bank execs privately called it "unworkable" and "a complete nightmare." One researcher called it "a way to weaponize the banking system to achieve political ends." They're not pushing back because they love immigrants. They just KNOW the compliance costs are catastrophic and half their customers will walk. Tom Cotton also introduced a companion bill in March making it a federal crime for any unauthorized person to "open or maintain a US bank account." Maintain. Meaning existing accounts. These things are literally being drafted right now. I'm surprised that all of this went under the radar.

@inskigator @Ric_RTP x.com/Ryanmatta/stat… x.com/Ryanmatta/stat…

@Ric_RTP Please tamp down the fears and the overuse of passports. Birth certificates still would be valid. EEEEEEE-Zeeee.