Cheeto may no longer be POTUS, but at least he's consistent - he's always petty

He seems to think tat the "P" in "POTUS" stands for "Pettiest."

From HuffPost via Yahoo! -

Trump Vows To Sue In 2 Weeks To Snatch Washington Post, NYT Pulitzers

Donald Trump announced at his Texas rally Saturday that he is going to “sue” within two weeks to snatch away Pulitzer Prizes from The Washington Post and The New York Times for coverage of the Kremlin’s interference in America’s 2016 presidential election.

“Within the next two weeks, we’re suing the Pulitzer organization to have those prizes taken back,” Trump crowed at a rally in Robstown, where he stumped for MAGA candidates.

He said Pulitzer Prizes should be going to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro.

I have two guesses from this:

1.  He's going to fundraise off of this. (OK - that's like guessing that "water is wet" :) )

2. His lawyers probably love him...as long as the retainer checks clear.  He's an "attorney full employment" programs on the hoof.

People with camo gear and guns seek to intimidate early voters

On Thursday, I wrote about voter intimidation efforts in Maricopa County being referred to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Turns out, those efforts are ongoing.

From KXNV-TV (Channel 15 in Phoenix) -

New voter intimidation complaint filed, ‘ballot watcher’ says he's with Clean Elections USA

A voter has filed a voter intimidation complaint accusing ‘camo clad people’ of taking pictures while dropping off an early ballot outside the Maricopa County election headquarters.

The complaint is one of two new voter intimidation complaints the Arizona Secretary of State has received in a matter of days.

Armed gun nuts are accosting people at ballot drop boxes.

From AZFamily (Channels 3 and 5 in Phoenix), emphasis added by me -

Tensions high after armed individuals reportedly watch ballot box in Mesa

Multiple incidents of possible voter intimidation have been reported this week, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released a statement saying they will do anything to ensure a fair election.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to an incident Friday night at a ballot box in Mesa and said two individuals wearing tactical gear were armed. The Sheriff’s office said the individuals were standing outside the 75 limit at the Maricopa County Juvenile Court Building and told Arizona’s Family they weren’t breaking any laws.

On Saturday night, there was a group of four people watching the ballot box in Mesa, and two were armed with concealed handguns. There was a confrontation that resulted from the group being there.

Arizona’s Family spoke to an activist in a nun outfit who said she went out to the location to watch the watchers and ensure voter intimidation wasn’t happening. She said they were covering their license plates with pieces of cloth, and when she tried to take a picture of the license plates, she was grabbed and chased by one of the group members.

From a joint statement issued by Bill Gates, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Stephen Richer, Maricopa County Recorder -

On Friday evening two armed individuals dressed in tactical gear were onsite at a ballot drop box in Mesa. At the request of the County, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office responded. The individuals left the drop box area. Below is a joint statement from Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer.

"We are deeply concerned about the safety of individuals who are exercising their constitutional right to vote and who are lawfully taking their early ballot to a drop box. 

Uninformed vigilantes outside Maricopa County's drop boxes are not increasing election integrity. Instead they are leading to voter intimidation complaints.

Although monitoring and transparency in our elections is critical, voter intimidation is unlawful.

For those who want to be involved in election integrity, become a poll worker or an official observer with your political party. Don't dress in body armor to intimidate voters as they are legally returning their ballots.

No matter how you choose to vote in Arizona, you should feel safe doing so. We will do everything possible in our roles to protect voters, election workers, and our free and fair elections.”

People with guns, masks, and body armor?

It's reasonable to believe that they're up to no good.

Kelli Ward loses appeal of court decision to grant the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection access to her phone records

From Politico via Yahoo! -

Court clears way for Jan. 6 probe to get Arizona Senate candidate Ward’s phone records

A federal appeals court has turned down Arizona GOP senate candidate Kelli Ward’s attempt to block a House committee subpoena for her phone records in connection with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building and other events related to the 2020 presidential election.

A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, to deny Ward’s request for an order preventing telephone carrier T-Mobile from complying with the subpoena issued by the House select committee probing Jan. 6.

