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The whole fakakte in Arizona goes a long way to proving two things: one, you have to be sooo stupid to be a far right winger that you flunk the preliminary IQ test with a score lower than ambient room temperature. The other is that the people calling themselves "conservative" nowadays are the furthest thing from actually conservative. Hofstadter's term "pseudo-conservative" comes to mind - or that one-word synonym for the term "far right radical revolutionary." Seven letters, starts with "f" and ends with "t."

With the breaking news tonight that the Mac-Munching Mango Mussolini of Maga Lardo just tripped over his own shoe laces into a third criminal investigation, with the announcement by the NY Attorney General that his neighborhood wannabe mafia gang, er, I mean the Trump Organization, has been informed the AG is joining the NYC DA's criminal investigation, the chances are very good he's going to be an indicted defendant by the time the 2022 election comes around and a jumpsuit-wearing resident of The Big House by 2024. Which will make watching the Dumbest Fcking Okiefornian in Dumbfuckingokiefornia, Kevin McCarthy, twist slowly in the wind one of the great spectator events of the Roaring 2020's.

Loved watching President Biden "floor it" in the F-150 today 0-60 in 4.0 seconds flat, came back past them doing 80. Unlike Lardo, who could only sit in a truck looking like the overgrown 5 year old his is, going "vroom! vroom!" Reminded me of watching Joe and his original-owner 1967 Corvette having fun on Jay Leno's Garage 4 years ago. He "floored" that, too. Definitely a "car guy."

Speaking of "car guys" Rachel's coverage of the new electric F-150 was really good tonight - how the best-selling vehicle in America going electric may really change things. Also liked the interview with the Chinese-immigrant woman who arrived here 30+ years ago knowing no English, who is the Chief Engineer at Ford responsible for the electric F-150 (watching her use the prototype to pull 10 freight rail cars full of 42 F-150s - weighing over a million pounds total - 1,000 feet without putting a strain on the prototype was interestng all on its own if you too are a "car guy." (Since Rachel called herself a "car guy" I'm now assuming that term is unisex).

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So glad to see Maricopa County officials stand up for their election and call for the "audit" circus to stop. I owned a condo in Maricopa County for a couple of decades although I was living and voting in Massachusetts then. If the Republicans would stand together, DT couldn't ruin them one at a time. As Benjamin Franklin put it "We must, indeed, all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

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The last paragraph contains the news for which I’ve been waiting. I’m looking forward to announcements of indictments, perhaps even marshals with an arrest warrant crashing the gates of Mar-a-Lago and perp-walking the handcuffed former president into a waiting van. That last is unlikely I know, but it cheers my heart thinking of if.

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In regards to the Supreme Court agreeing to take the abortion case this year. I came across a political cartoon with the title "Things to Regulate". A GOP elephant is using a pointer to point to the abdomen area on a picture of a woman with YES underneath the picture. A second picture shows a factory spewing smoke and pollutants into the atmosphere with NO beneath this picture. I am a believer in the sanctity of a women's body. Tucker Carlson on FOX made the argument is pro choice on whether to take the COVID vaccine. He said the government should have no role in this -- Your body, your choice! https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-if-you-let-democrats-force-you-to-get-the-vaccine-theyll-have-complete-control-forever If he really believes what he is saying he should be pro-choice on the abortion decision and support Roe vs. Wade. There are so many different religious views on when the soul enters the body and what happens to the soul when one dies, it would seem impossible to have a argument that the so-called Pro-Life position is promoting one single religion's view on it. I like what Barbara Bush said in her biography, The Matriarch, saying that abortion was the toughest issue she had to deal with. “When does the soul enter the body is the #1 question,” she wrote. “Not when does life begin, as life begins in a flower or an animal with the first cell. So the question is does the life begin (soul entering the body) at conception or at the moment the first breath is taken? If the answer to that question is at conception, then abortion is murder. If the answer to that question is the moment the first breath is taken, then abortion is not murder.” She also concluded that no matter what, God would take care of the soul. I want government to stay out of my body. Perhaps someday this will all be a moot point when a fetus could come to full term outside the body -- in a test tube perhaps.

