Matt Gaetz hires Jeffrey Epstein's attorney. Not exactly adding to his credibility there.

 And it worked out *so* well for Epstein.

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire -

Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) congressional campaign paid $25,000 last month for “legal consulting” fees to Manhattan criminal defense attorney Marc Fernich, who lists among his “notable clients” the accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Insider reports.

Whether it was murder, as some believe, or suicide, as others believe, Epstein still died in a jail.

From CBSNews -

In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. On August 10, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).

The New York City Medical Examiner's Office ruled Epstein's death a suicide by hanging, but a forensic pathologist who observed the four-hour autopsy on behalf of  Epstein's brother, Mark, tells 60 Minutes the evidence released so far points more to murder than suicide in his view. Dr. Michael Baden's key reason: the unusual fractures he saw in Epstein's neck.

And whether a prison cell or a jail cell, it seems to be a place where Gaetz seems to be destined to end up.

Ducey is now an expert at the hypocritical two step

And he's dancing as fast as he can.

Now he's accusing two public school districts of violating the law...by following the guidance of his own health department.

From KJZZ -

The Arizona Governor’s Office sent two letters to Peoria Unified School District and Catalina Foothills School District, informing them that their quarantine policies for unvaccinated students was breaking the law.

[snip]

In a statement, Julie Farbarik, a spokesperson for Catalina Foothills School District in Tucson, says they are “perplexed” by Ducey’s letter. She says public schools use quarantine and isolation practices established by the Arizona Department of Health Services. And currently, both Catalina Foothills School District and Peoria Unified School District are doing just that. 

From AZDHS -

Note: Pic of AZDHS' guidelines posted because I expect that Ducey and/or his "advisers" to have them changed so that the school districts violate what is posted.

From Peoria Unified School District -

July 7, 2021 Update: This legislative session, a bill was passed that prohibits Arizona school districts from requiring students or staff wear masks during school hours and on district property. Schools are also prohibited from requiring vaccines or masks to participate in in-person instruction. 

Vaccinations: Students, staff and community members are not required to be vaccinated in order to be on campus. 
Quarantine: All students must follow requirements from Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) which state that students who are exposed to COVID-19 must quarantine for 10 days from the date of exposure. Exposure is defined as being within 6-feet for 15 cumulative minutes or more. A student who has proof of vaccination will not be required to quarantine if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19 on campus, as per MCDPH.
Face Coverings/Masks: Optional for staff, students, and visitors, inside and outside. 
PPE and Hygiene: PPE will continue to be available to students and staff who request them. Individual bottles and hand sanitizer stations will continue to be available on all campuses.
Cafeteria Operations: Returning to as close to normal as possible, with 3 ft. distancing when feasible. Hand sanitizing stations available where lines form. Continued packaging of items such as fruit and veggie bar selections. 
Additional Measures:

• Daily cleaning has returned to normal operations, in addition to summer “deep cleaning." 
• Disinfecting only in locations in which a positive case has been reported, or when requested by staff.
• Individual schools will notify parents regarding morning drop-off procedures.
• Use of air purifiers will continue indefinitely.

Additional updates may be made in accordance with Arizona Department of Public Health (ADHS), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Executive Orders issued by Governor Doug Ducey and the decisions made by the district’s Governing Board and Leadership Team. Some procedures and protocols may vary by school based on enrollment or layout of school campus and will be shared with parents by school principals.

I don't see any violation, and unless the judge in this matter was appointed by Ducey, I expect that a judge won't either when this is litigated in court.

Lauren Kuby running for ACC

 From the website of the AZSOS -

She's a member of the Tempe City Council, works at ASU, and has long been active in her community (AZ in general, and Tempe in particular).

Caveat: I know Lauren, and not only do I like her, I respect her.  And I'll be making a financial contribution to her campaign.  

She'll make a great addition to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Ummm...maybe a mirror is in order

Of course, that would assume that they can see themselves in a mirror.

