Immigration

The corrupting influence of dark money in the Arizona Governor race

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Governor Doug Ducey, the ice cream man hired by Koch Industries to run their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona, is repeating the corrupting influence of dark money that he used to get elected in 2014 in his reelection bid in 2018.

This after Governor Ducey and his lickspittle lackeys in the GOP controlled Arizona legislature spent the last four years removing any remaining restrictions on “dark money” and blocking every citizen effort to force transparency and disclosure in campaign finances. The final insult to democracy was Ducey’s court packing scheme of the Arizona Supreme Court, which paid off with the court blocking the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative from this fall’s ballot for specious reasons enacted into law by his lickspittle lackeys in the GOP controlled Arizona legislature, the will of the voters be damned.

This is what GOP authoritarianism and its culture of corruption in Arizona looks like. It is grounds enough for you to vote them all out of office.

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The Kirkpatrick v. Marquez-Peterson CD2 Congressional Debate at a Glance

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Democratic candidate Ann Kirkpatrick debated Republican rival Lea Marquez-Peterson at the Arizona Congressional District 2 Debate on October 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center hosted by Arizona Public Media.

Voters have a clear-cut choice: Marquez-Peterson would be a clone of Martha McSally, who abandoned the district, and Kirkpatrick would bring back progressive values for the first time in 4 years.

The chart below displays each candidate’s answers to questions from a panel of news reporters. An empty box indicates that the question was directed to one candidate only.

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Elizabeth Brown and Lynsey Robinson battle Depraved Hearts, Corruption and Dark Money Republican Interests in Arizona LD 12

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LD 12 Democratic State House Candidate Lynsey Robinson

The sense of entitlement and stench of corruption from Republican representatives in Arizona LD 12 has not lessened since last summer.

Recent news reports and activities at the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools have revealed that LD 12 State Representative Eddie Farnsworth has used his position in the State House to set up a “Banana Republic” system where legislation he has supported or objected to, has enabled him to earn $11 million for the sale of his Ben Franklin chain of charter schools to a 501(c)(3) corporation that will pay Mr. Farnsworth a consulting fee for his services.

LD 12 Democratic State Senate Candidate Elizabeth Brown

Benefiting from one’s position in elected office is very unethical and unseemly. It appears, unfortunately, to be normal operating procedure in the Arizona State Legislature under Republican stewardship as Dark Money special interests dictate what legislation and policies will be considered and what will not. It has come to the point where Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Brown contends that Republicans and their Dark Money benefactors “consider it a sin to help others,” “not caring” about those in need while actively promoting corporate welfare schemes and policies to assist businesses. She refers to this behavior as belonging to individuals with “depraved hearts.”

Meeting at the same IHOP as before, both Democratic House candidate Lynsey Robinson and Senate candidate Brown sat down and relayed what their campaign message is for LD 12, a district that includes all or parts of Gilbert, San Tan, and Queen Creek. Their plans, along with the other Democratic candidate Joe Bisaccia whom they have canvassed with, to beat the entrenched ultra-conservative interests of Eddie Farnsworth, Travis Grantham, and Warren Pedersen.

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Inspector General report critical of ‘zero tolerance’ family separation policy

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With the daily, almost hourly scandals coming out of Washington, D.C., this long-running scandal was almost overlooked by the media. At any other time, it would have been the focus of media coverage for days. This is how Trump’s “chaos theory” works: overwhelm the public with multiple scandals until they are too numbed to respond any longer.

The Washington Post reports, Trump’s family separation policy was flawed from the start, watchdog review says:

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” crackdown at the border this spring was troubled from the outset by planning shortfalls, widespread communication failures and administrative indifference to the separation of small children from their parents, according to an unpublished report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the government’s first attempt to autopsy the chaos produced between May 5 and June 20, when President Trump abruptly halted the separations under mounting pressure from his party and members of his family.

The DHS Office of Inspector General’s review found at least 860 migrant children were left in Border Patrol holding cells longer than the 72-hour limit mandated by U.S. courts, with one minor confined for 12 days and another for 25.

Many of those children were put in chain-link holding pens in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas. The facilities were designed as short-term way stations, lacking beds and showers, while the children awaited transfer to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

U.S. border officials in the Rio Grande Valley sector, the busiest for illegal crossings along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, held at least 564 children longer than they were supposed to, according to the report. Officials in the El Paso sector held 297 children over the legal limit.

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CR signed to keep the government open – see you in December

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President Trump has signed the short-term spending bill and continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress last week that will keep the government open through Dec. 7 and avert a government shutdown.

Trump backed off  his oft-repeated threat to shut down the government in order to extort funding from Congress for his “big beautiful wall” on the Mexico border,  putting off a fight over the funding until after the midterm elections. Trump Signs $854 Billion Spending Bill To Avert Government Shutdown:

President Donald Trump has signed an $854 billion spending bill to keep the federal government open through Dec. 7, averting a government shutdown in the weeks leading up to the November midterm elections.

That’s according to a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the action.

Trump signed the legislation to fund the military and several civilian agencies without journalists present at the White House. The president is acting after the House and Senate approved the spending plan earlier this week.

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