Ward argued that the subpoena violates her First Amendment rights by intruding on her activities as chairperson of the Arizona Republican Party, but the order issued Saturday by the appeals court panel’s majority said those concerns weren’t serious enough to keep the House from accessing details about her calls.

For most folks, Saturday tends to be good day.

Ward isn't most folks.

If Kari Lake is elected, expect more attacks on public education

From the website of the FEC - 

If the name "Youssef Khalaf" seems familiar, it should - he's the treasurer for Lake.

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State -

He was also the head of, and treasurer of, an anti-Rusty Bowers PAC.

He, and a member of his family, have been heavily involved in the Lake campaign and other (allegedly) shady activities.

From The Gila Herald, dated 7/24/2022 -

Cheeto has a rather self-serving, and one way, definition of "loyalty"

He expects "loyalty" (his definition) from others, but he doesn't exhibit any loyalty, or even simple humanity, toward others.

From The Hill, via Yahoo! -

Trump: ‘Very disloyal’ if Pence, other Cabinet members run in 2024

Former President Trump said he would find it “very disloyal” if former Vice President Mike Pence or other members of his former Cabinet sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, seeking to send a warning to a number of figures weighing potential White House bids.

“Many of them have said they would never run if I run, so we’ll see if that turns out to be true,” Trump said Friday during a brief phone interview with Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade. “I think it would be very disloyal if they did, but that’s OK, too.”

Apparently, to him, campaigning for a nomination that he wants is "disloyal."

Killing, on the other hand, doesn't bother him.

From Slate, dated 11/12/2021 -

Trump Says Rioters Wanting to Kill Mike Pence on Jan. 6 Was “Common Sense”

Donald Trump was banned from the major social media services after the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. On that day, instead of de-escalating the situation, he used Twitter to denounce then Vice President Mike Pence because Pence, in his capacity presiding over the Senate, had refused to overturn election results. Some of Trump’s supporters, while they were breaching Capitol security, chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” It was a loud and sustained chant, and not just one or two people—you can see a video here. One eventually found Pence’s seat on the Senate dais and left a note reading, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is ­coming.” (According to the Washington Post, this person later told law enforcement that Pence is a “child-trafficking traitor.”)

At least he's consistent.

From NBC, dated 6/18/2021 -

Trump digs in on Central Park 5: 'They admitted their guilt'

The president, who once called for the five to get the death penalty, offered no apology even though the convictions were vacated.

He called for them to get the death penalty after they were arrested and their criminal convictions were later vacated, but President Donald Trump on Tuesday wasn't offering any apologies to the so-called "Central Park Five."

"Why do you bring that question up now? It's an interesting time to bring it up," Trump told a reporter who asked if he would apologize to the five who were wrongly convicted of beating and raping a jogger in New York's Central Park in 1989.

Their convictions, based on confessions they said were coerced, were vacated in 2002, after DNA evidence linked a serial rapist to the brutal crime. The city later agreed to a $41 million settlement with the four black men and one Latino man, all of whom who were 16 or younger at the time of their arrest.

Expect a warm and dry winter in AZ

 From The Hill -

NOAA releases winter weather outlook: How La Niña will impact your state

The Climate Prediction Center’s official winter forecast has been released, and it splits the country in two: hot and dry down south, and a mystery up north.

The 90-day-outlook was published Thursday morning by the Climate Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service. It gives people a rough idea of what November, December and January will look like across the country.

[snip]

[snip]

Mesa voters intimidated by unknown assailants; Kari Lake rationalizes...the intimidation

From CNN -

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office has referred to the US Department of Justice and Arizona Attorney General’s Office a report of voter intimidation, Murphy Hebert, spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

The unidentified voter reported that they were approached and followed by a group of individuals when the voter was trying to drop off their ballot at an early voting drop box on Monday, according to Hebert.

[snip]

Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, who has embraced the politics of former President Donald Trump’s election lies and has not committed to accepting the results of her own race if she loses, said on Wednesday that she hadn’t “heard anything about” the report, but immediately seized on it to promote a central plank of her campaign.

