The survey results (of presidential historians) are in! Unsurprisingly, Cheeto is considered to be the worst-ever POTUS.

He's certainly the worst of my lifetime*.

Technically, I was alive during the LBJ administration, but I don't have a memory of him as POTUS.  Though

From NPR -

In historians' Presidents Day survey, Biden vs. Trump is not a close call

President Biden is in a tight race to keep former President Donald Trump from reclaiming the White House, recent polls show. But that's not how 154 historians and presidential experts see it: They rate Biden in the top third of U.S. presidents, while Trump ranks dead last.

The 2024 edition of the Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey has Biden in 14th place, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. Trump comes in 45th, behind fellow impeachee Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan, the perennial cellar-dweller in such ratings due to his pre-Civil War leadership.

The historians rated Barack Obama highly, and as I consider him to be the best POTUS of my lifetime, I don't disagree with them on Obama or Cheeto.  In between, however, there are some differences.

They rated Obama 7th overall and the best of my lifetime (and the highest ranked living ex-president), so I agree with that one.

Bill Clinton and Joe Biden were ranked 12th and 14th, respectively.  Clinton's ranking is a little high for my taste - top half, certainly though.  As for Joe Biden, I think he deserves an incomplete because his term is ongoing.

Ronald Reagan is ranked 16th, which is way too high - he took advantage of Richard Nixon's criminality. Society was tired and wanted someone in the White House who reminded them of the "good ol' days".

George HW Bush was ranked 19th, which was a little high, but I think that his biggest failing was that he wasn't Reagan - most of the folks who voted for him were hoping for a 3rd Reagan term.  They didn't get that.

Jimmy Carter was ranked 22nd, near the middle of the pack.  I have always thought he was underrated as a POTUS

Gerald Ford was ranked 27th; I don't disagree with that, but since he was an unelected placeholder who replaced Nixon, an incomplete might be appropriate here.

George W. Bush was ranked 32nd (which was way too high in my estimation) and until Cheeto, was the worst POTUS of my lifetime and it wasn't even close (I don't believe that it's a coincidence that both people who were the worst at being POTUS in my lifetime have MBAs - POTUS isn't a gig where the concept of right and wrong synchs up with profitable and not profitable.)  Also, W was in charge of the most corrupt presidential administration ever.

At least until Cheeto came along.

The biggest reason that I rate W ahead of Cheeto is, as bad as he was, is that I never thought he was a traitor.

Nixon was ranked 35th, which I feel is too high.  He made cynicism about politicians part of the American psyche.

Cheeto was ranked 45th.  The main reason he wasn't ranked lower is because there aren't more Presidents.

Maybe Cheeto expects to sell $350 million worth of sneakers

That's a *lot* of sneakers, even though I expect him to keep his material costs low and his labor costs lower.

He had a bad week and may be in dire need of cash.

From AP -

Trump avoids ‘corporate death penalty’ in civil fraud case, but his business will still get slammed

Donald Trump won’t face the corporate death penalty after all.

A New York judge on Friday spared the ex-president that worst case punishment as he ruled in a civil case alleging Trump fraudulently misrepresented financial figures to get cheaper loans and other benefits.

[snip]

Trump and his businesses were told they would have to pay $355 million for “ill gotten gains.” Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who help run the business, were ordered to pay $4 million each. Trump’s former chief financial officer was ordered to pay $1 million, for a total judgment of $364 million

.

He has an "interesting" way of consoling himself.

From NBC News -

Trump launches a sneaker line

Former President Donald Trump launched a line of sneakers ranging in price from $199 to $399.

If anyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop in the upcoming presidential race, former President Donald Trump just did, launching his own line of tennis shoes on Saturday.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Trump said when he announced the launch of a sneaker line at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.

Ummm...Nike's Air Jordan 4s look to retail for $65 - $230.

Which puts the high end of that range just above the low end of the range for Cheeto's shoes.

So...should the countdown clock be started now or should it be put off a couple of weeks?

As in, the countdown clock on the sneakers going on clearance and being sold in countries that Cheeto calls "shitholes."  For pennies on the dollar.

Speaking of which, if Cheeto wants to market something that he'll sell a lot of, I have one suggestion to make.

And I make this suggestion with all due respect.

He should sell toilet paper...with his image emblazoned on each sheet.

