George Orwell confirms the complicity of Trump supporters in Trump corruption

 

Abandoned After Seven Years, Jodi is Sad

 

Jodi is a little girl dog in Georgia living with what she thought was her forever family. She had been there for seven years when she was surrendered to The Little Guild. Staff says she was really scared and just wanted to go home. According to The DoDo, Jodi didn't know what was happening or where her family had gone. 

Here are some facts from the ASPCA...

Approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats.

Each year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized (390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats).

If those numbers don't make you think twice about abandoning your pet, then you need to look deep inside for more compassion. As ardent animal lovers we have considered our gang of eleven rescued cats as part of the family. Eating, sleeping, drinking and their healthcare are all a part of our family program. I know you have heard it before...they are our children. Jodi has become more confortable at The Little Guild but it took time to build her trust.

Jodi hasn't been adopted yet, which suprises the shelter staff, since she has become so lovable and outgoing. But they feel strongly that it will happen. The little girl is lucky but look at the above stats and think of the awful consequences if you decide to abandon your pet. PLEASE!

Arizona's Anti-Democracy Gains Momentum

 

Arizona's leader in the destruction of our democracy, gubernatorial loser in the November elections, "still refuses to concede a race the Associated Press called for her opponent weeks ago." Vox reports she is still pumping supporters for help and recently...

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."

In another RawStory article...

"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. 

Billionaires and Large U.S. Corporations Support Anti-Democracy

 

It is beyond disconcerting to realize one of the richest families in the U.S. supports the 2020 election deniers spending over $1 million to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. It was right-wing shipping magnates Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein and their money went to "campaigns or committees tied to the 147 Republicans who voted, on January 6, (2021), to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory." But their affection for MAGA goes a lot farther, according to AlterNet...

"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...

What is most concerning is how organized these people are becoming as if this is only the beginning of the battle...and it may very well be. Here's the scenario and you can see why Arizona is known today as the hotbed of anti-democracy...

“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

America network which is a hub for election denial, including funding some of the key players pushing election falsehoods in Arizona at the moment. There is so much more in this article that will make the democracy-loving public literally sick to their stomach. It's a great read! In closing, this is AlterNet's overall perspective...

"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. 

 

UPDATE: Gun Nuts Abuse Their Right To Carry Arms Intimidating The Innocent

 

UPDATE: DAILY BEAST: 

It’s Sickening How Many Guns Were Sold on Black Friday

Right here in Phoenix we had groups of Trumpsters/2020 election deniers out shadowing voters at drop boxes, and it was all legal. Voters were scared for their safety since many of the intimidators were heavily armed. Arizona is, of course, wide open to guns, even allowing them in bars. It is a normal day in this state to see someone walking around the streets packing heat. Ownership requires only a warm body. But all this has escalated into something much worse.

Here's the way Mike McIntire of the New York Times sees it...

"Across the country, openly carrying a gun in public is no longer just an exercise in self-defense — increasingly it is a soapbox for elevating one’s voice and, just as often, quieting someone else’s."

Okay, it is one thing to stand on the corner armed to the hilt trying to stare down a voter. But it is quite another thing to confront your opponents swinging an AR-15 in their face. It is clearly a threat and that is exactly how it is meant to be. Here's a recent headline from The Guardian, "Six million Americans carried guns daily in 2019, twice as many as in 2015." This study by the American Journal of Public Health continues...

"The new estimates highlight a decades-long shift in American gun ownership, with increasing percentages of gun owners saying they own firearms for self-defense, not hunting or recreation, and choosing to carry a gun with them when they go out in public..."

Responsible Gun Owners Don't Use Guns to Intimidate...

I don't buy this "self defense" crap when you are out in public, but it sometimes can be valid at home when you are threatened. Authentic statistics that confirm gun carriers have been instrumental in stopping a gun confrontation or saving a life are hard to find; I am sure there are some but this hardly justifies the coercion of innocent people with an assault rifle, as is depicted in this NYT article. And the Editorial Board of the Washington Post wants us to be honest about guns...

"The mass shootings that plague this nation are a uniquely American jumble of contradictions. Each new one horrifies, and yet fits into a depressingly familiar pattern. Communities count the dead — nearly 50 so far in November — and tally the gruesome details. The country vows to honor the lives cut short. And then it all fades from the headlines and people move on, leaving behind thoughts and prayers but no concrete policies to stop the next bloodbath."

The month of November will be over tomorrow and there have been "nearly 50"

deaths due to gun violence in this month alone. Merry Christmas from the NRA. SCOTUS has made things even easier...

"A landmark supreme court case this summer overturned a New York law that placed strict limits on public gun-carrying, ruling, for the first time, that Americans have a constitutional right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home."

The Guardian says an estimated 16 million adults...

"saying they carried a loaded handgun in public at least once a month, and an estimated 6 million saying they did so daily..."

It may be legal to carry guns in public, even for those who have no training on how to use them, but the time is coming when a comatose public will finally wake up to the horrifying innocent deaths due to gun violence in the U.S. and wreak havoc on this insane gun culture. Better sooner than later!

ARIZONA...The Hotbed Of Anti-Democracy

 

I have lived in Arizona for over twenty years. We left Los Angeles because of the gangs that were slowly migrating up the coast where we lived. When we arrived here and discovered how conservative and far-right the state was (didn't do my homework), we didn't want to leave; rather we thought another liberal presence in the land of the sun could help change the state to, at least, moderate. We have had luck finding other liberals and now Arizona has definitely turned purple, we think on the way to blue.

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'...

And on Thanksgiving Day, it was reported that Lake filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County, demanding information about Election Day printer problems. She said, "I still have hope." Here's the scenario...

"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

take...

"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.

Peace Through Democracy

 

For those who don't want peace, there should be a trap door to oblivion...