Trump cancels commemorative presser on January 6 but rest assured AZ Trumpkins, he'll be here on January 15

From KSAZ -

Former President Donald Trump cancels Jan. 6 news conference; to discuss topic during Arizona rally

Former President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 4 that he is canceling a news conference in Florida that was set to be held on the one-year anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

"In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media, I am canceling the January 6th Press Conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday," the former president wrote.

He'll be in Florence at the Country Thunder Festival Grounds.

Yet another reason for me to dislike country music.

Turns out that 41% of Americans are incredibly stupid

And here you were, thinking that the number was higher. :)

Pointed toward this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

From the ABCNews story about the poll -

Majority of Americans think Jan. 6 attack threatened democracy: POLL

Nearly a year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a strong majority of Americans condemn it and believe former President Donald Trump is at least partially to blame. But partisan splits have hardened over time, with Republicans still largely backing Trump's version of events, a new ABC/Ipsos poll finds.

An overwhelming majority (72%) of Americans believe the people involved in the attack on the Capitol were "threatening democracy," while 1 in 4 Americans believes that the individuals involved were "protecting democracy." Broken down by party identification, Democrats are nearly unanimous (96%) in believing that those involved in the attacks were threatening democracy. Republicans are more split, with 45% saying it was a threat and 52% saying those involved in the riot were "protecting democracy."

Where did I get the "41%" figure?

From the Ipsos study/topline -

This is in line with other Trump approval ratings.

From RealClearPolitics -

About the Ipsos poll (there's more) -

I recommend reading the entire Ipsos document.

The R disdain for society is not new; Cheeto just made it fashionable for his adherents

Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Ted Cruz, and even Cheeto himself (and others) didn't invent Republican hatred of society; others did it before them.

In June of 2013, in a special session, the Arizona legislature voted to expand eligibility for AHCCCS, what Arizona calls Medicaid.  The vote was not unanimous (not hardly).

The special session bills were HB2010 and SB1009.  HB2010 was later substituted for SB1009 and the AZSenate ended up voting on HB2010.

Every member who voted against it didn't even pretend to represent their constituents (because it helped them) or even Arizonans as a whole (because the expansion benefited them, too), they just argued that "good Republicans" wouldn't vote for it.

In other words, the people opposed to the measure favored their party and ideology over the folks they (allegedly) worked for.

Some of the people are out of the legislature/politics; some are still there; others have moved on to other political positions - Kimberly Yee was the a state senator but is now the state's treasurer and is running for governor, Nancy Barto and Judy Burges are still in the legislature, Michele Reagan was a state senator but then be Arizona Secretary of State and now a Justice of the Peace in north Scottsdale; Kelli Ward was then a state senator and is now chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party; Andy Biggs was then president of the AZSenate and is now a (presumed) treasonous member of Congress; Brenda Barton and Paul Boyer are still in the legislature; Karen Fann is now president of the AZSenate; David Gowan, David Livingston, and Rick Gray are still in the legislature; J.D. Mesnard and Warren Petersen are still in the legislature; Justin Olson was then a state representative and is now a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission; and Kelly Townsend and Michelle Ugenti (now Ugenti-Rita) are also still in the legislature.  Ugenti-Rita is now running for AZ Secretary of State.

Townsend and Ugenti-Rita famously dislike each other, but they are united in their dislike for Arizonans.

In case someone doesn't believe me, or are simply gluttons for punishment, video recordings of previous legislative meeting can be found here.

To watch these meetings, set the dropdown menu to 2013, 51st Legislature, 1st Special Session.

The highlighted vids are the relevant ones.

GOP strategy: when violence and slander don't work, delay at any cost.

 Now, GOPers are using litigation to attempt to forestall examinations of their activities.

First up, their leader, Cheeto.

From CNN -

Trump sues to keep White House records secret, claiming executive privilege

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday in DC District Court against the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and the National Archives in an effort to keep records from his presidency secret by claiming executive privilege.

