Short Attention Span Musing

...Public service is so much more enjoyable without, ya know, *the public*.  Just ask TN legislators

From AP -

In session reacting to school shooting, Tennessee GOP lawmaker orders removal of public from hearing

Families close to a Nashville fatal school shooting broke down in tears Tuesday after a Tennessee Republican leader ordered state troopers to remove them and others from a legislative hearing room while they waited to testify in favor of gun control measures.

The emotional scene was just one of several chaotic moments that erupted during the second day of Tennessee’s special legislative session. Republican Gov. Bill Lee initially called lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider his proposal to keep firearms away from dangerous people.

“I was supposed to speak, I was supposed to testify,” said Sarah Shoop Neumann, sobbing and shaking in front of the silent GOP-controlled House subcommittee room, which was cleared out after some clapping from the public gallery, even though she sat quietly and wasn’t holding any signs.

{snip}

Rep. Lowell Russell, the Republican subcommittee chairman, had also warned that he could order everyone out of the room.

My only question is this: Did the NRA have to crook its little finger to get Rep. Russell to stifle dissent or did he come up with this on his own?

...Am I the only one who believes that if Hurricane, then Tropical Storm, then something else, Hilary threatened Florida instead of California that Trumpkins would have another outlandish conspiracy theory to embrace?

...Got a new nickname for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas -

Spina Mustela.

Per Google Translate, Spina Mustela is Latin for "spineless weasel."

It seems to work for other things, too :) -

Comparisons of Cheeto to mob bosses? I can't think of a surer way to tick off...mob bosses

In a previous post, I likened Cheeto to some fictional mob bosses/members.

David Corn of Mother Jones has compared him to the real thing, as Cheeto has been indicted under Georgia's RICO law (RICO = "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations").

From Mother Jones -

Donald Trump, Mob Boss—Then and Now

In yet another historic indictment, Donald Trump was charged by an Atlanta prosecutor with essentially being a mob boss.

With this expansive set of charges that accuses Trump and 18 others of mounting a wide-ranging and illegal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election—emphasizing actions taken to fraudulently reverse the results in Georgia—Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis declared Trump the head of a “criminal enterprise.” The first of 41 counts in the indictment alleges Trump and his co-conspirators violated the state’s version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law that has been used by local and federal prosecutors—including defendant Rudy Giuliani, when he was a US attorney in the 1980s—to pursue Mafia chieftains who were often able to insulate themselves from the criminal deeds of their henchmen. Given Trump’s past ties with mobsters—a significant piece of his biography that has often been overlooked—the use of RICO has an especially sharp resonance.

There's an old saying about how all NYC real estate developers are at least a little mobbed up, and I figured that was the extent of Cheeto's ties to the mob.

Corn has disabused me of that notion.

Cheeto now has more indictments than marriages

Indictments: 4

Marriages: 3

Hope Melania has a lucrative, and ironclad, prenup.

From CNN -

Former President Donald Trump’s fourth indictment, annotated

A grand jury in Georgia has indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 allies on state charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat in the Peach State.

The 41-count indictment was unsealed Monday and is the fourth criminal case that Trump is facing.

Just a guess here, but Cheeto seems to think of himself as a cross between two fictional movie characters - Vito and Michael Corleone of the Godfather saga, portrayed by Marlon Brando/Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, respectively.

You know, perceptive, smart, and tough.

Instead, he's more like Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito character from the movie Goodfellas.

You know, ego-driven, insecure, and volatile.

BTW, I heartily recommend viewing Godfather I and II, and Goodfellas.  While they're very different movies, all are very good.

Trump-appointed federal judge orders some corporate attorneys to be indoctrinated by a hate group

From AP via Yahoo! -

Legal experts question judge's order telling Southwest lawyers to get religious-liberty training

A federal judge has set off a debate among legal scholars by ordering lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo “religious-liberty training” by a conservative Christian legal group.

Critics say that if the judge believes such training is necessary, he should have found a less polarizing group to conduct it.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr made the decision after ruling that Southwest was in contempt of court for defying a previous order he issued in a case involving a flight attendant who said she was fired for expressing her opposition to abortion. She sued Southwest and won.

