Blaine Confidential

Whatcom Business Alliance--featured in a photo in the March 31-April 6, 2022 edition of The Northern Light--was founded by former county executive candidate Tony Larson. This Republican organization (note the shrine to Doug Ericksen in photo), made its bones lobbying on behalf of BP for fossil fuel export at Cherry Point. Larson's former director of operations and board member Laura McKinney and her husband James were key players in the Tea Party network. This network of racists and religious bigots, that included Larson, attacked Lummi Nation and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians in the treaty rights v fossil fuel export conflict.  Read more at On a Mission from God , published at Noisy Waters Northwest.

Facebook and COVID Denial --a report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights--examines the current wave of far-right activism, insurrectionism, and violence rooted in racism. In this aspect, the far-right protest movement against public health measures resembles the Christian Patriot uprising of the 1990s that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. In Whatcom County, seven "patriots" were arrested and convicted in federal court of making bombs to murder human rights activists. Real world consequences of this Facebook-enabled movement include attacks on hospital doctors and threats against school boards by a new generation of bigots calling themselves patriots.

In her Northern Light 2017 and 2021 candidate interviews, Blaine school board member Laura McKinney cited her experience working for the US Chamber of Commerce-- a lobbying organization that opposes unions, occupational safety, and public health measures that threaten the tobacco industry --and Whatcom Business Alliance-- a fossil fuel export advocacy organization .  As noted in my 2019 article On a Mission from God , published at Noisy Waters Northwest , Laura and her husband James McKinney are key players in the Tea Party network promoting Christian white supremacy. As reported in 2020 in The Searchlight Review , James McKinney--emcee at earlier pro-Trump rallies--led anti-mask rallies in Lynden opposing COVID-19 restrictions. Earlier in the year, Laura McKinney was the lone dissenting vote on the Blaine school board against remote learning during the pandemic. [Ed. Note] In October 2019, Noisy Waters Northwest and The Searchlight Review were recognized for " citizen journalis...

 As reported at Noisy Waters Northwest , port commission candidate John Huntley is a bigot. 

As I noted in my 2018 Center for World Indigenous Studies article Corporate Crimes, First Nations & Environmental Organizations , the Alberta Tar Sands project is geographically the size of Florida, and daily uses enough natural gas to heat 6 million homes. As the dirtiest industrial undertaking in human history, the oil mining there has denuded the Boreal forest and annihilated the indigenous peoples of the region.  This cultural genocide is the price consumers are evidently willing to accept for the convenience of flying or driving when ever or where ever we want. The oil mined from the Tar Sands is shipped via pipeline to Burnaby and Cherry Point.

As observed in the New York Times , Lummi Nation victories against the fossil fuel export industry have shifted perception by lawmakers and oil refineries, challenging growth-at-all-costs consumerism in favor of communal endurance and what the ecosystem of the Salish Sea can bear.

As reported in the San Juan Islander , RE Sources has released an illustrated guide to climate change solutions for the Salish Sea region. Having stood by treaty tribes in their victories over the Cherry Point fossil fuel export lobbyists at Whatcom Business Alliance, RE Sources advocates a more thoughtful approach to living than the rape and plunder model still in effect after two hundred years. Meanwhile, Cherry Point oil refineries can be counted on to continue corrupting elections, and worse .