"once fawned over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for having the “BDE [Big Dick Energy] that we want all of our leaders to have,” is now spreading conspiracy theories about the Republican darling."
We need a good liberal strategist, like James Carville, to put together a blueprint to wreck DeSantis' drive to the White House in 2024 and send him back to Florida where he can continue to ravage that state.
filed a lawsuit asking Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, to hand over various election records before the statewide canvass of the results, which is scheduled to happen on December 5.
And it was a typical Arizona Trumpster Republican that threatened a "violent revolution" and "death penalty" at a Maricopa County election hearing. According to RawStory...
A woman named Kathy Roscoe told the supervisors that she came to the hearing "to get an up close and personal look at the seven traitors to the United States Constitution."
She continued...
"I will not repeat your election crimes," Rosco said. "I will just say, not
certifying the machines constitutes a form of interference and in case no one has enlightened you people, interference in an election in the United States of America, Mr. Gates (Maricopa Board of Supervisors), is a capital offense; it's considered treason punishable by the death penalty!"
And, the Arizona lunatic state Sen. Wendy Rogers, recently censured by her own party for her comments on the Buffalo gun massacre, is now...
"promising Trump supporters she can have the 2022 Arizona election redone, as a fundraising gimmick."
"From the glass half full department, Maricopa County’s vote to certify the Nov. 8 election opens an entirely new grifting opportunity for the election denial industry," wrote [Laurie] Roberts. "And who but our own state Sen. Wendy Rogers to lead the way? Within minutes of the (Republican-run) Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voting (unanimously) to certify the vote on Monday, Rogers had her hand out. 'I am Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers, and I will hold Maricopa County accountable for its election shenanigans,' she wrote, in her fundraising plea. 'Help me get a new election for Maricopa!' And by 'help,' she means send her money."
Okay, maybe we can't stop the momentum but what we can certainly slow it down by illustrating to the rest of the country what a bunch of certifiable morons we have in Arizona's state government.
"Sollenberger, writing for the [Daily] Beast in an article published on November 28, reports that in 2021, Arizona Republican Party Vice Chair Gina Swoboda was hired as executive director for “the Uihlein-backed dark money nonprofit Restoration Action Inc.” Her salary was $108,750 per year."And in corporate America some of the largest corporations handed out more than $8 million "in campaign contributions toward candidates running for federal office who denied the results of the 2020 election and promoted ideas that the race was stolen from former president Donald Trump." Of course, Chas. Koch and Koch Industries was one of the leaders in the gang of democracy mongers. Another you will want to know about before planning home repairs is Home Depot.
There are more so remember the names if you have a relationship with these companies and let them know how you feel...
"AT&T, Home Depot and UPS, which collectively contributed more than $1.6 million to campaigns that pushed ideas of election fraud.
"Others included Comcast, NBC Universal, the American Crystal Sugar Company and Delta Airlines."
Arizona GOP Election Rejecting Zeal Could Boomerang On Party's Candidates...
“Swoboda, a former Trump campaign official and the vice chair of the...
"Arizona Republican Party, is now leading a misguided charge against the ballot count in that state on behalf of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake,” Sollenberger explains. “Swoboda currently serves as ‘election integrity’ coordinator for Lake, whose repeated false claims of voter fraud have ingratiated her to former President Donald Trump and who still refuses to acknowledge her election loss to (Democratic Arizona Secretary of State) Katie Hobbs.”"Kari Lake is a big promoter of Swoboda and the Uihleins' funded Restoration of
"This is a reminder that there’s big money behind the push to undermine democracy. Through Restoration Action and other entities, an array of groups pushing election conspiracy theories are backed by literally tens of millions of dollars from just one billionaire couple.”
This anti-democracy movement must be stopped now but so far lacks a real leader. If one doesn't step up to the plate soon it could be too late.
