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From The Hill, dated 12/18 -

Kari Lake calls for imprisoning Maricopa County election officials

Defeated Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake called for Maricopa County election officials to be “locked up” on Sunday as Lake gears up to contest her opponent’s certified victory in court hearings this week.

Speaking to a crowd of young conservatives at Turning Point USA’s America Fest, Lake discussed her election contest at length, repeating unproven allegations about both the 2020 presidential election and Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs’s (D) victory last month.

From Business Insider, dated 11/13 -

Andy Biggs, joining David Schweikert, with his acts being considered by the House Ethics Committee

From KJZZ, written by Ron Dungan -

House Jan. 6 panel recommends ethics investigation for Rep. Biggs

The House Jan. 6 committee has urged the Justice Department to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for the Capitol insurrection.

It also recommended ethics investigations for a handful of lawmakers, including Arizona’s Andy Biggs.

The committee issued subpoenas against Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and three other GOP lawmakers — all of whom refused to comply.

At least Schweikert's violations fell under the heading of "conventionally corrupt."

Not sure what heading covers aiding and abetting treason.

Shipping containers as shelters for the homeless? Betcha I know where there are a few serving no good purpose.

First, from 12 News, dated 12/16 -

Shipping container homeless shelter plan approved by Phoenix City Council

Refurbished shipping containers will be turned into shelter units in the City of Phoenix after the Council approved a plan on Wednesday.

The $3 million contract with Steel & Spark LLC will create private units on a city-owned lot near 22nd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road that will house 80 individuals or family units in ‘X’ shape pods of four 40-foot-tall containers.

I know where Doug Ducey has left some.

From The Guardian (UK). dated 12/11 -

Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office

A makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona’s Republican governor – before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January.

Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing.

His successor, Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, doesn't support Ducey's scheme.

From the Ahwatukee Foothills News, written by Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services, dated 12/16 -

Hobbs vows to stop shipping container border wall

Incoming Gov. Katie Hobbs plans to halt any further work on building a wall of storage containers on the state’s southern border.

“It’s not our land to put things on,’’ she told Capitol Media Services.

Hobbs said this isn’t just a matter of the state acting illegally. She said the maneuver by lame-duck Gov. Doug Ducey in August to put a double-high wall of containers along stretches of the border after incoming President Joe Biden halted the wall being built by former President Trump makes no sense.

Neither do the Feds.  Not hardly.

From AP, via NPR, dated 12/15 (emphasis added by me) -

The U.S. is suing Arizona over shipping containers on the border with Mexico

The U.S. government sued Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the state Wednesday over the placement of shipping containers as a barrier on the border with Mexico, saying it is trespassing on federal lands.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court comes three weeks before the Republican governor steps aside for Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, who has said she opposes the construction.

Ducey told U.S. officials earlier this week that Arizona is ready to help remove the containers, which he says were placed as a temporary barrier. But he wants the U.S. government to say when it will fill any remaining gaps in the permanent border wall as it announced it would a year ago.

Maybe Ducey should set a good example by calling a special session of the legislature in order to fix the aggregate expenditure limit looming over public education, as he promised he would.

But won't.

Alas, poor Mark Finchem. A failure not once, not twice, but thrice

First, his efforts in an insurrection failed.

From The AZ Mirror -

Mark Finchem was much closer to the Jan. 6 insurrection than he claimed

 Rep. Mark Finchem walks through the crowd right in front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after rioters had overtaken police and stormed the building. Finchem has said for months that he never got within 500 yards of the Capitol, but these images show he was much closer than that. Screencaps via Getty Images | Edited by Nick Martin/The Informant

Newly discovered footage taken during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot shows Arizona GOP legislator Mark Finchem was much closer to the day’s violence than he has previously claimed. 

Finchem has insisted that he never got within 500 yards of the Capitol building, but Getty footage of the failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election that was recently discovered by activists on Twitter shows Finchem walking directly in front of the east steps at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters had already broken through a series of barricades and police lines, and then smashed their way into the Capitol building

Then his efforts at an election failed.

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

Finally, his efforts in court failed.

From NBC News -

Arizona judge dismisses Finchem’s election challenge in secretary of state race

An Arizona judge on Friday dismissed Republican Mark Finchem's lawsuit seeking a new secretary of state election after he lost the race in November to Democrat Adrian Fontes.

