One of the many things about our beloved Arizona that make little or no sense is the fact that our political primaries are held in August — the nastiest month of the year. It’s not the hottest (it trails July and June, respectively), but it’s the most uncomfortable, what with the humidity that has been around for weeks and the heat that has been around for months. Plus, football is still a month away. If T.S. Eliot had been a Tucsonan, August would have been the cruelest month.
And so it was when I went to vote last Tuesday. Two hundred degrees, 140 percent humidity. It was a short walk from my car to the polling place, but by the time I reached the building, I was sweating like a hooker in church.
There was a young guy there wearing a badge that identified him as an observer for the Republican Party. I asked him if he wanted to watch me vote. Maybe the felt-tip marker I was using on my Democratic ballot might bleed over and taint thousands of Republican ballots, thereby stealing the election as, apparently, often happens. He appeared to think about my offer for a second. At least I think he was thinking; maybe he just had gas.
Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot this year, but his vulgar vanity and incredible stupidity are. Any candidate who says that Donald Trump really won the 2020 election is not to be taken seriously. They’re either an idiot or a liar. Or maybe a lying idiot.
Trump’s false claims are weak and pathetic, but not nearly as pathetic as people who are trying to get elected, not on the content of their character or any substantial personal achievements, but rather on their willingness to pass along the Big Lie.
As I write this a couple days after the primary, the race for the Republican nomination for governor still hasn’t been officially called, nor should it have been. Trump sycophant Kari Lake is leading Karrin Taylor Robson by about 10,000 votes, but there are still about 150,000 votes to be counted. It’s unlikely that Lake will lose the race, but I would think that someone for whom the word “fraud” constitutes half of her vocabulary would want all of the votes to be counted.
She took a cue from her Lord and Master and prematurely declared victory. Then she got her crackpot-radio suck-ups to falsely claim that Taylor Robson had conceded. Then — and this is classic — she took to Twitter to claim that her “victory” was a “landslide.” That would mark the first time that a landslide win went to someone who got less than half of the votes that were cast and held a tiny 2 percentage point lead over her closest competitor.
Still on a high, Lake held a press conference the next day and said that she had in her possession evidence of widespread fraud, but she wasn’t going to share it with the media. In her other hand, she had a list of 50 known Communists who are working for the state department. Just like Tail-Gunner Joe, she has no shame — or credibility.
If (when) Taylor Robson loses, she’s going to be driven crazy by the fact that Matt Salmon, who had dropped out of the race and thrown his support to her, still got over 25,000 votes. Those votes would have given Taylor Robson a comfortable win.
In the race for the U.S. Senate, it’s too bad that Martha McSally has stopped running for the office, because she’s really good at losing to Democrats. Incumbent Mark Kelly will be the Democratic nominee. He’s got a spectacular resume — Navy pilot, astronaut, great husband.
In November, Kelly will face Blake Masters, who talks and acts like he was built in a lab run by the Red Skull (although he occasionally seems quite lifelike). Actually, I’ve known Blake since he was in high school. I coached the Green Fields girls’ basketball team when Blake was a member of the boys’ team. The girls always had a better record. He was one of those guys who convinced themselves that the record discrepancy was due to the “fact” that every school had a good boys’ team but a crappy girls’ team. That should have been a sign.
Blake always seemed like a very smart, very serious guy with a bright future. But now when I hear him talk, I feel that attacking him would be like picking on the handicapped.
Richard Pryor used to do a bit where he played a wino watching a drug addict walking down the street. The wino says, “Lookit that boy; he used to be a genius! He could book the numbers, didn’t need paper or pencil. Now the fool don’t know who he is!”
Unless he has suffered irreversible brain damage recently, there is no way that Blake can possibly believe that the election was stolen, so he’s just lying. And ever since growing up in the civil rights era, I have always wondered what a politician’s kids think when they hear their dad spout blatantly racist language. Racists aren’t born; they’re taught. And right now, Daddy Blake is doing the teaching.
