From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State --
Both Heaton and Reid-Shaver are Libertarians, though neither listed a party.
As of this writing, there are no Libertarian candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction, write-in or ballot, listed by the AZSOS, while there is one declared Libertarian candidate for Governor, write-in candidate Barry Hess.
From NPR -
In a new U.S. poll, a majority identify as 'pro-choice' for the first time in decades
The percentage of Americans who consider themselves "pro-choice" has risen in the past year to 55%, its highest level in decades, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.
That increase mainly was driven by Democrats, wrote Lydia Saad, the polling firm's director for U.S. social research, in a summary of the survey's findings. She attributed the shift to the recent Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting a possible end to Roe v. Wade.
Gallup surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. adults by telephone over three weeks beginning May 2 — the day Politico published a draft opinion suggesting that the Supreme Court could soon overturn Roe v. Wade. That decision would enable many states to dramatically restrict or ban abortions.
The Supreme Court's leaked majority opinion is here.
From the Gallup poll -
Now, I realize that public policy issues aren't popularity contests and opinion polls doesn't mean that the pro-choice side is correct.
However, the dearth of facts on the anti-choice side adds credibility to the pro-choice side.
And, have no doubt, pro sports qualifies as "Big Business."
From The Hill -
DeSantis vetoes funds for Tampa Bay Rays practice facility after team tweets on gun control
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) approved a new state budget Thursday, but vetoed funds for a Pasco County baseball practice facility that was to be used by the Tampa Bay Rays, a move that comes shortly after the MLB organization tweeted in support of gun control last week.
DeSantis, an avid supporter of gun rights, vetoed the funding proposed by state Sen. Danny Burgess (R) that was widely expected to be signed into the state’s budget a week after the Rays showed support for gun control measures.
DeSantis wants to be president, one in the mold of Cheeto.
He's already got the "petty dictator wannabe" part down.
Pointed at this by AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona.
From Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services, published by KJZZ -
Townsend encourages 'vigilantes' to monitor ballot drop boxes, denies it's intimidation
One of the leading proponents of the claim that there is fraud in Arizona elections wants "vigilantes" to monitor ballot drop boxes in the upcoming election.
Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Apache Junction) complained during an informal legislative hearing Tuesday about the failure of the Senate to either outlaw drop boxes entirely or require that they be monitored 24 hours a day. In fact, Townsend wants to deal with the issue of possible fraudulent ballots by eliminating early voting entirely.
[snip]
"We're going to have people out there watching you," Townsend said. "And they're going to follow you to your car and get your license plate."
That was Tuesday; on Wednesday, she voted to greatly expand the definition of "harassment".
From the minority report on the conference committee results for SB1633, signed by Rep. Melody Hernandez and Sen. Victoria Steele -
"Under this language, a single instance of surveilling or contacting a person "in a manner that harasses" (the definition of which is murky) could expose someone to a Class 6 felony. The amendment fails to address any of these concerns, and in fact broadens the application of the statute by making it aggravated harassment to commit an act of harassment, as specified above, in violation of an order of protection. For those reasons oppose SB1633 as amended by the conference committee."
SB1633 *does* have a specific carve out, one that seems so specific that Townsend's vigilantes don't seem to fall within it -
From NPR -
The real COVID surge is (much) bigger than it looks. But don't panic
Cases of COVID-19 are — yet again — on the rise. The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 100,000 reported new cases across the country every day. That's nearly double the rate a month ago and four times higher than this time last year.
And the real number of cases is likely much higher than that, according to health officials. Because many people now rely on at-home tests, "we're clearly undercounting infections," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at the most recent COVID press briefing. Hospitalizations are trending upwards too, though only gradually still in most places.
From the Mayo Clinic -
In the U.S.:
In AZ:
1. Wear a damn mask.
2. Get vaccinated.
Pointed at this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.
From Business Insider -
Biden insists McConnell is a 'rational Republican' who may come around on gun control, even as the GOP blocks legislation
President Joe Biden insisted Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is "rational" and could agree to gun control, despite the party's longtime refusal to seriously entertain policy changes on firearms.
On Monday, Biden told reporters that he was unsure of whether Republicans would compromise, noting that he has "not been negotiating with any of the Republicans yet."
"Rational Republican"? In reference to Mitch McConnell? Really?
See: Garland, Merrick.
McConnell may (or may not) be "rational," but that doesn't preclude him from being "evil."
Not by a long shot.
