Democracy isn't easy; People have to pay attention and put in some work, otherwise bad things happen

 A few months ago, I wrote about how school board races have become the focus for trumpkins and other folks who believe that ideology matters more than facts.

This week, a story broke about the effects of normal people ignoring the world around them and letting trumpkins be in charge of things.

From KMGH (CO) -

Douglas County school board fires superintendent in 4-3 vote

In a 4-3 vote, the Douglas County School District Board of Education voted to fire superintendent Corey Wise during a meeting Friday evening.

The meeting comes after the head of the Douglas County School District was allegedly asked to resign by school board president Mike Peterson and vice president Christy Williams.

Yes, elections have consequences. 

So do petty decisions rooted in ideology.

Also from KMGH -

Douglas County teachers' union warns 'high percentage' may leave after Wise's firing

The president of Douglas County Federation, the union representing some teachers and staff in the Douglas County School District, warned Saturday a "high percentage of staff" may leave following superintendent Corey Wise's firing.

Wise's 26-year career with the district came to an end Friday night after all four newly-elected Board of Education members voted to terminate his contract, effective immediately.

It's not just school boards.

From The Guardian (UK) -

California county recalls top official, giving militia-aligned group a path to government

Voters in far northern California have solidified the ouster of a Republican county official, giving control of the Shasta county board of supervisors to a group supported by local militia members.

Leonard Moty, a retired police chief and Republican with decades of public service, lost his seat in a recall election in one of California’s most conservative counties. The Tuesday recall came as tensions reached a high in the county after two years of threats and increasing hostility toward moderate Republican officials over pandemic health restrictions.

The lesson here is a clear one -

PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!

Democracy is *not* a "fire it up and forget it" kind of operation.

Since its inception, Arizona was known for the 5 "C"s; it's time to update them

Originally, the 5 Cs were copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.

I humbly offer a few words for an updated version of the 5 Cs.

Mine are

Corruption

Craziness

Coup-koo

Cabbageheads

Cancelers

Looking at this list (which could have been far longer), it appears to be about the majority of members of the Arizona Legislature, not Arizonans.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/6/2022

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 propagate 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 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, 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 into the entirety of a bill.  Those can be introduced at any time and can make a previously harmless bill into a very bad one.

From the website of the Arizona Legislature:

On Monday. 2/7 -

House Health and Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  9 bills on the agenda, HB 2086, barring DHS requirements for school vaccinations against Covid or human papillomavirus.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. 2 bills on the agenda.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  12 bills on the agenda

Senate Government meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  19 bills on the agenda.  The vast majority of the proposals are anti-democracy/voters/elections.

Senate Transportation and Technology meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  3 bills on the agenda.

On Tuesday, 2/8 -

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  7 bills on the agenda, including HB 2674, a proposal to override municipal building codes pertaining to energy conservation for one- or two-family residential structures.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  14 bills on the agenda.

House Natural Resource, Energy, & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  1 bill on the agenda.

 

Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  15 bills on the agenda.

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  7 bills on the agenda, including SB 1657 and SB 1707, expanding school vouchers.

On Wednesday, 2/9 -

House Judiciary meets at 8 a.m. in HHR4.  23 bills on the agenda, including HB 2115, requiring certain internet accessible devices to have filters that can block minors from viewing "harmful" material; HB 2253, increasing the hoops that a victim of asbestos exposure has to jump through to file a claim; HB 2447, a "guns in universities and community colleges" bill; HB 2621, forbidding the entering into of consent decrees when a provision of ARS title 16 is challenged.  That section applies to election law;  A "sneaky bad" proposal; and HB 2662, implementing a series of prohibitions related to "digital application platforms."

House Government & Elections meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  20 bills on the agenda, many bad ones.

House Ways & Means meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  6 bills on the agenda, including HB 2375, requiring municipalities to use revenue sharing monies only for public safety services; and HCR 2017, which looks like a sneaky bad expansion of exemption to property taxes.  Not sure of how this one works, but with a rogue's gallery of sponsors and co-sponsors like Representatives Carter, Biasiucci, Blackman, Fillmore, Finchem, Kaiser, Kavanagh, Martinez, and Wilmeth, it probably doesn't benefit Arizonans or the budgets of the state's counties, municipalities, or school districts.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 8:30 a.m. in SHR1.  A bad agenda, one that has bills that are anti-poor people, anti-LGBTQ+-people, and pro-Covid.  16 bills on the agenda.

Senate Finance will meet at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  12 bills on the agenda, including SB 1408, expanding tax credits against the luxury privilege tax.  12 bills on the agenda.

