I was going to title this with a "Dear USDOJ..." title, but it was too long.
As in "Dear USDOJ: A bunch of crazy people, insurrectionists, insurrectionist-enablers, and wannabes met in a rather infamous town...and bragged about it."
I don't know if it quite falls into the category of the 1957 Apalachin gathering of the Mob (as far as I know, no arrests happened today), but it seems to qualify as the modern equivalent.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors does its own redistricting, and one can tell that, for the most part, they pick their own voters.
See if you can see a pattern here.
The main MCBOS redistricting webpage is here.
First, some basic demographics -
The Board has five members.
The membership is 100% male.
The membership is 80% non-Hispanic Caucasian.
The membership is 80% Republican.
The membership is NOT representative of the county as a whole. Not even close.
From the U.S. Census Bureau -
Voter registration figures, courtesy the Maricopa County Recorder's Office -
While 80% of the board is Republican, Republicans only make up 53% of the voters who
have registered in one of the two major parties.
Of course, only 34.3% of all registered voters in Maricopa County are enrolled Republicans.
While partisan affiliation is (allegedly) not a consideration during the supes' redistricting process, other factors may be.
I wonder what those factors could be? (That's sarcasm - I don't actually wonder at all.)
The supes' are considering five plans. Even the least bad of those plans involve packing most ethnic minority voters into a single district.
The demographic figures of those plans -
I'm torn between wanting to keep them around and doing what they do to serve as a warning to those who believe that elected officials should be allowed to do their own redistricting and having the voters impose an AIRC-like process at the county level.
Then I remember that the county has a $3.42 *billion* budget.
They should be compelled by the voters to be more representative of Maricopa County.
The Arizona Secretary of State has a list of ballot questions up that will be considered by voters this fall. It's still early, so voter-proposed questions will still be added to the list.
However, the four measures approved by the legislature in 2021 are on the list, and voters should vote against 3 of the of them as diminishing the power of the voters.
Vote against Propositions 128, 129, and 309. Proposition 308 seems decent.
Proposition 128 is 2021's SCR 1034. Legislative analysis here. If passed, it would allow the legislature to override voter-approved measure if they are found by a Supreme Court (AZ or US) to contain "illegal or unconstitutional language".
Given the propensity of Rs to railroad supreme court picks through (see: Montgomery, Bill or Kavanaugh, Brett, among others) in order to gain a partisan majority of court membership, if this is approved, say goodbye to things voters want, like recreational and medical marijuana.
Proposition 129 is 2021's HCR 2001. Legislative analysis here. If passed, this would require that all citizen initiatives pertain to only one topic and if any topic isn't covered in the title, any initiative language on that topic is void.
Proposition 308 is 2021's SCR 1044. Legislative analysis here. If passed, it would make undocumented immigrants who meet specific criteria eligible for in-state tuition. This one may be worth voting for.
Proposition 309 is 2022's SCR 1012. Legislative analysis here. This is a Big Lie measure, that, if passed, would impose a large number of ID requirements on voters.
Maybe book covers in FL are made of kevlar and by forcing students to carry books in front of them, the students will be able to stop bullets with them.
From the Orlando Weekly, dated 6/6/2022 -
Florida school district bans backpacks following Uvalde shooting
In the confusing aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, officials have looked everywhere but the blindingly obvious while trying to pin blame for the tragedy.
After a rousing round of "schools should have one door" that probably caused sleepless nights among the nation's fire marshals, officials in one Florida school district have come up with a new solution: no more backpacks.
Wagering that you can't carry a gun if you can't carry anything, the Broward County Public Schools announced a ban on bookbags for the final days of the school year. In a letter to parents over the weekend, they said the move was taken out of an "overabundance of caution for security reasons." The ban begins tomorrow and all students were encouraged to use Monday to return any items to the school ahead of summer break.
From Yahoo! News -
Ginni Thomas emailed dozens of Arizona lawmakers urging them to overturn Biden's 2020 win: Report
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent emails to more than two dozen members of the Arizona state legislature urging them to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, according to a new report.
According to an analysis of emails published by the Washington Post Friday, Thomas sent identical messages to more than half of the Republicans serving in the state Senate and Arizona House at the time.