Expect future White House speeches and press releases to be littered with words and phrases like "jumbo shrimp," "working vacation," and/or "accurate estimate."
From Vaughan Jones of KJZZ -
Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko heckled, exits stage during graduation speech in Glendale
Arizona Republican Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, who represents the state's 8th Congressional District, was heckled and exited the stage during a commencement speech at a high school graduation ceremony on Friday.
The Arizona Virtual Academy’s ceremony was held in Glendale, close to Lesko’s district.
Graduate Juliana Butler was upset at Lesko’s speech.
“I thought it was very inappropriate, and I was honestly really shocked that that was even allowed. I don’t know who OK'd that,” said Juliana Butler.
From CBS News -
What makes the AR-15 style rifle the weapon of choice for mass shooters?
The mass murder last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has something in common with America's deadliest massacres - the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Variations of the AR-15 were used in this month's massacre at a Buffalo supermarket; at a Texas Walmart in 2019; a Florida high school in 2018; a Texas church and a Las Vegas concert in 2017; and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The AR-15 style weapon is the most popular rifle in America with well over 11 million. And they are rarely used in crime. But, the AR-15 is the weapon of choice of the worst mass murderers. AR-15 ammunition travels up to three times the speed of sound. And as we first showed you in 2018, we're going to slow that down - so you can see why the AR-15's high velocity ammo is the fear of every american emergency room.
Mass shootings were once so shocking they were impossible to forget. Now they've become so frequent it's hard to remember them all. In October 2018, at a Pittsburgh synagogue, eleven were killed, six wounded.
[snip]
With the AR-15, it's not just the speed of the bullet, but also how quickly hundreds of bullets can be fired. The AR-15 is not a fully automatic machine gun. It fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. But in Las Vegas, it sounded like a machine gun.
A special add-on device called a bump stock allowed the killer to pull the trigger rapidly enough to kill 58 and wound 489. In other mass killings the AR-15 was fired without a bump stock, but even then, it can fire about 60 rounds a minute. Ammunition magazines that hold up to 100 rounds can be changed in about five seconds.
The used many words to answer their own question when I could've answered the same question with far fewer words -
The AR15 gives mass murderers the ability to kill lots of people very quickly.
Her penchant for hanging with grifters, fraudsters, scammers, nutjobs, and bigots is something that lends insight into how her potential administration might be conducted.
Corruption, cult of celebrity, and cult of personality will be big parts of any Lake administration.
For grifters, from 12News in Phoenix -
For fraudsters, from Twitter -
From NPR, dated 11/1/2021 -
'Misfire' is a scathing look at nepotism, fraud and corruption in the NRA
The National Rifle Association — once one of the most well-known and influential lobbying organizations in the country — is a wounded beast.
Tim Mak's Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA might be the final blow in terms of exposing the organization's rotten core and showing how a boundless love for money and power — as well as nepotism, fraud, and corruption — have been eating away at the NRA's foundations for a long time.
For scammers -
From Twitter -
From OregonLive, dated 1/21/2022 -
MyPillow CEO hit with cease and desist letter from Idaho over bogus election fraud claims
Idaho officials have sent MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell a cease-and-desist letter and a bill of more than $6,000 over the businessman’s repeated accusations of voter fraud in the state.
Secretary of State Lawerence Denney and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden sent the cease-and-desist letter to Lindell on Tuesday, the Idaho Statesman reported. The letter demands Lindell “promptly remove all false statements about Idaho’s elections from your website” and “refrain from making similar statements in the future.”
For nutjobs -
From Blog for Arizona -
For bigots -
From Twitter -
Hey - at least the blurb in the pic is better than I might have written -
"Crazy bigot endorsed by craven bigot."
Guessing that he's not making a break with Cheeto.
From the website of the Federal Election Commission -
Democrat Grayson is running in CD8 against Debbie Lesko. He reports an address in Apache Junction. He has NOT filed as a write-in candidate with the Arizona Secretary of State.
Another week of almost nothing on the schedule at the legislature, though a budget could come down at any time and, as we tragically saw last week, public events could also happen at any time. This week will probably be a short one - there's a holiday on Monday and they've taken to skipping work on Thursdays (they've always skipped Fridays*).
* = All subject to change if leadership hands them a budget.
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.
Oh, who am I kidding?
The "contributions" that they report probably come in checks.