House Appropriation meets at 1:30 p.m. or upon recess of the floor in HHR1. 13 bills on the agenda.

House Transportation meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  11 bills on the agenda, including HB 2282,  banning photo radar.

Senate Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  6 bills on the agenda, including SB 1166, barring public employers from paying for union activities; and SB 1248, prohibiting beer suppliers from using coercion to compel wholesalers to accept a shipment.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  7 bills on the agenda.

On Thursday, 2/10 -

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR109.  13 bills on the agenda, including strikers for SB 1137 (subject "prohibition; consent decree") (text not available as yet) and SB 1191 (subject "union labor; prohibition") (text not available as yet); SB 1352, barring the release of the audio of a minor's 911 call without the permission of the minor's parent or guardian.  Even if the call is about the parent or guardian; and SB 1379, making it a felony to transport or harbor one undocumented immigrant and decreasing the number of undocumented immigrants involved before it becomes an increased level of felony.

Senate Government meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  21 bills on the agenda; most bad in an anti-voter or pro-Covid sort of way (most are anti-voter).

State Committee update

Since there are no new committees for statewide office this week, this is a mostly irrelevant post...except for one current legislator running for a Maricopa County office.

From the website of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office -

Rios is the current Senate Democratic Leader in the State Senate.

The Republican Party believes that violence is "legitimate political discourse'...if they like it. Peaceful protest that they don't like? Not so much.

They're quick to praise violence that they like, but they criticize, as violent, that which they don't like.

First, the stuff that they like.  

From CNN -

In censure of Cheney and Kinzinger, RNC calls events of January 6 'legitimate political discourse'

In a resolution formally censuring GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the Republican National Committee on Friday described the events surrounding the January 6, 2021 insurrection -- which have been at the center of a House probe -- as "legitimate political discourse."

A copy of the resolution obtained by CNN claimed that the two lawmakers were "participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse" from their perches on the House select committee, which has conducted interviews with close to 400 individuals -- from members of former President Donald Trump's inner circle to organizers who helped plan the "Stop the Steal" rally on the morning of January 6.

They REALLY should tell themselves that.

From the GOP itself (snippy taken in case they alter this) -

And the stuff they don't like?  (Brennan is a journalist for CBS, McDaniel is the chair of the national GOP.)

From Politico -

Facing bleak November, Republicans look to stoke BLM backlash

For a brief moment after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman in late May, some members of the GOP joined calls for change as protests exploded onto streets across the country. That moment is over.

Facing possible electoral calamity, Republicans are now turning to a familiar playbook: stoking fear by trying to redefine the Black Lives Matter movement as a radical leftist mob looking to sabotage the white, suburban lifestyle.

From CBS News -

Transcript: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel on "Face the Nation," August 23, 2020

[snip]

MARGARET BRENNAN: One area where Republicans also differ from voters overall is on the Black Lives Matter movement. Most voters nationwide agree with the ideas of it, while most Republicans, two-thirds of them, strongly disagree. Eight in 10 Republicans think there has been too much attention on the issue of discrimination. Doesn't this type of thinking hurt Republicans' chances of making gains with Black voters?

MCDANIEL: Well, I think that there's a big distinction between the words "Black lives matter" and the movement, which has been led by people who embrace Marxism, who have said on networks, we want to burn this country down. And I think you have to separate that, because as we are seeing in the name of Black Lives Matter, these riots and these looters who really aren't affiliated with any type of peaceful protest, we all condemn what happened to George Floyd. Republicans and Democrats alike recognize that.

Gotta love the hypocrisy.  Of course, they might consider this political two-step a dance.

Of course2, if it is one, it's a hypocritical one.

Coming soon to Arizona?

Pointed to this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.

The proposal doesn't seem to be here yet, but give it time - the RWNJs in the Arizona legislature totally HATE public education.

Usually, AZ is ahead of UT in the "crazy" race, but that's not due to a lack of effort on UT's part.  Apparently.

From the Salt Lake Tribune -

Utah parents could sue education officials or teachers for almost any reason under proposed bill

SB157 puts parental rights above any other consideration when it comes to public education.

A new bill in the Utah Legislature would give parents the authorization to sue schools or education officials for any perceived infringement of their rights as a parent.

SB157 from Sen. John Johnson, R-Ogden, gives parents blanket legal standing “obtain judicial and other legal relief,” to exercise their rights as a parent.

Johnson's Utah proposal is here.

Puns are the lowest form of humor...unless they work

 And in Minnesota, they work (probably while wearing a parka, but I digress :) ).