The lawsuit from Trump is an attempt to block the work of the House committee as it investigates his actions before and during the siege of the Capitol. The court action also marks his latest effort in a long and thorny fight against subpoenas from the Democratic-controlled US House.

He's a multitasker; or at least his lawyers are.

Also from CNN -

Trump sues NY attorney general, seeking to stop investigation into his company

Former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have sued New York Attorney General Letitia James, asking for a federal court to halt or limit her office's ongoing investigations.

The lawsuit, which comes on the heels of James' office seeking to depose Trump as part of its civil fraud investigation into the Trump Organization, also seeks to enjoin James' involvement in any civil or criminal actions against the former President or his company.

He may be the most litigious one, but he's hardly the only GOPer to use this tactic.

From CNN -

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich sues Jan. 6 committee to block access to his financial records

Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich on Friday sued the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot to prevent it from obtaining his financial documents from JP Morgan, which is also named in the lawsuit.

The move comes after the committee last month subpoenaed Budowich and other Trump allies involved in planning "Stop the Steal" rallies, including at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, before the US Capitol attack.

From NPR -

Mark Meadows is suing the Jan. 6 committee as it moves to hold him in contempt

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The 43-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday, asks a judge to block enforcement of the two subpoenas the committee had issued for himself and his telecom provider Verizon, calling them "overly broad and unduly burdensome" and saying the panel "lacks lawful authority" to obtain such information.

But it's not Trump and his official vassals suing; the tactic is being used by his unofficial, but oh-so-real, ones too.

From CNN -

John Eastman suing Verizon and January 6 committee over subpoena

Conservative lawyer John Eastman is suing Verizon and the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol over a subpoena issued by the panel for his phone records, according to court documents.

Eastman argues that the committee's subpoena is "invalid" for several reasons, and notably he attempts to differentiate between the rallies held on January 6 and the riot at the Capitol that day.

From Politico -

Alex Jones sues Jan. 6 committee, indicates plan to plead the Fifth

Pro-Trump broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is suing the Jan. 6 select committee to block the panel from obtaining his phone records and compelling his testimony at a deposition next month.

In the suit, Jones says he intends to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination — confirming a statement he made on his show — and that the committee rejected his offer to provide “written responses” to their questions.

Of course, some folks are both official and unofficial Trump vassals.

From RollingStone (behind a paywall) -

Michael Flynn Is the Latest Trump Ally to Sue the Jan. 6 Committee

Michael Flynn became the latest Trump loyalist to sue the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. The disgraced former national security advisor filed suit Tuesday to halt the enforcement of a subpoena for testimony and documents.

Flynn has already lost his suit.

Here's hoping that the others' litigation soon shares the same fate.

Paul Gosar isn't just a nutjob himself, he hires nutjobs

No need for DES for unemployed nutjobs; just send them to Gosar; he'll put them to work.

From Business Insider via Yahoo! News -

Paul Gosar's chief of staff tried to intercept a plane rumored to be full of fake votes for Biden: court docs

The chief of staff for Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona tried to catch a plane rumored to be full of fake votes, according to a recent court document.

The episode is one of the most outlandish in the fruitless search by allies of former president Donald Trump for proof that the 2020 election was stolen.

Gosar's aide, Tom Van Flein, hunted for a plane from South Korea that conspiracy theorists identified as a source of what they thought would be election-changing levels of fraud, per documents cited by The New York Times on Thursday.

The pro-Trump USSC filing is here.

Van Flein used to work for another of Cheeto's allies, Sarah Palin.

From Politico, dated 2010 -

Palin aide to work for Ariz. lawmaker

One of Sarah Palin’s most-trusted advisers is going to work for a newly elected Arizona congressman.

Tom Van Flein, an Anchorage lawyer who has become a political adviser and fixer of sorts for Palin and her family, will become legislative director and deputy chief of staff for incoming Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, it was announced Monday.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Van Flein graduated from the law school at U of A..

The profs there must be *so* proud of their graduate.

The AP finds that voter fraud is almost nonexistent. Quelle surprise!

Guessing that Mark Finchem, Paul Gosar, Cheeto himself, et. al. can't be bothered with facts.

