December 13, 2022

Residents of Arizona's "election denying" Cochise County can redeem themselves with a recall.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/residents-of-cochise-county-arizona.html

Since the almost disastrous stonewalling, delaying and violating the law by refusing to certify their county's ballots by the state's legal deadline, there's been a lot of talk in Cochise County, Arizona about the possibility of recalling county supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby. Their refusal to follow the law, resulting from their belief in baseless and unproven conspiracy theories about vote counting machines, and as an attempt to stop statewide certification of the election by withholding their own certification of votes, is grossly negligent and irresponsible. It is a demonstration of incompetence which sends a clear message to voters that they are not qualified to serve, and are willing to put their own interests and politics ahead of their responsibility to the county's residents.

There have been multiple calls for these two supervisors to resign. They put the 55,000 or so votes from Democrats, Republicans and Independents in the county at risk of not being counted. Had the Secretary of State allowed that to happen, subtracting those votes from all of the elections that would have been affected would have resulted in Democratic candidates winning the District 6 congressional seat and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction elections. That risk was incredibly irresponsible, and a demonstration of a lack of respect for the will of the voters that is unpatriotic and anti-American.

A strong showing of voters in a recall election that ousts the two election deniers would be a great opportunity for the county to get some of its reputation back as the historic center of the old Southwest instead of forever being associated as the election denying county. Getting two Democrats to join the third one on the county board of supervisors, who, unlike Crosby and Judd, respect the law and for American democracy, would make great headlines. So we encourage those who are thinking seriously about launching the recall to do so. It may be difficult but it will be worth it.

December 13, 2022

Gasoline prices drop so thank you President Biden and Democratic Party, since it's happening

on your watch, might as well take the credit for it since you had to take the blame when it went up.

December 12, 2022

Republicans and the media wanted to hold Biden and the Democrats accountable for inflation

and high gas prices. So why aren't they cheering him on for the falling gas prices?

December 12, 2022

In Electing Senators Warnock and Ossoff, Georgia voters have said "NO!" to racism

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-senator-raphael-warnock-is-good-for.html

Thank You, Georgia Voters!

You've still got some work to do within your state legislature and state government, but you have given us Senator Raphael Warnock, and Senator Jon Ossoff, patriotic Americans who come from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are part of the very essence of this nation. Our country isn't centered on a racial or ethnic identity, it is centered on a set of ideals that are aimed at setting people free and helping them live that way. Their election is a smackdown of those who are trying to push racism in the form of white supremacy, Christian nationalism and Anti-Semitism back up to the top of our politics.

Georgia voters, at least in these two elections, have said "NO!" to that. Thank you!

December 9, 2022

Integrity in Politics: Thoughts of a Native Arizonan on Sinema

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/integrity-in-politics-thoughts-of.html

Kyrsten Sinema was elected by Arizona voters, with the full support of the Arizona Democratic party, along with considerable financial backing of the Democratic National Committee. After decades of political frustration in one of the most politically backward states in the country, Democrats won a Senate seat in a statewide election, laying a foundation for the eventual victory that the party experienced in 2020, with Joe Biden being only the second Democrat to carry the state since Harry S. Truman in 1948. With Mark Kelly subsequently winning Arizona's other Senate seat, Democrats in Arizona finally had some gains to celebrate.

No doubt, Sinema has been a disappointment to those who elected her, especially since Democrats got control of Congress in 2018, and then the Senate in 2020. Her history in the state legislature and as a politician would indicate that she was a progressive, or at the very least, a left-leaning moderate, coming from membership in the Green Party, self-identified as a "Prada socialist," and from some leadership among Democrats in a Republican dominated Arizona legislature. A native of my own hometown, Tucson, which is a Democratic stronghold in Arizona and has been for decades, it is difficult to consider any scenario that would transform someone whose own personal freedom as the second LGBTQ female to be elected to the Senate, from a progressive background to a centrist independent. Regardless, to make that switch while still in office lacks integrity and is a betrayal of those who voted for her and supported her election.