Starr, nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump, said Southwest didn't understand federal protections for religious freedom. So this week, he ordered three of the airline's lawyers to undergo religious-liberty training. And he said that the Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, “is particularly well-suited" to do the training.

Ummmm......

ADF has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center

Starr is the nephew of noted, and late, conservative ideologue Ken Starr.

Starr was nominated by Cheeto and confirmed by the US Senate on a party-line vote, supported only by Republicans.  Even Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, then a Democrat in Name Only, now a Senator in Name Only, voted against confirming him.

Is "conservative populism" all about "violent rhetoric"?

If so, it would explain a LOT.

Engaging in violent rhetoric is the go to method in certain circles. See: the reaction of gun nuts enthusiasts to efforts to curtail gun violence.

There's been some pushback, but I'm not sure it's enough.

From AP, emphasis added by me -

Prosecutors ask judge to issue protective order after Trump post appearing to promise revenge

The Justice Department has asked a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington to step in after he released a post online that appeared to promise revenge on anyone who goes after him.

Prosecutors on Friday requested that U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issue a protective order concerning evidence in the case, a day after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power. The order, different from a “gag order,” would limit what information Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

It's not just Cheeto.

From Government Executive, dated 8/3/2023, emphasis added by me -

DeSantis vows to 'start slitting throats' of federal workers on Day One of presidency

It has become a common trope for politicians: provide red meat to constituents by promising to reduce the size of the federal workforce. A top presidential candidate this week echoed that proposal, but used some novel language to describe his potential actions. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who is in a distant second place in most polling of the 2024 Republican presidential field, told supporters in New Hampshire he would slit the throats of federal bureaucrats on his first day in office. The governor has frequently used fiery rhetoric and has not shied away from high profile fights, but the comments were met with swift pushback. 

“We’re going to have all these deep state people,” DeSantis said at a barbecue in Rye, N.H., when speaking about the federal bureaucracy, according to reporting from New Hampshire Public Radio. “We’re going to start slitting throats on day one.” 

There's been some pushback, but most of that in civil society-based (and Cheeto and his supporters *hate* civil society), or are money-based (and while Republicans in general *love* money, Republican candidates love votes from their base more).

From Politico -

DeSantis’ conservative populism has left some donors chafing

When Ron DeSantis unveiled his economic platform last week, he presented himself as a conservative populist; a skeptic of corporations inside a party often allied with them.

But DeSantis’ rhetoric hasn’t always matched his record. As governor, he has done his share to support corporations. And as a presidential candidate, he has relied on contributions from titans of the business world.

Cheeto indicted in January 6 probe!

I would say that there is a God in heaven, but I'm going to save that for when/if he's convicted.

From AP -

Trump indicted for efforts to overturn 2020 election and block transfer of power

Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges Tuesday for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, with the Justice Department acting to hold him accountable for an unprecedented effort to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power and threaten American democracy.

The four-count indictment, the third criminal case against Trump, provided deeper insight into a dark moment that has already been the subject of exhaustive federal investigations and captivating public hearings. It chronicles a months-long campaign of lies about the election results and says that, even when those falsehoods resulted in a chaotic insurrection at the Capitol, Trump sought to exploit the violence by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes that sealed his defeat.

The fake electors have something to worry about, too, even if most of them may not have been directly involved in the riot of January 6.

From The Guardian (UK), emphasis added by me -

Indictment includes six co-conspirators

The indictment lists six co-conspirators but does not name them. They are:

• Co-Conspirator 1: An attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.

• Co-Conspirator 2: An attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.

• Co-Conspirator 3: An attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded “crazy.” Nonetheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.

• Co-Conspirator 4: A Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.

• Co-Conspirator 5: An attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.

• Co-Conspirator 6: A political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.

Anyone wanna bet against against the possibility/likelihood that Co-Conspirator 5 or 6 have ties to AZ?

MI AG charges fake electors there; AZ AG is investigating the ones here

Certain people here should be afraid, very afraid.  Because the next knock they hear may not be a welcome one.

