The Arizona Senate loses, again, in its quest to keep public records away from, you know, the *public*

From AP, via KJZZ -

Appeals Court Orders Arizona Senate Audit Records Released

An appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by the Arizona Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the documents sought by the watchdog group American Oversight detailing how the recount and audit are being conducted are public and must be turned over.

The decision of the Arizona Court of Appeals is here.

Prediction: Fann, Petersen, et. al. ignore this decision, like they've ignored reality in all matters related to this.

They despise the public and public oversight of elected officials.

State committees update

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

Don't know much about Hill.

I didn't plan on covering legislative races until next year, and still won't, but I'll make one exception for one race.  Republican legislator John Kavanagh is getting a primary challenge from, of all places, the right.  I didn't believe there was enough room to his political right to do so, but it's happening.

Dubauskas is an attorney who has her own Newsmax bio page and may hate immigrants as much as Kavanagh.

I believe two things here -

1. Any attempt to point out that the immigrant-hating and corporation-loving Kavanagh is a right-wing nut job will have the effect of defending him.  Not gonna happen.  I hope they both lose.

2. Find a comfy chair and relax in it.  This one is going to get popcorn-riffic before it is over.

Federal committees update

From the website of the FEC -

Republican Moser lists an Apache Junction address but is someone who's setting up a challenge in AZ6, currently held by Republican David Schweikert.

The fraudit is almost over, but its effects elicit dread

From Politico -

Arizona ‘bracing for impact’ of Trump-driven election report

The controversial Arizona 2020 election review is almost over, but top officials in the state’s largest county and secretary of state's office aren’t waiting for the conclusions, launching a pair of preemptive strikes against a report that could land as soon as next week.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, released a prebuttal laying out all of her office’s criticisms of the so-called election “audit.” She detailed the pre- and post-election testing election equipment underwent in Maricopa County and called the state Senate-led effort “secretive and disorganized” that routinely discarded best practices of an actual audit.

I just want to point out one thing - if the AZSOS and Maricopa County Recorder took as long to certify an election with dozens, even hundreds, of races as the AZ Senate's "auditors" have taken to look at one race, people would be up in arms.

Legitimately so.

Infrastructure, shminfrastucture. Know what's really bipartisan, even non-partisan, in DC? Covid.

 From Yahoo! News -

Three senators test positive for COVID in breakthrough cases

Three senators said Thursday they have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, a high-profile collection of breakthrough cases that comes as the highly infectious delta variant spreads rapidly across the United States.

Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., all said they have tested positive for the virus. Almost every member of the Senate spent long hours together on the chamber's floor last week in an all-night session of budget votes before leaving town for August recess.

Wicker's press release on the matter is here.

King's press release on the matter is here.

Hickenlooper doesn't have a press release on the matter (at least, not yet), but he did tweet about it -

From Johns Hopkins University -

Mississippi's numbers from the last week:

Maine's numbers from the last week:

Colorado's numbers from the last week:

1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey publicly siphons federal funds into private pockets.

Could have said he is using federal funds to encourage the deaths of students, teachers, and staff or that he's not one to allow a pandemic to get in the way of a good grift.

Would have been just as true.

From ABC15 -

Gov. Ducey announces $163M in grants for schools without mask mandates

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday that he has allocated $163 million in grants, using federal funds, for district and charter schools that are "following all state laws" and offering in-person learning.

The funding, part of the American Rescue Plan, will be distributed through the state's Education Plus Up Grant program, the Governor's Office said in a news release.

Ducey's press release is here.

Abbott tests positive for Covid: File it under "what goes around, come around."

 Yup, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has tested positive for Covid.

From the Texas Tribune -

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tests positive for COVID-19

Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive Tuesday for COVID-19, according to his office.

Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, is not experiencing any symptoms and is isolating at the Governor's Mansion, spokesperson Mark Miner said in a statement. He is getting Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment.

As the story states, Abbott is vaccinated, but what about the folks he exposed?

From the same story -

Abbott has kept up public appearances in recent days. He spoke Monday night at what he called a "standing room only event" in Collin County, later tweeting photos of him addressing a maskless crowd. His campaign tweeted video of him mingling with the crowd, taking photos.

The Collin County event was organized by the Heritage Ranch Republican Club. Neither the club nor Abbott's office immediately responded to requests for comment on the event.

Less than three hours before his diagnosis was announced Tuesday afternoon, Abbott tweeted pictures of a meeting with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. The musician's team said in a statement Tuesday evening that "Jimmie and family have tested negative and are doing fine."

At least he's ready to attend a Ted Nugent concert.

1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated.

