Remember, things could always be worse. You could be married to a guy who wears a star spangled romper.

Had a great time fishing this week! #ownit #soulsearching #ownthedash #america

A post shared by Dakota Meyer (@dakotameyer0317) on Jun 30, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

At time like this we could all use a laugh.

And luckily there is this clown available for just that purpose. 

I would not even dress a child in that outfit.

Did the much reviled Pebble Mine project just die with a whimper and not a bang?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

A 15-year fight to mine for gold along Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay might have just ended — with a whimper. 

Canadian mining firm Northern Dynasty Minerals has been a hot topic in investment advice since Election Day. The company’s stock jumped 326 percent after Donald Trump’s victory, as newsletters feverishly pitched the company’s prospects under the new regime. One even went so far as to label the stock “Trump’s Gold.” 

But Northern Dynasty’s long-planned gold and copper mine, located inside a key salmon spawning habitat, is less a secret fortune-maker and more an elaborate pump-and-dump stock scheme, investment analysts from Kerrisdale Capital said Tuesday. 

“All this enthusiasm is misplaced. We believe Northern Dynasty is worthless,” the analysts said in the note. Despite the stock jump, the company is actually “worth nothing because its key asset is not commercially viable.”

Well that's a little underwhelming. And yet gratifying. 

However it should be noted that this project has changed hands at least three times in the last fifteen years, and faced court orders and numerous protests, and yet it still refuses to completely die despite almost universal opposition from the Alaskan people. 

So is this it? Could this be the final nail in this project's coffin?

Well damn I hope so.

A single King Salmon is now worth more than a barrel of oil.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

With this year’s plunge in oil prices, a single chinook salmon is now worth more than a barrel of oil. 

The winter kings being caught by Southeast trollers are averaging 10 pounds each with a dock price of $7.34 a pound, according to state fish tickets. That adds up to $73 per fish, compared to about $30 for a barrel of oil.

Well so much for that "Drill, baby drill" approach to paying the bills in Alaska.

I have to say as somebody who watched my state plunge into corruption with the discovery of oil on the North Slope I am not exactly heartbroken to see that it will no longer be driving our economy.

However in order to prepare for what comes next we are going to need strong courageous leadership.

Hopefully Governor Bill Walker is up to the task.

Do you know who is really going to love this news?

Dennis Zaki.

Zaki absolutely HATES what oil has done to this state, but damn does he love fish.

Literally.

Okay so I live in this amazing place surrounded by breathtaking wilderness, but I rarely actually take advantage of that fact.

I mean sure I like to go hiking in the Glenn Alps near my house quite often, and I have certainly spent a lot of quality time camping in years past, but lately I have not really done that many "Alaskan" things.

So when a friend offered to take me fishing my first thought was "Don't they sell those things already breaded and shaped like little sticks?"

But then this thought occurred to me: "Gryphen when was the last time you sat in a river getting eaten by mosquitoes and trying to catch one of your slimy evolutionary precursors so that you could bludgeon it to death on the floor of a leaky boat? Seriously how can you pass this up?"

And is turned out I could pass it up pretty easily actually, but then my friend kind of shamed me, and nobody shames me except my mother who apparently never forgets anything. So right now I am sitting on a river somewhere in the MatSu Valley uncomfortably close to the home of you know who hoping that crazy bitch never learned how to use that rifle scope.

"It looks like bloggers are back on the menu boys."

Seriously I am not really worried about "you-know-who." Especially when I can instead worry about the very real possibility of drowning, being eaten by a bear, or getting a fishhook through my eyeball.

Now since this is me, you can all rest assured that there is more to this story.

However it is something that I have to keep under wraps for a little bit longer.

But once I get to talk about it, holy shit!

I will try to check my comments as often as I can but since I am in the Valley, and I think they are still communicating with smoke signals and bird calls, it may be intermittent.

Now where have we heard the term "fish picker" before?

