Dear Ted (Cruz): We're not going to miss you, or anyone else who gets into arguments with fictional characters

First, from The Hill -

Ted Cruz wants Texas to secede if 'things become hopeless' in the US

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that Texas should secede if Democrats "fundamentally" destroy the U.S. but added that "he is not ready to give up on America yet."

"If the Democrats end the filibuster, if they fundamentally destroy the country, if they pack the Supreme Court, if they make D.C. a state, if they federalize elections, if they massively expand voter fraud, there may come a point where it's hopeless," Cruz said while speaking at an event at Texas A&M last month.

I'm pretty sure that if the U.S. ever let Texas go, say, if we returned it to Mexico, Mexico would respond by looking at the inhabitants of Texas...and immediately declaring war on the U.S. :)

That was last month.  Over this past weekend, he fully embraced his inner Gohmert.

From CNN -

Ted Cruz has found the real vaccine enemy: Big Bird

It's hard to imagine how we all missed it.

After all, an 8-foot, 2-inch yellow bird is sort of hard to miss.

But, lucky for all of us, Ted Cruz is on the case!

Big Bird?  Really?

Wouldn't it be ironic if Sesame Street was broadcast in Cancun?

3...2...1...

Which is about how long before Democratic party "leaders" sacrifice urban and suburban voters in a attempt to appease people who will NEVER vote for Democratic candidates.

From NBCNews -

Youngkin's rural voter landslide sounds alarms for Democrats

Republicans had a satisfying Election Day last week, particularly in Virginia, where Glenn Youngkin captured the governor's mansion after former President Donald Trump lost the state by 10 points in 2020. There were a number of factors behind that big swing, but one of the biggest was the GOP's strength in the rural parts of the state.

One question going into the election was whether rural voters, who were so crucial to Trump's coalition, would show up. Tuesday provided a resounding answer.

[snip]

Should rural voters be ignored?

Nope.

But neither should voters in more urban areas be ignored.

There's a joke here; I just can't think of the punchline right now.

For those of you who think that I'm always about politics. :)

From Sports Illustrated -

Adorable Fox Trots Around the Field During Arizona State-USC Game, Jumps Into Stands

Pac-12 after dark got especially random Saturday night when a fox took center stage when Arizona State faced USC. 

The adorable four-legged intruder was initially mistaken as a cat by broadcasters, the usual feral animals that rush the field, but it turned out to be a fox—the first time one has made an appearance this college football season. 

The fox showed enough athleticism to be signed by the Diamondbacks. :)

ASU football now has 6 wins, making them eligible for a bowl game; their 6 wins is 5 more than U of A, who won't be bowl-eligible this year. :) :)

When Youngkin in VA doesn't like a truth about a behavior he condemns telling the truth about that behavior

In that, he's a lot like Cheeto.

From The Virginian-Pilot -

Glenn Youngkin’s underage son tried twice to vote

A juvenile son of Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin tried twice to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election, officials said Friday.

The 17-year-old son presented an ID but was told he was ineligible to vote due to his age and turned away, according to a statement from Scott Konopasek, Fairfax County’s general registrar. The statement said the teen did not successfully vote, made no false statements, did not disrupt voting and appeared to have committed “no election offense.”

 

From The Guardian - 

Glenn Youngkin condemns report his son twice tried to vote in Virginia

Glenn Youngkin, the Republican victor in this week’s election for governor in Virginia, reacted angrily to a report which said his 17-year-old son twice tried to vote in the contest.

Responding to the Washington Post on Friday, a spokesman for Youngkin said: “It’s unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living and more jobs, his political opponents – mad that they suffered historic losses this year – are pitching opposition research on a 17-year-old kid.”

The incident *does* give a hint as to Youngkin's future style of governing when he assumes office.  He considers documenting and reporting on public behaviors to be "opposition research".

It doesn't speak well of his chaarcter.

Republicans: "Damn the facts! Full speed ahead!"

Probably not surprising given how enthusiastically, and violently, that most Republicans have embraced Cheeto's Big Lie about the 2020 election.

The latest thing that has been debunked but that Rs have embraced is the idea the the Biden administration intends to pay immigrant families that were "separated" by the previous presidential administration.

