Arizona audit muddles on with no clear end in sight

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Arizona’s partisan election audit is muddling along with no end on the horizon as Republicans in the state Senate and Democratic outside groups battle over the process.

The glacial pace of the audit — which state Senate Republicans kicked off in December — was put into sharp relief this week with each side complaining that the other had not provided needed documents related to the count.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp shot down a motion from the GOP to dismiss a lawsuit from liberal watchdog group American Oversight seeking documents related to the state Senate’s audit. Continue reading.

Steve Schmidt rains hell on the ‘moral rot’ of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch for vaccine lies

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In a series of tweets posted early Friday morning, former Republican Party campaign consultant Steve Schmidt pointed an accusing finger at Fox News, various personalities on the conservative network and media mogul Rupert Murdoch for being responsible for thousands of deaths from COVID-19 and claimed they have “blood on their hands.”

Reacting to a report that Fox News star Tucker Carlson laughed off questions over whether he has been vaccinated despite his nightly questioning of whether vaccines are needed, Schmidt — who ran former Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign against Barack Obama — fired off a volley of attacks that ended with him calling Fox News “one of the singularly most corrupt institutions that has ever existed in the history of the United States.”

Tagging Carlson and Fox News colleague Laura Ingraham in this his first tweet, Schmidt pointed out that they and their families have been vaccinated while encouraging their viewers to avoid in the name of freedom. Continue reading.

Two men charged in alleged plot to firebomb California Democratic Party headquarters

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Two men have been charged in an alleged plot to firebomb the California Democratic Party’s headquarters in Sacramento, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

Ian Benjamin Rogers and Jarrod Copeland were “prompted by the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election” and believed their attack would spark a “movement,” according to federal prosecutors, who said the men were members of a militia group.

Law enforcement officers seized five pipe bombs, thousands of rounds of ammunition and “between 45 and 50 firearms, including at least three fully-automatic weapons” during a January search of Rogers’s home and business, according to the indictment. Continue reading.

GOP lawmakers mad Biden fired Social Security head for damaging agency

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Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul is refusing to accept his removal.

President Joe Biden fired former President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Social Security Administration on Friday, accusing him of damaging the agency. Congressional Republicans are livid, suggesting that his ouster will imperil Social Security.

Andrew Saul, who was appointed to a six-year term as Social Security commissioner in 2019, is a wealthy investor and longtime Republican megadonor. His deputy commissioner, David Black, resigned Friday at the request of the president; Saul refused to resign or to accept his firing.

“I consider myself the term-protected commissioner of Social Security,” Saul told the Washington Post on Monday. “I quite frankly feel I’m doing an excellent job there.” Continue reading.

How ‘In God We Trust’ bills are helping advance a Christian nationalist agenda

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City vehicles in Chesapeake, Virginia, will soon be getting religion. 

At a meeting on July 13, 2021, city councilors unanimously voted in favor of a proposal that would see the official motto of the U.S., “In God We Trust,” emblazoned on every city-owned car and truck, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of US$87,000.

Meanwhile, the state of Mississippi is preparing to defend in court its insistence that all citizens, unless they pay a fee for an alternative, must display the same four-word phrase on their license plates. Gov. Tate Reeves vowed last month to take the issue “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court should we have to.” Continue reading.

John McCain adviser explains why the Trumpified GOP has become ‘the greatest threat since 9/11’

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Although MSNBC has a liberal slant, some of its hosts have very conservative backgrounds — including “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough (a former GOP congressman) and Nicolle Wallace, who served as White House communications director under President George W. Bush and was a senior adviser to the late Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. But the 49-year-old Wallace is a scathing critic of former President Donald Trump, and she slams the modern-day GOP as a hotbed of Trumpist authoritarianism in an op-ed published by MSNBC’s website on July 16.

Wallace, who hosts MSNBC’s weekday afternoon show “Deadline: White House,” warns, “I never thought I’d cover the demise of democracy in my own country, but here we are…. The attack on our democracy, spearheaded by the ex-president and enabled by the GOP, represents the greatest threat since 9/11.”

The former Bush official and McCain adviser goes on to say that in one sense, the United States is facing a more perilous national security threat in 2021 than it did after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. There were no prominent Republicans or Democrats defending al-Qaeda after 9/11, Wallace argues — whereas apologists for the bloody January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building by Trump supporters are plentiful in the Republican Party. Continue reading.

Former Trump official: GOP has become America’s biggest ‘national security threat’

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In an interview with MSNBC’s Jason Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security official who served under former president Donald Trump claims that he believes the Republican Party has become a threat to the security of the country and warned what could happen if they reclaim the House and the Senate in the 2022 midterms.

According to Miles Taylor — a Republican who served as chief of staff at the DHS until 2019 before leaving in disgust — should the GOP take over the House, current House minority leader Kevin McCarthy will likely be Donald Trump’s puppet if he is handed the gavel by his party.

“The number one national security threat I’ve ever seen in my life to this country’s democracy is the party that I’m in, the Republican Party,” Taylor warned. “If my party retakes the House of Representatives in the next cycle, it’s going to become a haunted house. And the ghoul and the specter haunting that house is going to be Donald Trump.” Continue reading.

American Airlines, other companies resume donations to Republicans who objected to election results

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The flow of money is a sign that corporate America’s promises were temporary, especially in light of razor-thin Democratic majorities.

More companies that pledged to pause or rethink political donations after the Jan. 6 insurrection are once again donating to Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying President Biden’s victory.

The flow of money is a sign that the promises issued by corporate America were temporary, especially in light of razor-thin Democratic majorities.

American Airlines was among the flock of companies vowing changes after the deadly assault on the Capitol aimed at reversing Biden’s win. The Texas-based airline, the world’s largest by fleet size, would pause all donations from its corporate PAC, a spokeswoman, Stacy Day, said in January. “When we resume, we will ensure we focus on a bipartisan array of lawmakers who support U.S. aviation, airline workers and our values, including bringing people together,” she said. Continue reading.

Capitol rioter Proud Boy being ‘threatened’ in jail by fellow inmates: attorney

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On Thursday, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that a key high-ranking member of the Proud Boys being held in a jail in Seminole County, Florida is alleging to have been “threatened” by other inmates in the facility while awaiting trial for his involvement in planning the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Joseph R. Biggs, 37, was a leader among the Proud Boys in planning ‘an organized and violent attack’ upon the country’s democracy and its Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to federal prosecutors,” the paper reported. “And word that Biggs is locked up in a subsection of the Seminole County Jail, which holds about 150 federal inmates in other cases, has been getting around, according to J. Daniel Hull, who represents Biggs. ‘I do worry about somebody wanting to test Joe Biggs’ mettle,’ Hull said. ‘I think that’s going to be coming up more and more.'”

Biggs has been charged as part of a conspiracy — videos taken of the incident shows his fellow Proud Boys violently stampeding into the Capitol. Continue reading.

Matt Gaetz’s campaign paid $25,000 to lawyer who represented Jeffrey Epstein

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The fee, for legal consulting, was paid to Manhattan criminal defense attorney Marc Fernich

Rep. Matt Gaetz’s campaign paid $25,000 in June to a Manhattan criminal defense attorney who lists Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who killed himself in prison, as a notable client, according to a filing Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

The Florida Republican and acolyte of former president Donald Trump is under investigation for possible sex trafficking of a minor. A spokesman for Gaetz did not address the payment but touted the congressman’s fundraising haul, which totaled more than $1.3 million in the second quarter of the year.

The June payment, for legal consulting, went to the law office of Marc Fernich, whose website says he specializes in “subtle, novel and creative arguments that other attorneys may miss.” Continue reading.