OK, let's begin with some good news this evening! The Associated Press reported this morning that notorious right-wing activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman (plus Burkman’s shady lobbying firm) face a record $5.1 million fine for making illegal, unauthorized robocalls to wireless phones. The Trump backing neo-fascists "already face criminal charges in multiple states over allegedly organizing 85,000 robocalls that falsely warned people in predominantly Black areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan that information gleaned from mail-in ballots could lead to their arrest, debt collection and forced vaccination. The FCC said federal law prohibits making prerecorded calls to cellphones without the permission of those receiving the calls. The agency, which determined 1,141 calls went to mobile phones on Aug. 26 and Sept. 14, proposed a $4,500 fine for each one." 85% of Republicans approve, as do 6% of Democrats and 38% of independents. Sounds about right.
That's good-- and so are the results of a new Florida Quinnipiac poll that indicates that a small majority of Florida registered voters are connecting the dots between the state's horrific-- worst in the nation-- pandemic wave to the cause of the misery: Governor Ron DeSantis. 51% of Florida voters disapprove of how DeSantis is handling the pandemic while 46% are too flat out stupid to understand what's happening around them-- mostly in unvaccinated Trump counties like these half dozen plague-infested hellholes, all in the very northern-- most conservative-- part of the state, bordering Alabama and Georgia:
Holmes Co.- 89.0% Trump (22% vaccinated)-- Matt Gaetz's & Neal Dunn's districts
Lafayette Co.- 85.4% Trump (27% vaccinated)-- Neal Dunn's district
Baker Co.- 84.6% Trump (24% vaccinated)-- Al Lawson's district
Union Co.- 82.1% Trump (25% vaccinated)-- Kat Cammack's district
Gilchrist Co.- 81.4% Trump (26% vaccinated)-- Neal Dunn's district
Washington Co.- 80.1% Trump (24% vaccinated)-- Neal Dunn's district
Now, this might be considered good news to, although there's surely more to come. NY Times editorial write Michelle Cottle noted yesterday that the Trump clown car has has a smashup in Arizona. The Cyber Ninjas have COVID and were unable to finish the nonsensical "audit" that the delusionally believed would reinstate Señor Trumpanzee. "The clown-car chaos in Arizona," wrote Cottle, "is a near-perfect distillation of what Trump has done to the Republican Party, as well as much of the broader public. On what feels like a daily basis, he beats the drum about a stolen election, setting a tuneful lie that many Republican voters still dance to as the party mandarins look on, in either active support or silence. The political ramifications of this disinformation will be on display in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race next year, as well as those elsewhere, as independents and moderates assess if this is the party they want to reward."
In an independent evaluation of the process, Barry Burden, the head of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Trey Grayson, a former Republican secretary of state in Kentucky, detailed the review’s many “maladies.” “They include processing errors caused by a lack of basic knowledge, partisan biases of the people conducting the audit, and inconsistencies of procedures that undermine the reliability of the review and any conclusions they may draw. In particular, the operation lacks the consistency, attention to detail and transparency that are requirements for credible and reliable election reviews.”
Even some Republican officials have had enough. In May, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, a Republican-dominated body, accused state lawmakers of having “rented out the once good name of the Arizona State Senate” to “grifters.”
Last week, the Maricopa County recorder, a Republican, issued a long prebuttal to the Ninjas’ expected report, lamenting that the process had been an unnecessary disaster, that its results could not be trusted and that it was time for his party to “move forward.”
If only.
And, now for the grand finale: the insurrection committee actually may wind up nailing some White House aides and treason-committing members of Congress. They are at least asking for relevant records, including of 30 members of Señor Trumpanzee's inner circle. The committee is looking for evidence related to:
the gathering and dissemination of intelligence before the attack
security preparations around the Capitol
the role agencies played in defense of the Capitol
planning and organization of events in Washington on Jan. 5 and 6
how the events of Jan. 6 “fit in the continuum of efforts to subvert the rule of law, overturn the results of the November 3, 2020 election, or otherwise impede the peaceful transfer of power”
CNBC's Christina Wilkie wrote that "privately, Trump supported the rioters, first by refusing to call them off for hours during the attack itself, and since then, by offering thinly veiled praise for them. In one case, Trump has painted rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby through a broken window, as a heroine."
Although Gym Jordan and Ken McCarthy will surely be included, other Trumpists likely to be swept up in the probe include Marjorie Traitor Greene (Q-GA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (Q-CO), Madison Cawthorn (Nazi-NC), Mo Brooks (R-AL), among others.