maricopa arpaio

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see birther

prolly shd make cty sep 6 22

see ninja fraudit

MILLER?

capt 12/17

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trump kiss sheriff arpaio at rally 6? 24

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David Gilbert @ Wired: Maricopa County, Arizona, Is Again Ground Zero of Election Conspiracy Theories

In 2020, Maricopa County became the epicenter for Trump’s claims the election was stolen. Six years, later the president and his allies are dusting off their “rigged” playbook ahead of the midterms. RWW

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AN 10 26

A private investigator hired by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to handle sensitive internal investigations had previously worked for an organization designated as an anti-Muslim hate group and participated in the controversial Cyber Ninjas review of Arizona’s 2020 election, according to a newly unsealed report.

Phoenix New Times reported that the court-appointed monitor's 226-page report on the sheriff's office looked at the way AZ Truthfinder, a company founded by former Gilbert police officer Stephanie Ameiss, obtained a county contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It was discovered that the résumé Ameiss had submitted as part of the bidding process omitted important aspects of her background, such as her six years of experience as lead investigator for Understanding the Threat, an organization founded by the former FBI agent John Guandolo.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Understanding the Threat as a hate group, stating that it was an organization that promoted anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and offered training programs to law enforcement agencies. The group ceased operations in 2023.

The report from the monitor stated that Understanding the Threat had published material that attacked Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists, Democrats and others.

The report states that Ameiss did not include her participation in the Cyber Ninjas-led investigation into Maricopa County's 2020 election results on her resume. After Donald Trump had lost in the state, the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate engaged Cyber Ninjas to carry out the highly criticized review.

AZ Truthfinder was one of the three companies bidding for the contract to carry out investigations in the situation where conflicts had prevented the sheriff's Professional Standards Bureau from dealing with the cases itself, and the leadership of the sheriff's office had chosen the company less than 24 hours after having looked at the bids.

Axios states that the company has obtained approximately $270,000 from Maricopa County since June 2025. The monitor doubted if the sheriff's office had carried out a meaningful background check before giving the contract.

The report stated that either the 'vetting process' was a sham or the vetting that had in fact been carried out had shown some of the same material that we had uncovered, but they had chosen to ignore it.

The results occur while Sheriff Jerry Sheridan and Maricopa County have been attempting to put an end to the years of federal court supervision which followed a racial-profiling lawsuit brought against the sheriff's office.

Chris Hegstrom, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's department, said to Axios that the agency was going over the report and was still committed to "full and effective compliance" with the court's orders.

The monitor suggested that the circumstances relating to the contract should be referred to a possible misconduct investigation.

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AN 6 26

Trump-pardoned sheriff celebrates birthday with 'scuzzy' cast of has-beens: report - Alternet.org

When pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio throws a birthday bash, the Phoenix New Times says it will be attended by precisely the oily kind of assembly you could expect.

“Highlights of the evening included an Elvis impersonator … ,” reports Phoenix New Times writer Stephen Lemons. “There was also an appearance by wizened mob enforcer and serial killer Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano, who gifted Arpaio a bronze bull statuette and made the sheriff an honorary member of the mafia.”

The group also included “disgraced former politicos — including former Rep. Trent Franks and former state legislator David Stringer, both with troubling sex allegations hanging over their heads.”

And then there was Arpaio himself, of course — all 94 years of him.

“Looking frail and scarecrow-thin, his voice whispery and hoarse at times, former … Arpaio sat onstage in a gold lamé empire-style chair. And he remained there for most of Friday evening at the Fountain Hills Community Center as several hundred fellow alter kockers and rogues of all stripes ate a free meal of pasta with meatballs ...”

Arpaio was found guilty in 2013 of widespread racial profiling and placed under the watch of a court-appointed monitor, whose oversight continues to this day.

Lemons said Arpaio stood to accept mob stoolie Gravano’s gift, and he praised Lemons for turning state’s evidence back in the day to help convict his mentor in crime, John Gotti. Gravano then assured the crowd that the 19 murders credited to him were “the same thing to me as being in the military, same thing as being a cop.”

“He got a round of applause when he announced that, despite the hits, he was now a Christian and knew that Jesus had forgiven him for his homicidal transgressions,” Lemons reports.

At some point during the festivities Gravano made a point to white to the Phoenix New Times reporter about an article concerning a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of Gravano’s former employees, who “claims Gravano forced his tongue down her throat without her consent and made jokes about his penis.”

“Arpaio also took to his feet to croak out a version of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ in a duet with an unknown woman who, unlike Arpaio, could actually carry a tune,” reports Lemons. “Arpaio also accepted a letter of birthday congrats from President Donald Trump, who pardoned Arpaio in 2017 for a criminal contempt-of-court conviction in the ongoing Melendres civil rights lawsuit, which has cost Maricopa County taxpayers more than $250 million at last count.”

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PC vouch 8 25

https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/376-how-democracies-fail 1:07 is not full?

mayfair london uberrich shell corps own houses

putin dep mayor stole $ smuggled abroad w help of banksters in west;

jordan weaponization performative 53 min diresta sio

maricopa az election guy had to quit bc threat?

excerpt scholarship offered

https://samharris.substack.com/p/making-sense-429-the-new-world-order

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an 6 24

shelby Busch, who is vice chair of the Maricopa County, Arizona Republican Party, was recently heard threatening the life of county recorder Stephen Richer — the top election administrator for the Grand Canyon State's most populous county.

MSNBC columnist Jahan Jones reported that during a recent GOP event, Busch made the remark about Richer, who is Jewish, to laughter from the audience.

"If Stephen Richer were in this room, I would lynch him," she said. "I don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country."

Busch added that she would prefer the county have someone in the office who would be "a good, Christian man that believes what we believe."

Richer, in the meantime, has been subjected to numerous death threats, particularly in the wake of the 2022 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in which Democrats prevailed in both races. This is despite Richer being a Republican himself.

“If lynching is in your vocabulary you need to have a heart to heart with yourself,” Richer said, according to AZfamily.com. “That shouldn’t be in your vocabulary given the history of that term and it shouldn’t be on your vocabulary to say about anyone you with whom you disagree.”

According to Phoenix-based TV stations KTVK and KPHO, Busch is now facing calls to walk back her statement, though she insists the comment was made "in jest." The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix (JCRC) condemned both Busch and the Maricopa County GOP in an official statement.

"We urge Ms. Busch to retract and apologize, and the Maricopa County Republican Party to stand against such rhetoric," the JCRC stated.

Maricopa County has been instrumental in Democrats' recent success in Arizona. Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake by approximately 17,000 votes, with her victory made possible by her 38,000-vote advantage in the Democratic-leaning county. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) had a more robust margin of victory over Republican challenger Blake Masters, whom he dispatched by a 51-46 margin.

Click here to read MSNBC's column, and click here to read AZfamily.com's report.

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Arizona election denial group leader uses QAnon-affiliated channel to urge viewers to flood election officials with spurious records requests

Inundating election officials with records requests is a tactic increasingly popular in the election denial movement

WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 01/11/24

An Arizona county Republican Party official who also leads an election denial organization in the state used a recent appearance on a QAnon-affiliated Rumble channel to encourage viewers to inundate election administration officials with public records requests — a tactic increasingly popular in the election denial movement.

During a January 8 appearance on The Tina Peters Show, Shelby Busch, a vice chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee and co-founder of the election denial organization We the People AZ Alliance, told viewers to “be demanding” of election officials.

“Ask questions and start requesting records,” advised Busch, whose organization is primarily funded by fellow election denier and QAnon-connected figure Patrick Byrne. “Remind them that this is the people’s election.”

Badlands Media’s The Tina Peters Show and its eponymous host, Tina Peters, have ample ties to the QAnon movement and election denialism. Peters is a former Mesa County, Colorado, clerk who was indicted in 2022 by a grand jury for allegedly facilitating a security breach of her county’s election infrastructure. Peters has associated with a number of QAnon figures and has invoked QAnon terminology on her show. The Badlands Media Rumble channel was founded by QAnon influencers and largely dedicates its programming to covering QAnon and its related conspiracy theories.

During the interview, Peters and Busch rehashed supposed instances of election fraud in Arizona during the 2020 presidential election. At one point, Peters asked Busch to “tell people what they can do in their Maricopa … to make change” regarding elections.

In response, Busch, who also appeared on Peters’ show last April, told viewers to “learn how to do” public records requests to election administration officials regarding possible election fraud. Flooding election officials with such requests has become an increasingly common tactic used by the election denial movement.

Busch also offered to help Peters’ viewers put together their own records requests. She provided viewers with her email address and said, “If you don’t know how to do them, email me … or reach out to us through our website.”

“I will be happy to send you a template and walk you through it,” she added.

Peters also promoted Busch’s We the People AZ Alliance email address in an on-screen graphic during the show and urged viewers to contact Busch for help with their records requests.

Video

CitationFrom the January 8, 2024, edition of Badlands Media's The Tina Peters Show, streamed on Rumble

TINA PETERS (HOST): OK, so Shelby, tell the people — so you mentioned about your volunteers and the people that are working so hard. Tell people what they can do in their Maricopa, what they can do in their counties to make change.

SHELBY BUSCH (CO-FOUNDER OF WE THE PEOPLE AZ ALLIANCE): Absolutely. So number one, public records requests. Learn how to do them. And if you don’t know how to do them, email me at … or reach out to us through our website, and I will be happy to send you a template and walk you through it. Start asking questions. Be demanding of these election officials. Ask questions and start requesting records. Remind them that this is the people’s election. So that’s a first and foremost — you should really, really just start holding your government accountable. And if you don’t know how or what to do, get with somebody who does and learn. So it’s number one.

Number two, get involved with grassroots organizations in your community that are working on stuff like this and see where you can serve. Our voter rolls in every state are a mess. So it’s a great place to start, is learning how to look at voter rolls, knocking on neighbors’ doors, and just making sure that we have legitimate voters in our own neighborhoods. So that’s a really — another thing that you can do. It’s really easy.