In Texas Abbott (gov.) and Paxton (AG) are crowing while their ICUs are full

From Twitter -

Their "victory" however, seems to be the epitome of "pyrrhic."

Of course, since others will be paying the cost of their "victory", they may not consider it to be a pyrrhic one.

From WFAA in Dallas -

Multiple regions across Texas now completely out of ICU beds as COVID-19 cases spike, data shows

Twelve of 22 hospital regions in Texas have 10 or fewer ICU beds currently available as the same number of regions statewide report an increase in COVID-19 patients, state data showed Sunday.

Texas officials said seven of those regions had reported 0 available ICU beds Saturday: Abilene, Lufkin, Waco, Bryan, Beaumont, Laredo and the Corpus Christi regions.

The region around Austin was reporting just 1 available ICU bed Saturday.

 

In Texas, Austin is the state capital.

Maybe Paxton and Abbott are hoping that dead bodies will distract from their ethical issues.

Breaking news (OK, not really): it's official, I'm a liberal

I was bored and took the political typology quiz from PEW Research (not a fan of either/or quizzes because life isn't that simple; but as I said, I was bored).

The results were pretty much as expected.

From PEW -

Positivity

I've noticed that most of my posts are negative (as in "so-and-so is a nut" or "elected officials who are anti-mask and anti-vax is the face of COVID are abusing their positions and are complicit in multiple homicides").

As such, I have resolved to be a little more positive in some of my posts, and not in a "I'm positive that Cheeto was bigoted crook" sort of way.  Living in AZ, it's easy to be negative, and I won't change the tone of my posts, but I will try to more positive.  Occasionally. :)

With Congressman Ruben Gallego, there's a reason both that I voted for him and that I don't regret that vote.

He's a fundamentally decent human being.

Will we agree on everything?  Almost certainly not (welcome to adulthood; good people can disagree).

From Twitter -

With the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Afghanistan is turning into a disaster.

To be fair, it was a disaster before U.S. troops got there.  American nation-building for profit intentions and arrogance just made it worse.

There are many stories coming out about the Taliban retaking the country and its bad effects.

One of the latest, from AP -

Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul

Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow

 

citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and

 

signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking

 

Afghanistan.

The Taliban, which for hours had been in the outskirts of Kabul,

 

announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by

 

panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate

 

personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound

 

as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western

 

missions also prepared to pull their people out.

Many people, Republicans mostly, are gleefully pointing accusatory fingers at Joe Biden and his end of the forever war.

Pic from Amazon

Pic from Twitter

Joe Biden and I will disagree on many things (he's way too moderate for me), but on this one, we agree.

The only reason for America to have any presence in Afghanistan is if we lived a "you break, you fix it" philosophy.

And that only works if we displayed any willingness or ability to fix things.

Too many folks are profiting from the status quo for there to be any willingness to fix things, and, truth be told, we don't have the ability to fix things there.

There are also folks who will point to a grave of a loved one that they have lost there, and they will get two things from me:

1. My heartfelt condolences.

2. A question - what's the magic number?  As in, how many bodies, both American and Afghan, have to be piled on that grave before the loved one there comes back to life?

Do I think that any Afghani who helped the U.S. there should be evacuated from there a given a place here if they so desire?  

Yes.

Otherwise, it's long past time for U.S. forces, and the U.S. in general, to leave there.

MCAO's lead prosecutor in the politically-motivated arrests and prosecution of BLM protesters sues MCAO

Of course, even her own notice of claim against the office doesn't speak well of her character..

First, from ABC15 -

Prosecutor: Allister Adel, Phoenix chiefs approved of protest gang charges

Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel personally knew about the plan to charge a group of police protesters as a criminal street gang and falsely blamed the case’s prosecutor for going rogue after public backlash, according to a recently-filed notice of claim.

The claim was filed last week by April Sponsel, a 17-year prosecutor with the office who was specifically assigned to handle protest cases.

Note: the claim was attached to the end of the ABC15 story.  I can't/don't how to link to that directly, but will be quoting from it later.  I recommend reading it in its entirety, if only for its entertainment value.

If you are entertained by being horrified.

Then, from KJZZ, on the same subject (emphasis added by me in the third quoted paragraph) -

Lead Prosecutor From Gang Charges Case Sues Maricopa County Attorney's Office For Defamation

In late May and early June of last year, thousands of Arizonans took to the streets in cities throughout the state, joining others around the country to protest the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

In Phoenix, protests stretched for five weeks with demonstrators clashing with Phoenix police on multiple occasions. Many of these clashes culminated in arrests, and a group of 15 protesters were charged with an added “gang designation” — upping the sentencing potential.

