To realistically quote Maricopa County Republican: "Wah! The rules don't apply to us! Wah!"

From KJZZ, written by Wayne Schutsky -

Maricopa County Republicans sue elections officials to add LD29 candidate to ballot

Republicans in Maricopa County are suing election officials in an attempt to place a new legislative candidate on the July primary ballot to replace a candidate who withdrew from the race.

State law allows local political parties to pick a new candidate to replace withdrawn candidates, a process that played out earlier this month when Democrats in Legislative District 8 chose Lauren Kuby to replace Rep. Melody Hernandez, who dropped out of the district’s state Senate race.

Republicans in the West Valley’s Legislative District 29 held a similar vote on May 16, picking James Taylor to replace Rep. Austin Smith, who withdrew from the Republican primary for the district’s two seats in the Arizona House of Representatives.

But, unlike with LD8 Democrats, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office rejected Taylor’s nomination. The Secretary of State’s Office said the law requires parties to name those replacements before ballots are printed and cited a May 13 printing deadline set by Maricopa County, the body administering the LD29 primary election. 

[snip]

But the spokeswoman previously confirmed that the county set a May 13 deadline in order to meet its printing deadlines.

The law in question is ARS 16-343.

Note: I live in LD8 and was notified of the Democratic emergency election on 5/9, which was held (I believe; as I'm no longer a PC, I didn't pay close attention to it) on 5/11.

Joe Arpaio: gone, but not forgotten. Like athlete's foot fungus.

Hey, I could have equated him to an STD, but I didn't because I'm far too civil for that. ;)

Even though we're still getting screwed by his time in office.

From KJZZ, dated 5/21 -

Maricopa County taxpayers will spend $314 million on Joe Arpaio racial profiling case

Seven years after Joe Arpaio was ousted as sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county, taxpayers are still footing the bills from a racial profiling verdict over his signature immigration crackdowns — and those costs have been getting heavier since.

The tab for the legal and compliance costs in overhauling the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is expected to reach $314 million by mid-summer 2025, including $41 million approved Monday by county officials — the most expensive for Maricopa County taxpayers since the lawsuit was filed in 2007.

Nearly 11 years ago, a federal judge concluded sheriff’s deputies had racially profiled Hispanics in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. Consequently, the judge ordered costly overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit.

Legislative schedule - week starting 5/26/2024

This week's post is going to be verrryyyy similar to last week's post.

One Senate committee is scheduled to meet this week to consider some executive nominations, however, I 'm pretty sure there will some floor sessions so the Republicans can speechify over consider their anti-immigrant and anti-voting measures.  The folks at the Arizona Agenda have reported that the AZ House won't meet until 6/4 to consider some Senate amendments to their anti-immigrant screed.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

On Monday, 5/27 - Holiday.  Nothing on the schedule.

On Tuesday,, 5/28 - Nada.

On Wednesday, 5/29 -

Senate Education meets at 11 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: no bills, just consideration of two executive nominations - Troy Hoberg to the School Facilities Oversight Board and Mary Kelly to the State Board for Private Postsecondary Education.

On Thursday, 5/30 - Nada.

Blame the victim: it's no longer just a gambit for gun nuts

It seems that those whose last names can be abbreviated as "Corp". or "Inc". do that, too.

From CNN -

American Airlines claimed a child was at fault for being secretly recorded in a restroom. It has now changed its response

After American Airlines in a legal response blamed a 9-year-old girl for using an airplane bathroom that had a recording device allegedly placed there by a former employee, the airline has changed its response.

The company was responding to a civil lawsuit filed against American Airlines claiming the girl, listed as Mary Doe, was “secretly filmed while using the airplane toilet” during an American Airlines flight in January 2023.

[snip]

In a filing Monday, American Airlines initially argued that the girl was at fault and negligent because she used a lavatory “she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

In response to CNN’s request for comment on the filing, American Airlines said the filing was made in error by outside counsel retained by the airline’s insurance company.