But if none of that works for you, if you don’t have time for public records requests or to learn a new challenge, or you’re not comfortable knocking on doors, or maybe you can’t get out of the house, you can pray, because this is a spiritual battle beyond all, and you can show up on Election Day and cast your ballot, and you can stand up for election workers and election officials like Tina, who are putting everything on the line to expose this to the world. Support people who are trying to do the right thing, stand by their side, and encourage them. But most importantly, start developing relationships in your own community with your legislators and your elected officials. Because this is all we have is our voice. And make sure that you know how to use it.

PETERS: Yes. Thank you so much. And I put in the ticker at the bottom of the screen, “learn how to do public record requests at … .” You can — you can email Shelby, and she will send you or give you information how you can do that.

I think that’s so good. I — you know, I’ve had people on too, Shelby, about doing grand jury, you know, just — people have to get involved. They need to learn how to do pro se filings. You don’t always need to have an attorney. You can learn how to pro se, and the judge actually gives you more leniency if you’re not an attorney in how to do that. So I believe everybody can stand up. Everybody can do something. I always say there’s more of us than there are of them. They can’t get us all.

Busch’s use of Peters’ show marks yet another connection between the election denial and QAnon movements, with the former repeatedly using the latter for their efforts.

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cochise refuses to certify b/c they don't trust maricopa #/machines?

no lnx

Cochise County board votes to hire lawyer who represented Cyber Ninjas HE PASSED

Terry Goddard, former Arizona attorney general, and Rick Romley, former Maricopa County attorney, called for a criminal investigation into the Cochise board.

By Alexis Cortez

Published: Nov. 29, 2022

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- After Secretary of State Katie Hobbs filed a lawsuit against Cochise County’s board of supervisors, the board responded by holding an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon to decide who would represent them in the legal matter. The board voted unanimously to hire Bryan Blehm, the same attorney who represented Cyber Ninjas, the group that ran the controversial Maricopa County audit of the 2020 election. Blehm will represent the board in the lawsuit filed by Hobbs after they refused to certify the 2022 general election results.

However, there’s the question of how the board will pay for legal representation. The board can’t legally accept outside donations to pay for the lawsuit or for any other purpose. Officials didn’t say how they’d pay for Blehm. However, it’s unclear if he’d take the case because he hadn’t picked up the phone by the time the meeting started.

Also on Tuesday, Terry Goddard, former Arizona attorney general, and Rick Romley, former Maricopa County attorney, called for a criminal investigation into the Cochise County Board of Supervisors. In the letter to current Attorney General Mark Brnovich andCochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, the pair says the supervisors broke at least three laws for not certifying the election. Goddard and Romley asked Brnovich and McIntyre to hold the officials accountable, saying their actions “threaten to undo the proper administration and integrity of elections, disenfranchise thousands of voters, and potentially even alter the results of some races.” They added there’s no legal basis for the board’s refusal to certify.

Arizona state law required counties to certify the results within 20 days of the election. Cochise County voters were angry with their elected officials for breaking that law and failing to meet Monday’s deadline. Voters yelled at elected officials during the board’s regularly scheduled Tuesday morning meeting, with some calling it a “clown show.” “This assault on democracy will not stand,” one person said. “Help, I’m in Cochise County, where the board of supervisors is lost in conspiracy theory land and has taken their votes with them,” another person said. “And I’ve never seen our county on the national news. I just heard the international news as a clown show. I’m ashamed.” Some voters said they wanted the two officials who refused to certify the election to resign.

The board voted unanimously to hire Bryan Blehm, the same attorney who represented Cyber Ninjas who ran the controversial Maricopa County audit in 2020.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Cochise County holds emergency meeting after lawsuit filed for refusal to certify election results

The comments captured the anger directed toward GOP board members amid pressure from prominent Republican politicians. The board voted 2-1 on Monday to delay the canvass until at least Friday. Hobbs previously said the Secretary of State’s Office won’t have a choice but to complete the canvass by Dec. 8 at the latest, which would flip the Superintendent of Public Instruction and U.S. House Congressional District 6 seat from Republican to Democrat.

Meanwhile, Republican Kari Lake refuses to concede in the governor’s race. Lake has claimed tens of thousands of voters were disenfranchised but didn’t provide any evidence. However, should the Republican-led Cochise County board refuse to certify the election by next week, the 47,000 votes won’t count toward the state canvass.

an 11 22 travis raw

MAGA movement is out in force in Maricopa County, Arizona, as votes continue to be counted in last week's midterm elections.

Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's allies are questioning the ballots cast outside same-day voting as fraudulent,echoing Donald Trump's lies after his own election loss, and right-wing demonstrators have gathered outside vote-counting centers to denounce election officials and sheriff's deputies stationed outside as traitors, reported The Bulwark.

"PATRIOTS RISE UP to RALLY tomorrow SATURDAY NOON at the Maricopa County Elections office (510 S. 3rd Ave. Phoenix) to pray for the Light to shine in the darkness and for His truth to be revealed!" posted far-right state Sen. Wendy Rogers last week.

A loose confederation of Boogaloo Bois, Christian nationalists and other protesters answered Rogers' call to action, which she described as a "Jericho March" -- in a clear echo of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"You may remember the organization named Jericho March and its role in laying the groundwork for the January 6th insurrection," wrote Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque for The Bulwark. "As God instructed the Israelites to walk seven times around Jericho and blow the shofar (horn) so that the walls would fall and everyone within the city would be slaughtered in God’s name, so believers have taken up the mantle of spiritual warfare and continued Jericho Marches in Maricopa County. The target that they are currently circling, which holds their enemies, is the center in which votes are being counted."

Lake, Senate candidate Blake Masters and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem all earned Trump's endorsement by backing his fraud claims, and they have followed the former president's playbook in challenging their losses as illegitimate without any evidence.

"It is very unlikely that Kari Lake’s supporters will try to storm the Maricopa ballot center," wrote Brockschmidt, the author of a book on the religious right, and Lecaque, a history professor at Grand View University. "But their ideology isn’t far from the one that drove people to march around the Capitol in the weeks before January 6th and then to attack it: the belief that not just humans but institutions can be possessed by evil spirits, by demons and powers of darkness (Eph. 6:12)—and that they have to be cleansed, purged, defeated by righteous Christians in the cosmic battle between good and evil."

"It is ultimately a totalizing — totalitarian, even — belief system that allows for no nuance, that only knows friend or mortal foe," the pair added. "And, crucially, while this kind of belief can wane for any number of reasons, it has never been swayed by defeat at the ballot box. Rather, it takes defeats and twists them into stories of heroic martyrdom, of promises of revenge and retribution."

ariz over represented?

an 6 22

2022 wacko-rama

although Arizona has gone from being a deep red state to being a swing state, the Arizona GOP has not responded by purging itself of extremists. In fact, far-right MAGA conspiracy theorists like Kelli Ward (who chairs the Arizona Republican Party), gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (a former television news anchor) and Rep. Paul Gosar have becoming increasingly prominent in Arizona politics. And Arizona Republic opinion columnist Phil Boas, in his June 2 column, has a recommendation for the Arizona GOP: ditch the MAGA extremists and return to a more traditional Barry Goldwater/John McCain type of conservatism.

Lake, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and Ward have been aggressive promoters of the Big Lie — falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. Such “whackadoodles,” Boas writes, have been a thorn in the side of non-MAGA conservatives like former Sen. Jeff Flake.

“In Arizona, the whackadoodles took control of the Arizona Republican Party a decade before Trump,” Boas explains. “They were loud and eccentric and loved to censure John McCain. But they were never trusted with more power than, say, your average hamster, so they were perfectly adorable and easily ignored. That changed when the Maricopa County Republican Party invited Donald Trump to speak at the Arizona Biltmore in 2015.”

Boas adds, “Trump then was still considered a pretender in the race for the White House, and his sometimes crude comments led more powerful Republicans such as U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake to protest.”

McCain, a Barry Goldwater disciple who died in 2018, was a scathing critic of Trump and the MAGA movement. And in 2018, Flake — obviously frustrated by the MAGA extremists who had taken over his party — decided not to seek reelection. That seat is now held by a centrist Democrat: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has been a frequent source of frustration to the progressive wing of her party but gets along well with members of the McCain family — including John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain and his daughter, Republican activist Meghan McCain, a former co-host of ABC’s “The View.”

Arizona’s other U.S. Senate seat — the one once held by Goldwater and later, McCain — is also held by a centrist Democrat: Sen. Mark Kelly, who is up for reelection in the 2022 midterms. A state that was, for many years, synonymous with Goldwater/McCain conservatism now has two Democratic U.S. senators.

Boas notes that Lake and Ward have become “the most visible evangelists of Trump Republicanism in Arizona,” arguing that both of them have been terrible for the Arizona GOP.

But Boas stresses that the type of MAGA extremism that Lake and Ward champion was recently rebuked in some GOP primaries in Georgia, where incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp defeated a Trump-backed challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, by a whopping 52%. And incumbent Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was victorious as well, defeating his challenger, Rep. Jody Hice, by 18%.

Perdue and Hice, like Lake in Arizona, campaigned on the Big Lie.

“In Georgia, a state long considered a peer to Arizona because of its demographic similarities, the old-school Republicans stomped Trump candidates for governor, secretary of state and attorney general,” Boas observes. “Brian Kemp won reelection as Georgia governor, beating Trump errand boy David Perdue by 52 points. That’s not a landslide. That’s a collision of planets, an exploding ball of flame that can still be seen through the drapes at Mar-a-Lago.

Boas adds, “If you’ve been buying what the Arizona GOP televangelists have been selling, this might be a good time to short.”

an 921

Republican official in charge of supervising Maricopa County, Ariz., submitted his resignation following the release of a recording that featured him criticizing members of his political party for pushing back against efforts to review the 2020 election results.

The recording features the voice of Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Chucri (R) a third-term official who represents the eastern portion of the county, according to the Associated Press. The Republican official "suggested two fellow Republican county supervisors opposed the review by Senate Republicans because they nearly lost their own 2020 races."

In his statement of apology, Chucri also announced his resignation. "The comments I made were during a very turbulent time," he wrote. "My colleagues have every right to be both angry and disappointed with me. I should not have made such statements and offer my colleagues heartfelt apologies."...

