Today is Tuesday, August 2, 2022. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, today marks primaries in several key swing states and I can say that democracy is literally on the line since voters are faced with electing election deniers as their nominees for governorships and other top offices today. The implications of these early contests are very crucial as the cancer of the “Big Lie” continues to spread through the body politic. It’s quite chilling, I would contend. The candidates who support Dumpf’s Big Lie are profiled in an online article for CNN by Eric Bradner entitled “These are the election deniers on the ballot in Tuesday’s primaries.”

The issue of the last election being rigged is at the heart of high-profile races in Arizona and Michigan – two of the most important presidential battlegrounds – weeks after Republican voters elsewhere selected promoters of former president Dumpf’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election as nominees for several posts that could position them to manage key states’ election machinery in 2024.

One of these states, Arizona, has become the epicenter of Dumpf’s election denialism. For those of you who are not afraid to know who the election deniers are in key races today, I will provide them for your edification. The key states then are Arizona, Kansas, Michigan (where my son now lives), Missouri, and Washington state.

Arizona

In the race for governor, there is Dumpf-endorsed television journalist Kari Lake (no relation to Veronica Lake), who has built her campaign around lies about election fraud. She had the temerity to refer to the refusal of her leading rival, Karrin Taylor Robson, to indulge those lies as “disqualifying,” not understanding that her own stand should be a disqualifying factor immediately.

The race for Secretary of State – Arizona’s chief elections officer – also features an election denier endorsed by the former insurrectionist in Mark Finchem, a state lawmaker who was in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, and wrongly claims that Dumpf won the 2020 election. This is horrifying.

The candidate for a Senate seat, Trump-backed Blake Masters, who is seeking to oppose Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, hasn’t just claimed that Democrats “pulled out all the stops” to cheat in 2020 (they didn’t – Republicans did!) but has suggested the 2022 midterms won’t be fair.

A candidate for attorney general, Abraham Hamden, is Dumpf’s chosen guy, who has infamously said he would “take the fraud in our 2020 election seriously and bring justice to those who’ve undermined our Republic.” This idiot needs to take his case to his political mentor, Donald J. Trump, first and bring a slew of charges against him before he takes on an illusory enemy in the form of Democrats.

Michigan

The Dumpf-backed candidate here, Tudor Dixon, is facing Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is seeking her second term. Dixon is a conservative commentator who has falsely claimed that Dumpf won the 2020 election. This unfit candidate for high office is backed by Michigan’s GOP establishment, including former asshole U.S. Secretary Betsy DeVos’ (remember this nut job?) family, the state Chamber of Commerce, and Michigan Right to Life.

“In the Grand Rapids-based 3rd Congressional District, Rep. Peter Meijer – one of 10 House Republicans to vote for Trump’s impeachment following the insurrection at the Capitol – faces a Trump-backed challenger in John Gibbs.” (My son lives in Grand Rapids, by the way.)

This toady of Dumpf, Gibbs, has fully embraced his mentor’s election lies. He wrongly claimed in a debate with Meijer that the results that led to Biden’s win in 2020 were “simply mathematically impossible” and said that there were “anomalies in there, to put it lightly.” All lies!

What I’m not sure is a great strategy is that Democrats have attempted to boost Gibbs – whom they believe would be easier to beat in November’s general election – with ads casting him as a Trump-aligned conservative. What could happen here is that Gibbs could possibly win the election in November over Democrats’ wishes. People are that stupid in their voting choices sometimes.

Missouri

This state is a hotbed of election deniers. Its “Republican primary to replace retiring Senator Roy Blunt features a field packed with candidates who have embraced Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.”

First off, we have State Attorney General Eric Schmitt who has run ads touting his role in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results.

A real jerk attempting a political comeback is former governor Eric Greitens, who resigned in 2018 amid a sex scandal and accusations of campaign misconduct. He has actively promoted conspiracy theories about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. His campaign hosted a screening of a film promoting that conspiracy theory. “He has also called for Arizona to decertify its 2020 election results, citing a sham, partisan review conducted last year.” Not to be undone by these unnecessary moves to call the 2020 election into question, Greitens has called for election audits around the nation. Just heard that this asshole is now being defeated in the race. Thank God!

Washington

In this state, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler faces a primary challenge from Dumpf-backed Joe Kent, who claimed “rampant voter fraud” had taken place in 2020 in an ad his campaign ran on Facebook.