“I haven’t heard anything about it. It just shows you how concerned people are, though. People are so concerned about the integrity of our election and this is another reason, Kate, this is another reason we have to restore integrity,” she told CNN’s Kate Sullivan at a campaign event in Scottsdale.

The report was forwarded to the office of the Arizona Attorney General; I will be surprised if Mark Brnovich does anything

Kari Lake declares that MLK Jr. would be MAGA; the King family has a different opinion on the topic

 From The Recount -

[snip]

LAKE: “I'm a true believer that if MLK, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, if JFK were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be America First Republicans. I really believe that.”

From The Daily Beast via Yahoo! -

MLK’s Daughter to Kari Lake: No, My Dad Wouldn’t Be a MAGA Republican

Kari Lake, a Republican who’s regularly spewed election-denying nonsense in her bid to be Arizona’s next governor, was eviscerated Wednesday after she claimed Martin Luther King Jr. would be a MAGA Republican if he was alive today.

A day after making the bizarre comment, Bernice King shot back that Lake was being dismissive of her father’s “seminal work and beliefs,” such as ending voter suppression and treating all people—including immigrants—with dignity.

Lake hates voting and elections, too - at least ones that don't go her preferred way.

The King family is on record as supporting voting rights and elections.

From Axios, dated 1/15/2022 -

King family leads Arizona rally to mobilize support for voting rights bills

Family members of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. honored his birthday Saturday with a rally in Arizona to mobilize support for voting rights legislation.

Driving the news: The rally comes days after Martin Luther King III admonished Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Thursday, saying history will remember her "unkindly" for voicing her opposition to abolishing the filibuster to pass major voting rights bills.

Yes, I've already voted for Katie Hobbs.

October surprises can happen, even to candidates in downballot races

 ...though one usually doesn't happen because of the candidate's own behavior - during the campaign.

From ABC15, written by Hector Gonzales - 

Candidate for Maricopa Co. Community College District seat arrested for public sexual indecency

A candidate for a Maricopa County Community College District seat was arrested for alleged public sexual indecency.

On October 4, an officer with the Maricopa County Colleges Police Department observed a pickup truck in the parking lot at Rio Salado College Surprise.

According to a police report, when the officer approached the front passenger door window he witnessed Randy Kaufman touching himself inappropriately.

[snip]

The Republican Party of Arizona released the following statement:

Every American citizen has the right to fair treatment throughout the judicial system. The Republican Party of Arizona respects due process and the Consitution {sic}. We support Mr. Kaufman's decision to suspend his campaign.

If the AZGOP truly respected the Constitution, they'd spell it correctly.

Of course, if they truly respected the Constitution they'd respect things conducted under it, like elections.

He was running for an at-large seat on the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District.

From the list of candidates published by the Maricopa County Elections Department -

Were there any books in the conflagration caused by Lake and Masters?

 ...If so, I guessing that at least one of them was a spelling book.

From Twitter -

From a certain state agency website, emphasis added by me -

Arizona Office of the State Fire Marshal

Note: I didn't see any fire in the linked video.  It was nearly 45 minutes long, so I skimmed it.  It appeared to be just Masters and/or Lake talking.

Cash on hand numbers are in - Statewide edition

Courtesy the Arizona Secretary of State -

* = incumbent

Only major party ballot candidates are included.

And this only includes numbers reported by the candidates themselves and doesn't include spending by PACs and dark money groups, of which their has been a lot of already.

Cash on hand numbers are in - Federal edition

Courtesy the FEC -

* = incumbent

Only major party ballot candidates are included.

And this only includes numbers reported by the candidates themselves and doesn't include spending by PACs and dark money groups, of which their has been a lot of already.

Sinema's number is included just for giggles - she isn't up for re-election this time.

Q: Does Blake Masters Take Euros?

A: Of course he does.