180

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/arizona-audit/

an 1120

no lnx

Arizona officials vow to 'continue our job' as armed Trump backers gather at local election building

Jake Johnson and Common Dreams November 05, 2020

Undeterred by a crowd of Trump supporters—some of whom were armed—that gathered outside of the Maricopa County, Arizona election office late Wednesday to protest alleged "fraud" in the vote-counting process, county officials vowed to "continue our job" of tallying ballots in the battleground state that both Fox News and the Associated Press have called for Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

"Staff at the Maricopa County Elections Department will continue our job, which is to administer elections in the second largest voting jurisdiction in the county," the department tweeted early Thursday morning amid reports that officials in the county building were forming an "exit plan" due to safety concerns caused by assault rifle-wielding Trump supporters baselessly alleging election theft by the Democratic Party.

"We will release results again tonight as planned," the department added. "We thank the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for doing their job, so we can do ours."

Early Thursday, the county released a newly counted batch of more than 70,000 votes that favored Trump by a margin of 59% to 41%, leaving Biden with a lead of more than 68,000 votes in a state Trump won in 2016.

The fresh results came as Trump supporters, emboldened by the president's constant attacks on the legitimacy of the vote-counting process in states nationwide, rallied outside the Maricopa County election office chanting, "Stop the Steal!"—a slogan that has been embraced and amplified by Trump backers on social media.

Angry over the network's decision to call Arizona for Biden on Election Night, the Trump supporters also chanted, "Fox News sucks!"

The New York Times reported Wednesday that "Trump and his advisers erupted" after Fox News called Arizona for Biden, fearing the move would further undermine the president's false narrative that he won the election outright.

"Jason Miller, Mr. Trump's political adviser, disputed the accuracy of the call on Twitter and frantically called Fox News, asking the network to retract it. He was unsuccessful," the Times reported. "Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, was also in touch with Rupert Murdoch, the Fox News owner, as the night wore on. And on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, insisted the president would win Arizona by 30,000 votes."

In a statement released late Wednesday, a pair of Maricopa County election officials—one Democrat and one Republican—raised concern over "the misinformation spreading about the integrity of our elections" and said that "everyone should want all the votes to be counted, whether they were mailed or cast in person."

"An accurate vote takes time. It's possible the results you see now may change after all the votes are counted. This is evidence of democracy, not fraud," the statement continued. "We would like to thank the hundreds of volunteers, poll workers, and staff for being a part of an incredible elections team. All of us are committed to a fair and efficient count of all votes."

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/first-sessions-now-kobach-america-first-candidates-are-flopping-at-the-voting-booth/

Far-right anti-immigration hardliner Kris Kobach lost the Kansas Republican Senate primary to Rep. Roger Marshall by more than 50,000 votes, marking the latest defeat for far-right “America First” candidates at the ballot box.

In 2020, several high-profile Republican candidates championed by far-right and white nationalist political activists have been rejected by their constituencies. Right Wing Watch reported in January that white nationalists were excited by the prospect of Kobach, the former secretary of state of Kansas, serving in the Senate. White nationalist podcaster James Allsup told listeners at the time that “having somebody like Kobach in the upper house, in a position of power, as an anti-immigration, as an immigration restrictionist leader, that would be immensely powerful going forward.”

On Tuesday night the race was called, and the far-right activists who had supported Kobach’s bid mourned his electoral loss online. Many “America First” white nationalist movement figures blamed the GOP for Kobach’s defeat.

“Back to the hills. Of course, we’ve been there before,” Peter Brimelow, editor of the anti-immigrant, white nationalist publication VDARE, said. He added that it was “annoying” that far-right commentator Ann Coulter was right about President Donald Trump. Coulter, once an avid supporter of Trump, has attacked the president in recent years and called Trump the “most disloyal actual retard” after he endorsed former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Republican primary opponent Tommy Tuberville in Alabama.

“Fuck the weak Kansas Republicans who are looking at this primary as a ‘victory.’ No matter what you’re electing a member of the monoparty in November who hates you and will continue to sell you out to our globalist elites,” far-right Kansas State student Jaden McNeil said. “Enjoy your state’s continued degradation.”

Scott Greer, a former editor at The Daily Caller who was revealed to be writing alt-right columns under a pseudonym, only offered one comment on Kobach’s loss: “Damn.”

White nationalist and alt-right poster boy **Richard Spencer** theorized that Kobach’s loss reflected the unpopularity of “conservative nationalism.” Spencer has been vocal in his disdain for the elements of the far-right that overtook him in popularity and the flaws he sees in those ranks.

“Steve King . . . Jeff Sessions . . . Kris Kobach . . . then Donald Trump in November . . . The’America First’ conservatives and supposed ‘immigration hawks’ are falling like dominos,” Spencer tweeted. He later added, “You can blame Trump’s tactical failures—and there are many—you can blame Jared and Ivanka, etc. At some point you must conclude that conservative nationalism isn’t going anywhere, and it’s simply not very popular.” 

Joshua Foxworth, a Republican “America First” candidate in Texas who was trumped by incumbent Rep. Randy Weber in a blow-out loss in March, blamed Kobach’s loss on the media.

“The loss of Kobach in Kansas is upsetting but not surprising,” Foxworth said. “Almost no one can overcome a media that constantly promotes or opposes a candidate. Deplatforming of supporters doesn’t help. The GOP is in danger of becoming a party without core issues and without a base.”

But Kobach’s loss does not exist in a vacuum. Other far-right supported candidates, like Sessions, Iowa Rep. Steve King, and Arizona former sheriff Joe Arpaio have seen their hopes for high office dashed.

Sessions’ campaign attempted to earn the support of far-right and anti-immigration voters, going so far as to tap far-right columnist Michelle Malkin to author a fundraising letter in May. Malkin made the play obvious, opening the letter by calling Sessions “an old friend of the America First movement.” But President Donald Trump, nursing a grudge against Sessions for recusing himself from the probe of Russian influence in the 2016 election, urged Republican voters to reject Sessions. Last month, Sessions lost Alabama’s Republican runoff election to Tuberville by more than 100,000 votes.

King, who has a sordid history of racist remarks during his nine terms serving in the U.S. House, lost the Iowa Republican primary to Randy Feenstra by nearly 10 percentage points.

And in Arizona, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing a close contest against challenger Jerry Sheridan in a race to get his old job back after receiving a pardon from Trump in 2017. (Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt in going after undocumented immigrants.) With 90 of 99 vote centers counted at the time of publication, Sheridan is shown slightly ahead. Arpaio has not yet conceded the race.

William Gheen, president of the anti-immigrant Americans for Legal Immigration PAC mourned the loss of Sessions, Arpaio, Kobach, and King.

“All four of America’s top illegal immigration fighters have fallen. Farewell Joe Arpaio, Kris Kobach, Jeff Sessions, and Rep. Steve King,” Gheen said. “ Who would have ever guessed after four years of Trump our top voices against illegal immigration would [be] gone.”

“America First is inevitable,” white nationalist and anti-Semitic podcaster Nick Fuentes declared on July 7.

It would seem that it’s actually anything but.

However, these far-right losses at the ballot box are not indicators that extremism in the Republican Party is retreating, rather the opposite appears to be true. For certain far-right causes—like the “America First” movement—the defeats may prompt an exploration of options beyond electoral politics. And while extremists gaining legislative power can have disastrous consequences for a democracy, history has shown that extremists seeking solutions outside of the political system can also prove to be dangerous.

Tags: Jeff Sessions Joe Arpaio Kris Kobach Nick Fuentes Peter Brimelow Scott Greer Steve King Alt-Right anti-immigrant white nationalism VDARE

:{Newly announced sheriff candidate Joe Arpaio recently told anti-Semitic publication, “I love your paper”:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

:{:(style="box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;height:1.5em;margin-right:1em;width:1.5em"):}:08/26/19 1:40 PM EDT

https://4thgenwar.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/trump-meets-man-who-inspired-2011-terror-attack-deadlier-than-orlando-shooting/

new

Donald Trump Meets William S. Lind

bruceewilson / July 3, 2016

(July 3, 2016) A photo, attached to an opinion column dated April 16, 2016 that was published on the website Traditionalright.com, showsDonald Trump standing with an even taller, neatly dressed, unsmiling man with a strangely intense gaze: William S. Lind.

In his column, Lind wrote, “At the beginning of this column you will find a photograph of me giving a copy of The Next Conservatism to presidential candidate Donald Trump”.

Lind’s many accomplishments include pioneering a novel theory of warfare that, he suggests, may have inspired al-Qaeda’s grand global strategy ; promoting a conspiracy theory concerning something called “cultural Marxism” — now globally embraced by racist, neo-Nazi, and nationalist right movements — which helped provoke one of Europe’s worst terrorist attacks in decades ; and publishing a 2014 novel that envisions white Christian militias carrying out the ethnic cleansing of North America and restoring slavery.

In the website photo, Trump is smiling, and, according to Bill Lind, he holdsLind’s 2009 book The Next Conservatism, co-written with his friend and close working colleague the late Paul Weyrich– who is generally credited as one of the top three co-architects of the contemporary American religious right.

The Next Conservatism, reported to have been circulated within the Trump for President team, not only anticipated most of the positions Donald Trump campaigned on – it maps out a bold new path for conservatism that bears uncanny resemblance to Trump’s 2016 election campaign platform.

William Lind is widely acknowledged by relevant scholars as by far the most important promoter of the “cultural Marxism“ conspiracy theory concerning the alleged origin of “political correctness” – a plot Lind alleges was launched, nearly a century ago by Jewish Marxist intellectuals from the “Frankfurt School”, to destroy America and Western Christian civilization.

In 2002 Lind told attendees at a Holocaust denial conference, concerning the architects of the alleged cultural Marxism plot against America, that “These guys were all Jewish”

Lind’s writing on the “cultural Marxism” conspiracy theory helped directly inspire one of Europe’s worst terrorist attacks in decades – the 2011 slaughter of 77, mostly teenagers, and wounding of 319 in Norway. According to the neo-Nazi perpetrator Anders Behring Breivik, he intended his terrorist attack as a “marketing method” to publicize his political manifesto that featured, as it core thesis, the “cultural Marxism” conspiracy theory.

In addition, Lind has suggested that his ideas on non-traditional “Fourth Generation” warfare (4GW) may have helped inspire the grand strategy behind al-Qaeda’s devastating September 11, 2001 attacks on America. “al-Qaeda understands 4GW and is using it,” concurs one relevant military strategy expert.