From Minnesota Public Radio -

'Betty Whiteout,' 'Ctrl Salt Delete' top winners in MnDOT Name-a-Snowplow contest

A tribute to a Golden Girl will soon grace an orange truck clearing snow and ice from Minnesota highways.

"Betty Whiteout" is the runaway winner in this winter's Minnesota Department of Transportation Name-A-Snowplow contest.

The name honoring Hollywood icon Betty White, who died Dec. 31 at age 99, received 40,024 online votes in the results announced Thursday.

Coming in second with 21,372 votes was "Ctrl Salt Delete," followed by "The Big Leplowski" (17,478), "Plowasaurus Rex" (13,209) and "Scoop Dogg" (13,144).

"Blizzard of Oz" (12,742), "No More Mr. Ice Guy" (11,198) and "Edward Blizzardhands" (10,664) rounded out the top eight.

Find complete vote totals here.

Hey, Arizona may not be perfect, but at least it isn't Texas

Of course - we're a LONG way from perfect.  

We elect people like Doug Ducey, Wendy Rogers, Kelly Townsend, Paul Gosar, and many others, but Texas elects people like Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Sid Miller, Louie Gohmert (and others).

And then there's this.

From Business Insider -

A Texas parent demanded a Michelle Obama biography be pulled from schools because they said it would make white girls feel 'ashamed'

A parent in Texas called for a children's biography about former first lady Michelle Obama to be pulled from school libraries because they viewed it as unfair to former President Donald Trump.

The Katy, Texas, parent took issue with a book titled "Michelle Obama: Political Icon" by Heather E. Schwartz, saying it "unfairly" depicted Trump "as a bully," according to NBC News, which on Wednesday published a list of 50 books that parents in Texas have asked schools to remove.

The request came as books depicting race, sexuality, and gender have faced heightened scrutiny from conservatives in the US, with many demanding certain titles be pulled from school libraries.

Nope, AZ isn't perfect, and maybe we shouldn't be talking smack about anyone, but TX could give us lessons in nuttiness, and that's saying something.

Howard Hesseman dies: it's official, 2022 sucks

From The Hollywood Reporter -

Howard Hesseman, Dr. Johnny Fever on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati,’ Dies at 81

Howard Hesseman, who made a career out of portraying off-the-wall characters, none more popular than the disc jockey Johnny Fever on the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, has died. He was 81.

Hesseman died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles of complications from colon surgery he first had last summer, his wife, actress and acting teacher Caroline Ducrocq, told The Hollywood Reporter.

If you don't like what people have to say about your proposals, the Arizona Legislature has a simple solution to offer.

 Don't let people have the opportunity to comment on, or even look at, bill proposals.

In other words, the ALIS website is not functioning.

Commenting on bills -

Bill lookup-

Legislative schedule - week starting 1/30/2022

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 propagate 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 at 1 p.m. and the Senate's in Senate Caucus Room 1, 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.

From the website of the Arizona Legislature:

On Monday. 1/31 -

House Health and Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4. 10 bills on the agenda.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3. 3 bills on the agenda.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  10 or 11 bills on the agenda (it's a little unclear; the lege's website has 10, but the published agenda has 11); includes HB2102, repealing the section of law that allows an action against a sheriff or his deputies to proceed after the sheriff's death; HB2107, repealing the authority of municipal mayors and chairs of county boards of supervisors to order the closure of businesses during a declared public emergency; HB2159, disallowing polygraph examinations of law enforcement officers (LEOs) during an administrative investigation unless requested by the LEO, and disallowing payroll deductions for "nonfederally qualified abortions"; HB2317, appropriating $150million for the construction of a border fence; and HB2328, disallowing  the introduction into evidence medical costs paid by the state for the treatment of a prisoner who then sues a contractor over an injury or death as a result of the prisoner's work in Arizona correctional industries.  Introduced by Rep. Kevin Payne, this measure seems to have a specific beneficiary in mind, and it isn't the prisoner...or the taxpayer.

Senate Government meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1. 13 bills on the agenda, almost all bad measures.

Senate Transportation and Technology meets at 2 p.m in SHR109.  5 bills on the agenda. 

On Tuesday, 2/1 -

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  7 bills on the agenda, including HB2198, a retroactive act mandating that employers either rehire someone fired for failing to get a Covid vaccination or give that person severance pay in the amount of 1 year's salary for that person.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  10 bills on the agenda, including HB2277, giving large landowners in the affected area veto power over school district boundary changes.  Also on the agenda: reconsideration of HB2025, mostly about requiring school districts to create policies and procedures for parental classroom visits.  The measure failed on a 5-5 tie the first time it was considered.