From the report that they filed with the Arizona Secretary of State for Q3 2020 -
While they got their money's worth from Gray and Borrelli (as described in my last post), the money given to Fann and Bowers is probably money better spent - respectively, Fann and Bowers are President of the State Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, and both are well-positioned to kill any bills that the NRA opposes.
Still, it's not just state legislators who benefit from the NRA's largesse.
From reports filed by the NRA-Institute for Legislative Action, filed with the Federal Election Commission -
Schweikert and Lesko are running for Congress again while Shedd is running for Arizona Attorney General.
First, the names of the victims, lest we forget they were real people with real families and friends mourning them, from KABC (Los Angeles) -
We saw most of the R plan on full display in Arizona.
From Athena Ankrah at KJZZ -
Tensions high at Arizona Senate during Texas school shooting debate
Tensions were high on the Arizona Senate floor Wednesday as lawmakers debated the root causes of this week’s shooting at an elementary school in Texas.
Democratic leader Rebecca Rios told fellow legislators that the lives of 19 children and two teachers could have been saved with stricter gun control laws.
The video of the full Senate floor session is here; when I make a time reference, it's based on that video.
Rios' comments begin at around the 37:00 mark, and they're far more eloquent, and heart-rending, than anything I could have said. I recommend watching them in their entirety.
After her, R Sens. Rick Gray, Kelly Townsend, and Sonny Borrelli spoke. More may have done so, but three was all I could take before I wanted to throw something at my computer. Since I can't afford a new computer, I chose to view something else. :)
Even after just those three though, it was clear that the GOP is going to recite its favored talking points.
"Chicago!" was one of them, as was citing California.
Also a favorite? Lack of religion.
Of course, they didn't cite the mass shootings in churches (except to defend their "more guns" position), including one where the shooter prayed with his future victims. The last time I checked, there's a LOT of religion in churches.
Rick Gray posited that the American state religion is "secularism", basically blaming the separation of church and state for the killings in schools.
Kelly Townsend started speaking at around the 58:20 mark, and she hit all of the high talking points, and added one of her own -
She blamed abortion, gender identity, gun free zones, and lack of religion for the shooting.
On the other hand, she did switch it up - at the 59:15 mark, she compared shootings in the U.S. to stabbings in England.
I just *love* it when they Rs do that - that stuff is so easy to look up.
From the U.S. CDC -
From the U.K. Office of National Statistics
[begin sarcasm] Yup. The over 45K gun deaths in the U.S. is very comparable to the fewer than 230 knife homicides in the U.K over the same period. {/end sarcasm]
In the end, Townsend fell back upon the old GOP trope of "we need to arm our schools." (1.00:02 mark)
At the 1.03:47 mark, an outraged Democrat (of course), Sen. Christine Marsh pointed out, "Are you kidding?!?...The members across the aisle do not trust teachers to even teach content and now you're suggesting you do trust them though to carry guns to school?"
And Republican Sonny Borelli wasn't subtle in his quest to blame-shift. He actually yelled "Where are the parents?!? Unwedded mothers, deadbeat dads - the shame is on their forehead!"
Still, the most outrageous comment may have been uttered by Rick Gray at 49:47, early in the discussion.
There were 21 bodies in a school, 21 dinner tables with an empty chair there, but he was offended by a tweet from a reporter, Steve Irvin, since retired but then still with ABC15 in Phoenix.
I think this is the tweet that so ruffled Gray's feathers -
If it will help Gray, I'll send some thoughts and prayers his way.
Oh and as for the "run away" part. Ted Cruz of Texas has that covered.
From NPR -
Ted Cruz walks away from a reporter who asked why the U.S. has so many mass shootings
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, walked off on a British journalist after he was pressed about reforming gun laws, and asked why mass shootings happen so frequently in America.
The exchange happened two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, making it the second-deadliest mass shooting at an elementary, middle or high school in U.S. history. Cruz was attending a vigil for the victims.
By now, I expect that most people have heard about the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas (21 dead, 19 students, 2 teachers).
From KABC in Los Angeles -
19 children, 2 teachers killed in elementary school shooting; Beto O'Rourke confronts TX gov
At least 19 children and two teachers are dead after a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety -- an incident that President Joe Biden decried as "carnage" in a call for lawmakers "to act."
The tragedy in Uvalde, about 90 minutes west of San Antonio, comes just days after another deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York and amid a rapid rise in active shooter incidents in the country
.
This, of course, has brought the "we need more guns" crowd out.