From CNN -

Michigan AG charges participants in 2020 fake elector plot

 

Sixteen fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming President Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election have been charged with multiple felonies, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

This is the first time any of the fake electors have been charged with a crime related to the scheme, versions of which took place in multiple states.

In Arizona, the fake electors scheme is being investigated by the current AG here, Kris Mayes.

From AZ Mirror, dated 3/3/2023, written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy -

Kris Mayes is investigating Trump’s ‘fake electors,’ focusing on threats to election workers

While her predecessor used a dedicated election crimes division to investigate hundreds of bogus election fraud claims, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says she will redirect the unit’s focus to prosecute election-related threats and protect voting rights. 

“We are almost at a crisis situation in our state, in the sense that we now have a third of our counties experiencing the loss, or should I say the resignation, of a high-level election official due to death threats and harassment. That is unacceptable,” Mayes said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror. 

Certain people here should be worried; in light current developments, they may want to make the best deal that they can.  At least, I would suggest that if I had any legal knowledge at all, but since I don't, I'll encourage them to keep whistling past the graveyard.

Those people?

From another AZ Mirror article, dated 2/1/2022, written by Kira Lerner (as the article is from 2022, some of details of their non-fraudulent activities have changed in the interim) -

[snip]

(A * indicates a person who was listed as chairperson or secretary of their state group and who was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee.)

ARIZONA (11)

Nancy Cottle*: Cottle is the first vice president of programs for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. She has been active in Arizona politics for the past decade and holds various other positions on the Maricopa County Republican Committee and the AZGOP executive committee.

Loraine B. Pellegrino*: Pellegrino has served as president of Ahwatukee Republican Women.

Tyler Bowyer: Bowyer is the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values in schools. He has previously worked for the Republican National Committee and the Maricopa County Republican Party.

Jake Hoffman: Hoffman is an Arizona state representative for the 12th District. Hoffman also runs a conservative digital marketing company, Rally Forge, that was banned from Facebook and suspended from Twitter for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on behalf of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA. The company was enlisting and paying teens to share comments with right-wing opinions, including that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and that coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated. Experts told the Washington Post in 2020 that the effort was “among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle.”

Anthony T. Kern: From January 2015 until January 2021, Kern was an Arizona state representative for the 20th District. He is currently running for election to the Arizona state Senate to represent the 20th District. Kern participated in the January 6 riots in D.C. and has lied about breaching the U.S. Capitol building

James Lamon: Lamon is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Arizona. He is a veteran and was previously CEO of DEPCOM Power, a solar energy contractor, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Robert Montgomery: In 2020, Montgomery served as the chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee. 

Samuel I. Moorhead: Moorhead serves as the second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party. 

Greg Safsten: Safsten is the executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona. He previously worked for Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep. Matt Salmon, both of Arizona, in their U.S. House offices, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Dr. Kelli Ward: Ward is an osteopathic physician who has served as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party since 2019. Following the 2020 election, Ward aided Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results and filed a number of lawsuits to nullify Arizona’s results. In 2016, she challenged the late U.S. Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary but lost with 39 percent of the vote. She previously served in the Arizona state Senate. 

Dr. Michael Ward: Ward met his wife, Kelli Ward, while he was serving in the Arizona Air National Guard. In 2019, he was accused of spitting in the eye of a former volunteer of his wife’s when she was a candidate for Senate because the volunteer went on to support her former political foe, Martha McSally. Michael Ward denied touching, pushing, threatening or spitting on the volunteer in an email to police, according to AZ Central. 

If projecting one's own personality traits on to others was a regal trait, Cheeto would be a king

It's not, so he's just a kingpin wannabe ("wannabe" because Vlad really pulls his strings).

From Reuters via Yahoo! -

Trump calls Biden 'a corrupt, horrible' man

In his remarks to the group, Turning Point Action, which seeks to identify and train students to become active in conservative politics, Trump called Biden "the most dishonest president in U.S. history," adding, "now the gloves can come off."