Courtesy of Bristol's Instagram Web Server:

Best way to spend the 4th .. My fish picker 

As you all undoubtedly remember it was Todd who first used that term as quoted by ADN in reference to the birth of Trig:

"You can't have a fish picker from Texas," said Todd.

And now it looks as if it is Tripp, and not Trig who got the job as "fish picker."

I also cannot help notice that Bristol has strategically placed Tripp in front of her baby bump. Is that to discourage internet sleuths from attempting to discern the stage of HER pregnancy?

President Obama just used a Presidential Memorandum to protect Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

In a YouTube video released Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced a ban on future oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska by way of a Presidential Memorandum. 

Bristol Bay is the most productive wild salmon fishery in the world, and is surrounded by sensitive tundra. Environmental groups and Native Alaskans have been working for years to secure protection for the area. “Bristol Bay has supported Native Americans in the Alaska region for centuries," Obama said in the video announcement. 

"It supports about $2 billion in the commercial fishing industry. It supplies America with 40 percent of its wild-caught seafood." "It is a beautiful natural wonder, and its something that is too precious for us to just be putting out to the highest bidder," Obama said.

Apparently this does not extend to mineral mining so it will not stop the Pebble Mine, though it may not make a difference since the EPA is already on that case.

Well I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that a certain half term governor/failed reality star is certainly going to have a rant about this in the next couple of hours or so.

However I will also say that Obama just made a lot of native Alaskans, commercial fishermen, and nature lovers very, very happy.

Sarah Palin posts pictures of her at Bristol Bay. I think this is where I'm supposed to say I was wrong.

Asshole blogger!

So earlier today I may have made some comment about not totally buying Palin's story about spending the weekend in Bristol Bay. And some IM commenters demanded photographic evidence.

Ta dah!

Now I am not exactly calling Palin a liar (Right this instant) but there is really no way of proving if this was taken this weekend at Bristol Bay or not.

(Nice to see that she included Trig, though by the way he is struggling it is clear he still does not enjoy having to spend time with her.)

Palin's ghostwriter also posted a few more pictures as well. You know just in case we were cynics. (Who us?)

According to the post this is supposed to be Piper.

Home from commercial fishing grounds in Bristol Bay, and here's Piper helping slay salmon to market! 

A good season for wild reds on the Nushagak, Piper hopes to make enough to cover, maybe, a cell phone bill. Do you agree, as I’ve said before, we need more girls holding up fish in pics instead of holding up iPhones in selfies?! 

Says the woman who has selfies literally all over the internet.

Another Piper photograph, which MIGHT prove that SHE was in Bristol Bay.

Look maybe Palin WAS there, after all anything is possible even though I have it on good authority that she hates fishing.

After all just because somebody photographed Palin in an airport on Sunday does NOT mean she was not also in Bristol Bay fishing with her family at the same time.

Wait.......

Apparently in response to fewer television gigs, poor book sales, and a troubled outlook for future employment, Sarah Palin is now using Facebook to pimp Todd's resort lodge instead of taking shots at the President.

Courtesy of the Wasilla White Walker's Facebook page:

Kings are running in Bristol Bay! These are the world's richest salmon spawning grounds, and Rainbow Bay Lodge can take you there. Todd's weathered in tonight, staying in a yurt somewhere on the water; it's guaranteed that weather dictates one’s schedule in these majestic locales accessible only by air. What a way to get away! The guys' lodge has openings in September if it's on your bucket list; you'll not catch kings that late, but so many other species await, including guides showing you where the indescribably delicious halibut are. I can't do justice describing this world class sport fishing lodge that Todd's very excited to be a part of, so here's info: www.rbrlodge.com (contact: jspippen@aol.com). 

God sure dumped a bucket load of heaven-on-earth beauty and abundance up here, and we share! There's something for everyone here, especially anglers because the only other fishermen are bears. 