In 1999 Lind claimed, “The real damage to race relations in the South came not from slavery, but from Reconstruction, which would not have occurred if the South had won [the Civil War]. Then, in 2014, he published a novel (which he had originally written in the 1990s) that outlined a vision for violently restoring the American slavery regime overthrown in the Civil War.

William Lind’s 2014 novel (written under a pen-name) “Victoria – A Novel of 4th Generation War” favorably depicts white Christian militia groups overthrowing the federal government, helping out a resurgent Southern Dixie regime by vaporizing the black insurgent-controlled center of Atlanta with a tactical nuclear weapon, and carrying out the ethnic cleansing of African-Americans (see chapter 27) and other ethnic groups such as Puerto Ricans.

African-American families are driven out of cities into forced sharecropping on white-owned lands in the country. Towards the end of the novel, the protagonists launch a final crusade against Islam.

According to sociologist, retired Senior U.S. Army Analyst, and authority on the Tea Party and the American militia movement Dr. James Scaminaci, William S. Lind has authored the “blueprint for the development of the patriot militia movement” which hopes to one day overthrow federal authority; and in a key 1989 article that may have inspired al-Qaeda, he forecast that “The next real war we fight is likely to be on American soil.”

In his 2009 book The Next Conservatism, William Lind suggests a new mechanism for domestic counterterrorism – by harnessing the manpower of local anti-government militia groups which “might report to county sheriffs”.

Such county sheriff / militia alliances have already begun under the auspices of a national sheriffs group called theConstitutional Sheriffsand Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), and by late 2016 top Trump for President campaign staff and surrogates had established contact with CSPOA leadership.

In the last weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, an extraordinary pattern emerged that was wholly unnoticed by media or even seasoned watchdog groups tasked with tracking the American far-right – dozens of top Trump campaign advisers and surrogates appeared as guests on a relatively obscure far-right radio show, the Liberty Roundtable.

The Liberty Roundtable radio show frequently features, as a guest, the co-founder and current leader of CSPOA and Liberty Roundtable show host Sam Bushman has himself served on the CSPOA board.

The CSPOA, closely associated with the Christian right, has been advertised by its founder and head Richard Mack as “The Army To Set Our Nation Free” and has promoted anti-Obama “birther” conspiracy theories also promoted by Donald Trump. CSPOA events have featured speakers who advocate for Southern Secession.

The Secret Life of “Political Correctness”

In his campaign speeches, including Trump’s New Hampshire speech following the June 2016 massacre of 49 people at an Orlando, Florida nightclub, DonaldTrump has repeatedly attacked “political correctness”.

“I refuse to be politically correct”, Trump told his New Hampshire audience. “I’m so tired of this politically correct crap,” he complained to South Carolina business leaders back in September 2015. “This country, political correctness is killing us,” Trump charged in a February 2016 interview on NBC’s Today show.

Throughout the primary season Donald Trump has attacked “political correctness” so much, it might have raised the question – was he aware of the dark new conspiracy theory association that the term “political correctness” has taken on, over the past decade and a half, for many on the American right ?

If he wasn’t, he probably is now.

Portrait of Donald Trump as a Paleocon

William S. Lind is an influential arch-conservative ideologue of the Paleoconservative right — a tendency that runs from the nativist populism of Pat Buchanan and the “libertarian” Christian Reconstructonism-tinged politics of Ron Paul over to overtly racist, white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and theocratic Christian groups (both in the small but heavily influential Christian Reconstructionism movement but also in some of the more nativist streams of Christian dominionism within the vastly larger charismatic movement.)

Paleoconservatives like Buchanan, Paul, and Lind tend to oppose U.S. interventionism and “nation building” – which they consider to be typically stupid, ineffective, and costly. They view immigration – especially Muslim and Hispanic immigration – as an existential threat which could destroy the nation.

They decry the deindustrialization of America and oppose globalization and neo-Liberal free trade policies. They regard Wall Street’s financial machinations as parasitic and detrimental to the economic well-being of average Americans. And, they are partial to conspiracy theories in which secret elites, typically Jewish, scheme to rule or conquer the world and enslave humanity.

Despite the extremity of his political and social views, Bill Lind could hardly be called a fringe crank.

From the 1980s, Lind was for three decades a major fixture at what some consider to have been the emerging new conservative movement’s most intellectually and ideologically influential think tank, Paul Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation.

And, Lind has extensive connections in the U.S. military due to his pioneering work as a seminal theorist of something called Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW), a theory of asymmetrical warfare that’s especially attractive to insurgent and terrorist groups, a theory which, he’s suggested, may have given al-Qaeda strategic inspiration prior to 9-11

During their meeting, Lind gave Trump the 2009 book that he co-authored with the late Paul Weyrich, titled The Next Conservatism, which includes extensive discussion of Lind’s “cultural Marxism”/”political correctness” conspiracy theory.

The book also reads as if it had been specifically commissioned as a strategic template for Trump’s presidential campaign :

The Next Conservatism calls for stopping illegal immigration, controlling the U.S.-Mexico border, the ethnic and religious profiling of legal immigrants, making English the official national language (a less noticed Trump suggestion),protective tariffs, rebuilding American industry – to bring back well-paying jobs, investing in infrastructure(such as roads, bridges, and public transit), and pulling back from interventionist American foreign policies.

Did Donald Trump read The Next Conservatism prior to launching his devastatingly effective campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination ?

We’ll probably never know, but Trump could have derived most of his 2016 primary positions from a two-hour session with Lind’s and Weyrich’s book, by simply dog-earing pages and underlining key bits of text with his signature golden Sharpie.

And that would have been quite smart, on Trump’s part, given the importance of who Lind’s co-author was — the late Paul Weyrich, a key movement architect who coached and brokered the entrance of religious right into national politics, a man known for being typically a few years ahead of his time.

William S. Lind has himself noted the close resonance between Donald Trump’s positions and the ideas laid out in The Next Conservatism. After meeting Trump and giving him the book, Lind wrote,

“Trump’s views on avoidable foreign wars, free trade, political correctness and a number of other subjects have much in common with The Next Conservatism. If he reads it, our book might be helpful to him in fleshing out his agenda.”

The Architects

The book is billed as Paul Weyrich’s “last will and testament”. It was his (and William Lind’s) vision for rebuilding a conservative movement that, near the end of his life, Weyrich thought was running off the rails.

...

...Sex Offenders with Guns and Badges

There already exist, in America today, precedents for such a vision. One is inMaricopa County, Arizona, where County Sheriff Joe Arpaio commands a semi-private army of thousands of deputized volunteers that constitute his “posse”.

In 2012 a local CBS affiiate’s investigation showed that some of Arpaio’s deputees – who “wear uniforms, have badges, drive county vehicles” and even carry guns – also had criminal records that included,

“arrests for assault, drug possession, domestic violence, sex crimes against children, disorderly conduct, impersonating an officer – and the list goes on.”

Another example, from May 2016, is equally menacing. “Latinos and Democrats hide in safe houses as right-wing sheriff uses mob rule to take over Texas town“, read the title of one liberal media account of alleged political repression under the County Sheriff of Edwards County, Texas – a sheriff who belongs to the Christian right, anti-federal sheriffs group the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA).

One leader associated with CSPOA is Larry Pratt, founder and head of Gun Owners of America (GOA). Before founding CSPOA, former County Sheriff Richard Mack served as a lobbyist for Pratt’s organization.

Pratt was profiled in a July 14, 2014 story in Rolling Stone magazine, by journalist Alexander Zaitchik, that noted Pratt’s enthusiasm for the early 1980s efforts of Guatemala’s “Civil Defense Patrols”. Describes Zaitchik,

“It was during his involvement in Central American policy and supporting counterinsurgencies around the world that Pratt made multiple trips to Guatemala to observe rural “Civil Defense Patrols.” Contemporary human rights observers (and two subsequent Truth Commissions) consider them “death squads” for their role in killing and torturing civilians. But Pratt found much to admire. He combined observations from these visits with similarly impressed notes on the Civilian Home Defense Forces, vigilante patrols in Ferdinand Marcos’ Philippines, for a slim book published by the Gun Owners Foundation in 1990, Armed People Victorious. In it, he praises the leadership of Efrain Rios Montt, the country’s military leader during 1982 and 1983 who greatly expanded the civil defense patrols. Twenty years later, Guatemalan judges would find Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. One Amnesty International Report from Montt’s tenure detailed massacres in 60 Indian villages over a three-month period, leaving more than 2,500 dead. As late as 2001, Pratt was publically praising Montt as a “powerful Christian leader.”

In his final chapter of Armed People Victorious, Pratt enthused,

“The War on Drugs can be won the same way the guerilla insurgencies were pushed back in Guatemala and the Philippines… The history of the United States for years before and after the founding of the Republic was the history of an armed people with functioning militias involved in civil defense… While the United States has forgotten its successes in this area, other countries have rediscovered them. It is time that the United States return to reliance on an armed people. There is no acceptable alternative.”

Pratt’s vision is mirrored in William Lind’s 2014 novel Victoria, in which crime is vanquished when the triumphant white militia groups institute the summary execution of accused criminals. Lind specifically notes that those executed criminals are black.

In a series of columns he wrote in 2005 following a “symposium on modern war” William Lind attended during which participants sought to answer the question, “what might a state armed service designed for 4GW look like”, Lind expanded on the government-backed militia idea that he and Weyrich would later embed in The Next Conservatism:

The militias, perhaps under guidance of county sheriffs, would be government financed and report to national government at some level. Attendees considered Congress, rather than the chief executive, to be the best form of oversight – because an unscrupulous president might abuse such power. Explained Lind, in an August 24, 2005 column (one of 50 Lind columns in this PDF file),

“the militia we are talking about is a public, not a private militia. It is funded by government, and it reports to government (it is adcon to Congress and, unless mobilized, opcon to the county sheriff). Our working group thought it was important to keep the militia away from the federal executive branch as much as possible, because the executive branch will try either to destroy it or to turn it into a tool for Big Brother. But this militia is not just a bunch of guys running around in the woods. It is a state armed service, just like the four we now have — the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.”