At the Palm Beach County Convention Center, Trump also told the audience the 2024 election was "our final battle," in which he and his voters would "demolish the deep state... defeat Crooked Joe Biden and drain the swamp once and for all."

While Cheeto made his remarks in Florida, this story does have a tie to Arizona - Turning Point Action is based here.

From the Arizona Corporation Commission -

Kari Lake, Mark Finchem, and their lawyers aren't doing too well today

From KTAR -

Alan Dershowitz, other lawyers for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem ordered to pay sanctions

Lawyers for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem who filed a lawsuit attempting to ban the use of voting machines prior to the November 2022 election and were found to have “acted at least recklessly,” were ordered to pay $122,000, according to a ruling Friday by Arizona U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi.

The ruling establishes the monetary award amount to sanctions ordered in December by Tuchi and covers legal costs accrued by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The ruling also specifically addressed legal arguments put forth by noted attorney Alan Dershowitz, who claimed he was not subject to the sanctions.

I've written about Dershowitz' claims before; I thought they were BS in late May; apparently, a judge agreed with me.

Lake may have known this was coming because she's made noises about keeping the fundraising grift going.

From KGUN9, written by Craig Smith -

Kari Lake in Tucson: "I'm actually eyeing the Senate race. It's something I'm considering."

Former Governor candidate Kari Lake came to Tucson Wednesday to promote her new book. She ran for Arizona Governor in 2022, but Katie Hobbs was declared the winner.

Lake presented several legal challenges to the election outcome in court, though the lawsuits have continued to uphold the certified election results.

[snip]

We asked Lake if she plans to run for U.S. Senate. She says she’s still occupied with her legal challenge to the result of the Governor’s election but is thinking of a run for Senate.

“So we'll be making a decision on that in the next couple of months and we'll see," Lake says. "I'm actually eyeing the Senate race. It's something I'm considering.”

It hasn't been a good month for election denying lawyers.

From AP, dated 7/5 - 

Attorney who challenged Trump’s 2020 loss gives up law license as states weigh disciplining him

Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump’s false claims that he defeated Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to “retire” his law license in light of “disciplinary proceedings pending against me.” In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is “prohibited from practicing law in this State and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission.”

It's not just Wood.

From CNN, dated 7/7 -

Attorney disciplinary committee recommends Rudy Giuliani be disbarred for 2020 election legal work

An attorney disciplinary committee has recommended Rudy Giuliani be disbarred in Washington, DC, for his efforts on behalf of then-President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results.

The committee, which weighs cases of legal ethics and attorney misconduct in the District of Columbia, issued the report and recommendation on Giuliani on Friday following a lawyer misconduct hearing for Giuliani in December that functioned like a trial.

If Lake's lawyers are looking to supplement their incomes in order to pay for the sanctions, I may recommend looking for a job on Craigslist.

They might want to be on the lookout for scammers, though, and not just the ones they see in the mirror.

MAGAts/Trumpkins like to refer to anyone they don't like as "communists". Maybe we should refer to them as what they really are. Anarchists.

Their Dear Leader (Cheeto) habitually refers to people as communists.

They're now referring to Barbie as a communist.

Even in the past, they hurled that as an epithet directed at anyone who opposed them.

It's an old tactic, one that was crap when it was used in the 50s and 60s, and it's crap now.  It seems to be part of the "spaghetti defense" portion of the war on civil society (throw a bunch of it against the wall, and see if anything sticks).

Now, the self-proclaimed arbiters of "election integrity" are finding that their tactics are coming home to bite them in the ass.

From Politico -

GOP states quit the program that fights voter fraud. Now they’re scrambling.

Over the past year and a half, eight Republican-led states quit a nonpartisan program designed to keep voter rolls accurate and up to date.

Top Republican election officials in those states publicly argued the program was mismanaged. The conspiracy theorists who cheered them on falsely insisted it was a front for liberals to take control of elections.

But experts say the program, known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, was among the best nationwide tool states had to catch people trying to vote twice in the same election. Now, those Republican-led states who left — and other states who lost access to their data — are scrambling to police so-called “double voters” ahead of the presidential election in 2024.