House Natural Resources, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  6 bills on the agenda, including HB2536, putting into state law some new qualifications for membership on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  10 bills on the agenda, including SB1120, mandating that the paper that ballots are printed on meet some very specific standards.

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  10 bills on the agenda, including SB1036, creating a $1000 civil penalty for school districts for each violation of the requirement to display U.S. flags and the U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights in each classroom (as appropriate), and a same subject strike everything amendment to SB1211, requiring schools to post course materials on their websites, before the materials are used and establishing a complaint process regarding the same.

On Wednesday, 2/2 -

House Judiciary meets at 8 a.m. in HHR4.  17 bills on the agenda; many bad ones.

House Government and Elections meets at 9 a.m in HHR1.  19 bills on the agenda, most bad.

House Ways and Means meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  5 bills on the agenda, including HB2375, mandating that revenue sharing monies that the state shares with municipalities shall be used only for public safety services, and HB2166, exempting guns and gun safety equipment from sales tax.  The fiscal note for the measure is here.

Senate Finance meets at 9 a.m.in SHR109.  10 bills on the agenda, a couple of them are "sneaky bad."

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 8:30 a.m. in SHR1.  13 bills on the agenda.

House Appropriations meets at 1:30 or upon recess of the floor session in HHR1.  10 bills on the agenda, including HB2317, appropriating $150million for the construction of a border fence.

  

House Transportation meets at 2 p.m.in HHR3.  10 bills on the agenda.

Senate Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  7 bills on the agenda.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109. 5 bills on the agenda.

On Thursday, 2/3 -

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  10 bills on the agenda; a couple seem bad, but ALIS is down, so I can't look them up.

Senate Government meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  This may not be accurate - the published agenda has the same bills on it as the one on Monday, 1/31; also, the meeting is scheduled for SHR1, which would conflict with the meeting of Senate Judiciary.

On Thursday, 2/3 at 9:30 a.m., the House Appropriations Subcommittee On Education will meet, in HHR3.

On Thursday, 2/3 at 9:30 a.m., the House Appropriations Subcommittee On Government will meet, in HHR1.

On Thursday, 2/3 at 9:30 a.m., the House Appropriations Subcommittee On Health will meet, in HHR5.

In commemoration of book banning

Tennessee famously banned a book about the Holocaust, Texas is looking to ban skads of books, and Arizona has ongoing legislative and other efforts to do more of the same.

As such, I went to the website of the American Library Association and purchased a certain t-shirt.

State Committee update

Since there are no new committees for statewide office this week, this is a mostly irrelevant post...except for one blast from the (legislative) past running for a Maricopa County office.

From the website of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office -

Verschoor is a Republican former legislator and active Trumpkin.  Neither is a glowing character reference.

Federal Committee update

From the website of the FEC -

Democrat Tunney Rogers is running for Congress in AZ2.

She appears to be a Native American who is a social worker.

Arizona is back to being the laughingstock of the U.S.

It has been said that state legislatures are the labs of democracy; Jon Stewart famously described the Arizona Legislature as the "meth lab of democracy."

He was correct.

From The Hill -

Arizona bill would allow legislature to overturn election results

An arch conservative member of Arizona’s state House of Representatives has proposed a mammoth overhaul of the state’s voting procedures that would allow legislators to overturn the results of a primary or general election after months of unfounded allegations and partisan audits.

The bill, introduced by state Rep. John Fillmore (R), would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state.

Jeremy Duda of the AZMirror wrote it up approximately 12 hours earlier -

The newest GOP election proposal would allow lawmakers to reject election results

It would also do away with on-demand early voting and require ballots to be counted by hand — in 24 hours

Lawmakers would have the power to reject election results under a sweeping piece of legislation that would make seismic changes to the way elections are conducted in Arizona. 

Rep. John Fillmore’s House Bill 2596 would eliminate no-excuse early voting, which is used by the overwhelming majority of Arizona voters, and would require that all ballots not only be counted by hand, but that those tallies be completed within 24 hours of the polls closing on Election Day, among other changes.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is that the legislature would be empowered to accept or reject election results in legislative, congressional and statewide races. Under the proposed law, the legislature would be required to call itself into session after an election to “review the ballot tabulating process.” Once that review is completed, lawmakers would decide whether to accept or reject the results. If the legislature rejects the results, any qualified voter can go to court to ask a judge to order a new election.

 

Fillmore's bill is here; it's a long bill, 35 pages long, and the stuff about the legislature overturning elections is on page 33.

I *did* mention this bill in my post about Fillmore's candidacy for the Legislative Loon Award, but I have to admit that I didn't read the entire thing and missed the language about the legislature.

My mistake, and lesson learned.