Arizona Recount is an Extension of “The Apprentice”

To Matt Masterson, the review of 2020 ballots from Maricopa County, Ariz., that’s underway is “performance art” or “a clown show,” and definitely “a waste of taxpayer money” reports NPR.

Copies of some of the voting system data being analyzed might not still be in Arizona at all. A report from CNN last week confirmed that the data had been shipped more than a thousand miles away, to Montana via truck.

Every other news media outlet from the New York Times to ABC News to the Washington Post are calling this “audit” a charade.

We can accurately guess the outcome will be. The Arizona Republicans will claim proof of a stolen election. Their next step will be to present their proof to the courts. If they do not do that the exercise will be pointless.

Donald Trump believes he will be reinstated as president as soon as August. That would wake extraordinary acts by the Supreme Court.

The problem for Trump is that after the president and vice president cannot serve the next in line is the Speaker of the House.

Donald Trump is a master at reality show entertainment. His television program The Apprentice was lasted 14 seasons. It only stopped when he announced his candidacy for president. The Arizona audit is just an extension his ability to entertain. If the auditors don’t find fraud will they be fired?

What is American culture?

Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania, sparked controversy in an April 23 speech before the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization. Santorum said immigrants created a nation based on the Judeo-Christian ethic from a blank slate.

“We birthed a nation from nothing,” he said. “Yes, there were Native Americans, but there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” Santorum later said on Chris Cuomo’s CNN show that he “misspoke.” Or another words I said what I really believe and that was a mistake.

More than his lack of regard for native American way of life is the White Anglo-Saxon belief that they are superior to all other people in the world. It is obvious to me a core belief of conservative White Americans. Those people invading the Capitol on January 6 are a part of that group.

As minority peoples are ever larger part of the United States population, White people fear their may be a day in the future when they will be the minority.

California may be an indicator of what all of America in the 21st century will look like. No race or ethnic group constitutes a majority of California’s population: 39% of state residents are Latino, 36% are white, 15% are Asian or Pacific Islander, 6% are African American, fewer than 1% are Native American or Alaska Natives, and 3% are multiracial or other, according to the 2019 American Community Survey.

Rick Santorum Tweet May 22, 2021 “When I signed on with CNN, I understood I would be providing commentary that is not regularly heard by the typical CNN viewer. I appreciate the opportunity CNN provided me over the past 4 years. I am committed to continuing the fight for our conservative principles and values.”

Is this what the conservative GOP wants to stand for?

The Cycle of Revenge

President Joe Biden just dodged a bullet. Biden’s focus has been on COVID-19 vaccinations, seeing everyone returning to work, and stimulating the economy. He needs every Democrat on board with his plans. What he did not want was a confrontation with the liberal left of his party over support for Israel. So he was likely saying to his staff “Whew, we have peace in the Middle East without me taking a stand on Israel Palestinian feud.”

Since neither side wants to resolve the Israel Palestinian issue there is sure to be many more hits on Gaza because the loss of life and injuries in Israel was small (12 lives) that the prime minister of Israel is willing to accept every few years rather than reaching a conclusion of a treaty with a Palestinian state.

The cycle of revenge will continue to be part of Middle Eastern life for many more decades.

Cult National Leaders

Donald Trump is not the first cult leader and he won’t be the last.

Juan Perón was a populist and authoritarian president of Argentina and founder of the Peronist movement. He set the country on a course of industrialization and state intervention in the economy in order to bring greater economic and social benefits to the growing working class, but he also suppressed opposition.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian politician who served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011. In 2006, as the end of his first term approached, the economy was growing, and Brazil’s poverty rate had fallen significantly. In July 2017, Lula was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption in a controversial trial, and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison.

“Long live our teacher, our father, our leader, Comrade Stalin!” (1946 poster, Soviet Union). Stalin was the leader about whom the expression “cult of personality” was devised in 1956 by Nikita Khrushchev.

The People’s Republic of China under Chairman Mao Zedong also developed a cult of personality, the most obvious symbol of which is his massive portrait situated on the north end of Tiananmen Square. The culture of the People’s Republic of China before 1978 was highly influenced by the personality cult of Mao Zedong^[] which reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution.

