The Mudflats Holiday Guide
The chaos of Black Friday has passed. The quiet insanity of Cyber Monday has gone by without incident. Now we are officially into the Holiday season, so start looking for the perfect tree, light the first candle on that Menorah and check out this short list of must have Alaska gifts. Some of them are tax deductible, some of them benefit us at the Mudflats but all of them one way or another support Alaska. 
1) For just $50 you can get our favorite hoodie and a membership to Cook Inletkeeper! It’s a fantastic gift and includes shipping to where ever you want it! Cook Inletpeer also has an awesome range of mugs, stickers and books all proceeds go to keeping Alaska waters clean!
2) You’re a fan of The Mudflats, right? WELL OBVIOUSLY! Show your fandom and support by picking up one of these Brian the Moose branded mugs, shirts and even mousepads. Proceeds go to keeping this blog alive.
3) I’m assuming everyone here has a copy of Jeanne Devon’s Blind Allegiance and Mudflats contributor Greg Palast’s Billionaires & Ballot Bandits but maybe your friends need a copy? Next to a warm hoodie, information is the best holiday gift.
![Aurora shot [left] from Carl Johnson, Road photo from Zach D Roberts [right]](https://themudflats.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/PhotosforXmas-400x228.png)
Aurora shot [left] from Carl Johnson, Road photo from Zach D Roberts [right]
Okay, so I read “Blind Allegiance” and I have to ask this as gently as I know how: Frank is clearly a good-hearted man (despite the fact that I disagree with him politically on many topics), how is it possible that he kept falling for Sarah’s charisma when she so clearly didn’t have the character he was longing to see?
The enemies list is Nixon, not (Ronald) Reagan (Nancy was known to be quite a piece of work around DC).
Insisting that black is white and white is black.
Laying on the charm and sexuality to get what she wanted.
Scapegoating anyone and everyone.
Spending YEARS and thousands of hours to “get” enemies real and imagined.
Look – neither she nor Todd were thrilled with Levi Johnston and I don’t blame them for that. I don’t know that I would have embraced a chucklehead who impregnated my daughter and then didn’t at least pretend to be a mature grown-up in the company of others – but they made a POINT of treating him like a chucklehead and that’s not what mature adults do. You express you disappointment in the poor decisions the kids have made to date, encourage them to think things out long-term, support their decisions or gently point out looming pit-falls, but you don’t shove them into the national spotlight if you can possibly avoid it. Particularly with two teenagers who are looking at early parenthood and realizing that they aren’t going to be a couple for many years.
I hope that in the years since leaving Sarah’s cult of personality Mr. Bailey has done some further research and reading. I recommend Dr. Robert Hare’s works both for the public and for those who research and have professional encounters with disturbing people. Sarah may or may not score high on Hare’s checklist, but she certainly appears to have a personality disorder.
She kept quacking like a duck, why in the world was he insisting that she was a songbird? How did he convince himself time and again that what she was DOING was less important than what she was SAYING? How were so many so enthralled by this woman?
One of my parents was successfully treated for BPD (so I automatically have won the Mega Millions Lottery of Life), so I have certain advantages in spotting people who are scam artists. I’m still dismayed that Mr. Bailey and so many others were so ready and willing to dismiss her actions. They never would have done so for anyone else. In fact, he didn’t.
Again, I do NOT mean any disrespect or unkindness to Mr. Bailey but I’m still at a loss.
It reads like he was having an emotional affair and I simply don’t understand what was so attractive about what she had to offer, particularly when it was becoming apparent that she was glitter but not gold, for Mr. Bailey to keep going back for more punishment.
In the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful 2016.
Screw this holiday season. We have had better than 6 inches of rain and more than 20 inches of snow in the past 2-3 weeks and yet there is hardly any snow left on the ground. It has been in the 50’s,grass is still green,dandelions are still blooming and flies are out in swarms. Let’s make this month Easter so Spring arrives early.:)
I don’t buy holiday gifts, I make them. If, however, I were to shop, I’d take your suggestions.