In March 2016, Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump, Jr. made direct contact with one of the leaders of CSPOA, a national organization of potentially renegade U.S. county sheriffs pledged to disregard and even oppose federal laws and authority they deem unconstitutional — which has ties both to militia groups across the nation, other far-right anti-federal national groups such as the Oath Keepers, racist political parties, Southern white nationalist groups, and radical gun owners groups.

Trump the 4GW Street Fighter

...

hmmn

https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaLago/comments/9529qd/the_shadows_of_erik_prince_peter_thiel_and/

digby

From his position as chair of the Judiciary Committee, Graham has the ability to deliver some real red meat to the president and his followers. Last week Igor Derysh reported for Salon on Graham’s plans to investigate Hillary Clinton, something I’ve been predicting for more than a year. All you have to do is watch Fox News for any 10-minute interval and you’ll see that their Clinton obsession burns even hotter than it did in 2016. Now Graham is prepared to throw fuel on the fire.

This week in the latest episode of phony handwringing from the newly anointed civil libertarians of the Republican Party, they are all bellowing about how the FBI treated the self-aggrandizing dirty trickster Roger Stone — which was the same way it would treat any other accused criminal. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said the FBI had staged “what was, in effect, a military assault on Roger Stone.” Andrew Napolitano lamented, “This is jackboots in America, and there is no place for that in American life!”

Here’s onetime Phoenix sheriff Joe Arpaio, rending his garments over the inhumanity of it all, and being schooled by journalist Radley Balko, an expert on militarized law enforcement excesses:

Radley Balko

@radleybalko

Arpaio once sent 40 SWAT cops, a bomb robot, K9 units, and Steven Seagal to arrest a man suspected of cockfighting. Seagal drove an APC into the man's living room. They destroyed the guy's house with explosives, then filmed it all for a reality TV show. https://twitter.com/RealSheriffJoe/status/1090314139451285504 …

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

@RealSheriffJoe

Sheriff Joe on FBI's Roger Stone Raid: Ive Been Busting Down Doors for 50 Years &; Ive Never Sent That Many Units to the Baddest Murderer https://www.westernjournal.com/sheriff-joe-fbis-roger-stone-raid-busting-doors-50-years-never-sent-many-units-baddest-murderer/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons …

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2:03 PM - Jan 29, 2019

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Yes, the people who gleefully shout “Lock her up!” are suddenly very concerned about due process.

https://www.alternet.org/prosecutors-reprehensible-memo-proves-gop-aimed-put-accuser-christine-ford-trial-not-brett-kavanaugh

memo from Maricopa County sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, who questioned Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during her testimony on allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, revealed late Sunday that Mitchell would not advise a criminal prosecution for Kavanaugh—obscuring the reality of the consequences Kavanaugh currently faces if the FBI finds evidence that he has committed sexual assault or perjured himself in any way.

The memo claims a "reasonable prosecutor" would not pursue Ford's case, and includes five pages of Mitchell's observationsabout perceived holes in her story of the alleged sexual assault which took place in the early 1980s, when Kavanaugh and Ford were in high school.

But while Mitchell offered her thoughts on the believability of Ford's testimony, she included nothing about Kavanaugh's belligerent statement and refusal to answer direct questions from Senate Democrats during his appearance last Thursday—strongly suggesting that it was Ford, not Kavanaugh, who was on trial during the hearing.

Rachel Mitchell’s report confirms that as far as the GOP was concerned, Christine Ford was on trial. The memo contains not a single word on Kavanaugh’s testimony and its vast array of inconsistencies and outright lies. This is reprehensible. https://t.co/iMNYJR6nKx

— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) October 1, 2018

The document's conclusion also flies in the face of what numerous political observers have pointed out in recent days—that the question of criminally prosecuting Kavanaugh is irrelevant, because a Senate hearing is not intended as a criminal trial. The purpose of Democrats in the Senate was not to build a case to bring charges against Kavanaugh, but only to help determine if he warrants a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.

This is a hearing on Kavanaugh's qualifications & fitness, not a criminal prosecution

Rachel Mitchell was rendered irrelevant once the men stopped yielding their time

A fair & uninterrupted cross of #Kavanaugh would've explored his lies under oath https://t.co/iC0k3kkB9p

— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) October 1, 2018

This is so irresponsible and plainly flawed. But this dishonest memo aside, the person Rachel Mitchell should be writing a memo about is Brett Kavanaugh. It’s the veracity of his claims that count. He’s the person being considered for a lifetime appointment. https://t.co/F8BxmuBS9P

— Shaunna Thomas (@SLThomas) October 1, 2018

The memo was released as an FBI probe into Ford's claims and those ofDeborah Ramirez,who alleges Kavanaugh assaulted her in college, got underway. The Senate Judiciary Committee was forced to call for aninvestigation on Friday after it became clear that the Republicans did not yet have enough votes to bring Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor for a vote. However, according to reports, the White House has severely limited the scope of the investigation.

Last week, Mitchell questioned Ford on her allegations, but her participation in the hearing was cut short when Republican senators began questioning Kavanaugh—and defending him against the claims.

[twit]

beat 2018 senate? but not by enough? kelli?

Roger Stone and ‘Sheriff Joe’ Surprise Attendees of Rally Peppered with Far-Right Extremists

By Jared Holt | September 10, 2018 11:48 am

The Mother of All Rallies, the pro-Trump “patriot” rally that attracted far-right extremists last year, featured surprise guests at this year’s event last weekend, including failed U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona Joe Arpaio and GOP operative Roger Stone, who arrived on site with an entourage of members from the Proud Boys hate group.

While last year’s Mother of All Rallies brought out an underwhelming showing, this year produced the same as only about 200 people— including event organizers, speakers, reporters and supporters—gathered on the National Mall on Saturday.

(Photo: Jared Holt for Right Wing Watch)

Stone, who is a focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible ties between Trump associates and Russian officials, stopped by the rally for an unscheduled appearance and told attendees they were the “tip of the spear” and the “cutting edge of the counter-revolution,” borrowing mainstay lines from his frequent appearances on the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars.

“Let me say one thing about Russian collusion: It’s bullshit,” Stone said, to applause. “It’s a canard, it’s a fraud, it’s a left-wing conspiracy theory.”

He went on to label Mueller “illegitimate” and suggested Mueller may have covered up the deaths of inmates who were imprisoned to conceal ties between the FBI and the mob. Stone also claimed he will not be indicted, but that he might be “framed,” though he promised not to flip on Trump.

(Photo: Jared Holt for Right Wing Watch)

Event organizers said they met Arpaio at the Trump International Hotel in Washington the night before the event and that he had agreed to speak at their rally. Arpaio’s speech was brief, but he did tell the crowd that he was turning over his unused campaign funds to Trump’s re-election efforts.

While most of the event attendees appeared to be standard-issue Trump supporters, the rally—as it did last year—also contained several hardcore extremists.

(Photo: Jared Holt for Right Wing Watch)

Running security were clusters of people wearing insignias of anti-government militia groups, including the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and the Light Foot Militia. The latter group’s Pennsylvania branch was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, after the melee sparked by the 2017 Unite the Right event—a lawsuit they resolved by “agreeing not to return to Charlottesville to engage in coordinated armed activity during rallies and protests.”

(Video Still: Alejandro Alvarez / News2Share)

At this year’s Mother of All Rallies event, News2Share filmed members of American Guard, a group of white supremacists. American Guard was founded by Brien James, who was also in attendance. The Anti-Defamation League reported that James was also a founder of a violent skinhead gang called the Vinlanders Social Club whose members and affiliates have been responsible for at least nine murders. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that in 2000, James punched and stomped a man “to the brink of death at a party for refusing to seig heil,” and that James had bragged about multiple trials he faced for attempted murder, batteries and hate crimes.

(Photo: Jared Holt for Right Wing Watch)

Also among those in the crowd this year was Jovi Val, a far-right activist who, for a brief moment, rose to fame in online pro-Trump circles after he was attacked with a glass bottle in a New York City bar fight over his wearing of a Trump hat. Since then, he’s been showing up at far-right rallies like the “Speak English Please” rally in New York City and has proven himself to be inflammatory enough to get reportedly denounced by CRTV host Gavin McInnes. The video host, who also founded the Proud Boys, now claims that Val is not a member of his group despite the fact he had previously identified Val as such. Val was spotted last month in Washington amongst the neo-Nazis attending the anniversary event of Unite the Right.

The event ended early due to rain.

Tags: Joe Arpaio Roger Stone Alt-Right Anti-Government white supremacist American Guard Light Foot Militia Oath Keepers Proud Boys Three Percenters

Some local talk radio shows and fake news websites are pushing a new conspiracy theory from Infowars that the CIA hacked into a Hawaii state government database to forge former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. One of the radio hosts pushing the conspiracy theory has previously been cited as an analyst on a local ABC affiliate.

On December 12, Jerome Corsi of the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars claimed that investigators for former Maricopa County, AZ, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, headed by his chief investigator Michael Zullo, had found “evidence that the CIA and or other government entities illegally hacked into Hawaii Department of Health records searching for” Obama’s records. (President Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio in August after he was charged with criminal contempt because of his treatment of undocumented immigrants.) Corsi, who has been a chief figure of the birther movement, added that the “evidence” “strongly suggests the CIA played a role in the forgery” of Obama’s birth certificate.

Some local talk radio stations have hyped Infowars’ report. New Orleans talk radio host Jeff Crouere -- a Townhall writer who has been featured as a “political analyst” on ABC’s New Orleans affiliate WGNO -- calledCorsi’s report a “bombshell” on his radio program (which is carried by a station affiliated with Louisiana Public Broadcasting) and said, “I’ve said from the beginning that birth certificate [Obama] released was a fraud.”

[vid]

Some stations have invited Corsi and Zullo as guests on different radio shows and allowed them to push the extremely dubious allegation. Corsi hyped his report on Weekend Wake Up with Chuck and Julie on Denver, CO, radio station KNUS, where Corsi said that the “CIA played a major role in, I believe, creating” Obama’s long-form birth certificate that was released in 2011. Corsi also promoted the conspiracy theory on The Peter Boyles Show, which also airs on KNUS. In response to Corsi’s “report,” Boyles said that Obama’s “social security number is fraudulent” (Boyles has previously allowed guests to push birtherism on his program). Zullo spoke about the article on the showYour Turnon Northwest Florida radio station WEBY, where the host called the report a “bombshell” that’s “shaking the Earth” and lauded Infowars.