"As state lawmakers, you have the Constitutional power and authority to protect the integrity of our elections — and we need you to exercise that power now!” wrote Thomas. “Never before in our nation's history have our elections been so threatened by fraud and unconstitutional procedures."
From KXNV -
New records show Cyber Ninjas audit had $9 million price tag
The most recent public records release from the Arizona State Senate includes an operating expenditures document for the months-long review of Maricopa’s 2.1 million ballots from the 2020 General Election.
The price tag was almost 9 million dollars.
The top 5 expenses listed were:
- $5,243,593 for Payroll and Labor Costs
- $1,182,971 for Depreciation Expenses
- $627,176 for Professional Services
- $543,871 for Travel Expenses
- $253,327 for Supplies
She wouldn't be on the hook for the whole tab, though - trumpkins picked up nearly $6 million of the it. From Forbes -
Arizona Audit Cost Trump Supporters Nearly $6 Million—Only To Assert Biden Won By Even More
After more than five months of counting and millions of dollars spent, an election audit of more than 2 million Arizona ballots has delivered disappointing results for former President Donald Trump and his supporters, concluding he lost the state to President Joe Biden by an even bigger margin than the final vote count that the state certified in the 2020 election.
All of which brings to mind a couple of questions -
Would there be a conflict of interest for the judge hearing the case if the spouse of a Supreme Court justice declares bankruptcy? Has the spouse of a Supreme Court justice declared bankruptcy? Ever?
First up, a definition of Godwin's Law.
From Dictionary.com -
Godwin’s law is the proposition that the longer an internet argument goes on, the higher the probability becomes that something or someone will be compared to Adolf Hitler.
From Yahoo! News -
GOP Candidate Carl Paladino Calls Adolf Hitler 'The Kind Of Leader We Need Today'
Republican House candidate Carl Paladino praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s ability to rouse “the crowds” and declared Hitler “the kind of leader we need today” in a February 2021 interview on the radio station WBEN in Buffalo, New York.
Paladino, a businessman and leading GOP figure in New York state who was the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2010, is running for the Republican nomination to replace the retiring Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.).
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking position in GOP House leadership, swiftly endorsed Paladino after Jacobs announced his retirement. Jacobs became a target of conservative gun rights activists following his endorsement of limited gun control measures.
When presented with Paladino’s statement that Hitler is “the kind of leader we need today,” Stefanik claimed it was taken out of context.
From The Hill -
No. 2 House Republican on guns: We didn’t ban planes after 9/11
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Wednesday invoked 9/11 when arguing against gun control measures as a response to recent mass shootings, saying that the U.S. did not ban planes after the terrorist attack.
“Airplanes were used that day, as the weapon to kill thousands of people and to inflict terror on our country. There wasn’t a conversation about banning airplanes,” Scalise said in a press conference on Wednesday. “There was a conversation about connecting the dots. How can we try to figure out if there are signs we can see to stop the next attack from happening?”
Congressman Scalise:
Planes aren't designed to kill lots of people very quickly. They're designed to move many butts great distances.
Can they kill lots of people? Of course they can, especially when they crash.
But they're not intended to do so.
On the other hand, guns can and do kills lots of people, and they're intended to do so.
Another difference between guns and planes? Planes were grounded after 9/11.
Pointed at this by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.
From CNN (emphasis added by me)-
Audio shows Trump-endorsed Arizona Senate candidate questioned whether January 6 attack was set up by FBI
Blake Masters, the Republican Senate candidate from Arizona, met with conservative activists at a Phoenix IHOP this spring and was asked whether he would support investigating US intelligence operations to uncover the federal government's "nefarious activities."
Masters replied, "Absolutely," and then floated the conspiracy theory that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol actually may have been a false-flag operation set up by the FBI, according to a recording of the March 30 meeting obtained by CNN.[snip]
Masters is part of a wave of Republicans who have won the coveted endorsement of former President Donald Trump after parroting his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and downplaying the actions of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol last year.
Of course, Cheeto may not be the only one that Masters is pandering to.
From Maddowblog on MSNBC -
Trump-backed Senate hopeful pushes racist line on gun violence
At face value, Blake Masters has an odd background for a U.S. Senate candidate. The Arizona Republican has worked as an executive at tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s company; he’s helped lead Thiel’s foundation; he’s helped promote Thiel’s ideas, and he’s been the beneficiary of Thiel’s electoral generosity.