[snip]

While investigating that incident, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts say they uncovered additional videos on Thompson’s iCloud account that show four additional minors – including a 9-year-old – using the bathroom on American Airlines flights between January and August 2023, according to the Department of Justice.

Is being utterly venal a prerequisite for being elected to the lege from N. Scottsdale/Fountain Hills?

That legislative district (LD3), like all LDs, elects three people to the state legislature, one state senator and two state representatives.

LD3 has sent Reps. Alexander Kolodin and Joe Chaplik and Sen. John Kavanagh to the state legislature.

Kolodin is an attorney, with an attorney's regard for the truth.

Kavanagh is a retired police officer with a PO's regard for the Constitution.

Chaplik was a rather unremarkable ideologue.  

Until this week.

Not he's catapulted right past Kolodin and into Kavanagh territory.  Kavanagh may still be the most craven member of the lege, but now part of his competition for that title is from his own LD.

From AZMirror, written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy -

House Ethics Committee drops complaint against GOP Rep accused of signature fraud

An ethics complaint filed against Republican state Rep. Austin Smith, after he was accused of petition signature fraud, was dropped by the House Ethics Committee Friday. 

Smith dropped his reelection bid last month after he was accused of personally forging more than 100 petition signatures to get on the 2024 ballot. Now the lawmaker is facing a possible criminal investigation after state election officials forwarded his petition signatures to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. 

Chaplik is the chair of the House Ethics Committee and while they have dropped consideration of the complaint against Smith for his (alleged) crime, he and they are continuing to look into the complaint lodged against Democratic State  Representatives Analise Ortiz and Oscar De Los Santos, who are accused of, wait for it, making Rs feel bad about themselves for their support of Arizona's pre-statehood near-total ban on abortion.

The House Ethics Committee is known for giving a free pass to Republican members, no matter how heinous their words or (alleged) crimes.

Note: The now-former member of the lege mentioned in the article, David Stringer, is running for County Attorney in Yavapai County.  Apparently, his campaign is utterly self-financed - 

It seems that Chaplik (and the other R members) feel that bringing disrepute to the body is acceptable...if the one behaving badly is a Republican.

He/they also believe that the bad behavior by a Republican shouldn't be criticized...if the one doing the criticizing is a Democrat.

"Ethics" and "Supreme Court" are two terms that shouldn't be used in the same sentence

From The Hill (emphasis added by me) -

Nadler questions Supreme Court ethics after Alito flag debacle: ‘None of them have clean hands’

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) brought the question of Supreme Court ethics back to light after Justice Samuel Alito was criticized earlier this week for an upside-down American flag allegedly flying outside of his Virginia home in 2021.

“None of them have clean hands, none of them have clean hands,” Nadler said during an appearance Saturday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” “And again, I would say we need two things. We need to enforce a code of ethics. And we need term limits on the Supreme Court.” 

I'll disagree with Nadler on one major thing - when it comes to Supreme Court ethics, there's nothing there to question.

While I do agree with him about needing to enforce a code of ethics for justices on the Supreme Court, but I believe doing so will obviate any need for term limits.

The American people deserve something from the Court we not getting from this Court - more of the members of the Court have to be honorable people.

Legislative schedule - week starting 5/19/2024

Two Senate committees are scheduled to meet this week to consider some executive nominations, however, I 'm pretty sure there will some floor sessions so the Republicans can speechify over consider their anti-immigrant and anti-voting measures.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

On Monday, 5/20 - Nada scheduled.

On Tuesday, 5/21 -

Senate Education meets at 1 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: no bills, just two executive nominations - Bradley Boute to the State Board for Private Postsecondary Education and Jadyn Shane Fisher to the Arizona Board of Regents.

On Wednesday, 5/22 -

Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children meets at 10 a.m. is SHR2.  On the agenda: no bills, just two executive nominations - Bassam M. Elters and Ginaveve L. Howard to the State Transportation Board.