Sadly, when I see Blake, I hear the Klondike jingle, slightly modified. “What would you do-oo-oo, for a Senate seat?”
This article appears in Aug 11-17, 2022.
What a miserable excuse for an election recap. The hatred spewed for candidates left you impotent to report facts. Even the mainstream dirtbag media types will tell a little truth about candidates after the polls close.
It’s time for a change at the Weekly or you will end up just like the Star.
Totally Worthless,
I couldn’t agree more that your comment is totally worthless. You do realize that Danehy’s column is an opinion piece?
Seriously, if you are looking to the Tucson Weekly to provide you a comprehensive election recap, you might as well take medical advise from Highlights magazine in the doctor’s waiting room.
That’s not an opinion piece, he’s just towing the party line. The progressive movement is rotting to it’s very core. Now we have to pass the inflation reduction bill to see if it works?
They will continue to have stragglers that believe every word, but those numbers are dwindling.
By the way advice has a C in it.
totally:
your name mirrors your opinion.
Totally Worthless.
Gas is $4 per gallon; Chicken is $4 per pound; Rent is $2,500 per month.
What in this world has Mark Kelly done for us?
Mark Kelly’s inflation has destroyed the poor and middle class.
More to come.
jhuppent: When did Mark Kelly get to be so powerful? It appears that you are saying inflation is the sole responsibility of Kelly. Maybe he single-handedly bollixed up the supply chains while no one was watching, or maybe he brought covid back from space. You might consider taking an introductory class in economics at Pima. I think it’s just a wee bit more complex than you appreciate.
And fyi, regular gas is below $4 ($3.55 at costco), yesterday I got chicken at Fry’s for $2.78/lb, and my daughter and her roommates just rented a three bedroom, 1,900 sq ft house near the UA for $1,800.
dsimpson:
Mark Kelly provided the deciding vote to pump out the $1.5 trillion in federal spending that ignited inflation.
Yes, Mark Kelly destroyed the poor and middle class. Rents have gone up by a $1,000 per month.
Can you imagine having to deal with that extra $12,000 per year on a budget of less than $26,000?
jhuppent: what a moron. EVERY “yes” vote was the “deciding” vote. The order that the vote is taken is irrelevant. The votes are a collective. Maybe it makes good theater for right-wing talking heads, but it makes no difference. What if Sinema voted no? What if Manchin voted no? Would they then be called the deciding vote? Or what if one of them voted no, but Murkowski or Collins voted yes? Would they then have been the deciding vote? None of it changes the math. This is no single senator OR representatives fault, nor is it even largely the the fault of the stimulus. The complexity of the economy and its forces are far beyond your comprehension.
Manchin exposed his position leaving Sinema as the lone holdout. Tit for tat but she cast the vote that tied it 50/50. Joe Biden has really brought us all together. Not.
let me quote “dsimpson”
“Every vote is the “deciding” vote”
Yes, Mark Kelly provided the deciding vote to ignite inflation and destroy the middle class.
Gasoline was $2.24 when Mark Kelly took office. Now it is $3.95: only because Biden kissed the Saudi killer’s butt and he agreed to flood the market before mid-terms.
And so it goes. Why was it more Kelly’s fault than Sinema or Raphael Warnock, John Hickenlooper, Jon Ossoff, Jacky Rosen? Or any of the house members? What makes it the responsibility of congress, when congress is in opposition to your political opinions?
It’s really much simpler than this. All of it, every single problem is because of the poison that Trump and his magats spilled into the world, contaminating every place, every corner. Ukraine, Afghanistan, accelerated climate change, air/water/soil pollution, unemployment, racism, sexism, bigotry, intolerance, poverty, the healthcare crisis, mass murders, declining education, watered-down baseball, country pop, ugly housing developments, HOAs, poor cell coverage are all their fault. As a group, every one of them should be shipped of to deserted Pacific islands where then can no longer be a threat to the rest of us, the good people.