The 35-year-old candidate, with effectively no background in government or policymaking, nevertheless launched a far-right campaign — and picked up an endorsement from Donald Trump, who not only tends to agree with Thiel, but who was also eager to undermine Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich for not doing more to advance the Big Lie.
Masters is proving to be quite a candidate. The Daily Beast reported on a newly unearthed quote in which the GOP Senate hopeful reflected on gun violence.
Tech investor and Arizona Republican Senate hopeful Blake Masters acknowledges that the United States has a gun violence problem. But he also has a theory about why there’s a problem—it’s “Black people, frankly.” Masters boiled the issue down in an April 11 interview on the Jeff Oravits Show podcast, telling the host that “we do have a gun violence problem in this country, and it’s gang violence.”
Just a guess: No matter how much he panders to Cheeto (and Cheeto likes panderers), Masters will always be Thiel's pet.
From USA Today -
The 'mortality gap' between Republican and Democratic counties is widening, study says. Here's why.
A new study found deaths rates are improving faster in Democratic counties than Republican ones.
Experts are calling this phenomenon the "mortality gap," and say state policies, individual health decisions and a shift in party demographics may be widening it.
From the study, published in The British Medical Journal -
Interestingly, the population figures are very telling -
As of 2016, there were over 361K people in counties won by Democrats, while there were just over 55K people in counties won by Republicans.
The full study is here.
From Politico -
Garcetti allies tried to put the screws to Mark Kelly. It may have backfired.
Democratic powerbrokers close to Eric Garcetti privately pressured Sen. Mark Kelly to support the Los Angeles mayor’s ambassadorial nomination, according to five people familiar with the outreach.
As part of the push, they left the strong impression that the Arizona Democrat could find himself cut off from donor networks should he refuse to back the beleaguered nominee to be U.S. ambassador to India.
I don't know who is going to win the R primary, but I expect that whoever it is won't compare well to someone who isn't for sale.
Pointed at this by the Election Law Blog.
From the Brennan Center for Justice -
Arizona Is the Epicenter of the Fight for Voting Rights Today
One of the worst voter suppression laws in the nation, fueled by conspiracy theories, has pushed Arizona to the forefront of the fight for voting rights.
In a brazen repudiation of federal law and recent Supreme Court precedent, Arizona recently enacted a law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote by mail or in presidential elections. In 2021, Arizona was one of the 17 states nationwide to enact new restrictive voting laws. Now it’s trying to break away from the rest of the voter suppression pack.
After a year and a half of conspiracy theories, a partisan postelection “audit,” antidemocratic legislation, election sabotage rhetoric from political candidates, and a Supreme Court ruling further weakening the Voting Rights Act, Arizona has become a key battleground in the fight for voting rights.
[snip]
Further, H.B. 2492 could be an attempt to push the Supreme Court to further erode voting rights. The Court recently held that Arizona’s previous attempt to require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration violated the National Voter Registration Act. This new law seems designed as an invitation to the Court to reconsider that ruling.
Since the 2020 election, Arizona lawmakers have shown a consistent interest in using false claims about voter fraud as the raw material for justifying new restrictive voting laws.
HB2492 has been signed into law by Doug Ducey, Arizona's Governor; his letter to Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Secretary of State, is a shining example of self-serving doublespeak.
From Twitter, taken yesterday -
On the surface, not much is scheduled to happen at the legislature.
Of course, legislative leadership could hand the membership a package of budget bills at any time.
Of course2, certain members could while away the time watching another movie out of the Riefenstahl oeuvre.
Other than the respective chambers' Rule Committees, only one committee is scheduled to meet this week.
Senate Health and Human Services meets at 9 a.m. on Thursday, 6/9/2022 in SHR1 to consider some executive nominations.
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 Hill -
Toomey says Biden not ‘helpful’ amid negotiations on gun legislation
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on Sunday that President Biden has not been “helpful” amid congressional negotiations on gun reform in the wake of a string mass shootings in the U.S.
“I think the president might have been a president who would reach across the aisle try to bring people together,” Toomey told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“But he’s chosen not to take that approach,” Toomey added. “Since day one, he has sided with the far left of his party and really not reached out to Republicans.”