- Sarah Palin

Holy crap! Palin has now gone from a Vice Presidential candidate whose every word was covered by the national media, to hawking her husband's fishing lodge on Facebook in a desperate attempt to make some money.

I find this interesting since just the other day Palin was openly lamenting the fact that she was having trouble luring Todd away from the fishing resort so that he would accompany her to the Teabagger's Last Stand in Tennessee, and today she is working to attract business for his business.

This makes me think that my theory that Todd's contract has run its course might have been on the money.

If Palin cannot legally compel Todd to accompany her on anymore of her political pole dancing gigs, she will have a much harder time selling her happy marriage and well adjusted family mythology.

Let's face it Todd has only been seen on the peripheral for the last several years, but at least he was usually present. Now it is beginning to appear that he is done with this shit, and just wants to ride snowmachines, fish, and avoid contact with the crazy lady.

Can't say that I blame him. If it were me the ONLY way I would spend time with Sarah Palin was if I were legally obligated to do so.

Gee I wonder if this means there will soon be an opening for the First Dude slot?

Sarah Palin is headed back to Tennessee to wiggle her droopy ass in front of the paint chip eaters, and trying to get Todd to stop fiddling with his salmon long enough to come along.

Of course we have covered this poorly named freedom orgy last month. And now it is almost here.

Yesterday Palin posted, all by herself it would seem, an update that seems almost plaintive in its concern that she will have trouble getting Todd to accompany her on this trip.

Courtesy of Deep Fat Fried Freedom Chick's Facebook page:

Any bad day fishing beats any good day... well, doing most anything else! (Actually the bumper sticker slogan, which is ubiquitous in Alaska, is the following: "A bad day of fishing beats a good day at work.) Todd and buddies are on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay today (I could have sworn he said he had to fly his float plane over to his fishing grounds to prep for the rip-roaring Bristol Bay commercial salmon season, but this looks more like rod & reelin'! And to think Todd says, "We commercial fish; no time for sport because we don't play with our food.") 

(I'm pretty sure that Todd no longer commercial fishes. Anybody have information to the contrary?)

The plan is to lure him away from his Rainbow Bay Lodge he helps run, and we'll jet to Tennessee for the Seiver County Tea Party Rally on Thursday. (I wonder if this means that Todd's contract is up? Perhaps this is Palin's way of lamenting that she now has to convince him to accompany her rather than wave a piece of paper in his face and threaten to call her lawyer?) Glad he's showing tourists what Alaska has to offer as he guides them from the Rainbow Bay Lodge. Good bear viewing, good fishing, as you can see... and you should have seen the one that got away!

 - Sarah Palin

Palin includes a bunch of pictures of Todd holding various fish corpses, but I live in Alaska so I am unimpressed.

The rally also features other conservative idols such as Judge Jeanine Pirro, Senator Rick Santorum, and Col. Allen West. So you know the Right Wing rhetoric and attacks against liberals will be  coming hard and fast.

And in light of the recent upset that cost Eric Cantor his House seat, Tennessee has now become ground zero for the anticipated resurgence of the Tea Party, so Palin is putting herself right in the middle of an event that could get quite a lot of coverage.

I don't think that they really knew it when they planned this event, but it might actually BE the "last stand" for the Teabaggers.

And that the other "last stand" certainly turned out well. Right ?

Right?

New study may prove to be the death knell for the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. If fish could applaud they would be doing so.

Bristol Bay

Courtesy of the Juneau Empire: 

A government report indicates a large-scale copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could have devastating effects on the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and adversely affect Alaska Natives, whose culture is built around salmon. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its final assessment of the impact of mining in the Bristol Bay region. Its findings are similar to those of an earlier draft report, concluding that, depending on the size of the mine, up to 94 miles of streams would be destroyed in the mere build-out of the project, including losses of between 5 and 22 miles of streams known to provide salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Up to 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes also would be lost due to the mine footprint. 