I getting Paid up to $15,000 this week, Working Online at Home. I’m full time Student. I Surprised when my sister’s told me about her check that was $97k. It’s really simple to do. Everyone can get this job.
Go to home tab for more details.☛☛☛ http://Www.BizPay1.com
“when did Mark Kelly become so powerful?” Answer: when he was the 50th Democrat elected to the Senate. Also, when he provided the 50th vote to spend $1.5 trillion, debase our currency, make the ultra-rich speculators rich beyond all measure and then to increase taxes by hundreds of billions on people who actually make things we use: manufacturers.
Speculators who make their enormous sums by gambling on bad policy by Democrats are Democrats.
Manufacturers, now paying hundreds of billions more in taxes, put the concrete floor under our feet, the glass in our windows, the car in our garage, the ceiling over our head, are all Republicans.
Just so we now the evil layout of the situation.
The poor got destroyed. Had a young native America call me up in tears. Her rent increased from $1,100 to $1,900. How can the poor withstand this?
Thank you Mark Kelly.
“accelerated climate change?” What have you been smoking? Not to mention what did you measure it with?
Democrats have people scared to death so much that they have begun to look foolish.
Temperature increase since 1880? One degree. Give me a break. Go fix something that IS broken.
jhuppent: Kelly was not the 50th Democrat elected to the Senate, he was the 47th. And it doesn’t matter because all the votes are equal. If one democrat had voted “No,” or one republican voted “Yes,” Kelly’s vote would have been irrelevant. Obviously you’re just muckraking to support of Masters. There’s a train wreck waiting to happen.
Debbie V: I’m pretty sure that you haven’t studied atmospheric physics. If you had, you’d know that the subject is far more complex than a simple temperature measurement. Climate change skeptics are just flat-earthers wearing a different hat.
Thanks for your input. It reeks of Anthony Fauci telling us he represents science. You just inherently know better than to trust these jackals. If it is more complex than simple changes in temperature maybe it would help to explain the risk from a atmospheric standpoint where temps have consistently changed.
Nothing to fear but fear itself? Send in YOUR money. I’ll take a wait and see.
It’s amazing how the uneducated seem to automatically reject science that is complex or counter-intuitive. Instead of seeking to better educate themselves, it’s just more blah, blah, blah. These are the true threat to the foundation of America.
You might do well to take your own advice.
“So, what drives the interest here is the incessant drumbeat of climate doom and gloom based on model forecasts, and the corresponding political reactions that create for us challenges like $100 per fill-up and attendant price increases – and some scarcity – for everything else,” says Dr. John Christy, who is also a distinguished professor of atmospheric science, Alabama’s state climatologist and the director of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System. “When an issue hits people squarely in the pocketbook, it becomes important.”
“In particular was this simple scientific question: How well do the climate models on which these scary claims are based actually perform in the real world?”
https://www.uah.edu/news/news/paper-co-authored-by-dr-christy-on-climate-model-warming-bias-is-a-top-10-download
You can always find an opposing view if you look hard enough, but cherry-picking the data to reference is the opposite of good science. Although there are a handful of scientifically credentialed deniers, they are in a TINY minority.
In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there’s a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/c…
https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics…
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/pro…
https://www.americangeosciences.org/critic…
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/02…
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/clim…
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/clim…
https://www.edf.org/climate/9-ways-we-know…
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science…
This list goes on for hundreds of references.
https://eos.org/editors-vox/responding-to-…
https://prospect.org/environment/five-resp…
https://www.climate.gov/media/11072
Yeah and remember back…say a year and a half ago that the vaccines were tested and approved by the CDC as safe? How many have they now killed? So science was wrong. We need to know why.
Science was not wrong, vaccines have saved literally millions of lives. Your understanding of science is utterly woeful.
Debbie V , Thanks so much for posting the link to Dr Christy’s report. I can not believe they are still using computer modeling to attempt to duplicate future assumptions. The public does need to be aware of just how inaccurate any support of the current data would be. IMO there has been a “jump on the bandwagon” phenomenon from heretofore independent climatologists. They are not dealing with peer reviewed, tested and proven science. It is second rate speculation and massive “what if we don’t do something” thinking. Unfortunately any opposition is called out for being climaphobic. So they created mob rule on this one.