Additionally, multiple fake news websites have lauded the report, with some of them also calling it a “bombshell” and claiming that it showed the CIA, “possibly with the help of other government agencies, forged Obama’s documentation.” Some of these fake news websites also used their verified Facebook pages to push the conspiracy theory. The Infowars report was also hyped on the pro-Trump subreddit “/r/The_Donald,” a conduit for conspiracy theories.

This is not the first time this year that an Infowars conspiracy theory citing Arpaio has reverberated in the right-wing echo chamber with the help of fake news websites. In March, the outlet, trying to back Trump’s false claimthat Obama illegally wiretapped Trump Tower, asserted that Arpaio had documents showing that Trump and his family had been surveilled by the National Security Agency (NSA) for years. That report subsequently spreadto other far-right outlets and fake news websites, along with The Drudge Report.

Alex Kaplan is a Research Coordinator at Media Matters.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/now-joe-arpaio-wants-run-jeff-flakes-senate-seat

...Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who has had several brushes with the law of his own, is thinking about running for the open Senate seat that will be vacated at the end of 2018 by the retiring Jeff Flake. Arpaio told ABC News he was "strongly considering" mounting a run, and also told the Daily Beast Thursday that he wanted to take Flake's seat.

Given the Republican electorate's recent willingness to overlook controversial candidates like Donald Trump and Alabama's Roy Moore, he might have a chance.

Arpaio, 85, came back into the national spotlight in August after he was issued a presidential pardon by Trump for a contempt of court citation after he continued authorizing semi-official citizen "patrols" in defiance of a judge's order.

The July contempt sentence was the latest in a string of episodes during which Arpaio had run afoul of the criminal justice system in his desire to exact harsh punishments against inmates and illegal immigrants.

In 2008, Maricopa County, his former jurisdiction, was required to pay more than $1 million to a man that Arpaio's deputies had framed in a fake assassination plot against the sheriff in which deputies purchased bomb parts and delivered them to the defendant.

In a preview of Republican voters' seeming willingness to overlook numerous charges of sexual harassment against Trump, Arizona voters continued re-electing Arpaio despite the incident. They also seemed not to care about Arpaio losing court rulings for his operation of outdoor tent prisons which he called "concentration camps."

Several years later, Arpaio and Trump became political allies as the then-sheriff became the top law enforcement booster of Trump's conspiracy theory that former president Barack Obama had not been born in the United States. Arpaio became a hero to far-right Republicans for sending deputies to Hawaii and Africa in pursuit of proof that Obama had forged his birth certificate.

An Arpaio Senate run might also be a boon to Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon who has reportedly been seeking to find a better candidate for the Senate seat than Kelli Ward, a state senator who failed to gain significant traction in a previous campaign she had operated against Arizona's other U.S. senator, John McCain.

Bannon has been trying to encourage far-right candidates who will swear undying loyalty to Trump in several states. The president, meanwhile, has been trying to enlist Senate candidates on his own as well, reaching out to Maine's bellicose governor Paul LePage toencourage him to run against Angus King, a political independent who usually votes with Democrats.

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts cast doubt on the idea that Arpaio might right for Senate, citing the fact that he is 85, has become increasingly unpopular with Republican voters in recent years, and has become known locally for repeatedly trying to raise money for himself through fake campaigns that never materialize.

"This isn’t the first time that Arpaio has floated the idea that he would run for higher office. By my count, it's the sixth time," she wrote.

On the other hand, Trump himself was known for pretending to run for office as well. In 2015, he actually followed through. We all know what happened next....

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/joe-arpaio-world-class-jerk-lot-longer-you-ever-knew

eh weed

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/01/joe-arpaio-pardon-sheriffs-movement-215566

when ...Trump pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, calling him a “patriot,” he didn’t just absolve him from the consequences of defying a federal judge. He didn’t merely excuse Arpaio’s racial profiling and illegal immigration sweeps. Trump’s pardon did do all of that. But it also did something more: It boosted a radical theory of law and American history that Arpaio supports, and which is gaining steam across the United States.

It’s called the “constitutional sheriff” movement, and as it grows, it’s increasing the risk of conflict between local law enforcement and federal authorities. Its animating idea is that a sheriff holds ultimate law-enforcement authority in his county—outranking even the federal government within its borders. Though the movement claims deep history in English law, its real roots lie in the more recent fringes of American right-wing thought. And its popularity helps explain why Arpaio’s defiance of federal law shouldn’t be seen as just one grandstanding sheriff crossing a line, but instead should be seen as part of a broader grassroots resistance to constitutional and cultural upheavals during the 20th century.

The strange idea that unites all members of this movement is that a sheriff is the highest law enforcement officer within a county’s borders—superior not only to local police, but also to officers and agents of the federal government. The actual influence of sheriff supremacy is hard to measure, but it has been growing in recent years, and today the official constitutional sheriffs’ association boasts 4,500 dues paying members and over 200 sheriffs. Its highest-profile members include Arpaio and David Clarke, who just resigned as sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, reportedly to help Trump in some capacity.

But those figures may underestimate how far its influence extends, and how fully it pervades certain regions of the country. In 2013, Arpaio joined nearly 500 other sheriffs who vowed not to obey any federal law that required them to confiscate guns from private citizens. In Utah, 28 of 30 sheriffs went even further, warning that “[n]o federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights—in particular Amendment II—has given them.”

The constitutional sheriff movement arose from the ashes of the far-right, anti-semitic Posse Comitatus movement of the 1970s and 80s, led by William Potter Gale. The insignia favored by these Christian Patriots was a redesigned sheriff’s badge containing a noose, Bible and sword, to reflect their belief that sheriffs were responsible for the armed defense of citizens and higher law (a combination of their view of the Constitution and Christian Identity teachings). Before the movement collapsed with Gale’s death, its paramilitary figures developed an anti-tax, anti-government agenda that stoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for oppressing farmers through crushing taxes and exorbitant loans. Its foot soldiers gained notoriety when they tried to stop foreclosures in the Midwest and engaged in shootouts with U.S. marshals.

The modern constitutional sheriff movement has revived the idea of sheriff supremacy envisioned by the Christian Patriots, tried to shed its anti-Semitic and racist origins, and now seeks to “take back America county by county, state by state.” Today, its ideology has gained traction with the militia movement, so-called sovereign citizens, separatists wary of centralized government—and increasingly, landowners, county commissioners, veterans and law enforcement figures.Cliven Bundy, who has clashed for years with the Bureau of Land Management, is an adherent of sheriff supremacy. In 2014, he demanded that the local sheriff step in and protect him from federal agents: “Sheriff, this is what We the People are asking this morning. Disarm the Park Service at …parks where the federal government claims they have jurisdiction.” One of his sons, Ryan Bundy, later said on TV, “The county sheriff is the only person that We the People have allowed to have policing power.”

As these unorthodox ideas have spread, politicians and lawmen have played boldly to anti-government sentiment, especially fears of federal officials intruding on property rights and gun rights. In 2014, Lora Hubbel, a candidate to become governor of South Dakota, told an audience: “The sheriff is the highest law officer in the county….Your county sheriff can tell the federal government ‘No, you can’t cross into my county.’ Your local sheriff is your best protection against the federal government.”

A number of candidates for sheriff or county commissioner around the country have campaigned explicitly on county-first theories of legal power. In New Hampshire, a businessman named Frank Szabo vowed to serve Hillsborough County as a constitutional sheriff who would defend citizens from “rogue federal and state agencies.” He even said he would be open to using deadly force to stop an abortion. And during the tense standoff in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge between Ammon Bundy’s armed men and federal agents, Glenn Palmer, a constitutional sheriff in Grant County, Oregon, praised the occupiers as “patriots.” Some, like Szabo and Hubbel, have lost elections when constituents recoil from the practical consequences of sheriff supremacy; others, like Arpaio, have been rewarded for their militancy.

Michael Barkun, an expert on political extremism, has termed this philosophy “radical localism,” because it valorizes and exploits subnational sources of power. In theory, that kind of localism could be a vehicle for many kinds of politics, but in practice constitutional sheriffs and their followers tend to occupy the edges of anti-government conservatism, organizing themselves to promote gun rights and property rights, to resist tax laws, national healthcare, gay marriage—and in Arpaio’s case, to implement a muscular view of border security. The enforcement policies of constitutional sheriffs aren’t neutral, but instead reflect a traditionalist and often apocalyptic worldview.

Do they have a point, at least in principle? The Constitutional Sheriffs claim to be supported by long tradition, but in fact sheriff supremacy is based on a faulty reading of history. Where states’ rights has some support in the text and history of the Constitution (notably in the 10th Amendment, but limited by the Reconstruction Amendments), the idea of sheriff supremacy does not: It has been made up by stitching together random references to sheriffs and militias in our political and legal texts. It relies on a highly selective reading of history, pretending that the high sheriff of the English shire was transplanted to colonial America, and then somehow emerged in the present day untouched by legal developments over the past 200 years.

In fact, in colonial America, most sheriffs were appointed by the Crown or landowners rather than elected by the people. The turn toward direct election of sheriffs came later, as part of the reforms of Jacksonian democracy. The militant orientation of the modern movement also comes from elevating the right to bear arms above all other rights, while treating the Second Amendment as if it codified the militia as a constitutional entity on par with Congress, the president, or the Supreme Court. It didn’t do that—not even close. And the sheriff supremacists never mention the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equality and due process as part of the rights of national citizenship, and imposed new limits on states (and, by extension, local authorities).

Despite the “constitutional” label, sheriff supremacy makes mincemeat out of the framers’ constitutional design. The most basic principle of the original American Constitution is that of federal supremacy: When an irreconcilable conflict emerges between federal law and a subordinate source of law, federal law prevails. The office of sheriff itself is a creature of state constitutions and state law rather than some unchanging “common law” that supersedes federal law. Under long-standing constitutional principles, the federal government’s power to implement national policy reaches wherever is necessary to make that policy effective, as long as it doesn’t contravene a specific power that has been reserved for the states.