On Thursday, 5/23 - Nada scheduled.

Mitt Romney proves again that he was unfit to be POTUS

From CNN -

Romney says if he were president he would have immediately pardoned Trump

Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said that if he were President Joe Biden he would have “immediately pardoned” former President Donald Trump.

“Had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him,” Romney told MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” in an interview set to air Wednesday. “I’d have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.”

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faces 88 charges over four criminal indictments in Georgia; New York; Washington, DC; and Florida — with the latter two being federal cases prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, lost that race rather resoundingly.

Maybe it was due to the way that he tied his dog to the roof of his car and drove off.

Maybe it was due to the way he dismissively stated that 47% of Americans didn't pay income taxes and all of them would vote for Barack Obama "no matter what".

One can now add his desire to give Cheeto a free pass on his criminal acts to the list of reasons he was utterly unqualified to be president.

Note: To the best of my knowledge, a POTUS can only pardon someone in relation to violations of federal law, and Cheeto is facing some state charges.

Does Rikers have a broadcast room?

From AP -

Biden and Trump, trading barbs, agree to 2 presidential debates, in June and September

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for their first presidential face-off to play out in just over a month.

The quick agreement on the timetable followed the Democrat’s announcement that he would not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades. Biden’s campaign instead proposed that media outlets directly organize the debates between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees.

By then, Cheeto may be convicted in his hush money trial and be a resident of NYC's jail at Rikers.

And any debates will have to be broadcast from there.

Maybe he'll have the cameras set to filter out the shade of orange of his jumpsuit.

Of course, if that's the same shade created by his fake tanner, he'll then look like the Invisible Man, which would be thought of as a bad thing by someone with his ego.

The best thing about the Trump trial? It's turning CourtTV* into a modern day version of Skinemax

* = and other outlets

Well into the 2010s, but most notably in the 1980s and 90s, the cable channel Cinemax would broadcast soft core porn movies late at night, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays.  That practice earned them a nickname.

"Skinemax."

Cinemax, and its parent, HBO, have moved away from adult entertainment.

Also, "Skinemax" refers to the longtime nickname for Cinemax, and not the Canadian network of the same name that broadcasts hardcore porn.

From an analysis piece in The Guardian (UK) -

Stormy Daniels testimony was lurid and powerful – but Trump voters don’t care

Stormy Daniels may have regarded sex with Donald Trump as brief, unimaginative and regrettable but the porn star gripped the nation with a salacious and lengthy retelling of the encounter to a New York court this week.

Daniels’s humiliating testimony in Trump’s fraud trial infuriated the former president who glowered from a few feet away. But her account only confirmed what most Americans already knew about a man widely regarded as a sexual predator and appeared unlikely to change many votes in November’s presidential election.

New York state is prosecuting Trump for fraud for allegedly using his business, the Trump Organization, to pay $130,000 in hush money to Daniels days before the 2016 election. She went public anyway two years later with a book, Full Disclosure, in which she claimed to have had sex with Trump once.

[snip]

Daniels told the court how she went to meet Trump at his penthouse suite expecting to go to a restaurant only to find him in satin pyjamas. She said her evening evolved from administering a playful spanking with a magazine that had Trump’s face on the cover to her alarm at finding him spread across a bed stripped down to his underwear.

[snip]

“I was staring up at the ceiling, wondering how I got there,” she told the jury.

The judge stopped Daniels rapid-fire testimony at times, telling her the jurors did not need to know the pair had sex in the missionary position, with Daniels keeping her bra on, or that Trump didn’t use a condom. But by then they had heard it and, like almost everyone else in court and around the country, were unlikely to forget.

Daniels said the sex “was brief” although, apparently, not brief enough.

And that doesn't even include the creepiest stuff - Cheeto's remark about how Daniels resembled his daughter, Vanky.

