Things That Are Irritating Me

Oh happy day!  There will be even more discussion over the complete and total wingnuttery that is AZ politics as well as other stuff that is giving me agita.  

From the local news on KOLD, we learn the following.  Governor Ducey has signed a new budget which gives the wealthy Arizonans a big tax cut, and regular people get a tiny tax cut or none at all.  Proposition 208, which levied a small tax on the wealthy for schools last year, was undone by the new budget.  Never mind that the citizens voted for it overwhelmingly, the will of the people means nothing to a republican governor.  The budget also included the following items, which have nothing to do with money.

— Bans any instruction that implies that one race is inherently racist, should be discriminated against, or feel guilty because of their race. It is another in a series of measures targeting or reacting to so-called “critical race theory,” which is not currently being taught in K-12 schools. Teachers could lose their licenses and their schools fined for violations.

— Strips Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of the power to defend election-related lawsuits against the state, and bars Hobbs from hiring private attorneys. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich will instead get the power to stake out the state’s position in election matters. The power transfer expires after Hobbs and Brnovich leave office in 2023.

— Gives the state police broad power to keep videos from body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras secret. Such videos are generally considered public records now, but the budget gives the Department of Public Safety the power to decide when it’s in the public’s interest to release them. It also requires people seeking copies of videos to know the time and place it was recorded and the names of people involved.

— Requires that police misconduct be investigated only by certified officers from the same jurisdiction, essentially banning civilian-controlled review boards for police misconduct.

— Blocks public health measures including vaccine or mask mandates meant to control the coronavirus in schools and universities. 

Last week the Supreme Court ruled in favor of  Arizona AG Brnovich in his suit that wanted to do away with "ballot harvesting" and discarding the federal portion of ballots that were cast in the wrong precinct.  As I have said before, on the Navajo nation, it's difficult to get a ballot to a polling place.  It involves driving very long distances on unpaved roads.  Why, you wonder, do they just not mail them in?  That would be because there is no mail service on the reservation.  The residents must go in to town to get mail from a PO box.  SCOTUS decided that since not that many people were impacted, that it would be ok to disenfranchise them.  Their ruling is going to make it more difficult to challenge the boat load of voter suppression laws currently being passed in the red states. WAPO had an excellent op-ed piece about how the court pretty much made up stuff about what Section 2 of the 1982 voting rights bill said.  Voting in the correct precinct in AZ is more difficult than you might think.  I don't know what my precinct is, I don't know how to find out.  It's not on my voter registration card, and I haven't seen a pick on the website.  They change often, so it's not surprising people go to the wrong place. I can understand tossing the local vote, since it is out of precinct, but not the federal section, which is what SCOTUS said they could do.

The Kansas legislature has been busy writing stupid voting laws.  One of their most recent efforts makes it a crime to engage in activity that “gives the appearance of being an election official.”  There are significant financial penalties for this heinous act.  The League of Women Voters has suspended all of their voter registration drives out of fear of prosecution under this new law.  Great, just great.  We won't register people to vote, they might vote for Democrats.  You can read more about this here.

From the annals of "white people suck" we have the latest indignity brought to us by the Olympics.  Swimmers are required to wear a standard tight fitting latex swim cap.  These caps do not work for Black women who have a lot of hair.  They're too tight, they hurt and sometimes come off in the water.  Different companies have developed swim caps that work for Black hair.  One of them submitted a request that they be allowed in competition.  Nope.  "The organization said the design does not fit “the natural form of the head.” To the best of their knowledge, they added, “the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require … caps of such size and configuration.”"  Did they ask any Black swimmers?  I doubt it.  This just irritates the living snot out of me.  You can be irritated, too, by reading here.  Or you can be irritated by a WAPO op-ed on the same subject.

So, on this dark and gloomy afternoon (which is only producing light sprinkles) I have documented my current list of grievances.  Carry on.