 From The Hill -

Senate Republicans attack circuit court pick over voting rights advocacy

Senate Republicans on Wednesday attacked President Biden's nominee for a prestigious appellate court seat over her record as a voting rights activist, taking issue with her advocacy against voting restrictions.

During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican members criticized Myrna Pérez, a nominee for a seat on the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, for her work leading the Brennan Center for Justice's voting rights efforts.

From BloombergLaw in 2019 -

Another ABA ‘Unqualified’ Trump Nominee Confirmed as Judge

A Donald Trump nominee criticized for her anti-abortion advocacy and considered unqualified by the American Bar Association for a lifetime judicial appointment was confirmed to a federal district court seat.

The Republican-led Senate voted 49 to 44 on Dec. 4 to confirm Sarah Pitlyk to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

TN condemns its kids to die from disease - right after firing their top vaccine person

From the Tennessean -

Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors - not just for COVID-19

The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents.

The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month. The decisions to end vaccine outreach and school events come directly from Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, the internal report states.

From NPR -

She Says She Was Fired For Saying That Teens Don't Need Parental Consent For Vaccines

Tennessee's top vaccine official says she has been fired as punishment for doing her job in the face of political pushback.

Dr. Michelle Fiscus was caught up in a controversy after she passed along legal guidance to health providers saying teenagers do not need parents' consent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot — a position established by decades of state law.

Of course, TN is the state that has seen the sharpest increase in Covid cases.

From Healthline -

[snip]

Tennessee had the highest increase with a 250 percent jump. That was followed by California with a 110 percent hike and Alabama with a 103 percent jump.

Three of the top five states in terms of percentage increase of new COVID-19 cases are also among the states with the lowest vaccinations rates:

State	New COVID-19 cases	Fully vaccinated percentage
Tennessee	2,345 (250% increase)	38%
California	14,408 (110% increase)	51%
Alabama	2,773 (103% increase)	33%
Massachusetts	692 (87% increase)	62%
Idaho	742 (86% increase)	36%
Source: Reuters

In overall numbers, the CDC reported that Florida had the most new cases in the past 7 days with 32,127. That’s almost 15,000 more than the previous week.

[snip]

[Update on 7/15 to add] 

Even the CDC thinks this is a bad idea.

From CNBC -

CDC Director Walensky calls Tennessee’s decision to cease 

vaccine outreach to teens ‘incredibly disturbing’

Tennessee’s decision to cease vaccine outreach to teenagers while in the midst of a pandemic is “incredibly disturbing,” the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

“I find this incredibly disturbing. Not only is it disturbing for Covid, but it is disturbing for all vaccine-preventable illnesses,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an interview Thursday with CBS This Morning.

[end update]

Coincidence?

Biden names Flake as an ambassador

 From Politico - 

Biden nominates ex-GOP Sen. Jeff Flake as ambassador to Turkey

President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated former Sen. Jeff Flake to serve as ambassador to Turkey, extending a high-profile diplomatic post to the anti-Trump Republican.

Flake praised the Biden administration’s “strong, experienced and capable team representing U.S. interests abroad,” and nodded to the significance of selecting him for such a strategically important post.

Two things -

1. Flake going Turkey isn't bad; on the other hand, while it's not as tough as being assigned to Russia, Turkey's going to be a hot spot.  I expect that Flake will earn his paycheck.

2. I personally despise the wording of this headline.  Placing "ex" in front of "GOP" make it seems as if Flake is no longer a Republican.  He *is*; he just used to be a Senator.

Hell has officially frozen over* - Mark Brnovich is doing his job

 * = Unless Brnovich tanks the case.

From the AZ Mirror -

Scottsdale woman indicted for casting dead mother’s ballot

A grand jury has indicted a Scottsdale Republican woman for allegedly casting her dead mother’s early ballot in the November election in a rare prosecution for voter fraud in Arizona. 

Tracey Kay McKee, 63, faces one count of illegal voting and one count of perjury, according to the state grand jury’s May 7 indictment. Illegal voting is a class five felony that carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, and perjury is a class four felony that is punishable by up to two and a half years behind bars. 