Of course, it won't work - even disgusting things are repelled by things viler than them.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/18/2024

This is going to be a (relatively) quiet week in terms of committee activity.  Most of the action will take place behind the scenes as bill sponsors try to persuade committee chairs in the other chamber to put the sponsors' bills on a committee agenda.  Monday and Tuesday look to be the busiest days in terms of committee activity, though that is subject to change.

 

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 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 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, 2/19 

-

House Appropriations meets at 1:30 p.m. in HHR1. On the agenda: 23 bills, including six with proposed strikers.  The most interesting one may be Rep. Timothy Dunn's proposal regarding private organizations and professional certifications.  There's also some pure propaganda here, like HCR2060, Rep. Ben Toma's bid to win a seat in Congress to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving public financial support.

On Tuesday, 2/20 

-

Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m.in SHR109.  On the agenda: 23 bills.  Includes SB1148, Sen. Anthony "Insurrection" Kern's wish to further bust the state's budget by giving a tax rebate of an unspecified amount to Arizona citizens who are over the age of 55.

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: one presentation and five bills.  The presentation is regarding AZ DHS' pandemic response plan (I expect a lot of pushback on that from the R members of the committee) and the bills are regarding the continuation of certain state boards/departments.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/11/2024 Part 2

Friday is the deadline for bills to receive a committee hearing in their originating chamber* so there are some very long committee agendas this week and there's a very rare Friday committee hearing on the schedule.

* = Except for the Appropriations Committees of the respective chambers and for a couple of other exceptions, but those necessitate some serious hoop jumping by the sponsor.

In other words, there are many bad bills on agendas this week - I can't even begin to cover them all here,  I suggest reading all agendas, or at least those covering an area of interest.

Two committees are scheduled to meet twice, but the agenda for the second meeting is the same as for the first, with one exception.  That's been noted below.

Because there are so many committee agendas at the lege this week, this post will be done in two parts.  Part one (this one) will cover Monday and Tuesday while part two will cover Wednesday and Thursday (and Friday). 

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 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 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 Wednesday, 2/14 

-

House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 24 bills.  Lots of propaganda here.  Some of is anti-immigrant, some is anti-labor, some is anti-United Nations (and anti-municipalities and counties...and anti-efforts to address climate change...etc.)

House Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 15 bills.  There's a proposed striker for HB2727 from Rep, Quang Nguyen that would expand the legal definition of sexual exploitation of a minor.  This one, even if passed and signed into law, may run into First Amendment issues.

House Ways & Means meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: Eight bills, most bad, but not all are propaganda.

Senate Government meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 15 bills.  There are proposed strikers for SB1120. SB1170, and SB1292 (text unavailable for all of them) that may be problematical. 1292's striker is listed as a "same subject" striker, but underlying bill is about dividing Maricopa County into many counties...and is sponsored and cosponsored by a rogues' gallery of election deniers.  Aside from those, there's still a lot of propaganda on this agenda.

House Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: nine bills

House Regulatory Affair meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: 10 bills, including HCR2052, a proposal to amend the state's constitution to insert the legislature into all agency rulemaking, giving them the authority to approve or disapprove all rules.

House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 11 bills, including HB2866, setting the price to register an EV at $135.  The price for a standard vehicle is $8,

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 41 bills.  Whew!  It took a while just to count them; considering them will take longer.  A mix of good bills and bills that are pure propaganda.  Good - SB1353, requiring the production of cost estimate for fund school vouchers for each year.  Bad - SB1040, proposing to create an exemption for students from paying student activity fees if they don't like them state their reason is based on conscience or religion.

Senate Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 19 bills, including SCR1035, a proposal to amend the state's constitution to specifically state that LEOs (actually, the term the measure uses is "certified peace officer") doesn't have to resign from public employment in order to seek a salaried elected office.

On Thursday, 2/15 

-

Senate Judiciary meets at 8 a.m.in SHR1.  On the agenda: 27 bills, including proposed strikers for two bills (language unavailable).  Much of this agenda, but not all of it, is pure propaganda.

House Appropriation Subcommittee on Budgetary Funding Formulas meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: no bills, just some presentations.

House Appropriation Subcommittee on Fiscal Accountability meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: no bills, just some presentations.

House Appropriation Subcommittee on State & Local Resources meets at 9 a.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: no bills, just some presentations.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and water meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 20 bills, including SB1430, a proposal requiring that wind farms be located be located more than six miles from the nearest property unless that property is owned by the same entity/person that owns the property where the wind farm is located.

Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 29 bills.  Similar to Monday's agenda; the bill that is on Thursday's agenda is SB1216, but isn't on Monday's, which has a striker proposed for it (text not available).

