At least one Arizona state senator has awakened from his stupid coma and realized how the botched and completely unnecessary “audit” of Maricopa County election ballots has made his state a laughingstock.  In an interview with the NYTimes, state senator Paul Boyer said,

“It makes us look like idiots.  Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point.”

Well, no shit.  You’ve just now figured that out, Paul?  Just how ridiculous did you think it was going to be? What in ANY of your party’s efforts gave you the slightest impression that all of you wouldn’t look like idiots?  You approved an audit that hired an unqualified partisan company whose CEO buys into The Big Lie.  Then they didn’t hire anyone who’s ever audited an election.  Then you barred the press, and now keep the ballots in an insecure place.  No matter the result of this “audit” (and I know what the result will be), at least half of Americans won’t believe it because you made ZERO effort to make it even appear to be impartial. This “audit” is not about restoring faith in our elections, it’s about destroying faith in our elections so you and your other partisan pals around the country can justify passing voter suppression laws and even authorizing yourselves to TAKE OVER THE PROCESS if you don’t like the results.

So, FUCK YOU, Paul, and the partisan nag you rode in on.  You’re the problem and most certainly should have nothing to do with the solution.  Late repentance makes you yet another charter member of The Jeff Flake I’m a Coward Club.  You only speak out AFTER it matters.

That is all.

There’s been a lot to mourn about over the past several years. Obviously, the loss of 600,000+ Americans is on top of that list when it comes to COVID-19. Everyone has either lost someone close to them or knows someone who has. However, that’s not the type of mourning that has been on my mind. Instead, I’m mourning the loss of civility and intelligent debate that we used to have concerning complex issues.

The Texas Tribune released one of those stories that surprises no one. For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, they basically said that resuming in person instruction in Texas accelerated the spread of the virus. Knock me over with a feather. That falls under the category of news that isn’t really news. It’s more the kind of common sense that seems to be a lot less common these days. When you deny science and deny logic like this you end up getting this kind of news story.

Yet, there has been something else going on this year in schools that is also impossible to deny. Failures are up. Frustration is up. It is much more difficult to teach students remotely and it is much more difficult for them to learn. Furthermore, it is also more difficult for students to enjoy school when many of their extracurricular activities have either been canceled or limited. They are not feeling the connection they need to succeed. I’m not sure how that can be replicated in a virtual environment and this is supposed to be what I’m an expert at.

This is where the mourning comes in. We used to be a people that could acknowledge both of these facts and then have a somewhat intelligent debate on how to move forward. The more heads we put together the better we usually do. We have made awesome innovations as a society so maybe someone can come up with a way to offer connection and keep people safe. Naturally, a part of that is getting as many people vaccinated as possible, but when you have people denying the jab just to own the libs it impossible to do that universally. Idiots have always been among us, but it seems we have more of them.

These are the same idiots that seem to think having more guns in society makes us safer. It seems that the police are drawing a chalk line around common sense and fewer and fewer people are able to identify the victim. It’s not that we have complex problems like those in our schools. It is that fewer and fewer people seem to want to try to tackle them. I know we are supposed to fight when the idiots try to fight culture wars instead of tackling real issues. Unfortunately, there is just an overwhelming sadness that this is where we are at.

A great piece yesterday in the Washington Post talks about how a snake oil salesman, Russell J. Ramsland Jr, from Addison, a suburb north of Dallas, pushed the Big Lie as early as 2018, trying to recruit politicians to his narrative that there was as much as 68% error rate in electronic voting systems.  He gained traction in 2020 with none other than Trump and his deplorable cronies, including Rudy, Sidney Powell, and others.  HE’S the one who pushed the unfounded Venezuelan story.  The story will leave you shaking your head.  It’s a good read, highly recommended.

Must see.  Former Obama speechwriter David Litt owns the arrogant morning Newsmax anchor today.  It’s hilarious.

Having found nothing in their sham “audit” of 2020 election ballots from Maricopa County, they’re now using 5g cameras and black lights searching for bamboo in the paper of the ballots.  Because presence of bamboo is the smoking gun that the ballots came from China, right?  The Arizona GOP is hanging their entire Big Lie premise on the unfounded conspiracy theory that China flew in 40,000 fraudulent ballots on a Korean airliner on election day and then smuggled them into polling places all over Maricopa County.  No matter that China LIKED Trump being president since he handed them Pacific Trade dominance, international markets because of his idiotic trade war, and allowed them to run rampant in the South China Sea during his entire infestation of the WH.

Not only is the Arizona GOP’s efforts to overturn the election dangerous, it makes them look like idiots.