From AP - 

Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Trump, AP finds

An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump has found fewer than 475 — a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election.

Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and their 79 Electoral College votes by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The disputed ballots represent just 0.15% of his victory margin in those states.

[snip]

"Woe is me" - Trump and his trumpkins

Can one play the victim card in Liar's Poker?  

Cheeto does, and apparently so do his followers.

From KKCO (Colorado) [bold in the story added by me] -

FBI raids homes of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and Lauren Boebert’s former campaign manager

Early Tuesday morning the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants at four locations in western Colorado.

According to Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, the state attorney general’s office and local authorities conducted the searches Tuesday in Mesa and Garfield Counties. The court-ordered search was part of an investigation of alleged election security breaches conducted by Mesa County officials.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters did confirm her home was searched. A statement was released from her legal defense fund early Wednesday morning stating, “Today large teams of heavily armed federal agents, using a battering ram to break down doors, raided the homes of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and several of her friends and colleagues, mostly elderly women in their mid 60s.  This is a level of weaponization of the Justice Department we haven’t seen since the McCarthy era. Thank God Tina wasn’t protesting critical race theory at a Virginia school board meeting or they might have brought two battering rams.”

Trump advisor indicted for contempt of Congress

From CNN, dated 11/12/2021 -

Federal grand jury indicts former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Attorney General Merrick Garland had been under tremendous political pressure to indict Bannon since the House referred the Trump ally to the Justice Department for contempt on October 21.

The Department of Justice sent out a press release on the subject.

From the US DOJ -

If they were being accurate, they would have added two Ks to his middle initial.

For most folks, the indictment would be a problem, but Bannon probably isn't the least bit worried - the judge assigned to the case was appointed by Cheeto.

From The Week -

Steve Bannon's federal contempt of Congress case assigned to Trump appointee

The Justice Department charged Steve Bannon, one-time chief strategist to former President Donald Trump, with two counts of contempt of Congress on Friday for refusing to testify and provide documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. Each count carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail, and a minimum of one month, and Bannon is expected to turn himself in to federal law enforcement on Monday. 

"Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday. "Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles."

The judge assigned to Bannon's case, Carl J. Nichols, was appointed to the bench by Trump. And, Politico's Betsy Woodruff Swan notes, he clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before that.

Guessing that there's only two ways Bannon sees the inside of a prison cell -

1. Any case involving him is assigned to an honest judge.

2. He buys a ticket for the tour.

Apparently, "taking on the establishment" is GOP code for "I wanna keep my job"

From ABC News, dated 11/12/2021 -

Firebrand GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn takes on 'establishment' with district switch

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a conservative Republican firebrand, shook up next year's congressional race on Thursday night when he announced he would run for a different congressional district -- effectively pushing a more traditional state lawmaker who was expected to run out of the race.

"North Carolinians don't settle for the status quo. We defy it. We made history together last year when you sent me to Washington to shake up the swamp and fight for you," Cawthorn said in a video he tweeted on Thursday.

[snip]

"I have every confidence in the world that regardless of where I run, the 14th Congressional District will send a patriotic fighter of D.C. But knowing the political realities of the 13th District, I'm afraid that another establishment, 'go along to get along Republican' would prevail there. I will not let that happen. I will be running for Congress in the 13th Congressional District."

Cawthorn is a thoroughgoing trumpkin, supporting and imitating his idol, even emulating his cravenness.

Guy Montag for School Board!!

For those who don't know the reference, Montag is the lead character in the book Fahrenheit 451 by science fiction author Ray Bradbury.

In the dystopian novel, a classic, Montag was fireman.  Except that he didn't put out fires, he set them.  Specifically, he set books of fire.

If there is ever a sequel written, it may be based on the events in the following story.

From Business Insider - 

Virginia school board members call for books to be burned amid GOP's campaign against schools teaching about race and sexuality

Amid the GOP's nationwide push against teaching about race and sexuality in schools, two members of the Spotsylvania County School Board in Virginia advocated for burning certain books, according to the Fredericksburg-based Free Lance-Star newspaper.