Senate Elections meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 25 bills.  Mostly propaganda or Republican wish list bills.  Includes SCR1036 and SCR1043, a proposed amendment to the state's constitution targeting Tucson's election system (1043 would also bar ranked choice voting in AZ), and SCR1023, a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would move all municipal elections to November.

On Friday, 2/16 

-

Senate Government meets at 10 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: same as Wednesday's agenda.

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/11/2024 Part 1

Friday is the deadline for bills to receive a committee hearing in their originating chamber* so there are some very long committee agendas this week and there's a very rare Friday committee hearing on the schedule.

* = Except for the Appropriations Committees of the respective chambers and for a couple of other exceptions, but those necessitate some serious hoop jumping by the sponsor.

In other words, there are many bad bills on agendas this week - I can't even begin to cover them all here,  I suggest reading all agendas, or at least those covering an area of interest.

Because there are so many committee agendas at the lege this week, this post will be done in two parts.  Part one (this one) will cover Monday and Tuesday while part two will cover Wednesday and Thursday (and Friday). 

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 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 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, 2/12 

-

Joint Legislative Audit Committee meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  No bills on the agenda.  Some presentations.

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 15 bills.  There are a couple of "We hate poor people" bills - HB2502, from Rep. Leo Biasiucci, would institute a work requirement for SNAP recipients while HB2503, from the same source, would specifically instruct DES to not "seek, apply for, accept or renew" waivers of work requirements unless such is federally required or legislatively authorized.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 19 bills, including some in the "even feds need to laugh sometimes" genre.  HB2376 seeks to bar the transfer of any private real property in AZ to the federal government or any of its arms without the specific approval of both chambers of the legislature and the governor, HB2377 would require the state's auditor general to determine the cost of managing all federally-controlled land in AZ, except for land that is controlled by the DOD or the Bureau of Reclamation.  And to assume that all such land, with the heretofore-mentioned exceptions, is transferred to AZ control.  Both schemes are from Rep. Lupe Diaz.  Also on the agenda are some love letters to the feds:  HCM2004, asking the feds to give equivalent land to the state or relevant county when it acquires state or county land; HCM2005, asking that the feds transfer 30% of all federally-controlled land in western states to those states; HCM2006, asking that Congress declare that the feds cannot make "any new national monument, national park, wildlife refuge, conservation area, area of critical environmental concern, wild and scenic river, wilderness, wilderness characteristic area or any other federal reservation or special use designation within Arizona's border and from withdrawing or reserving any additional federal mineral, land, water or other national resource rights within Arizona's border" without the specific permission of Congress, the AZ legislature, and the board of supervisors of any affected counties; HCM2007, asking that the President void the creation of the Grand Canyon National Monument area; and HCM2008, asking that the Antiquities Act be repealed.  Under that act, the Grand Canyon National Monument area was created.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: nine bills, including HB2748, Rep. Joe Chaplik's proposal to criminalize immigration and to indemnify municipal officials and/or employees from civil liability under state and federal law for enforcing Republican anti-immigrant measures.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets again at 2 p.m. or upon the adjournment of the first committee meeting in HHR1.  On the agenda: five bills, including a proposed striker for HB2329.

Senate Elections meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 20 bills, mostly propaganda.  My personal (least) favorite is SB1158,.changing AZ law so that a candidate for president cannot be removed from a general election ballot for violating the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  One bill that seems to be directed at a specific person is SB1662, from Sen. David Gowan, a proposal to make someone who owes more than $1,000 ineligible to be a candidate for or to hold elected office.  I don't know if this is targeted at a potential general election opponent for Gowan, a primary opponent, or if he's carrying the water for someone else.

Senate Finance and Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 30 bills, some of which are pure propaganda.  Also includes a proposed striker for SB1034 and a proposed striker for SB1689.

Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 28 bills.  Lots of propaganda bills and/or bills that are simply bad. 

On Tuesday, 2/13 

-

Senate Health and Human Services meets at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 27 bills, including three with proposed strikers.  Lots of propaganda here - some anti-vaxxer, some anti-LGBTQ (mostly T).

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 14 bills, including HB2282, another expression of Republican hatred for unemployed, aka poor, people.  The bill proposes to expand requirements for collecting unemployment insurance payments in Arizona while also expanding the factors for disqualifying people from doing just that.  The current maximum benefit is $320/week.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4,  On the agenda: eight bills.  Most seem OK.

