New Year, Same Ol’ Shit (Mostly)
Happy 2023! Who knows what mysteries await us this year. Will the Republican-majority Arizona legislature get anything useful done? Probably not. Will Kari Lake finally stop grifting her fanbase? Definitely not. Will Elon Musk lose ANOTHER $200 billion? We can only hope.
Rockin' Around the Christmas Hate Conference
A week before the Christmas holiday, I spent the weekend at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. In a now-annual December tradition, the conservative youth outreach group TPUSA hosts a 4-day mega conference packed with far-right propagandists, grifters, and propagandist grifters. Guests include Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Kari Lake, the main Fox News lineup (Tucker, Ingraham, Gutfeld), Kyle Rittenhouse and influential hate mongers including Matt Walsh, Jack Posobiec, James Lindsay, and Candace Owens.
Excerpt from my Left Coast Right Watch news article, The Turning Point Nightmare Before Christmas: A Weekend at AmericaFest:
Interns carried a large cell phone-shaped matchmaking display for The Right Stuff dating app around the conference, attempting to pair strangers and spark them into conversation. Guests are regularly encouraged to treat the conservative conference as an opportunity to mingle with one another.
“Aspire to be something more than a consumer of pornography. Aspire to actually create something in your life, like create a family, for instance. That is the single greatest act of rebellion against the liberal culture that is suppressing people's desires,” shouted Missouri senator Josh Hawley.
The main stage continuously cycled out conservative commentators, with over 50 appearing over the following days. Sandwiched in between speeches, a techno remix of t.A.T.u.’s “Not Gonna Get Us” played through the blown out speakers.
Occasionally, a spokesperson for some conservative-labeled product took the stage to shill their brand. Conservative luxury cologne, a patriotic sugar substitute, and an “alternative” nasal spray being sold by an anti-vaxxer were just a few of the products being advertised. The same items could then be found for sale in the Exhibitor Hall alongside Mike Lindell’s “MyStore” pop-up booth.
For the full rundown of the long weekend, read my article on LCRWnews or listen to my interview on Adventure in HellwQrld.
The Grifter That Keeps on Grifting
Also over the holiday season included the greatest gift of all — more losses from the local loser coalition. A week before Christmas, Mark Finchem’s election lawsuit was dismissed and Adrian Fontes was again confirmed to be the winner of the AZ Secretary of State race. Abe Hamadeh’s election challenge was also quickly denied. A small batch of uncounted votes in Pinal County brought the close Attorney General race even closer, but Kris Mayes still beat Hamadeh by a narrow 280 votes.
On Christmas Eve, Kari Lake's loss was confirmed once more after Judge Peter Thompson dismissed her post-election case and again verified Katie Hobbs' win. Judge Thompson denied issuing sanctions against Lake, but did order her to pay Hobbs about $33,000 in payback fees.
Lake says she plans to take her election challenges all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, so expect more L’s from the former TV anchor. At AmericaFest, she asked the mostly young audience to donate to her as she continues to “fight for Arizona” (read: grift).
Yesterday, January 2, Katie Hobbs was sworn in as the 24th Governor of Arizona. Attorney General Kris Mayes, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, and our new mine inspector Paul Marsh were also sworn in a quick, private ceremony streamed on Facebook live.
WATCH: Full 35-minute swearing in ceremony.
Unfortunately for Arizona, the blue wave did not include the Arizona legislature, which still maintains a small republican-majority. White supremacist, anti-democracy lawmaker Wendy Rogers was also promoted to the chair of the Senate election committee and promises to never let the “election integrity” grift die.
Incoming state senator Liz Harris also makes Arizona the top state for QAnon-supporting state legislators. At least we got rid of the OathKeeper wannabe cowboy Mark Finchem.