The report concludes that “large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses significant near- and long-term risk to salmon, wildlife and Native Alaska cultures,” EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said in a conference call with reporters. 

The battle over the proposed Pebble Mine has been waged for years and extended beyond Alaska’s borders, with environmental activists like actor Robert Redford opposing development. Multinational jewelers have said they won’t use minerals mined from the Alaska prospect, and pension fund managers from California and New York City last year asked London-based Rio Tinto, a shareholder of mine owner Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., to divest, a request Rio Tinto said it planned to consider. 

This battle over the Pebble Mine has been waging now for over five years, and it may never have even began if Sarah Palin had not interfered in the the early initiative process: 

The two sides spent more than $10 million -- unprecedented for such efforts in Alaska -- and throughout it all, the state's highly popular first-term governor, Sarah Palin, held back. Alaska law forbids state officials from using state resources to advocate on ballot initiatives. 

Then, six days before the Aug. 26 vote, with the race looking close, Palin broke her silence. Asked about the initiative at a news conference, she invoked "personal privilege" to give an opinion. "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 -- I vote no on that," she said. "I have all the confidence in the world that [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and our [Department of Natural Resources] have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We're going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly." 

Palin's comments rocked the contest. Within a day, the pro-mining coalition fighting the referendum had placed full-page ads with a picture of the governor and the word "NO." The initiative went down to defeat, with 57 percent of voters rejecting it. 

Three days later, Palin was named Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate, throwing Alaska into a media frenzy. But the fallout has lingered from an episode that may stand as one of the most consequential in Palin's 21-month tenure. The state ethics panel is examining whether her comments violated the law against state advocacy on ballot measures; it had already ruled that a state Web site was improperly slanted toward mining interests.

So one of Palin's last acts before being tapped by McCain was to help start a war up here between the fishermen and the supporters of the Pebble Mine. And people wonder why Alaskans dislike her so much.

Anyhow this new report might be the nail that we have been searching for to finally close the coffin on the Pebble Mine for good.

At least I certainly hope so.

How Alaskans know that it is time to stop fishing.

There is no end to the stories of anglers in Alaska being chased away from fishing spots, often sacrificing their scaly booty in the process.

However years ago I met a young man who did not recognize his place on the food chain and he decided to fight back, literally.

As the bear was approaching he kept reeling in his catch, which he described as the most beautiful Silver Salmon he had ever seen. The bear arrived on the scene just as the fish arrived onshore, and he started to lunge for it. My friend used his pole to pull the fish to him, and the bear followed the fish right up to where he caught it with his hand.

In a moment of pure adrenaline, and not an ounce of common sense, my friend punched the medium size black bear in the head, assuming, incorrectly, that it would back off.

Instead the bear reared up its hind legs and knocked the young man on his ass. Then the bear gave a final huff, and walked off with his prize towing my friend's favorite fishing pole behind him.

My friend used to be invited to schools, business conventions, and child care centers to tell that story. After telling it he would show them the scar on his left temple and remind the audience that NO fish is worth taking on a bear.

I once asked him what he would have done if the bear had been a Grizzly, and he said "I would have crapped myself and given him every fish I caught that day."

And THAT, by the way, is the appropriate response in my opinion.

A little beauty to cleanse our palate before we toddle off to dream land.

Downtown Cordova, Alaska

A bunch of delicious Silver Salmon

The area around town is quite scenic

Cordova at night

The harbor, also at night.

These pictures are once again courtesy of my friend Dennis Zaki, who just finished filming a commercial in Cordova.

He thought you would all enjoy these amazing pictures.

I thought you might as well.

My friend Dennis Zaki has a message, and a request, for the readers of The Immoral Minority.

Here is the text that Dennis sent along with the video to explain his plan to help our first people.

Hello Immoral Minority readers!

Gryphen has been kind enough to give me some space here to announce my latest film project in Western Alaska.