From BusinessInsider -

Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel is in the process of acquiring Maltese citizenship, report says

Silicon Valley investor and former Trump adviser Peter Thiel is hoping to add Malta to his foreign passport collection, according to a Saturday report by The New York Times.

Thiel, who was born in Germany, is also an American and New Zealand citizen. The billionaire PayPal founder has donated approximately $30 million to Republican candidates running for office in next month's midterm elections, according to the Times, making him one of the race's most influential individual donors. 

From the Central Bank of Malta -

[snip]

With the adoption of the euro in Malta on 1 January 2008, the Bank became responsible for the issuance of euro banknotes and coins in accordance with the principles and rules established within the Eurosystem.

On one hand, Malta *does* have an extradition treaty with the U.S. (which may be why Cheeto will never go there); on the other hand, the desire for a Malta citizenship may just be a tax avoidance scheme on Thiel's part.

From Price Waterhouse Coopers (emphasis added by me)-

Malta

Individual - Taxes on personal income

Malta taxes individuals who are both domiciled and ordinarily resident in Malta on their worldwide income.

Any person who is ordinarily resident in Malta but not domiciled in Malta is taxable only on income arising in Malta and on any foreign income remitted to Malta (i.e. on income and chargeable gains arising in Malta and on income outside Malta that is received in Malta). Such persons are not taxable in Malta on income arising outside Malta, which is not received in Malta, and on capital gains arising outside Malta, regardless of whether they are received in Malta, or otherwise.

However, persons who are married to an individual ordinarily resident and domiciled in Malta are subject to a worldwide basis of taxation (and not on a source and remittance basis).

A non-resident individual is taxed only on income and chargeable gains arising in Malta.

Of course, it may not matter if Thiel's financial largesse to Masters is in dollars or euros.  Masters is already expecting to lose the race, and is trotting out his story/excuse.

From The Daily Beast -

Blake Masters Is Already Claiming His Election Will Be Stolen

In his campaign to unseat Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Republican Blake Masters has consistently amplified skepticism and conspiracy theories surrounding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

But during the final stretch of his own 2022 race, Masters is starting to cast doubt on the outcome of this election—before the votes are even counted.

I'm not normally one to stereotype someone, but...

...I'm guessing that this person likes their politics simple and filled with hate.

Seen on McDowell Road in Phoenix late in the morning on 10/15/2022.

Dear ticket splitters: Don't lie to yourself. You may think that you will vote only for "sane" Republicans...

....but there's no real space between extremist Republicans like Kari Lake and Mark Finchem and establishment (presumably saner) Republicans.

Ticket splitting, by definition, happens when a voter votes for candidates of more than one political party.

From Yahoo! (emphasis added by me)-

Pence support for election deniers raises question of where GOP stands on 2020 lies

As he lines up a possible bid for the White House in 2024, former Vice President Mike Pence is campaigning with the strangest of political bedfellows, throwing his name and his money behind candidates who supported the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that put the Indiana Republican’s life in danger.

On Wednesday, Pence raised money for a former aide now running for Indiana’s secretary of state, who called the 2020 election a “scam.” On Thursday, Pence will headline a fundraiser for one of the fake electors enlisted by Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia. And Pence has recently given his endorsement to top Republican candidates in New Hampshire and Arizona, despite their prior support for Trump’s 2020 election lie.

Yes, Pence is supporting those that wanted him dead on January 6, 2021.

Guess for him anyway, being called "Mr. President" is more important than being called "Mr. Alive", 

It's not just national Republicans who are kissing up to extremists, either.  It happens here in Arizona, too.  From the website of the FEC -

Ragan was a staffer for Jon Kyl, has close ties to Kirk Adams and/or Doug Ducey, and was even the treasurer for Karrin Taylor Robson in the R primary.

In short, she's as "establishment GOP" as establishment gets.

Yet, now she's tied to The Center for Arizona Policy, which was extreme long before Cheeto came along.

It's even fronted by a Cheeto-like bigoted grifter.

In short, supporting any Republican means supporting means supporting vileness and extremism, no matter how much that Republican says that they're one of the "good" ones.