In a word, the idea is garbage.  Rs know that, but they have their talking point and are running with it.

The latest example of this is H. R. 5854, a bill introduced in Congress by a Trumpkin member of Congress and cosponsored by most of the R caucus (including ALL R members of the Arizona delegation to Congress).

Of course, AZ's Debbie Lesko wanted to independently assert her own fealty to Cheeto and lies, and did so by introducing H. Res. 768, condemning the Biden administration for paying immigrants, and other things.

Committees update

Basically, there's no update this week - the are no new committees for statewide office listed on the website of the Arizona Secretary of State and the website of the Federal Elections Commission is non-functional.

Many folks have statements of interest indicating their interest in running for office (both federal and state) on file with the AZSOS, but as most of them haven't yet formed committees, they haven't been reported on yet.

The important question after the Cancun shooting: Is Ted Cruz OK?

*Yes*, I'm going to joke about this, but let me say this first - I hope all innocent people kept their heads down when the bullets started flying and are OK now.

From NBCNews -

2 suspects dead after reported shooting at Cancun Hyatt hotel

Two suspected drug dealers are dead following reports of a shooting at a Hyatt resort in Cancun, Mexico, on Thursday.

Video of the incident verified by NBC News shows guests hiding after being told to take cover at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. The resort said its staff "immediately engaged local authorities who are on the scene investigating the situation."

Don't worry about Ted Cruz though - he stayed at a Ritz Carlton resort when he abandoned Texas in its time of need.

It's a dry hate

Welcome to Arizona politics.

It's not like any of this is breaking news, but every so often, a reminder is called for.

From CNN -

Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate appears with Nazi sympathizer and QAnon-linked activists at campaign events

Kari Lake, the Arizona gubernatorial candidate recently endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has embraced fringe far-right figures in her campaign events, including publicly thanking a Nazi sympathizer for his support and appearing with figures linked to the QAnon conspiracy, a CNN KFile review of her appearances has found.

At a campaign event in late August, Lake posed for a photo and video with far-right personalities Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, the founder of the AntiMaskersClub, who harassed a store specializing in wigs for cancer patients this summer because it required customers to wear masks, and Greyson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer who has a history of making White nationalist, racist, antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements, including once calling Adolf Hitler "a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand."

Yeah, but will the police cancel the war on civilians?

From the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch (their use of italics, my use of bold) -

Voters Cancel the War on Police

With crime surging in many cities, voters rejected the anti-police left this week. Minneapolis was the birthplace of the defund the police movement, but on Tuesday more than 56% of voters rejected a proposal to abolish the police department. The ballot measure would have replaced the MPD with a vaguely defined Department of Public Safety and eliminated from the city charter requirements for a police chief and a minimum level of police funding.

Everything else is behind a subscriber paywall, and I decline to fund any of Murdoch's propaganda arms.

Can something be called a "war" if only one side is waging it?

Cue up "Another One Bites The Dust". Person who fronted the fraudit retires from the AZSenate.

The website of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is here.  Comments on preliminary maps can be submitted there.

From KJZZ -

Arizona Senate chief Karen Fann who led election audit retiring in 2023

The Republican who has served as president of the Arizona Senate for the past three years and oversaw an unprecedented review of 2020 election results in the state's most populous county announced Monday that she will not seek reelection in 2022.

Sen. Karen Fann said in a statement that after nearly 30 years serving in local government and at the Legislature, she will retire. The move comes as the Republican-controlled Legislature prepares for a 2022 session where the results of the election “audit" will be a key issue. The review found President Joe Biden did win Arizona, but it raised unsubstantiated questions about aspects of the election.

Other folks have already discussed the fact that the current iteration of redistricting favors Republicans and is bad for the people of Arizona.  I'll leave that up to them; they can do that more eloquently than I can.  I'll just discuss some of the "horse race" aspects of redistricting.

From the AZMirror -

Some lawmakers are poised to lose out in redistricting draft maps

A number of incumbent lawmakers find themselves facing suddenly unfavorable electoral prospects under the proposed legislative map drawn by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

Some lawmakers who were previously in politically advantageous districts may now have to run in districts controlled by the other political party. Others remain in friendly territory from a partisan standpoint, but face potentially tough primary elections after getting lumped in with other incumbents who had previously been in different districts.