Brnovich's office's press release is here; the indictment is here.

One thing that businesspeople like is "Return on Investment" or "ROI"

And they're not getting a good ROI from Arizona's electeds.

Wanna bet that Dougie and the R members of the lege will NOT give their business "donations" back?

Instead, they'll try to implement more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

They'll blithely ignore the fact that a strong society makes for a strong business environment.

Not only did Arizona not make the top...or even the top 10...or even the top 20, it didn't even make the top half.  It actually came in 30th overall.

From CNBC -

America’s Top States for Business 2021

To rank America’s Top States for Business in 2021, CNBC scored all 50 states on 85 metrics in 10 broad categories of competitiveness. Each category is weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials. That way, our study ranks the states based on the attributes they use to sell themselves. We developed our criteria and metrics in consultation with a diverse array of business and policy experts, and the states. Our study is not an opinion survey. We use data from a variety of sources to measure the states’ performance. Under our methodology, states can earn a maximum of 2,500 points. The states with the most are America’s Top States for Business.

Not only did AZ come in 30th overall, it came in 50th in the category of "Life, Health & Inclusion."

It seems that Rs believe that votes are nice, but money...given to them...is nicer.

At least, they've been running things here for years like they don't actually care about human beings...unless those humans give them lots of money.

They may [allegedly] work for society, but they're quite enthusiastic about sacrificing society on the altar of their greed.

"Deplorable" is a word, too. It can describe a person as well as behavior.

 

From Yahoo! News -

Fight breaks out after protesters disrupt Rep. Katie Porter's town hall

Police officers had to intervene during a Sunday afternoon town hall hosted by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), after a fight broke out between her backers and supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The town hall was held at Mike Ward Community Park in Irvine, and was Porter's first in-person town hall in over a year. Porter has three children, and said she made sure this was a family-friendly event because she knows how hard it can be to get child care. At the start of the town hall, Porter thanked everyone for "coming out to express your opinion," and said because there was a lot of wind, "I'm going to ask that everyone, regardless of your views, try to keep your voices down and be quiet so we can have a conversation."

As she spoke, a handful of Trump supporters began loudly interrupting her, the Los Angeles Times reports, shouting and calling her "Corrupt Katie Porter" and "Carpetbagger Katie.",,,

Apparently Trumpkins believe that the best way to win arguments is with volume, not facts.

Trump may have been the dirtiest member of his administration, but he was hardly the only one.

From AP -

Watchdog: 2 Trump EPA appointees defrauded agency of $130K

     Two high-ranking Trump political appointees at the Environmental

 

Protection Agency engaged in fraudulent payroll activities — including

 

payments to employees after they were fired and to one of the

 

officials when he was absent from work — that cost the agency more

 

than $130,000, a report by an internal watchdog says.

 

     Former chief of staff Ryan Jackson and former White House liaison

 

Charles Munoz submitted “official timesheets and personnel forms

 

that contained materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements”

 

to mislead EPA personnel and facilitate improper payments over

 

multiple months, according to a report by EPA’s Office of Inspector

 

General.

"Welp." There's a word. A better one would be "resign"

As in "I resign." 

From Politico -

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Monday that the state's Covid data team “screwed up” and that Utah has not yet hit the 70 percent goal for adult vaccinations, admitting the error just days after celebrating the milestone.

“Welp. We screwed up. Because of a reporting error we have not yet hit 70% on our adult vaccinations,” Cox, a Republican, posted on Twitter Monday. “I promised to admit our mistakes and hold us accountable. I hope you will forgive us — and know we have made changes to ensure it won’t happen again.”

What does he regret more?

The lie or having to 'fess up about it?

Next up: a publicly funded showing of the movie Reefer Madness

 From the AZ Mirror -

Lawmakers approve money to research marijuana ‘psychosis’

Lawmakers on the final day of the legislative session approved spending $250,000 to research connections between marijuana use and “psychosis,” an idea promoted by a controversial book that scientists have panned as “junk science” 

The spending, which was attached to broader bill that allocates money from the state’s medical marijuana fund to public health, mental health treatment and suicide prevention, was a component of legislation introduced a year ago that sought to reduce the potency of marijuana sold in Arizona.