[snip]

April Sponsel was the lead prosecutor for Maricopa County in these cases, and she claims that when Adel’s office reversed course on the gang charges, her work had been undermined. When she tried to protest the reversal of charges, she was placed on administrative leave, with pay.

From page 7 of Sponsel's notice of claim (emphasis added by me) - 

The following people attended (virtually) the October 30, 2020, Meeting: Division Chief Vince Goddard, Bureau Chief Sherry Leckrone, Division Chief of Training and Appeals Ryan Green, Bureau Chief of Gangs Heather Livingston, Chief Deputy Ken Vick, MCAO Det. Karl Martin, Information Officer Jennifer Liewer, Chief of Investigations William Long, Director of Investigations Tom Van Dorn, and Ms. Sponsel. In the meeting, Mr. Goddard, Ms. Leckrone and Ms. Sponsel explained the October 27, 2020 Charges and why they were appropriate. The only person in the meeting who objected to the charges was Mr. Green. To Ms. Sponsel’s knowledge, no one else objected to the charges, and no one suggested a formal incident review that she can recall. Further, no one, including Mr. Green, stated or suggested that the MCAO should dismiss any of the charges against any of the defendants. 

Even in her own filing, she admits to having no objection to the prosecutions.

I'm obviously not a fan of the MCAO or abuse of authority, but they come off looking better in this than Sponsel.

Of course, the only folks in all of this who come off looking good are the victims of Phoenix PD and the MCAO. Which may be a reason that they are suing the agencies and the City of Phoenix.

From the AZMirror -

Lawsuits mount against Phoenix, county for ‘outrageous’ criminal cases against protesters

A lawsuit claims the City of Phoenix, the Phoenix Police Department and leadership at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office conspired to falsely arrest and maliciously prosecute people who rallied last year to protest the deaths of George Floyd, Dion Johnson and other Black people. 

The plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit include 20 people who were arrested between July and October 2020 following demonstrations, and they claim their constitutional rights were violated and they were deprived of their civil rights.

Maybe Mike Lindell should quit hawking My Pillows. Salesmen should have some credibility. Lindell has none.

 From AP -

MyPillow CEO says aggressive poke led to attack claim

MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell says he was aggressively poked by someone 

seeking a selfie in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this week, which led him to say he

was attacked.

Lindell, who hosted an election fraud symposium in the city this week, told the 

conservative talk show FlashPoint that he was approached by a man who 

wanted a photo on Wednesday night.

"Poke"?  It wasn't an "attack", no matter what Lindell says.

Kari Lake embraces her inner nutjob

 Admittedly, she didn't have to look too deep to find it.

From Twitter (highlights added by me) - 

Ummm...some parents may wish to disagree with her.

From AZFamily -

600+ Scottsdale students quarantined as COVID threatens in-person learning

The Scottsdale Unified School District may have to go back to virtual learning if the spread of COVID-19 isn't controlled among its students. Superintendent Scott A. Menzel said in a letter to parents on Friday that since school started on Aug. 4, there have been 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on-campus and 31 cases of students who didn't come to school. One hundred fifty students were sent home and 632 students have been quarantined because of being in close contact with someone with COVID-19.

Trish Olson has three kids in Scottsdale Unified Schools. Her son was sent home to quarantine after coming in contact with another student who tested positive. She says they knew this was a possibility, but her kids were looking forward to returning to campus. "They were excited to see their friends. They were excited to see their teachers because there was a large portion of the last school year where they were not face-to-face with their teachers," Olson said. "And I know better than anyone that teachers can do for my kids what I'm not able to provide them.

For you non-AZers out there, Lake is former anchor for the local Fox affiliate and is a candidate for governor here.  A Republican candidate, of course.

Covid is behind some folks relocating. Just not the kind of relocating that Chambers of Commerce brag about.

From NBC News - 

Fired Tennessee vaccinations director planning to leave state

The husband of Tennessee’s former vaccinations director says they are planning to move out of the state this fall amid growing tension over efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

Their move to northern Virginia was in the works before a contentious school board meeting that he took part in Tuesday to discuss mask mandates, Brad Fiscus told WPLN-FM.

Fiscus is a school board member in Williamson County, where protesters held signs with messages saying, “I will not let you muzzle my child,” and “My child, my choice.” Some had to be escorted out by law enforcement. The county is just south of Nashville.

Tennessee's Covid numbers, from John Hopkins University -

Virginia's Covid numbers, from the same source -

Tennessee has fewer folks than Virginia does, but has more deaths from Covid.

From the Census Bureau -

There are probably folks in Tennessee who are rejoicing over their ability to drive smart folks out of TN and into other states.

There are probably folks in Virginia who are rejoicing over the same thing.

1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated.