Legislative schedule - week starting 6/2/2024

At this point, there's nothing scheduled, though the House may hold a floor session to consider some of the Republicans' propaganda measures.  But that's not on the schedule as yet.

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

Cheeto: guilty on all counts!

My mood right now -

From Zazzle.

From Politico -

Inside the courtroom: A drumbeat of ‘guilty’ and a blank stare from Trump

The first count landed like a hammer: “Guilty.”

In business-like fashion, the foreman of a Manhattan jury transformed Donald Trump — the former president of the United States and possibly the next one — into a convicted felon. Then he said it 33 more times.

While he almost certainly isn't as wealthy as he wants others to believe and is nowhere near as wealthy as he himself wants to be, he's not living paycheck-to-paycheck (as too many of us are), as such, I expect that receive a rich man's sentence for this conviction -

Probation and a fine.

I believe that the only way he even sniffs the inside of a cell over this is his adamant refusal to accept responsibility for his bad acts.

From an email that I received today (and I again edited out his pic and added emphasis with the red brackets {the yellow highlighter was already part of the email) -

Actually, the folks who, in my opinion. merit the most sympathy here are the members of his Secret Service detail.

If he's incarcerated, one or more of them will voluntold to be his cellmate.

Pretty sure none of them signed up for that.

I'm a little torn over today's verdict -

It's a sad day for America because a former POTUS is now and forevermore a convict.

On the other had it's a great day for America because even a former POTUS is subject to the rule of law.

Dear Cheeto: Hell, NO.

I'm on some interesting email lists (when John McCain ran for POTUS, I signed up for email updates from his campaign; which someone evidently sold after his death so I ended up on some bizarre lists), but today, I found out I'm on one of Cheeto's.

Earlier today, I received an email from buildingourmovement.com looking to raise funds for Cheeto.

From that email (and I deliberately did not include Cheeto's pic in the snippys) -

No Donnie, you don't have my support and I've never voted for you.

Prediction: AZ Secretary of State Adrian Fontes will run for higher office

And for my next prediction, I'll go out on a limb and predict that Cheeto will cheat at golf.

OK, not too far out on that limb. :)

Anyway, I've got a couple of reasons for believing that.

1. It's not an absolute, but in AZ, statewide office is considered a steppingstone on the path to higher office (higher statewide office or a federal office).

Except for State Mine Inspector.  I can't remember the last time one of them sought higher office.

2. He's raising his national profile.  This morning he appeared on NBC's Meet The Press and wasn't reticent there.

From CNBC -

Threatening U.S. election officials is ‘domestic terrorism,’ 

says Arizona’s Secretary of State

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is calling out threats against this country’s election officials as “domestic terrorism.”

“One of the ways that I have been looking at this and addressing this is telling the really hard truth, and that is this: Threats against elections officials in the United States of America is domestic terrorism,” Fontes said in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He defined terrorism as “a threat or violence for a political outcome.” “That’s what this is,” Fontes said.

From Rolling Stone -

State Election Officials Speak About Rising Threats:

 

‘This Is Domestic Terrorism’

FOUR SECRETARIES OF state are speaking out about the threats they receive regularly simply for doing their jobs, thanks in large part to election denialism perpetuated by Donald Trump and members of the Republican Party.

“Threats against elections officials in the United States of America is domestic terrorism. Terrorism is defined as a threat or violence for a political outcome. That’s what this is,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said on Meet the Press. He spoke as part of a panel of four secretaries of state who appeared on the show Sunday.

From The Hill -

Arizona secretary of state decries threats to election officials as ‘domestic terrorism’

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, decried rising threats to election officials as “domestic terrorism,” and said that he and other offices are working with law enforcement nationwide to handle the issue.

“And I think back to what we were talking about just a moment ago, one of the ways that I have been looking at this and addressing this is telling the really hard truth,” Fontes said during his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” part of a recorded episode that will air on Sunday. 

Poll: Gallego leading Lake

Though in AZ, Biden vs. Trump is too close to call.

Pointed at this by fivethirtyeight.com.

I saw this today, and, while I firmly believe that when it comes to elections, there's only one poll that counts (and it's held in November, this poll is current enough to merit a post.

From fivethirtyeight -

The poll in question is from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and from and Mainstreet Research.

From FAU's press release -

BATTLEGROUND STATES NEVADA AND ARIZONA TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Click here for Full Crosstabs and Other Products From FAU/Mainstreet

Download Nevada Report

Download Arizona Report

With the 2024 election cycle fast approaching, new polling data from Nevada and Arizona reveal a deeply engaged and starkly divided electorate in these pivotal battleground states.

The FAU Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab) and Mainstreet Research polls highlight the intense partisan polarization and motivations driving voter sentiment, including economic concerns, the legal proceedings against former U.S. President Donald Trump, and the potential entry of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a third-party candidate.

[snip]

Ruben Gallego, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Arizona, is currently outperforming incumbent Republican Gov. Kari Lake (44% to 37%) suggesting that Lake has had a difficult time getting traction in this race.

Like Trump, Lake is leading only with voters under age 49, and more than 20% of voters in that age bracket indicate they are still undecided. The close numbers forecasting a fight for control of the House in Arizona underscore how the congressional generic ballot highlights the intense battle being waged across the state’s districts.

According to the full survey report, Gallego has a 7% lead among registered voters and an 8% lead among likely voters.

One note about the press release: it cites Lake as the incumbent governor.  She's not.  She was the 2022 R nominee for AZGov. She just wishes she was governor, and has filed lawsuits to overturn the results.  None of those have been successful in overturning the election; of course, that may not have been the real purpose of the lawsuits.

Her rubes supporters have sent her a lot of money based on her claims.

To realistically quote Maricopa County Republican: "Wah! The rules don't apply to us! Wah!"

From KJZZ, written by Wayne Schutsky -

Maricopa County Republicans sue elections officials to add LD29 candidate to ballot

Republicans in Maricopa County are suing election officials in an attempt to place a new legislative candidate on the July primary ballot to replace a candidate who withdrew from the race.

State law allows local political parties to pick a new candidate to replace withdrawn candidates, a process that played out earlier this month when Democrats in Legislative District 8 chose Lauren Kuby to replace Rep. Melody Hernandez, who dropped out of the district’s state Senate race.

Republicans in the West Valley’s Legislative District 29 held a similar vote on May 16, picking James Taylor to replace Rep. Austin Smith, who withdrew from the Republican primary for the district’s two seats in the Arizona House of Representatives.

But, unlike with LD8 Democrats, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office rejected Taylor’s nomination. The Secretary of State’s Office said the law requires parties to name those replacements before ballots are printed and cited a May 13 printing deadline set by Maricopa County, the body administering the LD29 primary election. 

[snip]

But the spokeswoman previously confirmed that the county set a May 13 deadline in order to meet its printing deadlines.

The law in question is ARS 16-343.

Note: I live in LD8 and was notified of the Democratic emergency election on 5/9, which was held (I believe; as I'm no longer a PC, I didn't pay close attention to it) on 5/11.

Joe Arpaio: gone, but not forgotten. Like athlete's foot fungus.

Hey, I could have equated him to an STD, but I didn't because I'm far too civil for that. ;)

Even though we're still getting screwed by his time in office.

From KJZZ, dated 5/21 -

Maricopa County taxpayers will spend $314 million on Joe Arpaio racial profiling case

Seven years after Joe Arpaio was ousted as sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county, taxpayers are still footing the bills from a racial profiling verdict over his signature immigration crackdowns — and those costs have been getting heavier since.

The tab for the legal and compliance costs in overhauling the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is expected to reach $314 million by mid-summer 2025, including $41 million approved Monday by county officials — the most expensive for Maricopa County taxpayers since the lawsuit was filed in 2007.

Nearly 11 years ago, a federal judge concluded sheriff’s deputies had racially profiled Hispanics in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. Consequently, the judge ordered costly overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit.

Legislative schedule - week starting 5/26/2024

This week's post is going to be verrryyyy similar to last week's post.

One Senate committee is scheduled to meet this week to consider some executive nominations, however, I 'm pretty sure there will some floor sessions so the Republicans can speechify over consider their anti-immigrant and anti-voting measures.  The folks at the Arizona Agenda have reported that the AZ House won't meet until 6/4 to consider some Senate amendments to their anti-immigrant screed.

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

On Monday, 5/27 - Holiday.  Nothing on the schedule.

On Tuesday,, 5/28 - Nada.

On Wednesday, 5/29 -

Senate Education meets at 11 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: no bills, just consideration of two executive nominations - Troy Hoberg to the School Facilities Oversight Board and Mary Kelly to the State Board for Private Postsecondary Education.