But as it turns out the Donald Trump administration, which didn't make the state necessarily more red, did incite the brand of retaliatory politics that has resulted in the recent chaotic gubernatorial election. Kari Lake, a radical right Trumpster who is also a 2020 election denier, challenged Democrat, Katie Hobbs, who wasn't squeaky clean but a hell of a lot more honest and qualified than Lake. Hobbs had a narrow win but Lake is still contesting the certified voting results.
Other Trumpsters and 2020 election deniers also lost, but Abe Hamadeh, in a tight race for...
"attorney general, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the preliminary results of an election that had already been headed to an automatic recount."
You can see the stupidity of these people who react with no thought to what they are doing. Idiots. Hamadeh had a guaranteed runoff. But, what puzzles me even more, probably shouldn't in Arizona, is the fact the races are so close. You would think when known anarchists are on the ballot the logic would be that it is a threat to our democracy, vote them down. Much of the country did in the blue tsunami, but not Arizona. The New York Times reports...
Mr. Hamadeh’s lawsuit, filed in State Superior Court in Maricopa County, names as defendants Arizona’s secretary of state — Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who won the governor’s race — as well as the county recorders and boards of supervisors in the state’s 15 counties. The Republican National Committee joined Mr. Hamadeh in the suit as a plaintiff.
Inside The Arizona GOP' 'Anti-Democracy Experiment'...
"Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County officials on Wednesday, accusing them of breaking election laws and demanding they provide information about voters whose ballots were impacted by Election Day printer issues."
But, one of the most critical wins for Democrats was Sec. of State; the position controls state elections and Republican candidate and a Trump denier Mark Finchem had repeatedly said he may not certify some elections. With that area worsening on a daily basis, the Washington Post corroborates the problem in this piece, "Election denial is reaching new levels of absurdity in Arizona." Here's their
"Arizona is home for many of the most fervent true believers in the election fraud myth. Their ire is directed toward election authorities in Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, where roughly 60 percent of the state’s votes are cast. After the 2020 election, the purveyors of the fraud narrative pushed the state legislature to authorize the so-called audit of the county’s vote. That effort confirmed Joe Biden’s victory, but it did nothing to quell the faithful’s suspicions."
That was followed by what WaPo calls the "fraud squad," illegal electors, led by gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake. She, along with the Trump supported gang of mock politicians lost, and as far as I am concerned, Arizona is saved...for the time being. We still have a Republican legislature to deal with and Governor-elect Katie Hobbs has indicated her plan to work with them. Being the self-designated state pessimist, I have my doubts but unlimited hope for turning Arizona blue.
"There are 291 election deniers on the ballot."
You can see the 291 deniers in the "on the ballot" link, above, with names you will recognize like Kevin McCarthy, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Kari Lake, Herschel Walker; you get the idea. But Blow reports...
In a major speech Wednesday night, President Biden described election denial as “the path to chaos in America.” “It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.” But in truth, the extremism, racism and white nationalism are neither un-American nor unfamiliar.
There are comparisons with the William Howard Taft administration in 1908, later Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on an “America First” platform, which soon became "associated not just with isolationism, but also with the Ku Klux Klan, xenophobia and fascism." Wilson was a racist from the South and is measured against Donald Trump who Blow says...
"is one of the worst presidents — if not the worst — that this country has ever had."
More matching between Wilson and Trump...
It was Wilson who screened “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, a film that pushed the “Lost Cause” narrative and fueled the rebirth of the Klan.
Assessing threats of political violence and rising extremism on the far-right...
Civil war has been talked up by Republicans and now they are targeting their own with in-fighting over the upcoming Dec. 6, runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. This is a must win for the GOP and it all boiled over recently between Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott of Florida...
"A long-simmering, mostly private tension between the two men and their allies came to a head this week as their respective political consultants resorted to publicly insulting each other, particularly over how each was approaching the upcoming Georgia election."
Democrats would welcome Republicans keeping their extremism internally as long
"Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is ready [to] unleash a civil war in the Republican Party after its poor showing in the midterms.
"The Georgia congresswoman also indicated she would throw her support behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast."
Have you heard the talk recently from a past GOP congressman who said Kevin McCarthy will be Speaker of the House in name only? He said Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the actual Speaker.