All of this may result in Cheeto's biggest contribution to American culture - mental images of him boinking may serve as the ultimate form of birth control

Shrinkflation: it's not just for food

From Merriam-Webster -

"Shrinkflation" is when the manufacturer of an item, instead of raising the price for that item, simply reduce the quantity of that item while charging the same price.

It's a backdoor way of increasing profits.

CNET has an article on the practice, dated 4/26/2024, here.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has issued on a report on the practice, here, dated 12/2023.

Most of the examples cited are for foodstuffs (ice cream, potato chips, etc.), but the practice isn't limited to food.

I found a recent example at Target.

One of the items I buy there is some disposable food containers for things like soups.

Those have changed.

Old style -

Newer style -

Not only are there fewer containers offered in each package, each container is a little smaller.

Note: I'm not certain that this is an example of pure shrinkflation, as I believe that they also raised their price a little, but I don't have photographic evidence of that (but they definitely didn't decrease the price)

Just of them decreasing the quantity and making the containers smaller.

UPDATED Legislative schedule - week starting 5/12/2024

There's some activity on the schedule this week.  It seems to be of the "hatred of voters" genus.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

On Monday, 5/13, Tuesday, 5/14, and Wednesday, 5/15 - Nada.  Note: The Joint Legislative Audit  Committee was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, but that has been pulled from the schedule.

On Thursday, 5/16 -

Senate Elections meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1.  One item on the agenda: a striker to HCR2056, working title of "elections."  Text not available as yet, but with this bunch, it's reasonable to expect it to be fear-based propaganda that has nothing to do with reality.

[Edited on 5/14 to add ]

On Wednesday 5/15 -

House Ethics meets at 4 p.m.HHR4.  On the agenda: they're scheduled to hear the complaint filed by some snowflakes against Democratic Reps De Los Santos and Ortiz over their criticisms of the snowflakes and the snowflakes' unquestioning support for the Civil War-era near total abortion ban.

The text of the striker to be heard by Senate Election on 5/16 is now available.  It should be named "The We Hate Voting Act."

[/end edit]

Someone notify the AZ Department of Health Services! There's been an outbreak of a virulent disease in Maricopa County!

Of course, that disease is affluenza and the Gilbert Police Department (GPD) and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office (MCAO) seem to be anti-vaxxers when it comes to this disease.

First up - a definition of "affluenza".

From Merriam-Webster -

The defense of "I'm suffering from affluenza" was used by Ethan Couch in 2013 to get away with killing four people while he was driving drunk.

In 2016, Brock Turner got away with rape.

Those were a while ago, but rest assured, there are folks in positions of public trust who behave as if bad behavior by people who are wealthy and/or well connected is less bad and the consequences. of those acts should be similarly be less harsh.

From KNXV (Phoenix Channel 15), emphasis added by me -

Gilbert Goons classified as 'criminal street gang,' but no additional charges submitted

The Gilbert Goons fit the description of a "criminal street gang," police announced Thursday afternoon.

Gilbert police say they are being classified as a "hybrid gang" instead of a "traditional gang" because they lack formal leadership and other classifications.

Despite the announcement, police say at this point, no additional charges will be filed against any members related to gang affiliation.

The story contains videos of the press conferences held by GPD and MCAO in order to rationalize treating the Goons less harshly.

Today seems to be a cynical day for me - my guess is that the Goons (or more likely, their parents) are wealthy and/or well-connected

Of course,  Charles Ryan rated a term of probation for engaging in acts that would rate any member of civil society a term of incarceration, at least according to MCAO.

Of course2, both GPD and MCAO have a documented track record of having a [ahem] "flexible" definition of gangs.

During the BLM protests, some of the protesters were charged as being part of a gang (even though they weren't),  and GPD was involved in that, and MCAO proceeded with prosecuting the charges, even after they knew the charges were inflated to the point of being bogus...at least until they were caught doing so.

So, white and rich (at least, having rich parents) means not part of a gang.