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With the twice impeached former one term president under criminal investigation, with Matt Gaetz likely to be indicted (possibly Ron DeSantis, too), with the tomfoolery surrounding the ‘audit’ in AZ, and with a judge in MI dismissing as moot a lawsuit about an election audit in one county, I am cautiously optimistic that the Republicans will be far too splintered to mount enough meaningful challenges in ‘22.

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Whilst we are talking about whipping, let us talk about the smarmy group of playground bullies that whipped off their masks in the House in response to a CDC GUIDELINE. These people are legislators with no respect for rules. Jamie Raskin told them that Democrats who have all been vaccinated have to wear masks because of those republicans who have not been vaccinated. The same goes for the rest of us. Charlie Baker is in for a big surprise if he thinks everyone is whipping off their masks on May 29 because he wants everything normal again. The minority of selfish bullies are holding us hostage still led by the great orange iDJT. They should not be allowed into the building until they have been vaccinated or come to their senses. If they miss a vote, too bad.

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Heather's Letter is vibrating with news. Yesterday was a day to remember, and that could be true of today as well.

Trucks first: Is there a car manufacturer in the world to match the name of The Ford Motor Co.? The company made it through the Depression and has been a family business continuously for the last 110 years. Let's jump from the Model T to the The Ford F-150 pickup truck. It has been the best-selling vehicle in the US since 1981.

'The president's visit to the historic Rouge complex preceded Ford's planned unveiling of the

e l e c t r i c version of the F-150 pickup, ...'

This pickup truck, such a winner, may be a much bigger winner. It may mean a great deal for Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan, Climate Change, the workers, the Ford Motor Co., Michigan and everyone who loves pickup trucks.

'U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, greeted Biden at Detroit Metro Airport, where Air Force One landed shortly before noon. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, discussed the ongoing violence in Gaza with the president, questioned the planned $735 million weapons sale by the U.S. to Israel, and told him that Palestinian human rights are not a "bargaining chip," a Tlaib aide told The Detroit News. He later promised he'd "do everything" to keep her family in the West Bank safe.' The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is a very serious story, forever old and new again. It is not for LFAA at this time, but it is one that we need to address as human beings.

Back to America.

'Finally, Linda Zhang, chief engineer for the electric F-150, showed Biden the vehicle's underbody and talked him through some of the vehicle specs. The president showed strong interest, quizzing her about the weight of the battery (1,800 pounds) and the pickup's tires.' (Detroit News) Linda Zhang, is a shining example of the women engineers at Ford. At the bottom of the comment there is a link to Ford commemorating them.

As for Trump will he ever get his comeuppance? How do you like that old fashioned word for his punishment; it's not the word you'd use is it? Here is as much of what we'll today from the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/nyregion/trump-ny-ag-investigation-vance.html

It was early for such an announcement to be made by New York's AG, according to legal experts. Some of them have been saying that the reason for it may be to smoke out someone like the Trump's accountant, Allen Weisselberg..

This brings me to the subject of fear. Everyone has been talking about it -- possibly a contributing factor for the obsequiousness of Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans who know the BIG LIE from the truth. Weisselberg has reason to fear.

I don't know the facts but have made a connection between fear and Carol Leonnig's book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. It is '...a history of the agency by the Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig,, a devastating catalog of jaw-dropping incompetence, ham-fisted mismanagement and frat-boy bacchanalia. The Secret Service’s tradition of drunken debauchery goes back to at least November 1963, in Dallas, when some agents apparently got so hammered in a gin joint just hours before the fateful motorcade that they could barely walk, much less leap to the president’s defense. More recently, on a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, to prepare for Barack Obama’s visit in 2012, 11 members of his Secret Service advance team were shipped home after a night of boozing and cavorting with prostitutes.' (NY Times, book review).

The book is coming out today and is already No. 1 on Amazon. In a couple of interviews last night, writer Leonnig said that the entire Secret Service detail at he White House was swapped out over concerns about the loyalty by members to the former president. She also said that fears of possible assignations of both Harris and Biden were of foremost concern. She didn't say who was suspected of possibly committing such acts.