Did anyone see that coming?
"Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) sent out a campaign with a solemn, all-caps heading: PARTICIPATING IN OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.
"As I read the email, I noticed that Boebert’s campaign uses a lot of words here to describe our form of government. It’s a “constitutional process.” It’s “representative.” But one word is glaringly absent: “democracy.”
Indeed, Republicans across the country are removing the word “democracy” from their lexicon. My colleague Pema Levy reported today that in Arizona, Senate candidate Blake Masters argued that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. “It sounds like a nerdy takedown,” she writes, “but it’s being bandied with frequency by Republicans who also support minority rule and supported overturning President Biden’s 2020 victory.”
Robert Reich says, and I agree, Democrats Can No Longer Compromise with “Authoritarian” Republicans. Republicans no longer understand or condone the word "compromise." From the right, no one since Everett Dirksen, U.S. Senator from Illinois, has mastered his ability to negotiate and compromise for the good of the U.S. Reich says...
President Biden must “push back as hard as he can” if Republicans take control of even one chamber in Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections. He says the administration needs to be clear there is no compromise on the debt ceiling, which he expects a Republican-controlled Congress would challenge, potentially triggering a repeat of the political crisis in 2011 under former President Obama.
Well, the Democrats still hold the Senate and that position could strengthen if Warnock wins in Georgia. The House is still up for grabs but, at best, Republicans will end up with a small majority. The focus is then on 2023, then 2024 with plenty of time for the left to build momentum.
The pundits have labeled Arizona a test of the future of democracy in this country. If the denier, liar and conspiracy specialist Kari Lake, supported by Donald Trump, wins, Arizona goes down the tube. Unfortunately, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs did win reelections but, there is some good news...
Democratic Secretary of State candidate Adrian Fontes held a lead over Republican nominee Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, when initial election results were published on Tuesday night, 59.4% to 40.6%.
And more on the good side: For U.S. Senate, Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly
"This was supposed to be an election where it would be embarrassing for Joe Biden to wake up in the morning. And it's not going to be."
The Washington Post reported...
"Voters, it would appear, saw this midterm as something more than a referendum on the party in power; with Republicans putting forward a host of extreme, election-denying candidates and little by way of an agenda, it became a choice between two drastically different paths forward."
"Between former president Donald Trump’s continued domination of the news and the backlash against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the right to abortion, Americans are — rightly — focusing on the question of what the opposition party stands for and what Republicans would do if they again found themselves controlling one or both houses of Congress."
The key here is the question of whether Republicans have an agenda? As an example, Arizona's gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake's agenda is that she is an avid Trump supporter, that's it, a fact that has proved fateful for others like her across the country. There is still a lot to be determined and we aren't likely to have Georgia results on Warnock and Walker until Dec. 6, an important race for the control of the Senate.
With egg on their face, Republicans will still attempt to show us what they can do. History tells us that could be a disaster.
What can I say about Kari Lake?...She's a misinformation lunatic and possibly the next train wreck to hit Arizona unless she is stopped. If you go to "Search," above, and type in her name, there are numerous posts that express the need to defeat her. One of my favorites is "Kari Lake, Potentially Most Dangerous Politician in America," It recounts one of her latest lies saying she has won the election...
"Lake boasted that recent polls showed her up 11 points and 9 points just before Fox News flashed a graphic of the latest New York Times/Siena College poll showing the race tied at 48 to 48 percent."
You cannot believe Kari Lake so why would anyone but an idiot want her for the next governor of Arizona? VOTE FOR KATIE HOBBS (D) TOMORROW!
Mark Finchem is a devout 2020 election denier, but his most serious downside is the fact that he has said, if elected, he wants to do away with 'vote by mail' in Arizona and will make changes to the state's voting system that will make it harder to go to the polls in the future. In a debate this whacko admitted 'the big lie" is a fraud. Duties of the Arizona Secretary of State include serving as the state's chief election officer. So, VOTE FOR ADRIAN FONTES (D) TOMORROW!