I'm trying to raise $21,400 for a documentary about the corporate takeover of Alaska's fisheries that affect the daily lives of the people that live along the 1,984 mile long Yukon River.

Large factory ships trawl Alaska's oceans in search of pollock and catch large numbers (more than half) of the Chinook salmon destined for the Yukon River in their nets.

The Native Alaskans living along the river, are no longer able to support their families with salmon for food or sale, after doing so for thousands of years.

I want to tell their stories to the world via a documentary film.

Politicians in Alaska have been passing the buck on this issue for years.

Gryphen and most of Alaska progressive bloggers raised money to get me to Emmonak to show the world what was going on in January of 2009.

I have been involved behind the scenes ever since to try to get some action out there. Failed half-term former governor Sarah Palin made promises to Alaska's Natives that she did not keep. Present governor Sean Parnell has ignored the situation entirely.

For the film I plan to speak to Alaskan politicians, Yukon residents, village leaders, factory trawler operators (if they'll speak to me), and McDonalds, the primary recipient of Alaska's pollock.

I'll also interview former fisheries observers and hear how factory ships fish "off the clock" in the middle of the night and catch thousands of salmon that go unreported as bycatch and are discarded like garbage.

There are some cool awards given to those who donate including DVD's of the film as soon as it is released.

Help me get this story to the world. You can even donate as little as $1 if that is all you can manage, but of course the more you can help the better.

Thank You,
Dennis Zaki.

If you want to help Dennis with this amazing project just click here to offer your support.

And if you are interested in learning more about the project then please visit the website and read all about the struggles of these amazing people and how Dennis hopes to bring their story to light.

Take a moment to watch what a REAL Alaskan subsistence livestyle is all about.

How to prepare a king salmon for the smokehouse from Dennis Zaki on Vimeo.

This is from a documentary being put together by my friend Dennis Zaki.

This is how he describes it on the website:

"The Salmon People" is a documentary about the struggles of Alaska Natives to survive without king salmon while corporations catch their fish and dump them overboard as bycatch in the quest for McDonald's filet-o-fish sandwich.

Did you listen to how proud that Lenora Hootch was as she described learning how to cut up the salmon to be dried and smoked with her father as a young girl?  Did you hear how humble she was, and how thankful she felt to have fish to feed her family? Quite a contrast from that OTHER program which claims to show people the real Alaska now isn't it?

Unlike Sarah Palin these people live the TRUE Alaskan subsistence lifestyle.

They could not imagine the luxury of spending $42,400 for a freezer full of Caribou meat. That is something that rich people, with choices, get to do if they have millions of dollars at their disposal and want to play pretend hunter or fisherman. 

For these people it is about feeding their families, NOT feeding their egos.

Have you not had enough Shannyn Moore? Well then you are in luck!

Here are the embeds for Moore up North from today.

Part One



Is Dr. Carol Ann Woody the hottest biologist you have ever seen or what?

Part Two



Part Three



Part Four



Part Five

Is it possible that Sean Parnell will be a much more effective Governor than Sarah Palin? Yes I realize that she set the bar pretty low.

Governor Sean Parnell today sought to secure federal disaster relief for Yukon River residents. Parnell urged the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a fishery disaster due to poor returns of chinook salmon on the Yukon River.

“I trust Secretary Locke will recognize the severity of the situation on the Yukon and declare a fishery disaster,” Governor Parnell said. “I look forward to working with federal agencies and Alaska’s congressional delegation to secure disaster relief assistance for this region.”

The Magnuson-Stevens Act authorizes various forms of federal assistance through the National Marine Fisheries Service when the Secretary of Commerce determines there is a commercial fishery failure due to a fishery resource disaster.

State analysis indicates that the decline in the Yukon chinook fishery meets the standards in federal law as well as National Marine Fisheries Service policy for disaster declarations and criteria.

I have not known exactly what to make of our new Governor up till this point. But I have to say this is a good start.