House Natural Resources, Energy &Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda:  22 bills, with most reading as if they were written by an industry lobbyist.  One that may have been written by an industry lobbyist but is also pure propaganda is HCR2050.  It proposes to amend the state's constitution to bar municipalities, counties, and other political subdivisions from banning the manufacture or use of a particular device based on its energy source.

Senate Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: two bills.  SB1188 is one of them.  It's Sen. Sonny Borrelli's attack on the state's Department of Gaming.  He's got a history of antipathy toward the department - he thinks its a tool of tribal nations in AZ.

The fix was in...

...to pass something that will just make things worse instead or fixing things.

At the state legislature, the Senate's Elections Committee and the House's Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee held a joint meeting to consider two Republican-proposed bills at 9 a.m.*

* = they have a verrryyyyy flexible concept of time at the legislature

They were meeting to consider SB1733 (introduced by Sen. Wendy Rogers) and HB2785 (Rep. Alexander Kolodin), identical bills that are supposed to address the state's elections calendar, which threatens to disenfranchise Arizona voters,

I spent 2 1/2+ hours watching it online.  I recommend doing so, unless you have something better to do.  Like taking out the trash.  Or washing your hair.  Or amputating one of your legs.

Primary takeaway: Both bills passed committee on party-line votes.  

Other takes on the meeting:

- The lege does have a rather flexible concept of time - the meeting was slated to start at 9 a.m. but wasn't gaveled in until 9:21 a.m..

Shortly after that,  one of the chairs (Sen. Wendy Rogers) noted that the meeting was going to take an hour.

Rogers observed at 10:17 that her hour had ended 15 minutes before.

Rogers and the other chair, Rep. Jaqueline Parker, recessed the meeting at 10:50, for "five" minutes.

The meeting reconvened 11:03.

It ended at 11:39.

...Apparently, both Rogers and Parker believe that "committee chair" is another way of saying "absolute dictator".

They had a dissenter ejected from the hearing.  He's ruffled tender legislative sensibilities before.

They tried to suppress dissent by limiting public testimony to four speakers.

...Rep Alexander Kolodin, sponsor of HB2785 and an attorney, like to hear himself talk.  One of the things that he said that he wasn't involved with litigation related to signature verification in Yavapai County.  That seemed to be a really specific denial, so I did a little research.  Turn out, that was true in a lawyer's sort of way.  Is there another case he's involved with?  Yup, in Mohave County.

He (and others) stated that they've been working on this for months.  So they sat on this until the situation became urgent and think that they can force their propaganda on the rest of the people of Arizona.

...There was a lot of lying and dissembling going on.  Mostly by the Republican members.  They all thought (and opined) that the extraneous signature verification clauses in the bill(s) were essential to changing election dates.

...Don't hire these folks to do your taxes.  They're without ability to do basic math.  They added two speakers and the Rep. Parker said that meant there were three in favor of the bill and three opposed.

I counted five in favor and one opposed.  They could only get to three and three by counting the last two speakers as "opposed" - they wanted the bill amended to make the signature verification portion harsher.

...Sen. Sonny Borrelli may not be the brightest light in the nighttime sky.  He tried to plant words in the mouth of the one speaker who was actually opposed to the measure(s), and when that speaker didn't go for it, Borrelli tried to do so again.

[Edited on 2/7 to add]:

...Certain members of the state legislature are still ticked off by the Red for Ed movement of a few years ago.  At least, they used the bills to get their "petty and vindictive" on -

[/End edit]

Pics from the video feed -

House members showed up before Senate members.

 

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse confer before the meeting (Center of the pic, L-R) -

Sens Rogers and Bennett, and Reps Parker and Kolodin.

In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl, it might be appropriate to refer to them as the Fearsome Foursome.

But that would be overrating them.

Sen. Sundareshan making a point

Sen. Hernandez making a point

Rep. Terech making a point

Rep. Kolodin with his mouth open.  Not an unusual occurrence

Quick!  Some lobbyist needs to give Sen, Kavanagh a comb!

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/4/2024 Part 2

Welcome to Part 2.

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 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 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 Wednesday, 2/7 

-

Wednesday will be a very busy day at the Capitol, with nine committees scheduled to meet.

House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 12 bills, including two bills with proposed strikers relating to historical societies

House Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: six bills, most bad.

Senate Government meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: five bills, all bad.   State Sen. Shawnna Bolick seems to be running a bill to benefit her own family.  Her SB1370 would exempt small companies established by people under that age of 18 from transaction privilege tax (sales tax).