This came as the school board directed staff to begin removing "sexually explicit" books from library shelves, after voting 6-0 in favor of the removal, the Lance-Star reported. The board has plans to review how certain books or materials are defined as "objectionable," the paper said, which opens the door for other content to be removed. 

Courtland representative Rabih Abuismail and Livingston representative Kirk Twigg both championed burning the books that have been removed. 

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Trumpkins and other nihilists seeking to infiltrate school boards in Maricopa County.

Pay attention; the dystopian future has already arrived in Virginia.

From BrainyQuote - 

Walt Kelly was the author of the comic strip Pogo.

The saying is one used by environmentalists but seems to fit well here.  Unfortunately.

Don't ignore school board races. They've become ground zero in Trumpkin-originated culture wars.

Don't ignore downballot races; while Cheeto's first elected position was a top-of-the-ballot one, some of the candidates at the bottom of the ballot are just as insidious and just as unqualified for any public position as him.

From NBCNews -

Covid and critical race theory: Sleepy school board races are waking up

The Blue Valley School District in Johnson County, Kansas, boasts some of the top public high schools in the state. Generally, candidates for the school board sail to victory unopposed, while turnout is a meager single-digit percentage of all eligible voters.

"Very sleepy, very sedate," said Andrew Van Der Laan, who is running for one of three contested seats on the school board in the Nov. 2 election.

Arizona's not immune to this.  I'll look at some Maricopa County races, but it can/will happen in Pima County, Coconino County, or elsewhere.  The elections for those positions are a year+ out.

Let's be clear: Many of these folks should NEVER be allowed to be in the same zip code as a school, much less near the governing board of a public school district.

Let's be clear2: Many of the folks that I looked at smelled bad, but I couldn't immediately find anything to point to or I couldn't verify that the information I found pertained to the candidate in question, so I moved on.  NOT being included here is not an endorsement of any kind.

Statements of Interest from potential candidates are here; not all candidates have formed committees as yet or will even run.  Also, this is based on statements of interest not committees.

Chandler USD

Charlotte Golla looks to be an R from Chandler and is a member of the Chandler Republican Women.

Kurt Rohr is from Chandler and has a history of despising truth.

Nicole Eidson is from Chandler, is a Republican, and has an email addy that starts with "mom4liberty".

Deer Valley USD

Jessica Trejo has an email addy that starts with "jctpatriot".

Tony Bouie has ethical "issues".

David Alvarado seems to be conflicted to the point of disqualification.

Dysart USD

Jon Polk, is. ummm, one of the reasons for this post.

From LinkedIn -

EVIT

Jeffrey Fleetham is a current member of the EVIT board, a FOD (Friend of Dougie) and an NRA guy.

Ian Murray is the chair of the LD25 Republicans.

Rochelle "Shelli" Boggs, current EVIT board member and clerk of the board and a failed 2020 candidate for the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District not only is running for the EVIT board again, she's making another run for a seat on the MCCCD board.  She is problematical.

From the Phoenix New Times -

Gilbert USD

Jesse Brainard works at the Arizona State Senate.

Roy Morales is another gun nut.

Mesa USD

Rachel Walden boasts an email addy that starts with "waldenpatriot".

She has other issues, too.

From Facebook -

Peoria USD

Linda Busam is a trumpkin.

From Republican Briefs -

Heather Rooks is opposed to schools.  But does support "both-siderism".

Devon Updegraff-Day is a running mate with Rooks.

In Missouri, the bearer of bad news is threatened with prosecution

From NPR -

A Missouri newspaper told the state about a security risk. Now it faces prosecution

 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is vowing to prosecute the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the newspaper says it uncovered security vulnerabilities on a state agency website.

The governor is characterizing the paper's actions as a hacking that the state will investigate. He said it could cost taxpayers $50 million.

So, let's be clear - the newspaper and journalist did nothing bad or inappropriate with the information that they obtained; all they did was tell the responsible party that it had a problem.

For that, and that alone, Mike Parson (R-Trumpkin) wants to punish them.