Get out the Maalox boys and girls, the Governor is going to give another poorly scripted speech.

Gotta give love to Uncle Ted.

And good for you for escaping justice on a technicality. You make us proud you corrupt bastard.

Does anybody else notice how she looks down at her cheat sheet everytime she come to a word with more than two syllables? Is that mean that I point that out?

What does Alaska have to offer? Succulent seafood and crazy ass Governors. Oh that should bring tourists up by the truckload.

Well gosh...uh...also...since Todd's family has been fishing....gosh...all of their lives...and I am totally like those people on the "Deadly Catch"...uh...nobody could really question that I know ALL about fishing......also I ate some right here, so I even know how it tastes....gosh....so good, and succulent.

I need to give a huge shout out to my pal Dennis Zaki for having the stamina and internal fortitude to sit through that speech and film it for his fellow bloggers.

You da man Dennis!

Emmonak and other villages in the Yukon Delta have yet to receive any help from Sarah Palin, but some Seattle businessmen are much more compassionate.

Three years ago, Seattle seafood consultant Jon Rowley was drawn to the Yukon River delta by salmon — silver chinook endowed with prodigious amounts of oil that help them swim some 2,000 miles across Alaska to distant Canadian spawning grounds.

With proper handling and marketing, Rowley figured that these fish could gain the same type of celebrity status as the Copper River salmon he began promoting back in the 1980s.
But this winter it's the fishermen, not the fish, that have Rowley's attention.

The fishermen are Yup'ik Eskimos whose villages in western Alaska have been slammed by a dismal salmon season, high fuel prices and recent cold snaps that forced some families to skimp on food as they tried to scrape up enough cash to warm their homes.

Their plight has helped stir an unusual relief effort aimed not at some distant Third World nation but at rural communities in oil-rich Alaska.

Rowley helped launch a monthlong fundraising event that began Sunday at Elliott's Oyster
House at Pier 56 in Seattle, where Yukon chum salmon, marketed as keta, will be on the menu. From 20 to 25 percent of the revenue from each keta plate will be donated to a fuel fund for Alaska villagers.

"These are strong people who are used to enduring hardships," said Rowley. "They do it quietly and are not used to asking for help."

That is very true. What most people fail to realize is that these are proud independent people who felt great shame to have to ask for any help from anybody! Even their very own government.

And as we have seen asking their government did not do them one bit of good anyhow.

But what Nick Tucker's letter did was to enlighten everyday people as to what was happening in Emmonak and other villages.

With the help of Alaskan liberal bloggers, radio hosts, and activists, we were able to get enough help to the village of Emmonak to substantially ease their situation. And that relief started arriving in Emmonak the very day we started raising money.

And now we have this group in Seattle working to provide a long term solution to the problems facing these Alaskans who are essentially living in third world conditions tight here in our state. On behalf of my fellow Alaskans I would like to say thank you Seattle.

My question is why could our government not have helped get a program like this started ten years ago? And why is their NOTHING like this in the planning stage now?

It just makes me sick to my stomach to see my government doing nothing while people from other states come to the aid of my Alaskan brothers and sisters.

Off to go fishing.

I am getting loaded up to start my drive to Kenai this morning.

I am taking the kids for an afternoon of dipnetting.

Oh joy!

I actually am not much of an Alaskan when it comes to sports fishing or hunting, two activities that I rarely if ever engage in.

And for me dipnetting is particularly troubling as it is really just a matter of "gathering fish", there is no real sport in it as it simply entails scooping them up and putting them in your cooler.

I talked to my daughter last night, who absolutely loves to fish, and she reminded me that dipnetting is "cheating". I have to agree with that sentiment.

But I will suck it up and go, since we were invited by a good friend, and I am sure it will be an adventure.

Whoopee!!

Update: Trip was cancelled due to my friends flu-like symptoms. I can only hope to deal with my sense of loss in as a brave a manner as possible. LOL!