Fear... can that be part of the explanation for the behavior of some Republicans? I'm not giving them a pass but for a few, perhaps, there is more to the story. This idea isn't coming from social media. Carol Leonnig is a fine journalist with the Washington Post. Elected officials have been threatened and require protection. These are dangerous times, indeed.

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/img/me/en/news/2020/06/23/heartening-stories-of-female-engineers-at-ford-celebrating-inter.pdf

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Thank you! I feel a bit more hopeful. I keep thinking give enough rope to the Trump Republican sycophants and they might hang themselves.

By the way, my husband and I were watching a CNN show about how the GOP has basically gone from reputable to something almost unbelievably awful, and there you were giving a historical perspective. Nice job!

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Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, you are a finely tuned instrument of the English language, analytical wordsmith and a sage. You do us readers honor.

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Dr. Richardson, would you consider a letter about the US involvement in the establishment of Israel and subsequent policy, to the current moment?

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"Nonetheless, Politico reported tonight that dozens of Republicans are considering supporting the commission despite how much it would infuriate Trump, because it would provide them political cover in 2022." Something about the GOP just pi$$es me off. Okay, pretty much everything. Republicans considering doing this in order to have political cover?! Fah! Is there a verifiably functioning moral compass among them? As in all the time, and not just situationally? Rhetorical. As you were.

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It was fun watching Biden take off in the truck but what is great is that he is as good as his word. He told us in his acceptance speech what he wanted to accomplish. He is doing that with the American Jobs act.

Just tonight, it was reported that Letitia James. NY’s AG, is saying the Trump Organization is one leaning towards criminality. Her office will more than likely work in tandem with Cyrus Vance to bring these people down. I pray it happens and soon.

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Regarding the news that Letitia James is now cooperating with Cyrus Vance Jr. on a criminal investigation of Trump, there could not be better news than that while the Republicans are turning themselves in side out to avoid an investigation into the January 6 insurrection. That SOB former president is a crook and to quote him "Everyone knows it."

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Biden's visit to River Rouge in Detroit today was smart politics, in several dimensions:

Remember Trump PRETENDING to drive a semi on the White House lawn during one of his many "Infrastructure Weeks"?

Biden, in contrast, actually went to Detroit to pitch his infrastructure/green jobs plan, got on a test track and DROVE the F-150 electric truck 80 miles an hour on camera.

As I watched Biden today, I was happy about the move to green transportation he talked about, but I also admired that he did it in a way that should appeal to blue-collar male voters as well as us green libs. Much smarter that Trump's infrastructure non-event and so much smarter than Hillary Clinton's "putting a lot of coal miners out of work" gaffe.

I think the video of Biden in that car will have a greater impact on those voters than all the yammering in DC about a 9-11 commission.

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A lot of F-150 pickup trucks are Fleet vehicles, used for company everyday work trucks, and for municipal, and other government agencies, that need work trucks. For example, I work for a municipality public works, and we have approximately 50 plus fleet F-150 trucks for work (gasoline). I could see the electric F-150 version being used for Fleet vehicles, but not with out a lot of belly-aching from non-progressives people who have a dislike of change, or having management "shove" change down their throat.

Actually it would be really awesome to see our public facility work yard, incorporate renewable energy to help charge eclectic fleet vehicles. Yes this all expensive, but this is where, (and I could be wrong) using government grants and or funds to upgrade a facility with renewables. The problem I have experienced with "new" comes with going from design, to installation, to maintenance. Nothing ever works out to plan, which is fine, however I see people getting frustrated and start to complain with government waste and spending when the long-term maintenance for "new" does not come to fruition. And components break down. This is where local government and other agencies need to bridge the gap. It's the long term maintenance and the materials and equipment needed to maintain new charging stations to the new education and training to making sure "new" infrastructure functions as it needs to be.

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“You have rented out the once good name of the Arizona State Senate to grifters and con-artists, who are fundraising hard-earned money from our fellow citizens even as your contractors parade around the Coliseum, hunting for bamboo and something they call ‘kinematic artifacts’ while shining purple lights for effect.” Yeah, this one got oxygen in my regular Facebook feed today.

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