In recent months, elections officials in Ohio — one of the states that led the flight from ERIC — and elsewhere have been quietly convening leaders from dozens of states to talk about ways they can still work together to try to catch double-voters.

So, based on the available evidence (all left but them), their Plan A was to criticize civil society and destroy good government yet their follow-up Plan B is...nothing 

Their Plan B seems to be chaos; destroy what *is*, but offer nothing better to replace it.

Sounds like their Plan B is pure anarchy.

Cheeto may have wanted his VP dead, but Pence learned something from him

Of course, that something is "how to be shameless while lying," but at least his time around Cheeto wasn't a complete waste.

Cheeto still wanted him dead, though.

OK.  Pence may have learned something else from Cheeto - loyalty to one's own interests is paramount, and he seems to be attempting to avoid an admission of engaging in treasonous activity.

This story is about former AZ governor Doug Ducey as well.

From Politico -

Pence says ‘no pressure involved’ in calls to governors following 2020 election

Former Vice President Mike Pence called former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey following the 2020 election, but “there was no pressure involved,” he said in an interview airing Sunday.

Pence’s comments followed a report in the Washington Post that former President Donald Trump pushed Pence to make a call to Ducey to urge him to find evidence that would help Trump overturn the state’s presidential results.

[snip]

According to the Post’s report, Trump also called Ducey, prodding the Republican governor to find enough fraudulent votes to help overturn his narrow loss to Joe Biden in the state.

Since Ducey’s refusal to overturn the state’s election results in 2020, he has been a political punching bag for Trump, who has called him a “RINO” — Republican in Name Only — and “one of the worst Governors in America.” But Ducey, who has since left office after reaching his term limit, has stood by his decision, saying he was “loyal to the Constitution and the law.”

Ducey's loyalty is to money, and always has been.

Muslim legislator assaulted in CT by someone with a facial tattoo; how long before MAGA types call for the attacker's pardon?

From AP via Yahoo! -

The man who attacked a Muslim lawmaker first made lewd comments and tried to kiss her, police say

A man accused of attacking a Connecticut lawmaker outside a Muslim prayer service first made lewd comments to the woman and tried to kiss her, according to a police report.

Andrey Desmond, 30, was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bond at his arraignment Thursday on charges including misdemeanor assault, unlawful restraint, breach of peace and interfering with police.

The attack happened Wednesday morning after State Rep. Maryam Khan, a Democrat from Windsor, attended a service celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday at Hartford's XL Center arena with about 4,000 other people.

She was taking pictures with her family outside the building when she was approached by Desmond, who directed a sexual statement at her, according to the police report. He then followed her when she tried to walk away from him, put his arm around her neck and tried to kiss her, according to the report.

From the same story -

Guessing that a stretch in prison is in this guy's past...and future.

Maybe MAGA type will show their solidarity with the attacker by getting an orange-colored facial tattoo of a "D" or a "T".  The really dedicated ones will prove it by getting a "45" tattooed on their foreheads.

I have a new favorite political committee

This is just a guess, but this doesn't seem like a serious PAC.

I been wrong about a few things in the past (I know you're as shocked as I was :) ), but this doesn't seem like one of those things.

From the FEC -

Well, Cheeto's week just got worse

Between this and Vlad facing a rebellion, I'm pretty sure that Cheeto is in a bad mood right about now.

At least he will be until he finds a way to grift fundraise off of this week's events.

Pointed at this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

From CNN -

Exonerated Central Park Five member Yusef Salaam poised to win New York City Council seat

An exonerated member of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam, is poised to win a Democratic primary race for a New York City Council seat in Harlem.

Salaam declared victory at a campaign event in Harlem Tuesday night, where he thanked the community for giving him a “second chance” after his exoneration and spoke about the adversity he once faced.

Trump wanted some innocent black guys executed for a crime they didn't commit.

If Salaam ultimately wins his race and is sworn into office, maybe he should send Cheeto an autographed picture of the swearing in. :)