READ MORE: Here are the QAnon Supporters in Serving in State Legislatures by Alex Kaplan
SEE ALSO: AZ Bill Would Outlaw Gendering Trans Students Correctly While Making Misgendering Free Speech by Erin Reed
Don’t Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out
After a long 8-years, Doug Ducey finally says goodbye as Governor. The former Cold Stone CEO’s final legacy was the destructive, illegal, expensive, hateful shipping container border wall.
In August, months before Ducey’s term was set to end, he ordered for gaps in the AZ-Mexico border wall be filled with double stacked shipping containers topped with razor wire. Miles of illegal construction demolished federal and Cocopah tribal lands in Yuma, AZ. Ten more miles of shipping containers were ordered to be placed through the Coronado National Forest at the base of the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista. The public dumping project destroyed the wildlife and harmed endangered species’ habitats/migration. Ducey inhumanely justified his illegal decision by citing an “invasion” of migrants.
In response, a group of immigration and environmental activists set up camp and stopped the construction. “Camp Ocelot” stood their ground for weeks, even through the freezing snowstorms. Not long after Camp Ocelot successfully stopped contractors, the Department of Justice announced they were suing Doug Ducey.
At the end of December, Ducey finally agreed to halt further construction, remove the containers, and restore the destroyed land. On his final day as governor, the shipping container wall began to come down.
Unfortunately, Ducey’s legacy will stay with us as the Arizona taxpayer now owes the $76 million to clean up the shipping container fiasco. This is in addition to the ~$95 million taxpayers already unwillingly put towards Ducey’s hateful political stunt. But none of this stopped him from including it in his “2022 Year in Review” highlight video (begins 2:36 in):
SUPPORT: Verified GoFundMe supporting the Camp Ocelot land defenders
READ MORE: Arizona Governor’s Shipping Container Wall Grinds to a Halt as Protesters Settle in for Christmas by Melissa del Bosque
AND MORE: Junk Invasion: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Defies Biden With Border Wall Made of Shipping Containers by Ryan Devereaux
January 6th Committee Findings (so far)
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol released a series of deposition transcripts, text messages, and their 840-page final report. It’s a lot to comb through, Arizona is mentioned over 200 times in the final report alone, but some early notes:
AZ GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward appeared virtually and pleaded the Fifth for all her answers alongside her attorney and incoming District 3 representative Alexander Kolodin.
Patrick Byrne answered questions from the committee related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his ongoing funding of the Maricopa “audit” disinformation campaign. Byrne talks about funding “election integrity” projects through his America Project, and also paying fake treasure hunter and election grifter Jovan Hutton Pulitzer:
Byrne’s deposition also highlighted his involvement with the Proud Boys — confirming he flew members of the hate group to D.C. in “Stop the Steal” rallies leading up to January 6.
Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk and Scottsdale resident also pleaded the Fifth on his questions, even refusing to answer his own age. Publix grocery chain heiress Julie Fancelli was also found to have given TPUSA over a million dollars in support of Kirk’s efforts to get people to J6.
In the Ray Epps interview, he was briefly asked about his affiliation with the lead registered agent of a Phoenix-area III% militia group, Paul Carver. Carver recently won his 2022 election for Deer Valley Unified school board. While Epps recently fled the state after right-wing media characterized him as the sole mastermind behind January 6th and became obsessed with the former Arizona Oath Keeper.
The questions to Epps confirm Carver’s presence at in D.C. on January 5. A deleted series of photos on Carver’s Facebook also showed crowd shots in D.C. on January 6. Epps talks about going to dinner with Carver the day before the insurrection alongside other Stop the Stealers. Epps claims to be unaware of Carver’s involvement with the Three Percenter militia but claims to have met him at a meeting for a 5G conspiracy group called “Rise.”
READ MORE: Phoenix School Board Candidate is Registered Agent for III% Group, Led Anti-LGBTQ Campaign on Left Coast Right Watch
ALSO READ: Mark Finchem Talks About Ali Alexander, the Capitol Attack and Trump Ties in J6 Deposition by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
Happy new year, until next time.