December 5, 2022

For Evangelicals still supporting Failed President 45: West and Fuentes dinner is a bridge too far

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/for-evangelical-christian-supporters-of.html

Personally, I believe Evangelicals who support Trump crossed that "bridge too far" by ever supporting him in the first place. A little patience, support for a candidate who shared the same political perspective and lived by the same values would have been the correct approach for those in conservative American churches who think that this is a "Christian nation." It's difficult for me to reconcile most Republican political perspectives with Christian doctrine and theology because they are much more influenced by, and oriented toward a single racial and economic demographic, but there are Evangelical politicians in the GOP whose lifestyles are consistent with the Christian gospel.

But the all or nothing approach most Evangelicals take toward the Roe v. Wade decision and the abortion issue creates some awkward difficulties for them when it comes to almost any other political or social issue. They wind up having to carry the baggage of having to overlook Trump's personal immorality, which he flaunts as part of his image, the denial of government support and help for its citizens in order to cut tax breaks for wealthy constituents, and his openly hostile, abrasive, name-calling immaturity, which runs counter to Christ's insistence that the sincerity of one's faith was visible in the manner in which they treat others, especially their enemies.

And then there's the new baggage from this past week, as Kanye West, an obnoxiously loud anti-Semite, and Nick Fuentes, a holocaust denier, were invited to dinner at Mar-A-Lago. The weak and not very emphatic denials from Trump were not credible. The lack of an uproar among Republicans was predictable, and the silence from the party's Evangelical constituency was despicable. To claim that one of Trump's great achievements was moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, not a tremendous political achievement by any standard, but to say absolutely nothing about his support and endorsement of the single most notorious anti-Semite among the American population is, without question, a bridge too far.

December 5, 2022

Maybe I am thinking too much about American democracy, and the founding and history of this country

but I think a call from a former President to suspend the constitution and put him back in the Presidency is unacceptable incitement, coming as it does from an angry psychopath who is still obviously in denial about his election loss and is trashing the constitution and making himself an enemy of constitutional law.

And I think this is a major crossing of the free speech line, enough to warrant more than just disqualifying him from running for office. Most countries find people who make statements like this either deranged, and put them in asylums, or enemies, and exile them or put them in prison.

And this article indicates that it is not possible to trust Republicans on this issue because they'd set aside or abolish the constitution's provision for the peaceful transition of power if they thought it would work for them.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/leading-house-republican-trumps-call-suspend-constitution-2024/story?id=94397805

Suspend the constitution and put me back in the White House against the will of the American people? Seriously?

December 3, 2022

I've hit the threshold of patience with hearing the terms Elon, Kanye, Twitter today.

There's way too much discussion centered on Elon Musk, whatever he wants to be called Kanye, twitter and social media influence.

I'm off twitter. I don't care. Let people figure it out and ignore them, they made their decisions, let them live with the consequences.

Done.

December 1, 2022

Don't elect lunatics to positions of public responsibility

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/dont-elect-lunatics-to-positions-of.html

The supervisors of Cochise County, Arizona, or should I say two Republican supervisors out of three, one of whom is a Democrat, are on the verge of making a boneheaded, ridiculous move, out of their baseless belief in election denialism, which will nullify over 44,000 votes, the majority of which are from Republicans. Not because of any glitches or problems with ballots, or machines in their own county, mind you, but because of rumors and innuendo spread mainly by Kari Lake's campaign, about a small handful of ballot glitches in Maricopa County.

Not knowing what options are available to the voters in Cochise County, I would suggest that whatever options they have to remove these two supervisors, who are more interested in forcing their own ignorance and superstition, and willing to risk the right to vote of every registered voter in their county for it, be done as quickly as possible. I don't know if Arizona provides for the recall of public elected officials, but I'd say that would be the way to go if its' available. Beyond that, joining in calls for them to step down would be another option. And apparently, since they are in violation of the law, arrest is also a possibility.

Whether these antics are a wake up call for Republicans in Arizona, I don't know, but they should be. This is the Republican party we have now, a group of people willing to take away your rights so they can gain political power for themselves. But these antics, and that's what they are, have the potential to cost the GOP two seats, one in Congress, where the upcoming majority is already razor thin, and may be getting thinner, and one in the State Superintendent of Public Instruction's office. They richly deserve for that to happen and I hope it does.