[snip]

[snip]

The first pic, courtesy the AZMirror, is of the current, but preliminary, district lines.  The lines may move after the upcoming comment period and before the district maps are finalized.

The second pic, also courtesy the AZMirror, is of the incumbents in each district in the preliminary map.

The current district 5, Fann's district, *does* include Prescott, Fann's hometown and is heavily tilted in favor of Republicans, so Rs will almost certainly win there, but Fann may have looked at the results of the fraudit that she fronted and the complete insanity (and anti-reality bias) of her own caucus in the AZSenate, a (potential) challenge from Burges, and thought to herself "I don't need this shit*".

Courtesy the AZMirror

* = "shit" is my word; she may not have used that word, even to herself.

My guess (and it's only that, since I don't know the internal politics of the GOPers in that area) is that Judy "Birther" Burges will run for the Senate seat while other GOPers in the area will fight over her vacant House seat in the primary..

Of course, Burges may face a primary challenge.  While she's nuts, someone in her district may think that she's not nutty enough.

Dear voters of Fountain Hills: Joe Arpaio is like gas station sushi.

The gift that keeps on giving.

Even when gone.

From NPR -

With the latest payout, former Sheriff Joe Arpaio has cost Arizona taxpayers $100M

Nearly five years after Joe Arpaio was voted out as sheriff of Arizona's most populous county, taxpayers are covering one of the last major bills from the thousands of lawsuits the lawman's headline-grabbing tactics inspired — and the overall legal tab has hit $100 million.

Officials in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, agreed last week to pay $3.1 million to cover the county's portion of a settlement with a restaurant owner who alleged Arpaio defamed him and violated his rights when raiding his businesses.

Arpaio intends to run for mayor of Fountain Hills, a suburb of Phoenix that located in Maricopa County NE of Phoenix.

Ignoring Covid in order to score some political points doesn't make the victims less dead

No matter how fervently the ignorant ones stamp their feet and insist otherwise...

From The Tennessean, dated today -

Tennessee lawmakers restrict authority of schools, local health departments over COVID-19

Following five hours of late-night deliberations between the two legislative chambers, Tennessee lawmakers adjourned at 1:34 a.m. Saturday, after passing a series of measures significantly limiting COVID-19 restrictions by businesses, schools, local health departments and even the governor.

Debate over the comprehensive package split along party lines — with advocates touting individual liberty and opponents voicing concerns of state government overreach.

Late night legislation is usually bad, as we've learned here in AZ; measures that can't stand up to scrutiny in the light of day should *never* be approved by a legislative body.

In Tennessee, the lege approved an amendment to SB9014 that not only does the things specified in the story above, but also restricts private businesses from requiring masks or vaccination of their employees and/or customers.

From their summary of the bill - 

VACCINE MANDATES AND STATUS

This amendment prohibits:

(1) A governmental entity, school, or local education agency (LEA) from mandating that:

(A) A person receive a COVID-19 vaccine; or

(B) A private business or school require proof of vaccination as a condition to access the private business's or school's premises or facilities or to receive the benefits of the private business's or school's products or services; and

(2) A private business, governmental entity, LEA, or school from compelling or otherwise taking an adverse action against a person to compel the person to provide proof of vaccination if the person objects to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine for any reason.

This amendment specifies that a medicare certified provider or medicaid certified provider is not a private business or governmental entity, but only to the extent that the medicare certified provider or medicaid certified provider is subject to a valid and enforceable medicare or medicaid condition of participation that imposes a requirement contrary to the newly created Title 14.

"School" means a public elementary or secondary school operated by a local education agency or by the state with public funds, including a charter school; a publicly-operated child care agency, child care program, preschool, or nursery school; and a public postsecondary educational institution.