On Thursday, 5/30 - Nada.

Blame the victim: it's no longer just a gambit for gun nuts

It seems that those whose last names can be abbreviated as "Corp". or "Inc". do that, too.

From CNN -

American Airlines claimed a child was at fault for being secretly recorded in a restroom. It has now changed its response

After American Airlines in a legal response blamed a 9-year-old girl for using an airplane bathroom that had a recording device allegedly placed there by a former employee, the airline has changed its response.

The company was responding to a civil lawsuit filed against American Airlines claiming the girl, listed as Mary Doe, was “secretly filmed while using the airplane toilet” during an American Airlines flight in January 2023.

[snip]

In a filing Monday, American Airlines initially argued that the girl was at fault and negligent because she used a lavatory “she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.”

In response to CNN’s request for comment on the filing, American Airlines said the filing was made in error by outside counsel retained by the airline’s insurance company.

[snip]

While investigating that incident, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts say they uncovered additional videos on Thompson’s iCloud account that show four additional minors – including a 9-year-old – using the bathroom on American Airlines flights between January and August 2023, according to the Department of Justice.

Is being utterly venal a prerequisite for being elected to the lege from N. Scottsdale/Fountain Hills?

That legislative district (LD3), like all LDs, elects three people to the state legislature, one state senator and two state representatives.

LD3 has sent Reps. Alexander Kolodin and Joe Chaplik and Sen. John Kavanagh to the state legislature.

Kolodin is an attorney, with an attorney's regard for the truth.

Kavanagh is a retired police officer with a PO's regard for the Constitution.

Chaplik was a rather unremarkable ideologue.  

Until this week.

Not he's catapulted right past Kolodin and into Kavanagh territory.  Kavanagh may still be the most craven member of the lege, but now part of his competition for that title is from his own LD.

From AZMirror, written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy -

House Ethics Committee drops complaint against GOP Rep accused of signature fraud

An ethics complaint filed against Republican state Rep. Austin Smith, after he was accused of petition signature fraud, was dropped by the House Ethics Committee Friday. 

Smith dropped his reelection bid last month after he was accused of personally forging more than 100 petition signatures to get on the 2024 ballot. Now the lawmaker is facing a possible criminal investigation after state election officials forwarded his petition signatures to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. 

Chaplik is the chair of the House Ethics Committee and while they have dropped consideration of the complaint against Smith for his (alleged) crime, he and they are continuing to look into the complaint lodged against Democratic State  Representatives Analise Ortiz and Oscar De Los Santos, who are accused of, wait for it, making Rs feel bad about themselves for their support of Arizona's pre-statehood near-total ban on abortion.

The House Ethics Committee is known for giving a free pass to Republican members, no matter how heinous their words or (alleged) crimes.

Note: The now-former member of the lege mentioned in the article, David Stringer, is running for County Attorney in Yavapai County.  Apparently, his campaign is utterly self-financed - 

It seems that Chaplik (and the other R members) feel that bringing disrepute to the body is acceptable...if the one behaving badly is a Republican.

He/they also believe that the bad behavior by a Republican shouldn't be criticized...if the one doing the criticizing is a Democrat.

"Ethics" and "Supreme Court" are two terms that shouldn't be used in the same sentence

From The Hill (emphasis added by me) -

Nadler questions Supreme Court ethics after Alito flag debacle: ‘None of them have clean hands’

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) brought the question of Supreme Court ethics back to light after Justice Samuel Alito was criticized earlier this week for an upside-down American flag allegedly flying outside of his Virginia home in 2021.

“None of them have clean hands, none of them have clean hands,” Nadler said during an appearance Saturday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” “And again, I would say we need two things. We need to enforce a code of ethics. And we need term limits on the Supreme Court.” 

I'll disagree with Nadler on one major thing - when it comes to Supreme Court ethics, there's nothing there to question.

While I do agree with him about needing to enforce a code of ethics for justices on the Supreme Court, but I believe doing so will obviate any need for term limits.

The American people deserve something from the Court we not getting from this Court - more of the members of the Court have to be honorable people.

Legislative schedule - week starting 5/19/2024

Two Senate committees are scheduled to meet this week to consider some executive nominations, however, I 'm pretty sure there will some floor sessions so the Republicans can speechify over consider their anti-immigrant and anti-voting measures.

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

On Monday, 5/20 - Nada scheduled.

