Censorship, Smears, and Socialist Gardening Clubs

One local political group says it fights fascism while deciding what information you’re allowed to post, discuss, and read

Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW this week published a story about the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s effort to take over management of the Dungeness Spit and Protection Island National Wildlife Refuges.

The article sparked a fiery debate online—and exposed just how divided the Olympic Peninsula has become over public land, public access, and who gets to control the conversation.

For years, local residents have raised concerns that more and more public land is quietly moving toward tribal control, co-management, or federal arrangements that reduce local input. Now the debate is front and center.

Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Vice Chair Loni Greninger told KUOW:

“If we’re able to remove some of that less-local control from us, we are able to care for the land more deeply and, I would say, more correctly because we are here and we know the land. We’re intimate with it.”

Greninger continued:

“When these ancestral territories were taken from us in the old days, this is a chance for us to come back to our family. It’s like a family reunion, and we get to bring our family back into our arms.”

What the article never really addresses is the financial side of this arrangement. Taxpayers would still largely foot the bill for land management, infrastructure, and restoration efforts. The public loses direct control, but continues paying for it. The tribe receives the authority, prestige, and long-term leverage. The taxpayer receives the invoice.

And if you think people should at least be allowed to debate that publicly without censorship… well, welcome to the next story.

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“Protecting Democracy” By Controlling What You’re Allowed To Read

Backed by the League of Women Voters, local Indivisible groups are now openly discouraging members from sharing articles from CC Watchdog.

One administrator posted:

“This group discourages re-posting article from entities (for example, CC Watchdog) who do not align with our values. Re-posting is AMPLIFYING their voices and will be removed.”

Interesting.

Because CC Watchdog’s values are transparency, accountability, viewing public records, government oversight, and giving ordinary residents a louder voice than the entrenched special interests.

So what exactly are the conflicting “values” here?

Apparently asking uncomfortable questions is now considered dangerous. Apparently allowing competing viewpoints is now “harmful.” Apparently democracy now requires approved reading lists.

The irony is difficult to ignore. A movement that constantly warns about authoritarianism is simultaneously policing speech, limiting discussion, and deciding which local news sources people are permitted to share.

You can’t spend years screaming about fascism while moderating Facebook comments like a hall monitor for approved political thought.

If your ideas are strong, you don’t need censorship to protect them.

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Picking Up Garbage Apparently Makes You A White Nationalist Now

Speaking of Indivisible…

One member posted:

“Sounds familiar? The Seegers campaign is full of clean up photo ops.”

The comment linked to a CBS News story titled: “When the volunteer helping after a hurricane is a white nationalist.”

Let’s discuss.

County commissioner candidate Jake Seegers participates in cleanups of Tumwater Creek. He picks up discarded needles from beaches. He removes tires and trash from shorelines. He volunteers downtown during community cleanup events.

And somehow… that now invites comparisons to white nationalism?

That’s the argument?

At some point, political tribalism becomes parody. When cleaning garbage from salmon habitat is treated as extremist behavior, maybe the problem isn’t the volunteers.

Maybe the problem is a political culture so consumed by ideology that it can no longer recognize ordinary civic responsibility.

Perhaps it’s time for the League of Women Voters to reconsider which organizations it chooses to amplify.

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Sad, But Understandable

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Keep Olympic Hot Springs Road Closed Forever?

Despite widespread support for reopening Olympic Hot Springs Road and restoring vehicle access into the Elwha Valley, some activists are openly advocating for permanent closure.

One local commenter wrote:

“The best possible outcome for the Elwha River and its watershed, it’s to abandon the road and attempts to rebuild it.”

That argument may sound familiar.

Residents heard many of the same claims during the Towne Road controversy. The public was told road access was environmentally problematic—until disaster struck. A home caught fire. Emergency responders were forced into a lengthy detour. A family became homeless, and their dogs died.

Infrastructure debates often sound abstract until emergencies happen.

What happens if a major wildfire erupts deep inside Olympic National Park and Olympic Hot Springs Road becomes the fastest access route for emergency crews? What happens when public access disappears permanently in the name of a “temporary” environmental necessity?

Road closures have consequences beyond recreation brochures and environmental slogans.

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Socialism Comes To The Library

Socialism has officially arrived on the Olympic Peninsula—and apparently it now comes with library programming.

At the Port Angeles Public Library, residents are being invited to learn what socialism is and why they should join the movement.

One featured volunteer activity? Helping weed the Jamestown Tribal garden because funding was lost.

That’s where things become especially fascinating.

The Jamestown Corporation has publicly celebrated generating more than $100 million annually for a tribe with roughly 200 local members. Yet residents are simultaneously being encouraged to volunteer their labor because the organization needs help maintaining gardens.

There may not be a more perfect real-world socialism lesson than this:

The working class volunteers pull weeds while the connected institutions accumulate wealth, land, influence, and government partnerships.

No textbook required.

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Narcan Today… Harm Reduction Classes Tomorrow?

With the passage of the North Olympic Library System levy—and growing discussions about distributing Narcan through libraries—it raises an obvious question:

How long before local libraries follow the example of the Seattle Public Library and begin hosting harm reduction training workshops?

One Seattle training was hosted by the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, an organization with connections to Clallam County.

Its Operations Director is Lisa Al-Hakim.

Al-Hakim previously worked for Clallam County Health and Human Services as a Harm Reduction Specialist.

Residents have increasingly questioned where the line exists between libraries, activism, healthcare outreach, and political advocacy—and whether taxpayers ever truly voted for that transformation.

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Meanwhile, On The Police Scanner…

Another week on the Olympic Peninsula, another stream of chaos over the airwaves:

But don’t worry.

The real threat, apparently, is people picking up garbage and sharing the wrong Facebook articles.

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Today’s Tidbit: 🚨 NEXTDOOR ALERT 🚨

William on Nextdoor stated that CC Watchdog posts first-source documentation that may challenge their ideologies and make them uncomfortable.

Frequent commenter Jon also reminded everyone that “well spoken dialogue” is frightening.

Jon, please keep monitoring William closely while defending democracy from dangerous outbreaks of independent thought. Here’s Jon fighting fascism in front of the courthouse during a recent Indivisible rally.