Nowhere did the framers explicitly authorize local government officials and lawmen to act as final authorities on the Constitution’s meaning. That would have run counter to every impulse they had in creating a stronger, more effective national government, and a coherent and consistent rule of law. The very thought of hundreds or thousands of armed individuals (there are over 3,000 sheriffs nationwide) each claiming the last word on the Constitution would have sent shudders through the men who met in Philadelphia.

The ideology of sheriff supremacy has attracted supporters largely by trading on popular suspicion of the federal government and disgust with land management policies. And, not surprisingly, the belief system has ended up encouraging clashes between sheriffs and the laws of their own state. In March 2013, Nick Finch, the sheriff of Liberty County, Florida, refused to enforce a state law that banned carrying a concealed weapon without a license. The sheriff’s reason for releasing the man from jail and allegedly altering the arrest records: “I know what law rules the day, and it’s the U.S. Constitution.” When word got out, Governor Rick Scott suspended Finch and the state charged him with official misconduct. Finch was eventually reinstated after a jury refused to convict. During trial, Finch’s lawyer had invited the jury to engage in nullification: “There ain’t many of y’all, but you have your own common code or beliefs ... It’s a way of life over here for people to own guns ... There’s a distinct possibility that, every now and then, one of y’all is going to make a mistake and he doesn’t want to create a convicted felon out of an incident that could be misunderstood.”

The costs of friction caused by sheriff supremacy can be high, and they always end up falling squarely on a sheriff’s constituents. Though a sheriff might sweep into office by promising to protect local taxpayers, overly aggressive tactics can backfire by leading to expensive lawsuits. One estimate put Maricopa County taxpayers on the hook for over $70 million dollars to defend Arpaio’s policies.

The face of the constitutional sheriff movement today is Richard Mack, who like Arpaio was once a sheriff in Arizona. Mack is the author of the pamphlet, Constitutional Sheriff: America’s Last Hope, which Arpaio has urged every citizen, police officer and sheriff to read (the entire back cover, in fact, is taken up with a plug by Arpaio.) In his pamphlet, Mack urges lawmen to save America from “a growing Marxist creed ... political whining for universal health care, gun control, forced equality through governmental redistribution of wealth, and the removal of religious beliefs and expressions from our public institutions.” The county sheriff, according to Mack, “is our nation’s last line of defense” against these changes. But “the greatest threat we face, as a nation,” he says, “is our own Federal Government.”

In 2011, Mack, with the help of Arpaio and others, founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.“We’re not mainstream,” Mack has confessed. CSPOA believes that “America needs to make a strong turn around to get back on the freedom track laid for us by our Founders” and that the county sheriff “is the last hope of making this happen.” The organization advocates “protection, service, and interposition” by sheriffs to protect citizen’s rights, and trains sheriffs and deputies how to engage in alternative tactics to resist the federal government.

If that word “interposition” sounds familiar, it’s because the concept was made famous in the 1950s when state officials tried to prevent racial integration by interposing themselves between white citizens and federal troops sent to enforce orders by federal judges. It’s also closely related to the older idea of nullifying laws believed to be unconstitutional—again, popularized by slave states such as South Carolina that opposed any regulation of that practice. Ironically, the militant abolitionist John Brown—hated during his day by law enforcement—was sometimes described by supporters as interposing himself and his men between the bodies of defenseless slaves and their owners, slave catchers, and the Slave Power that had corrupted the federal government.

For today’s constitutional sheriffs, interposition means demanding that federal agents obtain permission from a sheriff before conducting business in a county, and perhaps barring their way if consent is not given. It means stepping in between the government and county residents “to keep those at bay who would confiscate bank accounts, guns, land, property, and children.” It might also mean ignoring what “the County Attorney advises the sheriff to do” because they believe a sheriff “has no obligation to go along with those who subvert the Constitution.”

***

While in office,Arpaio behaved like what you would expect of someone who subscribed to sheriff supremacy. He consistently referred to himself as a “constitutional sheriff.” His office regularly issued news releases asking for more armed volunteers for his Maricopa County posse, which is understood to be a representation of the people and the measure of a sheriff’s potency to resist tyranny. The bigger a sheriff’s militia, the more faith residents have that external threats can be resisted. In fact, Arpaio bragged that his office operated 52 separate posse groups with nearly 400 armed volunteers. He used posses to patrol shopping malls and even called for armed citizens to “take action” against mass shooters and terrorists. In 2012, CSPOA gave Arpaio a lifetime achievement award.

Whenever Arpaio wanted to strike a defiant tone, as he did once federal judges and the Department of Justice had had enough, he always returned to the provocative idea of sheriff supremacy. After a federal judge ruled that Arpaio lacked authority under state law or federal law to detain undocumented migrants, he simply flouted judicial orders and ignored his attorney’s advice because he disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of the Constitution. “I will continue to enforce illegal immigration laws,” he brazenly announced. Arpaio declared that he would “never give in to control by the federal government” and would not “back down.” He even came up with a secret backup plan to turn over captured migrants to Border Patrol instead of ICE to evade a judge’s orders to cease and desist immigration enforcement.

Trump’s pardon of Arpaio didn’t just let the sheriff off the hook; it short-circuited the part of the American judicial process designed to hold government accountable, and resolve conflicts between levels of government. It began when a class-action lawsuit was filed in 2007 by individuals who claimed they had been racially profiled during Arpaio’s immigration raids and traffic stops. In 2012, the DOJ intervened in the case to vindicate federal interests in ending discriminatory policing, to stop Arpaio from retaliating against his critics in violation of the First Amendment, and to ensure that non-English detainees didn’t forfeit their rights without understanding them. Arpaio lost the first case and settled with DOJ, but was held in civil contempt of court for continuing to capture migrants without legal authority and for failing to turn over records of these encounters.

Acting on a referral from the federal judge overseeing the case, the DOJ eventually sought to hold Arpaio accountable for criminal contempt after Arpaio’s recalcitrance continued. A second judge tried the case and convicted Arpaio, finding that he had “willfully violated the [earlier] order by failing to do anything to ensure his subordinates' compliance and by directing them to continue to detain persons for whom no criminal charges could be filed.” Trump pardoned Arpaio just days before he was to be sentenced.

During the legal proceedings, Arpaio made the puzzling assertion that he had never violated his oath of office, despite having ignored direct orders from a federal judge. As far as he was concerned, the oath of office gave him the right, indeed even the responsibility, to ignore the federal court. He was merely doing the rightful job of a sheriff, enforcing the laws and Constitution as he saw them, unaccountable to anyone but himself. Now that Arpaio has been pardoned, his place in the pantheon of constitutional sheriffs is secure. And his view of American law and history—one shared by kindred spirits, and one that menaces not just federal law but the Constitution itself—just got a troubling endorsement from the president of the United States.

Robert L. Tsai is Professor of Law at American University and author of America’s Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community (Harvard 2014)--

Actor Steven Seagal and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office are facing a lawsuit for allegedly conducting an "improper" raid on a man's home and driving a tank through his front gate, while filming an episode of the reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman.

Jesus Llovera has filed a civil lawsuit against Seagal and members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for a raid conducted in March, 2011, based on allegations that Llovera was involved in cockfighting. Llovera filed a claim over the incident last fall.

Llovera, who previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of being present at a cockfight, was suspected of raising roosters and chickens on his property to fight, a felony, and also a violation of his probation.

The Sheriff's Office, which used "a tank, a bomb robot and 40 deputies," according to theArizona Republic, accidentally killed over 100 of Llovera's roosters and his 11-month old dog during the course of the raid.

Several cameras were there to film the incident for the A&E program. Afterwards, producers tried to get Llovera to sign a release for the episode. He refused.

Llovera's suit claims that the raid was conducted for the purposes of the show, and is part of a pattern of Arpaio "arresting and prosecuting individuals without probable cause solely for the selfish and improper purposes of achieving personal and political gain through publicity," the*Republic* reports.

"The search warrant was going to occur with or without Seagal," sheriff's Deputy Chief Dave Trombi previously said. "The search warrant was not based at all on the needs of the production company."

The episode was supposed to air on A&E on January 4, but was pulled from the schedule.

Ed note: An earlier version of this piece said Llovera's earlier claim was separate from the recently filed lawsuit. It was filed as part of the same process.

dem woman elected?

===

http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-supporters-call-liberal-genocide-and-deportation-jews-arizona-rally

Maricopa County burnished its reputation as the Trumpiest in America last weekend as hundreds of locals, including heavily armed militamen, white nationalists and even a few elected officials, gathered to support the 45th president. The ensuing "March for Trump" was as horrifying as it sounds.

"I heard 'Lock her up, lock her up,' and we still need to pursue that," announced Arizona Rep. Anthony Kern; a nod to a prominent Trump campaign promise to imprison then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"If you don't like it here, go to Syria, go to someplace else," one attendee shouted.

"I don't want 'em, as a veteran I don't want 'em, let 'em go back home," another seconded. "If they've got a problem, let Saudi Arabia take care of 'em."

Some even dared to tell Dan Cohen of the Real News Network how they'd make America great again now that Trump is in office. And Muslims weren't the only religious minority unwelcomed.

"If she's Jewish, she should go back to her country," a 13-year-old Trump supporter said of a protester.

"This is America, we don't want Sharia law," one attendee explained. "Christian country," he added.

One man insisted that Senator John McCain was a "secret communist."

"I think there's a lot there," another said of Pizzagate, a deranged right-wing conspiracy theory claiming that Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta ran a child prostitution ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. "Definitely enough to warrant an investigation."

The day's proceedings would grow uglier still.

"I just want to let them know that I can't wait for the liberal genocide to begin," an Oath Keeper shouted at a small group of protesters.

"That's the way to make America great again," he later told Cohen. "Liberals are destroying the country."

Watch:

...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/05/1304501/-Joe-Arpaio-investigates-DOJ-and-the-judge-who-found-him-guilty-of-racial-profiling?detail=email

Earlier this week I reported that Arpaio had cost citizens of Maricopa County in Arizona $975,000, the result of another lawsuit filed against the sheriff and county. On Monday the 9th Circuit of Appeals found that Arpaio and then County Attorney Andrew Thomas had brought frivolous charges against, and otherwise harassed, County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. Last year another former County Supervisor, Don Stapley, received a $3.5 million settlement in a similar case.