From Bolick's Q4 2021 campaign finance filing:

I can't find any evidence that Firebird Installations has been incorporated with the Arizona Corporation Commission (caveat: I only searched a couple of ways and if it was established under a different name or by a different person, I would have missed it), nor do I know the ages of any of her children.  This person may or may not be a minor.

It *is* curious, though.

House Appropriations meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: five bills and a couple of presentations.

House Municipal Oversight & Elections meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: seven bills, all propaganda,  Includes HCR2027, Rep. Cory McGarr's proposed amendment to the state constitution to change the way state representatives are elected.

House Regulatory Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: eight bills, most of which read as if they were written by an industry lobbyist.

House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda:  eight bill, including a return visit from Sen. John Kavanagh's bid to criminalize begging is roadway medians.  This one is called HB2658, and is sponsored by Rep. Joe Chaplik.  It's still vindictive crap.

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 20 bills.  Most of which are pure propaganda.

Senate Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: 11 bills, mostly crap and/or propaganda.  Includes SB1231, granting civil immunity to local and state officials for acts related to enforcing Republican laws regarding immigration.

On Thursday, 2/8 

-

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Budgetary Funding Formulas meets at 9 a.m.in HHR3.  No bills on the agenda, just three propaganda sessions presentations.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Fiscal Accountability meets at 9 a.m.in HHR4.  No bills on the agenda, just three presentations.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on State & Local Resources meets at 9 a.m.in HHR5.  No bills on the agenda, just two presentations.

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 24 bills.  Lots of garbage/craps here, including SCR1022, Sen. Anthony "Insurrection" Kern's proposal to give the legislature the authority to override the courts in regard to the practice of law.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water meets at 9.a.m.in SHR2.  On the agenda: eight bills, most of which read as if they were written by an industry lobbyist.  Includes SB1237, barring from regulating "working animals."

Legislative schedule - week starting 2/4/2024 Part 1

Because there are so many committee agendas at the lege this week, this post will be done in two parts.  Part one (this one) will cover Monday and Tuesday while part two will cover Wednesday and Thursday. 

There are many bills on committee agendas this week as the crossover deadline approaches - bills not heard in committee in the originating chamber will be all but dead.  Hence, the rush.

Also, there are some "misdirection" bills on agendas as members try new approaches to things that they've been slapped down on before or they simply lie about a proposal's effects.  Proposals that may look to be harmless at first glance may not be, and will merit closer examination.

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 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 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, 2/5 

-

House Health & Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda:  11 bills, including HB2451, Rep. Steve Montenegro's scheme to restrict advertising by marijuana dispensaries; he has proposed some amendments to his idea, perhaps to make it more palatable.  It's still crap.  Also on the House HHS agenda is HB2621, which is a piece of propaganda declaring that the R talking point of a "border crisis" is actually a public health crisis too.

House Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: four bills, two bad.

House Military Affairs & Public Safety meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: 12 bills, including HB2135, Rep. Timothy Dunn's proposal to "reform" private prison adult incarceration contracts by expanding which corporations are eligible for them.

Senate Elections meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 14 bills, including SB1131,  Sen. John Kavanagh's backdoor plan to force municipalities to move their elections to another date.  Direct Republican schemes to do the same thing keep getting slapped down by the courts.

Most, but not quite all, of the other bills are bad.

Senate Finance and Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in SHR109.  On the agenda: 16 bills,  including SB1213, Sen. Wendy Rogers' plan to create a tax credit for increased labor costs due to a municipality enacting  a minimum that is higher than the state's minimum wage, and have the municipality pay for it.

Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: eight bills, including SB1500, an ode to Republican "fear the other" propaganda masquerading as an anti-drone measure.

On Tuesday, 2/6 

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Senate Health and Human Services meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: 22 bills.

House Commerce meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: 13 bills, including HCM2001, a love letter to the feds declaring that the chemical industry is already too regulated and restricted and all future regulation/restrictions should be eased.

House Education meets at 2 p.m. HHR4.  On the agenda: five bills, including HB2400, Rep. Matt Gress' proposal to give more power to school resource officers and Tom Horne's Department of Education in schools.

House Natural Resource, Energy & Water meets at 2 p.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: 15 bills, most of which appear to have been written by an industry lobbyist.  On the agenda: SB1147, Sen Anthony Kern's proposal to appropriate $250K to the state's livestock compensation fund.  And amendment has been proposed by Sen. Juan Mendez.