Blake Masters, another avid believer that the 2020 election was won by Donald Trump, not Joe Biden. Masters is not alone...
"Election deniers will be on the ballot in 48 of 50 states and make up more than half of all Republicans running for congressional and state offices in the midterm elections. Nearly 300 Republicans seeking those offices this November have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis."
This is unconscionable as is Masters' position in Arizona. VOTE FOR INCUMBENT SENATOR MARK KELLY TOMORROW!
Leading Phoenix columnist E.J. Montini says it all in his headline, "Arizona's Jan. 6 insurrectionists should be barred from holding office."
The same should apply, of course, to the other 2020 deniers mentioned above. But it all comes down to the 14th Amendment; here is Section 3...
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.And the other non-active Arizona election participants are Karen Fann, Kelli
“Of course I condemn the violence in Buffalo, who doesn’t?” Rogers tweeted on Monday morning – two days after suggesting it was a false flag attack by a federal agent.
Could it get any hotter? Many political pundits are exclaiming, 'so goes Arizona, so goes the rest of the U.S. The local newspaper, The Arizona Republic, a conservative publication said this...
"Don't sit out this election. The stakes are too high"
VOTE TOMORROW AND MAKE THIS A BLUE TSUNAMI!
The state of Arizona is now a dead-center on the issue of our loss of democracy. This honor results clearly from the candidacy of the lunatic, Kari Lake, who is running for governor. Frank Bruni of the New York Times dubs her as part of, "The Republican Double Standard That’s Endangering American Democracy. Here's the scenario...
"A Republican victory in a tightly contested race means that Democrats’ desires or schemes to corrupt it didn’t pan out. Let freedom ring! A Democratic victory means that George Soros cast a magic spell over voters while a global cabal of socialists and pedophiles used space beams to scramble the results that voting machines spit out."
Kari Lake doesn’t commit to accepting Arizona election result if she loses...
Kari Lake was skewered on the latest Saturday Night Live, and her misguided rants over a fixed 2020 election and sophomoric idolatry of Donald Trump makse her a laughingstock among the thinking population. But many Arizonans are flocking to her side, making the competition with Hobbs very close. Bruni exclaims...
"Republicans are fashioning a politics without accountability. They’re rigging reality itself. And Lake’s interview with Bash was one of those moments that captured, in miniature, the broader dynamics and dysfunctions of its time."
Bruni continues...
"Look at all that doubt! It’s a garden, it’s a thicket, it’s a wild anti-Eden all its own. It must be tamed — and you know how? Elect Kari Lake. Bow to Ron DeSantis. Because they’re spotlighting that doubt. They’re boldly confronting it. They’re not letting evidence, or the lack thereof, get in the way of emotion."GOP governor says Trump-backed candidate is misleading voters...
"If enough Americans exalt feelings over facts, insist on their preferred version of events rather than the actual one, refuse to subjugate their personal wants to any public good and reject the processes and institutions that enable group decisions, we have chaos. We all lose."
Bruni says he won't accept that result and neither will I.
VOTE KATY HOBBS GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA.
So, I decided to see what Cohen stands for and found his issues far from lunacy. As an example, Cohen supports Biden's Student Loan Debt Relief; also for the President's pardons for marijuana possession; the congressman wants to name Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Whatever Cohen says, it can't compare with statements like "the Lord has washed me in the blood of Jesus," from Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker. Bill Maher dubs him an "idiot."
But it is Arizona's gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, who takes the cake. Her
“I’m a true believer that if MLK, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, if JFK were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be America First Republicans,” Lake promised. “I really believe that.”
So ludicrous it doesn't justify a reply. But MLK's daughter fired back...
King's daughter called Lake's claim absurd and noted that saying something like that was being dismissive of her father's 'seminal work and beliefs.'"
"despite Greene’s apparent rush to pay her respects to what she believed was a Confederate monument, the monument actually pays tribute to Union troops that battled the Confederates."
In The Ring of Fire progressive post by Farron Cousins, he comments...