To date, Arpaio has cost citizens of Maricopa County more than $44 million because of illegal, vindictive, unethical and unnecessary lawsuits and other actions that he and crony Andrew Thomas leveled against their enemies, or people they believed were enemies because they did not sanction the sheriff's police state tactics.

That's been a common Arpaio ploy: target politicians, journalists, activists and other people with whom you disagree, harass them, file charges against them, and even arrest them. Some of these victims are now fighting back, often resulting in large settlements that the county's citizens must absorb—rather than hire teachers and police, open libraries, maintain parks or staff hospitals.

Now what? Please read below the fold for more.

According to Stephen Lemons in Phoenix New Times, Arpaio is now investigating Eric Holder's Department of Justice and the judge who last year found his office guilty of racial profiling. The sheriff is irked at DOJ because Holder is still investigating him for abuse of powers, a point Arpaio has not been reluctant to make in his fundraising appeals to goobers.

The Obama Justice Department has been rolling out lawsuit after lawsuit to take me down.

Of course, another way this county sheriff in Arizona is trying to get back at Obama is to appoint himself as the lead investigator of the president's birth certificate, an inquiry that continues. In March these birther numbskulls said we could expect "universe-shattering" evidence, but so far … crickets.

And Judge Murray Snow? Well, he's a Mormon Republican official appointed by George W. Bush, but he had the audacity in 2013 to rule against the Sheriff's Office:

A federal judge ruled [in May 2013] that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos by targeting them during raids and traffic stops here and throughout Maricopa County.

Taking on "activist judges" with whom the sheriff disagrees is not uncommon—at least 10 Arpaio-Thomas cases were filed against judges. In 2010, for instance, they brought racketeering and felony charges against criminal court judge Gary Donahue, because he had ordered County Attorney Thomas to drop a frivolous case Arpaio wanted to pursue. In hislawsuit, Donahoe claimed "malicious prosecution, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress," and eventually received a $1.2 million settlement. Thomas has since beendisbarred for his piss-ant prosecutions, but he's running for governor this year. Natch!

The current Arpaio investigation of Judge Snow, like the Obama pushback and everything else, stems from spite, vindictiveness and crazy conspiratorial BS. According to New Times, Arpaio's deputies, on the taxpayers' dime, are now

focused on U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow, the Justice Department, and a bizarre conspiracy theory that the DOJ and Snow have conspired to somehow "get" Joe Arpaio.

Moreover, the person peddling the conspiracy is computer scammer Dennis Montgomery, who, Lemons points out, was the subject of a 2010 Playboy article titled "The Man Who Conned the Pentagon." It seems Montgomery, in the wake of 9/11, convinced the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies that he had developed software that could decrypt terrorists' emails. Montgomery bilked the nation out of millions of dollars, but he didn't provide any useful information. He then scammed several other businesses before going bankrupt.

Now Sheriff Joe Arpaio's gumshoes are supposedly working with Montgomery "who, the sources say, has convinced the sheriff that he has information suggesting an anti-Arpaio conspiracy between Judge Snow and the DOJ."

Oh, for pete's sake! Filing bogus charges against political enemies; investigating the president's birth certificate because a gaggle of tea party nitwits asked him to; working with grifters like Montgomery to attack a judge who ordered Arpaio to quit being so damn racist; playing reality TV tough guy with Steven Seagal. That is what Arpaio spends his time and resources on. Thisis what he's not paying attention to:

His deputies failed to investigate or conducted only the sketchiest of inquiries into hundreds of sex crimes between 2005 and 2007, investigations by Arizona law enforcement agencies have shown. Many of those cases involved molested children.

Next we can expect him to investigate Bowe Bergdahl's release because, of course, it must be a conspiracy that has something to do with Joe Arpaio.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO MAGGIE'S FARM ON WED JUN 04, 2014 AT 10:22 PM PDT.

hodad: red lettering and the photographs themselves are framed in red).

Five of these individuals were members of a group known in the Phoenix activist community as the “Arpaio Five,” a group of protestors who were arrested on charges of assaulting police and weapons use during a January, 2010 protest against what many perceive to be the racially-motivated immigration enforcement practices of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Despite the fact that the ALEC “face sheet” claimed these individuals had assaulted police officers, none of the Arpaio Five were convicted of assault; three of the five had either been found not guilty, or had charges against them dismissed. The remaining two had accepted plea agreements on charges of disorderly conduct.

The sixth individual in this top row of persons proclaimed to have “committed assault on police officers” was Dane Rossman. Rossman had been arrested on multiple counts of assault and use of dangerous weapons (having allegedly thrown rocks) during a November, 2010 counter protest of a National Socialist Movement (NSM, an American neo-Nazi group) “Reclaim the Southwest” march in Phoenix. The purpose of this neo-Nazi march was to protest federal injunctions issued against portions of SB 1070 at that time.

Interestingly, the initial charges against Rossman were “scratched” by prosecutors shortly following his arrest. This “scratching” of felony charges is an Arizona legal phenomenon wherein a prosecutor can “scratch,” or temporarily dismiss, a felony charge/charges-- while reserving the right to resurrect the charge/charges at any time within seven years from the date of “scratching.”

According to court records, a grand jury returned an indictment against Rossman on September 28, 2011, at which point, Maricopa County Superior Court issued a warrant for his arrest. Court records show that this warrant was not executed until November 21-- a week prior to the launch of the 2011 ALEC SNPS.

Rossman accepted a plea agreement for the lesser charge of felony disorderly conduct in July, 2012.

[Note: Rossman was arrested in February, 2013 by the U.S. Marshals Service pursuant to a Canadian indictment. According to court documents, Rossman is alleged to have “smashed” the window of a Toronto business during a June, 2010 G-20 protest. As such, Canadian authorities charged Rossman with “mischief,” “mischief endangering life,” and “disguise with intent to commit an indictable offense” (Rossman was allegedly wearing a bandana when he allegedly smashed the window). In April, 2013 a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona ordered Rossman be extradited to Canada.]

Multiple activists involved in the planning of the ALEC SNPS protest interviewed by DBA/CMD stated that neither Rossman, nor any member of the “Arpaio Five,” took part in the planning, or execution, of the November 30, 2011 ALEC protest at the Westin Kierland. It is also worth noting that none of the 16 other activists listed on the ALEC “face sheet” had warrants, or were accused of having committed any violent crime, at the time of the ALEC conference protest.

===

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-long-lawless-ride-of-sheriff-joe-arpaio-20120802

The Long, Lawless Ride of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Locking up the innocent. Arresting his critics. Racial profiling. Meet America's meanest and most corrupt politician.

by: Joe Hagan

Peter Yang

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

Joe Arpaio, the 80-year-old lawman who brands himself "America's toughest sheriff," is smiling like a delighted gnome. Nineteen floors above the blazing Arizona desert, the Phoenix sprawl ripples in the heat as Arpaio cues up the Rolling Stones to welcome a reporter "from that marijuana magazine."

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

The guided tour of Arpaio's legend has officially begun. Here, next to his desk, is the hand-painted sign of draconian rules for Tent City, the infamous jail he set up 20 years ago, in which some 2,000 inmates live under canvas tarps in the desert, forced to wear pink underwear beneath their black-and-white-striped uniforms while cracking rocks in the stifling heat. HARD LABOR, the sign reads. NO GIRLIE MAGAZINES!

From behind his desk, Arpaio pulls out a stack of news clips about himself, dozens of them, featuring the gruff, no-frills enforcer of Maricopa County, whose officers regularly round up illegal immigrants in late-night raids, his 60th made only a few days ago, at a local furniture store. "Everything I did, all over the world," he crows, flipping through the stories. "You can see this week: national magazine of Russia... BBC... Some people call me a publicity hound."

"My people said, 'You're stupid to do an interview with that magazine,'" says Arpaio, talking about Rolling Stone, "but hey, controversy – well, it hasn't hurt me in 50 years."

Arpaio is an unabashed carnival barker. And his antics might be amusing if he weren't also notorious for being not just the toughest but the most corrupt and abusive sheriff in America. As Arizona has become center stage for the debate over illegal immigration and the civil rights of Latinos, Arpaio has sold himself as the symbol of nativist defiance, a modern-day Bull Connor bucking the federal government over immigration policy. As such, he's become the go-to media prop for conservative politicians, from state legislators to presidential candidates, who want to be seen as immigration hard-liners. "I had Michele Bachmann sitting right there," says Arpaio, pointing to my chair. "All these presidential guys coming to see me!"

As Arpaio has faced allegations of rampant racial profiling in Arizona, he's declared war on President Barack Obama, accusing him of watering down federal immigration law to court the Latino vote – while Arpaio himself continues to investigate the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate, the favored conspiracy of his far-right constituents. "I'm not going to get into everything else we got about the president," he brags to a conservative radio interviewer while I'm sitting in his office. "I could write 9 million books."

Arpaio refuses to acknowledge the president's recent decision to grant temporary immunity from imprisonment and deportation to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. These people, Arpaio says, will "be arrested" in Maricopa County. In June, when the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of Arizona's controversial immigration law, the core of which allows law enforcement to demand citizenship papers from any suspected illegal immigrant they come across, Arpaio growled that he wouldn't "bend" to the feds, "especially when we still have state laws to enforce."

"If they think I'm going to surrender," Arpaio says, "it's not going to happen."

His rhetoric and tactics have spread fear in the Latino community in Arizona. "They hate me, the Hispanic community, because they're afraid they're going to be arrested," Arpaio boasted to a TV interviewer in 2009. "And they're all leaving town, so I think we're doing something good, if they're leaving." But the all-consuming focus on immigration has come at a cost: Arpaio is so obsessed with the often illusory crimes of immigrants that he ignored more than 400 cases of sexual abuse he was responsible for investigating, including assaults on children. And it surprised no one that JT Ready, the Arizona white supremacist who shot and killed his girlfriend, her family and himself last May, had attended Arpaio rallies.

Yet such derelictions of duty haven't hurt Arpaio among the audience he cares about most. Since 1992, despite widespread criticism from human rights groups and local political leaders, Arpaio has been re-elected four times in Maricopa County, the most populous area of Arizona and a bastion of retirees and conservatives for whom Arpaio is a white knight, a defender of the 1950s Shangri-La they've sought to preserve in the largely white suburbs that ring Phoenix. "I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy," says Arpaio.