Kansas

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab faces a primary challenger, former Johnson County commissioner Mike Brown, who has built his campaign on casting doubt on elections’ integrity and blamed Schwab for local oversight issues. In a campaign video, Brown inexplicably states, “The 2020 election still has me questioning the integrity and accuracy of our election process.” Huh!

Thus there you have it: it would seem that the Dumpf cancer of election lies swirling from the 2020 election continues to infect his cult party in 2022. When will voters realize this is a fraud committed against Americans by the former president? Will his party continue to be dishonored with representatives kowtowing to the “Big Lie” even after he stands behind the curtain pulling the levers? I think we’ve had enough of this charade, don’t you?

Oh, just heard, by the way, that one of Dumpf-backed candidates in Michigan, Tudor Dixon, has won the Republican primary. Let’s hope she is soundly defeated in November by Gretchen Whitmer.

In a related story involving the use of lies that can result in lives being torn to shreds is the trial of Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones in a Texas court where the right-wing conspiracy theorist and all-around scumbag faced one of his accusers in a defamation lawsuit against two parents of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. The parents of a murdered child delivered emotional testimony today as they faced their tormentor these last 10 years, telling a jury that the lies pushed by Jones have stained the legacy of their son and tormented them for years. This story appeared in a CNN Business article on my smartphone by Oliver Darcy entitled “Sandy Hook parents testify about the ‘hell’ Alex Jones inflicted on them through lies about the shooting.”

The jury hearing the case will determine how much in damages Jones will have to pay the parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who won a default judgement against him earlier this year. The parents are seeking $150 million in damages; if I were the judge, I would award the parents the full amount, thus sending a clear message to Jones and others like him that the truth matters.

Heslin told the jury that Jones “tarnished the honor and legacy” of his son. Heslin said that he couldn’t “even begin to describe the last nine-and-a-half years of hell” he has endured because of Jones and his cockamamie conspiracy theories concerning the shooting. The still-grieving parent told the jury that his life has been threatened by supporters of the scumbag who believed him over the last 10 years; he said he fears for his safety and the safety of his family – still after all these years.

Lewis was able to address Jones directly; she told him, “Jesse was real. I’m a real mom.” She questioned the repulsive figure before her as to why he would do such a heinous thing. She said she thinks he didn’t actually believe the lies – like Dumpf still does – he promoted about Sandy Hook.

The judge hearing the case, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, gave a great admonishment to the stocky defendant, who still has not apologized for the harm he has inflicted on these parents, on the nature of truth and lies, which this country sorely needs in this age of Trumpism!

At one point, Gamble curtly tells the defendant, “This is not your show,” as he tried to tell the jury that he was bankrupt which is not even true, according to the judge. She admonishes him time and time again to tell the truth which he has trouble doing, it definitely seems. She then gives Jones this tongue lashing: “You believe everything you say is true, but your beliefs do not make something true.” (Should a flabby ex-president be listening to this as well?) That is what we’re doing here. Just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It is not allowed. You’re under oath. That means things must actually be true when you say them.” It would sadly appear that people like Jones and most of the Republican Party suffers from this estrangement from the truth in this country right now and there must be accountability doled out to people like Jones and his ilk to prevent them from doing what they have been doing for so long without suffering any repercussions.

Again, I feel Jones should be hit with the maximum in damages, bankrupt or not. It would be a clear message to anyone like him out there who attempts to do the same sort of repulsive behavior.

It’s getting late here. So I’ll briefly say that I did test negative on a COVID test this morning. So Elliot and I decided to see a film in Malverne, Long Island, to escape the heat. The film was Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. We didn’t see the movie, unfortunately, because of traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway; one lane was closed because of construction. So we had lunch at the Floral Park Diner, on Tulip Avenue. I then went to a comic bookstore, Superhero Comics Express, on Jericho Turnpike, about five minutes away from the diner. I did not buy anything. Then we came home and lounged around inside. I went out once more to get some medication from Walgreen’s and got an iced coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts on Austin Street. I drank the coffee inside, since it was too warm outside.

So I will report on these election results, and let’s keep our fingers crossed that the shadow of Dumpf doesn’t haunt the outcomes of many of these races. Haven’t we had enough of this devil already?

Oh, I will probably not write my blog tomorrow because we are hosting the daughter of a good friend who needs to crash here before she leaves for Kennedy Airport on Thursday for an early-morning flight to Dominica, in the Caribbean. I will be back on Thursday, God willing.

Stay safe and be well.