A cult of personality devoted to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi existed in Libya during his rule. His face appeared on a wide variety of items, including postage stamps, watches, and school satchels. Quotations from The Green Book appeared on a wide variety of places, from street walls to airports and even on pens, and they were also put to pop music for public release.

Donald Trump, past president of the United States, denies he lost the election in November 2020 and claims that thousands of ballots will be found in the states he lost will be found proving that he won the election. “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Trump said on Monday May 3, 2021. If anything the former President wields even more control of his party now as Republicans gather at rallies supporting his views.

Republican officials who once had the courage to condemn Trump’s insurrectionist rhetoric are now seeking to ingratiate themselves with his supporters — especially those who may run for President in future, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Kevin GOP House leader, who at first said Trump bore responsibility for the January 6 riot, quickly visited the former President at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is anchoring his effort to win back the House for Republicans next year on the former President and his movement.

Some say Trump is destroying the American democracy as they pledge their support but in their hearts they know he has nothing to offer regarding the future.

The United States will survive the cult. As Ronald Reagan said in his farewell address, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”

Ending the Filibuster in the U.S. Senate

What happened to majority rules? You take a vote on any subject and the majority wins. That is not the way it works in he U.S. Senate.

The U. S. Senate is on its way to ending the filibuster. Rather than doing so in one step they are eating away at the idea of 60 votes to end debate. The intent of this process was to bring about compromise. The rule as created by the senate and is not in the Constitution. This nightmare rule denies the majority the power to pass legislation.

While Senate rules still require just a simple majority to actually pass a bill, several procedural steps along the way require a supermajority of 60 votes to end debate on bills.

The filibuster is an Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.

The most common form of filibuster occurs when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure. Changes in 2013 and 2017 now require only a simple majority to invoke cloture (The cloture rule–Rule 22–is the only formal procedure that Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster) on nominations, although most legislation still requires 60 votes.

The Senate has a number of options for curtailing the use of the filibuster, including by setting a new precedent, changing the rule itself, or placing restrictions on its use.

For many matters in the Senate, debate can only be cut off if at least 60 senators support doing so.

In 2013 the rules were changed under the leadership of Democratic Senator Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) eliminated the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster against all executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court.

In 2017 the rules were again changed under the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) eliminated the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for approval of nominations to the Supreme Court formally by lowering the threshold for ending debate on a nomination to 51 votes from 60, paving the way for Neil Gorsuch to win confirmation to the Supreme Court.

It is time to end minority control.

Eight Republicans Voted to Tighten Background Checks on Guns

Finally after years have gone by since the killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School that occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut we may have a bi-partisan group in the House of Representatives who will pass some meaningful legislation.

The Sandy Hook attack began when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the home that the two shared in Newtown. She was shot four times with a .22-calibre rifle. She had purchased the rifle, as well as an AR-15—the civilian semiautomatic version of the military M16 assault rifle—and several other firearms that Adam Lanza would use later that day, in the years prior to the shooting. Before leaving the house, Lanza destroyed his computer’s hard drive, an act that would make evidence gathering difficult for law enforcement personnel.

Protecting the public from people who have a total disregard for life should be the objective. It has been reported that most gun owners are in support of reasonable regulations. I guess the question is what is reasonable?

Eight House GOP lawmakers bucked party lines and joined Democrats in supporting legislation aimed at strengthening background checks on firearm sales.

The bill would put new background check requirements in place for gun transfers between private parties. The bill would also ban the sale, manufacture, transfer, and importation of more than 200 “military-style assault weapons” identified by name, although owners would be allowed to keep existing weapons. The bill would also require background checks on any future purchases, trades or gifting of an assault weapon included in the bill. This won’t stop future mass killing but in this gun crazy nation it’s probably the best we can do now.

Here are the Republican members that voted in favor of the bill:
Rep. Vern Buchanan (Fla.)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.)
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.)
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (Fla.)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)
Rep. Maria Salazar (Fla.)
Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.)
Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.)

Upton, Smith and Fitzpatrick co-sponsored the legislation, which faces an uphill battle in the upper chamber. The NRA is a very powerful voice that donates lots of money to campaigns.