I find it fascinating that Mark Kelly can’t point to any legislation he’s sponsored as justification for his continued existence in the Senate. He and his supporters are still mentioning that he was an astronaut (like that’s some sort of automatic qualification) and that his wife got shot (the subliminal reference in the article above to him being a “good husband”). A very disappointing Senator indeed.
Ah… the magats have come crawling out of the pond scum from whence they came.
Mark Kelly has been given until Friday to DECIDE if he wants to debate Blake Masters. What is he afraid of, the same thing Katie Hobbs is? Grow up you two and let’s get to the issues that you have not solved. Are kids are dying from fentanyl at the border. Defund the police is an abject failure. The government is way too involved in our economy as is proven by the mess we are now in because of Biden’s fraudulent lies.
Debate these issues or step down. We need new ideas and new leadership and you are not it.
When the media holds a story and officials (FBI DOJ) withhold a story because it is honest discovery no theft no nefarious act was done receiving this information. is WHAT?
I said if Trump is prosecuted legally and forthright to charges then he goes down no problem with that. Fake bots saying they are Trump, with cant know what is a Trump tweet are fake. Fake Tweets fake prosecution, fake witnesses one after another Do I have a choice now that the Hunter story is finally out 3 years later YEA 3 YEARS more bullshit to cover up. Lets start with a Jan 6th television show I can understand some people agitated to the point. Just as I can understand Portland. What I can understand why I watch big media dont watch FOX NBC MSNBC CBS ABC. Why would I watch who to hate basically anyone with personal property that can rally against the gov with assets.
I have to ask myself I dont care for Trump. I will die for the right of a free press and honest Justice and prosecution. Holding the Hunter story was that stealing the election?
I will let anyone ask that question himself. Now no doubt in my mind and I hate that attempt to steal the honesty of our representative DEMOCRACY.
2 times now Arizona’s Election results were Held for SENATOR by not being able to count on the Navajo reservation election board.
One should see Pima County Media Department rivals that of Larry Flints publishing biggest in the Nation. Don’t believe news is delivered to print is the same story.
@Carpetbaggers This is the same way the media and some of those in power lied about antifa for years. They wanted to win elections so they began denying their existence. They claimed protests were mostly peaceful when in fact people were killed and injured, businesses were destroyed, and now we see them on the street corners with AR15s. Obama talked about a civilian police force. The railed to defund police and that’s what they have done. Democracy can not last with those that are in power now. Right down to the FBI and the DOJ.
AZ elections are a disgrace. Other states reporting results four hours after polls close. Some elections here take days to weeks, including how they both the votes from the reservations.
I am beginning to think that Trump may be right.There has been way too many personal attacks with the goal of hurting his popularity, but to date, they still have no crime. As hard as they work to create one.
Reminds me of the day when cops were accused of planting drugs in your car only to then find them and arrest you for it. The powers that be have turned the federal law enforcement community against their opponents.
This will no longer be a democracy if we continue to allow that to happen. Or a representative republic. Our founders feared this very thing.
Who is this nut sack. dsimpson more like dam simpleton using his vernacular. In both cases makes reading pointless.
We will get them for what they are, we will win by any means possible.
the first of the 4 HORSEMAN CONQUEST
Then we will take over all WAR. we now have 6 more deployments to foreign land not UKRAINE WAR. 3RD HORSEMAN WAR
We will have pestilence food shortages hunger starvation. 2nd HORSEMAN TAKING OVRE LAND AND FARMING
DEATH LAST HORSEMAN
Well Carpet Baggers, vulgarity coming from a scumbag. How apropos. And the word you’re looking for is “jargon.” But clearly the use of the language is a struggle for you.
And just be clear, Blake Masters is going to lose. Lose, lose, lose, just one big loser. That’s what the magats love, losers!