It 's a great proposal by Mendez, but it won't pass - it seems to be anti-corruption and he's a Democrat (and my state senator).

Is "slow walk" on the exercise list for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors? If so, they're about to get very fit

 First, the caveats about some of the folks mentioned in this post:

Future Rep, Jevin Hodge ran for Congress in 2022 and I contributed to that campaign.

Former Rep. Jennifer Longdon is someone I've voted for and I contributed to her reelection campaign.

Former Rep. Amish Shah is someone I've voted for and I signed his nominating petition a few cycles ago.

Former State Rep. Athena Salman resigned on 1/1.  The MCBOS finally appointed Jevin Hodge to fill her seat yesterday.  LD8 is still down a rep though - he won't be sworn in until tomorrow.

Of course, LD8 has more representation than LD5.  Both reps from LD5, Jennifer Longdon and Amish Shah have resigned.

LD5 will be completely without any representation in the AZ House until the MCBOS gets around to doing its job.  I don't recommend that anyone hold their breath while waiting for that to happen.

Salman and Longdon have left the legislature to pursue other opportunities while Shah doing something similar - he resigned in order to focus on a run for Congress.

On the other hand, former Rep. Leezah Sun of LD22 was in a "resign or get expelled" situation.

So, she left on her own.

I wish them all well in their future endeavors, even Sun.

Though the people of their districts shouldn't expect them to be replaced soon.

Legislative schedule - week starting 1/28/2024 Part 2

Welcome to Part 2.

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 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 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 Wednesday, 1/31 

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House Government meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda:  10 bills, including some sneaky bad ones.  One that's simply stupid, and not in a sneaky way, is Rep. Justin Wilmeth's HB2477, a proposal to declare Pluto to be the state planet for Arizona.

Ummm...Pluto isn't even classified as a  full planet any longer.

House Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: 10 measures, all propaganda.

House Ways & Means meets at 9 a.m. in HHR1.  On the agenda: three bills.

Senate Government meets at 9 a.m.in SHR1.  On the agenda: four bills, at least three of which are pure talking points.  SB1127 would bar municipalities and/or counties from putting a tax or fee on blockchain technology in a residence.

Sponsored by Sen. Wendy Rogers and cosponsored by legislators who are just as extreme as her.

House Appropriations meets at 2 p.m.in HHR1.  On the agenda: three bills, including HB2610, a proposal by Rep. Barbara Parker to allow the legislature to put unlimited monies into the state's rainy day fund (currently capped at 10% of the state's general fund revenues).

House Municipal Oversight & Election meets at 2 p.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: eight bills, all propaganda.

House Regulatory Affairs meets at 2 p.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: 11 bills, many pure propaganda.  One that seems to be certain to be vetoed if it's approved by the legislature: HB2471, a scheme by Rep. Cory McGarr (and cosponsored by a host of other crazies) to supplant the executive branch by having the lege approve or invalidate all rules crafted by an agency.

House Transportation & Infrastructure meets at 2 p.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: six bills.

Senate Education meets at 2 p.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: two bills.

Senate Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security meets at 2 p.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: five bills including SB1123, barring an AZ company or governmental entity from entering into a contract to improve critical infrastructure if the contractor is owned or controlled by a citizen of China, Iran, North Korea, of Russia..

My guess is that the Republicans will kill this one if Vlad tells them to.

On Thursday, 2/1 

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House Appropriations Subcommittee on Budgetary Funding Formulas meets at 9 a.m. in HHR3.  On the agenda: no bills, two presentations.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Fiscal Accountability meets at 9 a.m. in HHR4.  On the agenda: no bills, one presentation.

House Appropriations Subcommittee on State & Local Resource meets at 9 a.m. in HHR5.  On the agenda: no bills, two presentations

Senate Judiciary meets at 9 a.m. in SHR1.  On the agenda: seven bills, including a proposed striker for SB1183 titled "brass knuckles; prohibited weapons".  The text isn't available as of this writing.  Lots of propaganda on the agenda, including SB1145, forbidding the state's bar association and/or supreme court from disciplining or revoking the license of and attorney for "BRINGING A GOOD FAITH, NONFRIVOLOUS CLAIM THAT IS BASED IN LAW AND FACT TO COURT."

This hot mess is sponsored by Sen. Anthony Kern (and cosponsored by other members of the extremist caucus).  He is familiar with frivolous lawsuits.

Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water meets at 9 a.m. in SHR2.  On the agenda: eight bills, mostly a mix of talking points and garbage.