From the Texas Tribune -
Top Texas Republicans resist gun control and push for more armed teachers and police at schools in wake of Uvalde shooting
In the hours after a gunman killed more than 20 people at a South Texas elementary school Tuesday, the state’s top Republicans sought to immediately squelch the possibility of gun control measures in the wake of yet another mass shooting.
As the death toll mounted from the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde and President Joe Biden vowed to push for stricter gun laws, Texas Republicans made it clear that any kind of gun restriction in response to the tragedy was off the table.
“Inevitably when there’s a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “That doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”
In an appearance on the far-right television network Newsmax, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly dismissed the notion of enacting restrictions on firearms — reasoning that shooters wouldn’t follow the law anyway.
“I’d much rather have law-abiding citizens armed and trained so that they can respond when something like this happens because it’s not going to be the last time,” Paxton said.
[snip]
On Tuesday, Republican officials revived ideas to stop future mass shooters — arming teachers and school administrators, putting more police officers on campus and limiting entryways to school buildings.
“We have to harden these targets so that no one can get in ever except through one entrance,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Tucker Carlson in an appearance on Fox News. “Maybe that would help. Maybe that would stop someone.”
Relax. The ignorance, the hate, isn't limited to Texas pols.
From Business Insider -
GOP Rep. Paul Gosar spread a baseless transphobic rumor that the Uvalde school-shooting suspect was a 'transsexual leftist illegal alien'
Following Tuesday's mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, spread a false and transphobic claim that the suspected shooter was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien."
Gosar tweeted the claim even though authorities had already identified the shooter as an 18-year-old male resident of Uvalde, where the shooting occurred.
As of Tuesday evening, the GOP representative had not commented on his tweet, which was deleted about two hours after being published.
Know who disagrees with the "more guns" mantra (admittedly, under a very specific circumstance)?
The NRA, the chief purveyors of fear for profit in America.
From NPR -
Guns are banned during Trump's upcoming speech at the NRA conference
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association's Annual Leadership Forum on Friday. But audience members at the group's annual meeting, being held this year in Houston, won't be able to carry guns during his address.
The conference is going ahead in the shadow of Tuesday's mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that killed at least 21 people — including 19 students.
[snip]
This isn't the first time firearms have been off-limits during a part of the gun group's annual convention. In 2018 a similar prohibition was put in place during a speech by then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Wouldn't Cheeto be safer if everyone present had a gun? At least he would be, if one believed the rationalizations of the apologists for mass violence in America.
Anyway, I have a potential remedy to offer (of course :) ), one that doesn't involve more gun control or even restrictions on the behavior of gun owners. No running afoul of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The NRA and other gun industry lackeys will whine about it, but so what? There would be no government laws or restrictions created, so no Constitutional issues, as far as I can see.
Change the rules of criminal court so that someone can viably mount a "self defense" defense when that someone kills someone else who possesses a concealed or unholstered small firearm.
In a worn holster would not qualify as "concealed".
However, a gun that's under a shirt or jacket, even a little bit, even if it's in a holster, would qualify as concealed.
And long guns (think: rifles or shotguns) would always be considered to be "on display" even when covered by cloth.
This wouldn't apply in cases where the gun is in a private residence where the primary resident has declared that guns are welcome there, in a private commercial establishment whose primary purpose is the non-lethal use of such weapons for the purpose becoming more skilled (think: gun ranges), or when disassembled and in a motor vehicle to be transported. Having said that, solely having an ammunition clip separate from the gun would NOT count as "disassembled" - a round could still be in the chamber, and all guns are presumed to be loaded until proven otherwise. As such, the fact that a gun is unloaded would not obviate a self-defense argument.
To keep this from being abused, there would be three caveats (which the non-cynical part of me is a little surprised aren't already in place for ALL use-of-force situations; the cynical part of me is not so surprised).
1. Don't lie about it.
2, Don't be wrong about it.
3. Don't create the reason/situation that causes one to be in fear of one's life. Simply being in public wouldn't be considered to be creating the reason/situation.
Do I believe this is a good idea?
No.
Do I believe it's better than the status quo?
Yes.
Of course, I believe that the status quo comes in three stages:
Stage 1 - A gun nut has a bad hair day.
Stage 2 - That person shoots a lot of people.
Stage 3 - The NRA and its water carriers blame the victims.
Under this proposal, people that want to own a gun could still do so.
I'm not a bookie, but if I was, I'd set the over/under at five.
Five, as in the number of times that this defense would be used before even gun nuts would start paying attention.