"Two factions within the Republican Party are fighting for dominance right now, and the lunatics are winning by a lot. The Gaetz’s, Jordan’s, and Gohmert’s are the ones making the rules now, as they are the ones with the biggest reach and the ones being amplified by right wing media."
As Cousins exclaims the lunatics are winning, he adds more to the gang: "your Josh
"More than 840 people have been arrested for storming the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, with charges ranging from obstruction of an official proceeding to assault. But 17 months after the attempted insurrection, a significant number of rioters are still awaiting their sentencing."
One interesting comment is that, although there may be some crazies in the Democrat Party, this list is Republican-heavy; the reality is that Democrats just aren’t keeping pace right now in the crazy department. But one looney stands out in the areas of stupidity and lunacy, Lauren Boebert, Rep. from Colorado, most recently when she proposed an amendment in the House with the result...
"Lauren Boebert's legislation got blocked thanks to House panel's rule targeting 'lunatics.' House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) has a new rule on his committee for people like Boebert. McGovern explained to Republicans that his new rule for his committee says if you're "batsh** crazy, you're not getting an amendment" after he blocked one of Boebert's amendments from going to the House floor."
Biden accuses Trump, "MAGA Republicans" of threatening democracy in prime-time address...
"The QAnon-peppered programming frequently flew off the rails Saturday, as speakers took severe issue with everything from McDonald’s being part of the 'deep state' to “demonic satellites” controlling the voting system in the United States."
And here's a Tweet from the rally...
Opening prayer today at Eric Trump and Michael Flynn’s QAnon event: “God, open the eyes of Pres Trump’s understanding, that he will know how to implement divine intervention. And you will not surround him with RINO trash, in the name of Jesus.”
There is no doubt at this point that Donald Trump's input to these irrational
"Dares the NFL to Pull the 2023 Super Bowl from Arizona if She Becomes Governor and Declares Border ‘Invasion’"
Goodbye Super Bowl for 2023...
Okay, this isn't a hanging but it is clear that these three totalitarians are doing their best to assassinate our democracy. Arizona is a hotbed of this kind of stupidity, as is Florida and Texas, with the GOP determined to take 2022 and 2024 elections and maneuver America to an eventual catastrophe. VOTE DEMOCRAT IN NOVEMBER AND AGAIN IN 2024!
"All during awful days, the worse days and the catastrophic days of the pandemic, Will Humble has been a voice of reason in Arizona’s political wilderness, most often unheard and unheeded by Gov. Doug Ducey and those in charge of the state’s COVID-19 response."
Will Humble is the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association, and former Arizona Health Director, who has been a driving force in fighting the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic in Arizona. That is, in spite of Doug Ducey. It was Humble who chose the "evidence-based policy"approach, where the short-sighted Ducey went with...
"misinformation, lies and political pressure put on by everyone from former President Donald Trump to the anti-vaccine elements of the Republican party."
It is the kind of reasoning that prevails in the Arizona Republican Party, adhering to ideologies and power grabs on the right that has made it, for example, one of the easiest states in the U.S. to own a firearm. And just look at the leading contender
Here's more from Will Humble's report...
"Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report says that nationally COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death, behind cancer and heart disease. It notes as well that there are five states where COVID-19 is the second leading cause of death.
"But Arizona stands alone at the top."
Another Phoenix columnist says, "Gov. Doug Ducey's pandemic emergency powers must end",,,
He [Ducey] issued orders against “vaccine passports” and mask mandates in schools, and said things like, “While we strongly recommend all Arizonans get the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s not mandated in our state — and it never will be. Vaccination is up to each individual, not the government.”
He said, "We will not be listening to the lockdown lobby. Businesses will stay open. Students will be able to attend school. There will be no mask mandates. We have a proven solution with the vaccine."
We get rid of this moron next year, but if Kari Lake is what we have to look forward to, one has to ask, 'is there any hope for Arizona?' I have lived here almost 25 years and I think so. However, it means getting rid of the Republicans who currently run this state.
THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...