FACE COVERINGS GENERALLY

(1) This amendment prohibits:

(A) A private business that receives grant funds or tax credits from this state (a "publicly-funded private business") or governmental entity from requiring a person to wear a face covering as a condition to access the publicly-funded private business's or governmental entity's premises or facilities or to receive the benefits of the publicly-funded private business's or governmental entity's products or services unless severe conditions exist and the requirement is in effect for no more than 14 days. "Severe condition" means that the governor has declared a state of emergency for COVID-19 and a county has an average rolling 14-day COVID-19 infection rate of at least 1,000 new known infections for every 100,000 residents of the county based on the most recent data published by the department of health;

(B) An employer that receives grant funds or tax credits from this state (a "publicly-funded employer") from requiring an employee to wear a face covering as a term or condition of employment or taking an adverse action against an employee for failing to wear a face covering unless severe conditions exist at the time the requirement is adopted and the requirement is in effect for not more than 14 days.; and

(C) A publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer from requiring a person to wear a face covering if the person provides documentation from the person's healthcare provider that wearing a face covering is contraindicated for the person, or if the person objects to wearing a face covering because of the person's sincerely held religious belief.

(2) This amendment authorizes a publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer to renew its face covering requirement for additional 14-day periods if severe conditions continue to exist each time the face covering requirement is renewed. If, at the end of a 14-day period, severe conditions no longer exist, then the publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer must not renew its face covering requirement or otherwise require a person to wear a face covering as a condition to access its premises or facilities; to receive its products or services; or as a term or condition of employment.

From Mayo Clinic's Covid page (OK, mostly, I like images :) ) -

For those who prefer numbers, from Johns Hopkin University -

1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated.   

3. Stop voting for pro-death candidates for public office.

If certain speech makes you uncomfortable, just suppress it. It's the Republican way.

From NPR, dated today -

The University of Florida bars professors from testifying in a voting rights case

Three University of Florida professors were denied permission from the school to testify in a major voting rights case against the state, documents filed in federal court show.

The plaintiffs in the case, which was filed in May, are a coalition of voting rights organizations that are suing Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee. The groups argue that a new state law, which severely limits the ability to vote through a drop box or vote by mail in the state, discriminates against voters of color and violates the Voting Rights Act.

Buried at the end of the article -

The university has strong ties to [FL Governor Ron] DeSantis. The chair of the board of trustees at the school, Mori Hosseini, is an adviser to DeSantis and a major Republican donor.

Still, this may be milder that some of the other tactics used to silence other DeSantis critics.

Also from NPR, from 12/20/2020 -

Florida Agents Raid Home Of Rebekah Jones, Former State Data Scientist

Florida law enforcement agents searched the home of former state data scientist Rebekah Jones on Monday, entering her house with weapons drawn as they carried out a warrant as part of an investigation into an unauthorized message that was sent on a state communications system.

"At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech," Jones said via Twitter. She added, "They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint."

And now some want to export Florida's hatred of smart people to the rest of America.

From the website of the IRS -

"Make America Florida"?

No thanks - America, and us Americans, are ignorant enough as it is.  Dumbing down America even more won't help America.

State committees update

I thought the clown car of Republicans running for Congress in AZ2 had a lot of folks in it, but it may be rivaled by the number of Republicans running for Governor of AZ.

Still a clown car-full, but a bigger clown car. :)

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

Republican Walker appears to be from Alaska and is the sole member of a jewelry wholesale corporation.

From the website of the Arizona Corporation Commission -

I may not be one of Kyrsten Sinema's biggest fans, but even *I* have never compared her to Ivanka Trump

Cheeto?  Maybe (OK, yup :) ), but Vanky?

Never.  That would be too low.

But it seems that my journalistic standards are higher than those of some folks.

From The Daily Beast, today -

Kyrsten Sinema in All Her Bad Outfits Is the New Ivanka Trump

Have you missed Ivanka Trump’s breathlessly variable White House fashion—her pristine, all-white “I’m rich” outfits or knifelike Louboutin stilettos? Probably not. But say what you will about the whole erosion of democracy under Trump’s presidency, or that pesky insurrection, the first daughter sure wore some outfits during her four years as a “White House adviser”-slash-faded-debutante.

Don’t fret, for a torch has been passed. Ivanka may be holed up in her million-dollar Miami compound, but another high-powered white woman is dressing to enrage: Kyrsten Sinema. Her clothes appear to be an extension of her political persona: she will do things her way, thanks very much, and she does not care if you don’t like it, or don’t understand it—such as her wearing a denim vest to preside over the Senate earlier this week.