In her ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian dismissed Finchem’s lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, and Fontes, confirming Fontes' election win.

The case number in question is CV2022-053927.

Peter Thiel calls midterm elections a depressing disaster for the GOP...and rich guys trying to buy Senate seats

Pointed at this by Taegan Goddaed's Political Wire.

The original article is from The Financial Times, but that article is behind a paywall, so another source had to be found..

From The Hill -

Peter Thiel calls midterms ‘not merely disastrous but also depressing’ for GOP 

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel called the Republican Party’s performance in this year’s midterm elections “disastrous” and “depressing” in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute on Tuesday.

“The part of it that’s not merely disastrous but also depressing is just the sense that if we don’t do something different, we’re just gonna be in this Groundhog Day where something like this is going to repeat in 2024, or throughout the rest of this decade,” Thiel said as part of the “A Time for Choosing” speaker series.

[snip]

Thiel spent millions backing Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters, who was also endorsed by former President Trump and lost his election. He also gave big to Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, another Trump-backed Republican candidate who won his race against Rep. Tim Ryan (D).

[snip]

“If you can’t sort of win in that kind of a context, how are you ever going to win?” Thiel asked, arguing that Republicans failed to put forward a “substantive agenda” and ran a “discombobulated” campaign overall.

Guess $30 million doesn't go as far as it used to.

Let me sum up Thiel's speech in three words -

Boo copulating wah 

("copulating" is a euphemism, subject to replacement by readers)

Sinema weaves a web. Though it may not work out her way.

When Sen. Kyrsten Sinema famously changed her registration and stopped being a Democrat, the political reporters in the MSM went orgasmic in the post-election flurry of  articles that they produced.  Horse race pieces are their strength, and they thought those over...until the next election cycle.  

Most of those articles have been about her change's effects on the Democratic Party here and in DC.

From CNN, dated 12/10 -

How Kyrsten Sinema’s decision makes Democrats’ 2024 Senate map tighter

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema decided to shake up the political world on Friday by becoming an independent. The former Democrat is still caucusing with the party in the Senate, so the Democratic caucus still has 51 members. Now, instead of 49 Democrats and two independents within their ranks, the caucus has 48 Democrats and three independents.

But that simple math hides a more clouded picture for Democrats and for Sinema herself. Sinema’s interests are no longer necessarily the Democrats’ best interests in the next Congress, and the 2024 Senate map became even more complicated for Democrats with Sinema’s decision.

To be clear, Sinema has always been a thorn in the Democrats side during her time in Congress. Over the last two years, Democrats have had to almost always make sure that any bill or nomination had Sinema’s support to have any chance of passing. That’s the math when you have only 50 Senate seats in a 100-seat chamber. A lot of bills and nominations were never voted on without Sinema and Manchin’s backing.

Personally, I believe two things -

1. Regardless of her ballot status in 2024, she already has her post-2024 gig lined up,  My guess is that she'll end as a K Street lobbyist (though her office may not actually be on K Street).for Big Pharma or hedge funds.

2. She'll only keep that gig until 2032 or maybe even 2028.  She seems to have her eye on being on a national ticket, as a candidate for POTUS or VPOTUS.

The one problem with that plan, IMO, is that she will be seen as all but untouchable politically.  Not for her habit  of throwing over the folks who supported her - in the world of DC politics, that's hardly a disqualifier.

Nope, Arizona has become a battleground state, and any ticket she is on will probably get trounced here.

Which will keep her from being considered for any national ticket.

Arizona Legislature 2023: And the first one out of the gate is...

 OK.  They've fixed the lege's website. :)

HB 2001, the first bill before the legislature, has been introduced by Rep. David Cook, a Republican from Globe.

It pertains to rule making by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

It proposes some [ahem] interesting clauses -

36. RULES MADE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES IF ALL OF THE FOLLOWING APPLY: 

 (a) THE RULES REDUCE A REGULATORY BURDEN WITHOUT JEOPARDIZING HEALTH AND SAFETY. 

(b) THE RULES DO NOT INCREASE COSTS TO PERSONS WHO ARE REGULATED BY THE RULE.

(c) BEFORE THE RULES ARE ADOPTED, THE PUBLIC IS GIVEN AT LEAST 18 FIFTEEN DAYS TO COMMENT ON THE RULES.

Hope the war on COVID isn't over, because the war on COVID mitigation efforts sure isn't.

I'll just leave this here, with a one-word comment

Of course, that one word is "Waaahhhh!"

Dear AZ Legislature: Fix your website

I regularly visit the website of the Arizona State Legislature.

This time of year, the visits are mostly to see which bills have been prefiled for the coming session.

Usually, I just see this -

At the top of the page is a dropdown menu to change the session of legislature shown on the website -

When I change that to "2023-Fifty-sixth Legislature..." (an option available at the bottom of the dropdown menu), scroll over "Bills" and click on "Bill Info" when that appears, this appears -

"There has been a critical error on this website"

Gee, ya think?

Time for some 2024 speculation

Yes, the 2022 election is barely in the books and the inevitable lawsuit has been filed but not resolved, but 2024 races have already started.

First, a few caveats:

1. No actual humans were spoken to during the production of this post.  This is purely about me throwing ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks.

2. Any names/people mentioned here are folks who I think may look at running for a particular office but that doesn't mean that I think that all will actually run for that office.

3. Anyone who currently holds an office will be presumed to retain that office, if they actually run for it.  Some will be vulnerable and will lose their offices.

US President:

The 2020 nominees, Joe Biden and Cheeto, are making noises about running (actually, Cheeto has already announced his candidacy).  However, I don't believe that either will actually run in 2024.  They'll both be *old*.  Right now, both are making noises about doing so because of Biden's desire to not to already be seen as a lame duck POTUS and Cheeto's desire to not be seen as incarcerated.

And his ego.  Cheeto's vanity is boundless.  For him, the presidency is less about public service and more about self-aggrandizement. And profit.

US Senate seat from Arizona:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's seat is up for election, and her decision to change her registration to Independent opens up the Democratic primary in a big way,

The Republican primary was already going to be wide open but her move may make it wilder.

Doug Ducey, the current governor in AZ, has long been rumored to be eyeing Sinema's seat.

Mark Brnovich, the current Attorney General in AZ, may have lost the R Senate primary in 2022 and is term-limited as AG, but he doesn't seem to be going away - he's running radio ads catering to rural voters.  He may simply be burning off his budget, but I think that he's keeping his options open.

Paul Gosar and/or Andy Biggs, both are batshit crazy members of Congress.  Assuming they avoid going to prison over their involvement in the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

Kelli Ward, currently the batshit crazy chair of the AZGOP.  Assuming she avoids going to prison over their involvement in the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

An unnamed vassal of a rich guy who's looking to by a Senate seat.  Think: 2024 version of Blake Masters/Peter Thiel.

Other election-denying/anti-democracy Rs may also looking at the seat.

With Sinema's change, the R primary transitions from being the political equivalent of a pro wrestling battle royal to being an outright bar brawl.

If Sinema appears on the ballot, it will have the effect of siphoning votes away from the Democratic nominee, so if the R nominee isn't a batshit crazy ones, they'll win in a walkover; if the R voters pick a crazy nominee in their primary, the race will closer, maybe close enough for the D nominee to win.  For the record, while I consider Ducey and Brnovich to be poor public servants and simply lousy human beings, they're not batshit crazy.

The Democratic primary will be less wide open than the Republican primary but it will be more open than it would have been before Sinema left.

Ruben Gallego, current member of Congress, is the very early favorite here because he was already going to challenge Sinema in the primary when she was still a D.

Greg Stanton, current member of Congress and former mayor of Phoenix, has already made noises critical of Sinema.  From Twitter (pic taken yesterday) -

Other Ds who may be looking at the race -

Kate Gallego, current mayor of Phoenix.  Termed out and will not be in office in 2024.

Regina Romero, current mayor of Tucson.

Raquel Teran, currently in the AZ State Senate and the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.  In AZ, it's almost a tradition that one doesn't become a state party chair without running for high office.

Kathy Hoffman. currently the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.  She lost her re-election bid in 2022.

US Congress -

I expect that most of the current officeholders here will retain their office, but three of the Rs will be especially vulnerable - Juan Ciscomani in southern AZ and Eli Crane in Northern AZ because they will be first termers and David Schweikert because he's ethically challenged.

Also, if Ruben Gallego and/or Stanton run for the Senate, it wouldn't be surprising to see 1 or 2 (or more) of the others listed as potentially running for Senate to look at those seats instead.

Arizona Corporation Commission -

Three seats will be on the ballot.  They're currently held by D Anna Tovar and Rs Lea Marquez Peterson and Jim O'Connor.  While I expect that all of them will run for reelection I cannot and will not guess at what the primary fields will look like here.

Kyrsten Sinema makes official something we already knew - she's no Democrat

From Politico -

Sinema switches to independent, shaking up the Senate

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is changing her party affiliation to independent, delivering a jolt to Democrats’ narrow majority and Washington along with it.

In a 45-minute interview, the first-term senator told POLITICO that she will not caucus with Republicans and suggested that she intends to vote the same way she has for four years in the Senate. “Nothing will change about my values or my behavior,” she said.

 In practical terms, there's no real change here - she may be nominally a Democrat, Independent, or whatever, Sinema will always do whatever she sees as immediately benefiting Kyrsten Sinema.

From CNN

Well, that didn't take long - Paul Gosar supplants Andy Biggs as the most embarrassing member of Congress from Arizona

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote that Biggs was back to embarrassing AZ.

Oh wait, it *was* yesterday. :)

It seems that Gosar couldn't allow Biggs to hog all of the notoriety.

From The Hill -

Gosar tweets, then deletes, support for Trump’s Constitution termination statement

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted and then deleted a post on Wednesday supporting former President Trump’s call for terminating the election rules in the Constitution. 

“I support and agree with the former President. Unprecedented fraud requires unprecedented cure,” he said, accompanied by a screenshot of Trump’s post on Truth Social. 

Ducey goes back on his word about calling a special session of the legislature

[Begin sarcasm]

I'm shocked!  Shocked, I say!

[/End sarcasm]

From Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services via The Payson Roundup, emphasis added by me -

Gov. Ducey won't call special session solely to assure school funding

Lame duck Gov. Doug Ducey said Monday he won't call a special legislative session to deal with problems with school funding before his term ends this month until he gets a promise that lawmakers will deal with some issues on his own agenda.

And that could scuttle any chance of giving schools an immediate assurance they won't have to cut more than a billion dollars from their spending plans by July 1.

[snip]

The governor acknowledged Monday that he had agreed to bring lawmakers back to the Capitol to waive the "aggregate expenditure limit'' if he could be shown that the votes were there. Such a move requires 20 of the 30 senators and 40 of the 60 representatives.

Lawmakers from both parties who support the waiver said last week they have the votes.

But Ducey, whose term is up at the end of the month, said that's not enough.

Ducey will run for Senate in 2024, if only as a fallback in the event that he isn't included on the GOP ticket as the vice presidential candidate.

And R voters should remember his lack of honor when casting their primary votes

It isn't easy for someone to make Kevin McCarthy seem like a sympathetic figure. It turns out that AZ is home to one such someone.

Actually, we have two of those people, Paul Gosar being the second.  

But this isn't about him.

From CNN -

Arizona Republican announces run for House speaker, complicating McCarthy’s path

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speakership grew more complicated on Tuesday after a hard-right Republican announced his bid for the gavel next month, a move that could set off a messy floor fight and leave their party without a candidate who can win the 218 votes needed to become speaker.

Despite losing the House GOP Conference’s nomination to be speaker last month, Rep. Andy Biggs, the hard-right Arizona Republican and one-time leader of the House Freedom Caucus, announced he will be a candidate for the speakership when the full House votes on January 3.

“I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment,” Biggs wrote on Twitter. “Kevin McCarthy was created by, elevated by, and maintained by the establishment.”

Andy Biggs, putting AZ into the news again.

And again, not in a good way.

If FL designates Mar A Lago as a secure long term care facility, we'll have official confirmation of what Cheeto's up to.

Personally, I think he fully expects to be indicted and convicted for *something* and intends to have his attorneys propose a "but he's nuts and CAN'T go to prison" defense during sentencing.

Of course, to make that work, a doctor will have to testify to his mental condition and any doctor testifying on his behalf will have a credibility issue - Cheeto has a history of having doctors lie about his physical condition when it benefits him.

For the record, I don't believe that he's nuts; just arrogant.

To this end, he has uttered/posted another crazy thing, but one in keeping with his election-denying lies.

From CNN -

Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post

Former President Donald Trump called for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election and reinstate him to power Saturday in a continuation of his election denialism and pushing of fringe conspiracy theories.

“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social and accused “Big Tech” of working closely with Democrats. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Licensed facilities in FL can be found here.