And having skin that darker than a golfer's tan and not being rich...and having the audacity to criticize the status quo...means part of a gang.  

Got it.

AZ finally repeals total abortion ban. But thanks to the AZ Supreme Court, it will go into effect anyway.

Unless they update their ruling.

From AZ Mirror, written by Gloria Rebecca Gomez -

The 1864 abortion law is officially repealed, but when it takes effect remains uncertain

With a stroke of a pen on Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs struck down a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban. 

Just a day earlier, Democrats in the state Senate succeeded in peeling away enough Republican votes to repeal an abortion ban first passed in 1864, while Arizona was still a territory. The push to repeal it came after the state Supreme Court ruled it was once again enforceable, and Hobbs’ signature ended weeks of turmoil as the Republican-majority legislature grappled with the political fallout. 

[snip]

But while Hobbs’ approval removes that threat from state law, she noted that access to abortion   is still not guaranteed. With the repeal of the 1864 law, a 2022 law banning abortions after 15 weeks takes precedence. 

[snip]

And while the repeal of the 1864 law is now finalized, it won’t be effective until months after the state Supreme Court ruled it can be enforced on June 27. That’s because bills signed by the governor don’t go into effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, and with the state budget still being negotiated, that likely won’t happen for several more weeks yet, pushing the repeal’s effectiveness date into the fall at the earliest. 

[snip]

In response to the conflicting timelines, Democrats and abortion advocacy groups have sought to use legal maneuvers to delay the reimplementation of the 1864 law until the repeal can go into effect. Earlier this week, one day before the repeal was successful, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a motion with the state Supreme Court requesting a 90-day reprieve while her office explored the possibility of appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The repeal passed the legislature with the votes of all Democratic members and five Republicans voting for it.

My basic cynicism may show with this, but I truly believe that the Rs who voted for the repeal drew the short straws and engaged in the political equivalent of "taking one for the team."

The original ruling by the AZ Supes that started this drama is here.

UPDATED Legislative schedule - week starting 5/5/2024

There's some activity on the schedule this week.  It seems to be of the "hatred of the other" genus.

Note: HHR refers to a hearing room in the House building; SHR refers to one in the Senate building.

Note2: Generally, I'll only specify bills that look to spread propaganda.  Other bills may be more conventionally bad (think: corrupt or other misuses of public monies and/or authority).  My recommendation is that if an agenda covers an area of interest to you, read the entire agenda.

Note3: Each chamber's respective Rules Committee meets on Monday, the House's in HHR4, generally at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, generally also at 1 p.m.  Both committees serve as rubber stamps for bills leadership wants to be advanced and gatekeepers for measures that leadership wants stopped.

Note4: Meeting start times may be listed, but are flexible.  Before journeying to the Capitol or viewing the meeting online, verify the start time.

Note5: Watch for strikers, or strike everything amendments.  Those involve inserting language that replaces the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one. 

On Monday, 5/6 and Tuesday, 5/7 - Nada.  As in nothing on the schedule at this point.

On Wednesday, 5/8 -

Senate Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security meets at 1 p.m. in SHR2.  One item on the agenda:  a proposed striker to HCR2060.  The text of the proposed striker isn't available as of this writing, but given the name of it (which is on the agenda), "border security", it's almost certainly going to be a hate-fest Republican propaganda intended to bypass Governor Hobbs' veto.

There will almost certainly be floor sessions in both chambers as the majority in the lege seeks to continue the session without doing anything.

On Thursday, 5/9 - More nada on the schedule.

[edit on 5/7 to add]

The committee meeting has been moved to SHR1.  The text of the striker is now available.  It should be named "The Attorney Full Employment Act." 

Also, there will be a joint meeting of Senate MAPS and House Judiciary at 1 p.m. in SHR1.  The agenda states that they will be discussing the striker, but I expect that the reality is that any Republican members will simply give a xenophobic campaign speech.

[/end edit]