It's Too Damn Hot

As time moves spring into summer, it's getting hot.  

It's too damn hot.

Here in Greensboro as I'm writing this, the temperature is 93 degrees. I think that's too hot but we ain't got nothing on Arizona.

Phoenix hit a record high of 118 degrees last week while Death Valley reached 128 degrees of too damn hot. This latest wave of heat in Arizona is just the latest peak in a trend that has been building for years.

Heat-related deaths in Maricopa County have been rising dramatically in recent years, with 323 reported last year, the highest ever recorded.

And if Maricopa County sounds familiar, that's the flash point for that bogus audit of the 2020 election. The unfounded belief in the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump already had enough of the Trump faithful hot under the collar before the triple digit heat wave struck.

It's the story that won't die. The Republican Party has too much invested in supporting Trump's egregiously false fantasies.

In Washington DC, the GOP are trying really hard to re-write history about the January 6th assault on the capitol instigated by Trump's rage fueled paranoia.

There have been unsupported rumors and unsubstantiated allegations that the riot by Trump supporters...

1) wasn't really a riot. It was just a friendly visit by tourists

2) wasn't really Trump supporters but deep state operatives there to make Trump and his supporters look bad.

Somebody should check in with Alan Hostetter.

Hostetter is a former police chief and a yoga instructor. On the way to the “Million MAGA March”, he made a stop in Arkansas to record his thoughts for posterity. He went on a rant about the mass voter fraud conspiracy theories he heard about from Trump.  

And this is what Hostetter had to say about those who done Trump wrong: "Some people, at the highest levels, need to be made an example of: an execution or two or three.  Tyrants and traitors need to be executed as an example so nobody pulls this shit again.”

Hostetter is one of six men named in a 20-page conspiracy indictment. The indictment alleges that these men coordinated their actions in advance to do exactly what we all saw happen on January 6th.

The intent of Alan Hostetter and others like him is clear, in their own words, in their own voices.  The plan was to act with force and violence if they did not get their way, to have the results of the 2020 Presidential election overturned and Trump kept in office as President. 

That was the plan and we all saw that plan brought to fruition with our own eyes on live television on January 6th.  

So why are Congressional Republicans so determined to soft pedal the assault on the Capitol that everyone saw? 

Because that is where the money is. 

Which is brings us back to Maricopa County.  

A recent poll found 51% of registered Republican voters think the Maricopa County audit will uncover the sort of information that could change the outcome of the election. The figure is identical among self-identified Trump voters. 

Trump's Big Lie still holds sway over the Republican Party which means GOP politicians who want to hold on to their phoney baloney jobs need to stay with the program and believe in the Big Lie. 

And that means re-casting the events of January 6th as good law abiding citizens speaking up against injustice instead of the reality which is a bunch of jack up thugs pissy over not getting their way staged a violent assault on the Capitol.  

The Maricopa County audit is just another way to turn up the heat on the Trump base, to keep them agitated and angry, fueling their darkest paranoia they were robbed. 

This "audit" is rife with all sorts of problems: 

• It's conducted by a firm with no experience auditing elections. (The company is called "Cyber Ninjas".)  
• A lot of time has been wasted chasing conspiracy theories.  For example, checking paper ballots for signs of bamboo  based on the outlandish theory that fake ballots were sent in from China.  
• The "audit" has failed to adhere to even the most basic standards of a normal election audit. 
• The audit has compromised the security of Maricopa County’s voting machines, potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars. 

But guess who has weighed in on criticism of what's going on in Maricopa County? 

You know 'im, you hate 'im as that lying fuck bastard! 

Ted Cruz: “I think any effort to ensure election integrity is a worthwhile thing. I think it is bizarre how desperate Democrats and the corrupt corporate media are to avoid any scrutiny into the question of voter fraud.”

God, I do so hate that lying fuck bastard.

There have been hundreds of post-election audits conducted across the country.  

David Becker, head of the Center for Election Innovation and Research:  “There has never been an election in American history that was more auditable and verifiable, and also [more] audited, verified and scrutinized, than the 2020 election." 

President Skroob ordered the desert to be combed to look for voter fraud and so far...

"We ain't found shit!" 

But Trump still throws gasoline on the fire and people like the lying fuck bastard stir the cauldron and the flaming rage induced by the big lie just will not ebb. 

And the fire just keeps getting hotter. This past Friday, Mike Pence was heckled as a “traitor” Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference for his failure to overturn the presidential election.

The weather is too damn hot as it is. Is too much to ask for this damn conflagration of lies, fear and hatred to cool down once and for all?