FYI - Reefer Madness was a comically bad anti-marijuana propaganda movie from 1936.

Undervaccinated clusters threaten the US

Don't get me wrong, many of the lies perpetuated in AZ may threaten the US (see: fraudit), but lies about vaccines may not be one of them.  At least, they're not at the top of the list.

From CNN -

Five undervaccinated clusters put the entire United States at risk

A new data analysis identifies clusters of unvaccinated people, most of them in the southern United States, that are vulnerable to surges in Covid-19 cases and could become breeding grounds for even more deadly Covid-19 variants.

The analysis by researchers at Georgetown University identified 30 clusters of counties with low vaccination rates and significant population sizes. The five most significant of those clusters are sprawled across large swaths of the southeastern United States and a smaller portion in the Midwest.

The five clusters are largely in parts of eight states, starting in the east in Georgia and stretching west to Texas and north to southern Missouri. The clusters also include parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and are made up of mostly smaller counties but also cities such as Montgomery, Alabama; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Amarillo, Texas.

[snip]

Know what those clusters all have in common?  I mean aside from being in red states that are subject to R misinformation?

They're mostly in places designated as Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs).  That's almost certainly not the only reason most covid clusters are located in MUAs, but not having enough folks to push back against the misinformation is probably a contributing factor.

From the website of the Health Resources and Services Administration (it's part of HHS)-

Medically Underserved Areas/Populations are areas or populations designated by HRSA as having too few primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty or a high elderly population. 

From HRSA's mapping tool; compare the MUAs to CNN's clusters -

To be fair, most of AZ is a MUA -

Of course, MUAs aren't restricted to un- and under-populated areas of AZ.  Metro Phoenix -

Know what area in metro Phoenix doesn't have any MUAs?

Scottsdale.

In other words, follow the money.  Doctors, and other health care providers, are business people too, just with medical training.  They're going to go where they can most benefit financially.  Don't believe that?

Look at New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the Union.  Makes AZ look like a hotbed of medicine.

Why aren't AZ and NM home to one of the clusters?

IMHO, it's because AZ, while a red state, has most of it's population concentrated in non-MUA areas and that NM, while poor and mostly in a MUA, is a blue state.

I guess this is all a long-winded way of saying

GET VACCINATED!

Federal committee update

 From the FEC's website -

Masters is a Republican businessman, supported in his quest for elected office by his partner, billionaire Peter Thiel (PayPal and Facebook, among others).

From Politico -

Peter Thiel makes $10M bet on associate in Arizona Senate race

Libertarian tech titan Peter Thiel is spending $10 million to boost one of his closest allies in next year’s Arizona Senate race, a contest crucial to the fight for the majority.

The billionaire is coming out in support of Blake Masters, the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and the president of the Thiel Foundation, who is expected to soon enter the race. Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, is bankrolling Saving Arizona PAC, a newly formed, pro-Masters super PAC, according to a person familiar with the investment.

Ummm...there seems to a bit of a conflict here. 

From the PAC's organizational paperwork, also from the FEC's website, a statement -

Hmmm...

Just get vaccinated already!

 From CNN -

With an uptick in Covid-19 cases, there is growing alarm. 'We've seen almost an entire takeover in the Delta variant,' one state official says

The US has surpassed 20,000 new Covid-19 cases for the fourth day in a row as the highly contagious Delta variant persists in its track in being the most common form of the coronavirus in the country.

[snip]

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who heads the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that more than 9 million people live in counties where cases are rising and where the vaccination rates are lower than 40%.

"Many of these counties are also the same locations where the Delta variant represents the large majority of circulating virus," she said.

Certain folks, we'll call them extremists, will try to tell you otherwise, but do it for your kids, the folks around you, or for yourself, but get vaxxed!

Don't argue about it, just do it!