On Tuesday, 5/21 -

Senate Education meets at 1 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: no bills, just two executive nominations - Bradley Boute to the State Board for Private Postsecondary Education and Jadyn Shane Fisher to the Arizona Board of Regents.

On Wednesday, 5/22 -

Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children meets at 10 a.m. is SHR2.  On the agenda: no bills, just two executive nominations - Bassam M. Elters and Ginaveve L. Howard to the State Transportation Board.

On Thursday, 5/23 - Nada scheduled.

Mitt Romney proves again that he was unfit to be POTUS

From CNN -

Romney says if he were president he would have immediately pardoned Trump

Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said that if he were President Joe Biden he would have “immediately pardoned” former President Donald Trump.

“Had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him,” Romney told MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” in an interview set to air Wednesday. “I’d have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.”

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faces 88 charges over four criminal indictments in Georgia; New York; Washington, DC; and Florida — with the latter two being federal cases prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, lost that race rather resoundingly.

Maybe it was due to the way that he tied his dog to the roof of his car and drove off.

Maybe it was due to the way he dismissively stated that 47% of Americans didn't pay income taxes and all of them would vote for Barack Obama "no matter what".

One can now add his desire to give Cheeto a free pass on his criminal acts to the list of reasons he was utterly unqualified to be president.

Note: To the best of my knowledge, a POTUS can only pardon someone in relation to violations of federal law, and Cheeto is facing some state charges.

Does Rikers have a broadcast room?

From AP -

Biden and Trump, trading barbs, agree to 2 presidential debates, in June and September

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for their first presidential face-off to play out in just over a month.

The quick agreement on the timetable followed the Democrat’s announcement that he would not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades. Biden’s campaign instead proposed that media outlets directly organize the debates between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees.

By then, Cheeto may be convicted in his hush money trial and be a resident of NYC's jail at Rikers.

And any debates will have to be broadcast from there.

Maybe he'll have the cameras set to filter out the shade of orange of his jumpsuit.

Of course, if that's the same shade created by his fake tanner, he'll then look like the Invisible Man, which would be thought of as a bad thing by someone with his ego.

The best thing about the Trump trial? It's turning CourtTV* into a modern day version of Skinemax

* = and other outlets

Well into the 2010s, but most notably in the 1980s and 90s, the cable channel Cinemax would broadcast soft core porn movies late at night, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays.  That practice earned them a nickname.

"Skinemax."

Cinemax, and its parent, HBO, have moved away from adult entertainment.

Also, "Skinemax" refers to the longtime nickname for Cinemax, and not the Canadian network of the same name that broadcasts hardcore porn.

From an analysis piece in The Guardian (UK) -

Stormy Daniels testimony was lurid and powerful – but Trump voters don’t care

Stormy Daniels may have regarded sex with Donald Trump as brief, unimaginative and regrettable but the porn star gripped the nation with a salacious and lengthy retelling of the encounter to a New York court this week.

Daniels’s humiliating testimony in Trump’s fraud trial infuriated the former president who glowered from a few feet away. But her account only confirmed what most Americans already knew about a man widely regarded as a sexual predator and appeared unlikely to change many votes in November’s presidential election.

New York state is prosecuting Trump for fraud for allegedly using his business, the Trump Organization, to pay $130,000 in hush money to Daniels days before the 2016 election. She went public anyway two years later with a book, Full Disclosure, in which she claimed to have had sex with Trump once.

[snip]

Daniels told the court how she went to meet Trump at his penthouse suite expecting to go to a restaurant only to find him in satin pyjamas. She said her evening evolved from administering a playful spanking with a magazine that had Trump’s face on the cover to her alarm at finding him spread across a bed stripped down to his underwear.

[snip]

“I was staring up at the ceiling, wondering how I got there,” she told the jury.

The judge stopped Daniels rapid-fire testimony at times, telling her the jurors did not need to know the pair had sex in the missionary position, with Daniels keeping her bra on, or that Trump didn’t use a condom. But by then they had heard it and, like almost everyone else in court and around the country, were unlikely to forget.

Daniels said the sex “was brief” although, apparently, not brief enough.

And that doesn't even include the creepiest stuff - Cheeto's remark about how Daniels resembled his daughter, Vanky.

All of this may result in Cheeto's biggest contribution to American culture - mental images of him boinking may serve as the ultimate form of birth control